By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Are some devious minds and hidden hands at work to harm the nascent democracy in Pakistan or is it a strange coincidence that from Arbab Ghulam Rahim’s beating to the thrashing of Dr Sher Afgan and from there to the partial replica of May 12 in Karachi, those being targeted are either the leading democratic forces or the lawyers fraternity.
What happened to Dr Sher Afgan and Arbab Ghulam Rahim is simply atrocious and highly condemnable. Difference of opinion is the essence of our great religion Islam and the spirit of democracy. Thrashing someone for holding different views is savagery as it reflects animal instincts and not that of a human.
But why to blame democracy and democratic forces for all this? And how justified it is to condemn the whole legal fraternity and undermine their great struggle for the independence of judiciary just because of what a handful of savages, wearing black coats, did to a former federal minister.
The top PPP leadership is being blamed for masterminding the Rahim episode, the PML-N is said to have cooked the Sher Afgan’s saga while the legal community is being held responsible for Wednesday’s mini May 12.
The likes of Sheikh Rashid, in their reaction to Afgan’s bashing, predicted that those voted to power would perhaps not last even for 90 days because of what they were doing. Conveniently ignoring that when Arbab Rahim was beaten with shoes by the PPP activists, the province was being led by the caretaker government and an MQM governor whereas the Sindh Assembly Speaker was Rahim’s own man.
Similarly, when Afgan was thrashed in Lahore, the province was again being led by the caretaker regime and President Musharraf’s choice governor. Afgan, who was under siege of the disgruntled lawyers, has every right to point finger at anyone but much before he had blamed the PML-N, some of the pro-Musharraf leaders had already accused the Nawaz-League for this.
However, credit goes to Afgan for showing continued allegiance to Musharraf, whom he praised a lot in his speech at Mianwali. Afgan, unlike some other pro-Musharraf forces, deserves a pat on his back for cooling down the tempers of the people of Mianwali where there was no dearth of politicians who were fuelling the fire.
In Karachi on Wednesday, the MQM lawyers were beaten by what the MQM called “terrorist lawyers” following which some enraged elements resorted to rampage and set public and private property ablaze. The version of others in Karachi is that the presidency is doing all this to derail the new democracy.
It hurts to be beaten with a shoe; it hurts to be dragged in the streets of Lahore. It is more so when the images are caught by camera eye and those at the receiving end are the former rulers.
But it also hurts to be killed mercilessly whether on April 9 or May 12 and it also hurts to be killed in Waziristan, it too hurts if any of your family members including children are whisked away and handed over to Americans and it too hurts if innocent women, girls and men are bombed to death in a mosque in Islamabad.
During the last eights years of military rule, we the people of Pakistan saw what was really unheard of. Hatred against Musharraf grew with every passing day and reached all time high. The extreme frustration of his Martial Law days culminated with the clear anti-Musharraf mandate given by the people on Feb 18.
The Murree Declaration signed by them on March 9, 2008 promised the restoration of the judiciary to Nov 2, 2007 situation thus making the choices clear for the man at the top, General (retd) Musharraf.
How naïve the PPP leadership would be to do Rahim’s drama? It would have been stupid on part of the PML-N to author the Afgan tale. And how strong have Karachi’s “terrorist lawyers” become and, so suddenly, that they have aligned to the “agencies” and shot dead at least seven people in broad daylight in the poor city of Karachi where peace and normalcy has become a far cry since decades.
Portraying those who received the majority mandate as scoundrels would be like encouraging the anti-democratic forces and humiliating the choice of the people. The likes of Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have given a new hope to this country but they are being painted as hopeless even before they have taken a start.
Point scoring and shifting responsibility will not work. One wonders if our political parties, including the PPP, PML-N, the MQM, JI and others, are prepared to denounce and shun violence whether it is in Karachi or Lahore or in the interior Sindh? If they really hate violence, would they chalk out a code for their future conduct? Can our political leaders stop hurling threats and not speak like mafia chiefs?
Source: The News, 10/4/2008
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