What Can Be Done to Change the Status Quo?
By Nasim Yousaf
New York
On May 9, 1958, Dr. Khan Sahib (former Chief Minister of West Pakistan) was assassinated, marking a grim development in Pakistan’s history. What is perhaps equally appalling is the train of events that followed.
In the aftermath of Khan Sahib’s death, renowned patriot Allama Mashriqi was arrested and falsely charged with having plannedthe murder. Mashriqi’s son and followers were imprisoned and his party was banned. The subsequent victimization of the aging statesman, under the pretenses of Khan Sahib’s murder trial, revealed the widespread corruption among the ruling class and pushed the country into serious turmoil, a fate from which the nation has yet to recover.
From the very beginning, Allama Mashriqi had been a defender of the people. He had been against the partition of India, as he felt it would tear the nation apart and bring suffering and hostility to both Muslims and non-Muslims. Furthermore, he had been critical of Quaid-i-Azam M.A. Jinnah and his party, arguing that their policies favored the British rulers, instead of the masses. And even after the creation of Pakistan, Mashriqi continued to criticize the Government’s policies and expose the corruption that existed within its ranks. It was no surprise then that the establishment was looking for an excuse to silence him. The murder of Dr. Sahib provided them with the perfect pretense to carry out their agenda.
One day after Khan Sahib’s murder, Mashriqi was imprisoned in the Lahore Fort. Here, according to his son (in an interview in Dawn, Karachi on May 17, 1958), Mashriqi was confined to a filthy room, subjected to violence and abusive language, and denied food for the first two days. Mashriqi himself would later describe the harsh treatment, stating that several persons were made to stand on his chest. He further told his counsel: “ May God grant me courage to bear this trouble and torture. History shows how innocent persons have always been prosecuted .” Indeed the authorities showed no compassion in their treatment of the 70-year old leader, who had won the hearts of millions.
On June 6 th, Mashriqi’s trial in Dr. Khan Sahib’s murder began in the court of Magistrate M.N. Rizvi. With his health deteriorating under the harsh conditions of his confinement, Mashriqi submitted an application for exemption from court attendance, pleading, as reported in The Pakistan Times of June 19, 1958, “that long sitting of the court were adversely affecting his health.” However, the Magistrate denied the exemption.
As the trial got underway, it quickly became apparent that Mashriqi had been fraudulently implicated. This is evidenced by the fact that key witnesses brought forth by the prosecution turned hostile. For example, Khursheed Khalid, Inayatullah Akhtar, and Asghar Ali, three of Mashriqi’s followers (who had been brought forth as prosecution witnesses), stated that Mashriqi had nothing to do with the murder. They revealed that their earlier statements had been given under unbearable police brutality. Khursheed Khalid stated that the police“…made me stand up with a stick between my feet, another stick was on my shoulders and my handcuffed hands were raised above it with one man holding the chain. Others were beating me...When I fell down they made me sit down and gave me water…Six or seven men were inflicting violence on me…Again violence was committed on me on the night between May 12 and 13, and I was beaten after being laid down on the ground… they took turns at beating me. The night had not gone far when I agreed to say what they wanted me to say because I could not bear more violence.”
Despite the fact that the main witnesses had turned hostile, the case against Mashriqi was not dropped. Instead, the Magistrate committed Mashriqi to the Sessions. By this point, Mashriqi’s health was deteriorating severely. The Civil & Military Gazette (July 22, 1958) reported that Mashriqi again reminded the Magistrate that “no doctor had ever visited him in the jail [Borstal Jail] during his two-month stay there and that he was suffering from chest and other diseases …” His counsel, recognizing Mashriqi’s ailing health, filed bail applications with the Additional District Magistrate and subsequently the District & Sessions Judge. An associated doctor’s report reaffirmed that Mashriqi needed “adequate treatment under expert medical supervision.” However, bail was still not granted. Finally, yet another application was filed with Justice Shabbir Ahmed of the West Pakistan High Court. Ahmed sought the opinion of the Principal of King Edward Medical College (Lt. Col. Ilahi Buksh), who reported, “Allama Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi is seriously ill and he needs immediate and proper treatment. If his condition is only pneumonic which may be tuberculosis, virus or bacterial, the progress is more hopeful than if the condition turns out to be neoplasm (cancer). In the latter case taking his age and other factors into consideration the outcome is very gloomy and practically hopeless.”
Clearly, Mashriqi was in serious condition. His counsel, Barrister Ijaz Hussain Batalvi, desperately argued on his behalf. According to ThePakistan Times (September 2, 1958), Batalvi “submitted that the medical report…had established beyond doubt that the petitioner was ill and infirm…His lungs were not functioning properly...[Batalvi further submitted that] Mr. Mashriqi’s condition was precarious and he lay handcuffed in a ward of the Mayo Hospital with six constables standing guard on him.” Batalvi also stated that the atmosphere was not conducive to proper treatment.
Despite Mashriqi’s grave condition, the Court refused to grant him bail, and he continued to suffer. On September 22, Mashriqi’s trial proceeded to the court of District & Sessions Judge Anwar-ul-Haq (who later became the Chief Justice of Pakistan). TheCivil & Military Gazette ( September 23, 1958) reported that Mashriqi was brought to court “handcuffed, [and he] looked pale and haggard.” The witnesses who had already turned hostile maintained their stance and said that Mashriqi had not prompted anyone to commit murder. Finally, almost five months after Mashriqi’s arrest, the case took a pivotal turn; Khan Sahib’s assassin, who had originally implicated Mashriqi in the case, withdrew his earlier position and confessed the truth:
“…I am the man who intentionally murdered Dr. Khan Sahib…in full possession of my senses. I planned the whole thing myself without the assistance or instigation of any other person.”
Having lost its main witness, the prosecution no longer had any case against Mashriqi. Batalvi had rightly equated the case to a “cock and bull story.” And so, Mashriqi was finally acquitted on November 17, 1958.
When Mashriqi emerged from jail, he was found to be suffering from cancer. Upon his release, he issued the following statement:
“The undesirable torture I have been put to by the previous Government for uncommitted crimes will remain a landmark in the history of corruption and tyranny for all time…My suffering almost to the point of death that I had to face at the hands of the political tyrants, has not gone in vain and I am happy that truth and righteousness have at last won a battle like of which has, perhaps seldom happened in the history of the defeat of evil.”
In closing, the authorities’ brutal treatment of Mashriqi, a freedom fighter who had valiantly struggled to liberate the nation from foreign rule, is inexcusable. It is unbelievable to think that the leadership attempted to send one of the subcontinent’s greatest freedom fighters to the gallows. Indeed, Khursheed Khalid had stated in court (as reported in The Pakistan Times of June 15, 1958) that the police planned to get Mashriqi and other accused Khaksars hanged. The actions of the leaders clearly reveal the degree to which they were consumed by power and corruption, and their decisions pushed the nation into greater turmoil. In fact, in 1958, the first Martial Law was imposed in the country (Mashriqi was still in prison). Subsequently, the situation continued to deteriorate as a result of the selfish decisions of the leadership.
Thus, in attempting to falsely implicate Mashriqi, the establishment had given a final blow to any hope of democracy in the country’s foreseeable future. It was a future where leaders would continue to be corrupt and power-hungry, and any opposition would be crushed. A future where the judiciary would struggle to remain independent and free from outside influence. A future where the interests of the masses would be sacrificed in favor of those of the corrupt and hypocritical ruling class. It is a future that still exists; Pakistan today is not far from Mashriqi’s dire prediction of May 1947:
“This Raj will be ten times more tyrannical, more deformed, more ghastly, more imperialistic…It will be, in fact, an anarchy in order, a stereo-typed tyranny, and a confusion worst confounded. It will be a perpetual reign of Atom Bomb and Rule of Terror…It will be a reign of ‘Hell on Earth’…”
The question then is: what can be done to change the status quo? The solution requires not a small change, but rather an overhaul of the entire system. First, the people must rise up against the corruption and hypocrisy that permeate the ruling class. Furthermore, the media, which currently provides a venue for mendacious politicians, should play its proper role by exposing corrupt leaders and offering a platform for genuine ones. Finally, the nation should again commit itself to the core values of morality and equality articulated in Mashriqi’s teachings. Such a fundamental change will not be easy, but it holds the key to the political, economic, and social salvation of Pakistan.
(The writer is a historian and an independent scholar; his research focuses on Allama Mashriqi and the Khaksar Tehrik)
