A new anthology of writings on, and sayings of, the Qauid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was launched in Karachi last week before a distinguished gathering of intellectual and media elites. In its preface, the authors, Liaquat Merchant (President of the Jinnah Society) and Professor Sharif al Mujahid, wrote that the book “includes thematic essays on some critical aspects of Jinnah’s politics and leadership – such as the sort of constitutional set-up visualized by him…, his role in institutionalizing civil liberties, and in emancipating and empowering women…”. Mr Merchant dwelt at length, amidst clapping, on the sort of democratic, constitutional, just and secular Pakistan envisioned by Mr Jinnah in which all sects and minorities, regardless of colour, caste or creed, would be equal citizens of the new state of Pakistan.
The same day, every newspaper carried headlines from Sufi Mohammad, the leader of the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), and Muslim Khan, the spokesmen of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the conqueror of Swat, that the constitution of Pakistan, approved by every political party of the country, was un-Islamic and unacceptable; that the Supreme Court, for whose supremacy and independence the country has recently witnessed nothing less than a revolutionary upsurge, was un-Islamic and unacceptable; that democracy, for which tens of millions of Pakistanis have fought and voted over the last sixty years, was un-Islamic and unacceptable; that women, whose heroic struggle for emancipation and representation which has been backed by all mainstream political leaders across the spectrum, are mere chattel who deserve no education and have no human rights. Both gentlemen proclaimed their determination to extend their “Islamic system and views” to the rest of Pakistan by force. The same day, Buner, a neighbouring district of Swat in the NWFP, fell to the TTP.
As on the fateful day in 1971 when General A. K. Niazi signed the surrender document in Dacca dismembering Pakistan, Mr Jinnah must have turned in his grave the day Pakistan’s supine parliament approved the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation giving legitimacy to an unholy peace deal signed between TSNM and the NWFP government on the point of a TTP gun. The tragic irony is that President Asif Zardari did not want to sign that document into law, and dragged his feet over it for months, because he believed it was inimical to Pakistan’s national interest. But a chorus of aggressive voices, from the Awami National Party that succumbed to the fear of the Taliban, to a hoard of “media-mujahideen” sympathetic to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, coupled with the stunning refusal of the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Muslim League-N to condemn and resist the Taliban onslaught, compelled Mr Zardari to turn to Parliament for cover. Only the MQM that rules Karachi, and a clutch of liberal journalists and papers (including this one, of course) has had the consistent courage and imagination to stand up and resist the Swat deal.
Thankfully, however, the tide is beginning to turn. It began after the TV channels plucked up the courage to show the outrageous flogging of a young Swati girl in public by the Taliban. Subsequently, the TNSM and the TTP have alienated all of Pakistan by their recent outbursts against the constitution, Supreme Court, women, democracy and rule of law. Worse, they have repudiated the core elements of the “Swat deal” (to lay down their arms and not to use force to seize other territories) and the Nizam-e-Adl (to accept the Qazis appointed by the NWFP government, to allow the right to appeal by the yardstick of the constitution, etc) even before the ink on it was dry. The TTP’s armed seizure of Buner district and encroachments into Dir, coupled with continuing attacks on security forces in Hangu and elsewhere, have exposed its aims.
Meanwhile, three disquieting questions arise. First, why haven’t the articulate spokesmen and cheerleaders of the lawyers movement protested the sidelining of the lawyers of Swat and the trampling of the law and constitution by the TTP? Indeed, where is the chief justice, Mr Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, whose suo motu actions in defense of law and liberty have given him a legendry status but who is now silent in the face of the Taliban threat to the very law and constitution that he has vowed to defend and uphold?
Second, why does the Pakistan Army support the Swat deal? Indeed, why did it stand by while the Taliban liquidated civilian officials and landlords allied to the ANP during their peaceful conquest of Swat and then Buner but swung into action unilaterally with helicopter gunships and jets when its own soldiers were attacked by the Taliban in violation of the same deal?
Third, why is Mr Nawaz Sharif’s attitude to the TTP and TNSM so equivocal? He supported the Swat deal and urged the Zardari government to desist from military action “against its own people”. Now he has the gall to tell a foreign newspaper that the Taliban are a menace and must be resisted “if they try to export their brand of Shariah to other parts of the country”. He has not once said the same thing on Pakistani television. In fact, he thrives on ambiguity, wooing the international community while pandering to the anti-American sympathy for the Taliban at home.