FOR many years now, electoral politics have been a vehicle for extremist elements in Pakistan to insinuate themselves into the democratic framework, even as they work to corrode the principles upon which it is based. With general elections due sometime next year, it is prudent to give some thought to how this process can be disrupted. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s statement in the Senate on Monday that a law is on the anvil to prevent leaders of banned organisations from taking part in elections must therefore be welcomed. However, the interior minister continues to display a troubling lack of clarity on the modus operandi of dealing with such individuals. For instance, he once again defended his meeting last October with Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi on the grounds that the head of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat had arrived to see him as part of a delegation. He was nevertheless correct in pointing out that the cleric was allowed by the election commission to contest the polls in May 2013. And that is precisely why a specific law of the kind that Chaudhry Nisar has proposed is so necessary.

Pakistan has been fairly prolific in outlawing extremist organisations, particularly after a slew of them were banned in the aftermath of 9/11. But it has been a self-defeating exercise. With the leaders of these groups under no ban themselves, they continued to peddle their noxious rhetoric, while their organisations re-emerged with new names. This was particularly dangerous given that Gen Zia’s ‘party-less’ elections of 1985 had already driven political candidates into making alliances with sectarian groups who had recourse to mosques across the country from where they could rally supporters. In subsequent years, the expediency displayed by every government, civilian or otherwise, created even more space for such groups in electoral politics. Their leaders manoeuvred themselves into positions from where they could wield a preposterous amount of influence behind the scenes or even directly. In 2002, for instance, Azam Tariq, chief of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba — a predecessor of the ASWJ — contested, and won, a seat in the National Assembly from prison as an independent candidate. He was released by Gen Musharraf in exchange for his vote in favour of Mir Zafarullah Jamali as prime minister. Aside from enacting legislation to prevent such leaders of banned groups from standing in elections, the restrictions applicable to individuals under the Fourth Schedule should also be strictly enforced.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2017