Civic dialogue on Kashmir: a report

Dr Herbert Hoefer

The Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) together with the Institute for Asian Studies of Portland State University (PSU) held an open forum on the highly volatile topic of “India-Pakistan- Kashmir: In Search of a Solution” on May 15, 2002 at the PSU campus. A wide spectrum of the public attended, totalling about 70 people, of whom about half were ethnically from India and Pakistan.

The ACHA is an organization devoted to working for peace in South Asia and harmony among South Asians, wherever they live.

In his introductory remarks, the programme director for ACHA, Dr Pritam K. Rohila, pointed out that the conflict over Kashmir has been the longest standing world hotspot over the past half century.

In spite of two large-scale wars and three major agreements, the conflict remains as hot as ever. Dr Patricia Wetzel of PSU in her welcome words pointed out how timely and urgent this dialogue is, as the previous day 30 people were killed, including 10 children, in Jammu.

Holding such a civic dialogue was a bold and unique attempt to bring together Indians and Pakistanis, as well as Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims to the same table. As was pointed out several times in the dialogue, all sides have developed mythological accounts of the region’s history, escalating feelings of anger and injustice and threat.

Ginny Peckinbaugh, a trained moderator, was brought in to facilitate the intense discussion. Even though opinions and proposals differed widely, all agreed that such a discussion is absolutely necessary so that others’ feelings and viewpoints can be understood and appreciated. Only out of such an open-hearted sharing might it be possible to find a real solution.

The dialogue began with a brief presentation of the history of Kashmir and with Indian, Pakistani, ad Kashmiri viewpoints. This was followed by a discussion by 12 panel members, including three from the USA perspective. The two-hour event was concluded with comments and questions from the floor.

The goal of the dialogue was to “Search for a Solution,” and the ACHA members brought several proposals to the floor. Gulzar Ahmed, in his presentation of the Pakistani point of view, concluded with the urgent plea that the leaders involved must solve this terrible drain on the region’s resources and energies in order to attend to the most pressing economic, health, and environmental issues.

Dr Rohila received an ovation for his well-thought out proposal. A third proposal was not so warmly welcomed but provoked considerable discussion, to have the region’s religious leaders meet to work on a spiritual basis for reconciliation.

The dialogue was a start. It was successful in having leading figures hear each other and share their deep hurts and frustrations. For the many American students in the audience, the dialog provided a firsthand exposure to the complexities and intensities of the conflict.

A dialogue attempts to see each other as people, people of shared hopes and needs. Out of this experience of shared humanity, can arise respect and sympathy and reconciliation. There is a long way to go, and this was only a local effort, but the path to peace must start somewhere, somehow.

RESOLVING KASHMIR PROBLEM: Draft of a comprehensive agreement.

1. Following five autonomous regions will be created within one year of the signing of the agreement.

Each autonomous region will be governed by representatives elected by its permanent residents, with the exception of foreign affairs, which will be conducted by the governments of Pakistan or India as indicated below.

a. Azad Kashmir (Pakistan)

b. Northern Territories (Pakistan) c. Jammu (India)

d. Kashmir (India)

e. Ladakh (India)

2. A Joint Governing Council of Jammu & Kashmir will be created within two years to regulate inter-region affairs. This body will consist of representatives selected for this purpose by the government of each of the five regions as well as India and Pakistan.

3. Also, the Joint Governing Council of Jammu & Kashmir will have the responsibility to come up with a detailed plan for settlement of all Jammu & Kashmir-related matters, within five years.

4. The detailed plan prepared by the Joint Governing Council of Jammu & Kashmir and final resolution of Kashmir issue will be implemented within 10 years. Failure to do so for any reason and by any one of the parties involved will result in assumption of the full control of the matter by the U.N. Security Council.

5. The existing Line of Control will be accepted as the International Border between India and Pakistan until the final resolution of the matter.

This agreement will remain inactive until India as well as Pakistan agree to cease all hostilities with immediate effect and implement the following steps governing their bilateral relationship within one year

A. Ban all activities (including propaganda) against each other by all government agencies,

B. Allow unrestricted travel between the countries,

C. Grant Most-Favoured Nation status to each other; and

D. Make a pact to resolve all bilateral matters through negotiations and to ban war between the two nations forever.

(Note: All parties must accept all parts of the proposal)

Xenophobia on the rise in Europe

THE NETHERLANDS far right anti-immigration party, Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), whose leader Pim Fortuyn was shot dead three weeks ago, has become the second biggest political party in the country following last week’s election.

The success of LPF has confirmed the fears that xenophobia, or in other words neo-fascism, is on the rise in many parts of Europe.

There is no doubt that people within and outside Europe are surprised that a liberal society like that of Holland can allow a party to rule that wants to close the borders of the country to all foreigners.

Just a few days ago, LPF had replaced its founder, who was shot dead earlier this month in Rotterdam. Another big change witnessed after the election is the change in the Netherlands traditional balance of power, strengthening the drift to the right across Europe.

It indeed is a dramatic change in the whole of Europe. In Holland, the ruling centre left Labour party suffered a serious setback, winning only 23 seats in a 150-member house.

The success of the right-wing party of Mr Balkenende’s may signal a change in the famously liberal society of the Netherlands where euthanasia and marriage between sex has been allowed and these two along with tolerance of soft drugs were the issues that Mr Balkenende played on. His party rejects marriage between same sex and disapproves of euthanasia.

The Labour-ruled coalition with the VVD and the centrist Democrats 66 party has been in power for eight years but saw its total number of seats fall from 97 to 54.

It was Labour’s worst defeat since the second world war and came in a momentous election dominated by Fortuyn’s murder, voter concerns over crime, immigration and public services.

The Left seems to be in retreat in almost all parts of Europe. Surveys in France before next month’s elections forecast a right-wing majority, potentially cementing President Jacques Chirac’s victory and the flight of the Socialists in the just completed French presidential vote.

Now it is to be seen what happens in Germany where Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will face a conservative challenger, Edmund Stoiber, in the September elections.

In Britain, the ruling labour party is fully aware of their surroundings in Europe. Prime Minister Tony Blair seems to be preparing ground for more stringent measures to stop the wave of illegal immigrants which is causing a lot of discontent in mainstream British society.

The Labour party is trying its best to appease Europe’s anti-immigrant outcry. One such latest step is the recent government announcement of plans to build three more remote camps for asylum-seekers away from main cities of the country.

Last year when general elections were being held in Italy, I was there on my holidays. The winning of Silvio Berlusconi was seen by many I met there as the re-emergence of Fascists in Italy.

There is no doubt these were the supporters of the leftist parties and were exaggerating. In fact, there is a clear distinction between the far right and more mainstream conservatives like Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.

Far-right parties have joined government coalitions in Austria and Portugal and will probably do so in the Netherlands.

In Denmark, the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party an important component of the coalition government. The Danish government seems to have given free hand to this party to make future laws concerning immigration. And in return the Danish Peoples Party has guaranteed the government’s parliamentary majority.

Over the past some time I have been meeting a number of Danish citizens Pakistan or Afghan origin. All of them seem quite worried about their and their children’s future in Denmark. These were the people who before the formation of the present coalition government would praise Danish laws and the type of governments they had at the time.

Anti-immigration outcry is only one of the factors responsible for this dramatic shift to right in Europe. Many political observers believe that the more dangerous is the increasing distrust of the political leaders.

And this could result in a big shift to far right or neo-fascism that we have already seen in France, the Netherlands and Denmark.

To stop this trend in Europe, the mainstream political parties will have to keep in touch with masses, control illegal immigration and stop the wave of crimes.The increase in crime is considered to be one of the main factors responsible for the shift towards the far-right in Europe.

The other Munno Bhai

Munno Bhai had us all worried some days back when speaking at PNCA’s “Dialogue On Art” programme he made this quaint admission that he was schizophrenic, that there was a part of him he knew nothing about and that his coming autobiography, Mein te Munno Bhai would be an attempt to understand and come to terms with this errant splinter of his self, this enigma?

It was a disturbing revelation for those who have known him since his formative years and observed him functioning as a single unit of the population with professional finesse, pragmatism and hard work — this last being every poor man’s sheet anchor of survival, and success in lucky cases as his. Add to that his constant guard and caution that in the wildest evenings of our younger days he would not relax, saying a firm no to another drop to the two Patialas he normally permitted himself. The only other man we knew who loved to exercise greater control over himself, and thus on others, was Akhtar Ahsen whom the land of opportunities has further shrunk by a pint. But that’s another story.

In Munno Bhai’s case it would mean there is much art that goes into his apparent artlessness. It is no little wonder, therefore, to find Munno Bhai thus distancing himself from himself, cutting his sweet self into slices, groping for his name in the lost and found list. It looks odd too because basically he is a humourist, being which means he has already disposed off the burden of self importance. The comic reveals itself to the self- observant eye.

The self-observant eye is a cruel lens. It magnifies the ugly spots and peeps through forbidden cracks in the door. It is not probable therefore that Munno Bhai would look at himself as a mystery of some kind. I am sure therefore that Mein te Munno Bhai is just a figure of speech in the popular fashion of our poets who like to stand before fuzzy mirrors and find a stranger snarling back at them.

In any case it is not likely the autobiography is going to be an inquiry into the deeper recesses of his soul. It is more likely it is going to be a study of those unfortunate souls who have enjoyed the pleasure of having been his friends. I call them unfortunate because he knows them better than they themselves. He has been gathering their stories over the years and, now, he is going to spill the beans. So, friends, beware. For everyone doesn’t have the heart of a Kishwar Naheed who thrives on notoriety and relishes calumny with masochistic delight. That evening she merely giggled when Munno Bhai in full form paid her a very loaded tribute in recognition of her all inclusive hospitality and patronage that she extended to derelict intellectuals at her Lahore ashram.

Munno Bhai’s accomplishments are multiple. As a columnist his position is secure. He would pick a stalk from the sheaf and nibble at it with the casual amusement of a rabbit munching its carrot to the green stump. He bares his victim item by item of clothing and button by button. His touch is light and easy. Then he reclines and watches the subject with genuine sympathy. The essential Munno Bhai can be quite callous without being crude. His verse that he recites with halting gusto which purists sniff at as versified journalese is poetry of social relevance. It throbs in unison with the popular beat. It warms the blood; it tickles and teases. It talks. Munno Bhai’s TV plays have mostly been about rustic bums, petty vandals, lower middle class morality, maudlin tragedies of domestic life and social burlesque at mohalla kiosks. The village idiot pontificates and makes profound chatter. This is Munno Bhai’s native territory. Here he soars with ease. But writing for TV is a whole time commitment to circulating in confined spaces, and being ready to fit into moulds. You need to be very pliable to be serviceable there. In the bargain you get a little fame. But the work has become so commercialized now, you have to be a nobody to get along. Munno Bhai has said so himself. At 70, Munno Bhai is still a going proposition. But he is being feted, celebrated. And he seems to be liking the fuss. It’s not good at all.

A gem of an argument is lost on the fool

UNLIKE Riaz Basra, so unlike him that some people would find the comparison shocking, Abdul Ghani Lone had not chosen to live by the sword. The Kashmiri leader had always hated and condemned violence. Violence, he had argued, created more problems than it solved and tended to complicate matters.

That he should come to a violent end was, ironically, almost as predictable. Unlike the famous ‘warrior’ whom his exploits condemned to a fugitive’s life, he remained firmly planted in his home, choosing to live among his people and in the end die in their midst. Steadfast in extremely trying circumstances, he was clearly prepared for the blow when it came. In a manner of speaking, he had chosen it.

In life, Lone was known for his incisive rationality and his firm belief that Right is Might. States and armies, even nuclear-armed states and million-strong armies could not take anything away from an argument. That his killers cannot claim responsibility for his death and must blame it on their enemies is his eternal vindication.

JUST how good is good news from Greater Thal Canal project? Lahore-based journalists who visited the site last week were told that the fast-track Vision 2025 project was on schedule. The going was so good so far that the managers were entertaining hopes even of an early completion. No new vehicles had been purchased despite a Rs70 million allocation and of the Rs60 million allocated for the earth work so far contracted, nearly Rs24 million had been saved.

Great dedication was apparent among the Wapda men and officers the reporters met. From project director to drivers and helpers everybody one met requested for dua and none for himself, the cricket team’s fortunes, or peace on earth. It was always for the project’s success.

There was also great solidarity. Despite the tough working conditions nobody talked ill of an officer, even when encouraged. “No sir. It’s not out of loyalty. Not because I am working with them. It’s just that they are such a fine, God-fearing, competent lot. I, too, after all, have to meet the Lord,” said one. It was particularly touching coming from the workers who were openly critical of several ‘policies.’

The saving on purchase of vehicles was one such point. The old vehicles may be all right in a city. Here, they were breaking down regularly and lack of a Wapda workshop in the area meant that they had to be towed, sometimes up to 60 kilometres away for repairs. Hassles apart, it was not easy to tell whether a real saving would result.

Nobody mentioned the poor working conditions. It was only through searching questions that the journalists learnt that the project director’s office did not have a chair for every staff member, that the project staff was not paid hard area allowance and that in some cases payment of salaries was in arrears. There is no hospital, clinic or first aid centre at the project site. A doctor visits once a week. There is also no ambulance. At Adhi Kot, where the project is headquartered, there is no bakery. “Do you have the ‘facility’ of desert snakes?” a reporter asked? Everybody laughed heartily. Of course, they did. Several encounters were recounted. Fortunately, nobody had been bitten so far.

And the contract labour? Those getting Rs80 a day are considered privileged. Others get Rs70 for slaving away in the desert under the blazing May sun. “Unemployment,” explained Engr Syed Ali Raza, the Wapda director who supervised some of the project studies, “drives wages down.” He said the natives were amongst the poorest of the poor. During his inevitable interaction with them, he said, he had been delighted by the great inquisitiveness shown by the children and the parent’s desire to educate them and saddened beyond words by their obvious lack of means to send them to schools. The canal, he hoped, would change that. Once completed, it is expected to increase farmer’s annual income by a little less than Rs5,000 per acre.

SPEAKING informally last week, a Lahore-based public relations officer of a large public sector corporation said it was routine for his employer to use ad-placing decisions to influence what newspapers published! On some occasions, he admitted, he had been ‘forced’ to convey the unsavoury message. The officer, however, denied charges of unprofessional conduct, blackmail, bribery and intimidation, claiming that he had, in fact, been protecting some ‘overzealous’ reporters whom some irate officers in the ‘national institution’ had wanted to ‘sort out.’ He declined requests to elaborate the assertion.

The occasion was an anecdote-sharing session and the audience consisted largely of newspaper reporters. One of them had prompted the protest by the PRO by alleging harassment. It was not immediately clear how far the clarification ha had been received as a personal apology. It failed strangely to start a debate on the morality of the clearly unconventional public relations policy. Instead, reporter after reporter recalled incidents involving himself or some colleague to show that deception, blackmail, bribery and intimidation were indeed standard practice, at least for the corporation, when it came to ‘combating’ what it considered undesirable publicity.

So why did the reporters keep putting their name on the stories fed by the very same PR wing? One of them said it was because they tended to forgive and forget easily. Really? Had they ever considered leaving out the media releases? They said they could not. The editors held it against them. Had they considered a public protest as they had in the case of the Punjab governor? No, the case was ‘altogether’ different.

Why did they have to put up with something they so resented? Reluctantly, one of them said it was because the publishers were cheaper than reporters. “If somebody wants to stop a reporter from filing a story they do not relish, they have to pay hundreds of thousands of rupees if he is corrupt. The upright would simply dismiss the offer with the contempt it deserves. With the publishers, however, it is different. The promise of a Rs25,000 ad in the next quarter will do the trick. On the face of it, the transaction is legal.”

UNLIKE Lone, Mahfooz Arshad was not prepared for his fate. Judging from the police account, he was more willing to risk a child’s life, than suffer the usual inconvenience of an ordinary life. No wonder, therefore, that the story of a ‘suicide’ in police custody by slashing a vein was widely disbelieved.

Arshad was alleged to have kidnapped a five-year-old for ransom. He was arrested after the mutilated body of the child was found. At a press conference arranged by the police, he had admitted to kidnapping but claimed that the boy had died accidentally.

The pattern is only too familiar. Three men in the last five years have been killed in ‘a shootout with the police’ after being accused of having kidnapped and killed a child. In all these cases, the summary ‘execution’ was preceded by a ‘citizens’ protest’ demanding an exemplary punishment for the man in police custody. In Arshad’s case, too, there was a protest in the neighbourhood the night the arrest was announced. It was said to have been inspired, if not organized, by the police.

The death of a suspect saves the police the trouble of a thorough investigation and prosecution. It, however, allows him to be presumed innocent. In the past, the practice was blamed on the SHO’s enormous workload and was one of the arguments for separation of investigation from the watch and ward functions of the police. The separation, started at huge cost, seems to have made little difference. —- ONLOOKER

Give us a break, please

THE regulatory role of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to oversee the content of programming offered by cable TV operators has been handed over to the newly-formed Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.

And, in typical government fashion, right after coming into existence, one of PEMRA’s first acts of showing off its authority has been to issue a public notice in newspapers asking cable operators to stop showing (a) programmes through DVDs or VCDs, (b) programmes that “do not conform to our social norms and moral values” and (c) to place “national TV channels” among the first five channels in the cable package offered to subscribers.

The first guideline makes sense from a copyright point of view but even then it is hardly implemented. The PEMRA notice also asks members of the public to report any cable operators that violate these rules. However, it is very doubtful that subscribers will actually blow the whistle in such cases because who wouldn’t mind watching a brand new English or Bollywood movie for free. So, perhaps, PEMRA should try a different route if it wants such copyright violations to end and not do what most government agencies — including the police and our intelligence bodies — sometimes try to do, that is, to ask the public to do what is essentially their (the government’s) job.

One would have to take much issue with the second directive, the one that relates to the showing of programmes that “do not conform to our social norms and values.” Well, first of all, why is PEMRA getting involved in this, when there is a full-fledged Board of Censors in Pakistan? Such vague directives do not make much sense and if anything — because of their general nature — allow a state authority to use a broad definition to ban a host of programming. Having said that, it seems unlikely that something like that would happen in the current context.

However, one would like to know who in PEMRA came up with this bright idea that certain programmes that were being shown were not in keeping with our cultural norms and values and hence their broadcast should be banned.

By the same token, how many programmes shown on television are in line with “our cultural norms and traditions.” Just a couple of examples from PTV or STN will suffice. How much in line with “our social norms and moral values” is the show The X-Files or for that matter WWF Wrestling. And in the past we have had countless English shows like Mind Your Language or Murder She Wrote — that were hugely popular but clearly not in accordance with our “social norms and moral values.”

It is amazing that the whiz kids at PEMRA do not seem to understand that the whole point of watching television is that it allows one to look into other cultures and traditions and that’s what makes for an open and critical mind. If one were to really implement PEMRA’s hare-brained directive then much of what comes on the Discovery channel and National Geographic, too, would have to be banned. It’s quite probable that the middle or low level bureaucrat who came up with this idea was educated in a typical Pakistan educational institution, where asking questions, having an open mind and encouraging a love of other cultures are all stifled, often with the full support of state machinery.

And in any case, I would like to ask the people at PEMRA what exactly are our “moral values.” Because from most accounts it seems that the values that seem to have a premium in our society, for which people get rewarded more often than not, are lying, indulging in corrupt practices, hypocrisy and using religion as a weapon to threaten other people. It would be quite appropriate for PEMRA to concern itself with the technical problems that cable subscribers face all too often and leave this business of censoring shows that do not follow “our social norms and moral values” alone. — Omar R Quraishi

One in a thousand years

“RISALO, the collection of the most important verses and songs of Shah Abdul Latif, is not just the most important document of mystical poetry of Sindh but of the entire sub-continent.” So avers a leading literary critic. And it was to pay tribute to this great sufi that the Lahore chapter of the Pakistan Academy of Letters arranged a meeting in its offices last week. It was presided over by the research scholar, Anwar Chaudhry, while those who spoke on the occasion were Nasreen Anjum Bhatti and Ghulam Qasim Kausar, both from Radio Pakistan.

Shah Abdul Latif was born in AD 1689-90 in a small town of Hyderabad district and died in 1752-53. He rests in a stately mausoleum built in the days of the ruler, Ghulam Shah Kalhoro, who was a great admirer of the poet.

There is some doubt whether Shah Abdul Latif received any formal education. But research scholars, including the German, Dr Trump, are convinced that he must have received a very thorough education as he spoke and wrote in Arabic, Persian, Hindi and other languages. He knew the Quran in all details and was at home with the philosophy of his time and in sufism as well as the Vedanta.

There is a consensus that Latif is not only a poet of distinction but also a great scholar. According to tradition, he always had three books with him — the Quran, the Mansnavi of Jalaluddin Rumi and the Risalo, the collected verses of his great-grandfather, Shah Abdul Karim. He spent the last ten years of his life in his self-constructed hamlet, Bhit, from where he spread his deepest thoughts to the world and where his most beautiful verses were created.

Nasreen Anjum Bhatti spoke mostly about the musical content in the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif and said that he had confined himself to 30 ragas. But it is generally acknowledged that the music and the word in Shah Latif’s poetry are so entwined with each other that it has no parallel in any of the lyrical poetry, both classical and modern, during the last two thousand years. This is the opinion of Dr HT Sorley, author of Shah of the Bhit. He belonged to the Indian Civil Service and is a known Latif scholar.

Somewhere around 1720, Shah Latif wrote many poems and set them to music himself. These were sung by the musicians among his young followers.

Ghulam Qasim Kausar said that the Shah’s poetry has all the elements that go to make a major poet. He has the understanding of the complexities of human problems and his views reflect wide sympathy for the downtrodden. Kausar added that Shah Latif could well be considered the first natural poet of Sindh. In fact, in it lives the soul of his land. It is for this reason that his songs have assumed folk status. Even the Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, wrote in a letter: “Every thousand years is born a man in whom the soul of an entire people comes to expression. Such a man was Valmiki in (ancient) India, Homer in Greece, Virgil in Rome, Dante in Italy, Goethe in Germany and Tolstoy in Russia. And such a man was also Shah Abdul Latif in Sindh.”

MUSTANSAR Husain Tarar may be better known as a travelogue writer but he has also written some prize winning novels, and short stories, TV plays and newspaper columns. If I am not mistaken, he has over 30 published works so far. But the latest book that he has produced, and which he claims is a novel, is much shorter than the previous ones. In fact, I consider it more of a documentary than a novel. Titled Qila Jangi, it is an indictment of those who claim to be the champions of human rights, justice and fair play. In the so-called war against terrorism, what the Americans and their allies have done to the innocent people of Afghanistan has been brought out in this book in rather gruesome detail. With cries of pain on every page and using the live character of the American Abdul Hamid John Walker, the book begins with the story of those who had laid down their arms following the cruel bombings in Afghanistan and were brought to the fort (Qila Jangi) near Mazar Sharif on the promise of freedom but were massacred in cold blood.

The story goes on to describe the struggle for survival of those who managed to escape the indiscriminate firing within the four walls of the fort and how they managed to remain alive for some time in an underground cell. With wounds all over their body, and without access to water or food, they hear the neighing of a horse probably standing among the corpses strewn in the courtyard above. They somehow manage to bring it down to their cell so that it could be slaughtered and eaten. But then the question arises as to who would slaughter it. John Walker refuses flatly. “I love ponies,” he says, “it reminds me of my own back home.” He prefers to die of hunger.

All the 216 pages of the book have to be read to be appreciated. Mustansar deserves credit for being able to portray so graphically the mental attitude and psychology of a people devoted to a sacred cause and their behaviour while awaiting sure death.

A friend who borrowed the book to read it, suggested while returning it that it should be translated into English so that the so-called civilized Western world knows what atrocities were committed in Afghanistan.

P.S: I have just received a call from Dr Agha Suhail, informing me that the most regular visitor of the Pak Tea House, the veteran poet Asrar Zaidi, has passed away. And it is no news either, as I am told he passed away three days ago. Surprisingly, there was not a line about him in the newspapers. — Ashfaque Naqvi