THERE are lines you never cross, even in politics. In Kasur, Fazal ur Rehman crossed one. He said our soldiers die because they get paid to die. Like you can hand a mother a flag with her son’s body and tell her not to cry because the salary will keep coming.
No salary makes a man stand in Siachen at -20°C, his hands frozen to his rifle. No salary makes a 22-year-old captain walk into a house in Waziristan knowing a suicide bomber is waiting inside. What salary did 16-year-old Aitzaz Hasan get when he stopped a bomber outside his school and gave his own life?
This is not about money. It is about ishq for this soil. And you, being an Islamic scholar, forgot what Allah Himself says about these men. “Do not think of those who have been killed in the way of Allah as dead. They are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.” (3:169)
Whom Allah calls alive and feeds in Jannah, you called a salaried employee. Their salary was rizq for their kids in this world. Their shahadat is rizq for them from Allah in the next. How can you put a price on what Allah called priceless? Even in the time of the Prophet (PBUH), mujahideen got a share from Bait-ul-Mal. Hazrat Umar fixed salaries for soldiers. Did that make their blood cheap?
You didn’t hurt the Army. The Army is too big for that. You hurt every widow who still waits for a call that will never come, every kid who wears his father’s uniform on Eid. A soldier’s every step and every bullet are accountable.
Where is the accountability in your system? We respect the sincere madrasa teachers who teach the Quran on an empty stomach, but you never reformed their system, never protected them or their students. When a child is beaten in a madrasa, why are you silent?
From Thar to Kargil, this country stands because of that young boy from Jhelum, Kasur or Larkana, whose name only his mother will remember. You can oppose policies, you can do politics against the government, but you cannot put a price tag on a shaheed’s blood.
And because you are an Alim, a simple apology is not enough. When you insult those whom Allah honored, you have to beg toba from Allah. The nation is asking for that toba—not for the Army, but for the mothers of our martyrs.
Alfaaz o maani mein tafawut nahin lekin, Mullah ki azaan aur, mujahid ki azaan aur
—The writer is former Regional Executive Inclusive Development at NBP, Mirpur AK.
