Every government diminishes civil society when it allows the mullahs to loom larger than life. Where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto capitulated under pressure, Zia ul Haq invoked them with a vengeance. Where Benazir struggled to hold them at bay, Nawaz Sharif has conceded to them willingly. Over time, the mullahs have stretched every concessional inch into yards and every unbearable yard into miles. And as the mullahs sledge away at the foundations of civil society, governments wrings their hands in mock despair and assume a state of helplessness. Why is that? Surely, the power of the mullahs is totally out of proportion to their electoral strength?
Precisely. Mullah-power and civil-power are inversely related. A weak civil-power spawns a strong mullah-power. The less the legitimacy of civil power, the greater the legitimacy of mullah-power. Ideology and dictatorship have made common cause. Gen Zia ul Haq’s reign was characterised by an abject weakness of civil-power; it also led to the resuscitation of mullah-power.
The Anjuman i Sipah Sahaba Pakistan (ASSP) and the Tehrik i Nifaz i Fiqah Jafria (TNFJ) are Pakistan’s most militant sectarian organisations. Both are rooted in the authoritarianism of the 1980s. Both also draw sustenance from the clash of ideological dictatorships outside our frontiers — the ASSP from Saudi Arabia and the TNFJ from Iran. The mindless sectarian violence in Quetta, Gilgit, Jhang, Gugranwala, Lahore etc can all be laid squarely at their door.
Now we hear that the Jamaat i Islami may be behind the sectarian provocations in Karachi. Although the Jamaat has generally ignored petty sectarianism, a change of heart may be due to its perception of political gains in Karachi if the violence can be attributed to the MQM.
The religious parties, clearly, are determined to further their vicious interests come hell or high water. How should government and civil society respond to this threat?
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has done absolutely the right thing by saying good-bye to the Jamaat. His friendship with Qazi Sahib has exacted a heavy price from the nation: Afghanistan has been messed up beyond repair (Sunni and Shia guerilla factions are warring in Kabul), parliament is besieged by the Federal Shariat Court (not least over the legitimacy of ‘interest’), and important Western allies have been antagonized by the erosion of civil and human rights under the guise of a sham ‘Islamisation’. In exchange, Mian Sahib’s Islamic partners have only given him the illusion of safety in Islamabad. In actual fact, of course, the prime minister’s survival depends upon the President and the COAS and his efforts at reconciling Benazir Bhutto rather than the fractional support the fundamentalists can muster for or against him in parliament. At the end of the day, even the nuisance value of the Samiul Haqs and Niazis of this world is highly exaggerated.
The lessons of this experience should be extended. Mian Sahib’s policy towards sectarian unrest should override the compulsions of bowing before ‘friendly’ but interfering foreign powers. He should order the administration to disarm the religious sects and put them in their place as soon as possible.
Should sectarian parties be banned? We’re not sure what a ban will achieve. They’re hardly likely to queue up and deposit their weapons peacefully or stop their murderous sermons from the pulpit. A two-fold approach might be preferred: one, if they break the law or threaten to do so, they should be punished severely without caring two hoots about what their foreign supporters say; two, the protection and strength which is afforded them by the vagaries of ‘Shariat’ law and ‘Hudood’ punishments should be withdrawn. We need to prompt the judiciary and civil administration to take special note of any violation of the law and the harassment of citizens by these self-appointed and illiterate guardians of our morality.
In fact, much more needs to be done if Pakistan is not to go to the dogs. In many ways, the pollution of civil society begins in the environs of Islamabad. It begins when bigoted mullahs are given time on television to air their jaundiced views; it is encouraged when the education ministry inspires the various Textbook Boards to print a perverse and distorted view of our history and culture; it is sanctioned when press freedom is misunderstood to allow the purveyors of hatred to print sectarian filth. It becomes unbearable, finally, when the state turns a deaf ear to the frequent doses of venom blared from mosque loudspeakers.
For too long, the sacred name of Islam has been bandied about and exploited by the worst and most corrupt practitioners of the faith. That they have extended their murderous tentacles into every nook and corner of civil society is largely due to the cynical blunders of Islamabad. Clutching at Qazis or brandishing Maulanas is no measure of a government’s credibility. Sectarian or religious strife is as poisonous to the modern nation-state as ethnic warfare. We need another Operation Clean Up to rid society of this gnawing menace of militant sectarianism.