- Who, exactly, are they following?
Who is to blame? Now that the country has suffered loss in monetary terms as well as that of reputation, what’s next? A pact, like always, or something rock-hard?
Not undermining the sacrifice of one million people who died on the path of fighting for a cause, but the last time people took to the streets and transformed their aggression into an effective movement, the boundary of a new country was chalked out on the world map. Luckily, the leader of that movement and the cause both were true and just. But such windfall fortune is seldom a recurrence.
It is 2018, yet the people of Pakistan have been unable to come out of the 20th-century-mode of protests. Wooden sticks and chappals, if nothing else, being the primary weapons of our violent mobs, this country’s population has been unable to learn new and reformed ways of remonstrating.
Let’s suppose the proponents of Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TLP) had a genuine reason behind demonstrating their opposition against verdict given by the highest court of Pakistan regarding Aasia Bibi’s case, what were those whose properties were damaged punished for? Were they the witnesses of Aasia’s alleged blasphemous remarks who did not show up to get her convicted with enough evidence, or were they being punished for being born in Pakistan? It is highly probable that many of those whose cars and shops were damaged were themselves the dissidents of the verdict. Many among the affected were upholders of TLP’s stance. Yet they had to go through a complete shutdown for three days, a figure that seems to be insignificant but amounts to an irreparable loss.
They ask what loss we keep chanting about. The loss is of a student who could not reach his university because of a sit-in in his area; the loss is of a manager who could not reach his office because he feared attack by protestors on his way to work; the loss is of a young fruit vendor whose cart full of bananas was looted by a mob of TLP protestors in the name of protecting the sanctity of the Prophet’s (PBUH) name; the loss is of people who lost their loved ones in ambulances waiting on blocked roads to reach hospitals; the loss is of all those whose vehicles, earned by years of hard-work and savings, were damaged; the loss is of all those whose wounds were tried to be disinfected and covered by bandages of mere apologies after having caused pain intentionally and deliberately. And no sane mind can challenge the fact that this violent resistance and plundering WAS intentional and deliberate.
After three days of absolute chaos, the government diffused the situation by signing an agreement with a non-state actor, an example not so new in Pakistan
The question is whether a simple apology suffices to all these losses or is it high time that the state establishes its writ in a potent and plausible manner.
What is the anger all about? A case of alleged blasphemy whose accused was released on the basis of insufficient evidences? What about other examples of blasphemy that have been manifested throughout this process of shutdown by TLP supporters?
The Prophet (PBUH), whose sanctity these protestors were trying to protect, commanded the following uncompromising rules of war in his lifetime:
“O people! I charge you with ten rules; learn them well… for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery, or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy’s flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone.”
Just as vegetation and animals were assets of our ancestors, our assets in today’s world include our houses, vehicles and workplaces. When the Prophet (PBUH) has forbidden Muslim combats from damaging precious assets then isn’t doing its opposite equal to blasphemy?
When the Prophet (PBUH) has proscribed from harming aged, women and children then isn’t doing against it during these sit-ins by blocking traffic and not letting ambulances carrying patients reach hospitals on time and letting unborn children and ailing elders die on roads equivalent to blasphemy?
When the Prophet (PBUH) has clearly disallowed plundering and exploitation even during a state of war then doesn’t looting the cart of a young fruit vendor amount to blasphemy?
After three days of absolute chaos, the government diffused the situation by signing an agreement with a non-state actor, an example not so new in Pakistan. But the state of affairs continues to be entropic as predictability of when people might have to face a similar situation in the forthcoming future remains to be uncertain.
A simple apology does not and should not be a form of absolution. The notion that the youth who constituted violent mobs all over the country were misguided and should not be punished is as disturbing as the sight of such a huge number of unemployed and unskilled young people taking part in such terrorising protests. If a check is not placed on such occurrences now and the situation is not brought under state’s control today then these very ‘young’ and ‘misguided’ people can cause another shutdown in the future as well. And we will keep asking the same question: Who is to blame?