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The party

In 1995, sometime in May, an uncle of mine (an ex-army man), was invited to a party of sorts.

The invitation came from a former top-ranking military officer who had also worked for the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI. He was in the army with my uncle (who now resides abroad) during the 1960s.

My uncle, who was visiting Pakistan, asked if I was interested in going with him. I agreed.

The event was at a military officer’s posh bungalow in Karachi’s Clifton area. Most of the guests (if not all) were former military men. All were articulate, spoke fluent English and wore modern, western clothes.

I was not surprised by this but what did surprise me was a rather schizophrenic aura about the surroundings. Though modern-looking and modern-sounding, the gathering turned out to be a segregated affair.

The men’s wives were placed in a separate room, while the men gathered in a wider sitting area.

By now it become clear to me that I wouldn’t be getting served anything stronger than Pepsi on the rocks!

I scratched my head, thinking that even though I was at a ‘party’ in a posh, stylish bungalow in the posh, stylish Clifton area with all these posh stylish military men and their wives and yet, somehow I felt there very little that was ‘modern’ about the situation.

By modern, I also mean the thinking that was reflected by the male guests on politics, society and religion. Most of the men were also clean-shaven and reeking of expensive cologne, but even while talking about cars, horses and their vacations in Europe, they kept using Arabic expressions such as mashallah, alhamdullila, inshallah, etc.

I tried to strike up some political conversations with a few gentlemen but they expected me to agree with them about how civilian politicians were corrupt, how democracy can be a threat to Pakistan, how civilian leaders do not understand India’s nefarious designs, et al.

Then, alas, as if right on cue, the moment I began telling them that I was actually a working journalist (they thought I was a college student in some foreign university), in came two senior journalists who seemed to be very close to some of the men there. These journalists were known for their somewhat right-wing views. They are still around.

I thought hard about what had just taken place. Especially when (quite accidentally) I glanced into the ladies’ section, I saw smart women (designer handbags, blow-dried hair and the works) chatting away, unperturbed by the fact that their gaudy modernism somehow did not include mixed gatherings.

What was even more surreal was the presence of some hijab-clad ladies among the army wives, and I overheard many of them (both the hijabis and the non-hijabis), enthusiastically mixing their tales of fashion-related escapades with sincere talk about what dua to say at what time and how Pakistanis are moving away from ‘true Islam’.

So what was going on?

The experiment

The Pakistan Army was once a staunchly secular beast. All across the 1950s and 1960s it was steeped in secular (albeit conservative) traditions and so were its sociological aspects.

In fact, until the late 1960s, Pakistani military men were asked to keep religion a private matter and religious exhibitionism was scorned at as well as reprimanded – mostly during Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s dictatorship (1959-69).

However, some Islamic symbolism was tactfully used by the military during the 1965 war against India, but this did not last long – especially in an era when a secular military dictatorship was being challenged by an equally secular and left-leaning civilian opposition (the National Awami Party, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Awami League).

The situation in this context remained the same during the early 1970s, during the democratically-elected government of Z. A. Bhutto (1972-77).

Nevertheless, the fact was that the kind of Islamisation which began engulfing the Pakistani society from the 1980s onwards, actually began taking root within the barracks of the Pakistan Army.

Believing that populist Islamic symbolism to be compatible with his regime’s staunchly nationalistic and progressive posturing, Bhutto wanted to strike a balance between secular, left-leaning moves and rhetoric with controlled Islamic bluster.

He thought that this way he would be able to keep in check both the secular opposition coming from radical nationalist groups in Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP and that from the Islamist parties which, although electorally weak, had a large nuisance value.

Bhutto also thought that by bolstering Islamic symbolism and myths in school textbooks, the military and eventually the society in general, it would help him keep Pakistan intact after the failure of the Two-Nation Theory in 1971 when the country’s eastern wing broke away to become Bangladesh.

One must remember that all this remained to be a social experiment during the Bhutto regime and Pakistan’s society remained largely secular until about 1975.

This experiment was first performed in the military. Often, military symbols were fused with those of Islam, and many senior officers began introducing ‘Islamic practices’ in the barracks.

For example, alcohol in Pakistan was first banned in the barracks of the Pakistan Army (1973), a good four years before it was banned across the country (in April 1977).

Apart from also introducing enforced prayers and Islamiyat courses, many officers also began introducing writings of the conservative Islamic scholar, Abul Ala Maududi, to the soldiers.

In fact, his books almost became mandatory reading when men like General Ziaul Haq (before he toppled Bhutto in 1977), began handing out books authored by Maududi to soldiers along with medals.

Maududi was a puritan who believed in jihad and his writings had already influenced a number of extremist outfits like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria.

Also, being the chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Pakistan, his party had actually held demonstrations in the 1960s against popular Arab nationalist leaders like Gamal Nasser whose government had hanged a number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Egypt.

The Islamisation experiment seemed to have worked well in an army demoralised by the 1971 defeat against India, and this experiment soon began seeping into the society through revised school textbooks and the state-owned media.

State-owned TV (PTV) and the film industry (Lollywood) were hitting a peak in the 1970s and many of its creations at the time were largely progressive and liberal.

However, in 1975 PTV conducted its first experiment in constructing a popular serial based on the newly conceived Islamised narrative being developed in the military.

A big-budget historical melodrama (produced by young TV director Mohsin Ali) called Tabeer (Reality) was televised. It was based on the history of the Muslims of India from 1857 until the birth of Pakistan in 1947.

This was also the first time when Pakistanis in general were fully introduced to a completely revised history of the region in which Muslims were seen as being completely separate and different from rest of the people of the subcontinent.

For example, the TV series begins during the end of the Indian Mutiny against the British in 1857, an event in which disgruntled Muslims as well as Hindus played leading roles. However, in the serial we only see the Muslims leading the revolt and Hindus are nowhere to be seen.

As the series continued, with each episode more revisions came to light when Muslim characters hardly ever hark back to great proto-secular Mughals like Akbar and Jahangir, and in fact, the last Mughal, the weak and spineless Bahdar Shah Zafar, is shown using words like ‘jihad.’

Also, allusions are constantly made to the Muslim roots lying in Arab nations and lands and India being a land that was conquered by the Muslims but had become a ‘darul harb’ for them after the fall of the Muslim empire.

Such narratives and revised history would soon become mainstream thought by the time Ziaul Haq took over.

The Islamisation experiment in the military too became a mainstay. It especially began consolidating itself during the military’s involvement in the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad in Afghanistan.

As more and more soldiers and officers became radicalised, this radicalisation was then introduced (by the ISI) into the society through a number of militant Islamist groups, sectarian outfits and madrassas that were then used as recruiting grounds for the US-backed ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan. Much of the funding for these came from Saudi Arabia.

The mutation

By the late 1980s, while religion had begun to play a major role in the soldiers’ lives, and the revised historicity first introduced in the late 1970s became the new mainstream historical narrative in Pakistan, one now saw senior officers with even the most liberal and secular habits, spouting Islamist rhetoric.

But this too was about to give in to even more Puritanism. In the early 1990s, the influential Islamic evangelical movement, the Tableeghi Jamaat, began making its way into the military.

Though an apolitical movement that emphasised on ‘correct’ Islamic ritualism and attire, its entry into the barracks produced a surreal mix when it came into contact with the highly political philosophy of Maududi that had by then deeply entrenched itself in the army.

Interestingly, this episode was another example of how an Islamic experiment that was first conducted in the Pakistani army soon seeped out to become a phenomenon in the society in general as well.

The Tableeghi Jamaat which was formed in 1929 had, until the 1980s, been more associated with working/peasant-class Muslims from the Deobandi sect and (in the 1980s) became popular with the trader classes.

A move was seen by the Jamaat from the early 1990s onwards in which a conscious attempt was made to attract upper-middle and middle-class Muslims, and this was achieved when various senior Pakistan Army officers joined the Jamaat.

The army’s influence on the Pakistani society and politics meant that the Jamaat not only began to bag recruits from well-to-do urban classes, but for the first time it also managed to attract a number of celebrities such as TV actors, pop musicians and cricketers.

What I saw at that ‘party’ was actually the socio-political outcome of the above elaborated process.

A process that saw a secular army going through an experiment in political Islam that then was dissipated across the society and consolidated itself as a mainstream phenomenon.

This phenomenon was then fused (in the army) with ritual Puritanism of the Tableeghi Jamaat and this fusion too became a mainstream sociological mainstay amongst various urban classes.

Thus the schizophrenic happenings at the ‘party’ were a modern, upper-middle-class expression of the said process.

Interestingly it is the mindset emerging from this fusion and process that also dictates the choice of the kind of political leaders that the classes embroiled in this phenomenon would like to see.

The choices too have increasingly become equally schizophrenic.

For example, these classes whose politics are a fusion of classical political Islam, Tableeghi Jamaat ritualism and modern-day consumerist capitalism want their leaders to be professional white-collared men, urban in outlook, educated, good to look at, but at the same time, religious, anti-West, anti-India and highly tolerant of Islamic exhibitionism, even sometimes to the point of being apologetic about those who take this exhibitionism to a more violent levels.

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Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

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Via DAWN.com

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The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly resolution calls for an immediate end to drone strikes in the country. -File Photo

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has approved a resolution against US drone attacks in the tribal regions of the country.

The resolution was presented by by senior minister Bashir Bilour and demands that the US envoy to the country be summoned to the Foreign Office.

The resolution calls for an immediate end to the drone strikes, stating that they violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and are counter-productive in fighting militancy. The resolution also demands that US should hand over drone technology to Pakistan.

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The presidential reference, the contents of which have not been made public, has been filed under Article 186 of the Constitution that relates to the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Article 186 states: “(1) If, at any time, the President considers that it is desirable to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on any question of law which he considers of public importance, he may refer the question to the Supreme Court for consideration; (2) The Supreme
Court shall consider a question so referred and report its opinion on the question to the President.”

The trial of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was conducted by LHC full bench headed by Justice Maulvi Mushtaq, the acting chief justice who was also made permanent during the trial. Mr Bhutto was convicted on March 18, 1978. Later, the appeal against his conviction was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Feb 6, 1979, and subsequently a review petition was also dismissed on March 24, 1979.

A large majority of people consider the hanging of Mr Bhutto a “judicial murder”. So far neither the said verdict has been referred to by the lawyers in criminal cases as case law nor do the superior courts rely on it in any of the cases, which shows the level of acceptability of the controversial verdict.

During the trial, Mr Bhutto had expressed no-confidence on both Justice Maulvi Mushtaq as well as the then chief justice of Pakistan Anwarul Haq. However, both the judges continued to head the respective benches despite the objection raised by Mr Bhutto.

One important point raised by the critics of the presidential reference is whether the issue referred to the apex court was question of law which is of public importance, as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was awarded capital punishment by the LHC, and the judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court more than three decades ago.

When the apex court was hearing the presidential reference against passage of Hisba Bill authored by the then provincial government of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the counsel for the provincial government had also raised the same point while arguing over maintainability of that reference. The Hisba Bill, 2005, was tabled by the government before the provincial assembly and was passed on July 11, 2005. Following its passage, the governor of the province had requested the prime minister to make a request to the president for sending a reference to the apex court for its opinion on the constitutional status of the said bill.

The said reference was decided on Aug 4, 2005, by a full bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M Javed Buttar and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad.

Senior advocate Khalid Anwer had represented the provincial government in that reference and had questioned the maintainability of the reference on different grounds one of which was: “Under Article 186 of the Constitution, this court can only express its opinion on question of law whereas in instant reference, a mixed question of law and fact has been raised, therefore, this court is not bound to answer the same.”Following marathon arguments, the court had overruled that objection and ruled: “Thus, above discussion leads us to conclude that president in exercise of powers under Article 186 of the Constitution is empowered to seek opinion of this court in its advisory jurisdiction in respect of any question of law which has arisen or is likely to arise including the bills passed by provincial assemblies.”

The bench had declared several of the sections of the controversial bill ultra vires to the Constitution and observed that the governor of the province may not assent to Hisba Bill in its present form.

Later, another presidential reference was filed by General Pervez Musharraf when the provincial assembly again passed the Hisba Bill in Nov 2006 after making several amendments in the earlier version. The Supreme Court on Feb 20, 2007, upheld most parts of the Hisba Bill, but observed that few clauses needed to be modified as these were violative of the Constitution.

Another point presently under discussion among different circles is that the opinion to be given by the court in the present reference would not have binding effect and it would be only advisory in nature. In the first presidential reference against Hisba Bill, the same argument was adopted by the counsel for the provincial government and it was pointed out “that opinion rendered by Supreme Court has no binding effect because it is not a decision between parties.”

However, the Supreme Court had in clear terms ruled out that the decision would not be binding. The bench had observed: “From the language of Articles 189 and 190 of the Constitution, it is concluded that opinion expressed by the Supreme Court in a reference under Article 186 is required to be esteemed utmost by all the organs of the state, therefore, it would not be fair to say that the opinion expressed by the Supreme Court on presidential reference under Article 186 of the Constitution has no binding effect.”

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Via DAWN.com

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Militants in Pakistan frequently target mosques and religious gatherings. — Photo by AFP

PESHAWAR: A bomb prematurely exploded inside a mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern capital of Peshawar shortly before prayers on Friday but caused no loss of life, police said.

The bomb detonated 90 minutes before the usually 150-strong congregation was due to gather at the mosque in Badaber village in the suburbs of Peshawar city.

“It was a timed device and the target was the Friday gathering but it exploded prematurely,” Kalam Khan, a senior police officer, told AFP, adding that the bomb caused only slight damage to the building.

Mohammad Ijaz Khan, another senior police officer, confirmed the incident, the sixth bomb to hit the country in nine days.

Militants in Pakistan frequently target mosques and religious gatherings.

More than 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks throughout Pakistan since 2007.

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Hashim Gazdar was born on February 1, 1893, in Jaiselmer, Rajasthan to the Seesodia Rajputana family, who in their search for livelihood gradually migrated to Karachi to find work as masons and stonecutters and became known as the Silawata (‘sil’ meaning stone) Community. But even before that his forefathers had been given the title of ‘Gazdar’, meaning architect, by the maharajas of India in recognition of their fine construction skills. Many of the buildings that they built from the golden stones of Rajasthan still stand in Pakistan and India.

Gazdar’s father, Faiz Muhammad Gazdar, was an engineer and following in his footsteps the son too went for civil engineering by passing his BE from the Civil Engineer College in Puna in 1916, after having done his matriculation from Sindh Madressahtul Islam in 1910 followed by a two-year stint at the DJ Science College, Karachi. He was the first Muslim from Sindh to get a degree in engineering.

Working as a civil engineer, Gazdar carried out a survey through the Cholistan desert in Bahawalpur in connection with the Sutlej river project for the irrigation of the Sutlej valley, which brought about the digging up of canals and the subsequent construction of the Sukkur barrage.

He remained an elected member of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (1934 to 1956) and was the city mayor (1941 to 1942) besides serving as the chairman of the finance committee for three years, the vice chairman of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT), a member of the Bombay (and Sindh) provisional assembly (1934 to 1936) as well as the Sindh Assembly (1937 to 1951).

Maintaining strong ties with the All India Muslim League right from 1938, his speech on the Pakistan resolution in the capacity of a delegate from Sindh during the League’s session in Delhi is of great importance. His part in the call for referendum in the then NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) on the directions of the Quaid-i-Azam is also noteworthy. Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar, Sir Abdullah Haroon, G.M. Syed, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, Sheikh Abdul Majeed Sindhi and Pir Ali Mohammad Rashdi were his contemporaries.

After Partition, Gazdar also played an important role in the rehabilitation of refugees in Karachi. He was elected as the first deputy speaker of the first Constituent Committee of Pakistan and carried on in that capacity until 1954. In 1956 he was elected a member of the West Pakistan Assembly.

He also had the honour of representing Pakistan in many international conferences of repute such as the World Trade Conference held in Havana, Cuba, in 1947, the Inter-Parliamentary Conference held in Rome in 1948, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in England, the New Zealand Conference, the Nairobi International Conference, etc.

The great statesman that he was, Gazdar was always desirous of better democracy in the country for which he was also jailed many times by President Ayub Khan. Still he never compromised on his principles and beliefs. He died of a heart attack in Karachi on February 19, 1968.

— Anees Gazdar

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Pakistan and Indian on Saturday exchanged lists of their nuclear installations and facilities under an agreement to prohibit any attack, by either side. The lists are exchanged every year on January 1, under the “Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack Against Nuclear Installations and Facilities”, inked by the two sides…

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PESHAWAR: Two district and sessions judges and three additional district and sessions judges were suspended on Thursday on charges of corruption.

According to separate orders issued by the registrar of Peshawar High Court, Justice Miftauddin Khan, the authorised officer under law, suspended the judicial officers with the approval of the competent authority — Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan.

They have been suspended for three months under the NWFP Government Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 1973.

The DSJs are: Fayyazullah Khan (presently OSD) and Shahid Naseem Khan, posted at Karak. The ADSJs are: Syed Asghar Shah (presently OSD), Faqirur Rehman Jadoon, posted at Lakki Marwat; and Sajjad Anwer, posted at Matta in Swat.

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