The writer is the former editor of The Express Tribune. He tweets as @tribunian
If we recall, a charged mob had rampaged through Joseph Colony and set on fire the houses following alleged blasphemy committed by a suspect, Sawan Masih. A court had tried Masih and sentenced him to death in a verdict delivered in 2014.
During the hearing this month with regards to the subsequent rampage, Advocate Ghulam Murtaza Chaudhry argued that the prosecution had failed to bring even a single piece of evidence to establish the charges against the suspects. He asked the court to acquit them.
A deputy prosecutor general opposed the arguments of the defence side. He said the evidence provided by the prosecution was enough to convict the suspects. He said the incident had not only spread a wave of terror in the city but also given a bad name to Pakistan.
But the presiding judge, Chaudhry Mohammad Azam, accepted the arguments of the defence and acquitted the suspects for lack of evidence. It is sad that the state could not punish those who participated in a mass rampage that left members of a religious minority without their homes and with no faith in the government to protect them.
The Joseph Colony incident is one of many that have taken place in our country in which members of the majority have taken the law into their hands and attacked members of minority communities. The acquittal of those accused of this terrorism emboldens them further. And shows the weakness of our state.
Rarely have we seen in Pakistan that perpetrators of such mob justice are brought to book. Our police continues to play the role of silent spectator when such incidents happen. There is little evidence to convict given that the police is not at all keen to collect in the first place. In this day of modern technologies, it defies logic that those who killed and burnt in Joseph colony remained unidentified.
We are quick to remember the role played by the Modi government in the targeted killing of members of the Muslim community in the Ahmedabad riots. But our government does the same on a regular basis. It looks the other way as members of religious minorities are targeted and attacked.
We have forgotten the August 11 speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Let me quote the uncensored version. Our Quaid said “I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community, because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on, will vanish.
“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State.
“As you know, history shows that in England, conditions, some time ago, were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class.
“Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”
Obviously this message has been lost on our rulers. Our democratically elected leaders – whether Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif, has disappointed us with their role in agreeing to legislation that targeted minorities.
If we let mob rule override our justice system, this is a very slippery slope. Soon there will be other targets. When will we stop this persecution. Forget
our international image, how can we look ourselves in the eye by legitimising such actions?
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2017.
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