NA 48& 49 Rural Voices on Elections 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pNkArsRAGg4

Election 2013 Series Political Parties Youth Wing Perspective part2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lw9f9fRZC4

Election 2013 Series political parties youth wing's perspectives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lw9f9fRZC4

Dangerous Games-Terror politics Elections 2013

There is no doubt that Pakistanis of all hues are appalled by the unabated murders and terror that has been unleashed. Elections upon us, terrorists like TTP threatening and targeting specific party workers has developed a narrative, which is equally dangerous. The self-proclaimed liberal parties have espoused a line that goes something like this: since the judicial murder of their leader ZAB and because we are secular (ANP) the Establishment is threatened and is against us. As a result the Establishment does not want these particular political parties to return to ‘power’. The terrorist groups ( e.g.TTP) are assumed to be under some influence of parts of the establishment; they are targeting these parties on behalf of the threaten establishment and non-state actors’ agenda. Further because specific political parties have not been targeted, they must be ‘favored’ by the Establishment and hence ‘pre poll’ rigging in their favor exists. Naturally this undermines the credibility of those political parties that haven’t been attacked by terrorists-thus far. This thinking is currently, viciously and vociferously argued on the airs, social media and editorials. There are significant problems with this line of argument -dangerously so. First. The most unfortunate and bone chilling murders of ANP workers have been condemned by all Pakistanis and including The PTI in the media and on the campaign trail interviews. The death of the (any) brave political worker is a burden we all have too bare; their sacrifices for a better progressive Pakistan is on us all. Second. There is little doubt from both Polls, anecdotal field feedback and an impression developed over 5 years of governance, the incumbent political parties, in all the four provinces, have miserably failed to deliver-promises they made to the people. This statement I would safely argue will find little challenge irrespective of whom we plan to vote for. Third. It is safe to argue the incumbent parties have very little to show when presenting their case to the people of Pakistan. Besides the mismanagement, inability to challenge those very forces that are responsible for Pakistan’s terror woes inside and outside of Pakistan. Compromised by personal and political corruption the incumbent parties are on the back foot in front of the 87 million voters. How can they seek any favor or sympathy from the people of Pakistan? Fourth. In this most unfortunate electoral environment the targeting of the incumbent political parties is most intriguing. Why would the terrorists target these particular political parties? Why are the establishment and its non-state actor proxies targeting parties who have run the affairs for the past 5 years? Did these political parties bother them? Stem their growth? Marginalize their influence? Cut funding from within and outside of Pakistan? Stop recruitment inside Pakistan or eliminate training grounds in our schools and/or terror camps? If all these fundamental questions are answered, why would terrorists be ‘threatened’ by these specific political parties? If the answer is these incumbent parties were ‘unable to challenge the establishment and were helpless the chorally question would be why are you seeking political office again if you are unable to challenge what needs to be challenged? Further, while in power and hindered from governing in the interest of the people of Pakistan how would the next stint be any different? What does actually threaten terror in Pakistan? Who actually threatens the forces of evil and terror in this country? Sixth, there is one reason this sickness has been unleashed; who amongst these contending for our vote could possibly challenge the status quo? Certainly not the incumbents their records are plain to see. If PTI were a threat what would be the best way to undermine the movement? Thinking never a strong suit of the Establishment, a game, an old familiar one is in play. Have political weaklings attack the new challenging political force. This is an old game the establishment has always played with the naïve morally bankrupt political class. Divide them and expose their ineptitude and have them turn on themselves. This would serve whom? Those who are most threaten by democracy. A clean leader with integrity who is uncompromising on Pakistan’s sovereignty is the biggest challenge to the Establishment and its handmaidens. A politician and a political movement that has integrity are unmanageable and pose a challenge to those who have run the state through its handmaidens thus far. The ruse and a narrative purposefully promoted that PTI is supported by the establishment is a fantastic cover to actually strengthen those who are partners in this pillage. The incredible negative media campaign of bashing PTI/IK is more indicative of the fundamental challenge it poses to the status quo. Thinking Pakistanis must begin to ask relevant questions. It isn’t about left or right in the traditional political spectrum. There is nothing left about the ANP & PPP today; and there is little ‘secular about a fascist party. Status Quo parties do not challenge. If we do not challenge the current establishment there will be no NayaPakistan, which is necessary for a peaceful prosperous Pakistan. The status quo has served whom thus far? Thinking Pakistanis democratic Pakistanis must begin to challenge the manufactured narrative which side steps the real aim. Ensuring the politicians remain weak, divided and manageable . This is in no ones interest except those who benefit from the existing system. Don’t let that happen. Vote your conscious and support a strong, independent candidate who has integrity. Pakistan zindabad.

Conversations with Pakistani English & Urdu writers: language politics and more' Part 2

Conversations with Pakistani English & Urdu writers: language politics and more' Part 1

Islamabad Zindabad!

http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/citybuzzz/item/1215-islamabad-zindabad

Conversation with Yusuf B Quresihi on Fashion, Art & Culture in Pakistan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5Cwp3kZNU

Day 2 of the Lahore Literature Festival- Finale

Day 2 of the Lahore Literature Festival- Finale

Bright eyed and bushy tale I woke up to a fabulous sunny Sunday morning; the night before Mohsin & Zahra Hamid hosted a wonderful evening for many of the attending guests of the festival; wasn’t sure how many would be up in time for the first session of Day 2 of the Lahore Literature Festival.

Mohammad Hanif started the day with a very important subject the Missing Stories of the people of Baluchistan. The Human Rights Commission’s I.A Rehman shared the genesis of enrolling Hanif in capturing the stories of those who have been ‘protesting & sitting since 2004’. Missing persons is an inaccurate description of people who have been kidnapped by the state, lets not pretend they have just gotten lost while returning home, Hanif said; In spite of reams of evidence that the security agencies of the state have illegally picked up citizens of Pakistan nothing is done; the idea that Punjab is under some kind of threat by the Baluch is ludicrous and torturing them on top of it serves any purpose is inexplicable. A packed house listen and reflected on a discussion rarely had in public and certainly not on any airwaves as Hanif reminded us. Trying to lighten the atmosphere Hanif recited a satirical Punjabi poem on the nature of the Pakistani army ‘Fauj na Punjabi ,Pathan,Sindhi ya Baloch hai fauj fauj hai’.

Challenging myself I decided to educate myself in Narrative forms in Urdu Fiction and Poetry a session led by Ali Akbar Natiq the talented Urdu short stories write & well known authors Musharraf Farooqi & Khalid Toor.  I learned, the form of the Dastaan   reveals the entire storyline at the very beginning, strangely this doesn’t discourage readers? This form reflects the innate fatalism that exists in our culture and hence knowing the end does not undermine the story. The evolution of the form of Urdu poetry was discussed, the ‘invisible’ narrator slowly emerging as a character over time, subjectivity becoming acceptable in modern Urdu poetry. Natiq’s aim in his work is to simplify ideas and experiences so that everyone one of his readers could relate to the prose rather than use the old grand stylized allegorical language, which few could relate to.

Moving on, the Lahore Literature Festival would have been incomplete without a session on the life and ideas of one of the greatest post partition Urdu writers Sadaat Hasan Manto; Professor Ayesha Jalal spoke about her new book Pity Partition which divides Manto’s world into three parts, stories, memories and partition sketches. Beautifully depicting Manto’s angst his sense of displacement from Bombay, the new state of Pakistan’s harassment and simultaneously the progressive writers branding him a reactionary leaving him little choice but to seek solace in alcohol. Jalal quickly reminds us he never wrote under the influence thankfully! More importantly, although Manto was accused of obscenity by both the colonial and postcolonial regimes and acquitted both times, today’s Pakistan probably would not have acquitted Manto!

Switching gear, I thought I should also check out the Children’s Literature Today session with Beela Jamil, Musharraf Farooqi and Nina Fite (American councilor general in Lahore); great idea to have a session for the children in Lahore. Unfortunately there wasn’t much for children in this session and the younger nieces and nephews I had encouraged to come were quite bored. The session was an exploration of how reading and festivals should also target the young encouraging them to explore the world of ideas. The American council general used it as a platform to advertise various education programs funded by them; teaching English to kids after school. A question from the audience is noteworthy; do the Americans share stories about Pakistani children from Quetta or Lahore, as you promote stories of American children with our kids through your programs? The suave diplomat was gracious in her response given the overt jibe understandable as it maybe.

One of the more pleasant surprises of the Festival and such events reveal from the recesses of our collective memories lost gems; discovering English Pakistani poetry with Ahmed Rashid, Samina Rehman, Navid Shehzad Khalid Ahmed and Henna Babar Ali.  A very emotional tribute to the late Taufiq Rafat considered Pakistan’s greatest English poet; each one of these well known journalist, writer poets read from his work; recalling personal anecdotes of his love of the language, ideas and mentoring them in their journey of discovering the world of writing. Poignantly they shared the difficulty of poets, however talented, today to publish their work. Publishers such as Oxford University Press are not interested in short stories or poetry per se the novel is in fashion. But as they mused these are cyclical  trends and like in their youth the future may see publishers revive an interest in poetry.

I don’t  think I’ve seen such a packed room! William Dalrymple & Ahmed Rashid’s session  Cultures in Conflict had at least 1500 people packed like sardines. The popularity of both these lumineries was probably the reason for such interest rather than Lahoris fascination with Afghanistan, the subject of both these authors new books The Pakistan on the Brink  & Return of the King. Dalrymple in his familiar manner ran through British India Company’s & the Raj’s adventures in Afghanistan during the period of  1839-1842; amazingly the story reads like a contemporary spy thriller shocking in the many parallels we can draw today. Little has been learned from history or perhaps we are destined to make the same mistakes repeatedly?

There were many sessions one couldn’t attend and that is probably the hallmark of a successful event. For a first, all the organizers of the Lahore Literature Festival have a lot to be proud of and one looks forward to this becoming a permanent fixture in our annual calendar. Even more encouraging if this would also pave the way for the other metros to consider hosting similar literary festivals.

Inaugural Lahore Literary Festival Day 1

http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/national/item/1331-inaugural-literary-fest-full-of-luminaries-on-day-first

Islamabad Zindabad

http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/citybuzzz/item/1215-islamabad-zindabad

Instant Fix & Mixed Messages

Nilofer’s Corner : Instant Fix & Mixed Messages.

Returning home after 3 months a sense of relief descended. Pakistan has a way of remaining on the edge like no other country, and I have had the fortunate of living in a few. The chaotic madness at the airport with no one in charge was a decent hint for things to come.

Tahir ul Qadiri’s arrival in Islamabad, and his strangest of exists has left many questions and certainly a deep impression. I did not expect a peaceful gathering of thousands over several days was possible, not in Pakistan, not in our DNA, but it happened. I suppose if we can queue quietly at Heathrow airport and remain civilized on most occasions when we are outside of the land of pure, those instincts Can be called upon, occasionally, inside the land of the pure? Speaking to the young in the TUQ dharna, I was impressed by the Jazba & the clarity of why they were peacefully protesting. Poppy cock I would say to those who tried and continue to argue, that the protesters were mere lambs hypnotized by a charlatan.

I found the arguments of some of the critics, these were merely preacher TUQ’s followers, frankly a little irrelevant.  Bewildering how the people at the Dharna have been completely overlooked in the intense campaign to discredit, ridicule and shift attention away from the elephant in the room, on the eve of (possible change) elections why were so many men, women and children protesting for relief and reform?

What has brought out Pakistan’s middle class out on the streets? These folk are socially conservative, leaving the confines of their homes and protected spaces requires a little more insight than has been given. Some of us have taken Dharna’s for granted, this is an uncommon phenomenon in our parts and when large ones occur it is an event of consideration. Dismissing this is merely doing disservice to the thousands if not tens of thousands of one of us. Yes one of us.

The middle class in Pakistan is conservative, religious and traditionally does not participate in mainstream politics. The urban vote has been indifferent to the political process-so far. The religious and conservative parties PML N and JI & JUI have an urban profile but the brand of religious political leanings has been Salafi infused ideas; TUQ supporters on the other hand are from the Bareli school of thought; religious and conservative but from my observation and conversations, different from the Saudiazation of Pakistani urban religious mindset. Superficially, their garb, greetings& headgear would suggest the influence of the Arabs, but what they believed in, if we bothered to listen to them, was most definitely not. There concerns included basic needs, the lack of security, absence of jobs and rampant corruption at every level of living. Concerns most citizens should be demanding of their elected leaders. Tolerant interpretation of faith, accepting of non-Muslims as equal citizens of Pakistan; these are radical ideas coming from the religiously inclined.

This seriously ‘secular’ or ‘all are equal under the law principle’ I would have expected from one of our mainstream fake liberal political parties not from a conservative religious group?  Further I did not see any support of anarchy or  rejecting the Constitution  of Pakistan. The running grievances were centralized around the idea of reforming the existing system. There was a very strong sense that the existing system is designed to malfunction, a system which refuses to reform.

Remarkably calm peaceful and determined, the usually emotional Pakistani in a group environment surprised everyone. Not a ‘leaf moved out of place’ as the preacher promised. In the middle of Islamabad’s commercial district with shops, bakeries, electronic stores worth millions nothing was touched. These citizens of Pakistan wanted to register their discontent with the democratically elected leaders on the eve of the elections. Perhaps, finally, the silent majority that we speak of, which aren’t ‘radical’ or ‘violent’ have arrived? Not sure if anyone was listening or paying any attention?

For the democrats in Pakistan, if these protesters, from the heart of Punjab represent our middle class sentiments as well, we need to reflect on the hypocrisy of our own liberal discourse. As liberals we profess ideals of democracy, tolerant values in social political life but do not reflect on our public posturing. The constant support to groups both political and non-which clearly deviate from any notions of egalitarian values or mores in behavior cannot continue. In the garb of defending liberal ideals we nurture the cancer that eats the fiber of our social political existence. Why do we continue to defend political platform(s) that have little vision for the future for ordinary Pakistanis?  Drumming up the dead, who have by no means any record of defending liberal ideals, furthering an imagined myth continuing the servitude of millions fed by a dream, which cannot be fulfilled, is criminal. We have blood on our hands as they say. Class (interests) seems to be permanent and form temporary.

A sleepy section of Pakistan’s middle class has politically awakened. What can we do to sustain their tolerant values towards a democratic polity? What strategies can one adopt? Fight intolerance with tolerance? What kind of tolerance is acceptable to the people of Pakistan? As an Islamic republic, do we need religion to fight religion? Is this the new strategy? Some have argued by using religion would cede space to the idea that the religious can only ‘make sense’ to ‘these people’, which for some of us secularist would be difficult to digest. How do we introduce a rational form of political discourse where ‘god’ isn’t invoked to end an argument? Agreed. But then how do we converse with 40% of our urban/peri urban literate population, who also demand  ‘a platform of trust’? How do we engage with a group that has lost its trust with both the mainstream political parties? These parties may have not been proven guilty by our courts but have certainly been pronounced guilty and condemned by the vast public. The argument that this has been a sustained campaign against the politicians by the security establishment and their handmaidens doesn’t suffice alone given the very public abuse of power and financial corruption evident in daily life. Hence how do we engage with the angry urban millions?

Was TUC using the lack of ‘roti kapra aur makan’ a genuine grievance resonating through millions of souls ready to be led towards a better Pakistan playing another geo political game? Is the reason why he arrived from Canada recently about ensuring a shift of foreign policy objectives instead of strengthening social security in Pakistan? Have these two ideas converged in the minds of the powers that be?

This is where TUQ seems to have been provided a space by god knows whom. Is the preacher with many flaws the magic silver bullet to the Salafi narrative? Killing pretty much anyone who isn’t Punjabi or Wahhabi isn’t very sensible, or controllable it seems? To counter this radicalism, starting with the heart of Punjab, a religious interpretation that is familiar, indigenous and tolerant? Berelvi politics absent from mainstream politics up till now, a tool perhaps for those who want to maintain a democratic order in Pakistan without upsetting too many carts?  The million-dollar question, who is getting manipulated?

I digress, like so many; what about the women, children and men who genuinely have grievances against the powers that be? How can we reassure the middle class of Pakistan that the existing system is a process they should engage in? They must vote; feel assured their vote will count? The candidates will reflect in words and in behavior the needs of their constituents?  The hollowness of give the system ‘time’ isn’t going to cut it with these educated folk. How can we reassure them when any step to try and strengthen, improve, tighten obvious loopholes, are ignored? Once again liberal democrats and not so liberal democrats cannot merely banter the word democracy without admitting their hypocrisy. Democracy means power of the people. Voting isn’t the only indicator of this idea; candidates must be worthy of this honorable responsibility. Here in lies our dilemma. Who do we consider ‘worthy’ of this honor? Which is more important loyalty to a myth or truthfulness to the people of Pakistan? How we support the people of Pakistan in the coming days, leading up to the election is on us.