It is but a finger

On fracture and futility

Hassan Rehman

These miscreants never learn. Baton-charged by police, beaten up by Jamiat members, slapped around by security guards at Punjab College, tortured by the Lord Mayor’s goons, they go on indulging in politically incorrect activities.

The point today is that it’s only a finger, nothing more – so no mourning please (we are not of those who indulge in exercises innately futile).

But who told the activists (the “prig-est” of us all??) that Musharraf would shower flower petals on them when they walked on Constitution Avenue for the restoration of the free judiciary? Or that the Police would offer them fruit and juices when they tried to go to the house of detained Chief Justice? Or that the Frontier Constabulary would garland them for their self-righteousness?

Point: if the finger has been fractured, it is solely the fault of the activist. If he was anxious about something, that apparently so few in this country consider wrong, he should have sent an email to his colleagues, or, for that matter, sent an SMS to his friends, or, if the anxiety taxed him beyond endurance, published an article in a newspaper – why take to the ROADS? Jahil qaum. Bloody fool.

Didn’t he read what Ghalib so presciently declared more than a century ago? ‘Jisko ho jaan-o-dil azeez, uski gali may jayay kyoon?’

And that was just one point.

- Maybe he was a CIA agent – trying to destabilize Pakistan (for which he and his fellow activists were baton-charged)
- Maybe he was a zealot produced by some Madressah – trying to spread hatred (for which he and his fellow activists were suffered tear-gas)
- Maybe he and his fellow activists were yahoodi agents, planted to defame Islam (that’s why the Police did not disclose the location of the lock-up where they were kept, lest their friends manage to provide them food and blankets)
- Maybe he was a miscreant, who earned impressive grades from UET and taught at FAST later, only to disguise his real motive – destroying Pakistan (for which he and his fellow activists were dragged on the road leading to the residence of detained Chief Justice)
- Maybe he was some lunatic escaped from a mental hospital – and was a danger for law and order (that’s why his finger was fractured)And that was just one angle.

Had he got an iota of sense,

- He should have waited till millions came on to the roads to protest (why go NOW when there are so few incensed by the rout of the judiciary?)
- He should have struggled to make the people ‘naik’ and ‘saleh’. When people become naik, society gets better – and no Jurnail would then dare to slaughter the Constitution. And – lest the non-believers are confused – it is the ONLY road to salvation.
- He should have gone to a psychiatrist, if what gets reported on newspapers and TV channels these months was making him incensed, agitated and restless.

Verdict: It’s only a finger, and it’s he who is solely responsible for its fracture.

Suggestion: The State together with the sane members of the society should get his remaining bones insured, since these miscreants (euphemism: activists) never learn.