austraLasia #1980
Business As Usual
in Pakistan…
LAHORE: 8th November 2007 -- The news of the State of Emergency
caught us all by surprise. Boys were watching the Saturday evening
blockbuster, the Salesians working in many tasks for the new week, Br.
Michael Lynch (from the Australian Missions Office) was in Singapore on
his
way to Lahore and the German Inspection from Misereor was stationed
downtown ready for the visit that would start this very week. Suddenly
everything turned upside down: we had to stick to the Computer for
latest developments (TV channels were already off the air), the boys
were asked not to go out the next day after the Sunday mass (100 young
men of up to 26 years old can be noisy sometimes…), Br. Michael had to
cancel the trip and leave it for a more peaceful time and the team from
Germany left on the next flight, afraid to get stuck in the country.
Under
the State of Emergency the President suspended the Constitution and
some
rights like that of freedom of speech or freedom of meeting, which
imposes
heavy economic penalties on those who speak against the Authorities and
allows the Army to arrest anybody without questioning. In case society
revolts and does not accept the new ruling, Martial Law can
be declared… and that is where we stand as of now!
So far there have
been few incidents and the main Political opposition is not moving
much. On our part we continued classes as normal (some school closed
last Monday) and requested the students to leave politics aside and
focus on their training. Although we have good contacts among the
military leadership, our strength and hope rests always in God alone.
So
far, so good. We will keep you updated if there are developments that
affect us. Let us pray that the radical Islamic parties do not seize
control of the country taking advantage of the instability because that
would be fatal for our presence in the country and the safety of our
Christian community, already under pressure in normal circumstances.
_________________
AustraLasia is an
email
service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
agency for ANS based in
Rome.
For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com
.
Use BoscoWiki
to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital
Library
at at http://sdl.sdb.org
