The cricketer, the cleric and the government

Pakistan is a victim of underhand politics and distorted religious beliefs. These are the twin evils that have persistently cast a ghastly shadow on its political landscape since the death of Jinnah on September 11, 1948. Phantoms of the past, which a 19th century writer once described as “things of bestial shape and with hideous voices,” keep reappearing. This was again in evidence on Thursday which marked the 68th anniversary of Pakistan’s birth.

Never before has the atmosphere on Independence Day been so tense and so charged with anxious expectancy. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief, Imran Khan and the leader of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Tahirul Qadri set forth from Lahore in separate motorcades along with tens of thousands of their supporters and reached the federal capital on Friday. Both have sworn that their struggle will continue till the capitulation of the disastrously incompetent Nawaz Sharif government.

Islamabad has the appearance of an occupied city and the eventual outcome of the agitation is far from certain. The disturbances, if finance minister Ishaq Dar is to be believed, have already resulted in a loss of Rs300 billion in terms of the flight of capital from the country.

It is also strangely ironic that Qadri and Imran cancel each other out. Both have converged on Islamabad at the same time and one steals the fire and thunder of the other. On balance, however, Qadri has the advantage because he is intellectually more sound and articulate than the PTI chief. Both are in the bad habit of moralising even though they also have skeletons in their own cupboards.

Qadri shot to international fame in March 2010 with the publication of his 600-page ‘Fatwa on Terrorism’ which was described by the US State Department as a work which “takes Islam back from terrorists.” In August 2010 he organised the first ever anti-terrorist camp at Warwick University. His reputation as a formidable scholar travelled far and wide. Goaded by his new-found celebrity status, Qadri convened a Peace and Harmony Conference at London’s Wembley Arena. The event was attended by more than 12,000 people and tributes poured in from world leaders.

The other side of the coin is what Qadri’s detractors, and there are many, have to say about him. Scholars of Al-Azhar University have accused him of styling himself as Sheikhul Islam without any warrant. They claim that he has never produced any documentation to establish how he acquired this grandiloquent title. His claim was based on a video clip that showed the Al-Azhar president, Muhammad Usama Al-Abd using this honorific to introduce him at a meeting. This was rejected on the ground that Al-Abd’s duties were administrative and he did not have the authority to confer such a title on anyone.

Qadri’s critics frequently allude to his speech on February 25, 2012 in Vadodara in which he urged Indian Muslims to forget the 2002 Gujarat massacre. This infuriated his audience and the prominent cleric of Hyderabad, Maulana Naseeruddin, sternly denounced Qadri for being insensitive to the feelings of Muslims.

But it is Qadri’s stance on the blasphemy laws that exposes him completely. Soon after the nauseating Rimsha Masih episode, a video clip shows him assuring a European audience in September 2012 that he never had a hand in drafting the infamous laws which, in any event, applied only to Muslims. Even then, he had always had serious reservations about the manner in which blasphemy cases were adjudicated.

Despite this, another video recording shows the same cleric proudly claiming in front of his followers in Pakistan: “The blasphemy law, Article 295-C, was only and entirely created by Allah through this servant and brother (me)! Nobody else has contributed to it. Muslim, Jew, Christian, believer, infidel, man or woman, will be executed like a dog” should they ever dare to blaspheme.

Yet this is the man who has threatened to unleash a revolution that will bring down the entire system while at the same time pledging fealty to the constitution. There can scarcely be a greater contradiction. It is not yet clear whether he will team up with Imran Khan who fancies himself as the harbinger of change.

So overpowering is Imran’s ambition to become the next prime minister that he will settle for nothing less than Nawaz’s immediate resignation because of his claims that last year’s general elections had been massively rigged.

This is strange behaviour indeed for the reason that it has taken the cricketer-turned-politician more than 14 months to realise the extent of rigging. But despite this the ruling coalition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is led by his party.

Neither did it dissuade Imran and the PTI from becoming members of parliament and taking oath under Article 65 (Third Schedule) of the constitution which states: “I do solemnly swear…that as member of the National Assembly (or Senate), I will perform my functions honestly, to the best of my ability, faithfully, in accordance with the Constitution…and the law, and the rules of the Assembly (or Senate) and always in the interest of the sovereignty, solidarity, wellbeing and prosperity of Pakistan.”

Admittedly Nawaz Sharif is probably the most inept prime minister that Pakistan has ever had, but he commands a comfortable majority in parliament and can only be removed through a vote of no confidence under Article 95 of the constitution. But by demanding his immediate resignation followed by mid-term elections under the supervision of a non-political government, Imran Khan has violated his solemn pledge before God to uphold and protect the basic law of the land.

On Wednesday a PTI insider who is close to Imran Khan conceded in a conversation with me that the party’s Central Parliamentary Board could have done better job in the selection of candidates for last year’s elections. To this extent the PTI’s Review Commission report co-authored by former interior secretary Tasneem Noorani and two other party stalwarts had merit. Its recommendations would be thoroughly reviewed in the coming weeks.

He then made the startling comment that the present crisis could be solved through a replay of the Kakar formula. The PTI would be perfectly happy if the army chief prevailed upon Nawaz Sharif to step down and hand over the baton to someone like interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. In such an eventuality his party would work in tandem with the new government to bring about electoral reforms.

He was at pains to emphasise that this was only his personal opinion and had never been discussed by his party leadership. But then as an afterthought he added that the idea was not really all that outlandish. He explained: “The army already has the final say on our relations with India, Afghanistan, the US, all nuclear-related issues and now even internal security. Does it really matter if it also plays a role in bringing about political stability?”

In recent weeks the tempo of events has been rapid and this makes objective analysis difficult. The writing on the wall is one of uncertainty and it is impossible to foretell what the coming days will bring. One wonders whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif even remembers that it is the 26th death anniversary of his mentor, General Ziaul Haq. In an interview to The Economist in 1981, Zia famously said: “Pakistan is, like Israel, an ideological state. Take out the Judaism from Israel and it will fall like a house of cards. Take Islam out of Pakistan and make it a secular state; it would collapse.”

Nothing has changed since then. The cricketer, the cleric, the prime minister and indeed all politicians have exploited religion for political motives. This was the disease that set in soon after the death of Jinnah. Even an intellectual giant such as Sir Zafarullah Khan told the constituent assembly on March 12, 1949 at the time of the adoption of the Objectives Resolution that religion was the primary principle of politics and state-making. The phantoms of the past will keep reappearing.

The writer is the publisher of Criterion Quarterly.

Email: iftimurshed@gmail.com