Whose freedom are we celebrating?

NEW YORK, US: I take exception to Rubina Saigol’s article “Whose freedom are we celebrating?” (August 11). She says that Pakistan “ended up creating a sectarian state, unsafe for anyone but those belonging to the favoured sect.”

This statement is problematic since the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis belong to the Hanafi denomination and even Hanafi mosques and leaders have not been spared in terrorist incidents (such as Jamia Naeemia). It is unfair for Ms Saigol to create this minority siege mentality at a calamitous time for Pakistan. Now is the time for us to unite given that the odds seem so heavily stacked against us.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2010.