Giving Way to Intolerance

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The first crisis of a religious nature was created in November 1947, when the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Hind announced its revival as a party in Pakistan. The Majlis-i-Ahrar, organised in 1931, had opposed all other religious organisations aof Muslims, and the separatist politics of All India Muslim League. And in doing so, the leaders of this organisation had abused and maligned Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah and other prominent leaders of the Pakistan movement.

According to intelligence reports dating back to pre-independence and post independence days and governor punjab Sardar Abdur Rab Nashtar, obscene and filthy language was the trademark of the Ahraris.

When they announced their revival at a Karachi convention on November 18, 1947, they stuck to these traditions and abused the Quaid-i-Azam, and held him responsible for the abduction and rape of 50,000 Muslim women at the time of independence. They alleged that ``Jinnah was in a hurry to become the Governor General of Pakistan and sacrificed the lives and honour of millions of Muslims for the purpose.`` The Ahrar leaders also abused foreign minister Chaudhri Zafarullah and the prime minister`s wife, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali. ``

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Our ``esteemed`` president, Rafiq Tarar was one of the most active members of the Ahrar movement. Due to his zeal and commitment, the founder/leader of the Ahrar movement used to say, ``he is my fourth son`` (he already had three sons).

Sadly, I don`t think we are even on the path to learning from our history.

Regards,

malangi

Btw, this information is based on an article from the Herald magazine. I don`t remember the exact issue, but it was the one that came out right after Rafiq Tarar became the president.

mik

Your account of Pakistan`s history is 100% on the mark! Time to tell the truth. We are already facing the consequences of avoiding it for so long. Until the past in dealt with in this manner, we will continue to be haunted by its ghosts.

Re: ababua

I am not saying Screw history.

I am saying Given that, where do we go from here, and how to achieve it.

Re: Godot -- ``too much wallowing in the past``

``Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.``

to figure out what to do, we first need to come to an understanding of what has happened till now, and try and understand why and how it happened.

we must comprehend the past to understand the future. most of the the ``radical solutions`` we might come up with have probably been tried before. with mixed successes and failures... we need to learn about that.

Dear Dr. Medhi;

Are you my good friend Dr.Medhi who I met at Chicago, or are you some one else? if so contact me at fredihas@yahoo.com . Now that that is out of the way, I came hear to praise the insightfulness, and progressive nature of your article. Thats the kind of thinking we desi`s need to get ahead in society. Comparatively, thats REALLY the type of thinking we muslims need to submit to. If we do not open the borders of our minds and let hatred subside for a brighter tommorrow, we will comtinue to be the laughing stock of the Socio-eco-political world we have no chioce but to be part of... Fantastic piece of work, I`m glad I logged on and cut class to read it !!! Can I please have a doctors` note ???

sincerely,

f a r h a j

fredihas@yahoo.com

Go, SR!

However, too much wallowing in the past.

Nothing has taken root in Pakistan in the past fifty years. Nothing except corruption, that is. Pakistan is as barren a land, as uncertain of itself as it was at the time of its birth.

But what to do? How to fix this God-forsaken country about which many people care? How to weed-out the scum bags, ie, the political and religious leadership? Throw a party on a huge ship, invite governments past and present and all the religious leaders to it (maybe Amir-ul-Momeneen can lead the procession!), and sink the ship in the middle of the ocean after they all had their glasses of champagne and are sleeping in their Nimaz-e-Isha sijda?

Short of that, does anyone out there have any ideas how to fix it? No small task! Please, only enlightened, libertarian, and secular ideas are invited.

I agree with SR treat all leaders with equal skepticism.

Bhutto Senior was the first civilian Martial Law Administrator. Infact Benazir Bhutto`s Government had to eat a humble pie when they demanded in the National Assembly that the opposition (Zia`s son was representing them) should apologize for Zia being a Martial Administrator. The opposition replied that PPP should first apologise for Bhutto being the first Civilian Martial Law Administrator.

So to correct your statement that Zia led the 3rd Martial Law is incorrect. Please recount your Martial Laws.

Doctor sahib:

You have given a good historical summary of the Islamist opportunists in Pakistan, yet you allow your credibility to be tarnished by betraying your bias. You let Z. A. Bhutto off too easy, make excuses for his misdeeds and treat him with kids gloves. Please rise above party loyalty and call a spade a spade.

Bhutto was very much an instrument of the established order and an opportunist himself. He was smart and chrismatic and had the eye to spot the opportunity whereby he could further his own goals. It was thus that he embraced the progressive slogans and fooled people like Mubashir, Rahim, Sheikh Rashid, Sheikh Rafique and Miraj M Khan, into believing that he was worthy of leadership. When I visit Lahore I usually pay a courtesy call to Dr Mubashir Hussain just for the sake of historical curiosity. (He is very candid in his obscure retirement.) Yes, there were some sincere people with Bhutto sahib, but he himself was not one. Khar, Hafeez Pirzada and Mumtaz Bhutto were always closer to him than the true progressives. Surely you remember when he sent his personal bull-dog, one Saeed Ahmad Khan, a most detestable butcher, to humiliate and beat up that poor old revolutionary, Rahim.

Bhutto was also very much at the center of the 1971 crisis. He was Yahya Khan`s appointed deputy prime minister and foreign minister. It was his habbit to make a deal with the devil whenever it suited him. Some progressive!? Perhaps he had delusions of emulating Uncle Joe. Saeed Ahmed Khan surely was his Beria.

Please, sir, do not succumb to ideological blindness and exempt that evil genius who created the Frankenstein monster that was Zina ul Haq. Condemn Bhutto with the same vigor. He was the one to start this Islamic bullshit by doing the Ahmedi thing in 1974 and then the Friday holiday and alcohol banning in 1977. He was an insincere, cynical, dishonest, vulgar, opportunistic, feudal aristocrat who played as a stooge to the army (Ayub and Yahya) as long as it was in his interest and the irony is that he was killed by the same army in the end. Poetic justice: Scum got rid scum.

...SR

The irony of Pakistan and indeed muslims all around the world is obscurantism ...wrongly interpretted as religious zeal. Many a great Muslim leaders have been branded as Kafirs by the self styled clergy of Islam... Mostapha Kemal Attaturk, Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Jamal Abdul Nasser, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to name some ...

they were all progressive and liberal and yet they adhered to Pan Islamism and anti Imperialism.....

Islam if seen in the true spirit never promoted obscuranitism or fanaticism .... As a matter of fact there is NO concept of an ORGANIZED CLERGY in Islam .... there is a lot of talk of separation of church and state and all that ... there is no organized church in Islam ... so the involvement of religion in Politics is not even a question ...

ritual religion and Islam as a relationship between man and God is different from Political Islam .... and Islam in the later refers to the civilization and not religion or personal faith ... it is the same as when if there is an artist who happens to be a muslim ... doesnt necessarily mean that his art is religious but down the road his art would become most likely the part of Islamic art since he was a muslim ..... so all this nonsense about an Islamic Government doesnot make sense .... Prophet Muhammad was a Prophet and a statesman ... so at that point there existed an absolute truth .... and a master signifier but today except for the core Islam doesnot have the

``ABSOLUTE TRUTH`` ... since everything in Quran except the few basic concepts are open to debate .... so how can anyone brand one form of Government Islamic and one form unislamic .....

best short history of Pakistan to be found