14 July 2016 By Saeed Qureshi
Unlike Saudi Arabia and Iran, Pakistan is not a religious but a
nation state. It should be liberated from socio-religious taboos that hinder
its progress and development like other developed nations around the world. It
was Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who switched Pakistan then relatively a secular
state towards a theocratic state. It was the unbelievable mind boggling
somersault that came from a highly modernized, secular leader and proponent of
democracy, human rights, equality and liberty. The
submission of ZAB under pressure from the religious right and theocratic
forces to Islamize Pakistan was the most grievous debacle that plunged
Pakistani into a morass of religious fanaticism that has ever been swelling
and, of late, has assumed monstrous proportions. Thereafter, the society, the
state and the national institutions in Pakistan have remained subservient to
the burgeoning religious militancy. The predominant role of Muslim crusaders
in anti-Russian war in Afghanistan gave a kind of cart-blanche and brazen
leeway to further push Pakistan into the lap of theocracy and unhindered
mushrooming of religious dogmatism. Mr. Bhutto spoke
in favor of downtrodden sections of society and by taking shelter under
Islamic socialism nationalized banks and industries. But these steps were
taken at a time when socialism was on the decline for being a failed economic
system. For the time being there was a bubble of economic boom and the people
believed here was a liberator and redeemer who will take the country to new
dazzling heights of glory and dignity. But alas by two
disastrous decisions, he watered down his achievements of liberalizing
society, endearing Pakistan to the whole world particularly the Islamic bloc.
One was to block Awami League from forming the government and also to spur
Pakistan army and the morally bankrupt president for triggering civil war in
East Pakistan culminating into dismemberment of Pakistan.
The second devastating decision was the amendment in the
constitution that became a stepping stone for the clergy and religio-political
parties with Jamaat-i-Islami in the lead to hold and spread their obscurantist
agenda in Pakistan. He declared Ahmadis as non- non-Muslims. He banned liquor
first in 1974 in the army mess halls. After the PNA movements for
Nizam-i-Mustafa and against rigging of election in 1977, he again budged and
as a political ploy, declared prohibition on the sale of alcohol and closure
of liquor bars in Pakistan in April the same year. Ironically while the
opposition forced ZAB to go back on his previous agenda of opening up society,
they supported the advent of military rule under General Ziaul Haq in whose
tenure Bhutto was hanged. Ever-since those blighted,
indiscreet and self-serving decisions just to placate the religious parties
and to stay in power became lasting millstones around the neck of Pakistan as
well as the society. Pakistan has been paying a heavy price for Mr. Bhutto's
egregious blunders made for the sake of personal aggrandizement. Had it been
done for the sake of Islam one could take it as justified and sublime. But
sacrificing his lofty agenda of building a new Pakistan on the altar of
expediency and as a bargaining chip for hanging on to power was outright rank
and loathsome opportunism. His successor Gen. Ziaul
Haq was hundreds times more focused on Islamizing Pakistan and one shudders to
see in the hindsight how he forced his religious idealism by using naked and
brute force and state power in crushing the opponents and those who spoke for
fundamental rights and democracy. The Afghan anti-communism war gave an
enormous fillip to his myopic agenda and what was missing in the Islamic
impulse of Bhutto was irretrievably furthered and hammered by Ziaul Haq. The
passion of Bhutto for Islamizing Pakistan was a spurious ploy while that of
Zia was in right earnest, although both pushed Pakistan into a dreadful
religious paradigm whose latest manifestation are Taliban and Al-Qaida.
It is indispensable that some visionary, courageous and
progressive leader can reverse that retrogressive trend set in motion by Mr.
Bhutto and later by Gen Ziaul Haq. Towards that goal, the following reforms
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