Building a tolerant and free Pakistan

The Mullahs and the Taliban. Allegedly strengthened by elements within the Pakistani establishment these two entities have often been regarded as the source and the end — the symbiotic link between the two nurturing and perpetuating its insidious lifeline. Posing the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government since assuming power in his third stint, the only option for the government now is to respond in a decisive manner on two fronts. First, the religious parties need to be dealt with and not in an appeasing manner for they have mobilised hordes of Mullahs who have taken to the street with a ridiculous demand list following Mumtaz Qadri’s execution and laid siege to Islamabad. Any weakness on the government’s part and ceding to these demands would be detrimental. This is the time when the chokehold of the ideological brigade could be broken and should be considered an opportunity to lay down the supremacy of the constitution and draw lines that no one should be allowed to cross.

Second, supporting the intra-military agencies’ operation in Punjab — launched by the Army Chief General Raheel Shareef — following the suicide attack on Christians in Lahore’s Gulshan Iqbal Park on Easter, is crucial. It is believed that the army and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had recently urged the government to clear out terrorist cells in Punjab, which incidentally has been a hot bed of terrorists’ recruitment for some time, especially southern Punjab. The government’s reluctance on the issue due to a number of reasons only prolonged the inevitable. There is no doubt that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was deliberating the implications for such an operation. It would have led to a loss of support among religious elites and other political groups who did not want a Fata type situation developing in the most industrialised and economically rich province. Punjab also happens to be the biggest support base for the PML-N government.

In all honesty fighting terrorist group/s that have entrenched themselves in urban and rural centres and created a multifarious network over heavily populated areas is much more complicated than moving troops and tanks across large swathes of tribal areas where the population is dispersed and scanty. The consequences are too big to dismiss as collateral damage. This may well have been the reason for procrastination on clearing out Punjab. However, it should serve as a reminder that ignoring and delaying action can only lead to an exacerbation of the situation. The ensuing unrest is inevitable if things are not dealt with in time. It would be ideal had no such cells existed in the first place, but we need to deal with a situation that cannot be undone nor wished away, something called damage control, that the leaders of Pakistan have previously failed to implement in full.

To reiterate the government’s response is critical. It could make or break not only this government but more significantly rewrite Pakistan’s chequered history and redress the damages caused by vested interests and the weakness of past regimes dating as far back as the nascent post-partition period.

At present, with intelligence-driven raids being conducted by the paramilitary forces in Punjab, rumour mills are rife with talk of growing tension between the government and the military. The army chief’s categorical statement ruling out any coordinated operation with the police to clean out Punjab contradicts a cabinet member’s statement. There is widespread speculation that the army does not trust the police and would like to keep all plans under wraps, thus ruling out any leakage of information by infiltrators or informers.

While the civilian and military leadership sort out these particular divergences of thought and policy among themselves, people of Pakistan need to ask what they can do? Are they only going to resort to drawing-room talk and blame the government for lawlessness and failure to ensure security, pointing to its penchant for exorbitant projects of building metro lines and roads, or are they going to acknowledge their fault in not uniting with one voice when commendable action is taken. How this would help is simple.

The Taliban — no matter many factions it may be split into — and the religious groups are fully cognizant of the pulse on the street and the power of public opinion. It takes only a few voices to create a crescendo as it takes a few zealots, fanatics and rogues to create a law-and-order issue. I do not recall any outpouring of support for the government’s two very critical actions, which I shall outline below.

In the case of Mumtaz Qadri’s execution for the assassination of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, for daring to take a stand against the blighted blasphemy law, the PML-N government found itself at the receiving end of the resultant fury of the self-proclaimed anti-blasphemy brigades, who have over time decided to be the sole and final authority on the blasphemy issue, buoyed by the draconian blasphemy law and the paralysis of 99 per cent of politicians when it comes to even voicing proposed changes to the law in fear of the wrath of the Mullahs. There is still a firm belief that the support of religious parties and their power of organised mobilisation could make governments fall and frankly be akin to signing one’s death warrant, as we saw in the case of Taseer.

It was a bold step and one that made me very proud of my country. Very, very proud.

What followed was even more celebratory. There was muted support, almost apologetic of how ‘Pakistan’ was showing resolve in following Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s footsteps in embracing its minorities on social media for a few days. And that was it. But for those of us who understood what this meant, the declaration of Easter and Holi as holidays to mark the religious days for minority Christians and Hindus was a mammoth step, paving the way for an optimistic future.

We, the old, the young and the not-so-young, rejoiced basking in the glow of this seemingly small flicker of hope and light. Proud and relieved, it seemed right, giving back long overdue rights to the minorities that are forever intertwined with Pakistan as the white on the national flag. For me at least, it was a quietly proud moment as a Pakistani living abroad. Here was one thing that obviated the pain of past injustices we have all contributed to for not speaking out and demanding change from our leaders and holding them accountable to it when they fail to deliver. Instead, we lent our support as mute spectators to everything that was contrary to the idea of Pakistan. To what Jinnah had envisioned and what Pakistanis, as inheritors of that great vision, failed to ensure.

What followed might have eclipsed this hope, but it has not eliminated it. The horror of the Easter attack and the fact that it happened in Lahore, beloved and ever-welcoming, rich in culture and embodying an intrinsic quality of tolerance like no other place in Pakistan, only sharpened the pain and the anger at seeing the images spewed by the media in gory detail on celluloid.

Ironically, the attack in Lahore intensified the resolve in fighting terrorism even more than before and unified the faiths like nothing had ever done. Blood donations to victims of the attack were aplenty by Lahoris, irrespective of faith and following. The age old adage that every cloud has a silver lining comes to mind when we view the timeline of terrorist acts in Pakistan. Every attack, more so those carried out on soft targets, civilians — especially women and children — has only rendered any support for the Taliban and their apologists to a nominal point. It has in fact raised consensus for policies that are intolerant of extremism and militancy. The best thing to happen and what will make a lasting difference is the negation of the extremist mindset. Something Sharif has spoken out on recently. But his litmus test will be to put words in action.

This leads us to a critical question: Is the Pakistani nation ready to undertake its share of responsibility? Will it be willing to risk the inevitable and traumatic reprisal attacks? We, who are the government, the public, the Christians, the Hindus and the Ahmadis, the Sunnis and the Shiites, the ones’ living on the fringes, in the firing line, on the brink and facing the heat, every day, every night, thankful when we are ensconced in the safety of our homes and not lying as parts of bloodied corpses, our bodies blown into smithereens by the pellets of an exploited and misled individual. Are we ready to forget the horrors visited on the families of those, who, for no mistake but of faith, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, fell to the sacrificial altar, shutting our minds to what is avoidable, what demands sacrifice and support, obviating the gnawing voice of conscience calling for any action, ready to make our contribution to changing society, the ‘mindset change’ that is being called for? Will the people of Pakistan rise above the ashes and pay homage to the sacrifice of the victims of Lahore and the children of Peshawar, of that of thousands of civilians and soldiers who have fallen to terrorists’ shrapnel, the extremists and the antithesis of humanity?

It is time people own up and show that support, in actions and words. Let us not waste the sacrifice made by our Christian brothers and sisters and children and those of Peshawar whose innocent faces still haunt our memories. These are hard times for Pakistan but it is not a despondent situation for, unlike the past, Pakistan has a lot to look forward to, to contribute and to build. It takes one spark to light a fire and we have had a few sparks of optimism, with the women’s protection bill, vindicating Taseer’s murder and not bowing our heads to the extremists and acknowledging the minorities’ rights to celebrate their holy days. Let these be the benchmarks that Pakistanis aspire to in building a tolerant and free country where the true spirit of Islam is felt and imbibed.