Highlights of the November 2007 issue

Between the Lines

Idrees Bakhtiar

Years ago, while I was interviewing General (retd) Hameed Gul in Rawalpindi, an elderly man wearing, what youngsters call, Bermuda shorts walked into the drawing room. General Gul and I were discussing the role of the chiefs of army staff in removing governments and at that particular moment, the conversation was focused on General (retd) Aslam Beg, said to be instrumental in the dismissal of BB’s first government. As the conversation moved to the role of the corps commanders and the Inter-Services Intelligence chief, the person in the Bermuda shorts made some interesting disclosures to the effect that the corps commanders did not oppose the sacking of Bhutto’s government. But that’s not the point I am making.

The elderly person, I soon learnt, was a former corps commander of Lahore, Lieutenant-General (retd) Mehsud, and a great conversationalist. The discussion moved on to the attitude of the then corps commanders, in general, and the one posted in Karachi, in particular. The latter commander had an impressive cavalcade, which escorted him from his house in Bath Island to his office, driving in the wrong direction on a one-way road with impunity for “security reasons”. Expressing indignation, Mehsud claimed that he did not resort to such measures during his tenure as the corps commander Lahore. Both Gul and I were impressed.

.
 

The war of nerves

Ayesha Siddiqa

A change of strategy, and not tactics, is required to tackle the Waziristan insurgency

In an interview to a news channel last month, General Pervez Musharraf did not mince his words when he said that the surrender of over 240 Pakistani troops in Waziristan reflected the men’s lack of professionalism. The details of that surrender illustrate the point better: apparently the officer in charge had sought help from civilians to clear a roadblock. Taliban men in reality, these ‘helpers’ were soon joined by more of their ilk and they surrounded the Pakistani troops, forcing them to surrender.

Counter-insurgency is a tough war to fight that has been made even more difficult by the easy availability of modern technology to insurgents. And undoubtedly, the local Taliban enjoy the use of heavy artillery and infantry equipment.

Emergency

The man had not changed much since his first appearance eight years ago. Perhaps the only visible difference was his attire: instead of the commando uniform, this time he was soberly clad in a black sherwani. The script had barely changed either. While eight years ago he had addressed his beloved countrymen, this time he reached out to his brothers and sisters. The promise, however, was the same — Pakistan first.

Affirming the primacy of the country’s interests, General Pervez Musharraf clamped down an emergency and suspended the Constitution and the fundamental rights of the Pakistani people for the second time in eight years. The proclamation order issued by him justified the decision on the grounds that militants and would-be suicide bombers were being released by the judiciary. This, in his opinion, was encouraging acts of terrorism in the country.


 
 

Signs of Caution

 

The military is conspicuous by its absence from the scene since November 3.

The military seems to have distanced itself from the latest adventure of its chief. While it is difficult to gauge how General Pervez Musharraf’s latest move is being viewed by the top army brass, there are signs that other generals do not want to be too closely associated with it. Already soldiers are conspicuous by their absence from the scene in the events following the November 3 proclamation of emergency. Not a single serviceman was visible on the streets of Islamabad or any provincial capital on the day of the emergency. Even the task of securing vital installations – a purely military reflex – was left to policemen.

Anatomy of A Coup

The latest provisional constitution order has been used as an instrument to weed out judges hostile to the executive

This is the first time in Pakistan’s chequered history that an incumbent president has held the Constitution in abeyance – a euphemism for abrogation – while invoking the powers of the chief of army staff. Legal experts say that the action, introduced by General Pervez Musharraf through the promulgation of a state of emergency on November 3, will not stand up to judicial examination: the Constitution allows a president but not an army chief to declare an emergency. However, that has not deterred the military’s top brass which has a habit of overthrowing elected governments. Since General Ayub Khan’s time, there have been no fewer than four military interventions. In the first three instances, the entire government was sent packing by the army.

Tainted With Red

 
November 25, 2007 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the initiation of the communist witch-hunts in the American film industry that resulted in the creation of the infamous Hollywood blacklist. By 1947, Tinseltown liberals had been in the sights of their conservative counterparts for a number of years. The onset of Cold War politics merely provided the ideal paranoid atmosphere for the persecution to take on a very direct and odious form. On the said date, the names of 10 writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which itself became notorious for its blatant prejudicial tactics. Soon after, a group of studio executives banded together and announced the dismissal of these so-called Hollywood Ten, setting the precedent for practically rendering anyone and everyone unemployable who was suspected of ‘subversive’ behaviour or thought. As the blacklist grew, scores of artists – writers, directors, musicians and performers – in and beyond Hollywood had their livelihoods taken away, all on the merest suggestion of guilt. Most were barred from work for refusing to ‘name names’ before the HUAC — others were targeted simply because of their liberal leanings or even their involvement in the humanitarian causes that the Right perceived as being tainted with red.

 

Text & Photography by Salman Rashid
 

Q. You recently announced your decision to quit making music videos…

A. Even two years back I had said that I’ll quit but I never got around to doing it. But now I am really tired. However, this is not to say that I won’t accept any new projects. I’ll do maybe one or two in a year but not more. I exited once before in 1997, when I did the “Khudi” video that flopped. Ironically my second exit comes after exactly 10 years.