The Moderate way

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamat-e-Islami – A Case Study

Note: - The seat adjustment between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamat-e-Islami is only chosen as an example to study the general phenomena for the creation of a moderate society. The Author is fully aware that the two parties are no more accommodating each other for seat adjustment.   

The liberals and the conservatives, the leftists and the rightists shall all be given the immunity towards communicating their opinions in a democratic society. Any negation of such rights is actually negating democracy. Societies over the time learn from all these cliques they have inside them. This sectionalization of societies is essential towards the evolution of a moderate state. A leftist only exist because he is anti-rightist. The distinctness of liberalism will languish if the existence of conservatism is brought to question.

Pakistan is warming up for democracy, and we shall all see the shining democracy of the world after Elections 2013. But the maturity of understanding this phenomenal solution called democracy for the civilizations will prevail over time. In Pakistan the debate is not about leftists or rightists it’s more about liberalism and conservatism. And this debate has conflagrated after the seat adjustment of Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf with Jamat-e-Islami.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is an emerging political force in Pakistan and seen as the party of progressive minded people. Its ideology and its name are not religiously endorsed. Therefore it is able to attract different segments of the society. Whereas Jamat-e-Islami has been an old political player. It is the first religious political party to ensure democracy within itself. Clearly its name and its ideology come in a religious packing, which is not agreeable to those who dream for a secular Pakistan. Now these two aspects may sound like antithetical but it also depends on how you look at them. The perspective of looking at them shall come later.

In the wake of recent events over the past years the society has become highly polarized. The killing of Salman Taseer, shooting Malala Yusuf Zai, intolerance towards minorities, killing of Shias all these events have further stretched the two portions of society apart from each other. The ones who were not to be blamed were also blamed and hence fostering the conflicts. Both entities see each other as a probable menace towards their ideologies. That is why the overly done reaction over the seat adjustment of two political parties is no surprise. 

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf does not want to have an alliance with any political party who had their involvement in the ex-government. Jamat-e-Islami on the other hand does not want an alliance with those political parties who have corruption charges on them. Because of almost the similar reasoning both of them opted for one another. Now in this whole line of reasoning one cannot think of any nascence of dispute between the two ends. One can further cogitate to ameliorate the reasoning on which the dispute between two streams of society can rest.

Imran Khan after his clear opposition of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi became an iconic merit figure and most of the liberal chunk of the society assumed Tehreek-e-Insaf to be a liberal political party. This was the time when the liberal section of society extended its support towards Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. But the picture became tainted after the announcement of seat adjustment of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamat-e-Islami.  Jamat-e-Islami other than being religiously endorsed also has another controversy in its sleeves. This is related to the comments of ameer of Jamat-e-Islami on the issue of the rape victims. This became a main shout out for the liberal section of society which opposed this alliance and became a reason of bedlam. 

This reaction on this seat adjustment is not only related to these two political parties but it defines a mindset which the people of Pakistan have developed; either its good or bad it is not for us to judge. The only thing which can be done is emphasizing the evolution of a moderate society. One must empathize that any section of society being left alone will only lead it towards more extreme ideologies than it ever had before. This will only grant the right of manipulation to those who take the advantage of this deprivation.

The liberal section of society did vent their anger out on the statement about female rape victims. But the same section denied any chance being given to work together so that they can moderate the opinions which they find extreme. This seat adjustment between the two political parties could be seen as a bridge to minimize the polarization of our society, though it did not reach its conclusion but nevertheless it’s a good example to study. Such political alliances give the chance to both liberals and conservatives to work with each other and to moderate each other opinions.

Since the humanity up till now is unable to find an alternative solution to democracy therefore one must stick with the rules of democracy. The conservatives are in mass numbers in our society so they must be given a fair chance to represent themselves. And liberals should take the lead here as they stand out for freedom of speech. But unfortunately both are in the same water and equally soaked. The reaction over this seat adjustment is an example to this inability of these sections to work together. The existence of both these divisions is requisite to ensure a moderate state.

Moral: - The working together of all sections of society with different beliefs, ideologies and opinions is the only way forward towards a moderate society.