July
20, 2007
A
Chorus of Crises
(The article was
written before Operation Silence was
launched in Islamabad)
Time was that Pakistan used to lurch
from one crisis to another. All at once,
it seems, there is a chorus of crises,
fraying our nerves, saddening and aging
us.
Perhaps cacophony is a better word,
for a chorus would soothe. The memory
of the start of the Chief Justice crisis
is still unpleasantly vivid, from the
time on March 9th that he was summoned
by General Musharraf and made non-functional.
News and television reports of the Supreme
Court case magnetize on a daily basis,
especially the antics of the federation
lawyers. It is so disillusioning to
read of sworn statements by government
witnesses who then privately recant
before the media, and reveal that they
were made to sign them under duress
and even before the event that they
were swearing to had occurred.
Even more shameful, and entirely unprofessional,
was the government lawyers placing “scandalous
and vexatious” evidence before
the Supreme Court taped inside the Chief
Justice’s residence, resulting
in the Supreme Court throwing out the
evidence as well as the law license
of one of the government lawyers. And
insult to the nation’s deep injury
was Sharifuddin Pirzada, the Attorney-General
and Malik Qayyum feigning ignorance
of the existence of the scandalous evidence.
Akhtar Ali, whose license was suspended,
was low on the totem pole, the poor
fall-guy.
Then the expected summer heat started
to bear down on the nation, and as sure
as the change of the seasons, came the
curse of load-shedding. What an ignominy
for a nation that it apportions a massive
amount for defense but is not able to
provide its citizens the very basic
necessity of electricity. With the intense
June heat, the lack of electricity worsened
the death toll from gastroenteritis
and dehydration.
Minister of State for Finance, Omar
Ayub Khan, presented the budget on June
9. It was an exercise reminiscent of
a high school debate, with every other
sentence directed menacingly toward
the opposition. It is only in Pakistan
that the most vital of issues can be
skillfully and seamlessly avoided. WAPDA
has been advised to get itself a loan
to provide the most basic facility to
the populace.
There is no definitive program to control
Pakistan’s burgeoning population.
According to Stephen Cohen in The
Idea of Pakistan, “Pakistan
’s population grew at a rate of
almost 2.9% annually, a figure much
greater than South Asia’s average
(1.9%) and one of the highest in the
world.” According to him Pakistan
will have 295 million people in 2050,
and then will have surpassed Indonesia.
This incredible growth has been all
but ignored in the budget for 2007,
for no credible population control programs
operate in Pakistan.
It is spine-chilling to see video-footage
of Karachi residents burning tires and
demanding the en-masse resignation of
a government that cannot provide its
citizens the very basic right of basic
utilities, potable water and a good
night’s sleep.
Our luck seems to really be at an all-time
low. A cyclone reared its head and pounded
the coast of Sindh and Baluchistan making
thousands homeless. From electricity
crisis there were now electrocution
deaths, how that made me weep!
The Ghazi brothers do not merit their
names which mean the noble victors,
for their actions have made an international
mockery of Pakistan and Islam. For Abdul
Aziz Ghazi to rally for the martyrdom
of the youth and escape garbed in a
burqa is beyond ignominious. The government
has exercised restraint, contrary to
the anger and impulse displayed by the
American government in the 1993 Waco,
Texas siege of David Koresh and his
followers. That the irrationality and
egotism of one man, Abdul Rashid Ghazi,
has caused the deaths of so many and
continues to keep an entire nation on
pins makes him deserve life without
parole, if not worse.
He wishes to have clear passage. Excuse
me? He states he should not be treated
like a common criminal. Really? Islam
underscores the importance of evidence.
Were there four witnesses to prove Aunty
Shamim’s illicit activities? Or
those of the Chinese masseuse? How dare
they kill the Pakistani rangers? How
dare they build the Lal Masjid on grabbed
land? The commentary of Surah Taubah,
verse 109-110, states that a mosque
not built on taqwa but on divisive forces
must be razed.
The Lal Masjid fanatics clearly have
a superficial, militant and self-serving
version of what-they-call-Islam. They
have peddled the “you cannot raze
a mosque”, “establishment
of Shariah” and “elimination
of vice” as the be-all and end-all
of Islam. Indeed God is the ultimate
judge, but even for kindergartners in
Islam, the Lal Masjid fanatics have
veered far, far away from the just,
peaceful and socially equitable religion
that it is.
Abdul Aziz Ghazi in his post burqa arrest
interview stated that there were only
a “few Kalashnikovs, given by
friends” in the Lal Masjid, and
that no foreign interests were involved.
Children that have left the Lal Masjid
reveal that languages other than Urdu
are being spoken there. After a national
meeting of his organization, Wifaqul
Madaris, Maulana Rafi stated that though
they did not agree with all that the
Ghazi brothers had done, worse offenders
had been given safe passage in Pakistan’s
history and for the sake of innocent
lives, so should Rashid Ghazi.
There is more than just one way to resolve
this. The government has the option
to storm the Lal Masjid and kill and
capture. The other option is to condone
and give safe passage, remembering that
the same fanaticism would breed in another
time, another place and that the empowering
would be significant. Yet another option
is to watch and wait—and one that
I favor. Rashid Ghazi says he has provisions
for a month. Besides the significant
hardship placed on the people living
in that area, this is the one that causes
the least loss of life. The moral, societal
and national outrage over the ludicrous
saga weaved by the Ghazi brothers may
well go against them.
Bilquis Edhi traveled to Lal Masjid
and made an impassioned appeal to release
women and children, to no avail. As
of this writing the siege of the Lal
Masjid continues and the government
gives deadlines that it graciously keeps
extending.
And for more excitement, a failed attempt
on General Musharraf’s life from
a couple of anti-aircraft guns on a
Rawalpindi rooftop, aimed at his flight
path.
And then Benazir and Zardari are forgiven
by NAB, the National Accountability
Bureau. So maybe a Musharraf-Benazir
deal is happening after all? Though
currently an All-Parties Conference
occurs in London and the murmurings
from Benazir seem contradictory, but
anymore one does not know whether to
believe the statement or the insinuation.
The rapidity of events in Pakistan is
essentially vertiginous. One would think
that the constitutional and political
crisis created by the Chief Justice
issue is the most destabilizing, or
foreign involvement in the Lal Masjid
issue potentially explosive. It is neither,
really. While everyone is looking away,
the real threats are multiplying: insidiously,
steadily, surely: a burgeoning population
with no basic amenities. And when that
monster from within rears its head,
roars and runs you have suddenly an
unstoppable revolution.
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and
free-lance columnist residing in Toledo
Ohio . Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
