Opinion Christians after Shias

Pakistan’s chief justice,Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,took suo motu cognisance of the issue and summoned reports from Punjab’s inspector general and attorney general. The News reported on March 13 that when the first hearing of the case took place on March 11,the court rejected the Punjab government’s report. “The initial report of the incident was presented by the advocate general,according to which compensation had been paid to the victims of Joseph Colony. The chief justice remarked that providing compensation was the government’s responsibility and asked why precautionary measures were not taken if there was information pertaining to the attack.”

This has reignited the debate on Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law. On March 12,Daily Times wrote in an editorial: “The Christian community has largely reconciled with their fate… They did protest in the past,but never became violent and had it not been the rowdy behaviour of the police,the Badami Bagh [Joseph Colony protest would have remained peaceful. It is perhaps the apathy of the government that has drawn such a sharp reaction from a community that has been taking in its stride brutal actions taken against them. It is maybe now a learned fact that unless one… becomes aggressive,the government would not do anything to change the status quo… The blasphemy law needs careful reinterpretation. The legal gap in the law that allows arrest without evidence,giving power to the complainer and making the police his helpless stooges,is a breach of international human rights…”

SPOILT FOR CHOICE

AS PAKISTAN inches closer to the general elections,the names of probable caretaker prime ministers have started surfacing shortly before the dissolution of the National Assembly. The PML-N proposed the names of Rasool Bakhsh Palejo,Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice (retd) Sahkirullah Jan. Jan’s name was withdrawn later. The incumbent PPP’s candidates are: Abdul Hafeez Shaikh,Ishrat Hussain and Justice (retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso. Imran Khan’s PTI backs PML-N’s candidates. PML-Q’s leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told journalists earlier this week that they could “take his name for the party’s caretaker PM candidate.” The MQM appeared to take the middle ground by backing the PPP’s Ishrat Hussain and PML-N’s Nasir Aslam Zahid.

RETURN OF THE NATIVE

IT IS election season in Pakistan and former army chief and president Pervez Musharraf wants his hand in the pie too. He is expected to return to Pakistan on March 24,reported Dawn. “‘When I look at these conditions that the country is in [sic,I know that my return to Pakistan is crucial. And I will return to my beloved country… Now or never,now or never!’” It remains to be seen whether his party will be able to gather support.