IT did not take long for the extreme right to sense an opportunity to claw back some space. At an event held on Thursday at the Darul Uloom Haqqania, clerics excoriated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for describing this country as “liberal” and called upon the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of his statement. According to the Haqqania madressah’s head Maulana Samiul Haq, the term “liberal Pakistan” was a violation of the nation’s ideology and he called upon religious leaders to put pressure on the government to implement an Islamic system in the country. Among the participants were several other ‘leading lights’ that occupy the ultraconservative niche on the ideological spectrum. These included Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, founders of the banned organisations Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba, respectively.

It would perhaps be academic to point out that the prime minister had made use of the word “liberal” at an investment conference in the context of the country’s economy, not to describe Pakistani society. Right-wing ideologues such as Maulana Samiul Haq — also known as the father of the Afghan Taliban — and others are chafing under what they perceive as curtailment of the clergy’s influence compared to the carte blanche they enjoyed before the military action against terrorist sanctuaries located in the north. In the months leading up to the operation, they had positioned themselves as no less than brokers of peace between the Pakistani Taliban and the government. The attack on Karachi airport put an end to that farcical exercise; and the massacre at APS Peshawar on Dec 16 brought home, in the most horrific way possible, the consequences of the decades-long policy of co-opting religious extremists as a tool of statecraft. The National Action Plan approved in the aftermath of that tragedy includes measures that the right wing is loath to concede to, such as the regulation of madressahs; and raids on some of these institutions have caused much resentment. The religious lobby is hitting back in the only way it can — by creating a false equivalence between liberality and moral depravity, between secularism and a repudiation of faith. It is the classic ploy to stoke the fears of a naturally conservative society.

However, while the right wing has fashioned its narrative to suit the circumstances, the government is falling short. There is confusion all around, not least because some of the state’s own actions demonstrate a reluctance to completely discard its old ways. Instead, ‘assets’ that toe the line continue to remain untouched, at liberty to undermine democracy and democratic values, and subvert the tentative counter-narrative that is beginning to emerge. We stand at an important crossroads, where prevarication is no answer. The government must take up the gauntlet and define once and for all, in clear, unambiguous terms, the future — and dare we hope, liberal — course for this nation.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2015

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