Dawn Editorial 23 October 2019

Madressah reform

THE debate over how to reform madressahs in Pakistan is not a new one. While seminaries in the country experienced explosive growth during the Zia years, producing the human raw material required for the anti-Soviet Afghan ‘jihad’, during the Musharraf era, and especially in the aftermath of 9/11, the establishment had second thoughts about these institutions. The various madressah reform campaigns over the years have had mixed success, with the clergy expectedly putting up resistance to any efforts by the state to encroach upon what they perceive to be their turf. However, the present government has also indicated that it wants to ‘mainstream’ the institutions. The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training says a directorate to oversee madressahs is almost ready, and that ulema are on board. A few days earlier, while meeting clerics, the prime minister had also remarked that ‘revolutionary’ reforms to overhaul seminaries were in the works.
If the government were to succeed in bringing madressahs into the mainstream, specifically in overseeing their curriculum and ensuring their registration, it would be a feat worth appreciating. However, this is easier said than done. For example, there are no concrete figures about how many seminaries — registered and otherwise — exist in the country; estimates range from 30,000 to 60,000. Moreover, ensuring that all sects and sub-sects that run madressahs are on board is another challenge. It would be wrong to say that all madressahs preach terror and extremism; many do not, but as the experiences of Lal Masjid as well as of the seminaries that helped produce sectarian and jihadi terrorists show, even a small unregulated minority is enough to challenge the writ of the state. What is more, there are relevant questions about what the students of madressahs will do after they graduate. Surely not all graduates can be absorbed as prayer leaders and Quran teachers. Therefore, these youngsters need life skills along with their religious education that can help them find gainful employment upon completing their courses at seminaries.
Madressah reform efforts, therefore, must focus on two key areas: eliminating extremist and sectarian content from the syllabus, and giving seminarians training that will help them find jobs in a wide variety of fields. While the state has indeed cracked down on seminaries linked to militant groups, more needs to be done to eliminate content that may fan extremism and sectarianism in the impressionable young minds that study in madressahs. Instead of focusing on the ‘othering’ of different sects and faiths, madressahs need to teach young pupils the compassion and civic duties that religion stresses. Moreover, cosmetic changes — such as introducing English and computer classes — will not do much unless madressah pupils are given vocational training that will make them employable in the job market. But most of all, the state needs to reform the public education system so that the majority of parents can send their wards to school.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2019

 
 

Redacted pages

AUSTRALIAN newspapers on Monday made a powerful statement against state censorship. In a coordinated campaign, they published identical, redacted front pages accompanied by a question: “When government keeps the truth from you, what are they covering?” The media industry in that country has been in an uproar since several months over raids by police on a journalist’s residence and the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to recover leaked documents that had provided material for an exposé published in 2018. The story blew the lid off plans for an Australian intelligence agency to be given unprecedented powers to spy on the country’s citizens, and was deeply embarrassing for the government. The development comes amid a climate of increasing restrictions on the media’s right to access information, particularly on grounds of national security.
This is a growing trend across the globe, with governments treating freedom of speech and the right to information as a privilege they bestow on their citizens. The pretext of ‘national security’ in a post-9/11 world is particularly useful, being an amorphous concept that can be made to fit any inconvenient truth and throttle independent reportage. This is naturally par for the course in countries with dictatorial regimes where the leadership is unaccountable and whose workings are closed to media scrutiny. Worryingly, however, many democratic governments are also weakening the fourth pillar of the state, with populists such as President Trump attempting to erode the credibility of news outlets critical of their policies, while overtly supporting those that give them more favourable coverage. That has further emboldened leaders elsewhere. In India, the illegal media blackout in held Kashmir after the region was stripped of its autonomy has been largely successful in stifling the voices of people suffering under the Modi government’s tyranny. The Australian newspapers’ shock tactic on Monday is familiar to many senior journalists in Pakistan who have worked under Gen Zia’s military dictatorship. During that regime, in a pointed rebuke against restrictions on the press, newspapers began to leave blank spaces where official censors had excised entire reports or certain lines in the text. The media in Pakistan is once again in the grip of censorship from official quarters, though this time it leaves behind no ‘press advice’ as evidence of its intolerance for dissenting views. Unfortunately, however, also missing now is the unity among media players that can make for a collective resistance against the state’s high-handedness.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2019

 
 

PM’s snub

PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan’s decision to not meet Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah during his visit to Karachi on Monday was tantamount to a public rebuke that ill behoves the prime minister of the country.
The fact that Mr Khan decided to meet members of the anti-PPP alliance GDA but not Mr Shah demonstrates more than just a dismissive attitude towards the provincial government; it conveys that he has no qualms about widening the divide that already exists between the centre and the Sindh setup. How then can he expect the public to believe the federal government when it says it is willing to extend its support to resolve the issues of Karachi and the rest of the province?
Mr Khan is the chief executive of Pakistan and its constituent provinces, and the responsibilities and requirements of his office are above and beyond what is expected from the leader of a political party. He represents all sections of the public — whether or not they voted for his party, they look to him for the resolution of their problems.
If, as Mr Khan has suggested, the federal government has taken over the responsibility of works which the provincial rulers were obligated to undertake, there needs to be a clear strategy for carrying out these additional duties, otherwise these projects will be marred by organisational chaos.
Though it is true that the performance of the PPP in terms of governance has been dismal over the past decade or so, the fact that the party came to power yet again through the popular vote is not something to be taken lightly. The problems of governance in Sindh cannot be resolved without talking to the biggest and most important stakeholder in the province.
There is no other way to pave the way for development other than rising above petty politics and talking to the representatives of the provincial government who have been voted into office by the people of Sindh.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2019

 
 

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