Highlights of the August 2006 issue
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Off Centre
By Zaffar Abbas
am convinced that the more you try to get rid of the
so-called VIP culture, the more it is entrenched in the psyche of Pakistan’s
ruling classes. And when such privileges are combined with the security needs of
the VVIPs, the results are quite deadly — particularly for the ‘masses’.
I was in Karachi last month when the general and the prime minister visited the
city. Unfortunately, I was not part of either entourage, and as a result had to
suffer the consequences of being a ‘commoner’.
Between the Lines
By Idrees Bakhtiar
e was the first, and so far, also the last four-star
general of the Pakistan army with whom I ever struck up an acquaintance.
However, the connection was primarily professional. It all began when Asif Nawaz
Janjua was lieutenant general and held the fort as the Karachi corps commander…
If my memory does not fail me, Janjua was the only senior army official who held
press briefings on a monthly basis. It was a consequence of the glasnost –
openness – introduced by General Aslam Beg. The press corps of Karachi always
turned up for the briefings and Janjua would answer almost all the queries
thrown his way. As a result the briefings were lively and open.
n April, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) – a trade group that represents a number of the world’s largest software makers such as Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and Intel among others – launched a massive campaign to battle piracy in Pakistan. They held a series of well-publicised press events in which co-chairman BSA Middle East, Jawad al-Redha, announced the organisation’s intention to crack down on what they claim is rampant piracy throughout Pakistan. .
Letters were sent to companies all over the country
threatening dire consequences to those organisations that did not comply with
their “request.” Businesses were given a one-month “grace period” in which to
purchase licenses for the software they were operating on their computers. The
BSA even went so far as to encourage employees in organisations to rat on their
employers if they were running illegal software. In return, they dangled the
lure of a hefty reward.
The fragile coalition in Sindh almost unravelled in the last week of July –
the second time in just under eight weeks – when the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)
temporarily withdrew its support for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League –
Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ) at the federal and provincial levels. The party’s decision
to quit the federal and provincial cabinets took most political observers by
surprise even though there were indications that relations between Sindh Chief
Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and his major allies had soured yet again. The
crisis over the MQM resignations nearly brought the local administration to a
standstill and sent mediators and Islamabad officials into overdrive.
The whole episode, though unprecedented, revealed that the players in the
conflict lacked political acumen and were inept at tackling sensitive issues.
General Pervez Musharraf sparked off the crisis by ruling out any leadership
change in Sindh and backing Rahim as chief minister till 2007. Musharraf’s
remarks – made in a closed door meeting of PMLQ parliamentarians – were somehow
‘leaked’ to the press. Clearly, the objective was to remind the MQM that the
rules of political cohabitation hadn’t changed and Rahim enjoyed Musharraf’s
confidence as much as before.
A
slew of disappearances of nationalist party activists and their sympathisers
over the past few weeks is reinforcing the opinion that such ideologues are
the favourite whipping boys of intelligence outfits in the country. The
disappearances, thought to be in excess of 6,000 people, have brought much
anguish particularly to Baloch nationalists and their worried relatives.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the police have not filed a single FIR
against the abduction of people. This is perhaps understandable because on
many occasions the police themselves pick up these people. Despite the token
support of policemen, the operation has been spearheaded by the Military
Intelligence (MI), the agency charged with keeping tabs on the insurgents in
Balochistan.
It is also clear that the government is tightening the noose around the
Bugtis. Two nephews of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the Jamhoori Wattan Party (JWP)
chief Mohammad Bilal Bugti and Murtaza Bugti, were rounded up on July 14. A
month earlier, Akbar Bugti’s grandson, Jamal, was also picked up. Senator
Agha Shahid Bugti, the elder brother of Bilal Bugti, says the security men
in civvies who intercepted his brother’s vehicle were being tailed by a
police van. Murtaza Bugti, Bilal Bugti’s brother-in-law, was taken away in
similar fashion by intelligence personnel. Several missives of protest and
pleas against their detention continue to fall on deaf ears.
“The objectives
of the Kashmir cause cannot
be achieved without an
armed struggle”
By Intikhab Amir
Q. Pakistan’s Kashmir policy underwent a major shift after 9/11. How do you
view this shift and General Pervez Musharraf’s proposals?
A. The general himself has said that peace between the two countries cannot
be achieved until the core issue of Kashmir is resolved. Musharraf has put
his credibility at stake by deviating from Pakistan’s traditional stance on
Kashmir and offering three different proposals for the dispute’s resolution:
demilitarisation, self-governance and joint management. Unfortunately India
did not change its position on Kashmir.
.
Some
100 members of the minority Ahmadi community in Jhandu Sahi village, Daska
are unable to return to their homes more than one month after they were
forcibly evicted from their village by a group of religious vigilantes. On
June 24, three people were burning papers in the courtyard of Baitul Zikr –
the Ahmadi mosque – when a neighbour spotted the activity from the rooftop
of his house and raised an alarm that the pages of the Holy Quran were being
burnt. Failing to find support in the neighbourhood, he rushed to the
outskirts of the village where a fair was being held. Shortly afterwards, an
agitated mob of 500 to 600 people came charging towards the Baitul Zikr,
took control of the premises and severely assaulted the people present
there.
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi
1916-2006
By Dr A. Ahmed
The mother-in-law, daughter-in-law animosity is a centuries old phenomenon.
Hostile, antagonistic and riddled with jealousy and possessiveness, it is a
relationship that is supposedly doomed to failure. Linguistically, too, our
choices determine how women perceive their mothers-in-law. The archaic form of
“mother-in-law” meant stepmother and in British slang, circa 1884, mother-in-law
was a “mixture of ales, old and bitter”. Similarly, scorn was heaped on the word
saas in the subcontinent. But how many of us know that saas is a derivative from
brij bhasha (the early Hindi language) and Urdu has its own kinder version that
most people seem to be unaware of, or prefer not to use — khushdaman. Today,
with education a top priority and the subsequent right to live a relatively
independent life, why do in-laws continue to figure prominently in cases of
divorce and broken engagements? Similarly alarming are the growing numbers of
broken relationships and the pretexts under which they occur.