Saturday, June 23, 2018
A nonviolent movement challenges Pakistan’s military
In countries where military figures still hold the reins of power through fear, such as Egypt or Thailand, public criticism of the regime comes mainly from abroad. In recent days, for example, the United Nations has accused Venezuela’s security forces of hundreds of arbitrary killings. It also demanded Myanmar’s Army be held accountable for mass violence against the minority Rohingya. In Pakistan, people are so afraid of speaking against the military or its intelligence services that they often use code, such as tapping one’s shoulder to indicate decorative brass or by referring to “the establishment.” While the country has a facade of democracy, the top generals keep a tight hold on politics, the media, and dissent.
Yet that fear may be starting to break.
Since January, Pakistan has seen the rapid rise of a group of young people who rely on peaceful tactics to protest military abuses against ethnic minorities, especially the second-largest group, Pashtuns. In the country’s 70-year history, no group has so openly challenged the military’s grip like the Pashtun Protection Movement, known by its Urdu initials, PTM. Its courage, nonviolence, and appeal to constitutional rights have begun to inspire millions of others far beyond Pakistan’s minorities to speak out.
“The impact of the PTM movement is reflected in how it has triggered a wider debate surrounding the role of the military in politics and citizen rights,” according to journalists Sarah Eleazar and Sher Ali Khan in a CNN report. The PTM’s main demand is for an accounting of thousands of missing persons either held or killed by the military during its 15-year campaign against the Taliban and other military groups in the country’s remote regions. At PTM rallies, mothers hold up pictures of their missing loved ones, a powerful image that may have helped prevent violent repression of the group.
Leading this civil rights movement is Manzoor Pashteen, a 24-year-old tribal leader and trained veterinarian who has witnessed many of the military’s atrocities. He has been likened to a 20th-century pacifist Muslim, Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Widely known as Bacha Khan, Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a close friend of Mohandas Gandhi in the nonviolent struggle for independence from the British Raj. Mr. Pashteen has been harassed by security forces to keep him from making public appearances or using social media. The suppression only serves to show how worried the top brass is about this movement’s purely peaceful struggle and its appeal to conscience.
As Gandhi himself said of the use of moral action against abusive power: “We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.”
Will the PTM succeed in freeing Pakistan’s stunted democracy? In a study of insurgencies from 1900 to 2006, scholars Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan found that campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts.
At the least, PTM provides a model of domestic dissent for other countries living under the thumb of a military. Nonviolent protest based on basic rights can expose and often defeat the violence that props up a regime. Peace has its own natural following.
Religion And Democracy In Pakistan – OpEd
By Farhad Wazir
Since 9/11, there has been a furious debate on the relationship between Islam and democracy. Many people have written on the issue. “To put it briefly, the significant democratic progress in countries such as Tunisia, Indonesia and others in Southeast Asia undermines the assertion that Islam and democracy are necessarily at odds with each other.” However, the case of Pakistan tells otherwise.
Since the beginning, religion has been entrenched into statecraft in Pakistan. The first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan passed the Objective Resolution on March 12, 1949. Since then, the Resolution has been the part of all the three constitutions of Pakistan namely the 1956, 1962 and 1973 Constitution. The Resolution weaved Islam into the polity and laid the foundations for future constitution-making in Pakistan. The original scheme of the relationship between the state and Islam under the Resolution was inclusive and egalitarian, and extended certain rights, liberties and safeguards to the minority in Pakistan. Furthermore, under the Resolution, Allah’s sovereignty has been accepted over the entire universe; and it was laid that Quran and Sunnah will guide the legislation and policy-making in Pakistan. Similarly, it recognized representative form of government and federal structure for Pakistan; it also recognized democracy to be introduced in Pakistan as enunciated by Islam.
Adoption of religion by state may lead to discrimination and persecution of religious minority and other sects within the same religion. For example, Zia’s Islamization programme was increasingly discriminatory against the religious minority and offended the Shia sect of Islam. In 1980, thousands of Shias gathered in front of the Parliament against several components of the Zia’s Islamization scheme. They ended their protest only when the government extended exemption to the Shias against such regulations as compulsory deduction of Zakat.
The genesis of the disruption of the democratic process and the consequent military rule in Pakistan could be traced to the religiosity of the Pakistani polity. In 1953, religiously motivated protests erupted against Ahmadis in Punjab. The protests went out of the control of the Punjab government and ultimately led to the imposition of martial law in Lahore. The martial law emboldened and opened the door for the military leadership to directly intervene in the civilian affairs. And since then, the military is intervening either directly or indirectly in the politics in Pakistan, which hinders the democratic development in Pakistan. Again in 1974, such protests erupted against Ahmadis throughout the country which ultimately led to the introduction of 2nd Amendment in the Constitution of 1973. Under the Amendment, Ahmadis were declared as a non-Muslim minority of Pakistan.
Similarly, Zial-Ul-Haq tried to legitimize his unconstitutional rule and elongate his stay in power through the introduction of his Islamization drive in Pakistan. In 2000s, under ‘Roshan Pakistan’ scheme General Pervaiz Musharraf tried to seek legitimacy for his military dictatorship by trying to reverse Zia’s Islamization program. However, he failed to reverse the process and instead generated an extremist response from the religious community. Even he failed to eradicate the religious and fundamentalist tendencies from his own institution. General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiani, who was appointed by Musharraf as COAS, declared that Islam and Pakistan could not be separated; and that Pakistan Army is bound to protect both the territorial and ideological boundaries of the state.
Any endeavor to change the existing relationship between Islam and Pakistan may pose a serious challenge to a democratic government in Pakistan. Such endeavors may lead to the erosion of public support, which is must for democratic development, to an incumbent government. This is evident from the events that unfolded in the aftermath of the Electoral Reforms Act, 2017 which brought changes into the Khatm-E-Nabuwat related clauses in the oath for public representatives. The sitting government faced serious backlash from the people and other institutions.
Religious parties and interest groups were successful in invoking religious sentiments of the people against the government. Many MPs of the ruling party resigned from assemblies and joined the protesting religious groups. Even the military responded to it and declared that Army could not compromise on the finality of Prophet-hood of Muhammad (PBUH). The military was called by the federal government for aid to the civilian administration after the police failed to bring an end to the protest. However, the military showed increasing reluctance to disperse the protesters through crackdown and instead preferred a negotiated settlement to bring an end to the protest. To put in the words of Dr. Ishtiaq Husain, a prominent historian, the protest turned Pakistan into a mobocracy-rule of the mob.
Another example of how the religion and democracy interact in Pakistan could be Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification, which is considered by many as a blow to the democratic consolidation, from the office of Prime Minister. He was disqualified from the office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan under Article 62 f(1) which was introduced by General Zial-Ul-Haq under his Islamization drive. In 2010, under the 18th Amendment, the PPP suggested removal of all such conditions for qualification and disqualification of public representatives added by Zia-Ul-Haq to the Constitution of 1973. However, Nawaz Sharif allegedly opposed the initiative probably for a fear of losing the support of the religious constituency.
All these do not mean that Islam and democracy are necessarily incompatible with each other; rather it shows that how religion has been misused by the rulers and various interests groups for the promotion of their narrow political objectives without taking into consideration the harmful effects of their actions.
Spokesman to the PPP Chairman, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar response to reports about Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s asset details
Reacting to reports concerning Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s asset details, Spokesman to the Chairman, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, has said that: “We have noticed that a lot is being said regarding Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s asset details. The PPP would like to clarify a few things.
“Chairman PPP submitted income tax returns for the last three years with all his nomination papers. All properties and businesses that have been declared by Mr Chairman were inherited from his family. As for those questioning how Bilawal House Karachi is worth Rs3 million, it should be mentioned that Section 116 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, says: ‘All assets [whether purchased or inherited] should be valued at cost’. PPP Chairman inherited Bilawal House Karachi in early nineties and at that time, it was valued at Rs 3 million”.
Senator Khokhar has also said that “around 70 candidates are contesting against Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in all three constituencies that he is contesting from. Copies of his nomination papers were taken by all other contesting candidates – including those from the PTI, JUI, MQM, PML-N, MMA, etc., and none of them raised any legal objections whatsoever. PPP Chairman has followed the law in letter and spirit while filing his nomination papers. We respect the law of the land and believe in transparency”.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/spokesman-to-the-ppp-chairman-mustafa-nawaz-khokhar-response-to-reports-about-bilawal-bhutto-zardaris-asset-details/
Sanam Bhutto says Bilawal can steer Pakistan in right direction
At an event held here at the Willesden Green Pakistan Community Centre to celebrate Benazir Bhutto’s birthday, Sanam Bhutto joined London-based leaders of the PPP and offered full support to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Benazir Bhutto's younger sister Sanam Bhutto urged voters to vote for her nephew in the upcoming elections.
"You must vote for Bilawal if you want Pakistan to progress in the right direction," Sanam Bhutto said, adding that Bilawal offered hope and was the right choice to lead Pakistan and to put the country in the right direction.
Sanam Bhutto expressed her well-wishes for Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and prayed that she could get well soon.
The event was also attended by former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain, who is in London for the cancer treatment of his wife Zareen.
Separately, on the weekend, Sanam Bhutto’s daughter Azadeh Hussain tied the knot in a private ceremony here. The event was private but some pictures and videos were released by a few selected guests.
Bilawal and sisters Aseefa and Bakhtawar arrived especially from Pakistan to be at the wedding. Tariq Islam, Benazir’s cousin, six Sindhi families, Wajid Shamsul Hasan and Benazir’s close friend Victoria Schofield also attended the wedding.
A video of the wedding ceremony surfaced on social media featuring Asifa, Bakhtawar and Bilawal.
Bilawal had arrived in London on Friday, a day after Nawaz Sharif landed in London and learnt that Begum Kulsoom Nawaz had suffered a cardiac arrest.
The wedding took place on Saturday and it was hoped that Bilawal Bhutto will pay a visit to the hospital but he sent his best wishes on social media and didn’t attend the hospital.
“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari wanted to visit the hospital in person. He discussed the idea with Asif Ali Zardari but couldn’t get a go ahead,” said a trusted PPP source adding: “Bilawal couldn’t get the security clearance for the visit”.
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