A courageous column by an Indian journalist: VIEW FROM MARGALLA

Reproducing somebody else’s column in your own or mentioning in your columns what someone wrote in a personal letter to you about a particular column of yours is a bad practice and one should avoid it at all costs. But on occasions this becomes simply unavoidable. This is, therefore, one of those rare unavoidable occasions not because somebody is endorsing my views about the current mindset of Indian media but the man who is doing it is an Indian journalist based in Pakistan!! Here is what Murlidhar Reddy, Islamabad correspondent of The Hindu, India’s most respected and prestigious newspaper, wrote in response to one of my columns (View from Margalla — Tailpiece — Monday February 3, 2003):

“As an Indian correspondent functioning from Islamabad, Ziauddin’s thought piece provoked me into introspection. And I feel sad to realize that perhaps there is a great deal of truth in his observations. My own personal experiences particularly in the last few months have left me baffled about how much the Indian media has come to reflect the government line at least vis-a-vis-Pakistan. I could be completely wrong and I would only be too happy to be proved ignorant. Not for a moment am I getting into the merits of the government policy and approach in dealing with Islamabad. But what has intrigued me, barring rare exceptions, is the complete resonance between the government’s Pakistan policy and that of the media. The Parliament attack is a case in point. Here is an incident that occurred in the heart of New Delhi with profound consequences for the subcontinent. One wonders if the media in New Delhi has been successful in getting at the ‘bottom of the story’. I doubt if there is clarity to date about the identity of the attackers. The court case against the three accused has thrown up many questions. In the absence of anything contrary to what the investigative agencies and police have said and leaked, no doubt one cannot refute the official line. But it should not be forgotten that the agencies and police are also human and could err. They could err without any motives or for political reasons.

“The case of Iftikhar Gilani, journalist of Kashmir Times, best illustrates the point. After all, the same agencies and police had made the case against Gilani. Remember he was accused of being in possession of a document about deployment of the army in some sector! The poor fellow had to spend seven months behind the bars though it became known within a week that the so-called document was no more than a paper prepared by an Islamabad institute several years back. He is out of jail due to the ‘magnanimity’ of the establishment and not because the court ordered his release. And whatever happened to the Ansal Plaza shoot-out case?

“One can go on. There is one classic instance where again I believe the media was uncritical of the government. This was just a few weeks after the army build up and the ‘diplomatic sanctions’ imposed by India on Pakistan in December 2001. These included recall of the high commissioner and snapping of rail, road and air links. The Indian railways ministry actually wrote a letter to its Pakistani counterpart sometime in the later half of January 2002 asking about resumption of freight traffic. Much to the embarrassment of New Delhi Pakistan went public about it and said there could be no freight traffic without restoration of snapped links. When queried about it the answer of the babus in Delhi was that ‘freight traffic has not been banned’!! The media let off the babus lightly.

“The Jalil Abbas Jilani episode is another one. The leading newspaper in Delhi, which prides itself as being the market’s pulse, wrote an editorial endorsing the Delhi police version, hook, line and sinker. Ironically it is worth recalling that Mr. Jilani was the honoured quest of the President, A.P.J Abdul Kalam, at the high tea he had hosted on the occasion of Republic Day two weeks before...

“Now, some of my recent experiences. On December 14, 2002 I get a call from one of the popular television channels wanting a ‘phone-in interview’ on the order of the Lahore High Court to release the Jaish Chief, Maulana Masood Azhar. The anchor begins by a statement that “Azhar has been ordered released a day after the first anniversary of December 13”. I tried to explain that it was not the government but a court that had ordered his release and it had no connection with the December 13 anniversary. Subsequent bulletins continued in the same vein. The Pakistan government is undoubtedly guilty of promoting the Maulana and using his ranks for ‘jehad’ in Kashmir. But to establish a link where none existed is unethical if not immoral. A week later I was in for another shock from the same network. There was a church blast in the Punjab province and the western agencies had quoted the local police as saying that Jaish recruits were behind it. The anchorperson this time stumped me by asking if Jaish has stepped up attacks after the release of the Maulana. I rattled off, ‘the court has ordered the release but he is yet to be released. Government is reportedly considering a fresh case against him. So the question of Jaish stepping up attacks in the wake of release does not arise.’ The item went missing in the subsequent bulletins! Has the Indian media bought lock, stock and barrel South Block’s version of its conflict with Pakistan? The question posed by Ziauddin has not stopped ringing in my ears.”

This column was carried by India’s website magazine thehoot and forwarded to me through e-mail by Murli himself. And here is how another highly respected Indian journalist, Siddharth Varadarajan of the Times of India (Deputy Bureau Chief, Delhi) reacted to Murli’s piece: “You have written a very fine and courageous piece on thehoot.org. But I’m afraid we are battling against a brick wall. Sadly, most of our colleagues think questioning the MEA (or MHA, rather, because that’s where all Pakistan policy is being made) is anti-national!”

Going by what Murli and Siddharth feel it seems that the Indian media is collaborating with the powers that be in New Delhi to kill what appears today (in the post 9/11 world) to be a godsend opportunity to come to some kind of a peace settlement with Pakistan. The Pakistani media did the same when President Musharraf was doing everything in his power in Agra in 2001 (prior to 9/11) to throw away a chance of a lifetime to initiate a process for reaching an honourable peace accord with India. Seemingly the military-led elected government in Islamabad in collaboration with the Pakistani media and the BJP-led saffronized government in New Delhi in collaboration with the Indian media are vying with each other for total victory without realising that in the kind of conflict they are engaged in, victory comes only when you are prepared to lose. — M. Ziauddin

Rant against Valentine’s Day

An irate reader was angry at the coverage Valentine’s Day had received in the press this time. Much of his fury seemed to be directed atEnglish newspapers, as if they had committed some major sin. He accused them of “being in the forefront of publicizing Valentine’s Day” mainly because it helped earned a lot of revenue.

Hardly! Valentine’s Day related adverts would have probably been placed in English newspapers regardless whether they endorsed it or not. And, as it so happens there was no newspaper on Feb. 14 so none of the revenue that the reader mentioned could have been realized. In any case, what’s the harm in having a day meant for celebrating the joy of love?

In his complaint, the reader even quoted from a show on one of the local cable channels. “Even Mufti Munibur Rehman had no clue about Valentine’s Day when he appeared in the programme. He said Basant was un-Islamic. Basant is not a religious festival; but that is besides the point and unimportant. In a Muslim society Valentine’s Day is disgraceful to say the least. Am I sounding prudish, fundo and out of sync with the modern times. I am sure you too will hang your head (sic); no wonder our noses are being rubbed in dust and Karachi/Lahore could not produce a crowd of even ten thousand as against the ‘infidel’ countries who turned out in millions. Would you dare comment on Valentine’s Day in your notebook?” he wrote.

Well for one thing, why is a celebration of Valentine’s Day “disgraceful to say the least”? If people like the person who sent the email don’t like it they don’t have to take part in the festivities. But there’s no plausible reason to spoil it for those who want to have a bit of fun and spice in their life. As for sounding “prudish, fundo and out of sync with the modern times”, some would say the reader seems to qualify for all of these attributes.

And the fact that so few people turned out as opposed to the millions in the “infidel countries” is not because Valentine’s Day has acquired a loyal following in Pakistan. Clearly, the reasons are too complex and numerous to list right here at this time.

What is interesting is that this very angry reader had quoted an article from a website, www.ChristianSinglesDating.com to justify his tirade. Incidentally, this sounds like a website that would have very rightwing (Christian fundamentalist kind of) literature on it. Quite ironic that he should then be quoting, as he put it, the ‘infidels’, to back his fury against St. Valentine’s Day.

Several people responded to last week’s piece by a Karachi University student who had written saying that she and her friends had been forced to leave their classroom and go watch a cricket match by member’s of a student group. Quratulain Hussain of the mass communications department sent an email saying:

“With reference to a piece in the Karachi Notebook last week, I’d like to counter what I see as a one-sided view of Karachi University. While it does have more than its fair share of chaos, KU has something a great many institutions don’t possess in this age — a resolute and exceptional faculty. Here there are teachers who, in spite of boycotts called by their peers, carry on with their classes.

“Very few people outside of the university know about the brilliant standard of teaching that many determined teachers insist on maintaining. It must be kept in mind that this government university offers education to people from all socio-economic backgrounds, and all kinds of ethnicities, linguistic groups and schools of thought are represented. Unlike most other institutions, KU caters to everyone and is thus a representative of our national character. It is sad that the teachers who do their work diligently and professionally never get any notice from those outside the university while an incident or two gets widespread publicity and this ends up giving the whole institution a bad name.

“A great deal of work is being done to change things in my three years here. From students who stand up to what they believe in, to teachers who remain committed to principles despite overwhelming opposition, KU is a fine institution. Unfortunately, most people outisde don’t share this view. ”

Najia Maulai, in reference to the same piece, wrote: “I wish to tell the student who wrote the piece she should have gone to the student adviser of her department straight away. He would have put a stop to this nonsense. From the piece it seems that classes were cancelled in the whole university just because of a cricket tournament. I myself am a student in the chemistry department and some of my classmates even bunked their class because of the matches. But there was no such thing as people being forced to watch the matches. In any case, enjoy these days, because when your studies will be in full swing, you will wish those days would come again.”

A funny thing happened on the way to a Valentine’s concert. A friend described a pretty despicable incident that took place at a trendy new club near Clifton bridge.

He was invited to a special unplugged concert taking place that night featuring riff rockers extraordinaire Karavan. He was assured entry at the venue — he didn’t have any tickets — by the band themselves. However, when he got to the venue, things turned ugly.

The guy was naturally a little nervous since he didn’t have any tickets and didn’t want to seem like your average gate crasher. He tried to explain to several of the burly, mustachioed men manning the door that he had been personally invited by the band and that if he was allowed to go inside and get in touch with someone form the group his story would be proved true.

But the head of the bouncers would have none of it. Matter of fact, he was downright nasty. The fact that the poor fellow trying to get in, and his companion, were both dressed in shalwar kameez wasn’t helping either. Despite several attempts to try and talk sense to Mr Mustachio, he was not let in, and not only that, he was quite rudely told to get away from the door. “I don’t care who you are or where you’re from, get away from my establishment,” the man bellowed.

As a last resort, the now infuriated gentleman resorted to calling the band on his mobile to make them aware of the situation. Soon enough, one of the band members emerged and our chap in shalwar kameez was led in with full military honours, while Mustachio sulked in a corner. “Yaar, they weren’t letting you in since they said you looked like a couple of badmash guys in shalwar kameez,” one of the band members told the friend once they were safely inside.

The moral of the story: it doesn’t pay, at all, to wear a shalwar kameez these days.

One didn’t know that Internet cafes were the handmaidens of the Devil until one read a report in this newspaper quoting the Karachi Nazim saying that his administration’s next move would be to go after the city’s net cafe business.

According to the Nazim, the Internet cafes are tempting the city’s youth (a word that should be banned from the English language) from the right path, in other words they seem to be a huge distraction.

Of course, the major assumption in all of this is that the city’s ‘youth’ seem to have only one use for computers in Internet cafes, and that is to browse X-rated websites. The Nazim is not alone in this kind of retrogressive thinking. Many people seem to think that the Internet is good for nothing or at best that it’s use should be restricted and supervised. In fact, even our minister for science and technology seems to think that since last month he is said to issued a directive to his ministry to “block” all X-rated websites on the net, probably not knowing that it is probably impossible to do that even from a technical point of view.

It would be much better if the city government did not waste its precious, and meagre, resources on trying to crack down on Internet cafes. It can safely be said that for most people such places are of great value because they can communicate with the rest of the world, and download useful information and learn new things without having to buy a computer themselves.

And, if some users do sometimes go on websites that are more adult in content, then the world surely will not end. In many cases, it more out of curiosity that a nineteen year old will do that rather than out of any kind of addiction. After all, you can’t change the way human beings are? — By Karachian

Email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com

Towards revival of circular railway?: KARACHI FILE

ALTHOUGH experience cautions against the risk of entertaining high hopes, it appears that at long last somewhere inside the transport and communication department of the government of Sindh there is a tremor of activity. Its record being what it is, only the most hardnosed optimist would be persuaded to believe that thinking would be on correct lines, and the doing, if and when it ever follows, would be sensible and sustained.

What does impart a touch of credibility, however faint, is the mention that now they are planning the next steps in tandem with the rail transportation people of China. In this context, with the Chinese around to help, experience emboldens one to hope, and continue to hope, that the sleeping Rip Van Winkles in the Sindh secretariat will wake up and get moving. This is a good omen for the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), a service that was done to death as a design to clear the entire transport field in the whole of Pakistan for the insatiable road transport mafia.

When the KCR was started in this city during the Ayub ‘era’, no one could dare cross the dictator’s path. In no time the lines were laid and the KCR started chugging through the city. When the tram service was throttled nobody turned a hair. First, the private bus companies were let loose to squeeze the life out of the excellent public sector bus service of Karachi.

This followed the pattern in the Punjab province. The Nawab of Kalabagh was then the veritable king of West Pakistan’s defunct so-called ‘One-Unit’ government. One of his proteges was to be patronized. From that moment to this day the bus transport syndrome has moved from strength to strength. This trend had, at one stage, all but suffocated this country’s national railway system. The technique is simple: bribe and get things done the way you want. Bribe also to pervert and subvert every possible rival.

The railway was the chief rival of the road transport mafia at the country level — and also town level. The national railway set-up was bribed into working to culture its own AIDS. Where the giant Pakistan Railways could be bludgeoned into working for its own demise, the tiny KCR just could not withstand the onslaught. And one day the PR of those days, the godfather of the KCR, blithely announced the unlamented and unsung demise of what was its own offspring, and a promising asset of this city. It is important that the people of Karachi are reminded over and over again that they were deprived of their commuter lifeline by an elaborately conceived and heartlessly perpetrated conspiracy. Karachiites must now watch every move in this regard.

It appears that a beginning is being made to commence correct thinking about giving Karachi an urban transport network that every civilized city in its class has and takes for granted. Even much smaller cities like Pyongyang and Seoul have city trains. But Karachi, that had started developing its urban railway many years ago, was cheated out of it. Citizens of Karachi, beware. You never know when the heavy hands of the deep-rooted mafia may scuttle the new move, yet once again.

Now that we have elected governments from the hamlet level to the federal, one should expect people-friendly policies and programmes, worked out and implemented in a businesslike manner. In Karachi we do see evidence of some positive thinking followed by some prompt action. This is not saying that milk and honey has started flowing in the streets. But there is certainly less of gutter water in the streets. Some roads have been taken off, some road intersections are being improved, there is some talk of gardens and even public libraries.

The latest news is that the transport and communications department is, after all, up and about regarding bus stops in the city. Imagine it has taken the department so long to wake up and see that bus stops have all but disappeared and in the absence of this facility, the bus drivers are going amok with complete immunity from traffic disciplines. Buses stop and burst into top gear acceleration at the whim of the cavalier at the steering wheel.

We are told that tenders have been floated. It is some comfort to note that they are going about it with a modicum of common sense. Three categories of stops have been identified. Facilities and amenities to be provided at these stops are to be proportionate to their status. An ‘A’ category bus is to have separate waiting areas complete with toilets for ladies and gents, ‘tuck’ shops, telephone booths. The need to be taken care of for proper signs to help the waiting public and road maps relevant to the bus stop. It may be suggested in passing that telephone numbers of important services like police stations, hospitals, etc., be also provided at these bus stops.

There is already the suggestion that these projected bus stops will be developed on the BOT basis, that in the designated contractor will build and operate (for a specific period) and then transfer these facilities to the appropriate government authority or institution. Put together, all of this does make some good sense.

Let us hope we are not day-dreaming. For the moment it looks just too good to come true. But you never know. This dream may be realized. Goodness knows the citizens have suffered long enough to be given a treat of this badly needed kind.