Can Shahbaz Sharif curb sectarianism?

PML-N’s politics is its bane on the communal issue

What happened in Rawalpindi was not altogether unexpected. There had been enough rumblings in Punjab during the last few months that suggested that sectarian differences were gradually mutating into unrest which had the potential to boil over and engulf the country. The Punjab government dealt with one sectarian clash after another with a characteristic air of nonchalance. It generally reacted after incidents had taken place only to treat them as minor law and order issue unrelated to the grim security situation in Pakistan. Once there was calm, the PML-N administration forgot about it.

The second successive coming of the PML-N in Punjab promises to be no better than the first which was marked by mega incidents of attacks on Christians, the Ahmadis and Shias. The ignominious markers during this last tenure were: the infamous attack on a Christian locality in Gojra in 2009 and the killings of the Ahmadis in Lahore in 2010.

During the last four years, Punjab by and large remained immune from indiscriminate terrorist attacks that rocked the other provinces. This was widely ascribed to the appeal by Shabaz Sharif to the TTP to spare Punjab as its government was not pro-US. There was however no let-up in killings of Shias, the Ahmadis and Christians. The last two years in fact saw minorities in Punjab subjected to increased violence. This was on account of organisations like the ASWJ, which is banned, the LeJ working under a new name, having been given a free hand to spread nefarious propaganda against the minorities. The sectarian networks added to the extremist sentiment in the province through sermons, hate literature and using social network for inciting it against the religious minorities.

In March about a hundred Christian houses were burnt by a mob in Joseph Colony in the provincial capital. The Ahmadis were disallowed to publish their literature, their graveyards were frequently vandalized and their places of worship disfigured. In Faisalabad, there were cases of intimidation and abduction of the members of Ahmadi community.

In Punjab, sectarian violence claimed 64 lives in 2011 and 43 in 2012. In 2013, the Shia community was to become the principal target of attacks. In February, a Shia surgeon and his son were sprayed with bullets in Lahore, in August a Shia leader was shot along with his son in Rahimyar Khan and five Shia were killed in a targeted attack in Gujrat. In all these cases unknown sectarian killers disappeared after completing their mission while people in the neighbourhood irrespective of their sectarian identity came to condole with the bereaved families. The anger continued to accumulate but there was no clear cut target to vent the sentiment.

The ASWJ provided one in Bhakkar in August when its armed activists took to streets in the city. This led to a bloody confrontation with the Shia community, leading to 10 dead. The government had to impose curfew to bring the situation under control in towns Panj Garain, Kotla Jam and Darya Khan.

There were minor aftershocks in the province in days to come but the complacent Punjab administration took no notice. The chief minister remained focused on issues altogether outside his purview. He continued running the federal ministry of Water and Power under an inter-party arrangement and having long trips abroad with the prime minister or on his own. During his five months in office, he has visited Turkey, the UK and Germany. With several irons in the fire, he had scant time to focus on any issue, least of all the sectarian question.

Days before the Rawalpindi mayhem, clashes took place between the Shia and Sunni communities in the provincial capital and Muzaffargarh. In Sanda area of Lahore, a dispute arose over the Aza’daars taking out a procession on 7^th Moharram in a non-designated area close to an Imambargah. There was stone pelting and firing between the two sides causing multiple injuries to three, including the local police SHO.

At Khanqah Doma in Muzaffargarh, six people were injured when miscreants opened fire at a Muharram procession. The District Coordinator Moharram Committee alleged that there was no police official on duty. He said, he met the DPO and the DCO and told them about the situation but they did not arrange adequate security. As usual police was ordered to apprehend the culprits after the violence had taken place.

A well thought out policy for the Ashura days should have been formulated well ahead of Moharram. Mian Nawaz Sharif’s frothing at the mouth at the local administration and police amounts to crying over spilt milk. Why didn’t the idea strike him or the younger Sharif soon after they took office in June?

Many factors stood in the way of proper planning. The Punjab CM was too busy helping the federal government or frequently traveling abroad. Whatever energy was left in him was consumed in dealing with dengue mosquitos, which taking benefit of his absence had spread the virus all over the province. Bad governance that included putting several blue eyed boys in key police positions in violation of rules constituted another cause.

Sectarian clashes create more social complications than terrorist attacks. In the latter case people across the sectarian divide tend to sympathise with the community which is targeted again and again. Sectarian clashes on the other hand divide society further as members in each community start accusing the other of being the real instigator responsible for death and destruction of property.

Political needs of the PML-N stand in the way of taking radical measures against those who spread communal hatred.

Mainstream parties, particularly the PML-N, have frequently joined hands with sectarian outfits like the ASWJ, thus helping the sectarian party gain respectability and carve out further space for itself.

On Wednesday, Nawaz Sharif hit out at the “criminal silence” on the part of local administration and police on the propagation of sectarian hatred through loudspeakers and wall-chalking, the prime minister said such acts would not be tolerated.

But can the Punjab administration take action against organization like ASWJ, which are its potential election allies but are also responsible for spreading communal violence and sectarian hatred in the province?

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad is a political anaylist and a former academic.