Pakistan - Eruptions after Faizabad

Ghazi Salahuddin

An operation to remove protesters from the Faizabad Interchange was finally launched on Saturday morning. But this will be just one phase in an encounter that has a bearing on our national sense of direction. And we are not sure if our rulers have the will and intellectual capacity to contend with the dark passions that have led to a virtual disequilibrium in Pakistan’s society and politics.

While our attention at this time is largely restricted to conducting the Faizabad operation, the nation-wide repercussions of this confrontation must gradually take shape and test the government’s resolve to remain in control of a situation that has other ominous dimensions.

It is difficult to grasp the entire situation in the forenoon on Saturday, when I am writing these lines. But reports are coming in of a series of protests taking shape in many places across the country. A sympathetic sit-in was already underway in Karachi, where traffic is easily dislocated and its affects are felt far and wide. When the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) received an impressive degree of support in the NA-20 by-election, observers had noted that mosques were used as centres of political campaign. In a sense, this is how we may now anticipate a million mutinies. There is no doubt that the TLY, inspired by the executed assassin of Salmaan Taseer, has a large, passionate following. But this also bears testimony to our failure in the nation-building enterprise.

There is no doubt that the authorities are aware of the challenge of dealing with the expected backlash of the Faizabad operation. In fact, their hesitation to take on the protesters – who were never quite large in number – would show that they were afraid of them and not willing to pay the cost of a direct attack. Inaction for such a long time actually looked like an act of surrender.

Now that the Faizabad sit-in has been attacked, they should have the courage to deal with the consequences in a resolute manner. Otherwise, this enemy within can overwhelm us and lead us into uncharted waters. However, one lesson of history is that a grave challenge is also a great opportunity. This, then, is a moment of truth for our rulers and, among other things, they have to be mindful of the price that we pay when a problem is not attended to in its inception.

Thankfully, some fearful apprehensions about how bloody the assault on the hot-blooded protesters could be were not justified in the initial hours of the action taken by the police, the FC and the Rangers. Firearms were not in evidence. The numerical strength of the agitators was not formidable. In the midst of massive tear-gassing, the battle was fought with stones, causing injuries to numerous law-enforcement personnel.

But we have to wait for the next moves that are made on either side. The ISI report submitted to the Supreme Court – the one which the two-judge bench was not satisfied with – stated that the TLY, which led the protest, had a political agenda. This means that the political landscape may change in some significant ways. According to the report, the TLY was “determined to exploit the situation and gain political mileage for the next general elections”. This is rather a simplistic and obvious observation and, hence, the Supreme Court, in its suo motu hearing on Thursday, gave the ISI a week to submit another report. The protest paralysed the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi – representing the two poles of authority – for almost 20 days. This is a longer period than the 1965 war had lasted. During this time, the government allowed the proliferation of very sinister thoughts in the minds of the citizens. They kept wondering about the ability of the ruling establishment to enforce the writ of the state.

There is bound to be a contentious debate on how this surge in bigotry and fanaticism should be engaged in an atmosphere of heightened emotions. It is possible that social disruption will deepen in the coming days and there is the coincidence of Eid-e-Miladun Nabi being celebrated in a few days. All this time, we have been struggling with terrorists and mobilising all our security resources. And now, we have a separate manifestation of religious extremism.

Irrespective of how grim and bloody this campaign is likely to be, it cannot now be avoided. It is not possible to overstate the urgency of defeating this onslaught of fanaticism. The task now is to save Pakistan from a severe threat to its democratic character and identity as a modern state. A realisation of this fundamental contradiction in the context of Pakistan’s destiny is vital.

It would be instructive to understand the challenge that was posed by the Faizabad sit-in and the government’s inaction for so many days. What it really meant was judiciously explained by the Supreme Court on Thursday. “The protesters are undermining the state and its institutions,” Justice Qazi Faez Isa said, adding that the biggest crime in any society was fitna and fasad-fil-arz.

He also said that: “this is not the Pakistan of unity, faith and discipline or constitutionalism”. Ah, but the sequence of the motto that the Quaid had prescribed for the nation has already been violated by our rulers who seem to have some confusion in their minds about the meaning of ‘faith’ that the Quaid had intended. Indeed, the motto was officially translated as “ittehad, yaqeen-e-muhkum, and tanzeem”. Now, in defiance of a fact of history, it is ‘faith, unity and discipline’. While it appears to be a minor aberration, correcting this credo in our commitment to the Quaid’s vision would serve as an indication that our leaders are willing to correct their course of action.

A pertinent reason for not tolerating the sit-in was the pain and distress that it caused to the citizens of the two cities. It was a violation of the constitutional right of the freedom of movement. In any case, it became a crisis of the government’s survival. This crisis is continuing.

So, the nation is breathless with apprehension about the unfolding events. A lot will depend on how the forces that are in the arena are lined up. But some questions do not have easy answers. Will the political leaders unite to protect the democratic dispensation? Will the establishment understand the imperative of backing liberal and progressive values?