Respect, please
September 18, 2012
While across the Middle East and wider Muslim world the weekend was filled with demonstrations, burning and violence, Pakistan too braced for the worst over the release of a crude video mocking the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). However, come Saturday night, level-headed Pakistanis breathed a sigh of relief when protests, as charged and angry as they rightfully were, remained mostly peaceful and demonstrators vented their fury with charged speeches and fiery banners but dispersed with minimum damage to property and no loss of lives. As we noted at the time, it seemed that, contrary to all expectations, cooler heads had prevailed. But we may have spoken too soon. Come Sunday evening, one person was killed and dozens were injured when anti-American protesters tried to storm the US Consulate in Karachi and clashed for several hours with the police and paramilitary troops. According to reports in the media, around 1,000 protesters pelted stones at the gate of the US Consulate and police responded with teargas and firing into the air. Monday brought news that one person was killed and two others were injured as a result of police gunfire during protests against the anti-Islam film in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa. Karachi, like other cities, is bracing itself for more mayhem.
As more demonstrations and violence are expected in the days to come, three important factors merit highlighting. One, the police in Karachi, and across the country, definitely need to re-think their crowd control tactics, and improve measures to control and disperse riotous civilians. Two, this may be a good time for the government to reach out to religious leadership across the country and convince them that, while protests are a democratic right and this is most certainly more than a worthy cause to be protesting, religious groups may want to reconsider their modes of protests in this charged environment. As we have said before, strong and dignified protests are much more likely to see desired results than violent disorder or attempts to harm human lives. Finally, it is important for the US to understand at this point that the outpouring of outrage across the Muslim world and in Pakistan is not just over one video but over anger that has pent up due to decades of perceived vilification of Muslims and their faith by the US and its military. The images of abuse from the Abu Ghraib prison are etched in the minds of Muslims around the globe. The desecration of the Quran by troops in Afghanistan and a pastor in Florida are not instances that will be forgotten for a long time to come. The increasing deaths of Muslim civilians as collateral damage in drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere and other countless instances have cemented in Muslim minds the idea that their identity, values and the symbols they hold most dear are perpetually open to threat of insult or injury. In essence then, it is this impression that the United States must fight to erase. In Pakistan, after Sunday’s attack on the consulate, the US government tried to distance itself from the film by saying it has “absolutely nothing to do with this video.” A Twitter message by the American Embassy read: “We reject its [video’s] content and its message.” Of the millions of dollars that the US ostensibly spends in Pakistan, and in other Muslim countries, perhaps some of it may be diverted to better public relations to systematically reduce resentment of Washington. Anger at America’s decade-old war against terrorism will not die down overnight. Muslims across the world demand respect and dignity, and as most of them see things today, it seems as if it is precisely this respect and dignity that the United States refuses to accord them. This is where the real challenge for the Americans presently lies.
Dangerous sheep
September 18, 2012
Mystery, confusion and conflicting statements surround the 21,268 sheep currently quarantined at a meat company warehouse in Razzaqabad. The sheep started their journey in Australia, thence to Bahrain. They were refused entry to Bahrain, never landed there and were bought by a Pakistani importer and landed here instead. That much at least is clear, but little else is. The sheep are to be culled and buried – not the best option since burning is preferable in order to completely eradicate any virus – but the question of how they entered the country in the first place needs to be urgently answered. Bahrain had rejected the animals because they were diseased, and it is impossible to believe that both the local importer and the quarantine officials at Port Qasim were unaware of this. The animals are infected with a virus that is not indigenous to Pakistan but is highly transmissible, and the consequences of it getting into our livestock could be catastrophic. It is incomprehensible that they were allowed ashore in the first place, and responsibility for this primary failure lies squarely with the Port Qasim quarantine officers.
As to conflicting statements, the owner of the Pakistan Livestock and Meat Company says that the National Veterinary Laboratory had confirmed that the sheep were virus-free, and that no animal had died as a result of infection. The Sindh and federal governments say that laboratory tests they commissioned show that the animals had foot-and-mouth disease as well as other previously-confirmed bacterial infections. Surely the National Veterinary Laboratory is capable of detecting this, and if it is not then why is it still in business and what can be done to bring it up to a standard that will protect us from incidents such as this? These animals present a grave risk to public health the longer they live. There was a breach of the very controls that are in place to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in animals globally. It was grossly irresponsible or criminally negligent of both the importer and the quarantine officers in exposing the country to a danger such as this. Our herds and flocks have already been depleted and damaged by two years of dreadful flooding and the very last thing we needed was a disease outbreak for which there is no cure apart from culling. The sooner these sheep are dead and gone the better – and then we need answers to the questions outlined above.