Mamnoon Hussain, President of Pakistan avowed a National Narrative after 70 thousand dead bodies, hundreds of suicide bomb explosions, millions of displaced citizens and a confused nation whose mind set has been altered and swamped with fanatic right wing extremist school of thought. Dear Sir … Didn’t it take a bit long to get this out?
Today, even after this joint and quite welcomed effort, we are forced to allow provoking cleric like Tahirul Qadri in Pakistan to stage a protest and attempt to threat a politically elected government igniting the fire of vicious vehemence, disruption and threatening to butcher his opponents as he wishes.
Today also we allow an ‘Encounter Specialist’ like Rao Anwar as an officer in Sindh police force to continue his own unlawful adventurers. , Is it because of his allegiance with another stakeholder of province? Or is it that he is patronized by our establishment as some say or is it that he is just a rogue officer on killing spree on his own? Unfortunately, today we lost a young lad of Mehsud tribe to this menace of encounterism, allegedly through a mistaken identity, but even if Naqeebullah Mehsud was a real threat and known/proven terrorist, didn’t he deserve a fair and free trial in court of law or any speedy courts under anti terrorism. In world’s free media eye, killers of Naqeeb are equally tagged as terrorists in disguise, one must notice.
A probe into this matter is proceeding and all eyes are on this three member inquiry committee, I am not interested to see Rao Anwar getting arrested, I am more eager to see the day when Naqeeb’s type extrajudicial killings will end and perhaps now is the time to put an end to the era that commenced in 1992 operation which had led to massacre of thousands of Mohajir youth of MQM activists. In the meantime, honest and hard-working police officers of Sindh Police feel embarrassed at such mayhems with one of their own rogue officers working above and beyond the law. Surely they didn’t’ sign up for this nation-wide disrespect while taking oath and wearing khaki uniform.
In Karachi not too long ago, the Counter Terrorism Unit picked up two youngsters and later their encounter became headlines when they were declared as suicide bombers on a staged attack on SSP Rao Anwar. Strangely first of its kind, in the history of such attempts their body parts remained completely intact. This certainly calls for an immediate inquiry against this felonious policeman in uniform, apparently he is taking the law in his own hands whenever he feels like it disregarding presence of supremacy of judicial system in Pakistan.
Evidence also suggest that he is also allegedly a suspect in wary homicide of a well acknowledged 72 years old Philosophy teacher Dr Hassan Zafar Arif. Rao Anwar’s leash seems like a long one, but one should not allow such conduct that taints our own law enforcing agencies.
It’s time that an action is taken, and facts are established that he is not being patronized either politically or by any organ of state. This will boost the general public’s moral and confidence on our LEAs and eradicate any shadow of doubts surrounding his powerful backing. While here in Canada, Pakistani Canadian community is furious when looking at their television screens where a Canadian Citizen Abdul Shakoor Qadri also known to many Pakistanis as Tahirul Qadri was annoyingly abusing on National TV and being abusive on streets of Lahore.
This certainly calls for an immediate inquiry against this felonious policeman in uniform. Apparently he takes the law in his own hands whenever he feels like it, disregarding the supremacy of Pakistan’s judicial system
Many Canadians have condemned this type of behaviour and expressed their concerns with Canadian Government who has once again allowed him to continue spreading violence, hate and disruption in another country that he once feared persecution from and claimed asylum based on this fear. Is Canada going to take a serious note of his activities abroad? Hard to say, Justin Trudeau Prime Minister has a soft corner for fanatics like him and mullahs of Greater Toronto Area, apparently, they are the biggest vote bank for his party.
Is Pakistan going to allow a holder of dual citizenship continue his ferocious saga? No one knows, under current laws he is not qualified to run for an office with a Canadian passport. Will he surrender it? I doubt it.
On one hand we have a matter of mistaken identity of Naqeebullah Mehsud and extrajudicial brutal killing of Dr Prof Hassan Zafar Arif Naqvi and on other hand we have Qadri tearing apart the constitution and national narrative that was just announced by President of Pakistan.
So, the question is, why is he visiting Pakistan every few months, where he freely stages a protest and comes back empty handed back to Canada? Answer well known by his bosses, but his intentions are still conspicuous. As a Canadian, I must enlighten my readers in Pakistan that Shakoor Saheb is not a true representation of Canadian values and the humble democratic principles that we embrace, I on behalf of my fellow Canadians duly apologize to you that you all had to suffer with this agony, bigotry and intolerance, we don’t want him back, my humble request to Pakistani government, please try keeping him their as long as you can, as Canada’s soft image has already been tarnished enough by him.
The writer is a social and civil right activist and very vocal on Human Right violations across the globe. He works as Host/Producer (Current Affairs) at a leading news channel of North America. He can be reached at [email protected] and tweets @anis_farooqui
Published in Daily Times, January 22nd 2018.