Pakistan: Ban is not enough

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A press report points out that as many as 45 organisations, a large majority of them sectarian outfits, have been banned since 2001. Anyone familiar with the activities of extremist groups spewing hate propaganda and killing innocent people knows that the actual number of those engaged in the activity is much smaller - not more than a handful. After every ban, the same people reinvented their identities under new names. Which explains why there is such a large list of organisations proscribed during the last 11 years; and also the reason violence perpetrated by sectarian extremists has continued to increase rather than decrease during this time. Such bans clearly are useless unless accompanied by effective curbs on the concerned organisations' activities and freezing of their assets. So far there is no evidence of that happening. In fact, in some instances provincial and federal government leaders have been accusing one another of hobnobbing with sectarian extremists. The truth of the matter is that the big mainstream parties have been reluctant to take on these elements choosing instead, in some instances, to elicit their support to make electoral gains. The consequences have been disastrous vis-a-vis peace and security of ordinary citizens. No one is safe in any part of the country. It is about time federal and provincial governments put their heads together to formulate a joint strategy aimed at banishing the menace of sectarian terrorism. The present report makes it abundantly clear that merely banning a militant organisation will not help; it must be backed by a well thought-out policy to eliminate the sources that nourish violent extremism.