Of Osirak & Samson options — Pakistan and Israel: DATELINE NEW YORK

IN the op-ed piece ‘The Osirak Option’, Nicholas D. Kristoff, a columnist for the New York Times, concludes that in the backdrop of the pre-emptive strike doctrine, bandied about by the Bush administration, to thwart the enemies of the United States, particularly the states sponsoring terrorism, it would stand to reason to invade Pakistan.

“After all, if it’s appropriate to carry out preemptive strikes on countries that sponsor terrorism and secretly develop nuclear weapons, then we could launch an invasion today — of Pakistan”, writes Kristoff.

The article is ominous in so far it justifies Israel’s decision to take out Baghdad’s nuclear power plant at Osirak in 1981 in a preemptive strike which was condemned by world leaders, including the US.

“Even the Reagan administration, normally sympathetic to Israel, chose to ‘condemn” the attack; France declared it “unacceptable”; Britain denounced it as “a grave breach of international law.” A New York Times editorial began: “Israel’s sneak attack on a French-built nuclear reactor near Baghdad was an act of inexcusable and short-sighted aggression.”

In retrospect, the condemnations were completely wrong. (Looking back at yellowed newspaper databases, I see that one of the few people who got it right at the time was my colleague William Safire.)

“Thank God that Menachem Begin overrode his own intelligence agency, which worried that the attack would affect the peace process with Egypt, and ordered the reactor destroyed. Otherwise Iraq would have gained nuclear weapons in the 1980s, it might now have a province called Kuwait and a chunk of Iran, and the region might have suffered nuclear devastation”, writes Kristoff.

Whenever the pro-Israeli lobbyists and writers make a case about the thereat of nuclear war, they conveniently ignore the massive yet clandestine Israeli nuclear programme. Israel by many accounts has over 200 nuclear warheads.

In his book The Samson Option author Seymour Hersh has documented how Israel became a secret nuclear power during the cold-war with the help of the US. “It also tells how that secret was shared sanction and at times, wilfully ignored by the top political and military officials of the US since the Eisenhower years” (author’s note).

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war when Tel-Aviv feared losing the war, it literally blackmailed the US in acquiring sensitive satellite information on the positioning of the Egyptian army. This information provided by the Nixon administration ultimately was used to defeat the Egyptian juggernaut. So what was the Israeli threat? You give us information or we will nuke Moscow and other Arab capitals.

In Hersh’s opinion, the Israeli nuclear programme could not have existed without the continuous aid of the US. He also writes about the political climate between the US and Israel, and Israeli willingness to use any and every threat to browbeat the Americans and use the information to threaten the world. The Samson option is simple: “If we go down, we will take you with us.”

At a time when the US is ready to go to war with Iraq to rid it of Saddam Hussein, who is deemed a threat to the peace and stability in the region, Israel is getting ready to push the Palestinian out of the West Bank and Gaza once for all. It’s homicidal Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, backed by the hawks, has said so in so many words and recently by encouraging the Jewish settlers to build settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands with American subsidies. Israel on its part pays scant attention to American warnings on building such settlements in the occupied land which it has been asked to vacate through several UN Security Council resolutions. It is confident, and rightly so, that its powerful lobby in Washington can take care of the lawmakers on the Capitol Hill if they utter a word against Israel.

When in 1991 the then US president George Bush senior threatened to cut off American aid of almost $10 million a day to the Jewish nation if it allowed building of settlements with American money, he was dubbed “anti-Semite” by the Likud party’s hawks. Some experts say that this statement, coupled with bad economy in the country, cost Mr Bush the elections in 1991.

So perhaps with the eye on the 2004 election the junior Mr Bush is doing Israel’s bidding by ensuring a regime change in Baghdad even if it takes billions of taxpayer dollars and putting the American lives in the harms way.

His eye is on the bigger prize in the year 2004 which could also mean complete US domination of the world. That is his option!

HATE GROUPS: While the US is pressuring Pakistan to cut off funds to several militant organizations which are funding terror campaigns in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir — recently during the visit of US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil —- it has ignored the activities of fascist Indian hate groups operating in the US under the cover of India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) and are collecting funds with a vision to create a pure Hindu state by cleansing it of Muslims, Christians, and its own Dalits.

An investigative report is available on the Internet. It uncovers the evidence on how American corporate funds are being used to promote the project of Hindu right groups in India. A quote from the report equates the Hindutva movement with ‘the “Nazi idea’:

“The Hindutva movement is a violent sectarian movement seeking to create a Hindu Rashtra (an ethnically ‘pure’ Hindu nation) in India, in many ways similar to the Nazi idea of a pure Aryan Germany. It seeks to exclude or eliminate religious minorities such as Muslims and Christians and fix Dalits and Adivasis into an internal hierarchy of caste”.

The following are some of the findings of the report:

Purpose: Hindutva, the Hindu supremacist ideology that has undergirded much of the communal violence in India over the last several decades, has seen tremendous growth outside India over the last two decades. This report focuses on one US-based organization — the India Development and Relief Fund — which has systematically funded Hindutva operations in India.

“The Foreign Exchange of Hate” establishes that the IDRF is not a secular and non-sectarian organization as it claims to be, but is a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India

Methodology: This report is a product of a careful study and analysis of more than 150 pieces of documentary evidence, almost three-quarters of which are those published by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (henceforth, RSS or Sangh) and its affiliates, either in printed form or electronically.

These documents are diverse in nature, including forms of incorporation and tax documents filed by the IDRF with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US, articles in Sangh Sandesh, the newsletter of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and occasional reports published by different Sangh organizations in India and the US.

The IDRF operates in the US under the rules governing tax-exempt charitable organizations. These rules prohibit such organizations from participating in political activity of the kind that involves funnelling money overseas to violent sectarian groups.

Further, the report provides evidence to argue that the IDRF claim of being a non-sectarian organization that funds development and relief operations in India is disingenuous at best, and that this claim is strategically designed to insert the IDRF into the cultural milieu and goodwill of the Indian diaspora as the ‘charity of choice.’ The main points of this study are:

The Hindutva movement is a violent sectarian movement seeking to create a Hindu Rashtra (an ethnically ‘pure’ Hindu nation) in India, in many ways similar to the Nazi idea of a pure Aryan Germany. It seeks to exclude or eliminate religious minorities such as Muslims and Christians and fix Dalits and Adivasis into an internal hierarchy of caste.

Organization: The RSS is the core organization of the Hindutva movement, and it operates through hundreds of front organizations in both India and the US.

From documents submitted to the US federal government in 1989 as part of its application for tax-exempt status, it is clear that from its very moment of inception, the IDRF’s goal was to support the Sangh in India. That it supports Sangh organizations in India is thus not a matter of accident but is instead the very purpose for its existence.

Summary: The purpose of this report is to document the links between the IDRF and a certain violent and sectarian Hindu supremacist organizations in India. Since its inception, the IDRF’s links with Sangh organizations in India have grown dramatically. Of the organizations in India that it lists as “sister organizations”, an overwhelming number are clearly part of the Sangh’s family of organizations.

The IDRF’s leadership in the US has well-established links with the Hindutva movement both in India and in the US. Officials of the IDRF in India are also openly part of the Sangh.

Hindutva organizations in the US do extensive publicity and fund-raising for the IDRF. They openly acknowledge it as a part of the Sangh. Of the funds that the IDRF transfers to India, almost two-thirds go to organizations that can be identified as RSS organizations. About half of the remaining funds go to organizations that can be identified as sectarian Hindu organizations. In other words, less than 20 per cent of the funds sent to India by the IDRF go to organizations that are not openly non-sectarian and/or affiliated with the Sangh.

Over 50 per cent of the funds disbursed by the IDRF are sent to Sangh- related organizations whose primary work is religious ‘conversion’ and ‘Hinduization’ in poor and remote tribal and rural areas of India.

Another sixth is given to Hindu religious organizations for purely religious use. Only about a fifth of the funds go for disaster relief and welfare-most of it because the donors specifically designated it so.

However, there is considerable documentation indicating that even the relief and welfare organizations that the IDRF funds use the money in a sectarian way.

This report should be an eye-opener for the Bush administration, besides banning the extremists Pakistani groups from collecting funds here and abroad, it should not turn a blind eye to the Indian hate groups who are using the cover of the IDRF for ethnic cleansing of the country. What happened in Bosnia Herzegovina should not be allowed to be repeated in the subcontinent.

Doctors, BoGs face-off worsens: DATELINE FAISALABAD

THE induction of local industrialists in the board of governors (BoGs) of the Allied and DHQ hospitals attached to the Punjab Medical College could not win the hearts of the doctors, teachers and para-medical staff. Rather, it appears that there is a confrontation brewing between the BoGs members and the hospital hierarchy causing problems for the patients.

The Punjab government has created an impression that the government functionaries in the hospitals and teaching institutions lacked administrative skill and are incapable of making any improvement and delivering appreciable services to the needy people.

The government move is believed to be aimed at reducing its financial burden and meeting the escalating costs of medicines, electricity, gas and petroleum. It is trying to convince the doctors and teachers that the industrialists were inducted in BoGs to make these institutions financially viable, welfare-oriented and well equipped.

However, these assurances, are making no impression on its critics. They say that under the garb of upgradation and improvement wealthy people lacking the necessary knowledge and administrative background have been made their bosses. They also charge the BoGs with misbehaving with them. Therefore, they are not ready to allow semi-literate people to rule over them.

The recent clash between the police and students and teachers outside the GC University during the protest against the BoGs is not only an eye-opener but also a point to ponder for the government. The registration of cases under MPO 16 against the protesters is not the solution to this important issue. The government would have to pay attention to resolve the issue according to the “wishes” of both sides.

The opponents of BoGs are of the view that it is an era of professionals and if the government is sincere in its efforts to revolutionize the government institutions in consonance with modern-day requirements, the task should be assigned to professionals, while the industrialists should generously provide funds and financial assistance to achieve the goal.

According to a senior bureaucrat, governor Khalid Maqbool, who claims to be a champion of “public-private partnership” had in fact planned to do away with the government control from health and educational institutions by handing them over to industrialists immediately after taking over the affairs of the Punjab. “He held meetings with noted industrialists, exporters, traders, and office-bearers of chambers of commerce and industry and then came out with the idea of BoGs”, he said.

Mr Maqbool had appealed to the entrepreneurs, especially “Chiniot Sheikh Biradri” to take charge of government-controlled schools, colleges, hospitals and other medical institutions instead of establishing new ones. He also emphasized upon them to make these institutions modern and self-sufficient in financial matters.

In addition to doctors and students organizations, lawyers and other professionals also seem to be joining the campaign against the privatization of the health and educational institutions. The negative tactics of the government like sacking, suspension and transfer of doctors could not stop them from protesting.

Contrary to the governor claim, they pointed out, the administration was directly responsible for the escalation in fees, abolition of concessions, elimination of vacancies for teachers in the colleges, unnecessary interference in educational institutions and other anti-education policies being adopted by the BoG.

They pointed out that the service rules proposed by the BoGs were also against the fundamental rights and a cause of tension and resentment among the teaching community. Giving the rights of sale and purchase of property and other assets of the educational institutions to the BoGs amounted to doling out the national assets to the businessmen, which would not be tolerated by the teachers and students.

They said that the issue of BoG was not a personal issue of the doctors, who were fighting for the poor and needy patients deprived of medical and health facilities. The government controlled health and educational institutions were being “leased out” to industrialists just to get handsome commissions from them by underhand means, they added.

They alleged that not even a single package of incentives or relief had so far been provided or planned by the BoGs of all the hospitals of the province. However, token fee for the poor outdoor patients and other levies had been enhanced by 50 to 100 per cent without any justification, which was a “credit” of the BoGs.

However, the BoGs of the Allied and DHQ Hospitals have come out with a detailed plan they claim they are pursuing sincerely and diligently since taking over the affairs of the two hospitals and the teaching institute.

Giving details to the mediamen the other day, the Chairman, Madina Group of Industries, Mian Muhammad Hanif; Chairman, Ibrahim Group of Industries, Sheikh Ibrahim; Chairman, Chenab Group of Companies, Mian Muhammad Latif and Chief Executive, Sitara Group of Industries, Mian Jawed Iqbal, said that in their capacity as members of BoGs they had accepted the portfolios on the condition that they would not allow any interference in the administration and eradication of large scale corruption rampant for the last so many years. They said that they had not objected to private practice by doctors employed in these hospitals nor had they forwarded any such proposal. All that they wanted was that the doctors employed in these hospitals on huge salaries discharged their duties honestly and regularly so that the patients coming to those hospitals got full attention from them so that their complaints about the doctors are redressed.

They reiterated that the condition of building of the Allied Hospital constructed with billions of rupees of Japanese aid was extremely poor. The hospital was a golden egg-laying hen for the doctors as out of the annual budget of Rs 290 million, Rs 250 million were spent on meeting the salaries of doctors and staff, while about Rs 20 million were spent on annual bills of electricity, gas and water. Thus a meagre amount of Rs 10 million was left for treatment of patients and supply of medicines. The precarious condition of treatment and provision of medicines to poor patients coming from far-flung areas could be imagined. Since the last three months of assumption of portfolios of the BoGs, Rs20 million had been spent by them from their own resources on renovation and modernization of the emergency ward of the Allied Hospital. Repair and reconstruction of washrooms and kitchens of all the four storeys had also been started at a further estimated expenditure of Rs 10 million.

They said that the work on renovation and upgradation of all washrooms, operation theatres, plastic surgery units, X-ray machines, air-condition system and skin and liver treatment units had been taken up on a top priority basis.

In reply to a question, they said that out of the 120 rooms of the hospital, 10 to 12 rooms only were booked due to the morbid tendency of private practice by the doctors. The private wards of both the DHQ and Allied Hospitals would be made serviceable so as to make them income-earning.

The condition of rooms of hostels for boy and girl students of the Punjab Medical College coming from all over the province was awfully deplorable. There were no reception rooms for visitors or students. Most of the residences of the PMC staff had either been occupied by unconcerned people or rented out by original allottees to superfluous people.

They declared their firm resolve to improve and modernize the two hospitals with government as well as their private resources, and to curb the corrupt elements.

Jamal Rind: writer of keen observation

THE death of Jamal Rind on Tuesday, has deprived Sindhi literature of a style-setter, a progressive and expressive fiction writer. The man who not only preached progressive thought but also practised it through his writings and participation. His departure will be long mourned.

Jamal, born in a farmer family of a remote village, Mohammed Khan Rind near Jhol in Sanghar district, on June 19, 1937, had little opportunity of good education. After early schooling in his village and a Master’s degree from Sindh University, he joined government service, first as a teacher, followed by the post of production manager in Sindh Text Book Board, secretary of Sindh Adabi Board, principal of the prestigious Hyderabad Public School and finally manager of the DRIP, an institution of irrigation water management.

He was a man of unique character, who witnessed human sufferings since childhood, but developed a taste for writing when he came to Hyderabad for further education and developed contacts with writers mostly those from the progressive movement in mid-1950s. Sindhi Adabi Sangat, the pioneer organization of the progressive writers in post-Independence era which included Dr Tanvir Abbasi, Dr Najm Abbasi, Ibrahim Joyo, Ghulam Rabbani Agro, Imdad Hussaini and many others, played a great role in not only bringing newer themes to the literature but also creating political awareness among the people.

By that time, Sindhi literature had undergone radical changes in theme, perception and contents. The writers and poets had shunned subjective expressionism and adopted objective and social realism. The diction of Sindhi literature that had already been liberated from alien influences, achieved new dimensions owing to the intellectual resistance to feudal and tribal society. More importantly, the political and economic repression that had been inflicted on Sindh through One Unit, made all the difference.

This was the darkest era for Sindh and it were the Sindhi writers, poets and intellectual who spearheaded the movement for the restoration of the rights of Sindh. This brought newer themes to Sindhi literature — short story, poetry and commentaries.

Jamal Rind, with a peasant background, was a keen witness to this and had suffered the agonies of a deprived class. He began as a short story writer and depicted the affects of an oppressive society through the characters he had been with. A regular visitor to Sindhi Adabi Sangat, he was acquainted with the modern trends of writing in the other developed languages and that became his guiding point. He knew what to say and how to say, and regardless of the repressive laws of authoritarian rule of the time he was successful in communicating what he wanted to. He chose his characters from the grim and depressed faces around him and illustrated their afflictions through his writings. He wrote a number of short stories portraying what his observations allowed him. His stories were published in all prestigious literary magazines and he was immediately acclaimed by contemporary giants like Dr Najm Abbasi, Amar Jaleel, Tariq Ashraf and Nasim Kharal, etc. Among his many stories, Maani jo Gabho and Ko Sooraj bare eendaseen were termed as a very moving pieces.

His first collection of stories a Pathar te leeko, followed by Raat ji raani and Rooh rehan which he compiled himself and are valuable contributions to modern Sindhi short story.

Sublime and humane by nature, a keen student of literature and an artist by nature, Jamal had all regard for human values. Always ready to lend a helping hand to the needy and instrumental in guiding the young generation, Rind has left an indelible mark on modern Sindhi literature in almost all walks of life.

‘We are not the enemy’: HRW report on hate crimes: SITUATIONER

IN the wake of Sept 11 attacks, anti-Muslim hate crimes in the US rose to 1700 per cent in 2001, though public officials tried hard to contain these, according to the Human Rights Watch report released on Nov 14.

The 41-page report, We Are Not the Enemy, draws on research with police, prosecutors, community activists, and victims of hate crimes in Seattle, Washington, Dearborn, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and New York, to review steps taken by government officials to prevent and prosecute hate crimes after the Sept 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

The report also examines the scope and extent of these hate crimes, which included murder, assault, arson, and vandalism.

“Government officials didn’t sit on their hands while Muslims and Arabs were attacked after Sept 11 attacks,” said Amardeep Singh, author of the report and US programme researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But law-enforcement and other government agencies should have been better prepared for this kind of onslaught.”

After Sept 11 attacks, prominent officials at all levels of government, beginning with President George W. Bush, condemned “backlash” violence. In the report, Human Rights Watch documents the actions that accompanied the public commitment to protect vulnerable groups. The key practices reviewed are backlash planning, police deployment, bias crime tracking, prosecution and outreach to Arab and Muslim communities.

Violence increased dramatically against Arabs and Muslims after Sept 11 attacks. The US federal government reported a 1700-fold increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes, from “28” in 2000 to “481” in 2001. Muslim and Arab organizations received over 2,000 reports of harassment, violence and other acts. Chicago and Los Angeles County both experienced a 1500-fold rise in anti-Arab hate crimes during 2001.

Backlash violence against Arabs and Muslims in the US is not unprecedented. As chronicled in the report, war in the Middle East or terrorism against the US associated with Arabs or Muslims triggered domestic spasms of bias violence many times in the past. Given the predictability of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence, Human Rights Watch argues that law-enforcement and government officials should have been better prepared to combat it.

The report lauds official condemnation of hate crimes after Sept 11 attacks as an important aspect of a public strategy to reduce bias violence. However, the US government contradicted its anti-prejudice message by directing its anti-terrorism efforts, including secret immigration detention and FBI interviews of thousands of non-citizens, at Arabs and Muslims.

“Since Sept 11 attacks, a pall of suspicion has been cast over Arabs and Muslims in the United States,” said Singh. “Public officials can help reduce bias violence against them by ensuring that the ‘war against terrorism’ is focused on criminal behaviour rather than whole communities.”

Arabs and Muslims and those perceived to be Arab or Muslim, such as Sikhs and South Asians, became victims of a severe wave of backlash violence. The hate crimes included murder, beatings, arson, attacks on mosques and hostels, shootings, vehicular assaults and verbal threats. This violence was directed at people solely because they shared or were perceived as sharing the national background or religion of the hijackers and Al Qaeda members deemed responsible for attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The FBI reported a 1700-fold increase in anti-Muslim crimes nationwide during 2001. In Los Angeles County and Chicago, officials reported 1500-fold increase in the number of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim crimes in 2001 compared to the preceding year.

In many cases, government officials responded quickly and vigorously to the backlash violence. President George W. Bush and numerous state and city officials publicly condemned anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes. In addition, state and local government across the nation undertook a series of steps seeking to contain acts of violence and bring perpetrators to justice.

Nevertheless, aspects of the US government’s anti-terrorism campaign, the detention of 1200 mostly Middle Eastern and South Asians because of possible links to terrorism, the effort to question over 5,000 young Middle Eastern men, and the decision to fingerprint visitors from certain Middle Eastern and Muslim countries reinforced a public perception that Arab and Muslim communities as a whole were suspect and linked to the “enemy” in the US war against terrorism.

The HRW documents the nature of backlash violence and the local, state, and federal government responses to it. Drawing on research in large cities, HRW identified public practices used to protect individuals and communities from hate crimes. The report focuses particularly on four areas of response: police deployment, prosecutions, bias crime monitoring, and outreach to affected communities.

HRW research demonstrates that action in advance of potential outbreaks of hate crimes can help mitigate the harm to individuals and property from backlash crimes. The success in combating backlash violence in Dearborn, Michigan, for example, where only two violent Sept 11-related assaults occurred in a city with 30,000 Arab-Americans, reflected steps taken by local and state officials long before Sept 11.

In particular, the Dearborn police had already identified high-risk communities and were ready to deploy officers where needed within hours of the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon; pre-existing relationships between community leaders and officials facilitated communications.

In cities such as Los Angeles and New York, where police departments did not have strong pre-existing relationships with Arab and Muslims, police quickly deployed officers in vulnerable areas once backlash incidents began.

Although various systems existed to track bias crimes in the US, flaws in those systems limited complete and accurate reporting of the nature and extent of backlash violence. The effective allocation of public resources to prevent and respond to hate crimes requires better, complete, accurate and timely monitoring of such crime.

None of the cities researched developed backlash mitigation plans. Yet recent US history, as described in this report, had clearly shown that backlash violence usually followed acts of terrorism attributed to Arabs or Muslims. The HRW believes that federal, state and local government should develop plans to prevent and mitigate backlash violence.

Ultimately, prevention of anti-Arab violence will require an ongoing national commitment to tolerance, respect for multicultural diversity, and recognition that “guilt by association” has no place in the US. In the meantime, public officials face the challenge and the responsibility under US and international law of combating backlash violence undertaken by private individuals.

The Sept 11 backlash against Arabs and Muslims is part of a larger, longstanding problem of hate crimes in the US. Over the past 10 years, the Rodney King beating, the 1993 Yusef Hawkins racial murder in Bensonhurst, New York, the 1993 shooting spree on the Long Island Railroad, the summer of 1996 African American church burnings, the 1998 murder of James Byrd, and the 1999 murder of Matthew Shepard have strengthened calls in the US for increased attention to violent bigotry and crimes motivated by bias against distinctive communities identified by race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

While the focus of this report is on violence against Arabs and Muslims, the strengths and weaknesses of official responses to the Sept 11 backlash reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the official response to all hate crimes.

Waiting for a ray of hope: SOCIAL THEMES

WE are now halfway through the holy month of Ramazan. We are through with the elections, the results, and the process of transfer of power has also been initiated some 40 days after the polls. In a way, the uncertainty, the analysis, the argument, the anxiety are all sliding downhill? So, now what is the mood of the city? What are the people saying of their expectations. What are their varied dreams, like with reference to the democratic process that has begun to unfold? Do they have any dream at all? But let us not hint at any form of cynicism or skepticism.

At this point one is distracted by a news report in this newspaper dated Nov 19, which said: “MNAs unhappy over the lack of facilities at parliament lodges.” Even before you go into the story you inevitably should wonder why at all the MNAs are unhappy even before they have begun work. Even before they have been able to try and work according to the agenda they have set for themselves? Are they going to follow the manifestos which they have pledged themselves to? Or they going to change policy, status midstream? Horse-trading is now official and so proper?

The news report further says: “the newly-elected MNAs, irked by foul-smelling emanating from their suites, have filed complaints with the lodges’ deputy-director to change the entire interior of their rooms.” One does not need to comment on this as it speaks well for itself. Just bear in mind that the poor of the country, whose number has been growing, live only in that kind of smelly context; often with no roof, no walls, no water, no interior. Their decor is abject poverty, their interior is reflected by the torment and torture they undergo in a society where the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.

And finally a group of MNAs from Karachi said that “in Karachi at present the temperature is about 37 degrees centigrade, but suddenly to live under 10 degrees centigrade and that too without blankets is a painful experience”.

Painful living and experience: that is what the common man is focusing on all the time and with elections having been held and a government assuming charge, the hope is when will the never- ending painful experiences in his life come to an end? When will, for instance, the host of problems relating to and arising from the sky-rocketing prices and crippling unemployment and an absence of good governance and visible ostentatious living at the top come to an end? When will things change really?

Take into account all that happened in the city during the last week while the process of the transfer of power was unfolding itself in Islamabad. Take into account all the news stories of the week and contemplate when and how soon will democracy change the canvas of confusion and even chaos and crime and corruption, that appear to characterise our lives.

One does not need to underline the many details. They are too well-known. The car-theft and hijacking just refuse to decline, the traffic jams aggravate the condition of traffic flow, the price rises defy all controls in Ramazan, the crime pattern is turning still more perplexing, and economic woes and lows, the water shortages that test your patience and ruin your nerves, the power failures that reflect poor management and lack of anticipation. The list is long and the experience of jotting it all down so painful. There are problems — political, ethnic, sectarian, and so on — in their nature; and as we also know we have lived with such embarrassing themes as “no-go areas”. How do we explain to the children of today what are the “no-go areas” if we ever bother about what the little ones think or will think tomorrow of what we leave behind.

Ideally speaking, why should there be in this lovely city (there is that side to Karachi or why else would everyone in the country want to live here for good) something as a no-go area? Why should there be such feelings that create these areas.

Turn away from this theme, but leave it with the good thought that a democratic dispensation will change all this. Even though there is something that is cynical, and pessimistic in the aftermath of the polls and the fact that over 60 per cent of the people have not voted in the country, there is some hope. Even though there is something that the citizens describe as lacklustre about the way that power is being transferred to a civilian scheme and even though all the speechmaking and the rhetoric have been obsessed with themes that have been beyond the comprehension and appreciation of the man on the street, there is still a ray of hope?

However, the citizens whom I have spoken to during the week have observed, with some degree of sadness, that all the leaders who dominated the media scene during the last 40 days reflected in varying degrees the impatience with which they sought power. That there was grossly inadequate importance attached to the problem-sharing of the common man, there was so much talk of many aspects of power-transfer and that had no apparent bearing on the lives of the people. “I don’t understand all this talk of the LFO,” said one housewife plainly, wondering why there was no mention of a real life scenario.

Let me take note of a news story which said that “average citizen uninspired by the new PM”. He may not be inspired. But he surely is a curious and interested citizen, said one Karachiite who does see light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel may be unusually long; but waiting can be a way of life, at times, which is another way of suggesting that nothing is going to change for the time being. So simply wait.

A saintly vocalist

THE contribution made by the Punjab to the refinement of mainstream sub-continental music has been very significant, especially during the second half of the 19th century, when a large number of accomplished classical vocalists and instrumentalists attached with the royal court in Delhi, migrated to the Punjab. Since then, Lahore has remained a centre of classical music.

The influx of musicians into Punjab was caused by the frightening consequences of internecine fighting among members of the royal family, each one of whom tried to usurp political power in Delhi. In such in environment of hostility, a majority of royal musicians tried to move to other places, where they could practise the delicate art of music in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. Another reason causing the exodus from Delhi was the employment opportunities then available in the courts of several princely states in the Punjab like Patiala, Kapurthala and Nabha, whose rulers were known for their proclivity in appreciating quality music.

In the Punjab, another city, which has made name for its contribution to music is Kasur. Situated some 23 miles south-west of Lahore, it has over the centuries produced a large number of luminaries, whose contribution to classical music have been ungrudgingly acknowledged by both connoisseurs as well as professionals throughout South Asia. A majority of these artistes, after completing their training in Kasur, shifted to Lahore.

Within the Walled City of Lahore, the incoming musicians were concentrated in the historic Haveli Mian Khan. From that place they carried on with their pursuits for the rest of their lives. Among other musicians, who came to live in Lahore were classical vocalists Ustad Ali Bakhsh Khan and his brother Ustad Kaley Khan (and his nephew Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan), Nur Jehan and Sarangi player Ustad Ghulam Muhammad Kasuri.

A majority of these musicians was not interested in acquiring wealth and was not even slightly concerned about earning manipulated fame as seems to be the case with the present generation of professional musicians. These gifted musicians were completely dedicated to the art and lived a life of ascetic simplicity. That is why the votaries of classical music treated them with genuine reverence.

An inheritor of rich musical legacy, the Kasur-born Ustad Kaley Khan, who came to live in Lahore at the beginning of the 20th century, belonged to the Kalaunt clan of musicians, whose ancestors migrated the sub-continent along with Afghan warriors. They settled in Kasur, which had by then become a centre of music, as a large number of practioners of this performing art, after the dissipation of Muslim political power, looked for safety in other cities where they could practise their art without any fear of disruption.

During his teens, Kaley Khan was sent to Patiala by his father to serve a period of apprenticeship under Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, one of the founders of the Patiala gharana. There he underwent vigorous training for several years under the watchful eyes of his mentor, who unfolded the mysteries of the art of music to the budding young singer, turning him into a competent exponent of the kheyal style of the Patiala strand within a few years.

Dark complexioned, with large black eyes, sporting large moustaches and having a protruding belly, the burly Kaley Khan looked more like a wrestler than a classical vocalist. He had a powerful, full-thwarted voice, which he used in producing forceful taans (breezy passages). Reticent to the extent of self abnegations, Kaley Khan acquired a saintly ambience, which made many of his fans to believe that he had been blessed with superhuman powers. Those votaries of classical music, who knew Kaley Khan intimately, believed that his reticence was the consequence of a curse his mentor Fateh Ali Khan had inflicted on him, when unwittingly during the course of a concert, Kaley Khan challenged the virtuosity of his ustad. After that incident, he did not talk much and often sank into long period of silence.

The saintly Kaley Khan became so proficient in the rendition of kheyals that he started rubbing shoulders with his senior contemporaries. His versatility, rich, full-thwarted voice and impressive singing style imbibed from his mentor Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, was colourful. His taiyari (speed and agility) and control over drut (super-fast tempo) taans impressed his listeners. His renditions were characterized by majesty, melody lyricism, and quick, sprightly taans, which cast hypnotic spells on his enlightened audiences.

Strange were the manners and ways of his daily training sessions. Carrying his worldly belongings, including a small quantity of mustard oil, roasted mutton and a cake of soap, Kaley Khan went to a municipal garden outside Taxali Gate, where he indulged in athletic exercises for several hours. At the same time, he fine-tuned his full-throated taans. That remained a daily routine with him for as long as he was physically fit. He used to say that singing was more exerting than dand-baithank. That was why with the strength of a powerful voice he entranced his audiences without the help of an amplifier, which was a rare thing in those days.—Saeed Malik