Daily Times

Notwithstanding excessive delay in its launch, the intention behind the Paigham-e-Pakistan document — to promote counter-narrative to extremism — is commendable. But there are serious shortcomings in the way this initiative has been launched.

First and foremost, the Parliament elected by the people of this country was the forum from which any such policy statement should have come. Those 1,800 and so religious clerics do not represent the Pakistani public.

Secondly, to the extent that the fatwa has signatories from all major sects, its efficacy will remain questionable until its essence gets reflected in the curriculum being taught at seminaries run by these sectarian organisations across the country.

The effort will still fall far short of what is needed unless it is accompanied with changes in the curriculum being taught at public schools. And that is a task not for clerics but for federal and provincial governments in consultation with educationists who have the requisite expertise and experience.

It’s a pity that even with its full might, our state institutions still rely on a motley group of clerics and their fatwas to bolster their legitimacy. And when they do this, strangely enough, they forget that fatwas have too long a history of creating division rather than cohesion in Pakistani society.

A counter-narrative to extremism must be arrived at through consultations within the Parliament and with the civil society. Clerics can give their inputs but cannot have the final say. The stamp of approval for such a counter-narrative has to come from the Parliament.

Another glaring shortcoming of the Paigham-e-Pakistan document is that it is focused singularly on the legitimacy of state institutions. There is absolutely no discussion in it on the societal aspect of extremism. It suggests that the government still hasn’t fully recognised the dangers of the latter despite the many lives we have lost to the vigilantes. Is the government seriously expecting that concerned citizens will buy a counter-narrative that fails to discredit hate speech, abuse of blasphemy laws, and targeting of minority sects and communities?

So, for the document to be worth its name, Paigham-e-Pakistan should immediately be referred to the Parliament for debate and endorsement. And it should identify extremism in all its societal forms so that any group that resorts to such extremist behaviour can be called out and acted against under the law of the land. *

Published in Daily Times, January 18^th 2018.