by WASEEM ALTAF
General Yahya’s military regime gave the JI a semi-official role in the former East Pakistan to act as the intelligence network for Pak Army, while it was part of the “military sponsored” six party alliance of Islamist parties in East Pakistan called United Coalition Party.
In May 1971 the JI and Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), its student wing, were part of a 50,000 strong, “army engineered” razakar (volunteer) force comprising Al-Shams and Al-Bader which acted as army’s death squads. In addition to killing of tens of thousands of nationalist Bengalis, Al-Badar reportedly killed 10 professors of Dacca University, five leading journalists, two litterateurs and 26 doctors in Dacca alone.
When Bhutto assumed power on December 20th 1971, the JI burned his effigies in Lahore and declared the day as “black day.” When PTV showed surrender ceremony in Dacca, the JI led public protests, describing it as an attempt to humiliate the army. In 1973 the Amir of JI appealed to the army to over throw Bhutto’s government due to its inherent moral corruption. Despite being Islamist and declaring secularists as kafirs (infidels), the JI joined hands with Bhutto’s secular opponents to achieve the goal of political power. In the early seventies, the JI launched a campaign called “Bagladesh Namanzoor”to destabilize Bhutto and to absolve the army of blame for the loss of country’s Eastern Wing,
In 1973, Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Maududi inspired Afghan cleric, fled to Pakistan, and was hosted by the JI. Thus began a partnership between the JI, the ISI and the Rabbani group.
When Zia overthrew Bhutto in 1977, the JI distributed sweets in streets of all major cities.
Maududi later supported Zia’s regime by endorsing his Islamization initiative. Zia ul Haq met JI Chief Mian Tufail Mohammad for 90 minutes the night before Bhutto was hanged. The following day, the JI supporters took to the streets to celebrate Bhutto’s death. Although the JI’s constitution prohibits coming into power using underground means, yet the JI was part of Zia’s cabinet holding the ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Production, Water and Power and National Resources. Professor Khursheed Ahmed, a JI ideologue, headed the Planning Commission to draw up plans for Islamizing the economy. The JI also supported Zia-ul-Haq’s referendum held in 1984.
Qazi Hussian Ahmad while supporting Zia’s Hadood Laws argued that woman were emotional and irritable, with inferior faculties of reason and memory hence their testimony in a court of law should be discounted. Women can be bracketed with the blind, handicapped, lunatics and children. However , later, Qazi got his own daughter Samia Raheel Qazi elected to the parliament. The JI later became the pillar of Zia regime and his “Islamic” state. In 1979 when Maududi died Zia attend his funeral.
In 1988 the ISI assembled a coalition called IJI of Islamist parties to serve as the army’s proxy in a controlled political system. The JI was the frontrunner in the ISI-sponsored IJI. The JI and its weekly Takbeer, during the 1988 election campaign ran photos of Benazir and her mother dancing with President Ford. These were even airdropped over the city of Lahore using aircraft from Lahore Aero Club. This was with the full collaboration of the ISI. Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the JI Chief, after her victory declared her a decadent western woman and a risk to national security.
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The JI also welcomed Pervez Musharraf when he toppled a democratic government, however, when he was not found much accommodative, the JI turned against him. When in 1999, Vajpayee came to Lahore, the JI threatened to block Vajpayee’s bus route and held street demonstrations all over Lahore. Nawaz Sharif planned to arrest Qazi Hussain Ahmed ahead of the agitation yet he could not, as Qazi was staying at the home of an official of the military intelligence.
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(Thanks to Robin Khundkar; his note: “This is an extraordinary piece by Waseem Altaf. The true face of Jamat e Islami.”