Sleeping pills

Letter August 30, 2015
If we keep distinguishing between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban, the fight against terrorism can’t be won

JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: One may assume that the home ministers of Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan would be rushing to Punjab to grab the magical wand its law minster, Rana Sanaullah, is holding. Mr Sanaullah surprised the entire country the other day by declaring that his government has fixed the nurseries of extremism and that now, no madrassas in Punjab are involved in breeding terrorism. Out of 20,000 seminaries, his government found only 20 madrassas, wherein students or faculty were involved in facilitating terrorism. Is this another attempt at fooling the nation? A province where sectarian and extremist firebrands such as Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba roam freely, make hate speeches, collect ‘charity’ funds and attend funerals of ex-army generals, to make such claims means something is wrong somewhere.

The National Action Plan mandates madrassa reforms, but from Mr Sanaullah’s point of view, the task is over because none of Punjab’s madrassas are involved in terrorism. Therefore, he feels that there is no need to press on with these reforms. He represents the same government that made a mockery of justice during numerous riots and attacks on religious minorities in the recent past. Now, by closing doors on any possible madrassa reform, it is doing nothing to stop terrorism. It seems that the provincial government doesn’t care about resolving this crisis as long as terrorism is exported and not directed at the province itself.

Statements of these kinds ridicule the intelligence of the nation. If we keep distinguishing between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban, the fight against terrorism can’t be won. The overdosing on sleeping pills by various persons in power could be fatal for the nation.

Masood Khan

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2015.

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