Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court has ordered the police to register a case against former President Pervez Musharraf for the Lal Masjid operation. The case will be registered on the complaint of the son of a former cleric of the mosque, Abdur Rasheed, who was killed during a military operation in the mosque in 2007. The court order should not be surprising for anyone. This is the typical militant-leaning mindset which is becoming commonplace.
On July 12, when the world’s leading news channels were telecasting live coverage of Malala Yusufzai’s speech at the UN, Pakistani channels were busy showing cooking and sports competitions. While concluding its hour-long special transmission, BBC mentioned about the messages it received on her speech — regrettably most of the messages from Pakistan were negative accusing her of being a Western agent; some even condemned her for mentioning Buddha, Martin Luther King Jr. and other towering personalities who fought for freedom from oppression. This is today’s new Pakistan wherein the lawyers who once pleaded Lal Masjid case in the courts have now become judges in the superior courts. What else can we expect from them? In today’s Pakistan everyone is worried how Americans violated their sovereignty on May 2 by flying over Pakistani territory to reach Abbottabad to kill Osama Bin Laden and went back without facing any challenge from the ground or the air. Sure, that’s an issue to worry about but far greater is the issue of Osama’s 9-year-long stay in Pakistan. No one questions how he remained out of intelligence’s watchful eyes for so long. The Islamabad court is very instrumental in registering a case against Musharraf, but what about case against those Taleban who shot Malala, the file of which is now being closed.
No state can allow armed rebellion. Occupants of Lal Masjid were given repeated ultimatums to vacate the mosque and seminary premises; hundreds of students and teachers, including chief cleric Abdul Aziz, left before the start of the operation. Action was carried out against those extremists who ignored the ultimatum and preferred to fight back. Ten commandos from the Pakistan Army’ Special Service Group (SSG) were also martyred during the operation against terrorists. Will IHC order registering a case against Lal Masjid chief cleric, Abdul Aziz, for the murder of these 10 SSG commandos? — Masood Khan, Jubail
Mindset issue
