ISLAMABAD: As part of efforts under the National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism and extremism, the federal government may be looking to revive the National Cadet Corps programme at the college level to promote readiness amongst the youth.

The National Cadet Corps (NCC) was a form of basic civil-defence training, which was imparted to college students in the past by the Pakistan Army.

However, former President Pervez Musharraf disbanded the practice in 2002.

In a meeting of the advisory committee of the Ministry of Education and Professional Training, held on Tuesday, the proposal to revive the NCC was discussed in detail.

Balighur Rehman, the state minister for education and professional training, confirmed the decision to revive the NCC programme.

However, he said, a final decision would be taken later. The ministry requires approval from various quarters before the proposal can be implemented and for this purpose, the matter will be taken up at forums such as the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference, the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination and the Cabinet Division.

A participant of the advisory committee meeting, requesting anonymity, said the meeting was told that the country currently faced unprecedented internal security challenges, necessitating the reinstatement of the NCC programme.

Pakistan has a larger youth population than several other countries in the world and if properly trained, they could render additional support to security forces, the meeting was told.

“We discussed the models that exist in countries such as India and Israel, where students are trained in self-defence,” the participant said.

He was referring to Defence Service Law, which requires all Israeli citizens above the age of 18 to enlist in the Israeli Defence Forces. However, the IDF model is very different from what NCC used to be.

In the past, the NCC was treated as an optional subject for intermediate students, which would fetch them 20 extra marks in their annual examinations upon successful completion of the programme. During the course, the students would ideally be trained in first aid, be given basic weapons training and emergency response techniques.

Tahir Shahid, who took the NCC course in 1993-1994, told Dawn that the ministry was on the right track.

“Special attention should be paid to the training of students. When we took this course, most students used the time as an excuse to play truant in the name of drills and exercises. Today, we are facing a grave security situation so these trainings should be specially regimented to prepare the youth for the challenges they may face,” he said.

Prof Tahir Mahmood from Islamabad Model Postgraduate College H-8, who witnessed NCC training in the 90s, said: “I still remember our students were very eager for military training. Today, given the different types of problems we are beset with, military training is the need of the hour.”

He recalled that even overseas Pakistani students would come back to their homeland specifically to attend the NCC course.

Mazhar Nasim Abbasi was one such student. Having spent most of his early life in Dubai, he specially came back to Pakistan in 1996 to take part in the NCC.

“At the time, the NCC was just about the 20 bonus marks that would improve our FSc result. Pakistan was passing through a relatively peaceful phase so we didn’t give much importance to the drills,” he said.

Describing the experience, he said that the course was like a boot camp. Participants would rise early, around 7am and would start drills around an hour later after breakfast.

“I was leading my group after three days; we did three hours of drills every day. There was a lot of good food and we enjoyed our mess meals in the afternoon and evening.”

He said that participants were taken to the shooting range three times during the course and were shown how to operate a firearm, as well as how to disassemble and reassemble a gun.

Published in Dawn March 12th , 2015

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