By
Sajjad Shaukat
The National Action Plan
(NAP) is essential part of Pakistan’s war against terrorism, as it has
co-relationship with the military operation Zarb-i-Azb against the militants,
including other related-issues like Madaris (Religious seminaries) which need
registration and reforms.
In this regard, a high
level security meeting was held at the GHQ, presided by the Army Chief General
Raheel Sharif on August 12, this year to review progress of Zarb-e-Azb and the
NAP. According to the reliable sources the Pakistan Army is unhappy with the
progress on the National Action Plan, as the civil authorities have not made
any progress on eight of the 20 NAP points. The sources said that Gen. Raheel
Sharif took notice of the negative statements and criticism by some politicians
and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting at Prime Minister’s House.
In this context, a
statement of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) pointed out that Gen.
Raheel Sharif stated that NAP was “key to achieving the national objectives and
a lack of progress on it was affecting the consolidation phase of the Operation
Zarb-e-Azb…unless all prongs deliver meaningfully and all inadequacies are
addressed, remnants of terrorism will continue to simmer and long-term peace
and stability will remain a distant dream…we have come a long way in fighting
this war…the nation has been standing by its security forces…any distracting
and inciting comments and theories by some quarters are unhelpful and
undermining the overall national effort.”
It is
mentionable that taking cognizance of the Quetta terror suicide bombing in
which 71 people were killed and scores injured, after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and
participated by the civil-military top officials, including the DG, of Inter-Services
Intelligence agency in connection with the implementation of the NAP and
ongoing counterterrorism operations, on August 11, 2016, the political and military leadership agreed to
set up a taskforce to monitor the implementation of the National Action Plan.
It is notable that
besides other important points, the National Action Plan also includes
effective steps against religious persecution, registration and regulation of
Madaris by the supervision of the government. The government, under National Action
Plan against extremism and terrorism, had announced to register all of Madaris
in Pakistan and introduce reforms in their syllabus on priority-basis. But
still, there is slow implementation of this policy. In the country, there are
more than 24,000 Madaris (seminaries).
As part of National
Action Plan, the government has recently made an agreement with Ittehad
Tanzeemul Madaris, the administrative body of Madaris for implementation of
Madarisreforms, registration and
regulations. Besides countering
religious extremism and sectarian
hate, government’s efforts in this regard are aimed at modernization of
curriculum of Madaris to bring them at par with mainstream educational
system. However, unfortunately, such accords have yielded no positive
outcome in the past and this critical national issue has unnecessarily been
made controversial by the people with vested interests.
It is expected that this
time the government will remove impediments for implementation of reforms and
Ittehad Tanzeemul Madaris will not be allowed to cause unnecessary delays
in the process. The objectives of the reforms are to qualitatively improve the
standards of education system with better control and management
oversight. The demand and need for Madaris reforms have always been felt
by the religious scholars—also Dars-e-Nizami was itself prepared as a
reformative measure 300 years ago. It is outdated and it cannot meet the
challenges of modern education system. The scientific subjects and
vocational/technical training must be integrated with the religious curriculum
of Madaris to uplift in standards. As Madaris are catering the educational
needs of 3.5 million students, according to some estimates, the
modernization of their curriculum on scientific lines will be beneficial for
everyone including the administrative bodies of Madaris.
To provoke the
individuals with religious bent of mind against government’s efforts to reform
Madaris, extremist outfits make false propaganda that Madaris and Ulema
(Religious scholars) are under threat in Pakistan. As a matter of fact,
almost 32,000 Salafi, Wahabi, Barelvi, Deobandi, Ahl-e-Hadith and Shia
registered Madaris are freely operating in the country.
As regards religious
seminaries, in 2015, in a meeting of military, political and religious
seminaries, all the participants reached a mutual consensus. While assuring
unconditional support to National Action Plan, representatives of Madaris,
Ulema said that culprits and black sheep in religious institutes should be
dealt with iron hands. They agreed that “Pakistan is our motherland. We on our
own have to protect its integrity.” They also agreed for reforms in the
religious schools through introduction of new curriculum, registration, and
funding process.
Earlier, the chief
ministers agreed to all the proposals put forth by the interior minister
regarding important issues including regularization of the affairs of Madaris
and NGOs.
Meanwhile, according to
online sources, in 2015, the Police had checked documents of 2,994 students of
11 Madaris in Karachi and their administration had been ordered to ban entry of
any student who is without documents, and arrested several proclaimed offenders
and court absconders, during a search operation of various hotels, inns and
guest houses. Similar action was also taken in Islamabad and some other parts
of the country.
Particularly, the
religious scholars and seminaries should play their role in discouraging
sectarianism and terrorism and a campaign to eliminate such tendencies should
be launched by developing a counter narrative.
Now, Pakistan is in the
state of new warfare, being waged by the Armed Forces and intelligence agencies
against terrorists. This different war against terrorism demands not only
cooperation of the people with the security agencies, but also a selfless national
unity among our rulers and leaders of other political parties including Ulema.
Hence, all segments of nation must be on one page, which is necessary to
implement the National Action Plan which itself is essential to win this war
against terrorism.
At this critical
hour, public and Madaris administrations must cooperate with the
government for Madaris reforms, registration
and government should also ensure quick completion of this process.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on
international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants,
Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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