In Defense of The Left

Sameer #153: I came to this post from your reference in the other thread. I suspect that this contribution was rejected due to (i) lack of clarity and (ii) lack of completeness.

You have made many points but they are many and need more nourishment. So much so, perhaps, there is more than one article in here and writing these articles systematically will do justice to the material.

Some of the themes one comes across:

1. Pakistani Punjab vs Indian Punjab. This would make for one decent article with subplots on Agriculture, Khalistan, Punjabi etc. Do not assume the reader is familiar with all these happenings.. So you need to take more of a tutorial approach in framing the context.

2. Who converted to Islam? Where, When, and Why? You would do a valuable service by spending time on this, presenting the details and consequences. This need not be limited to Punjab but could cover all parts. I find it interesting that occasionally Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs have the same surname suggesting their common tribal origins. This article might also be a good place to include the stuff about castes vs. tribes. The material re sufis also makes for interesting reading as well as learning that the conversions to Islam (in Punjab) preceded conversion to Sikhism.

3. Military, Mullahs and Kashmir: A love triangle?

I submitted this article couple of months ago. I guess it has been rejected. It is safe to hide it here.

Wasteful Spending and Relative Decline
Indian Punjabis’ living standards right now are better than Pakistani Punjabis whereas Pakistani Punjabis enjoyed better living standards for about 25-30 years after Independence. Whatever the reasons for better Pakistani Punjabis living standards in the past, they authenticated the indoctrination efforts of Pakistani establishment through controlled media and education system. The better living standards helped Pakistani establishment in creating a mindset of superiority, translated into superiority of Islam and further extrapolated as inferiority of Hindus and Hinduism. The successes of Khatri Punjabis in business and education during British Raj were interpreted as banya mentality coming from the culture of spineless moneylenders and British conspiracy to help them in education respectively.
The mindset, “We Superior-They Inferior” persisted even after the great success of green revolution in Indian Punjab and persists to this day. The Indian economy is growing at a rate about 2 percent higher than Pakistani economy and Pakistani population is growing faster than India. A continuation of current trends of economic and population growth for 10 years will have Indian Punjabis substantially better living standards. With all due respect and best wishes to Indian Punjabis, thinking in terms of future sends shrilling shock waves to the bones of concerned Pakistani Punjabis and calls for a thorough introspection with no hold barred. National interests, defense needs, Kashmir problem, geo-strategic location and religious sensitivities have often been used to exclude sacred cows from any serious and unbiased introspection. Introspecting is meaningless if military spending is a sacred cow to military establishment, feudalism is a sacred cow to feudal establishment, and religious practices are sacred cows to religious establishment. Moreover, an unbiased introspection is not possible without first dispelling the mistrust, prejudice and hate on the basis of superiority mindset.
Punjab performed remarkably well even with feudalism during British Raj and corruption is alive and well at all levels in Indian Punjab as well. It leads Pakistani Punjabis to consider other factors more seriously for comparatively better performance of Indian Punjabis. In a nutshell, Pakistani Punjabis dilemma is a case of misplaced priorities – misplacing resources, efforts and time. When Indian Punjab embarked upon green revolution, Pakistani Punjabis did not adequately addressed water logging related problems, resulting in Indian Punjab becoming first self sufficient and then surplus in grain production while Pakistan remains a grain importing nation. The flourishing of entertainment industry has become a source of foreign exchange in Indian Punjab whereas Pakistani Punjab stifled it in the name of taboos according to religion. They have managed to outperform us despite 10 years of rebellion, bloodshed and anarchy. The excessive military spending is undoubtedly the prime contributor to the relatively poor performance of Pakistani Punjabis but they dominate military, political and bureaucratic establishments. Pakistani Punjabis dominance in Pakistan in addition to alleged plundering of the resources and revenues of smaller provinces has failed to even create a parity of living standards vis-à-vis Indian Punjabis. Is it just a case of selfish Punjabi elite or something else we hesitate to talk about? Are there some innate weaknesses of Punjabi Muslims?
A hypothesis popular with right wing Indian intelligentsia suggests that bulk of the Punjabi Muslims are descendants of low caste Hindus converts and therefore socially predisposed to perform poorly like low caste Hindus of today. The second hypothesis popular among Punjabi Muslims suggests that a caste-ridden Punjab provided fertile ground for conversion by Sufis due to their teachings of love, peace, equality and harmony and willful adoption of local cultures. The second hypothesis, very popular among liberal Punjabi Muslims inadvertently accepts first hypothesis because low castes in a caste-ridden society had more to gain by converting to a religion professing social equality.
Pakistani Punjabis are basically of the same stock as Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus except for minority high caste Brahmins, who generally did not convert. Punjab was not as caste-ridden as north or central India and caste was not a factor in top down (and not bottom up) conversions. The pragmatic nature, Punjabi openness to change and prevailing political realities contributed to the conversion efforts. Sufis converted most to Islam but their teachings did not play any significant role in this endeavor [1].
After brief introduction of all the usual suspects, the next logical step would be to search for clues in the uncharted cultural and religious practices of Pakistani Punjabis. Language is the most important part of any culture. Most Punjabis speak their language but Pakistani Punjabis usually do not write in Punjabi and therefore can not use it as medium of education. Some respected sociological studies suggest that teaching in native languages at primary level is easy and more fruitful towards enhancing literacy level. Anyway, teaching in Punjabi would be more beneficial to Punjabi culture than anything else since teaching in Sindhi, Balochi and Pashtun languages have not made any difference for those people in education or improving literacy levels. Sikhs have been more enthusiastic about Punjabi culture as a whole, dominating the Punjabi entertainment industry, partying hard whenever possible and yet outperforming Pakistani Punjabis in agriculture output. Both Pakistani and Indian Punjabis, like rest of South Asians accord equally and shamefully lower status to women in their societies. It is another impediment to improve living standards and bring about meaningful and dignified changes in social structure. Culture provides a sense of belonging and practicing it is a joyful experience, which could possibly lead to satisfaction and better concentration in practical life as an after effect. The cost of practicing culture by Pakistani Punjabis is not greater than the cost of practicing it by Indian Punjabis. Therefore, the cost of culture practices can not be a factor in comparative performance even if the cost has crossed the threshold beyond which it becomes detrimental to living standard. In general, no cultural practice of Pakistani Punjabis different from Indian Punjabis practices can be singled out for relatively poor living standard.
Religious practices is the single most important area that clearly differentiates between Pakistani and Indian Punjabis. Pakistani Punjabis can be divided into believing Muslims and practicing Muslims [2]. The satisfaction and concentration benefits of practicing Islam is declining for those who think more in terms of universal brotherhood than personal fulfillment of spiritual quest. The besieged and being squeezed feelings – resulting from aggressively practicing nahi an’al munkir by their fellow Islamists and Islamic Fundamentalists as the single most important thing about Islam and leading to conflict with every non-Muslim power in the world – are very frustrating to them.
Religious practices of Pakistani Punjabis are costly [3] in terms of expenses and time than the religious practices of Indian Punjabis. Unlike the cost comparison of cultural practices, the higher cost of practicing Islam as compared to Sikhism or Hinduism makes it a contributing factor in living standards comparison. A case for money in circulation can be made for all the costs associated with rituals just as military spending also circulates money to some extent. The poor efficiency of this circulation due to moving down the social ladder generates no wealth and actually reduces its value through poor quality of circulation. Just one religious ritual per year puts Indian Punjabis one billion dollars ahead of Pakistani Punjabis. A billion dollars spending by Indian Punjabis for home-improvements, buying durable consumer good, investing in education or boosting saving rate is far superior than Hajj/ Bakra Eid spnding. There are several other examples from Pakistani Punjabis’ religious practices that put them at disadvantageous position vis-à-vis Indian Punjabis.
Pakistani Punjabis are following Islam as blindly as Muslims all over the world. The logic of relationship between practices and living standard is ignored. The blind following has obliterated the distinction between spirituality and practical living [4]. A continuous decline of living standard can not wait for reformation of Islamic religious practices. The social effects of religious practices are quite evident in Pakistani Punjab. The moral and ethical values according to religion has little impact on improving living standard or prosperity whereas Islamic injunction in the name of deen has turned the society anything but just and plural. The slower increase of living standard is directly related to the level of deen imposed on Pakistani Punjabi men and women [5].
Punjabi society has a history of accepting mostly top down changes like caste system, conversions to Buddhism, back to Hinduism, conversions to Islam and partition (after Jinnah-Sikander accord). Bottom up or grass-root approaches have often yielded no fruits. The feudal lords of today are equivalent to tribal elders of the past. Reformation and enlightenment of feudal lords – happening at slow pace due to interruptions caused by military interventions – can set in motion the necessary socio-political reforms with greater probability of success due to its top down nature than NGOs and social activists trying to bring it about from grass-root level. Similarly in the area of separation of religion from deen, separation of state and religion is the most important first step because of its top down influence.
Notes:
1. Most of the conversions to Islam took place ~1200 CE to ~1500 CE whereas from ~1550 CE to ~1850 CE, conversions to Sikhism was more important than negligible conversions to Islam. The caste system might have been the earliest revolutionary attempt to classify the division of labor in any society some 3000 years ago. Of course, now it is more of a stigma in an atmosphere of modern human rights and the evolution of other sociological means of classification. The caste system provided a successful framework for accommodating and classifying the immigrats from waves upon waves of various Scythian and Hun tribes for almost 1000 years ending ~900 to ~1000 CE. Whole new sets of tribes were formed through alliances between newcomers and earlier immigrants or indigenous people. Except for Gupta dynasty, various Jat and Rajput tribal alliances dominated this period. The constant struggle and frequently switching sides by tribes in these alliances resulted in unstable and unpredictable political shifts, changing fortunes and sometimes also losing or gaining upper caste status. In this dog-eat-dog world, tribal loyalties became more important than caste loyalties. The upper caste Brahmins as well as low caste Shudras of a tribe would prefer to keep their loyalties to the tribe than to similar castes of opposing tribe. Some tribes would allow low castes to contribute in the shows of strength, leading to elevation of caste in some cases and softening the rigidity of caste system in general. In short, the dynamics of power struggle over centuries and the frequent arrival of new immigrants made most people loyal to their tribes and most tribe becoming pragmatic - open to new ideas, new alliances even with lower order tribes on the caste ladder thereby softening caste system in Punjab. It is unrealistic to consider this environment as fertile ground for converting low castes without first converting tribal elders. If tribal elders were to convert first then later conversions would have followed along tribal lines and not along caste lines. Lower castes’ livelihood totally depended on the services to upper castes and centuries of tribal loyalties would have deterred them from converting against the wishes of upper castes. In fact Muslim missionaries during the 300 years prior to Mahmud Ghaznavi attack – when various Sunni, Shia and Ismaili Muslims ruled Sindh and Multan – tried caste card but failed to convert any significant number of lower castes.
Although Sufis were responsible for most of the conversions to Islam but crediting it to the Sufis’ teachings of love, peace, equality and harmony is myth involving Pakistani Punjabis’ romanticism. More recently it is popularized as true spirit of Islam to offset the strict formalism propagated by Islamists and Islamic Fundamentalists. Most of the conversions took place during Delhi Sultanates period circa 1200-1500 CE by Sufis of Suharwardiya order. The rulers fully cooperated, often connived, with these Sufis in a systematic top down approach to convert in which coercion was frequently employed. Through a combination of various coercion schemes, tribal elders were lured to conversion as a way out of troubles with authorities. Later on, large number of people, including lower castes, from these tribes would convert out of tribal loyalties. Three names stand out as the most successful ones: Syed Qutb Shah converted Gakkhar and Awan elders in areas between rivers Indus and Jhelum after Mahmud Ghaznavi and later by Shahab Ud Din Ghauri repeatedly defeated Gakkhars. Conversion to Islam presented a way out to salvage from further destruction of whatever little left standing. This was the first major success of conversion in Punjab. During Tughlaqs rule, Rukn Ud Din Abul Fateh a.k.a Shah Rukn-e-Alam was very successful in the Saraiki belt and Makhdoom Shah JahaniaN converted most of the elders of Watoo, Kharal, Khar, and Sial and many other tribes in south central Punjab. Both of them enjoyed aristocratic lifestyle similar to Sindhi pirs of today, though without any land holdings or properties. Their lifestyles were fully supported by stipends from Delhi darbar. Delhi Sultanates interest in conversion was part of a strategy to control areas (Punjab and Bengal) that could not be easily defended in case of rebellions or uprisings because their forces were often too busy in North and Central India. Thus converting Sufis were not needed and, therefore, not to be found along the well defended Kabul-Delhi route and concentrated in southern Punjab, south central Punjab and Sindh. These areas were away from Delhi and direct route to Delhi required passing through desert making it strategically unattractive.
Most of our famous Sufis of exceptional literary qualities and true teachers of love, peace, harmony and equality actually came before or after the conversion period. Syed Ali Hajvery a.k.a. Data Gang Bakhsh (during Ghaznavi era) and Baba Farid Shakargang (Qutb Ud Din Aibak era) came before whereas Madhu Shah Hussain (Akbar era), Sultan Bahu (Aurangzeb era), Bulley Shah (post-Aurangzeb Mughal era), Waris Shah (Sikh Misls and Abdali era) and Khawaja Ghulam Farid (British Raj era) came after conversions. Similarly Shahbaz Qalander, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Sachchal Sarmust in Sindh and Khushal Khan Khattack in NWFP came before or after conversion period. The best Sufis were really not in conversion business. Their main interest was the fulfillment of spiritual quest through kinder and gentler innovative approaches. They all came in conflict with Mullahs and their strict formalism. Despite exceptional qualities, they were exceptions. The Sufism in Punjab must be generalized in terms of norms and not exceptions. Many Catholic priests coming from Spain and Portugal to Americas were also of exceptional qualities and did a number of good things for native Americans but generally speaking Catholicism encounter with Native Americans is an exceptionally tragic story for Native Americans.
The Sufis teachings of love, peace, harmony and equality were mostly theoretical concepts with negligible social activism – necessary to practice such concept. Besides, practicing love, peace, harmony and equality would have been more helpful to the weak and vulnerable minority Muslim population scattered in the countryside than the majority non-Muslims, at least during the earlier stages of conversion. The purpose of whole Sufi exercise was mainly spiritual growth although serving humanity was also considered part of fulfilling spiritual quest. In most cases serving humanity took back seat behind other Sharia’at and Tareeqat practices. Many of the practices were ascetic in nature, such as chilla, zikr, seclusion, meditation and retreat, actually reducing contact period with other humans while others like qawwali, chanting and dancing are no substitutes for social activism. The seclusion and meditations did provide greater concentration to produce beautiful Punjabi poetry.
2. Believing in Islam in neither time consuming or costing anything. It is basically an integration of theoretical concepts, like belief in Allah as only God, belief in Muhammad’s prophethood (risalat), belief in Muhammad as the last messenger of Allah, belief in Judgement Day, belief in Quran as revealed by Allah, not believing in any other deity besides Allah etc. The belief alone is sufficient for providing a sense of belonging. A practicing Muslim is one who spends time in performing rituals and abides by the Islamic laws. Because of the costs, both in terms of money and time, the level of commitment to Islamic practices vary from person to person. Pakistani Punjabi society respects those more who are more ritualistic than those obeying Islamic laws because rituals are communal and therefore more visible, besides Islam attaches great importance to rituals.
3. One ritual lasting three days is Hajj/ Qurbani/ Bakra Eid/ Waddi Eid. It costs Pakistan roughly one billion dollar per year (700 million for goats and cows + 300 million for Hajj) excluding the costs of dealing with sanitation and other related expenses. For about 10 days, Islamabad looks like a settlement of early Neolithic age with humans living together with undomesticated animals.
4. All religions were supposed to provide paths for spiritual quest without being detrimental to living standards. Actually religion inspired social activism was meant to improve the living standards. Islamic scholars and priestly class have done the worst disservice to Islam during last 1400 years and they are still doing it. The religion, Islam was turned it into deen, by creating guidelines leading to a blueprint for practical living 24 hours a day and worse part of this unnecessary extension was to make it independent of timeframe and location. The deen part backed by scholarly logic and hadis is just not Islam, the religion. Any blueprint for living is very dynamic and changes every moment and every ten meters; the blueprint for a father can be different from that of his daughter. No Ijtehad or Ijma can cope with the extreme dynamism of blueprint for living due to time and locality dependence. The deen and its culture components (basically nomadic Arab in essence) in the name of Islam, created by Islamic scholars has nothing to do with Islam, the religion. The preponderance of spiritual part is quite evident in the teachings of Islam as repeated calls for prayers and the amount of time required for spiritual quest. If practical (deen) is not separated from spiritual (religion), then phrases like, “Islam has failed us or our religious practices is a contributing factor to our failures” can not be logically challenged. A separation of deen from religion is better option than reforming Islamic practices.
5. Most Pakistani Punjabis put Islam before culture. Their practices include Arab culture in the garb of deen. A good example would be the use of chadar by Punjabi women. It is an Arab, nomadic and pastoral culture to have human body covered as much as possible to avoid dehydration without consuming scarce water supply in desert environment. Loose garments help avoid suffocation but dehydration is much bigger hazard than suffocation in that environment. In Pakistani Punjab, women wrapped from head to toe in chadar-cum-blanket is contradictory to natural evolution of culture because now suffocation is much bigger hazard than dehydration for eight months of sweltering heat with plenty of water supply. It sounds unrelated to living standards but actually it is. It makes culture less willing to accept women in the work force as well as making women hesitant to join the work force – with chadar comes chardiwari.

ylh #148: Just out of curiousity, are you in Pakistan permanently, or on a visit.

And could you give us an update on the political scene there at the moment. Not the stuff coming out of the politicians`s mouths, but the actual situation on the ground. For example, despite all the ravings and rantings by the PPP and PML (and the free press), it seems like not a single common person seems interested in coming out on the streets, against the current govt. Does that indicate that the people are actually seeing through the hollow politicians, and want a new political leadership to emerge?

Also, in my opinion, urban Punjab, headed by Lahore, is going to decide the future of Pakistani politics, after this election. Lahore is the last urban fiefdom of the feudal based PPP and PML. They have no influence in urban Sind. And urban NWFP is divided amongst too many parties. If they lose Lahore and Pindi to say Tehrik-i-Insaaf, or some other urban party, then I think the feudals could be in trouble. Who seems to be winning in Lahore?

scout #151 If it is any consolation, many smart students cannot get into US universities too due to economic reasons. Let us be thankful for small favors, and appreciate those people who have worked hard to build up fine educational institutions like LUMS in Pakistan.

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scout ill back you up

out of high school i got into Aga Khan .....i wanted to be a doctor so bad...i was all set to go guess what at that an ``overseas pakistani `` had to pay ?????????? $15,000 a yr!!!! my dad was like no way after 4 yrs of catholic sch ...now the funny part is any other country the citizen of the country in which the student is attending is charged the citizen or residency tuition ..........but in pakistan ....even thogh i was born in pakistan to pakistani parents i was charged an exorbitant tuition..getting into aga khan might be hard for pakistani residents but for american pakistanis its not so hard i know kids with lower gpas and sat scores than mine who got in from america

ylh #148, `` there are some great institutions like LUMS, GIKI, Agha Khan, IBA, NUST etc... but unfortunately these are too expensive... for the common man to afford...``

if a smart student can`t get into one of these great institutions due to economic reasons, these institutions aren`t as great as they`re cracked up to be. like everything, pakistani systems are based primarily on money rather than merit, and that`s exactly why the average pakistani suffers.

Dear Gnostics: Good to hear from you after a long time. I hope you are doing fine. Latley Zeemax is also showing up once in a while. How much things have changed in the last two years and how much they have remained the same is obvious from the persisitency of the lovers of 700-1000 CE still trying to turn the clock back to ``good old days`` of life without shampoos, razors, anti-perspirants, colognes, jeans, fancy bras and underwears. They still pretend to get angry in public and at chowk seeing Yamila on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swinsuit issue, though privately keeping it under their pillows.

Regards,

Sameer

PS: LUMS, Agha Khan and GIKI are world renowned in their expertise...

As far as the Bachelors Degree is concerned, My BA in Economics from Rutgers has given me no problems here in Lahore... whether in commercial sector or education sector... Not only is my degree acceptable in all financial institutions I have applied to for jobs, but I will also start the LLB programme part time at the University of Punjab...

I believe there is an element of exaggeration in the guy`s letter... LUMS for example accepts all Accredited American degrees without the interference of UGC or University of Karachi, Punjab or QAU... Perhaps his school in bumblebee alabama just didn`t cut... or perhaps his grades were really poor who knows? Or maybe the poor fellow is just hiding his guilt for leaving Pakistan ...

As far as Pakistani education system is concerned.. it has its faults... there are some great institutions like LUMS, GIKI, Agha Khan, IBA, NUST etc... but unfortunately these are too expensive... for the common man to afford...

-YLH

An ode to Parliament

Amir Mateen

Islamabad was always a grand graveyard of all things bureaucratic. But there was one lively place that made the difference - the Parliament. Somehow, life generally centred round that building situated at the hub of what is tauntingly called the Constitution Avenue.

In the good old days when this Avenue also had a functional Constitution, one could tell that the Parliament was in session from its Pajero-ridden traffic, the packed guest houses, not to mention the sale of drinks not so soft. You could see a swarm of outlandish, rustic faces from places as far as Sindhri and Panjgoor tracking their representatives along Islamabad’s Champs Elysees strangely nicknamed as Blue Area.

The city ironically described, as “the beautiful” seems less beautiful now. From a capital that symbolized the federation, frequented by people from all corners of Pakistan, now looks like the extension of Rawalpindi cantonment.

Passing by the Parliament one cannot resist feeling nostalgic about the hubbub that this place once represented. The debate was real, not like the ongoing sham PTV orchestration on the proposed constitutional package. It was always a treat to listen to the likes of Aitezaz Ahsan, Asfandyar Wali, Iqbal Haider, Shafqat Mahmood, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, Aftab Sheikh, Javed Hashmi, even Iftikhar Gilani before his 12th defection to the doom.

There was always something urgent for which the usual business was adjourned. A flood in Sialkot, Police excesses in Loralai, Killings in Karachi, a gang rape, like the one in Jatoi, would have ignited a storm in the Parliament. That building was not just a building; it had a soul as well. But its lure lay in the cafeteria. It was like Pakistan’s Chelsea, the intellectual hub where journalists, politicians and people could discuss everything that was taboo outside its safe confines.

The Parliament, despite its being the butt of a vicious propaganda, stands much taller than the two buildings it is sandwiched between Physically and metaphorically. The weirdly designed edifice on the right, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, was equally weird in it often conflicting judgments on the same issue. It never dared to say “NO” whenever the establishment sought its help in plundering the symbol that it otherwise derives its strength from.

Time and again, the Supreme Court upheld its dissolution on flimsiest of excuses, trespassed its jurisdiction on the behest of intelligence agencies and willingly became a tool of the Presidency and the military in undermining the Parliament.

The mansion on the right, the Presidency, though constitutionally its third pillar, faired no better. From Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s greed for presidential power to Farooq Legharips ignominious betrayal to Tarar’s gutless act in hanging on to it until shooed away most ungraciously, they all desecrated the high office they represented.

And yet there are myths about the role of the Parliament. Like the quarter truths about politicians being solely responsibly for the country’s problems, half-truths about bureaucrats being stupid, lies about journalists being less patriotic, and mega lies about khakis being perfect and wise, there is propaganda galore against the Parliament.

It is generally maligned as a “fish market” where politicians, to mention a few cliches, perennially fought over perks and privileges, ministers sucked up to the prime minister, the treasury benches yawned and the opposition yowled on non issues. The ordinances were churned out with relish and constitutional amendments passed without their ever being read or understood.

This may be as true as, let’s say, Tanvir Naqvi being an Einstein. As one of the few people whose attendance at the parliament runs into thousands of days, one may be entitled to reject all this as trash. The truth is quite the opposite. Except for a few minor lapses, though understandable considering the circumstances, there was a constant improvement in the working of the Parliament.

The quality of debate was definitely improving. The last of the genuine political lot was grooming a new breed of politicians. Committees were gaining strength. Extreme nationalists’ parties like BNP, ANP, MQM, PMAP were drifting to the mainstream center. Religious parties would try showing their moderate best. Politicians associated with dictatorship were generally found on the defensive. A democratic culture was shaping up, gradually but surely.

It was a revolution of sorts where one could hear occasional murmuring about land reforms, the curtailing of defense expenditure, the discussion on defense expenditures.

The parliament was headed in a direction where the interests of our vicious ruling elite, which includes industrialists, bureaucrats, landed aristocrats and a whole a new generation of millionaire generals created in the last 25 years, would have clashed. If successive assemblies would have been allowed to complete their tenures, more reforms involving military and civil would have followed, sooner or later. One strongly feels that this was precisely why all those assemblies were dissolved. Not because the Parliament was not doing enough, but because it was moving in the erstwhile no man’s land where they should not have dared to tread.

In the backdrop where intelligence agencies were constantly hounding successive Prime ministers, one can absolve Nawaz Sharif even for the sins like bulldozing the 14th and 15th amendments and Benazir for her jittery and insecure political moves. Either the establishment doesn’t understand this or doesn’t want to.

One has to confess that most of the material that Mr Naqvi uses, conveniently picked up out its context, and was supplied by us. May be Nusrat Javeed, next time he writes his “View from the Gallery” in this newspaper, should explain after every cynical line that it’s a criticism against a government and not against democracy.

Sameer, my love:

I came to Chowk for a look. Saw the essay and wondered if it were JB! Good essay. Bravo!

Re.#44 Of course, it`s you!

I believe I have misunderstood the querstion you pose. The whole world, you included, knows the role and motives of Israel in creating and lavishly financing - in particular - the Hamas.

In fact, the equation of Osama [& al-Qaeda] and the CIA/US, with Israel and Hamas, is the keystone of most analyses and discussions dealing with the role/plight/dilemma of Israel and the US in the Middle East today.

Good to meet you after two years. [What a wonderful world! Sadna and YLH have met and visited during my absence!].

Ciao for now. Khuda Hafiz

Akash,

Precisely, and atleast Nehru lived for 17 years... Indians should be grateful for that.. Jinnah died in 13 months...

In Pakistan (and any country for that matter) the compromises that one makes for the sake of popular power often come to haunt you... one can argue that the westernized Muslim League leadership was such a case.. PPP`s Bhutto is an obvious case of a secularist making deals with the devil ie Mullah... One might argue that Vajpayee is also the victim of the same, what is not well known is the case of Wali Khan, the secular socialist ANP leader and the son of Bacha (A G) Khan,... this man has made the deal with the devil more often than any other `secular` politician... In 1977 for example he joined the PNA under the slogan `Nizam Mustafa` or the `System of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)`... his major allies were Jamiat e Ulema Pakistan, Jamiat e Ulema Islam, Jamaat e Islami amongst others... more recently he supported the Nawaz Sharif government and also has to his credit the repeated blockade of legislation against Honor-killing which is now clear that it is one of the leading issues in Pakistan...

Fawad,

My dear boy when was the last time you were in Lahore... I am living in Lahore right now... and I know what Pakistani culture is... when you are in Lahore next, try putting on some of the Pakistani channels ie Indus Vision, Indus Music, UniPlus, the Pakistani Channel etc... and you will see what Pakistani culture is ... If 2 or 3 NCA wallahs go abroad, a lot of them stay home as well... Pakistan has a rapidly improving arts scene.. which may I add was only crushed temporarily by the Zia government...

To a Pakistani, American and British cultures, and American and Canadian cultures are very similar too.. Infact the pop and rock icons of these countries are all the same... think Beatles, Rolling stones, Oasis etc... yet one knows that there is a distinct American feel to the Western Culture prevalent in the US, a distinct british feel in the culture in Britain .. similarly, the base of Pakistani cultures and Indian cultures, a total of some 25 odd cultures I would say, is common.. which is why there is so much `South-Asianism` running about...

In any event, my first point is : Pakistan has a culture which can be called Pakistani.. yes it does have similarities with Indian culture.. and that is nothing to be ashamed or apprehensive about... My second point is: Pakistan doesn`t need a cultural justification to exist...

Pakistan exists and it is a fact of life...

Samina Shah,

If you order the transcript, can you please share with us the debate between Tariq Ali and Christopher Hitchens? That must be an interesting reading...

Thankyou

Yasser

Fawad

The case of the person who wrote to Dawn is touching. I am surprised to know that they dont give weightage to a degree from a prestigious US univ. May be if he had greased the palm of officials he would have had his way. If the above story if true the educational infrastructure of Pakistan is in shambles. No matter how bad India is in other fields, its educational infrastructure is certainly way above any other third world country; and the quality of the top indian univs is comparable to the good USA univs. This is where India scores over Pak, IMO. If Pak has to develop, it will have to invest in education and improve the quality of its univs.

Dear Yasser

I know about the pitfalls of being with people who want ``pretty(or petty?) secularism`` against secularism. This is what happened in India. But there was another reason why India could not be the ``modern secular`` state as envisoned by Nehru. Most of the contemporaries of Nehru were the supporters of ``pretty secular`` viewpoint and not western style complete secularism that Nehru advocated. Hence after the death of Nehru, who was an unabashed secular democrat, there was no one to guide India along the path of secularism and ``pretty secularists`` started dominating. Very soon these pretty secularists of Congress degenerated and degraded the noble concept of secularism to cater to the vote bank politics. So on one hand they started appeasing Mullas by upturning Supreme Court decision in Shahbano case(1985) through parliamentary politics; they also tried appeasing Hindu fundamentalists by opening Ram Temple`s door. People lost faith in these ``pretty secularists`` of Congress who had by now turned into a corrupt bunch to add insult to the injury. In desperation to get rid of ``pretty secular`` Congress, a lot of middle class opted for the right wing BJP and the result is for all to see. Had it not been for the towering personality of unabashed secularist Nehru, India would have met this fate much before. So, I agree with your view to keep distance from pretty secularists, but then I dont know how you would be able to build your support base.

re:ylh

what do you think about this a letter to dawn...........

The worth of a BBA from US

I received my bachelor`s degree in Business Administration from a reputed university in the state of Alabama, USA, in 1993. The bachelors in US is not like that in Pakistan. It is a comprehensive programme of four to five years and if someone wants to pursue for master`s, all he/she needs is two semesters plus a thesis, which come to about three semesters in all.

As my father was sick, I came back as soon as I finished my course. My family wanted me to do MBA, so I went to the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. They told me that my US BBA degree needed to be evaluated by the University Grants Commission, which would accord its equivalence in Pakistan to me.

I went to the University of Karachi`s equivalence section, and it was simply a hell to go through fulfilling their requirements.

They asked me to produce 10 copies of the detailed syllabi of all that I had been taught by Alabama University for them to see if it was worth their standards here. It took me eight months of running from pillar to post and then my BBA was equated by them to a simple BCom.

Armed with my BCom degree from the UGC, I went to LUMS and the IBA, but found their doors shut for me as, according to their evaluation, I was not eligible for admission there. I went to the library of the IBA and went through the core courses of the BBA for IBA and found that their courses and mine were 88 per cent the same. But no responsible person would even talk to me on this subject.

Now I have filed my immigration for Canada. Could I be blamed for it?

HAROON SAIF