The Faithful Scribe

A remarkable education. Fluid and engrossing.

The author has been candid about the weakness and strengths of Pakistan, which he calls a 'laboratory for merging Islam with democracy'. As a person interested in the wellbeing of Pakistan, I found it to be an interesting read, unputdownable.

While he has tried to be upbeat at times, and noncommittal at others, he does seem to downplay the realpolitik that resulted in Partition: while Islam was often used as an excuse and to rouse the masses, it was the landowners that basically financed the activities of Muslim League because they didn't want to stay within India which had already decided on a centrally controlled socialism after independence from Britain.

Mr. Jinnah was the most un-Islamic of people: he chose to be a clean-shaven, tailored-suit donning gent with all manners English, and enjoyed a daily glass of Scotch. He was once a proponent of Hindu-Muslim unity, against Partition and abhorred the Islamic clergy with a zeal. Even the Muslim League, and madrasahs like Deoband, were for a united India after the British left.

How did he get hoodwinked by the Muslim League and the landowners should have been investigated by the author, since that would give an important answer to the actual reasons of creation of Pakistan, instead of repeating the official line that it was separated to serve as a nation for Muslims - although more than half of them chose to stay in India in 1947 anyways.

Mr. Mufti also gives only a couple of paragraphs each of factors that are mainly responsible for the chaos in Pakistan. I'd like to expand.

First, the entire political class is feudal, unless it is disposed by the Army in a coup - and the Army has ruled for more than half the time since the nation's inception. The path to become a part of the political process is almost nonexistent. For a son of a camel-herder, the only way to eventually become the President of Pakistan was to marry the daughter of one of the largest landowners in the country, where both the father and daughter were Prime Ministers, twice each, before being kicked out by the Army.

Second, the Army. It is interesting that it controls foreign policy in a democracy. Any foreign dignitary always meets with the Army chief when visiting the country, and sometimes only him. The Army also has a lock on the economy - owing factories and land, to the tune of almost one-third of the GDP. Further, it's the only democracy where the Army controls the combined foreign and domestic intelligence agency, the ISI - whose head is always an Army man!

Third, it's the Punjab. Of the four states in the confederation, this is the largest and most influential. Most of the Army recruits are Punjabi, as others are deemed untrustworthy. It also controls the economy and all Generals who've staged a coup d'etat have been from Punjab. Islamabad is in Punjab (how could it be anywhere else!), as is Rawalpindi (the Army HQ, about a 30 minute drive to the capital) - making it easier to stage a coup.

Fourth, the forcible assimilation of provinces. States like Baluchistan that have been constantly fighting for independence since1947, are disregarded while their natural resources are sapped for the benefit of Punjab. States like the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) - Swat Valley among them, were also resistant but were given sops in the form of semi-autonomy; it's called as FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas)now. No wonder there's trouble in t hese areas; the Afghan Taliban is centered in Quetta (capital of Baluchistan), while the Pakistani Taliban controls the FATA.

Finally, it's Islam. Like Saudi Arabia, the politicians have used the religion for only furthering their hold on power. Sadly, rich oil states like Saudi Arabia have poured money into Pakistan, and with that have imported their Islamic code of Wahhabism - which demands one to be a strict Sunni. Consequently, all other strains of Islam are under attack: the Ahmadiyyas have been declared non-Muslims, the Shias are maimed and killed, and the shrines of Sufis - who preach moderate Islam, are destroyed. And the Wahhabis say that Islam is a religion of Peace!

Truthfully, Pakistan has an identity crisis since its birth. It wanted to be a moderate Islamic state where all (in the words of Mr. Jinnah - Pakistan's founding father) faiths are accepted and tolerated, and there is a separation of 'mosque and state'. It was a tall order to begin with, for a nation whose only reason for separation from India was to create a homeland separate from the Hindus of India - never mind that there are more Muslims in India than Pakistan.

Not only has this experiment failed, as predicted by a great Islamic scholar and a past President of India - Maulana Azad, it is in tatters and is trying to find its raison d'être. It has been proven, as Azad predicted, that regional/cultural/ethnic boundaries supercede religion. The half of Pakistan that seceded - Bangladesh, is quite likely to join West Bengal (an Indian state, with Hindu predominance) if the union could become a separate nation. It didn't stay with West Pakistan, even though, according to official propaganda, it was to be an abode created for Muslims, to stay away from Hindus.

Although he has been candid, it says a lot about the worldview/thinking of a Pakistani Muslim to admit he wondered if the blood being transfused was of a Hindu or a Muslim. Mr. Mufti says that this thought occurred to him because it was a matter of nation. Obviously, he has bought into the official line that Pakistan was created to be a citadel of Islam.