Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is seen as a visionary leader with an enduring mark on Pakistan’s political history. Amongst his accomplishments are strengthening ties with China, nationalisation, the nuclear programme and convening of the Islamic Summit in Lahore. To co-opt the religious right in his global and domestic agenda, he nationalised minorities’ institutions depriving them of the oasis in which they thrived. According to one account, he remarked on the Christian protests against nationalization: “If they do not behave, I will force them to wear black cloth.” Some Pakistani Christian leaders still believe in him and follow him as a great leader. Amazing!
The 1973 constitution institutionalised political isolation of the religious minorities, taken a step further by the military dictator Ziaul Haq. He added discriminatory laws and introduced the religious and sectarian divide that the nation even now seems helpless to undo.
Though another military dictator General Pervez Musharraf reintroduced the Joint Electorate through an inconclusive selection system, he handed over charge of minority parliamentarians to party leaders in violation of Article 226 of the constitution. Successive constitutional amendments under the Zardari government have deprived religious minorities of whatever little voice they had in the federal government. With the collaboration of the opposition, he snatched the only representation of minorities, the ministry for minority affairs.
Pakistani Christians have played a vital role in the development of the country. Since independence, we have given talented people to the country through educational institutions. Moreover, we have Christian role models in every field of national life. A few meriting mention are Samuel Martin Burke, Justice (Retd) A R Cornelius, Group Captain (Retd) Cecil Chaudhry and Wing Commander Mervyns Middle Cote (Shaheed). Pakistani Christians are proud of them and many others.
Unfortunately, most emerging Christian leaders have fallen victim to their ambitions and prefer to be around party leaders than their people. Yet there has been one who works for the cause of his country and community with no personal ambitions. Last week, I had a chance to represent Christians on a TV talk show. I tried my best to highlight the plight of Christians but a Christian politician in the show disappointed me. His demeanour and manner were negative and appeasing, avoiding burning issues and not taking the bull by the horns. I was left wondering that if he with his unique style of politics cannot straight talk, what about others who are made of lesser mettle than him? The fact is that Pakistani Christian politicians are a disappointment by and large, seeking seats and appeasing their parties at the cost of their people. In this abysmal scenario I recently met a man who seems like someone who would work for people selflessly.
Brigadier (Retd) Samson Simon Sharaf is a retired one-star general of the Pakistan Army and a ground combater. He heads St Mary’s College Rawalpindi, a Roman Catholic institution of higher education providing world class professional education, which also caters to Christian boys and girls fallen through the cracks due to socio-economic disadvantages.
Brigadier Sharaf appears unassuming at first glance. His eyes brighten and arguments become passionate after objective discourses. He quotes from history, literature and current affairs to discuss issues faced by the country and its minority communities. He is apt, straight and minces no words to call a spade a spade.
Brigadier Sharaf is perhaps the only Christian officer who has served in the Military Operations Directorate at GHQ in the post-1971 era. This is an organisation that needs the highest levels of security clearance. He has handled one of Pakistan’s most prestigious and guarded policies of the nuclear programme. Later, he volunteered to reform the Army Public Education System and worked on the prestigious Army Public College of Management and Sciences. As recognition of his services in human resource development, the government of Pakistan rewarded him with a commendation and Sitata-e-Imtiaz. He trained both in Pakistan and abroad and is seen as a role model by officers of the Pakistan army.
The brigadier’s father Lal Din Sharaf Sargodhavi worked with Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah whose pictures he proudly hangs in his office, and this is where Sharaf’s inspiration and character come from. Despite being qualified in security and nuclear strategy, he prefers to call himself a political economist, a modern strategist. This is an area in which he has been writing for the past six years with remarkable accuracy, insight and foresight. Had the military heard his cries in the wild, Pakistan would have been a different country today. Rather than exhibit an elastic conscience, Brigadier Saraf chose to suffer for his convictions and fade away as a soldier.
Brigadier Sharaf’s humbleness and candour dispels the impression of military officers used to ordering their subordinates about. He displays humility and firmness to win hearts and minds. As I sat in his simple and workmanlike Rector’s office laden with the latest books and where visitors kept coming and going, I realised that I was meeting a person par excellence. He had a human angle to every issue and displayed the ability to be a good listener. In between, he was in touch with his military colleagues, dishing out wisdom. I was surprised that he has not drawn his salary for four years and diverted the finances for the development of the institution he heads. To cover his expenses, his daughter runs his water treatment and telecom business while he devotes his time to his passion for community service and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). He is the elected Central Secretary Defence of the PTI. This is where he sees a bright future for Pakistan and its non-Muslims.
I have read over 100 of Brigadier Sharaf’s recent articles, from politics to international affairs, WOT, political economy and nuclear issues. Having met him in his office and home, I could humbly affirm him to be a ‘living legend’. His study at his house is a room with books lying all around with his trophies and mementos hanging on the walls. There is a wall size poster of Pakistan’s third highest mountain with his ice axe and snow boots hanging by the side. It is then I learnt that he is also a high altitude mountaineer, has climbed Gashebrum1 (8,068 metres) and enjoys desert rallies. He is the first Pakistani to have cross-country traversed Pakistan’s most inhospitable Nara Desert in the summer heat. He has also climbed Mont Blanc in France and made free fall jumps with a parachute. He still hikes and plays golf and tennis.
I was surprised to know that since 2005, Brigadier Sharaf has been personally present at every trouble spot of Christians, working unobserved to resolve issues. He does not claim credit and attributes his accomplishments to the work of God. He hates to call himself a politician and claims to be a reformer. Within PTI, he has an impressive following, particularly among overseas Pakistanis who keep calling him with their ideas. As a political leader, he prefers to work in the mainstream rather than take the easy and exclusive option of the minorities. Yet he has made enduring contributions to the party constitution on minority rights and Balochistan.
Samson Simon Sharaf is both a dreamer and a doer and a befitting person to become the voice of religious minorities in Pakistan.
The writer is a human rights activist and is working as a stinger, specialising in writing about minority rights for various national and international papers