Fundamentalist Fury

After seizing power through a dramatic coup d'état, General Pervez Musharraf initiated several reforms in various areas, including education. To improve it, Musharraf signed an executive order (the Presidential Ordinance of November 8, 2002; CXIV/2002) inducting the Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKUEB) into the national education system.

The AKUEB was selected for this assignment due to its outstanding track record. Over the years, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has emerged as one of the most effective association of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Pakistan, and has changed the lives of large numbers of people in the remotest areas of Pakistan, including the Northern Areas, where no government agency has ever undertaken any development work.

The AKUEB has been given the task of upgrading and modernizing the declining standards of education and of holding examinations for private educational institutions. The affiliation of these institutions to the Board is voluntary. The Board has not been given any role in government schools, and the system is also intended to help groom teachers in private educational institutions with excellent skills through training. The AKUEB would bring modern examinations, both in English and Urdu, at an affordable cost to a much broader section of society, providing parents and schools an option in the style of education they desire from classes IX to XII. 

Until now, such a choice was confined to a very few who could afford the O Levels fees. The AKUEB follows the British education system of O and A levels. O levels are designed for students from 14 to 16 years old and are aimed at preparing them for academic progression and equipping them with skills necessary for employment. A Level is designed to prepare them for university and other professional fields of study. Both levels emphasize broad choices of subjects, covering the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and other creative technical and vocational qualifications. A National Examination Testing Service has been constituted and the government educational boards have agreed to entertain applications from students who take examinations under the AKUEB. These examinations are expected to start in 2006.

Musharraf's initiatives on this count have been greeted as a step in the right direction by the enlightened section of Pakistani society. However, the rightwing groups (jihadis, Islamists, clerics, fundamentalists, and religious extremists) - a powerful minority in Pakistan by whom the mainstream is held hostage - has launched a virulent campaign against these reforms. A wide range of facilities are available to these groups for the propagation of their venomous propaganda, including the jihadi media, pulpits and loudspeakers at mosques, and public rallies [which are not allowed for mainstream politics but are permitted for jihad and fassad (evil)].

The jihadi Press - comprising dozens of publications with a collective circulation in millions - has started a concentrated smear campaign against the Ismaeli (Aga Khani) community, with at least some mainstream publications, such as Nawa-i-Waqt and The Nation, supporting the fundamentalist in this campaign. The jihadi Press is cranking out highly inflammatory and provocative material against the Prince Karim Aga Khan, the Ismaelis, AKUEB and AKDN in an attempt to present the Ahmadis and the Ismaelis as two sides of the same coin. Jihadi leaders have issued statement after statement demonizing the Ahmadis and the Ismaelis. 

Crossing all limits of decency and diplomacy, the rabid Islamist Qazi Hussain Ahmad - often referred to as a 'Pakistani Bal Thackeray' - launched a direct attack on Prince Karim Aga Khan. The Qazi was the first to spearhead the campaign against the Ismaelis, linking them to the Ahmadis, the most persecuted sect in Pakistan. Weekly Ghazwa - a publication of the defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba - in its May 6, 2004, issue quoted Qazi as saying: "If the Prince Karim Aga Khan tried to interfere in our curriculum, I will make his end miserable. In fact, his end would be even worse than the Ahmadis." A diplomat chastised Qazi at a social gathering for this threat. (The Friday Times; June 3, 2004).

The jihadis accuse the AKDN of receiving a 'bribe' of $45 million as grant from the US for 'perverting' Pakistan's education system by 'spreading nudity and obscenity' and 'introducing a free-sex environment'. To support their claim, the jihadis have distorted and exaggerated a health survey by the Aga Khan Nursing School. The Daily Jasarat, on May 9, 2004, declaimed:

Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has distributed a questionnaire among schoolgirls aged between 11-15 that asks sensuous and objectionable questions. For example, has a man ever touched your body? If so, who is that person? Has anyone touched your breasts? Do you know about self-breast examination? If so, how do you feel about discussing it with other people? Most of the questions pertain to menstruation, asking girls whether they feel pain during the periods. The questionnaire has frightened the parents. What could be the purpose of asking such questions? It is a US conspiracy to spread perversion in the society. The US is using our education minister Zobaida Jalal to achieve this objective. At her behest, these questions have been included in the schoolbooks of class VIII.'

Every jihadi publication has been distorting this questionnaire according to its own indoctrination policy. Outperforming all others, Weekly Ghazwa(December 23, 2004) reported:

Aga Khan Board has circulated a questionnaire among the students under the title, 'Health Survey'. The questionnaire asks the students the following obscene and immoral questions:

1. Should a girl have sex before the marriage? If yes, at what age?
2. AIDS is transmitted through unsafe sex, prostitution and homosexuality, therefore, ensure that you practice safe sex.
3. Have you ever had sex? If yes, at what age?
4. Do you drink? If yes, how much quantity?
5. Do you take drugs or other intoxicating things?
6. When did you have sex first time in your life?
7. Should a boy and a girl in love have sex before the marriage?
8. How to derive maximum pleasure from sex?
9. Have you seen your sister naked? If yes, what type of feelings you had in your mind? Did you ever think of having sex with her?
10. Is your father having sex with you? Is your brother having sex with you?
11. Have you been sleeping with your mother in the childhood? Did you ever see her naked? If yes, what type of feelings you had in your mind?
12. When was the last time you saw your mother naked?

These questions pervert the young minds. These questions are asked from the students of the 9th and 10th grade. You can well imagine from the above questions that it is a conspiracy to introduce immoral values in our Islamic society. There is no doubt that the Aga Khan Board is working at the behest of the Jews, Hindus and Christians and its mission is to pervert our coming generations.

The scope of the education reforms controversy widened when Hafiz Mohammad Saeed (the supremo of the defunct Laskhar-e-Taiba, LeT) joined issue. In the internet edition of Weekly Ghazwa (November 4, 2004), Saeed said: "Musharraf is working on making the Northern Areas an Aga Khani state. He has been pressured by Christina Rocca to hand over Kashmir to Prince Karim Aga Khan so that he could annex it with the Northern Areas and make it his fiefdom."

The propaganda against Ismaelis has intensified to such an extent that now Aga Khanis are being condemned for most of the developments taking place in Pakistan, including Pakistan's privatization policy.

America is behind sectarian violence in many countries including Pakistan. The biggest proof of General Musharraf's inefficiency is, he has allowed the AKF to act as the agent of the US. Habib Bank has been sold to the AKF at throwaway price. AKF has been allowed to tamper with the education system of Pakistan. The AKF has secularized Pakistani education system. This has resulted into a backlash against the Aga Khanis and it has happened first time in Pakistan's history. If a better sense did not prevail upon Prince Karim Aga Khan or General Musharraf then Pakistan will be in the grip of a fire. Musharraf has masterminded hatred against Aga Khanis in the Pakistani society. He is pushing Pakistan into the 1971-like situation. (Daily Jasarat, January 10, 2005)

The jihadis have also begun to blame Prince Karim Aga Khan for the sectarian violence in Gilgit. Thus, the Weekly Takbeer in its cover story (Jan 26, 2005) wrote:

Two elements are involved in trouble in Gilgit - internal conspiracies and those who want to secularize the Northern Areas and isolate it from Pakistan. The latter are the pro-Hindu elements and Aga Khanis are on the top of it. The Aga Khani lobby is behind Aga Ziauddin's murder. He was the only hurdle in the preaching of the Aga Khanis' religion. The majority of the people in Gilgit are Shias and Aga Ziauddin was their sole spiritual leader. He was an uncontroversial figure. Even his opponents also admired him. Ziauddin struggled for the rights of Shias on many fronts. He was against the increasing influence of Aga Khan Foundation in the Northern Areas. He also wanted the government to introduce separate curriculum for the Shias in the Northern Areas. He had opponents too in this regard.

The increasing influence of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Gilgit and Baltistan was the basic reason of Ziauddin's murder. For the last some years, the AKDN was preaching secularism and apostasy in Gilgit and Baltistan under the cover of development work. The Aga Khanis were in majority in Hunza only. They wanted to capture Gilgit and Baltistan where the majority of the population was Shia. To gain popularity among the Shias, the AKDN offered them loans. Under a conspiracy, the AKDN promoted the cultivation of potatoes and provide defective seeds in this effect. When the Shia farmers bought the defective potato seeds on loan on the advice of AKDN, their yield reduced to a significant extent and their financial condition started deteriorating. Banks confiscated their land and their land was purchased by AKDN at throwaway prices.

Similarly, AKDN has set up some Basic Health Units (BHUs). The purpose of these BHUs is to spread obscenity, liberalism and apostasy. The US is behind the AKDN. Ziauddin understood this move. He wanted the AKDN to limit its activities to the Aga Khani community. He struggled against secularism from the platform of Ittehadul Muslimeen. In practice, he had waged jihad against the AKDN and mobilized the community in this effect. This was not acceptable to the Aga Khanis as well as the US.

The US wanted to give Prince Karim Aga Khan a special role in Kashmir. The plan was to give Kashmir to the Prince's trusteeship. But there were a few big hurdles in this plan - the Shia population and Ziauddin. The US thought by serving the poor community, they could be subjugated. Ziauddin did not let it happen. Thus Ziauddin became a challenge for the US. That is why, Ziauddin was removed from the scene.

The jihadis have also fabricated a number of opinion polls against Ismaelis. Thus the Daily Jasaratreported on December 19, 2004:

According to a survey by the Islami Jamiat-e-Talba (IJT), 854,000 people have rejected the AKB. There were only 64,000 votes in AKB's support. IJT arranged a special referendum to ascertain the popularity of AKB in Sindh. It set up 140 camps and collected the public opinion. Around 9,18,855 people took part in the referendum - 93.02 per cent rejected the AKB. IJT has decided to run a countrywide campaign against AKB. It will demand that the government should take back its decision of giving the educational system to AKB.

The United Students Front (USF) - a union of jihadi students - has threatened to attack Parliament if AKF's involvement in the education was not ended. The USF's president, Sahibzada Babar Farooq Rahimi, has said that the students will not hesitate to sacrifice their lives if the decision to hand over the education board to AKF was not reversed.

It is useful to note that the Aga Khanis have nothing to do with the curriculum or with the Ahmadia community. But the jihadishave launched a massive propaganda war to demonize them, and the result, in at least one case, was that the AKDN's offices and its aid workers have been attacked in Gilgit and NWFP in the recent past. Pakistan's poorly educated people are so influenced by this propaganda that they have come to view the government's education reforms as a conspiracy against Islam. The extremists' propaganda has substantially succeeded in projecting the following perspectives:

1. The Ahmadis are a scourge and the Ismaelis are their twin-brothers. They are infidels. The US wants to bring them into the mainstream, which is possible only through indoctrination. Therefore, General Musharraf at the US' behest has 'pledged' the entire education system to the Prince Karim Aga Khan who is an agent of the 'evil powers' -the US, Israel and India.
2. The above motive cannot be achieved without restructuring the current educational system, which protects the two-nation theory. Therefore, the AKUEB will be reforming the curriculum under the cover of conducting exams for the private schools.
3. Pakistan in the years to come will get away with the constitutional clause that declares Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. As a first step in this direction, the Ismaelis have coerced General Musharraf not to restore the column of religion in the new passports.

The jihadishave long considered America, India, Israel and Ahmadis as the worst evils. Musharraf's education reforms have given them a new entity to demonize: the Ismaelis, and there is urgent need to counter their venomous propaganda. Unfortunately, the government's own orientation has compounded the problem. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, a civil society representative who heads one of the largest networks for sustainable development in Pakistan, LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development), notes:

…AKUEB is not a conspiracy. It will add quality to our declining education standards. The jihadis and maulvis have portrayed it as a conspiracy because the government has failed to involve the civil society in this initiative. We still have to see the Terms of References (ToRs) of the agreement that the government of Pakistan has signed with the AKUEB. This entire issue could be cleansed of conspiracies and controversies once it is opened for stakeholders' debate. The question is not, why the government has done so? We all support this initiative. The question is how it would be done. The civil society is still in darkness about this issue

Mohammad Shehzad is an Islamabad-based freelance writer. Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal