Two months have passed since the Mumbai carnage. On Jan 5, 2009, India handed over the evidence linking the Mumbai terror attacks to "elements in Pakistan." "It is our expectation that the government of Pakistan will promptly undertake further investigations in Pakistan and share the results with us so as to bring the perpetrators to justice," the statement read.

Pakistan has been asserting since these attacks that no state elements of Pakistan were involved in these attacks. President Asif Ali Zardari on Nov 28 blamed non-state actors, who wanted to force upon the governments their own agenda, for Mumbai carnage. Indian authorities on the other hand, suspect that Mumbai attackers may have had ties to Pakistani authorities and not just non-state actors. "In fact I will presume that they are state actors or state-assisted actors until the contrary is proved. No non-state actor can mount this attack without any kind of state help," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, said on media on Jan 4.

Long before this, Pakistani authorities took some actions against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), organisations being blamed by the Indian authorities. A day after a UN counterterrorism committee declared JuD a front for the LeT guerrillas, Rehman Malik, the advisor on interior, declared a ban on the organisation. The order included the closure of the group's bank accounts and offices, takeover of its schools and the arrest of its leaders.

On Jan 15, Rehman Malik while briefing about the government's actions in response to Mumbai attacks, said Pakistan had arrested 124 people from the banned organisations including LeT and JuD's top leadership. He also said Pakistan had closed down 20 offices, two libraries, 87 schools, seven madrassas and five camps run by JuD. Later, in a clarification, Interior Secretary Kamal Shah said 71 people had been arrested. Authorities claim to have also banned its publications and blocked the group's websites. "All the activities of that particular organisation have ceased. We assure India and the international community of our help and support," he claimed.

On Jan 17, Malik set a 10-day deadline for a three-member panel to examine the Indian dossier and submit its report but so far (until the submission of this report) the ministry has not released the document.

Top Pakistani security officials are claiming that the activities of LeT and JuD have come to an end. On ground, things may appear to be different. In Punjab, the main base of JuD, only six leaders of JuD have been placed under house arrest including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, according to a "secret" document of Punjab government on "Action against JoD" (copy available with TNS). "72 offices including the head office of JuD at Chauburji Lahore have been sealed. 10 schools and 18 dispensaries… directly run by JuD have been taken over. In total 18 people belonging to JuD were on schedule-lV of ATA 1997 before it was declared proscribed. As a result of joint exercise by special branch and CID police, another list of 55 people was finalised and sent to the Home Department which is being notified for entry into Schedule-lV," the document reads. It also includes the detailed addresses of the offices sealed and schools and dispensaries taken over by the Punjab government.

JuD claims it runs 150 schools and 52 madrassas nationwide and it has offices in almost all district and tehsil headquarters especially in Punjab and Sindh. The authorities have taken over only 10 schools in Punjab, its stronghold in the country while the federal government claims to have control over 87 schools. TNS tried its level best to reach authorities responsible to comment on the situation in Punjab as well as at centre level but was unable to get their point of view. Pervaiz Rasheed, advisor to Punjab CM did not pick up his mobile despite regular efforts for two days (January 28 and 29). But a report published in Bloomberg News on January 27 quoted him as saying "all of the schools we know, we have taken over." Interior advisor Rehman Malik and state minister for interior Tasneem Qureshi were not available for comment either.

A war of words has already begun between the federal and the Punjab government in a bid to shift the blame for failing to fully enforce the ban on the activities of the JuD. Sherry Rehman, federal information minister, on Jan 4 declared that it was Punjab government's responsibility to take action against the JuD. The Punjab government on the contrary replied it had acted against the banned group with full force.

Surprisingly, it took the Punjab government more than two months after the Mumbai attacks to take over the Muridke Markaz of JuD, which it did on Jan 25 and appointed an administrator of its own to run the place.

On Friday, Jan 23 TNS visited a JuD School on Multan road and Jamia Qadssia, the official head office of the organisation taken over by the Punjab government. When we reached there at 9:30am, the administrator appointed by Punjab government had already left the school, according to the principal of the school, Muhammad Nawaz Cheema. The school closed at 10:30am unlike other government schools that usually close around 12 in the noon on Fridays. Muhammad Nawaz Cheema, principal of the school, informed TNS they were running school under the directions of the Punjab government that was being "ensured by the administrator". "We are now observing Punjab government's schedule and syllabus," he says.

The situation at Jamia Qaddsia, official head office of JuD, in Chauburji Lahore was no different. Around a dozen policemen were present outside the Jamia. Saifullah Khalid, a regular prayer leader at the Jamia, started delivering his Jumma sermon around 12:30 in the noon on the loudspeakers. He openly criticised the "forces" responsible for carrying out the crackdown against JuD. "They do not understand that we (JuD) cannot be put under pressure by such tactics. We will come out victorious finally," he roared with authority in front of at least 5,000 people, present at the Jumma prayer while thousands other might have been listening to him over the loudspeaker. He also argued in favour of lodging a jihad against the enemies of Muslims and claimed that we (JuD) wanted to change the fate of 750 million Muslims of South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal).

The situation is not a surprise for security analysts. "Pakistan's offensive, in response to international pressure to suppress Lashkar and its civilian ally, Jamaat, is halting and partial at best," Ahmed Rashid, a security analyst tells TNS. He does not expect a proper crackdown against JuD "because the country's politically dominant army has cultivated Lashkar and Jamaat to help confront India over the disputed territory of Kashmir." He says that it is right that present Punjab government is considered to have a soft corner for these kinds of religious organisations "but at present, they are not in position to call the shots, it's in fact the military and I do not think that there is not going to be any sudden U-turn in their policy towards JuD."

International organisations are also well aware of the situation and do not feel that Pakistan's civilian government is able to get hold of JuD. "Zardari's government is either unwilling to comprehensively shut down Lashkar and Jamaat or, more likely, is seriously constrained from doing so by the military and intelligence agencies," says a report recently issued by the Washington-based RAND Corporation. The report further reads that Indian and American officials generally believe that Pakistan's civilian government does not control the military's (or ISI's) policies towards militant groups operating in and outside Pakistan.

"The challenge for the United States, India, and the international community is how to selectively put pressure on the military and intelligence agencies in the near term without destabilising Pakistan's fragile civilian government. No doubt, Pakistan's security establishment understands this calculus and therefore discounts the likelihood of significant reprisals. If so, Pakistan is very likely to take the minimal steps needed to defuse the present crisis while still retaining a capacity to use militants in the future," the report reads.

In its fourth year running, the Indus Valley School Faculty exhibition (Indus Valley School Gallery January 27 to February 14, 2009) resonated with echoes of all that is good at the School. Displaying the works of 44 professionals, the show included works by artists, designers, architects, ceramists and for the first time, even textile designers. The Faculty Show, as always before, provides suitable ambit for the fearless and the brave, for it is surely not the shrinking violet of a teacher who will willingly step out in front of an audience of a few hundred students, most of whom they will face everyday for many months if not years. But the work exuded an unabashed confidence of true professionals steady in their tracks and well entrenched in their ranks. What was truly exciting was the diversity of the work that stretched across a spectrum of not only varying disciplines but ages as well. The stalwart leaders of our artistic traditions like Mehr Afroze, Rashid Arshed and Shakil Siddiqui were apparent in their masterful showmanship while the younger lot followed in their footsteps with solid determination.

The highlight of the show was a piece by Adeela Suleman, the only alumnus of the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture who has gone on to explore wise and wonderful avenues of expression. She has constructed a coffin-like structure in the shape of the female form. The inside of the rather deep box is lined with expensive, rich-red faux crocodile skin and the outer sides of the coffin, like the lid that hangs on the wall, is made of shiny steel and intricately wrought with detailed carvings of grape vine wreaths and supplementary ornamentation. This is installation at its best, where the construction is immaculate and the gestural substance pulsates with vituperative meaning. The fact that our religion does not allow for burials of the Christian kind becomes significant when fashioned by Adeela's wily aesthetics. Add to that, the grape vine, also medieval in its connotations and the woman on the coffin lid whose breasts are heavy with the luscious fruit of the vine and the imagery becomes so much more tense in its stretch between east and west, between feminine strength versus female anguish and the cold hardness of the steel pitted against the warm softness of the female flesh.

Usman Ghouri, a printmaker by inclination and an artist by sensibility produced an indelibly moving piece of work. Mixing materialistic elements of photography, paint and Xerox transfer he puts together a painting imbued with so much human history in its relatively small structural expanse, that the work throbs with narrative and metaphorical storytelling. Rabia Shoaib's installation and painting was a riveting piece of work as was Sumaira Tazeen's piece which resembled her chosen genre of miniature only in size and brought into play much innovation and tender grace.

The photography department at Indus Valley School has always been one of its strongest features and this time around, the studio's creative leaders as well as the alumni-turned-faculty displayed astonishing feats of excellence. Farah Mahbub's photographs cross boundaries of visual pleasure and dive into whorls of another time and otherly space. One of her photographs is a picture taken from a train window, of tracks alongside paddy fields and coconut palm groves melting in the sunset. In any other photographer's hands the scene would be ubiquitous and earthy. Farah Mahbub charms the camera into depicting the scene with surreal splendour where fact meets fiction in a warm glow of gold. Her protégé, Mahmood Ali, has rendered with almost frightening surreality a beach scene made to assimilate the vision of an apocalyptic aftermath. Ex-student and photographer Sohail Abdullah has a way of dealing with everyday objects in ways that dislodge presumptions and play mind games with the viewers. Abdullah's photograph is of a shirt on a hanger, glowing with a self-emitting neon light and if that sounds wonderfully bizarre and eerie, it was. Samia Rajar, once student, now faculty, has exhibited a set of four photographs of entranceways and alleys that transport the viewer into the past with its serenity and lack of chaos and the picture is aptly titled "Where time stands still".

The Indus Valley School is one of those rare institutions that encourage faculty members from other disciplines to join the realm of artistic endeavour without imposing boundaries of material or expression and subsequently these informed individuals rise to the occasion and present bright sparks of interest. The inclusion of works from the Textile Department was a delightful addition. While some members had displayed their 'paintings' on silk and cotton with embroidery or graphics, some like Imrana Shahryar had woven dreams in chiks of bamboo and fibre. But the most imaginative offering of creativity came from the Head of Department Shenaz Ismail who exhibited photographs of interiors of Shigar Fort in Skardu. Each photo was a visual meditation, the product of a revelation rather than an actual documentation of the place. But this paradox was all the more intense because Shenaz has almost single-handedly transformed the 150-year-old Fort at Shigar into a paradisiacal haven with her knowledgeable use of textiles and local artifacts.

Arshad Faruqui, an architect by profession, proves each year that artists are not the only purveyors of the aesthetic. He endows his architectural drawings with a visceral sensitivity intensifying the perceptual acuity of what would only be linear demarcations. The ceramists too, wrought grandeur in their works. Significant amongst them was Sadia Salim's work, specifically a bowl that resonates with the splendour of a glorious glaze. But if you can pause in the admiration of the object, you discover that the ceramist has gifted the object with a charm -- nudge it gently and it has the ability to revolve on its axis and return to its original position by itself.

There were as many highs as there were lows in the spread of the show. But the lows were only comparably so, and the highs soared. When an exhibition has surprises, sometimes even unpleasant ones, interests are kindled and art moves forward. The Indus Valley School Faculty exhibition can now be expected to push the envelope each year, one step at a time.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". The opening passage of Gospel according to St. John can well describe the life of Hanif Ramay, the painter, known more as a politician and a prolific writer. If you go to a bookstore that houses Urdu literature or visit old books being sold on the streets of Lahore and Karachi, you are bound to come across his works.

Ramay's association with literature was deeper than that of a writer's. He came from a family that owned a printing press and published Adab-e-Lateef, a literary magazine. In his early days Ramay also contributed as one of the editors of another avant-garde literary journal, Sawera which published works of fiction and poetry, along with essays on art and culture as well as reproductions of visual arts -- both from the East and the West.

Although many other artists have been engaged in writing fiction or poetry like A. J. Shemza, Sadequain, Raheel Akbar Javed and Tassadaq Suhail, the case of Hanif Ramay was peculiar. Unlike others, for whom writing was just another artistic activity, Ramay approached it as the essential element in his mode of expression. He wrote on many subjects, ranging from religion to politics to self-help to even a novel in English, initially titled Second Adam.

Writing for Ramay was not a sacred activity but a means to communicate ideas which could not be conveyed through images. Yet, the two aspects of his creative self -- writing and art making -- were intricately connected. Interestingly, instead of art influencing his writing, it was literature which inspired his art. For instance, at no point does one become aware of a painter behind the voice in Punjab ka Muqaddama or Dubb-e-Akbar.

This tilt towards literature and literalness in the art of Ramay had a link with his background in the world of words. In fact, one finds the habit of reducing or translating the visual world into the domain of words among many writers also engaged in making art, such as Enver Sajjad. And this link between word and art was not just limited to writers or painters; the people at large felt the same way. The surface of a painting was like the page of a text where one deciphered the images as words and meanings were found which could be understood by a large part of population. It was probably because of this expectation that the abstract painting was so much ridiculed in our society.

Hanif Ramay responded to that aspect of our cultural fabric. Thus his work was imbued with literal references. In his retrospective, curated by Amna Patudi at the National Art Gallery in Islamabad (Dec 1, 2008-Jan 18, 2009), a number of works signified the artist's deep interest in literary themes and literal expressions. The exhibition included works from various phases of the artist, beginning from the early landscape of 1955 to the last works of his life, and comprised calligraphies, poetry illustrations, abstract compositions and figurative paintings. The exhibition, the first of its kind, was a form of homage to an artist widely known for his political life and intellectual contribution.

In a way, it was a means to locate this other Ramay, who is hidden -- sometimes forgotten -- beneath layers of his other engagements. Analysed properly, perhaps it was his art work that really fulfilled all his political and societal dreams. Not only did it delineate a connection with the verbal vocabulary of our culture, it also presented his concerns as a politically conscious being concerned with the state of things around.

This anguish was visible in his painting titled 'Pakistan' -- a female face, crying the tears of blood, with sewn lips, her nose in a noose, like an animal or a slave. This kind of imagery betrayed his reliance on a verbal interpretation of the situation -- a reference to how it has been portrayed in our media and political commentary.

The literal representation was not restricted to the current situations; it was employed to describe other, more permanent, issues. For instance, in his series of description of Ghalib's poetry, Ramay elaborated on the themes narrated by the great Urdu poet but rendered these in a way that signified the political conditions of Pakistan -- a sign indeed of a great painter and an imaginative artist. Hence, what was visible in the halls of National Art Gallery was not only Ghalib denoting his lyrical ideas, but Ramay transforming these into visual formats and political forms.

A similar approach was adopted towards Sufi poets and folklore. Hence, painting on Sassi was more about a female surviving in the deluge of disillusion. Likewise, his description of a poet, his illustration of Adam and Eve and other shared themes suggested his attempts to make these archetypical entities as relevant and living. This puts Ramay in the league of artists who are building bridges between times and cultures. Thus, in his art, one finds history resurrected and invoked for a personal/poetic gain; for instance, his canvases about Imam Hussain and Mansur Hallaj could be understood as metaphors of our epoch.

Yet it is not the poetry that fascinated Hanif Ramay, but it was his first love, the act of writing, that captivated his soul and brush for the rest of his life. In the retrospective, one encounters numerous examples of calligraphy, but these were dealt with a freedom scarcely seen among our scribes. For example the name of Prophet Muhammad was written in various ways (67 different variations were displayed in the exhibition). Only this is enough to affirm the creative approach of an artist, who is usually not acclaimed as one because of his other roles in life (author, intellectual and political leader). Diverse descriptions of one name not only signified his imagination; it also restated his new-born love for religion (presumably found in the dark cells of a prison, where he started to study Holy Quran, its translations and interpretations).

But apart from his fondness for the sacred text – an extension of his association with the act of writing – and writing as an important endeavour, the retrospective at National Art Gallery was an effort to revise Ramay as an artist.

The death of talented tabla player Sajjad Ali at a young age of 41 was indeed a very sad end to a young life. The vacuum that he has left will not be filled for quite sometime because he was one tabla player in these times, who understood the essence of accompaniment. Many tabla players know what sangat or accompaniment means but very few are able to resist the temptation of drawing attention to themselves, rather than the musical performance on the whole.

Tabla became an object of interest and then fascination with the popularity of the duo of Pandit Ravi Shanker and Ustad Allah Rakha. As they became popular and more than curiosities in the West, the emphasis gradually shifted from tabla merely being an accompanying instrument to that which had a greater role within the equation. It became a norm that Ustad Allah Rakha created within the rhythmic span many variations that were at one time seen only as the preserve of a soloist. Gradually it so happened that he was also allowed time to display his virtuosity while Ravi Shanker merely provided the accompaniment on the sitar.

Sajjad Ali was the shagird of Ustad Shaukat Hussain, himself a great tabla player and a supreme accompanist. He knew that the role of a tabla accompanist was to provide rhythmic structure to the vocalist or the instrumentalist and not become on overbearing presence by exceeding the prescribed role. And he did not only understand it, he followed it up religiously in his accompaniment that at times was with vocalist or instrument either musically far inferior to him or considerably younger in age. He did not exceed his prescribed role. The same spirit he inculcated in his shagirds and many understood it, not all followed it up in practice but Sajjad did, and he had the temperament to sustain any tempo and provide the rhythmic underpinning to the performance.

Being from a family of musicians he started to play the tabla at a very young age and it was a surprise to see him accompany Ustad Fated Ali Khan almost two decades ago but it was a bigger surprise to hear him and his disciplined playing. Since then he made steady progress and gradually moved to the front row of tabla players in the country.

Tabla as the basic instrument of rhythm has been an organic part of our music but not many tabla players have either been written about or eulogised. Their contributions, likewise, have not really been recorded. In any case since music had more to do with listening not enough attention was paid to its documentation, the living tradition was considered sufficient and a reason unto itself. While the living tradition has travelled down to us, the documented forms and the analyses have lagged far behind.

It is an assumption that the evolution of the Punjab baaj owes a lot to the method in which pakhawaj was played. To some the basic peculiarity of the Punjab baaj is the direct consequence of its organic relationship with the pakhawaj. Most of the famous tabla players of Punjab take pride in establishing some kind of link with Mian Qadir Buksh. Bhai Naseera from a Rababi family too was a shagird of the family of Qadir Buksh. Bhai Santo Pakhawaji from the Rababi clan was the shagird of the Bhai Bagh, who was related to Qadir Buksh. Ustad Allah Rakha and Tafoo are also the shagirds of the famous Ustad.And so was Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan.

Tabla as an accompanying instrument has gone out of fashion and it is very difficult to restrain the tabla players from demonstrating their skill as soloists. In Pakistan, particularly with the decline of the classical tradition, the tabla players were left with the choices of either accompanying geet and ghazal, or play solo with more in the fusion mould. Some have found other niches. Abdus Sattar popularly known as Tari, the most promising of Ustad Shaukat Hussain's shagirds, migrated to the United States in his prime but of late has been making journeys back home which are becoming more frequent and getting longer by the year. On his tours he is required not only to play the tabla but also to add vocal music to it and to many he is not only known as a tabla player but a ghazal singer as indeed his brother Shabbir Hussain, who introduces himself as a qawwal in circles outside the country.

Tafo Khan is primarily a soloist and he plays the tabla as if the instrument was only meant to be a played solo. By using all the ten fingers he has expanded the range of the tabla sounds and has dared to encroach on areas of sound which otherwise do not fall strictly under the vocabulary that tradition has endowed tabla with. Tafo's long association with film music may be one of the reasons for him stretching the sound of the tabla to make it more consonant with a situation.

Among the younger tabla players it is difficult to spot a player who has the technique and the temperament to become a proper accompanist. In trying times, when musical expression is under extreme pressure to mould itself to a new form called world music, it becomes even more difficult to retain musicians as specialists of their peculiar forms. The loss of Sajjad Ali will be felt even more keenly because he was trained to be a specialist accompanist and there seems to be none to take his place among the younger lot of tabla players.