an interesting point
via desmukh, a really excellent paper on violence in Karachi and its relationship to Karachi’s history of informal land settlement and the subsequent political instability. The interesting thing in this particular excerpt is that the DHA’s stability is caused by the military’s (relative) monopoly on the use of force as well as its reputation. Other settlements, guaranteed by other and constantly shifting minor players, are only as stable as the ability of the stakeholders to withstand other groups.
This is just another reminder of how impossibly far ahead the military is of any other other stakeholders in the country and how unlikely that is to change any time in the near future.
The DHA developed the land and allotted it to military officers at prices that only covered the cost of development. Military officers promptly sold the plots on the market, earning profits in the range of double or triple the initial investment. DHA land is thought to be securely held, with a high level of trust in the legal title and strong checks against fraud and rival claims. The margin earned by the military officers represents an economic rent on the use-value of the land, but also includes a premium on the security of the title. The economic rent incorporates the military authorities’ ability to effect and enforce an initial transaction with the provincial government, and to enforce subsequent contracts. It also incorporates the expectation that the military authorities will not themselves act in a predatory manner with respect to owners in the DHA. This latter expectation is partly based on a self-fulfilling prophecy, since most buyers and residents in DHA are themselves wealthy and powerfully-connected individuals. The economic rent, in any case, is virtually all concentrated in the first transaction, whose beneficiary is the individual military officer.
By contrast, the cases of low to middle income settlements in Karachi have shown that there is a steady process of economic rent creation and appropriation, as land changes possession and use. The process is punctuated by political mobilisation, collective action and violent conflict. There is no binary division, therefore, between the formal and informal sectors. Rather, there is a continuous process of formalisation – not always linear – in which economic rents are created and appropriated (sometimes destroyed) through political means.
The DHA case is also, of course, one of political appropriation of rents, but the political mobilisation and the rent appropriation are both concentrated at one point. In Kausar Niazi colony, by contrast, there were multiple stakeholders that sequentially participated in, and benefited from, the accretion of economic rents.
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On a day when an enormous bomb just blew up in the middle of Model Town, speakers at Alhamra in Lahore, commemorating the death anniversary of Nawai Waqt founder Hamid Nizami reaffirmed the three “jeems” of Pakistani nationalism – “Jamhooriyat, Jihad aur Jauhari Salahiyat”.
Speakers included Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who lambasted the bombing of the house of former JI MNA Haroon ur Rashid and blamed everything on Pakistan’s support of the US war; Imran Khan who bemoaned English medium education and praised Majeed Nizami as:
the commander-in-chief of the forces who were fighting for safeguarding the ideological boundaries of Pakistan and PTI is standing behind him in this fight.
Hameed Gul also spoke, saying that a “soft Islamic revolution” was inevitable.
Nadeem F. Paracha has a very timely article today in Dawn titled “Wake Up Punjab”. The following lines could very well have been written about this very conference:
Although it has been ravaged and broken by extremist terrorism for over two years now, political parties strong in the Punjab (such as the PMLN), the Punjabi-dominant electronic media, and fringe Punjab-based politicos such as Imran Khan have simply refused to acknowledge reality.
Still operating from the fanciful high pedestal of a superiority complex, a bulk of urban Punjab and its leadership continues to live in a stunning, air-tight state of denial.
One wonders what, if anything, will cause these lunatics at this conference reaffirming Jihad and Islamic revolution as central to Pakistan’s future and sovereignty to re-assess these principles.
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A very, very moving account of the July 2009 Gojra killings by Sarfraz William of All Churches Youth Alliance:
Of special note is the use of chemical weapons (suspected to be white phosphorous) used by the attackers to burn the houses after their initial round of looting (skip to 2:20 in the video). Witnesses of previous similar attacks against the Christian community of Shangla Hills and Shantinagar in 1997 and 2005 had also described the use of chemical weapons at the time.
In January 2010, the Punjab government ordered a new investigation into the Gojra and Korian attacks because the previous investigation (only started, as Sarfraz William notes in this video due to a sit-in by the family of the Gojra victims) had yielded no results.
Here’s the progress of the case as of 5 March 2010:
GOJRA CASE:
On 2nd March 2010, 42 accused of Gojra attacks were produced before Judge of Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) Faisalabad, including 6 detained accused and 36 were those who are on bail. These 42 accused will be re-produced before court on 16th March 2010 for charge frame. The police has already declared 47 accused as fugitive; those were nominated in FIR (First Information Report) and supplementary statements by complainant and witnesses.
KORIAN CASE:
On 2nd March 2010, 54 accused of Korian attacks were produced before Judge of Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) Faisalabad, including 8 detained accused and 46 were those who are on bail. These 54 accused will be re-appeared before court on 16th March 2010 for charge frame. The police has already announced 49 accused as absconder.
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Given the huge amount of media attention being given to the PML-N’s use of stolen electricity on the night of March 1, it might be useful to take a look at the contents of Nawaz Sharif’s speech:
and:
Of course no one is supporting or defending the use of stolen electricity but perhaps Nawaz Sharif’s aggressive – and very true – statements about the destructive role of military in politics has contributed to the extreme anger displayed towards PML-N by many prominent anchors in recent days such as Javed Chaudhry and Talat Hussain. Talat Hussain has even dedicated one entire show on March 5 to attacking PML-N Punjab government.
This incident should also serve as a reminder to PML-N that at the end of the day many prominent members of the media have loyalty to no one but themselves and the establishment and will act like attack dogs for hire whenever necessary.
Thanks to Aamir Mughal who made this point in a comment on an earlier post on LUBP.
(btw, my rather pointless experiment of the last few posts is over)
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Finally, some balanced analysis
Both Hamid Gul and Mushahid Hussain make some excellent points in this show, which is excellently moderated by Dr. Shahid Masood.
The most important point that both guests agree on is that Pakistan has defeated all countries and emerged as an absolute victor in Afghanistan. However, the present government is not able to take advantage of this victory. According to both of them, the current puppet government lacks the vision and capacity to capitalize on this victory that Pakistan is on the verge of achieving.
Luckily, Hamid Gul is just the man to depend on to capitalize on the US withdrawal. History will remember his conquest of Jalalabad in 1989 as one of Pakistan’s greatest military victories.
The three eminent analysts may disagree on some finer points. For example Hamid Gul became very agitated when Mushahid Hussain mentioned negotiating with India and Shahid Masood kept saying “Saudi Arabia?” with a questioning look on his face and neither Mushahid Hussain nor Hamid Gul seemed to care much for Saudi Arabia’s role in the future of Afghanistan. But at least they are all on the same page – they all have the same nuanced and sensible view of reality that is completely lacking among our so-called politicians AKA feudal western puppets. I am 100% sure that they, along with the enlightened future leadership of Afghanistan that they support will find a way to resolve any minor disputes that they have and come up with a peaceful dispensation.
For example, Hamid Gul is confident that the Taliban who are currently “angry” with Pakistan (understandably, since Pakistan has betrayed the Taliban so many times since 9/11) will soon come around to Pakistan’s point of view. That makes a lot of sense to me.
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Sadness at Balkanization
Today I felt immense sadness at the prospect of the impending Balkanization of Pakistan. All the foreign powers are lining up to nail the final nail into the coffin of this country and our mindless elite are so involved in celebrating kufr like Basant or shirk like so called “Eid e Milad un Nabi” that they can’t be even slightly bothered to counter the disgusting allegations of Afghan Intelligence Agency (called RAM… LOL WHAT AN APPROPRIATE NAME) against Jamaat-ut-Dawa which is a patriotic charity organization.
I also watched this youtube interview in 5 parts of brave son of the soil Maulana Azam Tariq (Shaheed), aired on PTV in the 1990s when Pakistan was not such a Slave Nation and was able to properly honour its heroes on public television. After that I left some comments on some kafir shia videos on youtube. If we can’t stop our country from crumbling to foreign powers we can at least do something about fifth columnists within our borders.
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Experiment
I am going to blog like a right-winger for the rest of the week. Let’s see how this goes.
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Assessing Zardari
On November 22 2008, Zardari, addressing the Hindustan Times leadership summit, talked of reconciliation and promised a no-first use nuclear policy – the first time any Pakistani head of state has done so. He said, in response to a question, that Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris and, most shockingly of all:
“Zardari borrowed a quote from his late wife, who once said that there’s a “little bit of India in every Pakistani and a little bit of Pakistan” in every Indian.
“I do not know whether it is the Indian or the Pakistani in me that is talking to you today,” Zardari said, amid applause from his high-profile audience, which included diplomats, politicians and industrialists.”
Four days after that, the Mumbai attacks began.
On January 14 2010, Zardari delivered a speech in Lahore – in Punjabi:
I have never once heard a Pakistani head of state deliver a speech in a regional language from another part of the country. Not once. And I have never once heard a Pakistani head of state say the kinds of things about peace with India that Zardari said in his speech at the Hindustan Times leadership summit.
On both these two occasions, Zardari addressed issues that are at the very heart of Pakistan’s deep dysfunction as a state: its relationship with India, and its provincial imbalances. On both these occasions his actions should have been saluated as visionary – as treading ground that no other leader of Pakistan has ever gone on.
This is not to say that PPP’s leadership has not made many mistakes or to ignore President Zardari’s flaws. But I am just wondering why these aspects of President Zardari’s leadership are never applauded and never even mentioned in the media or in the blogs. I hate to say it, but I think it’s because these issues are simply not a priority for the people who shape public discourse. If anything, they are issues in exactly the opposite sense – they are issues on which President Zardari is considered an unpredictable, unhinged security risk to the integrity of Pakistan.
As someone pointed out to me recently, it’s funny and also instructive to see the quarters from which the loudest criticism is coming from. These are people who salute Generals who make speeches about strategic depth in Afghanistan, even going so far as to breathlessly make up labels like “The Kayani Doctrine” for old dysfunction wrapped in new rhetoric. They love the Chief Justice who go around making speeches about accountability to Allah alone. They reward judges who brazenly justified their own oaths under PCO by making them symbols of independent judiciary. When PML-N panders to terrorists, they justify it by saying that PML-N is simply doing realist politics in Jhang. It’s little wonder that there is no room in the fascist, hyper-nationalist discourse of such people for a leader who talks about reconciliation with India or who takes a progressive stance on provincial rights.
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A bit about Ajmal Khattak
Guest post by takhalus
Some 10 years ago he ended his speech in Pashto with “Khpal kachkol ba garzawama, khpal rabab ba tingawama” ( I will carry my own kachkol, I will play my own rabab)
Shortly afterwards was the last time I saw him, we had travelled from Peshawar to Akora to pay our respects to his family on a recent loss.
I remember how I used to look at his place with a mixture of curiosity and surprise. Here was the home of a former senator, former President of a major regional party, former MNA and legendary Pashto writer and poet and yet he didn’t live in some grand mansion or own vast tracts of land. It was a simple run down village house where at times neghbours would send food too because Khattak sahib couldn’t afford to feed his guests. His politics was no different, it wasn’t about personality. While others were quiet about the brutal military crackdown against the Bengalis he was there trying to spread the word that the use of violence against ones own people has consequences.
He was targetted by Zulfiqar Bhutto’s Federal Security Force after the Liaqat Bagh massacre, his family suffered horribly, he narrowly escaped assasination before escaping to Kabul and yet many years later he’d acknowledge Bhutto being a brilliant politician (there was an irony to his exile as he was denounced as a traitor by the PPP, only for many PPP activists to end up in exile with him in Kabul after 1977).
I have a vivid memory of how he refused to become part of the patronage culture that is so common in Pakistani politics. Back in the early 1990’s while he was the President of the ANP, someone we knew had approached him to arrange a job for their son, his answer was direct and simple “I don’t do sifarish for my own sons, how can I do it for you?”.
And then there is his poetry, his most major work “da ghairat chagha ” (The cry of honour) was so controversial in it’s appeal for people’s rights that it was banned in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Aziz Ahmad in this article has translated one of his poems in English.
I asked a mullah, what do you think is Paradise like?He ran his fingers through his beard and said
“Fresh fruits and rivers of milk”
A talib (student) was sitting nearby
I asked him, what do you say?
He put aside the book of Zulekha he was reading, and said
“Beautiful women with (tattooed) green dots on their cheeks”
A shaikh stood nearby, rolling his tasbeeh (rosary)
He stroked his beard and said (questioning the talib):
“No, it’s not like that!”
“Paradise is beautiful servant boys and heavenly music.”
A khan raised his head from a lengthy sajda (prostration in prayer)
What is your opinion, Khan Sahib? I asked
He adjusted his turban and said
“The luxuriously furnished and perfumed mansions”
Nearby, a labourer stood in his tattered clothes
I asked him, do you know what Paradise is?
He wiped the sweat from his brow and said
“It’s a full stomach and deep slumber”
A man, in dishevelled hair, passed by, lost in his thoughts
I asked, what do you say, philosopher?
Smoothing his hair, he said:
“It’s nothing but dreams conjured up to please man”
(Confused) I looked down into my heart and then looked up into the blue sky; and heard a murmur in reply:
“Paradise is your home where you are the master, and at liberty; and if you cannot attain the freedom, then sacrifice on the path to freedom, as an ideal, is Paradise. Be it hellfire or the gallows”
In our world, where one equates politics with business and achievement with wealth, he was a man of another generation. A generation that still dreamt of a more just society, where politics was not a dirty word and politicians were disliked for their philosophy and beliefs and not their sordid tales of swiss bank accounts or defaulted bank loans.
It is that loss which is the most tragic part of his passing. Amidst all the flowery tributes to his passing, people have failed to answer the question. What stops us from honouring the brilliant and humble while they live?
Perhaps to paraphrase the poem: We should pity ourselves who despise a passion in its dream, yet submit in its awakening?
Rest in peace Ajmal Khattak, it is time to let others carry your kachkol..
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Holi
Lyrics via Indian Muslims:
horii hoye rahii hai Ahmad jiyaa ke dvaar
horii hoye rahii hai Ahmad jiyaa ke dvaar
Hajrat Ali kaa rang banaa hai Hasan Hussain khilaaR
horii hoye rahii hai Ahmad jiyaa ke dvaar(horii : holi; Ahmad : another name of Prophet Muhammad; Ali : Cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad; Hasan : elder son of Hazrat Ali; Hussain : younger son of Hazrat Ali and the martyr of the battle of Karbala)
aiso horii kii dhuum machii hai
aiso horii ki dhuum machii hai
chahuuN or paRii hai pukaar
aiso anokho chatur khilaaRii
aiso anokho chatur khilaaRii
rang diiNyo sansaar(chahuuN or : in every direction; anokho : unique; chatur : smart)
“Niaz” piyaraa bhar bhar chhiRke
“Niaz” piyaraa bhar bhar chhiRke
ek kii rang sahas pichkaar(piyaraa : bowl; sahas : thousand)
I challenge you to find a more beautiful expression of subcontinental Islam!
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Recent Entries
- an interesting point
- Democracy, Jihad, Nukes… and let’s ignore the sound of that huge bomb that just went off.
- Still no justice for Gojra victims
- What did Nawaz Sharif say on March 1?
- Finally, some balanced analysis
- Sadness at Balkanization
- Experiment
- Assessing Zardari
- A bit about Ajmal Khattak
- Holi
- Rana Sanaullah on his meeting with Ahmed Ludhianvi in his own words
