Why is Pakistan becoming so intolerant? Who is inciting violence across the country? Whose objectives are being served? Why have religious scholars become horribly extremists and staunch propagators of hatred and violence? What motivates university students to behave like uneducated religious fanatics? Has violence become a norm in Pakistan? Have we become a society where ‘mob justice’ will prevail? Are we living in the 21st century? And where does the problem lie?
If a person sitting in the United States or somewhere in India raises these questions, we may easily refuse to answer, claiming it’s a propaganda against a peace-loving Pakistani society.
But perhaps, very unfortunately, a student who was born in the 90s in Pakistan is witnessing all this, and raising these tough questions. There are multiple reasons behind the growing rate of extremism in Pakistan.
But for the sake of understanding and intellectual clarity, we can divide the problems/factors into two categories, eg primary and secondary factors. Former refers to the immediate factors leading to mob violence and politics of agitation, the later ones, however, refer to the broader policy failure, or absence of any comprehensive political framework to ensure order and stability in Pakistan.
As we know, students and professors at Punjab University have been experiencing violence and unrest since a long time. There are, argue analysts, ideologically motivated students and teachers at the campus, who want to have total control over the administration in order to advance their own political interests under the tag of religion.
“Shameful Propoganda”
Since the Punjab University is a host to students from multiple ethnic, religious and national identities, it has become difficult for one group to maintain its monopoly over the university. This is, as a rule, unacceptable for those who have been in-charge of almost everything at the campus.
Briefly, presence of multiple identities and their demand for their free cultural expression threatened the status quo at PU which ultimately led to violence. But now, it is becoming something more than that. Professors, who are sincere with the university and want a peaceful settlement of these disputes so that a peaceful environment be generated for rest of the students, are being blackmailed and threatened.
Ammar Ali Jan, a professor at the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, has become a latest target. He is being falsely accused “of spreading violence and ethnic tensions on campus”. It was sad to read his Facebook post where he shared details of the incident which led to the aforementioned propaganda against him.
Shameful propaganda by the administration of a Facebook page. They have accused me and my colleague of spreading violence and ethnic tensions on campus.Ammar Ali Jan in his Facebook post.
He also explained that he was directed by the Vice Chancellor to hold a meeting with the students sitting in front of the VC’s office.
The Professor Taught to Make Pakistan a Better Place
This is a sorry state of affairs where a teacher, who was asked by the administration to resolve the matter, has become the real target. He also mentioned that now he is receiving death threats by unidentified persons.
The post by ‘Punjab University News Alert’ [a Facebook page] completely misrepresents my position and paints me as a violent person… I have started receiving death threats after this post was shared, and if anything happens to me, I hold the administrators of Punjab University News Alert responsible for it.
As a matter of fact, I do not know Ammar Ali Jan personally, nor do I have any information regarding his ideological orientation. Moreover, I am absolutely not interested to know about his personal life, his political views, and ideological orientations. Whatever he has or holds, I believe, is his personal life, and, as an intellectual norm, I am supposed to respect his views and ideological position.
He has also mentioned that after finishing his PhD from the University of Cambridge in England, he decided to teach at public universities where students do not get opportunities as compared to those studying at private institutions. His mission is to give opportunities to the “students from humble backgrounds” who can make Pakistan a better place.
In Pakistan, we have seen the lynching of a student at Mardan University, who was mobbed because some false allegations of blasphemy were leveled against him. Later on, we all came to know how dirty politics at the campus played its part in mobbing a young student who was critical of the administration’s policies.
Frankly, politicisation of religion is the most effective tool of religious/political extremists against the ideological rivals in Pakistan. And under the same cover, traitors are now made and unmade to fashion self-defined ideological goals. Groups are trying at PU to bring Ammar Ali’s matter under the latter category. Furthermore, at policy level, we have seen incompetent, self-centered people, who believe nepotism is running our institutions.
From political parties to the university administration, every other person is where he should have not been. This is a political policy failure which does not allow institutions to work independently or grow smoothly.
To conclude; let the citizens wake up on who will make their leaders and bosses accountable. I hope PU administration works seriously to ensure the safety of Ammar Ali Jan.
(Farah Adeed is a research associate at Global Village Space in Pakistan. He can be reached at @Farah_Adeed. This is a personal blog and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)