Soviet-Afghan war, initiated during Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, and the rise of hate crimes in India, said, “Narendra Modi and his politics are an extension of Zia-ul-Haq and his policies. People such as these two always promote extremism, no matter where they exist.”
As for the systemic promotion of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan, the veteran activist opined that nothing more than an absolute absence of democratic forces could have come out of a country which was marred by an unstable economy, human rights violations and a history ridden with martial laws.
With reference to the much (mis)quoted August 11, 1947 speech of the Quaid-e-Azam, he said the entire speech was a message to the constituent committee of the time, but the members chose to ignore the speech and adopted the Objectives Resolution as the preamble to the constitution. He demanded for the speech to be made a part of the constitution and, consequently, the national curriculum.
“It was not the forces of the Left - which the state ensured did not survive - who attacked the Faisal and Kamra bases. Instead, it were those who were given a free hand to propagate their politics of hate,” Khan added.
He called for the country to stop differentiating between terror groups, be it the Taliban, Boko Haram, ISIL, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The event was addressed by the finest literary personalities, journalists and activists belonging to all walks of life including Fehmida Riaz, Justice (Retd) Rasheed A Razvi, Ahfaz-ur-Rehman, Zahida Hina, Sahar Ansari, Mazhar Abbas and Zahid Hussain.
The speakers called for the judiciary to hold every citizen as equal in the eyes of the law, instead of the ones with power to have the space to use it for their nefarious means. “Until the likes of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf are not treated equally by the law, there can never be a change in the country’s politics,” stated Justice Razvi.
They also demanded a change in the national curriculum so as to inculcate in children the idea of inter-faith harmony, whereas, the need to promote secular literature was also suggested.
The speakers also criticised the role of the existing political parties, which they claimed were the ones who indulged in the politics of opportunism instead of fighting for the shrinking space for democracy. “Political parties would have to strengthen democracy within them by focusing on trade unions, journalists' unions and lifting a ban from student unions, for which some hard decisions would have to be taken,” said eminent journalist Mazhar Abbas.