Source & credits: Pak Tea House | Yasir Latif Hamdani
By Yasir Latif Hamdani | April 5, 2008
REMEMBERING BHUTTO: HISTORY, CLERGY AND PAKISTAN
The oddest point in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s career as a politician and a statesman was when his National Assembly voted to constitutionally ex-communicate the Ahmaddiya community from the circle of Islam. Odd because, barring Jinnah and some ethnic leaders from small sub-nationalities, Bhutto was till then the most secular politician in Pakistan. His support base was mostly left and no where during the election campaign had the PPP given voice to the demand for Ahmadis to be ex-communicated. There are many theories as to why Bhutto would do it, but an investigation into the history of Ahmadi conflict in Pakistan leads to some astonishing conclusions about the role of Pakistan’s military and civil establishment and their blatant use of religious clergy in creating the conditions which might have forced a popular national politician like Bhutto to opt for such a drastic and draconian measure.
Pakistan was created as a result of the inability of the Congress Party to recognize the legitimate secular concerns (such economic and political safeguards) of the Muslim bourgeoisie represented by the Muslim League. Instead of relying on secular and liberal Muslim leaders like Jinnah, who had for much of his career been described as the Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity by the Hindu leadership, the Congress co-opted the Muslim religious clergy to prove its secular credentials. Soon the Congress found itself out of sync with the mass of Muslims. Since Muslims themselves were fragmented into several sects and schools of thought, Jinnah and the Muslim League kept theological and purely religious issues out of the main political discourse. This allowed Jinnah to bring Sunnis, Shias, Ismailis, Khojas and Ahmadis on one table despite major doctrinal differences between these groups. It was for this reason that after Pakistan was created, Jinnah extended his policy of keeping religious doctrine out to state governance. To drive the point home, he included in his cabinet a Hindu (Jogindranath Mandal) as a law minister and an Ahmadi Muslim (Ch. Zafrullah Khan) as his foreign minister.
After 1947, the religious clergy that had opposed Jinnah and the creation of Pakistan found itself like a fish out of a pond. They would have all but lost political significance had it not been for the political weakness of the ruling Muslim League. By 1951 the Muslim League was without both Jinnah and Liaqat Ali Khan, the two leaders who had recognition and mass appeal. Khawaja Nazimuddin who took over after Liaqat Ali Khan was known as a good honest man but was not known as a decisive leader. That he was from East Pakistan was an additional factor which made him undesirable for the West Pakistani establishment. By January 1953, the religious parties including Maulana Maududi’s Jamaat-e-Islami had formed the “Majlis-e-Amal” whose demands were the removal of Ch. Zafrullah Khan as the foreign minister and declaration of the Ahmadi community as “Non-muslim”. Khawaja Nazimuddin refused to entertain this demand and when informed of the chance of 100 000 crazed Mullahs marching onto the Prime Minister House, merely ordered the doubling of his guard. Violence broke out in Lahore and Karachi. Iskandar Mirza, the then Secretary of Defense, took note and wrote to the Prime Minister:
“The problems created by your personal enemies including Mullahs, if not dealt with firmly, will destroy the administration of the country... is religion to destroy the very foundation of the administration of the premier Muslim state? In Cairo, Sir Zafrullah Khan is being received with the utmost honour and respect... while in Karachi he is being abused in public meetings and his photographs are being spat upon… what then is the position of Pakistan today internationally... for God’s sake become a courageous leader and take decisive action. Once you do this, the whole country, with the exception of the rascals, will really round you…”Similar warnings were addressed to Mian Mumtaz Daultana, the Chief Minister of Punjab, who was more interested in using the agitation against Nazimuddin’s government and thus continued to encourage the clergy’s movement. On February 27th, 1953, the cabinet approved stringent measures and the protesters and rioters from the Majlis-e-Amal were rounded up by the police in Karachi. In Lahore however the actions taken against the protesters were half hearted and violence spiraled out of control. In a phone call, Daultana urged the Prime Minister to immediately accept Majlis-e-Amal’s demands or else Lahore would be burnt down. The Prime Minister as usual refused to.
Meanwhile the Iskandar Mirza moved and ordered General Musa to move Sialkot division into Lahore. The first martial law in Pakistan’s history was thus enforced in Lahore by General Azam Khan, the commander of the operation. Army soon restored law and order and the unrest was quashed brutally. A month later, Khawaja Nazimuddin’s government was dismissed by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad. The Prime Minister had planned on sending his executive request to the Queen to remove Ghulam Muhammad. What followed is well known in history.
These events raise a very important question: Was the Ahmaddiya issue deliberately fomented by the establishment to do away with the Muslim League government? With the exception of Jinnah and possibly Liaqat, the Muslim League did not have a leader who had popular support or charisma to face off the alliance between civil bureaucracy, military generals and the entrenched Punjabi feudal latter day Leaguers. It is well known that after the assassination of Liaqat Ali Khan, a deep rift had emerged between the professional politicians and the ex-ICS crew. The ex-ICS crew Ghulam Muhammad, Iskandar Mirza and Ch. Muhammad Ali were deeply suspicious of Muslim League politicians and disliked them intensely. Could it be that the Punjabi landlords like Daultana had conspired in cahoots with the establishment and the Army to create conditions which would de-stabilize the Bengali led Muslim League government?
In any event, the result of these unfortunate events was that Pakistan Army got its first taste of civil government, the establishment won a major victory over the politicians and Pakistan began to slip towards martial rule. Even more disturbing was the willingness of the Pakistani civil and military establishment to use religious divines to beat down on professional politicians. What is amazing is that the religious forces have always lent themselves to such conspiracies against the state of Pakistan and we see the same events culminating in form of the 17th Amendment and the Lal Masjid crisis.
As a politician who had started his career on the shoulders of the establishment, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto must have been well aware of the Ahmaddiya issue. As Prime Minister he must have feared that the Ahmadi issue would be used against him to de-rail his government. It is possible that the rioting that gripped Punjab over this issue in 1974 was started by the civil-military nexus which felt insulted and alienated by many of Bhutto’s actions. Bhutto therefore must have thought it prudent to throw the question to the assembly to settle the issue once and for all. Unfortunately this could not save him from the wrath of the all powerful establishment.
Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. The need of the hour is for Pakistan to revive the vision of Mohammad Ali Jinnah i.e. of a modern secular democratic state where not just all Muslim sects but also the Non-Muslim minorities can live in dignity and their held high as equal citizens of Pakistan. As with the Pakistan movement, the only way to realize Pakistan’s potential as the world’s sole Muslim majority nuclear power is to keep religion strictly separate from governance and administration. Otherwise we will continue to be held hostage by an unthinking clergy manipulated by Pakistan’s wretched and entrenched establishment.
Read here: REMEMBERING BHUTTO: HISTORY, CLERGY AND PAKISTAN
Yasser Latif Hamdani, a lawyer based in Islamabad, is a regular contributor at the Pak Tea House blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.