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interview Unseen
power Taal
Matol strike First-rate
copiers RIPPLE EFFECT
By Aoun Sahi and Ali Sultan Professor Manzur Ahmed does not look or feel his 82 years. Born in Baghdad in 1926 and hailing from a family from Amristar, he started his teaching career in 1952, teaching postgraduate students psychology at Islamia College, FC College and retired from MAO College Lahore after 35 years worth of teaching experience . Dr Manzur has lived all his
life in Lahore. Rarely has his life been without cause, from being an active The News On Sunday: Can you tell us a little about the history of student activism in Pakistan. Manzur Ahmed: The very first student outcry was in 1948, Dhaka. Mohammed Ali Jinnah said then that Urdu would be our national language and the language of education. It was then that students protested for the first time. One of those students was Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman. The second student movement started in Karachi in 1951-52, which voiced concerns over having very few educational institutions and high fees. At the same time (Ayub era) students protested against the 'three year degree course,'. Most of the two year syllabus was spread onto three years, which meant more money would have to be spent by students. I was also among the committee of experts that devised the three year degree course. This was a bad time; students were pressurised, and a lot of them went underground. But they met with success; the demand to reverse it into a two year course was accepted in 1961-62. Students and teachers also protested against the 'University Ordinance' of 1963-64, which was very oppressive. Among other things, teachers' services could be terminated without citing a reason or notice. Students also protested against the 'Tashkent declaration' of 1966 during Ayub era. TNS: There was also a strong network of teachers aligned with the Left involved in politics in those days? MA: There was a loose informal co-ordination of teachers. Teachers' politics was at its foetal stage. We all were trying for educational reforms. Punjab Teachers' Union (established pre-partition) was very prominent on the school level and was the only registered trade union for teachers in the country. Another prominent organisation was the lecturers' association in Government College and there were other small university staff academic associations all over the country. I was a part of a teachers' association known as the West Pakistan College Teachers' Association (WPTA) which was a prominent well connected organisation, whose members included teachers of non-government colleges from all provinces. We made this organisation because we felt the government had started imposing itself in education. It was already involved in making of the syllabus, but we wanted academic freedom -- to structure education from beginning to end. It was not the government's job, to plan and implement education -- it was the teachers. We had even given a call "Taleem ek nataqseem amal hai -- All teachers unite" Our political demand was that there should be an autonomous education commission comprising only of teachers who would solve all problems dealing with education and then recommend solutions that the government would fund. Meaning that there would be no government intervention. This did not go well with the establishment. The government was alarmed and filed a case against some teachers for conducting un-Islamic activities. This was during the Yahya period, and such prominent teachers such as Eric Cyprian, Amin Mughal, Zahoor Ahmed and I [Dr Manzur Ahmed was then president of WPTA] were named in the case Let me tell you, this case is the only example of 'McCarthyism' you will find in our history. There was a lot of national and international coverage; I even remember a headline 'Teachers in the dock.' But in the end, Eric was suspended and Amin and I were terminated. After the case, the teachers' movement as a whole faltered. When the government is democratic, things like these don't matter. Everyone understands that things move on, but when there is dictatorship, everything seems like a threat. TNS: But wasn't the Left strong then? MA: The left was never very strong. Communism and Marxism are not fit for a religious state. In that era, organisations that represented the Left were prominent only because religious outfits were not, then. They had no presence as such in the government. TNS: Would you like to tell us something about the highly influential Shah Hussain College? MA: Yes, after we were barred from teaching at state institutions, I along with Amin Mughal and Eric Cyprian opened the Shah Hussain College in 1969. It was a small college but it was special, because we taught without having a fixed syllabus and for the first time students and teachers could freely express themselves. Before that, close contact between teachers and students was discouraged. All known teachers taught there, we had the likes of Dr Mohammed Ajmal who was the ex-principal of Government College and Dr Nazir Ahmed as the chairman of our education committee. We also gave vocational training in subjects such as dramatics, journalism and debates which back then was unheard off. It was thought to be an important cultural college. TNS: What happened then? MA: When Bhutto came into power, he nationalised education in 1972, and the college went under state control. But many teachers wanted education to be nationalised. You see, our worries were not only academic, we also wanted better wages. Teachers, after that, got better grades. I even remember, many teachers marched in their traditional gowns on the Mall in favour of nationalisation. Bhutto was the one who gave education to the poor. Books were cheap; education itself became available to everyone. But everything detracted when Zia came. Education went downhill. TNS: It was when some students became extremely violent. Wasn't it? MA: Yes, it was a sad time. Zia favoured rightist student groups for his own motives. This was the first time that weapons came into student politics. There were two prominent groups, Islami Jamiat-Tulaba (IJT)and the Muslim Student Federation, which had severe clashes. They had dealings in arms, narcotics and started extorting money. The so-called students of the liberal left were kicked out of institutions. There are stories of how these groups would take over hostels and physically torture other students. A lot of students were killed. There was no control over this and it continued for years. MQM also emerged then as a student movement as APMSO (All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization) in 1978, under the patronage of the government. The campuses were filled with arms, and its effects reverberate till now. TNS: What did you think of the lawyers' movement and the revival of student protest? MA: Well, movements like these don't happen in a vacuum. They always have a context. At one point, it looked as if it could have knocked out Musharraf, but it didn't because political movements need political leaders. I don't see a political movement that will take us in the right direction. These people who are leading us are not the right people. Political movements are made by taking bullets in the chest. Where is politics now? This is just power-grabbing. TNS: Do you think students should participate in politics? MA: Absolutely! Even the British gave that relaxation; a teacher could think politically and students had organisations. We remember the British rule as an oppressive time, but they gave us our educational structure that we follow till today. Weren't Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi all products of British education?
By Asad Jan Prior to announcing the
election schedule, the government was desperately looking for moderate Radical leaders are now calling the shots. They have taken the control of the election process in these tribal areas, and no one can contest the elections in FATA unless permitted by these leaders Case in point: Haji Mangal Bagh, a religious-cum-militant leader of Lashkari-Islami (LI), held a public meeting in Khyber Agency on the Pakistan Afghanistan border. Mangal Bagh -- a former student of fundamentalist cleric, Mufti Munir Shakir (the owner of an FM radio channel) -- enjoys immense clout and power in the area. In front of a mammoth public gathering on Jan 3, 2008 -- more than 65,000 people were in in attendance at Mandi Kas Ground, in Khyber Agency -- Haji Mangal Bagh administered oath on the holy Quran to nominated candidates for NA-46 belonging to Khyber agency -- hardly 10 kilometres from the provincial capital Peshawar -- which said that after election, the successful candidates would not sign any un-Islamic bill in the National Assembly and would not support anti-country strategies. Besides, the winners of the February polls would also pay for the development of their constituency from the MNA's funds. He warned that the respective tribes of any of the candidates would stand responsible for violating this oath. In the presence of several 'maliks' (tribal elders), street people and journalists saw the huge public gathering with keen interest wherein 13 out of the 23 candidates contesting the National Assembly seat delivered speeches in the well-guarded venue. Those candidates who participated in the gathering included, Amir Shah, Muhammad Saeed, Dr Niaz Badshah, Haji Faizullah, Maulana Nasrat Amin, Dr Muhammad Hanif, Barrister Hasham Khan, Senator Hamidullah Jan, Malikzada Zafar Khan, Yar Asghar, Suliman Shah Afridi, Haji Sohail Ahmed and Dr Haji Habib Shakir. In their separate speeches, they launched their manifesto and pledged that would strive hard to develop the area if voted to power. Each of the candidates had deposited Rs50, 000 for the arrangements of the public gathering and lunch for all the participants with Lashkar-e-Islami. There are 12 seats in the National Assembly for seven tribal units while those tribal areas attached with the NWFP have not been given any representation despite their longstanding demand. The Britishers -- the erstwhile rulers -- had introduced direct electoral system in tribal areas in an effort to maintain their dominance. The century-old system carved by the Britishers had been designed to benefit the local influential lot. After the partition, the Pakistani rulers carried this practice on till Feb 1997 when through a historic decision the tribal people were given the right to vote by the former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. In the wake of non-existence of democratic culture and practices, the people are yet to get familiar with the ABC of adult franchise. The February 2008 elections will be the third since the attainment of the right of universal franchise by the tribesmen. Mangal Bagh, who shot to prominence owing to his resolve to promote virtue and forbidding vices last year, in his address claimed that his organisation was established in the area to eliminate criminals, anti-social elements, kidnappers and smugglers. "Alhamdulillah (By the Grace of Al Mighty Allah) we have been successful in our mission," he said. "The doors of Afridi tribes are opened for all, but they would be only meant to establish peace and maintain the law and order in the area, violators would be dealt sternly," he vowed. Bara is on the main trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan and is thought to be a hub of smuggled goods on the border. The powerful Lashkar-e-Islami activists headed by Mangal Bagh executed a man allegedly involved in cases of murder, robberies and kidnapping for ransom in the Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency two months back. For this purpose, a specially convened tribal jirga handed out a verdict against Riaz known as Riazai. In gross violation of the prevalent law and the existence administration in the Khyber Agency, Riazai was put before a firing squad of veiled LI men that executed him in the Nala Khwar area of Bara, tehsil of Khyber Agency. The jirga -- appointed by Mangal Bagh -- alleged that Riazai had kidnapped seven women from a house in Bara Qadeem locality before forcing them to dance in front of people in a Hujra (guest house) while undressed. According to Bagh's election code there will be no public processions, no use of vehicles or display of party flags. Candidates can only hoist party flags atop their houses. However, party flags can only be used alongside Mangal's group flag. Frightened by his influence, the candidates are not obeying election code issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan but the one dictated by Mangal Bagh. In his code of conduct for the election, Mangal Bagh elaborated that previously the political agendas of the contestants was according to the priorities of the rich and tribal chieftains. "I administered oath to the candidates after their election in order to provide platform to the poor people as well," he argued. Furthermore, holding of a collectively public meeting for the candidates' campaign was aimed to put brakes on the colossal expenses that could herald unrest in the area. According to Bagh, if candidates desire to hold more of these gatherings, they would be welcome but under the same agenda of his organisation. However, after several weeks, electioneering in the Bara area of Khyber agency has gained steam after Mangal Bagh agreed to amend his strict code of conduct for candidates, by allowing more freedom in their canvassing. Candidates would now be able to go out on campaign and display their posters but under such conditions, a candidate would not be entitled to gather more than 10 people. The mind boggling question is that how can a candidate win or even contest elections without the consent of Mangal Bagh? This is the situation in Bara and same situation persists in other areas where some other 'Mangal Baghs' enjoy unseen power. By Shoaib Hashmi It is a commonly enough known fact, but it is not one that impinges upon the consciousness very often and indeed, we hardly ever think about it, and it is this: Of all the land on earth, the continent of Antarctica is the only place that is not owned or claimed by any country or nation. This is a fact that grew from circumstances because no one wanted to go there and freeze his butt off, but it has since been formalised in an international agreement whereby it is to be preserved as a pristine laboratory and no one is to muck around with it. It was brought to mind the
other day because of a small news item, which informed us that our own The next was to sit and talk about it, and that became another story because friend Arshad was there, and he has the same fetish as we all have, which is real estate, and has been involved in twenty five court cases over different parcels of land. The thought of a whole continent just sitting there with no takers appalled him. Did we really mean that all those endless miles were not claimed by anyone? That set him off on one of his wondrous feats of imagination. He reminded us, that all through history people had claimed lands for themselves by going there and planting their flag. As the young lady had already done it, it meant that Pakistan was qualified to lay claim to it all. From there it was a short step to squabbles sprouting over who would be qualified for the corner plots, and whether Arshad could convert his residential plots to commercial ones and whether WAPDA could then raise his power rates, seeing it was going to be a brand new country. Somewhere along the way, he also recalled that Namira had planted the national flag at the North Pole too, and did that mean we could own both continents? He was told that whereas Antarctica was a continent, the Arctic was an ocean, and the Americans had driven one of their nuclear subs all across and under it to prove it. He piped down but stayed sceptical. Someone also tried gently to point out, that although it was true that the continent was a sizeable piece of real estate, it was perpetually snow bound under a blanket a few miles thick, and had been for a few million years, and was likely to continue for another few million. But in his element he is difficult to put down, and he scoffed, hadn't us fools heard about global warming? All he had to do was stake his claim and then sit back and wait for the warming to turn his estate into a lush sub-tropical paradise! Actually all this was my way of recalling that a certain young lady, living in France and residing in Dubai, but of Pakistani origin has been doing all these wonderful things, and it was time we raised a toast to Namira Saleem!
The fall of the Srarogha Fort to militants was the first incident of its kind in Pakistan's history It was a cold rainy night
on Jan 16, when hundreds of militants armed with heavy arms attacked the The purpose of these forts being used as forward military bases was to observe insurgent activity, to patrol the area and to block the enemy from threatening the local population. Analysts closely monitoring the situation in the tribal areas observed that the fall of the military base to militants was the second most significant event in the region after the kidnapping of 300 Pakistan army soldiers by local Taliban without firing even a single shot on Aug 30. Prominent militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud, whom the government had accused of masterminding the assassination attempt on Pakistan Peoples' Party chairperson and former prime-minister Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27, in Pakistan's garrison city of Rawalpindi, claimed to have led his militants during the attack on the historic fort. Senior officials of the political administration, who had now been pushed to the wall by military authorities since their arrival to hunt down al-Qaeda operatives and their tribal local supports in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), said the militants were extremely daring, as the day they planned for the attack on the fort, they were seen gathering in Srarogha town in the afternoon. There were also reports that militants had their dinner in Srarogha town and then around 9 pm overran the military base. Before their attack, militants reportedly informed the soldiers that 'Mujahideen' had cordoned off the fort from all sides; therefore, it would be better for them to lay down their arms and surrender before them. The militants also promised the soldiers amnesty if they peacefully vacated the fort and handed it over to them. But like the militants, the soldiers, too, were brave Pakhtuns; they refused to surrender. On their refusal to lay down arms, the militants started firing on the military base from all directions. They used heavy weapons, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. There were also reports that before retaliation, the besieged soldiers duly informed their bosses in a nearby Jandola fort, where hundreds of Pakistan army troops are based. The soldiers were given full assurance of all possible assistance and were directed to fight till the last man and last bullet. They fought to the best of their abilities and available manpower and ammunition, but nobody turned up to their rescue, due to reasons best known to the officials concerned. The troops initially gave a tough time to the tribal assailants but later they were overpowered when militants entered the fort after breaking one of its walls through explosives. Within an hour, around 10 pm militants were in control of the entire military compound. Only 15 of the troops managed to escape during the night and reached Jandola FC fort. They are the only ones who survived. "The soldiers couldn't continue fight due to lack of arms and ammunition and were brutally gunned down by the well-armed militants," said an FC official while quoting one of the FC men who reached the Jandola fort. The Taliban captured and then killed the remaining 25 FC personnel. After removing the soldiers' ammunition and communications equipment, the militants set the fort on fire and made their way back, reaching their safe havens before sunrise. Again, nobody noticed where these armed Taliban went. The bodies of the slain soldiers remained lying on wreckage of the destroyed building for days. Later, on the request of political administration, a Mehsud tribal jirga was sent to the fort, which retrieved the bodies of paramilitary troopers. The very next night, the militants stormed another fort, this time Seplatoi fort in Serwakai tehsil. Military officials said 60 soldiers were based in the fort but denied its fall to militants. Independent sources, however, confirmed to this correspondent that hundreds of Baitullah's fighters captured the fort without firing even a single shot. Militants, before attacking the fort, reminded the soldiers about the fate of their colleagues almost a night ago in Srarogha fort, and offered them amnesty if they peacefully surrendered. Analysts felt the Srarogha incident had demoralised the soldiers. Therefore they did not resist and laid down their arms before the militants. The soldiers were held hostage by the militants for a night but as promised, were set free in the morning. According to military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, seven soldiers and 40 militants were killed in Srarogha fort. About the rescue of the besieged soldiers, he said all possible efforts were made for saving lives of the troops but bad weather and difficult terrain and darkness were the main hurdles for the soldiers based in Jandola, and other military camps to reach for help of the besieged troopers. However, a claim made by Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of all militant groups operating in the seven tribal agencies as well as 24 settled districts of the NWFP, and its leader Baitullah Mehsud, was different. Maulvi Omar, who called this correspondent from an undisclosed location, claimed 16 FC personnel were killed while 12 others were taken hostage. The captured soldiers, he added, had been shifted to the hideouts in the same tribal region. Omar also claimed, only two of their fighters were killed in the gun-battle with the security forces. Military officials said they never expected such an action from militants against paramilitary force as the force was considered an integral part of tribal society. "They do not like the Pakistan Army and think of it as an alien and occupying force. But as far as the FC is concerned, both tribal people and militants were willing to allow it to function as usual," said Brig (r) Mahmud Shah, former Secretary of Security, Fata and an expert on tribal affairs. Like many people, Brig Mahmud Shah questioned how did militants in such a large number reach Srarogha and then fled. "The question arises: what did the FC officials do when they were informed about attack on the fort. Did they make any immediate arrangements for reinforcements of the soldiers in trouble?" he asked. Brig Shah said, if senior military officials were informed in time about the tragic incident then why did they not order the use for Cobra AH1-F attack helicopters and night-capable (C-NITE equipped) choppers? Like in the case of Lal Majsid, the government gave enough time to Baitullah and his militants to get stronger and challenge writ of the government. "These armed militants were travelling on main roads and crossing several checkpoints manned by the paramilitary forces, but nobody checked them." said Shah.
The increase in lifting material from the internet might be getting students good grades in term papers, but it is destroying original ways of thinking By Sibtain Raza Khan The 'cut-and-past' syndrome is posing a serious threat to talent in our society. It is not only wiping out the creative faculty of individuals, but also ruining the scientific research-oriented behaviour. It is producing the army of writers without intellectual depth as well as creating an academic stagnation in the society. 'Cut and paste' phenomena
known as plagiarism, refers to use of someone's writing or information This practice is particularly prevalent among students of universities and colleges and has become easier with internet access and free availability of vast material available online. As a result, e-plagiarism has become a major issue, students are now able to use search engines on the internet to locate information -- even research papers -- and plagiarise them. Although now, free online tools are becoming available to detect and prevent plagiarism, however, their use is not very common, at least in Pakistan. On the other hand, the mushrooming of information has created ease and comfort in every walk of life, including academia. Through online search, there is greater access available to the internet users to vast information and research material as internet has become a personal library for most of the people. It also provides students a chance to get material through internet rather then buying book or journals, while also saves time of students to go to library for researching and consulting different sources. Books' importance is diminishing in our daily life and most students have no reading habits. Even Public libraries have become meeting places instead of a place for study. Moreover, these libraries are not well maintained and up-to-date to attract the students. As a result, the lack of a library culture in our society is producing copy-writers rather than ingenious persons who can feel pride in their own work. The careless attitude of educational faculty is also encouraging e-plagiarism within the educational institutions. The faculty does not bother about the hypothesis of research work and its findings or research sources; it is more concerned with presentation of research work in well copied form. Consequently, we are producing first-rate copiers rather than diligent students in our educational institutions. Apart from this, we as a nation have tasted a culture of censorship and repression which is also responsible for intellectual infertility in our society. Instead of giving their original thoughts or views, people are more inclined to copy others. In this way, imaginative authorship has been disappearing from our society. This indicates social stagnation and producing extremist behavior in the society. On the other hand, some academics have a different perception, they are of the view that online materials not only provide background knowledge of the issues but also give an opportunity to think critically on these issues with a broader perspective. Availability of diverse and latest information on internet is also strengthening critical and analytical skills in users. Though the internet provides an easy and less time-consuming opportunity to the writers, the misuse of material by cutting and pasting is unethical. The material available on-line should be used and read but while using that material proper reference should be given to avoid plagiarism. Also despite the easy access, the internet is not the most reliable source to depend one's research on. Nonetheless, e-plagiarism is detrimental for our future generation. Because of this factor, there is no creativity in literary work, and lack of research in social and natural sciences. Consequently, there is intellectual decay in our society. Moreover, our students and researchers are losing lucrative research projects that are offered by international institutions due to unethical practices of plagiarism in Pakistan. So, it is not only destroying our educational standards but also threatening our academic honesty. Pakistan does not have a good reputation as far as e-plagiarism is concerned, according to wikipedia's report on online plagiarism, "A Pakistani e-zine, was found to have plagiarised as many as 11 articles in its May 2007 issue, many of them verbatim, from various sources on the web, including Hindustan Times, Rediff, Blogcritics, Vis-a-Vis magazine and Slate magazine". Content scraping is also e-plagiarism and it is disturbing, with both well-known Web sites and blogs indulging in it. The main incentive behind this exercise, is to earn online advertisement by attracting away part or all of the original web site visitors. As a counter strategy, a number of free on-line tools are available to identify and check this kind of plagiarism. When the content scraper is identified, a DMCA removal notice has been sent to the offender web-site owner or to the ISP which is hosting the offending site by the rightful content owners. The trend of plagiarism must be discouraged to give way to academic and research oriented work. There is no harm in using online available material or using quotes from books and articles, however, credit should be attributed to the original writer and source. In this regard, teachers should feel their responsibilities and critically check the student's research work and discourage the practice of e-plagiarism among the students. Furthermore, most of the students who engage in plagiarism are not even aware that it is unethical and the responsibility rests on the teachers to guide students regarding research work and academic morals. Besides this, ethical standards regarding research work should be promoted in our educational institutions and much importance should be given to improve the reading habits as well as writing skills of students. The government should provide proper research facilities in public libraries and these libraries should be well equipped with latest material so that these libraries can catch the attention of the readers. In order to discourage e-plagiarism, Higher Education Commission should provide most up-to-date software to the educational institutions to check the plagiarised research work. The concerning competent authority should also take effective measures to ensure the international writing standards in these educational institutions otherwise intellectual poverty and barrenness would hamper whatever little research work is going on today.
RIPPLE
EFFECT By the time this appears in print, much may have been written on a speech that President Pervez Musharraf delivered at the start of his European tour in Brussels. Speaking before an audience of journalists, the president promised to hold free and fair elections. This obviously must have found not too many takers. For starters, the journalists who made up the audience in Brussels, apart from the PTV 'reporter' or the APP 'correspondent' wouldn't be accustomed to sitting and listening to things that they know are quite plainly not true or through a whole load of official propaganda. They are accustomed to asking questions and can be expected to ask hard questions -- which is apparently what happened. After this, according to one editorial in an English-language newspaper, the president sort of lost his cool and went on an apparent diatribe against what he called the western world's "obsession" with democracy. Before one gets into debating what he said, first his words: "You (as in the west) have taken centuries in reaching wherever you have come. Allow us time for going for the values that you have established for yourselves. We have a feudal tribal environment in some of our provinces, therefore in accordance with our environment we have to adapt democracy, human rights, civil liberties." By 'centuries' the president must have been referring to the many many years that Europe remained mired in war and upheaval with the Catholic Church and the Pope acting as government and ruler over all of Europe. Dissent was not tolerated and thousands of people were put to death simply because they did not agree with the views of the Church or, even worse, were suspected of acting in that manner. Many wars were fought -- the Thirty Years' War, the Hundred Years' and then of course the two world wars. So things haven't always been on the bright side for Europe. As for democracy it had a lot to with the rise of the printed word -- 1453 (the Gutenberg Bible) and then came the Age of Reason and Enlightenment and people like Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, John Stuart Mill and Thomas Hobbes wrote about issues which eventually led to the establishment of democracy among much of Europe and of the translation of the will of the people into a mandate for a government. So, if one were to consider this argument, then democracy can wait in a country like Pakistan because its people adhere to feudal values and hence not only democracy but even human rights and civil liberties must be adapted to suit Pakistanis. However, here one would like to ask a simple why? Why should a Pakistani have to 'wait' for democracy? Why should he or she have to live in a country with a concept of human rights and civil liberties that apparently differ from that of the west? Isn't Pakistan a signatory to various human rights treaties? Isn't it a member of the United Nations, something that it often likes to proclaim, especially with regard to the world body's peace-keeping operations? Given that a majority of Pakistanis are poor, disenfranchised and live a hard life, isn't it completely understandable, in fact inevitable and only to be expected, that they would like to have a government that a) treats them as proper citizens; b) considers their views and interests when formulating and implementing decisions that affect the general public; c) uses the wishes of the general public as the guiding principle for formulating and implementation of public policy and d) generally does things that make life easier for the common/average Pakistani. After all this is what western governments do -- i.e. they make life easy for their citizens (not complicated and difficult to live like in Pakistan) by ensuring that the law is uniformly implemented and that violators are prosecuted, by ensuring safety of their person and private property and by providing amenities that are a fair compensation of the taxes levied from citizens. None of that happens in Pakistan and we have the president saying that the country doesn't need western-style democracy but rather one that takes into considerations our feudal environment. The obvious question would then be that what kind of democracy is this? And the only answer that one can come up with is that it's one where senior judges of the land can be kept confined to their homes without any written orders, where an iron fist greets civil society trying to stand up and ask for its fundamental rights, where ordinary citizens are mysteriously picked up and detained incommunicado and where the press and media are muzzled and ordered to do the government's bidding. It is also where ordinary citizens are defenseless and where the degree of protection and security accorded by the state often depends on one's social and/or financial standing. And lest one forget, it is also a state where the price of flour has doubled in a matter of weeks (Marie Antoinette anyone?), where not a day goes by without a long power breakdown and where those responsible for imposing this misery on hapless citizens are not punished but instead pandered to and even rewarded for their criminal actions. I cannot think of a single person who has been arrested by the government and sentenced for illegally hoarding wheat but I have heard tall claims by the caretaker government and the head of the disaster management agency that things are now under control. Even, for the sake of argument, if they are, what about the fact that the wheat crop was supposed to be a surplus one but now the government has to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to impost this staple. Surely the government and officialdom don't think that people are so dumb that they don't know who eventually pays for their wheat import (they -- the hapless citizens of this country -- do, of course). The president, in Brussels, spoke like the true dictator that he is. One wouldn't even want to get into the free and fair elections bit but perhaps a joke -- currently doing heavy circulation on SMSs' and emails -- is worth reproducing here: A fisherman catches a fish and takes it home. His wife looks at her husband's catch but instead of being happy -- the family has been hungry for two days now -- she tells her husband that there is no point to bringing the fish home. He asks why. She says that there is no atta, so no roti can be cooked to eat along with the fish. She also says that there is no gas in the stove because of the gas shortage and that even if she did cook the fish it would rot because there is no bijli. Hence, she tells her husband, he might as well throw the fish back from where he caught it. The poor man trudges back to the river and throws the fish back. And as the fish enters the water -- it is miraculously alive -- it screams 'Long Live, Musharraf!' The
writer is Op-ed Pages Editor of The News. Email:
omarq@cyber.net.pk
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participant in a teachers' and students' movement to being charged in the
first ever case against teachers by the then government and then setting up
of the first liberal arts college, Shah Hussain College, Dr Manzur is not
only a highly respected teacher and scholar but also a man with a great sense
of wit. Excerpts of the interview are as follows:
parliamentarians especially in the tribal areas. The government had already
enlisted expected moderate parliamentarians in tribal areas and many of them
were confident that the results would tip in their favour. But after the
issuance of the election schedule, the situation has undergone a sea change.
intrepid heroine, Namira Saleem has made it to the South Pole and planted the
Pakistan flag there! If you have not noted the item you have been amiss
because the young lady has already been there and placed the flag at the
North Pole, and is scheduled to take off into space as the first Pakistani
astronaut too! So the first order of business is to send her our kudos and
our best wishes!
Srarogha Fort (sitting on a ridge overlooking the Razmak-Jandola Road) where
42 paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers were based and captured it.
without proper acknowledgement of the original source. There is a strong
element of dishonesty in plagiarism, as the work is being present as new
without reference to the original source used, thus taking the credit for
someone elses' work.