by AneelaShahzad
Roti, kapra aur makaan
Ilm, sehat, sab ko kaam
Dehshat sai mehfooz awam
Ooncha ho jamhur ka naam
Though the manifestos of all the different parties, presented in the last few weeks, are filled with highfalutin lies about what they have achieved in the last five years, and with high colored facades of promises for their next aspired term in the government, nevertheless, these manifestos have to be taken as a source for understanding the least about how these parties essentially think. Though we would not be expecting their promises to be coming true, in the next, or any next term they get elected, but we can at least endeavor to extract what their definitions of progress are, and the ideology they stand upon. This is necessary for the nation to know, as it may enable us to decide a vote, upon the basis of ‘which vices we are ready to bear upon our present and future and/but which vices are not acceptable to us at all’.
For this reason, it would suffice that in this essay, we focus mainly upon the indicators that announce ideology rather than promises. And it would be equally valuable to compare these manifestos with the previous ones of the same party, to also be able to understand the evolution in their thinking, if any.
Starting from the ‘Charter of Democracy’, signed between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, before contesting the previous election and before entering the country, in 2007, in London; a document uniting the two parties not only upon the ousting of P. Musharraf, but also upon an essentially Liberal diction, that safeguards Western Secularism and Liberalism above those of Islam. The document shies away from using any terminologies like Allah, Quran, the Prophet or an Islamic State; rather it is found to be composed of terms like ‘socially progressive’, ‘politically democratic’ and ‘pluralist’, ‘ideologically tolerant’, and always specially emphasizing the uplift of ‘women and the minorities’.
The stamp upon the atheistic nature of the ideology of the two parties, or at least the ideology they both signed upon, to win the grace of the foreign mentors, they were sitting in the laps of, was stamped in the following words:
‘…to decide once for all that only the people and no one else has the sovereign right to govern through their elected representatives, as conceived by the democrat par excellence, Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah…’
This, by the way, removes sovereignty from the Word of Allah and delivers it to the vote of the people, which can easily be rigged later on. And above all this, they also agreed to establish a special Constitutional Court, which would be at ease to change the constitution as per this new order of thinkin ; only, thanks to Allah, they were too sluggish to have done so.
Coming from the CoD to the 2007 Manifesto of PPP, the party again demeans Islam by restricting it only to the idea of ‘teaching brotherhood, love and peace’, which means that we should be tolerant to other religions and sects… jumping thereof directly to the Sufis, who in their eyes, are a symbol of ‘preaching without force’. The only commitment to religion PPP is ready to make is of ‘religious tolerance’. The PPP does not hesitate in its manifesto to say that ‘…religious beliefs of individual citizens have little to do with the business of the state…’
According to this manifesto, ‘Democracy is our Politics’, and ‘Social Democracy is our Economics’ and for Democracy alone have they suffered imprisonments and martyrdom; thus comfortably replacing Islam with Democracy as their system of belief.
The 2013 Manifesto is yet another extension of the same ideology. It again looks like a copy/paste of some Liberal manifesto; this time barely even mentioning the name of Islam in its preamble. The preamble is based solely upon the martyrdom of the Muhtarma and has nothing to do with Islam or Allah; and it talks of a ‘new social contract for Pakistan’.
The 2013 manifesto talks on the Benazir Income Support Program based on the ideal of empowering the women, in fact PPP is so confident over their BISP that they plan to extend this idea of ‘dependence’ with their romanticized ‘Mother and Child Support Program’, and their ‘Waseela-e-Sehat’, ‘ Waseela-e-Rozgar’ and ‘Waseela-e-Taleem’ programs. PPP plans to channelize Labour with its BESOS program and also wants to develop low-budget housing schemes through a program in which the government will mandate 20-year mortgage lending of land (scheme or scam?). The manifesto also says, ‘role models will also feminize leadership at the top and bring more women at all levels into decision-making roles’, though it is fully unclear how the word feminize fits into this sentence, or maybe they put it in just for the love of it….
Although the reason for all the martyrdoms, exiles and jails PPP has always suffered, has been the sheer want to liberate the people from the shackles of military dictatorship, and in doing that they have vowed to bring economic prosperity to the people by giving them total employment, free and mandatory education, sound and reliable energy, clean water and environment, freedom from terrorism and militancy, but Alas! They have failed. They have proven to the people of Pakistan that a mere 5 year term is not enough to even set the papers straight for any fundamental step towards real progress and peace; that the first term of 5 years was barely enough to keep the sacred-cow of ‘Democracy’ alive and not derailed.
In fact just the opposites of what they promised have been achieved; the country has faced prolonged energy unavailability that has crippled the daily routines and workplace environment, jobs have been lost and industries have been abandoned. Terror and bloodshed have been so much on the rampant that fear has become the second-nature of the populace. Inflation has sky-rocketed to the extent that major public spending has been squeezed to necessities only. Needless to say, the BISP has failed to reach its targeted masses, but neither has the education system been rescued from its tottering nor has clean water reached the masses. Corruption and extortion, yes, these have been the insignia of this mandate, the scandals associated with this regime have been numerous and humongous, but the brave leaders of PPP have the courage to dismiss them all with the strokes of their natural whims.
This also proves to the people of Pakistan that they are a people of such vibrancy, bustling with activity that in spite of massive rackets and appropriation of funds at the ruling level, the economy goes on! It proves that being essentially an agrarian economy, we are self-sustainable and self-progressive, and can show growth indicators, in spite of massive IMF demands upon imposing exceeding tariffs on all our power consumptions. Perhaps ‘Democracy’ is the biggest trial, a people could be put to, and perhaps we are passing this trial, in spite of all the load-shedding of gas, CNG and electricity and in spite of the fact that ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makan’ have been moved much farther away from the common man than ever.
But let us say that we are ready to give away all this, just to tell the world that we are united with them in the worshiping of the sacred-cow of Democracy, even though the cow is only grazing upon our ripe fields and not giving any milk. We would have decided to sit back and let this system take its toll, until, at last, the promised fruits of ‘democracy’ finally arrive at us, perhaps after a hundred elections, ; but we can’t! why?
Because the vice we may be ready to bear is much easier than the one ‘unacceptable’ to us. Because this manifesto is not only filled with false promises but also with a true promise; a promise that it will definitely uproot us from our Islamic Faith, Culture and Values; that it will systematically replace the sovereignty from Allah and will place it in the shifting, un-decisive hands of man; that it will endow unnatural powers to the people, and because they will be unaware of its use, they, the champions of democracy, will use them for bigger and bigger rip-offs.
Monetary rip-offs will be followed by identity rip-offs and the cycle of fraudulence will go on, until the order of things has been completely reversed. PPP manifesto promises the upholding of the ‘Jamhur’ (a democratic entity) above the nation, above the people and above the belief they stand for.
PPP manifesto says that they will ensure ‘cultural space for constructive expression of plural identities’, has this not extensively been going on for the last 5 years? Has the media not been flooded with Indian culture and Turkish diversity; has the Star World English channel not induced tolerance for homosexuality and free-sex through each one of its shows, round the clock; has society not been groomed for acceptance of the vile; is our youth not finding itself addicted to all that was considered shameful just 15 to 20 years back and have the last 5 years not brought us to the limits. ?
So before we decide to vote this time, we must look through, to find the essential truth behind the many curtains of falsehood and confusion. Let us not vote for the mere names of Bhutto or Democracy, these are not sustainable truths, their meanings are ever-changing and flexible; the only reliable system is the one laid by the Creator, it is sustainable through time, inflexible in law, only flexible in application.
By definition, the ‘Vote’ should be a means to secure your will over the body that will govern you, and if being ‘Muslims’ is your will, do not allow your vote to confirm the opposite of that. By giving our vote, we empower the rulers in the hope that they would put us in the way of progress, and we give them the same vote again, only to be disappointed again, but that is all right, perhaps we can afford that; but we cannot afford to give away what we did not achieve with the mere comfort of a vote, but achieved with the sufferings and martyrdom of millions and by a revolution that stirred up the whole Muslim community of the sub-continent into one stir, a revolution that may have taken a century in its making.
Give up anything for your favorite personalities but don’t give up your real, eternal love, the love to be identified with the Greatest Emperor of all universes and of all times.
Aneela Shahzad is an editor at PKKH.tv and can be contacted via info@pakistankakhudahafiz.com, and you can also find her at Aneela Shahzad’s Blog.