New situation, new questions

Islamabad: On the face of it, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's exit looks like a tame end of a prime minister who had lost the confidence of both his party and the all-powerful president very early in the day. But if one went over the happenings of the last over one year and particularly the last 37 days of his disrupted tenure, one could see clearly that Mr Jamali had fought all the way up to the last minute.

Only 24 hours before stepping down, he had made it clear to his tormentors, and publicly too, that he had no intention of resigning when he said in response to media queries that neither has he resigned nor has anybody asked him to do so. He was clearly challenging the establishment to vote him out. He perhaps knew very well that with Humayun Akhtar in the run for his job he could defeat such a vote hands down with the help of the opposition which he had already solicited with behind-the-scene personal requests to all the opposition parliamentary leaders.

It was perhaps very late in the day that the establishment realized that in Humayun Akhtar they were backing a wrong horse - even the Chaudhry brothers were seen returning to Mr Jamali's side in order to protect their fiefdom from being stormed by another Punjabi who was more than a match for them in matters of money. So, they decided to take a calculated risk and turned to Chauhdry Shujaat Hussain, the party chief himself, for help.

But again a vote against a Balochi prime minister in a house dominated by the Punjab in order to bring in a Punjabi prime minister had also perhaps looked loaded with political repercussions.

So, Mr Jamali was finally called in by the president and asked to resign. What transpired between him and the president on Saturday over lunch, only the two would know. But the pressure at the lunch must have been unbearable enough for a man who had suffered with fortitude all kinds of indignities all these months to give in seemingly without a whimper.

Mr Jamali was picked up by the establishment for the prime minister's slot after the October 2002 elections because he had no political clout of his own. And being a man from a smaller province, he was also acceptable to the Chaudhry brothers who had no intention of sharing the Punjab province with a Punjabi prime minister.

This is the kind of person the establishment was looking for to replace Mr Jamali. It had perhaps never ever thought of making Chaudhry Shujaat even a stop-gap prime minister as he had by now become politically the most powerful man in the country after the president. He now had at his beck and call the largest political party in the country, and through his cousin, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, he also controlled the largest of Pakistan's four provinces.

In fact one more reason why the Jamali drama was allowed to linger on for such a long time was that the establishment was finding it increasingly difficult to come up with a Jamali-like consensus candidate who would not only be beholden to the establishment for his survival in the job but also be acceptable to the Chaudhry brothers.

Since such a candidate was not available and since the lingering political uncertainty was adversely affecting governance as well as the administration, the establishment seems to have swallowed the bitter pill in the hope that the calculated risk of making him a stop-gap PM would not boomerang as it still had a lot of hold over the Chaudhry brothers.

Shaukat's is a success story all the way. He left his banking career at its height to come to Pakistan in 1999. He has since managed Pakistan's economy in the best of corporate traditions and seemingly succeeded in stabilizing it for the first time in decades. So, his promotion to the post of the PM looks only logical. But in the Pakistani political context and the system that President Musharraf wants to establish in the country he is endowed with even better qualifications for the job.

Like Jamali he is also a man without a political clout. But unlike Jamali he does not even have a constituency of his own in Pakistan and also he has no potential to pose any challenge to the Chaudhry brothers as he does not have even a toe-hold in the Punjab's political arena. An ideal man for the job!

His first biggest challenge, however, would be to get elected as an MNA. And the man who is supposed to help him in this is the very man whom he is supposed to replace after getting elected. There lies the hitch. If between now and the bye-election day which normally would take three months, Shujaat were to feel that he has all that what it takes to run the government, then would he not have second thoughts about vacating the coveted slot for Mr. Aziz? And in order to ensure that he continues to remain the PM, would he not think twice before helping Shaukat to win the by-election? These are blasphemous questions. Let us not even think these thoughts and hope for the sake of the country and the nation that things would not come to such a pass.

Entering the Asean Regional Forum

Last week's visit by the prime minister of Singapore is part of a series of recent top level bilateral exchanges between Pakistan and Asean countries in the run-up to the Asean meetings in Jakarta this week from June 29 to July 2.

In Jakarta, Pakistan, together with fellow Saarc member, Bangladesh, as well as East Timor, are expected to be inducted as members of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) at the 11th ARF ministerial meeting on July 2. India, the only Saarc country so far in the 23-member ARF, had joined in 1996.

Other recent top level bilateral exchanges between Islamabad and Asean countries include the visit last month by the Sultan of Brunei; the visit in April by former prime minister Jamali to Laos (the first ever by a Pakistani leader), Cambodia and Thailand; the visit in March by the president of Vietnam, and the visit early this month by the foreign secretary of Philippines.

Apart from the mutual pledge of greater bilateral economic, political and security cooperation between Pakistan and these Asean countries, all the above visits had secured assurances from the Asean leaders of their respective countries' support to Pakistan's entry into the ARF.

The ARF, established in 1994, has become the major forum for consultation and dialogue on security, and the management and prevention of conflict in the Asia-Pacific region. It comprises the 10 Asean members (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar); the 11 Asean dialogue partners (the EU, the US, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, New Zealand, Russia and India); and Mongolia and Papua New Guinea.

The ARF is not highly institutionalized, and the ARF ministerial meeting is held annually right after the Asean Foreign Ministerial Meeting (the 37th in Jakarta this week since Asean's formation in 1967) and the Post Ministerial Conference of Asean members and its dialogue partners (which started in the mid-1970s).

Rather than taking decisive actions of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution, ARF so far prefers to limit itself to reinforcing Confidence Building Measures. The ARF has been paying close attention to the fight against transnational crime, piracy, and since 9/11, strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

It is in countering the latter that Islamabad's cooperation has become important in the ARF. According to an article last week in The Jakarta Post entitled "Pakistan is Asean's ally in war on terror" written by an official in the Indonesian foreign ministry, Pakistan's participation in the ARF is necessary in Asean's plan to suppress terrorism because of "linkages" between Southeast Asian and Pakistani terrorists. Such linkages, it is said, have been facilitated by modern transportation and communications systems.

One key evidence of this linkage, the writer notes, is the arrest in September last year by the Pakistani authorities of 13 Malaysian and six Indonesian students for suspected ties with religious extremists.

Other evidences of linkage quoted by the writer include the fact that many suspected terrorists in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Pakistan are veterans of the Afghan war of independence (although he says that, this by no means suggests that all Afghan veterans are terrorists), and that many Southeast Asian terrorists were once trained in Jihadist camps in Pakistan.

Although, he noted that the training centres of Southeast Asian terrorists had since moved from Pakistan to Mindanao in the Philippines, he said the governments of Asean as well as Pakistan had not been able to control religious extremism, which in turn had aggravated sectarian conflicts in Indonesia (Christian-Muslim) and Pakistan (Sunni-Shia).

The writer in The Jakarta Post suggested that the cooperation on terrorism between Asean and Pakistan should focus on extradition, extra-territorial investigations and intelligence cooperation, whereby for example, Indonesian police would be given access to investigate Indonesian citizens held in Pakistan on terrorist charges and vice versa.

The writer also suggested Asean-Pakistan cooperation in promoting the teaching of Jihad in the context of pluralism and tolerance (with help from civil societies and moderate Ulema from both sides), and that Asean should follow the Pakistani government's initiative of imposing a Madressah reform plan aiming at monitoring the activities of the Madressah (a plan, which the writer admitted, was difficult to implement). Such Asean-Pakistan cooperation, he concluded, could completely eradicate terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Last year's 10th ARF ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, had called for better coordination against terrorism. Asean's commitment to combat terrorism, the writer said, was reflected by three major anti-terrorism pillars, viz., the South East Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism in Kuala Lumpur, the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok, and the forthcoming Indonesia Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation.

Therefore, membership in the ARF, apart from being the first step to becoming a dialogue partner of Asean, is also significant in that it reinforces internationally Islamabad's commitment to fighting terrorism and religious extremism.

Hopefully, the closer association and cooperation between major Saarc members (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan) and Asean will also see some of the latter's economic shine rubbing off on Saarc.

Club life under the Raj

The following is the rest of an account of club life in British India from Muhammad Saeed's book, Lahore: A Memoir:

The Raj had, over two centuries, brought to this sub-continent people of diverse moralities and capabilities. A constant stream of administrators and diplomats flowed out of Haileybury house to knit together the scattered fragments of the Mughal empire into a modern masterpiece of organisational skill. Each one of them made a contribution -- in some cases outstanding -- towards the enrichment of an ordered life on the sub-continent. Though imperialists at heart, some of them were far-sighted enough to foresee the day when the last Briton would leave what was the utopia of upper classes. But even when Britain sent empire-builders to the sub-continent, some contemporaries doubted their moral excellence.

Describing the character of the British imperialism in Asia and Africa, Lord Russell lamented that "all the impulses that seem repulsive in German nationalism have found a vent. The Empire has been a cesspool for British moral refuse; Germany had no such outlet and had to endure its desposts at home." "I wanted to take service in India under the English flag", said Bismarck in his youth; then I thought, after all, what harm have the Indians done me? The self-righteous Englishman, will do well to ponder this reflection."

Notwithstanding this advice, Britain sent ruthless, capable, daring and even treacherous people who played havoc with Bengal's political morality and Oudh's wealth. Yet there was the 'Commons' at home which could impeach them and speak for those whose 'honour they had sullied'. Anyhow, whatever the Bismarckian impression, the British were lucky to know the art of empire-building. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, the inveterate foe of the British, once said: "Please, tell Jesus to keep his assess tightly-stabled. They have twitched off Adam's entire crop"!

The way they passed their days excited the envy of the ruled. A yearly ritual was the exodus to the hills. The British population left the scortching plains to seek refuge in the cool of the nearest hills. Even Fort Munro and Cherat -- the meekest among the really gorgeous stations like Simla, Ootacamund and Darjeeling -- had their quota of British escapees who having once lodged themselves on hill-tops interrupted their paradisiacal sojourn only when the monsoon had taken the sting out of the burning winds down in the plains.

They would descend upon their preserves, sweat a little in the oppressive weather under a pankha pulled by a drowsy coolie, and rush back to the clusters of tall, deodar trees. The year was almost divided in two: one half for the plains, the other half for the hills, the Indian staff following the trail, up and down only to serve their masters.

Beneath this Olympian calm, storms of various ferocity and dimension were brewing within the Empire and outside it. The decade that started with the Congress resolution at Lahore and Iqbal's address at Allahabad turned out to be a decade of intense turmoil. Sir Percival Griffith summing up the situation said that "mass civil disobedience, orgies of communal rioting, an intensive campaign of terrorism combined to make 1930-31 a year of disorder without parallel since the Mutiny".

It was destined to be so. Initially, the end of alien rule was sought through armed encounters. But when the British superiority of arms and strategy was established the passion for freedom started flowing into the alternative channel of moderate politics which suited the democratic temperament of the British race, and allowed a longer and peaceful lease of life to the Raj.

This period, interspersed with occasional spurts of violence, can be divided into three decisive stages: first, a general awakening, slow yet steady; second, restiveness, impetuous at times yet undying; third, the final clash, hurried and confused yet decisive. The stirrings continued for two centuries on the eastern fringe of the Indian Empire and for less than a century on the Western edge.

For, the British came to my village in the Punjab when my grandfather was a lad of 9 and left when my father was and old man of 69. Yet the occupant of the Viceregal Lodge on the calm, quiet and cool peak of a Simla hill viewed things characteriscally in a different light. Talking to a British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge, at a party on May 6, 1935 Lord Wellingdon said: "You know people say this country's difficult to govern, actually it's not, you know.

I find it perfectly easy to get on with these fellows. I've found it the easiest country in the world to govern". Muggeridge writes: 'In all the circumstances a pretty extraordinary statement, but I let it pass.' "I believe in Providence", Wellingdon went on. "But for that I'd never have been able to carry on".

"A grey old fellow, full of egotism, but with a kind of charm, not in the least pompous, absolute ruler over some hundreds of millions of Indians, and a believer in Providence. Alas, Poor Viceroy". Alas, of course. The 'Natives', on the whole, thought what Prof. Arnold Toynbee has expressed in another context and which can, with a little variation, be borrowed to round off this chapter.

Says the great historian: " The spell of well-being which the British were enjoying at that time had dazzled a majority of them into the quaint pharisaical notion that they were 'not as other men are'; they had come to believe that their society was exempt from the possibility of falling into those mistakes and mishaps that have been the ruin of certain other civilizations whose history, from beginning to end, is an open book'.

This open book contained a lesson that Aurangzeb wanted his sons, a lackadaisical brood, to learn in state-craft -- that a king should not trust even his own shadow. The British inherited this motto from the Mughals alongwith a worn-out throne and a brilliant revenue system and clung to it as long as the preservation of the Indian Empire remained possible. Not only was His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad, on exhibiting some initiatives, reminded by Lord Reading that 'paramountacy is always paramount'. But a streak of suspicion -- euphemistically called vigil -- ran through their management of foreign relations.

In fact, British diplomacy in India was aimed at warding off three successive threats: First, Napoleonic, the second, Czarist and lastly, the Nazi -- whose massive shadows were seen, at different junctures of history, creeping towards the Indian frontier.

In 1815, Napoleon was finished. The Czar's shadow was seen looming large on the north-western horizon. The Communist upheaval, a century later, laid the Czarist ghost. Within two decades Hitler was seen spreading his tantacles, a pointed finger groping visibly towards the Indian sub-continent. But Hitler was destined to share his rise with Napoleon and fall with the Czar. The empire, anyhow, was not to survive the third victory.

Old age, if generous, watches new trends with only a faint disapproval; if pertinacious, with utter disgust. Queen Victoria, however, writing to the Archbishop on December 21, 1891 about the engagement of her 'dear grandson Albert Victor to Princess Victoria Mary', expressed the generous hope that 'the young people will set an example of a steady, quiet life which, alas, is not the fashion in these days".

Despite this hope the world proved out of joint for the British.

In fact, all imperial history is divided into three phases: the glow of daybreak, noon, and sundown. The 'Builders' of the Empire having long vanished, the 'Guardians' were progressively fading away when the people of my generation opened their eyes. For us the Montgomery Hall glistened only in the twilight of the Raj.

British dominance lay so heavy upon the people that some found psychological relief in secretly imagining a reversal of the situation. Of course, nobody could depict it better than the one who had some District experience. The most audacious among them was Masud Khaddarposh, the author of the famous Hari report. One of his delightful articles, "When India ruled Britain", depicts the elders of a British village competing among themselves for favours and titles in the durbar of an Indian Sahib Bahadur staying in imperial glory and pomp in a countryside dak-bungalow!

On a different level, the same idea was stated in 1930's by a petty vandor in tobacco in the streets of Kohat. One day during a anti-British demonstration he shouted: "Inquilab Zindabad" (Long live revolution). Taking him to be an illiterate, old tramp, a British police officer caught hold of him and asked him rather amusingly: "Well, what do you understand by inquilab (revolution)"?

The old man who was carrying a dirty haversack on his back replied: 'Sahib, inquilab means that I should wear your uniform and strut about the city streets with a cane in hand and you should wear my clothes and carry this tobacco bag and roam over one dirty locality after another and return home in the evening with only three annas in your pocket".

The officer was much alarmed at this interpretation of the slogan and pushed the old man into the police-van.

The spirit of the time made Maulana Zafar Ali Khan reproduce this conversation in the column he wrote in the Zamindar as Naqqash.

During my appointment in the General Headquarters and earlier at colleges, I had come into direct contact with many British officers and teachers. After a brief but sharp brushing up with one of our tutors at the Trade Testing School, Delhi, I had an extremely pleasant time with them.

As I saw them, the British were a fascinating people during the war: they were determined, suave, jolly and generous in promises. This time, they had come to possess an added charm: they were manifestly conscious of the fact that the setting had changed and they were the last generation of the British in India.!

City jitters

A deadly May has gone and an uncomfortable June is coming to a close, but life in Karachi remains a tense affair. The man on the street never really gave much credence to the theory of sectarian violence, and the recent murder of PPP's Munawwar Suharwardy has apparently made many a soul feel confident enough to say that there is more to it than what we are made to believe.

Rumours of some kind of security operation in the metropolis have only added to the worries, with people often found wondering if the state wants to celebrate the tenth anniversary of that highly debatable operation of the mid-90s.

So uncertain are things that a delay of just two days in Governor Ishratul Ibad's return from London was enough to send tongues wagging. I-told-you-so was writ large on the faces of political pundits of whom there is no shortage in this age of round-the-clock television.

While the return of the governor has calmed down frayed nerves, there is still no dearth of Doubting Thomases who are trying - not without a hint of justification - to read much in his phone call to President Pervez Musharraf, his meeting with Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, and the court decision to postpone the scheduled by-elections in the city.

The charter of demands and the accompanying three-month ultimatum recently announced by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has only confirmed that its rivalry with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal cannot be wished away. That being so, Karachi will remain under a cloud till at least the ultimatum lasts, when the citizens would know whether to lower their guard or get ready for something worse.

Airport blues

The renaming of Karachi Airport from Quaid-i-Azam International Airport to Jinnah International Airport has changed nothing at the terminal itself. While grand plans were made when it was inaugurated, there is very little to show by way of any progress made in improving the complex.

The much promised vegetation, which included planting trees and developing green areas, is not there. The standard of shops at the terminal is poor and the only development there is that the authorities have merely changed the route that passengers take after clearing immigration so that they are forced to pass by these sub-standard enterprises.

People smoke freely despite the ban on smoking and its repeated announcements. Due to the security situation in the city, the airport is flooded with grim-looking gunmen who ogle at passing females. The quality of food served is poor and the decor at various points of the building is garish - with plastic plants covered with layers of dust adorning various points. The noise level is high in the public areas, and the television sets add to it. No-one can hear what is being said on TV and the sets should be removed.

Doctors in power

With the appointment of Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim as chief minister of Sindh, both the top slots in the provincial set-up are occupied by men with formal training in medicine.

The governor and the chief minister are not the only doctors who command influence in the province. A very important player is Dr Farooq Sattar, a graduate of the Sindh Medical College, Karachi. Then there is also Dr Imran Farooq who until very recently was convener of an important wing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

However, despite the presence of so many doctors in the provincial corridors of power, the state of affairs obtaining in the public-sector healthcare centres remains poor. And to be sure, nobody is expecting that the services provided at these facilities will see a marked improvement any time soon.

Dr Ishratul Ibad's love for his alma mater - the Dow Medical College - is well known. That is perhaps the only reason why the college was upgraded and given the status of a university. But the fact remains that the hospital it is attached to, the Civil Hospital, still lags behind some of the privately-managed healthcare centres of the city when it comes to quality care. The hospital's maintenance and the indifference that confronts those go there needs no re-telling. Will one of the doctors in power please take steps to upgrade public hospitals?

The red tape

It is sad how much time one has to waste getting even the most petty and routine matters done. A former general manager of a multinational company, leading a retired life, lives in a small apartment complex in Phase IV. Three weeks ago the manhole cover of a drain outside the main entrance of his building disappeared. The streetlight in his lane was also out of order.

The gentleman says he is not exaggerating, but it actually took him more than 25 calls and 13 days to get the cantonment board to replace the missing cover.

He says he first phoned the DHA office to lodge a complaint. It took him three calls before he was told his complaint fell in the jurisdiction of the Clifton Cantonment Board. He then rang the cantonment board.

He was told there were absolutely no manhole covers available and it wasn't certain when any would be available. He was told he could contact the executive cantonment officer if he liked. It still took him two more days and another seven calls before he finally got through to the officer who apologized for his subordinates' tardiness and said the missing manhole cover would be replaced in 24 hours.

On being congratulated on his success and perseverance, the gentleman said he was still not happy as the cover had come from some other manhole - and he knew this for sure as a sanitary employee in his lane had told him so.

email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com

Time for a break from diplomatic clichis

The Hindu newspaper carries two or three archival pieces every day under the sobriquet: "This Day That Age". Last week, it reproduced two items from its edition of June 26, 1954, of exactly 50 years vintage. The first related to ties with Pakistan, the other to China. Let us see if we can spot some difference between then and now.

The top item read thus: "Col. Nasir Ahmad Khan, Military Attache, Pakistan High Commission, has been recalled by the Pakistan Government at the instance of the Government of India."

In a letter to the Pakistan Government, the Government of India is understood to have stated that Col. Nasir Khan's presence in New Delhi was undesirable on account of his alleged 'objectionable activities'.

"The Delhi police had recently arrested three persons on a charge of collecting vital intelligence and passing on the same to the Pakistan High Commission. Rehmat Masih, one of the accused, moved the court of the Sessions Judge for his release on bail, but the application was dismissed."

The second report actually marked a landmark event in India-China ties. Even in The Hindu's placid style, there was excitement: "The Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Chou En-lai, was given an enthusiastic reception when he arrived in New Delhi on June 25.

"Diplomats and Cabinet Ministers and more than 5,000 people watched Mr Chou En-lai and Prime Minister Nehru meet each other for the first time. Conveying the greetings of the Chinese people and Government to India, Mr Chou En-lai said the 960 million people of the two countries constituted an important factor for world peace and expressed his wish for their closer friendship.

"The Chinese Premier made a brief statement to over 100 correspondents gathered at the airport. 'I feel much honoured and pleased,' he said, 'to have the opportunity of visiting this great neighbour of China. The Government and people of China attach great importance to their friendship with the Government and people of India. The peace and friendship of the 960 million people of China and India constitute an important factor in maintaining the peace of Asia and of the world.'"

So what do you suppose has changed in 50 years? Perhaps a few things have. For example, as the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan sit down on Monday for their second day of talks to cover a host of urgent issues, including the Kashmir dispute, they will have in their midst an interlocutor who was only last year declared persona non grata by the Indian government.

Jalil Abbas Jilani, the Pakistan foreign ministry's point-man for India, was deputy high commissioner in New Delhi when he was not only thrown out in February last year but also had a police case filed against him over wild allegations that he had handed a couple of hundred thousand rupees to a woman who was said to be close to the then Hurriyat Chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhatt.

None other than Lal Krishan Advani's home ministry believed the story to be true. Some Indian foreign ministry officials were not convinced either that a senior diplomat like Jilani would be involved in something so patently.

Among those who did not believe the home ministry's story are today important people in the new government: Mani Shankar Aiyer, a minister in Manmohan Singh's government, and Jyotindra Nath Dixit, the new National Security Advisor. Both are former Indian diplomats and had served in Pakistan. While Aiyer had disengaged himself from the election campaign under way then to ring up Jilani to express his shock and solidarity, Dixit, the senior of the two diplomats, had expressed his outrage personally to Jilani.

Anyhow, Jilani's return to New Delhi as a member of the recent secretary-level nuclear CBM talks is a diplomatic feat of sorts. He has happily ignored the code that says diplomats must not return to the country which has expelled them. I gather that among those who greeted him warmly on his return was Dixit, who as the NSA received the delegation.

To be fair though, it must be pointed out that Jilani's name was cleared by the previous government of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Therefore, credit must go to the sagacious folk in the old establishment who appear to have disapproved of the home ministry's action.

This marks the big difference from 1954. But how long this bonhomie will last is anybody's guess.

As for the Chou En-lai visit, its nuances deceived everyone. After the 1962 war with China, Nehru died a broken man, and the ice set in between the two countries. It took a big handshake, the historic 1988 clasp between Rajiv Gandhi, Nehru's grandson, and Deng Xiaopeng to pump some warmth into the frozen ties of over a quarter century. When Nehru met Chou En-lai neither country had gone nuclear. By 1988, one was a nuclear power and the other was on the threshold of becoming one. And that essentially marks the difference since The Hindu's report of 50 years ago.

While Chou En-lai had declared the citizens of the world's two most populous countries an important factor for peace in Asia and the rest of the world, the India-Pakistan document on nuclear CBMs gives an inkling of New Delhi's new concept of peace and stability. It now proclaims that it is the country's nuclear capabilities, and not its people, that "constitute a factor for stability". Read the text of the recent CBMs with Pakistan for a full measure of the new reality. Some things do change. For better or worse, they do.

* * * * *

Lurhkan Baba can be roughly translated as a 'rolling mystic'. So here is a bearded man in a loincloth, his knees and elbows wrapped in thick bandages, as he rolls along a busy road in Delhi. It is not clear if Lurhkan Baba has a passport and a visa for Pakistan, but according to the caption of a picture published in 'The Indian Express' on Friday, the rolling mystic plans to roll all the way to Pakistan. His mission is easier to understand: to bring peace between the two countries. Here's wishing more power to the mystic's elbow.