Military courts: a wrong move

Editorial

Updated about 14 hours ago

.—Online/File

PAKISTAN should not have military courts, not in the expanded form envisioned by the military and political leadership of the country, not to try civilians on terrorism charges and not even for a limited period of time.

Military courts are simply not compatible with a constitutional democracy.

In the immediate aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre, politicians and the military leadership rightly came together to respond urgently to the terror threat that stalks this country.

Also read: PTI, PPP rethink support for mly courts

What they did wrong was to decide on military courts as the lynchpin of a new strategy to fight terrorism.

Perhaps with a country convulsed with grief and the PML-N government on weak ground — given that until recently the party was insisting on dialogue with the elements behind the Peshawar calamity — there was little resistance to the military’s demand that terrorist suspects be tried in military courts, and presumably summarily executed thereafter.

Perhaps also the full range of opposition political parties present were overawed by the presence of the army chief and DG ISI in Peshawar, and those opposed to military courts decided that it was futile to oppose them in the circumstances.

Whatever the thinking of the political leadership that has brought the country to the verge of amending the Constitution and sundry laws to allow military courts to try terrorism suspects, it was unquestionably wrong.

Belatedly, some conscientious members of the political leadership have begun to speak out, led by senators who are perhaps less encumbered by party discipline than members of other legislatures.

When a new system of so-called justice requires overriding constitutionally guaranteed rights and the independence of the judiciary, surely that is no solution — even to terrorism and militancy.

There is a further problem, one mostly left unsaid: military courts are a populist move, meant to show a frightened public that the state can still be relied on to keep the peace and secure the nation.

Such populism often only begets more populism, leading to more deviations from the democratic path until there is no democracy left, not even in name.

This country has travelled down the path towards authoritarianism and dictatorship too many times, with too many disastrous consequences, to countenance deviations from a constitutional democracy today.

The question that should be asked is, why is the criminal justice system so poor at convicting the guilty? There are really just three steps: investigation, prosecution and judicial.

While the courts are often maligned for allowing the accused to walk free, it is at the investigation and prosecution stages that most of the cases are already lost. And where the judiciary is at fault, it is often because of a lack of protection offered to trial judges.

Can those problems not be urgently fixed in Pakistan? Does not a democratic system exist to strengthen and buttress the democratic system? Military courts are certainly not the answer.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1154161/military-courts-a-wrong-move

Manna for Havana?

Mahir Ali

Published about 15 hours ago

mahir.dawn@gmail.com

AN old photograph of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro has lately been circulating on social media, with speech bubbles in which Che asks “When will relations with the US be restored?” and a chuckling Fidel responds: “When the United States has a black president and the pope is an Argentinean, like you.”

Recent developments on that front will presumably inject an extra dose of optimism into celebrations marking the 56th anniversary of the Cuban revolution tomorrow.

The simultaneous announcements in Havana and Washington predicating the inauguration of a new phase in ties took most observers by surprise. The preceding 18 months of negotiations were a well-kept secret.

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The start of a new phase in US-Cuba ties surprised many.

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As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama had indicated his willingness to push the reset button on ties with Cuba, and as president he has vaguely been reiterating the stance since 2009. Intriguingly, though, despite his perceived ‘softness’ towards Cuba, Obama won Florida in both 2008 and 2012.

This could partly be attributed to a phenomenon that the more percipient observers have been commenting on for several years: namely that younger Cuban-Americans tend to be considerably less blockheaded than their parents about the choices Cuba has made since 1959.

There is also a broad tendency to overlook the fact that the Cuban revolutionaries of that era, notwithstanding their disenchantment with imperialism, were perfectly willing to establish mutually respectful ties with Wash­ington. They were disinclined, though, to pander to US diktat on the economic front, and the nationalisation of US-owned enterprises followed the refusal of American firms to refine crude oil obtained from the Soviet Union.

US designs on Cuba go back a long way, and between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was determined Cuban resistance to annexation that prevented the isle from turning into a second Puerto Rico. Periodic American intervention was almost taken for granted, though, and the dictatorship that Fidel Castro and his comrades overthrew 56 years ago epitomised a neocolonial relationship whereby US-based corporations controlled the Cuban economy and the American mafia operated the casinos and nightclubs in Havana.

There is a persistent school of thought that ascribes the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the failed attempt to invade Cuba in 1961 via the Bay of Pigs, essentially as payback for the broken vow from JFK’s dad that his son would restore mafia ascendancy in Havana if the underworld helped to elect him. JFK sensibly refused to provide US air cover for the CIA recruits sent into Cuba, and the following year also resisted the advice of generals eager to nuke Cuba after it emerged that the island was hosting Soviet nuclear missiles, choosing instead to negotiate with Nikita Khrushchev.

More than half a century later, it is still widely assumed that in the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between the superpowers, it was Khrushchev who blinked by agreeing to pull out the missiles. However, the Soviet leader crucially got JFK to agree that the US would desist from attempts to invade Cuba.

Washington has stuck by that undertaking, although it didn’t prevent it from pursuing assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. Meanwhile, which of the two sides blinked in the lead-up to this month’s rapprochement remains a matter of perception, just as the consequences of the new deal remain open to conjecture.

Obama lacks the power to lift the economic blockade: only the US Congress can do that, and it will inevitably be reluctant to proceed under Republican control — although by no means are all Republicans opposed to an opening, albeit chiefly under the assumption that restored ties will enable the US to play a more dominant role in determining Cuba’s post-Castro future.

Obama himself channelled that line of thought in declaring that the change of tack was necessitated by the fact it hadn’t worked for more than 50 years, rather than because it was reprehensible.

For several decades now, an annual resolution against the blockade has won overwhelming support in the UN General Assembly, lately with only the US and Israel opposing it. It will be interesting to see which way the US votes in 2015.

The US president is meanwhile expected to use his executive powers to loosen the embargo, facilitate travel between the two countries and authorise the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties — even though some legislators have vowed to thwart funding for an embassy and congressional approval of a new ambassador.

On both sides, though, the recalcitrants are in a minority, and within Cuba there is substantial evidence that even those hungry for greater economic opportunities and a dose of glasnost are keen to retain the outstanding gains of the revolution, notably the region’s highest standard of education and a level of healthcare that extends to almost a knee-jerk deployment of Cuban doctors in disaster zones the world over.

mahir.dawn@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1154162/manna-for-havana

The imperialism of language

Rafia Zakaria

Published about 15 hours ago

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

LEARNING English will make you rich, and learning Arabic will make you holy. No one ever says these things out loud in Pakistan, but their premises undergird many decisions. They dominate the thinking of parents braving long lines outside the compounds of English-medium schools during admissions season. They inspire other, newer educational institutions to advertise that they teach both Arabic and English to their students — a winning recipe for the next generation ie, holiness and wealth.

Unsurprisingly, then, many regional languages in Pakistan are dying a slow and silent death. According to one report, one-fifth of the 30 regional languages spoken in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are in danger of extinction, with only a handful of some hundred people left to speak them. The languages gasping for life include Ushojo, Gawro, Gawarbati, Badeshi and several others.

According to Fakhruddin Akhundzada, a Pakistani linguist, Yidhga, a language of Chitral, is one of those recently placed on the endangered languages list by the United Nations Educational Social and Cultural Organisation. Also comatose and nearly dead is Ushojo, another language from the same area, which numbers only about 200 people among its speakers.

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In Pakistan, the promotion of a language has often been equivocated with the political dominance of one or the other group.

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Kalashi, the language of the once celebrated and now often persecuted Kalash tribe, is faring little better. Only a few thousand people speak it any more and of those the vast majority is in their seventies. It is quite likely that when they die, the language will die with them.

Research shows that language extinction usually comes along with economic prosperity. A study published in the British Journal of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B makes the claim that as nations develop, a single language comes to dominate the country’s political and educational spheres and people face the onerous choice of either adopting that language or being left out in the cold, economically and politically. The rise in GDP was also seen as directly correlated with the loss of language diversity in a region.

Neither of these claims makes much sense in Pakistan; the areas around Chitral and Kalash do not seem to have experienced any vast or sudden economic development or significant rise in income per capita. Their languages nevertheless are dying.

One of the reasons may be that Pakistan’s own identity crises have always been closely tied to issues of linguistic identity. In many cases, the supremacy of a language or its promotion has been equivocated with the political dominance of one or the other group. These ideas are being tested today by two developments. First, the emergence of transnational Islamism as an antidote to the confusions of post-coloniality (who were we before the British came and how can we return to that pristine place?) has equalled the ascendance of Arabic.

In learning that language, many believe, the misconstructions of a faith understood second-hand with the losses of translation can be avoided. The consequence will be Arabised Pakistanis whose Islam would be as authentic as that of the Arab forebears (fictitious or actual) whom they are so wont to connect themselves to. To learn Arabic, as per this argument, is to solve everything, a goal lovely enough to merit the sacrifice of many languages.

The imperialism of Arabic, of course, would not exist were it not for the pre-existing anointment of English. In the darkness of the colonial age, the subcontinent’s Muslims realised there was little hope of throwing off the yoke of Empire without mastering English. Perhaps the problem began then or perhaps it did not; with the continued ascendance of English as the global language, perhaps the ontology of the issue, its vexing origins, do not much matter.

Nor would the issue have been as knotty if, after the hackles of Partition had divided up the subcontinent, a single successor could have been agreed upon. Urdu was only perfunctorily crowned, and its crowning brought on ethnic war: with linguistic diversity attached to ethnic diversity, it was perhaps inevitable.

And so it happens that even as Pakistan is refused the prosperity that accompanies the loss of language diversity, it is nevertheless losing the variety of languages that it once enjoyed.

It need not, of course, be so. In a recent article, Ross Perlin, who studies language diversity, gives the example of the Basque language movement. In Spain, Basque speakers were persecuted under the fascist regime of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. They did not allow it to defeat them or eradicate their language. By the time the 1960s came around, the language had become a groundswell, complete with secret schools, do it yourself language learning programmes, cultural festivals and ultimately recognition from the Spanish government itself.

The endurance of Basque is a lesson to all: its speakers face the same pro-English pressures that globalisation places on the rest of the world. Its speakers received little help from government institutions. It endured because the people who spoke it saw its utility beyond simply the pragmatics of better jobs in higher places or faraway cities.

At the heart of the language issue is the premise that the ascendance of one or another language means the sacrifice of another. There are good reasons to learn English and Arabic, venerable ones that make sense in terms of economics, a deeper understanding of faith, the accessibility of a global realm of research and knowledge. This should not demote the less spoken, the ancient, the foregone.

The preservation of language should not pivot on Darwinian scales that sentence the remote to obscurity and extinction. For the picture of the future is, after all, imprinted in the understanding of the past. A lost language hence represents the loss of what was before, an absence that inevitably taints all that comes after.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1154165/the-imperialism-of-language

Tackling militancy in Punjab

Zahid Hussain

Published about 15 hours ago

The writer is an author and journalist.

FINALLY we seem to have a national counterterrorism plan and it is now time for the government to fight the battle against militancy. Notwithstanding the controversy over the decision to set up military courts and the resumption of executions, overall the plan does provide a coherent framework for action.

But the plan by itself may not suffice. Have we not had some tough anti-terrorism laws operating already? So the real question is how effective can the government be in its actions. What we have seen thus far is the prime minister doing more of the mundane: he has been busy setting up committees, more committees and sub-committees. There’s no sign of urgency.

The foremost challenge for Mr Sharif will be how he deals with the problem of militancy and religious extremism in his home province of Punjab. For long, counterterrorism efforts have been focused entirely on the tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and the state has conveniently shut its eyes to militant activities in the country’s most powerful province. This inaction cannot be dismissed as just a state of denial, and has more to do with expediency.

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Radical madressah networks in Punjab lie at the heart of Pakistan’s terrorism problem.

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Deliberately wrapped up in the jargon of ‘good militants’, they were considered a useful cog in our twisted national security paradigm. The fear of retaliation was also the reason for handling them with kid gloves. Will the new counterterrorism strategy really be a game-changer? One is not so sure.

Indeed, a crackdown on Punjab-based militants is a part of the 20-point action plan and both the civil and military leadership have pledged to end the dubious distinction between ‘good Taliban’ and ‘bad Taliban’. Yet, there is still no indication of this much-touted policy shift coming into play, at least in Punjab.

While the focus has remained on the TTP and some other militant groups engaged in fighting security forces in the northwest, it is actually Punjab that had turned into the main centre of militancy and religious extremism. Most of the banned militant and sectarian outfits have their base in the province. What the civilian and military authorities conveniently tend to ignore is that many of the terrorist attacks in the country were linked to Punjab-based groups.

In fact, the venues of some of the most horrific and audacious terror attacks have been in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Be it the attacks on the FIA building, a police training centre, Moon Market, the Data Darbar massacre in Lahore or the brutal carnage in Rawalpindi’s Parade Lane mosque and the attack on GHQ and the devastating bombing of Islamabad’s Marriot, all were carried out by a nexus of the TTP, Al Qaeda and Punjab-based militant groups.

A loose coalition of militants of Punjabi origin calling themselves Punjabi Taliban came into prominence after those attacks. A significant number of Punjabi Taliban were involved in fighting along with the TTP in Swat and the tribal areas. Since 2005, thousands of militants from southern and northern Punjab reportedly moved to Waziristan and worked in close alliance with the TTP in planning attacks on Punjab’s cities. Many of them had also established their training bases in North Waziristan.

The Punjabi Taliban are mostly drawn from the ranks of outlawed militant and Sunni sectarian outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkatul Mujahideen and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi that have operated with impunity under new banners in the province and outside.

The Punjabi Taliban are relatively more educated, better trained and more ideologically motivated than their Pakhtun allies. Hence it is not surprising that they have been the masterminds behind some of the most high-profile terrorist attacks. Investigations into the 2008 Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing have established a strong Punjab connection.

Despite the growing evidence of terrorist attacks involving these militants and other groups operating in the province, even the mention of Punjabi Taliban would evoke a fierce reaction by the Sharif government and security agencies. It did not stop at that. There have been some reports of the PML-N entering into deals with sectarian groups in the last elections.

It is an open secret that the prime minister stopped the execution of two LeJ militants convicted for sectarian killings after threats from Asmatullah Muawiya, the self-styled chief of the Punjabi Taliban. He was also believed to be the commander of one of several Al Qaeda military cells operating in Punjab. Interestingly, a few months later Muawiya announced the end of the group’s armed struggle against Pakistani security forces, limiting its activities to fighting US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. Many believe the truce was the result of a deal.

Radical madressah networks in Punjab lie at the heart of Pakistan’s militancy problem. Most of the Punjabi Taliban leaders received their ideological training in those hardline seminaries, nurtured and expanded under state patronage in the 1980s. Many of these madressahs are also linked with LeJ, a group closely connected with Al Qaeda.

Rightly described as the epicentre of sectarian militancy, the province has also been the main venue of attacks on religious minority groups such as Ahmadis and Christians. The rise of religious extremism in the province is mainly linked to the growth of foreign-funded Salafi seminaries and the failure of the state to check their activities.

Then there is the question about organisations, which may not be engaged in fighting at home, but are deeply involved in terrorist activities in neighbouring countries. Will people like Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar still be allowed to operate freely under the new counterterrorism action plan? It is not clear yet whether our security agencies have finally cut the umbilical cord with their former clients. Acceptance of militant organisations under any pretext will defeat the entire counterterrorism effort.

It is Punjab where the real battle against violent extremism will have to be fought to reclaim the country’s original identity of a progressive Muslim state. Reluctance to tackle the militancy and sectarian problem in the province raises serious doubt about the country winning this battle.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

Twitter: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1154166/tackling-militancy-in-punjab

Putting Misbah through the numbers test By Shahan Shahid

Putting Misbah through the numbers test

By Shahan Shahid

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When Pakistan hammered New Zealand by a whopping 248 runs in the first Test in Abu Dhabi in November, Misbah-ul-Haq became the country's most successful captain, four years after he took up reins in the backdrop of the disastrous spot-fixing scandal.

The 40-year-old Misbah achieved his 15th Test win with that triumph and overtook his much-storied compatriots Imran Khan (14 wins in 48 Tests as captain) and Javed Miandad (14 wins in 35 Tests).

The number 15, however, says little. It hides crucial details about the quality of opposition faced by Pakistan in these contests. If one were to qualitatively analyse these wins and compare them with wins under other captains, where would Misbah rank? How easy or difficult have his fifteen wins been?

Misbah-ul-Haq. -AFP

Let's put Misbah through the number test and we'll be able to gauge whether the Mianwali statesman is really the greatest captain to ever have donned Pakistani colours.

It is important to note the limits of this analysis though. It focuses exclusively on the Test matches a captain won.

The analysis

A team's strength is determined by three factors: batting, bowling and experience. For all metrics, match-date numbers [Footnote: 1] are used, the rationale being that the quality of teams can vary over time, even if they consist of the same players.

For batting quality, the match-date batting averages of the top six batsmen are averaged. Bowling quality is found by averaging the three lowest bowling averages. And as for experience, the total number of matches played, the total runs scored and total wickets taken by members of the team are summed up independently.

For example, in the first Test match of the recent series against New Zealand in the UAE, Pakistan's “Batting Quality” stood at 45.36, “Bowling Quality” was 29.35 and members of the team had played a total of 218 matches, scored 20117 and taken 125 wickets.

Similar, numbers are computed for each Pakistani captain over the years and how their victories compared to each other.

Here's how the comparison is done.

If a team performs better in a metric, it receives one point: a higher number for “Batting Quality” as compared to the opposing team will mean a score of one for the team.

The process is repeated for the remaining metrics -- “Bowling Quality”, “Total Matches”, “Total Runs” and “Total Wickets” -- to arrive at the "Easy Win Scale".

The “Easy Win Scale” returns values ranging from 0 to 5, 5 being an easy contest and 0 being a very difficult battle.

In the first Test between Pakistan and South Africa in Abu Dhabi last year, for instance, the Proteas started out as the clear favorites; as compared to the Pakistanis, Graeme Smith's men had better batting, bowling, more matches in total, more runs and more wickets.

For Pakistan, this match had an “Easy Win Scale” of 0. With odds stacked against Pakistan, this was a tough win [Footnote: 2] even if it came with one day to spare.

Before we delve into tables and numbers, let's take stock of what we intend to do. The underlying rationale is that a captain needs to be lauded for his efforts if he was able lead his team to victory in a match tipped against his side's favor. One part of what makes a great captain, is not just the number of victories but the ability to lead his team to quality, challenging wins [Footnote: 3].

The table for Misbah's 15 wins

Interestingly, the three matches against England in the UAE in 2012 all get a score of 1. Pakistan's only advantage in this 3-0 clean sweep of the English, was its bowling.

Compare this to the recent Australia series where Pakistan had better bowling as well as a better batting line up, it can be argued, therefore, that the England games were tougher than the ones against the Aussies.

If we were to follow this logic, Misbah-ul-Haq was not completely wrong in not having a clear-cut answer when asked if the 2-0 whitewash of Australia was “better” than the 3-0 thrashing of England in 2012.

Misbah's wins have an average "Easy Win Scale" of 2.4. Let's see how he compares to other Pakistani captains.

Inzamam-ul-Haq's eleven wins overshadow Misbah's victories in terms of 'quality'. 'Inzi' led his side to tougher wins as compared to Misbah. Possible explanations for Inazamam's low "Easy Win Scale" could be that at this time, Pakistan were rebuilding after a poor show in the 2003 World Cup and were among the weaker teams in the circuit. This is the time Pakistan tried the likes of Yasir Hameed, Rana Naveed, Shabbir Ahmed and Imran Farhat.

Javed Miandad and Waqar Younis rank at the bottom of the table, while Imran Khan, who is behind Misbah only by a fraction, comes in at number three.

Looking at 'experience' for the teams Misbah led in these fifteen wins is particularly interesting. The team, on average, has the lowest number of matches in total, lowest number of total wickets (by a margin of around 150 wickets) and is only second to Waqar Younis’s outfit in terms of total runs scored.

As compared to other Pakistani line-ups, the Misbah-led team is, therefore, the most inexperienced.

Leading the 'rookies' to fifteen Test victories, therefore, is a commendable feat.

Waqar Younis's numbers are also interesting. His "Easy Win Scale" nearly touches five. This is partly because all of Waqar's 10 wins came against weaker teams – 6 of his 10 wins are versus Zimbabwe and Bangladesh – and partly because the Waqar-led team has the best “Bowling Quality” (lowest bowling average) and a respectable Batting Quality of 42.

All the great men

A table of all captains with 25 or more matches, regardless of nationality, is shown below. Steve Waugh ranks at the bottom with an "Easy Win Scale" of nearly 5.

Unlike Waqar, Steve Waugh had such a talented eleven playing for him, that no team looked difficult. His team had better batting, more total runs and more total matches in all the 41 he won as captain. For the other two metrics, too, batting quality and total wickets, Waugh's team is rarely outdone: 3 times in batting and only 6 times in total wickets [Footnote: 5].

Surprisingly, Inzamam-ul-Haq ranks at the top with Michael Clarke and Michael Atherton trailing closely behind.

Inzamam-ul-Haq. -AFP

Michael Clarke's numbers make it evident that the Australian squad under his leadership has been much weaker than the one Steve Waugh captained. Wins under Clarke, therefore, have been harder to come by.

India’s batting prowess and the deadly West Indies bowling attack that Vivian Richards captained are highlighted by the data.

India has the highest “Batting Quallity” and the highest total runs on average while the West Indian team of the 90s has an average “Bowling Quality” of 19.

Where Misbah ranks

Many argue, what Misbah has achieved cannot be put down in numbers. They say it is the stability that he instilled into a broken team and made it extremely efficient.

But where does this analysis leave us then?

Is Misbah the greatest captain Pakistan ever had?

An analysis of wins does not say so. Inzamam-ul-Haq led his side to victory in tougher matches as compared to Misbah.

Nevertheless, Misbah deserves all the credit for the fifteen Test wins against a fairly respectable pool of opponents.

What about Inzamam? Is he the greatest captain to ever to have captained Pakistan.

Clearly, Inzamam led his side to victory in matches that were very tipped against his team’s favor, but for us to conclude he was a 'great', or the 'greatest of all time', all his matches, regardless of result need to be taken into account.

Part II and III of this analysis will, hopefully, fill this void.

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Readers are free to download and manipulate source data for this analysis which is available here

[Footnote: 1] Cricinfo shows career averages after the match. This is not ideal -- ideally pre-match numbers should be used -- but, sadly, is the best data available.

[Footnote: 2] Readers may wonder why a binary comparison was made and why how wide the disparities were, was not taken into account. For one, doing so led to wide oscillations between numbers which is a problem when averaging numbers. For example, in Sourav Ganguly's first match as captain, they played a much weaker Bangladesh side. Adding these wide differentials distorts the results for all of Ganguly’s wins. Also, it seemed to be jeopardizing the digestibility of the numbers and so a simpler approach was used.

[Footnote: 3] None of Inzamam's wins have come against particularly poor sides, such as Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Misbah, on the other hand, has played against poor teams. I am not sure if this pulls Misbah's numbers down. If it does, this is difficult to account for.

[Footnote: 4] None of Inzamam's wins have come against particularly poor sides, such as Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Misbah, on the other hand, has played against poor teams. I am not sure if this pulls Misbah's numbers down. If it does, this is difficult to account for.

[Footnote: 5] It can be argued that our model puts captains with strong teams at a disadvantage. This is a valid criticism. But, our model, quite deliberately, values a win that came against a tough opponent more than an easy one.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1146800/2014-captain-misbah-triumphs-but-is-he-the-best

Afridi — Cricket will never see a performer quite like him

AFP

about 6 hours ago

Afridi won hearts with his unorthodox, buccaneering style -- ignoring the coaching manual to rely on swagger and raw talent. — AFP

KARACHI: If fan following was a yardstick of greatness in cricket, Pakistan's colourful all-rounder Shahid Afridi would probably be ranked his country's greatest ever player.

Ever since he hit a 37-ball hundred in only his second one-day international -- against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996 -- Afridi has been a cult figure in Pakistan.

His announcement last week that he was quitting one-day cricket after next year's World Cup has left his millions of fans pondering: who to watch after him?

No cricketer in Pakistan has had the persona and the box office pull of the hyperactive, big-hitting Afridi, who filled stadiums throughout his career -- and often emptied them when he was out.

The fervour for watching him bat was such that when he was dismissed first ball by an unknown Zimbabwe bowler in Peshawar a few days after his world record hundred, the crowd chanted: “Try ball, let Afridi bat again!”

Girls swooned for a glimpse of him and many wanted to marry him. In 2004 two women came in bridal dress to a ground and were only convinced to leave after meeting him face to face.

Afridi won hearts with his unorthodox, buccaneering style -- ignoring the coaching manual to rely on swagger and raw talent.

'Unmatched popularity'

It was an approach tailor-made for TV and Afridi's career coincided with the explosion of Pakistani media that followed General Pervez Musharraf's liberalisation of the sector in 2002.

Pakistani cricket writer and historian Osman Samiuddin said the exposure meant Afridi's popularity become virtually unmatched, in any era.

Shahid Afridi (R) receives flowers from a young supporter as he attends a local event in Karachi. — AFP

“He has played in the right age for sure, when a booming electronic media has made him a bigger public presence than previous stars such as Imran Khan, Wasim Akram or Waqar Younis,” Samiuddin told AFP.

The Afridi effect can be seen in any street game in Pakistan, where millions of children copy his style -- trying to smash every other ball out of the park.

Afridi's superstardom on the field made him the face of Pakistan off it, and his likeness is plastered across billboards and TV ads everywhere in the country.

Even now, in the twilight of his career, Afridi advertises everything from shampoo, banking and skin cream to chewing gum, with a ubiquity surpassed perhaps only by Sachin Tendulkar in India.

“Afridi may not always be the star performer but he remains a star,” said Kamil Ahmed, who works for a top advertising agency in Karachi.

“His name can lift a product, especially those for young people, who are mad for him.”

Critics silenced

Afridi, now 34, has had ups and downs in his career but his support reached new heights when he became captain in 2010.

“I am lucky in the sense that people loved me more than anyone else,” Afridi told AFP.

“It's a great blessing and I always wanted to play for my country and for my fans.”

With age catching up and form sliding, Afridi's fan following started to diminish two years ago.

He was dropped from the one-day side for the tour of India in December 2012 and then for the Champions Trophy a year later.

Shahid Afridi (C) posing for a photograph with his fans. — AFP

But in typical style, he won back hearts with a blistering 18-ball 34 against India to help Pakistan reach the final of the Asia Cup in March.

Two sixes off Ravichandran Ashwin in the last over against arch-rivals India silenced the critics.

“When Afridi wins a game in that manner it feels much more than just an ordinary win,” said Samiuddin, author of “The Unquiet Ones”, a new history of Pakistani cricket.

There are those who became exasperated with Afridi in recent years, seeing a player whose love for the spectacular often came at the expense of his teammates.

But Samiuddin says that for all his occasional failures, Afridi would be remembered as “a very very good limited overs player, among the greatest Pakistan has seen.”

He has changed the course of matches with his bowling many times and does so with his batting as well,” he said.

Despite bagging 391 wickets in 389 ODIs with his brisk leg-spin, Afridi agrees fans largely come to watch him bat.

“I know my contributions as a bowler count for little. They want sixes flying all the time from my bat and I always try to do that,” said Afridi, whose 342 sixes in 389 matches is a world record.

Whatever his performance at next year's World Cup, it will be a long time before cricket sees another performer quite like Shahid Afridi.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1154256/afridi-cricket-will-never-see-a-performer-quite-like-him

2014: A good year for Pakistani TV and cinema

2014: A good year for Pakistani TV and cinema

By Salima Feerasta

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2014 wasn’t a bumper year for great movies, but there was still plenty of popcorn-munching fun to be had in front of the silver screen.

Lollywood

It’s great to see the Pakistani film industry finally getting its act together. The best movies now combine great acting talent, good scripts and excellent production quality.

There may still be a long way to go, but we finally have some movies worth the price of the ticket.

Three Pakistani movies stood out in 2014:

Na Maloom Afraad

A comic caper, reminiscent of Hera Pheri, Na Maloom Afraad is arguably the best Pakistani film of the year. These are Karachi’s na maloom afraads as you’ve never seen them before.

Full of thrills, spills and glorious one-liners, the film treats Karachi’s volatility with a light hand. The film is full of excellent performances, particularly those from Javed Sheikh and Mohsin Abbas Haider.

From the madcap chases to Mehwish Hayat’s item number “Billi”, the film packs in plenty of entertainment.

Although the editing could have been a tad tighter, Na Maloom Afraad is well-made, witty and impresses on many levels.

O21

The film’s trailer made it look like Pakistan’s answer to Mission Impossible but O21 was never meant to be an out-and-out action thriller. Told from four different points of view, O21 is an intelligent exploration of allegiances and motivations within espionage.

O21 is remarkable for its first-rate cinematography and outstanding action scenes, but ultimately the film was over ambitious. Its grand theme is somewhat lost in the not-so-perfect editing and an ill-defined plot. This may be due to the change in directors midway through production.

O21 is not quite the film it could have been despite stunning visuals, good performances and an exceptional score.

Dukhtar

Dukhtar is the tale of a former child bride who flees her village to avoid a similar fate for her daughter.

The harrowing subject may have put off audiences looking for escapist cinema, but Dukhtar is a pacy, well-made thriller that tackles a difficult subject well.

Samiya Mumtaz and Saleha Aref in a scene from 'Dukhtar'. – Publicity photo

Samiya Mumtaz’s performance as mother Allah Rakhi is extraordinary — nuanced and subtle.

The film benefits from an excellent soundtrack and the beautiful visuals once again show how far film production values have come in Pakistan.

Exemplary cinematography makes the most of the breathtaking scenery of northern Pakistan, which forms the backdrop for the majority of the film.

Dukhtar highlights the plight of women caught in the trap of child marriage without preachy dialogue. It is film engrossed with suspense and carries twists with a heartwarming bond between the mother and daughter at the centre of it all.

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Bollywood

There were plenty of crowd-pleasing movies from Bollywood this year. Action movies ruled the box office despite their flaws. Forgettable star vehicles like Happy New Year, Jai Ho, Kick and Bang Bang pulled in some of the largest crowds.

Similarly, rom-coms like Hasee Toh Phasee, 2 States, Khoobsurat and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania did well.

There were, however, a handful of standout films during the year.

PK

It’s impossible not to have high expectations of the film that brings Rajkumar Hirani and Aamir Khan back together. PK isn’t quite as stellar as 3 Idiots, but it is nonetheless an excellent film.

Polished, clever and laugh-out-loud funny PK pokes fun at the ritualistic trappings of religion and fraudulent gurus who make money out of people’s faith.

Anushka Sharma’s romantic storyline seems a little forced but Aamir Khan’s alien is a beautifully played rendition of comic innocence.

Whilst it’s obvious that Hirani wanted to focus on his message, the film would have been even more entertaining if it had focused more on the struggles of an alien unexpectedly stranded on earth.

Queen

The hit of the summer, Queen is the story of a 'good' Indian girl who is jilted on the eve of her wedding. Heartbroken, she blackmails her family into letting her go on her honeymoon by herself.

Her outlook changes as she ventures on this solo trip to Europe. Her preconceptions are challenged and she gradually loses her inhibitions and finds herself.

Funny, perceptive and heartwarming, Queen is one of the best coming-of-age films to come out of Bollywood in a long time.

Dedh Ishqiya

Naseeruddin Shah and Madhuri Dixit in 'Dedh Ishqiya'. – Photo courtesy: Santabanta.com

Dedh Ishqiya was remarkable for bringing Madhuri Dixit back to the big screen after a long break. It also brought Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi together again as small time crooks with big dreams.

While Dedh Ishqiya’s plot may have had a few flaws, it was an entertaining sequel to Ishqiya. With brilliant performances and dialogues, the exquisitely styled film was one of the most memorable of 2014.

Highway

2014 was also the year that Alia Bhatt became a bona fide star. She had three very good movies this year and showed that actually she can act.

She has already picked up a handful of endorsements but it’s next year’s movies that will really show whether she has staying on.

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Hollywood

Most of the Hollywood films that make it to Pakistan’s cineplexes are big budget movies like The Hunger Games and The Lego Movie.

The rather sweet Hundred Foot Journey made it to our screens because of its desi characters, but generally we only get to see a small selection of western movies.

The best English movies are rarely those with the biggest budgets. If you’re interested in something a bit more cerebral than the standard blockbuster fare, do check out these two films.

Boyhood

Ellar Coltrane in 'Boyhood'. - Photo courtesy: vanishingpointchronicles.com

Shot over 12 years, Boyhood is a portrait of a young boy, Mason Jr, growing up in Texas.

This sensitive coming-of-age story is remarkable, showing glimpses of Mason’s life from first grade all the way through to graduating from high school.

With a loose, open-ended plot, the movie illustrates the fleeting, inconsequential nature of life. We see Mason's childhood pass before our eyes and the film perfectly illustrates how quickly children grow up. It is an exceptional film.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

This comic caper with Ralph Fiennes as the fast-talking concierge of an old-style hotel between the two World Wars is one of the best films of the year.

It features Fiennes being framed for murder, the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for a huge family fortune. The story has all the elements of a classic screwball comedy with hidden depth. One of this year’s must-see movies.

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A foreign gem

Mun-hee Na and Eun-kyung Shim in 'Miss Granny'. - Photo courtesy: cultmontreal.com

If you’re a film buff, it’s worth looking further afield for the best movies. For example, one of the best feel-good films of the year was a Korean movie called *Miss Granny.*

The story of an under-appreciated, irascible granny who suddenly becomes young again is pure movie magic. Hilarious, poignant and entertaining, it’s everything that popular cinema should be.

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Best of Pakistani television

2014 is the year that Pakistani dramas reached larger audiences than ever before. With many of the best dramas from recent years being picked up by Zee Zindagi, our dramas and actors now have huge audiences across the border.

Pakistani serials have been a breath of fresh air to Indian audiences, particularly as the limited number of episodes allows for tighter storylines than never-ending Indian dramas.

Funnily enough, more Pakistanis also discovered our own dramas through Zee Zindagi via satellite. Recent classics like Bari Apa, Zindagi Gulzar Hai and superhit Humsafar have reached new Pakistani audiences this year through Zee Zindagi.

But what of this year’s new dramas? What were the best dramas on Pakistani channels this year?

With such limited runs, each channel puts out dozens of dramas every year. Increasingly, it takes a star name or major advertising to pull in audiences. However, while some of the most anticipated dramas of the year did do well, there were several surprise hits.

Jackson Heights

Easily one of the most talked-about serials this year, Jackson Heights follows the six expat Pakistanis living in Queens, New York. Directed by Mehreen Jabbar, the drama has star power in the form of Marina Khan and Aamina Sheikh.

With a storyline that features everything from immigrant struggles to domestic abuse, the ongoing serial is engrossing and intriguing. The pace has slowed at times, but the multiple storylines have depth and nuance.

The drama is abetted by brilliant performances from a strong cast, particularly Ali Kazmi as the malevolent Sikander.

Pehchan

Writer Bee Gul and director Khalid Ahmed, who gave usTalkhiyan, produced another gem in Pehchan. Every second serial deals with infidelity and love triangles, but Pehchanstands out for its brilliant writing.

A multi-layered script follows the stories of protagonists who have many shades of grey in their characters. Iffat Umar excels as Kuku, who is failed by both her free-loading husband and her faithless lover. Alishba Yousuf is similarly excellent as Laila, the naïve wife who undergoes a journey of self-discovery through the story.

The non-linear script is beautifully handled and the excellent visuals help make Pehchan a serial that is as appealing as it is engaging.

Digest Writer

Saba Qamar and Gohar Rasheed in 'Digest Writer'. - Photo courtesy: Hum TV

Hum TVs Digest Writer is one of the most popular dramas currently running. Saba Qamar plays Farida, a talented but impoverished girl who takes up digest writing to help her family out of financial difficulties.

Dealing with the theme of a young woman forging a career for herself and trying to gain acceptance from her family and prospective suitors,Digest Writer is a story that has appealed to many. Well-written and absorbing, this atypical serial is a deserving hit.

Pyaray Afzal

Starring Hamza Ali Abbasi and Ayeza Khan, this tale of unprofessed love was far-fetched yet captivating.

Afzal, the son of a maulvi, falls for a mill owner’s daughter, Farah. Their melodramatic love story sparked a huge following with its own memes on social media.

Hamza Ali Abbasi once again proves his star quality – his Afzal and the beautifully written script kept viewers tuning in to a story that was implausible yet gripping.

Shanakht

Maya Ali in 'Shanakht'. – Photo courtesy: Hum TV

Shanakht tells the story of a girl from a modern household who donshijab against the wishes of her family.

It charts her struggle for acceptance and has struck a chord with many viewers here and abroad. Despite the somewhat preachy message, a heroine who resolutely stuck to her spiritual awakening appealed to many viewers.

Despite having no known stars, it’s a play that did well, particularly abroad. Interesting for its depiction of liberals as fairly intolerant, the serial’s unusual storyline made it stand out.

Although 2014 had no super-hit drama serials, it was generally a good year for Pakistani TV – with different stories, excellent production values and strong acting. Here’s hoping 2015 will be even better.

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Salima Feerasta is a freelance journalist and the creative force behind style blog karachista.com. Follow her on Twitter @karachista

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