A recent attempt to stop the way of student unions in Pakistan

Governor NWFP Pakistan, Owais Ghani has written to Prime Minister Pakistan Gillani a letter emphasizing that student unions shall not be started again in educational institutes(http://www.jang-group.com/jang/jul2009-daily/25-07-2009/main4.htm), if I remember it correctly, it was one of the first and most welcomed announcements of Gillani when he took oath as Prime Minister Pakistan.I am not sure what are the credentials of Mr. Ghanni (besides he is Governor, well lets not talk about it :)) and how much developed is his historical awareness and political background.

History tells us that students have played a central role in most of the political movements around the globe, not only this, but the leaders have been produced from the student unions themselves, who knows it better than Gillani himself. I wonder how easily anyone can defy the very basic human rights in Pakistan on any pretext. Lets not forget that the unions were banned by Zia because he was very well aware of their power and potential threat to his government. When students become unite and come forward along with other political forces of country, there are a force which can not be easily defeated, youth is the power of any nation, and with proper guidance they can be the front force of any movement, they have those qualities of believe, motivation, consistency, willingness and courage which can change the outlook of any movement all together; being educated they are more disciplined and can easily be managed. In Pakistan students were the front force in all political uprisings for example against Ayub Khan, in East-Pakistan against Army, against Bhutto and then in movement against Zia as well. And they were organized because of the tradition of student unions, in which they had to participate democratically and unions were providing them a platform to learn organizational and political skills. Moreover, in Unions only those were able to retain themselves who were getting elected, in other words their leaders and the parties have to be aligned with the students of the institute they belonged to. They have to work and show progress to get elected again or be in the mainstream, they were answerable to the common student. And it was by no mean necessary that a union or its representatives or elected organization would belong to a political party.

Everything however was changed in Zia era, and as elections or union were banned, every Tom, Dick and Harry was able to form a party and do whatever they want, they were not answerable to any one inside the institutes, because they were self acclaimed and they were looking outside for the support, hence the role of political parties inside student politics was increased, and corruption set deep inside student politics. And this unguided, uncontrollable, undemocratic and unjustified tradition is primarily responsible for every evil Mr. Ghanni tried to link with the student unions.

I remember in my university, there was a student party whose members can be counted on finger tips, but they set on equal footings with other much larger student parties, because they belonged to a mainstream party of the country, they had all resources, links and connections to make their presence felt. They had connections in the university administration, and they had influence over teachers as well. I am sure this would not have been the situation if union will be there, a party of 12 people was not able to win any election and they would have been vanished if there would have been a democratic process and union system in place.

I also have seen the student organizations and educational institutes in very city of Mr. Ghanni Peshawar along with other cities, and I know how system works there, I can say very confidently that the cause of trouble is presence of Law enforcement agencies in the educational institutes, direct involvement of mainstream mother political parties, no involvement of the students at large in creation of the student parties and no answerability of the student parties’ leadership in their own ranks.

As far as the will of parents to send their children to educational institutes of repute and all other rhetoric of Mr. Ghanni is concerned, may I ask if institutes like Islamia College, Peshawar University, Punjab University, Dow medical college, Karachi University and many others had bad reputation in 50s or 60s? I think all parents of today if they are graduate or more, must have had belong to one or other of these institutes, and they must not be ashamed of the fact that there were student unions in their own days, and that they too belonged to them. I am also sure they all know that there was no law and order situation in education institutes like it was during and after Zia.

Besides student unions by definition and laws are not actually required to be a political platform, they are independent bodies elected by eligible student of an institute. The fact that they take political outlook comes from their elective bodies. But if they are elected, it means the students who elect them have no objection on their representatives belonging to a political idea or party. If they have no objection, why Mr. Ghanni has? Whose interest is he trying to save, his masters and companions, the undemocratic forces in Pakistan or the students and parents? Besides as I said there is no reason for a union to be a political outfit.

Columns and Columnists- - - - In Urdu Newspapers

I usually spent an hour or two daily reading online newspapers of Pakistan, mostly Urdu like Jang (www.jang-group.com), Nawa-e-Waqt (http://www.nawaiwaqt.com.pk), Khabrain (http://www.khabrain.com) and Ummat (http://www.ummatpublication.com), the only English newspaper for which I am a subscriber and frequent visitor, is Dawn (www.dawn.com). I go to Urdu newspapers, because of my thirst for reading in Urdu, and because I want to know what news and views ordinary Pakistanis are provided with. It is not unreasonable, because newspapers also provide a picture of society, as well as their readership, for argument’s sake there is a stark difference between Dawn and any other Urdu newspaper. Here I want to write in brief about the scholarly level of the columns of Urdu papers and the opinion they are creating and how this opinion contributes to make over of our already miserable and improgressive society.

Those who write for these papers are journalists, and they are supposed to have a certain level of scholarship along with specialization in the field they write about, for example history, public relations or politics. I usually refer online dictionaries for searching the meaning of words, here I have consulted www.dictionary.net:

Meaning of the word ‘journalist’:

Journalist \Jour"nal*ist\, n. [Cf. F. journaliste.]

1. One who keeps a journal or diary. [Obs.]

--Mickle.

2. The conductor of a public journal, or one whose business it to write for a public journal; an editorial or other professional writer for a periodical. --Addison.

(source: http://www.dictionary.net/journalist)

Meaning of word ‘scholar’:

Scholar \Schol"ar\, n. [OE. scoler, AS. sc[=o]lere, fr. L. scholaris belonging to a school, fr. schola a school. SeeSchool.]

1. One who attends a school; one who learns of a teacher; one under the tuition of a preceptor; a pupil; a disciple; a learner; a student.

I am no breeching scholar in the schools. --Shak.

2. One engaged in the pursuits of learning; a learned person; one versed in any branch, or in many branches, of knowledge; a person of high literary or scientific attainments; a savant. --Shak. Locke.

3. A man of books. --Bacon.

4. In English universities, an undergraduate who belongs to the foundation of a college, and receives support in part from its revenues.

Syn: Pupil; learner; disciple.

Usage: Scholar, Pupil. Scholar refers to the instruction, and pupil to the care and government, of a teacher. A scholar is one who is under instruction; a pupil is one who is under the immediate and personal care of an instructor; hence we speak of a bright scholar, and an obedient pupil.

(source: http://www.dictionary.net/scholar)

Meaning of word ‘specialist’:

Specialist \Spe"cial*ist\, n. One who devotes himself to some specialty; as, a medical specialist, one who devotes himself to diseases of particular parts of the body, as the eye, the ear, the nerves, etc.

(source: http://www.dictionary.net/specialist)

Here I got another word ‘devotion’, we must look at its meaning as well:

Devotion \De*vo"tion\, n. [F. d['e]votion, L. devotio.]

1. The act of devoting; consecration.

2. The state of being devoted; addiction; eager inclination; strong attachment love or affection; zeal; especially, feelings toward God appropriately expressed by acts of worship; devoutness.

Genius animated by a fervent spirit of devotion. --Macaulay.

3. Act of devotedness or devoutness; manifestation of strong attachment; act of worship; prayer. ``The love of public devotion.'' --Hooker.

4. Disposal; power of disposal. [Obs.]

They are entirely at our devotion, and may be turned backward and forward, as we please. --Godwin.

5. A thing consecrated; an object of devotion. [R.]

Churches and altars, priests and all devotions, Tumbled together into rude chaos. --Beau. & Fl.

Syn: Consecration; devoutness; religiousness; piety; attachment; devotedness; ardor; earnestness.

(source: http://www.dictionary.net/devotion)

There are other words we must look at when we want to verify attributes of a writer specially a journalist, for example career, education, school of thought, affiliations etc. All these attributes will help us understand the credibility of a writer. Yes, another important word for us is credibility, actually this is the real word I want to emphasise being looked upon before any one start to believe a writer of mass media.

Credibility \Cred`i*bil"i*ty\ (kr[e^]d`[i^]*b[i^]l"[i^]*t[y^]), n. [Cf. F. cr['e]dibilit['e].]

The quality of being credible; credibleness; as, the credibility of facts; the credibility of witnesses.

(source: http://www.dictionary.net/credibility)

I think this is enough for us to look for before we start to get our brain affected by what we are reading. We must understand that the credentials of a writer are very important, specially when writer is writing for the public.

Without any prejudice and without being agreed with their thoughts and opinions, I am sure one can be easily satisfied on credibility of Ibrahim Jalees, Majeed Lahori, Raees Amrohavi, Ibn-e-Insha, Faiz, Nadeem Ahmed Qasmi, and in contemporaries Jameel Aali, Farooq Qaiser, Hassan Nisar and few others. My list is too short as I do not want to emphasize on names, but my motive is to emphasize on character and credibility.

And why is this so important? How the credibility of writer is important and how it affects the mass opinion? Well writers do reflect the society they belong to, and as such they are mirrors, they are part of the society and can not be separated from it, still they play an important role in opinion building and changing the mood of society, they are the recruiters for the school of thought or interest they belong to, and in this capacity they are responsible and their credibility is important. If we have writers who are corrupt, a commodity in the market, or so much biased and prejudiced that they do not want to listen to others and can not bear disagreement; then we shall be cautious.

I will give one example from the current affairs and columns appearing in newspapers these days without giving a specific name or example. It is a common thread among most of writers and it is written repeatedly that Taliban are supported by India and USA. Well, it can be true but this is not the whole truth, remaining truth which shall be equally emphasized and it is being emphasized by very few, is that Taliban are a product of Pakistan’s establishment, and for sure they represent a faction of our society as well and as such they are still supported from amongst us, we can not blame others for our mistakes, others will come to take advantage but it is us who are responsible to clean the mess and undo the mistakes. My question, how many of our writers, scholars and journalists are conveying this message? And forming public opinion to be critical of our own regime and establishment?

And as such, where shall we classify them?

Not you ! Your VISA .............

"In a poor zoo in Pakistan, a lion was frustrated as he was offered not More than 1 kg of meat a day.

The lion thought its prayers were answered, when one day; a UAE Zoo Manager visited the zoo and requested the zoo management to shift the lion to Dubai Zoo.

The lion was so happy and started thinking of a central A/C environment, a goat or two every day.

On its first day after arrival, the lion was offered a big bag, sealed very nicely for breakfast. The lion opened it quickly but was shocked to see that it contained few bananas. The lion thought, may be, they cared too much for him as they were worried about his stomach as he had recently been shifted from Pakistan.

The next day the same thing happened. On the third day, again the same food bag of bananas was delivered.

The lion was so furious; it stopped the delivery boy and blasted at him, 'don't you know I am the lion...king of the Jungle..., what's wrong with your management? What nonsense is this? Why are you delivering bananas to me?

The delivery boy politely said, 'Sir, I know you are the king of the jungle ... but... you have been brought here on a monkey's visa!!!"

It is a joke, a joke which is very very much connected with the reality. In background of how human resources and employment works in Middle East, it is how the system works. And it happens when an organization really need a person with specific skills but they do not have visa allocated for that profession due to any reason, they hire that person, and allocate him visa from the available slots, hence a doctor can be working on a mason's visa.

On Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died...........well not a news any more, his funeral is the current news, and that is how it will go on and get settled. Most interesting was the debate in few circles that he was a Muslim, and if he will be buried in Islamic manner.

I think there must be a limit on our affiliation with any person, I am not interested in Michael Jackson's private life very much, though there are many interesting aspects of complexity of human nature and relations in his life. Still I am not very interested in Michael as a son, or husband or father. I, like many millions, am a fan of Michael Jackson the singer and musician, and I know that musician will live forever, he has not died and he will not die. His music is so full of patience, rhythm, versatility and appeal that I am sure he will be liked by future generations as well.

I will never forget "heal the world" and "we are the world", neither I will forget "thriller", "black or white", "bad" or "girl is mine", "liberian girl", "smooth criminal", "history". He was one of the few musicians who influenced cultures and people globally.

Not only this, but we shall remember his charities, and his thoughts on inequality and poverty in the world as well.

Mockery of words

Have you ever felt ‘chill’ running through your spine? I do; specially when I see people making mockery of history, and distorting truth by using beautiful words. But why any such incident is so dreadful? Well, because those people are considered to be very reliable, honest and influential. People believe in them and follow them. I would write about three most recent experiences.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan a well known and controversial figure, admired rather worshiped by Pakistanis wrote in an article published in daily Jang (http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jun2009-daily/03-06-2009/col1.htm, viewed on 04 June 2009), the largest circulated newspaper in Pakistan :” Tamils belong to Hindu religion which is a fundamentalist religion”. He further says that “ Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) are soft spoken, calm, and non violent people, which is also the education of Buddhist religion”. What is the problem in these statements? Both of these statements distorts the truth, are unrealistic and cause false hatred or sympathy. He wants to mould the opinion of masses against Hindus and Tamils, and he wants to create sympathy towards Sinhalese by projecting a false impression of both.

Not only that but by saying this that ‘Hindu religion is a fundamentalist religion” he is alienating whole Hindu population of Indian Sub Continent from the rest of people. Moreover declaring Islam a fundamentalist religion is same mistake, others made and try to alienate Muslims from rest of world. Where this behaviour is leading us? Of course War and Blood Shed is the only objective of all such people who try to destroy the truth and realities. Matter of fact is that religion whichever it is; is always promoting peace and tolerance, religious teachings always advocate harmony; an essential for existence of humans. One of prime objectives of any religion is to save us from ourselves; how come any religion can be violent? It is us, the people who are after other people for what so ever be the reasons. Yes, there can be bad and good anywhere, in any cadre and any society, in any community or group of people. But not all can be attributed as bad, if some of them are bad. That way we destroy the good, we discourage those who believe in peace and harmony. I am not sure if Dr. Qadeer can not understand the basics of human behaviour.

Second one is a column from Mr. Hamid Meer in Daily Jang (http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jun2009-daily/04-06-2009/col4.htm, viewed 4^th June 2009); in this column he writes about black mailers working against Pakistan under the disguise of a secular and liberal agenda. The way he has written it, it seems that ‘Secular’ and ‘Liberal’ are some very negative terms, like they are a poison for Pakistani society. Again I am not sure if he understands what does it mean by secularism or liberalism? He does not know that the very newspaper and media he is writing for is ‘secular’, the masses he is addressing are also secular, here I am not trying to advocate any of these ideas, but I just want to emphasise on creating awareness about the right concept, having a clear understanding of the idea, before one can start writing. By wrong interpretations, we create misunderstanding which results in more misdoings.

The third example is from a mail I got from a friend ( It can be posted if required, it is however saved with me and can be presented anytime), this mail is a forwarded mail containing an article. Title of article is ‘Asal Sikandar-e-Azam kon hai?’ (Who is the real Sikandar-e-Azam?). It is a comparison between two personalities in history, Alexander the great and Umar Bin Khattab the second Caliph. Writer is asking again and again who is real Sikandar-e-Azam, and he never seems to realize or understand what does this title means? ‘Sikandar-e-Azam’ is urdu translation of ‘Alexander the great’. Sikandar in Urdu or perhaps Arabic is substitute of Alexander; similarly ‘Azam’ means ‘The Great’, just like Akbar the great (Akbar-e-Azam), or Ashoka the great (Ashok-e-Azam). The writer might not know that but I have read the same title for Umar i.e. Farooq-e-Azam, as he is also known as Umar Al Farooq. This linguistic mistake makes the whole article he wrote a joke. And I feel pity about people who are forwarding that article after thinking very admirably about the arguments put forward by the so-called writer to make Umar a Sikandar-e-Azam.

Perhaps now it is understandable why I feel a chill running through my body? This mockery of words, this distortion of minds and this abuse of history will only bring more hatred, more short-sightedness, more aloofness and more destruction for us.

Swat--- A Perspective

I was watching a documentary on situation in North West Pakistan, it includes mention of Swat, in news and in a war since last few months. Reportedly a strong centre of Taliban, inhabited by people who want nothing but Sharia rule.

Few days back a friend was telling me that in areas like Swat and Mardan, the support for Taliban is local population; locals, as per his information, did not resist the Talibs, and welcomed them. His opinion is that the Local people are aligned with Taliban. More drastically, he said that Taliban faced resistance only by Shias and Ismailis, on contrary Sunnis welcomed them.

I think these two points, that Swat is a stronghold of Taliban and that the Sunni population is supporting them, are the key points to understand the situation. The least I can say is that both shows a deliberate fabrication to distort the truth. Here I will concentrate on the first point first.

I have been to Swat twice, it was the place where we went for our honey moon, I still remember the white palace, old palace of the former rulers of Swat. I remember the people, and no one ever can make me believe that those people supports Taliban. They were the most progressive and secular people I met in North West Pakistan. We entered into Swat via Malakand, and there was a noticeable difference in the outlook of people, Swatis were more sophisticated, educated and entrepreneurial. I still remember and very dearly remember the first image of Swat I got, and that was of young children going to schools, a university on our way to Mingora, and groups of girls clad in school uniforms. I can not believe that this image can be changed within four years, it is unbelievable.

I can not believe those people were so weak that they gave way to extremist just like that. There must be other factors, factors which are important to be considered.

Here my first objective is to correct the image of Swat we have been forced to perceive, to correct the image of those beautiful places, Mingora, Saidu Sharif, Manglour, KalaKot, KhuazaKhela, Malam Jabba, Bahrain, Kalaam, Ushu, Utror; and to correct the image of people who live here.

Swat has a history which goes back to ancient times, Swat has been mentioned in Rig Veda, it was once a centre of Buddhist education, it was traversed by Alexander the Great, it was an important part of Mauryan empire, then of Kushans. Can we believe that once Sanskirit was the major language of Swat? That it is thought to be the origin of Vajrayana Budhism. The region came into contact with Islam in around 11th Century, and went under influence of Afghans most of the times. History tells us that people of Swat fought bravely against Mughals. State of Swat was found around mid nineteen century, and it existed till1969.

The people are mostly Pushtoons or Kohistanis ( also called Kaafirs), well two totally different blends to say the least, but this distinction (or difference as Pushtoons and Kohistanis speak different languages, they have different customs and traditions, even different believes) creates a more tolerating and open society which you can not imagine for example in Dir or MaalaKand, which are purely Pashtoon. Another distinction Swat has, is its history as an state. Because it was a state, the population was starkly poor, less tribal and more open towards external influence, though most of Pushtoon population belongs to YousufZai clan, still as people of the Wali of Swat, their outlook was less tribal. We can see similarities with the state of Kabul, as compared to the so called tribal areas of today’s Pakistan. As Swat became a tourist attraction, this distinction became more and more remarkable, because of external influence people of Swat were exposed to.

I do not have statistics in hand, but I believe that education standard in Swat was much better than any tribal area. Communication facilities were better, as Swat is a tourist attraction, hence more transport, more trade and more links with rest of country, even links with the rest of world. Malam Jabba is the only Ski Resort in Pakistan, people in thousands were supposed to visit Swat annually. Due to trade and tourism, people from other areas of Pakistan were doing jobs in Swat. All together it means a continuous influx of ideas from rest of world. And this is what makes Swat different than for arguments sake Waziristan or Bajod, and that is what makes more difficult for me to understand what went wrong here? And the doubt I have on the theory that people of Swat actually supported Taliban.

"I have saved this answer to a foreign friend in answer to her question 'where we see Pakistan stand in future?' it was immediately after release of some brutal videos in which people were seen get slaughtered and then that incident in Sawat when a girl was beaten in public."

Well from my own understanding of the history and politics of this region, Pakistan do not stand aloof from rest of sub-continent, i.e. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, you may also count in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka (Nevertheless we have got a new name 'AfPak' which is a hint in itself). The point I am trying to present is simple, this area as a whole is always part of the 'great game' played by empires since last few centuries, secondly Muslims of the area form an entity which is different in terms of culture, tradition and languages from rest of Muslim world, but for sure it is influenced by and it has influenced the Muslim thought since a long time. Some of the examples are Jamal-ud-din Afghani, Iqbal, Moudodi, Maulana Ilyas, Ghulam Ahmed Pervaiz, and Dr. Hameed-Ullah.

Deoband the origin of famous school of thought 'Deobandi' from which the Taliban belongs, is in India, so as Bareli the origin of most practised one 'Barelvi' amongst the Muslims of this region. History has been distorted in a way that it has become very difficult for someone living today to understand that Muslims of Indian Sub Continent had their own identity, and they still do. This truth however is not in interest of any of the parties involved in current game, most importantly India, Pakistan and US. Governments of India and Pakistan throughout the time have played a major role in destroying history to suit their motives and interests. Another important factor is movement of 'Hindutva' in India, which has influenced and changed the total behaviour and thought of new generations in the region.

When generation are cut off from their past in that way, they go into darkness, and look here and there in search of their identity. Pan-Islamism is just one of solutions of this identity crisis for most of us; an easy solution may be, as it is in line with our belief as Muslims. What we tend to overlook

However is that culture and religion are two separate forms of recognition and belonging. In our daily lives, we try to be within our cultural circle, we(when I say we, it means Muslims) tend to marry within our own type, we cannot communicate with each other if we do not know some of global languages, we cannot like to eat some of the foods(halal) of other regions. Pathan cannot eat rice regularly :), and Bengali cannot live without it. Still we are Muslims, and we observe Islamic customs and laws. So where is the problem? Muslims of this region started to look outside for their cultural identity or they were forced to do so, it is where the doubt is, and it is where the peace is. Cultural unity and a common history (even if it is full of conflicts or interpreted as full of conflicts) is the biggest threat to anyone who does not want peace in this region. Why? Because when we look at common culture, not only Muslims but the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis; everyone who

lives in this region, becomes closer to each other, I am sure if any one who is longing after power in this region, can tolerate such unity, or any traces of such unity amongst the masses.

You should have asked where we want Pakistan to stand in future instead of where it will stand. At present, we do not want anything but chaos!