Daily Times

Given our chequered history with cases of sexual abuse, it was pleasantly surprised to see Mufti Aziz behind bars after a video of him molesting his student made rounds on media. Justice seemed to be making some headway. Finally. But even before the fireworks went up, the tale seems to have taken some mysterious turns.

Clearly, it was too much to hope for the government to finally put its foot down and deal with the matter of child abuse in religious seminaries; something that is always brushed under the carpet out of fear of accused clerics invoking religious sentiments of their students and followers to muddy the waters and even cause harm to their accusers more than anything else. However, since this episode of a very senior mufti blackmailing and sexually molesting a madrassa student for years came with video proof and a solid confession, the government’s lack of support is all the more tragic.

Special Assistant to PM on Religious Harmony Maulana Tahir Ashrafi has called for exemplary punishment. Other than that the government didn’t, sadly, do much. It didn’t blow the lid off the whole thing, order a very serious and thorough inquiry or even lift a finger to cleanse our seminaries–where our children go to study the Quran–of an evil that everybody knows has been present for a very long time. Instead, it chose to stay mum. Now, it has only itself to blame if a very disappointed civil society is accusing it of pandering to the extreme right to protect what is left of its core voter base–regardless of the moral and societal cost. As the investigation rolls on, the formal medical test is said to have found no proof of a sexual assault. Not so strange, considering that the video was made months, if not years, ago. Plainly put, it has been simply too long for the attacker’s DNA to remain on the victim’s body.

What is strange, however, is that Aziz ur Rahman has now gone back on his confession even though the official forensic report of the video proves its authenticity and rules out any “editing.” If history is even a very vague guide, you can expect his support base to mobilise. Pressure is bound to mount on the victim to withdraw his case. That this is happening right under the government’s nose and it is very conveniently looking the other way sets yet another very disturbing precedent, which is cause for very serious concern. Even Maulana Fazlur Rahman, whose JUI-F suspended Mufti Aziz’s membership, hasn’t uttered a word about this incident and the concern such things cause in society. The government must take very urgent and serious note of this particular incident and see that it is not handled in isolation. It must, therefore, order an inquiry into this matter and make sure no student ever feels threatened or is molested at a seminary ever again. *