Daily Times

‘It was the Deobandis’, he bitterly chewed the words, ‘who have messed’, Ambassador William Milam commented in a chat with a former colleague, after his talk on Pakistan at the packed conference hall of the Middle East Institute in early 2003. A short walk from DuPont Circle metro station in the heart of the American capital, overlooking the line of British style homes across the street through clear glass windows; Ambassador Milam recalled his hectic diplomatic assignment to Pakistan frequently quoting Hamid Khan’s colossal book Constitutional and Political History of Pakistan. Ambassador Bill had never been that uncertain about the future of a country during his illustrious diplomatic career than about Pakistan.

Whether the colonial British and or the patronising Americans, the grueling intensity of the post 9/11 period saw a paradigm shift in the West’s policy towards South Asia. New strategies were on the cards, identifying new pawns and marking an ineffectual rogue. Soon in the sidelines of conferences at the elite hotels and a regiment of think-tanks in the District, the idea of replacing Deobandis with the Barelvis began echoing in the moderate and liberal South Asian circles.

Then the color of the black-and-white striped signature flag of the Deobandis was changed to the with the green of Barelvi outfits including the Ahle-Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Its star-studded sister organisations, Dawat-e-Islami and its militant wing Sunni Tehreek, were then put on an autonomous footing. This was done without any consideration for the accompanying arrogance and abuse of power that comes with overzealous empowerment. Such patronisation often turns pigmies into monsters, as had been the case with holy warriors of yore and today’s terrorists, of the Afghan jihad.

Successive regimes change and so do the unfulfilled promises for improving socio-economic condition of millions in the country

Empowering the signature green-turbaned and brown scarfed mullahs germinated in the minds of Karachi businessmen during the late 90s. These business men were deeply concerned with the businesses of Pashtuns which were being protected by their ethnic brethren in various shades of overwhelming Deobandi militia. Ethnic, political and sectarian strife tore Pakistan’s first capital, the southern port city of Karachi. It traditionally housed businessmen from Memon, Gujrati and other native communities. But Karachi had already been struggling in the clutches of the gangsters of Lyari, the stronghold of Pakistan People’s Party and the bhatta mafia of the two factions of Mohajir/Muttahida Qaumi Movements (MQMs).

A Dubai based Pakistani gold merchant with shares in a leading national electronic channel unfastened his gunny bag to empower the Sunni Tehreek that had been in touts with its Deobandi counterparts, particularly in Karachi. This small street-based militant groups and earned the nickname of ‘mosque-grabbers’ on the cables of foreign mission reporting on contemporary politics of Pakistan. Both the Sunni Tehreek, Dawat-e-Islami and Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat strongly believed in snatching mosques from other schools of thought (Deobandis in particular) and converting them to their ‘enlightened’ versions of Islam.

The Sunni Tehreek passed the litmus against militants of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) fighting pitch battles in the late 90s. The green turbaned mullahs thrive in the less fortunate, illiterate lower-class populace for whom nothing gives more hope than a religious philosophy. Successive regimes change and so do the unfulfilled promises for improving socio-economic condition of millions in the country.

Over two decades, the Barelvis changed from shades of enlightened Sufi Islam of tolerance, patience and brotherhood to being taken over by franchised factions loaded with ignorant, intolerant, and rigid zealots.

The three-week long sit-in near Islamabad appositely reflects the paradigm shift. The internal political gimmickry led to compromises that were no less than a live nuke ticking under feet at the cost of internal security. It reminds us of the feeble attempts of making and breaking treaties during the 2000s with various firebrands of Deobandis in the North West. The cancer has crept deep in the length and breadth of the land of pure. We are dealing with internal security issues that are not only grave but can possibly compromise the external security concerns. A serious situation by any standards.

The writer is senior journalist and former Political Affairs Advisor to the US Consulate General in Karachi

Published in Daily Times, December 5^th 2017.