Old wine in a new bottle

The basic culture of the Jamaat shall remain the same

When Sirajul Haq was elected JI chief, defeating a sitting Amir for the first time in party’s history, attention was bound to be drawn to the new Amir. Munawwar Hasan was a veteran leader and belonged to the urban educated middle class, which for decades has been the main recruiting ground for party membership. Sirajul Haq on the other hand comes from Lower Dir and took pride in calling himself the son of a Maulvi. His victory is being attributed to the relaxation of the membership rules under Qazi Hussain Ahmad, which opened the party membership for younger people and brought many more Pushtuns into the party’s electoral body. It is also believed that Haq received the majority votes from the younger lot who wanted a facelift of the party. Haq is also recognised as a more articulate man than either Hasan or Liaquat Baloch, besides the added qualification of being a minister twice, first in 2002, in the cabinet of Akram Khan Durrani and then in the present KP cabinet.

There is a perception that the Jamaat, which was routed in every province except KP in 2013 elections, has lost hope of victory in larger provinces. It has therefore decided to concentrate on KP. The election of Haq is a step towards the direction. The younger party members are also keen to turn it into a mainstream party with a new face. Haq’s success in two elections provides them hope that it would be easier under him to undertake the transition from a cadre party to a mainstream party. This explains the vocabulary that Haq used in his speech at oath-taking ceremony. Religious rhetoric took backseat. Issues commonly raised by mainstream parties were the main theme. He accused tiny ruling elite for exploiting all economic and political resources to the disadvantage of the masses. He spoke about poverty, loadshedding, lawlessness and unemployment instead of talking about the enforcement of Sharia. Instead of talking about jihad, he urged the masses to stand up for snatching their rights from the usurpers. To take the wind out of the sails of the nationalists, he spoke about injustices done to the people of Sindh and Balochistan

It would be unrealistic to believe that there is any basic change in the thinking of JI. Sirajul Haq was a part of the 2002 JUI-F-JI cabinet which enforced compulsory prayers in KP and persecuted artists – forcing many to leave the province. Again he was the chief of IJT, the student wing of the JI known for its fascistic methods to suppress dissidents and establishing a reign of terror on the educational campuses. Haq reportedly participated in the US sponsored jihad in Afghanistan. He still considers the US and India as Pakistan’s top enemies. Seen in that context, the speech was hardly anything beyond an attempt at window dressing. And despite the change in its Amir, the basic culture and politics of the Jamaat shall remain the same.