Jahalat Compounded: Do We Really Want These Guys In-charge of Our Mail and Our Children?

Posted on November 7, 2008
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Education, Law & Justice, People, Politics, Society
97 Comments
Total Views: 70435

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, eductaionMir 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!



Your Ad Here


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

97 responses to “Jahalat Compounded: Do We Really Want These Guys In-charge of Our Mail and Our Children?”

  1. DEMOCRACY MEANS GATHJOR,GROUP,MAFIA ,HAMKHAYAL PEOPLE OF WASTED INTEREST,NOTHING ELSE. WE SHOULD NOT HOPE GOOD FROM THEM.THEY ARE NOT JAHIL BUT ACTUALLY THEY ARE ZAHIL BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT AWARE OF THEIR HASHAR IN THEIR LIFE AND LIFE AFTER DEATH.ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR DEEDS THEY HAVE LOST ALMIGHTY ALLAH KI KHUSHNUDI NAHI MILENGI.

  2. WHEN PAKISTAN CAME INTO BEING,THE ELITE PEOPLE WERE IN MUSLIM LEAGUE ,THEY WERE FEUDALS OF SIND ,PUNJAB,BLUCHISTAN,AND NWFPALONG WITH NAWABS,SARDARS,BIG INDUSTRIALIST,BUSINESSMAN OF SUBCONTINENT.IT WAS SAID THAT WE WILL IMPLIMENT ISLAMI LAWS ANDIMPART JUSTICE TO ALL ALIKE TO POORS AND HELPLESS AND ALL,ALSO WE WILL FREE PEOPLE FROM SLAVERY OF ALL ZALIM PEOPLE AND FEUDALS ETC BUT AFTER WARDS TILL NOW IT APPEARS THAT PAKISTAN WAS CREATED FOR ZALIMS .WE WERE CHEATED.

  3. Aamir Ali says:

    Sherbano:

    In the absence of democracy, were all these politicians very honest and hardworking folk ?? This is what Pakistanis voted for…a bunch of ignorant slackers and crooks. It says a lot of about the Pakistani public, and why democracy has failed in Pakistan.

  4. Aqil Sajjad says:

    Pk politics has put up the following on this
    http://pkpolitics.com/2008/11/05/tribute-to-our-mi nisters-part-1/

  5. D_a_n says:

    @ Sherbano…

    this about much more than corruption and just pure and simple jahalat…even Jahil folks have a survival instinct kick in sometime or the other if they are being forcibly dragged down a cliff…

    No…this is about bigger issues and an issue with out national pysche that has made us oblivious to evil…in whatever form that may be……
    oblivious to evil as long as it doesnt affect one’s own self personally…and sometimes not even then…
    something in our souls died long time ago and we did not even know it……..the lack of this same abstract is what caused the majority of Pakistani’s to keep their mouths shut when the populace of West Pakistan was being pushed away…..and it continues to manifest itself as majority of us keep shut when we see number of our fellow Pakistani’s live under the Taliban and their oppressive embrace….\

    This….something I cannot explain adequately as the idiocy of our collective experience escapes description …is whats wrong with us……Democracy.. Yes…while being our only option…manages to bring out the very worst and inept in us…without fail
    so it would seem that the only path that is a viable option for us…is also the path that will lead us to a shallow grave…

    PS: as a technical person who’s analysis are mostly based on trends and patterns ….I fail to see how it would have been any different in the absense of martial law…I believe the route would have been different…the result more or less the same…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*