The right’s wrongs

Votes mean something

In the heyday of Taliban rule in Swat, Sufi Muhammad, the obscurant-in-chief of the TNSM, addressed a large gathering at the Grassy Ground. He said that the present political system – he did not mean just the political parties but the system of representative democracy itself – was anti-Islamic and was the calling of infidels. This was a little too much, even for the JI. Even though the latter had been, till then, vocal in support of the TNSM, this shot at anyone participating in the democratic process was too big a slur to let slide by. JI Amir Munawwar Hassan, not otherwise known for his sense of humour, quipped that this meant Sufi Muhammad – who had once contested, unsuccessfully, for the berth of a councillor – was a bit of an infidel himself.

It was heartening to know how parties as right wing as the JI accepted their place in the positive framework of the state and considered any swipe at the political class as a whole as an aspersion on their own character. Any celebration of that seems to have been unfounded if one were present at the Difa-e-Pakistan rally in Rawalpindi the other day. JI Amir Munawwar Hasan talked about how the political process can only bring about some cosmetic changes in the lives of people; that the real deal is a full-on revolution. The Amir, along with several other leaders of the far right, threatened to lay siege to the parliament were the government to reverse its decision on the closure of the Nato supply routes.

Till press-time, this was a democracy and there is no way a non-representative body like the DFC could determine national policy through high-handed arm-twisting. Parties like the Jamaat might be able to bring out an impressive rally or two but fall short of getting any representation in parliament. They have to respect that. Whatever one might make of the 2002 elections, it gave the Jamaat its first share of political power in the state-recognised framework sense. One would have thought that experience would have strengthened the party’s resolve in the political process.

True, democracy also means freedom of speech and the lot at the DFC exercised theirs. But the media, ever ready to pounce on centrist and centre-left parties, should question the anti-people stance of these parties with an equal, if not greater, vigour.