Adil Najam
Jahil ko agar jhl ka inaam diya jaaye
batlao kay iss jhl ko kiya naam diya jaaye
Just two months ago, we at ATP were aghast at a statement from Senator Israrullah Zehri (BNP-Awami) who, along with Jan Mohammad Jamali, not only defended a horrendous and barbaric murder of young girls as part of their so-called “tribal tradition.”
While there were Senators who condemned this jahalat by these dishonorable Senators, it was disappointing not to see any action being taken at this outrage despite the fact that the senators remains defiant and unrepentant in their jahalat. Now it seems the PPP government has taken action. But what an disgusting action it is. Seantor Zehri seems to have been “rewarded” - but for what? - by a Cabinet appointment.
Even more disturbing than Mr. Zehri’s appointment is that Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, the new Miniser of Education - yes, education! - seems to have jahil views not very different from Mr. Zehri. Is Vani really what we want to teach our children!
But, first, more on Senator Israrullah Zehri. Luckily the Cabinet is so overweight (55 Ministers) and the post he has been given (Postal Services) so inconsequential that his warped sense of right and wrong may not be able to do too much damage. But in the name of all that is good, why O’ why would anyone make someone with such unrepentantly ignorant views a Minister of anything? What possible good can come out of that for anyone?
At the time of his original - and shameful - comments, we had argued:
[They have] not only shamed the Senate and all of Pakistan, they are in fact abusing and shaming the culture and traditions of all Baloch.
Now,at his elevation to a cabinet position one can only say that this act has doubly shamed the government, the Prime Minister, and, indeed, all of Pakistan. His shame remains what it was, but added to it now is the shame that the PPP government would so disregard human and women rights as to make such a man a Minister - even if it is of “Postal Services”!
The shame is further compounded - indeed, the jahalat is compounded - because he is not the only one with such public views who has been inducted into the cabinet. Even more disturbingly, it the new Minister of Education - yes, we have said it before, and let us say again, eductaion - Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani is someone who not only supports the practice of Vani but has actually facilitated it!
In writing about the Zehri story, we had argued that:
Those who think they can “restore” their honor by murdering others have no honor to begin with. There is no honor in murder. Ghairat cannot be gained or regained by butchering the weak. Indeed, murder is beghairati personified. And let us never - never - let anyone confuse criminality with culture.
And its not just us who thinks that such actions are criminal. The Supreme Court of Pakistan thinks the same too. Indeed, the first time we had written about Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, the new PPP Education Minister - as an teacher myself, I cringe at that thought each time I think about it - on Pakistaniat.com (August 16, 2007) was when we quoted from a Daily Times story about how the Supreme Court had ordered “the arrest of the members of a jirga, including PPP MNA Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, that decided to hand over five minor girls for marriage to a family to compensate for a murder in Jacobabad. Three of the 14 jirga members are already in police custody and the court ordered the arrest of the other 11.”
Guess who the (then just-restored) Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was then? Guess who in the Cabinet will be working for him to be be restored!
The Dawn story on that particualr episode is worth reading - read today, it gives some great insights into not only the politics of then, but the politics of now:
arrest of 11 members of a jirga, including PPP MNA Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, for handing over five minor girls to the family of a murdered man as compensation to settle the dispute in Jacobabad. A five-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar and Justice M. Javed Buttar took up a complaint of a freelance anthropologist Samar Minallah against the handing over of five girls — Aamna, 5, Bashiran, 2, (daughters of Rahmatullah), Shehzadi, 6, Meerzadi, 2, (daughters of Hafeezullah) and Noor Bano, 3, (daughter of Yar Ali) — to the family of the murdered man as compensation.
The Supreme Court had in June last year frozen the jirga decision to hand over the minors and ordered police to submit an inquiry report within two weeks. The District Police Officer (DPO) Kashmore was told to conduct an inquiry and arrest the jirga members. When DPO Noor Mohammad informed the court on Wednesday that police had arrested three members of the 14-man jirga, namely Hafiz Qamaruddin, Yar Ali and Rehmat, the CJ asked why were influential people not arrested. “Are you afraid of them?” The DPO explained that he had assumed his duties just one and half months ago. At this, the bench said that police always picked up poor people and were afraid of arresting influential people.
The rest of eleven members of the jirga nominated in the FIR are Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Peer Bharchoondi Mian Abdul Khalique, Thull Tehsil Nazim Syed Ali Akbar Banglani, Ghulam Rasool Banglani, Syed Jalal Shah, Raza Mohammad Banglani, Qamaruddin Banglani, Hafiz Banglani, Habib Banglani and two others. The jirga presided over by Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani had ordered the handing over of five minors to the victim’s family and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on both the warring parties to settle a decade-old feud.
So, this then, folks, is your new Minister of Education. Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani. Jirga leader, Vani supporter, and according to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a criminal.But the real crime here is giving him charge of education. Making him incharge of the most important national resource we have. Our children and what goes into their mind!
To repeat what I said at the beginning:
Jahil ko agar jhl ka inaam diya jaaye
batlao kay iss jhl ko kiya naam diya jaaye
I have no words. None, at all - but plenty of prayers for Pakistan. I shudder when I think of the accountability these politicians will go through on the Day of Judgment.
There is so much the young and the old want to do for Pakistan (particularly in education). Its not a question of WHAT we can do, but rather “HOW” to implement successful policies, culture and progressive mindsets. The reason is simple - corrupt, feudal government and ministers!
One feels so frustrated and helpless. The plight of the common man.
Note:
Is there any NGO/non-profit (but influential group) thats working towards a better Pakistan in terms of education? If so, kindly send me their link/s on email. I’d like to actively participate and assist in pushing an “Education first” agenda for all Pakistanis. Thanks.
Correction requested.
In regards to Adil Najam’s quoted Sher:
Jahil ko agar jhl ka inaam diya jaaye
batlao kay iss jhl ko kiya naam diya jaaye
Correct sher is from a famous Urdu Poet Mohsin Bhopali and hist sher (couplet) is also most famous, in fact whole Qata (two couplets or two sher)
JAHIL KO AGR JEHL KA INAAM DIYA JA’AY
ISS HADSA-AY WAQT KO KIYA NAAM DIYA JA’AY
MAIKHANY KI TAUHEEN HAY, RINDOAN KI HATAK (insult) HAY
KUM ZARF KAY HATHOAN MAIN AGR JAAM DIYA JA’AY
Thanks for your time.
my 1 question is that all over of pakistan that who killed that 5 womans mir israr ullah zehri kill mir jan jamali kill. whoo. all over pakistan know who kill that 5 womans u belam that persons who killed y mir israrullah zehri. he just to say same words about balochistan culture, tradition.. but peoples can not understand these words. peoples think that mir israr ullah zehri killed that womans but he is not. killing is another
Qatil ko agar qatal ka inaam diya jaye
Batao kay is Qatal ko kiya naam diya jaye.
Bijarani and his nephews Ahmed Khan, Mehboub Ali, Mohammad Ali and Waheed Ali are involved in numerous murders.
‘Anti-women’ cabinet riles Pakistan activists
Brutal attitudes alleged in row over new ministers.
‘Honour’ killings and giving away of girls cited.
Saeed Shah in Islamabad The Guardian, Wednesday 12 November 2008 Article historyTwo notorious politicians accused of brutal attitudes towards women have been made cabinet ministers in Pakistan, causing outrage among human rights activists.
Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, charged with presiding over a “jirga” which gave away five young girls as a form of compensation, and Israrullah Zehri, who recently made international headlines after defending the burying alive of women in “honour-killing” cases, have been elevated to ministerships.
Last year the supreme court ordered the arrest of Oxford-educated Bijarani over the allegations, though he remained at liberty. He has now been made minister for education. Street protests and angry newspapers editorials met the induction of Bijarani and Zehri, who were brought in as part of a major expansion of the cabinet last week.
“It is a very clear message from the government that they don’t care about these things,” said Samar Minallah, a human rights campaigner who had brought the court case against Bijarani. “I think they deliberately chose these two people to be ministers to send that message.”
The practice of settling disputes by awarding girls taken from the family of those convicted by a traditional meeting of village elders in a jirga to an aggrieved party is illegal but it continues in rural parts of the country. Bijarani, a land-owner from Sindh province, is accused of heading such a jirga in 2006, in which five girls, aged between two and five, were given as compensation to the family of a murdered man.
Bijarani, who denies the allegations, is a stalwart of the Pakistan People’s Party, an avowedly progressive party which leads the coalition government that came to power with the restoration of democracy earlier this year, following eight years of military rule under Pervez Musharraf. The government is led by Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Zardari, as president.
“Is this the politics of appeasement?” said Tahira Abdullah, a member of rights group the Women’s Action Forum. “It almost looks like rewarding these men for their deeds against women.”
Iqbal Haider, co-chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: “The basic character of the cabinet is in support of honour killings. Had Benazir Bhutto been alive she would never have allowed this.”
Bijarani claims he was acquitted by a lower court in his home province. However, it is unclear how a district court could have dismissed the case while it remains before the supreme court after Musharraf dismissed the judiciary in November last year.
“The jirga system has to be finished slowly,” said Bijarani, appearing on a television show in recent days. “When education spreads, then it will finish.”
Zehri, a member of Pakistan’s upper house of parliament from a minor party in the coalition, has been made minister for postal services. Earlier this year, in response to news that three teenage girls had been buried alive for trying to choose their own husbands, he told parliament it was “tribal tradition”. He later said: “These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them. Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid.”