VIEW: A wise gesture

The Indian newspaper the Indian Express has taken note of an event which it thinks ‘rare in the political history of this Islamic Republic of Pakistan’: President Musharraf visited a Hindu temple in Karachi and said, ‘Places of worship of all religions, including Hinduism, were an integral part of the culture of Pakistan and its geographical history. Maintaining such properties in good condition is a government priority in order to turn them into sites of bonding between religions’.

This is a measure of how Pakistan under President Musharraf has changed even under the onslaught of radical Islamists and jihadists who have street power. Politicians must take heart from the way the common man feels and make it a practice to come to the help of the minorities in the religious state, especially as it in no way violates the edicts of Islam. It denoted self-confidence when Chaudhry Shujaat welcomed the BJP leader LK Advani and when the chief minister of Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, welcomed his Punjabi counterpart from India in Lahore and improved the conditions of the Sikh holy place in Nankana Sahib. The Hindus of Karachi say that ‘their life has gotten better after Musharraf came to power’. It should be noted that one of the last ceremonies that the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, attended before he passed away was a Christian ceremony. Later, leaders forgot this precedent and got busy declaring their own Muslim brethren as non-Muslims instead of looking after the non-Muslims. *