Headlines:
- US Paradigm Shift for Indian Subcontinent Compels Muslims to Establish the Khilafah
- Expensive Electricity and Electricity Shortages are the Bitter Fruits of Privatization of Public Property
- PTI and PML-N Clash is Pointless in the Absence of an Islamic Judiciary to Take Rulers to Task
US Paradigm Shift for the Indian Subcontinent Compels Muslims to Establish the Khilafah
The Dawn reported on 29 May 2017 that during a hearing on Afghanistan at the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Dan Coats, US National Intelligence Director said, “Pakistan is concerned about international isolation and sees its position through the prism of India’s rising international status, including India’s expanded foreign outreach and deepening ties to the United States. Pakistan will likely turn to China to offset its isolation, empowering a relationship that will help Beijing to project influence in the Indian Ocean.” In his testimony of 23 May 2017 to the SASC, Director Coats stated, “Pakistani-based terrorist groups will present a sustained threat to US interests in the region and continue to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan.”
Previously, at a time that the US wanted to exploit Pakistan in order to counter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and pressurize anti-American, Congress-led India, militant groups were “Halaal.” But now that the US itself has invaded the region and India is now led by the actively pro-American BJP, militant groups are now “Haraam.” The US U-turn over militant groups is because its criterion for that which is allowed and not allowed for Pakistan is the US national interest alone. As for the current civilian and military leadership of Pakistan, it is unable to look after Pakistan’s interests because all of its policies are driven by US national interests. It works hard to camouflage the US national interests as Pakistan’s national interests but that is a doomed to failure effort. How are the American occupying forces on the door step of the world’s only Muslim power, less of a threat than Soviet occupying forces? How is a pro-American BJP-led India less of a threat than an an anti-American Congress-led India?
Rather than making somersaults, U-turns, claims of double games and other pathetic face-saving tactics, the current leadership needs to make way for the only system that can secure the interests of Muslims and Islam, the Khilafah. The Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood alone matches the deep founded, centuries old Islamic sentiments that are embedded in our people. Any attempt to suppress the Islamic sentiments or in Trump terms, “DRIVE THEM OUT” is a lost cause from the onset. It is these Islamic sentiments refuse surrender to any foreign occupation and unjust dealings against Muslims. These Islamic sentiments are as evident as ever before and that is why the gap between the Muslims and their current rulers has grown to a huge gulf. It is upon all the Muslims to make a unified stand behind the sincere political leadership of Hizb ut Tahrir, to support it, and strengthen it by establishing the rule of Islam, the Islamic state, the righteous Khilafah. And the sincere officers of Pakistan’s armed forces must fully realize that their duty to grant Nussrah for the re-establishment of the Khilafah is not excused through obeying the corrupt leadership. Indeed, Allah (swt) the Strong and Wise, warned from such excuses,
يَوْمَ تُقَلَّبُ وُجُوهُهُمْ فِي النَّارِ يَقُولُونَ يَا لَيْتَنَا أَطَعْنَا اللَّهَ وَأَطَعْنَا الرَّسُولَا * وَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّا أَطَعْنَا سَادَتَنَا وَكُبَرَاءَنَا فَأَضَلُّونَا السَّبِيلَا
“The Day their faces will be turned about in the Fire, they will say, “How we wish we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger. And they will say, “Our Lord, indeed we obeyed our masters and our dignitaries, and they led us astray from the [right] way.”
(Al-Ahzab: 66-67)
Expensive Electricity and Electricity Shortages are the Bitter Fruits of Privatization of Public Property
Frustrated, fasting protesters in Karachi set tyres ablaze on 30 May 2017 after power cuts disrupted another Sehri (Suhoor) during the blessed month of Ramadan, police said, a day after two protesters were shot dead in Peshawar during a similar protest. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to power four years ago promising to end load shedding — that have plagued daily life for years, crippling the economy and deterring foreign investment.
The electricity crisis is a reminder of the urgent need for the implementation of Islam in Pakistan and that how in the absence of Islam’s implementation, life becomes miserable. Allah (swt) warned all of humankind,
وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَنْ ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنكًا
“Whoever rejects My Message (the Qur’an) for him is a life of hardship.”
(Surah Ta-Ha 20:124)
The government is responsible for Pakistan’s electricity crisis because it implements the non-Islamic economic system of capitalism, through Democracy. The present capitalist system ensures that through privatization a few private owners, foreign and local, fully benefit from electricity resources whilst the public faces hardship. Privatization raises electricity prices so that the private owners can profit in their business. As an example, the World Bank has closely overseen rises in electricity charges, which surged between 2000 – 2004 and has continue to rise since, such that people are paying as much for electricity in the winter as they used to in the peak of summer before massive privatization took hold and now dread receiving electricity bill, which is commonly referred to as “double rent.” So, whilst private owners amass huge wealth by owning electricity resources, the rest of society is stricken by increasingly unaffordable energy prices.
In addition, regarding the electricity shortages, the government itself fell into debt to these private interests to the order of billions of Rupees, rocketing to 414 billion Rupees in February 2017! The private interests reduce production of electricity because they are not paid what they were due and were not able to maintain profits. This “circular debt crisis” is the reason that for much of the year less than 75% of the total installed capacity is being used and at times less than 50%. It is clear that the long hours without electricity per day in the blazing summer is the result of not producing at capacity through financial reasons. All this is the result of making electricity a business and not a right for the people.
Islam will end the capitalist economy and establish an Islamic one. As a system Islam ensures the distribution of wealth and one of its mechanisms is the public ownership of electricity resources as well as coal, oil and gas. Islam has declared that energy is neither a private nor a state property but a public property for all the Muslims. RasulAllah ﷺ 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. Thus, the state administers this resource to ensure that its benefit is used for all the citizens, regardless of race, color, school of thought and religion. The Khilafah will abolish taxes upon power and fuel which have further greatly inflated their prices. It will charge only to cover their production and distribution costs, if needed, and any profit from sales to non-hostile non-Muslim states will be put to use for taking care of the public’s needs. Islam’s electricity policy will instantly ensure constant and affordable electricity, contributing to the massive industrialization of Pakistan, supervised by the Khilafah.
In its “Introduction to the Constitution,” Hizb ut Tahrir has adopted in Article 137, “There are three categories of Public Ownership: a. Public utilities, such as the open spaces in the towns. b. Vast mineral resources, like oil fields. c. Things which, by their nature, preclude ownership by individuals, such as rivers.” In Article 138, it has adopted, “Factories by their nature are private property. However, they follow the rule of the product that they are producing. If the product is private property then the factory is considered to be private property, such as textile factories. If the product is public property then the factory is considered public property, such as factories for iron ore production.” In Article 139, it has adopted, “The State is not permitted to transfer private property into public property, since public property is confirmed by the nature and characteristic of wealth and not by the opinion of the State.” And in Article 140, it has adopted, “Every individual from the Ummah has the right to utilise anything from public property, and it is not allowed for the State to permit someone to individually possess or utilise it.”
PTI and PML-N Clash is Pointless in the Absence of an Islamic Judiciary to Take Rulers to Task
PML-N Senator Nehal Hashmi dramatically resigned from Senate hours after a video surfaced on 31 May 2017 showing him lashing out at “those investigating” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family in an apparent attack on the judiciary. Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar also took notice of Hashmi’s remarks and summoned him in person on 1 June 2017 to appear before the bench implementing its Panama Papers verdict, media reports said.
The Muslims have seen long marches, sit in protests (darnay), court squabbles and other political tussles over the years, but as long as guardian of corruption, Democracy, remains there is no change. Democracy is the corrupt system which ignores the Quran and Sunnah in making laws, giving preference to the whims and desires of Democratic assemblies. Democracy does not make laws according to all that is revealed by Allah (swt) the All-Knowing, All-Wise, but only a majority of the opinions from the limited minds of humanbeings. A judiciary which cripples itself by referring to Democracy rather than Islam can never bring justice for Muslims. Under Democracy, such fruitless political dramas will continue to be a source of entertainment for TV talk show hosts, with no change on the ground, as long as there is no Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood.
Consider the first Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood. In his first Khutba as a Khaleefah Rashid, Abu Bakr (ra) said: “if I do right help me, and if do wrong correct me. Truth is a trust and lying is treason, the weak amongst you is strong before me till I return to him his right, Allah willing, and the strong amongst you is weak before me till I take the right from him Allah willing. Any people who abandon Jihad in the way of Allah, Allah will strike them with humiliation. If indecency spread amongst any people, Allah would subject them to great tribulations. Do obey me as long as I obey Allah and His Messenger. If I ever disobeyed Allah and His Messenger, I am not entitled to your obedience to me.”