| December 10, 2003 | Wednesday | Shawwal 15, 1424 |
Wajid Ali Shah in the dock
One-day series against New Zealand was no contest
THE gate was wide open and I entered the house unhindered. Nobody asked me to prove my identity —- nor was there anyone around for the purpose. In fact, now anyone can go and even live there if he or she meets certain conditions.
As I looked around, I saw some elderly people basking in the sun in the spacious lawn. They were also exchanging pleasantries, some of them telling each other how the times had changed and even their loved ones had abandoned them.
Those who had enough of the sun, left the chairs behind and went into their rooms to rest. Everybody was moving around freely. An unbelievable scene for a man who had visited the place a few years ago!
The strangers can enter the place and even think of staying there because the owners were dispossessed of the huge place in Dec 2000. They have been living thousands of miles away in somebody else’s house for the last three years. They made some mistakes and are having to face the consequences. Nobody is in a position to predict how long their agony (cloaked in luxury) would last.
Those living here know nothing about the actual owners of the place, where they are now or in what conditions they are living.
They are also unaware of the fact that the owners of the house were once the most powerful people of the country. Their word was the law. The highest as well as the mightiest waited on their doors for hours to meet them. Some had to go back dejected after long and agonizing waits because owners of the house either did not have time or the will to meet them.
The place which has become so worthless now that even an ordinary mortal can visit it, is in the H-Block of the Model Town. It was once the Chief Minister’s house and then the Prime Minister’s House. Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif lived here along with their families with plans to perpetuate themselves in power by serving the masses. Had the decision to dismiss Gen Pervez Musharraf as army chief not boomeranged, the Sharifs might have been the strongest ever rulers of the country even today.
I last saw the place on Dec 10, 2000, when the inmates were vacating it as they were proceeding on exile to Saudi Arabia under an agreement between the military government and the Saudi authorities. Servants were taking away everything, except the building itself.
Under provincial government’s control, the former prime minister’s residence has been converted into a ‘welfare home for the old and infirm people’. Some 40 men and women of over 50 years of age, abandoned by their relatives, live here. Another 10 can be accommodated if they approach the relevant authorities and follow the procedure.
The elderly people with no source of livelihood, or abandoned by their relatives, live here. They will stay here all their lives and leave the place only if some miracle takes any one of them back to his/her relatives.
A few days ago, I saw that the hall where Mr Sharif used to hold open courts to hear and redress people’s problems is now a TV lounge for the male inmates. A few broken sofa sets and some chairs were there for the viewers.
In this hall, Mr Sharif also held many party meetings.
Poetry recital competitions between a couple of known sycophants were also held here. They always read couplets that they claimed Allama Iqbal or some other poet had written keeping Mian Nawaz Sharif in mind. The former prime minister always gave them a free hand. Perched at two opposite corners, they would suddenly stand up when the proceedings of some meeting were in progress and start pleasing their boss with their poetry.
One of them is now with the PML-Q and the other is missing.
And the hall where Begum Kulsoom Nawaz used to meet women workers even after the ouster of the government, is now a TV lounge for women. The condition of the hall is as deplorable as it can be in the absence of its owners.
The room where the then chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif used to meet his visitors now serves as a bedroom for women. Cots are seen in what was once a computer room used by the secretarial staff of the former ruling family.
The upper storey of the front portion is now a hostel for men.
The rear portion of the building, which was once the residence of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s family, is being used by women. The offices on the left of the main entrance, where Mr Sharif used to receive important guests, are now being used by the staff looking after the inmates.
The glory of the building evaporated with the ouster of the Sharifs from power. From the present state of the building nobody can have even the vaguest idea that the place has been witness to many important decisions taken by the inmates to strengthen and prolong their rule or wipe out their political opponents.
The lawn where Begum Kulsoom Nawaz used to hold weekly meetings with party workers in an attempt to mobilize them against the Musharraf government, is now used by the old and the infirm to bask in the sun.
The country’s national flag still flutters on the outer boundary wall. But a parallel pipe meant for the party flag is like a tree denuded of its leaves. Perhaps, it will never again be crowned with a flag.
The residence of former chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif now houses a training centre for girls. Named as Sanat Zar, the institute imparts training in flower-making, makeup, needlework, dressmaking, pin work and some other arts. Every three months a new batch of students comes here for training.
Three years after banishment of the Sharifs, the political situation in the country has changed substantially. The Chaudhrys of Gujrat, who followed the Sharifs during the PML-N rule, are now in the first row. They are as close allies of Gen Musharraf as the Sharifs were Gen Ziaul Haq’s.
The recent meeting of Gen Pervez Musharraf with Chaudhry Shujaat Husain at the latter’s residence has further enhanced the importance of the family. The Chaudhrys’ close ties with Gen Musharraf might well diminish the already dim chances of Sharifs’ deal with the army.
WAS Nawab Wajid Ali Shah a libertine who devoted himself wholly to sensual pleasure and whose profligacy and incompetence led to the loss of his kingdom, causing a great deal of collateral damage to the Muslim nobility of Oudh? Or was he more sinned against than sinning?
This used to be one of the major historical controversies that raged in the last few decades preceding the dawn of freedom. The issue apparently remained unsettled then. Lately one has heard less and less of the late Nawab. Most people now would not bother to spend time finding the right answer.
A book on Wajid Ali Shah was recently launched at the Arts Council. Dr Manzer Husain Kazmi, the author, evidently thought it necessary to re-open the case of the last ruler of Oudh.
One of the speakers seemed to agree with the historians, mostly Englishmen, who called the Nawab ‘a rangila badshah’. According to the speaker, he proved a decrepit ruler who easily succumbed to the conspiracy of the East India Company and who accepted humiliation and disgrace as a prisoner of the Company Bahadur instead of offering armed resistance and accepting martyrdom. He was thus one of those responsible for the loss of the subcontinent’s independence.
Defending the Nawab several other speakers said they believed he was the victim of character assassination whom the Company’s pen- pushers deliberately painted in a bad light. Oudh would have been annexed, even if its ruler had been a paragon of virtue and an excellent administrator.
The Nawab, they asserted, was by all means a competent ruler, and Oudh in his time was a very well-managed state whose people enjoyed peace, prosperity and cultural refinement. Wajid Ali Shah himself was a learned person and a creative poet, who introduced opera in Urdu. He was a connoisseur of theatre and music and was also a choreographer.
Author of around one hundred books, a couple of collections of poetry in Arabic and a few in Persian, he had composed a ‘masnavi’ titled ‘Huzn-i-Akhtar’ (the lamentation of Akhtar) written during his detention at Fort William. The ill-fated Nawab argued his case as given in the following couplets.
Huay qaid is tarha ham begunah
Aseer-o-nameen, naam hai baadshah
Huay mujh say kub tark soam-o-salaat
Mein her saal deta hoon khums-o-zakaat
Tu hai alamulghaib ay Kibrya
Naheen mujh pe wajib namazen qaza
(I have been clapped in prison even though I am guiltless. A king only in name. I am in fact a poor prisoner. I have never failed to offer namaaz and observe fasting. I have been paying ‘khums’ and ‘zakat’ regularly every year. God, almighty and all- knowing, knows that I have never been in arrears so far as prayers go.)
But one wonders if this can prove him to be a capable ruler as well.
Dr Farman Fatehpuri speaking in defence of the deposed Nawab contented that it was the usual practice for the imperialists to malign the native rulers before getting them out of the way. Look at the way George Bush conducted a vicious propaganda campaign against Saddam Hussein before attacking Iraq, he said. But at least the charge-sheet against Saddam, who was hated as a tyrant, was not altogether wrong. Wajid Ali Shah’s case was different. He sure had his own foibles and failings. But it is no easy task to sift facts from fiction concerning the life and time of a man like Wajid Ali Shah.
Leaving this point aside, one fact was obvious: the Nawab or any other native ruler in those times could hardly withstand the onslaught of the English Company’s better equipped and highly disciplined army. Between the Company and the Nawab, the fight was between two systems, one a rising economic and political order and the other a declining one.
Abdul Haleem Sharar had some hazy memories of Lucknow when he narrated the luxurious, carefree lifestyle of the Lucknavis of those days:
“The art of wrestling enjoyed wide popularity in the Lucknow of that time, but this was about a mere display of tactical moves and there was no real contest involving the use of physical strength. A fight between birds was all the rage. The spectators used to be so deeply engrossed that being present at the show seemed to them to be a most important undertaking.”
Even earlier, the famed traveller Yusuf Hussain Kambalposh, who had written Ajaebat-i-Farang after visiting London, wrote the following when he came to Lucknow in 1836:
“Lots of care-free people used to assemble at the chowk amid an air of festivity and scenes of frantic buying and selling. The prostitutes who were made up to near perfection sat near open windows, exhibiting their attractions for the benefit of the passers-by. Fashionable and well-attired young men used to visit the place riding horses. They exchanged glances and made signs to the women who responded keenly. Seeing these young men, I could not but recall the tremendous difference between them and boys their age in London. The latter always appeared dedicated to their vocational concerns whereas these boys wasted all their time in profitless pursuits.”
Another chronicler, Durga Parshad, in his book ‘Bostan-i- Oudh’ had written that the Nawab, when suffering from poor mental health, was advised by the court physicians not to tax his frail nerves too much.
There are always two sides to a coin. Wajid Ali Shah was a man of learning and a connoisseur of art, music and literature. But he was an incompetent ruler.
ONE-day internationals, particularly, under lights should attract full houses and there ought to be a carnival atmosphere about them. But the cricket public has become more discerning. Hopelessly one-sided matches are best watched on television with the option to change channels or switch-off.
There was a sort of thumbs down to the tour of a second-string New Zealand team once it became apparent that there was no contest. It did not help that New Zealand rested its senior players as a matter of policy, preferring to blood the younger players and use the tour as a glorified training session.
Bangladesh to its credit played with great enthusiasm. The New Zealanders gave the impression of going through the motions of a formality they were duty-bound to fulfil.
This in no way detracts from the performance of the Pakistan team. It dealt with the New Zealand team without any mercy and there was no goofing-off. There was a sensible rotation of players but the balance was maintained.
There were some outstanding performances and Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed confirmed their promise. Making runs consistently is habit-performing and both of them spent enough time in the middle to get a better hang of batting. Indeed, it can be said that no player proved to be a disappointment and the old and the young blended together in harmony.
There is no quarrel with the team that has been selected for New Zealand barring the fact that 17 players is too many. We appear to have given up on Saqlain Mushtaq, which means that the spin department is in the hands of Danish Kaneria and Shoaib Malik who is more a batting all-rounder than a specialist off-spinner.
Perhaps, it is felt that in New Zealand conditions there is only a limited role for a spinner. Conditions depend on the weather and now that Shane Bond has been ruled out, there is a less likelihood for green wickets that had been prepared against the Indians with such telling effect.
New Zealand will also be without Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming too may be a non-starter. This means that New Zealand once again will not be at full strength. But the team will be playing at home and in familiar conditions and this is a considerable plus-factor.
The senior New Zealand players had looked tired in Pakistan coming as they had been soon after a gruelling tour of India. They will have been rested and may prove to be a different proposition. There is great crowd support for the home team in New Zealand and a fairly tough media that knocks the visitors.
It is not going to be an easy tour and the Pakistan team will have to remain focused and most of all, remain together. They should leave their bickering behind.
The star of the show will be Shoaib Akhtar. He should concentrate of being the world’s best fast bowler and reduce his showmanship to a minimum. He has run foul of match referees once too often and he will be baited. He will have to exercise self-control and, in particular, avoid going half-cock in media interviews. He must now accept responsibility as a senior player. It should a good tour and excellent preparation for the much tougher tour by India of Pakistan in March next year.
Test matches in Australia start at unearthly hours by our time. But I watched the first Test at Brisbane and saw India give Australia some shocks and much anxiety. Australia, as expected, came back strongly and though rain-affected, it was a riveting game.
Australia without Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne do not have the firepower they once had. India, on the other hand, no longer rely heavily on the spinners. In Zaheer Khan they have a quality fast bowler. Saurav Ganguly scored a terrific century though Sachin Tendulkar was out for a duck, victim of a poor umpiring decision.
Coach John Wright seems to have done wonders and India looks a settled team and a happy one. This makes it all the more important that Pakistan gets it absolutely right when it plays against India early next year. There will be great pressure on both teams, more on Pakistan because it will be playing at home.
Most of all Pakistan must ensure that its players are supremely fit. There is so much cricket being played that injuries have become an occupation hazard. But most other teams have bench-strength and Pakistan does not in key areas.
Pakistan, at the moment, has the best opening attack with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed as the third quickie. I don’t say that they should be kept under wraps but we will need them fully fit against India. I suggest that fitness be given the highest priority and there should be a no-nonsense policy.
Keeping fit is the responsibility of the players themselves but there should be zero-tolerance of playing injured players. Once it gets to the players that making runs and taking wickets has to be backed up by physical fitness and the trainer carries the same clout as a selector, there will be fewer injuries.
England seems to be carrying their weather with them. Bad light on the last day saved them from certain defeat at Galle. But I am amazed that such an important tour should have been undertaken in the rainy season. Two of the ODIs were washed out and forecast for the Kandy Test match is not promising.
This is not only frustrating for the players but for the spectators as well. The ICC could profitably hire a weather consultant in drawing up tour programmes.