CITY NOTES

It was perhaps inevitable that the appointment of the new DG ISI should have evoked such interest. This was the sort of speculation that was once evoked by the appointment of a new COAS. But then, when Asif Zardari became President, the Prime Ministership, once an elective office, became a subject of speculation. Now that Mian Nawaz has been elected PM, there is no need to speculate about the PM.
Well, perhaps… After all, the capital is still undergoing a sit-in by two aspirants for the PM Office. And aspirants who are said to have depended on the previous DG ISI for his blessings. It’s not just because the DG ISI can make or break the government, that the appointment has evoked interest, but because everyone is agog, watching whether the new incumbent favours freedom, revolution, both or neither. I don’t know, maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I think the chief spymaster should remain anonymous, smoke a pipe and wear white shoes. I don’t know about the last two, but the new DG ISI isn’t anonymous. He should have been known as ‘M’ or ‘P’, not as General Rizwan.
Meanwhile, if the new DG ISI wasn’t making the aspirants struggle, there was a deal being struck in Afghanistan which showed that Abdullah Abdullah is no Imran Khan. Instead of being fobbed off with an indeterminate office of Chief Executive, he should have called out his many supporters and marched on Kabul. It’s like the Scottish referendum. The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, should be sacked from the Scottish Nationalist Party. He didn’t think of the basic strategy of saying that the referendum had been rigged, and of staging a March on London, followed by a sit-in outside Westminister. But he didn’t, which allows Imran to keep giving us examples of British democracy.
Just as he keeps giving us examples of Indian democracy. Indian democracy has produced Narendra Modi, whose visit to New York for the UN General Assembly resulted in the revival of a case there filed against him for the massacre of about 1000 Muslims in Gujarat, when he became state chief minister in 2002. No wonder Modi inducted a large number of ministers against whom criminal cases have been filed. Mian Nawaz isn’t meeting him, or he could have proudly told him that FIRs had been ordered against him in two cases, for murder, no less.  The grand lesson seems to be that no one messes with PAT, which has registered both FIRs. PAT should have been in Gujarat in 2002.
Tahirul Qadri would have shown Modi who’s who. But Modi is still probably in the air over the landing of an unmanned probe on Mars. Pakistan replied with the launch of the Hatf IX missile, but I doubt if anyone except the launchers see the equivalence. Oh yes, and true to form, Modi’s government is discriminating in flood relief against Kashmiri Muslims, something the Senate Kashmir Affairs Standing Committee was very upset about, promising to make the Foreign Office protest. Admittedly, that might not do much, for the Foreign Office hasn’t been able to get Kashmiris freedom, so how will it get flood relief?
People in both Iraq and Syria are got other things to worry about, like American bombs. The Americans are doing what they do best, which is bomb the people below witless. It might not solve anything, for the Americans have already tried it on Iraqis, but now they’ve used the Islamic State threat to extend the War on Terror. Afghanistan should worry the most. Because the Americans were supposed to have pacified Iraq before. Now not only is Iraq not pacified, but Syria has been drawn in. Americans should be happy. At least it’s a new country.
So let’s get this straight. ISIL is an even bigger threat than Assad the poison gasser. That’s why the USA is doing what it didn’t do before, bomb Syria. But now it’s got everyone on board and helping. So Syria will mark Eid on Saturday, along with the pilots from Arab countries bombing them. Of course, Pakistan won’t be marking Eid, not till Monday, so maybe somebody should take up PM’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz on his offer to help against ISIS. It’s not sure how Imran can intervene in Iraq or Syria. Who will stage a sit-in against what? One place he can make a difference is that he can claim rigging in both countries, which had elections recently, both after Pakistan, so there’d no objecting that the elections are long over. I know the Eid we are heading to is one of feasting, but there are a certain number of precautions to be taken. First, as I was told a long time ago, our stomachs are our own. Second, we should remember that there have been floods, driving up the prices of sacrificial animals. There will probably be fewer sacrifices, so fewer feasts. We shouldn’t mind. and the weather still makes it risky to eat. Just because now you don’t need the fan all the time, doesn’t mean that autumn has arrived. And we should never forget that meat can spoil even in winters, not to speak of the rains we now have.
And Imran should release his sitters-in for Eid. After all, they’ll be back. And the meat they’ll have eaten, will be a potent force. That should leave them in good voice for following around Mian Nawaz Sharif and his family, shouting “Go Nawaz go.” Well, if the stink the PTI raised in Islamabad wasn’t enough, I doubt if slogans will work. Maybe there should be more efforts countrywide, like in Karachi last Sunday, and Lahore this one.