“Give us fifteen years, and we will produce a generation capable of overcoming the deprivations of the past eighty years.”

WHEN Dr Khurshid Ahmad Nadeem made this statement at the third annual Seerat Festival of the National Rahmatul-lil-Aalameenwa Khatam-un-Nabiyyin Authority, the past fifteen years flashed before my eyes. A generation has emerged detached from reason and reflection, consumed by hatred. Those its members dislike are denied even their humanity, let alone their rights. Abuse extends to their opponents’ mothers, sisters and daughters. For them, faith, justice and law matter only when they serve their egos; an even-handed balance of justice is treated as an affront. Recently, I met a young man who had left Pakistan for Britain but claimed immense “love” for his country. He lectured me on the rule of law. I described how I had lost my university job and had my bank accounts frozen without prior notice. How, I asked, could such treatment be justified? He replied without hesitation: “You must have done something; otherwise, why would they have done it?” Due process and the rights even of an accused person meant nothing to him. My supposed fault was simply that I had served as an adviser to the late President Mamnoon Hussain.

This is one example of what such a mindset can produce. Differences do not automatically become hatred; hatred is cultivated. In our society, an idol was created, and minds were........

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