Pakistan Press On Recognition of Israel by Pakistan, Religious Freedom in Pakistan, Irfan Husain and Gulf Sheikhs: New Age Islam's Selection, 22 December 2020
By
New Age Islam Edit Desk
22 December
2020
• Recognition
Of Israel By Pakistan: A Hoax
Syed
Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi
• Irfan
Husain- Different Idioms, Similar Stories
Jawed
Naqvi
• Concern
For Religious Freedom
By Syed
Mohammad Ali
• Patriarchy
Or A Psychological Dilemma?
By Hafsa
Bashir
• Why
British Pakistanis Are Running Back To Pakistan?
By
Shabana Syed
• Warming
Up To Gulf Sheikhs
The
Daioly Times Editorial
• The Last
Days Of Mrs Jinnah
By Saad
S. Khan
• For Some
In Pakistan, There Is No End To Suffering
By
Hassan Niazi
-----
Recognition
of Israel by Pakistan: A Hoax
Syed
Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi
December
19, 2020
With the
recent recognition of Israel by Muslim states such as UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.
it has been highly anticipated that the whole of the Muslim world will
reverberate with a "butterfly effect". The Muslim states are
expected and pressurized to be falling in acceptance of Israel like dominos.
This bar has particularly been set up by the Kushner-influenced Trumpian policy
in the Middle East. However, there are three countries in the Muslim world that
are seemingly not bent on recognizing the one-state agenda of the Israeli cause
and its backers. These include Pakistan, Iran and Qatar. The ruling party in
Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) has negated all such prospects
despite immense pressure from the US and Saudi Arabia. The PTI in a recent
tweet blatantly falsified reports going around of Pakistan's tilt
towards acceptance. Besides, Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the
country's unequivocal stance on Israel in an interview stating,
"…it is the same as Quaid said in 1948…Pakistan cannot accept Israel
until Palestine gets a fair settlement that they think is right". The
founding father of Pakistan; Jinnah, made clear the Muslim stance on the
Israel-Palestine conflict by declaring, “The Muslims of India would not remain
as mere spectators. They would help the Arabs in Palestine by all possible
means”.
For PM
Imran Khan to exhibit lack of adherence to his stance, would not only betray
the cause of Pakistan but also his own role in the Muslim world that he is in
efforts to acquire; leading it. Therefore, the manner of governance and the
trajectory that it has taken does not reflect any prospects of establishing
diplomatic ties with Israel. He has acted as the leader of the Muslim world.
Rubbing shoulders with conservative Muslim leaders like Erdogan of Turkey,
Mahathir of Malaysia and Rouhani of Iran, it would be dichotomous for Imran
Khan to loosen his outlook. His speech in the United Nations General Assembly
(UNGA) in 2019 was reflective of his emergence as a leader of the Muslim world.
The Muslim world too for the like, accepts him and his posture on its
afflictions. The most disputed territory for Muslims is that of Palestine
followed by Kashmir, Syria, Iraq and so on. To compromise on Palestine would be
to compromise on the whole of the Muslim world.
Pressures
from the US and friendly countries like Saudi Arabia keep mounting as Pakistan
battles for the supremacy of the interests of the Muslim world. On part of the
US the pressure to recognize Israel was “extraordinary during the Trump stint”
as per the PM. This threat along with other pressures did not deter Pakistan.
Pakistan’s cricketer turned Prime Minster Imran Kan says that he used to play
well under pressure. Therefore, tackling a contentious situation is greeted
with sportsmanship by the PM Imran Khan.
PTI caters
to the political representation of former members of religious parties. It is
in particularly inclusive of the Jamaat-e-Islami's (JI) former members
having a significant say in the politics of PTI (Current President of Pakistan,
Dr Arif Alvi has also been in the JI in the past). An additional factor is the
party's following based on a demographic that has a greater ratio of
youth. Both the members of party having religious ties and the young lot are
highly compassionate and emotive when it comes to Muslim solidarity. In such
circumstances, it would be slow suicide for the party to exhibit any such
interest of abating its Palestinian cause. Pakistan as a nation since 1948 (the
creation of Israel) has shown moral, legal, social and political obligation in
championing the cause of Palestine. The Arab wars fought in the name of
Palestine have been supported with zeal in Pakistan. Therefore, it is
impossible for Pakistan to accept Israel without the protection of Palestinian
sovereignty.
Apart from
its deep-rooted religious commitments, Pakistan is compelled by its ethical
obligation to not represent an apartheid regime and ethnic cleansing of
Palestinian people. Conversely, if it were the Palestinians committing inhumane
acts of violating sovereignty and mass murder of innocents, Pakistan's
standpoint would have been different. Pakistan's main aim is to sue for
peace and holding the perpetrator -Israel- accountable, an objective the UN has
failed to achieve thus far.
Despite
Pakistan's tainted past with human rights violations, it wouldn’t bring
it any closer to amends for it to stand by the side of the oppressor by
granting Israel and its cause legitimacy.
Pakistan
has pushed a "two-state solution" forward with respect to the
Israel-Palestine conflict, viz. state of Palestine and state of Israel. Israel
has the slogan of "Peace for Land" whereby they warrant peace
after the acquisition of the land to which they lay claim. In opposition,
Pakistan draws the formula of "Land for Peace". Pakistan
believes that in order to bring lasting peace to the region, giving back the
Palestinians their land is imperative. Therefore, Israel shall have its peace
when Palestine has its land.
Absence of
war does not mean peace. Peace is uprooting of the cause of conflict in the
first place. However, if the two-state solution fails to come to life, it is
anticipated on the side of Israel to push a semi-autonomy status to the
Palestinians with a focus on a "state-minus approach". The
Kushner designed foreign policy of the Trump office, pushes forth this mandate.
It is seconded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Such a scenario
will evoke clear rejections from both the Palestinians and its supporters in
the Muslim world, predominantly Pakistan. The recent developments in the
conflict have garnered a rights-based approach towards its solution as opposed
to the territorial approach adapted by Israel and its backers. The realization
of a "one-state" outcome encompassing a binational population
would turn the state into a center-stage for ensuing conflict and unrest. Such
a front provides the necessary ingredients for disaster rather than
establishing positive peace.
-----
Syed
Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi is the chairman of the department of international
relations at the University of Peshawar
https://dailytimes.com.pk/703360/recognition-of-israel-by-pakistan-a-hoax/
-----
Irfan
Husain- Different Idioms, Similar Stories
By Jawed
Naqvi
22 Dec 2020
IRFAN
Husain had made it a habit to forward me the occasional email in which his
Indian fans would snitch about the poor calibre of my columns from New Delhi,
particularly when compared to his. Why couldn’t I write as honestly as he did,
they asked Irfan, who they admired for his unsparing criticism of everything
that was wrong with Pakistan.
He tried to
reason that I was an Indian journalist trying to describe the events in India
equally critically to a newspaper on the other side of the border. And Irfan as
a peripatetic Pakistani journalist was bound to slam the mess Pakistan’s
military and civilian leaders had made of their country.
Irfan soon
realised that reasoning with nationalists of any hue was like banging one’s
head against the wall, more so if they happened to be Indian enthusiasts who
loved hearing criticism of Pakistan but not of India. It is difficult to
imagine a good journalist, he would say, who is also a staunch nationalist.
And that
has been the best part of writing for a Pakistani paper from New Delhi.
Pakistani
journalists have a formidable lineage with a global worldview, which started
with Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Mazhar Ali Khan and continues undaunted. There’s no
dearth of editors and scribes and even owners of newspapers jailed for speaking
up for democracy, a kind of zeal less witnessed in India during the emergency
and sadly for the most part today.
Irfan
Husain evolved a different skill and tactics to beat the system. He wrote under
more than one pseudonym, the most familiar being Mazdak, a name he adopted
while still working as civil servant. His choice of the pseudonym should tell
us something about Irfan’s inspirations, Mazdak being a Persian rebel who nudged
the ruler of the day to abandon his powerful nobles to set up an early
communist order. The ruler was overthrown and Mazdak executed, according to one
version of history.
The heroic
story has been subjected to scholarly scrutiny and it is disputed by some that
such a character did exist in fifth-century Persia. It does tell us something
about Irfan, though, who perhaps as a bureaucrat of his times sought to usher
ideologically imbued progressive changes on Pakistan’s hostile turf. Taking to
writing was a handy tool in this endeavour.
In my two
decades of writing for Dawn, I rarely missed reading Irfan’s insightful
columns. They were acerbic, analytical, secular, liberal, humorous,
entertaining, agitating, but invariably thought-provoking. That was not all. He
also provoked me to look up his steady references and scholarly allusions from
history. Irfan’s quarrel with the Muslim clergy in Pakistan as elsewhere was
uncompromising, and this is indicated quite analytically in his book Fatal
Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam and the West. He was sanguine that the damage could
be limited from religious assault on democracy and even perhaps reversed had
the US not persisted with making everything worse.
What
well-meaning analyst would not agree totally with Irfan’s explanation for many
of our troubles with Muslim extremism today?
It was
eye-catching that Irfan used a metaphor from his Western cultural experience —
being married to the erudite and warm-hearted Charlotte Breese being a key
element — to describe a situation, which slightly varied from the one I would
have used to narrate a similar story from my Indian grounding. There’s an evil
character called Raktabeej, literally meaning seeds of blood, who is slain by
goddess Durga. But Raktabeej had a boon. Wherever the drops of his blood fell,
there would crop up another Raktabeej. Durga/Kali thus set about licking the
blood clean before it fell to the ground, getting her famous red tongue in the
bargain. Irfan’s story about American intervention uses the metaphor of dragon’s
teeth that its military had sown in the troubled world.
“In the
ancient Greek myth about Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece, the hero was
given a bag of dragon’s teeth and told to plant them in a field. As soon as he
did so, an armed warrior sprang up at each spot where a tooth had been planted;
this fierce army then turned on Jason. In its fight against global jihad,
America has seemed a bit like Jason. Every time it cuts down an enemy, more
spring up to attack it,” he said in the book.
Fair
journalism requires a reasonable degree of objectivity and objectivity in turn
requires a relative absence of parochial zeal to produce a credible narrative.
Imagine if instead of having Irfan Husain or Saleem Asmi as colleagues, I had a
Pakistani clone of India’s Arnab Goswami, with his foaming-at-the-mouth
jingoism to work with. It would not happen, period. It has thus been a joy to
work with Irfan and other Dawn colleagues who harboured goodwill for India. A
depleting gaggle of Indian journalists has similar feelings for Pakistan, and
they are there. Irfan gave me courage and an example to write without fear or
favour from across a periodically tense border.
The
approximate obverse of nationalist zeal in journalism is a steady flow of
self-criticism. When Noam Chomsky slams Israel’s excesses against the
Palestinians he can’t be accused of anti-Semitism. When Irfan Husain turned his
attention from describing the rot in Pakistan to the violation of Kashmir’s
freedoms by Indian forces, it was difficult to dismiss him as a zealous
Pakistani. It is not only important to note what is being said, but who is
saying it.
Firaq
Gorakhpuri treated Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s popular poem Madhushala (tavern)
with a sceptical frown. Firaq believed that Omar Khayyam’s celebration of the
forbidden elixir made as much sense as Ghalib and Faiz paying fulsome tributes
to the goblet for similar reasons. In Bachchan’s culture, drinking wine was far
from taboo. Irfan Husain’s progressive pursuits were to me like Khayyam’s
resistance against a stifling order, occasionally couched in poetic imagery.
-----
Jawed
Naqvi is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1597162/different-idioms-similar-stories
-----
Concern for
Religious Freedom
By
Syed Mohammad Ali
December
19, 2020
The US
State Department released a press statement this past week listing 10
‘countries of particular concern’ (CPC) for “systematic, ongoing, egregious
violations of religious freedom”. Pakistan again finds itself on this list
alongside not only American foes such as China, Iran, or North Korea, but also
its steadfast allies like Saudi Arabia. Why some countries are placed on the
CPC list, and others are excluded, therefore, is not a straightforward matter
of American political biases. Yet, the fact that a country like India was not
included on the CPC list this year is a cause for consternation, which will
undermine its credibility abroad.
The State
Department’s CPC determination is based on assessments provided by the
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which is an
independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the Congress
to monitor, analyse and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. In its
2020 report, USCIRF had listed nine countries that the State Department had
designated as CPC in the previous year (which also included Pakistan), as well
as five additional countries, including India, which USCIRF also wanted the
State Department to include on the CPC list.
In a recent
press release, the Secre¬t¬a¬ry of State has only partially heeded the USCIRF’s
advice. Nigeria has been included on the State Department’s CPC list as per
USCIRF’s suggestion, but Russia is placed instead on a ‘special watch list’
instead of the CPC. The State Department has included other countries like Cuba
and Nicaragua on this special list too, which is not what the USCIRF had
recommended. Another important omission which will no doubt be noticed by
Pakistan is that India is not included on either the CPC or on the State
Department’s ‘special watch list’, despite USCIRF’s determination.
The
“rationale” for Pakistan being placed on the CPC by USCIRF include enforcement
of anti-Ahmadia laws, the failure to address forced conversions of religious
minorities, and the state’s handling of blasphemy accusations (despite the
high-profile acquittal of Asia Bibi).
The USCIRF
had elevated concern for India’s deteriorating religious freedom infringements
due to the BJP’s introduction of problematic legislation like the Citizen’s
Amendment Act, and the state’s toleration of hate speech and incitement to
violence. However, the State Department decided not to declare India a ‘country
of particular concern’.
The State
Department’s decision to not follow the USCIRF’s advice may be indicative of
tensions between different institutions at the tail end of the Trump
presidency. The State Department’s decision to include the Taliban as an
‘Entity of Particular Concern’, alongside militant groups like Al Shabaab, Al
Qaeda, Boko Haram, and Islamic State is also causing concern given that the US
government had itself signed a peace deal with them.
There are
ample problems with assessing international religious freedom by powerful
Western countries. A Pakistani anthropologist, the late Saba Mahmood, had
pointed to hegemonic neo-liberal discourses and a paternalistic legacy of
Orientalism coopting ethical norms like the right of religious freedom. It is
indeed ironic how Euro-American interventions on behalf of religious liberty
turn a blind eye to their own dismal record of protecting minorities (including
the Welsh and Irish in Britain, the Bretons and Basques in France, and the
Native Americans and blacks in the US). We thus continue seeing the
instrumentalisation of the otherwise noble principle of respecting religious freedoms
to serve realpolitik goals.
The act of
Western governments and think-tanks declaring other countries religiously
intolerant is criticised for being one-sided, partial, or motivated by
political considerations. Yet, it is still difficult to refute the fact that
there are genuine problems with how countries designated in the CPC ranking
treat their religious minorities.
Pakistanis
may rightly feel upset by the failure of the US State Department to include
India on its CPC ranking. Under a Biden government, we may see the State
Department taking India to task during the next year too. However, instead of
dismissing the CPC list for being partial, or trying to convince the incoming
administration to put India on it too, Pakistan should be primarily concerned
about taking measures to get itself off this list.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2276509/concern-for-religious-freedom
-----
Patriarchy
or A Psychological Dilemma?
By
Hafsa Bashir
December
19, 2020
I always
find patriarchal or misogynist behaviour deep-rooted into psychological
darkness. Lack of respect, love, empathy and humanity enforces regressive
thought process. Individuals exhibiting rigid fundamentals are not mentally
stable or contented people; they either have gone through a chaotic childhood or
have seen disaster in relationships. Regression of basic instincts and desires
sits back and comes out as a stingy monster implying repression as a rule of
life. Such thought not only springs from psychosocial roots but gives rise to a
whole generation of psychotics exhibiting multiple abnormal behaviours as
societal norms. We establish abnormal behaviours as norms and then normalise
those for generations to follow involuntarily and unquestionably.
Faiz Ahmad
Faiz’s words resonate with a guilty reverberation, Bol kay lab azaad hain
teray. The permission to speak or silence, exist or exit, choose or chase has
to come from an authority because a lesser gender was born incomplete and
incapable. A self-sufficient understanding of life and choice to decide the course
of life is by no means a treacherous act. It’s an instinctive right to all
genders as the patriarchs boast of conserving.
Subtlety of
patriarchal implications makes the whole idea justified by the patriarchs and
the very subjects too. These impressions are transferred as inheritance which
stays with generations. More interesting is the fact that power, liberty and
immunity endowed to subjects of a patriarchal system do not qualify to be a
right rather implies broad-mindedness and yet another privilege of the higher
order.
This
psycho-socially normalised behaviours cannot be justified as innocent and
involuntarily operative. It is an individual’s contribution towards normalising
norms which are actually human and based on equality. Innumerable research
patterns have found an equable part of environmental influences and an
individual’s own understanding of his existence and experience. It is his own
peculiar understanding of life and people which will ensure his liberation from
the peril of a patriarchal trap.
As a
society, we might need a better and advanced mental health awareness regime.
Extremely talented people spend their lives fighting a mental issue and ruining
not only his/her life but of the many people associated or dependent. They can
be precious beings with a little bit of clinical or therapeutic help.
Our society
thrives over the concept of shame and is driven by emotion. We need to
inculcate emotional intelligence to act right in the middle of chaos. Along
with feminist and patriarchal confrontations, we might need a serious overview
of the psycho-social aspects of individuals who fail to understand or adapt to
the normal strata of society. Healthy minds give rise to healthy lives and sick
minds infect everyone related and even affect society by setting up another
sickening instance of disease. Honour killing, harassment and abuse are just a
few instances of these situations. Problematic is the issue of never realising
that human beings can and do suffer from mental illness and it is as sickening
as any other disease. We don’t need sermons about piety and grandeur of women
in religious or cultural doctrines. We need an accelerated instruction of the
psychologically challenged individuals exhibiting misogynistic demeanours.
Power and
paradigm of patriarchal enterprise isn’t a plateau to be fertilised with a
singular idea rather it is a rocky hill to climb with a novel strategy at every
step. This has to be done through media, literature and curriculum based on
human understanding rather on the basis of gender, race or colour. An in-depth
study and therapeutic instances may help the souls suffering from patriarchal
disorders by ensuring that their prestige and value will be handled with care
being terminally fragile.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2276508/patriarchy-or-a-psychological-dilemma
------
Why
British Pakistanis Are Running Back To Pakistan?
By
Shabana Syed
December
22, 2020
In a world
where the fear of a pandemic has rules which no one really understands — one of
them being that if you have this ‘deadly virus’, you must isolate, stay at home
and don’t see a doctor; and if you do happen to die, God forbid, the main
reason could only be due to ‘neglect’ from doctors and other fellow human
beings.
It appears
that Covid-19 will not kill as many people, as will these continual lockdowns
along with neglect of patients. The Lancet report predicts a substantial
increase of avoidable cancer deaths as a result of diagnostic delays due to the
Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. While the Royal College of Psychiatrists is
warning that people with no history of mental illness are developing serious
psychological problems as a result of lockdown, amid growing stresses over
isolation and an uncertain future. In the UK if you have another serious
condition, the only way you can see a doctor is through your phone screens from
where they may be able to make out what is your illness. The essential human
comforting contact is rarely available.
It was
under these conditions of continual lockdowns and being forced to stay in doors
for weeks that has led many Londoners to become medical tourists and fly out
with their illnesses to saner climes, to receive medical attention. In my case
it was Pakistan, thanks to a well-connected friend who invited me to see her
exceptionally renowned Pakistani surgeon, as no one was taking my
ready-to-burst gall bladder seriously in the UK. Researching about medical
tourism in Pakistan I found that the country had exceptional highly experienced
doctors and surgeons. Also that long before the issue of Covid-19 popped its
ugly head and alienated the medical profession from suffering patients,
Pakistan was fast becoming popular as a destination for cosmetic surgery,
dentistry and heart surgery at reasonable rates, while its vast diaspora of
Pakistanis settled in western countries always resorted back to their home
country for any medical emergencies.
However,
the country has taken on more importance thanks to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s
policy of smart lockdowns allowing the country to observe the mandatory masks
but operating as normal with regards to essential medical facilities. As a
result, a steady flow of patients has started to make their way to the country,
knowing that they will find some sanity or should I say normality, where they
won’t have to suffer in ‘isolation’ or neglect.
The plane
was full of people escaping the confusion, which is now the UK. However, the
irrationality continued in the British Airways plane where BA staff insisted on
face masks, which could be removed for thirty minutes or so to eat food.
Apparently during the 30 minutes Covid will not attack us, nor will it attack
us while we are sitting in the plane like a tin of sardines with no hint of
social distancing.
Who would
have thought twenty years ago that the tables would have turned, the flow to
the affluent medically advanced West would be flowing back, starting off as a
trickle and turning into a flow of westerners seeking medical attention not
available or sufficient in western medical facilities, and if they are then at
astronomical costs.
When Imran
Khan stated that Pakistan has the potential to become a world renowned tourist
resort due to its untapped natural beauty and historical sites, he forgot to
mention the fact that it was already becoming a hub for medical tourists. Many
people from the Middle East have been coming here for decades for serious
operations, like heart surgeries, besides thousands from the diaspora of
Pakistanis living around the world for being unable to afford the costs or, as
is the case now, losing faith in western medical practices, which rely heavily
on painkillers and anti-depressants as some medical reports testify.
In the
waiting room of Dr Muhammad Sajid Sheikh, a renowned Pakistani surgeon, I met a
London-based Pakistani patient who informed me that she had to fly urgently to
Pakistan in a wheelchair as she was unable to walk due to an inflamed gall
bladder that a London hospital had refused to operate on as “her temperature
was not high as yet” and to wait until it gets to that point. Her relatives
spoke to a known surgeon who said he was ready to attend to her as soon as she
arrives in the country. Her operation was a success and she now had come back
to see if he can attend to her hiatus-hernia that was causing her an inability
to eat anything and all London doctors could offer her was an anti -acidity
pill.
Explained
to me, Dr Sheikh said: “We have many patients from US and UK for medical
treatment that the medical facilities in their own countries could not resolve
or were made to wait months in pain for surgery”. He said: “recently I had two
patients – one from London another from Muscat who had gall bladders in a
critical condition and needed urgent surgery. Most of my patients come to me
through word of mouth and the fact that I operated on one of their relatives or
friends and they were happy with the results.”
The calls
for Pakistan government to support and develop medical tourism have been made
as far back as 2017 when at a medical event which was addressed by Dr Aurangzeb
Khan and Dr Hanif Saeed, amongst many other prominent doctors, who spoke of the
need to develop this sector further. They spoke about how India and Turkey are
attracting patients for liver, kidney and heart transplants and how expatriate
Pakistanis annually visit the country for dental procedures, eye surgeries,
general surgeries – something which affirms that local health experts are as
good as foreign surgeons and experts.
Renowned
Hair Transplant Surgeon Dr Hanif Saeed highlighted how Turkey receives hundreds
of European patients seeking hair restoration therapies, but Pakistan’s medical
practitioners can carry out these medical procedures more effectively, also at
cheaper rates. Dr Saeed called on the government to promote Pakistani hair
transplant surgeons as well as facilities available here and said: “Pakistani
specialists can fetch millions worth of foreign exchange for the country if
medical tourism is promoted”.
Owais
Kabani highlights the potential of medical tourism in research paper ‘Pakistan
as a medical tourism destination, Just wishful thinking?’ He argues that
medical tourism industry is in fact considered as one of the fastest growing
industry and highlights a 2013 report by Transparency International which
states that in the year 2012, the global medical tourism market which was
valued at over $10.5 billion “is estimated to grow at an average rate of 17.9%
to a remarkable value of $38.3 billion by 2020”.
Being
widely appreciated in the West is Imran Khan’s smart lockdown strategy which
advocates a humane balance between lives and livelihood, whereby masks are
observed while people armed with their Islamic faith bravely continue to work
for their livelihoods, and Covid-19 cases are low. It may also be that they are
also aware that poverty and hunger is a worse threat than Covid-19.
It is a
pity the West hasn’t implemented this balance between ‘lives and livelihood’.
In UK, for example, the continual fear mongering and lockdowns have not brought
down the cases of Covid-19. They have rather increased the numbers, besides
bringing an economic nightmare of job losses, homelessness, poverty and a
‘tsunami’ of pending health issues.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2276898/why-british-pakistanis-are-running-back-to-pakistan
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Warming Up
To Gulf Sheikhs
The
Daily Times Editorial
December
22, 2020
Surely it’s
no coincidence that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi just concluded a very
successful tour of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Prime Minister Imran Khan
received the Saudi ambassador just when the news cycle was full of chatter of a
possible breakdown in relations between Pakistan and the Gulf brethren states.
The bit about Pakistan having to pay back some billions owed to Saudi Arabia,
for which it had to seek China’s help once again, no doubt fueled such rumours.
Yet the fact that not just Islamabad but also Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been
very quick to rubbish such claims ought to be enough to show that in reality
things are about as good as ever. The visa ban to UAE, too, is only temporary and
because of the pandemic more than anything else.
The truth
is that Pakistan has always had very good relations with Gulf states, since
long before they became the center of global attention because of their oil
wealth and its judicious use actually, even if over time this relationship has
become somewhat transactional. Now, as things stand, we supply them with an
army of our labour force, which helps build their grand cities, etc, and they
sign the checks that make up a very big part of our annual remittances. And
Pakistan, especially, has no reason to want it any other way; at least for the
time being since we continue to struggle with our foreign exchange reserves.
But Pakistan is put in a particularly awkward position when it is forced to
choose between our friends in the Gulf and our Iranian neighbours.
It’s not
secret, of course, that GCC foreign policy with regard to the Republic of Iran
has been cause for a fair amount of strain in Pakistan. Lately, especially
during the Trump administration when Iran was sanctioned more brutally and
unfairly than at any other time in history, Pakistan was forced to maintain a
safe distance with Iran, so to speak, owing to dual pressure from the Arabs as
well as Washington. The new PTI government tried to break the ice by offering
to mediate between the two estranged Muslim blocs that dominate the Persian
Gulf, but unfortunately that drive lost steam rather quickly. Hopefully in his
latest dealings with the Arabs the foreign minister as well as the prime
minister would have reminded them of our need to play ball with both camps.
Good relations with Gulf countries are always very welcome, but we should do
more to improve our ties and trade with Iran as well.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/704500/warming-up-to-gulf-sheikhs/
------
The Last
Days Of Mrs Jinnah
By
Saad S. Khan
December
22, 2020
Jinnah had
returned to Bombay after attending the All India Muslim League session by the
first week of January 1929 and resumed his daily visits to his ailing wife. By
the end of the month, he had to leave for Delhi for the legislative assembly
session commencing on 28 January 1929. Since Jinnah arrived on time to attend
the opening session of the legislature, it meant that 27 January could be the
last day he saw his wife alive. Sarojini Naidu had left the country for a
fairly long tour, on whom Jinnah used to depend when it came to keeping an eye
on Ruttie’s health and moods.
This time,
Jinnah had to leave her in the care of Lady Petit and other members of her
immediate family who visited Mrs Jinnah regularly whenever Jinnah informed them
that he would be away. To keep himself posted, Jinnah needed to rely on Mr and
Mrs Dwarkadas, considering Mrs Jinnah’s comfort level with them.
6 Whenever
Jinnah left by train for Delhi, his limousine would follow him by road for his
use in the capital city. This time, after dropping Jinnah off at the railway
station, his driver, Abdul Haye, returned to Mrs Jinnah to bid her farewell and
to ask her if she needed anything from Delhi. She gave him a meek smile,
beckoning to her mother to give him some money. Haye declined, saying that he
would accept it when she would fully recover and join her husband in Delhi.
‘Yes, when I come to Delhi, you have to take me to the shrine of Nizamuddin
Auliya,’ she said. ‘Why not, my lady! As soon as I reach Delhi, I will go there
myself to offer prayers for your health,’ Haye replied and left. He was never
to see her again.
Just three
days after Jinnah left, Dwarkadas informed a delighted Mrs Jinnah that the
towering philosopher, J. Krishnamurti, was to visit Bombay. Krishnamurti knew
Mrs Jinnah well enough to readily accept an invitation for tea at her residence
on 1 February..
At 5 p.m.
he arrived with his secretary, Yadunandan Prasad, while Mr and Mrs Dwarkadas
reached independently. They stayed for one and a half hours chit-chatting with
Mrs Jinnah over snacks.
On his
part, Krishnamurti invited Mrs Jinnah for dinner the next evening at Annie
Besant’s friend and contemporary theosophist Ratansi D. Morarji’s residence,
where he was staying. On 2 February, Mrs Jinnah attended the banquet and had a
long, pleasant chat with the host and various other guests. On 13 February, she
was feeling better enough to be able to go to the cinema to watch an
after-dinner show of a film with Mr and Mrs Dwarkadas, with whom she had
earlier had dinner at a restaurant.
8 Due to
the outbreak of riots, however, Bombay was under curfew. Dwarkadas, who was an
honorary presidency magistrate, was so busy that he could not visit her for the
next two or three days. Between 16 and 17 February, he was on night duty at
Byculla. Mrs Jinnah felt lonely and unhappy.
On 17
February, she unexpectedly dropped in at Mr and Mrs Dwarkadas’s place for tea
and stayed for four hours. During this meeting, she asked them to take care of
her cats, in case she died. Mrs Jinnah would often talk about death, so the
couple did not get alarmed. They could not have known that it was indeed the
last time they would meet her.
9 Having
dropped her back at her house at 7 p.m., Dwarkadas went to see off Annie Besant
at the railway station. Annie Besant also advised Dwarkadas to take care of Mrs
Jinnah. On the morning of 18 February, Mrs Jinnah rang up Dwarkadas, asking him
to see her again. Dwarkadas promised to come by night. ‘If I am alive!’ she is
said to have replied.
She again
asked Dwarkadas to take care of her cats and not give them away in case she did
die. When Dwarkadas checked on her at 11 that night, he was informed that she
was asleep.
10 By the
afternoon of 19 February, Dwarkadas was informed that Mrs Jinnah had fallen
unconscious and that her condition was critical. The servants alerted her
parents, who rushed her to critical care at the Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy Hospital,
incidentally founded by Mrs Jinnah’s maternal grandfather.
The Last
Birthday Cake Finally, it was 20 February, her twenty-ninth birthday. On the
morning of her birthday, J.R.D. Tata—the owner of the Taj Mahal Hotel—sent her
a cake. Her mother and at least two of her brothers also came to wish her, only
to find her lying unconscious on the bed. It is difficult to ascertain whether
it was a stress-related disorder or a stomach-related one that caused her
death.
Nehru’s
sister, Krishna Hutheesing, mentions in her autobiography that Mrs Jinnah’s
cause of death ‘was given out as “peritonitis” [inflammation of peritoneum]’.
11 Haji
Dossa (2013) says it was something akin to a ‘stomach cancer’.
12 Dwarkadas,
on the other hand, writes that she was feeling depressed for the past three or
four days. It might well have been a combination of both, as the psychological
stress might have caused her colitis to flare up. Reportedly, on 19 February,
she took an overdose of medicine that caused an abrupt deterioration of her
condition. In case she had been feeling lonely or wanted to sleep but could
not, chances were that she took the Veranol pills again and again to relax. But
the account of her daughter, Dina, suggests that her stomach condition caused
her excruciating bouts of pain. If that had kept deteriorating with each
passing hour that afternoon, it is plausible that, in her desperation to get
some respite, she might have taken morphine instead, which was the best-known
painkiller at the time. Her death was caused, ‘almost certainly, by an
unintended overdose of medicine’.
13 This
prognosis is substantiated by the immediate treatment doctors gave her at the
JJ Hospital to wash her stomach. Despite all efforts, her life could not be
saved. Mrs Jinnah breathed her last that fateful Wednesday evening in 1929.1
4 Whether
she would have survived her illness had she not taken the overdose is a moot
point. Future medical historians may be able to comment on this better. Dinshaw
Petit II’s Phone Call Unaware of what had happened to his wife, Jinnah was
sitting with Diwan Chaman Lal in Delhi’s Western Court when a trunk call was
placed to him from Bombay.
After
attending the call, he asked Lal, ‘Do you know who that was?’, and continued
without waiting for his answer that it was his father-in-law, who had spoken to
him for the first time since his marriage. Sir Dinshaw, however, only told
Jinnah that Ruttie was seriously ill.15 It is possible that the doctors had not
confirmed Mrs Jinnah’s death until that time, or maybe, as a father, he failed
to muster up the strength to say that his daughter was dead. Jinnah rushed
back, taking the Frontier Mail the very next morning for his twenty-four-hour
journey to Bombay, aboard what was then called the Great Indian Peninsular
Railways, oblivious of his wife’s death.
It was
during that train journey that Jinnah got to know of his wife’s death through
the condolence telegram from none other than Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India.
‘I have just received the sad news of Mrs Jinnah’s death. Please accept very
sincere sympathy from Lady Irwin and myself,’ the condolence message read.16 It
can hardly be imagined how Jinnah must have felt at the bereavement.
The
premature death of his wife was the greatest personal loss in his life.
Disembarking at the Grant Road train station in Bombay on the morning of 22
February 1929, he was received by his friends Colonel (later Major General)
Sahib Singh Sokhey, the well-known military physician, his wife Mrs Maneka
Sokhey and Kanji Dwarkadas.
They
accompanied Jinnah to the morgue of JJ Hospital, where his wife’s body had been
packed in ice, awaiting his arrival. The arrangements for Mrs Jinnah’s funeral
rites as per Muslim tradition was taken care of by Haji Daudbhai Nasser (a
prominent member of the Khoja community, to which Jinnah belonged) and Rajab
Alibhai Ibrahim Batliwala (Mariam Peerbhoy’s son-in law) before Jinnah’s
arrival. The namaz-e-janazah (funeral prayers) of Mrs Jinnah was held at the Pala
Galli mosque on Samuel Road, the same mosque where her nikah had been
registered. Allama Hassan Najafi, the cleric who had solemnized the marriage
eleven years ago, led the prayers. Several hundred Muslim friends attended the
prayers.
------
Saad
S. Khan, Ph.D Director General, National Institute of Management (NIM),
https://dailytimes.com.pk/704503/the-last-days-of-mrs-jinnah/
------
For Some
in Pakistan, There Is No End to Suffering
By
Hassan Niazi
December
22, 2020
Why must
children suffer for this country to realise its mistakes?
The list of
children we have failed is long: Zainab Ansari, Malala Yousafzai, Aitzaz Hasan,
the children of APS Peshawar. They had to suffer for the sins of this country’s
rulers and elite who have grown so distant from the plight of common people
that only the suffering of children gets their attention.
We dub the
children who give up their lives for this country as martyrs. We do this to
console ourselves — it matters little to the children. No child should ever be
a martyr, because children are not supposed to be soldiers. They are not
supposed to sacrifice their lives for a higher cause. They are only expected to
live and be free. Children are supposed to be protected.
Pakistan’s
schoolchildren are expected to display peerless bravery simply to attain an
education. A fundamental right under our Constitution. Zainab Ansari was on her
way to a Quran class when she was abducted; Malala Yousafzai survived an
assassination attempt while on her way home from school; Aitzaz Hasan tackled a
suicide bomber who planned to attack his school; 132 children lost their life
in APS Peshawar.
According
to Human Rights Watch, there were 867 attacks on educational institutions in
Pakistan from 2007 to 2015, resulting in 392 deaths. Despite these figures,
most public schools lacked basic security features until the attack on APS
Peshawar. The report by Human Rights Watch points out that before the Peshawar
attack, approximately 5,000 public schools in K-P, 2,600 in Punjab, 3,600 in
Balochistan, and 49,000 in Sindh lacked a boundary wall for protection.
It took the
lives of 132 children for us to realise this was a problem.
This month,
the country marked six years since the attack on APS Peshawar. Six years on,
the parents of the victims are still searching for answers.
How these
people have been treated is a testament to the moral decay of our leadership.
Consider
this, it took six years for a report on the incident to be published. For
comparison’s sake, New Zealand prepared a comprehensive report on the
Christchurch attack within one year of the incident.
Six
agonising years of waiting. Meanwhile, the country moved on.
The parents
are owed accountability. They are owed justice. A state that lets feelings of
injustice fester within the hearts of its people sets itself up for failure. We
appear to be on that track.
No
individual who fostered a system that allowed militants to walk into a school
and kill indiscriminately has been held accountable. Elected ministers, members
of law enforcement, the security establishment, all get to walk away and blame
‘bad intelligence’.
The APS
report spans more than 500 pages. It speaks at length about the security lapses
that led to the attack occurring, the problems associated with having a porous
border with Afghanistan, the inadequacy of the first layer of security, and
locals who gave shelter to the terrorists.
What the
report doesn’t speak about — at least not at length — is the structural and
institutional reform that needs to be implemented across the country to prevent
such attacks from happening again.
To be sure,
after the events of APS Peshawar, terrorism decreased in Pakistan because of a
strong military response. But a military response is reactive, we still need
proactive solutions to keep our children safe. For one, we can’t keep depending
on the military to do the job of local law enforcement. Yet, police reform,
something that nearly everyone in Pakistan agrees is necessary, never
materialises. Neither does judicial reform, reform that would allow our
ordinary courts to try terrorists while protecting the judges and witnesses
involved.
The
National Action Plan (NAP), framed in the aftermath of the attack, was supposed
to guide us towards reform — a better, safer country. But all we really did was
hand over control of pressing national problems like reforming our court system
to the military. The Constitution was amended to give us military courts to
expedite trials — due process be damned. Legislation passed in the aftermath of
the APS attack authorised secret trials by military courts and annihilated
established due process standards such as the presumption of innocence.
This was
supposed to be a temporary measure to allow us to whip our regular courts into
shape in the interim. That never happened. Military courts eventually went
away, while regular courts stayed the same.
And so, the
police and courts were never reformed. Instead, we did what we do best: try
quick fixes to a deeply entrenched problem.
For other
problems, we didn’t even try. According to NAP, we were finally supposed to get
around to reforming Pakistan’s madrassahs. This is something that is only
spoken about, but hardly ever acted upon. Despite legislation existing, there
is no word on implementation. Unchecked and unregulated, madrassahs continue to
produce hatred and bigotry amongst their students.
Curbing
hatred amongst our people should have been one of the top priorities of the
state. Hatred breeds terrorism after all. But the rise of the TLP and its open
peddling of hatred and violence paint a picture of a state that continues to
look the other way.
Meanwhile,
for the parents of the APS victims, the long search for justice continues. They
continue to live with the state’s hypocrisy. The story of Advocate Fazal, who
lost his son in the attack, encapsulates their treatment. Advocate Fazal became
the president of the APS Shuhada Forum and campaigned extensively to obtain
justice for the victims. When he became a member of the PTM, he would have
multiple FIRs registered against him because of this. Earlier this year he
survived an assassination attempt on his life.
For some in
Pakistan, there is no end to suffering. Their grief is eternal.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2276897/eternal-grief
------
URL: https://newageislam.com/pakistan-press/pakistan-press-recognition-israel-pakistan,/d/123838
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