4): Educational System including Madrasahs:
There has been no clear goal of our educational system like our political system. People who plan for the educational system are very few and also incompetent, curriculum is quite old fashioned and schools and colleges are not enough. There is no overall plan and execution strategy. A lot of private and costly educational institutions are spread here and there without a clear goal.
Religious schools(Madrasahs) have a quite diverging goal, their students and teachers normally don't interact much with other people. People normally admit those children in such schools which they think as not very competent and intelligent ones. In some Madrasahs, teachers are themselves not very competent and educated but since here too there is not much control and check and balance so such people could sometimes work without interference. These religious schools are very important for an Islamic society but they need to be managed and controlled in better way.
Solution: Educational system must be freed of politics and incompetent people. An overall goal of education must be decided and executed. Religious schools must be given true attention and should be encouraged to interact more with society and their students must be educated in such a way that they could be more active, confident and productive for the society after finishing their education and they should be trained to have a good level of patience:-)
5): Media: Media is very tricky agent. It has capability to show only those aspects of life which it likes to show e.g. if a city is quite clean but one small part of it, is dirty and a TV shows that dirty part everyday and not the major clean part of the city then viewers would start thinking as if the whole city is dirty.
People normally don't have enough time and resources to judge and confirm all reports coming right in their homes through media and they also can't move to the physical locations to know reality as result media has to be relied upon.
In case of Pakistan, media especially the International media sometimes does not show the real and neutral view. Definitely there are problems in our society and no society is free of problems but it is cheating to keep the focus of the eye of camera only at problems without showing the broader and balanced picture of the society.
Solution: I feel that media should get more positive and neutral. It is not going to bring much positive for anyone if a society is mostly represented as negative and extreme one! People should themselves try to explore real facts and situation through personal contacts and even by visits.
6:) External Invasions and Dictations: Right now, there is tricky situation in those areas of Pakistan which are along the border of Afghanistan. These areas are focus of International community. As i mentioned earlier, Pakistan was a key player in the war of Afghanistan against Russia and people have been fighting there and now these fighters are living on both sides of Pak-Afghan border. Now Pakistan is pressurized to control those old heroes(Mujahidin) of International powers mainly through power and weapons; in case Pakistan does not act upon the orders of "all clean and all wise International powers", they sometimes blackmail and sometimes even invade those Pakistani areas.
This creates much anger among the people of Pakistan due to following reasons: 1) Why do International powers want to only kill those who were once trained and supported by them? 2) why must these people be killed if they would want to live peacefully now, 3) what is the credibility of the intelligence reports of so called all clean and all reliable International powers who made quite a few mistakes in judging situations e.g. in case of Iraq invasion, 4) why should we kill someone without giving him/her chance to defend legally, 5) Muslims are strictly forbidden to kill any innocent person so why should we kill anyone who is not proven guitly in a court, 6) No one is allowed to invade our land or to dictate us like God!!!
I don't defend anyone who is guilty of any crime but everyone must be fairly tried in court without national/religious attachments before being punished. It is basic human right!!
Additionally borderer with Afghanistan is quite lengthy and area is quite rough. It is hard to control 100% movements and filtration there. Situation in Afghanistan is also quite volatile which makes control even harder.
Many of our political/army leaders and bureaucrats have weaknesses which might be misused e.g. some of them have inferiority complex, some of them have record of gross corruption, some of them come as dictators, some others have criminal records, some others are not educated, some others have lust for the power etc. All these weaknesses are sometimes misused by the external and internal powers to get their vested interests.
Solution: Tribal people along the border and the fighters should be handled fairly, intelligently and with sincerity. These people are simple but dangerous machines, they are fearless and volatile, they also have been cheated/misused many times so they don't trust much the all clean all wise powers. I think this issue could be solved through reliable people and dialog. These people greatly respect religious individuals so they should be used. Occasional invasion into Pakistani areas from International forces must be stopped since it makes dialog and peace efforts null!!! Fair, educated and brave politicians are required.
7): Kashmir conflict and India: Many people know Pakistan through Kashmir conflict. This is an old and complex conflict. We are thankful to the Britishers that they left something behind for us which we could permanently enjoy:-). Pakistan has fought quite a few wars with India over this issue. There always have been tussle between two countries. Pakistan became atomic power in this process of winning the race. This kind of permanent state of rivalry has made people quite emotional.
Intelligence agencies of both countries have been quite active to plot interesting games in opposite countries. Politicians and other people with vested interests have been using volatile situation for their personal greed and benefits. People of the Kashmir are really unfortunate ones, they are just between fight of two elephants.
Solution: ..... ???...!!! It is hard to find a good solution to this problem. May be a neutral and reliable International group of individuals must be allowed to analyze the situation and make its recommendations about Kashmir Issue. Don't blame Pakistan for it please, we are not the only ones responsible for all these conflicts :-).
I hope you got some familiarity to few real connections of Pakistan and Extremism.
Although current situation of Pakistan is undoubtedly not very pleasing but it is a transition stage for Pakistani society. There comes to every nation a bad patch and we are currently having our share of tough time but such periods make people more intelligent and strong.
I am quite optimistic that Pakistan is going to play a very positive, important and productive role in International community. The things which we need are patience, time, sincerity and realistic behaviour from others. People would be positively surprised if they knew Pakistan and Pakistanis in a bit more depth and broadly.
Feel free to ask anything you like or comment.
Best wishes,
There has been no clear goal of our educational system like our political system. People who plan for the educational system are very few and also incompetent, curriculum is quite old fashioned and schools and colleges are not enough. There is no overall plan and execution strategy. A lot of private and costly educational institutions are spread here and there without a clear goal.
Religious schools(Madrasahs) have a quite diverging goal, their students and teachers normally don't interact much with other people. People normally admit those children in such schools which they think as not very competent and intelligent ones. In some Madrasahs, teachers are themselves not very competent and educated but since here too there is not much control and check and balance so such people could sometimes work without interference. These religious schools are very important for an Islamic society but they need to be managed and controlled in better way.
Solution: Educational system must be freed of politics and incompetent people. An overall goal of education must be decided and executed. Religious schools must be given true attention and should be encouraged to interact more with society and their students must be educated in such a way that they could be more active, confident and productive for the society after finishing their education and they should be trained to have a good level of patience:-)
5): Media: Media is very tricky agent. It has capability to show only those aspects of life which it likes to show e.g. if a city is quite clean but one small part of it, is dirty and a TV shows that dirty part everyday and not the major clean part of the city then viewers would start thinking as if the whole city is dirty.
People normally don't have enough time and resources to judge and confirm all reports coming right in their homes through media and they also can't move to the physical locations to know reality as result media has to be relied upon.
In case of Pakistan, media especially the International media sometimes does not show the real and neutral view. Definitely there are problems in our society and no society is free of problems but it is cheating to keep the focus of the eye of camera only at problems without showing the broader and balanced picture of the society.
Solution: I feel that media should get more positive and neutral. It is not going to bring much positive for anyone if a society is mostly represented as negative and extreme one! People should themselves try to explore real facts and situation through personal contacts and even by visits.
6:) External Invasions and Dictations: Right now, there is tricky situation in those areas of Pakistan which are along the border of Afghanistan. These areas are focus of International community. As i mentioned earlier, Pakistan was a key player in the war of Afghanistan against Russia and people have been fighting there and now these fighters are living on both sides of Pak-Afghan border. Now Pakistan is pressurized to control those old heroes(Mujahidin) of International powers mainly through power and weapons; in case Pakistan does not act upon the orders of "all clean and all wise International powers", they sometimes blackmail and sometimes even invade those Pakistani areas.
This creates much anger among the people of Pakistan due to following reasons: 1) Why do International powers want to only kill those who were once trained and supported by them? 2) why must these people be killed if they would want to live peacefully now, 3) what is the credibility of the intelligence reports of so called all clean and all reliable International powers who made quite a few mistakes in judging situations e.g. in case of Iraq invasion, 4) why should we kill someone without giving him/her chance to defend legally, 5) Muslims are strictly forbidden to kill any innocent person so why should we kill anyone who is not proven guitly in a court, 6) No one is allowed to invade our land or to dictate us like God!!!
I don't defend anyone who is guilty of any crime but everyone must be fairly tried in court without national/religious attachments before being punished. It is basic human right!!
Additionally borderer with Afghanistan is quite lengthy and area is quite rough. It is hard to control 100% movements and filtration there. Situation in Afghanistan is also quite volatile which makes control even harder.
Many of our political/army leaders and bureaucrats have weaknesses which might be misused e.g. some of them have inferiority complex, some of them have record of gross corruption, some of them come as dictators, some others have criminal records, some others are not educated, some others have lust for the power etc. All these weaknesses are sometimes misused by the external and internal powers to get their vested interests.
Solution: Tribal people along the border and the fighters should be handled fairly, intelligently and with sincerity. These people are simple but dangerous machines, they are fearless and volatile, they also have been cheated/misused many times so they don't trust much the all clean all wise powers. I think this issue could be solved through reliable people and dialog. These people greatly respect religious individuals so they should be used. Occasional invasion into Pakistani areas from International forces must be stopped since it makes dialog and peace efforts null!!! Fair, educated and brave politicians are required.
7): Kashmir conflict and India: Many people know Pakistan through Kashmir conflict. This is an old and complex conflict. We are thankful to the Britishers that they left something behind for us which we could permanently enjoy:-). Pakistan has fought quite a few wars with India over this issue. There always have been tussle between two countries. Pakistan became atomic power in this process of winning the race. This kind of permanent state of rivalry has made people quite emotional.
Intelligence agencies of both countries have been quite active to plot interesting games in opposite countries. Politicians and other people with vested interests have been using volatile situation for their personal greed and benefits. People of the Kashmir are really unfortunate ones, they are just between fight of two elephants.
Solution: ..... ???...!!! It is hard to find a good solution to this problem. May be a neutral and reliable International group of individuals must be allowed to analyze the situation and make its recommendations about Kashmir Issue. Don't blame Pakistan for it please, we are not the only ones responsible for all these conflicts :-).
I hope you got some familiarity to few real connections of Pakistan and Extremism.
Although current situation of Pakistan is undoubtedly not very pleasing but it is a transition stage for Pakistani society. There comes to every nation a bad patch and we are currently having our share of tough time but such periods make people more intelligent and strong.
I am quite optimistic that Pakistan is going to play a very positive, important and productive role in International community. The things which we need are patience, time, sincerity and realistic behaviour from others. People would be positively surprised if they knew Pakistan and Pakistanis in a bit more depth and broadly.
Feel free to ask anything you like or comment.
Best wishes,
