Zaheer-ud-din Babar
Abraham Lincoln says..
”you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.
In light of the above quote, this claim is apparently difficult to accept that the dozen or so religious parties’ sole agenda is only to create an ideal Pakistani society where all Pakistanis are considered equal citizens. Critics say that when the MMA came to power in KP and Baluchistan, no major difference was observed. For example, Maulana Fazl -ur -Rehman is a prominent religious party leader, however, many do not admire the JUF-F leader’s political maneuvering .We all know that Jamiat Ullema Islam (F)’s leader never wants to be isolated from the corridors of power. After MMA’s defeat in 25th of July’s election, Maulana vacated the minister’s enclave after a long period of 13 years. Observers says that in the recent General Elections, Muttahida Majlis -e-Amal (MMA)’s defeat was alarming for all the religious parties but this also shows that Maulna’s political strategy totally backfired. Some critics say that in our political system, majority of main stream religious leaders believe in a peaceful political struggle. Moulna Fazal ur rehmen is no different as he also openly believes in the democratic norms .To understand Pakistan’s politics, we must realize that religion was a key factor in the creation of Pakistan. Pakistan came into the being on basis of The two nation theory(proposed by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan). Founder of Pakistan(Quaid-e-Azam) again and again stressed that Muslims and Hindus were two different nations and said that their differences were apparent as soon as the Hindus and Muslims came into contact with each other. Moreover, the two nation theory was founding principle of Quaid-e-Azam’s struggle.
Now the important question that arises is that after 7 decades, why haven’t the religious parties succeeded in convincing the people that they are more reliable than other main stream parties . In July 2018 elections, once again Muttahida Majlia-e-Amal (MMA) failed to display any impressive feat. In 2002,however, MMA emerged as the most prominent religious party of Pakistan and, in the General Elections of 2002, their performance exceeded expectations . MMA formed Govt in KP and Baluchistan .In national assembly, they secured the seat of the opposition’s leader which was given to Maulana. In 2008 election, religious parties alliance was no more united and jamat-i- islami boycotted the election, however JUI -f participated in the polls. This is interesting as it shows that ,though all religious parties support the enforcement of Sharia, due to different thoughts on method of it’s implementation, they failed to present a joint working practical plan.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in his historical speech to the constituent assembly on 11 August 1947,said that
”that we are starting with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state. Now we should keep that in front of us as our ideal, and you will find in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual but in the sense as a citizens of state. You may belong to any cast or creed; that has nothing to do with the business of state.”
In rapidly change of Pakistani scenario, religious parties must rethink about their political strategy if they are to succeed.
