Jialas live up to their reputation
SOME political analysts label the Pakistan Peoples party as a group representing a blend of multi-class and multi-ethnic Pakistani society. Its diehard workers, commonly known as ‘jialas’, are infamous for creating rowdy scenes and disrupting proceedings of their party functions. The last week’s PPP workers’ convention here was no exception.
The moot was organized by the party’s Multan city organization at the residence of PPP’s kissan wing leader Riaz Preharr. Acting secretary-general of the party Raza Rabbani, its Punjab president Qasim Zia, provincial secretary-general Rana Aftab Ahmed and information secretary Naveed Chaudhry were the chief guests.
As the moot opened, the jialas created a scene. To a large extent however, they had some valid complaints against the leadership whom they generally described as ‘ticket-holders’. Workers were of the view that they had always been used as a means to run agitation campaigns against the opposition. But, all their sacrifices had been ignored when the party came into power.
For the last five years, they had been hearing about the introduction of party’s ‘new manifesto’ but, so far, it had not surfaced. “It seems the new manifesto is like preparing a map of Kahuta plant”, an angry worker, Malik Basheer, remarked during his speech.
Peoples Youth Organization (PYO) leader Ilyas Khan said the workers had been disappointed because the leadership had abandoned the party manifesto of ‘roti, kapra aur makan’. Others said the party had gone to five star hotels from streets. “The party will have to win support of the street people to regain its lost popularity,” they asserted.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Raza Rabbani said the PPP had not deviated from its old party manifesto, but the political and economic realities of the present day had also to be kept in mind.
He said the civil and military bureaucracy and conservative forces had always pitted against the liberal progressive leadership. These forces had initiated the ugly game of accountability process to victimize the PPP leadership for keeping it on the defensive.
He alleged even the Musharraf government had ruthlessly used the National Accountability Bureau to achieve its goals, but to no avail.
Mr Rabbani claimed that the PPP leadership had never struck clandestine deals with any ruler. “The PPP is not like a bunch of like-minded politicians or the sons of general Ziaul Haq and general Akhtar Abdul Rehman.” He vowed the present rulers would not be allowed to postpone general elections in the garb of ‘Afghan crisis’, as was done by Ziaul Haq during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He admitted that PPP could not translate its manifesto into reality in letter and spirit, but one should keep in mind that the establishment had never allowed the party to work independently and instead tried always to destabilize its governments. He alleged the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, in league with the country’s conservative forces had sponsored a no-confidence move against the Benazir government.
The tussle between the civil and military bureaucracy on the question that who would have the decision-making powers was started with the creation of the country, he said. “It was this tug-of-war which led to the dissolution of the first constituent assembly and pre-mature formation of assemblies in the post-Zia period”, he said.
When Rabbani started his address there were only a few people left among the audience as many had left the venue during the hooliganism of the party workers, while several others, especially those who came from rural areas, also deserted the place as the proceedings continued late in the night.
WHILE there are rumours about Benazir Bhutto’s possible return to the country, PPP’s former deputy secretary-general and Multan zila Nazim Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi is reportedly propagating a different agenda among the local ranks of the party.
Sources in the PPP gave out that the zila Nazim had recently held a meeting of leaders and workers of party’s Multan chapter at the district council hall to evolve a strategy for the proposed general elections under the Musharraf regime. He was quoted as convincing the party cadre that BB’s return was not in sight and, even if she returned, her acquittal from references pending in various courts and forums would take several years.
Sources further quoted Qureshi as questioning in a dramatic voice: “would the people of Pakistan force landing of Benazir Bhutto like the Iranian people did to Khomeini,” and then himself replied, “under the given circumstances it is not likely.”
The Nazim spelt out the only possible way to safe return of PPP’s chairperson Benazir Bhutto. He proposed the party should participate in the general elections without BB and the workers should work hard to help party win maximum number of seats in parliament so that with a clear-cut majority the party could undo the disqualification of BB from active politics.
The story behind this smiling face
IT was 4am. A few minutes ago, Uzma had just seen her eight years old daughter, Azeema leave Karachi airport, in the care of the American pilot of the aircraft, Robert Ing. As she stepped inside her car, the emptiness inside her just overwhelmed her, she cried as she had not had the luxury to cry for a long time. Her past years rolled in front of her eyes like a film...
It was Valentine’s day, February 14, 1993, when this bundle of joy came into her world. The delivery had taken place in the Aziz Nursing home, at Bani, Rawalpindi.
Life plays strange tricks on you without any warning. Nothing I>— Shireen Gheb Najib
A teacher turned short story writer
IT was not like what one sees during a function in a five-star hotel where the aroma rising from the dishes laid out behind the chairs prevents the audience from listening attentively to what is being poured into the microphone.
This was a purely literary function with people gathered to welcome the latest collection of short stories, Hikayat-i-Junoon, by Dr Attiya Syed. The spacious auditorium of the Quaid-i-Azam Library was packed to capacity. I saw many latecomers entering, looking around for a vacant chair, and backtracking. Dr Qamar Ara also came late, carrying a bouquet as usual. Someone quickly vacated a chair for her.
Dr Attiya Syed does not need to be introduced as the daughter of Dr Syed Abdullah. She has a standing of her own. A professor of philosophy, she is now dean of the Faculty of Arts in the autonomous Lahore College for Women. She is extremely active in the literary circles, attending all relevant functions and offering her written or verbal comments. She has written four books, two each in Urdu and English, relating to her speciality. These are about Heiddeger’s concept of death, psychoanalysis and existentialism and Iqbal’s philosophical thought.
In 1987 she ‘accidentally’ wrote a short story and showed it to Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi. He gave her a pat on the back and carried the story in his prestigious journal, Funoon. Encouraged, she continued to write short stories and finally came up with a collection in 1995. She gave it the title, Shehr-i-Haul, the words culled from a devotional line by Munir Niazi. Later, she also produced a novel. The book launched last week is her second collection of 15 short stories. The function was presided over by the senior-most writer of the day, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi. Dr Waheed Qureshi was the chief guest. The proceedings were conducted by Kazy Javed who had arranged the function on behalf of the Pakistan Academy of Letters in collaboration with the Quaid-i-Azam Library.
There was a long list of speakers on the invitation card and all of them were present. Yes, Agha Suhail was missing but he did not let it be noticed as he had sent his comments on the book which were read out by one of his former students. The other speakers, Amjad Islam Amjad, Shahnaz Muzzammil, Prof Razi Abedi and Dr Khwaja Zakariya, were mercifully brief. I have never seen such a big function coming to an end so quickly.
During the course of his talk, Amjad Islam Amjad said that although Attiya had entered the field of literature rather late in life, she had taken rapid strides and made a name for herself. Dr Khwaja Zakariya pointed out that most of the 15 stories in the collection had been written in foreign locales and mostly portrayed American culture. He said the plot was straightforward and the focus was on characterization.
Dr Waheed Qureshi, too, said that the stories depicted a Western background and each revolved around a single character. However, he paid her a big tribute by saying that her stories were not padded with unnecessary words, a quality he had seen only in Manto. Although she was a professor of philosophy, he added, there was more of psychology in her stories than philosophy. This point was also stressed by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi in his concluding remarks. He said he felt proud to be the one who had introduced Attiya to the field of literature and to see her talent was being widely recognized.
THE short story writer, Shakila Rafiq, who divides her time between Karachi and Toronto, rang me up last week to say that she was in town and that she would be coming to my place to present a book. I thought it would be her fourth after Kuchh Deir Pehlay Neend Se, Khushboo ke Jazeerey, Qataar Mein Khara Admi, and the novelette, Dard Heh Apna Saathi, but when I received the book I found that it was not by her but about her. The book by Prof Afaaq Siddiqui is revealing. I had known Shakila only as a writer but this book told me so much more about her. It brought her out as a brave lady, widowed at an early age and left with children to rear, who went on to advance her educational qualifications, got a job with the PIA, and brought up her children in such an exemplary manner that they are today happily settled in Canada. In addition, the appreciation she has received for her literary work from such people as Dr Jamil Jalibi, Abul Faazal Siddiqui, Dr Anwar Sadeed, Ismet Chughtai, Hanif Fauq, and so many others, has been adequately brought out. I learnt that she also writes inshaiyas and poetry and has completed her autobiography which awaits publication. A versatile writer, indeed.
I HAVE recently seen the latest issue of the Government College, Lahore, magazine, the Ravi, consisting of some 400 pages. It is well produced and edited by two bright young editors — Shumail Arif of the English and Ali Usman Qasmi of the Urdu/Punjabi sections. But I must say, I was disappointed.
In our days, the Ravi used to be a slick monthly publication with five sections — English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi (Persian script) and Gurmukhi. Most of its contributors used to be on the college rolls with the odd man out shown as yakay az raftagan or old student. In addition, there used to be reports of college activities in it. I remember when Malik Qasim, later a top politician of the country, was selected for a commission in the Indian Navy, a congratulatory note appeared on its pages.
The basic purpose of a college magazine should be to tap the talent available on its rolls and encourage upcoming writers and poets. There is no point in running after Salimur Rahman, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Dr Wazir Agha and such other notable writes who are not even old students to fill its pages. A college magazine should remain a college magazine and not try to vie with Naqoosh or Funoon.
THIS refers to my column (Oct 27) regarding the late Prof Shohrat Bokhari. In that I had inadvertently given the name of his wife as Fehmida instead of Farkhanda. The mistake was pointed out by a reader. I thank him for that and offer my regrets.
First among unequals
IN case most people do not known — and for some reason the Pakistan press hasn’t really picked up this point and given it the prominence it deserves — America has gone ahead and passed a presidential order allowing it to set up military commissions or tribunals. Under this order, anyone who is not a US citizen but could be living in the US or elsewhere, and accused of “aiding international terrorism”, at the discretion of the US president or the US secretary of defence can be tried by a military court. Most countries in Europe or any of America’s other allies have not really responded to such an outrageous move, presumably because the times are such that the ‘anti-terror’ coalition cannot be rocked at any cost.
So in any case, the US attorney-general, John Ashcroft, came on television and tried to defend the military courts decision. He was asked whether the law meant in effect that non-US citizens would now be subject to an entirely different legal standard since the constitutional guarantees available to all US citizens would no longer be available to the former. With quite a straight face, the chief law-enforcement officer of the world’s freest democracy said that there was nothing wrong if someone who was not an American citizen, and who had been suspected of committing an act of terrorism against the United States, was not entitled to the basic foundation of justice — equal protection before the law.
Mr Ashcorft was also asked about the appeals procedure — there is none — and how that would compromise the suspect’s human rights. His answer, in quite a straightforward manner, was that the appeals process simply allowed a “convict” to get away with murder because it dragged on forever. To prevent this delay, he said, it was decided that a person tried under these new commissions would have no right of appeal except to the president or the secretary of defence.
What is most telling is that the attorney-general kept referring to a person convicted under such a tribunal as being necessarily guilty. Now you don’t need a law degree to know that this goes against the norms of justice because an appeal can result in a guilty verdict being overturned. But it there is no right of appeal, then there will be cases where people who charged on the basis of the flimsiest of evidence might be sentenced to years in jail or even death.
The new law also allows such tribunals to be set up not only inside the US but anywhere in the world, perhaps in a US navy ship stationed in international waters or even at a US base inside Afghanistan — a clear reference to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda associates.
According to a recent article in the leading dissident/alternative journal, Z magazine Michael Ratner, a human rights activist, these will be courts of “conviction” not of justice. The secretary of defence will appoint the judges, most likely to be military officers, who will decide both questions of law and fact; there will be no jury. The judges will be appointed on an ad hoc basis and will not have permanent tenure and since they will be appointed from among the military, it would be safe to say that they will not have that much independence and “every reason to favour the prosecution”. In addition to that, normal rules of evidence under US law will not apply and hearsay and evidence obtained through torture could also be admissible.
A unanimous verdict will not be required to impose the death penalty, suspects will not be able to choose lawyers on their own if they wish to, and the only appeal from a conviction will be to the US president or the secretary of defence.
Considering this, and keeping in context the mindset of most senior US officials, it would be ludicrous and quite fanciful to suggest that any one tried under such a legal system would have even a remote chance of getting a fair trial. The US, at least on the face of it, has been at pains to say that its anti-terror campaign is neither against Muslims nor against their religion or civilization (an argument that increasingly has fewer and fewer takers). However, the military tribunals order gives it all away because it’s unlikely that citizens of a Muslim, or perhaps any other, country will ever believe a verdict handed down through such a process. —OMAR R QURESHI
A vital project abandoned halfway
HYDERABAD: The project of the Staff Training Institute at Special Prison, Nara, was abandoned halfway for lack of money. The building, hidden from view, is surrounded by wild bushes and other plants. Till June 1996 Rs10.7784 million were spent on it. The institute, now a shambles, is a monument to official neglect and an example of ill-planning and sheer wastage of public money.
Thanks to these bushes that the building or its adjoining area remained safe from the land grabbers or encroachers. According to official record, the project was launched in 1988 when Mohsin Panwhar was inspector-general of prisons during the first PPP regime. It was a step in the right direction by the prison department to have its own training institute because prison officials of Sindh had to go to Lahore to do various refresher courses and training.
The training of officials in Lahore still continues, costing the provincial jail department a huge amount in the form of TA/DA and other expenses. It would be easier to train the staff in Sindh and save a huge amount by completing the institute.
“Over the years, successive governments did not take any serious notice of the appalling condition of prisons and the standard of training of jail officials. The present government also continues to ignore this important department,” says Zia Awan, who heads the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) and works for prison reforms.
HE ADDS: “There is no accountability system and proper training for jail officials”. Awan says the Nara institute has been abandoned for a long time which in itself is a gross negligence on the part of jail officials. “The LHRLA has done much work for jail reforms. Some months back we held a training course for jail officials on Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 and it is shocking that majority of them were unaware about the ordinance”, he says and claims that the meagre salary of jail officials is another factor that leads to corruption among jail employees whereas untrained officials were deputed in jails.
The non-availability of funds required for the construction of the institute has hampered its completion to date as four successive elected governments — two each of the PML and the PPP — between 1988 and 1999 did not bother to ensure the release of the required funds for this project. The jail officials still claim that they kept pleading with the government for the funds for completing the project but in vain. The institute seems to have become a thing of the past now.
“The output of any organization or service is reflected in the standard of training of its officials,” says Brig Nisar Mahar, inspector-general of prisons, to emphasize the importance of training of jail officials. “There is a lack of training of officials and we, too, want to have our officials trained at our own institute,” he says.
He maintains that officials of Sindh prisons also appear dissatisfied with the way they are given training at Lahore, which also costs the department a huge amount of money. “At present we are concentrating on the completion of our three prisons — Badin, Shikarpur and Dadu district jails — where work is going on. After these projects are completed, I would definitely take up the case of the Staff Training Institute at Nara with the government for its early completion,” he says, and adds: “The Sindh prison department is currently computerizing data which will have every detail of the persons imprisoned.”
The Sindh prison department proposed nine units of the jail department in the Multidimensional Schemes Development Programme (MDSDP) in 1988. These included construction of four watch towers in the Central Jail in Karachi; four watch towers in the Landhi Prison; construction of four barracks in the Special Prison at Nara; work at DIG Prisons office at Hyderabad; five watch towers and extension of compound wall of Mirpurkhas Jail; construction of the Staff Training Institute at Special Prison at Nara and three units of different nature in Sukkur. The total cost of these nine units was estimated at Rs17.854 million in 1988. Out of this, the cost of the Staff Training Institute was fixed at Rs11.020 million.
There are conflicting claims by jail and building department officials with regard to the expenses incurred on institute so far. Senior jail officials put it at Rs7.413 million till June 1995 whereas the building department, entrusted with the construction, claimed it to be Rs10.7784 million, out of Rs11.020 million, till June 1996. According to the building department, Rs16.217million were spent on the nine units against the approved cost of Rs17.854 million under the MDSDP.
After the MDSDP wound up, the jail department put the project of the institute in the pool of the Annual Development Programme whose part it remained till 1995-96 at serial No 288.
Building department officials claim that if funds are to be made available, they would be within their limits to spend another Rs3 million because, according to the department’s rules, it could utilize 15 per cent more money against the approved cost of the project. “The project needs another Rs1.890 million”, an official of the building department says.
The site’s visit revealed that the construction of four bungalows of the institute was completed on November 11, 1990 at the cost of Rs1,552,000. Similarly, the structure of 14 residential quarters of the institute’s officials, one office block at the cost of Rs719,780, six class rooms, and four bachelors’ barracks have also been completed. The structure of toilets and bathrooms was raised as well.
As work was stopped, some people managed to steal the frames of windows and doors from the different sections of the structure. Besides construction of the remaining portion of the institute, its renovation and furnishing would entail huge expenses, and that is the main reason why new allocations are not made.
There is another project, the district jail in Badin, which has been abandoned since 1990. Only boundary walls were constructed. The present revised cost of this project is estimated at Rs36 million whereas in 1990 its total cost was Rs24 million.
If things continue like this, the whole system of prisons will soon fall apart, to everybody’s peril, No more excuse, please!