Engaging the Mehsuds

THE accord underway between government-backed interlocutors and the Mehsud tribesmen in South Waziristan aimed at ending hostilities, halting suicide bombings and restoring peace in the tribal areas and the rest of the Frontier should be welcomed — albeit cautiously. Militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who the previous government blamed for Benazir Bhutto’s murder, has asked all acting at his behest to cease the attacks forthwith; there has been a welcome lull in terrorist activities across the country. The militant leader’s directive comes on the heels of Maulana Sufi Mohammad’s release from custody after he renounced terrorism and agreed to abide by the law while pursuing his mission to enforce the Sharia. The breakthrough has been achieved at the initiative of the ANP-led Frontier government which soon after taking office said it would give dialogue a chance where bullets had failed. The federal government, the Pakistan Army, certain American officials and the British are seemingly on board in the effort to engage the local Taliban.

Scepticism on the part of those opposed to a dialogue between Pakistan government representatives and the militants stems from the failure of earlier peace accords signed between the two parties during 2005-07, in Bajaur, Aurakzai, North Waziristan, etc. The White House, for one, sees such deals as working for the militants in that they would give the latter a breather, allowing them to regroup and further strengthen their stranglehold on the areas bordering the Durand Line. However, those in favour of talking to the militants can argue that there is a difference between who was signing the earlier accords and the ones under consideration now. Whereas the 2005-07 agreements were signed by the former NWFP governor at the behest of the army and bypassing the then MMA government in the Frontier, the latest initiative comes from a duly elected provincial government with a strong public mandate behind it. Also the signatories from the other side will not be the militants but Mehsud tribesmen.

The provisions said to be included in the terms and conditions set forth in the talks for reaching an accommodation between the government and the militants entail demilitarisation of the region as well as the militants’ pledge to lay down their arms and expel any foreign militants. These are augmented by ensuring the flow of development funds into the tribal region and a guarantee by tribesmen of the safety of any foreign or official development workers in the area. These are reasonable terms of engagement. If implemented successfully, the agreement underway can set the tone for the return of peace not only in Pakistan’s tribal areas but also in Afghanistan — perhaps at a later time. The test of it all, however, will be the implementation of the possible accord in both letter and spirit, and by both sides.

Trust deficit on Kalabagh

THE strain put on the ruling coalition during a National Assembly discussion on the Kalabagh Dam the other day has once again underlined the controversy that has laced the project since its inception. The division was along parochial lines. With things being what they are, the message going out to the public at large is clearly negative: politicians have failed to resolve issues of serious national interest. Building of dams — that could have been decided rationally — has become an emotionally charged issue full of sound and fury with provincial overtones. Accusations and counter-accusations have abounded with some political elements in the past going to the extent of threatening a breakup of the federation. Mildly put, that is mindlessness at its worst.That we need more dams is beyond debate. The wet cycle that is visiting the country for the last few years is no different from what it was like in the mid-1970s when we either had floods or water shortages. If anything, the two extremes have only gone worse. The rational solution to the problem would be to store the floodwater somewhere to use in times of scarcity. Exactly where? That is the question at the heart of the matter. Ideally, it should have been left to the technocrats, but life generally tends to be less than ideal. There are contrasting reports available from a number of stakeholders and consultants, some finding Kalabagh to be the perfect choice, and others arguing that the structural, geological, seismic and hydraulic design of the project has gone obsolete. The government should first arrange for a reassessment of the project and a feasibility study so that at least its technicality should be above board.

The basic issue that may well bleed the project to death is the trust deficit among the provinces. It is difficult to blame the smaller provinces for being paranoid. The experience of Sindh as the lower riparian to Punjab is not much different from what Pakistan has experienced in a similar capacity to India. All water accord violations that have been done in the last several years — as well as Punjab’s insistence on calling the crucial release of water downstream Kotri ‘wastage’ — easily explain the basis of the existing mistrust. While technical studies are underway, the upper riparians could generate trust by observing the 1991 water accord in letter and spirit. More than any rhetoric, the country needs confidence-building measures to create a consensus on the issue without which the project should not be initiated even if it is found to be technically feasible.

Security cameras in Karachi

THE verdict isn’t in yet as to whether closed-circuit television cameras really do help deter crime in countries where they have been installed. Still, there is little argument that surveillance cameras can and do play a significant role where convictions are concerned, especially now when superior technology has significantly improved footage quality. As such, news that the Sindh police is finalising plans to install 2,000 security cameras at ‘sensitive’ locations throughout Karachi sounds good on paper, though it can be questioned whether the number is adequate for so sprawling a city. It also remains to be seen whether the cameras will conveniently ‘fail’ to function or if surveillance tapes disappear when crimes are committed by influential groups. At any rate, the idea ought to be welcomed at this early stage for the fight against crime in Karachi can use all the help it can get.

Assuming honesty of purpose, the efficacy or otherwise of CCTV surveillance will be determined chiefly by proper use and maintenance. Besides recording footage, the police should ideally also keep a vigilant eye on camera monitors so that crimes can be prevented before they are committed. This admittedly monumental task will require a large, alert and dedicated staff, and it is questionable whether the police have either the resources or the motivation to deliver on this count. Our track record in terms of maintenance of cameras does not inspire confidence either. It was reported in January that every one of the 2,500-odd CCTV cameras installed in Lahore two years earlier was out of order. The surveillance system set up in Karachi at important spots has also found not to have been functional on occasions when a crime took place as on Nov 15, 2005, when the PIDC building was rocked by a car bomb and on Sept 10, 2007, when a prominent lawyer was gunned down in the Sindh High Court area. It can only be hoped that the new CCTV cameras will not meet a similar fate.

OTHER VOICES - Pushto Press

Muslims must defend their faith

Shahdat, Kabul

RESPECTED readers are aware of the impact of the Christian-Zionist invasion of Muslim countries throughout the world. The evil forces have now started insulting the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the Holy Book of the Muslims and have been desecrating symbols of the Islamic faith. These evil forces have been busy … damaging everything that can be called Islamic.

Not only this, these evil forces have imposed a leadership on the Muslims that will not let them live in peace and tranquillity. Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Somalia are bound by the shackles of these evil forces that are hostile to Muslims all over the world. Their conspiracies have put Muslims in trouble around the globe.

Regrettably, Muslims throughout the world have not been able to fulfill the responsibilities of their faith. They have not been able to defend the honour and respect of the symbols of their faith.

The Holy Prophet, the Holy Quran and the holy places have been dishonoured on different occasions but Muslims are unable to defend them. Muslims worldwide have not been able to resist this trend successfully.

Those Muslims, who believe in the oneness of God and the finality of the prophethood, have to rise to the occasion and defend their faith.

They have to stop the evil forces from playing with their faith and their lives. This is a litmus test for the belief of those who claim to be Muslims.

— (April 20)

Tariq Azizuddin reappears

Hewad, Peshawar

PAKISTAN’S ambassador to Afghanistan (Tariq Azizuddin) reappeared in a video the other day, asking the government of Pakistan to accept the demands of the Taliban. The ambassador has also talked of his ill-health while confirming that he is being held hostage by the Taliban.

The ambassador was going to Afghanistan through Zamkanai, Khyber Agency, when he was intercepted and abducted. The government of Pakistan had not been able to locate the ambassador even after a lapse of several weeks.

The first question that arises in the mind of an objective observer is how a person holding as responsible a position as that of an ambassador preferred to travel through an area that is in the grip of a high-intensity conflict. The second question regarding this matter pertains to the capabilities of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Didn’t the intelligence know about the situation in the area and tell the ambassador to avoid that route? Moreover, why were the intelligence agencies of Pakistan unable to locate the whereabouts of Tariq Azizuddin and identify the people responsible for his abduction.

Tariq Azizuddin has requested the government of Pakistan to accept the demands of the Taliban but has failed to describe the demands. It seems that those responsible for the abduction of Tariq Azizuddin are more adept in hatching conspiracies and making the abduction of prominent people a norm in the region. — (April 20) n

— Selected and translated by Khadim Hussain

All our deeds on record

“THIS day (Day of Reckoning) you are being repaid what you have been doing.” (Quran 45:28). The Divine scheme of reward (Sawab) and retribution (azab) at the end of the Day is a case of action and reaction. You reap what you sow.

Any one who finds oneself happy and prosperous in life should thank one’s own self (and Allah too who is the ‘prime mover’ in all cases). And those who are not so fortunate should discover their own faults and failings instead of blaming fate (Taqdeer).

Here, a quotation from Shakespeare appears to be very apt: “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.”

It is this very philosophy which the Holy Quran has set forth, very briefly, in this verse, referring to the reward of those who will be allotted a berth in Paradise: “awarded them a garden and silken attire for all that they endured” (76:12). Explaining how the righteous persons showed endurance in their life-time, our theologists have opined that it meant, primarily, their act of ‘sacrifice’ – their abstinence from the transient worldly pleasures for the sake of the expected abiding spiritual satisfaction in afterlife.

The Quran conveys this idea in these words: “For him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust, the garden will be his home” (79:4-41).

Our theologists also refer to the verses of the Quran mentioned below in support of the fact that all our actions are on record, and each one of us will see their reaction in life after Resurrection. Some of the verses are being quoted here: (1) “When the earth is shaken with the final earthquake…. Those who have done good work worth an atom’s weight will see it, and those who have done wrong work worth an atom’s weight will also see it then.” (99:1-8) (2) “On the Day when every soul will find itself confronted with all that it has done of good or of evil” (3:30).

One can ask how a detailed record of one’s deed – good, bad or indifferent – will be available to be presented on the Day of Judgment. Modern science provides the answer, as it says that no motion, no sound and no voice fades out for ever, because the resultant air waves remain preserved in the atmosphere which can be heard. However, the Quran tells us that all spoken words and utterances and actions are being continuously recorded by invisible envoys of God.

Consider these Quranic verses: “Do they think that Allah cannot hear their secret thoughts and private confidences? The fact is that Allah’s envoys attached with them keep recording” (43:80).

The Holy Quran elaborates further that “everyone’s future is fastened to one’s own neck which will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection when he will be told to read his record which will prove to be a reckoner against him on that Day” (17:13-14).

The Quran calls this record of man’s words and deeds a ‘book’ (kitab): “The Book will be placed before them and the guilty will be seen fearful of its contents and saying what kind of a book is this that doesn’t leave either a bad thing or a good thing and has counted every thing” (18:49).

Sceptics and non-believers may express their doubt about the record of one’s words and deeds maintained by invisible agencies (‘envoys’ of God, as the Quran calls them) and that too in the form of a ‘book’ of parchment or paper. Obviously, the Quran conveys its meaning about extra-sensory objects or matters – things outside the reach of ordinary senses – through terms and symbols which even a person or ordinary intelligence can comprehend easily. To satisfy the sceptics’ inclination to disbelieve is well-nigh impossible.

Therefore, those who are believers should treat the symbolism of God’s envoys, noting down everything in a book or journal, as good enough to convey the message that all that one says or does, is preserved which will be presented at the time of final reckoning. The Quran says that in addition to this ‘book’, which contains a detailed account of every individual’s sayings and doings, “on the day of reckoning Allah will seal up mouths and make hands speak out and feet bear witness as to what they used to do” (36:65).

And if some one interprets this verse to mean that human limbs will actually speak out then let him/her stick to this interpretation, even though the fact may be that the description is symbolic.

It may be pertinent to clarify that the day of Reckoning, or that another world will replace the present world after that Day, is a matter which is neither easy to explain nor easy to understand. The basic thing to keep in mind is that, as the Quran says, “on the Day when the earth will be changed to other than the earth, and heavens will also be changed” (14:48), the laws of nature and cause-effect relationship, as are operative in the present world, will become absolutely irrelevant and, therefore, inapplicable.

So, it will be an entirely new world having nothing in common with what we find in our present world.

Thus, the entire text of the Quran can be interpreted, either literally, or treating some parts as symbolical or of allegorical significance.

Non-violence and the king of Khans

“CHAMPIONS don’t become champions in the ring; they are merely recognised there,” goes a famous adage. Not only are champions recognised, but also their legacies live on. The story of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, alias Bacha Khan, the founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek, is that of a true champion.

The world recognised Bacha Khan’s stature as a statesman after his heroic non-violent struggle against the British Raj. Twenty years after his death, the great non-violent Pashtun statesman was remembered and eulogised at a conference in New York on April 12. Focusing on his philosophy of non-violence, the first Bacha Khan Peace Conference was attended and addressed by his admirers from the US, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“I came here from Washington DC to pay my respects to this great leader,” said Charles Aquilina, a one-time resident of Abdul Ghaffar Khan Road in Mumbai and currently a director at a Washington-based think-tank. Like Aquilina, Dr Zikria, a Persian-speaking Afghan professor at Columbia University, paid his tributes and fondly recalled that Bacha Khan used to visit his house in Kabul. Ravi Shanker travelled from Boston to join Khan’s admirers.

The keynote speaker was Rajmohan Gandhi, the celebrated historian and biographer grandson of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and author of Ghaffar Khan: Non-violent Badshah of Pukhtoons. “What a timely idea, but also an overdue event,” Rajmohan told organisers upon accepting their invitation to speak. He received a standing ovation from his audience who responded to his spirited, intellectually potent and thought-provokingly focused address on the conference theme, ‘Philosophy of non-violence and global challenges’.

He discussed Bacha Khan as a Muslim, a leader, and a non-violent freedom fighter. “When the history of struggle for human dignity will be written, Bacha Khan’s name will be at the top,” Rajmohan told the conference.

Peering through heavy glasses, the tall, frail Indian intellectual had spoken bluntly to his American hosts in Manhattan at a function organised a day earlier in memory of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and other statesmen of this century.

“I told a crowd of 4,000 that, while I appreciate their tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, they forgot to include another great personality of the 20th century. They forgot Abdul Ghaffar Khan,” said Rajmohan who believes the world must now, more than ever before, adhere to the philosophy of non-violence.

A long line-up of celebrated speakers and intellectuals included, among others, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Afrasiab Khattak, Dr Fazle Raheem Marwat, Dr Raj Wali Shah Khattak, Abdul Bari Jahani, Dr Munir Khan, Dr Saleem Afridi, Abdul Wahid Mashwani, Abdur Rab Khan, Taj Akbar Khan and Iqbal Ali Khan. They spoke at great length about non-violence and its relevance to today’s turbulent world. They had one voice: peace can be achieved by waging peace alone.

Bacha Khan struggled for peace in a region where tribal customs and traditions were at times stronger than religion. He persevered, however, and proved that change through peaceful struggle is always and everywhere possible. Mahatma Gandhi once said of Bacha Khan: “That such men, who would have killed a human being with no more thought than they would kill a sheep, should, at the bidding of one man, have laid down their arms and accepted non-violence as the superior weapon sounds almost like a fairy-tale.”

The speakers noted that today’s world is confronted with wars, bloodshed and instability. Humanity is caught in the crossfire between powerful nation-states and stateless and faceless terrorists. Extremism, they noted, is rearing its ugly head all around and is visible in the conduct of both warring sides.

“Is this the only course that humanity is left with to tackle one of the greatest threats mankind has ever encountered?” asked one Afghan speaker, Amir Pawinda. “No, there are better ways of dealing with it and the philosophy of non-violence offers the best hope,” he said.

John F. Kennedy once said, “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” Another great American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, declared, “More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars — yes, an end to this brutal, inhumane and thoroughly impractical method of settling differences between governments.”

Peacemakers may speak different languages, but their message is always the same, and it reverberates with the same spirit of hope. The New York conference reflected that spirit as speaker after speaker highlighted Bacha Khan’s life as a simple man, a powerful politician, a spiritual leader, a non-violent peacemaker and a visionary. Bacha Khan would tell his followers, “There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction.”

Mahatma Gandhi said, “In the secret of my heart, I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things (as the war) to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at the end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing faith even though I may break in the attempt.”

What would Bacha Khan and Mahatma Gandhi do if they were alive today, was the question many speakers raised. Rajmohan thought Bacha Khan and Gandhi would have felt overly challenged by today’s complicated puzzles of corruption and violence, but still their devotion to harmonious coexistence would have impressed many minds with a peace mentality, which is the first step towards conflict resolution.

Bacha Khan once said, “There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pashtun like me subscribing to the creed of non-violence. It is not a new creed. It was followed 1,400 years ago by the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).”

If Bacha Khan was at the helm in today’s Pakistan, what would he do? “I think he would raise a new army of Khudai Khidmatgars for a change in mindsets. This army would wage peace for peace, for development, for social justice, for political empowerment and for equality,” said Dr Munir Khan, associated with the Bacha Khan Education Foundation.

The sentiment raised at the conference reflected the spirit of a famous saying of one of South Africa’s greatest leaders and Nobel laureate, Desmond Tutu, who said, “Stability and peace in our land will not come from the barrel of a gun, because peace without justice is an impossibility.”

One dynamic, global message emanated from the conference: “Let’s work for the creation of Khudai Khidmatgars in the 21st century. Let’s spread peace, amity and love by waging nothing but peace.” n

The writer is a US-based journalist.

mjehangir@aol.com