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2009:
Hopes & Fears politics security
art & culture
women media literature sports society education tourism
Editorial To welcome 2009, we asked our regular writers to share
their expectations, fears and hopes for the All arenas of human activity are disturbed in an environment of unpredictability, unrest, insecurity and informal violence. Thus, if the hopes and fears of our contributors convey a certain sense of bleakness, it is because of a repeated disintegration of hopes. Nevertheless, we are hopeful that any visionary change in our national policies can produce a very enjoyable future for all of us. The system may not work like this By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed The prospects for the country's politics for the year 2009 do not appear very bright as the problems it's plagued by are bound to continue haunting it. For example, the government faces the same security threats, economic and political pressures, extreme isolation on global scene, a possible standoff with the military establishment, loss of public support for renegading on certain promises and so on. Initially praised for being the torch-bearer of the politics of reconciliation, the PPP government at the centre is in a totally different situation now. Devoid of the support of PML-N, it's once major coalition partner, the party has entered into alliances with much smaller parties from the provinces. It has been observed that some of these smaller players are exploiting the situation and may continue to do so throughout 2009. The estrangement between PPP and PML-N has also led to the creation of problems between the two parties working as coalition partners in the Punjab government. However, despite all odds, the Punjab government is intact so far under Mian Shahbaz Sharif. But fears are there that the system may not work like this in 2009. Similarly, chances of reconciliation between PML-N are grim as the contentious issue of Chief Justice Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhry's re-appointment is unlikely to be resolved. Political analysts say Zardari is reluctant to restore the deposed CJ as this may lead to the re-instatement of corruption charges that stood against him before the promulgation of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). The commitment of the PPP government to empower the Parliament in true sense is yet to be fulfilled. One may hope that President Zardari relinquishes his sweeping powers (the same as vested with Musharraf) and removes the 17th Amemndment to the constitution. This issue was on top of the PPP agenda at one time but, for reasons known best to President Zardari, has been put on the backburner for long. If, by any chance, he succeeds in bringing about a balance between the powers of the president and the prime minister this year, his role in restoring true democracy in the country will be remembered with great reverence. The government is also trying to redefine its relations with the military and delimit its role in the politics of the country. In this respect it has achieved great success by making the military top brass appear in the parliament and discuss the defence budget in detail in front of the parliamentarians. The announcemet about winding up of the political cell of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was also a great achievemnt of the democratic forces. There are hopes that the escalating global pressure to reform ISI and redefine its roles and powers will further strengthen democratic forces during 2009. However, the US policy to continue attacks inside Pakistani territories will definitely build up pressure on the government and make it unpopular among the masses. US President-elect Obama's policy announcement about moving more troops to Afghanistan has also rung alarm bells. If implemented, it is bound to create more problems for the government. Last but not the least, the deteriorating state of the economy and the never-ending energy crisis may bring serious civil instability in the country and bring people out on the streets. For a common Pakistani, life may become tougher once the negative fallouts of securing IMF loan begin to take their toll. There are hopes that some support from the friends of Pakistan and countries like Iran, which has agreed on giving petrol to Pakistan on deferred payment, may give a breather to the government. But, on the other hand, if the pace of rise in inflation is not arrested and economic crisis handled properly, a public uprising may be the order of the day. This is very much possible as we have seen that attempts to raise power tariffs had to be abandoned in the face of widespread rioting. security Future tense Terrorism remains the biggest challenge for Pakistan
and most of its energies will be consumed Pakistan which was already isolated and declared the epicentre of terrorism faced another blow when India held it responsible for Mumbai attacks. Its relations with India were getting better but the whole peace process seems to have rolled back altogether. Both the countries had once again come to the brink of war but luckily the situation eased out gradually. But this lack of trust will continue to haunt relations between the two countries in 2009. On the western side, Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan are equally tense and it has been repeatedly blamed by the latter for spread of violence within its territory. It is feared that the likely deployment of 20,000 more US troops, once the US President-elect Barak Obama takes over, will push more militants to the Pakistani side of the Pak-Afghan border. The government has resorted to negotiations with Taliban and other militant groups in the past but the results have not been satisfactory. This option is still open but chances are high that use of force will be preferred to restrict the militants to a certain area and to stop them from spreading southwards. The image problem also needs to be tackled at the earliest in order to show to the world that Pakistan is not a rogue state and safe enough to visit and do business with. As a means to this end there are attempts at carrying out reforms in ISI and projecting it as an entity answerable to and supportive of the government. The outstanding issues between the centre and the provinces may come to the fore and a bid be made to resolve them through dialogue. The incumbent government did take some encouraging steps last year, such as releasing the Balochistan Nationalist Party (BNP)-Mengal chief Akhtar Mengal and it seemed it was serious in taking smaller provinces into mainstream. But the spirit fizzled out soon and hardly a mention of this issue is made nowadays. Suicide bombers who kept the security agencies busy throughout the year may give the government a tough time in the new year as well. Experts believe these bombings cannot be stopped without putting an end to military operations in turbulent regions of the country. --S. Irfan
art & culture Bedevilled! By Sarwat Ali It is hoped by all that
the year 2009 will be a better year for culture than the previous one.
This As the rickety carriage of this nation trundles forwards, the issues that have bedevilled us for the last two hundred years just do not seem to go away. The decline of the Muslim political power from the middle of the eighteen century had so traumatised the community that it set the agenda forever of insecurity against change particularly in intellectual and cultural fields. Even the creation of an independent country, albeit on a smaller territory, has not assuaged the feeling of insecurity. It has resulted in an exaggerated and bloated self image and a trigger-happy mentality, though tightly underpinned by self interest and self preservation. It was rare even in our turbulent and contradiction-ridden history that the artistes were targeted to be physically eliminated. This threat is very palpable now and the performing artists appear to be the primary and the most obvious target. One can only hope that the performing arts are given the necessary security to perform in public and not forced underground where its expression tends to get more outlandishly vitiated. For then it speaks more about its own defence rather than the inevitability of sharing a creative experience. It is hoped that the year will be as good as it has been for the painters/visual artist and that their market will continue to grow as the prosperous Pakistani diaspora becomes more aware of its heritage and buys more works of art to sustain the artist back home. That the film industry picks up from the slump of a few productions per year to over a hundred, as it used to decades ago, and breaks new grounds in thematic structures and upmarket technology. Lately, even the television channels that were propagating like rabbits have started to close shop, their revival directly linked to the state of the economy. These channels have fed on the insatiability of a sensation hungry people, seeking conspiracy theories in the name of news and information. That our artists, particularly belonging to the performing arts music, dance and theatre will tour other countries and that the organizers at home are given the space, both physically and financially, to host such festivals. And that more institutions of educating artists are opened and not closed down under any pretext. women By Sarah Sikandar The past few years saw an increase in the number of women parliamentarians but their participation in political affairs still remains questionable. With the appointment of our first woman speaker, one hopes that People's Party, led by a woman for the past thirty years, will remain true to its principles and give women their due share in the country's affairs this year. One also hopes that women who are visible in the political arena will remain active in 2009 and their sphere of activity will not remain contained to the assembly sessions. Bills of domestic violence against women and sexual harassment have been presented in the parliament. The new year should be able to see the passing of these bills imminently. One hopes of positive progress for these bills this year instead of falling prey to inter-party politics. One hopes that, following the trends of the past few years, girls will hold positions in academics -- a sign of women taking the lead in academics. To put it bluntly, the past one year has not shown any concrete achievements by women in fields other than politics, except a winner in Special Olympics. Hopefully 2009 will bring a good change to the notion that women should remain behind the four walls of their homes. Dominance of terrorism has not only taken away the normalcy from daily life but shifted focus from issues that need attention. City life is benevolent for a woman, even in Pakistan. Let's hope 2009 will be a harbinger of space and freedom for women in Swat. The ongoing 'war' in the region is most hostile to women who live that reality each day of their lives. The presence of a handful of feudals in the parliament who use their own vision of tradition to justify their abuses of human rights is a matter of serious concern. Necessary action against the culprits in Balochistan was not taken. Keeping that in mind, one fears that such incidents will continue to tarnish our image as a nation. One also hopes that the incidents of violence and discrimination against women will decrease in 2009.
In the past one year or
so, we saw our electronic media attain an unprecedented popularity that Incidents of violence against journalists were common in 2008, as in the year before, despite reassurances from the ministry of Information that seemed to gloss over the role of the law-enforcing agencies. Likewise, the promise of a free media, carried in the parliamentary bill of April last, is yet to be fully realised. The year 2009 looks like it will eventually see the draconian Pemra regulatory laws (promulgated by Musharraf) out for good. Then there is the long overdue journalists' Wage Award now entering its 8th year that awaits implementation. It is hoped that the matter will be paid a more serious heed to in the new year. Within its own ranks, the media needs to do a lot of "introspection" (to quote senior news analyst, Syed Tallat Hussain). One reason for this (introspection) is that while the industry has grown remarkably, it has been "infiltrated by people who've got nothing to do with journalism. These people are part-time television hosts and anchor persons, but they pretend to be analysts. And they represent a particular interest in the society which, frankly speaking, caters to the people in power corridors." In 2009, one hopes the industry will cleanse itself of such people, "not necessarily demonise them but create clear-cut categories of who is a journalist and who is not." The challenge, adds Tallat, is to "take our jobs rather than ourselves seriously. There is a tendency among journalists to allocate themselves the right to arbitrate the faith of the government. I think it's not the job of the journalist at all. That will happen once we sit down and debate among ourselves as to why the role that we play is fundamentally important and central to the functioning of the system. We must not forget that we are journalists and not exactly saviours or liberators. That's the kind of internal debate we need to have among ourselves." Market as an all-pervasive force cannot be ignored. The dynamics of market dictate that if you want to hold the interest of the public, you need to satisfy their need for a 'tighter' and objective - what Tallat terms "institutionalised" product. Breaking news is one important area that needs a major overhaul. Clearly a 'phenomenon' of the new-age media, the 'ticker' has certainly not proved to be our forte. Popular news analyst Kashif Abbasi identifies one major issue here, "In our rush to beat each other at the game, we (the TV channels) sometimes run a news item that is based on 'sources' only. No one bothers to counter-check." News alerts have also trivialised the importance of 'events' - something that calls an immediate attention of the mediawallahs themselves. As Kashif puts it, "Our problem is that if the caravan of the Chief Justice was on his way to Multan, it was an event, and if his car broke down or he stopped over mid-way, it's an 'event' as well. And so on. This is overextending the limits of news-gathering system." In a country where most people learn a skill on job, it is hoped that the various media organisations that have come up recently will develop a concrete mechanism to ensure credibility of news items as well as the journalists in the field.
literature By Saeed Ur Rehman In the field of literary production, the readers of Urdu have rarely experienced a new idiom and it is not likely to appear in 2009. The same old metaphors of the moth dancing around the candle flame before dying for its "love" still continue to be rehashed to the extent that this triteness has even spilled over to English writing produced by Pakistanis, hence the running metaphor in the novel Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid. After Ghalib, and Iqbal, Faiz and Faraz are the two names which introduced a new form of literary expression, especially Faiz's transformation of the sacral idiom into the socialist idiom was a profound reconfiguring of the sensibility of Urdu readers. The mixing of revolutionary hope with the desire for a loved one as expressed by Faiz was something new in the language, which turned into a celebration of sensuality in Faraz's poetry. In fiction, it is a curious development the way the social realism of Manto has led to a justification of the metaphysical by appealing to the semi-scientific sensibility of the readers by Ashfaq Ahmed and Bano Qudsia. This kind of writing has further ossified an already moribund culture. The debate that has been rehashed in Raja Gidh was an old one: the public sphere was under the control of the British and the Muslims had to turn to the domestic sphere and this inward turning produced a new aesthetic of interpersonal relations. Assigning spiritual values to the domestic and interpersonal interactions was easier than transforming the public sphere according to the principles of social justice. This powerlessness in the public sphere produced a new kind of the intellectual that encouraged a transformation of the inner self before the public self could be transformed. This kind of mysticism, which produces a semblance of control, albeit an inner one, was quite appealing to the otherwise disempowered readers. Even Faiz and Jalib, to some extent, have been subsumed under this pseudo-scientific pseudo-spiritual sensibility. It is quite possible that this trend will be not be reversed in a year of literary production. We may have to live with the kind of work produced by Wasi Shah and Farhat Abbas Shah. Our censorship laws, self-censorship, fear of persecution, and becoming literary outcastes will continue to influence our literary production in particular and cultural industry in general. There are some underground music bands whose songs show more vitality and radical departure from normalised aesthetics than what is available in mainstream poetry. So readers will have to look deeper and elsewhere for intellectual nourishment than the shelves stationery-plus-books stores. From the time since I have been following sports in Pakistan the debate on why cricket is promoted and favoured by the officials has been going on. Players of hockey will always complain why it is promoted and sponsored, but now even this most envied sport is in trouble. A sport-less 2008 means
another empty sports year for Pakistan. Major hockey, cricket, tennis and Pakistan has already been deprived of hosting the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-II tie against Oman in March 2009. The elite event has been shifted from Lahore because of security worries. Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) received this shocking news in mid-December. Pakistan was scheduled to host. Apart from the security concerns, Pakistan also suffered back-to-back defeats in various series/ tournaments. The Australian cricket team, which last toured Pakistan in 1997-98, has already postponed the visit until March 2009, of five ODIs before returning for a three-Test series in 2010. However, one hopes that 2009 will be the year of good competitive sports. Sound law and order (security) are must so that the foreign teams play in Pakistan. Since this is the pet reason given by all sports boards. Nevertheless, if the situation does not change and the tiff between the governments of India and Pakistan continues, chances are that the all-sporting events will have negative effects not only bilaterally but also multilaterally. Pakistan won 18 of the 21 matches, 12 of them against lowly Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Being one of the nine Test playing nations, it didn't play a single (Test) match in 2008. Then there seems to be a lack of clarity on the availability of the Pakistani players for the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 event next year. The Pakistani cricketers need to get a clean chit from the PCB and the government of Pakistan and then complete the visa formalities before they leave for India. With the IPL trading window about to open there are chances that the Pakistani players might be outcast. If that happens the rival India Cricket League (ICL) might use all its influence to buy the Pakistani players. And, again, if that happens, we all know that senior players like Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan or even the juniors might want to grab the opportunity. If the foreign teams continue to drum up the security excuse, there is some hope that the domestic cricket will be fixed. This will give youngsters an opportunity to be seen on the national spectrum competing with the national side. It is not difficult to guess what Pakistani society will go through in 2009. It is a society without any trust in state institutions and this lack of trust will continue to express itself through rumours, conspiracy theories and sms jokes on all political figures. Moreover, because different public utilities, services, and institutions continue to disappoint, the people will struggle to survive without adequate public services and utilities. In the absence of trustworthy public services, formal economy will continue to nosedive and informal economy and undeclared revenue (tax-evasive income) will improve. The public education sector will continue to deteriorate because the necessary policy changes have not taken place and, according to tertiary-level educationists, funds are being diverted away from research so that the government can remain functional while waiting for the instalments of IMF loans. This state of affairs will feed into the distrust the public has of the whims or policies of the state. With disintegrating public utilities and services, people will feel insecure and those who have something to lose have to rely on private security provisions. It means the government of Pakistan will not be able to establish its monopoly over violence and, therefore, those who cannot afford private security or gated communities will seek to move towards more secure societies. The elite and the cognitariat (those who can only sell their cognitive labour i.e. the technocrats and the professionals) will want to enjoy the rewards in more transparent and secure public spheres. Thus, the first-world economies are more likely to benefit from the little investment the government of Pakistan has made in the education sector. This observation is also supported by the murmurs of those who are leaving Pakistan on different scholarship programmes to the first-world academy. They often express the desire to settle in more just societies. Thus, what Pakistani society will experience in 2009 will be an acceleration of all the uncorrected social problems and the cynicism and distrust of a disenchanted public. While all the major governments in the world are thinking of protecting their citizens from the vicissitudes of the market, our authorities try to appease the profiteers by increasing the prices of gas, electricity, and motor cars. Therefore, the government declares itself to be on the side of the extractors of surplus and not the multitudes whose labour ensures profitability of the few. This process will increase the rift between the haves and the have-nots, producing a rise in the number of petty criminals and beggars, two major options available to the unskilled, the unqualified, and the unemployed. -- Saeed Ur Rehman
The year saw record funds allocation for the education sector in Punjab and a massive cut in budget for higher education in the country. The NWFP was the worst hit with extremists targeting schools in the province, particularly girls' schools. Demolition of schools there and cut in funds of Higher Education Commission are what made news this year. The slot of both federal
and Punjab education minister remained vacant last year. Only 15 pc of the Firstly, to make education compatible with international standards, the HEC introduced 4-year bachelor degree but not in all colleges which brought the conflict between the dual system to the fore. Those doing two-year bachelor degree face great problem when it comes to admission for master's degree. While the government introduced Tenure Track System which increased teachers' salaries manifold, seven university teachers were charged with plagiarism and were forcibly retired. Secondly, the effort for access to education can be gauged from the fact that today 4.65 pc of Pakistanis are getting higher education. Even then we are behind Nepal and sub Saharan Africa. Four years back 2.6 pc of Pakistanis between age group 17-23 had access to higher education. The HEC has certainly achieved its target to double the enrolment. Thirdly, the target has been to give higher education to people that is relevant to the needs of the country. Probably this was also the idea behind enrolling one lakh students in a three-month technical education special training programme this year. When 300 students were shoved into a lab meant for 25 students, nobody ended up learning anything. In Punjab a sum of about Rs 16.5 billion is being spent on 22 projects on school education and schools have seen significant increase in enrolment. This money is to be spent on missing facilities under World Bank Punjab Education Sector Reform Programmes. The government is keen to fill in the vacant seats of teachers but not grade 4 employees without whom a clean environment in schools seem impossible. The Punjab government gave special awards to performers in secondary school examination while degree students are being taken to foreign countries. For the first time it introduced essay writing and speech contest among government school students and earmarked two crore rupees as prize money. While some school head teachers were fired in Punjab for poor results in recent matriculation examinations teachers in general were offered incentives if they performed well. CM Punjab has promised day-care facilities for women teachers so that they can bring their children along and are able to perform their responsibilities in peace. In Sindh, teachers were baton charged and arrested on Nov 24 for protesting peacefully outside Sindh Assembly. Teachers have been beaten by successive governments in one province or the other. Enhancement of campuses is in the pipeline but the problem is that we spend very little of our GDP on education, as a senior academician says. Terror attacks around the world have had a negative effect on the tourist business. Pakistan has, in particular, been adversely hit. Till just a few years ago, one came across foreign tourists, with a guidebook in hand, walking about places that interested them. Of these Western or Japanese or Korean visitors, one hasn't had practically a single one in the past four or five years. The traffic of mountaineers, rock climbers and trekkers for whom Pakistan has always been on the top of the A-list, has fallen drastically. While the number of hardcore mountaineers and rock climbers has not decreased significantly, there have been few trekking parties in Pakistan over the past years. Sadly, the year 2009 does not bode well for the trade. Two premium trekking areas, Swat and Chitral, are now virtually out of bounds. Swat because of its clear and present danger and Chitral largely because of misunderstanding and its situation. Because Chitral is contiguous with Swat, violence is feared to spill over. Secondly, its road access lying though the troubled Swat and Dir areas puts the travellers off. The Northern Areas (not including violence-prone Chilas, Dassu and Pattan) continue to enjoy unbroken peace. However, bad press and the ignorance of the common journalist who cannot tell the difference between FATA and the Northern Areas and refers to the lawless NWFP parts as Northern Areas has done serious harm to the cause of tourism in the north. That having been said, the summer of 2008 still did see a few foreign trekking parties as well as non-trekking sightseers in Baltistan, Hunza and Gojal. Members of these parties surely would have got the shock of their life when they saw that peace still prevailed. The provincial tourism departments of NWFP and Punjab sold package tours to Swat and Kaghan successfully until 2004. Escalation in the troubled tribal areas put the brakes on that. Ditto for the city tour of Peshawar and the day trip to Takht e Bahi. Nature joined in by flattening most of Kaghan to put paid to traffic diverted here from Swat. For the 2009 and for several years following, no tourist will be found in these areas. Since it is certain that it will be years, perhaps even decades, before we see foreign tourist hit our shores again, we need to keep the travel trade going through domestic tourism. For that the provincial tourism development corporations need to get their act together. With their package tours, these corporations got an increasing number of Pakistanis traveling about the country over the past decade and a half. This market will need to be tapped. In the past, the trend generally was to head for the mountains in order to get away from the heat. Those parts of Punjab (Cholistan, Suleman Mountains in Dera Ghazi Khan, the Salt Range and the Soon Valley, to name a few) and all of Sindh from Tharparker to the Khirthar Mountains offer great getaways that are all but unknown. Despite bad press, Balochistan the undiscovered is still relatively safe. Makran, Lasbela and Kharan are ideal escapes for the adventure tourist. And these places are not devoid of historical monuments as well. With these new destinations in mind, the provincial tourism corporations will have to set the trends for the year 2009 and after. The country is troubled, but that does not mean there are no middle-class travelers with money to spend.
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new year. We asked them to write on the issues of women, culture,
education, sports, tourism, politics, society, media and literature, and
to write a tentative history of the future (twelve months basically). Of
course, these are only guesses and conjectures, because there can be no
scientific way of predicting the future, despite all the patterns the
historians have discovered in the past civilisations. But there are
certain things that can be said about any society with a degree of
certainty. For example, it is a generally accepted fact that social
welfare and secure nation-states, where the state has an absolute monopoly
over violence and there is some freedom of expression, encourage the
growth of capital and human endeavours.
fighting this menace during 2009. The need of the time is that the powers
at the helm of the affairs take the issue seriously and fight it in a more
systematic way. Statements like "Pakistan would not allow its
territory to be used for terrorist activity" will not suffice any
more.
hoping against hope is only the manifestation of the resilience of the
human spirit that sees a silver lining even in the darkest of clouds for
who would have foreseen that girls' education, an issue that was settled
about a hundred years ago, will again rear its menacing head and take us
back to the angst-ridden debates and nerve-racking decades of Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan and Sheikh Abdullah, both of whom had to defend their
conviction from barrage of personal threats and insults.
cut across all classes and sections of society and emerged as an
institution that articulated the public demand and also made
recommendations based on its own sense of right or wrong - whether it was
in its coverage of the lawyers' movement, the war against terrorism, or
the social sector. Normally, these functions are performed by political
parties and pressure groups. But the 8-9 years of military dictatorship
that we had, nearly flattened the civil society scene. Except for the
lawyers' movement, there was not a single, civil society-based initiative
visible. The media filled that gap famously well. However, over with the
celebration mood, it's time for the media industry to move on and do some
serious stock-taking, besides building on its strengths and recounting its
past laurels.
cycling events were cancelled in 2008 owing to security problems. The
latest one being the incident when Indian Junior hockey team did not
arrive at Wagah in November, as the authorities refused to give clearance
to travel to Pakistan.
budget marked for education goes to higher education. HEC's focus has been
on three things: quality, access to higher education and relevance.