Ganders and geese

As the international press put it, in a rare show of unity this week amidst the republic’s fractious politicians agreed to convene a national conference to try to sort out the terrorism factor. The last time the national lot got together on the same topic was two years ago and the grand meeting fizzled out into nothing.

This love-fest was prompted by the suicide bomb attack of July 1 on Lahore’s Data Darbar shrine that killed 42 worshippers (majority members and all of the deprived variety) and injured some 200. What is known as the Punjab Taliban is the main suspect. This act of violence was unanimously – politicos, religiosos and all – vociferously ‘condemned’ and the country saw many protests, demos and city shut-downs. A somewhat different reaction to the event of May 28 when in two ‘places of worship’ of a minority community just under 100 people were slain as they prayed and a larger number were injured. The reaction of the majority – politicos, religiosos and all – was comparatively rather muted. It raised no suggestions for a national get-together.

So, majority is majority and minority remains minority — and never the twain shall meet. The constitution, the laws, and the national mindset dictate that what is sauce for the gander is not sauce for the goose.

The 2010 report of the US commission on International Religious Freedom has put Pakistan on the list of 13 countries “of particular concern” that are serious violators of religious freedom. It tells the world that the abuse of the right to religious freedom is rampant as evidenced by the rise in religiously motivated crimes against minorities. Not only is there growing intolerance fuelled by the numerous religious militant and terrorist organisations but there is a growing societal mindset shift to the right and a pathetic understanding of the rights of the minorities. And most tellingly, “religiously discriminatory legislation has fostered an atmosphere of intolerance.”

The government and its supporters wax lyrical about the marvels of the 18th amendment, but in actual fact it is an eye-wash. The constitution remains marred, dangerously, by Ziaul Haq’s eighth amendment which has nothing to do with tolerance and live and let live, but all to do with keeping minorities in their rightful place, which is practically nowhere in the national scheme of things. As long as the eighth amendment is allowed, with impunity, to exist and dictate, no number of national gatherings will be able to make a whit of difference to the sweeping terrorism with which we are beset. Hand in hand with the ‘Islamic provisions’ of the eighth amendment are Ziaul Haq’s gift to the nation of his disgusting laws that blot our statute books — the Hudood Ordinances and the blasphemy laws which remain in full force. The legislators in place are bereft of conscience, or shame, as they have made no move to do away with the glaring wrongs that are eating away happily at the roots of their country. And this despite the fact that they are reminded time and again by international forums that they should act if their country is to take a rightful place in the comity of nations of the 21st century. The Rabbani constitutional reforms committee threw away an opportunity to do right by the republic and its people— as did the mass of legislators.

The ruling party never ceases to bemoan the ills that it suffered under Ziaul Haq and his like, but it lacks the guts, and the humanity – or it is too busy keeping itself where it is – to tackle the forces of darkness, the enemies of tolerance.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2010.