| Islamic Culture | |
| 08 Jul 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com |
| An Old Saying for Every Situation | ||
In all honesty, no politician in the country today uses Urdu sayings as frequently and with the facility displayed by the two Sharif politicians; Nawaz Sharif is only outdone on this count by Shahbaz Sharif. “Meray baap ki tauba” were the words with which he broke the illusion of reconciliation...... “Awam kay saath mil kar hukumranon ka garaiban pakrain gay,” he roared at the anniversary of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb in May..... when the need arises he hails the army as the crown on our proud heads(army hamaray sar ka taaj hay). -- Asha’ar Rehman
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| An Old Saying for Every Situation | |
By Asha’ar Rehman
MORE than 200 years after the Fort William College asked Mir Amman and company to transform some old tales into the people’s language; popular Urdu mohawras or phrases are well and healthy in Punjab.
As proof that it is encouraged at the highest official level here, there are no bigger, more equipped exponents of standard Urdu phrases than the members of the ruling Sharif family.
In all honesty, no politician in the country today uses Urdu sayings as frequently and with the facility displayed by the two Sharif politicians; Nawaz Sharif is only outdone on this count by Shahbaz Sharif.
One joint favourite of the two PML-N leaders is their reference to the current flow of the Ganges. The Ganga, they insist, has been flowing upstream in the reign of Asif Ali Zardari — again, Shahbaz Sharif taking the lead in reporting the faults in Islamabad, either showing a comparatively greater understanding or simply betraying his impatience.
It has been a while — two years perhaps — since a disappointed and betrayed Shahbaz Sharif lifted his hands up to around his ears and proclaimed that he could never bring himself to trust Mr Zardari again.
“Meray baap ki tauba” were the words with which he broke the illusion of reconciliation some of the audience had nursed and with it, signalling the continuation of a political tradition that has played its part in keeping many of our old sayings relevant.
Shahbaz Sharif is a politician of considerable experience who expertly throws in old phrases to display just how committed he is to a particular cause. If he errs and lets fly a politically incorrect mohawra, he does so in the heat of the moment and does it so rarely that it can hardly be held against so prolific a speaker.
His likening of the federal government which denies Punjab its due share of natural gas to a sauteli maan or a stepmother may be unworthy of an up-to-date politician since the phrase has for a long time been rubbished for being too offensive. But such rare slips apart, mostly he is in full command of the situation.
He is right on the money when he accuses the budget-makers in Islamabad of playing number games with his expert utilisation of the expression alfaz ka hair phair and when the need arises he hails the army as the crown on our proud heads (army hamaray sar ka taaj hay).
Nawaz Sharif appears to be just as proficient but he has by comparison been much more lenient with lavishing old sayings on those looting the country with both hands — or so he was until recently. He had been rather gently praying to the rulers in Islamabad to set their directions right: apna qibla durust kar layn.
But since his patience has run out in recent months, Nawaz Sharif has no choice now but to ally with the people to grab the garaiban of those running the federal government. “Awam kay saath mil kar hukumranon ka garaiban pakrain gay,” he roared at the anniversary of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb in May. Garaiban, for want of a better alternative in English, has to be translated as ‘collar’, which will explain to the English reader the rediscovered excitement around the country’s political arena at this moment.
The Sharifs have been offended in the extreme by the recent attack launched on them by Mr Zardari, the chief of the jiyala tribe. Mr Zardari chose the 58th birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto to provide his own description of the events and personalities in Pakistani politics.
He required no metaphors and, visibly out of practice due to his detention in the presidency, even corrupted a pet PPP couplet that promises the emergence of a Bhutto from every household. The smiling façade was lifted, the neutral casing was shed and our stung king of understatement decided it was time to indulge in a bit of name-calling.
The more serious of the attacks by the PPP co-chairperson was when he accused the PML-N of taking on the army or where he literally mauled Nawaz Sharif by forcing upon the PML-N quaid the title of maulvi or when he advised his opponents to go through a crash course in how to do politics under his tutelage. It may have been a reciprocal speech that was in the making for some time, but if it was provocative by design, it didn’t take Mr Zardari too long to get the compliments he was asking for.
Mr Zardari’s speech and the Kashmir election that followed a few days later have revived an Urdu saying that was much in vogue during the last three decades of the 20th century.
It foretells the drowning of the PPP in the Arabian Sea — presumably a considered plan given that the task would need the executioners to chase the PPP out of its powerbase of Sindh right down to the coasts of Karachi.
Not only that, while an obviously hurt Shahbaz Sharif quickly came up with the remark about the army being the crown we so proudly don, he also announced a post-haste burial of Mr Zardari’s politics.
As if we haven’t had too many funerals already, if the ensuing scenes are something to go by, the declaration of the revival of janaza politics appears for real. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections on Sunday was a test case and the scuffles that the polls were marred by could well be just an indication of what the future has in store by way of politics in the country.
There were clashes even in Lahore, Multan and other Punjab cities where Kashmiris voted for electing their representatives to the AJK Legislative Assembly. The scenes bore an eerie resemblance to the build-up of general elections of the past. And the approaching forces may be closer to Dilli than the rulers in Islamabad care to acknowledge.
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
Source: The Dawn, Karachi
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9:30 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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