PAKISTAN DIARY-III

 Naresh ‘Nadeem’  

OUR short stay at Islamabad was no less pleasant even though everyone was tired after the road journey from Lahore to Islamabad. The weather was pleasant. In fact, the constant impression since we had landed at Lahore was that the weather we were encountering was quite good --- natural weather as well as political. 

MARCH 1

The night before, we were told that Pakistan prime minister, Shri Shaukat Aziz, had invited the delegation to meet him at 10.30 a m. In the morning, however, the news came that there was a change in the programme. Now, we were to meet the president, General Pervez Musharraf, at the same time.

There were some other changes, too. Soon came the news that the president would meet only the delegation leaders, Surjeet and Bardhan. Another change was that he would meet the leaders not in Aiwan-e-Sadr (President’s House) in Islamabad but at the General Headquarters in Pindi. Finally, the meeting took place not at 10.30 but only after 12, when we all had reached the Foreign Office.

Honestly speaking, so many changes baffled me. What could the reason be, I tried to fathom. Was it necessitated by security concerns? There were, after all, three attacks on the president last year!

The delegation leaders’ meeting with the president created a big sensation throughout Pakistan, and the media covered it prominently. Rather, it was the lead item in most of the Pakistani papers.

As the only Urdu speaking persons in the delegation, Shamim Faizee’s and my job was to scan the Urdu papers, and we scrupulously did this informally assigned job. What miffed us was that, contrary to English press, Urdu papers had by and large ignored the delegation. Sometimes a small news in one corner, sometimes nothing. But they too were constrained to take note of the leaders’ meeting the president.

Going by comments in Urdu papers, I could not avoid the feeling that Urdu press was as if trying hard to persuade itself not to take note of the delegation.

As our readers already have details of this meeting, we skip it here.

From Rawalpindi, Surjeet and Bardhan directly came to the Foreign Office where we were all waiting for them. A posse of media persons, including some Indian journalists, was also there. The lunch hosted by foreign minister, Shri Khurshid Mahmood Qasoori, proceeded in a very cordial atmosphere. Leaders of the Muslim League (Qaid-e-Azam) and Mahajir Qaumi Movement, constituents of the ruling combine, also attended. 

Here we met Dr Farooq Sattar, leader of the 18-member MQM group in National Assembly. (His forefathers were from Gujarat in India.) He was excessively keen that after reaching Karachi the delegation should take out time to meet a group of MQM leaders. One may note that the MQM has its base mainly in Sindh, with Karachi having the biggest concentration of mahajirs (migrants).

The evening was devoted to a visit to Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdal in Attock district and to Taxila that falls in Rawalpindi district. None of these visits was in our itinerary and we did not have visa for Attock district either. CPP general secretary Qazi Imdad, its leader Jameel Malik and his family members accompanied in separate cars. It was quite dark when we reached Taxila from Hasan Abdal (where the government maintains the gurdwara and some local Muslims look after it). Moreover, having no prior information about our arrival, concerned officials had closed the Taxila Museum. This was a pity as, contrary to communal propaganda, the Pakistan government has preserved a very large number of relics of the Buddhist period.

The loss was somewhat made up by our visit to Sirkap. It was a flourishing town in ancient days and is about 5 km from the present Taxila town. Here, well preserved in situ, one may see the ruins of a more than two millennia old and planned town, about 5 km in length and one km in width. However, in view of the darkness all around we were advised against going to the hillock, not very far from Sirkap, where an Ashokan inscription still stands.

The hectic tour ended with our arrival at the dinner that was hosted by Shri Raghavan, India’s deputy high commissioner in Islamabad, at his house. I had already met Raghavan and his wife, Ranjana Sengupta, in Lahore, and we had discovered with pleasant surprise that we were students at JNU in the same period.

MARCH 2

While still at Lahore, we had tried our best that the three meetings in Islamabad (with president, prime minister and foreign minister) must be compressed in one single day, March 1. Several missives were sent to Islamabad for the purpose. The idea was that in that case we could proceed to Karachi on March 1 evening, or March 2 morning at the most, and stay there for two days. But this was not to be. The bureaucracy had its own way.

So, when the leaders went to meet the prime minister in the forenoon, we found ourselves without work, so to say. Though it was the first substantial break in a hectic programme since February 24, it was nothing pleasant to us. We spent the morning with groups of comrades from various places, whose number had increased as it was our last day in Islamabad. Several came down to the airport to see us off.

We also spent a few hours to go to Daman-e-Koh, a place of exceptional beauty. Developed atop the Marghala Hills, from here you can see the whole of Islamabad that is situated only on one side of this hill. I counted the high-rise buildings of Islamabad --- only eight. Felt good to a person who was fed up with the view of Delhi skyscrapers.

And then, in the afternoon, over to Karachi by plane.

The Jinnah Airport of Karachi was witness to another crowded reception to the CPI(M)-CPI delegation. Here the JLF had arranged our boarding and lodging. There was no specific programme in the evening, except loitering.

MARCH 3

The leaders spent some time meeting a group of PPP, JUI and NAP leaders in the Sindh Assembly building. The Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Islami (JUI) was formed after the country’s partition, out of the Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Hind that played a notable role in the independence movement. It represented the section which some historians have called “nationalist Muslims,” a misnomer. The National Awami Party (NAP) is led by a grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

Finally, Dr Farooq Sattar had what he wanted. A group of MQM leaders were there in the group that met the CPI(M) and CPI leaders.

One of the important personalities who came to meet Surjeet and Bardhan was Captain Zafarullah Poshni, the only survivor among the accused of the infamous Rawalpindi conspiracy case of early 1950s. One will recall that the then Liaqat government had framed this case to crush the communist movement in the country.

Bardhan also met Ms Ghanwa Bhutto, widow of Murtaza Bhutto and leader of the anti-Benazir faction in the PPP. She was not invited to the programme in the Sindh Assembly building. An overtired Surjeet could not go to meet her.

The evening saw a crowded mass meeting in the lawn of Karachi Press Club. It was organised by the JLF and Karachi Union of Journalists.

The last meeting of the day --- and during our stay in Pakistan --- was the one in the auditorium of Pakistan Medical Association, Garden Road. It was organised by Progressive Writers Association (PWA) in collaboration with two local level organisations. These are Karwan-e-Amn (Heralds of Peace) and Qalam Barae-Amn (pen for peace). The former is a group of Catholic clergymen who run several schools, hospitals, etc, in the country. Among these, the St Patrick’s High School (established 1861) has the distinction of producing several luminaries of Pakistan.

It was quite apt that veteran Sindhi writer Shobho Gyanchandani (95), one of the PWA’s founders in this part of the undivided country, presided over this function. PWA general secretary Muslim Shamim conducted the meeting where Bardhan was the chief guest. Not feeling well, Surjeet could not attend.

After the welcome address by Reverend Father Joseph Pal of Karwan-e-Amn, Urdu poet G M Felix ‘Qaasir’ Amritsari referred to the recent arrest of six Catholic fishermen in Gwadar, pleading that Surjeet and Bardhan must do something to get them released. It was evident that the news of release of a number of youth from Indian Punjab and Indian fishermen, after Surjeet and Bardhan had taken up the issue with the Pakistan president, had caught public imagination all over the country. Since our return from Pakistan, a number of Punjabi youth and fishermen have been released after completing the technical formalities; Punjab chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh also brought back with him a group of 26 youth after their release from jail. But who can deny that it was the CPI(M)-CPI delegation that had taken up the matter with President Musharraf!

We left Karachi for Delhi on March 4 morning, regretting that these seven days had passed too soon.

The CPI(M)-CPI team visited Pakistan when we are in the midst of Sajjad Zaheer birth centenary celebrations. One recalls that late Comrade Sajjad Zaheer, the moving spirit behind the PWA, was also the first general secretary of Communist Party of Pakistan and the main accused in the Rawalpindi conspiracy case.

 (Concluded)