Former President Pervez Musharraf's wanton lifestyle in London and his security details have given boost to wild exaggerations and guess-games.

A prestigious UK paper went to the extent of claiming that UK's elite Scotland Yard is protecting the former commando at the whopping price of approximately £25,000 a day.

A high-level security official on condition of anonymity told TNS that the figure of £25,000 was widely exaggerated and way off the mark.

The security official whose special job it is to deal exclusively with the security and protection of foreign dignitaries laughed off at the suggestion that Pervez Musharraf was perhaps costing the UK taxpayer this much. He shared that Scotland Yard was providing Pervez Musharraf a staff of not more than 3-4 officials at a time which consisted of a driver with a car, control room support and close-protection officers.

"This detail is provided only on the request of Mr Musharraf and when he has engagements outside of his residence. It will be impossible for him to need such details everyday and a renewed assessment is made every time the new request comes through.

"The figure of £25,000 or a bit more is likely true for the whole month. Someone certainly stretched his imagination to cook up this figure," remarked the official.

Situated near famous Edgware Road, also known as Little Arabia for the area's association with oil-rich Arab Sheikhs, Musharraf's three-bedroom luxury apartment on Hyde Park Crescent commands high level of private and government security due to area's exclusive importance in relation to Arab Sheikhdom who throng the area for shopping sprees at Harrods. Almost every inch of land in this neighbourhood is covered by the close circuit television cameras (CCTVs) and plain-clothes security men roam the area round the clock and watch out from parked cars.

"Musharraf's house is fully security-loaded and has panic buttons and alarm system linked with Scotland Yard's monitoring room for high profile individuals," said the official.

Speaking to TNS, a security source linked with Musharraf's Pakistani entourage claimed that the former president currently has only four Pakistanis with him: 2 commando soldiers, a cook/butler and a serving major. He was frank to admit that it was nonsense that Musharraf was paying to these people from his pocket. He retorted: "Did Asif Ali Zaradri pay from his own kitty when he took a private jet from London to Edinburgh for his daughter's admission? What about those high-ranking military and political officials who frequently visit London and book suites in Hilton Park Lane -- at the cost of £800-a-night -- and never contribute a penny to the Pakistani exchequer?... and visits to casinos and bars are a separate matter. Musharraf is costing Pakistani taxpayers peanuts in comparison to others."

An official from Pakistan High Commission in London, who has closely liaised with, and on behalf of, Musharraf confirmed that Musharraf and his wife Sehba Musharraf were continuing to use the protocol car provided by the Pakistan embassy and dined at Dorchester and other top eateries on complementary basis.

The Scotland Yard official conceded that the issue of "6-7 Scotland Yard officers protecting Musharraf" arose after the former general went to the House of Commons to address a meeting on the invitation of Khalid Mehmood MP.

"It was necessary to give Musharraf extra security because Lord Nazir Ahmed and PML-N activists had arranged to ambush the general and we needed to avoid any untoward incident. There were ugly scenes as anti-Musharraf activists clashed and argued with police outside the meeting hall."

Tarique Ghaffur, who has served in the Metropolitan Police as the highest-ever-ranking Asian officer as Assistant Commissioner, was present during that meeting; he was helpful in calming both sides down. "I know Lord Nazir and have admiration for him but sometimes I only wish UK public figures like him spend more time in commenting on and generating solutions for the very considerable issues and dangers we face within our communities."

Now running his own private security firm to promote shared responsibility for security and safety amongst vulnerable communities, Ghaffur says the UK government does not take allocation of resources for personal protection lightly.

"Each case is looked at on its own merit with related threat and risk assessments before deciding on what resources to allocate at tax payers' expense. This is done at the highest levels of the government with input from security and law enforcement agencies."

Tarique Ghaffur told TNS that private security firms have varying rates: retired army and police officers charge about £30-40 per hour; bouncers could cost as much; and serving policemen, if hired, could cost £150-200 an hour.

Talking to TNS, Lord Ahmed rejects the speculation that he is campaigning against Musharraf to please his friends in PML-N. He, actually, has a word of praise for the former dictator. "On my request, Musharraf did a lot of development work for my hometown of Mirpur in Azad Kashmir including a radio station, the approval of an airport and many other development projects."

Lord Ahmed says his opposition to Musharraf, which also now involves the collection of funds to bring war crime charges against Musharraf, is driven by the fact that he abrogated the constitution of Pakistan and sold Pakistanis to the US for cheap gains.

"I cannot understand why a Pakistani retired General should be provided such an expensive protection," says Lord Ahmed, who is in the US these days for a lecture tour on the invitation of American Muslim organisations.

He admits that he doesn't have a specific figure on how much Musharraf is costing the UK and Pakistani taxpayers but "if you can imagine six Scotland Yard officers, multiplied by three shifts each with their travel and accommodation expenses, the figure will be significantly high".

"According to my information neither Benazir Bhutto nor Nawaz Sharif were provided any security during their stay in London (not at least to my knowledge)."

The real security deal is Pakistan People's Party's Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Oxford University student, who has better level of security than even the Royal heirs, Prince Williams and Prince Harry. After the assassination of his mother in Rawalpindi, the British government on the advice of the Metropolitan Police Specialist Protection Unit, decided to provide protection to the high-risk young PPP leader. Varying accounts say that it is costing the UK government £1 million per annum and Pakistani government is paying more than half of this amount.

A security source told TNS that Pakistani government had arranged services of a private firm to protect Bilawal Bhutto and his sisters Bakhtawar and Asifa, who are both students in the UK universities, round-the-clock, inside the university as well as outside. "Rehman Malik, Wajid Shamsul Hasan and Sanam Bhutto are responsible for the whole security arrangement and they are keeping the arrangement such a top secret that no one else at Pakistan embassy, including the local PPP leadership, is aware of who is looking after the security of Benazir's children. "Of course, it's at the expense of Pakistani taxpayers," said the official.

Pakistan's envoy to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan refused to comment on the security details of Bilawal Bhutto Zaradri when contacted by TNS.

But a UK-based PPP Central Executive Committee member Syed Sadaat Hussain Shah, who has accompanied Bilawal and Sanam Bhutto in the UK, denied the allegations that the Pakistan government was paying for the security of PPP's young leader. "The decision to provide security to Bilawal is only that of the British government. They have undertaken him into protection on the basis of their own independent assessment and it has nothing to do with the ruling party of Pakistan. It's a voluntary decision."

And then there is Altaf Hussain, the popular leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement who has been living in voluntary exile in London since 1992.

Unlike the headquarters of PPP, PML-N located in expensive central London locations, MQM's secretariat is located in a working class area in the town of Edgware Middlesex, a London suburb, and manned by full time MQM volunteers.

Altaf Hussain lives in a modest area of North West London, not far from his party headquarters, which has good neighbourhood security arrangements as well as inside the house. Guarded mainly by his own party volunteers, the party also hires a few bodyguards from a private security firm during public meetings which take place mainly twice a year.

Altaf Hussain moves around freely and oversees the party's day-to-day affairs from his party's office but the decision about his engagements and mobilisation is approved by the central coordination committee members.

London is also home to an assorted mix of thousands of Pakistani asylum seekers and dissidents fearing religious and political persecution and they are at complete ease in London's multicultural pot.

But a leading nationalist figure such as Baloch leader Hyrbayar Mari, who served time in prison on alleged terror charges for plotting against the state of Pakistan, has to always look over his shoulder in London, which is also called the biggest sanctuary for the biggest number of dissidents from around the world.

"I don't have any security and I roam around without fear. After I was arrested on bogus charges, I was chocked to discover that police even knew the list of grocery I bought from the local market. They knew each and everything about me.

"I know I am still being watched and followed around but am on a mission and that's most important to me. I believe in living life like a lion, I don't believe in hiring security men," says Mari.

The writer is Assistant Editor at The News – UK edition

One of the main ingredients that really makes the sub-continental cinema unique is the wholesale use of music in popular films. It may be quite interesting to remember and recall the difficulties regarding the initial attempts at making talkies, for it may allow a peep into the unexpected problems that came in the way of not only introducing this new technology but also launching a form that was to announce its independent status very soon in the music-hungry environment of the subcontinent.

The earlier exponents of cinema were against the use of sound, particularly word in films. Charlie Chaplin was against it as was Phalke because they thought sound interfered in the purity of the medium that was essentially visual. But gradually the trinity of sound, action and dance, as propounded by Bharat, comfortably conquered the evolving medium when it was technologically possible. In 1927, Warner Brothers screened the first talkie The Jazz Singer, which was basically lip-synchronised singing but the fist real talkie The Singing Fool, was released also by Warner Brothers. Melody of Love by Universal was the first talkie to be screened in India and it showed the way for the sub continental moviemakers to attempt a similar venture at home.

The producers initially were reluctant to make a talkie. They feared that language would restrict its viewing only to the area that spoke the language, the costs of production would rise. The lack of trained professional staff and the upgradation of the existing cinema halls were also inhibiting reasons. But imported talkies started capturing the cinema market and that made the local producers to casts their doubts aside.

According to Ashok D.Ranade, sound was not used in the 1931 released Alam Ara for the first time in the subcontinent though it was the first full-length talkie to have been produced. Sound had been used in other films as well, though not during the entire length of the film. It was not used in dialogues, let alone in the characters singing on screen. Hamansurai's A Throw of Dice in 1930s was the first film that had sound effects in it. He himself also played the a role along with Seetadevi. Before the release of Alam Ara, actually just a month before, a famous singer Munnibai was shown on screen singing a song. In 1928, Salochana, a highly rated screen beauty of the silent phase had acted in a film called Madhuri where she gave a striking dance sequence. In September 1930, about the time when Alam Ara was released, the dance part of the film was synchronised with music and screened with a sound picture of a khaddi exhibition.

Alam Ara, produced by Ardesher Irani and exhibited at Majestic Cinema, had nearly 50 non-prose items which could be loosely termed as songs -- but some say it had seven actual songs. Unfortunately, the prints of the film have been lost to history there being no primary evidence about the quality of the music track. It was first of the 24 talkies that were exhibited that year. On exactly the day of its release a competitor as if to pre-empt, screened a talkie at another cinema, Crown, which contained scenes from Bengali plays, a reading of the Sanskrit play and a portion of the noble prize winning C V Raman lecture. In Alam Ara , W M Khan who played the character of a faqir was the first actor-singer to sing the song, 'de dey khuda key nam pe payare'. It had three accompanying instruments -- tabla, harmonium and violin -- and this was not recorded on disc.

Though Madan Theatre could not become the first in the race to the talkie it was certainty the main contributors in the spread out of the 23 talkies made in 1931 Madan Theatres produced eight.

During the initial years of the talkie, two versions of Shakuntala under different banners and two of Laila Majnu were made for screen and in the first five years of the talkie three versions of Tukaram and eight of Harishchandra were screened. These instances show the perceived power of music and myth as forces conducive for transcending regional and linguistic barriers in the subcontinent. The acting phase of Anglo-Indian stars was drastically reduced because of the actor's unfamiliarity with the Indian languages.

Indrasabha contained 70 to 72 non-pros items, which were frequently and loosely described as songs. The composer was Wazir Khan while Nagardas Nayak played them on the harmonium. The same Nagardas Nayak scored 49 songs for Chatura Bakavali. Not all early songs were examples of verse couplets. Actually, these were partial recitations being integral to spoken communication. The metres have their own traditional tunes; thus, when recited were partially sung. After the talkies superseded the silent movie this kind of tuned verses were on the increase.

The gramophone records of the songs from Madhuri were made with Vinayakrao Patwardhan as the singer. He was the first actor-singer to have a film song cut on a disc and published. Jaddan Bai, the actress-singer launched a film company and also composed music for Talash e Haq and Madame Fashion. She was, perhaps, the first woman music director and not Saraswati Devi for Achut Kaniya as credited. .Anil Biswas joined Mehboob's Sagar Movietone and became the first composer to use an orchestra of about twelve musicians. He was the first one to do part writing and got the maximum musical input from the instrumentalists.

Actor-singers came into reckoning because the songs had to be recorded on the sets live. There was a change again when playback became the vogue. After a few years, K L Saigal and Noor Jehan appeared who made the transition of singing on the sets to playback and gave an independent status to film songs as a genre of music.

Come

Dear All,

Most readers above a certain age will associate the words 'Come September' with a silly and  entertaining 1950s film starring Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida, but as the years of our life in the UK roll by, I associate the advent of September with a sense of beginning: of starting something new while still continuing a familiar routine yet again.

The obvious reason is that it is the start of the new school term. As the countdown for the offspring to return to school starts, it is frantic scramble to put together all the necessary items, the most challenging of which is usually the purchase of school shoes. They both have narrow feet and the older one has a left foot an entire size smaller her right foot so its always a pretty daunting task finding shoes for them. Then there are the usual last minute purchases of pencil cases, school bags and sports socks... And then there is the usual parental anxiety associated with their new school year and the usual nagging that they should record their new school routines in the family calendar.

So as the school year begins so does a new season. You often find that one September day, the feel of summer is gone, and there's a lovely autumnal crispness in the air, and that too is a welcome change after the languor of the summer. Then there are all the familiar things that begin their routine: the weekly general-knowledge quiz show 'University Challenge' takes up our Monday evenings as we enjoy the completely old-fashioned, and perfectly satisfying, format of  two teams of university nerds competing to answer the questions first, moderated by the inimitable, Jeremy Paxman.

Add to many such simple pleasures the literary and media excitement created by the announcement of the Booker Prize shortlist and its attendant anticipation of the winner and the sense of joy that there are at least six exceptional books that you can read....

But this year the publishing waters have of course been slightly muddied by the mid September publication of Dan Brown's new book. The book went on sale at midnight on September 15, and broke all sorts of sales records in the very first few days. Critics of course sneered at the whole enterprise since they have a very low opinion of Dan Brown's work. Brown is the author of the run away bestseller The Da Vinci Code and since his books sell so many copies he doesn't really need to care about what the critics say. The new book does sound a little far fetched though, even though its also quite formulaic. It is set in Washington DC and is, as is usual in Brown's work, about a sinister conspiracy, but this time it's not the Catholic Church or the National Security hawks who are behind such conspiracy -- it is the Freemasons with all their shadowy links, peculiar rituals and members in the highest positions of power and influence. It all sounds slightly nonsensical but I have quickly acquired a copy because I just love the feeling of engaging with a book that has a page turning, unputdownable quality about it. Plus, I read a very early Dan Brown novel, a 'techo-thriller', Digital Fortress (1998) over the summer, and although it is full of some clichéd phrases, it dealt with some extremely relevant and interesting issues.

So yes, I too have rushed to buy the 'trashy' bestseller. Except that I didn't have to rush: My supermarket was offering the £20 book for just £7, so I just ordered it online along with the groceries.

After all, it is September: so let the reading begin!

(I'll move on to the serious Booker shortlist books afterwards).

Best Wishes

Umber Khairi