There is good reason to reflect on the carnage Egypt has suffered in its quest for political maturity. After the ouster in June last year by the military of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected civilian president, tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets to protest, and the security forces reacted with excessive force.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch laid bare the reality of this situation: in a thorough, 188-page report, the rights organisation said that the killing of at least 1,150 demonstrators by security personnel in six demonstrations in July and August had been systematic and widespread, that they “probably amounted to crimes against humanity”.

In the Aug 14 crackdown last year, as they sought to disperse a sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, security forces killed at least 817 people and probably up to 1,000. HRW says that the encampments, especially at Rabaa al-Adawiya, were variously attacked with armoured personnel carriers, ground troops and snipers, and live rounds were fired into the crowds who found themselves without a safe exit.

It concludes that this was “a violent crackdown planned at the highest level of the Egyptian government” and that many of the officials remain in power; they “have a lot to answer for”.

This, indeed, needs to be brought to the attention of many of the world’s leaders and governments that choose to look the other way as the military establishment in Egypt commits transgressions against people’s rights and democratic freedoms — because elections threw up a result they found unpalatable.

In fact, as exemplified by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Cairo, many governments have no qualms about engaging with a regime that has blatantly undemocratic credentials. The situation in Egypt today is a reminder, as much to Pakistan as to any other country, that democracy cannot be tailored, that political maturity lies only in following the path of legitimacy and the mandate given by the people.

Meanwhile, as Egyptians mark the anniversary today of the massacre at the Cairo mosque, there is reason for Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri, who have been irresponsibly throwing out references to Egypt and Gaza, to take note as well: there is no comparison when it comes to the situations in the Middle East and Pakistan. To try and conflate the current domestic political crisis to that level is to make light of unbearable tragedy.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2014