ISLAMABAD, Aug 27: Lord Nazir Ahmed, member of the British House of Lords, has termed the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation as a sad day for the whole nation and an improper solution to an issue that could have easily been resolved through political dialogue.
“I appeal to President Gen Pervez Musharraf that being the head of the state he shows patience and wisdom by trying to resolve political issues politically. Because, you cannot resolve all issues through rifles and rocket launchers,” Mr Ahmed said at a meet the press programme at the camp office of Rawalpindi- Islamabad Press Club here on Sunday.
Mr Ahmed said the crisis in Balochistan could still be resolved through a political process and negotiations with some influential families of Balochistan. He said he was willing to be a part of this process if invited.
He also appealed to the opposition not to exploit this sensitive issue for political gains and unite for the solidarity of the nation.
Lord Nazir Ahmed touched upon a number of issues including the controversial theory of the clash of civilisation and the recent media hype of a terrorists’ attempt foiled by London police to use a US-bound plane for terrorism activities.
He said he believed in the efficiency of the UK justice system, but in the case of the foiled terrorist attack, the UK police had shared information with the media instead of any court of law. The whole episode looked like a media trial in which the public opinion was manipulated against the Muslims and the latter were subjected to many attacks and were humiliated at different places.
He said the problem with the West was that it demonised the Muslims by coining such phrases as “Pakistani born terrorist”, “Muslim Terrorist”, “Islamic fundamentalist” etc. He said no one had labelled the IRA attacks in the Northern Ireland as terrorist activities of Catholic Christians or the massacre of innocent Muslims in Gujarat as the production of Hindu fundamentalists.
He said he believed that there were fundamentalists among Muslims as there were in Christians, Jews, Hindus and the followers of other religions but that did not mean that the whole community be condemned as terrorists or fundamentalists.
He said according to the British justice system, you are innocent until proven guilty and that if courts convicted those held for terrorist charges they must be punished. But, the punishment could not be annouced across the board for the whole community.
He said people now seldom believed the claims of the western governments after the drama of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq. Therefore, instead of media hype, such types of incidents should be brought to courts for fair trial.
To a question, he said the clash of civilisation was a reality because despite the fact that human rights was part of the European legislations, the Europeans still had the mindset of a crusader due to lack of inter-faith dialogue.
Similarly, he said, the West had attacked the Muslim civilisation three times; first when they launched the Crusade against the middle-eastern Muslim countries that lasted for two centuries, then when they colonised the Muslim countries for raw material for their industry in the 17th century and now when the US-led coalition has started capturing Muslim countries for natural resources.
He said there was a huge gulf on both sides and the fear of unknown.