This photo is from today’s Dawn. It shows protesting lawyers damaging public property in Multan.
The ability to protest against that which they consider unjust is everybody’s right. But there is a fine line between peaceful protest and anarchy. Damaging property is definitely wrong and serves no one’s interest. It certainly does not serve the interest of the lawyers movement for democracy.
Violence is clearly wrong. It becomes no less or no more wrong when it is committed by protesting lawyers than when it is done by government against the same protesting lawyers. Just as we have called out against violence committed against protesters by government agencies, we must also call out aginst violence committed by them.
Anger is neither a strategy nor an excuse. The principle is a clear one: Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it and no matter why.
It is perfectly alright to disagree with the post and to post a dissenting point of view. I am one of the people who think the picture does not reflect the complete episode as it happened. But unfortunately, people on both sides of the arguement have become too passionate about their points of view. I do not agree with Owais Mughal the way he started the thread, but I respect him as an experienced and astute blogger. It hurts me to see that people have accused him of being pro-Musharraf and called him names. Similarly, some people on the other side of the arguement have insulted people criticising Owais- names such as monkeys and a million years short of evolution. Political debates can become emotional but I appeal to all to remain civilised and objective. Perhaps that is one quality we lack as a nation and all leaders reflect this trait of ours.
Sophomore Year said: Karachiites are the only educated tax-paying and law-abiding class of citizens.
Keep Dreaming…..in Karachi
Tributes to those honest militants :
@ Freedom
Brand my brow with the seal of freedom
I am that captivated stallion who, for centuries,
Has been constrained, without water and greeness in the
sullen gravity of environments.
Brand me with the seal of freedom so that your friends,
from my broiled forhead gather,
That I have been honoured by being aptivated by newly
created gods.
Earlier, your ancestors,
For the conquest of cities,
Have made me run in battle fields
For their lust for throne and sovereignty,
I have trampled east and west with the tap of my hooves.
Today, still, I am the old stallion of supeior breed
Handover my reins to some dictator
Who may push me in the melting fire and steel
For multiplying his heaps of gold and silver.
Yes, I may but tell you a secret
Shedding the sparks of firm insurrection
My fellow men are awake with the same tone of feelings,
No more the cloak of any dictator shall be secure.
Zaheer Kashmiri
While I myself disagree with the overall thrust of the article (criticising the lawyers when they turned violant only after having been brutally attacked by the police in that demonstration in Multan), I an in full agreement with Viqar’s above post. The criticism directed at Owais and the website itself has gone way overboard and crossed the limits of fairness. Owais is fully entitled to his opinion and just because some of us disagree with him does not mean we should go to the extent that some of the critics have gone.
Owais,
I think if half the readers accuse you of anti-Musharraf bias and the other half of pro-Musharraf bias, then you must be doing soemthing right.
There have been enough anti-establishment articles and comments and, in this article also, I do not believe the intent was to vilify the lawyer’s movement as such; only to point out that the upholders of the law should not acts in unlawful and violent way.
I think many commentators have gone way overboard with their criticism of the post, the website, and Owais himself.
Take it easy folks … go out and get a breath of fresh air …
I have to ask this question, how many of the readers here think
the police car is ” public Property ” ot may be Musharaf Property, Pervaiz Elahi property, benazir property, nawaz sharif property. What public funstion does the police do
Violence is violence , yes but we are so quick to comment on it, but these are maxims of a society built and run on the basis of rule of Law, when might is right than ” might” is what is needed. Police needs to get the taste, The SSP and IG needs to be beat up too, their kids should be put under house arrest aswell with no reocourse only than will these guys understand the need for Habeous Corpus .
Another impertinence on my part. But another gem I found. This time by Pervez Hoodbhoy from 1985. This is a blogspace–and not a ‘discussion board’.
http://www.sacw.net/HateEducation/1985HoodbhoyNayy ar06022005.html
“Introduction
Education in Pakistan, from schools to universities, is being fundamentally redefined. This development is expected to have profound implications for the future of the country’s society and politics. Most changes are traceable to factors related to the stability of the present government, but there are also others which cannot be analysed as a mere response to immediate threats. A new concept of education now prevails, the full impact of which will probably be felt by the turn of the century, when the present generation of school children attains maturity.”
Ahh, the last sentence!
I have only one word to describe all these ppl who supprts lawyers shameful ack
HOPELESS HOPELESS HOPELESS
they are all dictators themselves, THIS website has been covering events in a balanced way, everything has been in those SICK people but now this article just ticked them off
reason??
cuz THEY JUST CANT FACE THE TRUTH, their minds are still in the evolutionary process and will take them a million year more to develop an ability to perceive things LIKE HUMANS.