Shame on us

I  remember asking veteran politician, the late Mairaj Muhammad Khan, in an interview that I conducted of him some years back what some of the most depressing moments of his illustrious career were. He gave me an unexpected reply. He recalled that once he has been arrested and was being led by policemen from the train station of a small town to the local jail. He said that as they walked to the jail with him in handcuffs and chains, a stream of primary school students passed by as their classes had just ended. “I recall them looking at me and shouting – ‘chor chor’. That for me was the most depressing moment,” he confessed. For giants like Mairaj sahab, it was not what dictators or political opponents said to them that mattered. What mattered most was how people looked at them.

For any person with any modicum of self-respect, their name and reputation is more important than anything in this world. Given this, I was shocked earlier to see a video clip on social media of how a couple of university professors were being led by a NAB team in handcuffs for all the world to see. Condemned even before being tried, this was one of the most shameful moments for us as Pakistanis - not that anyone cared to notice.

I am grateful to Chief Justice Saqib Nisar who took notice of the incident and summoned NAB DG Saleem Shehzad to offer an apology for this action. Commenting on the incident, the CJP has said, “It is like death for a professor if he is handcuffed as the impression cannot be undone for the rest of his life.” How right he is.



We have very strange notions of honour in Pakistan. We do not react to clips of our teachers being led away in handcuffs on mere charges and suspicion. But we are ready to fight and tear ourselves apart on minor issues like for example the social media campaign against the Beaconhouse House or the rantings of a leading journalist over a play staged at the Grammar school.

What are our priorities? Zarrar Haider Khan, the joint secretary of the Ministry of Industries and Production and a BS-20 officer of the bureaucracy’s elite Pakistan Administrative Service cadre, who was suspended from service on disciplinary grounds after he was caught stealing a wallet of a member of the Kuwaiti delegation has been reinstated.

He is attending office again and no police action has been taken against this man who has put at stake the already strained relations between Pakistan and Kuwait. Forget any chance of Kuwait of re-opening the ban on issuance of work visas to hundreds of poor Pakistanis.

Whatever happened, I wonder, to the mystery of the missing necklace, donated by the wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the flood-hit people of Pakistan in 2010. Former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani finally told the media that “The necklace belongs to my sister and is with me.” This after investigations led to him and the proof was irrefutable. No inquiry was conducted and no action. If the PM of a country can “keep” a necklace, why blame a bureaucrat for stealing a wallet?

Coming back to the detained professors, we take pride it seems in pulling down our national heroes. And make no mistake about this, those university professors who were treated in such a shameful manner are our national heroes. They have taught thousands of students and helped in creating productive members of society. We need to apologize to these men.

Just to clarify, I do not know any of these men personally and have only heard of their work from former students.

During the proceedings, when asked by the honourable chief justice, the relevant official replied that there was no bad intention behind handcuffing the professors. I wonder what he will do to help repair the loss in face he has caused to these titans of education.

In the same proceedings, the Punjab advocate general contended that the incident was regrettable as those people should be respected who had spent their entire lives for the cause of education. But he did nothing to rectify the situation which makes him also complicit in the act.

Not all is well in this state of Pakistan. Crooks have become heroes and we taint our heroes as criminals.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2018.

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