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Friday March 29, 2024

The war on campus

Looking out of one window, you see the scene brightening up a bit. The dark clouds are beginning to wither away. But there is another window that opens on another landscape. And it presents a dreary view of things rotting in the sun. Both images are manifestations of the same

By Ghazi Salahuddin
May 24, 2015
Looking out of one window, you see the scene brightening up a bit. The dark clouds are beginning to wither away. But there is another window that opens on another landscape. And it presents a dreary view of things rotting in the sun. Both images are manifestations of the same reality that we have to deal with in our present circumstances.
Since I am constrained, as a columnist, to focus on the latest developments I feel relieved that for once, I have a reason to look at the silver lining. Just one week after the Safoora Goth carnage in which nearly fifty Shia Ismaili Muslims were killed, the authorities have arrested the alleged mastermind the operatives who pulled the trigger.
Not only that, the suspects also confessed to killing Sabeen Mahmud, who had emerged as a symbol of social and cultural awakening. This obviously is a major achievement for our security agencies, though questions may be raised about why such concerted resolve to go after terrorists had not been visible in earlier cases of major terrorist attacks of a sectarian nature.
Another news, datelined Lahore, deserves attention. On Tuesday, a prayer leader from Kasur was sentenced to five years in jail by an anti-terrorism court for delivering a hate speech. The prosecution said that the prayer leader was inciting people against a particular religious sect and was picked up on the spot.
There are reports of other such convictions on charges of delivering hate speech in Punjab. But the campaign launched by the provincial authorities is bound to be difficult and controversial, mainly because there was no action on this front for a long, long time and the volume of hate material that is in circulation is huge. According to one news item, more than 450 hate material cases were registered in Punjab this year. Naturally, issues are raised about what is hate material and who would define it. But the redeeming factor is that the authorities are finally willing to act.
At the popular level, to be sure, the cause for cheer this week is the revival of international cricket in Pakistan. It was a measure of the setback Pakistan had suffered after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore six years ago that Friday’s game against Zimbabwe became a national celebration. It helped that Pakistan won the first Twenty20 International. What a wonderful gift it has been for cricket fans in Pakistan – and no other game has this following.
As I said, the other view that is dreary has also distracted our attention. This week, the explosion that was caused by The New York Times expose of global scam conducted by Pakistani IT company Axact has left us baffled and distressed. The details are still unfolding and there are reasons why this story has shaken the media. At one level, the main concern is that seemingly incredible revelations about Axact have tarnished Pakistan’s name in the wider world.
This is a massive scandal and its tremors will be felt across a large terrain. There, for instance, is the spectacle we know as Bol. An entire evening would not be enough to tell all the tales about the building of a media conglomerate that was intended to dazzle the world with its majesty and magnitude. A fairy tale it has now become, though it surely has left the world in awe in another context. That it always looked too good to be true is another matter. We live in a wonderland and it had to be a foreign journalist and a respected newspaper of the world to unravel it all for us.
In the midst of all this, I want to bring together two separate strands of the ongoing war against terrorism and extremism. One is the role that the army has played and the star billing that it has appropriated for itself. The other is our society that remains radicalised. Is the army willing or able to lead a campaign in a territory that does not fall within its prescribed jurisdiction?
Any thoughts on this issue should bear in mind that the army – or call it military to respect its institutional credentials – has done well in its operation in the war zones. It is obvious that they mean business. The civilian rulers have done the military’s bidding by, for instance, facilitating the formation of military courts. We know who calls the shots in the Karachi operation – so far a success story.
It is against this background that the military leaders feel encouraged to hold forth on matters that are political in nature. Remember the speech of Karachi’s Corps Commander Lt-Gen Naveed Mukhtar that was televised live? As for the Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, his pronouncements are well considered and are taken seriously.
He was in Quetta on Wednesday and during his visit to the Command and Staff College he said that achievements in Operation Zarb-e-Azb have created a space for a decisive surge against the terrorists in the urban areas. “Our fight against terrorism and extremism is not just for today but for future generations” is one quotation from the ISPR press release.
So, how do we make Pakistan safe for future generations? The arena of action in this respect is obvious. It is all about education and how the minds of our children and our youth are nurtured. This prompts me to bring up the arrest of terrorists involved in the killing of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and some other high-profile targets. What was specifically highlighted was the fact that the mastermind and some other operatives were ‘well-educated’ – meaning that they had attended reputable institutes of higher education and not any madressah.
Talk shows were held on the subject and editorials were written about the spread of militancy on our campuses. But hasn’t this been the national narrative for a long time? Obscurantist and conservative elements have dominated the thinking of the educated middle-class. Our campuses are generally devoid of any fresh wind of liberal thought. Graduate students have little access to arts and literature and to knowledge about the world as such. The environment is such that even minor changes in the curriculum are not acceptable to powerful religious lobbies.
What can our rulers do to amend this situation and make Pakistan safe for future generations? In the first place, they themselves need to go to school and learn a few lessons on how a society can survive and flourish. But this is not an easy assignment for an establishment that has itself created many of the monsters that it now wants to eliminate.
The writer is a staff member.
Email: ghazi_salahuddin
@hotmail.com