How mullahs fan extremism and how government can stop it
Religious parties rejected by the voters in the elections have joined hands with a banned outfit to enforce their agenda through agitation. Even a half-hearted implementation of the National Action Plan has made the religious parties feel insecure. The visits by the Prime Minister and the COAS to the US and the idea of the US and Pakistan collaborating to put an end to terrorism has raised concerns among them about the fate of their own plans to radicalise the country. Any move to curb hate speech or rein in the seminaries smacks to them of liberalism.
The demands put up by these parties include lifting of the ban on the coverage of JuD and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation. As the two organisations have been declared terrorist outfits by the UN Security Council, accepting the demand would isolate Pakistan in the international community. The parties also oppose improvements in the blasphemy law despite the observations by the Supreme Court. They demand the replacement of interest based economy without presenting a viable alternative. They also want to stop what they call ‘obscenity on media’ which reveals their Taliban mindset. Having lost the case on legal grounds, they have now dubbed the SC verdict against Qadri as ‘un-Islamic’. Instead of working through Parliament and law courts, these parties threaten the administration of agitation.
Any move to yield to the blackmail would open the floodgates of lawlessness. The mayhem in Jhelum was caused by an identical mindset. Instead of relying on the police investigation and a court decision to determine if the accused individual had committed a crime, mobs were incited to take law into their hands and set a factory and a place of worship on fire. There is a need to deal with incidents of the sort with an iron hand to stop their recurrence. Surrendering to the threat of a million march by the (Milli Yakjehti Council) MYC would amount to yielding to the extremists. Unless the government nips the evil in the bud, lawlessness would have a snowball effect.