The government’s capacity is suspect
The army is deadly serious about two issues: the establishment of military courts and the hanging of those convicted for terrorist acts. The political parties which were opposed to military courts have been persuaded not to oppose the move. Lists of military officers to be detailed to man the courts and conduct related duties are under preparation. Once parliament makes the necessary amendment in the constitution, the courts will at once start functioning.
The courts will fulfil the three conditions set by Imran Khan i.e., being within the ambit of the constitution, with a strict sunset clause and for specified terrorist activities.
With an all-out attack on terrorist hideouts and a full-fledged action against the terrorists inside major urban centres the incidence of terrorism would considerably go down. The lull may however turn out to be temporary.
Most of the Fata agencies, where terrorist incidents continue to take place, have been subjected to similar operations in the past and declared several times to be free of terrorists. It was however like a balloon with the operation putting a squeeze on one side only to see the other side getting inflated. This time the operation is not limited to one or two agencies only but to several at the same time. The results are therefore likely to be better than before. The terrorists have been used to the operations and know how to wait these out.
The intelligence based action in urban areas has led to the detention of thousands of suspects. Hopefully this would provide clues to the law enforcement agencies about the terrorist hideouts and sleeping cells in the cities. This would also help nab many terrorists. But the problem with such operations is that they cannot be sustained over a long period of time.
With the overwhelming majority of the people practicing a moderate Islam, those running the larger seminaries or smaller maktabs had to respect the public sentiment
Special courts, military strikes combined with dragnets thrown by law enforcement agencies will bleed the terrorist groups, force the weak willed among them to change course but these alone would not eliminate the cancer that has spread deep and wide.
What is needed to eliminate terrorism is to conduct a sustained and multi-faceted campaign to put an end to extremism, the well head of all militancy and an unending source of supply of recruits to terrorist networks. The military is trained to plan for striking a visible enemy in a defined physical location. It does not go into the intricate social issues that create the enemy. It is for the politicians to discover the causes behind the malaise and formulate the right policies to eradicate the root cause.
Over the last few decades extremist thinking has been promoted on a large scale by military and civilian governments for the achievement of narrow aims. What is more, countries which were considered friendly as they helped Pakistan financially at times of need have misused the relationship to pursue their own agendas in Pakistan. This has led to the mushrooming of religious madrassas in Pakistan.
The new madrassas that came into being as a result of foreign funding were different from those that existed in the country before the ‘80s. The older seminaries depended on local donors who were mostly moderate Muslims with no political aims. The imams of the mosques too depended for their livelihood on the rural or urban communities where the mosque and an attached madrassah for children were situated.
With the overwhelming majority of the people practicing a moderate Islam, those running the larger seminaries or smaller maktabs had to respect the public sentiment and shun preaching of extremist views or violence. In most cases people went to the same mosques to pray. Travellers were free to spend a night at the mosque which remained open twenty four hours a day.
There was no doubt always a whiff of communalism in the air in certain areas. In big cities a bigoted maulvi here or there would bar those belonging to others sect from entering his mosque or denounce the other sect. A brickbat once in a few years was the worst that could happen. The local community supporting the mosque would not allow anyone to go beyond that. The mosques and madrassas followed no foreign agenda.
The Gulf money led to the creation of thousands of new mosques and madrassas with an aim to prepare volunteers for a proxy war at the behest of the foreign donors. Initially the funding came from the Gulf governments. This was subsequently replaced by funding from the extremist charities in the Gulf which continues to flow in unchecked.
What is needed to eliminate terrorism is to conduct a sustained and multi-faceted campaign to put an end to extremism, the well head of all militancy
With big money involved in the madrassah business, the seminary owners are opposed to government monitoring of their funds or the teaching they impart. The extremist poison spread by madrassas of the type has infected practically all segments of society including government officials, defence personnel, the legal community and media. This provides confidence to the seminary heads to challenge even the writ of the state.
Maulana Abdul Aziz’s highly objectionable remarks regarding the victims of the terrorist attack in Peshawar are just one example. When challenged by the civil society, the man threatened them with suicide attacks. Finally forced to recant he reverted to spreading sectarian hatred.
The fact that the man still uses a government owned premises to spread his obnoxious ideas despite popular protests indicates the state’s helplessness in dealing with madrassah figures. There is no hope of respite in extremism unless the government is able to rein in at least the so called 10 percent madrassas considered to have been connected with terrorism in one way or another.
Despite the prime minister’s insistence on implementing the National Action Plan, incidents of the sort raise doubts about the capacity of the government to take long term measures to rid the country of extremism, the mother of all militancy from Pakistan to Syria.
The freedom enjoyed by Difa-e-Pakistan Council has led many to believe that it enjoyed military support. How could an umbrella organisation for all banned organisations under new names continue to operate freely and even march on Islamabad? The National Action Plan lays down “ensuring against the re-emergence of proscribed organisations” as one of its objectives. To start with, will Nawaz Sharif lay hands on ASWJ, the reincarnation of LeJ or JuD, which is the former LeT?
Will the PML-N leadership implement the changes in the school curriculum on lines suggested by the Supreme Court? Will it go further by devising a narrative against the one developed by the extremists for TTP or the Daish? Does it have the capacity to run a sustained and well-coordinated campaign to inculcate tolerance and respect for other faiths and beliefs? Few believe the party has the intellectual capacity to apprehend, let aside implement, the tasks crucial for the existence of Pakistan.
