Objective should be to counter and change extremist religious and political viewpoints
KARACHI: In a letter to the vice-chancellor of Karachi University, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani expressed concern at the university’s decision to provide the data of students to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The university management also proposed to coerce students into obtaining a character certificate from the local police station for the purpose of university record. The step taken by the university management could be one possible way to counter militancy and growing threat concerns in the institution. However, this might lead to an even more politicised environment in the educational institutions.
Part of the proposed move that is to obtain character certificate is plausible as this would help cross-check the candidate’s past criminal records, if any. Moving further along the lines of the same decision, what could be the next possible move is to check if a student has religious-political engagement in the past. However, refusal to grant admission on this basis is unwise because it does not counter the religiously violent opinions one holds.
Since growing militancy is not a dilemma of the public institutions only, there needs to be a coherent policy and method to keep track of students. Lastly and most importantly, the objective should be to counter and change extremist religious and political viewpoints and not to deprive students of the educational environment conducive to hone their political knowledge and acumen.
Aiman Ibad
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2017.
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