Protesting against his release — but why?

Protesting the release of Raymond Davis? Yes, this is certainly what we should be protesting.


Naveen Naqvi March 18, 2011
Protesting against his release — but why?

This morning when I looked out my window, I saw that the development along the beachfront was moving along at a good speed. There was now a wall of huge boulders that lined the shore. This made me think that if there were ever a cyclone or tsunami, those rocks would come hurtling onto my apartment building. When I looked to the left, I saw that the community of camel riders had increased. Despite the unprecedented 10 degree rise in temperature over the past few days, they were spending their days shelterless under the sun. I know that they had come to Karachi because there was little or no livelihood for them in their villages in interior Sindh.

When I left home, I drove along what used to be the main artery of our neighbourhood, and found that the route was blocked because the president was in town. Meanwhile, the fence that he was building in the middle of the road was coming along smoothly. My parents told me that it was almost impossible for them to get to their corner store because all the lanes behind his ‘house’ were blocked, and I did wonder at the brick wall that emerged overnight, blocking the mouth of their quiet lane. Coming back to the fence in the middle of the road, it has two layers of metal-plating and three layers of cement that separate our ‘fearless’ leader from us. I thought to myself that it must be a highly isolating experience, building that wall to keep himself from us. This made me conclude that things must be really bad, and if our president feels so paranoid, we do not stand a chance against whatever is out there that terrifies him so.

Further up, the policemen keeping our streets secure stopped a car, and asked the driver for Rs50, saying they hadn’t had tea the whole day. I know that people are particularly sympathetic to cops these days, but I must confess that I didn’t feel too bad.

As I kept going, I noticed that there were two new billboards selling lawn cloth, but at the same time there were at least 20 more people sleeping on the pavement along the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi. Some of them were heroin addicts, but most were families; mothers, fathers, grandparents and children. It occurred to me that the bulging stomachs of the children were caused by malnutrition, not because they were well-fed.

It was then that I heard about the protest at the press club against the release of Raymond Davis. Someone asked, “Well, what is the protest against? His release? His arrest? Is it that the families of those murdered by him allegedly took the money the Americans offered? Perhaps it’s that the deal was brokered by Shahbaz Sharif, who is a bastion of Islam. Or maybe it is that the negotiation was done under the same Islamic laws that were responsible for the assassinations of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti.”

Yes, this was certainly what we should be protesting, I thought.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2011.

COMMENTS (39)

observer | 13 years ago | Reply @Sanober nobody knows the real islamic laws and thier implementations You mean neither the Judge who sentenced Aasia Bibi to death, nor Qadri who sentenced Salman Taseer to death 'knew the real Islamic laws and thier implemantations'. And pray, if 'nobody knows the real islamic laws and thier implementations', how are we going to have Nizam-e-Shariah. wat ab drown attacks killd milions of innocent people Two questions come to my mind, a. Can you write 'a million' in numerals please? b. Do you have any idea of population of North Waziristan and FATA? Let me ease your burden by answering both of these questions, a. A million is written as 1,000,000. b. The population of North Waziristan in 2007 was estimated to be 361,246. The total population of FATA was estimated to be 3,341,070 in 2000. As you can see N Waziristan's population was only 1/3rd of a million so there is no question of 'drown attacks killd milions of innocent people'. And if 'milions' were actually 'killd' in FATA there should be no one left alive there. If by any chance by 'drown attacks' you meant people dying in the Pakistan floods, the data would still be wrong. As the Good Book says, "Read".
sanober | 13 years ago | Reply @Saad Qureshi: absolutely right here it easy to blame in the name of islamic laws nobody knows the real islamic laws and thier implementations. salmam taaseer n bhatti's murder has been focused alot wat ab drown attacks killd milions of innocent people.wat ab afia sidique?lal masjid?wat mushharaf did? salman taseer n bhattis murder has got the importance nothing else....?
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