Side-effect

They are clear. They want a system of governance which is according to their belief. They are clear about establishing a particular form of government which is run like an emirate or a caliphate. Parliament, the judiciary and the constitution in their present form must be eliminated. They are clear about how justice should be dispensed and what penalties should be imposed. They are clear about what role should be assigned to girls and women in a society. Female humans should be kept indoors, may be allowed to become literate so that they could read the holy book and say their prayers, but otherwise their role is to cook, clean, raise children, serve their fathers, brothers, husbands and in-laws. They should cover themselves fully, body, face and limbs, if they have to go out somewhere in emergency with a male blood relative, a mehram. They are clear about how to treat religious minorities. Those who do not believe in Islam but live on the land dominated by Muslims must pay a tax to be determined by the emir or the caliph, jazia, so that they are not killed and their property is not looted.

They are clear about Shias. Either they should be killed, purged, converted to true Islam or declared non-Muslim. They are clear about pulling down all tombs, shrines and mausoleums of saints and Sufi poets for it is forbidden to revere a human being after his or her death. It is paganism, shirk and bidat. They are clear about how Muslim men should look like. A man must sport a long, waving beard that reaches his chest, wear a black turban, a loose shirt and baggy trousers which must not reach his ankles. They are clear that all such organisations which work for health, education or provision of other services to the poor and downtrodden are in effect missions who want to convert people to Judaism and Christianity. Therefore, they must be closed down.

They are clear that polio drops must not be dispensed to children. Only those things western or made in profane lands can be smuggled or bought at a price whose function can be seen and understood by those running the emirate. For instance, the gun fires and the car moves, but immunisation of any sort remains an abstract thing and not understood right away. There may be a hidden plot in that. It could be something haram or a slow poison. They are clear that promoting iodised salt is a part of the greater conspiracy hatched against the virility and fertility of Muslims. They are clear that it is their divine duty to impose sharia and it must flow out of the barrel. They are clear that anyone who stops them must be punished. They are clear in whatever they say, they do and they stand for. Give them credit for that. Their consistent effort to win over the land of the pure, Pakistan, comes from their clarity of belief and purpose.

Now those at the helm of affairs in this godforsaken land who at some level do not subscribe to what the zealots stand for continue to confuse the people of Pakistan. They give mixed statements, cut heroes out of lawbreakers whenever it suits them and propagate that all is being done by external forces. It is not just about the land, it is also about the people who are brutally tortured and divided. If the leading politicians representing mainstream political parties and media gurus who have fully encroached upon the primetime on television and front pages in the print media continue to confuse people, and the military continues to harbour its illusion of power over different fighting groups which it sponsored in the past for a different geo-strategic game, all will be lost. Frankenstein once created attacks its own creator. When the house in on fire, the fire has to be put out first and then you determine whether the cause was a short circuit or a fireball thrown from outside.



The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org