GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN // A small-framed, bearded man in his thirties named Zubair walked into a computer repair shop in the Civil Lines suburb of Gujranwala, his eyes widening quizzically as he registered the playful taunts of his elder brother.
"He's got better things to do nowadays. Since he got married, it's been hard to prise him away from his wife. The business is in trouble," said Badr, directing his banter at the newlywed.
Zubair smiled shyly and joined the small group of people huddled in conversation between stacks of ageing PCs.
Assured by the right social introductions and the promise that his full identity would not be revealed, he introduced himself as the sole survivor of a squad of eight militants who had in October 1993 been besieged by Indian forces at the Muslim shrine of Hazratbal in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Over cups of overly sweet milky tea, Zubair described how he had sneaked past a cordon of Indian troops and made it across the Line of Control, the heavily fortified de facto Kashmir border, back into Pakistani-administered territory.
"I was so close I could see the expressions on their faces. It's a miracle that they didn't see me. It was as if I was invisible to them," he said.
However, his return was viewed with suspicion by the Pakistani military's intelligence agencies, which from 1988 to 2002 deployed militants such as Zubair as strategic pawns in a barely covert guerrilla war against their conventionally more powerful neighbour.
"They couldn't believe he had survived unless he had been captured and turned by the Indians," said Salman, a school friend. "They detained and interrogated him for weeks before being convinced his return was a twist of fate."
Interjecting, Badr said the brothers, both activists of the Jama'at-i-Islami, a mainstream religious political party, had continued to participate in the violence, operating guerrilla training camps and getting them into Indian Kashmir until 2002, when the Pakistani military pulled the plug.
They were unhappy about the policy U-turn, conducted under immense pressure from the United States, after an abortive attack on the Indian parliament by the Jaish-i-Mohammed militant group in December 2001 brought the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals to the brink of all-out war.
"When the war reached the crucial point, the army showed it lacked the stomach for a final showdown," grumbled Zubair.
"Frankly, it was a dishonourable display of behaviour, and we have lost all respect for them."
Since then, like the thousands of other militants recruited from eastern districts of Punjab that border Indian Kashmir, Zubair has given up the gun and rejoined mainstream Pakistani society.
And while embittered by the army's change of tack and he was clearly enjoying the resumption of civilian life - especially one in which the romance of the early stages of an arranged marriage was taking priority over his mundane job of assembling computers from used parts and cheap Chinese casings.
Across town, in the sizeable garden of his home in Rahwali Cantonment, an army-administered upmarket suburb, another veteran militant was preparing to make the jump, as Winston Churchill once said, from "war-war" to "jaw-jaw".
Posters on the street-facing wall of the house announced the candidature of Shoaib, formerly a ranking recruiter for the Lashkar-i-Taiba (LiT) militant group, in forthcoming municipal elections. An index of his ambition was that the dates for the elections are still to be announced.
He downplayed the posters with false humility and related how he now had the time for a new career in politics because the intelligence agencies had shut down the training camp in the nearby village of Gondalanwala that he had supervised.
A subsequent visit to the village revealed a functioning office of the Jama'at-ud-Dawah, the charitable front of LiT, banned by the United Nations Security Council after its leaders were implicated as the alleged masterminds of the November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.
The activists who manned the office had been deprived of their weapons and intelligence agency-supplied four-wheel drive vehicles, and were sullen and suspicious at the appearance of the strangers taking an interest in the walls they had daubed with jihadist rhetoric.
Shoaib, who claimed to know more about the Mumbai attacks than he was prepared to talk about, said the "operation went beyond the interests of the army", which had responded angrily after bearing the brunt of the diplomatic storm that ensued.
"The agencies were furious and ruthless, and did not spare anybody. Suddenly, we had become the enemy. Hundreds were arrested," he said.
Forcibly retired from militancy, his thoughts turned to the thousands of volunteers drawn from Gujranwala and across Punjab province, most of them children of impoverished families inducted, indoctrinated and prepared for militant training at schools run by the Jama'at.
"You have trained more than five lakh [500,000] boys for jihad in Kashmir," he said, exaggerating.
"It's not a good idea to suddenly leave them with nothing to do, because they include a lot of strange characters, like former criminals, who would be susceptible to other, more dangerous ideas."
Like politics, perhaps.
thussain@thenational.ae
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies direct from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro from Dh7,000 return including taxes. Avianca fliles from Rio to Cusco via Lima from $399 (Dhxx) return including taxes.
The trip
From US$1,830 per deluxe cabin, twin share, for the one-night Spirit of the Water itinerary and US$4,630 per deluxe cabin for the Peruvian Highlands itinerary, inclusive of meals, and beverages. Surcharges apply for some excursions.
if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
When is VAR used?
• Goals
• Penalty decisions
• Direct red-card incidents
• Mistaken identity
STAY%2C%20DAUGHTER
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
SHOW COURTS ORDER OF PLAY
Wimbledon order of play on Tuesday, July 11
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Centre Court
Adrian Mannarino v Novak Djokovic (2)
Venus Williams (10) v Jelena Ostapenko (13)
Johanna Konta (6) v Simona Halep (2)
Court 1
Garbine Muguruza (14) v
Svetlana Kuznetsova (7)
Magdalena Rybarikova v Coco Vandeweghe (24)
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5