Derailment of democracy resulted in social stagnation,extremism: Kaira

      ISLAMABAD, Sep 11 (APP): Federal Minister for Information and
Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Tuesday that derailment of
democracy and imposition of dictatorial rulers on the nation
resulted in stagnation of the society which led to extremism.
      While addressing a seminar on " Terrorism: reasons,consequences and its remedies" here, the minister said that the entire nation will have to fight out not only the extremist organizations but also the mindset.
      Kaira said that when the present government came to
power,terrorists were occupying Swat and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto
during her last speech in Rawalpindi had appealed to the nation to
unite against extremists and after a few minutes she was martyred.
      Besides Shaheed Benazir Bhutto thousands of army personnel and
civilians have lost their lives in fight against this menace.
      He said extremism is the biggest challenge confronting the
nation and conscious efforts will have to be made to reverse the
tide.
 The minister pointed out that extremism is not a recent
phenomenon as its foundations were laid by world powers after the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
      At that time, he added that sustained efforts were made to use
religion as a weapon, creating Madaris and changing culture,
syllabus and psyche of the nation.
 The minister said before that Pakistan was a tolerant society but these powers transformed it into an extremist society.
      Kaira said that only the Government or security agencies cannot eliminate the threat and the entire nation will have to stand against the extremists.
 To a question the information minister said it would not be fair to link terrorism to particular area or region of the country. 
 He said terrorism has no religion and instead it is a mindset.
      Regarding attacks on minorities, he said terrorists are enemies of entire humanity and even Muslims were spared by them.
      When the PPP came to power,the masses did not consider this
war as their own but the democratic government took the
representatives of the people in confidence and made major strides
in this war by wiping out the terrorists from Swat and repatriating
250,000 internally displaced persons.
      He was of the opinion that the tragedy of fall of Dhaka in
1971 was the consequence of violating the principles of the Quaid-e-Azam as he had introduced parliamentary form of government but later authoritarian rule was introduced.
      Kaira said that federation can be strengthened by empowering
provinces but in the past we dubbed those as traitors who raised
voice of provincial autonomy.
      He said that our Holy Prophet (SAW) was embodiment of
tolerance and love for humanity and he allowed Christians to perform
their religious rites in Masjid-e-Nabvi.
      About relations with India,he said that both countries have
fought many wars but no problem could be resolved now it was time to
sit on the table.
      He said that the government was ready to hold talks with angry
Baloch leaders and Taliban but no talks will be held on the barrel
of the gun.
      The minister said that democracy was only way to improve
things and extremists were facing isolation and with the continuity
of democracy they will be completely eliminated.