HOW far backward can we move — and how do we manage such a swift slide? We say we want democracy, we want freedom of thought and expression so that our inner thoughts may be freely aired. We have houses for debate wherein our representatives claim licence to say what they wish. And what do they say and what do they do?

Take the ‘august’ Sindh assembly which houses what are known as legislators. One member sitting on the treasury benches claims that on June 21 he heard that a woman legislator sitting on the opposition benches was not well. So, he claims, in a fit of caring, he asked a peon to pass on a written message to the woman, which he did. The woman read the note: ‘Aap kaisi ho?,’ and a rumpus ensued.

This member of the PPPP claimed that her honour had been ‘attacked’, at which the leader of the Sindh opposition jumped up claiming that not only had her honour been ‘attacked’ but also the honour of the party. He ‘demanded’ that the Speaker immediately suspend the membership of the note-writing legislator for his ‘shameful and intolerable, immoral conduct’.

Fisticuffs were the order of the day, with four opposition members leaping upon the note-writer, punching, kicking, shouting, screaming, with a handful of opposition members egging them on with cries of ‘Maro, maro!’

The Speaker, who has been around with one party or another for well over a decade, taking note of the ‘immoral activities’ and even the more immoral physical assault, suspended the four hooligan opposition members and the one ‘immorally active’ treasury member.

Far more serious, and of weighty import, is the matter of the disappearance and murder of journalist Hayatullah Khan, by persons yet unidentified. He was ‘picked up’ in December somewhere in the wilds of Waziristan while on an assignment and his dead body, handcuffed and mutilated, was found ten days ago in the small Frontier town of Wazir Ali. Fingers have been pointed at the Taliban. Fair enough, but fingers have also been pointed at our ‘agencies’. Disappearances engineered by the ‘agencies’ are nothing new.

According to reports, during the life of this government over 100 persons have been whisked away, amongst whom many from Balochistan, including seven BLO activists, two sets of brothers — Ibrahim and Ghulam Saleh, and Noor Mohammad, Mir Ahmad and Jamand Khan Marri — Ali Asghar Bangalzai and Hafiz Saeed Bangalzai, Dr Haneef Sharif, Dr Najibullah Durrani, Muneer Mengal, and Nisar Baloch of Shehri; and of course there is the case of the famous Sindhi, Safdar Sarki. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a credible and respected body, has commented that this new banana republic-type trend of ‘disappearances’ “has added a new dimension to human rights abuses in the country.”

The Chief Justice of Pakistan has already taken suo motu notice of the tragedy of Hayatullah Khan and he will, hopefully, be able to get to the bottom of the matter. Could he not also take notice of the list provided by the Human Rights Commission of other ‘disappearances’ and instruct President General Pervez Musharraf, supremo of the supreme Security Council, to produce the live (not dead) bodies of those missing?

The ways of our ‘agencies’ are indeed strange. As for the Inter-Services Intelligence, it will exist in one form or another till kingdom come and we may as well brace ourselves to bear it in whatever demonic form it may materialise. The spooks in charge would not be there unless they had sadistic traits and were under-endowed with normal human considerations.

I had one rather amusing encounter with the ISI long ago, in the days when it was distributing charity, using the people’s money, to pay certain of our greedy but very rich politicians so that an election could be ‘fixed.’ Air Marshal Asghar Khan (he is now 80, as I am) is still waiting for his petition regarding this illegal distribution of money to be heard in the Supreme Court and has hopes that the present very active Chief Justice of Pakistan might get round to finishing the matter (it has been part heard) before he, Asghar, dies.

Anyhow, in those fares off days of the mid-1990s, one fine morning I received a telephone call and a gruff voice announced it wished to speak to Urdsher Kowaski. This is Urdsher, I responded — who wishes to speak? It was a major-general, the second in command of the ISI. When can you come to Islamabad to meet me? he asked. If he wanted to meet me, I suggested, then he better come to Karachi. Much consternation over the line — but I am a general of the army, he spluttered, of the ISI to boot. He hung up.

A few minutes later he rang again, and this time politely enquired if I would be available in Karachi the next day for him to call on me as he intended to fly down for the sole purpose of meeting me and would return to Islamabad the same day. Of course, I would be available at a time to suit him.

He came merely to convey to me that what I had written in a recent column on the subject of the ISI illegally doling out money to politicos was incorrect. It was not his present chief who had disbursed the money, but his predecessor who had just recently relinquished command. I said I would correct myself in my next column. Consternation again - no, no, that will not be necessary. He merely wanted me to know the correct position, so he said.

Now, on to trees - providers of oxygen, shade and comfort - a highly endangered species in this Republic of Pakistan. A call has come from Lahore seeking help. The Chaudhrys of Gujrat, who are incapable of hearing trees or of even being aware of their value, have marked for chopping some 2,000 trees along the Canal Bank Gardens. The people are apprehensive. They feel that their cause will not be redressed by the Lords of the Lahore High Court. Lose no time, they have been told, appeal to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who can hear trees cry.

With deference, herewith a quote for CJP Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry - some old and famous 19th century English words expressed by Stephen Grellet : “I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature [trees and dumb animals included] let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

E-mail: arfc@cyber.net.pk