ISLAMABAD -  Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani has said that the Pakistani nation would overcome extremism and terrorism as it had the unprecedented resilience to fight and make a comeback from the knockdown position. 

“Conscious attempts were made by the State during the Zia regime to promote a culture of extremism and drifted from the culture of tolerance, compassion, and love, which is the hallmark of this land of Sufism,” he said while addressing the concluding session of a seminar on “70 Years of Pakistan” organized by the Senate Defence Committee here on Tuesday.

“But we want to make it clear that this nation has the potential and spirit to defend its sovereignty and we would like to die than to be the slave of the extremist forces,” he said.

Rabbani said that during the Zia regime, student unions were banned and healthy activities of the students, having liberal affiliations, were not encouraged, while right-wing political parties were given a free hand to have their student wings operate on campuses to spread the culture and ideology of extremism in the country, he added.

Rabbani said that the ban of the effective platform of dialogue and discussion in the shape of student unions was a great loss.  He said that coffee culture, student unions, and trade associations gave the society a liberal and progressive leadership having the capability to engage the society for promoting positive discourse on issues facing the common man.  He said that such associations were considered the cornerstone of the democratic dispensation as they played an active part in the democratization of the society. 

Rabbani dismissed the notion that “our culture was an Arab culture”.  He said that “our culture emanated from the cultures of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and our synthesis make a Pakistani culture”. 

The Senate chairman, however, expressed his optimism that the nation would rise from the slumber and overcome the challenges being faced on social, political and economic fronts. 

“Our people have faced hardships at the hands of dictators, however, they successfully overthrew the usurpers through democratic struggle and restored democracy while crossing all the odds and sacrificing their lives”, Rabbani said.