Editorial: Existentialist threat

The PML-N’s right wing ideology is an open secret. Thus it is not surprising if the party has now come clear on its stance vis-à-vis the militant outfits. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has finally exposed the real face of his party by giving an inane statement in a blatant show of provincialism. Taking a narrow provincialist stance while totally ignoring the national crisis, Shahbaz Sharif pleaded with the Taliban to spare Punjab from its terrorist attacks. He said that since the Taliban opposed foreign dictation and were pursuing the policy of terrorism to fight against a foreign invasion (i.e. the Americans) and the PML-N too opposed General Musharraf’s policies, Punjab ruled by the PML-N should be spared terrorist attacks. Mr Sharif said, “Musharraf planned a bloodbath of innocent Muslims at the behest of others only to prolong his rule, but we in the PML-N opposed his policies and rejected dictation from abroad.”

The absurdity of these comments cannot be overstated. Not only is this statement a foolish one, it is a highly insensitive one. Has Mr Sharif forgotten that Punjab is only one province of the country and there are three other provinces — Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP? The whole country is on fire and reverberating with terrorist attacks left, right and centre. The Punjab chief minister realised his folly and tried to make amends a day after giving this statement by saying that his words had been taken out of context and that he “lauded the brave people of the NWFP for their fight for the survival of Pakistan”. This belated amendment did not help matters much. Nighat Orakzai, an MPA from the NWFP Assembly, strongly protested at this statement and threw her dupatta away on the floor of the Assembly, saying that Mr Shahbaz Sharif should now wear it. Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer also condemned the chief minister’s remarks and was of the view that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah must be turning in his grave right now at seeing this injustice being done to his beloved country.

At a time when Pakistan is fighting militancy on its soil, the PML-N taking a pro-militant stance is rubbing salt into the wounds of the Pakistani nation. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has dug a pit for himself by passing these callous remarks, exposing his true character and that of his party’s in the process. The suspicion against the PML-N that it has been harbouring ties with banned militant outfits has now been all but proved. We saw in the by-elections in Jhang how the Punjab law minister was hobnobbing with a leader of a banned outfit and when confronted with the news, he showed no remorse. Such is the level of politics being played by the PML-N at the cost of this nation’s future. The Punjab government has long been in denial over the presence of militants in Southern Punjab. It needs to wake up before it is too late. The news of the TTP offering to stop these attacks if the Punjab government assures that it would stop the crackdown against the militants further highlights the implicit nexus between the terrorists and the PML-N. It would not be far from the truth if we were to say that the PML-N is proving itself to be the greatest existentialist threat to the remaining part of Jinnah’s Pakistan. Spare this country, Mr Chief Minister — we lost half of it in 1971, do not pave the way for another disaster by supporting the terrorists. *

Second Editorial: Sectarian tensions in Karachi

Firing on leading clerics of two hardline outfits
and their sons and associates in separate incidents in Karachi last week smacks of deep-rooted hatred, vengeance, and perceptions of threat. Citizens of this country are starting to lose faith in the ability of the state to curb violence. Almi Majlis Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat’s head Mufti Saeed Ahmad Jalalpuri, his son and two of his associates died, while a senior leader of banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, was critically injured and passed away on Sunday. His son also lost his life to this firing. While the Punjab government has been behaving ostrich-like for quite a while till it was forced to bring out its head from the sand and look in the face of the security threat on its territory by a series of bombings in Lahore, the Sindh government has its own set of problems. It failed to pre-empt the attack on the Ashura and Chehlum processions in which scores of innocent people lost their lives. Had the Shia leaders not restrained their followers, the situation could have spiralled out of control. However, tensions between the two religious denominations — Shias and Sunnis — are once again high.

Shias and Sunnis have coexisted peacefully in the subcontinent for centuries with each sect participating in the other’s celebrations on religious occasions. The hostility between them that we see today is the bitter fruit of the jihadi philosophy imposed upon society in the 1980s, and the free availability of deadly weapons. Both outfits have accused the usual suspects for these murders. The SSP has pointed fingers at the Shias, while the Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat has nominated in its FIR, along with others, Zaid Hamid, whom it accuses of being an associate of a false prophet in the 1990s. The danger is that these murders may provoke another cycle of targeted killings. The SSP is not averse to this kind of violence and has to its credit the murders of many Shia citizens, some of them highly accomplished professionals. If these murders are not properly investigated and the perpetrators brought to book, sectarian sentiments may drown restraint, plunging Karachi into chaos once again. *

Home | Editorial