Many PML-N leaders haven’t cottoned on yet
What Nawaz Sharif told a gathering in Karachi on the occasion of Hindu festival deservers to be included in student’s text books. But first of all some of the quotes should be made compulsory reading for those seeking PML-N’s ticket for the coming elections. Nawaz Sharifsaid no one can force others to adopt a certain religion. Elucidating further he observed “Some people wear a turban. Some wear achogha. Others wear a suit and tie, and some wear shalwar kameez…These are all creations of God… And that’s fine. This is a freedom given to us by God. Who are we to take it away?”
The irony is that little effort has been made to convey the message to all PML-N leaders let alone 200 million people of Pakistan. The day the Prime Minister was telling an audience in Karachi that “religion does not force anyone to do anything”, Punjab Minister for Higher Education was announcing that he had made the hijab compulsory for college going women. “If your attendance falls below 60 pc then we will give 5 pc attendance to those girls who wear a hijab.” It is good that the Punjab government has dissociated itself from its Minister’s plans but the tell-tale statement reveals the thinking prevailing in the PML-N. Minister Ali Raza Gilani has not joined the ruling party recently. The man won on PML-N’s ticket successively in 2008 and 2013 elections. Promoted by the party, he now heads a ministry which is supposed to play key a role in eradicating narrow-mindedness and extremism among the youth. Despite repeated assertions on the part of civil and military leadership to rid the country of the twin menaces of terrorism and extremism the man in charge of Higher Education in Punjab remains wedded to extremist views.
There is a need to realise that unless extremist thinking that insists on imposing a narrow version of Islam through force and enticement is eradicated military operations alone will not achieve their targets.