Aafia Siddiqui and your editorial

LONDON: This is with reference to your editorial of April 27 titled “Aafia Siddiqui and WikiLeaks”. I am afraid it highlights the growing distance between ‘liberals’ and the rest of society.

I think it confirms that what passes for ‘liberalism’ in Pakistan is actually neo-conservative ideology. And in that regard, your editorial is an example of Pakistan’s very own neocons being apologists for American power. I expect to read such editorials on Fox News websites but rarely in The Express Tribune? Liberalism needs to be inclusive and actually listen to the deep genuine grievances that Pakistanis have about American power.  By writing such editorials we are only abandoning the discourse of anti-imperialism to the religious right and the clerics who manipulate genuine grievances for their own political purposes.

Ahmad Ali Khalid

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2011.