THE circumstances surrounding retired Capt Mohammed Safdar’s arrest must be thoroughly investigated and the findings made known. For if there is any truth to the version increasingly gaining credence, it indicates that the rule of law in this country is in absolute peril.
The drama unfolded early Monday, just hours after the PDM’s successful rally in Karachi, when the police took Capt Safdar into custody from the hotel where he and PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz were staying, after allegedly breaking open the door to the couple’s room. The arrest came after an FIR was filed against him, Ms Nawaz and 200 of their supporters for violating the sanctity of the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum, damaging government property, etc.
According to the complaint, during their visit to the site, Capt Safdar trespassed into the restricted area surrounding the grave and started raising slogans, thereby violating the law prohibiting political activities at the mausoleum. However, what appears to have transpired behind the scenes is no less than jaw-dropping, notwithstanding Pakistan’s increasingly tenuous link with the norms of democracy.
On Monday, Ms Nawaz’s spokesman and PML-N leader Mohammed Zubair said he was told by the Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah that the Rangers had abducted the Sindh IG and taken him to a sector commander’s office where he was forced to issue arrest orders; the additional AIG was also brought there. Some PDM leaders at a later press conference seconded this account, accusing certain state elements of trying to create rifts within the opposition alliance.
The episode has certainly been a huge embarrassment to the Sindh government. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari denounced the arrest as a “sad and shameful act” and some PPP leaders such as Saeed Ghani tweeted that the provincial government had nothing to do with it. The Sindh chief minister in a press conference yesterday attempted to shed some light on the episode, but only succeeded in muddying the picture even further. While correctly describing Capt Safdar’s actions at the Quaid’s mausoleum as “inappropriate”, Mr Shah said the police acted “in accordance with the law”, but he neither refuted Mr Zubair’s version nor alluded to it.
What followed immediately after, however, leaves little doubt as to what took place on Monday morning and the ripple effects it has had. Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s press conference appeared to confirm that thuggish tactics that are the hallmark of despotic regimes were indeed resorted to. How else can one interpret the fact that the house of the province’s top cop was laid siege to at 2am, a few hours before Capt Safdar’s arrest?
Several senior policemen in Sindh applied for leave on the grounds that their high command had been “ridiculed” in the matter and the entire force left “demoralised and shocked”. Although the officers later sought a deferment of their leave, Sindh’s main law-enforcement agencies are in an ugly face-off, with things moving in an alarming direction.
More infections
FEARS regarding a spike in Covid-19 cases across the country are escalating, with senior government officials and the prime minister himself warning of a crippling second wave if precautions are not taken. Federal minister and chair of the NCOC Asad Umar said the daily Covid-19 mortality rate last week climbed to 12 — a 140pc increase as compared to earlier. In a stark warning, he said that if people continued to violate SOPs “we will lose both lives and livelihoods”. Furthermore, a press release issued by the NCOC said two days in the last week have seen daily deaths at 16 and 14 — grim figures which suggest that the virus is spreading. The prime minister, too, expressed fears that Covid-19 infections can climb in the winter months as smog levels increase and respiratory illnesses are triggered.
The situation is indeed worrying, yet if one were to venture outdoors to any public space, the lax attitude of the public as well as politicians and some members of government would appear shocking to say the least. Not only are the basic protocols of mask-wearing, distancing and sanitising being ignored, public gatherings are in full swing. Wedding functions, political rallies, conferences and government-held events are taking place as if the coronavirus pandemic is a thing of the past. This behaviour is appalling, especially given how serious the authorities were earlier and how successfully they prevented an all-out disaster in the summer months. This casual approach to Covid-19 simply cannot continue. Neither is it enough that the government is issuing warnings, and pleading with people to adhere to the SOPs. The human rights minister observed that people have stopped wearing masks in all public places and correctly framed this attitude as “an act of extreme selfishness” as it endangers others as well as the careless individual. However, going by the rising infections, such condemnations and Twitter reprimands are not having the desired effect. Daily testing at a maximum of about 30,000 is not enough for a population of 200m. Testing must be increased and made accessible. The messaging from the government, too, must be re-energised, for it appears that the risk of contracting Covid-19 is largely absent from the public imagination. The government should focus on Covid-19 prevention as a priority, and build on the strengths which helped lower infections in the first round, lest it sleepwalk into a disaster which will have a disastrous impact on the health of citizens, the healthcare sector and the economy.
Forced conversions
THE findings of a parliamentary committee on forced religious conversions adds an interesting aspect to the discourse around the controversial issue. The committee appears to have done a relatively thorough job of unfolding the layers of how and why forced conversions take place, but some findings tend to oversimplify the social, economic and religious persecution faced by minority communities in the country. To investigate the matter, the committee members travelled to Sukkur and Mirpur Mathelo where they held public meetings with around 1,000 families, and also met stakeholders in Karachi. The committee members, who include an MNA and an activist from the Hindu community, categorically said that the government had failed in its responsibility to shield minority communities from forced conversion. Though they denounced all manner of religious conversion under social or economic duress, they stopped short of calling these conversions forced. Instead, they described it as exploitation, calling them “procedural forced conversions” — conversion as an effect of the social, administrative and economic marginalisation of the Hindu community in Sindh. Citing the reason for not calling these conversions forced, Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar, who heads the committee, said the review of cases did not reveal any incident of illegal confinement of Hindu girls who testified in court.
Though the committee rightly identified social and economic marginalisation as the reason why some girls willingly convert, to put all incidents of forced conversions under this category is unfair and insensitive. Considering that a large number of girls involved are under the legal age of marriage, their ‘willingness’ — coerced or otherwise — should not be the determining factor where conversions are concerned. Meanwhile, there should be shelters for young women from minority communities who have reached the legal age of marriage and who want to tie the knot outside their faith. The findings should be considered a rough draft for further investigation into a sensitive matter that has the potential to split communities and make girls vulnerable to pressures.
