APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Cover Story 20 Third Degree When it comes to interrogation, torture is often the first resort
Feature 32 Six Years in Hell Omar Deghayes survived the horrors of Guantanamo bay and lived to tell the tale 38 Pursuit of Peace A journey of 13,000 kilometres begins with a random conversation
Profile 36 God’s Law, Man’s World Sadakat Kadri travelled to seven countries in search of the roots of Sharia law
32
38
Regulars 6 People & Parties: Out and about with Pakistan’s beautiful people 41 Review: Go Go Battleship! 42 End Of The Line: Public matters
41
4
Magazine Editor: Zarrar Khuhro, Senior Sub-Editor: Batool Zehra, Sub-Editors: Ameer Hamza and Dilaira Mondegarian. Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Maha Haider, Faizan Dawood, Sanober Ahmed and S Asif Ali. Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Executive Editor: Muhammad Ziauddin. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi. For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk
PEOPLE & PARTIES Fashion Pakistan holds the 3rd Fashion Pakistan Week in Karachi
Ghinwa Bhutto and Maheen
Shamaeel
PHOTOS COURTESY CATALYST
Cyra
Anita
Wardha Saleem and Rana Khan Kuki
Maheen
6 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Frieha and Amna Ilyas
Sana Hashwani and Safinaz Muneer
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Fiza and Rubab
Uzma and Jawaria
Rabia and Bilal Mukhtar
Footwear brand, Insignia, launches in Lahore Shehzil, Ansab and Maliha
Salma and Hamza Tarar
Atif, Saad and Huzaifa
8 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Aamir, Natasha and Sabina Pasha
Sara and Saim
PHOTOS COURTESY BY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR
Hassan and Zahra
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Mishaal Textile launch their lawn collection in Karachi
Frieha Altaf
PHOTOS COURTESY CATALYST PR
Nadia Hussain
Tehmina Ali
Sophie and Zarina Ali
Faiza Imran
Sasha
10 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Bina and Kausar
Soraya and Sehr
Sabera and Bina
Saeed and Ayesha Chaudhry celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in London
Muneeza Baseer and Shahana Iftikhar
Samina Nadeem Taj
Retired General Nadeem Taj
Saeed Chaudhry and Ayesha Saeed
Dr Anwar Bhai Brigadier Niaz
Dr Saleem Mehmood and Mr Asif Iqbal
Baseer Hassan with former president Pervaiz Musharaf
11 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Mr and Mrs Humayun Saeed
Mr and Mrs Ashar and a friend
Intizar ul Haq
Intizar ul Haq launches his restaurant, Aqua Lounge, in Karachi
Mrs Mazhar Valjee, Mrs Amin and Mona Mahmood
Ms Faiza Savul with her friend Mrs Intizar ul Haq with her mother
Arshad Chowdry
12 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Mr and Mrs Tariq Jameel with friends
Aziz Memon
Mr and Mrs Jamshaid Zahidi with Shahbaz Qureshi
Asmaa and Rabia
Zainab and Natasha
Malaika and Sabina Pasha
bia
Kehkashan and So
Amna and Rabia Juggun Kazim and Bilal Mukhtar
PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR
a clothing t, u o k a e r B s id K in Lahore s e h c n u la , d n a br
Madiha and Anam
Hira and Saba
Kiran and Aisha
Uzma and Maliha
13 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Maria Khan exhibits her Spring 2012 collection in Karachi
Huma Ejaz
Naveed Lari
Afreen Shiraz
PHOTOS COURTESY IDEAS EVENTS PR
Maria Khan with a friend
Royal Palm celebrates the arrival of chef Simone in Lahore
Naila Rizwan and Melanie Saigol
18 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Simone with a friend
PHOTOS COURTESY LATITUDE PR
Nadeem Khan
Hira and Rabia
Sania and Abeera
Breakout launches its summer collection in Lahore
Maria B and Tahir
PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS AND PR
Sana and Amal
Bilal Mukhtar and Sadaf Manoor
Imran, Sobia and Ahad
Mehak and Fatima
Saad and Zainab
Madiha and Khadija
19 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
COVER STORY
20 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
When it comes to interrogations in Pakistan, torture is not the last resort but the first BY SABA IMTIAZ
“I wish I had died instead, because what I suffered was worse than death. They would hang me upside down and thrash me for hours. I wasn’t given food for days. I thought it would never end.” This is what Nauman, a young Christian man from Gojra had to say of the 14 days he spent in police custody. Nauman was picked up in a sweep by security agencies after
the 2009 Gojra riots. Even though he was not in the city when the riots took place, he was detained and tortured for two weeks as law enforcers tried to get him to confess to retaliating against attackers and causing the inadvertent death of a Christian man.
He was eventually released after a Christian organisation
stepped in to help him in his defence. When he was finally freed, his closest friends couldn’t recognise him: Nauman was skin and bones, a shadow of his former self.
Scarred and scared by his experience, Nauman and his family
members should nevertheless count themselves lucky, because
unlike many who suffer such a fate, his period of torture lasted ‘only’ 14 days.
In February, seven men who were once ‘missing’ — a casual
(Continued on page 28)
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
21
COVER STORY term that explains away how hundreds have become victims of enforced disappearances in Paki-
stan — were finally presented before the Supreme Court. They were a pale shadow of the men they had been when they were whisked away by the country’s intelligence agencies on suspicions that
they were involved in terrorist activities. Four other men, who were also in custody, are now dead. The military has claimed that they died of natural causes, their families beg to differ.
But the men in court appeared to be knocking on death’s door in any case. Journalists described
them as ‘ghastly’ and ‘bewildered’. One clutched a colostomy bag, another wept constantly and all seven have been diagnosed with various diseases. Detailing what the men had suffered, lawyers
told the court that “during the confinement, which lasted for more than a year, the prisoners were not exposed to sunlight which worsened their health.”
The treatment of the men at the hands of the country’s security agencies was evident from their
condition, invoking ire from the chief justice and horror from the families of those who are still missing.
The story of these seven men is just one of thousands of cases of maltreatment and torture that
are covered daily in newspapers, broadcast live on television, and circulated on YouTube. A maniacally laughing man in army fatigues twists a man’s genitals. A man is tied to a tree outside a police station. A crowd lynches two young boys. Militants flog their victims. The list goes on and on.
The use of physical violence is prevalent throughout Pakistan, and the word torture is used so of-
ten that it has almost lost all meaning. ‘Lawyers once again torture journalists,’ screams a headline in a daily newspaper. ‘CJ takes notice of PPP MNA Waheeda Shah’s torture of polling staff,’ reads
the copy on a news channel’s website. It is a disservice not only to the horrific reality of torture, but also to those people who suffered actual torture, the physical and psychological scars of which they bear to this day
People like former political prisoner Jabbar Khattak, who firsthand experienced what it is like to
be at the receiving end of a torturer’s ministrations.
When General Ziaul Haq imposed martial law in 1977 Khattak, a student activist, believed that
people would rise against the military regime. His student association regrouped and named itself the Democratic Students Federation. In 1980, Khattak went into hiding and was eventually arrested in Peshawar and taken to ‘Chowki Number Do’, an infamous detention spot in the Saddar cantonment area and then to Balahisar Fort.
This was the beginning of a four-year imprisonment, during which Khattak was interrogated
and tortured. “They would beat me with fists everywhere, hang me upside down, and tie up parts
of my body to cut off the blood supply. All the while they would hurl abuse at me and threaten me,” says Khattak when asked to recall those dark days.
“When I was at Warsak Dam, they hung me upside down and lowered me into the water with a
pulley, making me feel as if they were going to drown me,” he continues. One beating in Peshawar almost killed him. “It [the beating] was so brutal that I began bleeding from both arms and legs. I was taken to the Lady Reading Hospital where doctors told my captors that I was on the verge of
dying. They wanted to admit me into the hospital but the authorities would not allow it — they told the doctors to administer emergency treatment and then release me back into their custody.”
He was transferred to Peshawar central jail and then to Haripur, where fellow prisoners Imtiaz
Alam (now secretary-general of the South Asian Free Media Association) and Khalil Qureshi had to help him with basic tasks — bathing, changing clothes, eating.
Khattak was eventually transferred to Karachi and released by a court. But despite then-prime
minister Mohammad Khan Junejo’s announcement that all political prisoners would be released, Khattak was thrown back into jail in connection with the Pan Am hijacking, which had taken
place while he was in jail. “BBC did a story on me — calling me Junejo’s ‘first political prisoner’. Because of the coverage and calls for my release I was cleared of that case.”
Khattak, who is now the editor of the Sindhi-language daily Awami Awaz, adds, “Sometimes I
28 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
The word torture is used so often that it has almost lost all meaning. ‘Lawyers once again torture journalists’, screams a headline in a daily newspaper. ‘CJ takes notice of PPP MNA Waheeda Shah’s torture of polling staff,’ reads the copy on a news channel’s website. It is a disservice not only to the horrific reality of torture, but also to those people who suffered actual torture, the physical and psychological scars of which they bear to this day
29 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
COVER STORY feel like I should have done a more thorough investigation on this,” when asked how he feels knowing that the camps he was tortured in are used for the same purpose today.
During his detention, he also underwent psychological torture. Solitary confinement, he says,
was not as feared as the actual physical torture, or simply the threat of being tortured. “The jail
authorities would use many tricks — officers would sit outside the cell and brag loudly about the punishments they had meted out to other detainees. Often, detainees were taken to interrogation
You need to confront the detainee from all angles. You need to have a complete history, comprising details about his family, friends, foes and activities, as well as his job
cells and made to witness the beatings of others.”
While Khattak says he was tortured by army and agency officials, 1971 War veteran and retired
brigadier Tariq Khalil, who served in the Inter-Services Intelligence and led the anti-dacoit opera-
tion in Sindh in the early 1990s, says one needs to differentiate between the police and the intelligence when it comes to interrogation practices.
The police, he says, “start with torture”, while the intelligence apparatus works differently. Ac-
cording to Khalil, there are three categories of detainees: terrorists involved in acts of sabotage, anti-state elements — agents of the enemy or spies — and thirdly, those involved in combat, usually enemy soldiers. The kind of interrogation methods used depends on which category you fall into.
Khalil gives an example from his own experiences as a prisoner of war in Indian custody after the
1971 war. “They applied physical torture to high-ranking officials, such as those with operational
knowledge. The rest were given passive punishments — they wouldn’t give us food for 24 to 36 hours, would keep us in the heat, would take away our clothes.”
Retired military officers say interrogation only turns into torture in the hands of inexperienced
interrogators. Interrogation is a delicate job, and according to them, a six-month to one-year course
is required to enter the field. “You need to confront the detainee from all angles. You need to have a complete history, comprising details about his family, friends, foes and activities, as well as his
job,” says Brigadier (retd) Javed Hussain, a former Special Services Group officer who was trained to not only interrogate but also to resist interrogation.
Hussain and Khalil both agree that most captives eventually break under a combination of both
psychological pressure and enhanced interrogation techniques — a euphemism for physical torture.
“What starts off as a ‘civilised’ interrogation eventually switches to other techniques,” says Hus-
sain. “But before resorting to enhanced interrogation, interrogators must first plant a man mas-
querading as a prisoner. He then befriends the detainee and tries to extract as much information from him.” This then is the way that an interrogation is supposed to proceed, at least as far as the agencies are concerned. When it comes to the police, controls on torture are even more lax.
The use of torture is endemic at every level of the police system in Pakistan: from a moment a
man is detained, kicked and dragged and shoved into a police van to a detention cell where he is beaten and undergoes physical abuse. Every so often, a grainy video of police brutality makes its
way to the TV channels. Then there is outrage, impassioned analysis and finally silence as the breaking news cycle moves on.
Echoing Hussain and Khalil’s point about lack of training, a report on Pakistani prisons by the In-
ternational Crisis Group states that the “lack of specialised training centres for prison personnel…is largely responsible for the failure to enforce the Jail Manual’s rules, particularly with regard to the rampant abuse in prisons.”
The report goes on to say that due to the lack of specialised training centres for prison personnel,
jail personnel are instead sent to police training schools which are known to produce police who are brutal and “anti-suspect,” which is why prisoners are treated in an inhumane manner. However, “police officers insist that prison personnel ‘need no lessons in brutality’ from them and are ‘eminently capable of managing on their own’.”
That last part is borne out by the report, in which a particularly harrowing case is also highlight-
ed in which prison staff in Toba Tek Singh “stripped three prisoners, taped their genitals to prevent
30 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Torture represents one of the key failings of the justice system in Pakistan. Rather than investing in their personnel or relying on consistent interrogation techniques that are tried and tested, there is an assumption that torture is a necessary part of extracting information them from urinating and forced each to drink three or four litres of water. The tape was removed four hours later, by which time all three had developed renal ailments.”
It is not just the state that has become adept at using torture tactics. Just as the writ of the state
has degenerated over the years, militant wings linked to political parties have increasingly used these tactics to intimidate their opponents. In 2011, one of the worst years in Karachi’s recent history for targeted killings, footage emerged of kidnapped victims being physically and sexually
abused, allegedly at a torture cell in Lyari. The violence in Karachi in the past few years has also
seen an increase in bodies being found beheaded or with marks of torture, a pattern familiar to those who have witnessed armed groups battling it out in the streets in the 1990s. Given the state’s apathy towards ‘official’ torture, this cannot come as a surprise.
According to Mustafa Qadri, the Pakistan researcher at Amnesty International, “Although tor-
ture is a crime in Pakistan, it is widespread at every level of law enforcement, from ordinary police to paramilitary forces and the intelligence agencies. In contrast, the Pakistan government’s re-
sponse to allegations to torture is either to deny them or claim that it does not reflect official policy. Yet torture represents one of the key failings of the justice system in Pakistan. Rather than invest-
ing in their personnel or relying on consistent interrogation techniques that are tried and tested, there is an assumption that torture is a necessary part of extracting information.”
Qadri goes on to say that “torture serves another purpose: namely to punish, humiliate or in-
timidate, to take revenge or to extract money from detainees or their families. Courts rarely question confessions obtained under torture and lawyers often lack even a basic understanding of what constitutes torture. This is a shameful situation that has serious repercussions for law and order in Pakistan.”
As a result, Qadri says that torture and other human rights violations have become synonymous
with the police and other security forces. “Often victims of abuse who approach Amnesty assume the ISI or some other security force is responsible for their ordeal, even where there is no evidence
to suggest that is the case. When citizens fear the very people who are meant to protect them what hope is there for justice?” a
31 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
FEATURE
six years in hell BY FAHAD FARUQI
Speaking to former Guantanamo detainee 727 was like talking to a prisoner of Azkaban, that terrible prison guarded by soul-sucking Dementors from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Perhaps the image of a Dementor sucking out happiness from one’s body will help you visualise the torture 32 detainees between the ages 13-98 have endured APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
since the prison camp opened its gates to enemy combatants and terror suspects in 2001. This is the story of Omar Deghayes, a British-Libyan who spent nearly six years at Guantanamo. He narrates the ordeals he faced from the time he was picked up from a rented villa near Liberty Market in Lahore to when he was finally set free.
Deghayes’ struggle against government authorities started
“It was not like the pictures you may have seen, which show a row of people tied down to the floor,” he said. “The way we were transferred, we were many, many people on top of each other like cargo and then chained to the floor and blindfolded.” long before he reached Guantanamo. He was a mere 10-year old
his family to a safer place.
“Our house was very close to the airport in Kabul,” he said.
“and [US forces] planes were dropping bombs on civilians.”
They first shifted to Laghman, but when the bombings inten-
sified, they left Afghanistan for Lahore. He was in Lahore four
months, during which time he tried to find ways to get a passport made for his Afghan wife, who had never had any identification documents.
One day, nearly 50 armed men, with the slogan ‘NO FEAR’
emblazoned on their jackets, stormed into his villa, handcuffed
him, and took him to a fortress-like prison in Islamabad. During
this period of incarceration, he was taken to a house to meet officials from US and UK agencies before being transported back to prison. This happened numerous times.
“They’d ask questions like: Why were you in Afghanistan?
Where were you in Afghanistan? Did you meet Osama bin Laden? Do you know anyone from alQaeda?” said Deghayes.
In Islamabad, he also met a woman, who seemed higher in
boy living in Libya, when his uncle received a call from Muam-
rank than those who’d been previously interrogating him.
father, a solicitor who had been disliked by the regime. The fam-
women and that Islam teaches its followers to mistreat women.
for medical purposes, one family member had to stay back as a
its followers to mistreat women. We protect them and look after
mar Qaddafi’s loyalists telling him to claim the dead body of his ily was put on the exit control list. If they had to leave Libya, even ‘hostage’. When Deghayes was 17, his family managed to escape by forging travel papers and sought political asylum in Britain.
In the UK, the family settled in Saltdean. At college Deghayes
“This woman said something about the Taliban mistreating
I didn’t like that, so I answered back saying: ‘Islam doesn’t tell
them. And treat them as if they were very precious,’” said Degahyes.
After this it was decided that he would be dispatched to Ba-
studied Law and, while his family had also been highly secular,
gram. The former detainee is of the opinion that the Americans
lamic legal system and religion peaked. While still at college, he
who had visited Afghanistan. A few days later, he was taken
it was during his undergraduate years that his interest in the Is-
travelled to Bosnia for volunteer work and the experience had a profound effect on him. “It made me think of injustices, oppression, people being killed and human rights,” said Deghayes.
After finishing a Legal Practice Course in England, he took a
break to visit friends in the Far East. He went first to Malaysia
and then travelled across Pakistan. Once he reached Peshawar, he discovered that he could easily cross the border and go to Af-
had been paid to bring in any man of Arab descent in Pakistan,
to the airport in Islamabad and handed over to the marines for transfer.
“It was not like the pictures you may have seen, which show a
row of people tied down to the floor,” he said. “The way we were
transferred, we were many, many people on top of each other like cargo and then chained to the floor and blindfolded.”
In Bagram, every time prisoners were caught speaking, they
ghanistan. He had always been intrigued by the country and was
would be chained to the mesh in a stress position. Their head
rule.
collapse from suffocation,” he recalls.
curious to see how Shariah was being interpreted under Taliban
“You cannot rely on UK or US-based media, especially when it
comes to Islam. If something doesn’t suit their interest, they will brand it as extreme and fundamentalist,” he said. “I wanted to see for myself what was happening in Afghanistan.”
would be covered with a black hood. “There were times we would Day and night he was interrogated by British intelligence, FBI
and CIA. “I was forced on my knees and beaten during those interrogations,” he said bitterly.
Frightened and unsure of what would happen to him, he
This was the decision which would eventually land him in
would throw-up whatever he ate. He was transported to another
In 1999 he crossed into Afghanistan. Once there, he married an
by weakness and exhaustion.
Guantanamo.
Afghan woman and tried to set up a legal consulting office in Kabul. His wife gave birth to a baby boy on 24 September 2001, just 14 days after the event that would change his life forever.
Then came the US invasion, and he desperately tried to shift
prison camp, a long journey spent in hallucinations brought on
“And then we were in Guantanamo,” he said with a sarcastic
laugh.
Like everyone else in the prison, detainee 727 lived in solitary
confinement, in a three by two metre cabin, for the first month. APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
33
FEATURE
Because he would not take abuse without striking back, he endured the harshest treatment, spending most of his 5 years and 7 months at the camp locked up in isolation.
During interrogation, they would have him stand in stress po-
sitions for hours on end. These positions ranged from tying his
hands to his feet so that they touched the floor, to a standing
position in which they would tell him that there was live wires attached to hand, and if he moved he would get electrocuted.
“You would be hooded,” explained the former detainee, “so you
wouldn’t know what was happening in the room.”
Whether it was Bagram or Guantanamo, the questions asked
were the same:
“Why were you in Afghanistan? Where were you in Afghani-
stan? Did you meet Osama bin Laden? Do you know anyone from alQaeda?”
The abuse continued outside the interrogation rooms as well.
34
Once, an officer crushed his finger in a door, and held on to it,
hoping to make him scream. Deghayes suppressed his pain, unAPRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Deghayes longed to hear from his family, but didn’t receive a single letter for five years. When he finally started getting letters, the guards would censor vital parts, which would frustrate him. One letter read: “your son likes” and the rest of the sentence was blacked out.
willing to allow the officer the pleasure he would get from his screams of agony.
“I lost my finger — I have iron pieces in it and I can’t bend it
properly.”
Another time, they broke his nose while raining kicks on his
face with their boot-clad feet.
To set an example to the other prisoners for fighting back, the
guards gouged not just Degahyes’ eyes with their bare fingers, but also those of every other prisoner in his block. He still can’t
see clearly from the right eye. For six years, his cell was brightly lit day and night so that he wouldn’t be able to sleep. The airconditioners were on full blast, all the time.
“For many months I was locked up in what was essentially a
freezer,” he said.
As if the physical abuse wasn’t bad enough, these guards played
mind games to break the prisoners’ spirits. Deghayes longed to hear from his family, but didn’t receive a single letter for five years.
When he finally started getting letters, the guards would censor vital parts, which would frustrate him. One letter read: “your son likes” and the rest of the sentence was blacked out.
But he suffered the most when the guards abused his religion.
“This was one thing that infuriated all the inmates,” said De-
ghayes. “They would take a copy of the Holy Quran, and throw it in a toilet, or on the floor. Sometimes you would come back to your
cell and find boot stains or abusive words written inside the Quran.” The abuse was regular throughout his time there; it didn’t ease
up if the guards didn’t get any information from the detainee.
“The policy in Guantanamo was that they would agitate you
every two months,” said the former detainee who now lives in
London. “They want you to fight back. The interrogators said, ‘We will release you one day, but we will make sure that we have made you broken wretches, so that you won’t go back to jihad.
And your family, your mothers and sisters, will be working just to keep you alive.’ So this was their intention.”
How were the prisoners able to keep their sanity intact? Many
detainees suffered from mental health problems, but Deghayes
kept himself sane by following a rigid routine. Though there
wasn’t much physical activity possible in solitary confinement, he did push-ups every day. He dedicated his mornings to memorising the Quran, which he then revised in the afternoons.
The prisoners were able to communicate with others by shout-
ing out loud, speaking into the air conditioning duct and talk-
ing into the sinkhole and then cupping an ear over it to hear the response. Deghayes spoke to prisoners from all walks of life and
myriad nations. “There were teachers, linguists and journalists, there was a lot to learn from them,” he said.
The interrogators said, ‘We will release you one day, but we will make sure that we have made you broken wretches, so that you won’t go back to jihad. And your family, your mothers and sisters, will be working just to keep you alive.’
After five years and seven months of detention without charge,
Degahyes was finally released in December 2007. “The only thing these kind of prisons achieve is more hatred, turning more young-
35
sters toward extremism,” he said, looking back at his experiences.
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
PROFILE
God’s law
man’s world Fiery preachers and random Muslim youths were making all sorts of bellicose assertions about the Sharia. People who wanted to be angry with them were assuming that the Sharia meant what they said. Noise rather than information, was rushing to fill a void, while critical questions were not only going unanswered but also unasked. Where was the Sharia written down? To what extent was it accepted that its rules had been crafted by human beings? And what gave the men who were so loudly invoking God’s law the right to speak in its name? EXCERPT FROM HEAVEN ON EARTH BY ANAAM RAZA
When I first meet Sadakat Kadri, I have trouble believing he’s the man I’m here to see. He doesn’t seem to fit the image I had in mind. He is of medium built, has salt and pepper hair and beard and is wearing a rumpled coat. I was hoping for something sharper and more intense, something as profound as his achievements.
the criminal trial in the West. This time he’s turned his attention
Kadri is a lawyer, author, travel writer and a journalist. I know
to other Muslims and they didn’t have a clue and so I thought that
veals that this may be an understatement. Half-Finnish and half-
“I’m not a theologian and it’s not like I’m going to explain to you
all this because Wikipedia told me so but a bit more research rePakistani, Kadri is the son of the first British Muslim QC (Queens
Counsel) Sibghatullah Kadri. After graduating from Cambridge with a degree in history, Kadri went on to pursue a Masters at Har-
always been interested in the Islamic legal world and, after the fu-
rore over the 7/7 London bombings, the issues pertaining to what the Sharia says about jihad, extremists and criminal law became even more relevant,” he explains.
“I tried talking to my dad about it and he didn’t know, I spoke
there must be something worth saying about this,” he explains. what the Sharia is, because I couldn’t do that. I’m just trying to find out the answers.”
I’m curious to know if he found the answers after spending three
vard Law School to become a member of the bar both in England
years writing and three months travelling from his father’s birth-
write regularly for the New Statesman.
and finally Egypt.
and New York. He is also a human rights barrister who used to We are meeting to talk about his new book, Heaven on Earth. I say
36
to the East and has written about the history of Sharia law.”I’ve
new because this is the second one. The first one was The Trial: A
History from Socrates to O J Simpson, which outlines the development of APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
place in Northern India to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon “My conclusion is that I don’t feel that Sharia is set in stone as
people often say it is but there are important arguments that need to take place without too much anger and passion.”
I’m sceptical if that is even possible.
the changes that have taken place. Paki-
and Kadri realised this when he attract-
for everybody. At the same time society
Sharia is a topic that interests everyone
stan has become a more difficult place
ed quite some attention the first time he
has become more intolerant and violent
spoke about it publicly. All he had said
but intolerance is not a function of Is-
was that Islamic law can be compatible
lam,” he notes.
with the toughest human rights legis-
Iran on the other hand was quite an
lation in the UK and that the so-called
eye opener for Kadir. “Iran has its own
bitration Council could serve the wid-
nected to religion just like Pakistan but
‘Sharia courts’ such as the Muslim Ar-
share of serious problems which are con-
er community too. But not everyone
the air there, it just felt freer to breathe
agreed.
in.”
“My point wasn’t that Sharia should
I draw his attention towards Saudi
be allowed to compete with English law.
Arabia because of its religious and geo-
For me the concept of ‘the rule of law’ is broad enough to incorporate other sys-
political importance and also because this is where the strictest interpretations
tems.If people wish to have their disputes
The idea that Islam
Quran and Sunnah, there should be a provi-
may be threatened
that, just as it allows people from other reli-
by a poor Christian
is that there should be Sharia courts which
woman in a village
about it, but in order to present a balanced pic-
is ludicrous. Islam
as well as orthodox thinkers, and would have
decided by Muslim scholars according to the sion in English law which allows them to do gions to do so. However, what I’m not saying have the power to rule over criminal courts.”
For me, one of the most notable points he
makes in the book is that modern Islam is
becoming more intolerant and suffocating
the religion’s great traditions. I’m curious to
cannot be reduced to
and ask him as much.
this. It must be bigger
know what made him reach this conclusion, “One of the great things about writing this
book was finding out how confident Islam
than that and in fact
“This is why it did not worry about the small
Islam has always
has been for so many centuries,” he replies. things because it knew exactly where it was going.”
Of course, things have changed since those
halcyon days, and not for the better.
of Islamic law are enforced. Surely Mecca and
Madina would have been the best places to visit when starting to write a book about Sharia law and its origins. Why then would he omit such an important destination?
Sadakat replies that he did seriously think
ture he would have had to meet both critical
had to be transparent about the fact that he
was working on a book on Sharia law. Had he
admitted as much, he claims he would never have been given a visa.
As we talk, it becomes increasingly appar-
ent that Sadakat’s journey was in part a per-
sonal journey as well. “I’m half-Finnish and half Pakistani but I’ve always been more interested in my sub-continental and Pakistani
heritage. When I was growing up in the late
there was a lot of racism so I think my been bigger than that 1970s, identity was formed in response to that.”
He seems to have an answer for just about every question, but
“Pakistan is a classic example. The idea that Islam may be threat-
when I ask him if he is a believer, his face scrunches up whilst he
cannot be reduced to this. It must be bigger than that and in fact
“I’m a believer but I have my doubts and I have my problems with
ened by a poor Christian woman in a village is ludicrous. Islam
Islam has always been bigger than that. My opinion is that Islam
ponders and reflects at the precise choice of words for his answer. faith but I’ve never called myself anything but a Muslim and I prob-
should be building upon its great traditions rather than sentencing
ably never will,” he replies at last.
to justify all sorts of hostility at best and oppression at worst for
this time the reply is automatic as well as empathic:
a woman to death for blasphemy. It is a disaster because it serves Muslims worldwide.”
I then ask him if the book will matter in the days to come and “It matters to me!” he says and with this he bursts into laughter.
He justifies his viewpoint by referring to personal experience,
“I really don’t know, but I’m glad I’ve written it and it’s out there.
first time but I’ve been going to Pakistan throughout most of my
win or change the terms of the debate. It’s merely a contribution
“During my travels, I was visiting most of these countries for the childhood and it is the country I’m most familiar with, so I can see
However I don’t claim that the book is going to change the world or to the debate.”
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
37
FEATURE
peace
Just like the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the 13,000 kilometre De Paix Yatra (the peace journey) began with a random conversation BY YUSRA ASKARI
Based on the idea of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or the ‘world is one family’, the over 13,000 kilometer journey, the De Paix Yatra, stemmed from a random conversation in the fall of 2011. At the time, former
journalist, Nitesh was on a va-
cation in Sandakphu, West Ben-
gal. A group of his friends were
partaking in a 110 mile Himalayan
race. Over a cup of tea with friends, Pri-
ya and Ram, Nitesh recalls saying “I should
also do something adventurous and go to Paris from Mumbai on a motorbike”. And from that very moment, there was just no looking back.
Upon his return to Mumbai, Nitesh gave the idea some seri-
ous thought and came about the concept of ‘De Paix Yatra’. “There was a small write up in a newspaper about the trip that
followed,”says Nitesh. Reading about the project in The Ahmedabad Mirror, Parth a friend and fellow social activist, expressed
to Nitesh, his desire to join the journey. “I said yes, as like me, Parth had also been working on youth initiatives for the past six years,” says Nitesh.
Biking through India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, onwards to
38
Greece, Italy, France and finally to the UK, with the ‘De Paix Yatra’, the riders are on a mission to unite eight nations with an APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Nitesh
To balance out the carbon footprint of our vehicles, we will plant around 1000 trees between Mumbai and London
ideology of peace, non-violence and kindness.
“The 65-day journey is an initiative to get connected with doers, change-makers and peace-mak-
ers. The riders hope to bring impact and help youth across boundaries, to be the change they wish to see,” explains the duo, for whom this will be their first trip outside India
“Earlier, we had plotted our journey from Mumbai to Paris,” says Nitesh. Hence, embodying its
very essence, the name, part French and part Hindi was coined by Parth. ‘De paix’ means peace in French and ‘yatra’ means journey in Hindi. However now, the route has been extended further to
London. The journey “covers India, Pakistan and England together. All three nations have tremendous history and heritage,” explains Parth. “The choice of route was simple, we wanted to cover specific nations and to travel and meet people of diversified cultures,” he adds.
Which country on the route, are the riders most looking forward to? ”Undoubtedly, Pakistan”
says Parth. The first destination on the duo’s eight-nation route, the team is excited about their
Biking through India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, onwards to Greece, Italy, France and finally to the UK; the riders are on a ‘mission to unite eight nations with an ideology of peace, non-violence and kindness’.
Parth
Debi Dutta
Lamiya
maiden visit across the border. “Pakistan as a nation has a special space in our hearts,” says Parth. Following their arrival in Lahore, the De Paix Yatra riders will proceed onwards to Multan, Bahawalpur, Sukkur, Quetta and Dalbadin before heading to Iran.
“We have been raised in the decade when relations between the two nations were very tense.
However, times are now changing and this yatra is our effort to bridge the gap,” says Nitesh. “We
feel blessed to be getting maximum support from Pakistan,” adds Parth. During their visit, the
riders look forward to spending time with the youth of Pakistan, who they feel “will be the GenX of change.”
Having connected with a diverse cross-section of Pakistanis via social media and micro-blogging
websites, the riders have a busy itinerary planned for their almost 3-day stay across the border.
While, ex-Junoon rocker, Ali Azmat is hosting a dinner for the team following their arrival, Khudi,
39
a social movement that aspires to actively counter the spread of extremist ideology is also orga-
APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
FEATURE
Ramona Arena
Aditi Singh Sharma
nising a youth event for the riders in Lahore. Adil Ahmed Dayo,
change and revolution do not have back up plans,” Parth was
will also be hosting the team in Sukkur. Partnering with De
tions: do or die. As this is not a journey for fun, we see this Yatra,
Divisional President of the Insaf Students Federation, Sindh
Paix Yatra, Muhammad Ulusyar Khan and his colleagues have organized ‘MUNiB 0’12’ in Quetta; Balochistan’s first ever Model
quick to respond. “To bring about change, one has only two opas a small endeavour for a better tomorrow,” he added.
Looking ahead, a book and a short film, documenting the jour-
United Nations event.
ney and the experience are planned. “We are installing cameras
layed by a month commences in mid-May. Tentatively scheduled
also part of the team, will conduct interviews,” says Nitesh. The
Previously scheduled to start on March 12, the Yatra now de-
to conclude in July, De Paix Yatra will take the riders through 54
cities, including seven capitals of the eight countries they are
on our motorbikes and Mumbai-based actress/model Debi Dutta, De Paix Yatra travel diaries will be showcased at a later time.
Debi has also written and composed an anthem for De Paix
visiting.
Yatra of which there are four versions. One voiced by Debi her-
and Iran, one of the biggest challenges encountered by the duo
Shefali Alvarez.
With political and economic crises impacting Europe, Pakistan
during the planning process, has been acquiring special road vi-
self while the others by Ramona Arena, Aditi Singh Sharma and
The fourth and the most recent addition to the team is Ahmed-
sas. “We have also attempted to ensure we do not encounter any
abad based, Lamiya Patel, a geologist by profession and an en-
explains the duo. Routes have been mapped so we can cross coun-
ignated manager for the journey “will act as Wikipedia for our
financial problems, if anything goes wrong during our journey,” tries safely,” says Nitesh.
“We are looking forward to this Yatra. As our travel’s experi-
vironmentalist and rights activist by passion. Lamiya, the destrip,” explains Nitesh.
The initiative has garnered much support, both at home and
ence centric and not time bound, we’ll be connecting to our
abroad. The likes of CM Omar Abdullah, parliamentarian Shashi
balance out the carbon footprint of our vehicles, we will plant
have endorsed the project. Former cricketer turned politician Im-
soul by losing ourselves for a better cause,” explains Parth. “To around 1,000 trees between on route from Mumbai to London,”
adds Nitesh. Partnering with De Paix Yatra is People for the Ethi-
Tharoor, director Imtiaz Ali and music director Vishal Dadlani
ran Khan and actor/musician Ali Zafar have also extended support.
With clutch plates greased and engines roaring to go, the rid-
cal Treatment of Animals (PETA), to support whose cause the rid-
ers are busy gearing up for the journey, as the date to flag off the
And does the duo have any back up plans in the event of the
citement of what promises to be a once in a lifetime journey, the
ers will be only eating vegetarian food during the journey.
40
Shefali Alvares
journey not going as planned? “Traveling will be difficult but APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
Yatra nears. Anticipation of the unexpected, coupled with the exriders are all set ‘connect one nation with another’.
REVIEW
barely floating BY NOMAN ANSARI
When you consider the fact that the sci-fi movie, Battleship, was based on the popular naval board game by Hasbro, you’d be forgiven for assuming it doesn’t stay afloat for very long. But while the film on the whole isn’t perfect, it is fairly entertaining thanks to its pulsating CGI action scenes. These sequences, featuring some breathtaking maritime battles, are clearly where the majority of the film’s reportedly huge $200 million budget was spent, rather than towards developing a plausible narrative. The film starts in 2005, when US space agency Nasa discovers another Earth like planet, to where it transmits a communication signal, in hopes of contacting intelligent life — because clearly there is little evidence of it on Earth in the film. At this time, the film introduces us to Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), a womanising slacker, who gets into trouble with the law after going overboard in his attempt to impress a woman he meets at a bar, named Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker). Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgård), Alex’s older brother, is a commanding officer on a US naval ship who decides to try and set his younger sibling straight by enlisting him in the navy. As it turns out, the woman Alex desires is the daughter of Pacific Fleet commanding officer, Vice Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson). Things then flash forward to 2012, by which time Alex is a lieutenant, and now in a steady relationship with Samantha, struggling to find the courage to ask her father if he can marry her. Alex, while recognised to have extraordinary potential, is unable to avoid trouble, and gets into a brawl with the visiting commanding officer of a Japanese naval destroyer, Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano), with whom he is later forced by circumstances into an interesting working relationship. And after our hero is on the verge of being let go from the navy, five hostile maritime alien ships arrive to Earth, responding to the signal sent from 2005. From here Alex leads the battle against the aliens on the sea alongside Nagata, as well as his crew which includes Officer Cora Raikes, played convincingly by the pop star beauty, Rihanna. Meanwhile on land, the resistance is championed by Samantha, a cowardly Nasa scientist with same great lines, played by Hamish Linklater, and the most interesting character of the film, Lieutenant Colonel Mick Canales (Gregory D. Gadson), a grumpy yet courageous combat veteran who happens to be a double amputee, and struggling to find belief in what remains of his hulking strength. Battleship suffers from some silly dialog, as well as a load of pseudoscience in its plot. For example, it doesn’t make much sense how NASA sent a signal to a planet light years away in 2005, only to have a response in the shape of an alien visit only seven years
later, when the process should have taken a few lifetimes. Also, the scientist quotes diluted versions of theories by Stephen Hawking, which adds to the silliness. But, the film is less concerned with reason and more with entertainment, which it does very well. Overall, Battleship is a charming romp with its endearing characters and 1980s rock tracks that are great backing tracks for some good old fashioned alien butt kicking, leaving you the viewer, to pump your fist for humanity.
41 APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
END OF THE LINE
Are you capable of drawing a straight line? Do you have a comic or doodle that you think will have us rolling on the floor with laughter? If you’ve answered yes to all those questions
42
then send in your creations to magazine@tribune.com.pk APRIL 29-MAY 5 2012
www.facebook.com/azaycomics