Shanaakht

Our country is a fascist mess. Yes, that's exactly what it is. The aspirations, the ambitions and hopes and dreams of the many are perpetually held ransom by the egos of a few.
I've been meaning to talk about this for a long time- but unfortunately, i don't have much to say that hasn't already been said. Barbaric reactions to educated, passive, and otherwise peaceful freedom of expression is somewhat of a cultural necessity. It seems to bring out the paranoid opportunist in those in power.
In 2005, i was a student in the Punjab college of business administration- also known as PCBA/PICS. I was also the coordinator (Read: president) of the Media and Cultural Club- which was the sole student society on campus worth mentioning right then. That position effectively made me the most prominent student on campus.
On the 15th of February, a member of faculty viciously attacked a student on campus- one of my members, leaving his finger broken in three places, his wrist hyper extended, and his back bruised in the shape of the professor's hand prints (The professor was a large and powerful man). The student endured all these things as well as punches and slaps on his face and kicks to his stomach.
The following morning, an 'inquiry' was launched. The student was hospitalized, and the professor came and went to his lectures on campus like nothing at all had happened.
The students were obviously disgusted and decided to have a token protest- knowing full well that the draconian administrative culture of our college would strike at us relentlessly if we were to have a strike. So, being the wise and cautious students we were (and at my urging to not get too passionate/violent) we decided to have a token protest- meaning that we did everything normally, attending classes et al, but with the addition of wearing paper badges reading 'next time, it could be you'.
To make a long story short, me, and two friends were expelled as 'ringleaders'. and two girls were heavily fined for daring to talk to the administration about this.
The story ended with me petitioning the governor (Khalid Maqbool- awesome man) for an independent tribunal and being reinstated (along with the rest of the expelled students).
But the point is, the same fascist mentality is exuded. I remember how hard i had worked for my club and college, and how broken hearted i was when they did this to me- and my heart goes out to Amean J., Sharmeen Obaid, and the rest of the organizers, because i know what they are going through in exponentially more intense.
The fact is that this feudal mentality (I refuse to believe that PPP supporters just 'showed up'- this looks obviously orchestrated to me) of ours is dooming our entire country. A so-=called liberal party has shown its ugly draconian underbelly.
How can we, as educated and well exposed citizens, not condone this?
Please dont give me any male chauvinist crap about honor and women, and 'shaheed' benazir bhutto.
The fact is, that the truth, by its very nature, defies the tst of time. It defies the test of circumstance, and of opinion. If PPP supporters truly believe that Benazir was that great, something like this should not faze them in the least. We are, after all, talking about the same woman who laughed at Ali Saleem's parody of her live.
Yes, i do personally hink the photo itself was in bad taste- but that is completely besides the point. It was an opinion- and by the very basic intellectual respect of thought- deserved to be expressed.
Shame on us.