Transitions: A melodious voice that will live on

Renowned Pakistani singer Mehnaz Begum passes away

By Rafay Mahmood

Published: January 20, 2013

Mehnaz Begum. PHOTO: INP

KARACHI: 

  She had just stepped down from the stage after giving a tribute to the queen of melody, Noor Jehan. The crowd wanted more but her health confined her to shorter performances.

Behind the stage, her feet trembling from weakness, she placed herself on the first available chair. Seeing her alone with no entourage, I made my way towards her with a paper and pen. Before I could speak, she held my hand and said bashfully: “I hope you don’t have a camera … I’m not as beautiful as singers usually are, so I prefer it when people listen to my voice.”
And that voice was still as soothing as it was in Shabnam, and her charm still that of a teenage girl.
Mehnaz Begum passed away last night at the age of 55 but her soulful voice will continue to ring for another life-time in the memories of her admirers.
The late singer had been suffering from diabetes and was on her way to the US for treatment when she passed away.
Mehnaz grew up under the auspices of her mother and mentor, Kajjan Begum, who herself was one of the most celebrated singers of pre-partition India.

As soon as Mehnaz entered the music industry, her unique tonal quality and magnificent expression brought her at par with contemporaries like Naheed Akhtar. She went on to become an essential cultural representative of Pakistan along with talented friends and contemporaries such as Tina Sani, Nayyara Noor and Abida Parveen.
“She was the sweetest in our gang and wherever we went her presence decorated the occasion,” Sani said while talking to The Express Tribune.
“I remember there was a day when Abida started singing in our room and slowly Mehnaz joined in and as soon as that happened Abida started crying and I couldn’t do anything but filming that divine experience with my handicam,” Tina recalled.
From the music of classic films like “Aina” and “Qurbani” to countless solo performances to some beautiful renditions of Ahmad Faraz’s poetry, Mehnaz brought a new flavour to ghazal singing.
With the decline of the film industry, Mehnaz hardly got to perform, apart from the occasional tribute performances. Her latest tribute to Noor Jehan reflected the amount of singing that was left in her.
“It won’t be an understatement to call her the Lata Mangeshkar of Pakistan,” said pop singer Mohammad Ali Shehki.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2013.

So sorry to hear that you are a woman!

January 23, 2013

I don’t know why we were underestimated. After all, we were selected on pure merit after passing the same tests and exams as our fellow male classmates.

“Women should think twice before stepping into this field, as I am sure that most of the girls sitting here today are going to be just good housewives after four years.”

These were the words of one of our classmates in the first year of engineering.
I spent four years in one of the top engineering universities of Pakistan. I enjoyed it tremendously. I was being taught by the best faculty in our country, including professors who had obtained their degrees from renowned universities abroad.
However, it is sad but true, that during those four years I came across highly discouraging attitudes and behaviour.
I realised that such thought is prevalent in Pakistan, especially when it comes to acceptance of women in a largely male dominated field.
Many times my female friends and I felt that we weren’t taken seriously; we were looked down upon as ignorant females who had joined engineering to waste four years of their lives and had occupied a seat which could have been filled by a male student, more appropriate for the field.
We were treated with disdain for not choosing a more “appropriate” profession such as the ‘typical’ medicine or teaching.
Mind you, there was not an “obvious” gender bias. We were provided the same opportunities, same chance to prove our skills and absolutely equal marks in case of good performance.
The fault lay in subtle attitudes and underlying behaviours of some people, whether they were teachers, laboratory assistants or even classmates.
Of course, most of them were male.
In our third year, when we were trying to secure internships, one of my friends had to make various rounds of the Industrial liaison office at the university to get a recommendation letter that is required for an internship.
Irritated by her constant appearances at the office, (notwithstanding that the summer break had already started which made her all the more desperate) the advice the head of the Industrial Liasion Office gave her was classic and can definitely be categorised under the “One hundred and one motivational quotes of the century!”

“Aap ne internship kar kay kia karna hay akhir karna to choola handi hee hay.”
“Why do you want to secure an internship so bad? At the end of the day all you will ever do is cook and clean.”

We were amazed at how such a top official of the university, belonged to the eighteenth century.
Absolutely Bizarre!
In a micro controller course, one day while citing an example, the instructor said,

“For example when you go into the industry then using the same procedure you can design a–but wait! Since you won’t be going joining the industry, then you can design a sensor that would alert you in case you were making rotis and your child goes near a power plug. ”

Then there was a laboratory teacher who, whenever a girl did something wrong, would pompously say,

“Told you, girls are not meant for engineering!”

I don’t know why we were underestimated. After all, we were selected on pure merit after passing the same tests and exams as our fellow male classmates.
Most of the time we even managed to score higher than them. In fact, the person who scored the highest marks in our class was a female!
Not only that but Pakistani women are serving at key positions in the field of science and technology. One such woman is Yasmeen Lari, the first female architect of Pakistan. Some of  the famous landmarks of Karachi such as the famous FTC building, PSO House and the Taj Mahal Hotel (now Regent Plaza) have all been designed by her.
In 2006, she was awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz for her contribution in the field of architecture. The premier IT body of Pakistan, The association of Pakistan software houses (PASHA) is also headed by a woman, Jehan Ara.
Dr Humera Noor Minhas, the first female PhD of NED University, has been listed in 2011 edition of “Marquis Who’s Who” as one of the world’s foremost achievers in the field of computer systems.
Despite all these achievements, men behave as if they own the profession of engineering!
I won’t go into the oft repeated details of women’s accomplishments to prove that women are better than men because I believe, they are not. Men and women are equal, I believe. For every intelligent man, there is an equally intelligent woman.
We observe equilibrium in everything present in nature around us so why we don’t believe in equilibrium when it comes to the division of intelligence?
All I want is to make a request to male engineers; I know it’s hard to erase the image of a stereotypical woman that is fed into every Pakistani male’s mind since birth, but please, keep your jibes to yourself.
Engineering is not only for men, we are here and we are going to stay whether you like it or not!

Cleaning up the mess after Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Long March

Vaqas Asghar January 21, 2013

Cleaners sweep a street after supporters of Tahirul Qadri left the capital. PHOTO: REUTERS

The long marchers are gone, but fear not fellow Islamabadis, they left us something to remember them by, namely, a 100-odd tons of trash lining the city’s commercial district.
The icing on the cake however, was the fact that many were praising the marchers for their behaviour and the freezing cold they were putting up with. I am yet to hear of a person who goes to work, leaves without punching anybody, and gets praised for it. Similarly, if someone were to go on a skiing trip with only t-shirts in their luggage, I doubt anyone would feel sorry for them.
The fact that violent protests are the norm in our society does not mean that we praise the non-violent ones, for not creating havoc. Rather, it is grounds for fresh (peaceful) protests to push for the punishment of the esteemed figures, including parliamentarians and local business and community leaders, who are behind the violence.
As for the cold, nobody ordered them to come here, and for many in the crowd, it was just a touch-and-go vacation — a limited tour of the capital, and while there are many better places around Pakistan to spend a week, a free vacation is a free vacation.
Then of course, the sanitation complaints. While it would seem ludicrous to expect the government to set up temporary toilets for 50,000 people, the issue ended up becoming one of the protesters’ informal complaints against the state.
Exactly how many instances are there of a government facilitating protesters who want to overthrow it?
Most of that garbage would have been out of sight and in trash cans and bags if the long marchers, touted by many as ‘organised’, had actually planned ahead for the fact that they would eventually have to use the loo. Instead, they left the cleric at a nearby mosque in tears over what the mosque, and specifically its toilets, were looking like.
But then, there is no surprise in the fact that the rally fizzled out as soon as it rained. For all of the focus on keeping the sexes segregated and distributing tents and raincoats for the long haul, the ‘all the world’s a toilet’ strategy would, sooner than later, have proven to be their undoing.
One feels for the CDA’s sanitation workers, whose efforts to make the mess disappear have already been forgotten.
If there was an issue with sanitation, it must be blamed on the organisers, who got Mr Qadri a bulletproof SUV and container office to protect him from the elements while the crowd suffered.
Compare that to Imran Khan.
Whether or not you support the philanthropist and cricket legend’s political positions, he does not hide behind bulletproof glass when he addresses the public, even in places like Waziristan. He didn’t sleep in a comfort-controlled box at his rallies, he slept outside with his supporters. Neither of them are ‘true’ revolutionaries, but ironically, only the wealthy, Aitchison and Oxford-educated celebrity seems to understand the importance of being one with the people.
But then, one can’t blame Mr Qadri. He’s a refugee getting a chance to live the high life.
That of course brings us to the gent’s talking points on corruption and dishonesty.
The Mounties and Revenue Canada may force him to put his foot in his mouth over his hypocrisy. The Canadians aren’t the least bit happy about being played by this refugee, who ran off too Canada and asked to be given asylum because he was afraid to live in Pakistan anymore.
In addition, the much debated source of the funding issue might be cleared once the Canadians look into whether he was using charitable donations for political purposes (which is also a crime here, but our politicians will just claim that as per their finance statements, they are deserving of charity). By the way, according to DAWN,

“A TMQ spokesman said [Qadri] did not obtain Canadian citizenship because of security concerns but to get a credible travel document for seeking visas of different countries.”

That would seem to be an abuse of immigration laws in itself. So are his own spokespersons admitting he abused the Canadian immigration system?
As for Qadri’s “save the state, not the system” message, yes, our democracy is broken. It is an obvious ruling elite system rife with nepotism and internally-undemocratic political parties, but that does not mean the army should intervene. Democracy has a self-correcting mechanism called elections. If one feels the politicians aren’t doing their jobs, they should vote for change, not call for a military coup.
A functional democracy allows for gradual change and public opposition such as protests to avoid any radical shifts. It is democracy that gave Mr Qadri and others with varying ideological allegiances the right to protest against real or perceived injustices.
Dictators don’t clean up messes, they make bigger ones and blame them on the guys they kicked out.
So, before calling for a coup, just ask anyone who was protesting during the 1980’s how tolerant of opposition dictators usually are.

 

He came,he saw,and he did not conquer   

Cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri made a sudden landing in Pakistan from Canada, addressed a large gathering and threatened the Government in Islamabad with dire consequences if it did not quit. Then he returned.

Though the ‘Pakistan Spring’, launched with fanfare at Lahore on December 23, 2012, fizzled out when the January 15 Islamabad rally failed to gather momentum, its enduring lesson is that nations targeted for ‘revolution’ by foreign-returned messiahs must subject the putative saviours to close scrutiny.

Someone in Pakistan would have been alerted that Canadian-Pakistani dual citizen, Tahir-ul-Qadri, founder of the political party, Pakistan Awami Tehreek, and voluntary organisation, Minhaj-ul-Quran, had roused the fury of scholars at the prestigious Al Azhar seminary for assuming the title ‘Shaykh-ul-Islam’. The angry scholars pointed out that Pakistan is not an Islamic state on the lines of Turkey under the Khulafa Uthmani where Shaykh-ul-Islam was also an appointed position endorsed by the Khalifa. Hence, no authority in Pakistan or Egypt can sanction this title.

Shaykh-ul-Islam, as per authorities such as Allamah Shams El-Din El-Sakhawi, “is a title attributed to that follower of the Book of Allah Most High and the example of His Messenger, who possesses the knowledge of the principles of the Science (of Religion), has plunged deep into the different views of the scholars, has become able to extract the legal evidences from the texts, and has understood the rational and the transmitted proofs at a satisfactory level.”

Mr Qadri roused scepticism when he addressed the Islamabad rally in English; he also spoke in Urdu. Earlier, in August 2010, he ran a week-long anti-terrorism camp for Muslim youth at the University of Warwick to tackle extremism in the UK. Friends who saw him there noted he spoke in English in an era when jihadis are spewing Arabic! It was obvious he could not attract the youth moving toward the jihadis; he must have been in the UK for some other purpose.

The Al Azhar scholars questioned Mr Qadri’s academic credentials and the need for Arabic translators during a trip to Egypt, when every Alim in Islamic history who held the title Shaykh-ul-Islam, was proficient in Arabic. Demanding that he furnish evidence that a legitimate authority had conferred the title on him, and the grounds for the same, they warned (prior to his return to Pakistan) that he planned “to instigate a ‘revolution’ like the ones that have brought civil wars and instability to North Africa (i.e. Libya) and the Middle East (i.e. Syria), causing catastrophic grief and releasing a flood of extremists”.

Certainly, Mr Qadri has a background worth noting, and has travelled widely in the past decade, discussing issues of concern to Muslims and the West. In March 2010, he drew international acclaim with his unconditional fatwa on terrorism and was feted by the international media, drawing appreciation from the US State Department.

Mr Qadri’s significant connections include Turkish Sufi scholar Fettullah Gulen, who was ‘used’ by the West, according to informed sources. The FBI’s former Turkish-American translator Sibel Edmonds (sacked in 2002) testified in 2010 in the court case of Fetullah Gulen, who was seeking a green card, confirming US-Saudi sponsorship of radical mosques and Islamists in Central Asia. She described American Government documents which she had transcribed during her service. This means Washington was looking for a proxy for effective control of the region and asked Turkey, a Nato ally, for help as Turkey shares the same racial heritage as the population of Central Asia, the Turkic language, and religion (Sunni Islam). 

Experts believe that Turkish organisations like the $25 billion Gulen movement, reportedly financed by the CIA, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have been establishing madarssas and mosques across Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, for over a decade. Gulen, now based in Pennsylvania, is close to Graham E Fuller, former CIA station chief in Kabul, important analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of The Future of Political Islam.

At the January 15 rally, Mr Qadri accused the Pakistani Government of being corrupt and incompetent; he demanded that elections be deferred until the Election Commission was reconstituted; an impartial and honest caretaker Government installed in consultation with the Army and Judiciary; and Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution dealing with candidate eligibility implemented. He seemed to have received a boost when the Chief Justice called for the immediate arrest of Prime Minister Raja Ashraf Pervez in a corruption case; but suspicions that the Army and Judiciary were using him to instigate a ‘soft coup’ dented public support for him.

The Army and Mr Qadri both denied the rumours, but he was tainted by his energetic support to former Army chief and President Pervez Musharraf after the coup of 1999. He served in the national Assembly under Mr Musharraf before moving to Canada in 2006, after some differences with Mr Musharraf.

The corruption case regarding private power stations relates to Mr  Pervez’s tenure as Power Minister, but he has not been personally convicted in any case and hence the order for his arrest was not executed. The overall crisis was defused by dexterous political management by the ruling party; Mr Imran Khan’s demand for the immediate resignation of President Asif Ali Zardari fell flat. However, the mysterious murder of Kamran Faisal who was investigating the case has not helped the Government’'s credibility.

The beleaguered regime, however, defused Mr Qadri ‘revolution’ by sending a high-level delegation for talks, thus giving him a face-saver. Nawaz Sharif, Altaf Hussain and others also sent messengers to talk to him. As the Government made it clear that it would complete its tenure and have elections on schedule, all that Mr Qadri got was a vague promise of dissolution of the Provincial Assemblies and consultations regarding a caretaker Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, someone doubtless nudged the Canadian authorities, because as soon as the ‘Pakistan Spring’ crowd moved off the streets, they issued summons to Mr Qadri to report for questioning on February 5 regarding violation of the oath he took while seeking asylum. Mr Qadri had sought asylum in 2008 on the plea that he could not enter his native country, Pakistan, and feared threats to his life after meeting the Danish cartoonist who made blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad. His asylum application was accepted in October 2009, and he received his Canadian passport six months ago.

Thereafter, his rather prompt and high-profile political activity in Pakistan was at variance with claims made while seeking asylum and citizenship in Canada. Chastened by this turn of events, Mr Qadri returned to Canada after announcing that neither he nor any member of his family would contest elections. He may never return.

 

Tahir-ul-Qadri has Army’s and the US’s support

This refers to the article, “He came, he saw, and he did not conquer” (January 29) by Sandhya Jain.

The writer's analyses of our neighbours are often based on an incomplete read of what really goes on in the region. She portrays Tahir-ul-Qadri as a Canadian agent who speaks in English and has incurred the wrath of Islamist scholars in Al Azhar. Ms Jain's knowledge of Al Azhar and Pakistan is inadequate, to say the least.

Mr Qadri has the backing of the Pakistani Army. He is acting at the Army's behest, an Army that was fed up with what it had perceived as the mismanagement of the Asif Ali Zardari Government. The Army is unable to more directly intervene as that would earn the ire of the United States, which is against any direct military involvement in Pakistan's governance. But then, Ms Jain is so anti-US that she would refuse to acknowledge that the failure of Tahir-ul-Qadri had more to do with the behind the scenes action of the US.

For Tahirul Qadri, it’s a win

Zarrar Khuhro January 19, 2013

What he has accomplished is quite a feat for someone without a single parliamentary seat to his name. PHOTO: REUTERS

The revolution is over. Democracy is saved. Islamabad the green will become even greener, thanks to all the fertiliser. The ‘padri’ is now very much a player. The ‘former’ government is now a coalition partner, the ‘yazeedis’ are now buddies and Karbala, it seems, came with a conference-ready container.

Bad jokes and highly inappropriate references aside (hey, they started it), we can breathe a collective sigh of relief that it all ended without violence because, for a while there, it all looked very touch and go.

I’m also glad that the army kept its boots off, and didn’t tip the balance when the Chief Justices’s arrest orders for Prime Minister Ashraf miraculously coincided with TuQ’s speech. A meray aziz humwatno moment seemed imminent at that point. That it didn’t come is no small blessing.

Apart from a certain biscuit brand that can now benefit from instant brand recall (Tuc), a clear winner is the tissue paper industry. Up until yesterday, a certain Amazingly Asinine columnist and a Kriminally Krackpot anchor were using several dozen boxes a day to wipe the drool from their chins. Now they’ll be mopping tears of disappointment that Zardari’s head was not served to them on a platter.

But they’re not the only ones who have to swallow a bitter pill. Nawaz Sharif seems locked out of this set-up and he certainly won’t be pleased. The question of whether the President has pulled the wool over his eyes for the 15,864th time will very much be bothering him. Nor will he (or any PPP opponent) be glad to see that Qamar Zaman Kaira has emerged from the anemic ranks of PPP leaders as a man who can walk the walk and talk the talk, flip flopping with the ease and skill of a Cirque du Soleil performer. And all with a smile on his face.

Imran Khan, who has seen his slogan of change effectively appropriated by Qadri, did, in the end, the only thing he could have done, agree with Qadri’s intentions, but not his methods.

It’s an open question if he can once again tap into the simmering reservoir of discontent that both he and Qadri are trying to siphon and translate that into electoral gains.

The Supreme Court remains the ultimate wildcard. Pursuing what seems like an anti-government vendetta it has, in the past few days, not only issued arrest orders against the PM but also admitted the hearing of a (wait for it) blasphemy petition against Sherry Rehman that even the LHC’s Multan bench refused to entertain. What will the CJ make of this agreement, I wonder?

While the MQM has come under some muted criticism (all criticism of the MQM is muted) for kind-of-sort-of throwing in their lot with Qadri, this will make absolutely zero difference to its power base. Such is the indispensability of the MQM, that anyone wanting to form a stable government in Sindh will need them no matter what.

As for Qadri himself, it’s a win.

For now.

Having failed to make any serious inroads into Pakistani politics for decades he’s now going to be consulted (or is it consensus?) on not only the makeup of the election commission but also the choosing of the caretaker PM. Not only that, the discussions will take place in MQI offices! That’s quite a feat for someone without a single parliamentary seat to his name! Imran may be wishing he had marched to Islamabad instead of the border of Waziristan. This is of course if the agreement holds.

More ominous is the precedent that has been set. It seems that, in order to paralyse the federal capital and make the government bow to your demands all you have to do is march on Islamabad.

Be assured that others are taking note.

As for me, I’m raising money for a plane ticket (for me) and buses (for the rest of you) for a march to get YouTube unblocked.

Are you with me or with the Yazeedis?

(Manufactured) revolution mubarak

January 15, 2013

We were so close to having a democratic transition of power; now we will watch this game of shadows being played out.

Congratulations, Pakistan!

The ‘manufactured’ revolution just came to a country near you.

After the stunning success of People’s Power movements, Colour Revolutions and various Springs, we bring you the Pakistani Winter.

You can thank the best strategic minds in Pakistan and beyond for bringing you this stunning and beautifully coordinated production. We’ve been called paranoid, we’ve been called incurable conspiracy theorists and cynical naysayers but guess what? We were right all along.

It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

But you know what? I actually find it quite sweet.

It’s unfolded with the coordination of a Bolshoi ballet, the choreography of Disney on ice, the farce of Monty Python. And let’s admit it: it was kind of beautiful in its sheer cynicism. No one can accuse the Dirty Tricks Brigade of not being able to learn new tricks. The electronic media brought the last dictator down?

No problem, lets just buy them with ads. Social media upsetting the status quo around the world? No problem, lets manufacture #Revolution hashtags and saturate.

Once again, black is white and up is down. The lack of water at Karbala is equated with a lack of diesel in Islamabad. Our former dictator Musharraf now calls his rule a democratic one. An imported cleric, like it or not, just managed to articulate the frustration of the masses where a domestic government could not.

Yes, we need to blame the establishment and the judiciary for once again supporting, enabling and coordinating an undemocratic change in this country. We must call them to account for cratering the runway when we were so close to the finish line.

But they aren’t the only ones to blame. Had the government delivered even the semblance of governance in the past four odd years, there would not have been even five thousand people on the streets right now.

Had the government any moral authority, or any authority at all, this man would not have been able to hold the country hostage. That they did not, that they squandered such a mandate, that they allowed the establishment – which has been at its lowest ebb in decades – to pull off something on this scale, is a true tragedy.

We were so close; so close to actually having a democratic transition of power; so close to cementing the democratic process in Pakistan. And now we are once again reduced to watching this surreal game of shadows being played out.

So what now?

Will we see some political parties (MQM, PTI and PML-Q, I’m thinking of you) and leaders now endorse this manufactured revolution and destroy their future for the sake of a temporary accommodation?

Will this turn out to be yet another martyrdom for the defeated and decrepit PPP to cash in on?

I don’t know. But one thing that’s sure is the forces that came up with this scenario have war-gamed and brainstormed it to near-perfection.

We’re just along for the ride. And yes, it will be a bumpy one.

‘Admitting you are a secularist can get you killed in Pakistan’

Academ­ics lament that rulers have been using religi­on to their advant­age for centur­ies.

 January 28, 2013

PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Urdu linguists have distorted the meaning of the word “secular,” and falsely translated it as la-deen (non-religious). The use of the word is so dangerous now that even mainstream leftist political parties in the country are afraid of talking about it.

Civil society representatives highlighted these points as they participated in a seminar titled ‘Democracy and secularism in Pakistan: Its need and importance’, at the Arts Council on Saturday. The event was organised by the Forum for Secular Pakistan. The participants urged political leaders to push for a secular state, “as there can be no democracy in the country without secularism”.

Prof. Dr Jaffar Ahmed, the chairperson of the Pakistan Study Centre, criticised Urdu linguists for “distorting” the meaning of ‘secular’ in earlier dictionaries. The word was originally used to refer to the small pieces of land that common people used to hold in the days when the Catholic Church would own most of the land. The word came to symbolise scientific inventions and progressive thought in the 19th  century, he said.

Senator Hasil Bizenjo said that secularism had become, perhaps, the most difficult subject to talk about in the country. “If someone says that he is secular, people would kill him on the spot.” He said that only three to four political parties in the country had mentioned the word in their manifestos.

On the other hand, monarchs, as well as democratic governments, have been using religion to strengthen their rule for centuries. However, there have been a few prominent rulers, including the founder of the Mughal dynasty, who had grown worried over the amalgamation of religion with state affairs, said I A Rehman, the secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “For democracy to survive, it is necessary for the state to stay neutral when it came to religion.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2013.