The Lessons of Peshawar Massacre

On 16  December 2014 132 children and 9 teachers were massacred at a school in Pakistan. The responsibility for this carnage was claimed by PakTaliban, whose fugitive leader, Mullah Fazlullah – it was he who gave the order for Malala Yousafzai’s near-fatal shooting - lives in Afghanistan. 

General Raheel Sharif

In the days following the atrocity the Chief of Pakistan Army, General Raheel Sharif, and the head of Inter-Services Intelligence, General Rizwan Akhtar, flew to Afghanistan. Pakistan media reported that the generals had taken with them evidence of Indian complicity in the Peshawar atrocity (training of PakTaliban murderers and equipping them with sophisticated weapons and communication equipment). They met the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, and the top commander of occupying powers US and NATO, General John Campbell. General Sharif’s demand for the arrest of Fazlullah, and his handover to Pakistan, seems to have been unsuccessful.

Following the return of Pakistan’s generals there were reports that Pakistan Air Force jets had flown out into Afghan airspace and bombed Fazlullah’s hiding place in Afghanistan. There were rumours that Fazlullah had been killed. 

Mass murderer Fazlullah

While these reports appeared in the Asian press [for example:  http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/pakistan-taliban-leader-mullah-fazlullah-killed-in-air-strike-1.1429620] they were generally absent from western media. The US media, some 95% of which is said to be controlled by a handful of wealthy families, appear to have avoided mentioning the F word altogether! Fazlullah probably survived the Pakistani attempt to kill him. Is he being protected by the powers that be?

 
Pakistan’s descent from high ideals of Islam into a cauldron of Mullahism and West-worship

Pakistan, a homeland for the Muslims of India, was the vision of the great Muslim poet-philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal. To realise that vision required a leader with extraordinary qualities, able to resist the will of the British imperialists and of the Hindus of Indian Congress political party (who saw themselves as the natural heirs to the British). The Muslims were fortunate to have found in Muhammad Ali Jinnah a staunch Muslim who saw no conflict between Quranic guidance and modern life. He articulated Iqbal’s vision, and his own, in interviews and speeches.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah

In December 1943 Jinnah gave an interview to a British journalist, Beverley Nichols, in which he described the ‘vital principles’ of Pakistan as: The Muslims are a Nation. He elaborated further: “You must remember that Islam is not merely a religious doctrine but a realistic and practical Code of Conduct. I am thinking in terms of life, of everything important in life. I am thinking in terms of our history, our heroes, our art, our architecture, our music, our laws, our jurisprudence”.

In a radio broadcast to the people of the USA, in February 1948, Jinnah talked about the constitution of Pakistan yet to be drafted: “it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam. Today, they are as applicable in actual life as they were 1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fair play to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. In any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, and Parsees – but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan”.

Jinnah, the modern Muslim for whom the Message of the Quran was independent of the time period in which humanity lived, was opposed by the Muslim priest class which rejected the idea of Pakistan and sided with the Indian Congress party. The mullahs went further, some declaring Jinnah and Iqbal as ‘kaafir’.

The great irony of Pakistan today is that the mullahs, who fought Jinnah and opposed Pakistan Movement, have claimed the country in the name of their distorted version of Islam, a throwback to the pre-Islamic Age of Ignorance. This insanity is matched at the other extreme by the West-worshipping class of Pakistanis, for whom Islam has little meaning, a “religion” at best. For them the fount of wisdom is located in the West, to which they look for guidance in their lives. These self-styled “liberals” are as destructive for Pakistan as is rampant mullahism.

Way forward for Pakistan

The mysterious way in which PakTaliban sprang up in 2007, and the way their distorted understanding of Islam has been encouraged and exploited, point to international intrigue. Pakistan military’s response to PakTaliban’s atrocities is to attack them and kill as many as possible. This may turn out to be a futile exercise if nothing is done to stem the flow of arms and finance to PakTaliban. 

While the body of Pakistan is being ravaged by inhuman actions of PakTaliban, its soul is being assiduously destroyed by West-worshippers who are hell-bent on imposing an alien language and its associated Anglo-American culture on Pakistan.

As I see it, there is only one solution which will work in the long run but it does require a great deal of patience in the meantime. This solution is a rapid spread of education in Urdu, a language Pakistanis understand and which is intimately connected with their culture and religious traditions. The education needs to be broadly based: it must encourage individuals to reflect on Quranic Guidance themselves (as demanded by Quran) and provide them with scientific, technical and linguistic knowledge which is necessary for material prosperity in current world conditions. Without reforming Pakistani society we are faced with an eternal struggle between the forces of darkness: rabid West-worshippers against mad mullahs espousing a religion which negates the spirit of Islam.

English Translation of Hamid Mir's column in Jang, 27 March 2014

In the course of some exchanges on Twitter I ended up promising an Indian gentleman to translate parts of Hamid Mir's article on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, published in Jang today. The original article can be read here . I have already posted several blogs relating to Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, most recently here which is relevant in the context of comments Hamid Mir has made.

Jaswant Singh and Muhammad Ali Jinnah

In his article Hamid Mir shows that Jinnah was neither secular nor a maulvi. The main points he makes are:

      Jaswant Singh is one of the founder members of BJP. A few years ago he wrote a book entitled “Jinnah” in which he said that those really responsible for the division of India were Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, not Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Hindu leaders could have  worked amicably with the secular and liberal Jinnah but they antagonised him needlessly.

 
This book infuriated the leadership of Bharatia Janata Party because the BJP and Congress had always held Jinnah responsible for the break-up of India. Jaswant Singh was expelled from the BJP following publication of his book. He maintained that he had been expelled because he dared to present some plain historical facts.

    Some BJP members supported Jaswant. In their view he had laid bare the fake secularism of BJP’s political rival Congress. Moreover, by holding the Congress leadership responsible for the division of India the book had actually benefited BJP at the expense of  Congress.

      It was also thought that L K Advani considered Jaswant Singh a dangerous political rival because of his previous experience as Foreign and Defence Minister, which would make him a candidate for the office of Prime Minister. Advani thus manoeuvred to have him expelled from the Party.

     Jaswant Singh’s exile lasted 10 months before he was admitted back into the party. For the 2014 Election Jaswant Singh wanted his party’s ticket for his traditional constituency in Rajasthan but his request was refused. He said he was being punished for declaring Jinnah to be a secular politician. He announced that he would fight the election from his constituency as an independent.

       It is now obvious that Narainder Modi has taken control of BJP and he has pushed aside not just Jaswant but Advani as well. Modi is now the sole candidate for Prime Ministership from his party.

     Jaswant Singh is not the first Indian writer to consider Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah a secularist. Previously, a lecturer in Political Science at Delhi University, Dr Ajit Javed, authored a book “Secular and Nationalist Jinnah” in which he acknowledged the honesty, courage and fearlessness of the founder of Pakistan. He also stated that the demand for the establishment of Pakistan was merely a political ploy to put pressure on Congress. He claimed that Maudoodi [a religious leader active in politics] refused to lead the Janazah prayer for Jinnah and instead performed a prayer of thanks.

     Many claims made in Ajit Javed’s book defy historical facts. Apart from the Indian writers there are also some Pakistani writers and intellectuals who do their best to present Jinnah as secular. Their amazing antics include:

    (a) always quoting a brief excerpt from a single speech of Quaid-e-Azam (one delivered on 11 August 1947),

    (b) taking delight in quoting falsehoods or half-truths contained in American author Stanley Wolpert’s book “Jinnah of Pakistan”, and

    (c) always referring to Jinnah’s wife Ruttie as a Parsee even though she had converted to Islam before her marriage to Jinnah and she was buried in a Muslim cemetery after her death.

       Quite recently, an English language magazine, published in Karachi, showed a picture of Quaid-e-Azam, with a white beard superimposed. An article in the magazine lamented that some people were trying to present Jinnah as a maulvi!

It is true that there are people who look only for Shariat in the speeches of Pakistan’s founder while they ignore references to justice, equality, tolerance and democracy. On the other hand, those people who are hell-bent on proving the Quaid to be secular are guilty of intellectual and historical dishonesty. It is well known that the founder of Pakistan entered politics as a member of Congress but, over the years, his political evolution and maturity took him to the Muslim League. He was neither a maulvi nor a secularist. He was an ordinary Muslim, free of sectarian and religious prejudices. He married Ruttie for love, whose Muslim name was Maryam. Owing to his legal practice and political activities he could not spend as much time with her as the couple would have wished. There were ups and downs in Jinnah’s marriage. When Ruttie died Jinnah was inconsolable and he wept uncontrollably at her grave.

    In 1929 Jinnah defended Ghazi Ilm Deen in court and in 1931 he refused to speak against Bhagat Singh.

    It was Allama Iqbal who persuaded Jinnah to study Islamic laws. Iqbal’s letter to Jinnah, dated 28 May 1937, is extremely significant. In it the great poet-philosopher is telling his friend that putting genuine Islamic laws into practice in a Muslim state will mean each and every individual will have a right to an assured income. This letter also mentions Islamic Sharia. 

Later the same year, on 16 September 1937, Jinnah ensured that a Shariat Bill, concerned with Muslim Personal Law, was passed by India’s Legislative Assembly. When this Bill was introduced in the Assembly it was criticised on the grounds that the shariat followed by each Muslim sect was  different which made the Bill highly controversial. Jinnah overcame that objection by getting Muslim members of the Assembly to agree to a common concept of shariat acceptable to their respective sects.

     In one of his books Mufti Rafee Usmani has written extensively about Quaid-e-Azam’s meetings with his father and other Muslim scholars. He says there were some religious leaders who had issued fatwas of Kufr in relation to Jinnah while other religious leaders (Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, Mufti Muhammad Shafee etc) supported him. They also severed their links with Dar-ul-aloom Deoband.

    Mufti Muhammad Shafee issued a fatwa, declaring support for Congress to be Kufr. On 23 March 1940 it was not just Pakistan Resolution that was passed but also one supporting the Palestinian Muslims. Jinnah worked hard to end sectarian differences among Muslims and to organise a conference of Muslim scholars of all sects. Many religious leaders and scholars supported Jinnah in his efforts to unify Muslims and to establish a separate homeland for them.

    Quaid-e-Azam had met the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan Al-Bana and they were in close touch. In his speech on 1^st July 1948, at the inauguration ceremony of State Bank of Pakistan, the Quaid spoke about the importance of conducting banking on Islamic principles. It was not a theocracy that Quaid-e-Azam wished to establish but an Islamic welfare state in which non-Muslims had the same rights as those that Rasul-e-Kareem gave to the Jews of Madinah in the Madinah Pact.

    In brief, Quaid-e-Azam was just an honest and sincere Muslim who was neither a secularist nor a maulvi.

!کبھی اے حقیقت منتظر

قدرت اللہ شہاب نے جو سب سے پہلا افسانہ لکھا اس کا نام "چندرا وتی" تھا، جس کی ابتدا یوں ہوتی ہے: "جب مجھے چندرا وتی سے محبت شروع ہوئی، اسے مرے ہوۓ تیسرا روز تھا- " یہ یقیناً ایک چونکا دینے والا فقرہ ہے- اس افسانے کے پس منظر پہ قدرت اللہ نے "شہاب نامہ" میں خاصی تفصیل سے روشنی ڈالی ہے- یہ افسانہ نوجوان قدرت اللہ کی نا تمام اور نا کام محبت کے گرد گھومتا ہے-   

مجھے جوانی کی لغزشوں یا حوادث سے سرو کار نہیں- رومانوی ادب میں محبت کے موضوع پہ بہت کچھ لکھا جا چکا ہے لیکن ایسی داستانوں میں اکثر دونوں فریق جوان ہوتے ہیں اور بہت سے لکھنے والے محبت اور ہوس میں تفریق نہیں کر پاتے- اگر شادی کو محبت  کی معراج سمجھ لیا جائے تو کیا یہ جذبہ باقی تمام عمرشوہر اور بیوی کے درمیان برقرار رہ سکتا ہے؟ محبت کیا ہوتی ہے اور یہ کب ہوس سے جدا ہو کرعشق کا روپ اختیار کر لیتی ہے؟ 

اگر میں قدرت اللہ شہاب کی طرز پہ ایک افسانہ لکھوں تو اس کی ابتدا کچھ یوں ہو گی: "جب مجھے احساس ہوا کہ میں اپنی رفیقۂ حیات کے عشق میں گرفتار ہوتا جا رہا ہوں تو ہماری شادی کو بیس برس سے زائد عرصہ گزر چکا تھا"- میں اکثر سوچتا ہوں کہ مجازی عشق میں گہرائی عشق حقیقی کی محتاج ہے- جوں جوں انسان کا اس کے رب کے ساتھ تعلق گہرا ہوتا جاتا ہے، اسی  تناسب سے مجازی عشق میں ایک حیران کن عنصر داخل ہوتا جاتا ہے جسے بیان کرنا میرے لئے ممکن نہیں- یہ ایک کیفیت ہے جو جوانی کی محبت میں نہیں ہوتی- شاید یہ جسم و روح کا ملاپ ہے جو اپنے عروج پہ پہنچ کے بندے کو قرب الہی عطا کرتا ہے یا شاید اس فریب میں مبتلا کر دیتا ہے کہ ایک حد تک قرب الہی مل چکا ہے- واللہ اعلم- 

نہ ہو طغیان مشتاقی تو میں رہتا نہیں باقی

کہ میری زندگی کیا ہے؟ یہی طغیان مشتاقی

ان کیفیتوں سے آگے کی منزل کیا ہو گی؟ معلوم نہیں حقیقت ثابتہ تک رسائی میرے جیسے معمولی انسان کے لئے ممکن ہے کہ نہیں- تاہم اس امید پہ جی رہا ہوں کہ شاید حقیقت کی ایک جھلک کبھی نظر آ جائے- 

کبھی اے حقیقت منتظر نظر آ لباس مجاز میں

کہ ہزاروں سجدے تڑپ رہے ہیں میری جبین نیاز میں

O much awaited Reality, let me see thee once in illusory garb

For thousands of sajdahs lie restless in my humble forehead

No Way Out for Pakistan?

The pretender to Anne Patterson’s throne

So far as Pakistan is concerned the WikiLeaks’ disclosure of our rulers’ sell-out to the Americans appears to have been a bubble that burst all too soon. Initially frightened out of their wits, the Americans have dropped any pretence of showing respect towards their factotums who occupy the highest offices of state in Pakistan.

Cameron Munter, the new pretender to the throne vacated by Anne Patterson, has bluntly told the Pakistani puppets installed by the USA that the Americans will interfere in Pakistan’s “financial and governance” matters because, he boasted, the US was Pakistan’s largest aid provider. He said nothing, of course, about the terrible destruction wreaked on Pakistan by the Americans’ insane pursuit of their political objectives through warfare. The so-called “aid” is mere peanuts compared to the human and material losses suffered by Pakistan as a direct result of America’s nefarious activities in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Cattle, Puppets and Puppeteers

You might think that that the reaction to Munter’s humiliating remarks would be an outcry in Pakistan’s National Assembly and strident calls to the nation to unite against the American arrogance. Nothing of the sort happened. Pakistan’s Mafia-like leadership of criminals and fraudsters, whose darkest secrets are known to the American CIA, simply slunk away with bowed heads, their tails between their legs. In fact, the top dog dutifully flew all the way to Washington to attend a memorial service – and deliver a typically sycophantic eulogy – for Richard Holbrook, an oafish American diplomat who used to take particular delight in visiting Pakistan and bluntly giving a piece of his mind to the puppets who presented themselves before him.

The gentlemen and ladies who sit in Pakistan’s National assembly mostly owe their privileged positions to the patronage of the leaders of their respective parties. The MNAs dare not oppose any decision of their leader, however inimical to the interests of Pakistan, for the simple reason that the leader has the power to sack them on the spot. In practical terms, these “leaders” are the effective owners of the political parties they lead. Last summer these “leaders” conspired to give themselves autocratic powers by changing Pakistan’s constitution by means of “the 18^th amendment”. This was a complex amendment which introduced several changes to the constitution, some good, some bad and some totally repulsive. In the last category fall such monstrosities as revoking the clause that requires political parties to hold elections, and allowing convicted criminals to stand in national elections! The way is thus open for revolting individuals such as Z and NS to remain party leaders for life and to pass on the succession to members of their families irrespective of what crimes they may have committed. It is said that the 18^th amendment, which contained over a hundred amendments, was nodded through without discussion, the entire process taking no more than a couple of hours!

The sad fact is that Members of Pakistan’s National assembly are little better than a herd of cattle. They merely go where they are goaded by the puppets who, in turn, have their strings pulled by the puppeteers sitting in Washington. Democracy, Pakistani-style, is merely a form of dictatorship mixed in with unbridled corruption and abuse of power.

Way forward : the path of Iqbal and Jinnah

We need to look at any system of government and make an effort to understand how it operates. Thoughtlessly mouthing slogans such as “democracy” hides the monstrous fact that the Jamhoori Tamasha, the Democratic Circus, we have in Pakistan is one where layers of dictatorship exist, the uppermost layer being the dictatorship exercised from afar by the Americans, who determine the rulers of Pakistan and the policies that they are going to follow. Iqbal:

جلال پادشاہی ہو کے جمھوری تماشہ ہو

جدا ہو دیں سیاست سے تو رہ جاتی ہے چنگیزی

Absolute power of a monarch, or Democratic Circus, both are equally futile;

There will be just tyranny and oppression if Deen is separated from politics.

To Jinnah, “Deen” was a Code of Conduct that we had to follow in life – see Dialogue with a Giant

Pakistan’s Jamhoori Tamasha پاکستان کا جمھوری تماشہ

All Pakistani political parties that pay homage to their Americans masters - refer to WikiLeaks to identify those parties - agree that the current PPP government, up to its neck in unbridled corruption, must be allowed to complete its 5-year term of office because that is the wish of their masters sitting in Washington! At the end of that term Washington will presumably award points for good behaviour, and one of its stooges will be selected to rule Pakistan for the following 5 years.

This Jamhoori Tamasha, the Circus of Democracy, must be brought to an end if Pakistanis are to be released from the grip of corrupt thieves and robbers controlling the reins of power. Toppling the government is straightforward because of the wafer-thin majority it has in Parliament. However, none of the political parties represented in National Assembly will dare to upset the apple cart for fear of offending their masters in Washington. So, we have the macabre political dance being performed by the likes of Nawaz Sharif (the creator of the disreputable 'Friendly Opposition', which guarantees the survival of Z & Co), Altaf Hussain and Fazlur Rehman. What, then, is the solution?

A solution which could spark a constitutional crisis

At this critical juncture in Pakistan’s history, the Supreme Court could play a decisive role. In view of the indiscriminate murders and targeted killings of Pakistan’s citizens that the PPP government is powerless to do anything about, galloping inflation and no-holds-barred corruption of the rich and the powerful, the Supreme Court could declare that the government is unable to fulfil its obligations under the constitution. Apart from the government’s inability to maintain law and order, it seems to be gripped with paralysis when it comes to implementing the Supreme Court judgments relating to the ex-convict who happens to be the president of Pakistan. The Supreme Court could conceivably dismiss the government for sheer incompetence and drag Z, kicking and screaming, before the Court to answer criminal charges against him. This would pave the way for mid-term elections and the formation of a new government.

Should the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, take the bold step outlined here, the one thing that can be forecast with absolute certainty is a flood of damning articles by heavily bribed Pakistani hacks in a section of Pakistan's English language press. Expect endless talk of the judges exceeding their powers and creating constitutional chaos.

Seems to me that a revolution, Tunisia-style, could be another possibility. Are the people of Pakistan ready to explode? The sooner we end the bastardised parliamentary system we have in Pakistan the better it will be for the nation.

نہیں ہے ناامید اقبال اپنی کشت ویراں سے
ذرا نم ہو تو یہ مٹی بُہت زرخیز ہے ساقی

Tailpiece

Religion, as commonly understood, is a mix of ideas and rituals, including unhealthy influences which defy common sense. Invariably, “religion” branches out into a multitude of sects headed by hidebound clerics at war with each other. Al-Quran speaks of Islam as DEEN, which I wrote about in the very first post in my blog. I ask my readers to read it, please, by clicking this link

 http://sakibahmad.blogspot.com/2009/10/islam.html

The religious parties which are so active in Pakistani politics today had, in fact, opposed the creation of Pakistan. More, they had declared both Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam to be “kaafir”/infidel. One particular party stooped so low in its disparagement of Jinnah that it attached the label “Kaafir-e-Azam” to him. These religious parties deserve nothing but contempt from the people of Pakistan for their mischief making.

What we need in Pakistani politics is honesty, justice, and courage to resist tyranny and oppression. That was the DEEN or CODE OF CONDUCT that Iqbal and Jinnah talked about. Without that quality in politics we will end up with immoral political systems such as those we have in the USA and Pakistan. In some ways the USA political system is worse than Pakistan’s, because it denies genuine democracy to nations which are not yet considered “developed” and it allows the American government to launch murderous attacks on them, killing hundreds of thousands of their citizens with its hi-tech weaponry.