Chowrangi

Sometimes you can’t help wondering how our people can vote for such men. He seems to think that women are responsible for everything that’s wrong in the world. There was a time when practically all men blamed women for their troubles, but fortunately most educated people no longer think so. If you think that the Chief Minister is illiterate, think again. He’s got a degree in medicine, so he’s more educated than the average Pakistani politician. So why did he say (sometime back) that the summer rains which killed several people were the result of the sins and misdeeds of the victims? Again, when nine people were killed by billboards falling on them, he remarked that the billboards fell because they displayed pictures of “obscene” women. Obscenity is something that our old bearded politicians are obsessed with. They should be told that what is obscene to them may not necessarily be obscene to others. Besides, being a deeply religious person, the Chief Minister should’ve known that even pictures of men are forbidden. In any case if the pictures of obscenely dressed women were responsible for the billboards falling and killing nine people, why were more people killed in areas where there were no billboards at all?

But what the Chief Minister said the other day in Thatta proves that he is not living in the twenty first century but in the Stone Age. He said that a woman’s rule is a “curse”. Apparently he’s forgotten the support all religious leaders gave to Miss Fatima Jinnah in the elections of 1964 when she was the presidential candidate against the incumbent Ayub Khan. Later, during Benazir Bhutto’s tenure, the current leader of the opposition (Maulana Fazlur Rahman) was one of her advisors. But why should we be surprised that this man wants to prove that he desperately needs psychiatric treatment? There are hundreds of thousands of men like him all over the country who think that they will be contaminated if they accidentally touch a woman. Just our bad luck that we have such people in our midst. And what really hurts is that Musharraf should have selected this man to be the chief minister of our province. A man like him can never be enlightened or moderate. All that he can do is to make Pakistan a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

Other posts by Shakir Lakhani

• If Pakistan goes to war with United States of America - October 9th, 2008
• Killing of Christians in Secular India - October 1st, 2008
• Pakistan Muslims: so-called guardians of Islam - September 30th, 2008
• Mr. Zardari's offer to "hug" Ms Palin - September 26th, 2008
• Corruption decreases slightly in Pakistan - September 24th, 2008
• Rehman Malik should think before he talks - September 23rd, 2008
• Saudi cleric's fatwa to kill satellite TV station owners - September 19th, 2008
• How they treat cheaters in Egypt! - September 10th, 2008
• Is Zardari mentally fit to be President? - August 27th, 2008
• Why is Zardari against re-instatement of the Chief Justice? - August 21st, 2008