Fight against terrorism: Action against banned outfits urged

Analysts welcome shift in state policy against terrorists

ISLAMABAD:

Speakers at a seminar on Friday cautiously welcomed the government’s declaration of an all-out war against terrorists and extremists.

They were speaking at a session on “Will Pakistan Change Post 2016” at the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) office.

They hoped the new policy will help bring about a paradigm shift in country’s security and foreign policies and will not spare any terrorist outfit and banned organisation on any pretext.



The participants emphasised the need to defeat terrorism and religious sectarianism at ideological, educational and cultural levels.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that said policy change had started even before the Peshawar school attack, particularly with regard to Pak-Afghan relations.

He highlighted the changing regional scenario with China emerging as a major economic power, followed by India. The minister said that about 3 billion people were living in the region. The minister said that Pakistan and Afghanistan had only two options of either to join the race of development and economic progress in the region or lag behind.

He said peace and stability was necessary for the survival of Pakistan and Afghanistan and maintained that rapid development can only be achieved through cooperation with neighbors and not confrontation.

The information minister said that the state needed religious ideology in the past which is not the case anymore, hence the changed mood and style of the state institutions.

Rashid said the Punjab government had taken over the schools and dispensaries which were being run by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). To another question, he said that a case had been registered against the Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and the police will do their job in accordance with the law.

Security analyst Zahid Hussain said that complete harmony between the political and military leadership was a good omen. Senior journalist Muhammad Ziauddin said the military court would not be able to achieve the result until the terrorists’ weapon and fund supplies are not cut.

PPP Senator Ferhatullah Babar said that all political parties should strengthen the democratic narrative against the extremist narrative.

“Pakistan itself nurtured snakes in its backyard and thought that they would bite the neighbor but not us,” said the senator.



Babar said that supporting the establishment of military courts was a difficult decision. The law, he said, should not be extended beyond two years.

Lieutenant General (retd) Talat Masood said that the war of ideology which had been nurtured for the past 30-40 years has ruined the country. He said that it would take at least 10 years to win this war. He also called for madrassa reforms and said that policy should be formulated in parliament instead of all parties conferences.

SAFMA Secretary General Imtiaz Alam said the state had yet to take action against all those militants who had been patronised as strategic assets and some of which, he said, were still active in the so-called Jihad in Kashmir.

Alam said action against banned outfits working with new names and crackdown against hate literature and speech was yet to be seen.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2015.