Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz is said to be the torchbearer of sprawling madrassas, co-owner of the militia powered seminary and an alleged sympathiser of notorious organisations such as Al-Qaeda, Pakistan Taliban and ISIS. However, our government is compelled to treat the head cleric of Lal Masjid, with reverence, fearing any action against him can lead to a spiral of violence and law. There are no two opinions about Maulana Abdul Aziz, and his followers, being intolerant extremists about their particular brand of Islam. Why we are still negotiating with them when we have legal criteria created (like hate-speech) that can help squash his movement?
In the most recent episode of the Lal Masjid drama, as two factions emerged from within the ranks of Lal Masjid supporters, even as lawyers and civil society activists moved the district courts against the cleric for inciting violence and rebelling against the state. Lal Masjid has issued a press release on its own official letterhead, sidelining the Shuhada Foundation, which has hitherto handled all of Maulana Aziz’s interactions with the media. Additionally, Maulana Abdul Aziz on Tuesday hinted towards pardoning the former President along with other key players involved in the 2007 operation in Lal Masjid. However, the cleric’s lawyer Tariq Asad has stated a case will be registered against Aziz himself if those involved in Lal Masjid operation were pardoned. On the other hand, Islamabad’s court has acquitted Aziz in two cases registered against him. The Lal Masjid administration yesterday also issued a statement, saying that a video released in 2014 featuring some unknown women and allegedly of former students of Lal Masjid showing allegiance to self styled militant organization Daesh had nothing to do with Maulana Abdul Aziz or Ummah-e-Hassan, wife of Maulana and head of Jamia Hafsa, a girls seminary. Thus, officially the group has distanced itself from ISIS.
The pardoning of a former President of Pakistan as well as an Army Chief, from someone who led an attack against the state in 2007 and killed Pakistani soldiers, sounds like a joke. However, the truth is that our society and politics is so radicalised, that the ramblings of mad men are taken seriously. News outlets have actually termed the pardon as a “relief” for Musharraf. The police is scared of a backlash from his supporters in the case of an arrest. But before the problem gets bigger, is it not better to face the backlash now, and avoid a bigger one later? According to the so-called sequential approach of the government, sponsors, affiliates and allies of terrorists and militants are to be taken on at some unspecified later stage. Temporary political goals of avoiding a conflict, in order to achieve some semblance of peace, belie our fight against radicalism.