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
Media coverage so far.
The news was the first to publish some letters to the editor and criticize the inclusion of Zehri in its editorial. It has also published several opinion pieces criticising the govt for including these two Jahils in the cabinet.
The nation: its editorial also criticized Zehri’s inclusion.
Dawn has taken a few days to publish two letters about Zehri. No editorial comment at all. A couple of opinion pieces there too; clearly, they can’t tell Cowasjee to follow their subtle pro-PPP slant. Cowasjee wrote a good piece.
(They carefully keep it subtle in order to maintain an impression of objectivity)
Chamcha times: I haven’t seen any editorial, opinion piece or letter to the editorial on the subject.
TV talk shows:
As far as I know, capital talk did a good program where Sammar Minallah bravely confronted Bijarani. Apart from that, I don’t know if any other TV talk show has picked up the issue.
Urdu newspapers: Can’t say since I don’t have access to them.
It goes without saying that we need to write more letters and articles
Another reward for Israrullah Zehri, this time from the speaker of the national assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza .
=======================
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008 \11\11\story_11-11-2008_pg1_8
In-camera resolution : 17-member special body of parliament set up
By Muhammad Bilal
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza named 17 members of a parliamentary committee to oversee the implementation of a consensus resolution on security on Monday.
…
The members of the committee are: Raza Rabbani, Babar Awan and Sherry Rehman from the Pakistan People
YA ALLAH KAINAT KE MALIK MAUJUDA FRONO,SADDADO AUR NAMROODO SE HAMAY NAJAT DILA UN SAB KO GARK KAR DAY JAISE FIRONO SADDADO AUR NAMROODO KO NEST AUR NABOOD KIA KAUOO KE YE ITNE KHAWAR AUR ZALIL HONE KE BAAD BHI NAHI SUDHRE,IN KO HAMARE PAY MAZID BARDAST NAHI KAR SAKTE ,RAHIM HAY KARIM HAY HAMARI SOON HAM TERAY MEHBOOB KI UMMAT HAY .AMEEN,.
@Aqil
“we need to support people who try to make a difference”.
You have raised a very important point. We should recognize these people who are trying to do good and support them in their cause.
Here is an excerpt from Cowasjee’s column in Dawn I found interesting (http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm).
—
[…] how do the women who sit in the cabinet with these two men, Zehri and Bijarani, react? They are silent. How can they bring themselves, in all good conscience, to even sit in the same room as these men who think in the manner in which they do, let alone agree to be their companions in cabinet?
When Sherry Rahman, daughter of that able man of law and letters, Hasan Ali Abdur Rahman and the niece of a former good Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Tufail Ali Abdur Rahman, both upright men, became minder-in-chief to President Asif Ali Zardari, her friends and supporters heaved a sigh of relief. After having read at Smith and Sussex, should she now not resign and persuade her fellow women ministers to do the same? Should they not be worried about what will be written in the footnotes of history?
—-
Proud Pakistani:
I’ afraid, I would beg to partially differ with you.
First, we need to recognize that there is a clear difference between educated feudals/sardars like Bijarani and the urban middle class.
Yes, the urban middle class also loots the country when in positions of power, but it is still better than the feudals who take part in honour killings, vani and other such things.
Secondly, while criticising the military, (and I am not a supporter of military rule), we should still not lose sight of one objective reality. Feudalism is all about inheritance. On the other hand, the military is a meritocracy. Take Kayani; he is the son of an ordinary soldier. In the military, even if you are the son of a general, you have to start as second Lt and rise through all the ranks before you can become a general. Being a general’s son does not in any way garantee that you will become a general too. No matter how much we dislike the military’s interference in politics, we can not objectively deny this reality.
So the criticism that the educated middle class does not have much participation in politics is not nonsense; there is plenty of justification it there.
Now, whose fault is it? That’s a more tricky question. Our middle class generally remains aloof from politics, so yes, its lack of active participation is part of the problem. It is indeed rather unreasonable if we curse the system but are not willing to get our hands dirty to improve it. Having said that, we should also recognize that the system is biased in such a way that it’s much more difficult for someone from the middle class to make their entry into politics than a feudal or industrialist. The few who have done so with some degree of success have not done it completely on their own. Either they joined one of the same bad corrupt and rotten mainstream parties or they were helped by the establishment as in case of the MQM. It is easy to hide behind the one-liner that it’s all because the military has not allowed the system to evolve, but that’s certainly not the only problem.