| April 30, 2002 | Tuesday | Safar 16, 1423 |
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Women as PAF pilots
Another banana republic
Stoning to death
Car-washers’ nuisance
Problems of Kausar Town
Rangers at KU
God save us
Doctors charged with mutiny
Stop giving free gifts
Return of Pakistani prisoners
PIA woes
Wanted
Zahir Shah: putting the past behind
DR ZAWWAR Hussain Zaidi, the editor of Jinnah Papers, once commented that: “Most contemporary writers have been less fair to the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah... His friends, admirers and detractors alike have woven myths around Jinnah, as a man and a leader, for reasons better known to them but apparent no less to a discerning observer.”
The Congress wanted to discredit Mr Jinnah by branding him a ‘communalist’ for its own political interests. The Muslim League, in the post-independence period, just used his name combined with Islam to avoid the real issues of good governance and reforms suggested by the Quaid in his historic speech on Aug 11, 1947.
The same speech was actually a manifesto for the new-born state and a forthright and unambiguous declaration of secularism.
Mr Jinnah, ‘the communalist’ for the Hindus, the Quaid-i-Azam of many Muslims, and ‘the maulana’ for the few got too unfair a treatment from friends as well as foes. An ‘ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity’ was pushed to become ‘the sole spokesman’ of the Muslims of the subcontinent.
A disciple of Gokhale, W.C. Bonnerjee and Dadabhai Nooroji, he became the proponent of Muslim nationalism. During this evolution of his personality, he responded to the circumstances around him, as all leaders do; yet he remained committed to the constitutional, democratic and secular nature of polity. It was reflected in his historic speech to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947.
The message of the Quaid was revived by President Musharraf on Jan 12, 2002. It has triggered a debate in the press as to what was the vision of Jinnah about Pakistan.
The most controversial point has been Islamic versus secular nature of the polity. To seek legitimacy all kinds of claims are made in the name of Jinnah.
According to Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, almost every early ruler of Pakistan had found a ‘stolen diary’ of Jinnah to seek justification for his or her own political adventures. Resultantly the life and ideas of the Quaid have been subjected to the whims and wishes of the groups having stakes in the politics of Pakistan. During the process of this contentious debate, we have lost the real Jinnah in the self-created and self-serving-myths. Is it a tribute to the founding father? Let us rediscover the Quaid-i-Azam, dispassionately and without prejudice.
Instead of nation-building according to the advice of the founding father, we resorted to religious rhetoric. Thus, we, unknowingly, reinforced the ‘communalist’ image of Jinnah. The situation was well exploited by the religious parties who had opposed the creation of Pakistan on the ground that the idea of nationalism had no place in Islamic polity.
Jinnah did not see any “dichotomy between Islam and a modern democratic state”. He always referred to Islam as an egalitarian, democratic, and progressive force.
This interpretation of Islam does not have any conflict with the secular polity. Yet it certainly invites troubles from the clergy, and it leaves little room for them to play god to the people.
This is the reason they cannot reconcile with the real Jinnah. So they have “invented” an imagined Jinnah, a clean-shaved ‘maulana’, to suit their ideological prescription (notwithstanding the fact that the Quaid himself had ‘resented’ being called ‘maulana’ by a crowd in Karachi).
SHAHID ANWAR
Karachi
THIS is with reference to two letters on ‘Women in PAF’, one from Mr Zia Habib (April 17) and the other from Ms Nasreen Talat (April 20).
Mr Habib thinks that women have no role in flying in the PAF. His logic is based upon nothing else but male chauvinism. He has tried to justify his beliefs and apprehensions in the name of religion.
This is a typical approach used by those who realize the lack of merit in their arguments, whether it is a mullah, a politician or anyone else. May I ask, from where did he get the “medically proven” facts that show that “females find difficulty in decision-making under critical situations”?
War is no longer a fight of muscles and shoulders as it used to be centuries ago. It is now a matter of mental alertness and the ability to press the right button that invokes a particular technology. He implies that all women lack this ability. How wrong can one get? History is full of capable and successful women and completely incompetent men and vice versa. It all depends on an individual’s ability to utilize natural talents to the fullest. It has nothing to do with gender, race, religion or any other differences of such nature.
His comment about the cases of assault against women pilots in the air forces of the USA and Israel, is as lopsided as the rest of his arguments. These are pretty advanced and dynamic societies and they take a serious note of any unprofessional behaviour at the work place, hence the statistics on the subject.
As far as the matter of women’s harassment by their male colleagues is concerned, it is a social ill that must be cured. Meanwhile, the possibility of something adverse happening should not be the reason to stop doing a right thing. In every neighbourhood, there is always a possibility of a theft or burglary taking place. Does this mean we should give up our home and all our belongings and go to live in a shrine?
The rebuttal from Ms Talat is full of deeply incisive arguments. I would like to quote from the last paragraph of her letter: “As far as the treatment of a woman POW is concerned, such a captured woman will have at least one satisfaction — that she was assaulted by an enemy and not killed by a father or a brother in the name of honour, that too, to either get off easily for their own crimes or to usurp her rights”.
Comparing the sharpness of her arguments with the dullness and irrelevance of his points, I will feel much more reassured if she was a pilot in the PAF rather than Mr Habib. I am not being biased; I just wanted to make the point that mental alertness is not the sole domain of a particular gender and these two letters have proved it.
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, US
THIS has reference to Air-Cdr (Retd) A. Wajid Salim’s letter, ‘Fooling the customers’ (April 19). Having lived 74 years, the only worthwhile thing that I have learnt is that ‘befooling’ is a way of life in banana republics all over the world.
A classic example is that of the banana republic, which is both Islamic and democratic, and which is being befooled for the fourth time, with the active support of all state institutions and the public at large, at the expense of the people.
K. A. WAHID BUTT
Lahore
IT appears that Zafran Bibi was sentenced to death for Zina while two male accused were acquitted (April 21). Does this mean that the learned judge thought that Zafran Bibi committed the act by herself?
How can a person be convicted of any crime without positive evidence? In this case, the witness would be the other partner, and his evidence proves his own crime. Then one needs to establish if the lady was a victim of force.
The laws of God must be applied with due care. May Allah guide us and have mercy on us.
DR N.M. AHMED
Ottawa, Canada
STONING to death a poor woman who has been raped and allowing her tormentors to go free! We should collectively hang our heads in shame for allowing such an atrocious law to exist on the statute books.
Is Zia’s Hudood Ordinance, 1979, so sacrosanct that it can not be dumped into the trash where it belongs?
DR A. A. KAMAL
Karachi
THIS is with reference to a news item ‘Car-washers pollute streams’ (April 23). The reporter has not mentioned that some c