Qazi steals Jamali’s show: VIEW FROM PARLIAMENT

ON Monday it became quite apparent that in the days ahead the combined opposition in the National Assembly, rather than the ruling alliance would be running the House. Despite its depletion in numbers from around 160 originally to perhaps less than 140 on Monday when prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali received the vote of confidence by polling 188 votes, it was the opposition which dictated the proceedings of the House. Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain still appears to be out his depth which makes the job of the opposition that much easier.

Despite their Herculean efforts at horse-trading of an extremely blatant kind, Tariq Aziz and Gen Ihtasham could mobilize only 16 additional votes for the prime minister today. Let me hasten to add here that neither the prime minister nor the Chaudhries of Gujrat who seemingly hold the whip hand in the House have anything to do with this horse-trading. The politicians, that is the entire lot, seem to have become victims of the shenanigans of an unholy civil-military bureaucracy combine in this respect.

It is only sympathy that one feels for the ruling alliance and its leaders. In fact, when the prime minister was speaking after the vote to thank his supporters and invite the opposition to join hands with him to take the country on the road to progress and prosperity, he sounded as if he was completely oblivious of how and from where he managed to obtain the additional 16 votes. That he even did not understand what one meant by horse-trading was apparent when he confused horse-trading with horse riding which he said he gave up after he had fallen from a horse and broken some bones in his early youth.

He was so oblivious of even his own importance that came his way with the confidence vote that instead of talking about his vision and his programmes in speech of acceptance, he got stuck into a grove and kept attacking Aitzaz, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif (without taking their names) and the two parties of which at one time or the other he himself was a member. He was clearly defensive in his speech and sounded as if he was still concerned about the fate of his government. His was more of a sermon directed perhaps towards himself rather than a speech of a leader of an elected House.

He appeared to have been unnecessarily provoked by something Aitzaz had said in passing and in a lighter vein while responding to a long drawn harangue by Dr Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, PPP’s member from Mianwali justifying his decision to vote for Jamali. Aitzaz was at his devastating best today.

He brought the house down when he said how December had always been a bad month for the Niazis, alluding indirectly to the surrender of Gen Niazi on Dec 16, 1971 at Dhaka. He lambasted the military government for indulging in blatant horse-trading and warned the Jamali government what was being used to destroy the opposition today would be used against it as well in due course of time.

Dr Afgan sounded simply pathetic when he tried to justify his decision to become a turncoat. He went on and on in pin drop silence as he kept finding no quarter of escape even in his own arguments. And finally he made an abrupt attack on the President and then in the buzz that it provoked he found the strength to confess that he would vote for Jamali today. Since he appeared first on the national political scene in the 1985 non-party parliament Sher Afgan has maintained a posture of being a man of very high integrity.

He has been known to speak out his mind, no matter what the risks. His letter to Benazir Bhutto which appeared in the press on Sunday, if nothing else, had listed the questions that have been agitating the minds of the Pakistan People’s Party sympathisers and the party workers over the last two months. He even accused Nahid Khan and Safdar Abbasi of messing up with the Party as well as making money by selling party tickets to wrong persons. Many in the party have been known to share these sentiments about the couple but they do not dare talk about it public.

Sher Afgan broke this barrier as well and earned the respect of many. But then in the House on Monday, when he said he was going to vote for Jamali, these were not the arguments that he used to justify his decision instead he said that he was doing it to strengthen democracy. One did not expect this kind of intellectual dishonesty from a man like Sher Afgan and that was perhaps why he was not convincing enough when justifying his rebellion.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the parliamentary leader of the MMA was the star of Monday’s proceedings. He made an inspiring speech while congratulating Jamali on his winning the confidence vote. He talked about horse-trading, the President’s uniform, the Legal Framework Order (LFO), the FBI’s intrusions, sovereignty and Islamization. He made it clear that he for one would not sit in the House if the Speaker in his ruling which he has kept reserved on the LFO recognized it as a part of the Constitution.

The session started late by over an hour. The pandemonium that followed as soon as the recitation from Quran was over was beyond the capacity of the speaker to control. Everybody wanted to speak on a point of order. When the Speaker found that there was no way he could escape the pressure of the opposition, he let MMA’s Liaquat Baloch to take the floor who impressed upon the Speaker that things would not go the way he wanted if he did not let the members speak in the House. And then spoke Sher Afgan. By this time the Speaker had become restless and seemed as if he wanted to get on with the business of the day quickly.

This led him to commit a faux pas as he asked, as soon as the members reassembled after Zohar prayers, the staff of the House to ring the bells forgetting completely that a resolution to the effect (for confidence vote) has to be moved before the bells are rung. This provided an opportunity to Aitzaz and Naveed Qamar to force the Speaker to a trade off as a result of which Chaudhry Amir Hussain allowed Aitzaz to respond to the haragnue of Sher Afgan in his own inimitable style.

Continued fallout of the anti-terror campaign: DATELINE ISLAMABAD

THE country was rocked by three terror attacks between Dec 21 and Dec 25. The first was a bomb explosion in a bus in Hyderabad that killed one man and injured eight others. The next on Dec 24 was a bomb blast at the crowded Pirwadhai Bus Terminal in Rawalpindi that injured 10 people.

The third attack on Dec 25 was the deadliest: it targeted a local church in Chianwali in central Punjab, killing three girls on the spot and injuring 16 people, one of whom died the next day in a hospital.

On Dec 19, just two days before this latest spate of terror attacks began, American security agents and local security forces had picked up Dr Ahmed Javed Khawaja and eight of his family members in Lahore for questioning with regard to their alleged links with Al Qaeda.

A previous spate of terror attacks that occurred in the country in October also coincided with the arrest of a surgeon in Lahore.

On Oct 16, three parcel bombs went off in Karachi in the offices of the DIG Operations and the home department injuring eight police officials. On Oct 20, a bomb exploded at a Sunday bazaar in Kamra Cantonment, killing a little girl and injuring 20 others. On Oct 24, a bomb went off at College Road in Rawalpindi injuring seven people and damaging several cars.

On Oct 21, American security agents and local security forces had picked up Dr Amir Aziz in Lahore for questioning with regard to his purported links with Al Qaeda. He was released about a month later.

Similarly, over a year ago on Oct 28, 2001, five gunmen opened fire on a church in Bahawalpur killing 16 worshippers; five days earlier on Oct 23, security authorities had picked up two nuclear scientists, Dr Bashiruddin Mahmood (former chief of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission) and Dr Abdul Majid (a former chief engineer), for questioning regarding suspected contacts with leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime.

Pakistan has been vulnerable to terror attacks long before Sept 11, particularly since Islamabad’s involvement in the Afghan war in the 1980s and its support to the Kashmir movement began. Such attacks continued into the new century with bomb blasts taking place within the country during 2000 and 2001 (prior to Sept 11).

On Sept 19, 2000, a bomb exploded in a “sabzi mandi” in Islamabad killing 16 people and wounding tens of others, and a few weeks later, another blast took place in Rawalpindi injuring 17 people. On May 31, 2001, a powerful blast at Pirwadhai bus terminal in Rawalpindi left 15 injured and destroyed many vehicles.

The terror attacks in Pakistan renewed after Sept 11 when Islamabad decided to actively join American effort to unseat the Taliban regime in Kabul in particular and the international war against terrorism in general.

Islamabad’s policies in neighbouring countries have often had negative fallout in Pakistan. The only difference in the terror attacks now is that the targets are mostly westerners and the local Christian community — there have been 10 such attacks on westerners and the local Christian community beginning Oct 28, 2001 with attack on a church in Bahawalpur to Dec 25 attack on a church in Chianwali.

If Islamabad cannot avoid pursuing policies in neighbouring countries that have negative fallout in Pakistan, the least it could do is to ensure that it has a comprehensive counter- terrorism policy that can cushion its people and other citizens living here from the kind of violent fallout that has occurred in the past year.

Islamabad should have learnt from past experience in handling terrorism and produced a credible counter-terrorism mechanism by now. However, despite talk about police reforms and increased cooperation with western security agencies, it is unclear what steps exactly Islamabad has taken to enhance security in the country since Sept 11, apart from cordoning off the diplomatic enclave in the capital and stepping up security measures in major hotels and foreign institutions by installing metal detectors.

What has been done to counter possible terrorism against local targets, both Muslim and Christian? It is disheartening to note in a Dawn report on Sunday that the security arrangements put in place earlier in one of the weekly open markets in Islamabad, viz., metal detector and physical frisking of people entering the cordoned-off bazaar area, have been taken off.

Granted all states are vulnerable to terrorism to some extent and it is quite impossible to guard against the range of soft targets in Pakistan which include embassies, international establishments, churches, crowded open market places and bus terminals. One terrorism expert has called this “asymmetrical warfare”.

But a country like Pakistan can minimize the chances of successful attacks through an effective counter-terrorism policy. As another security expert has pointed out, it is weak governments and weak intelligence that make a country or region an attractive staging ground for terrorist operations.

The key to an effective counter-terrorism policy is vigilant security services. Very strong security services with a good intelligence network provides the best defence against terrorism.

Occasional reports of recovery of explosive material and other ammunition by the local security forces in different parts of Pakistan indicate that the latter are on the alert: on the same day of the bomb blast at the Pirwadhai bus terminal in Rawalpindi last week, some grenades and other ammunition were recovered by the police from an open area in neighbouring Islamabad and a day earlier, it was reported that 250 kilograms of “foreign-made, powerful, high quality” explosives were seized by the police from a passenger bus in Bannu.

But the number of terror attacks that have taken place in Pakistan over the past one year is a reflection that vigilance is still badly wanting.

An efficient and uncorrupt front line, i.e., customs and immigration officials, is also a valuable asset in counter- terrorism, particularly for a country like Pakistan which shares long land borders with several countries. This aspect of counter- terrorism is something that Islamabad needs to work harder at too.

When countries all over the world are tightening their immigration rules to thwart terrorism , why should Pakistan not do the same with regards to entry into the country of those who can possibly pose a threat to the country ?

A third aspect of a sound counter-terrorism policy is the political will to pin down the local people and organizations actually involved in acts of terrorism and follow through the investigation of the network involved. Succumbing to political pressure to slow down and reduce the scope and intensity of the investigations will not do at all.

In the light of the recent spate of terror attacks in the country, Islamabad certainly needs to consider revising its counter-terrorism policy, take more preventive measures and boost its intelligence by improving communication between the various security agencies. But a distinction also needs to be made between helping America in countering international terrorism and that of countering terrorism within Pakistan.

Islamabad too ‘polluted’ with literature at last!

While people may be impatiently waiting for the joint sitting of the new National Assembly and the would be Senate to be held in Islamabad, what was described as a “joint sitting” of the “parliament” of the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, was organized at the Pakistan Academy of Letters when the two Halqas jointly arranged their last meeting for this year on Saturday.

The parliamentary analogy - some may think - may have been merely drawn to catch the reader’s attention. But the sentimental and the fiery speeches delivered at the function to celebrate the publication of a collection of writings read and evaluated in the Rawalpindi Halqa meetings during the years 2000-02 by its secretary Abid Sayal, created an aura of a well-attended assembly session with every thing put before the house in evaluating the more than sixty years history of the Halqa; sentimentally describing the zealousness with which they seemed to have served it, and even protesting, as it were, against the “intrigues” and the “dhandli” at some of the Halqa elections (only, what may be described in parliamentary journalese, with no “pandemonium”, however). Some members even recalled a situation in Lahore Halqa many years ago when from among the five who were present, none of them accepted the “presidentship” of the meeting and the old waiter of the hotel, where the Halqa meeting used to be held, presided over the function! Some of the members against whom “charges” were levelled replied in a parliamentary spirit, as if on a point of information or privilege, to clear their position. One of the senior-most members of the Halqa, poet Zia Jullundhuri, who presided over the function, in his nostalgic address spoke about his association with the Halqa of more than sixty years. He spoke of its various branches in Karachi, Delhi, Srinagar, and even in London, and elsewhere; and spoke of the great names that were associated with it.

He talked of the way his English literature professors at his Government College would encourage students to attend these meetings to develop interest in literature. Tracing the history of the organization he spoke of the thirties and forties of the last century when Urdu literature was undergoing, what he described, a revolutionary change. He spoke of the publication of the famous collection of short stories Angarey, which was also much-criticized. Zia Jullundhuri mentioned the establishment of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) and Anjuman-i-Dastaan Goyaan, which some thought, was created to counter the PWA. He said the Dastaan Goyaan had nothing to do any kind of reaction, because none of those associated with the Anjuman-i-Dastaan Goyaan knew about the PWA. However, the Anjuman later grew into Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq.

He spoke of its early founders, including Hafeez Hoshyarpuri, Tabish Siddiqi, Sher Mohammad Akhtar, Naseer Ahmed and others. Soon Qayyum Nazar, Yusuf Zafar and Meeraji also joined it. He also spoke of people like Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabbusum, Mumtaz Hasan and Altaf Gauhar who were associated with it. The organization, he said, never accepted anything from the government or any other body, and explained that once Mumtaz Hasan, who was finance secretary and a man of letters himself got a provision of Rs20,000 made for it in the budget which was so resented by the members that the proposal was dropped.

According to Zia Sahab, Halqa did not believe in pursuing any particular direction in literature. So long as the creation met the required standards, it is discussed and debated on literary grounds. The “harsh” conventions of the Halqa sometimes led the young writers to tear out their papers in front of the audience and led some others to cry. And so the “legislators” of criticism (Dr Wazir Agha, someone at the meeting said, once called, as “legislative criticism” the exercise of criticism being carried out at these meetings) evaluated, for one, their own performance.

They also discussed literary organizations of writers that were either formed at “government’s behest” or took grants from governments; and also men of “literature” who came in their official capacity; and Halqa members felt proud of being independent of all “patronage”.

Masood Mufti, one of the senior members of the organization while reminiscing about his association with Halqa, also had a “lover’s quarrel” with its members for not fighting for the right of the writers to struggle for the copyright and to get paid for their writings, a point which did not seem to be of significance to some members. And yet a number of them recounted the manner in which writers are fleeced by the publishers.

Short-story writer Mansha Yaad spoke of his passion to develop the Islamabad Halqa, and of the days when he used to bring writers from their homes for attending the Halqa meetings.

Prof Akbar Hameedi in his written paper also dealt with the development of Halqa, the “dhandli” done in some previous elections and the role some journalists played in projecting the activities of the Halqa.

According to short story writer Hameed Shahid Halqa was like a cradle (Gehwara), and Gehwara also sometimes meant the engraved wooden bed on which the dead body is taken to the graveyard. According to him, any one who came to this cradle of literature, and could hold on to it successfully he found the Halqa like the lap of the mother.

Asghar Abid, secretary of the Islamabad Halqa, spoke of its achievement and thanked the guests, and the joint secretary, Khaleequr Rehman spoke of the Halqa meetings and his passion for the organization. Abid Sayal, the secretary of the Pindi Halqa gave an introduction to his collection. A number of “stakeholders” including Rashid Nisar, Akhtar Usman, Rukhsana Saulat, Iqbal Afaqi, Rafiq Sandelvi and Anjum Khaleeque also spoke on the occasion.

And in sum, Islamabad, a city where, proverbially, politics in one form or the other seems to be the be-all and the end-all of your life, where your grade determines your worth as a human being, where the sector you live in indicates your station in life, seems at last, what Ibn-i-Insha, the great humorous writer and poet would say, is now being “polluted with literature”.—Mufti Jamiluddin Ahmad

New Year’s parties

A close look at the arrangements for various New Year’s parties shows that the city is fast approaching decadence, not to mention a descent into pure indulgence. Caterers are working overtime to meet the deadline set for the New Year’s Eve, a time when the gates of hedonism will be flung open to the followers of caution thrown to the winds. The New Year’s Eve is all set to accommodate lavish parties arranged on a scale which would put the funds of the international donor agencies to shame.

Elaborate dance floors are assembled; expensive psychedelic lights are specially flown in from London, Singapore, Hong Kong or wherever the party-holders have contacts and, of course, for the exceedingly ultra elite sparkling drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) served with caviar have already been arranged on the buffet tables more as a mark of status than any culinary preference for such hors doeuvres.

This, dear readers, is the city’s other face. A face which has no resemblance to the pollution-packed, misery-infected and poverty-ridden physiognomy of a city teeming with millions of people living below sustenance.

Even though it is very difficult to penetrate through the ranks of those elite who are spending millions of rupees to welcome the arrival of the New Year, more than reliable sources have revealed that they are spending an estimated amount of Rs6 to 8 million on parties. The expenses are not inclusive of the outlandish outfits being worn by the begums and sahibs. In one residential area, the basement of a sprawling two-kanal villa is renovated to set up an elaborate floor for dancing. The swimming pool area of the villa is converted to serve as an all-night bar for guests who are flowing from different parts of the country to attend this exclusive New Year’s bash. The same reliable sources have also informed that professional dancers have been hired from Central Asia to keep the party mood from deviating. That happens to be a description of just one of the parties. It is believed that at least 15 others of similar standing can be expected in the city.

These seemingly quiet houses from the outside are going to have the strictest of security to disallow chances of an unwelcome party-crash. I am one of the hundred guests invited to a New Year’s party. Usually, I hate going to such competitively catty bashes. But I can’t give Mrs A the satisfaction of not attending this one, declares Mrs B, whose life is one long list of parties full of enjoyment. The other pock-marked face of the city is not anticipating the New Year with any enthusiasm. If anything, the grief-stricken masses’ concerns are not how to celebrate it but how to meet the future expenses. A vast majority simply sees the coming year as a continuation of endless worries slowly wearing away life’s calendar.

The difference in the lifestyles of people is certainly not a sudden discovery neither is it a shocking revelation. What needs to be underlined here is the brazen show of affluence by people whose politics and practice have corroded the country, placing it permanently on the global list of poverty. Another factor to be considered seriously is the subsidization of the government provided to these followers of hedonism.—SBK