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devolution review
Values of simplicity Dubai and
art
devolution Despite its acceptance by the donor agencies and local and international NGOs, the existing local government system has failed to get a seal of approval by the mainstream political parties By Nadeem Iqbal Not long ago, the people of Chani Nico Ani village in union council Dewna contributed Rs 35,000 to match the sum of Rs 139,000 provided by the local government to establish an agriculture implement pool. The pool comprised two wheat threshers, disk harrow and rabi drill. By doing so they increased their agriculture produce by 5-6 per cent. Earlier on, the villagers used to rent these machines on exorbitant rates while their timely availability was not certain either. Even though Chani Nico Ani,
a village in Gujrat, is located in a canal-irrigated area, it does not have
easy access to canal water. In order to seek a solution to their varied
problems, the villagers At present over 40,000 CCBs have been formed under Musharraf’s Local Government system introduced in 2001. These voluntary bodies are working in both urban and rural areas, each comprising 25 non-elected citizens. Through this mechanism, over one million citizens are directly involved in development activities. Under the law, each local government will allocate 25 per cent of its development budget at the district, tehsil/taluka/town and union council levels for CCBs and these funds will be non-lapsable. A local government may grant to the CCBs upto 80 per cent of the budgeted amounts of approved development schemes. 20 per cent of the total cost of a CCB scheme has to be contributed by the CCB. Two local government elections -- 2001 and 2005 -- were also held under the Musharraf regime. In the last August-September 2005 local bodies’ elections, around 29 million voters turned up to elect 6,132 union councils. Their term is going to expire in 2009. One of the major problems
with the existing system is that despite its acceptance by the donor It is ironic because most political parties agree on the basic democratic principle of establishing local government to politically empower local communities. The 1973 constitution also talks about encouraging the local government institutions and decentralisation of the central government, so as to facilitate speedy disposal of its business to meet the convenience and requirements of the public. Even the handpicked last parliament could not show any concrete support for the local governments. Instead these federal and provincial assemblies encroached upon the local governments’ powers by allocating special development funds to the parliamentarians to be spent at the local level. The respective provincial governments were not only slow in releasing funds to the local representatives but also got discretionary powers to dismiss the nazims. The central and provincial legislatures’ mistrust of the local government system stems from the fact that local bodies absolve or sideline them from service delivery at the local level which they consider imperative to win votes. This mistrust has been passed on to the new parliamentarians with a greater intensity. Little wonder that Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani has already announced allocation of 10 million rupees to each legislator for his/her constituency. The main criticism of the MNAs against the local governments is that they supported the Musharraf-backed PML-Q candidates in the elections. The election results, however, show that this was a task the local governments were either not equipped to fulfil or simply failed to achieve. Political observers are of the opinion that the Feb 18 vote was not for service delivery but for constitutional and serious policy issues. Had it been a vote for service delivery, PML-Q would have won. It seems people have realised the difference between a local, provincial and federal government, knowing well that a federal parliamentarian can not help them keep their streets clean or supply clean drinking water etc. PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has talked about the continuation of the local government system, albeit with some amendments. His statements notwithstanding, the politicians are still shy of lending support to this system simply because it carries the stamp of Musharraf. In 2003, under the 17th amendment in the Constitution, the local governments were given constitutional protection by placing the Local Government Ordinances, which are provincial laws, under the Sixth Schedule for six years (till Dec 31, 2009) so that during this period they cannot be altered, repealed or amended except with the sanction of the president. The new Punjab cabinet, in its first meeting on April 23, decided to seal and audit the record of the district and tehsil governments. Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira claimed that the local bodies had become a symbol of corruption, therefore, the Punjab cabinet decided to immediately seal the record of the last two tenures and undertake special audit of all the local governments. He said the audit would be external and not affect the ongoing projects. The move could be a preparation for the next local government elections due to be held in 2009. It would be interesting to see if the provincial governments holds them on time or brings in drastic changes such as allowing political parties to contest these elections. The political governments do not have an impressive record regarding the holding of local bodies’ elections. Of the nine elections held todate, seven were under military led governments while only two were held by elected governments led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1991-92 and 1998-99. In 1998-99 local bodies’ elections were only held in Punjab and Balochistan. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) does not have an impressive record either. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto assumed power on Dec 20, 1971. On Jan 23, 1972 he announced that a three tier local government system would replace former president Ayub Khan’s Basic Democracies. At the same time four provincial governments promulgated four provincial local government ordinances. Two of them -- from Punjab and Balochistan -- were later adopted by the provincial assemblies as Acts in 1975. But no elections were held. In fact the PPP government has never held a single local government elections. A total of three local government systems were actually put in place after elections. Unfortunately, all these laws -- Basic Democracies Order 1959, Local Government Order 1979 and Local Government Ordinances 2001 -- were promulgated by non-elected governments and later adopted by provincial legislatures. The ‘New Social Contract’ announced in 1993 remained an unfulfilled election manifesto of PPP’s third government under Benazir Bhutto because PPP’s coalition partners in the provinces were not convinced that they would accrue equal power share out of this new social contract. In the past all local government laws were discussed and drafted at the federal level and adopted by the provinces. There is a need that the local government laws should be discussed in the elected assemblies particularly in the provincial assemblies and reviewed with a view to strengthen them. The only role the central legislature can play in this is to ensure that the affairs of local governments are put under the control of the provincial governments. review In his search for a universal pictorial language, Murad Khan Mumtaz in his solo show at Khaas Gallery Islamabad has created drawings that have an energy that needs no translation By Aasim Akhtar All sorts of pictures are routinely referred to as ‘Studies’, but an exhibition like this, which featured drawings made by Murad Khan Mumtaz over the last few months, comes as a reminder of the real meaning of the word. Mumtaz’s is one of the most immediately recognisable styles, and it is now clear that the young artist focuses on a world that he has created for himself -- utterly familiar, profoundly traditional, and not a little introverted. The show, comprising thirteen drawings, suggests that for Mumtaz, hunkering down over a small piece of paper, using graphite or wash, working with knuckles and wrist rather than elbow and shoulder, is more in keeping with his mood than painterly business as usual. In this solo show at Khaas
Gallery in Islamabad, Murad Khan Mumtaz, trained in the exacting A great achievement of these meditative, gorgeously strange drawings is that -- dependent as they are on the old equation of luscious line with perfect form -- the metaphor of one kind of pretty matter standing in for another has been sublimed; i.e. rendered both beautiful and frightening. These are portraits of thought, if ever there were any. But the psyche, for Mumtaz, is a pulse in the flesh, and fleshiness is a continuum where human versus inanimate is not an important distinction. All are envisioned as temporary clumps of the same shimmering, morphing stuff, in which even aggressive physicality evanesces. Mumtaz stakes his own distinctive claim to the genre that mixes motifs from East and West. In his version of magic realism, Murad’s fantasies are based on real struggles, fears and confusion that a traditional artist faces in the divide between cultures as he searches for identity in the contemporary world. There’s a delicacy of
handling in Murad’s siyah kalam and graphite drawings that is clearly
derived from his traditional training at the NCA, Lahore. In ‘Watcher’,
for example, the black strokes that The most startling image in the exhibition appears in ‘Boy I’ It’s a composite of a tree stump and a human body, a hybrid that suggests we haven’t evolved as far as we like to think. Whatever our country of origin, however big our brains, humans remain predatory animals. Recent world events have certainly borne out Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm’s argument that barbarism is increasing rather than decreasing. ‘Boy I and II’ are a memento mori for human civilisation. All of which is to say that while Mumtaz’s drawings attain an ambrosial lightness of spirit by way of lyric nuance, they tend also to be full of macabre meaning. The most seemingly innocent scenes are fraught with unpleasant import. In ‘Boy II’ the viewer is caught between trepidation about the boy’s strangling and anxiety over the imminent snapping of the branch. In his pictures, nature tends to appear subdued, dazed or inert. The dragons are menacing in ‘Troup’, but however loud they roar, they don’t stir, they don’t attack. They are as peculiarly incapacitated as the ‘entwining elephants’ in ‘Variation on a Mughal Theme.’ The elephants move in approaching directions, their snouts are tied together in a tug-of-war that suggests a conflict between the two halves of a divided self, for the elephants are mirror images of one another. Their psychological implications aside, the elephants might also symbolise South Asia itself, a region drawn irresistibly to the modern but still bogged down in the pre-modern. Ignoring the specifics of individual physiognomies, like details that slip away in dreams, Mumtaz renders the surreal and the absurd. His flat aesthetic evokes Peter Blake’s ‘70s illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. And just like Alice’s passage to the other side of the mirror, each of Mumtaz’s drawings provides entry into a fantastical world. Making a strong visual link to Salvador Dali’s iconic painting of a tiger leaping across a supine female, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate, One Second Before Awakening, 1944, Mumtaz explicitly declares his affinity for the Surrealists and the theatre of the unconscious. His penchant for the absurd best reflected in ‘Troup’ -- an almost psychotically busy picture of three Chinese beasts, a wild montage of imagery; the work suggests a despairing slide back toward naturalism, even as that very despair creates a frenzied dynamism. Most of Mumtaz’s drawings are the same size, and, arranged sequentially suggest a shifting stream of consciousness, with unchanging insidious significance. The figures are self-contained and drift in a hermetic void -- the whiteness of the paper. It is Mumtaz’s articulation of this void and his ability to give it an autonomous epic presence and spatial intensity. It is a masterful aspect of his work; more than the figures themselves, it is this featureless emptiness that fills the viewer with disquiet. The figures include young men, animals and cobbled-together creations that occupy only a summarily depicted place surrounded by white ground. Detached from any specific location, they seem to inhabit a magical, once-upon-a-time realm. Mumtaz’s sunny, finely detailed, sweetly affirmative style with clear, crisp contours, varied textures and miniaturist sensibility is effectively at odds with the enigmatic incidents it depicts. Tinged with eccentric, even cruel humour, many of the seemingly agreeable illustrations recall fairy or folk tales. But the artist presents their darker, more ambiguous side. Mumtaz has not only a beguiling vision that disrupts the ordinary but also a very certain grasp of the uses of line and its enchantment. Drawing after drawing, Mumtaz uses the same model and the same props, and achieves much the same end. Curiously, what he does not necessarily achieve is realistic accuracy. The rendering of clouds floating on a night sky might not be representational, but this does not seem to concern Mumtaz much. He sets himself pictorial challenges -- like a ‘Goat Head’ offered as Qurbani -- and repeatedly what he draws does not strictly meet the challenge. There is no ground at all, just a thicket of marks that draw the eye in and send the gaze off on ever-branching paths. Mumtaz may not have achieved his early goal, which was to come up with a kind of visual Esperanto, but in his search for a universal pictorial language, he’s created drawings that have an energy that needs no translation. The Mystic Music Sufi Festival simultaneously held in Multan, Lahore and Islamabad has become a regular annual event By Sarwat Ali In their series of international festivals Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop (RPTW) also added music a few years ago and since then the Mystic Music Sufi Festival has become a regular annual event. This time round the RPTW
decided to host the festival in their own premises that houses the Puppet
Museum and Peerus Cafe, Raiwind Road and not at the Alhamra Cultural Complex
where all previous international events were organised. In the vast expanse
of their latest acquisition it was an event away from the humdrum of downtown
existence. A very nice peaceful location but for ordinary people without
their own transport it was an uphill task The way Lahore is expanding and the
speed at which the suburbs are popping up, even this site will soon be fully
co-opted into the city. As it This festival was simultaneously held in Multan, Lahore and Islamabad. Four groups from other countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt participated. The group from Iran called Dalahoo Sufi Ensemble caught the attention of the audiences, and appeared to be almost a sensation. Their initial performance of the first night was so well liked that they were asked to perform on all three nights of the festival and every time their performances reached out in the same impassioned way as it had done on the maiden performance. The nine member group led by Masoud Habib is partly based in Iran and partly in the United States. Masoud Habibi also plays the daff, chants and sings as the group picks up the pace and evoke rhythmic pattern that induce a trance like response. The rest of the instruments used are also traditional like the tar, ney. They sang verses of classical Persian poetry in particular that of Rumi accompanied by traditional instruments. Their performances were very charged and the ensemble with their combination of vocal and instrumental music built up a frenzy which probably is essential in reaching the heightened state which then can lead to an altered consciousness. The performances of other visiting groups were muted in comparison. Syrian Group Chamgroup for Sufi and Andulusian Tradition, Afghan Music Ensemble as well as Syed Iman wm from Egypt were quite good but calmer, quite unlike the experience of listening to the Iranians’ impassioned performance. Like in South Asia in other parts of the Muslim world the Sufis patronised music and in some particular way also influenced its more formal structure. From the Maghreb in the west right through to Indonesia in the east, these alternative and esoteric modes of awareness have made the arts their main source of expression, especially operating under pressure from the more orthodox and literal impositions of the Orders. There is a more variety of form than content. Probably the local musical traditions and formal structures have had their bearings on the way these musical expressions evolved. Throughout the length and breath of South Asia, music has been an integral part of the various rituals performed at the shrines of the Sufi saints. In the thousands of shrines in Pakistan alone, musical expression in one form or the other manifests the vision of these learned and creative men who stressed on love being the most cherished of human values and hence strongest basis of bringing mankind together. Every day, every week and in particular on the urs held annually kafi, qawwali and wai are sung, instruments like dhol and naqqara played as the devotees break into the trance like dance called dhammal. Pathaney Khan sang the kalam of the major Sufi poets as he himself embodied the values of simplicity, living close to nature, shunning the trappings of power and wealth, and was the first to bring out this music from the shrines to the concert hall. And then it was left to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to take this message to the four corners of the world. Surely the best known musician from this part of the world, he mesmerized audiences from Japan to Iceland to the United States with his qawwali beats. After his untimely death now it is Abida Parveen who is leading the artistic march based on same principle of unity that exists between the note and the word. Though this music has been being brought out from the shrines into the concert arena, it represents the essentials of the ritualistic practice held on the shrines for over a thousand years in the subcontinent. The values of tolerance, peace and love have been the main attractions which have pulled people of various creeds in the directions of these abodes. These concerts halls and venues now are the artistic centres ensuring the same activity. The performers from Pakistan who took part in the festival were Rizwan and Muazzam Qawwals, Niazi Brothers Javed and Babar, Sain Muhammed Ali, Krishen Lal Bheel, Mansoor Malangi, Gunga and Mithu Sain Dholias, Surraiyya Khanum, Zar Sangha, Chand / Sooraj Khan, Iqbal Bahoo, Jamaluddin Faqir, Wahdat Hussain, Sikander Ali Badar Maindad, Akhtar Chinar Zehri, Abrar Hussain Dildar Hussain, Allah Ditta Looneywala, Sain Zahoor, Sanam Marvi, Taj Mastani and Arif and Anis Nizami Qawwals.
The exhibition at Elementa Gallery in Dubai is a testimony of common concerns among artists working away from each other By Quddus Mirza Indian Premier League (IPL)
is one of the most exciting and representative event of our times. Here
individuals from different countries are grouped in teams; they are often
joined by overseas players to compete with another team that may comprise
their compatriots. This together with the This waning sense of nationalism in cricket is evident in other spheres of life too; for instance, art. The recent popularity of international biennale and triennial exhibitions can be compared to IPL or European football clubs, in which several professionals participate as a group, without being bothered about their citizenship. Usually they are selected in their individual capacity and not as representatives of their country. They are viewed and admired, not on the basis of their passport, but solely on their works, which may have some connection with the soil besides other aspects such as gender, class and creed. The change in organising, curating and collecting art works has affected the art practice all over the world. Hence one can find a new generation of artists from various countries, all working mainly in new media (along with a few engaged with traditional genres), who share their ideas, imagery and techniques. So in an exhibition, you may come across works with identical concerns, concepts and content, executed by people living as far as Chile, China and Chad. Intriguingly, while the individual artists are shedding the national traits, the Biennales and Triennials are still associated with a certain political boundary or city Like Sydney Biennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Havana Biennale, Sau Palo Biennale etc. This way, artists from different parts of the world get a chance to exhibit in Japan, Australia, Brazil, Germany and US etc. Yet boundaries are rendered
meaningless in such events by appointing curators from across the Art fairs have also contributed in diluting this ‘national’ element from art activity and art pieces which generally have a strong and deliberate regional ingredient, just to make the work appear as belonging to its place of origin (like an aesthetic passport or an artistic identity card). If the trend of global art fairs and international exhibitions continues, soon we may witness a league of international artists who, just like their email addresses, are not confined to their geography and locale. Thus, in the coming years, the artists may not be associated with a certain country (some of them even today abandon their birth place to reside in another land). In such a state of affairs, certain locations are important to enhance and compliment the international flavour in the true sense of the word, which means dragging the centre of mainstream art from Europeans capitals and USA to other, more neutral, territories. Recently the potential of Gulf States has been recognised in this regards. Beginning with Sharjah Biennale to Art Dubai, small states from the Arabian Gulf are getting ready to perform a major role in changing the course and direction of art world. Maybe due to this bright and imminent prospect, a number of galleries from all over the world are opening up their branches here -- including prestigious organisations such as Guggenheim and Louvre in Abu Dhabi. Elementa Gallery is also one of those art spaces that are being established in the newly found soil of Dubai. With its link to a gallery ‘Project 88’ in India, Elementa is keen to project and promote art from South Asia. Hence its inaugural show comprised of artists both from India and Pakistan (interestingly without mentioning their nationalities). Recently it housed an exhibition of Indian, Pakistani and Kazakh artists, which was part of the project ‘Destination Asia’. Earlier on two other exhibitions were held in Almaty and Mumbai and now Dubai was the third destination for the Destination Asia. Here the exhibition, titled ‘Conversation 1’, consists of videos, installations, digital prints, paintings and mixed media works. Although the works are created independently by each artist (a total of fifteen), the act of collecting and putting them inside a gallery space is sufficient to view the visual links and similarity of formal and conceptual issues. So the work of Bani Abidi and Tushar Joag simultaneously refer to the impulse of recreating, and the desire of recapturing an ‘imaginary’ past. Likewise Hamra Abbas and Vibha Galhotra share their critique of power, as Pushpamala N and Adnan Madani, both invoke the ironies of urban situations, political conditions and mythological/real characters from the history of politics and show business. The exhibition at Elementa Gallery in Dubai (opened on May 2, 2008) is a testimony of common concerns among artists working away from each other. By introducing new promises and premises for art from South Asia and the rest of the world, it heralds a new internationalism which may have its centre in Dubai, if not in Delhi!
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formed a Citizen Community Board (CCB) by the name of Bahadar. There are 70
direct beneficiaries of this small initiative. The command area where this
group of heavy machinery is being applied is over 200 acres.
agencies and local and international NGOs -- which see in it an effective
mechanism of community development at the grass roots -- it has failed to get
a seal of approval by the mainstream political parties. This is mainly
because the local government laws were not debated in the federal or
provincial legislatures before being implemented.
tradition of Indian and Persian miniature painting, follows the format of a
picaresque novel, with the sweatpants-clad adventurer tilting with demons,
fire-breathing dragons, and other real and mythological beasts. With his
lariat beautifully swirled or his curved scimitar at the ready, Mumtaz lops
off heads, unfazed by ferocious jaws and gnashing teeth as he sets off to
conquer all that impedes his progress. The irresistibly delicate and small
drawings act like stills from ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’; only they
are more ravishing, with intricate figurations, flamboyant patterns, and
brilliant compositions set off by the mythological.
form the textured bark of the tree, the faint outlines that mark the limits
of the bird’s neck, and the way that they stand on the open expanse of
white paper are all consistent with pictorial conventions that date back many
centuries. But the image is witty as well as formally refined, the title
suggesting the conceptual character of the work. His work also pictures
numerous contradictions: In ‘Regale’ a gas mask attached to a boy’s
head suggests a wild boar head. There are also erotic allegories, most
notably, ‘Demon (Variation on a Persian Theme)’, but one wonders if this
is not also a political allegory, the helpless Caucasian beauty symbolising
the vulnerable East and the roaring beast threatening her - the newly
powerful West.
is, much has changed in the few years since the Puppet Museum was formally
inaugurated in 2004. The city has almost encroached upon it in the twelve odd
years since the project’s foundation stone was laid.
enthusiasm of the spectators has introduced a new element to the game. Now
the public can enjoy the sport minus the patriotic fervour.
globe; hence the biennale in Sydney may be curated by a person from Cuba, and
Documenta in Europe by a critic from India (much like the coaches from other
countries training local teams). Similarly places which do not boast of a
long history as individual countries, like Sharjah and Singapore, are holding
successful international art exhibitions.