Mehvash Amin invites you to the launch of "The Fundamentals of Sufism" a book by Rehman Anwer at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (above Indesign, adjacent to Standard Chartered Bank). RSVP Mehvash Amin 0333 4771000.
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC)
‘Deals’ in the air
Rashed Rahman
Nothing in our blessed country is ever simple or straightforward. What appears to be ‘true’ very often turns out to be a figment of some overactive imagination. What appears ‘false’ is often turned into a ‘misunderstanding’, ‘misquote’ or ‘misinterpretation’. Spare a thought then for the ordinary citizen’s inability to sift truth from fiction or lies, and the subsequent confusion that follows almost inevitably.
The political atmosphere in the country has taken a sudden and unexpected turn that has given rise to a ‘buzz’ in the air about portentous events in the offing. Let us begin in sequence from the recent local bodies (LB) elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The province had come to be considered a stronghold of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) for having won the KP provincial elections (part of the general elections) for the past two terms. Extended incumbency, however, can often prove a double-edged sword. To put it mildly, the PTI has been administered a drubbing in these LB elections at the hands of its (now) main opposition in KP: the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The latter had virtually been written off as a force in its home base of KP in recent years, allegedly because the ubiquitous establishment no longer found Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party as useful as it had proved during the Afghan wars of yesteryear.
The LBs election drubbing in KP is being considered a ‘signal’ from the establishment that the PTI can no longer assume it has its backing. So much for the by now overused ‘same page’ mantra. This interpretation makes sense if you consider the almost certain concern of the establishment that brought it to power through the allegedly manipulated and rigged 2018 general election that the PTI’s performance in office leaves much to be desired (to put it politely). The relatively free, fair and non-manipulated or -rigged LBs election in KP indicates the seeming strategy the establishment has now plumped for, three and a half years into the PTI’s incumbency. The establishment may have calculated that removing Imran Khan and his government ‘forcibly’ may provide him a handy response from on top his favourite container to argue that he was removed because he went after the alleged corrupt amongst the opposition leadership. This may accord him both the moral high ground and political momentum. Therefore the wiser course may be to let him fall under the weight of his own mistakes, inadequacies and bad performance in power. If the LBs elections in KP are any guide, this is a sure-shot strategy given the general disillusionment with the PTI government, centring around, but not necessarily confined to, the handling of the economy, a handling that has delivered precious little except galloping double-digit inflation, unemployment (hardly any investment to speak of) and failure to deliver on any of the much trumpeted social welfare policies around which the PTI’s election rhetoric revolved (the peanuts from Ehsaas and other dole-out programmes notwithstanding). Imran Khan’s (always) misplaced response: dissolve the entire PTI party structure, especially at the local level and ‘replace’ it with federal ministers! Imran Khan’s habitual misplaced concreteness has not been honest enough to admit its own bad governance is the main reason for the defeat, instead blaming local favouritism and wrong choice of candidates. The foisting of a highly centralised party structure has aroused resentment and grumbling at the grassroots level of the PTI in KP and arguably throughout the country. The efficacy or otherwise of this move will soon be tested in the Punjab LB elections.
The uncertainties about PTI’s future have also received a fillip from former Speaker of the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ayaz Sadiq’s recent startling statement after returning from London where he met Nawaz Sharif that the latter would be returning to the country soon amidst a ‘big bang’. This ‘big bang’ remains as much a mystery to date as the one that theoretically gave birth to the Universe. Ayaz Sadiq confirmed that ‘non-political’ people had been meeting Nawaz Sharif in London of late, but confessed ignorance as to their identity or the content of these discussions. However, he did argue that this development made sense given that the establishment had realised it had blundered in foisting Imran Khan and the PTI on the country. Implied in this argument is the unstated but highly desirable outcome of future elections at all levels being relatively free and fair (at least till 2023).
As per by now the tired and familiar script, both the government spokespeople and the opposition are going hammer and tongs at each other over the possibility that Nawaz Sharif may return under a ‘deal’, which would have to include a review of the Supreme Court’s disqualification of Nawaz Sharif from holding public office for life, merely because he had not declared his iqama(residence and employment certificate) while in exile and was therefore found not sadiqand ameen(honest and truthful) as required by General Ziaul Haq’s inserted provisions in Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. But this is not the only possible ‘deal’ causing a stir. Asif Zardari too has chimed in with intriguing hints of being ‘approached’ to find a way out of the present political impasse.
What all this amounts to may be succinctly summed up with the observation that Pakistan’s polity has sunk to a new/old low: the incumbents are actual and chosen collaborators of the establishment while the opposition waiting in the wings is a potential collaborator. What a state the long-standing struggle for a genuine democracy has been reduced to.
When these lines appear, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) faithful will have flocked to Garhi Khuda Buksh to commemorate Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in 2007 after she returned from self-imposed exile. Unfortunately, the closure of this dastardly case has suffered the same fate as all other similar conspiracies in the past. The real culprits, including General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, are still beyond the reach of the law or justice. The case is still pending 14 years after the event. If a former prime minister’s murder case can suffer this kind of delay, what hope for justice for ordinary mortals? With her untimely death, Benazir Bhutto’s passing reflected the death of hope in our hearts, our longing for at least a civilised, democratic state and society.
With a heavy heart full of sorrow for the state of our beloved country, ‘Happy’ New Year.
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com
OIC conference on Afghanistan
Rashed Rahman
The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) met in Islamabad on December 19, 2021 to discuss the Afghanistan humanitarian and economic crisis. The OIC decided to set up a Humanitarian Trust Fund and Food Security Programme to deal with the rapidly aggravating crisis. It also pledged to play a leading role in delivering humanitarian and development aid to the people of Afghanistan. This wording reflects the efforts of our Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in his address to the conference to delink the 40 million Afghan people from the Taliban government. The former are in dire straits, the latter unrecognised, shunned, under sanctions, and with Afghanistan’s $ 9 billion reserves frozen by the US. Imran Khan has put forward this argument in the light of the world’s reservations about the Taliban government and its willingness, despite verbal assurances, to uphold human and women’s rights and forge an inclusive government. What to speak of ‘inclusive’, the present Taliban-only government (arguably true to its nature) has been charged recently with committing summary executions of former members of the Afghan security services all over the country.
Reportedly, there were expectations ahead of the OIC conference that it would evoke pledges, commitments and money for aiding the almost 23 million Afghan people facing food shortages (i.e. hunger), including 3.2 million most vulnerable children. However, those harbouring such hopes did not perhaps take into account the track record of the OIC in seldom being able to agree on anything (a Muslim house divided, therefore) or do anything worth mentioning in its 47-year existence. Sure enough, the only pledges forthcoming were $ 265 million from Saudi Arabia and $ 30 million from Pakistan. The rest was silence, ostensibly because, according to our redoubtable Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, countries that wanted to make aid pledges were hesitant to do so since there was no channel through which aid could be delivered (implying, again, the Taliban government could not play this role). The channel created, the Humanitarian Trust Fund and the Food Security Programme, would be hard put to it to implement their decision to set up the structures and means for aid delivery by March 2022. Even if that deadline is met, it may prove too late for the over half the population freezing and dying of hunger and malnutrition in what is proving to be an unusually harsh winter. Troubles, they say, never come except in batches. We must wait and see whether after these channels become functional, what the level of aid committed and delivered will be. To repeat oneself, the OIC has never done anything like this or even remotely mention-worthy so far in its existence.
Pakistan’s leadership, from COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa to PM Imran Khan and down the food chain, is warning the world of the implications of not aiding the Afghan people, including, according to our PM, the world’s worst man-made disaster. One is tempted to ask the PM who are the authors of this impending disaster? Whereas the US cannot avoid or deny its responsibility in the debacle of its 20-year war and occupation of Afghanistan, which ended precisely in the ignominy informed analysts had been predicting from the start, Pakistan’s role cannot be ignored either. Pakistan’s meddling and interventions through armed religious zealots since 1973 in Afghanistan’s internal affairs have produced the outcome of a medieval Taliban regime, isolated internationally and unable to govern meaningfully. In the process, whatever triumphalism and backslapping self-congratulation may be going on as a result of achieving this Pyrrhic victory, the Taliban’s isolation is wearing off on Pakistan too. In fact, as the proceedings of this OIC conference and Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts show, Pakistan’s establishment’s two dearest causes, Kashmir and a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, hardly raise a sympathetic murmur now in international diplomacy.
One headline in our press declares that the Islamic countries at this OIC conference are ‘one’ on helping Afghanistan. Even if one foregoes one’s scepticism regarding this claim, it may be sufficient to point out that currently, this ‘one’ Islamic world is virtually silent except for lip service on Kashmir, and is witnessing an obscene stampede by one Arab country after another to recognize Israel and betray the Palestinian cause. What price ‘oneness’?!
The truth lies in the almost daily dose of news about women and minority nationalities in Afghanistan raising voice and protesting at their treatment and denial of rights. Witness the queues of hundreds of Afghans seeking passports to leave the country as soon as the Taliban government revived the service. Some seek urgent medical treatment abroad, most seek to escape from the dreadful antediluvian order imposed on them by a backward religious extremist Taliban whose best (or worst) has yet to come.
Islamic State (IS) may be posing the most immediate and potent threat to the Taliban regime as witnessed in their continuing terrorist bombing campaign, but one should not prematurely write off the anti-Taliban resistance that has perforce had to retreat to safe havens in Tajikistan. As Taliban rule unfolds in all its ugly manifestations, more and more ethnic minority nationalities, religious minorities (particularly Shias), women and others are poised to join, or be pushed, into the arms of the resistance.
It ain’t over yet.
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com
Dear friends,
As proposed earlier, the first meeting of the broad platform we would like to see emerging in the country under the suggested title "Coalition of the Oppressed" was held at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC) Lahore on December 18, 2021. Unfortunately the turnout was below the widespread support the idea had attracted in the first instance. This could be because people forgot, were distracted or busy, or reflect the general apathy our society appears to have fallen into. Nevertheless, the meeting went ahead, with Rashed Rahman introducing and mooting the idea of a broad coalition of workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities, women, youth, students, religious minorities and all other oppressed communities. Difficult as the task appeared to the participants in the obtaining circumstances and political atmosphere, the consensus that emerged after the discussion was to broaden our engagement and appeal, prepare to hold similar meetings in all the major cities of the country, and only contemplate some organisational structure after this round of consultations is over and the sense of the discussions can light the way forward.
Further updates will be presented as this initiative goes forward and unfolds. Thanks to all those who attended, and hope that those who were unable to make it will contact us and be open to future interactions.
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore.
Cells: +92 302 8482737 (WhatsApp) & +92 333 4216335. Email: rashed.rahman1@gmail.com
Gwadar reflects Balochistan’s cruel deprivation
Rashed Rahman
Almost a month after the people of Gwadar have been protesting in the thousands in the streets, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has finally woken up to the “very legitimate” demands of the protestors. Imran Khan has vowed to take ‘strong’ action against the illegal fishing by trawlers that has deprived the poor fishermen of Gwadar of their already precarious livelihood. Promising to speak to Chief Minister (CM) Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo on the issue, the PM may or may not be aware that some (if not all) of the ‘illegal’ trawlers are Chinese, whose fishing activities in the sea off the Gwadar coast have been tacitly allowed by the authorities. This ‘bonanza’ is no doubt part of our grovelling gratitude to the Chinese for making Gwadar Port the flagship project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The ‘strong’ action promised by Imran Khan may have unforeseen negative effects on the already strained relations between Pakistan and China over the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government’s perceived foot dragging over CPEC and its projects.
The list of 19 demands by the Gwadar protestors reflect not only their anger and disappointment over the much vaunted CPEC development of the port ignoring the people of the area and their basic rights. These 19 demands include stopping illegal fishing by foreign trawlers, removal of the Gwadar Development Authority Director General as well as Pasni’s Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, restoration of cross-border trade with Iran (the sole means of earning for many in the region), provision of clean drinking water, closure of wine shops (a demand owed no doubt to Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, Balochistan general secretary of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the leader of the Gwadar protests), jobs, job quota for the disabled, free 300 units of electricity and boats and vehicles confiscated under the Customs Act to be returned to their owners.
Adviser to the CM on Home and Tribal Affairs Mir Ziaullah Langau resorted to the wearingly familiar tactic of throwing dust in the eyes of the protestors by claiming that the Balochistan government had already fulfilled most of the 19 demands! In other words, in Mir Ziaullah Langau’s eyes, the protestors are mad to continue their campaign. One report says the only demand that appears to have been fulfilled so far is the closure of wine shops. The track record of the most crucial demand, clean drinking water, without which life itself is impossible, indicates the seriousness of the authorities in redressing the genuine deprivations of the people of Gwadar. Balochistan is suffering from an acute drinking water crisis, in which 70 percent of the province has been hit, with Gwadar in the worst predicament. The Ankara Dam was built in 1994 to provide water to 35,000 people in the Gwadar area but dried up four times. Lack of maintenance has led to the loss of half of its storage capacity. In the last two years, three Chinese-funded dams have been completed, while two are under construction as part of CPEC. Unfortunately though, none of these is connected to Gwadar. In 2015-16, a desalination plant was provided to Gwadar to supply 1.1 million litres of water against a target of 7.5 million litres. Currently, no desalination plants are operational. Water tankers from Mirani Dam have to be relied upon, no doubt accompanied by the tender ministrations of the ‘tanker mafia’. The long standing issue has consistently fallen on deaf ears. The only reason Imran Khan has woken up to Gwadar’s misery, and that too after a month, is the size of the protests, which have broken through traditional tribal norms with the incredible number of Baloch women seen in the protests.
If the five-star hotel in Gwadar was not affront enough to the poor and deprived people of the area, we now hear that the cost of the new Gwadar airport has risen by 550 percent. In the face of the poverty and deprivation of rights of the people of Balochistan, nothing but the usual mish-mash of promises, promises (never fulfilled), is fed to them by the authorities. Empty gestures and promises remind the Baloch people of the history of broken promises (some bordering on the treacherous) to which they have been subjected since Pakistan’s independence. Is it any surprise then that Balochistan is in the grip of the fifth nationalist insurgency since Pakistan came into being?
Awami Workers Party and Baloch Muttahida Mahaz president Yousuf Mustikhan was invited to address the rally of the protestors. He delivered a speech that reminded the audience of the Baloch people’s long standing grievances, including the forcible annexation of Balochistan to Pakistan in 1947-48, the province’s gas being ‘stolen’ since 1953, etc. He ended with a rhetorical verbal flourish that the Baloch people are considered ‘slaves’ in Pakistan but they will not bow to this status. These are hardly new revelations. They have been in the public space for decades. Nevertheless, Yousuf Mustikhan was arrested a day after his speech on December 8, 2021 from his hotel and charged under numerous ‘anti-state’ provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code. The arrest of an elderly leader who is also a cancer sufferer provoked widespread condemnation, with a bevy of lawyers rushing to his aid and managing to have him released on bail on December 10, 2021. Maulana Hidayatur Rehman responded to this development by stating that they are not afraid of arrests, but the attitude of the authorities is pushing their peaceful protest towards violence. This last may not be mere rhetoric since reports say thousands of police are being sent to Gwadar from other districts to maintain ‘law and order’.
The Gwadar protest has no intention of being seduced and misled by the familiar refrain of the authorities’ promises of redress. In an astonishing turnaround, the JI, hitherto never considered a strong party in Balochistan, has to its credit tapped into the long standing life and death concerns of the people of Gwadar, including its women, and produced a sustained protest by thousands of people for a month, with no sign of fatigue or giving up until the promises of the authorities are translated into reality on the ground. The JI’s taking the lead on these issues (owed a great deal to the fact that Maulana Hidayatur Rehman comes from a poor fishing family background) has caused a great deal of heartburn and gnashing of teeth amongst the Baloch nationalist parties, who complacently perhaps regarded the area as their exclusive political preserve. Perhaps the shock of being displaced if not replaced by the JI in this unprecedented protest campaign is just the medicine they need to get off their hands and engage with the people of Balochistan, beset by a mountain of complaints, deprivations and injustices. History does not wait for anyone.
The 1905 unsuccessful revolutionary uprising in Tsarist Russia was inspired by a protest march for bread led by a Father Gapon, suspected of being a Tsarist spy. The protest procession was attacked by the Tsar’s troops, a massacre to be dubbed ‘Bloody Sunday’ followed, and fed directly into the revolutionary upsurge. Although it was eventually crushed by Tsarist absolutism, 1905 proved the ‘dress rehearsal’ for 1917, throwing up in the process the new form of political organisation called soviets (councils) of workers, peasants and soldiers. Maulana Hidayatur Rehman may be no Father Gapon, but he has certainly lit a torch that if not handled carefully, could produce unexpected results and fallouts.
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com
The December 2021 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) is out. Link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com
Contents:
1. Rashed Rahman: The National Question in Marxism – V.
2. Dr Maqsudul Hasan Nuri: A comparative tale of Indian communism in Kerala and West Bengal: elections, governance and performance.
3. Dr Farhat Taj: Strategic Depth Approach – Inadequate Explanation of the Afghan Challenge.
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore.
Cells: +92 302 8482737 (WhatsApp) & +92 333 4216335.
Dear friends,
Given the rise of religious extremism as seen recently in the Charsadda and Sialkot blasphemy cases, and given the mainstreaming of TLP and accommodation of the TTP, and in the light of our failed efforts over the last 4 years to unite the Left and nationalists, not to mention the Left itself, there is a suggestion that the very real threat to democracy and progressive politics should be countered by creating a broad front of workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities, women, students, youth, religious minorities and any other oppressed community to be called a Coalition of the Oppressed. Since the response to this suggestion has been generally positive and encouraging, a meeting to discuss the proposal will be held at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore on Saturday, December 18, 2021 at 3:00 pm. Kindly respond to give us an idea how many friends will be attending and need to be catered for. Tea will be served.
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre, 2nd floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore.
Cells: +92 302 8482737 (WhatsApp) & +92 333 4216335
Email: rashed.rahman1@gmail.com
