Daily Times

Valentine’s Day came and went. It was widely celebrated in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, despite the honourable president’s unprecedented warning that it was not part of Muslim culture. The president, under fire from the religious clergy for his comments on interest and modern banking, probably thought Valentine’s Day was a soft target for him to rehabilitate his Muslim reputation. His comments nevertheless emboldened the clergy and other killjoys in the country, with one self-appointed guardian of public morality warning a renowned women’s rights activist that she had no right to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or to even air her point of view in the media in this respect. He even advised her to move to London or New York if she wanted to celebrate the day. The searing irony that his forebears had opposed the very creation of the country that he now claims exclusive ownership to was lost on him.

Going by the narrow definition of what constitutes Muslim and Pakistani culture, perhaps what is equally not part of ‘our culture’ was Ken Mac’s band that played jazz tunes at a ceremony commemorating Pakistan’s independence in August 1947 at a club in Karachi with Mr Jinnah in attendance. On that occasion the founding father of this country had requested them to play The End by Paul Robeson, which was one of his favourite songs, which one imagines was not part of the ‘Muslim culture’. Nor were Mr Jinnah’s anglicised lifestyle, suits, cigars, dietary habits, choice of drink and his penchant for pet dogs quite part of the Muslim culture that our president today has in mind. Mr Jinnah, of course, had also warned his countrymen against allowing priests with a divine mission to rule them. But we also recognise that this is no longer the country that Jinnah had in mind. It is rather the country of those who opposed him and called him Kafir-e-Azam for his liberal lifestyle, and for his refusal to bow down to their idea of ‘Muslimness’.

This country has an Islamic Constitution apparently though that too is subject to much debate. Some would note that the Islamic Constitution of ours speaks of enabling Muslims to live according to Quran and Sunnah and not forcing them to do so. There are still fundamental rights in this Islamic Constitution that seem to keep the hope alive that every citizen may live according to his/her own lights. It is this grey area that our struggle to live sane and normal lives thrives in. It is this part of the Islamic Constitution that bothers the clergy and killjoys who would rather have us live a black and white existence conforming to their own outdated ideas of what an ideal Muslim society should look like.

They have already succeeded in killing much joy in the country. Basant — a cultural festival that historically was celebrated by icons of Muslim culture like Nizamuddin Auliya, Ameer Khusro and Allama Iqbal — was done away with on the flimsy excuse that some people were using glass-coated string for flying kits. Instead of cracking down on those who were using glass-coated string, the government aided in full measure by an equally reactionary judiciary decided to ban the whole festival. The real reason was pressure from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and other religious parties that just cannot bear to see people happy. Forget that Basant was an incredible economic opportunity attracting tourists from all around the world to the historic city of Lahore allowing us to showcase our magnificent culture to the world. Those things do not matter to our religious clergy. The economic progress of the country is of no concern to them. They would rather we remain poor, backward and consequently caught up in their trap.

While our Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) deliberates on whether or not a Muslim woman has the right to divorce and while our Federal Shariat Court (FSC) decides whether the modern banking system militates against divine law, the world is leaving us behind decisively. India is growing at a whopping 7.3 percent. Our former eastern wing, Bangladesh, is growing at 6.9 percent. Our economic growth rate this year is going to be less than five percent. What an extraordinary fall for a country that was once far ahead of these countries. It is hard to escape the conclusion that our economic downfall is directly proportional to the rising power of the clergy. Our obsession, since the 1970s, with religion has been the gain of others. The UAE, no less Islamic than us and certainly better claimants to Muslim culture, capitalised on the fall of Karachi as the premiere Asian city. Once a desert fishing village, Dubai has left Karachi far behind. The only reason for this is that the rulers of UAE have not allowed their religious clergy to determine their economic future. At the very least their morality is not outraged by the perceived invasion of western culture. Emirates, which started off in 1982 by leasing two aircrafts from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), is today one of the world’s most successful airlines. No international traveler wants to travel on PIA today. After all, who would want to travel in an airline that offers nothing but religious piety by way of hospitality? PIA is the microcosm of Pakistan. Dubai, a city-state of 2.5 million people and without any historical and cultural heritage of its own, attracted 12 million tourists in 2015. Pakistan, a country of 200 million people with a rich heritage dating back a millennia and remarkable landscape ranging from mountains to deserts, attracted less than one million, most of them expatriate Pakistanis.

The answer to why this is the case should be clear to anyone who can think. Unless the clergy is firmly put back in its place, Pakistan will never progress. These priests with a divine mission have cost us dearly and I think all of us realise this. The real question is: who is going to bell the cat?

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and the author of the book Mr Jinnah: Myth and Reality. He can be contacted via twitter @therealylh and through his email address yasser.hamdani@gmail.com