SHE was the first lady law minister in the country’s history. Starting as Sindh’s law minister from November 1999 to November 2000 and then as Federal Law Minister from November 2000 to March 2002, Barrister Shahida Jamil was a crucial part of the team of professionals who were given the task of running the country’s affairs after the military take-over.
Later she also served the country as Minister for Environment and Local Government. So how was her political experience? “I think people here run for power, not for the sake of good governance. Just for the sake of power.”
However, now that she’s not in the government, she spends most of her time practising law with her husband and looking after her two sons, making every day a very exhausting one for her.
“At the end of every tiring day, one must be entertained to relax the mind and body. Entertainment is really a big need in ones life as you can’t just go on working all day,” says she adding that she entertains herself by watching movies and listening to a variety of music.
“I love watching movies. But my taste doesn’t get stuck at one place. I like watching every movie that entertains me,” the ex-law minister says. But she never prefers watching stuff full of violence and aggression because she thinks “we live in a world where every now and then we come across a lot of bloodshed, chaos and things which really make us either tired or depressed. So in order to sooth the mind you need real entertainment, which to me is comedy, fun and stuff which is completely without violence”.
She starts off by naming her favourite movies from Madhubala’s classic Mehar to Shahrukh’s lovely Mohabatien. “Well Mehar is the movie that I have been repeatedly watching since my childhood. I really like it,” says she. And what is so special about Mohabatien? “It is quite lovely and beautifully presented. I mean the concept of fusing the values of an old generation with the new one has really inspired me. Besides the script is also quite fine,” she says. On the other hand, she thinks that the script of new era movies as compared to the old ones have actually gone down. “In the olden days, we used to have such refined and nice scripts. Today, however, I would say the actors have gone battamiz using coarse language. And you don’t see this only in our part of the world but in the West as well,” she says.
The Message and Omar Mukhtar are the films she would put on top her favourite list. “These movies are literature to me. They are quite informative and have also presented history in a very attractive manner,” she says reasoning that the finest professional work was put on them. Fajr-i-Islam is another movie which she thinks, has been done quite professionally.
As for the Pakistani film industry Ms Jamil thinks financial investment is the only major thing that is lacking. “We have got a lot of talented and willing people in our industry but the only thing is that they are not well equipped and neither are they well trained as well. You must have heard about our TV serials’ popularity all over the world. This proves that we do have brilliant people. So we need to put a lot of money in this sector to bring it to the level of other countries,” she explains.
Ms Shahida also confesses to watching cartoons sometimes. “I love watching Mougly and Lion King because it’s really funny and you also come across seeing a great work of art in them,” she says.
It seems that she is as much passionate about music as she is about the movies she sees. “Music is my passion. I love listening to every kind of music, be it classical, melody,” and the list goes on for her until she says, “except Metal. I don’t like Metal because I think music should be in flow which will help it develop and survive, and Metal is something which is ‘anti-flow’.”
Even in this territory it’s hard for her to name one particular number which could be her most favourite. “Every music has a huge variety within itself. It touches one’s soul. It can make you cry or smile. I like listening to almost every good singer’s numbers. And if I start naming them I would say Roshan Ara, Malika Pukhraj, Noor Jehan, Roona Lela, Hadiqa Qiani, Shazia Manzoor, Junoon, Srings...” the list goes on.
Ms Jamil also enjoys listening to the unique tunes of the sitar. “I like the Indian sitarist Vilayat Ali Khan and there is another guy in our country, Sajjad Hassan. They both are really very nice sitarists,” she says.
But on being asked to name just one favourite song of hers she thinks and says, “I like Junoon’s patriotic song, Jazba-i-Junoon very much. It really gives me a touchy feeling. In fact I think it creates patriotism in every listener’s heart.”
On being asked about this plagiarizing trend of turning the classical numbers into remixes she says, “Well if it makes the song better than its original version, it is good. But as far as I have listened to these remixes, I think most of the times they have actually spoilt the originality and simplicity of the old songs.”
Coming to the topic of favourite books, Ms Jamil says she started reading at an early age and has read a lot of novels. “I used to read a lot of novels in my childhood. Now I mostly read works based on history and politics,” she says. Trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar is the book she is going through nowadays. She says, “I have found it a very nice book. Reading books like this, you come to know about the defects of the British rule in the subcontinent which they boldly justify. This book actually covers the events that took place after the fall of the last Mughal emperor and the miseries he faced.”
Like movies and music, Ms Jamil cannot name the one single, most favourite book of hers as she reads a variety of them on various topics. But again on being asked she says, “I like the book Observations by Henry Kissinger very much. It deals with international politics and with future policies. It’s totally analytic.” Will Duran History is another collection of six volumes she admires. “Each of its volume is very informative and educational,” she says. On the other hand, she also likes to read religious stuff like fiqha and hadith.
SHE was the first lady law minister in the country’s history. Starting as Sindh’s law minister from November 1999 to November 2000 and then as Federal Law Minister from November 2000 to March 2002, Barrister Shahida Jamil was a crucial part of the team of professionals who were given the task of running the country’s affairs after the military take-over.
