Toaha Quereshi
“What Community Led Preventative and Rehabilitative Measures of Addressing Extremism are Present in Pakistan – Lessons Learnt from the UK and community-led Models of Rehabilitation”
The sufferings Pakistan has gone through due to its support for the US-led operation (Afghan Jihad) against Russian intervention in Afghanistan in the 80s created a generation of people with a mindset of extremism and terrorism. The trends of Afghan Jihad were taken by some politicians, establishment and clerics as a lucrative business. The trend of radicalisation increased day by day but the political institutions and establishment could not agree to sing from the same hymn sheet. Pakistan had hundreds of terrorism incidents and thousands of fatalities. It was only after a terrorist attack on the Army Public School Peshawar on 16thDecember 2014 where 149 people were killed, that the government managed to put some serious measures in place to counter this menace of terrorism. Some tangible outcomes were also observed; however, people still asked questions such as; how did the Pakistani leadership manage it? Do we see intellectual capital – enough to counter extremism and terrorism? Were the religious and political leadership lacking? Did the army do a fair job or was it just firefighting? To answer these questions, one needs to understand the UK strategy and approach towards counter terrorism and then appraise the Pakistani approach.
To answer these questions, a thorough study is needed toidentify the root causes and drivers of extremism in Pakistan; assessment of the rehabilitation mechanisms in Pakistan and in the UK alongside a detailed analysis of the UK’s model in preventing and countering radicalisation and extremism. In this brief article, the above work can not be carried out, nonetheless, a debate can be initiated to create awareness for masses and to draw their attention to understand and get involved in the UK-style operation.
In the UK, there was only one major attack on 7thJuly 2005 where 56 people died. British security institutions were successful in preventing another attack on their soil for 12 years, and those were not of such magnitude. A comprehensive counter terrorism strategy, context was formed with four main themes:
Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks
Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism
Protect: to strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack
Prepare: to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack
Under the PREVENT strand, Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) worked very closely with many Muslim-led initiatives to prevent and divert vulnerable people from falling into wrong hands or reoffence. There was a trust deficit between Muslim communities and government agencies. Hundreds of Muslims were arrested under terrorism Act related offences and were going to be charged and convicted or released due to lack of evidence. Therefore, effective community-led counter extremism programmes were necessary for identification as well as rehabilitation of those in trouble.
It is worth mentioning that for the last few years, PREVENT programme has been heavily criticised that it was being operated on “spray and pray” principle. To refute such kind of criticism levelled against OSCT, PALM Preventative and (Lasting Measures) project is a wonderful example of success where OSCT, Police, NOMS, London Probation Trust, Lambeth Council and the Stockwell Green Community Services (SGCS), a Muslim led counter extremism and de-radicalisation initiative) successfully rehabilitated TACT (Terrorism Act) related offenders. There was a very comprehensive EU-wide “Towards Preventing Violent Radicalisation” (TPVR) programme where SGCS led as a community partner. UK was the first country in EU where SGCS designed and executed its community-led counter radicalisation programme from 2004-2008 (before 7/7), it was evaluated by Middlesex University.Here again the training package was designed by SGCS in 2009 to train the staff from probation and high security prison, etc.
What the above data tells us is that the Muslim communities were encouraged and empowered to be part of the solution rather than being part of the problem. This approach needs to be applied on Madrassahs. Can Pakistan roll out this programme country-wide?
In the UK, the most effective agency for the supervision of offenders is known as Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), it is a mechanism set for Police, Probation and Prison Services to supervise offenders in the community after they leave prison by serving full sentence or on parole for rehabilitation through organisations such as SGCS such rehabilitation of TACT offenders is supported and funded by the government.
In the UK, extraordinary attention is paid towards effective governance,whereas it is quite the opposite in Pakistan. One must not forget that boundaries are defined for each institution in the UK and nobody dares to cross them. For example, Army has a role i.e. defence of the country. Judiciary has a defined role i.e. to provide timely justice. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the institutions do not stay within the defined boundaries and there is no separation of powers in practice for Pakistan.
For the last 30 years, various governments of Pakistan have failed to manage the situation because they have been cheating the nation as well as the international community with the line that madrassas were the problem. World leaders were shown some staged examples of Madrasah reforms but practically nothing solid went on. In fact, madrassahs are not “the” problem,it is beyond that which various government failed to investigate. Ultimately, the trend of extremism has moved into universities, workplaces, etc. Madrassahs must be brought into mainstream system but with proper consultation rather than through media trial and harassment. At the end of the day, madrassahs are a part of a considerable, charitable network where millions of children are provided with literacy skills with guaranteed employment, which in fact is state’s responsibility. Pakistani government has failed to create jobs for millions of unemployed graduates, as well as root out extremism from state funded colleges and universities.
One must investigate whether our government institutions are corrupted with radicalisation because Pakistan faced a number of terrorist attacks on high security targets such as Army’s General Head Quarters (GHQ), Naval Base, Airforce base, Airports, etc. Schools, colleges, universities, Mosques, Madrasahs, Churches, Ahmadiyya worship place, Markets, Shopping Malls, Parks, funerals, etc were also targeted as the entire country was under siege.
Pakistan Army started operation Zarb-e-Azb against terrorism in Pakistan which was officially initiated on 15th June 2014 and it has been a very successful operation so far. It was not only against the violent extremists and terrorists, but it targeted their sympathisers and facilitators at the same time. However, the army was seen by many as too reactive and only responded to the attack on the army school. The people want a proactive and reactive approach to the problem. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed during this operation. Many extremists and terrorists have been arrested and some of them have surrendered but unfortunately there is nothing available for them in the form of rehabilitation when they go back in their communities. There are no measures in place to rehabilitate or destigmatize such individuals.
There are number of psychological factors that need to be addressed to divert someone from the path of radicalism or extremism. As can be seen from above, the UK have had a multipronged approach to countering extremism and Pakistan needs to adopt a similar strategy, with each security unit doing their job within their own limits. To summarise, Pakistan must: Undertake an academic study as to the causes of extremism, remove that trust deficit between the communities and the government institutions, adopt a proactive and reactive strategy to counter extremism, take on board community led initiatives to counter extremism, mirror models from the UK which can be tailored to suit Pakistan’s needs, and ensure that rehabilitation intertwined with societal elements (e.g. employment) is part and parcel of the counter extremism initiative.
