Dr Yasmeen Rashid is 75 years old, suffers from cancer, and is a medical doctor who is known for her philanthropy, especially for the poorer women of Pakistan. Yet, in disregard of her station in life, she has been in prison, on spurious charges, for nearly two years

 

‘Chadar and Chardiwari’

By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

What’s, perhaps, the most disturbing practice given currency under the present brutal ‘raj’ in Pakistan, is the violation of what’s known as the sanctity of ‘chadar and chardiwari’ (the outer covering of a woman’s dress, and the boundary wall of her abode). This is especially jarring and disconcerting in a Pakistan that ostensibly flaunts its Islamic credentials and moorings. The country calls itself ‘the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

That being the case, those who are horrendously guilty of violating and desecrating the fundamental precepts of Islam which accord a status of respect and honor to the females of a Muslim polity. The rights of dignity accorded to its womenfolk is the pride of Islam. But those claiming to be guardians of faith and frontiers of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan have violated the honor of Pakistani women with utter disdain, if not contempt.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of female followers of IK and his PTI have been hounded and persecuted, with utter impunity in the wake of their leader’s incarceration on trumped-up charges. They have been dragged on the streets of major cities of Pakistan, beaten by male scoundrels of police.

And this horrible mistreatment of women has been routinely carried out without any regard for the age or status of the victim of the mafia of the Bonapartes’ ire. Dr Yasmeen Rashid is one outstanding example of the gangster and harsh tactics against the Pakistani women in vogue.

She’s 75 years old, suffers from cancer, and is a medical doctor who is known for her philanthropy, especially for the poorer women of Pakistan. Yet, in disregard of her station in life, she has been in prison, on spurious charges, for nearly two years.

Several other elderly women—mothers or wives of prominent leaders of PTI—have likewise been treated shabbily with no regard, whatsoever, for their age or medical condition.

The maltreatment meted out to IK’s wife, Bushra Bibi, is a particular pointer to the moral degradation and contempt for the basic tenets of Islam. She, along with IK, was implicated in a despicable case espousing that the couple—who had both been married before—had committed adultery in marrying each other. That flimsy case, symptomatic of moral depravity, was eventually thrown out by the courts. But Bushra Bibi was kept behind bars for more than six months.

In this perspective of wholesale plunder of Islamic guiding principles and fundamental tents, the head of the Bonapartes had the gall to accuse the womenfolk of PTI of disrespecting Islamic principles.

Addressing an assembly of youths, gathered from among Islamic academies and schools, he hectored PTI ladies, “Who are you,” to disrespect the womenfolk of Pakistan. In his purblind defense of the brutal treatment of the people of Pakistan, he lost the thread of his argument. It’s he and the mafia holding Pakistan to ransom under his watch that’s guilty of desecrating the basic injunctions of the Qur’an.

The mainstream news media of Pakistan has been brutally crushed by the Bonapartes. Therefore, there has been not so much as a squeak or murmur of protest in its coverage of the Bonaparte’s hectoring.

However, the social media—despite the gags intended to be imposed on it under recent amendments to the notorious Pakistan Electronic Crimes Authority (PECA)—has been quite abuzz with stinging criticism of the Hafiz’ unsolicited outburst.

Former President, Arif Alvi, currently on a visit to the US, was unsparing, too, in his no-holds-barred interview on FOX-2 Channel. He minced no words in denouncing the military mafia for its draconian rule over Pakistan in the wake of IK’s forced ouster from power. This has prompted some comments in the vibrant and watchful social media of the likely fallout on Alvi for his withering expose of the Bonapartes’ vicious, and pernicious, rule over Pakistan.

Lost in this tumult and all the hullabaloo is the subtle irony that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan injected in his address at the National Assembly of Pakistan in the course of his recent two-day official visit to Islamabad.

Erdogan, addressing the largely hand-picked and hand-maiden Assembly of their puppets, mentioned, pointedly, that on his last visit to Pakistan, in 2019, his host was the then PM Imran Khan. Reminding his hushed audience of that visit, Erdogan regretted that IK wasn’t among his audience and said he wished he had been there, too.

Of course, the cowed-down mainstream news media hasn’t reported, even one word, of Erdogan’s ironic address to a captive NA. But social media couldn’t let go of this god-sent opportunity to remind the Bonapartes of what they are in the eyes of the leader of a close and time-tested friendly Turkey.

But what even the social media hasn’t pointed out is Erdogan’s sterling achievement in the context of Turkey’s own Bonapartes.

Turkish generals, too, suffered from their Tatiri complex (anyone suffering from megalomania is akin to a tatiri bird) until a popularly elected and hailed iconic Erdogan clipped their wings and consigned them, for good, to their barracks where they belonged.

How one wishes that IK, too, could have done the same to his Pakistani Bonapartes.

But, who knows what he might still do if given a second lease of life at the helm of Pakistan. What’s certain is that Pakistan, like Turkey, will not be able to break the oppressive shackles of suffering thrust on it by power-hungry Bonapartes, without relieving them of their Tatiri complex. Otherwise, there’s no hope of salvation for Pakistan. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com

(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)