Whither “Progressive” Bacha Khan’s Wife? – by Yasser Latif Hamdani
Cross posted from Pak Tea House
“If political consciousness is awakened amongst our women, remember, your children will not have much to worry about.” Founding Father of Pakistan, Mr. Mahomed Ali Jinnah, Lahore, March 22, 1940
The title? No I don’t post such things out of spite or because I am a horribly mean and terrible person. I might be all those things but I am posting this question because I am sick of the hypocrisy shown by Pushtun Nationalists, who try and monopolize the terms “secular” and “progressive” for their narrow tribal agena.
Bear with me as I come to the main course. But first Bacha Khan – the Wikipedia entry makes this mention of his wives:
He married his first wife Meharqanda in 1912; she was a daughter of Yar Mohammad Khan of the Kinankhel clan of the Mohammadzai tribe of Razzar, a village adjacent to Utmanzai. They had a son in 1913, Abdul Ghani Khan, who would become a noted artist and poet. Subsequently, they had another son, Abdul Wali Khan (17 January 1917-), and daughter, Sardaro. Meharqanda died during the 1918 influenza epidemic. In 1920, Abdul Ghaffar Khan remarried; his new wife, Nambata, was a cousin of his first wife and the daughter of Sultan Mohammad Khan of Razzar. She bore him a daughter, Mehar Taj (25 May 1921- ), and a son, Abdul Ali Khan (20 August 1922-19 February 1997). Tragically, in 1926 Nambata died early as well from a fall down the stairs of the apartment they were staying at in Jerusalem. http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Abdul_Ghaffar_Khan
Now surely there must be a picture or two of the great Bacha Khan’s wife in public sphere since it has now become fashionable to claim that he worked for women’s empowerment. Can someone please upload it? It is of urgent importance. The most chilling argument I got in response was that Bacha Khan’s wives stayed in seclusion out of their free will. After this there was a barrage of abuse and attacks on me for being racist against Pushtuns.
And it is not like you can say that the culture then was different. After all Mahomed Ali Jinnah – who is lampooned by these self styled Bacha Khan supporters and Pushtun Nationalists as being retrogressve- said famously : “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live.” (Jinnah – Lahore 1944).
Now you might be wondering the reason for this sudden diatribe against Bacha Khan, not that I need to give one. This morning as I was minding my own business on facebook, a Pushtun Nationalist friend, for my benefit, uploaded Muslim League group picture, which had in it standing an elderly lady – the wife of Maulana Muhammad Ali of the Ali Brothers- in a Burqah- insinuating that this was official league policy. When I asked him if he was actually serious by insinuating that this was the norm (Muslim League under Jinnah actually brought Muslim women out of seclusion and most Muslim women leaders of note were exceptionally liberal and progressive women out of Purdah. Jinnah realized how fundamental women’s participation was to electoral success ), he responded first by saying “jinnah tolerated Purdah, am confused , those who extract their politics from Jinnah’s political views and stunts- what is this?” In other words Jinnah was supposed to tell the elderly lady to throw off her Burqah to qualify.
Forget that all Jinnah women were always out of Purdah and self consciously modern including Ruttie, Fatima and Dina… and forget that Jinnah had played an important role in the uplift of Muslim women – a role that no other leader in subcontinent’s Muslims had played in 1000 years. Here is a picture of Jinnah with his family:
So where are Bacha Khan’s wives? I mean we have Jinnah the retrogressive exhorting his people to take women as comrades, to give equal rights, to liberate them from seclusion and purdah, to make them political conscious… we have Jinnah with the Muslim women national guard, talking to women as equals, having lunch surrounded in women, taking his sister side by side him even in the most conservative areas of Muslim India, where is secular and progressive Bacha Khan’s wife? Sister? Daughter?
And if this is not the case, why lampoon the one man who did champion these causes. Jinnah was part of the suffragette movement when Bacha Khan’s mentor Gandhi was denouncing it a “Ravanna Raj” or the “rule of Satan”. Jinnah followed in his political life Annie Besant and his closest colleague in his early days was Sarojini Naidu. His wife – Ruttie Jinnah – was a staunch nationalist. His sister may well have been the first woman president in the world had the military dictatorship not rigged the 1965 elections. This was Jinnah. So who is Bacha Khan’s wife? Who is Bacha Khan’s sister? Who is Bacha Khan’s daughter?
(Update: After first claiming what he did, my Pushtun Nationalist friend has suddenly transformed into an honor-obsessed Pushtun who has ruled out “exhibition” of wives as standard for liberalism. Ironically all I had asked for a simple picture of Bacha Khan’s wife not the picture of his wife in a mini-skirt.)
The Co-editor Pakteahouse Yasser Latif Hamdani has written this piece after a verbal clash with me on Facebook
I share a long history of such disputes from YLH
The latest start with this
http://www.facebook.com/aliarqam#!/photo.php?pid=30952562&id=1540155362&comments
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30952690&id=1540155362&comments
Then he posted this on my wall……
Yasser Latif Hamdani : I have posted the pictures of Jinnah and his family out of the Purdah …can you post Bacha Khan’s wife, sister or daughter’s picture ? or Ubaidullah Sindhi’s?
Mon at 11:49 ·
Comment ·
Aliarqam Durrani…I didnt even care to have collection of their family pictures rather I love ideas….Mon at 14:51 ·
Yasser Latif Hamdani : Well ideas hee sahi… Jinnah organized the women’s national guard…did Bacha Khan organize a similar women’s organization?
Mon at 14:53 ·
http://www.facebook.com/aliarqam#!/ylhamdani?v=feed&story_fbid=108216625864424
And Here is interactions through messages with him….
He tolerate Burqah……So am confused for my version of Women freedom, I oppose Burqah as its a symbol of oppression and tyranny but those who extracts almost every concept from Jinnah’s views and political stunts What is this????
Jinnah: Making of a Myth
Dr Mubarak Ali
Moreover, his image as a “Great Leader” (the Quaid-i-Azam) is presented in the textbooks to mould the mind of the young generation encouraging them to follow in his footstep. Scholars are eulogizing different aspects of his life. A film is screened to counter the film Gandhi in which Attenborough distorts the image of Jinnah. These efforts have made Jinnah sacrosanct. Any criticism of him is regarded a treason. He has become a paragon of super human virtues, beyond all weaknesses normal in human being.
And it is right in case of Dr Sb…
As on Monday, October 24, 2005 it is reported
Dr Mubarak Ali says police harassing and humiliating him“Although I am invited by world universities to deliver lectures on the history of Islam and the subcontinent, in my own country my family and I are harassed and humiliated and my house is raided by a Lahore Police Investigation Wing junior inspector, who is investigating to verify my learning,” internationally known Pakistani historian Dr Mubarak Ali told Daily Times on Sunday.
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had all the qualities and characteristics in his personality which go into the making of a myth. He was reticent, reserved, kept his personal matters secret, behaved coolly and proudly and was not warm towards anybody. Thus he created a halo of awe and fear around himself.
Sri Prakash, the first Indian High Commissioner to Karachi, in his book Pakistan: birth and early years gives an account of a reception which was given by the Governor-General of Pakistan, just after Independence to the diplomatic corps. It was also attended by the party leaders and bureaucrats. According to his version, Mr Jinnah was sitting at a distance alone on a sofa and called one by one those he wanted to talk to. He exchanged notes with each one of them just for five minutes. To the High Commissioner, he appeared a lonely man, averse to people. His serious and sombre expression made all those who interacted with him uneasy in his company.
This conveyed the impression that he was the final authority in every matter. The Muslim League and its leaders were merely rubber stamps. His image of being the sole spokesman of his party and people created a number of myths. For instance, the myth about his serious illness which is recounted by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre in their book Freedom at midnight fascinates everybody and compels readers to take it seriously. The version of their story is:
“If Louis Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi had been aware in April 1947 of one extraordinary secret, the division threatening India might have been avoided. The secret was sealed onto the gray surface of a film, a film that could have upset the Indian political equation and would almost certainly have changed the course of Asian history. Yet, so precious was the secret that that film harboured that even the British CID, one of the most effective investigative agencies in the world, was ignorant of its existence.”
These were the X-rays of Jinnah diagnosed as a TB patient. The authors, after creating a suspense, further write that: “The damage was so extensive that the man whose lungs were on the film had barely two or three years to live. Sealed in an unmarked envelope, those X-rays were locked in the office safe of Dr J.A.L. Patel, a Bombay physician.”
On the basis of the story, Jinnah emerged as the one on whom depended the whole movement of Pakistan. The story further becomes interesting when a Hindu doctor kept the secret at the cost of Indian unity. His professional integrity was more important than his political inclinations.
In 1997, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of India-Pakistan Independence, Patrick French published a book, Liberty or death. After his own investigation, French refutes the whole story narrated by Collins and Lapierre. According to him: “The idea that Jinnah’s poor state of health was a closely guarded secret is absurd: it was referred to in the press at that time, and it is obvious from photographs taken in the mid-1940s that Jinnah was unwell.
Moreover, the reduction of the Muslim League’s wide popular backing to the whim of one man’s ‘rigid and inflexible’ attitude is indicative of the way that Pakistan history has been traduced. A second problem with Collins and Lapierre’s story is that it is not correct. Jinnah did not go to Bombay in May or June 1946, since he was busy in negotiating with Cripps in Simla and New Delhi. Nor did he have a doctor by the name of J.A.L. Patel. Although it is possible that Jinnah had tuberculosis in 1946, there is no evidence among his archive papers to support the theory.”
However, Jinnah himself on many occasions expressed the view that he was the sole creator of Pakistan. In one of his famous quotes, he said that he and his typewriter made Pakistan. The statement disregarded the efforts of his colleagues and the other Muslim League leaders in the Pakistan movement. It also downgraded the people’s participation in the struggle for a separate homeland.
There is evidence that he did not think highly of the leaders of the Muslim League. He found them mediocre and not capable of leading the nation. Perhaps, that was the reason that Jinnah, knowing his fatal illness, accepted ‘the moth eaten and truncated Pakistan’. The later history of Pakistan vindicates Jinnah’s assessment of the Muslim League leaders who miserably failed to solve the problems of a nascent nation.
The failure of these leaders has boosted Jinnah’s image as a superman. He overshadowed everybody. The nation also paid respect to him by naming universities, colleges, airports, roads, hospitals, and institutions of different kinds after him with the result that a citizen of Pakistan feels his presence every where in the country, wherever he goes.
Moreover, his image as a “Great Leader” (the Quaid-i-Azam) is presented in the textbooks to mould the mind of the young generation encouraging them to follow in his footstep. Scholars are eulogizing different aspects of his life. A film is screened to counter the film Gandhi in which Attenborough distorts the image of Jinnah. These efforts have made Jinnah sacrosanct. Any criticism of him is regarded a treason. He has become a paragon of super human virtues, beyond all weaknesses normal in human being.
The reverence accorded to him is such that mere association with him catapults a person from a humble position to the rank of freedom fighter. People take pride in their claim to have shaken hands with him (though he avoided shaking hands with people), or having seen him, talked to him, or merely attended his public meeting. The rulers of Pakistan, realizing the impact of his association, create myths of their links with him. Z.A. Bhutto claimed that as a student he wrote a letter to the Quaid – it is not known whether he replied to that letter or not, Zia’s sycophant bureaucrats discovered a diary of Jinnah (that was the time when Hitler’s diaries were discovered and later on proved false) which disappeared along with him.
Nawaz Sharif, assuming to follow in his footsteps, called himself ‘Quaid-i-Sani’ (the second leader). One such similar example is found in the history of France when Napoleon III made an attempt to revive the image of Napoleon I in order to legitimize his authority. Marx jokingly comments in The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte that “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Nawaz Sharif’s self-given title proves it.
Jinnah has become such a symbol of wisdom in the Pakistani society that people visualize Pakistan with his reference. His vision, his agenda, his dream and his ideals, all remained unaccomplished because he died soon after Independence. It is commonly believed that had he lived some more years, the history of Pakistan would have been different. There are few nations which rely so heavily on one individual.
No doubt, Jinnah was a great leader of his people. He was a man of integrity and honesty, but to idealize him to such an extent as to preempt the emergence of another rank of leaders out of his shadow is strange. Every generation has its own dreams and vision which it wants to accomplish without interference. Not imitation but freedom is required to build a new world. Therefore, an attempt should not be made to repeat but to make new history. People should be liberated from the shadows and allowed to flourish in a free society. Great leaders should be respected but not worshipped.
My view on the whole issue was that
“I as a pashtoon am not in a state of denial…we pashtoons have problems with our socially backwardness..We face extremism in our lines and we have suffered most…We were kept deprived of education and progress…our soil is being used for the last 40 years in proxy wars..which has detoriorated us. All this was for the violant versions of Religion and the strategic depth fallacies…Bacha Khan is relevant as he was the icon of non violance and resistance against state oppression and tyranny by political means…Women at our society are victim of the extremistist ideologies…We have a lot of work to do in this regardi
I dont appreciate ANP for their role played in 70’s am not in agreement with his politics of contained to a province..and have strong reasons against them especially on their stance in Karachi
My views and ideas are not restricted to Pashtoon nationalism..even calling Bacha Khan here is irrelevant…and Gandhi bashing is more condemnable…as apart of Gandhi non violance and freedom struggle his ethics and religious are just ridiculous….
As for as Jinnah is concerned….It is not a new debate from YLH..he is done much TAPASIA in this…and he is apt in twisted logics…as a lawyer by profession…study his comments at PTH on Jinnah even leads to confusion…… See more
I agree he was a pragmatic politician…in YLH words smart politician…using political situations in his favor and giving ambigous remarks regarding religion at different points of time….he was not a die hard secularist, he just knows what to say and how to react in specific circumstances…he shared stages with Peers and demagogues like Bahadur Jang…thoug I agree he was not confused over the shape of the new born state…thats all”
@Ali Arqam Thank you for posting Dr Mubarak Ali’s article.
I am of the view that both Jinnah and Bacha Khan were two of the greatest leaders of today’s Pakistan. However, they were after all humans; shades of grey in their personal and political lives are not hard to find.
In past we had this couple called ‘Tahira Syed and Naeem bukhari’, they were top liberals of Pakistan. Tahira was picked by elder Sharif and untill today we got Bukhari as anti Sharfat.
In new era of ‘good governance’ we got Yaser Latif and Aisha Sarwari…this time its younger ‘Shareef’…..
The guy is now spitting at leaders for pleasure of ‘Big Boss”.
ANP is under fire from right wing, wife swap middle class and mullah since they stand for name change of NWFP….Bacha Khan obviously was not in position to force his wife to wear jeans and get pictured like Yaser Latif selling the ‘progressiveness’ . There might be no lucrative deal to work in Multinationational with reference to wife relations and culture of brought up of women in that times Pakhtun society might not as corporate for profits as YHL enjoys!
Judging a leader on wife’s pictures…only Yaser Latif hamdani can profit from it…otherwise its stupid idea… wife is not a ‘prpetrty’ as YHL sells it for being named. SHe got her mindset and I beleieve that Bacha Khan or Bhutto could not market them as Hamdani is casnhing. They refused to get photoed..Bacha Khan;’s father can not force them, they are not ‘lahori androon shsher’ stuff who will do any thing to ‘promote’ an incompetent and lazy husband on their costs!
Wife picture…no sane person can ask except YHL..who profits form it, totally absurd and immature but he gets blessings of a provinaical head through his wife..so he thinks its the standard to judge leaders.
—–
Warning by the LUBP Administrator
Mr Ahmad Nadeem Gehla, instead of confronting YLH’s article through civilised arguments, you have resorted to slinging mud at his family. This is really disappointing.
Next time, would you please use your real name to post your comments? Thank you.
Needless to say, we will be very pleased to post a well argued rebuttal of YLH’s article if you or any other person wishes to write on this topic.
@Sarah
I dont think so…but Ur views respected…am going through an article on “Pakistan and historical roots of National security state”. I think references to Jinnah will be swallowed……
I couldnt understand the reasons to publish this author here….
who after this episode on FB is described by one of my friend as
“Such guys are looking to establish themselves rather than to understand things. If he called you guys nationalists, pedarasts, commies, pinkos… maybe he is all of the above but is living in denial. From the sallow looks of him, he is a bookworm who doesn’t get any pussy.
As I said, many of my friends have said he is obnoxious, which is why they left PTH. But I work in a different way: I put a leash on mad dogs.
Here is a Gem from the same author…..who today claims to be a critical PPP supporter.
The need for De-Bhuttofication of the Pakistan People’s Party
Yasser Latif Hamdani. September 16, 2007
(It is of the time when BiBi was alive)
Like her father, Benazir Bhutto is incapable of appreciating a higher intellect. She acts like a threatened immature teenager when confronted with someone from within the PPP ranks who can challenge her with ideas or her popularity. The way she speaks of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, PPP’s greatest leader
and the hero of the CJP saga, is indicative of a deep seated inferiority complex that is Cleopetra’s nose for Pakistani politics. Aitzaz is not alone. Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, the eloquent Raza Rabbani is another victim of this mentality. He was not even taken into confidence about the deal between Benazir and Musharraf.
When J A Rahim and Mubashir Hassan convinced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a young charismatic feudal from Sindh, to form a new party with a vision of a progressive and democratic Pakistan, they probably did not have a clue that one day PPP would be ruled by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his family members like a personal Gestapo. J A Rahim, who was later beaten up, humiliated and jailed by Bhutto for criticizing him, was the real ideologue behind the Pakistan People’s Party. He wrote the original manifesto which committed Pakistan People’s Party to strongly left liberal platform. “Islamic Socialism�? a phrase first used by Jinnah in one of his speeches was adopted as the central creed of the party. Islamic Socialism became the rallying cry of left liberal elements of Pakistan. PPP was organized around the slogan “Islam is our religion, democracy is our polity, socialism is our economy and all power to the people�?. It promised in its founding document the fulfillment of the ideal of Pakistan that had led to its creation- a just and egalitarian society where everyone had equal rights.
Idealist Pakistanis – many of whom had participated in the Pakistan movement- joined up the party in large numbers imagining PPP to be finally the party that would pick up from Jinnah had left off. Here was a truly national party organized around on a platform of social justice and equality. Sadly the PPP went down the familiar path of all such parties. Just like the Ba’ath Party forgot its founder Michel Aflaq and was converted into two very similar cults i.e. Saddam Hussain’s and Hafez Al Assad’s cults, PPP forgot its noble objectives and became committed to the ideology of “Bhuttoism�?. If one was to put a finger on it, Bhuttoism was crass blue blooded feudalism and a medievalist approach to power politics. Bhutto was notorious for settling old scores- sometimes generations old- with rivals- both real and imagined. In more ways than one, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Saddam Hussain shared a common world view and sadly a common fate.
If one was to compare Bhutto dynasty – the most apt comparison will be with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Like Nehru, Bhutto was also the scion of British-pampered aristocracy and like him he too was educated abroad. Like Nehru, Bhutto to claimed to be man of the left and like Nehru, Bhutto trained his daughter to succeed him politically. Like Nehru, Bhutto was more concerned with foreign affairs and aspired to be the leader of the third world. There was one major difference though: Nehru seemed- despite all his flaws- committed to the left ideology that he adopted, whereas Bhutto’s commitment to the left was at best wavering. Furthermore, unlike the Bhuttos who were intertwined with the PPP from the beginning, Congress pre-dated the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s ascendancy. Some of its most famous leaders were not from the dynasty. People like Dadabhoy Naoroji, Gokhale, Tilak, Jinnah, Patel and Mohandas Gandhi (no blood relation to Nehru-Gandhi dynasty) were all famous leaders who had helped build the Congress Party. This gave Congress Party a structure ground up which balances out the ruling dynasty and helps given party members some individual freedom. PPP unfortunately has no such structure and Bhutto family is all powerful.
However Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was crucial to the new party. As the only popular ex-member of the regime, Bhutto had the charisma and his stature was given a boost by his actions subsequent to the 1965 war, where the public perception was that Ayub Khan had squandered a terrific victory due to cowardice. The events that led to the separation of East Pakistan and Pakistan’s humiliation are well known and need not be discussed in this article. It may be added though that at least according Rafi Raza – a close confidante- Yahya Khan and the regime actively helped PPP to win the seats it did in West Pakistan as a counter to the Awami League- NAP alliance that threatened the civil-military bureaucracy that had ruled the roost till then. Thus PPP’s first victory in 1970 is clouded in some controversy which has been ignored. The most poignant event in PPP’s history however was the 1977 coup and the politically motivated judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto which forever stamped Bhutto’s martyrdom at the heart of PPP. For almost three decades now we have seen Bhutto family make a mockery of the PPP and the ideals on which it was founded. No doubt the Bhutto cult has sustained PPP but then it has also dwarfed it.
With Murtaza Bhutto murdered and Benazir Bhutto in exile, the PPP leadership has had an opportunity to at least try and outgrow the cult of Bhutto. One thing is for sure. In the last 5 years, PPP in the assembly at least has emerged as a strong force against obscurantism. Without a Bhutto in their midst, the second tier has gotten prominence like never before. While the party is still dominated by Bhutto loyalists and the feudal camp, educated people like Sherry Rahman and Fauzia Wahab are speaking out without making any real reference to the cult of Bhutto. Certainly for a lot of new comers in the PPP, the central plank is not Bhutto but rather the promise of a liberal polity. We hear less of the Pan-Islamist rhetoric, especially the praises of the 1974’s Islamic Summit Conference, the 1974 Ahmaddiya amendment, the introduction of Friday as the weekly holiday and banning of liquor as major achievements of the PPP. Instead a socially liberal vision seems to be autonomously emerging from the party itself. The party now once again attracts the leftist intellectual, the constitutional lawyer and the independent minded journalist – all of whom had been alienated by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter.
Once again the “PPP�? Bar room at the Lahore High Court is at the venue of heated debates between Trotskyites and Stalinists. Once again you have declared Marxists like Ch. Manzoor not only in the party but as elected MNAs. These new recruits do not admire Bhutto blindly. They are alive to his flaws and mistakes and repeatedly caution Benazir Bhutto against committing them again. The Pakistan People’s Party seems well on its way to bury the ghost of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Regardless of whether there is a deal between Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf or not, the wheel of change has begun to move. In fact one thing seems quite certain: Benazir Bhutto would be the last of the Bhuttos to lord over the PPP. A strong and vibrant democratic PPP will be the best guarantee of a democratic Pakistan.
Gems from CriticalPPP spporter
“The Pakistan People’s Party seems well on its way to bury the ghost of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Regardless of whether there is a deal between Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf or not, the wheel of change has begun to move. In fact one thing seems quite certain: Benazir Bhutto would be the last of the Bhuttos to lord over the PPP.”
Am a bit curious. What were Bacha Khan’s actual views on women’s empowerment?
Abdul,
ghaffar khan was opposed to the custom of veiling, and believed in equal rights for women and their participation in political life.
http://tinyurl.com/yd6z5pn
http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?129-Khudai-Khidmatgar-Nun-Paroon!!/page2
“Ghaffar Khan was a great champion of women’s rights. He urged upon his people to recognize the value and importance of women as human beings and as equal partners in the society and fought against the traditions, customs and laws which discriminated against women. He openly expressed his displeasure about the Pathan custom of accepting money in return for giving the hand of their girl in marriage. He often referred to his own marriage. Almost a century ago, in 1912, he got married, but his wife’s father did not demand any money. Ghaffar Khan often praised his father–in–law in public for being “the first Khan not to accept money for the hands of his daughter” and also for making a will bequeathing a full share of inheritance to his female relatives. Besides projecting the modernistic approach of the Khan towards social issues including women issues, such examples clearly impacted upon the social and political consciousness of the male–dominated Pathan society (16). The approach, moreover, had a transformative effect as he often referred to Islamic teachings in this context.”
that’s why I am confused as to the purpose of this article unless the author has some information regarding bacha khan’s treatment of women or his wife that is not publicly known? In that case he should present the facts so that we can judge for ourselves. Just speculating that because there are no pictures of his wife does not seem to be a strong basis for such a harsh article.
also if I am not mistaken he opened schools for girls as well as for boys; here is another relevant excerpt:
http://www.asianreflection.com/developmentrevealed.shtml
Khan was unimpressed by excessive materialism — he believed Muslims lost their ‘honour, dignity and sank into ignominy’ when they ‘began to love wealth and possessions’ (Khan 1969:31) — but it is wrong to assume that he neglected traditional development per se. There are two objects in view,’ he said repeatedly, ‘to liberate the country and to feed the starving and clothe the naked’ (Easwaran 2000: 133). He opened his first school in his home village of Utmanzai when he was just 20 years old. It was an ‘instant success’ (Easwaran 2000: 66). His efforts eventually led to a network of schools open to all irrespective of caste or religion, whose curriculum included history, language, mathematics, and vocational training like carpentry and weaving (Shah 1999: 23). Later, when the KKs were formed, education and sanitation were constant themes in training camps and daily life. Upon joining KKs had to take solemn vow, which included promising ‘to devote at least two hours a day to social work’ (Khan 1969: 97). Villages were swept clean, latrines built, and drains dug (Banerjee 2000: 53). Stories abound of Khan changing Pathan attitudes toward menial and entrepreneurial work by his personal example. ‘He particularly stressed Pathan’s taking to professions other than agriculture, since there was not enough land to support them all as farmers. He even opened a shop at Utmanzai to set an example to fellow tribesmen’ (Easwaran 2000: 82). A journal, Pakhtun, first published in 1928, contained articles on Pathan patriotism, language and literature, as well as political essays, dramas, religious writings, guides to hygiene, and contributions by women which repeatedly questioned their oppression (Shah 1999, Easwaran 2000). Women joined the KKs, girls schools were opened, and Khan had his sister give speeches, a major innovation. Khan said ‘God makes no distinction between men and women. . . . If we achieve success and liberate the motherland, we solemnly promise you [women] that you will get your rights’ (Easwaran 2000: 133).”
Have you seen the picture of the daughter of Alleged Father of the Nation?
Have you seen the picture of the wife of Alleged Qauid-e-Millat?
@Rabia Thank you, Rabia. This is really helpful. The question you posed to the author of this article is a valid one. Perhaps he may wish to share any further information on this topic.
@Sharif Loog
My dear Mr. Gehla…. The kind of “close relations” you are insinuating is not the preserve of middle classias ———-Censored——–
If anything it is to the credit of the current democratic system that people of divergent views can come together and contribute to the state’s benefit. —————–Censored————–
Rabia/others….
If Bacha Khan was really serious about empowerment of women, where are those pictures…. that is all I am asking.
PS: Begum Nusrat Bhutto was widely photographed as the first lady of Pakistan. So there is no comparison between Bhutto and Bacha Khan either.
Hamdani Sahab,
I hope Sharif Log know the punishment of “False Accusation” of “Zina – Adultery” on someone who is innocent. Seven deadliest also include “False Accusation of Zian on someone who is innocent” [Narrated by Hazrat Ali in Bukhari] – Regarding Royal Families “Sharif Log” should have read Us Bazar Mein by Shorish Kashmiri.
Thank you Mughal sb. . I wish these people had some shame. I mean for how long is this male dominated society continue to slander women just because they choose to work.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed – who despite all her faults showed the women of the world what a proud and self confident modern woman can do- would be turning in her grave at how a person claiming to support her is resorting to such shamelessness as Mr. Gehla.
Too bad it is not the age of prophets, or I wonder how many Surah Nurs would take to raise these people from their deep slumber.
to all of you . why we have to prove either Jinnah or Bacha khan was regressive ;to prove other was a liberal . i’m not getting it ???
Yaseer requested me to condemn Gehla’s abusive remarks.
As a part of the LUBP editorial team.He is already condemned on my part, and I commend this warning
Warning by the LUBP Administrator
Mr Ahmad Nadeem Gehla, instead of confronting YLH’s article through civilised arguments, you have resorted to slinging mud at his family. This is really disappointing.
Next time, would you please use your real name to post your comments? Thank you.
Needless to say, we will be very pleased to post a well argued rebuttal of YLH’s article if you or any other person wishes to write on this topic.
In the same way I also warn U avoid reciprocation….
“My dear Mr. Gehla…. The kind of “close relations” you are insinuating is not the preserve of middle classias like myself and my wife…. On the other hand your wife – as you often claim – is from the Royal Family… we know that Royal Families do indulge in such activities … so you better look out for your wife… after all Tahira Syed was the daughter of a Malika who was from a princely court… no?
Just because you Gehlas have a habit of utilizing your “Royal” wives in this manner doesn’t mean you shamelessly expect nonsense like this from everyone else.”
Its very shmeful that two well educated persons are behaving in such a shameful manner…..
Well Ali nothing I can do to “reciprocrate”. Gehla is out of control . He thinks he can stop me by abusing my family. Go ahead. It is indicative of his neech mentality.
My comments were purely in reaction. You and I have known each other for two years and have clashed more than anyone else …have we ever abused each other’s families?
In any event I have no desire to abuse women like this.
There is no moral equivalence. I wrote a simple article asking about Bacha Khan’s attitudes towards women and I explained its context which you confirmed.
I am not sure why everything iis agenda-based? I am a Jinnah-admirer. Hence I wrote this article in response to your comments. It is as simple as that. Why must false stories imputing reputations of people like my wife be concocted as a result of what I have written? What kind of honor based nonsense is this?
@YLH
“My comments were purely in reaction.” is not an enough Reason for reciprocating in this way…
Both of U, Please forgive Miss Aisha Sarwari and Mrs. Gehla in Ur ridiculous cross comments….They have nothing to do with Ur personal ideals
IMO, this entire article was a waste of time for LUBP. Why was it posted? Just to satisfy the personal ego of Yasser Hamdani! I don’t know why Bacha Khan didn’t flash his wives photos. Perhaps because both died so early or because it was the early 20th century and he didn’t engage in frequent narcissistic bouts with his newly acquired blackberry like Yasser and post meaningless FB photos all the time.
While Jinnah’s Muslim League was a party of muslim elites, NAP/ANP is a grass roots based party. Today, we can all see the state of the various PMLs after they have been used as toilet paper by various military dictators. Today it is ANP along which oppose the Taliban while the Punjabi PMLs are licking their boots. Today Yasser idolizes Jinnah and still cannot bring himself to call out Taliban advocates like Imran Khan. He belongs to the same racist Punjabi elite who want to foster their chauvinist views on the rest of us. His article on the PPP and his shameless plug for Aitzaz makes me wonder if this site is about the critical supporters of the PPP or another bunch of confused middle class revolutionaries who supported the case of the corrupt PCO judges so that they can lynch those PPP leaders that are not acceptable to the Punjabi dominated establishment. Gehla, by making personal digs about Yasser, you have helped him get unnecessary sympathy. This guy is a cancer who has driven away many moderate and liberal posters away from chowk and now PTH. After seeing the regressive and army backed judges whose controversial restoration he backed, restart the lynching process of the PPP, Yasser has put his vicious anti-Bhutto attacks on hold and has latched onto rehashing the latest middle class fairy tales out Jinnah. Get over it Yasser and move on for all of us.
Hamdani Sahab,
Muslims of Pakistani Society demand Lady Doctors for their Female Family Members yet discourage their own Female Members to become doctor by enrolling in CO-EDUCATION.
This religious class of Pakistan has no shame whatsoever they forget that these very Mullahs Mawdudi and Shaif Usmani and many others supported “a Rafizi Lady Fatima Jinnah” and even issued Fatwa to justify Women as a Leader whereas in Islam no such option is available. Why the hell they bring Islam into every damn thing. You should have listened and read the Language “Several Deobandi “Ulemas” “used against “Late. Ms. Fatimah Jinnah”, even pimps of Heera Mandi would have been ashamed in view of Filth Unleashed by Mawlana Ghulam Ghaus Hazarvi [at the behest of General Ayub Khan].
One of the strangest breed is Mullah Class of Pakistan and India as well who issue Fatwa of Takfeer against any moving thing and yet they are audacious enough to do politics in Congress [Minus 3 Deobandi Scholars every damn Mullah whether Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahl-e-Hadith, or Ahrari was sympathetic to Congress which was Secular in nature] and later most of the these Maulvis “Marnay Kay Liay Pakistan Agay”.
Tragedy of Pakistani Muslim is this that they see everything through Pakistani Islam and when somebody ask question about the religion of Jinnah and several of his own Appointed “Zimmi Ministers” then you should have seen the faces of such Pakistanis. They praise Sir Syed and when somebody bring up the topic of Sir Syed’s Racist behaviour then you should have seen those very faces who often praise Sir Syed and even more when they are told that Sir Syed had rejected Hadith then they say “Sir Syed Gumrahi Ka Manba Tha” but when someone tell them it was Sir Syed who first talked about Two Nation Theory then confusion of Pakistani Muslim grow even and when somebody tell them that Deobandi Calamity Hussein Ahmed Madni had declared that “Hindu and Muslim are single Qaum” then these very Pakistanis raise their hands and pray to Allah “Is Gumrah ko Uthalay Yeh Pakistanion Mein Fitnah Daal Raha Hai”
Even more shameful are thos Khilafa type of Pakistani Scholar like Dr. Israr Ahmed [Former Deputy of Deviant Khomeini] who criticized Secular System and shamelessly use Secular Freedom provided by Indian Government for preaching Islam.
Former Deputy of Deviant Mawdudi b/o Khomeini
@Ch. Ahmed Khan
Ch. Ahmed Khan,
I think PTH has attacked Imran Khan more than even this website. So don’t make up stories as you go along. Ali Arqam will attest to it.
Your argument in defence of Bacha Khan makes no sense either…. Ruttie Jinnah’s pictures are from 1916 onwards… the point I was making was that Bacha Khan was not the liberator of women that some people have been making him out to be. Don’t tell me Jinnah had a blackberry too ? Oh my god I thought only Obama did (incidentally the same model as my latest upgrade – how that for narcissistic) …
“While Jinnah’s Muslim League was a party of muslim elites”
Read Hamza Alavi’s Salariat thesis. Muslim League before Jinnah was a party of the Muslim elites. Jinnah re-organized it on Congress lines post 1937…. and it became a mass party… even if a disorganized one. To suggest that PMLs i.e starting with Ayub’s council Muslim League, Zia’s Junejo/Nawaz Muslim League or Musharraf’s “Quaid-e-Azam” Muslim League had anything to do with J-man’s original League is to delude one’s self. The real inheritors of J-Man’s Muslim League were PPP and Awami League (originally “Jinnah Awami Muslim League”) … if you don’t buy my thesis… even today check out the number of second and third generation politicians in the PPP whose fathers’ generation was involved with Jinnah and Pakistan Movement.
As for “anti-Bhutto” digs… there was a time when I used to be all emotional about Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (chowk is full ylh “Jiye Bhutto” sloganeering)…but I honestly believe that PPP has to come out of that ultimately. My analysis is that Bhutto’s Islamic 1973 constitution and his Islamization let down the real PPP and the real basis for it. Instead Bhutto began to appease the Islamists… which did no one any good. My family has been in PPP since 1969… I have always voted for the PPP… even when PPP stabbed us in the back.
Despite being a critic… I support PPP because it is the only national, relatively secular, modernist party out there… and I might take “digs” at Bhutto … but like Aitzaz Ahsan … I will always remain a loyalist ..
“This guy is a cancer who has driven away many moderate and liberal posters away from chowk and now PTH”
Nonsense. Jamaat-e-Islami’s mouthpiece “Daily Ummat” routinely attacks me by name for using the blogosphere to spread pernicious liberal atheist ideas. PTH is full of liberals, progressives and moderates….PTH is the bullwark of liberal secularism in Pakistani blogosphere. The only people “driven away” are those whose “liberalism” was skin deep.
So try and understand…. supporting Bacha Khan or a party like ANP does not make any one liberal. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto hated Bacha Khan and ANP… are you going to claim the same thing about ZAB? I don’t even hate Bacha Khan or ANP or whatever. I merely ask for balance.
Dear Chaudry Sahab,
There is no place is Racism in Islam yet you may find many Uelma of the Indian Sub-Continent drowned in it particularly read the material by Ashraf Ali Thanvi and many other with words like “Chamar, Dhobi, Kunjra and many cannot be equated with Syed, Mughal and Pathans. Similarly, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s pearls “Ethnic and Racial Bias” is very evident particularly against Bengalis.
Well said sir. The confusion is so self evident.
And many of these Mullahs then joined hands with ANP to form the Nizam-e-Mustafa… now ANP wallahs are abusing me for blaspheming against Bacha Khan
I criticize Zulfikar Ali Bhutto because like Jinnah and Benazir, I consider him my own leader (despite the fact that he ex-communicated my father’s community)…. here is an article I wrote last year commemorating his martyrdom…. I would request LUBP to publish it.
http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/jiye-bhutto-2/
Jiye Bhutto
Jump to Comments
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
Thirty years this hour Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was murdered through a farce judicial process, which is to this date not quoted as a precedent in any court of Pakistani law. It was -as Benazir Bhutto put it- not a trial for murder but murder of a trial. All norms and nuances of Pakistan’s Anglo-Saxon legal system were set aside to carry out the murder of one of our greatest and most influential- though flawed-politicians.
In part, however, the circumstances of Bhutto’s death were of his own making. He was not guilty of the crime he was accused of and death penalty certainly did not apply given the divided verdict, but he had himself laid the groundwork for judicial persecution of political opponents. The treatment of Asfandyar Wali Khan, ANP’s current president, at the hands of the police officials in “Hayat Khan Sherpao Case” or the victimization of senior politicians such as Wali Khan and others were allegedly carried on his orders. For this and many other issues, Bhutto must be studied critically in Pakistan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had alarmed many a people both inside and outside the country. His insistence on having a nuclear programme did not sit well with Pakistan’s American allies nor did his decision to quit western pacts including CENTO, SEATO and the Commonwealth of Nations. Bhutto’s disastrous Nationalization policy won him enemies in the business community in Pakistan. The military operation in Balochistan alienated an entire province and Bhutto’s appeasement of the Mullahs through “the Islamic constitution of 1973″, the Ahmaddiya amendment and other such actions did not sit well with left-liberals who formed a major chunk of his support base. But what happened on April 4th, 1979 changed the course of history for Pakistan, the Muslim World and the third world.
Bhutto had embarked on a revolutionary foreign policy. He had sought to bring the oil rich Arab states together with RCD countries i.e. Turkey, Iran and Pakistan -three non-Arab Muslim majority countries- to form a grand Muslim political and economic bloc which would also form the core for a wider third world bloc in close coordination with Communist China. He thus wanted to displace India- now increasingly “cooperatively” aligned to the USSR for the leadership of the third world. By doing this, he wanted to forge a new global super power which controlled a large chunk of world’s oil supply, which could pool together skilled resources and which could hold the balance vis a vis USA and USSR. The Islamic Summit Conference that Bhutto convened in Lahore was said to be magical and created hope for a new Islamic renaissance. This was Bhutto’s vision- he saw himself as an Islamic Napoleon or an Islamic Alexander- the answer to Iqbal’s prayer and the completion of a millenial vision for the global Muslim world. It was grandiose and self congratulatory.
This vision had profound consequences for the powers that be. Not only would this mean dependency of the existing global super powers on this third super power for fuel, it would have its own dangers for Israel and this would obviously not go down well with Washington. Pakistan’s active military support to Egypt and Syria during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and Bhutto’s statements convinced the policy makers in Washington that Bhutto’s future ”Islamic Bomb” would several targets one of which could be Israel. Bhutto was just too dangerous and “unbalanced” to be allowed to operate.
Bhutto’s faults are many and I have written extensively on them. Today, however, I remember the man who could have been the third world’s greatest hope but who was snatched from Pakistan and the third world by forces of status quo. But in the hearts of millions he taught to speak and tell their landowners to go to hell, he lives on. And Bhutto’s contribution – a unanimous constitution and a federal party – shall always keep him relevant in Pakistani politics. Let us learn from his mistakes and celebrate his contribution to our country.
Jiye Bhutto.
ZAB was hanged at 2:12 AM on the morning of April 4th, 1979.
I criticize Bhutto because like Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto… I consider him my own leader… his picture hangs right next to Quaid-e-Azam in my house. I admire the idea of what he could have been … but oppose what he reduced himself to.
Jiye Bhutto
Jump to Comments
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
Thirty years this hour Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was murdered through a farce judicial process, which is to this date not quoted as a precedent in any court of Pakistani law. It was -as Benazir Bhutto put it- not a trial for murder but murder of a trial. All norms and nuances of Pakistan’s Anglo-Saxon legal system were set aside to carry out the murder of one of our greatest and most influential- though flawed-politicians.
In part, however, the circumstances of Bhutto’s death were of his own making. He was not guilty of the crime he was accused of and death penalty certainly did not apply given the divided verdict, but he had himself laid the groundwork for judicial persecution of political opponents. The treatment of Asfandyar Wali Khan, ANP’s current president, at the hands of the police officials in “Hayat Khan Sherpao Case” or the victimization of senior politicians such as Wali Khan and others were allegedly carried on his orders. For this and many other issues, Bhutto must be studied critically in Pakistan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had alarmed many a people both inside and outside the country. His insistence on having a nuclear programme did not sit well with Pakistan’s American allies nor did his decision to quit western pacts including CENTO, SEATO and the Commonwealth of Nations. Bhutto’s disastrous Nationalization policy won him enemies in the business community in Pakistan. The military operation in Balochistan alienated an entire province and Bhutto’s appeasement of the Mullahs through “the Islamic constitution of 1973″, the Ahmaddiya amendment and other such actions did not sit well with left-liberals who formed a major chunk of his support base. But what happened on April 4th, 1979 changed the course of history for Pakistan, the Muslim World and the third world.
Bhutto had embarked on a revolutionary foreign policy. He had sought to bring the oil rich Arab states together with RCD countries i.e. Turkey, Iran and Pakistan -three non-Arab Muslim majority countries- to form a grand Muslim political and economic bloc which would also form the core for a wider third world bloc in close coordination with Communist China. He thus wanted to displace India- now increasingly “cooperatively” aligned to the USSR for the leadership of the third world. By doing this, he wanted to forge a new global super power which controlled a large chunk of world’s oil supply, which could pool together skilled resources and which could hold the balance vis a vis USA and USSR. The Islamic Summit Conference that Bhutto convened in Lahore was said to be magical and created hope for a new Islamic renaissance. This was Bhutto’s vision- he saw himself as an Islamic Napoleon or an Islamic Alexander- the answer to Iqbal’s prayer and the completion of a millenial vision for the global Muslim world. It was grandiose and self congratulatory.
This vision had profound consequences for the powers that be. Not only would this mean dependency of the existing global super powers on this third super power for fuel, it would have its own dangers for Israel and this would obviously not go down well with Washington. Pakistan’s active military support to Egypt and Syria during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and Bhutto’s statements convinced the policy makers in Washington that Bhutto’s future ”Islamic Bomb” would several targets one of which could be Israel. Bhutto was just too dangerous and “unbalanced” to be allowed to operate.
Bhutto’s faults are many and I have written extensively on them. Today, however, I remember the man who could have been the third world’s greatest hope but who was snatched from Pakistan and the third world by forces of status quo. But in the hearts of millions he taught to speak and tell their landowners to go to hell, he lives on. And Bhutto’s contribution – a unanimous constitution and a federal party – shall always keep him relevant in Pakistani politics. Let us learn from his mistakes and celebrate his contribution to our country.
Jiye Bhutto.
ZAB was hanged at 2:12 AM on the morning of April 4th, 1979.
Here is my article which I wrote optimistically on her return:
The Rise Of Benazir Bhutto
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Yasser Latif Hamdani
Benazir is back. Without drumming about the salience of the events of last week, it should suffice to say that she is back with a bang- a bang that resonated — where no previous Pakistani bang resonated – in that hallowed hall of international diplomacy that is United Nations Security Council. It seems that the international community does not seem to notice the loss of hundreds of innocent lives anywhere in the third world, unless of course it came close to killing someone of significance on the global stage. Still there is no downplaying that the fact as far as significance goes, Benazir Bhutto is the most significant individual on the world stage right now. Linked with her is the future of a country of 160 million people, the second most populous nuclear-armed Muslim majority nation, and a country that has played a pivotal role in global politics since the Second World War. Therefore, it is no surprise that when Benazir travels in and around Pakistan this week, the world will be watching her every move.
A lot has been written, indeed right from her first homecoming, about the comparison with her famous father, the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The elder Bhutto was a global figure in his own right. Because he was passionate and patriotic, he electrified the people of Pakistan. On the global stage he positioned himself as a great third world and Islamic bloc leader challenging the might of the super power – though he was enough of a diplomat cut from the cloth of Talleyrand himself to have a good working relationship with the US. He failed because Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was, despite his Berkeley and Oxford education, at the end of the day steeped in the feudal politics of honor and revenge. Never financially corrupt, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was capable of considerable cruelty and guile towards his enemies real or perceived and in many ways, he had risen too high too early. This was also the cause of his downfall. Had he become the Prime Minister a decade or two late, he would have a statesman of the highest caliber who would have never made the tremendous mistakes he did. He paid for those with his life. If Benazir Bhutto becomes the Prime Minister next year, she will be 55 years of age. That is five years older than the age her father died at. Her first two terms in office came at a difficult time. She was a newly married young woman who carried the burden of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s martyrdom on her arms. Her mistakes were horrible and they dented her credibility considerably. The Benazir of 2007 is markedly different from Bhutto’s daughter of 1986. While she owes her constituency to her father, Benazir’s style of politics is at considerable variance to his, at time diametrically opposite.
For one Benazir Bhutto is unabashedly pro-West. While her father had quit the British commonwealth — a largely ceremonial cultural fraternity – it was Benazir who re-joined it. Unlike her father, she is not swayed by the romance of revolution. Her politics is not red by any stretch of imagination. We got a glimpse of that when the stock exchange shot up to unprecedented levels on the day of her return. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the other hand is rightly credited with the most devastating blow to the business sector of Pakistan with his ill-advised nationalization. In many ways despite being the inheritor of the glorious Bhutto legacy of populist politics, Benazir is increasingly coming into her own as a leader who has ready to make hard choices and take tough decisions. But does she have it in her to carry out the monumental task before her? The very fabric of Pakistan’s society has been torn asunder by parochial concerns and the military establishment’s manipulation of right wing Islamic groups. All over the world Pakistan has been projected – with some truth to it albeit exaggerated – as a violent and extremist society. In these circumstances, even the most well-meaning and honest of politicians like Imran Khan are clueless. They honestly believe that religious extremism is not an issue in Pakistan. The media — completely free and independent – reflects the middle class’ flirtation with this the re-hashed and Islamised “anti-Americanism”. A TV anchor who narrowly escaped death last week in the Karachi suicide bombing was seen lamenting the fact that while condemning Islamic radicals for their activities, no one condemned the “liberal fascists” for their actions. As if the “liberal fascists” were going about blowing themselves up in crowds of people.
Benazir must — to use her father’s phrase – pick up the pieces. Her stand must be clear. The answers are well known: While respecting its Islamic heritage and sense of identity, Pakistan must become for all practical purposes a secular state with clear separation of church and state. She must undo the terrible legacy of outward and hypocritical Islamization, which ironically was initiated by her own father. As the leader of the largest and the strongest party she must go at it alone without any futile consensus building exercise. Benazir must learn to live in the solitude of great leaders. She must leave her father behind and rise above him not for the sake of popularity but posterity. Despite her many faults, Benazir today commands the support of the people. For once Uncle Sam also seems to be on the right side of the Pakistani current, dragging the army and the establishment along kicking and screaming. The soldier-president must also know that while he will fade away into oblivion, Benazir is the best hope for the future of his agenda of enlightened moderation. A democratically elected strong woman Prime Minister like her alone can further the little good Musharraf has achieved. He must therefore come out in total support of Benazir Bhutto.
Also if and when this battle is fought and won, Benazir must also preside over the institutionalization of the great Pakistan People’s Party as a truly broad based political party of the masses, no longer dependant on caste and biradari politics of rural Punjab and Sindh. The Pirs and the Makhdooms must ultimately give way to party workers like Jehangir Badr and Fauzia Wahab — extracted from the people. Pakistan People’s Party must also, for itself and for Pakistan, break away from the South Asian tradition of the cult of personality. Benazir must ensure that she is absolutely the last Bhutto to lord over this party, but is the first of many Benazirs that the party will produce from within its cadres in the service of the nation. Only then will she be able to go down in history as a truly epoch-making figure. May Allah help her succeed in her stated objectives and protect her from those who want to harm her. Amen!
The writer is a lawyer. Email: yasser.hamdani@gmail.com
Hamdani Sahab,
PNA, MMA, IJI was basically “Firq Paraston Ka Ittehad Firqa Parasti Kay Khilaf” Alliance of Sect Mongers against Sectarianism. I still remember as to how Mian Tufail and Professor Ghafoor Visited Data Darbar to lay floral wreath [to get quick support of Barelviya] whereas if you talk of Islam no Shirnes and Pucca Graves are allowed what to talk of Data Darbar.
“ANP wallahs are abusing me for blaspheming against Bacha Khan”
U are a good case of “Nargisiat”.(narcissism).
Dislodging a Dictator
Yasser Latif Hamdani August 6, 2003
Tags: coup , military-rule
Search for a genuine leader
General Musharraf, our current dictator and illegitimate president, maybe a liberal progressive man, but like any good politician he too has his constituency to think about. His much touted objective of a ’modern liberal muslim state’ can only be
a distant second to his real political objective i.e. keeping army entrenched in power. Those like me who had put their faith in this self avowed Ataturk admirer who didn’t tire to speak of Jinnah’s vision, Musharraf’s actions have been a bitter pill to swallow. The important lesson we have learnt is not to put our faith in unelected uniformwallahs.
For the past few months, we have seen the drama unfold in NWFP. MMA went on a rampage, passing bills curbing basic human rights, and then sending vigilantes in the street to tear up billboards with women’s pictures on them. Given Pakistan’s newly emerging importance w.r.t Gwadar Port that future Dubai, this sent shivers down the spines of the leaders of the western world. After all Baluchistan also has a MMA government in charge.
Pakistan is considered too important to be lost to talibanization. So who did the west look to as the savior. Obviously our valiant man in Khaki! Boldly the brave general rose to the occasion declaring MMA activities in NWFP to be out of place in the modern world and vowing to put an end to talibanization. All this was days before his historic visit to the United States. This was cheap popularity at the expense of Pakistan, and the General seems to love every minute of it.
There is no tussle between the MMA and the Government. They are and will be for many years to come ’natural allies’ as aptly put by Sheikh Rasheed. MMA’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Maulana Fazlurrahman, the father of the taliban, has a history of switching sides. In the past his religious beliefs couldn’t stop him from supporting the Pakistan Peoples’ Party, a party which is ideologically the exact opposite of JUI. Historically his father, (even more spread out horizontally) Mufti Mahmood is on the record with the statement : ’We were not part of the sin of making Pakistan’. Yet this same Maulana Fazlurrahman is today the bridge that unites Musharraf and Qazi Hussain Ahmed. Sooner or later there will be compromise between MMA and the Military junta, and losers will be the people of Pakistan. Army will have firm control of the country and so it shall be in Pakistan for many years to come.
Some 40 years ago, one resilient lady, who went by the name Fatima Jinnah, alone had the courage to challenge a dictator in a substantial manner. She was ridiculed by the establishment, humiliated and finally murdered. Then too the dictator was a man held to be a liberal and progressive patriot. He too had spoken of Economic stability, and development, but he too had trampled peoples’ rights especially their right to choose their own government. Despite being a liberal, he also had made alliances with the religious elements much to the detriment of this country. He too had rigged the elections and had depended on an establishment manufactured Muslim League to legitimise his rule. He too was ill advised by people who only told him what he wanted to hear. However he too soon lost legitimacy after the elections. Ayub Khan died an old haggard and humiliated man. This I fear is going to be end of this dictator as well.
The million dollar question is Do we have a Fatima Jinnah in our midst today? Someone who is willing to take on this dictator as a matter of principle and rub his nose in the dirt? I don’t think there is one as yet, but I believe if anyone has the potential to play that role, it has to be Benazir Bhutto. If you have a sense of history, the similarities between the two women are uncanny. First of all both of them are carrying the mantle of the men in their life ie Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Both are pitted against a system that is created to keep the incumbent in power. Both are the victims of a military bureaucracy which will stop at nothing to dislodge them. Just like the Muslim League, Jinnah’s own party, was hijacked by the establishment then (and today), similarly a substantial part of the Pakistan peoples’ Party sits shoulder to shoulder with our President calling itself the PPP(Patriots).
However such historical similarities don’t alone qualify Benazir Bhutto to be our leader in such crisis. While Fatima Jinnah won universal admiration within Pakistan and abroad, Benazir remains controversial. She has made a lot of mistakes that she has to atone for. Unlike Fatima Jinnah (and Suu Kiyi), she doesn’t have the courage to come to Pakistan and fight the dictator on his own turf. Yet if you look around, she is the only politician who commands true public support and admiration. Even in the last tampered elections, her party won the most popular vote. When you compare her to other public leaders today, she alone emerges as a sane rational and urbane politician who has a vision for Pakistan. But first she has to win the confidence of those she has disillusioned. She can start doing that by coming back to Pakistan and putting up a valiant fight at home.
As for General Musharraf, if he too has a sense of history, he will realize that hindering Benazir Bhutto would be disastrous, both for himself and Pakistan.
Long Live a Secular Democratic Pakistan
When someone asked Sardar Sher Baz Mazari during PNA Days that the govt. has registered a case of underwear theft against Begum Naseem Wali Khan, Sher Baz [was in PNA] quickly replied “Naseem doesn’t wear underwear”.
Zardari’s Moment
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
In a strange twist, the political situation in the subcontinent looks exactly where it was in the 1970s. Then too Pakistan had come out of a dictatorship which had crumbled under the weight of a grave crisis and an immense tragedy. In 1971 it was the fall of Dhaka that had forced Yahya Khan to depart. In 2008, the Lawyer’s Movement and Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom brought Musharraf down. Then it was Bhutto who replaced Yahya as the president and civil martial law administrator. Today we have Bhutto’s son in law, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari as our president and statesman who is at the head of Pakistan People’s Party. In India it is the same Congress Party and in Bangladesh Awami League has won a landslide. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
It is not a popular thing to say so, but President Zardari proved to be a very impressive operator in 2008. Challenged so soon with a conflict of international proportions, the President has managed to keep India at bay and win unanimous confidence of the world through his adept handling of this crisis. He has so far walked the tightrope well carrying with him a motley crew of ethno-nationalists who had in past been at odds with his own party while also keeping an increasingly bellicose former ally Nawaz Sharif in check. We might have in the President a statesman who is moved by the consideration of how he might be judged by posterity. Indeed he seems hungry to erase his reputation as Mr. 10 percent and reinvent himself instead as a global leader.
But his greatest test will not come from India or war but his own ability to leave behind a lasting legacy: a stable democratic Pakistan based on constitution and rule of law. It may be said that Zardari has managed to take the wind out of the Lawyer’s Movement successfully, but this would be a terrible trap if he is looking for a permanent relevance in Pakistan’s history. A part of me still believes that Zardari will restore Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry one of these days and this author hopes it is sooner than later. But that would not be enough. He must also cut down presidential powers by undoing 58 2 (B) as soon as possible. It might cut down the importance of the office of the President but will help raise Zardari’s own stature manifolds. He must also move decisively towards the vision of Pakistan that Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ali Jinnah had given it: a democratic, liberal and a constitutionally secular Pakistan for increasingly this country stands at the brink of falling into the abyss that is the wrong side of history. At the same time, he needs to fix the civil-military relations in this country which are at its lowest ebb. Pakistan’s armed forces, through their ill-fated sojourns in politics have alienated a large section of society and without a strong and popular national army, Pakistani nationhood is only going to erode. But above all, he must ensure that he does not attach himself to power and quits after his first term in office allowing his party to grow under his able guidance.
Relationship with the US will be another challenge which shall require a masterstroke of diplomacy both domestically and internationally. Zardari understands that Pakistan’s relationship with the US is essential for both our security and economic future. He would do well to ignore those- both on the left and right- who advise the government to take a sterner approach with the US. Here he must realize that elements within Pakistan’s security apparatus will try and foment the anti-American sentiment to bring the PPP government down. It seems that having taken the u-turn on Taliban, this group is not quite ready to take a similar u-turn on its perceived strategic assets that the various Lashkars of the 1990s are imagined by it. It is possible that these Lashkars might be deployed internally to against the PPP government. Zardari must outflank this re-alignment of the security apparatus with rogue elements. Here General Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani will play a pivotal role for the armed forces. He no doubt realizes that the best course of action for the Pakistan Army is to become a bulwark of Pakistan’s constitutional democracy, for only that will sustain Pakistan and without a Pakistan there can be no Army.
The President is lucky to have seasoned politicians from South Punjab like Prime Minister Gilani and Foreign Minister Qureshi at his disposal. He has good counsel in form of Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rahman. His governor in Punjab, Salman Taseer, has proven himself to be a rock in face of PML-N’s right wing storm. Statesmanship, however, calls for Zardari to mend his fences with two of PPP’s oldest warriors Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan. As Pakistan moves from crisis to crisis, Zardari will have to call upon these two men sooner than later. With these two men firmly back in his fold, Zardari will finally be able to confront the challenge that Sharif brothers and their cheer leaders in the establishment are predictably going to mount soon. For all of the democratic noise that the Sharif brothers make, they have “repented” for their sins and are likely to be reinstated as the favored option of the right leaning elements within the establishment. PPP is likely to come up against the same forces that thwarted Pakistan’s democratic development in 1954, 1958, 1965, 1970, 1977, 1990, 1996 and 1999. What form it will take remains to be determined.
It is here that the President’s mettle shall be tested. This is the moment that Zardari must seize- both for himself and Pakistan.
Yasser Latif Hamdani is a lawyer based in Islamabad and blogs on hotelmohenjodaro.blogspot.com.
Remembering the Dream
By Yasser Latif Hamdani (On Benazir’s Martyrdom)
Pakistan is mourning. It is not just Benazir Bhutto but the dream of Pakistan itself that is in pieces.Pakistan was envisaged as a modern democratic homeland for the Muslim minority of British India as a last resort by Pakistan’s founding father Mahomed Ali Jinnah, who had fought for it to ensure the political and economic future of his people. As a modern Muslim Jinnah sought to protect the Muslims’ economic and political rights from what he viewed as a devious alliance between the caste Hindu leadership and the Muslim clergy. Failure of Gandhi and the Congress Party to recognize the secular concerns of liberal Muslims like Jinnah deeming the Muslim clergy to represent the Muslims led to Pakistan’s creation. Jinnah’s Pakistan was to be a land free of exploitation, religious exclusion, bigotry and intolerance. It was this dream that Benazir and her father echoed, though not always consistently, making the Bhuttos immensely popular amongst the people of Pakistan. Today this dream looks to be coming to an end. Pakistan stands at the threshold of a great tragedy. We are gripped with uncertainty, with Bhutto’s home province of Sindh ablaze with agitation and violence. The whole country is paralyzed. Benazir was known as the common link and leader who brought all four provinces together behind her, making her the one truly national leader we had at present.
The elder Bhutto had authored in 1967 “Myth of Independence” about Pakistan and its role in the world which definitively shaped Pakistan’s foreign policy especially the way ZAB played a pivotal role in bringing the US and China closer together and cracking open the anti-US eastern bloc and in one smart move creating a counterbalance to India. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto viewed the survival of Pakistan as part of a thousand years struggle of the survival of Muslim community in the subcontinent. His own passionate love affair with Pakistan had a lot to do with how closely the Bhutto family’s fortune had been intertwined with Pakistan from the start. The house in Naudero played host to Jinnah many times during Bhutto’s childhood and people forget that it was the wily Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto who had managed to get the Junagadh document of accession for Jinnah thereby upsetting several British calculations.
Bhutto himself had played a key role in organizing a successful student strike in Bombay in 1946 for the Muslim League or so Bhutto claimed in his last days. This is why anyone who has read his biography is struck by how far Bhutto went to identify himself in the public perception with the memory of Jinnah. His deeply personalized involvement in the Jinnah propagation project through out 1976 and his distribution of his own photograph in the Jinnah cap was an indication of this. If there was ever a politician who was an ultra-nationalist in Pakistan it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Throughout his career as the foreign minister he subscribed to the idea that India was out to gobble up Pakistan. Remember Bhutto started his career as firmly an establishment man inducted by Sikandar Mirza and retained by Ayub Khan so he furthered the national security thesis which at the time meant extra-reliance on the US but bitter experience in the 1965 war taught Bhutto that Pakistan needed a range of options in foreign policy. The menu Bhutto created included a combo of China and US aimed at Soviet expansionism which he saw as the prime backer of India. It was this reason that forced Bhutto to famously declare that “if India makes the bomb, then we will eat grass but make our bomb”.
ZAB was a remarkable politician and a diplomat. He was no anti-imperialist though. Whatever his posturing he was at the end of the day a US ally who drove a hard bargain. Throughout his half a decade in power he continued to try and convince the US that he was a more reliable ally than the Shah of Iran. It was Bhutto who started the Afghan insurgency against the pro-communist government there at the US behest. PPP, ZAB and BB were the greatest champions of the Kashmir cause. The Bhutto family had very close ties with the Mir Waizes and this shows in how Srinagar reacted yesterday. Kashmir and Jihad in Kashmir was a central tenet of the original PPP manifesto.
That ZAB gave the country a unanimous constitution is an undeniable fact. Unfortunately his use of religion was theological and not as a tool of identity formation. In contrast Jinnah had to put theological issues on the backburner to bring shias, sunnis, ahmadis, ismailis, etc on one platform. Bhutto’s unfortunate action opened up a pandora’s box of theological disputes. That said Ahmadis did not face persecution per se even after their constitutional excommunication. It was Zia ul Haq who tormented us. All in all when one says that BB continued her father’s mission through out her life, the mission was always the preservation of Pakistan and not some undefined imperialist agenda which the elder Bhutto used a political slogan. No one would have said it 10 years ago but Benazir Bhutto as a leader and global figure stood head and shoulders above her famous father. Not above opportunism and manipulation, the mercurial Zulfikar Ali Bhutto banked on cheap popularity and often followed the sentiments of the people (Friday as a weekly holiday, ban on horse racing, alcohol and gambling, all of which he himself enjoyed, and ofcourse the Ahmadi issue being a clear example of it). Benazir was an intellectual of a much higher ability and a leader who was in 2007 finally ready to lead instead of being led
This is why the loss of Benazir Bhutto is greater than that of her father. Her loss is more akin to the loss of Shaheed-e-Millat Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first prime minister, who was assassinated in the same place and whose death remains a mystery. The crisis that followed paved way for people like Bogra and then the Military, who didn’t threaten to go to Moscow, as LAK had done , to derive a greater bargain.
Now the world is beginning to point fingers at Pakistan’s nuclear assets. The difference between all previous such events and now is that Pakistan was strong enough to withstand the sudden eliminations of Liaqat Ali Khan, Bhutto and Zia. But Benazir Bhutto was, as the slogan said, charon soobon ki zanjeer, the true symbol of the federation. The fact that even the Baloch nationalists cried out for her shows how above and beyond Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir had proved to be. Her sudden disappearance from the scene has given many enemies of Pakistan a lot of ammunition with which to destroy the country. Some elements have gone so far as to question the very existence of Pakistan. In this hour of great darkness, we see a resolute Pakistan People’s Party standing committed to the federation. Will this be enough to keep ethnic separatists as well as Pakistan’s international detractors at bay? Only time will tell.
May Bilawal Bhutto Zardari now have the courage to follow in his illustrious mother’s footsteps. His politics must be guided by the fine egalitarian principles that Mohammad Ali Jinnah gave to Pakistan, for which his grandfather and his mother toiled through out their lives.
As for Imran Khan…. Ch. sahib is lying out of his teeth. If he is actually on my facebook page, he would know (as Aliarqam would attest) that I am often updating my status in utter frustration at the stupidity of Mr. Imran Khan … who is a major disappointment …
@Aamir Mughal
So what is this?????
When someone asked Sardar Sher Baz Mazari during PNA Days that the govt. has registered a case of underwear theft against Begum Naseem Wali Khan, Sher Baz [was in PNA] quickly replied “Naseem doesn’t wear underwear”.
What do U mean by this Mr Aamir?????
The unfortunate Naseem Wali theft issue is just another reminder of what women in public eye have to go through in a conservative male dominated society.
Who is afraid of Chief Justice Iftikhar ?
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
This is the sort of stuff John Grisham novels are full of. A major earthquake and a building situated on the choicest property in Islamabad crumbled like a deck of cards. The next day the owners/builders of the building fled the country. Chief Justice of the country issued their red warrants. Later the Chief Justice was removed.
Come 2008 and President Zardari is in power. One of his senior party members and an opponent of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is the counsel for the builders of the building. The Capital Development Authority’s attempts to sell the land to help compensate the victims’ families are brought to a halt. His fee? Allegedly 1/3rd of the land- choicest property in Islamabad and the site of its worst carnage.
I don’t know the veracity of the facts involved. I am frankly not an expert on architecture or civil engineering to say whether the builders and owners of the building were to blame for the tragic collapse in 2005. What I do know is that the Chief Justice of Pakistan issued warrants of arrest for the builders and owners. Instead of clearing their name, the owners and builders chose to flee the country, now living cosy lives in a posh area of London, using their connections in both London and Islamabad to evade the course of justice.
It is people like this who are scared of Chief Justice Iftikhar. It is people who want to sell off Pakistan’s national assets like the steel mill who are scared of him. It is the people who wish to build multiplexes on sports grounds and commercial mini-golfs in public parks and designated green belts who are scared of him. It is people who have turned allocated farmland into pleasure resorts for their own consumption who are scared of him. It is people who run their own little private jails in Sindh and South Punjab who are scared of Chief Justice Iftikhar. It is the gang rapists and upper class thugs who are scared of him.
Ali bhayya… be balanced…. I was part of the Lawyers’ Movement … and I supported the NRO short judgment… but once I realized what kind of mischief the judges were upto after reading the horrible final judgment… I wrote this:
Appointment Of Judges – India And Pakistan
Jump to Comments
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
In all likelihood, the judicial crisis will be over in the late afternoon today when the Federal Government will withdraw its notification thus burying the basic issue in the crisis. The heroes to save the day are once again none other than Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan – the great bridge builder- and Prime Minister Gillani who has proved himself to be a statesman.
When divorced from the drama of high politics, there are some legal issues that need some urgent attention. First and foremost is the issue of the consultation of Chief Justice being a mandatory provision for the appointment and elevation of the said judges under 177. The meaning of consultation is provided under Article 260 where such deliberation is not binding on the president save in matters pertaining to appointment of judiciary. It may be noted here that this was inserted in the constitution through LFO 2002 by General Pervez Musharraf and therefore ratified under the 17th amendment.
Under the present law, which itself should be a subject of some controversy, the executive has to consult the Chief Justice and if the Executive disagrees then he states his reasons which are then taken up by the Chief Justice after which the Chief Justice may accept or reject it- the latter course referring the matter to It is also quite clear that seniority is not necessarily a mandatory convention. Reliance for is placed on the “Judges Case” 2002. Interestingly one of the signatories of this judgment was Justice Hameed Dogar. This poses new problems. Shouldn’t those arguing against the 17th amendment and against PCO-ed judges like Hameed Dogar be blocked by the principle of estoppel? At the very least those arguing against the presidential notification right now ought to reconsider their position in this light.
However more importantly the question must be raised as to whether this involvement of the Chief Justice in the process of selection of judges desirable? Pakistan seems to have borrowed heavily from the Indian method- see page 31 of the 2002 Judges Case- which is given under Articles 124 and 217 of the Constitution of India. Was it really the intention of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution and did the founding fathers of Pakistani constitution following that tradition intend for consultation to adopt the meaning it has under General Musharraf’s addition to article 260 of Constitution of 1973? The proposal to provide for the concurrence was shot down very early on. Dr. Ambedkar when speaking on the issue of the judges’ appointments during debate on the formulation of the Indian constitution said that the consultation with the president and the chief justice for the moment sufficient. This is enough as to ascertain the true intention behind the formulation of this method in the subcontinent. A clear distinction was drawn between concurrence and consultation and the same has been the subject of many a committee and commission in India. Furthermore interpreting article 217 which speaks of consultation by executive of the Chief Justice, in AIR 1982 SC 149, (landmark 1st Judges Case of India) Justice Bhagwati opines that it is open to the Central Government to override the deliberations and the view of the Chief Justice of India.
What this boils down to is that consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan and his/her assent was not quite intended by the makers of this constitution to be binding on the president or sine qua non for appointment. In any event, the Chief Justice of Pakistan should not be the final arbiter and determinant of such judicial appointment and if we are so enamored by the Indian example, we should introduce a collegium of judges which should advise the Chief Justice as well, which still should be subject to an overriding authority of the executive. The objective should be to establish the dominance of the executive in matters of ideology and background and the Chief Justice should play a role in making a call on the legal acumen of the proposed judge. This way democracy will ensure balance in judiciary and its over all independence. It goes without saying that the appointment of likeminded judges to higher judiciary is an important exercise of democracy and party politics. Today PPP may appoint its candidates and tomorrow it would be PML’s turn.
It may not always be possible… but some of us don’t work on agendas… we call it as we see it… which means that when someone does something right… we praise it. When someone makes a mistake we oppose it.
Dear Durrani Sahab,
Begum Naseem Wali is very honorable for me and my post should not be taken as an offence towards her, I am repeating the news which was prevalent during the days of PNA , the purpose was to share the “Stupidity of Sher Baz Mazari” and his statement was published in the newspapers.
Another evidence of this “Typical Pakistan Male Chauvinism & Misogyny” is the statement of Mian Tufail [Former Ameer of Jamat-e-Islami] which was issued when Jamat-e-Islami witnessed huge crowd which received Benazir Bhutto and rallies of Benazir Bhutto used to draw people, “Is tarah ka Majma to koi bhi Bazari Aurat Laga Leti hai” [any tramp can gather huge crowd around her].
Whereas in the very house [Daarul Amaan or Islam] of “Deviant Founder Mawdudi of Deviant Jamat-e-Islami” there was Adult Male Cook who was allowed to anywhere in the house female members of Mawdudi Calamity didn’t observe any Veil with him [Reference – Meri Rafaqat Ki Sargazasht – Mawdudi kay saath meray Shab o Roz by Mawlana Manzoor Naimani – one of the founder member of Mawdudi Calamity – Jamat-e-Islami]
Imran Khan’s politics is no doubt demise of a common sense.
Yasir Latif Hamdani:
You are a shame for yourself since you made ‘wife pictures’ a standard for judging a leader. Ali is a wittnes as he was part of that debate and it was quite decent before you started name calling to him and me as well. Should not you have some shame to turn a decent debate in to personal attacks?
This article itself reflects your mentality. I am not Pashtun but I also feel ashamed that you are accusing a leader of party to be tribal and regressive just because he dose not have his wife’s pictures as your wife loads whole days activity as ‘Lahore Pictorial’ on daily basis. Is it Bacha Khans fault that his wife doesnt wear jeans and move in to ‘influnatials’ and load that activity on Twitter and Facebook?
If we make it standard for judging leaders, almost every second political activist and leader will be out and only urban middle class who and those from ‘anroon shehr’ of Lahore will be ‘true’ progressives.
The question which hurt you badly was about the timing of your article and debate. ANP is currently under fire by all right wing fanatics. The papers of last week are wittiness, on Pakhtunkhaw name issue every agencies sponsored fake intellectual and urban middle class . columinst is take a bite on ANP …..is it a coincidence that you are part of that campaign???????
Good blood and cheap blood – yes you can find tons of book on character of Urban middle class. It is not your fault but its their class character. For them a wife wearing jeans and posting entire days activity is ‘progressive’ and being critical is cool. Good Blood and mature people behave differently. This was precisely the point I was trying to make why Bacha Khan’s wife’s pictures are not on internet. So does not mine or Ali’s wife – actually 90% of PPP’s leadership and workers even those who went to prisons and were flogged doesnt not have pictures of their wife circulating in youth of Lahore. On that standard you deserve to be ‘critical Chairman or PPP.
What a shame – critical ! Your every second article on Raza Rumi’s blog is against PPP. And your wife herself boasts about her one on one meetings with ‘some one influantial’. It is all on her FB page. Not an acquisition.
Combining these all facts – there remians no doubt that at this specific time and such a lame excuse to prove Bacha Khan a tribal – was motivated.
I wish I had the liberty to use the language which your class understand well, but I am also a contributor of this blog – so I wont repeat after warning !
We- J-man’s supporters, PPP wallahs, and ANP Wallahs… that Jamaat-e-Islami pur laanat! Mian Tufail Ahmed was a crook for saying that… incidentally here is my piece on inter alia Tufail Ahmed:
August 9, 2009…7:50 pm
The Burden Of The Liberal “Extremist”
Jump to Comments
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
The subject is a little outdated so bear with me. Pakistaniat or All Things Pakistan marked a great revolution in Pakistan’s blogging history. It was a progressive and fresh look for Pakistan when the esteemed academic Dr. Adil Najam started it and alas it seemed like that Pakistanis will getting up and speaking up for Pakistan- more specifically the inclusive, democratic and tolerant Pakistan envisaged by Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ali Jinnah. And what a revolution it brought about – even PakTeaHouse is to some extent influenced by it and the going ons of that website. Indeed much of our readership is common and we often have similar points of view on issues of national importance. It was therefore this that as someone who has passionately written for Pakistaniat website and contributed to discussions there , I was very disappointed to see a plagiarized obituary of Mian Tufail Muhammad, the second amir of an anti-Pakistan subversive and largely secretive group called Jamaat-e-Islami. It was written by some illiterate and uneducated youth, who claims to be a national kalmnist for some third rate Urdu paper in Karachi which doubles as the official Jamaat-e-Islami newsletter.
Mian Tufail Muhammad was – as is the case with Jamaat-e-Islami in general- actively working to curtail religious freedom in Pakistan and closely associated with General Zia who was by far the worst military adventurer to come to power in Pakistan. So much for Jamaat-e-Islami’s self righteous claims about democracy and constitution recently. In the obituary the author, who tops the list when it comes to lying in print, shamelessly claims that Tufail sided with the dictator for “higher goals”. Well so did Chaudhry Shujaat, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, MQM and everyone else who sided with Musharraf. Doesn’t mean we forgive them for their role does it? And Musharraf certainly was no Zia by any stretch of imagination.
Of course Tufail mian and his organization never believed in electoral politics. The reason why they were ready to accept General Zia’s demolition of Pakistan’s constitution was because in Zia they finally saw the ameer-ul-momineen they were looking for. It was not even political opportunism for even that would have given the Jamaat-e-Islami’s irrational politics respectability, it was apolitical- it was an attempt to impose upon the people a version of Islam that they have rejected repeatedly and have rejected repeatedly. Then of course Zia’s total and complete subservience to the US (including the little known fact that Zia waived an estimated US 1 billion a year to CIA which the US knew it would owe to the Pakistan for facilitation in Afghan War) did not matter to Jamaat-e-Islami and its apologists. Even the Martial Law regime realized that Jamaat-e-Islami’s prospects of gaining mass support in Pakistan was next to impossible and after the disastrous party-less elections of 1985 saw the emergence of a new Pakistan Muslim League under Prime Minister Junejo within the National Assembly. This effectively brought Tufail’s political career to an end.
Jamaat-e-Islami – since its founding- has been a subversive group acting through back-channel and underground means. Other such groups like Khaksars or the Majlis-e-Ahrar died a natural death in Pakistan a long time ago but the Jamaat survived some how or the other. Unlike Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt , it has shown itself incapable of reinventing itself into a democratic body by any stretch of imagination. It’s role against the creation of Pakistan and its opposition to Pakistan Movement is well known. And yet somehow a website like Pakistaniat found it necessary to post the obituary of Mian Tufail who is – without a doubt- the very antithesis of any reasonable definition of Pakistaniat.
So why were the editorial board of Pakistaniat compelled to post the obituary? Apparently the whole thing started when the founding editor of the said website, bowing to public pressure, wrote a moving tribute to the late and great Michael Jackson who died the same day as Mian Tufail Muhammad. This prompted a response from the said author to be abusing the Pakistaniat management for being callous in ignoring the death of a “great man” like Mian Tufail and promoting a “singer” and “dancer” like Michael Jackson. He went on to describe this as intolerance of the “left” (apparently all points of view that are not Jamaat-e-Islami compliant are automatically “left”) It was in this context that Pakistaniat editorial board posted a plagiarized and highly controversial obituary.
Far too many times, Pakistanis tend to bow down to the pressure of this vocal group of religious extremists. Far too many times, Pakistanis are forced to give space to foaming and rabid commenters who accuse the “left” and “liberal” crowds of being extremist. Even our very own Raza Rumi – who is in my view the most right thinking patriot I know- posted a rather third rate piece by some crank to this effect. All of their claims are nonsensical. Blasphemy laws, anti-ahmadi discrimination, religious extremism, Taliban and the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan shows a completely different picture. There are no liberal extremists in Pakistan. Forget liberal extremists, Pakistan’s history has been marked by the inaction in face of religious extremists. As early as 1954, Pakistan’s courts handed down a death sentence for Maulana Maududi for his role in inciting sectarian hatred against Ahmadis. And yet Maududi was let go under pressure of his band of religious extremists. Had the state made a horrible example of him then, perhaps we would not be discussing this issue today. When has the state even carried out the most reasonable steps to stop religious extremists in this country? If the state was an honest and impartial arbiter between the “liberals” and the “religious kind”, most of the Mullahs of this country would be in jail under Section 295 and 295 A of the Pakistan Penal Code. But state itself violates these sections of the PPC. So where are the frikkin’ “liberal extremists” that these dishonest crooks keep talking about? There are no liberal extremists in Pakistan. There are only cowardly liberals, liberals in taqqiya, liberals without a backbone.
With this background it is very unfortunate that sites like Pakistaniat have now begun to give space to the same crooks day in and day out in the name of fairness. Fairness is not isolated concept. When well meaning liberal websites like Pakteahouse or Pakistaniat give space to religious extremists and anti-Pakistan elements without seeking quid pro quo, they become tools of the overall unfairness that is rampant both inside and against Pakistan. Don’t complain then when Gojras happen all over Pakistan. You are party to it! Don’t whine when Pakistan gets abused by Paki-bashers all around the world. You are party to it.
My dear Gehla sb,
I can only pity you that you are consistently attacking my wife and making insinuations about her which only a shameless man without any honor or dignity will make. If you think crooks like you can stop me by abusing a person like my wife or imputing her reputation by lying about her…. then you are sorely mistaken. One can excuse you for not understanding simple English language … where a one-on-one interview – which is part of the Punjab business documentary prepared by my wife- can be taken to mean something else. In any event I am not going to discuss her with a third rate cheapster like you except saying that god help people like you.
As for your claim about the “Timing” of this article… it was direct response to Aliarqam’s comment and Ali has written about it on the first post above…. It was in direct response to Aliarqam’s comment about a photograph of Jinnah in which a burqahclad elderly lady stood in a group with Jinnah…. ali has re-posted his comment above as well. So your insinuation that I was secretly working for some agency shows that you don’t have any argument worth anything.
I wrote the piece as a counter to that comment … “He tolerate Burqah……So am confused for my version of Women freedom, I oppose Burqah as its a symbol of oppression and tyranny but those who extracts almost every concept from Jinnah’s views and political stunts What is this????”
So this was my response to “what is this”? If Bacha Khan an emancipator of women where were emancipated women in his household?
‘
Then you write: “Your every second article on Raza Rumi’s blog is against PPP. ”
This has to be the biggest lie. I have already quoted 6 articles I think which are pro-PPP… and Aliarqam has quoted 2 which might be construed as being critical of PPP by some stretch…
I agree with Humza. Surely both Bacha Khan and Jinnah were much better on women’s rights than most of Pakistan’s leadership to date.
Yasir Latif Hamdani:
It was not me or Ali who brought your ‘wife’ in debate – it is you lazy crook who requested her to me two ‘Abu Jahil’s’ make Ali and me understand that how important it is to have wife pictures on Twitter and Face Book for a ‘leader’ to prove his progressiveness. Are not you ashamed for this topic and your demand and bringing your wife in a debate which you could not justify?
Your exect words, “Aisha please explain to Abu Gehla and Abu Aliarqram”. I mean who will ask his wife’s help when he is loosing a debate because of his stupidity, immaturity and being working on someone’s else agenda rather than an honest opinion?
How much she respects you as a husband is also not a secret, its all over her face book page….I should refrain to go in to details. Those possessing her pictures and on her page can confirm! But I wont accuse her – your immaturity coupled with her pics circulation on Twitter and Facebook – although gives you a hit of progressiveness but as side effect she disrespects you openly on her page.
SO you are right Bacha Khan was a regressive – But I have counless times been blessed to have breakfast from hands of Begum Nasim Wali Khan – she loved her son, husband and father in law. This is minor difference which ‘androon sheher’ urban Middle class of Lahore can not understand!
24/7 you sing the mntra of ‘good administrator’ and working procedures compell your wife to have one on one meetings to those who are behind campaign against ANP this week – you are part of that campaign just because Ali made you angry. You are fooling yourself, none else !
YHL….lack of time always forces me to leave debates but I think I have put all my arguments before readers – they are the best judges – how much sense demand for Bacha Khan pictures do make and who brought your wife in debate!
I am out from now on – if it was a ‘stupid’ or emotional post – you can still repair with few words of apology to Bacha Khan’s followers and those who you passed personal remarks about ….I always considered you as a confused urban middle class youth who adopts ‘cool’ things and kicked you from my page after this post, although your wife behaved much mature than you. But this topic was really a disgust and then your rude remarks opened a Pandora box. No hard feelings..be critical as its also cool. Have a nice evening :)))))
@Gehla
Yaar…Please avoid refering to Miss Aisha Sarwari. Stick to YLH and his ideas and articles
My dear Gehla sb,
Tumhara kitna chota dimagh hai aur tum kitnay chotay admi ho yaar… it is now perfectly clear to me. Thanks for informing me that my wife openly “disrespects” me because I have given her too “freedom” because of my “immaturity”. And then I am the “right wing middle class”. Do you even understand anything?
You claim to be a PPP wallah but you sound like you are Shaikh Rasheed’s little brother… because your abuse against women seems to echo what Shaikh Rasheed used to say about Benazir Bhutto Shaheed…. or what people like Mian Tufail said about her. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed fought all her life against people like you…. and before her Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah had to fight off dogs like Gohar Ayub who spoke in language very similar to yours.
So I am from “androon sheher” as well… not that there is anything wrong with being from there but can you tell me how you concluded that I am from “Androon sheher”? Just a wild guess I suppose ? Grow up Mr. Gehla… world has moved ahead. Women are no longer anyone’s property… if a wife talks back to her husband this is not “disrespecting” him. It happens where you are …. Next time when you are in Pakistan… and are man enough… email me…. and we can meet. You know my email already.
And thanks for proving my point again and again and again…. – that progress has to be mental… merely associating yourself with PPP or a progressive cause does not make you progressive. The backward male chauvinist bigot that you are… you are a brilliant example of this phenomenon. Which reminds me that this sudden love for PPP seems to be a very new phenomenon for you… because I recall that you would abuse Zardari and the PPP on my wall and then delete those comments…
Your comments actually go a long way in proving what I said above about Bacha Khan’s brand of progressivism.
@Ali Arqam
Thanks Ali… I am glad someone has his head on his shoulders.
@Ahmad Nadeem
@Ahmad Nadeem
Mian Ahmed Nadeem Gehla sb, your “arguments” only prove what I was saying. All you have proved is that you are a crook and a poorly educated third rate male chauvinist pig. So you can keep going in circles.
Next time when you are in Pakistan… and are man enough… email me…. and we can meet. You know my email already.
……………………………………………………………
Any time Mr Yasir Latif Hamdani…infact I travel like crazy and incidentally got a roof in Lahore …how about this Monday? It is a meeting there and I can honour the threat of –CENSORED-…but not as a customer….i am man enough -CENSORED – I take your threat as a challange – post here time, place and day of your choice – I will love to see you – CENSORED Or send me an email !
[Note: Comments have been edited due to slander on family.]
Gentlemen, this is just a friendly reminder to keep all personal attacks to a minimum. This is not the place to question anyones family or attack anyones person.
Please keep the debate polite and friendly. LUBP is a transparent and open forum but can only work if all those involved remain respectful.
Khan Baba…apun tu respectful he hey…yeh YHL thing requested his wife to join debate on FB…we did not sent her any invitation – but she is better than him…now he is threatening – incidently I know the ‘uniformed guys’ with who she helps him – i take his threat – just politely asking if he can give time, date and place to meet – to see ‘man enough’ – which he is not ! Also stopped him to bring wife !
Mr. Gehla I await your email. Let us see what you are made of.
Mian Yasir Latif Hamdani:
Stop calling me ‘Mian’ – i am not a ‘Mian’ – you are! Its used for ‘Kanjars’ in our culture! And I am made of flesh and blood which got no selling of concious and asking wife help when loosing! You are welcomed. I can change schedule as per your demands! Post here day and date or e mail me !
My dear Mian Abu Gehla,
I still haven’t gotten your email for some reason. Are you scared?
“yeh YHL thing requested his wife to join debate on FB…”
Mian Gehla sb, for one thing I didn’t invite her but let’s say I did…. what is wrong with debating with a woman? That is the whole point isn’t it? That you self styled progressives can’t stand a woman who can take you to the cleaners with her arguments.
open your Gmail…we are there !
I wish she can do every thing she wishes to do on people when invited by her own husband – i deleted her PM’s…so I can not prove what she said, otherwise I would have posted here right away! Mian Yasir latif Hamdani – Your threats are on record – your wife using behaviour is on record- your intellectualism sponsored by ‘intrest groups’ is on record. Still you want to defend your topic? Bacha Khan is regressive cause his wifepics are not available! Your readers decide.
Lets be personal! I accept your threats! Post here when you want to ‘determine’ what I am made of or e mail me…lets see what her friend can do for you to do a autopsy on me…but they might switch side as you are already ‘exposed’ ! Are we on Gmail?
Mian Gehla….
Are you sure? I have checked the spam folder and the main folder.
Mian Gehla sb, Why aren’t you sending me that email?
After discussing the issue in detail, I regret to have said what I said about Yasser and Aisha. It was said in the heat of the moment and I request the LUBP team takes off my comments which are offensive. As for Bacha Khan, I disagree with Yasser but he has his view and I have mine. Let us agree to disagree. I hope this ends it. Ahmed Nadeem Gehla”
Dear Ahmad sb,
Thank you for those words. They mean a lot to me. I apologize for any counter-comments that might have hurt you. They were also in the heat of the moment. Much respect for you.
All is well that ends well Gehla sb. 🙂
this articles proves how much there is difference of culture between nwfp and punjab.i will repeat what alija izetbegovic said “Islam with modernity but no modernity without quran”.now our liberal muslims in punjab demands why there is no picture of bacha khan. i simply asks the lady if she had read sura nisa in quran.if not she should.the problem is the deep love for indian culture in punjab,and that is bcoz of their affinity in their ancient roots with their counterparts in india.this is also case in sindh.women cannot walk outside houses without covering her face whether in burqa or else,and we r proud of that irrespective of one,s criticism.thats our tradition,culture and part of religion.y u people also feel to reinterpret some of ayats in quran regarding women.u people feel western civilization is superior to everything including islam.thats why the concept of democracy,womenrights,a lot of NGO,s and etc.
YLH: “Who was Bacha Khan’s daughter?”
Mehr Taj Bibi, whom Bacha Khan sent over to England for her education.
YLH articles depicts nothing but his sheer ignorance related to Bacha Khan’s life, struggle, family and so on. He has absolutely no idea what Bacha Khan stood for, what were his ideals and he is the man known for practicing what he had preached.
Furthermore, he don’t know what liberalism and secularism mean. He needs to read some basic books related to these two concepts.
A 26 year old Racine woman is facin Port Coquitlam
ThereLongchamps India are millions of poker players across the country, but would they really read a magazine on the subject? Probably not.”No one has yet said a word to me about it despite repeated requests to tell me what it was that I did wrong.Seeking more specific reasons, Hall said, “I asked the board directly to tell me what it was, and they wouldn’t.Gill said the buckled stretch of 128th is probably the busiest road in his part of town. He thinks cones temporarily cutting the eastbound lane into a two way street, will prove problematic during the work week.It reminds me of FSU offensive line last year, but FSU had fullbacks to protect the QB. UF does not use fullbacks for some reason.When you work in a school, goodbyes are expected. At the end of the year and with tears, ceremonies and gifts, you bid farewell to departing staff and matriculating students, andThat probably will prepare you even more than if you know about it second give. So what I tried to undertake is give people blow by whack of what happened at this particular meeting with creditors about yesterday (December, 2005).
San Francisco: Hackers likely based in China tried to break into hundreds of Google mail accounts, including those of senior US government officials, Chinese activists and journalists, the Internet company said on Wednesday.The unknown perpetrators, who appeared to originate from Jinan in Shandong province, recently tried to crack and monitor email accounts by stealing passwords, but Google detected and “disrupted” their campaign, the world’s largest Web search companyLongchamps Italy said on its official blog.He has not been charged; if he were prosecuted for ignoring the city’s order to vacate the property, he would face no more than 60 days in jail and a $500 fine less than the cost of one month’s rent.Columbus Department of Building and Zoning Services deputy director Scott Messer defended the city’s inaction on enforcing the orders.30 test and this was a real letdown. When a trucker purchases a GPS for his or her job, there is an expectationLongchamps Israel that all the important highways should be on there.
A 26 year old Racine woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly stole money from an incapacitated woman while working as an in home caregiver for the victim.Katavia S.Pick daring, extraordinary items, but limit oneself to wearing one particular or two at a time. A refined pair of chandelier earrings can set off an outfit on it is uggs on saleWhen you order a GHD pelt straightener, whichever as a gift or for manually, you can have it shipped free to your door. There are also other food that you can buy that will give you the neat coat that you are looking for.Having been an Xplornet customer for almost 4 years I have to say dont do the switch unless its your only option. Xplornet started out OK but their quality of service has dropped considerably.They both say the same thing to the Google engine, that your site should be ranked higher in the order because other people find value in what your website has to offer, thus they provide a link to your site. In turn, you keep a closed loop by reciprocating the favor to the other website by extending the same courtesy of a back link.
The buttons, similar with outstanding bunkers in the desert, are highlights on the boots.Printed design, lacing, deckle edges, all make this pair of Yellow Earth thigh boots uniquereply CarsonCitySteve replies: linkicon reporticon emailicon What planet do you live on? I’ve never signed anything resembling that.There are too options for thisDIY (DoLongchamps In London It Yourself)As great as software architecture is, kids in school today will have way bigger and more interesting opportunities. I mean no one practicing in the software architecture field today actually studied for this in school.Haslam says this is a part of a bigger movement in the state to hold schools accountable.Corning principal told theLongchamps In Canada governor greater autonomy for individual schools will lead to great success.That one thing is to cultivate inner pea
Wright selbst spielt die Titelrolle zu machen, dass die beiden Titelrollen in dieser weitl盲ufigen, Beteiligung noch frustrierend Epos, die buchst盲blich den Globus umspannt. Buddette hat eine magische Strahlenkanone in ihrem B眉stenhalter versteckt, die gewaltt盲tige M盲nner in Frauen verwandelt. Von links nach ihren eigenen Ger盲te, w眉rde eher Buddette state bleiben und die "K枚nigin" des Clubs Tanzszene. Aber Buddy will die "T眉r" nach Utopia zu finden, so Buddette widerwillig reist in den Nahen Osten, um Sexismus in verschiedenen arabischen L盲ndern k盲mpfen.
Wooden dowels (for the.
Une nouvelle Youa New You propose des v锚tements vintage, ainsi que les deux dames v锚tements neufs et d’occasion. Vous trouverez tout ici, des jeans 脿 5 apr猫s usure. Le magasin a un assortiment bien organis茅 de seulement la plus haute de v锚tements de quantit茅. Exp茅diteurs r茅guliers peuvent apporter leurs v锚tements neufs et d’occasion sur rendez-vous. Nouveaux exp茅diteurs doivent appeler 脿 mettre en place un rendez-vous. Un nouveau vous est ouvert du lundi vendredi 10 heures-17 heures et le samedi 10 heures-16 heures.
Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upon your weblog and in accession capital to assert that I acquire actually enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I will be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently rapidly.
Louis Vuitton Outlet http://markdavisweb.com/images/projects/dalv.aspx
just beneath, are numerous entirely not connected internet sites to ours, however, they’re surely really worth going over[…]