The word secularism seems to be the most contentious one in the Pakistani political culture. Anything that is anti-religion or non-religious is dubbed secular; it is understood as a Western concept with no direct connection with Islam; for example, some people might find some Christian or Judaic values or practices secular. The word is used in its smallest possible definition to the widest and wildest interpretations. But in all kinds of debates, one thing is common -- anti-secular groups use religion to justify non-democratic disposition of the state.

Although when we normally talk about secularism, it means governance that should stand separately from religion or religious beliefs, in the context of the Pakistani state, and indeed Pakistani society, the concept of secularism is widely, and perhaps deliberately, misconstrued.

It must be clearly understood right from the very beginning that religion, or in this case Islam, is not the only source to justify non-democratic governance. It depends on the peculiar circumstances of a nation and which forces are trying to use religion or secularism to support its non-democratic concepts of governance. Among Muslim states for instance, Turkey's army uses secularism to support its non-democratic role, so did Pakistan's Army in the 1960s. Currently, the Algerian government and Palestinian Authority are using secularism to strengthen their non-democratic role in their own systems of governance.

In Pakistan's case, the dominant argument for the non-democratic actors to influence the country's politics and governance is religion. This is not a suitable place to go into the details of how religion's narration replaced the secular narration in Pakistani politics, or whether there was ever a secular narration at all in the history of the people of South Asia. But the fact is that currently seculars are supporting democratic forces, while the religious forces are bent upon undermining the democratic disposition of the state, constitution and society.

Take the role of Pakistan Army; it is now known as a 'Jihadi' institution, its official motto is "Jihad Fi Sabil Lillah" (Jihad for the cause of Allah). Pakistan's Supreme Court's recent verdict on the NRO amply and loudly speaks that it wants to re-write the constitution where democracy should be subordinate to the injunctions of Quran and Sunnah. Few people have realised that it's a step to advance General Zia-ul-Haq's doctrine in a much bolder manner. General Zia made the "amended" Objective Resolution an operational part of the constitution through undemocratic means.

How did that happen to the extent that today we are constrained to believe that everything here in this land of pure is Islamic is not the subject of this article. Right now, the issue is not how the idea of Pakistan was conceived or what Quaid-e-Azam had actually thought about what Pakistan was meant to be. Currently, the issue is what we have been led to believe and by what means. This is not an occasion to analyse how the history has been constructed. Some great writers and historians have already done some tremendously impressive work, which, unfortunately, is rarely read by our discussants and young writers.

This is the time to suggest that the binary construction of secularism versus Islam itself is a flawed one. Relying on a very common concept of secularism -- according to which the government should exist separately from religion or religious beliefs -- Kosmin, Barry A writes in "Contemporary Secularity and Secularism": "In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief. In another sense, it refers to the view that human activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be based on evidence and fact unbiased by religious influence."

If we look at the practice of the first state of the Muslims, we would starkly notice that this sort of binary construction on secularism and Islam did not exist, though both, apparently opposite, concepts were the basis of the State of Medina founded by the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). The state was founded by Muhammad, not as a man but as a prophet; his dominant authority as an arbiter was established because he was a prophet, but at the same time non-Muslims were given equal rights. If we take the state that existed during the days of the prophet then the Charter of Medina should be the guiding document for the Muslims. This document, however, is very rarely quoted by our religious scholars as it could possibly be termed the first secular document of Muslims' history.

The issue of secularism entered our parlance when we encountered modern Western discourses where church's political power was constrained to the church only and it was made to accept the limited power of the monarch; not to rule the state with his divine rights. Instead of this, the West took up a clear concept of reasoning to govern the issues of the state. Hence, the emergence of secularism in Western politics was a victory of reasoning, and that changed the whole power structure across the world. However, the oriental societies remained anchored with their traditional wisdom; the direct consequence of this anti-secularism was their backward in all sciences.

Now the choice for the Pakistani state and diaspora is not whether Islam is our identity or raison d'être. It's a decision about whether Pakistan needs to progress or not. The choice is between facing the world or a dead-end. One can keep Muslim identity while choosing a secular system of governance, because this would ensure the society to open ways of reasoning and progress in all fields including sciences, technology, politics, economics and the modern day challenges of futuristic technology.

With a dictatorship, even if it's Islamic, we cannot progress, because with dictatorship the power of reasoning is doomed. In Pakistan's context, dictatorship and reasoning cannot go together.

Some Muslims believe that by accepting the dominance of reasoning over their plethora of knowledge of Islam, they would be accepting the defeat of the Quran! It's one of the fundamental fallacies which cropped up as a result of the fallacious binary construction (secularism vs. religion). The Quran itself asks on more than one occasion to think, apply mind and reason out. So the Quran doesn't cap a Muslim's mind; it's the dictatorial undercurrents in Muslim societies which project reason and secularism as antithetical to Islam or religion. Turkey's change towards secularism was not a revolt against Islam; it was rather against the anti-reasoning of the Ottoman Empire in the previous decades which made Ataturk and his fellows to remove the Islamic identity that had become a synonym to anti-reasoning.

Now is the time for Pakistan to make a choice, not between secularism and Islam, but between progress which comes with reasoning and secularism, and religion which is anchored in anti-reasoning concepts and dictatorial concepts of governance. Pakistanis will not discard Islam or their Muslim identity when they choose secularism; instead they would discard dictatorial undercurrents once they are secular. Their religion, Islam, will never be in danger. The decision for secularism will be made by Muslim Pakistanis, so there would be a new kind of secularism, not the one which is practiced in the West.

A hostile approach to secularism has reduced Islam to rituals and hard core system of beliefs in which reasoning and free thinking are considered anathemas. This has also placed Islam as an equivalent of several irrational systems of beliefs where human being, who is considered "Ashrafal Makhluqat" (best of the creations) in Islam, is sacrificed at the altar of the church of Islam, an institution that does not exist in the Islam of Muhammad (PBUH). However, if a friendly approach is made towards secularism, Islam can discover its potentials hidden in its practices. For instance, Hajj, currently a big ritual where millions of Muslims get together every year ends up with no concrete results for humanity!

One wonders if Muslims could hold seminars, debates and speeches on the real issues confronting them on the occasion of Hajj at Mecca, this would open up the power of reasoning and will also help Muslims across the world to contribute positively in the affairs of the world. This would not only be a fusion of secularism and religion, a logical evolution, but will also help abridge the gaps between different faiths, communities and sects at the same time. But since that fusion of secularism and Islam can possibly deprive the non-democratic forces in the Muslim societies of the power to suppress free thinking and reasoning, therefore, they would never allow it.

So if anyone wants to fight for the progress of Muslim societies, he or she will have no choice but to fight against dictators and discard the binary concept of the secularism versus religion in order to ensure the victory of reasoning.

Society seems to be in a state of shock. We are behaving as if we have seen a dreadful nightmare, a hideous monster has made its appearance on the stage which was not in the act. No sir, let me submit, the Sialkot lynching and the recent bludgeoning to death of a businessman in Gujrat were not stray happenings, unscripted episodes in the horror drama we have been watching for more than a couple of decades now.

The sadists who salivated at the Sialkot blood and bone orgy whose behaviour is causing so much moral consternation in the civil society just happened to be there in the front row of the theatre of which we all are the general audience, back up to the dress circle where the rulers sit. We have all been watching the matinee show from the trailer of General Zia's popular 'tiktiki' to the beheadings in Swat by the pious Taliban. And there is no dearth among the believers of people who not only justify these practises but pray for the establishment of this system in the country. Just go and listen to the Friday sermons in most mosques of the land.

The killing, lynching and burning of innocent citizens has been going on since the early days when the army took control of Lahore to save the Ahmadis from organised gangs the pulpit was despatching to cleanse the land of the followers of this sect. Was anyone punished for killing fellow citizens and torching their houses? General Azam dealt with the situation firmly. But that was the last time probably that the state had shown its muscle to establish its writ. It brought a semblance of sectarian peace in the country, but for a time.

Later on when mob justice became the law on Karachi streets and gangs freely burnt buses and vehicles involved in road accidents, the state just looked on and dismissed that as an urban phenomenon, making hardly any effort to catch the culprits. Gradually as Karachi's politics took an ethnic turn and mayhem became the order of the day, we in distant Islamabad comforted ourselves that the daily appearance of mutilated corpses in gunny bags would remain confined to that metropolis. In the horror movies Ghouls make no sound walking. They keep gaining ground.

Bhutto's controversial end shook the foundations of popular faith in justice and murder came to be seen as a convenient solution of complex social and political problems. Men like Hakim Saeed and Rais Amrohvi were killed. They were non controversial persons but they were punished as if for serving society. They had no other fault.

The sight of zealots of a politico-religious party distributing sweets on the morning of Bhutto's hanging was the nadir of callous piety. It was a sad day. Henceforth fair would be foul and foul, fair.

That was a turning point. Though the religious right insisted that Bhutto's elimination from the scene would purify society, what actually happened was their pious hopes' negation. With mercy and compassion exiled from the land, Pakistan became an unforgiving, revengeful and perverse society in which hypocrisy bleached out any vestige of colour, giving life the bland and dour face we prefer to be known by the world over.

The Taliban phase was the next mutilation of our human side. We helped them seize power in Kabul. The takeover ceremony was performed by butchering Dr Najibullah to death, dragging his body through the city and then hanging it upside down for the pious to throw filth and spit on his face. It was removed from there when the corpse started rotting.

Deluded by the naïve thought the Mujahideen had made Moscow kneel down, the clergy on this side was nursing ideas about Islamabad. Swat and Malakand had been conquered where ritual beheadings and stoning to death of sinners had become a daily public spectacle. Videos of this gruesome justice were available on mobile phones which the devout carried in their pockets to show around and prepare the young for jihad.

Finding state legitimacy in short supply, two clerics on government payroll established a parallel government in Islamabad's Lal Masjid. Religious politicians who saw a chance there egged them on to challenge the state. Had the state not acted ultimately, we can imagine what would have happened. Even without them, Islamabad is a besieged, unsafe city. Thousands of innocent people have been killed in mosques, imambargahs, hospitals, market places, banks and hotels. Target killings in Karachi and Balochistan daily devastate families. We watch wailing women sitting around coffins of sons. Their lament drowns in mobile phone jingles. Our days begin with gore and end with scattered limbs. The police find the bomber's skull to gloat over.

Even flood ravaged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not touched their hearts of stone or slaked their thirst for human blood. When the waters were just receding reviving hope among the victims, the Taliban orchestrated a series of suicide bombings to crush the people's spirit by killing innocent men, women and children (in Laki Marwat) minutes after Iftar, showing scant regard for the ushra-e-nijaat of the holy month of fasting. And this, while their mentors were earning laurels for charity work in flood affected areas. Ah, the masquerade, the imposture! The marauding wolves in sheep's clothing! And the namby-pamby naivety of some of us in comparing this nautanki of social work with the countrywide services of the army and foreign aid agencies! Just listen to the loaded Friday sermons, the blatant justifications for the killing fields and the absolutely nauseating affront of their reluctant and conditional condemnation of suicide attacks which is as perfunctory as the sham chorus of tut-tuts at the Sialkot and Gujrat horrors whose dramatic crescendo is proving useful in helping to drown the uproar at the target killings in Karachi and Quetta.

Strangely, Dr Allah Nazar prefers books to guns. "I'd like to have both though. But if I have to choose one I'll prefer the book. It's the book which guides my gun," the 37-year-old militant leader tells this scribe via satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

Claiming to derive inspiration from Mongol warrior and conqueror Changez Khan, he says, "Changez Khan may not be a perfect human being and I don't like much of his actions, yet I admire his war tactics. He was a great military strategist."

Dr Allah Nazar, blamed by the government for the assassination of Maula Bakhsh Dashti, Habib Jalib and other moderate politicians, has denied killing his political opponents. "It's the government's propaganda. I don't believe in eliminating political opponents. I'm a political worker, not a bandit and I've taken up arms for a political ideology," he stresses.

Apart from the government and military authorities, the National Party (NP) has also held Dr Nazar responsible for the murder of its leader Maula Bakhsh Dashti in Turbat. Some media reports suggest the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), a militant group believed to be headed by Dr Nazar, claimed responsibility for the killing. However, this politician-cum-militant leader says the NP was providing "an excuse to the military to knock him out".

"I've worked with Maula Bakhsh Dashti and other leaders of the NP during my student life. I've had political differences with them since then, but it doesn't mean I'll kill them for having ideas other than mine. I believe in political process and I'll prefer to persuade them through dialogue."

"Even Jalib Sahib's Balochistan National Party has held Pakistan military and intelligence outfits responsible for his assassination."

Believed to be the most influential figure among the radical Baloch youth, Dr Nazar belongs to a middle-class family from Mashkay, a town in the Awaran district, Balochistan. He started his political career as a member of the students' wing of the Balochistan National Movement (BNM), now the National Party. After parting ways with the then BNM, Dr Nazar formed his own faction of the Baloch Students Organistaion in 2001. He openly advocated an armed struggle for liberating Balochistan till 2003 -- when he went into hiding to organise his own militant group. His Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) made headlines when it claimed responsibility for killing three Chinese engineers in Gwadar on May 2, 2004.

He claims he has never been approached for talks by the government or military authorities.

Dr Nazar was picked up by intelligence agencies on March 25, 2005 from a flat in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area in Karachi. After having remained missing for around year, he resurfaced on August 12, 2006 and was jailed in Quetta for several months. After his release on bail, he went into hiding again, where he says he "witnessed slavery and oppression very closely in those torture cells," says a bitter Dr Nazar. And now "The aim of my life is to purge Balochistan of Punjabi Army."

Does he work on an Indian agenda to destabilise Pakistan? He rubbishes this allegation and adds: "It's now an outdated allegation. Whenever the Baloch rise up for their rights, they are dubbed as Indian agents. But it has now been acknowledged that it's an indigenous movement."

So then where does he get cash and weapons from to run his militant group? He says he would appreciate any help from anyone -- but would not work in "anybody else's interest, except Baloch".

He reveals Baloch women have also joined them in their fight against, what he calls, slavery. "According to my estimate, we enjoy the support of 80 percent of the Baloch masses. And the popularity of our cause is growing with each passing day," adding the Baloch Liberation Front, Balochistan Liberation Army, Baloch Republican Army and other lesser known Baloch militant groups will unite at a later stage to wage a more organised and sophisticated war for Balochistan's independence.