Historical failings
AWAY from the media’s obsessive limelight on domestic politics, a three-day international symposium, organised to shine a spotlight on Pakistan’s Buddhist heritage, is attempting to breathe a new life into a sector that has traditionally been poorly understood. Home to many sites considered sacred by adherents of the Buddhist religion, as well as a rich trove of Gandhara artefacts, Pakistan seems to recognise the potential of religious and archaeological tourism but has never really understood how it must go about promoting it. Take the symposium in question, for example. Though several monks, scholars and historians had been invited from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam to witness the opening ceremony, the organisers were not able to include a recitation from Buddhist religious texts. Had this simple act been allowed it would have been a fitting show of respect for an ancient belief system and the civilisations it inspired. One wonders what message the esteemed guests instead took away from the experience.
It was telling that religious heads from various countries made mention of Pakistan’s ‘image issue’. One way to improve it would be to own, develop and preserve Gandhara as Pakistani heritage, they suggested. That tells us everything we need to know about how our relationship with our own past is perceived internationally. Though considerable work has been done in recent years to improve and preserve ancient sites of religious or archaeological significance to make them attractive to foreign tourists, we still seem to treat our history and heritage as a commodity that is to be ‘sold’ mainly to outsiders. Instead, it ought to be something that we cherish as a part of our national identity. Till foreign visitors start seeing that we take as much joy in preserving and celebrating our shared heritage as they do in interacting with it, we cannot expect them to return home with good stories that encourage others to visit.
Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2023
Countering hate
THE adoption of a resolution on Wednesday at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva condemning religious hatred is a victory for all those who believe in tolerance and mutual respect. Pakistan was instrumental in introducing and mustering support for the motion, which was backed by 28 states out of 47 members of the council. The resolution calls upon the UN to publish a report on religiously motivated hatred, and for states to review laws so that lacunae that “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred” can be addressed. What is welcome is that many non-Muslim states supported the move, including China, Ukraine, various Latin American and African states and, surprisingly, India. Unfortunately, the Western bloc — Europe and the US — tried their best to block the resolution, trotting out the familiar excuse of free speech to justify their opposition. But as one observer in Geneva commented, the West is “losing the argument”. More likely, the West lost the plot a long time ago, as perhaps Western leaders do not realise, or choose not to realise, how deeply disrespectful provocative acts like attacking the Quran or Islam’s sacred personalities are to the world’s Muslims. While many non-Muslim states in the Global South appreciate the effort to outlaw religious hatred, the Western bloc stubbornly clings to academic, debatable notions of free speech to protect those who demonise Islam, and in fact lay the groundwork for violence against Muslims. To put things in perspective, just as questioning the Holocaust is a crime in many European societies, similarly, Islam’s sacred symbols are a red line in Muslim societies.
Sadly, many European societies do not appear to have moved on from their centuries-old prejudices when it comes to demonising Islam and Judaism. The Holocaust was the most egregious recent example of racial and religious hatred perpetrated by a European state. But go back in the mists of time and the horrors following the Spanish Reconquista — in which Muslims and Jews were forcibly converted and later expelled from the Iberian Peninsula — tell a tale of extreme intolerance. Do these vile prejudices live on in today’s West, camouflaged by the need to protect free speech? This is a question the West must answer, and prove its commitment to respecting other cultures by disallowing attacks on the symbols held sacred by billions.
Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2023
Election time
HAS the PDM government formally decided to quit office in the first half of August? It would appear so from the remarks Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made on Wednesday during a function in the capital where he sought to rectify his earlier slip-up of mentioning Aug 14 as the last day of the current National Assembly.
A day earlier, the premier had held a meeting with the chief of the PDM coalition, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in which the latter reportedly stressed that elections in the country needed to be held on time.
The prime minister’s whirlwind meeting with Mr Rehman had followed a high-level huddle between the senior leadership of the PPP and PML-N in Dubai, to which the JUI-F chief, much to his chagrin, had not been invited.
The Dubai huddle, aimed at deciding candidates for the caretaker set-up and a possible seat adjustment formula for the upcoming elections, failed to achieve “anything final”, according to PPP leaders.
Nonetheless, the PML-N has now indicated when their coalition arrangement is due to expire. This clears up some of the uncertainty about the path forward: the PDM government, at least, will not overstay its welcome.
It is intriguing, however, that the prime minister desisted from providing even a rough timeline for when the next general elections could be held, leaving the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Technically, the ECP is the relevant authority empowered to announce the election schedule, but its conduct with respect to the elections to the Khyber Pakhhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies — repeatedly delayed in violation of the Constitution — gives rise to justified fears that the path to the next polls may not be straightforward at all.
It is now up to the ECP to clear the air completely. There have been rumours that whatever caretaker set-up is brought in to take the reins from the PDM government may stay on for longer than two or three months, much like the KP and Punjab interim governments, which have continued in office long after their respective tenures expired.
If something like this transpires, it would be antithetical to the entire raison d’être of the ECP. The law minister recently argued during a television show that no power on earth could compel the ECP to set a date for any election, even if the ECP is clearly in violation of the law of the land.
Does his twisted logic betray the true intentions of the state? One hopes that the country will not be taken along on another misadventure. The country desperately needs an empowered government formed after a free and fair election to take it forward. Any move to thwart this will only be seen as another blatant subversion of its constitutional order.
Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2023