KARACHI: While challenges such as terrorism and religious extremism were among the country’s major concerns, there was a “deficit of logic and common sense in governance” that was compounding such issues, senior lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jahangir said here on Saturday. She was addressing a panel discussion on ‘the changing face of Pakistani politics’ at the Karachi Literature Festival.

“Terrorism and religious extremism are huge challenges. They go hand in glove. Without addressing these two issues there can be no economic development, [which means we] will not have a governable Pakistan,” she observed.

Ms Jahangir said there were also some ways in which the country had progressed. She cited the fact that people were now more aware of the poetry of Habib Jalib as an example of this progress, while adding that when she was younger, few people believed that the illiterate and the poor had rights.

In other ways, such as maintaining law and order and delivering basic services, the state had failed. “People have been able to help themselves.”

Discussing the youth, Asma Jahangir said that one thing missing in today’s younger generation was that “we have not trained them. Today’s politics is that of the bandwagon, not of commitment.”

She added that religiosity has increased. “We eat, drink and sleep religion but we do not do good.”

She felt that if one wanted to move up in bureaucracy, it was essential to have a religious persona, even if one indulged in bribery.

Speaking as part of the same panel, senior journalist I.A. Rehman said he didn’t see any change in politics. “If you see the broader picture every [few] years we start a movement for the restoration of democracy. Have we realised the dreams mentioned in the Charter of Democracy?

“Have the basic issues of politics been resolved? We are constantly regressing.”

Veteran politician Syeda Abida Hussain said that in her view, change in Pakistan was signified by a “far more vibrant civil society than earlier”.

She also praised a “vibrant social and electronic media”, while she felt “young Pakistan” was the country’s biggest asset.

Scholar Sahar Shafqat said that since faces in politics don’t change, “it’s easy to fall into the trap that nothing has changed.”

But she felt there were two major changes in the recent past: the completion of a full five-year term by an elected government, and the trial of a military ruler [Gen Musharraf].

She said that “there is a lot of controversy over the lawyers’ movement, but from my perspective it was very important. It was the first time the judiciary stood up.”

She added that the rise of a politically engaged urban middle class which wanted deliverables was also important, as was the rise of the Tehreek-i-Insaf.

Portraits of Benazir: Earlier, at the launch of Benazir Bhutto: a Multidim­ensional Portrait by Russian scholar Anna Suvorova, participants of a panel discussion shared their experience of working with the late Ms Bhutto.

Ms Suvorova said she met Ms Bhutto only once, but the meeting had such an impact on her that she was motivated to write the book. She said although she had met leaders such as Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Bangladesh’s Hasina Wajed as well as India’s Indira Gandhi, none had listened to her as “humanly” as Ms Bhutto.

Abida Hussain admitted that initially, she and Benazir Bhutto did not get along and “sparred on the floor” of parliament. However, during Pervez Musharraf’s rule they met in Washington DC and mended fences “to rid Pakistan” of the general. Ms Hussain observed that Ms Bhutto “did not take well to criticism”.

Veteran former diplomat Zafar Hilaly spoke fondly of his memories of Benazir Bhutto, saying that the slain PPP chief stood out amongst world leaders. However, Mr Hilaly said Ms Bhutto “had no idea about how to deal with the military. I told her the army wants to be led, it does not want to be consulted”, which ended up infuriating her.

He revealed that following the Oct 2007 Karsaz bombing, then US ambassador Anne Patterson made it “very clear” to Ms Bhutto in a meeting that she should continue to cooperate with Gen Musharraf. Mr Hilaly said that following the US diplomat’s remark, which displeased Ms Bhutto intensely, he knew the “deal” brokered by the Americans between her and the general “was over”.

Political personalities: In a session on the politics and personalities of Pakistan, senior journalist Najam Sethi reminisced about his meetings with the country’s major political players through the decades.

He grew close to many Baloch leaders while in Hyderabad Prison, incarcerated during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s rule for “trying to help the Baloch in a small way”.

He said while Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo wanted a negotiated settlement with Mr Bhutto, Khair Bakhsh Marri “wanted to fight”. During the 1970s’ insurgency, Mr Sethi dubbed talk of the Baloch wanting an independent state as “nonsense”.

Commenting on a meeting with Mr Bhutto in 1967, he asked the PPP founder how he could wear Savile Row suits and still consider himself a socialist, to which Mr Bhutto retorted: “What’s wrong with that?”

Published in Dawn February 8th , 2015

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