Understanding Pakistan Project

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 30th, 2007

By: Athar Osama

Ever since the Lal Masjid Saga ended, there have been a large number of opinions and analyses of what went wrong and perhaps how to fix it. Different commentrators have termed the post-Lal-Masjid era as a manifestation of a society on a collision course with itself. It has been termed, repeatedly, in the media as a “Battle for Pakistan’s Soul”. It is not clear whether and what this battle is? Who is going to fight it? and How will it be fought? It is not even clear (here) what the soul of Pakistan actually is that we’re talking about? Understanding Pakistan covered the Lal Masjid story as it happened and supported an Online Petition (here) to determine the truth behind the circumstances and motives of what transpired during several months leading upto the Lal Masjid and during Operation Silence in July, 2007.

There is no doubt that Pakistan’s social, political, and religious fabric suffers from considerable and growing extremism. Lal Masjid was perhaps only one of the manifestations of that inner restlessness and discontent. It may not be the last. What are we doing to rid our country of religious extremism–or for that matter extremism of any kind? In this Understanding Pakistan Special on Relgious Extremism In Pakistan, we try to address some of the questions that confront us today and invite reader’s opinions on these issues.

• Do we, Pakistanis, engage in a duplicity (or hypocracy) when we tell the West to better understand why Muslims hate them but do not ourselves make an attempt to understand why people within our own societies are turning into extremists and terrorists?
• Is it the lack of a constitutional and political space–an opportunity to address all national issues, including whether Shariah be imposed in Pakistan, and in what shape and form–that is turning a large number amongst us into fanatics against the status-quo?
• Is religious extremism a manifestation of poverty and economic circumstances? Would providing better–modern–education to children in schools rather than madressah’s solve the problem of religious extremism from our societies?
• Is there any hope that religious extremists could be co-opted back into mainstream politics so that their grievances are addressed through a political process rather than extra-legal means?
• Where do we see ourselves heading, 5, 10, 15 years from now, as a nation that is being pulled apart by at least two set of opposing forces–one that of religious extremists and the other secularists–both of whom want to take the country where (perhaps) majority of us don’t want to go?

These are hard–very hard–questions. But one thing is certain that, sooner or later, we will have to address these questions for ourselves with utmost honesty and sincerity. In order to promote this debate, Understanding Pakistan is presenting four different viewpoints on this issue:

• Ibn-e-Khuldun argues that it is the lack of political space to solve their issues that drives people to become extremists and terrorists
• Don Belt, in a piece recently published in National Geographic, presents a variety “geographical” analysis of what’s wrong with Pakistan’s religious make-up
• Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy presents a rather hopeless picture of the religious extremists and their political-moralistic agendas and stops just short of calling for the elimination of this “totalalitarian” force. 
• Pew Global Attitudes Project looks at the issue of religious extremism as wider problem within the Muslim world than just Pakistan  

Regardless of how one sees it, we believe, that better understanding the phenomenon of religious extremism within our societies is critical to taking the first steps towards creating a society that is at peace with itself. What steps would be necessary to achieve those objectives? How would these be achieved? We believe that these questions have so far escaped a serious examination. Understanding Pakistan also launches a New Poll focusing on steps that might be necessary to fight religious extremism in Pakistan.

Please register your VOTE and drop us a COMMENT to tell us what you think and how you believe this Battle for Pakistan’s Soul must be fought? Religious extremism is a problem that is gradually but surely eating away at the fabric of our society. It is also something that we probably cannot and should not delay addressing any longer. Understanding Pakistan hopes to create an opportunity to have that conversation in the weeks and months to come.  

• Religious Extremism , Democracy , 2007 , Ideology , Religion , Politics , Editorial Comment
• Comments(3)

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 29th, 2007

Guest Post By: Don Belt (Published in National Geographic http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0709/pakistan/pakistan.html)
 
If there is an address, an exact location for the rift tearing Pakistan apart, and possibly the world, it is a spot 17 miles (28 kilometers) west of Islamabad called the Margalla Pass. Here, at a limestone cliff in the middle of Pakistan, the mountainous west meets the Indus River Valley, and two ancient, and very different, civilizations collide. To the southeast, unfurled to the horizon, lie the fertile lowlands of the Indian subcontinent, realm of peasant farmers on steamy plots of land, bright with colors and the splash of serendipitous gods. To the west and north stretch the harsh, windswept mountains of Central Asia, land of herders and raiders on horseback, where man fears one God and takes no prisoners.

(Figure: This is the title graphic of the National Geographic Story linked to above)

This is also where two conflicting forms of Islam meet: the relatively relaxed and tolerant Islam of India, versus the rigid fundamentalism of the Afghan frontier. Beneath the surface of Pakistan, these opposing forces grind against each other like two vast geologic plates, rattling teacups from Lahore to London, Karachi to New York. The clash between moderates and extremists in Pakistan today reflects this rift, and can be seen as a microcosm for a larger struggle among Muslims everywhere. So when the earth trembles in Pakistan, the world pays attention.

Travel 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) across this troubled country, as I did recently, and it becomes obvious that, 60 years after its founding, Pakistan still occupies unsettled ground. Traumatized by multiple wars with India, a parade of military strongmen (including the current president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf), and infighting among ethnic groups—Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi, Pashtun—Pakistan’s 165 million people have never fully united as one nation, despite being 97 percent Muslim. To hold the country together, successive governments have spent billions on the military, creating a pampered and self-serving monolith of mostly Punjabi generals while neglecting the basic needs of the people, for justice, health, education, security, and hope. Lately, these grievances have spilled onto the streets, as lawyers and other opponents challenge Pakistan’s military government and demand a return to civilian, democratic rule. Meanwhile, six years after 9/11, the forces of Islamic radicalism are gaining strength and challenging Pakistan’s moderate majority for the soul of the country.

It’s not just the surging homegrown Taliban, which in one two-week period this year scorched and bloodied the streets of half a dozen cities with suicide bombs. Or the al Qaeda fighters who prowl the western mountains of Waziristan, butchering anyone suspected of being an American spy. Just as chilling are the “night letters” posted on public buildings, warning that all girls, upon threat of death, must wear head-to-toe burkas and stop attending school. Or, in a rising tide of intimidation, the murders of teachers and doctors and human rights workers accused of “crimes against Islam.” But perhaps the most telling evidence of all was my encounter with a 22-year-old woman named Umme Ayman, who seemed all too eager to die.

Continue Reading »

• Religious Extremism , Democracy , 2007 , Ideology , Religion , Politics , Guest Post
• Comments(1)

Athar Osama August 14th, 2007

By: Athar Osama

Today is the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Independence of Pakistan. Today, sixty years ago, Pakistan came into being as a state established for the Muslims of the subcontinent to fashion their lives according the requirements of their own religion. Sixty years have gone by and Pakistan has a come a long way from a weak and fragile–almost by design–state that was declared a geographical absurdity to one that has not only survived but, in some ways, thrived as well. In other ways, though, Pakistan continues to struggle to define itself till this day. It is a state where power belongs to a small elite group of individuals and not to the people. It is state where it cannot be said with surety and conviction that the govern-ors govern with the consent of the governed. It is a state where extreme poverty still exists for as many as half of the country’s population and a country that continues to score among the lowest in the world on key indicators of human development whether it is education, health, mortality or economic and political freedom–alongside countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

While we should all be thankful to Allah Almighty for giving us this piece of land, that we can call our home, and its people, our people, we should also not leave any stone unturned to make this piece of land the envy of the world. We are far from that aspiration and there is a long way to go. In fact, some of us may argue that we aren’t even moving in the right direction. Ironically, Pakistan is a country that has not yet come to terms with some of the most important questions that must define a country’s march into the future:

• What is the purpose of its existence (e.g. Whether it was created as a state for the Muslims or an Islamic State?)
• What should be the system of governance that would be put into practice (e.g. Democracy or Dictatorship), and
• And how do we, Pakistanis, see Law and Constitution, whether the latter is a mere piece of paper to be followed, if convenient, and discarded, if necessary or defines “rules of the game” that must be adhered-to to bring order and stability to our lives.

No wonder then, that every now and then, we, Pakistanis, find our country at a crossroads. It is also no surprise then that on this–the 6oth Anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence–a lot of Pakistanis are asking themselves the same question. What was Pakistan created for and why does it exist? Understanding Pakistan has engaged with this debate before (here, here, and here) as we looked at the passage of the Objectives Resolution (here). We add two new perspectives to this debate in this Aza’adi Special Edition of Understanding Pakistan.

Continue Reading »

• Ideology , 2007 , UPP Survey , Democracy , Mohammed Ali Jinnah , 1947 , Constitution , Religion , Politics , Editorial Comment
• Comments(13)

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 14th, 2007

By: Allama Ghulam Ahmed Parvez 

(This is an abridged-excerpted version of a larger piece published on this website before - here.)

According Allama G. A. Pervez Allama Iqbal was the real intellectual force behind the notion of an Islamic state and Jinnah was merely an agent to implement Iqbal’s idea. In the above-cited piece, this how he explains: 

Iqbal’s Notion of an Islamic State

This state of affairs prevailed throughout the Muslim countries for centuries together where Mazhab was accepted as true Islam. We should, however, consider ourselves fortunate in as much as a voice was raised in our time and from our own country, to distinguish between Deen and Mazhab, and the Ummah was called upon to revive true Islam in the light of the Quran. This was the voice of Iqbal, the great thinker, and still greater scholar of the Quran. This, he said, was possible only if we had a piece of land in which a State was established purely on the lines indicated by the Quran, thereby wiping out completely the rule of man, in any form, be it capitalism or priestcraft. This scheme of his he pronounced in his Presidential Address of All-India Muslim League Session at Allahabad, in 1930. Such a State, he said:

“Would mean security and peace for India resulting from an internal balance of power, and for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian Imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilise its law, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times.”  (Speeches and statements of Iqbal–p.15)

Two years later, while addressing the nation at the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim Conference at Lahore, on 21-3-1932, he said:

“The possibilities of the faith you represent are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of man is not determined by his caste or colour, or the amount of the dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives; where Capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate the real producer of wealth. This superb ideal of your faith, however, needs emancipation from the medieval fancies of theologians and legists. Spiritually, we are living in a prison-house of thoughts and emotions which, during the course of centuries we have woven round ourselves. And be it further said to the same of us– men of older generation– that we have failed to equip the younger generation for the economic, political and even religious crises that the present age is likely to bring. The whole community needs a complete overhauling of its mentality in order that it may again become capable of feeling the urge of fresh desires and ideals.” (Ibid p.55)

Continue Reading »

• Ideology , 2007 , Democracy , Mohammed Ali Jinnah , 1947 , Constitution , Religion , Politics , Guest Post
• Comments(0)

Understanding Pakistan Project Team July 23rd, 2007

By: Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr (Excerpt from: Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama’at-i Islami of Pakistan. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft9j49p32d/)
 

Entering the Political Process, 1947–1958

After Mawdudi had unveiled the Jama‘at-i Islami’s political objectives in Pakistan for the first time in July 1947,[1] he collected his troops and moved to Lahore on a truck, escorted by units of the Pakistan army. His first contact with the leaders of the new state took place soon after through the Muslim League ministry in Punjab. While he was still living in a tent in Islamiyah Park, Mawdudi met with the Muslim League chief minister of the province, Nawwab Iftikhar Husain of Mamdot.[2] In that meeting Mawdudi asked for permission to begin work among the refugees, and he discussed the future of Kashmir.[3] Mawdudi impressed upon the nawwab Pakistan’s obligation immediately to take the offensive in Kashmir and secure control of strategic locations there, and asked the chief minister to relay a message to that effect to Prime Minister Liaqat ‘Ali Khan. (Figure: Maulana Abul Ala Maududi: The Founder of the Jama’at-i-Islami)

The Nawwab of Mamdot was a powerful member of the landed gentry of Punjab and was at the time embroiled in a struggle with Liaqat ‘Ali Khan and his chief ally in Punjab, Mian Mumtaz Daultana, over the control of that province.[4] The chief minister was eager to enlist the support of Islamic groups such as the Jama‘at to stave off Daultana’s challenge.[5] Mamdot, therefore, not only welcomed the Jama‘at’s offer to assist with relief work among the refugees, but invited Mawdudi to deliver a series of talks on Radio Pakistan.[6] All unwitting, Mawdudi had walked into the midst of a tug-of-war in Pakistani politics that was to determine relations between the Jama‘at and the central government.

Mawdudi quickly learned that, given the balance of power in Pakistani politics, the Islamic parties were bound to play the role of power brokers. Muslim League leaders, concluded Mawdudi, were not as inimical to sacralization of politics as their postindependence rhetoric may have indicated. In fact, as the central government in Karachi faced difficulties in exerting control over the new country’s wayward provinces during 1947–1948 and the crisis before the state grew, the legitimating role of Islam and the power of its spokesmen became more evident. Politicians who otherwise decried the political role of religion were under the circumstances not altogether indifferent to the entry of Islamic groups into the fray. The example set by Mamdot was followed elsewhere, in Lahore as well as in other provincial capitals. The relations between the Muslim League and the Jama‘at during the prepartition years were now expanded to encompass the relations between Islam and the state of Pakistan. The holy community found great strength in acting as a party.

Pakistan was founded in the name of Islam, but it had little else in the way of common national or cultural values around which to unite.

Continue Reading »

• 1955-1958 , Ideology , Maududi , Politics , Constitution , Religion , 1951-1954
• Comments(3)

Understanding Pakistan Project Team July 2nd, 2007

Guest Column* By: Yasser Latif Hamdani

When I was first asked to contribute to the “Understanding Pakistan” effort I was not sure what it meant:  What Pakistan were we talking about or what Pakistan were we trying to understand? The country, the state, the people or the historical ideal which led to its creation?  But as the project has progressed it has become clear that this is a serious effort to understand why and how a country named Pakistan actually came into existence and what it is all about. 

Allow me to start off by saying that you cannot understand Pakistan until and unless you understand how the demise of the ideal of Pakistan was brought about by its own people.  I will venture so far as to say that Pakistan has ceased to exist and what exists in its place is an imposter at best, kept alive by forces which need this part of the world for their own agendas. 

However unlike other self styled arm chair analysts, I will not pin point 1971 as the death of Pakistan- partly because history tells us that Jinnah was ready to concede an independent Bangladesh in 1947 and that it was Nehru who had insisted on there being two countries instead of one (See “Shameful Flight” by Stanley Wolpert on this issue). 

In my opinion it was 1974 which was to Jinnah’s 1947 what 1984 was to Orwell’s 1948 for 1974 marked the same end of idealism and beginning of perversion in its name that was depicted so brilliantly by Orwell both in 1984 and the Animal Farm.  For all the oaths taken in order to preserve the ideology of Pakistan, it was this tragic events of this year, coming so soon after Pakistan’s first unanimous constitution, that dealt a deathblow to the true ideology of Pakistan.  Make no mistake about it.

The real Pakistan no longer exists.  It died at the very young age of 27.  What it needs is another Messiah with the power to raise the dead.

Continue Reading »

• Ideology , Mohammed Ali Jinnah , Politics , Religion , GuestColumns
• Comments(0)

Athar Osama June 25th, 2007

By: Athar Osama

On Monday (June 25th, 2007), we began our investigtion of Liaquat Ali Khan tenure as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. We looked Liaquat’s credentials for the responsibility that was put on his shoulders, the early difficulties he faced in bringing the nation together and healing its wounds in the immediate aftermath of Jinnah’s death, and his attempts to find a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir crisis. We also looked at the immediate political challenges faced by Liaquat’s Ministry.

In this piece, we look at two other important aspects of Liaquat’s Premiership, namely, progress in constitution-making (most specifically the objectives resolution) and his foreign policy posture (i.e. Pakistan’s pro-Western foreign policy stance). Both these issues have defined Pakistan’s history over several decades that followed and remain, to this day, unresolved. Yet, it was during Liaquat’s momentous premiership that Pakistan first attempted to address these… 

Pakistan’s Constitutional Problems

While the Center-Province relations in this early phase of Pakistan’s history were far from ideal, the inter-provincial relations also presented a sorry picture. Until Quaid-e-Azam’s death in fall of 1948, the Constituent Assembly whose primary purpose was to create the first constitution for Pakistan had made little progress in actually doing so. Much of its legislative energy had thus far been spent in emergency legislation that was necessary in day-to-day operation of the country. Two issues represent the significant challenges it faced in making worthwhile progress on the constitutional question.

The negotiation on center-province (i.e. relative distribution of power between federal and provincial governments) inter-provincial relations (i.e. the make up of the legislative organs in the new constitution) was in a state of a deadlock with East Pakistani Province of East Bengal that commanded a sizeable majority in the Constituent Assembly seeking representation based on population while Punjab (and, to a lesser extent, the other provinces of West Pakistan) seeking to deny the same. 

The second issue that presented a major hurdle in Constituent Assembly’s progress toward the constitutional question was a lack of census on the Islamic character of Pakistan. This was especially a precarious issue because of the need to preserve the rights and liberties of a significant minority of Hindus that had remained in Pakistan since Independence. Hindus made up not so insignificant populations in all West Pakistani provinces—most notably Sindh—and a fairly significant one in East Pakistan from where they also held several seats in the Constituent Assembly.

Continue Reading »

• Ideology , Inter-Provincial Relations , Foreign Policy , Liaquat Ali Khan , 1949-1951 , Religion , Politics , History in a Nutshell
• Comments(1)