Source: Daily Times via Wasim Sr:
As I looked at Dr Salam’s tombstone, I felt a pang of guilt and shame at what we have done to the Ahmadis in Pakistan. We have abolished their religious freedom and in the process our own
The disgusting manner in which Malala Yousafzai has been targeted by a section of our society recently is upsetting but unsurprising. It is a bit of a local tradition, it seems, to abuse those who do something for the hapless people in this country. The narrow-minded fanatics had a lot to be scared about. Malala’s speech to the United Nations was extraordinary in the sense that it was a grand unifying message at once cognizant of Malala’s Pakistani heritage, Pashtun ethnicity, Muslim faith and global citizenship. Not many people can pull it off. Hats off to the 16-year-old for having done this!
As a Pakistani I was particularly glad to hear her mention Jinnah, not just because he is our founding father but because Jinnah’s immense contribution as a legislator to women’s equality, education and empowerment in India and Pakistan has been forgotten like much else in our history. Of particular significance were his efforts in putting an end to underage marriages in the subcontinent through legislation. He had also famously said that no nation could rise to heights of glory unless its women were side by side its men and that women were mightier than both pen and the sword, something which this brilliant daughter of Pakistan, Malala, has proved in a substantial manner. Yet in Jinnah’s Pakistan, today these gangs of thugs, these Taliban and their apologists, are attacking women for educating themselves. Jinnah had been called Kafir-e-Azam by the same people and had survived assassination attempts by them. Indeed Malala should take heart from the fact that many of the iconic figures she listed — Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Prophet Jesus (PBUH), Lord Buddha, Dr King, Jinnah, Gandhi — were attacked by extremists of her own society.