Fw: [sindhorg] The dragon harvest - By Khalid Hasan

[Guest guest]

The dragon harvest ,

 

By Khalid Hasan

eneral Musharraf chose Kohat to announce that he did not accept the MMA version

of Islam. A number of foreign correspondents based in Islamabad were invited to

come along so that their reports (which have only been carried perfunctorily, if

at all) should clear the air for his two-week visit to the United States and

Europe. Western governments may be this, that and the other, but they are not

naïve. They have a pretty clear-headed understanding of what is going on in the

NWFP and what is going on in Pakistan.

The dragon’s teeth that the military government sowed have borne fruit

before the season ended. The MMA monster was midwifed by the political wing of

the ISI, and since the ISI is not a state within a state, not yet anyway, it

configured the October elections according to a duly cleared, carefully planned

and cynically implemented “staff scenario.” One thing those who are

now trying to distance themselves from the onward march of mullahdom in

Pakistan must not do is to act like shocked virgins. It insults our

intelligence and it fools no one outside Pakistan, least of all those the

master tacticians of Rawalpindi are so keen to win over, cultivate and, all the

while, double-cross.

Sometimes I am glad the Quaid-i-Azam did not live long enough to see what his

Pakistan has come to. The country he wanted us to have was not to be a hellhole

of obscurantism and religious bigotry. He wanted Pakistan to be a liberal,

secular, parliamentary democracy where religion would be a private matter and

no one would be discriminated against on the basis of creed or colour. It is

ironic that those who have trampled under their boots every single principle

that the Founder of Pakistan stood for, never forget to display his picture on

the back wall as they lay down the law according to the particular whim of the

day.

The passage of the Shariat bill and the promised passage of the Vice and Virtue

act should have made us sit up, but what hope is there when not a single

opposition member from the NWFP assembly had the decency or the courage to vote

against the bill or even to abstain. Feeble attempts by one PPP representative

to explain away this cowardly conduct are more regrettable than the conduct

itself. General Musharraf can go to every NWFP town and city and denounce the

MMA’s interpretation of Islam, but it will change nothing. The record of

his government on issues of religious bigotry and humanism is not a record of

which he can be proud. What liberalism can we expect from a government whose

supremo is afraid of even being photographed with his dogs!

The Taliban, if anyone is looking for them, are alive and well in Pakistan and

they are flourishing under the benign care of the very warriors who have

declared themselves the front fighting line in the global war on terrorism. All

the monsters who should be in the Mianwali jail or the Attock facility for those

who fall foul of The Boys are as free in Pakistan as birds of the air. While

birds of the air are often shot down, the hirsute brigades of these holy

terrors are free to do what they wish. They are never caught. Who killed the

dozen young police recruits in Quetta? Two gunmen on motorcycles. And where did

they go? They disappeared. Yes, they disappeared, just as those who were sprung

from Indian jails after the Khatmandu hijacking disappeared as soon as they

entered Pakistan.

In case people have forgotten what lies in store for us, there has been a

chilling reminder of it recently in My forbidden face, a book by a young Afghan

woman who calls herself Lateefa. She lived with her parents in Kabul when the

Taliban took over. Her book is the story of their life under Taliban rule and

how they managed to ultimately get out of the inferno their country had become.

 

Lateefa writes, “Eleven o’clock news. Radio Sharia comes back on the

air (we’re allowed to hear nothing from eight to nine except religious

chanting, a reading of verses from the Quran, and prayers). The interim

government which is composed of six mullahs has issued the following statement:

>From now on the country will be ruled by a completely Islamic system. All

foreign ambassadors are relieved of their duties. The new decrees in accordance

with Sharia are as follows: Women and girls are not permitted to work outside

the home. All women who are obliged to leave their homes must be accompanied by

a mahram: their father, brother or husband. Public transportation will provide

buses reserved for men and buses reserved for women. Men must let their beards

grow and trim their moustaches according to Sharia. Men must wear a white cap

or turban on their heads. The wearing of suit and tie is forbidden. The wearing

of traditional Afghan clothing is compulsory. Women and girls will wear the

chadri (the Afghan word for those horrible blue tentlike burqas). Women and

girls are forbidden to wear brightly coloured clothes beneath the chadri. It is

forbidden to wear nail polish or lipstick or makeup. All Muslims must offer

ritual prayers at the appointed times wherever they may be.

“More decrees follow in the next few days”, recalls Lateefa.

“It is forbidden to display photographs of animals and human beings. A

woman is not allowed to take a taxi unless accompanied by a mahram. No male

physician may touch the body of a woman under the pretext of a medical

examination. A woman is not allowed to go to a tailor for men. A girl is not

allowed to converse with a young man. Infraction of this law will lead to the

immediate marriage of the offenders. Muslim families are not allowed to

photograph or videotape anything, even during a wedding. Women engaged to be

married may not go to beauty salons, even in preparation for their weddings.

Muslim families may not give non-Islamic names to their children. Merchants are

forbidden to sell female undergarments. When the police punish an offender, no

one is allowed to ask a question or complain. All those who break the laws of

Sharia will be punished in the public square.”

I can go on and on, but it is sobering to remind ourselves that this was the

government whose strongest supporter in the world was Pakistan. I once asked

Aziz Khan, now high commissioner-designate to India, about the Taliban, he

having been our man in Kabul. He said he had once asked a Taliban cabinet

minister if the beard could be trimmed. “That would be a great

sin,” he had replied, “You see with each hair of the beard hangs

one angel. If you trim the beard, the angels will fall on the ground. Could

there be a greater sin?” -for job opportunities, conferences,

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