Sirajul Haq had made some bizarre comments during his speech at Minar-e-Pakistan last week, and they have been really bothering me.
War with India
“If Mr Modi wants to wage a war with Pakistan, he should know that Pakistan could repeat the history of Badr and Hunain, with India suffering huge losses.”
This is a fairly common prophecy, but it bears noting that Pakistan was not involved in battles of Badr or Hunain. Neither was India. I know, the implication is that even though India has the larger military, Pakistan will be victorious thanks to the intervention of almighty Allah (SWT). But this begs the question why Allah (SWT) did not intervene on Pakistan’s behalf against India in 1965. Or 1971. Or 1999. Maybe instead of threatening to repeat someone else’s history, we should make an honest assessment of our own.
Aafia Siddiqui
“We will bring back Afia Siddiqi to Pakistan under the same law that let Raymond Davis to go back to his country.”
This one I found most interesting because I remember the law that let Raymond Davis go back to his country: Qisas and Diyat.
“Accused Raymond Allen Davis was charge-sheeted u/s 302 PPC at the murders of Faizan Haider and Muhammad Faheem Shamshad and after framing of charge, legal heirs of both the deceased have put their appearance and got recorded their separate statements and stated by unequivocal terms that they have received amount of Badl-e-Sulah as per their shares and waive their right of Qisas and compounded the offence with the accused and have no objection if he is acquitted of the charge. They made their statements voluntarily, without duress or influence from any corner and each family of the deceased included the legal heirs have received an amount of rupees Ten Crore as Badl-e-Sulah much in excess to the amount of Diyat which hardly was rupees Twenty Nine Lac for each deceased. The court is satisfied that the legal heirs have made their statements voluntarily and without coercion.”
Is Sirajul Haq suggesting that he will pay America to set her free?
There was more that the Jamaati chief said that was strange, if not down right bizarre such as his telling Pakistan’s leaders that if ” they love American culture, they should leave the country”. I get it. Anti-Americanism is a tried and true way to whip up the crowds. Is American culture really the biggest problem we have though? Worse than polio, illiteracy, intolerance, and extremism? Besides, who is he talking about? Nawaz Sharif? I think he’s much more at home in Saudi than he ever would be in America. When was the last time anyone told our leaders “if you love Arab culture so much, you should leave”? We’re no more Arab than we are Western.
This is the point I am trying to make: Sirajul Haq is a respected political leader who was supposedly elected to bring a more ‘moderate’ image to JI after Munawar Hassan started openly supporting Taliban against Pakistan Army. The ‘moderate’ JI may not be openly anti-Pakistan, but they are openly anti-logic and reason. Maybe we should start to consider those the same thing.
