For the past decade, religion has been at the center of former prime minister Imran Khan’s politics. Populist politicians frequently mix religion and politics and use it to their benefit, especially in the Indian Subcontinent, which has a history of leaders using religion to woo their supporters. From Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah demanding partition exclusively based on religion to PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government passing the second constitutional amendment declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims, this phenomenon is all too familiar.
Not to mention General Zia ul Haq’s Islamization process which did undoable damage to the country.
The history of this phenomenon dates back centuries. In 1857, when the Mughal Empire breathed its last and power transitioned from the Muslims to the British Raj, Muslims were humiliated by the Raj, whereas Hindus were quick to adapt to the methods of their new masters. But the demoralized and humiliated Muslim nation without power for the first time in centuries was not so quick in adapting to the changing circumstances. Instead of introspecting on their own failures, they were quick to bring in Islam and saw their loss as a divine punishment. They thought that Allah had inflicted his anger and displeasure on the Muslims because they didn’t follow the teachings of Islam and left the path of the Almighty, and for Muslims to reclaim their glory, they must return to Islam.
Eight years after the rebellion against the British, in 1866, Dar ul-Uloom Deoband was established by two renowned Muslim scholars, Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi. The effort was first aimed at preaching Jihad against the British Raj; as viewed by Nanautavi, “European Christians were now masters of the land long ruled by Indian Muslims”. Similarly, for Khan, he is the only one who deserves to have the throne which was “stolen” from him by his political rivals.
He promised an Islamic utopia to his followers and sought their loyalty by promising to turn Pakistan into a “Riasat e Madina” (state of Medina), but failed. In October 2018, the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced its verdict in blasphemy-accused Christian woman Asia Bibi’s case and acquitted her. The verdict sparked fierce outrage from Islamic hardliners, whom Khan once sided with during the Faizabad protests against the then government of Pakistan Muslim League – N (PML-N) just a year ago. Workers and supporters of religious extremist group, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) took to the streets and vandalized public property. Khan then addressed the nation and defended the Supreme Court’s verdict, only to take a u-turn later. Khan played the politics of appeasement and capitulated to the demands of the TLP. It was the first of many instances where his government sided with hardliners to appease them. In October 2021, a parliamentary committee rejected the Anti-Forced Conversion Bill, which criminalized forced conversions, terming the bill “anti-Islamic and against the Constitution of Pakistan.”
Imran Khan also formed the “Rehmatul-lil-Alameen Authority”, tasked with keeping the state structure in alignment with the teachings of Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Writing for The Express Tribune in January 2022, Imran Khan laid more emphasis on the purpose of Rehmatul-lil-Alameen authority, which would engage in “amr bil maroof” (doing good), with its primary duty being the moral, ethical, and spiritual development of youth at the school and university levels.
This is where Imran Khan was wrong. Religion is a private matter. No state should use its authority to intervene in it at any level, as it drifts the state away from its other obligations. The continuous use of religion in politics also shifts the focus of public debate away from real-world issues, such as law and order, poverty, inflation, governance, terrorism, etc., that weaker democracies like Pakistan face. But for Khan It appears that he has mastered the art of nationalism. The agitation we saw since April 2022, which peaked on May 9, was to create a political crisis to force the state to bow down before Khan directly, but he failed to make that happen.
Imran Khan thinks the country cannot survive without him. He does not believe in dialogue, and he is willing to hold negotiations with the Taliban but not with his political rivals. Since the vote of no confidence against him, Khan has played all his hands to force one political crisis after another. First, his party resigned from the National Assembly, 123 of his party members submitted their resignation en masse to the speaker of the National Assembly and walked out of the parliament. Then Khan dissolved the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies; his party was majority in both provinces, yet he failed to get early elections.
The current position of Khan is like that of a lone warrior who burned all his boats long before entering the endgame. Now a challenge awaits him at the battlefront. To keep his warriors charged up to fight the battle, he needs something. With no governance performance to his credit to show to his supporters, he will be on a Religious Nationalism run. One cannot ask or expect Khan to stop using the religion card, because it pays dividends without any big investment.
The writer is a graduate of FAST National University.
