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EDITORIAL: Extremism of the few and dereliction of the state

Citizens of Pakistan rallied on Thursday against religious extremism in general and the blackmailing clerics of Lal Masjid in particular. Citizens’ rights activists organised simultaneous protests in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar to denounce the campaign of vigilantism and intimidation unleashed by the clerics in the heart of Islamabad. The rallies were taken out against the criminal action taken by scores of boys and girls from the seminaries of Hafsa (girls) and Fareedia (men) run by the clerics of Lal Masjid in Islamabad. Armed students went into the house of one Shamim Akhtar and bound her and her daughter and daughter-in-law in ropes and dragged them to the seminary where they were kept for three days while the government in Islamabad wrung its hands and didn’t take any action. The statement of the wronged family is still on the BBC website in which the seminarians also denounce the abducted family as “sinful Shias”.

The government has also made “deals” with the two clerics on the question of illegally occupied real estate. The negotiations were discussed by both sides on the Voice of America in which the government seemed to be offering, not a legal remedy, but a further surrender of state land that will serve only to enhance the power of the two clerics who seem bent upon taking over the functions of all the branches of the state: the police, the judiciary and the legislature. The clerics told the world on VOA that they would perform all the functions of the state because they knew the right way, and denounced the government and the democratic system which they said was “un-Islamic”.

The Lahore march was organised by the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) in collaboration with other non-governmental organisations to register the first-ever citizens’ protest against religious extremism. They were joined by minority groups, political workers, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists and students, as well as contingents of the PPP and PMLN women’s wing, as they marched to the Lahore High Court and the Punjab Assembly building on the Mall. The slogans raised condemned clerical blackmail and intimidation and were supported significantly by the Hall Road traders with banners reading: “Stop blackmailing and exploiting traders in the name of Islam,” and “We condemn mullahs’ operation against CD shops”.

This happened in a city which was put to the torch by extremist clerical movements last year. Businesses that have suffered because of agitation by organised gangs (considered Islamic forces by the government) are now willing to support those elements in society who shun violence and support rule of law and wish the country to make economic progress. Mercifully, the City District Government of Lahore, harassed by elements it thought well of in the past, relaxed its Section 144 law to allow the rally in the midst of a large police presence.

Understandably, the government that has shown no backbone in facing the Lal Masjid clerics came in for criticism by the rallies in the big cities: “We, the people of Pakistan, are not oblivious of this mullah-military alliance. There can be no democracy in Pakistan unless GHQ-backed mullahs stop issuing decrees to exploit people in the name of Islam”. Another slogan went like this: “This mullah is defaming the most beautiful and peaceful religion in the world and wants to hamper the prosperity and progress of Pakistan.”

The procession of protesting men and women that walked up to the Parliament House in Islamabad asked: “Where’s the writ of the state?” In its demonstration of defiance of moral tyranny the rally carried placards saying, “No to religious extremism; yes to life and music” and “Free the children’s library”. Karachi too put up its demonstration of outrage at what was happening in Islamabad. Pakistan’s largest city and economic engine has seen the worst clerical outrages in its history since 2000. It has seen its most respectable citizens done to death and its precious innocent lives lost to suicide-bombing.

In Peshawar, hundreds of women’s rights campaigners – including some 60 burqa-clad women from the tribal areas – staged a rally near the press club, denouncing threats of suicide bombings by Lal Masjid clerics and baton-wielding madrassa students. These citizens have seen the fall of the normally governed cities of the NWFP to the tyranny of Talibanisation.

The citizens of Pakistan have given their verdict against extremism and the abetting government in Islamabad which has allowed this most ugly and false manifestation of Islam to give Pakistan a bad name. *

SECOND EDITORIAL: Pakistani Phoolan Devi’s short career

A very athletic female dacoit was arrested in North Nazimabad in Karachi after she vaulted over a nine-foot wall, following her unsuccessful attempt at armed robbery in the house of a retired banker. Only 22, Rahila was a stage actress once but decided to escape into reality. Her bad luck was that she was seen by someone as she took out her pistol before entering the victim’s house.

Rahila and her gang of four men had planned the dacoity like this. Rahila was to use her histrionic ability to appear like a house-maid to the owner of the house and get him to open the door. This part of the plot actually happened: the retired banker was immediately taken hostage and shut in a room. The police, however, had been informed, which arrived and nabbed the female dacoit after a shootout in which one male dacoit was actually killed. Rahila was dubbed Phoolan Devi, the legendary dacoit-princess of India, by the press after learning that she had worked with a lady earlier and had robbed her house of Rs 2.5 million! The money obviously was not good enough for her. *

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