Pakistan – the other side, a country with more than a bunch of negative headlines

As a part of the subject project, I was wondering which country to choose and when asked for suggestion, I got an answer – Pakistan. The initial reaction was, “Yes, this sounds interesting, for I have many friends from there and this a country which is the most troubled one”. So, when it came to thinking on the issues on which I had to write and the next day, when Ma’am asked us individually as to what are we going to cover in terms of topics about the country, I had said, “Regionalism, separatism, sectarianism, political instability, radicalization, and economic slump down.” To this I’d gotten a reply, “a classical example of how international media reports third world countries, representing it as full of isms”. We were then asked give opinions about what we think when we talk about various countries, regions, political parties, issues to talk, for instance, our natural reaction on Pakistan, on Islam, on Hindutva, on Mayawati, etc. More often than not, the views that we held for each of them, are not false, but are slanted in a particular way, always leaving a room empty for the other side which is not even explored.

Thinking on these lines, I have had almost all the negative stories about Pakistan, for it is often perceived as a nation which is facing seemingly unending lists of negative headlines/labels of - terrorism, corruption, drone attacks, natural disasters, poverty, a deficit in leadership, discrimination against minorities, mistreatment of women, attacks on freedom of speech, mass tax evasion, match fixing, the murder of judges, politicians, union organizers and journalists - and that is just the tip of the iceberg and at the end the analysts would either talk about political instability and a military coup, painting again a picture of weaker democracy and perpetuating the idea of a country ruled by military. This being the last blog post, I wanted to present the softer side of the nation, which really has to offer more than just a bunch of negative headlines. We all know that Pakistan is a fucked up nation, and when asked, everybody holds the same opinion, but as much as deaths occur every day, there are some parts where life is still going and the people are still living, studying, working and a nation is progressing under a democratic government, fragile though. Pakistan is like every other normal country. Give a name of the country which is corruption free, where there are no deaths, no internal conflicts, and no pluralism in opinions of political parties. The fact that all the countries are not perfect, but in an age of global competition, each of them has to have a positive image and media plays a great role in branding any nation globally. It is not that there are no problems faced in US, but each time it is balanced off by the success stories of Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, not that India is corruption free and there are two Indias- India and Bharat, but it still manages to make its name in one of the BRIC nations, also with the human development index of 127th by reporting of the Ambani brothers’ success or by the positives of the growth of the IT and branding it as “Incredible India”. All the countries promote their identity; we have seen tourism ads of many countries, why not of Pakistan? Pakistan is a beautiful and culturally rich country.

It is only through blogs and small sites, which are again very hard to find that provides some positive stories of Pakistan. Ask the Pakistani youth on Facebook about the state of the country and you’d be tongue tied with their immense knowledge, and think in the hindsight about the stereotypical image we have of them. There are social activists, online forums which are doing MUCH to provide us with a different light on the country, but hardly does it gets covered. There’s this one social activists group called, ‘Pakistan Youth Alliance’ (PYA), which initially had organized protests and rallies but quickly became more active. Its core premise and mission statement is to take a stand, to get as practically involved on the ground as possible and to exemplify the change they seek through their actions rather than merely proposing it on paper. Their main goal is to create political and social awareness among the youth of Pakistan and to unite them irrespective of their religion, ethnicity, caste, race or language on an unbiased platform through which they can engage with one another and contribute practically to building a more progressive society in Pakistan - whether through protest, social and relief work or the arts. Earlier in 2011, the group was instrumental in organizing counter protests to the hate filled ones celebrating and glorifying Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab who was murdered in January over his stance on Pakistan's blasphemy laws and his ardent defence of religious minorities like Christians and Ahmadis. Ali says he did this because: "This is not what the founder of Pakistan and 'Father of the Nation' Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah would have wanted for this country today, especially as he repeatedly stressed the importance of inter-faith unity and religious harmony." Stories like these and others bring about something much needed in international news these days - a positive, hopeful narrative against the odds, showcasing some of the good news stories coming out of places like Pakistan, which often go unreported and deserve a spotlight too.

There’s also an initiative in terms of website by brothers and social entrepreneurs Majid and Mahmood Mirza who aims to emanate good stories from Pakistan and therefore they came up with a website titled Good News (www.goodnews.pk), which focuses solely on positive developments coming out of the country. They describe the idea behind the website via Skype as being "to highlight amazing, awesome and inspirational news stories coming from Pakistan, as opposed to the usual negativities that steal the headlines". Some of the stories/facts which we never knew about Pakistan have been well told by this website. For example, the international or the mainstream media in Pakistan never reported that Pakistan has become only the sixth country in the world to map the human genome, joining the ranks of the US, the UK, China, Japan and India, which have all successfully sequenced it. Or, how about the fact that Pakistan has the largest volunteer ambulance organization in the world started by "living saint" Abdul Sattar Edhi in 1948. Today, the radio-linked network includes 600 ambulances that work in every corner of the country. Or how about the recent news that Dr Umar Saif, an associate professor at the School of Science and Engineering in Lahore, has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 35 innovators in the world - joining an elite group of researchers and entrepreneurs selected over the last decade, which includes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and Jonathan Ive, the chief designer at Apple. Now who has heard of those stories? Then there are serial entrepreneurs like Monis Rahman, who just four years ago set-up Rozee.pk, which is now Pakistan’s largest jobs website, with 500,000 unique visitors a month; or Karachi-born freelance designer Vakas Siddiqui laying to rest the myth that Pakistani students are limited to excellence in science and the humanities by being selected as one of the top 28 designers in the world; or filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy who has just been shortlisted for an Oscar in the 'best documentary short' category for her film Saving Face.

Not only this, when I tried to find some more good/positive stuff about the country and asked one of my online friend, he said to me to write about charity in Pakistan. A highly intelligent LUMN alumni, working in Australia, when he told me about this, I was like, “the country is politically unstable and already facing economic crisis, how the hell even the question of charity arise”? Choosing to not believe him, I had my own views on the country until I seriously came across this, which changed my perception and it should be said that no TV channel has ever given coverage to the excellent work that some charities are doing in Pakistan. No other country in the Third World has so many non-profit organizations that help the downtrodden in so diverse fields and on such large scales, about which I found from the country’s newspaper’s blog, blogs of dawn.com. Everyone, at least in Pakistan, knows about the great job the Edhi Foundation is doing in different spheres – from running cancer hospices and ambulance services (Edhi Foundation has the largest fleet in the world, as the Guinness Book of Records mentions) to providing shelter to battered women and education to poor children. Mr. Edhi, who deserves nothing less than a Nobel Prize for Peace, is everywhere despite his old age. Wherever there is a calamity, he rushes to the site to provide help. If an unwanted child is left in one of his centers, he (and his wife, Bilqees) is there to take the infant under his protective wing.

In this age of global competition, all the countries have a need to grow economically, this happens through many ways, one of which is also through global partnerships. When a country is projected in a negative way, the economy is viewed in a negative way due to negative reporting the country is seen un unreliable one. There are about 180 million people in Pakistan, of which 65% are under the age of 25. The youth of Pakistan is its strength, it is like a sleeping giant. When we think that India is a booming nation. A stop and a second and look at Pakistan, could have much more to provide to the countries and to itself given a little help from the western world, Pakistan can become a dominant economy. I think such positive unreported stories along with the courage and creativity shown by young educated middle class Pakistanis, does reflect a phenomenal idea about the nation portrayed by them, who are increasingly globally minded and are using alternate media make their country get rid of its negative global representation and carving a path for a brighter image.

Well, that brings an end to blog posts. I’m a Hindu and an Indian by nationality, but I was told that my family had migrated from Karachi. Now, when I actually did this research about the country, I somewhat felt emotionally connected to it, may be because my forefathers belonged from that country, and this is somewhat weird but even nice, that I actually got a great feeling, like the one that I have had always get when I hear and sing the Indian National Anthem, or when India wins, a similar feeling of being a part of nation (though I’m not), when I had heard Pakistan’s National Anthem played by the sufi rock band from Pakistan, called Junoon, at the UN General Assembly. So, I’m going to end it with that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYrh5kEzltc&feature=related

Military, Judiciary and Executive at loggerheads with the each other- Clash of institutions in Pakistan

Since its independence, Pakistan’s political history has been stained by military dictators or corrupt politicians. The country has seen as many as four martial law regimes in power and experienced a constant friction between the civilian government, judiciary and military.

The recent events of the ‘memogate scandal’, the contempt case that the Supreme Court has slapped on Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani for ignoring its order asking the government to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen money laundering cases against President Asif Ali makes the clash dangerous.

In the letter, which is referred as Memo Gate Scandal, refuge of America was sought by the Civil Government against the Military Establishment of Pakistan. It was the American based Pakistani citizen, Mansoor Ijaz, who alleged that former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani asked him to deliver a confidential memo asking for US assistance. The memo is alleged to have been drafted by Haqqani at the behest of President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari. The petitioners, among them the PML-N chief, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, had earlier requested the court to order an impartial inquiry about the memo's existence, origin and implications. The court accepted this request of the petitioners by appointing a high powered commission consisting of the three senior-most chief justices of the high courts in the country. The court, which had earlier barred Mr. Haqqani from leaving the country, ordered him off the “exit control list,” and he has left the country. It has given itself two more months to investigate the matter. The court, which had earlier barred Mr. Haqqani from leaving the country, ordered him off the “exit control list,” and he has left the country. It has given itself two more months to investigate the matter.

The second case relates to the case of Court of Contempt charged by the Supreme Court on Gilani, Pakistani PM, for failing to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The Supreme Court declaring the National Reconciliation Ordinance unconstitutional, a graft amnesty issued by the Mushraff Govenmet in 2007, had asked the PM to write to the Swiss Government about reviving the graft charges against the President, Zardari. The Supreme Court outlined six possible options, to be finally decided by a full bench of the court , of which one included the option of ruling the prime minister as “not … an ‘honest’ person” and as such ineligible to hold his seat in parliament.

Meanwhile, the civilian government’s tense relationship with the military continues. Gilani criticised the director-general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and the army’s chief of staff for acting “unconstitutionally” when filing their testimonies before the high court in the “Memogate” hearings. He followed that up by firing his defence secretary, a retired lieutenant general considered close to the military, for “gross misconduct and illegal action” related to the same case. That criticism of the ISI chief, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and the army’s General Ashfaq Pervez Kyani prompted the military to issue a statement warning of “very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country”.

Now what this shows is the changing role of the Supreme Court, which is seen to be acting more powerful than ever before, especially after the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The judiciary under him has exercised its powers of original jurisdiction to challenge such disparate issues as rising petrol prices and government appointments. The court has also loosened the criteria used to judge whether petitions fall under “question of public importance” or relate to individual’s fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Pakistani constitution, (In fact, the “Memogate” petition currently being heard by the court was deemed admissible based on possible violations of Articles 9, 14 and 19A of the Pakistani constitution, which guarantee citizens the rights of security, “dignity” and access to information of public importance.)

The Army has been criticized by the civilian government since the U.S military raid in Abbottabad that took out Osama bin Laden. Though, it was discussed and debated that a mailatary coup might take place, in this situation, but that however, seems unlikely because: the domestic situation in Pakistan has become unmanageable, and the country is increasingly ungovernable. The economy is in down, therefore, the army would find it difficult to cope with that kind of problem, adding thefact that the military would find it difficult to attract international financial assistance without civilian faces in charge. It is also engaged in counterterrorism, and it needs civilian cover for that. The moment it assumes power, it loses that civilian cover and assumes a draconian face.

Though we see, a clash of major institutions in Pakistan, which seems to be dangerous, for the country is always known for not maintaining “the separation of powers” and thereby always breaking the lines of control and proving , "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. But this time, when each of the institutions are playing its roles, there is also some sort of positivity in terms of the evolving role of the judiciary, which had never acted the way it is doing now. What is also interesting to see is that despite collided by so many problems, the democratically elected government is of present free from all charges since it is still not proved to be convict and therefore, an elected government will be seen so close to finishing its five-year term for only the second time in Pakistan's history and also making it for the first time that the transition from one government to the next will likely be effected in a democratic way.

Urdu, the national Language, regarded as a foreign language of Pakistan?

Urdu was made the National language of Pakistan immediately after its formation. It was made the primary lingua franca as it connected the various provinces of Pakistan in terms of communication. Yet, till date, despite enjoying the status of national language, many in the country regard it as a “foreign language’’ because it is not seen in tandem with the idea of Muslim nationhood.

Urdu was rejected as national language by the Bengalis (now the Bangladeshi’s) during the 1940s; similarly it was rejected by various other ethnic groups of Pakistan who have their own languages, like Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtus, and Balochis. The main reason for it’s outright rejection for keeping it as a national language was because it was regarded as a language spoken by Muslims of North western India, pre- independence. It has been said that the Urdu language was formed from the combination of Persian and the Khari boli language (local dialect of north-western Indians). The fact that Urdu language is rooted in the Indian soil and served as a common heritage for Hindus and Muslims, pre- independence, regarding it as a national language, as a identity marker for the Muslim nationhood, was an idea not properly digested by the Pakistanis.

The speakers of Urdu language in Pakistan were migrants from Central India who came to Pakistan for religious reasons. Though the Quran is in Arabic language, there were hardly any people who were fluent in Arabic, which is why, it didn’t get the status of national language, and the rest of the population spoke in other local languages. The Muslim League headed by Jinnah, who had played the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan, was heavily dominated by Muslims who belonged from Central India and were hence Urdu speaking, which is what one of the reason is being told for Pakistan having adopted Urdu as its national language. One of the other reason for recognizing Urdu as a national language was because of the fact that since Pakistan has many languages, different for different provinces, declaring any one of them as national would lead to intra provincial conflicts.

The problem is that the national language is not spoken by more than 10-12% of the population. The religious language of the Pakistan is Arabic, which no body bothers to learn. The primary languages of the rest of the Pakistan have lost its meaning due to lack of provincial autonomy , the education on the primary language is meaningless, if they want to progress, they are suppose to learn Urdu, which half the population cannot speak, and speak and write English if they want to go abroad.

All in all, it is disturbing to know the fact that any language is adopted as a national language which is not representative of the country’s regional and cultural identities. It totally seems unfair, to regard the language of “Muhajirs” (Muslim refugees that fled from genocide from different parts of India during the Partition of 1947), Urdu, only as to promote the national unity of the country based on the idea of “Islamic Nationhood”. The main aim for adopting Urdu was promoting national integration and thereby strengthening ethnicity but at the same time, it threatens the cultural and linguistic diversity in the country.