tragedy
How Robert lost his life
Another blasphemy victim loses his life. This time in a mysterious way
By Aoun Sahi
There is something peculiar about this day. September 11, 2009, left some unpleasant memories yet again. On this day Robert Fanish -- a twenty-year-old Christian from Jaithikay Village in Sialkot was accused of desecrating the holy Quran. The local police arrested him on September 12 under blasphemy charges. Two days later he was moved to Sialkot Central Jail where he was found dead the following morning. The jail authorities claim he committed suicide. Human right activists and his family, on the other hand, believe he was tortured to death.

Perils of poverty
Stagnant economy, growing unemployment, inflation and reduced purchasing power -- a just distribution system is the answer
By Shahid Husain
On September 14, 2009 the people of Pakistan, of Karachi in particular, were shocked to learn that as many as 20 women and children died of suffocation in a stampede in Khori Garden in Old Karachi where a philanthropist was distributing flour free of cost.

RIPPLE EFFECT
My life as a journalist
By Omar R Quraishi
The last time I wrote briefly about my time as a reporter for two years in Lahore -- and how it was to work with people like Tahir Mirza and ZIM (he by the way used to write the Lahori column for Dawn for many many years). I should have added that both gentleman were brilliant writers in their own right and the interesting thing -- contrary to what many young journalists would perhaps believe -- was that they were schooled not in any overseas college or university but studied in institutions that were very much South Asian ('South Asian' because they were born well before partition and began their schooling before 1947).

The people of Pakistan, forced-ruled by the military in long patches, have a love-hate relationship with the Pakistan People's Party, the first party in the country's chequered history to be birthed by romantic private initiative, owned by the citizens as their own and voted to power more times than any other party -- five: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s -- at least once every decade since it was formed. The average Pakistani with political conscience either loves or loathes the party. Indeed, some say that the only two political forces in the country are PPP and the "non-PPP" (all the rest).

There is one politician who personifies all that is alluring and enigmatic as well as pathetic and repulsive about the PPP: Ghulam Mustafa Khar. He manages to simultaneously represent the best and worst in, and of, the PPP that Bhutto built, Benazir ran and Zardari now manages. He exudes charisma (the party continues to garner a more or less captive vote) and crudeness (the in-your-face feudalism of its leadership cadres, the very social plank the party set out to break). He also personifies the party's other paradoxes: the enduring loyalty the PPP elicits from its old-timers (the jiyala phenomenon) and easy betrayal (Farooq Leghari, Saleh Hayat, Rao Sikandar, Meraj Khalid, Mustafa Jatoi, the 'Patriot' gang, etc).

Khar, in short, is just as paradoxically and maddeningly complex as his mother party, a party that aims to end feudalism but actually puts feudals in the Central Executive Committee and the Federal Council by the dozens. Khar himself is a feudal who is at his more ardently charming while talking about empowering the peasants. He is a true blue politician that keeps himself relevant, employing his thorough understanding of the country's political and military establishments to take on even the wiliest of power actors. He uses his personal historical experience like a con artist, managing to style himself both as a leader's man (Bhutto loved him) and a worker's man who still retains his appeal to three generations of PPP workers. He's 72, a dinosaur! See how badly his contemporaries like Jatoi, Sikandar and Leghari have aged.

And yet, despite these formidable assets, Khar sometimes it seems has lost it. For one, he can't decide if he wants to stay in the PPP or not. Even his colleagues have forgotten how many times he has quit and rejoined the party. In fact, at any given instant, it is not clear if he is in the party or out. Even when he is out, such as when he managed to inch into the closer circle of that other Pakistani political titan -- Nawaz Sharif -- he still can't decide whether to launch a frontal attack on a new generation of PPP leaders whom he sees as being without a backbone or plain sleazy newbies, or to pull the stops. The result is that he is neither here nor there.

One reason why the old and new guard at PPP can't pin him down is that Khar actually had a falling out with Bhutto even before the debilitating military coup of 1977 and calling Bhutto "the Maharaja of Larkana" although the two patched up ahead of the election which saw PPP storming back to power in the fateful (and eventually cancelled 1977 general elections). The tragedy of Khar is that his political life post-Bhutto Senior is one of guilt and what-could-have-been. The closest to charisma and oomph that came to Bhutto was Khar when the chairman had not yet swung at the gallows. His awami style, his political panache, his ranking made him a future leader of the party after Bhutto.

Despite his political acumen and potential, though, Khar failed to rise to the occasion when the handle-bar moustached General Zia made his historic power grab and hung the country's first elected prime minister. Instead of standing his ground in dignified resistance like his leader, Khar chose to bargain with the dictator and go in exile. Understandably, he was not alone. But while many PPP leaders either followed his footsteps into exile or gave up politics, he was supposedly different. A very young Benazir showed more spine than the "backbone of the party," as once even Bhutto dubbed him. No amount of explanations has managed to wash this, Khar's lasting shame.

While in exile, he not just fell out with Benazir but after returning to Pakistan in 1988 actually helped set up a parallel faction of People's Party called the National People's Party along with Jatoi and other comrades of Benazir's father. All this ironically with the help of the army, which at one stage in his exile he supposedly conspired to topple from power with Indian help. The plan of the military establishment was to neutralise Benazir's influence in Sindh in the 1988 elections with a Sindhi. The planned candidate for premiership was Mustafa Jatoi, whom Khar 'delivered' to the army. Khar contested for several seats in Punjab and won all of them. However, Jatoi suffered a shock defeat, as did most of the NPP candidates. Benazir became prime minister against all odds. The machinations continued, however, and after she was toppled within 18 months, Jatoi was installed as caretaker premier but not before Khar rejoined PPP. Khar's chief rival in Punjab, Nawaz Sharif, managed to become prime minister in the 1990 elections.

This was not the end for Khar in electoral politics, though. Re-elected in the 2007 elections on PPP ticket, he served as federal minister for water and power under Benazir. This was a far cry from the glory of the 1970s when he served as governor and chief minister of Punjab. The electoral road ended for him in the 1997 elections, when he lost. He fell afoul of the party leadership and quit again soon thereafter.

He was unable to run for parliament in the 2002 elections because of a restriction placed on non-graduates from contesting the polls by another military ruler, Musharraf. He made one final bid for glory by rejoining PPP and actively campaigned to become the party's Punjab president. He failed to topple Jahangir Badar. Soon thereafter, Benazir went into forced exile to evade arrest by Musharraf on corruption charges. In 2007, Benazir again sacked Khar from the party for controversial statements on alleged deals between her and Musharraf.

Khar then tried to get close to Nawaz Sharif and succeeded. He was famously behind him alighting from a plane as the former prime minister tried to end his exile by force at the Islamabad airport. Both got deported. Come election time, first in 2007 and then postponed to February 2008, he became so desperate he tried to get tickets from both PPP and Sharif's PML-N but failed. With Benazir assassinated, he stands no chance to get one final time back into the PPP and has openly been courting the Sharifs as his political ideals and seeking one last electoral role but his mercurial past and still-forceful if fading persona make that unlikely. Not that it will stop him trying. The emergence of a rapidly expanding broadcast media and presence of a string of TV channels that are forever short of political commentators means that he will not run out of the chance to offer his unsolicited advice to anyone willing to pay heed.

In many ways Khar is Pakistani politician's politician. He has lived the political life to the brim; worked with the biggest political actors and legends of the land. He has conspired and been conspired against; he has been a loyalist and a betrayer; he has succeeded and failed -- many times; he has outlived both democrats and dictators; he is one heck of a speaker -- he is a survivor and a devastating charmer. He has been known as a ladies' man with many a prize trophy to boast. In fact even Bhutto failed to match him on this count.

If emulation is a higher form of flattery, Khar still gets the political nods from some of the political heavyweights of today. Shahbaz Sharif has married three times (the latest with Khar's old flame Tehmina for whom Khar was once her feudal lord -- she is clearly into industrial lords now). Khar can rest assured that Shahbaz won't beat his record of seven marriages now that the changing social mores have taken the fun out of mixing the sensual with the political.

And that sums up Khar. He lives out his eighth decade of life as an armchair politician by night and yoga practitioner by day. His never-say-die spirit still giddies up people who were politically conscious in the 1970s and who in him access nostalgia for a different Pakistan where political romance was still alive and resistance was practical and worth the trouble. Khar always drew strength from proximity to power. If you watch closely, you can still see him getting his kicks from his political seniority and his position as a survivor. He may not bite anyone anymore but the fading roar of the ageing lion is still unmistakably Khar.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet next week in New York on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting. According to Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, "No breakthrough is expected from the summit meeting."

The November 2008 Mumbai attacks put all progress between the two countries on the backburner. Since then, relations between the two sides have been at the lowest ebb. Recent statements from top Indian leaders show that the upcoming meeting would be business as usual. India's external affair minister S M Krishna stated that "Pakistan has to satisfy India's requirement for the resumption of composite dialogue. India is fully aware that Pakistan is the epicentre of terror in this region".

On the other hand, Indian Home Minister P Chidamabaram said on the eve of his visit to the United States that New Delhi had never ruled out the involvement of state actors in Pakistan in the Mumbai Attacks, because "both operated from Pakistani soil."

Islamabad felt encouraged with Manmohan Singh's return to power in May 2009; his meetings with Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and his Pakistani counterpart Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of Non-Aligned Movement summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt were regarded as a major breakthrough.

The Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement revived hope for resumption of talks between the two sides. However, these hopes proved short-lived as Singh had to confront a hostile opposition from the parliament and a highly sceptical media -- both dubbed him a weak prime minister.

Owing to domestic opposition, India put into cold storage the implementation of joint agreement. In this context, Indian foreign secretary avoided meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, despite Islamabad's desire. It was decided at the highest level to move forward slowly and put further pressure on Pakistan to quickly probe Mumbai Attacks. It is also expected that New Delhi may not send the recently appointed foreign secretary Nirupama Rao for talks with Salman Bashir, his Pakistani counterpart, to New York. Though, it was asserted in Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement that both "foreign secretaries should meet as often as necessary and report to the two foreign ministers."

"The fast growing Indian economy and its strategic alliance with the US has made the country's policy-making elite arrogant and often unconcerned about neighbours' apprehensions. Most of them view relations with Pakistan as a zero sum game," says Dr Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, Dean Faculty of Contemporary Studies, National Defence University, Islamabad. "They believe that Indian security forces have successfully put down militancy in Kashmir and the recent assembly elections turn-out was impressive and shows that people do not pay heed to separatists."

Conversely Singh now seems to be propelling a counter perspective confidently as he enjoys reasonable majority in the parliament. He wants to make it clear that India's dream to play a major role in the international arena cannot be fulfilled without taking along it neighbours. "Unlike his predecessors, Singh has earned a huge respect by emerging as an architect of prosperous and modern India. Besides, he has to confront a great deal of opposition within the Congress and establishment if he wants to normalise relations with Pakistan by settling Kashmir issue," maintains Iftikhar Gilani, a senior Kashmiri journalist based in Delhi.

The renewed Washington interest should be seen in the background of President Barak Obama's comments over Kashmir just a month before taking over White House. He argued greater role for India in the international affairs and even Afghanistan provided it resolved the longstanding Kashmir issue.

Several international thinktanks and key intellectuals link elimination of terrorism in the region to cordial ties between Islamabad and New Delhi, which are obviously subservient to the resolution of Kashmir conflict.

Unlike the current political mood in India, People's Party and PML-N want normalisation with India and an early-negotiated settlement of Kashmir issue. Major regional political parties also favour normalisation of relations. The Kashmiri leadership and stakeholders held a roundtable conference under the auspices of Kashmiri American Council, Washington in Islamabad recently and wholeheartedly supported the Pakistan-India peace process but underlined the need to include Kashmiri leadership in the consultation process before moving forward.

On September 10, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the Director-General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), attended an Iftar hosted by Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal in Islamabad. Though this unusual development was not thoroughly debated in the media, it was indeed a big thaw between two countries and indicates a possibility of talks between the two countries at the level of intelligence chiefs.

Former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Hameed Gul has already proposed regular meetings between ISI and RAW officials to reduce trust deficit. B. Raman, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, also holds that "informal discussions between the intelligence chiefs of the two countries could produce better results than discussions between the two foreign secretaries on terrorism."

Many centrist leaning Pakistani political observers caution not to read too much in this isolated and informal Iftar visit. Though it was a very calculated move by the government to calm down India and send positive signals across the world that ISI, as an organisation, harbour no evil designs against India. Besides, it can be regarded as a part of ground preparation for the upcoming summit meeting between Zardari and Singh in New York. It is learnt that Washington is involved in back channel diplomacy to make New York meeting eventful and productive. Gen. Pasha's recent gesture should be seen in this context.

Mushahid Hussain Syed, secretary General Pakistan Muslim League-Q, seems quite content about these developments. However he says that "over the years, India has changed its policy of military intimidation of Pakistan and replaced it with diplomatic and economic belligerence. It has, for instance, exploited water issue too exponentially, sending a wave of shock in Pakistan, upsetting those in particular related to the agriculture sector".

Last year, he says, over 62000 hectors land could not be cultivated as India violated the Indus Water Treaty and deprived Pakistan of its share of water. "The Indian support to Baloch Liberation Army is no longer a secret. It is widely believed that New Delhi's presence in Afghanistan is not merely to rebuild Afghanistan or help out Karzai's government but to hurt legitimate interests of Pakistan."

There is something peculiar about this day. September 11, 2009, left some unpleasant memories yet again. On this day Robert Fanish -- a twenty-year-old Christian from Jaithikay Village in Sialkot was accused of desecrating the holy Quran. The local police arrested him on September 12 under blasphemy charges. Two days later he was moved to Sialkot Central Jail where he was found dead the following morning. The jail authorities claim he committed suicide. Human right activists and his family, on the other hand, believe he was tortured to death.

Farooq Lodhi, the now-suspended superintendent of Sialkot jail, told TNS in a telephonic interview that Fanish was kept in a separate cell "where he committed suicide by using a string. We found out the next morning when one of the jail staff members went to give him food. We are equally shocked. We have not tortured him. He was depressed."

Robert's family and human rights activists refuse to buy this and claim to have seen marks of torture on his body.

Minister for Minorities' Affairs Punjab, Kamran Michael also confirmed to TNS that marks of torture were visible on his body "I am not sure whether he was killed or committed suicide but I saw his body and it appeared he was tortured badly." The post-mortem report, he said, which is due in a day or two will determine the real reason for his death. "Chief Minister Punjab has already ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. We have requested the report as soon as possible."

Asma Jahangir, Chairperson of HRCP, declares Robert's a death as death in custody. "Police is responsible for the incident. Judicial inquiry should determine the reason of death and not the jail authorities. How can they claim it's a suicide?" Asma puts the blame for such cases on Zia's blasphemy laws in 1984. "Religious forces want to derail democratic process in the country and use these laws to extract their interests. People who think only minorities are victims of these laws are wrong. In fact, majority of cases have been filed against Muslims."

Statistics confirm this view. So far, around 1,000 cases of blasphemy have been registered in Pakistan. Of these, 476 have been registered against Muslims, 479 against Ahmadies and 180 against Christians. "But minorities are increasingly becoming vulnerable in Pakistan because of such laws."

In 2008 International Minority Rights Group ranked Pakistan seventh on the list of countries where minorities are most threatened -- after Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar and Congo.

Robert's sad story does not end with his death. On September 16, his memorial service was held in Sialkot city. The district administration wanted him to bury in a Christian graveyard in Sialkot while some of his relatives and others present at the service wanted to bury him in his village. They put the body on a main road and asked administration to allow them to take the body to Jaithikay.

"The protestors also demanded that a case of murder should be registered against jail officials. Police baton charged and fired tear gas injuring at least eight protesting Christians besides arresting scores of them including an MNA and MPA" Nasir Nayyer, a human rights activist in Sialkot, told TNS. He said police used brute force to disperse the protesters and then buried him in a graveyard in Sialkot where only his family members were allowed to enter. Nasir told that the allegation on Robert is false and the truth is "he was emotionally involved with a Muslim girl of his street and paid the price for that."

District Police Officer Sialkot, Waqar Ahmed Chohan says a police case has been lodged against the jail officials. He says the post-mortem report will determine whether he was tortured or not. "It is yet to be found out whether the allegation of blasphemy is true or not. The family members claim he was involved with a Muslim girl which the latter's family deny." The family assured us that Robert will be buried in Sialkot but a mob attempted to take away the dead body. "That is when the police intervened and controlled the situation."

A case has been registered against the jail authorities but under section 319 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) over allegation of negligence in duty. "It was decided by the high officials of police to register case under these allegations but it is written in the FIR that if allegations of negligence in duty are proved the jail officials will be considered responsible for the murder" Mahmood Ahmad, duty officer Civil Lines Police Station Sialkot told TNS.

Inspector General Prisons Punjab, Kokab Nadeem Warraich told TNS that an inquiry into the matter has been launched suspending the jail officials. "The report will be furbished within 48 hours."

Muhammad Anayat, a 45-year-old resident of Robert's village, claims the deceases was involved with a Muslim girl. But the locals also believe the allegations are true. They said that Robert, along with others, snatched Holy Quran from a Muslim girl, threw it in a drain and fled away. The girl was on her way back to home from the mosque. "She went home and told her mother about the incident. Her mother went to a local cleric and informed him about the whole episode. The cleric managed to gather hundreds of his pupils and other young people from the village and attacked the church. They pelted stones and bricks on the church and finally set it ablaze by sprinkling kerosene oil and petrol," Anayat told TNS. According to him the mob also tried to attack Robert's house "but local political leaders came to rescue him and handed over his father to the police."

Liaqat Ali Ghumman, PML-N MPA from Sialkot who also belongs to the same village also clarified that both the girl and the boy were involved with each other but he is not sure whether Robert had desecrated the Holy Quran or not. "Different people present at the spot have given different stories, so it may not be a case of blasphemy but revenge. In fact, many people in the village both Muslims and Christians do not like the relationship between a Muslim girl and a Christian boy and they might have been responsible for creating the situation while local clerics helped them. In fact, these clerics and the religious parties always exploit such issues to get their interests." Ghumman said the situation was under control in his village.

On September 14, 2009 the people of Pakistan, of Karachi in particular, were shocked to learn that as many as 20 women and children died of suffocation in a stampede in Khori Garden in Old Karachi where a philanthropist was distributing flour free of cost.

According to newspaper reports a large number of women had gathered outside a building where ration was to be distributed free of cost by Chaudhry Iftikhar, a trader who distribute ration free of cost every year.

The phenomenon is symptomatic of abject poverty across Pakistan. On April 22, 2005, Mohammad Younus, 35, held his sleeping daughter Mariam and slit her throat with a knife. Initially, Younus told the police that he committed the outrage under a spell of black magic. But afterwards he admitted to killing Mariam because he could not adequately feed and clothe her any more.

In a separate incident the same year, Ayub, 40, a plumber from the Golimar locality of Karachi cited the same reason for killing two of his eldest daughters. He slaughtered Sheza, 16, and Sheba, 15, in separate rooms of his rented house on May 3 and later confessed to the police that he had committed the heinous crimes as he found himself unable to provide for his seven children.

Abject poverty is leading Pakistan towards chaos and anarchy. The state of affairs could be gauged from the fact that two-thirds of Pakistan's 160 million population are condemned to live on $2 a day, according to World Bank estimates.

"The economy is stagnant, unemployment is growing, and inflation has reduced purchasing power. In rural areas and in small towns there is a joint family system where even if one member of joint family is unemployed, he can continue to live in the family home and partake the food that is cooked at home. But in nuclear family system if the bread winner loses his job, the whole family faces starvation and Karachi is dominated by the nuclear family system. Hence, the level of poverty is very high in Karachi. That is what we witnessed in Khori Garden," said Kaiser Bengali, an eminent economist and Member National Finance Commission told TNS on Thursday.

Pakistan's economic growth slowed to 2 percent in the year 2009 to June 30, down from an average annual 6.8 percent over the previous five years.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) that happens to be the main culprit in the woes of Pakistan has described the economy as "anaemic" and has predicted that the recovery could be "slow and painful." The dilemma is not confined to flour. The vast majority of Pakistan's population is also facing a sugar crisis while the prices of other commodities are now also beyond the reach of common man. Even the middle class finds it difficult to survive.

"The distribution system has deteriorated over the last decade," said Bengali. "Even though there is surplus food in one part of the country, there are shortages in other parts. Also, policies are made piecemeal. When the procurement price of wheat was raised to Rs950 per maund last year it was pointed out that this will bring a shift in acreage from some crop to wheat and this actually has caused a shortfall in sugarcane output. That is why we have a sugar crisis today. It's the breakdown of the distribution system."

According to the Social Policy Development Centre (SPDC), an independent think tank based in Karachi, 88 percent of Balochistan's population, 51 percent of NWFP's, 21 percent of Sindh's and 25 percent of the Punjab's population is facing poverty and deprivation.

According to the report of SPDC in Sindh, rural poverty is 49 percent while the urban poverty ratio is 23 percent, in Punjab, the poverty ratio of rural areas is 30 percent while the urban areas' poverty ratio is 26 percent. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says 57 million people in Pakistan are living below the poverty line.

"Forty percent of Pakistan's population is already living below the poverty line and given the fact that prices of petroleum and gas are on the rise, it will touch 50 percent very soon," said Prof. S.M. Naseer, a leading economist and educationist.

"The IMF wants Pakistan to be transformed into a trading state. Mass transport is subsidised across the world and transport companies are given subsidies. The rise in petroleum price will have a triple effect - Commuters will have to pay more; cost of goods will increase because transportation cost will go up; and electricity supply will become more expensive and it will affect the people as well as the industry. As a result poverty spiral will go up."

He suggested that public utilities i.e. social goods should be nationalised and an independent commission should regulate them instead of technocrats. The recent riots in Karachi due to power outages amply demonstrate that Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has brought nothing but misery to the 18 million after it was privatised.

Interestingly, some politicians have said that Pakistan is headed towards a "middle class" revolution. In the absence of a revolutionary party, however, the current situation could only lead to anarchy, chaos and bloodshed.

Ghazi Salahuddin, a member of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and a veteran journalist very aptly described the situation prevailing in the country by pointing out in a news conference that Pakistan was headed towards anarchy rather than a revolution since there was no revolutionary party to lead the revolution.

It's true that a substantial part of Pakistanis thrives on philanthropy but drastic measures have to be adopted if the democratic system is to be sustained and stabilised. "Measures taken in Sindh and Punjab to provide subsidised flour are popular gimmicks. If the government is serious in providing subsidy on essential food items, it should provide ration cards to those who deserve subsidy. Otherwise you are bound to have long queues and the chaos that inevitably follows," said Dr. Asad Sayeed, a leading economist associated with Collective for Social Science Research, an independent think tank based in Karachi.

By Omar R Quraishi

The last time I wrote briefly about my time as a reporter for two years in Lahore -- and how it was to work with people like Tahir Mirza and ZIM (he by the way used to write the Lahori column for Dawn for many many years). I should have added that both gentleman were brilliant writers in their own right and the interesting thing -- contrary to what many young journalists would perhaps believe -- was that they were schooled not in any overseas college or university but studied in institutions that were very much South Asian ('South Asian' because they were born well before partition and began their schooling before 1947).

ZIM would write his weekly column for Dawn by hand -- which was the norm with many other journalists of his time -- and it would be sent to the composing section to be typed and proof-read, after which it would be sent back to him for a final read. I should say that as he wrote his piece -- in long-hand of course -- part of his slightly overflowing grey/white beard would become dark brown in colour. This is because of the pan he would eat while writing (and like most journalists of his time he was also a chain smoker) and parts of it would drip down to his beard.

Tahir Mirza eventually moved to Karachi -- a couple of years after I moved back from Lahore -- where he was installed as editor of Dawn. Before that he went to Washington as a correspondent for some newspaper, and when that happened ZIM became resident editor. Some of ZIM's stories and tales that he would recount about his past career are legendary. I remember two in particular.

The first had to do with his stint as editor of The Muslim in Islamabad during General Zia's days. This was the time when (I was in school at that time) there was a military censor and all articles and reports in newspapers had to be referred to it. In some instances, as a sign of protest newspaper editors would run empty space or the said article/report with the content blacked out. To get around the censor, he said, he would often give a totally different headline from what the actual text in the article or report was talking about. He said that in most instances, the officer acting as the military censor looked only at the headlines and didn't go through the actual text in detail so a story/report or editorial that may have been critical of Zia's rule sometimes went through despite the military censor simply because its headline was not that provocative, or in some cases was completely unrelated.

Another anecdote that he told me was also quite interesting and hence not easy to forget -- it was how, when in Islamabad, he had as part of his job as newspaper editor, become quite friendly with the number two man at the Indian high commission. ZIM said that he became good friends with the deputy high commissioner, so much so that just prior to the end of his posting and return to India, the latter hosted a special dinner for ZIM and ZIM's wife. ZIM and his wife went to the dinner to bid farewell to this friend. The dinner was brilliant, ZIM said, with excellent North Indian food and beverages of all kinds followed and everyone had a good time in general.

When time came for ZIM and his wife to head home, the deputy high commissioner lowered his voice and told ZIM: "You know I wanted to tell you this before leaving, though I really am not supposed to. But since you are now a good friend and now that I am leaving for home I thought at the very least you should know something about me."

A mixture of perturbed and intrigued, ZIM asked him what was it that he wanted to tell him. And the Indian diplomat said: "Actually I am not really a diplomat. I am a DIG rank officer, a member of the Indian Police Service and my last posting was actually not in a foreign country but in Rajasthan."

Essentially, what ZIM was being told was that the deputy high commissioner of India at that time -- must have been the 80s -- was in fact a police officer seconded to the Indian Foreign Service but in actual fact an employee of the Indian intelligence services -- most likely the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

This incident reminds me of the time when as an assistant editor in Dawn I was invited to attend a conference on environment by one of India's best-known NGOs working out of New Delhi. This was at the height of the confrontation in 2002-03 between India and Pakistan, both countries had their armies facing each other on our eastern border. I was told that the visa would depend on how well-connected the said NGO was with the Indian government and it turned out that its head had friends right in the Prime Minister's Office.

The connections were so good that the Indian High Commission called to say that the visa had arrived and that I should reach Islamabad with my passport so that it could be stamped. In those days the shuttle service for the embassies -- which takes passengers from the Convention Centre -- was in its early days and everyone assumed that India wasn't even issuing any visas. However, I had to use all my resources to convince the driver of the shuttle to stop in front of the Indian embassy to let me get off.

I got off and went inside -- without meeting the intelligence staff posted outside. I was ushered in a large well-furnished semi-hall semi room. And then a well-spoken moustachioed man, who proudly said that his parents were from Rawalpindi, came and identified himself as the visa counsellor. We had a small chit chat while my passport was taken and the visa was being issued (on the spot, I might add). The man turned out to very interesting, well-spoken and widely read --and he seemed to know Pakistan like the back of his hand. The visit went very well and I managed to see New Delhi like I have hardly ever seen a South Asian city. During that time the relations between the two countries worsened and both expelled each other's diplomats as well. The visa counsellor who I had met was among them.

A couple of years, while browsing the Times of India website I came across a story that an government employee had died in a freak accident involving a failed lift in the headquarter of his organisation next to the building housing the cabinet and prime minister's secretariat. The organisation was RAW and the man who had died was the same one whom I had met in Islamabad.

The writer is Editorial Pages Editor of The News. Email: omarq@cyber.net.pk