I agree with the writer when he says that the government does not have much time to lose.
ISLAMABAD: M Ziauddin, in his article “Get rid of the APC syndrome, please” (July 17) has argued strongly against what he calls the APC syndrome. His arguments carry a lot of weight because of the futility of such conferences held in the past. On the proposed APC, however, I have a different opinion. Times have changed. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has learnt lessons from history and it is expected, therefore, that the next all-parties conference moot will produce the intended results. The country has to unite and forget the artificial divide between the winners and losers of the last elections because nobody lost the said elections.
I agree with the writer when he says that the government does not have much time to lose. In this context, any delay in holding the forthcoming APC must be avoided. Instead of arguing for or against the proposed APC, I shall prefer to give ideas for the latter on how to wipe out terror from the country. Some of them are as follows: a) The first step is to define the problem. In my view, terrorism equals extremism and guns/bombs. Guns and bombs cannot be defeated without drying up the breeding ground of violence and without exterminating the extremist mindset. Sadly, it seems that the majority of the people in our society are extremists because they are not prepared to listen to the alternative point of view. As a first measure to demilitarise the Pakistani mindset, tolerance must be included as a compulsory subject in schools, colleges, universities, madrassas, Friday sermons and television talk shows.
b) Second, we should forge better relations with our immediate neighbours to create an atmosphere conducive for a common approach to fight terrorism.
c) The third measure is the reconciliation between religion and democracy. The emphasis should be to purge our society of an anachronistic mindset to eliminate the space which mothers terrorism.
I wish good luck to the APC, which must be held immediately with or without Imran Khan. Meanwhile, military operations may continue wherever necessary but they are only a minor part of the wider solution that we are seeking. If the Taliban accept our Constitution and if they declare that they will abandon terrorism if US drone strikes are stopped, the state must sit with them at the negotiating table; otherwise, it will be counterproductive to hold dialogue with the deaf.
BA Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2013.
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