Let’s Get the Basics Right!!

Pakistan, later labeled as Islamic Republic of Pakistan, boasts its considerate

attitude towards minorities. But to support this claim, Pakistan does not have
much except for the white margin on its national flag. To be able to deal with a
problem, one has to be aware of its basics. Pakistan does not seem to understand
the very definition of the word ‘minority’, not to speak of minority issues.

A minority is a group of people who, for various reasons, feel left out of the
mainstream society. This community then declares itself a minority and asks for
its rights. Not that you go around telling communities that they are a minority
and they have to accept it.

The second amendment to the 1973 constitution of Pakistan clearly shows how
confused Pakistan is about its minorities. This amendment earned a great deal of
embarrassment for Pakistan in the international community. A religious
community, the Ahmadis, were forced to accept non-Muslim minority status.
The strange thing is that the community kept (and still keeps) insisting they are
Muslims. The head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community appeared before the
National Assembly and presented the case of his community. The case was
nothing more than an effort to prove that Ahmadis are Muslims. The assembly
still went on to declare that Ahmadis were non-Muslims and were so declared in
the Constitution of Paksitan.

This was the first ever incidence that a parliament, comprising mainly of
members from a mix of feudal, agnostic, pseudo-religious and extremist
backgrounds, decided the faith (and fate) of a community.

Ahmadiyya Community came into being in 1889. Ever since it was founded, it
has faced opposition, but that was always of ideological nature. Debates were
held, fatwas were given by clerics and differences were brought to light. But this
was not specific to Ahmadis. This was a common practice among the spectrum of
Islamic sects coexisting in the Indian Subcontinent. Hatred was never so pivotal
a part of it.

It was not until this second amendment that ways were paved for extreme
hatred against Ahmadis. The then rulers of Pakistan were as short sighted as
their successor Zia ul Haq. Zia ul Haq, while nourishing militancy in Pakistan did
not envisage that tbe same militia would one day point its guns at Pakistan.
Similarly, Bhutto, despite being a modernized, educated politician could not
envisage that the sectarianism he was sowing would reap in to a hell, not only for
Ahmadis, but for the whole of the nation.

Today, while Pakistan struggles for survival on foreign life support, are our
leaders thinking of putting some basics right? Well, the only way to put the
basics right is by redefining them. Jihad, minority, freedom, civic rights and
above all, Islam. All these terms need a serious reconsideration. We’ve got them
all wrong, and all has gone wrong. Putting them right can help put everything
right. At least we can unite!
Asif M Basit
Southfields, London