The Supreme Court (SC) after a lapse of two years has accepted Zaid Hamid’s petition seeking a treason trial against some senior journalists who also happen to be associated with the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA). The allegation against SAFMA and the journalists is that they have been busy subverting and undermining the Two-Nation Theory and the glory of Islam. The petition even implicates the ministry of information and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate for allowing such treacherous activities to continue.
When the petition was first moved in 2012, it was rejected on some legal flaws by the SC’s registrar. Since then the petition had not been bought forward and neither did Zaid Hamid try to push the case. Its sudden acceptance, especially in the aftermath of the attack on Hamid Mir makes the whole affair rather intriguing. Why would the SC take up a petition now against the journalists, one of whom is Hamid Mir and some others when an application has been filed by in the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) against the television channel Mir works for to cancel its licence? Already petitions after petitions are being filed against the media group in question, most of them having been turned down by the courts. What persuaded the SC to intervene in a situation that is going to reinvent a new controversy?
Before this messy game of accusing fellow Pakistanis for their unpatriotic stance begins, it seems pertinent to question how the Two-Nation Theory and the glory of Islam are to be defined. Is there any unified and consensual definition of the Two-Nation Theory? Even if we manage one, is not the very idea behind this theory —there were two nations in India, Hindu and Muslim — irrelevant after the creation of Pakistan? Once Pakistan was created, the driving force of the Two-Nation Theory should have logically come to an end. On the definition of the glory of Islam, what scale would be used to measure it? Would it be checked against a Pakistani’s position on India, the US or Afghanistan or will there be some deeper scrutiny on morality, etc? Filing a petition on such vague concepts would only muddy the waters further and simply be a waste of time in defining things that do not really matter at the present.*