The cat is out of the bag

What a grand gathering. More than 35 religious, sectarian, proscribed and banned outfits and parties’ leadership gathered under one roof in Lahore. You will never find these 35 on one platform to condemn terrorism and suicide bombings, honor killings, child marriages, acid throwing, karokari, vani and Swara, as these so-called religious leaders and scholars have nothing to do with some real issues our society is facing. What brought them together was the Punjab’s Women Protection Bill. Are they so much afraid of the changes in legislations to accept woman as an equal human being as a man?

However, what amazed me was their threat: withdraw the entire bill or else they will start a movement on the lines of infamous 1977 violent protest which finally resulted in a dark night that continued for next ten years. I wonder these religious leaders never felt ashamed that their protest pushed Pakistan into a quagmire of ‘jihad for dollars’ and terrorism with which we are still fighting in 2016. It’s very obvious these religion/sect based parties can never come to power by democratic means, their only hope is a military dictatorship which could use them as a tool provided they are paid in dollars.

These outfits and parties need to realise it’s not 1977, it’s 2016 — all these leaders are now fully exposed. Exposed on their stand on terrorism and suicide bombings by justifying it with ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, exposed by resisting madrasa reforms, exposed by their views on child marriages, polygamy, rejecting DNA reports to implicate rapists, and now by standing with men who abuse, beat and torture their spouses, exploit them mentally and economically.

It’s high time for government, political parties and media to just ignore them — to let their protest to meet its natural death.

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail, Saudi Arabia