Maleeha ‘defuses cultural mines’: NYT

[Wounded Healer]

Maleeha ‘defuses cultural mines’: NYT


By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s high commissioner to Britain Dr Maleeha Lodhi has been profiled by The New York Times as her country’s envoy who, “defuses cultural landmines”.

She is the first Pakistani to make the newspaper’s long-running ‘Saturday Profile’ feature. Described, as she greeted the huge rally held at Trafalgar Square, London, to celebrate Pakistan’s 60th anniversary, as “a vision in glittery turquoise trousers and long tunic,” she is credited with holding down the fort in London, “working all the angles to convince the British government and public alike that British Pakistanis are normal people, with aspirations like most Britons, and not — as the British media commonly like to portray them — a pack of terrorists.”.”

The Pakistan Festival organised by Dr Lodhi over a period of two years, featured Abrarul Haq, Amir Khan, the British-Pakistani Olympic boxer, and the actress Meera. The newspaper report described the gathering as “the most visible endeavour, so far, in Ms Lodhi’s mission to bridge the social and cultural gap between the stiff-upper-lip British and the community togetherness of the Pakistani immigrants.” She told the NYT about her conviction that cultural understanding, economic support and ushering the British Pakistani community into mainstream British life are more important than tougher law enforcement in the struggle against terrorism in Britain. Integration, she said, is a two-way street, as she tries to impress on British officials. “The British have their own test from Norman Tebbit, a Conservative politician. They say to immigrants, are you for the British or the Pakistani cricket team? My test for the British is: When was the last time you invited a Muslim family to dinner?” She joked that the answer from the British was that it was not that they did not invite Muslims to dinner. The fact was that they invited no one.

The high commissioner is said to be “unfailingly attired in elegant renditions of the shalwar kameez, the traditional South Asian trousers and tunic, brings a potent mix of talents to the job.” The report recalls that as ambassador to Washington at the time of 9/11, she was present at the famous meeting on September 12 at the State Department between Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and intelligence agencies’ chief Lt-General Mahmood Ahmed. She told the newspaper, “The two of them were very tense. Armitage started out by saying, ‘This is a grave moment. History begins today for the United States. We’re asking all our friends — youu’re not the only country we’re speaking to — wee’re asking people whether they’re with us or against us.’ ” Towards the end of the meeting, General Ahmed asked what Pakistan could do for the US, which was an immediate indication of friendship. The next day, General Ahmad and the ambassador were summoned to see the deputy secretary again. They were handed a list of seven points, most of which were a harbinger of the coming war in Afghanistan, and some of which are still hotly debated between Washington and Islamabad in the current crisis.

The profile goes on to point out that Dr Lodhi presents herself as the “paradigm of a modern self-made South Asian woman” which comes in part from her middle-class family heritage. Unlike Benazir Bhutto, whose roots were “feudal landed gentry,” Dr Lodhi is the daughter of an oil executive and a journalist. She was sent to a convent run by nuns in Rawalpindi for schooling where a tolerant atmosphere prevailed. She learned to read the Quran as a child, but hers was a “spiritual household,” she said, rather than a strictly religious one. She returned to Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad to teach, “but found her natural niche” was in newspapers. “Compared to teaching, journalism is where the action was,” she told the New York Times.

She was editor of The News when Benazir Bhutto approached her to become ambassador to Washington.

Dr Lodhi had already returned as a “firebrand” editor of the paper when General Musharraf, who had just deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, asked her to go as envoy to Washington. She was hesitant. She thought for five days about representing a military man, and decided in favour. “He was deeply committed to making Pakistan a more modern society,” she said. “But now, more than seven years later, with many Pakistanis howling for General Musharraf to shed his uniform and even hand over power, she is diplomatic. ‘Economically, he’s moved,’ she said. ‘Politically, obviously more needs to be done.’ ”

She says she has not heard grumbles from the pro-democracy forces about being ambassador for a military regime. “Envoys serve the country,” she said. Some people, she suggested, would see her as a useful influence from within. British officials, she said, perplexed by the emergence of terrorism suspects in the British Pakistani community, often ask her “how come things are different here” from the US. First, she said, she reminds them upfront that the US did not have an empire. “That plays into how people are perceived when they are non-white,” she tells them. And she has her own favourite personal comparison. “When I moved into the neighbourhood in Washington, people came up and asked if there was anything I needed,” she said. Someone delivered a piece of pumpkin pie, someone else flowers. “I’ve lived in my neighbourhood in London for three and a half years, and I have no idea who the neighbours are,” she told the newspaper.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-8-2007_pg7_21