The Largest City of the Muslim World in Turmoil

(a) Meaning of Party Discipline

Leading a social life is very first call of human nature. He is tied in numerous written and unwritten bonds and mutual agreements. Dozens of amicable settlements are made and covenants are acceded between the individuals and parties. Social traits and moral values are also listed in traditional and informal accords. All have to abide by them. It is natural if two men ride a horse, one must ride behind. It is importance of discipline in social life that our Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, have made it compulsory for three men leaving on a journey to chose anyone of them as their leader. The Quran lays down a criterion of the mutual relations and draws clear lines where, when and why, in dealing with each other in the social life, man is obligated to cooperate with his fellow men. The greatest wisdom behind the disciplinary standards set for collective life is to create a healthy and helping atmosphere and make the surrounding a good place for living.

For the man riding in front on a horse has little responsibility but the man leading a group and organization is accountable for entire bulk of his followers. It is conviction, reason and judgment and not absolute power to run the system of the organization. He has to create the moral tide for the people go with. He has no right to make their free thinking shackled in the name of party discipline. Causing a cowardly obtuse in the followers it is synonymous to mentally assassinating them. After that they are not followers but only logs of wood or husk filled effigies. Seasoned politicians and well educated leaders of the second line in the parties of Asif Ali Zardari, Asfand Yar Wali, Nawaz Sharif manifest ridiculous picture of serfdom in presence of their party leaders. Their twinkling of their eyes and itching any pert of body during talk, meeting or press conference of their leader is thought insolence. Leaders of some sectarian religious groups also use their followers as blind carnal weapons.

In this condition when the workers of the organizations are like puppets whose string is in their leader’s hand, making them do what he wants them to do, their resorting to be the drug, land and weapon mafias and target killing is not out of question at all. They are stooped to lower than the level of human being. At the moment of formation of Pakistan, millions of the Muslims of subcontinent decided to make this newly born state their home. They migrated from the different parts of India, speaking different languages and settled almost in all the provinces, but while Karachi was then the capital of the country, so naturally many lived there. Highly qualified bureaucrats, businessmen, eminent intellectuals, famous poets and renowned journalists and selfless politicians of the first and the second generation of the migrants counted themselves and felt proud to be the Pakistanis and not the ‘Mahajers’.

Altaf Hussain is a fascist and most notorious and brutal by his nature, mischievously chose ethnicity and language as the ground in forming his group, but it is horrible that he has ugly stains of blames, plotting the murder of a world fame figure, Hakeem Saeed Dhelvi and a famous journalist Muhammad Salahuddin, both migrants from India. Tariq Azeem, the founder chairman of MQM and many of the Urdu speaking young activists of his party were killed only because they dared to deviate from his lines. Now he is facing the blames of murder of Dr. Imran Farooq, one of the founder leaders and right hand of AH. Who are they who are used in looting, pillaging and target killing of dozens of innocent people in Karachi? Not anyone else but those who have gone in the following their leaders beyond limits. Why because their senses are too blunted to have any sympathetic and merciful feelings for mankind. To him ‘party ‘discipline’ means only his arbitrary decisions and his evil desires. Taking a different point of view in his party is thought perfidy, far more than violation of ‘party discipline’. And it is open in his party that the one who is perfidious deserves death.

(b) The Limits of Obedience and Cooperation Set by Islam

Quranic injunctions for collective and organizational life have great wisdom. Help and mutual cooperation with each other, may it be by the workers and supporters of the organizations or by relatives, friends and neighbors, is conditional to how much the matters requiring the cooperation are genuine and righteous. In the matters based on sin and transgression, one who renders cooperation becomes a partner in evil. The Quran strictly dissuades from helping the one, may he be showing regards and loyalty to the party leader or anyone from the ruling class, who commits sin, does any injustice and encroaches upon the rights of others.
“Help you one another in righteous and piety, but do not cooperate (help) in sin and transgression.” (Al-Maidah: 2)

The same principle is to be applied in case of obeying the orders of the group or party leaders. The Messenger of Allah, be peace and blessings upon him, has set the limits of carrying out the instructions and following dictations of the leaders. The necessity of discipline in properly running the organizations, established with lofty aims and noble objectives, is undeniable, but the rights of the leaders for getting their pronouncements and commands obeyed by the party workers are not unconditional and boundless. The term ‘As-Sama’ Wat-Ta’t’ in Hadith of the Holy Prophet, SAW, is the best interpretation of the notion of ‘Party Discipline.’ In an agreed upon Hadith the Messenger of Allah, be peace and blessings upon him, is reported to have said:
“Discipline (As-Sama’ Wat-Ta’at) is compulsory, regardless of obeying pleasantly or with an unpleasant feeling. But no obedience of the commands is in case of their being a sin. When they are commanded to commit a sin (Ma’siyah) then there is no Sama’ and no Ta’at (no room for obeying in the name of discipline).”

In another Hadith the Prophet, SAW, has said:
“Ta’at (obedience) is only in enjoinment of what is right.” (Bukhari)

Allah’s Messenger, be peace and blessings upon him, once warned:
“After me, there will be the rulers (heads of the organizations and parties are included) whose deeds will be out of Allah’s obedience. Those who will associate with them as partners in their (evil) acts and cooperate with them in their injustice will have no relation with me and I will have no link with them. And those who will remain away from them in their wrongfulness will be with me and I will be with them.” (Abu Dawud)


“No submission is for those who are created (men, jinn and Satan), in disobedience of the Creator.” (Ahmed, Hakem)

(c )Why This Happens?

Why it happens that in the political parties and major ethnic group criminals take importance, sometimes having leading positions in the organizations? Why the wolfish and atrocious natured elements gain sway over the policies and hold the rein of all evil activities without having anyone over them to stop their heinous acts of killing and looting, as we see it happening in Karachi, the largest city in almost entire Muslim world, where hundreds of the innocent people have been mercilessly murdered during last few months?

Actually the objectives, set at the early stage of their genesis, shape their total behavior and nature. Vice is never anticipated to breed a virtue. Evil proliferates only evil. Stagnant water creates offensive odour putrefying septic diseases through the mosquitoes grown in that stinky environment. Bigotry and racism stimulate snakes’ nature among the human beings with poison of hatred for which there is no antidote to cure. The men with this dangerous nature taken in the organizations become at the zero tolerance for the people keeping the ideology, thinking and way of action different from them.

When debauchery, hedonism and epicure-ism become core of the beastly desires of a selfish and heedless person like AH, who is so ignorant that to him the Quran is a book only to read (like novels and story books) and not the Divine Guidance for mankind, not the perfect Code of Life, not the Light illuminating the spheres of worldly life and hereafter, when unfortunately gains dominance over an organization, runs it according to his ignorant and foxy notions. For his princely life in London extortion and robbery become need of the party.