For over a decade, we continued calling it a war imposed upon us until a bitter experience of children’s massacre at Army Public School made us realize that we were wrong. A new realization dawned upon us making us believe that it is our own war against terrorism. The patriotic calls began pouring in from our leaders asking for the unity of the people to fight against the menace of terrorism that has been devouring human lives every day. Quite obediently, we accepted this new explanation without ever raising any question about the wit and wisdom of those who had kept us oblivious of this fact earlier. While the mantra of war against terrorism was still being hammered into our mind, a new sound of war hit our ears and it didn’t come from the corridor of power but from the pulpit of a religious organization: The Chief of Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) and ameer of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema Islam, Maulana Samiul Haq was the person who declared, “….the religious parties were engaged in a war against secularism which was being imposed on the nation by force.”
Shocked to believe what was being said, we kept wondering as to what led these preachers of peaceful religion to take up arms in their hands instead of the Holy Book and engage themselves in a war that was being waged against those who were bent upon to impose secular system in the country. Without looking into the merits or demerits of the secular system, we began suspecting some kind of a secret game being played in the country. Based on the observations of Maulana, the whole government and its institutions – civil and military both – began appearing as the suspects. Too bad for the supporters of the ruling parties who never knew that their elected representatives, both in national and provincial assemblies, would lead them to a secular state one day.
Waiting in vain to hear something from the government to refute this allegation, it soon began transpiring that the silence of the government was a sign that the target of Maulana wasn’t the leadership of the country and there was a good reason for that. Being a recipient of Rs.300 million from the PTI government in KP for his Darul Uloom Haqqania in June 2016, how can he be ungrateful to a government that is so gracious for his religious causes? So, who is it Maulana is suspecting of imposing the secularism in the country? Is it the ruling party of PMLN? Can’t believe it either because the most influential PMLN’s interior minister is found admitting before his party members that he stands opposed to those who are “secular” or “non-believing”. He even went one step further to make his position crystal clear on this most critical issue of the country: “Some political parties criticise me for raising my voice for the principles of Islam. If you are proud of being secular; of being non-believers, then I am proud of to be pro-Islam.”
What a great relief it was to see two leading political parties come clean from a crime they were suspected to have been covertly involved in. These examples are more than enough to qualify them as non-secular parties and a good justification for Maulana to have them as his allies in this war against secularism. The only political parties that remain to be suspected for their involvement in such a nefarious design against our mother land are those three political parties (ANP, MQM, PPP) that were on the hit list of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) back in 2013 when the election campaign was going on. From 1st January 2013 to 31st May 2013, nearly 384 persons belonging to various political and religious parties had lost their lives to violence. The political parties like PMLN, PTI, and JI, almost remained safe from terror attacks. Even if they did lose some of their cadres during election campaigns its causes were something else than the terrorism. Only one leading religious party, JUI-F, suffered multiple terror attacks during this period and the reason, as claimed by the TTP, was that they were part of the coalition government of the PPP, MQM and ANP.
The political and religious parties that lost their leaders and activists during election campaign of 2013 can be easily divided between secular and non-secular parties based on the conclusion derived above. The main non-secular parties, PMLN, PTI, JI, JuD, and JUI-S, lost 21 activists during the election campaign period – Jan-May 2013. The secular parties, MQM, ANP, JUI-F, PPP, lost 249 activist during the same period. JUI-F is included among the secular parties for two reasons; it was part of the coalition government of the secular parties and it opted to stay out of DPC when it was formed. Some religious parties like Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ) and Sunni Tehreek (ST) are not included among the non-secular parties because ASWJ had a very few candidates contesting the election and ST didn’t take part in it at all.
Interestingly or rather surprisingly, the terror attacks TTP claimed as its own were those that had targeted only those political and religious parties that fall within the category of “secularists” and based on their claim 69 activists belonging to ANP, JUI-F, and MQM were killed by them during the election campaign period. Not a single attack that was owned by TTP ever targeted the activists of non-secular parties. Call it sympathy, complicity, or coincident but this is what the data shows.
While TTP was busy carrying out physical attacks on these secularist parties, the DPC was active on another front; trying to prepare an ideological ground against these secular parties. A press report of 28 March 2013 indicates that the aggressive stance of the DPC member parties and groups against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in one of their important sessions had forced two parties APML (Shaikh Rashid) and Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) to leave the session. What was once a political rivalry has now become an ideological war.
These undeniable facts bring up a very amazing picture of a harmony that appears to exist between a militant outfit, TTP, and the DPC. Although this data covers only five months of 2013 election period, the number of fatalities of secular parties still remains to be the highest. If we believe the words of Maulana Samiul Haq for the war against secularism, the question arises is: “How is DPC fighting this war and who are their foot soldiers?” “Do they consider the terror attacks of TTP against secular parties as a part of their war against secularism?” “If they don’t, then what definition do they have for the coincidences or correlations between TTP’s terror attacks on secularists and the war now being waged by DPC?” The name of “Defa-e-Pakistan Council” means “Defence of Pakistan Council” in English and if the terror unleashed by TTP falls in line with the ideology of DPC coincidentally or otherwise, the loyalty of DPC with the country becomes questionable knowing that the TTP is officially blamed to be acting on the behest of Indian and Afghan spy agencies.
These are serious issues that are directly or indirectly linked with the wave of terrorism that is still continuing in the country despite launching several army operations and pursuing a National Action Plan that was mutually designed and accepted by all secular and non-secular political parties of the country to counter the narratives of militants. To have a secular or non-secular Pakistan is a political question and it should be dealt with democratically rather than militantly. If religious organizations start talking like militants, how will they differentiate themselves from militants? How would the government like to deal with a confession of waging war when a military operation Radd-ul-Fassad is going on in the country to eliminate the remaining signs of terrorism and disturbance to public peace? Does war also fall within its spectrum?
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad