A Secular Pakistan

The trend to blame religion for the problems of Pakistan is becoming more and more common among the people of this country. Some Pakistanis now believe that being an ‘Islamic Republic’ is the biggest problem of Pakistan. The country can’t prosper and can’t get rid of its problems unless it gets rid of Islam. To a certain extent these thoughts are somewhat justified. Every Pakistani knows how many people have lost their lives and their loved ones in the violence that comes from religious extremist groups, besides people observe that the western nations, most of whom are far more developed than their country, are secular. They have limited religion to the places of worship, and are now enjoying the fruit of secularism. And the countries where religion is still predominant are quite underdeveloped. These observations force some of the people of Pakistan to think that they should strive for an Islam free Pakistan, and then they might be able to develop their country.

But is Islam really predominant in the Pakistani society? Is the state really being run by the religion?

If analyzed with an open and objective mind, the answer would be ‘No’. Islam is not predominant in the Pakistani society. Apparently it’s a very bold statement, but let’s see what Islam tells Muslims to do, and what is being done in the Pakistani society.

Is it Islam that tells people to make money through corruption? Does Islam tell its followers to kill women in the name of honor? Does it tell Muslims to indiscriminately kill innocent people, women and even children? Does it tell the people to deprive the followers of other religions of their liberties? Does it tell the people not to educate themselves?

All the answers are ‘No’. Islam strictly prohibits corruption. It teaches its followers to respect women instead of killing them in the name of honor. It has specific rules for Jihad, and a Muslim isn’t allowed to kill a woman or a child in any case. It prohibits the killing of unarmed people. It offers total religious freedom for non-Muslims. It obliges every Muslim to get educated.

When the people of Pakistan aren’t even following any of the major teachings of Islam, how can they blame it for their problems? Going to the mosque for prayers and fasting in the month of Ramadan is not ‘Islam’. Islam is a way of life, and the life of almost every Pakistani is against what Islam teaches. Following Islam isn’t creating any problems for the people of Pakistan, but not following is.

Islam strictly obliges its followers to get educated. But the literacy rate in Pakistan is less than 60%. Had the government been run according to Islam, its first priority would have been education, but on the contrary, education is being given the least attention by the government of Pakistan. Islam has a strong system of Zakat that manages the flow of money in the society so that the wealth doesn’t accumulate in the hands of some people. But despite the existence of a department for Zakat, rarely any poor person receives financial assistance from the government. Islam tells the rulers to live their life like the poorest person lives in their territory, but the government officials of Pakistan live like kings, as if the state reserves were their personal property.

Some people say that Islam is to be blamed for the problems of Pakistan, because one of the major problems that the Pakistanis face is religious extremism, and that of course comes from religion. Had there been no religion, there would have been no religious extremism, and half of the problems of the Pakistani society wouldn’t have existed. But as a matter of fact, the problem is not religious extremism, the problem is extremism. Had there been no religion, there could have been political extremism, ethno-national extremism, and even economic extremism, and Pakistanis are prone to all of them. So, if religion is removed, extremism would still exist. People can kill each other for political differences, they can kill each other for ethnic differences. The situation of Karachi is the best example of political and ethnic extremism. Some say it is a common observation that religion turns people to violence. But that is only a media perception. Edhi is less violent than Dalai Lama and more religious than Osama. So, the problem isn’t the religion itself, the problem is with the people who don’t have respect for each other’s opinion, who turn to violence instead of tolerance, and who misinterpret religion. This trend in the Pakistani society needs to be changed, not the religion or ethnicities. Whether Pakistan becomes an Islamic state, or a secular one, the situation won’t change, until the mentality of the Pakistani population doesn’t change.

The roots of extremism in the Pakistani society have already been discussed; the most apparent of them being Poverty, Illiteracy and Unemployment, and Islam isn’t an obstacle to the solution of these problems. Rather it necessitates education for everyone, and thus higher literacy rate. It tends to circulate the wealth in the society in order to remove poverty. It obliges the government to provide the people with as much job opportunities as they need. So, the fact is that Islam is not the problem. The problem is extremism, and that is caused by illiteracy, poverty and unemployment. The people who want Islam to be expelled or limited should think again. They are wasting their energies for a cause that won’t improve the condition of the Pakistani society. They should instead focus on the real problems that are causing many more problems. Secularism itself is not a flawless ideology; it has problems of its own. There is no guarantee that it won't fail. It would be better if Pakistanis try to solve their problems using the ideology that is the foundation of their existence, instead of pursuing a totally different ideology.      

The Forgotten Issue

Green is the national color of Pakistan, but the country itself is not much green. Deforestation is one of the major environmental problems that this country is facing, but unfortunately few people in Pakistan realize the gravity of this issue. May be because they are facing many more problems, and they have little time to think about something that they deem less acute. But as a matter of fact, deforestation of this country can prove to be more fatal for the people of Pakistan than corruption or extremism.

Pakistan has only 4.8% of its land covered with forests and has the highest deforestation rate in Asia. According to a government report, there will be no forests in this country after 15 years if no steps are taken to improve the situation. And what happens after all the forests of a country are consumed? The answer is ‘desertification’. The whole country can turn into a desert like that of Arabia, and desertification means lack of arable land and thus shortage of food. Pakistan already relies mostly on its agricultural products, which are the major export of this country. So desertification will deteriorate the economy of Pakistan quite significantly. Another phenomenon related with desertification is shortage of drinking water. Due to these shortages, a desert can’t host world’s sixth largest population, so a huge number of people will either have to die or leave the country.

More than 60% population of Pakistan lives in rural areas, and the rural population mostly rely on agriculture. Deforestation is continuously causing desertification and that turns more and more arable lands barren, which means that at a very fast rate the rural population of Pakistan is losing productive lands. Deforestation also causes a drop in annual rainfall rates, thus the areas where people rely on rains to water their crops become unproductive. So this rural population will then have to populate the urban areas to earn a living, and for that the government will have to provide more accommodation and more job opportunities. Otherwise the unemployment rate of the country will rise and will cause more poverty among other problems.  

The consequences of deforestation are very horrible, but little is known about it by the people of Pakistan. That’s why few people care to take some serious steps to prevent their country from becoming a desert. It’s not impossible to reverse the situation. Countries like Vietnam and China have increased their forest cover through reforestation. In China, citizens between ages 11 and 60 have been obliged by the government in the past years to plant three to five trees per year or take part in some other forest services. The government claims that at least 1 billion trees have been planted in China every year since 1982. But in Pakistan it’s very improbable that the government would ever take any serious steps to hamper deforestation, because none of the other problems of this country have ever been solved by the government. So, the people of Pakistan themselves will have to take responsibility to join their efforts for reforestation of this country. Individual efforts might not yield any significant results, because a tree planted in front of someone’s house won’t increase the forest area, although it would help to improve the environment of the cities. To increase the forest cover of the country, swaths of land having considerable area need to be planted with as much trees as possible. This of course is a very difficult task for an individual, but if people join hands to fight against deforestation then it won’t be very difficult for them to achieve their goal. People shouldn’t wait for the government to take any initiative, because one can’t expect any such thing from the Pakistani government. This country belongs to its people, and they themselves will have to save it. 

The Terrorism Cycle

The first American drone hit the tribal areas of Pakistan in 2004, in which 4 to 5 people were killed, almost all of them terrorists. After that the number of drone strikes per year rose constantly, and in 2010 at least 118 drones attacked the tribal areas. Apart from the increment in the number of drone strikes, the number of civilian deaths also elevated. According to an estimate, in 2009 alone, some 700 civilians were killed by American drones. For unknown reasons, the drones constantly lost their accuracy and in each successive strike, they killed more civilians than before.

A very similar trend was seen in the rates of suicide attacks in Pakistan. There were 7 suicide attacks in 2004, and after that, almost in every successive year the number of suicide attacks increased, and in 2009 alone, there were 83 such attacks in Pakistan. Again for some unknown reasons, the suicide attacks, that previously used to kill more civilians and were mostly sectarian in nature, got concentrated on police and security forces of Pakistan.

For a person outside Pakistan these might be separate events, but for a person who is living inside Pakistan and is observing all the events very closely, these events are too much interlinked. It is a cycle, in which all the steps cause the other step and all events are linked to each other. Let’s see the cycle step by step:

Step 1:

More terrorist activity; when terrorist organizations get enough recruits, they start attacking the Pakistani cities.

Step 2:

More drone strikes; US government instantly increases drone attacks in the areas where the terrorists are supposed to be hiding i.e. the tribal areas, assuming that the surge in terrorist activity indicates that the terrorists are growing stronger in their havens.

Step 3:

More civilian casualties; As usual, the drones kill more civilians than terrorists and thus elevate the number of civilian deaths in the tribal areas.

Step 4:

More terrorists; Due to the increasing drone strikes, more and more people lose their loved ones, and thus they join anti government forces to avenge their dead relatives. And this of course leads back to step 1, and in this way the cycle goes on. The cycle can start from step 2 as well, but in the end the results are the same.

Why the terrorists shifted from sectarian attacks to targeted attacks against the Pakistani government and military? The reason is very much clear, these are revengeful attacks. The problem is that this is not only a cycle, it is a snow ball effect as well. Increasing suicide attacks increase the drone strikes and increased number of drone strikes in turn increases the suicide attacks again, and in this way the number of both attacks keeps on increasing. Intentionally or unintentionally, the US government is creating more and more terrorists, and similarly the terrorists are causing more drone attacks. Unfortunately only the people of Pakistan are on the receiving end. The terrorism from both sides has made their life apprehensive.