Baithak Desi Jun 01: Asghar Khan's SC Woes, Humayun Gohar, Anjum Niaz, Tariq Ali, F S Aijazuddin, Headlines, Cartoon

Air Marshal Asghar Khan's Supreme Court Woes Continue: Mr Justice Sajjad Ali Shah held five hearings whilst he was the chief justice and after he left, two more hearings were held. The last hearing was held on October 12, 1999 by Chief Justice Mr Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqi. Since then, no hearing has been held and I have written to all the chief justices since then, except Chief Justice Dogar, asking them to take up the case. I wrote to the chief justice before the 2002 elections reminding him that if the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate was not stopped from playing a political role, no fair elections would be possible. I received no reply and the election was held. I also wrote to General Pervez Musharraf before the 2002 elections telling him that the political role of the ISI Directorate should be withdrawn if free and fair elections were to be held. He replied informing me that the ISI Directorate had no such role and took no action. I wrote four letters to Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the last on August 8, 2007, in which I reminded him that this case had been pending for eleven years, I was now 86 years old and he might therefore hold a hearing and give a decision. To this too, I received no reply. ISI By M. ASGHAR KHAN


Humayun Gohar writes about the Comic: see if you recognise the Comic - They insist that Musharraf is not the legal president. One asks: what is the legality of those who have been convicted twice over, have run to foreign governments to broker deals, get presidential pardons and take them into comfortable exile, come back after doing more deals also brokered by foreign governments, and got off Scott free under the guise of "reconciliation"? When a shark uses the morality argument in a sea of amorality, it sinks. If Musharraf must exit on this argument, so too must these pardoned dealers. We can then go back to our past in search of our roots to understand our genesis. Desperadoes


The other night there was a small dinner party where someone from Lahore had been called in to sing. Seated in the front row was a group of women of all ages. On the sides sat their husbands. As the party progressed and the songs got romantic, the women sat like statues, some with eyest cast down. Their men, on the other hand, could not sit still. They applauded, sang and cheered the singer, enjoying every moment. What’s wrong with enjoying someone singing? Plenty, I would say. Women are meant to hide their emotions in public and not display their feelings before strangers. This is the kind of upbringing most of us are exposed to. It’s unladylike to be boisterous, while it’s okay for men to be riotous, even raucous. I’m waiting for the day when at a party like the one above, I can stand up and dance the night away. Attaining a true state of bliss should be gender neutral. Why must men always have more fun than women? Blame it on Madam BY Anjum Niaz


Tariq Ali’s A Banker for All Seasons is a cloak-and-dagger classic par excellence; a thriller packed with murders, tortures, intrigues, secret agents, and almost surrealistic insights that leave the reader aghast.

The book contains clues to the fire that destroyed the Ojheri camp arsenal, the sale of the Attock Oil Company, Ziaul Haq’s plane crash, and how Altaf Gauhar became editor of the Dawn. Was Gauhar an innocent victim of Z.A. Bhutto’s attack on freedom of the press when he was arrested, or was there something more sinister behind it than met the eye?

The ‘banker for all seasons’ is Agha Hasan Abedi, who, like a meteor, shot on the firmament of international banking and vanished, likewise, into oblivion, unmourned and unsung after a brief spell of dazzling effulgence.


The Counterfoils of my Years 1942-1971;
By FS Aijazuddin; Sang-e-Meel Publications 2008;
Pp304;
Price Rs 750

Aijaz first realised how obsessive he was about not disappointing his father when he once ran away from Aitchison College. After his brothers did less well in England, he passed his notoriously tough final chartered accountant’s exam rather well because he didn’t want to hurt his father

When I first met an extremely well-spoken and witty Aijaz in Lahore as an unemployed chartered accountant I was struck by his name, Fakir Syed Aijazuddin. I soon learned that he was from the Fakirkhana family of the walled city. He was in fact descended from Nuruddin, one of the trio of brothers who had served Ranjit Singh (d.1839) in high office: Azizuddin, Imamuddin, Nuruddin. Ranjit Singh had given the title of fakir to a family that were least ascetic in their mastery of statecraft in a permanently unstable state. BOOK REVIEW: Stubs of a sad childhood by Khaled Ahmed

Headlines

When doves cried By Nadeem F. Paracha
The seeds of conflict By Irfan Husain
Ambassadors: a passing show — Khalid Hasan
Clarification needed By Amina Jilani
In Urdu Rauf Klasra