First of all, my introduction. I have been on Siasat.pk website since 2011. I am a 38-year old Muslim Pakistani currently working and living in Lahore.I did my BS in Electrical Engineering from a famous public-sector University, and my MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from a top US University and was funded through TA-ship and RA-ship. My economic background is middle-class. My religious background is that I am a moderate (neither liberal nor fundamentalist) Muslim who firmly believes in the last prophet-hood of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) and who tries his best to discharge his religious obligations.
I came back to Pakistan partly because of my family-reasons and partly because of my desire to work for my country. Over the past many years, I have been witnessing increasing intolerance in Pakistan. I saw Taliban taking over few parts of the country which Pakistani State took back after many years of intense fighting. During all those years when Pakistani State was fighting with Taliban I was never extremely worried or dejected b/c I knew that Taliban's support-base was limited, both in number and geography. I never became despondent because of rampant corruption b/c I knew that a new party (PTI) was struggling against it and was drawing positive response from public. However, a new phenomenon has arisen ever since Mumtaz Qadri was hanged on account of assassinating ex-Governor, Salman Taseer and this is what has bothered me the most. It is TLP (Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan).
Last year, TLP successfully blocked various parts of the country and made State of Pakistan surrender by forcing two of its ministers to resign. When the then govt asked military to take action against protesters, military refused. This year, they achieved bigger success and Pakistan suffered bigger capitulation. They not only made country stand-still for three days but also gave 'Fatwas' of killing Supreme Court Judges, declared COAS as Qadiani, incited army's ranks-n-files to stage rebellion against its own Chief, and declared Prime Minister of the country as Jew. And guess, after all this, they not only got away with it but also forced Govt to sign another agreement of capitulation. On the other hand we see that many people have been booked in Pakistan under sedition charges. Latest example was of Altaf Hussain of MQM.
I just couldn't understand why the country was blocked in the first place. Highest Court in our country has given a decision (by setting free a christian woman of Blasphemy charges) and we want to set-up our own court and hang that woman. You can disagree with any judgement of any court but you can't disobey the judgement. Blasphemy is not what you think. Blasphemy is what Court decides. This is no argument that when two courts declared her as Blasphemous, then how could the third court declared her non-blasphemous. Supreme Court's decision is not one out of three decisions. It is the only decision that matters. There are numerous examples from the past history of Pakistan when lower courts declared a person guilty and SC freed him/her. There are many examples where lower courts freed a person and SC found him/her guilty. In all these cases, it was the SC decision that mattered, and got implemented.
Another point to worry here is that TLP was supported by all religious parties and all sects of Muslims. Yesterday, I offered Juma prayer in a Deobandi Masjid. The Khateeb was shedding light on Namoos-e-Rasool. At one point, he said that his Bazurgaan (older scholars) have stated that Namoos-e-Risaalat should be protected even if whole Muslim Ummah gets destroyed. He gave no reference of Quraan or Hadith to support this very statement (That way he was justifying the destruction of properties of Pakistanis). This made me shudder. No Muslim can have any doubt on Namoos-e-Risaalat. It is part of his faith. What our scholars should have talked about in Juma was, "what is punishment for those who refuse to accept highest court's decision on any matter including Namoos-e-Risaalat matter?" Isn't it tantamount to sedition (Baghawat)? what is punishment of sedition in Islam? But, alas! no Muslim scholar chose this topic. Everyone wants easy path to Jannah!
I tell you an incident that is much more pertinent to the case-at-hand (i.e. The SC's decision in favor of Asia Bibi) than what our scholars have been saying over the past three days. The incident is about a legal case between Hazrat Ali and a Jew. Hazrat Ali filed a lawsuit against a Jew that his (Ali's) armor was missing and was currently in possession of that particular Jew. Qazi (CJ of that time) asked the Jew if Armor belonged to Hazrat Ali. Jew denied it. Qazi asked Hazrat Ali to bring two witnesses in support of his claim. He brought Hazrat Hassan (his son) and his freed-slave as witnesses. Qazi said that I accept the witness of your freed-slave but not that of your son, so bring second witness. Hazrat Ali said that he didn't have any other witness. Qazi gave verdict in favor of Jew.
Did Sahaaba and Tabaeen take out processions against Qazi that how did he dare give decision against Ameer-ul-Momineen and in favor of a Jew? Did Qazi think that Ali was (Naoozobillah) telling a lie and Jew was speaking a truth? No. No one criticized Qazi. Neither did Hazrat Ali. Qazi gave verdict based on principles and not based on the fact that plaintiff was Ameer-ul-Momineen/Damaad-e-Rasool and defendant was a Jew.
Lastly, I narrate an authentic Hadith about the decisions made by Qazi. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said. "If the judge rules and strives his utmost to work it out and gets it right, he will have two rewards, and if he rules and strives his utmost to work it out and gets it wrong, he will have one reward".(Sahih Al-Bukhari: 7352, Sahih Al-Muslim: 1716).
The present arrangement made by our govt will not last long. Those who have read the detailed verdict of SC can tell you the fate of review petition. SC's original decision will be upheld, TLP will not accept it again, and we will witness the repeat of the last three-days but at bigger scale. You see that TLP didn't agree to write this point in the last-night agreement that all parties will accept the decision of review petition.
Keeping in view all the above, I have started looking out for Post-Doc and other jobs in my field abroad and hope to get some good offer soon. Pakistan has become a den of extremists. Everyone fears them be it Army, Police, Judges, Politicians etc.
