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Deeper into the pit
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 07 Jul, 2009 | 01:41 AM PST The PPP and the establishment are playing with fire, writes Kamran Shafi. Let me start by remembering Kaleem Omar who sadly passed on recently. KO to others, Kaleem Bhai to me, I first got to know him well when I was press information officer in Benazirs first government in Islamabad the Beautiful.
Kaleem Bhai was writing for The Muslim at the time and the instant reason I came into contact with him was after he did a story on Faisal Saleh Hayat.
The story, or several of them, centred on how the minister had acquired a new carpet for the rest house he was occupying. It shook the government, that story, and the prime minister called a meeting with several ministers attending, including Faisal. Kaleem Bhai was invited to attend too and was asked by Benazir to state what he knew. It all ended in a civilised manner with Faisal defending his position by saying that the carpet was not his to take home etcetera; Kaleem Bhai sticking to his guns and saying he was right all along, wasnt he?
One day, during the few days that he stayed with me in my room, him on the bed, I on the mattress, in one of the ****** government rest houses or hostels as they are called (seemingly for visitors from ministers constituencies, their servants and yours truly!), we took a drive up to Murree via Angoori and came upon a goatherd sitting on a rock. The lad was chewing on a blade of grass, lying on his side with his head resting on his left hand just watching the world go by: in those days, please note, a car every hour and a bus every three hours with a motorcycle thrown in every half hour for good measure.
Kaleem Bhai looked at the young man and said to me in his baritone of a voice, laughing away: Micky, if we pass along this road five years from now, this fellow will still be sitting on that same rock, chewing on a blade of grass watching the world go by. Kia mazaa hai, bhai!
Another of his remarks that I shall never forget was when he said to me if I had ever noticed how many hangers about there were, hanging about the door of whatever room Benazir was working in; doing no work themselves, just hanging about? They hang about the door, he said, for the thousand in one chance that Benazir might glance at the door when it was opened by someone going in or out, and for the ten thousand in one chance that she might look directly at him/her when the door was opened. They hang about, he said, just so she knows they are hanging about! RIP, Kaleem Bhai, you shall be missed.
Now where else but to the fight against the Yahoos? Theres been heartrending loss of life at the operational level: lieutenant colonels and below. Most of it is unavoidable because the foe that our troops are fighting has had (or shall we say has been given) enough time to consolidate his position and amass weapons and ammunition. Be which as it is, one has to ask how it is that a battalion strength column, commanded by a lieutenant colonel can get ambushed reportedly (reportedly because the Pakistan Army, even in this age of openness is secretive) in the same region where another column, commanded by another lieutenant colonel was ambushed some years ago and 200-plus officers and men of the regular army were taken hostage by the terrorists.
Where, please, are the SOPs of operating in mountainous areas which have dangerous and deep defiles through which most of the roads in the Frontier pass? Whilst one would have said that in this day and age aerial reconnaissance ahead of/above the passing column would be just the ticket, one hesitates because of the possible paucity of aircraft, both fixed-wing (the Mushak) and helicopters.
But one has to ask whatever happened to picketing whenever a column moves through territory that has sharp bends and defiles and nullahs and heights in its topography? Were pickets mounted along the route of this latest tragic march? If not, why not? Will a detailed enquiry be held into the matter, and if it is found that the troops took shortcuts because they were badly led, will the next higher commander face the music?
Most importantly, will we the public, which pays through the nose for maintaining this huge armys senior brass in the splendour of Mughal emperors, be told the findings of the enquiry? It is our right to know, just as it was the Indian publics right to know why their high command was caught napping in Kargil! Have we ever thought why the Indians are more open than us? Is it democratic oversight that gives them that edge over us?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, just at the time when we do not need any distractions in our fight against the fiendish terrorists, the powers that be have put the country into yet another quandary, indeed in deep trouble. This time of Seraikistan. I say powers that be because the fragmentation of the federation into smaller and smaller units can only benefit the establishment that is feeling the heat after a very long time indeed.I say powers that be because those who have led us into the bottomless pit we are in will very much want to divert attention away from their misdoings. I say powers that be because the leading lights of this so-called movement are known members of the establishment and favourites of the 'agencies'. Who, for example, ever heard of Mohammad Ali Durrani before he became a minister in the Commandos cabinet?
I say fragmentation because after Seraikistan, what about Jinnahpur and Khairpur in the present Sindh; Pakhtunistan and Brahuistan and Balochistan in the present Balochistan; and Potohar and (why not) Neeli Baristan in what is left of Punjab? Not forgetting Hazara and D.I. Khan and Fata and Swat, the last two merging into Yahooistan? If Seraikistan comes into being, what legs will the federation stand on when it refuses provincial status for all the others above-named?
One sees the fingerprints of the PPP on this move too, for how could sitting minister of defence production no less, Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, be a very vocal part of the move? The PPP and the establishment are playing with fire.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 07 Jul, 2009 | 01:41 AM PST The PPP and the establishment are playing with fire, writes Kamran Shafi. Let me start by remembering Kaleem Omar who sadly passed on recently. KO to others, Kaleem Bhai to me, I first got to know him well when I was press information officer in Benazirs first government in Islamabad the Beautiful.
Kaleem Bhai was writing for The Muslim at the time and the instant reason I came into contact with him was after he did a story on Faisal Saleh Hayat.
The story, or several of them, centred on how the minister had acquired a new carpet for the rest house he was occupying. It shook the government, that story, and the prime minister called a meeting with several ministers attending, including Faisal. Kaleem Bhai was invited to attend too and was asked by Benazir to state what he knew. It all ended in a civilised manner with Faisal defending his position by saying that the carpet was not his to take home etcetera; Kaleem Bhai sticking to his guns and saying he was right all along, wasnt he?
One day, during the few days that he stayed with me in my room, him on the bed, I on the mattress, in one of the ****** government rest houses or hostels as they are called (seemingly for visitors from ministers constituencies, their servants and yours truly!), we took a drive up to Murree via Angoori and came upon a goatherd sitting on a rock. The lad was chewing on a blade of grass, lying on his side with his head resting on his left hand just watching the world go by: in those days, please note, a car every hour and a bus every three hours with a motorcycle thrown in every half hour for good measure.
Kaleem Bhai looked at the young man and said to me in his baritone of a voice, laughing away: Micky, if we pass along this road five years from now, this fellow will still be sitting on that same rock, chewing on a blade of grass watching the world go by. Kia mazaa hai, bhai!
Another of his remarks that I shall never forget was when he said to me if I had ever noticed how many hangers about there were, hanging about the door of whatever room Benazir was working in; doing no work themselves, just hanging about? They hang about the door, he said, for the thousand in one chance that Benazir might glance at the door when it was opened by someone going in or out, and for the ten thousand in one chance that she might look directly at him/her when the door was opened. They hang about, he said, just so she knows they are hanging about! RIP, Kaleem Bhai, you shall be missed.
Now where else but to the fight against the Yahoos? Theres been heartrending loss of life at the operational level: lieutenant colonels and below. Most of it is unavoidable because the foe that our troops are fighting has had (or shall we say has been given) enough time to consolidate his position and amass weapons and ammunition. Be which as it is, one has to ask how it is that a battalion strength column, commanded by a lieutenant colonel can get ambushed reportedly (reportedly because the Pakistan Army, even in this age of openness is secretive) in the same region where another column, commanded by another lieutenant colonel was ambushed some years ago and 200-plus officers and men of the regular army were taken hostage by the terrorists.
Where, please, are the SOPs of operating in mountainous areas which have dangerous and deep defiles through which most of the roads in the Frontier pass? Whilst one would have said that in this day and age aerial reconnaissance ahead of/above the passing column would be just the ticket, one hesitates because of the possible paucity of aircraft, both fixed-wing (the Mushak) and helicopters.
But one has to ask whatever happened to picketing whenever a column moves through territory that has sharp bends and defiles and nullahs and heights in its topography? Were pickets mounted along the route of this latest tragic march? If not, why not? Will a detailed enquiry be held into the matter, and if it is found that the troops took shortcuts because they were badly led, will the next higher commander face the music?
Most importantly, will we the public, which pays through the nose for maintaining this huge armys senior brass in the splendour of Mughal emperors, be told the findings of the enquiry? It is our right to know, just as it was the Indian publics right to know why their high command was caught napping in Kargil! Have we ever thought why the Indians are more open than us? Is it democratic oversight that gives them that edge over us?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, just at the time when we do not need any distractions in our fight against the fiendish terrorists, the powers that be have put the country into yet another quandary, indeed in deep trouble. This time of Seraikistan. I say powers that be because the fragmentation of the federation into smaller and smaller units can only benefit the establishment that is feeling the heat after a very long time indeed.I say powers that be because those who have led us into the bottomless pit we are in will very much want to divert attention away from their misdoings. I say powers that be because the leading lights of this so-called movement are known members of the establishment and favourites of the 'agencies'. Who, for example, ever heard of Mohammad Ali Durrani before he became a minister in the Commandos cabinet?
I say fragmentation because after Seraikistan, what about Jinnahpur and Khairpur in the present Sindh; Pakhtunistan and Brahuistan and Balochistan in the present Balochistan; and Potohar and (why not) Neeli Baristan in what is left of Punjab? Not forgetting Hazara and D.I. Khan and Fata and Swat, the last two merging into Yahooistan? If Seraikistan comes into being, what legs will the federation stand on when it refuses provincial status for all the others above-named?
One sees the fingerprints of the PPP on this move too, for how could sitting minister of defence production no less, Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, be a very vocal part of the move? The PPP and the establishment are playing with fire.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
