The government is feeling the blowback for its earlier capitulation to the religious right-wing agenda. And the man at the centre of the row is still calling the shots.
For Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi has spent the best part of this week directing his followers or ‘activists’ to protest in Lahore; threatening countrywide sit-ins if the Centre does not honour the army-backed agreement concluded at the end of last year. That Rizvi manages to do all this even though the courts have proclaimed him a declared absconder raises grave concerns over the Punjab police’s ability to arrest high-profile figures.
Yet the point is that the civil-military leadership must have realised they were playing with fire when agreeing to all TLP demands. It signed off on, among other things, sacking the Law minister; setting up a board of inquiry to probe and determine punitive action against government officials over the operation conducted by security officials. Additionally, Rizvi contends that the ruling regime green-lighted a further nine demands that did not appear as part of the original agreement document. Most notable of which is the call for yet another board of inquiry — this time comprising clerics — to investigate Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s remarks whereby he reportedly referred to Ahmadis as Muslims. He later said his comments had been taken out of context.
The situation should never have come to this. Though the PMLN is not alone in shouldering responsibility. For the opposition parties, instead of standing up for the beleaguered Ahmadi community, preferred to sacrifice the latter in favour of good old-fashioned political opportunism.
PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira termed the Khatam-e-Nabuwwat (PBUH) issue as one contrived by the ruling party as a means of distracting the citizenry from the corruption charges facing the former Prime Minister. That may or may not be the case. And it is, in fact, beside the point. Given how the bigotry directed towards Pakistan’s Ahmadis is very real. A point underscored by the PMLQ moves to have the Punjab Assembly pass a resolution against Sanaullah on charges of ‘constitutional treason’.
The bitter truth in modern day Pakistan is that the politicians of every hue prefer to negotiate with those espousing a religious right-wing agenda than stand up for the constitutional rights of minorities. *
Published in Daily Times, April 5th 2018.