Highlights of the October 2007 issue

Between the Lines

Idrees Bakhtiar

Dear Editor,
don’t think I will be able to write my column this month. I have that old feeling – it is no longer strange, unfortunately – of overpowering depression and frustration when one’s hopes are dashed, hopes that I shared with my fellow countrymen (or I think they shared with me). I speak here of the hopes about the independence of the judiciary and the return of democracy, about justice prevailing and the people of Pakistan finally enjoying the power to chart their own course. 

It was decades ago when I first felt this way. I was, naturally, much younger then and enjoyed the enthusiasm and passion of youth. I remember when the people around me had taken to the streets against the rule of army dictator General Ayub Khan. But they had not been abandoned by their leaders then. Fatima Jinnah had decided to challenge General Ayub in the presidential elections and the entire nation stood behind her, in both parts of the country. They all thronged to Ms Jinnah’s public meetings, and I followed them, convinced that the country would be back on rails. Alas, it was not to be. Ms Jinnah was defeated by the machinations and manipulations of the dictator and his bureaucrats. The 80,000 odd members of the dictator’s Basic Democrats, whom he had selected as the presidential electoral college, betrayed the nation. Depression overtook me as well as the entire nation and it took some time to abate.
 

Exile and the republic

In the wake of overtures from the government and the MQM, Benazir Bhutto is virtually guaranteed safe passage

As leaders of the country’s three largest political entities, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain do not have much in common with each other, apart from the fact that they are living in exile. But in recent weeks it has become clear that they share at least one other quality: their return to Pakistan can cause upheaval in the status quo ridden polity of the country. Never was this more evident than during the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PMLN) leader’s aborted attempt to return home on September 10. Within four hours of his arrival in Islamabad, Sharif was deported by the authorities to Saudi Arabia — in open contempt of a Supreme Court (SC) ruling. For the most part, it was the government’s excessive use of force that kept people off the streets. In the ultimate analysis, though, the PMLN accepted that it had not mobilised its workers on that fateful day.

The Path(s) to Democratisation

For all their posturing, the respective positions of the APDM and the PPP are not mutually exclusive

Pro-democracy political forces in Pakistan are divided on the method to be adopted towards the democratisation of society. To an extent, indeed, difference in opinion, strategy and policy is to be expected among political parties that represent virtually the entire spectrum of political opinion, from the extreme right to centrists to left-oriented sub-nationalist groupings.

However, if this difference in political judgment leads the different protagonists to exchange recriminations and question each others’ underlying intent – towards restoring democratic rule – it can be potentially damaging for the cause, particularly at this crucial juncture: elections are on the horizon and the Musharraf regime is struggling for survival. (Nevertheless, this article will assume that the entire array of the opposition is sincere to the cause of Constitution and representative rule and will not accuse any of the protagonists of past misdemeanours and opportunistic dealings with the Musharraf regime. And as such, all differences in strategy will merely be seen as based on difference in judgment and outlook.)

 
 

Bridge of despair

By Idrees Bakhtiar

The credentials of a probe body looking into the Northern Bypass tragedy are called into question

The collapse of a Northern Bypass section may have been a rude shock for commuters in Karachi but there is a familiar ring to the sequence of events that followed the tragedy. An inquiry ordered a day after the collapse by General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is nowhere near completion — even a month after the incident. Already there are fears that the inquiry’s findings will be kept secret as it is likely to expose the inner working of the agencies involved in the overpass’s construction. Knowledgeable circles even question the credibility of the inquiry committee formed by Lieutenant-general (retd) Farooq Ahmed Khan, head of the prime minister’s inspection team.

The emperor’s new clothes

In the farcical court of Pakistani politics, there is a pantheon of fairy-tale like characters that look to please anybody powerful, vain or unintelligent enough not to see through their self-serving ways. They are the ones who help to perpetuate the rule of despots, who stroke the egos of the high and mighty, who nod approvingly at all the wrongs a government will do and who perpetually sneer at the rule of law.

So utterly unscrupulous is the world peopled by our politicians and state actors that it resembles, for the most part, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, Hans Christian Andersen’s fable about a vain emperor who is duped by people who claim to have created the finest set of clothes out of a material with magical properties — it cannot be seen by stupid people. The tale is not just about the stupidity of people or the vanity of a ruler but also a metaphor for an occasion where the majority of the observers refuse to recognise or acknowledge the truth.

Tere Ishq Nachaya

 
The peaceful sound of the mazaar bells reverberates through Sehwan at sunset. At the same time one’s senses are filled with the contrasting sound of bellicose drum beats. But perhaps the meeting of contrasts and extremes such as these are what the urs of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is all about.

Born Usman Marvandi, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar wandered through the Middle East and Central Asia before he came and settled in a town near the River Indus. Such was the fame of the ascetic saint that Sehwan – the oldest surviving city in Sindh and a witness to the armies of Alexander the Great and the rule of Chandragupta II – is known primarily for the shrine of Qalandar and the annual urs held here to commemorate the saint’s death anniversary.

Q: You perform on foreign shores every other month. In the near future, you are leaving for India in October before which other gigs are also on the schedule. Do you find life hectic?

A. Definitely not at the moment. The Independence Day show in Oslo was loads of fun and I really enjoyed myself. I also just finished recording another season of my talk show, Pappu Yaar. But even otherwise I am not a person who likes lounging around at home. For instance, I found the last four days more than frustrating — I was at home and didn’t have anything to do.
However, I tend to avoid interviews and talk shows. Channels can be strenuous. Even now, I get about 10 calls a day from media personnel calling me here and there. I am seriously done with it. But am I exhausted? Not yet.