PAKISTAN’S NEW SECURITY POLICY AND MADRASSAS: WILL IT CURB THE VENOM?

By Gaurav Dixit

Pakistan in order to revive its security plans before the drawdown of international troops from Afghanistan in 2014 has come up with its first ever National Internal Security Policy (NISP).

The 94-page policy document is an introspection of the current political and security problems in Pakistan, as well as defining strategic level intervention to end internal disputes to bring peace and reconciliation. The policy purported at defending the national security of Pakistan includes Secret, Strategic, and Operational components. One of the crucial components of the envisioned policy document aimed at combating extremism is to bring all the religious madrassas or Islamic religious schools under its national education system within one year. The aim is to curb the religious hatred these madrassas allegedly promote against its own government and neighbouring countries. Some of these madrassas allegedly support and are patrons of regional terrorist groups like Taliban and Al Qaeda. The NISP paper claims that some of the country’s 22,052 madrassas are responsible for spreading extremism, most of them outside the purview of the Pakistan government. The document claims that although all madrassas are not home to terrorists, there are problems with some madrassas which are spreading extremism. The madrassas are also being financed by unidentified sources and the publication and distribution of hate material is prevalent.

Earlier in 2013, Ganj madrassa in Peshawar was put on economic sanctions after being branded as a terrorist training centre supporting Al Qaeda and the Taliban. According to the US treasury, the centre was used as training and recruiting base by the militant groups, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba blamed for the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

There are huge networks of the Deobandi and Ahl-e Hadith madrassas where youths are indoctrinated into jihadi philosophy. They are deployed at regional training centres, and ultimately sent to terrorist training camps.

In 2009, then-principal officer at the US consulate in Lahore in his initial study of southern Punjab had found a disturbing nexus between the madrassas and foreign donors facilitating the indoctrination of poor children in the radical educational institutions developed in Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan Divisions. Majority of these networks are actively waging war against India in Kashmir.

Undoubtedly there are some serious concerns about the madrassas and seminaries in Pakistan, many of them found to be vigorous patrons of the conservative and radical groups promoting sectarian hatred, anti-India and anti-US sentiments. The madrassas have become a sort of hunting ground for future terrorists in the name of Islamic war promoted and vigorously lobbied by Arab and Gulf funds. The adoption of rigid and conservative curriculum based on narrow principles of Islam isolates the students from universal understanding of more secular and liberal forms of education. It pushes the students towards a more radicalised understanding of the religion and as crusaders of puritanical Islam.

In the case of Pakistan where madrassas are fast turning into indoctrination camps, ample studies demonstrate the lack of political will and commitment to fight against extremism. It is also seen as a product of the mistrust and fear existing between the government and the religious organisations controlled by madrassas. In some cases, Pakistani authorities have intentionally pushed these madrassas to morph into indoctrination centres and terrorist camps, either for strategic gain or as part of a policy of appeasement for a section of the populace.

Last year, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an organisation on the UN terror blacklist, the parent body of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba run by Hafiz Saeed, was granted more than Rs.6.1 crore by the Punjab province government, along with dedicated sanction of Rs.35 crore for setting up a ‘Knowledge Park’ at the centre and other development initiatives. Jamaat-ud-Dawa and four senior Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders were added to a UN sanctions list in December 2008 after the Mumbai attacks. Lashkar-e-Taiba is active in India and is accused in various terrorist attacks in the last one decade.

The problem with the Pakistan government in the past was its inability to devise a policy to curb growing extremism, even though there was ample evidence of the diabolic schemes sprouting in these madrassas. The most disturbing trend about these seminaries and madrassas is not only their inherent ability to promote certain kind of ideology, but also the ability spread it among society through its coalesced network.

According to Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistan based geo-strategist, these organisations do not allow pupils and society to look at alternative perspectives within the religious discourse, thus promoting a worldview which leads to opposition of any alternative discourse.

The Pakistan government has found it quite tough to handle the issue, considering the size and strength of madrassas during last couple of decades. Any panoptic solution will need to look into various other components of society such as poverty, educational facilities and resources, to curb the growing menace of hate preaching madrassas. This time, however, the government has come up with an extensive plan to tackle extremism and curtail such groups, with a vision to develop a national narrative based on tolerance, harmony and the right of the people to make religious, political and social choices. It would be tough to predict the outcome of this policy now. But, a positive approach will certainly help to de-radicalise a large number of such organisations which are promoting extremism.