Intolerance behind Sufis!

Since the deadlock between the government and Barelvi extremists of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan came to an end on Monday, November 27, one thing was loud and clear, the Pakistan Army refused to take action against “its own people”, as the chief of army staff said.

The civilian government had been trying to handle the situation since November 6, when the sit-in commenced, but was forced to request for army assistance to tackle the jihadi sentiments on the orders of the Islamabad High Court. However, the anti-Ahmadi rhetoric played by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz against the sitting Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa came back to bite them during the Faizabad Interchange sit-in. The army, instead of coming in to take hold of the situation 1953-style, chose to coach civilians about amicably handling Punjabis overdosing on the blasphemy law.

This incident has not only paved the way for the COAS to clear his name in the eyes of the largest sectarian group, but it also falls in place with the establishment’s plan to mainstream Islamic extremists as a political alliance.

Earlier, when Nawaz was deposed as per court orders, and by-elections were called in NA-120, one of the contestants was Qari Yaqoob Sheikh of the unregistered Milli Muslim League, technically a candidate of the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, political wing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Qari Yaqoob bagged 4.59 percent or a total 5,822 votes in the by-election. The launching of the Milli Muslim League was opposed by the PML-N, but their protests went unheard.

The other religious person, who was ahead of Yaqoob was Shaikh Azhar Hussain Rizvi at 7,130 votes or 5.62 percent of the total. Azhar participated as an independent candidate against Begum Kulsoom Nawaz of the PML-N; however, he belongs to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan - an Islamic political party founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the architect of the Faizabad sit-in.

Since the time Shaikh Azhar bagged third position in the strategic Punjabi constituency in the heart of Lahore, the party had been aggressively campaigning for getting a strong foothold in mainstream politics ahead of the 2018 elections. Tehreek-e-Labbaik holds Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the convicted murderer of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, as innocent and his hanging unjustifiable. It has resorted to sloganeering and urged people to take to the streets to protest against the perceived persecution of Muslims in the Muslim majority country.

Originally, the demand of those sitting at Faizabad was to reverse the law pertaining to the finality of prophethood, which was accepted. To further gain momentum and support for the new party, Khadim Hussain had expanded the scope of demands during the protest and also called on the entire cabinet to hand in their resignations.

Faizabad Interchange, made in the 90s is the gateway between Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi, from where thousands of people commute to the federal capital on a daily basis. The blockade of the interchange by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan was strategic as it paralysed the twin cities for close to three weeks.

Since a vast majority of Sunni Muslims in Pakistan belong to the Barelvi school of thought, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan founder Khadim Hussain is vouching on them to help him win a majority in Punjab. Especially under the 'namoos-e-risalat' banner. Under whose patronage is anyone's guess!
Milli Muslim League on the other hand, has slightly lesser supporters due to its Salafi leanings, often at odds with the shrine-going majority of the rural and urban population, and hence closer to the Deobandi school of thought. It is this similarity which has been helpful in raising the Taliban and now Daesh among the Deobandis of Pakistan and Afghanistan, largely funded by the Salafi Saudi regime.

The turf war between the Barelvis and the other major Sunni groups is old and both have been involved in target killings of mosque imams for taking hold of an area in different parts of the country. The recent fiasco in Islamabad seems to be an extension of the same. The stance of the security establishment in the matter and their refusal to confront the previously obscure, but majority Sunni group, is recognition of the need for perhaps a grand religio-political alliance.

The failure to make the Pak Sarzameen Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan work jointly in Karachi might have served as a precedent for the deep state in this matter. Bringing politicians to heel is a problem when it comes to following without question.

This grand alliance in Punjab will not only deal with the PML-N and divide the Punjabi vote bank, but also keep in check the volatility of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership, another right-leaning set of hooligans who brought the federal capital to halt in 2014. A poor precedent was set during the more than 120-day demonstrations staged by the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) simultaneously in 2014 when Islamabad was locked down for more than three months. Prior to that, the PAT protest in Model Town, Lahore in June 2014 had ended in violence and multiple deaths. A re-enactment of the PAT demonstration is perhaps on the cards too, as Tahirul Qadri landed in Pakistan on November 28.

This time around, the Faizabad sit-in however ended 'amicably' as the COAS brokered a six-point deal between the miscreants and the government which includes the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid, inquiries and investigations against those involved in changing the wordings of the oath related to the finality of prophethood, and freedom for all those arrested during the operation against the instigators.

Milli Muslim League lagged behind the Tehreek-e-Labbaik candidate, it was a major sign for those in the power corridors to realise their mistake of not recognising the bigger terror group hiding behind its tolerant Sufi-turbaned facade. How this will end, with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed walking as a free man now, only time will tell.

Military, land-grabbing, and the fate of Balochistan

Destroyed by conflict, threatened by militancy, and crippled by lack of development and resources, Balochistan is mostly off-limits for tourists, especially non-Baloch nationals of the country. Contrary to the press reminders about the importance of the Gwadar Port, the province suffers from severe neglect. However, there is one place in Balochistan, which seems to be protected for not only visitors, but even the Hindu minority of this country, which is stuck in the turmoil of terrorism and rampant extremism. Hingol National Park, a protected piece of land covering 407,724 acres, hosts the Hinglaj Mata Mandar, and Chandragupt and Khandewari volcanoes, all sacred for the Hindus. 

The diversity of the place attracts not just pilgrims for Hinglaj Yatra, but also the entertainment starved Karachiites, who are stuck with either eating out, going to the scarce and expensive cinemas, or the dirty beaches.

It is this niche that private explorers like Rover Adventure Club, The Globetrotters, etc are using to expand tourism, a neglected industry in Pakistan. The clubs take groups of 12-25 people each week to visit Hingol. One can find countless packages ranging between Rs2,500-3,000 for a day trip via the Makran Coastal Highway. The highlights include viewing the Princess of Hope, the Sphinx, and mud-volcanoes, as well as visiting the Kund Malir Beach and Hingol River. The area has varying geographical features from arid sub-tropical forest cover, to sandy mountains, and an estuary along the Hingol River.

Hingol National Park, the largest national park of Pakistan comprises 640 square miles that is home to a number of wildlife species listed as rare, vulnerable or threatened. The species include marine estuarine and terrestrial animals, including the marsh crocodile, green turtle, houbara bustard, two varieties of pelicans, plumbeous dolphin, Sindh ibex, urial, chinkara gazelle, pangolin, leopard, and some usual and seasonal visitors.

Adult male ibex

The presence of Hinglaj Mata, an avatar of Durga, is in a cave nestled between Kirthar Hills, on the banks of the river Hingol. The sacred site is taken care of by the devotees of Devi, who are very friendly and welcoming of all visitors. Since the site has restricted access and is a haven for pilgrims, even wildlife seems to find it a safe house.

Walking around the premises of the temple can be a delight for a bird-watcher as one can spot feral pigeons, plovers, black bittern, long-billed pipit, brown-necked raven, plovers, and bulbuls, etc. If one has a keen eye, it’s possible to spot a few reptiles, including the Indian fringe-fingered lizard and the sand-swimmer. Though the wildlife department does not report sighting snakes in the area, temple devotees speak of their presence due to the abundance of mongoose in the canyon. 

“We have seen snakes and mongoose both. We know mongoose and snakes are bitter enemies, but these two live in the same habitat,” one of the lady devotees of Nani Mandir said on a recent visit.

Another highlight of the visit is the Sindh Ibex or Turkman wild goat that abounds the anticline Kirthar Mountains in and around the temple premises. These stocky goats have thick-set bodies and strong limbs and hooves which enable them to climb up and down the almost upright hills.

However, the fate of this natural habitat for many of the protected wildlife species, including the natural heritage of the province has been put on stake by the Balochistan government, as well as Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO).

In a conversation with an official, it was revealed that the 9,000 acres (14.06 square miles) of land allotted to SUPARCO would be used for research purposes (probably launching satellites). The land, owned by the Forest Department was handed over under the Balochistan Protection and Preservation of Forest and Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2015, passed by the Balochistan Assembly on November 9, 2015.

SUPARCO already owned an area Ras Malan in Hingol National Park, which it said was dedicated for developing indigenous Polar Satellites under the National Satellite Development Programme. The space commission claimed the area would be better preserved as activities would be restricted.

Laying claim to protected areas by the sensitive agencies is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. In 2006, Pakistan Air Force as well had applied for 23,000 acres of land in the protected nature reserve. 

It must be mentioned here that earlier, PAF not only acquired land in Maslakh Wildlife Sanctuary, Pishin, established in 1968, but also managed to wipe out the protected urial and chinkara from the sanctuary.

Same was the fate of Khadeji Falls, which is about an hour away from Karachi. A family who tried to visit the site in 2008 were told by uniformed men to not get any closer or else they would be shot.

Where clerks like generals, intellectuals prefer paternal elite

Here I go again, talking about the interpreter class that forms the academic elite in this country. The ‘intellectuals’ for whom nearly all that is local, traditional or let’s say ‘desi’ is worth rubbishing merely because it does not fit in those defined Western boundaries of ‘civilized’, unless, mind it, the matter is about the exoticized version tailored for the sahib. Just like those perfect ‘gourmet samosas’ and ‘connoisseur jalebis’, all enjoyed wearing ‘dholki haute couture’. Tea party culture hidden behind Marxist theory and dialectics of how to buy vodka from the local bootlegger. Disjointed nuanced semantics of urban and rural divide that are not as feudal as they used to be just because the lord put some money in a couple of sugar mills and sent his children to study at Eton, Berkeley or Oxford.

Not to forget the sugar coated, tech-savvy babus who went to local IBAs and LUMs to get their humble degree; either because they were too mummy daddy to bear the routine of doing their own laundry, or because no international elite school found their credentials worth getting besmirched by the humble presence on campus. Do not count the odd ones out, for they are so few, you can count them on just one hand. [Also, to trample their self esteem, they are lathered in shariat terms like Qarz-e-Hasna]

It wouldn’t be a long shot if one said that it was summarised in the 19th century by Macaulay for the rest of the hullabaloos who were busy being ‘clerks’ [and continue to do so] since British Raj gave them the ‘authority’.

"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population," Macaulay declared.

Apparently the enrichment never seized and continues to befuddle those who must be guided by the intellectuals as a shepherd guides ‘sheep’.

The intellectuals are stuck in the rut about generals, because supporting paternal elites in their opinion is better than supporting the status quo. Oh the fuzzy frenzy of semantics, prey the clerks cannot fathom the difference, if there is one, as they were never trained to distinguish the nuances of mere words.

But lest the clerks demand to send a general to a foreign hospital instead of the gallows, rest assured that the Berbers in them were never thoroughly put to rest. Though it is all right for my lord to inaugurate a humble school for the clerk, where never would he ever send his own son or daughter. The general must pay. Both for the hospital, as well as the school made for the clerk’s descendants. For who else would my lord not elite rule if there were no more clerks? Not those peasants, for the fiefdoms have them as serfs, and missing out the peasant lot comes natural to clerks and intellectuals alike, for those poor dudgeons exist merely as ballot papers.