Daily Times

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary’s condemnation of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s remarks, specifically the implication that the country was not “capable of fighting for 24 hours,” was only to be expected because the Maulana has violated the sanctity of the state far too many times to be simply taken in one’s stride. It wasn’t too long ago, after all, that he advocated against celebrating the national Independence Day; only because for once he found himself left completely out of government, with not even a small piece or even crumbs of the pie. Now he’s clutching onto the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) like a drowning man holding onto a straw and it is clear that he will go to any length to try and stay relevant. But to malign the country’s protectors, along with the tens of thousands of civilians who lost their lives in our own recent battle for survival, is going too far.

There is a reason that the constitution of every country demands absolute loyalty to the state. For it is only so long as the state exists that everybody inside it can claim any sorts of rights, aspire to the highest positions of power and even challenge those who hold them. And it is very unfortunate that political actors like the Maulana exploit and even abuse this special privilege when they attack the motherland itself out of what Fawad Chaudhary rightly described as their political frustration. You can fight for your legitimate rights all you want, and the state does provide relevant platforms in this regard, but to throw your toys around just because nobody invited you to the playground displays an unacceptable lack of maturity and cannot be allowed.

Interestingly, the JUI-F chief didn’t find much wrong with Pakistan in all the years, from the PPP government of the 1990s to the PML-N administration of 2018, when he was part of the government setup. The garden, so to speak, was still green for him till then. It was only after the 2018 upset that tossed him out of the halls of power that he suddenly made it his mission to enlighten the whole country about the allegedly sinister role of the so-called establishment in propping up a puppet government that is running the country into the ground. And the only way to save the day, of course, is to bring him back to Islamabad. But he doesn’t seem to understand that his antics only make him and his kind more irrelevant with time. It’s time for everybody to finally understand that while the people of Pakistan will support the right of every citizen to have his voice heard, they also have the good sense to know when red lines are being crossed and will not stand for it. *