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Youth Parliament Pakistan: Third Session
Say NO to Foreign Dictation

Islamabad, February 21 2009: Youth Parliament of Pakistan strongly condemned the ‘gruesome’ bombings in Dera Ismail Khan that led to the loss of precious lives. They requested the government to look into the matter at length in order to take urgent and effective steps on countering the rising tide of extremism and sectarianism in the country.

The issue was raised in a calling attention notice moved by Mr. Zahid-ullah Wazir (YP16-NWFP04), Mr. Sher Afghan Malik (YP44-Punjab25) and Mr. Mohsin Saeed (YP29-Punjab10). The movers highlighted the ‘communal’ aspect of the incident by quoting several precedents in the region directed towards a certain community and urged the house to differentiate between atrocities committed on communal lines and those occurring due to war on terrorism. The members equivocally condemned the bombings and urged the government to ‘take no dictation in this matter’  by adopt a well thought out and comprehensively studied policy to counter elements of extremism while also rolling back the kinematics of war on terror spiralling across the country and disrupting the life of common man.

To discuss the subject of Terrorism and Extremism at length, the youth parliament hosted Syed Talat Hussain, Executive Director, News and Current Affairs Aaj TV.
Mr. Talat Hussain began his speech with an analytical overview of the various definitions of terrorism. He said that dubious versions of its definition blur enemy imagery as well as the connotations of War on Terror for its sponsor, our country and the world at large. Talking further on the definitional dilemma he said that owing to the changing concept of sovereignty it is getting difficult to sift out certain trans-national elements; fully shun external influx of ideas or other commodities or develop a selectively permeable membrane for letting in state-friendly ideas and commodities only. He said this while referring to a phrase “Af-Pak border region” being used by the west that is affording them room to defend military operations by capitalising on the Durand Line controversy. Answering a question about the role of media in sensationalising a crisis situation he said that media is an instrument that reflects the society and has no control or regulatory arrangement to discount a certain element social surprise. To a question regarding premature analysis of new developments he said that its in the nature of the beast, the media, to foresee see and ‘analyse to death’ a given phenomena, however, to say that media influences the course of events would overlook elephantine proportions of opinion and analysis that had been coming from international media, criticizing the War on Terrorism and the US attack on Iraq that failed to influence President Bush’s administration. Answering a question on the situation of Sawat he said that the government should now concentrate on engaging the inhabitants of Chitral and Dir by giving them a voice and fair political representation to keep extremist and anti-state ideas from expanding.

After this, members of the parliament resumed business of the house with a resolution over reviewing Pakistan’s policy over war on terrorism to the benefit of the country. Through this resolution, youth parliament of Pakistan condemned the recent statement of US Envoy Richard Holbrook in which he has termed Pakistan’s policy of war on terrorism inadequate. The youth parliament demanded of the government to officially condemn this statement through diplomatic channels.

Tomorrow’s business of the youth parliament will be focusing Pak-US relations. In this regard, the youth parliament will also be hosting, Ambassador Tariq Fatemi to speak on the issue.

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