issue
Conduct of code

While the new code of conduct has been sent to the political parties for review, the Election Commission reaps more criticism on the issue

By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that has been in the news for various reasons is once again in the limelight. This time the attention gained by it is courtesy of the ceremonial 'code of conduct' it has drafted and sent to political parties for review. Though the political parties have been asked to give their recommendations/input on this code by a specific deadline they have little or no hope that this would make any difference.

Apparently, the main purpose of releasing the code is to ensure transparency in the elections and minimise risk of violence. But the critics are of the opinion that the authorities want to curb freedom of speech through this ordinance. They also believe that the code, if implemented, will only benefit the candidates backed by the establishment like it has been the case in the previous elections.

There are also those who question the whole exercise of devising the code of conduct which has never been implemented in its true spirit. History shows all restrictions imposed by election commissions in the past have been flouted with immense impunity.

Syed Naveed Qamar,central leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), tells TNS that he does not deny the utility of having a code of conduct to govern election activity but cannot support any undemocratic dictates.

He says the draft states that "political parties and contesting candidates shall refrain from making such comments on international issues as are likely to embarrass the government's relations with other countries, nor shall they say anything or do any act in any manner, which might prejudice Pakistan's foreign relations. Controversial and harsh remarks about leaders of other countries and their ideologies shall be avoided." This is simply undemocratic, he says adding it's impossible to restrict all the political parties to follow a uniform agenda. Naveed says manifestos of almost all the political parties have foreign affairs as their integral component. It's an unrealistic demand that can never be fulfilled.

He says in the past, candidates have often tried to impose code of ethics themselves at the local level. What normally happens is that when a candidate violates a rule the opponents approach the local administrators to intervene. "In short self-imposition of the code has helped us on many occasions. However the election commission has failed on each and every occasion to enforce it." Naveed tells TNS that some times strange rules are drafted to press opposition candidates quite close to the election date. "Once I was handed over some one else's telephone bill and asked to clear it in case I wanted to contest the elections. I had to pay it as very short time was left for elections. Had I not been short of time I would have challenged it."

A clause in the draft code also pertains to the ruling party candidates who have the reputation of being the busiest 'male models' nowadays. The total time for which they have appeared on television screens and the number of appearances they have made in newspaper advertisements are more than any of the models in the entertainment industry.

The clause says, "No advertisement, notice or announcement paid for from public funds shall carry the explicit or implicit reference, name, designation or photo of any public functionary or holder of a state or public office to project him/her as the originator, sponsor, promoter or organiser of any scheme, project, progress, ideology or vision."

There are certain rules that have always been there but their gross violation has made them redundant. For example the code prohibits canvassing within 400 yards of a polling station and use of any individual's land, building, compound wall etc. without his/her permission for erecting flag-staffs, suspending banners, pasting notices, writing slogans etc. by a political party or candidate's workers.

Here many of us can recall how the supporters of different candidates follow you right to the ballot box and literally beg you to reconsider your decision. Similarly, the political workers deem it their basic right to paint every wall in the constituency with all types of colours. The rules about ban on carriage and display of all kinds of lethal weapons and fire arms in public meetings and processions, aerial firing, use of crackers and other explosives are also among the most flouted ones.

Imtiaz Ahmed Advocate, a PML worker tells TNS that the responsibility rests with the candidates themselves to enforce the code in its true spirit. "It is definitely in their favour to have a level playing field and a peaceful atmosphere." But what normally happens is that candidates start finding ways to hide such violations from the public eye. "I know a candidate who spent millions on his banners, hoardings and leaflets from his own pocket but mentioned names of different sponsors on them."

The code states, no contesting candidate or a political party shall cross the limit of election expenses -- Rs 1.5 million for the National Assembly seat and Rs 1 million for the Provincial Assembly seat. But the fact is that these amounts are even less than those spent by candidates on the very election day.

Vice-president of Jamaat-i-Islami, Liaquat Baloch tells TNS that the code given by the election commission has no significance as the commission lacks the power to enforce it. The body cannot do any good as it lacks financial and administrative to powers to enforce its decisions, he says. Baloch says the election commission has to seek help on every occasion from the local, district and provincial governments as well as the police. "How can we expect such a decapitated body to deliver?" he asks.

Secondly, Baloch says, the commission lost legitimacy the very moment when it made Article 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan and allowed General Musharraf to contest presidential elections in military uniform. "I wonder how a code drafted by the same body can find popularity among the political parties and the masses alike."

Lump of problems

At the culmination of the Breast Cancer awareness month, a report from Balochistan on the cases and the treatment available

  By Ejaz Khan

"My mother Shah Bibi, 53, died in a village near Khuzdar District just five months ago. Her breast cancer was at its last stage when the appendix burst. Unfortunately, the local doctors were unable to diagnose the problem in time," said Wahid Bukhash talking to TNS. "Earlier we contacted the Centre for Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy (CENAR) in Quetta where her disease was diagnosed as breast cancer but then it was too late. Previously, we had wasted one year due to lack of awareness and just followed the guidance of a local Maulvi, who is famous for treating patients suffering from deadly diseases."

This is Balochistan in the 21st century where people in remote areas don't have even basic health facilities what to talk about specialised care for diseases like breast cancer etc. No wonder they are on the rise.

Noor Bibi, who was admitted in CENAR a couple of days ago, is suffering from breast cancer. She tells TNS that she had pain in her right breast for the last few months. "I went to my spiritual healer who treated me for two months telling me that I was under the spell of a Jin. I paid thousands of rupees to the Pir Sahib but the pain aggravated with every passing day. Then, my sons brought me to CENAR. Here it was diagnosed as cancer."

Since the establishment of CENAR, Quetta in 1988, over 10,000 patients have been provided medical treatment. "Out of them, there were at least 809 cases of breast cancer," said Director CENAR Dr G.M Burdy. However, there is no reliable data available informing women suffering from the breast cancer in the province.

According to a report on the health infrastructure compiled by an NGO, most of the health units lack basic facilities in Balochistan. 60 per cent have no electricity and 70 per cent are without water.

These primitive conditions are highlighted by data that shows that the percentage of women under 55 years of age with breast cancer who consult a practitioner is lower in Balochistan than in any other province. The percentage of patients with breast cancer in CENAR Quetta is less than 10 per cent. The only cancer treatment hospital in Quetta i.e. CENAR is treating a variety of patients with its meagre funds ,  less than Rs. 25 million  annually.

The patients are brought to CENAR not only from different parts of Balochistan but from lower Punjab, urban Sindh, Afghanistan and Iran. Its water supply connection is yet to be approved while the hospital administration is forced to purchase ten water tankers daily at a cost of Rs. 3000 per tank to ensure clean water to patients and their attendants.

Dr G.M Burdy told TNS that the CENAR Quetta is making all possible efforts to provide best treatment to the patients suffering from cancer, particularly  breast cancer. He, however, observed that the earlier it is detected, the better the chances of survival and successful treatment. "The symptoms of breast cancer are a lump or thickening in the breast, or a change in breast shape, or discharge from the nipple."

"It is a frightening experience to find a lump or another possible cancer sign, but you should know that 8 of 10 lumps are not cancerous," he said.

He says a woman can have a biopsy and immediate breast removal (mastectomy) if cancer is found. This is one-step procedure. This method involves biopsy on one day, if cancer is found; the treatment takes several days. The two-step procedure is recommended for most women because it offers extra time: A short delay between biopsy and treatment will not affect the spread of disease or any chances for successful treatment.

"Any woman planning to have a biopsy should discuss both procedures with her doctor to decide which is best for her. Another important question to ask the doctor before the biopsy regards a test called the estrogen receptor assay. This test is done on the cancerous tissue to determine if the female hormone estrogen stimulates the cancer growth," he said. He underlined the need of desired awareness among people in remote areas of Balochistan.

"The treatment of breast cancer today encompasses many more options than traditional radical surgery."

Dr Burdy said that malignancy is common in the female population of Pakistan due to lack of diagnostic facilities and illiteracy.

The lack of health facilities in CENAR hospital Quetta can be assessed from the fact that installations of Planner Gamma Camera, Gastroscopy unit, Pathology Lab are decades old. Still some of these machines are functioning, while the rest are non-functional due to shortage of staff in the hospital. When asked, the director of CENAR denied this by saying, "We have been updating our machines from time to time."

"The condition in which the people of Balochistan live and die in poverty, often with no help from government, is a major reason for the resentment," said Mah Noor Bibi. Moreover, there is no concept of medication in most of the rural areas of the province, where bogus spiritual leaders play with the sentiments of the innocent people by minting money.

The much trumpeted development projects were mainly confined to other parts of the country, as Punjab has seven CENAR and Balochistan has only one.

The development in health sector during the last sixty years can also be assessed by the fact that the basic health units are 100 miles away from the area particularly in Khuzdar, Kohlu, Gwadar, Chaghai districts etc. Balochistan's health infrastructure is limited and many people, living in villages and hamlets dotted across the vast province, have never met a health professional in their lives.

"I had never seen a doctor until my son brought me to CENAR Quetta for breast cancer treatment," explained Nasim Bibi, 58, who has spent most of her life in a remote village in the Chaghai District along the border with Iran.

Taal Matol
'Guzishtah sey paivastah'

By Shoaib Hashmi

Okay, so I am gullible and got distracted by a pretty face, and did not finish what I started telling you. But if you have caught sight of the young lady, I am sure you will agree I was right, and what is a week between friends? In any case I am back with more gems from poetry. To a certain extent it is fitting that the second line of a verse should be the life and soul of it; but it is still true that occasionally the poet uses it to turn into a surprising new dimension, and that is what I am into.

Even the rather ordinary Zauq can do it. "Laaee hayaat ayay, qaza lay chalee chalay." (It was life that brought us hither, and we came, and then came oblivion and we go). But it is the second line that really completes the thought, "Apnee khushee na ayay, na apnee khushee chalay". (We did not come of our own volition, nor willingly do we go).

Okay, okay so it is rather pedestrian and no great shakes, so I did say Zauq was rather ordinary. It was only Bahadur Shah Zafar who chose him as his 'Ustaad' over the contemporary Ghalib; and it was Azaad, who having been a pupil extols him over Ghalib, or something of the kind.

Ghalib on the other hand had the quality of almost never being ordinary, and the first thing that readily comes to mind is one of the great 'Maqtahs'. The first line is, "Ghalib nadeem-e-dost say aatee hai boo-e-dost" (the friend of my friend bears the perfume of my friend.) It is poetic enough, but many have said so before almost as poetically, but the second is another matter. "Mashghool-e-Haq hoon bandagi-e-Bu-Turaab mein." (Surely in serving my Master Ali, I am in the service of the Eternal Truth!) It is a masterly line and brings us Ghalib at his eloquent best.

And the man can do other things. There is for instance the other first line, "Na tha kuchh, tu Khuda tha, kuchh na hota, to khuda hota". (When there was nothing, He was there, and if there had been nothing, He would have been there). The English are very fond of describing Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be..." as 'Man's greatest thought expressed in man's simplest words.' Surely Ghalib's is a deeper and much more profound version.

And the question strikes one, what the heck is he going to say to finish off the thought in an appropriate way? What he goes on to say is, "Duboya mujhh ko honay nein, na hota mein to kiya hota!" (It is this being that has brought me all the trouble, what harm would it have been if I had not been!) I cannot imagine how anyone could have said anything more fitting and human.

In fact even the alternative reading which translates the second line as "What would I have been if I had not been" is trite in comparison and people may be happy reading some kind of clutching at the Sufi 'Hama oost' into ghalib, but I don't think the man himself ever intended it. I am quite prepared to attribute any level of Sufism to Ghalib, but in this instance my first reading is so much more human, has so much more humour and turns the thought into a more personal direction that I am sure this is what he intended!

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In the dust, in the breeze

Lahore, the most extraordinary place in the world. Should one take Pran Nevile's remark seriously or ignore it as another sentimental journey of a quintessential Lahoria?

By Farah Zia

"A social commentary, a historical documentation and memoir" is how Pran Nevile's book 'Lahore: A Sentimental Journey' has been described in one of the reviews. These may well be the impressions after talking to him in person, at no other place than his own beloved city. He has come here to launch a fresh edition of the book with an additional chapter on his alma mater. Government College is therefore chosen for the launch that turns out to be a well-attended and much talked about affair.

Little wonder then Pran Nevile seems the happiest man as we meet in a quiet house with a sprawling lawn in Lahore's cantonment. 'M P Bhandara', the name plate at the gate reads. Friend from past, I thought. Has this been another sentimental journey? "No. For me it's homecoming, every time I am here."

Lahore is where he can go to the streets on his own. Does he still find some landmarks to identify with? "For me, the landmarks are in the breeze, in my memories, in the dust, everything around me. The whole vision comes back when I walk through those areas. It defies definition and description. It has its own ambience which can only be felt, experienced and not put in words. Lahore is a city which is the most extraordinary in the world. It has the most fascinating history and I don't think any other city can match it in the subcontinent."

People tend to compare Lahore with Delhi where Pran currently lives. "I would not compare the two because I belong to Lahore. My most formative years, the first quarter of a century of my life were spent here. Then the next 40 years all over the world. Of course I have lived in Delhi after 1947 but I have not been able to become a Dilli wala."

How was the six year experience at Government College like? "Those were formative years when we were encouraged to build our careers. In Government College we all aspired to go to the civil service and thought everything else beneath that ambition." Pran Nevile says this as a statement of fact without realising this has been a charge that Ravians this side of the border have found rather uneasy to deal with.

Pran, on the other hand, finds this role of the college kosher, since he later joined Indian Foreign Service himself. Besides, he thinks, the intellectual tradition that flowered alongside this main stream helped students a great deal. "They have done well in other fields. Ravians are institutions in themselves; that is something others also accept."

Just as one begins to imagine oneself in the midst of a discourse on nostalgia, Pran declares, "I have never compared the present with the past. Even today, I am at home with the younger generation, I would never bore them with stories of the past. I have trained myself to listen to them and never talk of good old days."

Quite obvious then he thinks Lahore is still a beautiful city. "Whatever else is happening in terms of traffic mess etc. is a global phenomenon in cities all over the developing world. Lahore will always have its place in the subcontinent." He's been doing his bit for that. He has been instrumental in the preservation of Tollinton Market with Dr Ajaz Anwar.

A man of the present that he is, asking him about partition is a difficult undertaking. Pran handles it well. "Partition is an event of history, the most tragic event to have taken place in the history of the world. But we have to forget about that. Punjab has been a melting pot of history, it has been the gateway to the subcontinent. So I don't quite approve of writing about or recalling those days."

But what about the revisionist thought about the two countries being better without the event of partition? "Both the countries can even now be better. We are in fact divided by politics, otherwise what is the difference. I bring my grandson here on his third visit, he has friends here and they don't talk of partition. They have some other things to talk about. We have a common culture, background, looks, language. Politically yes, two countries are there. Both should prosper, both should live like friends and if both sides try they can make it like America and Canada with soft borders and then the ambience will be totally different."

Pran does not believe that partition somehow changed the culture of the people. "No, I don't think so. First, one has to understand the term culture. Khaled Ahmed has dealt with the subject of culture like no one in subcontinent has. Culture has nothing to do with religion. Pakistan did not develop a culture after 1947. The centuries old history is all part of our culture. Recently there has been a recognition of that. I have just reviewed two books published by the National College of Arts, one on the life of Ram Singh and the other one on Sir Ganga Ram who is called the father of Lahore. There is a new thinking and the new generation is thinking in a different way."

What did Lahore look like in the 1940s, the boundaries, the food, the culture, the means of communication.

"In my days, it was very simple. Lahore started at the River Ravi and ended at the canal. Everything was within that. The other side was the Lahore railway station. On one side was Chauberji. We were half a million people. I used to live in the best residential place Nisbet Road. For the young people, the whole activity was Mcleod Road, there were five cinemas on that road, the only entertainment in those days. Capital cinema on Abbot Road played English movies as did Plaza and Regal on Mall Road."

Most of the restaurants were in Anarkali, starting from Lohari Gate and ending at Nila Gumbad. "Then on the Mall we had Standard, Lorang's, Stiffles and others although they were expensive for students like us."

How were people commuting? "Bicycles. There was no bus service or taxis, only tongas. There were a handful of taxis at the railway station. There were very fancy, shining tongas, inspected every year. Basically two types of tongas, Amritsari and Peshawari tonga with two distinct styles."

Lahore by the 1940s was a great film city. "It was an important film production centre. Artists from Bombay started coming here to act in films produced here. There were seven studios at that time, with Malika Tarranum Noorjehan dominating the scene. During the war, the film industry declined in Calcutta and everything went to Bombay. But in 1940, 41 film industry in Lahore made big progress and in 1941 one film by Pancholi Productions called Khazanchi created a sensation all over the country. And then other studios came up."

Isn't it a pity we could not maintain that status? Pran agrees and says, "After partition, most writers and directors left Lahore. All studios were owned by Hindus so they left also."

So one consequence of partition was 'an intellectual famine' in the whole of Punjab, he says. "Lahore was the centre and intellectuals from Lahore went not to West Punjab but Delhi and Bombay. West Punjab did not have that intellectual base and those who migrated to Pakistan from Delhi and UP were also split between Lahore and Karachi."

A historian with a staunch Punjabi identity, Pran takes a sympathetic view of some developments that the Punjabis have been mostly defensive about. "Western influence was more dominant in Punjab and its positive impact was that Punjabis, because of the interplay of historical forces, were less orthodox than the rest of the country and all historians have missed to note this point. By dressing up like colonists, by watching English movies, we were unconsciously inculcating those secular values so that religion was a dominant part of your life."

Pran Nevile talked about the students at Government College who were beyond communal biases. "Even for God the Punjabis had one common name Rabba, and the phrase 'hai rabba'. The Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs had common first names. I have a list of 250 names including my father's and grandfather's. My grand father was Faqir Chand, my father was Barkat Ram. Only the second name distinguished us."

But didn't Punjabis overdo it to the extent they could not even guard their language? "But Punjabi was never the medium of instruction. When the British came in 1849 they imposed Urdu as the medium of instruction. Punjabis welcomed them with open arms and that is why terms like toadies, supporters of the British have been used for them. Even when everything was happening, Punjabis were joining the army. 50 per cent of the Indian army was Punjabi."

Indeed some new thoughts from someone whose conversation can be summed up as "a social commentary, a historical documentation and memoir of Lahore".

Living today

Internet has made life easy. But it also seems to be changing the way our memories are formed and stored

By Tamania Jaffri

This week, as I was trying to place a familiar face, that had just walked in the restaurant, I was horrified to realise that I had never met them in real life, but knew various aspects of their life due to an active public internet presence.

"Qasid ke ate ate khat eik aur likh rakhon,

mein Janta Hon Jo Yo Likhein Ge Jawab Mein"

And so mused Mirza Ghalib in the romantic eighteenth century. Here in 2007, not only do I know instantly when my email has been received, I also know when someone is typing a response in my chat window, how long they have been online, what their calendar looks like for the next eight hours and how their vacation two weeks ago went. Gone are the days of yearning and speculation, welcome to the new world of brutal facts and undeniable reality.

Someone very wise once said that ignorance is bliss. Why did we not listen to them and agree to it as an absolute truth? Why did we have to open our lives to complete and utter scrutiny by others and win balcony seats into their lives? The high way of communication these days -- thanks to websites like orkut, facebook, myspace, youtube, blogspot etc -- takes us into everyone's living room on a fast track.

Gone are the days when you had to wonder for years what an ex crush has been upto, all information on him/her is a few strokes away. Next time you are bored try doing a google on your name. You will be amazed how far your electronic foot prints have travelled.

Often, we read romantic, funny, inspirational and historical letters written by great poets, writers and leaders. These were written with consideration, received with anticipation and preserved with love. What will we leave behind when we die? When someone will go through the paper work of our lives, will they only find credit card bill statements, bland season greeting cards by distant work acquaintances and ATM slips? Most of our life history is now digitally preserved, on the laptop maybe, in the forms of emails, pictures, writings and thoughts -- preserved, locked away by a password and secret question answer, or on a mobile -- in the form of SMS, contacts, and pictures. While the forms of saving memories have changed, so have their durability; a laptop is prone to a system crash and a mobile to theft.

Don't get me wrong, I don't wish to ride on a camel everyday to my office in a tent on a desert. I appreciate modern inventions like air conditioning, transportation, deodorants and permanent hair straightening. Though I do wish that every time I get a letter it is not from a bank and that the only calls on the landline are not for the servants. I feel uncomfortable with the romance taken out of every situation in the instant solution world that we live in today.

You no longer have to dread bumping into those horrible smug people when you venture out and them making you feel horrible and under-accomplished about your life. For those who choose to, there are immense opportunities to flaunt your current disposition in life online, be it a new job, a new apartment or a new hair do. News now does not reach you through a phone call by a friend or a chance meeting over the coffee machine, you can sniff out the news yourself online, proudly displayed for the whole world to see. How do you brace your own self from a self propelled punch?

In a world of information over-kill where mediocrity is a non-selling commodity, are we forcing people to blow their emotions out of proportion to gain attention? Of course, if I am the director of my own prime time show and the whole world comes to watch, it better be worth their while.

RIPPLE EFFECT
Fighting America's war or ours?

By Omar R. Quraishi

Though no figures are available and no comprehensive study has been done so far on this issue, it would be fair to say that Pakistan is probably the country which has experienced the highest number of suicide bombings this year. (No wonder, a leading US magazine calls it the "most dangerous country in the world", even beating out Iraq).

The intensity increased sharply after the Lal Masjid operation which culminated on July 10. Immediately after it, top al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri issued an unusually prompt and direct appeal to his followers asking them to launch attacks against the Pakistan Army and Pakistani security forces. In this threat, he specifically mentioned President Pervez Musharraf, telling his supporters that as long as he was alive, they all would be under threat. The threat was clear -- the Pakistan Army was to be attacked because it had dared to launch an all-out assault on the Lal Masjid.

Zawahiri's links with the Lal Masjid brothers are not something hidden and in that context it is astonishing that the government -- under pressure from the Supreme Court -- decided to hand back the mosque to relatives of the brothers. This move culminated in the recent press conference by the new khateeb of Lal Masjid where he said that the suicide attacks against the security forces and Pakistan Army was justified because the government was acting on America's orders.This last point is something that is believed not just by the extremist/obscurantist fringe but by many Pakistanis, even those who call themselves educated and liberal. And that is why the government probably finds it hard to strike against the extremists and militants.

Take the case of Swat. Even after a deadly attack on a convoy carrying paramilitary troops, the pressure was very much on the government to use dialogue. One could ask that what else is a government to do when several of its citizens are beheaded publicly by a gang of militants.Surely that is hardly the time or the occasion to be engaging in a dialogue. Of course, the point that the government's initial reluctance to take on Maulana Fazlullah and his band of merry followers is probably the reason why he has become such a monster today is well taken. However, just like two wrongs do not make a right, the government cannot be asked to consider dialogue at a time when the best conceivable response would be to tell the Maulana that his dream of making an Islamic state in Swat will come to nought because under the constitution of this country, taking the law into one's hands and creating one's own state amounts to nothing less than treason.So the government is right to do what it is doing now -- it really has no choice.

At this point, though, one would like to remind readers that much of the blame for the inaction against the Maulana lies with the NWFP government of the MMA led by Akram Durrani, which allowed him to have his own FM station in exchange for support for a vaccination campaign. Clearly, such a concession should not have been made in the first place and is tantamount to appeasement -- which is precisely what happened in the Lal Masjid case as well. Regrettably, it is not just our politicians and military leaders who have failed to take a clear stand against fighting extremism (Musharraf has done so now but consider what some of his predecessors did) but ordinary people also don't see any pressing need to fight this scourge.

Here, it seems, the extremists, helped by their accomplices/sympathisers/supporters in the religious parties, political parties, mosques, the national media and society in general have been successfully able to convince (along with the shenanigans of the military in the past and its alliances with the jihadis and some of those now fighting it) ordinary Pakistanis that the army and security forces are fighting at America's behest. While it may be true that it could be America's interest -- by extension -- for Pakistan to rid itself of militancy and extremism, first and foremost it is in Pakistan's own interest to fight this war. Too many Pakistanis have been killed, maimed, injured and cowered by these pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda elements. How can people justify sympathising or supporting the bombing of girls schools, or of NGO offices, forcing barbers to close shop, forcing women to wear the veil or the bombing of music and CD shops.

There are many Pakistanis who while being religious would vehemently oppose such coercive tactics to force others to subscribe to a particular worldview and interpretation of religion. The problem, however, is that these many Pakistanis take this all lying down and do not stand up to the militants. Those who actually do are too few in number and often do so in discussions in the confines of their drawing rooms in certain selected affluent neighbourhoods in the cities and anyway theirs is more a case of preaching to the converted. This lack of support is reflected in a survey (of 907 Pakistanis conducted between Sept. 12-28, 2007) released on Oct. 31 by a US-based organisation, WorldPublicOpinion.org (can be accessed at http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/424 according to which only 44 per cent of urban Pakistanis favour sending the Pakistan army to FATA to 'pursue and capture al-Qaeda fighters.' This is somewhat inexplicable given the carnage wreaked on Pakistan society by the suicide attackers and their patrons but clearly the message that this is all part of some US-backed plan to embroil the country in violence is what the public is by and large tending to believe.

No attempt is made to counter this, particularly not even in the Urdu press, where calls for 'dialogue' with the militants (clearly the lesson that give them an inch and they take a mile) are common. The English press has some people saying things which only make common sense but ordinary Pakistanis do not read English newspapers. As for television, the less said the better, and nothing really adds to the level of debate and discussion on this issue (or on others for that matter) though there may be a few exceptions.

One other interesting finding of this survey had to do with the public's assessment of national leaders. It was mostly poor and this could help explain the low support for fighting extremism -- i.e. many people may actually be looking up to clerics, religious party leaders and probably the militants as well because they are perceived as at least standing up to America and to the Pakistan government, which is seen as a US stooge. All this can only change -- but will take a long time -- if mainstream political parties realise the massive danger posed extremism and take it upon themselves to stand up to it. That way ordinary people will at least be presented with a choice and some could see the direct benefits accruing to them of fighting militancy. The PPP has done this -- whether it is America's nudging or not is not really the point -- and one prays that other political parties follow in what is a course that needs to be followed for preserving the country's own interests and future.

The writer is Op-ed Pages Editor of The News

Email: omarq@cyber.net.pk

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