August 16, 2017
By Saeed Qureshi
These days there
are cattle bazaars set up all over Pakistan. In these bazaars people sell and
buy the animals for sacrifice to commemorate the religious festival of Eid-ul-Azha
on September 6 this year. The compounds, bazars, roads and the open fields are
the venues for animal trading and are replete with filth and stench all over.
This stench would further pervade all over Pakistan on September 6 and it would
take a long time to clear the streets etc. from the offal, bones, and other
unusable parts of the bodies of the sacrificed animals. The skins are sold in
the markets.
This
tradition began from Saudi Arabia and now it is a part of the religious obligations
all over the Islamic world. It is a rerun or the tradition of prophet Abraham
(1900 B.C.) who agreed to sacrifice his son Hazrat Ismail (for Jews it is
Ishaq) on the command of God as a test of his level of obedience to God. The
tradition says that he tried to sacrifice his son but God sent two rams
instead. This tradition was adopted by
Jews first and followed by the Muslims after the advent of Islam.
Another
Biblical version narrates that he took away his other wife Hajira and his son Ismael
at the behest of his first wife Sara to a far-off place. Sara ‘s own son Ishaq
was 14 years younger than Ismael. Sara turned hostile to both Hajira and Ismail
after the birth of her own son Ishaq. Here is the contradiction that primarily
it was not the command of God to sacrifice Ismail but to obey the order of his
wife Sara to take Ismael and his mother Hajira away from her eyes as Ismael was
mocking Sara and his step brother Ishaq.
Besides this
temporary phase of sacrifice of the animals causing a great deal of stench,
health hazards and atmospheric stench, we can witness the political dirt and
pollution caused by the political lot in Pakistan. The culture and penchant of
foul mouthing, name calling, abuse and accusations between the rival parties
and politicians is prevalent like an epidemic.
There are
politicians who are active in derailing the democratic order by using the state
institutions. The latest example is the removal of Nawaz Sharif as the prime
minister of Pakistan by the supreme court. This is a handy and the easiest way
to remove a president or the elected prime minister from his office.
Instead of
conveying their parties’ manifestos and programs in a civilized manner, the
combatant politicians treat each other as the enemies and use abusive and
degrading jargon against each other. The PMNL president and prime minister Mian
Nawaz Sharif has been the target of ridicule, cheap remarks and even abusive
language by his worst political adversaries namely PTI chairman Imran Khan and
Sheikh Rashid the president of the political party “Awami Muslim League”.
Traditionally,
every government in Pakistan has been painted by the opposition as incompetent
and the enemy of the people and the country. The opposition leaders invariably
claim that when they will come in power they will turn the country into a paradise
and all the problems and the issues bedeviling the lives of the people would
evaporate.
This pattern
of political culture has been going on in Pakistan ever since it came into
being in 1947. In the meantime, Pakistan was dismembered in 1971. The eastern
wing of the former Pakistan separated due to the grave follies of politicians including
ZA Bhutto, some army generals and the then president General Yahya Khan. To
understand how foolishly and callously Pakistan was dismembered and the defeat
of the armed forces of Pakistan was facilitated, one should read the insightful
book, “Memories and Reflections”
written by the then Pakistan’s foreign secretary and ambassador Sultan Muhammad
Khan who had been an eyewitness of what happened during those tumultuous times.
Pakistan in
the present situation, has passed through many ups and downs including the martial
Law phases of General Ziaul Haq and General Musharraf. Those martial laws were
the natural or forcible outcome of the bizarre political atmosphere created by
the ruling parties and the politicians in the government and outside. But
perhaps no lessons have been learnt or imbibed by our army of politicians.
There has always been a bizarre and degrading tussle going on between the
parties in power and those in the opposition with character assassinations and
name calling.
There had
been a relatively peaceful and stable tenure during the presidency of Asif Ali Zardari
(November 2008 to November 2013). Despite his many drawbacks and penchant for
making money and allegation of financial corruption, he kept the democratic
order intact. The credit goes to him for allocating more powers to the
provinces.
But what is
happening now seems to be a political war between Mian Nawaz Sharif and his
family on one side and their main opponents namely Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid
on the other. Extremely sleazy epithets,
dirty slogans and derogatory remarks are used against Sharif family by both
Imran Khan, Sheikh Rashid and their party cohorts in their speeches and day to
day comments.
Sheikh
Rashid is adept in hurling highly caustic and offensive invective against the
Sharif family. While it would be acceptable for the nice and civilized political
campaigning to win the popular support for paving way for the next general
elections yet such a nasty behavior is to impel the army to step in and remove
the government in power. That can happen if the political temperature is
heightened by an equally filthy rebuttal and tit-for-tat response by the people
in power.
The politicians
like Sheikh Rashid and Imran Khan otherwise pygmy politicians, are busy in
settling their personal scores with the PMNL in general and Sharif family in
particular through non-political avenues. The apex court has not been fair or impartial
in handing out verdict against prime minister Nawaz Sharif and order his
removal on flimsy grounds while such accusations were not fully established or
conclusively proven
Even after
his removal the vicious tongue-lashing and vitriolic outbursts against him and
his family have not been abandoned by the PTI shenanigans joined by Sheikh
Rashid and doctor Tahirul Qadri the head of “Pakistan Awami Tehrik”. Dr. Qadri
is a Canadian citizen and has no political role to play in Pakistan. How can he
bring about a grand revolution based upon the religious basis when he spends
his 11 months in the salubrious and comfortable society of Toronto?
Sheikh
Rashid nurses personal grudge against Nawaz Sharif because of his close
association with former president General Pervez Musharraf in whose government
he remained as the minister for five years (November 2002 to November 2007).
His opposition to Nawaz Sharif is not based on principals but on the grounds
that Nawaz Sharif and General Musharraf have been rigid opponents of each
other.
In October
1998, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif elevated Musharraf to a four-star general
status and made him the chief of the Armed Forces. The discord developed
between Sharif and Musharraf was due to the Kargil war initiated by Musharraf in
October 1998 without the knowledge of prime minister Nawaz Sharif. That war led to an extremely serious situation
between India and Pakistan. Sharif was unsuccessful in removing Musharraf and
in retaliation through a coup, Musharraf took over the power and put Sharif in
jail.
Nawaz Sharif
has been a great admirer of Imran Khan as a top cricketer who as a captain and
cricketer led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. It is yet
to be figured out how Imran Khan turned a diehard opponent of Nawaz Sharif. But
it is being guessed that he wants to halt the CPEC( China Pakistan Economic
Corridor) project at the behest of some foreign powers that don’t want Pakistan
to prosper and attain the status of a developed country with the help of China.
As far
corruption of Nawaz Sharif, the main question is “who is not corrupt in
Pakistan”. If Imran Khan is bent upon weeding out corruption then the crusade
or campaign against corruption should be waged on the country level and not solely
against the Sharif family.
The popular
support and approval for both Sheikh Rashid and Imran Khan is insignificant. In
the recent by-elections in Azad Kashmir and for filling vacant seats in
Pakistan, Imran Khan’s PTI and Sheikh Rashid’s “Awami Muslim League” miserably failed
to capture any seats.
As far Allama Tahirul Qadri, he comes once in
a while to fish in the troubled waters and cannot attain power or nationwide
popularity or acceptance for all time to come. He seems to be a spoiler and
that is why is bracketed with Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid who both lacks vision and peoples’ support. A
part time religious zealot is unfit to be a political leader or get the peoples’
goodwill.
I would urge
the guys like Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid, jamaat-e- Islami and also Allam
Qadri not to resort to street agitations and instead hold on to democratic tradition
by contesting the next general elections to be held in June 2008 and try their
luck through political means. If they cannot attain power through the political
mandate then at least they should allow others who rule through popular mandate
to stay till the maturity of their assigned period.
Otherwise it
is going go to be a rerun of the past when the weak and unpopular politicians and
political rabble rousers attempted to remove the incumbent governments through
street agitations. Those uncalled for
and apolitical attempts invariably culminated
in military dictatorships.
It is also necessary
for the politicians not to be abusive and hurl personal attacks and throw filthy
allegations on their opponents as both Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid are doing.
It is not only indecent ethically, politically and religiously but make them
look uncultured, vulgar and foul mouthing hooligans.
Good or bad,
let incumbent PMLN dispensation complete its mandate of five years. As already
stated, instead of using the shortcut of moving courts against political opponents,
the political opposition should wait for the next general elections due in June
2018. It would set a healthy tradition of continuation of the democratic order
which is in place even after the departure of PPP government under president
Asif Ali Zardari in September 2013. The general elections are not far and are
scheduled to be held in Pakistan any time within 90 days after 5 June 2018.
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