Age of madness

[RabzonKhan]

When will we wake up?

By Ardeshir Cowasjee
Sunday, 05 Apr, 2009

THE local press is sometimes rather tardy when it comes to latching on to events on the home front. The video of the flogging of a young girl allegedly by the Taliban in the usurped vale of Swat began its circulation around the internet early last week.

On April 2, a report headed ‘Video of girl’s flogging as Taliban hand out justice’ was printed in The Guardian, and a similar report in The Times under the heading ‘Video: radicals beat girl, 17, in Islamic stronghold of Swat, Pakistan’. Britain awakens early. The New York Times followed suit two days later, on April 4, in tune with our press, and printed a report on the flogging, ‘Video of Taliban flogging rattles Pakistan’.

The news in Pakistan was headlined the same day after the subject video had been aired on most of our news channels on Friday, April 3. On one channel, a ‘spokesman’ for the Taliban defended the punishment with the caveat that it should not have been publicised. And one anchor person apparently quoted chapter and verse of the Quran and applauded the flogging.

The government of the NWFP which, with the blessings of the federal government, concluded the ‘peace’ deal in Swat with Sufi Mohammad and the Taliban on Feb 15, via its information minister called the airing of the video an attempt to ‘sabotage’ the peace deal. President, prime minister and assorted federal ministers had no option but to make the usual condemnatory noises and issue the usual inquiry orders.

Pakistan’s chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, has sprung into action, as expected of a man of his stature who has his head and heart in the right place, and taken suo motu action summoning to his court members of the administration of the NWFP. Not that it can serve much purpose as both provincial and federal governments have abdicated their writ in the vale of Swat and handed it over to the Taliban to do with it and its inhabitants what they will.

Such is the schizophrenia that assails us, which is evident in all walks of life and in all different class distinctions. Education in our case is no panacea for a mass state of denial when it comes to events happening under our combined eyes. It is amazing how the benefits of higher education swiftly rub off our elite classes when it comes to matters of tradition which glorify the violation of human rights.

When Mohammad Ali Jinnah made his famous and much ignored statement on Aug 11, 1947 addressing the members of what was to be the constituent assembly of Pakistan it was not meant in any way to be ambiguous. He was quite clear when he stated that the first duty of any government is to impose and maintain law and order so that the lives, properties and religious beliefs of the country’s citizens could be protected. He did not imply by this that outmoded and barbaric practices which are falsely linked to religion should be condoned.

Enough righteous condemnation has been heaped both by Pakistanis at home and by our international providers, mentors and observers upon the handing over of large chunks of territory to that international arch-enemy, the Taliban. We are all well aware of how they operate having observed them at work in Afghanistan during the 1990s and the first two years of this century, so who should be surprised at the vengeance they are wreaking upon the population of the usurped territories up north? And more to the point, who should be surprised that they are steadily advancing into the heartland of the country and proudly claiming to be the perpetrators of attacks upon cricket teams and the police?

Asif Ali Zardari, president of the Republic, at one stage insisted that the truce, or ‘peace deal,’ or whatever the handing over can be termed, was undertaken purely with the ‘moderates’ amongst the Taliban. Are they divided into moderates and non-moderates or are they purely and simply the same Taliban with the same beliefs and practices?

He needs to take a long hard look at some of the men he has appointed as ministers in both the federal and Sindh governments when it comes to beliefs as to how the women of this nation should be treated.

In a February Asian Human Rights Commission report it was alleged that one Abid Hussain Jatoi, a Sindh provincial minister, had ‘commanded’ a death sentence against a young couple in rural Sindh who had married against the wishes of their families. The young girl was labelled a kari and she and her six-month old child were to be killed if she was not returned to her tribe, that of Jatoi. Reportedly, an FIR has been lodged against him — that is the sole action to have been taken. The names of Nadir Khan Magsi and Abdul Haque Bhurt were also cited in connection with the holding of jirgas against women, an activity which has officially been declared illegal, but which is in full flow in the president’s province.

Then, at the centre, we have a sitting senator, Mir Israrullah Zehri in the ridiculous post of minister for post offices. The man is on record in the Senate as having upheld the burial alive of at least two women in Balochistan in the name of ‘honour’. He maintains that the murder of women suspected of “immoral acts” (a neat way of putting it when men wish to rid themselves of women) are “centuries-old traditions” and are time-honoured “tribal customs” which cannot be disturbed. Even the Taliban have not got round to live burials — yet.

Another appointee to the distinguished cabinet headed by staunch feudals Zardari and Yousuf Raza Gilani is Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, who has been handed over the portfolio of education. His distinction and his qualification to serve the nation lies in the fact that he was once (how many other times is not known) a member of an illegal jirga which ordered that five minor girls be handed over to the family of a murdered man as compensation.

Our CJP, Justice Chaudhry, prior to being deposed had ordered the arrest of the Bijarani jirga members and froze the illegal decision. Perhaps he will now take up this case once more. Are these men also considered ‘moderates’ by our accidental president who rode in on the coat-tails of a ghost and claims kinship with the founder of the party he has made his own?

 

[fatman17]

Thanks Rabson for posting this op-ed!
I dont know when "our eyes will open up" to what is happening to our country - I am sorry if I keep on repeating my self, but when a forum member reads such op-eds, I am sure there are questions raised in their minds or hearts.

are we OK with whats going on around us?
is this just a passing cloud, the US will leave this area, and we will be back to "normal"?
this is not of our making, so why should we worry?

please comment, say something, for Gods sake dont ignore it!

the lives and future of our children depends on what kind of Pakistan we leave them. the Pakistan as envisioned by The Quaid-e-Azam - Our Founding Father!.

Wake Up! People! Make a Stand against this Bigotry and Extremism! This is not the Islam which was taught to us by our elders!

 

[RabzonKhan]

Age of madness



ZAHOOR'S CARTOON.

 

[muse]

Super thread - thank you for excellent pieces, especially the above cartoon.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Not the better half

Saturday, April 11, 2009
Nazish Brohi

Chand Bibi's flogging was part of an emerging pattern of targeting the disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society: the women, the representatives of art and culture and the minorities.

The Taliban's ideological precursors were the MMA government in the NWFP, which is therefore directly responsible for the current crisis. The Swat case is not just an aberration.

In 2003, the MMA government banned male doctors and technicians from attending to female patients, and banned women from working in public call offices. They also opposed new laws that increased women's political participation, stating Parliament was not the place for women. When Zubaida Begum, an employee of Aurat Foundation, was killed for wanting to contest elections, the MMA government said it was a "personal" matter, and the matter was dropped. Later, the same attitude was displayed by the government when parliamentarian Zille Huma was killed by a man who said he did so because he opposed women in politics.

The Hisba Bill was proposed to create a "morality police force" and check "indecent" behaviour, and "vice squads" began campaign against women's public visibility. Women models' faces were blackened with paint on hoardings, even female mannequins were banned. Mera Ghar, the only shelter for abused women in the NWFP, was closed by the MMA government for promoting "obscenity." (In Karachi, the Visual Arts Department of Karachi University was attacked and vandalised, also for "promoting obscenity.")

In 2003, while attention was paid to removing public representations of women, what was overlooked was the first sign of alarm in Swat: the assassination of Abdul Wahab, an Afghan writer who had written two books against Al Qaeda and its leadership. In 2004, the first women's organisation was targeted by militants, when teacher employees of Khwendo Kor were attacked and shot at in Bannu, and a fatwa passed that women working in NGOs should be treated as "maal-e-ghanimat" and men should marry these women to bring them on the right path. Meanwhile, when a woman was raped in Mardan, the MMA law minister said that the government had been asked by the family to step aside and allow them personal revenge.

In the same year, as music and singing was banned in public places in the NWFP, the provincial government arranged bonfires of CDs and DVDs and shut down family-planning programmes. While the Jamaat-e-Islami proposed gender- segregated graveyards, the provincial assembly passed a resolution for exemption of women's pictures from ID cards.

In 2005, in Multan a man stoned his wife to death for adultery – the first such incident in Pakistan. Two years later, three people were stoned to death for adultery in the same locality.

When the honour killing bill was debated in Parliament, the religious parties opposed it because the law circumvented the need for a wali (male guardian) for women. They vociferously protested with the same logic given for Chand Bibi's flogging, her being without a "mehram."

From this point onwards, the brutality of attacks against women by militants becomes more pronounced. In 2006, two female teachers of a vocational training school run by the ADB were shot dead in Orakzai Agency. In 2007, a woman, along with two men, was stoned and then shot dead for alleged adultery in Alamguzar village in Khyber Agency. Later the same year, Islamic militants beheaded two women they accused of prostitution.

In March 2008, a couple were stoned to death when the Taliban declared them guilty of adultery. This incident happened near Ghalanai in Mohmand Agency. This couple had actually managed to run away to Nowshera, a "settled" area run by the provincial government, yet they were caught and brought back for the slaughter.

There are news reports that another woman was killed for "prostitution" in Kurza Bandai by the local Taliban this year because she refused to give up her teaching job in Mingora: she was a widow and needed to support her children.

And yet women are not seen as essential stakeholders in the "peace process."

 

[muse]

Women -- who needs em! good for nothing!

But lost in this piece is exactly where is Mardanegi, the ghairat of the so called Pakistani male? Makes one wonder who the disadvantaged are.

 

[Blossom]

deleted...........

 

[Captain03]

Age of madness

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

It quite often seems that, as a nation, we seem determined to climb backwards into the Dark Ages, leaving behind what progress has come our way since then. There are many examples of such madness. In a gruesome rite enacted recently in Dera Murad Jamali, a man was made to walk over burning coals to prove his innocence in a criminal matter. Such incidents have taken place elsewhere too. In Swat, militants hung out the body of a local 'Pir' who had died in a gun-battle against them after digging it out of the grave. In Orakzai Agency the local Taliban have imposed their idea of 'Shariah' and warned men not to allow women to move out of their homes. Other stories that reflect a mindset that is just as medieval continue to come in. Even within our cities, where 'honour' killings are not unknown, such mindsets seem to prevail.

The problem is tied in to the failure to educate people. Fifty per cent or more of the population remains illiterate. The quality of education imparted even to those fortunate enough to attend a school is often so poor that the learning is meaningless. Lack of development pins people to lives that have not changed in centuries. There are issues to that go beyond this. The lack of access to justice results in people taking matters into their own hands. The 'jirga' judgments that come in periodically are one example of this. The state seems to be absent from the lives of most people. Citizens cannot bank on it to meet even the moist basic needs. This appears to be another factor behind the descent into anarchy we see everywhere. The trend must be stopped. Our leaders must realize the dangers of allowing such madness to continue. If it is permitted to grow it could engulf all of us and the aspects of life that still place us among 'civilised' societies.

such trends develop under weak leadership and weak economy
once that's well people will have to snap out of it
or other actions will be taken

 

[muse]

IluvF16


Sarcasm and irony - and I luv back.

 

[Zob]

ok guys i say discover ALLAMA IQBAL infact watch ZAID HAMID on news one.....and that should stir our youth cuz well if u ain't watching him INDIANS sure as hell our go see it on youtube there comments....

anyhow see i will tell u the biggest proble of our society.... the elite class is oblivious of the problems of the poor just like it was before the FRENCH REVOLUTION.... i mean i watch a pakistani news channel won't name it.... it shows me flogging and i switch the channel to another more libreal more elite pakistani news channel and that shows me HOTTI CULTURE....i mean it makes me sad that the rich and educated of our society r going around and condemning such acts but don't do anything about it.... the QUESTION IS WHAT CAN BE DONE??

ANSWER: Educate the masses enlighten the youth JAWANOUN KO PEROUN KAA USTAAD KAAR...

SAABAK PHIR PAAR SADAKAT KA,ADALAT KA SHUJAAT KA....LIYA JAYEGAA TUJHSE KAAM DUNIYA KII IMMAMAT KA....

let me translate (read again the lesson of TRUTH,JUSTICE & HEROISM....CUZ U WILL BE ASKED TO LEAD THE WORLD)

so all i say is we need to excercise our rights wake up for pakistan cuz our elders sacrificed for this country now its our time..let's be sincere to the country and instead OF CONDEMNING it let's do something about it collectively....all pakistanis dream of going abroad and settling there taking other nationalities....just remember when something goes wrong in those countries they call u PAKISTANI BORN BRITISH NATIONAL.....stop looking at the negatives look at the positives...stop getting feed by what media is feeding u stop being a nation of wannabes.....

well....anywaz let's all just be NGOs and complain about the bad stuff about our country...!!!

 

[Blossom]

IluvF16


Sarcasm and irony - and I luv back.

I was preoccupied.Sarcasm..huh? I think you know why I deleted it
and its Love...not Luv..I hate this bizarre way of spelling words.

 

[RabzonKhan]

State and citizen

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The relationship between a state and its citizens is an intricate one. Philosophers have, for centuries, expounded on it and what it means. But while the debate rages on, the one thing we can say for certain in that this relationship will change profoundly should the Taliban ever seize power in Pakistan. How will it change? In more ways than we can possibly imagine. The vision of the Taliban is a totalitarian one, encompassing every facet of public and private life. It would, for instance, decide how we dress, whom we meet, how we conduct ourselves in public and at least attempt even to decide how we think. This in effect means personal liberties we take for granted – like choosing what music we hear and when, or stepping out to buy a CD or a DVD, could vanish overnight. With them would go the right to privacy or a life lived outside the eye of those who rule. The freedom of speech, of artistic expression, of association and of belief would too be snatched away.

The Taliban have shown they have no regard for such fundamentals of civilized life. Girls would vanish from schools and sports fields, women from the public sphere. Against all this, can we even argue that a trade off under which the Taliban would possibly offer better justice and greater social equality is acceptable? The answer of course is 'no'. But it is astonishing how many people continue to delude themselves, insisting the Taliban could offer a better, more equitable society. The fact is that without a respect for the individual, his or her right to choose how to live, what line of thought to follow, a better society is impossible. This is a fact that needs to be emphasized as emphatically as possible. The media, our political leaders and others in positions of influence all need to play a part in this so we can cast away the confusion that is adding to the unrest running through our society.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Shadow of the Taliban

Thursday, 07 May, 2009

WHILE the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and its supporters constitute a direct challenge to the authority and resources commanded by the state, it is equally worrying that the extremist right-wing ideology they represent and the tactics they employ are casting a shadow that looms far beyond their strongholds. Large sections of the citizenry living far from the actual theatre of war are being threatened in this manner. This is dangerous for the former threat, it can be hoped, may be countered through superior weaponry and sufficient political will; but the latter threat, being nebulous and diffuse, is almost impossible to control.

In recent weeks, educational institutions in urban centres such as Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi — which stand in little danger of being physically overrun by the Taliban — have been receiving threats of varying intensity. Security has been tightened, and staff and students work under the fear of attacks by either militant ideologues or shadowy copycat criminals. The fact that at least two educational institutions have enforced stricter dress codes —mainly for female students — shows just how far the fear invoked by the Taliban has spread. In some cases women have been threatened for what the extremists consider ‘liberalism’ or ‘improper behaviour’. Although the women of this country are no strangers to harassment, the gravity of the threats they now potentially face is greater than ever before. Women are usually the first and most vulnerable targets of the extremist right-wing thinking that now holds Pakistan at gunpoint. Yet they are now accompanied in their peril by others such as media personnel, who have been told to ‘mend their ways’, and thousands of citizens — including teachers, barbers and CD shop owners — whose businesses or workplaces have been destroyed or otherwise targeted by the extremists.

Instances of such targeting include the blackmail, harassment and intimidation of citizens at the hands of a dark ideology that has seeped into the very fabric of society, the tactics of which are most horribly apparent in the activities of the Taliban. The fact is that the Taliban have already extracted a heavy toll in terms of civil liberties and freedoms of citizens. While the government and the security forces mull over methods to defeat the Taliban militarily, they would also do well to recall that the basic purpose of the state and its apparatus is to ensure the safety and personal freedoms of the citizens. It may require years to neutralise the Taliban threat in this deeper sense

 

[Solomon2]

No one, it seems, is willing to spite and openly defy the Taliban.

 

[qsaark]

.....and its Love...not Luv..I hate this bizarre way of spelling words.

I totally agree with you, a little old school thing but very correct.