Aijaz Zaka Syed in his column “Under siege in Pakistan” has touched upon the issue, which I have been pondering for a long time. In fact, he has silenced his critics who questioned him time and again over his concern or what they called his obsessiveness about the status and treatment of minorities in India.

I have always found him to be very balanced in his approach while raising the real issues faced by the people on both sides of the border. Now, he has highlighted the woes of the minorities in Pakistan.

Books can be written on the wisdom of dividing the country on religious grounds. One should not forget the thousands of lost lives, pain and suffering of millions of people due to partition.

As far as Pakistan is concerned, unfortunately, it did not serve fully well any community, not even the majority. The history is replete with bloodshed on one count or the other. Not only the people who migrated from India could become full part of the mainstream, but also many communities who lived in the land could accommodate themselves properly.

During this entire period, either the capitalist forces ruled the country or it was in the hands of the military. While the former was always engaged in amassing wealth and encouraged feudalism and allowed corruption to flourish, the latter tried to rule the country with an iron fist and kept pacifying the extremist elements within and outside the government.

In short, true democracy and rule of law never took roots. The judiciary was hardly allowed to function independently and we have seen how it has always toed the line with the political and military bosses. The case of Iftikhar Chaudhry is a glaring example.

Now, we see Nawaz Sharif trying to settle score with Pervez Musharraf. I was even amazed to see the interference of the prime minister in the affairs of cricket governing body that has recently sacked its chief Zaka Ashraf.

While India declared itself to be a secular republic, Pakistan chose to call itself an Islamic State and probably that nomenclature made a great difference when it came to practicing secularism. As the writer has asserted, Mohammed Ali Jinnah had envisioned a modern model Muslim state where the rights of all communities were equal and the state would guarantee full protection to minorities to practice their religion freely and without any fear. One could easily attribute the occasional persecution of minorities to the rise of extremist forces who are intolerant toward other religions and sects.

Aijaz has rightly concluded that the security and well being of the weakest and vulnerable groups is essential to build a peaceful and stable society.

Safi H. Jannaty

Dammam