No Action Plan (NAP)

I don’t know if its National Action Plan (NAP) or No Action Plan, at least I am unable to see any action in my surroundings. As part of my job, I am involved in designing and implementing counter radicalization initiatives especially targeting children and youth. Since Pakistan has an overwhelming population of youth, this particular demographic stays most vulnerable to anything and everything that they are faced with. Radicalization remains a serious issue implicating youth in Pakistan. Therefore, the need to decrease and ultimately finish youth’s vulnerability to radicalization and extremism should be a top priority not only for the authorities but for all of us.  

     

The reason why I am pointing towards the lack of action is that most recently I have been observing a lot of hate speech being reported in the print media. Of course, there was a reason for it; 4^th January was celebrated as the death anniversary of Salman Taseer, then Governor of Punjab, who was gunned down by a member of his own security squad. All of us know that there is an overwhelming support for the killer in Pakistan, and I have pointed it in one of previous articles. Although, the rift between the right and left wings had been very obvious ever since Pakistan was created but the problem was exacerbated during General Zia’s autocracy. However, a lot of anger has been visible among the religious community against the liberals especially keeping in view the issue of Blasphemy. Since Salman Taseer’s murder this anger is reinvigorated on his death anniversary every year and a new wave of hate speech starts floating on the various media that we come across every day.

However, sadly, the silent majority in our society fears the highly flammable religious minority. Most recently, Shan Taseer, son of the slain Salman Taseer has been issued a death threat and a case has been registered against him on blasphemy charges, on almost the same allegation that cost his father his life i.e. his support for the blasphemy accused. The Police was quick in registering a case against him, but not against those who spew out hate filled speeches against other sects, against liberal minded people and against everyone that negates their point of view, openly on the roads, in mosques and even on the social media. I hope they don’t consider this article as hate speech and implicate me for this crime under all the various laws that they only get to remember when people like me talk about these injustices.

I almost forgot it was only a few days back that the authorities in District Okara assured the notables of the city to observe leniency against the seminary leader under terror laws for hate speech. Sadly, the present MNA from the area along with a former MNA and some traders from the area approached the District Coordination Officer (DCO) for the cleric’s release.  

Talking of laws, the cyber crime law and the preventionof electronic crimes act, many anti-terror laws and of course the National Action Plan (NAP) more than clearly vows to take action against who spread hatred against others. However, there is little or no action against those who spread hatred or do hate speech. Our social media is rife with specialized accounts that do the job of spreading hate speech against rival sects. I say rival because, they spread hate against each other purposely. It must be noted that it is a full time job only by observing their daily posts and shares, one can easily come to the conclusion that there are specialized teams that are paid to do this, from designing to dissemination, this cycle of hate speech keeps on going and there is someone paying for all of this; and please be clear that there is no concept of righteousness due to which all of this is happening, it has always been and always will be a race for political dominance only being conducted in the garb of religion. Sadly, our authorities observing cyber crime are oblivious of all of this.

If I as an ordinary internet user can observe all of this then why not them, the only conclusion that I can draw from this is that these people have supporters in every sphere, just like the MNAs that went to the DCO for the cleric’s release. I hope this is not true, but then why this no action plan?            

A Shrine in the making: Story of a Murderer

The news didn’t come as a surprise to me and I am pretty sure, it wasn’t a surprise for many other like-minded people either. Mumtaz Qadri, Salman Taseer’s assassin is in the process of becoming a saint. A shrine is being built in Islamabad’s peripheries right under the nose of our police and other law enforcement agencies. Soon, there will be an Urs every year with hundreds and thousands of devotees pouring in from all over Pakistan, similar to the day, when his funeral was held.

Incidentally, I was travelling to Punjab on the day of his funeral. I was travelling on a local bus on the GT road. As soon as the bus left the city limits, right before Dina, a group of young men with iron rods and wooden canes forcibly stopped the bus and boarded it. They were more or less ten men with emotions visible on their faces. Luckily for the bus and its occupants, the conductor didn’t try to stop them, because they were not only armed with iron rods but also with anger, which I believe is a lethal combination. As soon as these guys boarded the bus, everyone had a fair idea, who they were. These men had been to Mumtaz Qadri’s funeral and were returning to their homes. Soon after, they started praising him, showing each other and other travelers’ videos of the funeral and his last days in jail. They started flaunting their religious fervor by saying that they haven’t slept for so many hours only to attend the funeral and how difficult it was to reach the inner circles, but they were lucky to have a last look at his face.

A number of people seem impressed, which I believe is OK keeping in view the religiosity that exists in most of us. However, the real twist in the story came when the conductor asked all of the funeral attendees for fare. At first, the guys didn’t pay heed to the conductor, but when he asked for the fare again, the angry young men, got furious, about to beat the hell out of the conductor. However, some of the sensible men managed to stop them. Yet, they refused to pay the conductor the fare, saying they have just performed such a sacred mission and they don’t have to pay anything and he shouldn’t have expected the fare from them. The conductor tried again, but one of the guys called someone on his phone asking the guy on the other side to come to the next bus stop with as many men as possible to teach the conductor the lesson of his life. However, sense prevailed and some of the people in the bus managed to cool them down. So these guys traveled to Gujranwala from Islamabad free of cost, forcibly paying their religious fervor as the bus fare.

The guys left, but it kept me thinking about the kind of people and religiosity that has started to infect our society; I apologize if I have hurt someone’s feelings by saying this, but I was disgusted to my core that day. Again, on his Chehlum (40th day after death), another congregation of similar people occupied Islamabad and the whole world saw their so called leaders hurling the worst kind of abuses at the government and other leaders.

This is the most serious dilemma for our society, especially for those responsible for maintaining law and order and when the National Action Plan in being implemented in the country and the war against terror and extremism is entering its final stages, at least as claimed by our government. If this is all happening in Islamabad, then soon we will come across another story of a murderer all set to become a saint.