This alarming rise in extremism has prompted Pakistan to initiate Operation Azm-i-Istehkam, an ambitious effort aimed at eradicating terrorism
Clergy has always played a pivotal role in the Pakistani narrative. The indelible impact of the ‘Mullahs’ has historically cut across institutions of power like the Military ‘establishment’, political parties, civilian society, academia et al. Each has, in their own way succumbed to puritanical displays and appropriations to posture alignment befitting the “land of the pure” or Pakistan. However, it must be said that many of these institutions have also privately harboured the exact opposite instincts and preferences, from what has been prescribed by the clerical order. These institutions have pandered to religiosity only to tick in the box their own false, and publicly fronted sense of piety to legitimise their relevance, whilst indulging in vices, degeneracies, and excesses.A cursory look at the long list of the Pakistani infamous in the Pandora Papers or Panama List is a veritable who’s-who of the Pakistani elites, who posture simplicity, austerity, and god-fearing honesty in the public sphere. This has led to the elites leading notoriously duplicitous lives with ill-gotten properties and excesses across the world, whilst injecting toxic-religiosity and religious extremism back home.
The bunny of religion is essentially for public consumption to be invoked whenever everything else fails e.g., beseeching Arab Sheikhs or Turkey for life-sustaining aid in the name of a “brotherly muslim nation”. The personal lives of the ruling Sharif family and the feudal Bhuttos are hardly the modicum of religious idyls, and the same discomfort applies to the Westernised Generals who are increasingly facing the wrath of the angry, long-bearded, armed, and madrasa-educated tribals. Today, it seems the ability of Pakistan’s ruling elite to successfully play the patented double game has run its course. Not only have the radicalized masses (generously fanned by the elites in ‘Olive Green’ or Servants) refused to take orders, but far worse, they have turned on their begetters! Creations like the ‘Taliban’ which was a joint project between the wily politicians, amoral Generals, and unhinged clergy, simply refuse to take orders from their progenitor. The product i.e., Taliban, which was made for the export market, is getting unwantedly imported back to its original source.
The elite finally realise that it cannot differentiate between “Good Taliban” and “Bad Taliban”, for at the end of the day it is “Taliban”, an unhinged outcome of affording extra generous space to religion in governance. Terrorism has gripped Pakistan with elements ‘within’, going rogue. Elites now sense that not only must they take on the terror elements directly (as they have done multiple times, still terrorism worsened), but it must also snuff out the oxygen that breeds and nurtures the terror industry i.e., religious insistences and outreach, in every sphere of Pakistani reality. Pakistani dispensation has come up with Operation Azm-i-Istehkam which seeks to eradicate terrorists, and religious extremism, and deradicalize society, in a holistic and comprehensive manner. It is easier said than done, given the deep-rooted grip of religiosity.
This refreshing acceptance (though time will tell if it is sincere or posturing) of religious overload needs to be unloaded.
For starters, it will diminish the role of Islamist political parties like Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), or even the various militias and formations of sectarian denominations who have contributed to the morass. Such parties have not only imported strains of alien Wahhabism or Salafism but have been instrumental in ensuring that the Pakistani ‘establishment’ goes slow on anti-terror operations in restive areas.
Caught between offering perfunctory platitudes towards the integrity of Pakistan and the safety of its citizens – they are also simultaneously offering mealy-mouthed suggestions to not partake in militaristic operations. They are truly caught between the devil and the blue sea, for their wishy-washy stand will neither endear them to the frustrated Pakistani Government (which they are no longer a part of the ruling coalition), nor to organisations like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who would want them to be bolder and indulge in plain-speak in favour of religious and radical bodies.
Nonetheless, these religious parties are mulling putting together an ostensible ‘resistance movement’ against Operation Azm-i-Istehkam, and they are unlikely to find too many partners to go along with them.Forces that are key to bailing out Pakistan economically from sure ‘failed-state’ status e.g., China, international multilateral agencies (IMF, World Bank etc), Western Powers or even Arab Sheikhdoms are pitted against the agendas and outcomes of religious parties.
The so-called ‘iron brother’ Chinese have invested over $62 billion in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridors (CPEC) and they cannot allow the religio-extremist Baluch insurgents to attack Chinese interests as part of their ‘sacred’ duties. Middle Eastern countries too have had their own tryst with the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood and their offshoots from Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait to Saudi Arabia, and have clamped down on the same. Now with the Taliban Government in Kabul thawing relations with outsiders and no longer surviving on Pakistani doles, Afghans also cock a snook at historical equations and madrasa-fed ranks from Pakistan. All this diminishes the relevance of religious parties in Pakistan and if the Pakistanis grasp the opportunity, they may just be able to overcome their history and instincts.
(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are personal)
