Daily Times

The battle for Pakistan’s democracy is on. And it is being fought from within. Indeed, nowhere has this been more pronounced than in the case of the controversial public figure Hafiz Saeed; a man who has been in the news both at home and abroad and whose head carries a $10-million US bounty.

The last civilian set-up was responsible for having both he and all associated entities proscribed under Pakistani law. But not before his outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s (JuD) political reincarnation took place under the Muslim Milli League (MML) banner. Be that as it may, it was also the civvies who successfully appealed to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to refrain from registering the latter as a political party.

Fast-forward to the present and MML members are indeed contesting next month’s polls. On party tickets belonging to the little known but registered Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT). But that is not all, folks. The ECP has accepted nomination papers submitted by both Saeed’s son and son-in-law. None of which is good news or either country or citizenry. And there are those who still insist that elections a democracy make.

All of which negates the relentless mantra promising an end to those heady days of distinguishing between good and bad militants. This also sends a troublesome signal to the international community.

The security apparatus has been deadly serious about hunting down TTP operatives given that the terror group long ago declared war on all state institutions; including, most notably, the military establishment. Yet when it comes to favoured proxies, the road to counter-terrorism is diverted by notions of militant-mainstreaming.

The ramifications of such a misguided policy must not be overlooked. Pakistan, for instance, has made much of the first-ever UN probe into human rights abuses in Kashmir that paints a not unreasonable picture of excessive force by Indian forces. Yet Islamabad’s moral authority dwindles when the country is viewed by the world as supporting militant or militancy-promoting outfits.

The military establishment has talked of the need of mainstreaming militants as a means of moderating their views by encouraging them to down arms and take up ballots. This argument needs more consideration not to mention public debate with input from the civilian side. A section of expert opinion has hinted that the primary factor behind the mainstreaming project is to handle the latent fear that Frankenstein’s creature will eventually turn on the creator. If that is the case then we should tread even more carefully. For the last thing this country needs is more chaos in the political arena.

After 10 years of uninterrupted civilian rule, we should be thinking of strengthening the democratic paradigm, of cleansing the political realm by way of strong laws and regulations and allowing the youth and women to come forward in taking charge of the country. We hope that the concerned authorities will review the policy and tighten the electoral laws. Only that will manage to fix Pakistan’s image abroad.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 24^th 2018.