Taal Matol
Theatre Wallah!
By Shoaib Hashmi
He has spent the best part of the last twenty years tramping the countryside of Maharashtra looking for old theatres. Each time he found one, he asked if somewhere in a back corner they still had stashed away some of the old sets and painted sceneries. Amazingly, he was able to find what I can only describe as a veritable treasure-house of pure nostalgia, to record it all on camera, pilfer some of the more easily cartable stuff and create an exhibit out of it which he has brought to the Performing Arts Festival

politics
A new political party is born
Egalitarian society,independent foreign policy and an end to extremism -- the agenda is clear
By Arif Azad
Pakistan presents a strange contrast when it comes to politics. In a country where political chat shows enjoy all-time high ratings and where politics get endlessly dissected over a cup of tea, disillusionment with politics runs deep. This partly arises from an organised conspiracy to deprive people of their right to govern themselves, and from endlessly demonising politicians,which, in turn, isolates people from their elected representatives.

ripple effect
Who will give me extra marks?
By Omar R. Quraishi
By the time this comes in print, Ansar Abbasi's brilliant story on how the daughter of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Abdul Hameed Dogar, was given 21 extra marks, enabling her to increase her marks in the FSc (pre-medical) exam from 640 to 661. By doing so, the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education made it possible for Farah Hameed Dogar to jump a whole grade -- from 'C' to 'B' -- and in the process making her eligible for entry to a medical college.

Gulzar Colony, a squatter settlement in Karachi, is situated within the Korangi Industrial Area. Uneven, muddy roads lead to inner lanes and alleys, where people of different ethnicities live in their tiny cramped houses, and where neighbourhoods are swamped with overflowing sewage water. Where sewage lines are blocked with age-old rubbish that no city municipal body has ever bothered to collect.

It is from Gulzar Colony that around three families, overburdened with their financial situation, thought it best to send some of their children off to the Edhi Centre. But their plans went awry; the next day the families had to go back to get their children.

One of these families is that of Khan Bahadur, originally from Punjab, but living in Karachi for many years. Khan Bahadur, himself an old and ailing man, who is bedridden because of a neuro-motor problem, has six children of his own to take care of, and three more of his sister's, whose husband recently left her.

"I was a mechanic in the army; since my retirement in 1999, I get Rs2500 in pension," says Bahadur, who slurs as he talks because of his ailment. "Meanwhile, my wife started menial work -- cleaning people's houses -- and we used to get some extra money, but she had to leave that because of my illness."

On Nov 18, tired of the financial burden, Bahadur decided that someone should finally go to the Edhi home and drop four of his children to the Edhi Centre in Mithadar in the hope they may get food and schooling.

"I swear upon God, that I only wanted to give my children to someone for their education," says Bahadur's sister Gultaj, who is flanked by his wife Rukhshana. "Who can give away their own offsprings to someone else? We were stunned to see the news of our children on television soon after and the kind of news stories being printed about us."

That is why, she says, the next day they brought their children back. The family seems relieved at having their children back home; the children who were terrified and weeping profusely that night as they were crudely photographed by the media, are now happy and playing at home, but the issue has not alleviated the financial pains of the families.

"I won't lie to you about my problems," says Yasmin, the mother of 11 children, whose husband is a carpenter. "We hardly have any earnings, and carpentry does not earn us a standard monthly income. When it's good, it's manageable but when it's bad, we just make do with what we have at home to eat."

Yasmin, too, says she wanted her children to be taken care of, at least for some time. "Frankly speaking I cannot afford the children. I decided that I should send the younger ones to Edhi, thinking that it was a madrassah and that they would be given proper education for a certain time."

The families who are now claiming that they wanted to send their children to Edhi for 'schooling' originally told Edhi workers that the cost of raising children had become unbearable for them. However, both families were shocked at the way their children and the stark reality of their own overburdened lives were mirrored by the media almost immediately. Pressured by their neighbours and relatives, they took the children back home the next day.

"Baba jee should not have called the media," Yasmin speaks of Edhi. "I now understand that I placed my children not in a madrassah but a home for orphans and that he thought we had abandoned them, but the way the issue was highlighted by the media has embarrassed us no end. My neighbours and relatives began to probe me."

Philanthropist Abdus Sattar Edhi justifies the calling of the media, while talking to TNS. He said the issue was poverty related and that he would "strip the corrupt people to show their true colours."

"One, the families left their children because they could not bear the expenses; they told this themselves," says Edhi, his voice wavering with anger over allegations that he may have sought extra publicity over the issue for his own ulterior motives.

"It is not the first time that we have received children like them. But it is indeed the first time we received such a large number of children all in one day, at one time.

"Secondly, I called the media in order to see what do the people undergo so that their family can survive, even if it means separation from each other. I have now called all my centres in Pakistan, and told them to show to the media every time a new child comes in."

Edhi is also furious at the response that came from Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, where the minister pointed to the children's abandonment as a conspiracy against the government, rather than seeing it as a hardcore issue of poverty among people.

"If anyone has allegations against me, they should file a case against me in the court," Edhi says.

Edhi says such statements coming from government officials will be detrimental because people trust his organisation. "If government statements like these are encouraged, people will get scared and either desert their children or kill them and throw them in garbage dumps like we find almost every day."

The sorry state of affairs has not been relieved by the religious figures either. Most of these families do not follow family planning procedures on religious grounds.

"Everything is in God's hands," says Khan Bahadur. "If he gives us children, he will also provide."

On the other hand, Yasmin whose use of contraceptives has been of no avail for some reason and wants to get tubal ligation, confronts a husband who disapproves this surgery because of religious reasons. If the public is encouraged on family planning, especially men, who are the opinion makers and the decision takers of families, perhaps more than half of the burden will be decreased over years. In the meantime, those who already have a large family are suffering.

"They have given us Rs100,000 for temporary relief," says Bahadur gratefully. "But this money will soon finish. After all there is school fees, gas and electricity bills, medication. after that we will be back to square one."

Distressed at the deplorable state of the nation today, I a Pakistani-American have never been more proud of that other home of mine, my other country. On the eve of the coming new year and thus the new presidential term, simply the idea of an African-American president and the implications of such a step forward on the race politics of the country is an utmost cause for joy, no matter which side it is that one votes for.

Admittedly, I myself a voting Republican, having cast my vote in our primaries for a second Texan in the White House, the Congressional Representative Ron Paul, I took much time in prying my mind and deliberating heavily before casting a vote for president-elect Barack Obama, and that too finally in the closing hours of election day. I spent the entire early voting period trying to decide whether I should vote for Obama, having already decided my conscience would not be at ease giving a vote to John McCain, the chosen candidate of my party. McCain who declared al-Qaeda was on the Shia side of the sectarian violence in Iraq. Mr. McCain who chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin, who is the absolute epitome of an incompetent candidate. Alas another discussion for another day.

I vote Republican because I am both a fiscal and a social conservative. I despise big government and have faith in the free market. Indeed, the US is by no means a prefect model of a free market economy and even it has deficiencies -- which I for one credit to the on, off government intervention. Likewise I was staunchly opposed to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, which is in complete contradiction to sound Austrian economics. Again, we do not call it the boom-bust cycle without reason.

So what does one do when the candidate of his party votes for such a bailout, an undermining of some of our most dear principles? Well, I would argue that one must be willing to recognise and accept the truth. The truth being that, when both nominees vote for such a travesty, the younger, clearly more intelligent, more charismatic Democratic candidate is simply the better candidate to lead the country. That is, with all else equal, as was the case when we consider not only such despicable moves as pro-bailout votes by both individuals in the Senate, but additionally John McCain's questionable record in regards to social issues as well. (That is from a right viewpoint of course.) These things in addition to McCain's faulty foreign policy approach I would say, pretty much put the two on an equitable level as far as my regard for one or the other, even as a Republican.

What both perplexes and disturbs me at once is that while I am ruminating left and right about the dire situation of our party and the less than wonderful selection of the GOP candidate, my fellow Muslim community in Texas happens to find the answer to be as straightforward for them as it was in the 2004 elections.

In 2000, this community was nearly indifferent to the race but if and when choosing a side, they selected George Bush for being Texan and conservative. In 2004, the case for Bush seemed to have made itself, as he wasn't the one who chose the Jewish Joe Lieberman as a running mate. This meant, whoever didn't vote for Bush in 2000, definitely did by 2004 even with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now finally in 2008, what we see is this mass turnaround to support Barack Obama. This time again, the argument was simple enough. Well, he will save our Muslim ummah and will let Iraq and Afghanistan be. I can't say for certain but this surely seemed to be the case with the Muslim community outside of Texas and around the US as well.

So then what one gets is this huge push for Muslim block voting. That is to say that we as a minority community begin to feel as if all of our concerns should and are allowed to be dominated by a singular issue and thus we should all, irreverent to any other individual politics, vote for a particular candidate. This was the case in 2004, making sure the next in line to the presidency was not a Jew and thus someone who somehow automatically becomes a biased supporter of the occupation. Not to say this wasn't the case with Lieberman, but still we must be disparaging of such an approach. In 2008, the case is similar because, well a block vote would mean we can finally begin to think about humanitarian concerns abroad, not because they are humanitarian concerns, but rather because abroad happens to be Muslim countries this time around.

This sort of thinking is an absolute abomination. To think that we can make this argument on humanitarian grounds, so as to lose sight of all the other regions where this country interferes and takes lives when it should not. To think that we can have these sort of affective politics, where this is such a huge disregard for issues and concerns of domestic policies back at home. I lament the absence of any hint of pragmatism in how we, as a community, attempt to approach these issues.

As those individuals that have the sacred right and power to shape the direction of our country, to decide in the matters of its future, we should all be respectful and prioritising of what it is we are given with that vote. This civic duty first and foremost is the duty to that country of which we as citizens determine matters of its fate. Our responsibility is to the country and to our fellow countrymen. Instead what happens is the South-Asian community and often times, the Muslim community on the whole is significantly comprised of a professional middle class, which in that comfort zone ignores concerns of domestic policies in respect to the economy. Secondly, in the additional comfort zone of surrounding ourselves in mosques and neighbourhoods of fellow constituents of that aforementioned Muslim ummah, we are liable to lose sight of the other ummah, the one of mankind at large.

So today, as we head into the new presidency with high hopes for change and success, I hope that Obama does well in such trying times. I am apprehensive of the power the Democrats hold in both houses, as it has always been that crucial balance of opposition that has made this country great. I am also fearful for my earlier mentioned first home and what will become of it under the reigns of the current government. Yet, what concerns and scares me more than all of this is the larger question that seems to arise from our involvement in these past few elections terms and that is the query our beloved Allama Iqbal often held. And that is, what has happened to the cosmopolitan Muslim? Furthermore, how is it that today we can afford to narrow our vision and discourses to things so limited and so specific? Why are we not conducive to plurality in thought and difference in opinion? Must we really be identifiable as only Muslims, as simply some voting block at large devoid of any true thinking and wealth in judgment? Is this the way we wish to present ourselves at home and to the world?

Shan Khan is a student at the University of Texas -- Austin.

He has spent the best part of the last twenty years tramping the countryside of Maharashtra looking for old theatres. Each time he found one, he asked if somewhere in a back corner they still had stashed away some of the old sets and painted sceneries. Amazingly, he was able to find what I can only describe as a veritable treasure-house of pure nostalgia, to record it all on camera, pilfer some of the more easily cartable stuff and create an exhibit out of it which he has brought to the Performing Arts Festival

Nissar Allana is himself a dyed-in-the-wool theatre person. He is the head of his own drama school and repertory company, is a practising scenographer and lighting designer and has brought a play to this exhibition and a book on his sceneries which serves as a catalogue to the festival.

For us Lahoris, it is a rare and special treat as it pertains to a theatre tradition which grew up all over the subcontinent somewhere around the middle of the nineteenth century. It was a unique mixture of stories and forms from ancient traditions, myths and folklore knitted into the European and especially English form of proscenium theatre which the Brits took with them everywhere they went along with cricket and cucumber sandwiches.

We took to this new and unfamiliar form like fish to water and for more than a century, theatre flourished with local traditional stories, social forms, adaptations of Shakespearean dramas and whatever. With large dollops of music and dance thrown in, plays sometimes lasted six or seven hours with hundreds of songs. And it bred a whole art form of painted sceneries and sets from forests to mythical sets which mixed together Grecian pillars, temple architecture and amazing modern interiors!

Somewhere in the twenties most of it disappeared giving way to the newer form of the Film; so it is amazing that Nissar should have found so many vestiges of the left over sceneries, all painted on cloth and still intact after a century. I should know because I too once went looking for traces of the forgotten theatre tradition.

Actually I went looking for old film posters because the lady wanted to use them in her painting and I found out cinema wallahs just dumped left-over posters behind the screen and forgot about them. The late show was still running in the cinema, and the then heartthrob was in the middle of a sizzling dance number, the audience was throwing coins at the screen, as I tried to squeeze behind it. People saw me and there were yells from the audience, "Hey you dumbo, its just a picture on the screen, there's nothing behind it, what are you looking for there?" All my admiration for Nissar Allana for finding all this wonderful stuff for us!

Pakistan presents a strange contrast when it comes to politics. In a country where political chat shows enjoy all-time high ratings and where politics get endlessly dissected over a cup of tea, disillusionment with politics runs deep. This partly arises from an organised conspiracy to deprive people of their right to govern themselves, and from endlessly demonising politicians,which, in turn, isolates people from their elected representatives.

In a country where political organisation is actively discouraged, forming a political party is always a hard undertaking. Democracy tends to offers some space for such initiative. This space seems to be broadening with mainstream political parties slowly becoming entangled in the wiles of establishment.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I went along with a friend to the founding conference of a new political party -- Awami Party Pakistan -- in Rawalpindi on Nov 8-9. Somewhat skeptical, I was surprised to see a gathering of more than three hundred people, intensely engaged in serious political discussion on how Pakistani polity can be reformed and made responsive to the aspirations of ordinary people. The gathering , drawn from all over the country, with an even spread of trade unionists, political workers, left-leaning intellectuals, left-wing activists, peasants, teachers and lawyers did offer the possibility of some new hope.

This diversity of composition was reflected in differing viewpoints offered to the draft party programme presented to the gathering. The range of reactions covered lack of global analysis of the Pakistani political scene, soft-pedaling on the issue of military corporatism etc. What made the conference unique was the verve with which all viewpoints were passionately vocalised and pushed onto the agenda items. The atmosphere wore a thick hint of old-fashioned town hall meetings where all raw emotions of politics were articulated candidly.

This presented a refreshing contrast to the minutely choreographed meetings of our mainstream parties, where dissenting viewpoints are airbrushed and dissenter often thrown out of the meetings. To take the PPP as an example, whereas in the days of ZAB, the whole cadre of the party came together in annual party convention to pull up the leaders, this tradition atrophied under Benazir Bhutto, making the party an echo chamber of its leaders' views.

Therefore, it was heartening to see the cut and thrust of grass roots politics being practiced from the podium. What enthralled me, in particular, was the passionate speech delivered by one of the grass-roots Hari leader from Sindh. His analysis was far more nuanced and sophisticated than a bunch of political analysts put together. Most of the principal speakers went to great lengths to emphasise that the new party was not being formed to counter any other mainstream party.

From the first day's political heat and fury, the conference moved into the second day, transacting more serious business of naming itself and finalising the party flags. The day also saw serious and passionate debate on the concept of secularism. In the end, the gathering unanimously decided to constitute itself into Awami Party Pakistan, with a blue flag and a red star etched at the heart of it, representing the party.

It was also decided that the party would work to a timetable of putting its first convocation within a year. For the interim period, a convening committee of 55, elected a central committee of 14 persons which decided on delaying organisational matters till final elections at the convocation slated for next year. The party also elected Dr Hassan Nasir as the interim convener.

The party owes a lot to Dr Hassan Nasir, who moved from Bulgaria to Pakistan, with a view to setting up a new political formation that unites scattered left-leaning faces within the country. At the press conference, where the party was formally announced, Harris Khalique, the moving spirit behind the party, outlined the party progamme's main points. The party was to work towards an egalitarian society, free of prejudices and social justice, independent foreign policy and an end to extremism and sectarianism.

I came away from the founding conference both elated and apprehensive. I wondered as to why we need a new party when there are more than a hundred parties already present in the crowded field. To get Harris Khalique's reaction to my apprehension and unanswered questions, I caught up with him. "The new party is different from other parties in three respects. No mainstream party tends to talk about land reforms any more. Our party has come out with the issue as its major plank. The party has also pledged itself to industrialisation as another central plank of the programme. The party also firmly believes in non-discriminatory and uniform education system which set us apart from others," said Khalique.

Ramzan Memon , one of the members of central committee, told TNS, "Awami Party has been set up by ordinary workers who have been working in different political formations and groups over the years. Rather than looking for a charismatic leader to descend and lift the country out of morass, we, the ordinary people, have taken matters into our own hands and have launched the party. This is quite a unique moment in Pakistan's history if you look at it this way "

Hard on the heels of its founding, the party has organised rallies for cheap roti in different parts of the country. This in itself distinguished the party from other mainstream parties that have shied away from mobilising people on the bread and butter issue compounded by runaway inflation.

Suppose that Iraqi children learnt the story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq in schools run by Americans. They would learn of the heroism and bravery of the US troops, who made great sacrifices to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq. They gave their lives and spent trillions in order to educate and civilize the savage terrorists who lived in Iraq. They would learn to admire the US for their humanity, civilization, and technology, and hate their ancestors for their barbarism, lack of education and most of all, lack of appreciation for the American culture. They would reject as enemy propaganda, stories of US destruction of millions of lives and billions worth of infrastructure in their greedy quest for control of the rich oil resources of Iraq.

Growing up in Pakistan, we receive an education designed (by Macaulay and followers) to create a class of people who would be the intermediaries between the British rulers and the ruled natives. They are indoctrinated through an education system to be 'Indians' only in appearance -- they have complete belief in the good intentions of British rule and the philosophy of 'the white man's burden', thus making the task of ruling this vast country easier. They would, without question, believe that the British were there for the upliftment of the Indian people from centuries of ignorance and backwardness. Over a period of time, they would associate all things British with superiority. This beautifully designed system was to be self-perpetuating -- the indoctrinated would be the rulers, and would control the education system to create more people like themselves.

While we have achieved independence in form, mentally we are still enslaved by a deeply ingrained inferiority complex vis-a-vis the West. To cure this, we must develop and tell our own history. In bits and pieces this process has begun, as in the replacement of the term 'Mutiny of 1857' by the War of Independence. The dramatic change of point of view required for this change of terminology is one that needs to be applied on a much larger scale. It would be impossible to do justice to this project in this short space. I intend only to outline and sketch the dimensions along which we need to reconstruct our history. The stories we tell about our past are extraordinarily important in shaping our identities and in determining the goals worth striving for.

India was looted, not

developed, by the British Raj

Tales of the fabulously wealthy India attracted explorers (like Columbus) from all over the world. India had well developed institutions for the provision of justice, education, health and social security. Indian textiles and other industrial products were exported to many destinations all over the world. Taxation was not burdensome and recognised by the citizens as necessary for peace and security. Both citizens and rulers had a clear understanding of their mutual responsibilities towards each other. Localised institutions functioned effectively without reference to central government and kings were well aware that their wealth was tied to the prosperity of their citizens. As a result, the average citizen was not much concerned about the fortunes of the kings and empires. The populace failed to resist or unite against British invaders, under the mistaken impression that they would be essentially benevolent like other kings. Unfortunately, unlike previous kings who had supported the public against cruel and corrupt administration, the British were firmly on the side of the 'Raj', and had no concern for the welfare of the public.

Effects of British Racism

At the time of colonisation, Europeans did not consider non-whites to be human beings. Nobel Prize winner Jim Watson has suggested that differences in development levels may be explained by genetic endowments. Harvard professor Richard Herrnstein maintains that non-white races have lower IQ than whites. This deeply embedded racism has had tremendous consequences in terms of the ruthlessness with which non-whites have been treated by colonising whites. By machinations, deceit, treachery, good luck, superior weaponry and related war technology, the British managed to acquire control of the entire country. Initial foothold in India was supported by production and sale of opium in India and China. European double standards continue to this day as sales of harmful drugs and chemicals are banned in the West and promoted in the East for profits. British consolidation of power following the conquest of Plassey was so rapacious that one third of the entire population of Bengal died of starvation and famine. Millions of pounds of yearly profits were sent to England without concern for welfare of the inferior beings in India.

Educational Systems

There exist numerous testimonials to the excellence of educational systems of India prior to the colonial times. In The Last Mughal, historian William Dalrymple quotes a contemporary account of pre-colonial India that "He who holds an office worth twenty rupees a month commonly gives his sons an education equal to that of a prime minister... After seven years of study, the young Muhammadan is the equal of a young man raw from Oxford." These educational systems were supported by a culture which valued learning and provided many forms of financial support to scholars so that all could obtain an education without any payment. Indians were specially skilled at mathematics, logic and philosophy. The great mathematical genius of Ramanujan did not come from a void, but from indigenous intellectual traditions. A deliberate British policy of denigrating traditional learning, denying jobs to scholars, degrading the Ullama, and seizing financial resources meant for provision of education, led to the destruction of the educational institutions which served the country.

Health Systems

Health care was provided via a number of systems of medical knowledge based on experience of local doctors. Precious medical knowledge based on centuries of experience was passed down via a system of apprenticeship. Health care was an honorable profession entered into for the service of mankind. Development of an inferiority complex and depreciation of all indigenous knowledge has led to the near extinction of many of these schools of medicine. Destruction of local institutions for healthcare has led to lack of access to basic health care for vast portions of the population. The Chinese system of acupuncture has received a boost in its fortunes after its effectiveness was recognised by Western doctors. Similarly, some attention is now being paid to preservation of local knowledge systems in India and Pakistan.

Justice

Justice was provided by local panchayats, which were effective and efficient in settling disputes and allowed everyone, rich and poor, equal access to justice. The British destroyed these institutions and replaced them by our current system of courts and lawyers. Because of the typically lengthy and elaborate proceedings, and the expense and remoteness of these from the average citizen, justice became effectively inaccessible to the populace. There was no way to handle problems except by bribing local representatives of British imperial power. Forces of poverty created by huge tributes paid to the colonizers, desperation, and lack of access to legal means for resolving problems led to the spread of corruption of in land of honest and hospitable people with high levels of integrity.

Social Welfare

Because of strong religious injunctions for charity, Muslims even today give away much more of their incomes to the poor. There were a large number of Awqaf which provided for a huge variety of social needs of the community. Care of orphans, widows, travelers, as well as people in need, together with provisions for education and health, food and water, all were catered to by voluntary organisations funded by Muslims in the form of perpetual trusts. These institutions formed the fabric of society, and gave concrete expression to the Islamic idea that the society as a whole must take care of its needy. Vast amounts of money locked into trusts for funding these activities were seized by the British, and led to a collapse of these social institutions. The resulting vacuum in provision of social services for the needy has never been filled. As a result, there were over fifty famines in the British colonial period and vast numbers of people died of starvation and disease.

De-Industrialisation of India

Many sources including Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of Great Powers provide evidence for the strong industrial manufacturing sectors of India on the eve of colonisation. In textiles, ship-building and steel industry, India was second to none. Our manufacturing sector was creative and efficient, and many technologies flowed from our industries to the backwards England. However, adoption of power looms in India posed a threat to British textiles and were banned by the Colonial powers. When muslin weavers shifted to hand production, their thumbs were cut off to prevent production of competitive muslins. Similarly many attempts at development of industry, tanneries, etc. were prevented directly by British intervention, which saw the future of India as a supplier of raw materials to England, and not as a producer of industrial goods. This transformed India from an industrial country to an agricultural one, and lead to deaths in large numbers of those who had once earned comfortable livelihoods from industry. One Viceroy stated that " the bones of the cotton weavers are bleaching the plains of India. The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce."

Causes of British Victory: If India was prosperous and relatively well-governed, why did it succumb so easily to British invaders? History testifies to the frequency with which barbarian hordes have defeated, looted and pillaged more advanced civilizations. The Mongol conquest of Baghdad provides an important example from Islamic history. Conquest proves military superiority, but not philosophical, cultural or moral superiority. If thieves, pirates and bandits took over and pillaged and looted our country for over a century, it does not follow that we should seek to emulate them. An important additional factor is the centuries of constant warfare in Europe, which led to development of military strategies and tactics. Relative peace prevailed in Islamic lands, so that techniques of warfare did not develop with equal speed. A thousand years of success led to confidence and pride, and under-estimation of Europeans, who were deemed to be barbarians and incapable of development by our early historians like Ibn-e-Khaldun. Thus reports of European developments in warfare reached the Ottomans but were discounted by Muslims, who later paid a heavy price for this neglect.

By the time this comes in print, Ansar Abbasi's brilliant story on how the daughter of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Abdul Hameed Dogar, was given 21 extra marks, enabling her to increase her marks in the FSc (pre-medical) exam from 640 to 661. By doing so, the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education made it possible for Farah Hameed Dogar to jump a whole grade -- from 'C' to 'B' -- and in the process making her eligible for entry to a medical college.

As the report says, the candidate initially opted for a re-check, which is allowed under the rules. However, after this process was exhausted, she gained one mark, which clearly was not enough for a grade jump. Then, for reasons that should now be obvious to just about everyone and his aunt, the chairman of the board, after 'relaxing the rules', ordered yet another re-check. Four examiners were called and told to re-check their papers all over again. One of them told this newspaper's reporter that he had been directed in writing to give more marks to the

candidate -- the chief justice's daughter.

In most systems of assessment and qualification, re-checking usually means that the marks are tallied all over again and the examiner checks whether there were any portions of a particular question that were left unchecked. In fact, as the news item quoted the board's own guidelines in this regards, re-checking does not in any way imply re-assessment or a whole new re-marking of exam scripts. In fact, it would be instructive to repeat these guidelines. Number one, that there is no mistake in the grand total on the title page of the answer book, two; that the total of various parts of a question has been correctly made at the end of each question (whatever that means); three, that all totals have been correctly brought forward on the title page of the answer book; four, that no portion of any answer has been left un-marked and so on.

Clearly, the fact that the FBISE chairman ordered four of the examiners to re-assess their scripts means that the rules were violated. So the head of the board is clearly not fooling anyone when he claims that he cannot recollect any such thing. Perhaps, he is doing this because he thinks claiming amnesia may save him from paying for what he has done. As for the chief justice, the report says, quoting "sources close to him" (and journalists and readers should know what that means) that he did not in any way pressure the FBISE to benefit his daughter's mark-sheet.

So readers are to believe that the board acted in such a tabeydar fashion on its own, without the slightest hint of goading from the chief justice himself. Even if that claim were taken at face value, surely the fact that his daughter's re-checking request had already been carried out, and one mark raised, meant that this option had been exhausted. And that a new assessment of the scripts meant that rules and regulations were being grossly violated, even if the 'competent authority' -- the FBISE chairman -- 'relaxed' (read bended or violated) the rules. Perhaps a follow-up story can be done on whether any board chairman has the authority to even 'relax the rules'. True, heads of institutions are often vested with extra-ordinary powers but such powers are usually practiced in extra-ordinary situations or when there are severely mitigating circumstances with regard to a particular individual -- clearly this case did not fall in either category and was simply a student's grade being raised from a C to a B so that she could apply to medical colleges.

As an occasional teacher (of journalism), I often come across such requests -- where students have said that they should be given a grace mark or two because that would be the difference between them passing or failing the course, and being expelled for low grades. Even in such cases, a conscientious teacher would, before agreeing to such a request, of the repercussions and its fairness, especially vis-a-vis the question that why shouldn't the marks of all other students be increased as well? Also, one obvious reaction is that the student is told that s/he should have thought of all this when s/he chose to not study properly through the course of the term -- and now that the failure has taken place s/he is trying to kind of emotionally blackmail the teacher. In other words, a couple of marks, especially if they mean that the student may be forced to drop out are understandable, and that too in a rare case (because a teacher could always respond to such a request by telling the student to ask some other teacher) but how can one possibly explain 21 marks.

And the answer to that is that one can't.

My advice to students: just hope and hope that your parents, or uncles, aunts or cousins, or perhaps even grand parents, are someone powerful enough for the board or examining authority to come up with a dandy marks-raising solution on their own. All you will have to do is sit back, watch and relax -- and at the end of the day you will become a B student.

As for the chief justice's daughter, one suspects that a similar kind of process will be put in motion when she applies to a medical college -- and again somebody else's place will be taken up or in other words usurped.

Now where did I hear that word 'usurp' last?

PS: On the first day that this story was published, this newspaper got around two dozen letters -- all except one praised the decision to publish the story. All except one demanded that the chief justice show some moral courage and ethics at least now and resign from his post. The one that didn't say any of this accused the media of being a judge, jury and executioner all in one. Not surprisingly, the writer of that letter -- who I know from my days in Dawn, since he often sent letters to that paper as well -- is someone who works for the law ministry but failed to mention that important point in his letter.

The writer is Editorial Pages Editor of The News.

Email: omarq@cyber.net.pk