Gufi
RETIRED TTA
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A Path to peace
On the morning of the 16th of December seven armed terrorists entered The Army public School and went on a killing rampage that left 150 children dead and more than a hundred injured, in an act of barbarity that shocked the world. While the nation grieved and mourned they also united in the fact that something needs to be done about this cancer slowly eating away at this nation. Many different directions have been proposed to counter this scourge and in this article another one will be presented.
The treatment of this cancer which has entrenched itself so deeply is not going to be easy or quick but it is a necessary, albeit painful path we must take as a nation. A multipronged effort has to be launched with society as a whole contributing in the roles assigned to them. There are some quick steps that can help improve the current situations and some long term plans to rectify the root issues causing terrorism.
The most important player is the army, whose successful operations are helping us rid of the immediate danger, which with the successful completion of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan and concurrent raids in various cities by intelligence agencies is clearing the country of terrorist cells. Through these actions it is clear that there is an understanding on how to tackle home grown and foreign insurgents who have infiltrated Pakistani soil and while the country is ridding itself of these terrorists and securing our borders through means of ditches, walls, checkpoints and cooperation with the Afghan government, The army needs to make sure to continue the operations and extend them to counter the BLA and other pockets where there are terror camps or the writ of the government is challenged. Special attention needs to be given to charitable organizations that are actually radically inclined and ticking time bombs.
A strong state is one which has the army protecting the borders and the police handling internal problems, but, sadly for a nation which has been targeted by many terrorist attacks we still have no police unit to contend with terrorists. The government of Pakistan needs to take tangible steps towards building an anti terrorist force akin to SWAT and GIGN who are trained to handle such threats as this is critical to national security.
Another issue that must be tackled on an urgent basis is the disarming of the civilian population with regards to automatic weapons. Gun ranges should be formed for gun enthusiasts but there should be no automatic weapons allowed to civilians and strict punishments should be handed to those who possess assault rifles after a designated period of time. Liberty is a wonderful concept but in the current conditions sacrifices have to be made for the betterment of Pakistan.
With a strong structure to defend against terrorist attacks set into place there needs to be an effort to prevent home grown terrorists from forming. Only to the misinformed it seems that monitoring the mosques or controlling them is an easy task. To move forward we need to pay special attention to who our Imams are and have tests formulated to vet out those with extremist views while asking the general public to report any extremist activities in mosques on special help lines formulated for this task. To run a madrassah the Imam should go through a battery of tests followed by a psychological evaluation to determine his state of mind. The first year of classes should be monitored by the intelligence agencies followed by random checks in the years to follow. Lists of topics to be avoided should be given and rules on the use of the loudspeakers of the mosque also made clear.
Any mosque or madrassah found to be harboring terrorists needs to be sealed and strict punishment given to the local police stations under whose jurisdiction the mosque is. Imams and religious scholars with extremist views who do not condemn the killing of innocent people should be stripped of their titles and their institutions banned. There should be no leniency towards any terrorist group and the government needs to act decisively to banish these thoughts from mainstream society.
The education system in Pakistan is our future and because of that it needs the most attention. There have been calls by a minority of secular minded people to abolish the subject of Islam till one reaches college but that is like a pigeon closing its eyes when faced by predators. With the growing threat of ISIS and other terror organizations the threat of teenagers being radicalized has increased exponentially and the answer is not to remove the subject of religion but to reform the style it is taught and make children religiously mature enough to understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong.
The focus of Islamic studies need to be a comprehensive study on the life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and understanding that violence is not the answer to problems with special focus given to tolerance and respect for minorities. With clear textbooks for every school, whether it is private or public, the children need to understand what the real meaning of Islam is and make them mature enough to understand how to deal with the threats that face Muslims today. For this purpose video lectures need to be prepared as guidelines to teachers who wish to teach this subject to deter teachers finding their own interpretations of books.
There needs to be sweeping changes in the political system in this country with local body elections being held to better represent the people making the common man feel like he is part of the system and increase harmony with the country. There should be a total ban on political parties having any armed wings and politics in the educational system also needs to be removed. Any politician found breaking these laws should be stripped of office and tried in an army court as a terrorist if found to have been involved with any armed wing.
Radical reform in the feudal areas needs to be considered to nullify the concept of personal fiefdoms with gradual integration into society with the law of the land applying to all who live under it. This should also apply to personal militias of feudalists being disbanded.
In terms of foreign relations we need to take a harder stance on countries harboring terrorists who can hurt Pakistani interests specially focusing on Afghanistan and discuss with the Afghan government the return of the refugees facilitating their return back to their own country. Failure to comply with the wishes of the Pakistani Government should result in complete closing of the border until specific goals decided by the armed forces of Pakistan are not met.
The economy is directly related to terrorism, and there should be a concentrated focus in redeveloping backward impoverished areas. Poverty breeds illiteracy and ignoring joblessness and destitute lifestyles will be detrimental to ridding ourselves of these pests. Without economic growth the efforts today will have no long term benefits in the future. For this an all parties conference with the chief of army staff in presence should decide the future in regards to power supply and dams with concrete action plans being a must at the end of the conference.
Terrorism has multiple causes and to tackle those requires hard work, sacrifices and optimism but united as a nation there is no obstacle that we can not surmount to build the Pakistan the Quaid envisioned as proud progressive Pakistani’s living in harmony with the world at large. We must work on all fronts to build a more unified nation because to falter now would be dangerous to the very existence of the Pakistan as we know it.
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