SEPTEMBER
20, 2019
It’s human nature to do
everything to divert attention from one’s failures. For the ‘Great Khan’ and
his minions, their favourite method is to blame previous governments for him
not being able to convert the country into the ‘Promised Land’. They are
nowadays preoccupied with Narendra Modi, but they do seem to have realised that
they will soon be asked awkward questions like when will Pakistan become the
‘paradise’ they’d promised to make it. That is why the very able and learned
Law Minister Farogh Naseem repeatedly said that Article 149 authorises the
centre to take control of that hell called Karachi.
The ‘Dear Leader’ was
scheduled to come to the benighted city and make an announcement, but
fortunately, he was advised to wait for some more time. But you can be sure
that they will come up with something new for people to talk about every other
day, like not giving VIP facilities to those who are in jail for allegedly
looting the country.
So I wonder why they
wanted to divert our attention by sending home two very good and able Punjab
government advisers, Shahbaz Gil and Awn Choudhry, who are said to be very close
to the Dear Leader. Both were doing what they were paid to do, namely, to
praise the Great Khan to the skies every day, which is what every PTI minister
is doing, and that includes that non-PTI chap, the one in charge of railways,
who talks of everything under the sun except why there are train accidents
every week or so. I do think the sacked advisers are better than most of the
others, much better than that chap who said many derogatory things about a
religious minority.
He was sacked after a
Karachi-based confidant and member of the said minority told the Great Khan
about it. But to no one’s surprise, he was brought back into the cabinet after
only a couple of months, his offensive comments about others having been
forgotten. No one objected to his re-instatement, which means he must be either
very close to the Dear Leader, or maybe the latter is not aware of his
restoration. As for the two who were sacked because the very efficient Punjab
Chief Minister, the highly respected Sardar Usman Buzdar, didn’t like them, I
predict that the Great Khan will soon appoint them to more cushy positions.
Talking of diverting attention from one’s own failures, a female
education official in the Great Khan’s home province has apparently decided
that unveiled women are to blame for her lack of success. The education
official ordered all school and college girls in her domain to wear the
all-enveloping abaya, to protect them from those numerous male animals who lose
control of themselves when they see an unveiled woman. Apparently, the
education official does not know that there are men who turn into rapists even
when they see fully covered women.
Perhaps
she has heard that some Saudi women have chosen to discard the robe, after
their crown prince himself said it is not compulsory. So apparently, the worthy
educator wants to make Pakistan a more Islamic country than it already is, now
that even Saudi Arabia, in her opinion, seems to be going the way of the evil
western countries. Perhaps she thinks our deeply religious Dear Leader will get
to hear of her piety and appoint her as the education minister of the province
where his party has been in control for six years now.
This habit of blaming
women for even natural disasters is widespread, in Pakistan at least if not the
entire Muslim world. A man loses his job, it’s because his wife insists on
driving the family car or spends too much time watching TV. If an earthquake
occurs, it’s because girls wear jeans. If a small meteor falls upon a house,
it’s because the women in the said house do not observe purdah. You name it,
women are blamed for everything going wrong. The only surprising thing about
the Haripur educator forcing girls to cover themselves from head to toe is that
she did it now, a year after the Great Khan’s government assumed power.
I read that parents of most of the girls supported the move, but
what did the educator say to those who may have dared to object? She probably
said something like, “Look, if you allow your daughters to roam around with
their heads uncovered, in future they might reject the men you have chosen to
be their husbands!” Or “Your daughters will fight back when their husbands beat
them, would you tolerate that considering that it is a Muslim woman’s duty to
submit?”
So
I’m waiting for the day when one or some of our ministers suddenly conclude
that the country’s women are responsible for the mess they have created. It’s
only a matter of time before that happens.
The writer is an engineer, a former
visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College, an industrialist, and has been
associated with the petroleum, chemical industries for many years. He
tweets @shakirlakhani
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