Most Pakistanis have reveled in the defeat of far-right hardline Islamic parties such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jammat (ASWJ) and others in the 2018 general elections.
While it may be a relief that candidates such as Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who promised to ‘put every blasphemer in his grave’ and ASWJ leader Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi who vowed that “if his party gained power by the evening, and if any Shia is left alive in Pakistan by the next morning, then change my name” — did not win many seats, what may trouble many of us, and rightly so, is the attitude of many conservatives in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and some statements by Imran Khan himself. In a conference at Islamabad before the elections, Khan stated that “we stand with Article 295-C and will defend it”. Moreover Many PTI members courted pro-Qadri constituencies, by asking them if ‘they would vote for the party that executed their leader’. This blatant support of a law that condemns Ahmadis and other non-Muslim minorities has caused many to refer to him as ‘Taliban Khan’ once again.
While the new Prime Minister claims that his policies will benefit the ‘victims’, he speaks mostly of the victims of poverty, corruption and feudalism. What of the most persecuted section of Pakistani society – victims of radical religiosity? Whether it be the Ahmadis whose boycott of the elections has been ignored by all major parties, the Shias who face intense violence despite being Muslims, and the Pakistani Christians and Hindus who have been allocated a second-class citizen status since 1947 — there is little space in Pakistan for someone who is not a conservative Sunni Muslim.
The only way ‘Naya’ Pakistan is truly revolutionary is if it is able to tackle Pakistan’s biggest human rights violations; which are against the minorities. Justice cannot prevail only if corruption is eradicated, what needs to disappear from our land is instances of mob-lynching, desecration of various religious sites and the systematic prejudice against groups marginalised due to their religious affiliations. What we need is an agenda against intolerance and violence, and we are holding our new Prime Minister accountable for delivering on this. *
Published in Daily Times, July 30th 2018.