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The converted fundamentalis

The story is as true as terrorism is among us is but I intentionally avoid the name of the protagonist because of the visible fundamental fear we have been living in for decades. The tale is of a person from Swat who found himself born and raised during the Saudiasation of Pakistan during and soon after Mard-e-Momin Mard-e-Haq, Ziaul Haq’s period.

He was born a couple of years after the 1971 war, which disintegrated the then Pakistan into two countries. As a child, he used to be reluctant to attend primary school, always in search of a chance to leave his schooling for good but it was all thanks to a donkey that kept him enduring the teacher’s rod. On one such day when he skipped school, he came across a donkey on the way. Fearing the wrath of his parents, he decided to play with the donkey till noon to pass the time so that his parents might think he was at school. But the moment he accosted the donkey it spurred and plunged the boy. As a result, the schoolboy thought the teacher’s regular rod less painful than falling from the back of a wild donkey.

He used to learn the English alphabet in grade six and had once got 13 lashes of the rod because of his failure to rote all 26 alphabets in a day. He was, however, an enthusiast. Disillusioned with his school, books and the mosque’s imam where he used to go to learn to recite the Holy Quran, our hero found solace with the mild teachings of a relative who was a devout member of the Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ).

In his teens he became an equal Tableeghi (preacher) and never gave up saying the five daily prayers. Even on his errand to the jungle for firewood and cattle fodder in the snow he used to ready himself for offering his prayers in the snow.

Each morning the elderly preacher visited him and lured him with stories of paradise and lots other things. He began to ‘spend time as per the course’ in the Way of Allah by going for Serozas (three days), Ashra (10 days), Chilla (40 days) and the national and regional Tableeghi Ijtima (congregations of the Tableeghi Jamaat).

On his return from ‘spending time in the path of Allah’ everything else seemed irrelevant, even repugnant to the true religion. Quibbling with the neighbouring elderly men became a daily routine as they insisted upon what they had been taught in their childhood, while our young hero was hell bent to purify the religion from heresies of the ‘false’ faith.

Inspired by teachings of the Hadith, the teenager made it obligatory upon himself to cleanse the world from sins and prepare the people ‘on the path to paradise’.

The piously stimulated youth had even bothered his parents to quite a degree by imposing certain etiquette as how to eat and drink. He had memorised hundreds of dua’a (prayers) as he had been told that there was a specified prayer for every act, whether it was going to the toilet or going to a bazaar. He uttered these prayers in every allegedly relevant context. For sharpening his wits, and success in school and college examinations the young boy began to rely on prayers rather than on studies.

When he was still in college, an opportunity to raise his cadre of Imaan from the lowest to the highest presented itself. In the early 90s, the ‘celebrated’ Maulana Sufi Muhammad of Dir began agitation for the imposition of Sharia in the Malakand Division gradually turning the idyllic Swat valley as his base camp and battleground. As expected, the protagonist of this tale joined the campaign and attended his processions. He even took up arms during the high days of the movement for Sharia by Sufi Muhammad’s Tanzeem-e-Nifaaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadia (TNSM). Along with a few other youths, who were convicted during the last military operation in Swat in 2009 known as Operation Rah-e-Raast, the young boy agitated much but went dormant when the agitation was met with force during the second tenure of Benazir Bhutto’s government.

By that time, the young man has completed his graduation and cracks in his mindset had already begun to appear. During his ‘free study at the masters level’ — free in the sense that he was doing his masters as an external student and happened to read course books which are not usually taught at our universities as the main focus is to pass the examinations and get a degree — the young man began to develop some curiosity and critical thinking. The rebel as he was, our ‘hero’ announced his defiance of a certain public order wherein it was rumoured that a person who didn’t say prayer would be jailed for three months in the wake of the Sharia Bill by Nawaz Sharif’s second government. It is said that after that order the man was seldom seen at mosques.

Our hero was fortunate to have found the opportunity of free study without the help of a ‘teacher’. He happened to study a little of Russell, a bit of philosophy and anthropology. And for the last 13 years, our hero is among the most despised and controversial in his small society. Pleasantly enough, he has now a visible following as well. Upon inquiring how he feels when people speak ill of him, our hero replies,

“I have been in their ranks and used to be as orthodox as they are. It is really a painful angst to think differently but one must. One’s thoughts do make difference when one is upright in his public life so as to deny any ground for people to point fingers at your character. The progressives must take extra care of their dealings, personal or public”.

Published in Dawn: http://www.dawn.com/news/795563/the-converted-fundamentalist

The state’s double standards

Last week when the Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) gave us the good news of having arrested the alleged attackers of Malala Yousafzai – the teenage champion for education who was attacked by the Taliban on October 9, 2012 in her home town while coming home from her school – we were relieved. Many saw this step as evidence of the military’s commitment to restore complete peace in Swat.

The arrests are really a slap in the face of those (and they are many in Pakistan) who thought the heinous deadly attack on Malala was a self-constructed plot to defame Pakistan. These people wanted to shroud the young and brave daughter of Swat in a mist of conspiracies because she stood against the terrorists and refused to take their diktat. Thanks to ISPR these Taliban apologists were proven wrong.

Although amid the indecisive long sit-ins in Pakistan many Swatis didn’t notice the good news yet those who have somehow kept themselves immune to the sit-ins and the artificial impasse imposed in the country welcomed the good news with visible applause.

Swatis are optimistic about a lasting peace but the incessant target killing of the members of the peace committees and the skirmishes shatter their trust. The recent target killing of members of the peace committees – which went unnoticed by the popular media – once again deepened this fear among the people.

Another news that stirred the non-partisan thinking lot in Swat and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and of course in the rest of Pakistan, was the apparent renouncement of attacks by the Punjabi Taliban inside Pakistan. The news of renouncement of violence by a militant militia is no doubt good news but given the long history of having terrorists as assets in Pakistan with Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the epicentre, questions are raised which need answers. But nobody in Pakistan is ready to regard these questions as worthy of being answered because the majority of the questioners belong to either Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan.

The Pakistani state has always had double standards regarding the citizens of Pakistan. Many events, past or current, ascertain this policy. The current political theatrics in Pakistan are also suggestive of the double standards for the ‘national interest’.

In the so-called Red Zone in Islamabad two men have been demanding the toppling of an elected government using the force of their rowdy followers who have virtually attacked the buildings of the ‘civilian institutions’ – the Supreme Court, parliament and the state-owned Pakistan Television. True, protest is the democratic right of every citizen of Pakistan but in Pakistan some people are always considered first among equals. One wonders whether such month-long rowdy sin-ins would ever be allowed in Swat, Fata or Balochistan.

For a few thousand people who demanded just a slight change in a design of a hydroelectric project army soldiers along with hundreds of policemen were called to take positions at the strategic places lest the people agitated. None but the ex-provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did this. Similarly when the people of Swat came out of their houses for a peaceful protest back in 2009 against the 500-hour long curfews the security forces arrested hundreds of them. In the same way when a few hundred people in Kalam raised their voice against the alleged land grabbing by certain officers in the military the protesters were arrested and detained for days.

In Islamabad, despite the imposition of Article 245, no action was taken against the protesters and their leaders despite the obvious incitement of violence and vandalism.

If speculations are to be believed, as Imran Khan wants us to believe, there are many in circulation especially among the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other similar ‘lesser’ important provinces. Hundreds of leaders and workers of the Awami National Party were killed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The ANP and PPP were not given a level playing field in the May 2013 elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This raises eyebrows amidst Imran Khan’s furore of rigging in the last elections.

Given the history – and as the secret script unfolds – one can conjecture that what was going in today’s Pakistan was planned long before the May elections. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the ANP and PPP were handcuffed whereas the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf was given an edge to win the elections in the province. This may not be true but maybe someone of the scriptwriters will disclose it after a few years as in the case of the Islami Jamhuri Itihad (IJI) under Nawaz Sharif; and the agglomeration of the six religious parities under the banner of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) during the era of General Musharraf.

People now ask what the reaction would of the state institutions if the leaders of the sit-ins in Islamabad were the ANP, PPP, BNP, MQM or PMAP, parties usually regarded centre-left. The two leaders who are let free to use any kind of foul language against parliament, constitution or the courts belong to Punjab while any defiant voice from Balochistan is forcefully shut. Both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri are the new blue-eyed boys and have a centre-right posture.

The attackers of the PTV building were tenderly asked to retreat while no peaceful protests are tolerated on the roads of Swat or Balochistan and are instead met with batons and detention.

It is not that one wants terrorism or violence in Punjab. Punjab is a part of Pakistan and not less dear than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan. But our state institutions, both military and civilian, need intensive deliberations to learn to equally treat all the citizens of Pakistan irrespective of their ethnicities, class or ideological tilts.

The writer heads IBT, an independentorganisation dealing with education and

development in Swat. Email: ztorwali@gmail.com 

Published in The News: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-273485-The-state’s-double-standards

In respect of my Lord the CJ of Pakistan

My lord, I venture to take the liberty of addressing you directly. But I take this liberty out of my staunch trust in you and your intention.
You are the one who upheld the freedom of judiciary by not bowing before a haughty dictator.
It was the end of 2007 when the general elections were announced by the then pseudo-democracy under the slackening grip of Musharraf. The Musharraf regime was so heavy upon people like me that they could not believe in a fair and free election under the tyrant’s thumb. I am not affiliated with any political party of Pakistan. But back in the high days of the ‘Rule of Law’ movement I felt jubilant that a new social contract for Pakistan would ultimately emerge from this movement. I longed for a new people-centered political party. The movement gave us a light in the end of the tunnel.
Hence we boycotted the election. I remember those days of hopes and dismay when I made a flag inscribed with slogans as ‘’Pakistan ka Iftikhar, justice Iftikhar-Pakistan ka Aezaz, barrister Aitzaz’’, and hung over a high on my modest home in a Pakistani village. Many of the candidates would love to call me mad. I was really mad at a new contract for this all-time-bleak country.
Later on, the martyrdom of Shaheed Benzir Bhutto turned the dictator on defensive and the election was pretty fair. A new government was formed which instilled many hopes in Pakistanis. A counter revolution took place and the Rule of Law movement lessened to reinstatement of the judiciary as it was on the eve of November 3, 2007. At last it was restored after a long procrastination on the part of the new elected government.
Now as we have an independent judiciary under your leadership so there is ample reason to expect many positive impacts in Pakistan. We are fully justified to hope for the changes the independent judiciary is all wished for.
But to date there is seen no change in the condition of the common man of Pakistan. The judiciary is now posed at loggerheads with the government over NRO and the18th Amendment.
The NRO and the 18th Amendment have virtually divided the once united lawyers into two camps. A new clash of institutions is on the move. But it gets very frightening when the top and sincere leaders of the lawyers movement term it as a clash of egos. None but Ali Ahmad Kurd and Aitzaz Ahsan express this view, the former in a straightforward way whereas the latter in diplomatic words. Lay men like us do not know the law in detail but are very much concerned at what is going on in the country. We are also unable to locate the judicial activism as sustainable as it seems an activism of an individual who leads the judiciary. A common Pakistani interprets this elitist. The common Pakistani does not take pain to go into the details of the impacts of constitutional cases. He is now left with no choice due to the increasing terrorism, high inflation, power shortage and the decade long pending cases due to the laze and haze at the district level courts. No sustainable reforms are to be seen. For instance, what reformation has to date made in the overall judicial system particularly at the civil and session courts level as most of the common Pakistanis suffer here. At the lower courts many cases take generations to go undecided. The same case filed by a grandpa is to be pursued by the grandson, and it will definitely pass to the latter’s son as a hereditary legacy. It means that for most Pakistanis justice is denied.
My lord, what the common people of Pakistan want is not the grand decisions. A few sue motto actions are unlikely to bring a panacea. The people of Pakistan want a cheap and speedy justice; and that can only be ensured by institutions making. Individual efforts and sincerity is great but there is need to think beyond the individuals, and to focus the overall reform at the judicial system. Who knows what a judiciary will be intact after 2013?
So my lord, make efforts to reform the judiciary from bottom to top so that the common people may be able to at least have a respite. Great Regards!!!
Zubair Torwali

Reclaim the mosque

It is hard to build tolerant society when state behaves like a Mufti issuing fatwas against its own citizensZubair Torwali
The mayhem in Lahore on May 28, claiming over 80 lives, should serve as an eye opener for the people who still wish a pluralistic, just and tolerant society in Pakistan. This tragedy should stimulate a rational discourse in Pakistan about the very rationale of the country. Every writer and analyst must divert his/her energies to highlight the venom and hatred groomed in our society. The civil society must unite against the forces hell bent to mould Pakistan into a state where only one sect will survive and all the rest would be dispatched elsewhere. A few weeks back I happened to read Maulana Abul Klam Azad’s interview. In his interview, Maulana Abul Klam Azad predicted a number of untoward things inflicting Pakistan. Among other things, he foresaw a sectarian strife. He unfortunately proved correct over and over again. A shameless act with regard to sectarian tolerance was constitutional amendment back in 1974 introduced by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government to please Messrs. Maulana Maudodi & co.A few days back a Maulvi came and asked me: ''Do you regard Ahmadis as Kafir (infidels)?" I was silent. On finding me silent he shot yet another awkward question; “What about Christians and Jews and Hindus? Aren't they Kafirs?" A long silence on my part. I was silent and embarrassed but the Maulvi Saab didn't stop. Finally, I mustered the courage and firmly said: "Maulvi Saab I am not entitled to declare them infidels or Kafirs." At this, the Maulvi Saab addressed the other people there and declared that I was also an infidel as I did not regard the Ahmadis, Hindus, Christians or Jews as 'Kaffir.' I found myself in an uncomfortable situation. The Maulvi Saab did not stop here. Next Friday, I was implicitly a topic of vitriolic homily from the pulpit.How can a rational discourse be started in a society where the one party has a pulpit and a confessional license to incite while the other a poor hapless individual who believes in reason to initiate a dialogue? How can one promote a pluralistic society where one always finds himself/herself at the mouth of cannon that fires 'fatwas'? It is hard to build tolerant society where the state constitution behaves like a Mufti issuing fatwas against its own citizens.The 18th Amendment was an opportunity to roll back such official fatwas inserted in the constitution. Alas! The opportunity was not merely lost; the constitution has become even fanatic by banning a non-Muslim to the office of the prime ministership.One wonders why the governments, particularly the ones led by PPP, have always betrayed their manifesto and tarnished their apparent secular posture. The first PPP government declared one Muslim sect as infidel, the second and third fostered the Taliban in Afghanistan. The current one has further amended the constitution making it even more puritan. A member of the board of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) once told me that PEMRA was directed by our saintly Prime Minister from saintly town of Multan, Pir Yusuf Raza Gilani, to issue more licenses to religious TV channels. When asked why religious channels be generously issued PEMRA licenses, the prime minister said he was under pressure. No surprise, hence, if we witness extremism and fanaticism on the march while rationalism on the retreat. One solution is: depoliticise the mosque and reclaim it as a place of peace and spirituality.