Sunday, 17 April, 2011
Devolve it… but do it right
I
something is actually being said rather than just hot air being released.
HEC: the H doesn’t stand for heaven-sent? As said earlier, if it can be said that HEC is not all bad but there is also a significant case to be made that it is not the sacramental ivory tower it is being made out to be. It is like any other organisation in Pakistan. During its very long tenure, it has done both good and bad things. But more good or bad is the really contentious issue and I doubt there will ever be agreement or consensus on that especially in the absence of concrete data about its performance. The HEC has indeed done many things to be proud not least of them promoting the culture of higher education. Indeed, many students now think that doing a PhD is very achievable whereas first it was considered virtually impossible. It has put in place a TTS which has at least put a
standard system of teacher promotion and reward in place (but the TTS has also led to highly exorbitant salaries for professors). It has founded a digital library, one of its biggest successes and sent a number of PhD students abroad (but again almost 300 of these students are listed on the HEC website as ‘defaulters’ because they failed to complete their PhDs is again a scathing damnation of the screening and selection processes of the HEC). Many people are quick to mention the HEC’s generation of funding as one of its successes but they forget that much of that foreign funding and aid would have been available regardless of the functioning/existence of HEC. It does appropriate almost billions of dollars of funding but almost all of it was misappropriated by being channeled into ill-advised projects such as one-subject ‘universities’ (if they can be called that), scientific equipment that would make the costliest white elephants blush, research projects that were ill-advised to the hilt and many other such problems. Plus, its apartheid like discrimination against the social sciences, humanities and liberal arts has had long-term effects on the Pakistani polity by stifling local intelligentsia and hampering socio-political discourse, much of it which will be realised sooner or later (just to mention one instance, during the earthquake and flood disasters, there was virtually no field data to help aid activities). Amongst, another critique of the HEC is
Illustrated & Designed by Babur Saghir
n Pakistan, the best organisation is a dead organisation. It’s not just people and ideologies we deify once they become dearly departed, it’s also obsolete federal state structures. So, as soon as the HEC was set to be devolved, it was turned into the “only organisation that Pakistan could be proud of ” by almost all sections of society and devolving it was equated to sucking the soul out of Pakistan’s higher education. The President was invoked. The PM was invoked. Even the Chief of Army Staff was invoked! Finally, the SC stepped in to stop the devolution for the time being. Thanks to the copious amount of ink and selfrighteousness that has been spilled around the issue, it is now mired in mounds of what we can politely call confusion. Thus due to this definitional crisis, it is hard to have a well-thought out discussion on the matter as one has to unravel all the speechifying it is swathed in. So before we can discuss why and how the HEC should be devolved, we need to discuss why it is difficult to have a discussion on exactly that. Two distinct factors are responsible for this disarrayed discourse. Firstly, the fact that no comprehensive study of the HEC has been taken place ever. Ever. Not just non-partisan third-party objective evaluation is being talked about here but self-evaluation by the HEC was also not
undertaken. So, the fact that aside from the quantity of this-and-that, the body has never assessed the quality of this-and-that. This means that analysis of its performance is merely a numbers game and we know that statistical hocus pocus can be made to suit the argument of either side. If Team HEC says, “Look, we produced thousands of PhD’s”, then Team Devolution can swiftly retort, “Precisely, you produced thousands of PhDs with no regards to quality.” This means that both teams can use the little that has been done to suit their respective needs. Secondly, since the government didn’t comprehensively outline a plan for devolution (and to be fair, it was never given a chance and the reversal calls started even before it could elaborate on that), most of the rhetoric surrounding devolution consists almost exclusively of platitudinal generalisations about the pros and cons of devolution. Very few have concretely argued what devolution of higher education in particular would imply. Even that is general because what needs to be discussed even more narrowly is what the devolution of HEC would look like. Thus, trite arguments about federative integrity and other such anti-devolution drivel is not to be considered relevant in this case but is sadly contributing to public perceptions about the proposed advantages and disadvantages of the HEC. Thus, given these two factors, it is imperative to turn this non-discourse into some kind of tangible dialogue where
2 Of Sufis and the advent of Sufism in the subcontinent 4 Of those quaint little rest houses
By Anum Yousaf
The best way to go about devolution is to retain a few monitoring and quality assessment duties (like degree verification, drafting equivalence protocols etc) at the centre
the review
The HEC hassle
the review
Of Sufis and the advent of Sufism in the subcontinent It is no coincidence that the unraveling of Delhi Sultanate soon followed the dismemberment of the Chisti organization: ebb and flow of temporal and spiritual spaces, move in unison By Javed Asghar
I
t has been said that nations that forget their past are condemned to repeat mistakes. Apparently, the opposite is also true: nations can benefit if they remember the good things of the past. Presently, bigotry and obscurantism are very much prevalent in our society. But this was not always so, particularly during the heyday of Sufism in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. Chisti Sufism in the Indian subcontinent, not only showed the Muslims the right path through the haze of bigotry and obscurantism, but also made the biggest impact in converting non-Muslims to Islam. The book under discussion authored by Tavir Anjum Ph.D, assistant professor, department of history, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, deals with the spiritual excellence achieved by Sufi Sheikhs and their khulafa and their relationship with the
Sultanate of Delhi. The author shows how the changing environments of both temporal and spiritual realms affected each other as outlined below. The founding father of Chisti Silsilah in India was Khawaja Moeenuddin, who settled Ajmer in 1191 CE. His life and those of his khulafa were governed by Chisti principles of renouncing material concerns, remaining independent of the state, following a strenuous routine of prayers and devotion, listening to devotional singing, dependence only on cultivation of waste land and on unsolicited offerings, service to others, and tolerance and respect of other religions. A state of classless brotherhood prevailed in his khanqah, in sharp contrast to coercion and oppression experienced by the people under the kings. Chisti Sufis stayed aloof from the kings, refused to accept land grants from them, and rejected government service. The next spiritual head of the Silsilah was as a rule, selected by the previous head,
and took charge on the latter’s passing away. Baba Farid of Ajodhan (later named as Pakpattan) became the next chief khalifa in 1236 CE. Sher Khan, the governor of Multan under the Slave Dynasty, bore some grudge against Baba Farid, and when the heir-apparent Ulugh Balban, arch enemy of the governor, visited Baba Farid to pay homage, the governor became angrier. He influenced the wealthy from sending offerings to the khanqah, which brought starvation upon the residents. Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi became the next chief khalifa in 1265 CE. He always maintained his distance from the sultans, though he visited high state officials, and they too called on him. Regarding joining government service by his disciples, he placed restrictions on only those who had the potential to become a khalifa. When circumstances forced him to accept cash offerings from the sultan, he distributed it among the needy. Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya died in the
Title: Chisti Sufis in the Sultanate of Delhi 1190-1400 From Restricted Indifference to Calculated Defiance Author: Tanvir Anjum Publisher: Oxford University Press, Karachi Pages 433; Priece: Rs1200
ART REVIEW
Inner itinerary This may be one reason that Sumera, for the last five or six years, has been obsessed with diverse personifications of woman, needless to say that she herself has also sought refuge in all these representations By Nadeem Alam
02 - 03
Sunday, 17 April, 2011
I
t is Nomad Gallery this time which Sumera Jawad has opted for her colorful canvases, with a nomadic touch always, to be displayed at. Though Sumera’s paintings, over the years have been through a certain journey towards divinity and sublime incarnation, but this show, in its appearance, seems to be inspired by the ongoing mystic rather Sufi thought, most of the figurative artists are experimenting with. As the title of the show ‘Koi Kuchho Kahay Mann Laga’ (No matter what one says, I’m in love) suggests, the exhibition, as per expectations, is going to encircle a particular aspect of woman’s life in terms of romance and inclination. Sumera’s main field of interest, due to many reasons, is woman’s image in connection with her imagery. This imagery and image usually compensate each other on many occasions in her paintings, and she never hesitates to model her own self while creating any image of a woman. As a painter, she lives in history, in civilizations, in mythologies, in rituals and in literature that revolve around the fragile gender. Being a woman herself, Sumera has got a smooth linear linkage between the concept and the skillful expertise in form, to evolve the image she often conceives well before its rendering on the canvas. In her own words, “Art stems in human experience, and this experience is based on our readings, feelings, dreams, surroundings, relationships, and sometimes in intangible realities. Even if she [the woman] is Saphho, Meerabai or Parveen Shakir; every female has expressed herself according to her own time and space, however the inspiration behind these writings has always been the same.” This may be one reason that Sumera, for the last five or six years, has been obsessed with diverse personifications of woman, needless to say that she herself has also sought refuge in all these representations, all through these years! However, in her intrinsic journey of knowing woman’s image, she has come across various passionate halts where she could assess her findings and their ultimate effects on womanhood. The recent show, where she has come up with a strong and sturdy statement of divine love, could advocate the long journey behind, a journey through civilizations, mythologies, folk-tales and through iconographic perceptions. A cityscape titled as ‘Disguised’ is studded with domes of shrines and a cluster of visitors whereas two female faces can be seen; popping out at the upper left and
Torments of Love
lower right corners. Although this cityscape is in a routine composition with domes and figures, but the female face on the top left corner reminds of a very familiar rendering of Merry in the western art. The posture of that lady resembles with Madonna of Biblical Paintings. On the other hand, in a frame under the title of ‘the Torments of Love’ the artist is found more as a colorist rather than a conceptual painter. In this casing, the painter has played with a palette more known for the colors of Gujarat and Rajasthan. In this painting, elongated blue shapes, supposedly representing the masculine aspect (in connection with blue of Krishna in traditional Indian miniatures) are composed, rather suspended, perpendicularly over the ochre and yellow female figures. Moreover, the artist has scratched out few faces out of the blue paint that has actually added to the textural value of this frame. Before falling in love with conceptual painting, Sumera had a good hand in rendering portraits of females in a realistic manner. She had very good command in beautifying the innocence of young woman through rosy skins and deep eyes. Bab-e Jannat (Paradise Entrance) is one such painting where Sumera has amalgamated her portrait making skill with the conceptual aura; that has been associated with shrines. In this painting the female figure is more dominating than the door of the shrine in the background which actually bears the title of this painting.
Bab-e Jannat
Sumera has come up with an interesting work in this show, a painting ‘Untitled-I’ with two contrary female images. One woman offering prayer within a green and golden frame borrowed from the traditional Muslim decorative patterns, also exercised in Persian and Mughal Miniatures, while the other woman in customary dancing costume in a posture that has long been associated with the image of Yakshi (a voluptuous woman character of Indian mythology often personified in paintings and in sculpture). This particular painting grabs viewer’s attention with image of Terra Cotta figurine of Harappan culture in the center, just below the floral column extracted from Muslim Architecture. This frame, up to some extent, seems crowded as well as the painter has experimented too much with the symbols; the symbol of Cross has also been added to create more contrast linked with various religious ideologies. However, this painting is seems unlike Sumera’s other frames as here the artist has never looked in control of the visual elements that create balance, harmony and aesthetic equilibrium within a painted surface. Sumera Jawad has been painting in this style since long, and as expected, she has experimented and explored many possibilities in terms of colour, line, texture and themes. Now she is at a juncture where chances of her style to get cliché, have become more likely unless she would excavate or explore new ground.
year 1325 CE. during the reign of Muhammad ibn Tughluq, and Shaikh Nasiruddin Mahmud, the nominated successor took over. By this time, Sufism had become a mass movement in north-western India, and its moral principles shaped the Muslim society of that region. Sutan Muhammad Tughluq wanted to harness ulema and Sufis to serve the state. He dispersed the disciples and khulafa of Shaikh Nizamuddin out of their spiritual domains to various parts of the realm. They obeyed the sultan because of severe persecution and death threats. Independent Chisti provincial khanqahs were set up. Left without a centre, the Chisti organization began to disintegrate. The next sultan, Firoz Tughluq, continued with the policy of state control over religious affairs through lavish spending on the khanqahs and shrines of Sufi greats and placing these assets under the charge of respective sajjada nashins who were in no way spiritually qualified. It is no coincidence that the unraveling of Delhi Sultanate soon followed the dismemberment of the Chisti organization: ebb and flow of temporal and spiritual spaces, move in unison. Though the Sufi greats are no more, yet to this day people continue to throng their shrines to pay respects and to seek blessings. But one must always remember the main lesson taught by the Sufis: those are nearest to Allah, who serve humanity best. The only blemish in this book is that there are a little too many needless repetitions; otherwise, it is a well-crafted work of meticulous scholarship. The author’s simple scheme of transliteration enables the reader to pronounce Arabic and Persian words correctly and easily.
Of Ghalib’s Persian Epistles Ghalib’s letters in Persian are a formulation of worldly wisdom, wit, philosophical thought and intellectual declamation
By Syed Afsar Sajid
M
ukhtar Ali Khan aka Partau Rohela, a former bureaucrat retiring as Member FBR, is an eminent poet and scholar of Persian. Recipient of Pride of Performance and Sitara-i-Imriaz, he has as many as seven verse collections to his credit besides a travelogue and an Urdu translation of the whole lot of Ghalib’s extant letters in Persian. The present work forms a selection from Partau’s earlier compilation titled Kulliyat-e-Maktoobat-e-Farsi – Ghalib comprising Urdu translation of some 341 Persian letters of Ghalib. Dr Jamil Jalibi terms it as the quintessence of Ghalib’s Persian epistles. He has also commended Partau’s artistry as a translator. The book carries Urdu translation of Ghalib’s Persian letters appearing in
N.M RASHID’S LETTERS
Most candid and fine Urdu prose By Khurram Khiraam Siddiqui
The content of the letters reflect Rashid’s passionate and sincere love towards his wife, his he letters written by important men association with Khaksar Movement, his poor of letters at different occasions also circumstances and most significantly Rashid’s become a significant chronicle of their self-assessment as a poet and his belief in the respective age as they not only reflect power of poetry to create revolutionary changes. their observations on different events of their He also expresses his firm belief in God. In most times but also shed light on the personal aspects letters Rashid expresses his love for his wife and of the writer. Ghalib and Iqbal’s letters are a case the paramount importance that he gave to his in point, for they are rated exceptionally high family, his progeny and his parents. Soon after in terms style, content and his marriage with Safia Begum, literary value. Rashid got a clerical job in And when a literary the Commissioner’s Office, figure of standing writes Multan and his wife remained letter to his beloved or with his parents in Gujranwala. wife, as in the case of John As it was a love-marriage, Keats to his beloved Fanny Rashid wanted his wife to live Brown, the romantic aspect with him. However due to and the tender feelings respect for his father, and also come to the fore. economic constraints, he could N.M Rashid is known not do so. The letters shed light as poets’ poet, rightly so for on the social norms and values he undoubtedly was one of prevalent then. the most important Urdu He repeatedly assures his poets of the 20th century. wife of his deep love for her The pioneer of free verse, and explains that though she Rashid along with Faiz may not consider this much was reckoned as the most but his poetic talents will one significant of Urdu poets day not only change his life after Iqbal. but also would contribute Rashid’s letters written Title: N.M Rashid kay Khatoot positively for the change in to his wife not just reflect Apni Ahlia Kay Naam the condition of his nation on his passion but also his Compiled by: Nasreen Rashid and Muslim Ummah at large. personality, his family, his He emphasizes that trust is First Edition: March, 2010; married life and his frank the most important factor in views about his aims and Price: Rs.300/a marriage and she is the most objectives which he wanted important sense of inspiration to achieve as a poet and in different capacities he behind his work. The letters also depict some had been working in. Compiled by his daughter glimpses of Rashid’s life as a soldier and scenes Nasreen Rashid, and published under the title form the war-front. N.M Rashid kay Khatoot Apni Ahlia Kay Naam The book contains rare photographs of was the first book in connection with Rashid’s the poet, his wife and relations. A detailed birth centenary celebrations in 2010. and informative introduction by Nasreen in The book was published in March 2010. the beginning is a valuable piece which gives Though later in the year few more books full biographical details and mention Rashid’s consisting of the critical essays on the art and works. The book is attributed to Rashid’s son themes of Rashid’s poetry were published Shehryar Rashid who himself was a fine English but this book is the most unique and rare as it poet and had served as Ambassador of Pakistan. contains letters from January 1936 to December The book is one of the most important 1941. Another important feature is that the references to understand Rashid as a poet and letters published in the book are in Rashid’s man and a significant addition not only in the own handwriting with relevant dates which add books on Rashid but also as a piece of candid to the authenticity of the book. and fine Urdu prose.
T
five different collections in the following order: 1. Namaha-e-Farsi Ghalib compiled by Syed Ali Akbar Tirmizi (1999); 2. Ma’asar Ghalib compiled by Qazi Abdul Wudood (2000); 3. Baghe-Dodar compiled by Wazir-ul-Hassan Abidi (2000); 4. Ahang-e-Panjum compiled by Majlis Yadgar-e-Ghalib Lahore (2001); 5. Mutafarriqat-e-Ghalib compiled by Syed Masud Hassan Rizvi Adeeb (2005). In addition to that, the writer has selected some of Ghalib’s unpublished Persian letters under the caption Paraganda Khutoot. The choice is subjective and is designed to cover all aspects of Ghalib’s personality including his religious and ethical convictions. The book also contains the particulars of a good number of addressees to whom these letters were written. In his foreword to the first edition of the work sans its Persian prototype, Siddiq-ur-Rahman Kidwai of the Ghalib Institute, New Delhi has commended the author for his singular venture to translate Ghalib’s Persian letters into Urdu. Moinuddin Aqeel’s preface further illustrates the textual and stylistic traits of Ghalib’s Persian letters and the quality of their rendition into Urdu by Partau. The inclusion of the original manuscript of the translated pieces in the book is meant to satisfy the literary connoisseur’s
inquisitiveness as to the antecedents of the work. Ghalib’s letters in Urdu and Persian are a living monument to his highly versatile literary genius. No study of Ghalib is deemed to be complete without an overview of the same. His letters in Persian are a formulation of worldly wisdom, wit, philosophical thought and intellectual declamation. Partau’s venture assumes a distinctive character insofar as he has translated Ghalib’s Persian epistles in their entirety. His intimate familiarity with the Persian language and literature has stood him in good stead in the cumbersome process of translation, and above all, his delicate poetic sensibility has enormously facilitated him in the task. It is not a mechanical act of mere transliteration of cross-linguistic meaning but an adept transference of the sense of one language into the other with due regard to artistic innovation as much as improvisation. Thus the work is a valuable addition to Ghalib studies. Ghalib’s diction and style have a classical exuberance about them. The content of his letters is allusive in the sense that it depicts his age and its spirit quite realistically aside from the unromantic vicissitudes of his personal life. Partau’s own creative fecundity has enabled him to transform the original work into something quite
Title: Ghalib kay Muntakhab Farsi Maktoobat Compiler & Translator: Partau Rohela Publisher: Partau Rohela, House 8, St. 42, F-8/1, Islamabad Pages: 461; Price: Rs350/racy and readable without of course impinging on its characteristic candour and spontaneity. The book has already aroused a keen response in the readers and votaries of Ghalib across the literary globe.
THE HEC HASSLE
Devolve it…but do it right From Page 1 the fact that it has eroded the autonomy of universities (both public and private). The university and the state has to find a balance between independence and dependence, regulation and autonomy and monitoring and self-governance. The HEC has unfortunately never maintained that balance with it impinging on the smooth operation of many universities, not only prioritising some over the other but unabashedly giving support to some at the clear detriment of others (Comstech, anyone?) The point over here is not to anecdotally critique the HEC which every commentator and analyst in Pakistan has done ad nauseum. It’s just to refute those people who are arguing that the performance of the HEC should be reason enough to stop its devolution. This argument is fallacious because the HEC’s performance is less stellar than stated and much of what is good in its governance and mandate can be structurally preserved during devolution. It can be argued that centralisation of power is actually hampering efficient allocation and management of higher education and diffusion of power will be better in the long-term. There is much that is redundant in the HEC’s composition and it has been gurgling money for a long time from a cash-strapped government. Maybe it is time to review its structure.
Putting the devil in devolution?
It is a general problem in Pakistan that everybody keeps clamouring for devolution but whenever it does initiate it is followed by the same line of thought: “Devolve! But not this!” Every single time. Doesn’t matter what it is: curriculum management, water or higher education. Come devolution time, even people in support of devolution change loyalties by saying that devolution is all good but not in this scenario. Since opposing devolution is politically incorrect, many people couch their critique in other terms. The argument most heard against devolution is that it will undo all the ‘good work’ that the HEC has done, all
the foreign funding will be gone, research will evaporate, scholarships that have been given out will be scrapped, the sky will fall etc etc. People need to understand that the HEC is being devolved, not disintegrated into oblivion. An alternate structure at the provincial level will take its place which will then take over these very responsibilities. Most of these activities will now be a preserve of the provinces who can decide how much to allocate to higher education. Since the realities of each province are different, these regional policies will promote more targeted policies rather than the parochialism which naysayers are saying will set in. For instance, Teacher training might be a bigger issue in Punjab whereas infrastructure development might get a higher priority in embattled Balochistan. Regional research is always better. Why not Punjab’s students research on the problems of Punjab’s agriculture and Sindh’s on Sindh’s problems. This will be more conducive to an organic research culture that has not taken off under the HEC despite it dumping truckloads of money into it. People forget that states have agenda, and it is inevitable that they do and it is not necessarily a bad thing, but these agenda are often at the expense of the rights of regions and oppression of provincial autonomy. Higher education’s agenda was set during the time of Musharraf to promote what they called ‘enlightened moderation’ but it failed to take off because it suppressed what often fosters moderation: social sciences and humanities. Diffusion of central power might offset that to an extent i.e. higher education developed with some overarching national interest at stake. People argue that regionalism might rear its head and higher education can ill-afford that, but they forget that it will rear its head even more when a centrist, anti-revisionist federal policy is in place. When regional interests will be adequately represented at the provincial level, why would anybody have issues with that. People also forget that devolution
is a process not a clean break. Provinces will build their technical capacities and administrative structures over time and in the long-term this will lead to better management over all. Many commentators in their zeal to save the HEC have commented that higher education is a federal subject the world over. Not only is this largely irrelevant (because each country has its own needs and socio-political context) but also factually incorrect. Countries close to home like Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines have made pushes towards greater decentralisation of higher education and it has been functioning quite well in most developed countries like the US and UK. All OECD countries actually were actually advised proactively to decentralise education.
It’s a process
Growing pains will obviously be considerable. There is no denying that there will be difficulties in the process but those can be dealt with by doing a phased devolution which facilitates provincial capacity building and then transfers their powers to them in a gradual fashion. For example, like the loss of funding was a gargantuan issue but it can be solved by this. The centre can continue to deal with the concerned foreign parties while slowly roping in provincial representatives and then progressively shifting it to the concerned department at the province. In the long-term, this will be a greater push towards both the provinces and the universities being self-sufficient in the generation of funds for their own functioning, just like it is the world over. The best way to go about devolution is to retain a few monitoring and quality assessment duties (like degree verification, drafting equivalence protocols etc) at the centre while devolving all other policy and management matters to the provinces who can then decide the best course to deal with their issues. This diffusion will be the best course of action in the longrun and will lead to better administration and policy making. We’ve got to start the process sometime. Why not now?
Sunday, 17 April, 2011
y friend K a s h i f N o o n called to tell me of a string of forest rest houses stretching from Kallar Sayidan southeast of Rawalpindi all the way to Murree by the road less travelled through Kahuta and Lehtrar. He had heard of them on the good authority of a certain Rizwan Mehboob. According to Kashif, Rizwan, while serving in the Forest
As for the first working plan, this was instituted back in the middle years of the 19th century when the British first established the various forest departments. Rizwan, all admiration for the systems those men had established, said they treated the forest as a living entity. They knew a healthy pine (Chir or Pinus roxburgii) lived up to a hundred years and they divided this span into four parts. The first 25 years, the tree was a child, the next quarter it was in its youth. From 50 to 75 it was a mature tree and could be felled. Thereafter it entered old age. Those long-forgotten forest officers laid down that no tree would be felled in the first quarter of its life. In the second, only thinning was permitted to remove weak trees. In the last two quarters, the tree was used for resin extraction or could be harvested for timber. Even in the last case, cutting was meticulously
ages and a floor sufficiently clear of tree detritus to permit regeneration. The last Working Plan in the Murree-Kahuta Forest Division was prepared in the early 1990s. And it was Rizwan, then a young forester, who spent four years roaming every inch of this good land working on it. But by then ‘conservation’ had become a buzzword with people who scarcely understood conservation and felling was banned. The Working Plan was put on hold, and since then the Forest Department has been put on ad hoc. Meanwhile, the forest will turn by and by into a living fossil with over-mature trees and little or no regeneration because of the floor being covered with a thick mat of dead needles. Our first rest house of call was Rajgarh. From Kahuta, we had taken the highroad to Kotli in Kashmir and had to ask where to turn off the road for Rajgarh. About
As we were leaving Rizwan also spoke of another rest house, a haunted one, where a young forest guard, Niaz, had been murdered. The poor man’s mother still haunts the surroundings and every night wails, ‘Vay puttar Niaz, kithay ai!’ Rizwan said he had heard her back in 1991. I said we ought to spend a night at that one and perhaps tell the woman she should be looking for her son where she herself now resides. But it turned out that the rest house in question was also now a ruin. Kashif suggested we come with our tents and camp out to update the old woman. Rizwan smiled benignly and advised us to be kind. That was what he said every time I launched on one of my many censorious orations. When the Brits built these rest houses, they paced them at every sixteen miles, the distance a sahib on inspection could easily cover on horseback in a single day
Today nobody, not even these so-called experts heading the various departments, understand that native species should take precedence over all others. Today, having failed to transform this good land into Australia with an over-abundance of eucalyptus, we suffer from the sickness of turning it into everything save what it really is. We are now going overboard with all sorts of exotic species at preposterous prices. If we had any sense at all, we would be planting this land with what has always grown here and what comes free. As we sat in the mellow afternoon sun, the keeper of the rest house came around to chat. He was surprised that Rizwan knew so much about forestry and asked why and how. Rizwan said he had once worked for the department before moving on in life. The man next wanted to know what Rizwan did now. This dervish among us
they get their hands on these rest houses of this less travelled road, the surrounding trees will be chopped down to make way for the rides. The mango trees that have overseen so many changes to their world will be lost, and so too the pines. In this verdant place the rest house will stand out like a lonely waif in the midst of an ugliness of shuttering and cables. Will it be asking for too much to encourage not the rideseeking kind of madness, but eco-tourism? That is, people visit these places to enjoy the bird song and the solitude. And to look up into velveteen sky studded with stars like they have never seen before. We have examples from neighbouring India where such facilities have been opened up for the public with plenty of good sense. Why cannot we follow suit? If the Forest Department relents and permits whichever tourism
Department nearly twenty years ago, had become very well acquainted with the rest houses and the lore attached to them. It would be useful to discover these little known rest houses, some of which owing to a lack of maintenance are now ruinous and may soon be lost forever. Turning off the Islamabad Highway for the Sihala-Kahuta highroad, we were soon at the Forest Department office in order to peruse one of those old diaries written by officials of the department. Some of these went back to the early years of the 20th century. Instead we picked up a very talkative sub-divisional forest officer whose name is withheld to protect the guilty, for even now he was enamoured of the accursed alien eucalyptus. Now, years since the government has banned eucalyptus, it is people like him who are yet incapable of recognising the damage this imported species has done to our land. As a junior forest officer Rizwan spent four years walking every inch of the Murree-Kahuta Forest Division to prepare the last ever Working Plan.
planned. In an acre, says Rizwan, five or six mature and healthy trees were permitted to stand while the others were removed. These were ‘mother trees’ for regeneration of the forest. An over-crowded forest of this species of pine will contain only mature or over-mature trees. And that was how the first British foresters found it and devised the Punjab Shelterwood System and a 100-year cycle for the Chir pine. Because this tree sheds its needles to lay a thick mat on the floor, a crowded forest can create a carpet so dense that seeds cannot germinate. That necessitated thinning of the forest which followed a thirty-year Working Plan. What happened when there were no foresters to intervene? Then, forest fires took control. In the dry, hot months, the carpet of parched needles would spontaneously catch fire. The nutrient rich ash and humus would then percolate into the ground to revitalise it and any new seeds hitting the forest floor thereafter would easily take root. Thus, so said Rizwan, a healthy forest was not a crowded forest of aged trees. It was the one that had trees of various
Now word is that someone in one of these tourism development corporations has come up with the bright idea of taking over these largely disused buildings to turn them into resorts. This will be the most foolish thing to ever be permitted
lesser men hedged shy of telling the chowkidar who he really was. I could not keep myself and blurted out that our friend was the DCO Chakwal currently on leave. Built in 1902, Panjar rest house was in perfect condition – just the getaway for a few days. The only drawback was the red and white telephone tower right besides it. But thankfully it made no noise; it simply stood their looking as ugly as death. But now word is that someone in one of these tourism development corporations has come up with the bright idea of taking over these largely disused buildings to turn them into resorts. This will be the most foolish thing to ever be permitted. And as certainly as night follows day, it will happen in this blighted land. We have seen what TDCP did to pristine Kallar Kahar in the Salt Range. The lake shore is infested with rides of all kinds and there are boats let loose in the lake. The migratory ducks that paused there twice every year no longer visit it. In their mindless bid to encourage tourism, the corporation has killed one little piece of ecology. We can be assured that once
development corporation wishes to ruin these lovely retreats, it will be guilty of a great crime against the environment. But I fear the worst will happen. Having started late from Rawalpindi, we had to drop the other rest houses. The last on our itinerary this day was Lehtrar. Only six months earlier I had been here and well remembered the hordes of butterflies that flitted about painting rainbows as they went. But in early November, they were gone. We lounged on the veranda waiting for the lunch that Rizwan had asked to be cooked on a wood fire. I must concede that wood smoke does give a distinct flavour to the food. We turned back for Rawalpindi at the end of this unfinished journey. There were still three other rest houses to check out. And there was the one where the inconsolable old mother still sought her son in the dark of night. We resolved to return one day soon to complete the circuit. –Salman Rashid, rated as the best in the country, is a travel writer and photographer who has travelled all around Pakistan and written about his journeys.
By Salman Rashid
M
Picture by the Author
Of those quaint little rest houses
a kilometre off the road, we were forced to abandon Kashif ’s jeep and walk the rest of the way. A man coming the other way said it would take us half an hour to reach the rest house. We took about ten minutes and Kashif said he must have taken our paunches into consideration. Beautifully set on a flat piece of ground amid wooded hills with a stream flowing below it, this was where Rizwan stayed many nights when he was doing the Working Plan in 1991. Today it is a roofless hulk; the victim of neglect that is endemic to most government departments. Though there was no plate on the premises, I suspected this one would have been built in the first or second decade of the 20th century and just a little tender maintenance would have kept this romantic little place serviceable. But, no, we had to let it go to pot.
and arrive well before nightfall. But with motor transport coming into its own, these distances became redundant and many of the rest houses lost thei importance. Within three quarters of an hour of leaving the ruined hulk of Rajgarh we had fetched up at Panjar. A right lovely little building it was and shaded by, among others, spreading mango trees. At 840 metres above the sea we found them somewhat peculiar. Rizwan said these were not unusual and that he had seen mango and jamun trees in this forest at several places. Time was when people planted these trees because they knew better. Now idiots rule the roost not only on private properties, but also from the Parks and Horticulture to the Forest Department and we have either eucalyptus or all sorts of imported species of trees.