I have a dream. My dream is that every individual of Pakistan is free. Whether its a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian, that person is free. Whether it is a farmer or a labourer or an artist, my dream is that we are all free in Pakistan. Khadim has emerged as the most controversial figure in the last one year. His speeches are considered objectionable by quite a few & usually they are full of four-letter words. But, despite such abusive language he appeals to the masses leading large crowds in his rallies. Ever wonder why? This is because the focus of his speeches is on Khatam-e-Nabuwat's concept & on non-negotiability of the blasphemy act. Both these concepts are ingrained in Pakistan's constitution & play a pivotal role in decision-making process of the court & the parliament. Khadim wouldn't have even made it to the headlines if someone out of the blue did not dare to tamper with the Khatam-e-Nabuwat SAW bill. This created a huge public uproar forcing the Nawaz regime to remove the amendment & restore the original bill. What Khadim did at that time was that he decided to sit at the Faizabad chowk blocking the way for a few weeks. He demanded for immediate resignation of the ministers responsible for this attempted amendment. He publicly asked his activists to abstain from violence. His sit-in created a revolution over-night as most of Pakistanis who were not even affiliated with him decided to jam the roads out of their love for Prophet Muhammad SAW.
His revolution ended as COAS General Qamar Bajwa negotiated an agreement successfully with him terminating position of the law minister of Pakistan. Khadim remained quiet in the after math asking for removal of remaining personal involved in this. No One else was removed. Law minister's resignation was the first & the last. A detailed report was published in regards to this identifying quite a few politicians as being responsible for making this unholy amendment. However, instead of removing these ministers, we now see them being stationed in very important positions. One such name is Shafqat Mehmood. He is the current education minister of Pakistan & he was written up as one of the key ministers who penned this amendment. Today, an entire chapter on Hazrat Khadija RA was replaced by Malala in text book taught to Pakistani kids. Sentences on Seerat-e-Nabi SAW have been removed from the junior section's text books. The change is subtle & slow but it is there. Khadim's main crime is that he has been fighting against this change. He wants the non-negotiable ideologies of
Khatam-e-Nabuwat SAW & that of blasphemy act to remain un-amended. There has been a significant smear campaign being done against him & his followers. He is loud, nasty, fiesty & uses 4 letter words. True. But only to express his protest. Most of our politicians in Pakistan have used foul language on public TV against each other but these politicians are never arrested for using bad language. Infact, they are appointed to very important positions in our government. Imran our current PM has used many 4 letter words in his rallies against his adversaries but today he is our PM. Paris is burning at present as I write these words because people are protesting on the roads angry at the recent hike of fuel taxes. Does that make them "traitors" in one of the strongest democracies of the world?
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| This is Paris NOT Pakistan |
Khadim is not an action BUT a reaction to the misadventures being committed by a few lobbies trying to mess with Pakistan's ideology. I have stood up to fight for his right to free speech as I did when Chaudhry Nisar ordered a crackdown against PTI's activists in their Islamabad Lockdown campaign. I did a protest then for PTI against section 144. I am doing a protest against silencing the voice of an Islamic cleric when all his intentions are to keep the Khatam-e-Nabuwat SAW & blasphemy act non-negotiable.
For those who consider Khadim a criminal as inciting violence should know that Khadim has publicly condemned & disowned violence by anyone during his protests. Moreover, his latest rendezvous has been in regards to Aasia bibi's verdict by Supreme Court. This verdict acted like a nuclear bomb for him & his followers who are firm believers that Aasia did commit a blasphemy & is not apologetic about her misdemeanour. The correct response of officials should have been to convince them that Aasia did not commit blasphemy or is apologetic over her behaviour if she did. Instead, we saw a latest crackdown on all of his clan as violators of peace & even labelled as responsible for treason. Again, Khadim was NOT the action BUT the reaction to the Aasia's verdict. This verdict was on an extremely sensitive matter & it should have been undertaken by the joint consensus of a Majlis-e-Shurah in accordance with principles of blasphemy act. Now, we have a stand-ALONE verdict of the supreme court against two previous court verdicts that condemned Aasia. So, what to expect if not the current raucous?
The most important question is that who will benefit from the current raucous? Not Pakistan. Our enemies are obsessed with inciting a civil war here on the same lines as Syria. Misadventures with Pakistan's ideology will create strong public uproar & when the Pakistan officials try to contain this uproar they will end up being labelled as oppressive & anti-democratic. Hmmm.....Does that ring a bell? Didn't the same happen during the Syrian crisis also? Assad called a monster, oppressive,
anti-democratic? Now, it will be Imran's turn to take the heat
When Musharraf attempted a crackdown of the LAL masjid cleric, that was the end of Musharraf's era. I do not endorse the lal masjid cleric but sending armed forces to mosques to shower bullets will only create remorse against the authorities even if they did so rightly.
The last thing we need is to give our enemies a reason to win their fifth generation war against us by using these events as examples to incite hatred against our army.
The one person who loves Prophet Muhammad SAW the most in our country is our army soldier who is giving his life daily for an ideology based upon Prophet Muhammad SAW's love.
No One can beat the love of that soldier for the Prophet Muhammad SAW. Not even Khadim et al. But, making Khadim have a face off with that soldier will work as a golden opportunity for our enemies only.
Let Khadim go, let him have his freedom of speech like all the others, reconcile your differences with the muslim clerics and never forget that if the ACTION of mis-adventuring with Pakistan's ideology is not stopped such REACTIONS from such clerics will keep on emerging.
If you do not want a reaction like this, do not allow the action to happen. Imran's street revolution cost Pakistan billions of dollars but today he is the PM of Pakistan & all is forgiven &
forgotten in the name of democracy. A lot of damage was done to property during his sit-in & people died as well. Always remember that these Islamic clerics are also very much part of Pakistan's Islamic democracy that gives them a right to express their concerns like Imran did. We made Imran the PM because it is legal to protest for an issue not connected with Khatam-e-Nabuwat SAW or Blasphemy Act. But, when it comes to protest over both these sensitive issues by a muslim cleric, we start frowning? Why? Are we the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or the Desi Liberal Mainland?
Freedom is every citizen's right. One act of injustice leads to an entire system of injustice. Khadim is globally renowned now due to "
misadventures" of a few who are still enjoying parliamentarian governance of Pakistan & to whom he reacted because he felt it to be the right thing. If you don't want any more Khadims to come out on streets, you should crackdown against those lobbies that precipitated these parliamentary mis-adventures in the first place.
-Dr FAB, MD
Dr Fariya Bukhari, MD aka Dr FAB is a writer/poet/activist/politician/physician/scientist/philanthropist/producer/journalist/defence analyst & a strategist. She is interested in politics, peace, innovation and global justice. She is working for education, liberation & empowerment of the under privileged. She is also involved in politics trying to bring a palpable change at Pakistan's political level that ensures protection of masses against human rights violations, injustice, corruption & terrorism. She is a practising physician as associate professor of internal medicine. She is the Chairperson of Pak Islam Positive League, a political party of Pakistan. She is the founder of free Kissan free Pakistan, a NGO. She is the Dean of PUSH Institute (Pakistan-Peace Universal Strategic Hope Institute). She is the mother of 3 children.
The last thing we need is to give our enemies a reason to win their fifth generation war against us by using these events as examples to incite hatred against our army.
