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executive
decision interview For
no mime or reason Sense
and censorship
executive
decision Musharraf continuing as President, in uniform or otherwise, will have far-reaching political implications anyway By Adnan Adil In case the Supreme Court
declares Musharraf eligible to contest the presidential In this regard, the ruling party senator and constitutional expert S M Zafar has suggested to the apex court that the president may be allowed to contest the election only if he quits the office of the military chief. Thursday noon was the deadline for the filing of the nomination papers, and 17 of them have been filed for Pervez Musharraf. Insiders are of the view that in case the apex court asks Musharraf to contest the presidential elections after leaving the post of the military chief, there are nomination papers mentioning him as a retired general that should show his eligibility for the contest. On the other hand, if Musharraf does not make it to the presidency, speculations are doing the rounds that either emergency or martial law will follow. The officials have been denying the imposition of martial law, but the possibility of an emergency has not been ruled out. Put in other words, all government forces are working only towards one goal: President Musharraf's re-election. The government appears to have used the president's military uniform as a bargaining tool to ensure smooth sailing for Musharraf. A section of lawyers has nominated Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad as another candidate. He is supposed to challenge Musharraf's eligibility in case the apex court defers a decision on the petitions against the president for a time after the elections. Wajihuddin is a widely respected jurist who resigned as the judge of the Supreme Court, refusing to take oath under Musharraf's Provisional Constitutional Order in 2001. Wajihuddin's nomination is
expected to block the possibility of the unopposed election of Jama'at-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed complains that PPP's nomination is a bid to legitimise the controversial exercise for the presidential elections. Contrary to PPP's posturing, Benazir Bhutto has made decisions to facilitate Musharraf on all crucial occasions in the last one year. She refused to be a part of the combined opposition front that could rock the regime through street agitation. Afterwards, her party declined to resign from the assemblies along with other parties to block Musharraf's re-election. Musharraf's achievement is that he has always been successful in dividing the opposition in crucial times. In 2001, he let go of Nawaz Sharif and sent him off to render the opposition alliance -- ARD -- ineffective before the general elections. In 2003, again, he divided the combined opposition and got MMA's approval for the passing of the controversial 17th amendment. At that time, PPP was left in the lurch and the MMA got its share in power through two provincial governments. Now Musharraf government's overt and covert negotiations with the PPP and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazlur Rehman group (JUI-F) have left the opposition in disarray. The JUI-F, which is the largest MMA component, has been dilly-dallying on the issue of the MPs' resignations on the eve of the presidential elections. The MMA, as a component of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), had agreed to resign on the day of the filing of nomination papers. However, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has announced that he wants to have further consultations on the issue before he can determine the mechanism for tendering the resignations. In case the differences in MMA are not resolved, the APDM might fail to create the impact it wanted through collective resignations and the dissolution of the NWFP Assembly. Musharraf continuing as President, in uniform or without uniform, will have far-reaching political implications. Having won an election in which a large number of opposition members (parliamentarians) quit their seats in protest and the Election Commission bent its rules to suit one candidate, Musharraf is unlikely to command the much-needed legitimacy. More importantly, the next general elections -- held under the aegis of a disputed president -- would be seen as controversial. Musharraf's another term as president for five years would give a psychological boost to the ruling Muslim League. This would create an impression among the public that Musharraf is at the helm of affairs and that the opposition has no chances. A large number of people, especially in rural areas, tend to vote for the winning candidate who could extend them official patronage. In a general election with President Musharraf at the top, the opposition would lose half the battle from day one. Already, objections are being raised the way presidential elections have been conducted, especially on the expenditure of billions of rupees from the national exchequer on the publicity campaign in the media for the Musharraf regime. Insiders say that the government is planning to provide Rs 2.5 million to each union council in the country on the occasion of the general elections to carry out development works (synonymous with extending patronage keeping in view the kind of pilferage and massive corruption) on the recommendations of the official party's candidates. No other opposition party can match the state largesse to compete with the official party in the election campaign. To make matters worse, by the time Musharraf removes the military uniform, he would be vulnerable to street agitation, and his formidable opponents may have got their act together and take to the streets. His command over the ruling Muslim League (that largely stems form his position as the commander of the military) would also weaken and the People's Party could also raise the bar of its terms and conditions for a working relationship. As usual, the national politics seems to be heading towards another spell of uncertainty and instability. By Madiha Riaz Beneath the veneer of quirkiness and fun, Nigar Nazar is a person seriously committed to cartooning a largely unexplored genre of art in Pakistan Acclaimed the first woman
cartoonist of Pakistan, Nigar Nazar cracks light-hearted jokes Beneath all the quirkiness and fun is a serious commitment to cartooning which still remains a considerably unexplored genre of art in Pakistan. "I think, as a nation, we're fixated on politics which prevents us from recognising the humour in the more mundane things of life. Incidents which should be appreciated in their own right, I think that's sad," Nigar says. It is in this backdrop that Gogi comics step into her work; featuring everyday adventures of a woman in her mid-twenties, along with with a whole cast of family and animals. Within the confines of the comic strip, readers are introduced to a typical Pakistani family. The character of a typical talkative neighbour who borrows utilities frequently completes the picture. The second cast includes Gogi and her animal friends. The main purpose of the animal cast is to appeal to children. The characters have desi names like Tikka, precisely because Nigar feels that there is a need for children to identify with something close to their roots. "Cartooning can play an important role in identity formation," she says, "My experience at the University of Oregon (on a Fulbright scholarship) taught me what a powerful medium cartooning is." There has been no looking back since then. She formed Gogi studios in 2004 and expanded Gogi from print to animation. Gogi has even gone on to grace the walls of public buses with thought-provoking messages concerning education, environment and women emancipation. "Initially I found it difficult to comment on sexual harassment but eventually came up with a storyline about 'staring' which is so common here." Nazar's perky character Gogi has emerged as a representative of women rights, advocating the necessity of educating women amongst other issues like forced marriages etc. Gogi made an appearance in the International Women's Day rally supporting the 'Women's Protection Bill'. Nigar has worked with both government and non-governmental organisations. Will it be correct to assume that she only wants Gogi to represent the basic values of right and wrong without any political prejudice? "Absolutely," Nazar confirms, moving on to elaborate the character of Gogi. "She's not just a women's representative but a mouthpiece on Pakistani life and its challenges. She's an aware young woman trying to survive successfully while holding on to the right values. And Gogi's not always in win-win situations. She's a loser many a time." The living condition of underprivileged children is an issue Nazar strongly feels about. "It's heart-breaking." She has done substantial work in this direction, working with profit/non profit organisations focusing on education and health. She illustrated a children's book on earthquake management which was distributed in schools in these torn areas. Alongside illustrations Nazar has also authored some children books. 'Kooray ka Jin' (The Garbage Monster) is one such book complete with a board game for children. "I enjoyed working on this book in particular because with cartoons, children and fantasy you get a much broader base to experiment on. Besides, I'm personally very fond of working on environment awareness projects." "In a country with such a high illiteracy rate, graphic novels can generate interest in reading .Thus 'Nanhey Doctors' a book on Health and Hygiene that I illustrated for Unicef was a success story. There were innumerable editions published in all the provincial languages." So a more creative approach to learning is needed? She nods: "Exactly, learning can be made fun with cartoons and animation." Nazar is particularly excited about her next children's book, "It's almost on the finishing stage. It's a book on the cultural tourism of Pakistan. My professor Ken O Connell loved the concept and drawings and was keen to publish it; but I wasn't ready with it. Hopefully the book will be complete in the near future." She has also been teaching cartoon sketching to university students and young children. "Young children are on virgin ground and it's exciting to see them explore. Adults are less adventurous. But in cartooning there are no distinct boundaries, it's an open field and the wackier, the better." Nazar relies on the freedom cartooning allows to influence and inspire ordinary people to see life differently. "It's never too late to work on your dreams. With time passion grows... stronger." Over the years, popular stress has been placed on investing most classical forms of art with 'words', while overlooking the importance of the bodily expression and the power to emote By Sarwat Ali Though mime is considered
as one of the oldest forms of performing arts it has not The death of Marcel Marceau has again brought under the spotlight the contribution of the person as well as the significance of mime as an adequate form of human artistic expression. Somehow the words are considered as very important and tend to overshadow the other forms of expression. These other forms have also been dependent on words. And, in music and dance, the framework of meaning is only established when words are interjected. The unbridled scope that a form without words gives impetus to has increasingly shrunk, or is considered too abstract to venture into. It is doubtful whether mime on its own has been able to make an impact, only in relation to other forms of human expression. In the silent era, it was the limitation imposed by technology that forced the film makers to just resort to action without words and music, and since it is difficult to say that mime has ever been for any reason pushed onto centre stage and was appreciated for its own strength and attributes. It is doubted whether any actor of that period has been remembered except for his or her stunts. To present and perform the human condition, as if in a play without words, was not really the forte of the silent cinema of the Indian film industry. Hence there were no Chaplins and Bustor Keatons to bring it to a level where it could be taken seriously. After the war, probably in
the 1960s, a genius called Henson gave a fresh impetus to Marcel was born in France. When he was 16, his Jewish family was forced to flee homeland to Limoges when France entered the War. He and his brother Alain later joined De Gaulle's Free French Forces. Because of his excellent English he worked as a liaison officer with Patton's army. His father, a kosher butcher, was arrested by the Gestapo and died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. After having seen Charlie Chaplin, Marcel became an actor. After the war, he enrolled as a student in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art in Paris, where he studied with teachers like Charles Dullin and the great master Etienne Decroux. Marceau joined Barrault's company and was soon cast in the role of Arlequin in the pantomime, Baptiste, which Barrault himself had interpreted in the world famous film Les Enfants du Paradis. Marceau's performance won him acclaim and he was encouraged to present his first 'mimodrama', titled Praxitele And the Golden Fish, at the Bernhardt Theatre the same year. The acclaim was unanimous and Marceau's career as a mime was firmly established. In 1947, Marceau created 'Bip' the clown who, in his striped pullover and battered, be-flowered silk opera hat -- signifying the fragility of life -- has become his alter ego, even as Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' became that star's major personality. Bip's misadventures with everything, from butterflies to lions, on ships and trains, in dance-halls or restaurants, were limitless. As a style pantomime, Marceau was acknowledged without peer. His silent exercises, that include such classic works as The Cage, Walking Against the Wind, The Mask Maker, and In The Park, as well as satires on everything from sculptors to matadors, were described as works of genius. Of his summation of the ages of man in the famous Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death, one critic said: "He accomplishes in less than two minutes what most novelists cannot do in volumes." In 1949, following his receipt of the prestigious Deburau Prize (established as a memorial to the 19th century mime master Jean Gaspard Deburau) for his second mimodrama, Death before Dawn, Marceau formed his 'Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau' - the only company of pantomime in the world at the time. The ensemble played in leading Paris theatres -- Le Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Le Theatre de la Renaissance, and the Sarah Bernhardt, and other playhouses throughout the world. From 1959 through '60, a retrospective of his mimodramas, including the famous The Overcoat by Gogol, ran for a full year at the Amibigu Theatre in Paris. Marcel has produced 15 other mimodramas, including Pierrot de Montmartre, The 3 Wigs, The Pawn Shop, 14th July, The Wolf of Tsu Ku Mi, Paris Cries-Paris Laughs, and Don Juan(adapted from the Spanish writer Tirso de Molina). In the sub continent, over reliance on 'words' has proved to be the cause of the downfall of many forms of expression which are not word-based. Mime is one example, and classical music another. Over the years, popular stress has been on making the classical forms 'wordy', and filling musical spaces with lyrics, or to make lyrics as audible as possible. Mime will lose its intrinsic, natural quality if infused with words. It has survived only as a minor form, being part of puppetry.
Since Zia, self-censorship has growingly turned into a 'labyrinth' that has captured the fancy and psyche of most of our artists By Quddus Mirza A Pakistani curator was
part of a conference on art in Mumbai some years ago. During the The protests, persecutions and prohibitions do not permit any creative individual to deviate from the norms set by an invisible moral force. Actually that 'ethical police', much active today, reminds one of General Zia's regime, when a number of regulations were first enforced about the representation of human body in print media, film, theatre, television and visual arts. The official instructions were preposterous to the extent that, in a television play, a drowning woman was shown in dry clothes the moment she emerged out of water. These policies led to some perverse solutions. During the heydays of censorship, a few theatres specialised in showing censored portions of foreign films. In the mid 1980s, two cinemas in Lahore were running two different versions of a single movie -- the censored portions in a respectable cinema on the Mall and the uncensored parts in a notorious theatre in another part of the town. Visual arts also came under attack. It was impossible to display works based on female figures in public spaces, so artists relied on private galleries or studios. Even in the post Zia era, the pictorial representation of female body was considered offensive by many sections of society. When Colin David exhibited his paintings in his house in 1989, members of the student wing of a religious political party ransacked the whole place and destroyed several works. In another shameful incident in 1985 Iqbal Hussain was not allowed to exhibit his canvases depicting women from the red light area at Alhamra; in protest he placed his paintings on the road-side near the Alhamra Art Gallery. This kind of censorship
ended with the death of General Zia. Looking back, one realises The long years of Zia have had a devastating effect on the minds of artists. Now the state may not feel the need to enforce strict rules regarding morality because the artists have acquired a habit of self-censorship. Many creative personalities start their thinking process with a preconceived notion that nudes or too overtly political themes may either not be allowed for display, or will invite public anger and state wrath. These ideas are embedded so strongly in the minds of our artists that sometimes the state's reaction of tolerating 'immoral' subjects come as a surprise to them. This sense of 'personalised' censorship has moved beyond the studios of artists, and gallery owners. A larger art related public, including writers, critics, educationists and journalists too think the same way. This was visible in at least some responses to the recently held inaugural exhibition, 'Moving Ahead' at the National Art Gallery in Islamabad. In various exhibitions, a number of works dealt with the body and its representation, though none of these could be called nude or explicit. This time the reaction did not come from the state; ironically it was the free press and some artists who assumed the role of moral guides. Their attitude only reconfirming the internalisation of censorship, now evident in many fields -- both public and private. As a matter of fact, growing since the Zia years self-censorship has turned into a labyrinth that has captured the imagination and psyche of our artists. Now the state in Pakistan does not need to impose strict orders of censorship, because artists, art writers and viewers are all complying with them out of their own volition -- and perhaps habit.
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elections, he has already got majority votes in the parliament as well as the
four provincial assemblies to ensure that he is re-elected.
Musharraf. But, the decision of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to nominate
Makhdoom Amin Faheem is a significant political development. By fielding him,
the party has made it clear that its members would not resign from assemblies
like other members of opposition parties such as PML-N and the
Jama'at-i-Islami.
as she looks with affectionate warmth at the two live-in residents of Gogi
studios, Sona and Soni (a pair of Siamese kittens) romp freely around her
office space in Islamabad. A figurine collection of popular cartoon
characters graces one corner whilst a cardboard cut out of, 'Gogi' -- Nigar's
signature character -- is perched on her desk.
evolved in the way other aspects of performing arts have, in the sub
continent. It was mentioned in the older treatises of performing arts on a
par with dance and theatre (natya, nritta and nritya were the three forms of
expression), but it fell into neglect only to be revived in the sub continent
through silent films in the second decade of the 20th century. Still it was
not able to regain its autonomous stature as a form that could sufficiently
express the most sensitive of human emotions.
puppetry and with that mime was also used as an adjunct. This, again, made
all to focus on the potential of mime as a very expressive form of human
expression. In Pakistan the programmes of Hansen were emulated, and mime too
was introduced in programmes like Akkar Bakkar and can be said to be the
beginning of its more recent revival. It became a part of puppetry and has
survived only in that limited sphere. Perhaps, at the National College of
Arts, Lahore, a mime club often performs full plays -- and one does not know
of any other body that does so -- while mime in the West was revived by the
genius of Marcel Marceau after the Second World War.
question answer session, someone in the audience, moving away from the
subject, asked him about his opinion on the hostile reaction of various
groups in Pakistan when Meera kissed an Indian hero in a Bollywood movie,
Nazar. The subsequent dialogue may be irrelevant for present purposes.
However, besides illustrating the mindset of some Indians eager to embarrass
their neighbours, it did reflect the state of censorship we exist in.
that his policies had two visible impacts on our art and culture. First, they
generated a number of private galleries; also, parallel theatre flourished in
private spaces. The setting up of various private galleries in Lahore,
Karachi and Islamabad, if on the one hand, became outlets for artists who
could not show in state controlled spaces, they also encouraged commercialism
in art. The freedom of expression and the freedom of market evolved side by
side!