Extraordinary circumstances, indeed
Things might not be as smooth going forward as the prime minister thinks. Following the round of congratulations about the 21stConstitutional Amendment and Army Act 2015 – which was not without its share of irony – Nawaz might have underestimated Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s mood-swing by dismissing it with “he’s still with the national leadership”. Being the largest religious-political party in parliament, JUI-F’s politics on the matter echo sentiments of the collective religious-right, which was always going to have reservations with the manner ‘religion’ and ‘sect’ were used in the drafts. And now, as cases must be routed through the government on way to military courts, Maulana and the like will busy themselves with building brick walls wherever the road touches religious institutions, especially seminaries.
Whether out of frustration or strategy, Fazl also associated the Assembly session with an attempt to ‘secularise’ Pakistan, making sure there is a religious-vs-secular handle to pull when the need arises. These concerns are, of course, not new. In fact, at the time of the last election, militants were strong enough to keep secular parties from campaigning. So PPP, MQM and ANP were bombed and JUI-F, JI and the like were allowed an open field. That the conservative group expressed no sympathy for scores of deaths among secular parties was telling. Then, when the TTP problem peaked, the cleavage widened; with centre-right parties bulldozing a military action plan that was already in place. And the JI even accepted to advocate for the Taliban, when Imran Khan declined despite favouring the process.
On the matter of the medrassas, too, their position is clear. That is where they generate their votes from. And that is where they fall back on when they need to show numbers, gather crowds, agitate, etc. So there will be much friction in the coming days and months; especially since Fazl has now officially dubbed the government move a sin that he chose not to partake in. It is now for the government to prove its resolve. Expecting seminaries not to come into play is naïve, especially at this critical juncture. A big part of the problem is the terrorism narrative, and since the promise of exterminating the last terrorist has been made, the problem of dealing with the environment that glorifies militancy will finally have to be dealt with. These are extraordinary times indeed, and military courts are the least of it.