As soon as the thundering
speech asking separate women assemblies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of
the country by the Jamat-e-Islami’s Honourable Senior Minister of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Siraj-ul- Haq, was about to fade a bit, a woman lawmaker from Jamiat-e-Ulamai Islam tabled
a resolution to ban what she termed ‘immoral’ programs on public and private
channels. The press reports are silent pertaining to the examples of ‘immorality’
she must have observed on TV channels. In all probability, she must have
mentioned the dress code of women appearing in dramas and talk shows, scenes of
relationships of men and women and music played on the channels[1].
As if it was not
enough, the same woman law maker tabled a resolution that a private bus
service, Daewoo, must be forced to stop for Namaz (prayers). The resolution was
unanimously passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly[2]. There
are two interesting but subtle assumptions in this resolution. First, all
passengers on board Daewoo must be Muslims and, second, all passengers must be
Hanafi Deobandis. So if you are Christian or a Shia, you will be charged for
the personal faith of others.
Another interesting
statement came from no one else but the Honourable Chief Minister of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak, saying that ‘Muslims should not be sweepers and
all slots of janitor’s work in the province must be given to ‘minorities’ ”[3]. If
it were to accommodate non-Muslims, the CM would have ordered for equal
treatment of Muslims and non-Muslims in the job market. The statement seems to
be related to the superiority of Muslims and the denigration of non-Muslims
(which is against the Quranic verse saying that ‘We have bestowed all humans
with dignity’). It is also meant to perpetually keep a large population of
Christians in the dungeon of low caste humans. Please see expression of a young
Christian reported by Express Tribune:
“Nothing
changes for us,” says Masih. “We will live and die sweeping.”
When Masih
speaks, he projects a certain acceptance of social realities. He has two
children, lives in a small home in Cantt, and makes Rs12,000 a month, for which
he is grateful. Although his children go to school, he foresees that they too
will become sweepers. “We are born for this work. The majority of Christians
work as sweepers. So why should my kids expect to lead a life that is different
from mine?” he questions. Though some may think it a negative attitude to take,
Masih has a point. He talks from experience. Three of his elder brothers hold
the same job in different areas around Peshawar. “What are the benefits of
education for our people when we know that, ultimately, none of us will amount
to more than sweepers? We will be sweepers even if we are graduates,” he says. According
to the K-P Auqaf, Hajj and Religious Affairs Department, minorities make up
0.4% of the total population of the province, which comes to 70,000
individuals. This figure includes Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Balmkee, Kalasha,
Ahmadis and Parsis. The last census report illustrates that Christians
outnumber other minority groups. Despite having lived in the same areas for
considerable time periods, Christians still sit on the fringes, looking in. “We
have lived in Peshawar for centuries and have no problems as such. We perform
our religious rituals in church and don’t face hurdles in that respect,” says
Masih. “However, people generally don’t want to mingle with us socially.”[4]
There is yet
another development. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for Religious Affairs
suggests that Ushr (tithe) needs to be introduced. Dawn reports:
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for religious
affairs Habibur Rehman on Tuesday said imposition of Ushr was inevitable in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as funds collected in the head of Zakat was dwindling
gradually. Speaking on a calling attention notice during the provincial
assembly session chaired by Speaker Asad Qaisar, the minister said after 18th
amendment to the Constitution, the collection of Zakat was a provincial subject
and the share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had drastically decreased.[5]
There seems to be
a competition among the Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Jamat-e-Islami and the
Jamiat-e-Ulamai Islam to outclass one another in further religiosing the
already conservative Pashtun belt, thanks to the US-Soviet war in the 1980s in
Afghanistan. One just wonders whether it is a deliberate effort to strengthen the
discourse of Homogenization, Isolation, Puritanism, and Segregation or only
Confidence Building Measures to be acceptable for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Diversity, democracy and peace will remain the victim in this part of the world.
It is now increasingly becoming a fascination that once the socio-cultural environment
in the Pashtun belt was ruled by a pluralist indigenous discourse of the land.
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