Hunza Valley: A whole new spectrum of colours

By Syed Mehdi Bukhari

Royal Garden, Hunza.

Pakistan is one of the few countries with such a dynamic landscape; rivers, deserts, lakes, waterfalls, springs, glaciers we seem to have it all in great abundance.

The much renowned Hunza valley is often referred to as heaven on earth, enveloped in the grand Himalayas and the Karakoram mountain ranges, this place has been a great tourist attraction for many years.

For me it all happened when I was 22 years old and left the home without telling anyone and reached Gilgit. I did not know where to go from Gilgit; stranded, I heard a bus boy calling the passengers for Hunza. I had heard of Hunza, so I hopped the bus and I could only paint pictures in my mind of what was coming next.

Autumn in Hunza valley.

The view at night.

Blossom in Hunza.

It was April, the sun was shining and when we reached Nilt from Gilgit, I found myself surrounded by a whole new spectrum of colours; I was truly mesmerised.

The meadows, plants laden with white, pink, and orange flowers could be found all over. I kept thinking to myself, why did I not land here earlier?

There were so many flowers alongside the road from Hussainabad to Aliabad, it seemed to be the literal meaning of primrose path. Spring was my first love, and you can forget everything but not your first love.

Looking back

Ganish village in Hunza.

Sunset in Golden Peak , Gilgindar and Chotokan Peak.

Cherry blossom in garden.

Hunza is located at a distance of 100 kilometers from Gilgit. In early 1890s, the British embarked upon a mission to annex Hunza and Nagar, which is also known as the Hunza-Nagar Campaign.

British soldiers led by Colonel Durand occupied Nilt Fort in 1890. After that, they proceeded to the Baltit Fort, but faced heavy resistance.

The British gained complete control of Hunza and Nagar with little effort. Thereafter, the Mir of Hunza, Safdar Ali Khan along with his family, fled to Kashgar in China, and his brother Mir Muhammad Nazim Khan was made the new ruler of Hunza by the British.

Finding home away from home

Baltit fort.

Hunza peak and Lady Finger

Hunza enchanted me so much that I spent several years traveling to Gilgit-Baltistan soon after I was introduced to this place.

You can live a pretty comfortable life while being in your home in a large metropolis, but as soon as you travel to the northern areas, you find that the real peace of mind lies within these beautiful mountains.

There was a time when people used to visit Hunza for rehabilitation. They still do, but now the tourism factor has increased much more than before. From winters to spring, the nature seems to be in a transition period. This place remains remarkable with every changing season.

Autumn in Hunza valley.

View of Rakaposhi.

Whenever I am reminded of my Hunza expeditions, I have the urge to retreat to those places once again. After all, what charm is living in a society where lynching, blasts, and killing are the daily routine and the protesting voices are diminishing? How can there be peace of mind in such a place, where smiles are made-up with an intent to pull one's leg as soon as there’s a chance.

In mountains, one feels seclude; secluded from depressions, secluded from everything but the hospitable people of northern areas, the loving and caring people that they are.

Spring has just arrived. Transition period is over. Transition period, whether its of weather or of circumstances, is full of turbulence and uncertainties.

But this period is the one which nurtures and enhances the upcoming weather, time, and the circumstances. And it also nurtures one’s creativities.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1171802/hunza-valley-a-whole-new-spectrum-of-colours

Heartbreak and denial in India

Agencies

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team had bounced back from a winless Test and one-day tour of Australia prior to the World Cup, to reach the quarter-finals with seven straight victories.

But they found Australia too strong at the Sydney Cricket Ground as the hosts piled up 328 for seven before bowling out the defending champions for 233 despite a run-a-ball 65 from MS Dhoni.

Indian fans at home took the defeat very seriously, with some breaking their TV sets and holding demonstrations against Indian cricket players.

Security has also been beefed up outside the residence of Indian captain Dhoni.

“Of course we are disappointed not to be in the final, but then only one team can win. Australia played better cricket today."

Dhoni said the 300-plus target could have been chased if India had wickets in hand, but the Australian fast bowlers took initiative, capturing wickets at regular intervals.

Indian fans shout slogans with posters of Indian cricket player Virat Kohli, left and his girlfriend and Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma, right, as they react to India’s defeat in the ICC cricket world cup semi-final match against Australia, in Ahmadabad, India.-AP

An Indian fan reacts following the quick fall of India's wickets as she watches her team's match against Australia during the Cricket World Cup semi-final at Sydney Cricket Ground. ─ AFP

Indian cricket fans watch the last play of India's semi-finals match against Australia, on a giant TV screen at a local mall in New Delhi. ─ AFP

A dejected Indian cricket fan sits among empty plastic seats after the end of India's semi-finals match against Australia, on a giant TV screen at a local mall in New Delhi. ─ AFP

Indian cricket fans react as India bats against Australia during their Cricket World Cup semi-final match in Sydney. ─ Reuters

Indian cricket fans react as they watch on television the ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal match between India and Australia in Mumbai, India. ─ AP

Indian cricket fans watch, in silence, the end of India's semi-finals match against Australia, on a giant TV screen at a local mall in New Delhi. ─ AFP http://www.dawn.com/news/1172046/heartbreak-and-denial-in-india

Stampede at Hindu festival kills 10 devotees

Stampede at Hindu festival kills 10 devotees

Dawn.com

A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee Sapna Das cries as she holds the body of a relative who was killed in a stampede in Langalbandh. -AP

At least 10 Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens more were injured in a stampede outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday, police and witnesses said.

The stampede occurred on the banks of the Brahmaputra river, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had converged for ritual bathing during Astami Snan, one of the largest annual Hindu ceremonies in Bangladesh.

According to DhakaTribune, the stampede had occurred because of a rumour that a bailey bridge, used by pilgrims to get to Rajghat, was collapsing.

Rescue workers and relatives carry the body of a Hindu devotee who was killed in a stampede in Langalbandh. -AP

A Bangladeshi women reacts after seeing the body of a relative in Narayanganj. -AFP

A Bangladeshi women reacts as she holds a relatives body in Narayanganj. -AFP

-Reuters

A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee Dipali Das cries as she sits next to the body of a relative who was killed in a stampede during a Hindu bathing ritual in Langalbandh. -AP

A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee dressed as Hindu God Shiva sits on the banks of the Brahmaputra river during a Hindu bathing ritual in Langalbandh. -AP

A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee cries as he sits next to bodies of victims killed in a stampede. -AP

Bangladeshis carry the body of a Hindu devotee.-AP http://www.dawn.com/news/1172441/stampede-at-hindu-festival-kills-10-devotees

Mawra Hocane steps out in Mumbai ENTERTAINMENT DESK

Mawra Hocane steps out in Mumbai

ENTERTAINMENT DESK 

The actress posted pictures from her trip to Mumbai on social media. — Photo: Mawra Hocane's Facebook page

It seems like every second Pakistani actor is heading to Bollywood these days.

Silver screen darlings Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan are already well on their way to Bollywood domination — with Fawad Khan set to star in Karan Johar's next venture and Mahira Khan featuring in Raees opposite Shahrukh Khan. 

The latest actress to set foot across the border seems to be Mawra Hocane. The actress posted pictures from her trip to Mumbai on social media, showing her jetting off to India and then out and about in an outfit from Maria B. Mawra is the face of Maria B. lawn this season, along with sister Urwa.

Read also: I am the bad girl in this industry: Urwa Hocane

The actress titled one of her photographs 'Bombay Bound!'

Mawra appeared in popular serials like Main Bushra, where she starred opposite Faisal Qureshi, and Yahan Pyar Nahi Hai, Ek Tamanna Lahasil Si andKitni Girhain Baqi Hain.

She's reportedly in Mumbai to read scripts.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1172439/mawra-hocane-steps-out-in-mumbai

Circular debt again

EDITORIAL 

The water and power minister confirmed that the total amount under circular debt is at Rs258bn as of end February.—INP/File

ONCE again, the government has tripped up on the circular debt. In a written statement in response to a question asked in the National Assembly on Thursday, the water and power minister confirmed that the total amount under circular debt is at Rs258bn as of end February, whereas the receivables of the Discos are Rs552bn.

The reasons he gave for the return of the issue were familiar: problems in recoveries, failure to pass through markup costs on outstanding payables to consumers and delays in tariff determination and notification. Of these, the attempt to have consumers pay the markup on payables deserves to be resisted strenuously. 

The least-convincing part of the minister’s answer was on the steps being taken to tackle the problem. We’re promised a concerted recovery effort, and the imposition of a Debt Recovery Surcharge “to ensure repayment of loans” taken out to pay Discos’ liabilities to private power producers.

Also read: Power sector circular debt exaggerated to make case for tariff increase

Additionally, we’re promised some amount of technical upgrades to reduce line losses. In other reports, there are signs that NAB is going to be made party to power sector recoveries once again, as it was a number of years ago, but with little idea on how the process will be made effective this time.

Last time, NAB was unable to recover any more than Rs5bn or so, out of the total recoverables more than 10 times that amount. The problem was not in the lack of capacity to force payment. The problem was in faulty billing, and rectifying that appears to be beyond the capacity of the power bureaucracy.

A Debt Recovery Surcharge is just another way of passing the cost of interest on outstanding payables to consumers, except that by calling it a surcharge the approval of the regulator is no longer required.

It can be implemented by executive order, like an SRO, instead. Upgrading the technical apparatus of transmission and distribution is a good measure, but it will prove highly unequal to the task of increasing the number of billed units and recoveries.

All of the steps mentioned by the minister, except for the surcharge, should be implemented, but it also needs to be acknowledged that the power bureaucracy will never be able to solve this problem.

For a lasting fix to the problem of power-sector mismanagement, which is in large measure the cause behind the circular debt, the role of the bureaucracy needs to be reduced dramatically.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1172288/circular-debt-again

Pakistani girl who lost a leg in 2005 earthquake competes in ski race DAWN.COM

Pakistani girl who lost a leg in 2005 earthquake competes in ski race

DAWN.COM 

Insha Afsar now attends the Berkshire Academy in Massachusetts and is sponsored by the Loon-based New England Disabled Sports (NEDS).- NASTAR

Insha Afsar was one of the thousands of victims who suffered from the devastating earthquake that shook northern parts of Pakistan on October 8, 2005.

Afsar lost a leg when her house came down on the tragic day. But she has not let that stop her from pursuing her passion.

This week, Afsar competed in a ski racing competition in the US Paralympic Alpine National Championships and was seen storming down the slalom course at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire.

She now attends Berkshire Academy in Massachusetts and is sponsored by the Loon-based New England Disabled Sports (NEDS). Afsar was one of the 40 athletes participating in the competition.

In a 2006 photo essay published in TIME, readers caught a glimpse of Insha Afsar, a seven-year-old girl who lost a leg when her house collapsed on it during an earthquake in Kashmir. The stark photograph of a girl in a red coat struck a chord with TIME readers and staffers. In the Feb. 5, 2007 edition of TIME, managing editor Rick Stengel wrote about Asfar:

“In April 2006, we ran a three-page photo essay by Yuri Kozyrev documenting the state of refugees in Kashmir after the catastrophic earthquake that took the lives of 75,000 people and displaced 3 million more. One of Yuri’s pictures was of a slight girl in a hooded orange parka who had lost her leg in the quake. Two days after the magazine appeared, TIME’s news-desk supervisor, Eileen Harkin, got a call from a member of the Shriners organization in Los Angeles. It wanted to help the girl. With clues from Yuri’s notebooks and the assistance of his contacts in several relief organizations, we located the girl, Insha Afsar, 7, in a camp in Kamsar, just north of Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. TIME news director Howard Chua-Eoan personally paid for her to travel to the U.S. with her father for treatment. The Shriners arranged for free medical care for her, while the Heal the Children Foundation found a family in Connecticut to put up Insha and her father. She has since been fitted with a special prosthesis, which will have to be adjusted as she grows.”

Afsar pictured in the April 17, 2006 issue of TIME magazine (Photo by Yuri Kozyrev).

Afsar said she loves her new life in America, which includes a new talent as a ski racer.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1172264/pakistani-girl-who-lost-a-leg-in-2005-earthquake-competes-in-ski-race

The death consensus FAISAL SIDDIQI

The death consensus

FAISAL SIDDIQI 

The writer is a lawyer.

“Murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honour and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.” — George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra.

In a country like Pakistan where there is hardly any consensus on any issue, a consensus, at least, seems to have emerged on death as a kind of panacea for numerous state and societal problems. Whether it is the excessive use of the death penalty as an expression of state authority or extrajudicial encounters as a solution to the problem of crime and terror, or the militarisation of the ‘war on terror’ in the tribal areas that is portrayed as an existentialist state necessity, or the vigilante justice perpetuated by the mob, or the violence of the religious militants, or parents killing themselves and their children due to economic and social deprivation, the celebration of death emerges as a common pattern. 

With the government’s recent decision to completely lift the moratorium on the execution of the death penalty in all cases (ie terrorism and non-terrorism cases) and the lack of public opposition to it, let us examine the underlying reasons for the Pakistani state’s enthusiasm for the measure, especially in view of the fact that there is no historical or comparative evidence from any country to suggest that the death penalty substantially reduces either crime in general and/or terrorism in particular. This is irrespective of the argument that the execution of death row convicts may be justified in a few hardcore terrorism cases where the presence of the convict is an imminent threat to the state.

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If there is no intention or capacity to deal with the causes of crime and terrorism, the only option left is to kill.

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Rising authoritarian state: What does a state do when it has lost its monopoly over violence? What does a state do when it is not a welfare state nor does it have the intention, will or capacity to provide any economic, social and cultural benefits and services to its people? It addresses both these questions by creating the myth of ‘order’ and by eradicating disorder caused by crime and terrorism. In the absence of a welfare state, order is created by such a state through authoritarian means ie extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, large-scale arrests, torture, unending criminal trials and the excessive use of the death penalty, as well as through a vast network of authoritarian structures — unaccountable intelligence agencies, unaccountable civilian and military forces, internment camps and a failing criminal justice system.

In such an authoritarian state, the death penalty emerges as a key strategic tool because if there is no intention or capacity to deal with the causes of crime and terrorism or to rehabilitate or reform the criminal or terrorist, then the only option left is to kill these ‘very bad people’. The death penalty creates the perfect illusion that by killing all the criminals and terrorists, there will be a reduction in crime and terrorism.

But despite drawing room and hotel conferencing activism and Facebook or Twitter militancy of the human rights urban elite, the death penalty remains popular because it produces positive consequences for state power. Firstly, a state’s capacity to kill anyone, and at any time, is a classic way to re-establish the state’s monopoly over violence and, as a consequence, societal order. People love order but desire merely justice.

Secondly, the death penalty operates at two levels in Pakistan. At a de facto grassroots level, it is executed through ‘encounters’ and operations in the tribal areas, without due process but as a kind of direct justice against ‘very bad people’. At the formal level, people are hanged in jail after due process of a court system. What the lifting of the moratorium/ban on all executions has done is that it has created a perfect harmony in the execution of all death sentences, both at the extrajudicial and the judicial level. For now on, the state will engage in a policy of consistent killings.

Nawaz Sharif’s dream policy: What does an insecure government do that is constantly under threat from the military, presiding over a non-functioning state and a fractured society, and under severe financial crunch? What does a right-wing government do which has neither the ideological inclination nor any programme to deal with the causes of crime and terrorism through economic, social and cultural means?

It creates illusions and distractions. Both the Metro Bus projects and the death penalty create the illusion and distraction that this is a functioning government. The death penalty, of course, creates the powerful illusion of order and justice (justice, at least for the victims involved). It appeals to the people’s love for order in an era of uncontrollable and brutal violence. Moreover, order restored through the brutal exercise of state violence also appeals to people’s Freudian instinct for violence and revenge. Therefore, the death penalty as a penal policy acts as a substitute for social policy, and absurdly death becomes an answer to life’s problems like crime and terrorism.

Death convicts as non-humans: Once labelled as ‘terrorist’, ‘murderer’, ‘sectarian killer’, ‘Taliban’, ‘rapist’, ‘extortionist’, ‘dacoit’ etc, the convicts’ entire existence is reduced to the heinous act committed and no need is felt to understand the causes or to show humanity. State and society don’t want to face up to the issue that it is the kind of state and society constructed by the Pakistani ruling state and societal elite which provides the structural causes and context for individuals and groups to become criminals and terrorists. Also, it is easy to kill people if the overwhelming majority of the people on death row belong to the disempowered classes ie the poor, the politically or socio-economically excluded, whose lives are tragically trapped in crime, terrorism and religious extremism.

With a prime minister enamoured of the death penalty, with increased militarisation of the internal security policy, with an opposition obsessed with parochial priorities, with a human rights elite trapped in its own elitism and with a people traumatised by uncontrollable violence, Pakistan provides the ideal pitch, weather and atmosphere, for these games of death.

The writer is a lawyer.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1172293/the-death-consensus