Are we all Malala?

It was a proud moment for Pakistan when 17-year old Malala Yousafzai received the Nobel peace prize along with 60 year old Kailash Satyarthi, a human rights campaigner from India. More inspiring was the speech Malala made while accepting her award, when she talked about education instead of war. The speech was particularly significant because of the fact that her co-recipient was an Indian. Malala has talked about girl education. She has made it a point to focus on this issue in every speech she makes. She went to Nigeria to show solidarity with those girl students who had been kidnapped by the Boko Haram.

Unlike India, where the awardee was universally welcomed and acknowledged, some people in Pakistan termed the struggle that Malala has made so far to be a western conspiracy to show Muslims in a bad light. There are many other deserving candidates, after all, argued some. But one of the people who was named as more deserving, Abdus Sattar Edhi went public by saying that Malala fully deserves the award. This, of course, did not silence the naysayers.

While Satyarthi will return to a hero’s welcome in his home country, it is tragic that Malala can only dream to come back to Pakistan safely and with the welcome she deserves. Malala made all Pushto-speakers proud when Sardar Ali Takkar performed on the first day of the ceremony with a song which he made as a tribute to Malala’s bravery after she was attacked. It was a moment of pride and honour that a Pakistani and a Pashtun singer performed at the Nobel Prize award ceremony.

Talking to our reporter Hidayat Khan, Takkar said that he performed the Pashto song for all Pakistan’s girl students. “The language does not matter because the message is to get educated and be a part of a larger movement towards peace.”  Instead of being proud, possibly the most disappointing response to Malala’s award has come from her home province.

As reported by Manzoor Ali, our correspondent who covers the KP assembly, the province is yet to honour the illustrious education activist from Swat despite a joint resolution being submitted in the house by Awami National Party’s (ANP) Syed Jaffer Shah and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Nighat Orakzai. Jafar Shah had moved the resolution on October 13, a few days after Malala was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. On one occasion when Nighat Orakzai wanted to move the resolution along with Jafar Shah, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Muhammad Ali objected to it.

The JI MPA, who hails from Upper Dir, said such a resolution should also call for the release of Aafia Siddiqui from a US jail. In response, speaker Asad Qaiser directed them to draft a joint resolution. The house passed a resolution on Aafia Siddiqui, asking the federal government to press the US government for her release on October 29. However, on the very same day, the speaker did not allow Orakzai to speak about Malala and directed her to bring a fresh resolution.

After submitting a fresh resolution, Shah and Orakzai hoped that the house would pass it following the Muharram break. But Orakzai said that the treasury benches did not want to discuss Malala Yousafzai on the floor of the house.  While the rest of Pakistan, and in fact the world, acknowledged Malala’s achievement, the KP assembly looked the other way.  Jafar Shah told the media that the Speaker says the resolution was not in consonance with rule 1,2 and 3 of the Rules of Procedure. The lawmaker said he was conveyed the resolution on Malala “was not a matter of national or provincial interest.” How shameful is that.

What is interesting is that PTI chief Imran Khan also congratulated Malala on winning the prize. The National Assembly (NA), Senate as well as the Punjab and Sindh provincial assemblies passed resolutions praising Malala. In contrast, last year, a function at the University of Peshawar arranged for launching her book ‘I am Malala’ was banned by the provincial government. Her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize was also not celebrated in any way by the provincial government.

It seems that the KP government has an agenda to defame Malala for reasons best known to them. One can only wonder what this young girl has done to deserve this treatment. Is she that much of a threat to them, I wonder.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th,  2014.

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