The return of the Mushy!

Not long ago, in a land not far away, a land called Islamabad, there lived a military dictator who was known for his invention of the term, "moderate enlightenment". What relation the term had to fighting terrorism few know, but it was thrown around by his administration as a philosophy much like capitalism or socialism. Somehow, a phrase that seems to indicate a limited amount of knowledge was supposed to bring the nation together to fight terrorism. It worked in the sense that it led to limited knowledge of the part of the people of Pakistan at the expense of Pakistan.

It would seem that the adminstration was criticizing the terrorists while arming them at the same time. According to Ahmad Rashid's "Descent into Chaos" (2008 Penguin Books), as long as General Musharraf's army was helping the US forces fight Al Qaida forces in Afghanistan, the ISI was free to do whatever it pleased. Using the power of the military adminstration behind it, the ISI were arming Taliban members to go fight against Afghanistan. When the Allied Forces planned a large offensive, a Pakistani military plane airlifted many militants out of danger citing the evacuation of ISI operatives as an excuse. These same militants were the fore runners of organistations linked to the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaida. They wasted little time in establishing training camps in Waziristan and now Punjab. It seems that when General Musharraf was talking about "moderate enlightenment", he meant that the people ahould be enlightened about the army's efforts at eradicating terrorism in Afghanistan while being unaware of the ISI's efforts of arming Taliban and other non-state actors.

Due to the example of the US forces not following the Geneva conventions that detail legal rights of prisoners of war (which became a scandal in itself in the US and a key argument for Obama's campaign), the Pakistani security forces under Musharraf decided to follow suit and ignored the UN rules regarding ban on torture or the right to habeas corpus (due process of law). With the security forces detaning suspected militants without charging them with crimes, the Supreme Court was forced to step in on humanatarian grounds and direct the forces to free those not charged with anything. Had these suspected militants been arrested and charged with a crime while giving them trial, a genuine threat to national security could have been diminished. Instead, the militrary intelligence establishment forced the judiciary to free suspected militants. These militants could have been dealt with in ways to benefit the state and keep militancy at bay. Instead, due to the rash decision of following the policies of the then US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld (whose choice it was to ignore international law regarding the rules of war), the Pakistani administration ended up digging itself in a hole.

The follies of General Musharraf did not stop there. After a political conundrum involving
the courts over the legality of a President who was also an army chief, followed by democracy and still more political instability, General Musharraf (finally ousted from the presidency by parliament and as a retired army chief, no longer officially supported by the army and living in self exile in England) had decided he could not get enough of the Pakistani political arena. He has now formed the All Pakistan Muslim League, a party that has extended a hand of friendship towards the violent MQM Party (Mohajir Qaumi Movement Party) of Karachi. The question is, will anyone want to see a disgraced president (frequently called a dictator by the state leadership and the opposition) back in power? More importantly, is the world ready for the return of the Mushy?

Can Pakistanis sink any lower?

1974, Zulifqar Bhutto in a desperate attempt to cling to power declared Ahmadis non Muslims in order to appease the right wing pressure groups. He was replaced by a military dictator regardless of the attempts to please right wing political elements. General Zia, dictator of the late 70s and 1980s brought about changes in the constitution that promised more discrimination against the Ahmadis, a minority sect of Islam in Pakistan. They are forbidden to call themselves Muslims, they are forbidden to call their places of worship mosques and every Pakistani who applies for a passport has to sign a document forcing him to state that Ahmadis are non-Muslims. People argue that the 80s are gone, and democracy is back. They argue that religious tolerance can only improve with a liberal government like the PPP in power and also argue that the “moderate enlightenment model” of the Musharraf era has made Pakistan better for minorities. The massacre of approximately 100 Ahmadis is considered by many as a terrorist incident and condemned. The right wing PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif has publicly called Ahamadis his “brothers”. Why then all the disgust?

Many of these so called peace loving politicians allowed Dr. Amir Liaquat Hussain to get away with saying that it the Islamic duty of all Muslims to murder Ahmadis on the show “Alim Online” (7th September 2008). According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, “48 hours after the first broadcast, two Ahmadi community leaders were lynched and murdered”. This hate monger remains free and unprosecuted. Geo television has not been questioned about why they allowed religious based discrimination on public television at a time when the state is fighting religious extremists. To make matters worse, a 2009 billboard paid for by the Punjab Government (run by Mr. Sharif’s party) for “world Conference for the Protection and Finality of the Prophet hood” stated in Arabic, “Friendship with Ahmadis is Rebellion Against the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him". If that was not enough, a massacre of Ahamadis took place in Lahore, the capital of Punjab. When the PML National Assembly representative, Nawaz Sharif expressed solidarity for the loss of so many innocent lives and called the Ahmadi sect his “brothers”, it did not sit well certain Pakistanis. At a time like this, given the present conditions and the lack of respect for minorities, it was a commendable course of action. Members of parliament should be helping all Pakistani citizens and view them as equals. By equating them as brothers, these minorities can feel less threatened and isolated. It seems our peace loving religious parties did not feel the same way as many were in an uproar. “Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam President Maluana Sami-ul-Haq has threatened to launch a statewide protest unless Nawaz Sharif does not retract his statement about Ahmadis being his brothers. The “Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabia”, the representatives of the “Deobandi” religious school of thought stated that Nawaz Sharif should be “ashamed of calling Ahamadis brothers of Muslims”. All these groups have publicly come out against the fascist policies of the right wing Israeli government when it comes to their treatment of Muslims in the Mid-East but seem to forget that they oppress people with different ideologies and beliefs just as much in their own country.

The strange thing about right wing Muslims in Pakistan is how quickly they forget the reason for the creation of Pakistan. The Indian Muslim League was afraid that after the British left India, the Hindu majority community of India would discriminate against the minority Muslim community. Pakistan was a state created to give minorities refuge, not to assassinate them in the name of religion. Pakistan was supposed to be a state for religious tolerance, one where people who ascribed to all doctrines could practice their beliefs without fear of persecution (anyone remember the white part of our flag? It stands for non-Muslim minorities residing in Pakistan).

The sad reality of the situation is that Pakistan is not the state it was destined to be. Mr. Jinnah, a Shia Muslim (one of the minority sects being persecuted by the militant Pakistani Taliban), the man who made Pakistan stood for morality, values, modernization, secular politics, religious impartiality and harmony. Instead, we have a state where religious intolerance increases on a daily basis, where corruption and scandals are the highlights of the political arena and where anyone not born a Sunni has to live in fear. Pakistan unfortunately, has become a failed state.