Tales from Peshawar

Early evening on Tuesday, I had an emotional experience that I will not be able to express in words. There we were on the grounds of the Army Public School in Peshawar, in front of the elegant memorial for the martyrs of that unforgettable massacre in 2014. How does one mourn such a tragedy?

For me, this was a kind of pilgrimage and I had anxiously waited for this opportunity. This also means that I was visiting Peshawar after a number of years. Besides, that incredible act of terror was somewhat relevant to the purpose of my visit. I am a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s fact-finding mission to probe the human rights situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with a particular focus on the Fata merger and this month’s elections in the tribal districts.

Since the HRCP mission is yet unfinished and I had joined just one delegation, with distinguished defender of human rights Hina Jilani and another member of the council, Perveen Soomro, I am not in a position to report on its deliberations. A comprehensive report will be drafted and then formally released. I can only say that it is an earnest undertaking that the HRCP is pursuing with diligence and objectivity.

However, I am tempted to share some thoughts that relate to this personal encounter with the people and places of a region that inspires awe and bewilderment. Many of its mysteries remain unfathomable. We stayed in Peshawar for a week, a day of which was devoted to Khyber district. We had driven to Landi Kotal and had a glimpse of the fabled pass – a pathway of history, ancient and also very recent. In fact, a lot of history is waiting to be made in this location.

Thanks to Imran Khan’s campaign that has manifestly gone awry, we talk a lot of about ‘tabdeeli’ and about a ‘Naya Pakistan’. But the transformation that is taking place in the tribal belt is very real, though it would not be easy to decipher. Yes, there is this mystique about the Pashtun race and its culture.

The Pashtuns are said to have developed the world’s largest tribal society. This society is now in a flux. What has happened to it in the present phase of our history has its unique features. If you keep your ear to the ground, you may get some sense of the immortal longings of a people who have suffered so much in recent years. In a sense, it is here that Pakistan is playing its own Great Game.

I know that talking about my Peshawar experience would appear to be a distraction because this week has shaken Pakistan’s politics around the video scandal that involves accountability court judge Arshad Malik and his judgment against Nawaz Sharif. It is more of a judicial crisis. Once again, the verdict of history is awaited.

There is, truthfully, a great problem in talking about these matters. The voice of the formal, mainstream media has been stifled so effectively that it is also losing its ability to investigate the reality of our existence. In addition, our intellectual capacities are so weak that we do not realise that these curbs are a threat to our national security.

The pity of it is that our rulers do not understand these matters. Look at how our foreign minister, the glib persuader of this government, spoke about media freedom in Pakistan in front of a foreign audience this week. I’m sorry, not in front of an audience but mostly empty chairs.

I say this as an aside because I was too preoccupied all this week to be able to follow the national affairs. I did not even watch the World Cup matches and was not able to join the celebration of another country’s defeat. We have the satisfaction of having defeated the finalists. One wonders what solace the West Indians would get out of this tournament.

There are many reasons why I was excited to be in Peshawar for this long. Usually, my journalistic visits to other cities last just for a day or two, with little time to walk the streets and, so to say, smell the coffee. Take this also as an allusion to Peshawar’s storied kahva khanas. One of Peshawar’s history-book distinctions is its Qissa Khwani Bazaar – the street of story tellers.

This short stretch of road is surely a disappointment. But I insisted on doing the drill and exploring it on a very, very hot afternoon. With a strain on your imagination, you may find a few hints of the past in narrow by-lanes. Okay, the storytelling now primarily is cinema. So, I was led to the ancestral home of Dilip Kumar that now stands demolished. For that matter, Peshawar was the home of the celebrated Kapoor clan and also the family of Shahrukh Khan.

I have lived my life in Karachi and have repeatedly said, to underline the city’s ethic plurality, that it is the largest Pashtun city in the world. Peshawar, thus, should be considered a sister city. Sadly, I was struck with another similarity: massive acts of terror in the recent past. Once, a friend in Karachi had suggested that a route could be charted around places where major bomb blasts had occurred.

After the Army Public School, I also made a visit to the All Saints Church, dated 1883, where 127 worshippers were killed in a twin suicide blast in September 2013. It is located in the congested centre of the city. Later, I had an occasion to talk to the priest. By the way, the Qissa Khwani Bazaar was also the site of a massacre when the British troops fired at demonstrators on April 23, 1930.

I have many more stories to tell but this space is limited. There are tales told by people we met, across the entire spectrum of society, ranging from members of a transgender community to some very learned and committed civil servants. There were those who are utterly pessimistic about the unfolding scenario and others who look forward to a new beginning.

For the time being, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its tribal territories seem to be passing through a twilight zone. Not everything is visible. And the messages conveyed by what you are able to see are rather cryptic. It was so nice to meet the first ever female candidate for the provincial assembly from a tribal constituency. We met Naheed Afridi in Jamrud. Shall we meet again – and where?

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com