Kamran Shafi

The writer is a retired army officer and a freelance columnist

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

So then, our General has spoken once again, and once again spoken well. He has once again, thanks be to God, taken up cudgels against the medieval obscurantists in a courageous manner, and has called a spade a spade. He has, once again, quite rightly announced that henceforth the writ of the land will be applied, that the majesty of law will prevail, and those that take the law into their own hands and use the pulpit for spreading hate will not. His grit and determination merit our praise; his attempt to lift Pakistan out of the dark ages and to haul it into the present century deserves our support and assistance.

But have we not heard him speak well before? Has he not issued many a clarion call, telling us exactly where we are and where we need to go? Did we get anywhere near there, did we hear anything else but the sound of hot air emanating from the many Secretariats in Islamabad? Does the President hope to achieve his lofty objectives by his lonesome self? Is it even fair to expect him to? Do we, in the first instance, have cabinet ministers who can be trusted to carry out their Chief's will? Or a bureaucracy such as it might be, which will be able to serve the government unfettered, now that the local bodies eggs have been hatched by General Naqvi and Friends, their sickly chickens coming home to roost all over the place?

Will the Nazims, indeed, be the implementers of General Musharraf's brave plans? Being political wallahs and being the very same who, in cahoots with the establishment, have misled our country to its present sorry state, is it in their narrow interests to take on the clerics? Or will they tell the government one thing and do quite another, thereby striking at the very heart of the effort? A very hard look needs to be directed at the way orders are not carried out in our country. The way out? People have to be given objectives, and they need to be sacked out of hand if they don't achieve them. General Musharraf has to pick up the big stick as I have oft beseeched him to do, and proceed to apply it hard. As I have oft said to him: "Danda peer aye mushtandian naan".

Whilst what the President says and wants to do is good and well, and for which he has our fervent thanks and our prayers, there is the matter of our minorities that also has to be considered most seriously. In his speech, the President mentioned the Quaid-e-Azam declaring "that Pakistan belonged to followers of all religions; that every one would be treated equally". Well, are minorities treated even half as "equally" in Pakistan? Many months ago I had asked a question of our Atomic Energy Commission, in this very space, to which there has been (so what else is new?) no reply. I had asked if it was true that Ahmedis (no matter how gifted) were not allowed to work in the Commission? I ask the question again.

To make my point about how minorities are treated in our country, I narrate a news story published in this newspaper last week, datelined Hyderabad: A certain Dr Khalid Ahmed was arrested on March 12, 2001, for "declaring others (whose forms he had helped fill) Ahmedi", among them the complainant Ali Hashim. Well, Dr Ahmed was locked up in the District Jail, Hyderabad, and his case was sent before an Anti-Terrorism (I ask you!) Court for trial. On January 8, 2002, after an incarceration of ten months, the man was released on bail set at 100,000 rupees.

What is this please? Was Dr Ahmed out of his mind to "declare" someone whose form he was filling, "Ahmedi" when the man wasn't an Ahmedi? To what avail, and in a country where he knew he would be sorted out well and proper? Critically, why was he proceeded against in an Anti-terrorism Court anyway? It isn't as if he gunned down seven people with a Kalashnikov after they refused to convert to Ahmedyism! He might well have mistakenly marked "Ahmedi" in the column 'Religion'. So, what is this absurd nonsense all about? Will someone order an inquiry at the highest level? Will someone be taken to task for this completely inhumane travesty of justice? Will the Honourable High Court at Karachi kindly take up the matter suo moto? I now make a request of Mein General: Sir, enough of this continuing barbarity against our brother Pakistanis - please enact the change in the Blasphemy Law you were about to announce almost two years ago: that every allegation of blasphemy will be taken to the DCO, who will determine if there are any grounds at all to register a case.

And another thing. Why do we Pakistanis have to declare our "Religion" to all and sundry, can anyone please tell me? Why does our government ask us to declare our religion every time we apply to it for anything at all? Surely Muslims are not more equal than other Pakistani nationals? Why must a Pakistani passport announce the holder's religion? Does a Pakistani whose religion is shown as 'Islam' in his passport, get better treatment during his travels in other countries? While on the subject of passports, why does ours open from the right, confounding immigration officials all over the world as they leaf forward and back, trying to figure it out?

So then, the Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat building, otherwise known as HBFC Tower, and situated in Islamabad the Beautiful's Blue Area has been burnt to the ground, destroying the branch offices of eight federal ministries. A fireman, wiping his sweating brow with the sleeve of his sweater (kindly note) was quoted as saying: "This is beyond our resources, we can do nothing". But of course it was. The fire was "beyond" the capabilities of six different fire brigades, all of them surely ill-equipped to handle an emergency that big. This is exactly the point I have been making for years now - that while we talk so big, while we talk so proudly of being a nuclear power, and so on and on and on, we do not have the wherewithal of even issuing proper uniforms and fire-fighting gear to our fire-fighters. Let alone providing them with modern fire engines and ladders. And this is Islamabad the Beautiful, friends, where the Beautiful and the Powerful live - why, everyone from the Interior Minister down to the lowliest magistrate came "rushing" to the scene, to stand around watching. Can you even begin to imagine the situation in the other cities of our wretched country?

I have a story for you: My good friends, the Sethi Brothers - Arshad and Shahid , the oldest manufacturers of grinding wheels in Pakistan - and damned good ones too, had a fire in their Muridke factory some years ago. Their manager called the local fire brigade at Ravi Road for help. Telephone down. He then called a friend who had a shop near there to go over and report the fire. The man called back saying that the fire brigade could do nothing because their fire engine would not start - not only was the battery 'down', it had no diesel fuel either. The enterprising manager jumped onto his Vespa scooter, a helper holding an empty jerrican sitting on the pillion seat and sped off to the fire station, 10 miles away, stopping on the way to fill the jerrican with diesel. Once there, he got some passersby to help push-start the fire tanker, and then found that its water tank was empty! They "rushed" to the local municipal water supply pump, filled the tanker and "rushed" to the scene of the fire where, surprise, surprise, it had burnt itself out, taking with it an old and venerated manufacturing concern. This happened in Lahore, one of Pakistan's jewels - what about Multan and Hyderabad and Shiekhupura and Charsadda then?

There you have it, my dear readers - the state of Pakistan's civic services. Is it too much to expect that the Interior Minister and the Cabinet Secretary, one commanding the local administration of Islamabad, the other commanding the CDA, will consider resigning their posts to take responsibility? If they don't, will the military government move against them? Is it too much to hope that, finally, some heads will roll in Islamabad the Beautiful? For if stringent action is not taken even now, who will take the military government's exertions against terrorism seriously?