THE complexity that is Pakistan was on full display over the weekend in Karachi. Yesterday, the Difaa-i-Pakistan Council held another sizeable rally, this time at a stone’s throw from Jinnah’s mausoleum. Speaker after speaker called for the reinvention of Pakistan in line with a muscular, reactionary and religion-driven nationalism. The Pakistan envisioned by the DPC would be out of step with the modern world, harkening back to a mystical past whose recreation in present-day Pakistan would apparently be the solution to all that ails the country today. A narrative of hate, intolerance and xenophobia dressed up as ‘independent’ foreign and national-security policies is what was on offer at the DPC rally. There was some irony in the location chosen, for the backdrop of the Quaid’s mausoleum made for a jarring reminder of how far Pakistan has drifted from the vision of its founder. Indeed, if there was something Mr Jinnah would have been proud of this weekend in Karachi, it would be the Karachi Literature Festival. There, writers and intellectuals came together to promote values alien to the DPC supporters: pluralism, tolerance, diversity, a love for the arts and culture, and free thought and expression.

So which is the ‘real’ Pakistan, the one on display at the DPC rally or at the literature festival? Both are, but there is also a crucial difference: the mindset espoused by the DPC appears to be in the ascendant, while that on display at the literature festival is on the decline, or at the very least on the defensive. Perhaps that is the greatest dilemma facing Pakistan, that while there still exist many different versions of Pakistan, a more intolerant vision is being pumped more aggressively, and more successfully, into the body politic and society at large. If there is a silver lining, it is that most Pakistanis still appear to reject the more extreme and hateful ideologies. DPC, for all its success, still appears to be very much on the fringes of Pakistani politics. Still, a well-organised movement with formidable resources and a willingness to intimidate can distort the political field, making it more difficult for reasonable voices to promote reasonable policies and choices.

Could the more moderate mindset on display at the KLF be transmitted through wider swathes of Pakistan? The KLF itself is obviously first and foremost a literary event and not a political vehicle and because it caters mostly to an English-speaking audience, its outreach is limited. But the wider problem for moderate thoughts and ideas is that it has few champions in the public domain anymore. Those that do try to speak up — Salmaan Taseer comes instantly to mind — are brutally cut down and other politicians and state officials with similar thoughts have been successfully cowed into keeping their ideas private. Still, Pakistan remains a complex society and moderate forces on the defensive could bounce back. Perhaps nothing works like the marketplace of ideas and allowing the merits and demerits of competing idelogies to be established in the public domain. If the DPC is retrogressive and the KLF ‘too progressive’ for some circles, the very fact that the public has a choice is indicative of a society in danger, but not yet necessarily doomed.


THE government, especially the Ministry of Finance, must have heaved a sigh of relief to learn that many top names in the world’s telecom industry are interested in obtaining the third- and fourth-generation licences it plans to auction towards the end of the coming month. The Pakistan Telecom Authority’s market intelligence shows that at least one company each from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar and Afghanistan is planning to bid for the licences to enter the country’s telecom market. Apart from these, five companies already operating in Pakistan also intend to compete for the next-generation licences. Some of them will go it alone. Others faced with financial problems are looking for partners to make joint bids. Just how many will actually participate in the auction is not clear at the moment, but the more there are, the merrier it will be for a cash-strapped government that is desperately looking for ways to raise foreign revenues.

The government, which plans to generate around $800m from the sale, has a lot at stake. It will be difficult for it to keep down its budget deficit for the current fiscal to manageable levels unless it is able to raise the projected funds from the auction. Even a delay in the auction could jeopardise the efforts to sell the licences at a good price and control the deficit, which is projected to balloon to over six per cent. So difficult are the economic circumstances that the advisory committee on the auction is said to be looking into the possibility of bypassing the procurement rules to complete the process within the stipulated time. It has already referred the matter to the law ministry for advice. Bypassing the rules does not appear to be the right approach. In the given political situation, it would be advisable for the government not to disregard these even if it is within its right to do so. It could delay the auction for a longer time if the matter is taken to the courts.


ALTHOUGH it has been a while since we separated, Pakistanis cannot help but peep into Indian territory to find out what is cooking there. India’s treatment of minorities is a topic close to our hearts. But it provides us with so much else that we consider beneath our dignity or beyond our call to produce ourselves —– films, television soaps, rags-to-riches stories, etc. Every now and then it also offers us an opportunity for free and meaningful discussion on a subject we are still too shy to locate in our own situation. Routinely, what we see there leads to comparisons with our own little broth here. It is almost natural then for the episode involving the executive, the army chief and the judiciary in India to have been closely followed this side of the Wagah.

It was intriguing to find a serving army chief going all the way to the court when all he wanted was a one-year extension of his tenure. The issue at the base of the affair was itself no less mystifying, given the subcontinental habit of forgetting birthdays. Gen V.K. Singh contested the papers had wrongly recorded his date of birth as May 10, 1950, claiming this amounted to pushing back the auspicious occasion by a year. He believed he was born on May 10, 1951 and therefore would attain the age of retirement (62 under Indian law), not in May 2012 but in May 2013. The court ruled that Gen Singh’s words and the facts were not the same thing.
It agreed with the executive, and the army chief saw sense in withdrawing his plea — the graceful acceptance of reality still appeared to be the preferred way. The executive has welcomed the gesture. This should ensure 60-odd birthday bumps for the general on his big day.

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Regards,
CHAIRMAN MAO