Ever since I have come back to Pakistan to work on my masters thesis, there have been exactly two incidents which have made me shout out loud the phrase, “what the fuck?” upon waking up and reading the latest news online. The first incident to which I refer is the assassination of the Punjab Governor Taseer. The second article that made me utter the profanity instantly was due to yesterday’s brutal murder of yet another leftist politician and Cabinet Minister Shahbaz Bhatti who was also a member of a minority religious group.
The murders themselves are tragic for the family members of the deceased, but they signify an even bigger tragedy, one that threatens to engulf the whole nation. While the country has faced bombing after bombing, the number of official scandals increase, while the law and order situation in this country is deplorable, it is these two news items that have affected Pakistan the most. These murders have impacted the rights of the citizens of Pakistan more than anything else and left me, an idealist human rights student feeling like there is not much hope for my own country.
my own bereavement for my state aside, these crimes have resulted in proving two things; one, that minorities and leftists who dare speak out are facing mortal peril, and two, the image of “the Land of the Pure” in the international world can be tarnished further. In a country founded by a minority Shia, irresponsible fatwas are given out by mullah’s everyday, yet none seem to be arrested for inciting hatred and violence. Contemptible media personalities such as Kamran Shahid and and Meher Bokhari get away with inciting more hatred and intolerance. Murderers are hailed as being Islamic heros by highly educated professionals and are offered free legal representation by insidious lawyers who ironically seem to ignore the very concepts of the rule of law or freedom of speech enshrined in the constitution. Everything damaging to the state and its people is blamed on “the foreign hand” regardless of local inefficiency and bad policy that cannot be changed due to fear of the “Mullah” and ergo, the risk of facing death.
In conditions such as these, with this new wave of religious intolerance, extremism, militancy and loss of life, is it a wonder that the world calls Pakistan a failing or a failed state?
http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/05/blasphemy-law-claims-another-life.html
http://tribune.com.pk/story/126287/shahbaz-bhatti-attacked-in-islamabad/
