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 

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) weekly Bhaitak, Saturday, October 19, 2024, 4:00 pm

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks continues Saturday, October 19, 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 hope to welcome eminent activist and intellectual Jami Chandio from Sindh, who will enlighten us regarding the recent killing of blasphemy accused Dr Shahnawaz Kanbar, the reaction against it from civil society, and the general problems and situation of Sindh.

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 15, 2024

State vs. citizens

 

Rashed Rahman

 

The twists and turns preceding and accompanying the holding of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement’s (PTM’s) Jirga in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) could not be described as anything but mind boggling. Initially, the police and security forces attacked the venue in Jamrud while preparations were still afoot. The toll of this (as it turned out later, quite unnecessary use of force) was four killed. Then Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi railed against the alleged calls by the PTM to ‘take up arms’ against the state, announcing the PTM had been banned, and ruling out therefore the Jirga being allowed. But lo and behold, within a day or so, Mr Naqvi sat looking perplexed with KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who led the drive to reverse harsh actions against the Jirga, held the PTM ban ‘in abeyance’, facilitated the Jirga’s arrangements, and even allowed political parties to attend it. Despite this about turn, the KP government’s spokesperson, Barrister Saif, again ruled out allowing the Jirga by a proscribed outfit. For this unnecessary legerdemain, he was roundly attacked by his own PTI for being an establishment ‘tout’. However, it seems wiser counsel had overridden the all too familiar knee-jerk reaction by the state to dissent, any dissent, no matter where it came from and for what reason.

The PTM is a grievance platform of the people of KP, especially the tribal regions, against the results visited on them by terrorism and the security forces’ anti-terrorism campaigns over the last two decades. Manzoor Pashteen, the PTM leader, outlined for the Jirga and a wider audience at home and abroad, what these events had wrought on the Pashtuns. The total number of displaced people is 5.7 million, of whom 2.3 million are still displaced, 76,584 people have been killed, including 1,375 tribal elders and 3,000 religious figures, with 6,700 people still ‘missing’. The toll of houses and mosques either completely or partially destroyed is 370,000. This is a snapshot of what the people in KP, particularly the tribal areas, have suffered. Is it any wonder then that a movement such as PTM should have arisen to question this past record and argue against any repeat of it? Whatever is the share of the terrorists of the TTP and their ilk in this human and material toll, the security forces too have their share of blame for conducting all out, indiscriminate military operations without any regard for the local populace. This runs counter to the wisdom acquired by counter-terrorism operations the world over, which aways strive to avoid, as far as possible, innocent civilian casualties and make great efforts to keep the local populace on their side. Pashteen also lamented the extraction of the natural resources of KP and Balochistan without any benefit to the locals. Pashteen put forward the demand that security forces and terrorist groups like the TTP should vacate the tribal areas within 60 days. If this was done, he argued, peace would naturally return and be maintained by the proposal to form an unarmed Pashtun Milli Lashkar to keep the peace.

Amongst the other notable voices at the Jirga, including PTI, Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and others, it was a matter of some satisfaction to hear Dr Mahrang Baloch, who has been leading a peaceful campaign against the enforced disappearance of thousands of the loved ones of bereft families in Balochistan. Is the Baloch Yakjehti Committee’s (BYC’s) demand that these missing persons be produced or, if there is any charge against them, be arraigned before a court of law, an anti-state posture? After all what she and her comrades are demanding is according to the law of the land. Why then, is she and her movement labelled ‘anti-state’ and treated accordingly? Coming from a conservative, still largely tribal society, Dr Mahrang Baloch has set an unprecedented example of courage and steadfastness, along with her colleagues, of struggling for human rights and justice. Is this an anti-state crime? Dr Mahrang Baloch has been chosen by Time magazine as one of the outstanding women from all over the world. But when she tried to fly to New York on the magazine’s invitation to an investiture ceremony, she was detained at Karachi airport for five hours, harassed, and finally not allowed to fly. As if this were not enough, a day or so later she has been indicted in a case of terrorism allegedly because of her contacts with, and working for, the Baloch insurgent groups.

What is the message the state is conveying through such shenanigans? That the state is everything, its citizens nothing, even when they seek their legitimate rights. All the state will end up doing by its failure to engage the dissenting voices (as, finally, in the Jamrud Jirga) and carrying on its unwise repressive actions against peaceful movements of citizens such as PTM and BYC is to convince the youth of the affected Pashtun and Baloch communities that there is no justice to be had by such peaceful remonstrations and demonstrations. If so, where will this large body of disgruntled youth end up? More than likely in the embrace of the very forces they are prematurely accused of being part of. A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. Who, or what, will this help?

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) weekly Bhaitak, Saturday, October 12, 2024

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks continues Saturday, October 19, 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 hope to welcome eminent activist and intellectual Jami Chandio from Sindh, who will enlighten us regarding the recent killing of blasphemy accused Dr Shahnawaz Kanbar, the reaction against it from civil society, and the general problems and situation of Sindh.

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 8, 2024

Battlefield Islamabad

 

Rashed Rahman

 

What was proclaimed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) leaders as a peaceful march on Islamabad to demand, among other things, the release of their leader Imran Khan from jail turned out to be anything but. All day on October 5 and 6, 2024, the federal capital was reduced to a virtual battlefield. This occurred not the least because the PTI marchers, particularly those from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) led by Chief Minister (CM) Ali Amin Gandapur came armed with slingshots, marbles, stones, tear gas shells and what have you, including, alarmingly, weapons. The last came from official KP sources and these were also dipped into to provide vehicles, rescue ambulances, and even heavy machinery to clear any blockades on the roads. The clashes of these militant protestors resulted in the death of one policeman and injuries to 31. Casualties, if any, on the side of the protesters are not so far known. However, during the pitched battles on Islamabad’s thoroughfares leading to D-chowk, the protestors’ desired destination, and certainly afterwards, the police arrested over a thousand PTI supporters, including, according to the police, some Afghans and KP police personnel in plain clothes. The Inspector General (IG) police Islamabad claimed the protestors (rioters?) inflicted damage worth Rs 154 million on federal government assets including police vehicles, etc.

As expected, the coalition government rounded on the PTI after the smoke cleared and the roads had been rendered passable again. It accused PTI of everything from seeking to disrupt the preparations for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Islamabad, embarrass the country while the visiting Malaysian Prime Minister was still here, repeat the by now infamous May 9, 2023 assault, disturb the progress the country was making towards economic stability, and even, flatteringly, seeking to make revolution! It may be noted, according to the IG police Islamabad’s statement, that an unprecedented 8,800 police had been deployed to quell any disturbance, along with Rangers and army units on standby if needed. All this points to the government’s approach of not taking any chances with what was perceived as an invasion of, if not assault upon, Islamabad.

CM Ali Amin Gandapur once again pulled off his ‘disappearing’ trick. The police raided KP House in Islamabad where Gandapur was believed to be present, but strangely failed to nab him. Since Gandapur remained incommunicado overnight (like he did last time), this set off a flurry of calls by the PTI to produce him or the courts, etc, would be moved for his recovery. Lo and behold, our very own ‘Zorro’ then appeared in the KP Assembly’s session the next day to regale his party and the House with his flamboyant language against the federal government. With due respect, this ‘vanishing’ act business has been used once too often, rousing suspicions about Gandapur and his role in these goings on. While in practice he has pitched KP against the federal government and Punjab, he cloaks these fiendish tactics in a litany of victimhood complaints.

Amidst the expected post-violence arrests of PTI workers and supporters and the inevitable registration of a plethora of cases under all the provisions of the CrPC and anti-terrorism laws the police can think of, the unanswered questions remain: what does the PTI want? What is it aiming for? What do its tactics suggest is its strategy? Is there a strategy or is it spiralling desperation? The last may not be as fanciful as one might think since there is a discernible hardening of attitude towards PTI and its disruptive campaign which, if nothing else, seems aimed at ensuring there is no ‘business as usual’, thereby eroding the government’s efforts at political stability leading to economic revival. This hardening appears to extend from the government to its perceived establishment backers. A loss of patience with the PTI may lead to bringing forth the court martial of Lt-General (retd) Faiz Hameed, with the possible inclusion of Imran Khan.

Whatever the days ahead hold, one thing is crystal clear. The country is not about to enter the realm of peace and stability leading to enhanced political credibility (something in short supply as far as this government is concerned) and economic progress. Ruction and conflict seem the only things on the menu for the foreseeable future. Thinking minds among us (yes, there are still a few left of this dwindling tribe) are increasingly fearful that the country is plunging into a black hole from which even light cannot escape.

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

The October 2024 issue of Pakistan MonthlyReview (PMR) is out

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

Contents:

1. Vijay Prashad: She was brutally killed before she could write her story for the world.

2. Berch Berberoglu: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and Class Struggle: A Critical Analysis of Mainstream and Marxist Theories of Nationalism and National Movements – I.

3. W B Bland: The PakistaniRevolution – III: The parliamentary facade.

4. Fayyaz Baqir: My life and struggle – VIII: Peasant Warriors.

5. Mohammad Ali Talpur: The Rise of Baloch Nationalism and Resistance – XIV: Gwadar.

6. From the PR Archives: May 2019: Global capitalist imperialism today.

Rashed Rahman

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

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

Weekly Bhaitak at Research and Publication Centre (RPC), Saturday, October 5, 2024, 4:00 pm

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks continues Saturday, October 5, 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 discuss the impasse: judicial, parliamentary, political.

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 1, 2024

Unending conflict

Rashed Rahman

 

Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah along with 20 of his commanders in a strike in Beirut has done nothing to sate the Zionist state’s bloodlust. Israel continues its unrelenting attacks on Lebanon, claiming the assassination of another top Hezbollah commander, Ali Karake, and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, General Abbas Nilforoushan, in the strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters. The strike seems to have been aimed at a meeting of Hezbollah’s leadership, with the Iranian commander in attendance. There are speculative reports in the media that an Iranian mole working for Israel gave away the location and timing of the top Hezbollah conclave. As expected, Hezbollah and Iran promised revenge, but the latter is unlikely to fall into Israel’s trap of an all-out war. Retaliation, if and when it comes, and will probably be only after Nasrullah’s funeral, will likely continue the pattern of rocket, missile and drone attacks that have defined the bulk of the exchanges with Israel since October 8, 2023, one day after the spectacular attack on Israel by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has buried the Abraham Accords seeking normalisation of Israeli ties with the remaining regional Arab countries, authored and conducted by the US.

While the Middle East and wider Muslim world have condemned Israel for its latest atrocity in the genocidal war it launched last year in Gaza, and which has drawn in Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis, the solidarity of the Muslim bloc with the Palestinians and their allies remains a toothless wonder. Protest demonstrations have been visible in Syria, Cyprus, Pakistan and other countries, but they are by and large led by Islamist parties and forces. With the possible exception of students, academics and progressive groups in the west, democratic and left groups elsewhere are conspicuous by their absence.

Israel’s obduracy in pursuing its genocidal war in Gaza, attacks in Lebanon and Yemen, and even its repression in the West Bank is owed, first and foremost, to the US’s blind support. Second, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival is tied to continuation of this by now multi-front war to stave off, if not save him from, the corruption charges dangling over his head. It bears reflection what does Israel really represent and what is the changed nature of the warfare it is conducting.

First, irony of ironies, the guilt of the perpetual persecution of the Jews in Europe, culminating in Hitler’s Holocaust, was shrugged off the west’s shoulders by conniving to support the Zionist lobby’s desire for a home for the Jews in the mythical ‘Promised Land’ of Palestine at the expense of its indigenous people, who were not responsible for the misery of the Jews in the west. In fact, after the Jews dispersed out of Palestine hundreds of years ago,  they lived comfortably in peace with their neighbours in countless Arab and Muslim countries. The Palestinians innocently welcomed the early Jewish immigrants until, by the 1930s, their alarm grew at the increasing deluge of Jews from Europe, aided and abetted by British colonialism. The punishment for persecution of the Jews in the west was meted out to the innocent Palestinians in the shape of forcible displacement or worse when the Israeli state was formed in 1948 by terrorist means. The world acquiesced in this unjust horror by the UN Security Council accepting the partition of Palestine between the Zionist state and the remaining Palestinian territory, the latter handed over to neighbouring Arab states Jordan and Egypt. So for all intents and purposes, the existence of the Palestinians in their own land was wiped out by the Naqba (Catastrophe) and its aftermath.

By any canon of international law, the Palestinian resistance to this wholesale displacement and swallowing up as a people and a state was justified. All the hypocritical mouthings of the US-led west against Hamas’ brilliant and unprecedented attack on Israel could not negate the right of any people living under occupation to resist it by any and all means at its disposal.

Israel has come down to us not as any ‘just’ settling of guilt by the west for their treatment of the Jews but as (ironically, given the Holocaust) a fascist, settler colonialist, expansionist dagger in the heart of the Middle East which, precisely because of its horrific bloodshed and genocide, is at a historic tipping point into possible oblivion.

As to the nature of the warfare Israel is conducting, if not modern warfare per se, the role of technology has fundamentally altered the manner in which enemies confront each other. Surveillance technology now allows the tracking down of targets and their being taken out by remote missiles, drones and air power. The resistance to this high tech warfare has comparatively less sophisticated means at its disposal such as unguided rockets. But this too is changing, in line with the history of warfare, which indicates that a technological or weapons transformation at one end inevitably produces its equal and opposite development at the other. Guerrilla warfare, the weapon of the oppressed, will have to take account of this changed character of warfare, especially now with the weaponisation of pagers, walkie-talkies, and God knows what other hitherto innocent communication devices. Welcome to the new world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) Weekly Bhaitak Saturday, September 28, 2024, 4:00 pm

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks continues Saturday, September 28, 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 concentrate on Pakistan's polycrisis, what is to be done, what can we do.

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.  

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) Bhaitak

Research and Publication Centre's (RPC's) programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks every Saturday, 4:00 pm continues with its second session today, Saturday, September 21, 2024, 4:00 pm. This is an informal, open discussion forum on all aspects of Pakistan's crises: ideological, political, economic, social, cultural, etc. 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 September 17, 2024

Ill-conceived gambit

 

Rashed Rahman

 

The government has shot itself in the foot by launching an ill-conceived and hurried attempt to bring in a spate of Constitutional Amendments without proper disclosure, forging consensus on the proposed changes, or even ensuring it has the numbers in both houses of parliament to win the day. Hurried calling of sessions of both houses over the weekend too proved a dud in the end because no homework or discussion inside parliament or outside had been carried out. Since no written version of the proposed bill to carry out the Amendments was made public or even shared with members of parliament, the media and public were left grasping the few straws floating in the wind to wrap their heads around the government’s gambit.

A flurry of lobbying by the government did not produce the desired results. Short of 11 votes in the National Assembly (NA) and five in the Senate to cobble together the necessary two-thirds majority in both houses, the government’s desperate attempts to pull Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F’s) eight and five votes respectively, and even Akhtar Mengal’s Balochistan National Party-Mengal’s (BNP-M’s) one and two respectively, finally came a cropper despite blandishments and (in the case of the BNP-M) threats.

The main content of the proposed Amendment focused on the judiciary. Under cover of tackling the huge backlog of cases in the Supreme Court (SC), a Constitutional Court was proposed to be set up to deal with constitutional and political issues, leaving the SC free to tackle the mountain of cases related to public issues. In actual fact, according to informed sources and commentators, the government was having kittens regarding the impending retirement of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa next month and, under the present rules and procedure, the elevation of the senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah to the CJP’s chair. When in such matters governments resort to the cloak-and-dagger, dark-of-the-night manoeuvres such as have been on display recently, it disrespects the incumbent outgoing CJP as well as his successor, since public opinion speculates that the former is considered ‘sympathetic’ to the government, and the latter not. Judges may give verdicts that please one lot and disappoint the other, but their judgements speak for themselves, and if based on sound reasoning and the law, should command acceptance and respect across the board if judicial independence and credibility are to have any meaning. At the heart of this matter is the 8-5 verdict of the SC regarding its order to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to award the 41 seats in the NA to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) of those members who fought the elections not on the PTI’s ticket, but later declared themselves PTI members. The SC has been constrained to issue a harsh reminder to the ECP to carry out its verdict and not prevaricate through dilatory and irrelevant tactics. This is indeed an unprecedented clash of these two state institutions. To add to the mess, the government’s proposed Amendment envisages the CJP being appointed from the five senior most judges, rather than the senior most in line. If this is not personalised proposed legislation, what is?

Other controversial aspects of the (now submerged) Amendment disallows appeals against military courts verdicts against military personnel or civilians. Obviously this is aimed at the arrest and pending court martial of Lt. General (retd) Faiz Hameed, with the added spice of the possibility of Imran Khan too being dragged into this bog. What do all these shenanigans really mean? It has been the long standing policy of the establishment to resolve all issues regarding dissent or opposition through force rather than rational dialogue. This is the continuing state of affairs in Balochistan, which has pushed Akhtar Mengal to despair and resignation from parliament, is driving the youth of the province into the arms of the insurgents, and is unlikely to yield results different from the past, albeit perhaps increasingly worse. Similarly, Imran Khan and the PTI’s travails at the hands of the establishment, added to immeasurably by the former’s Quixotic adventurism of May 9, 2023, is following the all too familiar pattern of pursuing the establishment’s aims in a manner so overdone that in time, it loses credibility. Here too, the establishment is perhaps gnashing its teeth at not getting rapid results because of our justice system and its normal delays, as well as the complications in the cases against Imran Khan. The problem with this gung-ho approach, as the track record and current developments have once again proved, is that the more the establishment presses on this particular gas pedal, the more the results turn out to be the opposite of those intended or desired.

Pakistan’s political culture, for understandable reasons given our history, gravitates towards the actual or perceived underdog, irrespective of the latter’s qualities or lack of them. It is the visceral reaction of our people to the establishment’s role in denying the people genuine representation, credible upholding of rights, and the actual or threatened use of force and fear to get what the establishment wants. This is not an inspiring scenario, not from the past, certainly not from the present, and worryingly, the future nightmare of impending disaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

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

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

Contents:

1. Vijay Prashad: Venezuela is a Marvellous Country in Motion.
2. Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners.
3. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi: Developments in Bangladesh.
4. Kinza Fatima: Resistance Movement from the Margins in Pakistan.
5. W B Bland: The Pakistani Revolution – II: The Class Structure of Pakistan.
6. Fayyaz Baqir: My life and struggle – VII: Gomal University.
7. Mohammad Ali Talpur: The Rise of Baloch Nationalism and Resistance – XIII: Foreign hand and Balochistan.
8. From the PMR Archives February 2019: Rashed Rahman: Creeping coup in Venezuela.

Rashed Rahman

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

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

Research and Publication Centre Regular weekly Bhaitak

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) is inaugurating its programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks every Saturday, 4:00 pm, with its first session on Saturday, September 14, 2024, 4:00 pm. This will be an informal, open discussion forum on all aspects of Pakistan's crises: ideological, political, economic, social, cultural, etc. 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.  

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) regular Bhaitak

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) is inaugurating its programme of regular weekly Bhaitaks every Saturday, 4:00 pm, with its first session on Saturday, September 14, 2024, 4:00 pm. This will be an informal, open discussion forum on all aspects of Pakistan's crises: ideological, political, economic, social, cultural, etc. 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 September 3, 2024

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

 

Rashed Rahman

 

Enforced Disappearances (EDs) have been frequently used as a strategy to spread fear and terror in a society, according to the UN. By now, the world body argues, it has taken on the dimensions of a global problem. Once largely the product of military dictatorships, nowadays the practice is perpetrated in complex internal conflicts as an instrument of political repression. One famous example from the past is the Argentine military dictatorship of the 1960s and 1970s, against whose repressive tactics of ED, the “Mothers of Mayo” organisation rallied persistently in Buenos Aires’ main square for news of their disappeared loved ones. By and large, the disappeared never appeared, but the Mothers, by now Grandmothers, have not given up their persistent struggle.

For the UN today, of particular concern is the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders, families of the victims, witnesses and lawyers dealing with cases of ED. States use their overarching counter-terrorist narrative to cloak and ‘justify’ the breach of their obligations under the law, Constitution and human rights principles. Most alarming, there is no let up in the widespread immunity for EDs. The UN reports that hundreds of thousands of people have vanished during conflicts and their concomitant periods of repression in at least 85 countries around the world.

The victims of ED are frequently tortured and in constant fear of being extra-judicially killed. Having been removed from lawful protection and ‘disappeared’ from society, they are deprived of every one of their conceivable rights and are at the mercy of their captors. Even if they survive their nightmare ordeal and are eventually released, the physical and psychological scars of the brutality and torture they suffered remain lifelong afflictions.

The families and friends of the victims of ED, on the other hand, experience the torture and slow mental anguish of not knowing whether the victim is still alive and if so, where he or she is being held, in what conditions, and in what state of health. This causes a constant alternation between hope and despair, wondering and waiting, sometimes for years, for the anxiously awaited news that may never come. In addition, they are also aware that searching for truth, justice and relief is risky, exposing them to threats to life and limb. If the disappeared person is the family’s breadwinner, the emotional upheaval is further exacerbated by material deprivation. The serious economic hardships that usually accompany an ED are most often borne by women. It should not, therefore, come as a surprise that it is women who are usually at the forefront of the struggle against EDs. Of course this places them in the path of intimidation, persecution and reprisals. When it is women who are disappeared, they are vulnerable not only to physical violence and torture, but also sexual. In either case, the disappearance of a parent traumatises a child for life.

The UN General Assembly through its Resolution 47/133 on December 18, 1992, adopted the “Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance”. This was followed by the “Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court” on July 1, 2002 and the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the “International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance” on December 20, 2006. The last states that when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population, an ED qualifies as a crime against humanity not subject to any statute of limitations. It gives victims’ families the right to demand the truth about the disappearance of their loved ones and seek reparations. On December 21, 2010, the UN General Assembly, through its Resolution 65/209 decided to declare August 30 the “International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances” to be observed from 2011 onwards.

The Day was duly observed in Karachi by hundreds marching from Teen Talwar to the Press Club. It fielded not just the usual cast of suspects, but a wider set of organisations than just the Baloch Yakjehti Committee that has, under the leadership of Dr Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch, transformed the Balochistan scene through a virtual social revolution led by women in that conservative, tribal society and inspired women and men throughout the length and breadth of Pakistan through their courage, steadfastness and commitment to the cause of their missing loved ones. Partly because of that example, partly in response to their own lived experience of EDs, people in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa too have taken to the road of peaceful protest against the ED of their loved ones. Increasingly, even Punjab has not been spared. The horror of ED therefore is by now common cause, with varying levels of intensity presently, of all the people of Pakistan. Having joined the ranks of the peoples of 85 other countries around the world suffering from this horror, we are in ‘good’ company. However, having suffered through the farce of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances headed by Justice Javed Iqbal (retd), which did more to obscure and obfuscate the truth about EDs than anything else, in the process ‘failing’ to punish even a single person for the crime, we need to reflect on the spread of the practice of ED from Balochistan to begin with to the rest of the country. That obliges us all to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, against this increasingly common horror.

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

The September 2024 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review is out

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

Contents:

1. Vijay Prashad: Venezuela is a Marvellous Country in Motion.
2. Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners.
3. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi: Developments in Bangladesh.
4. Kinza Fatima: Resistance Movement from the Margins in Pakistan.
5. W B Bland: The Pakistani Revolution – II: The Class Structure of Pakistan.
6. Fayyaz Baqir: My life and struggle – VII: Gomal University.
7. Mohammad Ali Talpur: The Rise of Baloch Nationalism and Resistance – XIII: Foreign hand and Balochistan.
8. From the PMR Archives February 2019: Rashed Rahman: Creeping coup in Venezuela.

Rashed Rahman

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

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

Business Recorder Column August 13, 2024

The plight of the minorities

Rashed Rahman

August 11, 2024 was ‘celebrated’ as Minorities Day, as has been the custom now since 2009. The date, August 11, was chosen to mark Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s address to the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, just three days before Pakistan came into being. The Founder’s speech has had a troubled existence in the state he virtually single-handedly brought into existence against heavy odds. After his untimely passing in September 1948, the speech was suppressed for many years by those who deviated from the letter and spirit of the Quaid’s farsighted and liberal vision in favour of a narrow, bigoted, exclusivist emphasis on majoritarian Muslim rule, at the expense of our religious minorities. Since the late 1970s and 1980s, when military dictator General Ziaul Haq weaponised majoritarian religion, even our Shia minority has suffered the travails of sectarian conflict.

The thrust and essence of the Quaid’s vision is summed up by the most famous extract from his historic speech:

“The first duty of a government is to maintain law and order…So that the life, property and religious beliefs of its (citizens) are fully protected by the state…We should begin to work in (this) spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities – the Hindu community and the Muslim community – because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on – will vanish…You are free; you are free to go to your temples; you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state…You will find that in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state.”

Could there be a more enlightened delineation of the contours of the new state, especially in the context of the communal bloodletting between Muslims on the one hand, and Hindus and Sikhs on the other that accompanied Partition and smeared our historical memories blood red for the foreseeable future, engendering visceral hatreds and enmity between peoples who shared a historic legacy of the tolerant, syncretic, peaceful co-existence that defined the Subcontinent before the ravages and malign ‘Divide and Rule’ of British colonialism? The Quaid wanted us, despite this painful beginning, or even because of it, to transcend the pain and tragedy to forge a state and society that could hold its head up high as the newest entrant in the comity of nations as a role model of mutual tolerance, respect and peaceful co-existence.

Unfortunately, the Founder, exhausted because of the strains of the titanic struggle he had led, and ill with a terminal disease, could not have foreseen the malign forces waiting in the wings to pounce soon after his exit from this mortal coil. Within a year of his demise, the Quaid’s vision of a liberal, tolerant, and yes, secular state, was washed away by the tide unleashed by the Objectives Resolution, which converted his enlightened, modern, forward looking vision into a majoritarian religious entity that implicitly threatened the rights and even lives, properties and existence of the religious minorities in whose interest and defence the Quaid had unfurled his banner. Within another four years, in 1953, while the dominant West Pakistani political class, bureaucracy and military played out their mutual tussle over the country’s Constitution, the anti-Ahmedi riots in Punjab elicited the first (partial) Martial Law in our independent history, a foreboding opening act of what was to come. Of course by 1974 the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government succumbed to the pressure of the religious lobby by declaring the Ahmedis a non-Muslim religious minority, thereby pre-empting (but only postponing, as later events proved) the Maulvis from destabilising his hold on power. While the Second Amendment that brought about the declaration of Ahmedis as non-Muslims because of their non-adherence to the belief of the finality of the Prophethood of Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH), it inadvertently opened the door to the wiping out of the memory of leading Ahmedis’ contributions to Pakistan (e.g. Sir Zafarullah Khan and Dr Abdus Salam), threats to, and the killings of Ahmedis (which mercifully have declined in later years), and currently, the vandalisation of their places of worship and even forbidding religious rituals inside their homes. The point is that even a religious minority, albeit one that arouses the blind ire of our mullahs, still has some rights as citizens. What would the Quaid have made of our treatment of this community in the light of the quote from his speech above?

Hindu girls, particularly in their area of concentration, Thar, Sindh, have been subjected over the years to forced conversion and marriage, usually at the hands of, and in fact to, self-appointed purveyors of this practice that Islam and the Prophet (PBUH) forbid. Christians live in constant far of motivated blasphemy allegations, in whose wake, more often than not, mass attacks on the community, their homes, churches, lives have by now become the established features of our urban legends. Motivated blasphemy allegations have not spared Muslims either, such are the passions unleashed amongst vigilante mobs at the mere suggestion of any such circumstance.

Our considerable Shia minority has not been spared the gift of sectarian violence (Parachinar seethes with this even today), and the hardworking and peaceful Hazaras of Balochistan have suffered killings most of all for no fault of theirs except received faith and ethnicity. The ‘sin’ of historically received ethnicity and minority nationality status has not spared the Baloch, Pashtuns or Sindhis (there are others of course). Even the majority ethnicity in united Pakistan, the Bengalis of East Pakistan, were not spared (those who have harboured ill will against Bangladesh because of 1971 are crowing with delight at recent events in that country).

This necessarily brief and admittedly inadequate discussion of what we have wrought against our religious and ethnic minorities (and even our once ethnic majority) runs contrary to the grain of the Quaid’s ideas. We should all therefore respectfully bow our heads and ask for his forgiveness for our sins in this regard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

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

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

Contents:

1. Vijay Prashad: Even in Palestine, the Birds Shall Return.
2. W B Bland: The Pakistani Revolution – I.
3. Rashed Rahman: No lessons learnt.
4. Fayyaz Baqir: My life and struggle – VI: Split in the Mother Party.
5. Mohammad Ali Talpur: The Rise of Baloch Nationalism and Resistance – XII: Reactions to the violence.
6. From the PMR Archives February 2019: From the Editor: Full circle.

Rashed Rahman

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

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

Business Recorder Column August 6, 2024

Bangladesh coup

 

Rashed Rahman

 

The more than one month long agitation in Bangladesh against the quota policy has finally ended in a military coup. Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman led the army action, giving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a 45 minute ultimatum to quit. Sheikh Hasina, accompanied by her sister Sheikh Rehana, resigned and fled in a military helicopter to Agartala, Tripura, India (a name that brings back memories of the Agartala Conspiracy Case against her father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman). It is not yet clear whether the ousted former prime minister will remain in India, in which successive governments, including the present one led by Mr Modi, have been well disposed towards Sheikh Hasina, or she will opt to move to some other country. The army chief addressed a press conference after the startling development to announce that he had met the opposition (the main component of which is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP of Begum Zia) and agreed to set up an interim government to deal with the chaotic situation that has emerged after the continuous protests, led first and foremost by students, yielded 300 dead at the hands of Sheikh Hasina’s police and security forces.

The news of the downfall and flight out of the country was treated with joyous celebrations on the street, which had been the theatre of the clashes between the protestors and the security forces. Reportedly, apart from the deaths and injuries, more than 1,000 protestors were under arrest, who will now no doubt be released. The issue that sparked the protest movement was a salariat revolt against the quota (30 percent) of government jobs reserved for the families of liberation war fighters. The protestors’ argument was that a half century after independence in 1971, the quota was reserved for Sheikh Hasina’s government’s supporters and it was high time it was abolished in favour of a merit system. On the face of it, the demand was not so radical that it could not be contemplated. However, in the polarised polity that has characterised Bangladesh since its birth, Sheikh Hasina would not budge and even went so far as to ask mockingly whether the quota should be given to the Razakars(Volunteers). These were informal armed militias raised by the Pakistan army during the struggle in East Pakistan in 1971 and allegedly were guilty of bloody repression of the people suspected of being supporters of East Pakistan’s breaking away from Pakistan. This remark of Sheikh Hasina’s acted like salt on the wounds of the protestors and lent new fury to their rallies on the street.

Sheikh Hasina’s departure led to the Prime Minister’s House being raided and looted by celebrating protestors. A statue of her father, considered the father of the nation, was vandalized. This act could be considered confirmation of the fact that Sheikh Mujib’s legacy no longer remained a symbol of the liberation war but, instead, Sheikh Hasina’s politics of repression of the opposition. In the dying days of her government, it once again banned the Jamaat-i-Islami, considered since 1971 to be a collaborator enemy of Bangladesh, and some of whose leaders were tried and hanged during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure in power for over 20 years.

A glance at Bangladesh’s troubled history since it broke away from Pakistan (with Indian military help) would reveal the instability from which the country has suffered almost from day one. Sheikh Mujib and his family were murdered in an army coup in August 1975. Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana were only spared because they were abroad at the time. This was to be the first of 29 military coups till the last one in December 2011, some of them unsuccessful. Bangladesh’s post-independence tumult was the result of the factionalisation of the Bangladesh army, composed of former Pakistan army personnel, liberation fighters, and post-independence recruits. This mix, far from developing a disciplined army, yielded coups, counter-coups, coups-within-coups repeatedly. As far as the political class is concerned, if the Awami League of Sheikh Hasina wore the mantle of the leader of the independence struggle and the halo of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujib’s status as the father of the nation, the main opposition party, the BNP, is led by the widow of military coup maker General Ziaur Rehman. With this kind of fractured and polarised military and polity, all that has transpired (and seemingly continues to bedevil) in Bangladesh’s independent history does not come as a surprise.

There are lessons to be learnt from the happenings of late in Sri Lanka, Kenya and Bangladesh. Perhaps the time has come that the underdevelopment imposed by the current global order is breaking down before the desperation and mass protests of the suffering peoples in the poorest countries of the world. If their rulers continue to rely on repression and manipulation of the political order to run things, more countries could soon be facing their own people’s mass protests. Pakistan too should take heed and register the anger and frustration at poverty, joblessness, inflation, high electricity prices and so on bubbling beneath the surface of a deceptive calm of an internally increasingly desperate people.

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com