Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Pakistan’s first Nobel winner was shunned for being Ahmadi. A documentary brings him back
Dr Abdus Salam won the 1979 Nobel Prize for physics. But in his home country Pakistan, he is all but forgotten because of his religious affiliation.
Exactly 22 years ago, on 21 November 1996, one of Pakistan’s greatest scientists passed away, largely unsung.
It hardly seemed to matter to his countrymen that he was the first Pakistani, and only the second Muslim after Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, to be awarded a Nobel Prize. What seemed to matter more was the fact that he was an Ahmadi, and thus, not a ‘Muslim’ according to Pakistani law.
Then, at the beginning of 2018, came a documentary, which begins with the shot of a tomb in Rabwah, home of the Ahmadiyya community. The camera zooms in to identify it as the resting place of Prof. Muhammad Abdus Salam, who in 1979 became the first ______ Nobel Laureate for his work in physics. The blank is created by the word ‘Muslim’ being painted over.
The documentary, titled Salam: The First Muslim Nobel Laureate, has been produced after 14 years of arduous research. While the producers, Omar Vandal and Zakir Thaver, are from Pakistan, the director is New York-based Indian-origin documentary filmmaker Anand Kamalakar.
The film captures Salam’s life, death and disappearance from public memory, and attempts to reintroduce him to the modern audience. None other than former army chief, president of Pakistan and the architect of the Kargil invasion, Pervez Musharraf, has donated money for making the film, along with 378 others.
In an email interview, Kamalakar told ThePrint that he was inspired to join this project in 2015 because Salam was a curious mix of ‘man of science’ and ‘man of religion’.
“I wanted to investigate this contradiction, where on one hand he is working at the highest levels of science, by default trying to make the idea of god obsolete, but at the same time is deeply religious and steadfast in his beliefs,” Kamalakar said.
Tragically, there seems to be no direct way for Salam’s own countrymen to learn about his achievements. It is risky to publicly exhibit the film in Pakistan in the current climate, as many extremist Muslims believe that Ahmadis violate the fundamental prescription of Islam: The uncompromising belief in the finality of the Prophet Mohammad. In recent years, violence against the Ahmadi community has grown significantly and several have even been killed for holding on to their faith.
Who was Salam?
Salam was born on 29 January 1926 in Jhang, undivided Punjab, to parents who were part of the Ahmadiyya movement.
A child prodigy, he topped Panjab University’s matriculation examination at the age of 14. He was greatly inspired by Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, and based his final year undergraduate thesis on the latter’s work.
Salam’s brilliance earned him laurels at the University of Cambridge, including the prestigious Smith’s Prize. In 1949, he completed his doctoral studies from Cambridge in electrodynamics, only to return in 1954 as professor.
He went on to leave an indelible impact on the scientific infrastructure of Pakistan, helping set up some of its most prominent scientific institutions, such as the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission and the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant.
Salam’s stint as scientific adviser to the President of Pakistan from 1961 to 1974 was an elaborate effort to help restructure the country’s scientific landscape and encourage people to purse their careers and life goals in the field of science. However, in 1974, prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto led the Pakistani parliament to pass a bill declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslims, leading Salam to first oppose the law and then leave the country.
At the international level, Salam’s gift to science was his proposal to form the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, which he wanted to dedicate to researchers from developing countries. It was ultimately set up in Trieste, Italy, in 1964, facilitating research in “physical and mathematical sciences”. The ICTP was renamed the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in 1997 in his honour.
His greatest achievement, though, was the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics, which he shared with Harvard physicists Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow. The prize was awarded “for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current”, as per the Nobel Prize Foundation website. Only one other Pakistani has been awarded a Nobel Prize since — Malala Yousafzai in 2014.
Salam worked and collaborated with several scientists, not limited to Americans or Britons. In collaboration with Indian-American physicist Jogesh Pati, Salam postulated a model which was an integral part of the grand unification theories — an attempt to explain the universe by looking at different forces of nature.
Salam died of a rare disease called progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder that causes serious balance related problems.
A tale of two documentaries
Salam: The First Muslim Nobel Laureate has bagged awards at the Chicago, Washington and Seattle South Asian Film Festivals, and has been screened at several international festivals, including India’s Mumbai International Film Festival. It will be next screened in December at New York’s South Asian International Film Festival.
Kamalakar told ThePrint that the producers were “aspiring scientists” who “had always had to look to the West to be inspired, in spite of having an accomplished person who was born in their own nation. So they decided to make a film about him to spread his story and inspire the generations to come”.
“I am of Indian origin and the producers are Pakistani. We were all inspired by the story and legacy of Abdus Salam. Salam in turn was inspired by the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan to pursue a career in Mathematics and Physics. The camaraderie we as filmmakers developed during the process of making this film showed how similar we are in so many ways and share some of the same issues. We sincerely hope that this poses as an example for all to work towards a better relationship between the peoples of the two nations, in intellectual spheres and others,” Kamalakar told ThePrint.
This is actually the second major attempt to document Salam’s life, the first having been in 1996 by Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistan’s noted nuclear physicist and a former student and admirer of Salam.
Hoodbhoy’s documentary, though, was drastically altered by a producer with the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV). Hoodbhoy told ThePrint in an email interview that the producer, an “Ahmadi-hater”, had deleted all the materials gathered over the course of a full year, and labelled it “plain sabotage”.
The altered documentary was aired a day after Salam’s death.
Asked why he had called Salam a “tragic figure” in the documentary, Hoodbhoy said, “Abdus Salam loved Pakistan. It badly mistreated him but he chose to blame it on a clique of mullahs and fanatics rather than the whole country. His greater disappointment was that he proved powerless in bringing science to Islam. Like the tragic figure Sisyphus who kept pushing a boulder up the hill only to have it roll back again and again, he kept trying and trying. It broke his heart that Muslim governments would not listen to him.”
How Pakistan treated Salam after 1974
Pakistan did award Salam its highest civilian honour, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1979. Journalist and public intellectual Tariq Ali in his 2018 documentary, however, pointed out that military ruler Zia-ul-Haq could have done this mainly for “opportunism”, which “gave him a liberal image in the West”.
The documentary is a reminder that Salam’s achievements are largely unknown to his own compatriots. His name has been virtually erased from school and college curriculums and students at his own alma mater, Lahore’s Government College, admit they don’t know much about the scale of his accomplishments.
Pakistan rejected the proposal to name him UNESCO’s director general, the proposal to name Quaid-i-Azam University’s physics department after him was opposed and although his funeral was attended by many of his devout supporters and well-wishers, no official from the government came to offer condolences.
When Salam quit as scientific adviser to the president of Pakistan in 1974, he made an entry in his diary that read: “Declared non-Muslim, cannot cope.”
His countrymen have proven his pessimism was justified.
U.S. making little progress in #Afghanistan as Taliban,ISIS remain active:Assessment
By Rahul Kalvapalle
The situation in Afghanistan stagnated and may even have deteriorated during the second half of 2018, despite U.S. military leaders and diplomats insisting that progress is being made.
That’s the assessment not of some international critics of the U.S., but of watchdog offices from the Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In its quarterly report of the U.S.-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s independent inspector general said few gains were made between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2018 despite the U.S. increasing strikes against the Taliban, expanding training for Afghan forces and pressuring Pakistan to act against terrorist safe havens.
“In public statements, diplomatic and military leaders emphasized that progress towards the goals of the South Asia strategy is being made,” the report stated. “However, available measures of security in Afghanistan, including total security incidents, population control, and civilian casualties, showed little change.”
Civilian casualties and casualties among Afghan security forces were higher than they were during the same time last year, the report pointed out.
Furthermore, ISIS-K — the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province branch, active in Afghanistan and Pakistan — has continued to mount deadly attacks.
These findings contrast with assertions by some U.S. officials that President Donald Trump’s Afghan war strategy — which was announced more than a year ago — is working.
On the other hand, the findings are in line with comments made last weekend by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said the battle against the Taliban is still in a stalemate.
The Taliban “are not losing” in Afghanistan, Gen. Dunford, the top U.S. military officer, told a security forum last week.
“We used the term stalemate a year ago and, relatively speaking, it has not changed much,” he said.
On Monday, the Taliban said that a three-day meeting with the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan had ended without an agreement for a peace deal.
Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad declared a deadline of April 2019 to end the 17-year-long war, but Taliban leaders said they hadn’t accepted any deadline.
A senior member of the Taliban said Khalilzad’s move to declare a deadline showed that the U.S. was desperate to withdraw troops from the country.
The Taliban have strengthened their grip over the past three years, with the government in Kabul controlling just 56 per cent of Afghanistan, down from 72 per cent in 2015, a U.S. government report showed this month.
The Pentagon inspector general’s report pointed out that only 65 per cent of the Afghan population lived in government-controlled and government-influenced areas, “a figure that has not changed in the past year.”
Indeed, the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan in 2018 is on track to rank among the highest since 2001.
Over 36 people were killed in various attacks last month as Afghans went to the polls for the country’s first parliamentary elections in eight years.
ISIS-K claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that left four people dead last week. A few days later, Taliban insurgents slaughtered at least 30 Afghan forces.
Meanwhile, the U.S., which has some 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, continues to seek an exit strategy.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4678439/afghanistan-taliban-assessment-pentagon/
In Afghanistan, a 17-Year Stalemate
BY LARA SELIGMAN, ROBBIE GRAMER
America’s top general admits the war is at an impasse.
Another devastating suicide attack in Kabul on Tuesday and an independent report on the situation in Afghanistan serve to underscore what is now a growing consensus in Washington: that the United States is making no progress toward ending the 17-year-old war there.
More than 50 people were killed and at least 80 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a wedding hall in the Afghan capital, according to reports. This comes as a blow to the Trump administration’s strategy in Afghanistan, as American military officials had made defending major urban centers such as Kabul from the Taliban a linchpin of the effort.
Just days before the bombing, America’s top general admitted the war is at an impasse. The Taliban is “not losing right now, I think that is fair to say,” Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the Halifax International Security Forum on Nov. 17.
“We used the term stalemate a year ago, and, relatively speaking, it has not changed much.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General on Nov. 19 released a gloomy report on the fight in Afghanistan for the second quarter in a row, citing little progress toward reconciliation. Operations in the country drew particular scrutiny over the past month after a high-profile Taliban attack in the southern province of Kandahar killedan influential Afghan police general and the local intelligence chief, narrowly missing U.S. Gen. Scott Miller, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
In the midst of increasing violence, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, reportedly held three days of talks with the Taliban in Qatar over the weekend. At a news conference in Kabul on Sunday, Khalilzad struck a decidedly more optimistic tone than his military counterparts on peace efforts—though he did not mention the talks in Qatar.
“I think there is an opportunity for reconciliation and peace,” Khalilzad said. “The Taliban are saying they do not believe they can succeed militarily, that they would like to see the problems that remain, resolved by peaceful means, by political negotiations.”
But the peace talks have sputtered and stalled in the past. While military leaders over the summer lauded a brief cease-fire between the Afghan government and the Taliban over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in June, the Taliban did not reply to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s offer to implement a second cease-fire. Instead, the Taliban focused on disrupting preparations for the October parliamentary elections, according to the Inspector General report.
James Dobbins, a former senior U.S. diplomat who served as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2013 to 2014, said there has been little progress in the past decade on bringing peace to Afghanistan. “Particularly for the last decade, we face a basic dilemma, which is that the best we can do is sustain the status quo—and that’s not a very satisfactory goal,” he said.
Meanwhile, the picture on the ground is increasingly dismal. For the past year diplomatic and military leaders have insisted that they are making headway toward the goals of the South Asia strategy, which in addition to defending population centers also includes airstrikes on Taliban narcotics labs and other revenue sources. The end goal is to pressure the Taliban into engaging in peace talks. In July, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said“the president’s strategy is indeed working,” and Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. Central Command, later expressed cautious optimism. Speaking to reporters in August, outgoing commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Gen. John Nicholson also said he believed the strategy is working.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/20/in-afghanistan-a-17-year-stalemate-us-war-pentagon/
Another blow for Imran Khan's Pakistan! US suspends $1.6 billion security aid
The Pentagon's statement came days after President Trump said that Pakistan does not do "a damn thing" for the US, alleging that its government had helped al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city of Abbottabad.
The US has suspended $1.66 billion in security assistance to Pakistan after President Donald Trump's directive, the Pentagon has said, in what experts believe is a strong signal of American frustration. The Pentagon's statement came days after President Trump said that Pakistan does not do "a damn thing" for the US, alleging that its government had helped al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city of Abbottabad.
"$1.66 billion of security assistance to Pakistan is suspended," Col Rob Manning, spokesman of the Department of Defence, told reporters in an e-mail response to questions on Tuesday. No further breakdown of the suspended security assistance to Pakistan was provided.
According to David Sedney, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary Defence for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia during the previous Obama administration, the blocking of military assistance to Pakistan, which began in January this year, is a strong signal of American frustration. "But, so far Pakistan has taken no serious steps to address the core US concern - that Pakistan tolerates and often encourages groups which use violence against Pakistan's neighbours," Sedney told PTI.
"Pakistan's leaders have promised cooperation, but beyond words, serious cooperation has not happened, therefore President Trump is frustrated and so are most Americans," he said in response to a question.
"This frustration does not ignore the suffering that Pakistani people have undergone. It just asks Pakistan to recognise that it should act to help stop the suffering of others," said the Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.
Previously, Sedney was at the Department of State and the National Security Council, as well as Acting President of American University of Afghanistan. He was part of the Pentagon when Laden was killed in a raid by US commandoes in Pakistan's Abbottabad. Over the last few days, Trump has said that people in Pakistan knew about the presence of Laden.
"I agree with the views of Carlotta Gall of the New York Times who reported in her book 'The Wrong Enemy' that a very small group of very senior Pakistani military leaders knew about Laden's presence in Pakistan. I have not seen any evidence that his presence in Abbottabad was widely known by many in Pakistan," Sedney told PTI in an interview.
While Pakistan has suffered terribly from terrorism by Islamic extremists, Islamabad has also enabled extremist groups that attack its neighbours, he observed. After years of dithering, in recent years, Pakistan's security forces have moved strongly against the extremists that threaten the Pakistani state, Sedney said.
"What the US seeks, what President Trump is asking for, is for Pakistan to take the same kind of measures against the Taliban, Lashkhar-e-Taiba and against all groups in Pakistan that threaten Pakistan's neighbours," he said.
"But, we still see the Taliban moving weapons, fighters and money through Pakistan. We still see Taliban commanders taking refuge in Pakistan, keeping their families in Pakistan, holding meetings and conducting training in Pakistan and shipping explosives from Pakistan into Afghanistan," Sedney alleged, adding that leaders of sanctioned organisations acting freely in Pakistan and speaking publicly in favour of violence.
If Pakistan took some strong measures against the Taliban, peace would come to Afghanistan quickly, he said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has roped in former top American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad for peace talks with the Taliban. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan would benefit from a huge "peace dividend", he asserted.
"Similarly, if Pakistan took strong measures against groups which act against India, Pakistan would harvest huge economic benefits from better economic ties with India," Sedney added.
Ties between the US and Pakistan strained after Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August last year, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.
In September, the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups like the Haqqani Network and the Taliban active on its soil.
Asia Bibi family being hunted 'house to house' in Pakistan
Harriet Sherwood
The family of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy before being acquitted three weeks ago, claim they are being hunted by extremists going house to house with their photographs to try to track them down.
Bibi’s family have been in hiding since her acquittal by the country’s supreme court. She is in protective custody as part of a deal between the government and a hardline Islamic party, under which violent protests were called off while a review of the court ruling was undertaken.
Bibi’s lawyer, relatives and supporters have appealed for the family to be given asylum in a European or north American country. Several countries have indicated their willingness to offer a home, but nothing concrete has emerged.
John Pontifex, of Aid to the Church in Need UK (ACN), which has campaigned on Bibi’s behalf since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010, said he had been in almost daily contact with her family over the past three weeks and they were very frightened.
“They have told me that mullahs had been reported in their neighbourhood going from house to house showing photos of family members on their phones, trying to hunt them down,” he told the Guardian.
“The family have had to move from place to place to avoid detection. Sometimes they can only operate after sundown. They have had to cover their faces when they go out in public. They have had to remove the rosary that hangs from their car rear-view mirror for fear of attack.”
Pontifex said the family’s faith was “sustaining them in this time of acute danger”. He added: “They say that if they are not allowed to find a future outside Pakistan, the fear is that sooner or later something terrible might happen to them.”
Bibi’s lawyer, who fled Pakistan shortly after the court ruling saying his life was in danger, said this week that talks on asylum were under way with several European countries. “I hope the western world is trying to help her,” Saiful Malook told reporters in Frankfurt.
Canada, Spain and France are thought to have offered asylum to Bibi. Germany and Italy have reportedly held talks with Pakistan on the issue.
The UK government has declined to answer questions about whether it is considering an offer of asylum, saying it does not want to further endanger Bibi and her family.
The former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and many other MPs and peers have called for the UK government to act. Some reports have suggested that the government fears a backlash among British Muslims of Pakistani heritage if it offers Bibi asylum.
On Tuesday, Sayeeda Warsi told the House of Lords: “There have been press reports that Asia Bibi, if granted asylum in the United Kingdom, would potentially not be safe from some communities here … As someone who is deeply connected to British Muslim communities, I assure her that they are fully supportive of any asylum claim that Asia Bibi may have and that our country may afford her, and that she would be supported as she would be by all other communities in this country.”
The Muslim Council of Britain said in a tweet: “There are unfounded media reports that Pakistani national Asia Bibi is being denied asylum into the UK because of concerns from British Muslims. We find such insinuations to be as nonsensical as they are divisive. We see no reason why Asia Bibi should be denied asylum into the UK.”
After Bibi’s acquittal, Islamic hardliners called for her and the judges in the case to be killed, and they mounted protests that brought cities to a standstill. Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has been accused of capitulating to their demands.
Bibi, a farm labourer, was accused by Muslim villagers of insulting the prophet Muhammad in a row over a cup of water. The supreme court judgment said there was no evidence to support the charge.
پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کی شہید شاہنواز بھٹو کی 60 ویں سالگراہ کے موقعے پر انہیں شاندار الفاظ میں خراج عقیدت
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/11/20/%D9%BE%D8%A7%DA%A9%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D9%BE%D9%84%D8%B2-%D9%BE%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%B9%DB%8C-%DA%86%DB%8C%D8%A6%D8%B1%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%A8%DA%BE%D9%B9-2/
آصف زرداری کی گرفتاری؟
محمد سعید اظہر
؍ جولائی 1977کی سیاہ ترین رات کا کسی نہ کسی شکل میں تسلسل جاری ہے۔ جب وقت کے غاصب ڈکٹیٹر جنرل ضیاء الحق نے عوام کے منتخب اور محبوب لیڈر ذوالفقار علی بھٹو کو معزول کر کے بزور طاقت اقتدار پر قبضہ کر لیا۔ جس پر ’’الزام‘‘ تھا کہ اس نے محروم اور افلاس زدہ طبقات کو ان کے بنیادی حقوق دیئے، عوامی سیاست کو فروغ دیا، نوجوانوں، دانشوروں، غریب کسانوں اور استحصال زدہ مزدوروں کو متحد کیا۔ ان جیسے ان گنت ’’عوامی جرائم‘‘ کی پاداش میں 4اپریل 1979کے روز سزائے موت دے کر عوام کی حکمرانی کے خوابوں کا قتل عام کر دیا گیا۔
جبر و تشدد کا ایسا دور شروع ہوا جس میں پیپلز پارٹی اور اس سے کسی بھی قسم کا تعلق رکھنے والے لوگوں کی زندگیاں عذاب بنا دی گئیں انہیں چن چن کر ظلم و تشدد کا نشانہ بنایا گیا۔ کارکنوں کو نشان عبرت بنانے کے لئے انہیں سرعام کوڑے مارنے کے میدان سجائے گئے، پھانسیاں دی گئیں۔ بھٹو خاندان پر ڈھائے جانے والے یہ اقدامات ایک ڈکٹیٹر کی اس بزدلانہ ذہنیت کے عکاس تھے۔ جس کا بھٹو مخالفین ضیاء کی حمایت میں یوں اظہار کرنے سے بھی باز نہ آتے کہ ’’فوجی بغاوت کی رات میں اس خاندان کا نام و نشان مٹا دینا چاہئے تھا‘‘ جنرل ضیاء نے ہر وہ ظلم روا رکھا، جو اس کے بس میں تھا یہ سلسلہ یوں جاری رہا کہ اپنی ناپاک خواہش کو وہ 5؍ جولائی کی رات بھٹو خاندان کا نام و نشان مٹانے کی صورت میں پوری نہ کر سکا۔ اسے قسط وار پورا کیا گیا 18جولائی 1985ء کو فرانس میں شاہنواز کی پراسرار موت اور 20ستمبر 1996کو میر مرتضیٰ بھٹو کی پراسرار شہادت اسی انتقام کی سلسلہ وار کڑیاں ہیں۔
ذوالفقار علی بھٹو کے مقدمہ قتل کے بارے میں ایک بیانیہ یہ بھی رہا کہ لاہور ہائیکورٹ کی کارروائی سے برطانیہ کی اس بدنام ترین عدالت ’’اسٹار چیمبر‘‘ کی یاد تازہ ہو جاتی ہے جہاں انصاف کے تقاضوں کو یکسر پسِ پشت ڈال کر بے گناہوں کو ٹاور آف لندن کے جلاد کے سپرد کر دیا جاتا۔ جناب بھٹو کے خلاف یہ قتل کا مقدمہ نہیں بلکہ مقدمے کا قتل ہے۔ ہم انصاف چاہتے ہیں، عوام انصاف چاہتے ہیں، ہم ایسے بے گناہ کی بریت چاہتے ہیں جو پاکستان کے عوام کا منتخب نمائندہ ہے۔ وفاق اپنے رہنما کے لئے انصاف کا طالب ہے۔ فیصلے کو آزاد عوام کی منتخب پارلیمنٹ میں تحقیقات کے لئے پیش کیا جائے گا۔ پارلیمنٹ اس سازش کی تحقیقات بھی کرے گی جو عوام کے منتخب نمائندے کے ساتھ عدالتی کارروائی کی آڑ میں کی گئی ہے۔‘‘
بیگم نصرت بھٹو کا یہ خواب پاکستان کی عدالتوں اور منتخب ایوانوں میں تحقیقات کے لئے ہنوز تشنہ طلب اور شرمندہ تعبیر ہونے کا منتظر ہے۔ اس کے برعکس بھٹو خاندان کے ازلی مخالفین ایک بار پھر قبروں کے ٹرائل کی مہم جوئی میں مصروف ہیں۔ آج کل این آر او پاکستان کے سیاسی و قانونی حلقوں میں زیر بحث ہے جبکہ حقیقت یہ ہے کہ این آر او کی سب سے زیادہ قیمت پیپلز پارٹی اور اس کی سربراہ بے نظیر بھٹو نے شہادت کی صورت میں ادا کی اور جس کی قسط وار سزا ان کے شوہر آصف علی زرداری تاحال بھگت رہے ہیں۔ آئیں ماضی کے مزار پر حاضری دیں۔ (آیئے ماضی کے آئینہ میں جھانکتے ہیں) اکتوبر 1999ء میں مشرف آمریت کی تاب نہ لا کر معزول وزیراعظم اپنے شریف خاندان سمیت جلا وطن ہو گیا۔ ایک بار پھر ایک جرنیل کے غیر آئینی اقدام کو تحفظ دیا گیا بلکہ اسے آئین میں من مانی ترامیم کا اختیار بھی دیا۔ حتیٰ کہ ایک ڈکٹیٹر وردی سمیت ملک کا صدر منتخب ہو گیا۔ 2002ء میں عام انتخابات کے بعد جنرل مشرف نے من پسند حکومت بنا لی جسے بہرحال جمہوریت کی سند حاصل نہ ہو سکی۔ نائن الیون کے بعد بدلتے عالمی منظر نے پاکستان کی بنیادیں ہی ہلا کر رکھ دیں، پھر نام نہاد افغان جہاد میں استعمال ہونے والے بارود کی بو وطن عزیز کے گلی کوچوں تک میں پھیل گئی قبائلی علاقوں کے محب وطن سرفروشوں نے سوات میں اپنے خونی پنجے گاڑ کر وہاں سے قومی پرچم تک اتار دیا۔ اس دہشت گردی اور عصبیت پسندی نے وفاق کی تمام اکائیوں کو اپنی لپیٹ میں لے لیا۔ اس وقت ملک کو ضرورت ایک بہادر لیڈر کی تھی۔ آمریت خود ایک دہشت ہوتی ہے اور کوئی دہشت، دہشت گردی کو شکست نہیں دے سکتی۔
المیہ یہ ہے کہ بیرون ملک پناہ گزین تمام سیاست دانوں کو وطن واپسی اور آزادانہ طور پر انتخابات 2007میں حصہ لینے کا مطالبہ کرنے والی بے نظیر بھٹو کو محفوظ راستہ نہ ملا۔ محترمہ بے نظیر بھٹو نے کبھی اس پر اصرار نہیں کیا کہ جرائم اور کرپشن میں ملوث عناصر کے خلاف مقدمات ختم کئے جائیں کیونکہ نام نہاد سوئس اکائونٹس اور ایس جی ایس کو ٹیکنا کیس میں بے نظیر اور آصف علی زرداری کے خلاف نواز اور مشرف حکومتیں الزامات ثابت کرنے میں ناکام رہیں اور آصف زرداری گیارہ سالہ طویل قید و بند کی صعوبتیں برداشت کرنے اور میڈیا ٹرائل کے باوجود فاضل عدالتوں سے باعزت بری ہوئے۔
ستم ظریفی حالات کی کہ ایک ڈکٹیٹر کے ساتھ قومی مفاد میں کیا جانے والا معاہدہ این آر او کہلایا جس کا مقصد جمہوریت کی بحالی، پُر امن انتخابات کا انعقاد اور آزادانہ سیاسی سرگرمیوں کا آغاز تھا کو عوام کی مقبول ترین لیڈر بے نظیر کی وطن واپسی پر ریکارڈ گواہ ہے کہ ان کے خلاف ڈیل کرنے کے حوالے سے خصوصی ٹاک شوز کا اہتمام کیا گیا۔ اخبارات میں خبریں اور مضامین شائع کرائے گئے اور کوئی بھاگم بھاگ عدالت عظمیٰ پہنچ گیا۔ اسی شور میں کارساز کے مقام پر بے نظیر بھٹو کا کاروان جمہوریت پر خوفناک حملہ کیا جاتا ہے جس میں سینکڑوں بے گناہ شہید اور زخمی ہوئے۔ ایک نہتی لڑکی نے بلا خوف و خطر یہ جنگ ہر جگہ تن تنہا لڑی اور پھر 27دسمبر 2007کی شام راولپنڈی کی معروف شاہراہ پر دہشت گردوں نے سرعام اسے شہید کر دیا۔
کیا یہ تھا وہ این آر او جس کا ماتم تاحال جاری ہے اور مخالفوں کے نزدیک ہمیشہ کا ظالم اور عوام کے نزدیک ہمیشہ کا مظلوم آصف زرداری آج بھی چیخ چیخ کر کہہ رہا ہے کہ وہ بے نظیر شہید کے مشن پر گامزن رہے گا۔ اگر غریبوں کو نوکریاں دینا جرم ہے تو وہ یہ جرم کرتا رہے گا خواہ اس کی پاداش میں اسے خود ہی جیل کیوں نہ جانا پڑے۔ جیل کاٹنا بھی اپنے ایمان کا کام ہوتا ہے کیونکہ جیل بھی ایمانداری سے کاٹی جاتی ہے لیکن اس طرح سیاسی بنیادوں پر کوئی جیل نہ جائے جس طرح میں خود گیا۔
یاد رکھئے! لفظوں کے امین کسی بھی معاشرے میں اپنے لفظوں سے ایک فصل تیار کر رہے ہوتے ہیں، اسے Cultivation Theoryکے لئے اخلاقیات کی کاشت یہ ثابت ہے کہ آج جو کچھ بویا جائے گا وہی کل کاٹنا پڑے گا۔ ہاتھوں سے لگائی گئی گرہیں دانتوں سے کھولنا پڑتی ہیں۔ آٹھویں ترمیم اور این آر او کا تماشا لگانے والوں کو سوچنا ہو گا کہ کون قوانین بناتے اور کون ان آئینی قوانین میں نقب لگاتے ہیں۔ کیا کوئی ریاست ایسی ہے جس نے اکہترسال میں سات مرتبہ اپنے ملکی آئین کی روح یکسر بدلی ہو اور آج وہ ترقی یافتہ کہلاتی ہو۔ کیا واقعی ہم موت کے کنوئیں میں موٹر سائیکل چلا رہے ہیں کہ مسلسل سفر کے باوجود وہیں کے وہیں کھڑے ہیں۔ سانپ اور سیڑھی کے اس کھیل کو کیسے خیرباد کہا جائے؟
آصف علی زرداری گرفتار ہوتے ہیں یا نہیں؟ دونوں صورتوں میں ایک سچائی زمین پر موجود ہے، ہم اپنے قومی سیاسی سفر میں انصاف اور درگزر کی راہوں کو نہیں اپنا سکے، ہمارا سفر اس منزل کی طرف شاید ایک قدم بھی نہیں بڑھا کہ حزب اقتدار آرام سے ملک کی خدمت کرے اور حزب اختلاف اس پر مثبت تنقید کرتے ہوئے اسے آرام سے اپنی آئینی مدت پوری کرنے دے، ہماری یہ تلخ تاریخ قائداعظم کے آخری ایام سے ہی شروع ہو گئی تھی اور آج بھی جاری ہے، آپ آصف زرداری کو گرفتار کر کے اس میں کمی نہیں اضافہ ہی کریں گے، پاکستان میں سیاسی تاریخ کچھ ایسی ہے کہ کوئی بھی جماعت یہاں ہمیشہ برسراقتدار نہیں رہ سکتی۔ طاقت کے مراکز کی سوچ اور تقاضے بدلتے رہتے ہیں۔ ان تبدیلیوں کے باعث ہماری قومی تاریخ میں ہمیشہ زہر ہی بھرا جاتا رہا، معلوم نہیں ہم اس قومی بدقسمتی کے چکر سے نکل بھی سکیں گے یا نہیں، آصف زرداری کی گرفتاری یا عدم گرفتاری کو محض ایک جزوی ایشو ہے
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