Speaking up: Respect for law, institutions missing from long march

Activist Jamal Shah talks about lack of political savoir faire in Islamabad rallies.

LAHORE:

“Cultural narratives play an important role in taking moral decisions,” Painter, actor and activist Jamal Shah said in an interview with The Express Tribune. “I feel that our cultural narrative was damaged on purpose.”

He said artiste Naheed Siddiqi was forced to spend her best years in the West because of General Ziaul Haq’s bars on artistic expression. “The aftershocks are not over even today,” Shah said.

Shah recently came into the limelight after he set up a Jamhoor Camp at the National Press Club, Islamabad, on August 19, to press the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek to adopt a “democratic solution” to the current political impasse.



“The younger generations have lost connection with demographics and have been pushed towards cultural alienation.” He said, “Dullah Bhatti, Baacha Khan, Bulleh Shah, Rehman Baba, Sachal Sarmast, Latif Bhitai, are some of the great names our youth should be thinking of as heroes today.”

He said the youth had been deprived of the ability to think in multiple dimensions. “We need to empower them by informing them about our cultural narrative – through literature and art.”

He said an example of cultural degeneration was PTI chief Imran Khan calling on Pakhtuns to join him. “This is an intolerant narrative borne out of the British Raj. There should be no room for nationalism based on hate.”

The ongoing demonstrations by the PTI and the PAT have Islamabad under siege, he said, there are women and children at these sit-ins and anything untoward could happen. Secondly, the area where they are protesting is sensitive, Shah said. “The message they are sending, by staging their protest in front of the Supreme Court, is that they have no respect for democratic institutions. I think this is a very dangerous message.”

Shah discussed the irresponsible attitude of PTI and PAT leaders while addressing their supporters. He said they don’t appreciate the responsibility thrust on them when they pick up a microphone to speak.

He said some of the weirdest political statements in history were thrown around at the rallies: “we will hand over all Gullu Butts to the Taliban”, for example, he said quoting Imran Khan. When Khan tells his supporters not to “spare the Sharifs” if anything untoward happened to him, too is extremely irresponsible, he said.

Shah said he was confused as to whether PAT chief Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan wanted to create a situation similar to that in Egypt or in Syria. “Either way it cannot bode well for the country. It just shows how politically volatile we are.”

On corruption as a motive for protest, Shah said that corruption was indeed a cancer that needed to be treated at several levels. “I have suffered on account of corruption during past and present governments.” He said what was required was effective public policy to eliminate corruption from society.

He said there was another way to examine rigging allegations levelled by Khan. He said militants had targeted the Awami National Party, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement before the elections, effectively restricting their participation in the elections. “That was pre-poll rigging... I wonder why the PTI did not utter a word against the Taliban when they won the NA-1 seat. Yet they keep whining about the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz stealing their so-called mandate.”

He said the government’s role in the Model Town police operation was condemnable. “A transparent commission should investigate the matter and whoever is responsible must be brought to book.”

Shah said that the media had played a biased role and was taking sides. “All other issues have been pushed to the periphery and for two weeks the protests have been covered as breaking news.”

Recalling political activism during General Ziaul Haq’s regime, Shah said, at one time, several Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba students stormed the National College of Arts demanding it be closed. “We asked the college management to expel the students trying to vandalise the college, but no action was taken.”

He said one day, IJT members beat up a student. “We painted slogans against fascist groups and marched in front of the Governor’s House.” The Movement for Restoration of Democracy was going on at that time, he said. “The police picked us up and locked us up at the Anarakali police station. When we returned to the college, it was deserted,” he said. “We held classes at Lawrence Garden and at the Lahore Zoo.”

He said he felt that the youth at that time were clearer in their political motives and was more passionate.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2014.