Dna issue 130

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PAKISTAN’S GROWING BURDEN oPInIon: Raoof Hasan

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IF YOU’RE GOING TO WATCH ONE THING FROM LAST WEEK...

MedIa watch: The Tube

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Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

‘PAK FOREIGN POLICY IS IN DOLDRUMS’ InteRvIew: Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri

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Issue 130 I Pages 16 I Rs 30

AS THINGS STAND coveR StoRy: Page 06

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Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

ediTorial

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Shahab Jafry

Asher John

Joint Editor

Associate Editor \

Chief News Editor

Pakistan and the third Taliban chief

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230 Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208 Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2818125 Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Time for a reset Broken domestic and foreign policy

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eW people outside the PML-N will deny that both internal and external policies are so broken down that they should have been reset a long time ago. Domestic politics, for the time being, is centred around the prime minister’s survival. The question of him temporarily stepping down while someone else takes his place is not fine with the government. It is, therefore, completely about the Sharif family. And the longer the Panama fallout lingers, the more governance, etc, will remain hostage to a power-play that has nothing to do with the people.

The foreign environment, strangely, is even stranger.

PML-N apologists shoot back at critics – quite ironically – that the foreign component is the preserve of the military. And if Afghanistan has finally put its foot down, the uS has turned

with a much stiffer ‘do more’ position and ties with India are headed south again, the ruling party deserves very little if any of the blame. Interestingly, few N-leaguers seem to realise that while the foreign policy argument may win them debates on prime time TV, it will not sell as well at the election. And of course the people and the country will suffer endlessly till these matters are taken care of.

The rest of the world, meantime, is moving on, and South Asia is no exception.

Islamabad should have seen the India-Iran-Afghanistan coming. A lot of this sudden isolation is its own fault. It did not move fast enough, or in the right direction, when Iran was freed of sanctions. And despite bringing together four countries, its position on the Afghan Taliban remained vague at best. With India, too, there’s been nothing to write home

The foreign environment, strangely, is even stranger. PML-N apologists shoot back at critics – quite ironically – that the foreign component is the preserve of the military. And if Afghanistan has finally put its foot down, the US has turned with a much stiffer ‘do more’ position and ties with India are headed south again, the ruling party deserves very little if any of the blame.

Interestingly, few Nleaguers seem to realise that while the foreign policy argument may win them debates on prime time TV, it will not sell as well at the election. And of course the people and the country will suffer endlessly till these matters are taken care of.

The rest of the world, meantime, is moving on, and South Asia is no exception. about after Pathankot. The government must pull itself together or there’ll be little left to salvage, inside the country and away. g

State of the economy Budget time

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he countdown to this budget finds Dar sb busier than usual. Nawaz Sharif’s open heart surgery in London means he must also don the mantle of the prime minister.

And, fresh from a successful round-up of the IMF program, he’s ready to deliver another course of his famous Darnomics. he’s already made clear why he’s not much bothered that growth is settling approximately a percentage point lower than forecast. If the IMF is pleased with the final result, why should anyone else worry? In fact, the IMF agreed with downward revisions of all major indicators at every important meeting. For some reason, the Fund has been unusually happy with Pakistan, even though the mark-sheet was anything but unusual.

This year’s theme seems the deficit. Now, it is one thing for the government to take credit for the conducive outside environment – record low oil, for example – long enough for the people to start believing. But it’s quite another for the finance minister himself become a believer. By talking about reining in the deficit to another unbelievable number that will never be achieved the FM is playing out classic Darnomics, once again. But at least there’ll be no Fund next fiscal.

So there’ll be no embarrassing revisions at meetings in Dubai.

Yet there’s a political angle to budgeting in campaigning season that neither the minister nor

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Yet there’s a political angle to budgeting in campaigning season that neither the minister nor the Fund have talked about much. The ruling party has clearly gone into an early campaign mode. That, as a rule, means added pressure on the deficit.

Incumbents, in our neck of the woods at least, always direct taxpayer money to the campaign, and the kitty is always worse off after the vote. That’s not too bad from the IMF’s long term point of view. Whoever is in office the day after will have nowhere else to go but its good offices. the Fund have talked about much. The ruling party has clearly gone into an early campaign mode. That, as a rule, means added pressure on the deficit. Incumbents, in our neck of the woods at least, always direct taxpayer money to the campaign, and the kitty is always worse off after the vote. That’s not too bad from the IMF’s long term point of view. Whoever is in office the day after will have nowhere else to go but its good offices. So it’s good business all around. g

Things to follow

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uLLAh haibatullah Akhunzada, the third Taliban chief, is known for edicts justifying jihad against the uS sponsored regime of President Ashraf Ghani. he has also provided doctrinal justification for terrorists acts. It can be safely predicted that he will oppose the moves for end of the Afghan insurgency through talks.

Besides the ideological position he has taken, haibatullah cannot confront Sirajuddin haqqani, one of his two deputies, who heads the feared network responsible for a series of deadly bombings in Kabul.

What is more during the last one year haqqani has extended his influence in the Taliban network nominating Taliban governors in more than a dozen provinces.

Being one of Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s two deputies, the new Taliban chief knows Mansour had once been a supporter of talks. he also knows Mansour had been visiting Pakistan and meeting the agencies’ officials. even if haibatullah is convinced of the need for talks he will have to strengthen his hold before he can take a controversial about turn.

The killing of Mullah Mansour has sent a grim message to Sairajuddin haqqani. But such messages are not new to the haqqani family. Pakistan’s establishment is now likely to come under increasing pressure to deliver haqqani and take action against his network. Pakistan has

whiteLies Apollo

Mullah Akhtar Mansur would not have become the second Taliban chief without Pakistani agencies’ support. Once ensconced in the office, he cared little for Pakistan’s advice.

Haibatullah was elected without Pakistan’s support. There is little hope of his paying heed to Pakistan’ views. already been told that it will have to forgo the promised eight F16s after the house of Representatives refused to sanction the subsidised sale of the aircraft. The house also blocked $450 million aid unless Pakistan does more to fight the haqqanis. Pakistan still hopes Obama would veto the restrictions imposed by the house. It would be premature to predict if Pakistan would continue to defy if it finds Obama is unwilling to exercise the veto in its favour.

Mullah Akhtar Mansur would not have become the second Taliban chief without Pakistani agencies’ support. Once ensconced in the office, he cared little for Pakistan’s advice. haibatullah was elected without Pakistan’s support.

There is little hope of his paying heed to Pakistan’ views. g

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at whitelies@pakistantoday.com.pk

Maulana Sherani and his crew’s edicts are just one of the many things that prove that the odds are stacked against women in our country.

But whereas in one part of the country, we have such misogyny, in another, it’s the women calling the shots. Consider the recent spate of rather successful men shrugging their own careers and joining their wives’ fashion businesses. Because, successful they might have been, but a bit of number crunching at a calculator would tell them that there is no way they could make nearly as much in their own line of work.

Women power! g

********** It appears that things are set to change at the PCB. the mildmannered former diplomat chairman is rumoured to be on his way out, though nothing is clear yet. according to the grapevine, all is not well between him and the chairperson of the executive body, najam Sethi. the latter, however, is going around saying that all is well and that he had facilitated the chairman’s entry back into the board himself.

Stay tuned to see how this one plays out. g

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

opiNioN

islamabad’s isolation No end in sight

(Central treaty Organisation).

So far as the US is concerned, Pakistan remains a quasi-ally, appropriately christened by critics not as a friend but as a ‘frenemy’. Osama bin laden was killed in a clandestine US Navy Seals operation five years ago in abbottabad and now Mullah akhtar Mansour has been eliminated in a US drone attack in Balochistan ostensibly both without taking Islamabad on board. this speaks volumes about Islamabad and Washington’s yawning trust deficit.

We are assiduously stuck to our failed security paradigm, claiming that we do not make any distinction between the good and The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today. He bad taliban. We also want american can be reached at arifn51@hotmail.com largesse for services rendered. the US administration has clearly drawn red lines. they want Islamabad to go after hat Islamabad is isolated in the the haqqani network and abandon its tacit region and its foreign policy is in support for the Quetta Shura. Washington, shambles is the dominant view all set to leave afghanistan, has linked being expressed in the media. supply of the promised F16s to Pakistan on the perception has been further Islamabad delivering the afghan taliban. strengthened after the killing of afghan Pakistan has been unable to, or some taliban chief Mullah akhtar Mansour by a allege unwilling to, bring the afghan US drone strike in Balochistan. taliban to the negotiating table. Its critics Some critics contend that Pakistan does view the quadrilateral process involving not have a foreign policy; rather it has a Washington, Beijing, Kabul and Islamabad security policy that dominates our priorities as just a charade. in the domain of external and regional Mullah Mansour and others of his ilk relations. Undoubtedly, Pakistan has using Pakistani documents and moving remained a national security state since its freely has irked both Kabul and very inception. and as such, an everWashington. It is another matter that how, assertive military leadership has determined by eliminating their leader, will the taliban priorities. be inclined to come to the conference table? the present state of affairs is indeed Even President Obama knows this and dismal. In the region, Islamabad has frayed has expressed his scepticism about talks relations with its neighbours excepting with the taliban starting anytime soon. the China. there is a complete breakdown of quisling ‘president of Kabul’ ashraf Ghani, talks since the Pathankot incident with its buoyed by the killing of Mansour, has traditional adversary India. and there is no predicted his successor Mullah haibatullah breakthrough in sight. meeting the same fate. as a part of the When ashraf Ghani assumed power in sordid proxy war between Pakistan and Kabul in September 2014, there was a lot of afghanistan, Ghani is harbouring the goodwill and bonhomie expressed between Pakistani taliban terrorist Mullah Fazlullah. the Pakistani and afghan leadership. But all this does not auger well for this was soon squandered away to the extent Pakistan. according to Balochistan Interior that Ghani is now overtly hostile in his Minister Sarfraz Bugti, six afghan spy statements, accusing Islamabad of agency operatives have been arrested in the fomenting trouble within afghanistan province. It seems Balochistan is infested through its proxies. with RaW and NDS agents.

Similarly, after a lot of dithering on part thus, Pakistan’s largest and of Pakistan a thaw was in the offing with strategically located province is not only tehran. But while Iranian President hassan infiltrated with foreign agents but it is also Rouhani was on a state visit just two the home base of the afghan taliban. months back to Islamabad, our security During the tenure of Mohammad establishment chose the timing to publicly Maalik, the nationalist chief minister of the accuse Iran of harbouring RaW agents. province, the separatists were engaged in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some sort of negotiations with the on a visit to Iran, has inked a tripartite deal government. Reportedly under his PML-N along with afghanistan to build a road successor Sanaullah Zehri these talks have linking afghanistan with Iran though the broken down.

Chabahar Iranian port. this is being viewed the country seems to be in a royal mess as the Indian response to Gwadar port and both internally and externally. On one side Islamabad’s consistent refusal to give transit the fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif facilities to Kabul and New Delhi through its hangs in balance owing partly to the territory. combined opposition led Panama leeks Of course the tripartite agreement has probe. On the other Islamabad seems strategic implications for Pakistan and increasingly isolated in the region and China as well. however both our advisor on internationally as well. the only friend it foreign affairs Sartaj aziz and Iranian can count on is perhaps China. ambassador to Pakistan insist that the fact that Sharif has kept the foreign Chabahar and Gwadar are complimentary affairs portfolio with himself and his two rather than rival ports. foreign policy advisors are too ineffectual to Even with Russia only half-hearted deliver is only part of the story. For far too efforts were made to mend relations. long traditionally the military has dominated Defence co operation was decision-making in the also pursued. domain of foreign affairs in But perhaps Moscow the name of the ubiquitous ‘The present state of views Islamabad, despite national interest. the warts — firmly in the affairs is indeed dismal.

Its ingress has become american camp, more pronounced and In the region, Islamabad inextricably tied to its invasive since the so-called has frayed relations with strategic priorities. Our afghan jihad that started foreign and military on the watch of dictator its neighbours excepting establishments traditionally General Zia-ul-haq, after China. There is a complete the Soviet forces invaded feel comfortable in bed with breakdown of talks since the west ever since the afghanistan in 1979. heady 50s, when Islamabad Under Zia, jihad-for-hire the Pathankot incident was part of US sponsored became our policy pivot. with its traditional security pacts like SEatO Under Musharraf post 9/11 (South East asian treaty Pakistan again became an adversary India’ Organisation) and CENtO ally of the US in the so-

Arif NizAmi

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called war on terrorism. however, a more nuanced policy of hunting with the hounds and running with the hares was adopted. On one side we were backing India-centric and afghan-centric terrorists and on the other we were fighting the war on terror alongside the americans.

It was only after the chickens came home to roost that we decided to go after the ttP or the bad taliban under the aegis of the COaS General Raheel Sharif. had it been left to the PML-N government even this would not have happened?

But unfortunately our soft corner for the afghan taliban —as evident from Mullah Mansour’s Pakistani travel papers

— persists to this date. General Raheel Sharif has expressed his serious concern to the US ambassador about violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

But is it the first or last time that our sovereignty has been violated? the US drones are only one manifestation of this grave violation. the malaise runs much deeper.

On prime minister’s return from London the national Security Council is due to meet. But if the civilian and khaki leadership continues harping on the victimhood syndrome instead of doing some out of box introspection nothing will change. It is bound to get worse. g

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Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

oPinion

Pakistan’s growing burden What of the peace process now?

CANDID CORNER

Raoof Hasan The writer is a political analyst, security strategist and the heads the Islamabad-based think tank, Regional Peace Institute. He can be reached at raoofhasan@hotmail.com Twitter:@RaoofHasan

“There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless”.

–Niccolo Machiavelli

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he fact that Mullah Omar died on Pakistani soil, Osama bin Laden was SeALeD and Mullah Mansour droned inside Pakistani territory through unilateral military operations cannot be simply brushed away as coincidence. It highlights the deep rot that signifies Pakistan’s policies towards Afghanistan and the Taliban.

The last six months encompassing five rounds of the QCG process have further fractured Pakistan’s credibility to deliver on its commitments. The elimination of Mullah Mansour, therefore, carries dangerous portents both in terms of contributing to Pakistan’s worsening relations with the US as also its gradual alienation and ultimate irrelevance in the context of efforts to forge peace in Afghanistan.

The Interior Minister’s protracted and painful harangue created more questions than it could answer. It sounded more like an unconvincing plethora of deceitful alibi for the presence of Mullah Mansour in

sHaH nawaz MoHal

The writer is a law graduate and member of staff, Islamabad Bureau.

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IFe, be it of individuals or states, is marked by the crossroads encountered and choices made under immense pressure. On 28th May, 1998, Pakistan, its leadership and its people made a tough choice that decided its place in the comity of nations.

The six nuclear tests by Pakistan codenamed Chagai-I comprehensively answered India’s Pokhran-II tests performed two weeks earlier. That tit-for-tat response by Pakistan angered the global powers-that-be who were furious as they didn’t expect such an exact and prompt reply from the Pakistani side without obtaining an approval or a nod first from them. Which, dare us not forget, was impossible to be granted by so-called guardians who were first to possess all things nuclear.

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Pakistan. he said so in spite of Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz’s earlier statement at the Council on Foreign Relations that Pakistan housed the Taliban families as a means of exercising ‘influence’ on them.

Bringing up the question of infringement of Pakistan’s sovereignty is hardly the right remedy for correcting a malaise that is both deep-rooted and widespread. It is vital to break through the shell of inflexibility that rules Pakistan’s Afghan policy as also dispassionately analysing the factors that have incrementally contributed to depleting faith in its ability to deliver on the avowed commitments. Let’s also not forget that Pakistan itself is the worstaffected as a consequence of the ongoing strife in Afghanistan.

The drone strike in Balochistan, a first of its kind, is reflective of the US intentions to bring about a qualitative shift in its approach to deal with the Taliban. “The strike is a bold move by the US that represents a long overdue shift in strategy toward the Taliban”, opines Lisa Curtis.

Apparently, this new policy is no longer going to be solely confined to Pakistandependent efforts in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table. henceforth, it may be a combination of the carrot and stick with the latter becoming an increasingly more potent weapon with the passage of time, particularly if the carrot does not appear to be working.

At a more fundamental level, the shift hurts Pakistan’s perceived interests across its western border as also limiting the space for it to continue its paradoxical approach in tackling the demon of terror.

“With the strike on Mullah Mansour, the US has eliminated the leader of a militant organisation that Pakistani military and intelligence officials regard not as a threat, but as a strategic asset. The decision to take out Mullah Mansour on Pakistani soil illustrates that US patience is wearing thin – whether over Pakistan’s refusal to target the militants, or Pakistani inability or unwillingness to bring the

Taliban to the negotiating table”, wrote Michael Kugelman in the WSJ. Whether Pakistan would now be able to sustain its hitherto selective policy in dealing with ‘friendly’ and ‘unfriendly’ terror and simultaneously retain its pivotal position as part of the quadrilateral process is an imponderable, at least for the time being.

Nevertheless, a few things are going to weigh heavily on Pakistan’s future policy formulation. In the wake of the prospect of the use of fire power by the US as a component of its future policy paradigm, Pakistan’s options for remodelling its strategy stand enormously depleted.

President Obama did not mince words in stating that the American forces would continue to go after threats on Pakistani soil. Striking in Balochistan, the perceived hub of the Afghan Taliban, could be a precursor of more of this to follow.

Consequently, will Pakistan opt to continue reiterating further its illconceived proclamations of following a non-discriminatory approach in dealing with the scourge of terror, or will the strike force it to bring about a much-required shift in its Afghan and terror policies? In the event of the former remaining the fulcrum of its policy, how is Pakistan likely to fare and will it be able to keep itself away from further harm’s way?

Pakistan misread the situation and the burgeoning frustration with a lack of development on the front of its ability, willingness, or a combination of both, to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

This being the fundamental pillar on which the quadrilateral process was based, it was inevitable that pressure on Pakistan would increase coupled with the demand that the Mansour camp be declared “nonreconcilable” and appropriate steps initiated as were envisaged in the QCG roadmap against those factions that would not agree to talk. Pakistan, understandably, was unwilling to do that, thus further contributing to raising the level of frustration. The fifth round of the QCG process became a catalyst in convincing the

US that a strike against the top Taliban leader may already be overdue.

As Pakistan continued struggling sheepishly to identify the dead in the drone strike, the Taliban moved quickly to appoint Mawlawi haibatullah Akhundzada, the ex-Chief Justice during the Taliban’s rule and a known hawk, as the head of the movement with Sirajuddin haqqani and Mullah Omar’s son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoub, as his deputies. he immediately announced the scuttling of the peace talks.

This represents renewed determination on the part of the Taliban not to be unduly affected by the drone strike.

What of the peace process now? ever since its inception, it was heading nowhere in any case. Obviously, the appointment of the new ruler would be followed by a period of relative uncertainty, but, as the recent attack in Kabul illustrates, it is quite likely that they would move quickly in rallying behind the new hierarchy and launch further deadly assaults to unsettle the Afghan government.

On the face of it, the Taliban’s joining the peace talks any time soon would be perceived as a sign of weakness which may jeopardise the new leader’s prospects of forging unity within their ranks. So, a likely scenario would be a period of increased intransigence and fratricide that would help Mawlawi haibatullah Akhundzada and his associates to establish their credentials and gain further foothold which could provide the Taliban with a base for weighing in other options later. But, with the induction of a cleric and a known hawk as the new leader, the drone strike may actually end up further prolonging the war and decimating the prospect of a negotiated political settlement. It is also likely that the ongoing strife may become more intense, deadly and divisive in the immediate future.

The drone strike may not herald the advent of immediate peace talks, but it is a reminder to all stakeholders of other options being available for kick-starting the process. But, the ultimate goal of peace may actually have become even more elusive with the induction of new rules of the game. Pakistan, however, is likely to continue reeling under the growing burden of its miscalculations. g

Our (nuclear) Hobson’s choice like May 28th, 1998, today we direly need to forge an identical resolve every year this day needs to be reiterated because it tells us why we went nuclear. It was not an inherent death wish we acted upon but rather the only way forward for a state that was left with no option. The Indian manic nuclear designs brought Pakistan to a point where the only way out was the one our leadership opted.

To pay our neighbour back in the same coin so that he too can know that not every entity can be devoured at its sweet will, that was the message that is still fresh in the memory of a country that aspires to become a regional bully.

There was excruciating pressure on our state both internally and externally. Our leadership, spearheaded by PM Nawaz Sharif back then, resisted the onslaught by movers and shakers of the world as they firstly tried to entice the government with trade opportunities and lure Pakistan with aid and incentives on the sole condition of not detonating the bomb. The PM didn’t budge an inch on his decision and Pakistan became the 7th state to possess nuclear capabilities.

In retrospect, the seeds of hatred sowed at the time of partition of the subcontinent blackened the hearts and minds of millions of people in both countries and resulted in many estranged generations. The wars of ‘65 and ‘71 further alienated India and Pakistan or to describe the relations more aptly in Tariq Ali’s (famous intellectual and writer) words, “The hostility between India and Pakistan has become a habit to which both the elites have become addicted”. The famous saying of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that pronounced Pakistan’s resolve to gain nuclear capability “even if we have to eat grass” rightly depicts the mindset that an ordinary Pakistani still has. The testing of nukes was not to up the ante on India but to spell out the message that it can’t bully Pakistan around. The message was loud and clear and it was heard, deciphered and understood well.

As much as this occasion warrants celebration it invites introspection on an individual as well as a collective level. We’ve proved to our dear neighbour,

once and for all, that we can assert ourselves if and when any aggression is sensed on its part.

Now, we need turn our attention to fight numerous spectres at home.

Pakistan presently finds itself embroiled in a muddled situation.

Although this time it is of a different nature. This time it is about enemy within. Once again, we need to take tough decisions sans fear and favouritism. Unfortunately, the Pakistani state is rife with many hydra-headed monsters in shapes of terrorism, unemployment, ubiquitous corruption, heightening poverty, illiteracy and most worryingly is becoming a society where the chasm between haves and have-nots is getting broader every passing day. We need the same resolve, the same dedication and the same commitment to battle these ailments.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif back then mustered the courage to push the button despite the odds and paid the price dearly by being sheared off his premiership and thrown in the jail in a coup.

Today the people of Pakistan have put him once again in power

and expect him to deliver on the above-mentioned issues.

All the non-issues and transitory topics that are roaring and raging today will be settled or withered away with the passage of time. The whole hullabaloo surrounding the so-called Panamagate and the ToRs and the inquiry commission must not be used as an excuse to not address the issues that are more perennial and pertinent than Panama and its leaked papers.

To end my column, I would like to post-mortem an ages old phrase. There was this stable owner, Thomas hobson, who used to give the customer a choice to take the horse standing next to the stable door or walk away without one. In today’s lingo, ‘take it or leave it’. Back in May ‘98 we were offered a hobson’s choice to detonate or remain docile. We opted the former and triumphed. Today, dearest sirs and ma’am’s, history has rhymed for us once again. The choice we are given? To put our house in order or allow the bullies to run riot in a land we call home. g

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

media watch

If you’re going to watch one thing from last week...

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the tube

amid mir doesn’t disappoint.

His Capital Talk, even at its worst, won’t be as devoid of substance as some of the political talk shows on our airwaves. But it is when he is on another talk show, specially if he is the only one being interviewed, that he truly shines.

Why? Because he is too professional on his own show to drone on himself. He respects his guests, but not by the low bar of merely not being rude to them, but by also actually listening to what they have to say.

Though we might be able to infer mir’s own views from the intro, closing and the questions, but that’s it, basically. it is when he is on another show, and doesn’t have the burden of the show on his shoulders, he can hold forth his views and does, specially when the interviewer is also a serious sort.

That is what happened on Capital TV’s Awaam on the 21st of may. a sprawling range of topics, as usual, where mir laid bare everything, from the political crisis in the aftermath of the Panama Leaks to civilmilitary relations, from international relations to the state of the free media. amongst the things that struck as a bit different: mir doesn’t think that imran Khan wants to destabilise the democratic system; there is a different perception about him, yes, mir concedes, but he knows that the only way he can become the prime minister is through this very same system. But what of all that talk of the “umpire”, host Shehzad Raza interjects. That was back during the 2014 dharna, comes the reply. Things are different. imran Khan’s reluctance to upset the democratic apple cart is a hard sell, even if Hamid mir is the one making it, but the PTi leader’s recent decision to go to the parliament and expound his views there does seem to be some sort of indication.

On foreign relations, Pakistan’s isolation from neighbouring countries and nearby friendly countries was bemoaned. isn’t this our own fault, Raza asks. Well, yes, but what can one do if we don’t even have a foreign minister, mir replies. But then immediately corrects himself and says when he had asked a senior government minister about this, the latter had replied with a question: do you think we would have been in control of foreign policy even if we did have a foreign minister?

On the state of the media in the country, mir sounded a bit pained. Now, senior journalists talking about the falling standards of journalism in the country is a sight seen ad nauseum; specially by the ones who have nothing much to show as real journalism except the number of years in the profession. But, one figures Hamid mir himself has earned the right to blow off some steam in this regard, given how he has walked his talk. a bullet from the attack on him the year before last is still inside his body; surgeons chose not to remove one of the bullets because of certain complications. it’s a ratings race. We’re just racehorses being ridden by the owners.

But isn’t the viewing public to be blamed as well, Raza asks. These are the type of shows they watch; and you’re giving the public what they want.

The reply: Well, i don’t want to cause any problems for you or your organisation so i won’t be completely honest in my answer here — a refreshing candour about the lack of candour — but earlier, i used to have huge ratings. Back then, i used to do bold shows on a range of subjects. The public used to watch these shows. Then, the attack happened. Those who wanted to put us in our place, did put us in our place. The ratings dropped, because i have a set of restrictions on me. Even the questions that you have asked on this show, i can’t talk about them on my own show (a vindication

of my earlier statement: catch Hamid mir off his show). To that end, i am going to write a book, specifically on the range of topics that i have been barred from discussing. in fact, also about the restrictions themselves. a banned book whose pirated copies will fly-off the bootleg shelves, i would dare to guarantee.

they still invite him to shows “Fool me once, strike one.

Fool me twice…….strike...umm...three…”

• The Office if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then you should go ahead and call it a duck. The duck in question here is serial talk show boor Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan. The fellow’s acerbic style and inability to talk about the issue at hand has been essayed in this very column more than once in the past.

So plain-to-see was this ‘Pindi politician’s crassness, that even his own party, the PTi, never one for manners itself, first removed him from his party PR post and then even suspended his basic membership.

The talk show circuit, however, keeps calling the fellow over. For any anchor or programme producer to call him on their show, and then pretend to be baffled by his

roguish demeanour is beyond silly. if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck... what more evidence does the hive-mind of the talk-shows collective need? How many more chances will the fellow get? it is for that reason, i would not place the blame of the scuffle of 92’s programme Hum Dekhain Gaay on him, but on host asma Shirazi and her producer. They should have known better.

The programme started on the sad case of violence against a member of the transgendered community in Peshawar and, in the second half, had to progress towards the women protection bills. But a little into the programme, it became a bit of a malleable mix between the two, even though the topics were rather distinct. Women and the transgendered were being slotted in the same category, somehow.

Being that the case, since the incident in question had taken place in KP and Chohan had to defend himself (in what capacity, one still doesn’t know) he started talking about the case of ayesha ahad (Hamza Shehbaz Sharif’s estranged former wife.) That had nothing to do with the issue at hand, and naturally, ms Shirazi asked him to stop making personal attacks, but the League’s Uzma Bukhari still let it get to her and she started name-dropping Sita White and imran Khan’s daughter. most interesting is what happens in the clip (online readers only) where he starts

reciting a poem at 35:40, and continues reciting it all through ms Shirazi’s pleas for him to let others speak.

Women’s issues, health, education, the environment, these are all extremely important issues and require reasoned debates. Yes, we know it won’t be a mildmannered professors’ disagreement; since politics is adversarial in nature and there are going to be proponents and opponents, there is always going to be a conflict, some tempers (and voices) raised.

But the likes of Chohan will make all debates devolve into asinine shouting matches, where he is doing most of the shouting. and poetry recitation. Shame on the producers’ network that keeps on inviting him to shows. This is not merely dumbing down our debate, it is turning it into a boys’ school playground scuffle, cuss words and all.

Post-script: the only reasonable thing he said on the show was how making laws was easy and enforcing them was difficult. But, to illustrate this, he said: birthing children and making laws is easy; raising children and enforcing laws is difficult.

Though one understands the conceptual symmetry he was trying to achieve with this rhetorical device, but, to my knowledge, Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan hasn’t (yet) given birth to a child, so he isn’t well-placed to know.

One has been informed by several women who have born children that it isn’t, in fact, easy.

Even host asma Shirazi corrected him. g

www.pakistantoday.com.pk 05

CMY K

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

coveR sToRy: As THINGs sTAND

Reality check for N-league Not looking good

N

AwAz will have some serious thinking to do as he recovers from the open heart surgery in london.

He’s got little going for him; except that the opposition is just too broken down to push the toRs through. the best he can do is delay the take-off of the investigation as much as possible. that’s where the opposition is looking a gift-horse in the mouth. PPP tried to slip one through but Pti failed to appreciate the gambit. Removing the PM’s name in return for getting the investigation started was not a bad move. N would have come under the microscope regardless. once an investigation does begin, though, it will not be too long before results start pouring in, and Nawaz realises this by now; hence the delaying tactics.

But he will have more on his mind. there are bigger problems for Pakistan on the international, especially regional, front. that the Afghans are furious is old news. And nobody in islamabad seemed bothered when they threw us out of the QCG. it’s also been clear for a while that the Americans are unhappy again. their demands, and their attitude, have stiffened.

And it’s been a while since

something good happened with india, save the brief moment when Modi came to lahore.

But for the indians, iranians and Afghans to come together in a joint regional pact, leaving Pakistan out, takes things to a different level. And, from islamabad’s point of view, the only thing worse than not having seen this coming is expressing surprise now that it has. should this have really caught Pakistan off guard? the iranians were reaching out to Pakistan immediately after the sanctions – even as countries and companies from central europe to the Americas were bee hiving to tehran for contracts. Yet our response was lukewarm at best. then, to make things worse, we kept leaning towards Riyadh even as the rest of the world was finally taking a clear position about saudi Arabia and its proxy influence in the region. And then, to add insult to injury, we rubbed Kulbhushan Yadav in the iranian president’s face when he came to talk business.

And we practically wrote the book on keeping things confused in Afghanistan to the point that four countries got involved to broker peace – on the premise that we’d bring the taliban – yet we remained ambiguous till the Quadrilateral ran out of juice.

‘“This backlash of the former Taliban leader’s killing was inevitable.

Mullah Mansour was killed by a drone strike in Balochistan. This incident certainly put a strain on Pakistan’s relations with the United States of America (USA)”’

H

ostile neighbours surround Pakistan and envision to encircle it by castrating its economic growth, whereas the plague of terrorism has already spread across the south Asian region.

Pakistan’s western borders have been highly problematic and prone to insurgency. on the other side, there is india, which is successfully furthering its regional hegemonic designs. then there are economic and strategic aspects to the rivalry between Us and China, as Pakistan is the playing ground for their neocolonialist policies. the interdependency of economics and geography coupled with geostrategic implications presents a very precarious situation where all the players make individual strategic moves, but it affects the entire region. Pakistan is being ‘contained’ by surrounding neighbours, as iran, india and Afghanistan’s leaders met recently to improve strategic ties via the Chabahar port project, which is seemingly a countermeasure to Pakistan’s Gwadar port. let us talk about india first, the demonised neighbour with hegemonic designs. india is simply taking an opportunity that Pakistan has lost. After the sanctions on iran were lifted, Pakistan failed to make any concrete efforts for strengthening bilateral ties. india’s regional designs were extremely methodical with a solid, long-term planning strategy. the cooperation of iran and Afghanistan for a trade and transit route was essential for a passageway to more markets that are international. it saves india a lot of distance and gives it access to the Central Asian

06 www.pakistantoday.com.pk

‘That the Afghans are furious is old news. And nobody in Islamabad seemed bothered when they threw us out of the QCG. It’s also been clear for a while that the Americans are unhappy again’ even now there’s no clear sign of a complete detachment from the Afghan taliban. when we finally admitted we housed them in Balochistan – so we could ‘exert influence’, of course – we said we’d arm twist them if necessary and throw them out if they didn’t comply. then they didn’t comply. then we did nothing, as usual. even local experts who’d appreciated the turning of the tide with zarb-e-Azb are left scratching their heads, wondering if we are really playing for a taliban win in Afghanistan. And the less said about india the better, especially the trade route we resisted till they finally found an alternative. if there were no CPeC, there’d be nothing to show on the foreign front. You won’t get many defenders now of the prime minister’s decision to keep the foreign ministry portfolio to himself. Poor Nawaz must fight

off the Panama inquiry to stay alive at home, juggle Us, india, Afghanistan and iran on the foreign front, worry about the economy tanking and criticism coming with another budget, and undergo an open heart surgery at the same time.

But that is PMl-N’s reality check. At home it is up to its neck in survival. there’s nothing else on prime time tV either. even the indian spy was rubbished to the dustbin of history rather quickly. Now, with senior members discussing toRs and the kitchen cabinet working out justification for the money trail, there’s not much thought going into the development budget, for example. it doesn’t help the economy that Dar sb must also play prime minister while the prime minister recovers.

And outside, it’ll take a lot even for a little to change. the Afghans will not turn around till we get the taliban to talk or finish them off. And as long as the Afghans are upset the Americans will shove more ‘do more’ down our throats. they’re already tying more aid to quantifiable actions against the Haqqanis, etc. And now they also want something done about Dr Afridi. iran, too, is a lost opportunity that will not be easily corrected. tehran first came to Pakistan with Chabahar, but we had other things on our mind, and we had to appear politically correct for a faraway Arab kingdom for some

Tyranny of geography The interplay of neocolonialism, containment and Pakistan’s fragile sovereignty Republics (CARs) via Afghanistan. As many seem to believe, it is highly likely that india is strategising to encircle Pakistan in many ways. trade, terrorism, transit, trafficking, smuggling, everything within the course of its entrapment will be consumed by the tide. it gives a naval advantage to india as well, especially with respect to the issue of acquisition of nuclear submarines. iran’s foreign office recently made a statement saying that we offered the port to Pakistan first and the offer is still on the table. Chabahar port is of extreme strategic importance to iran because of multiple facets of the situation. iran wants to enhance its trade opportunities because it is now free to engage in trade after the lifting of sanctions. the geostrategic implications of this situation would aid iran in solidifying its position in the region. this would enable iran to reignite its economy but it will take some time.

Ashraf Ghani recently said that neighbours should not export terrorism to other countries. this backlash of the former taliban leader’s killing was inevitable.

Mullah Mansour was killed by a drone strike in Balochistan. this incident certainly put a strain on Pakistan’s relations with the United states. the UsA-AfghanistanPakistan nexus of power is going through a paradigm shift and this is essential for understanding UsA’s concerns about terrorism. the withdrawal of the NAto forces from Afghanistan plays a pivotal role in this situation. Barrack obama recently said that the former taliban leader was rightly killed because the taliban were posing a threat to Us troops. this shows that it is a clear message for Pakistan.

the United states has always employed the carrot and stick approach when it comes to its relations with Pakistan. Recently, Pakistan was denied the sale of F-16s because of past events. After the incident of Mullah Mansour’s killing by Us forces on Pakistan’s soil, UsA approves a new reimbursement fund for Pakistan. this incident was a direct violation of Pakistan’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. the carrot part happens with the new reimbursement fund suddenly arriving on the scene. the stick part was when it refused the sale of jets to Pakistan and then carried out a covert military operation, which resulted in the killing of Mullah Mansour by drone strike in Baluchistan. this is the second time that the obama administration has violated Pakistan’s national sovereignty. there were statements pointing in the direction that Pakistan’s establishment had been informed before the drone strike but then there were some reactionary statements, which meekly questioned this violation of political sovereignty. the tale of the missing foreign minister has been expressed quite a number of times but the ruling party has taken no notice of this deficiency, as it has employed political advisors instead of ministers for important tasks. it is an extremely strange case of arrogance or maybe it is a result of the shifting balance of power in the favour of the military. the prime minister must appoint a foreign minister for at least symbolic purposes because the GHQ would still be giving commands at the backend, as it has done in the previous PPP regime. the state’s already blurred separation of powers is further threatened by this struggle for power.

‘Iran, too, is a lost opportunity that will not be easily corrected. Tehran first came to Pakistan with Chabahar, but we had other things on our mind, and we had to appear politically correct for a faraway Arab kingdom for some reason’ reason. Making friends with these neighbours, and working for mutual progress, would not only have been good politics, but also good commerce, for Pakistan.

Pakistan already has among the slowest growth rates in the region. its politics, meant to exert greater influence over the region, has done exactly the opposite, also harming precious trade opportunities with neighbours on almost all sides.

And, worse, there is little sign of much thought going into a longoverdue change of course. so far the reality check does not bode well for PMl-N or Pakistan. g Shahab Jafry is Associate Editor, Pakistan Today.

He can be reached at jafry.shahab@gmail.com

‘“Pakistan should establish itself as a sovereign nation otherwise it will always remain a frontline state and a battleground for proxy wars”’ Pakistan is certainly in a disadvantageous position after the recent turn of events on a global level.

Neocolonialist political partners from the outside entrap Pakistan. the structure of the state is weak from within because of military’s dominance over the affairs of the state. it is also Nawaz sharif’s failure because he failed to seize the opportunity after the lifting of iran’s sanctions. the state’s establishment has failed miserably in bettering bilateral ties. Additionally, iran was implicated by the isPR for giving passageway to terrorists through its sistanBaluchestan province. Political heat is escalating while also putting a strain on Pakistan’s relation with UsA with respect to terrorism.

Pakistan is being set up for regional containment by its bordering countries and this attempt to undermine the Gwadar port project, which is supported by CPeC. UsA’s second covert operation was carried out on Pakistani soil. this shows that the obama administration intends to leave a legacy of rooting out terrorism. UsA’s overbearing influence on Pakistan is a threat to its national sovereignty, which has been abused by the consent of the state several times. All these statements have been reduced to the petty level of public rhetoric.

Henceforth, Pakistan should establish itself as a sovereign nation otherwise it will always remain a frontline state and a battleground for proxy wars. g Faysal Namver is a Liberal Arts graduate and a freelance columnist. He is interested in foreign policy and current affairs. He tweets @faysalnamver and can be reached at faysalnamver1@gmail.com

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

opinion

What’s a drone strike between friends? aZiZUd-din ahmad

The writer is a political analyst and a former academic.

P

AkisTAn’s relations with the Us have undertaken a downward slide not on account of the recent drone attack but for more important reasons.

The foremost reason is the emerging defence ties, deeper than ever before, between the Us and india. The Modi government has pursued three crucial bilateral agreements — the Logistic exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LeMA), the Communication and information security Memorandum (CisMoA) and the Basic exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BeCA).

The two countries have devised an ambitious framework for defence cooperation with identification of a number of weapons projects for codevelopment and co- production.

Modi has set new strategic goals, including more effective cooperation with the Us in securing the balance of power in Asia and defeating terrorism in the south Asian subcontinent and beyond.

The outlines of a mutual understanding on implementing the civil nuclear initiative emerged after Delhi opened purposeful negotiations with the Us on resolving three issues at hand — American concerns about india’s nuclear Liability Act, india’s demand for a quick closure on the terms of international safeguards, and Washington’s support for india’s membership of the nuclear suppliers Group. in his statement with obama on the joint vision for Asia-pacific and the indian ocean, Modi decisively repudiated the ambivalence towards the United states which characterised the previous indian government. The two leaders also agreed to “develop a roadmap that leverages our respective efforts to increase

The pak-US breakdown is much deeper ‘Modi has set new strategic goals, including more effective cooperation with the US in securing the balance of power in Asia and defeating terrorism in the South Asian subcontinent and beyond’ ties among Asian powers, enabling both our nations to better respond” to the emerging diplomatic, economic and security challenges in the region.

What is more both obama and Modi are determined to expand bilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism and homeland security. The two have emphasised “joint and concerted efforts to disrupt entities such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-eMohammed, D Company and the haqqani network”.

There is enough in this to upset the pakistani establishment.

The second issue that has worried pakistan is the spanner thrown in the works by the house of representatives by stopping the obama administration from using foreign military financing to subsidise the sale of eight F-16 aircraft to pakistan to the tune of Us$429 million. it is frustrating for the establishment that fresh conditions have also been attached in the $602 billion national Defence Authorisation Act (nDAA) passed by the house which would block $450 million in aid to islamabad unless it does more to fight the haqqani network.

The bill requires the pentagon to certify that pakistan is conducting military operations to disrupt the haqqani network, not letting the network use north Waziristan as a safe haven and actively coordinating with the Afghan government to fight the network along their border.

The drone attack that killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour has caused more embarrassment than resentment. Those who have been denying the presence of the Taliban leadership in pakistan didn’t know how to explain the

Zainab L Khan The writer is a freelance journalist.

C

ensorship is nothing new.

Journalists constantly face threats that come from many different sources – government, extremists and control of the media itself. over the years, many have been hacked to death, brutally attacked and robbed of their right to free speech. pakistan is the 4th most dangerous country for journalists (International Federation of Journalists –iFJ).

For the longest time, pakistanis have been clamouring for the abolition of their country’s biggest threats to free speech – the blasphemy law. Governor salmaan Taseer lost his life for speaking his mind on how it is unjustly used. so on the 17th of April 2016, shehryar

Taliban chief’s presence deep inside Balochistan. Any claim that the isi was unaware of his presence would not have been taken seriously while it would have amounted to conceding that the spy agency had shown unforgiveable inefficiency.

The death of Mullah Mansour, who was the isi’s handpicked successor to Mullah omar, was a big loss to his patrons. The message sent was that henceforth undesirable Taliban leaders would be taken out wherever they are located in pakistan. The Taliban would not be allowed to use the province as a sanctuary, a meeting place or a departure-cum-arrival lounge for travelling to and from other countries.

When all is said and done, a single drone attack could not have had a catastrophic effect on the relations between the two countries. neither the army nor for that matter the political leadership has ever taken a principled stand against drone strikes. Both connived at drone attacks whenever it suited them and opposed them when it didn’t. in April 2013 Musharraf admitted on Cnn he had a secret deal with the Us on drone strikes. The admission broke pakistan’s policy of blanket denial of involvement. Musharraf said pakistan gave permission “only on a few occasions, when a target was absolutely isolated and [there was] no chance of collateral damage”.

This was not an individual’s decision though, the military ruler clarified. Musharraf said the strikes were discussed “at the military [and] intelligence level” and cleared only if “there was no time for our own [special operations task force] and military to act. That was… maybe two or three times only”.

Musharraf added: “You couldn’t delay action. These ups and downs kept going… it was a very fluid situation, a vicious enemy… mountains, inaccessible areas.” pakistan’s army under Musharraf requisitioned the drone attack that killed Taliban commander nek Muhammad Wazir in south Waziristan. The DG ispr Maj Gen rashid Qureshi in fact maintained that the attack

‘The PTI was up against the US on account of the drone attacks. It decided to block the road in KP leading to Torkham. The NATO supplies from KP side remained suspended for nearly three months’ was conducted by pakistan’s own military which possessed precision weapons to target enemies. it was not considered advisable to tell the people it was an American drone attack.

While Gen kayani would openly condemn drone strikes, what is shown by WikiLeaks is something different. The WikiLeaks cables dealing with 2011 reveal that Us military’s drone strikes within pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of the country’s top military brass despite public posturing to the contrary. The cables state that the country’s military was requesting the Us for greater drone back-up for its own military operations as far back as January 2008. According to the cables, the Us account of kayani’s request for “predator coverage” does not make clear if mere air surveillance were being requested or missile-armed drones were being sought.

The attacks on Baitullah Mehsud (August 2009), Qari hussain (october 2010) ilyas kashmiri (June 2011) were all supposedly requisitioned by a government that found itself helpless before the terrorists.

The civilians were no different. pakistan’s elected leaders have often told the Us it should continue the drone attacks not minding their government’s protests which are only meant for public consumption.

According to a 2008 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks Us ambassador Anne patterson reported a discussion in August that year about drone strikes during a meeting with the then interior Minister rehman Malik, and the then prime Minister Yousaf raza Gillani.

Yousaf raza Gillani is reported to

“Free my voice”

Pakistan fights for its right to free speech Taseer, son of Governor salmaan Taseer and publisher of Daily Times, decided to take a stand by publishing an article about the blasphemy law on their website and in their daily copy.

Being a controversial topic in the country, people would naturally react to it. however, they were in for a different experience altogether. As the readers shared their thoughts regarding the issue, their statements were altered, real-time, on the medium they would least expect censorship to happen – the comment box.

An intelligent programme embedded in the comment box made them experience censorship first-hand to make them feel the frustration of what it is like

to lose the fundamental right to free speech. no matter how many times they tried retyping their original comment, the result was still the same. shehryar Taseer, publisher of Daily Times, commenting on the motivation behind the movement said, “We wanted to highlight the importance of being able to express one’s view and not take freedom of speech for granted. I think we all have to take a stance against censorship. How else are we going to move forward towards a more liberal Pakistan, towards a Pakistan that will tolerate differing opinions and a place where people can feel safe and secure when they speak or write about a

have brushed off criticisms of the drone programme, saying “i don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the national Assembly and then ignore it.” in Bob Woodward’s “obama’s Wars”, Asif Ali Zardari the then president of pakistan is said to have privately voiced an identical sentiment to ex-CiA chief Mike hayden, around the same time: “kill the seniors. Collateral damage worries you Americans. it does not worry me.”

Before coming to power nawaz was totally against the drone attacks. A month before he assumed power a statement issued by the sharif’s media cell said drone attacks were not only a violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also an action that has been declared as a violation of international law and the Un Charter.” pML-n’s interior Minister Ch nisar threatened the Us of reviewing ties in response to the killing of TTp chief hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack on nov 1, 2013.

But as the pTi announced it would close the roads in kp to deny supplies to Us and allied troops, sharif developed second thoughts. By December 2013, the prime minister was opposing protests against drone attacks. he warned that his political rivals engaged in anti-drone protests were t pushing the country into isolation in the international arena and said his government desired peace and friendship with other countries The pTi was up against the Us on account of the drone attacks. it decided to block the road in kp leading to Torkham.

The nATo supplies from kp side remained suspended for nearly three months. For quite some time the party continued to oppose drone strikes and expose the government for failing to take a tough stand. since the beginning of the operation Zarb-e-Azb the pML-n and pTi had ignored the several drone attacks that have taken place. Both had reconciled with the attacks.

The attack that killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour has led to routine condemnation. The sound and fury that once characterised Ch nisar and imran khan’s response is altogether missing. g

“An intelligent programme embedded in the comment box made them experience censorship first-hand to make them feel the frustration of what it is like to lose the fundamental right to free speech” multitude of topics? Freedom of speech is not just a country specific or regional issue –this is a global issue.”

The purpose of this was to rally for the fight towards free speech. The article directed its readers to the Free My Voice movement. it is an initiative that aims to change the fate of journalists in pakistan by making people experience the censorship journalists go through on an almost daily basis. it is a movement to help raise awareness, and give everyone back their right to free speech. g www.pakistantoday.com.pk 07

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

opinion

The blame game Trump: Monster putting politics before progress for minorities?

renovated with about rs 100 million. On the instructions of cM Punjab the designers and constructors have prioritised the safety of historical buildings on the top of the list. after the construction of 1.7 Km underground The writer is a freelance columnist. portion and protecting the unprotected saint andrew’s church shehbaz sharif has proved that the city is in the safe hands. nfrastructure is the engine of the blame was not only falsified with growth and development. every country facts and figures but it also addressed how requires modern and efficient infrastrucOrange Line Metro train is the most ture to speed up the wheels of progress.

Heritage friendly Mass transit system in the the countries who realised the need of world. It is quoted that temples were infrastructure have advanced in the race of destroyed in India. the cultural hearts of progress while those who undermined its sigathens, rome, Berlin, Paris, Kuala Lumpur nificance present a vulnerable picture of and London have metro trains functional at a transport system today. distance less than buses running near Gladly, Lahore has advanced in the field historical buildings in Lahore. But Orange of infrastructure development by introducing train will travel at a safe distance, 80 Km/hr Orange Line Metro train. the asset of as its average speed, creating GBV of 0.03 Orange train will revolutionise the transport mm/s which can not harm the historical sector. It will uplift the living standards of buildings at any cost. common people by providing economical, the ball of blame kept rolling with the timesaving and dignified ride for all and blame that Orange Line Metro train Project sundry. is going to steal the greenery of the city but Where the majority of Lahorites are these claims were also negated as Orange looking forward to its earliest completion train project will make Lahore ten times there are some who have set Orange train as greener. for every tree being cut 10 trees will dart board for their personal gains. these be planted as compensation. along with that anti development elements have began a Orange train will liberate Lahore from baseless blame game on Orange train carbon emitting buses, vans and rickshaws. without realising its importance and It will also combat traffic congestion, traffic significance for a common man. jams and gridlocks which the civil society the people who are creating hurdles in forgot while raising their groundless the completion of Orange Line Metro train animadversions. are the enemies of development. they are the sprinkling foes also criticised Lahore spreading misinformation and myths Metro train for acquisition of land for its regarding OLMt for their personal gains. accomplishment but they were once again now with the passage of time the true side of failed in their conspiracy as the displaced were story is eminent, all the allegations and not displeased: the people who had to sacrifice speculations by the their land were given blame gamers are compensation for that. coming to an end.

It is fascinating that ‘“It’s time to realise that the there was much hue the land owners did not and cry that Orange only get their due progress and development of train will indebt the amount but additional the country is above anyone’s future generations as amount was also given our personal gains. It’s time to eXIM Bank of china is to them as not going to provide any compensation for save the have-not’s from funds but now the construction, transport crushing under the heels of critiques are num as and loss of business so eXIM Bank of china has that these people can Haves, let the underprivileged released the first tranche rebuild their present taste what privilege tastes of rs 34 billion for and have a better like: let the metro train of the OLMt. Where Orange future. It’s hard to find Line Metro train Project a parallel example in poor be built!”’ has saved rs 78.5 billion the history of Pakistan! in its construction it will the critics raised also lead to saving of questions regarding the Billions in future. rs 14.9 billion will be saved use of OLMt for disabled people. It is worth in the first five years of operation and rs mentioning that Lahore Orange Line Metro 39.38 billion on annual average over a period will not only provide a dignified ride to a of 30 years, making our generations healthy man but the physically challenged prosperous and financially stable. people (mistakenly known as Disabled) will be the introduction of Pakistan’s first mass also beneficiaries of this project. to ease the transit system in Lahore was also questioned journey of disables wheel chairs will be without realising that Lahore is in dire need available at the metro stations free of cost. of a good transportation strategy. Being the the station platforms will also have screen 18th most populous city in the world Lahore doors and escalators for the safety of disables. demands great attention in transport sector a conservation authority claimed that to fulfil the present requirements and people only come to Lahore to see historical meeting the future transportation demands. buildings and not to travel in metro train Orange Line Metro train has the capacity to which bears no truth. tourism is highly fulfil the transportation needs of the city. dependent on the provision of good Moreover Lahore is also a lucky charm, the transportation facilities. It was impossible to development projects that were once boost tourism in Lahore without making the initiated in Lahore are now cherished in required arrangements in transport sector. whole country.

Lahore orange Line Metro train is an open the anti-progress elements claimed that invitation to the tourists around the globe.

Orange train is going to destroy the beauty now tourists will rush towards Lahore to see of Lahore but the claim was invalidated soon the beautiful monuments while travelling in after revealing the strategies and plans of the a luxurious ride. construction process making Lahore more But for every blame, there was a claim beautiful and glorified. which proved that Orange train is harmless. the handful of opponents also charged It is a public friendly project for the comfort Orange train Project for diversion of funds and benefit of common people. It’s time for but the truth shined out loud. no funds could all the players of this blame game to stop be diverted as OLMt was funded by china; pointing their fingers towards the welfare of the remaining sectors got their allocated common man. funds in a better measure than previous years.

It’s time to realise that the progress and another ring was added into the chain of development of the country is above blames by calling Orange train a threat to anyone’s our personal gains. It’s time to save the historical monuments of Lahore but now the have-not’s from crushing under the heels these voices have been lowered as ‘no of Haves, let the underprivileged taste what Historic sites will be effected’. privilege tastes like: let the metro train of the these historical places would be poor be built! g

Hina Riaz

Will things be as ugly as we fear?

I

08 www.pakistantoday.com.pk

ali afzal SaHi The writer is a social activist who is currently pursuing a degree in Law from Lahore University of Management Sciences. His interests include current affairs and politics. He tweets @sahialiafzal

a

s the world continues to watch on in disbelief this year’s debacle of a race for the World’s Most Important Job, the primetime sitcom shows no signs of losing his audience anytime soon. Having received the pledges required to secure a presidential nomination from his fellow republicans, Donald trump will almost certainly be leading the rightwing charge against either clinton or sanders in the impending us presidential elections. With haywire policies so utterly disparate from those of his party colleagues — rather, those of practically any individual with a non-fascist frame of mind — trump falls left of even the leftists, and far right of the entirety of the right wing.

He is known accurately as the most unpredictable candidate to have run for the title in recent memory, but is his blustering absurdity a genuine threat to global social order? no, not particularly. to begin with, the odds for victory are stacked substantially against the golden-haired evangelist-magnet.

While few could have predicted trump’s rise to the republican nomination, the actual voting temperament of the masses is a little different. Make no mistake: It is an undeniable truth that trump is extremely adept at harnessing the collective petulance of an insecure, conservative fan base, and using it to guide both his hubris and his political agenda, which ideally should not feed off the same source. However, extremist policies like his have a wellestablished history of alienating large groups of voters, as well as failing to muster sufficient support to take down a stronger, more progressive opposition. this is especially true of democratic and socialist states. currently, authoritative prediction websites place trump’s odds of victory at 20 per cent, with the fairer clinton perceived as the most likely winner of the elections — although, interestingly, trump is predicted to lose by a much wider margin to sanders, should the latter receive the Democrat nomination in a surprise turn of events.

However, supposing trump does emerge triumphant in november, will things be as ugly as we fear? the answer, again, is no, not particularly, although this may strike some as a naive proposition. Most people are well-acquainted with the near-fact that trump’s derogatory attitude towards immigrants, minorities, Muslims, and women, can in no way translate into a well-balanced, equitable social framework. However, the fact is that many of them grossly overestimate what exactly a president of the united

‘To begin with, the odds for victory are stacked substantially against the golden-haired Evangelistmagnet. While few could have predicted Trump’s rise to the Republican nomination, the actual voting temperament of the masses is a little different’ states can legislatively accomplish. for example, with regards to trump’s plans to evict Muslims from the country, it is constitutionally impossible for a president to enforce immigration of any subset of american society, to eliminate their birthrights, or to shut down mosques. trump will have to garner huge buttress from both camps, republicans and Democrats, in order to bring constitutional amendments to achieve what he has desired. even if he manages to bring constitutional amendments, the basic structure doctrine, which is getting popular with each passing day, might come into play. even though the doctrine has not yet been adopted by the us supreme court, it has not been explicitly rejected either.

Moreover, the aforementioned three measures need to be approved at both a judicial and an individual state level, and fortunately, trump is one of a kind in his beliefs, at least on the strata of governance within the country. can trump exponentially aggravate “Islamophobia” within the united states? Yes. But it is much more likely that the political winds will change once more, and the instant that trump catches a whiff of this, and realises that there is more popularity to be had in being less radical, he will change his mind about calling for the countrywide deportation of some two million individuals. as for his plans for the Hispanic population, he may actually feasibly succeed in bullying the Mexican government into covering the construction costs for the nowinfamous thirty-foot high trump Wall, by threatening to tax their trade remittances, thus significantly harming Mexico’s GDP. However, this will do nothing to cover the trillions of dollars worth of maintenance costs the wall will incur, and, in the words of famed political satirist John Oliver, ‘it will simply create a market for thirtyone-foot ladders.’ trump is a non-event, an empty vessel creating an enormous racket, concerned solely with immortalising his brand in the minds of the american people. He continuously shifts from foot to foot on his entire spectrum of proposed policies, and flip-flops between stances on various sociopolitical issues. He may be a shrewd businessman, but he is too volatile and brash to succeed as a leader of global politics, and americans everywhere, whether right or left, are inherently cognizant of this fact. In his mind, he’s likely already won, because his raison d’être is to brand the letters truMP everywhere he deems fit. It takes much more than the human equivalent of matchstick lighting fires of catharsis at a rally to win an election, and at the end of the day, that’s really all that Donald trump is. g

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

Tariq MushTaq qureshi

The writer is a retired technocrat and former Project Head, KDB. He can be reached at: taritaq51@gmail.com; taritaq@hotmail.com

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hen Miyako Judai was six years old, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on her hometown, the port city of nagasaki. She was knocked unconscious, and her home was destroyed. She spent the next several days huddling with dozens of others in a cave on the side of a mountain.

The Guardian reported: She said that she was scared and crying and stepped on some of the bodies of the injured people, because there was no room to walk. When she finally ventured out, the city was still ablaze with towering flames.

Ms Judai was one of the fortunate ones. The bomb dropped on nagasaki the morning of Aug9, 1945, killed about 74,000 people, about half as many as those who died in the bombing of hiroshima three days earlier.

On Friday May 27, President Obama became the first sitting American president since the end of World War II to visit

What about us?

The people of nagasaki ask hiroshima. nagasaki is not on the itinerary.

While invoking hiroshima has become universal shorthand for the horrors of nuclear war, nagasaki, on the south-western island of Kyushu, has mostly lived in the other city’s shadow.

Yet many in nagasaki recognise that hiroshima, in some ways, stands in for both cities. They say the message they want the world to take from Mr Obama’s visit that nuclear weapons must never again be used, does not require that he set foot in their city.

That nagasaki was bombed second has made it an afterthought in the history of and debate over nuclear weapons, even though many historians argue that the bombing was harder to justify precisely because it was a repeated act.

If one accepts President harry Truman’s rationale that the hiroshima bombing was necessary to force Japan’s surrender and end the war, the moral calculus for dropping a second bomb on a civilian population three days later is more contentious. It was a very hard, harsh and inhuman decision by the president.

Close to 700,000 people a year visit the nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, compared with

nearly 1.5 million at the hiroshima Peace Memorial, where Mr Obama lay a wreath on Friday.

Ms Judai, now 76 and a retired schoolteacher, said she admired the president’s decision to visit hiroshima and understood that his schedule did not allow him to visit both cities.

Still, she said, the nagasaki survivors should at least be invited to the ceremony in hiroshima. She said that she feels like nagasaki has been abandoned and thrown away.

As Japan wrestles with its own history of wartime atrocities, and as scholars and politicians here and in the United States continue to debate the use of the atomic bomb, nagasaki, in many ways, offers a more complex narrative than hiroshima does.

One of the earliest Japanese cities to have contact with traders

‘While invoking Hiroshima has become universal shorthand for the horrors of nuclear war, Nagasaki, on the south-western island of Kyushu, has mostly lived in the other city’s shadow’

from the West, including Portuguese and Dutch explorers, nagasaki is also the oldest having stronghold of Roman Catholicism in Japan.

When American pilots dropped the bomb, the devastation swept across Urakami Cathedral, then the largest cathedral in east Asia.

About 8,000 Catholics in the area were killed. For the nagasaki Christians, long ostracised in Japan over their faith, it was a bitter truth that their community was destroyed by a predominantly Christian nation, in a mission blessed by a Roman Catholic chaplain. nagasaki’s Catholic heritage, combined with hiroshima’s vocal role as a centre of antinuclear activities, helped give rise to the Japanese saying “Ikari no hiroshima, Inori no nagasaki,” or “hiroshima rages, nagasaki prays.”

In 1990, hitoshi Motoshima, then nagasaki’s mayor, was shot and wounded by a right-wing nationalist after he suggested that emperor hirohito should bear some responsibility for World War II. Around the same time, a city assemblyman, Oka Masaharu, founded a museum to commemorate the Korean labourers who were conscripted to work in wartime factories in

opinion ‘Yoshitoshi Fukahori, 87, a bomb survivor, said he did not quite understand the fuss about the president’s visit after so many years of devastated action of United States, yet he welcomes it’ nagasaki and who were either killed or wounded by the atomic bomb.

Toshiaki Shibata, the former secretary general of the Masaharu Oka museum and the son of two bomb survivors, said he was glad Mr Obama would not visit nagasaki. Mr Shibata, 65, contends that it would be better if he doesn’t visit nagasaki.

Yoshitoshi Fukahori, 87, a bomb survivor, said he did not quite understand the fuss about the president’s visit after so many years of devastated action of United States, yet he welcomes it.

A visit to nagasaki, it is not necessary. he urged that it’s imperative for Obama to stop bloodshed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

I see people get their hopes up, and then are disappointed, so I don’t want to put too much stock in words. Point is why Mr Obama wanted to visit hiroshima after so many years. every Japanese feels it was unnecessary and has once again put them in tears for the tragedy they have faced and its aftermath for so many years. They also feel that the killings in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are due to the America’s aggression towards control of the world. g

Livestock diligence and rotavirus fear nadia MukhTar The writer is a PhD scholar in Microbiology.

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n developing countries where cases of malnutrition are very common in young children and animals, rotavirus has a special importance as an etiologic agent causing calves to scour between five to fourteen days of age.

It causes severe diarrhoea, when accompanied with severe dehydration, leads to high rate of mortality. Among the rest of the infectious diseases present in calves, neonatal diarrhoea is a dire threat as it has a major impact on economic viability. Rotavirus awareness survey depicts that more than half (52 per cent) of the mothers of the population had never heard of rotavirus and 28 per cent were not familiar or not at all familiar with it. The same is the case with the livestock sector.

More than 50% of the farmers in Pakistan are not aware about the viral pathogens responsible for neonatal diarrhoea.

The cattle and buffalo calves’ population in Pakistan is devastatingly affected by the neonatal calf diarrhoea due to rotavirus outbreaks. neonatal calf mortality varies from 8.7 to 64 per cent throughout the world accounting for 84 per cent of the total mortality in the first month of age and is particularly high in the third week.

Bovine rotaviruses are members of genus Rotavirus within the family Reoviridae having diameter 70-75 nm, Icosahedron and non-enveloped. The genome is double stranded RnA having 11 segments, which encodes six structural viral proteins and six non-structural

“All diseases begin from the gut” proteins. Seven groups of rotaviruses are on the basis of VP6. These groups are named as A to G. Group A bovine rotaviruses cause neonatal calf diarrhoea, which is economically an important disease of calves causing mortality and is one of the leading factors of a significant economic loss. In neonatal calves, about 5–20% of the mortality rate is observed due to bovine rotaviruses. In calves, average incidence and prevalence of the infection is 30-40%.

Three countries in the subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) account for >30% of all rotavirus-related deaths worldwide. Overall Prevalence of bovine rotavirus infection in Pakistan is 2.6%. higher prevalence of 3% was recorded in Okara and Rawalpindi districts, but in Lahore 2%.

While vaccination is available for the disease, it is being imported in Pakistan from other countries. The importation of the said vaccine thus, leads to extra expenses for the farm managers. One of the aims of my study was to develop an effective vaccine against bovine rotavirus and cut down expenses for farm managers.

A series of experiments were conducted at Department of Microbiology, University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences Lahore under the supervision of

‘“While vaccination is available for the disease, it is being imported in Pakistan from other countries. The importation of the said vaccine thus, leads to extra expenses for the farm managers”’

Prof Dr Tahir Yaqub. This study was funded by Punjab Agriculture Research Board, Lahore Pakistan. Almost 200 samples were collected from public/private sector buffalo and cattle farms from 10 districts of the Punjab: Lahore, Faisalabad, Okara, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Chakwal, Bhakkar, Bahawalnagar, Multan and Bahawalpur.

The samples were selected on the basis of agro-ecological zones of the province. As sampling based on agro-ecological zones allow for better data collection for recording incidence rate of the disease. A total of 12 rotavirus isolates has been confirmed from collected samples from different districts of Punjab revealing the existence of prevailing strain of rotavirus among livestock population of Punjab, Pakistan.

The bovine rotavirus was isolated and identified using different microbiological techniques, enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (eLISA), Cell culture, reverse transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) and genome sequencing. The two antigenic genes VP4 and VP6 were studied for virus grouping and homology depicting the similarities as well as differences of the bovine rotavirus strain present in Pakistani isolates when compared to local regions as well as international ones. The data shows the prevailing rotavirus strain is showing up to 90% homology with that of Indian rotavirus strain. As a matter of fact, RnA viruses are known to mutate unpredictably and it is safe to assume that a particular vaccine might not work effectively against all strains of a particular virus. That’s why analysis of data pertaining to all possible Bovine Rotavirus strains is important for

‘“The need of the time is to make the general public, farmers and students to educate themselves and their families aware about the transmission of this precarious virus and sue of effective vaccine for public and livestock health”’ creation of an effective vaccine of import quality in order to help the economy of Pakistan. This important aspect was furnished in the current approach.

Rotavirus isolate, after adaptation on MDBK cell line and molecular characterisation was further propagated for vaccine preparation purposes. Final dose of the vaccine was adjusted to approximately 3ml. The field study was done at Livestock Production Research Institute, (LPRI) Bahadur nagar, Okara to evaluate the prepared rotavirus vaccine for prevention of neonatal calf diarrhoea. It was observed that the use of killed vaccine for bovines produced more efficient immune response in calves. These results indicated the protective maternal antibody level against the rotavirus which will be transferred passively to calves. The vaccinated dams (Buffalo and Cattle) were able to provide passive immunity to new born calves in order to provide protection against the deadly virus.

The need of the time is to make the general public, farmers and students to educate themselves and their families aware about the transmission of this precarious virus and sue of effective vaccine for public and livestock health.

“All diseases begin from the GUT so protect your livestock, eat healthy and live healthy.” g www.pakistantoday.com.pk 09

C M YK

interview: khurshid mahmud kasuri

‘Pak foreign Policy is in doldrums’ Pak-Afghan border must be fenced

shahab Jafry

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nce again Pakistan is being overtaken by events, and once again it is because of our own inaction that we are behind the curve. At home everything takes second place to the ruling family’s political survival. It is not even about PML-n anymore. The opposition, even PTI, is fine with the party staying as long as the PM steps aside and the investigation reaches its conclusion. But the Sharifs will have none of it. And, therefore, neither will the kitchen cabinet; they depend, after all, on Sharifs’ largesse or they’d still be scattered, second-tier politicians. nawaz will do anything to keep from being thrown out a third time. even PPP managed better. But this fight for survival is already consuming all the government’s, and the opposition’s, energies. That is why the ruling party is footdragging on the ToRs. And of course it doesn’t mind that the opposition’s own breakdown is helping prolong the issue.

Yet things have already reached the point where nawaz has no easy choices. even a clean run to the finish line will, eventually, most likely lead to disappointment. He’s been unable to do anything about his main campaign promises. There’s no expansion of the tax net. exports are brining no more foreign exchange than the previous regime, and the power crisis is still as big a nightmare.

Then, of course, there were Orange Lines and some mega projects, but if the last couple of years winding the cycle are consumed by politics of survival, there’ll be little to sell at election time.

But these are hardly

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Pakistan’s biggest problems.

Mian sb, even with the open heart surgery, cannot afford not to be concerned by the country’s deepening international isolation.

First the Afghans, suddenly and apparently unilaterally, threw us out of the Quadrilateral. Then, expectedly, came a whole lot more ‘do more’ from the US. The tone was clearly stiffer this time.

The F16s did not come. And there can be little ambiguity about the Haqqanis from here, especially since the new Taliban leader has brought them back to the forefront of the insurgency just as it is cutting deeper into the

‘This situation has arisen, in my opinion, because civilian government and military leadership are not on the same page. Nawaz Sharif seems to have a strange decision making problem, especially with regard to foreign policy’ American withdrawal program.

Then, of course, there is the deepening chill with India.

Things seemed suddenly moving in the right direction last December – when Modi surprisingly dropped by for nawaz’s birthday – but Pathankot put a spanner in the works that is yet to be straightened out.

These developments were bad enough in isolation. But now, with the India-Afghanistan-Iran pact, Pakistan is suddenly far more isolated than before.

To understand this situation,

DNA talked exclusively to Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, the most successful of Pakistan’s recent foreign ministers.

Question: Were you surprised that three of our neighbours entered into a pact that left us out? What does this development signify for Pakistan? What lessons should we learn from this?

Khurshid Kasuri: I’m not surprised at all by these developments. They were building for ten years. It’s quite simple to understand, really. If we don’t grant India the trade way it is seeking, it will obviously find another route. And even with Afghanistan, we have only given it one-way access. So, it is natural for it to find an alternative. These countries were working on just such a plan for a while now. And now things have come together for them. That is why I’m not surprised at all.

What this signifies for Pakistan is that our foreign policy is in the doldrums, which is unfortunate. We should have pursued very active diplomacy with Iran in the immediate aftermath of its lifting of sanctions. Iran’s natural inclination was to tilt towards Pakistan as well. But we did not handle that situation properly at all. Therefore, it was natural for those three countries to watch out for their own interests.

This situation has arisen, in my opinion, because civilian government and military leadership are not on the same page. nawaz Sharif seems to have a strange decision making problem, especially with regard to foreign policy. There is no discussion about different options. There is no input from

the foreign office. He does not like debate. He just relies on close family and associates for all decisions.

Q: Why is there still no foreign minister? Has not having one made the situation worse?

KK: What can I say about the foreign minister question really?

Obviously not having a full time, dedicated foreign minister has created a huge vacuum.

Resultantly, there is no movement in foreign policy. It has become static. It is a disastrous situation. And like I said, there is no involvement of

‘If the Americans are really serious about cross border infiltration, they should help Pakistan fence the border. If India can do it, so can Pakistan. I raised this point at a NATO summit in Potsdam in ’07’ the foreign office. That is especially regrettable. even without a foreign minister, simply taking input from the FO can benefit the prime minister to a large extent. The FO is a highly trained and professional institution. In fact, I would say that after the armed forces, it is the most professional institution in the country.

And to come back to the question about the minister; it is probably because the prime minister lacks confidence. Maybe a strong and assertive foreign minister would make him

uncomfortable. But that, too, is difficult to understand. This is his third time as PM. He should have overcome such things by now.

Also, he really needs to work on his decision making skills.

Q: Considering much of foreign policy was being handled by the military, do you see some of these problems as a failure on the part of the military to handle the external environment?

KK: I don’t see it that way. It is the responsibility of the government to steer foreign policy. But the Afghan situation, especially, is complicated. The country is in a bad state. The government is dysfunctional.

They still don’t have a defence minister or a foreign minister.

There are still large differences between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah.

But Ghani did go out of his way to make peace. And now that it has not worked out, Pakistan is being blamed for all the problems. There is no doubt Pakistan has problems. We have been struggling with these problems since ’79. And now, finally, we have begun confronting some of them.

Yet our partners in this war must also take responsibility for their own shortcomings. US policy in the region is just not sustainable. Simply blaming Pakistan will not make those problems go away.

As for the military running foreign policy; when the government backs down from active control of policy, a vacuum is created. It was natural for the army to fill this vacuum. It is important to realise that foreign policy has a very direct bearing on national security, especially in times like the present.

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

Q: Do you fear more attacks of the kind that took out Mullah Mansour?

KK: I hope not, but I can’t really rule them out. However, such tactics are always counterproductive. The US might seem tough pursuing this policy, but in fact it is an admission of defeat.

Obama himself said negotiations were the way out not too long ago. Earlier on, too, he called Afghanistan the good war and

Iraq the bad war. He was going to wrap this up properly. But now, after trying for peace and involving four countries, having to drone inside Balochistan is an admission of failure of the original policy.

I can’t see how bombing Balochistan will serve American interests. Perhaps it’s for internal political consumption ahead of their presidential election. The Republicans have hounded the

Obama administration for a weak foreign policy, especially regarding Pakistan. Perhaps this was meant to send different messages to different players.

Eventually, though, they will come back to the talks. If 150,000 troops could not end the war, 10,000 cannot either. The Iranian connection shows that they, too, understand the Taliban reality and the need to talk.

And if the Americans are

really serious about cross border infiltration, they should help Pakistan fence the border. If India can do it, so can Pakistan. I raised this point at a NATO summit in Potsdam in ’07. This was the site of the historic Potsdam Conference of ’45, where Stalin, Truman and Attlee met.

I told them that if checking border incursions was so important, they should help build a fence on the border. The

Canadian foreign minister agreed with me, but did not comment openly. Karzai had made a big fuss over the Durand Line at the time.

But they have to be practical.

They have spent trillions there.

And they still keep blaming Pakistan for all sorts of movement on the border. In everybody’s interest, therefore, they must cooperate with the fencing. I strongly advocate it. g www.pakistantoday.com.pk 11

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

opinion Samreen aamir Bari

The true meaning of Jihad It’s not what you may have heard

The writer is a freelance columnist.

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E cannot deny the fact that this globalised world is responsible of damaging the basic teachings and terminologies of the religion of peace that is Islam. The so called independent and free international media is actually biased and its total nonprofessional attitude is actually following a planned activity to spoil the image of Islam.

Jihad is an arabic word; the root word of Jihad is ‘juhd’ which means effort or struggle. Islam teaches the lesson of monotheism and oneness of the creator. Men are caliphates of god on earth and it is their duty to live according to the teaching and beliefs of allah and to spread and guide people to follow the right path. The concept of jihad has been hijacked by many political and religious groups and especially the west over the ages to justify various forms of violence.

What is Jihad?

In the English dictionary this word is incorrectly interpreted as ‘holy war’ and we cannot find any meaning related to the philosophy behind this word. This deed of discrimination put negative waves on the mind of the people. according to oxford dictionary the word jihad means struggle among Muslims or struggle against unbelievers.

Merriam-Webster dictionary is defining the term jihad with these words: a war fought by Muslims to defend or spread their beliefs.

Cambridge Dictionary is using completely different words to describe this term Jihad is a religious struggle to fight against evil in you or in society or a holy

war fought by Muslims against people who are threat to Islam.

The free online dictionary describes Jihad as Muslims holy war or spiritual struggle for the propagation or defence of Islam.

Collins dictionary has defined the term Jihad as a Muslim holy war or spiritual struggle for the propagation or defence of Islam. according to Longman dictionary Jihad is: a holy war fought by Muslims Macmillan defines the term Jihad as: a holy war or fight that Muslims take part in to defend Islam.

Now let’s investigate the actual and proper meaning of the word Jihad. as we know that Islam is not only a religion but it provides us the set of ideologies with revolutionary ideas and practices. It is not at all difficult for Muslims to follow these ideologies throughout their lives.

Islam has adopted the terminologies of its own to describe its ideologies and practices. according to Islam every positive effort beneficial for human is jihad. West has deliberately interpreted and shaded the actual meaning of most of these terminologies. The most common example is the word Jihad. arabic dictionary describes the word Jihad as: The root of the word “jihad” is “juhd” which means “effort.” shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani of The Islamic supreme Council of america has defined the term Jihad with these words the word ‘jihad’ means struggling or striving.

The Muslims Internet dictionary is describing the word Jihad as: means to strive. This can be any kind of striving in the way of God which involves either

DurDana naJam

The writer is a journalist working with News Lens Pakistan. She can be contacted at: durdananajam1@gmail.com

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as not the time arrived to view the situation in the Indian-held Kashmir from a different perspective? The insurgency, since the call for Azadi (independence), was first made in the valley after the rigged elections of 1987, has drowned almost two generations into the agony of separation and destitute. The pain emanating from the atrocities meted out both by the Indian government and the militant crossing over into the valley is more a saga of humanitarian crisis than political, as we had been trained to view.

Death is a far more manageable grief then disappearance. Uncertainty kills, and it kills more painfully when one is a woman whose shelf life depends on her age and fertility. For every disappearing man in Kashmir, if he is married and has children, it means one half-widow and as many or more half-orphanages. The half-widow nomenclature has been coined for those women whose husbands had disappeared all of a sudden. These men were not necessarily militants. Most of them were on their job or

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spiritual or personal effort, material resources, or arms.

Islamic revival publications define the word Jihad as “Jihad’ is extracted from the source, ‘Jaahada’ and it measured upon the fourth verb structure, which means interaction between two sides, al-Mufa’ala. seyyed Hossein Nasr describes jihad with these words: Jihad is derived from the root jhd whose primary meaning is to strive or to exert one self.

Maulana Maududi describe this term very beautifully: Jihad is a synonym with struggle. In English dictionaries this word can be expressed as ‘to exert one’s utmost endeavour in promoting a cause Quranic definition of Jihad As we know that Quran uses the terminologies of its own with deep philosophical and meaningful reasons therefore to define and to explain its terminologies or Quranic verses an in depth knowledge is required. For war we have another word ‘al-harb’ but jihad is the philosophy that focuses around the word ‘jhd’ ‘strive’ struggle’ Glorious Quran is describing this terminology beautifully :“The true believers are those who believe in God and His messenger, then attain the status of having no doubt whatsoever, and strive (jahadu) with their money and their lives in the cause of God. These are the truthful ones.” 49:15 “Those who believe, and emigrate, and strive (jahadu) in the cause of God with their money and their lives, are far greater in rank in the sight of God. These are the winners.” 9:20 “As for the messenger and

those who believed with him, they eagerly strive (jahadu) with their money and their lives. These have deserved all the good things; they are the winners.” 9:88 The sacredness of life in Islam Islam is the religion that emphasizes and focus greatly on human being the life of a non Muslim is as vital as the life of a Muslim. allah Ta’ala has illustrate the weight of life in this verse “…take not life, which God hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom.” [Al-Qur’an 6:151] Or we can also understand the value of human life in Islam with this verse “…if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” [Al-Qur’an 5:32] That means the cost of human life is so huge, that the Qur’an equates the taking of even one human life unreasonably with the assassination of all humanity.

Therefore we can say that Islam is the set of ideologies that teaches its believers to love the humanity and to spread peace and love in this world.

Islam imparts the Muslims to have faith on unanimity of God, all the supremacy goes to God and the human are his Caliphates on earth therefore this is inevitable to follow the teachings and directions of God. The one who has authority is truly the one who is being assigned by the God to accomplish these responsibilities and he will be answered to God on the Day of Judgment therefore the factual Muslim rulers behave according to the perimeters and limitations define by the Creator. Whereas those who do not ponder them as answerable

Indian Held Kashmir The story of ‘unacknowledged’ human tragedy walking back to their homes from work or enjoying an evening with their families at home when the security forces took them out and left. Where? Nobody could know.

Forced by cultural and legal bindings, these women would often resign to their fate. Unimportant, and caught between the marriage and inheritance laws of the Islamic Jurisprudence, many have seen their hair grow gray and faces wrinkled with hope still ignited to see their husbands walk through the gates of their battered homes.

The question is, what is more important: territories or human lives?

Whose problem is Kashmir? Is it the integral part of India or is it the jugular line of Pakistan? Does the handler of the Mujahedeen know the miseries of the ordinary folks living in the valley whose lives have been paralysed by the nexus of soldiers and informers? The poverty and underdevelopment that shrouds Kashmir seems to be nobody’s business. all the conferences, seminars, discussion or estrangements between Pakistan and India over Kashmir are about the sixty kilometre Line of Control that both the nations want to own or remove in each other’s favour. In these political shows, no one talks about halfwidows. about the parents who have lost young sons for no other reason than being somewhere at the wrong time with the wrong people. about the disturbing fact: that in the case of earthquakes and floods, Kashmiris still die - in spite of all the army and helicopters – because of hunger and harsh weather. One

shrinks even to spell it out. How would the sufferers have been bearing it, needs a heart dispassionate of politics to understand?

Militancy might have been mowed down, but alienation remains and seethes, rearing its head whenever there is an occasion for it.

The unfolding of incidents in Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi and the National Institute of Technology in srinagar are a few examples of alienation. Instead of handling the situation politically, it was coerced into silence, by the Indian government.

The inhabitants of Kashmir, however, are learning to find solutions to domestic issues irrespective of government’s intervention.

Kashmir’s biggest seminary Darul Uloom Rahimiya has of late worked on passing an edict to legalise the acceptance of medical insurance.

In 2013, a group of six Islamic scholars from various schools of thought issued a decree that allowed women whose husbands had gone missing for more than four years to remarry.

This decision needs further deliberations, though. as quoted by the Indian Express in March 2014, many Muslim scholars in India want this decision revised. Mujahid shabir Falahi, the representative of the Jamaat-eIslami, said that if a woman was of marriage age and her husband had not left her much of wealth to sustain a living, she should remarry immediately. another religious scholar, showkat ahmad Keng of the anjuman Himayat-ul-Islam wanted this period brought down to one year.

to God treat their people as slaves “and when he captures power he creates strife on earth. He spoils the fields and annihilates generations. and God disapproves of strife”. (2: 35) The Qur’an do not preaches us to develop and maintain conflicts with the non Muslim people and countries in fact requires that Muslims perform themselves with justice and self-respect in all matters, and especially in view to interfaith relations, as indicated by the following verse: “allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for allah loveth those who are just.” [al-Qur’an 60:8] Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious. “(Surah Al-Nahl, verse 125) Infact allah Taa’la rejects and discourage the people who drop their temper Qurânic verses regarding annoyance allâh Ta’âla has explained three qualities of his special servants in this verse:1) Those who swallow their anger, 2) They forgive the mistakes of Our servants, 3) They not only forgive, but do an act of kindness upon them, and allah loves such people.

The above all discussion clarifies that the focal point of every religion is Human and Islam in particular is a religion that commands its followers to spread, peace, love, patience, tolerance, brotherhood, justice, equality, social and economic order etc in the world therefore this glorious religion cannot and does not commands or instruct or teach the believers to kill anyone without any reason yet in Islam bearing of unjust cruelty is also a sin. g

another issue that has still not been resolved and has hindered women to avail the remarriage verdict is the transfer of inheritance from the grandparents to their grandchildren. The sharia, (Islamic Jurisprudence) denies any such right to the children if the father is missing. Many women have been thrown out of their homes while a lot have restrained from remarrying to keep the children at least in the shadows of their paternal families.

Of late the Kashmiri youth, even the leadership of Hurriyat, and many international players that Pakistan looks at for regional peace find infiltration into Kashmir a burden that should shed off.

Killings have become kosher in Kashmir. a bullet pumped into the body of a Kashmiri youth becomes a legal act when viewed through the lens of the Prevention of Terrorism act, 2002 or other such laws. More stringent legislations are in the offing to keep the valley well into the bound of the Indian government, such as the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. This bill is aimed at remapping Kashmir as a non-disputed part of India.

This agony and the ruthless solution to end the conundrum of Kashmir will have no end unless a new paradigm is developed to look at the situation. The Kashmiris are after all human beings having lived among guns and ruthless legal laws for too long now. Like any other people, they want to be educated. The new generation does not need cross-border infiltration to achieve freedom. Neither do they lack the fire required to get themselves free from the fetters of Indian atrocities. What they need most is the world, attentive to the sufferings inflicted on them. and the political leadership of both India and Pakistan need to find what the former President of Pakistan General Musharraf once called the Out-of-the-box solution. g

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

heritAge

Ayub Shah’s bungalow

And dreams that don’t come true

tAniA Qureshi The writer is a media professional and can be reached at: taniaq29@gmail.com

K

ashmiri Gate falls between the sheranwala and masti gates on the circular road and is adjacent to Delhi Gate. The Kashmiri Gate is named so because it faces the direction of Kashmir. During mughal rule Kashmir had an immense importance and so did this gate. it is one of the gates which were reconstructed by the British in a much simpler form and has a similar architectural character as the Bhati Gate. Like other gates, the interior of this gate has many shops which are mostly encroachments. This is one of the main issues of deterioration of monuments inside the Walled City. most of

the Gates and monuments are encroached upon by several encroachments. as we traverse through the gates of the Walled City we start noticing the temporary stalls and vendors occupying the place. in this gate as well, there are tea, lassi, fruit and juice stalls. another interesting fact about Kashmiri Gate is that it is located on the highest point inside The Walled City. The city was constructed over a mound and archival pictures and paintings show the gate as the highest point of the city. at the same point comes another marvel of the old times, near Kashmiri Ghatti, the Bungalow of ayub shah. it was built in the sikh period in 1849, and was taken over by an afghan chieftain ayub shah who came from afghanistan. he rebuilt the building and later sold it to the afghan royal’s Chief shahzada sultan. in 1960 the family sold most part of the property and only one third of this famous Bungalow is left now. Bungalow of ayub shah was important as the “secret escape tunnels” emerged from there and headed towards ravi river and Delhi Darwaza.

Bungalow of ayub shah is not

‘Another interesting fact about Kashmiri Gate is that it is located on the highest point inside The Walled City. The city was constructed over a mound and archival pictures and paintings show the gate as the highest point of the city’ much popular among the masses and neither is it a tourist spot. still if i post something about it on social media many questions arise about its location and history. Neither is there much information related to it on the internet. if you visit this place the only structure you would see is a roman style veranda on the front side, the rest of the building has collided with the passage of time.

Originally the bungalow was a three storey building having two basements and a ground floor. as we see today, the major portion of the building has fallen apart. its condition is as much due to negligence as aging. Originally the building was built with small

sized bricks. The roofs were wooden composed of beam and batten system. The exterior and interior were finished with lime plaster as seen from the remains.

The bungalow has almost collapsed and in the very near future there will be hardly any remains if it is not well kept or restored. all these features which i have mentioned are derived out of its existing parts; you will not find many details in books or internet. it must have been a magnificent building, rather a castle, but now it is in ruins. On both sides of the building one can see high rise plazas, which have now been constructed around it.

The possession of the bungalow is with the City District Government Lahore but there is no treatment of the building in terms of conservation or even restoration. The parking area of the bungalow is taken over by the plaza mafia, which has set up a resting cum sitting place there.

You will not be allowed to photograph the place as the pressure of mafia is so influential. in my opinion, the bungalow if restored is a masterpiece of architecture. it can be put to many re-uses if desired by the concerned authorities. a small

‘The possession of the bungalow is with the City District Government Lahore but there is no treatment of the building in terms of conservation or even restoration. The parking area of the bungalow is taken over by the plaza mafia, which has set up a resting cum sitting place there’ café cum museum can be established there. The place is nicely accessible by vehicles or can be turned pedestrian. if we take international examples, such places are converted into tourist spots. i wish we follow in those footsteps too. You can take a nice view of the city while sitting at that place. i wish i see arts students sitting and painting the sites there, street performers playing flute and violin, hustle and bustle of people in the café and children being fascinated by the museum. i wish these dreams come true one day. g

www.pakistantoday.com.pk 13

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

bookS

men on the spot

bAShArAt huSSAin QizilbASh

What they could do; and what they did

The writer is an academic and a journalist. He can be reached at qizilbash2000@yahoo.com

“G

Hosts of Empire” is the maiden work of kwasi kwarteng, who is an historian by training having earned his doctorate from Cambridge and a politician by profession — a rare combination indeed in our part of the world. the study of making and unmaking of the British Empire has been a popular subject among all hues of writers; kwarteng’s work is different because it studies colonialism from the perspective of the colonial administrators, who ruled in the colonies subjugated by British imperialism. keeping in view the vastness of the subject, he has restricted his enquiry to the case studies of colonial iraq, kashmir, Burma, sudan, nigeria and Hong kong. through the words and deeds of the characters that played significant roles in the colonies, the author has tried to explain the ‘guiding philosophy’ behind the process of the British empire-making. through the words of Benjamin Disraeli in the House of Lords in the heyday of the imperial conquests in 1878, we are told that this British statesman wanted the subjugated and the yet-to-be-enslaved people of the East to know that the British Empire was as an epitome of liberty, truth and justice. these were not the only ideals of colonial governance; they kept changing with changing times and often conflicted depending upon the statesmen that interpreted them. For example, to the oldfashioned economic liberals such as Winston Churchill, the guiding economic principle of the empire was free trade but for Joseph Chamberlain it was economic protectionism whereby goods from colonies were preferred through light taxation in comparison to the goods that were imported from Britain’s

AromA ShAhid

imperial rivals such as Germany and the Us. Moreover, the author perceptively points out that the words such as democracy and liberal economics were noticeably absent from Disraeli’s speech. this was because the empire was neither liberal nor democratic rather it “openly repudiated ideas of human equality and put power and responsibility into the hands of chosen elite, drawn from a tiny proportion of the population in Britain.” this raises the question as to what constituted this elitism.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, an important change had occurred as it did not matter to which family one belonged to as Dr Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell wrote: “now in England being of an old family was of no consequence.” so what was of consequence for one to rise and shine in imperial Britain? the answer lay in being educated at the right schools and universities with Eton and Harrow at the top of about fifteen elite schools and oxford and Cambridge topping the list of the universities. those who aspired flourishing careers as colonial administrators were expected to master classics, languages, cultures and histories while the study of technical subjects was considered below prestige which can be understood from a comment about the Professor of Engineering at oxford who was belittled by his colleagues as the “Professor of Jam-Making.” as the base of this elitism was meritocracy and not family lineage, therefore, sons (surprisingly not daughters) of even anonymous middle class families could climb the social ladder as is evident from the case of Ramsay Macdonald who went on to become the Labour Party’s first prime minister despite being the illegitimate son of a scottish housemaid. though the educational background made the colonial administrators a class in themselves, they were a bewildering mix of evangelical Christians, atheists, conservatives, liberals and even radicals — all committed to the service of the empire. it is generally believed that the imperial

policies for the colonies were conceived, planned and controlled by the policy makers at White Hall in London; the author has demolished this thesis by arguing that the ways and means of executing these policies remained very much at the discretion of the “man on the spot,” who pursued whatever action he deemed fit, thus the blame of “chronic instability” in the empire has been put on these “powerful individuals,” who, in the opinion of the author “directed imperial policy with little supervision from White Hall.” such was the power of these “powerful individuals” that with the proverbial sweep of hand, they could reverse the policies pursued for decades. For example, after the war of 1857, the British government in principle discarded the policy of annexations thus allowing the princely rulers of india to retain their princely states but Lord Randolph Churchill went against this imperial policy by abolishing the monarchy in Burma. though not written by the author of this book, it is common knowledge that the original Partition Plan of the indian subcontinent devised by Viceroy Lord Mountbatten and sent for the approval of the British parliament through his chief of staff Lord ismay was changed by him when the Congress President Jawaharlal nehru threatened to reject it in a confidential whisky-after-dinner meeting with Mountbatten at simla causing great embarrassment for ismay as well as the British government, but such was the power of the man on the spot that the revised plan acceptable to nehru and not shared with any other indian leader or political party was passed by the “mother of parliaments” as the indian independence act of 1947 in just ten minutes. india and Burma were not the only examples. Major policy reversals were also brought about by the “men on the spot” such as kitchener in sudan, Lugard in nigeria and alexander Grantham in Hong kong.

While monarchy was done away in Burma, it remained the chosen instrument to perpetuate British imperialism in iraq and Egypt unlike the French who were more

inclined towards setting up republican governments in their colonial possessions. no wonder when the French deposed Faisal as the king of syria in 1920, it was the British who made him the king of iraq. on one hand the imperialists in London were dependent on their “men on the spot” to further the imperialist cause; these “men on the spot” were in turn dependent on the native maharajas, sultans and nawabs to effectively implement the imperial agenda in the subjugated territories. almost a third of the indian subcontinent was controlled through these princely props while the rest was managed by the collaborating native elite nurtured in modern education and western traditions. kwarteng’s re-reading of the history is that all the good and the bad that happened in these six British colonies was the work of the “men on the spot” and the imperialist policy makers in White Hall and colonial office could not be blamed because they were totally helpless being far away from the actual theatres of colonial operations. Where the messy situations turned into ‘ghosts’ that still haunt the world such as the still unresolved dispute of kashmir state, the author has put the onus of failure on the native elite, which in this case was the Maharaja of kashmir, giving a clean chit to Viceroy Mountbatten and his masters in London. g

Of our war and our enemies deconstructing an ideology of extremism

P

The writer is a member of staff.

akistan is perceived as the world’s most dangerous country; a nation with a severe socioeconomic crisis, a country with the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world, and with political leadership that has not yet reached a consensus regarding their policy against terrorism. Yasir Pirzada’s ‘Bayane ki Jang’ is a compilation of his work that provides an analytical approach towards Pakistan’s ‘War on terror’. as the title suggests, the book highlights the differences in narratives of the stakeholders involved in the fight against terrorism in Pakistan. the author begins with narrating the period that faced the initiation of extremist attacks and tries to find the cause that led Pakistan towards its downfall. the writer pens down an insightful series of arguments countering this point of view

14 www.pakistantoday.com.pk

throughout several chapters of the book. a majority of Pakistanis believe that frequent Us drone attacks in Pakistan’s territory are the cause of terrorism, as a result, taliban carry suicide attacks to avenge deaths of innocent citizens.

Us drone strikes can remotely target terrorist networks in far-away locations. taliban, however, target women, children, religious minorities and Pakistan’s security forces instead of the responsible authorities concerning drone attacks. the writer believes that the main cause of brewing terrorism in the region is not due to drone attacks but because of the nation’s failure of settling over an effective policy against terrorism. according to the writer, most religious factions of our society agree with the taliban’s ideology regarding the implementation of sharia Law in the country. taliban’s narrative promotes religious extremism to end the injustice in the society, to curb poverty in the region and to initiate the ‘khilafat movement’ after demolishing democracy.

However, the implementation of

sharia Law in negotiating areas under with the Bayane ki Jang taliban’s reign militants and Written by: Yasir Pirzada Publisher: Dost Publications, proves this offering Syed Plaza Chatter Jee Road, ideology to be incentives to Urdu Bazar, Lahore. futile. the insurgents.

Pages: 300 the country taliban is divided apologists between support what ‘taliban apologists’ and they believe and oppose the people ‘detractors’. the writer uses a they are against. the taliban sardonic tone to discuss the opponents are the silent minority narratives of taliban apologists of people in Pakistan who publicly who continue to press on oppose their actions and ideology.

the reason why terrorism continues to be a major threat to Pakistan is because the nation is torn between the decision to whether fight the militants in the region or to hold negotiations and make an effort to live in peace together under the same roof.

Until all parties reach an agreement on the policy against terrorism, this problem will continue to destabilise us and the Us will not stop conducting the drone attacks that breach our territory and violate our sovereignty. the book contains balancing and convincing arguments and evaluates the role of the forces in Pakistan that have conflicting narratives regarding terrorism. it is difficult to state whether the book introduces several new ideas or not while eliminating the existing prejudices. to conclude, the writer explains that the most effective way to curb terrorism in Pakistan to first settle on a unanimous decision on whether we accept taliban as ‘one of our own’ or as the enemy. the categorisation of these terrorists as ‘Good taliban’ and ‘Bad taliban’ needs to end in order to once and for all destruct the ideology that continues to breed extremism in Pakistan. g

C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016 Literary Men and Matters

syed afsar sajid

The writer is a Faisalabad-based former bureaucrat, poet, literary and cultural analyst, and an academic. He can be reached at afsar.sajid@hotmail.com

A

nwar ali Qureshi (1913-1971) was a distinguished educationist and a poet of reckoning. His son Masood ahmad Qureshi has recently published a collection of his verse titled Bang-e-Sirafil. Prof Dr Syed Qasim Jalal (b 1948) is a multilingual poet. His Persian and Punjabi verse collections Payam-e-Inqilab and Gujjhay Raaz raise the number of his literary publications to twenty-four. Prof Shahid Hameed (b 1928), another eminent educationist, has brought out the translated version of Ernest Hemingway’s (1899-1961) popular novel The Old Man and the Sea (1952) under the title of Boorha aur Samundar. This review seeks to cover these works.

Bang-e-sirafil

Books

Of poetry and fiction representation of the ominous situation arising from an ever-changing paradigm of a modernistic pattern of existence deriving its life force from an unseemly medley of some bitter socio-political actualities characterising our history in the Subcontinent. The themes that the poet has chosen for versification in the collection are diverse but mutually congruous on issues like war, poverty, ignorance, hypocrisy, vice, anti-colonialism, and the dichotomy between creed and conviction, to cite a few.

Masood ahmad Qureshi’s preface to the book contains an exhaustive account of the author’s biography and his poetics. although the bulk of anwar ali Qureshi’s verse carries a didactic strain yet it is not wanting in a tinge of romance either. His ghazal bespeaks his fair acquaintance with its traditional formalistic pattern and contemporaneous content.

Here are some examples illustrative of the foregoing contention: Aijaz-e-fun say mairay haiN mehfil main raunaqaiN/Laata huN maeyN sukhan ko adam say wujood may Hanstay hain ahl-e ishq faraib-e sha’oor par/Mushkil may aa phaNsa hai khirad ka mu’amla Phirtay haiN sar birahna ghulamoN kay rahnuma/Har aik ki nigah may hai apni munfa’at/La dhooNd kar kahiN say koi mard-e haq parast/Behtar hai party ki siyasat say shakhsiyat Mitee nahi hai abhi tak khalish tamanna ki/Gul-e hayat kay seenay may khaar baqi hai Agarchay ba’ad khulnay kay na ghuncha ban saka laikin/Dahen say tairay har ghunchay nay khulnay ki adaa seekhi Tairi tazlil ka ba’as hai jihalat tairi/Chup ga’ee jehl kay pardoN may sadaqat tairi/Aisay jari rahi kuch din jo himaqat tairi/Ruk nahi sakti zamanay may hilakat tairi/Tu namazi bhi hai Qazi bhi, Musalman nahi/Tairi taaleem-e Farangi may bhi kuch jan nahiN

as a multi-lingual, Qasim Jalal’s grasp of the language (Persian) is appreciable. admittedly he owes it to his teacher Prof Dr Khawaja abdul Hamid, a widely acclaimed scholar of Persian. The two preface writers have praised the author’s poetic talent and vision in their brief comments on his person and art. In their opinion, Qasim Jalal has an explicit message to convey through his verse viz, the Islamic renaissance. Deen-e Islam ast wajah-e rabt-e ma/Rishta ast-e eeN, rishta-e rooh-o-badan.

Qasim Jalal’s ghazal is no less moving – it is an amalgam of his aesthetic sensibility and the quasi-existentialistic grossness of life.

Ee sukhanwar, fikr-e sawleh mee shawad rooh-e kalam/Az talismat-e takhayyal, khalq ra hairaN makun/Sha’ir-e nau! Paish kun afkar-e nau dar sha’iri/Zikr-e kaif-e wasl-e yar-o kulfat-e hijraN makun Gar tu mee khwahi tura hasil shawad umr-e dawam/Dar rah-e haq, soorat-e Suqrat jam-e sam banosh Makun sarf-e nazar naqid! z-e ash’aar/K man daram, zameen-e charkh aasaar

The book contains hamd, na’at, qita’at on socio-political issues, nazm, ghazal, and a few verse translations. Its triangular content relates to the pre-Partition period in United India, one and a half month’s sojourn at the Jalandhar Cantonment refugee Camp, and the post-Partition period in Pakistan. It is a posthumous publication; the author’s son Masood ahmad Qureshi has given a biographical detail of his late father and the story of how he was led to collect, collate and publish the poetic material left by the latter as a literary heritage.

Khawaja Muhammad Zakariya, a noted literary scholar, has written the outer flap of the book wherein he has highlighted the literary prowess of the author coupled with his illustrious career as an educationist.

The scribe of the internal flap is Dr Saadat Saeed, another well-known scholar, critic, and poet. He holds the author’s poetics as happy tidings for the reawakening of the Muslims living in this part of the world. anwar ali Qureshi seems to have drawn his poetic inspiration from allama Iqbal and lent a new intellectual, ethical and emotional dimension to the life and aspirations of the Indian Muslims after the latter. Israfil’s trumpet is a symbolic

Boorha aur Samundar (The Old Man and the Sea) Translator: Shahid Hameed Publisher: Ilqa Publilcations, 2-K, Gulberg 2, Lahore.

Pages: 99; Price: Rs150/-

Gujjhay Raaz (Punjabi) Author: Dr Syed Qasim Jalal Publisher: Media Arts Communication (Pvt) Ltd, Lahore.

Pages: 143; Price: Rs200/-

Payam-e-Inqilab (Persian) Author: Dr Syed Qasim Jalal Publisher: Jibran Isha’at Ghar, Urdu Bazaar, Karachi.

Pages: 100; Price: Rs300/-

It is a collection of noted poet and writer Syed Qasim Jalal’s Persian work.

Prof aqai Fidai athar and Dr Ismat Durrani have composed its forewords in Persian. The book contains specimens of hamd, na’at, tarana, apostrophe, and ghazal. The author’s accent smacks of freshness whereas his themes seem to be value-oriented.

Boorha aur samundar

Gujjhay raaz

Payam-e-inqilab

Bang-e-Sirafil Author: Anwar Ali Qureshi Publisher: Gulshan Books, Vishnu Gali, Nisbet Road, Lahore.

Pages: 307; Price: Rs550/-

elemental feeling of love —— pain of separation and pleasure of reunion being its natural corollary. Qasim Jalal’s ghazal is no exception to this observation.

Excerpts from the book will serve to enlighten the reader on his poetic art.

Yar! Jay likhniN ay tooN changi ghazal/Ashiqi day qaid khanay toN nikal Shauq Jalal safar da wadheya/KandeyaN nay jad rahwaN malliyaN DawaN dol insan ay aj da/JeewaiN khaway peengh, hularay Maut toN naeeN ghabraNday hargiz/Jairhay jeeNday nayN mar mar kay

It is a collection of Syed Qasim Jalal’s Punjabi poetry, which also contains elaborate introductory remarks on his person and art by eminent poets and connoisseurs of Punjabi like raja risalu, (late) Prof Dr Shaukat ali Qamar, Khadim Chishti, and Tanvir Zahoor. It embodies a mix of nazm and ghazal alongwith hamd, na’at, and manqabat.

Hafeez Jalandhari, on one occasion, said that Qasim Jalal’s poetry voices the melodic strain of a pensive soul deriving its generic force from his style and contemplative élan. Ehsan Danish likewise viewed Qasim Jalal’s verse as an index of his experience and poetic felicity. Tanvir Zahoor holds Qasim Jalal’s verse as an exercise in ‘prohibitive ease’ (Sahl-eMumtina). The common themes of his poetry relate to misery, ignorance, oppression, perversion of values, hypocrisy, and social evils etc. His poetic vision tends to transform the common into the uncommon which amplifies his grasp of the poetic art.

His ghazal is an austere expression of his pre-occupation with the objective reality which tends to pre-empt the inflow as it were, of the spontaneity of ‘powerful feelings’. The modern version of ghazal seems to be increasingly wary of the

Ernest Hemingway’s famous short novel The Old Man and the Sea has been rendered into Urdu by Prof Shahid Hameed, under the above title. The protagonist of the story is Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, battling with a large marlin in the Gulf Stream around the coastal area. It is no less than a relentless, agonising ordeal ironically culminating into the loss of his Herculean catch. It is a valiant surrender to the hostile forces of nature of which the furious sharks robbing him of his ‘fruit’, are a reigning symbol.

Using the language of a fable, Hemingway takes ‘the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph (accruing) from loss’, and transforms them into a classic of a novel.

The story seems to be partly inspired

by Hemingway’s own fishing adventures.

He was awarded the nobel Prize for literature in 1954 following the publication of this novel.

The Urdu translation of the novel is quite racy and readable. The translator seems to be fully initiated in the mechanics of his art. Urdu readers of literature will surely like the work for its textual accuracy and thematic appeal. g

‘The story seems to be partly inspired by Hemingway’s own fishing adventures. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 following the publication of this novel’ www.pakistantoday.com.pk 15

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C M YK

Sunday, 29 May - 04 June, 2016

SaTIrE

TELLING IT LIKE IT ALMOST NEVER IS khabaristantoday@pakistantoday.com.pk

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif forms 7-member commission to investigate Targaryen family tree

I

Meereen

Our WesterOs COrrespOndent

n a key executive decision, Prime Minister nawaz Sharif has formed a 7-member task force to explain to him the family tree of House Targaryen in the hit TV series Game of Thrones.

“I have a keen understanding of the notations that one takes into account when examining the shajras, I just need someone to explain this particular family tree to me,” the head of government said.

Speaking to reporters at the prime minister’s secretariat, he said that he did not know, exactly, who the Mad King was. “Was he Khaleesi’s father? If so, who was Rhaegar Targaryen? Was he his son, his brother, who was he?”

Opposition members, though happy with the formation of the commission, want an expansion of the ToRs of the commission.

“We are happy with the commission, but that isn’t

enough,” said PTI leader Imran Khan, on the floor of the national Assembly on Saturday. “We also need to know whether it was the Mad King that had kidnapped ned Stark’s sister or Rhaegar

Targaryen. Merely the family tree would not give us that particular answer.”

Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique replied on the floor that though the treasury

Efficient foreign office junior officer prepares condemnation of future drone strike on new Taliban chief IslaMabad Our Future COrrespOndent

T

HOugH the bureaucracy at all tiers in the country is often criticised for being incompetent, lethargic and inefficient, Raja Saleem Ahmed, an assistant director at the Foreign Office Spokesperson’s Office (FOSO), has bucked this negative trend by already preparing a condemnation of the future

drone strike on newly selected Taliban chief Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

“I believe in proactive approaches,” said the bright young officer, who graduated from the Foreign Services Academy only last year. “That is why, as soon as Mullah Mansour was taken out in a drone strike, I immediately prepared the Office’s condemnation and filed it in my cabinet. That way, even when I have been posted out,

benches have no objections to the specifics of the expansion that the PTI seeks, the commission would then be stretched too thin. “And we also have to be fair,” he said. “If

PML-N sweeps PTI internal party elections

my successor can fish out the file and give it to the Spokesperson.”

Khabaristan Today has learnt that this heartening development is not limited to the Foreign Office alone, with defence ministry already saying they will not allow the future killing of Mullah Akhundzada to happen again.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesperson has said the militia will avenge Mullah Akhundzada’s future death. g

T

lahore

Our reverse sWeep COrrespOndent

He Pakistan Muslim League (nawaz) has swept the intra-party elections of the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf, which concluded yesterday.

Speaking to reporters at his residence in Model Town, Lahore, newly elected Chairman, PTI, Mian nawaz Sharif thanked his workers and supporters who had worked so hard to ensure that he won the elections. Standing next to him was Khawaja Saad Rafique, who has been elected PTI Punjab President.

Political observers are not surprised by the development. “nawaz Sharif has acquired the knack of winning elections through cogent planning and an

16 www.pakistantoday.com.pk

we agree to these demands, then how can we say no to the PkMAP’s demand to investigate whether the Dothraki have ever faced an army from Westeros.” g

innate understanding of the election process,” said Dr Saleem Hassan, of the political science department at LuMS. “Therefore, when he abdicated the chair of the PML-n to his brother and told him publically to hold on to it while he takes care of ‘this other problem’, I knew what was going to happen.” “nawaz Sharif calmly spoke to the issues of the PTI workers and inspired within them some confidence. Furthermore, he chose his electables well,” said former PML-n minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, who has been voted in as PTI Punjab general Secretary.

Meanwhile, former PTI chairman Imran Khan has said that he will not accept the intraparty polls on account of the massive rigging therein. g