Real Change is in Change of System, Not Merely Change of Faces
As a new survey was released that indicated that the majority of Pakistan’s youth support an Islamic state as opposed to democracy, Pakistan’s ruling elite backed by the judiciary attempted to revive hope in the democratic system, by disqualifying potential aspirants to the National and Provincial Assembly seats under the pretext of Articles 62 & 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Such desperate measures are being taken as the survey by the British Council suggested that a staggering 94% of the young generation, aged between 16 and 29 years, believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction, expressing their desire for real change in Pakistan. Afraid of the role of the Muslim youth in the Arab spring, who played a vital role in bringing down the decades old political order in the Middle East, the ruling elite in Pakistan is trying to channel the disillusionment of the youth from democracy by redefining the idea of change from a radical change of the system to a mere, cosmetic change of faces.
By disqualifying the aspirants to provincial and national assemblies on the pretext that they are corrupt and incompetent, the rulers want to convey a message that corruption and rot lies in the individuals who rule, and not the system itself, according to which they rule. But the reality of the matter is that corruption and rot lies in democracy, a system which Pakistan inherited as a legacy of the British Colonialists and which has served to secure the interests of colonialists and their agents in the civilian and military leadership for over six decades. Allah (swt) alone is the Legislator and He has defined in the Quran the criterion for the legitimate rulers.
وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُوْلَـٰئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَاسِقُونَ
“And those who do not rule by what Allah has revealed are the transgressors”
(Al-Maida, 5:47)
It is not enough that pious individuals with a clean financial record are elected, as rulers if they rule by laws which are not revealed by the Almighty, rather it is forbidden in Islam to be part of a system which allows election of men who are so-called “clean and pious”, but rule by Kufr laws. Democracy stipulates that human beings make laws by allowing the majority to legislate according to their whims and desires. Islam prohibits Muslims to rule by anything other that what Allah (swt) has revealed and demands that every law be derived from the Quran and Sunnah. Allah says in the Quran:
فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَآءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ
“So judge between them by what Allah has revealed and follow not their vain desires diverging away from the truth that has come to you”
(Al-Maida, 5:48)
Real change in Pakistan will not come through the mere change of faces even if they are “Sadiq” or “Amin”. Real change in Pakistan will come when a “Sadiq” and “Amin” system is in place, a Khilafah implementing Islam in its entirety. We call upon the people of Pakistan to reject the idea of change of faces as a farce and join the struggle for changing the corrupt system of democracy by calling for the complete and comprehensive implementation of Islam through the Khilafah state.
Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Wilayah of Pakistan
Sunday, 26th Jamada Al-Awwal 1434 AH
07/04/2013 CE
No: PR13036