The Review - 30th July 2011 - Pakistan Today by Pakistan Today

Sunday, 31 July, 2011

Bailing out the First World By Hashim bin Rashid “We would not have enough money to pay all of our bills – bills that include monthly social security checks, veterans’ benefits, and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses,” –US President Barack Obama

The Economic Cycle

Repeating failed models

This is fact, not fiction. Though, of course, it does give the appearance of fiction. When crowds of protestors cross the Greek pantheon at Athens, it appears like a scene from a Hollywood film. And so when the debt collectors knock on America’s door, shall it appear like a Chinese folk tale? Only that this folk tale shall be real. America, of course, brought it upon itself. National debt doubled from $7.8 trillion to $14.294 trillion between 2005 and August 2011. The only way out now is to raise the debt ceiling in the short-term. But here is the funny part: the

Taking the failed ‘miracle pill’ again

The pill prescribed by neoliberal economics has been taken again. A pill that defies all simple economic logics. Let us state four simple principles. I. Economies are built on consumption. II. Consumption requires purchasing power. III. Purchasing power requires jobs. IV. Jobs require flourishing economies. Each economy, if simplified, is circular. And it must be so. Thus – if the economy is not flourishing, no jobs may be created. And so is the case in an economic downturn. At such a point, the State must spend more and tax more. It must protect job-holders, not job-providers. But this is exactly the converse of what is happening across Europe and America. When Wall Street collapsed, Washington bailed it out. But the Wall Street collapse was a response to a spending power collapse, the declaration of bankruptcy by millions of ordinary citizens. It was these that needed the bailout, to secure their s p e n d i n g power, and keep it functioning

and keep tax flowing in. But, so it shall be. Chicagoeconomics that failed the Third World had to eventually fail the United States of America. In need of a bail-out And so even if it survives this crisis, it is likely to survive with after reducing both its spending and taxing powers. So are all European states, under the ‘politics of austerity’ proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But as each failing European state cuts its government budget under the pill of ‘austerity’ and sells of its public enterprises under the ever-ready, everfailing pill of ‘privatization,’ the fundamentals of the First World economies appear to be heading down without a recovery in sight. Greece, just bailed out a second time with 109 billion Euros, provides three per cent of the Eurozones output. Its loans are 160 per cent of its GDP. Italy, the Eurozone’s third largest producer with a 20 per cent share of output, must pay off 335 billion Euros in loans next year. Its loans are 120 per cent of its GDP. The credit rating of Greece, Portugal and Ireland has been declared ‘junk’. Spain has its blinkers on for a collapse, with 22 per cent unemployment. France also treads a dangerous line with debt expected to hit 87 per cent of the GDP come 2012. The US debt is now over 80 per cent of the GDP and expected to go higher. The value of the impending bailout to Europe is estimated at two trillion Euros. This is nothing to speak of the piling US debt which shall now have crossed $14.3 trillion. The First World is now in need of a bailout. And it appears that there are no takers. The ‘free market’ dream appears set to drown with the IMF the supreme commander of the sinking ship. At the moment, there are no new horizons. The return to fundamentals: produceconsume is still too hard for most economists to think, too simple for most investors to manipulate.

Illustrated & Designed by Atif Rafi

foundations of the first worlds’ economies. One of the processes that was clear was the movement of production bases, the original strength of the European and American economies, during the original and late period of their economic development. The competitive advantage of the First World economies lay in a productive advantage. Raw material would be I. Economies are built on consumption. shipped to II. Consumption requires purchasing power. their factories, III. Purchasing power requires jobs. processed, and sold back. This IV. Jobs require flourishing economies. was the legacy Note: If an economy is not flourishing, no jobs may be of the early created without State intervention. colonial period. The First World And then the domino’s fell. used Empire to make itself the Tic. Tic. Tic. Tic. First World. Greece, Ireland, Portugal, The post-colonial period Spain, Italy... one by one by meant the industrialization of one. what had been kept primary Domino effect, it is called. producers. At this point too, France appears next on the the early industrialization cards. Amongst European advantage the First World had economies Germany is the won itself played a part. only one that shows some The fundamentals of the world sturdiness. economy, increasingly being But this is not enough. globalised, were skewed to The world’s biggest economy, the advantage of the First the United States of America, World. It was both the hub of is (or was) a day from running production and consumption. out of money. It is (or was) The system was exploitative, a day from defaulting on its but based upon sound national debt. economic foundations. The United States itself has no This, of course, was before the solution to solve its debt crisis rise of financial capital and the – but to raise its debt ceiling. It shifting of production centres is a non-solution. to Third World economies. Not that this shifting to the third world did not constitute From solid economic another attempt at exploiting foundations Third World resources; both The funny thing is, situated materials and labour. as a Third World observer, one must be recovering from the shock of discovering that To uprooted economic our advisors, our economic foundations consultants, the miracle What it meant was a shift pill carriers that come to from production-intensive restructure our economies and economies to service-intensive national spending, come to us economies in the First World. from failing economies. This shift appeared to be only No one was allowed to natural. But this meant a see through the uprooted stricter demarcation, between

US debt ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1960. The trouble now lies deep in Washington as a crisis in economic theories. The Republican Party insists on the ‘free market’ model, the IMF approach. ‘Cut government spending, decrease taxes,’ is the call. The trouble is US President Obama himself reneged on election promises to remove the tax-breaks of the Bush days. And the US national budget continued to grow. Two years after Wall Street was bailed out, Washington is giving indications that soon America may need a bail out. A Congress with a Republican majority, and with Republicans silly enough to be making over $350 billion miscalculations in their ‘state roll-back’ estimates, it is clear the tried and failed path has been chosen.

2 A tourism lifeline 4 Rising religiosity: Follow my way, or you’re ‘the other’

hivering at the thought of defaulting on loans has been something the Third World, the condemned, the damned, the to-be-saved, had to do. The First World was neat, clean, well-run, run by the best economic minds in the world...’developed.’

producers and consumers. The world economies’ producers were increasingly third world. The world economies’ consumers were increasingly First World. While this transition was taking place, another transformation was also taking place. Financial capital had been rising as an insidious, dominating and unpredictable force and becoming fundamental to transactions between production and consumption. This opened up the world economy to a force worse that hoarding stocks: the hoarding of ‘futures.’ The world economy became subject to the whims of shortterm profit seeking ‘investors.’ The fundamental principle that drove the world economy changed from the productionmonopolisation-consumption matrix to the productionspeculation-consumption matrix. On one side, the fundamental strength (production) of First World economies was being taken away. On another side, the First World economy became subject to financial capital and the new economic force: speculation. On the other side, national borrowing within each First World state continued to spiral. The First World continued under the delusion that it was impregnable while the foundations of its economy were removed from underneath its feet.

the review

The crisis in economies has turned itself around – the self-labelled ‘First World’ is in debt and ready to default. What does this mean?

Illustrated by Sana Ahmed

the review

A tourism lifeline

The Basian-Balakot-Naran (BBN) highway, an alternate access to the Bhasha Dam, is on its way to development

oads are like human arteries. The better the arteries function, the better the health. A road network performs a similar function for the national economy. The World Bank-funded BasianBalakot-Naran (BBN) highway, in North-West Khyber Pakhtunkawa, on fast-track to being completed on fast-track by Frontier Works Organization (FWO), is emerging as a lifeline for Pakistan. Critical is its strategic location as a facilitator to the Basha Dam while it can second up to facilitate tourism. The BBN highway shall work as alternative route to the Karakoram Highway (KKH), the sole access to Basha dam. When the KKH is closed in winter, the BBN highway shall act as second route to Basha Dam. Amongst the four major roads badly damaged by the 2005 earthquake and last years’ flash floods, the BBN highway connects Mansehra to Chillas and Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to the ancient Silk Road, runs approximately 1,300 km (800 miles) to Chinese city Kashgar. The road also has military significance since it operates as access road to Kashmir. Given that it shall also serve the Pakistan-China plan to link the Gwadar port to the KKH via the Chinese-aided Gwadar-Dalbandin railway, the BBN has gained world importance. The BBN highway, 76 kilometers in length and part of the Naran road called N-15, promises to open a new era of trade and tourism for the

regions of Mansehra, the Kaghan valley and the Naran valley. The BBN Road Project Director Col Mudassar told Pakistan Today that the World Bank had funded the two stretches of the project. He said, “The first 44 kilometers of road is 99 percent complete. The leftover work shall be complete on July 31 this year. The damanged Balakot S-bend shall be completed by October 31.” “The second 32 kilometer stretch shall be completed next year. Furthermore, the first three of the five bridges on the road, the Ayub bridge, Balakot bridge, Sanghar bridge, Ghanol bridge and Kawi bridge, are complete with the other two under construction,” Mudassar added. He said that it was miraculous that the road had been kept serviceable since rehabilitation work began despite complex road construction work facing, regular land slides, rock falls, avalanches and the transport of construction material. The road has continued to facilitate a large volume of tourists to the scenic regions of Naran, Kaghan, Saiful Malook lake, Lulusar lake, Ansoo lake, Lalazar, the roaring streams and snow-capped peaks of Karakoram, Malka Perbat and Makra hills. The 44 kilometer Basian to Mahandri stretch is estimated to cost Rs 4110 million. The 32 kilometer Mahandri to Naran stretch is estimated to cost of Rs 600 million. National Highway Authority

( N H A ) subsidiary National H i g h w a y Improvement Programme (NHIP) is the client and Australian firm Snow Mountain Engineering

Where will the BBN take you?

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Sunday, 31 July, 2011

cting as an alternative route to the Karakoram Highway, the BBN shall provide a pathway to expeditions for almost all peaks in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and several peaks in Xinjiang China. The region includes some of the world’s largest glaciers like the Baltoro Glacier. Five of the Eight-thousanders (mountains taller than 8,000m) of the world that are in Pakistan occupied Kashmir are accessible by the highway. The notable mountains that can be directly seen while traveling on the highway onward Jalkad and Chilas and Babuser Top are: Nanga Parbat, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, 9th highest of the world at 8,126m Rakaposhi, Gilgit-Baltistan,

Pakistan occupied Kashmir, 27th highest of the world at 7,788m Diran, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir, most dangerous mountain in Pakistan Shishpar, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir Ultar Peak, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir Tupopdan, GilgitBaltistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir, also known as Cathedral Peaks near Passu Many glaciers can be seen while travelling on the highway after Babusar Top: Minapin Glacier Passu

More than 50,000 specimens of rock art and petroglyphs all along the Karakoram Highway are concentrated at 10 major sites between Hunza and Shatial

Glacier Ghulkin Glacier Khunjerab Glacier Several rivers and lakes are also made accessible by the highway.

Corporation (SMEC) is consultant in the project.

Tourism facilitated “The only access to this scenic region is through the BBN highway. The roads rehabilitation promises the region’s communities a new lease of life,” Sarhad Tourism Corporation official Raheem Ullah told the scribe who visited the site this month. ‘The upgrade of the road shall help the tourism economy of the region,” he said, “new hotels and eateries would appear.” Local politician Jahanzaib Khan said that the road would provide indirect employment in hotels and through the improvement of agriculture and transport. “Benefits shall accrue to locals via an easier approach to educational institutions and hospitals in nearby cities. Commercial crop will get better market access,” he said. The NHA data speculates that the route shall attract residential, business and light industrial facilities to the region. The value of the land holdings of locals is also expected to rise. The population increase in the region means education, healthcare and agricultural facilities shall grow – even if the existing road is not improved. More tourist traffic is expected after the road improvement. Winter sports such as skiing can bring tourists during winter.

Environment friendly project “While the areas’ population density has increased rapidly, the projects EIA suggests it shall have a positive impact,” senior Ministry of Environment officials revealed. “No adverse effect is expected on human life, animal habitats, forests and vegetation. The general rules for emission control should be adhered to. The BBN highway is far from existing residential areas and therefore increased traffic shall have little effect on noise levels in the area.” “Traffic will use normal fuel

These include: Indus River, Hunza River, Gilgit River, Khunjerab River, Karakul Lake in Xinjiang (China), The road will also provide an access to rock art and petroglyphs. There are more than 50,000 specimens of rock art and petroglyphs all along the Karakoram Highway that are concentrated at 10 major sites between Hunza and Shatial. The carvings were made by various invaders, traders and pilgrims who passed along the trade route, as well as by locals. The earliest of these date back to between 5000 BC and 1000 BC, depicting single animals, men’s gatherings, and hunting scenes in which the animals are larger than the

amounts. There is no threat to the quality of air,” they said, “nor is there a threat to the area’s water sources during construction.” The FWO Captain Hussain said the River Kunhar, known as Nain Sukh, the Persian eye’s repose, runs along the BBN. “The river originates 48kms upstream from the Naran Valley at the Luusar Lake. The river is fed by the Dudipat and Saiful Muluk lakes and glacial waters from Malka Parbat and other peaks. The Kunhar flows through the Kaghan Valley, Jalkhad, Naran Valley, Kaghan, Balakot and Garhi Habibulla and meets the Jhelum River near Muzaffarabad,” he added. “However, despite its’ magnificence, the river causes erosion, which troubled us during the BBN highways construction, and shall continue to after the construction is complete,” Hussain said.

Geologically young region “The area is geologically young and the rivers and streams are in the early stage of their development. Rapid streams in deep gorges cut through valleys and deepen their beds. They contain a high amount of eroded soil from the mountains,” he said. “The BBN was tough to rebuild since landslides and rock falls, slides, debris slides and avalanches were common,” he added. Another FWO official said that the project area experienced heavy winter snow after which the valley hills rise to over 15000 feet. Ridge tops remain covered with snow throughout the year. “Many nullahs and drains flow from these, which are more susceptible to snow slides,” he said, “to control these we use intercepting drains, road side drains, culverts, retaining walls, breast walls, dress slopes and fill cracks, flatten slopes and bioengineering techniques. “For the avalanche, solution is terracing of slopes, erection of snow fences, retaining wall across avalanche, excavation of trenches,” he added.

hunters. These carvings were pecked into the rock with stone tools and are covered with a thick patina that yields their age. Being second option after KKH, it will take you to from where Buddhism spread to China and Tibet to the colourful bazaar of Kashgar that remains more than just a memory of a Silk Road oasis and to the intrigues of the 19th-century Great Game. “The KKH is best travelled in the spring or early autumn. Heavy snow during harsh winters can shut the Highway down for extended periods. Heavy monsoon rains, around July and August, cause occasional landslides that can block the road for hours or more. In such situation, BasianBalakot-Naran road will facilitate all sort of traffic,” Rashid Jan, a regular tourist of Northern Area said. He said that BBN was also linked to KKH that cut through the collision zone between the Asian and South Asia, where China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan came within 250km of each other. - Yasir Habib

Norway Attacks: Breivik will join history’s human monsters This a ghastly return of Übermensch mentality that was the mark of Hitler’s Nazism. An idyllic country is once again exposed to the banality of evil By Henning Mankell

he 32-year-old Norwegian who has confessed to killing more than 70 people requested two things for his court appearance: he wanted to wear a uniform, and he wanted the hearing to be open. This makes what has happened more complicated. It seems that the man who committed this hideous crime developed a political agenda to defend his actions. He cannot be dismissed simply as a “madman”, he is something more. He regards himself as a soldier and he thinks that he has something important to say. The question is, what? Perhaps we can find the answer in a book that the German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote during the trial in Israel in 1961 of Adolf Eichmann. For those who do not remember the case, Eichmann had been the much-feared Nazi who did not hesitate to carry through the orders he received about the mass extermination of the Jews, the Romanies and other people that Hitler thought should be removed from the face of the earth. He had been on the run since Nazi Germany collapsed in the spring of 1945, but was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and brought secretly to Israel. He was sentenced to death and later executed by hanging. In her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Arendt tries to understand the minds of those people who are prepared to indiscriminately kill their fellow humans without empathy. Often they are ordinary people who cherish their gardens and play with their dogs and their children. No one on the street would ever suspect them of being a deranged murderer. What we know about the man in Norway indicates banality, too. He is torn apart by an inner rage. He is opposed to Muslims. He is opposed to different types of people meeting in a multicultural society. He detests the ambitions of globalism and is willing to attack the very idea of the modern age. He is a cold-blooded Don Quixote tilting at people who live and breathe. Everything was well planned. On the surface, there was little or nothing to indicate what was about to happen. After he was arrested, he is reported to have described his actions as “heinous, but necessary”. He had launched his own war to “awaken” his fellow countrymen. He wanted to perform in a uniform and he wanted the hearing to become a stage where he could act and deliver his message. Perhaps he imagines that, in time, he will become the hero that “saved” Norway. Or perhaps he will be satisfied with being inducted into the hall of fame of human monsters. We might ask whether we have been waiting for this, a brutal act of terrorism not committed by people who have kidnapped the Islamic faith and who claim to act in the name of that religion, but a man with a different political and religious motive. A rightwing extremist, a nationalist with elements of Christian fundamentalism. One could say that what happened in Norway is a ghastly return of the Übermensch mentality that was the mark of Hitler’s Nazism which occupied and tortured Norway during the second world war. At least we now know one thing that we might not have

been certain of before yesterday: people can find the

justification for acts of terrorism in all religious, political and ideological contexts. Now we know that those who claimed that terror is always synonymous with the Islamic faith were wrong. The distant and in many ways idyllic Norway, the country with the oil and the wealth, is suddenly exposed to the banality of evil. It may be impossible to completely defend oneself and one’s country against these actions, but we must try. We must defend the open society, because if we start locking our doors, if we let fear decide, the person who committed the act of terror will win. He will have injected fear into our community. As Franklin D Roosevelt put it, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” However hard the young Norwegian man tries to justify his actions, there will still be something that we cannot understand: what goes through the mind of a person who turns a gun against a young woman or man he does not know and pulls the trigger. In every barbaric act there is a human element. That is what makes the barbaric act so inhuman.

the review

Rising religiosity:

Follow my way, or you’re ‘the other’ This research reflects a deeper malaise afflicting us, that is instead of uniting, we are evolving as a deeply divided society By Basharat Hussain Qizilbash

omen constitute about half of Pakistan’s population but very little research has been published to explore as to what they think and how do they live their lives. Sadaf Ahmad’s ‘Transforming faith’ investigates the factors that have contributed to the growth of religiosity among the urban women of the country. The subtitle of the book is a little misleading because although it claims to be a study of the urban Pakistani women, it primarily focuses on the women of Islamabad, only. The research work conducted by the author in 2003-4 is actually a case study of an organization called Al-Huda set up in 1994 by a lady named Farhat Hashmi to “equip individuals with authentic knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah.” She

The book investigates the factors that have contributed to the growth of religiosity among the urban women of the country

started with ‘Dars’ (a religious lecture) at her home in Islamabad and now not only runs a full-fledged three-story institution in Islamabad but has also branches in Lahore and Karachi. Some of her graduates have opened branches in US, UK and Dubai as well. In 2004, she had about 1,000 students only at the Islamabad institution. This institution, according to the author, has become more of a movement among the women. How can one account for its growing popularity? Not only that Farhat holds a doctorate from the Glasgow University, she also possesses a dynamic and charismatic personality explaining her vision of religion in a captivating way, which is easy to understand, making it relevant to the contemporary challenges confronted by women. The author acknowledges that ‘most women remember the time they spent at the school very fondly.’ No wonder, she has made considerable inroads among the upper and middle class women. To run such an effective network, finance is the key. The author has not been able to identify the sources because “none of the teachers at Al Huda was willing to disclose anything about where Al Huda gets its funding.” She thinks that donations can be an

Transforming Faith (The story of Al-Huda and Islamic revivalism among Pakistani women) By Sadaf Ahmad Published by Oxford University Press, Karachi Pages: 227; Price: Rs 695/-

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A classic travelogue and an apt book of reviews By Syed Afsar Sajid

recently published travelogue and a book of reviews in Urdu (both in paperback) are the subject of this review. Known for their qualitative performance in the field, OUP and Ilqa have sponsored the publications. Safar Nama Syed Jalaluddin Bukhari alias Makhdoom Jahania Jahan Gasht (1306-84), entombed in Uch Sharif, district Bahawalpur, was a renowned saint in the Chishtiya Silsila having been invested with the title of Sheikhul-Islam by Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq, the emperor of Delhi. The saint was an avid traveller. His travelogues Sair Nama (edited by Ahmad Burni) and Safar Nama, latterly purported to have been composed by some of his followers (individually or

collectively), narrate the details of his travels across different lands including the holy cities of Makkah and Madina. Since the narrative in the instant travelogue (originally in Persian) is not first hand, interpolations or inaccuracies in its content cannot be ruled out. Its maiden edition was published in Iran at the fag end of the 19th century. Mohammad Abbas Ibn-eGhulam Ali Chishti Dehlvi translated the work into Urdu and published it from Delhi, in the year 1899. The travelogue is quite engaging for its absorbing anecdotes, exciting adventures and thoughtful declamations on spiritual and mundane subjects. Spanning a period exceeding a decade, the account relates to the saint’s journey to and stay in Hijaz-e-Muqaddas. The description of holy men as well as places is quite vivid. At places, however, the incoherence of the narrative affects its chronological order. Well known

educationist, writer and researcher Moinud-Din Aqeel’s foreword tends to enlighten the reader on its genesis. Kal Ki Baat An engineer by profession, M o h a m m a d Kazim is an eminent writer, critic, reviewer and translator. He

The book could serve as a guide on the art of reviewing for those who intend to undertake and specialise in it in right earnest

Title: Kal Ki Baat (Jaaizey aur Tabsiray) Author: Mohammad Kazim Published by: Ilqa Publications (Readings) Pages: 287; Price: Rs.295/-

The followers of AlHuda term this popular culture as ‘the invasion of the other’ that must be discouraged, condemned and resisted. The dancing by women at weddings is just one example important source because the buildings in which this institution’s branches are located in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad were donated. Moreover, not only that a large number of its students are from the affluent classes, Farhat Hashmi has also been regularly invited in the 1990s to give dars by the mother and wife of Farooq Leghari, a former president of Pakistan but also by the royal Saudi family. This brings us to the next important question. What vision of religion is disseminated by Farhat Hashmi in the religiously plural society of Pakistan? She has been greatly influenced by the teachings of Maulana Maududi, the founder of Jamat-i-Islami. While summing up Farhat’s religious bent of mind, the author states that “like the Deobandis and the Ahle-Hadith, Farhat Hashmi too draws on a literal interpretation of the Quran, relies on the Sunnah, and has an idealized image of the first Muslim community… places a great deal of emphasis on ritual, critiques the practices that people subscribing to Barailvi Islam and Shia Islam engage in…” In Farhat’s opinion “there is only one way to be a Muslim” – the way she interprets Islam. This means all those who do not adhere to her interpretation become ‘the other.’ Similarly, people of the other faiths such as the Jews, Christians and the Hindus are also categorized as ‘the other.’ The West as a whole and the US in particular is the butt of the criticism. Ironically, in the sitting rooms of Pakistan, it is the programmes of Bollywood (India) and Hollywood (US)

which are most popular. The followers of Al-Huda term this popular culture as ‘the invasion of the other’ that must be discouraged, condemned and resisted. The dancing by women at weddings is just one example. The teachers at Al-Huda liken the act of dancing to prostitution despite the fact that dancing at weddings by women is considered as culturally appropriate. Not any more for the adherents of AlHuda, as one woman puts it: “I used to be the first to get up at a mehndi and dance… Leaving it, oh, it was so difficult…I danced my heart out at my brother’s wedding.” By writing a case study of just one religious institution, Sadaf has laid bare the social and ideological fissures in the thoughts and attitudes of urban women. In another way, this research reflects a deeper malaise afflicting us, i.e. instead of uniting; we are evolving ourselves as a divided society. Instead of smothering, we are magnifying the existing differences. Instead of learning to live with diversity, which is a reality of life, we are bent upon smashing all that does not fit well according to our worldview. Societies do not grow in this way. This is not a good omen. Sadaf has shot a timely warning. (The writer is an academic and journalist. He can be reached at qizilbash2000@yahoo.com)

Instead of smothering, we are magnifying the existing differences. Instead of learning to live with diversity, which is a reality of life, we are bent upon smashing all that does not fit well according to our worldview. Societies do not grow in this way

regularly contributing to the noted literary magazine Funoon since the year 1964. As a reviewer he seems to be fully seized of the delicacy of his role. He views a book from different angles – biographical, societal, contextual, syntactic, and paradigmatic, and proceeds to pass a judgment which is quite moderate, unbiased and balanced. He acquits himself well in the exercise albeit its obvious complexity. There have been adverse reactions also, in the past, from literary stalwarts like Ibn-e-Insha, Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi, Jabir Ali Syed, Syed Ali Abbas Jalalpuri and Kh. Manzoor Hussain, to his views in his reviews of their work which bespeaks the firmness of his stance as an independent reviewer. Some other noted writers and intellectuals whose work has been reviewed by Muhammad Kazim in the collection, are Masood Hassan Shahab Dehlvi, Wafa Rashedi, Anwar Rooman, Razia Faseeh Ahmad, Hakim Muhammad Saeed Dehlvi, Dr. Maher Abdul Haq, Rashid Akhtar Nadvi, Prof. Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Khalid Akhtar, Akhtar Riazuddin, Nazeer Siddiqui, Sehba Lucknowi and Ahmad Nadim Qasmi. The reviews are an index of the author’s multi-faceted learning Title: Safar Nama-e- Makhdoom Jahanian Jahan Gasht and experience. The book could serve as a guide on the art of Author: Makhdoom Jahanian Jahan Gasht reviewing for those who intend Translated by: Mohammad Abbas Ibn-e-Ghulam Ali to undertake and specialize in it Chishti Dehlvi in right earnest. For the common Published by: Oxford University Press, Karachi reader though it is a compendium Pages: 100; Price: Rs.295/of knowledge and wisdom.

is a recognized scholar of Arabic and wellversed in German. The present book is a collection of the author’s reviews and critical appraisals of books (30) on literature, history, culture and biography that he had been

Bodies of evidence A long-overdue study of Bangladesh’s war of independence By Martin Woollacott

he eyes would widen and the head move from side to side in the striking Bengali gesture of affirmation. “How many were killed?” we would ask refugees who had fled from areas where the Pakistani army and its auxiliaries were attempting to suppress the Bangladesh independence movement. “Lakhs and lakhs!” came the answer. Journalists who covered the Bangladesh war in 1971 remember the phrase with a mixture of amusement and frustration. Lakh is the Indian word for 100,000, and it sometimes seemed as if the majority of Bengalis knew no other number, or, if they did, it was “crore” – ten million – at least when describing the atrocities and depredations of their West Pakistani oppressors. Reporters had no doubt that there were such atrocities. Some of them witnessed bloody incidents or their aftermath, but for the most part correspondents had to rely on the accounts of others. 239pp; Hurst, £14.99 Between the protestations of the Pakistani military, for whom all Bengali deaths forth between Pakistan and Bangladesh, seeing were those of “miscreants” or criminals, and the manifest exaggerations of mainly retired Pakistani officers in the west, and inflamed and sometimes bereaved East Bengalis, it survivors of killings and their relatives in the east, as well as members of the non-Bengali and nonwas difficult to steer a measured course. The numbers mattered, and matter still, Muslim minorities. Bose (pictured) seems to have because they make the difference between seeing been the first to do this. It is a method not without the war as a tragedy and seeing it as a terrible crime, its problems. My own feeling, remembering how indeed as a genocide. That in turn is important charming Pakistani officers, like their Indian because it profoundly affects the way in which equivalents, can be, is that she may have been a the peoples of South Asia understand both their bit too ready to accept the honourable, just-tryingseparate and their common histories. Much that to-do-our-duty image that those officers naturally is both wrong and dangerous in the subcontinent prefer to convey, and that she may also be too today, from Pakistan’s paranoia to India’s extreme convinced that the received wisdom needs to be self-righteousness and Bangladesh’s sense that entirely overturned. Yet when she underlines how it is neglected and ignored, can be traced to the stretched the Pakistani forces were, how unready 1971 conflict, even if the roots go back further still. they were for the role of suppression that was Sarmila Bose’s attempt to set the numerical record thrust on them, and how perplexed they were in the straight in her aptly named book is a contribution to face of a Bengali hostility that seemed to them so a debate that ought to have taken place a long time disproportionate, what she writes rings very true. Bose’s case-by-case arithmetic leads her in the ago but instead has hardly started. It is a grim kind of accountancy, because even when she concludes, end to estimate that between 50,000 and 100,000 as she often does, that fewer, sometimes far fewer, people died in 1971. One lakh, in other words, at died than claimed, still we are dealing with murder, most. One cannot say that she absolutely proves rape, unnatural deaths and the destruction of this, but her evidence points in that direction, and, individuals and their families in a land that had in any case vastly away from the figure of 3 million joyously embraced the idea of Pakistan less than a still proclaimed in Bangladesh and India. The wider revision of the conflict’s history she implies generation before. Her method is to take the worst of the alleged exonerates the Pakistani government of any plot atrocities, and then to attempt to reconstruct and to rule the east by force, suggests that the Bengali quantify them by interviewing the participants leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman let the genie of on both or, rather, all sides. She wove back and nationalism out of the bottle but could not control it, and insists that the conflict was a civil war within East Pakistan. The killings by Bengalis of non-Bengali minorities, of Bengalis who stuck with the idea of a united Pakistan, and even of some Hindu Bengalis – all of whose deaths were attributed at the time to the Pakistani army – needs to be reckoned in any fair balance. The notion that the Bangladesh movement was non-violent, even Gandhian, was always fantastical. Bose has written a book that should provoke both fresh research and fresh thinking about a fateful turning point in the history of the subcontinent.

Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War By Sarmila Bose

Bose has written a book that should provoke both fresh research and fresh thinking about a fateful turning point in the history of the subcontinent

the review

Sell, sell, sell: The great fire sale in Europe Europe’s most indebted countries – and Britain – have put prized assets up for grabs to bolster their creditworthiness. So what exactly is on offer? Greece Europe’s most ambitious sell-off is taking place in its most indebted nation: Athens plans to sell €50bn (£45bn) of state assets by 2015. Looking at the sales list, it seems that very little has been left off the table. The government’s stakes in the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, 39 airports, a state lottery, a horse-racing concession, a casino, a national post office, two water companies, a nickel miner and smelter, hundreds of miles of roads, a telecoms operator, shares in two banks, electricity and gas monopolies and thousands of hectares of land, including coastal stretches, are among the host of assets on offer. While a 50 per cent stake in Athens international airport is probably the best-known asset on the block, when it comes to sheer beauty the Anavyssos saltworks could prove difficult to beat. The saltworks, an hour south of Athens, shut down in 1969, and is situated on a mile-and-a-half of beach. However, while Greece’s privatisation scheme apparently offers plenty of desirable assets, experts say the country will struggle to raise the hoped-for €50bn because investors are wary of the country’s bureaucracy, strong unions, corruption and lack of transparency. Barely a year ago, Greece itself estimated that privatisation could raise, at best, €1bn to €2bn a year.–Suzie Bird

06 - 07

Sunday, 31 July, 2011

Ireland The national airline, ports, power stations and even the Irish National Stud, which hosted a visit by the Queen in May, face being broken up or sold off under plans to get Ireland out of the red. A government-commissioned review of state assets published in April said privatisation could raise about €5bn for the cash-strapped country. Energy suppliers, transport and sporting assets were all earmarked for divestment. However, the plans could end up in the shredder. The Irish government is in no rush to sell off the family silver and the private equity company Terra Firma, which made an approach about the sale of Electricity Supply Board assets, was told that no talks could take place. The economist Colm McCarthy, who chaired the Review Group that wrote the report, recommended the break-up of the electricity and the gas boards. Other assets he recommended putting on the block include Rosslare port, Dublin Bus and the government’s 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. The Irish Aviation Authority, which regulates aviation and provides air traffic control services in Irish airspace and the north Atlantic, could be merged with the UK’s National Air Traffic Services or other north-west European services, and the forestry commission should dispose of forests but the land they grow on should remain in state hands, McCarthy said. On the sports front, the National Stud should be sold and Horse Racing Ireland should put racecourse interests up for sale. The greyhound

racing body should also get rid of its stakes in dog tracks. But the report was attacked in parliament and the government agreed there would be no “fire sale” of assets and certainly no sale until market conditions improve. Joe Higgins, a Socialist member of parliament, branded the privatisation blueprint a “neoliberal huckster’s deal which will involve pawning the assets of the people to pay off moneylenders”. So far little progress has been made and McCarthy has also said that he would be surprised if any assets could be sold this year. Top of the government’s wish list is the sale of its stakes in the five bailed-out banks but until they emerge from the current wreckage there are unlikely to be buyers. The country’s biggest life insurance operation – Irish Life – is being prepared for a trade sale on government orders. It is expected to fetch about €1.6bn but this will be used to shore up losses at the bailedout sister bank Permanent TSB, which will disappear from the high street.– Lisa O’Carroll, Dublin

Spain The world’s biggest annual lottery payout, Spain’s famous Christmas El Gordo (Fat One), spreads joy to tens of thousands of winners – but the biggest winners of all may soon be investors who snap up part of the state company behind the lottery. The country’s State Betting and Lottery (LAE), which offers a series of prize draws, also brings a huge dose of Christmas cheer to the country’s treasury. Of the €2.15bn Spaniards bet on the draw, almost a third is retained by the lottery administrator. Spain is not as badly indebted as other European countries, but bond yields have soared as Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been forced into bailouts. Spain’s socialist government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has set strict deficit targets to avoid the fate of its southern European neighbours. Sales of stakes in the state lottery and the country’s airports authority form part of the plan for pulling safely back from the brink. Some 30% of the state lottery will be sold as the organisation behind the 151-year-old El Gordo becomes what may be the world’s biggest listed gambling company, valued at up to €25bn. The company recorded €3bn net profit in 2009 on sales of €9.8bn – meaning the sell-off will reduce

treasury income by about €1bn a year RBS recently won a contract to run the privatisation of up to 49 per cent of Spain’s airports authority, AENA, which has a book value of €2.6bn. The government also plans to auction off Madrid’s Barajas airport and Barcelona’s El Prat by the end of the year. Reform of the country’s savings banks means that many will also soon be seeking stock market listings.– Giles Tremlett , Madrid

Portugal Neighbouring Portugal is in even starker need of money after accepting a €78bn bailout. On Thursday, the newly elected centre-right prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, announced a rush sale of state holdings in the utility company Energias de Portugal and the power-grid operator REN by October. Passos Coelho recently told the Financial Times that he wanted to sell off up to 49% of water utilities as well as several state media interests, reportedly including television and radio channels, plus the national news agency Lusa. The state airline TAP and the airport owner ANA – which runs airports in Lisbon, Faro, Oporto and the Azores – are also due to be sold along with the insurance business of the state-run bank CGD, although the government had not given a time frame. Portugal will also be selling off real estate belonging to its civil governors’ offices, which are being scrapped.. –Giles Tremlett

Italy There had been talk of Silvio Berlusconi’s debt-laden government raising cash by means of privatisation. But a package of fiscal adjustment measures being finalised in cabinet this week appeared to include only one sell-off. The government was expected to clear the way for radio frequencies to be auctioned off to telephone companies. The frequencies, made available by the shift to digital radio, were expected to bring in €2.4bn. The package of cuts, which has yet to be approved by parliament, aims to trim €47bn from the projected budget deficit but the bulk of the squeeze – €40bn – has been deferred until after 2012.–John Hooper, Rome

Britain The coalition government in Westminster is in the process of selling

off the 49% state stake in the air traffic control service Nats, decommissioned naval ships and its own collection of fine wine. In the March budget the chancellor, George Osborne, set a target of raising £2bn from asset sales to finance the Liberal Democrat’s idea for a green investment bank. The bulk of that is coming from the sale of its remaining stake in Nats and the Tote, the government-owned bookmakers. The private bookmakers Betfred have been chosen to buy the Tote for a reported price of £200m. Last week, the telecoms regulator Ofcom approved plans to sell spectrum for mobile broadband. Ministers will decide this summer whether to proceed with the sale of the student loan book and in the March budget, the Treasury indicated that plans for a new Public Data Corporation would involve selling public data to the private sector. Plans in the budget to sell off government buildings have been stymied by the poor property market and many departments are opting to “sweat their assets” instead by squeezing more people into the buildings in order to get out of expensive leases elsewhere. The Treasury is renting desk space to the Cabinet Office to allow it to end an expensive lease. Dozens of judicial buildings are due to go up for sale as the coalition pushes through its rationalisation of the courts service with a reduction in number by 142, including 93 magistrates courts. The government is planning to sell off HMS Ark Royal, the aircraft carrier that was decommissioned in March after 25 years’ service. The deadline for bids is next month, and among those bidding is someone hoping to sink it off the Devon coast and turn it into a wreck for divers. The Commons has announced it will sell its wine cellar though the proceeds will not go to the Exchequer but to fund a larger stock of cheaper wine for official functions. The British public’s appetite for the sell-off of public assets has been sorely tested and other attempts have gone spectacularly wrong. Plans to sell off as much as 150,000 hectares of forest and woodland in England in the biggest sale of public land for nearly 60 years were confirmed by MPs in October last year. The U-turn – after a huge groundswell of public opposition – came in February.–Polly Curtis

closing bell GARFIELD

aRieS

tauRuS

Gemini

Travel plans may get postponed. Avoid arguments this week. Work hard to maintain your position at work. Working women will do exceptionally well during this week. Time is very good and favorable for legal proceedings. Focus on property matters.

Home or family issues may be absorbing much of your attention right now. You might feel that others are taking advantage of you in some way. Do not react emotionally. It would be best to remain calm and distance yourself a bit from any confusing situations.

Working routines are much speeded up at the moment, which is good for keeping boredom at bay. Short distance journeys and many stimulating conversations are keeping your adrenaline flowing faster. Avoid sticking to your normal routine.

canceR

leo

viRGo

This week is very important for students; don’t let your home work shatter your routine. This is not a good week for chasing new schemes or new business contracts. There are many openings ahead for job seekers. Patience pays off.

This week is good for signing new agreement and legal proceedings. You will be cultivating a useful contact with some one. Hectic work schedule is likely to keep you away from home and family. Sports persons are in the lime light.

This is a beautiful week for teenagers. Irregularities in your spread will invite anger from superiors. Friends are full of bright ideas. Accept new responsibilities gladly. Useful information expected for professionals. Use your psychology to tackle a sensitive person.

libRa

ScoRPio

SaGittaRiuS

Because of the strength of your personality, you are having a profound influence on the people around you. Ask for feedback from those you really trust and you will find you do have quite an effect, of which you may not be aware. Your finances don’t seem stable at the moment.

This is a good week for property deals. Do not jump into any financial situations without first examining all your options. A small amount of caution can contribute a great deal to the long-term success of any plan.

Communications and meetings will proceed smoothly this week. Those in international trade will enter into collaboration with foreign concerns. Financial stability is assured. The emphasis this week is on romance and travel.

caPRicoRn

aQuaRiuS

PiSceS

Think carefully before you say or do anything. Listen to your intuition. Instead of going out and looking for new experiences, now's a good time to work on improving your current relationships.

You are bound to feel a little introspective, it is a good week to take a little time out to reflect on any personal matters you need to get to the bottom of. Think about investing in any kind of improvements for your home. Don't be afraid to take a few risks.

SUDokU

By Sana

1. family 2. acronym. As soon as possible 3. opponent 4. gather 6. endangered sheep 7. cultural 8. pollution 9. subordinate 13 acronym. Artificial intelligence 14. massacre 15. half 18. buddies 20. clusters 21. cereal grass 22. vegetable 23. turmoil 25. anxious 26. acronym. Body odor 29. hello 30. otherwise 31. amphibian 32. notorious 33. burn 38. vigor 39. appointment 40. type of plant 42. dirt 43. snake 44. informal. Stupid person

how to pLAy

BRIDGE

Fill in all the squares in the grid so that each row, column and each of the squares contains all the digits. the object is to insert the numbers in the boxes to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the digits 1 through 9 exactly once.

Today’s soluTions

woULD yoU DoUBLE?

chESS BLACK TO PLAY AND MATE IN 2 MOVES 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 A

chess solution

1. financial capital of Pakistan 5. anarchic 10. inter services intelligence 11. acronym. Target motion analysis 12. marine 14. large 15. blast 16. bucket 17. retaliate 19. acronym. Mission impossible 20. leave 22. affairs of state 24. oscillate 27. snob 28. detest 31. robust 34. above ground 35. use 36. preposition 37. thug 39. couple 41. mystery 43. kind of snake 45. hot beverage 46. wary 47. abbr. retired 48. donkey

Rehman malik SayS a FRiendly aFRican countRy haS PRovided a liSt oF cRiminalS involved in the kaRachi tuRbulence

1...Rxd3 2.cxd3 Bg5

DoWN

By Sana

sudoku solution

Across

woRD SEARch

crossword solution

cRoSSwoRD

DILBERt

Sunday, 31 July, 2011

Fit for a Governor

Pictures by the Author

In those days when roads were scarce and time had a different quality, such programmes were sent a good couple of years in advance

These buildings are evidence of the dominance of the British and the allegiance that our upper class offered them

By Salman Rashid

orlorn and abandoned amid mango and citrus orchards, mehal (palace), as the locals call it, sits in an open dusty plain. This is the country of the Hiraj sub-clan of the Sials who left their native Jhang district to the northeast to settle here some two hundred years ago. The name of the village that this small group established to stake out its claim, gives away a sense of insecurity of those long ago times: they called their habitation Chowki Hiraj. Some twenty kilometres north of Kabirwala (Khanewal district) and a mere kilometre from the Ravi River, the chowki, or defensive post, would have been a need of the time: the Sikhs under Maharaja Ranjit Singh were coming into their own and

raiding the land in order to assert their dominance. Not long afterwards, their influence was to reach this area as well. Remnants of that old fortified chowki stand to this day together with its surrounding mud-brick wall. It is today home to the servants of the Hiraj family. Over the years the family grew in wealth and status and by the beginning of the 20th century was politically rather well placed. The early decades saw the Hiraj family of Kabirwala being led by Sardar Wali Mohammed, a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) of India, who received the title of Khan Bahadur for services rendered to the British crown. It was he who commissioned the building of this handsome building. Though the family has no record to show, local lore recounts how the Khan Bahadur received word that the governor of Punjab, the Laat Saab (Lord Sahib), sent word of his desire to visit the area. Now, in those days when roads were scarce and time had a different quality, such programmes were sent a couple of years in advance. Consequently, the Khan Bahadur had sufficient time to raise an edifice that would suit the office of the provincial governor. The exact period of construction was not known because of a lack of

documents. Sardar Ahmed Yar Hiraj, the current custodian of mehal, great-grandson of the Khan Bahadur, recounts the various traditions that placed its construction from the early 1910s until sometime about twenty years later. Tradition also recounts that the building, rather like Sher Shah Suriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rohtas Fort, never fully served the purpose it was built for. As the governor, having left the train at Khanewal, was being driven by buggy the nearly forty kilometres to Chowki Hiraj, he was confounded by the men who lined the road all the way from the station to the village. Uniformed in immaculate white dress with red cummerbunds wherein gleamed wellhandled swords, they seemed a very proper army. The man panicked. He was not sufficiently well protected and with memories of the mutiny of 1857 still not very stale, he refused to stay overnight. It is not recorded how his Lordship reacted when told (for told he surely must have been) that the guesthouse had especially been constructed for this visit. One wonders if the Khan Bahadur was commended for his foresight or if his Lordship was too flustered to go into that formality. Done with dinner, the governor insisted on being driven back to Khanewal. His bidding had to be done.

But the worthy K h a n Bahadur W a l i Mohammed Hiraj had stocked up on a vast amount of ghee for the meals planned for the governor and his entourage. There being no other use for it now, every single one of the torches that lit the forty-kilometre long route back to Khanewal was fuelled by real ghee! There could scarcely have been a better expression of allegiance to the crown. During the lifetime of the Khan Bahadur (died 1960), mehal occasionally served as a guest room for important visitors. But for the past half-century or so, with the family living permanently at Khanewal, mehal has been virtually neglected. The floods of 1973 sent water lapping through the building up to a height of three quarters of a metre. From then on, the building was abandoned. Decay had set in when young Ahmed Yar undertook to renovate it in 1994. Strangely enough, without any training or external input, Ahmed Yar preserved the building as original, both in terms of shape as well as materials. Only, some bits of rotten roofing timbers had to be discarded and being unable to figure out the

mortar used by the original builder, he relied on modern cement in the more badly damaged parts. As the ceiling of the main hall was dismantled the main timber â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a hefty trunk of teak, was found to bear a signature and a date: Mistri Allah Buksh, 1926. Since this was the ceiling that would have been finished last of all Ahmed Yar concluded that 1926 was the year of completion of the building. Conscious that disuse will hasten the demise of the building Ahmed Yar hopes to make mehal liveable for use on weekends and other holidays. Kamil Khan Mumtaz, the noted architectural historian, says this, like others of its kind, is an important building in that it is a significant historic document. It is by studying such construction that we understand the building trends of that time. It is a window into the social attitudes, life style, and relationships between the different sections of the society. These buildings are evidence of the dominance of the British and the allegiance that our upper class offered them. As such, they are a part of the history of Punjab, he says. That it is a hybrid makes it all the more important for it records the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. â&#x20AC;&#x201C;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.

Consequently, the Khan Bahadur had sufficient time to raise an edifice that would suit the office of the provincial Governor