Political paralysis — more to come

The dharna in Islamabad has finally ended to the relief of every one. So has ended the occupation of roads, intersections within and around major cities and motorways over the last weekend that paralysed the movement of goods and people in larger parts of the country. The choice of occupying Faizabad Interchange that connects mainly the two cities and heavy vehicular traffic between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and major cities along the historic Grand Trunk Road was strategic and well-calculated one. A few thousand zealots and followers of a vitriolic mullah paralysed the federal and Punjab governments for three weeks.

What would be the response of any government anywhere in the world if any group for any reason occupied such a traffic interchange in violation of the law, Constitution and public interest? The local administration — the district-level police and civil bureaucracy — would get the roads cleared and restore the flow of traffic by dispersing the crowd and arresting the leaders; but Pakistan is another country. Political expediency of our political leaders, their incompetence and politics of survival have turned Pakistan into a weak and weakening state.

This is not the first time that the state authorities have surrendered to the demands of religious groups. Starting with the passage of the Objectives Resolution in 1949 it has happened many times that has contributed to the menace of street-power politics of mullahs. Measured by popular votes, they don’t have public support, but they have guns, sticks, hate-speech, and above all the power of fatwas that put lives of their opponents in danger. It amounts to creating fear and insecurity for those who hold power and are seen to be acting against what the mullahs term established religious norms, rules and ideas about shaping ethos of Muslim-majority Pakistan.

This brings us back to the historical legacy of dangerous compromises our leaders made on the identity and character of the country, place of religious minorities and the role of religion in politics. We need to engage in the anatomy of the paralysis and why it is likely to produce more of the same in this background. It is not the surrender of the PML-N, it is of every party past and present government. Remember a secular, modernist Z A Bhutto and the unanimity among all the political parties, religious, mainstream, ethnic and so-called secular in declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims. The recent Islamabad dharna was reconfirmation of the same politics, and a refresher course for all politicians to recite exactly the same words of faith as spouted out from over the Faizabad bridge. That was the best escape route to personal safety of the political class of all varieties. An overwhelming majority of those who would make it to daily talk shows just disappeared from the scene.

After putting up resistance to the unreasonable demands of the dharna leaders for three weeks, trying all peaceful means and setting fresh deadlines, the government finally launched a police operation on Saturday. It fizzled out within a few hours. More people from the surrounding areas reportedly joined the dharna, swelling its ranks. Then, it faced a much larger reaction as supporters of dharna began to block roads. Fearing deaths and an inevitable political backlash, the interior ministry halted the operation.

This is failure of a ruling group in power that is leaderless, incompetent, wounded by corruption charges and divided from within. But at a larger level, it is failure of the state, society and the people of Pakistan in standing up against the intimidation of the religious demagogues. Surrendering to them like this would weaken us further.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2017.

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