Quite a few proposals, concepts and ideas are being defended and justified on the ground of harmony with the Constitution. All actions of the President are claimed to enjoy constitutional sanction. Similar sanction is claimed for the move to get the President re-elected by the existing assemblies and for laws made by General Musharraf or General Zia without reference to the sovereign -- the people -- or their representatives.

Nothing can be more ridiculous than the invocation of constitution in a country where the basic law has rarely escaped inroads by the wielders of power, where it has been more vulnerable to the rulers' push than even a town committee by-law. Where, to put it bluntly, the constitution has hardly ever mattered.

The early rulers of Pakistan had no use for the principle that each state needed a constitution that answered its specific needs. They lived happily for nine years with a basic law drafted by a colonial power to suit its own interest. Indeed, that makeshift framework lasted longer than the contraptions subsequently put together by the people's representatives or otherwise.

The first constitution drafted by them was scrapped by its chief defender, the very same man under whose signature it had come into force. Then came a time when the people's representatives were declared unfit to draft the basic law of their state and a constitution was given in 1962 to the country's real sovereign by a usurper of its rights. That basic law, too, was scrapped by its author himself. And now a tattered parchment bearing 1973 as the date of manufacture is being held up as the alchemist's stone to determine the legitimacy of the rule and of institutions supposed to be working under it. Reference is made to a constitution that bears little resemblance to the original compact between the people and the state.

Nobody will deny that constitutions are liable to change, more so if a dynamic society needs new tools to deal with exigencies of development. But a change in constitution is everywhere considered more serious a matter than revision of ordinary legislation, and provision is made for a special procedure. The underlying principles are that a constitutional amendment must enjoy overwhelming support of elected representatives and that an ordinary parliament cannot alter the basic assumptions of the state and its constitution even by a unanimous decision. In Pakistan both of these principles have been repeatedly violated.

The Constitution of 1973 had a most inauspicious start. It was violated, in spirit if not in letter, on the very morrow of its adoption when two units of the federation were deprived of their elected governments. The government that had taken credit for producing the first properly and almost unanimously adopted constitution pushed through parliament seven acts to amend it between 1974 and 1977. While some of the amendments could be defended some others could not be justified, such as the one devised to put the Ahmadis outside the pale of Islam and those that arbitrarily altered the terms and conditions of judge's employment.

General Ziaul Haq claimed credit for not abrogating the constitution and only holding it in abeyance but he enforced 25 constitutional amendment measures, as a result of which 61 articles of the basic law were changed and 20 new articles added. All these changes were wrapped up in the 8th Amendment when the General negotiated his power-sharing formula with a new civilian wing of his regime. He got another constitutional amendment -- the 9th passed by the Senate but it became a casualty of his own decision to dissolve the National Assembly. So no 9th amendment is on record.

The Zia amendments changed the basic features of the Constitution. The political system shifted from parliamentary to presidential. The president acquired the role of a master to the parliament. The creation of the Federal Shariat Court, with powers not only to strike down laws but also to make laws, amounted to parliament's supersession by an unelected body. After the Zia amendments the continuance in force of the 1973 Constitution was no more than a pleasant myth invoked by all and sundry to soothe their ailing conscience.

Another drastic change in the Constitution made by General Zia involved an attempt to legitimise extra-constitutional election of the head of state. Instead of election by an electoral college designated in the Constitution, a referendum, that too of a strange brand, could be declared sufficient. Further, General Zia inserted two provisions in the Constitution which made his name (and the only name yet) a part of the text and also proclaimed that in respect of the disability provisions he was above the Constitution.

General Zia's quasi-civilian successors had neither the will nor the licence to bring down the edifice raised by him. The Junejo government made two inconsequential alterations in the Constitution and the two Benazir Bhutto governments could not do even that much. The Nawaz Sharif governments brought forth two proposals that were designed to complete General Zia's mission -- the 12th and 15th amendments -- a third to undo a Zia provision -- the 13th amendment -- and another purely in self-interest -- the 14th amendment.

The mauling of the Constitution was taken a giant step forward in 2002 when the Legal Framework Order introduced wide-ranging changes in it. Later on these changes were packaged in the 17th amendment and enforced in the manner of the 8th amendment.

Nothing illustrates the arbitrary rewriting of the constitution than the devices employed to enable the President to retain his post as Chief of the Army as well. General Ziaul Haq amended Article 41 and added Article 270-A to cover his election in the referendum of 1984 and exempt himself from the disability clauses by guaranteeing protection to all his orders and constitutional amendments.

General Pervez Musharraf covered his election by virtue of the 2002 referendum by exempting himself from the disability provisions (Article 43 and Article 63), without naming himself in the relevant texts. The 17th amendment suggested an accord between him and the Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal whereby he was to give up one of his two offices by the end of 2004. The means to do this was the addition of a proviso to Article 41 (7) in the following words; "Provided that paragraph (d) of clause (i) of Article 63 shall become operative on and from 31st day of December 2004." What this meant was that the President would be exempt from the disability provisions of articles 43 and 63 only up till 31 December 2004.

At the same time a new clause was added to the effect that the electoral college for the President's election would endorse General Musharraf's election in referendum. However, this was to be valid only "for the current term of the President in office."

The post-2004 matters were then taken care of when the President to Hold Another Office Bill was adopted by parliament in October 2004. This enactment, which came into force on 31 December 2004, says that by holding the office of the Army chief President Musharraf will not be liable to disqualification under Articles 43 and 63. However, "this provision shall be valid only for the present holder of the office of the President." (Avoidance of the 17th amendment expression "for the current term of the President in office" may be noted.)

What we learn from a brief review of the transformation of the Constitution through the orders of the chief executives is that many of its present provisions radically contravene the original 1973 text, that they do not conform to parliamentary democratic norms, and that they have not been added to the basic law in the manner laid down in it. Such provisions cannot be considered part of a democratic constitution. It has been contended that amendments to the Constitution howsoever made and if approved by elected representatives, or not cancelled by a succession of legislatures, have acquired the status due to constitutional law. This is specious logic. Assemblies elected through extra-constitutional means and subject to extra-constitutional pressures cannot legitimately make constitutions nor can they unmake them. Unfortunately this is not purely a legal matter, it is essentially a political issue. And the laws of politics can ignore neither the circumstances in which the constitution has been changed nor the causes of the failure of successive parliaments to rectify the damage.

A more disturbing conclusion is that the people find themselves caught between illusion and reality. They have some hazy notions of a constitutional democracy in which the basic law protects the citizens' rights, in which they are free to elect their representatives through a fair contest, in which the executive is responsive to the people's needs and is accountable to their representatives, in which the legislature is not subservient to the executive, and in which the judiciary is bound to uphold the constitution. The reality that confronts them day in and day out is quite different. They have an order that has only contempt for their aspirations that are dismissed as illusions.

It may be in the interest of all parties if all pretences to constitutionalism are set aside and the people helped to realise that instead of yearning for constitutional protection, that is not there, they should try to find means to give themselves a democratic constitution.

It is generally believed that artists are mad, but can a mad person be an artist? Often, both artists and mad people choose odd, unpredictable and unacceptable courses of life, which can generate suspicion, uneasiness or even hatred.

One does not need to investigate theories of art and psychology in order to confirm this. The artist suffering from mental disorder is the staple of satires, sitcoms and caricatures. In reality not all artists fit this description, since many are street-smart and extremely professional, used to making good business deals here and there, as successfull as anyone in the corporate world.

Artists, like fictionists, can imagine themselves into more than one character or situation. In another language, that of psychology, this may be described as schizophrenia. According to the dictionary, the patient suffering from this personality disorder experiences "a breakdown in the relation between thoughts, feelings, and action"-- in other words, a split of personality which makes it difficult to function as individual. What is considered creative in artists is a disease in psychologically disturbed people.

These suffering individuals have added a new dimension to the already recognised and tried-out course of art. Their 'unfortunate' episodes proved to be productive, since they were able to unearth and present other, hidden selves through their pictures. Several famous artists have suffered in this way. Vincent van Gogh was one, his last years spent in a mental asylum.

The work of a schizophrenic patient is on display at the Anna Molka Art Gallery in the College of Art and Design, Punjab University. This exhibition of pastel drawings by Muhammad Hamayun, has been organised by Asim Amjad, an art therapist in charge of the art gallery at the Fountain House, Lahore. Asim Amjad is also a painter, and takes a keen interest in supporting his patients and promoting their artistic endeavours.

According to him, Muhammad Hamayun started his life as a signboard painter and then became a postman. The death of his father and a short-lived marriage of three months left a deep impression on his personality. These incidents, along with perpetual poverty, made him schizophrenic. The exhibition is a selection from the works he made during his art therapy.

The Anna Molka Art Gallery must be admired for hosting this exhibition, remarkable for many reasons. It is an attempt to open up the limited art circle by including the works of an untrained practitioner. This gesture may help to shake up the boundaries between the trained (or commercially tuned) artist and a painter from the 'other side,' and in healing the patient whose unique vision shows in these pieces.

What Muhammad Hamayun offers is interesting as well as intriguing. A large number of his pastels on paper are based on female faces; there are a few landscapes and two calligraphic paintings. Some of his works can be defined as abstract. Each work is titled, but only a few by the maker himself; the rest of the titles are devised by the therapist.

The paintings on display can be read clinically, since each work has a background, incident or motive. They are different from the works one encounters in galleries, in which artists explain long stories with other long stories about issues of self, gender, and problems of the world, especially the third world.

The main concern of Hamayun's work appears to be his relationship with women. He repeatedly paints -- rather sketches -- female faces; perhaps his early training in the craft of signboard painting accounts for his predilection for beautiful blondes with flowing hair, like model from an advertisement. In most cases the mouths of these pretty girls are smudged with sweeps of pastels. In some portraits the eyes and noses are drawn more than once, suggesting a multiple and shaky image in the retina.

The defacing of the female, especially near the lips, can be a way of establishing physical and emotional contact with the subject, as suggests 'Lust', a title chosen by the artist. Besides the smudged lips, the eyes in these portraits are widened and show a feeling of sadness, much like the eyes of the patient from his photograph in the invitation card.

In addition to female faces and figures, a number of other works show some kind of landscape, as in 'Ghost House', in which a small house is surrounded by tall trees. Other works are a blend of landscape and abstract imagery, such as drawings of mountains and the disc of sun amid the lines and strokes of different colours. A few of the works have incoherent imagery; yet a word written on them may describe the situation. For example the work 'Card Room', which can be viewed from every side, has some readable imagery. The crease in the paper, which was kept in the artist pocket before being displayed, increases the visual attraction of the work. It shows that the maker of these images is honestly inscribing his feelings -- as honestly as possible.

The finished products of a recently concluded felt-making workshop at the National College of Arts show one of the many aspects of the versatile medium that is textiles. And textile design is an art form whose significance is often undermined. So much so that, given the myriad textile crafts that we inherited, we haven't done much to develop and propagate them; either at home or abroad. Any of the many forms of textiles, be it weaving or raw polyester fibre, can be treated in countless creative ways, but somehow, perhaps due to being considered as a craft and not an art, textile design is not given the kind of attention that, say, painting is

But back to felt. Felt colours galore, and forms a-many could be seen at the fourth year textile design students' exhibition at the NCA gallery, 'Felt Again'. Implemented in three techniques: pre-felted, pre-dyed and mixed media, from wall panels to ballpoint pens, the exhibition showed off the adaptability of sheep fibre matted into 'felt' - the same material which namdas are made of. Row upon row of wall panels that may double as rugs were laid out on the gallery floor, on bamboo stands. Some were dealt with in a painting-like manner, in washes of colour (pre-felted), others in forms of sharp colour (pre-dyed). Inspirations for panels varied from the abstract to Sadequain, to florals; while others were tie-and-dyed.

Linear patterns with fibres of the material, a 'map-like' form and a ying-yang type of composition with two fish, formed other panels. An unusual wall-hanging, in a cutout, organic, floral sort of form, added to the variety of concepts on display. And another beautifully rendered wall panel was a soft dove grey with synthetic burnt orange flowers and leaves floating across, as if on the surface of a pond, some submerged in the hazy grey layers.

A separate room was dedicated to other forms of felt, including different kinds of lamps -- suspended, free standing, and a conventional round-base-with-lampshade-atop kind. Bold primary colours made some of the objects look as if they would make a welcome addition to a nursery -- in particular the afore-mentioned conventional lamp, a few jewellery 'boxes' that were on display, and a small child-sized cushion seat with a bright bee perched on top. This room is where the adaptability of the medium was in full play: a bowl-like vase (with a few felt flower cutouts scattered in it!), ballpoint pens, a gao takia.-- you name it. Among others, a delicately formed unicorn was exemplary of sculpture in textiles; and there were some birds perched all over a little tree, regarding which the story goes that a couple of cats which wandered into the gallery got into a fight over them.

Textile design students at NCA also like to experiment in fashion design, a brilliant example of that being the 'poncho' on display: an apparel number created purely from the design point of view, constructed from felt beads and flowers strung together -- something of a cross between an oversized necklace and stringy garment. Another snazzy creation was the pair of mules in multicoloured felt. There was a bag, a few bangles, and a collar-muffler neckwear number.

One would like to see more interesting work coming out of the textile design studios. Something that was missing -- crucial element, one may add - was titles of work on display, together with names of the students.

('Felt Again' opened on May 26 and concluded on June 3)

As most music recordings released these days are in the video format, the sound is necessarily accompanied by visual images. These visual images are of two kinds -- one, that provides some connection with the content of the song in the form of characters and some suggestions of a storyline; in the other kind, visual images seem to stand out on their own as independent entities. The imagination is stretched quite a bit in trying to find a connection between the content of the song and this flood of visual images.

The entire productivity of film music has depended on the more conventional way of connecting the visuals to the content of the song. The other is a recent trend, perhaps necessitated by the post-modern sensibility, which is averse to finding integral links between the various parts of a presentation because it does not recognise it as a living unified organism.

For the ordinary listener, this placing within a certain context was of crucial importance. For most people, who understand music through the words or the lyrics, thinking musical rendition to be a mere interpretation of the text, the situation in the film provided yet another such context. The pure abstraction of the classical forms was narrowed down and made more concrete. The strength of music per se is its abstraction, because it defies any designative connotation, but in case of its more popular forms certain reductive intrusions are desirable. Film, more than any other medium, provided this external reference with great deal of facility.

The great quality of film music, especially in its earlier phase, was that it considered itself to be the inheritor of a great tradition of music that was based on the centrality of the human voice. There must have existed an integral link between music and drama in ancient times, as the first surviving treatise on music that has come down to us in the last couple of thousands of years, Natshastra, was actually a book on theatre. But in the last thousand years or so, since the beginning of Muslim rule in India, patronage was not extended to theatre by the central court or even the provincial courts.

The theatrical arts declined from their glory during the Gupta Rule and only survived at the folk level, where they became part of quasi-religious rituals. Theatre as an independent art form ceased to exist for about a thousand years. Music, to the contrary, received lavish patronage, and the link that may have existed between music and drama must have weakened considerably. The emphasis on music was so great that it stimulated a great deal of virtuosity and experimentation in style and form. An extremely developed and sophisticated musical system was thus initiated.

When theatre was re-established in the Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth century, the ancient bonds between music and theatre were as if rediscovered. The same connection was refreshed with the initiation of the Talkies in the nineteen-thirties. Music remained an integral part of popular film, with songs being one of the major attractions, if not the major attraction for the general audiences.

By this straight logic, then, it can be said that music videos are feeding on an integral link and connection that has existed in this part of the world between the visual and the aural. But the essential difference was that in film music, because of the weight of the grand tradition of subcontinental music through the centuries when it had no visual element, the visual imagery played a subservient role to the sound. Musical expression had developed to such an extent that films, despite being a composite art, could not escape the virtuosity that the musical tradition nourished.

Music videos have a basic similarity with film music. They are eclectic, ranging from classical to folk, and lend themselves to music from all over the world -- the classical symphonies of the western classical tradition, the samba and tango dance tunes of Latin America, the jazz of United States and the pop music that has spread like wild fire all over the western world after the second world war.

The music video is different from early film music because it is not an inheritor of the grand classical tradition but actually a continuation of the music that was spawned by film music. Its link with the great tradition of our music is therefore twice removed, and therefore has weakened considerably. This may explain the less-than-necessary emphasis on the purity of the note. Then it totally freewheels where the visual imagery is concerned, exploring meaning at a deeper level that was supposedly obvious in films.

The debate that will take this musical form forward is whether it should find meaning at a deeper level or stress that no connection exists between the song and the visual imagery. If the music video follows the post-modern trend of denying linkages, then it is on the verge of evolving into a new form of expression that would require its own critic; if not, then it will linger on as an abridged form of the visual-aural connection initiated by the films.

London, like all of England, has been gripped by football fever and is hoping desperately that its team can somehow make it to the final rounds.

The nation seems to be hoping that a form of collective optimism can, much like a collective dua or prayer, carry its players through the tournament. The world cup fever started months ahead of the tournament and it has been one continuing emotional roller coaster, which reached a hysterical pitch with the injury of Wayne Rooney's foot and the hysterical speculation over whether he'd be well enough to be part of the team at the world cup.

The media had a blow-by-blow coverage of the Rooney story and 'breaking news' of practically every doctor's visit, physio session and what else. And it was the topic of conversation everywhere: will Rooney make it to Germany?

In addition to that, there are England flags everywhere -- flying from cars, hanging from windows attached to gates and baby strollers. The England flag, incidentally, is the St George's Cross -- the plain red cross on a white background. And of course England football shirts and related items have been selling like hot cakes. When England played their first match of the tournament on a Saturday, all the shops and businesses in our neighbourhood closed early and people either watched the match in their homes or in pubs or on huge public screens. England just scraped though and looked fairly unimpressive, but the English fans are intent on pushing their team through with the strength of their good wishes.

I find all the national anxiety really quite touching. And as Londoner, I think it would be terrific if England did well in the tournament. But whatever its fate, the support that people have shown for their team is impressive. It's all a bit of a mela here in London, St George's flags, sunshine and swelteringly hot weather. And the anxiety about the team's fitness has been alleviated slightly by coverage of what their wives and girlfriends are up to in Germany. The press makes these women sound like anorexic, designer junkies and shopaholics. They may or may not be, but it all lends an entertaining and trashy element to the coverage, which is, obviously good fun!

Let's see how the World Cup shapes up, but whatever happens London is really emotionally involved in the proceedings -- there's no ignoring the tournament here!

Best wishes