PML-N LEADER and former speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has triggered a controversy by stating on the floor of the National Assembly that the PTI government had released captured Indian pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan under pressure of an Indian attack. He said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said this in a meeting of parliamentary leaders in the wake of Pakistan’s shooting down of the Indian aircraft. The statement has created a furore as a result of which the DG ISPR has had to deliver a televised statement denying the former speaker’s claim. The military spokesman made it clear Pakistan had achieved victory over India in this post-Balakot conflict and had released the captured pilot as an illustration of its mature strategic restraint. The spokesman said this gesture by Pakistan was appreciated at the international level.
There is no doubt that the statement by the PML-N leader is irresponsible and it would have been far better had he not made it. One expects someone of his experience and political profile to have weighed the potential consequences of his words before uttering them in public. These words are now being exploited by India to dilute the impact of Pakistan’s comprehensive domination of last year’s conflict. It also does not behove a senior politician like him to violate the confidentiality of high-level meetings. It is unlikely that the government would have released the Indian prisoner under any pressure. That said, there is no harm in having a public debate about whether this was the right step to take at this moment. A case could be built that Pakistan should have held on to the prisoner for some time. Indulging in such a debate does no harm.
Meanwhile, the government’s reaction to Ayaz Sadiq’s statement is troubling. It is understandable for politicians to exploit their rivals’ mistake, but what cannot be condoned is questioning their patriotic credentials. Yet this is what the PTI government is doing consistently. The federal information minister has gone to the extreme of equating the opposition with an ‘axis of evil’ including India and Israel. In line with this unfortunate strategy, posters have appeared in the streets of Lahore accusing Ayaz Sadiq of treason. The government must have them removed forthwith because such crude tactics amount to an incitement to violence. In fact, in recent months the political discourse has degenerated to a dangerously volatile level. Hurling charges of treason against one’s political rivals and smearing them with pro-India labels is wrong at every level. It demeans politics and its practitioners and it opens up deep fault lines that can rupture the system from the inside. It is sad to see that politicians have not learnt lessons from their mistakes of the past and continue to treat politics as a zero-sum game.
Dangerous path
ONCE more the fires of Islamophobia have been lit, setting off an ugly series of events that have put the Muslim and Western worlds on a collision course. This time again the trigger was blasphemous images of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), published in France. Following the republication and display of these in a French classroom by a teacher, the educator was murdered while three people were killed in a separate attack on a Nice church.
Unfortunately, French President Macron’s combative rhetoric in the aftermath of the controversy has not helped matters. Instead of addressing the issue in a statesmanlike fashion, Mr Macron has held forth in a neocolonial fashion about the ‘crisis’ Islam faces.
This has led to certain questionable reactions from some in the Muslim world; former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in a blog post wrote that Muslims had a right to be “angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past”. Such a response from a senior statesman is bound to raise eyebrows. Our own prime minister’s response to the growing crisis has been mature; Imran Khan has called for unity among the Muslim world to “collectively counter Islamophobia in non-Muslim states”.
Indeed, among non-Muslim leaders Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given a very balanced reaction to the ballooning crisis. Observing that while he defended freedom of expression, it is “not without limits” and should not “arbitrarily and needlessly hurt” certain communities. Certainly, Emmanuel Macron can learn a thing or two about how to compassionately handle delicate matters from Mr Trudeau.
The fact is that efforts are needed on both sides — within the Islamic world and in the West — to prevent an increase in divisive rhetoric and extremism. Some in the West have unfortunately taken it upon themselves to consistently attack Islam’s most sacred personality under the cover of freedom of expression. Those who support this ignore the ugly history of orientalism and later colonialism, under which Islam’s sacred symbols were constantly attacked. It seems under the guise of so-called secularism the old tribal, religious hatreds live on. And while murder cannot be condoned, if such provocations continue, extremists will continue to find willing recruits to carry out acts of violence.
If questioning a historical event such as the Holocaust can be outlawed by keepers of the West’s morality, then surely measures can be taken to prevent public attacks on the faith of over a billion people.
Saleem Asmi
SALEEM Asmi, a former Dawn editor, died late Friday night after a long and courageous struggle against infirmity and pneumonia. He had been wheelchair-bound for a long time but continued to keep his chin up and carry out his social commitments. An experienced journalist who began his career as a young reporter at the Pakistan Times, Lahore, Asmi served in other newspapers also, including the prestigious Dubai daily Khaleej Times, where he was news editor, and finally in Dawn where he was editor from 2000 to 2003. At Dawn he oversaw the launching of three colour magazines — covering science, art (he was an avid art collector with a discerning eye) and book reviews. He also detached the city pages from the main edition and turned them into separate forms. His colleagues were unanimous in their opinion about his qualities as a team leader and his ability to take quick decisions in situations that journalists the world over face as the deadline nears and stories crash into newsrooms to compete for page-one space.
As KT news editor, he overshadowed the editor by his brilliance at page makeup, his succinct headlines capturing the essence of the story and news management. He kept his reporters on their toes and the desk staff on the alert when he learnt from his sources about some news that was going to break. Since Asmi had begun his career as a reporter, he knew a reporter’s strengths and weaknesses. Firm but polite, he had the ability to inspire his colleagues by making broad decisions and soothing runaway nerves. Yet he was a disciplinarian and never failed to come down hard on the recalcitrant. Never afraid of pressures from state and non-state actors, Asmi showed courage in the display of news. It was also his commitment to press freedom that took him to prison during the strike organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists when a military government was in power. May he rest in peace.
