The Summer of ’47

re ylh`s

``...and Christian Priests are not burning in Pakistan... ``

You must have forgotten the self-immolation of the Rt Revd John Joseph, the Roman Catholic bishop of Lahore a bare three years ago. He was protesting the use of blasphemy laws against minorities. By the way, it was in Pakistan that a 12 year old Christian kid was condemned to death for `blasphemy`. What got him off the hook was a vigorous defence by Asma Jehangir and a conscientious judge. The judge was later murdered and Ms Jehangir`s life has been under threat ever since.

Your defence of the Quaid-e-Azam is unimpeachable and praiseworhty. But the minute that defence slides into a debate about secularism, you are on a sticky wicket. Speaking about secularism, there is simply no comparison between India and Pakistan. Indians may be abject fools and ignorant but theirs is still a secular representative democracy. Imperfect, corrupt, and full of venal RSS types. But still a secular, representative democracy where you are not asked to condemn the Shudras as non-Hindus before you can get a passport.

Continuation of the DIALOGUE:

Indian 2: Jinnah was a thug, and antidemocratic Bigot.

Pakistani: I dont think Gandhi or any of the Mature Historians would say that. Raj Mohan Gandhi in his book .... Ajeet Javed Singh in his book secular and nationalist jinnah said...

Indian 2: Who cares. When I said so , I said so.. I dont care who or what you have read. Books are not a good source of knowledge... I know the truth because God revealed it to me... so you see you are wrong... all of you are fanatical... Pakistan is Evil.

YLH`s NOTE: Can one argue with a person who has never been to pakistan, but calls it a fanatical country because his daddy told him so? Can one argue with a person who is unwilling to read or accept any truth, but knows only the truth he invents himself?

What the hell is wrong with you Indians... why cant you live and let live? What crime did we do if we love Pakistan... why do you want to constantly tell us that we are wrong and that the monopoly of truth belongs to all of you....

Go solve your problems.... Babri Mosques, and Christian Priests are not burning in Pakistan...

In Pakistan the `fanatical` leaders are not declaring national will of making one place of worship atop another...

And now as usual Indians will come back and attack me for saying this... well kiss my rearside ! I sick of you all with your narrow minded, good vs bad views of History, your self righteousness, your arrogance, your sham secularism, your fascism hidden in the cloak of Democracy ....

WE ARE PAKISTANIS, let us be whatever we are... leave us to our fate... if we like Jinnah, and you dont, fine, but who the hell are you lie about him or Pakistan? Who the hell gave you the permission to tell us what to do and what not to do? PAKISTAN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INDIA... SO PLEASE TAKE YOUR SORRY REARSIDES AND LEAVE US ALONE!

It is one thing to debate.... but if you think you can come here and try to feel good about your god obsessed country with abject poverty think again.... 1 Billion people , 1 billion Herd of sheep doing mey mey mey mey ... going in one direction... before it was the shephard Mahatma, now it is the Hindu Nationalist forces....

Oh mommy mommy we have IT, we are the super power of the World ... we are the bomb, we are Indians ... oh wait, we have abject poverty, we kill Christian priests, we destroy Mosques.....ah but we are better than Pakistan atleast... how do we know that? Because daddy Vajpayee said so...

I am sick of this nonsense... when are you fools going to live and let live?

-YLH

As everyone on chowk knows... I only fight on facts, and accurate quotes... I do not have the stamina to fight with someone like Gowardhan who makes one sweeping statement declaring one thing...

And then the nerve of some people to blame me for pointing fingers at Gandhi and that too with facts and quotes from the old man himself.

If you people dont stop lying about and insulting Jinnah, you will leave me no recourse!

SO WHAT DO EDUCATED INDIANS (UNLIKE GOWARDHAN AND HARIMAU) THINK OF JINNAH?

Article 1:

REASSESSING JINNAH:

bY `Akhilesh Mithal`

http://members.tripod.com/anantmithal/Itihaas/1999/it991205ReassessingJinnah.html

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/09111998/books.html

Stiff Child of India By K R Malkani

That Mohammed Ali Jinnah was very secular and for long years an earnest nationalist is well known. He was for independence at the earliest; and he was opposed to separate electorates. He said he was Indian first and Muslim only second. He was the sole top leader to oppose the Khilafat agitation and call it dangerous to Indian nationalism. He used to donate Rs 1,000 a month to the Congress. His role model was Gokhale. Yet he ended up as the architect of India`s partition.

The learned author of this book would seem to think that Hindus, the Congress and Mahatma Gandhi were more responsible for this tragedy than Muslims, the Muslim League and Jinnah. Now it is true enough that Jinnah was expected to succeed Tilak as the foremost leader of nationalist India. But he did not. Some Gandhians could insult Jinnah. Nehru could attack and

ridicule Jinnah -- and the latter could return the compliment by dubbing Nehru the ``Peter Pan of Indian politics``. But the real reason for the falling out went far beyond subjective factors.

World War I had radicalised the Indian political scene. The days of the moderates were over; mass politics was the in-thing. And mass politics -- with defiance of law, countrywide non-cooperation and courting jail -- was not Jinnah`s cup of tea. His qualification for Congress membership was matriculation -- and not plying the charkha.

An even bigger factor in the acrimony of Hindu-Muslim relations was a clash of dreams. In the context of separate electorates, the Hindu thought of his glorious ancient past. The Muslim recollected the glories of medieval India. Nobody seemed to have the wit and the wisdom to harmonise the two dreams into one grand new mosaic.

Asia Week says about Nehru and Jinnah

http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/1231/century.newsmakers.html

NEHRU/JINNAH It is an irony of history that although the Indian subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines in 1947, the founding leaders of India and Pakistan were both secularists. Thus while Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was not a strict Muslim, managed to create a nation in the name of Islam, his message to Pakistanis was scrupulously secular. It is no small tribute to Jinnah that the majority of Pakistanis continue to oppose leaders who wish to turn the country into a theocracy. For their part, many Indians are grateful to Jawaharlal Nehru

for firmly steering India along a secular path. Without him, religious extremists just might have achieved their goal of a Hindu nation.

Gowardhan :

Read the following books about Jinnah written by three staunch Congressites of your own country and then go to your God `Gandhi` and weep !

Gandhi was the true anti-Democrat whose famous comment is `Religion without Politics should be buried alive`... I find it odd, and extremely stupid that you people support Gandhi`s use of religion, but our use of Islam as a demographic, sociological and cultural expression, you people decry... I have never seen a more stupid argument put forth by anyone!

Ah the books :

1) `SECULAR AND NATIONALIST JINNAH` AJEET JAVED SINGH DEHLI

2) 8 Muslim Lives by RAJ MOHAN GANDHI

3) Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah by S Gopal Bandopadhya

AND LET US NOT FORGET WHAT SARAT CHANDERBOSE brother of Subhas SAID ABOUT JINNAH AT HIS DEATH:

`Muhammad Ali Jinnah was great as an Indian, Great as Congressman, Great as a Nationalist, Great as Muslim Leaguer, Great as a Musalman, and Great as a Pakistani`

So you can go shove your little uneducated rearside, for your own daddies, bapus, and netas have spoken in great words about the Greatest statesman of the last century....

Gowardhan,

Now be a man and show us how you made this stupid and idiotic claim of Jinnah being an antidemocrat!

-YLH

Gowardhan,

The total arrogance and ignorance with which you have replied shows your bigoted views and your biases undoubtedly earned by your brainwashing by RSS and BJP fanatics in India.

Grow up alright... Is that ANP`s secularist tradition when it supported Jamaat e Islami`s demand of not letting women vote?

Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his son can hardly be called secularists.... their religious bigotry makes them more akin to Taliban.... no wonder they still have good relations with the Taliban.

As for Jinnah being undemocratic ? Jinnah was the first and last constitutionalist born in the subcontinent, whether you wish to ignore that fact or not.

The one thing that you Indians keep harping about

is the dismissal of the Khan Sahib ministry in 1947 which was considered one undemocratic action taken by Jinnah, we all know that the Khan Sahib ministry had

1) Lost its popularity

2) Was in cohoots with India to destabilize Pakistan at its inception.

You dont know Jinnah, you are the most ignorant person about Jinnah... there is no one who can in their right mind, keeping all the facts in front of them call him undemocratic....

And you know what I would rather be closer to Urstruly and Hobbyty than be closer to spirit in you ... atleast they dont speak without proper facts.

And you have the moral gutts tell me why in the name of God are you supporting a party which was in alliance with the Jamaat e Islami on the issue of women voting in Malakand and Dir? How can you call ANP secular?

I suppose they are secular just like the Deobandi Ulema, Ahrar Party, and Jamiat e Ulema e Hind (the forerunners of the Taliban Movement) ...

-YLH

PS Indians come on this board, make stupid baseless and uneducated statements about Jinnah and then they leave claiming they know all... well let me tell you, if you think Jinnah is undemocratic because of the numerous falsehoods you wish to propagate, I can show you factual evidence about Gandhi, which will put him in the same league with Hitler on certain issues. So lets not start this ok?

By the way, it was an Indian sikh who wrote the book `Secular and Nationalist Jinnah` You know who? AJEET JAVED SINGH

re Direct Action Day 1946

Years ago I was able to talk to the then civil surgeon at Calcutta`s Medical College during that fateful day. His take was that the casualties were rather evenly distributed amongst the communal groups. Most of the people hacked to death seemed to be the folks like street vendors who slept on the streets and sidewalks of the city at night regularly.

re ANP

The ANP`s `secular` credentials are quite evident from the honor killing debate in Pakistan`s Senate two and a half years ago. All six ANP members(along with the Muslim League and Jamaat members) vehemently opposed the resolution condemning that heinous practice. That barabaric stance was reiterated and defended by Badhah Khan`s son Wali Khan later on. If the Pakhtoon nationalists are the secularists that Nehru and his progeny champion, well... Wali Khan`s people, far from being secular or progressive, have repeatedly formed coalition ministries in the Frontier and once at the Center with the Muslim League. In the honour killing debates in the Pakistan Senate the only people bold enough to condemn the barabaric practice were a dozen or so members belonging to the MQM and the People`s Party(most PPP Senators, however, sat mum).

re rsridhar

``Sending ones kids to christian schools if good is not a bad idea. It has nothing to do with british imperialism``

Of course not. There were flourishing Christian missionary schools under the Mughals, the Marathas, and the Sikhs.

Nepal and Afghanistan, as you point out, remain backward almost in the medieval ages. Nepal, until 1990, did not have the concept of parliamentary democracy. Afghanistan...well, the less said the better. None of them two had the British pull them kicking and screaming into the 20th century. They did that to the rest of the subcontinent.

All Indians and Pakistanis are not unqualifyingly disparaging of the `English evil`. In the mess halls of the older Punjab, Rajput, FF, and Sikh regiments, you will still see the proudly displayed battle colours of the engagements of these units in support of the Crown for two hundred years.

Had the English never administered the subcontinent, we would still be slaves of 600 some despotic majharajas, maharanas, nizams, and nawabs who cared not a whit about popular governance or justice. Okay, maybe 500 such despots since a few were rather nice chaps(Gwalior`s Scindias and the Pataudi clan come to mind). Forget English, we would be talking in the 600 some languages prevalent in the subcontinent. Anybody know Seraiki or Orriya?

Harimau,

Do you reall expect us to take your view as truth instead of the assessments of Jinnah made by

1)Hodson

2)Patrick French

3)Ajeet Javed Singh

4)Hector Bolitho

5)Nelson Mandela

6)Ayesha Jalaal,

7)Stanley Wolpert,

8)Collins and Lapierre,

9) Your God Gandhi

10)Nehru

11)Auchinleck

12)Sri Prikasa

13)S Gopal Bandopadhya

14)BR Ambedkar

15)Your current president

16)Raj Mohan Gandhi

17)Dr Mubarik Ali your historian

18)Agha Khan III

19)Sarat Chandarbose

20)Raj Gopalachari

21) Subhas Chandarbose

22) MC Rajah

23) Srojini Naidu

24) Tilak

25) Gokhale

26) Pheroze Shah Mehta

27)Allama Iqbal

few amongst many others who considered Jinnah an honest upright man of integrity and selflessness?

-YLH

`Jinnah is brave and incorruptible` Gandhi the God of India

Harimau, obey what your God says!

`Compare that to Gandhi who called for non-cooperation in a non-violent manner.`

1) Show me where Jinnah called for using violence in the direct action day? He did not.

2) Direct Action day was a peaceful strike by Muslims to protest the British decision to not give power to the Muslim League despite the condition that who ever accepted the cabinet Mission plan would make the government.

3) I find it ironic that Muslims will start killing in Calcutta, a Hindu Majority city, then the rest of India esp places they had the majority in.

Betay jaaa kar parho, phir aaa kar baat karo, why the hell are you wasting my time, with something you know nothing about?

-YLH

ylh

You spend too much time quoting who called him what. One group of people has always been more tolerant of others. They have always said good things about them. The other fanatical group has never said good things about anyone other than their own. Dont take `greates ambassador` etc crap too seriously. Jinnah was andho me kana raja. Nothing more.

Cabinet mission plan you keep dreaming of was inherently a fraud on India. You defend it because you havent gotten over your ruling class mentality. One of the few things Nehru did right was to kick that plan. Individuals who didnt want to live like equals in a democracy were better outside than inside India. Those Muslims who didnt want to live like equals, wanted to be `super` citizens, are gone.

We are seeing what that Jinnah anti democratic mentality is doing to you. You keep dreaming of democracy. Keep jumping like an ass. You will not get democracy. It is not in your heritage. Forget secularism. You can not even dream of it. No Pakistani wants it. You worship an antidemocrat. You can never be democratic. I know that is very hard for you to hear. I can send you best Philadelphia hankies to weep into. Fanatics like urstruly and hobbyty are much closer to the spirit of Jinnah than you are.

How long will you fool yourself? You hate ANP, one party with a secularist tradition. You have killed and murdered Jiye Sindh movement because they were not fanatic religious thugs. You have driven the leader of mohajirs (real mohajirs not disgraceful turncoats like hobbyty) out of your country for not swallowing injustice in the name of religion. Other than some of these people, very few above age 25 speak about secularism in Pakistan. They cant. They have all their idealism beaten out of them by a fanatical country. A fanatical country can not be democratic or secular. You will slowly understand it. It is too hard for you.

Ironically enough, these great nationalist Muslims that Harimau speaks about were the most fanatical and rabid of Mullahs ... let us not even talk about Jamiat e Ulema hind, Ahrar and Jamaat e Islami... Let us talk about Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his party which exists till todaY...

In the district that women were not allowed to vote in Pakistan recently, it was ANP your Badshah Khan`s party which supported the Jamaat e Islami in its most fanatical endeavor. So much for the progressive ideals of Your Congressite Coalition partners.

Badshah Khan and His family the most power hungry cowards. It was the love for power which kept them

lusting for Congress, and when the Congress was gone, they moved from the high aspiring ideal of the bogus Indian Nationalism to Provincialism and race based Pathanism/Pakhtunism....

Have the decency to quote completely the assessment of Jinnah by Hodson, if you will continue to twist and turn his words?

Harimau

as always once again you are totally inaccurate in your facts:

`I am sorry I got it mixed up. I meant to say Abdul Ghaffar Khan`s party. Of course it was `Badshah Khan` who assumed the Chief Ministership.`

Badshah Khan and Abdul Ghaffar Khan are the same people. The `Premiership` was assumed by Dr Khan Sahib.

`Why not? You and all Pakistanis claim that Jinnah was only bluffing and he never wanted Pakistan. He could have done what Gandhi did on Aug 15, 1947: gone into a period of silence and penance for all the killings. No, he was probably toasting the birth of Pakistan with a glass of Indus water (having had to give up his beloved whiskey because the maulanas would have been on his back.) Isn`t it so funny to see the man give up his Saville Row suitsand hats for that achkan/sherwani and that ridiculous `Jinnah` cap?`

Jinnah was a patriot of India by inclination. However by 1946 he was convinced that he had to make Pakistan and he did (thank god). We know very well what Jinnah`s reactions were through Sri Prikasa`s testimony etc. He always wanted to make Pakistan since 1940 but perhaps within the Union of India. In 1946 He came to the conclusion that Nehru and the Congress party being the ever power hungry thugs were unable to give up their dreams of self glorification.

`They took time out to get rid of the pesky gnat called Jinnah whose thuggery knew no bounds. If Jinnah was so much against involving the common man in politics, how come he called forDirect Action Day? Compare that to Gandhi who called for

non-cooperation in a non-violent manner.`

Thug? ... that is not what Hodson calls him. Not even the staunchest opponent of Jinnah, Gandhi called him that. Gandhi called him `brave and incorruptible`, Nehru called him a `a man of principle who stood head and shoulders above his Muslim league colleagues.` My point exactly, if Jinnah did not have any popular support how come the masses rose to his every beck and call. You are entitled to believe whatever you want no matter how stupid and incredibly untrue.

`Well, don`t ever make a claim that Jinnah didn`t want Pakistan, then. He wanted it; he got it; you all enjoy the consequences. `

Yes thank god he made Pakistan, and we are no longer forced to listen to rambling liars and idiots like yourself. Thank God for the consequences.... one visit to Pakistan will make it abundantly clear, that whereas we have suffered in the last 10 years, we have not hit the abject poverty, the rioting, the danga fassaads, the law and order situation, that your country has. We are content with the consequences... yes there are problems in Pakistan, but we prefer these problems to being at the whim of Hindu fanatics like yourselves!

` In a united India, Peshawar in NWFP consistently voted Congress,`

Untrue... The Muslim League in the 1946 elections still had more seats than the Congress in the NWFP... it was the coalition of Congress Party which was able to make a Ministry there.

`Punjab voted Unionist Party`

Are you smoking up?

In 1946 Muslim League won all Punjab seats what the hell are you talking about? In 1937 Unionist Party was able to knock out the league but that was not the case in 1946. In any event, it is shameless of you to support a party Unionist Party which created a cross communal alliance between Hindu Industrialists, and Muslim Landlords, against the Middle class represented by the Muslim League.

`Bengal voted in Suhrawardy.`

Yes and was Suhrawardy Congressite? He was leaguer my dear uneducated illiterate debater. By the way after the creation of Pakistan, Suhrawardy created an opposition Bengali Party which was called Jinnah Awami Muslim League... I wonder why he had to use Jinnah`s name?

` My political theory is quite simple: Jinnah was a thug who had no scruples to get at what he perceived as insults. Thus, when Gandhi became more popular in Congress, Jinnah got annoyed that he was losing his pre-eminence and went off to England to practice law rather than stay in India and be out of the limelight. Liaquat Ali Khan and his wife begged him to return to India and Jinnah did with the sole intention of showing Gandhi, Nehru and the Congress what he was capable of. You Pakistanis are paying for it. You should be glad to have had about 10 years of democratically elected governments in your 54 year history. Let us set aside the fact that you had Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif for those 10 years. That is certainly worth forgetting.`

These simplistic theatrical Good vs Evil views of History have cost Pakistan and India dearly over the 54 years. You had the epitome of arrogant and ignorant political theories. I wonder why Liaqat`s wife felt the need to ask Jinnah to come back... after all Jinnah was nothing more than a thug? By the way Pakistan did have 28 years of Democratic rule... and that is not counting Junejo`s stint in power, or Ayub`s fraud presidential elections.

In the end thank god we have Pakistan, and that we have are not in anyway subjugated to your BS, and your nonsense... like I said before Pakistanis would rather prefer the problems that they are facing right now, then be a part of India.

Here is a look at our wonderful and beautiful country, which despite the troubles of the last decade will continue to survive and progress Inshallah!

http://www.pakistanpage.net/gallery/main/gallery.htm

LONG LIVE PAKISTAN

Ref ylh #: 194

[Hodson in the chapter two great personalities in his book The Great divide]

That is Chapter FOUR, Mr. I-know-all-because-I have-selectively-read-Hodson.

Let me give you one example. In the Dec 1945 elections, politicians crossed over from the Punjab Unionist Party to the Muslim League seeing how the tide was turned by cries of `Islam is in danger`. The League still didn`t get a majority of the seats in the legislature.

In Sind, the League formed a government dependent upon the European group. In Assam, aprovince claimed for Pakistan, the Congress won a clear majority. In NWFP, the Congress actually won more Muslim seats than did the League. In Bengal, the League won 113 of the 119 Muslim seats but was dependent on the Europeans and independent groups. (all this info from Page 132 of Hodson)

Tell me how this shows that Jinnah was the undisputed leader of the Muslims of the subcontinent. Since Jinnah believed that, I call him a megalomaniac.

``Mr. Jinnah interjected the remark that the Congress represented only Hindus - at which Dr. Khan Sahib, the Congress Premier of the North-West Frontier Province, who, of course, was a Muslim, vehemently protested.`` (Hodson, Page 122)

So Jinnah started the process of de-recognizing any Muslims who were Congress Party members. No wonder, you guys in Pakistan are discussing whether Qadianis are Muslims and whether Shias need to convert to Islam.

The formation of Pakistan is a slap in the face of those Muslims in NWFP, Punjab, Sindh and Bengal who were Nationalists at heart. You have marginalized these freedom fighters for the last 54 years, ridiculing the sacrifice of these people who spent years in jail whereas Jinnah went straight from his house in Bombay to Government House in Karachi. No wonder carpetbaggers followed in his wake from UP and have been running your country ever since.

Remember what the West Punjabis told the incoming Muslims from India? Pakistan aagay, pointing to Karachi, keep going till you get there.

Ha ha ha.

Ylh,

Here is something from The Friday Times about the Pakistan you are so glad to be a citizen of.

By the way, even Studebaker won`t make the claim that he lived under such fear as a minority Muslim in India.

Read it and weep for your country.

Hail Jinnah! Hail Pakistan! Hail Allama Iqbal! Hail Rahmat Ali Chowdhry!

Sectarian war drives doctors out of Karachi

Salman Hussein

A large number of specialist doctors in Karachi, the majority belonging to the Shia community, are in the process of winding up their clinics and moving abroad. Most of these doctors have received threats from sectarian terrorists. TFT broke this news last month and predicted more sectarian violence. (TFT July 6-12, ``63 doctors, 34 lawyers killed in sectarian violence in Karachi``.

An increasing number of relatively senior doctors, belonging to both Shia and Sunni communities, are also applying for postings as junior doctors in countries like Saudi Arabia and Libya. The reason in both cases is the sense of insecurity following target killings of doctors, mostly belonging to the minority Shia community.

The doctors are not simply afraid for their own lives, they are deeply worried about the safety of their families. In a recent case, after a top specialist belonging to the Shia community was killed just outside his clinic, sectarian terrorists sent a note to his wife demanding that she ``convert`` to Islam if she wanted her life spared.

Dr Hasan Ali, a well-known ENT specialist of Karachi, was never interested in leaving Pakistan, or even Karachi, despite the violence in the city in the last decade. And then the ominous phone-call came. The caller told him to close down his clinic and leave the country. ``Dr Ali was upset with the call but did not take the issue seriously until one day some unknown people followed him to his clinic,`` a senior office bearer of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) told TFT.

The next day Dr Ali arrived late at his clinic. That probably saved his life. The staff told him that some bearded people had come to see him. They left with the message that they would return. ``Ali called me. He was very scared and said that he thought his turn had come,`` the doctor from PMA said. ``Within a week Dr Ali sold his clinic and house in Karachi and flew off to London with his family.``

Another PMA office bearer says: ``You may soon hear stories of doctors seeking political asylum in other countries.`` Dr Shabi Zaidi, another ENT specialist, left the country with his family for fear of their lives. ``He said he was going on vacation to the US but has now sent a message to some of his colleagues that given the fragile security situation in the city he does not intend to return,`` a close friend of Zaidi told TFT.

Both these ENT specialists left the country following the murder of another ENT special Dr Jaffery who used to operate his own hospital near Hasan Centre. He was shot dead outside his hospital some three months ago. ``That incident and many others like it have got doctors really scared,`` confirms another doctor.

What is most interesting is that while Shia doctors have been under attack because of their sect, Sunni doctors with ``Shia names`` have been ``advised`` through messages to change their names. In the past, some Sunni doctors got killed because they had ``Shia names``. Two such doctors, one with a surname of ``Rizvi`` and the other with a first name of ``Ali`` were murdered in what appears to be cases of mistaken sectarian identity.

Dr Adeebul Hasan Rizvi, one of Pakistan`s biggest names in the medical profession, is under constant threat. Some months ago, the Punjab police arrested a group of terrorists who revealed that Dr Rizvi was on their hit list. Rizvi is as big a name in the medical profession just as Shaukt Mirza, the slain managing director of PSO, was in the corporate sector. But while Rizvi has stayed his ground thus far, the time for another top specialist, Dr Kazim Raza, has come to close his clinic in the Nazimabad area of Karachi and shift to Islamabad. ``I may still be under threat but for now at least I feel secure,`` he told TFT.

Raza said he was left with no choice. ``My wife, who is also a doctor, agreed with the decision after we saw seven or eight doctors being murdered in the past six months,`` he said. Officials admit the situation has become so bad that one doctor, Hasan, was killed because he refused to change his name.

The Pakistan Medical Association leaders too are under pressure from their members because they have failed to bring sufficient pressure to bear on the government to address this extremely pressing issue. ``If doctors start leaving the country the health-care system will collapse,`` says Tariq Siddiqui, a doctor at Karachi`s civil hospital.

Last week, a PMA delegation met with the Sindh governor, Mohammadmian Soomro. The governor, insiders agree, has failed to tackle the growing law and order situation. ``He is very worried and deeply concerned, but the question is whether he can take some concrete measures to address the issue,`` says a source.

Following the meeting with Governor Soomro, PMA office bearers also met with top police officials at the PMA House. ``Whether meetings alone can rebuild confidence among the community or whether the issue on the ground needs to be tackled urgently is the real issue,`` says a source. The police cannot provide security to every doctor. So, the issue needs to be tackled in a different way. Interestingly, the police has been making attempts to dispute the figures released by PMA of the doctors slain in sectarian violence.

While the PMA claims that 61 doctors have been killed in the last three years, the police put the number at 38 doctors killed in sectarian-related incidents. It ascribes other killings to normal crime like armed robberies and car-snatching attempts etc.

Even if the police figures are accepted as correct, the phenomenon cannot be taken lightly or brushed under the carpet. ``The fact that professionals can get killed merely because they are Shia or Sunni is a blot on the face of this country,`` says an analyst.

Most observers agree that this menace could affect other professions also. ``In Punjab we have already seen police and civil service officers being killed by sectarian terrorists. According to police sources in the Punjab, 33 people have fallen victim to sectarian violence in the province since January this year. Conservative estimates put the number of people killed in the Punjab since 1992 at over 600. The worst year was 1997 when 200 people were killed in sectarian violence. The slain included some top civil service and police officers.

``What if these terrorists start taking on military officers,`` asks a former military officer. His solution: ``The sectarian terrorists must be crushed ruthlessly.`` Observers say in the past four years, lawyers and judges have avoided handling cases of sectarian terrorists, particularly in the Punjab. Exiled premier Nawaz Sharif defended his act of constituting military courts to try terrorists primarily because judges would not hear cases of sectarian terrorists. This fact is also acknowledged by the judiciary, even though it thought fit to strike the military courts as unconstitutional.