IF one were to identify just two out of the many factors that have denied Pakistan a respectable place in the comity of nations they would be corruption and bigotry.

Both have come into full play following the swindling of the Hajis and the sentencing to death of a Christian woman on blasphemy charges. What she said is not known nor ever will be for blasphemous words must not be repeated.

The corruption in Haj arrangements and the matter of Aasia Bibi’s death sentence have been extensively covered by the media with  relish.

It is ironical that while most of the ulema participating in the talk shows would not even consider a pardon for Aasia Bibi, they spoke guardedly when it came to punishment for corrupt politicians and officials who had allegedly misappropriated billions from the Hajis’ own money depriving them of peace of mind in the house of God and the city of the Prophet (PBUH). They have shown ample concern for the religious affairs minister (who is one of them) but no compassion for an illiterate village woman.

The debates on television have brought out that death for blasphemy is not ordained in the Holy Quran. The majority of clerics, nevertheless, stick to the view that for defiling the name of the Prophet there can be no punishment lesser than death.

A noteworthy feature of the current controversy is that while the traditional theologians whose education is restricted to madressahs support the death penalty, those who, alongside theology, also had the benefit of modern secular education oppose it.A similar division is seen among the politicians. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain fears civil war if the present law is changed. Emphatically supporting its abolition, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer has taken it upon himself to secure a presidential pardon for Aasia even before the sentence is challenged in the high court. Masses listen more to mullahs in mosques than to professors in universities.

It is hard to deny that popular sentiment is behind the law and even opposing intellectuals would be wary of amending it for fear of their own safety. It is, however, conceded that the law is extensively abused to persecute, or blackmail, the minorities and even dissenting Muslims. Its application is causing agony at home and projects Pakistan as a violent and reactionary society abroad, one that harbours terrorists and harasses its own citizens.

It is also agreed that a process needs to be initiated to save the weak and vulnerable from the rigours of the law and spare the country the torment of hanging Aasia Bibi. The issue needs to be debated in the Organisation of Islamic Countries by statesmen, taking it out of the clerical domain. After all, Pakistan is believed to be the only Islamic country besides the Saudi kingdom where blasphemy is punishable with death. Saudi Arabia has abundant oil while Pakistan depends on dollops of aid from the secular West.

Till a consensus emerges, the offence in Pakistan should be made non-cognisable and the alleged offenders tried on complaints lodged directly in the court of sessions which must decide it in weeks rather than years. The headman of a Mianwali village and his three brothers were in jail for four years before the court found them innocent. No one has been found guilty in a number of years but quite a few have been murdered or, on acquittal, forced to seek asylum abroad.

The network of corruption has become so vast and official collusion so formidable that even the holiest of rituals is not spared. Making arrangements for Haj is an administrative and not a religious issue. It should be undertaken by the interior ministry and the embassy in Saudi Arabia. In fact the religious affairs’ ministry itself has no place in an Islamic republic. It should be abolished.

The underlying cause of corruption in Haj is the same as in any other government-controlled activity except that it is far more demeaning. Every appointment, whether it involves the head of Islamic ideology or the Shariat court, is on the political bargaining counter. So is said to be every key job in the Haj directorate.

Corruption and bigotry go hand in hand. The least one expected after the letter of a Saudi prince to the chief justice of Pakistan and the confirmation of the grand larceny by a parliamentary committee was that Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi would resign. But ministerial responsibility for corruption is not a part of Pakistan’s peculiar parliamentary culture. Then the fact that the minister belongs to one school of thought and the complaining prince and the parliamentary investigators to another has, seemingly, saved him from dismissal.

The loser is the common man who is neither corrupt nor a bigot. He is too poor and ignorant to be either. Over the past 30 years in every South Asian country personal incomes, literacy and health standards have risen faster than in Pakistan.

Bangladesh which was considered a millstone around our neck when a province of Pakistan has grown by 81 per cent; we only by 58 per cent.

Pakistan is also rated to be more corrupt than the rest of South Asia’s secular lot. Doesn’t all this suggest a compelling need to review our ideology, laws and preoccupations? If Egypt with its Al-Azhar, Malaysia with its diverse population and Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation, can do without a death-for-blasphemy law, surely Pakistan can too.

kunwaridris@hotmail.com