TALIBAN’S THREAT TO MEDIA

According to a BBC Urdu service report, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud has issued ‘special directions’ to his subordinates in different cities of Pakistan to target Pakistani and international media groups. This is the TTP’s response in anger at the critical coverage the media across the board has given to the assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai. On the government’s part, the threat is being taken seriously. The Federal Interior Ministry says intelligence agencies have intercepted a telephone conversation between Hakeemullah Mehsud and a subordinate, Nadeem Abbas alias Intiqami, in which the TTP chief directed Abbas to attack media organisations that denounced the TTP after the Malala incident. The cities specified to be targeted are Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and others. Clearly, this is as wide as media targeting can get. The Interior Ministry in response has issued orders to beef up security at the offices of media organisations by deploying additional police. If needed, the government will deploy the Frontier Constabulary as reinforcements. The ministry has also cautioned religious scholars who had publicly denounced the Taliban following the attack.

The countrywide revulsion against the targeting by the TTP of a 14-year-old girl whose only ‘crime’ was standing up defiantly against the Taliban’s campaign to bring a halt to education in general, and girls education in particular, in areas under their influence was also reflected in media coverage of the event. Our lively media rarely converges on such a consensus on anything. When it does, things cannot remain the same and the pressure of public opinion generated as a result of this media consensus tends to force the authorities’ hand to respond to the issue. To their credit, the authorities, from the government to the armed forces, have unanimously come to the conclusion that enough is enough.

Now what remains to be seen is how this convergence translates into action. The reports about finally firmly grasping the nettle that is North Waziristan, the hotbed and safe haven of the Taliban, are a hopeful sign, despite the military’s reiteration of the need for a political decision before an offensive can be launched. The apprehension all along about military action in North Waziristan has been the adverse asymmetrical effect in the form of a terrorist blowback throughout the country. By its very nature, the protagonists of such warfare retreat before overwhelming force deployed against them and strike elsewhere so as to distract and stretch out the security forces, which inevitably produces gaps in the security network. It is imperative therefore that unlike previous military campaigns, including the ones in Swat and South Waziristan, any campaign against the terrorists holed up in North Waziristan must take into account and pre-empt the militants’ ability to melt away into other areas in the face of a military offensive, to live and fight another day. Any offensive in North Waziristan therefore must treat the requirements of the theatre as a whole, cut off retreat routes, and at the same time brace for terrorist attacks elsewhere in Pakistan. Bitter as the harvest of a North Waziristan offensive has the potential to reap, there is now no escape from taking out these fanatics and cleansing the soil of Pakistan from such inimical forces that threaten the best values of our state and society.

Courtesy: Daily Times

GHULAMI-E-RASOOL MEIN MAOT BHI KABOOL HY!

The government, under pressure from the growing and increasingly violent protests against the film insulting the Prophet (PBUH) has decided that today will be a national holiday and declared it Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (Day of Love for the Prophet (PBUH)). The federal cabinet also decided to hold Shan-e-Rasool (Dignity and Respect of the Prophet (PBUH)) conferences at the federal and provincial levels. Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told the media that the cabinet had suggested to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that it should sign an agreement with YouTube for blocking sacrilegious material. It may be recalled that when the furore over the film broke, the government requested YouTube to take the offending footage off its server and help bloc access to the film through all other Internet conduits. 


However, despite the fact that YouTube has blocked the film in a number of Muslim countries, and is adding countries to that list every day, it told the Pakistan government that it could not comply with the request since it had no such agreement with Pakistan. As a consequence, the government shut down YouTube in Pakistan altogether, much to the chagrin of its users. But that was apparently not the end of the story, as the Lahore High Court has issued notices to the government regarding inadequate blocking of, and therefore presumed access to, the offending film. Welcome to the age of the Internet, which makes blocking anything a highly precarious and difficult enterprise. 

The federal cabinet wants the culprits responsible for the film brought to book and to be shown no leniency. Mr Kaira argued that a holiday was the only way the government could show its seriousness about the ruction caused throughout the Muslim world because of the film. Mr Kaira appealed to the protesters to remain peaceful. He revealed a proposal to hold an emergency meeting of Pakistani ambassadors to discuss the fallout of the film and subsequent blasphemies. The cabinet also asked President Asif Ali Zardari to raise the issue in his address to the UN General Assembly and summon a summit of the OIC to tackle the provocation and forge a consensus on the response of the Muslim world.

Critics of the government’s decision to declare a holiday today express reservations that the move would encourage people to participate in the protests, which may turn violent. If the past few days’ events are anything to go by, the apprehension is not without weight. Increasingly violent attacks are being mounted against the US Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulates in Lahore and Karachi. Even the supposedly foolproof arrangements to keep protestors away from the diplomatic enclave in Islamabad failed in the face of the determined mob, and the army had to be called in to bolster a hard-pressed police force. 

The government’s intention may have been unexceptionable, i.e. to answer its critics that its response to the issue had been far too mild. However, if it has misread the mood on the streets, the decision could backfire in the form of countrywide violent protests, which would obviously stretch the already stretched law enforcement and security forces.

While Pakistan attempts to cope with the explosive situation emerging at home, the ‘freedom of expression’ champions in the west continue on their reckless and provocative path. French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which gained notoriety in 2006 by reproducing the Prophet’s (PBUH) caricatures first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, has in the middle of the growing protest in the Muslim world decided to publish more blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet (PBUH). France as a result is bracing itself for a backlash, while protests sweep Afghanistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. 

More than 30 people have already been killed in the protests, including 12 in an attack by a female suicide bomber in Afghanistan. Al-Azhar has condemned the publication of the cartoons, and even the Vatican has expressed its unease at the emerging crisis by describing the publication of the satirical images as throwing “fuel on the fire”.

What the proponents of unbridled freedom of expression in the west either do not realise or do not give a fig about is the dialectical relationship between freedom and responsibility. In their clinging to notions of freedom of expression (without any responsibility as to the consequences), what these modern day fundamentalists of western values fail to see is how their adventurism is bringing grist to the mill of the extremists throughout the Muslim world, and in the process dooming the liberal, democratic and progressive community in these societies to hell. 

RUET-E-HALAL, SHAHADATEIN & MOON SIGHTING

There is something surreal and vaudevillian about this whole high drama that we go through every year. As surreal as the water car episode that we went through recently. Those otherwise pathologically concerned with Pakistan’s “image” abroad as a modern state should really be on an overdrive here.

What we have, every year, in the 21st century, is a national debate over the sighting of the moon. It would take several attempts at explaining this annual national discourse to an outsider for the latter to take it seriously. And this is not to be attributed to the condescending superiority complex of those using the Gregorian calendar towards those using lunar. No, religious injunctions in other faiths, even other Abrahamic faiths, can be far more eccentric than the mere use of the lunar calendar. What will be questioned would be the reluctance to actually use the lunar calendar to get out of the messy, inexact business of sighting the moon.

Adding a layer of complexity to the whole issue is the forging of new ties across sectarian divides and the burning of old ones. One prism of understanding the issue used to be in the pro-Saudi Arabian versus pro-local terms. How, then, would that explain the functionally anti-Saudi Arabian influence government of KP, celebrating Eid a day earlier and the Saudi Arabia-fixated Punjab government celebrating it a day later?

Also evident is the irony of the central Ruet-e-Hillal committee calling the other camp obscurantists while maintaining an intransigently literalist stance on sighting the moon. But Peshawar’s Mufti Popalzai also based his declaration, not on any calculation or throwing his lot with Eid in other countries, but, yes, on reports of sightings. With this, the debate mutates from the theological into a my-word-against-yours, spawning off arguments about light pollution in cities, the visibility of the moon and whether the faith is sullied by using telescopes to begin with.

Several years ago, Mufti Muneeb (who is now in his 14th year at the committee), in his protest against Mufti Popalzai, equated the matter with the then recent Swat crisis. He explained the necessity of an “operation” the way one was started in Swat to restore the “writ of state.” Heavy words, these. The loss of the state’s monopoly on violence to militant extremists is to be put in the same slot as the trivial issue of gazetted holidays?

To segue that into an appeal: it would do us all a lot of good to drop the hyperbole. The heavens won’t fall if we have two Eids. And national unity wouldn’t have been cemented even if we did. There are other, bigger monsters to slay for that.

TIME TO INTROSPECT

On this Independence Day, as Pakistan turned 65, we find as many views on democracy, secularism and Islam as there are people living in the country. Confusion is one word the youth that comprises 65 percent of this country uses often to describe their understanding of the situation in Pakistan. There is complete disorientation as to the purpose of creating Pakistan in the first place, and then the direction it should have, and still needs to take. If the idea was to create a nation with multiple cultural dimensions, with human values at its core, then the way we have dealt with our citizens by depriving them of a decent living goes against that grain. There is a need to reinterpret, redefine and shed the dust covering the original concept of Pakistan envisioned by Jinnah and Iqbal. They certainly did not talk of a Pakistan enslaved by the current dominant and self-defeating narrow interpretation of Islam.

So-called Islamisation, starting from Zia’s era, has reduced the state and society to being entrapped by religious intolerance and lack of direction. The phenomenon of extremism, with a handful of people hiding in the mountains of northern Pakistan demanding Shariah to be the leitmotif of state and society is an indicator of things getting out of hand. The country is fast moving toward a debacle woven into a pattern of hatred, religious intolerance and crude understanding of Islam. Did Muhammad Ali Jinnah dream of this kind of Pakistan? The oft-repeated speech of Jinnah that he delivered at the first session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, clearly suggests the role of religion in the state that he envisaged. He delineated the position of minorities in Pakistan by granting them complete freedom of religion so that they could practice their faith in whatever manner they thought fit. This was the spirit that became the cause for the creation of Pakistan.

Today it is a different country we are living in, where minorities are harassed and are forced to either convert to Islam or leave the country for safer havens in India or elsewhere. The domination of right wing groups and opinion in the political, social and economic spheres has affected our relations with the world. We are not at peace with our neighbours. An air of hostility swirls across Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. The India-Pakistan animosity paradigm that saw trillions of dollars lining the pockets of political elites and arms dealers from the western countries in the name of defence and security, brought nothing but economic deprivation for our general public. The case of US enmity sown in the hearts of Islamists played out as an expedient way to exploit public sentiment rather than establishing Pakistan as a country free of political, military and economic dependence. Pakistan is surviving on the periphery of the world’s mainstream, where the purpose, cause and reason for Pakistan’s creation is lost in a welter of noisy and contradictory voices, adding more heat and fury rather than reason and wisdom to the country’s striving for direction, stability and prosperity. We are unfortunately directionless even today after 65 years and the freedom that we so lovingly guard in the name of sovereignty has itself become a redundant formula of false claims of national success and pride. We are in need of deep introspection. And what could be a better time for this than Independence Day?

LONG LIVE THE KING

Teri Mefil Mein Leikin …….

MAHTAB BASHIR

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

03335363248

Gulon mein rang bhare, baad-e-nau bahaar chale/ Chale bhi aao ke gulshan ka karobaar chale. Legendary classical singer Mehdi Hassan (July 18, 1927 – June 13, 2012), who captivated the hearts of millions of music fans across South Asia, died on Wednesday (June 13, 2012) after a decade-long illness. He was 84.

Mehdi Hassan, known as Shahenshah-e-Ghazal, or the king of classical singing among Urdu speakers across the world, died at Agha Khan Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

His son Asif told reporters outside the hospital that his father had been suffering from multiple lung, chest and urinary tract infections. Hundreds of fans gathered at the hospital on learning of his death, while condolences poured in from across the world, including India, where the ghazal maestro had a huge fan following.

Mehdi Hassan was bestowed with several awards, including Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Presidential Pride of Performance, Hilal-e-Imtiaz and the Nigar Film and Graduate Awards from Pakistan, while India and Nepal awarded him with the Saigol Award and Gorkha Dakshina Bahu Award, respectively, in recognition of his services to music. He has left behind nine sons and five daughters. He married twice, outliving both his wives. He will be buried in Karachi on Friday.

He was born in Rajhistan, India and migrated to Pakistan during the partition. Hassan struggled for a long time to establish himself as a singer, which included a one-off performance on Radio Pakistan in 1957. The year 1959 was his breakthrough year when he was introduced to a group of people at the Art Council in Lahore by legendary poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. And then, no musical score was complete without Mehdi Hassan’s enchanting vibratos.

“His voice added so many colors to ghazal that at one of the concerts, Faiz [Ahmed Faiz] sahab stood up and raised his hands in the air and said that this ghazal belonged to Mehdi Hassan, that he had nothing to do with it. Such was the impact of the man’s singing,” said Sufi singer Abida Parveen. Poet Nida Fazli, a close friend of Hassan who penned most of late Jagjit Singh’s ghazals, said Mehdi Hassan had been an institution for those in India and Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he had “brought the sub-continental Sufi sensibilities to life through his songs”.

Iconic Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar also tweeted about King of Ghazal Mehdi Hasan’s passing away. She said she had been “deeply grieved because today, Mehdi Hassan, a very big Ghazal Singer, is no longer with us. He brought a major transformation in Ghazal singing” and it was highly unlikely that such a singer would be born again.

“He was a great classical singer as well and his singing had a fragrance of Rajasthan’s music. I pray to Ishwar to rest Mehdi Hassan’s soul in peace,” she added.

Famous ghazal singer Ghulam Ali said: “I m completely shocked to hear about his demise.”

He said it was as if he had lost his elder brother.

Indian singer Hariharan tweeted: “Nobody can replace Mehdi Saab. He was a genius. He was a great thinker”.

Condolences also poured in from former president Pervez Musharraf PTI chief Imran Khan and Indian singer Pankaj Udhas among several others.

AMANULLAH BUTT MAKES HIS WAY TOWARDS HEAVEN!

MAHTAB BASHIR

ISLAMABAD

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

The earth is round, that’s why perhaps when two persons met and left for good, on a particular day come across each other again and that is for eternal relationship.

First time I met him at National Press Club (NPC) office in Federal Capital, couple of years ago at a time when I was working as a reporter for English newspaper ‘Daily Times’ to cover an art exhibition.

This healthy man greeted me with open arms and huge smile to follow. With exchange of quick words and an informal attitude wrapped with spontaneous humour, he won my heart in no time.

Before I planned to leave NPC for my office, he with his trademark Punjabi accent said, “O janab, pehli mulakaat ay, koi roti shoti te khaa k jao’. (It’s our first meeting and you should have a meal with me). I was in hurry and with an excuse I replied, “Butt sab- mein kuj jaldi which aan- Insha Allah, fair bohat jald mulakaat hoi gi.” (I’m in hurry and will see you pretty soon)”.

For mid and begin level Journalists in Pakistan, life is tough as he has to do all the hard work compiling stories braving scorching heat or chilly winter, to compose, and file it in a day’s stipulated time and often he has to skip his daily meals.

Days went by and it became my routine after finishing off my official work, I along with my young fellow Ali Hassan started our search for good restaurants in twin cities to have dinner together. We tasted almost every restaurants of sister cities but failed to find out a particular restaurant with a combination of taste and low price.

Ali at that time was residing Shamsabad (Murree Road) and I have to drop him there at night before moving to my own place at I-10. Mid way through, at double Road (Stadium Road), we tried all the restaurants and got fed up soon.

On a night, Ali desired to look around a restaurant he was told by his friend that restaurant offers a taste to devour. We didn’t know the exact location but all we knew it was situated in a small street over the road. And finally we got it. “Lahore Khaba” was the name of that small restaurant with a big portrait of comedian Sohail Ahmed eating a chicken piece erected in and outside the eatery.

As soon as I reached near, I saw Amanullah Butt (a senior journalist and owner of that restaurant) for the second time- sitting on a reception chair of ‘Lahori Khaba’. Drawing a long puff of ‘Gold Leaf’, he instantly recognized me and started uttering ‘Bismillah’, ‘Bismillah’ for a fair distance. Later I found, ‘Bismillah’, ‘Welcome’ and ‘Thank you’ as his pet (repeated) words.

On my first day, inside the ‘Lahori Khaba’, I noticed a number of photographs of Butt sab with prominent political, social and cultural personalities hanging over the walls. Afzal Butt’s solo photograph was also seen on the wall of restaurant. Upon asking why Butt sahib’s photo is here? Is it because he is the president of National Press Club? Butt sab first smiled and than replied, “o janab (Afzal Butt sab) … meray wadday pai jan nay ay. And I said masha allah. Later, Butt sab told me he writes column/ article in Urdu and Punjabi newspapers and I said pointing towards a wall--- yes, it is quite visible butt sab as one of your article is also pasted on the wall. He smiled again.

I distinctly remember, on that day I enjoyed Egg dipped in ‘Channay’ in dinner and it was the first time I tasted Chanay the way it is cooked. Before leaving the restaurant, I spoke highly about the taste of Chanay and told Butt sab we were in search of delicious food and your restaurant is the one we are looking for. Butt sab smiled again and shared a joke in response.

‘Lahori Khabay’ offered traditional foods including Chanay, Sri Paay, Khadd, etc I’m oblivion with.

Now, visiting that restaurant became my staple diet. Everyday I went there along Ali at ‘Lahori Khabay’. Later, we started debating on political issues rather just having a dinner. I’ve also visited his restaurant at Sehri time during last Ramadan.   

Every night, Butt sab delivered an insight out analysis of an issue- and that too prolonging with few jokes. From allotment of plots to journalists, to Supreme Court of Pakistan, from Zardari to Gilani, every issue came under our discourse during the dinner.

One night, when I reached ‘Lahori Khabay’, Butt sab asked me, haan g- ki khabraan nay. I said Butt sab- I went to attend a memorial reference in memory of Mastana, and Babbu Baral and just came here after filing this story. Butt sab went in a trance of nostalgia and kept of sharing the history of both the late great comedians. “Main ainda dowan naal bohat time guzaraya ay- balkay bohat acha time guzarya ay. Bohat achay insaan san tay bethay bethay koi jughat te gal bana lainde san. Or banda hans hans k pagal ho janda si,” he shared changing his facial expression from smile to sadness.

“Par Babbu wi ajeeb banda si. PM ne 5 lakh ilaaj aaste ditta, te 2.5 lakh de LCD lay aya,” Butt said. Now I was confused whether I should laugh here or to show seriousness. Butt sab also shared about the expansion of his business saying he will maintain balance between his hotel business and journalism.

It is quite hard to round off my feelings about this great workaholic man who always said goodbye to me with his trade mark humour. I remember often while leaving ‘Lahori Khabay’, I requested Butt sab to share that incident about brother of Humaira Arshad. And Butt sab said… “haan… o ainj hoya, aik din aisi aik party arrange keeti, ohday te Humaira Arshad nu bula lia. 2 ghante ho gay, o na aai. Ohda bhai (ohda secretary wi si). Mein ohday kolo jado wi Humaira Arshad da puchaha, o kainda ay… ye jo ap meray galay mein Locket dekh rahay hain na, ye may Humaira k sath UK, gia tha, wahan se laya tha. Ye jo ap bracelet dekh rahay hain, ye mein HUmaira k sath UAE ki visit pet ha, jahan se lay k aya tha. Or ….. ye jeans maine USA se purchase kit hi. Butt sab said, he got furious upon this answer as everyone getting late. And…. Finally I said to him… “Aor tum apni behan ki kon kon si naimato ko jhutlao ge,” and everyone around us found laughing.

On June 2 (Saturday), I got an sms from Bilal Dar about Amanullah Butt suffering with brain hemorrhage and admitted to PIMS hospital. I started praying for his early recovery knowing well those who make other happy wont vanish too early. But later, I got the news of sad and untimely death of Butt sahib.

May Allah Almighty bless Butt sab’s soul in eternal peace and grant his family and relatives the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.

RIP Butt sab, I know, now the air of Heaven is filled with your jokes and you are making your presence felt there as well. 

END OF BAHOO(s)

VOICE OF SULTAN BAHU- IQBAL BAHU NO MORE AROUND

MAHTAB BASHIR
ISLAMABAD
mahtabbashir@gmail.com

Tasbih Phiri Tay Dil Na Phirya, Ki Laina Tasbi Pharr Kay Hoo
Ilm parhiya Tay Adab Na Sikkhiya, Ki Laina Ilm Nu Parh Kay Hoo

The resonated voice of Muhammad Iqbal pack

ed with trance and spiritual thoughts of great spiritual philosophers- finally sings swansong on March 24.

The accomplished Sufi singer Iqbal Bahu passed away after complaining of chest pains. He was 65. He was known for his singing of Arifana kalam (devotional songs).

The soft spoken benign character, Bahu (1944 – 2012) had mastered the Sufi tradition of well-known Sufi saints Sultan Bahu, Waris Shah, Mian Muhammad Bux, Bulle Shah, Baba Farid and Shah Hussain by rendering their kalam. He had great command over folk songs as well mystical and devotional poetry but the kalam of Waris Shah (Heer), Mian Muhammad Bux’s (saif-ul-Mulook) and in particular Sultan Bahu’s kalam gave him an eternal fame and his name was changed from Muhammad Iqbal to Iqbal Bahu as spiritual affiliation with Hazrat Sultan Bahu.

While having a good time to converse with Bahu at the back stage of PNCA Auditorium quite a time,

Bahu gave an annoyed expression of modern youth being aping western music and oblivion of Sufi music and Kalam- that has something to offer everyone.

Last year, while he was looking pale at the same venue, after a formal discussion I started drilling him to share something about sufi music in context of contemporary music scene and I found him dejected. “Bus yar, chalnay do jo chal raha hay, jaise chal raha hay. Hum to apna kam diyanat dari (with honesty) se kar hi rahein hein,” was his prompt reply. He said no matter what - the world goes on but the echo of Sufi music/ kalam will never be faded as it has the wisdom that could not be found anywhere and strong message of righteousness, piety, self, and devotion are the essence of this poetry.

Born in Gurdaspur, Indian Punjab‚ Bahu migrated to Pakistan after partition and settled in Lahore. After completing his education, he worked in National Bank of Pakistan.

To perfect his singing of the Sufi kalam, Iqbal Bahu is believed to have sought the help of language experts in order to pronounce the words accurately.

Bahu performed for the radio, on stage, and the television in Pakistan as well as in European countries. On March 14, this year, he travelled to India

to perform his Sufiana and Arifana kalam in Lucknow and returned to Lahore on March 20. Since his return, Bahu had been suffering from a severe cough.

On Friday (March 23), he was taken to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology where a report of his angiography was positive. On Saturday, he was shifted to the Services Hospital where he expired during the course of treatment reportedly with cardiac arrest. Bahu leaves behind his wife, three daughters and two sons. Iqbal Bahu was laid to rest at ancestral graveyard in Iqbal Town area of Lahore.

Tasbih Phiri Tay Dil Na Phirya Laina Tasbi Pharr Kay Hoo
(You have been counting your rosary beads, But your heart hasn’t taken a turn for the better. What can anyone gain from such a practice?)
Ilm parhiya Tay Adab Na Sikkhiya Laina Ilm Nu Parh Kay Hoo
(You acquired knowledge by reading scriptures, But you didn’t submit yourself to their mandate, What can anyone gain from such knowledge?)
Chillay Kattay Nay Kujh Na Kujh Na Khattiya Laina Chillian Varr Kay Hoo
(You secluded yourself for forty-day retreats, But that too did you no good)
Jaag Banaa Doodh Jamday Na Bahu Laal Hoovan Bhaaveen Karh Kay Hoo
(You may keep boiling milk forever, O Bahu, But unless it is cultured, it will not yield the essence).