Mustafa Qadri

The proposed truth and reconciliation commission is a fine idea. But a lack of historical distance will make it politically thorny

Grievance is at the heart of Pakistani politics. Almost all of the elites that dominate political life here have faced the deprivations – poverty, harassment, imprisonment or exile – experienced by the ordinary citizen at some point in their lives. When at the height of their strength, the powerful always invoke the myriad injustices that plague the common citizen to rally popular support.

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Frequently demonised in the West as hotbeds of terrorism, Pakistan’s religious seminaries are actually a vital institution, not the evil dens they are made out to be, writes Mustafa Qadri

According to many security analysts and world leaders, Pakistan is the global centre of extremist Islam. Much of that reputation has been built upon the country’s madaris, or religious seminaries (also sometimes referred to as madrassas), which have been described as jihadi factories spreading terrorism internationally.

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