Address the real issues!
28 August, 2006
By Ahmer Muzammil
They are about to resolve another landmark issue for the people of Pakistan. Once the amendments are done to Hudood Ordinance, the entire Pakistani population will come out on the streets and do the victory-dance. After all this law should relieve the populous from all the depravities, injustices, ills and oppression and as the Urdu saying goes " iskay baad ravi chayn hi chayn likhayy gaa". My hats off to religious parties for once again making an issue out of a non-issue and therefore providing the treasury benches yet another useless matter to run with. No one in there good-senses can really believe that the no-confidence movement against the prime minister has the slightest chance of succeeding. But in order to put any sort of political-pressure on the treasury benches, the opposition needs to be united. We all know that Pakistan Peoples Party and MMA has major differences of ideology, and both parties have a different interpretation of Islam, that is to say the least. So the timing from the government to bring about this hudood ordinance amendment is quite convenient. However, I hope that sense will prevail amongst the opposition benches and they will put there differences aside and they will unite together against the treasury benches, after all that is what they are suppose to do to put any real pressure, isn't it? This however is an after-thought, what I wanted to discuss is the stupidity and mere stubbornness of the proponents and opponents of Huddood Ordinance. We all know that the government benches haven't all of a sudden found this concern for women-folk. Mind you most of these goons are the same people that actually brought about the ridiculous and retarded Hudood ordinance in the first place. Let's be real, "Bushy" wants this done so our government is obliging. For the love of GOD our Federal Minister for Religious affairs is the son of "Amir-ul-Momineen" Zia-ul-Haq who was the enforcer of this ordinance. It's all in the family people. I personally know families where the mother is the senator on treasury benches and the mother-in-law sits on opposition benches. And this is very common practice amongst our "Masters", where one member of the family belongs to treasury benches and the other belongs to the opposition. This is what we call a win-win situation. Utterly pathetic! What is Huddood Ordinance? Is it a divine document that can't be amended? I have heard TRUE religious scholars that come from all different schools of thoughts, saying more than once that this ordinance is flawed. Any ordinance that punishes a victim for being a victim is retarded, stupid and obtuse. My amazement is that why in the world religious-politico-parties are making this a life and death issue? Where in Quran does it say that if a woman is raped and is not able to prove the crime with 4 witnesses then she should be jailed for fornication? How dim-witted can we really be? Do we have any sort of knowledge as to how my beloved prophet (PBUH) and the companions (may Allah SWT be pleased with them) dealt with these issues? Do we not know, that Prophet (PBUH) insisted thru his actions that if someone had committed adultery then they should ask for sincere forgiveness from Allah swt in privacy, rather than bringing it in public. He (PBUH) sent a woman back that came to the prophet (PBUH) because of her guilt. He (PBUH) asked her if she was pregnant, she said yes. Prophet (PBUH) sent her back, once she gave birth mind you Prophet didn't go looking for her to punish her, she came to him again and said I want to be punished now, he (PBUH) asked who is feeding the baby, she said it was her so he sent her back again. I mean there are lessons to be learned here people. We seem to become the policemen of Allah SWT and nothing pleasures us more than to punish deviances and foolish mistakes of already poor and ravaged, while completely ignoring and most times facilitating the Rich & Influential in committing far graver crimes. It's a sickness. We have to understand the spirit of this beautiful religion. No one is propagating a society where people are free to act lewdly. There must and should be laws that condemn & punish open-lewdness & immorality so the society as a whole can be safeguarded. But to be stringent, stubborn and ruthless rather than merciful is not at all the spirit of Islam. Why do we forget that 2nd greatest companion of the Prophet (PBUH) Omer (may Allah SWT be pleased with him) terminated "HUD" (shariah punishments) while there was famine. Are we living in any better times now? As a matter of law, how can Rape and consensual-sex be lumped together? Forget about Rape, shariah even makes a distinction between extra marital affairs and consensual-sex between two un-married individuals. It's on record that there have been hundreds of innocent men & women who have been in the past and continue to suffer by this draconian law that has diddly-do to do with the spirit of Islam. It'll be an interesting survey to find out how many amongst the "Culprits" come from poor and un-influential families, I will go on a limb and say all of them did. We are not suggesting that rich and influential in our society are all decent GOD-fearing people and have never done anything against the "HUDOOD Ordinace" therefore they are never once indicted, are we? Shame on Religious-political-parties to sell this issue as a matter of aqeedah(faith). Like all hell will break loose and women will come out dancing top-less on streets, God-forbid if there were to be amendments in Hudood Ordinance. Give me a break. As I said earlier that we all know that treasury benches are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. Americans would like to see that ideally consensual-sex is not a punishable crime or as lightly punished as possible. I don't quite know how to comment on this. I find it quite amusing that American government has all these problems and this mess in Iraq that they created for themselves; however the priority right now is to ensure that all Pakistanis should be able to get their "GROOVE" on. I guess Thank You for caring! Let's take a moment and analyze the SHARIAH law about consensual-fornication amongst the un-married. The punishment is lashes, but there's gotta be four witnesses. Unless the culprits are in the porn business, how would you get four witnesses? Prophet (PBUH) has said numerous times that don't become witness over your sins meaning be discrete about your sins, and ask for sincere repentance from Allah swt. So in all reality consensual-sex can never be really punished unless the sinners insist upon being punished out of guilt or to purify themselves in the eyes of Allah swt. 2nd point is that according to Islamic Shariah governments should not be snooping around looking for crimes that are being committed privately, and are NOT AFFECTING THE SOCIETY AT LARGE ADVERSLY. Once Omer (May Allah be pleased with him) was on his daily walk while he was the ruler of the Islamic Empire. He thought he heard the sound of music coming from a home, so he jumped over the wall to inquire because it was against the law at that time. The lady of the house got furious with his ruler that how dare he entered her house without her permission, Islamic shariah puts unprecedented sanctity of privacy and Omer (may Allah be pleased with him) realizing his grave mistake was apologetic and asked for forgiveness from her. Ladies and gentleman Omer (May Allah be pleased with him) was a man that was feared by the devil himself. Prophet (PBUH) once said that when omer is walking on a path, devil goes another way. This was a man of immense power, attitude, strictness and wrath. But he was also a very considerate man with un-canny sense of duty towards his constituents and truly understood the spirit of Islam. Forget about the King Musharaf himself (he is much too precious to be walking the streets), can you imagine standing up to a meaningless SHO, if he enters your house in the middle of night on suspicion of a crime? Forget IT! You'll be beaten back to the time of Omer (RAW). There is no point really to plead to our rulers to address the REAL issues of our country. Because if they did, quite honestly there looting and plundering would have to take a major hit and understandably they wouldn't be too keen about that. My plea is to the masses, please enough with this numbness! When will we wake up and demand respect and fairness from these thugs? Pakistan Army has decided to build a new GHQ that will cost the people of Pakistan literally billions of dollars. This 300 acre behemoth will have lavish Golf-Courses for the "hard-working" military top brass (keep in mind that pentagon that controls the entire world needs merely 30 acres to be productive). This money comes from the taxes that all of us have to shell out. It's not like Pakistan Army is making software and selling it to Microsoft. This institution is a liability & responsibility of Pakistani people and we are happy to oblige as long as it acts as the servant of the people of Pakistan & not the master. Why can't this money be spent towards raising the salaries of Jawans and junior officers? Who I assure you earn peanuts! Are we really this rich as a nation that we can afford a headquarter for our army where generals can play golf? For the love of whoever is sacred to you, people are committing suicides because they are hopeless & disenfranchised. 8 million kids in Pakistan are suffering from malnutrition. 7 million kids have no access to any education whatsoever. Millions of our people don't have clean water or access to a decent hospital, and the prime minister's kitchen expense last year was 4.7 billion Pakistani RS. Am I the only one who thinks this is just a tad bit extravagant? I feel the pain of the family members of these rulers, generals and jageerdars and there barking is quite understandable when they through a fit and call me an Indian agent because I have a gall to ask for clean water for my people. But do they not have any sense of reckoning in the after-life what so ever? Do you really think your meaning less Umrah's & Hajj (which is again being paid thru looting and plundering our money) will suffice for this grave injustice that you are inflicting upon your country-folk? My friends, Allah SWT is the greatest judge of all, and he will settle the score on the Day of Judgment for everyone, but we as individuals should also rise against this oppression. Prophet (PBUH) said that the highest level of Imaan is that you stop injustice with your hand, 2nd level is that you speak out against it and the lowest is that you at least consider it an injustice in your heart and pray for the oppressed. A little sole-searching is definitely in order. I am sick of hearing that we need to work on the image of Pakistan abroad. How about our rulers stop being stupid? How about not formulating foreign policies on the whims and desires of Americans (whether it's Zia's "Shariah" or musharaf's "enlightened moderation") and instead basing them on what's good for Pakistan? How about they stop robbing the populous blind and then feeding us empty patriotic rhetoric? Right now Pakistan is the ugly bride, no matter how much makeup you put on her, eventually it would have to come off. Instead of cosmetology I think we need to take real concrete steps towards government of people that is elected by the people of Pakistan and not selected by the GHQ & White House, and that should take care of the image of Pakistan on its own. I have been called a pessimist and I have been blamed for always being cynical. I truly believe that Pakistan can still become the success-story because of the tremendous number of good common folks that reside in that country, however they are not at the helm of affairs right now. We have a lonnnnnnnnggggggggg way to go; the sooner we start on this journey the better it will be for our prosperity. I will finish with a prose from another "Indian Agent", Allama Mohammad Iqbal: Uthoo mayrii dunya kay ghareebon ko jagadoo, Kaqay umarah kay dar-0-deewar hilaadoo. Garmaoo Ghulamoon(slaves) ka laho soz-0-yaqeen say Kanjushk-0-far-0-maya ko shaheen say larado. Sultaniyay jamhoor ka aata hay zamana Jo naqsh-E-kuhan tumko nazar aayey mitado Jiss khet say dehqaan ko mayassar na hoo rozi Uss khet kay har khoshayey gundum ko jalado.
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