ABOUT 300,000 devotees and drum enthusiasts from all over the country and abroad are expected in Lahore for the 366th annual Urs (anniversary celebrations) of prominent Sufi saint Baba Shah Jamal which started on Tuesday.
As always the pick of the event would be the legendary drummer Pappu Sain who has now won an international acclaim. His exhilarating drum performance and his whirling along with the beat of the drum is bound to spellbound whoever is in the range. Baba Shah Jamal is known to have used drums and dancing to preach his beliefs and following the tradition, Sain performs at the shrine every Thursday evening. Sain has performed in Germany, Switzerland, Britain and a number of Muslim countries, but is at his best only when he plays at the shrine. This year too, Sain began the grand event with a spectacular performance as several devotees whirled to his dhol or drum. Shah Jamal was born in 1559 to a renowned religious scholar Maulana Abdul Wahid from Qazi Jamaluddin Budshahi’s noble Kashmiri family. Shah Jamal belonged to the Qadri Soharwardi school and came to Lahore in 1588, during the time of Mogul emperor Jalaluddin Akbar, and began to live in eastern Ichhra. Shah Jamal contested the emperor’s ‘Deen-e-Elahi’ and converted people back to Islam. He died in 1649. World Press Freedom Day was observed in Lahore on Wednesday. Despite taking significant strides in broadening the base of media and including a range of voices on news and views, the government still remains sceptical about the media. The constraints on Press were highlighted during the demonstrations of journalists on May 3 and a startling report released by the respected international media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers. The RSF painted a gloomy picture of Press freedom in Pakistan in 2005, saying the work of journalists “remains as dangerous as ever”. “President Pervez Musharraf alternately directed his ire at the media challenging his alliance with the US and the investigative Press that exposes corruption and abuse of power,” the 2006 annual report released in Paris on Tuesday said. “The work of journalists in tribal zones and Kashmir remains as dangerous as ever,” the report said, adding that parliament adopted contradictory amendments to the law on electronic media last May. “They liberalised the sector, but gave the authorities the right to seize equipment, withdraw licences, initiate investigations and make arrests without warrants. Any infringement of the law could mean up to three years in prison,” the report said. The police applied the law in November 2005 and closed Mast FM 103 radio for relaying a special programme on the earthquake from BBC’s Urdu service, it said. “Although badly shaken by terrorism, Pakistan has a dynamic and pluralist Press. English-language publications are freer of control than the popular Urdu newspapers. But investigative journalists are constantly targeted by military security services, which have no hesitation in harassing anyone they find troublesome,” the report adds.
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