Daily Times

Pakistan is a democratic country. It guarantees its citizens the provision of all the basic rights. Every democratic country is governed by a constitution. So the constitution must be a small, clear and a concrete document. The roots of democracy can be found in the Khilafat period of Islam where Khalifas were selected by Bait- similar to the current voting system. When we talk about the impacts of the Islamic civilization on the west, the concept of democracy is worth mentioning. It is important to note that during Khilafat era, there was no separate constitution. All the areas were governed through the teachings of Quran and Sunnah.

At that time, there were Khalifas to clear the concepts of the people regarding teachings of Islam and to interpret the ayats in a proper way. That was a pure Islamic system. On the other hand, in the current democratic system, countries are governed by the constitution that is formed according to the needs and objectives of the country. Religion is a broad perspective. Not everyone is able to interpret the teachings of religion.

Islam promotes the concept of observation and analytical thinking. Considering the fact that needs change with time, Islam promotes the observance of Ijma and Qiyas. Moreover, Religion is a personal affair of any individual. Sovereignty cannot be shared between the Creator and its creation. Islam gives sovereignty to God. However, democracy gives sovereignty to the people. A constitution must be based on just one of these concepts of sovereignty. Otherwise people become confused. Resultantly, they cannot differentiate one aspect from the other. Owing to these reasons they are exploited by the people who want to increase their vote bank.

There is no denying the fact that the Quaid e Azam was the staunchest supporter of religious freedom. He wanted to get a separate country for the Muslims who were not allowed to exercise their religious practices due to the Hhindu- Muslim tussle in the united India. But he wanted not only Muslims but also every person of every other religion to practice religion without any fear and pressure. He wanted a Pakistan peaceful and free from extremism.  However, the foundation of the constitution of Pakistan is on the Objectives Resolution. The constitution of Pakistan is neither  purely democratic nor purely Islamic.

Either Pakistan must be a purely religious or a purely secular democratic state where religion and governance systems are kept in two separate blocks — religion in the heart of people and governance system based on strict, clear and concrete objective. This is how a country can be protected from being exploited by politicians

No doubt Islam promotes equality, peace and justice and all these are also the building blocks of the current democratic system. When one says that Pakistan will be governed by Islamic principles, every so called Mullah would wish to sit in the office of Prime Minister because they come up with the stance that no one knows Islam better than they. This is where the root cause of extremism lies. Moreover, Politicians do not feel reluctant to take advantage of such situations. They play a major role in making people more confused and intimidated. Moreover, common people of our country know nothing about the constitution except that it is based on Islamic values.

That’s why they take advice of so- called religious people whenever any major sensitive event occurs in Pakistan- just like the case of Aasia Bibi. Moreover, politicians misuse the pure religious sentiments of the people. The concerted efforts of the so-called religious scholars and some politicians give people nothing but confusion and betrayal. The misuse of Islam to get votes has been a common practice in Pakistan.

When the constitution of Pakistan is based on the principles of Islam-equality, peace, justice and freedom- there is no need to confuse common people by saying that only Islamic values will be observed in our country. It is important to do so because we are divided on the bases of religious beliefs and interpretations. Either Pakistan must be a purely religious or a purely secular democratic country where religion and governance systems are kept in two separate blocks – -religion in the heart of people and governance system based on strict, clear and concrete objective. This is how a country can be protected from being exploited by the politicians.

In our country, some politicians during election campaigns show as if they are the custodians of Islam despite the fact that they themselves rarely follow religious principles. Moreover, some political parties misuse the name of the holy personalities by naming their parties in the name of some holy and respectable people.

They do this to get the attraction of the people who are unaware of the real essence of religion. However, only those people are attracted towards these parties who are semi-literate. Nothing good has been done so far to improve the education standard of our country because education is the anti-thesis of ignorance. Such so-called politicians do not want people to be educated because it can be a threat to the hegemony of these politicians.

So, no one must be allowed to use the name of Islam in the election campaigns because it distracts the attention of the people. Resultantly, people give votes according to their religious beliefs instead of the performance of the politicians. One may belong, as the Quaid said, to any religion but it has nothing to do with the affairs of the state.  It must be realized that a state need not worry about the life hereafter of the citizens. Instead the real responsibility of the state is to provide people the basic rights. So, religion and politics cannot go hand in hand. If one tries to do this, chaos would be the outcome. This must be realized before visualizing a better future.

Published in Daily Times, January 23^rd 2019.