Pakistan: Sectarian terrorists allowed to run in the elections

EDITORIAL : Daily Times

It is difficult to decipher the tilt the county would take once the elections are over. Not only are these the bloodiest elections in the history of Pakistan, they are the most notorious as well due to a large number of extremists contesting. These are not ordinary extremists. Their criminal history is tainted with creating chaos and killing people on sectarian lines. Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, the chief of one-time Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) stands out in the list of 70 contestants running in the elections from banned religious organisations. Ludhianvi lost in 2008, but that did not mean he lost the muscle to dominate his native town, Jhang. The city is infamous for sectarian extremism, being the hometown of Maulana Azam Tariq, the slain head of SSP, a party now reinvented as the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), contrary to past perceptions, appears to be part of SSP. LeJ has been actively involved in exterminating Shias in Pakistan and its leader Malik Ishaq feels no hesitation in talking about his hatred and faulty perception of Shias. He considers them out of the fold of Islam and finds himself obligated to finish them off. LeJ has been openly accepting responsibility for killing Shias, especially from the Hazara community. The power enjoyed by Ludhianvi on the other hand can be gauged from the fact that not only he has been allowed to run for the elections in spite of several FIRs filed against him, no law enforcers could arrest him in the past until the uproar from the aggrieved Shias and the media shook them up to the reality. The question is, why has he been allowed to run in the elections? How did he manage to avoid the filter of Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution that so many others fell foul of? Considering that exercise was a memory test on Quranic verses and rituals, the filter failed for people like Ludhianvi. In one of his interviews, he said that he would openly attack Shias in parliament once he gets there. To him, Ahmadis and Shias both belong to the same status, i.e. outside the pale of Islam, and therefore liable to be killed. Given the boldness he is exuding, very little reason is left not to believe that there are elements in Pakistan’s power circles that have the desire to turn this country into a theocratic state. On the one hand the secular/liberal parties are cornered and on the other sectarian terrorists like Ludhianvi are being facilitated. Civil society is conspicuous by its absence in not challenging in court such rogues trying to get into parliament. This situation cannot be taken lying down. This country, according to its founder Mr Jinnah, was never meant to accommodate people who want to kill people on the basis of their faith.