Kaira urges intellectuals, academia to play their role for eradication of extremist mindset

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that joint efforts are needed for re-promotion of tolerant values in the society and defeating extremism and terrorism.

He was addressing as chief guest at a one-day seminar on Role of educational broadcasters in eradication of growing tendencies of intolerance and violence in the society organized here at Allama Iqbal Open University here today.

Kaira said that our society is becoming stagnant and intellectuals and academia should play a constructive role by initiating a dialogue on the issue of extremism. He said that politicians, armed forces and media can become a tool in the dialogue to be launched by the intellectuals, but it is basically the domain of the academia to launch the dialogue.

He said that intellectual movements all over the world are launched from academic institutions and it is high time that our writers and intellectuals start a new thought process to cleanse the society from the monster of terrorism and extremism. Kaira said that even today, when life of each and every Pakistani is affected by this war on terror and extremism in the society, some people still believe and say that this is not our war.

The Minister said Pakistan had traditionally been a very tolerant society till the 1970s but it was intentionally transformed into an extremist one by the international powers, with the connivance of the then rulers to achieve their own agenda. Today when the world wants us to act for eradication of extremism, we tell them that it was the Western powers that used the same extremist elements for their own designs and Even today, when we are fighting terrorism, the West has only come to our help when this menace is affecting them, he added. He said extremist mindset is present in every corner of the country and we have to defeat it by using our words as weapons to positively transform the minds.

kaira said that Pakistan is facing many challenges today but the biggest of them is the menace of terrorism and extremism. He said that since the day the present government came to power, it has taken several steps to overcome the multiple crises. We introduced constitutional, political and administrative reforms but there are many issues that still need to be addressed, he said.

He said that that historically this part of the world has been ruled for centuries by foreign powers most of whom were despotic rulers. He said that although Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and through democratic means, later on unfortunately we failed to promote democratic culture as envisaged by our forefathers.