An interesting point of view in a letter published in the 'Dawn' of today.
Quote
Dr Afridi and ‘Tuesday Garden’From the Newspaper | 8 hours ago 0 TWO weeks ago when a political agent’s ‘honour killing’ jirga decided to incarcerate a citizen of Pakistan for 33 years for helping the CIA/US axis nail the world’s most wanted terrorist a clear message was broadcast.
Osama bin Laden, and by extension, all his ilk skulking around in our national killing fields were our dearest friends and should never have been identified and caught from the sanctuary our handlers had created.
Our press convulsed in for and against, and many papers devoted nearly half a page to the high treason decree. The news of a man sentenced to jail for 33 years for having actually done the job he was employed to do by his employers created much consternation in our republic where no one consequential — judiciary, military, political or (ir)religious — has ever been held accountable for any act of deliberate commission or omission even when those acts have shredded the constitutional base of this nation’s foundations. More uniquely, this was a trial constituted by one of the many quasi ‘kangaroo courts’ that dot our landscape and in the absence of suitable enforceable legislative governance routinely give us such good repute.
Now, in what can only be described as the mother of all somersaults we are informed that the jirga did not accuse and convict Afridi of helping eliminate our late friend/enemy Bin Laden but for working, treating and funding our present enemy, Mangal Bagh (Tuesday Garden) and his breed, presumably also of same ‘brotherly country’ funded murderous zealots who, we have only just realised, apparently are doing much damage to our beloved motherland.
And to put the nails correctly in the coffin, the jirga has dated Dr Afridi’s crimes as starting from 2002 when they first found he was not kosher. It would seem our intelligence services required a further nine years and Bin Laden’s dramatic death to figure out just how much of a bad terrorist asset Afridi was. In fact, Bin Laden must be turning in his watery grave at the gross ignominy of not even being mentioned in the current charge sheet as being ‘out of jurisdiction’. Now let the Americans chew on that piece of hide. Soon they will not only return our $33 million worth of ‘blood money’ but will fall over themselves to give us more in gratitude.
Unless Mangal is also an, as yet indispensable, American agent like Bin Laden certainly once was. In which case the opportune high-profile visits of the Chinese and Russians to jump into the vacuum will be most certainly needed to bring them to their senses.
On behalf of this pitiful nation, I wonder if Dr Afridi can claim immunity under the NRO or at least merit a few more lines from Gibran?
DR MERVYN HOSEIN
Karachi
Dr Afridi and
Unquote
Without going into the rights and wrong of the US actions; let us for moment dispassionately analyse what Dr Afridi is really guilty of?
He had links with terrorist for a while. But that should come as no surprize. How are the terrorists being supported and helped in their nefarious activities? I can say with certainty that many of the sectarian parties who form Defence of Pakistan Council are involved in providing succour to the terrorists. PML-N Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah is openly hobnobbing with SSP leaders. Does not that mean he has contacts with sectarian terrorists?
Lal Masjid mullah fought PA Commandos with guns, is this not high treason? But our very biased CJ Mr Chaudhry has released him and the mullah is running around free showing two fingers to the State of Pakistan.
In Layari, criminal groups fought with Police and Rangers with guns and rockets and we have many in the society who say that Police were wrong!
What Dr Afraid is guilty of is helping the US identify OBL; a wanted criminal for a long time.
What Dr Afridi did was a bad thing and clearly he did it for money. But does it call for 33 years punishment when compared to the crimes against the State of Pakistan by other terrorists and sectarion parties?
And we say that West has double standards?
Let us face it; Dr Afridi has been made a scape goat because he has made Pakistan Army and Security Agencies look bad and his actions resulted in great embarrassment to the GOP and especially so because US was the other party.
I am not against punishing the guy, but for heaven’s sake, let us come out and say it why?