Daily Times

Islamabad has been under-siege now for 22 days. A lot of time was spent on trying to reason out with the unreasonable leadership of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY). Having done this, the government finally launched an operation on November 25, against the protesting members of this organisation to end the siege of the twin-cities. It was also seen that once the operation was launched the followers of this religious group started using the same siege tactics in most other major cities of the country.

It seems that the country has been taken over by extremist Mullah’s belonging to TLY because once the capital of the country is seized by any group or organisation the impression it gives is that the elected government has lost its authority to govern the country. The government of Pakistan has been trying to convince the Tehreek leaders that the inadvertent omission of not including the clauses regarding the finality of the Prophet in presenting the revised bill has been rectified once it was pointed out. But the extremist leaders of the Tehreek initially wanted the law minister’s head to roll but now they have raised the ante and are now demanding the resignation of the whole cabinet. The government’s predicament is that if they give in to their demands and succumb to this pressure then it will set a precedence and tomorrow some other group might resort to bring in a few thousand people at the strategically located Faizabad interchange and paralyse the government.

Because Pakistan was made by exploiting the religious sentiments for achieving secular, economic and political demands of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. The first show of strength by the religious lobby was shown when they forced Liaquat Ali Khan’s government to accept the Objective Resolution. This opened a window for introducing religious clauses in the constitution. Interestingly the TLY belong to the Barelvi sect which had supported the demand for Pakistan. At that time to get a majority in the elections in Punjab and to win the referendum in the NWFP, the Muslim League traded its soul with many Pirs and gaddi nasheens of these provinces.

It was the religious leadership who had demanded that Sir Zafarullah who was an Ahmadi should be removed from his position, though he was appointed by Quaid-e-Azam himself. But the government did not give in to their pressure. On the contrary, the anti-Ahmadi moment in Punjab was crushed by declaring martial law in some cities of the province, the anti Ahmadi movement leaders were tried and convicted. The government formed the commission under Justice Munir to ascertain whether Ahmadi’s should be treated as a sect of Islam or non-Muslims. The commission’s bold findings were that it could not be convinced by a number of ulema’s belonging to different sects that Ahmadi’s were non-Muslims.

Forming an organisation inspired by a person who was convicted for assassinating the Governor of Punjab should never have been allowed because it justifies people taking law in their own hands

Ironically it was Mr Bhutto’s government which passed an amendment declaring Ahmadi’s non-Muslims. This law was further expanded by General Ziaul Haq to stop the Ahmadi’s from claiming to be Muslims. They are not allowed to name their worship places as mosques or masjid; they cannot give azaan on loudspeakers; and they were arrested for wearing Kalma-e-Tayyaba bands on their arms. It was made compulsory for every Muslim to give an affidavit that they do not belong to the Ahmadi community or Ahmadi Lahori community while applying for the passport or contesting elections.

It was this affidavit which was omitted in new election laws, apparently by mistake but as stated above the government moved swiftly once this omission was pointed out and amended the election law which was presented by it in parliament. Whatever the merits of this omission or amendment the issue was fixed by the government..

It is therefore unjust by the Tehreek leader to build a movement around this settled issue. All Muslims love Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and TLY is exploiting this sentiment to gain support for contesting the 2018 elections. Isn’t it more sacrilegious to exploit the name of the Prophet for personal gains? In his life the Prophet Pbuh had never created difficulties for his ummah rather he is considered as a blessing by over 1.8 billion Muslims of the world.

The extremist leaders of TLY are holding the people of the twin cities hostage. Their ‘dharna’ has resulted in blocking the way for even those who have to go the hospitals in emergency. At least two persons as reported by the media died because of this blockade. Their tactics are clearly un-Islamic and inhumane.

The politically weak government seems to be helpless and tried to involve more Mullah’s and Pirs to convince the extremist mullah`s to call off their siege. That was indeed a zero sum strategy. This has further complicated the issue which should have been handled administratively.

Forming an organisation inspired by a person who was convicted for assassinating the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer should never have been allowed. Because it justifies people taking law in their own hands by using the blasphemy issue. While former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was buried in the early hours of morning only in the presence of immediate family after he was hanged. The government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan allowed a huge funeral procession for Mumtaz Qadri. This clearly shows that once religion is exploited by a group of people the government which claims to adhere to the objective resolution becomes impotent. It was rightly acknowledged by all parties in the national action plan that hate speech and religious bigotry would not be allowed.

Perhaps a time has come when like Bangladesh formation of political parties and organisations in the name of religion should be forbidden in the constitution. Only with the separation of religion and state can we have pluralism in the country and inculcate democratic values which teach us tolerance and respect for human rights.

The writer is a freelance journalist, he can be reached at ayazbabar@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, November 29^th 2017.