Daily Times

I did not know Asma Jahangir personally. I had heard her speak on numerous occasions since the late 1990s. However, I did not know her. I do not need to know her personally to mourn her untimely death. While watching her funeral on the TV, tears were rolling down my eyes as if I have lost a family member. I am not the only one who felt that way. All those who were at the funeral or were watching the funeral or knew her work felt the same way.

Asma was the source of certainty and positivity in these difficult times for Pakistan’s democracy. When anything would go wrong anywhere in Pakistan, you only need to turn to Asma to have her condemn it. Hers were not only the words. Not only the sharp, measured and well-spoken words. Her heart and soul was reflecting in those statements. Those were the not the empty, hollow words that appear before our eyes every now and then. Those were the words of someone who has toiled for decades for the rule of law, democracy and human rights. Someone who put the public interest before her personal interest. Someone who put her life in danger on countless times to say what needed to be said and the way it needed to be said. To tell us to let democracy continue. To prod us to fight obscurantism. To put up the fight for rights of brick-kiln workers and bonded labor. To give refuge to women who are escaping the so-called honor crimes.

She belonged to some other era. Someone recently said she was our moral compass. She was the moral compass for the entire Pakistani society because she lived her life as per the best ethical practices. Having been born into Pakistan where Faiz and Habib Jalib were still writing the poetry for the downtrodden, having been associated with family where her father preferred to go to jail fighting Ayub’s dictatorship over the daily comforts of life, having been part of Pakistan where there was more pluralism, diversity and tolerance; she imbibed those ethical values in her heart and soul and decided to take the road less travelled.

While our struggle would continue and she would continue to guide us through her well-lived illustrious, principled life

Now self-glorification and ego-driven ways of working are so common, yet she was different. She even defended those who opposed her bitterly or even made life difficult for her. She was beyond fame and egoism. She was following principles. She cared about civilian supremacy, women’s rights, workers rights and minorities’ rights.

She wanted due process even for those convicted by military courts. She was campaigning for those who are forcibly kidnapped and euphemistically called the “disappeared”. She has always opposed the military dictatorships and was staunchly against the military’s involvement in politics. She was against the judicial activism and its interference in executive affairs beyond its mandate.

The reason we all listened when she spoke because she carried that moral authority. The moral authority of having lived a life of a secular icon. She was neglecting her personal self to bring rule of law and human rights “an hour earlier” in a land where the forces of obscurantism have descended already. She would remove the mist of bigotry and dictatorship for our conscience with her clear-headed mind and compassionate heart. She would shine like a bright-lit star guiding us to move away from the moral, social and political descent. She was brining rule of law and human rights “an hour earlier” in a land where powerful institutes and personalities had already taken too many wrong turns on too many accounts. Asma was one-person self-correcting mechanism for Pakistan’s state and society. While our struggle would continue and she would continue to guide us through her well-lived illustrious principled life; we might even at the end of some long-drawn process achieve the rule of law and human rights; but it would not arrive for us ‘an hour earlier’ without her.

The writer has a social science background and can be reached on twitter @FoqiaKhan

Published in Daily Times, February 16^th 2018.