Book Review of Karachi Halwa by Prabhu Dayal
Karachi Halwa is
the memoir of Mr. Prabhu Dayal from
the time when he was serving as an Indian diplomat in Pakistan during 1982-85. It
was when the country, well deviated from Jinnah’s liberal policies, was slowly
sinking into a mire of religious bigotry and wholesale corruption. The book
contains many personal observations about the political system and foreign
policy of President Zia and also some of his suggestions on how the
relationship between India and Pakistan could improve.
India had fought wars against Pakistan in 1948, 1965 and
1971 and had achieved decisive victory in all them. When the author was
informed that his next posting would be in Karachi, he had every reason to
believe that the people of Pakistan would be hostile. This however, turned out
to be only partially true. The people, to whom Pakistan was hostile, as the
book would gradually reveal, were its very citizens.
Though Karachi had ceased to be the capital of Pakistan
since 1958, it remained a leading city throbbing with industrial activities.
The greatest share of its population consists of Muhajirs. They are the people displaced from various parts of India
during Partition and now settled in Pakistan. They have relatives and friends
still living in India. They are also the ones who frequently visit India.
Processing their visa requests was significant amount of work. Indian Embassy
in Pakistan has therefore a high degree of relevance. They adopted a liberal
policy towards Muhajirs. However,
Pakistan Embassy in India was not so free about giving away visas. When a
Pakistani diplomat was asked about these restrictions, he gave a strange reply.
Because these applicants will stay back in Pakistan and will not go back to India as economic conditions are better here.
The premise on which Pakistan was established was that the
Muslims of Indian sub-continent should have a separate homeland to live. So
there should not be any objection if some of these people settle in Pakistan.
When Prabhu Dayal pointed that out, the diplomat responded rather gruffly:
Don’t expect anything from us if you don’t give us Kashmir.
This fixation on Kashmir was rather, manufactured – a
political ruse often frequently used by unscrupulous and incompetent leaders to
divert attention from the real issues. The Kashmir conflict is playing havoc
with the economy of both the countries. A large portion of their resources are
being held up either fuelling or mitigating conflicts. In this deal the bigger casualty
are the Pakistanis.
Sadly, instead of addressing the country’s own serious problems such as sectarianism, civil strife and grinding poverty, its politicians and generals seem to be obsessed with Jammu and Kashmir.
In Karachi Halwa
by Prabhu Dayal, we come across many
famous personalities. President Zia was one of them. The incidents described in
this book give us some insight into his Machiavellian schemes. Zia was
desperate and hungry for power. But he never lost his head over it. He knew how
to reach where he wanted to reach and planned accordingly.
He was commanding the 2nd Strike Corps at Multan when he invited Prime Minister Bhutto for an official visit. As part of the preparations, he got his tailor to stitch a Ceremonial Military uniform for Bhutto.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was thrilled. Moreover, he was also made
to climb into a tank and shoot a target. Bhutto was under the impression that
he himself had shot the target, whereas it was another tank arranged by Zia
that hit the mark. This however served the purpose. Bhutto’s mountainous ego
was satisfied and it served the purpose it was intended to. A few months later
Bhutto appointed Zia as Chief of Army Staff superseding
as many as seven more senior officers.
It was a grave mistake. (Years later, Nawaz Sharif would
repeat the same mistake.)
On 5th July 1977, Zia staged a military coup
against Bhutto and put Pakistan under his dictatorship. The coup was ironically
called Operation Fair Play. Things began to take a slide immediately after he
assumed power.
Zia disbanded the Parliament in 1979 and replaced it with the Majlis Shoora, which was merely a consultative council to advise him on the process of Islamisation.
The radicalization was however, started well before Zia.
Bhutto had already banned the drinking or selling of alcohol by Muslims,
(though that prevented neither the drinking nor the selling, especially among
rich Muslims). He had also banned gambling and horse racing. When Zia came to
power, he drove the last nail into Jinnah’s ideology of secularism. Quaid-e-Azam had repeatedly warned
against letting religion interfere into politics. In defiance to these beliefs,
Zia vowed to enforce Nizam-e-Mustafa,
an Islamic system with Sharia Law. He declared:
"Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and will continue to survive only if it sticks to Islam. That is why I consider the introduction of an Islamic system as an essential pre-requisite for the country."
Moreover, he effectively crippled all the cultural
activities. With The Motion Picture Ordinance (1979) he banned all Pakistani
films that had been made in the previous three years. Severe restriction was
placed on Pakistani filmmakers. People who came out to protest were roughed up
by Zia. Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who was considered Pakistan’s greatest poet, raised
his voice against oppression, for which he was imprisoned and detained a number
of times. It is believed that because of the restrictions on freedom of
expression, poets like Faiz and Ahmad Faraz had chosen to go into self-exile.
After facing a long trial, that many believed was more of a
farce, Bhutto was hanged at Central Jail Rawalpindi, on 4th April
1979. Much of the Muslim world was shocked at Bhutto’s execution. Before being
hanged Bhutto’s last words were: “Oh Lord, help me for... I am innocent.” Sri
Lanka’s then Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike appealed to let Bhutto leave,
but she was turned down. She had even offered to host Bhutto in exile in
Colombo. Later, when mangoes were sent to her from Pakistan Embassy, she refused
to accept them saying,
“Thank you for sending me these mangoes on behalf of President Zia ul Haq. However, I cannot accept a gift from a person whose hands have the blood of Pakistan’s elected Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on them.”
Not surprisingly though, Zia received overwhelming support
from the U.S. The plight of the people of Pakistan under the dictatorship of
Zia mattered little to the Reagan Administration as long as Zia remained loyal
to America and aided it in its tussle against Russia.
Under Reagan, the US-Pak interaction grew by leaps and bounds, with the CIA and the ISI working closely together.
An aid of a $3.2 billion spread over six years was signed.
Military aid flew to Pakistan as never before. Zia gave false assurance to the
U.S. that these resources were not used in building nuclear arsenal. And the
administration continued to certify that. However, it was later revealed that they
were aware that Zia was lying to them. U.S. Intelligence agencies, remarked Prabhu Dayal in Karachi Halwa, had provided them with enough evidence. But perhaps,
the U.S. was somehow assured that all the military power of Pakistan was aimed
at India, whereas American diplomatic interests during that time were only in
Afghanistan. If India and Pakistan nuked each other to dust, why should that
bother the U.S.?
Now why does America’s policy on Pakistan fail to surprise
me? Because history shows that as long as it benefitted them in some way, the
U.S. had always chosen to put aside all ethics. The Batista Government backedby the U.S. was practically run by Havana Nocturne, the mobsters. In case of
Pakistan it was the mullahs. How does it matter if the people of these
countries bled to death?
In an article that appeared in Liberty Voice on 22nd January, 2014, Iftikhar Tariq
Khanzada had aptly summarized the situation in Pakistan:
The feudal-military-mullah nexus has ruled the country for the majority of its history. This is the main reason that democracy, which is flourishing across the border, has not been able to establish its credentials here. Over 60 percent of Pakistan’s GDP goes towards meeting its defence needs, consequently the overall economy suffers. Education in Pakistan has never been a priority with any government, so has been the case with social security and well-being of its citizens. Rampant inflation, unemployment, the daily deepening energy crises, unchecked corruption and the alarming, deteriorating law and order situation have made Pakistan a favourite recruiting ground plus a safe haven for terrorists from all over the world. It did not come as a surprise that Osama Bin Laden was found living in Abottabad Cantonment in the failed state of Pakistan.
When he said a failed
state, there was little exaggeration. Pakistan had been unjustly robbed by
its own leaders. They were the victims of a series of policy paralyses. They
had been brainwashed into believing that India is the origin of all its
problems and that if they could just snatch away Kashmir from India that would
solve all those problems. Does that even sound reasonable? This is for the
people of Pakistan to decide.
While Prabhu Dayal,
in his book Karachi Halwa, admits
that a quick turn-around in Indo-Pak relationship may be too high an
expectation, he maintains that by adhering to certain policy guidelines, the relationship
can definitely improve. He made some propositions in that order. They may not
be much difficult to achieve either. In both the countries, valuable resources
have been used up in strengthening the defence. The conflict demands constant
attention which is too exhausting and futile. With some cooperation from both
India and Pakistan, the problems can be sorted out by peaceful means.
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