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
Very relevant debate on Capital Talk:
http://www.awaz.tv/playvideo.asp?pageId=1327
Sherbano, Bijrani IS the biggest part of the problem. Read the full post.
As minister for postal service Zehri cannot do much jarl but as Minister for education Bijarani is in charge of what our children will study.
The people who are confusing the issue are those who are trying to make this about Zardari or PPP and are not interested in the issue at all. I want Zaedari to remove these people from the cabinet and then I am fine. Those of us who support democracy must speak out against bad decisions even and specially when they come from elected government.
As to the ISI stooges here who want to spread anti-Pakistan ideas like Pakistan is not fit for democracy all I can say is he’ll with them. I have no time for these enemies of Pakistan.
People, please don’t try to complicate and cloud the issue by saying absurd things like “when a country has been condemned with dictators rule so many years in the name of saving the nation, even democratically elected start acting as dictators” and “we have had plenty of educated people in politics and they are no better.”
The bottom-line is that we have cronies in the the govt. Zardari took 240 poeple to SA on a trip to ask for funds! And now these two cabinet appointments. This is very simple. These people don’t give a damn about Pakistan. This has VERY little to do with the last government or the one before it etc. These people simply don’t care and need to be exposed and kicked out in the next elections. Don’t redirect the blame.
@Aqil Sajjad
Correct me if I’m wrong the questionable senators are Israrullah Zehri and Jan Mohammad Jamali. Bijrani, the supposedly Oxford educated, is not part of this issue. Just want to be sure to keep the focus on the right culprits.
@Shiraz
Excellent suggestions for action! I am using some.
Aqil, what this shows is only that this nonsense theory that Pakistan’s problem is that educated people do not come into politics, is exactly that. NONSENSE.
We have had plenty of educated people in politics and they are no better. Supposedly the military wallas were educated and they also looted the country.
The so-called educated classes are fond of making this point because it makes them feel superior to the “ordinary” Pakistanis. Look at the disgusting way in which so many educated people are snarling and growling at ordinary Pakistanis for not having been “smart enough” to vote right. As if they themselves are “smart enough”. When these classes get the chance to rule – an most of the cabinet is still from the educated urban classes – they loot and steal and cheat in exactly the same way.
Worst, these so-called educated people don’t even have the decency to join Adil Najam in condemning the act of Vani. That is what this is about, not about this government or that.
There was a famous American cartoon in the 1960s where the main character (POGO) says, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND IT IS US.”
Yes we have!