Atif Mian
On Thursday, June 5th, the principal of Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, expelled every student who belonged to the Ahmadi community from the college.
A total of twenty three students, fifteen female and eight male, across the five years of medical school have been expelled as a result. Further details regarding the incident can also be found in reports from the BBC and from the Daily Times.
The Ahmadi students were “accused” of preaching their religious beliefs. The principal was pressured into expelling the entire Ahmadi student body by a mob of protesters belonging to Islami Jamiat e Talaba. The mob circled the Principal’s office and demanded the expulsions. The same day, a mob of about 300 college students also barged into Ahmadi students’ rooms, beat them and threw their luggage out of their rooms.
What makes this incident especially troubling is the fact that the decision to expel Ahmadi students was taken by a government-run medical school, under full knowledge of the relevant Punjab ministries.
As an academic, and a Pakistani, I am totally appalled by this latest incidence of religious fanaticism. One hopes that the present Punjab government turns a page, and instead of supporting the forces of extremism, comes to the protection of its ordinary citizens.
Atif Mian is Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.
Since Pakistan came into being, our favourite slogan has been
Well any response from Shebaz sharif government yet? I fear that right minded Sharifs will support such incidents.
If the law of the land allows it then no one should intervene. And more importantly no one from Jamiaat or any other party has the right to judge if what these students were doing was actually ‘preaching’. It is only the court of law that can make such judgements and pass on rulings accordingly. To me it is not more of a religious issue but a social ill. We Pakistanis have taken up the habits of our leaders in that we flaunt the law and dis respect it at all times. There is no concept of involving judiciary for justice. We are deteriorating into a society that provides street justice (or atleast tries to do so). Aren’t the Karachi incidents of burning of the robbers a pointer to this attitude.
Also note how most of the commenters had to clarify their religious affiliations before commenting on the issue.
For the rest of us we should consider there is more to it than meets the eye.
Zecchetti {It is necessary to look at the complete picture here. These Ahmadi students, who believe Ghulam Ahmad Mirza to be both the mahdi, and