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issue artwork Singing
out memories Mind
your manners
issue More than 70
public sector universities are in a grave financial situation as the
ministry of finance has refused to release funds to the Higher Education
Commission (HEC) for the last quarter of 2011-12. The funds amount to Rs 12
billion, including Rs 6 billion for recurring expenditure and Rs 6 billion
for development expenditure. The ministry was due to release these funds in
March this year which was to be used by the universities for payment of
salaries and development projects, including scholarship grants to thousands
of students inside and outside the country. The situation is so bad
that some universities have not been able to pay salaries to its staff for
the last two months, while others are struggling to run daily routine
operations and fear that they will have to close down their campuses in the
next couple of months if the situation persists. Newly-built universities
in underdeveloped areas of the country are most affected as majority of them
cannot generate more than 30 per cent of the funds (from tuition fee etc)
and depend on government grants which are disbursed by the HEC. The government releases
the allocated funds to HEC in four quarters. In the first two quarters it
releases 20 per cent and releases 30 per cent in the rest of the two
quarters. An official of the HEC
says that a few months ago, the ex-Prime Minister’s office directed the
HEC to release funds amounting to Rs 100 million for the construction of a
campus for the newly-established Air University in Multan. This project was not
included in the approved development projects of the last fiscal year. “We
asked the PM house to first help us release the amount for the last quarter
and then releasing funds for this university could be considered,” says
the HEC official. The official adds the
withholding of the funds will result in a total collapse of the higher
education sector. “In the given situation, universities would not be able
to enrol new students, hire faculty and other new initiatives will not be
taken. 152 ongoing development projects out of which more than 45 are near
completion in the current financial year have been affected. In the next
financial year, the federal government has decided to release only Rs28
million against the HEC demand of Rs38 billion.” Dr Javed Leghari, Chairman
HEC, tells TNS that on June 22, Abdul Wajid Rana, the Finance Secretary told
the HEC that only an amount of Rs 25 million can be released to the HEC for
its last quarter that ends on March 31. “We cannot afford not releasing at
least Rs 6 billion to universities as it would be used to pay a 50 per cent
salary raise to the universities staff that the government announced last
year. The finance secretary had given us a written assurance that funds in
this regard would be released in the final quarter.” Leghari says that due to
unavailability of funds, HEC has not been able to pay salaries of foreign
faculty for three months. “If the situation persists we will have to close
down this programme. At present there are more than 520 foreign faculty
inducted in different universities. “We have not paid the
stipend to 10,000 scholarship holders inside and outside the country for the
last two months. The future of some 3,500 students availing university and
Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholarships is at stake, particularly the
ones studying in foreign countries,” he says. “The worst affected
university under this decision would be newly-built universities in
underdeveloped areas. Women University at Quetta pays 95 per cent of its
expenditure from government subsidies and it would be closed down in a
couple of months if we cannot support it anymore,” warns Leghari. The finance ministry
decision has come as shocking news. As far back as March this year, Federal
Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh while talking to the 10th Vice Chancellors’
Committee Meeting, organised by the HEC, appreciated the performance of the
higher education sector during the last decade. He said that a Rs 160
billion investment in the last four years in higher education had resulted
in the generation of employment, initiation of research relevant to
socio-economic needs and meeting industry requirements. “The federal
government would continue to provide financial help to those universities
that have been facing difficulties in payment of salaries to their staff,
despite placing cut on expenditures, no cut has been placed on the HEC
funding”, he had informed the committee. In April 2011, the Council
of Common Interests (CCI) decided that until the announcement of the next
National Finance Commission (NFC) award in 2014, the federal government
would fund the universities. According to an agreement
called Tertiary Education Support Project (TESP) signed by the World Bank,
HEC and government, the World Bank has committed USD 300 million as a soft
loan for three years for universities, on the conditions that the commission
would work with the federal government and budget allocations would be made
with gradual increase to meet certain targets. Under this agreement, the
government has committed to allocate Rs36.2 billion as recurring budget and
Rs21.6 billion as development budget in fiscal year 2012-13 and Rs41 billion
as recurring and Rs24 billion as development budget in 2013-14 to the HEC. The World Bank is not
happy with the government’s allocation for the HEC and has already written
a letter in 2011, showing its concerns that the project activities linked to
the March 2012 cycle in order to achieve the Disbursement-Linked Indicators
may not be achieved. “Most of public sector
universities heavily depended on government funds. The federal government is
not serious in releasing funds to varsities while the provinces have already
denied providing any funds to them. I fear many universities will either
crash or pass on the burden to its students. We need to solve this problem
on an emergency basis, but it seems that the education sector is not our
priority”, says Zafarullah Khan, Executive Director of the Centre for
Civic Education, Pakistan. “If universities will
spend 80 per cent of their time on begging for funds, how will they promote
a culture for research and development?” he asks. Khan says the problems
between different institutions in this regard are needed to be solved. “If
HEC is violating some rules and regulations or wasting some funds to provide
perks and privileges to its staff then the government should form a task
force to revisit it.” Khan adds that provinces
also need to understand that after 2014, universities most probably would be
handed over to them. “Provinces have not even started thinking about this.
They need to make strategies and plans as it would be a serious
transition.” A special meeting of
Vice-Chancellors of 74 public sector universities was held at Islamabad on
June 25 to discuss the latest situation. Imtiaz Hussain Gilani,
Vice Chancellor of University of Engineering Technology, Peshawar and the
Chairperson of the Vice Chancellors’ Committee, tells TNS that
universities have been facing numerous challenges because of non-payment of
funds. “We can by one way or other stop development projects, but 80 per
cent of recurring expenditures are spent on paying salaries of around
100,000 teachers at universities. How can government hire somebody and at
the end of the month say that we cannot pay your salary? “Public sector
universities are home to more than a million students and the government
needs to refocus its priorities. We have been emphasising that at least 4
per cent of GDP should be spent on education. Last year, the government only
allocated 1.7 per cent of GDP to education and if it does not pay Rs12
billion it would mean that the government will spend between 1.2 to 1.4 per
cent of the GDP on education which is probably the lowest in the world.” Gilani says that around
100 students of his university have been getting education in foreign
universities on scholarships. “There is an implicit understanding that as
these students belong to public sector universities, the foreign
universities believe that the agreement is not between them and the students
but them and the government of Pakistan. A failure to pay their dues would
be a huge embarrassment for the government.”
The art of Hamra
Abbas, one of the most distinguished contemporary artists to have emerged
from Pakistan, has diverse dimensions — both in terms of its formal
features and cultural context. In her recent solo exhibition ‘Idols’
(June 19-July 19, 2012) at Canvas Gallery in Karachi, she has displayed a
video installation, three sculptures and a number of digital prints. On a
cursory glance, these differ not only in their medium of execution but in
their subject matter too but, if probed, they are all linked. In her exhibition, three
large buraq-like sculptures titled ‘Ride 2’ are placed on wooden rocking
bases. Portraits of different people, initially made in small scale with
polymer clay, are photographed and digitally printed on large sizes and are
titled ‘Idols’. In her video installation, words are typed in an email
message on a computer screen. Sound of pressing each key is accentuated,
with a loud noise once the text is dispatched (which the artist describes as
an aeroplane taking off because every time an email is sent a tiny icon of
aeroplane appears in our systems). The most astonishing
aspect of Abbas’s work is its easy access to the viewer. The Idols are
heads of various people that originated in her photographs ‘while running
chores on a daily basis’, whereas buraq structures look like oversized
toys or horses on a merry-go-round. Likewise, the email text seems like a
simple message about an individual’s personal situation communicated to
another person. So, for a viewer, there is
no mystery attached to these works on display; rather they see great skill
in the fabrication of each work and clarity in her concepts and imagery. Yet, beyond simple
appearances, the work unfolds many layers associated with our society as
well as to the artist’s own history. To start with, heads in digital
prints remind of Abbas’s process of converting one art work into another.
During her student years, she made an installation with text pasted on a
fireplace and then, using its photographs, created another art work
consisting of multiple panels. In the recent exhibition, tiny heads modelled
in poly clay are converted into large prints. So the transformation occurs
not merely in scale but the large prints narrate a content that is not even
controlled by their creator. The faces of ordinary
people from varying backgrounds and races look as if composed with lumps of
raw meat of different kinds. An element which perhaps was not intended by
the artist but connects these pieces to portraits of Arcimboldo, the painter
from Renaissance, who composed human faces by combining vegetables, fruits
and breads. But more than the artist
of Renaissance, these heads remind of Hamra Abbas’s series of small
portraits of children which were shown a few years ago at the Zahoor ul
Akhlaq Gallery. Those immaculately-rendered faces were in the tradition of
miniature painting — not only in the technique (of shading) and size but
in the custom of documenting features of different characters before the
invention of camera. Her tiny sculptures can also be seen in the same light
— the simple act of moulding the clay joins these to the activity of
adding dots, marks and tones to prepare portraits in miniature painting. These works along with the
buraq pieces indicate another element in the art of Hamra Abbas — of
blending tradition with popular culture. In our history, buraq is revered
due to its role in the episode of Miraj when it served to be a carrier for
the Holy Prophet. The figure of buraq appears in old miniatures besides
being part of our local folklore and is displayed in paintings on trucks,
buses and rickshaws. Abbas has picked that icon
from our religious history and has reconstructed it as if it is a large toy.
Hence she alludes to the custom of converting every sacred entity and idea
for vernacular, popular and commercial consumption. The choice of colouring
these in shades of light pink, candy yellow and baby blue suggests the
preference for cheap goods in a culture that is generating and utilising new
myths in the domain of market economy. This passage from
religious ideas and sacred stories to stark commercialisation or
popularisation of every concept or cultural construct is one reading of
Abbas’s work; it could cause to confine it to one point or position. But
her art, even if it belongs to this place, is not restricted to local
geography or cultural constraints. One may identify with the enlarged and
transformed ‘miniatures’ and winged horses with female faces as buraq,
but the works speak the language of contemporary art so that each culture
and all societies identify with it. This feat of liberating
the local from its regional connection and elevating it to the universal
level is a difficult task for many artists. Because they tend to succumb to
marketing their indigenous and unique identities as exotic specimens which,
in most cases, puts their work into a special category/niche. Contrary to that, the art
of Hamra Abbas operates in a field that is international in its sensibility.
So her portraits, winged horses, and email text belong to a larger world.
While keeping the local references, it is transnational in its nature and
sensibility. This characteristic is crucial because, once we establish the
nationality of artists; we assume that they would be focusing on it
regardless of a change in their address. In fact it’s a tricky
situation because the artists also face the dilemma of their physical
position. Often, the creative output is a conversation between the place of
origin and the place of residence. But, with the world moving into a global
village, the previous precepts of place have also altered. So like the email
address which indicates a person rather than a place, now the works of
contemporary artists can be identified with the individuals more than their
domicile. This recent shift is
evident in the case of Hamra Abbas as her work may be equally enjoyed (if
not similarly understood) in Doha, Dhaka, Dallas and Dublin since it has
shed the burden of locality, without losing its meaning.
Ustad Lachman
Singh Seen, probably the oldest living shagird of Ustad Mian Qadir Baksh,
performed at the Human Rights Commission Auditorium in Lahore last week with
his two shagirds Krishan Kumar and Hassan Mohyeddin. Despite being in his
nineties it was clear that his playing still had the agility and the
precision, while his voice the resonance to be fully in command when
reciting the bols. On his first visit to
Pakistan, particularly Lahore which he left in 1947 and never visited the
place again till now, he was cajoled to give a performance in memory of his
turbulent formative years. For it was here that in the early part of the
20th century he fell in love with the tabla, and wanting to excel chose to
become the shagird of the most famous ustad of Punjab baaj Ustad Qadir Baksh.
He lived in a number of places in the city but recollected his stay at
Gawalmandi, the most fruitful and creative. He had to leave the city but did
not abandon his passion for the tabla which made him adopt the twin role of
a practitioner and a teacher. His career has been associated with teaching
tabla in some of the prestigious institutions of formal instruction in
India. During his performance he
quoted from the shastras on the centrality of rhythm for all arts like
vocal/instrumental music and dance for it provides the underpinning on which
the grid of the performance is based. If it is proper and well laid out then
the structure of the performance too is integrated. He played the teen taal
with his shagirds and displayed his virtuosity in pushkar, real, qaeda and
tukras, giving a masterly demonstration of the salient points of the Punjab
baaj. 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. The vast vocabulary of the
tabla bols, the complicated gats, parans and relas testify to the fact that
tabla had crafted a place for itself other than being an accompanying
instrument and has some kind of an independent stature. It is a considered
assumption that the evolution of 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 Baksh Pakhawaji; Bhai Naseera from a Rababi family too was a shagird
of the family of Qadir Baksh. Bhai Santo Pakhawaji too from the Rababi clan
was the shagird of the Bhai Bagh, who was related to Qadir Baksh. Ustad
Allah Rakha, Ustad Shaukat Hussain was also shagirds of the famous Ustad. Tafo’s father Faqir
Baksh Doomagaliwale was the shagird of Mian Qadir Baksh while Tafo initially
learnt the art of playing the tabla from his father and in 1961 formally
became the formal shagird of Mian Qadir Baksh. Fateh Din was a legendary
percussionist and to many the founder of the Punjab baaj. It is said that he
modified the bols of the pakhawaj, developed gats and laid the foundations
of a new school totally different from the Delhi baaj. But Qadir Baksh
Pakhawaji perhaps made it more widely acceptable for he is considered to be
the jagat ustad of all the Punjab tabla players. Born in the early part of
the twentieth century and trained by his father Mian Faqir Baksh in the
pakhawaj and the tabla, he became an outstanding player by incorporating the
style of the pakhawaj into the method of tabla playing. Ustad Lacchman Singh’s
visit and the evening made possible by the untiring effort of Nahid Siddiqui
started with a dance number more in the manner of welcoming the guests. It
was a neat little gesture by some of the shagirds of Nahid Siddiqui. Rehana,
Mehreen and Maria are showing promise, and in due course, other things
remaining the same, will take dance up seriously going beyond the stage of a
hobby. The performing arts have
been discriminated against in our society and among the various arts, dance
the most. Consistent training, hard work and creativity have been thwarted
by lack of any institutional set up. Nahid Siddqui’s persistence have made
her continue with her art and also to pass it on to her shagirds and despite
all the odds she has persevered to do so. Though it is often wondered with
more support things would have been much better. The evening also included
other performances as well. Akbar Ali sang bageshri as did Ustad Mubarak Ali
Khan a kind of a mishermela raag, which sounded like rageshri and jog which
he probably called jogeshwari. It also included a sitar recital by Kinnar
Kumar Seen who originally from India lives in New York and performs there.
He had flown in particular for the performance to Pakistan. The performance
on the tabla by Hassan Mohyeddin was something of a surprise; a pleasant one
for his hand was steadier and his strokes exact. He was also more at ease in
building on the various improvised rhythmic structures that is required in a
solo performance. The evidence of the last hundred years demonstrates that
most of the instrument like the sitar, shahnai, sarod, santoor, clarinet,
and violin can trace their ascendance from being either accompaniments or as
minor instruments to dominate the world of classical music. Probably it was
the inspirational presence of Ustad Lachman Singh Seen that made him rise to
the occasion.
I am often astonished by
the extremely offensive tone adopted by so many opposition politicians in
Pakistan when they are given television airtime on the so-called news shows
hosted by the so-called news anchors. These (alleged) anchors
themselves are pretty offensive, and the ruder and more offensive the
politician guest, the more delighted the (so-called) anchor will appear. One
such anchor typically sits around grinning like a Cheshire cat, egging his
guest on to new heights in offensiveness. The insulting and
slanderous tone of some politicians is truly appalling. But whatever one
might say about the ruling PPP, their representatives’ behaviour on
television is exemplary: despite repeated provocation, allegation, innuendo
and insult, they try to impart a reasoned point of view, never mind that
they are usually shouted down by their TV host or opposition counterparts. The MQM manages to mind
its manners as does the ANP, but the representatives of some other political
parties are astonishingly offensive. Most notably there is this Begum Sahiba
of PTI who is astonishingly condescending to everybody — but especially so
to other women and ‘lower class types’ and there is the sulky, hirsute
MNA of PML-N who raves and rants and insults and spews vitriol as a matter
of habit. Then of course there is the unelected ex-Musharraf and ex-Nawaz
Sharif minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, who even though holds no public or
elected office is given a disproportionate amount of airtime in which he
basically insinuates and maligns in a sneaky, faux-naive manner. But the most bizarre
instance of behaviour must be that of the chief executive of Punjab, who is
extremely offensive whenever he speaks of the elected leadership of the
country. And it really was a surreal sort of a scenario last month when he
was actually encouraging people in his province to riot in the streets ‘to
protest against loadshedding’. He even declared that he would not instruct
his provincial police to contain or control these rioting crowds, signalling
that it was okay for the mob to wreak destruction on whatever they saw fit
to make the focus of their anger. No surprises then that a mob actually went
and attacked and tried to burn down the house of PML-Q MNA Riaz Fatiana. Fatiana has claimed that
the police was not interested in controlling the situation and at least one
person was killed when his guards fired on the mob. He describes the attack
as terrifying and murderous and his version of events is quite chilling.
(Not sure if any suo moto notice was taken of the attack and the Punjab
government’s role in inciting violence, but definitely a police case was
registered against the MNA and his guards...) Encouraging mob violence
is always a case of playing with fire, and it is certainly not something one
would expect from a person in a leadership position in a major province. How
can Shahbaz Sharif possibly justify this sort of behaviour? On one hand he
encourages people’s revolting behaviour, while on the other he promotes
himself as a humble servant of the people – ‘khadim-e-aala’ as several
compliant TV journalists recently informed us he ‘likes to be called’. This recent KA (khadim-e-aala)
PR initiative showed us a tireless public servant and humble family man, KA
riding a public bus, KA working in a tent listening to the awam and trying
to solve their problems, KA talking to a group of women, his daughter,
daughter-in-law and grandchild by his side. Of course we can all see
that politicians of all hues are now planning towards the elections which
are supposedly in a few months, but KA’s PR initiative is somewhat marred
by the way he encouraged violent street protest. That constitutes incitement
to violence — as do so many of the careless accusations and insults
shouted out on TV shows. In fact, as elections
approach, all political parties would do well to ensure that their leaders
and workers maintain a certain basic level of courtesy and decorum. Let’s keep it civil. ‘Tameez kay dayray mai’. Please. Sincerely, Umber Khairi
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