The News that Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi (54) the leader of the Sunni-Barelvi, Tehreek Laibak Pakistan, DIED in Lahore on 19 November 2020, will surely give birth to many conspiracy theories but his son told the media his father had for several days been having a problem with breathing and was running fever.
Allama Sahib was a small time maulvi who on his own would never have made much of an impact except in some village or mohalla.
To see him became famous for his open advocacy of violence including in recent days demanding Pakistan to use the Atom Bomb on France was most distressing.
Apparently, he did not know that the consequences of using such an explosive would spell disaster for the existence of Pakistan because the rest of the world is armed with far greater and more sophisticated nuclear arsenals including France.
More shocking was his resort to abuses and foul-mouthing with impunity - all under the cover of his being a true lover of the Prophet.
For the more inquisitive and analytical mind the question will always be: how could a man with little education and no sophistication - I was thinking of Maulana Maududi who whatever his ideology was polite and decent in his conversations and interviews and Allama Rizvi who brought the level of the Street roughness and crudeness to the National Level and became a significant political player in mob politics of Pakistan.
His departure should give an opportunity to reconsider the consequences of patronizing individuals like him for Pakistan.
There is international law and there are international norms which apply to all states.
To adhere to them is important for a state to be accepted by others as a responsible entity. Pakistan has been notorious as a Rogue State, as the Epicentre of Terrorism and many other such descriptions. MY DESCRIPTION OF IT AS A GARRISON STATE CONCEPTUALLY AND THEORETICALLY CONTINUES TO BE CONFIRMED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
We are still on the Grey List of countries classified as a threat to world peace.
There is no reason to be proud of such designations.
Pakistan's days as the frontline state against the Soviet Union are over since long but the euphoria of having fought a war against a Superpower and defeating it - a delusion at best because without US funding and weapons nothing of the sort would have happened - is not.
It is time for the Establishment, the State within the State, the Deep State to make a dispassionate evaluation of what is best for Pakistan. International funding can no longer be expected to be forthcoming for some other misadventure carried directly or through so-called non-state actors.
Hafiz Saeed, the Supremo of the Lashkar-e-Taiba has been given a 10-year jail sentence for his involvement in Terrorism. That is some indication of how things can move in the future.
Patronizing Terrorism with Impunity was never going to pay in the long run and Pakistan's economy and its people today are in the worst shape.
My advice to Imran Khan would be that instead of becoming a champion of an international campaign against Islamophobia he should devote his talent to solving the gigantic problems the people of Pakistan are facing in their day today lives.
After all the Western powers built Islamism as a movement to defeat Soviet Communism as well as all rational and secular movements in the Muslim world.
The consequences of patronizing Islamism and making it a monster which ultimately struck the West in the notorious 9/11 2001 terrorist attacks ordered by Al-Qaeda is all part of recent memory.
We now live in a very troubled world currently. It is time for introspection and self-criticism and learning to behave responsibly in the regional and international arenas.
More importantly, grooming some other maulvi to fill the void left by Allama Rizvi would be the worst decision of the Garrison State.
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