The First Column to appear as Quantum Note
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Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
Published
as Painful National realities
"I love it
here--the fresh fruits and vegetables, abundant sunshine, glorious weather,
friendly people and no parking meters, where else can you find it all?"
This is how an American acquaintance, who has spent a year in
This caveat is neither
new nor surprising. A large number of Pakistanis share this uncertainty with
the outside observer. This is one of the most striking elements which has emerged in our recent history--this strange and painful
question mark about the future of the country. High officials of the
government, mill owners, teachers, intellectuals, writers and a majority of
citizens harbour this unhealthy and bitter doubt about the future existence of
the country. Those who are more cautious believe that the country would hold
on, but they are worried about the state of its society. Would it be a place
worth living if one had to constantly live under the threat of gunmen, robbers
and dacoits? What about their children? Do they want them to grow up in a
society which has lost all sense of direction and which is heading toward
anarchy?
The most glaring fact
about Pakistan toward the close of the century is that it is in a state of
explosive instability and no measures are being taken to correct the situation.
The government if merely trying to cope with the day to day
business. Policy planners have lost all faith in planning. Adhoc
decisions, quick-fix solutions, inefficiency and sycophancy are the governing
principles in the corridors of power and each new tick of the clock brings us
closer to a catastrophe from which there would be no escape.
Drive around the
capital and see the long queues in front of the foreign missions. These
unending queues speak of the anguish and the hopelessness of a citizenry which
has lost all hope of ever living an honourable existence in the land which
their fathers obtained after unimaginable sufferings just fifty years ago. For
a young nation to lose its sense of hope and direction in just one generation
is an indication of some fundamental flaw at the very
base of the whole edifice. But no one is interested in going so deep into the
core of our haphazard existence during the last fifty years. Where did we go
wrong? What happened to the great ideal, to the lofty ambitions an^d
immense hope which impelled millions of Muslims in the subcontinent to wage a
war against the British and Hindu dominance. What went wrong and where?
The most distressing
element of our existence which stands out today is none other than the
agonizing fact that in fifty years we have made mockery of all high principles,
ideals and goals upon which nations are built. So much so
that we have not even spared the most fundamental element of our ideological
existence: Islam. During a recent visit to Jabal al-Noor, I was
stupefied when an Indian Muslim said to me: If someone kills a Muslim in India,
we start
rioting and set the whole country on a collision path. But what do you say to
the killings of Muslims by Muslims in Pakistan and that too inside the mosques?
But let us not forget
that the most glaring failures have been at the level of political
institutions. The lack of a stable political existence and accompanying
corruption has eaten up the social fabric with the result that honesty, pride
in being a Pakistani and importance of higher values of existence have just
disappeared from our society. The unstable political situation has been so pervasive
that it has penetrated all other spheres of life. Civil institutions which
could have prevented this corrosion, or at least curtailed its effects, did not
emerge and whatever thin veneer was present from the pre-partition period has
been destroyed. One seldom hears about endowment funds anymore--something which
has been the hallmark of Muslim civilization throughout centuries. Thousands of
waqfs and charitable foundations ran schools, hospices and social
welfare centers throughout the Muslim world; these existed as late as the
nineteenth century.
The fundamental crisis
of our polity today is not the immediate problems of debt financing and the
short term borrowing: these are the painful realities of our existence which
will force their solutions on us whether we like them or not. The nation will
keep on paying for the luxurious existence of its past and present rulers,
willnilly. The pattern has been set, the die has been cast: the donor agencies
will keep on sending their missions for us to host them in five star hotels. We
will continue to give splendid dinners in their honour. The aid workers will
keep on coming to suck even the last drop of blood from our deprived and plundered
nation. No, these are not the basic questions.
The fundamental crisis
has to deal with the basic malady--the cancer which has been spread throughout
the body. Where did we go wrong? What was that fundamental flaw in the very
conception of our existence as a nation which became the spring board of
perpetual tragedies: the massacres during the partition; the abortive attempt
at regaining Kashmir, the sudden inversion of values in the newly created
country; the large scale corruption and dishonesty in Partition claims; the
loss of a sense of direction for the nation in its infancy; the factors
responsible for the lack of emergence of an honourable political culture; the
factors responsible for the emergence of one man's rule and the debacle of East
Pakistan. Then, closer to the present political culture, one needs
to go into the roots of the failure of the only political party which really
reached out to the masses in the post-independent period the PPP.
What was it that
stirred the masses at such a fundamental level that the late Z. A. Bhutto could
boast of an inseparable bond with the masses and what was it that made the same
people so indifferent that no one came out when he was hanged except for a
handful of diehards who were quickly forced to retreat into oblivion by the
cruel hand of the General who was going to become the longest ruler of the
country--the one who profaned the last fresh water spring of the national
existence: the religion. In one of the official meetings during the General's
rule, a proposal was presented by one of his ministers that before Islamizing
the whole country, the government should make a model Islamic city. The General
reportedly laughed at this proposal and his laughter, which by then had become
a language in itself, silenced the propagator of the idea, once and for all.
The cosmetic veneer of
Islam which was forced on our nation during the eighties has left deep scars on
the collective psyche of the nation. It has alienated a large portion of the
society from Islam itself and it has, forever, discredited all those who flout
the banner of Islamization. This does not mean that Islam is any danger in this
society. It will never be in danger, for its roots are so deep in the psyche of
our people that they know of no other existence but the one fashioned by Islam.
At the individual level, Islam will always remain a source of guidance for our
people. The tragedy is that this everlasting spring of fresh water has been
despoiled by politicians and by its self-proclaimed defenders to the extent
that the nation, as a collective body, can no more draw inspiration and
guidance from it.
Whether
one sees the picture in religious context or not, has become immaterial.
A few years ago, it was not so. Then, it was not unusual for conversations on
domestic issues to end on the hopeful note that God will send someone to rescue
us. Because then the vision which had given birth to the country was still
lucid in the collective memory. But now, no one bothers about such fanciful
thoughts. Even the apocalyptic versions which warned of a great calamity if we
did not mend our ways have disappeared. The profane reality of everyday life
has itself become a metaphor of destruction and terrible punishment.
What is needed is a serious national debate on these fundamental questions. But those who are in charge of state institutions today are totally unaware of such a need. Their concerns are merely with the effects of the maladies which appear way down the cause and effect chain; they only see the fever and try to cure it with fever-suppressing drugs. We do not have a single statesman among us today; just politicians for whom pragmatism, expediency and apparent writ on the wall is the sum total of political and social reality. But those who are really concerned with the future of our country need to come forward with an iron resolve to take charge of the situation and initiate a serious and thorough analysis of the past failures-- a debate which would, hopefully, lead to certain solid and permanent solutions.
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Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
Living with the Reality of the Bomb
Published as The bomb
Factor in Life
Within the short span of two and a half weeks, life has
forever changed for 132 million Pakistanis, 967 million Indians and 125 million
people in
By conducting nuclear tests,
The Indian leadership has had experience of the power of
fait accompli. No one speaks of Hyderabad Deccan, Junagadh, Manavadh, Sikkum
and
The flow of events, once again, brought Nawaz Sharif's
government to an important threshold. Last time, it was the Gulf war. Then, the
Nawaz Government had failed miserably to play an active role in the conflict;
it merely followed the American agenda against the wishes of its people.
Instead of making an all out effort to mobilize Muslim countries and OIC to
effectively intervene in the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait before the US led
coalition could jump in to harvest the riches, the Nawaz Government then played
a passive role. It waited and let the events take a course which led to the
destruction of two Muslim countries, millions of dollars of contracts for the
American and European companies and long term misery and deprivation for the
Iraqi population.
This time around, the decision making process concerned
us directly. The government had to decide and decide quickly. Unlike the last
time, the decision came swiftly and in accordance with the wishes of the
majority of people. The fact that
The folly committed by
Now that the dramatic events of the fateful May are fast
becoming an old tale and the headlines reporting the reaction of various
countries to the Indian and then Pakistani tests are gradually being replaced
by other, more gripping events, the people of South Asia have to wake up to the
reality of the nuclear bombs and be ready to pay the price.
At present, it is hard to imagine any admirable futures
for
So much has changed in the recent weeks for both
But the glimmer of hope has not died completely for
behind the loud commotion and deafening slogans, there are muffled voices on
both sides of the border, calling for a renewed effort for peaceful
co-existence. Now that both countries have demonstrated their ability to
annihilate each other, it has become even more important to settle the scores
at the negotiation table rather than have no scores at all. One whole generation
has already lived with the horrors of bloodshed, hatred and fear created by the
horrendous mistakes committed during the process of Partition. The next
generations need not live in the shadow of a nuclear cloud. There has to be a
mature realization that both countries need a space of their own to come out of
the shadows of their past and reconstruct new futures.
For those in the position of leadership on both sides of
the border, time has come to seriously think about the collective future of the
South Asian people. There is no escape from the reality that their geographical
location has bound them to a common future. The May explosions have further
integrated their common fate and one can no more think of destruction of one
country without the imminent destruction of the other. On both sides of the
border, enough voices are needed which can bring to the forefront images of a
healthy future toward which the population can aspire to move. The political
leadership on both sides of the border has harvested a rich bounty of instant
popularity but as soon as the collective body of both nations exhausts itself
through shouting slogans it is bound to look for clean drinking water and
finding none, it will either perish or become limp. Then the economic realities
will hit, and harder than ever.
It is high time that leaders on both sides of the border
realize that the bombs have not changed the stark economic and social realities
faced by their people; if anything, they have further reduced the possibility
of an economic and social transformation which alone can guarantee an era of
peace, prosperity and honourable existence. By conducting the tests,
The News
The overseas Pakistani
Recent events
and their economic impact has once again made the overseas Pakistani a precious
living entity for economic planners of the Nawaz
government. The prime minister's recent foreign tour was
especially designed to tap the resources of overseas Pakistanis. Torn between
two different worlds, unhappy about the situation "back home" and in conflict
with the inner self, the typical overseas Pakistani is used to such occasions
when passionate appeals are made to him. All of these appeals are meant to entice
him to send his hard earned money back home to help resolve a crisis which is
not of his making. This time around the lure of plots, especially designated
for the overseas community, has been added to the emotional content of the
appeal.
Whether
or not such an appeal would find a response is yet to be seen but this column
is not about the immediate effect of the Prime Minister's appeal; it is an
attempt to create a living metaphor out of the dilemmas and travail of an overseas
Pakistani living in North America whose life represents thousands of others in
the same situation.
Unable to
live with the agonising realities of his native land, our protagonist left his
country in search of a professional career. He is highly educated and dedicated
to his profession but he could not survive in
in a very competitive environment. His successes have
earned him an enviable reputation and it has provided a high level of material
comfort; but there is something missing in his life.
Because
of the years he spent in
The world
of the ancestors carries with it a fragrance of the bygone centuries bringing
into sharp relief the rich mosaic of the civilisations and cultures which have
gone into the making of Pakistani society. This splendid world is made up of middle eastern folklore, Indian myths and customs, rituals
and rites of Islam and the living sufi
traditions which have flowered in the subcontinent. It is a
world composed of the elements of human experiences spread over centuries and lived
in a land in which people have employed some of the most enchanting forms of
creative expression in poetry to articulate their hopes and desires, sorrows
and joys: the 'ghazal', the 'qasida' and the 'marthia'.
The hues
and shades of the civilisation inherited by
through this region have further helped in the synthesis
of a civilisation which blended the Middle Eastern and South Asian folklore, legends,
myths and tales.
The
overseas Pakistani carries all this in their blood. But his world also contains
the memories of a colonial past and the humiliations and terrible suffering of
his own life which forced him to abandon his homeland. However, time has
blunted his own agonising experiences and whatever is left is enormously
important to him; without his personal history, memories and experiences, he is
prone to lose his identity. He is also keen to transfer all or some of this to
his children. Therefore,
his attachment to his native land has a strong
emotional content.
The
thought of going "back home" is constantly present in his mind like the
cosmic background radiation. He is always thinking of the ways in which he can
help his country and community on the other side of the ocean. He has seen how
the system works in
His
dilemma is the fact that he lacks a viable means to put into practice all these
schemes he has dreamt up over the years. He knows that what he has learned in
But in
spite of this knowledge and information about the experiences of fellow
expatriates, he cannot stop making plans about the day he will return to
But over
the years, the overseas Pakistani has also learned that the sacrifices he would
make in response to any appeal would amount to nothing. Hence his dilemma is
irresolvable. He shares this with millions other Pakistanis who have abandoned
their homeland for various reasons.
green dollar; they have little or no concern with the
terrible price overseas Pakistanis have to pay for earning these dollars. This
attitude of the policy planners and economists in
Pakistani. He was not treated like a human being when he
lived among his people and he is not being treated like one even in his
absence.
Friday:
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Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
The
Legacy of Betrayals (I)
[The
recent freezing of the Foreign Currency Accounts is a betrayal of the trust
posed by the citizens in the State. Unlike the Cooperative scam and the Taj
Company fraud, this time around, citizens have been deprived of their savings
by the state in a move which has no legal or moral justification. This betrayal
is, however, only one more in a series of betrayals which the citizens of
Sitting around a candle, which was
quietly melting down from all sides as if silently weeping, hardly anyone
noticed the effects of excessive alcohol in the habitually drunken voice that
announced over the transistor radio that the nation will fight to the end.
"The soldiers on the war front,
the peasants in their fields, the workers in their factories and the students in their schoolsCeveryone will fight until the last enemy soldier has
been driven out of the sacred land," the voice announced. The volunteers
in the civil defence post heard the announcement with a mixture of exhilaration
and zeal and went out to guard the streets. The voice was that of the President
of Pakistan, General Muhammad Yahya Khan. The listeners in that civil defence
post in Lahore in that dark night of December 1971 were a group of college and
university students who had spent the previous weeks patrolling the streets at
night and getting first aid training during the day-time, all the time praying
for the victory of their army which was fighting to save the country from
dismemberment.
The announcement was heard with a sigh of relief; rumors
about the fall of
Less than twenty-four hours later,
most of them were shattered with the news of surrender of their army to the
Indian forces. The taste of betrayal was new to this generation. Born after the
Partition and raised in the relatively stable environment of the early sixties,
this generation had no personal memory of betrayals of another kind, which had
shocked and shattered a previous generation.
Most of these young people were also
unaware of the travail of the man who had conceived the name of their country
and who had spent all his life in a doomed struggle to go against the current
of his times. That man was to write the first account of the betrayals in that
agonizing book, "The Greatest Betrayal" which no one reads today.
Perhaps no one among that group even knew that having given the name to the
un-named dream held by millions of Muslims of the subcontinent, Chaudhri Rahmat
Ali was not even granted six feet of land for burial in his dreamland; he died in a
nursing home in England and was buried in a nameless grave number B8330 in the
New Market Road cemetery in Cambridge. Today, no one celebrates his birth or
death anniversaries; no one cares to remember him. No, that extraordinary life
and the bitter taste of betrayal he tasted was only
shared by a few of his own generation. The sweep of political events quickly
buried that first betrayal deep in the collective consciousness of the nation
and no one has time for digging up that ghost.
Those who tasted the bitter taste of
betrayal on that December night belonged to a different generation. They were
to be heirs to a "new
The "adopted son" had
stirred up a social revolution with his fiery speeches and with his cat-in-the-bag
tricks; and the nation had shown no appreciation of almost ten years of steady
progress and social stability.
During the sad autumn of the
Patriarch, the streets of the pure land had become filled with angry rioters,
the plunder of national wealth by twenty-two families had become a hot topic on
every tongue and the ungrateful nation had no time for the old, upright man who
had outlived his times. He wept bitterly on the eve they brought out a dog with
his name hung around its neck. Having seen that dog, he called it a day and as
a punishment to the ungrateful nation handed over the reigns to the man whose
passion for wine and women was to hasten the dismemberment of the country in an
agonizing, death-like process during the next thousand and one nights.
Shattered but not broken, this
generation was to see the emergence of a "new
But the rising prices of the oil and
the new found wealth in the
Those who were left behind, saw the rapid and shocking transformation of civil
society. They were subjected to successive experiments by rulers who could not
think beyond the outdated paradigm of nationalization. As a result, this
generation witnessed a sweeping and chaotic process of nationalization of the
economy at a time when the nations of the
Those who stayed behind during the
early seventies also saw the rapid deterioration of the social norms and values
which had kept the moral fabric of the society intact during the first quarter
century of the country's existence. The institutional
structure, which still had a flavour of that long and terrible legacy of
colonial rule, started to breakdown. Nationalization of banks, industry
and educational institutions gave birth to one white elephant after another.
Instead of the notorious twenty-two families, now a gang of upstarts started to
play havoc with the lives of millions of people who had deposited their trust
in the hands of a charismatic leader who could not stand any opposition to his
self-assured ways of doing things. This was the beginning of a betrayal of
another kind.
Instead of rotti kapra aur makan,
those who had been in the forefront of the new wave found themselves face to
face with state terrorism. The new social contract which some had dreamt during
the struggle of late sixties turned out to be just a daydream. Dreamers like,
Miraj Muhammad Khan and J. A. Rahim, were soon removed from the scene; one paid
the price for dreaming with his eyesight which was brutally snatched from him
during a long solitary confinement, the other escaped with a few scars. Those
who were left behind had nothing but flattering words for the ears of the
charismatic leader who now could not stand any opposition to his self-created
designs for the "new
Soon the crowd of sycophants whose
hats could be pulled down any time, in public or in private, confounded the
charismatic leader with their chorus of sycophancy. This chorus was also a
double betrayal of yet another kind: at one level to their own inner selves and
another against the nation.
This betrayal was to lead the
charismatic leader to death but during those heady days, no one dared to stand
up to him and no one could stand in the way of the man who had stirred the
hopes and aspiration of a generation which had tasted the first personal taste
of betrayal on that cold December night when the country was dismembered.
(to be continued)
For Friday:
Published on
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Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
The Trail of Betrayals
(II)
[First 3 sentences changed a bit, look carefully to
decide which one to keep]
Not
everyone believed the charismatic man from Larkana. But those who believed him
were ready to die for him. He had appeared on the national scene with a
potpourri of tricks which enthralled millions of people who had never before
had a voice in the national affairs: peasants, labourers, unskilled and
semi-skilled workers of industrial units owned and operated by a handful of
industrialists.
He had a message for everyone. They opened their
hearts to his voice. In a short span of time, he traversed the whole length and
breadth of the country and reached out to millions of human beings in such a
personal way that those who heard him speak felt that he was directly talking
to them.
He spoke
that universal language of the heart which binds human beings in a bond
stronger than death. He had learned this
language of the
heart by abandoning the comfort and indulgence of the life of a rich landowner.
He had given up the life of luxury for a grandeur far
beyond his own reach. But those who heard him speak for hours under the burning
sun had no idea of the complexity of emotions he experienced during those
extempore speeches which carried thousands to ecstatic states of complete
abandonment. The citizens of
But he was
not destined to attain an untainted glory; the country had to be dismembered
before he could enter the corridors
of power.
But as luck would have it, he entered the corridors of power by creating
history: he was the first civilian to become
Chief Martial Law Administrator. But that was not all; he was also to be the first to hold the high
offices of the President and Prime Minister of the country. But he was not
interested in titles, not yet. He had the Herculean task of re-building a new
He
embarked upon this task with a zeal and commitment which was unheard of in the
history of the country. He worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day. Everything
had to be done in a new fashion and he could not entrust tasks to others; he
had to oversee
everything himself. His passion for grandeur drove him to insomnia.
But the long, sleepless nights were the best for
work and he could summon his ministers and friends at anytime of the night;
they all came with tired bodies and sleepy eyes but as soon as they entered the
sphere of his passionate creativity, further heightened by the heavy intake of
hard liquor, they would warm up to the grand schemes which his mind churned out
at an astonishing speed.
These were the initial years of his reign; the
grand dream was still alive, his vision was sharp and he was pushing bills
through the parliament legislating reform after reform: education, industry,
agriculture, science and technology... everything needed urgent attention. He
created new institutions, addressed meetings of the high officials of the
government, fired and hired senior bureaucrats as he pleased, kept a watch on
international affairs, established trade and cooperation with countries of the
eastern block of the now defunct
Amidst
all this, he did not forget the peasants and the workers, students and clerks,
lawyers and haris who had brought him to power. He continuously kept a close
relationship with them, going to places in the country where no head of state
had ever set foot. He knew the old peasant, Allah Bukhsh of Vehari, who needed treatment
for his failing eyesight as well as he knew chairman Moa and Gamal Nasir.
His
opponents stood back and watched him as he moved from one glory to another.
They could not resist him. He charmed them. They all came and signed on the
document which was to add a new feather to the crown of achievements he was
wearing: The signing of the 1973 Constitution in a remarkably short time gave a
solid constitutional foundation to new country which was being carved out of
the debris of the post-dismemberment period.
But the
ink was hardly dry on this historic document when the dream started to turn
sour. Those who had been watching him from the side lines could not wait any
longer. He was moving fast but steps he had taken so far had not produced the
results he had promised. The sudden rise in the oil prices and the resultant inflation
in the country, failure of the nationalized units to produce economically
beneficial outputs and a strong opposition to his brand of
"socialism" started to worry him. There was something fundamentally
wrong with the country. He had put all his efforts and energy in creating a new
He
invented crimes to implicate his opponents in unending trials. He sent men in
khaki to fight against their own people and he bombarded his own country with
bullets and bombs bought with the blood and sweat of his own people. This
betrayal of the trust and faith posed in his being was violated because he
wanted more power than the poor people of the country could give him.
Those
who did not believe in him found themselves in the terrible stone buildings of
the Lahore Fort where the sadistic
Goeblers of his regime subjected them to electric
shocks, pulled their nails and put their naked bodies on slabs of ice. They
were forced to confess crimes they had not even dreamt about. The new apparatus
of oppression set up by the cronies of the charismatic leader broke all past
records and produced the legacy of state crimes which no one had time to
document. The untold suffering of the young men who disagreed with the
charismatic leader echoed in the stone corridors of the Lahore Fort and then
disappeared into oblivion.
Amidst
the crumbling dream and unsatisfied with what he had attained, the charismatic
leader looked out, first toward the third world and then toward the Muslim
world. He wanted to lead a greater entity than the truncated state of
the
country; they only looked at the quick money which could be made. The
charismatic leader himself found the new avenue alluring.
There was glory in the vast, uncharted territory of
the Muslim world's leadership.
But
before his dreams of a glory beyond his reach could materialize, he fell victim to a betrayal which ranks equal to the Shakespearean
tragedies: the humble man with black eyes and white teeth struck during the
summer night of July fourth. This betrayal was to be the beginning of yet
another era for the nation. The man who chose to depose the charismatic leader
from Larkana was under oath to abide by the Constitution which had been signed
by even
those who
were outside the influence of his charisma.
This
betrayal of the sacred oath was the beginning of a new era for the country
which was to fundamentally transform the social, political and economic
structures of the country through a series of betrayals.
(to be continued)
[The Trail of Betrayl part III, was not published by The
News; this remains the only Quantum Note denied publication by the News due to “the
critique of military”; it is presented here for general reading for the first
time.]
----------------------
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
The Unfulfilled Dream
Homeland, a
footloose darkness
On the banks of
brooks--
racing down from craggy uplands--
has become the smoke
rising from the roof
(Majeed Amjad)
Looking back at the
dream-like euphoria which accompanied millions of people during that historic
summer of 1947 to their new homeland, one wonders what happened to that dream.
The creation of a
separate homeland for the Muslims was a historic necessity. The main argument
forwarded for the establishment of
Writing in 1933,
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali had elucidated this argument in his pamphlet "Now or Never". He wrote: "Our culture, our history, our
traditions, modes of social interactions, rituals of marriage and death are
fundamentally different from other nations living in the Indian
subcontinent." He emphasized this uniqueness by historic facts: "In
order to help you understand the full importance of the question, we wish to
remind you that thirty million Muslims comprise one tenth of the Muslim
population of the world. The combined area of our five units is four times that
of
The same argument
was used by the Muslim League in its historic resolution of March 1940.
Delivering his presidential address, Quaid-e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had
forcefully refuted the notion that Muslims are merely one more minority in
Addressing a
gathering of Muslim students at Aligarh, on March 10, 1944, the Quaid was to
repeat the same argument even more clearly: "Pakistan came into existence
on the very day when the first person became a Muslim in India... when he
became a Muslim, he ceased to be part of the old nation and became part of a
new nation."
This clear
elucidation of the basis for
Given this
historical background, it is not surprising that the first generation of
Pakistanis dreamed of a country where they would be able to live according to
the dictates of their religion. What is surprising, however, is the fact that
no one among the leaders in those early days had a clear notion of how to go
about creating an Islamic state.
The blood bath which
accompanied the Partition and displacement of millions of people made it
impossible to concentrate on the fundamental issues. By the time, these
pressing problems lost their intensity, there was
already a crisis of leadership in the newly created homeland. Those who took
charge of the affairs of the country after the death of the first rank of
leadership did not have the intellectual resources to resusicate the faltering
dream; they were merely politicians who were struggling to form or destroy
governments.
This crisis of
leadership which became apparent in the early fifties persists even to this
day. Without a leadership, which could translate that profound dream into
reality, the dream itself started to become a nightmare. This is not to say
that the people of
At the end of this
troubled fifty-first year of our national existence, when we are faced with the
possibility of an internal collapse, it may seem Quixotic to talk about the
dream of a bygone era but unless we reconstruct a higher principle and motive
for existence as a nation, we are doomed. In order to recreate the echo of that
bygone dream, we need to relearn that the historic process which had given
birth to the notion of a separate homeland was multi-cultural, multi-racial and
a multi-linguistic. It envisioned an entity which would adhered
together on the basis of loyalty to a supreme worldview based on the concept of
Towhid. Unlike the monolithic tendencies of contemporary political and cultural
scene, all documents pertaining to the original concept of
We have lost the
sense of beauty in this diversity. Intolerance and narrow mindedness has beget fear which forces us to see diversity as a threat to
national unity. This myopic view has created tension and mistrust and there is
open talk of bigger province trying to rule the smaller units.
Another aspect of
our national life today is a total lack of Hope. No matter where one goes in
the country, one finds the same attitude at all levels of society. This
hopelessness has turned most thinking individuals into cynics and the minds and
energies which could have been devoted for the realization of the dream are
merely struggling to survive in a suffocating atmosphere where fear, hatred and
violence reign supreme. Stark contemporary national
realities have pushed the historic process which had given birth to
In order to revive
that sense of belonging to a rich past, the contemporary scene has to be
re-enacted in a historic setting where the constituting components of the State
are not seen as a constant threat to the elusive Centre which is struggling to
hold the federation intact. This can only be achieved if we are able to
re-instill a sense of hope and dignity at a level and scale which would
fundamentally transform the morbid present. Realism teaches us that this cannot
be done overnight. But it also tells us that shattered and broken as it is, the
dream is not dead. Despite everything, the word
[Islam’s many battles, published on august 28, 1998,not found on the hard drive]
Published on
Are we doomed?
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
The
Nawaz government has now reached the pinnacle of power. With the parliament being
what it is, it is clear that real national issues will never be debated in any
public forum worth its name. In the absence of a sustained discourse, the
government is left with its own short-sighted policy makers to evolve
strategies to deal with the problems which multiply daily. Those who have
watched our successive governments fail would vouch that these policy makers
have no idea of the enormity of the task at hand; they have never been
successful in formulation of policies and there is no reason to believe that
they can come up with viable solutions for the current set of problems.
This
bleak scenario points toward an internal collapse, which would produce a
society where no one will be safe and only a small percentage of population
will have the means to afford quality education, health care and housing. This
is tragic because in public opinion, the Nawaz government was the last hope.
Far
from being Islamic, today
The
agonizing visuals being shown on the state run PTV, showing the Prime Minister
in Ihram in the sanctified Haram, only confirm the observation that a team of
sycophants has gathered around him who leave no opportunity to project him as a
pious man with a mission.
But
those who create illusionary fancies and those who perpetuate these fantasies
forget that they are actually playing with the lives of millions of people and that
a heavy responsibility has fallen on their shoulders for which they are
accountable to history as well as to their Creator.
The
Pandora's box which has been opened during the last few weeks in the name of
Islamisation is the limit; now Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has entered an arena
where he has touched the most sacred zones. Now he is playing with issues which
have serious moral and spiritual implications for him, both as a man as well as
head of a state.
Everyone
knows how Islamic teachings became a norm in the city state of Madinah during
the time of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). The
first and the most important element in Islamisation of the tribal society of
Madinah was the example of the Prophet (SAW). And his conduct was that of a man
who had the highest regard for others--even for those who opposed him. Remember
the incident of his standing up in respect when the bier of a Jew was being
carried in front. He was told that this is the body of a Jew, and he replied:
was he not a living soul?
Also
recall the details of the meeting which was held to evolve a strategy for the
battle of Ouhad. The Holy Prophet (SAW) did not want to go out of Madinah to
fight but some of his young companions advised otherwise. he
did not say to them "why are you opposing me here and there?"; he
accepted the decision of the majority, put on his war gear and headed for the
battlefield. Later when the companions realised what had happened, they tried
to persuade him to set aside the decision but the Prophet declined on the
principal that it is not befitting a prophet to take off his war gear once he
has set out in Allah's cause. Compare this with the self-centered righteousness
of our leaders
Those
who have authored the Shariah Bill know very well that it is very difficult to
implement it. If they were serious and sincere, they would have started
implementing Shariah in their own spheres before drafting the Bill. Even a
child knows that example is the best guide. Every one knows that to head an
Islamic state, the ruler must first of all implement Sunnah in his own mode of
action. As head of an Islamic state, the Prophet of Islam gave complete freedom
to his consultative group. On all important occasions when the Prophet (SAW)
made a decision or expressed his opinion, the companions first asked whether
that was from Allah or the opinion of the Prophet himself. If it was the
opinion of the Prophet, they did not hesitate to voice their own opinions. Who
among the Prime Minister's close aides can express his opinion freely?
The
writing on the wall is clear: the state has failed to evolve effective and
equitable mechanisms of governance. The long lines in front of the foreign
missions, the mushrooming business of private security companies, huge black market of foreign currencies, newspaper headlines
describing the gory tales of murders, robberies and other heinous crimes--all
depict the state of a society heading toward an internal collapse.
At
this juncture, the most important question for all thinking Pakistani citizens
is: Are we doomed? Large scale emigration of all those who have the means to do
so is a clear answer to this question which keeps haunting us day and night.
----------------------
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
Issues in Islamization
Published on sept 11, 1998 as
Islam’s City State Model
Enough has been said about the way Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has committed
one blunder after another during his turbulent reign but let us grant him the benefit of doubt
in his latest venture. Let us
assume that his intention to Islamize
us grant that this latest plan is not an attempt to put yet another cosmetic Islamic veneer a
la Z. A. Bhutto and Ziaul Haq style. With these assumptions, let us proceed to the actual
steps needed to Islamize a society which has drifted so far away from Islam.
From the outset, it is clear that there is no need for yet another amendment in the
Constitution to achieve this goal; there are already provisions for this goal in the constitution.
But if it needs to be re-iterated that the Qur'an and Sunnah are, indeed, the supreme laws of
not contain clauses regarding the procedure for amendment of constitution which has been
rightly perceived as an attempt to gain more power.
Once this irritant has been removed, the government faces the difficult task of
evolving a practical procedure through which the goals would be achieved. Fortunately there
is an excellent example available for this task.
On
to do exactly this in a society which was multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual. His
was a successful attempt which should serve as a model for any sincere replication. For any
one taking the task seriously and sincerely, it is imperative to work with scientific precision,
using the same guidelines.
In laying the foundation of an Islamic state, the Prophet, upon whom be peace, had
proceeded with the establishment of a city state. There is wisdom in this. A successful
experiment done on a small scale provides ideal conditions for working through various
parameters without causing irreparable damage to the larger system. Even in modern times
we have several examples of this approach producing excellent results. The Findhorn
community in
So, instead of attempting the impossible task of Islamizing the whole country, Mr.
Sharif should start with the establishment of an Islamic City State. If he is successful in doing
so, this
country.
In order to succeed with the task of Islamization, even on this small scale, it is
imperative to remember that all previously attempts have failed because those who proceeded
to do so, did not have clearly defined methodology. They were either not sincere or were not
competent. In their haste, they merely resorted to the imposition of Hadood laws which
should come at the end of the process if we are to follow the tradition of the Prophet of
Islam and his successors. Recall that Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, had dispensed
with the prescribed punishment for theft during a time of famine.
If the government is serious in its intention, it should not be a difficult task to erect
the structure of a model Islamic City State within the limits defined by the present
constitution. After all we were
going to have a high tech "
Zardari and his cronies right next to the capital without any constitutional change.
All that is required to start this noble experiment is a piece of land large enough for
a city state, a local government with rights to frame its own administrative, judicial, financial
and educational policies. Defense and foreign relations of this model Islamic City State can
remain in the domain of the federation.
Once this physical structure is present, all Mr. Sharif has to do is to follow the
example of the Prophet (SAW) step by step and there is no reason that he would fail. One
of the first things, Prophet (SAW) did after his arrival was the construction of a mosque with
provision for Ashab-us-Suffah, the first residential university in Islam. Within a short span
of time, nine other mosques were built in Madinah, all with provision for Madaris; this was
the begining of the establishment of an educational infra-structure at a time when the State
had no resources. Later, this was to expand greatly.
The Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, himself attended to the
administrative tasks of the city state in Madinah with the help of secretaries. He consulted
often. He had a team of learned and experienced companions who gave opinion on all
important matters. In addition, any one could come to the mosque and express his opinion
on the matters related to the administration and running of the city state.
Regarding the urban structure, one of the reported orders of the Prophet (SAW) which
has been preserved for us states that the streets of Madinah should be wide enough so that
at least two loaded camels could pass each other. We also know that there were inspectors
for the markets. Ibn Hajjar has also mentioned lady inspectors during the time of the
Prophet. Dumping and other abuses were forbidden with sanctions. The state revenue came
from duties, taxes and through Baitul Maal. We know for sure that there were import duties
on certain items and Umar, the great administrator, had reduced duties on certain items
during the time of Prophet to combat the rising prices.
Administration of justice was entrusted to nominated Qadis. During the time of the
Prophet, Islamic law was in the process of being revealed. But even then, we have an
authentic report which gives us the principles of justice in Islam. Mu`adh ibn Jabal was
appointed judge for
"How would you judge?"
"According to the Book of God."
"If you do not find a precision there in?"
"Then according to the conduct of the Messenger of God."
"If you do not find it even there?"
"Then I shall make an effort of my opinion and shall spare no pains (to deduce good law)."
Fortunately, we also have an authentic document from the time of the Prophet (SAW)
which gives a detailed account of the prerogatives and obligations of the ruler and the ruled
in the
the "First Written Constitution in the World" by no less a scholar than Dr. Hamidullah-- a
document which has impressed such noted western historians as Wensinck, Spregler and
Caetani. It has been preserved by Ibn Ishaq and Abu `Ubaid and contains fifty-two clauses.
The opening clause states: "This is a prescript (kitab) of the Messenger of God to operate
among the Faithful Believers and the submissive to God (Muslimun) from among the Quraish
and [the people of] Yathrib and those who may be under them and join them and take part
in wars in their company."
This important document goes on to state, in precise details, the rights and duties of
non-Muslims within this city state. For example, Article 25 states: "And verily the Jews of
the Banu `Awf shall be considered as a community (Ummah) along with the Believers, for
the Jews being their religion and for the Muslims their religion, be one client or original
member of the tribe, but whosoever shall be guilty of oppression or violation [of the treaty],
shall put to trouble none but his own person and the members of his house."
This is the bare outline of the beginning of a model Islamic City State which was to
wield enormous influence in later years and which was to rapidly expand within a short
period of twenty years to the farthest corners of the world. We are fortunate to have access
to detailed accounts of various administrative, financial, educational and judicial structures
which evolved during the first decade of establishment of this model state. Because this
model was established by Prophet (SAW) himself, we have an excellent example to follow.
If Mr. Sharif were to succeed in establishing a model Islamic City State, it would be
an achievement with historic implications. All over the world, Muslims are desperately
looking for models. If successful, this experiment can be repeated in many other places. If
Mr. Sharif succeeds
in doing so, he would carve a niche for himself in
history which would be beyond reproach, beyond the fleeting gains based on
political expediency.
Quantum
Note
----------------------
Dr.
Muzaffar Iqbal
Are
We Doomed?
Most kind messenger,
Say to great Caesar this in deputation:
I kiss his conqu'ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
To lay my crown at 's feet, and
there to kneel
Till from his all‑obeying breath I hear
The doom of
Shakespeare
The Nawaz government has now reached the pinnacle of power. With the parliament being what it is, it is clear that real national issues will never be debated in any public forum worth its name. In the absence of a sustained discourse, the government is left with its own short sighted policy makers to evolve strategies to deal with the problems which multiply daily. Those who have watched our successive governments fail would vouch that these policy makers have no idea of the enormity of the task at hand; they have never been successful in formulation of policies and there is no reason to believe that they can come up with viable solutions for the current set of problems.
This bleak scenario points toward an internal collapse, which would produce a society where no one will be safe and only a small percentage of population will have the means to afford quality education, health care and housing. This is tragic because in public opinion, the Nawaz government was the last hope; now that hope has been extinguished and even those who voted for him are left with no choice but to silently nurse their wounds.
Far from being Islamic, today
The agonizing visuals being telecast through the state run TV, showing the Prime Minister in Ihram in the sanctified Haram, only confirm the observation that a team of sycophants has gathered around him who leave no opportunity to project what his own self-delusions have created: a pious man with a mission.
But those who create illusionary fancies and those who perpetuate these fantasies forget that they are actually playing with the lives of millions of people and that a heavy responsibility has fallen on their shoulders for which they are accountable to history as well as to their Creator.
The Pandora box which has been opened during the last few weeks in the name of Islamization is the limit; now Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has entered an arena where he has touched the most sacred zones. Now he is playing with issues which have serious moral and spiritual implications for him, both as a man as well as head of a state.
Everyone knows how Islamic teachings became a norm in the city state of Madinah during the time of the Prophet of Islam (may Allah be pleased with him). The first and the most important element in Islamization of the tribal society of Madinah was the example of the Prophet (SAW). And his conduct was that of a man who had the highest regard for others--even for those who opposed him. Remember the incident of his standing up in respect when the bier of a Jew was being carried in front. He was told that this is the body of a Jew and he replied was he not a living soul?
Also recall the details of the meeting which was held to evolve a strategy for the battle of Ouhad. Prophet (SAW) did not want to go out of Madinah to fight but his opinion was opposed by some young companions; he did not say to them Awhy are you opposing me here and there?@; he accepted the decision of the majority, put on his war gear and headed for the battlefield. Later when the companions realized what had happened, they tried to persuade him to set aside the decision but the Prophet declined on the principal that it is not befitting to the station of a prophet to take off his war gear once he has set out in Allah's cause. Compare this with the self-centered righteousness of our Prime Minister!
Those who have fabricated the Shariah Bill know very well that they do not want to implement it. If they were serious and sincere, they would have started implementing Shariah in their own spheres before writing the Bill. Even a child knows that example is the best guide. If Mr. Sharif were sincere in following the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW) he would not try to stifle the mumbled voices of his opponents. He surely knows that his pictures in Ihram on TV screens make no sense at all to a populace concerned with the safety of their lives. If he were sincere, he would know that to head an Islamic State, he must first of all implement Sunnah in his own mode of action. As head of an Islamic State, the Prophet of Islam gave complete freedom to his consultative group. On all important occasions when the Prophet (SAW) made a decision or expressed his opinion, the companions first asked whether that was from Allah or the opinion of the Prophet himself. If it was the opinion of the Prophet, they did not hesitate to voice their own opinions. Who among Mr. Sharif's kitchen group has the gut to express his opinions freely if they happen to be opposed to Mr. Sharif's desire?
The writing on the wall is clear: the state has failed to evolve effective and equitable mechanisms of governance. The long lines in front of the foreign missions, the mushrooming business of private security companies, huge black market of foreign currencies, newspaper headlines describing the gory tales of murders, robberies and other heinous crimes--all depict the state of a society heading toward an internal collapse.
The state has not only failed to protect the security of its
citizens at home, it has also miserably failed to help its citizens in foreign
countries. A case in point is that of Dr. Munawar Ahmad Anees who was arrested,
under the Internal Security Act, on Monday 14th September in
Dr. Anees is a respected intellectual and scholar who has written a
number of books and who was, until recently, Editor-in-Chief of Periodica
Islamica, a quarterly current awareness journal which specialized in
Islamic topics. He is a close friend of Anwar Ibrahim. The arrest and sentence
of Dr. Anees, who is married with two children, is clearly connected with
producing `evidence' to implicate Anwar Ibrahim; he has no political ambition
himself. The charges against Dr. Anees are totally fabricated and his
`confession' is a product of torture. The
At this juncture, the most important question for all thinking
Pakistani citizens is: Are we doomed? Large scale emigration of all those who have
the means to do so is a clear answer to this question which keeps haunting us
day and night.
A
Pakistani in distress
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
On
Monday, 14 September , a Pakistani citizen was
arrested in
After
being held incommunicado for six days under
Anees' wife, alerted by friends that her husband was being charged, arrived only after the sentence was pronounced. At first she failed to recognise her husband as his head was shaved. Mrs. Anees was forcibly restrained by the police from speaking to the lawyers.
The trial lasted 40 minutes. Seven of these minutes were taken by Dr. Anees going to the toilet. Throughout the trial, he was shaking uncontrollably as though suffering from pneumonia. A policeman was asked to cover him with a blanket.
Even though he was sentenced under penal code, the Malaysian authorities continued to detain Dr. Anees under the ISA. He was not allowed to see his wife or anyone else.
On
September 23, Dr. Anees was rushed to
On
September 28, Dr. Anees' original lawyers filed an appeal, withdrawing the
guilty plea, which they say was not made 'under willing circumstances'. Dr.
Anees had gone to
Dr. Anees' intellectual pursuits soon made him a well-know figure in Malaysia and many high ranking officials became his friends, Anwar Ibrahim _ then deputy prime minister and author of The Asian Renaissance, probably one of the most widely distributed books in Malaysia in recent times _ being one of them. In time, Dr. Anees became Anwar's speech writer. In this capacity, he was respected by the government until Anwar Ibrahim fell out of favour. Dr. Anees' arrest came as a prelude to Anwar Ibrahim's arrest and his forced confession has been used to implicate Anwar Ibrahim.
On
Wednesday, 23 September, Mrs. Anees and her 13 year-old daughter
presented themselves at Bukit Aman. After some difficulty they met two officers
involved in Dr. Anees' case who asked: "Why have you come here?"
Being held incommunicado is supposed to be taken passively in
On Friday, 25 September, Mrs. Anees again went to Bukit Aman. She was told she might be allowed to see her husband in a few days time, provided she agreed that the lawyer she had instructed did not attempt to see Dr Anees. The police officers referred to Uthayakumar, whom Mrs. Anees had retained as "one of Anwar's lawyers." The detention of Dr. Anees has shocked every body.
The
detailed report about Dr Anees that appeared in the newspapers used subtle
innuendo to suggest the problem was Dr Anees' American connections. He had in
fact taken his Ph.D. at
Dr.
Anees has become victim of a power struggle in
In a cover story, Asiaweek magazine has reported, "a smiling, newly confident Mahathir's pledge that his one time heir-apparent would not be denied his rights under Malaysian law. Generously, Mahathir even allowed that he appreciated Azizah's loyalty to her husband. "When the truth is known," he predicted calmly, "everyone, even his friends, will reject him."
Reporting
from
This
pervert political drama can take whatever turn it may, the immediate question
for the concerned citizens of
Now
that Anwar Ibrahim has been brought to court (September 29), the game is more clear: Dr. Anees was arrested to implicate Anwar Ibrahim
who had become a threat to the 17-year old rule of Dr. Muhathir. Malaysian
politics being what it is, it is no wonder Dr. Anees has to pay the price of
his friendship with Anwar. But the international law, human rights and
fundamental decency require that people should not be tortured and humiliated
the way they are being tortured in
----------------------
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
published on oct 9, as Politics of
non-Issues
A Nation at the end of Hope
Politics of
"Non-issues" demands that an endless array of transient but highly
sensational non-issues be paraded through the media and national forums. It is
a time-tested formula to deflect public attention from the real issues. For the
last several years political leadership in
Some times, the
game is played by deliberately using real issues as pawns. In this technique,
unilateral and unpractical decisions are suddenly announced which create a wave
of instant reactions and soon the players are divided into two camps: those who
oppose the announcement and those who defend it. But both groups know that
there is nothing substantial behind the facade. The recent announcements
regarding the construction of Kalabagh Dam and the Sharia Bill are examples of
this technique. Both, the man who made the announcements (PM) and the horde of
ministers who sang their chorus to support the announcements, knew very well
that the words spoken by the PM carry no weight, that there are no funds
available to construct the Dam and that the Sharia Bill is a flimsy piece of
legislature, which will never help in implementing the noble tradition of the
Prophet of Islam. They also knew very well that the opposition will fall prey
to their bluff and play to the tune set by them, at least for a while.
Another variation
on the game may be called "dragging". This technique is used when an
issue has to be "deflated". The way the government and the opposition
has handled the "Observer Story" is a classic example of the apt use
of this technique. A week after the publication of the story and in spite of a
debate in the upper house, the nation still does not know the simple facts
though the questions are very clear: Mr. PM do you or
don't you own the said flats? Do you or don't you hold foreign currency
accounts abroad? Instead of a categorical, one second, "yes/no"
answer, hundreds of hours of national time and thousands of rupees have been
wasted. A minister was specially sent to
The long term
consequences of this game are so frightening that one shudders to enumerate
them. But the immediate and the obvious are also equally horrific: Karachi
continues to bleed while the politicians play their little "cock and bull
story" games, target killings, robberies, murders, kidnapings and rapes
undermine the moral fabric of the society while high government officials and
political leadership of the country continues to waste enormous national
resources on trifles.
With each murder a
whole family is ruined. Each death of a young man, who had potential to
contribute to the regeneration of national health and wealth, brings an
un-revokable damage
to the nation's future. With
the rapid increase in the number of families which have seen tragedies, the
vital energy of the society--which alone can regenerate a moral and healthy
national life--continues to wither.
These are serious
consequences of a dangerous game being played with the destiny of our nation.
But those who are busy in this game have had their day. The game has now
trapped them in its own web from where there is no escape. The silent majority
has intuitively perceived the game. A clear sign of this maturity is reflected
in the tacit withdrawal of the "historical mandate" given to the
present government. Every one knows that the government has lost its moral
right to govern. The nation has not articulated its decision but the man in the
street has clearly passed his verdict.
The recent
statement of the COAS at the
The last mentioned
problem is not entirely new; successive rulers have contributed to the
destruction of institutional structure which was inherited by the people of
These
"achievements" have been accomplished through master strokes with an
obsessive adherence to the goal of attaining more and more power. But the irony
is that this concentration of power has now reached its ultimate limit without
fulfilling the appetite and without producing the results for which it was
attained. At this point, the protagonist in search of more power simply does
not know what to do with all that power except making unsound grand
declarations which are never followed--national agendas which are neither
national nor agendas per se; Vision 2010 which no one remembers anymore; Qarz
utaro mulk sanwaro slogan which has remained an empty chatter; Ehtesab
Commission which has invented new names for political victimization.
The old problems
which have become grave are the sectarian violence and the situation in
Today
Eighteen months
ago, a small hope was born. Emerging from a crisis of confidence and trust, a
small percentage of citizens posed their trust in the person of Nawaz Sharif
while the majority watched silently and hoped that this new trust will not be
violated.
Eighteen months
later, the trust posed in the person of Nawaz Sharif has been shattered. Those
who breathed a sigh of relief after the end of Benazir's government and those
who walked out of the polling booths with a sense of hope, both have realized
that their predicament has not changed.
At this juncture,
it is no more a question of siding with one or the other or the "third
force"; it is a state of total despair so clear in the nation's life that
no proof is needed to prove it. When and how Nawaz Sharif meets his exit is not
the concern of prime importance at present. Surely, history will one day pass
its verdict on his second term in office. But the gravity of the situation
demands an immediate solution to the predicament of a nation which has arrived
at the end of hope. The burning question on nation's mind is: Where do we go from
here?
----------------------
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
6? October 1998
A Nation at the end of Hope
Politics of
"Non-issues" demands that an endless array of transient but highly
sensational non-issues be paraded through the media and national forums. It is
a time-tested formula to deflect public attention from the real issues. For the
last several years political leadership in
Some times, the
game is played by deliberately using real issues as pawns. In this technique,
unilateral and unpractical decisions are suddenly announced which create a wave
of instant reactions and soon the players are divided into two camps: those who
oppose the announcement and those who defend it. But both groups know that
there is nothing substantial behind the facade. The recent announcements
regarding the construction of Kalabagh Dam and the Sharia Bill are examples of
this technique. Both, the man who made the announcements (PM) and the horde of
ministers who sang their chorus to support the announcements, knew very well
that the words spoken by the PM carry no weight, that there are no funds
available to construct the Dam and that the Sharia Bill is a flimsy piece of
legislature, which will never help in implementing the noble tradition of the
Prophet of Islam. They also knew very well that the opposition will fall prey
to their bluff and play to the tune set by them, at least for a while.
Another variation
on the game may be called "dragging". This technique is used when an
issue has to be "deflated". The way the government and the opposition
has handled the "Observer Story" is a classic example of the apt use
of this technique. A week after the publication of the story and in spite of a
debate in the upper house, the nation still does not know the simple facts
though the questions are very clear: Mr. PM do you or
don't you own the said flats? Do you or don't you hold foreign currency
accounts abroad? Instead of a categorical, one second, "yes/no"
answer, hundreds of hours of national time and thousands of rupees have been
wasted. A minister was specially sent to
The long term
consequences of this game are so frightening that one shudders to enumerate
them. But the immediate and the obvious are also equally horrific: Karachi
continues to bleed while the politicians play their little "cock and bull
story" games, target killings, robberies, murders, kidnapings and rapes
undermine the moral fabric of the society while high government officials and
political leadership of the country continues to waste enormous national
resources on trifles.
With each murder a
whole family is ruined. Each death of a young man, who had potential to
contribute to the regeneration of national health and wealth, brings an
un-revokable damage
to the nation's future. With
the rapid increase in the number of families which have seen tragedies, the
vital energy of the society--which alone can regenerate a moral and healthy
national life--continues to wither.
These are serious
consequences of a dangerous game being played with the destiny of our nation.
But those who are busy in this game have had their day. The game has now
trapped them in its own web from where there is no escape. The silent majority
has intuitively perceived the game. A clear sign of this maturity is reflected
in the tacit withdrawal of the "historical mandate" given to the
present government. Every one knows that the government has lost its moral
right to govern. The nation has not articulated its decision but the man in the
street has clearly passed his verdict.
The recent
statement of the COAS at the
The last mentioned
problem is not entirely new; successive rulers have contributed to the destruction
of institutional structure which was inherited by the people of
These "achievements"
have been accomplished through master strokes with an obsessive adherence to
the goal of attaining more and more power. But the irony is that this
concentration of power has now reached its ultimate limit without fulfilling
the appetite and without producing the results for which it was attained. At
this point, the protagonist in search of more power simply does not know what
to do with all that power except making unsound grand declarations which are
never followed--national agendas which are neither national nor agendas per se;
Vision 2010 which no one remembers anymore; Qarz utaro mulk sanwaro slogan
which has remained an empty chatter; Ehtesab Commission which has invented new
names for political victimization.
The old problems
which have become grave are the sectarian violence and the situation in
Today
Eighteen months
ago, a small hope was born. Emerging from a crisis of confidence and trust, a
small percentage of citizens posed their trust in the person of Nawaz Sharif
while the majority watched silently and hoped that this new trust will not be
violated.
Eighteen months
later, the trust posed in the person of Nawaz Sharif has been shattered. Those
who breathed a sigh of relief after the end of Benazir's government and those
who walked out of the polling booths with a sense of hope, both have realized
that their predicament has not changed.
At this juncture,
it is no more a question of siding with one or the other or the "third
force"; it is a state of total despair so clear in the nation's life that
no proof is needed to prove it. When and how Nawaz Sharif meets his exit is not
the concern of prime importance at present. Surely, history will one day pass
its verdict on his second term in office. But the gravity of the situation
demands an immediate solution to the predicament of a nation which has arrived
at the end of hope. The burning question on nation's mind is: Where do we go
from here?
Withered hopes
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
Last
week, when I saw Dr Habib Ahmad at Itwar Bazar, I could not believe my eyes. He
was holding two cloth bags and a straw basket in his hands. Behind him walked
his wife, a middle-aged woman who looked tired and depressed.
More
than 20 years ago, Dr Habib Ahmad had walked into our classroom on a bright
winter morning. He had just returned from
But
ours was a rowdy lot. No one really cared for the impressive credentials of not
so young a man who had published more research papers in four years than
anybody else in the department had done in their lifetime.
As
soon as he turned toward the blackboard in a lecture hall in
But
those who had become heroes by inventing ingenious means of creating scenes
were not ready to give up. The tussle between Dr Habib and the unruly bunch
went on for the rest of the year. At the end of the year, the inevitable came
to pass and eighty per cent of our class was fleshed out of the education
system.
Dr
Habib left
But
seeing him so unexpectedly in the bazar, everything came back to my mind: his
dynamic personality, his extraordinary way of solving complex equations and his
novel ideas about the future of research in
I
followed the couple through the lanes of Itwar bazar, filled with the
unbearable stench of rotten fruit. They did their weekly shopping in a manner
which was unbearably painful. They walked around the filthy place with a stoic
resolve and once Dr Habib went to offload his bags while his wife waited amidst
the stinking smell which permeated the bazar.
The
next day I went to
Then
an orderly came with a thick file, placed it in front of Dr Habib and left the
room. Dr Habib opened the file, looked at the top most paper and silently
passed the file to me. It was a promotion case which had been taken to courts;
Dr Habib was to go to the court next week to record his statement. A few
minutes later, another orderly came and told him that he was unable to get his
telephone restored because the person concerned was not available in the
office. His telephone was disconnected three weeks ago despite the fact that he
had been paying his monthly bills regularly. A little later,
a student walked in with a file in his hand; he needed his signature for
something. Dr Habib signed quietly.
A
middle-aged man brought us tea. I wanted to ask him about his life, about his
dreams and about his plans for space research in
Instead
he had returned to his native land with goals and plans and dreams and had
devoted himself to a lost cause. I hoped he would complain; I wished he would
talk. But he did not. Somehow, he knew there was no point in complaining or talking
about what had been lost. He asked me questions about my life. About what I had
been doing and what my plans were.
At
eleven, he had to go and deliver his lecture. I asked his permission to sit in
his lecture. He looked at me with surprise and then nodded. I chose a back seat
in the classroom. Sitting there, behind twenty students who listened
attentively to his lecture, I saw a dim reflection of the man who lived in my
memory: a vibrant, mentally alert, highly creative teacher who knows what is
passing through the minds of his students as he explains complex theories. But
it was merely a reflection, a watered down, almost forced persona that he was
braving perhaps just because I was there.
When
we returned to his office, two of his colleagues walked in. They were much
younger than him and they were both very agitated. Their life savings and
dreams were at stake: someone had allured them into buying plots in a housing
scheme and they had discovered that it was a total fraud.
"What
could be done?" One of them asked to no one in particular. "Nothing." The other responded. "Nothing can
be done. We are really doomed. There is no recourse to law. I know someone who
had similar experience and he has spent a fortune in court cases without any
result. I never thought it would happen to me."
After
they left, Dr Habib invited me to his home for lunch. He lived on campus. It
was a very simple place, with old furniture which had been kept in good order
but which had seen its better days. He introduced me to his wife. She was a
woman of few words. As if gripped by an unfathomable grief, she walked through
the house like a ghost. She brought food and we ate quietly.
Past
images of another Dr Habib flashed like lightning: A man dressed in immaculate
clothes, full of energy, ideas, plans and vision of a future which seemed just
around the corner.
What had gone wrong? How
the flower had withered? I wanted to ask disparately but Dr Habib gave no
opportunity; his silent and serene figure was an answer in itself -- more
eloquent than words.
--------------------------------------------
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
Sent on
Portraits of a Nation--(1)
He sits outside an office. He
is a human being, above forty, father of seven children. A harsh bell rings,
bringing him to his feet. He rushes to the office from where the push of a
small button had issued the command for his hurried movements. "Chai," another human being orders. The man
returns without uttering a single word, goes to the kitchen and starts making
tea.
He is Sharafat Khan. He has
served in this government department for twenty years. He is still in Grade 3,
drawing a monthly salary of rupees 3,000. He is at the bottom of a huge
bureaucracy and like everyone at the bottom of hierarchies,
he is the lowest paid worker doing the maximum amount of manual work.
He comes to the office half
an hour before everyone else. This is the quietest time of the day. He dusts
all the furniture, turns on heaters or air conditioners, depending on the
season of the year, puts newspapers on the desks of "sahibs", taking
care that the right paper goes to the right sahib. This is done according to
their ranks. He also cleans the kitchen and puts water on the burner for tea.
When the sahibs arrive, he
has to respond to three different bells and if they all ring at the same time,
he obeys them according to the seniority of the caller, much to the annoyance
of the others. Each ring means an order ranging from tea, cigarettes, payment
of utility bills to bringing or taking files from one office to another.
He had arrived in the
capital from the mountains where his family lived off a small piece of land. He
was the youngest of the eight children who grew up in a one room house which
had a small veranda adjacent to their ancestral land which had shrunk over the
period of time through inheritance divisions. Compared to his brothers and
sisters, he was lucky to be able to go to the school but his education came to
an abrupt end in grade 3 when his father died. He was eleven. That was also the
end of his childhood.
His village was on the
outskirts of a tourist resort. During the summers, when the plains became hot,
hordes of people came to the hill station where all kinds of jobs opened up for
an eleven-year-old orphan whose father had died the previous winter and whose
mother was too sick and too grief-stricken to remember anything anymore. She
had lived a life of perpetual poverty ever since she was born. After the death
of her husband, she had lost all hope and was to die within six months.
From the age of eleven to
eighteen, Sharafat Khan worked in restaurants, washing dishes, replacing dirty
linen, cleaning ash-trays, serving tea and doing hundred and one different
errands. Being the youngest in the family had advantages. His elder brothers
were already off to a rough start in their lives, with worries to get the three
sisters married. He had no idea of what that meant.
It was in the hill station,
working as a dishwasher, that he first came across the man who gave him the
consciousness that there is something called a government which is supposed to
take care of people, whose responsibility it was to provide Roti, Kaprah aur
Makan. That was Sharafat Khan's first lesson in politics.
It was the dawn of a new
era, the beginning of the seventies. Z.A. Bhutto had walked into the wayside
cafe where he worked and within minutes, he had electrified the crowd which had
spontaneously gathered around him. On that day, his charisma--which scholars
and professors would later to investigate through their erudition--was at its
best. For the first time in his life, Sharafat Khan experienced what it meant
to be the citizen of a country.
That was also the beginning
of his struggle to break the chain of poverty. With time, his consciousness
grew and he became part of the active political drama which was unfolding in
the midst of evolution of a new social and political order.
He came to know some one in
the hill station who knew some one in the capital and one day Sharafat Khan
picked up his old trunk and came to the capital. Coming to the big city was
like dream-walking; he had lived so close to it all his life but had never
ventured to come to the city which was filled with big houses, new cars, posh
buildings, open, wide roads lined with trees.
He worked at various odd
jobs until he ended up in a department of the central government as orderly. He
was recruited in grade 1, with a monthly salary of three hundred and fifty
rupees. His annual increment was fifteen rupees. But he did not know any of
this. All he knew was that he was now a government servant and three hundred
and fifty rupees was a big amount.
He got married and a rapid
succession of children quickly filled the small quarter where he lived and his
pay cheques started to become inadequate. Time passed.
Now he has served in the
same office for twenty years. Many sahibs have come and gone. He has heard
about sahibs who made lakhs of rupees by just sitting in their offices--the
very places where he brought tea and files. He has a dim consciousness that
something is not right. His
pay cheques have been increasing but their buying power has been
decreasing. Things cost much more and they do not last as long as they used to.
His children go to government school and he has dim hopes that one day they too
would become sahibs.
But for himself,
that brief light which had suddenly sparked in the darkness of his childhood,
had proved to be transitory flash. He would never know what it was about the
man who came to that wayside cafe and gathered a crowd around himself and
within minutes gave them a new consciousness of Being.
He would never know from where that sublime light had come which had given him
a feeling that he, too, mattered. That he was as good as any
one else. That he had a voice which needed to be heard. Later, he had
registered himself as a voter and had gone to the polls. The very first time he
did it, he had a great sense of empowerment; after all, it was he who was
forming the government. His opinion counted. He could decide. He felt thrilled
by the sense of power.
But that feeling did not
last. Somehow, things did not go in the direction he had thought they were
going and it was beyond his reach to find why and how he lost it all.
In the course of his life,
serving tea, bringing and taking files and sometimes listening to the bursts of
rash words from sahibs, he had, somehow, lost the grand vision of his
integration in an identity much bigger than himself: the nation. That brief
feeling of empowerment he had felt in his youth did not translate into
anything. He had only managed to become an orderly who served tea and brought
files whereas the man who had come to that wayside cafe had actually promised
something far greater. He was promising him to become a partner in building a
nation where he and his children would be able to live as respectable human
beings with rights and duties--a society where he would be respected as a human
being. That vision had never actualized.
Now Sharafat Khan spends
his days in the government office and his time away from the office is taken up
by the part-time jobs at other places. His children are going to school and he
hopes that one day at least one of them will make to the office from where the
bell rings, bringing him to his feet.
----------------------
Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
Published on
The Aid
Worker
It
was a hot May day. The phone rang. "This is Peter
Bonokovsky calling," the voice was totally unfamiliar. "I am from
"Sure," I said.
He came over to my house
on Saturday. It was his third week in
With the avid curiosity of
a newcomer who had never been in this part of the world, Peter was enthusiastic
about almost everything: he had been to the Itwar Bazaar and was thrilled by
the fantastic sight of fresh vegetables and fruits as much as by the display of
items being sold on the other side of the bazaar. "It has been the
learning experience of a lifetime," he said, referring to his two weeks.
"Those items are simply superb," he said, "the carpets, the
Russian antiques, the Afghan handicrafts--what a collection! And
so cheap!"
After the preliminaries,
we quickly got down to serious discussion. He had been to
Peter had come to Pakistan
on a two-year contract. His family was going to join him in September, after
the hot season was over. He was in the process of finding a house in Lahore. In
the meanwhile, he was being lodged in a posh hotel. An office had been set up
in Islamabad to liaise with the Federal government; Peter commuted between
Lahore and Islamabad, flying to the Capital once a week.
Six months later, when
Peter came over for his second visit, he was wearing a shalwar qameez.
"As-sa-la-mo alai-kum," he said, as he came into the living room. His
family had arrived in September, as planned, but his two children could not
adjust to the city and had returned to Canada. His wife was here. She had taken
a year off her job. "We looked for schools in Lahore," he explained,
"but it was not worth entering into a new system for a couple of years.
The American school was good and we had them going there but they just could
not live here," he said. "But
with email, and net2phone, we're daily in contact with them." His wife
stayed home or went out shopping. "We have an excellent cook," he
said. His wife had learned to cook a few Pakistani dishes.
This time Peter was less
enthusiastic about his project. He missed his children and although his wife
was doing alright, he knew that there was not much for her to do in Lahore and
she was missing her children more than him. But it was only five more months
until they both went home to spend a month of paid leave.
In the meanwhile, they
lived in this luxurious bungalow in one of the choicest localities of the city.
They had a cook, a mali, a laundryman, a chawkidar and a driver--all ready to
do whatever they were told to. Peter had never dreamt of such royal treatment.
In Canada, he shared household tasks with his wife. He earned a reasonable
salary but twenty-five percent of it went to the government as taxes and
whatever was left was sufficient for a decent but not a royal living.
"There are
problems," he said referring to his project, "unnecessary problems.
System is very corrupt and very slow. I cannot get things done the way I want
to and if I did the way they want me to do it, I would have to sacrifice a lot
of what I cherish."
"But the Chief
Minister," I reminded him.
"Yes," he said
with a tinge of sadness, "yes, he is keen but he has too many things on
his plate and when it comes down to getting things done, you have to deal with
the section officers who know it all. Eventually, you end up spending a lot of
time in unnecessary issues. But we are moving ahead and hopefully it will all
work out."
He was still hopeful.
Genuinely so. But the grand vision he had presented to me in his first meeting
and the enthusiasm and the force of conviction was absent. Also gone was the
lofty purpose behind the well-paid job which had given it a noble character: He
had come to a third world country with plans to provide a solid base for the development
of manpower which would be useful in the twenty-first century. After
twenty-five years of experience as an educator, he was finally going to apply
what he had learned in text books about education in third world.
He had been sick twice.
The usual water-born diseases. His wife had gone through even more severe
sickness but all was well now except that he had started to miss Canadian
winters and his parents' small farm where he had grown up and where he went at
least twice every year.
Our next and final meeting
happened a week before Peter was returning to Canada after completion of his
contract. His last year was shortened to eleven months because according to the
terms of his employment, he was entitled to a month of holidays every year and
by then was ready to leave.
Peter was sad and
extremely perturbed. He had spent twenty-three months of his life on a project
which did not go anywhere. He had made a lot of money. His contract was ending
and he had a job to return to but something was not right. His conscience was
not clear. On that night, he was ready to talk for he knew it was our last
meeting.
"I don't know
why," he said, "but I have been just running in circles. I feel bad
about it. I have been paid well and I think I have tried my best but we just
could not get things going."
His wife had left after a
year. His children had already returned to Canada before she went and since
then he had lived alone in the four bedroom bungalow he had set up for his family.
The strain on family relations was obvious but that was not what perturbed
Peter. There was something deeper.
He knew the money he had
earned would galvanize whatever strains had appeared in the family life. He
also knew that he would go back to what he had missed but there was a sense of
irreparable damage which nagged him.
"I have talked to a
lot of foreigners here," he said, "most of them spend the first
quarter of their two years in settling and adjusting, the second in absorbing
shocks, the third in trying to preserve their sanity and the fourth in
preparing to leave."
He looked into the air,
trying to find answers. "What is the point of all this?" he finally
asked. "That is what I don't understand."
Peter returned to Canada.
We stayed in touch for a few months, then the frequency of messages decreased
and finally we stopped writing to each other. He now lives in his familiar
surroundings perhaps still with unresolved questions about his twenty-three
month sojourn in Pakistan while the economic managers of our country negotiate
with the World Bank to bring more Peters who would add to the debt burden of
the coming generations.
Published on dec 4,
1998
Viewing
Pakistan from abroad
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
Seen from
the bottom of the mountain, they looked like signposts stationed at strategic
positions all along the path to the top. In fact, they were Pakistani men,
women and children who had come to Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas and who were now
sitting on the way to the top of Jabal al-Noor, the mountain which has the cave
of Hira at its top where the last Prophet (peace be upon him) received his
first revelation in 610 AD. "One riyal," they ask as pilgrims to the
cave pass by them, "One riyal, May Allah accept your Umrah."
I stop
by a ten year old girl and ask her questions. She is shy and reluctant to
answer but in a few minutes warms up. She was there with her father, mother and
two brothers. They had come from interior Sindh. Her mother sat a few feet away
with a baby in her lap and looked at us uneasily. "Some times 40, some
times 50," she said in answer to my question about how many riyals she
made every day. She was a fair coloured girl with long black hair and
intelligent eyes but when she raised her voice to the passing pilgrims, it was
pathetic. She contrived to make it as pitiable as possible.
Her
name was Samina, a ten-year-old Pakistani who became a metaphor for the country
during my recent trip to the Gulf states.
Samina
was not alone. There were hundreds of them. They sit on the tracks going up the
sacred sites or roam around the streets of Makkah, playing hide and seek with
the local police. All around the Haram area and other sites where pilgrims go,
one finds them begging for riyals. They represent the plight of a nation which
has lost all self-respect and whose citizens have been forced to live in abject
poverty and self-denial. But it is not just poverty that has made these
Pakistanis lose their self esteem. There are other nations far poorer than ours
but one does not find their citizens begging in foreign lands.
It
takes more than poverty to produce a sizeable body of citizens who would flee
their native country at whatever cost and do all kinds of menial jobs in their
new places of residence. In the Gulf countries, Pakistanis are sweeping floors,
cleaning toilets and collecting garbage. These are mostly young men. They earn
paltry sums. Most of them manage to go there by borrowing money and then become
hostage to their circumstances which do not allow them to return nor let them
earn enough to save for a future business. They merely struggle to survive.
Born in a country whose Prime Minister boasts of being the seventh atomic
power, hundreds of Saminas are wasting their childhoods in the oil rich
countries where their parents do menial jobs, beg or languish in jails.
These
children do not have a chance. Their fates were sealed right at the time of
their birth. Their parents were not only poor, they were also men and women who
had lost their self respect in a feudal system which has remained intact even
in the post-independence period. The reconstruction of Pakistan's identity as a
nation has never been attempted. The independence has been merely a change of
command from the hands of fair skinned rulers to the ones with darker skins.
What
is the cause of this phenomenon? Why have we failed to prevent Samina and her
little brother to sit on the rocky path to Hira, the holy cave, and raise their
piteous voices to the passing pilgrims? These children of misfortune deserve a
national response to their pathetic existence.
Viewed
from outside, Pakistan appears to be a failed state whose only response to its
crisis is to beg. The state begs, its citizens beg, its institutions beg and
its leaders beg. There are different names for begging but they all amount to
the same thing. A country where no one has the courage to spell out the exact
dimensions of the national misfortune cannot be expected to come out of it.
Girls like
Samina are living metaphors of a reality so painful that in any civilized
society it would immediately initiate a process of inquiry at the highest
level. They are children without a childhood. They are products of a society
which is full of contradictions and internal conflicts. A country whose
leadership never tires of talking about Islam and Shariah but where the most
fundamental teachings of Islam are being trampled with disdain.
The
real tragedy of contemporary Pakistani society is its failure to evolve
effective means of reconstruction of a national identity which could produce
self respect and dignity. Everywhere outside Pakistan, one comes across
degrading incidents which are a direct result of the low esteem in which the
country is held by others: the immigration officer who double checks your
passport to make sure the visa is not forged; the custom officer who goes
through your luggage meticulously to look for concealed drugs and the average
citizen of the foreign country who looks down on you because of the image he or
she has of your country.
All
these are painful reminders of a much greater tragedy which no one is willing
to acknowledge: as a nation, we have failed to develop an identity which would
make us respectable citizen of the world community.
Pakistan
from abroad seems to be immersed in a state of chaos and confusion. National
goals are not sufficiently clear. Various groups, which hold political power,
are engrossed in issues which are merely on the surface. Deep rooted problems
of the country are not even being mentioned. Only the most apparent signs of
cancer, which is spreading rapidly, are being viewed as the whole malady.
The
society which is producing Samina and her little brothers is surely bound to
disintegrate if corrective measures are not taken. But those who have been
entrusted with the task of steering the country seem to be totally unaware of
the ground realities. The fundamental issues confronting the nation are simply
being ignored and the peripherals have been pushed to the centre stage.
At
this time of our national life, what is needed is a long-term plan of national
reconstruction which can be agreed upon by all the major parties. This
developmental plan should be evolved as a national priority. (As expected, the
government's vision 2010 has proved to be mere slogan and it is apparent that
there is no real vision behind the farce.) The need to evolve a national agenda
through a process of consultation among the representatives of all segments of
society has never been so urgent as it is now. This national agenda can then be
implemented through an institutional setup which should be independent of
politics.
Samina
and her little brothers are still sitting on the path to the top of the
mountain where the first verses of the Qur'aan were revealed which commanded
the Prophet to read. They are children of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
where the government has avowed to enforce Shariah. They are children without a
childhood, human beings without human dignity, Muslims without the benefit of
fraternity of believers.
Only a visionary process
of nation building can bring an end to this humiliating sight of small children
going off to foreign lands to beg.
--------
Dr.
Muzaffar Iqbal
December
14, 1998
Published
on Dec. 19, 1998 as
An
inexorable legacy
Why
the has State Failed?
On July 18, 1947, the King of England gave his ascent
to an Act of British Parliament which amended the Government of India Act 1935,
providing the legal framework for the creation of two states in the
subcontinent. Twenty-seven days later, the State of Pakistan came into
existence. It inherited all the state institutions which were established by
the British to rule over the vast native population. The governing principle of
this hierarchical structure was to de-franchise the natives and concentrate
power in the hands of the few who were selected and trained through a rigorous
process which confirmed their loyalty to the Raj. The Viceroy was at the apex
of this hierarchy. He held authority and power over the whole machinery which
successfully ruled India for ninety years.
It took Pakistan more than eight years to frame its
first constitution but this long and tedious process, which culminated in the
form of the 1956 Constitution, proved to be a total loss because it was never
given a chance. The first Martial Law was declared in 1958 and the questions
relating to the nature of constitution, the form of government and the division
of power between the centre and the provinces, which had dominated national
life for more than eight years, were thrown overboard within hours. One man had
decided to impose his Law on the whole nation.
But this process was only at one level. At another
level, the state machinery which had been inherited from the Raj had remained
operative. In some cases, names were changed (like ICS to CSP) but the nature
of state institutions and the philosophy behind their functioning remained
unchanged.
The Raj controlled the country through an intricate
establishment which relied on the loyalty of Commissioners and Deputy
Commissioners, SP's and SSp's, collectors of customs and Patwaris. These were
there not to serve the natives but to serve the Raj. Those who were obliged to
take oath, did so by pledging their loyalty to the Raj. The same institutions
remained operative after the so-called Independence with the same mentality,
only the white skins were replaced by darker skins.
The Northwest Railways, for example, was a state
department which was established to facilitate better control of the country by
the British officers by providing them luxurious means of travel. The boggies
were equipped with commodes, first class salons provided private compartments to
the officers of the royal bureaucracy and, as a side benefit, natives were also
allowed to travel but it was not considered to be their right. Travelling by
rail was a privilege, not a right.
Pakistan Railways not only inherited the tracks and
locomotive sheds, it also inherited the mentality and the operating philosophy
of the Raj. While all over the world, railways became the most important means
of public transport, providing clients services with an aim to serve and do
business, railway travel in Pakistan remained and still remains at the mercy of
black skin Babus who would not sell you a ticket if they don't feel like it. A
good example is the railcar plying between Rawalpindi and Lahore. A customer
who pays the fare should be able to reserve a seat and it should be simple
business transaction. But the Raj mentality prevents that. There are
regulations which allow for ticket sales only up to fifteen days before the
travel; tickets can only be purchased from the place where the journey begins
and one cannot buy a round trip ticket. In short, travelling by rail is not a
business transaction where one pays money to buy a service; it is looked upon
as a privilege at the mercy of the Babus. Only a Raj mentality can devise such
rules.
It is hard to believe that scores of ministers, highly
educated secretaries of railway and hordes of officers have come and gone but
they did not know how to devise a system which would work in an efficient
manner, providing citizens a respectable means of travel. No, it is not that.
It is simply the continuity of an attitude which treats citizens as if they are
less than human beings.
From telephone department to the land titles' offices,
there is no state institution in Pakistan which is based on the philosophy of
serving people. So while politicians have made mockery of the very concept of
an independent state, the institutions of the British Raj have quietly continue
to operate.
It is not so much due to the lack of enough
intelligence in those who head state corporations that a significant number of
human beings have to stand in long queues under the scorching sun to pay
utility bills; it is the Raj mentality which has prevented the emergence of
simple solutions which would make the payment of these bills a dignified and efficient
exercise. The officers of the state corporations which are responsible for
providing citizens with essential services such as the supply of water,
electricity and gas do not see themselves as public servants, drawing salaries
and perks out of public funds; they have inherited the Raj mentality which
ensures them that they are somehow superior to the natives and need not bother
with finding solutions for the problems they are causing to the public.
A direct consequence of this situation is waste of enormous
amount of national time. Those who sit in the offices of the state institutions
are there not to serve but to create hurdles and play gods. Those who are
unfortunate to get trapped, waste away their lives running between ketcheries
and thanas.
The underlying cause of this barbaric treatment of
citizenry is the fact that no one in the State of Pakistan has ever tried to
change the operating principles of state machinery. The ICS officers of the Raj
saw themselves as an extension of the Raj; the state functionaries of the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan see themselves as superior to the rest of
humanity; even the nomenclature smacks of this inhuman and barbaric mentality:
the superior services of Pakistan.
The state machinery operates on a hierarchical principle
with the concentration of power in few hands. As a result what is done by one
person in most offices of western countries, requires several persons in
Pakistan. Banks, utility corporations, customs offices, land revenue
departments and scores of other client services are based on the principle that
the lower ranks cannot be trusted and at each and every step, a higher
"officer" has to verify documents and counter sign. (Ironically, it
is generally the higher ranks where the corruption is most prevalent.)
During the Raj, access to information, higher
education and entertainment were considered to be privileges of a select group
of the population. The same mentality persists in the state governed
institutions of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. During the British Raj, all
radio sets had to be licensed by the state. The advent of transistors made a
mockery of this law for now every citizen had access to affordable pocket-size
transistor sets, but the law to obtain license has remained on the books. When
television arrived, the State of Pakistan passed an ordinance which made it
compulsory for every owner to get a license from the state corporation. This
law is still in existence at the dawn of the twenty-first century, which promises to be a century of information. In
fact, while you read this column, inspectors are going door to door, checking
TV licenses. During the previous weeks, the state of Pakistan has spent
thousands of rupees on newspaper advertisements warning the citizens of the
dire consequences of not having a license. The salaries of the employees, the
expenses on maintaining huge offices with records of TV licenses and the cost
of newspaper advertisements must be more than what the government would get
from license fees. But it is not money, not even common sense that matters; it
is the mentality behind such archaic regulations which has contributed toward
the presence of a state machinery totally out of synch with time.
The same is true for the postal service. The British
left an excellent system but they also put certain mechanisms in place which
ensured that the ruling elite had control over what goes through the postal
system and how. One such mechanism required that all parcels had to be wrapped
in cloth, sewed and sealed with sealing wax. In 1998, parcel post still
requires that packages be sewed in fabric and stamped with sealing wax!
The monarch loved to send messages to the subjects.
Festivals and significant religious occasions were the best times to do so. As
the month of Ramadan approaches, section officers in the Prime Minister's
Secretariat and at the Presidency are digging out old files to copy messages of
greetings to the nation which would repeat clichés and worn out phrases. These
messages were drafted decades ago. They will make headlines, one more time and
then go back to their dusty old files. Repeated year after year, they have lost
every single iota of the spirit of the blessed month but they would continue to
be the burden of the collective consciousness of the nation.
The state has failed not only because of the
politicians; it has failed because the operating principles behind the state
machinery have never been devised to work in an independent state in which
citizens have some rights and privileges. The state institutions have been
performing scores of routines which first made their appearance during the Raj.
There are literally hundreds of statutes which go back to the previous century.
As a result, a suffocating atmosphere prevails in the country which is devoid
of intellectual creativity. The society is breathing an air which has no oxygen
left and the petrified collective body is decaying in the absence of fresh
ideas which sustain societies and nations.