An Ordered Polity and Morality

Munir Ahmed Khalili
muneer.khalili@hotmail.com
Though we had not the angels to lead 90 millions Muslims of the sub-continent 63 years ago but during this period we have gone far away from our moral values used to be a major part of political characters. There was not a tough job to find out the leaders with sincerity, sacrifice and serving the nation without any ulterior motives, which are thought now to be totally outmoded values. Politics was neither a lifelong profession nor a heredity taken as a means to make huge fortunes for the generations to come. In the first three or four decades of twentieth century we had prominent leaders fighting for the freedom from the British imperialism, most of them with the title of ‘Maulana’ also intellectuals (writers, poets and thinkers) as well as men of high moral character. In the Pakistan Movement, despite that many opportunists had joined the caravan, still there were many courageous, men of belief and conscience and models of high morality. Divorcing the moral traits and leaving an ordered polity was a matter generally unthinkable then. Honesty, truthfulness and trustworthiness were the source of inspiration and sycophancy had a little chance to win the favours.
Very soon after foundation of Pakistan and demise of Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of the country, the secular lobbies hidden in the sleeves exposed themselves with their discrepancies and started their efforts to derail the country from its set goal of an Islamic state. Ideological confusions had started to surface. Muslim League, the party having a glowing feather of leading the nation to the freedom in its cap, was a bulk of ideological inconsistencies. First the community gets ideologically fragmented and then follows the splitting of its body, set back in its institutions and decay in its system. Feudal lords in the politics, civil and military bureaucracy with their hidden designs and left inclined intellectuals harboring in media were active to create ideological confusion. Keeping a nation ideologically united is a profoundly bigger task than guarding its physical and geographical unity. Once the ideological dovetails become loose the physical structure can easily be disunited. And really the same happened with us. Ideologically heading down resulted in loss of physical integrity of the country. We gave up the eastern part of the country lost.
A lot is said and written about the sanctity of the constitution. No doubt constitutions are very important documents to fix the leaks from where different institutions of the states leap across and meddle in each other’s affairs. It is not anything else but the constitution gives the preventive guidelines for different segments of the state machinery and saves any breach of the set terms. But has our constitution ever been successful in thwarting the transgressions of the military generals, bureaucracy or corrupt politicians? Not of course. Why? Because when there are no moral values to observe and no ordered polity then no binding of the constitution is guaranteed. Controlling the wayward powers in the machinery of the state is impossible as long as firm belief, a strong sense of morality and a vibrant conscience are not let to play their key role. Not only the military dictators the man himself who got the credit of giving the nation the 1973 constitution defiled it only for his personal interests. How trampling of the constitution can be precluded from the one to whom the enjoinments of the Quran, teachings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and strict moral values are not hallowed and sacred? Mockery is a big outlet for inner malignity and belittling the term ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ in a section of media in the newspaper columns and TV talk shows, is the phraseology of the same malignity. What actually Ideology of Pakistan is? Not anything else than the Quranic guidance and the pointers of the truth given by our Holy Prophet (pbuh) and running the matters of the state under the ethical traits. The constitution itself reflects the same spirit.
An ordered democratic polity and ethical code is indigestible to the political elements who have never been ready for a free and fair elections within the parties to get their leadership chosen by the votes of their workers. An ancestral patrimony is their most ugly tradition to follow. What the democracy, public opinion and will of the people have any weight and value for those who claim to get the immature, inexperienced and unworthy son of their slain leader consecutively three times as prime minister of the country. They think entire nation the slave of a political family forced to have it over their heads. To them only three or four families of the country, and some pressure groups have the right to rule and illegally and immorally gather huge of wealth using their political influence. Almost all of the political and religious parties have their leadership never elected by the workers. Jama’t-e-Islami might have many shortcomings in its policies and way of politics but it is so far only party in political and religious organizations holding regular elections after the end of the tenures set in its own dastoor (charter) to choose their leaders from lower to higher level and none of their former three Amirs had their sons or relatives as their descendent.
Islam has struck at the roots of the concept of indispensability of some particular families and making some personalities cult figures. This notion of pedigree is not but a spurious mandatory to lead the nation and country. A hadith related by Muslim says: “ Pedigree can not push someone forward whose acts and deeds left him behind”. This pedigree, a blow against the scruples and an open insult for free will of the people, has blocked the principled and ordered polity and opened the doors for monopoly, manipulation, corruption and nepotism. As long as we fail to root out pedigree and personality cult we are not likely to purge ourselves of the immorality housed in our politics and social life.