Recently, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar held on to religion as a crutch, as our politicians so often do when their performance is poor. As the country faces an economic meltdown, he poorly tried to calm the nation by arguing that a country created in the name of Islam would always have a miraculous path to prosperity.
Our public, politicians and generals always pretend that the fall of Dhaka didn’t happen and that we haven’t lost half our country already. It’s quite simple, if we’re not going to mend our ways, we’ll face consequences - just like any country in history.
The world existed before Pakistan came into being and will continue to exist after it, just like how no one batted an eye after we lost East Pakistan. It’s time for us to abandon our superstitions and become a practical nation. The religion card is the last shelter of scoundrels and incompetent politicians anyway.
But how did this happen? This superstitious thinking was injected into society over the decades. Military dictator Ayub Khan introduced two religious authorities in the 1960s: The Council of Islamic Ideology and the Islamic Research Centre. The same authorities that now have a problem with the people who demand a ban on child marriages and action against forced conversion of the Hindu community.
During his reign over Pakistan, Ayub also surrendered to ultra-conservative groups like Jamat-e-Islami and introduced the Islamist ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ through Pakistan Studies curricula in schools. These books told us how spiritual forces descended from the heavens to help Pakistan in the war of 1965, and how dead pirs rose from their graves to catch bombs dropped by aircraft, hence, preventing them from causing harm. Unfortunately, these forces were on a leave in other wars, which led to unsatisfactory results in Dhaka, Siachin and Kargil.
Enter Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He too surrendered and brought the second amendment in 1974, to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims after announcing that Islam was a state religion. Later, a junior general and an Islamist, Zia-ul-Huq, was appointed Army Chief who, in 1977, toppled Bhutto’s government and radicalised the country further by creating the Sharia Court, training jihadists and introducing more religious discrimination in the constitution during the 1980s.
Javed Ghamidi once said that a blunder made by the state isn’t infertile, but bound to give birth to more issues. Just like how Ahmadis were targeted in the name of the finality of the Prophet Muhammad, now recent legislation brought ‘to protect the honour of first three Caliphs’ reeks of state-led targeting of Shias.
Such legislation not only leads to persecution by the state but also empowers mobs against those specific communities because they think they’re doing the state a favour by taking matters into their own hands, especially if the state hesitates in implementing those draconian laws. You either get persecuted by the state or lynched by the mob.
For decades, Barelvis were targeted by Deobandis because of the state-funded Deobandi jihadists. Now Deobandi jihadists have been abandoned but years of attacks on Barelvi shrines by them have radicalised Barelvis who were once considered moderates. Now it’s no longer just a battle between Deobandis and Barelvis either; now, a policeman lynched by the mob is Barelvi and those who kill him during their violent protests against supposed ‘blasphemers’ are also from the same school of thought.
Of course, our politicians thought that this was a great time to widen the scope of blasphemy laws further and add the ‘khatm-e-nabuwwat’ clause to ‘nikah-namas’. It’s so ‘romantic’ to declare other sects as non-Muslims and show your thirst for their blood before going to bed on your first night as a married couple. Needless to say, the country has been turned into a circus. Such nations aren’t taken seriously when they raise genuine issues like Islamophobia in the West. For people to take us seriously, first we need to get our own house in order.
Unfortunately though, so far, no ‘champion of democracy’ has abolished the religious authorities created by the dictators, nor revoked their ordinances and draconian blasphemy laws. May I remind the nation that, in 1947, Pakistan had removed references to God from the oaths of the Governor-General and Ministers to keep religion a private matter? This was done to even allow an atheist to become the Chief Executive of the state. It was the base for an inclusive, modern and tolerant state.
Today we only have Islamic religious oaths and one has to swear that he’s a ‘true Muslim’ before holding certain offices or getting married. After that, it’s still necessary to visit the holy places in Saudi Arabia and upload pictures of you praying there to eliminate all doubts.
If someone thinks that a certain sect is not following ‘real Islam’ then he is free to preach his interpretation and bring others towards ‘the right path’. But it’s no business of the state to have a divine mission. Let people figure things out on their own as the state focuses on solving genuine issues of its citizens, irrespective of their religion, race, caste, creed or sect. Then and only then will we get a peaceful, practical and progressive country that won’t have to beg from others to survive. There is a reason why 62% of the country’s youth wants to settle in the West. Mentally, our ‘leaders’ are still stuck in the 80s and this is forcing talented people to leave this half-baked and delusional theocracy.