Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Time to reflect, before it is too late
The events of recent 72 hours, when citizens were left at the mercy of baton carrying, stone throwing zealots, brainwashed by TLP to believe that they were waging Jihad. Two policemen were mercilessly beaten to death.
This should be enough to awaken those in deep slumber, involved in petty political games, exploiting religion.
Quaid-e-Azam realized the diversity in terms of faith, ethnicity, etc of citizens and he elaborated this in his 11 August 1947 address to the First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
Quaid expected the Muslim majority to emulate the Islamic concept of justice and equality before law of all citizens, irrespective of their caste, creed, sex etc.
On 22 March 1947 MAJ quoted a letter written by a Hindu nationalist Lajpat Rai in 1924 to Bengals CR Das, where he stated that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations who cannot live as one nation.
It was precisely for this reason that a Hindu Dalit leader Jaganath Mandal and his party made common cause with Muslim League in favour of Pakistan to escape exploitation by Hindu supremacist mindset.
Today Modi has proven this if any proof was needed.
Unfortunately, after Quaid’s death, those who took over, lacked both commitment and intellect and they wavered from his vision.
The nobility of the Holy Prophet is ordained by Almighty Allah SWT and over 1.6 Billion Muslims who follow him are willing to sacrifice their lives.
It cannot be so fragile to be weakened by irresponsible acts of a cartoonist. Over the past few decades, men of average intellect assumed power and they wanted to stage manage, choice of political leaders.
They exploited religion to wage a proxy war in Afghanistan, and created many groups like MQM, TLP etc.
Enough damage has been inflicted on our economy. It is time to follow MAJ’s vision and let the will of people prevail.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
Osama Satti case
The biggest pain in this world for parents is the death of their child. One can imagine the intensity of the love of parents for their children from the incident when Holy Prophet PBUH, who was the most patient personality in the world, wept at the death of his son, Hazrat Ibrahim.
It’s even more painful when one’s child is killed by their protectors.
The case in point is the Osama Satti murder case, which was murdered by the security forces in G-11 Islamabad, which was the second such tragic example after the Sahiwal case.
Recently, SC removed the terrorism charges from police officials, who were involved in the murder of an unarmed young boy, which increased the grief of Satti’s instead of healing their wounds by punishing the perpetrators.
ARBAB AHMAD
Kot Fateh Khan
Travelling
on roof top
Where government has imposed restrictions to curb the spread of aggressive third wave of coronavirus across the country allowing inter-provincial travelling by roads over the weekends only; Saturday and Sunday excluding goods, freight, medical and other emergency services while Sindh government has a proponent of banning inter-provincial transport for the whole two weeks.
Well, it is appreciated that government is taking pre-emptive measures to save people being affected by the third wave but it is surprising to see that people of metropolis travel on roof top of the mini buses on roads of Karachi during peak hours to reach their working place and back home owing to shortage of public transport but it never means to endanger their lives by travelling in this fashion.
Are there no traffic police personnel to stop them and impede them to travel in that way endangering their lives not only from contracting corona virus as social distancing cannot be possible in overloaded mini-buses but also, they could meet any horrible accident as the mini- buses are filled with commuters much more than the loading capacity and there are chances of over-turn the mini-buses on uneven roads.
Authorities concerned are requested to please look into this matter and do not allow drivers to overload their vehicles and on violation register a challan immediately so that other drivers abstain from overloading.
FAISAL ANSAR
Karachi
CPEC
CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) at the moment is one of the most significant topics under discussion.
The CPEC is rightly a game changer for the region, specially Pakistan. There was a time when people did not even know where Gwadar was located. At the time, game-changers knew its importance.
They believed that the time would come when it will become the hub of the international market. Since then, it was tried by many but China succeeded to have the right to it.
Since CPEC was announced, the time has started changing. Gwadar witnesses a transformation. Development is at its peak. Infrastructure is being upgraded and improved.
It is generally believed that Gwadar is going to change the life of everyone attached to it. Its increasing and incredible opportunities are seen as a great hope for the people in the surroundings.
Their status is subjected to improve soon once it is all grown up to functionality. It is suggested to the authorities concerned that the concerns of local people must be addressed.
They should be given confidence that all these belong to them solely. Awareness campaigns should be launched for them. In fact, there should be something real which can lead them to believe.
If local are happy, all Pakistanis would feel happiness. There must not be any reflection of inequality. It is the right of locals first.
There is a great hope that CPEC would play a part in revolutionizing the life of underprivileged people.
It had put in efforts to make us seen state of art infrastructures in the form of motorways, power stations and urban railways.
So, it is no wonder to hope that it would do much more to change the life of people there. Long live Pakistan-China Friendship!
ABDULLAH NADEEM
Islamabad
Religious extremism
A Punjab Police constable M Afzal, neither a French citizen nor a close acquaintance of French Ambassador, got brutally killed by the people who entitle themselves as staunch lovers of the Last Prophet (SAW).
He was a Muslim but beaten to death by his own Muslim brothers.
He had no power to send back French Ambassador home nor he had money to pay back France $18 billion.
His biggest mistake was to serve his duty diligently and save public properties from the extremists wandering in the city in the name of the Last Prophet’s Namoos.
They cannot justify these brutal attacks, damaging public properties and impede public comfort in the name of the Last Prophet. It’s religious barbarism and hooliganism.
KASHAN KHAN
Islamabad
