It is hard being married in Pakistan.
Even if we keep aside the domestic violence, children being married to adults, deaths related to dowry (or the lack thereof) and acid throwing incidents due to a refusal of proposals, marriages in Pakistan are hard.
Marriages at the political front are even more nerve- wrecking. It’s not just the two parties that act out the troupe of the Dulha and Dulhan. You also have the baraatis, who many would argue are more powerful than the actual couple involved but who knows, the norms of such marriages are not easily ‘established‘.
All of us recently witnessed the much hyped about divorce between Mutahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP). Notwithstanding the heartwarming pictures that emerged from the occasion, the romance was sadly shortlived.
So unless the recent smog rendered your eyesight useless and destroyed your breathing abilities beyond repair, you would have known that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Sami (JUI-S) chief Maulana Samiul Haq have come together in an electoral alliance.
#Quaid e jamiat #MolanaSamiulHaq and #ImranKhan meeting in #Islamabad pic.twitter.com/61PL1dnCN9
— khuzaimasami (@khuzaimasami1) November 20, 2017
Some people expressed their disdain for the newly minted alliance.
alliance with far right molvis like #samiulhaq was never a vision of #FaizAhmedFaiz
— Ali Uzair (@maliuzair) November 20, 2017
While some commented that the match was made in heavens.
https://twitter.com/asimusafzai/status/932412610212978689
Even representatives of secular, far- left parties who don’t often resort to name-calling acted like jesters, unhappy jesters who showed despair over two ‘ideologies’ joining together in holy matrimony.
#TakhteBanigala controlled #TTPTI’s #NayaPakhtunkhwa CM #PuppetKhattak has gone bonkers. He wants Taliban’s daddy #SamiulHaq, who has blood of our children on his hands to lead mainstreaming of terrorism & extremism. #TalibanKhan tasked to handover #Pakhtunkhwa to terrorists. https://t.co/BQygl8wkOk
— Bushra Gohar (@BushraGohar) November 13, 2017
So what are these similar ideologies that apparently MQM and PSP lacked but Imran Khan and Samiul Haq seem to have an overabundance of? And how can the politicians in Karachi learn from the political antics of their brethren up north? Read on below to find out:
1. The mutual silence on the D.I Khan incident
Imran Khan and Mualana Samiul Haq have failed to categorically condemn the incident of a 16-year-old girl being paraded naked in the streets of D.I Khan. Where on one hand Maulana Samiul Haq has not spoken a word about the incident, Imran Khan despite repeated pleas did not remove Ali Amin Gandapur from the party and start independent investigations to ascertain the facts.
2. The mutual silence on the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah’s Faizabad sit-in
The Faizabad sit-in has entered into its second week, with Tehreek Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) and Sunni Tehreek Pakistan (ST) calling for the sacking of Law Minister Zahid Hamid and strict action against those behind the amendment to the Khatam-e-Nabuwwat clause ─ which had earlier been deemed a “clerical error” and subsequently rectified.
Despite the life coming to a standstill in the capital, the sit-in did not merit a comment from both the illustrous leaders.
3. Alleged claims of harbouring far-right tendencies
One really doesn’t need to go into the depth of this claim but since Maulana Samiul Haq is sometimes heralded as a keen supporter of Taliban and the fact that Imran Khan still chose to align his somewhat centrist party with JUI-S and is currently in a coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami, speak for these ‘alleged’ claims itself.
Seeing as how political scenario in Pakistan is more often than not a quicksand, rapidly changing dynamics, we believe congratulations and good luck wishes are both in order for the new alliance.
