Thursday, January 9, 2014

ECP proposes new dates for LG elections in Sindh, Punjab

ISLAMABAD: With the public mood heavily against indefinite deferment of local government elections, the Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed Jan 27 for hearing of appeals against the Sindh High Court’s order of setting aside the delimitation of wards in the province.

Although the grant of leave to appeal against SHC’s Dec 12 ruling may not affect the electioneering process since 11,000 nomination papers have already been filed by the intending candidates and scrutinised, the holding of elections on Jan 18 appears unlikely because the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has, for the third time, proposed new dates of Feb 23 for Sindh and March 13 for Punjab.

Initially, elections were to be held on Nov 27 in Sindh and Dec 7 in Punjab. The dates were extended with the permission of the apex court till Jan 18 in Sindh and Jan 30 in Punjab.

Balochistan conducted the elections on Dec 7 and the date for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not yet been decided.

Sindh Advocate General Khalid Javed Khan requested a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, that the election process should be continued and polls should not be postponed for an indefinite period.

He also sought suspension of the SHC verdict and said that otherwise the ECP would not be in a position to hold the elections.

The court had taken up appeals of the Sindh government, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Sindh United Front and the PML-F.

But it was the request of Senator Dr Farogh Naseem, representing the MQM, which apparently persuaded it to desist from granting interim relief, on which the court appeared to have made up its mind.

The counsel said that suspension of the high court order at this stage would create complications in the wake of prevailing confusion about the number of constituencies and eventually compromise the holding of the elections in a transparent manner.

Moreover, the Lahore High Court had also set aside the delimitation of the wards in Punjab on Dec 31 and the detailed reasoning would be issued on Monday, the senator said.

In the interest of justice, the case should be fixed as early as possible and decided after hearing all the sides, he said.

Advocate Akram Sheikh, representing the ECP, argued that the holding of the elections would not be possible on the fixed dates because of various difficulties.

ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said that although the commission had procured the required papers, the Printing Corporation of Pakistan needed three weeks to print ballot papers for Sindh and another week to distribute them.

The PCP and the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation have to print 30 million ballot papers for Sindh and 300 million for Punjab.

The chief justice said the government had failed to do its homework for holding the local government elections, which had prompted the Supreme Court to intervene, but it expected that the MQM, having the largest stakes in the elections, would adopt a responsible attitude in a way that the elections would not be deferred for an indefinite period and would be held in a transparent manner, inspiring confidence among the people.

The court will take up on Thursday the matter of holding the elections in Islamabad and the cantonment boards. Attorney General Shah Khawar has been asked to appear in this regard.

The issue of the elections in Punjab will be taken up on Monday.

Published ON Dawn

THINK politicking, Pakistan-style, and most people would think: loud — and long drawn-out. It’s traditionally been about people travelling long distances, a canopied platform faced with serried ranks of chairs, blood-stirring speeches and thundering denunciations.

Few would have thought that a time might come when a politician desirous of speaking up might choose to not just do so quietly, but also restrict it to text messages of 140 characters or less.

That time may have come.

Where Facebook rules the roost amongst much of the citizenry — admittedly, those that have literacy and internet connectivity — several members of the political elite have turned to Twitter. It might just be the newest arrow in several politicians’ quiver.

Many of those that figure amongst the Twitterati are of the age or background where the internet is a familiar means of communication. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is often found commenting here, as is Maryam Nawaz Sharif of the PML-N. But politicians’ use of the site is far from restricted to any one generation or party.

People who tweet regularly include Sherry Rehman, Hussain Haqqani and Rehman Malik of the PPP, as well as Asad Omar of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf; Sheikh Rashid Ahmed puts in a comment from time to time, as does Mushahid Husain.

So does Twitter actually make constituents feel closer to the politicians whose attention and concern is vital to the smooth functioning of everyday life? One person that is a frequent presence on Twitter commented that “in speeches and in pressers, you get something that’s been prepared. On Twitter, they each have a distinctive voice, and you can tell who manages their own account. Rehman Malik, for example, is frequently diverting, while Nabil Gabol had this to say recently: ‘breaking sindh means breaking Pakistan so im a Patriot Pakistani nd wil remain so and no 1 is in favor of dividing Sindh [sic].’”

Politicians wouldn’t be using this platform — and tens of thousands of people wouldn’t be following them — if there were no benefits. There are many examples of person-to-politician interactions, one of which is Maryam Nawaz who is these days tweeting often in response to queries about the Youth Business Loan Scheme. Bilawal Bhutto responds frequently to direct comments, too.

“I find it very useful since there’s instant feedback and you can talk directly to followers,” said Asad Omar of the PTI. “But it depends on the kind of politician one is. There’s a very high penetration of social media in my constituency, for example, but obviously people contesting from rural constituencies would find it different.”

For this reason, he added, Twitter is not replacing the traditional methods of reaching out to voters; it’s simply a new tool.

Does instant feedback have an effect on policy, though? In Mr Omar’s view, no, “because it’s just a small fraction of people — it’s not what Pakistan is thinking but a fraction of Pakistan.” With cheap phones becoming Twitter-capable too and with people using the Urdu font, though, “if it keeps going this way virtually every educated Pakistani will be connected through the medium,” he said.

“In the last couple of weeks even TV channels have been picking up Twitter feeds.”

As the former editor of a newspaper, and a regular on Twitter, put it, “political parties and leaders have realised that social media has now become a news source for media organisations. Politicians — or those who run their accounts — sometimes, but not always, also respond when they are tagged to queries. This helps them raise their profile and, in a very, very small measure, may also contribute to better governance and decisions.”

On the downside, he added, “the ease of tweeting doesn’t allow those using Twitter to reflect on what they are saying. There have been many political controversies when a leader has tweeted or retweeted someone else without really thinking through the possible reaction.”

As with each new tool, time will no doubt bring proficiency. But meanwhile, large sections of Pakistan’s educated, internet-connected citizenry seem to be enjoying being atwitter about a politician might say next.

By Hajra Mumtaz

No privacy in Pakistan - ARIF AZAD

EDWARD Snowden has done the world immense good by exposing the National Security Agency’s worldwide snooping on unsuspecting citizens and government officials. While the rest of the world has reacted vehemently to these revelations, these have elicited nothing more than a yawn here despite the fact that Pakistan has been the prime subject of such surveillance.

Our response comes from cultural and political norms that accord low salience to the issue of privacy despite this right being enshrined in the Constitution. The under-emphasis on Article 14, which ensures the right to privacy, is a further illustration of how low-ranked this issue is even among the human rights activists.

The right to privacy, as we know it today, was first floated by Warren and Brandeis in 1890 in the Harvard Law Review. In the article the duo argued that as civilisation advanced the right to be left alone became necessary. This right to privacy was at the core of protecting an inviolate personality.

Since 1899, all major debates about privacy have been informed by the Warren and Brandeis article and the right to privacy has been incorporated into various international and national legal frameworks.

I tend to think that the right to privacy, as expounded by Warren and Brandeis, is central to Pakistan’s creative and modern future. Our flagrant disregard for the right to privacy has given rise to an assembly line generation which has come to accept the invasion of privacy by the state and powerful social forces as normal. No wonder the concept of privacy has been under siege because our inviolate personality is always subject to larger social and political impositions which are eminently resistible.

Our daily lives are open to unwarranted and unpreventable intrusion from the larger society. The invasion of privacy, or the right to be private or left alone, is breached from the beginning. This begins from the day we are born. From day one children are never allowed space to develop a nice self-corner or hidden private self for themselves. Children of poor and crowded families live in cramped conditions where Wordsworth’s notion of “the individual mind that keeps her own inviolate retirement” never materialises. In affluent homes over-doting and overloaded parents do not let this Wordsworthian notion of privacy come near the child Women fare worse. Many of them, reared on a diet of housewifely duties, remain so immersed in caring for usually large families that there is very little personal space available to them in the household to develop their inner selves. In overcrowded and overworked homes they find refuge in the kitchen which further ties them down to a gendered and unremunerated role.

When they step out of the house their personal space is violated at each step of the way by unwarranted and intense male gazes. In cases where the women can escape to work in offices their personal space is more than likely to be intruded through acts of nuisance or sexual harassment both in office and on the way to and back from work.

You and your privacy are under threat if you are poor and happen to live in an area where the landlord rules the roost. Your personality is not inviolate. You and your family are under constant fear of being intruded upon, picked up or harassed. If you somehow manage to defy the writ of the local landlord, the state institutions are at his beck and call to ensure violation of your privacy. And if you happen to have a run-in with the police and you do not have a hotline to a local notable you are more than likely to be treated shabbily and your privacies regularly interfered with.

In some cases, not only your privacy but the privacy of your larger family is blatantly violated by investigative officers. Your home is no longer your castle. The law is hardly your friend in these matters. When we experience so many indignities to our sense of self we forget that our right to privacy is being violated by the state and its agencies on a daily basis.

The ease with which the new terrorism act giving wide-ranging powers to intelligence and investigative agencies was passed without a squeak of protest shows how much value we attach to our own inviolate personality. Iqbal’s concept of khudi, in fact, sails very close to the notion of the right to privacy as propounded by Warren and Brandeis. At the core of Iqbal’s concept of khudi is also the idea of cultivation and preservation of an inviolate personality. Just as the modern conception of the right to privacy has transformed modern life in the West, its understanding and sustained application can transform the way we see ourselves as nation.

By: ARIF AZAD

Published on Dawn

A little of everything - I.A. REHMAN

PAKISTAN can easily be described as a country that has a little of almost everything that a modern, developed state can boast of and also much that an underdeveloped, backward-looking state often wishes to hide.

Spurred by the latest campaign of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), for workers’ social protection and their right to decent work, several Pakistani labour organisations have stepped up their efforts to secure social security cover for their following, including bonded labour.

Their struggle has already helped a good number of workers, several hundred of them bonded, receive social security cards that go a long way in improving their economic security. They constitute a small group of privileged workers, though not necessarily from the disadvantaged category.

A vast majority of the workers are still deprived of their basic rights — the right to work of one’s choice, a fair wage, security of tenure, unionisation, collective bargaining, et al. The disparity between the two groups is truly enormous.

The state’s desire to keep up appearances with the advanced and privileged societies of the world and its inability to substantially improve the lot of a vast majority of people has created similar disparities in almost all fields of life.

Take justice, for example. The apex court has been vying for honours with corresponding courts in the advanced world in terms of its capacity for innovative interpretation of the basic law, its exercise of the suo motu jurisdiction, its ability to check the executive’s transgressions, and its keenness to remove citizens’ grievances.

At the same time, ordinary people get little justice from the subordinate judiciary, and stories of corruption and inefficiency at that level are common. The ordinary Pakistani, particularly the rustic villager, lives in perpetual dread of the police that are supposed to serve and protect him. And if that Pakistani happens to be a resident of Balochistan, he is exposed to greater excesses by the more privileged ‘servants’ of the people. Also, the poorer one is the lesser his or her access and entitlement to justice.

Pride in the country having become a nuclear power and owner of a nuclear arsenal is now an integral part of the Pakistani people’s mindset. Yet, a large number of schools, perhaps a majority, do not have a science laboratory worth the name.

The disparity in the standards of educational institutions that serve the rich elite and those meant to cater to the needs of the less resourceful segments of the population is quite alarming. Institutions in the former category claim to be at a par with Western centres of learning, while the products of the latter are distinguished neither by their learning nor by their proficiency in any vocation.

Besides, it took the republic 63 years to recognise the right to education as a fundamental right, a concession meant entirely for the underprivileged people as the affluent ones had no problems, but almost four years since Article 25-A was added to the Constitution one does not know how and when the state is going to fulfil the obligation it has much too belatedly assumed.

Otherwise, too, nobody can claim that Pakistan is taking due care of its disadvantaged children. Child labour is still rampant and little has been done to end the worst form of child labour although Pakistan was quick to ratify ILO Convention 182.

The protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits the employment of children as soldiers remains unratified — perhaps out of deference to or fear of militant extremists. The infant mortality rate is still very high and small girls continue to be given away for settlement of feuds and sex-related crimes.

Much is said about the advances made by women. Their number in the legislatures has risen by a wide margin and they can, theoretically at least, make laws for the whole population. It is doubtful if they are allowed a share in managing their homes and in taking decisions about their children. There is, however, no doubt about the denial of such privileges to a preponderant majority of Pakistan’s womenfolk. Most of them are no better off than unpaid servants of the patriarchs.

The company responsible for waste management in Lahore can advertise its modern machinery and advanced methods to keep the city clean, while a better part of the population is condemned to wallow in filth and squalor. Construction barons are building luxury houses that match Western comforts but there is no hope for the slum dwellers.

These disparities are visible to the naked eye and sear the disadvantaged people’s hearts. It was such disparities that sparked the alienation of the Bengalis and these are now alienating the Baloch and the tribal population.

True, no country is free of differences between the privileged and the disadvantaged but civilised societies try to ensure that such distinctions are progressively reduced, that at least they are not allowed to increase.

Pakistan unfortunately belongs to the group of countries where the gap between the elite and the common citizens is widening all the time. Any improvement in the life of the poor is insufficient to reduce the gap because the margin of uplift of the privileged is much higher.

The stark reality is that a minority has everything and the majority has very little for itself. So long as this equation is not altered in the interest of the poor and those without resources, Pakistan will remain stuck in the danger zone.

A little of everything by I.A. REHMAN
Published on Dawn

Naya NRO - Javed Chaudhry

Bilawal sy bahaduri ki tawaqa thi! By Rauf Klasra

Barhakon ka imtehan By Talat Hussain

Barhakon ka imtehan By Talat Hussain
Source: Express News

Secular dictator or us k haleef By Orya Maqbool Jan

Qazi Sahib – Javed Chaudhry

Enemies of joy

Ghazi Salahuddin

Again and again, there is this evidence that we are not able or allowed to live like normal, civilised individuals. Our rights as citizens of a free and democratic nation are usurped on a daily basis. But the spectacle that is staged by the authorities on New Year’s Eve in Karachi is diabolical in its manifestation of a certain mindset that borders on mental sickness.

One simply wonders: who are these people who design such vile stratagems, ostensibly in the name of law and order, to deny people an opportunity to have some entertainment and fun on an occasion that is universally celebrated? In fact, the idea seems to be to inflict pain and discomfort on a large scale. Do they see New Year as some kind of a social and cultural bereavement?

Now, it is true that what happened at the advent of 2014 in Karachi has become an annual affair. The citizens have learnt to live with this bothersome incongruity. All the measures that were taken were like an action replay. The drill has become a ritual. So, why should one be so angry about it? After all, the national sense of direction, marked by increasing intolerance and obscurantism, also serves as an incentive for such restrictions.

However, I feel that the absence of a serious debate on the state of our society is increasingly subverting the ability of the administration to deal with its challenges in a larger context. The focus on politics – and that too in a perfunctory and trivial manner –has prevented our decision makers from a proper understanding of how a modern society must function and how social capital should be generated to support intellectual and moral development.

Perhaps we do not have sufficient intellectual resources to deal effectively with the present crisis of Pakistan. Our institutes of higher education are woefully deficient in the sphere of social sciences and humanities. The intelligentsia that we have is small and peripheral in its impact on our collective thinking and social behaviour. In this environment, we are left to be amused by the wisdom of the likes of Shaikh Rashid and the other usual suspects who chew the cud on our news channels.

This is not to belittle the importance of major issues that relate to our national security and foreign policy. On the first day of 2014, we were reminded of the peril of sectarian terrorism. There are implications in how the case of treason against a former military ruler would proceed. We had this exciting twist in the tale when Pervez Musharraf left his farmhouse for the court and arrived at a military hospital.

As an aside, just consider the monumental problems that the state must confront to bring Pervez Musharraf from his residence to the court, in spite of the massive security apparatus that is at its disposal. Also imagine the cost that such arrangements entail. This is another parable for the loss of authority of the rulers of a nuclear country that also has one of the largest standing armies of the world. A social scientist, if the rulers would want to listen to one, may be able to explain the meaning of simultaneous increase in violent disorder as well as the presence of uniformed men on the streets.

Similarly, the scenes that were enacted in the vicinity of Seaview in Karachi on the last evening of the departing year could figure in a Powerpoint presentation on the quixotic plan that was devised by the security officials of the city. It would appear that they had unlimited resources in terms of men and material to control the movement of a section of the populace. It would not matter if people were not able to reach their homes or deal with emergency situations. Ah, this may even be an intentional tactic to punish a large number of them for wanting to have some fun and happiness at a time when the whole world was in a playful and joyous mood.

In some ways, the security arrangements violated the right of the people to live their lives. Even those who did not have any intention to join a party or the awami hullabaloo on the beach had to suffer. In a paradoxical sense, the officials succeeded in making New Year memorable for so many people. There must have been many stories to tell about that evening. Those who had an opportunity to watch the new year being celebrated in different countries, with fireworks and jubilant crowds in numerous freezing climes, could think that we live in a country in which having fun is a crime.

Of course, security concerns were said to be at the heart of these arrangements. On the face of it, this is a valid reason. But the protectors of law and order, who themselves live in a security bubble, did not perhaps have the wisdom or the imagination to be able to create safe spaces in which ordinary people could have a communal experience of a celebration. That many can be rowdy or riotous on such occasions is also because they have not been properly socialised and provided the right means to express their feelings.

It is easier to block main roads, close down eating places and stop people from gathering at one place than to improve the security situation through innovative means. We may also refer to the ongoing operation in Karachi. Was it not the failure of our security agencies to arrest the decline and fall of law and order in the first place?

My point, essentially, is to underline the importance of collective activities to infuse light and joy in ordinary lives. This would be possible when rule of law is established. At one level, our rulers’ constant appeasement of the fanatics is the real tragedy. The manner in which Lahore has been robbed of its Basant is a reflection of the failure of our nation to move forward in a cultural context.

It is pointless to argue that celebrating New Year is not our culture, though this argument would not be valid in the case of Basant. I refer to New Year only in a generic sense. What is important is to allow people whatever justification they may have to enrich their lives and pursue happiness through legitimate means. Living with so much distress and anxiety, our people do deserve some moments of joy. And a glint of hope with which New Year is universally identified.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail. com

The mystery of Raiwind palace ownership
By: IFTIKHAR A. KHAN and KALBE ALI

ISLAMABAD: The ownership of the Raiwind palace spread over thousands of acres is a mystery because it has never been mentioned in the statements of assets and liabilities of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family in politics.

Even latest declarations submitted by Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif, son-in-law Captain Mohammad Safdar and nephew Hamza Shahbaz to the Election Commission of Pakistan are silent on the ownership title of the huge property.

But Information Minister Pervez Rasheed told Dawn that the property was in the name of Shamim Sharif, mother of the Sharif brothers.

The statements of assets show that the Sharif brothers have much in common. Both live in houses not owned by them. Nawaz Sharif lives in a house owned by his mother while Shahbaz Sharif resides in a house owned by his spouse Nusrat.

Both use Land Cruisers gifted to them by unspecified persons. Both have multiple foreign and local currency accounts, own huge agricultural land and have investments in industrial units like sugar, textile and paper mills.

The most visible dissimilarity is the rapid growth in the value of assets owned by the elder brother and continuous decline in the value of assets possessed by the younger brother. Another dissimilarity is that Shahbaz Sharif has two properties in the United Kingdom, but Nawaz Sharif has no assets abroad.

Till the time of elections in May last year, Shahbaz was richer than Nawaz — though none of them a billionaire — but things are different now. According to the recent declaration, the value of Nawaz Sharif’s wealth has registered a six-fold increase in just 12 months to make him a billionaire for the first time.

According to statements of assets and liabilities, the net worth of Nawaz Sharif’s assets was Rs261.6 million in 2012 and of Shahbaz Sharif Rs336.9m.

In 2011, the assets of the two brothers were worth Rs166m and Rs393m, indicating an increase of Rs95.6m and decrease of Rs56.5m, respectively.

In 2013, the value of assets of Nawaz Sharif ballooned to Rs1.82bn while that of Shahbaz Sharif slipped further to Rs142m.

Incidentally, Shahbaz Sharif has more stakes abroad than in the country. He owns properties and bank account worth Rs138.28m in the UK. He has three loans worth 117.10m in Pakistani rupees in British banks.

The younger brother has not disclosed the value of five

properties with net area of around 676 kanal in Lahore – all gifted by his mother.

He has Rs51.96m cash in hand and Rs7.27m in his sole bank account in the country.

Mrs Nusrat, the first wife of Mr Shahbaz, had assets worth Rs273.46m on June 30 last year. It was Rs224.56m a year earlier. She has Rs14.34m cash in hand and Rs1.95m in her five bank accounts.

The assets of Mrs Tehmina, the second wife of Shahbaz Sharif, are worth Rs9.83m. They were Rs7.64m last year.

She has five bank accounts – two in Pound Sterling, one in dollar and two in Pak rupees, but the money in these accounts is only Rs23,770. She has cash in hand and prize bonds worth Rs750,000 and two cars.

Kalsoom Nawaz, the wife of Nawaz Sharif, has net wealth of Rs235.85m, which is much less than that of Mrs Nusrat Shahbaz.

Mrs Kalsoom has land and a house in Changa Gali, Abbottabad, worth Rs63.75m, a bungalow on Mall Road in Murree worth Rs100m, 88 kanal of land in Sheikhupura worth Rs70m, jewellery of Rs1.5m and shares in family businesses.

She has Rs67,555 cash in hand and Rs55,765 in banks.

Hamza Shahbaz is wealthier than his father with net assets of Rs250.46m. He has two wives. The wealth of his first wife is Rs2.45m and that of the second is Rs9.88m.

Capt Safdar’s wealth is worth Rs14.23m. He owns a car which his wife Marium received as a gift from the UAE.

Published On : www.dawn.com

Movie Review – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
In the middle of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” – or should I say, a smaller part stitched out of a bigger picture for cinematic convenience – there is a shining love story between a dwarf and an elf; make that literally shining, with color blooms and halos. The elf is a royal warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), an original invention of director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro, and akin to most moviemaking liberties Mr. Jackson takes with J.R.R. Tolkien’s material the addition of one lonesome character, and a small love story, is a welcome breather amongst a lot of running, slicing and dicing.

“The Desolation of Smaug” follows up “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, where Mr. Jackson takes the long scenic route to set-up Mr. Tolkien’s less applauded characters with some background support from key players from “The Lord of the Rings”. Those faces, along with the resonating, sweeping trademark score from Howard Shore are intentionally replaced by a lot of actual sweeping. For a good number of scenes Mr. Jackson (and his regular cinematographer, the Oscar winning Andrew Lesine) wooshes the camera across impossible to place positions – dangling from over the top fixtures, speeding through low angles, imprudently edited location establishing shots, and even between peoples’ conversations. The fanatical drive to add hyper-dynamism to an already grim – and overly CGI crowded movie – is headache inducing and amateurish.

Mr. Jackson, who runs through most of “The Desolation of Smaug”, from one action sequence to the other, consigns some dramatics into his hero’s journey: Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), and a company of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (a semi-gruff Richard Armitage) and Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), travel to Lonely Mountain Erebor, to kill the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) and reclaim their land (or to be precise, their mountain and mines). On their way, unlike Mr. Jackson’s other Tolkien middle picture “The Two Towers”, there is very slight prominence to his semi-important characters. (There are exceptions: one is a local town anti-government trader named Bard, played with somberness and severity by Luke Evans; the other is Elven King, Thranduil, played by Lee Pace, who hams it up as if he’s playing a self-centered fashionista).

About 6 hours into “The Hobbit” now, I’m still unable to pinpoint who-is-who in the dwarves. Instead of working them up, the screenplay substitutes Legolas (Orlando Bloom) as a zipping, Olympic-level gymnast elf-of-action, capable of taking down a horde of Orcs without messing up his hair.

A point to be noted, is that Legolas isn’t a part of The Hobbit books (he is fleetingly mentioned), however his appendage – and that of Tauriel – buffs up and unstiffens “The Desolation of Smaug” from its one-point agenda (there are some more liberties, spun-out but held back because they will play-out in “To There and Back Again”, due out next year).

At times, however, there are just too many distractions in “The Desolation of Smaug”; while the dragon, with Mr. Cumberbatch’s hypnotic, imposing, voice is one of the finest flying horrors of his movie-brethren (including Sean Connery’s Draco from “Dragonheart”), the overdrive of CG (including the Orcs, who were aesthetically better when people in make-up played them), fake action and the high frame rate of 48 frames per second (as compared to 24 frames per second, the usual norm), makes every shot seem like it is plucked out of a nex-gen video game, and not the plausible reality Mr. Jackson had worked so hard to create the last time.

I believe Mr. Jackson needs to take a step back and look at the bigger picture: the grandeur of Mr. Tolkien’s works, and Mr. Jackson’s own originality, is muscular enough to stand on its own without newfangled cinematic shenanigans – no matter if its looks good on paper, or in his imagination.

Released by Warner Bros. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” is rated PG-13 for intense action, including beheading of fake fantasy creatures.

Directed by Peter Jackson; Produced by Mr. Jackson, Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner, and Ms. Walsh; Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Mr. Jackson (based on the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien); Cinematography by Andrew Lesnie; Edited by Jabez Olssen; Music by Howard Shore.

Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch (as the voice of Smaug), Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom and Mikael Persbrandt, amongst others.

Reviewed by: MOHAMMAD KAMRAN JAWAID

A trial like no other
CYRIL ALMEIDA

CONVICT him. Lock him up in a cell and throw away the key. Let him get his comeuppance. Deterrence, justice, revenge — maybe it’s one, maybe it’s another, maybe it’s all three. Either way, the crime fits the man.

Or let him go. Everyone was on board in ’99. After ’07, he was gone in less than a year. It was, originally, a political crime — and the polity was his accomplice. Then, the polity moved on and that was that.

Musharraf. What are folk trying to get him for: seizing power or what he did with the power he seized?

The good thing about systems, the anti-coup democrats will argue, is that outcomes aren’t necessarily shaped by motives. Putting Musharraf on trial for the wrong reasons can still lead to the right outcome: less army influence, more civilian control.

The bad thing about systems, the realists will argue, is that outcomes aren’t necessarily shaped by motives. Putting Musharraf on trial for the right reasons can still lead to the wrong outcome: more civilian arrogance, more army antsiness.

But, first, we need to understand the system. And before that, because people populate the system, we need to understand the players.

There’s only one person who will make the decision whether Musharraf will be tried or not: Nawaz. And if anyone thinks he knows what Nawaz is thinking, he’s kidding himself. Like, really. The already notoriously closed-up has taken on a Sphinx-like air of mystery this time round.

Somewhere inside Nawaz is a decision-making centre that combines the personal with the visceral and a folksy understanding of systems. When you throw the Musharraf-trial complexities and angles and doubts and intentions into that decision-making centre, what will prevail in the end is anyone’s guess.

So expect to see Musharraf smoking a cigar in London soon or expect to see him on trial. Be surprised by neither.

But back to the system — because not knowing what Nawaz will decide doesn’t mean we can’t figure out what’s at stake.

Whether Musharraf is tried or not, the democratic project will continue. Nobody really thinks that a Musharraf trial would prompt Gen Sharif to oust PM Sharif.

Whether Musharraf is tried or not will though affect civil-military relations. If you can try a general — and not just any general, but one of the Club of Four — things change; power flows towards you some and away from the generals.

But there’s a third corner to this triangle, the one few ever focus on: the people.

It’s not just civil vs military or civ-mil imbalance; it’s civil and military seeking legitimacy and power from the people to control the state.

That contest is often cast as one rooted in results: when the civilians fail to deliver, intervention by the generals is accepted; when the generals end up covered in much of the same mud, a return to civilian options is embraced.

But the army gets away with it for a different reason (in addition to the fact that they have guns and are organised and are manipulative): an old, accepted and internalised tradition of a two-tiered governance system. Old enough to have its own entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica and its own name: dyarchy.

Essentially, running the state is divided into two halves: the authoritarian and the popularly responsible. It starts with weak institutions. Because they are weak, the pols are handed the softer stuff — education, health, jobs, small infrastructure — while the big boys keep a watchful gaze over the big-ticket items — security, revenue for state continuity, foreign policy.

Matters stumble along for a while. Then, when the pols inevitably stutter because institutions are weak and their own capacities limited, the big boys intervene, stepping in with their benign authoritarianism and smoothing things over.

But here’s the thing with dyarchy: it is not supposed to fundamentally fix things or transform realities. It is about stop-gap and backstop. It is about a system in which mediocre is considered safer than aiming for more. It is about saving from rather than aspiring to.

And it’s bloody hard to dislodge from the minds of everyone: the army, which believes in its benign-authoritarian mission as defender of the last resort; the pols, who deep down aren’t really convinced of their ability to fix stuff; and the people, who want better but will settle for OK.

Now plug a Musharraf trial into that system.

He deserves to be tried, he should be tried and it would be great to see him tried — for ’99. Even then, if ’07 is all the system can muster up the courage to try him for, it’s a compromise worth taking. Remember, the alternative is no trial, which the other three in the Club of Four got.

But from trial to no coup or more coup would be a stretch. For the system is dyarchy and the system is accepted. Benign authoritarianism by the army and about-par competence by the pols.

Turning that around, changing the system, would require first understanding what it is rooted in. Results matter, yes, but so do perceptions. Of the people.

Hand on their heart, most folk today would accept that the civilians are legitimate rulers and dictatorships a bad idea. But would they flat out reject the possibility of accepting another coup ever, no matter what the mitigating circumstances or justifications?

That’s modern-day dyarchy. And getting Musharraf will be a helluva lot easier than ever switching that around.

cyril.a@gmail.com

Twitter: @cyalm

Biryani, to love or to love a little more?

If you are from the subcontinent, foodie or not, you may have asked yourself this question: What is it about biryani that we love so much?

The legendary Mumtaz Mahal may be credited for the modern day biryani, she believed that it was a complete food and was thus suited best for troop consumption every night, during wartime and peace. That is the story on modern day biryani, but where did it actually originate?

The word biryani comes from the Persian word birian, which means frying the food before cooking it, and by cooking this writer implies the process of dum, the traditional method to make biryani. History suggests that the method of dum and the name comes from Arab or Persian style of cooking, and may have travelled to the Indian subcontinent from Persia through Afghanistan, or from ancient Arabia to Kerala through the Arabian Sea with Arab traders. Nonetheless in Persian, birian means frying before cooking, hence the method to cook biryani.

Today, we boil the rice before the process of dum but historically when biryani was prepared the unwashed rice was initially fried in butter or ghee, before boiling. It was believed that frying the rice gave it a nutty flavor and also burnt the starch gelatinising the outer layer of the rice.

Separately, a lamb leg was set to sit in a marinade of curd, spices and papaya and then cooked to tenderness. Once the meat was cooked, it was layered with the half-cooked rice, garnished with droplets of rose water, saffron and mace, these spices gave it an almost flowery and royal essence, and then sealed in a handi and set on low flame until the rice was fully cooked and plumped, and ready to be served.

Biryani has variations from different regions of the subcontinent, all claiming that their twist on it is the best. Recent history of biryani dating to the 18th and 19th century tells us many a stories as to how the rice dish gained popularity far and wide in the region. Lucknow, was called Awadh and since the Mughuls were ruling at the time, the royal palace introduced us to the Awadhi Biryani. It is also said that before the advent of Mumtaz Mahal, the grand daughter-in-law of the great Akbar, he made Asfa Jahi the Nizaam of the great state of Hyderabad. The Nizaam wanted his state to own the royal dish thus, he had his kitchen give it a twist and the outcome is the legendaryHyderabadi Biryani. Tipu Sultan of Karnataka spread the biryani to Mysore, giving us the Mysoree Biryani, but the most special biryani may be the one that does not have meat, the nawabs of the region hired vegetarian cooks to create the meatless biryani and thus Tahiri came into being.

The people of central Asia lay claim to this dish also and believe that it was Tehmur Lung who brought biryani to North India from Kazakhstan through Afghanistan.

Despite all the different twists to the dish, like the Sindhi Biryani with potatoes, the Memoni Biryani with teez masala, the Kacha Goshat Biryani that is cooked in garammasala spices without tomatoes and the Bho-ri Biryani, very popular in Karachi and Bombay, it is actually Lucknow that lays ultimate claim to it. The Awadhi Dum Biryani is a gift that the Muslims of the Mughul era gave to the northern part of India. The specialty of the Awadhi Dum Biryani is that the meat is also half-cooked like the rice, and the dish is brought to cooking perfection through the dum pukth style of cooking, almost like the ancient times when berian was buried in the ground and cooked to perfection.

I want to share with you a twist on biryani called Hara Masala Biryani. It cooks to perfection; the taste is royal and the aroma Mughlai. I recently ate it at Imran Qureshi’s and Aisha Khalid’s house, in the historic city of Lahore. The first bite of this biryani put me in food heaven, and my gracious hosts offered me tips on this style of biryani, to which I added my love for food, experience, research and some ingredients, conjuring it up for a birthday dinner. It was an instant hit. Here it is from my kitchen to yours:

Hara Masala Biryani

Ingredients:

1 bunch cilantro (hara dhanya)
1 bunch mint (pudina)
10 serrano peppers (hari mirch)
15 blanched almonds (badaam)
2 ½ tbs coconut powder (narial)
1tbsp ginger garlic (lasan, adrak)
1 cup yogurt (dahi)
1 ¼ chicken (approximately 19 to 20 pieces)
3 medium size red onions (laal piyaz)
½ cup to 1/3 cup oil
Salt to taste
½ cup water
3 red potatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp kewra water
½ tsp garam masala powder
2 mugs of Basmati rice

Method:

Slice onions thinly and fry in hot oil until golden brown, set aside half of the fried onions and add ginger garlic and chicken to the other half. Cook on high heat for a few minutes.

In a blender, blend cilantro leaves, mint leaves, green peppers, ½ cup water, blanched almonds, coconut powder, once blended add the green mixture, yogurt and salt to the chicken. Now add peeled and halved potatoes, cooking on high to medium heat, add a little water if masala looks to dry. Cook until oil separates and the chicken and potatoes are tender.

In a separate pot (colander) boil 8 to 10 mugs of water, adding bay leaf, 10 to 15 black peppercorns, 5 to 10 cloves, 5 green cardamoms, 1 black cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick bringing it to boil.

Now add pre-soaked rice to the boiling water keeping the rice to tender crisp phase, still offering resistance to the bite but cooked through, since we cook the rice completely in the dum phase.

Drain rice, layer the pot with rice, layer with chicken and masala, add the second layer of rice, sprinkle garam masala powder, fried onions, kewra water, seal pot with foil and lid. Notching full heat for 5 minutes and medium to low heat for 15 to complete the dum.

Let sit for 10 minute, and serve.

By: BISMA TIRMIZI

Sometimes a season, a picture, a memory can bring the taste of a particular food with it. One can almost taste it, smell it, savour it and the understanding that the only thing standing between me and the food is a delightful realisation, that now all I have to do is pick up the ingredients, put on an apron and get cooking; and voila, Lahori Fish is ready to be served.

Lahori Fish, this one sent me to the kitchen fast and to the grocery store faster. Once the fish, my favourite white meat, was set to marinade it gave me some time to research the history behind this delicious dish.

What’s the story of the fried fish? Is it its tender yet crisp texture that keeps us coming back for more? Or perhaps the simple fact that once caught, or bought, it takes a dash of butter, red pepper, salt, garlic, ginger and ten minutes on the skillet or karahi and you have dinner that’s a winner!

It is famously said in Don Quixote Hunger is the best sauce in the world and since peasants have a lot of it they always eat with zeal and zest. Yes, fish was a food of the coastal poor, and the ones living by rivers and lakes. And then ironically fresh fish jumped ship and became rich man’s food.

The bawarchees from the house of Mughals, under the influence of the cooks of Awadh, modern day Lucknow, decided to marinade the treasures of the sea and cooked and presented it to royal perfection, to the utter delight of the nawabs who joined Akbar for zohrana (lunch) and aashaiya (dinner) often.

But what about the simple city folk, the people of Lahore and of course Amritsar, sitting some thirty miles from Lahore, where fish was a frequent dinner delight in autumn, winter and spring?

In order to claim fish as their own dish they took to the hawandasta (mortar) powdered a few indigenous spices and set it to marinade in the cold winters of Lahore. The fish was then dipped in rice flour and besan (gram flour), and finally double fried it to orange perfection. What is the purpose of double frying it? In order to get the extra crispiness and crunch that enhances the taste significantly.

In the sub continent, particularly Punjab Rahu the sweet river fish is the most popular choice for the Lahori Fish. It is believed that the abundance of this river fish, from Darya-e-Ravi, and the blessing of cool glorious weather of the region from autumn to spring and of course basant, the festive celebration to welcome spring, inspired the Punjabi cooks to create the Lahori Fish.

History tells us that spring was the time when the locals enjoyed eating fried pakoras,kachorian, purian, all kinds of pakwans (batter fried or fried foods), and thus they decided to batter fry Rahu, and gave the batter an orange yellow hue, the colour that represents basant. This double battered fried fish became very popular in Punjab on both sides of the border.

Presented as street food, affordable, quick and scrumptious, however as its popularity grew it poised as a lavish dinner dish served with pride at celebrations across Pakistan.

In Indian Punjab this delectable fish, or a very similar tasting fish to the Lahori Fish, is very popular and goes by the name of Amritsari Fish. It is a fish from River Biyaas, double fried in a besan batter to orange golden perfection and served with green chutney.

It is a popular street favourite, therefore to presume that the people on both sides of the Wagah Border love this delicious batter delight is a safe assumption. It is served withhari chutney or imli (tamarind) chutney, or both if one wants an extra zing.

Winters in my neck of the woods are very 'Lahoreisque', dry, cold and glorious, so when my taste buds demanded a taste of Punjab I succumbed with pleasure. A quick call to my khala (maternal aunt) in Faisalabad and I had an authentic recipe. To my delight my friend Sandeep from Indian Punjab volunteered as the taste-tester representing Amritsari Fish, while I did the honour of taste testing my very own Lahori Fish. We both left the table happy campers. Here’s from my kitchen to yours.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6)

1lbs fish fillets (6 to 8 pieces)

Spices for Marinade

1tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp crushed cumin
½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp crushed dhanya seeds
½ tsp ajwain
1tsp crushed anaardaana
2 to 3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
Salt to taste
1 tsp chopped green chilli

Ingredients for batter

1 cup besan
3 tbsp rice flour
½ tsp haldi
½ tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp baking powder
1tsp crushed garlic
1 egg
3 tbsp oil
1 ½ to 2 ½ mugs ice cold water, keeping the consistency like that of pakora batter
2 tsp orange colour
Salt to taste

Method

Wash fish and let dry, mix marinade and rub on fish, and let it rest six to eight hours in the fridge. Mix the batter by adding cold water and dip the fish fillets in the mixture. Heat oil and fry fillets for eight to 10 minutes, remove from fryer and leave it on oil absorbent paper towels until fillets are at room temperature. Reheat oil and refry fish fillets on high heat for two to four minutes. Remove from fryer and serve hot with hari or imli chutney,Lahori or Amritsari style.

By: BISMA TIRMIZI

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