Treason Against Reason?

Treason against Reason?

Two statements have been circulating in my head since the last few days, the first one is by George Orwell,

“In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act”

the second is a piece of poetry by Revolutionary poet, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, 

Nisar teri galiyo pe ae watan kay jahan
Chali hai Rasm kay koi na sarr utha kay chalay.
Jo Koi Chahnay Wala Tawaaf ko Niklay,
Nazar Jhuka kay Chalay, Jism o Jaan Bacha Kay Chalay.
(Translation: -  My salutations to thy sacred streets, O beloved nation! Where a tradition has been invented- that none shall walk with his head held high. If at all one takes a walk, a pilgrimage. One must walk, eyes lowered, the body crouched in fear)"

It all started with an e-mail. Few days ago, I got an e-mail from a friend which contained a webpage link and the message that this is Urgent and we should do something about it. I know that person through a particular association and I expected the link to lead me to a particular page. I clicked on the link and Lo and Behold. A sumptuous statement was present on the “Official” Facebook Page of Mr. Zaid Zaman Hamid.

“Allahu Akbar!!!!

Today, we have filed a Petition in the Supreme Court against SAFMA for High Treason against Pak Sarzameen, its sacred ideology, its beloved founding fathers and waging a war against Pak Sarzameen, armed forces and our freedom on behalf of the enemies.

We have demanded Death Penalty under article 6 High Treason law for All SAFMA leaders, members and supporters. Now these snakes will be dragged to the court and confronted with their crimes against Pak Sarzameen”.

I was not very surprised by this development as Zaid Hamid has been trying to raise hue and cry after he was publicly humiliated on Express News by Ali K Chishti and Hasan Nisar. The above-stated statement is not only funny; Zaid Hamid can himself be dragged to court on “defamation charges” for his diatribes. His pet army, namely Pakistan Cyber Force is also active and has been releasing ridiculous videos against SAFMA and progressive newspapers such as Express tribune. A closer look at the said “petition” reveals more about Zaid Hamid himself than SAFMA members.

Omar Ali, a blogger, wrote the following about the petition

“Zaid Hamid, a clown promoted by the security establishment (and very popular among the burger jihadi crowd, as can be seen by the comment in the link), or at least, by the jihadi faction of the security establishment for years, has now filed a petition in the Supreme court of Pakistan to bring anti-Islam and ante-Pakistan forces to heel. Most of those named in the petition are associated with SAFMA (South Asian Free Media Association), a group that has done great work to promote dialog between journalists in South Asia”

Some interesting observations about the petition are as follows:-

1. Zaid Hamid is introduced as “founding President of an International threat analysis consultancy and defense think tank". (This is a clear sign of Delusional Grandeur. This guy should visit a Psychiatrist, not the Court).

2. The petition makes Director General of a notorious establishment agency (which were probably his handlers some time ago) as respondents in the petition.

3. The petition mentions that "many of the most senior and patriotic analysts of Pakistan have raised serious objections over SAFMA”. (No names have been provided by the petitioner although we all know the member of the “Ghairat Brigade”).

4. He has accused the respondents of “Trying to project Quaid-e-Azam as secular leader, lowering the image of Allama Iqbal, aggressively attacking the image of armed forces and ISI”.
(Zaid Hamid probably has never heard of the phrase “Difference of Opinion”)

5. He accused them of “having done great damage to the ideology of Pakistan, sprit of Objectives Resolution and Islamic clauses of the constitution”.
(Apart from “Difference of Opinion”, only legislators can “damage” clauses in the Constitution, which none of the accused are.)

6. About his own credentials, he had to say this,
“The Petitioner is an internationally known security, defense and threat perception analyst and runs a Think tank called BrassTacks whose defense and threat perception studies are widely circulated, read and acknowledged by friendly countries national and international media. Jordanian Strategic Study Institute declared him in 2010 and 2011 as one of the most influential five hundred Muslims living in the World today.”
(The list is NOT compiled by “Jordanian Strategic Study Institute” but by “Royal Institute of Strategic Islamic Studies” and the validity of this list can be gauged by the fact that in 2010, it included General Ashfaq Kayani, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Dr Maleeha Lodhi,Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Mohammed Abdul Wahab, Amir of Tablighi Jamaat; Justice Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, Shaikh Mohammad, founder of the International Islamic Propagation Centre (IIPC), Maulana Shah Hakeem Muhammad Akhtar, a Sufi scholar of the Ashrafia order based in Karachi, Dr Farhat Hashmi, Sheikh Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadri, Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Secretary General of Jamiat Ulema-Islam Sindh, Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui, , Junaid Jamshed, Abida Parveen, Zaid Hamid and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.)

7. There are countless silly spelling mistakes in the petition, such as
“Weather it is not a fact that”.

8. The famous Conspiracy Theory narrative of Zaid Hamid is also part of the petition,
“Whether it is not a fact that Pakistan is in a state of existential war, under attack from multiple axis. The objective of this war is to balkanize the country on the pattern of Yugoslavia”.
and
“Whether it is not a fact that Pakistan is facing an existential war for its survival today, because of treacherous role of some elements within Pakistani media and especially the group called SAFMA working under the umbrella of Free Media foundation”.

9. The famous "Zaid Hamid-ism" of accusing people and jumping to conclusions based on nothing is visible in the text as well.
“Whether it is not a fact that SAFMA is creating Moral and social anarchy through filthy Indian media, secular or Hindu ideology, vulgarity, Hindu culture is spreading immoral values repugnant of Islamic and local cultures”.
In these lines, the petitioner is arbitrarily passing judgment on Hindu Culture as “immoral and vulgar” while forgetting that hundreds of thousands of Hindus are part of Pakistan as well.

10. The petitioner has also tried to define what according to him is the basis of Pakistan and he wants the court to proceed based on “his” definitions.
“That Pakistan is an ideological Islamic State created on the basis of Two Nations Theory to be made a homeland for Muslims of the sub-continent to live and carve their lives according to Quran and Sunnah and teachings of Islam individually and collectively.”

11. The petition also peddles the Conspiracy theory that Separation of East-Pakistan was solely because of Indian influence and not because we denied them their rights for 25 years.
“In 1971, they [India] attacked East Pakistan, supported insurgencies, spread lies and disinformation and worked hard to dilute the Two Nation Theory by promoting provincial hatred resulting in breakup of Pakistan. Indira Gandhi took pride not in the military victory but in the fact that they had dismantled the Ideological Pillar of Pakistan, “The Two Nation Theory”

12. The petitioner himself has tried to spread mis-information and accused SAFMA of many things without giving any concrete evidence of Proof. For the record, SAFMA is provided funding by Norway and Netherlands mostly.
“It should be noted that SAFMA is a covert operation of Indian establishment and Raw and such operations rarely have any audited bank statements, hence depend upon secret funding, briefcases and envelopes. The lavish SAFMA lifestyles and spending are serious circumstantial evidence to their secret foreign founding.” 

Feisal H Naqvi, a Supreme Court lawyer, wrote in the Express Tribune today,

“Legally and logically, the petition is rubbish. To begin with, critical analysis will not lead to the physical disintegration of Pakistan. Pakistan has been criticized ever since its birth; it has yet to disappear let alone “automatically crumble.” In any event, we no longer live in a world in which it is possible to wall off all criticism: unless you live in North Korea, those days are over.

More importantly, the accusations being made by Mr. Hamid are no laughing matter. While Pakistan has increasingly adopted freedom of speech as a core value, nobody has sympathy for RAW agents. To accuse somebody of being an Indian agent is therefore a deliberate attempt to short-circuit all critical thinking and instead provoke a violent response.”

While I do not have enough legal acumen to know whether this petition will be admitted by the honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan or not, I have full belief that IF it happens, Zaid Hamid and his “true colors” will be evident for all to see.

also published in Zaid Hamid's favorite newspaper i.e. Express Tribune