It has only been a day since the tragic accident at Neelum Valley’s Kundal Shahi bridge where a group of medical students met a tragedy. The group of students were there on a retreat after their final year medical exams.
According to media reports, the search and rescue operation is still undergoing. Pakistan Army has assisted a hand in the operation and so far 6 people have been recovered out of which 3 people are in critical condition. 4 people have died as well.
On top of the uproar this has caused on social media, the debate of who is at fault is rampant. People are on the fence about whether to blame the local government for not actively strengthening the bridge as locals say that the bridge only had the capacity to hold 5 or 6 people at most. The incident is truly unfortunate and exemplary of always following proper caution on warning signs and to take serious note of them.
However, one person on facebook took the cake home with her argument of why and how the bridge collapsed and who is at fault.
Guys meet Humna Nadeem. Pakistan’s premiere conspiracy theorists and analyst on issues well beyond her control or domain. Since posting this obnoxious post, she has since deleted it but the fact that there are people in Pakistan with his mindset is troubling and alarming for many of us.
I would like to point out that she is not a run of the mill woman. She is well educated, learned and has travelled countries as a speaker, trainer and educationist. She has met people from other countries, experienced various cultures and holds an impressive amount of professional accolades. But despite all of these, it is saddening to see what she wrote as her reasons for the bridge collapsing.
Humna goes to say the bridge collapsed because of the girls who were on the retreat were there without “Non Mehrams” and as such God grew angry and the Almighty punished the women along with the men in the shape of collapsing the bridge. She also goes on to say alot of things detrimental to the respect of the dead by justifying her argument using contextual snippets of Islamic law that we as Pakistanis like to throw around. We have only managed to screenshot a snippet of the part of the argument she made public on her facebook profile.
The irk and criticism she drew on her post grew steadily and significantly as people poured in their comments and views. Some called her right but admonished her still for disrespecting the dead while others were a little more harsh in their opinions.
Pakistan has still to unfortunately shake off the post Zia regime Islamist laws. These laws and the strict turn around of the country to become an Islamic republic is still haunted us to this day with hate crime against religious minorities on the rise, using religion as a power tool to committ acts of terrorism, and justifying laws that discriminate against non muslims residing in the country becoming quite normal. The country is steadily becoming cesspool of extremist ideologies and religious oppression.
So when highly educated, sane and knowledgeable people give rise to these kinds of narratives, it is very trouble for a country like Pakistan. But then again narratives like these provide a stark reality of the difference between education and knowledge.
Humna has since then deleted the post she made public. Maybe she had a change of perspective or she grew tired of the criticism and irk she drew over her words.
Correction: Pakiholic will ask her to comment TODAY and is hoping she will respond.
