A two-day international conference on "extremism and terrorism in Pakistan: Challenges and sustainable solution" organised by the University of Sindh Jamshoro in collaboration with Hans Seidal Foundation Germany was brought to an end on Tuesday with the joint declaration consisting of nine significant points, it recommended that public resilience for eliminating terrorism, extremism was must whereas women in the country ought to be empowered to curb extremist ideologies through which the brains of youngsters are washed by the terrorists.
The joint declaration also proposed SU to take the lead against extremism and terrorism by establishing an institute/centre of moderation on the campus so that the students should get to know the real definition of fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism and prove to be moderate and liberal in nature with a lot of forbearance and patience.
The declaration added that government needed to build the capabilities and mental approach of Pakistani nation by making education as well as health quite free and common in the country while being the soil of Sufis; Sindh should take the lead in preaching of peace. It also recommended that rule of law must be promoted so that law abiding society could be formed adding that zero tolerance should be shown for religious schools/Madaaris involving in any kind of violence including suicidal attacks.
The declaration said that for halting corruption, good governance ought to be ensured and diplomatic efforts must be intensified to present the best and peaceful image of the country and its people globally. Before the joint declaration in his speech, Dr Guna Ratna of Sri Lanka termed Islam as not to be a drive of terrorism and Talibanisation but he said people like Osama Bin Laden and Al-Zawahri took the parts of Ayat of Holy Quran and Hadith just to fulfil their political objectives. "Osam Bin Laden was businessman and Al-Zawahri a doctor by profession, then how can we assume them to be Ulma? They used Islam for their political purposes; they mesmerised innocent people with the tactics of telling them certain Ayat of Holy Quran proving that the US and Europe were the bitter opponents of Islam and Muslims," he said.
He proposed SU for setting up an institute or a centre of moderation in a bid to promote tolerance, brotherhood and love among the students and the masses. "I suggest government to make education and health free for the people like Sri Lanka did and this practice can keep the masses not to pay attention to that Jihad which is forcibly imposed by the Taliban and al Qaeda," Dr Guna Ratna stated.
He linked the rule of law with education, saying schools in the country should be empowered with rigid check and balance, adding the service providers of internet should be held responsible provided that they allowed terrorist organisations to launch fund raising campaign through it.
Aijaz Khan of Peshawar University termed the bad governance a disease while corruption just a symptom, saying government needed to treat the disease of bad governance with it the corruption would come to an end itself. He called it a tragedy that political governments in Pakistan never delivered and they with their vulnerability always provided opportunities to the military to intervene assuming that nothing will change despite holding 100 elections in the country until and unless the feudal system is eradicated. "Our feudal rulers always created problems for the country and people; the masses must say no to them in next election so that a ray of hope for change could look on," he stated.
The former foreign secretary and ambassador Shamshad Ahmed Khan said he had proposed many political leaders to carve in new provinces in an attempt to root out corruption, ensure good governance in the country. "We will have to carve in eight more provinces in every province so that no any chief minister of Punjab considers himself ruling like any premier in the country; Punjab chief ministers always act like emperors," he observed. He said small administrative units would help eradicating corruption and ensuring good governance, adding that new provinces must not be carved in on ethical or lingual basis but on administrative point of view.
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