The land of the pure

Is it really so?

This self-proclaimed “the land of the pure” goes into fear frenzy with the start of an Islamic year. On the outset, Islam is a religion of peace and its followers are believed to be righteous in their cause. The teachings of Islam expressly lay down the basic principles of freedom of expression and respect to religious beliefs and feelings of other people. Similarly, the basic teachings followed by members of each sect in Islam are the same. However, in Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the holy month of Muharram brings news of deaths of many Pakistani citizens under the garb of sectarianism.

In the early years of Pakistan, sectarian violence meant a series of periodical incidents of Sunni-Shia tension about Muharram processions, or occasional war of pamphlets and sermons between Ahl-e-Hadith and Ahl-e-Sunna. Some believe that sectarianism as a process of marginalising people of other sects began with anti-Ahmedia movement and getting the Ahmedis declared non-Muslims laid a legislative part for turning rival sects into minorities.

Pakistan hosts the second largest population of Shia community after Iran in term of numbers. The killing of Shia community members has reached to an alarming figure in recent years. In the past, such incidents of sectarian violence were reported in very few areas of the country and such clashes were often found to be triggered by economic or political interests and exploited by extremist mullahs. The modern events of sectarian killings in Pakistan have many root causes. These incidents are caused by incompetent governance system, lack of responsibility on the part of government, criminal negligence of the executive, intolerance and lack of educational opportunities. Further to that, the foreign intervention in Pakistan’s sectarian crisis is also something that is yet to be addressed by the state

Firstly, pointing fingers towards the inept and incompetent bureaucratic and political machinery is essential. Democracy is not alien to this country and the strong rift between military and civilian setup about running the affairs of the state is also not new. Pakistan has had its share of both civilian and military regimes. Both the government systems have done nothing to prevent this approach towards violence in the society.

The policies followed by General Zia’s regime to avert Afghan crisis led this country towards a clear divide on sectarian basis and the elaborate concept of jihad in 1980s meant the start of an era of guns in Pakistani society. By mid 1990s, sectarian violence had spread from traditional arenas in Punjab and in the north region to urban heartlands. The nature of the attacks had also changed. The initial pattern of attacking individuals from other community extended to mosques and other places. Thus, the extrajudicial killings of the alleged extremists proved to be the only workable solution for the government to counter incidents of sectarian killings in the country.

In the present era, this pattern has shaped itself into another drastic perspective of target killing and suicide attacks. The use of suicide attacks by both Sunnis and Shias to cause maximum casualties in mosques, religious processions and rallies has become a prime issue for the country. The extremist mullahs use poverty, unemployment and the romantic notion of jihad for turning a man into suicide bomber. One major feature for the success of extremists is the criminal negligence of Pakistani government in realising the need of developing a uniform curriculum for both the conventional and religious educational institutes. The curriculum for madrassas is not yet defined and the state has shown no interest in monitoring the activities of the educational institutions. Thus, the child entering in such institute is left at the mercy of the clerics who can use him or her for the realization of their political or extremist beliefs.

Another problem for the people of this country is the lack of motivation on the part of government machinery to take the issues of sectarian killings seriously. The government machinery is inept, corrupt and found too much hijacked in defending its own criminal actions. Thus, the executive is duty bound to ignore the incidents of sectarian violence in the country. The present government is an excellent example of genuinely corrupt administration in the country. The factor of corruption in Pakistan’s government has been recognised by almost all the world agencies including Transparency International.

The recent bout of shia killings in Pakistan is widespread and very alarming. Some argue that this might lead to ultimate collapse of this nation. It is focused on the killing of doctors, lawyers, thinkers, religious leaders and professionals on sectarian basis. The process of paralysing the system has started. The killing of Shia community in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab is reaching to an alarming figure. Though, some of the doctors and lawyers who were killed in the recent years belong to Sunni sect too, a majority of the victims were Shias and were killed because of their religious denomination. The government is now required to use strict measures in this regard. Will the government in Pakistan be able to answer the questions raised by sectarian violence?

The answer seems to be a no. Political parties in Pakistan are gearing up for elections in a few months. Political rallies by opposition parties are focused on failures of this regime while the current setup is trying the cover its inefficiency by blaming the previous regimes. In short, politicians are not ready to take any risk by focusing on this sensitive issue. One major reason is the allegiance of political parties with these sectarian outfits. Politicians want to maintain good relations with the clerics and thus support the extremist lobby in their respective constituencies for the solitary benefit of getting votes.

Secondly, the maintenance of law and order is impossible when the state refuses to realise the very problem. The government of Pakistan has not yet treated sectarianism as a serious issue and no infrastructure has been laid down to provide any resolution to the disputes between different sects. Killing of highly educated professionals on ethnic or sectarian reasons means the start of a process that will ultimately drain out the educated class from this country. The state must realise its role; otherwise, it will be too late for this country to stand up be counted for something.

The writer can be reached at [email protected]