A doctoral research study has identified that Pakistan needs a comprehensive counter extremism and terrorism policy as isolated efforts by certain state institutions would not be effective to rid itself of the twin menace.
The research study has been conducted by Raza Rahman Khan Qazi of the Department of International relations titled Extremism-Terrorism in Pakistan: Causes & Counterstrategy. The scholar successfully defended the study here on Friday which is the first of its kind in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and among a few in the entire country.
The crux of the study is that the root cause of extremism-terrorism in the name of Islam in Pakistan has been the long-existing political-constitutional vacuum. This is an entirely new perspective on the twin phenomenon as most of the experts have been of the opinion that the economic causes of poverty and unemployment as well as the state faulty foreign policy have been responsible for the rise of extremism and terrorism in the country.
After successfully defending his comprehensive and voluminous doctoral study Dr. Raza Rahman in an interview told Dawn that it has been the state policy of nurturing Muslim clerical groups, formation of militant organizations and the extant ultraconservative social attitudes which while interacting gave rise to extremism and terrorism in the country. He discovered in his study that the state policymaking has largely been undemocratic and thus unresponsive and unaccountable because the ruling-elite formulated policies for their own group interest.
“It is indeed important to note that the ruling elite soon after Pakistan’s independence started patronizing those radical groups and clerics which had opposed the creation of Pakistan tooth and nail. The ruling elite needed the clerics to propagandize that the former was the Custodian of the Fort of Islam that is Pakistan.” Dr. Raza explained.
Dr. Raza added that the ruling elite used the clerics and fundamentalist parties for their interest but the latter had their eyes fixed on cultivating their power-political and economic base. Consequently, fundamentalist parties in order to create a situation in which they could get power started radicalizing the society by making use of their social influence. Slowly and gradually they started dictating terms to the state. However, failing to get political power through the political system the clerical parties started supporting terrorist groups in a hope that one day the state could be compelled to follow the fundamentalist agenda. In this process the policies and measures of military dictators facilitated the clerics and fundamentalist parties.
Dr. Raza pointed out that the link of political vacuum and extremism and terrorism in the name of Islam in Pakistan has starkly been evident in the FATA; the region which since Pakistan’s independence could not get any definite political and administrative status. “No political-democratic institution could be put in place in the tribal areas through which the affairs of the region could be run. Resultantly, the political and administrative vacuum in the FATA made it a base of local, regional and international terrorists groups including the TTP, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Al Qaeda.”
Dr Raza said that Pakistan is currently faced with a macro-sociological conflict and its management require all out measures in which all the state institutions and the civil society have to contribute.
Source: UOP Official
