“Pakistan is at a crucial juncture in its history. We need to unite and defeat the menace of religious extremism and terrorism,” Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, leader of the opposition in the Senate said. PHOTO: ONLINE
Politicians and security experts have asked the government to come up with a clear policy with regard to militancy and terrorism, while urging national unity to fight the menace.
They expressed these views at a seminar on “Effects of Religious Extremism and Intolerance”, organised by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Human Rights Cell at a local on Friday.
“Pakistan is at a crucial juncture in its history. We need to unite and defeat the menace of religious extremism and terrorism,” Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, leader of the opposition in the Senate said.
He cited terrorist incidents in recent past, including the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, killings of polio workers and foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat and the recent Karachi airport attack, saying terrorists want to isolate Pakistan from the rest of the world.
He criticised the government for its indecisiveness towards militancy and extremism. “It is time the government made clear its stance and moved decisively against terrorists.”
He held military dictator Ziaul Haq responsible for designing an exclusive syllabus that pushed the minorities to the wall.
Talking about the discriminatory law that bars non-Muslims from holding a key constitutional position in the country, he said that Quaid-i-Azam’s law and foreign ministers were non-Muslims too.
Journalist Zahid Hussain said the constitution deprives a large number of non-Muslim of their fundamental rights in the name of religion. He said that extremists were raised and bread in Pakistan under the state sponsorship, adding that religious extremism cannot be overcome without ending biases in the state policy.
Hussain said the sentence “Taliban have adopted violence policy after violation of their rights” in the joint declaration of the APC convened to evolve anti-terrorism policy gave legitimacy to the Taliban.
“How can the talks be held with a group that the government itself has banned,” he questioned.
“The state has already given up before the militants and the Karachi airport attack now shows collapse of state machinery”, he added.
PPP Human Rights Cell Chairperson Dr Nafeesa Shah said all progressive forces should sit together to defeat extremism.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2014.
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