Pakistan has the second largest number of performers of Haj and Umra but stands at number 126 as far as honesty and integrity are concerned. The National Accountability Bureau and the Anti-Corruption Establishments have failed to curb corruption. Special courts should be set up to try corrupt elements in the shortest possible time, to be stipulated by law. (Source: Nation)
Comment:
The very existence of Pakistan is a proof of what people can achieve if they and their leader are on the same page, and its current situation is an example of how not having an honest, strong and clear agenda for the future can ruin all the efforts of past and present. Muslims performing religious obligations and carrying religious symbols, like beard or hijab, are often judged as hypocritical while crime prevails and justice is denied. What the analysts need to see is that acts of worship are done freely by the people and show their love for the religion. If people spend their money and energies to gain Allah’s pleasure, why would they refuse to live under the rule advised by Him?
Capital punishment is practiced in some countries and is thought to have been helpful in controlling the crime rate. As these punishments are adopted by the governments to enforce their own rule and the intentions are nor to serve the people neither to please the Creator. So, in a superficial way, harsh punishment may seem to be stopping the crime, but this is by creating fear of the rulers. Courts and judges become a pawn for the government and remove all the obstacles in the way of ruling. We have the recent examples of Saudi Arabia where scholars are detained for raising their voices. Scholars like Salman al-Awda face the death penalty for refusing to be a mouthpiece of the Government. We are all witness to the atrocities being committed on Yemen by Saudi Arabia and are also witness to the silence of the judges. In Pakistan, throughout the history courts and judges have been used in the big political game. From the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the arrest and recent release of Nawaz Sharif and so on. This judicial system feeds on corruption as its foundations are laid by the corrupt. Believing that implementing a few capital punishments can resolve the bribery issue from the system in which files are handed to the judges under a pile of money is wrong. This system, along with its upholders, is rotten and the only solution is for it to be discarded. Any promise to fix it is a trick to delay.
Capital punishment is not the way to punish corruption according to Islam. Such cases would be dealt with by the Qadi Mazalim but he would only be appointed if we have a Khalifah as ruler. Islam provides us with a comprehensive system of punishment rules, and only those rules under a just ruler can bring relief to the people of this Ummah. A ruler who will be a true follower of Rasool Allah ﷺ and his Sahabah (ra) and who would be implementing Allah’s laws upon the society fairly and thus will be resolving the issues accordingly.
«يَوْمٌ مِنْ إِمَامٍ عَدْلٍ أَفْضَلُ مِنْ عِبَادَةِ سِتِّينَ سَنَةٍ وَحَدٌّ يُقَامُ فِى الأَرْضِ بِحَقِّهِ أَزْكَى فِيهَا مِنْ مَطَرِ أَرْبَعِينَ يَوْمًا»
A day under a just leader is better than sixty years of worship, while the hadd (proscribed punishment) established on the earth according to its right is better than forty days of rain” (Bayhaqi/Tabarani)
Ikhlaq Jehan