| 10 April 2005 | Sunday | 30 Safar 1426 |
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Murders most foul
Backtracking yet again
THE furore over the splitting up of Hyderabad into four districts continues. This was bound to happen, given the totally arbitrary manner of the decision by the Sindh government. The same shoddiness was shown when at the end of last year, three districts were created out of Larkana, Dadu and Jacobabad respectively, and Umerkot was reinstated as a district. The unfortunate aspect is that the way in which such important moves are made, and the anger and frustration that they stir up and perpetuate, ensure that the merits or demerits of a particular scheme get totally lost. The issue is reduced to political point-scoring, and no rational debate is possible. Dividing up a historically settled district is not like breaking up a traffic roundabout. Complex administrative, financial, political and human issues are involved. There should be very strong grounds when administrative reorganization is undertaken on this scale; otherwise it runs the risk of being discerned as political engineering. This has happened in the case of Hyderabad, with the People’s Party accusing the government of trying to gain an advantage for the MQM and the ruling coalition, although in the case at least of Tando Allahyar the PPP itself in the ’90s had asked for it to be given the status of a district. The PPP feels that there has been a concerted drive on the part of the establishment since the days of Ziaul Haq to erode its base in Sindh and that these efforts continue. That such an impression should be created just before fresh local body polls is even more unfortunate and will increase tensions among the various political parties.
The justification given by the Sindh government is that the new districts have been established on the basis of an assessment of population density and area. Where population is concerned, the government’s argument easily raises the question — then, why not Karachi? Governor Ishratul Ibad had said during a visit to Hyderabad on February 10 that any decision to divide Hyderabad would be made after due consultation and in keeping with the wishes of the majority. Did such consultation take place and were the wishes of the majority ascertained? Were political parties taken into confidence about the plan or was it simply left to bureaucrats to decide? The average citizen already faces innumerable problems in day-to-day dealings with the administration, not merely in Sindh but all over the country. Why add to his bewilderment? Till the new district administrations take effect, one can imagine how harassed people will feel in running from one office to another to get their problems solved. The cost to the public exchequer entailed in setting up new administrations should itself be an important factor to be reckoned with.
The whole thing may eventually work out fine, administratively. But the bottom line remains — that decisions that affect the daily lives of people should be made transparently and only after a process of democratic consultation with all shades of political and public opinion. The proposals concerned ought to be discussed fully in cabinet, subjected to public scrutiny and steered through the assemblies. Rule by ordinances or fiats is unwholesome and divisive. So is recourse to administrative methods to deal with political challenges, which should be faced by gaining popular support by political means.
WHEN Pastor Shamoun Babar was travelling in his car in Peshawar, he and his driver could have had no idea that they would be kidnapped and their bullet-riddled bodies dumped only to be found a few days later on Thursday. The outrage over this brutal murder incensed many persons who blocked a road in Peshawar to vent their anger as they demanded that the killers be brought to justice, adding that they would not proceed with the funeral until this was done. The incident has been condemned by the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) whose chairman Shahbaz Bhatti has asked the government to ensure that the culprits are brought to justice. While it is not known whether the kidnapping and murder of the pastor and his driver were targeted crimes of hate, there is no doubt that with the rise of the religious right in the country, minorities will be feeling increasingly insecure.
Violent incidents in the past — from attacks on places of worship over the years to, for example, the rape of two Christian minor girls in Punjab in 2004 (one was only two-and-a-half years old) coupled with the frequent cases of blasphemy slapped against members of minority communities — have given them plenty of reasons to live in fear. This is compounded by their lack of faith in the government which caves in to pressure from the religious right as we witnessed with the restoration of the religion column in the passport. Similarly, they observe in silence when places of worship are torn down to make way for commercial markets. Various human rights groups, local and international, have expressed grave concern at the state of religious minorities in Pakistan in their 2004 reports, holding the government responsible for not providing adequate security, be it physical or legal. These are sad realities but a sense of complacency cannot be condoned. This tragic incident in Peshawar is another reminder of how acts of injustice and violence against minorities need to be thoroughly investigated and the culprits given condign punishment.
IT is most unfortunate that the government should have had cold feet when confronted by religious bigots with threats of violence and disruption. Opposed to women’s participation in mini-marathons planned to be held in several cities of Punjab, the MMA men resorted to violence when they disrupted the event in Gujranwala on April 3. Petrol bombs were thrown at participants and 19 vehicles were torched. The next day, the Punjab assembly condemned the attack in strong terms, and the provincial government vowed to keep holding mini-marathons, arguing that there was nothing un-Islamic about the race and that women could participate in it. The police booked some 50 attackers following the Gujranwala incident, saying they would be brought to trial in an anti-terrorism court. The MMA has blown hot and cold since then, threatening to stop women from taking part in marathons even if by force — a euphemism for violence. The next thing the Punjab government did was to take an about turn on the issue; it gave in to the MMA pressure by banning women from taking part in mini-marathons being held in Sargodha, Multan, Bahawalpur and other places.
This is not the first time the government has allowed the MMA to enforce its narrow-minded and obscurant agenda on the silent majority. The backtracking on the deletion of the religion column in passports was also a case in point. There is not a speck of either enlightenment or moderation in the government’s tackling of these otherwise minor yet symbolically important issues. There can be no justification for going on the defensive when the government knows that the majority of people, especially those wishing to participate in mini-marathons, do not share the MMA’s prejudiced stance on the issue. If this is the other face of enlightened moderation, one wonders of what worth it really is.