House cleaning

It is apt that immediately following the massacre at the New Sariab Police Training College, a special meeting was held at the Chief Minister House in Karachi to discuss the lurking danger of extremism in Sindh’s madrassas, creating an impending threat of a similar scenario observed in Quetta on October 25. It has been neglected for too long the realisation that Sindh, with its uncontrollably growing population inviting residents from all over the country and region, has its own house cleaning to do. Some 93 madrassas have been placed on an intelligence watch list for links with banned outfits — which should be extirpated without delay — along with a plan to register every legal and illegal immigrant of Sindh, a much lauded step.

The measures, indeed, receive our approbation but it is no easy feat. The term ‘immigrant’ in Sindh is technically applicable to millions of people, depending on where the starting point is chosen on the timeline. A better strategy is to register all residents of Sindh in rural, urban and surrounding areas. Once records are completed to accuracy, anomalous practices by individuals should be earmarked for investigation, for example, participation in questionable seminaries and organisations. Coming to madrassas, a bold step has been taken by the leadership as questioning places of religious authority or belonging has been controversial in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Madrassas provide an easy cover for troublemakers and thus need to be vetted by intelligence and government officials. Civilians should also take ownership and report hateful and divisive speech during sermons. We have been saying for a long time that a sole entity cannot operate without taking on board other leadership in the province. Decisive and meaningful action can only be taken in unison with civil and military law enforcement and intelligence, which finally seems to be happening. Pakistan’s role in the war on terror began over a decade ago, so we would have wished to see the leadership enhance its record keeping long before the intricate and tortuous mess we are in now but alas, better late than never.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2016.

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