The sad reality is that even our military is afraid of mullahs.
LONDON: I write with reference to Amina Jilani’s article of November 27 titled “The wages of exploitation”. The sad reality is that even our military is afraid of the mullahs. If one remembers, in early 2000, General Musharraf’s government tried to defang the blasphemy law in that he wanted to change the manner in which blasphemy cases were being registered. Under the Zia amendments to the blasphemy law, if an individual goes to the police and simply accuses someone of blasphemy, the police have to make an immediate arrest before an investigation.
General Musharraf wanted to discourage false accusations and hence his government wanted to change the law to first allow for the allegations to be referred to the district magistrate who would then investigate before ordering any arrest. The regime then insisted that this was just a procedural change and did not mean that the law itself was being amended. However, the religious parties and clerics would have none of it and they reacted sharply, and eventually the general had to beat a hasty retreat.
Naveed Siddiqi
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2010.
