The author is a retired army officer and a freelance columnist

pineswah@tx.micro.net.pk

Alarmed at the FO's arrogant thick-headedness, I wrote last week that contrary to what Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar had declared, it was of the utmost import that the CE consult with the political leadership of the country before his summit with the Indian Premier, if only to show the Indians that even though he was not an "elected" leader, he had the country behind him. I had said also that there was nothing the FO should be afraid of - that given the goodwill with which the summit was being looked upon, the political parties would not dare to sabotage it.

It is good that the CE, relying on his own common sense, and therefore sound judgement, rejected Abdul Sattar's "sage and experienced" advice, and has already started meeting politicians to sound them out. It was heartening to see him talking to Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan. Good, very good. But, this most recent bad advice from the FO should finally make it clear to the military government (if it still had any lingering doubts, that is!) that the Hotel Schehrezade does not house any great political/diplomatic geniuses. This, more than anything else, should tell the government that most of the senior ranks of the FO are made up of pen-pushing babus who are completely out of touch with reality, out of sync with the country.

The news coming out from, of all places, Srinagar, apropos the summit is uniformly good. Let me quote Dr Abdul Qayyum Khan, a doctor at one of Srinagar's hospitals: "This military man is a down to earth person who sincerely wants to address the issue of strained relations between India and Pakistan"; and perhaps more significantly and in (importantly) lighter vein, Ghulam Rasool Baktoo, a poor shikara boat owner who only earned 76 rupees in the first week of June, the high season for tourism in the valley: "If India and Pakistan go for a conciliation, I will offer Vajpayee and Musharraf a free ride in Dal Lake!" Critically, the fact that this news is being reported across the wide spectrum of Pakistan's print media, even in that part of it which is considered to be hard right, signals broad Pakistani unanimity on the talks.

All Pakistanis of good will should, therefore, lend their support to General Musharraf in his efforts to resolve this, the only issue that so bedevils Indo-Pakistan relations. While I know that Pakistan's stand will be intelligently argued, I do hope that the aspirations of the Kashmiri people will always be at the top of the agenda. I, for one, can accept that even if much does not come out of this first contact between Pakistan and India, at least a beginning will have been made, hopefully leading to further and frequent high-level exchanges between the two countries.

It 's official (well, almost anyway). Convicted contemner of the highest court in the land, Akhtar Rasool; and the man who has yet to explain the source of his untold hundreds of millions of US dollars, Humayun Akhtar Abdul Rahman, might well be the PML L's candidates for District Nazim/Naib Nazim of Lahore. And the notorious Bashi Khan, the man who reportedly runs the biggest gambling operation(s) in the country, based in GHQ's city, the cantonment town of Rawalpindi, might well be Shiekh Rashid's candidate for Naib Nazim.

The NRB should put that in its pipe and smoke it. Good governance, hah.

How can Akhtar Rasool be allowed to run for elected office, an office that would (quite literally) 'control' something like 12 MNAs and 24 MPAs (!), after being convicted by the Supreme Court for attacking the court itself, no less? Doesn't he stand disqualified automatically? Am I missing something here? Will somebody please explain the whys and the wherefores of this? Does this mean that thugs can attack our courts, and still be eligible to contest elections? What sort of message will this send out to the country? That if their leaders can get away with light punishment (a month's jail) for attacking the Supreme Court in the capital, the people at large might well get away scot-free if they were to attack a civil court in some little town in the mofussil? How can a person like Bashi Khan who reportedly has 30 criminal cases pending against him, be allowed to stand in the elections, being conducted as they are, under a "cleansing" military government? Elections which will confer upon the Nazims/Naib Nazims powers never ever seen before? What is going on? Does anybody realise what the government is letting itself in for?

More about telling photographs in our newspapers. There was quite an absurd one two days ago of Nawabzada Nasrullah in the company of some stalwarts of the PML (N), PPP, and ANP. In the background was a huge painting of Nawaz Sharif in thoughtful pose. While one can forgive the ANP, for it was twice the House of Ittefaq's partner, it was absolutely ludicrous to see the Nawabzada and the PPP leaders sitting under the benevolent gaze of the worthless man they tried so hard to dislodge from the PM's House. It brought out in stark light the tamashas of our politicians, the complete lack of principles when it comes to obtaining political advantage. Look at this, for example: Some weeks ago, while defending himself in a court of law, Asif Zardari was reported to have said that false charges were trotted out against him by Saifur Rehman at the behest of the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, to settle political scores. And here is the PPP playing footsie with its "arch enemy". Such is the pass our politics has arrived at. So then, what am I carping about? Why do I whinge so about Akhtar Rasool, or Humayun Akhtar, or, for that matter, Mir Badshah Khan Afridi aka Bashi Khan? If our great political parties can dispense with principles in such cavalier manner, what is so wrong with this lot? More strength to you, General Naqvi.

In the end, some little good news too. First, the more delicate ears of the Beautiful People of Islamabad the Beautiful are soon to be spared the horrible sounds emanating from pressure horns, thanks to Omar Asghar Khan who launched an anti-pressure horn campaign in that city the other day. Never mind, of course, that the vast majority of us who live in the real world continue to be assailed by horrific noise pollution with nobody doing anything about it. Our fault of course, for living in Pakistan, and not in Islamabad the Beautiful.

And, the National Highways and Motorway Police are operational finally, and hey presto (!), the wild traffic between Wah and Islamabad is less wild than it was last week! Exactly what I have been saying for the last 20 months, in the Wah dialect: Danda Peer Aye Mushtandian Nan. While it took the government twenty very long months to get its show on the road, better late than never. I might add that a better man could not have been found to lead the Highways Police - my old school-chum, the elegant Asad Jehangir. Good luck, Jehangir.