Obligingness to Leadership: A Case Study of the Qur’an

We can divide human beings into two categories: Leaders and Followers. Leaders are a few, the rest of the overwhelming majority of the human beings are followers. They show an earnest tendency of following or obligingness towards their leaders. This capacity of the following is exploited and abused by the egoist and toxic leaders to bring destruction to their followers and the world. The author of the paper tries to explore and determine the motives of obligingness or complaisance of blind following. The author studies this phenomenon in the light of theories of the hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow, The Situational Factor by Philip Zimbardo, the Function of Labeling by Albert Bandura and Ego Depletion by Michael Cholbi. These theories have earned good acceptance from the experts. The theories are found helpful to understand the mentality of leaders and their followers as described by the Qur’ān. These theories are applied to some selected cases from the Qur’ān to reach a better understanding of the phenomenon. The Qur’ān at many places describes and discusses this human tendency. It presents dialogue between the leaders and their blind followers in the life hereafter, the person of Pharaoh, his maneuvering, his courtiers, the common people of Egypt, the followers of pagan chieftains and their opposition to the prophets give us ample description to know how blind following actually works under the influence of leadership. The author hopes that this study helps understand the mentality of the present day leaders and their blind or complaisant followers.

Political Development and Decay in Pakistan: 1988-2008.

Since its inception, Pakistan had been experiencing the dysfunctionalism of different types of political system. Despite emerging through a democratic process on the World map in 1947, under an inherited British system of governance, it could not sustain the rule of law. Lack of devoted political leadership and growing political and economic incompetence, under the patronage of non-political opportunists, had debarred the growth of a capable political system which caused for military-bureaucratic institutionalization in political process. The British political system of India Act 1935, martial-democratic system to General Ayub Khan’s basic democracy, parliamentary system of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Islamic-socialism and the presidentio-parlia-military system of General Zia-ul-Haq had been equally responsible for political decay in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan had gone through the ever deadliest event of its dismemberment in 1971 but still, its leadership could not learn enough to practice the politics of devotion, cooperation and national self-esteem. Repeated martial-laws and ineffective democracies had hampered the political participation of the public in the political process and the performance of the political system. The accidental death of General Zia-ul-Haq in 1988 provided a chance for a democratic polity but, the politics of immaturity, revenge and corruption had broken the dreams of political stability in the country. The political system, working under 8th amendment of the constitution with extensive military involvement in poltical process, caused for distrust between the head of the state and the heads of governments. Consequently, none of the elected governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif could be able to complete their constitutional term from 1988-99. Military, as an organized and disciplined institution in the country, had not been ready to lose its political role and had taken the opportunity for takeover, provided by the elected leadership, in 1999. Thus, the sub-system involvement across the boundaries caused for another political decay. Generally, the politically desperated people of Pakistan discuss and criticize the political system and their leadership in everyday sittings but they have a little awareness of the basic political structures and their proper functional procedure. The present study, “Political development and decay in Pakistan: 1988-2008” is primarily, an attempt to examine the functional capabilities of the political systems, experienced during the period of study, in accordance with their structures. It also expects to provide sufficient knowledge for a common man to understand the political process for an effective political participation in general, and to encourage for further scholarly researches to evolve a viable political system in Pakistan, in particular.