A campaigner for peace

Mirza Hasan (M.H) Askari is dead. He was the last of the lively first generation of ISPR-wallahs who included intellectuals such as Col. Majid Malik, Lieutenant Col.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Captains Saeed Abbas, N.M. Rashid, Zamir Jafri, and Masud Ahmad. His father was Professor Mirza Mohammad Said of the Indian Education Service, the path-breaking Urdu novelist.

Born in Ludhiana, Askari was a fellow traveller ever since our school days - 1936 through 1940 - when he completed his matriculation with distinction and left to join the Anglo-Arabic Collage, Ajmeri Gate, Delhi, where I followed him a year later.

We jointly worked on the English section of the school magazine of which he was editor. Our association ended abruptly when I had to leave the college due to certain personal reasons.

When I rejoined as a third-year student in 1943, Askari had already migrated to Lucknow for his graduation from the university there. He completed his BA Honours in 1944 and joined the PR department of the Indian Army (ISPR) as a commissioned officer, and travelled far and wide in the Asia-Pacific theatre of the Second World War.

He reported back to South Block in 1946 and was released the same year. He first joined The Statesman as a staff reporter and then shifted to Dawn, Delhi, as a senior reporter. After a lapse of several years, we were together again on the staff of Dawn.

Partition intervened to set us apart for a while. On October 9, 1947, I flew to Lahore from Delhi to run into Askari sauntering along The Mall. A most joyful re-union. Askari had already joined the news section of Radio Pakistan.

Later he went back to the ISPR and was posted at Rawalpindi, and again I was to follow him, also going into army public relations. For the next 14 years we were to stay in the ISPR - variously at Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Askari was seconded to the Agriculture Development Corporation in 1964, recalled to colours during the 1965 war, released the same year or early in 1966, and joined Esso as their public affairs chief.

He stayed with the firm until 1974 when he joined the diplomatic service and was assigned to Paris as press counsellor, later going as minister, press, to the high commission in New Delhi.

Askari returned to Karachi on completion of his diplomatic tenure. He would call religiously almost first thing in the morning to discuss everything under the sun. He also did a stint with the Oxford University Press, Karachi.

Askari was always scintillating, fond of political and literary discussions. He was an integral part of the writers' lunch time crowd at the old Zelin's Corner on Victoria Road in the late 50s of which Qurutul Ain Hyder was undoubtedly the leader.

Askari wrote short stories in Urdu under the pen name of Ibne Said, and was an active campaigner at various forums for peace and reconciliation in South Asia. His weekly column in Dawn was also mostly devoted to sub continental affairs. Askari was always so full of the joy of living, and enriched the life of those around him.

In life-long togetherness we were as close as two individuals can be, but often differed in our assessment of political and literary trends. Aisa kahan se laaoon keh tujhsa kahoun jisse.

Bid to strike deal with judges' kidnappers

Commenting on reports about police efforts to strike a deal with the kidnappers of two judges for their release, Kawish calls it yet another demonstration of helplessness of the force in dealing with criminals.

Which of the two is calling the shot is evident from the fact that high-ranking police officers are collecting ransom on behalf of the kidnappers, frequenting the Otaqs (guest houses) of Patharidars (patrons of bandits) and holding talks with imprisoned bandits who are operating their network from behind the prison walls.

The daily says that police in rural Sindh are adept at using brute force against innocent people, but they appear to have lost the will to fight criminals. Several operations against bandits have proved to be just waste of funds.

This has given a licence to criminals to act with impunity and created an impression that police are no match for them. The decision to get the judges released by striking a deal with the kidnappers strengthens the impression.

Referring to the murder of a woman and her four children in Hyderabad, Hilal-i-Pakistan says that police investigation points to abject poverty and a family dispute as the reason behind the gruesome incident.

These factors have been claiming a large number of lives in Sindh for years but nothing is done by the government and the civil society to address the problem. Another glaring example is a self-immolation bid by five protesting teachers on the Eid day in Dadu.

Ibrat writes that 58 teachers recruited because of teachers' deaths have not received salary for eight months. Having explored all other avenues of protest, some of them resorted to the extreme step. They were rescued by police and arrested.

The daily calls upon the government to take notice of the incident and ensure payment of the salary to the teachers. It also urges the government to prepare a package to reduce poverty in the province to curb the rising trend of suicide triggered by poverty.

Halchal says that students from the interior of Sindh are being denied admission to universities and colleges in Karachi where several educational institutions are not teaching Sindhi.

Protests in this regard have been ignored by authorities concerned. The paper proposes that a committee be constituted to investigate into the complaints of students from the interior of Sindh and to recommend measures to redress their grievances.

Awami Awaz criticizes reduction in seats reserved for women in local bodies and writes that the matter should have been debated in parliament before a decision. It says that allocation of 33 per cent seats in local bodies for women was claimed to be aimed at empowering women, but by curtailing the number of the seats, the government has moved in the opposite direction.