Allama Iqbal and Our Politicians
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
Dr. Javed Iqbal in the biography of his famous father, Allama Iqbal, narrates one interesting incident. The only role Allama Iqbal ever played in active politics was in 1926 when on the insistence of his followers he opted to contest the Punjab Legislative Council Membership elections. While all others withdrew their names to honor him, one diehard Malik Din Mohammad stayed in the contest. The election campaign started with all the traditional wherewithal of mud-slinging which in diction and dirtiness was not very different from that of today’s.
Allama Iqbal was unabashedly called a “kafir (due to his endorsement of Sultan ibn Saud)”, a “Kashmiri”; a “pro-Ahmadi”; “a Wahabi”; “an enemy of Tasawwaf (Sufism). In short, some 14 points highlighting the absence of character in Allama Iqbal, which included the accusation of his being a wine-addict, a murderer of a Tawaif, a man with three wives, etc appeared on the walls of Lahore. This was too much for Allama Iqbal. But he was made to believe that it was a part of politics.
According to Hafeez Jullundhri, one day after a tiring campaign in the downtown area of Lahore, Allama Iqbal and he were walking on foot towards their car when something unique happened. Being a candidate, Allama had to extend his salutation to each person he countenanced while walking. In one such courtesy offer, Allama extended his “Aslam-o-Alaikum” to a person, who as it turned out, happened to be belonging to the opposite group of Malik Din Mohammad. That unruly person reciprocated Allama’s salutation, just by dropping off his, “dhoti”, and Lo, there he stood in the middle of the street, and in front of Allama in his utter naturalness. This, indeed, was too much for a poet and thinker.
Taking his seat in the car, Allama addressed Hafeez Jullundhri in a somewhat dismayed and tired tone, “I have lost my sleep thinking about the causes of the decline of values, self-respect and good-conduct in this nation, and look how they are acting!”. Hafeez Jullundhri in his typical Jullundhri way, replied to Allama, “Doctor Sahib. Do not get upset or sad. The nation has showed you whatever it possesses”. The remark freshened up Allama Iqbal for the moment and he smiled, losing all bitterness. Our people also should not get upset, nor should they lose hope because “the politicians are showing whatever they possess”, like the man in the story.
Had Allama Iqbal been alive today, he would have come up with another kind of “Asrar-i-Khudi”, highlighting the cause of the Muslim decay, not in the absence of “Khudi” or self-respect, or self-importance or “Unukh”. He would have underpinned Muslims’ love for “death”, and their “haste’ to embrace it and their criminal resolve to never to learn from their past blunders as the cardinal causes of their decadence.
In the current political scenario, any other politician who claims to possess even an iota of love for the country called Pakistan; he would have unreservedly offered his services for the country, but not so with the PML (N) leadership. They, on the contrary, are endlessly busy in reminding the poor people of Pakistan, like those elementary teachers of the past, rehearsing in a mantra fashion some dates and places where “historic events”, happened. Dubai, London and Murree configure prominently and March 16 as a day of triumph. Yesterday, they talked about the restoration of the Punjab government and of the Chief Justice. Today, they are heard announcing a fresh list of the future lesson plan.
In all earnestness, it appears that Mian Nawaz Sharif and his associates are, like a car stuck in mud, obsessed with a sickening desire of first humiliating Musharraf before they can think of anything fresh about the country. The re-digging of the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti can be a good reason to get the ex-general hanged. He is already a dead, rotting meat. Why waste human energy on this issue is what is reflective of our collective psyche. Hide our incompetence and our failures in different kinds of alibis and if there is none, then invent some.
I am not a lover of the PPP government, but I am also not very happy with the PML(N) leadership. In the recent past, the PPP government, I must honestly admit, has acted somewhat more realistically and rationally than the PML (N). If the PPP jilted the PML(N) in the past; PML(N) has done it now. It is all becoming clearer now that the Mian Brothers are working on a bigger agenda. The long march success, it appears, has once again put them on the old track, which being, embroil yourself thoroughly in self-destructive politics. On Thursday, Mian Nawaz Sharif, finally brought out the cat that he had been holding in his bag. PML(N)’s decision not to join the federal cabinet is a bad and un-wise decision. It is reflective of the fact that Mian Nawaz Sharif holds a grudge again Asif Ali Zardari and Musharraf, for good or bad reasons. Should that grudge override the priorities that call for unity and service and deliverance is a question that the people of Pakistan would soon be asking from both the parties.
Mian Sahib blatantly contradicts himself after refusing the offer to join the PPP government in the Center when in his press statement of Thursday he says, “The decision of the PPP to stay a part of the provincial government or not will be honored”. It is like saying, “Take the plunge from the cliff, but you will not fall”. A good gesture that came from a bad government has been wasted unnecessarily due to personal whims. Without wasting any further time, Mian Sahib further starts presenting a fresh list of priorities which appear more like clichés as they are broad-based and are vague, while the country stays embroiled in the whirlpool of bloodshed and mayhem. The freed Supreme Court further adds fuel to the fire when it orders the release of Lal Masid cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz. This strangely coincides with the success celebrations taking place in Swat and other places. Mullahs are having a hay-day these days.
Nobody in Pakistan weeps for the innocent victims of daily violence perpetrated on them by these religious fanatics. The peace and Adil judicial system whose virtues are extolled by the secular ANP and other religious leaders and their proto-types, goes to dogs today when a suicidal bomber blows himself and others right in Swat. “A true Muslim not only carries arms but also snatches them from others”, is the statement that freshly comes from the representative of the Swat Taliban. The Indian colonel in his letter to the Pakistani Army Chief is right when he says, “You surrendered twice, once in 1971 to us, and second time to the Mullahs in 2009”. Wake up!.
A fresh circle of clashes between the PPP and the PML(N) will start taking place now. Bickering and finger-pointing is easier for them than facing the ground realities. The current problems in their complexity and hardness are just beyond their competence. Each party is afflicted with an unhealthy sadistic passion, which being, gloating in the misery and fall of the other. They have drawn lines beyond which they just can’t think. Somebody in Pakistan one day will have to inject fresh leadership that is equipped with knowledge, vision, ability, foresight and a rocky resolve and character to put this unfortunate country on to the right track. Give the present leadership one thousand years, and they will repeat the same thing, which being, repeat the same mistakes. It is well-said, “Consistency is the virtue of an ass”.
They are doing politics on their own dead bodies. Personally, my disappointment with Mian Sahib’s politics is greater now than ever. I feel he has been wholly ‘kidnapped’ either by those hawks that surround him all the time, like Ch. Nisar Ali. He and others were the one who had landed Mian Sahib in deep trouble in his last two stints as PM. Confrontation is what they consider as a passport to the seat of power. Or Mian Sahib has become too occupied by a sickening desire of wreaking vengeance first; to humiliate Musharraf the way he had humiliated him in 1999. What he forgets is that in between there has passed one full decade. By opening the chapter of the murder of Baluch leader, Nawab Akbar Bukti, he is attempting to take a bite that he won’t be able to chew himself. If tomorrow he gets into power, which basically is his ultimate aim, then how does he anticipate the PPP playing its role; certainly not of a docile and tame rival? Long marches do not always lead one to the seat of power. If it rained yesterday, it does not mean it will rain today as well.
The success of March 16, would have brought better wisdom, but it did not. Banking on the “lotas” in Punjab is not a wise step. Remember what Bacon once famously said, “Those who strike at the Lord Chancellor today, will once day strike at the Crown too”. And they did. The new list of priorities forwarded by the PML(N)’s “Radha” before it shows any inclination to dance includes such items as: “in letter and spirit compliance of the Charter of Democracy; restoration of the Constitution of 1973, (which he himself amended as quickly as did Bhutto senior); appointment of judges of character, not by the Executive but by the Parliament, (who precisely will define character in Pakistan?), holding Musharraf solely responsible for terrorism, lack of order and discipline; economic hardships of people in Pakistan; and the current chaotic situation in Balochistan; etc. If these conditions are followed, then they are willing to extend their full cooperation to the PPP government, and would facilitate it complete its five-year term. There is a muffled streak of threat even in the promise of a conditional cooperation. What if these conditions are not fulfilled as no body can because they are time-oriented, then what? I am reminded of my once scoring 40 runs in a local cricket match, and walking about with the certitude of a Test Player.
Some politicians have certainly acted in a cool-headed, rational and realistic manner. MQM’s Altaf Hussain has spoken boldly and rightly. At least, MQM has shown the courage by speaking the truth, by calling a spade a spade. No sane person in Pakistan should support the rule of mullahs. Allama Iqbal in one of his articles titled ‘Qaumi Zindagi’ in 1904 clearly wrote, “… Muslim Umma is now holding on to an unstable stick of ‘Tawakkal’. Besides other things, its religious differences have not been abridged so far. Every day a new religious faction is taking birth entitling itself as the sole custodian of Janna, and in this effort, it is seen assigning the rest of the human race to the hell-fire. Their differences are so wide and they themselves are so entrenched in their stances that there appears no hope of their ever leading the Muslims to any unity or solidarity in near future… such is the plight of mullahs that if two of them chance to gather in one city, then the first assignment they pick up, as if called upon, is the matter of the birth story of Jesus Christ, or the matter of ‘Naskh, or the expunging of some of the Qur’anic verses. And all this in a very short time results in a brawl…” Are they any different today?
Which way Pakistan and these politicians, and the religious leadership are heading? They are utterly clueless and rudderless. The logic behind not joining the government of PPP, as given by the PML(N) leadership, is as unconvincing as it is funny. “We do not want ourselves to be seen as accepting compensation for the cooperation we have extended to the government”. One fails to understand what cooperation the PML(N) leadership claims to have extended to the PPP. PPP’s loss has been PML(N)’s gain. They walked out when it was time to service the country; they benefited from the long march which initially was started by the lawyers. They tacitly are encouraging the mullahs, by not joining hands with the government in curbing their influence. A dual system of judiciary has been established in the country. Who will guarantee that it will not be extended to other parts of the country? Remember, nobody can stop those from their march who gain success through terror. The Tartars and Mongols stopped only when they lost unity and inner strength. MQM may be differed with in many ways, but its stance on Talibanization and the way the Shariat Bill has been passed in five minutes in the Parliament is highly commendable. There is complete black-out of good governance and propriety in Pakistani politics today. This verse of Faiz may give us a ray of hope:
Ek pal thaihro, ke us par kisi duniya se
Barq aye miri janib yadz-e-baiza le kar.
(Wait but a while, until, from some world beyond, lightning on me descends…)
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