The silent ghazal

The silent ghazal

It would be unfair to tag Mehdi Hassan a Pakistani singer. He belonged to the world of music. Newspapers in Pakistan, as in India, celebrated his life, and did not mourn his death. Websites of Pakistani news channels reported that his family had demanded the Sindh government to allow their father a resting place inside the premises of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's mausoleum, the iconic Mazar-e-Quaid, which has become emblematic of Pakistan. The newspapers, however, missed reporting this one. The request was not complied with and north Karachi's Shah Muhammad Graveyard was chosen as the place for his burial instead, newspapers reported. The celebrated ghazal singer was laid to rest on June 15.

Memorandum of understanding?

LAST year's "Memogate Commission", probing a controversy involving Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, saw its first pit stop. A sensational article in The Financial Times in 2011, by Mansoor Ijaz, an American businessman of Pakistani origin, stated that he had been tasked by Haqqani, on Pakistan President Asif Zardari's request, to pass on a memorandum (the "memo") to then US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen by Ijaz's friend and then US National Security Adviser, General James Jones, beseeching the Obama administration to help avert a possible military takeover of Pakistan's government after Osama bin Laden was killed inside Pakistani territory by US Navy SEALS in May 2011.

Following the political furore created by Memogate, Haqqani was made to resign from public service, and a commission was formed to investigate the scandal. The Memogate Commission, as it came to be called, earlier this week declared Haqqani guilty of authoring the memo and being disloyal to Pakistan. Haqqani, an avid tweeter, defended himself on Twitter, The News reported on June 12: "He... said that the commission is not a court and those claiming it has determined guilt or innocence are wrong. 'Those who endorsed military dictators and allowed them 2 amend constitution cannot judge my -or anyone else's -patriotism'..." The case has been adjourned for two weeks now.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Me captain, you team: Very vain, very effective

For democracy and bijli, uninterrupted supply

Four years later

Victor's tribulations