ABSTRACT
Of the several by-products of terrorism that have damaged the Pakistani state and society, the threat of violent extremism is the most potent. It has damaged the country’s tolerant cultural and religious ethos. At this critical juncture when Pakistan is transitioning from a state-in-conflict to a post-conflict-state, it is imperative to convert and consolidate the tactical gains achieved against militancy into permanent and strategic accomplishments. In that regard, learning from the experience of other states is always instructive. To overcome the daunting challenge of extremism, Pakistan can learn from the successful counter-radicalisation models of Singapore. This chapter highlights the counter-radicalisation model employed by Singapore and compares it with the efforts put in place in Pakistan. The chapter argues that, in order to overcome the threat of extremism, Pakistan needs to balance the hard and soft counterterrorism approaches to introduce smart approaches. In the post-conflict-phase, Pakistan needs to fight both the reality and ideality of extremist challenge through a ‘whole of community’ approach. In Pakistan, counter-radicalisation strategies are underutilised. At best, such strategies operate on an ad hoc basis, lacking a systematic long-term vision. As part of the critical assessment, it puts forth a comparison of Pakistan and Singapore’s counter-radicalisation programmes to highlight the lessons the former can learn from the latter.
