The Review - 6th November

While the Minar-i-Pakistan rally indicates a change of face in Punjab, PTI supporters should be asking certain questions about the ascent of their ‘clean cut’ Kaptaan

By Hashim bin Rashid

F

THE KAPTAAN AND THE GENERALS Imran, himself, has a not-so-chequered history of courting military dictators. Single-mindedly committed to his ‘anti-politician, anti-corruption’ (read: middle-class mindset), he appeared to have genuinely felt the late great General Musharraf would ‘clean up’ governance. And so he had

supported his referendum on the promise of Prime Ministership, (or Kaptaani).

Funnily, it was an earlier, more notorious General, to whom he credited his return to captaincy, just before the famous 1988 West Indies tour. The fashionably labeled Kaptaan had a military general to credit for his return from retirement, at a point when he had declared, rather naively, that he wished to leave on a career high.

Whatever be the case, Imran Khan and the military go back to cricket, and not politics, so it was not too much of a surprise that he stepped into politics in 1996 on the shoulders of pro-Taliban former ISI chief Hameed Gul. An editor I respect, called Imran a ‘simple soul.’ I disagree with that assessment. Imran is singularly minded, yes, that was what the few of us who tried to engage him on broader issues during the Movement to Restore the Judiciary concluded.

His single tracked approach continued to focus on ‘legal justice.’ So clear cut was his so-called stance on ‘corruption’ that he, being the ‘simple soul’ he is, either willfully or naively, has forgotten to speak a word on corruption within the ranks of the military and align himself with it. The simple and straightforward Imran Khan, post the PNS Mehran attack, was still appearing on television, sharing space with Hameed Gul, telling the tale of ‘psychological warfare against Pakistan,’ and not questioning the growing dissent (based on Continued on page 8

Expensive rallies,

cheap politics

The vicious steams rising on October 28 and 30 in Lahore from two wildly opposing political pools might just be condensing on the same old, cold windowpane of authoritarianism – showing us how long a way we have come from the days of the formation of the MRD

By Natasha Shahid Kunwar A FLASH OF DEMOCRACY IN OUR DICTATORIAL PAST It’s 1982. General Zia-ul-Haq has been in power for five years, for four of which he has held the office of “President” of Pakistan. The completion of his term is nigh, and hence so is the time for fresh elections. But the Martial Law Administrator does not look like he’s in the mood for holding elections. The major political parties of Pakistan, including the PPP, PML and JUI, seeing this, unite in the face of the dictator and attempt to bring the power back to the people of Pakistan. Thus, the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) is born – in a bid to force the dictator into kneeling in front of the gods of democracy. However, holding nearly Continued on page 8

2 The timelessness of Iqbal’s philosophy 6 The Fort nobody remembers

IMRAN’S POLITICS I thought there was something more powerful in the first question, and Imran was amongst those asking the second question. And so fairly irrelevant to my political universe. Which took me into looking for patterns in how he was conducting his politics, and the issues around which he has agitated in the last year and some patterns that I find instructive.

Imran was thrown into prominence this year as the single most vocal agitator on the Raymond Davis issue, an issue that all readers of politics understood as representing no more than a conflict of interests between the two secret agencies, the CIA and the ISI. Around Raymond Davis, who was then under arrest, Imran Khan was shouting slogans of ‘Inqilaab.’

An Inqilaab campaign against one individual, one low-level CIA operative, that brought to us the comic ‘Toru’ moment, after which the PTI fan base (I am going to refrain from calling it an electorate, if only to urge PTI fans to vote come the next election) was called, almost many things, out of touch with either society or politics. The same could be said of Imran. The elite’s poster child, he represented everything and more that the middle class aspired to be - he had barely any party structure to begin with, and two years ago, the last time I attended a PTI meeting (for study, if it be made clear), the PTI was a party that deeply lacked funds.

Funds, which as a political organiser I can substantiate, are hard to come by, unless certain very powerful, influential and rich (money to throw around types) come to your aid. Funding is part of the reason why the PML-N and the PPP remain bound to be entrenched to status quo politics, funded by industrialists and feudals respectively, each shall continue to represent their interests.

And therefore the important question arose when Imran Khan became active on the street: where are the funds coming from? And what was to explain the amount of airtime he was getting?

Whispers suggested the ‘establishment’ was now backing the PTI whole-heartedly. Internal sources within the PTI suggested the same, and it appeared that was what was giving them confidence of an upsurge.

Illustrated & Designed by Babur Saghir

or a while now I have been holding of on an assessment of the Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf (PTI). For one reason or another I have put the task off. For the most part, because I have considered the PTI ‘irrelevant’ as a political subject and I felt a subject considered of little impact need not be thrashed out.

The second reason, and perhaps more important one, was that the politics of Imran Khan had little to do with the ‘realpolitik.’ He was speaking of sovereignty, and subjects to do with sovereignty.

As a writer, I wanted very little to do with ‘sovereignty’ as it is traditionally understood, but rather to engage with deepening its understanding, to include the sovereignty of the citizen: the right to know what is being done by the State.

So, in response to the Abbottabad raid on Osama bin Laden, my question has been: what was bin Laden doing in Abbottabad in the first place? And not: why were the Americans let in?

Sunday, 06 November, 2011

the review

Imran Khan: Not Quite A Revolution

The timelessness of Iqbal’s philosophy

and then purge those weaknesses to become a stronger human being.

Haali wanted every man to make his life an everlasting struggle of selfenhancement for the betterment of the self as well as for the prosperity of the society. Here, Iqbal took a cue from Haali and examined this idea of self-consciousness and the constant struggle that characterizes existence with respect to an entire “qaum” or “millat” (nation), expanding on Haali’s concept of the individual.

While growing up, especially here in Pakistan, patriotism is something that is injected into children, from a very early age, even before they are mature enough to understand the concept. Surprisingly, given that the idea of a Muslim state has been largely attributed to him, the bulk of Iqbal’s philosophy supports the idea of ‘Pan – Islamism’.

02 - 03

Sunday, 06 November, 2011

Manf-E-At Ek Hai Is Qaum Ki Nuqsaan Bhi Ek Ek Hi Sab Ka Nabi Deen Bhi Iman Bhi Ek Harame Paak Bhi Allah Bhi Quran Bhi Ek Kuchh Bari Baat Thi Hote Jo Musalman Bhi Ek

W

ith Iqbal D a y on the horizon, one can expect the usual influx of tributes with extensive biographical sketches and unimaginative regurgitations of his most popular themes and ideas. But there is a need to steer clear of these stereotypes for a change and analyze in depth the works of a man who did a lot more than merely “dream of a separate homeland for the Muslims.”

For few people look beyond his role in the Pakistan Movement and are largely unaware of his deeper philosophical

ideas and the contemporary relevance of his writings The modern generation, eulogizing the likes of Shakespeare, Beckett, Fugard, RK Narayan as literary geniuses – which they were, without a shadow of a doubt – is completely oblivious to Iqbal’s teachings owing to a very select exposure to his works. The major part of his deep and profound contemplations remains largely overlooked. Iqbal’s dream regarding a separate homeland for the Muslims was a mere fraction of his larger message for his people. Pakistan was part of a long struggle for an end - not the end in itself as we seem to have

collectively mistaken it for. This ignorance on our part has meant that our youth is totally ignorant of Iqbal’s grafts because they erroneously believe that 14th August 1947 was a culmination of his thought and contributions.

Iqbal’s earliest writings betray an obvious influence of Altaf Hussain Haali. Haali managed to break free from the “Aashiq” “Mashooq” and “Raqeeb” triad that had gripped most 19th century Urdu poets and actually wrote about “Islaah” (Correction).

He beseeched his readers to examine themselves and gain self-consciousness – he considered it essential to first identify ones weaknesses and strengths,

Iqbal was a strong proponent of the belief that all Muslims constituted a single community and nation, and should live as such; also combining his idea of “Unity” amongst his people.

The aspect of Iqbal’s poetry that is criminally neglected is how beautifully he addresses questions that are almost universal in their impact. At some stage or the other, almost every individual experiences doubt regarding his/her beliefs – and when they do, the very ground shakes beneath them. Often this is triggered by a catastrophic event or personal tragedy following which we begin to question the dynamics of the universe and demand divine justification. In the masterpiece ‘Shikwa’, arguably his most famous poem to date, the depiction of this condition is sublime:

Saf -A- E -Dehr Say Baatil Ko Mitaya Hum Nai No’h Insaan Ko Ghulami Say Churaya Hum Nai Tere Kaa’bay Ko Jabeenoon Say Basaya Hum Nai Tere Quran Ko Seenon Say Lagaya Hum Nai Phir Bhi Hum Say Yeah Gila H Ke Wafadaar Nahi

Hum Wafadar Nahi, Tu Bhi To Dildaar Nahi (We effaced falsehood from the earth’s surface We freed the human race from bonds of slavery We filled Thy Kaa’ba with our foreheads We put Thy Qur’an to our hearts Still Thou complaineth that we are lacking fealty If we are lacking fealty Thou also art not generous) And of course as the mind matures, through ‘Jawab-e-Shikwa’, Iqbal gives us the metaphorical slap on the face, awakens us from our deep slumber, and instructs us to stand up and take charge of our fate. The responsibility of our fate rests upon our shoulders, both individually and collectively, and we are active co-makers of our destiny along with the All-Mighty, not passive players in a grand scheme controlled solely by fate and the will of God.

Hum tau mayal ba-karam hai, koi sayal hi nahin, Rah dikhlain kise rahraw-e-manzil hi nahin.

Tarbiat aam tau hai, jauhar-e-qabil hi nahin, Jis se taamir ho aadam ki yeh who gil hi nahin.

Koi qabil ho tau hum shan-e-kai dete hain; Dhoondne waalon ko duniya bhi nai dete hain!

(We are inclined to Mercy, but there is no one to implore Whom can we show the way? There is no wayfarer to the destination Jewel polishing is common but there is no proper jewel There is no clay capable of being molded into Adam We confer the glory of Kaion the deserving We confer even a whole new world on those who search) And once the individual realizes his duties and awakes from his slumber, he is confronted with still more challenges and forced to make a decision whereby which he can select the easier option of resigning to his ‘fate’, instead of taking an active role in making it. Iqbal’s opinion on this choice is reflected beautifully in the following verse:

Buland Bal Tha, Lekin Na Tha Jasoor-o-Ghayyur Hakeem Sirr-e-Mohabbat Se BeNaseeb Raha A beautiful stanza from (Baal-eJibril) that juxtaposes the ‘Shaheen’ (eagle) with a ‘Kargas’ that depicts how the eagle fills it stomach through its own efforts while the latter is deprived of this ability and has to settle for the flesh that someone else has hunted. This verse wonderfully illustrates the sense of fulfillment that can only be achieved through something that is earned through ones own hard work.

For those enamored by the Marxist ideology, Iqbal wrote the epic ‘Lenin Khuda ke Huzoor Mein’, in which he narrates a hypothetical conversation between Lenin and the Almighty, where Allah explains the follies in his system and his teachings of communism, with Lenin replying that there was no one to guide him. His narrations regarding the global matters and international relations are also noteworthy. “Armaghaan-e-Hijaaz”

the last of his books, and one that can justifiably be called the pinnacle of his maturity and his thoughts has ‘Iblees ki Majlis-e-Shoora’ which highlights the domination of west over the east and how the West plans to further cement their authority.

Thus lies in my hold the world’s pomp an show, This earth, the Sun and Moon, the Sky’s glow.

Shall see the East and West my game and roar.

As soon I warm up Western nation’s gore.

The pontiffs of church, the leaders of State, My one din’s echo for them a dread great.

To her a modern world if a fool espies; This culture’s wine cups will someone break and sea Portraying the devil and his parliament, Iqbal severely criticized the west approach, their ideologies and highlighted their tools of global domination.

Iqbal was clear in his approach regarding the world. He was of the belief that there would always be the concept of ‘Haakim’ and ‘Mehkoom’ and that an ideal symbiosis was idealistic. The Muslims have to choose between either ruling the world or being ruled themselves. Iqbal was also unambiguous regarding his stance over democracy; Garaiz arz terz e jamhoori ghulaam pukhta karay sho Keh az maghaz do sud khar fikar insaanay nami aaid (Beware of democracy and give full allegiance to a seasoned leader For, the brains of two hundred donkeys put together cannot produce the thought of a single human-being) Iqbal believed that democracy is for mature nations and until we reach that particular level of maturity and that particular level of thought within the nation, a democratic procedure of governance would do more harm than good.

Another aspect of his teachings was his ‘falsafa-e-khoon’ regarding the propagation of philosophies and beliefs and how one has to toil hard before one achieves the goal of spreading his ideas and the fact that any act of fulfillment requires struggle and hard work.

Ya murda hai ya naz’akihalat mein ge reftaar Jo falsafa likhana gaya ho khoon-ejigar se Iqbal’s works and their impact on every phase of the transition from one of life’s phases to another cannot be summed up no matter how hard one tries. For Iqbal Day, the youth should all take a moment to remember and praise the work of one of the literary geniuses of our soil, our homeland, our creed.

How better can Iqbal’s aura be explained than in the words of the man himself: I am a hidden meaning made to defy.

The grasp of words, and walk away.

With free will and destiny.

As living, revolutionary clay.

Dr Allah Nazar:

A true Baloch sardar

The ex-BSO leader represents the true voice of the Baloch people “If I have to choose I’d choose book over gun, it’s the book that guides my gun.”

Allah Nazar

By Hennah Baloch

T

his article hasn’t been written just because the writer’s last name is Baloch – the purpose is rather to share with a wider cross-section f Pakistanis, the true story of a man who fights for the rights of his people despite the immense odds stacked against him.

For his people, a freedom fighter, for the State of Pakistan, a terrorist – he is quite simply a man who refused to bow down before those who exploited the his land’s resources, leaving him and his people deprived and dispossessed of their rights.

Allah Nazar hails from the remote area of Balochistan called Awaran. He is not yet an old man, but his immense passion and sincerity have already made him a household name in Balochistan and he has achieved somewhat of a hero status. When once asked in an interview whether he had ever been in love, he replied without a hint of hesitation, “Yes, with my land.” This is an indication of the type of man he is - brimming with unswerving loyalty to his land and people. Allah Nazar was born on 2nd October, 1968. He grew up and received his early education in his hometown Mashkay. After graduating from high school in 1986, he chose to become a doctor and was admitted in Ata Shad University of Turbat in their pre-medical program. As a result of his hard work and determination he not only secured a medical seat in Bolan Medical College but was also awarded a gold medal in Gynecology in 1999. Over the years, while he was gaining his professional education, he witnessed mounting violations by the establishment on the basic rights and development of the Baloch people and he started becoming increasingly sensitized to these issues. He soon became convinced that there would be no end in sight to the deprivation and suppression of Baloch people if the youth of Balochistan didn’t stand and fight for it. It was at this point, in 2002, that that he joined the Balochistan Student Organisation and became a passionate and active supporter of their cause. He started playing a prominent role in peaceful protests, openly advocating for the freedom of Balochis, and was soon arrested by the government on trumped up charges of murder. He was released due to insufficient evidence against him but soon after his release, he was kidnapped and became another cipher in the list of thousands of Baloch missing people.

Allah Nazar tells a truly horrifying story of his abduction – one that is shared by scores of other young Baloch activists like himself. He was picked by the Pakistan Agencies, and kept in illegal detention for a year during which time he was subjected physical and mental torture on a regular basis. Part of the mental torture involved giving him repeated threats of the abduction of his family members. His captors also tried to cause memory loss and impair his brain functioning through aluminum poisoning. “I survived,” he said in one of his interviews, “I’m

The agency eventually released him, confident that he no longer posed a tangible threat and would serve, instead, as a warning to all those ‘misguided’ youths who attempted to struggle for their people on medication for the rest of my life to counter the severity of the drugs I was given, but I survived, for God is with me, and my people too.” During this time, Allah Nazar reflected on his situation and started looking upon himself as a slave: “I used to read about about slaves in books, but when I was kidnapped, I felt like one. And that’s what gave me courage to fight back.” The agency eventually released him, confident that he no longer posed a tangible threat and would serve, instead, as a warning to all those ‘misguided’ youths who attempted to struggle for their people. Here, they severely misjudged Allah Nazar because it is then that he became a Sarmachar (freedom fighter), replacing a pen with an AK4 rifle and abandoning peaceful means for guerilla warfare.

Allah Nazar vehemently denounces those Baloch sardars who sit in the lap of the establishment and are nothing but a source of shame for the Baloch nation. He said, “In any revolutionary movement, bribe is a common stratagem of the occupiers, and so it is being used against Balochistan.” Condemning the recent sectarian bloodshed that has escalated alarmingly, he says, “Balochis are inherently secular and peace loving people and we respect other beliefs as we respect our own; I strongly condemn such acts.” He denies the widely circulated rumours that his movement receives funds and ammunition from Afghanistan, contending, “If Afghanistan or India had been supporting us, the situation of Balochistan today would’ve been quite different” Allah Nazar’s demands include a separate sovereign state of Balochistan, refusal to participate in Pakistan elections and sit in

the Pakistani parliament, (an opportunity which he, interestingly enough, was offered when kidnapped in return for halting all activism and advocacy for Baloch cause) for he believes that Pakistan may claim to be democratic but the reality is far from that. Be it military rule or civilian, there has been little variation in the dominant policy towards Balochistan which has remained exploited and neglected.

He condemns the Talibanization of Pakistan and also requests the international communities to stop providing military and economic aid to Pakistan that is in fact being used against innocent human beings, Balochi or otherwise. He addresses international human rights organizations when he says, “Stop the genocide of innocent Baloch people. If you are people of logic and reason, why is Baloch question being ignored?”

Branded a terrorist, a miscreant and a traitor by the State of Pakistan for taking up arms against them, he fiercely responds to these charges: “If I’m a terrorist, then so are all the revolutionaries who fought to protect their rights. Was George Washington a terrorist too?”

Balochis write songs of praise and adoration for this soldier who is a part of an indigenous liberation movement. Nazar, however, remains humble: “I’m not a political leader, I’m a freedom fighter in a war of liberation, and I’m a man who speaks with my people, for my people.” He proudly reveals that many Baloch women have joined the cause: “They feel a responsibility to stand next to the freedom fighters in our war against slavery and we are glad to have our sisters’ support.”

A clear case of foul play

Elections in Pakistan have always been tainted by accusations of foul play – this study reveals the extent and ma

By Zainab Moulvi

Designed by Sana Ahmed

A

s election fever sweeps the country and enthused crowds stomp the

civilian government ora military one, is entirely unblemished in this regard.

The daughter of the former secretary of the Election Commission, Mohammad Humayun Khan, the writer is equipped with a Masters

and MPhil from Quaide - A z a m University and is currently

While chiefly concerned with the 2008 elections, the study is not only an indictment of the Musharraf - Q League regime but also refers to the long and sordid history of electoral malpractices in Pakistan – so much so that not a single election to date, whether held by a civilian government or a military one, is entirely unblemished in this regard

streets of Lahore and Karachi and wave party flags with fervent ardour, Iffat Humayun Khan’s book ‘Electoral Malpractices: During the 2008 Elections in Pakistan’ comes as somewhat of a buzz kill. It’s a reminder of the fact that some ‘bad habits’ will be harder to shed even as a tentative hope seems to have re-kindled for some with the emergence of Imran Khan as a viable political force. While chiefly concerned with the 2008 elections, the study is not only an indictment of the Musharraf-Q League regime but also refers to the long and sordid history of electoral malpractices in Pakistan – so much so that not a single election to date, whether held by a

Electoral Malpractices during the 2008 Elections in Pakistan by Iffat Humayun Khan Foreward by Nile Green Pages: 217 Published by Oxford University Press

A literary Casanova A mere 219 pages? Not that Khushwant minds...

04 - 05

Sunday, 06 November, 2011

By Mani Shankar Aiyar

A

n anthology of sexy stories by Khushwant Singh— and all of them packed into a mere 219 pages? But if the man’s a sex maniac and can think of nothing else, why has he written so little on sex? Especially, as the blurb itself says, when he’s authored more than a hundred books and penned countless words for countless magazines?

The answer quite simply is that the Sardar in the Bulb is not as obsessed with bosoms and buttocks as he himself likes to make out. A wholly rounded human being, he does have a glad eye—but then, which fullblooded man hasn’t? After all, the good Lord chose to make our gender look ordinary, but, conversely, made almost every member of the other half worth not just one look but several, preferably of the sideways kind.

The savvy Khushwant Singh, who has more of his father’s commercial cunning than he would care to admit, spotted this universal male failing

decades ago. And he has leveraged it to run the most successful business enterprise in the written word that India has known while getting on with his real interests—the history, heritage and future of his community, the Sikhs.

That magnificent obsession has been both his doom and his triumph.

The downside, of course, is the idiocy of his being the greatest supporter of the Emergency for little better reason than that the man behind it was married to the daughter of a Sikh mother. This was on par with him accompanying a communalist to the filing of his nomination to protest the pogrom of 1984.

But these idiosyncrasies pale in comparison to the monumental achievement of having none to compare with his expertise, enthusiasm and expression of Sikh lore. His magnum opus, A History of the Sikhs, not only roused Sikh pride, it also alerted them to the inescapable danger of their losing their identity within a generation or two. For, too many of their youngsters had started shedding their beards and their turbans.

Identifying himself as one of his community, retrieving for them their glorious history, instilling in them a new reverence for their customs and usages – this is the real Khushwant.

Someone who reminded not just his community but the world of how Sikhs forged their lives anew after the horrors of Partition, and the Sikh genius for spiritual integration, synthesising the best in all they found around them – symbolised by a Muslim Pir laying the foundations of the Golden Temple and

the shabads and the sayings of the Gurus taking the Bhakti movement to its apogee by bringing together the best of all the faiths of India.

The Khushwant who wakes before the crows start cawing to painstakingly translate not only Allama Iqbal’s Shikwa(Complaint) but also his Jawabe-Shikwa to show that to be a true Sikh you should not be narrowly confined to any fundamentalism but self-confident enough to embrace all and everything that appeals to the highest in yourself.

To portray such a universal human being as a purveyor of pulchritude is a lasting disservice to Khushwant the Immortal, inching towards his hundredth year.

Not that Khushwant minds; he’s always enjoyed laughing all the way to the bank.

A wholly rounded human being, he does have a glad eye—but then, which fullblooded man hasn’t?

Khushwant Singh On Women, Sex, Love And Lust Edited by: Ashok Chopra Hay House; Pages: 220; Indian Rs 299

Best

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y

any faces of electoral malpractice in the 2008 national election conducting research on elections from a global perspective – making her well-versed in the various nuances and complexities of the electoral process.

The first two chapters of the book set the stage for a more detailed discussion of the 2008 elections, and deal largely with theory and the historical angle. It is from the third chapter that she dives into a discussion of 2008 elections, which, according to her, were marred by a multifarious brigade of malpractices.

She divides these malpractices into four phases and spends one chapter on each: system rigging, pre-poll malpractices, polling day irregularities and post-poll machinations.

According to her, system rigging was made all the more possible since Pervez Musharraf ensured that majority the powers were concentrated in the hands of the president. He tried his luck with pretty much every technique available to achieve a favourable outcome and maintain his rule: ‘tampering with the Constitution, imposing emergency rule, curbing the media and judiciary, influencing the Election Commission, using arbitrary means to disqualify is opponents, and allowing the preparation of inaccurate electoral lists’. Of the pre-polling process, one of most problematic

features was that of the caretaker government. Consisting largely of Musharraf sympathizers and distant relations, the repeated assurances by the government and references to the ‘neutral caretakers’ were farcical, to say the very least. The independence of the Election Commission had from the very onset been doubtful and Khan furnishes this claim with empirical proof. Mass polling day rigging ensued largely with the support of the bureaucracy, Nazims, police and local officials and involved setting up ghost polling stations, snatching ballot boxes, out of date electoral lists, vote purchasing, fake identity regards and a whole host of other such devices. Her study also reveals high levels of violence such as kidnapping, harassment and arrests, but perhaps most disturbingly, evidence also points to the government employing the services of intelligence agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau active in Punjab, ISI in Sindh and Military Intelligence in Balochistan to influence the electoral process.

The depth of the research is quite obvious as Khan carefully combs through the entire electoral process from start to finish. However, it would be prudent, at this point, to question the value of a study which only serves

to state with authority what a large portion of the population implicitly believes: Politicians, civilian or military, play dirty in most respects - it is no shocker that our elections aren’t exactly the epitome of fair play and justice. Additionally, it is no secret that Musharraf was quite snug in his Presidential House and displayed a readiness to go to any extent necessary to stay put there. However, there is no denying the importance of the study as source of knowledge for the Election Commission (dependent of course, on the presence of political will) in improving the process as it sheds light on various facets of electoral manipulation.

Khan gives some (cursory) recommendations at the end, chiefly advising the EC to carry out continuous voter-registration, more sustained voter education campaigns, maintain a record of complaints. She also offers some scanty criticism of the First Past the Post (FPTP) system of voting and throws in a few generic arguments about strengthening the judiciary and the media at the end.

One was left hoping that the writer had treated this aspect with the same keenness and thoroughness that she did the rest of the study.

FICTION

1. Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammad Hanif 2. The Artist of Disappearance by Anita desai 3. Custody by Manju Kapur 4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 5. Aleph by Paulo Coehlo 6. The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi 7. The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt 8. The Submission by Amy Waldman 9. The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst 10. Leela’s Book by Alice Albinia

NON FICTION

1.The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East ( New Arrival) by Timur Kuran 2. Pakistan: A Personal History by Imran Khan 3. How the World Works (New Arrival) by Noam Chomsky 4. The Afghan Solution by Lucy Morgan Edwards 5. A Free Man by Aman Sethi 6. Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven 7. The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day by Nick Lloyd 8. Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 by Syed Saleem Shahzad 9. The State of Islam: Culture and Cold War Politics in Pakistan by Saadia Toor 10. War of the Worldviews: Science Vs Spirituality

by Deepak Chopra

CHILDREN BOOKS

1. The Son of Neptune – Heroes of Olympus (New Arrival) by Rick Roirdan 2. The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruizzafon 3. Spook’s: I Am Grimalkin by Joseph Delaney 4. Time Riders - The Eternal War by Alex Scarrow 5. Fallout by Sandra Glover 6. Young Samurai: The Ring of Fire by Chris Bradford 7. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer 8. Vampire Academy: A Graphic Novel by Richelle Mead 9. Sapphire Battersea by Jacqueline Wilson 10. Marshmallow Skye by Cathy Cassidy

This is a ‘dramatic story of a brilliant beautiful woman’, an enlightened, liberal socialist-democratic politiician, fighting the macabre odds of life with unflinching grit and perseverance

By Syed Afsar Sajid

T

he Bhutto Legacy Foundation has lately published the Urdu version of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography Daughter of the East.

The maiden edition of the original book was brought out from England (Hamish Hamilton) in the year 1988 followed by its American edition (Simon & Schuster) titled Daughter of Destiny, in 1989. Its updated edition finally appeared in the year 2007.

Bashir Riaz, the BLF Chairman and a life-long associate of the Bhutto family, has written the foreword to the book. The present publication has verily served to extend its readership to the Urdu literate public also. The book has been neatly formatted and printed whereas the translation is qualitatively quite fluent and apt.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed (1953-2007) belonged to a highly celebrated family of legendary affluence and ‘near mythic status’. She was the proud progeny of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1929-1979), the popularly elected Prime Minister and founder of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. Like father like daughter, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto also wore (twice: 1988-90 and 1993-96) the highly coveted mantle of the premiership of the country making an indelible mark on the pages of history as the first female prime minister of a Muslim country.

Her autobiography enshrines ‘a life of strength, dedication and courage

in the face of adversity’ besides her personal and political activities spread over almost two decades of turmoil and trepidation. In addition to a preface, appended by the eminent autobiographer to the updated (2007) edition of the book, it is broadly divided into seventeen chapters dealing with the ‘assassination’ of her illustrious father, house arrest, taste of democracy, stay at Oxford, Ziaul-Haq’s ‘betrayal’, father’s ‘judicial assassination’, democracy vs the martial law, solitary confinement at Sukkur jail, detention in a dingy cell at Karachi Central Jail, another two years of solitary confinement at a sub jail, the years of exile, death of a brother (Shahnawaz), return to Lahore and the 1986 massacre, nuptials at the ancestral home, the silver lining of democracy, military dictator and nemesis, and the Premiership and thenceforth.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography is a ‘dramatic story of a brilliant beautiful woman’, an enlightened, liberal socialistdemocratic politician, fighting the macabre odds of life with unflinching grit and perseverance. Ironically the publication of the updated edition of the book coincided with her tragic death in the wake of her valedictory public address at Liaquat Park, Rawalpindi in the fateful evening of the 27th December, 2007. In retrospect, her preface to its new edition written in April 2007 when she was in compulsive exile in London, sounds like a swan song portending

the events to come: “I did not choose this life, life chose me!” (the opening sentence in the preface); “I shall not shun my responsibility, rather I would welcome it so as to be able to shoulder it!” (a John F. Kennedy quote concluding the preface). The book is thus a chronicle of the events that have had a consequential bearing on our national history.

Her autobiography enshrines ‘a life of strength, dedication and courage in the face of adversity’ besides her personal and political activities spread over almost two decades of turmoil

Pictures by the Author

the review Sunday, 06 November, 2011

06 - 07

The Fort nobody remembers The fort is picturesque, both because of its setting and its pristine condition

By Salman Rashid

S

angni, the fort, stands on a low knoll surrounded on three sides by a hill stream that is a torrent when it rains.

Otherwise, it is a meandering dry ravine with a few ponds of blue water. The fort is picturesque, both because of its setting and its pristine condition: it seems as if the builders have just had time to collect their materials and equipment and leave the site. Yet Sangni is no less than one hundred and seventy or so years old.

M y c i v i l servant f r i e n d Shahid Nadeem told me of it. Shahid regularly takes off into the w i l d s where few o t h e r s venture.

N o surprise then that he has a great stock of travel stories. And so there we were with his friend Tariq Mumtaz meandering through the traffic of Gujar Khan near Rawalpindi and on to the road to village Beval.

If Mirpur in Kashmir boasts of everything being powered by British pounds, Beval does equally better.

Humongous bungalows grow on the slopes around the village. They all rise through three or four storeys, colonnades and pediments make up the faรงades and vast terraces spread out between iron grills on the upper floors. None of these concrete monstrosities seem to have any less than three dozen rooms. Nor too does a single one seemed lived-in.

Shahid said that the men of Beval like those of Mirpur had all made their fortunes in menial jobs in Britain. They brought home their bags full of pounds sterling to flaunt in the shape of these fancy houses. But these architectural eyesores have no utility for the owners continue to live in Britain and only their ghosts will ever return to haunt these bare walls.

Past Beval we reached Taka and took the road north to Sangni. The fort, just outside the village, less than twenty-five kilometres off the Grand

Trunk Road at Gujar Khan, looked prim and new. Save for a couple of them, the merlons on the battlement were all intact, the towers sat solidly and without any cracks, the lintels and doorways were complete. Only the dark lichen covering the masonry showed that the building was old.

We entered the narrow enceinte of Sangni fort through a well kept doorway with traces of modern cement plastering conservation. Inside it was empty save for some rooms to one side and a well on the other. The far end was taken up by a newish domed building. An elderly man sweeping the veranda of the building gave up his work and came to speak to us. This, he said, was the tomb of someone called Abdul Hakim, a reputed saint.

He told us the story of this man having come from Persia. This took me back to my unanswered question as to why all holy men must come from either Arabia, Persia or Central Asia. Why do we believe that a sub-continental can never achieve nirvana?

Anyway, after some wandering

It appears that the Fort was built in order to facilitate tax collection: a small fortified garrison in the heart of a country seething with recalcitrant hill tribes known for their warlike propensities about, the man came to live where Sangni fort now stands. Some years later, so the story proceeds, the Dogra rulers of Kashmir chose the same spot for their fort and threw the man out. As he was leaving, he is reported to have told the Dogras that it will be he who will remain eventually in the fort. Thereafter for as long as Abdul Hakim lived, he remained in Chakrali village not very far away. There he died and was buried sometime in the 1850s. Early in the 20th century he is reported to have started appearing in the dreams of the people of the neighbouring village of Sui Cheemian, exhorting them to remove his remains from the Chakrali tomb to Sangni fort.

As all these pointless tales unfold, this one has a few meaningless twists as well. But to cut a tedious story short, the corpse was dug up and transferred to the fort and the domed mausoleum raised above it. The story goes that the casket (taboot, the narrator insisted it was a taboot) being dug up was opened to reveal the man as if in living splendour with

beads of water on his face. This surely can be nothing but pure hogwash for Muslim burials are in shrouds, never in caskets!

Ever since the transference of the skeleton there are two festivals of the dead saint. The one at Chakrali where he was originally buried and the other at Sangni fort. Much money goes into the boxes placed at both sites. The one in the fort being the real winner for here the faithful gather every Thursday leaving behind a goodly booty for the current descendent. Enriched by these donations, he lives like a parasite off the superstitions of simpletons. Three generations before him have done the same and he carries the tradition forward.

So much for superstitious legend concerning the tomb. As for Sangni fort, it is quite evident that it could not have pre-dated the Sikh period. But the question was why would the Sikhs build a fort in the Potohar badlands?

There are some interesting facts that might show why. First of all by the beginning of the 19th century Gujar Khan had evolved into a busy mart for the trade of wheat. The grain, grown in Gujar Khan or brought over from Chakwal to the southwest and Kallar to the north, was famous under the generic name of Gujar Khan wheat and transported off in all directions.

This trade would have meant wealth in the area.

Now, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh

As for Sangni fort, it is quite evident that it could not have pre-dated the Sikh period. But the question was why would the Sikhs build a fort in the Potohar badlands?

took control of this part of the country in 1814 and were soon well established.

To me it a p p e a r s that the fort was built in order to facilitate tax collection: a small

fortified garrison in the heart of a country seething with recalcitrant hill tribes known for their warlike propensities.

But some due needs be given to the tradition of the Dogras having built this fort. Again, in 1831 Maharaja Ranjit Singh granted the district of Murree as a fief to Gulab Singh, the Dogra ruler of Kashmir. The town of Gujar Khan may have gone under Dogra control at that time or shortly afterwards when Ranjit Singh died and the Dogras expanded their sway.

History tells us of the ruthless rule

of the Dogras wherein the slightest dissent was punished with death. In that case the Dogras would have kept a tight little garrison at Sangni forever prepared to ride out and quell this little rebellion or that.

Not long after that the War of Independence (or the Mutiny, suit yourself) was fought in 1857. Shortly thereafter Rawalpindi district became part of the Raj. With the return of order and justice, Sangni was forgotten. Years later, sometime in the 1920s, finding it vacant, the keepers of the shrine of Abdul Hakim, an obscure

saint, appropriated it for his tomb.

What the real motive was behind this usurpation was perhaps known only to this early example of the now well known qabza group. They may perhaps have thought that the lofty edifice of Sangni would lend grandeur to their own unknown saint. If that was it, a visit on a Thursday will show that they did not do so badly.

–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.

Our ‘Liberal’ Complex:

Caught between Mathira and char-dewaari Our tendency to paint Western consumerist values as ‘liberalism’ does a huge disservice to true progressiveness in our society

By Farheen Hussain

A

few weeks back, while skimming through my facebook newsfeed, the comically made-up face of the ‘sexy TV host’ Mathira kept popping up. It was a piece by the LA Times which projected Mathira as the new harbinger of liberal values, whose provocative show was educating the masses on ‘sexuality, love and HIV’ and in doing so, exposing the hypocrisy of our religiously bigoted society and courageously taking on those wretched mullahs. True to form, some of the most ‘liberal’ people I know took up the cause by lauding Mathira’s boldness and upholding her ‘baby talking’, cringe inducing, sleaze fest of a show, as proof of how ‘progressive’ and ‘tolerant’ Pakistan was becoming.

A few years back the LA times did a similar piece on Ali Saleem aka Begum Nawazish Ali and presented him as yet another beckon of hope in an otherwise rabid mullah infested country.

Implying, if there is tolerance for a cross dressing, coquettish begum having politically charged discussions with the country’s power elite, Pakistanis have redeemed themselves somewhat. Again, no sooner did LA Times call Ali Saleem the man who ‘gave Pakistan her voice’,

were the ‘liberals’, hopelessly victim to their gora sahib complex, celebrating him as proof of Pakistan’s ‘soft image’. Begum’s popularity was also stupidly assumed to be indicative of the tolerance in Pakistan for homosexuals, which is tragically amusing, since this popularity really stemmed from capitalizing on our societal norm of ridiculing transvestites or homosexuals. The ‘Begum’ character was in no way humanizing homosexuals or opening up debate on LGBT rights.

Coincidentally, Begum Nawazish Ali was also found championing the cause of liberalism in a National Geographic documentary, “Don’t tell my mother I’m in Pakistan.” The documentary featured the countries’ obnoxious elite partying hard into the night at some exclusive, glitzy party as the semi conscious Begum inaudibly mutters something to the tune of how the world was tragically missing out on this side of Pakistan.

Indeed a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, that instead of capturing the ‘resistance struggle’ of our tequila shooting, elitist youth dancing wildly to house music, the world keeps zeroing in on the terrorist training camps. This dangerously simplistic notion is based on the absurd logic that the answer to religious extremism is the most perverse adoption of western consumerist values.

Pakistan may be rocked with bombs and undergoing a cancerous spread of extremism but

our urban elite’s proclivity for self indulgence and all things decadent is just a manifestation of how insensitive and detached third world elite typically is. Partying hard with complete abandon is never taken to be indicative of a society’s progressiveness or resilience, then why is it being celebrated as that here? Granted there is an element of subversion of the law, but let’s face it, these snobs are not putting a show on the streets of urban slums but within their exclusive, elitist ghettoes, heavily guarded and completely impervious to the realities of the country. In fact, far from challenging the status quo, this is just a crude manifestation of our highly class based society and most of these party animals are just about as liberal in their politics as their daddies whose contacts and clout they ‘liberally’ abuse to breach every rule in this country.

Curiously enough, the LA Times fittingly nicknamed Mathira the ‘Paris Hilton of Pakistan’. After all, that is what she is. Just like Ali Saleem is not America’s Harvey Milk, Mathira is not America’s Rosa Parks, Arianna Huffington or even Oprah Winfrey but in fact the most grotesque manifestation of their consumerist culture; a sex symbol whose claim to fame is her talent for appealing to the basest instincts of erotically charged men. Such women in their respective societies, far from being progressive, actually reinforce the worse stereotypes against women; that they are in fact sub human, sexual

objects. Yet while Paris Hilton will never be treated as anything beyond a source of cheap entertainment, why is her desi counterpart made out to be the crusader for women’s rights and sex education in Pakistan? Frankly, I do not care for the Mathiras of this world, if they want to have a sleazy, little call in show then so be it.

But whenever we project them as some ideal of a progressive woman, we do a huge disservice to the real progressive women of our country. The women who wage a daily battle in this suffocating patriarchal society for dignity and to be judged for their brains not their body.

With the tremendous rise of extremism, the ‘liberals’ have not only failed to provide a meaningful alternative, but done a greater disservice by pushing a false binary onto Pakistani people. Making them choose either between the “chaddar and char diwari” victim or the loathsome, overly sexualized woman who is just as much a victim of societal stereotypes and patriarchy as the former. By doing this, they have made liberalism synonymous with westernization and elitism, and presented to our population a liberal alternative that is as exclusive as their parties, lucid as Mathira’s babbling and relatable to the ordinary Pakistani as Lady Gaga.

Moreover this skewed notion of liberalism is in a symbiotic relation with extremism; it is the very hollowness and exclusivity of the liberal agenda that gives credence to the extremist one.

08

Sunday, 06 November, 2011

Expensive rallies,

cheap politics

A CYNICAL VIEW OF THE SHOW Dear Imran Khan supporters,

From title page

That was some show you put on last Sunday; kudos for that! However, while it was a groundbreaking ‘coming of age’ statement for the party, your leader’s speech was a classic party pooping anticlimax – for the neutrals of course. Sunday’s events were more of a testament to the regression of Imran Khan’s rivals than to his own political credentials. Unfortunately in the real world, where logic governs most matters, if you do not have a tangible political agenda, and your election manifesto is governed by the ill-doings of your rivals, it’s hard for you to bring about any change even if you gather the entire nation in a park.

So what exactly are his credentials? We carefully examined all possible factors contributing his ascendancy to political eminence and compiled a list: a) The rest of them are rubbish Ten on ten for objectivity! b) Everyone else has been given a chance A popular chant, this makes Amir Liaqat and Sahir Lodhi eligible as well. c) He won a Cricket World Cup Does this mean that you’ll be voting for Younis Khan in 2028? And if Khan Sahab’s World Cup winning speech is anything to go by, brace yourself for statements like “My GDP is on a decline” or “I would like to enhance my trade with China” d) He looked like to a Greek god in his bowling run up, with his hair fluttering in synchrony with the wild wind…

Ladies please! In a matter pertaining to the nation’s future how about opting for your neurons instead of your hormones. And considering your man’s hush a propos Taliban, you lot should rather be concerned about your own hair’s future engagements with the wind. e) He blames everything on Uncle Sam Given our national ethos, this is an instant popularity enhancing thingamabob if there ever was one. He follows it up with asking our dear uncle for donations for the hospital in a classic oxymoronic scenario. Your Deputy Information Secretary’s growing links with the US troops are the cherry on this particular cake. f) He never blames the Taliban So our tribal areas are our backbone now, and the drone attacks create Taliban who sure as hell did not exist pre-2001. Add praying in front of 25 cameras into the mix and you strike a goldmine. g) He is not Zardari No, No, he has the elegance to kill! And using the name of the founding father of the current ruling party to increase your votes, when you have criticised that man’s ideology in the past is indeed elegance personified. h) He is the flag-bearer of democracy Yup, not having elections in your party does help that claim. i) He runs a cancer hospital If philanthropy is a criterion, how about putting Abdus Sattar Edhi’s name on the ballot? j) He is Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam rolled into one Was it just me or did Mr. Jinnah’s expression betray escalating horror as the rally went on? Also Allama’s dubiety in the background was picturesque. k) He will change everything Sure! And having an ensemble featuring the likes of Shahid Akram Bhinder, Farooq Amjad Meer, Zaheer Abbas Khokhar and Mian Azhar vindicates the claim. Oh, you don’t know who they are? l) We should be optimistic There is an ever so slight difference between optimism and delusion. As long as your hero continues to focus on the ‘what’ and ignores the more important question of ‘how’ in his quest for change, the doubting Thomas will live. And what cause did he give to the religious minorities for optimism?

They do exist you know. m) He will not rob us of our money Err…you’re not supposed to. That’s hardly something to brag about. n) He has studied in ‘Inglistan’ and has the ‘angraizi’ and the ‘yo-factor’ to woo the “educated class” Self-explanatory.

And, my dear PTI buffs, you have labelled, judged, criticised, abused every person not called Imran Khan in the past, and now that your bandwagon is swelling please allow others to do the same to you, without allowing your brains to detonate inexplicably. Popularity is a double-edged sword, deal with it sportingly.

Yours skeptically, Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Imran Khan: Not Quite A Revolution From title page radicalization) within the military and questions of inside-involvement.

And yet the question remained: what exactly was being sprung under the coffers by the powers that be? Punjab had already been witness to the manufactured entry of one political party, the PML-N. Discussions with katchi abadi activists during the middle years of Zia opened up a history where military generals offered katchi abadi’s recognition if they voted for the PML-N in the 1985 elections.

The offers were made to a pro-PPP electorate, and the hope was to displace the PPP from Punjab.

Punjab is not the only province in which political parties and political appeal has been manufactured.

The case of the MQM and Altaf Hussain is a similar event. When Altaf was positioned as a leader, the Jama’at-e-Islami, which had started agitating against Zia, had to be displaced in Karachi.

And so, in 2011, the PML-N stands as the political party that needs to be displaced from Punjab. The question was: who would replace them?

The answer came as: Imran Khan and the PTI. DISPLACING PML-N The PML-N, after the Abbottabad raid, had begun to use the ‘politics of sovereignty’ against the military, who had used it to protect itself throughout Pakistani history. The role that Imran Khan, willfully or un-willfully played in the last year, was to rebuild the space for the ‘politics of sovereignty,’ in its traditionalist understanding. Thus, the theory goes that when the PML-N, especially Nawaz Sharif, got too dangerous, certain known elements put their cards in a certain politician-figure, who was toiling on the political fringes for 15 years. Not only had the PML-N questioned the Pakistan army’s military abilities and budget allocation, the PML-N had questioned the army’s entire raison d’être – ‘the two nation theory.’

And so the operation to displace the PML-N from Punjab had to be begun. To be frank, the party also showed itself to have passed its political shelf life, if the ill-advised October 28 rant-rally by the Punjab CM is anything to go by. Shahbaz Sharif, in reciting Habib Jalib, reminded those who had any memory remaining of the rise of the Sharif brothers, and his rant left a bad taste. The elected Chief Minister of the largest province had taken up a feud with the President – but everyone knew the real attempt was to belittle Imran Khan. And in this sense, Shahbaz Sharif may be credited with taking out a rally to discredit himself and setting up the Imran Khan rally as something ‘significant.’

And so when, on October 30, a Sunday, the Minar-i-Pakistan rally took place, one was reminded of the political scuffles that tore apart the politics of the 1990s. The PPP had remained, for the most part, ‘dignified,’ in response to Shahbaz’s tirade against Zardari. Zardari maintained his silence, and the PM only pointedly said, ‘Shahbaz fears Imran, and nothing more.’

And so Imran Khan’s day came in the context of some of the lowest ebbs of politicking by the PML-N. Willfully or not, the party was playing ‘desperate’, and had successfully created an election-like atmosphere, a year and a half before schedule. And so Imran Khan’s day came. And here it must be admitted no one, no analyst including this writer, expected anything near the numbers that showed up. At least 150,000 people showed up at Imran Khan’s Minar-ePakistan rally, and the non-entity of Pakistan politics had been elevated to the status of prime candidate for Punjab.

While no immediate electoral returns are on offer, the PTI has been granted the moment it has awaited. If the party is mature enough, it will use the momentum of Minar-i-Pakistan to build its community cadre and reach out. The most sensible thing appears a new recruitment drive into the party, for which the many youth, elite and educated, should be expected to join. But what is to be feared is if

this campaigning begins without these individuals getting to experience what the day-to-day of politics in Pakistan is.

WHAT’S NEW? Let me suggest that it is not ideological debates and it is not rhetoric. Having learnt it the hard way, it is to suggest that this is the politics of the thanakatcheri as it were. Imran, of course, spoke of grandiose ideas such as abolishing the patwari system and elected SHOs to counter such, but Imran and his fan-base must first experience these systems themselves, before presenting ‘solutions’.

Surely, I am happy to see many of the depoliticised youth step in to attend, quite possibly, the first political rally of their lives. And I am hopeful of seeing them campaign for the PTI – but I also hope that they do not lose track of the context within which the PTI’s rise is located.

His actual speech, and actual demand, and sketch of a political programme, left much to be desired.

His final demand, ‘Politicians, declare your assets!,’ is already enshrined in the Election Commission of Pakistan protocol.

Those with rather short memories who have forgotten the stories they shared on their facebook walls of the wealth possessed by numerous politicians, must be reminded that Khan’s demand is merely a demand for implementation and transparency. But to make the demand credible, Imran should himself present before the public the entire detail of the sources of funding for his political party.

It would go a long way in determining whether the accusations of being the ‘establishment’s man’ are false, or whether Imran’s slogan of change, also only extends to ‘change of face.’ A little statement from the PTI chief had gone unnoticed amongst facebookers still euphoric from the ‘Revolutionary Rally,’ Imran announced, “We shall be open to exploring an alliance with the PML-N if the Sharifs declare their assets.”

I need not say more.

absolute powers himself, the President of the country stomps the movement down through a military operation in Sindh – the cradle of the MRD – and thus all voices rising up in favour of democracy are hushed.

Yet elections were still held – even if belatedly – and the Junejo government came into (limited) power in 1985: a miniwin for democracy and a reward for the efforts of the MRD. THE SORROWS OF OUR DEMOCRATIC PRESENT Twenty-nine whole years have gone by since the MRD was formed, and today in 2011 we see a completely different – if not contrasting – political scenario in Pakistan. Democracy has come a long way from being the means of employing a rubberstamp parliament for a military dictator, and the country lies in the hands of a publicly elected government presided over by a man who has, by his own discretion, stripped himself of the greatest of his powers by signing the Eighteenth Amendment. Having finally settled affairs with its “hard to get” coalition partner in Karachi, the government is only just breathing a sigh of relief before it enters into the last year of its term, hoping for it to go smoothly. But this isn’t to be.

The opposition up north does not like the idea of giving the government any share of respite – the PPP is not to rest in peace as long as the PML(N) can help it. Therefore, the Sharif Brothers stage a verbal rebellion in a bid to destabilize the government, a rebellion that assumes form in the biggest city of the biggest province of the country on October 28, when the PML(N) triggers its much awaited “Go Zardari Go” rally. Shahbaz Sharif and the thousands rallying behind him shout anti-Zardari slogans calling for him to “either step down or be hanged” - they do not want him to complete his term. Meanwhile, pressure piles in from other circles, too. The Cricketing Politician wakes up. Injected with new zeal – and evidently a large amount of unaccountable cash – the Khan had recently declared a date and place for a public meeting for his party supporters. Thus on October 30, merely two days after the Charge of the Mian Brigade, the PTI’s popular jalsa takes place around the Minar-ePakistan. Thousands turn up in support of the cricketer-turnedphilanthropist and jeer gleefully with him when the PTI chief jestingly calls the elected President of Pakistan a “crocodile” – the bit in his speech that generates, arguably, the loudest cheer from the crowd (discounting, of course, the music gala).

HERE LIES THE MADness Thus, the underlying and unifying factor between the two inherently opposing rallies of the PML(N) and the PTI was their anti-government sentiments – whatever else they were, they were against the government; against a democratically elected government, and their respective leaders were not the slightest bit hesitant in saying so as plainly as possible. Even though Mr. Sharif gets the lion’s share of the blame for blaspheming against the institution of democracy due both to the intensity of his comments and the seniority of his political rank, Mr. Khan could also not be excused for jumping onto the anti-Zardari bandwagon so matter-of-factly. If nothing else, it’s cheap politics.

The MQM’s pro-democracy rally in Karachi, on the other hand, though intrinsically a good gesture, was a little limp coming from a party that has openly spoken in favour of dictatorship over the years, and that had until very recently tried to jam the democratic procedure, themselves. Nevertheless, credit to them for making the effort to defend democracy – to whatever personal ends it was committed.

However, Sharif and Khan ought to revisit their earlier statements and preferably apologize for them since in their attempts at harassing the government, the two leaders perhaps forgot that by treating an elected government such, they ridiculed the institution of democracy, as well. And while doing so publicly, they set an example that a country like Pakistan – where democratic tradition is already nearly non-existent – could definitely do without. And it is their very carelessness towards the institution that is held most objectionable by this writer – the point in calling their acts anti-democratic.

FROM MRD TO MAD – PROGRESSION OR REGRESSION? Before all is said and done, there is one million dollar question that needs to be addressed: how much of a political “high point” can a rally or a jalsa be if democracy lies at its losing end? And how much of a democratic time are we living in if a man gets away with the calling for the abolition of a democratic government openly in the streets of the country without facing the consequences? Not very.

Allow me to say that if anything, the times of the MRD were more prestigious in the history of democracy in our country than these times of madness. It might sound like a touch – or more – hyperbolic at this point in time, but take no action to preserve the sanctity of democracy in the country, and these hyperboles could very well come back and haunt us for all times to come. There is a need to save democracy – both in our political procedure and in our hearts and minds. There is a need to realize the immense importance of letting this government complete its term, and of letting the common man respect the democratic procedure.

Democracy is the one thing that lets us know we still count in our country’s future. It is our one last hope.

Don’t take it away