How Liberal are they!

Self-proclaimed liberals in our country are also the self-appointed guardians of Jinnah’s liberal political philosophy. Imran Khan does not fit in their grand scheme of things, therefore he is fair game. He cannot do anything right. As long as he was a cricketer and a philanthropist, he was a saint, but ever since the mammoth Lahori jalsa, he has become a sinner, with no chance of repentance. Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are sparingly criticized for being closet fundamentalists, who are in cahoots with the lunatic fringe on the political right, i.e. Taliban. Imran Khan, to them, is simply a facilitator for the imposition of Sharia through ballot. These are mere accusations off course, but due to the serious nature of these allegations, those who are making these deserve a better scrutiny of their liberal credentials! There are three main misconceptions that the liberals have about themselves in Pakistan; that since they believe in roti, kapra, and makan manifesto therefore they are entitled to be called liberal; that they bash Imran Khan, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, Jamat-a-Islami, Taliban and like, therefore they must be liberal, and that since their politics is on the left of the political scale therefore they have earned the title of a liberal. A closer look at the doctrine which came out of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, however, rubbishes their claim. The liberal doctrine at the minimum envisages a system in which individuals are of equal worth and the seat of moral value. An individual is free to choose his/her own course of life, without unlawful state interference. The doctrine is also morally neutral in the sense that it allows individuals to define their own relationship with God, however it is not neutral when state unwarrantedly interferes in that man-made relationship. For our purposes, a liberal, in classic sense, would not only accept or at the minimum tolerate a mullah but also the choices that he makes, i.e., his way of life. The same liberal would also agitate when the state interferes in the mullahs’ way of life. While we may interchangeably use the terms “liberal” and “leftist”, it is however pertinent to remember that the biggest critics of liberalism have always been the Marxists. For them, Liberalism is fatally flawed because of its association with capitalism. The roti, kapra, and makan walas, going by the logic, are not liberals! The life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, binds both his friends and foes on one single point; that he was liberal to the core. Mr. Jinnah defended to the hilt in a court of law both Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Hindu-nationalist politician) and Ghazi Ilmuddin Shaheed (Mahashay Rajpal’s assassin, who had published “Rang De” allegedly a blasphemous book on Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H)). He did not support their actions or belonged to their schools of thought, yet Jinnah’s world was big enough in which both Tilaks’ and Ilm Dins’ of their time could live and thrive, in peace and harmony. As citizens of the Crown they deserved the right to be defended for their actions, and Jinnah made sure that this right was properly exercised in his clients’ favor, despite having divergent views on life with them. M.C. Chagla, an associate of Mr. Jinnah for years, who would later become chief justice of the Bombay High Court, recalled of Jinnah-Tilak comradeship in following: “I might mention here that during my long association with him, I found that Jinnah always showed the greatest respect and regard for Tilak. Even when he was in the process of changing his political stand and becoming more and more communal. I never remember his ever saying anything which was derogatory to Tilak. Two persons in public life for whom Jinnah showed the greatest respect were Gokhale and Tilak.” Mr. Jinnah, in short, was a bridge builder; adapt at making impossible, possible! Could we today expect the same from our liberals! Is their world big enough in which both South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA—whose members are often labeled as liberals) and Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC—whose members are often labeled as conservative and even fundamentalist) walas could live and thrive in peace and harmony! If not, than do they still have the right to call themselves liberal! This is the question that only my liberal friends could answer! Mind you, Mr. Jinnah himself set the bar for being a liberal not just in Pakistan but in the rest of South Asia as well and unfortunately for some and fortunately for the others, it was set very high!

"PTI Trolls"!

Trolls are idiots; no second guessing that. If they weren’t idiots, they wouldn’t be called trolls; it is as simple as that. A troll is an on-line idiot, while an off-line idiot would be just, good old idiot. It doesn’t take burning of the mid-night oil to become one; all it requires is a myopic and insecure state of mind. Willingness to listen to the other person’s argument and then answer it with a marginally intelligent and coherent counter-argument is all that it takes to become a “non-troll”. So it is both easy to be a troll as well as a non-troll. “Trollism” (I am inventing terms along the way) is universal. It has no specific caste or creed. The behavior is not a domain of any one religion, region, or natonality. Like a disease, it is everywhere. If the term “troll” did not require being on-line, Newt Gingrich would qualify as one, so would Jean-Marie Le Pen, and our very own Qibla Zaid Hamid Sahib. While Trollism may be universal, the way it has been associated with only one political party in Pakistan, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) by the left-leaning intellectuals (some of them have questionable and arguable leftist credentials though!) of our country is indeed unfortunate. It is not that on Imran Khan’s prodding they abuse you online! That you classify every abusive tweet as typed with the blessings of the “Kaptaan” is indeed wrong! It is certainly not the policy of PTI to have a cadre of trolls. No party does (although some parties have cadres of heavily armed men, but then a pen is mightier than a sword or in modern parlance a tweet mightier than Uzi!). However, I suspect a bit of foul-play on behalf of the “victims” of these “PTI trolls”. They were inherently biased against “King Khan” and his anti-West policies even before the first troll signed up with Twitter. The idiots however provided them with a common platform to get together and denounce the Khan of Zaman Park and his party’s policies. A closer look at some of “victim tweets” and it becomes abundantly clear that Khan’s policies are being denied as naïve simply because these idiots are supporters of these policies. As far as naivety of PTI’s policies are concerned, I’ll be the first brave PTI supporter to admit that some of them indeed make no sense at all (my biggest fear is what if the Patwari refuses to issue a fard in my favour by saying Khan sahib nay rishvat na lenay ka hukam diya hey, fard denay ka nahi). But to belittle PTI policies simply because some online “genius” follows and supports them, smells of premeditated bias. Our Left-leaning liberal intellectuals, most of them associated with leading English-language newspapers, often point towards Jemima Goldsmith’s former husband and try to make a case that since he is reckless in his speech while referring to other political leaders that is why his online followers send abusive tweets. I beg to differ. Even if there had been no Imran Khan there would still have been trolls, period. And if his mannerisms have been contagious, then there should have been “PML-N trolls” as well as “PPP trolls”, since both parties have been at each others throat ever since the 1980’s. The “flowery language” that they have used to refer to the opposite party’s main leader especially during the 1990’s and before the signing of CoD, is still not forgotten, at least not by me. Sheikh Rashid of Rawalpindi (minus the express off course) and his less than impeccable manners, to put it mildly, towards the late Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during numerous National Assembly sessions, allegedly at the prodding of his then leader, Nawaz Sharif, is a case in point! The more recent, “talented younger bro’s” rant: hum tumhey Zardari olta latka dain gay (or something to the effect) should have released a volley of abusive, anti-PPP/Zardari tweets by “PML-N trolls”! In submission, a troll is a troll. He (and yes to date they are all “he”) is neither PTI, nor PPP or PML-N troll. He is in a world of his own which is easily shattered by one marginally intelligent tweet. He is insecure because he either does not know the facts or has the stomach to digest them; he is someone who has never had time to read books, etc. Either try to “un-troll” him by supporting a party that advocates a more egalitarian, uniform, and universal education policy, or stop stamping him as “PTI troll”! All it takes is an underdeveloped brain, and an access to moderately good internet connection to be a troll, not Imran Khan.