Filmbar weekly films every Friday at Research and Publication Centre (RPC) revival, starting with The Battle of Algiers, Friday, Nov 22, 6:00 pm

Filmbar programme of showing weekly films is being revived at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC). As our re-entry film, we are showing Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966) at Research and Publication Centre on Friday, November 22, at 6pm. All friends are welcome. Tea will be served.

The narrative follows Colonel Philippe, who is tasked with suppressing the uprising against the government in French Algeria. Soon, he finds that a petty criminal, Ali la Pointe, is recruited to fight against the colonizers.

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Business Recorder Column November 19, 2024

Adieu Khaled Ahmed!

 

Rashed Rahman

 

My friend, Editor, journalist of 40 years standing, Khaled Ahmed passed away on Sunday night, November 17, 2024. He had been ill with an array of old age afflictions for some time. Born 1943 in Jalandhar, East Punjab (now in India), Khaled belonged to the Niazi clan that migrated to Lahore after Partition and settled in Zaman Park, adjacent to Aitchison College. Some other notable names from the clan are Majid Khan (once my class fellow in Saint Anthony’s High School) and Imran Khan (once my friend, who now no longer wishes to speak to me because he cannot take criticism). The Zaman Park Niazis produced over the years a host of cricketers and prominent individuals from a diverse menu of the professions.

My acquaintance with Khaled Ahmed began when I joined Government College, Lahore in 1964. Khaled and I were part of the cast of Government College’s centenary year play, Arsenic and Old Lace, directed and acted in by no less than my friend the late Shoaib Hashmi. I left for London in 1965 for further studies and did not return till 1971. In this period, I had lost touch with Khaled. It was only when I returned to live in Lahore in 1979 that my re-acquaintance with Khaled was fated to take place.

In 1990, I was, as the saying goes, ‘between jobs’ (i.e. unemployed). One night at a dinner, my wife Ghazala Rahman appealed to our mutual friend Nusrat Jamil to do something about my ‘wasting away’. Nuscie, as we all affectionately call her, was then Managing Editor of Frontier Post, and Khaled Ahmed, having done lengthy stints at Pakistan Times and The Nation, was the Editor. Nuscie, in an effort to respond to the call for help for me, asked me: “What do you think of journalism?” I replied: “I have a healthy contempt for the profession.” “No, no, no, no,” Nuscie protested, “please take a minute to reconsider your answer.” After a minute’s thought, I said: “I still have a healthy contempt for the profession!” Nuscie was not discouraged. She argued that Frontier Post was a young paper with a young cast of journalists who were doing exciting things and I should pay a visit and see for myself. Despite my scepticism about journalism per se, I visited Frontier Post and liked what I saw. There was a buzz of new, creative thinking in the air in the Frontier Post office. The next day, I joined.

Presenting myself before the Editor, Khaled Ahmed, I was interrogated whether I wanted to do journalism, and if so, was I prepared to learn. I replied yes, that seems like a good idea. In that case, Khaled said, you have to start at the bottom. Such was my ignorance about journalism then that I had no idea what that meant, but out of respect for Khaled I said he knew best and I would be guided by his wisdom. That means sub-editor in the newsroom, Khaled said. The Senior News Editor, the late Jeff Plair, was summoned to Khaled’s office and after introducing me, told to take me on as a sub-editor. To my utter astonishment, Jeff Plair, whom I had never laid eyes on before in my life, turned to Khaled and said: “Khaled sahib, what are you saying? He is Editor material and you want me to take him as a sub-editor!?” You could have knocked me over with a feather, considering I did not know Jeff Plair from Adam, but he seemed to know who I was. Khaled said never mind, just take him.

To cut a long story short, I mastered sub-editing within three days with the help of my colleagues in the newsroom, days later was promoted to one of the two News Editors under the Chief News Editor, Jeff Plair. Within three months, Jeff Plair had a heart attack at work and died. I was promoted to take his place. The rest, as they say, is history. In my stint as Chief News Editor for about a year, I learnt from Khaled Ahmed the principles of good journalism, but in a very gentle, non-interfering way. My early blunders were defended by him as part of my learning curve, and he never faltered in his attitude of confidence in my abilities. That was the generous nature of my very learned, erudite friend, the Editor who launched me on my journalistic career of 34 years and counting.

Khaled was always a voracious reader. His home was cluttered with piles of books, read or to be read. His editorials and other writings showed without a shadow of a doubt the depth of his knowledge. We were destined to meet once again later (in 2009) when I took over the Editorship of Daily Times. It was awkward being the Editor to my former Editor and teacher, Khaled Ahmed. We were both awkward in this unprecedented about face. This situation did not last long as Khaled eventually left Daily Times. He became Consulting Editor to the Pakistani edition of Newsweek.

I do not think Khaled Ahmed’s erudition and knowledge have received deserved recognition. But that is an occupational hazard in journalism in Pakistan, not to mention just about everything else. Regardless of the fickleness of our quick to forget the great minds of our society and their contribution, Khaled Ahmed’s body of work will continue to inspire those who hold the principles of objective, critical, knowledgeable journalism in high regard. Perhaps that is the best tribute to my friend and mentor. Adieu, Khaled Ahmed, RIP.

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Filmbar programme of showing weekly films is being revived at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC)

Filmbar programme of showing weekly films is being revived at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC). As our re-entry film, we are showing Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966) at Research and Publication Centre on Friday, November 22, at 6pm. All friends are welcome. Tea will be served.

The narrative follows Colonel Philippe, who is tasked with suppressing the uprising against the government in French Algeria. Soon, he finds that a petty criminal, Ali la Pointe, is recruited to fight against the colonizers.

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

The November 2024 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) is out

The November 2024 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) is out. Link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com

Contents:

1. Berch Berberoglu: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and Class Struggle: A Critical Analysis of Mainstream and Marxist Theories of Nationalism and National Movements – II: Toward a Marxist Theory of Nationalism.

2. W B Bland: The Pakistani Revolution – IV: Pakistan as a semi-colony of US Imperialism.

3. Ed Augustin: Biden’s Cuba policy leaves the Island in wreckage.

4. Fayyaz Baqir: My life and struggle – IX: The Fourth International.

5. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur: The Rise of Baloch Nationalism and Resistance – XV: Hingol Park.

6. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi: Pakistan’s blackest day.

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook) 

Business Recorder Column, November 5, 2024

Breathe!

 

Rashed Rahman

 

Punjab as a whole, but especially the provincial capital Lahore, is once again in the grip of what has become a regular (no longer necessarily seasonal) affliction: smog. Normally, the stifling mixture of pollutants is at its worst as the weather turns colder, which historically is associated with October. However, human activity in today’s world has so disturbed the ecology of the globe that seasons that could once be used to track the calendar instead of the other way around, are now unreliable markers of weather change. Neither the monsoons, nor the four seasons now appear to follow what was the long established order of our climate. While this climatic disturbance, ascribed worldwide to the Earth’s extraordinary warming because of human activity and increasingly described as an ecological calamity in progress, has its own implications for crop patterns and weather disturbance, it also is the setting for another product of human activity: generating pollutants that remain suspended in the air in concentrations that threaten human health. Lahore, or Punjab, is by no means the only urbanised area in the world that suffers from the malady of smog. After all, nature is no respecter of boundaries drawn by humankind. Thus, near and afar, from Indian Punjab to virtually every urban conglomerate in the world, particularate concentration threatens an epidemic of health issues, concentrated in the depositing of such pollution into the lungs when we breathe. Especially vulnerable are children, the elderly, and those already suffering from, or sensitive to, breathing maladies.

What is strange about this year’s smog invasion is that it has occurred when October has proved warmer than ever in living memory. The average maximum and minimum temperature throughout the month has remained 32 degrees and 27 degrees respectively. This suggests that our previous assumption that cold weather is one of the culprits in engendering smog may not be true. Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Kasur, Islamabad and a host of Punjab’s cities have been afflicted to a greater or lesser extent by the dreaded phenomenon. The Punjab government has ascribed the record breaking Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of over 1,000 to pollution being carried from Indian Punjab by the winds blowing from east to west in our direction. While such a conclusion has yet to be scientifically confirmed, it has prompted the Pakistani Punjab government to suggest it will conduct ‘smog diplomacy’ to win over Indian Punjab to joint steps to control smog. Of course one does not know as yet if the idea is to stop the winds from blowing or, if so, how? After all, this may go the way of King Canute’s desire to turn back the sea.

The Punjab government appears to be floundering in its response to the smog emergency. The steps it has announced so far, e.g. closure (temporary for the moment) of primary schools (to protect vulnerable children), ‘green’ lockdowns (temporary localised measures to prevent the worst smoke-emitting vehicles, etc, from entering particularly afflicted areas), exhortations to polluting factories, brick kilns, stubble-burning farmers to desist, do not do more than touch the surface of a far more serious problem that has no easy, quick answers. Where does the smog come from? There is a dearth of objective, scientific studies on this, but the few available suggest that in a city such as Lahore, 60 percent pollution is produced by vehicles, 20 percent by factories and brick kilns, and the rest by seasonal stubble burning. Accurate or not, at least this analysis helps us focus on the priorities required to tackle the crisis.

Lahore, for example, has some 4.5 million motorcycles and 1.3 million cars and trucks on its roads. Take a deep breath and survey any major road, say the Main Boulevard Gulberg, and you will see a blue haze suspended over the road. So the first culprit is the surfeit of vehicles on our roads, allegedly spewing toxic petrol and diesel fumes, exacerbated by the allegedly low quality of these fuels. Since there is no integrated urban transport system in the city (the overhead Metro and bus service notwithstanding), which in the late 1990s-early 2000s was mooted with Japanese assistance to consist of a north-south underground rail system in the city’s built-up areas and an above-ground in the suburbs (standard practice the world over), connected to branch lines traversing east to west, with bus terminals at their last stops, the 14 million citizens of Lahore perforce have to travel in their own vehicles to work, etc. That ideal mass transit system fell foul of partisan politics and regime change, leaving us holding the pot of our present polluted existence.

A mass transit urban system is still required, in fact is a critical necessity if this excessive load of private vehicles are to be taken off the roads, particularly during morning and evening rush hours. Factories have to be forced to employ environmentally friendly technology to minimise their contribution to the air mess. Future factory planning, if any, should seek to locate such enterprises away from the cities (which is what London did after the 1950s deadly fog/smog crisis). Brick kilns must be forced to employ less polluting zig-zag technology or be shut down. Any enterprise using foul fuel such as rubber tyres must be permanently closed. Stubble burning must be stopped through the alternative of super-seeders and other modern technology to make stubble burning unnecessary.

All this cannot be accomplished in a day, a week, a month, or even a year. It will take many years, implying people will continue to suffer in the meantime. The neglect of this issue by successive governments has brought us to this sorry pass. Such neglect from now on invites the wrath of the suffering public.

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) Weekly Bhaitak, November 2, 2024, 4:00 pm

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks continues Saturday, November 2, 2024, 4:00 pm. This is an informal, open discussion forum on all aspects of Pakistan's crises: ideological, political, economic, social, cultural, etc. This week we will be discussing "Major world powers' interests in Pakistan".

All friends are welcome. Tea will be served.

RPC address: 2nd Floor, 65, Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign showroom). 

Rashed Rahman

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Cells: 0302 8482737 (operates WhatsApp) & 0333 4216335.  

Business Recorder Column October 22, 2024

A hollow victory

 

Rashed Rahman

 

After much huffing and puffing during the last few days if not weeks, the government has finally managed to get the 26^th Amendment to the Constitution passed by both houses of parliament with a two-thirds majority. But perhaps despite this, it may be premature on the part of the government to celebrate its ‘victory’, which has implications that may render it hollow.

First, the Amendment itself. To the relief of some, the adopted Amendment comprises 22 Clauses, a radical comedown from the original 50 in the draft the government kept under wraps in an unprecedented treatment of such an important piece of legislation. The reduction to 22 Clauses was brought about by the reservations of coalition partners, but mostly the ‘holdout’ critical input of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, without whose Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F’s) votes, the magic two thirds number would not have been possible. In colourful language, the Maulana and his party described the amendments to the Amendment as “defanging the black snake”. For the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), the whole process of ‘consultations’ with it on the issue was heavily laden with cajoling, offers of material gain, and coercion, the last including threats not only to members but also their families. These circumstances persuaded the majority of PTI Members of Parliament (MPs) to stay away from the proceedings. The minority who dared turn up voted against the Amendment.

Now to the content of this extraordinary exercise in constitutional legislation. Although the 26^th Amendment includes other matters, its main thrust, and focus of public interest and attention, are the Clauses related to the judiciary. Article 175A has been amended to bring in changes to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) with the inclusion of four MPs, two each from the treasury and opposition benches, one each drawn from the National Assembly (NA) and the Senate. It is not clear (at least to this writer) whether the original structure of the JCP, i.e. five Supreme Court (SC) judges (with the Chief Justice of Pakistan – CJP – as its chairman), the Attorney General of Pakistan, the federal law minister, a former Chief Justice and a senior advocate nominated by the Pakistan Bar Council will continue and only be added to by the four parliamentarians. The method of appointment of the CJP, hitherto relying on the senior most judge automatically replacing the incumbent on retirement (a procedure inherited from our colonial past), will now be replaced by the choice of a Special Parliamentary Committee from the three senior most judges of the SC. The Committee will forward one name out of the three to the prime minister, who will forward it to the president. This Committee will be composed of eight MNAs and four Senators, selected in proportion to the strength of the parties in the two Houses. The Committee will be bound to send its recommended name for the next CJP at least 14 days before the incumbent’s retirement. However, in the light of the obtaining circumstances (CJP Qazi Faiz Isa’s retirement on October 25, which explains the government’s hurry to get the Amendment passed), this time the committee will be ‘permitted’ to send its nomination up to three days prior to the incumbent’s retirement. Since today, October 22, 2024, is therefore the deadline, by the time these lines appear, the deed may well have been done, implying the government had already decided who it wants as CJP. The CJP’s term, through changes in Article 179, has been set at three years unless he resigns earlier, attains the retirement age of 65 years, or is removed. Even if the incumbent has not reached the retirement age of 65, he would stand retired at the end of the three-year term. The 26^th Amendment also empowers the JCP, now weighted by the induction of MPs, to evolve criteria for the assessment, evaluation and fitness for appointment of candidates for judges. If a High Court judge’s performance is deemed ‘inefficient’, an improvement period will be granted (how long is not clear). If the judge fails to improve, a report will be submitted by the JCP to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the forum with the authority to remove judges. The minimum age for appointment of High Court judges has been lowered from 45 years to 40.

The 26th Amendment inserts a new Article 191A for creating Constitutional Benches of the SC, comprising judges of the SC for such term as nominated and determined by the JCP, with the most senior judge among them the Presiding Judge. Whether such judges would be drawn from the existing SC judges or some other source is not clear. Constitutional Benches would consist of at least five judges nominated by a three-judge committee, as is the case in the SC Practice and Procedure Act, the nominating committee comprising the Presiding Judge and the next two most senior judges. The suo motu jurisdiction of the SC under Article 184 will now by exercised by the Constitutional Benches (as opposed, hitherto, by the CJP). The High Courts may have similar Constitutional Benches if the four provincial Assemblies adopt resolutions for the purpose.

The 26^th Amendment boils down to a coup by the executive against the judiciary, no doubt with the help and support of the establishment. Its implications, in terms of the independence of the judiciary, may soon become apparent. Not much good can be hoped for in this regard. However, to be fair and objective, the judiciary is itself too responsible for inviting this attack on itself, given its sorry track record in our history. Briefly, this includes legitimising every military coup and martial law, going so far in the last such instance of empowering General Pervez Musharraf to amend the Constitution! When Musharraf dismissed CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the Lawyers Movement ensured his restoration. CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry then went so far in asserting his restored authority that he caused the country a fair share of problems, including the Reqo Diq near disaster. Other CJPs, Khosa, Saqib Nisar, etc, exceeded what could by any imagination be considered their remit or the upholding of justice and the Constitution, clearly under the influence of the politicisation of the judiciary. And I am not even so far mentioning CJP Munir, whose doctrine of necessity upended the judicial cart early in Pakistan's existence for perhaps the foreseeable future.

In this tussle between the executive and the judiciary, with the establishment hiding not so successfully behind the skirts of the former, there are no innocents. Their misdemeanours of the past and present have brought us to this sorry pass. The whole story reeks of the sad conclusion that we have no idea how to build or defend institutions, only a rare talent for destroying them.

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com