Affect Blog

A decade of the War in Terror has pushed the Islamic world to the edge of a precipice. Islamic countries are now fighting for their very soul as inter-sectarian rife grips their lands. Iraq was plunged into darkness after the bombings of Shia shrines, thought to be the work of the Iraqi al-Qaeda Sunni variant, unleashing a wave of Muslim on Muslim violence and a spate of Islamist suicide bombings. It seems that those tactics are now traversing borders. The suicide bombings in Lahore 10 days ago at Data Darbar, the shrine of the city’s patron saint Ali Hajweri have fueled sectarian tensions, igniting riots. The Berelwi sect has expressed its discontent at the provincial Punjab Government for harbouring terrorist sympathisers amongst its ranks.

Certainly the Punjab Government has a lot to answer for. Headed by Shabaz Sharif, brother of the former two-time Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who remains head of their party PML-N, the provincial government contains a number of shady characters. Chief among them is Rana Sanaullah who has a record of openly courting the leader of the banned militant organisation Sipah al-Sahaba to ensure votes. The PML-N also houses Sajid Mir, the leader of the political wing of the Ahle Hadis sect who last month, a few days after the cold blooded murder of 86 Ahmadis at two of their mosques patronised a hate conference directed against them. The political situation is rapidly spiraling out of control.

The departure of General Musharraf has led to a worsening law and order situation. At the very end of his reign, electricity supply in the country became erratic, something initially blamed on the populace rioting and destroying electrical connections in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s murder. There is now a gas shortage in the country – boding ill for the winter. A looming water crisis may force a confrontation with India – potentially catastrophic given that both are nuclear states. The price of basic commodities continues to soar, all the more worrying given that 17.2% of this 180 million strong country live below the poverty line. Yet nothing stirs the average citizen of Pakistan more than the issue of religion. A right wing media and a parliament built on the twin principle s of pliancy and expediency, provide optimum conditions for the spread of misinformation. The War on Terror charged religious sentiment and inadvertently reawakened Pakistan’s sectarian divide (never quite dormant). At its foundation in 1947, Pakistan’s leadership prided itself on its secular values. Not any more. Gone too are the values of love and brotherhood that characterized the life of Ali Hajweri.