ISLAMABAD: Calls went out from the civil society to the civil and military leaderships on Wednesday to withdraw all kind of direct or indirect support to extremist groups and ensure comprehensive madressah reforms.

Academics and activists issued the calls from the platforms of the Sustainable Development Police Institute (SDPI) and Pakistan Civil Society Forum, as the nation debates on how to fight the pernicious issues of extremism and terrorism.

Pakistan`s former Ambassador to the European Union Munawar Saeed Bhatti told the SDPI seminar that even if 10 per cent of the seminaries in the country may be teaching extremism, as Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said, the government should treat it as a serious issue.

They could still be grooming tens of thousands of students in extremism, he observed.

`There are between 15,000 and 20,000 seminaries in the country, and if each of the suspect seminaries has 100students on its rolls, they could be grooming some 150,000 boys in extremism,` said Mr Bhatti.

`Although military has cleared areas of Waziristan of terrorists, counterterrorism is the job of civil departments.

We have to fix the police and judicial systems. People are not getting justice,` he added.

At the same forum, journalist Ejaz Haider said that the prime minister has called the Peshawar carnage `Pakistan`s 9/11` but advised him against dealing with it the way the United States did because the super power failed to achieve positive result.

Since the problem of terrorism is going to be resolved soon, he said government needs to prepare the new generation for a long fight.

Also a TV anchor, Mr Haider said army should not be involved in every issue from unearthing ghost schools to fixing electricity distribution.

Executive Director SDPI Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri urged the media to be `more responsible` and not glorify capital punishment to terrorists.

Another speaker pointed out that `anyone can say anything from the pulpit` in Pakistan whereas mosques in UAE and Saudi Arabia are regulated by the government.

At the Pakistan Civil Society Forum`s roundtable, the speakers urged the government to take action against hate speeches from the pulpit and alsolaunch a drive to de-weaponise the society, especially the seminaries.

Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhoy, A. H. Nayyar, Naeem Mirza, Naseer Memon, Hussain Nagi, Muhammad Tahseen and Dr Khalid Masud took part in the roundtable and asked the government to take `visible action` against all extremists.

Good and bad Taliban are equally unpatriotic and undemocratic, according to them.

Physicist Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhoy wanted the government to introduce a monitoring system for the mosques to save the society from clerics like Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid.

`Civil society should continue its protest till the arrest of Maulana Aziz for not condemning Peshawar massacre, he said.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan`s joint director Hussain Nagi stressed transparency in ñghting terrorism.

`State shall immediately withdraw protection to extremist individuals and groups.Evidence shouldbe provided to the courts and concerned quarters, not hidden,` he said.

Social activist Marvi Sirmed recalled that a project for reforming madressahs was launched in Musharraf era but nothing is known about it now. The syllabus they teach needs to be watched.

`In their lectures, the clerics teach students about Jihadi Maulana Masood Azhar,` she said.

Social activist Farooq from Bahawalpur claimed that Saudi and Iranian elements were supporting various religious seminaries and universities.

`We are victims of the misplaced priorities and blunders of our policymakers,` observed SPO chief Naseer Memon.

`Terrorism should be condemned and disowned in all forms,` he said, calling for detaching religion from the state, which should adopt `an unambiguous narrative on terrorism`.

Islamic scholar Dr Khalid Masud said that in Pakistan religious groups are social groups and hence they have their economic interestsas well.

Professor A. H. Nayyar of the Quaid-i-Azam University said that if the government was serious about eliminating terrorism, it must abandon using `proxy terrorists` to achieve its foreign policy objectives, han all jihadi groups, exercise tight control over the misuse of telecommunication facilities and `drastically overhaul` the public prosecution system.

Prof Dr Sarfraz Khan, Director Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, said that elimination of terrorism demands that Pakistan establish peaceful relations with its neighbours.

`Civil society should continue to exert pressure on the State to cleanse the society form extremist elements. A major institutional purge at all levels is required if wewant to eliminate extremism and terrorism in society,` said Naeem Mirza, Chief operating Officer, Aurat Foundation.

At the end of the discussion, the participants issued a declaration, demanding the government to eradicate menace of terrorism in all its manifestations and commit to reverse the so-called `strategic depth` policy.

People of Pakistan would support the action plan adopted by the allparty parliamentary committee if it ensures comprehensive madressah reforms, bans hate speech and brings Fata into mainstream legislative and constitutional orbit.

It urged the state to turn away from the `national security state` paradigm to a `welfare human security state` which serves its people, irrespective of their religion, caste, creed and sex.