Adil Najam
Report from News (21 February, 2007):
A fanatic shot dead Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Zill-e-Huma Usman “for not adopting the Muslim dress code” at a political meeting here at the PML House on Tuesday. A party worker caught the accused, Maulvi Sarwar, and handed him over to the Civil Lines Police. Huma was at the PML House to hold an open Kachehry. As she was busy meeting the PML women activists, the accused sitting in the audience approached her with a pistol and pumped bullets into her head from a point-blank range… The accused, M Sarwar Mughal – popularly known as Maulvi Sarwar – is a resident of Baghbnapura in Gujranwala. Two police stations of Gujranwala and the Tibbi police of Lahore had booked Maulvi Sarwar for the murder of six women, but he was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence. His alleged spree of killing “immoral” women started in the year 2002. In his confession statement before the police on Tuesday, he said he was opposed to women holding public office. He added that after he read in the newspaper that the minister was holding an open court, he decided to kill her.
Sometimes you just wonder why! Sometimes you just want to give up!
I have been feeling sad and numb and down and dejected all day. I heard about the brutal murder of Punjab Minister Zile Huma Usman’s murder by a crazed fanatic some 10 hours ago. And I have been in utter shock.
I have tossed and turned. I had thought earlier that I would not even write about it. What is the use? When a society goes so mad that a woman is killed just because she is a woman, what can a blog post do. Just ignite more silly debates; more childish heckling; more immature point-scoring; trying to show how smart you are; or, more likely, trying to show how idiotic others are; reaffirming your own belief that you are always right, and everyone else is always wrong; single-track chest thumping; self-righteous finger-pointing. No remorse. No compassion; not a word of sympathy; not a shred of caring. All there is, is anger; getting high on our own anger; anger for its own sake; getting so very angry that you even forget what or who you are angry at.
But now I do want to write about this. We, as a society, have some serious thinking to do.
What killed Zille Huma Usman? Not religion. Not madness. But anger. Uncontrolled anger.
A society that seems to be fueled by anger. No conversation is seen to be legitimate unless it is an angry conversation. And the solution to everything seems to be violence. ‘Kill the infidels’ say the believers. ‘Kill the mullahs’ shout the modernists. ‘Hang them by the gallows.’ ‘Put them in boats and let them sink.’ ‘Death is what they deserve.’ We have heard it all right here. I suspect we will hear it again. That dastardly, self-righteous anger. This violence in the language, as Zille Huma so tragically found, becomes the violence of bloodshed all too easily. Today it was in the name of religion. Tomorrow it will be something else.
So, do me a favor folks. Give her some dignity. Hold your anger. Think about what happened. Ponder. And pause. For the sake of whatever is sacred to you; please pause!
An innocent woman’s life has already been taken by our inability to put a lid on our passions and our anger. Let us please not make a tamasha out of her death by making her a poster child for whatever ’cause’ we are parading for right now.
I don’t know what the discussion is on, but I can vouch for the fact that Omar R Quraishi is one of our top journalists… ex-Dawn and currently the News… and frankly the quality of The News features has gone up manifold since he has come to the helm of affairs.
Let us celebrate our every day heroes… instead of abusing them.
haha — whatever you say lahori – whatever you say — actually i think its you who couldnt take a rebuttal and criticism — and when you couldnt handle that you launch a personal attack — how convenient — waisay lahori i wonder how you would respond to someone on this board who made a sweeping generalisation, with regard to your profession, that everyone in it was corrupt
What this Maulvi Sarwar did is an insult to all of us and a sign of how bad things are. He may be mad, but his views are also held by people who are more sane. The points that these religious fanatics are now raising on curriculum, on womens rights, on minorities and everything else, they just want another Taliban rule in Pakistan. We must not sit silently on this. Let us make sure that the death of this woman is not forgotten and not wasted.
Omar, you sound like a spoiled snob who thinks he knows everything. Which is usually the sign of someone who knows nothing.
Maybe you are right. Maybe the press was not bought off here. Maybe its just that it is run by a bunch of people who don’t know their job to well, and can’t seem to take criticism very well either!
lahori you may live in samanabad but you sound like one of those clueless expats — i didnt get offended at all by what you said but it is clear you are one of those self-proclaimed experts on what the media doesnt do and what it should do — thats like me trying to give expert advice on banking or finance but i wont — like i said there was a LOT OF NOISE when it happened and there was considerable follow up but as it happens with the press other MORE IMPORTANT stories came up — you obviously think that press should cover something that is your pet obsession but im sorry it doesnt happen like that — as someone has pointed out the hard fact of life is that much worse things than what that nirala guy did are happening in society — many by influential people but the press covers — FOR INSTANCE, YOU SURELY DONT THINK THAT THE MATTER OF DISAPPEARANCES IS BEING DONE BY THOSE WHO DONT HAVE INFLUENCE – HOWEVER I HOPE YOU HAVENT MISSED THE COVERAGE OF THIS ISSUE IN THE PRESS — SO HOW COME THERE IS NO PRESSURE ON US NOT TO COVER THIS TOPIC — WHICH IS CLEARLY MORE SENSITIVE THAN THE NIRALA STORY
like i said lahori, you sound like a clueless expat
aqil — a lot is written about the police all the time — a lot has been written about police reforms as well — other than by afzal shigri — and btw you dont read to write all that much on it because its clear what the problem is– lack of political will to implement the reforms and constant interference by politicians, and the new nazim system of governance — like i said you probably missed this coverage — also its a slightly technical subject so there might be relatively fewer articles but they have come and most of them say the same thing — as in its clear what needs to be done –
(Please note, the all caps are for emphasis)