Thank You Suicide Bomber! No one is talking about my 1.5 Billion anymore!
25 October, 2007
By Ahmer Muzammil
Does anyone remember that this woman facilitated a dictator and gave him a new lease on his dwindling career as the head honcho for the price of 1.5 billion dollars? Was this money borrowed from abba-jee of Pervaiz Musharaf that he graciously pardoned it or was it tax-payer’s ? Is anyone talking about the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) anymore in which the biggest criminals and absconders are going Scott- free, while the common Allah-wasaya rots in jail for gambling 10 RS on a cock-fight? But to be fair these pardoned doesn’t belong to PPP alone but hail from the hierarchy of a diverse political affiliation and according to the leadership of PPP that’s a testament that they are not the ONLY looters, just one of them so you see its all good than and people like me and civil society at-large should shut it!
I am not suggesting here like that orator par-excellence ‘shujaat of gujraat’, that Peoples Party staged this bombing, what I would like to see however in future is that either everyone-all hundreds of thousands of millions of them- get an armored vehicle and if that’s a tad inconvenient than the leaders should be forced to walk with the same people that they are supposedly championing to serve. Just so the grave-diggers in low-income areas aren’t over-worked and the graveyards near defense and Clifton get some rush as well.
140 dead human beings none of whom were even a distant relation with any of the superior-caste that was Brahmin enough to be on that armored truck, how come? Benazir said that the martyrs would be remembered in history as the heroes of democracy, why doesn’t she recruit Balawal or Bakhtawar for that coveted position as well? Did aitezaz ehsan’s (for the record I have tremendous respect for him) or raja pervaiz ashraf’s or sherry rehman’s or aftab shaban meerani’s or any leader’s kids were part of that human shield that the leadership seems so proud of? Was layari –the mecca of Peoples Party – turned in to a vibrant, thriving neighborhood when benazir Bhutto was at the helm of affairs? If not and it wasn’t, why are people so stupid that they can’t see that Benazir’s dog has a more nutritious diet and drinks cleaner water than the people of layari ever will. Not one single bullet point in NRO has anything to do with awam or fair elections, NOT ONE! You can take that too the bank but at least Rehman Malik, the biggest drug-dealer of Pakistan and special confidant of Bibi wouldn’t be politically victimized, the nation stand obliged!
I read today that Mehmood Qureshi, President of Peoples Party Punjab visited the home of a worker in a slum of Punjab who was killed in the bombing and offered his condolences while generously showering the family of this poor-man, who was the sole bread-winner of the household, with a handsome sum of RS. 5000 in crisp Pakistani currency. That is the price of human life and sacrifice, not even 100 damn dollars! Benazir’s head scarf that conveniently slips enough just so she can still be ‘enlightened’ enough for the west and Muslim enough for the voters at the same time, costs more.
I have always maintained that the will of people should be respected. I am a proponent of free and fair election and I truly believe that is the only way forward. Even though I despise bibi or mian sahab, not because they have personally wronged me but because they are living manifestation of the class system that I find utterly reprehensible & nauseating, never the less I think that things will only get better once we have true democracy in Pakistan. In the short term that would mean either Bibi or mian at the helm of affairs but that’s OK. With a confidant media and relatively free higher-judiciary it’s a step in the right direction, as long it’s not Army or that Fox Maulana Fazloo, we shall be better off.
Post 9-11 for couple of months it was a cardinal sin & reason enough for incarceration in USA to even hint that maybe we should look at the root-cause of this desperation and hatred that forces individuals to take such drastic steps. Suicide Bombers are not only willing to create havoc and devastation for human beings that haven’t wronged them on a personal level but are ready to end there own life in that process as well. I challenge anyone and I know that they would have hell of a time justifying suicide bombing from an Islamic angle because there are stringent rules and procedures of combat in Islam none of which allow any sort of indiscriminate killing of innocent that suicide bombing results in. But it would be quite easy to explain away from a psychological perspective. All you have to do is create an atmosphere where there is no hope on the horizon, no education, no electricity, no opportunities to earn an honest living and on top of that your family members including women, children and old get blown up in to fragments in front of your very own eyes. I assure all of you that 9 out of 10 will gladly opt for suicidal-revenge, not because they are eager to get to 72 virgins in paradise or whatever but because they can’t wait to check out of the hell that we have created for them.
It’s a slippery slope when you can’t bring yourself to condemn indiscriminate slaughter of human beings in a market-place in waziristan just because the length of there facial hair is not to your liking. We are either a society that stands for human rights for ALL human beings not just of the Urban ones or else we are hypocrites.
There isn’t and can’t be any Islamic justification for killing un-assuming, unarmed human beings because Allah swt says in Quran that whoever kills an innocent man or woman, he/she kills the entire humanity. But from a fact-of-life perspective if we don’t enjoy being bombed in our Urban centers than we can’t be supporters of indiscriminate killing of human beings in our rural centers either. That should be common-sense, which unfortunately is increasingly becoming an expensive and rare commodity in Pakistan.
My wife told me today that I am too bitter. Is there any reason to be anything but? Poorest of the poor from layari and surrounding villages died in this massacre and I am not even allowed to be bitter? I think if we were all a little bit bitter and mad and cynical, the ‘Brahmins’ wouldn’t be able to molest us in that callous, nonchalant & careless manner that they insist on.
Abb mayray doosray bazoo pay woh shamsheer hay joo
Iss say pehlay bhi mayra nisf badan kaat chuki
Ussi bandooq ki naalli hay mayri simt kay joo,
Iss say pehllay mayri sheh-rag ka lahoo chaat chuki
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