Headlines:
- School Closure Dispute is Due to Regime’s Neglect
- Airline Strike Demonstrates Democracy’s Politics of Paralysis
- Ruling by Islam will End Balochistan Unrest
- Af-Pak Rivalry Only Benefits India
School Closure Dispute is Due to Regime’s Neglect
All public and most private schools in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were to reopen on 1 February after remaining closed for several days for security reasons after the brutal attack on the university in Charsadda. However, at least twelve chains of major private schools have refused to follow suit till the government resolves the ‘security’ issue. The Punjab government had closed all schools from Jan 26 to 31, claiming that it is because of ‘extreme cold weather’. “The government has not taken us on board. We will not reopen our schools till the government ensures security and stops harassment,” a spokesman for the elite schools told Dawn. When asked whether the APPSF did not represent the elite schools, he said: “The association (APPSF) did not take us on board while holding talks with the education minister.” Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed said that the schools that had been sealed because of unsatisfactory security arrangements were being allowed to reopen immediately.
The regime is wholly responsible for the chaos in the education sector. In origin, it is the regimes gross neglect of state schools, with insufficient school teachers and lack of furniture and books, that forced people to turn to private schools for anywhere near decent education, even though rising costs are breaking their backs. To add to the hardships, the regime’s alliance with America allowed the Raymond Davis network to grow to the extent that schools are now prime targets, particularly the elite schools. Instead of dismantling the American intelligence and private military network, the regime then put it upon the private schools to secure themselves that the regime itself created, asking them to train guards to shoot and bear firearms as well as hiring expensive private security firms which are converting schools into fortified prisons. Initially, the schools passed the additional costs of security onto the parents but then this door was closed by the regime in a bid to win public support.
The Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood alone can put an end to the chaos in the education sector. It will establish standard setting state education, as it did for centuries previously, ensuring funds through the Islamic economic system. It will dismantle all traces of foreign belligerents on Muslim soil, ensuring security by implementing Islam’s foreign policy.
Airline Strike Demonstrates Democracy’s Politics of Paralysis
The week-long crisis surrounding the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) took a new turn on 1 February 2016 after the federal government imposed the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to take action against striking PIA employees, and the protesting workers rejected it and vowed to go ahead with their scheduled plan to bring flight operations to a standstill on 2 February in protest against the privatization of PIA. Two protestors died in clashes with the police and rangers. Senator Mushahidullah, a former PIA employee who held important positions in the airline’s union during the 1990s, told Dawn: “Pure and simple, it’s a politically motivated (protest), and the government, after exhausting all its options, has to resort to this extreme measure (imposition of ESMA 1952).” Already in serious economic mess, the government couldn’t let the national airline bleed to death at the hands of vested interests, he said, adding that “a very limited number” of PIA employees’ union were exploiting the situation on the “directions of PPP leaders.”
The disruption in air travel and ensuing chaos, including the loss of life, is the result of democracy. It is democracy that privatizes large scale state enterprises to benefit cronies of the political elite, whereas in the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood, large scale transport will be dominated by the state, with private enterprises represented as a smaller presence. It is also democracy that also pits political party against political party in politics of division and conflict according to vested interests, paralyzing the life of the people, whereas in the Khilafah dispute over state supervision of state property would be referred to the Court of Unjust Acts for decision according to the Islamic injunctions.
Whether Muslims consider health, education, transport or any other essential service, they are reminded again and again for the urgent need to abolish democracy and restore ruling by Islam.
Ruling by Islam will End Balochistan Unrest
Addressing the second and last day of National Seminar on Prospects of Peace and Prosperity in Balochistan, the Chief of the Army Staff said on 2 February, “The issues in Balochistan, including Quetta, are further complicated by foreign interference in the largest province of Pakistan and across a porous border spanning hundreds of kilometres.” He further said that “our foreign adversaries have been more than eager to exploit any opportunity to destabilise Pakistan by harbouring, training and funding dissidents and militants”. The Army Chief said that Balochistan, in fact, had become a hotbed of proxy wars for regional and global grand strategy by many powers. “This is a battle that we all are fighting, and we shall continue to fight, till peace prevails across the length and breadth of the province,” he said, adding that Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, Police, Coast Guards, Levies, and above all people of Balochistan had defended the integrity of the country with unflinching resolve for which they deserved special appreciation. He also mentioned that, “Lack of developed infrastructure, extreme poverty, poor educational and health facilities and rampant unemployment lend credibility to complaints of the aggrieved sections of society.”
It is known that foreign interference has created havoc within Pakistan for decades within Baluchistan and beyond, however, it is the current system in Pakistan that ensures it continues. As such successive regimes are just fire-fighting rather than addressing the root cause. Worse its heavy handed tactics are increasing resentment within the aggrieved sections of society, which already suffer from the multi-faceted neglect of the current non-Islamic system. And under the current system, hostile nations are treated on friendly terms, with diplomatic officials and other forms of contact upon our soil through which they can interfere.
Islam will end the democratic system of ruling which has resulted in the neglect of Baluchistan. The Khilafah is not a police state that governs by force, exercising persecution, abduction and torture of its citizens who have been given rights by their Creator (swt). It earns the loyalty of all the citizens, regardless of race or school of thought, by governing by that which they hold dearest, Islam, reassuring them by providing the evidences from the Quran and Sunnah for all that is implemented. In addition, Islam’s Khilafah system is a unitary system which governs all of its citizens by Islam without discrimination, regardless of them being a majority or a minority. Islam uniquely bonded compassion and mercy between people of many different languages and races, molding them into a single Ummah during the era of the Khilafah. The non-Muslim citizens were fiercely loyal to the Khilafah, due to its justice and securing of their rights. Islam will end the colonialist presence in Pakistan which is the cause of the unrest throughout Pakistan. Regarding the unrest in Baluchistan, the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood will end it decisively and permanently by closing all American consulates, embassies, bases and deporting all of its officials. It will end all contacts with officials of foreign hostile powers, including India, to cut off any influence within our borders and will deal with them on a war footing.
Af-Pak Rivalry Only Benefits India
On 4 February 2016 Intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan held talks in Kabul on to try to reduce the trust deficit between the two neighbours. The US is facilitating the meeting which would also be attended by Chinese officials as observers. Just one day before the meeting, Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah urged Indian businessmen to invest in Afghanistan. India is one of the leading donor nations to Afghanistan and the largest in the South Asia region and after invading Afghanistan, America opened the doors to India to open a vast diplomatic presence on Afghan soil. “Our geographical position as a land bridge offers immense opportunities to investors in terms of trade, transit and connectivity,” Mr Abdullah said at a meeting with top industry bodies in the Indian capital. He expressed the hope that the proposed Afghanistan-Iran-India transit agreement centred around the strategic Iranian port of Chabahar would “happen in near future”. “The development of Chabahar port in Iran is key to India-Afghanistan trade. It can act as a gateway towards opening new energy and trade routes not only in Afghanistan but in Central Asia as well,” he said.
Without the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood, the affairs of the Muslims are in a shambles. Instead of being unified as a single state to face the challenge Indian regional dominance, the Muslims have been divided and weakened before their enemy. Worse still, whilst apparently wrangling on the surface, the current traitor leaderships of Pakistan and Afghanistan are working under direction of their master in Washington to secure a permanent crusader presence in Afghanistan. As for India, as part of the American plan, it is being granted unprecedented access to the spoils of Afghanistan, whilst Pakistan is being made to make more and more concessions.
It is high time that the sincere within the people of power of Afghanistan and Pakistan moved to turn around the situation. They must uproot the agents of America that contaminate the ranks and ensure the restoration of the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Methodology of the Prophethood, which is the only guarantor of unity and strength for Muslims.