A bird’s-eye view
Some sugary tales
By N.A.Bhatti
Ever since that famous ultimatum, ‘Are you with us or against us?’, we have been fighting against terrorism in all its ‘forms and manifestations’. There are, however, some forms and manifestations that we do not ignore but actually encourage. Terrorism does not necessarily involve bombing, chemical destruction or beating a person to death. Making a person an addict and then depriving him of his addiction is also a form of terrorism.

Some of the repatriated prisoners from India have been lucky enough to find their families. Mistrust, anger and loss of mental balance mark others who haven’t

By Sarah Humayun

It took Abdul Majeed nearly three years to regain possession of his name. This young man, who was taken prisoner by Indian border forces when he accidentally crossed the border near his small hamlet in Sialkot, is deaf and mute. When he returned to Pakistan on September 12, 2005 he was known to his co-detainees as kabootarwala. In Kothbalwal jail in Jammu and Kashmir, and later at the Bilqees Edhi Shelter where he spent time before he rejoined his family, his attachment to the birds had become obvious. Reportedly he managed to have some around him during his detention in India, and while at the Edhi home in Canal Park, Lahore, he made friends with a neighbour who was a pigeon-keeping man himself, and who made Majeed a gift of a few birds.

Nobody knows for certain the circumstances of Abdul Majeed’s imprisonment. His cousin says that he was heading back home in the back of a truck, after a day at the bakery that employed him. He probably fell asleep, and, on waking he found himself on the wrong side of the border.

Abdul Majeed was repatriated with 152 other prisoners in September 2005. Eighteen of these detainees were mentally unbalanced at the time of return, and some were deaf and dumb. In return, 435 Indian internees in Pakistani jails were released. On June 30 2006 another batch of thirty-eight internees crossed Wagah into Pakistan, and nineteen into India. Many of them were swiftly claimed by their relatives. Twenty-four of them were entrusted to the Edhi Foundation in Lahore, and eight remained with them till the filing of this report. Besides the efforts of the Edhi Foundation, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been assisting them in locating their home and kin. In some cases, like Abdul Majeed’s, members of the organisation have gone out of their way to track down their relatives. Julien Columeau of the ICRC was tipped off by one of Majeed’s co-detainees who is himself a resident of Sialkot, that the Kabootarwala showed signs of familiarity with the area. Columeau arranged a day trip to Sialkot. They took him to Saga Chowk, from where, Columeau says, Majeed was able to give him unerring directions to his uncle’s home in Langrewali. He was reunited with his family, who live in Kak, on the same day.

The exchange of prisoners, a goodwill gesture made as part of the peace process, was for Abdul Majeed and others like him a fortuitous deliverance from a war into which they had blundered. Majeed’s case can be counted as both lucky and unlucky. Lucky because he was released only after three years, while some who have crossed the border from either side have served up to twenty years in prison. Lucky, too — as some others were not — in having come back to a family who clearly cherish him. But relatively short as his internment was, it has left its marks. He cannot keep his neck upright; he limps; the fingers of both his hands are bent, mutilated. Torture, say his family; in sign language Abdul Majeed tells them of the methods. That familiar cliche, the dignity of the human body, only becomes intelligible on acquaintance with what its violation can accomplish. Majeed’s willingness to have the pigeons in his care, his ability to notice, take pleasure in and be gentle to these creatures, makes him remarkable. He has not been similarly cared for. Since his return Majeed has acquired more pigeons and a buffalo. He walks better, say his family; cannot eat easily but is improving on that score. There are signs of a life knitting itself back into the community from which it was separated.

This is one of the faces of the ongoing Indo-Pakistan rapprochement. Majeed’s people are small-scale farmers and workers in the sports goods factories of Sialkot. Nowadays there is no shelling, which used to be an occupational hazard of farming before the ceasefire took effect. The fields in Sialkot are cultivated right up to zero point, where the Indian forces’ watchtowers start.

In the small lawn of the Edhi Home, TNS met some of the repatriated prisoners who had not, till then, been able to contact or been contacted by their families. Most of them were insufficiently sound of mind to make the effort to get back home. But there were others who were, and they were restless and in an ill-temper. Not interested in talking about their experiences in Indian jails, they demanded to know when they would be let out, what was being done to find their relatives, and so on.

According to Sabghatullah sahib, an Edhi staff member, mistrust and anger are not unusual in repatriated prisoners. He has seen prisoners who have cursed the Edhi staff and even tried to break down doors. "Sometimes they continue to think that they’re still in jail. They cannot make a distinction between here and India, they have no words. Only eventually does it sink in that they are back". Soon, if their relatives are not found, the prisoners would be shifted to Multan as the previous lot have been. They would remain in the Edhi Foundation’s care, and though efforts to find their kin will not be abandoned, over a period of time the chances of finding the relatives of these old, the physically disabled or mentally unbalanced would get slimmer.

The decision to release women prisoners all over the country has been lauded by all as a positive step. What needs to be looked into is the profile and the number of women benefiting from it.

"After the decision, those who are in jail on bailable offences will naturally get bails and those who are serving sentences of seven to ten years will be considered for bail. Those who are not released is because of lack of surety bonds," says Zia Awan, who runs the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA).

"We must realise that this has happened as a consequence of a presidential ordinance and an ordinance’s life is short. Parliamentarians should play their role and should make it an Act of parliament, that is, make it a part of the law. Similarly, this spirit and facility should be extended to juvenile prisoners and under-18 children should be released as well by making amendment to the law like it has been done in women’s case," demands Zia Awan.

Justice (retd) Fakhrunnisa Khokhar, known for her progressive judgements regarding women prisoners, says that a majority of women in prisons are held under charges of heinous crimes like Hudood cases, narcotics trafficking and murder. She had granted general bail to all the 65 women implicated in Hudood cases when she visited Central Jail Multan in 2003.

At present there are 189 women in prisons in Hudood case in Punjab alone, according to information from the IG Office Punjab. The way the Hudood cases were filed can be gauged by the case of a woman in Multan jail whom Justice Fakhrunnisa granted bail three years back: "This was a well-educated girl in Multan jail serving sentence under Hudood case. her crime was that she had given a gift to a boy outside her college. She was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for that." Hence the long-standing demand for the repeal of Hudood laws coming from no less than the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) headed by Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi.

There is a problem with women who are jailed under Section 561 CrPC that deals with Diyat. The problem is common to both women and men. People serve more than their terms in jails in such cases because they cannot pay the Diyat. "Will the government let them die in jail if they are unable to pay the fines," asks Justice (R) Fakhrunnisa. "Two women wrote to me that they were in jail for 14 years while they were convicted for 12 years because they could not pay the fine. Dr Faiza Asghar paid the Diyat of these women with the Superintendent Jail and got them released," says Fakhrunnisa. "There is a need to relax laws further, particularly section 497 of the CrPC to bail out women so that they can pursue their cases. There is a provision in every law for that," she stresses.

The facility to women has been granted by amending clause 497 of the CrPC through the Law Reforms Ordinance 2006. She called upon the NGOs to play a more effective role. "Qarshi Industries gave crores of rupees in Diyat to release prisoners," she says. Zia Awan asked Edhi and his wife to pay surety bonds of many prisoners to get them released.

Four years back Justice Asif Saeed Khosa of the Lahore High Court decided that if somebody is in jail only because he/she cannot pay the fine, that should be paid through Baitul Maal. Baitul Maal was the respondent in the case. But this judgement was contested in the Supreme Court which admitted it for regular hearing and the decision could not be implemented.

While Zia Awan sees the release of women prisoners as a step in the right direction, he is apprehensive about the rehabilitation of women once they are out of jails. "They may have no place to go to because there are many women who were jailed along with their husbands. Women ministries at the federal and provincial levels and Baitul Maal need to play their role at this time."

The role of civil society is also important. Zia has written to chief justice Federal Shariat Court that LHRLA’s services (a Karachi based organisation) are available if needed. "We will help women who need any help with rehabilitation," says Zia.

A regular visitor to jails says there are convicts who have been sentenced to 25 years jail term for drug trafficking. As problems arise with the majority charged with heinous offences, there is a need to amend the laws. While under the law, once a woman’s case is decided the jail authorities must get a copy of the court judgement and another copy must go to the family. The jails do not get this copy while the family does get it. But does not help a woman’s case if she wants to file an appeal because very often the family abandons her after her conviction.

A woman in Multan Jail was convicted in 2001. She could not file an appeal for this very reason. Even when her prison term will end next month, she will still have to pay a huge Diyat of more then two lakh rupees in order to get out of jail. How will she? She doesn’t have the means to do that.

Hearing of under-trial cases, fixing appeals in time and providing the jail authorities with detailed copies of judgement is all in the hands of the authorities and should be done in the first instance.

"Every woman can be released from jail on probation except for those on charges of murder," says another activist. The number of probation officers should be increased — there are only two female probation officers in Lahore. Women can stay out of jail in a house with their family if a probation officer accompanies them. "In every district there should be one probation officer," she demands.

The newest kid in the neighbourhood is the ‘Lahore Bachaao Committee’. Such committees are mostly bunches of concerned and committed young people, with their hearts in the right place and one is instinctively for them. One is also aware that we have nurtured a culture of protest in which the only way to prove your sincerity is to be against whatever is going on. And yet if one wants to crib about anything going wrong, this is the only avenue we have. I am about to propound on both!

Right now the issue in contention is some scheme of the authorities to widen the side roads on the canal; which will involve cutting down all the trees there. As I said I am all for the committee, but I am not quite sure of the wisdom of this one! The canal roads have become main traffic arteries, and if you have seen one at rush hour, the wisdom of doing Something seems obvious.

Trouble is there are trees, and the thought of touching a tree with evil intent is always one to raise our hackles. If these were Giant Redwoods from California, or even Bunyan trees of our own, under one of which someone might find Nirvana, I would agree. But these are not! They are common or garden poplars and weeping willows, and the thing about them is, if you cut them down, you can grow the ruddy things again!

So I am going to air what has been bothering me for a bit and hope they will take this up instead. On Ferozepur Road there used to be this humungous tract of land used as the Bus Stand. It has been lying empty for some time, and now it is intended for an Information Technology City !

One is all for progress and technology, and mighty glad it was not taken over by some private developers to be cut up into corner plots and wasted for personal profit. A Technology City will be a public place and it is most welcome.

But! There is a huge signboard there proudly displaying what the perpetrators intend it to look like. And it is the pits! It is the kind of flashy blue-green glass encased monstrosity which passes for new-rich architecture all over the Gulf States. An endless variety of computer generated curves and arabesques going all over at the most ridiculous angles all encased in shiny plastic.

It is all mindless and soulless. A final example a total lack of imagination or vision, ugly and repulsive, trying to pose as modernity and succeeding only in being silly. I am aware that stuff which is new sometimes silly to begin with, but eventually grows on you and acquires a certain charm with time. A prime example is the Eiffel Tower.

This so called style of architecture is not of the stuff! It will never grow on anyone and will simply die in the shame it deserves. I am also aware that it is being emulated and copied all over the world wherever people have come into undeserved wealth and have sold their minds down the river. I still hate the idea of it coming to Lahore. We have never wanted to flaunt our skyline because we don’t have one. And we don’t want one! Certainly not this one!

There was a sudden increase in violence in Balochistan recently with the government routinely making claims about killing scores of ‘miscreants’, or ‘terrorists’, as the local press is required to describe the nationalist Baloch combatants. Increasingly, it was also being claimed that a growing number of Bugti Baloch fighters were abandoning their chief Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti and surrendering their weapons to be on the side of the government.

However, the government’s claims about successes on the battlefield haven’t led to an end to attacks against the security forces. There certainly was a slight drop in acts of sabotage but the armed forces, particularly the paramilitary Frontier Corps, continued to face attacks not only in Dera-Bugti and Kohlu districts but also elsewhere in Balochistan. Landmines planted by insurgents were taking toll of soldiers and remained a big worry for the troops. There was no respite also from rocket attacks and bomb explosions targeting gas installations, electricity lines and railway tracks.

Balochistan is still a dangerous place and would remain so until the root-causes of the insurgency are tackled. As military operations continued with the aim to eliminate Baloch rebels or force them to surrender, there was no hope of restarting political dialogue to peacefully resolve the problems afflicting the province. In the circumstances, it was obvious that no durable solution of the conflict was in sight, at least in the foreseeable future.

For the second time in the recent past, government officials claimed that Akbar Bugti, the 79-year old head of the Bugti tribe, had left his native Dera-Bugti and shifted to Kahan in Kohlu district, the abode of the equally rebellious Marri Baloch tribal people. Dera-Bugti’s district coordination officer, Abdul Samad Lasi, was quoted by the press as claiming that the Bugti tribal chief was no longer present in his mountain hideout where he had moved several months ago after his fort-like home in Dera-Bugti town came under military attack. Lasi’s first claim about the departure of Akbar Bugti from his native area had proved incorrect and it remains to be seen if he is right this time. Being a government official and often accused of making tall claims, Lasi would have to provide evidence to restore his credibility and prove his new claim about Akbar Bugti’s escape to Kohlu.

Lasi, along with Raziq Bugti, an official spokesman and adviser to Balochistan chief minister Jam Mohammad Yousaf, and the provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob, usually brief the press about the security situation in the province and the arrests and deaths that occur during searches and raids by law-enforcing agencies. Akbar Bugti himself or his son-in-law Senator Agha Shahid Bugti, who is an office-bearer of Jamhoori Watan Party, tell their side of the story to the reporters. Then there is Azad Baloch, who claims to speak for the shadowy Balochistan Liberation Army, Wadera Alam Khan representing the Bugti tribal chief, and others using fake names who regularly contact Quetta journalists to challenge government claims and give their version of events. One has to be careful while drawing conclusions from the usually unverified claims made by official spokesmen and those speaking on behalf of the Baloch combatants.

As expected, Akbar Bugti’s lieutenants denied the government claim and insisted that he was still present in his native area and was leading his Bugti fighters in the fight against security forces. Their denial is understandable given the belief that the departure of the Bugti tribal head from the area would demoralise his men and weaken their resistance to security forces. It is also pertinent to mention that government officials in the past even made the unbelievable claim that Akbar Bugti had fled to Iran. Such claims, it seems, are made to belittle him and cause demoralisation among Bugtis loyal to their chief.

Even if he eventually leaves Dera-Bugti, which is possible in view of the aerial strikes by gunship helicopters against rebel hideouts in the Sangsila mountainous area where he is reportedly holed up, there is no possibility that the Bugti tribal chief would give up the fight. He is too proud a man to accept defeat. Rather, he would want to die fighting and be remembered as a martyr to the Baloch cause. Besides, the authorities apparently have no intention at this stage of the crisis to eliminate or capture Akbar Bugti.

The stepped-up military activity in both Dera-Bugti and Kohlu might have enabled the security forces to score some successes against Baloch combatants but it has at the same time damaged the government’s credibility. The use of Cobra gunship helicopters and other sophisticated weapons in such actions and government claims about killing scores of alleged terrorists has given a lie to oft-repeated official assertions that no military operations were being conducted in Balochistan. By admitting the use of gunship helicopters and making claims about killing, say, 23 Baloch ‘miscreants’ in attacks on ‘farrari’ camps for fugitives in Sangsila and Bhambore areas in Dera-Bugti on July 9, the government has finally conceded that an elaborate military operation was on to defeat a full-blown insurgency in parts of the province.

The fact that ‘farrari’ camps providing military training to militants are present, as claimed by the Balochistan police chief, in distant places such as Chaghai, Kalat and Bolan districts and attacks have taken place from Loralai in the north of Balochistan to Gwadar in the south shows the spread of the insurgency. Other serious developments include the killing of government employees, so-called informers and Punjabi settlers, attacks against pro-Islamabad politicians, and assaults on foreign-funded projects and foreigners, including Chinese.

A dangerous new element was added to the already explosive situation when the government brought back the Kalpar Bugtis, who have been challenging Akbar Bugti, to Dera-Bugti for resettlement. Marri tribesmen opposed to Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri were also enabled to return to Kohlu. This set up the stage for bloody confrontation within the two large Baloch tribes and many lives have already been lost in the inter-tribal feuds.

The seriousness of the situation could be gauged from recent interviews and statements of Balochistan’s former chief minister Sardar Attaullah Mengal. Despite his old age and failing health, he remains relevant to the volatile politics of the province and is at the same time a forceful voice for the rights of Pakistan’s smaller nationalities from the platform of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM). Unlike Akbar Bugti and Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, he hasn’t called upon his fellow tribesmen or followers to take up arms against the government. But he has publicly voiced support for all those fighting the Pakistani state in defence of the ‘Baloch homeland and culture’ and described those laying down their lives for this cause as martyrs. He is also on record saying that Pakistan and Balochistan could no longer co-exist. In his view, the situation in Balochistan has gone to a point of no-return and there was no reason to trust President General Pervez Musharraf after he went back on his promise to the ‘MMA Mullahs’ to quit as Army chief in return for their support for the 17th constitutional amendment. He also wants all settlers in Balochistan, particularly the Punjabis, to express solidarity with the Baloch cause or simply leave Balochistan.

Opinions have hardened on both sides if one were to remember the language used by government functionaries, including President Musharraf, against the rebel Baloch sardars. There have been reports about young Baloch university graduates joining the ranks of the militants and getting killed or arrested. The younger generation of Baloch, particularly from the affected tribes and districts, appear to be sliding toward militancy and losing hopes in a federal Pakistan. The military operations and setting up of new garrisons in Balochistan might bring a semblance of normalcy to parts of the province and protect gas and other precious installations but it would be no more than a short-term solution of the festering problem. Imposing solutions on a largely unhappy Baloch population would not work in the long run and instability would elude Pakistan’s largest and resource-rich province.

‘Ghaddaar Kaun? -Nawaz Shraif ki Kahani unki Zabani’

By Sohail Warraich

Sagar Publishers 2006

Price Rs 900

pp 456

"You wrote against us," is how Nawaz Sharif, in exile in Jeddah, greets his interviewer, Sohail Warraich. The man has changed. He has not changed. He is vindictive, he is not. The incident lends itself to various interpretations, as does the just-published book it is taken from.

To the agitated democrat, it reads like a lament of a prime minister who was in power yet was so very bereft of independence. To the local fusion experts it provides a perfect proof that the country desperately needs to formalise the army’s role as a power-sharer. The historian may find in it passages that can rank with the most moving lines written by Bahadur Shah Zafar in exile in Rangoon and a cynic who has rummaged through this pile of information will be justified in asking as to why, after all that, would someone still pursue a career in power politics in Pakistan. Why?

Mian Saheb’s answer to the central question is that he wants a change in the system which will free the future elected representatives to take decisions. We don’t know how realistic the argument is, coming from someone who is known to have advanced by compromise. What we know for sure is that after the initial and perhaps deliberate posturing by Mian Saheb, where he let Sohail Warraich know that he remembered who had said what about him when, he finally gave the long interview that has now been published in the form of an intriguing book entitled ‘Ghaddaar Kaun?-Nawaz Shraif ki Kahani unki Zabani’.

The book includes interviews of other members of the Sharif family, along with conversations with Captain Safdar, Nawaz’s son-in-law, and Nawaz’s military secretary at the time he was ousted in 1999, Brigadier Javed Malik. It is rich on instances, even if a bit wanting on dates, meant as it is for consumption in a land where history tends to repeat itself in quick succession, turning everything hazy.

Mian Saheb could not have found a more reputable channel to bring his case to the people. Lahore-based Sohail Warraich is famous for his interviews, both in print and on television. Interviews are quite often described as the prized items in a journalist’s collection and Sohail has a treasure-trove of them in his name. He is a gentle grafter who works quietly on his subject, asking them harmless queries about their childhood and family, and letting them tell him about their favourite singers and food. Mian Saheb tells Sohail he likes Muhammad Rafi and daal chawal, while after all these years he may perhaps be forgiven for getting his old cholay walla’s name wrong (If one remembers rightly, his name was Chiragh and not Meraj and he is no more present at his customary spot at Regal chowk in Lahore because he died a few years ago).

In what is usual for Sohail Warraich, he does not press the former prime minister too hard. Instead he leads his readers to draw their own conclusions, paving the way with subtle hints. As specimens go, at one point when Mian Saheb blames his ex-aide Saifur Rehman for persecuting the Jang group back in 1998, he is allowed to get away without disclosing the name of the gentleman who was actually responsible for catapulting the small-time businessman from Lahore to the all-important position of being the chief of accountability in his government. The identification is not needed.

Similarly, Mian Saheb ends up denying nothing when he says that Mian Azhar’s father had not lent the Sharifs any money when they were struggling to find their feet after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s nationalistaion: all the Sharifs had got from their friends in this case was machinery on deferred payment.

Bhutto’s nationalisation? After so many years of hostility, we finally learn on Mian Saheb’s authority that it was not ZAB who had carried out the policy. The actual ghaddaar turns out to be a certain eccentric doctor by the name of Mubashir Hasan. Finally getting to the bottom of things, Mian Saheb minces no words as he points the finger at the not so good old doctor, in the process absolving ZAB of the ills let loose by nationalisation. By contrast, the Jamaat-e-Islami comes in for criticism from him at many places. After years of cohabitation, the Jamaat in Mian Saheb’s eyes is the establishment’s horse that does what it is told. Like protesting against Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in February 1999.

Mian Saheb is full of sympathy for fellow toppled prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He recalls he had asked Mohtarma to leave the country to escape legal cases during his regime and reiterates that his government had been pushed into a situation by you know who to earn the politicians a bad name.

In the course of the whole interview, Mian Saheb never reaches Muhammad Rafi’s. He could have made a clear breast of it without provocation if he had so wanted to. While the book is revealing in certain aspects, it is clear that the former prime minister has kept some precious details of what he knows to himself, focusing most of its attention on the general who overthrew him — the general, he now tells us, he had appointed as the chief of army staff in haste.

That was his mistake. The Kargil that preceded his ouster from power by a few months wasn’t. It could not be blamed on him, he says, for the simple reason that he knew nothing about it. The debate nonetheless continues as General Pervez Musharraf reacts quickly to Nawaz Sharif’s accusations in ‘Ghaddaar Kaun’ with a television interview of his own. General Musharraf reminds Mian Saheb of his visit to Kashmir, just a fortnight before Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore on February 19, 1999, when the Kargil conflict was at its peak. In ‘Ghaddaar Kaun’, Nawaz Sharif maintains that it was Vajpayee who had told him about the Kargil adventure by the Pakistan Army in the same Lahore meeting. "A (Pakistan) prime minister is not worth his salt if he is informed about Kargil operation by his Indian counterpart," General Musharraf is quoted as saying.

Sohail Warraich makes no secret of how he was repeatedly stopped by Mian Saheb from publishing the interview, until finally giving ‘Ghaddaar Kaun’ his ‘nod’. Now that the book is out, Mian Saheb has plenty more to explain, not least about his expedition to Kashmir in February 1999. Unless he can sort out the past, he will continue to be looked upon as a man too innocent for the complicated game called politics. Sentences like "I was pushed into it" and "That was a mistake on our part" do not reflect well on a leader looking as much for self-redemption as he is for system-change.

A bird’s-eye view