Repealed not yet
In the face of laws existing on statute books, blasphemy cases continue to be registered and saw an upsurge in the last two months
By Aoun Sahi
During the last two months at least eight cases of blasphemy have been reported from different parts of the country. Majority of the cases have been reported from Punjab (three in Lahore and one each in Faislabad and Gujrat) while two from Sindh (one each from Karachi and Kotri) and one in Islamabad.

review
The destiny of art
A recent exhibition in Kazakhstan made it clear that the new diction of visual art is similar to the language of media
By Quddus Mirza
Like old lovers who sometimes meet each other at odd corners and hidden spots, artists from India and Pakistan also meet at the most unusual places. In the capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, an exhibition of Indian and Pakistani artists, titled 'Destination Asia' was recently held for an audience that was Asian in its origin but European in its behaviour.

A play of colours
Shafique Farooqi, a prolific calligrapher and artist, has painted a series 'Whirling Dervish' in watercolour
By Bilal Tanweer
Shafique Farooqi considers himself a spiritual artist. In his latest series entitled 'Whirling Dervish', he has used the whirling dance (Sema) of the Mevlevi order as his inspiration and object of representation. The paintings in the series, which encompass quite a large number of works (most of them dated 2007), show a general repetition of the dance of the whirling dervishes, in watercolour. The variations in paintings are limited to colour.

Striking notes
A western classical music concert demonstrated the difference between the norms of appreciation of a live performance in the east and the west
By Sarwat Ali
A concert of western classical music held at the Alhamra organised by the Annemarie Schimmel Haus in Lahore comprised of wind instruments like the flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and the bassoon.

  By Aoun Sahi

During the last two months at least eight cases of blasphemy have been reported from different parts of the country. Majority of the cases have been reported from Punjab (three in Lahore and one each in Faislabad and Gujrat) while two from Sindh (one each from Karachi and Kotri) and one in Islamabad.

On June 12, Muhammad Qasim who was accused of blasphemy was killed by a policeman in a police station in Gujrat city. On June 9, Shahdra Town police station registered a case against a mentally-challenged man, Nadir Ali, under blasphemy laws on the complaint of Shahid Maqbool, a relative of the accused who lived in the upper portion of Nadir's house on rent. Later the police confessed that it lodged the FIR against Nadir due to pressure exerted by people of the community. They also confirmed that Shahid wanted to grab Nadir's property. A month before, on May 9, Walter Fazal Khan, a 79 year old resident of Lahore was accused by Riaz, who was adopted as a son by Walter Fazal's wife and lived in the same house, of burning a copy of the Holy Quran. A case was also registered against the elderly man under blasphemy laws but later it was found that Riaz wanted to grab his property.

Ever since 1986, according to available data, around 400 cases against more than 850 people belonging to different religions (50 per cent Muslim, 33 per cent Ahmadi, and 11 per cent Christian) have been registered under blasphemy laws but none of them have been convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This clearly indicates that most of the cases are registered on personal grudges or disputes.

Majority of these cases, more than 70 per cent, were registered in Punjab while Sindh is on the second slot with a share of around 25 per cent of the total registered cases. The number of cases reported in NWFP and Balochistan are very few. In NWFP, 20 cases of blasphemy have been registered while in Balochistan the number of registered cases is only five. More than 35 per cent of the total accused blasphemers (300 out of 850 ) belong to districts in Central Punjab of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Kasur, Gujranwala and Sialkot.

It is astonishing to find out that the total number of cases registered from 1947 to 1986, the year strict blasphemy laws were introduced in Pakistan were only six, none of which were about using derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet or Islam. The very first case was reported in Dhaka in November, 1956 when Okil Ali and others chopped down a tree deemed sacred by the Hindu community. On the complaint made by the community they were awarded six months imprisonment and Rs200 fine each.

Sections 295 B, C and 298, A, B and C, commonly known as blasphemy laws were added gradually to the Pakistan Penal Code, between 1980 and 1986 by the Zia regime. The first two prescribe life imprisonment and capital sentence for offenses of offering insults to the Holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad, respectively. The remaining sections deal with the offenses of passing insulting remarks, signs in any form against the Wives, companions and family of Prophet Muhammad prescribing punishments from three to ten years of imprisonment and a fine. The last Section 298-C prohibits Ahmadis from preaching their religion and 'posing to be a Muslim'.

These laws are a relic of the British colonial criminal law 1860, but were modified in 1926 again under the British, then in 1986 by General Zia to make these more strictly in accordance with the Sharia, and finally in 1992 when the death penalty was made mandatory under prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "The dangerous aspect of the approach used in these laws is the concept of 'honour' of the holy persons of one religion supposedly to be protected by the state and law in a multi-religious society. Such concepts are prone to vague interpretations in any given society. Therefore the damage caused by any such act should be more dealt within the Tort rather than criminal law," says Peter Jacob, Executive Secretary, National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), a human rights organisation working under the Catholic Church of Pakistan.

He thinks that due to the legal lacuna blasphemy laws have been grossly abused. "The law does not define blasphemy, it just talks about its mode. The blasphemy laws make no distinction between a deliberate action and unintended mistake. The law also ignores the psychological condition and knowledge of person about the consequences of one's action, for example in cases of a minor, a non-believer and an insane person. These laws in fact have driven the Pakistani society to religious and sectarian intolerance," Jacob tells TNS.

He thinks that the blasphemy laws have only enhanced human rights abuses in the name of religion. "In 1997 a whole Christian village, Shanti Nagar, was set on fire after dubious blasphemy allegations. In November 2005, a whole locality of Christians in Sangla Hill was attacked under the same allegations, which later proved wrong," says Jacob and demands the total repeal of these laws.

After the introduction of these laws in Pakistan, more cases of blasphemy were registered. In 1986 a total of three cases were registered while the number of cases reached 16 in 1991. In 1992, the year capital punishment was made mandatory for those convicted under the blasphemy law, 62 cases were reported.

I.A Rehman, Director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that the blasphemy law has tended to be abused "because of the public sentiment the allegation arouses. The law has also been liable to a miscarriage of justice. Clearly, the incidence of blasphemy was a lot less than after the laws came in. So a serious rethinking of the law is needed." He adds that these are political and not religious laws. "Fanatics use these to create space for themselves. They try to pressurise courts and lawyers during the hearing of such cases and that is why most of those alleged are awarded harsh punishments from lower courts," he says. I.A Rehman says that the very first time a lower court in Pakistan granted bail to a blasphemy accused was on May 29, 2007. The person was 79-year-old Walter Fazal Khan

In 1996 the Lahore High Court Judge Arif Iqbal Bhatti was killed by a fanatic for acquitting two Christians accused of blasphemy. On May 6 1998 John Joseph, the bishop of Faisalabad, burnt himself alive in front of session court Sahiwal because no attorney was prepared to take on the defence of Ayub Masih, who was accused of blasphemy. So far 25 persons have been killed since 1990 after they were alleged to have committed blasphemy, 18 of these were Muslims while seven were Christians. Three of them were killed by policemen during custody.

While the human rights groups have been persistent in their demand for a repeal of these laws, Islamic groups strongly oppose any attempt to review these laws. At the convention of Human Rights and Human Dignity in Islamabad on April 21, 2000, General Musharraf proposed a procedural reform to the controversial blasphemy law. He suggested that the merits of individual cases should be scrutinised by a Deputy Commissioner prior to an arrest. The procedure for filing a First Information Report (FIR), he thought, should also be improved and less open to abuse. A month later, to pacify Islamic groups who threatened a three-day nationwide strike, the General backtracked on his commitment. He declared at a press conference, "As it was the unanimous demand of the Ulema and the people, therefore, I have decided to do away with the procedural change in registration of FIR under the blasphemy law."

Even the amendments to these laws make no difference. In 2004 the government made it mandatory that an investigation should be conducted first by a high ranking officer with the status of District Police Officer (DPO) before lodging an FIR. However, police officials admit that they register most of the cases due to pressure from the society.


review
The destiny of art

Like old lovers who sometimes meet each other at odd corners and hidden spots, artists from India and Pakistan also meet at the most unusual places. In the capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, an exhibition of Indian and Pakistani artists, titled 'Destination Asia' was recently held for an audience that was Asian in its origin but European in its behaviour.

There are many countries that are physically situated in Asia but seem to be part of other continents too. Besides the obvious case of Turkey, Singapore and Hong Kong, both in their economy as well as cultural character can be associated with the European hemisphere. Israel is also an example of this dilemma, since it is located in the Middle East, but in its essence (and ethnicity) is a European society.

Similarly, the states of Central Asia are more close to Europe (actually to Russia) than to the Asian region. In language, fashion, food and art, these are linked to their former big brother from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. However in some places, like Almaty, the names of people, certain words from the local dialects and attitude towards traffic betray an affinity with Asia.

So for a public, swinging between Europe and Asia, the exhibition of art works from South Asia was an eagerly awaited event, but at the same time an uncommon experience. Hence 'Destination Asia' turned into an extraordinary venture, rather the first step in order to bring art and public from Central and South Asia together.

The exhibition, which included a comprehensive display of contemporary art from the subcontinent, indicated the current pictorial trends and political concerns shared by its two nations. This project, initiated by Valeria Ibraeva, the Executive Director of Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Almaty, was an occasion to find similarities between the art of two countries -- and only a venue like Almaty could have provided that facility! (In its next step the works from the Central Asian states will be displayed in Mumbai).

A number of contemporary artists from both the countries participated in this exhibition, including Indian artists Vibha Galhotra, Vivan Sundaram, Tushar Joag, Pushpamapa N, Sharmila Samant, B.V. Suresh and Tallur L.N; and Bani Abidi, Nadia Shaukat, Hamra Abbas and Huma Mulji from Pakistan. All of them produced video pieces, installations and digital prints.

The medium of their works, besides signifying the current visual vocabulary of our changing times, denoted specific social issues, mainly related to globalisation and terrorism. Indian participant, Sharmila Samant focused upon the aftermath of death and destruction in the Bombay bomb blast, while B. V. Suresh constructed a blackened table with burnt loaves of bread placed on the trays, suggesting the state of a house after carnage.

In other works too, various aspects of contemporary culture were dealt with, especially in the prints of Vivan Sundaram and Tushar Jog. The two artists created a contrasting vision of a man and his environment -- crowded with machines.

Among these works, Pushpamala's video projection was distinct due to its connection to something that is part of our modern day living -- whether we reside in Nigeria, Nicaragua or North Korea. It is the Hindi cinema, which like Coca Cola is becoming a great symbol of globalisation (since Indian movies are popular and watched in almost every continent!).

Impersonating as a character from the film, Pushpamala photographed herself in a movement that is typical of romantic representation of a young sentimental heroine. However, her appearance by pushing the curtain with background scenery, and walking across it with all her 'silent' actions, affirmed the unreality of the cinema, that has shaped our lives, ideas and emotions.

The impact of cinema was evident in the work of another artist, Nadia Shaukat. Representing Pakistan, she made her installation containing the cut outs of eight guns, put next to each other. Due to that layout each gun in the pair appeared to be kissing the other shape (an act that was suggested through the title of the work, The Kiss). Every gun was composed of images from the popular Indian and Pakistani cinema, particularly the scenes of love and violence. Probably the choice of these two motifs was a way of pointing a link between the two -- apparently opposing -- acts.

Guns were present in 'Left Right', the work of another Pakistani artist, Hamra Abbas. In this video projection a soldier carrying the rifle seemed to be marching through air, sea and land. His march in these elements conveyed the omnipresence of power in our culture, a situation that was addresses in a different manner by Bani Abidi. In her digital prints, she photographed young boys posing as the ancient holy warriors. Their Arabian dress and paper swords were an allusion to the increasing fascination with fundamentalism and terror in our surroundings. But Bani did not comment directly on this social phenomenon, and she made use of a familiar practice -- of children being photographed in these, their favourite attire -- yet introduced a different context.

Like Bani, Huma Mulji also fabricated an imaginary narrative. Her dolls, arranged as a couple in her photographs, were a substitute for human presence and absence of certain emotional expressions -- activities which are not possible or permissible in our society. Apart from the content, the visual construction of her imagery was complex, which was based upon the interaction between the positions of viewer and the viewed object.

With the Pakistani part as well as the Indian component of the exhibition, 'Destination Asia' described the destiny of art in Asia, especially in the South Asia. It became clear that the new diction of visual art is not much different from the language of media, both print and electronic. The impact of media on the lives and psyche of public has affected artists too. But it appeared that a number of artists from both nations were using new media as the replacement of old technique and tactics. And a few makers of prints and video installations seemed to be imitating the aesthetics of painting or other conventional methods of visual expression -- thus the choice of subject and formal aspects were not fully explored.

So probably a break with the well-tried, tested and tasted pictorial habits of our creative personalities can be useful to find new ideas and subjects in our art -- a difficult task that appeared somehow possible at the 'Destination Asia'.


 
A play of colours

  By Bilal Tanweer

Shafique Farooqi considers himself a spiritual artist. In his latest series entitled 'Whirling Dervish', he has used the whirling dance (Sema) of the Mevlevi order as his inspiration and object of representation. The paintings in the series, which encompass quite a large number of works (most of them dated 2007), show a general repetition of the dance of the whirling dervishes, in watercolour. The variations in paintings are limited to colour.

The exhibition is not slighted on these grounds, however. There are important things to be noted. The work has strong strains and characteristics of traditional Islamic art, especially in the deliberate, but well-conceived suppression of figurative representations: the characters of whirling dancers are represented through a movement of clothes only; dancers are floating on their skirts, while their feet dissipate in the act of dancing; in all of the paintings, facial representations and expressions remain blurred and in one sense, invisible.

The surroundings of the dancers are composed with colours which defy a solid background, a stable form or representation. Such representation could possibly be symbolic of the cosmos in its spiritual essence, or it could be taken to mean the world of the dervish wherein all reality save Reality ceases to exist. All of this results in two things: One, a focus away from the object, and even the act (dance), towards which this dance is directed; and two, because surroundings are painted in colours which are unstable, constantly in flux, they become partners in the act of dancing itself. Hence these paintings align themselves in a tradition where, according to Richard Kearney, images are used to "underscore the primacy of the divine authority".

However, it seems, the artist does not go too far beyond his inspiration. The weakest point of this collection remains the lack of diversity or referential depth. The most interesting thing remains the play of colours around which the dervishes move. Less frequently, the diversity in the paintings is also aroused because of the play between the dancers, who often seem to move like butterflies, often like floating bees.

But these paintings are not ecstatic, a state usually associated with the Sufi meditation. Neither the artist has conceived them this way. The compositions are serene, composed with a sense of balance of colour and surroundings, and unlike other artists who draw inspiration from the whirling dervishes, these compositions are not invested with awesome energy. The dervish here does not dance but floats, the object of his dance is to lose the energy which has been a leash to this-worldly existence.

Farooqi, however, is reluctant to classify his work as 'Islamic'. He thinks it neither Islamic nor un-Islamic, the category not applicable to art. "It is like this conversation we are having here, between ourselves. If you ask me if this conversation is Islamic, I would say, 'No'. If you ask if it is un-Islamic, I would say, 'No' again. However, if it is a vulgar representation, which infringes or violates the Shari'a, it is un-Islamic." My next question was, obviously, about the nudes. "It is between the artist and the Lord. I cannot pass a verdict on this. Art is about the intention of the artist. It is quite possible that it may help the artist achieve closeness to Lord which others may not. But I will not say anything about this."

Something that deserves a mention here is the Hamail Gallery: located in the midst of a residential area, it is a wonderful space, and has been built with a lot of sense and concern. Above all, it feels and is treated like a gallery. If nothing else, it is worth visiting only for that famous Sadequain, in original, entitlted 'Faqir Sadequain, apnay asal roop mein'.

Summing this exhbit, I would say from an artist who has had 85 solo exhibits in his career, this one is not an extraordinary performance. The only reason for taking it seriously is curiosity -- if only it is a reason enough

(The exhibition will remain open till June 25 at Hamail Art Gallery, M.M.Alam Road)

 


Striking notes

  By Sarwat Ali

A concert of western classical music held at the Alhamra organised by the Annemarie Schimmel Haus in Lahore comprised of wind instruments like the flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and the bassoon.

The idea of forming the Arirang Quintet originated from the orchestra tour to North and South Korea. Arirang is an old song form that expresses the simple melodies of the Korean attitude to life and their feelings of togetherness. The pleasure of making music brought the Quintet together.

The Quintet played 'Allegro ma non troppo', 'Allegretto grazioso' and 'Lento Allegro vivace' from Mozart's The Magic Flute, the arrangement of which was made by Joachim Lincklmanne, 'Allegro Andante assez lent-allegro scherzando' from Trois Pieces breves of Jacques Inbert and 'ler temps Allegretto', 'Sherrzo fantastique', 'Nocturne: lent and Final Allegro giocoso' from Quintette en 4 parties by Henri Tomasi.

The Magic Flute seems on the face of it a rather contrived Masonic pantomime but the symbolism it interprets is as Mozart's most radiant melodies. Jacques Ibert, the French composer after working in France returned to Rome as director of the French Academy and the atmosphere there influenced his brightly impressionistic style.

The concert demonstrated the different norms of appreciation of a live performance as practiced in the west and those prevalent here. Western classical music is supposed to be heard in pin drop silence because the entire stress is on the wholesomeness of the musical piece or movement. The pauses are just as significant as the music that is being played but our manner of appreciation is instant. If a musical grace is found to be appealing it has to be appreciated instantly and that can be in any form ranging from an exclamation or a loud cry.

The Arirang Quintet was formed in 2002 and consisted of members of the Deutsche Philharmonic. After a successful debut in the Bochum theatre it was selected by Jeunesse Musicales Germany to represent Germany in the International Showcase of Young Musicians 2004.in Croatia. Since then it has participated in many international festivals winning the second prize in the International Chamber Music Competition Schewerin in 2004, the second prize in the International Quintet Competition Henri Tomasi in Marseille in 2005 and second prize in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in the process. They have also been invited to concert tours to Vienna, Brno, and Prague.

The members of the quintet were players who have made great progress in the recent past Freiderik Haberstock, the flute player was born in Hamburg and he took his flute lessons from Sigrun Witt and Professor H.Klemeyer before he went to the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He became a flutist at the Flora theatre in Hamberg and took part in productions like the 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Little Shop of Horrors' and 'West Side Story'. He then became a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.

Schneider the oboe player grew up in Berlin and became a soloist of the Jugendfestopielorchestra, Bayreuth. At present he is working for the Modern Ensemble and oboist for the Klassische Philharmonic, Bonn. Steffen Dillner, the clarinet player became a member of the Rias-Landesjugendorchestra. He won the music competition for chamber music HfMT Leipzig twice and was awarded the scholarship of the Federal President 2002 as well as LIONS-Forderpreis.

Sebastian Schindler, the horn player since 2003 has been working as the solo hornist of the Jenaer Philharmonie. Monika Schneider on the bassoon has been the scholarship holder of the foundation of live music -- Yehudi Menuhin. And at the beginning of the session 2005 she changed to Neubrandenburger Philharmonie as a solo bassoonist. 

Though many concerts of classical music in the past three years have been organised by the Annemarie Haus, a western classical music concert is a rarity in Pakistan. Some very interesting performances of European jazz too have been staged which have stretched the musical sound to its limits. It was long ago that some people sat in their drawing rooms and rattled off the names of symphonies and sonatas while dropping the names of famous composers as well as stressing on their stylistic peculiarities. Their exposure to classical western music was through films, recordings marketed as 78 rpm discs and LPs or through the various teachers of music who could play pieces from the famous compositions on the piano or the violin. The foreign cultural missions organised concerts of classical music once or twice a year. The concert of live music in which an entire orchestra played whole symphonies and concertos was as rare then as it is now.

The popular music has changed all that. Now pop concerts are held in stadium and parks because concert halls are too small and too enclosed and the manner of appreciation lies in ecstatic cheers or breaking into a dance. Even in the concerts held in our country at the first recognition of a popular tune the audience instantly breaks into a dance. Nusrat Fateh Ali's popular numbers were anxiously awaited because people wanted to dance and climb on to the stage to display their appreciation.

The audiences at the concert were very eager to demonstrate that they were with the music being played and that it was not beyond them. At the slightest pause they broke into an applause -- it was a combination of ignorance and whole hearted sincerity.

 

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