Adil Najam
The news is developing by the moment. But the bottom-line is clear. The security forces have taken control of the Lal Masjid from militants after a severe gun-battle. But the story is far from over.
It will continue to unfold. There are too many unanswered questions. They will certainly be asked and discussed threadbare; here at ATP and elsewhere. But the real story of tomorrow remains the same as the real story of yesterday. Can a society that is so deeply divided against itself learn the lessons of tolerance? This question will continue to haunt us well into the future, in multiple shapes, in multiple forms, in multiple contexts.
This is a question that we at ATP have confronted from our very beginning and will continue to confront. But now is not the time to ponder on this. Even though what has happened had become inevitable over the last many days, I am too heartbroken to be able to do so.
Right now I can think only of Muzammil Shah (photo, from Associated Press, above). This photo was taken as he waited for his son who was inside the Lal Masjid. I do not know whether his son was there voluntarily, or as hostage. But I do know what the look of Muzammil Shah’s face means. The more important question is whether his son came out alive or not. I pray that he did.
Analysts – me included – will discuss what happened at length. They will try to understand the meaning of all this. What does this mean for Pakistan politics? What does this mean for Gen. Musharraf’s future? What does this mean for Islam? For Democracy? Does the fault lie with Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his militant supporters for creating a situation that could only end this way? Why did he not surrender? Is the blood of everyone who died not on his head for his stubboness and arrogance? Or, maybe, it is the government that is to blame because it did not act earlier? Act differently? Waited just a few days more for a negotiated solution?
Right now all these questions seem really petty and small. This is not the time for scoring cheap political points. This is not the time for spin.
Moreover, there are too many questions to ask. To answer. The head hurts as you think of them. But the heart hurts even more as you look at the face of Muzammil Shah.
Maybe the only really important question is the one that you can read between his wrinkles: “Why? Oh God, why? Why must things happen this way?”
Operation Silence had several objective many of them of already being discussed and known to the public, but there are few other which are not obvious. I would discuss those in these comments.
Fear of Army: During the CJP saga it was becoming clear that urban people are getting more and more vocal against the army. The fear of army which used to be hallmark during Zia era and in 90’s was now fading. It was important for army to make sure that people realize the might of army. For this purpose the things like curfew , heavy bombing and if you are following the press briefing from DG ISPR you will realize how that fear is deliberately being instilled in the public. Not only public but upper class people were getting less afraid of army might, if anybody has seen the interview from Mufti Taqi , he was reluctant to tell what was changed in the agreement he also mentioned how the commander (perhaps Lt. Gen Tariq Majeed) said rudely to all the people to get the agreement done in half an hour. The whole story will be never known about this, but it seems that army objective was fulfilled. Here are few of my predictions that will show if this objective was fully achieved.
1. Supreme Court will announce a favorable decision for PM (Pervez Musharraf).
2. Lawyers (specially likes of Kurd) will now be silenced.
Objective 2: coming later.
Edhi’s words on the stubbornness of the Mullah are ringing in my ears…
We need another Sir Syed Khan amongst us who can teach us once again that survival of the Muslims in a modern society is not to be attained by regressing into a centuries’ old way of living. We need science, technology, education and a clear focus on justice and human welfare.
symk… so shameless…army didn’t cared about innocent people inside, do you know abc of todays weapons?How many minutes army needed to destroy the whole building with every one inside? few right…and how long the operation took?
if you dont undersand why it took a whole night to clear the building then a better option is to say nothing ….
“I knew from the first day that ‘Maulvi’ does not listen,
Hello Adil,
I went back to your first question “Can a society that is so deeply divided against itself learn the lessons of tolerance”, in fact I have asked that myself several several times, can there be a state of equilibrium between state and religion. Any western historian would say “NO”, because long ago, to achieve an equilibrium of peace and harmony in a society, state and religion have been seperated, both cannot work together. Okay that is a western history perhaps, but what lessons westerners learned, what was the underlying principle upon which that equilibrium was attained. And a painful question, what price they paid. For our society that is at a turning point to pay any price in achieving peace or perhaps some safety, but not willing to learn how to achieve it, has a bigger problem. Once Dr. Karrar Hussain brought up this point in one of his speeches after independence of Pakistan, “now we face a bigger problem, what is our identity, Pakistan will face an identity crises”.
If you haven’t already seen this, please see these two clips about this ‘deep divide’. First clip is a religious student making his points about what is not available to the poor of Pakistan. And the second one is Musharraf, talking about democracy and progress in Pakistan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZceaQ_qwD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=445clL0nKBg&mode=re lated&search=
Shabbir