Why removal of Atif Mian from the Economic Advisory Council is neither a service to Islam nor to Pakistan
Last week, two things caught my attention on Twitter. One devastated me as a human being, and the other made me think where we, Pakistanis, stand today, as people, and more importantly, as Muslims. I thought I'd write about the first one since it traumatised me: the suicide of the 26-year-old model Anam Naveed Tanoli. The beautiful Anam found hanging from the fan in her room in her house in Lahore. The beautiful Anam whose body was found by her mother and sister. The beautiful Anam who was reportedly suffering from depression, had a therapist appointment that day, and whose last Instagram video message was about effects of cyber-bullying. The beautiful dead Anam.
I'll write about Anam as soon as I know how as the mother of an 18-year-old son I make sense of the enormity of her tragedy, the young woman who seemed to have everything yet took her own life, how to understand the loss of a daughter of a mother who'd have the memory of the sight of her daughter's hanging body and a million unanswered questions for the rest of her life.
Today, I'll write about the other thing. There is no death in that story; it is about being comatose. The social fibre of my homeland, its gnawed soul, the wounds it inflicts, and the band-aid it applies to blood that gushes.
The story of what it does to those who are not Muslim. Or are the 'wrong' kind of Muslim.
Ahmadis of Pakistan. Qadiani. Mirzai. Kafir. Infidel. Non-Muslim. The wrong kind of Muslim. The tags are many, the story is age-old: who is a Muslim, who deserves to be a Muslim, who decides that. This isn't about who Ahmadis are, the history of their faith, the decades old "crusade" against them to impose on them the status of a religious pariah, the 1953 violent campaigns dubbed as Lahore riots, attempts to ghettoise as an outcast without a yellow Star of David pinned on their lapels, leading to constitutional ostracisation via Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's parliament-endorsed Second Amendment on September 7, 1974, sealing the fate of Ahmadis in a way that had consequences that were dark, never-ending, ghoulish.
On September 7, 2018, the new-in-power government of Prime Minister Imran Khan announced its decision to remove the name of Atif Mian from the newly formed Economic Advisory Council (EAC). Twitter erupted into noise that is unparalleled even in the very raucous social media environment of a country called Pakistan.
Atif Rehman Mian. The 43-year-old Pakistani-American, hailed by the IMF as one of the top 25 economists of the world, a professor at the Princeton University, Department of Economics and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, co-author of the critically acclaimed House of Debt (which "studies the connections between finance and the macro economy... builds on powerful new data to describe how debt precipitated the Great Recession and continues to threaten the global economy"), Mian is an economics giant. And someone Pakistan needed more than it needs most people. The 18-member EAC of Khan's government, lauded as an excellent group of top-notch professionals of the field, would have remained just another governmental agenda if it had not been for one name: Atif Mian. Atif Rehman Mian is Ahmadi. Period.
Atif Mian was asked to step down from the Advisory Council and he has agreed. A replacement would be announced later.
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) September 7, 2018
Mian's inclusion in the EAC apparently generated a controversial reaction, the negative one mostly from right-wing, religiopolitical parties. How can an Ahmadi work for the government of Pakistan? Shehla Raza, minister for women development Sindh, of PPP, the so-called progressive party, posted (later deleted) a hate-filled, inflammatory tweet against Mian's appointment. She was one of the many.
The statement of minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Hussain defending Mian's induction, and standing up for rights of 'minorities' elicited unequivocal praise from all sides of the political and intellectual spectrum. The euphoria of the courageous words of the official spokesperson of the government was short-lived. After a meeting with religious scholars and clergy, Hussain announced that Atif Mian's appointment had been rescinded.
Religious sentiments of people who do not like Ahmadis had to be respected, and the threat of religious fanatics to stage a protest in Islamabad and elsewhere had to be taken into consideration. Pakistan's doddering economy be damned, imagined slights to religion are more important. In a country of almost 97 per cent Muslims - and that too the 'right' kind of Muslims - Islam is always in danger. Protection of religion is every Muslim's first duty, the self-importance doesn't evoke shame, and self-appointed vigilantism is considered a ticket to paradise.
Atif Mian's very gracious response in a tweet-thread has catapulted him to the status of a hero in the eyes of many, justifiably so, and Pakistan has lost the chance to benefit from the expertise of one of the best economists of the world. Following his resignation from the EAC, two more Pakistani economists, Asim Ijaz Khwaja of Harvard, and Imran Rasool of UCL London, taking a principled stance against religious discrimination of their esteemed contemporary, a black stain on the very idea of merit, have resigned from the EAC.
1/ For the sake of the stability of the Government of Pakistan, I have resigned from the Economic Advisory Council, as the Government was facing a lot of adverse pressure regarding my appointment from the Mullahs (Muslim clerics) and their supporters.
— Atif Mian (@AtifRMian) September 7, 2018
2/ Nevertheless, I will always be ready to serve Pakistan as it is the country in which I was raised and which I love a great deal. Serving my country is an inherent part of my faith and will always be my heartfelt desire.
— Atif Mian (@AtifRMian) September 7, 2018
Despite being a long-term supporter of Imran Khan and his party, I stand by the decisions of these splendid Pakistanis who as Muslims cannot accept discrimination done in the name of their religion. I've a nagging feeling: more names will drop from the list. The domino effect of resistance against discrimination. United, much can be achieved: demolition of one bigoted, discriminatory, exclusionary edifice at a time.
I feel dejected. As a human being, as a Muslim, as a Pakistani, and as a PTI supporter, I feel an enormous sense of disappointment and sadness. Removal of Atif Mian from the EAC is not a service to Islam, or to Pakistan. This is not the Islam of my Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), and this is not the Pakistan of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Allah through His Quran (2:256) instructed us: "There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion..."
Jinnah in his August 11, 1947, address to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan said: "You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the state."
Jinnah's first foreign minister was Sir Zafarullah Khan. He was an Ahmadi.
The removal of Atif Mian from the EAC is not a small thing, it re-legitimises institutionalised discrimination. It is a legislative endorsement that a person's faith can be used as a testimonial of their loyalty to the state. It imparts the awful message to the Ahmadiyya community whose services to Pakistan are immense: that in addition to the persecution you face, the government of Pakistan despite its promises to protect rights of all Pakistanis has capitulated to extremist elements who would not even allow Ahmadis to function in Pakistan as non-Muslim.
It is also a repudiation of the Constitution of Pakistan that clearly states: "Wherein shall be guaranteed fundamental rights including equality of status, of opportunity and before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject to law and public morality."
Article 27: "No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth."
Ahmadis as industrialists, intellectuals, high-level civilian and military officials have always been instrumental in building and progress of Pakistan. Now they live hiding their faith, praying in isolation, teaching their children to hide their identity. Many have left Pakistan for good. Pakistan is no country for Ahmadis.
To me it is all very simple: selection of Atif Mian was as a top economist, and that is how it should have remained. The merit of his profession should have remained exclusive of his faith, and those who inducted him in the EAC should have remained steadfast, fully aware while appointing him that there was going to be a backlash. Imran Khan's government standing up for Atif Mian's appointment in the EAC would have sent an unambiguous message to all self-appointed guardians of religion in a Muslim country, all those pandering to extremism, bigotry and hatred dividing Pakistanis on the basis of their faith: that Pakistan is one for all Pakistanis, all Pakistanis are equal irrespective of their faith, and that Imran Khan's government will not succumb to pressure from those who misuse religion for their agenda of hegemony and divisions. Appeasement of extremists so soon after this government has taken oath is a clear submission to politics of threats, fear and intimidation.
This one decision is based on discrimination simply on the basis of a person's faith, a matter solely between God and an individual, and a factor that has no bearing on the person's professional merit. A properly qualified person's removal from a position that was created to steer the economy of Pakistan in the right direction is a stark manifestation of the reality of Pakistan today. Through appeasement of clergy and capitulation to threats of anarchy of hooligans disguised as vigilantes of religion, this mainstreaming of bigots and extremists (who received no electoral success) is a failure of governance. A fringe minority is being licensed to hold the government hostage to its demands.
No promise of making Pakistan 'naya' will come to fruition as long as engines of bigotry, religious discrimination and politics of hate are being allowed to force farsightedness and pragmatism to be derailed.
At the moment, I feel little optimism.
But I also believe in Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision and leadership to do something different for Pakistan: to make Pakistan a country for ALL Pakistanis.
Also read: NC to boycott Kashmir local body polls: Why hypocrisy is Farooq Abdullah’s favourite tool