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From heart to sinking heart

LAHORIS have long claimed that the city and its people best represent the heart and mind of Pakistan. It is a sign of the way national politics has played out that Islamabad has never even bothered to press its claim. That leaves Karachi as Lahore’s only rival for the honour. There have been times when one or the other metropolis has seemed to have a stronger claim but neither has abandoned the race. The rivalry has had its acrimonious expressions but remains in the main a bond best characterised by Faiz’s celebration of a comrade with whom one shares what one most values about life. No wonder then that no significant happening in Karachi has ever failed to move Lahoris. When political confrontation turned ugly and violent in May, Lahoris were no less shocked, anxious or keen to express their anger than the Karachiites. Once the countdown for Benazir Bhutto’s arrival began Lahore hummed with an excitement second only to Karachi itself. On Thursday, nearly everybody one visited or talked to over the phone, unless they happened to be in front of the TV themselves, demanded an update. Around midnight came the terrible first report about the deadliest terrorist strike of Pakistan’s history. Then the details of casualties and of people’s shock. On Friday and Saturday bodies of some of the victims arrived in Lahore. Lahoris are sad and in mourning, as is appropriate, but they are also outraged.



ALSO in Karachi, supporters of Maulana Gul Rahman, the MMA member of the National Assembly who broke ranks to vote for General Pervez Musharraf, have reportedly clashed with his erstwhile followers. He has already been stopped from leading prayers. In Lahore, Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, a former advisor to the government, came to blows with a Jamia Ashrafia associate. The closest parallels one can think of are assaults on Naeem Bokhari and Ahmad Raza Khan Kasuri. While the explanation is public knowledge, the low to which the tolerance level has dropped is alarming.



ONE hears, reads and talks about it all the time but it is only during holidays that one gets to really feel the ways in which Lahore has changed. One can no longer ride a bicycle end to end in 20 minutes or around the periphery in an hour – and it’s not just age. And it is busy and noisy and the air is full of smoke and dust. And so many of the people who run it do not call it home. Once these people leave, as they do for Eid, the city is amazingly calm. Things move slowly if they do at all and tend to come quickly to rest — in deference it seems to the beholderss’ surprise. Suddenly it is like the old days. After a while, however, particularly if one is young or what one remembers is not very pleasant, this becomes a burden. The familiar noises gone, the ear strains against the silence and is grateful for the sweeper, the night chowkidar or the seminary volunteer demanding the eidi or a donation to help keep up the good work. (Don’t you recognise him as the person who ignores the amplifier law to ensure that you do not miss your sehri through negligent sleep? Of course you do.) This year, some people said, they were joined by no less than uniformed police patrols on motorcycles. Not everybody who received a visit was complaining either. But the chief was red in the face about the report and not at all amused.

One of Eid’s surprises this year (after a 30-day Ramazan Eid itself is no surprise) was the effort made by the Model Town Society to bring the faithful to a congregation that ended up being the second largest in the city (after the Badshahi Masjid). Tradition does indeed favour large outdoor gatherings. What was still missing was women’s participation. Will that happen next year? Or the year after that?

The biggest disappointment for most Lahoris had to be the decision to restrict entry to the Lawrence Garden (Bagh-i-Jinnah to some) where South Africa were playing a practice match against a PCB Patron’s XI. The city government, if not the cricket board, should now better than that.



IT takes very brave (or foolish) people to insist that an inherently benign activity must be allowed even if some people resent it for some reason. Particularly so when there are hazardous distortions they do not (and cannot) defend. Kite flying, they argued last year, must be allowed and made safe rather than banned. Pursuit of happiness, went the argument, is a right. Regulation that will ensure its safe exercise is a job for the government. For the Supreme Court, when it banned kite flying, the question appeared to be: should the state allow an activity it has not made safe for the citizens? Campaigners for Basant essentially pleaded that the question ought to be if the government should be allowed to take the lazy way out where safety can be assured through affordable vigilance. Embarrassed perhaps at the question, the government agreed to do the needful. Lahoris would not be denied Basant fun and the government would see to it that it was safe. After the unfortunate accidents that still happened the first question raised was about the blame. It has gone essentially unanswered. The question we are now faced with is: we tried to make it safe and did not quite succeed; shall we try again? It’s not a question for the fainthearted to answer. — aye emm

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