Shining beacon
Sir,
Malala Yousafzai is like a breath of fresh air for a country like Pakistan, haunted by villains, tyrants and men spewing hatred and hypocrisy in the name of a religion that preaches tolerance, welfare and peace and encourages acquisition of knowledge. Most Muslim-majority states in the world are plagued with tyrannical monarchies, military dictatorships, and pied pipers leading illiterate masses back to medieval ages, instead of focusing on development of human resources. There is no progress, prosperity, state security and sovereignty. In a country where lives of citizens residing even in the major financial hub Karachi are not secure, Malala Yousafzai had the moral courage and character to stand up to the Taliban in Swat, at a time when this once peaceful place was hostage to armed gangs and extremist fundamentalists enforcing their own version of Islam, which had nothing in common with the religion preached by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Both Pakistan and India are infected with feudalism, where political power and nobility are considered to be acquired through accident of birth. Malala Yousafzai rose from a poor lower middle class background to acquire international recognition and honor through her sheer commitment to promote female education.
The unfortunate reality is that the curse of terrorism which plagues Pakistan, posing a threat to its national security, is a product of myopic vision of military dictators like Zia and Musharraf, who gave sanctuary to armed terrorists to feed their insatiable greed for power, foreign grants and patronage by the West.
The $50 billion that poured into Pakistan between 1982 and 1987 evaporated into thin air, with not a cent going into the national exchequer. All that this unfortunate country inherited was the curse of ethnicity, sectarianism, powerful armed private militias, and an environment where land and drug mafias plundered this country at will, with tacit approval of a corrupt bureaucracy and a gang of political opportunists.
Tariq Ali,
Dubai.
Dejection
Sir,
Muslims are the second largest population in India, with 14.2% of the country’s population or roughly 172 million people identifying Muslim. Estimates show India may have more Muslims than Pakistan, though a new census in Pakistan will give the exact figure, as the overall population of Pakistan is estimated at around 191.71 million. Over the centuries, Muslims have played a prominent role in India’s economic rise and cultural influence, and in every walk of life, including science, arts, sports, music and film industries. Out of the 12 presidents of India, three have been Muslims. The only two South Asian Muslim billionaires named by Forbes magazine, Yusuf Hamied and Azim Premji, are from India. In the field of Unani medicine, one can name Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hakim Abdul Hameed and Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman. Salim Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist, also known as the “birdman of India”.
There is a complex history of Hindu-Muslim riots in India. The aftermath of the Partition of India in 1947 saw large scale ethnic strife and bloodshed throughout the nation. Since then, India has witnessed sporadic large-scale violence sparked by underlying tensions between sections of Hindu and Muslim communities. One of the most violent events in recent times took place during the Gujrat riots in 2002. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the violence. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless as the rioters set fire to Muslim homes and businesses. Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujrat, was widely accused of turning a blind eye to the violence.
The Muslims of India have been living under fear, horror, panic and dread. They have been threatened by extremist Hindus nowadays. The ruling party has started a concerted campaign against Muslims. The main features of this campaign include protests against the so-called ‘love jihad’ – Muslim men allegedly converting Hindu women to Islam by trapping them in love affairs – and ‘ghar wapsi’ (homecoming) initiatives, which convert Muslims and Christians ‘back’ to Hinduism.
Mansoor Ahmed,
Faisalabad.
Grey eyes
Sir,
A tiny heap of skinny bones lay in a perished town,
Her eyes opened, wide open, in a bare head, not bowed down,
A maid was seen in robe of green, now spotted red with gore,
Pale grey eyed, a Yemeni girl, half dead at her own door,
With stabbing pain in broken leg, she could not walk or stand,
Her face scratched and bleeding chin, what hell loosed on this land,
Her parents, siblings and all mats were killed in holy strike,
A shining flame from heaven fell and gone all wall and dyke,
It killed all nice and hungry men and crying kids for food,
It burnt all life and let death dance in awful mist and mood,
Some nasty blow on her weak leg and cracking flame in cars
The broken building on her head and falling iron bars,
Now she was in a lane, all injured, bleeding and forlorn,
She could not think, but weep and cry at misery of her own,
Some debris fell on her from high; it did not matter more,
What pain she felt, she did not know, no cause she could explore,
She was all dead but eyes could see a flash in smoking sky,
A plane plunged at the lightning speed, and life heaved the last sigh,
It shot a high tech guided bomb to make the task fulfilled,
Her eyes still opened, body burnt, no more she could be killed,
The grey eyes of Yemeni girl, will let the time to see,
What noble and the holy did with suffering humanity.
Hamza,
Lahore.
Gone astray
Sir,
The PTI had originally emerged as a new, alternative political party, riding on a wave of disappointment of the masses who feel betrayed by the PPP and the PML-N. Prudence demanded that the PTI be careful in its choice of politicians willing to join the bandwagon. People’s patience has run out, and they will no longer tolerate any false promises that cannot be kept.
The speeches made in various protest rallies must refrain from raising people’s expectations to a level where they cannot be met, nor indulge in saber-rattling, because the rot that has set in will take time, effort and commitment by men of integrity to clean, not the type that dominate podium in huge political gatherings addressed by Imran Khan.
PTI needs to review its own inconsistencies and contradictions and must learn to tolerate dissent and adhere to political ethics, which demand respect for opposition in words and deeds. Javaid Hashmi was once showered with praises and considered to be the voice of conscience after he left the PML-N for differences similar to the ones he left the PTI for. But today, Imran Khan and his followers call him Daghi. Those who talk about his role under Gen Ziaul Haq must not forget that it was Hashmi who stood up against a powerful dictator and chose to go to prison instead of submitting to an oppressor, while there were many in the PML-Q, PTI, PPP and the PML-N who chose to worship the rising sun and made compromises with a man who usurped the constitution.
What Pakistan needs is political leaders who follow Quaid-e-Azam and pursue his goals of a modern democratic welfare state with zero tolerance for corruption and no political role for civil or uniformed bureaucrats. Imran Khan needs to cultivate men of integrity in his party.
Ali Malik,
Lahore.
Answer needed
Sir,
Imran Khan says his campaign is against corruption and the power structure wherein the judicial system is shackled, private armed militias kill at will, extortion is openly collected, merit violated and the Constitution – on which the foundations of a modern democratic welfare state envisioned by the father of the nation was to be built – often held in abeyance.
While the Constitution guarantees that all citizens are equal before the law, and must be answerable before the judiciary, the ugly ground reality is shamefully very repulsive.
May I ask Imran Khan why his campaign against corruption is confined only to weak civil politicians, who no doubt are corrupt, have abused their powers and are guilty of protecting tax evaders, besides getting extravagant perks from the state. Why don’t they question the regularization of multiple illegal allotment of plots to paid civil and uniformed bureaucracy, who have just performed services for which they were hired?
Where else in democratic civilized world are such practices allowed? This country, where over 100 million people do not have a permanent house to live in, cannot afford such extravagance.
Why are these two politicians silent about the evil nexus between land mafia and paid or elected public office holders? Is this really about corruption or part of some other scripted plan?
Asad Ejaz,
Islamabad.
Electoral reform
Sir,
It is in the interest of legitimacy and efficiency of democracy in Pakistan that the mixed-member proportional electoral system of Germany may be adopted with necessary modifications. According to renowned German psephologist Dieter Nohlen this system is considered a model in international debates.
Proposed systemic electoral reform would ensure fair quantity of seats for political parties according to the ratio of votes and facilitate improvement in quality of elected representatives to deal with local, provincial, national and international matters. Such a change is not possible by solving only operational problems of the present relative majority electoral system with focus on local matters of a single-member constituency.
Emergence of Pakistan was facilitated by reforming the relative majority electoral system with a provision of separate electorate for religious communities in the British India which ensured due representation for its Muslims. Later on, emergence of Bangladesh was facilitated by the relative majority electoral system which led to over representation for Bengali nationalist party. This proposed electoral reform would facilitate good governance in our turbulent country.
Taraq Jazy,
Islamabad.
Breaking free
Sir,
The official definition of political correctness is “the avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.”
Political correctness in short PC shows an effort to make broad social and political changes to redress injustice caused by prejudice.
With the example of the United States where the political correctness movement started in the 1970s one can see the extent of this recent phenomenon.
If you say the “wrong thing” in America today, you might be penalized, fired or even taken to court.
The freedom of speech granted to the people through the very first amendment of the American constitution is becoming greatly restricted.
But not only the United States are influenced by political correctness as it has already transferred to the rest of the world. Every single day, the mainstream media bombard us with the subtle messages about what we should believe and what “appropriate speech” consists of.
It would be a huge mistake to underestimate the power of the mainstream media in our world today.
When we go to work or to school, the conversations we tend to have in our every day life are mostly based on the content that the media feeds us.
This might not even be our own opinion or even the truth. And we also might know the fact that 90% of what we watch on TV, read in the newspapers and hear on the radio is censored by the government which is ultimately controlled by lobbies.
Unfortunately the insidious nature of political correctness goes far beyond stifling legitimate opinions – it can also be used as a means of furthering one political opinion at the expense of another.
The way we all see the world has been greatly shaped by the thousands of hours of “thought training” that we have all received over the years. Political correctness threatens the freedom and asks us sacrifice our opinion for the sake of the system to exist.
If we want to continue to live in a free society and enjoy the benefits of its freedom, we must give our own opinion preference over a so-called political correct statement.
Understanding what is being done to us is the first step towards breaking free.
Dua Wahab Khan,
Bad Homburg.
Media frenzy
Sir,
Some television anchors have gone astray with their obsession and agenda for regime change, advocating even international intervention, in what is definitely an internal political affair of Pakistan. The solution to our problems lies in the supremacy of constitution and writ of law.
This is an abuse of media freedom, where channels oblivious to their licensing responsibility have no hesitation in resorting to harming even state sovereignty to gain ratings. Nowhere in the democratic world would a state tolerate a planned campaign by licensed media to prove that the country itself has failed in dealing with its internal political matters.
Media freedom sans responsibility and regulation can become dangerous, doing more harm from within than could be done by our external enemies.
Bilal Ali,
Karachi.
Education
Sir,
Regardless of who is in government, I want to make a case for immediate, instrumental education reforms. First and foremost, we must enforce one syllabus. All tuition centres must be shut down and declared prohibited. Such private tuition centers have ruined the standard of education. Both the teachers and school administrations seem to be the partners in this crime; they exploit and hijack the students and parents.
School timing should be from 8am to 5pm including lunch and games. Thus there will be no homework and no time for evening tuition. The number of subjects should be a maximum four for primary classes, six for middle school and eight for matriculation students. Government and private schools must issue syllabus books free of cost. The books should remain in the school custody and be available for the next promoted classes.
Long term steps must also be taken. Every 3,000-house community should have one education centre from primary school to intermediate college. The school or college building should be located in the centre of the community where students may arrive using free transport arranged by the government. The government must ensure 100% participation of children where the parents and notables get directly involved and ensure regular attendance. The system must guarantee career planning and job confirmation.
Education is the only remedy of all ills of Pakistan.
Shafqat Sultan,
Rawalpindi.