Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Dr
Munawar Hasan moved his party another step forward in the pursuit of his
rejectionist politics when he addressed what he called a dharna in front of
parliament on Constitutional Avenue in Islamabad on December 5. The roster of
his disaffection from the present order under the PPP coalition was already
familiar: enslavement of the country to the US; pursuit of unjust war against
elements fighting against the Americans; the perfidy of allowing America to
carry out drone attacks; and rampant corruption under the PPP government.
As he asked army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani directly not to agree to the
American demand of attacking North Waziristan, the past and present Jamaat
leaders were at his side, including the inventor of dharna politics former amir
Qazi Hussain Ahmed. Dr Munawar Hasan is the stormy petrel of national politics,
believing in intensifying the Jamaat’s politics of rejection rather than toning
it down. The argument behind this radical agenda is that politics of the status
quo has run its course, at least for the Jamaat, and now only a promise of
revolution will bring back votes absorbed by other rightwing parties, led by the
PML-N.
The biggest strain borne by the Jamaat came from the ‘deal’ the ruling MMA made
with General Musharraf when Qazi Hussain Ahmed was its leader. The deal resulted
in the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment which gave legal cover to the
general to carry on ruling the country. The ‘deal’ caused internal rifts and the
MMA — which failed to protect its Shia component from terrorists — began to
crack, losing the 2008 election and bisecting on the lines of Jamaat-JUI
politics. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) is in
the government, playing a complex game of compromises; the Jamaat, with Qazi
Hussain Ahmed gone, has Dr Munawar Hasan carrying the banner of an aggressive
agenda in contrast to the JUI-F.
Dr Hasan has many likeminded small-party leaders. Imran Khan’s Tehreek-i-Insaf
has been playing close to the Jamaat line, but Mr Khan was conspicuous by his
absence at the Islamabad dharna. More dharna sessions have been announced, but
will the politics of extremes win the day? Or will the politics of flexibility
of JUI-F reap greater advantage for its considerable vote-bank which is larger
than the Jamaat’s? Unfortunately, neither Imran Khan nor Dr Hasan will make much
headway in Punjab where the former is looking for PML-N votes and the latter is
hoping to recover the votes the Jamaat has lost to Mr Nawaz Sharif. The rise of
the Tehreek-i-Insaf Party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa may in fact damage Jamaat and
JUI-F both.
Aggressive agendas are an enemy of the sophistication needed by political
parties under democracy. Aggression needs forceful articulation and that is
impossible without an outpouring of rage at the status quo. Only two leaders in
the political arena are indulging in the politics of rage: Dr Hasan and Imran
Khan. Most analysts think that the voting population, while being aroused by
expressions of rage, are also scared of conflict and destruction as agents of
change. Elections symbolise gradual evolution, not revolutionary uprooting of
the system. Such analysis is reaching Imran Khan but Dr Hasan is insulated
against it because of the continuity of the party line adopted by Qazi Hussain
Ahmed whose personal style, however, was less aggressive.
The Jamaat is countered effectively by the rise of ethnic politics in Karachi;
in Punjab, the PML-N is firmly in place, strengthened by its new contacts with
Jamaatud Dawa and Sipah-e-Sahaba. On the other hand, a less ‘ghairatmand’ (honourable)
but more flexible and sophisticated Maulana Fazlur Rehman is shoring up the
internal strength of his Pashtun-dominated JUI-F by being in the ruling
coalition, deftly placing his man at the head of the Council of Islamic
Ideology. The Jamaat may be pleased to hear an octogenarian Roedad Khan
delivering his usual philippic against the PPP government at the dharna, but
Roedad Khan will help little in enhancing the Jamaat’s profile in national
politics. The government was wise in its decision to give the ‘dharna’ a wide
berth.