Fight Hudood, Protect Women

Ballu Khan,

``The problem happened because some of us USED these mullahs to control other moderates. This started with Pakistan turing into an ``Islamic Republic``, and ulemas became important in such a setup. The only solution is to roll back Pakistan as a ``Secular Republic`` and throwing a few pieces of bones at the mullahs to keep them busy``

My responses to Cancer clot below notwithstanding: Well said and completely agreed. The rot started when we passed the Objectives Resolution in March 194 completely while ignoring the concerns of minorities ... Islamist Freaks who opposed the creation of Pakistan but supported this resolution claimed that this was ``democracy``.

However... we got Pakistan on the principle that the concerns of any permanent minority should never be ignored... and yet our ``constitution-making`` starting from March 1949... and culminating into the current ``constitution`` of 1973 was merely an exercise in how to screw over the minorities best.

PS to 17:

Constitution of 1973

As a lawyer working with this document on a daily basis, I have come to the conclusion that while in most countries, Constitutions exist to protect minorities and fundamental rights of citizens from the tyranny of the majority... in Pakistan the constitution of 1973, as it stands, serves to protect the tyranny of the majority from the infringement of fundamental rights and minorities....

This is most ironic because our entire rationale for the Pakistan movement was to save Muslims and other minorities from the tyranny of the Majority ...

#18 by Mantolives

... err .. but Manto, the 1973 constitution was passed by consensus of all provinces and political parties ... so where exactly do you lay blame?

Re: # 18

Mantolives, as zeemax said on another thread this constitution was passed by a majority in all provinces (all provinces had a majority). How does this tie up with your assertions (this as well as others)?

On another note: The constitution is just a piece of paper. It is worth only as much as the respect it is accorded, and the agreement people have that it is sacrosanct (upto a point). From what I gather, this respect for the constitution is just a game of intellectual point scoring in Pakistan. For the reality is somewhat different, Sarwar`s article on FP attests to this. Also the fact that democratic governemtns in Pakistan themselves didnot respect the constitution and in many cases just modified the martial law dictats. Every coup in Pakistan, had the backing of the educated, the economic elite and the religious elite (okay after sometime there was opposition but that is another issue). This does indicate, an essential lack of agreement on the main points of governance in Pakistan. Apart from the 1973 document!

Dotty,


There are two separate points here:

1. I was talking of 1973 constitution as it stands after the insertion of 2 A which is an altered form of OR.

2. Read my post again. Majority is exactly the issue. The essential purpose of constitution in any society is to protect the minorities and fundamental rights from the tyranny of the majority... and in Pakistan`s particular case, it was this idea that Muslims as a permanent minority would be crushed under the weight of the tyranny of the majority that made Pakistan.... How does the passing of Objectives resolution or the passing of 1973 by a ``majority`` gel in with the essential idea of Pakistan as well as the fact the resultant constitution is merely giving majoritarian fascism legitimacy?

Beena, this was a very thoughtful article on a face of Pakistani society that is veiled away from the mainstream societal awareness. The damge of the last three decades cannot be undone so easily and as a nation, in many ways, we were uprooted and confused by the economic antics of Z. A. Bhutto and faux piety of General Zia-ul-Haq. I agree with you that the road ahead is long and difficult and what makes this even more difficult is that there are no easy answers to the query of how we can once more regain our national sanity. It is very easy and quite human to place the blame and absolve ourselves from our failures to stand up and defend those ideas, we claimed to have cherised.

Our failure as a nation is, and was, that we never understood what we hoped to acheive as a nation and instead of creating a nation based on the promises of our sacrifices, we opted to create a nation girded on the principles of exclusivity. Pakistan is a very young nation, as far as the chronological records of nations go and it is still an immature nation caught up in its insecurities and its national-historic complexes. In the past, we have gained much and we have lost much, but the end of the struggle is not near and we are destined to suffer more as we trudge and stumble, forward groping our way, towards a distant future. We will suffer as a nation till that point in our national evolution when we realize that our national salvation lies in the compromises of moderation and in tolerance and not in the zeals of extremism.

The question is not about constitutions and it not about justice but it is certainly about the cruelity in our national character as much as it is to ask why are we so cruel and intolerant as a nation. It is the psyche of this nation; of extolling intolerance; of practicing intolerance; of justifying intolerance and seeking a sadistic satisifaction in intolerance that should concern us. As long as we seek to build chasms in our national life on the basis of divisions and perpetuate divisons in our realities and as long as we seek to deny; to repress; to suppress and to ignore the plight of the less fortunate amongst ourselves, we will remain an insecure nation incapable of all those characteristics that define the context and the defination of what constitues an understanding of the word ``humanity``.

Reforms and justice in Pakistan and for its people are rhetorical mirages, which are meaningless and they will remain meaningless until we find the inner courage within ourselves to actually believe in them not as legalistic concepts but as the reaffirmament of our own humanity. We as a nation have to discover our lost humanity and we have to learn the art of tolerance; the patience to hear those who have a complaint and the confidence to face our own incompetence as a people. We have to believe, above all else, ourselves first before we can believe in the slogans of our own choice and preference and unless we do not believe in ourselves as a nation, we will not be able to believe in those things which give us the cloak of a nationhood and confer upon us the mantle of a civilzed people.

The sufferings and the misfortunes of this nation is but a mere symptom of our own wishes for expedient power, fame and glory, and passage of all reformist laws will not cure us from the malady that strickens and that malady is not religion or corruption, but our national inability ask ourselves why we place so much importance upon the propersity of individualistic avarice in Pakistan and not enough upon the building of a national conscience. It is the sacrifice a collective national utility at the alter of personal ego that should horrify us and till that point, injustice and intolerance will roam this land as hungry wolves.

Pakistan and its people need to heal themselves before they can seek to remedy the ills of their society and as long as we continue to pass laws, without reforming ourselves, we must remember that laws are transient and can be altered with the consent of the pliable. We, as nation, have twisted and turned to so many directions at the call of so many false promises, that we have lost our sense of balance and we have believed so many of our own lies, because the truth was a bitter relization that we had only ourselves to blame for our misery that we are uncertain about which lies we are supposed to believe and which we are not supposed to believe. We must remember that laws and justice in a society are the reflection of the people, who compose the society and just laws and fair justice does not necessarily gurantees kind, tolerant and humane societies.

Ciao

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#22 FerozK

[we opted to create a nation girded on the principles of exclusivity.]

Exclusivity has been the bane of the Pakistani society, no matter how much individual Pakistanis deny it - only the liars and the cheats find any redeeming value in it.

And no matter how much such people do so, it is plain as daylight to the rest of the world that but for that feeling of exclusivity - of being ``deiiferent`` because of religion and of expecting ``exclusive`` treatment based on religion, there would have been no push for a separate country.

Denying the underlying thought of exclusivity - the very founding principle of that country, does not make it go away. The disease gets covered up but its poisonous effect corrodes the body from inside.

It takes one full generation (1948-1973) to take complete hold and another (1973-present) to start killing its ``own``!

The Hudood ordinance is only a ``flower`` that blooms atop the toxic waste of a LOT of poison buried underneath! Plucking this flower will not stop other flowers from springing up.

The following is a news item from Yahoo!News (March 6, 2007). I thought it might be of interest to the Chowk readers at this board.

Moahammad Gill

---

``Violent debate on women`s rights in Pakistan

By David Montero, Correspondent of The Christian Science MonitorTue Mar 6, 3:00 AM ET

Working for the public was a gift from God for Zille Huma Usman, Punjab`s provincial minister for social welfare.

But two weeks ago, Muhammed Sarwar violently disagreed, killing her before a crowd because, he said, God does not allow women to work. He later told police that he felt no remorse for his crime.

Ms. Usman`s death, which shocked the country, comes at a moment of violent flux over the role of women in Pakistan. As the Pakistani government clamps down on Islamist extremists, the conflict over competing visions of Islam has enveloped the issue of women`s rights, turning it into a battleground issue between moderates and Islamist extremists.

``There is a growing sense of menace among women. I`ve heard working women express anxiety about driving on the streets alone. They work not only because they have to, but as a statement,`` says Jugnu Mohsin, the publisher and managing editor of The Friday Times, a progressive weekly newspaper. She adds that the threat emanates from a minority segment of society, but has grown worse over the years, incited in part by legislative victories favoring women`s rights over fundamentalist interpretations of Islamic law.

In December, Pakistan`s Parliament passed the Women`s Protection Bill, which amended the Hudood Ordinances, a set of religious laws long considered discriminatory toward women. But by shifting the laws from religious codes to secular ones, the bill unleashed widespread political discontent.

``The Women`s Protection Bill has focused attention on the issue. Women have become the target because it`s a victory for women, even a partial victory,`` says Kamila Hyat, joint director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Lahore.

Although not directly related, recent events suggest a growing arc of violence against women and girls. In the North West Frontier province, at least three girls` schools have been bombed, and threats circulated by pamphlets have directed female health workers to leave the area.

Despite what appears to be escalating violence, government officials say the situation is under control. ``We are cognizant of the matter, and we are taking all possible measures to make sure the area does not get Talibanized,`` says Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema. the director of the National Crisis Management Cell, which deals with matters of internal security.

A troubling parable of Pakistani society, observers say, rests at the intersection where Usman and her killer collided on the afternoon of Feb. 20 in Gujranwala, a northeastern city of more than 3 million.

Usman, the first female politician in her family, was a proud symbol of change. Thanks to national laws which allotted one-third of all local legislative seats for women, some 30,000 women entered local politics after 2001, according to a 2004 World Bank study.Usman herself began working up the ladder four years ago.

``She was very interested in giving charity to the poor. Her belief was that if you want to work, it is no matter if you are a man or a woman,`` her husband, Muhammed Usman Haider, says at the family home in Gujranwala. ``I`m proud to say she`s the most pious woman. She knows more about Islam than anyone.``

Meanwhile, religious leaders universally condemn Mr. Sarwar`s stated motives, and while few clerics would support his extreme actions, the rising violence indicates that there may be segments of society who do. A debate rages over what Islam says about a woman`s right to work and hold office.

``Whoever did this was wrong. She was not un-Islamic. There is nowhere in the Koran that women cannot hold office, as long as they act with modesty,`` says Aqeel Ahmed, who works at a computer shop in Gujranwala.

More than religion, what most disturbs observers is that Usman was not Sarwar`s first victim. In 2003, he confessed to police that he had killed at least four women and wounded four others, mostly prostitutes and dancers.

His gruesome acts made national headlines, but when Sarwar appeared in court, he changed his story and the cases fell apart. There were also allegations, according to the local press, that religious leaders paid compensation money to the victims` families, who eventually dropped the cases.

While police deny any wrongdoing or neglect in Sarwar`s previous cases, his frequent run-ins with the law, observers say, expose the institutional discrimination at work within the Pakistani justice system.

``[Women] are not getting real justice. They`re not going through the police and the judiciary ... It will take so much time and insults of that lady,`` says Humaira Hashmi, the regional general manager of the Punjab Rural Support Program in Multan, which addresses issues of women`s rights.

Such lapses are part of the larger fabric of abuse toward women that goes unchecked in Pakistani society, according to observers. An October 2006 United Nations report highlighted that honor killings claimed the lives of 4,000 men and women between 1998 and 2003 in Pakistan.

``Police almost invariably take the man`s side in honor killings or domestic murders, and rarely prosecute the killers,`` said a 1999 Amnesty International report. ``Even when the men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they usually receive a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their female relatives with virtual `impunity.` ````

Dear BJkumar,

No point selectively quoting Ferozk ... he is far too educated in these matters than you.

He wrote and I quote: Our failure as a nation is, and was, that we never understood what we hoped to acheive as a nation and instead of creating a nation based on the promises of our sacrifices, we opted to create a nation girded on the principles of exclusivity

He is saying the same thing I am. The founding principle of Pakistan is NOT exclusivity. It is Equality Fraternity and Justice. The people who GIRDED Pakistan on a path of exclusivity are the very PEOPLE who OPPOSED the PRINCIPLE OF PAKISTAN and who were brought into POLITICS by none other than the racist casteist hindu fascist bigot Gandhi.

Despite this I do not the racist casteist Hindu fascist Bigot Gandhi for our ills... we allowed Gandhi`s erstwhile allies... the Islamo-fascists ... to hijack the idea of Pakistan... hence it is entirely our fault.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Re: # 27

Your obsession with Mahatma Gandhi is very unhealthy.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts