"Wine" and Dine

Chief Justice Chaudhry's retirement day is marked by a tumultuous end to his rocky career, as only one private TV channel has been granted the privilege of exclusive coverage, which was responded by a boycott by all other media channels and reveals his close relationship with this specific media house. Likewise, the senior barristers boycott the farewell dinner, claiming his inaction over the clash between lawyers and the Police on the Supreme Court's premises. Several contempt cases against high profile politicians are being criticised by senior lawyers as abuse of power. His ardent call for implementation of Pakistan's laws stands against the more than 1,65 million cases still pending in all courts in the Country after his eight years' tenure.
But widely praised is his fight with the military and intelligence institutions over alleged human rights abuses. Under Chaudhry, the court consistently demanded the authorities to reveal the whereabouts of hundreds of missing people, allegedly held by Police or army.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to Islamabad suggests that the boycott of the NATO supply route will not be tolerated indefinitely, addressing it on the national level as Imran Khan continues his confrontational course. His call for a blockade of the route result in attacks on truck drivers, regardless the purpose of their trip as this is one of the primary commercial routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The provincial government in Peshawar being quiet about the legality of such a blockade, but the governing party (PTI) calling for one, the police is left entirely on their own in a dilemma how to react and protect the citizens.


Mullah Fazlullah, the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has returned from Afghanistan and reached Waziristan a couple of days ago, taking up his command. The government, officially still holding on to its strategy of "talks", assembles all involved actors from the state to set the path including alternatives in case the talks would fail.


A surprising phase of relative peace in these last weeks of the year and unusually sunny and bright winter days allow the spirits to raise and fully indulge into the starting wedding and party, dinner and concert season!
That is meant literally, as an evening might easily include all of them, one after the other, sometimes meeting the same friends again in the course of a night at different homes.

Alliance Française invites for a concert of four clarinetists and their performance of mostly contemporary composers is lifted to another level by the powerful finale of the national anthems of France and Pakistan, transmitted by recorded tape and flooding the audience thanks to obviously very capable loudspeakers!
The thanks at the end of the concert go to a carpenter, who managed to construct four prototypes of "pupitres" within a few hours as such equipment could not be found locally, the musicians here usually taking seat on the floor and rescuing the "Quatuor Anches Hantées" of having to improvise a new style on stage.

Qawwali musicians in an intimate private salon mesmerize the audience, that sits on plush purple velvet cushions and carpets, dressed in elaborate silk and cashmere shalwar kameez, the atmosphere dense with emotions and the vibrating voices of the young male singers surrounding the charismatic lead singer. Trying to fold and cross and hide my bare legs under a skirt that is much too short for that purpose, a charming friend offers me her shawl, that floats as a cloud of heavenly soft shatoosh wool over my knees, hold on place only by the weight of pure gold stitching - inherited by her mother's mother and for sure the finest cloth that ever touched my skin.

Pakistani hospitality is simply unmatched - food for the soul is paired with food for the stomach, generous and sensual and so another buffet laden with delicacies for a gentle break during the concert, at midnight!

Clothes sometimes send messages entirely on their own, regardless of the the persons wearing them - only a few blocks apart, the ones offering culinary highlights from another culture, as the others let Santa Claus sing on high tones...

Advent arrangements go through an amazing transformation to appeal to the local taste:

Yet another year of many fundraising and charity events concludes with the Christmas Ball - now this one just for pleasure and fun. The cutting edge DJ from Lahore, as usual, completely ignoring every advice regarding our choice of music, lets us dance to the beat of rock and techno and I start to understand the deeper meaning behind the lovely bouquet of white gladioli that he so kindly offered me before the party started...

                                                                 Merry Christmas!

All Safe!

New appointments promise new beginnings and some space for hope: General Kayani hands over the baton of command as army chief of the seventh largest army in the world - the 'Malacca Cane' - to General Raheel Sharif. Kayani led the successful operations in Swat and the tribal areas against extremists, but got public criticism after the Osama Bin Laden raid by US Special Forces. "Negligence" shown by the armed forces explained how OBL could live for nine years right under their nose in Abbottabad and the raid happening without their knowledge or interference. Sharif, an experienced commander himself, is coming from a highly awarded military family and his appointment is met with great respect.

Chief Justice Chaudhry will be released in a few days from his tenure after having exhausted every nook and corner of his office (some would say even beyond that) during his four year term and replaced with Justice Jillani, who is expected to be less of an interventionist as his predecessor, as he denied recently judicial interference in the constitutional domain of the Executive.
Prime Minister Sharif asks for "speedy" trials of terrorists, their cases to be decided in 14 days and judges should be allowed to wear masks and hold trials through video links.

For the first time a US drone hits outside the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area) a madrassa in a settled area inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces, killing six people including a senior leader of the Haqqani network and prompting a furious response by the Interior Minister. PTI chairman Imran Khan stages another protest demonstration in Peshawar, once more announcing his intention to block NATO supplies "forever", challenging the Federal Government's authority in this issue. His popularity not only among the educated young Pakistanis is visibly vanishing, as his record of governing is mostly limited to the drone topic . "Taliban Khan" is circulating as a little flattering name for his appeasement approach regarding the Taliban.

Fatima Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto's niece, is on her way to Europe and USA to promote her second book, a novel "The Shadow of the Crescent Moon" - a chance to meet her again for a lunch at the Dean's residence together with a few Ambassadors. Carrying the Bhutto charisma with such style and poise she immediately charms all the guests. A lively political round table and as the Dean assigns the seats to the guests he invites two of the Ambassadors - one of them my enchanted husband - to "surrender" at both sides of beautiful Fatima - no need, surrender already complete... ("surround her", he immediately corrects, after a big round of laughs).

Agas' (our girls' club!) daily life is marked by contrasts hard to imagine. One day we are all confined to the Enclave, gates sealed, and all we can do is connect by e-mail (phone services being suspended) and meet for a walk to celebrate the actual space of freedom we still enjoy! Hélas, in sneakers and jeans, we adventurously circle around the embassy compounds and greet our sisters in fate warmly -

and then gain back some little freedom in the following days, heading immediately for a really exciting shopping tour with our dear friend and last companion from the "Wild Gang", a long list of "to buy" at hand, since leaving a post - we all know- means stocking up all those precious worldly goods that we will never be able to acquire anywhere else (never mind if we would ever be able to actually USE them…).
The first stop is not going to be a real threat to our purses, despite the declared availability and welcome of the shop owner, as we are unable to locate the iron hammer that surely must replace the simple door knob to gain access.

The second is already much more of a temptation, but still we leave without much success, as none of us is able to take such difficult decisions as whether the feathers and ruffles should be in matching or contrasting colors - of course all in easy to care polyester and nylon.

The Swiss rules and regulations regarding all sort of safety measures have a long arm and reach even the furthest corners of the world - we are on Swiss territory after all and must enjoy protection, relentless and at all costs. Happy to be saved from another life threatening danger - one we were not even aware of - after a team from Switzerland spent two weeks installing fire alarms in every room with impressive rescue buttons and triple and quadruple fire safety doors - added to the already existing safety doors and barriers - I might consider claustrophobia an interesting new feeling to explore.

Next post - all about the parties, the fun, the teas, fundraising, charity season has began…