Discrediting an activist

Bahria Town list: Attacking my integrity has killed my enthusiasm to change society for the better.

Our collective disregard for the due process of justice has made things easier for the forces of oppression in Pakistan. Now, they don’t have to kill the people with loud voices of dissent. They just have to humiliate them through cyber bullies and discredit them through one word: corrupt. All they have to do is give a random figure, an account number with the name of a bank and publicly accuse any person of integrity of taking bribes. Nothing at all would be demanded to substantiate the claim, not even basic reasoning.

It so happened amid the hubbub of the recent scandal involving the son of the chief justice of Pakistan and the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz — just when we should have been asking important questions about how Malik Riaz went scot-free in the land of the pure for nearly 20 years. Instead, we landed in a debate about the corruption of media persons.

Last week, a list with names of several journalists appeared in the media, with its originator remaining unidentified. Along with the names of the journalists, it also gave the value of the money or assets alleged to have been used by Malik Riaz to bribe them. The list attracted some reaction from the media fraternity but soon everyone rubbished it as being fake. Following this, Imran Khan demanded an inquiry into the media people, who have been bribed by Malik Riaz. The next day, two things appeared on the social media which created quite a volcanic effect. One was a leaked video of two TV anchors and Malik Riaz, during an interview allegedly staged by the latter. The other was a YouTube video displaying a list — updated this time — of 19 journalists and TV anchors on a supposed Bahria Town letterhead.

This extraordinary list bore some very credible names of the electronic and print media. Even more shocking was the fact that it had another odd name. Mine. Not a journalist by profession, I was shocked to see myself in that league. A professional in the field of democratic governance and an activist for human rights in a voluntary capacity, I could not understand why I was put under the rubric of  ‘journalists and anchors’. The list showed that I accepted Rs1 million through a bank transfer from “NIBC [SIC] Bank Limited (Bahria Town Branch)”. An account number was also given against this transaction — #8283982-5. However, no one bothered to confirm whether the account belonged to me. And no one asked why a real estate tycoon would invest his money in a human rights campaigner.

In fact, the account number mentioned above does not belong to me, nor have I ever had an account in NIB Bank. Also, in fact, the account number, according to the website of Bahria Orchard, belongs to Bahria Town itself — that too, for transactions in US dollars. On my inquiry from the Bahria Town management, a person who introduced herself as Malik Riaz’s personal secretary categorically told me that neither the letterhead nor the list belonged to them.

As a salaried person, I have a regular salary account in a bank, which is certainly not NIB. All my financial details will be available for judicial scrutiny if and whenever that might happen. But since we believe only in the rhetoric of supremacy of judiciary, with no respect for the court and its procedure, we might not require any judicial procedure before forming our judgments.

The important question remains: why would someone include my name in a list that is clearly fake and made only to target certain kinds of people. Who could target a person who always takes a clear stand on controversial issues, be it the rights of persecuted minorities, Ahmadis, Hazara Shia Muslims, Hindus, Christians, the Baloch missing persons and their bullet-riddled bodies, against discriminatory laws, especially the blasphemy laws, rights of women, children and labourers, rights of transvestites and eunuchs and even the most controversial, LGBT rights. Not to forget, my umpteen writings against the policies of Pakistan’s military establishment, against extremists, against terrorists, against a blind and sickening hatred towards neighboring India.

Attacking my integrity has killed my enthusiasm to change society for the better. You should have pumped bullets in me like you did with Shaheed Salmaan Taseer, instead of doing this. Little hope could be attached to a society that disparages voices of dissent like this. Maybe, history will judge me better.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2012.