Desi Standard Time.

9 Apr 2010

So the 18th Amendment to the 1973 Constituiton of Pakistan, which aims to bring it back to its original spirit is almost passed.

It went through the lower house of Parliament unanimously a couple of days ago, quite a landmark. Getting 300 Pakistanis to agree on something is not easy. Believe me. If you have a Pakistani friend please ask him/her to verify.

The last paragraph of this Dawn article covering the event was hilarious to me. Pakistani culture manages to live through the war.

“The NA session was delayed for over an hour due to poor attendance of participating MNAs whose presence was necessary for the voting on the 18th Amendment bill.”

This phenomenon was well put in a recent email of the South Asian Students’ Association board. We were told to arrive promptly at a meeting, no “Desi Standard Time”.”

The School Children Take The Fight.

9 Apr 2010

While the extremist surge is targeted towards the government, one means of causing disruption has been attacking educational institutions, girls schools in particular.

This is a heartfelt account of the bombing at the Islamic University last year, published at iWrite. I found it recently, and it really moved me. I will not bother presenting a summary or quotations. It must be read in its entirety to understand what even young people can go through. I highly recommend reading it.

And while I keep telling my friends at Princeton that all is well, we go to school normally, some students have gone through such direct violence.

I remember quite well when hoax bomb threats began hitting private schools in Lahore. Whether it was a prank, a genuine threat, or targeted terror strikes, no one has figured out yet. While students like me rejoiced over the occasional free day we’d get, the threat was imminent, and real. I remember rumors of how my school had also been threatened but my Principal chose to take a stand and kept it under grabs. We went through school all fine. It was a daring move, but the right thing to do in such a situation. This is how everybody else takes the fight to the war, little acts of resilience that go unnoticed, but are monumental in their own right.

But it hasn’t just been the war on terror that’s affected students. As President Musharraf’s reign neared an end, and emergency rule was imposed, notable Human Rights Activists were arrested to quell down movements to restore rule of law, accountability and democracy. These included many educationalists (that’s a word right?), also my principal, whom I greatly respect. Under no sane law should she have been arrested. Anti Terrorism Attack, Anti Social Behavior, I’m not sure what the government used, but she was innocent, and great.

On the lighter side of things however, when Lawyers took to the streets to restore the judiciary, and here I’m talking about the protests under Musharraf, not the PPP recently some of the students in my school got into a little trouble. Our school uniform had black blazers, and aforementioned student was crossing an intersection when he was held back by a police officer under the impression that he was a lawyer. From what I heard, the police officer said “aap wakilon ne naak mein dam kar ke rakha hua hai (You lawyers have made life a pain for us – again translation not able to get the metaphor across – literally means: You lawyers are really pushing up against our noses). The student got away safely though, but its still quite a legend.

The Year of the Drone.

8 Apr 2010

I need not repeat the whole ‘shi-bang’ in Facebook speak, about US air strikes in North West Pakistan.

The New York Times Blog, The Lede, recently had an interesting tidbit about how the Obama Administration justifies the attacks. The full post is here, but here are some salient points.

Mr. Koh was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law…

Mr. Koh was a human-rights official during the Clinton administration. As the dean of Yale Law School during the Bush administration, he was an outspoken critic of the government’s policies on detention, interrogations, surveillance and other issues.

In his explanation, Mr. Koh said:

In particular, this Administration has carefully reviewed the rules governing targeting operations to ensure that these operations are conducted consistently with law of war principles, including:

* First, the principle of distinction, which requires that attacks be limited to military objectives and that civilians or civilian objects shall not be the object of the attack; and
* Second, the principle of proportionality, which prohibits attacks that may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, that would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

a detailed study [the title of which lends itself to this posts’ title]… — “found that one-third of those killed by drones were civilians.”

It just seems to bring it back to Mohsin Hamid’s argument. Imagine this were Brooklyn. The police knew that an Al Qaeda operative was in a building on Flat Bush Ave., would forces risk missing the building at instead killing innocent civilians in the house next door?

Somehow there seems to be an absence of empathy with those that live in these areas. What they go through is unimaginable to me even.

But here’s where the argument gets even more interesting. I was looking around the New
York Times, particularly around The Lede, and here’s a link I found in their “What We’re Reading” Section.

It’s an article on Pakistan’s responses to the drone attacks. I’d say its part academic, part journalist, but let’s not bother with that for a moment. Brian Glynn Williams, writes for the JamesTown Foundation, “not everyone in Pakistan is against the killing of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters by the CIA’s robotic killers in the sky”.

His most credible sources, mentioned next are snippets from the Pakistani media and blogs. The media, I agree, sounds relatively more credible, but here’s how the data is analyzed.

Williams simply looks at polls, and commentary showing that support for the Taliban is not extensive. Then goes on to cite how people have appreciated that the death of major extremist leaders through the air strikes was considered helpful to the cause on terror. Aside from the fact that isolated blogs are comparing with a member of the US administration in dialogue about drones, the article plainly ignores the possibility that while the attacks might weaken the Taliban, the way they’re doing it might be unacceptable, or just plain immoral. The article itself cites how many civilians have died and how the government has criticized the attacks, but apparently many people do not share this point of view.

The article does quote a journalist’s supposed perception of the views in Waziristan, published in the Daily Times, which I personally view with a little skepticism, but that’s just me. Read the link to see what you think. But for now it seems the conversation remains heavily one sided.

Whoever is implicit, needs to talk.

A Pakistani Socialist? Save us.

8 Apr 2010

Socialist thought in Pakistan has always been weirdly treated. I don’t quite understand it to be honest. Many poets, Habil Jalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz (who was even imprisoned) have talked about the need for equality and harmony, they’ve been very idealistic and have remained so for some reason. I can’t tell why. If you can, hollar in the comments. Either way, listen to this while you do it. This is Laal singing a satirical Habib Jalib Poem. It came out at the start of this tumultuos two years, think onwards from Benazir’s death. It’s an interesting listen even if you don’t understand it. For the curious though, there is some description and translated lyrics that the uploader posted as the description for the video, after the break..

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Make Fun of Your Politicians.

7 Apr 2010

Pakistani politics is very funny.

And that’s not just a comment. It really is funny. If you don’t believe me listen to this:

Saad Haroon is a 21st century comedian from Pakistan, gathering critical acclaim and being featured abroad through major news networks, because of his open political jokes, which feature politicians to terrorists.  He says he finds them funny, and so does his audience. It’s the thing that works here.

But it is not the only criticism of Pakistan’s politics that out in the open today. I’ve grown to see Pakistan’s media evolve from a single government run TV station to a state where about 30 new channels pop up every year, radio has struck back and the music scene is heavy with activity, barring the last couple of years. Whatever people say, I must credit this change to the Musharraf era.

While modern media just seems to take an anti government stance at every opportunity, more scholarly (or should I say well thought out criticism) is beginning to pop us as well. Pakistanis are now evaluating how their politics has gone wrong in the past, and are somewha ready to take the blame. While politicians have always been made fun of (which is not uncalled for mind you, President Zardari threatened a 14 year imprisonment for anyone that sent SMS jokes about him), this form of collective stake in the blame has never been taken before.

For instance, look at this Chowk article. For those that don’t know Chowk, it’s an e-zine, if that’s the right word, with contributors from all over India and Pakistan, dealing with current affairs, culture, social issues, in well written, well thought out argument. Good read every now and then. This article for instance, explains how Pakistan has been at wrong with the way it’s treated Afghanistan, and it’s time to back off.

Even literature has gone this way Mohammad Hanif’s award winning book A Case of Exploding Mangoes (Amazon Link) is a fictional story about the murder of President Zia, witty, humorous, explosive (pun definitely intended) and explorative. It deals with Pakistan’s murky political past, and seems to go down well with Pakistan’s Urban hatred of Zia and his policies.

Similar thoughts will be found on the dealing with India and the US. Although India seems to be the last issue to see this level of maturity, the blame game at every terrorist attack seems to derail any mature thought. If the political acclaim and criticism of Shoania (A Brangelina-esque title given to Former Pakistan Cricket Captain Shoaib Malik and Indian Tennis Star Sania Mirza after the recent announcement of their impending marriage) is anything to go by, we’re as childish as ever. It might take a while for us to get over gossip.

More War at Fashion Shows.

7 Apr 2010

Interesting headline from Dawn I thought I’d share with you guys. More about how the war is affecting everyday haute couture.

“Fashion week begins as bombers hit Pakistan”, more on this link.

The World Doesn’t Care About Democracy.

5 Apr 2010

Juan Cole, President of the Global Americana Institute, writes a blog titled Informed Comment. A post from this Saturday is particularly interesting.

Cole writes about the new bill being tabled in Pakistan’s parliament, labelled ‘historic’, even called the ‘Bill of Hope’. More details about the bill can be found at this Dawn article that Cole links to.

In this particular post Cole provides some thoughtful comment on what changes in Pakistan’s public policy manage to make the mainstream media, or make the White House happy. He talks about how the new democratic bill (that he thinks will bring in a new wave of democratic process to the country) is receiving little hurrah outside of Pakistan because it has been developed and tabled entirely by Pakistanis. He compares this to the elections in Iraq, which is also an interesting comparison.

Evidence for this phenomenon is very easily found. Just open the Asia or South Asia page of any major international news website, and then follow that up with Dawn, The Nation, or The News. The Pakistani news websites will undoubtedly be flooded with news about the bill, and other such self created democratic movements, as compared to a single story with little or no comment on the international page. Compare that to news of bomb threats or attacks and the story is reversed.

This exact same analysis can apply to the Lawyers’ Movement to restore the Judiciary in March of last year. That too was another self-grown, largely democratic movement with nothing to do with the military, the President (which have often been the same thing) or any other figure but the people.

Perhaps Pakistan not being in the international news is a good thing after all, because the good news will often not make it.

More Subliminal Peace Messages.

5 Apr 2010

For those in Islamabad, there’s an exhibition open by Imran Mudassar at Rohtas Gallery, as recently reported in the Daily Times.

And as we analysed earlier, subliminal messages addressing the war are present in various forms of Pakistani art, from fashion to painting. Here’s some more evidence from the article.

Mudassar’s works also reflect the efforts of the printmakers to re-invent printmaking process. The focus of the collection is on Afghan war where US forces are presently fighting against Taliban forces. …

Talking to Daily Times, the artist said in his recent and most of the work, he had dealt with the idea of life and its destruction by creating a dialogue between his own body and war related objects and events. He plans to take this exhibition around Pakistan to create a bond among printmakers working in different parts of the country.

Here’s to Mudassar’s success.

Everybody Loves Women.

4 Apr 2010

Speaking about the culture of the North West, I thought sharing this would be appropriate.

This is another song from Coke Studio, that I mentioned earlier. This time the featured artists are Zeb and Haniya (the new trend with Pakistani bands is to just call themselves by the names of their members, most duos prefer this way), two more artists educated in the West and and now back in Pakistan adding to the ‘cultural capital’. Both are from Mount Holyoke and Smith, which went to which always confuses me, but do leave it in the comments if you know.

This particular song is in Darri, a mixture of Persian/Farsi and Pashto, to the best of my knowledge. The band initially recorded this on their album as a folk song they remembered from their childhood. A Norwegian trumpet player was flown in, the track recorded into an album of jazz, blues, rock and the slightest bit of pop. The element of Indian Classical present throughout, but never too obvious. The band being women, and exploring genres not previously explored this extensively in Pakistan, have gained world wide acclaim and have even been featured in Time Magazine. They are frequently performing for dignitaries, often in embassies and abroad. They have also been credited for creating a positive, moderate yet outgoing outlook for women in a society where women have been both oppressed and objectified. This is how Instep think they have found the middle ground, talking about efforts from their media outlook to their choice of attire.

More on the song after the break.

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What’s in a Name?

3 Apr 2010

The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan is finally being renamed. The new name is quite a mouthful, as the Washington Post calls it, but a change that means much more than it sounds. It is by the way, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The area, in the words of the post, was a ‘stomping ground for the British’. Since independence its history has been no less tumultuous, ending in it being the hub of terror organizations, and the target of drone attacks and a fight against its own military. For those interested in the history of it this article from the Dawn front page is insightful.

The hyphenated name represents the result of a compromise a long time in the making. A name that represents not just the Pashtun/Pathan majority but also minorities present in the area for which the general name Khyber is being used. Politicians, in a surprising move, have been smart enough to realise that people will wither call it Khyber, or Pakhtunkhwa and not both at the same time, but the hyphenation must be present in technicality at least.

You’d wonder why the name of a province is so sensitive. The previous name, NWFP, was something left as British legacy that never gained the right amount of traction at the right time to be changed. It represented the oppression, almost disregard for an indigenous people that have long felt disenfranchised with the various forms the state has taken in the past century. Dawn calls it a ‘historic wrong’, and in some ways that powerful term captures the depth of the issue at hand.

The area, part of which the Pakistan military is currently running an offensive in, was historically troublesome for the British as well. Its close ties with Afghanistan also apparent in the fact that one of the alternate names suggested in past times was Afghania.

Ofcourse, sceptics will say this is irrelevant. Even the Post article ends with a rather random quote from someone in NWFP, that exclaims that this is not an issue compared to the inflation, economic and power crises.

However, issues like this are not mutually exclusive. Just because there are bigger issues is not an excuse to solve smaller ones, the distinction of bigger and smaller here, is in any case a debate in itself.

Others will point to parties’ efforts to name the province in their interest, to get more voter responses. Which somehow, seems to me as if it’s suggesting that it is a big issue. Otherwise voters would not be swayed. In which case if the parties are doing something the people want, that seems to have no political ramifications other than that all, should be considered a good thing in its own right.

Pakistan’s identity, like the NWFP’s or should I say Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s, has always been at war itself, at a struggle to find itself. Jinnah wanted to create a secular state, but was pressured into creating an Islamic state, instead of a state for Muslims. That soon morphed into an effort to get rid of provincialist sentiments and replace them with unity under the banner of Islam. But the new proposed Bill of ‘Hope’ as it is being termed, is increasing political autonomy. Answering a call for years to finally recognize Pakistan as a federation.

This is a realization that Pakistan is not an identity, it is a name for a seemingly harmonious amalgam of unique cultures, from Punjab to Balochistan, Khyber to Sindh. It could be a sign that Pakistan is now defending against troubles like the collapse of Bangladesh as a result of an imposition of power and identity.