Daily Times Editorials 12th September 2026

Right of Way

There is a reason why the assault case involving Karachi University professor Dr Arif Khan Saqi has sent shockwaves across the country. Most Pakistanis know this story well. Yes, they may not know the people involved, or where the altercation took place, but they know the script: armed guards, an argument with somebody who refuses to back down, and a sudden discovery that one side has considerably more muscle than the other.

According to Dr Saqi, the matter began when a vehicle hit the rented car being driven by his nephew. The exchange then turned violent, with firing, pistol blows, and the professor and his nephew being taken inside a nearby hotel, where they were kept against their will.

Pakistan has spent years discussing elite capture as though it were confined to tax exemptions, ministries and drawing-room politics. Most citizens meet it in less rarefied surroundings: on a road where one vehicle expects the others to move, at a police station where a surname may carry more weight than a complaint, or in discovering how quickly help can be summoned by those who already possess access to it.Gilgit Baltistan Updates

The attempted reconciliation is equally telling. The professor has refused to compromise, saying the principal accused should first face the law and publicly apologise. He has described his fight as being against a “culture of hooliganism,” rather than against any political party. A private settlement is not objectionable merely because one is sought, but Pakistan’s experience makes it reasonable to ask whether reconciliation remains entirely private when the bargaining strength of the parties is so obviously unequal.

Dr Saqi’s public standing has helped ensure that the case stayed in view. His university colleagues protested, the media followed developments, and the provincial government intervened. The more unsettling question concerns the citizen who has none of these advantages. The car at the centre of this dispute was being used by his nephew to earn a living. Had the same confrontation involved only a ride-hailing driver with no cameras waiting outside a police station, it is difficult to know whether the machinery would have moved with comparable speed.

Sindh has, meanwhile, only recently enacted a new law governing private security. The Sindh Private Security Act, 2026, provides a fresh regulatory framework for security companies and guards. The authorities therefore have straightforward questions to answer about the guards allegedly involved: who employed them, whether they were licensed, whether their weapons were lawfully held and what responsibility, if any, falls upon the company that supplied them. *

Quaid’s Pakistan?

The nation marked Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s 78th death anniversary on Friday with commemorative programmes and heartfelt homage. Yet this year’s official messages invited something more. President Asif Ali Zardari recalled a Pakistan in which Muslims could live free of majoritarian domination while people of other faiths lived peacefully according to their beliefs. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the finest tribute would be to leave future generations a country that truly reflected Jinnah’s vision.

Jinnah’s August 11 address clearly enunciated that Pakistanis were to be free to go to their temples, mosques and other places of worship, while the new state was to regard them as equal citizens. Just as importantly, he called the protection of life, property and religious belief through the maintenance of law and order the first duty of government.

Herein, the state’s record deserves acknowledgement. Minority citizens have reserved representation in legislatures, a five per cent quota in government employment and scholarship schemes. Parliament enacted the National Commission for Minorities Rights Act last year, while Human Rights Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said in August that the commission would soon be formally notified. Punjab’s Minority Card provides quarterly assistance to disadvantaged non-Muslim families. Restoration work is under way at Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Baoli Mandir and other historic religious sites.South Asians & Diaspora

There are also welcome signs that the state is learning how to confront one of the ugliest manifestations of religious vigilantism. By early August, registered blasphemy cases had fallen to 13 this year, roughly two-thirds below comparable periods in recent years. Even more encouragingly, data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project showed only one blasphemy-related riot or attack during the preceding 12 months.

One episode in Karachi deserves particular notice. When hundreds gathered outside the home of a Christian family following a blasphemy allegation in July, police did not surrender the street to the mob. An officer and his team confronted the crowd, invoked both law and religion, persuaded people to disperse and moved four women and a child to safety.

Yet these advances also sharpen attention on what remains undone. Constitutional protection is ultimately tested when a poor family reaches a police station, when a frightened girl appears before a magistrate, or when accusation begins to substitute for evidence. Pakistan’s own National Commission for Human Rights has described forced conversion through marriage as a grave concern disproportionately affecting minor girls and women from religious minority communities.Gilgit Baltistan Updates

So, is this the Quaid’s Pakistan? The answer cannot be compressed into a slogan. It exists wherever the Constitution protects a citizen without first asking his faith, and it recedes wherever fear overrides law. The most fitting tribute is to keep building the republic Jinnah described: secure in its Muslim identity, strong enough to protect diversity, and governed by a state whose promise of equal citizenship reaches every Pakistani. *