Shoaib weds India’s tennis star Sania

HYDERABAD: Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik and Indian tennis star Sania Mirza married Monday after a troubled engagement in a union that bridges the two nations’ bitter sporting and political divide. The wedding was the final chapter in a complex and often contradictory saga during which Malik consistently denied claims by an Indian woman, Ayesha Siddiqui, that she had married the cricketer in 2002. The ceremony took place in the presence of family and friends at a hotel in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, Mirza’s spokeswoman Rucha Naik said.

“The (wedding) has just been completed. Please pray for the couple,” Naik told reporters. The marriage was originally scheduled for April 15. The Press Trust of India cited family sources as saying it had been brought forward after Muslim clerics in Hyderabad criticised the fact that Malik was living in his future bride’s house before the wedding. Last week, Farisa Siddiqui, Ayesha’s mother, announced that a settlement had been reached and “divorce papers signed,” allowing Malik’s marriage with Mirza to go ahead.

Ayesha had initially lodged a complaint with police in Hyderabad, prompting officers to quiz Malik over the saga and confiscate his passport. Muslim elders in Hyderabad, where both Siddiqui and Mirza live, were understood to have negotiated the settlement after days of frenzied press coverage and lurid speculation. Even without the added drama provided by Ayesha’s revelations, the marriage of two of South Asia’s best-known sports personalities across one of the world’s most volatile borders was always going to make headlines.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence and broke off all official contact following the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which Indian blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The stand-off extended to the sporting world, with a freeze on non-tournament matches between their respective national cricket teams. Malik and Mirza’s sporting marriage is unprecedented in the perennial rivalry between the south Asian nations, and some right-wing Hindu groups in India had denounced the union, accusing Mirza of betraying her country.

The only similar union came when former Pakistani Test batsman Mohsin Khan, who is now Pakistan’s chief selector, married the Indian actress Reena Roy in the 1980s. The couple later separated. The Pakistani government is preparing lavish celebrations to welcome the couple during a widely expected visit. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will treat the newlyweds to a reception and Pakistan’s minister for population welfare, Firdous Ashiq Awan, told AFP that she would travel to India to attend the wedding reception.

“It is a very happy occasion for both Malik and Mirza and for millions of people in both the countries and we are having a detailed discussion as to how we could celebrate the occasion in Pakistan,” Awan told AFP. Team-mates of Malik, a former Pakistan cricket captain who is serving a one-year ban on charges of indiscipline during Pakistan’s tour of Australia and New Zealand, also passed on their congratulations. “It’s a happy occasion that Malik has wed Sania. I congratulate him and wish him the best in his married life,” said Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi. Mirza, whose short tennis skirts have drawn the ire of Islamist groups in India, has been a nationwide celebrity since 2005 when, aged 18, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title. She is currently recovering from a wrist injury that has seen her world ranking slip from 27 in 2007 to 89. The couple, who are both Muslims, are thought likely to base themselves in Dubai. Malik had admitted beginning a telephone relationship with Siddiqui in 2001 after she sent him photographs – but said he later believed the pictures were of another woman. Before the divorce settlement, Siddiqui appeared on television news channels to denounce Malik as a cheat who dumped her because his team-mates said she was overweight.

The Fall Out Of Dantewada

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Need ttribal voices for their rights to counter corporate propagandist nationalism

Home Minister P.Chidambaram has offered to resign after the Dantewada massacre. He saluted the CRPF for their work, the poor cousins of BSF and armed forces. A CRPF recruit start living with tents and end up there only. That the war should always be avoided as it never resolve anything. It hurt the poorest of the poor and it is more masculine in nature. You see both the side of this patriarchical social order, the war create a new set of orphaned children who would never be able to live the same life after their fathers are killed. A whole lot of family is destroyed. In this scenario you only see grieving wives, mothers and daughters. They look completely helpless because our social system remain the same. It is easier to blame state for everything as you become revolutionary for the same but difficult to fight against our own notorious social order which create not only Maoists but all the feudal elements of society which Ambedkar defined as ‘graded inequality’. That most of these CRPF Jawans hails from poor peasantry communities, who serve our nation. They are the first generation of their families to serve in the forces and goes on to follow the order given to them by their command officers.

Hence the news of the killings of 76 Jawans of CRPF in an ambush by the Maoists in Dantewada district of Chhatishgarh naturally angered the entire nation. What is more shocking is the propaganda war unleashed by the media as how can they kill our Jawans without understanding the fact that in the war zones such situation will happen as suggested by Swarnjeet Singh, former DGP police of Andhra Pradesh who is claimed to be successfully curtailed the Naxal violence in his state. Yet, what hurt most is the grim faced anchors in the TV studios of Delhi start preaching the nation about possible action plan. In the olden days, we used to hear the national broadcast from the prime minister or chief ministers on such occasions whenever a crisis confronted the nation by addressing directly to the people on such issues and informing them about government’s policies and programmes. Mrs Indira Gandhi addressed the nation on All India Radio, prior to sending armed forces in Golden Temple in June 1984 while VP Singh spoke to the nation on Lal Krishna Advani’s arrest 1990 while Narsimha Rao promised the nation to rebuild the Babari Masjid after its demolition on December 6th, 1992.

But all that is history. With the mushrooming of hundreds of news channels, nationalism sales apart from sex, scandals, religion, cricket and corporate. Now, the PM does not speak on such incidents. Instead we hear an Arnab Goswami with his poked face and fascist statements about the situation. He says, ‘Today, this country has to decide, which side they are. Whether they are on the side of Indian state or with the Maoists? ‘These Maoists are terrorists, no less than Talibans. They kill people, extort money and have killed our brave Jawans’, he virtually shouted. With the right wing expert sitting on the table, Arnab and every other of his ilk is inviting a few ‘sympathizers’ for their chat show to hound them. The problem is with these so called sympathizers also who have virtually run out of ideas and romanticize an idea which can never be supported in the democratic system. Long ago, I wrote about Nepal that even the worst form of democracy is better than the most efficient autocratic regimes. Secondly when they know that Arnab and company will not allow them to make their point, why should they join in the debates. We all look for our own truth and information. So none of us are going to receive our information from Arnab and thankfully very few would watch him beyond Delhi and other metro- politan cities.

Let us first deal with the issue of Maoist violence and media portrayal. There is no justification of violence but frankly speaking Arnab, there is no justification in deviating the real issue of strategic failure of the CRPF as Mr Swarnjeet Singh, former DGP police Andhra Pradesh said. In the war zones, you can not think that the casualties would be only on the one side. It is bound to happen both the ways. Even Chhatishgarh DGP Mr Vishwa Ranjan pointed that out. We need to see why this desperation by our TV chatters. Do they want to ethnically cleanse the tribal regions so that our companies go there and grab their land? We all know that the Maoists, however stronger they are, can not win a battle against the state as mighty as India. They are actually ruining generation of tribal in this false exercise. India is simply not Nepal or Venezuela and a revolution can not emerge from just Dante Wada. Arundhati Roy often support tribal’s right to pick up guns to defend their sovereignty, making tribal and Maoists as easily interchangeable terms which is unacceptable. More over, we should also ask the question as do the Maoist fight war against this land grab or they want to fight against Indian state which they call as a fake democracy. What kind of democratic structure do they want to give us? We too are saying that our democracy need changes and it is becoming corporatized on American pattern. We do want proportionate representation for Muslims, for dalits, for tribal. We want their representation and not representation in their name which most of these revolutionaries and their ideologues seems to be doing. In 1975 Jaya Prakash Narain had appealed to forces to not to obey the order of the government. That was a democratic call.

In the historic Lahore Convention, Havildar Chandra Singh Garhwali refused to fire on the Congress workers terming them as fighting for the freedom of the nation. But why the Maoists consider the poor police men and tribal working in the government jobs ( pity, how many tribal are there in our governance structure) as state agents.

See the irony, most of the killings by the Maoists are rural poor or Jawans of police force. They join the forces for serving their families. Maoists and their sympathizers call them state agents. Hence the cycle of repression start. In the war zones all become become repressive and the biggest casualty in this is the voices of sanity and freedom. They are hounded by both the governments as well as Maoists do not want the other voices to come in between.

Unfortunately, those who pretend to be leading dissents or speaking for the Maoists too are well connected in the power structure and none dare to speak to them as how did they arrive at a Maoist camps. They have been using the media war to spread their own message to world over. But, I know if a local journalist in Chhattisgarh or Delhi, try to write any story on the Maoists, he or she would be hounded by the police and would face virtual arrest at the moment.

The problem here is that in the entire debate of illegal land grabbing, encroachment of forest by big companies, mining and threat to environment and ecology by state and non state actors have receded into the background as now it has taken an ugly turn between the Maoists and the government. Both of them seem to working on their own long term agendas. The Maoists and their sympathizers are living in their own dream world of a ‘people’s democracy which is even afraid of internet and Google surfing while the government wants to seize the land and distribute to the companies while Maoists are gaining because of government’s complete failure to understand tribal sentiments. How can you expect a tribal to respect our police when the very policemen is a ‘vardi walla gunda’ as remarked by a judge in Allahabad High court long back.

All is not well as there is systematic erosion of tribal rights in India. The Special Economic Zones, the mining companies, the big dams, the hugely built Ashrams, the cowsheds everything is being developed in India’s richest areas of Chhatishgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand which inhabit our poorest population. Is not it an irony that the reporters reporting from these places are adding extra masala to their embedded reporting as how difficult it is for the Jawans to fight the battle in the mosquito ridden area but then did they ever thought of how a tribal might be living in these areas for years. Did we care for them? Fundamentally, we feel that if the government can not improve their livelihood, it has no right to demolish their natural habitat.

But our desi nationalists who would like our jawans, who are sons of the soil, children of our peasants, kisans, die for their brand of nationalism by killing their own tribal people. It is an irony that our media which should have been more balanced in reporting and analyzing things become hysterical and start creating panics. Both the chief of Armed Forces General V.K.Singh and Air Chief Marshal Y.P.Naik have not shown interest in fighting an internal battle where the police forces are more than enough to tackle the situation arising out of the Naxal violence.

Now, the reports are coming in that there is little interaction between police and the local tribal community. How can there be an interaction if there is no governance. If the government servants did not venture into the villages and get their salary without working in the villages, then one can understand the relationship between the tribal and the government servants. How can a government servant who is suppose to help the rural poor treat them worst than their servant be expected to get information from the same people. The Maoists have won the imagination of a number of the tribals whether it is through their violence or whether providing instance justice to many of them, the fact is they have been getting local support. And it is therefore important to create environment where the tribal do not feel betrayed even when this is too late.

Unfortunately, the governments have only helped them as other dissenting voices who believe in democratic struggles are being produced as Maoists. There are movements against land acquisition all over the country. There are voices against illegal land grabbing, against displacement of the people particularly Dalits and tribal, for the forest rights and they are not Maoists yet all of them have been clubbed jointly as notorious human rights activism. Not just the government but mostly these irresponsible TV channels and newspapers have started making these arguments as if human rights have suddenly become the worst word. Yes, we claim our self to be the largest democracy only when this democracy enables the big companies to grab land and do whatever they wish to do. When the democracy gives space to the marginalized, then these non state actors try to bulldoze our voices through their TV channels and news rooms. Have we discussed the issues of tribal rights in our parliament? Why are our tribal leaders silent on all these issues? Where are they hiding? All those social justice wallahs who jump and stall parliament for their bills keep quiet on tribal issues. Have the Dalit, backwards, the minorities, have no voice on this national issue? Why this has become an issue between the upper caste leaders, parties and commentators.

Similarly, our intelligence agencies do not know the ideological stuff and hence every democratic protest for them become a Maoist strategy to gain ground which end up in goofing up the entire things. It is not just the fault of intelligence, when our media term every human rights defender as Maoists, then we can understand their quality of education and understanding of India. In the name of anti Maoist operation, the government should not annihilate an entire tribal population as well as all of us who are talking sanity and raising the issue of violence against forest and tribal.

The only way to curb this menace of violence is to respect democratic voices of dissent and not consider them as anti national. On an emergency measures, the government must declare moratorium on further acquisition of land in forest zones. The forest act must be implemented and land must be redistributed among tribal. The National Commission for Tribal must be reconstituted and given more authority so that it can play an active role in resolving some of the issues relating to tribal.

Hundred years of hierarchical based system was challenged by Dalits through democratic process. Ambedkar’s ideals brought a silent revolution in India, without any guns. Today, Dalits not only actively participate in democracy but also lead in many places. Of course, violence against them exists but then they have succeeded and produced leaders, writers and whole new breed of youngsters who look forward for a bright future challenging the Brahmanical hegemony which is crumbling. Similar situation lies with backward communities whose leadership is emerging despite all shortcomings. It is in this context, we need to look the issue of tribal as why their leadership has not emerged to speak for them. This is a crisis of tribal identity and their voices need to be heard.

Ironically, there is a commonality among those who claim to be working for tribal. It is the absence of tribal voices. You have seen commonality among Congress, BJP and CPM on the women’s reservation bill, all of them were together in saying that all women are same and that there is no issue of Dalit and Muslim women. That they are more than enough to represent them too. Now, you can add CPI Maoists too in the list as none of them have tribal voices at their top level and leadership to Bengal and Chhatishgarh being imported from Telengana region. All of them are claiming to represent tribal interest except for the tribal themselves. Where have the tribal leadership gone? Could this have been possible if the issue of dalits and backwards were concerned ? See how the backward castes and Dalits and Muslims are fighting against the combine onslaught of the brahmanical parties in this democratic structure for their right.

Many governments including that in Australia, New Zealand and Canada offered apology to indigenous people for their marginalization and isolation. That the modern development modules are displacing tribals and the natural resources for the benefit of a few who owned up big companies including big business houses and media companies. An elected government has every right to take control of the areas under its jurisdiction and react to the armed struggle. The only concern that all the civil rights activists feel is the victimization of innocent and the scuttling of the voices of social movements and dissent. In healthy democracy, political, cultural dissent is part of life and need to be respected with counter arguments and not by shunning their voices. Moreover, the government and Mr Chidambaram can well use media to launch their public relation offensive against the Naxals but it need more public relations of its image with tribal population and thankfully, none of them would be watching either Arnab Goswami or Barkha Dutt. Chidambaram would do well to communicate his message to tribal and send his officials to them and win their heart by their good will and a complete moratorium on the further acquisition of land would be a great gesture apart from some more efforts like returning of tribal land and providing new services to them would be the bigger counter offensive than a mere media exercise which simply talk of Maoists and completely ignore the tribal interest and virtually making the Maoists the sole voices of tribal which is unacceptable.

The Myth Called The Islamic World

By B. R. Gowani

The term “Islamic World” frequently appears in print and the electronic media thus creating an impression that such an entity exists. Especially after September 11, 2001, the term has taken on a menacing look and evokes great fear in the minds of many people; thanks to the propagandist nature and the global reach of the Western media. The term is portrayed as a monolithic group opposed to the Western World.

However, this is not true in reality. Upon examination, we see that the virtual Islamic World entity does not fulfill the requirements of a cohesive and separate monolith.

For the existence of any viable and forceful entity of such a nature, it should fulfill a few basic requirements:

• Economic self sufficiency
• Similar economic system
• Durable military alliance
• Similar political system
• Similar cultural ethos

Let us now examine the make up of the Western World. The countries of Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand meet all the above criteria in varying degrees and can thus be appropriately termed as the Western World.

As we see:

• All of these countries are economically self-sufficient.
• All of them have the same capitalist economic system – some have less unjust capitalist economy and others, such as the United States, have more unjust capitalist economy.
• The military alliance of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) may have occasional differences, but when it is time to unite against a Third world country, they all get on board without much delay. (Although, Australia and New Zealand are not NATO members, they would undoubtedly get full NATO protection if their national sovereignty was perceived to be endangered in any way).
• All of the above countries follow the democratic system. (Of course, with some variance; many offer more social welfare programs whereas the United States – being a capitalist democracy – offer very few.)

Now let’s see if some of the major countries of the so called Islamic World meet any of the criteria.

Economic self sufficiency

Only seven Muslim countries (the oil rich Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates or UAE, and the tiny kingdom of Brunei) that in total comprise of a very small fraction of world’s Muslims are extremely rich.

However, all their economies are oil-oriented and dependent on the whims of the Western countries – the main consumers of oil. Libya is another oil-rich country which provides some social safety net to its population. (The dependence on Western nations is bound to change as China and India’s consumption of oil, due to their rising economies, increases; but that will take some time.)

About 40% of the World’s Muslims live in three South Asian countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and (as a minority in) India. Each of these countries has roughly the same number of Muslims. All three have mixed economy – now geared toward more privatization – and are not self sufficient, particularly Bangladesh and Pakistan. Another 15% Muslims live in Indonesia. Comparatively, Indonesia and Malaysia have strong economy; however, the poverty level is too high in Indonesia. Egypt, one of the largest country in the Middle East, is also one of the very few with which the US has a trade surplus, and is one of the largest US aid recipient. However, it is different with another African country Nigeria (which has 50% Muslims and 48% Christians); that is economically strong but has communal problems and economic disparity, which, of course, most of the Muslim countries have.

Economic system

Barring the oil producing countries, other Muslim nations have mixed economies but are showing inclination towards privatizing more of the government sector due to the IMF, World Bank, and the US pressure. (This encourages the local capitalists, who are always waiting in the wing, to twist the government’s arm to sell off government utilities and industries at throw-away prices.) It is different that the European Community, where the countries therein, have economic ties. Also, it could prove expensive to do this due to transportation costs; unlike Europe, Muslim countries do not form one landmass. Muslim countries do have economic forums but they are toothless. And trade among Muslim countries is minimal.

One important factor that does not play an obvious role on the economic scene is WOMEN. They make up half of the population but a tiny fraction of them are allowed to work outside the home. Those working inside the house are mostly a miserable lot.

Military Alliance

There is no NATO or any such alliance among the Muslim countries. Occasionally, some neighboring countries form an alliance, such as the one among Syria, Egypt, Jordan and some other Arab countries, during the 1967 war with Israel. But they lack the longevity due to lack of well planned strategy and so soon dies out.

Challenging the Western countries for their wars and exploitation aside, Muslim countries can’t even get back, not the whole of Palestine, but just the 22% of the land, comprising of Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel annexed in 1967.

The outsiders (the European Jews) came and took over the Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine and turned it into Israel.

Imagine if some Muslim people were to take over the Balearic Islands (a Spanish state, north of Algeria in the Mediterranean Sea) with less than a quarter of Israel’s area. CNN, Fox, BBC, Deutsch Welle, New York Times, You name it would be consumed with this event ad nauseum. In no time flat, Spain will regain these islands, while fully maligning the Muslims and reinforcing the fear of Islam.

Political system

The less said the better. The constitutions are amended whenever the ruler feels that s/he wants to hold on to power a little longer. The armies in many of the countries don’t even remember the barracks. Pakistan, Turkey, and Bangladesh have all seen the army rule. They do have elections but the army is always lurking in the background (and some time, in case of Pakistan, in the foreground as it is happening now with Chief of Staff General Ashfaq Kayani who is openly flaunting his wings.)

Iran has elections but then the Islamic Supreme Council is always on politicians’ nerves. Egypt has been issued NOC from the US and so it is exempted from holding the elections. (Hosni Mubarak, Anwar Sadat’s Vice President, came to power after the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Sadat in 1981. Referendums are held where Mubarak was the only candidate, hence there was no opposition. After staying in power for 32 years, Indonesia’s Suharto had to step down in 1998 due to the financial crisis. Since then the elected governments have ruled the country.

Oil rich countries have Shahs and Sheikhs where power transfers are hereditary, oil is their personal property, and gambling, womanizing, and hunting are their activities. Saudi Arabia indulges in another hobby too: beheading.

Culture

Arab culture is different than the South Asian culture, which has minimal commonality with the African culture which in turn has no resemblance to the Indonesian or Malaysian cultures. The black Muslims in the US have almost no cultural difference between other blacks in the US.

In the US, you can see Muslims from different countries praying together where a tiny fraction of them form organizations; but other than that, the majority of the Muslims mingle among their own ethnic groups. On Fridays, the prayer’s end would see South Asians running to nearby South Asian restaurant or grocery store cum restaurant where biryanis, chicken or beef rolls, and other food is waiting to be picked up by worshipers who have ordered this in advance.

Culture in its entirety does not consist of just praying together; it has several other elements involved: food, clothing, arts, cinema, regional politics, scandals, TV dramas, sports, and the most important of them all is the language. A Pakistani Muslim Punjabi would be more comfortable with an Indian Sikh or Hindu Punjabi rather than a Muslim/Hindu Gujarati. The Muslim Bengali from India’s Bengal wouldn’t hesitate to mingle with a Hindu Bengali from Bangladesh rather than a Hindu/Muslim Marathi. This is true of all the ethnic groups, except for some cosmopolitan people.

The English language is bringing people within a country closer; but the scale is still too small to make any sizeable difference. Religious outlook-strictly Saudi Wahabism or relaxed South Asian style religious observations and practice which include visits to shrines-also are indicators of cultural ethos.

Conclusion

As we noted, this portrait of menacing Islamic World ready to take over the world is conjured up by the western governments and media to maintain unity and peace among the elite populace within the Western countries to unite against a perceived enemy. On the other hand, the Muslims all over the world are led to believe that there is something called the Islamic World which is not only a powerful force but which can also challenge the western hegemony. This myth is also used by the leaders of the Muslim countries to hide their own shortcomings and weaknesses. This leads some Muslims to join the militant movements hoping to counter the United States.

There is no such entity as Islamic World; instead there are countries where Muslims make up a majority and so they can be called Muslim countries.

Explosive situation

Salman Taseer

Lahore has been saved from an explosive situation, literally. On Monday, 1,500 kilogrammes of explosives and suicide vests were confiscated from Allama Iqbal Town. Then on Tuesday, over 3,000 kilogrammes of explosives and other lethal ammunition was recovered from Allama Iqbal Town again. The recovery of such a large amount of explosives, arms and ammunition within two days is laudable on the one hand but on the other hand it highlights a terrorising aspect. Lahore has just barely recovered from the attacks on Model Town, RA Bazaar and Allama Iqbal Town. Had this stockpiled explosive material, suicide vests and ammunition actually been used, the city would have been up in flames. One cannot even imagine the extent of damage it would have brought about. Fortunately, pre-emptive action by the police and the intelligence agencies averted this disaster, which points to the importance of good intelligence and police work.

One of the most dangerous aspects of the confiscated material is the recovery of thousands of kilogrammes of ammonium nitrate and potassium. Ammonium nitrate is seemingly a harmless object but it has dual use. One, it is used for agricultural purposes, which is why it is very easy to buy it from the market. But ammonium nitrate can be also used as a bulk explosive. It is indeed very difficult to control its sale without interrupting its normal trade in the market. Many countries that have faced or are facing terrorism have had to deal with the same problem. Even with the best intelligence network in the world, objects with dual use such as mobile phones cannot be completely controlled. Pakistani officials would have to come up with a possible strategy sooner or later to control the sale of such things without affecting the market trade.

This leads to another, even more important matter. Can we be sanguine after the recovery of the explosives, arms and ammunition? Have we covered all of Lahore or the country as a whole? This is just the tip of a very large iceberg. From Allama Iqbal Town alone, such a large quantity of explosives has been recovered; now it is time to spread the dragnet to cover each and every nook and corner of the city, the province and the country to make more such ‘recoveries’. Whereas military means have succeeded relatively in FATA and the tribal areas, the fallout of these operations has overtaken the entire country. The militants are now trying to inflict not only actual damage but more than that, psychological damage. It actually brings almost everything to a halt whenever an attack takes place. Many of the militants under pressure in the tribal areas are fleeing to Afghanistan due to the porous Pak-Afghan border. This further highlights the nexus between the local Taliban and the Afghan Taliban. Many others have fled to cities like Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad. In order to pre-empt their actions, the security forces have to gear up even further. Once a suicide bomber is launched, it is almost impossible to stop him. The Punjab government also needs to wake up from its slumber and take solid action to counter militancy, especially in South Punjab.

Due to the grim security situation in the country, our Davis Cup tie against New Zealand has been shifted from Pakistan. Not only that, the National Games have been postponed too. It shows how precarious the security situation is in the country. The authorities need to tackle militancy with better planning, intelligence, police work, military means and, above all, an alert citizenry. *

The IJT militia

Once again, the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Their list of offences is long and exhaustive, and their thug-like hold over the Punjab University (PU) has devastated this once premier institution. Their latest foray into the eradication of ‘vice’ has prompted these goons to barge into the canteen of the university’s Institute of Communication Studies (ICT) and audaciously demand that male and female students refrain from sitting together. Taking it a step further, they are badgering for a wall to be constructed to ensure complete segregation. Students from the ICT are vehemently defying this outright attack on social norms and rightly so. However, the PU administration has yet to do anything substantial about this state-within-a-state situation.

In increasingly intolerant societies such as ours, educational institutes hold the only remaining vestiges of liberal culture and reform. With a mafia like the IJT virtually reigning over the campus, all efforts at producing an enlightened, contemporary generation of professionals bite the dust. Such has been the case since the time of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when then Governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar decided that the strong leftist tradition of the university did not fit into his increasingly right wing policies. Khar was assigned the task of countering the left by aiding and bolstering this religious group, the IJT. Many liberals left the university and the rule of the IJT was consolidated.

However, we must now acknowledge that as a nation reaping the misery of fundamentalism, it is now unacceptable to endorse or even overlook the IJT and their mafia rule. From beating up students whose only crime is talking to the opposite gender, opposing recreational activities and maliciously countering every attempt at progress and modernisation, the IJT is a medeival throwback. It is time the PU authorities and the government cracked down on an organisation that is as radically motivated as the very Taliban who are bombing us to kingdom come.

A recent “Shining Star Competition” organised by the IJT for the university’s deserving students has been disallowed by the PU administration. A welcome move, but we urge a more direct ‘hit’ to this militia; we cannot endorse Taliban ideologies in Pakistan anymore, no matter where they flourish. *