A Lahore Diary

By M J Akbar

There was only one burqa in the specious lounge of Lahore airport. The other dozen-odd women waiting for the flight to Islamabad were distinguished only by the fact that one was more beautiful than the other. The same ratio, between burqa and beauty, extended to any public area, including that authentic gathering point of all classes, Anarkali bazaar. The men saunter and gossip along the paved central walkway; the women, more intent on serious purchase, fill the bright narrow shop-choked arteries on either side. When together the men looked obedient, the women authoritative. Some things are the same in every part of the world. The chorus of a thousand years welcomed me as I entered the arteries young men on rapid-fire voice-duty offering finer goods at better prices. 'Baba suit lewo jee! Full suit! Bahut..." An experienced elder shopkeeper, semilounging on a pillow, eyed my reaction and cut off the chorus: "Ei to sair karan aaya hai jee (This one has come for fun)." There was a hint of deprecation as his face suggested the teeming presence of women all around. He was accusing me of being a voyeur. Let me be candid. The voyeuring was good. One pair of eyes between a dark dupatta still glistens in memory.

I have during this visit discovered the answer to a very old question: why are the women of Lahore so beautiful? This is Allah's way of evening things out. Someone has to comprensate for the men.

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There are, I gather, few teenagers in the Pakistan International Airlines fleet. The plane that brought me from Delhi was musty, but someone in PIA marketing is positively brilliant. How do you sell seats on an airline whose planes are on an average twenty years old and include the sterling Fokker Friendships? The smile is helpful of course; even the security chaps who pay that little extra attention as you broad in Delhi smile through their beards. But the stroke of genius is elsewhere.. PIA gives all its passengers First Class baggage tags, or at least Executive Class ones if the Firsts run out. This is superb. Nothing ralses the self-esteem of an Economy passenger more than a First Class tag flapping from his bag-strap; he will preserve it long after the journey, just as the tycoons preserve their Concorde labels. There are airlines, like British Airways, that are so sniffy that they don't give First Class tags even to some to their First Class passengers. I mean, they can't stop you buying a First Class ticket but they can certainly discourage you from advertising the fact if you don't meet their appearance code.

The real swagger in PIA is to travel without any tag at all. That's real weight. That's Class.

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A strange visual awaits you a few yards before the main entrance at the Pearl Continental (PC, to friends) hotel in Lahore. A large neon sign announces the presence of the Laundry and Pastry Shop. I have no idea whether the laundry influences the pastry in this shop or whether the pastry influences the laundry. Suffice it to mention that while I did give the valet some laundry, I did not order any pastries. Inside, the atrium was crowded, jovial, friendly, alive, much like the city. I was told that an Indian architect had designed the hotel, although I wonder if that can construed as explanation for the tendency of the wings to shoot off in odd directions. The planist in the lobby was playing Kya karoon hai, kuch kuch hota hai, which is about as warm a welcome as I could expect.

The weather in Lahore is companion of Delhi; the bustle is from anywhere on the subcontinent: the grace is from history. The music is firmly from Bollywood, and flows through public halls and private homes in all its variety, interspersed with a fine local Punjabi-English pop. In my Islamabad hotel, Marriot, that irritating "hold" pause on the telephone was leavened by sitar music, and one of the five channels in the room was devoted completely to Hindi film music. The television channels are seamless South Asia.

The multinationals are now in charge of culture here as anywhere else on the subcontinent. The great Basant festival of kites has been handed over to Coke. Although Basant is still a week away, the paper kites are already dancing with the birds during the day and turning into string bulbs along the avenues at night. On the actual night of Basant huge are lights will chase the darkness off at night to enable large white kites to play and kill one another. Every kitchen will be perfumed with the vapours of superb cuisine.

Food is the national passion of Punjab. The Race Course road has been taken over for a Basant mela: 80 percent of its stalls are stacked with chicken and meat and Amritsari harisa and Heaven knows what else. It needs courage beyond my reach to get near these bursting pavilions. The celebrated television personality Anwar Maqsood once described Lahore's economy succinctly: half of Lahore cooks and other half eats. My own observation on this theory is that the half which cooks avoids the strain of eating because it knows the consequences of ghee and cream. As one cynic noted, the only pavilion missing from the mela was a medical shop. Still: winter is over. Spring in the air. Music in the soul. Laughter on the streets. Every cliche works in Lahore. Even the one about love.

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St. Valentines' Day may be under some stress in India, but is alive and well in Pakistan. Valentine was a priest who challenged the edict of Claudius the Cruel forbidding single soldiers from marriage on the rather reasonable grounds that families were injurious to the martial spirit. Soldiers who pined for wife and children did not make good fodder for the frontiers of the Roman empire. Valentine, a Christian, married them in secret, was caught, and sentenced to death. In prison he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. Is that why love is blind? No. At least it opened her eyes. Valentine cured her with a miracle. Just before being taken off for his beheading, he sent a message to his beloved: "From your Valentine...."

So now you know.

I learnt this from a Pakistani newspaper.

Florists multiplied their prices ten times on 14 February. Internet servers were clogged. Newspapers were packed with messages. Samples; "Dear Darling Flafia Every breath you take every move you make. I will die without you. I want to marry on Valentine's Day. When I am alone. I miss you. Your Breathly Syed Ali Riaz". Dear Fizzy ! When well we become to celebrate life together? And in what relation? Can love great and relation? "Hi U. 2 Multinationals merge to be more competitive. We are splitting for ? Best of luck. Bhai. From Tajir Saeed. " You get the idea. Every message is genuine; on one could concoct such punctuation or syntax.

I would particularly recommend the one on multinationals. True: 2 Multinationals merge, why we splitting, Bhai? It could have been a Valentine between India and Pakistan.

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The lead headline in The Nation on the first morning of my visit to Pakistan told is own story: Raising funds for Jehad banned. I quote from the Karachi press conference of Pakistan's interior minister Moinuddin Haider; "There is no Jehad going on in Karachi or in Pakistan that these organisations be allowed to do whatever they like to do. I am giving clear orders to the police that if they see anyone displaying arms, stop them, warn them and if they don't listen just shoot them." Mr. Haidar added that "harmful speeches from mosques will be stopped (and this) would automatically help reduce hatred and tension".

The reaction of the Ameer of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, was instantaneous. He called the ban "unislamic, illogical and violative of human rights''. For good measure the Ameer also wished the wrath of God upon the interior minister. Mr. Haidar clearly did not believe that the Ameer had any special influence in such matters with the Almighty. The next day he reiterated his message in Islamabad: " We will force them (the Jehadis) to remove banners and signboards posted around the mosques..... there is no need to promote fake Jehadism. This has brought a bad name to the country...." Talking of donations for "Jehad", the minister asked "Where does this money go? They use if for personal gains and to proirte hatred.

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The front row of bookstall is a good indicator of which book is keeping the publishers happy. The title that caught my wandering eye was in Urdu: Kaun Kaise Gaya? by Anjum Osmething. The jacket featured wobbly pictures of Liaquat Ali Khan, Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Zia ul Haq, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

I don't know about the author's answer, since I did not read the book, but what a good question. Assassination; political suicide' suicide-cum-assassination (Bhutto was not a simple man); assassination; corruption. and-exile; corruption-and-exile. When democracy failed in the fifties the answer before the Pakistani people was easy. They wanted and got military dictatorship. When Ayub Khan withered away they brought back a democrat and found that he was a despot in mufti. Zia ul Haq disappeared in mystery and back came the reign of the voter. Except that democracy gave the people the most corrupt regimes in their history. There is something akin to helplessness in the present mood. There is a serious danger ahead. When the civilians looted the country the Army served as a bulwark of reassurance. But if the Army fails as well, what happens? The fundamentalists are waiting with an answer.

The Compulsion of Cease-fire

By K.N. Pandita

Nobody should be under an illusion that Kashmirian civil society craves for peace. Nobody should be under an illusion that the Union Government announced three – month extension in cease-fire in response to its perception that people in Kashmir want peace. The meaning of peace for an ordinary Kashmir Muslim in given conditions means withdrawal of Indian army and paramilitaries from Kashmir, resumption of talks with Pakistan and freedom of Kashmir with a choice either to remain independent or join Pakistan. In simpler language it means breaking away from the Indian Union. If India is prepared to concede these demands then Kashmiris are for peace.

From the Indian government’s point of view peace means that the insurgents bid farewell to arms, join the democratic process and observe law and order as other citizens of India do and accept India’s secular democratic dispensation. India will not agree to separation of Kashmir because she will compromise her territorial integrity for the whims of Kashmiris who vacillate between the extremes and have yet to learn the golden rule of equilibrium.

These are two diametrically opposite stances and cannot be reconciled. Both sides know that they are playing to the galleries. The heavy toll of life given by the Kashmiri Muslims weighs on the mind of ordinary man. When he talks of bilateral or trilateral dialogue, the massive number of his dead compatriots haunts him. He does not accept that it was his own choosing.He plays the jehadi and the victim – a contradiction in terms. Likewise the authorities responsible for security and safety of the Indian citizenry take into account the heavy toll of security personnel in countering the insurgency.

However, the Government of India feels it should not act against the common people of Kashmir because notwithstanding their inherent and characteristic vacillation, which India now thoroughly understands, they are as good Indian nationals as those in any other state of India. But at the same time, it has to act against the insurgents bent upon disrupting law and order. Moreover, it has to act against the mercenaries who project themselves as jehadis fighting for the cause of Islam. It is the former perception that becomes a compulsion for the Indian government to extend unilateral cease-fire. It is the second compulsion that demands it to retaliate when attacked.

Neither the insurgents will relent nor the security forces will remain confined to barracks. As long as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and others back the insurgents, the two sides will continue to clash. Both are prepared for such an exigency that is likely to continue for another two or three decades. That would also be the acclamatising period to come out of the age old syndrome of blackmail.

How do the two sides conjure up the grand finale of the ongoing situation? The insurgents, fired by religious zeal and motivated by theo-fascist ideology, are convinced that the role of liquidating kufr from the globe is assigned to them by Allah and the time has come when they have to act for its realization. This was actually the briefing for the ‘fidayeen’ who, for the first time in Muslim history, surfaced under same nomenclature with the emergence of Ismailis in Iran in 10/11th century AD

The plea that in Pakistan, the APHC delegation will speak to the militant leadership and the leadership of extremist religious organizations appears very unconvincing. Conversely, the leadership of religious extremist organizations will give them a good briefing on the scheme of contemplated Islamic caliphate and Kashmir’s centrality to that scheme. Of course they will be promised positions and status for more active pro-Pakistani workers in the garb of Hurriyat, Jamaatis, jihadis or any other name. The whole discussion will be around Islamization of Kashmir, something that has already been achieved in fair measure. APHC would not talk to militant commanders in Kashmir because they know these outfits are scarcely free to take any decision or make a commitment.

The Government of India has some compulsions or perceptions to opt for continuation f cease-fire. It is the duty of the Government to provide comfort, relief and facility to the common people of India so that they are able to run the chores of everyday life. If cease fire on the part of the government helps save innocent lives and spares common people the agony of searches, checks, interrogation etc., well and good. Let it be announced.

But more pressing imperative is the internal condition of Pakistan. The control of that country has now passed into the hands of religious extremist groups, their theo-fascist outfits supported by the fanatical segments in the rank and file of Pakistan army led by jehadi Generals. The military\ rule is unable to rein in these elements. Only two options are left with it. One is a blitzkrieg on the jehadis to smother them, and at the same time be cprepared for plunging the country into a cataclysmic civil war. The other voption is that the military government joins hands with the jihadis and embarks on a massive programme of fighting jihad first against India, the closest neighbour under Kashmir pretext. It is difficult to anticipate which of the two options is likely to prevail.

Probably, the military regime will not go in for the first option. A large number of top ranking officers in Pakistani army are patently jehadis and followers of Awan’s Tanzimul Ikhwan or such other organizations. A divided army cannot embark on a disastrous course of confronting the mullas, the fanatics and their musclemen in the name of lashkars, jayshes and the rest of it. This is because in such an eventuality, the mullas will issue a fetwa against the military rule labeling it un-Islamic.

The second option seems to be the only option left with the military regime. Even the symptoms also speak of it. The acceleration of armed operations by the mercenaries in Kashmir, attacks on sensitive targets, threats to the Indian Prime Minister’s person, acquisition of more sophisticated weaponry by the mercenaries, defiance of religious extremist organizations of Pakistan of the authority of the military ruler, further influx of Afghan refugees into NWFP of Pakistan, imposition of more sanctions by the UN Security Council against Taliban and subtle rivalry among top brass of Pakistan army for the prized position of the Chief of Army in the event of removal of General Musharraf, all point to the worsening of Indo-Pak relations in military terms.

According to the perception of GHQ and the ISI, only a direct confrontation with India can bail out the military rule in Pakistan. This compulsion will make Pakistan use the nuclear option because Pakistan must use it against India whatever the consequences. That will satisfy the ego of those who live with the Bangladesh shame.

As far as China and the US are concerned, they will prefer that Pakistan survive even as a sick man but with the capacity to be a thorn in India’s side. However, if things come to a dead end, they will prefer the second option for Pakistan and even pat her when she decides to embark on that course of disaster and destruction.

India cannot sleep over the gathering storm in her neighbourhood, which will have direct impact on her own affairs in a big way. She has to give the quickly shaping events the proper time and space to develop into concrete form. She should not precipitate an Indo-Pak war by getting nervous at the intermittent strikes by the mercenaries in Kashmir. Rather she should do everything possible to divert the danger to Pakistan’s domestic scene. There is no civil society in Pakistan of today. There is no civil government in that country running according to the law of the land. It is a vast uncontrolled and rudderless mass of people, looting the exchequer, hegemoning over other provinces and peoples, blackmailing the world powers by posing as the champions of Islam and deliberately preparing for a showdown with India to avenge the Bangladesh debacle. India must maintain her cool. This is the time when she needs to repeat as many times as possible the eternal mantra of "if you want peace be prepared for war".