As RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم is Insulted Flagrantly, Regime Allows Severe Petrol Crisis to Cripple the People’s Ability to Protest
As the petrol crisis in Pakistan deepened, with queues of hundreds of cars outside petrol pumps in Lahore, waiting for hours for rationed petrol, Nawaz Sharif suspended officials on 17 January. However, the cause and timing of the crisis is subject to suspicion. The regime’s debt to Pakistan State Oil has stood for several months. Land freight from the Karachi seaport has been ongoing, despite the severe fog. Moreover, the Dawn reported on 19 January, that oil imports have actually increased in recent months, stating “According to officials, total oil imports over the last three months of 2014 and the first 15 days of January stood at 797,200 tons, slightly higher than previous year’s 778,975 tons.” So what is going on? The answer is that in the wake of the re-publication of the cartoons insulting RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم by Charlie Hebdo Magazine, protests have erupted throughout the Muslim Lands, including war torn Syria. Fearing huge demonstrations in Pakistan, the regime yet again allowed a crisis to occur, effectively throwing the population into confusion, frustration and chaos.
This is the regime’s response to blasphemy against RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم, to cripple the people from responding, whilst it itself is negligent. It is infuriating when once considers the response of the Khilafah, even in its weakest period, before the First World War. At that time, France, a major world power, staged a play ridiculing RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم. Khaleefah Abdul Hameed II summoned the French ambassador and kept him waiting for hours. He then emerged in full battle dress, wielding a sword, who he placed point-first before the ambassador, before sending him away. France immediately retracted the play. Without a Khaleefah to invest the might of the Muslim armed forces in defense of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم, the Muslims witness wave after wave of insults. Should we not ask: If our armed forces are not to move for the love of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم, then what are they to move for?
Energy Crisis Will Afflict Pakistan as Long as There is no Khilafah
The current oil crisis has already brought down electricity generation by over 2,000MW, raising the deficit to 7,000MW and cutting supplies to half of the total demand of over 14,000MW. More power plants are likely to suspend working in a few days because they are running out of furnace oil, the power sector’s managers warned on 17 January.
Pakistan is being crippled because of the privatization of the oil and electricity sectors. Pakistan State Oil is the largest Oil Marketing Company (OMC) in Pakistan. With a market share of over 60% of the total oil market, PSO is the country’s largest company in terms of turnover. During FY2014 PSO recorded all time high sales revenue, operating profit, after tax earnings and market capitalization. Sales revenue stood at Rs 1.4 trillion compared to Rs 1.29 trillion during the Same Period Last Year (SPLY), registering a growth of 9%. After tax earnings rose by 73% to Rs 21.8 billion as compared to Rs 12.6 billion during SPLY. Moreover, PSO is also the largest fuel oil Supplier to the electricity sector across Pakistan including Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Gencos. Private companies cannot provide energy as a service and a right for all citizens, for that is the job of a responsible and caring state. This is why privatization is directly responsible for the fuel and power shortages, the load-shedding. So, private owners reduce their contribution to fuel and power to prevent falling into loss through debts owed to them.
Only the Khilafah can end this affliction. Unlike Capitalism and Communism, Islam has declared that energy is neither a private nor a state property but a public property for all the Muslims. RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم said,
«المسلمون شرکاء فی ثلاث الماء والکلاء والنار»
“Muslims are partners in three things: water, pastures and fire (energy)” [Abu Dawood.].
Thus, although the Khilafah state takes charge of managing the public property and state property, it is not permitted for the Khalifah to grant the ownership of the public property to any private party, whether an individual or group, as it is a property for all Muslims. Revenues are for the public, looking after its affairs and securing its interests, and not for the state. This applies to all the abundant wealth of public property, whether energy, such as petroleum, gas, electricity or replenishable minerals, such as copper and steel, or water, such as seas, rivers and dams, or pastures and forests.
The Killers of Children Against Whom there is no Action Plan
352,000 children under age five die in Pakistan every year, in circumstances which are preventable (Tribune Editorial, ‘Killing our children’, 19 Jan 2015). 2014 saw 1,800 deaths from measles. Pakistan has the world’s highest rate of first-day deaths and still-births at 40.7 per 1000. 28,000 women die in childbirth each year, in part, no doubt, because 50% of women give birth without a skilled attendant. Many of these circumstances in which these deaths occur are the result largely of political corruption and apathy. Basic health services that should be available across the country are entirely missing in many areas and insufficient in many others. The funds needed to fill these gaps are instead filling the pockets of the ruling class and their families and friends.
Children are an invaluable blessing from Allah. The loss of a child is a most difficult thing to bear. We saw the country-wide outpouring of grief and anger at the killing of over a hundred innocent children in Peshawar by heartless criminals of shadowy origin. But for these thousands who die due to the heartless criminality of well-known rulers, there is no such outpouring. There is no ‘National Action Plan’ and no urgency to act in correcting this deplorable state of affairs.
Gunning down children in a school is without doubt an act of barbaric immorality. But what about the act of consciously building your own personal empire knowing full-well that part of the repercussion is the death of young children who won’t even get the chance to go to school? What of the act of putting your own stomach in front of the lives of children. Surely, that it equally barbaric. This, among numerous other indications, shows us clearly that it is not the deaths of children whether in Peshawar or elsewhere that moves the political or military leadership to act. It is their own narrow and selfish agendas. They themselves are the core problem in Pakistan against whom the people need an action plan. Only through the removal of this ruling class and its replacement by a sincere Islamic leadership will Pakistan move forward in dealing with its myriad issues, be it violence, health, economy or any other area.
Praising Jihad in the Path of Allah سبحانه وتعالى is Now a Crime
The Punjab government has promulgated an ordinance on 20 January 2015 which bans glorification of terrorists and their outfits at any forum and in the media. It regulates manufacture or sale of uniforms of law-enforcement agencies. The Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, which amends the identical law of 1960, is part of the legal reform measures the government is taking to curb terrorism. The ordinance promulgated on Tuesday says, “A person shall not, by words spoken or written, use any formal forum to support terrorism or terrorists, or attempt to create sympathy for any terrorist or terrorist organisation, or to oppose action of Pakistan army, air or naval force, police or Rangers against any terrorist or terrorist organisation.”
So, any Muslim who raises his voice against the American Raj, or calls the people for the implementation of Islam or praises Jihad against the Kuffar enemy occupying forces is now to be persecuted harshly and prevented from access to the media. The Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, declared on 21 December, “Nobody can be allowed to glorify terrorists through media.” Thus, in the gloom of chaos and misery, the regime seeks to stamp out those who are beacons of light and guidance for the people. This is even though RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم commanded enjoining the good and forbidding the evil as a duty, whose neglect has dire consequences. RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم said,
«وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ، لَتَأْمُرُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ، وَلَتَنْهَوُنَّ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ، وَلَتَأْخُذُنَّ عَلَى يَدِ الظَّالِمِ، وَلَيَأْطِرُنَّهُ عَلَى الْحَقِّ أَطْرًا، أَوْ لَيَضْرِبَنَّ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَ بَعْضِكُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ، وَلَيَلْعَنَنَّكُمْ كَمَا لَعَنَهُمْ»
“By the One in Whose Hands my soul lies, you must enjoin the good and you must forbid the evil, and you must seize the hand of the oppressor and you must confine him to the truth, or Allah سبحانه وتعالى will strike your hearts one against another and curse you as he cursed them (Bani Israeel).” [Tabaraani]
Ideological Incompetence Will Only End Upon Islam’s implementation
The petrol crisis eased a bit on 21 January as the gap between demand and supply started narrowing. The government set up a ‘situation room’ to coordinate countrywide supplies and monitor round-the-clock sales position. Debate is raging about government incompetence. Nawaz Sharif’s incompetence has contributed to the petrol crisis, there is no doubt about it, but it is not just his administrative incompetence which the media and the people have focused upon, it is his ideological incompetence which is the main contributor to this recent crisis.
What does it matter? One may ask. The man is a self-serving and greedy. Incompetence of whatever kind is incompetence? It matters because it helps in the diagnosis of the problem. Poor administrators need to be replaced by better administrators. Poor ideologies need to be replaced by the best ideology. At the heart of the petrol crisis is the capitalist idea of private businesses leading the economy. The idea that private businesses should share in, rather exclusively lead the provision of services. Simply put, this means that services which should be in the domain of the state would be provided by private businesses. But private businesses are setup to make profits. So what if the private businesses don’t make profit. What would happen to service provision? Exactly what we are witnessing in the recent petrol crisis. And this is the flawed idea at the heart of the energy crisis in Pakistan whether it is the shortage of electricity, gas, CNG or petrol. The idea of private businesses owning energy resources and the state allowing them to do so is an outcome of the flawed ideology, Capitalism.
So do we need to replace the administrator or the ideology? Islam mandates that electricity, gas, CNG and petrol cannot be owned by private businesses, neither by the state. They are owned by the masses and administered by the state. We need to replace the capitalist idea with the Islamic idea. We need to replace democracy, the ruling system of capitalism with Khilafah, the ruling system of Islam.