Pakistan has officially chided Bangladesh for hanging aged Mir Quasem Ali, convicted in a war crimes tribunal relating to 1971 war. This criticism seems shallow as Pakistan's own criminal justice system is disorganized and pathetic. The simple reason for such acrimony by foreign office is due to the past events which chains both nations together with pungency and abhorrence.
Foreign office doesn't have time to object to its citizen being beheaded regularly in Saudi Arabia by their courts in questionable circumstances. Bangladesh is already criticized by Amnesty international, Human rights watch and other organizations. The accused are not provided with lawyers and arbitrary limiting of witnesses to call upon. Although such is the state of affairs but Islamabad human rights record in such cases is even more dubious. In Bangladesh the accused are tried by civil courts in open while in Pakistan the accused are tried by military courts behind closed doors with no access to military records.
Mir Quasem matters because he was the head of Al Badr, worked closely with Pak Army to suppress the rebellion in east Pakistan.
Pakistan stands on two nation theory, as taught to us in school textbooks. One factor is that Hindus and Muslims are separate nations that cant coexist together. secondly, Muslims are an Ummah united by faith. There was no distinction of sects, caste, creed and color,
First factor is already irrelevant because Pakistan and India are two separate nations. Second factor begs some attention. The Hindus in Pakistan accounts for less than 2 percent of the total population and are continuously minimizing due to oppression, lack of opportunities and fear. They can not lead their normal life anymore.
Lack of love and concern for the neighbors i.e Iran and Afghanistan and continuous Saudi-Israeli nexus shows that Islamic solidarity and Ummah is also a fragile concept.
Even after paralyzing two nation theory in Pakistan in 1971, Ironically, Pakistan is still surviving and kicking. There is a subconscious push for being rational more and more and we are coming to terms with it. The recent CPEC phenomena is an interesting paradox. While pan Islamism lip service is there, we turn blind eye to communist china's aversion towards organized religions and Islam in particular.
Pakistan needs to push behind the two nation theory simply because a theory can not be the reason for the survival of a nation when we have come such a long way. Okay fine Pakistan is made, we have seen so much in the past and now that we have to move forward we are unable to carry the baggage of the theory and be realistic. After-all Argentina and Netherlands have no ideologies but both countries are flourishing.
We must understand that India only played the anchor role but not the critical role which is our incompatibility with the east Pakistan. This union had to come to an end. And Zulfiqar ali bhutto's famous speech of 'idhar hum udhar tum' dealt a final blow to it.
A piece of advice for Bangladesh, just shun the unfortunate events of the past and move on. The history and circumstances in which it was created was very painful but hanging aged humans connected to that past may not bring democracy, stability or peace.
Pakistan must stop teaching kids in the textbooks about the wrong perspective of 1971, and kick-start a truth and reconciliation process with Bangladesh on this matter. Time to move on and turn the page for the better.
Source: http://www.dawn.com/news/1283160/the-hanging-of-mir-quasem-ali
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