There is no denying the
fact that the recent massacre in army public school is one of the most horrific,
inhuman, tragic and heart-wrenching events in the history of Pakistan. It has
wreaked havoc on the very foundation of our society as well as on the collective
consciousness of the whole world. However, it should also be interpreted as a
wake-up call of an unusualintensity by us and should prompt us to make strenuous
efforts toreform ourselves and our society urgently.Especially the main
responsibility in this regard lies on the shoulders of our political leaders and
military establishment.
This is the time for all the political and security forces in Pakistan to unite
and forget their differences for the sake of our country. In my opinion, urgent
steps, along the lines of the ideas given below, should be taken by the
Government, while taking the civil society into confidence, to minimize the
probability of occurrence ofsimilar or even more gruesome terrorist attacks in
the future.
1. National Awards for the selfless civilian martyrs:
National awards should be bestowed upon those selfless martyrs who gave their
own lives while saving the lives of others in this incident as well as other
recent ones. They are the real heroes of our nation and steps should be taken by
the government so as to keep them in our national memory for the time to come to
motivate our future generations to give similar sacrifices for a national or
humanitarian cause.
2. Strengthening of security forces:
Our security forces i.e. police, military, para-military forces and intelligence
agencies should be fully supported, both by the politicians as well as civil
society, to put an end to all religious terrorist militias operating in the
country once and for all, as well as to strengthen our defence against external
enemies. Government should spend as much as possible on the professional
training of our security forces, specially focused towards anti-terrorism.
Besides government funding, a national fund should be established as well for
the financial contribution of the civil society in the training of our armed
forces. However this endeavour will only be successful if the government shows
that by taking these steps, it is sincere in securing the lives of common
people, not just VIPs, against terrorists, and real progress is seen by the
public in this area in the coming months.
3. Socio-Economic Relief to deprived masses:
Roots of extremism in Pakistan lie in the combination of poverty, deprivation &
injustice besidesreligious conditioning. It’shigh time now that we, as a nation,
act with compassion towards the deprived classes and in the process, gradually
move towards making Pakistan a truly welfare state.
Therefore as a first step,Government should urgently focus towards
givingsustained socio-economic relief to poor masses, especially in disaster-hit
areas as well as extremely deprived regions like FATA, Thur & Baluchistan. An
independent body should be set-up, comprising of experts in this area, leaders
whom the local community respect, as well as well-known philanthropists, whom
the public trusts, irrespective of their political affiliations, and authority
and resources should be given to them to form as well as implement policies,
after authorization by the government, for the rehabilitation of masses affected
by different types of disasters and for people living in extremely deprived
regions.
A national fund should be setup as well for the contribution of civil society in
this area. I believe if the government shows genuine intent, overseas Pakistanis
will play a big part in enabling our country to provide socio-economic relief to
deprived classes.
4. Well-Regulated Religious Education:
Government should immediately ban direct or indirect preaching of violence
against any sect or religion or racein the religious institutes and madrassas of
Pakistan and a notice should be given to all of them to reform their syllabus
accordingly by a certain date. After the deadline, heavy punishment should be
inflicted on the ones who refuse to do that.
A separate body, comprising of prominent and well-respected religious scholars
from all the sects,should be set up to regulate these madrassas and religious
institutes, to work on creating a standard syllabus for them with the help of
madrassa ulemas, and for keeping a strict check on their activities with the
help of security forces. Their syllabus, besides having subjects related to
contemporary arts and sciences as well as religious content on the importance of
well-known pillars of Islam, should also focus on teaching the students about
the timeless social Islamic principles of compassion, harmony, patience,
discipline, peace, truth, justice and wisdom.
5. Strong, Independent, Efficient Justice System:
Our country cannot survive without a strong and efficient judiciary. Enough has
been said and written about it. Government should take immediate steps for
gradual transformation of present judicial system into a totally independent and
reliable institute to whom everyone is accountable irrespective of their
position in the society and who has the means and power to provide immediate and
easy justice, especially to the commoners as we should never forget the saying
of Hazrat Ali (PBUH) that a society can survive in kufr but not without justice.