Lok Virsa: Striving for cultural resurgence

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
ISLAMABAD
mahtabbashir@gmail.com

The preservation and promotion of the traditional culture, folklore and folk arts are instrumental in strengthening a nation’s identity. Pakistan, like most other developing countries of Asia and Africa, is in a transitional phase. In addition to being faced with the challenge of preserving its cultural heritage, Pakistan has to meet the needs of a nation in the modern industrial world. Tradition and change should go together. These are like two wheels of a carriage that must move in unison for advancement. No nation can afford to progress in science and technology at the cost of its culture.

Lok Virsa, also known as the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, was established in 1974 for research, collection, documentation, preservation and dissemination of Pakistan’s folklore, oral traditions and regional culture. Within the span of a few years, Lok Virsa has grown from a fledgling endeavour to a full-fledged initiative, whose projects and activities span the entire country.

Over the past centuries, an urban monopoly on art and culture overshadowing the regional and rural tradition, along with an enormous cultural influx from the West, has led to a slow and gradual severance from the roots of indigenous culture. As a result, Lok Virsa was established as the much-needed platform to systematically preserve and strengthen a fading identity. This does not imply holding back progress or turning back the wheels of time, but merely to institute protective measures against the disruption of our own being.

With the advent of modern mass society and an age of cultural diffusion and invasion from the technologically advanced nations, the traditional customs, beliefs, arts and crafts are being rapidly obliterated. The process is almost like a hurricane sweeping down on us. In the absence of adequate protections, it is likely to completely wash away our cultural heritage.

The rediscovery of Pakistan’s historical tradition and its integration with modern elements require extensive knowledge of the roots of this heterogeneous culture. Scientific research and collection of data is necessary for every project that Lok Virsa undertakes. Film footage, field surveys, magnetic recordings, phonographs, researches, dissertations, original monographs, ethnological artifacts, rare manuscripts and microfiche are all stored in Lok Virsa’s central archives for reference and research. Verbal legends and songs, folk romances and tales, children’s games and rhymes, beliefs and rituals, traditional festivals and celebrations, sayings of sages and age-old customs, which express the true genius of the people of Pakistan, are the subject of Lok Virsa’s investigations.

Lok Virsa has focused on documenting Pakistani folklore because it represents things inherited as against things acquired. It is significant because our own awareness and national consciousness must precede everything else. To do this, Lok Virsa conducts cultural surveys in villages, towns and districts of Pakistan. Mobile recordings and filming units have been set up for active field research, documentation and collection of the material and the ideological components of our indigenous traditions. Lok Virsa initiates measures to identify and categorize individuals or groups of notable masters and practitioners of traditional arts and skills to ensure ways and means of their continuance by providing suitable incentives.

In modern times, arts are becoming an industry, and no longer an individual act. A developing country like Pakistan is at the consumer’s end. We are compelled to import art products like films, books, magazines, videos and audiotapes. The result is rapid transplantation of alien art forms, to the detriment of our own cultural traditions. Lok Virsa, in cognizance of the situation, aims to strengthen the national art industry for the propagation of Pakistani art forms. Lok Virsa is an affiliate member of UNESCO, the World Crafts Council, International Council of Music, the Asian Cultural Centre for UNESCO, the International Council of Museums and similar other world organizations for the dissemination of art products abroad.

The Museum has grown from a small sub-section in 1974 into an integral division of Lok Virsa since 1981. The museum galleries house a rare collection of folk arts and ethnological artifacts, each of which has been chosen by an expert as a prime example of a unique artisanship and its features. The displays are imaginatively arranged and keep changing during a year to accommodate new additions. Since the museum documents living arts, it calls upon all artisans to bring their crafts annually to the artisan festival. This festival is held each year in the month of October at the museum complex in Islamabad. Over 100,000 eager participants come to the festival. Lok Virsa supports the craftsmen by giving cash awards to them and recognizing them as living national treasures. The festival also features folk entertainments, puppet shows, folk dance, music concerts and an exotic craft bazaar.

It would not be unjust to call Lok Virsa the cultural storehouse of literature pertaining to Pakistani traditions. Original search works in all regional languages of Pakistan along with Urdu renderings of the regional text are published. Patronage has expanded from scholars to the general public, as the centre now publishes two books a month. Over a hundred books have been produced by the centre in a series, including Folk Songs, Folk Tales, Folk Romance, Epics, Folk entertainments, Folk Poetry, Sufi Poetry, Cultural Information, Cultural Gazetteers and Surveys, Folk Classics, Oral Traditions and Rare Reprints.

The publishing house aims to make regional folk literature available in the national language to promote greater understanding and closer fraternity amongst Pakistanis and to make cultural literature available to schools, colleges and universities and social scientists. Many a Lok Virsa publication is prescribed as part of the course of study in major universities at home and abroad. A number of publications from Lok Virsa publishing house are national award winners. The centre also publishes professional quality recordings on video and audiocassettes for storage, reference, and projection of our authentic musical heritage. Lok Virsa is already the largest folk music publisher in Pakistan.

Lok Virsa since its inception in 1974 has placed great emphasis on audiovisual documentation of rituals, customs, festivals and traditions that are dying out. A professional video studio has been established by the centre at Islamabad. The well-equipped mobile units of the centre can reach any part of the country to capture an event and yield a quality production. Whether enjoying a musical journey through Pakistan via the ABU prizewinner The Circarama Box or being immersed in a fascinating study of the ancient civilization of Moenjodaro, the sound-slide kits produced by the centre are a pleasure to experience. These inexpensive and creative educational kits consist of slides synchronized to a sound track with a booklet as background material. The educational institutions are offered free screenings. The media centre also offers professional documentaries and video programmes to television networks, universities, and other institutions for home consumption on rental as well as on sale.

Lok Virsa follows a policy of involving all talented Pakistanis in the implementation of its policies and programmes. Lok Virsa is the only institution offering grants for cultural research to scholars and students, particularly from remote areas.

Many existing facilities of Lok Virsa such as the Heritage Museum, Heritage Library, Sound Archives, Research and Publishing Centre and Virsa Media Centre are all educational facilities based on the interest of students and researchers. Lok Virsa has been provided a new mandate under the new charter that requires the institution to develop a new vision and vistas in broadening its horizon. These new areas principally include socio-cultural education, training, workshops, culture industry, broadcasting, telecasting, NGOs and community services. Lok Virsa under the leadership of Mr. Uxi Mufti, Executive Director of Lok Virsa, along with sheer commitment of Mr. Anwaar-ul-Haq, Programme Executive, and other team professionals must strive harder to distinguish itself in these new areas as a viable self-support organization.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad

Published in dilay DAWN on 23rd June, 2006 & in The Post on 25th of June, 2006


MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR

ISLAMABAD

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

HAYATULLAH KHAN: A replica of Daniel Pearl

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
Islamabad
mahtabbashir@yahoo.com

The callous murder of Hayatullah Khan in the village of Mirali in the restive North Waziristan tribal region on June 16, under suspicious circumstances heralded that the press in Pakistan can never flourish under the umbrella of government institutions, as we are the most obedient slaves of the superpower.

Hayatullah Khan Dawar, aged 30, a tribal journalist and a father of four was shot dead and his body was found lying in the mountains near Khesor Village, seven kilometres south of Mirali. He looked pale, had lost a lot of weight and grown a beard while in captivity. He was clad in the same brown clothes he had on the day he went missing. He was handcuffed and had received five gunshots. It appeared as if he was shot from behind while attempting to escape. However, the body of the deceased bore no torture marks.

Hayatullah, who worked for the Urdu national daily Ausaaf, English daily The Nation and as a photographer for the European Press Photo Agency (EPA), was abducted from the main Mirali-Bannu road on December 5, last year. There were five abductors, all masked and bearded, armed with AK-47 assault rifles. The courageous journalist was on his way to cover a student’s demonstration against the US missile attack in Esorhi village on December 1, 2005.

It was the detention of his father by the political authorities in 1992 that prompted the young man to become a journalist and expose excesses and injustices. He kicked off his career as a journalist soon after doing his first term in MSc. Economics from the Government Degree College of Bannu in 1998.I

In 2001, Hayatullah had a brush with the US forces when he was arrested in southeastern Paktika area of Afghanistan by the US forces, mistaking him for a secretary to the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omer. He was detained at the Bagram air base for two months and questioned about the whereabouts of Taliban’s elusive one-eyed leader.

Hayatullah’s address book contained many telephone numbers of religious leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan, whom he had interviewed in the course of his journalistic career. This was later on taken as evidence of his contacts with terrorists and involvement in terrorist activities. These contacts ultimately resulted in giving him the death penalty.

Hayatullah is not the first media person who was executed under mysterious circumstances in the volatile tribal region, in a period less than two years. Two journalists, Aamir Nawab Wazir and Allah Noor Wazir were gunned down and Anwar Shakir was critically injured in February 2005 in the neighbouring South Waziristan Agency.

According to Hayatullah’s brother, Ehsanullah, his brother was first threatened on November 17, 2005, prompting him to rush to Islamabad to inform one of his intimate friends Hamid Mir. Hayatullah meanwhile was offered three choices, i.e. either leave the agency or stop reporting at this place; or accept the position of a naib muharrar (head clerk) in the political administrative wing.

Hayatullah’s brother also said that he and his family members had been assured time and again that Hayatullah was alive and well, and had been detained on matters relating to national security. Everyone knew all along which agency had held him. There is not even an iota of doubt in our minds, claimed the 21 year old Ehsanullah. He blamed an intelligence agency for this murder and vowed to avenge his brother’s death.

The family of the martyr suspected that he had been kidnapped by an intelligence agency after he first released the pictures of parts of the US missiles that had killed the senior al Qaeda operative Hamza Rabia in North Waziristan on December 1. It also came through some sources that Hayatullah had been relocated to the US as a reward for pinpointing Rabia’s hideout. On May 10, the US consulate in Peshawar circulated a statement denying any knowledge regarding Hayatullah’s whereabouts.

Hayatullah’s disappearance and his assassination later on had been a subject of discussion and speculation for a long time. It sparked protests and demonstrations by journalists in Peshawar and prompted international organizations, including Reporters Sans Frontieres and Committee for the Protection of Journalists, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to issue statements urging Islamabad to secure his release. However, strong speculations haunted many that Hayatullah might have been detained by the Pakistani intelligence agencies operating in the same region.

“This is not the Taliban style of execution because they dispose of cases of suspected informers and pro government agents in a few days,” Ehsanullah revealed.The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the All Pakistan Newspapers Employees Confederation also condemned this brazen murder. Both organizations in a joint statement appealed to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the kidnapping and murder of Hayatullah Khan and appoint a judicial inquiry commission.

Locals say it is a mystery who had kidnapped and killed Hayatullah. Both the militants and the authorities denied knowledge of his whereabouts during the six months period that he was missing. However, the local tribal journalists’ organizations blamed the government for Hayatullah’s death because it failed to rescue him.

Hayatullah Khan was abducted just after he reported the killing of a five-year-old child and an 18-year-old college student in the US missile strike. Hayatullah took photographs of what appeared to be pieces of the US missiles at the scene. The photographs were printed in an Islamabad based Urdu paper he was working for.

Many days earlier, the Pakistani authorities had announced the death of Abu Hamza Rabia with four others in a blast at an alleged militant hideout in North Waziristan. The official version was that bomb-making materials had accidentally exploded but the locals said that it happened due to a US military assault. Hayatullah’s reports and photographs had exposed the official version.

The opposition members raised their voices in the Assembly after Hayatullah was kidnapped, but the government did not take any notice of this issue. Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the Islamic alliance MMA claimed in a rally that the government has shown criminal silence over the kidnapping of the journalist.

Mehrun Nisa, the widow of Hayatullah, also alleged that the government is behind the murder of her spouse. The Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao denied the government’s involvement in the whole brutal affair.

Hayatullah, the lanky fellow, was dedicated to his profession. He was a hardworking journalist, especially with regards to activities in the Pak-Afghan border areas and taking chances in gleaning exact information was his distinction. A gallant journalist lost his life in the line of duty. Hayatullah was a determined man with unflinching attitude. He had been in nasty situations before as well and used to shrug off torture and threats. This courageous attitude made him popular in journalist circles.

Hayatullah will always be remembered for his valorous contributions. He is a martyr and hero in the estimation of the people, and especially for the younger generation of the same profession. His death raises a pertinent question: is the media of this country autonomous?The cold-blooded murder of Hayatullah Khan was indeed a brazen act, which needs to be thoroughly investigated, independent of the government. Otherwise its claims of freedom of press will remain nothing more than a rattling sound. It was not only the murder of Hayatullah, it is the murder of media freedom.

Published in The Post on 22nd July, 2006 & in The Frontier Post on 18 july, 2006

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR

ISLAMABAD

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

Lok Virsa – an educational institution

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
Islamabad
mahtabbashir@gmail.com

The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, known as Lok Virsa, established in 1974, is a specialized organization with a mandate for field research, collection, documentation, cultural studies, preservation and dissemination of Pakistan’s folklore, oral tradition and indigenous cultural heritage. In order to give substantial legal status to Lok Virsa, broadening its area of activities, and enabling it to generate its own resources other than government grants, the existing resolution has been converted into an ordinance, promulgated by the President on September 17, 2002.

The president, while graciously inaugurating Pakistan’s first Ethnological Museum, was pleased to direct that the Museum should be fully utilized by students and research scholars to gain understanding of the magnificent cultural heritage of the country. In line with this instruction, Lok Virsa is making all out efforts to transform itself from the existing museum into a teaching facility, similar to a teaching hospital.

Within a decade, Lok Virsa has grown from a fledging endeavour to create a science of folklore, into a complex whose projects and activities span the roots of the entire nation. In accordance with the directive, Lok Virsa has worked out a three years plan of “Museum Educational Programme and Expansion of Public Facilities.”

In order to educate the young generation and students about the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan, the Heritage Museum has launched a Museum Educational Programme in collaboration with leading universities and colleges. Under this programme, students are invited from different educational institutions such as Fatimah Jinnah Women’s University, Quaid-e-Azam University, Punjab University, Baha-ud-Din Zakariya University, Peshawar University, International Islamic University, National College of Arts and other leading universities for field research and dissertations in different social subjects to fulfil the requirements for their M.Sc and M.Phil degrees. 100 students from five leading universities and academic institutions (20 from each) will benefit from this programme annually, by way of receiving financial support for fieldwork in remote areas of the country.

Annual Skilled Training Programme is a collaborative venture between the Heritage Museum, Ministry of Education and its affiliated organizations, wherein Master Artisans in different craft fields and recipients of the President’s Medal for Pride of Performance will be invited to hold workshops in the Museum to present their skills to the younger generation.

Lok Virsa will organize an annual 10-day Artisans-at-Work and Craft Bazaar exhibition to promote the cultural heritage of Pakistan and to provide an opportunity to the Master Artisans to display and sell their crafts, without the involvement of middlemen. At least 50 Master Artisans in specialized crafts fields will be invited to participate, bringing with them their creative works. This will be an annual event of the Heritage Museum, which will become self-generating after the third year.

It will be a vital aim for the Heritage Museum to improve the image of Pakistan abroad and to protect the rich cultural heritage of the country. Under this programme named as ‘Collaboration and Facilitation of Foreign Scholars’, six leading scholars from different leading foreign universities will be invited annually. They will be encouraged to carry out original research work on Pakistan’s rich culture and society. 18 scholars will take part in this programme over the span of three years.

Lok Virsa has already established the Pakistan National Museum of Ethnology/Heritage Museum as an extension of its existing facilities. A small committee under the guidance of Mr. Uxi Mufti, Executive Director of Lok Virsa, a connoisseur of Art and Folklore and Programme Executive (Coordination and Special Visits) Mr. Anwaarul Haq, a true workaholic officer, with the help of other officials and staff, will be responsible for timely execution of this project. One hopes that this project will constitute the best show-window on Pakistan and provide a truly reflective cultural attraction available to dignitaries and visiting heads of state in Islamabad.

Published in Daily THe Post on 6th Feb, 2006

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR

Islamabad

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

Muhammad Hanif Ramay – A MAN OF MASSES

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
Islamabad
mahtabbashir@gmail.com

The year 2006 begins on the sad note of the demise of a renowned politician and connoisseur of art and literature, Muhammad Hanif Ramay (1930-2006). He was a man of multi-faceted talents. His presence illuminated our minds and spirits, as his formal and informal conversations impressed and influenced people from every sphere of life.

Hanif Ramay was an accomplished calligraphic artist and painter. He was the first to employ the techniques of modern art in Islamic calligraphy to promote the ideology of Islamic socialism on this soil. His artwork fusing Eastern and Western aesthetics gave calligraphy a new dimension. He was an exception in the field of calligraphy, amalgamating abstract with Muslim art; he created a diction of his own that was subtle and legible even to an ordinary person. Ramay was inspired by the works of Abdul Rahman Chughtai and Master Allah Bux and created some masterpieces. He brought colour to calligraphy. However, he was involved in so many other activities that he was never able to market himself as a writer and artist. His painting, “Adam and Eve” was appreciated by everyone who knows something of what art is all about. Ramay’s work indeed was of high calibre and of admirable quality.

In his last years, Hanif suffered from back problems and kept away from active politics. However he went back to his real passion of writing and painting. He calligraphed Allah’s and Muhammad’s (PBUH) 99 names in his own unique style. Along with this came one of the best pieces of prose I’ve read in my lifetime so far: Islam ki Ruhani Kadrain -- Zindagi nahi Maut (The Spiritual Values of Islam — Life, not Death), in which he pointed out how today’s Muslim is in a state of dilemma over maintaining a balance between the first and second part of his life. His contributions in the domain of politics as a former Chief Minister of Punjab are worth mentioning too. He authored a book, Punjab Ka Muqaddama, which propagated the cause of the province and thus produced massive controversy among the people at that time. His emotional dedication to the interests of Punjab many years later culminated in this book in the mid-1980s in the aftermath of a violent political movement in Sindh. Punjab Ka Muqaddama argued the thesis that the bureaucracy at the Centre, and not Punjab, was responsible for depriving the smaller provinces of their due rights.

As Chief Minister of Punjab, he also founded Arts Councils in all the major cities of the province, which exist to date to promote and preserve the arts and culture of the country. He removed innumerable bureaucratic hurdles in building the Alhamra Arts Complex. It was his final wish to be buried in the premises of the same complex, but this was tragically turned down by the Punjab government.

Ramay’s independent and unprecedented theories on how to progress as a nation still impress everyone. However, he could not balance his conflicting interests and was forced out of office by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He then joined Mustafa Khar and tried to form a new political party, but eventually joined the faction of Pakistan Muslim League led by Pir Pagara. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto threw Ramay into one of the cells of the Lahore Fort and a tribunal sentenced him to four and half years imprisonment.

When General Zia came to power, the Lahore High Court released Mr. Ramay, who then went away to the US and stayed there to teach at the University of California, Berkeley for more than six years. On his return to Pakistan, he again tried to jump into his old field of politics. This time he managed to form a new political party named Musawaat, with the slogan of ‘Rub, Roti aur Lok Raj’. But this did not take off and so he merged it with a new party led by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, called National People’s Party, but left it soon after. In the 1990s, when Benazir Bhutto came into politics, Ramay returned to the Pakistan People’s Party. Benazir Bhutto welcomed this and elevated him to the coveted position of Speaker of the Punjab Assembly in 1993.

Muhammad Hanif Ramay was amongst the few intellectuals who led the movement of enlightened Islam into the 1960s and was the first gentleman from the lower/middle class to become an elected Chief Minister Punjab. He was a prominent proponent of modernist Islam and his work influenced a whole generation in a decade spanning the 1950s and 1960s. The journal Nusrat was a harbinger of his thoughts and feelings. The literary community was then broadly divided into two wings, progressive (Leftist) and Islamists (Rightist). Ramay joined Muhammad Hassan Askari, Intezar Hussain, Salim Ahmad and Nasir Kazmi’s school of thought to express his ideas on the promotion of Pakistan’s identity and ideology. He, without an iota of doubt, was a man who played a pivotal role as a journalist in spreading the message of Islamic Socialism taken up by Z.A Bhutto.

A selfless politician, a pragmatic intellectual, a committed journalist, an artist par excellence, and a broadminded scholar, this is the life-story of Muhammad Hanif Ramay. He tried to combine modernity and traditional values in all the roles he played. There is no exaggeration in saying that personalities like him are very rarely found and the vacuum his death created, can never be filled.

Published in daily Pakistan Observer 4th March, 2006 & The Post 8th April, 2006

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR

Islamabad

mahtabbashir@yahoo.com

UNTITLED...

This and the preceding overseas letter to the editor of the Peshawar, Pakistan FRONTIER POST are intended to help inform readers at this time of our Congressional elections as to what is happening overseas and how dangerous the Islamo-Fascist terrorists are to us all.

Today is:November 07, 2006 Tuesday 14 Shawwal, 1427 A.H.

US didn?t attack the Bajaur seminary
George L. Singleton USA
GSingle556@aol.com

The Nov. 5, 2006 letter to editor of The Frontier Post ?An open invitation? by Muhammad Mahtab Bashir of Islamabad makes a false statement about US predators being used in the recent attack in fact carried out by Pakistani armed forces. The world is complicated enough without people making up falsehoods to blame their problems on others. The fact is that too many Madrassahs are used to brainwash and train young Pakistani boys to become Taliban terrorist fighters, sending them straight into Afghanistan in the hundreds of late. The missing alternative, which I do blame the Govern-ment of Pakistan for, is the lack of free, therefore affordable public schools in all parts of Pakistan. That need for free public schools in the NWFP and PAK is particularly acute. All moderate and rational Pakistanis need to stand up to such falsehoods. And, my friends at The Frontier Post know such wild stories are untrue and should not act like the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER to sell newspapers at the expense of the truth.

George Singleton USA
9:53AM on Nov 8th 2006

GET YOUR SHOULDER ALWAYS READY!

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
mahtabbashir@gmail.com
Islamabad

Argument- to me is the inimitable yet simplest philosophy of learning things around. They say argument leads to ignorance but to me, in a larger extent the only way one can learn is to keep nudging others mentally and keep absorbing the gut-feelings of one's intellectual rival.

Remember, you can not explore new avenues of knowledge unless or until you show contrasting approach of a person next to you. But let not allow those arguments switch into a verbal duel followed by a physical brawl. One can not broaden his mental horizon agreeing upon others merely using the words … yes, exactly, you are right. So to me, clash of mind is one of the blessings that facilitate us to think beyond our rational thoughts.

My cousin Nomi is a person to whom I'm engrossed all the time with exchange of my limited thoughts and ideas. Fortunately, we both have the patience and knowledge to counter each other aspirations and dreams ranging from socio-economic to religio-politcal aspects to disseminate with tete a tete. And I am with no pang in admitting, Nomi is one of my inspiration in life, not because of his dedicated contribution and laudable services when Moazzam bhai was on his death bed but I find this gentle boy every time with selflessness at its extreme in the herd of selfish people. Moazzam bhai had a strange reverence for this soft spoken lad, always calling him… Nomi bhai. With the sudden death of Moazzam bhai, Nomi quite a lot of time questioned me in melancholic gesture, "Is there anyone NOW, who can call me.. NOMI BHAI?" with tears in his eyes. And every time he found no reply from my side. Nomi remained quite literally a shadow of Moazzam bhai during those 14 months. One day bhai wrote in his diary….

Aye dost mein to dasht-e-tamanna ka phool hoon
Girnay ka mujhko darr nahi teri kitaab say

Nomi used to ask me, "What is the most important part of your body"? Through the ages I would take a guess at what I thought was the correct answer. When I was in my teens, I thought sound was very important to us as a human being, so I promptly replied, "my ears". He said, "No, many people are deaf on this planet". But you keep thinking about it & I will ask you soon about the same. Several months passed by before he asked me the same question. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer. So this time, I told him, "yar, sight is very important to every individual, so it must be our eyes". Nomi looked into my eyes and smilingly said, "Nahi Mahtab..You are learning fast but still far away because there are so many people who have no judge of colors, they are blind." Stumped again, however I continue my quest of knowledge. Over the months, Nomi asked this question couple more times and always his counter reply to me was, "No.., but you are getting smarter every month, my brother".

At the beginning of 2008 when Moazzam Bhai breathed his last, Nomi was the first person to whom I hugged in my darkest moment of life with the words, "Tum bhi kuch nahi kar sakay, yar" and he replied with watered eyes, "mein kuch nahi kar saka, may nakaam ho gia hoon, Mahtab, may nakaam ho gia hoon".

Everybody was devastated. Nomi looked at me and repeated the same question, "Do you know the most important body part yet, my dear"? I was shocked when he asked me this question as I thought it was a game between me and him. He saw the confusion on my face and told me this question is very important, Mahtab. It shows that you have really lived in your life. For every body part you gave me in the past, I considered wrong and given you example, why? But today is the moment; you need to learn this important lesson, he stared at me gently as only he can. I saw his eyes well up with tears as he continued to whisper, "My dear, the most important body part is your shoulder". I swiftly questioned, is it because it holds up my head"? "No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend, relative or a loved one when they cry. Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on when you really need it." Nomi concluded.

Then and there I knew the most important part of body is not a selfish. A shoulder is a symbol of sympathy against the pain of others. People will forget what you say, people will forget what you do, but people will NEVER forget how you made them feel. True or not, you have all the rights to argue. But this piece of writing makes you pause and think. Be blessed. Be a blessing. Get your shoulder always ready.

Allow me to hum few lines from the glorious ABBA:

Chiquitita, tell me the truth
I'm a shoulder you can cry on
Your best friend, I'm the one you must rely on
You were always sure of yourself
Now I see you've broken a feather
I hope you can patch it up together.



For more ... please click on these links...

http://mahtabbashir.blogspot.com/2008/05/if-i-could-work-miracles.html
http://mahtabbashir.blogspot.com/2008/04/tere-bina-xindagi-bhi-laikin.html
http://mahtabbashir.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-brother-walking-lexicon-walks-away.html
http://mahtabbashir.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-memory-of-my-brother_06.html

Farhat from Islamabad emails':
Mar 31, 2008 4:27 PM
that is excellent mehtaab..
Farhat Akram
Assistant Research Officer
Islamabad Policy Research Institute
House no 2, Street 15,
Main Marglla Road ,F 7/2 ,
Islamabad 44000 Pakistan

GIVE ME JUSTICE

By: Muhammad Mahtab Bashir
Islamabad
mahtabbashir@gmail.com

Unrest, fraud, killing and terrorist activities are not unprecedented in this country called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Killing spree based on ethnicity and rivalry has been carried out regularly, but the government has always failed to arrest the murderers. These occurrences have reached such a level that even police officers were recently gunned down by unidentified persons in Lahore. This type of incident surely develops anxiety and fretfulness within a common man and he starts thinking, “If police officers’ lives are at stake, how can a common man like me expect the smooth flow of my life?”

According to Aristotle and Plato, the primary responsibility of the state is to implement law and order and justice should be provided to all. Unfortunately, it has never been observed in this country since its inception. The responsibility of the state is also to provide food and shelter to its citizens, failing which causes social abnormality. Social conflict and social deviance is the outcome of injustice and injustice persuades the individual to record his protest. In a way to satisfy his inner needs and to shed his frustration, he opts to use unfair means. The ultimate question arises, how can one improve the deteriorating law and order situation?

In the new set up, the district council has the authority to create a public safety commission to ensure that police personnel are not used inappropriately as well as to look after the welfare of the police cadre. Offices of the ombudsman are to be set up at the district level to redress complaints against maladministration. The ombudsman will be appointed by the district council. A citizen tribunal is also being established at the union council level. Concerted efforts from law enforcing agencies are required at every level, without discrimination as the first step.

By creating the above openings under the decentralised policy framework, the government has recognised that all reforms need to have a rights based approach and human rights in all sectors and perspectives need to be protected. The state of human rights and law and order can never be improved unless (a) judicial systems are robust in providing access to justice to the communities, (b) improving law and order and (c) creating social and civic awareness about human rights, its issues and situation in the country. A stringent implementation regime will lead to improvements in its efficacy and consequently stimulate economic growth and encourage private investment, both domestic and foreign, which will directly and indirectly lead to alleviating poverty, thus be a major tool for improving not only the law and order situation but also human rights.

Police should handle the law and order situation with professionalism and refrain from illegal actions like extra-judicial killings, torture or fake encounters. “The duty of police officers ranges from prevention and detection of crime to behaving with members of the public with due decorum and courtesy.” Guiding and assisting members of the public, particularly the poor, the disabled and the physically weak helps in promoting amity. Police should not interfere in matters involving civil disputes. Police should advise the person coming to them for registration of cases in civil matters to approach the concerned court. Police officers should do everything to meet the call of their duty, complete investigation and submit challans in court within time. This will greatly contribute to the improvement of administration of justice. The policemen should maintain idealism in life and never lose patience, objectivity and human values. A police officer must enter the profession with a commitment and zeal to bring a change, a pleasant change.

In spite of all its tall claims, the government has failed to reform the country’s police. Police stations remain torture cells. Police personnel have been found involved in dacoities. Recently several persons in police custody have been tortured to death. Rape cases of innocent young girls belonging to poor families have taken place in these police stations. If the government itself orders the police to raid students’ hostels at night, and resort to violence against teachers, women and students, how then does it hope to reform it?

Instead of sincere and serious efforts to remove people’s hardships, the government merely depends upon superfluous tactics. At times, people are invited on the phone to talk directly to the prime minister, and at times, the drama of open public kachehri is arranged. Neither the government will gain anything nor problems of the public would be solved through such useless activities.

Published in daily The Post, 23 May, 2007

Muhammad Mahtab Bashir

Islamabad

mahtabbashir@gmail.com