Author:
Publication: Daily Times
Date: October 30, 2003
URL: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_31-10-2003_pg3_7
Khaled Ahmed's Urdu Press Review
The cruel fact behind this conversion
is that 'khatam-e- nabuwwat' gatherings in various parts of Pakistan constantly
threaten the Qadianis with vigilante action while the National Assembly
literally serves as the whistle-blower on low-level government employees
who still happen to be Qadianis
While there is rampant sectarianism
in evidence in Pakistan, there is also a subliminal pressure on the sects
to convert to the mainstream. When members of other sects or religious
communities convert under conditions of duress there is much jubilation
among the orthodox, which is allowed to be expressed in the Urdu press.
But are such conversions, whenever they happen, really genuine?
According to 'Nawa-e-Waqt' (3 October
2003) religious leaders gathered in Chiniot- Chenabnagar for 'khatam-e-nabuwwat'
accused the government of being soft on Qadianis who were being employed
in key posts (kaleedi) and even posted in the Auqaf Department. They said
the Qadianis were busy conspiring against Islam and were freely violating
laws enforced against them. The conference was addressed by Maulana Fazlur
Rehman of JUI and Liaquat Baloch of Jama'at-e Islami in addition to dozens
of other religious leaders. According to 'Jang', the Chenabnagar meeting
warned the government that the Qadianis had become emboldened (hauslay
barh gayay). They also said that behind the façade of the NGOs,
the spread of Qadiani faith, Judaism and Christianity would not be tolerated
and that a movement could be launched against the government on it.
There are severe disabilities imposed
on the Qadianis. They were apostatised under a PPP majority in parliament
and General Zia then compounded the deed by barring them from saying the
'kalima' and calling a mosque a mosque. There is a whole annual tome of
trumped up court cases against them, which shock the outside world. There
are many irrational sides to the state of Pakistan of which the persecution
of the Qadianis is one. The 'khatam-e-nabuwwat' tradition in the country
generally serves to rouse the common man and make him feel disgruntled
against an erring state that "gives protection to a community that is conspiring
with the Jews". The noise made about the so-called 'kaleedi' jobs has gone
on even after the virtual ouster of the Qadianis from important areas of
state employment. The National Assembly in its October session (27 October
2003) went into the question of minority representation in the bureaucracy
and was told that there were two Qadianis and nine Christians in the culture
ministry in the federal government. There was also news in the press (daily
'Insaf') the same day that a dozen members of the Qadiani community in
Punjab had converted to Islam amid much merrymaking on the part of the
Sunni community. The cruel fact behind this conversion is that 'khatam-e-nabuwwat'
gatherings in various parts of Pakistan constantly threaten the Qadianis
with vigilante action while the National Assembly literally serves as the
whistle-blower on low-level government employees who still happen to be
Qadianis. The message is: convert or face violence.
According to 'Nawa-e-Waqt' (3 October
2003), the Lahore High Court decided that the hudood laws were being misused
in Pakistan. The honourable court observed in a case of runaway marriage
that it was enough for the couple to declare marriage in the court of law;
not even a registered nikah was necessary. He said that when the girl in
the case under hearing was having an affair with the boy, the father did
not lodge a complaint; but when the girl got married with her lover he
had approached the court. The court let the married couple off in a case
that alleged fornication attracting whipping under the hudood law.
This is another case in which the
conditionality of nikahnama has been waived by the honourable court to
save a couple from being punished. Had the court decided not to accept
the couple as husband and wife because their marriage was not duly registered,
the two would have been culpable of fornication under the Hudood laws and
condemned to suffer 80 lashes. The courts have in the past saved many innocent
women from being punished under the Zina Ordinance by accepting their unregistered
marriages. One has to commend the honourable court for making space in
law for a humane view of the plight of women in Pakistan. But this of course
is in violation of the Family Law Ordinance that otherwise protects the
rights of women in Pakistan but makes registration mandatory. Many ulema
have gone to court saying that registration is an innovation that should
be struck down, but the court has held that registration actually hinders
irresponsible men from exploiting socially disabled women. The irony is
that, because of the very nature of the law of marriage and divorce in
Pakistan, the court has to act in contradiction of its own precedent in
regard to registration. Only a far-reaching reform in the law itself can
prevent these legal contradictions.
Daily 'Khabrain' (3 October 2003)
quoted the Palestinian ambassador in India, Osama Musa, as saying that
the Kashmir issue could not be compared to Palestine because India had
the right to take action against terrorists in Kashmir. He said Pakistan
said that there were freedom-fighters active in Kashmir but the Palestinian
government did not agree with Pakistan's claim. He said that Sharon's visit
to India was good for the Palestinian cause.
There is a long-running wrangle
among the advocates of the 'umma' that since we as Pakistanis support the
cause of the Arab Palestinians, the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians
in particular, should support the cause of the Kashmiri people. The above
statement is not the first issued by a PLO ambassador in India that has
hurt Pakistanis. It is most blatantly a pro-Indian statement, but before
we condemn it we must look closely at our popular (not official) stance
towards the PLO. Most Pakistanis have disagreed with the stand taken by
the PLO on the Oslo Accords and condemned the current elected president
of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, for 'capitulating to the Jews'.
We have mostly defended the action taken by Hamas against Israel during
the two 'intifadas'. The ambassadors sent out by Yasser Arafat are not
chosen from among the Islamists in Palestine. His party is secular and
contains members of all religions in West Bank and Gaza. Because they sense
hostility on the part of the Pakistanis they feel naturally inclined to
favour secular India.
