THE Senate was rightly outraged, on Wednesday, at the views of Pakistans Ambassador to the US, Mr Hussain Haqqani, about the country he is supposed to represent as well as the concept of jihad. Mr Haqqanis words, as published by Newsweek International and quoted by Senator Raja Zafar-ul-Haq (PML-N) on the floor of the Upper House, are: The problem began with the very existence of Pakistan as the country came into being in the name of Islam and the evil of jihad could not be controlled for this reason. This statement should have rendered him unfit to hold the high office, but in a most defiant move, which has become characteristic of President Zardari, he is reported to have given him an extension in service for a year, without even seeking the recommendations or views of the Foreign Ministry. It is immaterial whether the above quotation is an excerpt from a book he wrote before becoming the Ambassador, as Senator Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, the Leader of the House, has said in answering the voices of shame that came out of every corner of the Senate. If that is so, he should not have been nominated for the sensitive job, to begin with, let alone given extension; especially after these views became widely known and the exposure of his dirty role against the interests of Pakistan when the Kerry-Lugar bill was being debated in the Congress. Mr Zardari must immediately review the extension order and recall Mr Haqqani. The President should realise that such a derogatory statement is bound to inflame the sentiments of the entire nation and, indeed, the Muslim world. For one thing, Mr Haqqani is questioning the creation of Pakistan on the basis of Islam, thus turning a blind eye to the history of the freedom movement by the Muslims of the subcontinent, whose principal rationale was their flagrant discrimination at the hands of the Hindu majority. Muslims were being targeted as a community. For another, his blasphemous characterisation of jihad would even suggest that he has recanted Islam; for no Muslim, especially, the Jamaat-i-Islami-trained Haqqani would be unaware of the unambiguous Quranic injunction in this regard. Jihad is one of the fundamental tenets of Islam. Its denigration as evil questions the wisdom of Gods words and causes widespread indignation among Muslims everywhere. The Quran calls upon Muslims to do jihad, literally to make intense effort, to wage struggle against all forms of evil, and not just in the sense of waging wars deliberately propagated by the West. It would be the height of defiance to keep this man in any representative position of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.