Side-effect
From the Blog PkColumnist.com: Side-effect - Like similar post-colonial, majority-Muslim and pseudo-democratic societies in the developing world, Pakistan also bore three fundamental divisions from day one of its coming into existence. One, the divide between the haves and the have-nots, two, the clash between orthodox interpretation of the religious doctrine and the modern, secular, rational principles to run the affairs of the state, and three, the possibility of women to be equal citizens by coming at par with men in every sphere of life and the restrictions imposed upon them by primordial norms in the name of both culture and religion. The State of Pakistan, dominated by the landed elite and comprador business interest, hand in glove with an opportunist bureaucracy and adventurist military mandarins, formulated, pursued and enacted such laws and policies for decades that consistently widened the already existing gaps and reinforced the divisions present in the country since the beginning. The Objectives Resolution was passed expediently in 1949 soon after the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah's untimely death happening in unexplained and dodgy circumstances. He had said categorically that Pakistan will never be a theocracy. The ruling landlords would use this resolution to prevent any land redistribution on the pretext that socialisation of assets mostly by different nationalist or socialist governments in different parts of the world is un-Islamic. Besides, they conspired to undermine the democratic aspirations of the masses by declaring that rather than the people of this country, sovereignty would belong to the Almighty. This posed a rudimentary question when it came to interpreting the constitution, of which the Objectives Resolution became a substantive part in later years, of who would represent the will of the Almighty in the worldly sense? The erstwhile landed elite of Pakistan and the country's unduly powerful civilian bureaucracy wanted to use both the mullahs and the military to safeguard their interests. The initiative was to be snatched away from them by the latter two in years to come. By the mullah, because the very existence of the Objectives Resolution provided the required legitimacy for the clergy to assert its role as the interpreter of divine guidance to resolve the issues faced by the country and society in the present day and age. And, by the military because the ascension of the military chief to a position in the civilian cabinet as early as in 1955 paved the way for continued interference of the military in political affairs and of course, absolute takeovers from time to time. External factors cannot be discounted but internal conditions were ripe for external forces to intervene. Enter General Zia-ul-Haq. Pakistan formally embraces a combination of hypocrisy and extremism as state religion as well as the prime social value system. Political workers, civil rights activists, journalists, writers, artists, film-makers, thespians, teachers and students, all those who wanted Pakistan to become an enlightened, developed and prosperous place, face enormous oppression. Women are legally and officially relegated to a subservient position and non-Muslim Pakistanis can no more claim an equal citizenship. They live in a perpetual state of fear. General Zia-ul-Haq is gone but not his legacy. A poor woman living in a goth outside Shikarpur, a poor Christian boy trying to buy himself a cup from the roadside tea-stall in Gojra or a political worker imprisoned in Khuzdar continue to endure as much. Asma Jahangir stood for all of them all her life. Her win in the Supreme Court Bar Association's election gives her compatriots hope and strength to continue their struggle for a progressive Pakistan. . Read Full Post
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