Saturday, March 9, 2013

“Nationalization” of the Pak Tea House

Back in 2011, on January 2, The Express Tribune carried an article, Pak Tea House, by Ayesha Siddiqa. In that, a reference was made to another article, Tea,anyone? by Ahmad Rafay Alam, published earlier on May 8, 2010, in the same newspaper. I read both.

As I am an ardent lover of the Pak Tea House, as it has played an important role in my intellectual training and so many other souls, and also as I knew quite a bit of what was happening to the Pak Tea House then and to the owner of this property through friends who were part of the management of the Halqa-e-Arbaab-e-Zauq and attempts to save the Pak Tea House from disappearing, in response to both of these of articles, I wrote Reliving Pak Tea House.

Actually, I wanted to contribute to this debate, but was uncertain whether The Express Tribune would carry this or not since I am a ‘non-entity.’ While emailing this to the Express Tribune, I sent its copies to Ayesha Siddiqa and Ahmad Rafay Alam. As I personally knew Ahmad Rafay Alam and had already met him twice or thrice, he did reply to my email and regarding this we talked on phone also. I requested him to recommend my article for the Express Tribune to consider for publication. He did, but Reliving Pak Tea House did not impress the editors of the Express Tribune.

[This gave rise to an interesting story, which I would like to relate at another opportune time.]

Then, the same was emailed to almost all the newspapers. Some of them carried it:

Re-living Pak Tea House
Viwepoint online http://viewpointonline.net   
February 12, 2011 - February 18, 2011
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Re-living Pak Tea House
The Frontier Post
March 6, 2011
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Re-living Pak Tea House
Pakistan Today (in Letters to the Editor)
March 6, 2011
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Here is what I wrote:

Reliving Pak Tea House

Sharing the lament on the death of Pak Tea House in Lahore, this responds to Ayesha Siddiqa’s Pak Tea House (The Express Tribune of January 2, 2011) and Ahmad Rafay Alam’s Tea, anyone? (The Express Tribune May 8, 2010).

They heap together those circumstances which they think hastened Tea House’s demise. Ms. Siddiqa writes: ‘According to him (Ahmad Rafay Alam), the death of the place was inevitable due to problematic urban development. I would just like to add that the famous chai khana could not escape extinction because it had become intellectually stale and unviable before it tuned financially burdensome.’

It’s debatable that the circumstances singled out by both writers added to the Tea House’s downfall. Do such places which acquire symbolic significance die “soulless,” as Ms. Siddiqa argues? This loses weight as both writers agree that those who used to flock to and populate Tea House after its closure dispersed and found new places, though not matching to Tea House’s symbolic status. Ms. Siddiqa laments more than Tea House the corruption of intellectuals and men of letters by Gen Zia’s dictatorship. To me, that seems to have nothing to do with Tea House’s closure.

As a matter of fact, when the business of Tea House’s proprietor suffered or he thought of bettering his lot, he took to doing something else instead of entertaining the literati. The known literary figures visiting Tea House at the time intervened and the decision was sort of put on hold. Again as the enterprise was not sustainable, a cut-off date was announced.

This spurred a flurry of hectic efforts on the part of certain Tea House ‘fans’ to save it from the hands of its business-minded proprietor. Significant is the fact that litigation was also resorted to involving the proprietor. Whatever the details of the Save the Tea House Campaign are, finally the Tea House, a private business, and at the same time a historic place of literary significance closed down.

Ms. Siddiqa probes: ‘One wonders if the provincial government could think of buying it from the owner and dedicating it to the intellectuals of the country.’ This is where the present writer differs most. As some bureaucrat-writers were also on board the Save the Tea House Campaign and they used their clout, but whether such an attempt was made or not is not known to the present writer. However, what came out of this Campaign is a place called ‘Chaupal’ erected in Nasir Bagh to accommodate the displaced writers. No doubt, all this was done at tax-payers’ expense. Also, there is a hall in Al-Hamra meant for them.

For sure, such and other such ideas seeking government to act were floated and tested during the Save the Tea House Campaign. Also, for sure, no such thing as private initiative was witnessed then. Instead, the fans of the Tea House trampling its proprietor’s right to use his property as he wished tried to force him morally, socially, and legally not to put his property to any other use but of their choice. They wanted the government to stop the Tea House’s proprietor from putting it to no other use, as Ms. Siddiqa too wonders.

Couldn’t the intellectuals and literati pool and offer the Tea House owner a price lucrative enough to refuse? They could purchase it, run it as a trust or partnership, and turn it into a tourist attraction by reinventing it as home to intellectual and literary icons of the sub-continent!  There should have been more than hundred ideas which could save the Tea House and run it as a financially viable business, if the intellectuals and men of letters had cherished and inculcated an independent mind in their heads and a spark of private initiative in their endeavors! Ah, the same had already been corrupted by their dependence on government (and tax-payers’ easy money), as Ms. Siddiqa explains.

The demise of the Pak Tea House is symptomatic of the crisis of intellectual independence and private initiative in Pakistan. The premises is still there, existing with its symbolic glory, waiting for someone with entrepreneurial spirit to make use of its huge potential, who would turn it once again into Pak Tea House? Let’s see who reinvents and relive the Pak Tea House!

[This article was completed on January 2, 2011.]
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Then last August, I received a call from the Herald; they wanted my opinion on the revival of the Pak Tea House by the provincial government. I replied in earnest to all the questions the Herald put to me. The gist of that was made part of the feature, “Not everyone’s cup of tea,” by Abid Hussain, in its issue of September 2012.

Here is what the Herald used:

“Others believed that reviving heritage might be a worthwhile objective but that the government has no business running cafes. “It is not for the government to spend the taxpayer’s money on such projects,” observes Dr. Khalil Ahmed, who heads Alternate Solutions Institute, a policy think tank.

[Herald, September 2012]  

Here are the questions from the Herald and their replies:

Revival of the Pak Tea House

Q: Is it viable for Punjab Govt to undertake such a project in first place with Taxpayers' money? 

A: No, not at all! It is not for the government to spend taxpayers’ money on such projects; it is just that some of the influential literary figures who have got a say in the government and bureaucratic circles that they get away with such things.

Years back when the PTH was closed down by its owner, under the pressure of bureaucrat-writers, the Punjab government set-up a niche, “Chaupaal,” in the Nasir Bagh. But it did not sustain. There were other ideas seeking government to act throughout the Save the Tea House Campaign. Now once again some such scheme has been implemented to revive the PTH with the citizens’ tax money.

It seems like lawyers, doctors, and a number of other well-knit communities, litterateurs and intellectuals are also demanding their share from the “Loot.”

Otherwise, there is no justification that such ventures be financed in this manner.

Also, conspicuously absent is any private initiative in this regard.

Q: Does this not go against the tradition of PTH which has been a bastion of free speech and freedom of thought, for it to run under govt patronage? 

A: Yeah, it is against that tradition of free speech and freedom of thought! As Intezar Husain has narrated in his autobiographical ventures, even under the worst phases of dictatorships, the PTH remained an island cherishing independence and freedom of thought. The way the PTH revival is going to be “financed” by the government may affect its flagship status, and under the circumstances it is evident that unless government is prepared to finance it on permanent basis, this revival is destined to fail.

Q: Do you think that in the current day and age, with evolving scenario in Lahore in general and Mall Road in particular, PTH will be able to revive its lost glory? 

A: As stated above, I think there are more chances the PTH will fail than regain its lost glory. As it has already been demonstrated, two such initiatives, Chaupaal (Nasir Bagh) and Adabi Baithak (in Al-Hamra, The Mall, Lahore), proved unsuccessful. But this can’t completely be ruled out that the magic and nostalgia of the place may help the PTH populate once again!

Q: Any additional comments, opinions you may have on this venture and Pak Tea House itself.
Additional comments: I would like to share the following from one of my pieces on the revival of the PTH:

“Couldn’t the intellectuals and literati pool and offer the Tea House owner a price lucrative enough to refuse? They could purchase it, run it as a trust or partnership, and turn it into a tourist attraction by reinventing it as home to intellectual and literary icons of the sub-continent! There should have been more than hundred ideas which could save the Tea House and run it as a financially viable business, if the intellectuals and men of letters had cherished and inculcated an independent mind in their heads and a spark of private initiative in their endeavors! Ah, the same had already been corrupted by their dependence on government.

“The demise of the Pak Tea House is symptomatic of the crisis of intellectual independence and private initiative in Pakistan. The premises is still there, existing with its symbolic glory, waiting for someone with entrepreneurial spirit to make use of its huge potential, who would turn it once again into Pak Tea House? Let’s see who reinvents and relives the Pak Tea House!”

All through these years, no such private initiative emerged; and as has mostly been the case in Pakistan, the initiative was left to be taken by the government. Isn’t this a sign of Pakistani intelligentsia’s dependence on doles by the government! The fact is that they have always been dependent on the government, be it in the form of Writers Guild or be it Academy of Letters, or be it the latest Revived Pak Tea House. These intellectuals must be asked how they are going to assert their intellectual independence, then?

Also, the lost initiative in the form of a PTH revived by the government funds is tantamount to weakening the already frail Civil Society of Pakistan!
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Now the Pakistan Muslim League (N) ruling party in the Punjab has renovated the Pak Tea House, and it has been inaugurated by Nawaz Sharif himself.

Here is the link to the coverage by The News:


Here is the link to the coverage by The Express Tribune:



Coverage by Roznama Express:



The News attempted a short history of the Pak Tea House also on this occasion. Link to A brief history:


Also, once again has appeared another article, The end of Pak Tea House in The Express Tribune (March 7) by Ayesha Siddiqa. She writes:

“I wonder if we realise that the end of the Pak Tea House is not about closing down of a shop. It is symbolic of closing down of a window to a rich legacy of art and literature.”
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The debate continues: how the state subjugates the civil society; how it corrupts its intellect; how it tempts and how it bribes this intellect.

No doubt, the Writers Guild and the Academy of Letters have contributed in corrupting the men of letters and intellectuals in Pakistan!

Would the Nationalized Pak Tea House add to this corruption or not let’s wait to see!

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