Pakistan will continue to bleed

by Saybhan Samat

(October 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Asif Ali Zardari was elected as the new president of Pakistan recently and he has not been able to control the Islamic militants wreaking havoc in strife-torn Pakistan. The same battle lines between the secularists and the Islamic militants continue to remain with the predatory US on the side of the government of Asif Ali Zardari. Regular bombings continue to be the order of the day and the people of Pakistan it seems will suffer the same fate as those of the people of Iraq. Asif Ali Zardari is following the same policy as that of Pervez Musharaf, in killing his own Muslim countrymen who vehemently oppose secularism and US inference not only in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan.

The state of Pakistan named the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born in August 1947 in the shadow of death and violence. When the colonizers realized that it had become impossible to control India, the so-called jewel in the crown of the British Raj, it was already too late. The whole subcontinent was on fire. In one terrible slaughter in Bihar, from October 30th to November 7th, 1946 approximately 30,000 Muslims were slaughtered in a pre-meditated, well- organized pogram, this was just one of numerous large scale, cold blooded massacres that engulfed the entire subcontinent in a terrible period of uncertainty, both before and after the British. They left behind them two states locked into simmering and intractable conflict over numerous unresolved issues, the most important being Kashmir.

The partition of India was one of the bloodiest events of the 20th century. The situation was so bad that at the start of its existence there was little hope that Pakistan could survive. Looking back at the euphoria that took millions of people in August 1947 to a new homeland one wonders what happened to that dream. The creation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, in fact the first Islamic Republic in modern times, was meant to mark the beginning of the fulfillment of dream that had enthralled and inspired a whole generation of Muslims in the Indian sub-continent; 61 years later the process has still not begun. What was it that destroyed the dream of Pakistan so early in life? Who were the people who let it happen? Why did a state created in the name of Islam, bought by the enormous sacrifices of millions of people fail to fulfill the aspirations of the people?

It is very clear that the failure of Pakistan is not because of its people, but because of its incompetent leadership, since independence. Pakistan turned into a client state of the US, held in bondage by the IMF and misled into a chaotic, violent existence by a deeply secularized leadership, a tiny elite that had no political legitimacy and none of the qualifications required to govern an Islamic country.

The crisis of leadership emerged very early in Pakistan’s history. Those who took charge of the independence movement in its final phase were a product of British educational system, and their commitment to Islam was that of a secular-sort; that is to say, they saw Islam as a religion providing guidelines for a personal moral code, but not as relevant, indeed essential and central, to the entire spectrum of the collective life of people. Thus beyond its utility for slogans, Islam was never seen as a primary source from which operative principles could be derived. This created a state mired in dichotomies; its constitution proclaimed Islam to be the state religion, but the entire edifice of ruling institutions, inherited from the British Raj, was based on secular principles. There was no attempt to recorder either of the two most powerful state institutions left behind by the British Raj- the state civil service and military on Islamic principles, and these two institutions were to play a decisive role in destroying the new polity. Perhaps the new state was deliberately delivered into these hands by the departing colonizers. At any rate it never attained independence in any true sense.

Held hostage by its own military, Pakistan was to suffer four military coups in its short life, each worse than the once before. The crisis of leadership persists. Thus without a pious and mature leadership rooted in Islam, Pakistan’s future is bleak. What was once a happy dream has turned into a nightmare of strife, blood shed, sectarian violence and subservience to foreign masters. A leadership that can instill the vision of the correct interpretation of Islam like that of Iran into the mainstream to restore hope & trust to the hearts of the long suffering people. Pakistan’s only raison d’etre is Islam;

Without this commitment, it has no hope of survival

Having said all this, the militants backed by Al-Qaaeda and the Taliban have made their mark in Pakistan as the vanguard for establishing Islam there. However their extremist and fanatical interpretation of Islam are flawed and not in consonance with the human values of the divine and noble ideology of the great religion of Islam. The pro-Taliban and pro Al-Qaeeda Islamic militants do not have a clear understanding of Islam, the functions of the Islamic state and how to go about establishing one. They understand Islam in term restrictive laws concerning personal behavior. The much larger questions of political legitimacy and social and economic justice are not known to them. Islam’s injunctions are not merely concerned with punishments; they are just as concerned with regulating the market place and weighty issues of power and authority. How a person acquires power and what limits are on its use, are all part of the Islamic value system. What the Taliban did when they were in power in Afghanistan is an aberration, they did not permit women to be educated, they destroyed the schools of women, some they closed, smashed television sets, banned music, burnt shops selling DVDS, VCDS and CDS, executed barbers shaving beards even punished women exposing a part of their feet. They also killed Muslims who rejected their interpretation of Islam naming them as infidels.

The misguided heretical and deviant Taliban believed that Islamic standards can be imposed by force or threat of violence and that all that Islam requires is to burn down video shops, raid body parlours or force women to wear burqa. The Islamic Republic of Iran stands out today as a shining example of how an Islamic state should be run. Alas! other Muslim countries have not followed the example of Iran. Iran is stable, advanced in technology, independent and now the growing power in the Middle-East.

The situation in the hapless state of Pakistan is an explosive one. Neither the secular leadership of Asif Ali Zardari nor the heretical and deviant Taliban are capable of leading Pakistan. It is likely that Pakistanis will kill and destroy each other in the struggle for power in the coming days. The US will of course add fuel to the fire. It indeed is a very sad fate for country that was originally formed to be an Islamic State. It has all the makings of a failed state unless a miracle saves the land of Pakistan. - Sri Lanka Guardian