Unwarranted criticism

Fleeting moments

Now that former strongman Pervez Musharraf breathes free and enjoys his cigars in Dubai, the government faces a barrage of accusations for letting him off the hook. The opposition parties, which had been looking for a way to score points against the government, have suddenly come together to grill the government for allowing him to get away. The PPP is leading the verbal assault on the PML-N government over Musharraf’s bailout.

What if the PPP, or the PTI for that matter, were the ruling party and were to take a decision on Pervez Musharraf? Is the PPP known for taking principled decisions in the past? Hardly. Only corruption scandals surfaced during its last five years in power. Frankly, trying a former military chief for treason, in a country where the military dominates the political arena, is not easy for any government, however popular.

Musharraf was a thorn in the side of the PML-N government. Finally, the government chose a middle course for itself and decided to move on. On the other hand, Gen Musharraf quickly got well and summoned his party members to meet in Dubai. His party seems to have as bright a chance of coming to power as that of former CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry: his nemesis.

Bilawal Bhutto’s angst against the government for allowing Musharraf to leave the country, especially because he had been named in Benazir Bhutto’s murder case, is totally out of place. The PPP had a good opportunity to investigate BB’s murder when the party was in power and Asif Zardari was president. A team from Scotland Yard was called in to investigate her assassination, but the public was not informed about the outcome of the investigation – nor was there any outcome of the probe by the UN investigating team. Only the PPP is to blame for that.

Now, PPP Spokesman Farhatullah Babar has asked for the prime minister’s resignation, for allowing Musharraf to leave. For the PPP, Gen Musharraf is not an issue as significant as the Rangers action in Karachi. In fact, Asif Zardari was so incensed by the Rangers’ action that he lost his cool and spoke out against the generals in a brazenly threatening manner, which was unusual for a cool customer like him. However, when he later weighed the pros and cons of his bravado, he decided to make a hasty exit to Dubai. The desert emirate is almost a second home for Pakistani politicians and many of them own mansions there.

While the PPP is protesting against Musharraf’s exit, the religious parties have joined hands to protest against the women’s protection bill. The JI, which the people had once considered moderate, with its relatively educated membership, stands with the rest of the sectarian parties. The late Qazi Husain Ahmad had politicised the party to no end. Sirajul Haq is following suit.

 The JI is as ambitious to be in power as any other party; it just has a religious tinge to it. Its student wings in public universities are known for creating a nuisance. The government may or may not allow union activism in the universities, but the JI student wings function unhindered.

When talking about the rights of women in Islam, the preachers on the pulpits claim that women are fully protected. But the reality is far from it: the more backward the area, the worse the treatment of women. In districts of southern Punjab, killing women in the name of honour is common. The killers mostly get away with a minor punishment. In many cases, the killer had set his eyes on another woman and wanted his wife out of the way. Instead of parting company peacefully, he sent the poor wife packing to the hereafter.

Such gruesome murders don’t stir the collective conscience of the clerics. For them, honour comes first and the rights of the woman later. Would the religious right raise its voice to grant women their rights in inheritance, as enshrined in Islamic laws, with as much fervour?

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. Email: pinecity@gmail.com