The writer thinks that there is no solution for the mess the country finds itself in due to Taliban. That is wrong.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Sami Shah’s article “The attack on Malala and the forensics of negotiation” (October 10). The writer seems to think that there is no solution for the mess the country finds itself in due to the Taliban. That is where he is wrong. If we look at the root cause of where things went wrong, we will find that it all starts when a society turns inwards against itself, identifying a part of itself as a disease and using all means possible to get rid of it. It started with the ‘expulsion’ of the Ahmadi community from the ‘circle of Islam’. That action turned into a snowball effect, slow at first, with random killings of Ahmadis. Then, Christians became targets, then Hindus and now, Shias are on the hit list.
Hatred does not grow out of nothing. It grows out of ignorance and intolerance. This is why we need to go back to the start. We need to make a new constitution where no citizen of Pakistan is considered an alien, a second-class citizen or a minority. In fact, we need to get rid of that word ‘minority’ first. We start discriminating with the use of that word and end up giving oxygen to twisted yet fertile minds. We must make a constitution which will uphold the true dignity of life, respect and honour of all citizens of the state, regardless of their colour, caste, religion or creed. One doesn’t need the PTI or the PPP or anyone else to do that. What we need is to build public sentiment and support for such a move which will then hopefully make these petty politicians take this absolutely necessary step.
Nadia Zafar
Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2012.
