Back to Stone Age - No education for girls in Swat’

[LahoreEstate]

Lopsided 3Ds policy adding to Swat unrest: Anisa

* Suggests parliamentarians’ visit to troubled areas to take stock of situation and furnish recommendations to govt on how to restore peace there

By Atif Khan

ISLAMABAD: Senator Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli on Thursday said that the deteriorating law and order in Swat and Tribal Areas was in reaction to the military operation and drone attacks.

She was addressing a seminar entitled “Back to Stone Age - No education for girls in Swat” arranged by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) here.

“The government announced a policy of three Ds – dialogue, development and deterrence – to tackle the worsening law and order in Swat, but the feeling is that deterrence is taking precedence over dialogue and development thus creating a strong resentment among the locals endearing them to the Taliban,” she observed.

“As the terrain is new to the army without local support, the law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) couldn’t restore peace there,” she said, adding that drone attacks were adding to the resentment among the locals thus crippling the LEAs efforts to restore peace.

She said there were 1,154 male schools and 571 female schools in Swat out of which 22 schools for boys were eliminated while 38 were partially damaged in the operation. Continuing, she said out of 571 girls’ schools, 96 were completely destroyed, while 25 were partially damaged.

She suggested that a team of parliamentarians visit Swat and furnish its recommendations with the government about how to restore peace there and win the people back.

“This is a serious issue needing urgent attention,” she said, adding that the local government had already been pointing a finger at the federal government for the deteriorating law and order in their areas.

Human Rights Minister Syed Mumtaz Alam Gillani said that no religion allowed its followers to commit suicide attacks. He said military dictators had suppressed the role of politicians to solve issues through dialogue.

“Nobody knows about Fatima Jinnah, Khawaja Nizamuddin and other great Pakistani politicians but the military dictators,” he said. He said a military dictator defeated the sister of the founder of Pakistan in the engineered elections, but nobody resisted. Likewise, he said, former prime minister the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sent to the gallows but nobody protested. He urged the nation to reconsider its priorities.

Suggesting the solution, he said no problem could ever be solved through war and dialogue was always the last option. He said the war was deliberately imposed on the country and there could be no peace unless the people of Swat were given the rights and opportunities being enjoyed by their counterparts in other parts of the country.

PML-N leader Safdar Mehmood said that parliament was helpless, as its decisions were never implemented. He held the military dictators responsible for the obtaining economic crisis and worsening law and order and suggested that the civil society and government should play their role to win back the people of Swat and Tribal Areas.

He said over 300,000 displaced women had been camping in Peshawar and suggested that the civil society and government should provide them with food and shelter.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_1