Source :Dawn

I write this at the start of the week during which the Supreme Court starts hearings on the 18th Amendment and the NRO non-compliance case (both hearings have been adjourned).

But, just last week, two earthshaking happenings rocked this unfortunate country: the alleged rape of a girl in Wah by police officials over several days, and the appearance of an allegedly doctored recording of famous journalist Hamid Mir speaking to an alleged Punjabi Taliban commander. Yet no one in our superior judiciary seems to have noticed, being much preoccupied.

First the alleged rape. This event took place not far from where I live: as a matter of fact the girl concerned is the granddaughter of the late Benaras and his wife Sarwar both of whom used to work for my family when I was growing up in Wah village.

I know the family somewhat. One of the police officials concerned is also known to me as an efficient chap, in some cases apprehending thieves in record time. Which be as it may, and no matter what anyone thinks of this or that person involved, this is as fit a case for suo motu notice at the highest judicial level as any.

I so well remember Mukhtaran Mai’s case which My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry had suo motu remanded to the Supreme Court and which he heard with Their Lordships Bhagwandas and Syed Saeed Ashad accompanying him on the bench. That was the day that I began to admire the CJ for his no-nonsense attitude and for his skill in very quickly getting to the heart of the matter. This alleged rape case begs the CJ’s immediate indulgence for it needs to be quickly adjudicated upon for the benefit of whichever party that has been wronged.

Likewise with my friend Hamid Mir. He is a journalist of note who has endeared himself to many in the country. He is accused of saying very ugly things about the now-murdered Khalid Khawaja as well as for an already much persecuted minority, the Ahmadis. Mir insists the recording is a forgery, made by piecing together scraps of various conversations into one whole using new technology. May one crave the Supreme Court’s indulgence once more? Only it has the power to order an independent and high-powered judicial commission to get experts in the field of speech patterns and doctoring conversations so that this most serious matter is cleared.

As to what was said on the recording, let me condemn with all the strength at my command the part about Ahmadis being worse than kafirs. In any case, who is or is not a kafir is a matter best left to the Almighty to judge.

So then, more and even more dirt is being piled upon this poor country in the fast unravelling Faisal Shahzad case. First off, one should like to ask the government agencies that sprang to the Taliban’s defence just as soon as the New York attempted bombing had been discovered, why they acted so precipitously?

How did they know, within hours of the American charge that Shahzad had help from the Taliban, that the Taliban were not involved? Mounting evidence suggests that the Taliban were deeply involved in teaching the man how to rig bombs, resulting in more egg on our faces.

Second, a recent report suggests that foreign students clandestinely find their way into madressahs in Pakistan, particularly into the over 300 in Islamabad alone, and in North Waziristan where they are taught the philosophy of jihad by foreigners, mostly Arabs. When will we plug the holes through which these disruptive characters come into the country?

Is this country to have no respite? Are we destined to lurch from one shameful event to another? Is our name to be sullied day in and day out, without let or relief? I have just recently read of the golf cheating scandal in which four members of the Lahore Gymkhana were caught playing a tournament in Malaysia under fake handicaps because an Indian golfer who knew these cheats spilled the beans to the Malaysians who were beginning to become suspicious. Nor was that all: when questioned by the Malaysians, these four cheats managed to forge the club’s records to change their handicaps.

Nor is this all! These cheats had made it a habit to go to poor innocent, unsuspecting Malaysia every so often and play in tournaments under their faked handicaps — the chaps who had actual handicaps of seven and eight playing off 18; the one with three, playing off 16 and the last of the cheats who was four playing off 16 — and, little wonder, winning net events in all the competitions played.

It is another matter that despite this cheating all they could win was net events. (Shows the standard of golf in this country, what.) As an aside, did none of them consider the fact that the swing of a player with a handicap of three would be much different to one with a handicap of 16?

It came to me during the very first week that I started to play golf in 1969, that this was a game that you played against yourself in that you were always trying to beat the course: to go around in as few strokes as you could manage. These cheats were then only cheating themselves, weren’t they?

We are told that the Pakistan Golf Federation has banned the four cheats from playing in any tournament for two years. Why? Why not ban them for life? For if they could cheat in Malaysia they can certainly cheat in Pakistan.

Their club is said to be considering expelling them for a certain period. Why? They should be thrown out for ever. Not only did they bring shame to their club, they brought their country dishonour.

End piece: Another report suggests that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is not doing anything to prosecute the alleged terrorists already apprehended. Is this true? Will the usually loquacious Mian Iftikhar tell us if this is so? Will he also tell us if important Taliban such as Muslim Khan are in the P-K government’s custody?

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

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