The apprehension of Professor Dr. Riaz Ahmed of Karachi University is a stain on the state's honour- Altaf Hussain

My aspiration is to safeguard Pakistan, and for this, the people of Punjab must take a proactive stance

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On August 31, 2024, there was a meeting of the Syndicate of Karachi University, which was about the questions raised regarding the degree of Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri of the Islamabad High Court. Justice Jahangiri is one of the 6 judges of the Islamabad High Court who jointly wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Qazi Faiz Essa, in March 2024, stating that the ISI was pressuring them to make decisions according to its wishes. They were being harassed by the ISI, and secret cameras were installed in their homes, even in their bedrooms, to blackmail them. Their privacy is severely threatened, and their lives have been made miserable, but these judges of the Islamabad High Court have not yet received justice. Instead, propaganda was first spread on social media against Justice Jahangiri, claiming that his degree was fake. Then this matter was brought to the Syndicate of University of Karachi. Prof. Dr Riaz Ahmed, a member of the Syndicate, raised the question that according to the rules, the person against whom the complaint is made should also be called. However, to keep Professor Dr Ahmed out of the Syndicate meeting, masked individuals abducted him in a Vigo vehicle. He was kept in illegal detention all day, mentally tortured, and released at night. Prof. Dr Ahmed is a truthful and principled person. In 2017, Rangers also arrested Prof. Dr Ahmed from the Karachi Press Club when he arrived there with other teachers and students to hold a press conference against the arrest of Prof. Dr Hassan Zafar Arif of the Philosophy Department of University of Karachi. A false case of weapons was made against him. The arrest of Prof. Dr Ahmed, his illegal detention, and the mental and physical torture inflicted on him is not a minor incident but one that deserves the worst possible condemnation. I slam this incident and demand action against those involved in this heinous act. The Syndicate meeting of University of Karachi should be reconvened, and the participation of all members, including Prof. Dr Ahmed, should be ensured. Justice Jahangiri should also be called to the meeting, and questions about his degree should be asked in the presence of all members, giving him an opportunity to present his stance. I question why there was no uproar in the electronic and print media over the abduction and illegal detention of Prof. Dr Ahmed. If Prof. Dr Ahmed had been from Punjab, would all the TV channels in the country and the journalists, TV show presenters, and political and defence analysts from Punjab have remained silent?Dr Ahmed wanted to raise his voice against the arrest of Prof. Dr Arif of University of Karachi in 2017. After being released on bail from jail, the ISI abducted him on January 13, 2018, and brutally tortured and killed him. His body was found in a deserted coastal area of Karachi. I question whether the journalists, intellectuals, and people of Punjab raised their voices against the abduction and extrajudicial killing of Prof. Dr Arif. If Prof. Dr Arif had been from Punjab, would they have remained silent?The TV channels, journalists, show presenters, and political and defence analysts of Punjab mention the murder of anchor Arshad Sharif from Punjab in the same way. "Similarly, do they mention Muhajir journalist Saleem Shahzad from Karachi, who was brutally killed by the ISI after being abducted from Islamabad, and his tortured body was thrown into a river? Do journalists, TV show presenters, and analysts from Punjab mention Sajid Baloch, a Baloch journalist who was kidnapped and murdered by the ISI in April 2020 in Sweden, and whose body was later found in the Fyris River? Why don’t the journalists, TV show presenters, and analysts from Punjab talk about the Baloch human rights activist Karima Baloch, who was kidnapped and killed by the ISI in Toronto, Canada?Were Prof. Dr Arif, Saleem Shahzad, Sajid Baloch, and Karima Baloch are not human beings? What about the journalists, lawyers, and intellectuals killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan - were they not human beings? Are only those considered humans who only hail from Punjab. The journalists, anchors, analysts, political and defence commentators, students, teachers, and the general public of Punjab need to change this mindset that only the murder of someone from Punjab is condemnable. Murder of an innocent person particularly on ethnic grounds is unacceptable. Remember that the blood is the same everywhere. Just as a Punjabi feels pain at a murder, so do Baloch, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Muhajirs, Seraikis, Kashmiris, Gilgit-Baltistanis. Injustice, wherever it occurs, must be called out as such. If the journalists, intellectuals, analysts, and people of Punjab continue to overlook the murders and injustices committed against people from other ethnicities, this attitude will not help sustain the unity and safety of Pakistan. I want to save Pakistan, and for this, the people of Punjab must take the lead.

ALTAF HUSSAIN

(Address to the audience over a thoughtful academic session)