Adil Najam

The greatly trumpeted, fairly controversial, and mostly disappointing movie Jinnah was released in 1998 to even lesser acclaim than it deserved.

Despite all its flaws–especially its overly convoluted and philosophical plot which contributed much to its failure to excite ordinary non-Pakistani film-goers–it was thought-provoking rendition for Pakistanis: for those who liked the movie, and even more for those who did not.

It is sad that it ended up being seen by very few Pakistanis. The movie’s distribution was extremely sloppy, mostly due to the bickering between the principals of ‘The Quaid Project’. It played in Pakistan (in Urdu and in English) but very briefly and in very few theaters, and was never picked up for serious distribution abroad. Many who wanted to see the movie could not, simply because there was no place to see it at.

That has–belatedly–changed. Someone (it says Jamil Dehlavi) has recently placed the entire movie on video.google where it can be viewed if you have a reasonably fast Internet connection.

You can view it here by clicking on the image below, or go to video.google. The movie is just under 2 hours long, and in two parts.

Adil Najam

This wonderful picture was published in the Daily Times (16 June, 2006) with the headline ‘Need for Speed’ and a caption that read “An employee of a filling station fills petrol in a bicycle that the owner has made a moped out of by putting an engine in it.”

To me, this is a wonderful example of Pakistani ingenuity and how necessity is the mother of innovation.

I remember distinctly the first ‘gas’ (LNG) kit that my father self-installed in our old Fiat way back in the late 1970s. Well before either environmentalists or economists were talking about LPG/LNG as an alternative fuel. I think the owner of this bicycle is operating on a similar motivation and innovative logic.

But what I do wonder is whether this is a souped-up bicycle (i.e., motivated by a ‘Need for Speed’) or a stripped-down motorcycle (i.e., motivated by a ‘Need for Economy’)?

Adil Najam

I have no idea what to make of this one, so let me just quote from a news-item titled “Habib Bank revises dress code notification at one branch” in The Daily Times (20 June, 2006). According to the report, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) sent a notification to all its Branches declaring a Western dress code (suit and necktie) and trimmed beards ‘mandatory’ for all bank employees, but then rescinded in the case of only one branch (as of yet).

Sources said the notification declaring formal dress ‘mandatory’ had [now] been reworded as ‘optional’ for the bank’s Lawrence Road branch.

HBL Senior Vice Presidents Zafar Aziz Usmani and Jamila A Khan on June 13 notified (by circular number STF 24/2006) bank employees to strictly follow a Western dress code and trim their beards. “The bank’s performance is poor because clients are put off by the unkempt look given by wearing shalwar kameez and having long beards,” they said.

The story then goes on to report the case of Khalid, a Grade-II officer at the branch, who had resigned to protest the bank’s decision to enforce the dress code but later took back his resignation letter “after senior bank officials assured him the dress code was optional.”

He called the HBL’s order against the spirit of Islam. “I have been working at the bank for the past 30 years and submitted my resignation to protest against the Western dress code being made mandatory,” he said. His religious beliefs stopped him from following the dress code, and he couldn’t sacrifice his beliefs for man-made laws, he added.

In what was quite clearly a ‘damage control’ measure, the dress code mandate was made ‘optional’ for this branch. It is not clear whether this will be followed in other branches, but…

Khalid Pervaiz Malik, the branch manager of HBL Regional Head Office, said the first notification was correct because staff members wearing suits and neckties looked more professional than those wearing shalwar kameez. “Authorities should take strict action in this regard because HBL wants to meet international banking standards, and clients notice such things,” he said.

So, dear readers, do help me make sense of this one. Is the implication that one cannot be presentable in a beard and wearing shalwar kameez? I hope not.

I can understand a bank wanting its employees to be presentable and look trustworthy. I have seen Pakistanis go to work with unkempt shalwar kameez. But I have seen even more looking not just unpresentable but silly and uncomfortable in misfitting, unkempt trousers, shirts and ties. If you want your employees to be presentable; ask them to be presentable. But, to think that one can look presentable only in western clothes is plain wrong and shows a sense of kalla saab cultural insecurity.

As for facial-hair-discrimination… do we even want to go there?

Dr. Abdus Salam? Abdul Sattar Edhi? Sir Syed Ahmed Khan? Presentable? You bet. Trustworthy? More than any banker I ever met.

P.S. If you are wondering, the picture on the right Sir Syed Ahmed Khan; on the left it is Dr. Abdus Salam receiving his Nobel Award; yes, wearing both a shalwar and a beard!