Coalition considerations

The likelihood that a conservative cleric, associated with a religious party that forms a part of the ruling coalition, is to be appointed to head the Council of Islamic Ideology is alarming in more ways than one. Although the CII today has fewer powers than was previously the case, and is designated a role essentially as an advisory body, it still holds influence as an institution which can direct the pattern of jurisprudence and the interpretation of Islamic thought.

It must be noted that the respected Islamic scholar who currently holds the post has over the past few years played a key role in making recommendations that aimed to set the nation along a modern, progressive path. This after all is something Pakistan badly needs today. The exit of the present chairman, to be replaced by an office-bearer of a party who is widely known as holding obscurantist views on many matters will set us back a very long way. Posts in the CII deserve to be held by persons well-versed in Islamic teaching and equipped with the background education necessary to interpret matters of religion in modern times.

It seems obvious the decision to change the head of the CII is a part of the coalition politics of the government. The PPP is eager to ensure the passage of the budget and to make the concessions demanded by junior partners in return. But there are certain matters on which there should be no compromise. The results of allowing forces holding beliefs of a particular brand to take over our society in the past are today evident everywhere. They are apparent in the wave of sectarian killings we see, in the laws that discriminate on the basis of gender and in the existence of tens of thousands of seminaries everywhere. It is the duty of the government to ensure this does not
happen again.

Published in  The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2010.