Daily Times

Pakistan’s fight against extremism can be considered almost tangibly over but there is a lot to do with respect to its intangible aspects. Keeping in view the essence of extremism which preaches no space for something considered to be outside the perceived norm, there are a lot of reflections one can come across in a society in Pakistan where if someone crosses the limits of popularly considered notions, that person is made an outcast and has to bear the brunt of social backlash. Some of the illustrations of the preceding line can be testified through social backlash meted out to women if they dare to challenge the popular notion of women to be an object through acting like a subject, discriminatory attitude extended towards minorities because of ideological Islamic narcissism which people believe in and in which they don’t find minorities fitting in resulting in either their exclusion from mainstream or their forceful conversion to Islam, merciless killing of transgender community because they don’t fit in socially constructed sexual binary, and intellectual rigidity because the curricula taught in academic institutes instead of invoking critical thinking in students has been reinforcing the popular notions of the society-be it with respect to understanding history of Pakistan in which every aspect of Pakistan is being taught in the context of Hindus versus Muslims or any other social issue in the form of women empowerment in which popular understanding of the issue based upon a particular ideology is given more leverage instead of looking at the issue from the human rights perspective and in a neutral way.

All these illustrations have one thing in common and that is their disease with accommodating diversity. Thus, they provide a breeding ground for extremism to thrive in our society. Because there is no holistic approach being paid heed to counter extremism on the part of the state, the society inclusively in general and youth in particular are vulnerable to wave of extremism. And if timely and holistic approach is not adopted, tangible achievements against extremism that came in the wake of military operations can soon be undone and the resulting wave of extremism can be more lethal both tangibly and intangibly than we are battling now.

Youth, without gainsaying the fact, is a potential dividend for Pakistan because of its demographic proportion.

Here, especially, I would like to talk about vulnerability of youth to wave of extremism in Pakistan and how youth in Pakistan can be equipped enough in order to make them capable to battle extremism instead of becoming prey to it.

Youth, without gainsaying the fact, is a potential dividend for Pakistan because of its demographic proportion. It’s an energy that can be given a positive direction which can help Pakistan achieve phenomenal progress but, at the same time, if it is not paid heed to, this dividend can turn into a potential bomb, keeping in view it has been exposed to wave of extremism in Pakistan in various illustrations. The question is whether Pakistan is doing enough to make its demographic dividend turn into a potential asset and how youth in Pakistan can be made able enough so that they can fend off against the wave of extremism.

With respect to this theme, last week, Department of Political Science in University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore, organized an international conference entitled “Reclaiming Academic Freedom to Counter Extremism on Campuses” which I attended. In the conference, Dr. Tahir Kamran, a notable Pakistani historian and former Iqbal fellow at the University of Cambridge as professor in the Centre of South Asian Studies, discussed how curricula dispensation in campuses across Pakistan, especially the teaching of history of Pakistan, was devoid of critical thinking and how unconsciously lack of critical thinking in curricula dispensed made students vulnerable to become prey to popular notions about history of Pakistan and many other social issues in its wake and thus they subscribed to them blindly. Youth ill-equipped with respect to critical thinking is more vulnerable to extremists’ notions-be they coming from society or from a particular group.

Similarly, Dr. Fatima Sajjad, who teaches at UMT, while talking about ways how to counter extremism on campuses in Pakistan the episodes of which we saw rising in the near past, discussed that the current model of education through which education was dispensed in campuses was based upon neo-liberal model of education which did not help students to understand the world in innovative ways and was more workforce oriented. In other words, as per her research paper which she presented in the conference, the current model of education is more competition oriented and that too within particular framework instead of it being catering to students’ innate skills. In it, there is more testing instead of learning. As per her, such model of education which she termed “economization of education” has made a major chunk of students disillusioned with the essence of education and their inability to understand the world because of such mechanical education have made them vulnerable to extremism. Her solution to counter rising wave of extremism on campuses was to turn the purpose of education dispensation in campuses from making the students’ lot prepared for workforce to transformative education in which students are open to explore the world in unique ways themselves.

A lot needs to be done to battle extremism. Fight against it is complex and can’t be completed overnight. It’s a marathon and it takes time to deal effectively and inclusively with all its dimensions. However, the best way to deal with its intangible aspects of extremism for any state is to invest in education and, especially in the case of Pakistan, it’s very important as a major chunk of its population which is youth is vulnerable to extremism if they are not equipped with skilled set of critical thinking and diverse narratives through which they can fend off its onslaught in various forms. Unfortunately, at the state level, the National Action Plan through which extremism is being countered is ill-sufficient to deal with all the intangible aspects of extremism. There is a need to review the overall strategy of the state to counter extremism.

Also, the initiatives like the one which UMT took by holding an international conference on the theme of countering extremism via education and reclaiming academic freedom as a result should be acknowledged and should be highlighted in the spotlight. This is the spark that should be turned into fire. This is the direction that the state needs to adopt if it’s serious about countering extremism inclusively because for any issue to resolve it needs a critical appraisal and in this regard engaging academia should be at the heart of policy making with respect to countering extremism.

The writer teaches as a visiting faculty at Department of Political Science in University of Management and Technology, Lahore.