08-07-2009, 03:21 PM
<b>Intolerance and anarchy</b>
Gojra has been the scene of widespread communal riots. Over a hundred dwellings of Christians have been burned down and at least seven members of their community killed. The riots started when someone alleged that the latter's young men had desecrated the Holy Quran. Armed members of a sectarian organisation are reported to have arrived from Jhang and led the attack. It is a measure of their brutality and bestiality that most victims were burned alive.
<b>Nor are Christians the only minority to suffer excesses against it. For many years the Kalash in the scenic Bhambrore valley in Chitral have lived in dread, as they have been pressurised to convert to Islam. Similarly, Hindus in Sindh are terrorised because the kidnapping of their co-religionists has become more frequent. A few weeks ago in Orakzai agency dozens of Sikh families fled the Taliban. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Those that remained were held hostage by the latter while two of their young men were told to arrange jazya for them that had been levied on them by the Taliban. The list is endless.</span></b>
This latest gory incident will again drag the fair name of our country in mud. Internationally, we will again be labelled as the home of extremism and terrorism. Investors will avoid us like the plague. The world's sporting teams will shy away from our shores. Already most top airlines have excluded our airports from their schedules; we have to fly to one of the Emirates to take a plane to the west. Foreign organisations will move us a slot further down the list of failing states. But the persons who have perpetrated these gruesome acts will be least bothered. One wonders if they do this intentionally to isolate us from the world community.
Conspiracy theories abound. Is all this simply the zeal of some mindless religious bigots? Are we victims of foreign conspiracies to destabilise us, so as to justify intervention for taking out our nuclear assets? Is this being done to discredit a democratic government according to a plan? Or is this a combination of all the above?
Anarchy is all-pervasive, not only on the national but also on the personal level. Obedience of the law is considered a weakness. During Musharraf's early days a DIG was transferred, an SP sidelined and an inspector dismissed for the latter's crime of asking a general to remove the illegal tinted glasses on his vehicle. Since then the police have stopped enforcing the ban; why should they risk dismissal for enforcing a law? But think of the help this is giving to outlaws, enabling them to carry out their nefarious designs without let or hindrance. In fact three decades of martial 'law' has drained the country of all legality.
Our rulers have themselves led the assault on legality and due process. Many years ago they handed over Aimal Kasi to the American officials in a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan immediately after arresting him. The man had been charged with shooting a number of CIA operatives at the entrance to the organisation's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The Americans of course executed him. In all fairness, he should have been tried in a court in Pakistan; after all, what are our courts meant for? And even if, for argument's sake, they wanted to hand him over to the Americans to do as they liked, they should at least have produced him before a court and sent him with the court's permission, and only if our laws allowed them. But no, sir! How could they then prove that they were 'more loyal than the king'? Whoever authorised his handing over did grievous harm to the nation. Taking the cue from them, Musharraf merrily indulged in his flesh trade, handing over, as per his statement in his own book, hundreds of Pakistanis and others, and earning millions of dollars in bounties. God in his Heavens! Never before has a nation actually sold human flesh so cheap. To conclude, let us hope that with the annulment of the dictator's actions of November 3, 2007, and return of the rule of law, such illegalities will become part of history.
The writer is a former principal of the King Edward Medical College and president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan - E-mail: drijaz@nation.com.pk
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