WHAT’S in a name? A lot, it turns out, at least in the case of a proscribed organisation that wants to participate in the elections. It seems that one such organisation, the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, which was banned by the government in February 2012, contested the polls last year under the name of Pakistan Rah-i-Haq Party as part of an alliance of five religio-political parties called the Muttahida Deeni Mahaz. A report in this newspaper cites an office-bearer of the ASWJ confirming that the party did indeed contest the elections; when asked why this fact was concealed from the ECP, the individual avoided giving an answer. Although the alliance had not won any seat in the polls, an election tribunal recently declared ASWJ leader, Maulana Ludhianvi, the winner from Jhang after disqualifying the original victor. While this result looks set to be contested in the courts, it is worth considering the ease with which banned organisations evade state action against them by changing their names and in the process make a mockery of the law.

There are a number of organisations today — those with political ambitions that is — that have gone through several iterations in their history. The ASWJ itself is better known by its earlier name, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan. After the SSP was banned in 2002, it briefly re-emerged as Millat-i-Islamia until that too was banned in 2003. It has since been known as ASWJ. Similarly, the Tehreek-i-Jafria after being banned in 2002 reinvented itself as Tehreek-i-Islami, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s post-ban reincarnation as Jamaatud Dawa is well known. While it may be tempting to hold the ECP responsible for allowing a proscribed organisation such as the ASWJ to participate in the elections through the latter’s onomastic jugglery, it is the loopholes in the law itself that need to be addressed. It is not enough to merely ban an organisation while leaving those at its helm free to further its agenda in another capacity, sometimes by participating in elections as independents or under a ‘new’ party name. The expediency of the political elite in Pakistan also bears mention here, for it is only with their tacit complicity that extremist elements make it into mainstream politics through the back door.