Shutting down seminaries
The government needs to start focusing on more concrete steps
Sindh has taken the lead in closing down 2,300 seminaries, while carrying out the process of geo-mapping these institutions across the province. This makes it the only province that has shown more than passing interest in any such crackdown.
Geo-mapping of seminaries was part of the National Action Plan (NAP) constituted in 2014 following the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. The statistics provided by the interior ministry in parliament show that Punjab has so far closed down only two suspect seminaries during the geomapping process and while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has completed 75 per cent of the geo-mapping, it has shut down 13 seminaries on suspicion of illegal activities.
The government of Balochistan has completed 60per cent of the mapping and closed just one suspect seminary in its area.
By these statistics, it at once appears that Sindh is most serious in tackling extremism. Perhaps it is, but only to the extent of following up on NAP’s instructions.
Besides that, however, mere geo-mapping only raises questions as to how impactful these steps really are. All that this process will essentially do is to mark out seminaries, and just knowing where
religious institutions are will do nothing to control what is being taught there and the students they are producing. Even closing down seminaries is no solution.
What will the state do if the same people it is clamping down on meet in private spaces instead? Can conversations within the home be contained or controlled? It is safe to assume that these measures are an eyewash.
The attack in Sehwan Sharif last month and the reaction following that in several quarters that tried to justify the attack was just another example of how far extremist thought has spread. The government
needs to start focusing on more concrete steps.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2017.
Geo-mapping of seminaries was part of the National Action Plan (NAP) constituted in 2014 following the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. The statistics provided by the interior ministry in parliament show that Punjab has so far closed down only two suspect seminaries during the geomapping process and while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has completed 75 per cent of the geo-mapping, it has shut down 13 seminaries on suspicion of illegal activities.
The government of Balochistan has completed 60per cent of the mapping and closed just one suspect seminary in its area.
By these statistics, it at once appears that Sindh is most serious in tackling extremism. Perhaps it is, but only to the extent of following up on NAP’s instructions.
Besides that, however, mere geo-mapping only raises questions as to how impactful these steps really are. All that this process will essentially do is to mark out seminaries, and just knowing where
religious institutions are will do nothing to control what is being taught there and the students they are producing. Even closing down seminaries is no solution.
What will the state do if the same people it is clamping down on meet in private spaces instead? Can conversations within the home be contained or controlled? It is safe to assume that these measures are an eyewash.
The attack in Sehwan Sharif last month and the reaction following that in several quarters that tried to justify the attack was just another example of how far extremist thought has spread. The government
needs to start focusing on more concrete steps.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2017.