Daily Times

Nowhere is the Pakistani resolve to beat terrorism more apparent than in its changing relationship with Saudi Arabia. Its long-standing ally and ‘friend’ seems to now be on the other end of scrutiny by its Pakistani counterpart, a country that is being hit every which way by the terror threat. With the announcement of a National Action Plan (NAP) and the decision by both military and civilian leaderships to eradicate the terrorist networks spread out all over the country, we are reassessing our relationship with the Kingdom. This is because Saudi petro-dollars have been behind most of the jihadi infrastructure in this country. First they were funnelled into establishing the mujahideen who were trained and churned out to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan and then it kept coming to keep the jihadi/proxy network alive, an entire army of religious warriors to do the bidding of the Kingdom by spreading its Wahhabi ideology all over the country. This has translated into a great number of madrassas (seminaries) indoctrinating the jihadist mindset into the impressionable youth. And the funding for these seminaries has long been suspected — and proved on many an occasion — of coming from Saudi sources.

After the Peshawar incident in which the country saw scores of its own children mowed down by militants while in school, we have turned a new chapter in countering the terror threat, something we have not done despite the deaths of more than 50,000 citizens in terror attacks. The Pakistani state is hurting now. And in this period of hurt it will look again at its relationship with the father state of Wahhabi/jihadist ideology.

NAP promises to bring seminaries under control, it promises reform and putting these seminaries under the microscope. Much finger-pointing has been done by the Pakistani government at the Saudi higher ups, but allegations of funding terror seminaries has been rebuffed by the monarchy. While that may be true, we cannot deflect suspicion away from private individuals who may be sending money to Pakistan and to the madrassas for motives other than charity. It is time toxic practices be stopped completely, at least where disseminating fundamentalist ideology is concerned. Pakistan has never been this hard up, this challenged by terrorism. NAP is our onlt way forward but for its true implementation, all causes of extremism must be nipped. This will begin with mending the Saudi equation. *