Pakistani News

Though the Swat peace deal is dead and another round of fighting and suffering is upon us, the role of its architect Maulana Sufi Mohammad isn't finished yet. Circumstances have made him a central character in the uncertain situation prevailing in Malakand region and beyond. The old cleric, now in his late 60s, is the key to making peace or triggering war in the mountainous northern parts of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

It is, therefore, logical that Tanzim Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) founder Sufi Mohammad's statements make headline news and his views are widely discussed. The media has been highlighting whatever the Maulana has to say and, in the process, generating one controversy after another. This was to be expected because Sufi Mohammad is a simple village clergyman espousing straightforward opinions on modern and complex issues. He was never known as an Islamic scholar and doesn't pretend to be one. But at the same time he likes to freely comment on topics that impact daily life and have something to do with the functions of the state.

Interviewing and seeking comments from Sufi Mohammad nowadays has become a favourite pastime of our media. His unconventional views are overly publicized and commented upon. Who else but the Maulana from Lal Qila in Lower Dir district's Maidan area is ready to declare at this point in modern times that democracy and Sharia are incompatible, that Pakistan's superior courts are un-Islamic and that women can only come out of their houses to perform Haj? At a time when most clerics are happy to be photographed, Sufi Mohammad isn't bothered if he is criticized for arguing that taking pictures is against the teachings of Islam. Unlike the past though, his followers despite banning cameras are largely unable to shield him from being filmed from afar by better-equipped photographers.

For those who have known Sufi Mohammad for sometime, his utterances are nothing new. He has been saying the same things for years but his opinions never made it to the front pages of newspapers in the old days due to his limited political role. Besides, the media wasn't so vibrant and intrusive at the time and television hadn't come of age in Pakistan. Also, the geopolitical situation was vastly different then. Having waged war along with several thousand of his black-turbaned TNSM followers as an ally of the Afghan Taliban following the October 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, Sufi Mohammad is a known enemy of America and a vocal critic of its policies. Any deal-making in Swat or in rest of Malakand division brokered by him cannot be acceptable to the US, which is concerned that Pakistani Taliban freed up after cessation of hostilities in the area would infiltrate Afghanistan and harm its own soldiers and also those from its Nato partners.

That Sufi Mohammad's views haven't changed in the past two decades or so could be verified from his speeches and statements in the late 1980s and during the 1990s. He founded TNSM on June 28, 1989 after dissociating from the Jamaat-i-Islami and giving up electoral politics. This clearly meant rejecting democracy and elections and embarking on a path of struggle whose battle-cry was "Sharia or Shahadat". In an interview with this writer in October 1994 just before his impatient followers picked up the gun in Swat and certain other districts of the then Malakand division, he explained his anti-democracy views with the same vigour that he is doing nowadays. For him, the judiciary then was 'English law' and, therefore, un-Islamic and unacceptable. His concept of Sharia then and now is a simple judicial system in which judges, or qazis as he referred to them, would preside courts and dispense quick and affordable justice. The chosen qazis were to match the specifications set forth by him both in terms of character and physical features, meaning they had to be pious and bearded. In Sufi Mohammad's scheme of things, the qazis were to enjoy a status higher than the deputy commissioner or the superintendent of police. His opinions must surely be 'breaking news' for all those who until now weren't fully aware of him and his organization. But for those who have known him all these years, his views are nothing new.

Everything about Sufi Mohammad and TNSM then was unconventional. He or his organization hasn't changed a bit in two decades. The TNSM letterhead at the time introduced Sufi Mohammad, son of Alhazrat Hasan, as a member instead of the head of the organization. The TNSM slogan was unity and its emblem the "Hajr-e-Aswad," the holy rock from the Heavens that is kept in the Khana-e-Ka'aba in Makkah and is kissed by pilgrims seeking blessings of Allah. A picture of the holy rock was reproduced on the simple letterhead. It also carried drawings of two white and black flags, the former being the main flag of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) and the latter his military standard. Even now, black-turbaned TNSM members carry the small white and black flags as they walk ahead of Sufi Mohammad.

It is also pertinent to mention that Sufi Mohammad did contest elections, winning a seat on the district council of Dir on the Jamaat-i-Islami ticket and representing his Maidan constituency for a while. In later years when he repudiated electoral politics, he campaigned for a boycott of the local government and assembly elections and achieved limited success only. The polls went ahead despite his calls for boycott and the turnout wasn't bad in a place to which he belonged. He may have reservations about women going outside their houses but girls' schools do function in his area and the female population isn't always home-bound. And despite his disliking for the existing system of justice, the conventional courts, even though named qazi courts after the promulgation of the Sharia Ordinance in 1994 as a result of the violent uprising by TNSM members in Swat, Dir and rest of Malakand and in Hazara's Kohistan's district, continued to operate in his native and surrounding areas.

Far more important than his controversial views is Sufi Mohammad's peace-making role. In a way, he and his TNSM followers are not much different than the Taliban, who under the leadership of his 33-year old son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah in Swat have played havoc with the lives of a hapless population and forcibly enforced their writ in the valley. The only difference is that Sufi Mohammad's men want to peacefully achieve their goal of Sharia while the Swat Taliban and their colleagues in Buner, Dir and elsewhere in Malakand region are ostensibly trying to reach this objective through violent means. Both groups of militants have the same worldview and are definitely pro-Taliban, though their strategy is different.

This was the reason that the Swat Taliban declared time and again that they would abide by the concept of Sharia and Nizam-e-Adl that is acceptable to Sufi Mohammad. By making the peace deal with him and his TNSM, the ANP-led provincial government in NWFP indirectly conceded the demand of the Swat Taliban. It wanted peace at any cost and this wasn't possible without involving Sufi Mohammad in the process and keeping him in good humour. However, it must have realized by now that Maulana Sufi Mohammad, unpredictable at times but still focused on achieving his goal of Sharia, is a hard taskmaster. His price for helping restore peace in Swat is not small. His realizes the centrality of his role in stabilizing the situation in the whole of Malakand region. You have to give him the Sharia and the Darul Qaza, or appellate court, of his choice and tolerate his controversial views on a host of subjects or annoy him and let the situation in Swat, Buner, Dir and elsewhere in Malakand and NWFP take its own course.

The News
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Rahimullah Yusufzai