Moon politics

In a way, Railways Minister Ghulam Mohammad Bilour of the ANP was right when he accused the chairman of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, of being a remnant of the Musharraf regime. This may not apply personally, perhaps, but is certainly a valid political comment. The fact is that the Musharrafian period managed to subvert all the various concepts of democracy, praetorian-ism, liberalism, secularism and Islamism. Many of the ideological contradictions of that period, suppressed by the democracy of reconciliation that followed it, simply rose to the surface in the guise of the Eid moon-sighting controversy. The confrontation between Bilour and Mufti then became a manifestation of the various religious/political fractures and identity politics that now dominate the social fabric of Pakistan.

Mufti Muneeb exemplifies much of the dilemmas and tensions with reference to Pakistan's internal religious discourse and its relationship to the state. The ANP represents the kind of contradictory positions that left-of-centre secularists are yielding to on the issue of religion. This is spurred by the prevailing spirit of political compromise on one level and growing social conservatism on the other. Both parties here understand the tremendous power of religion and its bearing on their political relevance.

One cannot categorically rule out that the ANP did not deliberately provoke the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee as motivated by a political decision to challenge the nexus of federal centre/religious authority. It may have not been the best opportunity or event to take issue with. However, the Mufti's counter-accusation that the ANP is guilty of "politicising religion" and questioning the role of a secular party on religious matters is absolutely amazing. This is especially strange in a context where religious parties, actors and privatised religion have completely usurped the right to intrude in the public realm of politics and even challenge the state in some cases. In other words, it's all right for the religious right to Islamise politics, finance and personal matters, but not for secularists to buffer the role of religion or religious authorities in matters of state, culture or public interaction, including those between the majority and minorities, men and women.

Both the broadcast and print reports on this controversy have highlighted the nature of the contradictions that have left us hanging after General Musharraf and his cohorts imposed an artificial potpourri of political systems and a refocused religious identity on us. In one media debate, Mufti Muneeb took the Musharrafian stance that revealed the very essence of the struggle of Islam in relation to modernity and its (dis)contents. He despaired over the ANP's lack of deference to the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee (just as many despair of the lack of a cohesive stand amongst the Muslim Ummah), yet at the same time he was incensed at the ANP's claim of following the Saudi decision to celebrate Eid a day earlier. The Mufti referred to respecting the Saudis but insisted that ours is a sovereign, democratic and independent state that must not defer to any authority outside of the nation-state. Hence the secularists are now using Saudi Arabia as an ideological reference point while the religious right is insisting on Pakistan's ideological independence from the seat of this same central authority that captures many Muslims' imagination.

The internal division within the religious right on many issues is clear. Unfortunately, the secularists too are guilty of not having worked out a deeper intellectual understanding of the model of secularism that they envision for Pakistan. Given our history, geography and diversity, this is not so improbable a task but requires more rigour from the supporters and representatives of secular politics.

The other interesting point of debate was over the ANP's accusation that the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee had no status in matters of the state. The Mufti responded by accusing the Pakistani state of having no writ on the ANP-ruled Peshawar on the issue of Eid day, let alone with regard to controlling the tribal areas. This is rich, given that neither the secularists nor the religious right raised any such objections when earlier this year, the government passed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. The NAR both relinquished the state's authority on matters of religion as well as signed away substantial legal writ in the NWFP. However, it is on the issue of Eid that the place of religion on state matters and the writ of the state become critical respective concerns for these two adversaries.

In a miscalculated application of the spirit of reconciliatory politics, the liberal ruling party continues to accommodate the religious right in all matters, including the repeal of discriminatory laws, such as the blasphemy law. The extrajudicial violence perpetrated under the cover of the blasphemy law challenges the writ of the state in a far more insidious manner than any arbitrary announcement of Eid. Yet, both issues apparently warrant equal remedies of setting up "committees" that will include the arguments of and "carry along," the religious right. How much do we bet which of these urgent issues will get resolved first, if at all?

Those who anguish over the inability of Pakistanis to celebrate Eid on a single day should weigh the relevance of symbolic matters such as how, when and where we worship. Instead, we need to reconsider the far more substantive matter of resolving the place, need and limits of the serious authority we wish to relinquish to the realm of religion, to men who dominate this arena and the influence it has over matters of the state. The Ruet-e-Hilal Committee vs. ANP controversy was neither trivial nor simple sensationalism. On the contrary, it embodied precisely the kind of competing and contradictory politics that need to be highlighted and debated. In this way, Pakistanis will understand better the role of institutions and become further politically aware of what we can do to influence them to the people's advantage, rather than the other way around.



The writer is a sociologist based in Karachi. She has a background in women's studies and has authored and edited several books on women's issues Email: afiyazia@yahoo.com