The government’s pathetic implementation of ‘enlightened moderation’

Kudos to the government of Pakistan for making another hackneyed-cum- false interpretation on its own proposed formula of enlightened moderation. When trouble comes, banging its head on the walls is an old philosophy of the governments of Pakistan, elected or self-appointed. Nawaz Sharif towed the line Bill Clinton when came the winds from Kargil to his house, Benazir succumbed and allowed Rajiv Gandhi to learn about the wherabouts of the mujahideen in occupied and Azad Kashmir, Zia UL Haq towed the Reagan line on affairs of Afghanistan, then Musharraf seems to be no exception, he has not only towed the line of the US in the Bush imposed War on Terror by allowing American intelligence agents in, he even backed down many a times to religious parties who are adamant at nailing a terror friendly agenda at the top of the government. Take a look at the issue of Mukhtaran Mai.

When this lady was gang-raped at the orders of a local jirga, she struck the doors of justice, but for many months, her rapists roamed about freely. This is what tortured the Western opinion on this issue. This government initially supported Mai in her quest for justice, as the Prime Minister and the President announced big money as compensation for the victim, she reportedly received $133,000 as aid from internal and external sources and this money is being used to fund a school that Mai found in her own Meerwala locality as a venture to educate students. What a noble idea from an illiterate Pakistani moderate (there are millions of such types of moderates in this country) and a good cushion by the government as well but the question is that how and why did the government came to the conclusion that providing a handful of financial aid would solve the problem?

The rapists of Mai were free to move and Mai’s path was being obstructed. Her days have not been good since the Multan Branch of the Lahore High Court allowed the release of five of the alleged criminals and the verdict on the sixth was converted from a death sentence to life imprisonment. It must be recalled that the alleged criminals were initially arrested on the orders of the Prime Minister. The government had allegedly backed down from its initial claims of granting justice to Miss Mai. This had several irrelevant and truth opening reasons. The rapists had connections with powerful religious clerics and landlords with whom the government wanted to avoid a backlash at all costs. Mukhtaran Mai had now become a symbol of emancipation of women in the country and what evidently the government and their Mullah allies ended up believing is that if a mass movement by women was in the offing, then it would threaten their socio-political positions. All these accounts seemed to be absolutely baseless and completely off the cuff.

Then was this case of placing Mukhtaran’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL) on the orders of none other than king Musharraf. He made this public during his interaction with journalists in New Zealand and said that he had done so as he perceived that Mai, if went to the US, would badmouth Pakistan. Evidently what the President did not learn was that disallowing freedom of travel to Mai, the government had only exposed its own obduracy, inefficiency and had shown the world that what a mockery was being made about democracy in the ruling elite of Pakistan. It was an act that could be easily omitted.

The late awakening and ignorance of the government too have made a mole hole mockery of the state’s ill-defined formula of ‘enlightened moderation’ not only once, but many times over. While the state completely overran and ignored the ideas and holistic approach that was being proposed by the local media sources, but was quick to act when the Mukthtaran Mai issue found itself on the pages of the New York Times by one of its leading columnists, Nicholas Kristof. Other newspapers and media were quick to pick up the issue and thus, now the cat was out of the bag the government of Pakistan after being utterly lampooned was out in the open and completely on the defensive. By now the President had lectured the whole world well over a hundred times on enlightened moderation and one column in a leading US newspaper was enough to overwrite them all in one go! This is how prevention of travel of Mukhtaran made a complete mockery of Pakistan’s already perceived hard-line image, which the President seems to soften by his loop-holed unilateral measures.

The Pakistani government in simple words is lazy to when it comes to put all their preaching into practical implementation. The government has to realise that half-hearted measures would not yield the results about which they gloat so much! The government, through an ill conceived plan decided to remove the religious column from the country’s new machine readable passports. They gloated over it for about two weeks before entered the Mullahs with their own army. The state did not even take fourteen hours to back down and thus it was announced that the religious column would not only be reintroduced, but this time the passport bearer would also have to define his sect! What a mockery made by the government officers and the Mullahs! This was better ‘entertainment’ than could ever be offered by Hollywood and Bollywood combined!

The alliance with the religious party MMA had shown its true colours in the last days of 2003 and the commencing days of 2004, when the MMA got Musharraf out of a political and constitutional stalemate when it got the seventeenth Amendment passed in the Assembly—the MMA is the largest opposition party in the Parliament. While the moderate political parties are not allowed to hold rallies and demonstrations, these religious bigots enjoy complete freedom and can do whatever they want and as they want, no matter how treacherous their deeds may be. The government did crackdown on journalists and activists of the more liberal and moderate Pakistan People’s Party when they turned out in huge numbers in Lahore to receive their senior party member Asif Ali Zaradari. The baton charge and ruthless repression of the police at the behests of the government made news on CNN and BBC and even after receiving major lampooning, the government of Pakistan could not learn its lessons and the same tragedy was repeated not once, but twice. First, when the Mullah’s narrow-minded friends attacked a mixed marathon in Gujranwala with nothing less than teargas and firearms, forcing the government of Punjab to announce that mixed marathons were not to be a part of the society in Punjab anymore. The second time when the timid and ruthless tactics of repression were used, was when Human Rights Activist Aasma Jehangir had called for a mixed marathon a few days after the Gujranwala incident. On this occasion the police had baton charged female athletes and most of them including Asma Jehangir were not only beaten, but were verbally and physically abused.

Even this made headlines world over, but yet the government was not to learn a damn thing! Repression tactics were used again to disperse and baton charge absolutely harmless and peace promoting journalists who were proceeding to the Prime Minister’s house with their sets of problems and recommendations. Is that what ‘enlightened moderation’ is all about? Is that the way that the government wants to promote its agenda of enlightened moderation? The government must now change the way it looks at things. This has to change, as Pakistanis cannot afford to live in medieval times till eternity. While Musharraf must find new and more liberal minded allies for himself, there the Mullahs must be bade a violent adios.