Side-effect

Before finishing the master's degree, my friend Rohini Kohli and I had decided to jointly work on a small book of essays, supposed to fall between fiction and non-fiction, based on individual experiences shaped by larger events and upheavals in the recent history of South Asia. Besides the ones who shared our vision of a new South Asia, the process of meeting belligerent, narrow-minded and prejudiced people with macabre views about the "other" – Muslims in case of Hindu nationalists and Hindus in case of typical Pakistanis – made the exercise thoroughly enjoyable. This was all regularly shared and pondered over with a group of friends who would meet almost every evening. South Asian art, culture, sociology, political economy, weaknesses and strengths of those hailing from the region, were fought upon with ferocity for a few months in that modest Marble Arch flat where the book was being written.

Those were the times when Pakistan had detonated a nuclear device after India's testing of the bomb. The two countries had clashed in Kargil. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif distanced himself from the ownership of the initiative after Indians tapped into a conversation between General Musharraf and General Aziz on the matter and released the tape. He had to go to the US before bringing an end to that limited and uncalled-for war, especially after meeting Prime Minister Vajpayee in Lahore just a few months earlier. The "right" ruled the subcontinent. India was led by Hindu supremacist BJP and Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League had taken a crack at imposing his version of Islamic Shariah in Pakistan. There was tension, uncertainty and disillusionment in Pakistan. Both rationalists and humanists in India were also unhappy with the antics of the BJP. In London, our group of friends was a little removed physically but totally involved in what was happening in the subcontinent. I had to return in a few months anyway.

It was a usual, dull and dark day in London and I had just finished the draft of one of the essays for the book. The phone rang. It was a producer from BBC Urdu Service where I used to work as an outside contributor for an extra quid. He asked me to tune in to a news channel on my television. Martial law was imposed in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif had removed General Pervez Musharraf from his office unceremoniously when the General was abroad. The prerogative of the civilian prime minister to change the chief of army staff was not accepted by the army. Musharraf on his return took charge and imprisoned Nawaz Sharif. Many people joined us the next evening, besides the regulars. I must say that there were only four of us, Prof Amin Mughal, arch broadcaster Ali Ahmed Khan, Dr Arif Azad and myself, who were against the imposition of martial law. We disapproved of Benazir Bhutto making agreeable gestures towards Musharraf, although we understood her plight under Nawaz Sharif. We were castigated by socially progressive and politically conservative Pakistanis who surrounded us, except for Nazeer Mahar. They saw the Pekinese dogs in the arms of a liberal, benevolent dictator who to them was a breath of fresh air after Sharif's attempts to impose Shariah. People's Party supporters were no less jubilant.

History takes its own course, and although it doesn't repeat itself unlike what many believe, it does mirror some time-tested trends. The majority started thinking differently in the next few years about Musharraf's rule and the politicians sounded more astute. The global war on terror had its own imperatives. Today, when Musharraf is no more, I would just like to remind the rulers and my readers that in the Charter of Democracy signed in London in 2007 by the heads of the two largest parties, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the signatories have noted their responsibility to their people, and I quote: "To set an alternative direction for the country, saving it from its present predicaments on an economically sustainable, socially progressive, politically democratic and pluralist, federally cooperative, ideologically tolerant, internationally respectable and regionally peaceful basis."



The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org