The Non-Citizens Among Us

INTRODUCING itself to its readers, The Pakistan  Times  wrote editorially in its inaugural issue on February 4, 1947:

We are a Muslim  League paper. We claim to speak for thirty million Muslims  of Northern India  who have sworn allegiance to the Muslim League, the sole national party Indian  Muslim . . . they (the Hindus ) have consistently forted fear and suspicion among the minorities living in Muslim regions. We believe that such fears and suspicions are unfounded and should be dispelled. We shall, therefore, commend to our Muslim readers the virtues of large-heart-edness and forbearance in communal relations. We shall enjoin on them to prove that the minorities in Muslim regions will, in free Pakistan , have more freedom than they possess at the moment in their own majority areas under Congress  rule.

In the early years of independence the minorities were, in fact, left unmolested, especially in East Pakistan  where a very large number of Hindus  lived. Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said today. There are very few Hindus and Sikhs  in the Punjab , but the province has a large number of Christian and Ahmadis who are being systematically discriminated against on the basis of religion. Tolerance has given way to intolerance, large-heart-edness has gives way to petty mindedness, and the two communities are being denied their due share of jobs in both the private and public sectors.

          While Christians are second-class citizens, the Ahmadis have been tuned into non-citizens for all practical purposes. No government , civil or military or quasi-civil or quasi-military has had the courage to bridle the handful of zealots who are masquerading as the keepers of the nation's conscience. It has become more dangerous to be known as an Ahmadi than a downright heretic.

          The same edition of the paper, I have quoted from above, has the following news item:

          "Mr. C. E. Gibbon  was re-elected to the Punjab  Assembly from the Anglo-Indian  constituency following the rejection of the nomination papers of his rival, Mr. S. R. Levis, by the Returning Officer yesterday (February 3, 1947). . . ."

          Gibbon is a known name but was this Mr. S.R. Levis the same man who founded the Punjab  Union of Journalists.

          We then have a report on the 8th annual conference on the Punjab  Students Federation. The conference passed a resolution, calling upon all members of the Indian  constituent assembly to dissociate themselves from the Cabinet Mission Plan, and launch a struggle against imperialism. The conference also demanded bi-annual examinations in the Punjab University. The office bearers included:

          President : Mohan Lal Thakur . Vice-president : Kaushak Chand Ved Prakash . General  Secretary: Balraj Mehta . Joint secretaries: Shameem Ashraf , Mrs. Victoria  and Hari Krishan . Now is this Shameem Ashraf the same who came later to be known as Shameem Ashraf Malik ? I think so, because the Punjab  Students Federation was a progressive organization, which used to support the workers and peasants in their struggle against exploitation. I think I. A. Rehman  of the HRCP should know.

          Then there is the following story at the end of the second editorial:

They were fishing on opposite banks of the Rhine  at Basel  during the War. The man on the German  side could not get a bite; the man on the Swiss  side was pulling fish in one after the other.

                "Why is it," called out the German , "that you are getting plenty over there while I can't get a nibble here?"

                "That's easy," said the Swiss , "the fish on this side are allowed to open their mouths."

The joke has other variations, too, but in this instance, I would have preferred to be on the German  side of the Rhine  when the Nazis were on the rampage.

          On the last page, The Pakistan  Times  carried the following notice:

The Governor  of the Punjab  is hereby pleased to direct not to print or publish in any of the issue (including supplements) of the said The Pakistan  Times  for a period of fifteen days, with effect from the date of service on you of this order, any statement or report which is not official, and comment, any correspondence, or any other matter concerned with, or bearing on the agitation against the provisions of the said Punjab Public Safety Ordinance, 1946.

You might have read a small statement by the former information secretary of the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal , Syed Manzoor Ali Gilani, in which he has demanded party chief Asghar Khan 's resignation because his son, Umar Asghar, is in the federal cabinet ( Dawn July 1).

          The statement, in fact, is based on a letter Mr. Gilani wrote to his party boss. He is angry because the son has joined a military government  and demanded that the father must pay the price. He has also said that if Umar Asghar Khan  does not quit the federal cabinet within a week, the Tehrik's National Council must elect a new leader.

          "By supporting a military takeover, Mr. Asghar Khan  has negated his life-long struggle for democracy and supremacy of law." Mr. Gilani wrote. Strange demand, this is. If a son joins the military government , how can the father be accused of supporting Gen . Musharraf's takeover of October 12? I know of several families where fathers and sons have different political affiliations.

          THE American tend to judge political and moral standards in Third World  countries by modern Western  yardsticks. In early American (white American) history, corruption was as widespread as it is in Pakistan  today. This is not to say that the Pakistanis should be as corrupt as were the founders of American democracy. The Americans  should before fitting in judgment on countries which became independent after WW-II, read Erskine Caldwell, the author of God 's Little Acre . The Pocket Book of Erskine Caldwell stories is specially recommended.

Monday, July 3, 2000