No country for common folk

Fifth edition of annual festival kicks off

ISLAMABAD: The state has failed to break the colonial shackles and make the life of the common man easier.

This was stated by speakers at a session on the ‘Judiciary and the Common Man: the challenges facing ordinary people in the search for justice’ at the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) on Friday.

They said it was not only the judiciary which was failing the citizens, rather all state institutions were responsible for this.



“The common man in Pakistan is not getting justice, nor will he in the future because there is no will [for this] in this class-based system,” remarked former ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi.

Bushra Gohar of the Awami National Party (ANP) said that the judiciary was engrossed in a few high-profile cases at the expense of hundreds of thousands of common litigants whose cases keep getting delayed.

This, Gohar claimed, was causing a rise in vigilantism in the country.

“There can be no justice if some people are holier than others,” she said while emphasising the supremacy of the Constitution.

Former senator Afrasiab Khattak said the state had not been completely decolonised yet, as a result of which, people were still being considered as subjects of the state and not the citizens with equal rights.



With reference to Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani’s remarks earlier in the day, Khattak said the chairman was helpless before the powerful civil and military bureaucracies. Explaining Rabbani’s predicament, Khattak said that the Senate chairman had sought details of the perks privileges enjoyed by parliamentarians, judiciary, the civil and military bureaucracies. While details for parliamentarians’ and judiciary were submitted, the civil and military bureaucracies did not respond.

However, the incident earlier on Friday meant that Rabbani cancelled plans to attend the session and also hold a dinner in the evening for the festival delegates.



Later, Akhtar Baloch’s memoirs titled ‘Prison Narratives’ was also launched at the festival. The memories were written during her incarceration at the Hyderabad and Sukkur jails. She had been arrested for protesting against the regime of Yahya Khan in 1970. Senator Sassui Palijo was the chief guest at the book launch.

Fifth ILF opens

Earlier, the fifth edition of the ILF kicked off with scholars, academicians and representatives of eight countries including India, US, Canada, France, Germany, Singapore and Italy.

At the inaugural session, Indian scholar AG Noorani talked about the history of the subcontinent and shed light on the circumstances surrounding the partition.

“We share a common history and common culture,” he said, adding that Kashmir remains a core issue between India and Pakistan, and without a resolution to the dispute, peace cannot be restored in the region.

Arfa Sayeda Zehra said that to keep a nation vibrant, it was necessary to keep its language alive, which in turn will keep its culture alive.

“The first was the dawn of freedom in our ancient subcontinent. Second, this dawn heralded the end of imperialism. And, third, a major new nation-state appeared on the map of the world,” said Oxford University Press Managing Director Ameena Saiyid in her welcome address.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2017.