I am Malala: a book that Malala Yousufzai is accused of authoring

Malala Yousufzai and Taliban - two faces of Pakistan

Not many personalities have divided Pakistan the way Malala Yousufzai has managed to do in her young life. Not many books have sparked such a vitriolic criticism in Pakistan as the book "I am Malala: girl who was shot by Taliban" by Christina Lamb. I was encouraged to read and comment on the book after I witnessed a heated debate on a Pakistani television channel featuring left wing commentator Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhoy, and right wing hawkish journalists Ansar Abbasi and Oyra Maqbool Jan. They were all primarily at loggerheads picking out content of the book that is insensitive or disrespectful to Pakistan, Islam or local cultural views of Pakistan.

Having read the book myself here is what I think:

• The book is wrongly attributed to be by or about Malala. It is mostly about a man Ziauddin Yousufzai - Malala's father. Entire book is full of his life, views and aspirations narrated as if by a loving daughter in awe of her father. You get to know more about Ziauddin in this book than the girl who almost paid the ultimate price. Its only in the last couple of chapters before and after the shooting that you get to hear about Malala and what was going on in her young intelligent head. The book would have been a more interesting read if it had been true to the itself and focussed on a shrewd entrepreneurial and ANP activist young man from humble origins who cleverly utilised the opportunity offered by the BBC to further his commercial venture by using his intelligent and presentable daughter. An intelligent man who also callously ignored the risk to the life of his own young child and would like to believe that everyone else but himself is responsible for what happened.
• In my personal opinion the book is also wrongly attributed to have been authored by Malala. Anyone who has read Christina Lamb's earlier works, and anyone who has kept an eye on international media commentary on the political and security situation in Pakistan and is aware of western and particularly Indian narrative will find the same Indian/Western narrative about Pakistani security institutions, politicians and the state carefully inserted across the book and attributed as words by Malala.
• The book also does great injustice to the great Swat valley which has always been way ahead of rest of the North West Pakistan in terms of literacy, women's education, and overall liberal outlook towards the world. Portraying Swat as the lawless land based on a particular five year period of religious right wing insurgency is a great disservice to the common people of Swat. 

There has been a lot of discussion in Pakistan media about whether the book is disrespectful to Islam, Pakistan and its political leadership. I am reproducing exact quotes from the book that have caused hurt in many quarters - these quotes also match what is well known Western and Indian narrative on present day Pakistan. I don't find most of it surprising because having read the book I believe these are primarily views of Ziauddin Yousufzai rather than a doting daughter.

On heritage and Pakistani identity

"So I was born a proud daughter of Pakistan, though like all Swatis I thought of myself first as Swati and then Pashtun, before Pakistani

With such a history, you can see why the people of Swat did not always think it was a good idea to be part of Pakistan.

Our founder Jinnah wanted the rights of Muslims in India to be recognised, but the majority of people in India were Hindu. It was as if there was a feud between two brothers and they agreed to live in different houses. 

Would it have been better if we had not become independent but stayed part of India? I asked my father. It seemed to me that before Pakistan there was endless fighting between Hindus and Muslims. Then even when we got our own country there was still fighting, but this time it was between Mohajirs and Pashtuns and between Sunnis and Shias. Instead of celebrating each other, our four provinces struggle to get along. Sindhis often talk of separation and in Baluchistan there is an ongoing war which gets talked about very little because it is so remote. Did all this fighting mean we needed to divide our country yet again."

On General Zia-ul-Haq

"When my father was eight a general called Zia ul-Haq seized power. There are still many pictures of him around. He was a scary man with dark panda shadows around his eyes, large teeth that seemed to stand to attention and hair pomaded flat on his head.

Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto had appointed Zia as his army chief because he thought he was not very intelligent and would not be a threat. He called him his monkey.

As a nation we have always been good at hockey, but Zia made our female hockey players wear baggy trousers instead of shorts, and stopped women playing some sports altogether."

 On re-writing Pakistan's history

"Our history textbooks were rewritten to describe Pakistan as a ‘fortress of Islam’, which made it seem as if we had existed far longer than since 1947, and denounced Hindus and Jews. Anyone reading them might think we won the three wars we have fought and lost against our great enemy India."

On Jihad and role of CIA and ISI - reiterating the Indian and western narrative

"Jihad was very much encouraged by the CIA. Children in the refugee camps were even given school textbooks produced by an American university which taught basic arithmetic through fighting. They had examples like, ‘If out of 10 Russian infidels, 5 are killed by one Muslim, 5 would be left’ or ‘15 bullets – 10 bullets = 5 bullets.

Not only did our army and ISI have long links with some of the militants, but it also meant our troops would be fighting their own Pashtun brothers 

Sometimes when I walked along the main road I saw chalked messages on the sides of buildings. CONTACT US FOR JIHAD TRAINING, they would say, listing a phone number to call. In those days jihadi groups were free to do whatever they wanted. You could see them openly collecting contributions and recruiting men. There was even a headmaster from Shangla who would boast that his greatest success was to send ten boys in Grade 9 for jihad training in Kashmir. 

Most of the volunteers came from Islamic charities or organisations but some of these were fronts for militant groups. The most visible of all was Jamaat-ul-Dawa (JuD), the welfare wing of Lashkare-Taiba. LeT had close links to the ISI and was set up to liberate Kashmir, which we believe should be part of Pakistan not India as its population is mostly Muslim. The leader of LeT is a fiery professor from Lahore called Hafiz Saeed, who is often on television calling on people to attack India. 

My father heard that many of the boys were taken in by the JuD and housed in their madrasas

Hundreds of men had gone missing during the military campaign, presumably picked up by the army or ISI, but no one would say. The women could not get information; they didn't know if their husbands and sons were dead or alive.

This wasn't just happening in Swat. We heard there were thousands of missing all over Pakistan. Many people protested outside courthouses or put up posters of their missing but got nowhere 

LeT – Lashkar-e-Taiba, literally Army of the Pure, one of Pakistan's oldest and most powerful militant groups, active in Kashmir and with close links to the ISI "

On Pakistan's nuclear programme

"In Washington the government of President Obama had just announced it was sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan to turn round the war against the Taliban. But now they seemed to be more alarmed about Pakistan than Afghanistan. Not because of girls like me and my school but because our country has more than 200 nuclear warheads and they were worried about who was going to control them." 

On Lal Masjid

"The women were from Jamia Hafsa, the biggest female madrasa in our country and part of Lal Masjid – the Red Mosque in Islamabad. It was built in 1965 and got its name from its red walls. It’s just a few blocks from parliament and the headquarters of ISI, and many government officials and military used to pray there. The mosque has two madrasas, one for girls and one for boys, which had been used for years to recruit and train volunteers to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

When President Musharraf agreed to help America in the ‘War on Terror’, the mosque broke off its long links with the military and became a centre of protest against the government. Abdul Rashid was even accused of being part of a plot to blow up Musharraf ’s convoy in Rawalpindi in December 2003. Investigators said the explosives used had been stored in Lal Masjid. But a few months later he was cleared 

The Musharraf government didn’t seem to know what to do. This was perhaps because the military had been so attached to the mosque." 

On Salman Rushdie and freedom of expression

"The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, and it was a parody of the Prophet’s life set in Bombay. Muslims widely considered it blasphemous and it provoked so much outrage that it seemed people were talking of little else. The odd thing was no one had even noticed the publication of the book to start with – it wasn’t actually on sale in Pakistan – but then a series of articles appeared in Urdu newspapers by a mullah close to our intelligence service, berating the book as offensive to the Prophet and saying it was the duty of good Muslims to protest. Soon mullahs all over Pakistan were denouncing the book, calling for it to be banned, and angry demonstrations were held.

My father also saw the book as offensive to Islam but believes strongly in freedom of speech. ‘First, let’s read the book and then why not respond with our own book,’ he suggested. He ended by asking in a thundering voice my grandfather would have been proud of, ‘Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!"

Anti-Pakistan rhetoric

"14 August 1997 there were parades and commemorations throughout the country. However, my father and his friends said there was nothing to celebrate as Swat had only suffered since it had merged with Pakistan. They wore black armbands to protest, saying the celebrations were for nothing, and were arrested. They had to pay a fine they could not afford.

Father said if our politicians hadn’t spent so much money on building an atomic bomb we might have had enough for schools." 

Factual errors to demonstrates Zia--ud-Din's poverty

"For the first few years after graduating from Jehanzeb my father worked as an English teacher in a well-known private college. But the salary was low, just 1,600 rupees a month (around £12), and my grandfather complained he was not contributing to the household". [Rs 1600 at that time was a decent salary for a young graduate to start their career - using present day conversion rates is wrong]

Demeaning overseas workers

"There were many families with no men. They would visit only once a year, and usually a new baby would arrive nine months later"

On Taliban

"Taliban led by a one-eyed mullah had taken over the country and was burning girls’ schools. They were forcing men to grow beards as long as a lantern and women to wear burqas."

On Burqa

"Wearing a burqa is like walking inside big fabric shuttlecock with only a grille to see through and on hot days it’s like an oven.

Her inspiration

I am inspired by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the man who some call the Frontier Gandhi, who introduced a non-violent philosophy to our culture"

On receiving financial aid from the army

"Madam Maryam and I wrote an email to General Abbas explaining the situation. He was very kind and sent us 1,100,000 rupees so my father could pay everyone three months back pay."

I am on record for being an avid supporter of Malala, her campaign for education, her nomination for Nobel Peace Prize etc. I am, however, disappointed at the book and its content. It feels like repeat of when Ziauddin Yousufzai wrote his first speech and used Malala to present it at a competition, a larger group of people like Ziauddin got together to put this book together manipulating an impressionable young soul.

I am even more disappointed at the Pakistan Foreign Office, who at one stage under instructions from then president Mr Asif Zardari summarily turned Ziauddin Yousufzai into a formal diplomat representing Pakistan, are letting the charade to continue. This is a great disservice to an exceptional professional diplomatic core serving the country across the world. Mr Zardari is out of the door, so should be Mr Ziauddin and his team of handlers.

Pakistan army in Swat: a shovel in one hand and a gun in the other

Writing for Washington Post, Karin Brulliard writes

Of 401 schools bombed by militants or left dilapidated, half have been rebuilt. But it was the military, not the government, that rebuilt them while also providing temporary tents for other schools. By some estimates, the army has carried out 90 percent of the building and rebuilding projects

But all of this should be delivered by the civilian government, surely?

The military is rebuilding roads, schools and libraries. It is buying computers for women's vocational institutes and solar-powered streetlights for villages. It is planting a million trees. The work has made soldiers hugely popular, but some wonder why the civilian government is not doing it.

Writing on the war in Swat last year I wrote

It is, however, important to ensure that what appears to be a qualified victory in the short term doesn't turn into a long term defeat.Though a large number of Taliban fighters have been killed in the operation and remaining appear to be on the run, the top tier command structure of Swat Taliban is still intact. Military action has not succeeded in capturing or eliminating key targets like Mullah Fazlullah, Muslim Khan and the like. While these hard core terrorist are alive there will always be a risk of Taliban resurgence once the army has gone back into the barracks.

Situation on the ground has not changed. Swat Taliban leadership is still at large and waiting for army to pull out leaving them free to deal with the jelly kneed civilian infrastructure.

Militancy in Swat was never a mere Islamic fundamentalist insurgency. It had its roots in the absence of a functional civil administrative infrastructure and institutions of law and justice. That need has not changed. Before the 50,000 strong Pakistan army moves out of the region the government still need to ensure that:

• A new police infrastructure that is trained, equipped and willing to take on the responsibility of establishing the law and order and provide security to citizens without having to rely on military support;
• A civil administration that does not simply rely of doing deals with the remnants of Taliban or their supporters;
• institutions of justice and law and order - absence of these gave credibility to the demands of people like Sufi Muhammad in the first place;
• active counter insurgency mechanism in place with bodies on the ground and in the streets. Having just a military cantonment is not going to achieve this;
• engage national and regional political parties to create a national voice against the menace. While doing so not to cave in to pressure groups like Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman who are still in the business of making money from dead bodies.

Some of it is being put in place.

government offices in Swat are open, and they have reclaimed their chaotic bustle... officials have reduced a large backlog of court cases, surveyed 10,000 destroyed houses and shops, and plan to distribute $1 million in total compensation to families of victims or survivors of terrorist attacks. "In the entire district, every nook and corner, the government is functioning,"...But security analysts say that keeping insurgents at bay requires the government not just to resume its functions but to improve them -- and that is the worry...

A Community united in charity for Swat IDPs

I owed readers a report on charity iftar dinner fund raising event in Cheshire, UK that I have promoted through my blog posts earlier.

The Muslim community in Cheshire and surrounding areas got together on 30th August to generate funds for the rebuilding of a school for girls in the Swat valley that were burnt or blown up during the war between Taliban and Pakistan army. Seventeenth Century Elizabethian venue Davenport Green Hall in Hale Barns provided the right atmosphere for over 550 Muslim men, women and children to get together in the holy month of Ramadhan to break their fast and contribute to the charitable cause.


The event was hosted by International Foundation for Mother and Child Health (IFMCH) a Cheshire based UK registered charity. Its founder, Dr. Saleem Khan, talked of the plight of women in Pakistan where every minute a woman dies due to lack of knowledge of basic female health issues. He hopes the school could also be used in the evenings to educate the masses about female health with the help of IFMCH.

The Emerald Network (a network of young British Muslim professional) and major UK charities like Muslim Hands and Human Appeal helped to raise awareness for the event and contributed to its success. A brand new charity The Allama Mashriqi trust was also inaugurated at this event by Nina Khan. It is hoped that this new organisation will be able to help to reduce some of the social injustices throughout Pakistan.

Dr Nighat Awan OBE lead the charity auction after the dinner and helped raise over £10,000 through the auctions of items such as a signed Manchester United shirt and a cricket bat signed by members of the Pakistan cricket team. These funds will be used to support the building of the school in the Swat valley through Friends of the Citizens Foundation charity. They have already built 600 schools in Pakistan and are aiming to increase the number to a 1000 by 2012. A large number of young Muslims boys and girls from all over the North West demonstrated their community spirit by joining the event as volunteers.

Over two million people from the Swat Valley and surrounding region were displaced this year, as the Pakistani army fought against the Taliban. Many men, women and children were forced to abandon their homes leaving their livestock and belongings behind as they moved into makeshift camps and temporary accommodation. They have been refugees in their own homeland as provincial governments have been restricting their movement out of the war zone.

Women and children have been the main victims of Taliban oppression and the military action. A vast majority of Girls schools were destroyed by Taliban along with other public infrastructure. The children of Swat especially girls now need help to rebuild their lives. This school will not only support repatriation of Swat girls into normal life but will continue to serve as a platform for raising awareness among women of health issues too.

Reverend Robert Hinton of All Saints CE Church in Hale Barns attended the event and spoke of his support for the project and Rabbi Joel Portnoy of Shay Lane Synagogue in his message to the community highlighted how their efforts were also in line with teachings of the Torah and wished the project success.
”Subhannallah, it is wonderful to see so many people here today from different places, backgrounds and faiths coming together to support the children of Swat” said Dr Amir Hannan.

“The community is full of caring people who have much to offer to help each other as well as other fellow human beings. As a community, we are not helpless and blind to the suffering, especially of Children of Swat.”

Pictures and videos from the event are available on the event facebook page. [m859wpvx6a]

Swat Charity Iftar dinner in Cheshire

While I look for inspiration for my next blog post I am reproducing a message from Dr. Aamir Hannan from Cheshire who along with a group of other caring citizens are trying to ensure that the plight of Swat IDPs is not forgotten and that there is still a lot more we can do.

"Assalamualaykum

In just over 2 weeks time, we have arranged a Swat Charity Iftar at Davenport Green Hall, Hale Barns. We hope to raise much needed funds for the people who have been displaced as a result of the conflict in Swat where the people have been “almost forgotten”. There are 3 main ways we will enable money raised to reach the people on the ground there – Muslim Hands who already have a large presence there, the International Foundation for Mothers and Children Health [IFMCH] and Allama Mashriqi who are a new movement in Pakistan looking to help provide employment for the poor and better justice for all. There will be brief presentations from them explaining who they are and what they hope to achieve with the money raised. All profits from the event will go to support the people of Swat.

A number of items have been donated for the cause to be auctioned on the night including a signed Manchester United T-shirt and (hopefully!) a cricket bat signed by members of the Pakistan cricket team. There will be some beautiful Islamic art too. We will also be producing a booklet for you to take home with the details of kind sponsors as well without whom this event could not have taken place. I also understand the BBC are planning to come and record the event. We are also hoping to have a Muslim TV channel record the event so that it can be beamed over to Pakistan too. We have also invited the local priest and rabbi and others so that they may also join us in helping the people in Swat. There will also be a 3 course Indian meal with full waiter service for your total comfort.

Tickets cost £25 for adults, £10 for children and under 7s free.

If you know anybody that may wish to be a sponsor for the event or you would like to promote your business in the booklet then please ask them to contact me – an advert costs £250 or for £500 you get a table with 10 places as well as a table to promote your activities on the night as well as an advert.

The evening starts promptly at 7pm (please arrive before then!). Insha’Allah we hope the speeches and auction will be completed by 8pm at the latest.

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TICKETS NOW AS THEY ARE SELLING FAST AND WE DO NOT WISH TO DISAPPOINT ANYBODY. WE ALSO NEED TO ARRANGE TABLE PLANS FOR THE EVENING.

Please forward this e-mail to any friends, colleagues or any other people that you think may be interested in coming. I would be very grateful if you could also personally contact 5 other people asking them if they would like to come too whether you can come or not. Activities such as this can be successful if we all do our part and support each other.

Amir
07977503548 "

Support Swat children in need - interfaith charity event in Cheshire

An interfaith group of caring professionals in Altrincham, Cheshire UK are organising a charity fund raising event towards the end of August. I highly recommend readers to join the event by being there if you can or by donating from a distance. They have a Facebook group for the event and are in the process of setting up on-line purchase of tickets and donations for those who might like to contribute remotely.

The event is being supported by International Foundation for Mother and Child Health (IFMCH) an international charity set up to improve life expectancy among mothers and young children in Pakistan.

At the beginning of military action in Swat when the relief effort to help the internally displaced people (IDP)s from Swat region was not very organised Dr. Nazir Ahmad a close friend of mine and a very well respected Cheshire psychiatrist personally raised over 2500 pounds and disbursed these funds among the IDPs that were not the radar of relief agencies for not being in the government established camps. Dr Nazir Ahmad is advising this interfaith group on disbursing proceeds from the Iftar charity event without wasting any money on running costs that accompany big charities.

I am writing this post as an invite to all concerned and caring citizens to come forward and join in person, on-line, or in at least in your prayers. Lets not forget the plight of the IDPs, children and mothers in Swat, they need our help now more than ever.

The elusive victory - war with Taliban will be long and protracted!

Speaking at a reception for Twenty Twenty world cup winning Pakistan cricket team Prime Minister Gillani is reported to have said that “the way the cricketers have won the Twenty20 cup, similarly the Pakistani army will win the war against terrorists in Swat and Malakand...”.

Recent statements by him and some other officials remind me of one of the most embarrassing images for US is the image of President Bush declaring victory in the illegitimate war in Iraq while standing on an aircraft carrier with a banner "Mission Accomplished" flying behind him.

I hope the similarity ends here and that the lives being sacrificed by young men of Pakistan army are not being lost on another un-winnable war. Military operation against Taliban in Swat and FATA (Federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan) continues and according to Pakistan Army number of Taliban casualties can now be counted in thousands rather than hundreds. Military commanders have been pointing out, and rightly so, that a complete victory over Taliban will take months rather then weeks but key towns in Swat region are now back under central control.

It is worth noting that the terrain and the enemy are the same where the mighty Soviet Union fell and where US and its cronies in NATO are engaged in a long un-winnable war. But they have the luxury of being invading and occupying forces who can leave it all behind and wash their hands if they chose to. Pakistan army is fighting on its own territory among its own people and cannot afford to mess it up - or let the politicians turn it into a mess.

Public opinion in Pakistan is still broadly in support of the military operation to rout the menace of Taliban out of the region once and for all. Pakistan governments efforts to build a national political consensus in support of the operation have also been successful and political parties across the spectrum have largely stayed behind the army operation.

It is, however, important to ensure that what appears to be a qualified victory in the short term doesn't turn into a long term defeat.Though a large number of Taliban fighters have been killed in the operation and remaining appear to be on the run, the top tier command structure of Swat Taliban is still intact. Military action has not succeeded in capturing or eliminating key targets like Mullah Fazlullah, Muslim Khan and the like. While these hard core terrorist are alive there will always be a risk of Taliban resurgence once the army has gone back into the barracks.

It is also now public knowledge that the Taliban in Swat and FATA are not simply a local religious outfit with some international jihadis in their ranks. Their free access to American, Russian and Indian ammunition and other advanced tools of warfare points to a wider international involvement and support. Until these supply lines are open and the top tier command still at large the war in Swat will neither be over nor won.

Pakistan Army is not an occupying force in the region and should strive to ensure that it does not lose the credibility of a saviour it has at the moment. Army does not have the luxury of continuing to carry out aerial assaults in populated civilian areas like the Americans have been in Afghanistan. The extent of collateral damage is currently unknown due to blackout on independent media coverage. But nationally there is flexibility in public opinion to this end provided the Taliban do not reappear and the loss appear to have been fruitless.

And lets not forget millions of IDPs who, at the height of unforgiving summer in Pakistan are stuck in ill-equipped and ill-resourced camps. They need to return to their homes soon. The military operation has resulted in destruction of physical infrastructure in the region. In order to repatriate the IDPs they will need to return to a live-able environment which is secure. It is vital to ensure that the IDPs are brought back home as soon as the military leadership confirms a military victory in Swat. But this should accompany at least the following:

• A new police infrastructure that is trained, equipped and willing to take on the responsibility of establishing the law and order and provide security to citizens without having to rely on military support;
• A civil administration that does not simply rely of doing deals with the remnants of Taliban or their supporters;
• institutions of justice and law and order - absence of these gave credibility to the demands of people like Sufi Muhammad in the first place;
• active counter insurgency mechanism in place with bodies on the ground and in the streets. Having just a military cantonment is not going to achieve this;
• engage national and regional political parties to create a national voice against the menace. While doing so not to cave in to pressure groups like Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman who are still in the business of making money from dead bodies.
  

All of this cannot happen overnight even if the government was full of passionate, committed and loyal leaders. It would be almost unachievable if the national leadership takes its eyes of the ball. Lets hope I am not writing a lament on a lost war next summer.

Day of the vigilante

Not many might remember a development in Karachi around May 2008 that sent a chill down every god fearing (or just caring) human being's spine. Fed up with the deteriorating law and order situation in the city vigilante inflicted justice began to flourish and there was a series of episodes where robbers caught red handed were brutally murdered by the mob - in one case burnt alive. Images (disturbing images - discretion advised) published by Pakistani media shocked the nation and an outcry by those who believe in human rights brought this form of justice to an end before it took roots.

In the Upper Dir district of troubled North West of Pakistan a group of villagers took up arms against what has been reported as a group of Taliban and their supporters, razed their houses to the ground and killed four alleged militants. This is widely being reported as a positive development and that it could mark a return of Tribal Lashkars (literally meaning militias) to begin fighting against Taliban.

In a discussion on Pakistani security situation a friend raised a question that in North West Pakistan - where carrying arms is a local tradition and every household has a weapon of some sort, automatic assault weapons like Klashinkovs are widely and cheaply available - why don't people of every town and village pick up their arms and stand up against Taliban! This is a question that is raised by many but troubles me equally.

In the civilised world it is the duty of the state to provide security to its people and put in place institutions, mechanisms and tools to enforce law and order and justice for all citizens - whether they are in Karachi or Swat. When state fails to provide this security chaos ensues. Whereas the mobs in Karachi had no right to take law in their own hands and take life (even of those who committed crimes), it is also not right of anyone of us to expect citizens in the North West to take up arms to protect themselves.

Letting and asking common people to take law into their own hands can have other consequences as well. Over the last few decades we have seen religiously motivated mobs goaded by uneducated and hateful local mullahs murder those belonging to other sects or religions for the crime of committing blasphemy. We have also seen mobs being exploited by clever unscrupulous people to score personal vendettas and get away with murder.

I wouldn't like to see a group of MQM activists attacking a Pathan settlement in Karachi under the guise of attacking a Taliban hideout - a mob doesn't use brain - for them every Pushto speaking bearded man in a turban will be a Talib(an).

Vigilante justice has no place in a civilised world (all areas of Pakistan included).

Victims of War in Swat - don't take away their dignity

It can only happen in Pakistan…

On May 3rd 2009 Pakistani authorities stopped cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan travelling to the southern city of Karachi on Sunday because of fear his trip could trigger violence in the commercial hub. Stopping opposition politicians from travelling and forcibly confining them to one city has been a common ploy used by various governments of dictatorial leaning in Pakistan. Imran is not the first person who has not been allowed to travel from one part of his country to another. Now the same draconian tactic is being used against 2.4 million victims of military action in Swat.

Imran Khan, when stopped from travelling reacted "Under what law can they stop a Pakistani citizen going to Karachi? Isn't Karachi a city of Pakistan?"

I ask the same question on behalf of my brothers and sisters from Swat. They are not refugees from another country. They are in their homeland and the constitution of Pakistan gives them freedom of movement to go anywhere they can find shelter and security in the country. Camps should be an option for those who do not have relatives and friends in other parts of the country to host them in their hour of need.

Number of people displaced from Swat valley as a result of war between Taliban terrorists and Pakistan army is now over 2.5 million. Numbers could swell if the military operation continues and stranded population are able to find a route to escape.

I have written earlier that the government policy of trying to keep them confined to camps is turning them into refugees in their own country. It is extremely disturbing that the central government is allowing its coalition partners MQM in Sind government to lead campaigns against hosting the IDPs in Sind. According to MQM they “believed in the sovereignty and stability of the country therefore it would not allow the spread of Talibanisation in the Sindh province.” What!!! Did Nazis not use similar arguments when rounding up Jews into concentration camps! Look at new face of Nazi-ism its MQM.

When I look at the government of the Punjab I see a similar hypocrisy in action. Where as we see the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif sending millions of sacks of wheat to the IDP camps we also see his government deciding “in principle not to allow camps for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the province…“the IDPs can cause trouble for the province just like the Afghan refugees. So, we have decided not to permit their entry or setting up of camps for them in the Punjab,”. But they are not REFUGEES…

A Pakhtoon friend of mine highlighted that Zaradri, Nawaz Sharif, Altaf Hussain three key characters from Pakistan politics have all been political refugees at some stage (Altaf still is). But for them being a refugee meant moving out of a palace in Pakistan to an even bigger palace in Surrey, Saudi Arabia or London. They can never understand the true feelings of an honourable Pukhtoon farmer or shopkeeper having to exchange the dignified life of his farm/business with the humiliation of a refugee camp.

Farhat Taj wrote in January about plight of IDPs especially woman who suffered at the hands of Taliban in the North West - “An elderly woman, a grandmother, said her daughter-in-law is widow and she used to accompany her children to a hospital in Peshawar, whenever they needed medical treatment. The Taliban threatened women with dire consequences if they came in the public unaccompanied by men. One of her grandchildren had asthma-related problems. His condition got serious. She could not rush him to Peshawar. She sent for men who were relatives, all of them worked outside Bajaur. It took a male relative two days to come and the child died before his arrival. She said she will never forget that the Taliban imposed restrictions on her mobility led to the death of the child. She said the child died in her hands and she could do nothing for him.”

Stories like these are commonly heard from those who had the misfortune of living under Taliban hegemony. Need I ask what is the difference between the Taliban imposed restriction on movements on women and the government imposed restriction on IDPs.

American internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during the World War II remains shameful blot on American history. Having created a similar blot on our history by our treatment of Bengalis in East Pakistan we are creating one of our own if we don’t mend our ways immediately. Swat military operation is not the World War, we are not living in 1940s, and Swatis are not in a foreign country, it is there homeland - no political party or goverment can take it away.

Pakistani Clerics speak out against Taliban and in favour of Army action

Finally, showing courage and defiance against the Taliban hegemony a group of leading Pakistani clerics belonging to an association of Sunni Madrassahs [religious schools] have spoken out in favour of the ongoing army campaign against the Taliban in Swat valley. They have declared the army action against Taliban a "Jihad" [holy war].

The news has not been given the due importance by mainstream media that it deserves. Speaking out against Taliban is becoming a risky, often life threatening, business in Pakistan. Unnoticed by the world at large a number of religious leaders have given their lives for the crime of standing up against the Taliban - only until the recent military action in Swat there was no support for those who wanted to stand up to Taliban. Pir Samiullah of Swat was killed by Taliban last December and his body hung in the town square to scare off any further dissent, he is not the only one who paid the price of resistance by his life - rather than help those who opposed Taliban government decided to sign a peace accord with them.

Majority of Pakistani population has sat on the fence when it came to forming an opinion on Taliban enforced Sharia law. Though a majority of the predominantly Muslim society has a deep rooted belief that Sharia should form the basis for the country's legal and justice system - but an even bigger majority doesn't want to go anywhere near the Taliban's version of Sharia. But saying so openly is generally considered to be inappropriate and risky - it has always been so easy to be branded an infidel, with the arrival of Taliban it has become a fatal undertaking.

Ulema (religious clerics) in Pakistan have always decided to stay quiet even when they believed that the Taliban views were wrong. Even religious political parties who believe in and are a part and parcel of the current democratic system have chosen to stay quiet. But recent actions of Taliban movement in Swat have brought the effects of this menace closer to home.

I hope that the group of forty odd Sunni Clerics who have decided to put their lives at risk and have spoken out will be the first among a large number of others who will join. Unless leading Islamic clerics openly, unequivocally and consistently begin to denounce the Taliban and Al-Qaeda's way of imposing Islam and Jihad the war against extremism will be a very long one.

Lal Masjid Islamabad - episode II

Speaking to media from Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad in May 2007 he is on record to have said

• "the suicide attackers are ready to operate anywhere/any time in Pakistan,”
• “We consider suicide attacks are right in Pakistan in few circumstances, while we consider them as absolutely justified in the context of Afghanistan and Iraq,”
• “Our students enjoy the moments when a police or Rangers operation looms, and they get bored when the situation normalises,”
• “We favoured the Taliban not only in the past, we favour them even today.”

These were statements of Mulana Abdul Aziz, cleric of Lal Masjid in Islamabad during the stand off with government in 2007 - times when his religious baton wielding burqa clad girls platoons were terrorising neighbourhoods in Islamabad. Kidnappings, torture and humiliation of alleged infidels was a daily occurance and federal capital was under virtual seige. The operation he so wanted to happen resulted in around 200 deaths at the mosque.

Maulana has been under "house arrest" since and has been released last week on orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The August Court had due reasons to order his release - because the government had the Maulana arrested not for inciting terrorism, or for training suicide bombers, or for being directly responsible for deaths of soldiers and para military personnel who were trying to bring his militants under control, or for indirect responsibility for the deaths of scores of innocent young students who died in the cross fire - but for alleged corruption and land grabbing at Children's library and then failed to provide adequate evidence to convict him. Reminds one of American government trying to get Al Capone on tax evasion.

Maulana is now back at the same Lal Masjid that by early 2007 had become a rallying cry for Taleban style militancy right at the heart of Pakistani capital. General Musharraf's government did not act against the Maulana and his religious Mafia because he was using them as a scare tactic against the western governments to legitimise his continued stay in power and for continued military aid. I wonder what is the present democratically elected government's argument for not prosecuting him for the crimes he committed in 2007.

Maulana still believes in the same philosophy of imposing his own form of Sharia through coercion "the 2007 siege had been a necessary sacrifice", he told those who came to welcome him back. "Hundreds were killed, many were injured. But today the whole country is resounding with cries to implement Islamic law. We will continue with the struggle...now Islam will not remain confined to Swat. It will spread all over Pakistan, then all over the world."

I sympathise with those in Pakistan who would like to see Sharia as the basis of law and justice. This is a democratic right that should be achieved through democractic means. But people who believe in Maulana's teachings are also aware that a relegious hegemony cannot be achieved through democracy because a vast majority of Pakistanis will not vote for them. What's happening in Swat is an example - what Taleban minded groups could not achieve when they rode to electoral victory in North West Frontier Province in 2002 on the wave of anti-American sentiments, they achieved through violent miltant activity in 2009.

Maulana Abdul Aziz is claiming to achieve the same in Islamabad. Like him General Musharraf has blood of over 200 people on his hands because he did not act in time to stop Lal Masjid becoming hub of militancy in Islamabad. I hope that President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani will show the courage to nip this evil in the bud.

A nation in a state of denial

In response to my artcile on "Battlefront Swat" Rashid Chaudhry, a reader from Karachi, sent me a copy of an article from Athar Hashmi, a Pakistani columnist commenting on the barbaric episode of flogging of 17 year old girl in Swat.

Mr. Hashmi is as shocked as any civilised person in the world would be at the atrocious treatment of this young girl while highlighting that the incidence is not only against all Islamic values but does not conform to local Swati traditions or practices as well. Athar's thoery is that this incidence happened three months ago - well before the signing of Swat accord with Taleban and implementation of Nizam-e-Adl ordinance and is an attempt to discredit the peace agreement and to single out and malign the Taleban movement. He points out other examples of mal treatment of women in Paksitan, some of them involving sitting ministers in the current democratic government - see my earlier article on Plight of women in Muslim countries.

Though I respect and agree with some of the views expressed in the article to the extent that problem of defning a very localised form of Sharia as Islamic and the rampant mal-treatment of women right across the uneducated social setup of Pakistan is not simply because of Taleban phenomenon. I do, however, refuse to accept that this is also simply because of international conspiracies against a nuclear Pakistan. I refuse to accept that the American drones and agents of Indian RAW give anyone on the Taleban side the right to begin killing spree against Shia Muslims across the country using the suicide bombers. I do not subscribe to the notion that since the incidence happened three months ago it somehow reduces its significance. Treatment of this young girl is unacceptable whether it happened three month ago or last week. Whether the perpetrators were local Taleban or imported ones (of whom we have many). They did no justice to Islam or people of Swat and should be brought before the established law of the land of Pakistan.

We are a nation in a state of denial. Though we have always been our best critics and can surgically disect the problems we face - but we have also developed a tendency to blame it all on someone from outside. The concept of "Bae-runi Haath" (literally meaning external hands) in everything bad that goes on in Pakistan needs to go for us to get out of this abyss of terrorism.
In the spirit of openness I am reproducing it below for those who can read Urdu: