Mysteries abound
We are a nation that does not try and seek answers.
The writer is Editor of The Express Tribune
As we sit and pray for those aboard the Malaysian Airlines which went missing a week back (not found till this column was filed) one should also say a prayer for others who have gone missing closer home and look for answers on issues that remain unresolved.
Take for example those who went missing on the ill-fated PIA Fokker plane which disappeared on August 25, 1989 in the Himalayan range.
The aircraft was operating an early morning flight from Gilgit to Islamabad and to this date the wreckage of this aircraft has never been found. The plane was carrying a total of 54 people, including 5 crew members and 49 passengers. The flight crew included Captain Ahsan Aftab Bilgrami and Captain Sohail Zubair.
We can only wonder how and when the families of these people will get closure. In many such cases, people need answers. Families need to be told that all has been done. We simply cannot close the chapter and move on.
As in the case of Malaysia Airlines, at the end of the day all the technology that we have developed has not helped us recover the plane or even know what transpired on board in the final moments, if at all they indeed were that.
In our world today where we are told that technology can trace the smallest of movements or the most innocent of communications, logic fails us when we cannot find out a missing airliner. These thoughts of helplessness give rise to fear and doubt.
Take the example of those hundreds of men who fought in our wars with India and are believed missing and not dead. Almost every now and then there appears an article in the media about how so and so person still thinks that their near and dear ones are serving time in a Pakistani or Indian prison. Sometimes this is because of the statement of a former inmate who may have seen someone. For those who are waiting for their missing ones, there can be no greater agony.
We are a nation that does not try and seek answers. I recall in the 80’s there was the famous case of an entire family in Islamabad that one day simply disappeared from their house. Never to be found again. Like one prominent industrialist in Karachi who went missing. And we are living with such inexplicable mysteries.
There are many things we still need answers to. I want to know who killed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Or General Ziaul Haq. Or for that matter, Liaquat Ali Khan. Or why the van carrying the Quaid broke down after leaving the airport on the way to his house. It is believed that those fateful hours in which he was left unattended may have played a part in his untimely death.
Granted that the world has its unresolved mysteries but there are questions in Pakistan that can well be answered if we put our minds to it. Take for example the Hathora Gang that sprung up during the fag end of General Zia’s rule. How entire families were butchered and we could not find the perpetrators. We are told that this was the work of the sinister Afghan intelligence agency, KHAD.
A more recent example. Who killed the parents of Justice Javed Iqbal? The gruesome incident that took place in January 2011, remains unresolved. The initial investigation report suggested this to be the work of common robbers. But this is highly unusual.
Possibly there is a link there with the missing persons’ case. That also is something we need to know. How many people have gone missing in Pakistan and why. Can we assume that all are in custody? Here the more important question would be – to what end.
This is a question we need to ask in the ongoing secrecy of how we have been given money by a “friendly Muslim country.” We all know which that country is. But more important for us to know is what has been promised in return.
There are so many questions that we need answers to. The only problem is that our media isn’t possibly up to the job and maybe watch-dog bodies and whistleblowers have been co-opted.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2014.
Take for example those who went missing on the ill-fated PIA Fokker plane which disappeared on August 25, 1989 in the Himalayan range.
The aircraft was operating an early morning flight from Gilgit to Islamabad and to this date the wreckage of this aircraft has never been found. The plane was carrying a total of 54 people, including 5 crew members and 49 passengers. The flight crew included Captain Ahsan Aftab Bilgrami and Captain Sohail Zubair.
We can only wonder how and when the families of these people will get closure. In many such cases, people need answers. Families need to be told that all has been done. We simply cannot close the chapter and move on.
As in the case of Malaysia Airlines, at the end of the day all the technology that we have developed has not helped us recover the plane or even know what transpired on board in the final moments, if at all they indeed were that.
In our world today where we are told that technology can trace the smallest of movements or the most innocent of communications, logic fails us when we cannot find out a missing airliner. These thoughts of helplessness give rise to fear and doubt.
Take the example of those hundreds of men who fought in our wars with India and are believed missing and not dead. Almost every now and then there appears an article in the media about how so and so person still thinks that their near and dear ones are serving time in a Pakistani or Indian prison. Sometimes this is because of the statement of a former inmate who may have seen someone. For those who are waiting for their missing ones, there can be no greater agony.
We are a nation that does not try and seek answers. I recall in the 80’s there was the famous case of an entire family in Islamabad that one day simply disappeared from their house. Never to be found again. Like one prominent industrialist in Karachi who went missing. And we are living with such inexplicable mysteries.
There are many things we still need answers to. I want to know who killed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Or General Ziaul Haq. Or for that matter, Liaquat Ali Khan. Or why the van carrying the Quaid broke down after leaving the airport on the way to his house. It is believed that those fateful hours in which he was left unattended may have played a part in his untimely death.
Granted that the world has its unresolved mysteries but there are questions in Pakistan that can well be answered if we put our minds to it. Take for example the Hathora Gang that sprung up during the fag end of General Zia’s rule. How entire families were butchered and we could not find the perpetrators. We are told that this was the work of the sinister Afghan intelligence agency, KHAD.
A more recent example. Who killed the parents of Justice Javed Iqbal? The gruesome incident that took place in January 2011, remains unresolved. The initial investigation report suggested this to be the work of common robbers. But this is highly unusual.
Possibly there is a link there with the missing persons’ case. That also is something we need to know. How many people have gone missing in Pakistan and why. Can we assume that all are in custody? Here the more important question would be – to what end.
This is a question we need to ask in the ongoing secrecy of how we have been given money by a “friendly Muslim country.” We all know which that country is. But more important for us to know is what has been promised in return.
There are so many questions that we need answers to. The only problem is that our media isn’t possibly up to the job and maybe watch-dog bodies and whistleblowers have been co-opted.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2014.