Highlights of the February 2005 issue
|
Battlefront SUI
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
Dr Khalid was raped in the confines of the maximum-security Sui gas refinery compound on the night between January 2 and 3, allegedly by four persons including an army captain belonging to the Defence Security Guards (DSG). The incident itself did not rankle as much as the subsequent cover-up by the military authorities and the PPL management, who tried to paint the event as a robbery and prevented police officials from meeting the victim. When the tribesmen reacted, the government responded by turning on the heat on the nationalists instead of arresting the suspects. Although there have been attempts by the political forces to broker a truce, the two sides have stuck to their positions, thereby turning Dera Bugti into a virtual battle zone.
Selective Justice
By Syed Shoaib Hasan and Arman Sabir
Who did it? The fundamental question behind Dr Shazia Khalid's rape case has taken on a new dimension in the light of its consequences. Was it Captain Imaad of the Defence Security Guards (DSG)? If so, was he alone or were there accomplices? Could it be another Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) employee?
In Sui, there is little speculation over the identity of the culprits. The consensus seems to be that the DSG personnel are guilty. It helps that most of Shazia's colleagues have vouched for her character and ability. "She was good with children and was not too reserved or too friendly," says Qalandar Bux, a low-level PPL employee. But another employee Nawaz Ali admits that the doctor had several run-ins with DSG personnel and their wives over the prescription of expensive medicines. Interestingly, Shazia is said to have had an argument with Captain Imaad a few days prior to the incident. Apparently, Imaad wanted the doctor to visit his residence to treat his wife. Shazia argued that the patient should come to the hospital. But when the Herald contacted Shazia for an interview, her husband speaking on her behalf claimed that Shazia did not know Captain Imaad.
"We do not want Balochistan to become a brothel for the army"
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
Q. When and how did the current crisis start in Sui?
A. The cause of the present crisis is the rape of a lady doctor of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) by Captain Imaad of the Defence Security Guards (DSG) inside the Sui compound. The DSG are responsible for security within the fenced perimeter and no other agency is allowed inside. She was raped but no FIR was lodged as one Major Mukhtar of the DSG along with the higher management of the PPL tried to suppress the matter. More than 20 days have passed but nothing has been done because the person involved is a uniformed officer of the Pakistan Army.
As this is unacceptable in Baloch society, the people have reacted. The FC and the DSG also retaliated, killing and wounding women and children. The bombardment also forced quite a few families to migrate. In the meantime, in addition to the 6,000 FC and DSG troops and 4,000 levies, a whole brigade of the Pakistan Army has been brought in to set up a garrison in Sui, conduct house-to-house searches and demolish houses on the pretext of harbouring miscreants. The military has now announced that they will clear an area of 15 kilometres around the Sui facility for safety reasons. This amounts to ethnic cleansing and we intend to fight for our survival.
Winning to Lose
By Azizullah Khan
As the situation in Sui exploded early last month, what was the provincial government in Quetta doing to bring it under control? More pertinently, did Quetta have the administrative clout in the region to do anything at all? Wasn't it the Pakistan Army that took and implemented all decisions, bypassing the government as well as political opinion in the province? These questions beg an answer a month after the outbreak of renewed hostilities in eastern Balochistan even as one of the much-cherished goals of General Musharraf's military government in the region – establishing a garrison in Sui – appears to be on the verge of realisation.
Meanwhile, public opinion on the issue remains vague. Some circles criticise the Balochistan government for mishandling the situation in Sui while others blame the nawabs and sardars of eastern Balochistan for kicking up conflicts to retard development in their areas in order to retain control. But there is a growing perception in Quetta that while politicians can be faulted for many of Balochistan's woes, the real cause of political and economic unrest in the province lies in the continued stranglehold of the military-civil bureaucracy over state affairs in Islamabad.
State of Confusion
By Mubashir Zaidi
While the military hawks clearly dominate the political doves on the Sui crisis, their strategy remains wobbly at best.
"This is not [the] 1970s, we will not follow them up into the mountains," warned General Pervez Musharraf in a televised comment on January 11. "This time they won't know what hit them." Aimed at the Baloch nationalists rather than an enemy of the state, Musharraf's remarks attracted widespread condemnation from political, religious and nationalist forces around the country. But greater embarrassment was in store for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ) whose leadership has been advocating political dialogue rather than military action to settle the Balochistan crisis.
Musharraf's outburst served to further incite the armed nationalists in Sui, prompting their leader and chief of the Jamhori Watan Party (JWP) Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti to refuse negotiations until the military forces deployed in the area are pulled out. In addition, he dismissed the possibility of talks with any one not wearing a military uniform, thereby indicating that PMLQ stalwarts such as Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain Syed simply do not have the power to sit across the negotiating table.
Between the Lines
By Idrees Bakhtiar
If all this sounds too cynical, take a look at the plight of Afzal Haider. He was not a criminal, nor was he a terrorist. But he was forced to spend 17 precious years of his youth rotting in jail. Haider is a victim of a lecherous police official who fancied his fiancée. The police official – drunk on power as most of them are – took it into his head to eliminate his competition in the best way he knew. When Haider was put behind bars, he was a young man of 24 who had come to Karachi to study law. For 17 years, he was repeatedly booked on false charges while the law enforcers watched on silently.
Hailing from a poor family, Haider could not hire a lawyer to defend himself. But because his innocence was beyond any doubt, various courts acquitted him of all the cases, the last acquittal coming as late as 1998. Unfortunately, it was not until this month that Haider finally discovered that there were no cases pending against him any longer. And it was through the efforts of a social organisation that he was finally released, six years after his final acquittal and 17 years after his unjust incarceration. When he recently came out of jail soon after Eidul Azha, he was a shadow of his former self.
Haider's is not the only case which leaves one depressed and irritated at the state of affairs in this country. There are many others who have been forced to rot in jails just because their accusers have the support and backing of the so-called law enforcers.
Newspeak
Ali Ahsan Halai
General Musharraf's reference was to a crackdown by the Pakistan Army on an attempted rebellion in Balochistan in the 1970s. What happened in the past was a focused and deliberately manoeuvred separatist movement brutally quashed in an ill-documented and under-reported army operation. What is happening today is a widespread and spontaneous anti-government agitation. The fact that General Musharraf has been forced to make such a confrontational statement may indicate that matters have finally reached a breaking point.
The Life and Crimes of Shoaib Khan
By Arman Sabir
If crime is part senseless savagery, part mystery, there could be nothing more fitting than the end of underworld king Shoaib Khan's violent life. While jail authorities claim that his death on January 27 was due to heart failure, his family continues to argue that Khan never had a history of cardiac problems. The mystery surrounding his death is yet to be solved. Starting out as a motor mechanic, Khan's career in crime began when he committed his first homicide in the late 1980s to avenge the murder of his brother Sohail Khan. Using the official pistol of an uncle who worked with the police department, Khan not only shot the suspected killer but also gunned down his entire family. Although he was arrested, Khan was later released on bail.
Thus began his rise as a mob boss. On his release, Khan made inroads into the world of crime by hook or crook and gradually grabbed control of gambling dens in the city. Indeed, one of his most notorious dens was being run under the shadow of the National Hockey Stadium. He used the money to invest in the stock exchange and opened many companies in order to multiply his wealth. In the process, Khan cultivated relations with personnel from law enforcement agencies, political bigwigs, bureaucrats and showbiz celebrities. Never afraid of playing with fire, Khan also locked horns with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the early 1990s. When the party was hit by the operations of 1992 and 1995, its workers and supporters suffered one set back after another. Khan took advantage of the situation and reportedly recruited many of its members, much to the chagrin of the party leadership.
Cut and Paste
By Ali Hassan
The bifurcation of four districts in Sindh in preparation for the local body polls appears to be motivated solely by narrow political interests.
In December 2004, General Pervez Musharraf's call for local government polls in 2005 triggered a round of gerrymandering in Sindh. Following the announcement, Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim added four districts to Sindh's existing 16, carving out Kambar from Larkana, Jamshoro from Dadu, Kandhkot from Jacobabad and Umerkot from Mirpurkhas. Reportedly, Rahim expects that the move, in which he unseated the pro-Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) district nazims of the four bifurcated districts on the pretext that they were losing the people's mandate, will benefit his supporters.
The act has generated much controversy, both for being politically motivated and in violation of the law. "According to the Land Revenue Act, there is a strict procedure for the establishment of districts, talukas [tehsils] and dehs [villages]. "Many factors need to be evaluated before creating new districts," says the PPP's Zahid Bhurgri, a member of the provincial assembly (MPA). "But in this case, the only consideration was to benefit the ruling party in future elections."
Negative Baggage
By Zaffar Abbas
It was clearly not an easy decision, owing to fears that the slightest mishandling could jeopardise the nascent peace process between Pakistan and India. Yet, Pakistani officials contend that Islamabad was left with no choice but to go ahead with what General Pervez Musharraf and other government leaders called the "last option". As the last round of expert-level talks in Delhi failed to come up with an acceptable solution on the Baglihar Hydroelectric Dam project, Islamabad formally approached the World Bank, which had brokered the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in 1960, to help resolve the crisis.
Islamabad's case had been quite straightforward. It had no problem with India constructing a power generation plant on the Chenab River as long as it did not violate the IWT. But it had serious objections on the location, size and design parameters of the project as its experts believed that the amount of water consequently diverted from the Chenab would violate the provisions of the treaty.
Though India was willing to engage Pakistan in bilateral negotiations, it flatly refused to stop work on the project. "Even if India had agreed to stop work and allowed our experts to visit the construction site, there would have been no need to take the drastic step of asking the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert," says one of the senior Pakistani negotiators. Endorsing this view, the spokesman for Pakistan's foreign office Masood Khan claims that every effort was made to resolve the dispute bilaterally and the decision to ask for World Bank intervention was taken only as a last resort. Even so, Khan appears quite confident that the move would not affect the peace talks between the two countries. India's immediate reaction, on the other hand, was one of disappointment. But while Delhi questioned Islamabad's justification for approaching the World Bank, it gave no indication that the issue was going to disrupt the talks started in January last year to address more pressing issues.
PAF officers court-martialled for assassination attempt on Musharraf
By Mubashir Zaidi
The matter came to light following the escape from prison of Mushtaq Ahmed, a 26-year-old activist of the Jaish-e-Mohammad who was a key suspect in the attack on the president. Initially, federal information minister Sheikh Rashid only identified Mushtaq as a Jaish activist and denied his link with the armed forces. Subsequently, however, PAF spokesman Air Commodore Sarfaraz Ahmed confirmed that Mushtaq was indeed a junior PAF official.
"I can confirm that Mushtaq Ahmed belonged to the air force and that he went missing in the last week of November 2004," the commodore told the Herald. He added that Mushtaq escaped from the custody of the air force police and the agencies in Rawalpindi. This contradicts statements given earlier by government officials claiming that Mushtaq escaped from a prison in Karachi in the last week of December 2004.
The commodore also confirmed that Mushtaq had been sentenced to death in a court martial and explained that the release of this information had been delayed as court martials are an internal matter of the armed forces. "I am only confirming the details of this specific court martial because the media has been speculating about Mushtaq Ahmed," he added. Meanwhile, investigators fear that some insiders may have aided Mushtaq's escape, explaining why the nationwide manhunt has been unsuccessful so far.
MMA grants conjugal rights to Frontier prisoners
By Aurangzaib Khan
The decision came as a recommendation from the Nifaz Shariah Council, a 21-member body of religious scholars that advises the MMA government on the enforcement of the shariah in the province. The council supposedly draws inspiration for its recommendations from the Quran and the tradition of the Holy Prophet.
Motive behind attack on private TV channel remains unclear
By Idrees Bakhtiar
Karachi — The motives behind an attack on the offices of daily Jang and Geo Television in the wee hours of January 29 remain suspicious at best. It does not help that the group's management has repeatedly changed its stance towards the attack. Armed with lathis and stones, a 35-strong mob stormed the offices, damaging window panes as well as the reception area and cars parked outside the premises. Office furniture was also set on fire, leaving the staff terrorised. An employee of the newspaper and eye witness to the attack was quoted on Geo TV, saying that the crowd was chanting "Allah-o-Akbar" during the attack. But the vandals did not provide a reason for the attack. Meanwhile, a police mobile is reported to have stood by silently while the mob ransacked the place.
Imran Aslam, the president of Geo, said that: "We still do not know the reasons behind the attack but suspect that it could be a reaction to an interview with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, telecast a day before the attack." Later in the day, a previously unheard of organisation calling itself Hizbullah Pakistan faxed a press release to some newspapers claiming responsibility for the attack. But the statement did not mention the Israeli deputy prime minister's interview as a motive. Rather, the release read: "the management of Geo is warned to stop telecasting obscene programmes, otherwise more attacks will take place." Still, the statement did not mention a specific programme which could have prompted the attack.
Following that, Geo officials also mentioned another programme "Uljhan Suljhan" as a possible cause of incitement. The programme carried a detailed discussion on incest during which a female caller complained that she had been raped by her brother. Perhaps it was this programme which was referred to by the Hizbullah press release. So it remains unclear why the Peres interview was initially cited as the reason behind the attack.
Sheep atone for Chinese engineer's death in FATA
By Waseem Ahmad Shah
Peshawar - On October 18, the Chibese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Da Wei received an unexpected gesture of condolence for the death of Chinese engineer Wang Peng. The deceased had been kidnapped by tribal militants and inadvertently killed during a commando operation in late 2004. To express their regret over the incident, the local tribesmen called on the Chinese dignitary in the lobby of a five-star hotel in Islamabad where they offered him two elaborately decorated sheep as a mark of repentance and asked forgiveness on behalf of the tribal people.
The sheep were brought in accordance with the long-standing tradition of nanawatei or appeasement, a component of the unwritten code of the Pakhtunwali that governs social conduct in Pashtun society. According to Malik Waris Khan Afridi, who presented the sheep, a grand tribal jirga in Waziristan had earlier decided that prominent elders from different tribal agencies would call on the Chinese dignitary. "We told them that the entire tribal region was ashamed of the killing of the engineer and that they should forgive us," he adds.
Multiple Motives
By Azmat Abbas
The assassination of prominent Shia leader Agha Ziauddin Rizvi on January 8 in Gilgit is being termed by the government as yet another act of sectarian terrorism. However, Rizvi's colleagues believe that the sectarian elements have simply been used as a tool and that there is much more to the incident than meets the eye.
Rizvi was on his way to the central Imamia Mosque in Gilgit at about 12:20 p.m. when his car was ambushed by three armed assailants. One of his guards who was also his driver was killed on the spot while Rizvi himself, another guard and a companion received bullet wounds. Rizvi was hit in the face by a single bullet. His second guard returned fire, killing one of the attackers on the spot and injuring another who managed to escape with the help of his third accomplice.
Within an hour of the attack, reports started pouring in of angry Shia mobs attacking government and private properties in Gilgit. As a result, at least 15 people were killed and several injured before the Northern Areas (NA) administration announced a 24-hour shoot-on-sight curfew at about 2 p.m. Among those who died were district forest officer Taighun Nabi and six others who had taken shelter in his house after being chased by a mob. All seven were burnt alive when a mob set fire to the house. In another attack, the director of the health department Dr Sher Walim was shot dead inside his office.
Meanwhile, Rizvi and his injured bodyguard Tanveer Hussain were flown to Rawalpindi's Combined Military Hospital in critical condition, where both succumbed to their injuries on January 13. The news of Rizvi's death sparked sectarian tension in Skardu as well as some others parts in the NA, forcing the authorities to impose curfew.
"The government has been using terrorists as some kind of policy instrument"— Allama Sajid Naqvi
A.A
Pakistan Islami Tehrik chief and vice-president Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.
Q. What factors are responsible for the recent incidents of targeted killings and sectarian unrest in the NA?
A. Apparently, the sectarian groups that have committed similar acts in the past have been used in this incident as well. However, on whose behest they have acted is another story. Secondly, until now the government has not taken any sincere steps to crush such elements. It only arrests or restricts the movement of people who have nothing to do with terrorist attacks. This policy is obviously designed to offer shelter to the culprits and protects them against harm.
Johar Mir 1937-2004
By Dr S. Amjad Hussain
On December 28, 2004, Pakistani literary icon Mir Qurban Ali, popularly known as Johar Mir, passed away in New York City at the age of 67. As is the fate of most writers and poets from the Third World, Johar Mir remained largely uncelebrated. Indeed, it was only in his last years that his contributions to Urdu literature and particularly to the literature of resistance enjoyed high esteem.
This late recognition defies Johar Mir's literary upbringing in Peshawar during the 1950s when he was shaped by the giants of Dabistan-e-Peshawar. Along with Ahmed Faraz, Mohsin Ehsan, Irshad Siddiqi, Khatir Ghaznavi and other aspiring literati, Johar Mir would sit at the feet of Farigh Bukhari, Raza Hamdani and Zia Jaffery to hone his talent. Here began his love for the language and culture of the city that remained with him until the end.
Johar Mir was a born revolutionary. As soon as he was able to articulate his views in prose and verse, he was writing about perceived social injustices. In these endeavours, he was deeply influenced by the fledgling Progressive Writers Movement that was launched in London in 1935. The left-leaning literary movement dispensed with the staid staple of 'feel good' romance literature and instead tackled the painful and embarrassing issues of injustice and deprivation. Coming of age in the wake of Partition, Johar Mir became one of the vanguards of the Progressive Movement. In the 1960s, he expressed his views on the pages of the now defunct daily Anjaam as well as in serial plays that he scripted for Pakistan Television.
The rise of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the early 1970s gave Johar Mir renewed hope for the country. For that reason, he lent his pen to the egalitarian values espoused by Bhutto and became the voice of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Not only did he write for the PPP newspaper Masawat but he also headed its Peshawar Bureau and briefly served as its editor as well. As a stalwart of the PPP, he rubbed shoulders with many influential figures but never forgot his humble roots.
Defeat Plus
By Saad Sayeed
Despite a wash-out down under, the Pakistan cricket team can learn plenty of lessons from the Australian tour.
It’s not often that a 3-0 drubbing can provide hope. Rarer still is the feeling of despair that seems to accompany this distinctly Pakistani version of hope. Few teams can boast having Australia on the ropes for three Tests in a row, baggy green in one hand and sharp scissors in the other. Fewer still will have displayed a failure to at least exert unyielding pressure once in the driving seat. To have the Australians by the throat is only to even the odds, letting go is tantamount to suicide.
But with Pakistan, nothing less than the unexpected appears plausible. The sporadic approach is preferred, a glimpse of brilliance followed by schoolboy callousness: a magical Shoaib Akhtar spell followed by the removal of second and third slip and a compromise on close in-fielders for Danish Kaneria wielding a wizard’s wand. Such glimpses, offerings of brilliance showcasing what might have been, have long frustrated Pakistani supporters. Just this once, though, these glimpses might be good enough.
The side is young and still developing and for this team to have troubled Australia, even for a session or two, for them to have had the best side in Test cricket at 100 for five or have scored 300 plus runs two innings in a row without captain Inzamamul Haq in the line-up, bodes well for the future. The developing ends, as every Pakistani cricket fan would like, when this side boards the plane for India in March. Revenge will then be the word on the tip of everyone’s tongue, defeat will not be accepted. Rest assured, the effigies will be kept close at hand, fluid and lighter ready if the side succumbs to Pathan’s swing once again. It’s unfortunate that these tours are set one after the other. After all, while the Pakistan one-day unit is prepared for all-comers, the Test side is far too rough around the edges. But such are the challenges that Test cricket presents and it’s up to those with sufficient character to show that they are giants among men.
City of Ruins
By Sadia Qasim Shah
At the heart of Peshawar’s walled city lies Gorgathree, a cluster of antiquated buildings on a raised mound. A vestige of the Mughal era, the monument is said to be the only extant serai in Peshawar Valley. Previously the residence of Ranjit Singh’s governor Avitabile, Gorgathree boasts a unique set-up: a Sikh temple rests amidst a quadrangle building with the remains of the cells of a caravan serai. Gates on the eastern and western sides of the compound flank British barracks dating from 1912. Despite having served as a fire brigade bell tower and station, these barracks are still standing. Moreover, British civil servants established a police station, a kutchery and several other structures in the premises of Gorgathree.
But most of these have been demolished. Excessive pollution has marred the existing structures while the view from Gorgathree on to Peshawar city has been blocked by several homes and high-rises. Worse still, a slew of new construction, including a wedding hall, a mosque and a landscaped garden stand out from the historic building, different as they are in age and architecture. Now, Gorgathree is merely used as a short cut by indifferent locals.
The historic charm of Gorgathree was damaged in the 1990s when structural interventions such as a wedding hall and mosque that did not relate to the Mughal, Sikh or British period marred the original structure of the monument. A year ago, a bastion was removed from the monument during the widening of a road under the direction of the provincial government. An official explains that since Gorgathree was damaged by that action, “an FIR was registered against those involved in the destruction of the bastion. But no action has been taken so far.” Instead of being preserved by the City Development and Municipal Department (CDMD), Gorgathree suffered again when the CDMD took charge of the site and initiated a renovation project that included the launch of a Mughal-style garden at the protected site.
Formidable Legacy
By Zahra Chughtai
With his tall, burly frame, glossy locks and a tiny circle of gold glinting at his ear, Amjad Farid Sabri naturally commands attention. But when he starts singing, it is his rich baritone that captures one completely. The voice is new, yet strangely familiar. Indeed, it is hardly surprising that the son of the legendary Ghulam Farid Sabri has inherited the quality of his father’s voice and talent for qawwali. The only one of 11 siblings to have followed in the footsteps of his illustrious father, Amjad Sabri is fast carving out a niche for himself.
Like all male children in the Sabri family, which traces its roots to the legendary singer Tansen and the Gwalior gharana, Amjad was initiated into classical music at a young age. “The hardest part was being woken up at 4 a.m. Most riaz is done in Raag Bhairon and this is an early morning raag,” recalls Amjad. “My mother would urge our father to let us be but he would still wake us up. Even if I had slept at midnight, he would get us out of bed, instruct us to perform wuzu, say the tahajud prayers and then take out the baja. And he was correct in doing so because if a raag is rendered at the correct time, the performer himself enjoys it to the fullest.”
Tour de Force
By Zohra Yusuf
Mohatta is designed so that the first room is used for larger exhibits. And that is why the first exhibit the visitor sees is not exactly “Karachi under the Raj” but the collections of the Khans of Kalat and the Mirs of Talpur, Hyderabad and Khairpur. The initial encounter is, therefore, with the rich heritage of Karachi’s hinterland. Ranging from richly engraved swords to rather whimsically decorated rifles, the display reflects the Khans’ deep love of weaponry. Intricately embroidered garments and carved furniture capture the lifestyle of a bygone era. The viewer is amazed not only by the richness of the exhibits but, judging by their condition, also at the families’ preservation of their past.