ISLAMABAD: Senators and a federal minister on Tuesday lashed out at the government for what they called its “inaction” after attack on Army Public School in Peshawar. They called for early steps to carry out reforms in religious seminaries (Madaris).

Taking part in the debate in Senate on the Peshawar incident for the second consecutive day, senators called for action against those seminaries which were involved in promoting extremism and militancy.

A number of senators regretted that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had so far not taken the parliament and the nation into confidence about the government’s strategy to counter terrorism after the Peshawar incident.

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Speaking on a point of order, PPP’s parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani pointed out that the galleries of officials and the front treasury benches were empty. He said the prime minister should have come to the Senate to take the parliament into confidence after the Peshawar attack.

Opposition Leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan of PPP even suggested that the prime minister should address the nation on alternative days.

He said a system should be devised to regulate seminaries where modern subjects should be taught to students.

Referring to the Sunday’s press conference of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the PPP leader said the minister was right in stating that 90 per cent seminaries were not involved in terrorism.

Govt urged to take swift action against religious seminaries involved in militancy

“But the remaining 10 per cent seminaries are the real problem (for the country),” he said, adding that no one should have any objection when someone talked against these 10 per cent seminaries promoting violence.

He said when there was a time to take action the government had formed a committee to devise an action plan. He demanded that a joint session of the parliament should be convened to discuss the issue. “By not taking swift action, the government has committed a criminal negligence,” he alleged.

Mr Ahsan took the rulers to task for not taking action against controversial Lal Masjid Khateeb Maulana Abdul Aziz. “What can we expect from the government which cannot even take action against a Taliban sympathiser sitting in a government mosque,” he questioned.

He was also critical of the government’s decision to close down the country’s educational institutions in the name of security, saying that terrorists had actually succeeded in their plan.

Stressing the need for launching operation against terrorists all over the country, he called for using modern technology in the war against terrorism.

The PPP leader urged the government to sign a peace and cooperation agreement with Afghanistan to launch joint efforts to eliminate terrorism from the region.

Nasreen Jalil of Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) called upon seminaries to voluntarily offer scrutiny and auditing of their accounts. She asked Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to take the lead in offering details of foreign funding to his party’s religious seminaries.

She said steps must be taken to stop foreign funding of seminaries.

The most surprising speech came from Federal Minister for Textile and Industries Abbas Khan Afridi who even asked the government to quit if it could not take swift action after the Peshawar incident.

“If you have no courage to make decisions and do legislation, why are you sitting here,” he asked. Mr Afridi said as a minister he had no powers.

In his apparent reference to the working group preparing draft of the national action plan, the minister who belongs to tribal areas regretted that bureaucrats were making policies.

He said why the same unity and solidarity was not shown by the country’s leadership after similar attacks on Peshawar church, the Army’s GHQ and various political leaders.

“We have closed schools like cowards,” he said, adding that it seemed that the army and the 180 million people were powerless before these militants.

He claimed that the war against terrorism could be won in two months if tribal people were also taken onboard in the military operation.

ANP’s Shahi Syed said sympathisers and apologists of Taliban should be exposed. “The war against terrorism is our own war and we have to win it,” he added.

Published in Dawn December 24th , 2014