From the Desk of Mr. Shaukat Jamil:
Tahir-ul-Qadri the self-exiled hot gospeller is returning next Sunday. His Mihajul Quran movement is as organised as any mafia in the country so he can expect a tumultuous reception. In fact every single mafioso of his movement is expected to be waiting to join in the welcome . Since I have the misfortune of being his neighbour so I know almost the whole gamut of his cunning. It was for people like him that Ghalib said:-
Apna nahin woh shaiwah keh aaram sey baithein
Oos dur peh nahin bar to Kaabey he ko ho aaye
(Its not in our trait that we sit back, once we got no response from that door we went round up to Kaaba.)
Tahir-ul- Qadri s real demiurge is power and pelf. He knew that this was the most difficult god to propitiate so he taking a leaf from Mirza Ghulam Ahmad s book started out as a preacher of Islam. This is the easiest way to become famous provided one is capable of shredding ones neckline while sermonizing. Since he owned this ability so he burst on the scene like a shooting star. Since then he has crossed a number of milestones the latest is Sheikh - ul- Islam. He flew a kite by his party contesting elections on a few seats. He lost election on every seat and so he moved away from politics. When BB (Shaheed) s govt.was dismissed once again and PP was crushed in rigged elections she decided to forge an alliance. Tahir-ul-Qadri demanded the position of president of alliance which was granted.
In the ensuing public meetings under the alliance, Qadri chanced to address well- attended meetings He thought that the people thronged to listen to him and not BB (Shaheed) which turned his head. He demanded of BB (Shaheed) to nominate him as the next president of Pakistan or face ouster from alliance.Eventually the alliance was broken up. Thereafter, having been puffed up by huge response under the alliance which he thought were his supporters, he convoked a public meeting outside Mochi Gate which flunked out After the failure of this meeting another public meeting was called at Islamabad which too, went the way of Mochi gate meeting. Having found the grapes sour he declared politics an anathema.
With the emergence of Musharaf, Qadri saw a break and became an ardent supporter of him.But when Musharaf disappointed him he foreswore politics. Now he is coming with a different intent. He wants to be a primum mobile of Khomeini type revolution.Revolution means sanguinary politics while democracy denotes bloodless politics. Democracy is a stock-in- trade of politics of the people who are barely civilized. And who are barely civilized? Those who respect fundamental rights. In Islam there are no fundamental rights. But fundamental rights can inhere in Islam because they do not militate against the canons of Islam. In Islam there is a provision of IJTEHAD i.e to bring in new ideas by dialectical consensus. Islam does not empower anyone howsoever learned he may be to do IJTEHAD by one s lonesome. I had an opportunity to listen to a sermon by one of Qadri s lieutenant recently. The sermonizer after a long eulogy of Qadri informed us of the innovations made by him in Islam.He said the Islamic monotheism is not acceptable in Islam unless it comes through the understanding and the agency of Prophet and the belief in the finality of Prophethood is not acceptable unless it comes via understanding and the agency of Ali. My servant tells me it is KUFR (infidelity ) and Qadri is a renegade and Zaaliman s intent against him is according to book. As of me I regard this novelty a gimmick to attract Shiites in his mafia and totally devoid of authenticity vis a vis Islamic jurisprudence, as he alone is not competent to do IJTEHAD.
Let us see what future holds for Qadri in the wake of neoteric slogan of Riasat not Siasat. Firstly, this slogan is too complex to be understood vis a vis Roti, Kapra and Makan and much less attractive for a punter. Secondly, hoi polloi are resentful of all Maulvis sequel to Zaaliman s activities. Unlike Khomeini who had a free run of the country Qadri will have to fight it out with other mafias in beard (MIB ) which is not that easy. His credentials and record vis a vis other MIB s is ordinary. In politics the timing is the most important factor.Now the nation is more or less decided on election and to talk revolution is out of season at this point of time. Qadri is not a respected man among the clerics and his IJTEHAD will draw down flak from all religious quarters. I do not think his IJTEHAD will attract much admiration from even Shiites.On top of it Pakistan is a country which was under British rule who not only set up a modern governance of the people but set up a modern system of education that imparts logical and scientific thinking to the people. Pakistan has seen a number of elections albeit rigged. So despite all failings it is the most go-ahead nation among the Muslim world. It is poles apart from Iran. So any analogy from Iran would be out of place in Pakistan. See what is happening in Egypt. Those very people who voted an Islamic party into power have turned against her when the president tried to don caliph s powers.People want democracy and in democracy a maulvi howsoever exalted he may be is a toothless tiger because it is the govt of the people not the govt of the maulvis.The critical thing in democracy is fundamental rights. True there are no fundamental rights in Iran but Iran and Saudi Arabia are the two most backward Muslim States. But pressure is increasing on them for the promulgation of fundamental rights and how long they endure it will be seen. So Qadri is trying to swim against the tide and is bound to drown.
The cunning Qadri and his henchmen may build castles in Spain but here only a failure is in wait for them.
