Our Miserable Experience with Democracy

After the release of the judicial commission’s report Imran Khan addressed a press conference insisting on his stance on rigging done in General Elections 2013. He suggested that the judiciary did not go as far as it should have in comprehensively investigating the rigging allegations. The PTI Chief’s allegations resulted in PTI supporters attacking the judiciary on social media. Their argument is: the judiciary is weak and in servitude to the political and military elites. The election commission is incompetent and ineffective. The parliament is illegitimate and irrelevant. The executive is corrupt and self serving. The media is in control of the rich and powerful.

This is pretty much a case against the whole system. Yet the conclusion is that democracy should continue. So our personal experience with democracy as a whole is that it fails on all counts yet somehow we continue to stick with it. So what explains this baffling gap between experience and convictions? A number of arguments are presented but the main argument is as follows: we must ignore our experience and rely on the experience of the West. Democracy worked for them, we can see it. It must work for us. And if it doesn’t (which it isn’t) it is not because there is something wrong with democracy, definitely we are messing it up somewhere, the problem lies with us not democracy or the West.

Interestingly democracy in its essence is a system which makes human experience a source of law. Ironically those who support democracy in Muslim lands point to foreign experience as evidence for its support in Muslim lands. Democracy is a colonial force. The worst legacy of colonialists after they physically left Muslim lands was the colonization of the Muslim mind. This is what explains the gap between our experience and our convictions. The Muslim mind in the colonial era was built around Western ideals like gradual change, sovereignty of parliament, nation state, international law, feminism, the idea of freedoms and finding solutions through compromise instead of principles. Using these ideals when we analyze our own experience with democracy we reject the idea of flaws within it and look for impractical solutions elsewhere; in charismatic leaders who lead us back in to this failed system or our own moral failings leading to inferiority complex when compared to the West.

Experience is a good guide, although not a source of law. And we must rely on own experience exclusively. The Muslim World’s experience with Islam in authority was phenomenal. The Khilafah state was the world’s leading political, economic and military power. It is time to rely solely upon our own intellectual and political experience, reject democracy, and call for re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah State.

General Raheel Paves the Way for the US Plan for China

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif reiterated on 31 July his reso­lve that any attempt to obstruct or impede the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project would be thwarted at all costs. Speaking on occasion of the Chinese army’s 88th anniversary, he said cooperation on the CPEC would benefit the entire region. According to ISPR, the COAS said recent strides and the holistic concept of the CPEC spoke volumes in this regard. “We will see both nations progressing and further maximising the dividend of our geostrategic relations.” Gen Sharif said both countries had deep and resolute relations. “The all-weather friendship is sweeter than honey, higher than the Himalayas and deeper than oceans. Our friendship will further grow in these testing times.”

As with all of his policies, General Raheel Shareef is following the American plan towards China, whilst portraying it as an independent strong initiative. The United States needs Chinese support for its continued presence in Afghanistan, by allowing it to take a share in the economic spoils of Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a loyal US agent, Raheel is assuring China of economic benefits through the CPEC, turning a blind eye to China’s brutal suppression of the Muslims of East Turkestan, as well as ensuring its role in talks over Afghanistan through Pakistan’s influence over the Taliban. Thus, the Taliban visited Beijing, and China is supporting Pakistan to put pressure on the Afghan Taliban movement to achieve reconciliation with Ghani’s government. This cannot be interpreted as China wanting to take America’s place in Afghanistan, but on the contrary, the interests of Beijing and Washington are in harmony with the issue of stability in Afghanistan. In this regard, a US official said, “The United States and China have agreed to work together to support the Government of Afghanistan, and national unity, and the security forces, and economic development; to ensure that Afghanistan is not used once again as a safe haven for terrorists.” [“China progressing in the stalled peace talks with the Afghan Taliban,” Economic Times, February 13, 2015]. Here, the US official is indicating Chinese concern over support from Afghan territory for the Muslim resistance in East Turkestan.

Only the establishment of the Khilafah will bring forth rulers who will end the exploitation of the Muslims at the hands of the world’s major powers, such as China and America. It will work actively to end the oppression of the Kuffar within Muslim Lands, whether East Turkestan or elsewhere. This brave and independent stance is because the rulers in the Khilafah will be bound by the commands and prohibitions of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and His Messenger rather than the dictates and interests of the Kuffar nations.

Regime Chokes Economy with Overwhelming Taxation

An overwhelming majority of traders — retailers and wholesalers both — across the country kept their shutters down on 1 August in protest against the Nawaz Sharif government’s decision on extension of the scope of withholding tax (WHT) on banking transactions. Despite differences among the traders’ organisations over the schedule, most markets in major cities and smaller towns across the country remained closed in conformity with the call for strike. The withholding tax will apply to cash withdrawals as well as all transfers over Rs50,000 per day made through any financial instrument or account-to-account payments — and double its rate to 0.6 per cent for the non-filers. The one-day strike call was given by a faction of the All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajiran (APAT) led by Naeem Mir. The rival Khalid Pervez group has called a countrywide strike for 5 August.

Sufficient revenues in the state treasury are essential for looking after the affairs of the people and managing the state expenses, such as the armed forces, health and education. However, in Pakistan’s current system, both democracy and dictatorship take turns to secure the economic interests of the Kaffir colonialists and a small band of agent-traitors in the military and political leadership. To achieve this, the World Bank, IMF in cahoots with the government selectively employ humiliating policies of taxation and privatization. These policies deprive the population of public ownership of huge sources of revenue and then leaves the people to take the burden of the expenses of the state, by imposing an entire host of taxes, that choke economic activity and add to the people’s misery, usurping what private wealth they have left. Taxation on buying food, clothing, shelter, earning, inheritance, administration, health and education, renders them “luxuries” for the “privileged” few, and not guaranteed needs for all. Moreover, on the expenses side, the expenditure is primarily to secure the needs of the Kaffir colonialists and their agents, leaving the affairs of the people neglected. This is the reality of Pakistan’s revenue and expenditure under the colonialist system no matter whosoever comes to rule, and regardless of whether the appearance of the rule is democratic or dictatorship.

Unlike Capitalism, Islam does not rely on taxation on income and consumption as a dominant means to generate revenue. Its revenue generation is based on accrued wealth beyond the basic needs, as well as upon actual production. Even when the Khilafah does tax, it is with stringent conditions that are based upon accumulated wealth, so it does not penalize poor and under privileged who are unable to secure their basic needs. This is possible because partly because of the huge revenue that the state will generate from state owned and publicly owned enterprises such as energy resources, machinery and infrastructure manufacture and partly through Islam’s unique revenue laws, which increase distribution of the wealth, rather than its concentration.

Establish Khilafah through the Nussrah of the Armed Forces

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has rejected rumours about an in-house conspiracy in the army and said there is no room for success of such a plot within the disciplined and professional force. Talking to reporters on 3 August after inaugurating an online application system introduced by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), he said it was not possible for a few officers to replace the army chief. “The army has neither been a victim of an in-house conspiracy in the past nor could it happen in the days to come,” he added. Chaudhry Nisar dismissed as “ridiculous and baseless” the rumours suggesting that a plot had been hatched up by some army officers to replace Army Chief General Raheel Sharif during the days of PTI’s sit-in in Islamabad last year.

In spite of the Interior Minister’s insistence, it is an open secret that the means of any regime change in Pakistan is the armed forces. Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif through the help of Director General ISI and the Corps Commanders of Rawalpindi and Karachi. Subsequently, the Army Chiefs have ensured that the armed forces lend their support to Democracy and have explicitly stated that. Power lies within the armed forces in Pakistan and it is the critical path for establishing political orders. So far Pakistan’s experience has been of using the support of the armed forces for democratic and dictatorial political orders. It is necessary to examine this subject from the viewpoint of Islam to see the role of the people of power within establishing Islam as a political order, state and authority.

We can see clearly from the Sunnah of RasulAllah ﷺ that as well as building opinion within the masses for Islam, he actively sought the Nussrah (Material Support) of the armed forces. RasulAllah ﷺ stripped the Kufr rule of its physical support from those who had the material power to secure its survival. RasulAllah ﷺ personally met the men of war, fire and steel, and demanded from them the Nussrah for the Deen. RasulAllah ﷺ travelled near and far, in hardship and in ease, to secure the Nussrah for Islam as a state. He ﷺ sought the strong, discerning material capability in detail, asking و هل عند قومك منعة؟  “Do your people have strength?” and rejecting those too weak to secure Islam from its enemies. Thus he met many tribes including; Banu Kalb, Banu Hanifah, Banu Amr bin Sa’asah, Banu Kinda and Banu Shaiban.  He ﷺ persisted in this methodology patiently until Allah granted success in the matter of Nussrah, with the Ansaar (ra), a small but sincere and brave group from within the men of war. And so Nussrah for Islam as a rule was secured by the methodology of the Prophethood, transforming the torn and divided Yathrib into a powerful beacon for Islam, Madinah Al-Manawwarah.

The methodology of the Prophethood for establishing Islam demands Nussrah from its people, which in the case of Pakistan is its armed forces.

There is no Wisdom in Creating Threats and then Facing Them

“We are fully prepared to respond to entire spectrum of threat,” Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif said while chairing a corps commanders’ conference at the General Headquarters on 4 August 2015. “India is escalating the situation. There is a pattern to these violations that are on the rise. Civilians are being killed and private properties being damaged,” an official observed while briefing this reporter about the meeting. The army chief’s reference to thwarting Indian aggression across the threat spectrum, the military official explained, meant that the army was ready to dealing with the situation on the LoC and WB, as well as India’s alleged support to militant groups inside the country. The army had been accusing India of fomenting unrest in Balochistan, Fata and Karachi. The meeting also reviewed the domestic security situation taking stock of the ongoing intelligence-based operations (IBOs) across the country and military operation, Zarb-i-Azb, in North Waziristan.

There is no doubt about the strength of the Pakistan’s Armed Forces by the grace of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. However, there is no wisdom in allowing threats to come into existence on our soil through our own hands. From the time of the Congress rule in India, the Hindus have fomented strife within Pakistan to destabilize it. Wisdom dictates striking the threat at the root, preventing it from occurring in the first place. Yet, India is allowed to operate within Pakistan through its diplomatic missions. In addition, the BJP-led India’s chief patron, America, not only has diplomatic missions on our soil, it has private military and intelligence assets on the ground.

So we are being made to face threats that we ourselves have allowed to come into being. Only the Khilafah will treat our enemies as enemies, denying them any opportunity to foment threats to our security. The Khilafah will end the presence of all belligerent, hostile nations on our soil. Allah سبحانه وتعالى said,

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِم بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُ‌وا بِمَا جَاءَكُم مِّنَ الْحَقِّ يُخْرِ‌جُونَ الرَّ‌سُولَ وَإِيَّاكُمْ ۙ أَن تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّـهِ رَ‌بِّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ خَرَ‌جْتُمْ جِهَادًا فِي سَبِيلِي وَابْتِغَاءَ مَرْ‌ضَاتِي ۚ تُسِرُّ‌ونَ إِلَيْهِم بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَأَنَا أَعْلَمُ بِمَا أَخْفَيْتُمْ وَمَا أَعْلَنتُمْ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْهُ مِنكُمْ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيل

“O you who have believed, do not take My enemies and your enemies as allies, extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in what came to you of the truth, having driven out the Prophet and yourselves [only] because you believe in Allah, your Lord. If you have come out for jihad in My cause and seeking means to My approval, [take them not as friends]. You confide to them affection, but I am most knowing of what you have concealed and what you have declared. And whoever does it among you has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way.”

(Surah Al-Mumtahina 60:1)

Rule of Force to Suppress the Duty of Jihad

On 5 August 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the establishment of the military courts by a majority judgement of 11 to six, even though the court has kept with itself the power to review the punishment awarded. The Supreme Court also makes it clear that it can review any federal government decision to refer a case to the military manned special court under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952. Though the order provided no details on how the SC plans to oversee the government or the review procedure, legal experts feel that appeals will not start pouring into the Supreme Court after every sentence awarded by the military court.

A widespread debate has arisen in Pakistan over the militarization of the judiciary. It is evident that the use of military in ruling is dangerous. Ruling derives its authority from agreement of the people. It maintains its authority through persuasion. Ruling by force leads to instability in the society as it estranges the people. However, the debate needs to expand to include the reason why force is being used and not persuasion. The reason is that the West, led by America, has failed in its battle for the hearts and minds of the Muslims. It has failed to persuade the Muslims to abandon their desire to end the Western hegemony, exploitation and occupation of Muslim Lands. This failure was inevitable due to the love of the Muslims for Allah سبحانه وتعالى and His Messenger ﷺ, desire for the dominance of Islam and Jihad against the Kuffar enemy.

So the West has taken to using force to suppress the political expression of Islam and the physical resistance of the American occupation of Afghanistan. And it has mobilized all its agents in the Muslim Lands for the same, with Pakistan as a significant arena for its battle to suppress Islam. Only the Khilafah state will ensure that the judiciary and military act according to the aspirations of the Muslims, which emanates from their most prized possession Islam. It will order Jihad against the aggressor and mobilize the military to assist those who resist occupation all over the world.