Adil Najam
The stream of disturbing images from Islamabad continues. It has left one dumbfounded. But one must never be silent in the face of injustice. Of the many disturbing reports and images that have been floating in, there is probably none more poignantly disturbing than this one from ARY:
Violence, of course, can only beget violence, and one saw this too in the manhandling of the State Minister for Information, Tariq Azeem. Yet more evidence that violence is replacing discourse as the mode of disagreement in Pakistani society.
This is not a question of which side you are on. Ultimately you have to be against violence. We have written about shameful violence and police brutality before – tearing down the shalwar of a young man in a ‘missing persons’ protest and then also against the lawyers during the CJ movement. But this is not just shameful; it is needless. Now there are also reports of muzzling the media; another tactic we have seen before. It demonstrates the government’s slipping grip on power, but it also demonstrates a society that is so torn that every issues – may it be religious, social or political – has to end in violence.
The government, after all, has already gotten the verdict it wanted. At least let the people vent out their anger. There is nothing to be gained from this violence. For a nation that has already lost so much, this is merely also losing whatever little dignity that might have remained. As I have written already in a comment elsewhere, history shall judge the merit of the decision that was given by the Supreme Court on the 28th of September, but the violence of the 29th of September was shameful and needless and will remain (yet another) blot of our national political psyche.
What happened was indeed sad and “shameful” to use the very Pakistani term. But let us acknowledge that
1. The actual perpetrators of these atrocities is not Pervez Musharraf and his people but our neo-colonial masters to whom an ordinary Pakistani’s life means nothing ( and whose back-side not just Pervez but Benazir and Nawaz too are proud to kiss) and
2. It has happened before and will happen again in Pakistan’s sad history
Let us now make a brief list of the most shameful days of Pakistan’s history in reverse chronology:
1. Benazir Bhutto’s ogrish and odious existence attempting to return to Pakistan and to give Dr Qadeer Khan to the Indians.
2. The relatives of the “disappeared” Pakistanis being beaten outside the GHQ in Rawalpindi
3. Pakistan’s benefactor Dr Qadeer Khan humiliated on National Television at the instance of Condoleeza Rice
4. Nawaz Sharif Cutting and Running from Kargil in 1999 instead of securing Kashmir (even a Christian ruler would not have done that)
5. Nawaz Sharif attempting to conquer Karachi the second time in 1998 after claiming that he had received “wahi” about who killed Hakim Saeed and in that Holy Revelation he was told to bring the Army back to set up military courts in Karachi
6. Benazir Bhutto celebrating her brother’s death and trying to gain political mileage on it in 1996
7. Nasir Babar and Benazir in 1994-95 torturing Karachiites , drugging them and forcing them to confess on national television to “terrorism” in the “hope” that Karachiites would stop supporting a party which represents the tax-paying middle-class and support Benazir’s own filthy , traitorous, feudal party.
8. General Nasir Akhtar of Sahiwal , Corps Commander Karachi openly threatening to murder Hakim Saeed (then Governor Sind) for criticising Karachi’s Army occupation in 1993-4. Similarly Chief Justice Sind High Court Aslam Zahid was forced to quit after questioning the mass-torture of Karachi’s young men by the Army.
9. The public humiliation of Mr Jinnah’s companion Sardar Shokat Hayat after his daughter Veena was gang-raped allegedly on the orders of Irfan Marwat the protege of Feudal forces then occupying Karachi ( that is one scene I cannot forget)
10. The tears of Javed Miandad after Imran Khan Niazi and his cousin Burki the convict forced Miandad into retirement from cricket (Kash kuchh dair na palko pe utarti shabnam!)
11. Mr Aitzaz Ahsan, Benazir Bhutto’s “Interior Minister” handing lists of Khalistani operatives to India —Aitzaz Ahsan should have been put to death for treason a long time ago even by Christian standards.
12. General Zia’s martyrdom
13. The secessation of East Pakistan at the hands of Generals Niazi and Shaggy Dog not to mention Tikka of Bhutto’s party. This tragedy in which millions perished as part of Punjabi feudal agenda was followed by what remained of Pakistan’s takeover by an incompetent, despicable, corrupt, perverted character who should have been hanged in 1971 not in 1978.
14. Fatima Jinnah’s murder by “Field Marshal” Ayub Khan (this was one of the two wars Ayub Khan won to declare himself Field Marshal, the other one was the nearly lost war of 1965 which he won in primary school text-books)
15. Liaquat Ali Khan’s martyrdom and the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by his murderer Malik Ghulam Mohammad Ghaddar-e-Pakistan) which returned Pakistan to the feudal dark ages.
Does anyone still think Pervez Musharraf is the biggest threat to Pakistan inspite of the challenges Pakistan faces from outside today?
If first step is illegal then there is nothing legal afterward. What so ever done in capital just depicts the out come of old illegal moves/steps taken.
Aim is only one which is not possible legally anywhere in world. To achieve that we should expect such steps to curb any hurdle…
This is not a new thing as already we are having Jungle ka Qanoon.
A country created in the name of Islam, yet you see this in the holy month of ramazan.
KHUDA KAY LIYE … stop this.
peace
A Riot is a Riot against the establishment and will succeed the risings of Pakistan peoples in every corner for more participation at the judiciary system and educational supremacy. My best wishes for the rioting lawyers and their schedule.
Try to organize alternative lawsuits for these one who got imprisoned by throwing and battle the uniformed state liability.
SALAAM!
Adil Bhai,
You hit the nail on the head with every word you have said, the SC 6 judges cowed in to GHQ yet still Musharraf persists in being the author of more blood and destruction.
The rubicon has been crossed for the SC is not free even if the CJ is and he will be for how long? I have called for time and time again for a peaceful way out, this nation needs healing not more division but Musharraf refuses to entertain it. He wants blood also do remember his role vis a vis the blood of May 12th and note that both atrocities were authored from GHQ. I once again plead to President Musharraf to heed my advice in my open letter to him available by clicking this link http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
To the people of Pakistan I ask a simple question why should ONLY LAWYERS AND CIVIL SOCIETY STAND UP FOR PAKISTAN?. We need all of the people of Pakistan to stand up to this vile military regime by doing the most simple of things – PEACEFUL PROTEST. So I urge especially my fellow Pakistanis especially the students from tomorrow to protest in their main bazaars and cities every day with the simple naara ‘ Go Musharraf Go’ . If we choose to remain silent then Pakistan will go to the dogs, and we will deserve it.
Feimanallah
Wasim