A trip to Sheikhupura

On Saturday, the whole team from the IWMI office here went on a trip to Sheikhupura.

Actually, we did not go to the city (which is extremly busy with lots of people on the streets and roads blocked by traffic) but to the nearby park, Hiran Minar. There, Mughal emperor Jehangir built an estate with an artificial lake and some nice buildings including one grave for his favourite deer (!).


From left to right: Shumaila, Qaiser, Yusuf, Waqas, myself, Rashid and Sadia (Shaukat, who was also with us, is not on the picture)




We had a stroll around the lake












and I enjoyed the nearby forrest, the first I've seen in a long time.












After a picnic close to a busy children's playground












we rounded off the afternoon with a little tour in a rowing boat.










It was a really nice day.

Holiday in Pakistan

Please have a look at this really nice article. A refreshing break from the never ending old Pakistan-stories about terrorists-and-veiled-women-and-religious-fundamentalists-
taking-over-the-nuklear-bomb.
There's so much more to Pakistan!!!

Rural Punjab

Last Friday, Qaiser (my collegue and translator) and I went for a little motorbike ride after finishing early with the work in one of our research villages. We just followed the road and enjoyed the countryside as we headed west into Jhang District.

Thanks to it's irrigation system (combined, the irrigation systems of the Indian and Pakistani parts of Punjab are the biggest in the world), Punjab is a very green Province. Before this system was built, the area around Faisalabad was known for its dust storms.

As we travelled away from the city area, we entered a very different Punjabi world. Houses made of mud, people riding on horses, a checkpost at a village where cars were stopped to pay a fee (Qaiser said he hadn't seen this for a very long time) but also some new health centres and schools. As the sun sank lower, Qaiser recommended heading back as he doesn't consider the area safe after sunset (roadside robbers).

Headlocks and Cricket

Things in Pakistan are moving fast these days (at least when it comes to politics). One of the latest developments was that Imran Khan, a cricket-star-turned-politician was arrested. In talks to friends here at Pakistan, I had got the impression that he's one of the few politicians who aren't considered to be corrupt. Even though he most probably wouldn't play a big role in an election, his arrest was quite significant. He had been hiding from the police for eleven days (many opposition leaders were arrested after the declaration of the state of emergency). This did not prevent him from talking to foreign newspapers like the BBC though. The circumstances of his arrest are as strange as sad. Apparently, he wanted to address a demonstration at Punjab University in Lahore. There, he was more or less violently kidnapped by members of the Jamaat Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamist party. They then handed him over to policemen waiting outside the university gate.

The whole affair shows how much different parts of the opposition are at odds with each other. The Islamists are not very strong however and one ray of hope was news of an understanding between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif of cooperating towards ending the present situation.

While our lives here continue to be more or less unaffected by the political situation, from the news I get the impression that there will be some change soon. If Musharraf doesn't lift the state of emergency and goes ahead with the January 9 elections, these will most probably boycotted by the biggest opposition parties. This will not help him in regaining the trust of the Pakistanis and his supporters abroad (especially the US). The latter play a very decisive role as the Pakistani army has been receiving billions of dollars per year in military aid. If the US government should come to the conclusion that Musharraf is more of an obstacle than a help in creating stability (and in the notorious war on terrorism) then they do have some leverage over him.

Anyway, many people here are so fed up with politics that they are much more interested in today's cricket match against India.

Sad and funny things

Yesterday, Mr. Musharraf had a new surpise for us: he announced there will be general elections before 9 January. Of course, the question is if and how there can be free and fair elections with many of the opposition leaders in jail or under house arrest and the media still restricted...

Ms Bhutto has been manoeuvring back and forth in the last weeks. Sometimes she seemed to favour a deal with Musharraf and sometimes to get tough and call her followers to the roads for a big ralley against him. Honestly, I find it a tragedy that somebody like her should be the alternative to a Musharraf-dictatorship!

For something funnier click here.

State of Emergency 2

No real news from here. The situation continues to be calm for us personally but terrible for Pakistan. I've talked to many people in the last couple of days and don't remember one person who was in favour of the steps taken by Musharraf. Today, I saw a lot of police in front of the main court in Faisalabad but otherwise, there's no real change to be seen. However, there's a strange atmosphere all around us.

I know that a whole avalanche of media information is rolling over people outside the country. In contrast, here the fact that many tv stations have gone off the air means that rumours are rife. For a brief time, we believed an SMS telling us that Musharraf had been arrested. Internet works, though, so within minutes we could check and find out that this wasn't the case.
While many lawyers are protesting, I didn't hear about any demonstrations by students and the atmosphere at the university wasn't different today than before the State of Emergency.

In case you're not fed up with news, here are two links that I find worthwhile:

an interview with the Guardian's Pakistan correspondent, Declan Walsh

and

a collection of voices from people in Pakistan

State of Emergency

Since yesterday, we're in a state of emergency declared by President Musharraf. He cites various reasons for taking this step. However, many observers believe that he's afraid of a High Court ruling against his new term as a president. Like many people here, I find the situation quite nebulous. We'll see how things develop. At the moment, the only effect on our life here at the Faisalabad office is that some tv channels have gone off the air.

Here's a link to a BBC article. Not only the article itself but also the comments of different people in Pakistan are interesting. Many say that the politicians are totally detached from the majority of the population and that the latter feel they have no say at all in political affairs. During many talks here, I got the impression that most people are rather disillusioned and many are not interested in politics.

Since the foundation of the country in 1947, there has been mostly "democracy" marred by corruption or (somewhat less corrupt) military dictatorships. The latest dictatorship, under Musharraf, hasn't been the worst time for the country. But these aren't great choices...

A good brief overview of the history of Pakistan's politics can be found here.

Lahore

Lahore is one of the legendary cities of the subcontinent. The old capital of the Punjab, it has always been a centre of culture and trade.


In the old city, one can still imagine how it must have been a hundred or two hundred years ago. Strolling throught the roads and alleys there, one always get lost (part of the fun) and then all of a sudden stands in front of a huge gate or a mosque like the beautiful





Mosque of Wazir Khan. A bit like mosques in Iran with its tiles. And quite different from















the biggest and most famous mosque of Lahore, the Badshahi Mosque. One of the most famous examples of the Mughal style of architecture. Awesome!