Meet Pakistan's real Tahirul Qadri

Naveed Ahmad*

The prayer leader of yesteryear fancies himself as the savior of today's Pakistan. Brandishing himself as the sheikh-ul-Islam, clad in Turkish cap and Arabic attire, Allama Tahirul Qadri quit hibernation in his cozy Canadian apartment late 2012.

His mission for last year's January protest in Islamabad was to make a backdoor entry in Pakistan's murky and dangerous political waters. He had come prepared with a dedicated social media team and a heap of donations from anonymous sources.

Highly ambitious Tahirul Qadri started his career as a professor of international constitutional law at the University of the Punjab, in Lahore, before becoming affiliated with the prominent Pakistani political family of Nawaz Sharif.

His initial claim to fame was his speeches on the state-run Pakistan Television. Although Qadri holds a Ph.D in Islamic law, his claim for the title of sheikh-ul-Islam has attracted enormous disapproval as Pakistan is not an Islamic state like that of Turkey during the time of the Khulafa Uthmani, wherein the sheikh-ul-Islam was also an appointed position endorsed by the Khalifa.

Qadri has also to his credit a controversy of making contradictory statements regarding Pakistan's blasphemy law. In an Urdu-language speech, he said: "I would like to lift the veil on this blasphemy law. … It was me who had this law made, that no matter who commits blasphemy, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, man or woman, Christian or Jew, whoever commits blasphemy should be killed like a dog!" Yet in a more recent video, he says: "Whatever the law of blasphemy is, it is not applicable for non-Muslims, it is not applicable for Jews, Christians and any other non-Muslims. I was never a part of shaping this law in the parliament made by [General] Zia-ul-Haq."

Qadri had become a recognizable face among the people and the elite alike before parting ways from the Nawaz Sharif family and setting up his own political platform, Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT). He boasted radical political changes in the party's first manifesto, while fielding hundreds of candidates for national and provincial assembly seats. However, none of Qadri's candidates could make it to the elected seats across the country.

His political statements or actions had little significant impact during the 1990s. He could only muster a one-seat victory in the 2002 elections marred by alliances engineered by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Although he sat on the opposition benches, Qadri's performance in parliament was more for personal networking than doing a national service at any level. After resigning from parliament in 2004, Qadri was not prominent in the country's political scene while Pakistan went through its most turbulent times after 1971.

The 63-old cleric and preacher had left the country on an international networking spree, leaving behind his Minhajul Quran secretariat to keep his legacy alive. Politics and religion seemed the means to his ambitious goal of fame.

Finding donors at home and abroad

Hailing from humble roots, Qadri managed to muster donors at home and abroad. The outlandish political campaign he ran, including a public meeting and then a sit-in in Pakistani capital Islamabad, took the country by surprise. The sudden re-awakening of an occasional politician -- whose greater focus had been to establish his name globally while obtaining Canadian nationality – activated some conspiracy theories.

Qadri sounded angry and determined, demanding reforms in the Election Commission and the resignation of the elected government that had been there for a few months prior to the election in May. While his ultimatums and deadlines to the government became a national joke, he appeased the judiciary and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

After leading four days of a sizeable sit-in on the busiest boulevard in frosty Islamabad from his cozy abode, Qadri left with little more than a few promises that fell far short of most of the demands he had been making since Dec 23. The Canadian national, who had asked for a clean-up of the system, consultation with the army and judiciary and dissolution of the assemblies and the Election Commission of Pakistan, went back with a vague date for the dissolution of the assemblies and a promise of being consulted again.

Everything moved in Pakistan as per the constitution and on schedule, with Qadri making no difference either to the running of the state or regarding its future course of democratic process. His four days of glory and fame did not make any mark whatsoever on the lives of those who slept outside in the middle of winter exactly a year ago. So democratic is the self-styled sheikh-ul-Islam that he campaigned against casting a vote in the May 11 elections. The public, however, showed up in record numbers to vote, especially young people and women.

Ever since his re-emergence on the political scene, albeit in short stints, Canadian diplomats have been frustrated at the negative publicity to the country owing to Qadri's Canadian nationality.

Boasting that he is a diehard Pakistani, he is neither ready to quit his second nationality nor opts to live in Pakistan to realize his lofty dreams. His most recent appearance regarding the price hikes was brief and unnoticed. Analysts believe that with his flashy campaign since the end of 2012, Qadri has registered his name with the deep state for a ready-to-become prime minister, whenever the need arose.

An ill-informed colleague in a local Turkish newspaper compared Allam Tahirul Qadri with Fethullah Gülen. Neither the two figures have anything in common except an expertise in Islamic teachings; they do not share a political and social worldview.

While the Hizmet movement has effectively become Turkey's signature soft image globally, Qadri's university in Lahore caters to a mere few thousand students.

While Hizmet has shied away from becoming an extrovert political player, Qadri leads a registered political party and voices eagerness to reform Pakistan by assuming executive authority.

Unlike Gülen, Qadri has made no active effort on the ground to reconcile Pakistan's sectarian or ethnic rivals. While the Hizmet movement has made a significant contribution to the peaceful co-existence of rival communities in Turkey's Southeast as well as globally, Qadri has banked on his Sufi following to make his way in politics.

Comparison of Qadri with Gülen -- casting objectivity aside -- could be the best favorable exaggeration in favor of the Canadian-Pakistani self-styled sheikh-ul-Islam.

*Journalist and academic with a focus on democracy, diplomacy and security.

Published on Today's Zaman, 30 January 2014, Thursday