The letter of the Saudi Prince to the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court is surprising on two accounts. To the best of my knowledge no such letter has ever been written to our Chief Justice or any other Court on any scam by any foreign Government. Secondly, rampant, unchecked corruption in our Ministry of Religious Affairs, like in most other ministries, is nothing new. For the past many years, such blatant corrupt practices have been widespread. Neither the Government of Pakistan nor the Saudi Authorities have taken any notice in the past, to check or curb the corruption in Haj arrangements for Pakistanis. Why now? Why did the honourable Saudi Prince deem it fit to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Chief Justice of Pakistan? One needs to dig a little deeper and take into consideration all the recent events and developments within Pakistan in order to expose the facts and motives.
I cannot ignore and disregard the developments in Pakistan which resulted in the dismissal of the Minister of Religious Affairs Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a nominee of the PPP. At the same time, the dismissal of Mr Azam Khan Swati, a nominee of JUI(F), for altogether different reasons cannot be ignored either. Within the same time frame shocking news started circulating in the media that the Government of Saudi Arabia is persuading the Government of Pakistan to adopt and prescribe Saudi books for Deeniyat (Religious Education) for all schools and madrassahs within the private and public sector in Pakistan. I understand that so far the Government of Pakistan is resisting the pressure of Saudi masters who are also reportedly willing to offer millions of dollars, if the Government of Pakistan accepts Saudi Text Books.
The instances of rising influences and interferences of Saudi Arabia in the internal affairs of Pakistan are a matter of grave concern. I painfully admit that most unfortunately, right after the creation of Pakistan, there has been an increasing trend to surrender our sovereignty to the Western countries, particularly the USA and the UK, on one pretext or the other of national interest.
Encouraged by this character of our rulers and exploiting the vulnerability of Pakistan, our otherwise known to be friendly Arab countries have also assumed a similar role, by imposing their religious beliefs, sectarian thoughts and practices upon Pakistan. In the case of Saudi Arabia, it is the export of Wahabiism and its peculiar beliefs and practices, which are alien to most Pakistanis. This pernicious trend began with the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq, who instructed all government departments, autonomous and semi-autonomous statutory organisations, particularly PTV and PIA to adopt and promote the practice of Allah Hafiz, instead of the centuries-old practice of the Muslims of sub-continent to say Khuda Hafiz.
At the same time, General Zia under a conscious plan created, strengthened and patronised the lethal curse of sectarian and ethnic, extremist, militant organisations and parties. Since then, Pakistan has been suffering endlessly from the worst genocide which has become a daily routine. This unending spate of terrorism is threatening the very existence of our country in the guise of promoting Islam. It is not a mere coincidence that, if not all then the vast majority of the terrorist groups and extremist and militant political parties follow the Wahabi school of thought of the Saudi Kingdom. It is also an undeniable reality that not only the USA but also its allies in the Arab World are constantly financing the extremist and militant terrorist groups of Taliban, by whatever name they may be called.
Now the latest act of attacking our sovereignty is to impose the text of the Deeniyat being followed in Saudi Arabia. This proposal has so far been resisted by Pakistan. This appears to be one of the main reasons for the dismissal of the Minister of Religious Affairs, who is known to be a follower of Brelvi school of thought, instead of being Deobandi which is followed by JUI(F). This appears to be the reason for an all out opposition of JUI(F) against Mr Kazmi. I may clarify that in my opinion Mr Kazmi is no saint and I have no desire or intention to defend or condone his misdeeds, malpractices and corruption.
However, corruption cannot be the sole reason for dismissal of Mr Kazmi from the cabinet, simply because many other ministers are openly involved in corruption and enjoying the perks without any checks or accountability. One of the federal ministers even had the audacity to claim the right to be corrupt in public and had survived. Much later he perished eventually, not because of corruption, but for having attacked the judiciary and Armed Forces.
Almost every day we read stories of rampant, unchecked corruption and scandals in so many ministries, but none of their ministers or secretaries have been dismissed. There has to be a reason other than corruption for the dismissal of Mr Kazmi. The only other plausible reason appears to be his Brelvi faith and the burning desire of JUI(F) followers of Deobandi/Wahabi thought to take over the Ministry of Religious Affairs, to pave way for implementation of the aforesaid Saudi agenda. I have no doubt that if our Prime Minister offers the Ministry of Religious Affairs to Maulana Fazl-Ur-Rehman, he will be back in the fold of the ruling coalition, without wasting a second.
The writer is a former Senator, Federal Minister for Law, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs & Human Rights and Attorney General. He is also an Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan. He can be contacted at ihaider45@yahoo.com