KARACHI, March 1: Terrorism and terrorists have been produced in Pakistan as a result of the state’s origin in communal politics, Cold War geo-strategic interests and the inequalities inherent within the state structure and policies. Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts have been limited and constrained by the fact that the state has had to reverse its own policies and undo its own ideologies. It has, therefore, become a war against itself.

Research scholar, social scientist and activist Dr Rubina Saigol stated this at the eighth Hamza Wahid Memorial Lecture held at the PMA House on Saturday. The lecture was a brief of her thesis, Terrorism, Extremism and Erosion of Human Rights. Organised by the Irtaqa Institute of Social Sciences, the programme was presided over by retired Justice Majida Rizvi.

Elaborating upon the situation Pakistan faces today, Dr Saigol said that the country was torn between global pressures to end terrorism within and across its eastern and western borders, and the equally strong opposing pressures from religious and nationalist forces to refrain from submitting to US diktat.

“As long as the United States continues to use the so-called war on terror as a justification for unilateral and interventionist policies and colonisation, and its support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land continues unabated, Pakistan will continue to experience a backlash against state support for America,” she said. “This backlash is likely to place serious limits on its efforts to counter terrorism, as Pakistan is widely perceived by the people to be in collusion with US terrorism.”

At the same time, however, Dr Saigol expressed the view that terrorism in Pakistan was deeply linked to conflicts rooted in the core of its origin, structure and geographical realities. According to her, there appeared to be four fundamental sources of terrorism in Pakistan: its origin in the foundational myth of the two-nation theory, its failure to evolve a viable federal structure given the regional diversity at its origin, communalisation of the state and its location at the nexus between South and Central Asia, ie its proximity to Afghanistan, often considered the gateway to Central Asia. Pakistan was thus trapped in its own history, geography and the resulting problems of the structure of the state.

“The two-nation theory has led to serious conflicts and violence that have plagued Pakistani society from its inception,” she pointed out. “The conflicts ensuing from, and related to, the foundational myth are primarily of two types: one, Pakistan’s failure to develop a just and viable federal structure in order to accommodate ethnic minorities, and two, the theory that has produced the ideology of Islamisation which lies at the heart of sectarian and jihadi struggles.”

Talking about the current discourse on terrorism, Dr Saigol said that the most striking feature was that despite the massive proliferation of articles and papers on the subject, a clear, comprehensive and inclusive definition had failed to emerge. This, she opined, was a deliberate attempt to keep its application selective, as was pointed out by late Eqbal Ahmad.

“It suits the imperial purpose to keep the notion intentionally vague,” she remarked. “The deliberately chosen vagueness and the consequent application of the term have direct implications for countries like Pakistan, where terrorism results from a combination of global and internal factors.”

Extremely critical of the Musharraf government in recent years, Dr Saigol said “None of Musharraf’s actions reflect moderation. In fact, all of his actions symbolise extremism and terrorism. Imposing martial law, making laws under which citizens can be court-marshalled, detaining and beating judges, lawyers and civil society activists, threatening to have people shot, making arbitrary amendments to the constitution – these were all extremist acts.”

According to Dr Saigol, President Musharraf used state power against liberal and moderate forces. “On the one hand, lawyers, students and journalists were being beaten up and arrested and on the other, the government released real terrorists and made agreements with them,” she pointed out.