The wages of disengagement
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During our informal meeting at his Lahore office, Inspector General Punjab Inam Ghani told me that two ministers came from Islamabad to share the resolution the federal government had prepared to fulfil its promise made with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) on the issue of sacrilegious caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made in France last year.
“Without seeing the document, the TLP Shoura threw the resolution away and said they would not compromise on anything less than sending the French Ambassador packing.” They threatened to halt Pakistan’s major cities and therefore, to pre-empt a law and order situation, it was decided to arrest Saad Hussain Rizvi, Ghani told me. He did not agree with my view that this was a botched-up plan, and instead eulogized the government’s strategy to incarcerate Rizvi and face off with protesters.
That is where the rub lies. In a different situation, any other government would have had a Plan B if Plan A failed as had happened in the TLP case.
Plan B should have been ideally about engaging and re-engaging the TLP until its members understood that it was not in Pakistan’s favor to sever diplomatic ties with any western country. Indeed, the TLP leadership is a hard sell, but violence is not the route to traverse for any attempt to mainstream them. Even disbanding them had become a mockery since the party participated in by-elections.
A lesson from our long experience with rightwing religious parties should have been that they are willing to put their and other’s lives in danger in the name of religion.
For many, the crackdown on the TLP workers was a repeat of the government’s failed policy to attack the Red Mosque a decade back. Clearly, those in charge of law and order and maintenance of peace have not learned from the past.
Durdana Najam
For many, the crackdown on the TLP workers was a repeat of the government’s failed policy to attack the Red Mosque a decade back. Clearly, those in charge of law and order and maintenance of peace have not learned from the past.
Not everyone is sailing in the boat of forgetfulness as we do. Lately, the European Union has sent into review Pakistan’s GSP+ status to examine our compliance with the human rights objectives delineated in the program that allows us considerable economic benefits. The EU has categorically said that the review has been initiated in the backdrop of rising violence cases on charges of blasphemy. According to the resolution, victims range from journalists to human rights defenders, minorities, and faith-based organizations.
The human rights minister, Shireen Mazari, took exception to the resolution and accused the EU of jumping to the conclusion without exploring the option of engaging with Pakistan for first-hand information about the country’s progress in dismantling the edifice of hard-liners. The problem with Mazari’s argument is that it has little or no manifestation. Misuse of the blasphemy law cannot be eradicated with more laws or toothless action plans. There are only two ways to go about it. One is the reformation of the legal system, and the other is a reconstruction of Islamic thought in society.
Extremism is an attitude that no incarceration or prosecution can remove. It is, therefore, that saner elements of Pakistan’s society have been pressing upon the government to allow discussion on the blasphemy law to redefine its boundaries and make it more amicable and humane.
Almost every Islamic country was anguished to see the blasphemous cartoons. Unlike Pakistan, however, they did not throw their country into a political cul de sac.
No legal framework or action plan is sustainable unless we engage with the religious rightwing, their influencers, and followers, which are in the millions now. Academia is the best platform to begin this difficult, but almost necessary task. In a wrong assessment, we have considered parliament and politicians the panacea to all our problems. But the catalyst for change has always been and shall be academia. Let us explore this less trodden path.
*Durdana Najam is an oped writer based in Lahore. She writes on security and policy issues. She can be reached at [email protected]
