IT was a strange feeling to read the excerpt from Dawn, of March 10, 1951 — the news report of the ‘Plot to subvert the armed forces’ ie The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. As a child, eight-years-old, I witnessed the travesty of justice which unfolded over the next four and a half years, which altered not only our lives but the future path of Pakistan as a nation state.

Faiz’s crime is well illustrated by the photograph accompanying this piece in Dawn — his role in the nascent trade union movement in a Pakistan which was fast aligning itself with what it considered was the winning side in the Cold War.

This remarkable initiative undertaken by Dawn in the 70 Years of History project is a reminder that ‘the more things change the more they remain the same’.

Justice and patriotism anyone?

Salima Hashmi
Lahore

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017