ISLAMABAD - Islamabad had consistently been in the headlines in Pakistan and abroad in the recent weeks for all the wrong reasons.
This is not the first time Pakistani capital has increasingly been in the news without a good reason. The city is characterized by calm and cool streets. Nevertheless panic has walked its streets before but this time around it was of a different kind. The city grabbed headlines first in the case of the daughter of Afghanistan Ambassador to Pakistan Najibullah Alikhil who was “assaulted” and “manhandled” by unknown persons in Islamabad on July 16. Then the murder and recovery of Noor Muqaddam’s headless corpse on July 20 shook the nation. Urban flooding in Islamabad was also a surprise for many which claimed two precious lives in sector E-11 on July 28 and in the latest occurrence, an obscene photo shoot overshadowed Quaid’s portrait of Unity, Faith & Discipline installed along the Islamabad Expressway near Koral. Two young members of a band — a man and a woman — can be seen wearing clothing considered “offensive or disgusting” by accepted standards of morality and decency. The pictures of the band circulating on social media became the talk of the town and stirred a controversy on the social media.
Silsila Alikhil, the daughter of Afghanistan Ambassador to Pakistan Najibullah Alikhil, had alleged that she was assaulted and manhandled by unknown persons in Islamabad. Immediately after her claim, the Islamabad Police launched a thorough investigation. Senator Sherry Rehman termed the incident an attack on Pakistan and the values the nation stands for. Prime Minister Imran Khan directed Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed to utilise all resources to apprehend the persons involved in the kidnapping of the daughter of Afghan Ambassador in Islamabad. However, during the investigation, Silsila remained tight-lipped at evidence. Later, addressing a news conference along with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf, the capital’s police chief said that the evidence that the police gathered didn’t corroborate with what the ambassador’s daughter Silsila Alikhil stated in her complaint. However, by that time, the damage had been done to Pakistan’s repute.
Islamabad means Pakistan, especially for the world abroad. The case involving Silsila Alikhil, the daughter of Afghan ambassador grabbed the attention of the BBC, The Economic Times, DW, Al Jazeera, and many other international news outlets and the Indian media also played with what later turned out to be a fabricated story. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid later while denying the abduction of the daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad said that it was part of the efforts by the “international racket” led by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to defame Pakistan.
The murder and the brutality with which Noor Muqaddam was beheaded brought a bad name to the country. The incident suggested that Pakistan was no country for women. The local police have been utilizing all the available resources to reach the truth and bring the culprit to justice yet the brutality of the murder is not subsiding. According to Mahtab Bashir, a local journalist, the murder of Noor Muqaddam in Islamabad on July 20, 2021 did not capture the attention of the public because of the prominence of the parents (her father was a former ambassador, the accused is the scion of a well-known business family), or the brutality of the killing (which included a beheading), but the garish light it threw on a society where a toxic misogyny combined with a social penchant to violence is not so much condemned. Noor’s is a test case for the authorities and the prosecutors, investigators, and the witnesses to withstanding the pressure from the perpetrators. It must not be a replay of the early release of the man who stabbed Khadija Siddiqui 23 times in broad daylight in 2016.
Coming to the flash flood in Islamabad, it seems that the spell was a wakeup call for the authorities. Things may seem perfect on part of the administration but that isn’t always the case. The incident involving the death of two persons speaks a lot of the deep slumber the authorities have been in since long. At least two people, including a minor, were killed when water entered homes in Islamabad’s sector E-11 on July 28. The deaths grabbed headlines for days while CDA, the management of the housing society and the ICT administration kept holding one another responsible for the same. Sector E-11 was not under CDA. The sector is not managed by the Authority, rather it was the housing society to blame for the human loss, was the answer from the CDA administration. The flood situation in sector E-11 was created due to the poor performance of the management of the housing society which doesn’t have the machinery even to deal with the flood situation, said the CDA further. However, documents revealed that it was the CDA which itself narrowed the nullah in sector E-11/2 from 40 feet to 18 feet, which caused urban flooding leading to the casualties. According to the reports, CDA itself approved narrowing of the nullah in E-11/2 from 40 feet to 18 feet. A layout plan was approved in 2007, in which the width of the said nullah was 40ft, but in 2012, the society got its layout plan ratified in which the width of the nullah was reduced to 18ft with cover in street 2 by the CDA’s Planning Wing. The society also covered the narrowed nullah by building a road and carving commercial and residential plots on both sides of it.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat said in a message on Twitter that cloudburst in Islamabad caused flooding in various areas, a statement contradicted by the Met Office. Contrary to the Deputy Commissioner’s statement, the Met office claimed that no cloudburst was reported in the jurisdiction of Islamabad. Islamabad received heavy monsoon rains, it said, adding that 123mm rain was recorded in the capital.
And in the latest development, an obscene photo shoot by a young boy and a girl under the shades of the 60ft long and 50ft wide portrait of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah along the Islamabad Expressway surfaced on social media a few days back. Social media users had mixed feelings about the shots grabbed while standing under the shade of Quaid’s portrait coupled with the saying “Unity,” “Faith,” and “Discipline.” Some called it unethical to pose this way in front of Quaid’s image. Yet they said, “There are many more far worse things happening in the city. Maybe focus on those.” Some demanded immediate arrest of the couple while the others asked the administration to keep focusing on the issues the capital is facing these days such as illegal constructions causing flooding, drugs, etc. The capital city district administration could know about the incident only after a hue and cry on the social media. A senior journalist called attention of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad towards the issue and demanded arrest of the couple who “displayed extreme obscenity in public in the federal capital” and the Deputy Commissioner replied, “Anyone with any information may plz share with us.” Some comments came right for the place of the shoot on social media with the majority of people objecting to the choice of the clothing used in the photo shoot. “Who gave them the permission,” asked one Twitter user. According to the reports, Khanna police have registered a case in this regard. There was also a debate whether the couple should be punished for the ‘crime’ or whether there are many more important issues for the city administration to focus upon.
The portrait of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah with new features as Unity, Faith, and Discipline was inaugurated on March 23 this year. It was previously constructed in 2005 during Gen Pervez Musharraf’s tenure. However, in August last year, it collapsed due to heavy rain. This new portrait is capable of withstanding harsh weather but supposedly not indecency.