Proshikha and the government

It is beyond even the slightest doubt that this government is acting most arbitrarily with Mr. Ahmed and using the law not as an instrument of justice but clearly as an instrument of oppression. In being oppressive, the government is also being utterly mean and most ridiculous. A quote in the column of a senior government official of the home ministry saying that Mr. Ahmed has to be taught a lesson says it all.

My own knowledge about Proshikha and related developments are all gathered from the newspapers and articles like this one of Zafar Sobhan. It seems that a lot of wrath that has now come upon Mr. Ahmed has been due to his activities while he was leading Proshikha prior to his arrest nearly two months ago. We read of the controversies between the government and the donor agencies and the report of the audit and all the rest. It seems that Mr. Ahmed has brought upon himself a great deal of the government's anger because of his public statements where he even went to the extent of blaming the son of the prime minister for corruption.

We condemn the government's dealing with this case. Nevertheless, we need also to focus on the activities of Mr. Ahmed prior to his incarceration. He was leading an NGO and not a political party. What business did he have in making political statements?

Thus while the government is being utterly mean and arbitrary with this case, one should not get the feeling that the government is harassing a man who has done nothing to have the long arm of the law come down upon him. Our appeal to the government is to stop harassing Mr. Ahmed and deal with him in a civilised fashion.

Zafar Sobhan's article (The case of Qazi Faruque Ahmed - Making mockery of justice, July 17, 2004) on government's deliberate and calculated brutal repression of Kazi Faruque Ahmed makes me sick. I pray you, no I beseech you, please do something about it. Long ago, in the mid-nineteenth century, injustice done to a comparatively less known army officer Alfred Dreyfus, made a writer-editor like you take up his pen and write J'Accuse which created history and proved once again that the pen was mightier than the sword.

I consider Qazi Faruque's case no less important. We are, it seems, in the midst of a new Ayyaam-e-Zaheliat. I, therefore, beseech you to take up your pen and make other editors like you, take up their pens and write another J'Accuse and save our faith in justice saving Qazi Faruque from the blind wrath of the mighty.

AZM Abdul Ali, On e-mail