Three more polio workers killed in Pakistan, bringing total to 7
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Aslan
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So you justify your wrongs by pointing at what others do.
WW2, well its debatable the japs never bombed your cities, they couldnt get there. You did, now when u are bombing their cities where are they suppose to go.
Did you forget what your might ethical moral army did in Vietnam.
Sadam, he was your darling, then he turned against you. Well tell me oh all knowing how did the sanctions even come close to hurting sadam.
And lets not start on how the talibans get your support as well. And if you so serious abt fighting them, just seal the afghan border and dont run away, leaving them an opening to run to when ever we corner them.
And for what the talibans are doing in Pakistan, we are trying to fight them, unfortunately its the unethical behavior of some that always jeopardizes our efforts.
Spring Onion
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Ulema united to condemn violence against Polio workers/ rally for them
ISLAMABAD: An alliance of Pakistani clerics will hold demonstrations across the country against the killings of polio eradication campaign workers, leaders said on Thursday, as the death toll from attacks this week rose to nine.
Tahir Ashrafi, who heads the Pakistan Ulema Council, said that 24,000 mosques associated with his organisation would preach against the killings of health workers during Friday prayers.
“Neither Pakistani customs nor Islam would allow or endorse this. Far from doing something wrong, these girls are martyrs for Islam because they were doing a service to humanity and Islam,” he said.
Ashrafi’s words are a clear signal that some of Pakistan’s powerful clergy are willing to challenge violent militants.
Gunmen on motorbikes have killed nine anti-polio campaign workers this week, including a man who died of his wounds on Thursday. Some of the dead were teenage girls.
Following the violence, the United Nations pulled back all staff involved in the vaccination campaign and Pakistani officials suspended it in some parts of the country.
“The killers of these girls are not worthy of being called Muslims or human beings,” said Maulana Asadullah Farooq, of the Jamia Manzur Islamia, one of the biggest madrassahs, or religious schools, in the city of Lahore.
“We have held special prayers for the martyrs at our mosque and will hold more prayers after Friday prayers tomorrow. We also ask other mosques to come forward and pray for the souls of these brave martyrs.”
It is not clear who is behind the killings.
Pakistani Taliban militants have repeatedly threatened anti-polio workers, saying the vaccination drive is a Muslim plot to sterilise Muslims or spy on them. But they have denied responsibility for this week’s shootings.
Suspicion of the campaign surged last year after revelations that the CIA had used the cover of a fake vaccination campaign to try to gather intelligence on Osama bin Laden before he was killed in his hideout in a Pakistani town.
But many of Pakistan’s most important clerics have issued fatwas, or decrees, in support of the polio campaign. Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia encourage vaccinations against polio, which can kill or paralyse within hours of infection.
The disagreement between some clerics and militants may be indicative of a wider drop in support for militancy in Pakistan, said Mansur Khan Mahsud, director of research at the Islamabad-based think-tank the Fata Research Center.
Opinion polls the centre carried out in ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), showed support for the Taliban dropping from 50 per cent 2010 to about 20 per cent in May 2012.
Mahsud said many people had welcomed the Taliban because they believed Islamic law would help address corruption and injustice. But as the Taliban began executing and kidnapping people, some turned against them.
In a widely publicised incident in October, Taliban gunman shot a 15-year-old schoolgirl campaigner for girls’ education in the head and wounded two of her classmates.
Schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai survived and the wave of condemnation that followed the attack prompted the Taliban to release statements justifying their action.
The killings of the health workers struck a similar nerve, Ashrafi said. The girls got a small stipend for their work but were motivated to try to help children, he said.
“You think they went out to administer the drops despite the threats and risked their lives for 200 rupees ($2) a day? They were there because of their essential goodness,” he said.
“Imagine what the families are going through.”
Reuters |
ISLAMABAD: An alliance of Pakistani clerics will hold demonstrations across the country against the killings of polio eradication campaign workers, leaders said on Thursday, as the death toll from attacks this week rose to nine.
Tahir Ashrafi, who heads the Pakistan Ulema Council, said that 24,000 mosques associated with his organisation would preach against the killings of health workers during Friday prayers.
“Neither Pakistani customs nor Islam would allow or endorse this. Far from doing something wrong, these girls are martyrs for Islam because they were doing a service to humanity and Islam,” he said.
Ashrafi’s words are a clear signal that some of Pakistan’s powerful clergy are willing to challenge violent militants.
Gunmen on motorbikes have killed nine anti-polio campaign workers this week, including a man who died of his wounds on Thursday. Some of the dead were teenage girls.
Following the violence, the United Nations pulled back all staff involved in the vaccination campaign and Pakistani officials suspended it in some parts of the country.
“The killers of these girls are not worthy of being called Muslims or human beings,” said Maulana Asadullah Farooq, of the Jamia Manzur Islamia, one of the biggest madrassahs, or religious schools, in the city of Lahore.
“We have held special prayers for the martyrs at our mosque and will hold more prayers after Friday prayers tomorrow. We also ask other mosques to come forward and pray for the souls of these brave martyrs.”
It is not clear who is behind the killings.
Pakistani Taliban militants have repeatedly threatened anti-polio workers, saying the vaccination drive is a Muslim plot to sterilise Muslims or spy on them. But they have denied responsibility for this week’s shootings.
Suspicion of the campaign surged last year after revelations that the CIA had used the cover of a fake vaccination campaign to try to gather intelligence on Osama bin Laden before he was killed in his hideout in a Pakistani town.
But many of Pakistan’s most important clerics have issued fatwas, or decrees, in support of the polio campaign. Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia encourage vaccinations against polio, which can kill or paralyse within hours of infection.
The disagreement between some clerics and militants may be indicative of a wider drop in support for militancy in Pakistan, said Mansur Khan Mahsud, director of research at the Islamabad-based think-tank the Fata Research Center.
Opinion polls the centre carried out in ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), showed support for the Taliban dropping from 50 per cent 2010 to about 20 per cent in May 2012.
Mahsud said many people had welcomed the Taliban because they believed Islamic law would help address corruption and injustice. But as the Taliban began executing and kidnapping people, some turned against them.
In a widely publicised incident in October, Taliban gunman shot a 15-year-old schoolgirl campaigner for girls’ education in the head and wounded two of her classmates.
Schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai survived and the wave of condemnation that followed the attack prompted the Taliban to release statements justifying their action.
The killings of the health workers struck a similar nerve, Ashrafi said. The girls got a small stipend for their work but were motivated to try to help children, he said.
“You think they went out to administer the drops despite the threats and risked their lives for 200 rupees ($2) a day? They were there because of their essential goodness,” he said.
“Imagine what the families are going through.”
Reuters |
aks18
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india is playing proxy war with pakistan using so called taliban against pakistan attacks on air bases naval bases is pureply in favour of india in recent interview of hina rabani khar talat hussain before the program clearly says our leaders dont have guts to accept that who is playing against pakistan we every time blame each and every thing on taliban while in india a single cracker fires india blames pakistan
niaz
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Honourable Sir,
I beg to disagree with your statement. Most terrorist actions such as suicide bombings and killings are claimed by Taliban themselves. People such as Salim Saafi, Rahim ullah Yusufzai & Hamid Mir receive phone calls or emails from Taliban spokesperson. If Taliban are innocent as you claim, why no denial is issued on their behalf.
Even if CIA, RAW & Israel is behind these acts as conspiracy theorists claim, the people who actually carry out these atrocities are Pakistanis brainwashed by their TTP/Al Qaida handlers. Person who commits murder is at least as culpable as the person who asked him to do it.
Today’s suicide attack of ANP meeting today where Bashir Ahmed Bilour was killed was also claimed by Taliban as was the attack on Malala Yusufzai. Taliban cut heads of Pakistani soldiers and display the same in videos over the internet! Nevertheless here we have people who refuse to accept that their adorable Taliban can be the guilty party! Nearly 40,000 Pakistanis have already died at the hands of TTP & their allies, how many more need to die before people start calling spade a spade?
In my opinion, in addition to the Taliban killers, all those who continue in this state of denial equally share the blame for the innocent Pakistanis who lost their lives at the hands of the TTP butchers.
Here is an article published in today’s News, it is up to you whether you believed it or not. Who give a fig for human life in Pakistan anyway?
Quote
Predatory all the way
Saturday, December 22, 2012
From Print Edition
Legal eye
Babar Sattar
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.
When you kill health workers trying to prevent your kids from becoming cripples, when you mow down fellow citizens for no reason other than your disagreement with their religious beliefs, when you legitimise fascism and use of force by paying heedonly to those who speak the language of violence, and when your response to being caught with your pants down is not one of shame but that of anger – not at yourself but at those who blew the whistle on you – it’s time to consider not just the failings of the state but also those of the society.
These events reflect a few behavioural tendencies: intolerance and inability to embrace difference of opinion or dissent; an intrusive approach to the life of others with the resolve to enforce your viewpoint by force; and self-righteousness that can range from brazenness to outright hypocrisy. The change we crave won’t be delivered by smart plans to overhaul state institutions or our defunct system of governance alone. We need to take a sober look at what we see in the mirror and start talking about values and societal reform. Bad structures might facilitate power abuse, violence and corruption, but these traits are rooted in acceptable social behaviour.
We are so incensed at the insensitivity of the west to our religious sensibilities if some idiot releases a crude blasphemous video that we burn our own house down. But we are not incensed when Shias or Ahmadis are killed just for the audacity to hold beliefs different from those of the majority Sunni community. The state might have declared the Ahmadis non-Muslim, which might have galvanised intolerance against them, but what about the genocide of Shias? How many Sunnis have heard, during informal conversations at some point in their lives, that Shias are worse than kafirs? Is the killing of Shias really a law and order issue?
Is Mumtaz Qadri not a hero for a disturbingly large chunk of people in Pakistan? Did lawyers not shower petals on him? Did a former high court chief justice not elect to defend him in court? Did Rehman Malik not say that he would shoot a blasphemer himself? Did the judge who convicted Qadri not have to leave Pakistan? Was Salmaan Taseer being tried for blasphemy? Was even one blasphemous word ever attributed to him? His sin was that he demanded justice for a Christian woman accused of blasphemy. That was enough for a diverse range of ‘educated’ people across Pakistan to decide in their hearts and minds that Taseer’s murder was justified.
Why do we get upset or distressed over the brutalities unleashed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but not really angry? We got sad and depressed when Malala was attacked, but not mad enough at those who attacked her to cripple their ability to execute such attacks in the future. Our nonchalant condemnation of the assassinations of health workers executing the anti-polio campaign is even more revealing. Will paying compensations to aggrieved families arrest the vicious violent mindset that claimed nine precious lives and delivered a fatal blow to the anti-polio campaign?
Even where the most heinous crimes have been perpetrated with impunity we look to religious leaders to gauge the culpability of oppressors and accept criminals as misguided zealots as opposed to hardened malefactors if the crime is committed in the name of religion or by religion-inspired militants. In this country we have managed to confuse crime with sin. The society has taken upon itself to punish perceived sins through the use of force without state involvement. But if a crime is committed in the name of religion but isn’t deemed a sin by our self-proclaimed guardians of religion or their militant offspring, even the state is prevented from enforcing punishment.
How is it possible for terrorists to survive in urban centres such as Karachi if the community is not sympathetic to their cause? The argument in favour of a comprehensive military operation in North Waziristan is to deny TTP a sanctuary to plan and execute terror attacks across Pakistan. But is it not scary to consider that all of Pakistan might have become a sanctuary for militants due to sympathy for, or at least acceptance of, violent extremism? Can militants continue to execute terror plans in urban areas without local sympathy or support even if they are planned elsewhere?
Sadness at a loss caused by crime is a passive emotion, but anger at those inflicting the loss can be a trigger for action. It is the latter that we lack in a social environment where religion-inspired crimes are treated as understandable if not justifiable. The problem is compounded by a culture where use of force as a means to pursue legitimate ends is deemed kosher. What is the difference in principle between the act of a zealot who believes someone to be a blasphemer and believes he ought to die and so kills him and that of another who believes a Shia to be an infidel liable to be killed and so kills him? We are living in a society where the legitimacy of the means used to achieve an end has become irrelevant.
The use of violence to achieve desired ends has become a norm across institutions of the state and society. If the khakis can’t stomach the guts of Col Inam-ur-Rahim for pursuing unpleasant cases in court he will end up being beaten in the centre of a cantonment. If you are considered more than a nuisance you could go missing altogether. If the MQM doesn’t like the fact that the Supreme Court has ordered delimitation of constituencies in Karachi its supreme leaders hurl abuse on the judges publicly. When the SC issues Altaf Hussain a contempt notice the commercial hub of Pakistan is mysteriously locked down. And anyone who chooses to fault Altaf Bhai does so at their own peril.
TTP’s tool of persuasion is also violence. They will not debate the merit of school education versus madressah education with opponents. They will just blow up the school. And whether it is the tribal culture in Balochistan, the feudal culture in Sindh (with stories of haris chained or fed to dogs or even crocks) or the culture of honour in Punjab with women killed and disfigured for marrying of their own choice, the use of violence as a preferred means to an end seems to be rooted in our culture.
Our intolerance and use of violence as an instrument of choice is further complimented by our hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Our chief justice was accused of abusing authority to get his son inducted in the police service that led to the fateful reference moved against him in 2007. Former PM Gilani broke all records of nepotism and distributed high-powered jobs to personal friends at whim. The current PM has awarded his son-in-law a World Bank position. As a society do we lack a culture of answerability as well as the ability to speak our minds?
There is no accountability in Pakistan because the powerful find it beneath themselves to answer for their actions. The generals get mad and hide behind troop morale when citizens seek to hold them to account. Parliamentarians cry foul when the SC disqualifies them for possessing fake degrees. The SC refuses to allow its registrar to submit to the jurisdiction of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to simply answer questions about its public expenditure. And members of the PAC go postal when the media exposes their shameful tax record.
Why do these things keep happening? They happen because there is no longer any social and moral censure against them. And this is not an institutional problem alone. We are losing the ethical values that are required to maintain equilibrium in a civilised society and distinguish acceptable behaviour from the unacceptable. 2013 is election year. Anyone genuinely interested in reformative change must focus on our social and ethical value degradation.
Email: sattar@post.harvard.edu
Predatory all the way - Babar Sattar
Unquote
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The C.I.A. and the Polio Murders
Posted by Michael Specter
Scientists, with the help of public-health workers, have managed to wipe just two diseases from the face of the earth: smallpox and rinderpest (otherwise known as cattle plague). This year, it had begun to look as if we would soon add another name to that list, a virus that has been a paralytic threat for millennia: polio.
The effort took a devastating step backward yesterday, with the news that six public-health workers were killed in Pakistan; all had been administering polio vaccines. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization declared the eradication of polio to be a world-wide health emergency (a designation which makes it easier to release funds). It did so primarily because the end seemed in sight. Just three countries continue to report infections: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. As soon as the news of the murders spread, however, the health minister for Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province put a halt to the vaccination program, which had employed more than twenty-four thousand aid workers. The risks of this detour, which will leave tens of thousands of people vulnerable to new infections, cannot be overstated.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the coördinated attacks, but the Taliban has opposed polio vaccination vigorously. Taliban leaders have issued several religious edicts saying that the U.S. runs a spy network under the guise of a vaccine program. Now, there is no question that this is a depraved, heartless, and sickening act. But, as I wrote in a post here more than a year ago, the claim about the C.I.A. is not entirely untrue. In 2011, American intelligence, in a stunning display of arrogance, stupidity, or both, faked a vaccination drive as a cover for its attempt to pin down the location of Osama bin Laden. (The idea was to get DNA samples from the children in the Abbottabad compound while injecting them with a dummy vaccine, and then compare them to those of bin Laden’s relatives.) There is a history here, and somebody in the American intelligence community should have known it. The world was close to eradication in 2004 as well. Then several mullahs in northern Nigeria campaigned against polio vaccinations—claiming they were part of a Western plot. The result was that people who were infected went to Mecca on the hajj and spread their disease to people from many countries.
Pakistan’s attitude toward those who are associated with the C.I.A. has not exactly been a secret. After the raid on bin Laden’s compound, the doctor who tried to obtain the DNA was arrested and sentenced to thirty-three years in prison. I don’t mean to lay these crimes on anyone other than the murderers. But the sickness and death caused by a renewed polio epidemic in South Asia would make today’s tragedy seem small. Again, we should hold the killers responsible for this terrible reversal. But at least some of blame lies in the swamplands of Langley, Virginia.
Photograph by Fareed Khan/AP.
Keywords
Pakistan;
Taliban;
polio;
vaccines
POSTED IN
News Desk
Read more: The C.I.A. and the Polio Murders : The New Yorker
Posted by Michael Specter
Scientists, with the help of public-health workers, have managed to wipe just two diseases from the face of the earth: smallpox and rinderpest (otherwise known as cattle plague). This year, it had begun to look as if we would soon add another name to that list, a virus that has been a paralytic threat for millennia: polio.
The effort took a devastating step backward yesterday, with the news that six public-health workers were killed in Pakistan; all had been administering polio vaccines. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization declared the eradication of polio to be a world-wide health emergency (a designation which makes it easier to release funds). It did so primarily because the end seemed in sight. Just three countries continue to report infections: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. As soon as the news of the murders spread, however, the health minister for Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province put a halt to the vaccination program, which had employed more than twenty-four thousand aid workers. The risks of this detour, which will leave tens of thousands of people vulnerable to new infections, cannot be overstated.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the coördinated attacks, but the Taliban has opposed polio vaccination vigorously. Taliban leaders have issued several religious edicts saying that the U.S. runs a spy network under the guise of a vaccine program. Now, there is no question that this is a depraved, heartless, and sickening act. But, as I wrote in a post here more than a year ago, the claim about the C.I.A. is not entirely untrue. In 2011, American intelligence, in a stunning display of arrogance, stupidity, or both, faked a vaccination drive as a cover for its attempt to pin down the location of Osama bin Laden. (The idea was to get DNA samples from the children in the Abbottabad compound while injecting them with a dummy vaccine, and then compare them to those of bin Laden’s relatives.) There is a history here, and somebody in the American intelligence community should have known it. The world was close to eradication in 2004 as well. Then several mullahs in northern Nigeria campaigned against polio vaccinations—claiming they were part of a Western plot. The result was that people who were infected went to Mecca on the hajj and spread their disease to people from many countries.
Pakistan’s attitude toward those who are associated with the C.I.A. has not exactly been a secret. After the raid on bin Laden’s compound, the doctor who tried to obtain the DNA was arrested and sentenced to thirty-three years in prison. I don’t mean to lay these crimes on anyone other than the murderers. But the sickness and death caused by a renewed polio epidemic in South Asia would make today’s tragedy seem small. Again, we should hold the killers responsible for this terrible reversal. But at least some of blame lies in the swamplands of Langley, Virginia.
Photograph by Fareed Khan/AP.
Keywords
Pakistan;
Taliban;
polio;
vaccines
POSTED IN
News Desk
Read more: The C.I.A. and the Polio Murders : The New Yorker
aks18
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taliban calls all of these journalists still un traceable ? another conspiracy theory or this nation being made fool ?
A1Kaid
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Great post, I find your post intriguing and share your line of thought. I also have criticized about the fact of poor people have more children then they can financially support, it is a burden on society both financially and socially and overall population wise.
About the Polio vaccination campaign, it will be hard to vaccinate NWFP area because the Pashtuns there keep traveling back and forth from Afghanistan, Afghan people come in and out of that area and so the polio virus is reintroduced in the population or locality. This is a major problem, I hope Pashtuns/Afghans realize what a detrimental act they are committing, the constant spread of disease is facilitated by this cross-border migration. Pakistani border patrol should prevent any diseased person from entering Pakistan from Afghanistan or a diseased Pakistani from entering Afghanistan.
A1Kaid
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Problem is not everyone perceives it as help, medieval TTP is behind the killing, either way there is a ongoing campaign to kill them as well in Pakistan.
A1Kaid
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I think what he meant is the Taliban are primarily a Pashtun group, the TTP however are multi-national/multi-ethnic Pashtuns, Uzbeks, and God knows what else.
niaz
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Sir,
You are as much a Pakistani as I am and I respect your views even though the same are 180 degrees opposite. I can only comment that as long as intelligent people don't accept that our real enemy is TTP, terrorist cannot be defeated.
Here the the editorial in Dawn. Again you are at liberty to believe what you will.
Quote
Undefeated militancy
From the Newspaper | 13 hours ago 2
BASHIR Ahmed Bilour, an ANP stalwart and an implacable critic of militancy and Pakistans drift towards extremism, is no more. Killed by the same ideology he preached against and which saw him as a threat to the agenda of remaking Pakistan into a darker and more troubling place, the tragedy of Mr Bilours death is that it was perhaps a death foretold. In recent weeks, the surge in militant violence across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata may have come as a surprise to some, but to anyone following the arc of militancy in the region closely, the signs of an unbowed and undefeated militant threat looking to reassert itself were plentiful. And given that the states response in the face of the morphing threat from militancy appears to have been yet more uncertainty and near paralysis in some areas, the likelihood of high-profile attacks that would grab headlines and inflict further blows against the morale of the state and the public was very high. Now, Mr Bilour is dead and its almost certain that the recent wave of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata will continue.
What can the state do? In moments like this, well-meaning commentary about better strategies and tactics and who to fight where and when are almost beside the point. Once, and only once, Pakistani state and society develop a consensus that militancy, radicalisation and extremism need to be decisively reversed, can any military, political or social strategy work. There is often much focus put on the role of the army-led security establishment in prolonging Pakistans association with militancy, radicalisation and extremism. The focus is correct and necessary because until the army adopts a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy, the state is unlikely to ever develop the will or capacity to smother the threat permanently. However, there is a serious burden of responsibility on the civilian political class too a burden of responsible leadership that few have been able to carry well when it comes to confronting the militant threat.
For all the levers and control the security establishment may have over state and society, if there is to be meaningful change, it is the civilian political leadership that will have to demonstrate courage and clarity. Too much obfuscation, too much dithering, too much doublespeak has characterised many civilian politicians response to the threat from militancy. Myopia can only take a politician so far; ultimately, the militants have made it clear: it is them versus everyone else.
Undefeated militancy | Newspaper | DAWN.COM
Unquote
aks18
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yes TTP is our enemy world's 7th largest force is unable to handle TTP the one who formed Talibans are now fed up of taliban cant trace them TTP openly calls journalists and have chit chats our super duper agencies are busy in kidnapping citizen of pakistan and torturing them :S
niaz
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Hon Sir,
You are no doubt a very wise and intelligent person and full of love for Pakistan and her nationals. No decent human being will consciously support terrorists who kills innocent fellow countrymen. Nevertheless it is also an undeniable fact that terrorists manage to carry out their nefarious designs at will and no one gets caught.
In my humble opinion this is so because there is an underlying support for these people at every level and strata of the society including the security forces and a confusion has been created among the minds of the public as to who is our real enemy?
Majority of the population exists in this state of denial. I quote a very old article which describes what is prevalent in Pakistan today. Again it is up to an individual to decide what one should believe. One can only lead a horse to the water, can't force the horse to drink it.
Quote
A perpetual state of denial
Harris Khalique
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
From Print Edition
Side-effect
The writer is a poet and author based in Islamabad.
Straightforward duplicity or covering up of facts to deny and reject what actually happened does not change what actually happened. Nor could moulding the perceptions of a group of people who live under your influence change what actually happened. But since the rest of the people in large numbers who do not live under your influence will have a different set of ideas to believe in and a different set of facts to draw upon for information, a small set of people under your influence will be continuously at odds with the rest of the world. Owing to the advancement of a particular worldview over the years through school curriculum, news media and the public messages sent out by the state establishment, so many of us, the middleclass Pakistanis, are at odds with the rest of the world.
We live in a perpetual state of denial. Everything that does not fit our idea of the world is either false propaganda or a malicious conspiracy hatched against our country or our society. Individually, we suffer from paranoia, second-guessing and distrust. Collectively, we seek solace in an imagined past, a sense of possessing higher moral values and a hardened self-righteousness. Our rejecting reality and clinging to preconceived notions limit the possibility of our intellectual progress and economic growth. Our social imagination is blurred by the clouds of self-deceit and nurtured ignorance.
Let us begin from some major happenings in our history. Many of us believe that it was only the Muslims of the Subcontinent who were killed by Hindu bigots and Sikh zealots at the time of Partition in 1947. What happened to the Hindus and Sikhs in Muslim-majority areas? Human beings show the most atrocious side of their character once violence is let loose, whatever faith they preach or practise. Those who do not participate in riots, loot, plunder and slaughter, provide legitimacy to them by either staying silent, looking away or justifying these cruel acts by calling them a reaction to the atrocities of the other side, self-defence or natural outburst of emotions. It is not truth that is the first casualty in a war, it is humanity. However, in order for a society to move forward truth must be established before any reconciliation can take place.
Soon after independence and the creation of Pakistan, weren’t the governments and provincial assemblies of the-then NWFP and Sindh undermined by the central government? Did we not annex Kalat state expediently rather than through a process of negotiations? Didn’t Liaquat Ali Khan, the first prime minister, get the Objectives Resolution passed on the one hand and moved us into the American camp on the other?
We are told that the self-proclaimed field marshal, Ayub Khan, came to power when the country was going through massive political instability and then brought about a revolution in our economy. The hero was actually a usurper of power who abrogated the 1956 Constitution of the Republic. His lopsided policies and attitude towards the eastern wing fundamentally caused the creation of Bangladesh and the Islamic Republic of West Pakistan, in which we live. Social justice was denied and civil rights were suspended in his time. Political rallies were fired upon even in the early years, but Hasan Nasir was the first major political prisoner who was tortured to death by the state in Lahore Fort in 1960. I write these lines on the day of his 52nd death anniversary. Few would know that there was little change in Pakistan’s literacy rate over the glorious decade of Ayub Khan. Some say it actually came down.
Fatima Jinnah rallied the opposition against the martial-law ruler but was made to lose the presidential elections. She later died in mysterious circumstances. Neither has there been a proper inquiry conducted into the Quaid-e-Azam’s ambulance running out of fuel on its way from Mauripur airbase to Flagstaff House in Karachi, nor into Fatima Jinnah’s death.
Come 1971. We treated our fellow countrymen shabbily for too long and lost them. We lost the war as well. I was told in my school by the Pakistan Studies teacher that most of the teachers in East Pakistan were Hindu. They poisoned the minds of students against Pakistan and helped create Mukti Bahini. If some of us were not to read other accounts by independent authors, had not become familiar with what was happening in the power corridors, on assembly floors, within the close doors of government and military offices and in the internal meetings of the political parties of the time, if we had not visited Bangladesh, we would still think that our teachers were right.
For the last four decades, we have been finding ways to deny what actually happened in East Pakistan. One of our preferred ways is to find a work by a non-Pakistani, non-Muslim author to prove our point that it was not entirely our fault. I am afraid it was. Does it really matter if Sheikh Mujibur Rahman exaggerated the figure of casualties of Begalis in the 1971 military action and the resultant war? Does it really matter if three million or three hundred thousand did not die, but only thirty thousand? Is thirty thousand a small number by any means? Didn’t the West Pakistanis insist on parity with East Pakistan despite its larger population? Didn’t we ask for, and then obtain, a bigger share in economic resources all along? Didn’t we look down upon our fellow countrymen and -women with contempt? Did we not deny them the right to rule after the Awami League won 160 out of 300 seats in the 1970 elections to the National Assembly, forming a simple majority? Could we deny all this?
Let us now come to the present. So many of us believe that 9/11 was actually a Jewish conspiracy. All Jews were told in advance not to go to their offices in the World Trade Centre. Some even say that Osama bin Laden was an American agent. Well, well, Saudi Arabia is an unrelenting American ally in the world, and particularly in the Middle East. Osama was a Saudi dissident. He wanted to bring the kingdom down, didn’t he? How come some of our rightwing opinion-makers support both Saudi Arabia and Osama at the same time? Saudis did not accept his body for burial. Or was he really killed? My, my! When the whole world asks what Osama was doing in Pakistan for so many years while Pakistan itself is a part of the war waged against him and his outfit, we are more concerned about how the American choppers could enter our airspace and violate our sovereignty. From Liaquat Ali Khan to Ayub Khan, from Ziaul Haq to Pervez Musharraf, all chose for us to side with the Americans. All religious outfits were American allies until the early 1990s. Could we deny all that?
When Malala Yousafzai was shot, the Taliban accepted responsibility and provided a rationale for their action, quoting religious texts. But a group came up and said that the Taliban couldn’t have done that because it is against their values. Rather than our supporting Malala’s cause with one voice, a concerted campaign is launched against her, casting doubts upon the incident, calling her family American agents. The denial of what happened to Malala will lead to denial of education to our girls.
Obituary: Rest in peace, Iqbal Haider. You would have called me from Karachi after reading this piece. You will be missed dearly.
Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com
A perpetual state of denial - Harris Khalique
Unquote.
niaz
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The following is a letter from TTP to Saleem Saafi, would you say that this is Indian/Zinoist conspiracy and it is all made up?
Salim Safi - jirga - Pakistani taliban kiya soochtay hain - Jang Columns
KRAIT
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Is there a translated version ?
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