Highlights of the February 2006 issue
|
Off Centre
By Zaffar Abbas
Between the Lines
By Idrees Bakhtiar
In Pakistan, the constitution has become the least respected document. To term it sacred is perhaps asking for too much. Various rulers, especially the ones in uniform, have given it so many twists and turns that in its present form, it is not even a shadow of the document unanimously adopted by the ruling and opposition parties in 1973.
Political circles have felt for quite some time that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) does not have a smooth relationship with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ). This feeling was reinforced recently when the MQM joined the protest demonstrations over the Bajaur attack organised by none other than its own as well as the government’s bitter rival, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Soon enough, it also issued an ultimatum to quit the ruling alliance over the issues of Kalabagh Dam and the Balochistan operation.
Eyeball to Eyeball
By M.K. Ahmadzai
Since December 2005, when Islamabad ordered a crackdown on Marri insurgents in Balochistan’s Kohlu district, hostilities have spilled into neighbouring areas, notably Dera Bugti, with around 150 people killed and over 300 injured. Agha Shahid Bugti, the secretary general of the Jamhoori Watan Party claims that 72 people have been killed and 227 injured in the shelling and rocketing of Dera Bugti town alone by the Frontier Corps (FC) since December 30. In Kohlu, provincial assembly member Nawabzada Balach Khan Marri estimates that around 80 people, including women and children, have been killed and over 100 injured after an intensive bombing campaign. Meanwhile, security sources say that eight government troops have been killed and 10 injured during the campaign.
“Flannelled fools at the wicket,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in 1899 while referring to the hapless state of England’s fielders and bowlers during an innings at Headingley, Leeds, which was dominated completely by the brilliant Australian batsman Victor Trumper. No other phrase could more aptly describe the plight of the bowlers and fielders in the recent Pakistan-India Test series than the words of the noted British novelist. Dubbed as the Asian Ashes by critics and former subcontinental players, the long-awaited clash between the two giants of world cricket proved to be the biggest farce of the international circuit in recent years.
If snazzy office spaces were an indicator of the growth potential of an industry, animation production would be clearly driving the Pakistani economy. Walk into an animation production house in the port city and the Manhattan-inspired work spaces will make you think again about returning to your office with chipping paint, betel juice-stained walls and a slow-rotating ceiling fan circa 1942. Orange walls, glass tabletops, swivel chairs in blue pleather and, occasionally, a pool table are complemented by both life-size and bite-size models of cartoon characters, including Mr Incredible, Captain Hook, Shark Tale’s Don Lino, Shrek and Monsters Inc.’s Sully and Mike. Film posters vie for wall space against sketches drawn by employees. These are alternately menacing or seductive, featuring either demonic hell creatures or buxom crime-fighting babes. Of course, conference rooms tend to be more sedate, displaying pictures of animated characters made familiar through local advertising.
Occasionally, one comes across creative expression that is simple yet refreshing in its conceptualisation and execution. The exhibition titled Primary Lessons by Ahmed Ali Manganhar is exactly that: creative without being overloaded with laboured sophistry. The media of Manganhar’s art are simple everyday things: chalks, acrylic paints and stone styluses on slates. It is important to note that these slates are not used in private English medium schools where the children of the elite are educated. Instead, they are used in the public education system because, unlike paper notebooks, slates can be wiped and reused countless times. Seen in this context, recycling is not a fashion statement for the marginalised but a necessity that leads to innovative products. Using such media, Manganhar ‘recycles’ the images that remain in the subcontinent from the British colonial era.