A Pakistani to be proud of

Pakistan would be a better place if there were a few more like Asma Jahangir

Pakistan and Pakistanis are more likely to be the target of brickbats than plaudits, and the news that Asma Jahangir, former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, is to receive a prestigious human rights award is all the more welcome for that. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation is often described as ‘the alternative Nobel Prize’ and with considerable justification. It was established in 1980 “to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”. Asma Jahangir is in good company with other talented winners. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation was set up after the Nobel Foundation, in a move clearly out of step with the times, refused to create awards honouring those who worked to defend the environment and international development. The awards will be presented in front of the Swedish parliament on December 1.

The citation for Asma Jahangir sums up in a nutshell just why it is that she is being honoured. She receives the award of 500,000 kroner ($70,000) for “defending, protecting and promoting human rights in Pakistan and more widely, often in very difficult and complex situations and at great personal risk.” This being Pakistan, a country that smears its heroes and lauds its villains, there will doubtless be those who raise a hue and cry asking ‘What has she done’ and ‘Why not honour X, Y or Z rather than Asma Jahangir.’ The haters and trolls will be out in force on the social media and aspersions on her character and worth as a human being will be cast far and wide. Ignore them for the trash that they are. Asma Jahangir is a woman to be proud of, one that provides the finest of role models amidst a crop of role models that are mediocre at best, dubious at worst. And Pakistan would be a better place if there were a few more like her.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2014.

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