This refers to the editorial, “Persecuted in Pakistan” (February 2). You have rightly highlighted the tragedy of sectarian violence in Pakistan — the targeting of non-Sunni Muslims like Shias and Ahmadiyyas, in addition to the violence against non-Muslim minorities, namely, the Hindus and the Sikhs. Pakistan is a country born in hatred, thanks to its architect, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who suddenly realised the significance of secularism and the dangers of Islamic bigotry when it was too late. At any rate, his Sunni Muslim followers did not pay attention to his secular song.
Extremist violence and Islamic radicalism have assumed such alarming proportions that some enlightened journalists have called upon Islamabad to convene a conference of Pakistani intellectuals, historians, religious and secular scholars, to come out with a new ‘existential narrative of Pakistani nationhood' that can replace the failed one which exists on religious grounds. The failure had become all the more evident when East Pakistan broke off.