Friday’s violence
September 22nd, 2012
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf’s speech at the Ishq-i-Rasool conference in Islamabad on Friday combined denunciation of the anti-Islam movie with an appeal to the people to be peaceful, an appeal also made by all major political parties — the PPP, PML-N, ANP, MQM and PTI. Yet even before the prime minister had finished, the strike had turned violent. By the time the faithful headed towards mosques for the Friday prayer, violence had spiralled out of control in several cities. The intensity of the violence was shocking. Reason fell victim to emotions, even though the hate-filled film, made by a man who can only be described as a bigot, was condemned by American leaders, including President Obama.
In principle there’s nothing wrong with a strike which is a democratic way of expressing protest and resorted to only when all other options have been exhausted. In Pakistan, unfortunately, political parties and even professional bodies like those of lawyers and doctors have abused this principle irrespective of its consequences for citizens, and often for themselves. Horrifying as it is, every Pakistani crowd is now violence-prone: whether it is a justifiable protest against power outages or an Eid rush for railway tickets, people attack unrelated targets. Political rhetoric has much to do with it, for we have developed a popular culture in which citizens have come to believe that violence pays. Those who call for strikes cannot escape their responsibility by blaming violence on outsiders, for it is their duty to control their acolytes. The violence the day saw in no way advanced the cause of the world’s Muslims. Instead, it painted Pakistan as a country where bloodthirsty mobs roamed. Friday is a day that is meant for congregational prayers and piety. But for some strange reason, our religious parties invariably choose this day for tormenting the Pakistani people.
The government’s eagerness to share the people’s sentiments and not let the opposition make political capital out of it can be understood. But the way it chose to express its solidarity with the people was astonishing — by declaring a holiday. The result was a total shutdown, with banks and business transactions frozen for three days. We have seen protests in many Muslim countries, but nowhere did political parties call for a nationwide strike and find the government ‘cooperative’. A government’s job is to keep the state going and not to help strikers. Yesterday’s violence should goad our politicians and leaders of civil society into realising the damage the ‘wheel jam’ strikes and the accompanying violence are doing not only to the economy but to the nation’s moral fibre.
Dangerous direction
September 22nd, 2012
Already nervous about what the day would bring, citizens found yesterday that the state, too, had done its bit to disrupt life as far as possible. Cellular networks were suspended; those who do not have access to landlines — and there are many such people — found that they were cut off from family, friends and colleagues. This on a day when the streets in many areas were filled with smoke and television screens with frightening images of enraged mobs attacking indiscriminate targets. Many would have been concerned for the safety of loved ones but they had been rendered incommunicado.
This is not the first time the government has resorted to taking such an enormously disruptive step. On the eve of Eid, cellphone users found services inexplicably suspended. The government had cited a potential terrorist threat as the reason — militants too use the technology to their own advantage. Nevertheless, that does not mean that the rulers can arrogate to themselves the right to arbitrarily and without warning cut off access to indispensable devices. Given the sort of violence that occurred in Peshawar, Islamabad, Karachi and elsewhere yesterday, it seems that the move proved futile as it failed to prevent protesters from communicating. And it would be useful for the government to remember that in earlier decades, when there was no cellular technology, the country had seen much larger and more violent demonstrations. The good such a step may achieve is eclipsed by the very serious inconvenience it causes several million people. Beyond inconvenience, there is the aspect of the huge monetary losses that were incurred by various businesses, not the least of which are cellphone companies themselves. Such a decision should be a last resort, or else it will set a dangerous precedent. Will citizens start losing cellular services whenever a large protest is in the offing? If it goes down this road again, the government will find itself treading an increasingly fraught path; the line between when it is and is not reasonable to take such a stringent step will be blurred to the point of being erased.
Sheep mystery
September 22nd, 2012
The mystery of over 20,000 reportedly diseased sheep from Australia continues to deepen. There are claims and counter-claims from various parties regarding the health of the animals, which were imported by a Karachi-based firm. Citing government veterinarians, media reports say that some of the sheep from the suspected flock may be infected with anthrax. Around 7,000 of the sheep had been culled by Thursday after alarm was raised about their health status a few days ago. The importer has demanded a stay order against the culling till the findings of a veterinary board constituted by the Sindh High Court are in. The Australian firm which exported the animals — and which insists the sheep are healthy — also wants a halt to the culling. What adds to the murkiness surrounding the matter is that Oman and Qatar had accepted sheep from the same consignment, while Bahrain did not import the animals. Also, after their arrival in Pakistan tests from two labs in Sindh found the sheep to be sick, while results from an Islamabad lab showed otherwise.
Considering the prevailing confusion, there is a need for all stakeholders to handle the issue dispassionately. Firstly, if there is so much controversy and if the veterinary board’s findings are still not in, perhaps there should not be such a rush to cull the animals. At this point, the best possible course of action may be to keep the sheep in quarantine, away from healthy animals, till investigations conducted by a recognised institution — acceptable to all — are completed. In the long run, the incident should prompt a thorough review of the official process through which livestock is imported and exported. To prevent future mishaps, local authorities need to ensure animals are free from disease before they are allowed into the country and released into the market.