The country continues to bleed
The man in the street has many expectations from the May elections. Many think the new government might succeed in curbing the type of sectarian attacks that have taken place in Quetta and Karachi. After so many innocent people killed those in power would leave no stone unturned to put an end to the shameful acts. Is there a hope for the minorities then?
Unless there is a change in the mindset of the security establishment and the next government, there is little possibility of respite in the ongoing attacks on minority communities in the foreseeable future.
The security agencies are to be blamed for their abysmal failure to break the terrorist networks who have been active for the last many decades. The two ruling parties at the centre and Punjab have failed to take any decisive action against the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)/Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) network with Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) group serving as umbrella organisation.
As the agencies nurtured the sectarian terrorist networks in the 1990’s and even later, numerous operatives and officers of the security agencies were themselves bitten by the sectarian bug. It is an open secret that the communal terrorists have numerous sympathisers in these agencies. Instead of hunting down the terrorists they provide them inside information as well as protection. Can anyone imagine that Usman Saifullah Kurd, the architect of this year’s Quetta massacres, could have escaped from the high security Quetta Cantonment jail in 2008 without inside support? Combined with the general lowering of the standards of professionalism in these agencies on account of their misuse for political purposes, one has little confidence in their ability to deliver in days to come.
Irrespective of the positions taken by the PML-N and PPP leadership, extremist thinking prevails in the ranks of both the parties to varying extents. Quite a few middle ranking leaders are under the influence of the anti-minority clerics. Some justify suicide bombing if it is conducted in Afghanistan or Israel. Others seriously believe that Hindus and Christians conspire against Pakistan and the Shias are not genuine Muslims.
Both the PML-N and PPP have aligned at different times with religious parties whose seminaries nurture sectarian thinking and produce violent anti-Shia and anti-Ahmadi activists. The alliances, it is usually maintained are necessary to sustain democracy. The leadership of these parties lacks the vision or the courage to educate their cadre. There is little possibility of these parties changing the policy in days to come.
The political leadership invariably loses nerve whenever it comes to facing up to the mobs collected by rabble rousing extremists. It develops cold feet whenever decisive action is required to put an end to the crimes committed in the name of religion. The PML-N did not do anything to rein in those who had issued anti-Taseer edicts and had justified his killing. Had the clerics leading the campaign been taken to the courts and the handful of people they had brought on the streets dealt with firmly, bigger protest marches could have been stopped in the tracks. The PML-N had two reasons to let the mischief continue: a strong dislike for Taseer and a sharing of conviction with the extremist regarding the blasphemy law.
The PPP’s response was at best lukewarm. The party did not want to get unpopular by seeming to defend its governor. A section of the party was in fact unwilling to defend Taseer as it shared the extremist thinking. The interior minister was as ineffective in Punjab as he was in Karachi. The outspoken Taseer was left to fend for himself. The PPP was contented by adding another name to its pantheon of martyrs.
Both parties tend to use extremists to advance their political aims. The nomination by the PML-N of Prof Sajid Mir as a Senator was meant to send signals of solidarity to the extremists. Sajid Mir is the head of Jamiat Ahle Hadith (JAH), a Salafi network having ties with Saudi extremists financing the SSP/LeJ/ASWJ. He is also a prominent campaigner against the Ahmadis.
The PPP is by no means deficient in acts of appeasement of the sort. Pir of Bharchundi Sharif Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mithoo was last year the central figure in the “conversions” of several young Hindu girls which led to widespread protests by the minority community in Sindh. Hundreds of Hindus subsequently migrated to India. Mian Mithoo does not belong to any extremist outfit but is a PPP MNA from Ghotki.
Both the PML-N and PPP have sought the support of ASWJ/Lej/ASWJ in Punjab bye-elections, the first openly, the second somewhat discretely. There is thus only a difference of style rather than substance in the views of the two mainstream parties regarding how to use the extremist outfits during the elections. The ASWJ chief stood side by side in the open vehicle as Rana Sanaullah campaigned for PML-N during bye elections in Jhang. The ASWJ took credit for the victory of the party’s candidate. The PPP candidates too do not hesitate to seek SSP/Lej/ASWJ support in elections whenever required.
The way Ahmadi community has been systematically persecuted in Punjab during the last five years opens a window into the thinking of the PML-N leadership. In May 2010, sectarian terrorists killed about 100 Ahmadis who were offering prayers in two separate places. The Punjab chief minister, who rushes to console rape victims or those overtaken by natural calamities along with a battery of photographers and reporters, did not care to visit the injured Ahmadis for fear of annoying his extremist allies.
Thanks to the PML-N’s collusion with the SSP/LeJ/ ASWJ during the five years of its tenure, there has been a systematic persecution of the Ahmadi community all over Punjab. Numerous members of the group have been killed. Ahmadi graveyards have been desecrated.
The Christian community in Punjab has suffered most under the PML-N government. In 2009, a mob was allowed to torch 75 Christian houses in Gojra. The next year five Christian homes were burnt in Manga Mandi.
Many in the PML-N credit the party’s placatory attitude towards the terrorist networks with securing Punjab against terrorist attacks. Didn’t the graph of the terrorist attacks come down after Mian Shahbaz’s appeal to spare the province ruled by his party? Few take into consideration the damage done to the rest of the country through the understanding. The SSP/LeJ/ASWJ network was allowed to operate from the province as quid pro quo. The offices of the ASWJ were not closed. It is from safe havens in Punjab that the sectarian terrorists operate in other provinces.
Unless there is a keen awareness among the voters that none with extremist inclinations is to be elected, the country would continue to bleed.
The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.
