Religous Moderates: The Real Threat for Pakistan

Some people having very poor knowledge of history are constantly iterating that religious extremists are very dangerous for Pakistan. A little reflection shows that the case is quite opposite. I will show quoting examples from history that the only threat for Pakistan is from religious moderates.

But before coming to my topic, I want to deliberate on some terminology, which has been being frequently used in Pakistan for some years.

Religious Extremists

It is a term coined to give negative impression of those who are devotedly practicing Muslims. Those who consider Quran as a source of authoritative knowledge. These are the people who do not divide religious teaching into groups: one to be followed and the other to be ignored. They want to act upon the teachings of Islam in totality and with complete devotion.

Moderates

· Moderates actually fall into two categories. Those who cannot act upon the teachings of Islam in totality and with complete devotion, the reason being lack of will power and lack of religious guidance and training. They are clear in mind that those who act upon the teachings of religion in totality and with complete devotion are much better than them. They are ashamed of their discrepancies and wish that they could be improved. They are called mustadh’afeen: those who are weak. They are not moderate in the real sense of the word, as they do not deem their attitude to be all right. Majority of Pakistani Muslims fall in this category.

· Those who are not willing to act upon the teachings of Islam in totality. They pick and choose. They do only what suites them. But they are not ashamed of themselves; rather they think they are better than the devoted Muslims. To them, they are wiser than God, so all the religion is not to comply. They choose what to do and what to reject. They are the people who call devoted Muslims by the name of religious extremists. They see religious devotion as a threat and constantly do propaganda against it. They are called munafiqeen: the hypocrites. Such moderates are a small minority in Pakistan.

And now a brief political history of Pakistan showing that moderates are the real threat for Pakistan:

Malik Ghulam Muhammad and Major General Sikandar Mirza The pace with which these two Governor Generals dismissed elected Prime Ministers and their cabinets is a world record. Both were religious moderates and both damaged Pakistan inestimably. The following table shows the Prime Ministers dismissed by these moderates and their durations in their office:

Prime Minister	Duration in Office
Khawja Nazimuddin (East Pakistan)	1 year 6 months 1 day
Muhammad Ali Bogra (East Pakistan)	2 years 4 months 3 days
Ch. Muhammad Ali (Punjab)	1 year 11 days
Hussain Shaheed Soharwardi (East Pakistan)	1 year 1 month
I. I. Chundrigar (Sindh)	54 days
Malik Feroz Khan Noon (Punjab)	9 months 26 days

When the constituent assembly of Pakistan confined the role of Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad according to the principles of parliamentary democracy, the Governor General dissolved the assembly on Oct 24, 1954.

Sikandar Mirza is the person who made General Ayyub Khan his defense minister, when the general was commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army. Thus he initiated interference of military in politics.

Justice Munir He was proud to be moderate. He is the person who responsible for all the constitutional heresies in Pakistan. He has three “great” decisions are on his credit list:

1. He overruled the decision of Sindh High Court, and decided that the dissolution of constituent assembly by Governor General was legitimate according to constitution.
2. He decided that during the absence of assembly Governor General himself could do legislation under the notorious “Doctrine of Necessity”. This doctrine has changed Pakistan into haunted-house.
3. He decided the Military coup of General Ayyub Khan was legitimate.

Field Martial Ayyub Khan The person who imposed first martial law in Pakistan. The person who sowed the seeds of separation of East Pakistan. The person who rigged elections against Madar-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah.

General Agha Yahya Khan The person who imposed second martial law in Pakistan.

Characters of Fall of Dhaka Some Pakistanis believe that three persons are responsible for the fall of Dhaka, namely General Yahya Khan, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. According to the others only General Yahya Khan and Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman are responsible for it. Which ever may be the case, all of them were religious moderates. Moderates should be ashamed of it.

General Zia-ul-Haq The most complicated and obscure personality. It is extremely difficult to judge what kind of person he was. But one thing is clear. He was completely backed by the moderate generals and moderate judges. He was the third person to implement martial law in Pakistan. He did judicial murder of Quaid-e-Awam Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the most favorite political leader after Quaid-e-Azam. His strategic policies, backed by the moderate generals like Lt. General Akhtar Abdur Rehman extremely damaged both the countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The list is long. A lot of other names of past and present can be added in it. But one thing is clear. Since the inception of Pakistan, always moderates remained it rulers. None of the devout Muslims every got any chance to rule it. So the responsible for all the miseries of Pakistan and Pakistanis are only and only moderates. Moderates are the real threat for the security and solidarity of Pakistan.