8/4/2019 PAKISTAN `S LOW-GRADE CIVIL WAR

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Pakistan'sow-Grade ivilWarBy Sadanand Dhume

f s Sunni-majorityPakistann

I the midst of a low-gradewarI against its minority Shiitepopu-lation?Scarcely a monthgoesby without word of a newatrocity: a car bomb outside aShiite mosque n QuettaduringRamadan, suicidebombingof aShiiteprocessionn Lahore,Shiitedoctors mysteriously shot inKarachi.

In Ju1y, after prosecutorsfailed to find evidenceof his al-leged nvolvement n the murdersof scoresof Shiites. Parkistan'sSupremeCourt released MalikIshaq leaderofthe bannedSunnisectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.He promptly receivedahero's welcomefrom his follow-ers.The Pakistanigovernmenthasallowed Sunni-ruledBahrain toopenly recruit Pakistanimerce-naries o put dolm a restiveShiitemajority dernandingdemocraticrights in the oil-rich kingdom.

The country's Shiites arewor-ried. In July, hundreds ook to thestreetsof Quetta o protest thekillings. In private,some Shiiteswonder whether over time theywill meet the samefate as theheterodoxAhmadiyyacommunity,stripped of their recognition as

Muslims and hustled oward themargins of national life.To be sure,compared o Ah-

madis,ChristiansandHindus, heShiiteshaveso far facedno bat-tery of discriminatory aws,andtheir exposureo violences bothrelatively recent and somewhat

limited. But this positionof com-parative privilege s preciselywhythe Shiites matter so much toPakistan's uture.

the 36-million-strongcommu-nity is a bulwark against the vio-lent Sunni fundamentalism of

Anti-Shiite. I i A

vrolenceby bunnl

extremistsasbeenspreading.

groups such as the Lashkar-e-JhangviandPunjab-basedipah-e-Sahaba. nd reverence or Is-lamic shrines and other practicesconsideredmpure by Sunni ex-tremists make them among thefiercest opponentsof the intoler-ant Taliban.

The country's founding father,MohammedAli Jinnah,belongedto a Shiitesect, he Khoj4 whosefollowers are famous n the sub-continent or their business cu-men. Many of Jinnaht top lieu-tenants n the Pakistanmovementwere also Shiites.

Unlike much of the Arabworld-where Shiiteshave radi-tionally constituted an under-class-the community n Pakistan

beganwith a seat at the head a-ble of power. n the early decadesof independence,Pakistan hadtwo Shiitepresidentsand at leastone Shiiteprime minister. The istof prominentgenerals, usiness-me4 ambassadors nd newspapereditors rom the communitv s too

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long to recount.Only n the 1980s,under the

fundamentalistSuruf dictatorshipof Gen.Zia ul-Haq,did the com-pact between Sunnis and Shiitesbegin to fray. Partly to protecttheir distinct identity, Shiitespro-tested the general'sclumsy at-tempt in 1980 o impose a uni-form alms tax on all Muslims.

Around the same ime, Paki-stan was sucked nto a shadowyproxy war for influence betweentwo rival strains of radical Islam:the messianicShiite variety prop-agated by Iran's AyatollahKhomeini, and Wahhabism, anaustere, back-to-basicsorm ofSunni slam championed y SaudiArabia.

The explicitly anti-ShiiteSipah-e-SahabaSoldiersof theProphet'sCompanions), orn insouthernPunjab n 1985,ook upthe causeof Sunnipeasantsn aregion dominated by large Shiitelandowners. Over the years, aclutch of Shiite rivals, includingthe banned Sipah-e-Muhammad(Soldiersof Muhammad), aveat-tempted o fight back.

Over the past three decades,violencebetweenSunnisand Shi-ites has ebbed and flowed, buttwo things are clear.First, despitespar,vning anned violent sectar-

ian outfits of their own, the Shi-ites have argely been on the re-ceivingend ofviolence. n a 2005report, the International CrisisGroup estimated that Shiite vic-tims accounted,for oo/of sectar-ian deathsover the previous20years.In recent yea-rs,he vio-

lence has spread romPunjaband(sporadicall

to Quetta n BalochistaFederallyAdmhistered Teason Pakistan's roublewith Afghanistan.

Second, he space olicly Shiite n Pakistanhadramatically.This s mosin the tale of the BhuttThoughnot overtlypiousAli Bhutto,who ruled fro1977,s described y VaTufts University as marpinnacleof Shiitepowestan."

But by the late 1980sdaug]rterBenazi4who hcameprime minister, hto call herself a Sunni.band, current PresidenZardari, maintainsa stlenceon the subject,anattempt o attract Shiitwithout tempting fundaSunni re.

For Pakistan, oundhomeland or all Indianthe Sunni-Shiitedivide isward subject that manrather gnore.But the reworld needs o pay motion to this conflict. If can't evenprotect its nandwell-connected hithe oddsof moderates

over extremists n an ongtle for the countryS fuexceedinglylim.

Mr. Dhume s a residat the AmericanEnterptute n Washington ndnist or WSJ.com.