Pakistan is Being Held Back by its ‘Mullah-ocracy’

When Imran Khan won the 2018 Pakistan general election on July 25, he won a ballot but he never really won power. No, in Pakistan, there is only one power that dominates every aspect of politics, from the individual to the collective — the Mullah.

There is perhaps no other country in the world whose populace is more staunchly under the control of their religious clergy then Pakistan, where the sheikhs and clerics are the only ones who have true street power. It is the Mullah alone who controls the masses in Pakistan, and anyone who seeks any type of public power, influence, or position is beholden to them in one way or another.

Khan’s victory was widely being hailed as the beginning of a “naya Pakistan,” a “new Pakistan,” as translated from Urdu, the dawn of a new era of progress, advancement and reform for a country long held back by corruption and religious extremism.

In one of his first steps after being elected, President Khan appointed the globally renowned economist Atif Mian to Pakistan’s Economic Advisory Council, a move widely regarded as a great step forward for the nation. That is, until people realized that Mian is an Ahmadi Muslim, belonging to a minority sect that is heavily persecuted in Pakistan. That’s when the Mullahs, Sheikhs and the entire extreme-leaning establishment raised a nationwide uproar.

In most countries the outcry would have resulted in some media coverage, died down eventually, and life would have moved on as normal. No government would ever actually capitulate to the voices of religious zealotry. But not in Pakistan — because most countries are a meritocracy but Pakistan is a “Mullah-ocracy.”

The same phenomenon occurred with the recent “blasphemy controversy” involving Asia Bibi, a Christian woman in Pakistan who was recently acquitted for blasphemy, as protests erupted across Pakistan over her acquittal. If Bibi is allowed to leave Pakistan, the Mullahs have threatened that protests will get out of hand. Such is the grip of the Mullah on the country.

Whatever the Mullah approves of, goes. The pull and pressure was so strong that the government actually removed Atif Mian from the post. In so doing, they officially refused the service of a man whom the International Monetary Fund has listed as one of the world’s top 25 people whose ideas will influence the economic thought and policy of the world in the coming years, a man whose critically acclaimed book “House of Debt,” among other things, has him being widely considered to be a candidate for a Nobel Prize.

It’s like not putting Sidney Crosby on Team Canada because of his religious convictions. Many pundits have called this a time when Pakistan sorely needs Atif Mian as the man to help architect a financial strategy to begin Pakistan’s climb from Third World to prospering nation. So to exclude him at this critical time, just because of his faith, is crazy.

But, sadly enough, it’s nothing new for Pakistan.

Until a few years ago, the entire Muslim world, had only one Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He was a Pakistani. His name was Dr. Abdus Salam. And he too, was an Ahmadi Muslim.

According to famed scientist Wolfgang Polly, who was his PhD supervisor at Cambridge University, Abdus Salam might have won a second Nobel for something he had mentioned to Polly while he was Polly’s student, but was told to not pursue at the time — something, incidentally, that Polly would apologize for later on.

In Italy, the most prestigious center for physics in the entire world is named after him, and was inspired by him, as Italy specially sought out Salam to found the institute in their country. He was, and is, a giant in the world of theoretical physics and science at large. In any country of the world, such a man would be celebrated as a hero — an inspiration for a nation, a motivational figure through whose example millions of children could be inspired to pursue science and learning to the highest level of human excellence.

But again, not in Pakistan. Because he simply didn’t have the right “religious resume” for the “Mullah-ocracy.” In Pakistan, you will never hear his name being taught or even mentioned to kids in school growing up. There is no celebration or even recognition of this man.

And the same is true for Sir Zafarullah Khan, who is arguably the entire Muslim world’s greatest statesman, a man who rose to the pinnacle of public service when he was elected as president of the United Nations General Assembly, and also as Chief Justice at the International Court of the Hague and a founding father of Pakistan. Never will you see this man celebrated in Pakistan, again because of his Ahmadi faith.

So it has become clear that among all the problems that Pakistan faces as a nation, the single greatest obstacle to the progress of this country of 200 million people, in which there is so much potential for scholastic achievement and intellectual excellence on a global scale, is the religious bigotry and misguided zealotry that have become common culture.

Today, there are countless Pakistanis who have emigrated to western countries and are playing important roles in the intellectual economies of those nations, because the place they called home was more worried about madrassas and beards then academics and true advancement.

So for those who are hoping for a “naya Pakistan,” keep up the prayers. As an Ahmadi Muslim myself, I too sincerely pray along with you. But today, is not that day. Pakistan will only see the horizon of a new future when it expands its narrow view.

Ahmed Sahi is a freelance writer and journalist based in the Greater Toronto Area.

Source: The Star

Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times