ASHFAQ SALIM MIRZA can raise forgotten skeletons from their eternal sleep and make them walk and kick up dust. Now this matter of ideology had been buried with the victims of the Bahawalpur crash and what one heard of it off and on was in substance a kind of Fateha that the ideologues of the so-called Jihadi groups kept on reciting to dupe the herds into believing the ghost was stirring in its marble tomb. But a queer twist of fortune exorcised the poltergeist before it could cross the Durand Line. Ashfaq Salim Mirza raises spirits to know how they are faring. He holds his séances in a disenchanted circle of agnostics and cynics who can grapple with apparitions of all kinds with Catholic disdain. The fire lit, he watches it spread like the proverbial Bi Jamalo.

The cracker that evening at TVO where the Pakistan Cultural Forum meets fortnightly was “Ideology and State Apparatus in Pakistan”. Mirza Sahib had spent some time collecting definitions, quotations and pieces of information from varied sources and other relevant material in support of his contention that ideologies were part of the bag of tricks all ruling classes used to justify their oppression and to keep the masses happy in their enslavement, and that Pakistan was no exception. Here too, the haleem of religion, jingoism and hostility against India has been fed to people by politicians and military dictators alike.

The reading on the Ouija board was that the opponents of Pakistan invented the ideology gimmick much after the nation had come into being. Only two voices, that of Mansoor Aqib and Dr Inayatullah’s, (who relishes being the odd man out and seldom misses to present a contrary view), were raised in support of the belief that Pakistan was not created just for the economic and political well being of the Muslims but its main purpose, though undefined, was to establish an ideological model for the rest of the Ummat. King Farooq of Egypt in this context had told a Pakistani diplomat that seeing Pakistani zeal and fervor, it appeared Islam was born on 14th August.

The paper discusses how education was made a tool to brainwash the young but misses the rounding up of a whole crop of writers and poets in the service of the ideology. The few conscientious objectors who were there sought refuge in foreign lands, the pragmatists grew beards and wrote sermons instead of stories and collections of verse without exception started to begin with mandatory insertions of a hamd, a naat and salaam as a measure of sanctification for the following profanities. Theater and dance were outlawed while artists in hordes became calligraphists led by quite a few big names who found comfort and cover in this arrangement for their dried up ponds of creativity.

The impact of ideology on culture as a whole was paradoxical. While its essence, indigenousness, was being relegated in favor of ideological universality, its creative resources were losing touch with the wide world. Ideological universalism instead of widening the creative horizon was promoting a debilitating isolation since this queer universalism was confined in ideological boundaries, a contradiction so aptly encapsulated in this quatrain of Minhaj Barna’s:

Roshni Suraj ki ho kaisay aseer

Harf-e-haq marhoon-e-ma’bad kab hua

Nazriati sarhadon ki guftagu

Nazria paband-e-sarhad kab hua?

The harmful effects of that period on culture in general and arts and literature in particular persist to this day.

A piece of advice, in fact a kind of manual that a Jamaat ideologue had crafted for guidance of fiction writers, provided lots of cheer and amusement in those dour days. The manual after elaborating its rules for production of “sehetmand” (healthy) literature presented a model short story for emerging Muslim writers. The manual and the model were published in the Sunday magazine of one of the Urdu newspapers. It was a naughty tale, I remember, told with pious solemnity. The narrative ran like this:

“Razia Khatoon was still dozing when her husband, Rahmatullah rose from the prayer mat. Silly girl, he said, stroking his beard. You are still sleeping. He tickled her pink toe lovingly. Time is nearly up for Fajr. Be smart. There is warm water in the samovar for wazu. Razia yawned. I am so tired, she moaned. No wonder, Rahmatullah mused. If you don’t get up, he warned, I am allowed to use harsher methods. Razia got out of bed pulling her trouser legs down to her ankles and eyeing her husband coyly all the time. Don’t waste time in covering yourself up. I am your lawful husband. I know, Razia said. Still a woman has to be bashful. You men are so untrustworthy. How do you know? Rahmatullah asked, a little alarmed. Because, Razia said, putting her arms around his neck, I will have to take bath, not just perform wazu. Husband and wife laughed heartily”.

The story went on in this manner during which a number of moral issues were discussed with relevant quotations. The purpose of all art, the manual concluded, was to propagate our ideology and religion. If it was not doing that, it was bogus.

Those were the days, my friends!

LAHORE: In its present form, the National Alliance, a coalition of half a dozen minor parties launched on Monday, maybe no more than a stillbirth. The collective political worth of its constituents is not more than a few assembly seats. Its leaders, some of whom have held important political positions when they were with the Pakistan People’s Party, have been unable to expand their political base.

In fact, after breaking ranks with parties with which they remained associated for long periods and which gave them political identity and brought them to limelight most of them have witnessed erosion of popular support. To be able to challenge the parties of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the goal announced at the maiden news conference, the National Alliance would need an enormous transfusion of political blood.

This means that to give a proper fight to the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League(N) in the general elections the NA would require the umbrella of one or more major political parties having their own vote bank which could serve as an engine for the ‘dead weight.’ The grouping, which unfortunately does not have identical views even on the federal structure of the country, will also have to rely heavily on government’s support to be able to face the two parties which have been in power from 1985 to 1999.

Some alliance leaders claim that the PML(QA) will join hands with the coalition at a later stage. Others are hoping that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will jump on the bandwagon at an appropriate time.

The capabilities of Mr Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi can be gauged from the fact that over the past 15 years he has effectively taken his National People’s Party into oblivion. The party was launched with great fanfare at a convention in Lahore on August 31, 1986, with the main objective of countering the PPP.

Benazir Bhutto had staged a comeback on April 10 the same year and the unprecedented reception she was accorded on her landing, and then the mammoth rally she had addressed at the Minar-i-Pakistan, had shaken the then rulers: Gen Ziaul Haq and Muhammad Khan Junejo. They had concluded that a strong political force was required to challenge the PPP in the next elections.

A number of political heavyweights from all over the country were brought into the National People’s Party, launched under the chairmanship of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. Among them were Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Haneef Ramay, SM Zafar, Hamid Reza Gilani, Malik Hamid Sarfraz, Ghaus Bux Raeesani, Kamal Azfar, Mian Sajid Pervaiz, Nafees Siddiqui, Rana Muhammad Haneef, Rabbani Khar and Aftab Shah Gilani. An attractive manifesto was prepared and the party was expected to shoot into prominence in no time.

The NPP and the PML, then headed by Mr Junejo, contested the 1988 elections from the platform of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad. The PPP won the bout, though with a thin majority. Within no time Mr Jatoi was eclipsed and dwarfed by the rising star of Nawaz Sharif.

Mr Jatoi was appointed caretaker prime minister after the dismissal of Benazir government. By his own admission, he failed to hold free and fair elections. Contrary to all norms, Mr Jatoi joined hands with the opposition in launching a movement against the Sharif government, branding it as a product of rigged elections.

NPP’s slide continued in the subsequent until it became a non-entity. The party still exists but only on paper. Not many people know the name of even its secretary-general, let alone local office-bearers. The party today stands confined to the home constituency of Mr Jatoi and that too because of his personal influence, not party programme. Those who had joined hands with the Sindhi leader in hopes of bright future for themselves and promised to change the destiny of the country are nowhere to be seen.

The story of Millat Party and Farooq Leghari is no different. He was elected the president with the support of the PPP after the 1993 elections. After dismissing the Benazir government in November 1996, he extended support to the PML(N) to enable it to sweep the 1997 elections. A former Punjab governor, who had played an important role in those elections, recently told some political leaders in confidence that the government had stuffed ballots in boxes to ensure PPP’s rout.

One of the leaders who met the former governor said this had raised questions about the credibility of the elections. Had some votes also been ‘gifted’ to the PPP, he said, nobody would have expressed surprise about voter turnout or the landslide victory for the PML.

Mr Leghari thus started a new journey in the company of the PML(N), against which he had been using all energies in the past. But the unnatural alliance between did not last long and a powerful Nawaz Sharif soon forced Mr Leghari to vacate the presidency.

Then came the days of Mr Leghari’s political redundancy. He was being cursed both by the PPP and the PML(N).

Mr Leghari tried to fathom his popularity by launching a new party — Millat Party. Some people of his own class lent him support in the beginning. But the party failed to click with the electorate. It was a non-starter from day one. The pro-PPP vote is essentially with Ms Bhutto while the anti-PPP vote may go either to Mr Sharif or some other rightist parties. Since both the former prime ministers are together on the platform of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, Mr Leghari, an outcast for both the former ruling parties, has to find his own supporters.

Mr Leghari’s son is now the Dera Ghazi Khan district Nazim. Support for the former president, too, is confined to the district. Whatever support he enjoys is because of his personal influence and not the party programme. Thus, the new alliance can’t, and shouldn’t, expect from the Millat Party.

The electorate, too, can’t attach much hopes to the Alliance’s programme in view of the disappointing performance of Mr Leghari as president.

On Nov 5, 2000, Millat Party secretary-general, Muhammad Ali Durrani, had sent a complaint to the National Accountability Bureau alleging that Ms Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari had siphoned off Rs144 billion. He claimed that he had evidence to support the allegation.

Mr Durrani also alleged that the Sharifs had caused the exchequer a loss of Rs193 billion.

The question, of course, is what was Mr Leghari doing when the exchequer was being robbed by the two prime ministers? He remained president while the PPP was in power and was the head of state during the PML rule for about one year. The mere assertion that he had been informing Ms Bhutto of the alleged corruption by her spouse, does not absolve him of his responsibility as president.

His ‘impotence’ also stood exposed when he locked horns with Mr Sharif. Despite offers of support from the army chief and the then chief justice of Pakistan, he resigned as president.

Mr Leghari has neither a vote bank nor the capability to check corruption taking place under his very nose. In such a situation his contribution to the new alliance is anybody’s guess.

The third party in the NA is the Pakistan Awami Tehrik of Dr Tahirul Qadri. It has negligible public support. Its vote bank evident from last year’s local elections is not sufficient for more than a few assembly seats, notwithstanding tall claims of the leadership. In some constituencies PAT’s support may help its allies win a close fight.

NAPP president Ajmal Khattak remained president of the Awami National Party for a long time before deciding to set up his own faction. There is no evidence that he will be able to cause any dent to the ANP in the NWFP.

Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, who enjoyed various offices as a PPP leader, changed his views about the country’s political system long ago. Now he wants a confederal system and a new constitution.

He did not change his anti-federation and pro-confederation views even when he was made caretaker chief minister of Sindh. Those believing in the federation should, as a matter of principle, have no room for him.

Arbab Rahim, a leader of the Sindh Democratic Alliance, like other colleagues in the group, has been given the task of damaging the PPP.

PPP leaders claim that they face no credible threat from the SDA or the pro-confederation elements. They claim that on Sindh’s share in river water and provincial autonomy, the issues these elements had tried to capitalize on, PPP has taken a clearer and firmer position.