Nawaz Sharif’s Ahmadi Brethren
Mian Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan has shown spine and sense in declaring Pakistan’s Ahmadi community as his brethren and national assets in recent days. I echo such sentiments and believe his intervention should be lauded and not politicised and moreover feel it was an essential act in service to the nation.
More importantly, Mian Nawaz Sharif’s statement will provide a small ray of hope to Pakistan’s minorities who are represented in the white of Pakistan’s Sabz-e-Hilali in name alone it seems in today’s Pakistan.
The killing of innocents in Ghari Shahu and Model Town in Lahore should have left all Pakistanis and Muslims in particular ashamed irrespective of the declared status of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan’s Constitution. The fact that only Mian Nawaz Sharif from the PMLN and Rehman Malik of the PPP have shown any kind of solidarity with the Ahmadi community since those evil attacks show how much work there is to do in the Quaid’s Pakistan.
I must state at the outset that the status of Ahmadis as Non-Muslims is non-negotiable as it is for good or bad a settled view in Pakistan today and is not likely to change. Thus the task ahead for the Muslims of Pakistan is how they will ensure in words and in deeds that the Ahmadi community and other minorities are treated and protected as assets of the country.
The real test for the Muslims of Pakistan is in ensuring that there are no more Gojra’s and Garhi Shahus. Let the Pakistanis of Pakistan rise and fall as Pakistanis alone honouring the Quaid’s unity, faith and discipline by remembering that ‘hum sab is parcham kay sayae talay aik hain’. Shehzad Roy’s song below says it all:
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD
