Editorials From August to December 2012

Editorials from DAWN

Newspaper [August to December 2012]

Note: The CSS Point is not responsible of any fact/information mentioned in this booklet. This Booklet is compilation of Editorials from DAWN Newspapers.

Main source: http://www.dawn.com

All Rights are reserved to DAWN.COM

Copyright © 2012-13 DAWN.COM

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Table of Contents

Name of Month Page#

1. Editorials from the month of August 03

2. Editorials from the month of September 46

3. Editorials from the month of October 90

4. Editorials from the month of November 134

5. Editorials from the month of December 177


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EDITORIALS FROM THE MONTH OF AUGUST

Power politics

August 1st, 2012

This time it wasn‘t just the opposition and its protesters in the streets. The government‘s allies spoke out in a

chorus against power cuts on Monday, with PML-Q lawmakers handing in resignations, the ANP encouraging

protesters, threatening to join them and walking out of the Senate, and the MQM speaking out against the

government in the upper house. The power problem has c ome down to its simplest political realities: politicians

have to respond when their constituencies suffer loadshedding for up to 18 hours a day, especially in Ramazan.

And they have to respond particularly loudly just months before a general election. At that point, when a

governance problem threatens to become a serious political liability, coalition politics, mutual understandings and

deals fall by the wayside. This week‘s reactions to electricity shortages showed how, despite its savvy politicking,

the ruling party‘s neglect of the power problem has become a real vulnerability.

And the storm that damaged plants in Muzaffargarh and worsened power shortages showed how vulnerable

Pakistan‘s power system remains to shocks. Occasional blackouts driven by unforeseen circumstances are possible

anywhere in the world; the one in India this week has affected 600 million people. But here unexpected events

become tipping points that dramatically worsen an ongoing problem stemming from fundamental weaknesses in

the power generation and distribution systems. Nor does the government‘s response match the scale and urgency

of the crisis. Apparently the ministries of water and power, petroleum, and finance cannot agree on the causes and

solutions of the problem. The president and prime minister continue to hold meetings on the issue that at least so

far appear to be little more than exercises designed to create the impression that the problem is being taken

seriously. Meanwhile, the president‘s public remarks on Sunday downplayed the problem and his suggestion that

the government is satisfied with its performance appeared either obstinate or stunningly out of touch. Overall, the

most the government has done is address — to a limited extent — power shortages when they spiral out of control.

There appears to be no long-term planning or structural improvement to speak of.

The other increasingly obvious aspect of the problem is its province-versus-centre dynamic. Punjab has long

claimed it is being discriminated against in power distribution, but now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where an ally is in

power, is claiming the same. Somehow a distribution that is more acceptable to these provinces will have to be

worked out. Without that, if this week‘s protests are anything to go by, the power problem threatens to become an

increasingly serious liability for the PPP as it heads into the polls.

Road to success?

August 1st, 2012

For all that criticising ‗the system‘ seems to be Pakistanis‘ favourite hobby, matters have not reached such a pass

that people have entirely lost hope — at least so it would appear from a poll conducted recently by the

Washington-based Pew Research Centre. Paradoxical as it sounds, the poll found that 81 per cent of over a

thousand adult respondents in this country be lieve that hard work receives its due reward and leads to material

success. Curiously, of the 21 countries in which the poll was conducted, it was Pakistan where the majority had not

become disillusioned about the value of working hard. Less than half of t hose polled in Japan, for example,

recognised a close link between hard work and success. One of the ways in which the finding about Pakistan can be

interpreted, then, is that the outlook may look bleak but the citizenry still has hope.

It could be argued, though, that when all else is lost, people have nothing left to cling to but hope. The same poll

found, for instance, that 76 per cent of respondents believe that the economy will either stay in its dismal state or

worsen during the next 12 months. Indeed, many of the indicators on the ground regarding peoples‘ welfare and

their chances of success are deeply worrying. Take food and nutrition statistics. For years now concerns have been

being raised about the very high levels of child malnutrition prevalent in the country. Most recently, at a workshop


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organised this week in Karachi by the international NGO Save the Children in conjunction with the Sindh Planning

and Development Department, participants learned that 44 per cent of children under five in the country are

stunted and 32 per cent are underweight. The problem lies not just in food insecurity but also the quality of

nutrition: 39 per cent of children in food-secure households in Sindh were found to be stunted. Quite apart from

the implication this has for the overall loss to the country‘s economy, it paints a distressing picture of the next

generation‘s chances of success. Hard work is all very well, but its benefits are offset by a hostile environment.

Studio blaze

August 1st, 2012

The early morning f ire in the studio of a private TV channel in Lahore on Monday is another painful reminder of the

lack of concern for safety standards in Pakistan. At least five people were reported killed while over a dozen were

injured when the blaze erupted during a live sehri transmission. The fire was apparently caused by a short circuit

but ended up consuming the whole studio. A stampede ensued after the fire broke out, yet there was no clearly

marked exit door, while police say there was also a lack of fire-extinguishing equipment in the studio. To save a

few rupees building owners cut corners; structures are often not equipped with fire extinguishers while it is

common for many buildings in Pakistan to lack clearly marked f ire exits and signage. There is also a lack of trained

individuals who can guide people in case of an emergency.

While such tragedies point to neglect, they also ref lect a lack of concern for human life both at the state and

societal levels. Just in the past few months there have been similar incidents involving buildings, houses and

vehicles. Yet apart from initial expressions of shock and remorse, nothing is done by the state or individuals to

ensure that following safety codes becomes standard practice. Soon after the tragedy the incident is forgotten,

along with all promises of setting things right. With particular reference to structures that hold large numbers of

people such as theatres, schools, banquet halls, apartment blocks, etc, the authorities must ensure there are well-

marked fire exits and fire extinguishers capable of putting out different types of blazes in place. The same is true

for recording and television studios, which require additional adherence to safety codes considering the extensive

flammable equipment that is found in these facilities.

Missing millions?

August 2nd, 2012

The updated electoral rolls are out, and several months before elections are due. With that effort, and by linking

voter registration to the CNIC, the Election Commission and Nadra have contributed to more transparent and fairer

elections. But the headline number of 84.4 million voters, and its provincial breakdown, needs to be explained.

Most strikingly, the numbers of registered voters have actually dropped in Sindh and Balochistan compared to the

2007 rolls. One explanation might be that bogus voters on the 2007 lists have now been removed through

verif ication against Nadra data. But that still leaves the problem of under-representation. Various estimates of

Pakistan‘s population, including the 1998 census and the 2011 house count, indicate that millions of citizens of

voting age remain missing from the new electoral rolls. That, in turn, is probably a product of the marginalisation

of communities, especially those located in remote areas, who simply don‘t have CNICs.

But all this will remain conjecture until the ECP explains what is causing the fall in registered voters in Sindh and

Balochistan in particular, and why the number of voters registered nationally is significantly below the country‘s

likely population, by up to 20 million people according to one independent estimate. Without some clarification the

new list could easily become controversial and be used to question election results when those eventually come

through. Next, Nadra and the ECP need to figure out how to register many more Pakistanis before the elections,

which will require quickly reaching out into under-registered, rural and remote communities. The ECP plan to

display the rolls so that citizens can correct them is just a first step. Given how expensive and inconvenient it can

be for many to travel to district-level offices, the lists need to be available far more widely, perhaps at the union

council level, ideally accompanied by Nadra representatives who can at least begin the registration process for

those who still don‘t have CNICs.


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The concept of linking voter registration to a computerised and unique identity is an important one, and a clear

step forward for election reform in Pakistan. Voter fraud should now be significantly more difficult to pull off. And

there is still time for citizens to make sure they are registered, and at the right address. But given the current

system, those will be citizens with access. As a first step, the ECP needs to explain the new numbers. And then it

needs to make sure communities that have been left out are able to get themselves on the list.

Land for sale

August 2nd, 2012

‗The great land robbery‘ and ‗Land becomes a scam‘ are headlines which harbour within them accounts of practices

ranging from the merely clever and opportunistic to outright criminal. Part of a special report in this newspaper on

the great Islamabad rush for land, these speak of slumbering, conniving officials, overactive real estate dealers and

their needy-greedy clients, and of violence that is a sad hallmark of the business. No matter where you travel from

here, the same politics-land nexus will haunt you in Pakistan. The land-grabbers claim, as of right, the votes of the

people inhabiting ‗their‘ territory, or since they happen to have the votes, they believe they must next occupy the

land also. Such is the relationship of this business that while previously the people were condemned to choose

between one landowner and another, come election time today they are free to opt for this land-grabber or the

other. It is impossible for an influential to not be connected by business bond or by blood with the so-called real

estate developer.

The Islamabad example tells us that of the 30,000 cases pending with the courts at the district level, some 40 per

cent pertain to land disputes. A real estate don known for bringing under development the unlikeliest of territory

openly says these court cases move only on the wheels of money. In areas where the land for urban development

has been of good value for longer than in the rather young capital, these disputes and the scars they create run

much deeper. Everyone understands that these housing schemes cannot quite come about without a few palms

having been greased, a few bullets fired and a few obstinate occupiers of a piece of Mother Earth brusquely pushed

out to clear way for modern life. Yet it is land everyone is keen to invest in. As urban dreams go, no other

investment promises returns as does having a plot of land. This may be a global trend but the question is whether

Pakistan has the desire to regulate and ensure that practices are as fair as possible? So far, that desire is missing

from our development.

See-saw oil prices

August 2nd, 2012

If you‘re feeling a little seasick these days, it‘s alright. So is the rest of Pakistan. The constant up and down in oil

prices over the past couple of months has everyone feeling a little queasy. It‘s true that global oil prices have risen

in the month of July, although the last week has seen them turn downwards slightly. When prices at the pump are

linked to global prices there will understandably be some amount of up and down movement as a routine matter.

But lately the adjustments have been substantial, with the latest one seeing large rises in all categories of fuels.

The change would be easier to digest if the oil pricing mechanism were a little more transparent.

Unhappily, that comfort isn‘t available. Oil prices at the pump have a number of different components, including

items such as the margin allowed to the dealer, sales tax and a special levy charged only on petroleum products.

Each one of these components sees furious lobbying around it by specialised interests. The finance ministry is

reluctant to adjust the levy or grant any sales tax exemptions in an effort to keep prices stable. It‘s difficult to

blame them entirely: in the present climate, where tax reforms are stalled, oil prices are important revenue lines

for the government. The oil marketing companies lobby hard around the inland freight equalisation margin and the

dealer margins, since this is where they earn their profits. What consumers would like to be reassured on is this: is

the recent volatility in oil prices really the result of global price hikes or is it being driven by the give and take

between the various stakeholders in the price, such as the ministries of petroleum and finance and the oil

companies? Lack of transparency on this important point will have consumers here feeling a little queasy in the

meantime.


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Muckraking

August 3rd, 2012

With both vying for the same space and the same slice of the electorate, the PML-N and the PTI were always going

to find ways to attack each other. On Wednesday, it was Khwaja Asif‘s turn to fire the latest PML-N salvo against

the PTI chief, Imran Khan. Armed with a sheaf of documents and a series of seemingly hard-hitting accusations

against the fund managers of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Mr Asif tried to poke a hole in Imran

Khan‘s self-styled reputation as a clean politician with no financial skeletons in his closet. PTI supporters reacted

with outrage to Khwaja Asif‘s allegations and dismissed them as an ugly attempt to drag a charitable institution

into disrepute. There is an inconvenient truth, however, for the PTI: the Shaukat Khanum hospital is a central

plank of Imran Khan‘s political platform.

With a non-existent record of public service in government, Mr Khan has long held the hospital he set up as an

example of why he is qualified to run Pakistan. In Mr Khan‘s telling, Shaukat Khanum hospital is a symbol of his

commitment to the people‘s welfare and his resolve to handle large finances transparently and professionally. So if

his political opponents probe into the affairs of Shaukat Khanum and find something amiss, it is unrealistic to

expect them to keep their suspicions or allegations out of the public arena. How are funds for the hospital raised,

does the fund-raising comply with Pakistani and the relevant foreign laws, and are the funds invested in a way that

is both legal and ethical given their purpose are all questions that Shaukat Khanum‘s administrators ought to

answer in full. Particularly since the PTI routinely accuses every other party of financial malfeasance and

corruption, the party should set the bar higher for transparency and openness. It is worth noting that to date the

PTI has provided no meaningful information about who has sponsored and paid for the massive rallies the party

has held in all four provinces of the country.

Nevertheless, Khwaja Asif‘s fulminations against the PTI should also be treated with caution — not because the

allegations are necessarily false but because there is a risk that as the elections draw nearer, political opponents

will descend into an ugly free-for-all that could damage the democratic project itself. The PPP has long been a

victim of dirty tricks, as has Imran Khan himself owing to his colourful past. The PML-N — no shrinking violets

there, clearly — can also suffer similar attacks. Perhaps party leaders need to informally declare certain areas off

limits for criticism; or else, perhaps the ECP could have a role to play?

Investing in India

August 3rd, 2012

Depending on one‘s point of view, India‘s move to open up investment from Pakistan can be welcomed or become

cause for cynicism. Arguments against it stem from anxiety about Pakistan‘s own weak economy and a desire to

protect it: domestic problems mean investment here, both domestic and foreign, is falling. Pakistani investors are

already sending their own money out to other countries, and this will give them one more destination. India

recognises this, and wants to use the opportunity to attract more foreign investment for itself. But there is more at

stake here than these near-term concerns. More trade between India and Pakistan is a good thing, and the

reasoning for this — beyond the well-established economic benefits of trade — is simple. It is likely to increase

stakes in each other‘s stability over time, and any ties are better than no ties if the two are ever to move towards a

closer relationship.

India‘s move is particularly important because other initiatives on the commerce front that seemed to be within

reach appear to have been stalled, such as granting MFN status to India and liberalising visa regimes. There are

indications that Pakistan is delaying these out of fear that political and territorial disputes will get left by the

wayside. But that defeats the purpose of the new diplomatic approach the countries are supposedly trying to

pursue, in which closer trade links become the basis for building confidence and eventually addressing the tougher

problems. India‘s announcement is simply a starting point, and a lot more would have to be done to really open up

trade and investment. Pakistan would have to make it easier for Indians to invest here, for example, and

consulates would have to be opened in Mumbai, Karachi and perhaps even smaller business hubs such as

Hyderabad in India and Lahore. And it isn‘t clear yet to what extent Wednesday‘s announcement will benefit


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Pakistan. Much will depend on the specific rules India frames on such things as investment levels allowed in

different sectors and repatriating prof its. But allowing Pakistani investors in was an important signal, and Pakistan

should respond by speeding up trade liberalisation measures on which it is dragging its feet.

VIP police

August 3rd, 2012

The level of violent crime that stalks Karachi makes it amongst the world‘s most dangerous cities. One of the

factors feeding into this is that far too many policemen in the city are busy performing guard duty for ‗important‘

persons, leaving common citizens to fend for themselves. The number of policemen dedicated to ‗VIP duty‘ in

Karachi has gone up from 4,500 in 2010 to over 6,500 today. This leaves only 11,000 or so cops are left to police a

city of millions. This excessive focus on protecting officials, lawmakers, politicians and others is also an additional

drain on the police department‘s budget as police guards use official vehicles and fuel while guarding individuals. In

this backdrop, the fact the police hierarchy is considering reducing the number of personnel on guard duty is

welcome, though we have heard such well-intentioned plans before.

Perhaps what is needed is a dedicated police unit for the protection of public figures, separate from the regular

force. It should be ensured that personnel from the regular force are unable to get themselves transferred to such

a unit, while its affairs should be steered by a committee consisting of police, administration and intelligence

officials. This committee can decide who genuinely needs security and how much. Political interference in the

affairs of such a unit must be disallowed. And since many VIPs can afford it, perhaps they should pay for the

additional security. If this were done, the bulk of the police force could be deployed in the f ield. The number of

personnel in the regular force should also be boosted. With the creation of such a system, those who actually need

extra security cover will get it, while those who travel with small armies of police guards as a show of strength will

have to make other arrangements.

Rumbling on

August 4th, 2012

The Contempt of Court Act, 2012 is no more. Always likely to have only the briefest of existences, the law was

gutted and then struck down in its entirety by the Supreme Court yesterday. While the latest round of the SC-PPP

tussle will inevitably be located in the long-running saga of friction, reaction and worse, this time the matter was

more clear cut. In a bid to save Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf from parliamentary disqualification were he to

also face contempt charges for not writing the so-called Swiss letter, the government concocted a poor piece of

legislation that was always going to face intense judicial scrutiny for its purposeful elevation of certain individuals

above the reach of the law. Even reasonable voices within the PPP who know a thing or two about the law had

expressed their reservations about the new contempt law. But the government was on a mission and it wasn‘t to

be deterred — until, that is, the inevitable judicial review took place and the law was consigned to the waste bin of

history, as happened yesterday.

With the contempt law out of the way, the larger question is what will happen when the hearings on the

implementation of the NRO — now really just about the Swiss letter — resume on Aug 8. At the last hearing, the

five-member bench had appeared to hold out an olive branch to the government and seemed genuinely interested

in finding some kind of compromise solution. But thus far, the government has not indicated that it is willing to find

a way to reach an acceptable compromise with the court. While rumour and speculation suggest that neither the

court nor the government is interested in dragging out this matter much longer, the fact is that one or the other

will have to make a meaningful gesture at this stage — and no one is clear how and when that will happen.

So on and on will continue the legal clouds over the political landscape, it seems. For a matter that began in 2009,

there is a tiresome repetitiveness to the NRO issue and President Zardari‘s alleged ill-gotten wealth from the 1990s

that was once stashed away in Swiss accounts. Every time the path t o an on-schedule election is seemingly

cleared, a fresh hurdle appears on the scene. Undesirable as the situation is, there is perhaps a silver lining: at

least the hurdles in the way of an on-schedule election have not been truly insurmountable so far. The democratic


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project could do without the headache of electing yet another short -term PM, but if it does come to that, the

system itself doesn‘t seem in imminent trouble.

Soldier of fortune

August 4th, 2012

Another reminder that for local residents, the Pak-Afghan border may as well not exist: young men from Chitral are

crossing over to join the Afghan National Army, according to the provincial Home Department. The local

administration has been asked to confirm this, but two pieces of context are import ant. First, that this is not a new

or isolated phenomenon. Similar reports about Pakistanis joining Afghan forces have appeared over the years,

including from the relatively peaceful Kalash areas of Chitral, but especially from Fata. They are reminders tha t this

border is more real on a map than it is in the lives of people who live along it. But while in the settled area of

Chitral it is relatively easy to determine who has joined security forces on the other side, in less accessible Fata it is

harder to figure out who is going over, whether they are being recruited and by whom, and what they are doing in

Afghanistan. This also makes it harder to determine if they are providing sensitive intelligence or in some other

way compromising Pakistani security.

Second, the people of Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who are joining forces on the other side are not necessarily

doing so for sinister reasons. At the root of this is the same simple problem that many Pakistanis face across the

country — the lack of employment opportunities. Along the border crossing over is a means of seeking out jobs in

the same way that people in other parts of Pakistan might cross provincial boundaries, perhaps even more so given

ethnic and linguistic ties. One suggestion that has been floated is to offer jobs to locals in border policing on this

side. Whatever the specific solution, the marginalisation of these communities from development and jobs means

they will seek out work wherever they can find it, even if that means becoming mercenaries in what the rest of the

country considers a foreign army. If the state is concerned about the security fallout, it will need to provide

alternative livelihoods that are as easy to come by as crossing the Durand Line.

Uptight in the ’60s

August 4th, 2012

They were known as the Teddy Boys (and girls) — adherents of a youth subculture that started in the UK in the

1950s and soon became strongly associated with youth, rock ‗n‘ roll and teenage assertiveness. In London, the

Teddys favoured high-waist ‗drainpipe‘ trousers, crepe-soled shoes and greased-up hair with a quiff at the front. In

Karachi, the ‗teddys‘ turned that into a look that swept across urban campuses. Along with making their own

clothing choices, the ‗teddys‘ of urban Pakistan took upon themselves to stand fast against the oppression of the

generations. Thus it is that a news report from Aug 3, 1962, published yesterday on these pages, tells us that

Karachi‘s director of education expressed grave concern about growing ‗teddyism‘ and banned ‗teddy‘ dress —

understood as tight-fitting clothes worn mainly by students.

Levity aside, though, the circular he sent out is illuminating in terms of what Pakistan has become in the ensuing

half a century. ―Dress … shows culture and traditions…. Pakistan was founded with the express purpose of enabling

Muslims to lead [an] Islamic way of life. …[I]t is desired that our students, both boys and girls, should follow the

ideology for which Pakistan was created and reflect it in dress also. As such, no tight -fitting dress should be

allowed to be worn by students….‖ In apportioning the blame for setting Pakistan on a course at the end of which

lie the more conservative trends that are the hallmark of campuses today, the Zia administration is the most

obvious contender. But the seeds that Ziaul Haq nurtured into full-grown monsters were always there, even in the

1960s that are today considered a remarkable period for liberalism in Pakistan. The journey that led Pakistan to

where it is now has been a long one. Could it be as long as the country itself?


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Infiltrating the ranks

August 5th, 2012

Five army officers, including a brigadier, have been court -martialled and handed down prison sentences for their

links to an extremist organisation, Hizbut Tahrir. Whenever the subject of religious extremism within the army‘s

officer corps and its rank and file comes up, opinion tends to break down into two extremes. One side argues that

it points to some sort of creeping coup, a pernicious radicalisation of the armed forces that threatens Pakistani

state and society given the army‘s influence over national security and foreign policy. The other side argues that

whatever instances of radicalised officers have come to the fore, they are isolated incidents and dealt with

professionally and quickly and as such pose no threat to discipline and unity of command in the armed forces.

Arguably, neither side is right.

Policy choices aside, the armed forces are relatively well-disciplined and internal checks and controls are fairly

strong. While it is an insular institution, there is reason to believe that neither is a serious rebellion inspired by

Islamist causes likely, nor would it succeed were a small group of officers to attempt one. Hysterical opinion and

analysis in the international media that appear occasionally and decry the imminent takeover of Pakistan by radical

Islamists directly or by proxy via its armed forces is just that: hysterical and far removed from reality.

But that does not mean the armed forces do not have a very real problem within their ranks. While information is

tightly controlled, there are enough dots to connect that paint a picture that is reasonably worrying: be it

numerous refusals by soldiers to fight militants and terrorists in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or regular

investigations and arrests of officers suspected of extremist affiliations or intermittent plots to launch attacks

against the army leadership that were foiled before or during execution, the Pakistan armed forces do have an

extremism problem. Unpalatable as the suggestion may be for its leadership, it is more than likely that the army‘s

security paradigm has helped create a problem within its own ranks. When patronage of or sympathy towards

militant Islamist groups is part of the army high command‘s strategy for protecting this country from perceived

external threats, it is almost inevitable that what is embraced as a hard-nosed policy by some will be embraced by

others for the ideology that keeps the fires of hate burning. And then there are the effects on wider society — from

where the next generations of army officers have been recruited — which is increasingly susceptible to right-wing

and extremist rhetoric and propaganda. Acknowledging the problem is the first step towards addressing it. Denial

could sink the armed forces, and the country too.

Rethinking ‘honour’

August 5th, 2012

It is a tragedy reported with more distressing regularity in this country than in the UK: the murder of a young girl

at the hands of her family for having brought dishonour to them. But the euphemistically named ‗honour killings‘

seem to be becoming an issue in the West too. The crucial difference is that unlike here, in those countries every

effort is made to prosecute perpetrators and hand down severe sentences. In the most recent such trial, on Friday

a London jury sentenced a Pakistani couple to a minimum of 25 years in prison for having suffocated their daughter

to death in 2003. Reportedly, the 17-year-old Shafilea did not want to live her life by her parents‘ strict — and

conservative — rules. Earlier this year, three members of an Afghan family were sentenced by a Canadian court for

the drowning of three sisters and another woman because they defied the family‘s strict customs. Just weeks

earlier, in December 2011, a Brussels court sentenced four members of a Pakistani family for the ‗honour killing‘ of

a family member in 2007.

It would appear, then, that the argument often heard in Pakistan that such crimes, when committed here, are the

result of ignorance, lack of education or the sheer lawlessness of society is far from the truth. Going by the

examples mentioned above, such murders are not restricted to people who are out of touch with modernity or

unaware of the law and the onsequences of transgressing it. A more plausible answer may be found in the words of

the Canadian judge, Robert Maranger, who sentenced the Afghan family: he described the crimes as ―cold-blooded,

shameful murders‖ resulting from a ―twisted concept of honour‖. Reflect on the term ‗honour killing‘ and it appears

that popular discourse has adopted the language of the criminals. This provides a measure of defence, though not

in legal terms, to the act. Were such crimes to be referred to as what they are — murder — some of the cultural

barriers behind which the perpetrators try to hide may begin to crumble.


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Magic water

August 5th, 2012

Talk-Show hosts feted it. Politicians rode in it. Cabinet ministers discussed it. Well-known scientists backed it.

Those of a particularly conspiratorial bent called for him to be provided security against a threatened oil industry.

While a lone voice calling foul was barely given a chance to be heard, Agha Waqar Ahmad and his ‗water car‘ were

being hailed as the invention that would free the world from the tyranny of fossil-fuel dependence and transform

Pakistan‘s image around the globe. As was bound to happen eventually, his scientifically impossible claim, which

defies the basic laws of physics, is now being exposed as gobsmacked scientists begin to write and speak about it.

A technical examination of the water kit, planned at the highest levels of government, has been delayed

indefinitely. Perhaps the best proof has come from the man‘s own bumbling attempts to defend his device.

What won‘t change as quickly are the unfortunate truths this episode has exposed about Pakistani society. For one,

it highlighted again how easily the media here buys into seemingly exciting, but always improbable, news stories

without any background research or inquiries. Also left looking more ridiculous than Mr Ahmad are the politicians,

ministers and especially scientists who jumped on the bandwagon and hailed the car as a giant leap for Pakistan,

showcasing in the process the national love of shortcuts and easy glory and the lack of quality education that

makes even our leading public figures susceptible to such bogus claims. Meanwhile, no real work, scientific,

managerial, technical or otherwise, is being done to actually address the energy crisis. And the fact that at the

same time the breakthrough science of an actual national hero — the Nobel-prize-winning Dr Abdus Salam — is

being erased from our official history is a telling comment on Pakistan‘s commitment to knowledge.

DC talks

August 6th, 2012

ISI chief Gen Zahirul Islam is back from talks in the US and so far little concrete is known about what transpired in

the series of closed-door meetings with White House, military, intelligence and congressional officials. The early

leaks from the Pakistani side suggest that Gen Islam pressed for an end to the unilateral American drone strikes

inside Pakistan‘s tribal areas and also for action inside Afghanistan against Pakistani Taliban launching cross -border

attacks from Kunar and Nuristan. From the American side, the early leaks — as highlighted by a Wall Street Journal

report on Saturday — suggest that US officials pressed hard on the issue of Haqqani network sanctuaries in North

Waziristan and have won a reciprocal commitment from Pakistan: the Haqqani network is set t o be squeezed on

the Pakistani side of the border, while American and Afghan forces will push against the Pakistani Taliban hiding

out in Kunar and Nuristan, according to the Journal. The days ahead will undoubtedly bring more details on what

transpired in DC last week, though there will almost inevitably be some contradictions if the past is anything to go

by.

For Pakistan — people and state — drones have taken on a level of fearful importance that has eclipsed the

possibility of any meaningful debate on the issue at this stage. Unilateral drone strikes by the US inside Pakistan

are unwelcome, undesirable and counterproductive. Drone strikes per se are none of those things. In fact, as a

report over the weekend once again underlined, they help take out dangerous militants in remote areas where

there are few good options: the confirmation by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan that their former leader,

Uthman Adil, was killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan in April is a nod to their efficacy.

Of course, because the US appears overly enamoured of its high-tech weapon of war, the surge in strikes between

2008-2011 has almost certainly killed non-militants and also rubbed the Pakistani security establishment the wrong

way — rendering deeply controversial an otherwise promising development in the f ight against militancy. To get

the programme back on track — in the sense of taking out the most dangerous of militants — it has become

inevitable that the US and Pakistan work out some kind of intelligence sharing or joint operational mechanism for

the drone programme. The days to come will reveal whether any understanding was reached in DC. Perhaps if

Pakistan took on the militants in North Waziristan itself, a great deal of the rationale for drone strikes — unilaterial

or not — would go down?


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A young electorate

August 6th, 2012

Data available on the Election Commission‘s website seems to confirm that in the upcoming elections, the votes of

the young will matter and will have the potential to change the count ry‘s political landscape. That is, of course, if

the youth go out and vote. As per the age-wise breakdown of the recently released electoral rolls, 40 million out of

84.3 million voters are aged between 18 and 35. The 18-25 age bracket consists of 16.2m voters while the 26-35

group, which contains 23.8m voters, constitutes the biggest chunk out of six age groupings. Yet despite the

numbers, there is little to show that political parties, at least the older, more established ones, have done much to

attract young voters. Comparatively, the PTI has made greater attempts to reach out to younger Pakistanis, taking

advantage of the fact that the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 2002. When more established parties have

targeted the youth, it has been through laptop schemes and other such gimmic ks. They have forwarded hardly any

solid policy prescriptions concerning the issues the youth face.

If these parties want to stay relevant and include this huge bloc of voters in the democratic project, they will have

to come to terms with this demographic reality. This must especially be reflected in party manifesto. The main

problems that confront young people — equitable access to education, health and job opportunities — need to be

addressed. The young voter of today is quite well-informed and somewhat sceptical, and parties will need to court

young Pakistanis through substantive solutions and not through the charisma of leaders or glittering promises.

Another question mark is whether the majority of this youth bloc will be motivated to make it to polling stations

come election day. After all, persuading young people to attend rallies or offer support in cyberspace is one thing;

translating this support into success at the ballot box is another. Convincing young voters that their voices matter

and mobilising them is something the parties will have to work harder at.

A post-Hiroshima world

August 6th, 2012

Sixty-seven years ago today, the terrifying power of nuclear weapons was unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Historians may argue about the motives behind dropping a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1946 and on

Nagasaki three days later, but there was no doubt that the world had entered a new age. Fast forward 67

tumultuous years and today Pakistan has found itself in the nuclear crucible, with neighbouring Iran drawing

international condemnation for its nuclear ambitions, Pakistan‘s own nuclear deterrent eyed with worry and

suspicion by much of the outside world and India‘s easing into the official circle of nuclear states heightening the

possibility of a destabilising response by Pakistan.

Undesirable as the status of being a nuclear-weapons state with abysmal social and economic indicators is, the

reality is that for the foreseeable future — and perhaps well beyond — Pakistan will continue to have a nuclear

deterrent. With a nuclear-armed neighbour on its eastern border with whom four wars have been fought and whose

conventional military and economic might is many times larger than Pakistan‘s, the deterrent will never realistically

be wrested away from the Pakistani security establishment.

Perhaps, then, a more realistic aim is to push for a wider debate: how many fuel-producing factories, warheads

and delivery systems are enough to maintain credible minimum deterrence, the established nuclear policy of this

country? Also, the vital question of how safe and secure this country‘s nuclear programme is needs to be asked.

Historically, the security establishment here has made disastrous policy decisions in part because of the secretive

manner in which such policies are debated and understood. With a nuclear-weapons programme, the room for

error is less than zero. And maybe once that debate is started, the ultimate dream of a nuclear-weapons-free

region and world may be a step closer.


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The three Es

August 7th, 2012

Call it a roadmap or a partial manifesto, but on Sunday PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif laid out at least a preliminary

version of the party‘s campaign platform for the next election. And little in it is surpr ising. Most party manifestos in

Pakistan have a few features in common. They refer to Jinnah‘s abandoned vision for Pakistan or the unfulfilled

promise the country had at its creation. They over-promise, setting their creators up for failure. They offer

incremental and trite ideas when many of Pakistan‘s problems need bold, game-changing policies. And they are

usually too broad, promising to solve a slew of problems that the incumbent government hasn‘t been able to

address. The PML-N‘s new plan suffers from many of these problems, though Mr Sharif did attempt some

prioritisation: his three Es — education, energy and the economy — are important sectors and help narrow focus.

But for one, they were strikingly similar to the PPP‘s five Es in 2008 — employment, education, energy,

environment, equality — highlighting the lack of originality that afflicts party manifestos. And such rhetorical

devices, including the current government‘s dialogue-development-deterrence policy to tackle militancy, inevitably

turn out to be catchy and easily marketable slogans with no follow-through. Mr Sharif also fell into the over-

promising trap, claiming he could push Pakistan into the world‘s top 10 economies, leading in everything from IT to

tourism, and contain circular debt in six months.

Another aspect the PML-N and others need to be careful about is how they‘ll craft manifestos that keep in mind the

enlarged domains of the provinces post the 18th Amendment. What does it mean for a party to promise progress

in education, environment or health when these are now provincial subjects? Education in particular is a sector that

every party leader will want to claim he will transform, when the centre‘s authority is now effectively limited to

higher education and research. And in the specific case of the PML-N, what has its government in Punjab done to

meaningfully improve education in the province?

Such lapses indicate a plan that is not well thought out, one that is devised with an immediate and political goal in

mind. And whatever the plan issued by any party, its proof will lie in implementation, which is where successive

Pakistani governments have fallen short. Devised by subject-area specialists and sold by politicians, what these

manifestos lack when the time comes to implement them is an effective combination of expert knowledge, realism,

political will and sheer hard work. No wonder neither voters nor candidates take them seriously, especially after

some of those candidates make it into office.

South Waziristan festers

August 7th, 2012

Like Africa is a country to many people in other parts of the world, the seven federally administered tribal agencies

suffer a somewhat similar fate when they come up for discussion in Pakistan: there is just ‗the tribal areas‘; all

details, distinctions and differences between the constituent units of Fata being subsumed in most debates on the

area. But, as a report on South Waziristan in this newspaper yesterday indicated, the experience of each agency

has been different and there are crucial dist inctions. Back in 2009, when the militants seemed to be in the

ascendant, Pakistanis were told that South Waziristan was the root of most militancy problems and drastic action

had to be taken. Public opinion was courted to support another major military operation in South Waziristan

following the failure of the last one in 2008. Now, nearly three years on from Operation Rah-i-Nijat, only one of the

six subdivisions in South Waziristan — Sararogha — has been denotified as a conflict area and there too, the return

of IDPs has been painfully slow.

What went wrong in South Waziristan? After clearing the Mehsud areas of their human population, the security

forces did manage to dominate the physical space for a while. In fact, even today the security forces would argue

that they do dominate the physical landscape, given that they control the major roads and the strategic hilltops.

But there is also the reality that the newly constructed roads have virtually no traffic, that the security forces are

frequently targeted by IEDs and hit-and-run tactics and that even the hardened population of South Waziristan is

reluctant to return home for fear of reprisals from the militants. Essentially, the military learned how to clear and

hold an area under militant control but has little understanding about how to permanently keep militants out and

restore an area to a civil administration-led state of relative normality. Perhaps what is most worrying is that these


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problems have slipped off the national radar, like when the tribal areas did after the Soviets were defeated and few

were concerned about the new, more lethal problems that were brewing there.

Facing the flood

August 7th, 2012

Even though relatively moderate, the rain has already caused a flood-like situation in some parts of Punjab. At

least two of the major rivers are in medium to high flood, and 13 villages in the Sialkot area have been inundated,

with crops over hundreds of acres damaged. We could expect the situation to worsen, because the met office has

forecast more rain and thunderstorms for Punjab, KP, Gilgit -Baltistan and northern Sindh. Are we, then, going to

see a repeat of the devastating flood of 2010 and, for Sindh, a third visitation? While this economic and

humanitarian catastrophe had a national dimens ion in 2010, Sindh suffered twice when floods revisited it last year,

causing misery that in some respects exceeded what was seen the preceding year. Yet regrettably, there is no

evidence that the authorities have learnt their lessons.

On paper, federal and provincial officialdom is on its toes, flood relief centres have been set up, and the Sindh

government has started registering volunteers. But Pakistan‘s institutional ability to respond to disasters has come

under severe international criticism. A research report by British NGOs says Pakistan isn‘t ready even for ―much

smaller disasters‖ for a country prone to natural calamities on a big scale. The shortcomings the report listed

included lack of coordination among government agencies, a below-standard flood warning and forecasting system,

extensive deforestation, and failure to mobilise local communities. The pity is that a large number of those

rendered homeless by the 2011 deluge have still not been rehabilitated, and in some cases damaged embankments

beg for repairs: this much for the post-disaster effort. The ability of the National Disaster Management Authority

will now be tested when rivers overf low and canals breach embankments. Clearly we will have to blame ourselves

and not the elements if a new flood inf licts a fresh set of miseries on the nation.

Moral policing

August 8th, 2012

Now it is the realm of television programming and advertising that has attracted the Supreme Court‘s attention.

Summoning the chief of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority in response to petitions moved by two

conservative figures, the former amir of the Jamaat-i-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed and a retired Supreme Court

justice, Wajihuddin Ahmed, the court on Monday demanded action within a week against ‗obscene‘ and ‗vulgar‘

programming and advertisements on private TV channels aired in Pakistan. Pause for a moment and consider the

various problems that afflict this country and that the court is embroiled in. That obscenity and vulgarity on

television — and this before the debate about whether the impugned content is at all obscene or vulgar — figures

in the scheme of things to fix at the highest levels at the moment is somewhat worrying.

Two points need to be made here. First, the excesses that do frequently occur on television — from content that

foments religious intolerance to coverage of terrorist attacks that are insensitive to victims‘ families and badly

handled, and from opinion-laden shows that are divorced from fact to invasion of privacy and worse in intrusive

programming — do need serious redressal. However, government regulation is not the way to go. The Musharraf

era epitomised the problem: even the most ardent supporters of a free and independent media in power cannot be

trusted to not use government regulation to stifle media freedom. Where self-regulation thus far has failed,

perhaps what the government can do is act as a facilitator for the creation of a regulatory body that is truly

independent, professionally run along non-ideological lines and responsive to both the media‘s and consumers‘

concerns. But to trust the government with a direct and hands-on role in regulating media content is an unwelcome

idea: today it is obscenity and vulgarity, tomorrow it will be the ‗national interest‘ and ‗national security‘ that will

demand certain lines be drawn.

Second, the outmoded idea of what content is vulgar or obscene needs to be discarded. Strangely, violence on

television — domestic, criminal, extrajudicial — rarely attracts the same kind of censure as does content in which

women are attired in a certain way or f ilmed interacting with men in a certain way. The same goes for intolerance,

xenophobia, bigotry and hate spewed on TV: it doesn‘t attract the same kind of censure as does a woman dancing

or singing lustily. The collective ownership that society wants to impose on its women is a problem itself. In the


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name of moral policing, Pakistan has ended up with deeply skewed priorities: keep the women covered up; let the

monsters run loose.

NATO convoys

August 8th, 2012

While the overland route for Nato convoys transporting supplies to Afghanistan through this country may have

reopened last month after a seven-month closure, security of the convoys clearly remains an issue. On Monday an

Afghan driver — part of such a convoy — was shot dead by suspected militants in Khyber Agency‘s Jamrud Tehsil

on the Peshawar-Torkham highway. This is reportedly the second attack in the area since the route reopened; the

first occurred on July 24 in which a similar modus operandi was used by the attackers. Assailants on motorbikes

ambushed the convoy, killing a driver. The shadowy Abdullah Azzam Brigade has claimed responsibility for

Monday‘s attack. Before the closure of the route convoys had also come under attack. But while previously vehicles

were targeted by, for example, rockets fired at the containers, the past couple of incidents suggest a conscious

effort is being made to kill or intimidate the drivers.

The main issue appears to be a lack of coordination between the different law-enforcement agencies active in the

area. While police are responsible for law enforcement in the settled areas, khasadars and the Frontier Corps

handle security in the tribal regions. It has been noted by some that the FC does not appear to be cooperating with

the khasadars, while it is also true that the khasadars, made up of tribal recruits, don‘t have the intelligence

capabilities or resources to thwart militant attacks. Khasadars reportedly tried, and failed, to pursue the attackers

in the latest ambush. Another view is that since the khasadars are local tribesmen, they may be reluctant about

taking on the Taliban. In such a scenario, the FC should take the lead in providing security to the convoys in their

journeys to and from Afghanistan. While the goods may be insured, the drivers have to pay with their lives. An

effective, well-thought-out security plan is essential for the protection of the convoys and their drivers transiting

through Torkham and Chaman, especially when the local Taliban have made it clear they will not spare them.

New notes

August 8th, 2012

Eid and Eidi go together, for children especially. For that reason demand for new, unsoiled currency notes,

especially of smaller denominations, goes up as Ramazan winds down. Yet brand new currency notes are not to be

found precisely where they should be. As reported in this newspaper yesterday, Karachi banks were not delivering

the promised notes from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) till Monday afternoon. When a reporter asked for the

reason, the response of tellers at various banks ranged from ―sorry we don‘t have them‖ to the snappy ―come next

week‖ retort. Yet there is plenty of fresh currency to be had at the Bolton Market currency bazaar, available at a

premium.

The SBP had announced on July 30 that it had made ―elaborate arrangements‖ for supplying new bills to

commercial banks by Aug 1. The banks were also told they would be penalised if they didn‘t conform to the SBP‘s

rules, which included a ceiling for each customer and the presentation of a CNIC if an account holder wanted new

notes. While these rules made sense, the SBP should also have ensured the timely availability of the new currency

at the banks. As usual, it appears the f irst recipient of the fresh currency was the thriving black market, where

notes are available in bulk. How the currency operators were able to beat the banks in the race for the new stocks

should not be difficult for SBP authorities to discover. The story in Karachi is undoubtedly being replicated in other

parts of the country. There is, however, still time for the central bank to fix the problem and ensure that people

across the country can receive their Eidi as it should be: fresh, clean and crisp.


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Déjà vu

August 9th, 2012

Another prime minister, another walk of shame. On Aug 27, Raja Pervez Ashraf will have to make the short walk

from the gates of the Supreme Court to inside a courtroom where he will likely be charged with contempt of court

unless his government writes the so-called Swiss letter. And therein lies the rub: what the court would regard as a

walk of shame — a second prime minister hauled before it for explicitly rejecting an explicit court order — the PPP

will regard as a walk of defiance: another jiyala ready to sac rifice all for his leader, Asif Ali Zardari. When the

Justice Asif Khosa-led bench held out an olive branch to the government at the last hearing, anyone desperate to

see an end to the mindless saga of the Swiss letter would have hoped that the government would reciprocate

somehow. But even in that moment of desperate hope, there would have been an insistent doubt: had the PPP

ever been inclined to allow the letter to be written, it would not have waited for one prime minister to be knocked

out. In fact, with the president himself still not directly in danger of being dislodged from office, it seemed more

than likely the government would accept whatever fate the SC has in store for its latest prime minister.

And so it appears to have almost come to pass. The PPP yesterday threw yet more diversions in the SC‘s path,

filing review petitions against the striking down of the Contempt of Court Act, 2012 and against the order requiring

Prime Minister Ashraf to explain what his government is going to do about the letter. None of these will likely keep

the court at bay for long. But then perhaps all the PPP is trying to do is buy time so that the fast-winding-down

election clock comes into play and the party can pull the trigger on an on-schedule election while still hanging on to

its second prime minister from the same parliament. Failing that, it will just as likely have a third prime minister

elected and limp on to its ultimate goal of an election after parliament completes its five-year term.

Curiously, perhaps the PPP will be helped in achieving its goal by the court itself. The wheels of justice do take

some time to move, even when they are moving quickly — the months-long disqualification process of Yousuf Raza

Gilani being a very relevant example. If the same schedule is adhered to this time, Prime Minister Ashraf may have

just received an early Eid present: many more weeks, and perhaps months, in office.

Constituency funds

August 9th, 2012

Given our patronage-driven political system, it is far from likely that the release of constituency funds for PPP and

PML-Q legislators in Punjab will serve the actual purpose of development. The legislators, angered by the provincial

government‘s refusal to release the funds, had approached the prime minister for an amount of at least Rs100m

each, but were offered only Rs20m. True, their anger is justified to the extent that the PML-N government has not

been even-handed in the disbursal of funds, and has preferred to hand out more money to its own legislators and

allies rather than to its opponents in the assembly.

But in a national milieu where development priorities are skewed and where political compulsions rather than goal-

oriented efforts dominate, the practice of constituency development funding itself has been called into question.

The general perception is that the politicians are up to no good and undertake only those projects that are likely to

boost their electoral chances, and that the funds given to them are meant to ensure their loyalty. Moreover, there

are regular allegations of corruption and nepotism in the implementation of projects, and a transparent system of

accountability and of checks and balances essential to public -sector development is conspicuous by its absence.

These and other factors make for a convincing argument against the present system of fund allocation among

politicians and for one that would involve some form of local government to identify local needs and implement

well-thought-out development projects. Doubtless, it is difficult to uproot a system that has been entrenched in

corruption and murkiness since it was conceived in the 1980s under Gen Zia, but a start has to be made in that

direction. And this can only be done by keeping greater checks on the use of funds, probing dubious opera tions and

investigating allegations of corruption and nepotism. What is equally important is a planning process that is

cohesive and not haphazard as now. Schemes left incomplete because of political or monetary compulsions, the

absence of connectivity in the development of adjoining constituencies or duplication of projects only cause further

hardship to the people and waste precious taxpayer money.


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Hockey defeat

August 9th, 2012

Pakistanis hoped against hope for a hockey medal at the London Olympics until their team was ferociously thrown

out of the competition by Australia. If there was no harm in attaching expectations to the national side, the change

in the public mood following Tuesday‘s 7-0 drubbing is also not difficult to understand. Sport is a befitting forum for

the expression of the see-saw sentiment that characterises life in Pakistan today. The lament will continue for some

time to come, interspersed as it surely will be with the constant quipping of the ‗I-told-you-so‘ types.

Evaluation of the factors leading to the fall of Pakistan hockey is already under way. Indeed, in the first game that

the team played in the London Olympics, they were shown by Pakistani experts to be battling the new blue

Astroturf as much as they were trying to outdo their opponents. This had resonance with the old Pakistani

explanation in which the changing face of the game has often been blamed for the ‗death‘ of the Asian style we

excelled in. It would have been alright had it just been an explanation, a first step towards correcting the approach

and bringing it in sync with international standards. The problem is in the classical escape that finds the country

and its people seeing a conspiracy against them in everything around. Hockey rules are not simply responsible for

taking the beauty out of the game and turning it into a virtual wrestling bout; they are a plot against us. The

Astroturf is also a conspiracy, and the refereeing is often biased, we believe. In the hockey field and in general, this

victim syndrome will have to be overcome and replaced with confidence. The game is how it is. Play it or leave it.

There is no other way.

Khan and the Taliban

August 10th, 2012

Imran Khan wants to lead a ‗peace caravan‘ to South Waziristan to protest drone strikes, but the TTP is having

none of it. Speaking to the Associated Press, a TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan has condemned Khan and his

‗liberal‘ politics and declared that if the PTI does try to hold his political rally in South Waziristan, the TTP shura will

convene to decide how to respond. While the spokesperson did yesterday reject that he had threatened to kill

Imran Khan, the crux of his accusation against the latter and the democratic system stand: the PTI chief is a liberal

infidel and the democratic system is un-Islamic. To some, the TTP‘s outrageous claims will be a definitive rebuttal

of the oft-repeated allegation that Mr Khan is soft on terrorism and that he misrepresents the real reasons for the

existence of Islamist violence in Pakistan and the region. After all, how can ‗Taliban Khan‘ be a friend of the Taliban

if they denounce him in emphatic terms?

But that would be to miss the point. The TTP‘s loathing for the way Pakistani state and society is organised is so

extreme that even flawed political narratives that are part of mainstream Pakistan are viewed as repugnant and

worthy of elimination by the TTP and like-minded militants. The denunciation of the PTI‘s political platform by the

TTP is first and foremost about the danger that violent radicalism continues to pose in Pakistan — nobody is safe,

not even those who take up causes, such as opposingdrone strikes, that would seemingly work to the benefit of

militants themselves.

There is, however, another, perhaps more subtle, point at work here: the politics of Imran Khan, the religious right

and even other mainstream centre-right parties in Pakistan help perpetuate the confusion and uncertainty that

prevents the public from truly understanding the threat militancy poses to the state of Pakistan and the fabric of

society. When Mr Khan argues that if it weren‘t for the ‗foreign occupation‘ of Afghanistan, militancy in Pakistan

would be a virtually non-existent phenomenon — a historically and factually incorrect theory — it only serves to

deepen the societal confusion about Islamist militancy that has been nurtured by the security establishment since

the days of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. The Taliban want to remake Pakistan in their own frightening and

grotesque image, as TTP spokesperson Ihsan proudly stated. Until they are defeated and the mindset they

represent decisively rolled back in society, Pakistan will be in danger. That, more than anything else, is the

message the political class should be sending Pakistanis.


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IDPs in Jalozai

August 10th, 2012

Having hosted millions of refugees over the years, especially after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,

Pakistan should have been quite capable of looking after displaced persons by now. But the latest news from

Jalozai camp, the country‘s largest shelter for internally displaced persons, has once again underlined that

competent and humane dealing with IDPs is far from the norm. On Wednesday, the camp located near Peshawar

was the scene of mayhem as desperate IDPs dashed towards the distribution point for food and hygiene kits. The

resultant firing by camp security led to the death of one person. Condemnable as the incident is, the bro -ader

problem will remain unaddressed: some 16,000 families, mostly from Khyber Agency, are registered at t he camp,

living lives of complete uncertainty as they await news of when they can return home while their present

inhabitation continues to deteriorate. With the World Food Programme reducing rations, the threat of a food crisis

looms at the camp — and, judging by their record so far, Pakistani authorities are unlikely to swing into action until

the crisis explodes with predictable, and tragic, consequences.

But it is not just the people in Jalozai, or even those from South Waziristan taking refuge with relatives in settled

areas since 2009, whose return to their homes has been delayed. There are other casualties of conflict, such as the

Baloch of Dera Bugti, who have been denied IDP status by the government, and who are far less visible on the

international radar. What needs to be done to help better protect IDPs is well known: a clear national policy on

displaced people, whether they have been rendered homeless by natural disaster or forced to flee conflict zones,

and follow-through on that policy. Will it happen, however? The IDPs at Jalozai and elsewhere may be forgiven for

not being very hopeful. And therein lies a further problem for us: uproot tens of thousands of families in a bid to

fight militancy but then leave those families at the mercy of officialdom — could these camps of misery become

breeding grounds for the next generation of radicals?

Far from well-read

August 10th, 2012

Reading for pleasure — as opposed to finding out about the latest crisis of governance or administration — is far

from the average Pakistani‘s priority. That in the average marketplace a bookstore — if it is there at all — will be

thronged with the most customers is highly unlikely. Yet people who read for pleasure and the pursuit of

knowledge do exist, and a sample section of this segment has voted veteran playwright Amjad Islam Amjad as

their favourite author. A poll undertaken by a local organisation among 2,670 men and women in urban and rural

areas gave respondents the names of five well-known writers of Urdu literature to pick as their favourite. Amjad

Islam Amjad was voted favourite by 26 per cent of the respondents, followed by Ashfaq Ahmed and Nadeem Qasmi

in a tie at 13 per cent and then Haseena Moin.

Heartening news, and an honour for the authors — but there is another side to the coin. While 12 per cent out of

the respondents answered ‗don‘t know‘, 18 out of every 100 were definite in their answer of ‗no one‘. A mere one

per cent had literary knowledge wide enough to name an author not on the list. The unhappy fac t is that not

enough people consider it important to inculcate in children and young adults a love of literature and also to help

create access to literature. Television, movies, the Internet and electronics are now the currency of childhood

among those that can afford them. For many others, the increasingly pinched purse-strings of their parents and

the absence of well-stocked public libraries mean that the realm of the imagination must lie unexplored. Left

unaddressed, this unhappy situation will inevitably mean another generation of children who, even if educated,

have little knowledge of the great world of literature.


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Syrian vortex

August 11th, 2012

The foreign minister‘s statement at the Tehran meeting on Syria symbolises Pakistan‘s dilemma — the tightrope

walking Islamabad has to do on an issue in which it finds its friends and allies divided. Foreign Minister Khar said

Islamabad was opposed to foreign intervention in Syria because that would complicate a situation ―already very

complex‖. She was also ―disturbed‖ over reports that Al Qaeda was infiltrating Syria. Open to various

interpretations, her speech could be construed as supportive of an authoritarian regime whose crackdown on

democracy protesters has so far led to over 20,000 fatalities in a 17-month-old conflict. But more likely, the for-

eign minister‘s stand was rooted in Pakistan‘s traditional opposition to foreign intervention in a country‘s internal

affairs. To that extent, Ms Khar‘s speech was a reiteration of this country‘s long-standing approach to foreign

interventions: discourage them as much as possible and wherever possible, with the unspoken fear in the

background being that perhaps too much international adventurism could one day lead to Pakistan itself being

caught in the international cross-hairs.

Beyond that, Ms Khar‘s statement was a disappointment. The savage crackdown by the Assad regime against the

Syrian rebels ought to have drawn greater censure. Instead, all Foreign Minister Khar offered was this: ―We would

urge both the Syrian government and the opposition groups to exercise restraint for the safety and security of the

civilian population.‖ Perhaps in deciding to stick to its long-standing policy of non-intervention and non-

interference, the foreign ministry calculated that condemnation of the Assad regime would undercut Pakistan‘s

other, more central message. The problem is that a Syrian policy has to be located in Pakistan‘s other interests. To

stand in Tehran and tacitly express support for a Syrian regime whose struggle against its people has also taken a

sectarian — Shia vs Sunni — hue is to be tone-deaf to the dangerous faultlines that exist in the region.

Since petrodollars and the Iranian revolution turbo-charged the Shia-Sunni rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia,

Pakistan has played a delicate game: stay on the right side of the powerful and rich Saudi monarchy, while also

acknowledging the reality of a shared border with Iran. In the Syrian case, the lines have been firmly drawn in the

Persian-Arab rivalry: Iran supporting the Assad regime; Saudi Arabia backing the rebels. So while trying to show

some leadership in the Muslim world or just trying to reiterate Pakistan‘s traditional foreign-policy stance, the

foreign ministry must be careful to not get sucked into the Syrian vortex. President Assad may soon be consigned

to the dustbin of history; Pakistan will still have to deal with both Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Unprotected community

August 11th, 2012

Interior Minister Rehman Malik‘s predilection for terming all negative developments in Pakistan as a conspiracy

against the state was in full play on Thursday. In answer to a question on the reported migration of several Hindu

families from Jacobabad to India, he said that approximately 250 visas were issued, by the Indian High

Commission, ‗under a conspiracy‘, a statement that led to several families — with valid documents — being

stopped from crossing the Wagah border on Friday though they were later allowed to proceed. Reports of the

intended migration have yet to be substantiated as a number of travellers are said to be pilgrims, and perhaps the

media has sounded the alarm bells too soon. However, for all Mr Malik‘s moralistic talk of the Pakistani citizen‘s

loyalty to the green passport, there is an escalating sense of insecurity within the country‘s Hindu community. This

has resulted in an increasing number of Hindus, mostly businessmen and professionals, leaving Pakistan in recent

years, although the mass exodus depicted by the media is yet to take shape. Their persecution may not be as

blatant as, say, that of the Ahmadis, who are routinely gunned down or lynched, or even of their poorer brethren in

lower Sindh trapped in a class-based system. But increasingly, the kidnappings of Hindu businessmen, the looting

of their shops, occupation of their prop-erty and the general environment of religiosity have isolated the minority

community from the mainstream. Besides, they see no forum for justice and no openings to advance in national

life.

Unfortunately, for all its so-called secular and democratic credentials, this government has responded to the

challenge of insecurity and the culture of radicalism and fear like its predecessors. It has made no attempt to give

back minorities their space or even to provide hope for a better future. Where are the mainstream parties and their


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declared commitment to looking after the interest of marginalised groups? As Pakistan‘s minorities find themselves

increasingly cornered — not only by extremist groups and an uncaring government but also by a society that shuns

the ‗other‘— the hands of those who reject a pluralistic culture will be strengthened.

A dubious project

August 11th, 2012

Thar coal is back in the news, thanks to a visit by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to Tharparkar and a

demonstration by Dr Samar Mubarakmand of his miracle coal gasification technology. Dr Mubarakmand claims he

can produce two billion barrels of diesel from Thar coal, that he can build a 100MW power plant that will run on gas

produced from Thar coal and that 50,000MW of electricity is being generated around the world from technology of

the sort he is busy installing. Many of these claims strain credibility. Coal gasif ication is still an experimental

technology around the world and is only being used in small pilot projects in a few places. The amount of gas it

yields is small, the heating value of the gas is low and the pressures are inadequate for purposes of power

generation.

It‘s troubling to hear Dr Mubarakmand‘s assertions regarding the use of the technology elsewhere, and his inflated

claims of what it can achieve in Pakistan. Following the ‗water car‘ f iasco, it‘s clear Pakistan‘s political leaders have

a limited capacity to understand even simple technical matters and how easy it is for snake-oil salesmen to find

gullible policymakers with taxpayer money to spend on cure-alls and fix-alls. Dr Mubarakmand has ‗briefed‘ a

Standing Committee of the National Assembly, and hosted the prime minister on the site of his pro-ject and

secured commitments for continued government funding of his dubious venture. A comprehensive audit should be

performed to account for the Rs900m consumed thus far, and the technical evaluation performed by the Planning

Commission should be made public. After all, there are other, private-sector investors with deep pockets trying to

turn Thar coal into commercially viable fuel but have stayed away from Dr Mubarakmand‘s project.

‘Sunshine’ policy

August 12th, 2012

What is it about the month of August that it brings such sunshine to the State Bank? It was in August last year that

the State Bank threw caution to the winds and slashed the policy discount rate by 150 basis points in an effort, as

they put it, to revive investment. And once again this year they have followed suit, with yet another 150 basis

point reduction, also with the express purpose of reviving investment. But did investment grow in the wake of last

year‘s cut? No it didn‘t. In fact this year‘s statement even acknowledges that fact, and offers an explanation,

saying energy shortages are behind falling investment, with ―the role of monetary policy becoming marginal‖.

Throughout the announcement, caveats are sprinkled liberally saying that the slowing growth rates and falling

investments are due to struc-tural weaknesses in the economy and the stalled reforms, and that monetary policy is

largely powerless to compensate for these crucial deficiencies.

The statement which announced the decision is more remarkable for the careful hedging of every statement of

optimism than for anything else. It notes the continued reliance of the government on bank borrowings, and direct

borrowings from the State Bank, an act that is tantamount to printing money, saying that ―[t]hese borrowings are

despite the commitments announced in the FY12 budget, reassurances made during the year, and more

importantly, explicit requirements of the SBP Act‖. It also notes the steep fall in private sector credit offtake, ―a

meagre Rs18.3bn in FY12 … a drastic decline compared to a net flow of Rs173.2bn in FY11‖. Drastic indeed! Also

―the fiscal deficit may have reached 6.4 per cent of GDP … This excludes the debt consolidation of power and food-

sector arrears of 1.9 per cent of GDP‖ which would take us up to 8.3 per cent of GDP.

So how do the framers of our monetary policy justify making last year‘s mistake all over again? In the wake of that

rate cut, investment and private sector credit offtake plummeted drastically, in their own words, and the rupee slid

by about Rs5 to the dollar. What did that rate cut accomplish, other than a small reduction in the government‘s

debt service bill, a reduction that appears to have encouraged even more reckless recourse to banking-sector


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resources? It appears that the State Bank has lost the plot, that it is saying one thing and doing another, that the

hand on the tiller is not firm enough to withstand the pressures which are being brought to bear upon it, that policy

drift has now taken root in the country‘s central bank as well.

Mudslinging matches

August 12th, 2012

Mothers, children, ex-wives, marriages of convenience — all have been paraded before a bemused public as the

war of words between the PTI and the PML-N heats up. Earlier, Khwaja Asif had shown his disapproval of Imran

Khan‘s family affairs. On Friday, it was Javed Hashmi‘s turn to come out with dirt on his exes, the PML-N. Mr

Hashmi chiefly targeted Chaudhry Nisar Ali, the man the Sharifs had chosen as the leader of the opposition in

parliament after the 2008 election, ignoring Mr Hashmi. Now the PTI vice president, Mr Hashmi disclosed to

reporters in Lahore that Chaudhry Nisar‘s mother had obtained a pardon for his son from Gen Musharraf after the

coup in 1999 and the consequent departure of the Sharifs from the country. He was also critical of other PML-N

leaders who he said had chosen the easy path of following the Sharifs out when the party needed them here.

The latest burst of allegations was quickly responded to by Rana Sanaullah, one PML-N politician who stayed put in

Pakistan during the Musharraf regime and managed to secure a visible enough role in the PML-N government in

Punjab. But Mr Hashmi chose the example of Zulfikar Khosa to elaborate the hurt and pain he himself had suffered

at having been sidelined by the PML-N. Sardar Khosa, the currently estranged N-League leader, had stood by both

country and party during the Sharifs‘ days in exile. His rebellion now has been overshadowed by the ongoing

slinging match between the PML-N and PTI, the origins and the timing of which are subject to conjecture. Why did

Khwaja Asif come up with the Imran Khan diatribe when he did? Was it simply Mr Khan‘s visit to Khwaja Sahib‘s

hometown of Sialkot? Was it because of a, as yet, hard-to-believe rumour about a caretaker set-up in Islamabad

under Mr Khan? Or could the PTI chief‘s flirtation with the Taliban have worried the PML-N? Whatever the

immediate reason, the over-the-top slandering starring such veterans as Mr Hashmi and Khwaja Asif betrays a

bitter conflict between two parties striving to capture the same territory and the same moral high-ground.

Cellphone data

August 12th, 2012

Kidnappings for ransom and extortion — in which cellphone communications play a major role — are especially

widespread in Karachi. With this in mind, the Sindh High Court ordered the provincial police chief to appoint focal

persons to obtain data from cellular service providers to help crack down on kidnapping and extortion rings.

Currently the police do not have direct access to data and has to route requests through the ISI. Efforts to grant

police greater access to cellphone data have been ongoing for the past few years. It is true that granting the police

access to cellphone information is extremely important as lack of access can hamper the investigation process,

especially when criminals seem to be going increasingly high-tech. Yet it is also true that the police here have an

image problem; there are legitimate concerns that citizens‘ data will be misused. These fears are suppor-ted by the

fact that the police are highly politicised and criminal elements within the force are known to exist.

While the police should be granted access to cellphone data, this power must be coupled with a fair bit of

responsibility so that citizens‘ personal information is not misused. In this respect the SHC has ordered the police

chief to notify the list of authorised officers to cellular service providers to avoid unauthorised access to

information. However, it must also be said that while such a step is important, police reform must be a much

broader exercise and it would be naïve to assume that granting the force access to cellular data will radically bring

down the crime graph. Giving police access to technology will no doubt help the force stay ahead of criminals. But

the police must also be reformed to restore the public‘s trust.


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North Waziristan issue

August 13th, 2012

The rumour mill has been in overdrive since ISI chief Gen Zahirul Islam‘s recent visit to the US: will there or won‘t

there be some kind of military action taken in North Waziristan by the Pakistan Army? Predictably, the Pakistani

side first outright denied the leaks in the American media from US officials presumably in the know, and then

introduced shades of grey. Some kind of coordination across the Pak-Afghan border against militant sanctuaries in

North Waziristan is not the same as ‗joint operations‘, army officials f irst insisted. Now, as reported yesterday, the

script has moved forward some more: if any action is to be taken in North Waziristan, Pakistan will expect US and

Afghan forces on the other side of the border to prevent targets in North Waziristan from f leeing into Afghanistan.

The unnamed official spoke of ‗sealing the border‘, though more likely it would be a variant of the hammer-and-

anvil strategy that has over the years been touted as the only credible model for ensuring that militants squeezed

on this side of the border don‘t flee into Afghanistan and vice versa.

Is the drip-drip of leaks meant to prepare the country for a U-turn in policy on North Waziristan or is this just

another game of cat and mouse with the US? On the ground, in North Waziristan itself, there is no sign of an

imminent military operation. While the security forces in the agency number over 40,000 – two army divisions, a

Frontier Corps force and sundry local security personnel – and the national and Fata disaster management agencies

have long been told to prepare contingency plans for an outflow of IDPs, at the moment the reports from the area

do not indicate any signs of a military operation about to be launched. Similarly, on the Afghan side, where Khost,

Paktia and Paktika are the obvious destinations for militants fleeing from North Waziristan, there is no sign yet that

American or Afghan forces are gearing up for a battle with militants who may soon arrive.

In trying to determine the likelihood of a military operation in North Waziristan at the moment, it may help to recall

what the Americans have pushed Pakistan to do: one, squeeze the f low of money to the Haqqanis; two, sever the

information links that keep the Haqqanis one step ahead of the Americans; and three, dismantle the Miranshah hub

that the Americans are convinced exists. So perhaps if not a major military operation, some other measures are

being contemplated on the Pakistani side. But then, are half-measures in North Waziristan really in the interest of

Pakistan?

Dam funding

August 13th, 2012

The country‘s perennial water shortages notwithstanding, there is little evidence of a concerted push by the state

towards speeding up projects that could contain the crisis. On Friday, a Senate Standing Committee on Water and

Power said that the World Bank would rather fund the Dasu power project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa than the

Diamer-Bhasha dam in Gilgit-Baltistan on account of India‘s objections rooted in Gilgit-Baltistan‘s territorial status.

This reported preference appeared acceptable to the presiding senator but not to the Wapda chairman who

emphasised that the Bhasha dam would remain a priority. Both stances have merit — alternative projects should

not be rejected if there are difficulties in undertaking others, while Bhasha, which would be the first mega dam

after Tarbela was completed in 1976 and would generate 4,500MW of electricity, is of primary importance.

However, the core problem, that of debilitating water scarcity, is glossed over in such a debate. India has not made

its objections formal, and in any case its concerns are hardly tenable when its own water security is not threatened

by the Bhasha project. It is important, then, to look at other factors which may be causing potential donors to

blink, and hampering the government‘s plans. The apparent absence of a comprehensive business plan, with the

names of all donors and lenders, comes immediately to mind. How does Pakistan propose to fund the huge venture

of at least $12bn? The government is still looking around to complete a consortium of committed financiers, while

interested parties willing to invest in the costly project are concerned that a partnership o f public and private

entities including governments, banks, investors, lending agencies, etc. has yet to take shape. It is only the active

pursuance of such a plan that will send out the right signals so that even dithering financiers can shake off third-

party objections and place confidence in the government‘s intentions. Doubts have been cast on the capacity of the

authorities, right from the Planning Commission to the Ministry of Finance, to see the project through. But the cost

of not doing so can prove heavy for the country in the long run.


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London Olympics

August 13th, 2012

The curtain came down on the magnif icent London Olympics on Sunday with the United States of America and

China dominating the show, rather emphatically, followed by hosts Great Britain that finished third on the medals

table. Over 10,000 athletes from 204 countries participated in the extravaganza which was the third hosted by

London after the 1908 and 1948 editions. To the credit of the organisers, the Games were kept incident-free and,

for once, politics and terrorism took a backseat as the world focused on the triumphs and tears of sport. Michael

Phelps, arguably the greatest swimmer in history, soaked up the limelight as he ended his Olympic career with 22

medals, 18 of them gold. Usain Bolt of Jamaica was the other star: his unprecedented defence of his 100m and

200m sprint gold medals capped off with trademark exuberance and style. There were many others who did their

respective countries proud by reaching the podium and by entering the record books as the outstanding

sportspersons of their time.

The Games, however, were a sad reflection on the state of affairs in Pakistani sport. For a country of over 180

million people to not be able to fetch a single medal in the Olympic Games is shambolic. Even worse perhaps, it

was expected. The complete Pakistan contingent comprised just 20 athletes, 16 of which were hockey players, and

none could make the finals of their events. Following the dismal faring of the national contingent, there have been

calls for replacing people at the helm of sports federations, for better planning and incentives for athletes and uplift

of infrastructure. But so long as the will to excel and the determination to achieve something is lacking among the

athletes and officials, nothing will really alter the dismal status quo.

Makli degradation

August 14th, 2012

Owing in large part to the state‘s apathy, Pakistan‘s historical treasures are slowly crumbling. And if a change in

attitude does not come about immediately, we may soon be globally recognised as a country that neglects its

heritage. A report in this paper on Monday says the Sindh government may get some respite before the World

Heritage Committee adds the Makli necropolis in Thatta to the list of world heritage sites in danger. The authorities‘

optimism is based on recommendations made in a report based on the findings of a Unesco team that visited Makli

in May. Among the report‘s recommendations, it has been suggested that the necropolis‘s boundaries as well as a

buffer zone be identified, while the experts have also called for a conservation and management plan to save Makli

not only from the vagaries of nature, but also neglect by man. Meanwhile, according to earlier reports, a recently

deceased Sindhi poet was buried in the Chawkandi graveyard, despite there being a ban on fresh burials on the

site.

It has been noticed that ever since devolution, Sindh‘s heritage sites have fared worse than when they were under

the centre‘s watch. The Unesco report appears to reinforce this view. While it says that following devolution the

provincial government‘s administrative and technical capacity needs to be enhanced, it also adds that hardly

anything has been done to address the degradation of Makli. What should serve as a wake-up call is the

observation that damage and loss at the vast necropolis due to pilferage has reached ―colossal proportions‖. While

many may rightly ask if we deserve more time before Makli is listed as endangered — thanks to our own

negligence — the state should take this as a f inal warning. The recommendations of foreign experts are there; it‘s

just a matter of following procedure and more importantly, having the will and common sense to preserve heritage.


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Enabling talks

August 14th, 2012

Captured in Karachi in 2010 and kept in Pakistan despite requests from the Afghan government to hand him over,

Mullah Baradar has often been brought up as an example of Pakistan‘s real or perceived reluctance to cooperate

with Afghanistan and the US in facilitating talks with the Afghan Taliban. Reports appearing yesterday that Afghan

government representatives may have met the jailed Taliban commander in Pakistan add a new twist to this

narrative. It is always hard to determine exactly what is going on behind the scenes when it comes to Pakistan‘s

relations with Afghanistan and the US, particularly in the realm of counterterrorism and Taliban reconciliation, and

this report too has been met with denials from Kabul. And Mullah Baradar still remains in Pakistani custody. But if

true, these latest reports, along with the travel of Taliban leaders from Pakistan to Qatar earlier this year for talks

with the Americans, suggest that Pakistan is perhaps more willing to cooperate than is normally publicly

acknowledged by either Afghanistan or the US.

But the news about Baradar also raises some of the same questions that previous instances of contact with the

Taliban have: who speaks for the Taliban, and who will the Taliban talk to? For one, the level of Mullah Baradar‘s

influence over the Taliban at this point is an open question. Ultimately, it is Mullah Omar who calls the shots, and

his former deputy has been out of the game for two years now. Second, additional reports indicate that Mullah

Baradar did not seem particularly keen to talk to the Afghan government representatives. This is not new; Taliban

leaders have said they will not negotiate with the Karzai administration, which they consider a puppet regime

controlled by the US. Mullah Baradar‘s reported dismissal of his interlocutors would only confirm this.

It is unclear, then, how fruitful this contact was. But this is in line with previous reports about talks with the

Taliban, about which little seems clear or encouraging. The Qatar round of talks aimed at building confidence still

appears to be stalled. There is noise about a potential Pakistani operation in North Waziristan in response to

American pressure, and if that takes place it will likely have its own impact on the Taliban‘s willingness to

cooperate. And there are real limits to Pakistan‘s ability to bring truly inf luential Taliban leaders to the table. But it

is also important for Pakistan to do what it can and send the right signals to the world about its commitment to

stabilising the region. If it did arrange talks with Baradar, it moved in the right direction.

Egyptian transition

August 14th, 2012

Unless there is an unexpected backlash from generals addicted to power, Egypt‘s President Mohammad Morsi

seems to have succeeded in making his electoral power felt when he sacked the three services chiefs and retired

the all-powerful Field Marshal Mohammad Hussain Tantawi. Even though the latter and chief of staff of the armed

forces, Sami Anan, have been retained in the cabinet as advisers, Mr Morsi‘s decision constitutes a blow to the

military‘s power and an end to Mubarak remnants. Mr Morsi combined this move with the annulment of the

perverse decree which the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces issued on the eve of the presidential election.

The decree had limited the president‘s power barring him from controlling military affairs, and reserved budget -

making for Scaf which arrogated to itself the right to legislate. This reduced Mr Morsi to the position of a

ceremonial head of state. Sunday‘s decision will hopefully reverse the balance of state power and reduce the

military to its professional role.

While civilian ascension to supremacy was in the fitness of things, it was the situation in the Sinai that precipitated

the matter and seemed to have goaded Mr Morsi into action. The military felt humi-liated for the way the militants

attacked the Egyptian patrol guards, killing 16 soldiers and then attempting to cross into Israel. This focused world

attention on the civilian-military equation in Egypt and highlighted the generals‘ preoccupation with politics instead

of their profession. Field Marshal Tantawi and Gen Anan had both appeared invincible and managed to rule for a

year after Hosni Mubarak‘s overthrow. The Aug 5 incident in the Sinai undermined their position, and Mr Morsi

didn‘t hesitate to make use of it. In explaining his action to his people, Mr Morsi went out of his way to reassure

the army that he was not taking action against any institution, nor targeting any individual. Unless there is an

unexpected power struggle and the generals try to sneak back to power through unconstitutional means, Mr Morsi‘s

action could turn out to be seminal, for it is a logical consequence of the Arab Spring and heralds the establishment

of civilian supremacy deriving power from the people‘s mandate.


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Kayani’s remarks

August 15th, 2012

There was much that should be acknowledged, and much that was left unexplained, in Gen Kayani‘s Independence

Day speech at Kakul on Monday. The army chief made it clear that the fight against militancy and terrorism is

Pakistan‘s war and recognised that it involved fighting one‘s own people. These are important messages; there are

still many in Pakistan who think the country is only fighting other people‘s battles or that ‗foreign hands‘ are

responsible for violence in the country. By accepting that this is a Pakistani problem with a Pakistani solution, Gen

Kayani‘s speech marked a welcome change from the persecution complex and denial of responsibility that so often

colours both the state‘s and cit izens‘ discourse on militancy.

What the security establishment has yet to explain, though, is who the enemy is. And that has been unclear since

2001 and the ostensible reversal in Pakistan‘s security policy, when it appeared to join the global alliance in what

was then known as the war on terror. Is there a reason Hafiz Saeed is able to hold public rallies while Baitullah

Mehsud was considered an enemy, as is his successor, Hakeemullah Mehsud? Why are Baloch separatists picked up

while the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is able to get away with trying to eliminate the Shia Hazara community

there? What makes Mangal Bagh a target for the Pakistan military while members of the Haqqani network seek

shelter this side of the border? If the different approaches to these groups break down along the lines of militants

who act inside Pakistan versus those who could be useful for protecting Pakistani interests in the region or whose

targets lie outside the country, the security establishment should by now know better. For one, the activities of

potentially ‗useful‘ groups have created a host of foreign-policy issues for the country and provided a reason for

many outside the counry to turn us into an international pariah. But elements in some of these groups have also

turned inward.

It remains true, as Gen Kayani said, that law-enforcement is made more difficult by the weakness of the civilian

administration in parts of the country and by the lack of legislation designed to address a new age of militancy.

Without modifying the laws that govern admissible evidence and defining clearer rules of trial and detention, it will

continue to be difficult to put militants behind bars. But that is only part of the story. The other part is the

continuing lack of a clear position against armed militancy in all its forms, and of an outright rejection of the notion

of ‗good‘ or ‗useful‘ militants.

The impasse continues

August 15th, 2012

President Zardari used his Aug 14 speech to take a swipe at the judiciary, lamenting ―new forms of assault on the

constitution and parliament‖ though stopping short of directly mentioning the Supreme Court. Given that the

dogged pursuit by the court of the so-called Swiss letter directly only implicates the president himself, Mr Zardari‘s

comments could be seen as self-serving and partisan in the extreme. But that is a view likely to only be shared by

the staunchest supporters of the Supreme Court‘s incredible judicial activism. Set aside the debate on who is to be

blamed for the impasse between the judiciary and the PPP for a minute and examine the knock-on effect of politics

in a state of suspended animation as the country waits for the wheels of justice to trample another prime minister.

A government that at the best of times has been clumsy and indifferent to governance has since January — when

the NRO implementation case once again cast its shadow over politics — essentially operated with the head of

government having an uncertain lease of political life. Since neither Yousuf Raza Gilani nor Raja Pervez Ashraf will

be remembered by history as great administrators or policymakers, it‘s not hard to imagine the impact of leaving

them under the political guillotine for months on end.

The argument can and has been made that were it not for the government‘s stubbornness, the matter of the Swiss

letter would have been settled a long time ago and the government could have turned its attention to

strengthening institutions and serving the public — which is what the democratic project is supposed to deliver

here in Pakistan. The sins of commission and omission of the present government are well known. They definitely

do bear repeating — but within a political framework and at the time of an election. Quite simply, the continuity

and strengthening of the democratic project in Pakistan ought to be the lens through which the actions of all

institutions should be judged. Have the Supreme Court‘s actions strengthened the principle and practice of

democracy? Unhappily, the jury may not have to deliberate that question very long today.


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Local government

August 15th, 2012

The president‘s announcement that the local bodies system will be introduced in Fata next year is welcome and

should take the tribal areas one step closer to joining mainstream Pakistan. Yet it is fair to ask what the central

and provincial governments are doing to revive elected local bodies in the rest of the country. Pakistan has been

without representative local governments for about three years, and as things stand it is unl ikely that LG polls will

be held before next year‘s general election. The Sindh government has pleaded before the provincial high court

that it cannot hold polls for a number of reasons, while indications from Punjab are that the provincial government

wants to hold LG polls after the general election. Balochistan has also yet to set a date. In fact, Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa is the only province which has given a tentative time frame — October or November — for holding

polls.

In Fata it will take time to evolve a system. Though LG polls there would be a positive step, local councils will

initially only be introduced in major population centres. But in the rest of Pakistan the basic infrastructure of local

governance exists. It may be imperfect and in need of improvement, but it is there and if the political stakeholders

wish to make positive changes to it, they should do so through legislation instead of perpetually suspending the

system. The main issue, it seems, is that of having the political will to finalise legislation and announce a schedule

for local polls. Any petty considerations political parties may have — such as controlling local governments to

influence polling in general elections — should be dismissed so that people can have a representative set-up at the

local level. Laying the groundwork for a new system is commendable, but suspending an already working system

makes no sense.

Interim set-up

August 16th, 2012

Including the non-parliamentary opposition in the consultative process on the establishment of a caretaker set-up

to oversee general elections is a positive idea and should broaden the dialogue space. Speaking to Dawn on

Tuesday, Yousuf Raza Gilani said the ruling party had decided in principle to involve the Jamaat -i-Islami and

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in talks to decide on the establishment of a pre-election interim cabinet, and that

consultations would begin ―soon‖. Coming from a former prime minister, who is also the PPP‘s senior vice

chairman, the initiative deserves to be welcomed in a c risis-prone country that lacks strong constitutional

institutions and democratic traditions. The JI and the PTI should welcome the offer, because both of them have a

stake in the coming election and in the kind of set-up that will organise it. Even though these two parties boycotted

the 2008 election — and they may well be ruing their decision — both of late have been reaching out to the people

in a way that appears to give the impression of an election campaign. Their ideas and suggestions, therefore,

deserve to be heard and made part of the consensus on a truly neutral prime minister tasked with organising an

election whose transparency would not be questioned.

Against this background, opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan dwelt more on technicalities when he said

there was no need at this point for talks with the government because the 20th Amendment had clearly laid down

the procedure for choosing a caretaker set-up. Yet he said his party would hold consultations after Eid on the same

issue with opposition parties, including those outside parliament. If the 20th Amendment does not stand in the way

of the PML-N‘s talks with the PTI — despite the ―bitterness‖ he spoke of — there is no reason why it should stop his

party from talking to the government in an amicable manner to sort out an issue in which all parties have stakes.

What matters here is not so much the technicality of the constitutional procedure as the overriding need for

creating a tension-free atmosphere that would be conducive to the holding of a fair vote. The ease with which the

two leading parties agreed on a chief election commissioner should serve as a model in other matters, including the

choice of caretaker prime minister. For that reason, the opposition should respond positively to Prime Minister Raja

Pervez Ashraf ‘s offer of dialogue. Mr Ashraf said the aim behind his offer was to ensure an orderly transfer of power

and ―the supremacy of democracy‖.


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Telecom saga

August 16th, 2012

It's always easy to presume guilt, to shoot first and ask questions later. The National Accountability Bureau has

taken this easiest of all roads in its dealings with the Federal Board of Revenue and the telecoms on the question of

the alleged tax liability of Rs47bn that the FBR raised recently. Against a relatively routine application of executive

power contained in Section 65 of the Sales Tax Act of 1990, NAB took startling suo moto action in July, and placed

the names of three FBR officers on the Exit Control List. Then it summoned the telecom companies to ask why they

should not be liable for the relevant taxes, and tacitly accused both the telecom companies and certain FBR officials

of corrupt practices in trying to implement Section 65. The said section allows an FBR chairman to waive arrears

and penal charges on a tax liability that can be shown to be revenue neutral. This means that no additional tax

would accrue to the government were the liability to be implemented since it would be eligible for refund in any

case.

NAB claims that the powers of Section 65 cannot be wielded by the FBR chairman alone and that the notification

requires vetting by the law ministry first, which was not done in this case. Telecom representatives say they are

not a party to this dispute, which strictly speaking is between NAB and the FBR. They are offended at being

summoned to testify and to furnish explanations regarding the liability calculated by the FBR. It‘s puzzling to see

how NAB has allowed its intervention in the affair to grow, from originally taking notice of the failure of the FBR

chairman to get the law ministry to vet a routine notification, to asking the telecoms to provide explanations on

allegations of tax evasion. The mission of NAB itself raises questions. The public is entitled to ask what is really

going on. We believe that instead of getting so deeply involved in the matter, NAB should step aside and allow the

FBR or finance ministry to deal with it.

The award list

August 16th, 2012

In a list of 192 — the number of honours conferred by the Pakistani state on its landmark 65th birth anniversary —

there are names which appear worthy of celebration. Saadat Hasan Manto is one. He is a happy-sad reminder of

the progress Pakistan has made in over six decades of suppressed existence. He is a rebel who has not ceased to

bring out irony long after his departure, and justifies the cliché about a person bringing honour to an award. And

then Manto has not quite gotten over his habit of creating a little controversy. If he is the standard, other choices

may suffer in comparison and a long argument on merit may ensue — who else should get the award and who

should be made to wait a little longer to help the roll of honour retain or regain its brevity and prestige?

Medal choices, subjective as they are, are easier to defend in fields as open to interpretation as literature.

Gallantry, often proven at the cost of life or grievous hurt to a person, is another area where the choice is easier to

accept, sentiment being a vital ingredient that goes into the making of a medal. But there are still other selections

from other areas which must walk to the hall of fame with their stature over-politicised. The present government

loves to give out awards and has received its share of criticism for drawing heavily on the boxful o f decorations

reserved for its own people and allies. The president‘s Aug 14 list again includes some well-known government

functionaries among allies who could have perhaps been permitted a bit of modesty in office. As members of the

award-giving authority, they are liable to appear to be blowing their own trumpet. Their biggest award must come

not from the rulers but from the people.


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Airbase attack

August 17th, 2012

The attack on the air force base in Kamra has raised disturbing — and disturbingly familiar — questions. That only

one security personnel was killed as opposed to nine dead militants is only a small consolation: the first and

foremost question is, how were militants able to yet again inf iltrate a high-security armed services‘ base and

engage security forces inside for many hours? Given that some kind of military operation in North Waziristan

against at least the Pakistan-centric militants is in the offing, the possibility of pre-emptive strikes by the militants

is high. Had the warning of a blowback only been made at the policy level without it filtering down to the security

forces likely to be in the cross-hairs of the militants? Already, the very specific threat against PAF bases in Punjab

by the TTP in revenge for the killing of a militant leader earlier this month had been picked up by the intelligence

apparatus. Surely, then, at this stage of the fight against militancy, the security apparatus should be able to

repulse attacks on at least critical sites with more efficiency, particularly with both the circumstantial and direct

forewarning appearing to have been available.

As with previous attacks, the possibility of insider help to the militants in the assault on Kamra is also very high.

From sympathisers of radical Islamist thought to direct supporters of militant groups, the army appears to have a

militancy problem, the severity of which is hidden from the public because investigations and court martials are

often carried out in secret. The wider concern going forward ought to have the army‘s screening procedures: how

robust and effective is the surveillance and vetting of the armed forces‘ personnel to prevent an incident before it

happens? Clearly, as recent history suggests, not robust or effective enough — but what will it take for a more

serious and sustained effort? Finally, the question that has bedevilled the fight against militancy: when will the

state, both the army and the political government, drive home the message to the Pakistani public that the war is

real, it is against a radicalised fringe of Pakistan and that unless the war is fought with total commitment and

purpose, the state and society itself will spiral towards irreversible disaster? Gen Kayani‘s Independence Day

message contained the first strands of that message but it has to be sustained and spread to the farthest corners

of the country. The ones shouting ‗this isn‘t our war‘ — many on the political right — need to be countered, firmly

and unequivocally. Delay that battle any longer and the already manifold complications will grow yet more

complicated.

OIC’s Syria decision

August 17th, 2012

Besides adding to the Baathist regime‘s regional and international isolation, the suspension of Syria‘s membership

by the Organisation of Islamic Conference on Wednesday is unlikely to have much effect on the situation in the

Levant if the aim is peace. The 57-member bloc coupled the suspension with a call for the development of a

peaceful mechanism that would build ―a new Syrian state based on pluralism‖ and a ―democratic and civilian

system‖ — ideals that are in keeping with the spirit of the Arab Spring. However, ignoring the plea by Pakistan,

Algeria and Kazakhstan that the insurgents be also blamed for the bloodshed, the 57-member body‘s f inal

statement said the ―princ ipal responsibility‖ for the f ighting lay with the government of President Bashar Al-Assad.

The statement coincided with a UN report which said there were ―reasonable grounds‖ to believe that both

government forces and the rebels had committed war crimes and ―gross violations‖ of human rights, including

―unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence, pillaging and destruction of property‖.

Unless there is an agreement on a ceasefire, the Syrian conflict, which has led to 20,000 dead, could expand.

Lebanon is already in a state of tension and fear, with reports that four Arab countries have asked their nationals

to leave the country following a string of abductions of some Sunnis by a Shia group. The OIC and the Arab

League, which suspended Syria‘s membership last year, ought to have a uniform policy on dissent in Muslim

countries. Their attitudes towards Bahrain, for instance, are in sharp contrast with their Syria policies. While in the

former case the Gulf Cooperation Council sent troops to crush the uprising and save the monarchy, in the case of

Libya and Syria they have pursued an active regime-change strategy. What happens if tomorrow there is a

democratic stir in Arab monarchies, some of which have not given their people even a semblance of constitutional

rule? The Syrian situation deserves to be addressed with all sincerity, but as Pakistan‘s foreign minister said at the

recent Tehran moot, moves that could lead to foreign intervention need to be avoided.


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Less aggressive now?

August 17th, 2012

Droplets of light rising from candles are gradually taking effect at Wagah. They are a metaphor for a future that

must be explored and discovered, a vindication for the activists who are so often blamed for taking Pak-India peace

as little more than a holiday trip. The light as a people‘s collective offers a mild, soothing contrast to the

thunderous war theatrics the border between Pakistan and India is famous for. The two have learnt to coexist. In

fact, the battle routine the soldiers so proudly display each evening at the lowering of the Pakistani and Indian

flags amid nationalist chants by the crowd gathered there is undergoing modifications. A dialogue has been opened

to rid the drill of some of its more offensive gestures. Sold iers are talking, enabled by the new mood the peace

activists have helped shape.

Gathering on either side of Wagah each year for a joint celebration of the Independence Day, peace activists have

themselves come some distance. They were berated and threatened with isolation when they first decided to hold

the border candle vigil some years ago. Today, the trends have changed sufficiently enough for the media to give a

positive spin to the talks that have in recent past been held to make the border drill less aggressive, and to not

miss the ceremonial exchange of sweets between the soldiers of the two countries. It appears, and appears so

vividly on the television screen, that the old prediction about peace having a market in the subcontinent has also

been vindicated. Tensions sell, too, and it is not that the issues have been resolved and a friendship bond

established forever. There will always be some matters pending — even if the alternative route to resolution is lit

up for more and more people to see and traverse.

Shia killings on the rise

August 18th, 2012

Thursday‘s execution-style killing of Shia citizens in Mansehra district and the killing of Hazaras in Quetta were only

the latest incidents in what is now a clear trend: targeting innocent members of the sect — not necessarily

members of any political or religious organisation — and killing them for no reason other than their religious

affiliation. The Mansehra attack had a particularly disturbing aspect to it, with passengers made to show their

identity papers and those suspected of being Shia, on the basis of their names or tribal affiliations, being picked

out and killed. Like other recent sectarian killings in Balochistan, Kohistan and Orakzai, the approach used

resembled ethnic cleansing in its chilling focus on identifying and killing innocent citizens simply because of their

membership to a particular community. And while the Hazara community under attack in Balochistan is relatively

small and powerless, the same is not true of Shia communities elsewhere in the country. If not arrested, this trend

could well spiral out of control, turning the issue into a much larger conflict.

Meanwhile, where is the outrage from the security forces and politicians? We know these groups are willing to

launch aggressive messaging campaigns when they wish to. Take, for example, the army‘s response to Salala, the

PML-N‘s reaction to the government‘s refusal to write the ‗Swiss letter‘, the ruling party‘s defensive posture on

threats to democracy or the PTI‘s campaign against drone strikes. And while it is unclear what judicial activism can

achieve in such cases beyond raising their prof ile, where is the judiciary that otherwise takes suo moto notice of

everything from the price of sugar to violence in Karachi? As each of these groups tries to focus on topics they

think will boost their populist or nationalist credentials, the campaign to eradicate a minority community continues

to receive less official attention than it should.

Beyond the messaging failure, little appears to have been done to confront the physical danger. Providing security

escorts to pilgrims‘ buses and changing the routes Shia travellers take has not been enough. Whether combating

the problem is a matter of improving intelligence-gathering to prevent attacks, pre-emptively going after the

groups that are carrying them out, improving policing in vulnerable areas or other intelligence or security

measures, further delays are inexcusable. The state needs to demonstrate what it is doing to combat this threat. If

not, Pakistan may as well give up any pretence of being a state for anyone other than its majority religious

community.


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Zia’s legacy

August 18th, 2012

Precious little happens in Pakistan that cannot be traced to the man who ruled over this country for 11 dark years

of its existence. On the morning of Aug 17, exactly 24 years after his death, Gen Ziaul Haq‘s presence was felt all

the more poignantly. ‗Terrorists attack Kamra airbase‘, ‗19 pulled out of buses, shot dead in sectarian attack‘ at

Babusar Top, ‗Zardari seeks Muslim countries‘ assistance‘ on Afghanistan. Rulers either side of Zia have contributed

to this mad, unending dance of death that Pakistanis have been subjected to. But while the dictator may have

found the soil fertile for cultivating his brand of hatred, he was so thorough in his execution of the self-assigned job

and so heartlessly committed to his creed that he ensured that generations after him will find it impossible to

escape his influence.

Zia‘s figure looms large over a Pakistan where, ostensibly, no popular political party stands by his ideals — just as

none has dared to declare a war against his legacy. The parties which he fathered, and the ones which were born

of circumstances of his making, have all turned their back on their mentor. Yet, the ghosts of intolerance the

general let loose on society with a ferocity previously unseen are not only very much around and kicking, they have

spread far and wide and today use various disguises. Zia used Islam, originally, as a t ool to secure the moral high

ground against the politicians he had thrown out and that tool later became his convenient ideology, a justification

for his rule. Most dangerously in the present context, he played an able facilitator to a process which was destined

to superimpose the interests of the people of the country with the perceived interests of the Islamic ‗millat‘.

Inevitably, this was a prelude to a long, violent campaign for the hegemony of an interpretation, a sect over

others. This cannot be effectively countered unless those who now disown Zia — and this includes almost all

political parties here — gather the courage to actively fight his legacy. The standard catharsis through Zia-bashing

will not be enough.

Stock market rally

August 18th, 2012

The Karachi stock market‘s recent spectacular gains have left some feeling giddy. The sharp increases amid

economic and political gloom are bringing back memories of 2008, when the market shot through the roof in a

similar situation. Brokers are quick to remind us that this time things are different. Some point to ‗healthy profits‘

being made, and the expectation of equally healthy dividend payouts. Others say that in 2008 leverage was strong,

much of the investment in stocks was through borrowed money, and this time that favoured instrument of

borrowing, ‗badla‘ in brokers‘ lingo, is outlawed. Others point to the higher-than-expected interest rate cut by the

State Bank, saying that the money saved from debt-servicing cost will be available for shareholders instead.

Yet there is good reason to be cautious. It is worth recalling that the same brokers hyping up the present rally

were also hyping up the 2008 rally till the very end. Indeed, it is a rarity to meet a stockbroker sceptical of these

rallies, a fact that inspires scepticism itself. Pakistan‘s stock markets are famous for the ‗suckers‘ rallies‘ and in

every case, it is the small investor who loses at the end. Some of the claims made by the brokers do indeed ring

true. It‘s particularly important to note that this time round there are no specialised ‗business‘ TV channels

cheerleading the rally, and announcing dubious news with an eye to inf luencing investor behaviour on the trade

floor. Most of the rally thus far has been centred on what they call ‗penny stocks‘, small outfits that nobody had

heard of until recently. It is hard to see how fundamentals are driving this surge, and small investors would be well

advised to exercise caution. This could easily be another bull run that leads straight to the abattoir.


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Pakistan’s own war

August 19th, 2012

Will we or won‘t we? Or is it a question of not if, but when? The mixed messages that have been emerging from

the Pakistani and American security and foreign policy establishments about an operation in North Waziristan leave

these questions unanswered. But the ISPR statement on the recent visit of the American military‘s regional chief

makes one thing clear: at the moment, at least, the Pakistani security establishment is more concerned about

declaring its independence in the face of American pressure and denying the possibility of American boots on the

ground than it is about building its own case for going into North Waziristan.

But that tribal agency is now a bigger problem for Pakistan than it is for the Americans. Not just a possible

launching pad for Haqqani network attacks in Afghanistan, it is a refuge and training and planning ground for a

number of groups whose attacks and criminal activities are carried out on Pakistani territory. The military

leadership has been pointing out in recent days that any operation there will require political backing, which is

another way of saying that public sentiment in favour of it would have to be drummed up. Such support has been

created before, most notably for the Swat operation in 2009. And for North Waziristan, the case could not be easier

to make. Reports are emerging that those who attacked the airbase in Kamra may have been trained in North

Waziristan. Hafiz Gul Bahadur has banned polio vaccinations there. The Bannu jailbreak has been linked to the

agency. Security forces posted there continue to be targeted. And these are just a handful of examples; as home

to militant groups squeezed out of other tribal agencies, the agency has become a major source of instability at

home.

Why, then, the focus on America instead? Maybe establishing that the operation will not be dictated by the US was

a strategic move, an initial, and perhaps required, public -relations step before laying out Pakistan‘s own reasons.

And Gen Kayani took an important step on Aug 14 when he declared in general terms that the war is Pakistan‘s

own, and that it has to be fought. But if the decision to go into North Waziristan has essentially been made, it is

time to start focusing publicly on our own reasons for doing so. The agency has been left to its own devices for far

too long, and there is no shortage of arguments on the basis of which Pakistanis can be convinced that the area

poses a security threat to their own country that should no longer be ignored.

For improved security

August 19th, 2012

Over the years, militant groups in the country have diversified their modus operandi. The country‘s law -

enforcement machinery, however, has not kept pace and has been unable to adequately contain the myriad threats

from various quarters. It has not been able to come up with innovations in security procedures despite clear

evidence that they are urgently needed. Consider, for example, the growing number of incidents in which militants

have dressed in uniforms used by security personnel to either ease their way to the outer cordons of secure

installations or to wield an air of authority that initially masks their intent. Just a few days ago, Shia passengers in

four buses were shot dead in Mansehra by terrorists in commando uniforms. In Kohistan in February, on a similar

attack on Shia bus passengers, the gunmen were also in military uniform, as were the militants who in October

2009 attacked GHQ in Rawalpindi.

Pakistan has laws regarding the impersonation of police- and servicemen, but more active measures need to be put

in place. At the moment, a police or army uniform can be obtained from the market with relative ease. This access

can be denied by ensuring that the material used for the uniforms is not easily available. True, there has been

some effort by the state to ensure that its security personnel are not confused with others, and it has directed

private security firms to use noticeably different uniforms. Even that requirement, however, is violated but the

state takes no action. Another easily addressed deficiency in routine security, for example, is the absence in many

places of checking entry passes and credentials against a computerised or other database so that forged

documents can be detected. This would be especially useful in outer cordons of security, which is what terrorists

try to penetrate and where low-ranking servicemen are an easy target. Changing times require changing methods,

and the efficacy of relatively simple methods should not be underestimated. Restricting the space in which

terrorists and militants currently operate with impunity is key to the endeavour of regaining control of the country‘s


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security.

Moon-gazers

August 19th, 2012

Come the eve of Eid and the conversations focus, as always, around the ability of religious scholars to somehow

sight the moon — even when the possibility of doing so is dim. The explanations for wanting Eid on a particular day

may vary, but the most common of these pertain to a desire to see the entire Pakistani nation celebrate the festival

together. One country-many Eids feeds not just jokes but also a never-ending lament which casts Pakistan as an

irreconcilable land of cynics, sects and hastier-than-thou types. Yet, amid all these currents, a much simpler, purer,

reason remains: the old, child-like excitement at finding something suddenly, which has people urging on the

celebrated maulana in his suspense-filled discovery mission. More exciting are those Eids that beckon suddenly and

the best are those that bring the child to the fore. The problem is, it is the respected elders who are forever holding

the reins.

We have often been told about the political side of the Ruet -i-Hilal Committee, just as we know the scholars

collected at various rooftops for the moon-sighting ceremony are fulfilling a religious requirement when they ask

for trustworthy witnesses to decide the issue. The question quite often is who is trustworthy and who is not and the

debate that stems from this can be unsavoury. Even Saudi Arabia, which uses science to facilitate a loose prefixing

of the Islamic calendar mainly for official purposes, is ultimately beholden to the ‗shahadat‘ or the evidence of a

few individuals for the f inal decision. The difference is that elsewhere the effort to evolve a more dependable, less

confusing system is much more pronounced than it is in Pakistan. Once the focus is right and a way out is

earnestly sought, the vision clears. The sky is the limit.

Electoral rolls

August 20th, 2012

The Election Commission of Pakistan has issued ads in the print media urging people to check if their names are on

the 2012 final electoral rolls and to make corrections if there are errors in the data. The rolls have been placed in

the offices of the district election commissioners for verif ication. Essentially, the responsibility of verification has

been placed on the citizen. This is where political parties need to step in and mobilise voters to register and verify.

In a related development, Nadra says 96 per cent of adults in Pakistan — 92 million people — have been issued

CNICs. This figure is significant considering voter registration is linked to possessing an identity card. As per the

ECP‘s figures there are just over 84 million registered voters in the country. Hence both the ECP and Nadra must

clarify the difference between the number of registered voters and the official figures for those possessing CNICs.

The numbers game has created a controversy, with independent claims that up to 20 million voters have not been

registered. What lies at the root of this problem is the absence of up-to-date population data in the country. Giving

population projections is not Nadra or the Election Commission‘s job. Hence the confusion over the number of

voters is a reminder of why a credible, controversy-free census is important. It is essential that a reliable data pool

— and not mere estimates — is available so that national exercises, such as finalisation of the voters‘ list, are

carried out in a non-controversial fashion.

But perhaps the key points that need to be addressed are the registration of citizens and their access in order to

facilitate registration and verif ication. If these two areas are worked on the gap between the official number of

voters and the millions who have reportedly been left out could be narrowed. But at the same time, it should be

remembered that a large number of CNICs are issued every month, and the ECP must keep pace with the

increasing number of newly enfranchised citizens until the announcement of the election schedule. The suggestion

that verification take place at the local level should be considered as it is difficult and expensive for people to travel

to district headquarters, especially for those living in remote areas. Along with the print campaign, public-

awareness messages regarding the voters‘ list need to be broadcast in the electronic media in Urdu and regional

languages. A sustained effort is required by all stakeholders to make the voters‘ list as error-free as possible to

pave the way for free and fair polls.


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A blighted generation

August 20th, 2012

The children of Pakistan face many odds. From malnutrition to exposure to various forms of violence to diseases as

debilitating as polio, the younger generation has to contend with a host of extraordinary challenges. For children

living on the streets the risks are even greater, and including substance abuse and routine sexual violence. And as

a recent report in this paper indicated, the threat of an HIV epidemic amongst street children is an emerging

concern. According to health officials in Sindh, six out of 10 drug-using street children registered with a Karachi-

based NGO were found to be HIV-positive. This may ref lect a bigger trend. The children had been using

contaminated needles or were sexually abused. HIV is prevalent amongst injecting drug users and sex workers in

the country. Because street children are exposed to drugs and sexual predators, this creates an extremely

vulnerable sub-group likely to be infected with HIV. Meanwhile, according to recent figures released by the NGO

Madadgaar Helpline, over 2,300 children across Pakistan were subjected to different types of violence in the first

half of this year. These included cases — only those reported — of rape, torture and murder.

As in other areas, after devolution it is the provinces‘ duty to pass laws concerning children‘s welfare. But barring a

few exceptions, there has been a lack of intent and capacity at the provincial level to pass and implement laws to

protect children. For example, Karachi, which observers estimate has a population of thousands of street children,

does not have even a single state-operated rehabilitation home for the young ones. Only a few private concerns

are making efforts in this regard. The fac t is legislation is only a first step. What is needed most is compassion at

the societal level for vulnerable children and the realisation that children have inviolable rights; rights that society

denies them in a brutal fashion. Even the best laws are use less if not implemented. Until society reforms itself and

the state moves beyond rhetoric and takes practical steps for the rehabilitation and welfare of children, we will only

be bequeathing misery to the next generation.

Railway projects

August 20th, 2012

The government, it seems, is slowly realising the importance of reviving the collapsing Pakistan Railways to provide

better, decent travel facilities. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council has approved different

railway projects costing Rs287bn. A major chunk of the funds — Rs246bn — will be spent on reviving the Karachi

Circular Railway. KCR‘s revival was actually planned in 2006, but the lack of funds delayed its implementation. Now

that Japan has agreed to lend money, its complet ion will help unclog the city‘s roads. The remaining funds will be

used for procuring locomotives, high-capacity bogies and high-speed power vans as well as for repairing the

existing 150 diesel engines and the mechanisation of the track maintenance pilot project.

All these projects are being executed after a lag of four years, not least because of f inancial constraints. The

railway has been in dire straits for several years now. Only 76 locomotives out of 520 are in operational condition

for want of repair and maintenance. The number of passenger trains being run today has been cut to just 65-70

from 204. Freight services have virtually been shut down. Several factors ranging from corruption to overstaffing to

inefficient management are to blame for the collapse of the service. However, the lack of funds in recent years is

mainly responsible for the decrease in PR operations. It was after much delay that the government arranged a loan

of Rs6bn a few months back for the department to purchase new coaches, ma ke a few locomotives operational and

pay off part of the department‘s overdraft of Rs42bn to prevent a complete shutdown. While the provision of the

new funds should help the railways pull back from the brink, the government needs to implement a long-term

strategy for its revival by involving private investors capable of running it on modern business lines.


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Immobile communication

August 23rd, 2012

This year‘s chaand raat will be remembered not for record sales or carefree crowds. Instead, it will be looked upon

as a social experiment in a country that is both more technological and less secure than it used to be. What

happens when a public dependent on mobile communication is confronted with a mobile network shutdown in the

country‘s biggest cities on one of the busiest and most festive nights of the year? On the upside, smart -phone

addicts looked up from their devices and were forced into human interaction and Pakistanis avoided having to deal

with mass Eid Mubarak text messages clogging their cellphones. But they probably couldn‘t greet their relatives

abroad, coordinate with family members in crowded shopping centres or make plans for Eid day. It was a

traditional festival upended instead of enhanced by our dependence on technology.

On a graver note, a cellphone shutdown today cannot be taken lightly. It may well have been a necessary step to

take in the face of terrorist threats that rely on these phones for coordination and as bomb triggers. But a move

like this on such a busy night needs to come with effective public messa-ging. With little forewar-ning, imperfect

communication about the shutdown once it had begun and the public‘s inability to use phones to confirm what was

happening, panic was the immediate result. Even after television offered some information, the vague indication of

security threats created rather than eased concern. And there was no public awareness about how to get help in

case of a medical or other emergency.

This may not be the last time Pakistani authorities need to take such an extreme step for security reasons (though

that shouldn‘t become an excuse for misusing this preventive measure, by jamming mobile communication during

public protests, for example). And there is only so much information about threats and steps take n that can be

released without defeating the purpose.

But the public also needs to be informed, in advance, about how to communicate with the authorities during a

shutdown in case of emergencies and about the importance of maintaining landlines. There also needs to be as

much forewarning and explanation as possible without giving away too much. There are now few occasions of such

public celebration in Pakistan, and even fewer that unite the whole country. Even as we struggle with terrorism and

militancy, somehow we have to find a way to preserve the moments of celebration we have left.

Blasphemy law

August 23rd, 2012

Once again Pakistan finds itself highlighted in the international press for the most unsavoury of reasons. The issue,

the infamous ‗blasphemy law‘ or Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, and the misuse to which it lends itself

quite regularly now, is far from new. Public discourse was stirred even before the case of Aasia Bibi who was

convicted of blasphemy in 2010, and there was some hope that a reconsideration of the law would become

possible. Unfortunately, the matter has been allowed to die down, not least because of the fear of a hostile reaction

from extremists and other quarters, and especially after the killing of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011.

Now, yet another person has been accused of committing ‗blasphemy‘. The 11-year-old girl, a member of the

impoverished Christian community that lives in the rural areas around Islamabad, is said to be mentally

challenged. Following allegations that the child desecrated religious texts, human rights activists have said that a

number of Christian families from her area have fled, no doubt in fear of bloody reprisals.

Section 295-C in its current form can mistakenly or wilfully be used to do serious harm. The PPP government,

which has been virtually silent on the issue since Mr Taseer‘s assassination last year, has been unable to deal with

the issue forcefully. True, President Asif Ali Zardari has taken ‗serious note‘ of the incident and has sought a report

from the interior ministry but this is hardly enough. Far more effort is needed to overcome the resistance to a

review of this law. It is unfortunate that much of this resistance comes from ordinary Pakistanis whose emotions

are easily stirred to the point of boiling rage at the mere suspicion of blasphemy. The existence of this law only

implies tacit support for the actions of enraged rabbles. In the case of the 11-year-old, the police station where she

was kept after being taken into custody was surrounded by a mob comprising hundreds of angry men demanding

she be tried for blasphemy. Such hurdles must be overcome. The call for a review of Section 295-C needs to be


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renewed and the right-wing lobby which has in the past threatened or resorted to violence in this regard needs

reminding that the law is man-made.

Yet more drone strikes

August 23rd, 2012

Coinciding with the visit of US Centcom chief Gen James Mattis to Pakistan last week, there has been a marked

increase in drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency. A strike was conducted on Tuesday while two drone attacks

were reported on Sunday.

Saturday — the day Eid was celebrated in the agency — also saw a drone strike. There are indications that in one

of the strikes missiles were fired at the same compound twice, as people undertook rescue work after an earlier

attack. According to reports, such ‗double-tap‘ attacks, in which those arriving at the scene of a drone strike are

also targeted, seem to be becoming a routine part of America‘s drone policy.

Unfortunately, targeting gatherings in tribal areas under the assumption that all present are militants or their

sympathisers is problematic, especially if there is no clear evidence to prove their identity. In the aftermath of the

recent barrage of drone strikes, such evidence has yet to be produced. This, and the sheer insensitivity of timing

the attacks to coincide with the Eid season will only alienate an anti-American public further. What also fuels anger

is that such unilateral strikes by the US violate the principles of sovereignty. Even if the US can come up with

irrefutable evidence that the strikes have taken out dangerous militants, drone operations must involve Pakistani

coordination and consensus. Trigger-happy strikes will do no more than aggravate the crisis and sour an already

un-easy relationship. Without doubt, North Waziristan is a hub of militants and terrorists of every stripe who

threaten the security of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a crackdown in the area by Pakistani forces is

imperative. But no military operation will be helped by the US blindly — and unilaterally — raining down drones on

the agency.

Banning prepaid service

August 24th, 2012

Blocking cellphone service on chaand raat was a temporary and hopefully rare step. And making greater efforts to

ensure that fake identities are not used to obtain SIMs is important. But the interior minister‘s suggestion that it

might make sense to shut down prepaid subscriptions altogether for security reasons — a plan he said is under

review — is both carelessly communicated and fundamentally flawed. Of the country‘s roughly 120 million

subscribers, the vast majority — over 95 per cent — use prepaid SIMs. Aside from the convenience of obtaining

them, these are more affordable for those who can‘t afford the fees and deposits of postpaid plans. The lack of

credit histories in Pakistan also means that moving to a largely postpaid set -up is still a distant prospect and that

such plans will only include higher-income consumers for the foreseeable future. Any move to shut down prepaid

service, then, would have serious consequences not just for the telecom industry but also for the ability of

Pakistanis to communicate, which would impact both their personal lives and the nat ional economy.

Some useful steps have already been taken and can be improved instead of taking extreme measures. PTA and

telecom companies have run a campaign to encourage users to determine if their CNIC numbers have been used to

issue multiple SIMs.

But the current process for getting those SIMs deactivated is an onerous one for consumers, and the campaign

should not have been set aside after one round of publicity. Shopkeepers issuing SIMs are now meant to register

customers‘ CNICs with the phone numbers issued, following which customers call their operators and confirm their

CNIC numbers to activate their connections. But to what extent shopkeepers undertake this exercise honestly is an

open question, and perhaps SIM sales need to be limited to telecom company outlets. Whatever the case, any

steps should be constructive rather than damaging and need to be considered carefully. Already Pakistanis in many

parts of the country live with check points, traffic diversions, the proliferation of guns and the c urtailment of public

entertainment. Mobile communication has been one of the few developments that have increased freedom of

movement and stimulated the economy, and the authorities need to find creative ways to prevent it from being


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hijacked for criminal activities rather than shutting it down entirely. The wrong approach to security concerns is to

constrain everyday lives to the point where fear overrides basic freedoms.

Before disaster strikes

August 24th, 2012

It is customary in Pakistan to wait for disaster to strike and then look at ways to manage the situation. That is

what we seem to be gearing up for in terms of this year‘s monsoon too. After rapidly changing weather patterns

led to forecasts that varied all the way from warnings of disastrous f loods to those of drought, a clearer picture has

now started emerging: if the current weather conditions prevail, there is a risk of moderate floods, especially in

Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Rain-related tragedies have already occurred, with flash floods claiming several

lives in Nowshera, Mansehra and Bajaur Agency, and hundreds of acres of agricultural land have been submerged

in the Sialkot region. In Azad Kashmir, meanwhile, relentless rain over the week has displaced thousands of

people. With memories of the catastrophic floods of 2010 and 2011 still fresh in our memory — and many of those

affected still not fully rehabilitated — we can be forgiven for regarding this year‘s monsoon with foreboding.

What, then, is officialdom doing to mitigate disaster should it strike? The National Disaster Management Authority

has said that district management authorities have been placed on alert and are working round-the-clock. Such

vague assurances, however, will not go very far in terms of easing people‘s worry and bolstering their faith in the

state‘s ability to protect them should the need arise. It would be useful if information could be released about

which water courses have been cleared to carry extra load, for example, or whether those living along river and

canal banks have been warned or plans made for their evacuation. Has the administration formulated a plan as to

where, should the worst occur, displaced people will be accommodated? Too many fear that as in years past, they

might be left to fend for themselves as the state machinery struggles to cope. Interventions are needed not just in

the northern parts of the country, which are likely to see heavier rain, but also in the south through which the

waters would pass. The government still has time to make adequate preparations for a calamity that cannot be

ruled out.

Lahore-Paris-Lahore

August 24th, 2012

Around the world in 80 days? That is old stuff. How about Lahore-Paris-Lahore in the blink of an eye or even less?

Doing the first sector alone would be a dream flight for some. Doze off during take-off, sleep through the flight,

wake up after landing. In the case of a certain traveller on a PIA plane to Paris, the dream turned out to be twice

as good. She failed to disembark at the destination, apparently sleeping through the two-hour stay at Charles de

Gaulle, and returned to Lahore as the plane completed its round trip.

PIA is not averse to offering those who fly it similar round-trip services without them having to get off, even if

mostly on domestic routes. But this journey was long, and involved something as tedious and inescapable as

immigration. Given the distance and the undeniable charm of a Parisian reception, this could well serve as yet the

strongest vindication of the Lahoris‘ claim about the magnetic powers of their city: once you are here, there is no

running away from Lahore.

The only matter this leaves us to deal with includes the mundane details about an instance that the cliché-happy

must describe as a ‗wake-up call‘ of some sort. PIA has been prompt in announcing that, apart from voluntary

alighting whenever possible, a subcontractor is responsible for disembarkation at Paris. It managed to resend the

returned passenger by another airline and says those found guilty of the oversight w ill have to foot the bill for the

extra Paris-Lahore leg. That‘s all okay but with a bit of imagination, the national carrier could use the incident as an

advertisement for greater business. Which airline in this highly competitive and often bumpy world is so caring and

comfortable that it makes the travellers go into a deep slumber that they don‘t want to come out of too soon? No

prizes for guessing.


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Intertwined paths

August 25th, 2012

Every trite analogy has been attempted. Pakistan and the US are a couple trapped in a bad marriage. Pakistan and

the US are emotional friends who cannot quite believe the other has let them down over and over again. Pakistan

and the US are frustrated and sullen partners who blame each other for the major failings in t heir own lives. But

perhaps the explanation closest to reality comes from within the world of international relations: Pakistan and the

US have diverging interests as defined by their respective national-security establishments, but circumstances

dictate that the two countries cannot go their separate ways. Which is why they clash so frequently — another

démarche against drone strikes was handed over by the foreign ministry to the US embassy in Islamabad on

Thursday, for example — but never quite manage to break off all ties — the Glocs-cum-apology deal took many

months to resolve but few ever doubted that a deal would eventually be reached.

For the US, Pakistan, in the ultimate analysis, matters for four reasons: the war in Afghanistan has to be wound

down and a modicum of post-war stability established, in which Pakistan will have a major role to play either as

facilitator or spoiler; Pakistan has a large Muslim population that is important to America‘s relations with the

Muslim world; Pakistan has nuclear weapons; and Pakistan has groups of terrorists and militants with anti-West

agendas. None of those reasons are positive. There is no promising trade or common security opportunity that the

US is hoping to take advantage of through better relations with Pa kistan. It is a fear-based relationship — if not

handled properly, to what extent can Pakistan undermine US national interests? — and that fear has only grown in

recent years. The pragmatism that underpins the approach, however (engagement may not have worked terribly

well but isolation of Pakistan will provide no answers either, according to inf luential policy circles in the US),

ensures that fear has not spilled over into irrational behaviour. But as the need for an orderly exit from Afghanistan

becomes more pressing, there‘s every possibility that fresh tensions between Pakistan and the US will erupt and

may not be managed well in the compressed exit timeline.

On the Pakistani side, there is an unspoken consensus across the military and civilian divide that when push comes

to shove, Pakistan cannot afford, economically or diplomatically, to cut off ties with the US and by extension with

the outside world. While that ought to be the starting point, it is rarely carried through to its logical conclusion: do

what is right and necessary to keep Pakistan stable and secure.

Tax evaders

August 25th, 2012

For all the fuss they are capable of making, our business elite can turn stingy with their words when it comes to the

question of taxes. As an example consider a report in this paper that although 493,000 electricity connections were

granted to industrial establishments in Karachi, only 115,000 commercial, business and industrial taxpayers were

registered with the tax authorities. Unfortunately, that is not all. Out of these 115,000 only 80,000 were ‗active

cases‘, meaning those who actually contributed to tax revenue. Of course if similar data were to be retrieved from

power companies up-country, they would show similar trends, perhaps even more pronounced.

Consider, for instance, what happened when a World Bank report plotted tax-to-GDP ratios for 24 different sectors

across the economy. They found oil and gas sitting at the top and textiles at the bottom. In fact, for textiles the

ratio was below the sector‘s share in total GDP and below even those of retail and wholesale trade, agriculture,

public administration, and defence. All of these are notorious for their evasion of taxes, and below them all merrily

sits the largest manufacturing sector of our economy. Terms like ‗fat cat‘ readily come to mind as we look at these

numbers. In the fiscal year ended June 2011, the spinning sector raked in record prof its on the back of high cotton

prices, but none of the money showed up in corporate income taxes from the sect or. Examples are too numerous

to cite, but our business elite need to show some remorse, if only for the fact that they drive imported luxury cars

to the very events where they loudly bemoan the difficulties of doing business in Pakistan and demand more

support from the government. It would do them good to notice the ordinary masses riding in rickety vehicles and

to tell themselves that it is revenue collected from these people that pays for the benefits and protections they

seek. For all the feasts they‘ve enjoyed at public expense, can we at least ask for a little shame in return?


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Crying wolf

August 25th, 2012

It is a sad reflection on society when people make a habit of abusing emergency response services. According to a

recent report in this paper, around 90 per cent of calls made to the police‘s 15 helpline in Karachi in 2011 were

bogus. However, the problem of prank calls is not exclusive to Karachi, as there have been reports in the past

citing abuse by pranksters of the 1122 rescue services numbe r in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar. In fact even

developed nations are plagued with this problem; callers to the 911 service in the US, for example, often lodge

trivial, bizarre complaints.

Considering the sheer volume of prank calls received — hundreds of thousands yearly in Karachi‘s case alone — it

is practically impossible for the police to track down every prankster.

Instead, the state should focus on launching nationwide public -awareness campaigns to make people aware of the

utility of emergency response numbers and to warn them that calling these numbers unnecessarily or for

entertainment can endanger the lives of those who need immediate help. While there have been some legitimate

complaints of lethargic responses by police, when pranksters clog up the lines and engage emergency responders,

genuine callers may be unable to get through or receive a delayed response. Meanwhile, the staff shortage at 15

centres needs to be addressed and the number of response centres and vehicles increased, especially in Karachi,

so that emergencies can be effectively handled. While the state needs to stay alert and respond to crime and

emergency situations in a timely and effective manner, the public must also realise that emergency services are for

the common good and that people‘s lives should not be jeopardised by treating emergency helplines as a joke.

Commission snags

August 26th, 2012

The parliamentary commission for the creation of new provinces in Punjab has run into hurdles that were not

entirely unexpected. The PML-N has reservations, which the government must address urgently to avoid further

complications. The PML-N wants the strength of the commission to be increased and members of its choice

included. Before and above that, it speaks of discrimination. On Friday, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif reiterated the

exercise should not be limited to Punjab. He demanded that a Punjab Assembly resolution, presented by his party

some time ago, should be the basis of all steps taken towards the Seraiki and Bahawalpur provinces.

The demand for a Seraiki province will have far-reaching effects all over Pakistan. Mr Sharif understands this all too

well. The principle having been set, the problem here is he does not have the presence in other provinces to justify

any desire to act as their spokesman. It is for the people and their elected representatives in an area to voice their

aspirations and they are aware enough not to be dependent on distant urges for charting their future. The people

in the southern parts of Punjab spoke through their representatives and Chief Minister Sharif ‘s mention of the

provincial assembly resolution is proof enough that his party had committed itself to the creation of new provinces.

This is not discrimination.

Just as the PPP sees merit and mileage in intensifying the campaign for a new province at this moment, Mr Sharif ‘s

current emphasis on the theme of Punjab as a victim stems from his political needs. His party may have in the past

agreed to the idea of new provinces in Punjab, but with everyone anticipating a general election it would appear to

be unbecoming of a leader of Mr Sharif ‘s stature to be talking about a division of territory officially under his

command. That could dent the PML-N vote bank everywhere. The N-League‘s tagging of itself with the judiciary on

virtually every issue is another habit that has become a plank in the party‘s pre-poll strategy. The latest in this

series is the Punjab Assembly speaker‘s announcement that he would move court against the formation of the

parliamentary commission on new provinces. Under-taken to pressurise and embarrass those sitting in

government, the dangerous course where judicial intervention is sought to decide political issues ends up painting

politicians on the whole as hapless souls incapable of solving their problems by themselves. The approach ‗justified‘

past outside interventions in the political affairs of Pakistan. It creates precedents for inviting similar interventions

in future. It must be avoided through political dialogue.


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At a snail’s pace

August 26th, 2012

Laudable though the recommendations by Pakistani and Indian parliamentarians are, translating them into state

policies is governmental responsibility. Going by their track record, however, neither Islamabad nor New Delhi

would inspire confidence in their ability to act decisively and quicken the normalisation process. The suggestions

made by the two countries‘ legislators after their two-day meeting in the Indian capital are hardly new. They

demanded what the governments have themselves hinted at from time to time, including new confidence-building

measures and a liberal visa regime. The delegates this time added two more demands that should be considered

seriously — visa-free visits by educationists and senior citizens and the choice of using one‘s own vehicle to cross

the border. The outcome of the lawmakers‘ conference coincided with New Delhi‘s decision to allow Pakistani

businessmen to invest in shares and convertible debentures of Indian companies. Earlier this month, India had also

allowed direct foreign investment from Pakistan.

While these measures deserve to be welcomed, the overall picture that emerges is one of niggardly progress

towards the détente to which the two prime ministers pledged themselves at Thimphu in 2010. The high-level

contact didn‘t end there, for the two cabinet heads, their foreign ministers and the foreign and home secretaries

have met several times, but without pushing the peace process forward significantly. The New Delhi ‗lunch‘ in Apri l

aroused great hope, but a visit, even an unofficial one, by Manmohan Singh remains uncertain. Also on the list of

proposals not yet approved officially is the Pakistani cricket team‘s visit to India this November. This being the

attitude towards sport, can we expect them to tackle relatively less contentious issues, leave alone Kashmir and

Siachen where the Indian army has hardened its stance? Meanwhile, the Indian home minister didn‘t advance the

cause of peace when it dragged Pakistan into text-messaging on the Assam violence, while his Pakistani

counterpart made alarmist claims about Hindu immigration to India, blaming the Indian high commission in

Islamabad. The least the two sides can do is not vitiate the atmosphere by irresponsible utterances. They should

pursue serious diplomacy instead.

Kalash under threat

August 26th, 2012

The Kalash community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‘s Chitral district is something of an anthropological enigma. For

centuries, the Kalash have held on to their ancient religion and customs and are a tiny reminder of the region‘s

pre-Islamic past. Yet this may change if the community has to abandon its traditions under the threat of militant

violence. As reported in this paper, the Kalash have stopped placing their dead in the open a nd have started

burying their corpses for fear of militant attacks. The decision was taken after a Kalash shepherd was reportedly

kidnapped and killed by marauders coming from the neighbouring Afghan province of Nuristan, who also made off

with hundreds of sheep. In the past there were reports of forced conversions, yet this seems to have stopped.

However, with militants raiding their areas, a new threat to Kalash culture is emerging.

The Kalash are few in numbers — reportedly a few thousand people — and considering the rough deal the

minorities of Pakistan have received, it is a miracle they have survived and managed to preserve their culture. Yet

while minorities and all those Pakistanis who disagree with the militants‘ warped worldview are under threat, the

Kalash may be wiped out if not given protection, simply because they are so isolated and so few in number.

Providing adequate security in the border areas with Afghanistan is an obvious first step. The problem is that

security forces are concentrated in the valley, whereas they need to be posted at the border areas to stop the

intruders. It has been witnessed that whenever the state wants to showcase Pakistan‘s ‗diversity‘ to the world

Kalash cultural troupes are presented at various events. Yet when it comes to protecting the Kalash and their

culture, the state has yet to make a more visible effort.


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Signs of a deal

August 27th, 2012

As events in and around Fata continue to play out, there are tantalising hints that some kind of US-Pakistan

understanding — denied by security officials here — has been reached on squeezing militants troubling both

countries on either side of the Pak-Afghan border. So on Friday, the commander of the TTP in Bajaur Agency was

killed by a Nato airstrike in Kunar province in Afghanistan — removing one of the irritants for the Pakistani side

trying to deal with a spate of cross-border raids into Pakistan. Meanwhile, US drones have again rained down

missiles on North Waziristan and, according to some security sources (though contradicted by the Afghan Taliban),

may have killed Badruddin Haqqani, believed to be the operational commander of the Haqqani network. The

relatively muted response of the security establishment here to the recent spate of drone strikes suggests there

may be some kind of understanding in place.

Secret deals and covert understandings aside, the threat on either side of the Pak-Afghan border is all too real. The

decision announced Saturday by the Taliban shura in North Waziristan that the local population would shift to

Afghanistan in the event of a military operation in the Agency appears to be a new blackmail tactic: threaten to

embarrass the Pakistan state by turning potential IDPs into international refugees in the hope that authorities will

further delay military action against the militant strongholds in North Waziristan. Transparent as the threat may be,

it was likely made precisely because there is still an unacceptable ambivalence within the Pakistani security

establishment about when and to what extent militancy needs to be fought. Be it fear or desperate miscalculation

that allows some forms of militancy to survive and thrive inside Pakistan, the plain truth is that there is no such

thing as good Taliban/bad Taliban. In fact, North Waziristan is a sobering example of the extent to which militants

have cross-pollinated and drunk from each other‘s ideology and hate. Al Qaeda, the TTP, the Haqqani network, the

Punjabi Taliban, foreign militants — all have found common cause at some point or the other, tactical survival and

strategic cooperation melding into one another until it becomes near impossible to take on one while leaving the

other unscathed.

Almost as perplexing, if not self-defeating, as the security establishment‘s national-security paradigm is the army‘s

approach to building a political and societal consensus on the need for a military operation. Recent events on both

sides of the Fata-Afghanistan border appear to have hewed more to a US-Pakistan timeline negotiated in secret

than a Pakistan-centric timeline. How, then, will an already sceptical public here be convinced that a North

Waziristan operation is necessary?

How realistic is it?

August 27th, 2012

The economic plan unveiled by the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf touches on the right issues, but carries the same

weaknesses that the manifestoes of its rival political parties do: it is rich in sentiment but poor in substance, tall on

promises but short on credibility. The framers of the vision are quite right to say that ―business as usual is not

sustainable‖. They are right to point out that the governance failures of the present government have resulted in a

doubling of per capita public debt, record high fiscal deficits, persistent double-digit inf lation, sharply growing

power shortfalls, and depleting foreign exchange reserves (although it‘s hard to see how much of this depletion

could have been avoided given persistently high oil prices). The programme is strong on the reform of public -sector

enterprises. All this is fine and testament to the first-rate talent that has helped the PTI draw up its programme.

But what exactly does the party intend to do about the dismal state of affairs that it describes so well?

That is where the problems begin. For starters, consider this. They claim they w ill raise ―welfare spending‖ to

Rs4.6tr, compared to present-day disbursements of Rs0.9tr. They claim they will cut the deficit and free up bank

resources for investment by industry. They claim they will resolve the power crisis by diverting fuel to power

generation. They claim they will bring down inflation to seven per cent. Yet they have opposed tax reforms in the

past, vilifying the RGST, or reformed general sales tax, as evil. Where will the money come from to pay for the

expenditure hikes and deficit cutting? Will industry grow if it is deprived of gas? They promise a muscular effort to

recover looted wealth. Remember when the Musharraf government went on a rampage to recover loans and looted


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wealth in their early years, causing business confidence to plummet? What lessons have been learned from that

experience? At the end of the day, the economic plan almost reads like a wish list drawn up by somebody who

thinks complex problems have simple solutions.

No implementation

August 27th, 2012

When Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, the teacher, allowed Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the student, to smoke in his class, it

may have been viewed as a progressive gesture aimed at breaking the hold of oppressive etiquette. The

fashionable images have changed over time, and they have changed far more quickly than ever in recent decades.

People do smoke by choice, but behind their now dismissive, now defensive exteriors, they try to hide the guilt that

must today accompany the act. A student may still smoke in college, but far from a taboo-breaker he is a health

hazard. Quitting smoking is a stern test that distinguishes an individual, and passive smoking leaves the sensitive

and the aware unable to breathe and demanding stricter adherence to common sense if not the law.

A Karachi-based study has reconfirmed how anti-smoking laws are flouted here with absolute impunity. The survey

done by a group of doctors from Aga Khan University and Dow University lists violations of the laws at campuses,

restaurants, banks etc, and notes that in comparison to the old government offices, modern private-sector

institutions are more likely to follow the law. Even in privately run places such as restaurants, smokers freely

spread toxic clouds. Cigarettes are freely sold to minors and sold routinely without the packs bearing the

mandatory warning. Fines — as high as Rs100,000 — are there on the books but unheard of in real life. A Dawn

report cites the survey supervisor as saying that though a Supreme Court order for implementation does exist,

little official inclination to curb violations is in evidence. Actually, inaction in the wake of the 18th Amendment is

pointed to. The amendment made the federal anti-tobacco cell redundant without shaking the provinces out of

their passive state, leaving the smokescreen of ever-billowing rhetoric intact.

No new twist

August 28th, 2012

From high drama to low farce, on and on rumbles the saga of the Swiss letter. Sept 18 is the new deadline, a day

that will mark the fifth time a prime minister will appear before the Supreme Court this year. And yet, there is no

sign of the letter being written, nor of the court surrendering to the logic of elections and the democratic project.

The extraordinary has become the new normal and it has reached the point where even the media and the public

cannot really muster much interest. For what is left to be said at this stage? Rewind to former prime minister

Gilani‘s first appearance before the Supreme Court earlier this year and contrast it with the reaction to Prime

Minister Ashraf ‘s date with the court yesterday — the three-ring circus of spectacular proportions has degenerated

into an almost pitiful sideshow. Perhaps in this clash of institutions and rhetoric, the present impasse is the least

bad of outcomes: the two sides have not budged from their original positions but then neither side has launched a

truly destabilising attack on the other.

As luck would have it, another fundamental part of the equation has moved, however: as days and weeks and

months have been slowly swallowed up by the cut and thrust between the court and the PPP, the deadline for a

general election has come closer and closer. Whereas in January, when the court took up the issue of the NRO with

gusto again, it was a question of how the government could survive 15 months of this tussle, now it is down to a

question of a few short months. If, as rumour has it, the government is contemplating a spring election, the

country is on the cusp of a pre-election interim set-up. In that may lie the way out for everyone.

Prime Minister Ashraf will almost certainly have to go now that the court has set in motion a repeat of the Gilani

affair. But Sept 18 is now the earliest date at which the prime minister can be charged for contempt and, if the

court‘s recent mood is anything to go by, he will have at least several more weeks before a final order for his

disqualification is signed. That would take the country into an interim set -up timeline, so if the court were to oust

Mr Ashraf at that point, the government could call an election and be done with this numbing ebb and flow of its


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tussle with the court. However, already the next question looms: what will the interim prime minister do about the

small matter of a letter to Switzerland?

Urban jungle

August 28th, 2012

The chaotic urban sprawl that is Karachi, which population-wise counts as amongst the largest cities in the world,

is well-known. Ensuring proper development of a metropolis of such size and density is no mean challenge, and

successive Pakistani administrat ions have unexpectedly faced an uphill battle. Yet cities are shaped as much by

socio-political circumstances as by geography; over time, the factors that impede good city planning become

systemic. Such underlying confusions must be addressed if there is t o be a better, sustainable future. This is the

lesson driven home by the study Karachi: the Land Issue, a comprehensive report co-authored by a number of

experts, including architect Arif Hasan and NED University‘s Dr Noman Ahmed. With a broad scope and me ticulous

methodology, the document seeks to place the development of Karachi in a historical perspective and identify the

factors that have hindered the city not being able to achieve the potential implicit in its status as the country‘s

financial backbone.

Some of the problems, according to the study, are unique and hark back to Karachi‘s past, such as the British

occupation of it and the manner in which land was parcelled out, and the fact that immigrants to the city

outnumbered its native population. But the main impediments now — which are nevertheless related to the past —

are a multiplicity of land-owning agencies with confused allocation of spheres of inf luence, weak governance and

land-grabbing connected with political clout. The problem, it would appear, is not the lack of laws and regulations

that codify city development, but of effective implementation and managerial coherence. This deduction is evident

everywhere in the city, with pockets operating as self-contained fiefdoms with little central command. While such

an in-depth study has not been conducted in other urban areas in Pakistan, anecdotal evidence suggests that the

situation would not be too different elsewhere, with Islamabad as the possible exception. The fact is that city-

management departments need to complement each other‘s work, whereas in reality they often work at cross

purposes. Working together is key to effective land development along with the removal of political influence.

Cricket expectations

August 28th, 2012

Going by his statement just before the Pakistan-Australia series that gets under way in the Emirates today, coach

Dav Whatmore would appear to be a more honest and methodical practitioner of the psychological war. He said his

Pakistan side — that has not won a series against Australia in some seven years — has an edge over the Aussie

squad for this limited-over series. He qualified his remarks primarily by playing on the weaknesses of the

opponents more than showing off Pakistan‘s strengths. He spoke of the home adva ntage, which would take into

account pitch conditions, the crowds, and of course the heat in the UAE. Finally, the coach threw in for good

measure the old bit that never ceases to please the audience here: the bit about the abundant Pakistani talent and

Pakistan being just one victory away from realising their potential. Hopes were being raised in the approach to a

major event — the T-20 world cup.

Coach Whatmore is no independent commentator, and thus is not expected to be too elaborate about what is cause

for concern to Pakistani fans. Misbah ul Haq‘s one-day team will be without Umar Gul and Younis Khan, two

exceptional and dependable performers over the years. As Pakistan flaunt their spinners, the risk here is of the

bowling attack being one-dimensional. The Australians have underperformed in recent times and they are in the

middle of a rebuilding process. But theirs is still a team of skilful cricketers known for their intensity. Pakistan has

also been known for the latter trait, but, of late, it appea rs to have been replaced with a kind of placidity in the

name of disciplined showing, personified by skipper Misbah ul Haq‘s workmanlike method. Coach Whatmore‘s men

will perhaps be better served by a rekindling of the old passions.


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A fresh mandate

August 29th, 2012

With a series of hints issued by a number of PPP leaders, talk of early elections has been bubbling up again. The

PML-N‘s announcement on Tuesday that it has developed its own shortlist of caretaker prime ministers only added

to the sense that there is movement on the issue behind the scenes. None of which is necessarily a problem, if the

government and opposition parties can bring themselves to handle the transition process with some maturity and

avoid taking an approach that focuses purely on the immediate politics of the moment. The government does have

the right to complete a full term, which would also be a milestone for Pakistani democracy. But there is merit to

calls for early elections. The ruling coalition might be sitting pretty in strictly constitutional terms with its

parliamentary majority, but governance failures, corruption accusations and a general dissatisfaction with the

country‘s trajectory mean a legitimate case can be made for seeking a fresh mandate. With the change of chief

executive there was some hope that the administration would use the time until polls to improve its governance

record, but so far there are no indications that that will take place. And with the ‗Swiss letter‘ and president‘s dual

office cases pending in the Supreme Court, early polls could become a way out for the PPP of some of the legal and

political controversies that are dogging it in its last months in office.

But a smooth path to early elections will require the ruling coalition and the opposit ion to reach agreement on the

interim set-up without descending into unnecessary obstinacy. The matter of the chief election commissioner was

eventually resolved with the selection of a candidate who enjoys broad acceptance, but it only followed plenty of

resistance to each other‘s suggestions, accompanied by the seemingly requisite political rhetoric and allegations of

bias. A similar debate around the appointment of a caretaker prime minister, no matter how tempting for both

sides given the upcoming elections, will achieve nothing beyond unnecessary delays.

Equally important is for the Election Commission to be ready for polls. The electoral rolls published early this month

still leave out up to 20 million Pakistanis. These lists will be frozen the day elections are announced, and it is

unclear what Nadra, the ECP or political parties are doing to make sure more Pakistanis, particularly in Sindh and

Balochistan, are acquiring CNICs and getting themselves registered to vote.

There is a case for early elections, but the more people they disenfranchise, the less credible they will be.

Schools of thought

August 29th, 2012

The schools we send our children to not only manifest the various desires for reform at the grass roots, they also

bring to the fore divisions in society. Class divides are gaining prominence with time as schools in the private

sector, which link quality with price, continue to thrive. But an ideological factor is also making its way from

madressahs into ordinary schools which are either combining ‗religious‘ and ‗modern‘ education or are imparting

the worldly brand with their own ideological emphases and according to their own interpretations. Individuals cast

in this mould can hardly be expected to widen their exposure — they can only do so at the risk of being branded

‗bad‘ students. This kind of rigidity in the learning process defies a basic principle of education: to develop critical

thinking skills. This is why experts quoted in a news story in Dawn about the presence of religious groups in the

education sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata sound concerned. The story reports a rapid increase in the

number of not only madressahs in these areas, but also schools run by religious parties or groups seeking to

capture young minds.

The acting vice chancellor of Peshawar University reiterates how important it is for the state to monitor education.

His strongest words are reserved for the intervention in the sector by religious groups, some of which can be

considered extremist. The cohesion in society he longs for appears to be a distant dream as the state fails to play

the role of an effective regulator in crucial areas and even a ruling political party with secular credentials finds

solace in creating model private-sector institutions named after its founder. There is no bar on the ANP setting up a

few schools dedicated to Bacha Khan in the province, but the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and those

elsewhere in Pakistan must also earnestly recognise the importance of regulating education. This shying away from

basic responsibility entails huge costs and painful lessons. The reform exercise must begin now and it must begin

with some kind of standardisation of the syllabus.


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Dengue season

August 29th, 2012

The onset of monsoon rains in many parts of the country has brought back memories of the havoc wreaked last

year by the dengue mosquito.

While the potentially deadly dengue virus infected a number of people across Pakistan, Lahore was affected

particularly badly. In preparation for what this year may bring, federal government organisations, including

cantonment boards and Pakistan Railways, were asked on Monday to launch anti-dengue campaigns in their

jurisdictions across Rawalpindi Division, buttressing the efforts of the Punjab government in this regard. At a

meeting attended by health officials as well as the district coordination officers of the four districts of Rawalpindi

Division, it was announced that Sept 2 would be observed as anti-dengue day in the province and that seminars

and walks would be held to create awareness. Meanwhile, the Community Safety, Information and Training Wing of

Rescue 1122, Rawalpindi, has also started similar awareness raising seminars.

These are laudable steps that need to be replicated in other parts of the country. Efforts in different cities and

areas are currently more piecemeal than coordinated, with the odd seminar or fumigation drive being carried out. A

concerted push to minimise the risk of another dengue outbreak would involve close collaboration on the provincial

and district levels, as well as with city administrations and municipal departments. This must be done if we are to

prevent hospitals from being flooded, as they have been in earlier seasons, with dengue patients.

A mass awareness raising campaign through radio and television would be invaluable, putting out information such

as that the dengue mosquito breeds in fresh, not stagnant, water. Clean-up of cities and towns should be

undertaken in any case, but people also need hard information that could help them avoid providing the disease-

carrying mosquito breeding space in their homes, such as in uncovered pails of water.

A welcome step

August 30th, 2012

The new petroleum policy announced by the government is a bold step and long overdue. It ought to be clear

enough to all by now that new supplies of vital fuels like petroleum and gas cannot be arranged without substantial

reform in pricing. So petroleum adviser Asim Hussain‘s announcement of the government‘s second Petroleum

Exploration and Production Policy is a welcome and unexpected step. It is particularly good to see a detailed pricing

policy for offshore exploration and incentives for the first offshore discoveries as well as provision for a ‗production-

sharing agreement‘. The adviser took the opportunity afforded by the press conference to also talk about his efforts

to advance the TAPI pipeline project for which a road show is being prepared, and about the prospects of importing

liquefied natural gas from India via the Wagah border. Even though he didn‘t specifically mention it, the Iran-

Pakistan pipeline also deserves its place at the table. It is unfortunate that this project has been sucked into

extreme geopolitical tensions that have nothing to do with Pakistan‘s interests, a re minder to us all of the costs of

delay.

Pakistan needs to knock on every door there is to arrange future supplies of gas. Some calculations performed by

industry experts have forecasted Pakistan‘s oil import bill rising beyond $100bn by 2025 if oil prices remain around

$100 and no new supplies are arranged as production from existing gas fields declines. This could be a catastrophic

situation and it is worth noting that the year 2025 is not very far away. The country‘s possible plunge into a

hydrocarbon famine of sorts is one of the biggest challenges facing us all and the urgency of arranging new

supplies cannot be overstated.

Everybody should understand very clearly that arranging new supplies without substantial price reforms is not

possible. Pakistan‘s era of cheap gas is fast drawing to a close and the government‘s steps to provide incentives to

private exploration and production companies, as well as to arrange imports, deserve the full support of all political

players. Oil and gas companies have a very high tolerance level for political uncertainty and law and order

problems. They operate in far more dangerous countries than Pakistan. Following the announcement of the


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incentives, the only thing they will look for will be political ownership across the spectrum, and judicial non-

interference. It is vital that they see a reassuring picture on both fronts.

Blasphemy case

August 30th, 2012

It is a measure of the sensitivity of the matter that the voice of a lone Islamic cleric on the latest in the series of

blasphemy cases is considered to be a big step forward. The case of a Christian girl accused of blasphemy has

received wide publicity and the matter is before court. A hearing is fixed for today and the first points for the court

to arbitrate on are: whether she can be allowed bail and whether the girl is a minor and entitled to trial under the

law for juveniles. Around the legal proceedings, a much bigger argument continues to be carefully presented. This

view is informed by the principles of tolerance and fairness — and to a great extent defined by the fear that is

today associated with discussions involving religion. Rights activists have called for the girl‘s protection and

newspapers have written on it. Most have qualified their take before they press for something as basic as a fair

probe, and before expressing their concern over the frequency of blasphemy cases. Her young age has been

mentioned and a common reaction is based on reports that the girl may be suffering from Down‘s Syndrome. Still

others are asking if the girl accused of desecrating religious texts can actually read.

The voice of the chairman, All Pakistan Ulema Council, is different from others since clerics and religious scholars

here have seldom demanded fairness in matters involving blasphemy charges. Religious parties are cautious not to

move beyond routine statements issued on special days when it comes to the minority‘s complaints against the

majority in Pakistan. By choosing to air his views on the current case, the APUC chairman appears to be trying to

lift the debate to a level where it needs to be conducted. He seems to be trying to initiate a discussion among the

knowledgeable, in the interest of fairness that is so central to religion and in the interest of law and legal

interpretation that leaves little room for misuse and error. The APUC chief said that with some rational, unbiased

handling, the case could well turn out to be a watershed in Pakistan‘s history, and that accusers in such cases must

also be open to accountability. These are valid points that need to be followed up on.

Tutu’s boycott

August 30th, 2012

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has not only snubbed Tony Blair, he has revived and refreshed sordid memories in

danger of being erased from the world conscience. On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize-winning South African priest

decided to abstain from attending a leadership summit, being held today in Johannesburg, because the former

British prime minister was one of the speakers. As a spokesman for the peace icon said, Archbis hop Tutu, after

―wrestling with his conscience‖, came to the conclusion that Mr Blair‘s decision to support the US-led invasion of

Iraq in 2003 on the basis of ―unproven allegations‖ was ―indefensible‖. Mr Blair more than supported the Bush

administration‘s invasion decision; he sent troops to Iraq to overthrow a regime which didn‘t possesses weapons of

mass destruction, as confirmed by Hans Blix, the man who headed the UN‘s inspection team. As Mr Blix told the

Security Council, he had found no ―smoking gun‖ in Iraq after Saddam Hussein allowed the commission ful l

freedom to undertake its job.

―The unproven allegations‖ the archbishop spoke of do not fully reflect the full spectrum of the conspiracies and lies

that went into the case that was made for attacking oil-rich Iraq, and no one protested against this hoax more than

the British people. Some of the frauds were absurd, including the doctored intelligence dossier which said that Iraqi

missiles could be made operational within 45 minutes. Militarily Iraq had been defanged after the Kuwait war, and

the UN sanctions had impoverished the country. But, as revealed later, the neocons in the Bush administration had

made up their minds to fix Iraq because Israel considered the Saddam regime the greatest threat t o its security.

The invasion, no doubt, ended Saddam‘s tyranny but resistance to occupation, terrorism and the sectarian strife

led to a minimum of 200,000 civilians dead.


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Tension over provinces

August 31st, 2012

It is a vicious exercise that may be the start of a circle. Courtesy a new resolution in the Punjab Assembly on

Wednesday, the PML-N expressed its intentions of taking on the PPP regarding the creation of new provinces in

Punjab. There was trouble when the PML-N presented the resolution asking for the replacement of a parliamentary

commission on new provinces with one that fulfilled ―constitutional requirements‖. This led to some of the ugliest

scenes in the history of a provincial assembly whose members are not averse to occasional scuffle s amongst

themselves. There is sufficient numerical strength on either side for the MPAs to carry on with their invective -filled

battles. ‗Ruckus‘ may be a word newspaper readers have grown tired of spotting in assembly reports but it applies

to both the PML-N and PPP at the moment.

The PPP is obsessed with a Seraiki province, even though the provincial assembly had some time ago passed two

resolutions, one asking for a Seraiki province, and the other for the creation of Bahawalpur province. It built up

pressure with the help of its 100 members in the Punjab Assembly, a large number of them belonging to southern

parts, including Bahawalpur. The federal government formed a parliamentary commission including lawmakers

from Punjab and ‗non-Punjab‘ parties such as the ANP and MQM. Thus, at one level President Asif Ali Zardari‘s new-

suba politics is based on regional factors, while on another the exercise appears to be using the umbrella of the

federal coalition to forward this drive.

The PPP‘s current approach betrays its own assessment about its electoral chances in areas away from southern

Punjab districts. The more passionate it is about a new province, the grimmer are its prospects in central and

upper Punjab. Mr Zardari does not appear to care. He has done nothing to indicate he is bothered about this

impression, let alone make an effort to correct it. More seriously, the precedent of a federal government wanting to

superimpose a new province against the wishes of the majority party in Punjab could be used by others in future to

explore new provinces elsewhere in the country. But the leadership of the PPP has ignored this aspect and has so

far refused to commit itself to finding a fair formula regarding the creation of new provinces. A referendum in a

particular area to gauge popular desire may be an idea worth discussing. While one formula for all is what the PML-

N is demanding, the course the PPP is currently on doesn‘t quite appear to be the right or safe route to a new

province.

Gwadar port uncertainty

August 31st, 2012

A series of snags have kept Gwadar from becoming the centre of thriving trade and prosperity it was meant to be.

With the pullout by Port Singapore Authority from port operations uncertainty regarding its future has deepened.

PSA had entered a 40-year development and management contract. It decided to leave after just five years

because of the government‘s failure to transfer the allocated land — currently in the possession of the navy —

required to make the country‘s only deep-sea port fully operational. The navy has been delaying the transfer of the

land located on the mouth of the port, citing one reason or another. At one point it said the specific piece of land

was needed for strategic and defence purposes and at others it has shown a willingness to sell it to the Balochistan

government at its own price or in exchange for another, larger piece of land. Now the Senate‘s Standing

Committee on Ports and Shipping has asked the navy to resolve the issue with the province and transfer the land

within three weeks because no new investor would be willing to put money in the project unless the said piece of

land is handed over for the purposes of the project. The odds of this happening are not very promising, given the

complications. The government says a Chinese company will take the project over from PSA, but it will take some

doing on the part of everyone involved to ensure that Gwadar comes out of its long and economically expensive

limbo.

A vital link in the ‗new silk route‘, Pakistan‘s only deep-sea port is expected to encourage industrialisation in

Balochistan and create hundreds of thousands of jobs by linking ―China and Central Asia to the Middle East and

Indian Ocean economies‖. Many observers argue that the project will continue to hang in the balance due to

increasing lawlessness and the ongoing insurgency in the province even if the navy agrees to hand over the land in


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its possession. That is a matter for the future. The early resolution of the land issue at this stage will be one less

mountain to climb.

Stranger than fiction

August 31st, 2012

It was only a matter of time before the Osama bin Laden raid, the stuff of spy thrillers itself, became a hot topic for

ambitious journalists, publishers and f ilmmakers out to embellish their c areers and capitalise on public interest in

one of the most important events of the decade. A series of representations of the event are already completed or

in the works — from a New Yorker article to books by security analysts and a Navy SEAL involved in the raid to a

film that is soon to be released. The creators of these projects haven‘t wasted a moment in exploring what

happened, how and when, and yet, well over a year after it was formed, the so-called Abbottabad commission has

yet to reveal the fruits of its extended investigation.

The commission has interviewed hundreds of people, visited key sites several times and spent months presumably

mulling over the various sensitivities and egos it will have to protect and the political balancing act it will have to

strike in any report. The bungalow has been razed and even US-Pakistan relations are making their way back to a

functional place. In December last year the commission had said it would reveal all that month. And still no report,

and for no clear reason. The delay is long and unexplained, which perhaps should come as no surprise given

Pakistan‘s history of investigations into sensitive events. And now, if one source is to be believed, the commission

feels it needs to go through the books recently re leased on the subject. Given the pace at which it is moving, that

should add at least another few months to the delay. Perhaps the commission can just use the books for a copy -

paste job, and finally get it over with.

EDITORIALS FROM THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER

State of breakdown

September 1st, 2012

Dumped bodies, missing people, sectarian killings: most headlines about the law and order situation in Balochistan

focus on these events. But what is perhaps just as disruptive to the fabric of life in that province, and gets far less

attention, is how the machinery that runs Balochistan is under attack. The assassination of a district and sessions

judge in Quetta on Thursday may have been carried out for any of a number of reasons: because he was a settler,

for sectarian reasons, or simply to undermine the state. Whatever the motives, it highlighted how lack of security

in Balochistan is making it near-impossible in certain areas to carry out the daily work of administration that keeps

a society going. Reports are emerging from Dera Bugti, for example, that many if not most government officials

posted there, including doctors, teachers, engineers and other civil servants, stay away from the area; the deputy

commissioner and district police chief live in Sui, not in the district headquarters. Some of this might be driven by

dishonesty within the system, especially at the lower levels, because institutions lack even the will or capacity to

enforce rules. But sections of Dera Bugti also remain no-go areas, despite denials by Balochistan government

officials. In parts of the province, civil servants are making the choice between doing their jobs and saving their

lives.

A report by the HRCP indicates what a complex nexus of disruptive actors is holding life in the prov ince at a

standstill: from our own security establishment and a government lacking political will to militant groups of various

stripes and foreign hands exploiting the grievances Pakistan‘s own policies have fostered. The result is a province

in which the state has, in parts, effectively ceased to function. But it is also a place where NGOs fear to tread,

driven away by threats, kidnappings and killings. Without a functioning state to provide basic services, private

organisations to fill the gap or lawmakers committed to development, the people of Balochistan are effectively on

their own.


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Meanwhile, the disappearances and killings continue. On Thursday, the International Day of the Victims of Enforced

Disappearances, the HRCP announced that 450 dead bodies have been discovered and over 1,300 people have

gone missing in the province during the current government‘s tenure. These figures may be lower according to

some estimates, but the scale of this problem is only one aspect of it. Through a combination of i ndifference,

wrongheaded policies and sheer fear, the state continues to create a mess in Balochistan while leaving its people to

suffer the consequences on their own.

Mere ritual

September 1st, 2012

Had there been no meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Dr Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the NAM

summit, it would have been the news of the day. Which is why there have been nearly half -a-dozen ritualistic and

informal meetings between the Indian prime minister and Pakistan‘s top leaders at one or the other summit. After

their meeting at the 2010 Saarc summit in Thimphu, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Indian

prime minister met three times — at Mohali last year during the cricket World Cup semif inal, at Addu, Maldives in

November 2011 and in Seoul in March 2012. In addition, there was the much-hyped lunch at New Delhi for

President Zardari by Dr Singh in April. The latter two met again on Thursday — again on the ‗sidelines‘ of the NAM

summit in Tehran — without conceding any ground. The only meeting the South Asian neighbours didn‘t owe to an

international extravaganza was over lunch, but this, too, was a spin-off from President Zardari‘s Ajmer pilgrimage.

Moral of the story: neither side has cared to arrange a bilateral meeting for its own sake to break the ice.

The Tehran meeting showed the Indian leadership is still stuck at Mumbai, with Dr Singh emphasising the need for

the expeditious conclusion of the trial of the Mumbai terror suspects. All that the Indian leader could offe r as sop

was that he would visit Pakistan at ‗an appropriate date‘. Mr Zardari still spoke of Dr Singh‘s ‗vision‘ but hit the nail

on the head when he called upon the two parties to move beyond reiterating their known positions to try and

achieve more substantive results. As the stronger of the two sides, will it be too much to expect New Delhi to show

flexibility and desist from the temptation to apply pressure on Pakistan at a time when it finds itself in a nutcracker

situation? On its part, Islamabad has to dispel the impression that the procrastination of the Mumbai suspects‘ trial

is on purpose, and, instead, by expediting the process, show that Islamabad is as keen as New Delhi to bring the

terrorists to justice.

Route to understanding

September 1st, 2012

With Pakistan more often than not being covered by the Western press for less than laudatory reasons, it is

heartening that this time it‘s because Hollywood took note of local talent. Writer Mohsin Hamid has been in the

news because The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mira Nair‘s big-screen adaptation of his acclaimed 2007 book by the

same title, opened the 69th Venice Film Festival on Aug 30. We wish the film, which follows the New York-based

protagonist‘s journey from being a Wall Street high-flyer to a radical in Lahore after 9/11, every success. Mohsin

Hamid‘s achievement follows that of Karachi-based Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy in February when her documentary

Saving Face, co-directed with Daniel Junge, won in the category of best documentary short in the Oscars. Days

before the premiere of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Pakistani filmmaking was also in the international news when

the film Lamha premiered at the New York City International Film Festival and won two awards.

The theme of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is relevant to today‘s Pakistan while Saving Face addresses another

pertinent issue. It can be argued that these represent Pakistanis‘ efforts to understand and distil their experiences

through creative outlets, presenting to Western audiences a route to understanding. For this reason, they are

worth appreciating, and need to be taken further by making similar efforts in local languages, for Pakistani

audiences. A key function of the creative arts is to help a society understand its situation, how it arrived there, and

what the way forward might be. This is desperately needed here in Pakistan, where people are caught in a never-

ending ‗now‘ and the lack of context is increasingly leading to a lack of introspection. The state and society in

Pakistan must support our authors, filmmakers, theatre-persons, artists etc to build bridges in a deeply divided

polity.


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Secret funds

September 2nd, 2012

PML-N Stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has accused the federal government of using secret funds to buy the

loyalty of journalists but has stopped short of naming the beneficiaries of this benevolent scheme or spelling out

how an aspirant could enrol for the dole-out. Others before him have called for the outright abolishing of the fund

— this, in fact, is superseded by the logical question: who needs an information ministry and why?

The politicians who have criticised the funds — that are audited by the prime minister — have always alleged

misuse of such money when out of power, while when they have held the reins of government, they have

themselves been accused of generously spending the same on meeting their political needs. This has been true of

all dispensations, whether led by the PPP, the PML-N or Gen Musharraf. Indeed, the intelligence agencies have

themselves not been averse to spending liberally out of secret funds meant for their use abroad, often spending

huge amounts on politicking inside the country and destabilising the democratic process. But in this case, the delay

in questioning a huge amount of money has been particularly telling. Until not too long ago, Chaudhry Nisar was

heading the National Assembly‘s Public Accounts Committee. He and others before him have allowed the old

government habit of winning over journalists with money to go virtually unchallenged.

Where journalists are concerned it is true that there are some black sheep among them. Nevertheless, over the

past two decades, there have been calls by journalists‘ associations to have the secret fund, initially meant for

focusing on the media highlighting Pakistan‘s foreign policy issues, abolished. The fund, which appears to have

increased phenomenally over time, needs to be done away with for the sake of greater transparency and ethical

journalism. Moreover, with the proliferation of channels, social media and easy access to other avenues of news,

there really cannot be any place for what is effectively official propaganda — that too propped up by taxpayers‘

money. So the next step must be to end the suspense by raising the curtain on the culprits. Forthrightness is

crucial as the entire media cannot be discredited with one generalised statement, otherwise we might be in for

another unsubstantiated list doing the rounds on social media, like an earlier one linking journalists to real es tate

don Malik Riaz.

Fighting back

September 2nd, 2012

The outcome of the non-aligned summit on Friday marked a diplomatic triumph for President Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad when he managed to secure the support of 120 nations on his nuclear policy. Called the Tehran

Declaration, the final statement backed Iran‘s position on what to Israel and the West is anathema and said not

only that the country had every right to pursue its peaceful nuclear programme but that it was entitled to the full

ownership of the fuel cycle — to uranium enrichment, in other words. The summit highlights his government‘s

success in dispelling the impression that Iran suffered from international isolation and that its nuclear policy had

few takers. The UN secretary general criticised Iran ‘s nuclear policy, but the fact that Ban Ki-moon attended the

summit gives the declaration the stamp of UN approval and constitutes a snub for Israel, which had asked him not

to visit Tehran.

There were some uncomfortable moments for the host, especially when Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi

indirectly criticised Tehran‘s Syria policy by denouncing the Baathist regime‘s crackdown on the protesters, while

Mr Ban pleaded with Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and ―fully comply‖ w ith various

UN resolutions. The Iranian media blacked out Mr Morsi‘s speech, and privately Iranian officials f layed the Egyptian

leader for showing ―immaturity‖ and departing from the non-aligned movement‘s objectives. But the Egyptian

president‘s speech broadly ref lected the Arab world‘s Syria policy that runs counter to Iran‘s support for the

Baathist regime. As a compromise, Syria found no mention in the f inal declaration adopted unanimously. While his

astute diplomatic manoeuvring at the summit paid div idends, Mr Ahmadinejad should now sober up. The

combination of powers against Iran is overwhelming, and he would do well to take this into consideration. While

the US- led sanctions and America‘s anti-Iran rhetoric during the election year have failed to deter Iran, it is in


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Tehran‘s interest to be realistic and address the IAEA‘s reservations. Tehran, of course, has every right to the

peaceful use of the atom, but a high-profile foreign policy and confrontation with the West are not in Iran‘s

interest.

Misplaced punishment

September 2nd, 2012

Having pledged to halve net migration to the UK by 2015, the government there is already turning towards heavy -

handed action. Recently, the UK Border Agency revoked London Metropolitan University‘s licence to teach foreign

students from outside the EU, jeopardising the fate of some 2,700 students, an unspecified number of whom are

from Pakistan. The students will be given up to 60 days to either enrol in another university or face deportment.

The decision has been criticised as disproportionate and unfair — the Guardian dubbed it an ―idiotic decision‖ —

and from afar that does appear to be the case. The UKBA found that in a sample of 101 foreign, non-EU students

at London Met, 26 had no valid visas for remaining in the UK, many did not have the requisite standard of English

— the medium of instruction — and more than half did not attend any lectures. The unspoken presumption:

London Met was being used illegally by some foreigne rs to live and work in the UK.

While that may certainly be the case for some of the foreign students enrolled at the university, to punish

foreigners across the board when they will have paid dearly to live and study in the UK and have had a legitimate

expectation to gain a world-class education, is wrong. Other options were available to the UK authorities: launch a

wide-ranging investigation to determine the facts at London Met and other universities more fully or suspend the

licence of London Met, as happened earlier in the case of other institutions, pending the problems being sorted out.

Here in Pakistan, the UKBA‘s move should be heeded as a warning signal. Private companies facilitating study

abroad need to be better regulated to prevent genuine future students from meeting the same fate as t heir

counterparts at London Metropolitan University.

Blasphemy case

September 3rd, 2012

To anyone familiar with the fabrications that often surround allegations of blasphemy, the revelation that the imam

of a local mosque involved in producing the ‗evidence‘ of a young Christian girl‘s alleged blasphemous act blatantly

tampered with the religious paraphernalia will have come as no surprise. What has come as a welcome surprise is

that a witness came forward and that the state took action. Khalid Jadoon, the local imam, has been taken in

judicial custody, accused of inserting pages of the Quran into the bag containing other religious material that the

girl is alleged to have burned. The muezzin of the same mosque who gave his testimony in an Islamabad court on

Saturday claims that the imam wanted to beef up the ‗evidence‘ to ensure that the girl‘s family would have to leave

the neighbourhood for good.

Awful as Khalid Jadoon‘s alleged act is, the argument that he himself should now be tried under the blasphemy

laws is misplaced. The misuse of religious laws cannot be rectified by turning those flawed laws against those who

try to misuse them. Instead, what is needed is a national debate and wide-ranging overhaul of laws that are clearly

prone to abuse at the hands of those with personal vendettas and of bigoted thought. If guilty, Khalid Jadoon can

and must be punished under a host of laws that criminalise fabricating evidence, giving false testimony and

fomenting public disorder. The imam can and should become a very public example so that at least some will be

deterred from going down the same shameful path. Additionally, it may give courage to more people like the

muezzin, Hafiz Mohammad Zubair, who came forward to give testimony in an environment where keeping quiet out

of fear is an all too tempting path for bystanders.

Of course, the immediate concern is the fate of the girl herself and the safety of her family and the other Christian

families in the neighbourhood. There is much to be grateful for in the fact that the wheels of justice are for once

turning in the right direction but the ongoing damage to the girl, her family and other Christians in their

neighbourhood must end quickly. For that to happen, the state must play the role it is required to under the law,

on principle and in moral terms. The climate of fear surrounding such matters is deep rooted and will take a long


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time to overcome. But it cannot be overcome at an individual level. Because the state has shirked many, if not

most, of its responsibilities, to its citizens for so long, the problem has grown. And it will keep growing unless

forceful action is taken.

Still at war

September 3rd, 2012

On most days, this doesn‘t feel like a country at war. And yet that is precisely what it is . Consider just some of the

violent incidents of the last few days: a bomb in a marketplace in Peshawar kills innocent civilians. In Bajaur

Agency security forces and citizens battle militants who are fighting their way back into Pakistan from Afghanistan;

on Friday they revealed the severed heads of a dozen soldiers. A judge is shot dead in Quetta in what appears to

be a sectarian attack. Zoom out a few more days, and you have Minhas airbase being brazenly attacked, Shias

being killed execution-style in Naran and Quetta, and ongoing clashes in Khyber Agency where even cellphone

shops are being shut down for being ‗un-Islamic‘. What seems to be forgotten amidst all the talk of US-Pakistan

relations, judiciary-executive tussles and the state of the economy is the fact that we are still confronted with

militancy and terrorism that, in some parts, is gaining ground again.

It‘s almost as if Pakistanis have been lulled into a false sense of complacency after the operations in Swat, Bajaur

and South Waziristan in 2009 and a decline in the frequency of terrorist incidents after the bloody days of that

year. The concerted campaign to build public and political consensus that enabled the relative — though still

tenuous — success of the operation in Swat hasn‘t been seen since. America is increasingly the focus of public

resentment, especially given the increase in drone attacks, and not much has been done to get the nation to

collectively confront the reality that something is rotten in the state of Pakistan itself. No r do the military and

administration seem to have the will to launch military efforts with the same determination and focus they did

three years ago. Operations and security measures seem piecemeal, hesitant or reactive, lacking the conviction

and all-out effort that are still clearly needed. We are far from being out of the woods, but there is no discernible

plan to get us through them.

The forgotten ones

September 3rd, 2012

Accommodated on sufferance here and little to return to there — that, in essence, is the plight of hundreds of

thousands of Afghan refugees who were forced by war to start fleeing their country over three decades ago. The

face of the aggressor may have changed but Afghanistan is still a country with a far from certain future; when the

guns fall silent, it will have to rebuild itself from the bottom up. Refugees — the third generation of whom are now

growing up in Pakistan — recognise this. For humanitarian reasons alone, it would be more problematic for

Pakistan to try and force refugees to return, rather than carve out avenues, in partnership with other stakeholders

such as the Afghan government and UNHCR, to create incentives for voluntary repatriation as has been the case in

the past.

Yet the influx of such a massive number of people has not been easy for Pakistan to deal with either, particularly

the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. Its frustration is evident in the statement, issued on Thursday by the

provincial home and tribal affairs department, that Afghan nationals holding Proof of Registration cards must wind

up their activities by the end of the year, after which they will be required to leave the country. The provincial

government has already asked undocumented Afghans to leave, and empowered the police to arrest illegal Af ghans

under the Foreigners Act, 1946, for deportation. While this is a seemingly extreme step, the fact is that the issue of

Afghan refugees in Pakistan is of such long standing that it seems to have slipped off the world‘s radar. But the

world cannot be absolved of its responsibility, and has an ethical responsibility to play its part in resolving this

protracted crisis. Where Pakistan has been doing what it can, surely the international community can play a greater

role.


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LG polls

September 4th, 2012

Sidelined and ignored for reasons of political expediency, local government elections are suddenly being discussed.

Coalition partners PPP and MQM failing to agree on the structure of the civic government is merely one aspect of it;

the larger and more baffling issue is the sudden interest of the PPP-led government at the centre and in Sindh in

what obviously would be snap elections. Elected on the basis of the structure crafted and legalised by the

Musharraf government, local governments in the country completed their term on Dec 31, 2009. Since then,

despite the Supreme Court‘s directive last April, no provincial government has shown an interest in local

government elections for reasons that vary. Apprehensions that a given party could make a bad showing, and that

this in turn could affect the outcome of the general election, discouraged some provincial governments from going

for polls. Now things seem to be changing for motives that are again not very clear.

There have been contradictory signals from the presidential camp. In his meetings in Karachi with PPP

parliamentarians, President Asif Ali Zardari, according to some wire agencies, ―announced‖ on Sunday that

elections to the local bodies in Sindh would be held before the country went to the polls. The same day, the

presidential spokesman in Islamabad denied that the president had asked the Sindh administration to prepare for

such elections ―immediately‖. An LG election is not possible, because the new legal framework in which such polls

would be held is not ready. As Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah told the president, the bipartisan ―core

committee‖ tasked to draft the bill has not completed its task because of differences between the two coalition

partners. In fact, according to party sources, the MQM has decided to discontinue talks on the structure of local

government.

Would common sense suggest an LG election at this stage? For nearly three years, the federal and provincial

governments have not bothered to pay attention to what throughout the world is considered a pillar of democracy.

Now, with a general election just months away, talk about holding LG polls would only serve to sow chaos and

perhaps make the Election Commission‘s job difficult by diversifying its attention and work. More import antly, a

national consensus has developed on the general election, and most political parties have already begun to

campaign. An LG election announcement would be a bolt from the blue and cause misgivings about the PPP

leadership‘s motive. The best course would be to hold civic, municipal and district polls immediately after the

general election. The LG election has already been delayed; let us not rush into it for reasons that make no political

sense.

Hate-filled textbooks

September 4th, 2012

In today‘s Pakistan, plagued as it is by extremism and inter-religious, ethnic- and sectarian-based tension, there

are plenty of occasions to justifiably accuse the state of doing little to stem the black tide threatening to engulf the

country. On the one hand, instances are readily available where elements from within the state and its machinery

have actively or through shameful passivity supported those that seek to turn Pakistan into a society of narrow -

minded ideologues. On the other, examples abound of the state not having the will even to make improvements in

sectors under its control. Nowhere is this more visible than in the textbooks being used in large parts of the

country. From the findings of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, which undertoo k a content analysis of

the books for primary and secondary schools published by the Punjab and Sindh textbook boards, it would seem

that referring to the curricula as ‗hate-filled‘ is no overstatement. The report Education or Fanning Hate finds that

these books contain material that would create and entrench in students‘ minds prejudice against religious

minorities, both within Pakistan‘s borders and elsewhere, distort history and foment the conspiratorial mindset that

is at least part of the reason why this country has come to the current pass. What‘s worse, while textbooks have

been revised over the past three decades, it seems that hate content has increased manifold over time.

In other words, whatever efforts Pakistan may make to curb extremism in society in general, they are destined to

be eroded by school curricula that send poisoned minds out into the world. Must it remain this way, given that


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reviewing and cleaning up textbooks is technically amongst the easiest of changes to achieve? There is no sh ortage

of experts who can provide sound advice in this regard, and plenty of examples that can be followed. Purging

school curricula of hate material would not be a politically divisive matter. All that is required is a state with the will

to do what needs to be done. And yet, such a place is Pakistan that it remains a moot point whether that will can

ever be mustered up.

Climate of fear

September 4th, 2012

Not that it has been addressed in the way it needs to be, but at least politically motivated and high-level organised

crime in Karachi is reported. What go unmentioned are the day-to-day muggings that have now claimed so many

victims among us. Most Karachi residents are able to name several friends and relatives who have had their

belongings stolen at gunpoint, so they consider it only a matter of time before they too are targeted. And they

know they won‘t be able to resist in the face of armed robbers, especially while stopping at traffic lights or getting

stuck in traffic jams. They are sitting ducks when thieves tap on their windows with their guns, even in broad

daylight. Nor is there justice to be had after the event; police are either unable to track down perpetrators or are

reluctant to record the crimes for fear of worsening the criminal record in their jurisdictions. And citizens are more

than happy not to register complaints, not wanting to get involved in investigations that they do not believe will

deliver justice.

Together these factors have created a climate of fear that haunts all residents of Karachi, who have had to adapt to

this fact of life in any number of ways. From carrying decoy cellphones and avoiding carrying cash to thinking twice

about venturing out after dark and having to avoid certain roads and areas, they have developed new, more

constrained lives in response to a threat that seems inescapable. Most frustrating is the knowledge that nothing

much will change until there is a transformation in larger social realities, such as the availability of weapons in the

city or unemployment. And that is nowhere on the horizon.

Finding common ground

September 5th, 2012

Perhaps it‘s in the nature of talks between the PPP and PML-N that the day news of a third round of talks is made

public, they are hurriedly postponed and then hours later rescheduled for the next day. So now, today, senior PPP

and PML-N leaders are to meet to try and find an agreement on three points: the caretaker government; re-jigging

the commission on new provinces to accommodate some of the PML-N‘s demands; and a draft accountability law

that has languished in parliamentary limbo for years now. That leaders from the two sides are meeting to try and

narrow the differences between them on serious national issues rather than slamming each other in parliament or

before the media is a welcome development. But it is too early to say whether the two sides will be able to reach

any kind of agreement. Already, PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar appears to be playing the role of spoiler with his

hard-hitting statements — but it could also be a case of the leader of the opposition working to put pressure on the

PPP to make the talks with his PML-N counterparts succeed.

This much is clear: in the run-up to an election in which the democratic stakes are exceptionally high, the PPP and

PML-N have it within their power to either smooth the electoral road ahead or create serious difficulties for

themselves and everyone else by returning to the bad old ways of partisan squabbling. The two parties are not

natural allies and even political expediency makes it difficult for them to coexist. But, as the experience of the past

four years has shown, when both sides are willing to accept the mandate of the other — the PPP at the centre, the

PML-N in Punjab according to the results of the 2008 elect ions — the democratic project is stronger for it.

Conversely, were the squabbling between the two sides to intensify — not on issues of policy or politics but on how

the system is run and to what extent there is a level playing field for everyone — there is every possibility that the

extra-constitutional forces could get what they want: an extended, unelected set-up that yet again tries to cleanse

Pakistan — a mission destined for failure even before it begins.

Also clear is that much depends on the experience and political skill of the two leaders who ultimately matter in this

delicate dance: both have for the most part evinced an understanding that whatever else happens, the country


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must be led by civilians. Now is the time to help ensure that that is the case for the next five years too.

Media curbs

September 5th, 2012

The extent to which extremist groups have managed to proliferate in Pakistan and the impunity with which they

operate pose challenges on many fronts. Consider the bind in which Pakistani journalists, especially those working

in the conflict-hit areas of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, find themselves. They must do their duty by those

who seek information and, being mindful of journalistic ethics, report objectively on instances of violence and

extremism. At the same time they must take care to not become mouthpieces for extremist or banned

organisations or spread divisive points of view, even if that means earning the ire of dangerous militants. In the

interest of ethical journalism then, any attempt by any party — the militants or the government — to make media

persons toe a certain line must be strongly censured as a move against press freedom itself. In view of this, the

All-Pakistan Newspapers Society has done the right thing by criticising the Balochistan government for registering

cases against publications perceived to have violated the provincial high court‘s instructions not to publish or

telecast any report on banned groups. Major news networks the world over do not subscribe to the hate-filled

ideology propagated by extremist groups but they do still telecast statements of militant leaders. As such the court

too must revise its opinion that giving coverage to banned organisations violates the Anti-Terrorism Act.

It is unfortunate that the state has not been able to create a definite narrative vis-à-vis militancy. The heroes of

yesterday are the terrorists of today; bad Taliban can be converted into good Taliban after a few deals are struck

— until the next time they try to thwart the state‘s writ. With no clear state policy in sight and no definition of the

enemy, it is all the more incumbent on the media to form a narrative that is independent of the state‘s and is

based on factual reporting and the opinions of all sides. That much is owed to the public and its right to know.

Which is why to accuse the media of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act is to hinder independent reporting.

Undervalued heritage

September 5th, 2012

If there‘s one thing our provinces know how to do, it‘s how to squabble with one another over the ownership of

everything from water to taxes. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are arguing over the Gandhara artefacts — some

real but, according to the Sindh government‘s archaeological department, more than half fake — that were

recovered from smugglers in Karachi in July. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa points out that the items were likely dug up

within its borders; Sindh makes the less convincing argument that its museums should house them because they

were recovered in the port city. But while the two provinces duke it out over ownership, what, if anything, is being

done about the real issues? More relevant than inter-provincial rivalries are the real problems the story reveals: the

lucrative trade in real and fake Gandhara artefacts in which Pakistanis are major players; the fact that little official

effort is made to unearth these treasures, leaving them vulnerable to poaching; and the lack of provincial capacity

to preserve or effectively showcase them. Even if one or the other province were to get their hands on them, how

well would the items be protected and preserved?

In fact, the whole saga of the smuggled artefacts has been illustrative of the lack of official capacity to properly

value these treasures, from the smuggling itself to the way in which police mishandled and neglected the items

after they were recovered to the fact that more than half of them turned out to be fake, proving that an effective

counterfeiting industry exists. Given the treasure trove it is sitting on, Pakistan could become world famous for

exhibiting rather than smuggling this ancient art. Instead, as in many other matters, the authorities are more

concerned with petty rivalries than with the national interest.


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Anti-terrorism laws

September 6th, 2012

There is considerable evidence that a rethink vis-à-vis Pakistan‘s security strategy is required on an urgent basis.

In the militancy-hit north-western parts of the country where army operations have been conducted or are being

contemplated, prosecuting suspected militants has proved so problematic that human rights groups accuse law-

enforcement authorities of resorting to extrajudicial killings. The situation in the northwest is similar to that in the

rest of the country where suspected crimina ls and terrorists walk free because of poor investigation and insufficient

evidence to prove the prosecution‘s case. Over the years, different pieces of legislation, such as the Anti-Terrorism

Act, 1997, under which anti-terrorism courts were established, have been formulated to cover dangerous new

realities. A couple of years ago, the government introduced a bill to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act, though the

effort came to nothing. Yesterday, the federal cabinet approved more amendments to anti-terrorism laws, while a

‗Fair Trial‘ bill has also been introduced to allow electronic evidence to be admitted in court.

On the surface, the intention is to arm security and intelligence agencies with modern techniques of surveillance

and evidence collection to ensure that nobody, especially those suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism,

escapes punishment for want of proof. But piecemeal legislation can, in the end, prove to be unwieldy and create

complications for a trial based on due process. In fact, the prob lem is not so much the absence of laws under which

militants or terrorists can be charged, but of gathering enough evidence to successfully prosecute them. In the

cases of those picked up in conflict zones, for example, there are few witnesses other than soldiers and there is

little evidence that can be used to strengthen the prosecution‘s case. In urban areas, the intimidatory tactics that

terrorist networks employ against judges, prosecutors and witnesses, and the lack of witness -protection

programmes, allow too many to remain at large. Both in anti-terrorism courts and the regular court system, poor

investigation causes the prosecution‘s case to fail.

The issue can be resolved only by beefing up investigation and evidence-gathering techniques. There could be

some instances where a special situation requires special legislation. In such cases, the legislation should be

specific and time-bound. Areas of law and policy that can be questioned by human rights groups should be referred

to the human rights ministry.

But most importantly, prosecution success rates must go up. While the country faces a difficult situation in terms of

trying militants and terrorists, the answer does not lie in compromising on the principles and requirements of due

process.

Innocence lost

September 6th, 2012

The photograph of him that appeared in the media yesterday spoke volumes: a boy bound in chains at Karachi‘s

City Courts, seated on the floor with his head down, presumably out of fatigue, humiliation or at the way he is

being treated. But the image of this prisoner was simply one disturbing representation of what is reportedly routine

in the juvenile justice system:

young people chained when brought to court, kept in custody with adult offenders and made to suffer their

childhoods or adolescence in captivity while their cases are held up by various delays — all practices that go

against the globally accepted principles of humane treatment of young prisoners and are outlawed by the Juvenile

Justice System Ordinance, 2000.

Twenty-two years after Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to

which ―every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect‖, these principles remain

unimplemented. In particular, the convention states that incarcerated children shall be separated from adults, a

practice that is not always followed

in Pakistan despite the existence of facilities for young people, rendering them vulnerable to abuse and

criminalisation.


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It is doubly ironic that the photograph was taken in Karachi; Sindh has the country‘s most progressive laws when it

comes to child rights and young prisoners. The province‘s child protection laws are based on a philosophy of reform

of juvenile prisoners rather than punishment or retribution, and, among other provisions, prescribe separate

facilities for both

children under the age of 16 and ‗youthful offenders‘ aged 17 to 25. Punjab too has a borstal law but only a

handful of borstals for juvenile offenders, like the other provinces, except Balochistan which has none. Both

international and domestic laws prescribing how young prisoners are to be treated exist, and yet for years

governments have failed to get their bureaucracies to implement them. Even the long-awaited National

Commission on the Rights of Children, once formed, will not be able to do much as long as the provinces

themselves fail to take action.

Polio and politicians

September 6th, 2012

There is good news from Tirah: children in the area have been vaccinated against polio and other preventable

diseases for the first time in several years due to the cooperation of Ansarul Islam, a militant group active in

Khyber Agency. The vaccinations had been suspended since 2009 because of hostilities between the militants and

the army. The militants apparently played a key role in convincing community members to get their children

vaccinated. But while there has been a breakthrough in Khyber Agency, the situation in North Waziristan is grim as

vaccinators still don‘t have access to children there. A ‗ban‘ was imposed by a jirga in the region earlier this year in

protest against US drone strikes. Some estimates suggest over 100,000 children may have been missed out in the

current anti-polio drive in the Agency because of the ban.

Unpleasant as it may be for the state to deal with militants, where the protection of children against polio is

concerned even this bitter pill may have to be swallowed. More so, those politicians who have sympathies or

ideological affiliation with tribal people need to convince locals — tribesmen as well as militants — to have their

children immunised. For example Imran Khan is headed to South Waziristan to lead a ‗peace march‘ in October in

protest against US drones. Mr Khan and other leaders of religious and political parties with influence in Fata need

to highlight the importance of the anti-polio campaign with as much zeal as they condemn drones. Fata is

particularly important for along with parts of Karachi and some districts of Balochistan, the tribal belt is a major

area of concern regarding polio transmission. Drones and polio are separate issues. Children must not be made

victims of the crippling disease for the sake of politics, and efforts to convince the tribal people must continue.

Sustained efforts, as the Tirah example shows, can produce results.

Listening in

September 7th, 2012

Formulating laws can be a tricky exercise; what was formerly illegal can, with the stroke of a pen, be turned legal.

Last June, for example, after the outcry over alleged extrajudicial detentions in the northwest, President Asif Ali

Zardari signed the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulations, 2011, pertaining to Fata and Pata that gave a

retrospective legal framework to the operations. We seem to be at a similar juncture again. It is no secret that the

country‘s security and intelligence apparatus have the ability to monitor cellular communications, Internet traffic,

and so on. So far, such surveillance has not had legal sanction and information thus gathered is not admissible as

evidence. This, security officials argue, leads to the failure to successfully prosecute a large number of suspected

terrorists and militants. But the Investigation for Fair Trial Bill, 2012, due to be debated in parliament, authorises

the government to tap into people‘s phone calls, emails and text messages, etc, and makes such material

admissible in court.

The government argues that such powers have been given to law-enforcement agencies in other countries as well.

And there is no getting away from the fact that the horror of 9/11 left in its wake a changed world, particularly in

terms of counterterrorism legislation and the detention of terror suspects. In Pakistan too, where communications

technology has become a key weapon in the arsenal of militants and terrorists, there has existed a need to update


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the laws to improve the state‘s capacity to prosecute suspects. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that for the

population at large, such intrusions count as a serious loss of civil libert ies and have been widely criticised in the

developed world too. In giving state agencies wide-ranging powers to monitor citizens‘ private lives and

conversations, the possibilities of misuse and abuse are immense. Further, Pakistan must be delineated from

countries such as the US or UK because of its history of intelligence agencies‘ involvement in manipulating political

outcomes. To what extent should monitoring powers mentioned in the proposed bill be granted, and to which

agencies, should be worth pondering. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Yet while invading privacy is a grave issue, so is terrorism. The bill needs, then, to be scrutinised very carefully

with an eye on both civil liberties and the possibility of abuse. There need to be specific accountabil ity and

oversight mechanisms, as well as set conditions under which listening in on citizens can be justif ied. Without such

elaborations, there is danger of the proposed laws ending up as tools of harassment and intimidation.

Twists and turns

September 7th, 2012

It's about time more light was shed on the critical Arsalan Iftikhar-Malik Riaz scandal, and there is some hope that

Shoaib Suddle‘s investigation into it might do so. The federal tax ombudsman is a man known for his competence

and integrity, and from that point of view the Supreme Court‘s choice of him to pick up the investigation is a smart

one. But his appointment, and the developments that led to it, also highlight the potential conflicts of interest

involved in this case, one that pits one of the country‘s most inf luential businessmen against the son of the

country‘s most influential judge.

From the very beginning it was clear that the case would be a test of the judiciary‘s impartiality. But the complete

dissolution of a joint investigation team that was looking into the matter, and the appointment of a one-man

commission instead, are both unusual developments. They also set a dangerous precedent. The JIT consisted of

officials from NAB, the FIA and Islamabad police, and while there is some c ircumstantial evidence that some of the

officials involved in it may have been close to Malik Riaz, its disbanding opens the door for others under

investigation in the future to refuse to comply by claiming that state agencies carrying out probes are biased. As an

alternative, some officials on the team could have been replaced rather than dissolving it altogether. Also, Mr

Suddle will need the assistance of the agencies that were represented on the JIT, and perhaps some of the

individuals themselves, and the SC has ordered that the evidence collected by the JIT be handed over to him. So if

this is a cosmetic change to some degree, that too raises the question of why the court would go to such lengths to

respond to Arsalan Iftikhar‘s objections. Ultimately, the crux of the matter is that this is no ordinary case. More

than in other instances, the SC needs to demonstrate that justice has been done. What this saga now needs is a

speedy, impartial conclusion, so that any lingering questions about corruption tainting the superior judiciary can be

put to rest.

Wildlife in danger

September 7th, 2012

In a country where human life is worth little, few are concerned about the welfare of animals. Yet biodiversity is not

something that should be brushed aside. Reports have emerged that the koonj, or demoiselle crane, is being

cruelly hunted down in southern Punjab despite the fact that the bird is protected under the province‘s wildlife

laws. A report in this paper says parties from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, apparently patronised by the Punjab wildlife

department, are leading the hunt for the bird. The elegant koonj winters in the southern areas of Punjab and

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In a related story several birds were confiscated from Karachi‘s Empress Market the other

day, among them peacocks protected under Sindh law. These recent incidents confirm the widely held belief that

hunting, trapping and smuggling of wildlife in Pakistan continues unchecked. Apart from these examples the

houbara bustard is hunted down annually by royalty from the Gulf, while attempts have been made to smugg le

falcons out of the country.

Conservationists say the problem is that provincial wildlife departments have limited resources and a huge area to

cover. For example, it is very difficult to patrol the entire Sindh-Balochistan coastline or the vast expanses of the


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Thar desert to keep a check on hunters and poachers. The obvious remedy would be to empower wildlife

departments with increased resources, especially more staffers with better training. Also, community involvement

is essential to countering hunting and poaching. Residents of areas where protected or endangered species are

hunted need to be informed that instead of killing or trapping the animals, there is incentive in letting them live

and roam freely. For example, income can be generated through the promotion of responsible eco-tourism such as

safaris and bird-watching. Lastly, the state needs to take action against those who break wildlife protection laws as

well as the officials who enable them to do so.

Beyond the law

September 8th, 2012

The move is so brazen that it would be amusing if it wasn‘t deeply worrying: three retired generals inducted back

into the military simply to prevent the civilian anti-corruption set-up from trying them for mismanagement of public

funds. The three former army men accused of violating rules to invest National Logistics Cell funds, including large

bank loans, in the stock market — and providing kickbacks and losing nearly Rs2bn in the process, including

pensioners‘ money — will now be court-martialled instead of being investigated by NAB. The two civilian NLC

managers also accused of wrongdoing will, meanwhile, continue to be subject to the NAB probe. The decision

follows three years of delays in the investigation caused mainly by the army‘s refusal to share records and

cooperate with the probe. And after all that foot-dragging, the military has f inally found a way out. The inquiry and

trial of its own men will be kept behind closed doors, despite the fact that they have squandered public money. The

message is clear: the military expects to be able to operate as a state within a state, an organisation exempt from

the rules and responsibilities under which the rest of the population operates.

The move also ra ises questions, once again, about the appropriateness of the army‘s involvement in commercial

ventures. Even those that administratively report to civilian organisations, such as the NLC, which technically sits

under the Planning Commission, are effectively controlled by the army through managers who are retired and

serving officers. The multiple reporting lines, limited civilian auditing and military influence that result make it all

the more difficult to scrutinise their operations and their use of public funds. When they provide goods and services

entirely unrelated to defence, they raise questions about whether running them is the best use of the army‘s time

and resources. In some sectors, their military connections turn them into market players that enjoy unfair

advantages compared to private companies. And now this privileged position has allowed one such entity to avoid a

civilian investigation and trial to which, as retired officers, its former managers should be liable.

Corruption within the Pakistani state is not limited to the army; from the country‘s top politicians to its lower-level

bureaucrats, government officials entertain and horrify us with a steady stream of scams. With the Malik Riaz

scandal, even the superior judiciary‘s honour has been called into question. But at least these entities are subject

to public investigations and trials, no matter how tainted or delayed. When the army takes a case into a military

court, it turns a flawed investigation into an unseen one.

An ill-considered move

September 8th, 2012

The manner in which events tend to play out in Pakistan leaves us wondering whether those in charge spend any

time at all pondering over the consequences of their actions. On Thursday, the interior ministry refused to extend

the visas of several foreign representatives of the international NGO Save the Children. While no reason has

officially been given, it is believed to be a late-stage consequence of the Osama bin Laden affair. We are still

smarting over Dr Shakeel Afridi‘s fake hepatitis vaccination campaign as well as our failure to detect the presence

in Abbottabad of the world‘s most wanted man. On Wednesday, allegations were made on a private television

channel that Save the Children was in some way linked to Dr Afridi‘s campa ign. And while the NGO was in fact

amongst those that expressed outrage over the CIA‘s alleged use of a vaccination campaign in its manhunt, its

employees have been given four weeks to leave the country.

This move has come on the heels of several incidents that demonstrate the rapidly shrinking space within which aid

organisations and charities must operate in Pakistan. Threats and attacks from militant and extremist quarters


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have already meant that a number of such organisations, including most recently the International Committee of

the Red Cross, have been forced to reduce their scale of operations. With the move against Save the Children, the

government is sending out a strong signal that it, too, is unwilling to provide support to foreigners, even those

involved in exemplary and necessary humanitarian work. The line that is strengthened is the one touted by the

extremists. The fallout, meanwhile, will be borne — once

again — by ordinary men, women and children that the state itself has no capacity or will to support. Time after

time, whether the cause is helping people displaced by floods or providing medical aid or catering to children‘s

nutritional needs, international funding and the work done by charities and aid organisations have meant that the

lives of hapless Pakistanis are a little less miserable than would otherwise have been the case. Does this stark

reality allow the administration the luxury of knee-jerk reactions?

‘My Lord’ in danger

September 8th, 2012

Appreciation is due to Janab A.K. Dogar. Where he immediately can, the lawyer is striving to free us from British

enslavement. He has been seeking banishment, from the higher courts, of titles as alien to us as ‗My Lord‘ and

‗Your Lordship‘, and pressing for the execution of an idea that was approved three decades ago.The decision to do

away with ‗My Lord‘ was taken in 1981 under Gen Zia.On Thursday, the Lahore High Court reserved the verdict on

Mr Dogar‘s petition in which he had also objected to bowing before the judges.

A person of Mr Dogar‘s reputation inspires trust that no cut-down-to-size conspiracy is afoot. He has been very

careful in presenting his argument and his points are not purely cultural. This should avoid a return to the pre -

British Mughal durbar where the complainants and their counsels would exhibit greater flexibility than what goes

into a simple bow as a sign of submission to authority. He did go off track somewhat when he suggested ‗sir‘ as an

alternative. ‗Sir‘, to begin with, is a title considered more befitting a magistrate than a superior court justice. And

‗sir‘ as a lesser British affliction would still be somewhat ref lective of our captive mentality, unless we choose to

follow it up with our own affectionate ‗jee‘, in which case we would not really know whether we were showing ‗sir

jee‘ the reverence owed to him. ‗Janab-i-aali‘ and ‗janab-i-waala‘ are more home-grown and show respect without

signifying total submission. These are two honorif ics lawyers routinely use to address the bench. ‗My Lord‘ is a

more dramatic choice, a habit rather than a compulsion, which brings us to the same old assertion that not all

debates require arbitration from busy judges. An awareness campaign in the bar would have sufficed.

More to be done

September 9th, 2012

Expectations were low ahead of Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna‘s visit to Islamabad this week and, after two

days of meetings culminating in a joint press conference yesterday, the predictions appear to have been largely

correct. The big news is the inking of a libe ralised visa regime between the two countries, a deal that was ready to

be signed several months ago when the Indian commerce secretary visited but was delayed on the Pakistani side

for as yet unspecified reasons. While welcome news, much will depend on the vigour and sincerity with which the

new visa arrangements are implemented: even the most high-minded of ideas have often failed the

implementation test when it comes to these two countries. Beyond that, however, there is not much good news to

report from the meetings that capped off a year of dialogue between Pakistan and India.

What seems to be clear is that the two countries have yet to recover the ground lost to the Mumbai attacks of

November 2008. A little nudge here, a little push forward there, the dramatic steps have been eschewed in favour

of small, uncontroversial measures. Leave aside Siachen or Sir Creek, even on the necessary move to allow

Pakistani television channels access to the Indian market, there has been no movement. In the Pakistani and

Indian context, the core issues and other problems are so well known and defined that if allowed to, diplomats,

politicians and security establishments can dance around them forever unless someone grabs the issues by the

scruff of the neck and forces some forward movement. Thus far, there is no one on either side who has been able

to do that, even as many suspect that at least at the very top of the political leadership in both countries, the

desire for normalising ties is deep and potentially meaningful.


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Perhaps the big gesture that could force a more rapid pace of normalisation is the much promised but long-awaited

trip of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan. Mr Krishna once again baulked at giving a positive

answer to Pakistan‘s invitation to Mr Singh to visit in November around the time of an important date in the

calendar of the Sikh religion. All that Mr Krishna would say is that he would go back to India and brief his prime

minister on the weekend talks and apprise him whether the situation was conducive to a visit by the Indian prime

minister. The caution on the Indian side is standard play but neither will it help achieve what Prime Minister Singh

and the Pakistani political leadership desire: movement towards a durable peace.

Too little, too late

September 9th, 2012

The inner workings of President Zardari‘s poliical mind are enigmatic at the best of times, but where he is going

with the new local government system for Sindh is truly a mystery. Perhaps he is thinking several steps beyond the

rest of us, but to the outside observer the way in which the legislation has been handled only raises questions. Why

the speed with which it is suddenly being pushed through after being delayed for nearly three years? Why the

failure to bring along all allies in a notoriously fraught provincial coalition? And why rock the boat with a hurriedly

implemented local bodies system so soon before a general election? Sindh politics is far from simple; with the

widely divergent views of the MQM, the ANP, Sindhi nationalists and other assorted parties, it requires a

challenging balancing act, not a bulldozed piece of legislation on a touchy topic, to keep all players cooperative at

the same time. And a controversial local election held right before a general election could bring up all sorts of

issues that could taint the main polls: hurriedly finalised electoral rolls, increased potential for violence in tinderbox

towns such as Karachi and Hyderabad, space for accusations of unfair advantages enjoyed during polling by those

in power locally. The president will likely find a way to piece at least parts of his Sindh coalition back together, but

at the moment the move appears to be a significant political misstep.

What it also confirms is that the cultivation of grass-roots democracy in Pakistan has yet again fallen prey to

political calculations. And that is not just true in Sindh. In every province its introduction remains stalled or fought

over, with each political party calculating what system, if any at all, would be to its greatest advantage. Military

dictators have strengthened local government to weaken political players at the provincial and national levels;

civilian set-ups have done the reverse. The back-and-forth over the issue in Sindh today is simply the continuation

of a longstanding Pakistani tradition of treating local government as a political tool rather than the building block of

democracy it should be.

Getting ahead

September 9th, 2012

Pakistan's emphatic win in the Twenty20 series against the Aussies on Friday has strengthened their chances of

reaching the top in the ICC World T20 scheduled to be staged in Sri Lanka later this month. While the venue in

Dubai has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Pakistan due to their close proximity to conditions at home, it

is the manner of the team‘s victory against the Australians that has been satisfying. It is apparent that the team‘s

strengths have begun to gel under skipper Mohammad Hafeez, but more important, the victory is proof that the

players are gaining in mental tenacity which is a key factor in the now ruthlessly competitive game of cricket. It is

this very trait that has been for long the hallmark of Australian cricket and beating the Aussies at their own game

is a good omen for Pakistan.

The second match in Dubai that went down to the wire and had to be decided through the Super Over was a nerve -

fraying contest but the winners proved themselves equal to the task. The marked improvement in Pakistani

fielding, which has long been the side‘s Achilles heel, was a pleasant sight as well. The extra effort put in by the

Pakistanis in the field, the direct hits and numerous diving saves were a treat to watch and the credit must go to

the team‘s Australian coach Dav Whatmore. Credit here must also be given to players such as Kamran Akmal,

opener Nasir Jamshed and Umar Gul whose return to the ranks have significantly lifted the performance of the

team. That said, the ICC World Twenty20 could still be a different ball game for the team under Mohammad Hafeez

but, hopefully, the recent win over the Australians in the UAE will hold them in good stead.


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Fiscal uncertainty

September 10th, 2012

It's an important question, and admittedly a delicate one. Can Pakistan‘s foreign exchange reserves hol d up

through the election cycle? In an interview to Dawn, the finance minister says yes, but leaves the door open to any

exigency that might arise given the uncertainties that are about to be unleashed with the election cycle. He says ―if

the situation warrants, one can consider … a new arrangement with the [International Monetary] Fund‖ but sees it

fit to expand no further. It‘s an entirely appropriate response, given the enormity of the implications. Nobody

should want to stir sentiment in the money markets by speculating or sensationalising news and views regarding

the reserves.

But likewise, nobody should seek to create a false sense of security either, because it‘s precisely when there is a

perceived disconnect between the mood being conveyed by the government and reality as seen by the

stakeholders that uncontrollable events tend to break out. A false sense of security is exactly how we created the

stock market crisis in 2008, which nearly became a systemic financial crisis. We don‘t want a repeat of t hat episode

again, and it‘s worth our while to remember that the election cycle of 2007 and 2008 began with ―record high

reserves‖ and ended with Pakistan rushing to the IMF for rapid emergency assistance.

The timeline for the election cycle begins with the announcement of the election schedule, and continues to the

announcement and arrival of a caretaker set-up, to the conduct of polls, and then the tallying up of the new

parliamentary arithmetic and parleys to form a ruling coalition, and then the summoning of the next assemblies

and election of the new prime minister and appointment of the full cabinet. By the time this cycle ends, and we

have a new cabinet in place, we will be close to or past the end of this fiscal year. The finance minister can

reassure us that the economy will be looked after while he occupies the office, but what happens between the

arrival of the caretaker and formation of the next cabinet is the real question at hand. That time period is when our

reserves situation will be at its most delicate, and the fiscal facts of life will be mute and helpless. It‘s worth a

thought to consider how things could play out in that intervening period.

‘Coin flip race’


With the Democratic Party formally nominating President Barack Obama as its candidate on Thursday, the election

has become what the media is calling a ‗coin flip race‘. Even though the president still enjoys a slight edge over

Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee is making rapid gains and hitting President Obama hard where he is

vulnerable — the economy: 8.2 per cent unemployment, three million jobless; and unsatisfactory healthcare. Mr

Romney — with a personal fortune of $250m — claims he can fix the economy, though the Obama camp derides

him because of his corporate background, saying it is big business that would gain at the expense of the American

people. They have a point, for Mr Romney‘s election pledge includes a brazen tilt in favour of the profit -maximising

industrial conglomerates — tax relief for the rich and cuts in government spending.

President Obama inherited his predecessor‘s mess, with a $3tr deficit. The economy was in recession because of

the bank crash, and it goes to President Obama‘s credit that he avoided a second recession by reviving the au to

industry. The issue today is the American middle class, which feels squeezed and finds it difficult to maintain its

lifestyle. Mr Romney‘s cuts, the Democrats allege, could affect even education and research, thus further hitting

the middle class. Very embarrassing for Mr Romney, his own policies on healthcare, gun control and abortion as

Massachusetts governor bear a striking resemblance to the Obama policies he is criticising. In foreign affairs

President Obama claims successes: he has ended the Iraq war, the Afghan pullout is set for 2014, Al Qaeda has

been crippled and Osama bin Laden taken care of. Mr Romney, he says, is ―new to foreign policy‖, though the

Republicans claim that America‘s image in the Muslim world is worse than what it was under the Bush

administration. Basically it is domestic issues rather than foreign policy that would determine the out come of

the presidential race.

The Muslim world will judge the man in the White House by his policies towards the Palestinian issue and watch

whether his anti-terror policies acquire an anti-Islamist hue.


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Clogged drains


Come the monsoons and many city dwellers start dreading the prospects of urban flooding. And as a picture

published in this newspaper recently — of a storm-drain in Karachi oozing with mounds of garbage — showed,

these fears are not unfounded. The picture belies the civic agencies‘ claims of being prepared for the rains. During

the recent spell of wet weather Peshawar and Karachi seem to have borne the brunt of rain-related havoc.

Thankfully, the damage was limited, but that was more due to the fact that less rain was received, at least in

Karachi. Still, problems were caused which could have been avoided with proper urban planning. Low-lying areas in

both cities were f looded, while prolonged power outages due to creaky infrastructure were also reported. Traffic

jams were also a major problem, especially in Karachi, mostly caused by panicky motorists in a rush to get home

to avoid getting caught in a flood of water. However, traffic officials in the metropolis also attributed the gridlock to

drainage issues, as stagnant water caused bottlenecks.

Clearing clogged drains to allow for the proper drainage of rainwater is the best solution to minimise the effects of

urban flooding. Yet civic agencies across the country fail to realise this year after year. In Karachi there are spots

that are notorious for drainage problems, while Peshawar‘s sewerage system is also in bad shape. These

deficiencies need to be addressed to prevent perennial flooding and the ensuing havoc. The need to clear clogged

drains was highlighted several times before the arrival of the monsoons, but these warnings were not taken

seriously. And it is not as if the rains came suddenly — the authorities had plenty of time to prepare as this year‘s

monsoons came quite late in the season. If rainwater drainage issues continue to be ignored by the civic bodies, it

will only add to citizens‘ woes.

Pricing mechanism


Pricing reform in the oil and gas sector has received a boost lately. The days since the end of Ramazan have seen

two important initiatives which were long overdue. One is the new petroleum policy, which provides incentives to

the private sector to enhance output of gas from existing fields and to expand the search for new gas f inds. The

second is the reform of petroleum pricing, a measure that was passed in the days just prior to Eid, and has been

implemented subsequently. As a result of the latter reform, prices of fuels like petrol and diesel are no longer set

by the government as they used to be. Rather, the oil marketing companies set the price and announce it to the

government and consumers. Moreover, where the government used to set the price every two weeks, now the

OMCs will announce a new price every week, depending on the direction in which oil prices have moved in the

international market.

Two things need to be said about this reform of petroleum pricing. First are the contradictory statements given by

the petroleum minister when the reform measure was still under consideration. It was disappointing to see the

minister sit before the relevant standing committees in the legislature and oppose the reform. All three standing

committees that held hearings on the reform measure opposed it and instead argued for capping oil prices at levels

obtaining on July 21. It was puzzling to see the minister add his voice to this populist consensus, and agree to

carry this recommendation to the prime minister with his support. It was equally perplexing to see him go public

with the bizarre proposal to cap oil prices for Eid, as a ―gift to the people‖. This step cost the government more

than Rs1bn in subsidy payments until it was rescinded days after Eid, at the insistence of the finance minister. It is

to the prime minister‘s credit that he ignored the populist advice that was proffered with the support of the

petroleum minister, and that he opted for the saner advice of the finance ministry instead.

Equally mystifying was the minister‘s presence at the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee where this

measure was agreed upon, with the proposal for deregulating prices in his hands. How can one support

deregulation at one forum, and back price caps at another? Secondly, there is also an important need to stabilise

prices at the pump by absorbing the adjustment in prices in the petroleum development levy instead of passing

fluctuations through to the pumps.


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No lessons learnt


If the picture hadn‘t appeared on our pages with a caption delineating its archaeological status, the reader could be

forgiven for thinking of the ruins of Mohenjodaro as a low-income settlement in a poor country where people,

lacking technology and awareness, still went about their work in a rudimentary way. The picture shows a ragged

labourer attempting to clear an area of rainwater with a bucket, protecting one structure even as he endangers

another. Given the site‘s archaeological significance, we would have thought that the government would have

prioritised putting in place a more effective system to protect the ruins from degradation. In fact, the actual work

accomplished is a case of too little, too late. The Sindh culture department had allocated Rs3m for pre -monsoon

preparations, but the rains — which came late this year — started while work was still under way. Whether

anything was actually completed can be gauged by the drainage methods being used after the deluge.

This lack of administrative preparedness is not confined to historical sites; the picture is no different in the rest of

the country. Just prior to the start of the monsoons there was agreement in meteorological quarters that the rains

were likely to be heavy. The need for provincial and district-level administrations to take pre-emptive measures

such as shoring up embankments, de-silting canals and evacuating populations along embankments was

underscored. From the state, there were assurances that such work was already under way, with that favourite

catchphrase of the administration — ‗on red alert‘ — being bandied about by all and sundry. And yet, here we are

again: many people dead, vast tracts of agricultural land inundated and embankments washed away with the

corresponding toll on the economy. During the most recent spell of rain, people have been swept away by flash

floods or died as roofs and buildings collapsed. While some of the onus lies with the citizenry — every year there

are cases of people refusing to evacuate a threatened area even when directed — there is too much evidence that

the state machinery creaks into action only after the event. Can the Pakistani administrative edifice not learn?

Buddhist sites


Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has more than natural beauty. For Buddhists worldwide it has Takht Bahi, near Mardan,

which Unesco rates as Pakistan‘s most complete Buddhist monastery. Organised on modern lines, even this small

segment of Pakistan‘s vast tourism potential can prove to be lucrative. However, no Buddhist faithful, no matter

how keen on pilgrimage, would come to Pakistan if he does not feel safe. Providing security for him is thus the first

task the authorities should think of as they strive to organise Pakistan‘s tourism industry according to international

standards. Swat‘s v irtual occupation by the Taliban had dealt a blow to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‘s tourism industry;

the terrorists‘ expulsion from that tourist paradise, however, had only a marginal impact on tourist traffic because

of the larger national image in which Pakistan has come to be associated with violence directed against minorities

in the country and non-Muslim visitors.

The provincial government‘s eagerness to revive tourism and make use of an opportunity to do so must be

welcomed. Under the 18th Amendment Islamabad has handed over nearly 100 archaeological sites to the

provincial government. The latter also wants the Starving Buddha, a Gandhara masterpiece in the Lahore museum,

back in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There are nearly 4,000 Buddhist relics in museums all over Pakistan, and Peshawar

quite legitimately lays claim to them. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism Corporation is also expanding and

reconstructing the Swat museum with Italian help. However, tourism cannot click without a f lourishing domestic

industry, and more effort is needed to boost this.

Terrorism has driven away foreign visitors, investors, artists and scholars and discouraged Pakistanis themselves

from exploring their own country. Buddhists from Japan, South Korea and other Far Eastern and Southeast Asian

countries would flock to Pakistan in droves if they could be sure of the safety of life and limb.


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Sectarian attack


A powerful car bomb on Monday shattered the relative calm that had prevailed in Parachinar over the last few

months. The bomb exploded in a market, killing and injuring a number of people. A similar blast had struck a

bazaar in the Kurram Agency capital in February. The TTP‘s Ghazi group — a hitherto unknown outfit — has

claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeted at Shias. However, too much effort should not be spent

on scrutinising the names of groups, as militants have a habit of regularly splintering into factions and re -branding

themselves — such is the amorphous nature of militancy in Pakistan. In this case, there are suggestions that the

attack could have been the handiwork of some elements from the TTP chapter in Darra Adamkhel.

While many parts of the country are currently being affected by sectarian terrorism — and Parachinar cannot be

detached from this wider narrative — the region also has its own particular dynamics, as tribal vendettas get

intertwined with sectarian politics. Yet while some degree of tension has existed between Kurram‘s Shia and Sunni

tribes in the strategically important area for the past few decades, in the current situation it has been witnessed

that elements from outside the Agency are working to sabotage peace efforts. Such attacks often occur whenever

normality is beginning to take root in Kurram. Hence, the security forces need to concentrate their efforts on

ensuring that militants from outside Kurram are unable to sneak in to carry out acts of terrorism.

It has been noted that the opening of the Thall-Parachinar road last October has made militants‘ access to Ku rram

easier. When the arterial road was closed for several years, it presented a different set of difficulties for Kurram

residents, severing communication links with the region and the rest of Pakistan. Now that the route is open,

blocking the militants‘ access must be ensured. Thankfully, there has been no communal violence after Monday‘s

bombing. But if the situation is not contained, tensions can easily escalate. The area has witnessed horrific violence

in the past. The security establishment must increase troop deployment in all troubled areas to reassure residents

while the state should take tribal representatives and elders into confidence in an effort to maintain communal

harmony. The tribes in the past have pledged to work towards peace, hence all external irritants attempting to

harm the peace process must be neutralised. The intelligence apparatus must also work towards thwarting further

attacks while most importantly, there‘s a need for security forces to remain vigilant regarding elements from

outside Kurram trying to get in and disturb the peace.

Mystery deepens


In an already enigmatic case, a mysterious piece of reporting has appeared that carries potentially disruptive

implications for Pakistan‘s most tortuous bilateral relationship. The interview of the jailed Dr Shakil Afridi that has

been published on the Fox News website and is highly critical of the ISI prompts many questions: where and how

was it carried out? How did the reporter gain access to the doctor?

When Dr Afridi spoke to the reporter, was he aware that he would be quoted in a widely available interview, and

did he do so willingly despite knowing he would still be at the mercy of Pakistani police and intelligence the next

day? Knowing the answers to these is important because, for one, the fate of Dr Afridi has become a point of

disagreement between Pakistan and the US, and the authenticity and reliability of such sensitive reporting on the

issue needs to be established. Second, Dr Afridi appears to make broad claims about the ISI‘s strategies, tactics

and militant links, and it is unclear what qualifies him to do so. A domestic audience may be able to determine how

much is speculation and how much fact, but internationally, his words will be taken s further evidence of Pakistani

duplicity whether or not they are rooted in actual knowledge of the ISI‘s links and actions.

Much of this could have been avoided if Dr Afridi had had access to a fair and transparent judicial process. Instead,

carried out under the Frontier Crimes Regulation and charging him with crimes that had nothing to do with the

Abbottabad raid, his trial has only given rise to suspicions at home and abroad that the goal of the Pakistani

authorities is to detain him one way or another. It has also raised legitimate questions about why they want to do

so despite Dr Afridi being either unaware of his role in the plot or, even if he was aware, helping to capture an

enemy of both Pakistan and the US. Sadly, it is Pakistan‘s own dubious treatment of Dr Afridi that has left it


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vulnerable to the further accusations that this interview will lead to.

Loose words


―Is … [Pakistan] a banana republic?‖ So went the angry rhetoric to which a PML-Q senator resorted in the National

Assembly while criticising the recent arrival of a delegation of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary

Disappearances. By his own account, Mohammed Raza Hayat Hiraj fears that the team‘s report might be used to

highlight the views of the ―one per cent‖ separatists of Balochistan. However, he needs reminding that the

euphemistically named but very serious issue of ‗forced disappearances‘ has been with us for several years now.

Repeated efforts and appeals from human rights organisations, the families of the disappeared and even organs of

the state have failed to produce any meaningful answers as to who, within what agency, is indulging in unlawful

detentions and how those thought to be in illegal custody can be recovered. The unhappy fact is that too often,

suspected ‗kill-and-dump‘ victims turn out to be those thought to have been made to forcibly ‗disappear‘. While

Balochistan appears to be the main theatre of operations of such transgressions, there are indications that similar

tactics are being employed elsewhere too.

The missing persons issue is already being investigated by the Supreme Court and a parliamentary committee on

national security. If the country‘s security forces are not involved, as they have repeatedly affirmed, then there‘s

nothing to hide. The UN committee ought to be given full access and support at every level of the administration.

This murky issue needs to be cleared up. At the international level, it casts an ugly shadow over Pakistan, which

already has a poor human rights record, while at the national level it erodes public faith in a security apparatus

that is stretched to the limit trying to contain threats from myriad quarters, and which needs every drop of support

it can muster.

Karachi’s inferno


Clearly the country‘s worst industrial disaster, the factory blaze in Karachi will be seared in memory as the

Pakistani worker‘s 9/11. Like the factory fire that struck Lahore on the same day killing over 20 people, it had long

been building up in the casinos of government officials who make their fortune gambling on the lives of the hapless

millions. The tragedy that began to unfold on Tuesday has taken the entire country in an asphyxiating grip of grief

mixed with rage. Questions, though belated, are being asked about the non-implementation of safety standards

and the massive corruption in government ranks which led to such flagrant violations of the law. These questions

must also be put to all departments concerned — whether labour, industries or local and provincial administrations

— and responsibility affixed for the catastrophe. Compensation too must be given to the families of the dead or

injured, many of them the sole breadwinners for old parents and children in a society where poverty has struck

deep roots.

With this tragedy, it has become imperative for all factories in the country to undergo regular inspections and a

thorough cleanup. Anything short of that will be an insult to the hundreds who over the years have paid with their

lives for a system that is rotten to the core. Changing the system will be a challenge to stranded workers looking

for an exit from the virtual hell that still must erupt into an inferno to get noticed — a challenge which others in

civil society must help the workers take on.

Factories in Pakistan are kingdoms unto themselves. They are concentration camps where workers are denied their

basic rights enshrined in the constitution, in the country‘s labour laws and in international conventions. Even a

proper appointment letter is more often than not a favour, and not a rule, and those who are not employed as per

the regulations have no claim to privileges, not even compensation in accident cases. Trade unions are a luxury

which can hurt the owners‘ interests. The government promises to reinvigorate them but is either too meek or too

overwhelmed by petty profits to even try and implement the existing law. The presence of unions could have

ensured better working conditions — more f ire exits at least — for those lost forever in the industrial holes in

Karachi and Lahore. But then recent anti-terrorism cases against workers in Faisalabad and Karachi spell out just

how diff icult it is to even demand something as basic as a union. This betrays a flawed policy and must change.


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Organised, active unions are the first and vital defence against greedy employers and their equally selfish partners

in government. Allowed enabling space, these organised workers could ultimately provide the country with the

forward-looking front so desperately needed.

Numbers yet again


Once again the power bureaucracy has been asked to provide a list of defaulters, and once more they have

produced their favourite list which gives names of government departments and ‗inf luential individuals‘ who a re not

paying their electricity bills and whose connections cannot be disconnected due to political inf luence. The list has

been provided by the Water and Power Minister to the National Assembly in response to a question fielded by an

opposition MNA. The total outstanding receivables that the power distribution companies are claiming stand at

Rs232bn, according to the minister‘s response which gives a slightly more detailed breakdown of which distribution

companies are owed how much by what category of consumer.

But here ends the whole affair. Except for those with a fondness for lists and figures nothing good ever comes of

these exercises. Similar lists and figures of power-sector losses have been produced on many occasions in the past,

only to be remarked upon and then buried. The last such figure made the news only a few weeks ago, when

finance ministry sources leaked that power-sector receivables had crossed Rs472bn, and were accumulating at the

rate of Rs1bn per day. Note these figures don‘t tally with the figure provided by the minister to the National

Assembly, unless a payment of around Rs240bn has been made in the past fortnight, something that has not been

reported. It‘s not unusual for power-sector numbers provided by the government to not tally. Very little effort is

made by the ministry to conscientiously vet the numbers. Instead of these episodic and ad hoc disclosures of

unverified numbers, what the power sector needs is a disclosure regime mandated by law which sets a template for

all the data that needs to be released on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Only then will we be able

to get a proper picture of what is going wrong where in the power sector‘s finances.

Safety of routes


On Tuesday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister announced that a special security force for the

protection of passengers using the Karakoram Highway was being raised. This announcement, coming in the wake

of several deadly ambushes on the highway and on the route connecting Quetta to Iran, should be welcomed.

Nevertheless, it is hoped that the exercise in planning protection for these vulnerable routes is undertaken keeping

the state‘s capacity in mind. Most of those pulled out of buses and killed both on the Karakoram Highway and

Balochistan belonged to the Shia community. Ambushes have taken place in Kohistan, Mansehra and Quetta this

year while pilgrims bound for Iran were massacred in Mastung last year. Concerned officials have met at the

interior ministry in Islamabad, but so far little has been done to visibly increase the security of those using these

two volatile routes.

Some solutions towards securing both routes are common, while others require action particular to the situation.

For instance, buses should be grouped in convoys and travel with security escorts on both routes. However, locals

in Gilgit-Baltistan point out that it is beyond the authorities‘ capacity to realistically patrol the entire Karakoram

Highway because of its length and treacherous terrain. Instead, they want the administration to address the root of

the problem by prosecuting and punishing hate-mongers active in Gilgit town. Underpinning such measures would

be a stronger effort by the intelligence apparatus to identify militants and alert security officials to impending

attacks. Allegations that elements within the security apparatus are either colluding with or looking the other way

while militants carry out their butchery also need to be investigated. Unless such definitive measures are planned

and implemented, the assertion that the state has no concern for vulnerable travellers targeted by terrorist groups

would stand justified.


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Time to act


Several inquiry teams have been set up, suo motu notice has been taken and glib promises made about the

payment of compensation. At the provincial and federal levels, officialdom has loudly reiterated that those found

responsible will face that favourite of governmental red herrings, ‗stern action‘. More than 250 people died when a

garment manufacturing unit in Karachi‘s SITE area turned into a raging inferno; the horror faced by most of the

workers in their last moments does not bear thinking of. Can we nurse hopes that their lives were not lost entirely

in vain? Could future researchers on labour reform in Pakistan look back at this tragedy as the turning point that

caused the sluggish administration to wake up to its responsibilities towards enforcing labour and safety standard

laws?

Sadly, if the past is taken as an indicator, the chances are slim. It is in the manner of things in Pakistan that each

new tragedy, each preventable accident — even those as heartbreaking as this one — is met with promises of good

intentions to fix the system, only to be forgotten within days and weeks as the lethargy returns. Whether it is a

road accident that could have been prevented by more stringent tests for road-worthiness, a CNG cylinder

explosion that could have been averted had installation and manufacturing taken place under honest governmenta l

oversight, or a building that collapsed because the construction codes were not enforced, the administration‘s

response is to wait it out until some new outrage forces it to the back of society‘s memory.

In cases involving the industrial lobby, groups that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo — and

these are comprised of individuals for whom such tragedies have a monetary, not human, dimension — find the

state to be quite compliant and unwilling to improve working conditions for the voice less labour force. The state‘s

predilection towards capitulating is quite clear: since the late 1990s, different administrations in Punjab and Sindh

bowed before the industrialist lobby and barred inspectors from entering the factory premises to check if safety and

other standards mandated by the law were being met. And while Punjab overturned the ban early this year, the

dysfunction of the labour inspection system is evident from the similar tragedy that befell workers of a Lahore unit

on the same day. The labour inspection system is an essential first step from where workers‘ rights issues can be

addressed. Will the government ever find the will to stand up in support of the rights and safety of the millions that

are its raison d‘être?

Fixing accountability


NAB‘s appointment of a new adviser to the chairman is a reminder that the agency is often in the news for

developments that have little to do with its mandate. Viewed as a body on its way out pending the creation of a

new watchdog under a new accountability law, and at the same time considered vulnerable to government

influence, the so-called National Accountability Bureau appears to have become largely toothless. Its now-

overturned appointment by the attorney general to take the lead in the Arsalan Iftikhar-Malik Riaz case, for

example — a matter arguably beyond its jurisdiction — has reinforced the impression that the administration views

it as a tool to be used strategically. Restrained from pursuing high-profile cases against those close to the ruling

party or against important opposition figures — witness the obstacles it has faced in pur-suing corruption cases

against the Sharifs — it has only been able to tackle smaller cases even after the long-awaited appointment of the

current chief in October, when the body had been without a chairman for several months. NAB is also dogged by

rumours of nepotism, with the chairman having been charged by the body‘s own officers — although the petition

was later withdrawn — of appointing his favourites in key positions in violation of procedure. From frequent

personnel changes to allegations of bias and questions about its relevance, NAB needs an overhaul if it is to be

taken seriously as an anti-corruption organisation.

But will the new accountability law being circulated between the ruling party and the opposition do much to change

this? Leaks to the media suggest the draft bill goes some way towards creating a more autonomous body; its head

would be appointed by a parliamentary commission consisting of both treasury and opposition members. But

apparently there are still loopholes such as a bar on investigating foreign assets, a time limit on pursuing cases, no

jurisdiction over cases already in process when the law is enacted and protection for acts committed ―in good


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faith‖. NAB has already gone from a body seen as aggressively pursuing politically motivated cases to one that isn‘t

doing much about high-level corruption. Will its replacement be even more ineffectual?

A common platform


A few months after it was reactivated at the national level, the Milli Yakjehti Council held the first major meeting of

its Sindh chapter in Karachi on Wednesday. With Qazi Hussain Ahmed heading the grouping of religious parties,

participants of the meeting made all the right noises, pledging to combat communal divisions and sectarian

terrorism in Pakistan. It is a positive move by religious leaders, especially considering the current noxious

atmosphere in the country. Qazi Sahib also clarif ied that the MYC is not an election alliance. The former Jamaat -i-

Islami chief has long been trying to bring together different Muslim factions; the MYC is an interesting mix of Shia

and Sunni parties, including representatives of various sub-groups. It was symbolic to hold the moot in Karachi,

bearing in mind the city‘s recent history of sectarian strife. Perhaps the council should also meet in other hot spots

across Pakistan where communal violence is threatening the social fabric. The MYC also passed a resolution

condemning sectarian killings in Karachi, Quetta and Gilgit-Baltistan.

But beyond condemnations, the men of the cloth need to take practical steps to help stem the seemingly

unstoppable tide of hatred and bigotry that is sweeping this country. The council must address the root causes of

sectarian violence: the spread of hate material and the existence of sectarian militias. The ulema must devise a

code of conduct that comes down hard on preachers who use the pulpit or the media to fan the flames of hatred,

especially when it comes to declaring others kafirs or non-believers. Also, the mainstream clergy needs to rein in

sectarian militants; while some ulema indeed have no control over these elements, there are certain figures within

the MYC whom the militants look up to. The MYC‘s efficacy will only be proved if it can make progress on these two

critical fronts.

A delicate moment


A dubious character of unclear nationality makes a highly offensive film about Islam and Prophet Muhammad

(PBUH) in the US. With the help of others who, based on the available footage, had little purpose beyond

tastelessly mocking the religion, a portion of it reaches the Arab world on the Internet. Understandably, in a part of

the world where many are protective of their faith above all else, these clips spark deep offence. And the protests

that follow once again feed into the false and destabilising impression that there is a war between civilisations,

raising questions about whether Muslim countries and the West can survive peacefully alongside each other in an

increasingly globalised world. The reality is, though, that controversies such as the one over this film or the Danish

cartoons or the Quran-burning in Texas are not in fact conflicts between monolithic concepts of ‗Islam‘ and ‗the

West‘. Nor are they attempts by certain countries or governments to destablise others. They are storms brewed by

small numbers of incendiary, irresponsible people with little regard for global sensitivities or the consequences their

actions can have.

The best way to respond to such actions is to ignore them or to protest peacefully, and that is where the reaction

to the film clips in some Muslim countries could have been different. Attacking American missions and their

innocent employees holds a government responsible for the actions of independent actors. It chooses violence over

the rule of law. And it works against Muslims themselves, strengthening the paranoid impression that has

developed around the world that they harbour a deep and dangerous hatred of all things non-Muslim. Responding

violently to the creations of fringe elements simply feeds into the false impressions of Islam these elements believe

in and are trying to perpetuate.

But in the days to come it is not just violence, but politics and diplomacy that will also be at stake. How this plays

out will in part depend on how the issue is handled by America and Egypt, where the president is trying to balance

the country‘s newly won democracy with his obligations to the outside world. The US-backed Arab Spring has, as a

natural consequence of increased freedom, given more space to religious conservatives. The way to tackle this

increased complexity is for America to honour sensitivities in the Muslim world and for Muslim countries to keep

violence in check. Neither can afford to let democracy in the region, or relations between America and Muslim


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countries, be held hostage to the actions of a group of reckless and insensitive f ilm-makers.

Unclear changes


The revisions to the Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Regulations may be a

positive move but hardly go far enough. For instance, under the new regulations ―banks/DFIs shall not open or

maintain anonymous accounts or accounts in the name of fictitious persons or numbered accounts‖ and ―shall not

provide any banking services to proscribed entities and persons or to those who are associated with such entities

and persons, whether under the proscribed name or with a different name‖. The layperson can be forgiven for

being puzzled. Does this mean that before the new regulations, banks were able to open anonymous accounts,

numbered accounts, accounts in the name of proscribed entities and persons connected with the latter? If so, how

was this possible after years of fighting a war against internal insurgent groups widely reported to be using funds

earned from illegal activities to finance their operations? If not, why were these regulations issued in the first

place?

There is much in the new regulations that makes one wonder if we have been serious in our campaign against

militancy all along. For example, we know that money is moving through the clearing houses of Quetta and

Peshawar in quantities so large that one cannot even guess what kind of economic activity is driving these. If it‘s

true that banks have not been maintaining enough data about the intercity movement of funds, especially data

that would help identify the beneficiary, then that is an oversight that must be explained. Will banks now maintain

a list of proscribed groups and individuals associated with them so as to be able

to deny them account- opening privileges? Much of what needs to be done to ensure the financial system has no

entry points for illicit money — for money belonging to proscribed groups and for tax-evaded wealth — requires

greater cooperation between the financial system and authorities such as the Federal Board of Revenue and interior

ministry. Let‘s hope this first step towards cleaning up our financial system is followed up by other measures

required to make anti money-laundering and terror-financing efforts more effective.

An impatient ANF


The Anti Narcotics Force could have avoided the unsavoury episode outside the Supreme Court on Friday. It is true

that the force was tasked to arrest MNA Ali Musa Gilani and there were also reports the accused had gone into

hiding. Yet the visibly forceful interception when a court hearing was just a few yards away made little sense. With

live cameras at hand, the ANF roughed up the young MNA before arresting him as he arrived to appear before the

SC.

In something of an anticlimax, Mr Gilani was free after barely an hour in custody — and he was free to contribute

to his party‘s case against the ‗selective persecution‘ of its members. Speaking outside the court following the

acceptance of his bail plea in the ephedrine quota investigation, he found the moment opportune for a comparison

between those who abided by the law and those who didn‘t. His emphasis was on his status as an elected

representative and he was soon joined by party colleagues protesting, one, the humiliation of parliamentarians and

two, singling out PPP for this treatment.

By the looks of it an incident that could have been averted is going to spur another charged round in the ongoing

debate. The PPP will come up with more ‗evidence‘ to prove its allegations and its political opponents will try to

paint the PPP government as corrupt beyond redemption. Along with its more obvious fallouts, its political gains

and losses, this politicisation of the affair could stall the start of a wider, more thorough probe into the

pharmaceutical industry that the emergence of this case had promised. Few have been able to venture into this

territory even when it is a constant source of rumour and suspicion and is so worthy of some intervention by an

authoritative force.


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Unnecessary words


When Abdul Qadeer Khan speaks, there‘s always a sense that perhaps it were best if he hadn‘t. In a fawning

interview given to a section of the local media, the controversial key f igure in Pakistan‘s acquisition of the nuclear

deterrent has claimed that he was ordered by then prime minister Benazir Bhutto to transfer nuclear technology to

two countries essentially, giving Mr Khan‘s activities an official imprimatur. Prima facie, as with much else that the

erratic Mr Khan has claimed in public since his spectacular fall nearly a decade ago, the latest allegations are fairly

implausible. In both her terms as prime minister, Ms Bhutto was known to have been kept far away from decisions

on the nuclear programme by the self-appinted nuclear guardians, i.e. the army high command. Indeed, this was

true for civilians generally, with Nawaz Sharif, the other leader of a civilian dispensation between generals Zia and

Musharraf, having no input in the safety and security of the nuclear programme.

The more riveting truth that the interview glossed over was that this is the first time Mr Khan has of his own

volition admitted to being involved in proliferation. When he appeared on TV during the Musharraf years to take

responsibility for the nuclear proliferation from Pakistan he later claimed it was done under duress. Now that he

has finally owned up to his role, he has seen fit to transfer blame to the civilian leadership of the time and just cast

himself as someone following orders. That is a narrative that even the most credulous of observers would f ind hard

to take at face value; the powers-that-be in Pakistan are well known to all.

There is a broader problem with Mr Khan‘s public pronouncements, however. The Pakistani security establishment

has worked hard to formalise and strengthen control over the country‘s nuclear programme and while much of the

work has taken place away from the public eye, there is a growing consensus among experts, national and

international, that both the safety and security of the Pakistani nuclear programme have been vastly improved. Of

course, in nuclear matters, particularly with the very serious internal security threats Pakistan faces, there is no

room for complacency. In that environment, A.Q. Khan‘s assertions are an unnecessary and unwelcome distraction

from present-day concerns. And, as he embarks on a fledgling political career, if Mr Khan continues to hold forth on

his controversial past, it will only give more ammunition to hardliners in the international community who want

Pakistan to be treated as a nuclear rogue state with a terrorism proble m. A.Q. Khan should weigh his words more

carefully.

Times of fear


As two recent incidents indicate, everyday life in many parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas is on the

verge of paralysis due to fear of the Taliban. The extremist militants have put up threatening posters in Matani

Bazaar in the outskirts of Peshawar. Such is the dread of the Taliban that locals prefer not to discuss the posters

amongst themselves for fear of being ‗reported‘ to the militants. While advis ing traders to ‗focus on their business‘,

the message conveyed by the posters is that the Taliban have eyes and ears in the area. In a related development,

motorbikes have been banned in the Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur Agency for ‗security reasons‘, as the authorities fear

militants could use motorbikes for ‗anti-social activities‘. The logic of this decision is difficult to comprehend and we

can safely assume the ban will hit the common people a lot harder than it will the Taliban. In the past barbers have

been threatened for shaving beards while cellphone shop owners have been warned against uploading songs or

movies on the phones. The current situation bears comparison to what was going on in Swat before security forces

evicted militants from the region in 2009.

If the state cannot pull down threatening posters from the outskirts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital, how can it

be expected to protect people from militant attacks? Locals have been quite critical of what they say is the police‘s

inaction over the posters. The Taliban cannot be allowed to dictate people‘s lives. Instead of being silent

spectators, the authorities need to actively prevent the creeping growth of Talibanisation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

and Fata. If the Taliban can have informers within the civilian population, the intelligence apparatus needs to stay

one step ahead and keep better tabs on the militants. One major problem that has been pointed out is that the

tribal lashkars the state has supported to counter the Taliban are being neglected. It is essential the authorities


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take locals into confidence so that effective counter-intelligence and counterterrorism moves can be taken against

the militants to check the growth of extremism.

A symbolic gesture


Resignations in protest have been witnessed occasionally but Friday‘s resignation by Abdul Rauf Siddiqi from his

post as Sindh‘s industries minister is different. This occasion stands delineated from others because it appears to

be about a senior government functionary‘s frustration at his inability to plug the administrative holes that allowed

Karachi‘s fire tragedy to occur. Mr Siddiqi says that he found himself ―helpless and with no authority to move

against the people responsible‖ for the blaze that killed over 250 people. The tragedy is on a scale where heads

would have rolled in countries in which politicians have more of a conscience than what is usually displayed by their

counterparts in Pakistan. Yet while the country is no stranger to disasters that could either have been averted by

proper administrative oversight or whose effects could have been mitigated by efficient administrative reaction,

more often than not politicians are content to ride out the storm rather than shoulder any responsibility.

Mr Siddiqi‘s resignation is a gesture that betrays more symbolism than culpability, for the key institutions

responsible for safety measures and labour rights are the civil defence department and the labour ministry, neither

of which fell under his purview as minister. Nevertheless, his move sends out a strong signal that may lend some

small measure of strength to the bereaved. More importantly, though, the creaking edifice of administration and

governmental oversight is in desperate need of a thorough overhaul. The labour inspection system needs to be

revitalised — in the case of Sindh the bar on inspectors entering workplaces must be lifted. The most important

thing officialdom can do in the memory of the victims of the country‘s biggest industrial calamity is to make sure

that such a tragedy does not happen again.

A delicate dance


The first step in a carefully choreographed two-step has been pulled off with diplomatic dexterity: US Special

Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, and his team have completed a two-day visit to

Islamabad without any f ireworks. The next step is Foreign Minister Hina Khar‘s visit to Washington later this week

where it is hoped that a whittled-down and more focused framework for ties between the two countries will be

formalised. If that sounds relatively straightforward, recent history suggests it will be anything but that. A low-key

operator who eschews public drama, Mr Grossman‘s visit nonetheless pulled the curtain back ever so slightly on the

deep differences that separate the two sides. President Zardari was quoted as demanding an end to drone strikes,

while the US side made sure that its demand for the release of Shakil Afridi, the imprisoned Pakistani doctor who

aided the Americans in their attempt to hunt down Osama bin Laden, was given a public airing. Clearly, then, much

bad blood and mistrust characterise a relationship that neither side really wants to be in but cannot afford to break

off entirely either.

Confused — and confusing to the outsider — as the official Pakistani approach may be to its relationship with the

US, there is also an unmistakable sense that the Americans themselves are unsure about how to proceed with

Pakistan. The White House is focused on a re-election campaign in which foreign policy, particularly Pakistan,

barely figures. The special representative position held by Mr Grossman may not exist come the next presidency,

Republican or Democrat. The US military, which pushed hard for the designation of the Haqqanis as a f oreign

terrorist organisation, is thought to be looking at Pakistan as a plausible scapegoat when the inevitable military

failure in Afghanistan is accepted in the US. The CIA, having dealt directly the most with its intelligence

counterparts in Pakistan, has seen too much double-dealing over the last decade to be won over by any assurances

at this stage. The counterterrorism and national security agencies are rabid about international jihadis and want to

squeeze Pakistan further. And the US Congress has many hostile elements and no real friends of Pakistan. All those

disparate elements have yet to be brought together in terms of a coherent and focused approach on Pakistan; in

the near term, it seems virtually impossible that it will happen.


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Here in Pakistan, at least one good option is still available: put our own house in order for Pakistan‘s sake. For

regardless of whether ties with the US improve or deteriorate, regardless of whether Afghanistan emerges fairly

stable or slips back into chaos, Pakistan‘s primary interest ought to be to ensure domestic stability security-wise,

economically and politically. A zero- tolerance approach to militancy is the starting point for an internally secure

Pakistan that would ensure that regional and international relationships are engaged in from a position of strength.

Pre-poll Punjab


A former MNA‘s short ‗trip‘ to the PML-N last week is representative of the games going on at the moment in

Punjab. Ahmed Raza Maneka, an ex-MNA from Pakpattan, had joined the party on Thursday. The news was duly

flashed in the media and the magnetic powers of the Sharifs, close to a general election, were celebrated. But lo

and behold! It took Mr Maneka only a day to emerge from the Sharif cocoon and return to the te rrain of harsh

political realities. On Friday he reposed his confidence in his old party, the PML-Q, leaving the N-League red-faced.

PML-N‘s Senator Pervaiz Rasheed took the safest option the situation allowed him: he disowned the party

statement which had announced the Maneka catch only a day earlier.

At stake is the party nomination for the general election — and this is what seems to have determined Mr Maneka‘s

Q-uick retreat. The rush for the ticket has led to much traffic on inter-party routes in the country and he is only

one of a large number of passengers. The crossovers are more pronounced in Punjab where many parties have

done well in the last few polls, throwing up in their trail candidates who are fresh enough in public memory to want

to retry their luck with the voters. The PTI‘s entry as a serious contender makes the scenario even more difficult to

predict. PTI is the ‗X‘ factor whereas PML-Q continues to surprise by drawing election aspirants who cannot be

simply written off. In certain parts of the province, the Q-League is more active, or more attractive, to candidates

than its bigger ally, the PPP. PML-N with the biggest share of elected representatives in the province right now has

been able to woo a large number on its own. The all-too-familiar PML-N slogan that the anti-PPP vote must be

consolidated is getting louder and louder. The Maneka volte face is a bump. It is proof that this time round the

Sharifs will have to do much more than simply raise the PPP bogey to win an election.

A loss for literature


Literature in Pakistan is a lot poorer after the death of Hajra Masroor. However, the veteran short -story writer has

left an impressive body of work that will continue to influence future generations of Urdu writers. Born into a

Lucknow family with literary tastes, Hajra Masroor was a versatile writer who worked in various media. She began

publishing her short stories before Partition, with her first story published when she was only 16. Together with her

equally gifted sister, writer Khadija Mastoor, she also recorded stories for All India Radio before Partition. To their

credit, both sisters rose quite quickly on the subcontinent‘s literary horizon, which at the time also featured major

women writers such as Qurratulain Hyder and Ismat Chughtai. Hajra Masroor also worked for a time with the

women‘s wing of the Muslim League. After migrating to Pakistan, Hajra Masroor co-edited the literary journal

Nuqoosh with Ahmad Nadeem Qasimi. However, the publication would court trouble from the authorities of the

time due to its progressive leanings. Demonstrating her versatility, the writer also wrote the story and dialogue of

a film Aakhri Station, which was shot in East Pakistan.

Critics described Hajra Masroor‘s writing style as ‗simple yet effective‘, while her use of symbols in her stories was

also appreciated. Acquaintances recall she had a rational line of thought and was concerned about how society

could be improved. Keeping with her progressive ethos, the writer also highlighted the oppression of women —

especially in the rural areas — in her work. There was also an element of subtle satire in her writings. She won a

number of awards, including recognition from the Majlis Taraqqi-i-Adab as well as from the Anjuman Farogh-i-Urdu

Adab. Sadly, the writer was not able to pen her memoirs despite expressing a wish to do so.


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Far from the circus


The contortions of leaders as the deadly cut and thrust of politics plays out in Pakistan could easily lead an

observer to believe that, as in some Machiavellian court, the be all and end all is power. But as the circus of politics

goes from one impossible feat to the next, from time to time stories — usually tragedies — make their way through

the headlines about ousted prime ministers and clashing institutions to raise the issue of silent sufferers whose

welfare is almost an afterthought for the state. Last week, Pakistanis learnt to their horror that an ineffective

labour-inspection system corroded by powerful groups with vested interests had caused over 250 people to perish

in circumstances that defy the imagination. Meanwhile, the rains have destroyed the lives and livelihoods of

hundreds of thousands of people, particularly in Baloch-istan, southern Punjab and Sindh. In just two districts of

Balochistan — Naseerabad and Jaffarabad — an estimated 600,000 people have been marooned.

Predictably, the state‘s response has been to creakily roll out rescue efforts after the damage has already been

done. Can the state administration say with honesty that everything possible was done pre-emptively to mitigate

rain-related havoc? Given the experience of the past two years, the state ought to have been more prepared,

particularly with regard to planned evacuations, camps for displaced people, rations stored against future needs

and a coordinated rescue strategy. Instead, what we are witnessing, as usual, is different agencies — including the

army, national and provincial-level disaster management cells, etc — doing what they can but generally appearing

as though they‘ve been caught napping.

For years, there have been warnings about the effects of climate change; Pakistan will undoubtedly be affected.

This is the third consecutive year that the country has been hit by a destructive monsoon. The Met office is

forecasting heavy rain over the week in the northern parts of the country, water that will make its way south.

There is still time to plan for the coming deluge over the next weeks and months. Better mechanisms and systems

need to be put in place urgently. Demonstrably, it is not enough to establish emergency response agencies unless

these are equipped, trained and interested in fulfilling their mandate. In many countries, what has proved most

effective is the involvement of local leadership and administrative mechanisms, with their on-the-ground

knowledge and stakes in the welfare of an area. Is it too much to ask for politics to be put on hold and for political

elites to come together to plan for the welfare of this country‘s hapless millions?

Rising tensions


It remains to be seen whether the Obama administration wavers on its Iran policy as the presidential vote nears.

Two developments are cause for concern. Israel has upped the ante, and in two TV interviews coming in rapid

succession Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked America to draw a red line, claiming Iran has

done ―90 per cent‖ of work on weapons-grade uranium. The greater cause of worry is Mitt Romney‘s categorical

support for the Likud government. In Israel in July, the US Republican presidential candidate said he would not

stand in the way of a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran‘s nuclear facilities. He also said Jerusalem, now under

occupation, was Israel‘s capital and that any US criticism of the Likud government‘s policy on settlements helped

Israel‘s enemies — provoking immediate denunciation from the Palestinian Authority.

Over the weekend, US officials didn‘t agree with Mr Netanyahu on the ―red line‖ and said the Obama administration

also believed Iran shouldn‘t be allowed to manufacture nuclear weapons. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said

governments the world over didn‘t operate with ―a bunch of red lines‖, and American ambassador to the UN Susan

Rice said the existing diplomatic and economic pressures on Iran were working. She claimed that the Iranian

economy was in a mess and that oil production and currency had gone down by 40 per cent. The truth, however, is

that there is a tacit, bipartisan agreement on America‘s Middle East policy. There may be differences in shades, but

— with Congress firmly in the hands of the Israel lobby — there is little possibility that any US administration would

adopt a policy other than one of unabashed kowtowing to Israel. Mr Netanyahu, of course, knows this is the best

possible time to extract maximum concessions from the two presidential candidates on its trigger-happy policy. It

would be myopic for the two candidates to surrender to the pro-Israel lobby for electoral gains and ignore the long-

term effects of such a policy. At the same time, it is just as important that Iran be more transparent about its

nuclear plans and lower its confrontational rhetoric.


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Diseased livestock


It is indeed a relief that the Sindh government has begun to cull thousands of infected sheep that were brought

into the country from Australia. However, it is safe to assume that if it were not for the hue and cry raised by the

media, the meat from these sheep may easily have ended up on our dinner plates. Health officials said the culling

was necessary as the infections — the animals were infected with foot-and-mouth disease, among other ailments

— could have spread to local livestock. The episode raises questions primarily regarding government oversight, or

lack thereof, when it comes to the import and export of livestock. For instance, why were the sheep, imported by a

private concern, allowed into the country when they had already been rejected by Bahrain? Also, the authorities

must explain why the animals were released before being properly examined in quarantine and why they were kept

with healthy animals.

The stakeholders‘ urge to cut corners and the government‘s willingness to look the other way has cost Pakistan‘s

livestock, fisheries and agriculture sectors dearly. For example, the European Union has banned the import of

Pakistani seafood since 2007 due to concerns about the lack of hygienic handling of the catch in local harbours.

Fruit export has also suffered due to local exporters‘ failure to meet international standards. All this amounts to

shooting ourselves in the foot. While importing diseased animals, presumably for local consumption, is tantamount

to playing with people‘s lives, ignoring safety and hygiene standards for export products translates to shutting

ourselves out of foreign markets. The government needs to ensure livestock raised in the country for export or

animals brought in for local consumption are healthy not only in the interest of public health, but also to prevent

Pakistani exports from being labelled as unfit for consumption.

A new target


Karachi was already on edge before Tuesday‘s twin bombings struck a predominantly Dawoodi Bohra

neighbourhood in the North Nazimabad area. The c ity was in the grip of protests against an anti-Islam f ilm and

targeted killings continued unabated. Elsewhere, in Balochistan‘s Mastung district — the same area where pilgrims

were pulled out of a bus and killed last year — a car bomb targeted a bus carry ing Shia pilgrims returning from

Iran. However, in the Karachi killing, the perpetrators targeted, perhaps for the first time, the Bohras, a peaceful,

industrious, mercantile community. The perpetrators knew what they were doing: the site of the blasts is close to

the city‘s main Bohra mosque, while community members usually gather in the bustling commercial-cum-

residential area after evening prayers, which is when the bombings occurred. The blasts came only a day after

Mufaddal Bhaisaheb, son and designated successor of the current Bohra leader, was in the metropolis. Last month,

a bomb had been discovered and defused in the same spot.

The bombings add a new dimension to the bloodshed, pulling the apolitical Bohra community into the vortex of

violence. The authorities still need to confirm whether the attack was purely sectarian in nature, or if it was

motivated by the desire to extract protection money from the community. All angles need to be examined.

Nevertheless, what the blasts prove beyond any doubt is that nobody is safe in Karachi: if a peaceful community

such as the Bohras can be targeted, anyone is vulnerable. Aside from spreading fear, such attacks also undermine

the city‘s economy. The Bohras constitute one of the city‘s oldest and more financia lly stable business

communities. But if people‘s lives, properties and businesses are not safe from terrorist violence, who will want to

invest in Karachi?

Even as other motivations for the killing are investigated, police have pointed to the possible involvement of a

faction of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi believed to be one of the most active militant groups in Karachi, while its acts of terror

in Balochistan are already established. Hence, instead of making half-hearted claims about investigating the

attacks, the state needs to crush Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, as the outfit is fast becoming the primary source of terrorism

in this country. Such action is needed against all terrorist groups as there are reports that members of smaller

sects within Islam in Karachi are also being threatened. By not taking decisive steps to curb militancy so far, the


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security establishment has only facilitated the killers. Until the extremists‘ infrastructure is dismantled and their

operatives and planners tried and punished, there is little chance of the bloodshed abating.

Overhaul required


The establishment of the National Database and Registration Authority and the computerisation of identity cards

rationalised and codified the system. Applicants now found that there was no need to pay the touts that loitered

outside government offices issuing documents to ‗help out‘. That success, unfortunately, has not been replicated

where obtaining a passport is concerned. Even as machine-readable passports become indispensable because they

are required for most visas and at a growing number of airports, delays in the system are routine. As reported by

Dawn yesterday, some 5,000 passports are issued each day against a daily application rate of 15,000 to 20,000.

The backlog has reached a peak of 250,000; applicants are waiting up to two months for a document issued

through the ordinary process, and for two weeks or more for passports processed on an urgent basis. The touts are

back, and people who do not have the luxury of waiting for the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports

(which functions under the Ministry of Interior) find themselves having to resort to the services of an organised

network that is in collusion with parts of officialdom.

The current delays are being caused primarily by the non-payment of over Rs640m to the Printing Corporation of

Pakistan, which issues the lamination paper used in the document. Other contributing causes include inadequate

staff at passport offices and an overloaded online system through which the applicant‘s data is verif ied against the

Nadra database. Regardless of the hurdles, the issue must urgently be resolved. A passport is too important a

document for people to be kept waiting — especially considering that for a large number of applicants urgent travel

is necessitated by medical treatment abroad, employment or immigration. In any case, every citizen has the right

to a passport. Whether what is needed is more staff, paper or proper presses to print machine-readable passports,

including at Pakistan‘s large foreign missions abroad, the state must get on with it. It pulled a rabbit out of the hat

with Nadra. It should be able to do the same for travel documents.

Political or spiritual?


A report in our paper on spiritual advice sought by our prime minister on matters presumably political should come

as no surprise. Not only is Raja Pervez Ashraf following in the footsteps of his predecessors and political

contemporaries, the example of world leaders like Ronald Reagan, whose wife is known to have regularly consulted

an astrologer on her husband‘s public activities, is also before him. Indian politicians too are deeply influenced by

the pronouncements of these gurus, and come election time, the whole country evolves into one huge crystal ball.

In Pakistan, leaders from Benazir Bhutto to lesser political mortals like Imran Khan are reported to have consulted

pirs and spiritual gurus on their life choices and strategies, the PTI chief talking of it at great length in his most

recent book. Black goats, astrologers, numerologists, holy men have all figured in the lives of our leaders. But at

the end, we are left with that niggling thought: how would Pakistan have fared without the occult intervening every

now and then in our national life?

True, the realities of politics are harsh in Pakistan; the Machiavellian games of rivals, the ever-hovering shadow of

an external player, etc don‘t make matters easy for the wavering politicians. However, that uncertainty might be

quelled if political leaders were to place their faith in the institutions of democracy as firmly as they do in their

spiritual gurus. After all, over the years, it is institutions such as parliament and judiciary all over the world that

have weathered the storm of wars, rivalries, dissent and external threats to emerge more powerful than any

soothsayer. In Pakistan, these institutions are still at a nascent stage, but believing in them would not only

strengthen the pillars of state, they would also impart some measure of confidence to an insecure public.


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A controversial order

September 21st, 2012

Gone are 11 members of the assemblies, national and provincial, disqualified yesterday by the Supreme Court for

holding dual nationalities. In disqualifying the MNAs and MPAs, the court has done the right thing. In the face of a

clear-cut constitutional provision barring members of parliament or the provincial assemblies from holding the

nationality of another country, there is little argument for such citizens t o be representatives of the people.

Perhaps when the democratic process is more stable, well regarded and mature, the question of whether

parliamentarians can hold the citizenship of another country can be revisited. But in the Pakistan of today, the

honour, privilege and responsibility of representing the people ought to fall only to those who do not have

conflicting citizenship demands. That it has taken until the very end of the terms of the present assemblies for the

law to be enforced is perhaps unfortunate, but that does not detract from the reality that the

decision is correct.

Having said that, there are two troubling aspects to yesterday‘s short order. First, the court has once again

circumvented the process of disqualification: under Article 63(2) of the constitution, the speakers of the relevant

House or the Chairman of the Senate must determine whether a question of disqualif ication has arisen. If the

answer is in the affirmative, the matter has to be referred to the Election Commission of Pakist an for a decision. To

be sure, the question of disqualification has clearly arisen here and the ECP would have no real option but to

disqualify the senator, MNAs and MPAs. But in constitutional matters, form and procedure can be just as important

as substance. Already, in the case of the Speaker of the National Assembly ruling in favour of then-prime minister

Yousuf Raza Gilani, it has been seen that the court can step in when other constitutional office holders deviate from

the law. So in bypassing Article 63(2) in yesterday‘s order, the court has pushed the boundaries of the constitution

in an unwelcome manner.

Second, in directing the ECP to institute legal proceedings against former senator Rehman Malik because he lied to

the court and so ―cannot be considered sagacious, righteous, honest and ameen within the contemplation of

Section 99(1)(f) of the [Representation of the Peoples] Act of 1976‖ is an unwelcome invocation of a controversial

law. Few may lament the political demise of Mr Malik but the chosen route to punish him can prove to be the thin

edge of the wedge in a country where religious invocations and the enforcement of amorphous moral standards are

already crowding out the space for rational and reasonable discourse.

Extremists within


With the rise of militancy in the country over the last decade, no branch of the armed forces has been spared from

militant attacks. The navy‘s Mehran base in Karachi was stormed last year, while militants attacked GHQ in

Rawalpindi in 2009. Most recently, Pakistan Air Force‘s complex at Kamra was targeted last month. In the latest

incident on Wednesday, at least 10 people were killed when a car bomb went off on Peshawar‘s Kohat Road; police

believe the target was a PAF vehicle en route to a nearby base. According to some reports, the Tehrik-i-Taliban

Pakistan have claimed responsibility. Apart from Kamra, which has come under attack four times since 2007, the

PAF has also been targeted on other occasions. Some of the more prominent incidents include a suicide attack on

an air force bus in Sargodha in 2007 while another attack was on a bus in Peshawar in 2008. Many of these attacks

were claimed by militant groups, and in several cases ex-servicemen were implicated.

These repeated incidents point to the apparent vulnerability of the forces, particularly the air force. They indicate

that inside information is being passed on to militants, especially regarding the movement of personnel and base

security details. The assertion that the forces in general and PAF specifically have extremists within the ranks must

not be disregarded. Several PAF personnel were involved in an assassination attempt on former military ruler Gen

Pervez Musharraf in 2003. A number of these individuals were dismissed or arrest ed due to links with militant

groups. It is also true that in several incidents the assailants have been dressed in military uniforms. Thus in the

wake of the Kamra affair a thorough internal investigation is in order. Meanwhile, the PAF must ascertain how

much influence militants wield within the ranks. Clearly, preventive security in its current form has not deterred the

militants. What is needed — in all the armed services — is not only greater scrutiny but a purge of all those


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sympathising with the militants and who are likely to pass on inside information to militants. Otherwise, such

attacks will continue.

Fighting back


The cost being borne by Pakistan and its citizens as a result of the country‘s involvement in the ‗war on terror‘ is

fairly well-documented. Amongst the less visible victims, though, is cultural activity. Given the opposition to the

arts by rightwing elements who have, at times, even resorted to attacking venues showcasing cultural activities,

the latter are becoming increasingly rare. It is not just the extremists‘ threats that have extracted a toll. The

challenges that those who work in the field of culture must contend with include a hostile economic environment in

which few sponsors have the desire to lend their name to an activity that could invite the attention of an unruly

mob, even if not an outright attack. And in several instances, city authorities have discouraged if not altogether

forbidden cultural events on the grounds that ensuring security is far too difficult a task.

Nowhere is this most evident than in Lahore, once the hub of cultural activity and host of the country‘s largest

international performing arts festival. While those who work in this area are doing their best, the terrain they

negotiate is increasingly hostile. That the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop has organised a four-day international film

festival, then, is welcome news. The group has been the subject of a raging controversy in recent months because

of its role in a USAID-funded project Sim Sim Hamara. While that is yet to be cleared up — and RPTW should do

whatever it can to bring out the facts — it should be acknowledged that the group has played an important part in

keeping cultural activities alive in Lahore. Such efforts need to be replicated in other parts of the country. Part of

fighting back against the extremists is to carry on doing business as usual.

Friday’s violence

September 22nd, 2012

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf‘s speech at the Ishq-i-Rasool conference in Islamabad on Friday combined

denunciation of the anti-Islam movie with an appeal to the people to be peaceful, an appeal also made by all major

political parties — the PPP, PML-N, ANP, MQM and PTI. Yet even before the prime minister had finished, the strike

had turned violent. By the time the faithful headed towards mosques for the Friday prayer, violence had spiralled

out of control in several cities. The intensity of the violence was shocking. Reason fell victim to emotions, even

though the hate-filled film, made by a man who can only be described as a bigot, was condemned by American

leaders, including President Obama.

In principle there‘s nothing wrong with a strike which is a democratic way of expressing protest and resorted to

only when all other options have been exhausted. In Pakistan, unfortunately, political parties and even professional

bodies like those of lawyers and doctors have abused this principle irrespective of its consequences for citizens, and

often for themselves. Horrifying as it is, every Pakistani crowd is now violence-prone: whether it is a justifiable

protest against power outages or an Eid rush for railway tickets, people attack unrelated targets. Political rhetoric

has much to do with it, for we have developed a popular culture in which c itizens have come to believe that

violence pays. Those who call for strikes cannot escape their responsibility by blaming violence on outsiders, for it

is their duty to control their acolytes. The violence the day saw in no way advanced the cause of the wo rld‘s

Muslims. Instead, it painted Pakistan as a country where bloodthirsty mobs roamed. Friday is a day that is meant

for congregational prayers and piety. But for some strange reason, our religious parties invariably choose this day

for tormenting the Pakistani people.

The government‘s eagerness to share the people‘s sentiments and not let the opposition make political capital out

of it can be understood. But the way it chose to express its solidarity with the people was astonishing — by

declaring a holiday. The result was a total shutdown, with banks and business transactions frozen for three days.

We have seen protests in many Muslim countries, but nowhere did political parties call for a nationwide strike and

find the government ‗cooperative‘. A government‘s job is to keep the state going and not to help strikers.

Yesterday‘s violence should goad our politicians and leaders of civil society into realising the damage the ‗wheel


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jam‘ strikes and the accompanying violence are doing not only to the economy but to the nation‘s moral fibre.

Dangerous direction


Already nervous about what the day would bring, citizens found yesterday that the state, too, had done its bit to

disrupt life as far as possible. Cellular networks were suspended; those who do not have access to landlines — and

there are many such people — found that they were cut off from family, friends and colleagues. This on a day

when the streets in many areas were filled with smoke and television screens with frightening images of enraged

mobs attacking indiscriminate targets. Many would have been concerned for the safety of loved ones but they had

been rendered incommunicado.

This is not the first time the government has resorted to taking such an enormously disruptive step. On the eve of

Eid, cellphone users found services inexplicably suspended. The government had cited a potential terrorist threat

as the reason — militants too use the technology to their own advantage. Nevertheless, that does not mean that

the rulers can arrogate to themselves the right to arbitrarily and without warning cut off access to indispensable

devices. Given the sort of violence that occurred in Peshawar, Islamabad, Karachi and elsewhere yesterday, it

seems that the move proved futile as it failed to prevent protesters from communicating. And it would be useful for

the government to remember that in earlier decades, when there was no cellular technology, the country had seen

much larger and more violent demonstrations. The good such a step may achieve is eclipsed by the very serious

inconvenience it causes several million people. Beyond inconvenience, there is the aspect of the huge monetary

losses that were incurred by various businesses, not the least of which are cellphone companies themselves. Such

a decision should be a last resort, or else it will set a dangerous precedent. Will citizens start losing cellular services

whenever a large protest is in the offing? If it goes down this road again, the government will find itself treading an

increasingly fraught path; the line between when it is and is not reasonable to take such a stringent step will be

blurred to the point of being erased.

Sheep mystery


The mystery of over 20,000 reportedly diseased sheep from Australia continues to deepen. There are claims and

counter-claims from various parties regarding the health of the animals, which were imported by a Karachi-based

firm. Citing government veterinarians, media reports say that some of the sheep from the suspected flock may be

infected with anthrax. Around 7,000 of the sheep had been culled by Thursday after alarm was raised about their

health status a few days ago. The importer has demanded a stay order against the culling till the findings of a

veterinary board constituted by the Sindh High Court are in. The Australian firm which exported the animals — and

which insists the sheep are healthy — also wants a halt to the culling. What adds to the murkiness surrounding the

matter is that Oman and Qatar had accepted sheep from the same consignment, while Bahrain did not import the

animals. Also, after their arrival in Pakistan tests from two labs in Sindh found the sheep to be sick, while results

from an Islamabad lab showed otherwise.

Considering the prevailing confusion, there is a need for all stakeholders to handle the issue dispassionately.

Firstly, if there is so much controversy and if the veterinary board‘s findings are still not in, perhaps there should

not be such a rush to cull the animals. At this point, the best possible course of action may be to keep the sheep in

quarantine, away from healthy animals, till investigations conducted by a recognised institution — acceptable to all

— are completed. In the long run, the incident should prompt a thorough review of the of ficial process through

which livestock is imported and exported. To prevent future mishaps, local authorities need to ensure animals are

free from disease before they are allowed into the country and released into the market.


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Day of anarchy

september 23rd, 2012

AS the nation limped back to work on Saturday, newspaper headlines graphically encapsulated the street horror

which television had kept beaming to the world the day before: ‗Pakistan burns and bleeds‘; ‗On a day of love, riots

rule‘; etc. A greater catalogue of villainy is not needed to put to shame the entire Pakistani leadership, in

government or out of it. The administration comes out discredited, its law-enforcement machinery having proved

itself totally inept, while the political parties failed to keep the strike peaceful, and most leaders —– otherwise

ubiquitous — had all but vanished. Minor rallies here and there were led by local leaders, but not one political

bigwig was seen where the action was — where people fell to the ground, where fires flared, where banks and

public and private property were looted, where armed hoodlums stormed what were supposed to be impregnable

fortresses.

The much-maligned police were left to fight alone what from the word go was a one-way battle and with such

training and equipment as they have. But they failed and some were killed. The world over there are riot police,

well-armed and well-trained. Pakistan has no such force. The result was Friday‘s unqualif ied victory for the

determined mobs. What was astonishing, however, was the absence of the paramilitary forces precisely when they

were needed — in the hours when furious and highly instigated, if not inspired, but leaderless crowds went on the

rampage from Karachi to Lahore to Islamabad to Peshawar. Not taking their cue from the intensity of the mob

attack in Peshawar, the law-enforcement set-up completely collapsed in Karachi, which saw some of the most

grotesque scenes. Within a stone‘s throw from the Rangers‘ headquarters — itself well-defended with several layers

of barricades and bollards — rioters torched banks and restaurants in the red zone that has the official residences

of Sindh‘s governor and chief minister. The Rangers didn‘t stir. Firing could be heard all over the place, but the

Rangers‘ leadership had made up its mind to remain within the well-protected confines of their headquarters while

the country‘s largest city was at the mercy of sadistic bands feasting their eyes on burning buildings and

smouldering hulks.

Calling for peaceful rallies in the country had been a mere formality, because both the opposition parties and the

government knew full well that violence was bound to occur, given the history of previous such ‗peaceful‘ protests.

More such anarchic fits are likely to engulf the nation unless all hues of leadership rise above partisan

considerations to tackle the crisis that is corroding Pakistan.

Afghan handover in peril


THE scaling back of joint operations between foreign forces and the Afghan army and police has , despite claims to

the contrary, thrown the plan for a handover of Afghan security to Afghan forces by 2014 into disarray. In reaction

to escalating ‗green-on-blue‘ attacks — disaffected members of the green-clad Afghan forces have attacked and

killed 51 blue-clad Nato/ Isaf personnel this year — foreign forces operating in Afghanistan will now require prior

approval for joint operations below the battalion level. Given the nature of the Taliban threat, focused as it is on

IEDs, snipers and small-scale attacks, that effectively means that the enemy will be confronted separately by the

foreign and Afghan forces while the ban is in force. More importantly, the central pillar of the US strategy in

Afghanistan, endorsed by Nato and Isaf, is security assistance — training and equipping the Afghan forces to take

responsibility for the security of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. It is difficult to imagine how erecting a wall

between foreign and Afghan forces will help achieve that goal.

From the point of view of stability in Afghanistan, it is also worrying to see the US military increasingly in denial.

Senior officials have tried to downplay the suspension of joint operations, suggesting that it will not substantially

hurt the mission in Afghanistan. Some have even argued that the move will put pressure on the Afghan forces to

step up and clean up their own house, a suggestion that is akin to proposing that a non-swimmer be thrown in the

deep end of a pool to learn how to swim. What is telling is that the surge troops — the 30,000 extra troops that

President Obama dispatched to Afghanistan in 2010 — will leave Afghanistan by the end of September with no

meaningful or durable gains made in the last couple of years. Even if some areas have been pacified by the troops,

the war of perceptions has been all but been lost: no one can really argue that the Taliban are a diminishing threat

in Afghanistan. A strategy rethink is needed but it won‘t happen until the US presidential election is concluded.


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Every bit counts


THE Italian oil major Eni SpA has announced a ―significant‖ gas discovery in Sindh. The size of the find is estimated

to be 300-400 billion cubic feet of gas. The company is in discussions with the country‘s oil and gas regulator to

speed up production from the discovery. Given Pakistan‘s existing reserves of 27.5 trillion cubic feet, the daily

production of 20mmcfd from the new discovery will represent less than 0.5 per cent of the total national output of

over 4,000mmcfd. Little wonder then that the petroleum secretary has dismissed the company‘s claim about the

significance of the find as ‗exaggerated‘.

Exaggerated it may be, but insignificant it isn‘t in view of the country‘s fast -depleting gas reserves. Total reserves

had depleted by 5.5 per cent at the end of 2011 from a year earlier since no new discoveries had been made since

2005 because investors were reluctant to put their money in exploration due to gas-pricing issues and security

concerns in areas with potential gas finds. The demand, on the other hand, by domestic, transport, power-sector

and industrial consumers has risen heftily. The supply gap has already widened to over 500mmcfd in summer and

is projected to expand to 1,500-1,800mmcfd during the fast-approaching winter. This means industry will not have

enough gas to operate its plants, and domestic users will be coping with low pressure as temperatures fall in the

months to come. Power producers will be dependent on imported oil for generation and we will still be facing lon g

blackouts. The solution to the endemic energy crisis crippling our economy lies in encouraging new explorations, no

matter how small these may be. The government in the meanwhile should speed up work on LNG import as a

short-term measure to reduce the gas deficit in the winter and to keep the wheels of the economy rolling.

Condemnable remarks


In a more stable and mature polity, the explicit incitement to murder by the ANP Minister for Railways Ghulam

Ahmad Bilour would have been met with his immediate suspension from politics and the opening of a police

investigation to determine what crime he should be charged with. But in the warped and fearful Pakistan of today,

the official reaction was characteristically and depressingly spineless. The prime minister has only distanced himself

from his minister‘s remarks and offered to discuss it with the ANP boss, Asfandyar Wali — while leaving Mr Bilour in

his job. And the ANP has only said that Mr Bilour was speaking in his personal capacit y and the party does not

endorse his demand. Gone is the idea of collective responsibility, of the cabinet and of a political party.

Strip away the theatrics, and the reality is even more frightening. Mr Bilour said what he did precisely because he

knew he could get away with it. No one will dare prosecute a man calling for the murder of an individual who has

committed blasphemy against Islam — though it is unlikely that the railways minister even really knows whose

murder he has specifically called for. And Mr Bilour said what he did because he understands better than most that

the ANP is headed into an election campaign after a disastrous term in charge of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

government and with fierce competition expected from the political right in t he province in the shape of the

religious parties and PTI. So what better way to establish the ANP‘s religious credentials in an unfavourable

electoral climate?

Therein lies the great tragedy of Pakistan. Moderate politicians have long argued that they are helpless in the face

of a rising tide of conservatism and extremism in society at large. But the ugly truth is that all politicians — even

the so-called moderates — are more than willing to pander to extremism if it means a few extra votes or political

survival. To refer to the Taliban and Al Qaeda as ‗brothers‘, as Mr Bilour did in calling on anyone to kill the producer

of the hate film, Innocence of Muslims, is to desecrate the memory of the thousands who have died, many of them

belonging to Mr Bilour‘s ANP, at the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. If there is speech that should be

criminalised in Pakistan, it is speech enabling and strengthening the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Of course, it won‘t

happen because political survival is more important to a polit ician than national survival.


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Economic fallout


Though it may be too early to get solid figures for the losses accrued nationally due to Friday‘s mob violence in the

country, the ballpark estimates are cause for concern. In Karachi alone, according to the president of the city‘s

chamber of commerce, trade and production losses hovered around the Rs14bn mark for the day. Losses due to

widespread arson and looting are separate from this f igure. The country‘s commercial capital had al ready endured

a rough week, as the city was shut down on Wednesday due to the killing of a political activist. If this is the

estimate for Karachi, the cumulative nationwide losses due to the violence can only be imagined. Apart from the

business shutdown, banks, cinemas and fast-food outlets were all ransacked as mobs rampaged across many of

Pakistan‘s cities unhindered. A more clear picture of the cost of the damage will emerge today as comme rcial

activities fully resume.

It is obvious that such violent breakdowns of law and order do not project a very positive image of Pakistan to the

foreign investor, while the recent scenes witnessed also shake the confidence of local businessmen. In the current

global economic climate, the country cannot afford such negative publicity. As it is there is an international liquidity

crunch as national economies deal with recession. Data from the current financial year shows that foreign direct

investment is down in Pakistan, while FDI also fell considerably last year. With the global economy so volatile,

violence and insecurity here will only scare away those who may want to invest in Pakistan — foreign investors

move in after seeing domestic investors put money in the market. Ultimately, there is a strong link between the

maintenance of law and order and economic stability. If the authorities do not focus on keeping the peace in times

of unrest and otherwise, investors — both domestic and local — will take their money elsewhere, to countries

where the safety of workers and assets can be reliably guaranteed. Considering the slow economic growth and high

unemployment rate in Pakistan, this is something the country can ill afford. Hence the need for the state to act.

Mountain or a molehill?


Writing in the New York Times in August 2010, journalist Selig Harrison had said Pakistan was ―handing over‖

Gilgit-Baltistan — where he discovered ―an influx‖ of Chinese soldiers — to China. In the story headlined ‗China‘s

discreet hold on Pakistan‘s northern borderlands‘, Mr Harrison had reported ―a quiet geopolitical crisis‖ in Gilgit -

Baltistan where ―Islamabad is handing over de facto control of the strategic‖ territory to Beijing. Harrison also

discovered ―22 tunnels‖ which were barred to Pakistanis and which could be used for storing missiles.

Two years on, the Indian army chief has shown such ‗revelations‘ to be unverif ied and has supported earlier denials

by both China and Pakistan. The latter two countries have long collaborated on infrastructure projects in the border

areas, including the feat of engineering that is the Karakoram Highway. It is known that Chinese experts are

involved in several rail, road and power projects. For that reason, the presence of Chinese nationals is not

something that should cause nightmares for anyone and be referred to as an ―inf lux‖. As Gen Bikram Singh said on

Wednesday, the Chinese soldiers were there to ―provide protection‖ to railway, road and hydroelectric projects.

Beijing, however, insists there are no soldiers in the border area. In an interview on Sept 3 with The Hindu,

Chinese Defence Minister Gen Liang Guanglie clarified ―once again‖ that the People‘s Liberation Army had ―never

deployed a single soldier‖ there. Mr Harrison had said that China wanted ―unfettered access to the Gulf‖, but was

alarmed over China‘s ―grip‖ over Gilgit-Baltistan. Gen Singh‘s words, then, should serve to allay any fears in India

of militaristic designs on the part of China. In fact, there is also a lesson for India and Pakistan: suspicions need

not arise over every activity that takes place on the other‘s soil near the border areas.


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A stitch in time


Politicians have a penchant for large-scale projects as they associate these with an impressiveness they believe will

earn them political capital. But very often, what voters actually need are smaller, more humdrum interventions that

are, in fact, of crucial importance. Nowhere is this more visible these days than in the plight of those affected by

the floods in parts of Balochistan and Sindh. For the third year in a row, the state waited until the floods were in

full swing before taking action. Each time, the rains are preceded by reminders that canals need to be de-silted,

natural storm-water channels cleared, embankments shored up and vulnerable populations prepared in case

evacuations are needed. And each time, the administration refuses to recognise the danger. It is only when

newspaper headlines start raising concerns about the millions of people affected and television screens show shots

of forlorn rooftops in a sea of f loodwater that the state lumbers to its feet and starts casting about for avenues of

relief and rehabilitation.

After the deluge, national leaders give statements about their concern for those whose homes and livelihoods have

been lost — as though it were never up to them to ensure that pre-emptive damage-control measures are in place.

In the current floods, Balochistan‘s Naseerabad and Jaffarabad districts have been the worst -affected; on a visit to

survey the damage, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Sunday that orders had been issued to release funds

to complete all development projects in the province. He also announced that Rs2.6bn had been earmarked for the

rehabilitation of people and repair of infrastructure. Given the prime minister‘s instructions, we can presume that

the funds must be available with the government. In that case, could at least part of the money not have been

spent earlier on work aimed at reducing the scale of flooding? Could projects meant to mitigate rain-related havoc

not have been completed on a war-footing?

The measures that need to be taken to save this area, which has for three years running been the worst -affected

by the floods, are well-known. The Jaffarabad and Naseerabad districts are particularly at risk. They suffer equally

as a result of flash floods in Balochistan and when canals are accidentally or by intention breached in Sindh. The

measures elaborated here, as well as the creation of small reservoirs to ac commodate excess water, could go a

long way in making a difference. The question is, will such necessary though not headline-grabbing measures ever

make their way to the list of the government‘s priorities?

Poor lab facilities


The ongoing controversy over the import of supposedly infected Australian sheep by Pakistan highlights the need

for proper research and testing facilities in this country. The sheep were found to be infected with foot -and-mouth

disease by two labs in Sindh. However, tests from a lab in Islamabad indicated the animals were fine. This

dichotomy in the labs‘ f indings is one of the major factors fuelling the controversy. In the past, there have also

been reports of ‗infected‘ wheat being brought into the country. In another incident, over 100 people died in Lahore

earlier this year apparently because they had consumed substandard medicine. What all these incidents underscore

is that the lack of proper research and testing facilities, both at the centre and in the provinces, have often resulted

in confusion or delay in diagnosis.

While lack of resources is often cited as a stumbling block in the way of essential projects, this explanation hardly

justifies the current situation. After all, drug-manufacturing companies pay one per cent of their profits to the state

as ‗research tax‘ — yet there are hardly any drug-testing facilities meeting international standards in the country.

Considering that drug manufacturers have been paying this tax since the mid-1970s, the amount collected should

have been substantial. It is the public‘s right to know how much money has been collected and, more importantly,

where and how it has been spent. The pharmaceutical industry that pays this tax should itself be asking the

government for an explanation. Since the money was collected in the name of research, it would be best put to use

by establishing labs at the federal and provincial levels where research and testing of drugs can be carried out, and

where livestock and agricultural products can also be examined as a matter of routine. Such internationally


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accredited labs can be of use in times of public health scares as well, such as during the dengue season. Not only

will the creation of such facilities be of great service where public health is concerned, they will also help certify

that products meant for export are safe and conform to global standards.

Picking up the pieces


It was a political statement of much-needed strength and symbolism. Where there are those bent upon

destruction, there are also others willing to do what they can to save the targets. Most Pakistanis were still

recovering from the shock of the fury displayed on Friday by rioters, but some steadfast souls pulled themselves

out of despair and decided to do something proactive. On Sunday, in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad a number of

young men and women went to the spots that had seen the worst of the violence, and cleaned up. Armed with

brooms and dustpans, paint and brushes, they did what they could to return their city to normalcy: sweep away

the glass, repaint pickets, pick up spent tear-gas shells and collect the stones that had been hurled. In doing so,

they sent out a strong message: not only were they not on the side of those who resort to vio lence, they were

active supporters of the rule of law. Few in numbers though they were, they demonstrated to all who saw them —

including the demoralised police personnel who had faced the wrath of the mobs — that even in this pall of night,

there is light.

Pakistan desperately needs more such pro-activeness if it is to find a way to stand fast and resist the rising tide of

obscurantism and extremism. These people‘s act should shame the nation‘s leaders, otherwise so adept at

manipulating large bands of their supporters; the call to clean up localities laid to waste by the mobs could equally

have come from them, and been led by them and their workers. It would have been a powerful method of silent

rebuke, and of interest in Pakistan‘s welfare. Instead, what we have witnessed on the political front is barely

audible censure of even the violence itself, let alone anything constructive.

Poverty in Pakistan


A study on poverty has brought Pakistan face to face with a reality that it will find hard to accept: every third

Pakistani is caught in the ‗poor‘ bracket i.e. some 58.7 million out of a total population of 180 million subsist below

the poverty line. This includes more than half the population in the forever remote Balochistan, 33 pe r cent in

Sindh, 32 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 19 per cent in Punjab. These are daunting figures. But they are

much needed for planning, especially when the government appears too embarrassed to release statistics related

to poverty. The Sustainable Development Policy Institute, which has carried out this economic -mapping exercise, is

justified in calling for the release of government figures and for a policy to combat acute poverty. These are facts

which are being kept under wraps at great peril to the country.

Quite clearly, the dilemma as we know is yet to be overcome. Areas such as defence get the better of

development; the more affluent are able to deny the less affluent in the name of sustaining themselves; and the

small change that reaches the marginalised segments is never enough to pull them into the promised mainstream.

The formula that channels resources and attaches due importance to the underdeveloped is yet to be found.

Worse, an earnest search for such a formula is yet to begin. Consequently, development has proceeded in the only

manner it could: the gap between the more privileged and the more backward has increased with time, even as

successive governments have dangled ‗special packages‘ in front of those with the greatest need. This reflects in

social, political and, quite often, ethnic tensions, in revolts and in militancy.

The SDPI study identifies the 20 poorest districts, 16 of which exist in Balochistan that has been long agitating for

attention. There are no marks for guessing that the other four poorest districts are also located away from the train

of progress, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The exercise doesn‘t identify the causes behind this continued and

unfortunate disparity, but the basic factor responsible for the situation is not very difficult to list. The primary

reason is the lack of proper, meaningful and non-discriminatory representation for all regions in decision-making.

Those who are able to some extent participate in the running of affairs do manage to secure a better dea l. Others

are denied participation, and democracy for them remains an illusion. The first resource they are looking for is the


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space from where they can speak and be heard. This is the most essential prerequisite to progress.

Ephedrine smuggling


While legal proceedings in the ephedrine quota case continue, the possible smuggling of the controlled chemical

from Pakistan has begun to attract the attention of the international community. The head of the Anti-Narcotics

Force told the media on Monday that the probe into the ephedrine scandal was being expanded to ascertain

whether the substance was smuggled to Iran. ANF officials may proceed to the neighbouring country to investigate

further. This development follows the recent visit to Pakistan of representatives of the International Narcotics

Control Board. As per reports, INCB officials discussed with local authorities the likelihood that ephedrine was

smuggled out, along with the possible complicity of government officials in the ille gal act. The INCB team

emphasised the need to stem the ‗leakage‘ of the controlled substance and also called for improvements in the

system to prevent future abuse. The controversy emerged when the health ministry raised the allocation for

Pakistan‘s annua l ephedrine requirement, with at least some of the excess finding its way into the local market.

The substance can either be used to manufacture cough syrup or medicines for respiratory ailments, or it can be

used as a base for illicit drugs. Up till now, politicians, business f igures and government officials have all been

embroiled in the unfolding scandal.

A thorough investigation — free from political influence — is required to determine who was res-ponsible for raising

the quota beyond the coun-try‘s requirement and also to determine who may have benefited from the possible

smuggling of ephedrine. The politics of the matter cannot be allowed to overshadow the law-enforcement aspect.

As things stand Pakistan is considered a major transit point in the global drug trade. Abuse and illicit trade in

controlled chemicals should not be added to the list of the coun-try‘s ‗achievements‘. Hence the need to bring those

involved in smuggling to justice. The authorities also need to consider releasing ephedrine quotas to

pharmaceutical companies with the required safeguards through an empowered, effective Drug Regulatory Agency.

There is a shortage of various medicines in the market linked to ephedrine; the public should not be made to suffer

due to the misdeeds of the high and mighty.

Poor regulatory mechanism


An amateurish video is produced by a mischief-maker with the aim of giving offence. Countries that have learned

the lessons dictated by the realities of the World Wide Web and want the material rendered inaccessible to their

populations set in motion regulatory mechanisms. They don‘t put a blanket ban on YouTube, they pull out

agreements with YouTube owner Google and effectively compel it to abide by their laws. Google has blocked the

trailer in countries such as India and Indonesia; it can‘t be accessed in five countries whose citizens can still access

other videos on YouTube. In Pakistan, by contrast, the government orders that all links to the offending material be

blocked. Outraged appeals are made to Google, but it stands unmoved. The result? The Pakistan

Telecommunications Authority blocks the entire YouTube site, removing access to not just the trailer but also

taking down thousands of other sources of information that Pakistanis are accustomed to accessing.

Why are the citizens being made to suffer when the body at fault is the regulatory authority? Had it put in place

mechanisms and agreements that would compel compliance with domestic laws, the matter would have been easily

resolved. In fact, the state and PTA are out of touch with new realities: although the age of the new media is over

a decade old, they have not yet developed anything close to a policy on the Internet or the social media. The

government needs to put its own house in order. It can‘t curtail citizens‘ rights to cover up its own inadequacies.

The new media will continue to be used for an expanding set of purposes, good or bad. Given its inability to sway

giants such as Google which have their own set of rules, Pakistan needs to develop better regulatory mechanisms.


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The growing divide

September 27, 2012

Perhaps the most important theme of the speeches delivered at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday was the

growing divisions between the West and the Muslim world. Whatever their national perspective, Presidents

Ahmadinejad, Zardari and Obama all focused on the increasingly complicated relations between the two sides. The

trouble stirred up in Muslim countries by a profane video on the Internet has highlighted the sensitive nature of

these ties. The Pakistani president, as expected, raised the issue at the UN forum, calling for criminalising such

provocative acts by mischievous individuals. The proof that the outrage of the Muslims had been registered by the

US, where the anti-Islam video originated, was provided in a statement by President Barack Obama a few hours

before Mr Zardari‘s UN address. Mr Obama urged the people to reject hate material, but quite rightly added that

the death and destruction that such reject ion led to could not be justified.

The gap has widened over time when it comes to America‘s love-hate affair with a number of Muslim countries. The

Muslim world‘s connection with the West is jeopardised by a host of serious problems, including doubts roo ted in a

past that has spawned suspicions about American motives now. The countries in question have failed to evolve the

necessary common language, based on the cultural and religious sensitivities of people on both sides, to address

each other. Ever since 9/11 and more particularly the invasion of Iraq in 2003, these sensitivities have become

more acute and have reached a point where the nightmare of a clash of civilisations may well turn out to be true if

restraint and understanding are not shown at this stage. In looking after its own interests, the US has often

adopted an actively aggressive path, with no consideration for the sentiments of the larger public in countries

where it has either intervened militarily or interfered in domestic politics.

At the same time, the leadership in many of the Muslim countries, has failed to educate the population about the

dangers of accepting the extremist narrative. In the current crisis they have been unable to convince their people

that by reacting to provocative acts of individuals they are only deepening the divide. Though perceived as a

powerless body, the United Nations still remains the right forum for raising issues of cultural and religious

differences and for giving room to voices from all over. Without such a debate and interaction between countries,

the chasm between the West and the Muslim world will only grow.

A familiar strain

September 27, 2012

―Please, stop this refrain to do more,‖ President Asif Ali Zardari said in his speech to the UN General Assembly in a

thinly veiled reference to the US and the pressure it has put on Pakistan to squeeze the sanctuaries that the

Afghan Taliban, particularly the Haqqani network, have on Pakistani soil. Whether the call to end the ‗do more‘

mantra will fall on deaf ears will have much to do with the extent to which the US and Pakistan can narrow their

mutual trust deficit that is very real and very acute. To be sure, Pakistan has some very legitimate complaints

when it comes to US demands concerning Afghanistan. The US military in particular has been very stubborn and

quick to blame Pakistan for its failures — or lack of success — in Afghanistan. To clamp down on the Haqqanis to

satisfy the American timeline of 2014 without regard to the existing conditions or the potential for an

unmanageable blowback in Pakistan is to pit a political imperative — a dignif ied exit from Afghanistan — against

what should be a crucial strategic objective — helping Pakistan remain stable and the containment of militancy.

There is, though, an unfortunate consequence of the push and push-back vis-à-vis the ‗do more‘ platitude: the

debate over what should be done against militancy in Pakistan and when it should be done has in part become

linked to the Pakistan-US relationship and the post-war future of Afghanistan. As opposed to focusing on whether

or not what Pakistan has done to fight militancy is acceptable and a winning strategy, whether the country is less

or more secure as a result of the state‘s security policy, the question of our very real and critical fight against

extremism has been entangled in the messy relationship with the US. So ordinary Pakistanis are still confused

about whether the fight against militancy is for Pakistan‘s own survival or for the protection of ties with an

unpopular US. The unhappy truth is, Pakistan is not winning the fight against militancy. And the state needs to do

more, much, much more. But for Pakistan‘s sake, not anybody else‘s.


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Equality for all

September 27, 2012

Women and minority groups here often suffer seeing their rights being trampled upon, but there has been little

question, theoretically at least, about whether or not they are entitled to equal rights and status. The only group

that until now appeared to have been left out of the net of legal and constitutional protection was the transgender

community. Relatively small in number, poor and generally uneducated, members of this grouping have historically

lingered on society‘s fringes. They have been discriminated against in terms of educa tion, employment, inheritance

and so on. It is encouraging, then, that on Tuesday the Supreme Court ruled that transgender people were entitled

to all the rights guaranteed under the constitution. The petition had been f iled by a private citizen who had

conducted research on the lives of members of this community and found much pain: hermaphrodite children are

usually given away by their parents and, because of discrimination on the part of educationists and employers, as

adults are forced to earn through dancing, begging and prostitution. They are often not even allowed to use public

transport.

The court has directed the police and provincial governments to ensure that transgender people have nothing to

complain about in terms of rights. However, the state must go further. Ensuring that this community is respected

and considered equal will require a change in the societal mindset — and who is better placed to lead the way than

the federal and provincial administrations? Along with awareness-raising efforts, the government should consider a

positive-discrimination employment policy for transgender people. This would not just send out a strong message

about equality to the public at large, it would also have a great and relatively immediate impact on individua ls who

are given jobs. This has been tried before, notably by the tax services; it should be expanded to other

departments.

Tax amnesty


The Federal Board of Revenue‘s proposed tax amnesty scheme to lure 3.8 million tax thieves int o declaring their

‗hidden‘ wealth at home and abroad is unlikely to produce the intended results. Slated to be launched next month,

it doesn‘t appear to be the right route to increasing revenues and expanding the tax base. If the past is anything to

go by, the scheme can at best allow tax dodgers to launder their ill-gotten assets by paying a nominal tax on their

value at an official gain of a few million rupees. The government is living off heavy bank loans and foreign dole, but

the cost that will go into raising such a meagre amount for the economy will be formidable. As is usual, the

opportunity will tempt more people, including many honest taxpayers, to cheat the government in the hope of

availing another amnesty a few years down the road. This is not how governments can or should increase their

revenues. The proposal only indicates a lack of political will to take tough decisions. A government that dithered on

its commitment to implement value added tax for fear of a political backlash hardly inspires confidence about its

ability to document the economy to boost the tax-to-GDP ratio of less than 10 per cent, the lowest in the region.

The FBR proposal is reflective of the unwillingness of the tax collectors to bring to justice those who avoid paying

taxes. Against tall claims by successive heads of the board, the number of people filing tax returns has dropped

sharply and more than two-thirds of the government revenue is generated from inf lationary, indirect taxes. In the

budget for the last fiscal, the government had promised to bring 700,000 wealthy people into the net. More than a

year later, the scheme has fizzled out. To improve its revenue collection, the government will have to tax all

incomes irres-pective of source and revamp tax administration. Amnesty and whitening schemes will only further

entrench the culture of tax evasion in the country.


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A ludicrous suggestion


With the Organisation of the Islamic Conference already there, the call for a ‗Muslim United Nations‘ make s no

sense. On Wednesday, a resolution passed by a gathering of religious parties in Islamabad asked the rulers of the

Islamic world to set up a Muslim UN and establish a unified economic and defence system. The meeting was called

by Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, whose activities remain on the government‘s watch list. Invitations were

extended to virtually all political parties, most of which apparently thought it better to distance themselves from

the controversial outfit and thus did not participate. On the other hand, the meeting brought together some of the

country‘s leading religious figures — including those who, unlike the JuD leader, do believe in electoral politics — to

draw up a strategy for a unified Muslim response to an anti-Islam film that has caused fury in many Muslim

countries.

Given the objectionable contents of the film, few would dispute the aim of the meeting. Yet, a unified Muslim

response demands more than emotion-charged public rallies that degenerate into violence. It requires realism,

wisdom and a strategy that does not turn out to be counterproductive. We know, for instance, that the OIC is a

lame-duck organisation and little better than a debating forum. Its record even in economic and cultural

cooperation among member states is disappointing. To speak of a unified defence and economic command is, thus,

to invite ridicule. If the Islamic world is to meet the challenges it faces, Muslim leaders must f irst think of

organising their societies on democratic and scientific lines. Empty rhetoric and emotionalism have done more

harm than good to causes espoused by Muslims. Meanwhile, it is a matter of regret that Wednesday‘s meeting

failed to condemn last Friday‘s hooliganism on what was meant to be a solemn day.

A major step forward


Ensuring that women are not restrained from casting their ballot and giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote

are both crucial matters. But while the Election Commission of Pakistan has approved a draft law meant to counter

women‘s disenfranchisement in the name of ‗tradition,‘ coming up with a workable system that would enable

Pakistanis abroad to vote may take some time. The draft bill calls for a re-poll in areas where less than 10 per cent

of registered women‘s votes have been polled. Women have been denied their constitutional right to vote in many

areas across Pakistan. And this regressive practice has been endorsed by both religious and mainstream liberal

parties — jointly in some cases. In fact, the ECP‘s decision has already attracted criticism from some political

quarters. Hence while even the 10 per cent threshold is low, it would be a major achievement for progressive

forces in parliament to get the bill passed and, more importantly, to have the law enforced to dilute the influence of

obscurant forces over Pakistan‘s political system. Besides, the ECP‘s step would also put pressure on all political

parties to attract the women‘s vote, changing the dynamics in many constituencies.

While enacting the women‘s enfranchisement law is something that can be done relatively quickly, the question of

how to enable Pakistani expatriates to vote is a trickier one, as has been reflected by the ECP‘s own indecisiveness.

The two options on the table are either setting up polling stations in Pakistani missions abroad or allowing postal

ballots. There are issues with both methods, as in the Gulf states, where millions of Pakistanis work, political

activities are frowned upon. The main issue with postal ballots is that after the publication of the final list of

candidates there will not be enough time to cast the vote. However, a postal ballot system does exist for

government officials and armed forces personnel.

It is important to bring overseas Pakistanis, who contribute signif icantly to t he economy through remittances, into

the voting process. The major issue is how the mechanics of the exercise can be managed, and at this stage, it is

unlikely that expatriates would be able to vote in the next election. This has been indicated by politica l parties

meeting with the chief election commissioner yesterday. While that would be disappointing, practicalities must be

kept in mind to avoid problems. In the meantime, the matter should be debated by political parties, civil society

and representatives of overseas Pakistanis so that a solution can be found. The process of how developed

democracies allow their citizens living abroad to vote should also be studied.


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The Putin snub


The cancellation of what was expected to be the Russian president‘s landmark visit must come as a shock to

Pakistan and raise a question or two about an issue whose impact transcends Islamabad‘s bilateral relations with

Moscow. To add to Pakistan‘s distress, President Vladimir Putin cancelled his visit without giving any indication

when, if at all, he would visit Pakistan. Instead, the Russian president invited his Pakistani counterpart to be his

guest. That President Putin‘s decision also cancels the quadrilateral summit involving Afghanistan and Tajikistan is

perhaps less of a worry; the greater cause for concern is the direction Pakistan‘s relations with Russia will take. On

the back burner for a long time, the relationship with Russia seemed to break new ground when President Asif Ali

Zardari visited Moscow last year. The visit made geopolitical sense for a country keen to broaden its economic and

security ties at a time when it was under pressure from the superpower. ‗Rescheduling‘ the Putin visit is now

Islamabad‘s only option.

While the Foreign Office should determine precisely why the Russian president chose not to come to Pakistan, the

reasons for Russia‘s unhappiness are not too difficult to discern. Moscow feels disappointed over Islamabad‘s tardy

response to many vital works, especially energy projects, in which Russia is interested. These include the plan to

transmit electricity from Tajikistan to Pakistan, and a motorway and rail links through the mountains from the

former Soviet republic to this country. Also cause for annoyance is Pakistan‘s dwindling interest in the Iran gas

pipeline, on which Tehran has completed construction inside its territory with Russian help. While Islamabad

officially remains committed to it, Moscow has not failed to note Islamabad‘s dwindling interest in the project under

American pressure. There are other projects for which Pakistan itself has shown an interest in Russian help — the

expansion of Pakistan Steel and several other infrastructure projects. But, while the Putin government is willing to

help, it feels Pakistan has not done the spadework necessary to get the projects going.

The Soviet Union‘s break-up should not cause anyone to underestimate Russia‘s economic power and geopolitical

clout. Its resource-rich landmass and high scientific and technological assets remain intact. As the focus of global

economic power gradually shifts to the East, Russia as a Eurasian power is bound to play a major role. Pakistan

would be making a grave mistake if it omits Russia from its calculations. In his letter, President Put in still held out

hopes for a closer relationship with Pakistan. Let Islamabad find out what went wrong and try to mend things.

Positive signals


Akhtar Mengal‘s appearance before the Supreme Court on Thursday to plead for a change in state policy towards

Balochistan was a much-needed move. At the very least it has sent a positive signal that mainstream Balochistan

has still not given up on the state of Pakistan — or at least parts of it — to come to the rescue of the violence-hit

province. The SC‘s efforts to rein in the unaccountable security establishment in Balochistan have not had much

success to date but in the run-up to a general election, it is significant that the leader of a pro-Pakistan and

moderate Baloch party, the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, has taken the opportunity to present his case on

the national stage. Whether Mr Mengal‘s prescribed solution — the six points he mooted before the court — will be

implemented, or even listened to, in the quarters that matter when it comes to Balochistan is an open question. So

far, the security establishment has not given any indication of its willingness to listen to voices of reason. Equally,

the moderate voices from Balochistan and outside have largely not been heard in recent times. And perhaps the

first step towards stabilising the province is having moderates speak up and put pressure in a concerted manner on

the state security apparatus.

Mr Mengal‘s return to Pakistan from self-exile is also signif icant in the context of the upcoming elections. The best-

case scenario for Balochistan would be for the moderate Baloch and Pakhtun parties — the BNP-M, the National

Party and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party — to contest the upcoming general election and win enough seats to

form a provincial government. That would reverse the disastrous decision of boycotting elections in 2008 that

opened the door to self-serving interests in the province to grab power and to do virtually nothing to try and bring

the warring sides in the province closer together over the past four and a half years — as has happened under the

government of Chief Minister Aslam Raisani. The moderates need to put their best foot forward now, for enough

time has already been lost in Balochistan.


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Winning the lottery


It must feel like winning the lottery. A politician is elected to parliament and, suddenly, he has the means to please

the people in his constituency by pressing forward with development projects. This seems to be particularly true for

NA-51 (Rawalpindi), the constituency of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. The impact was felt almost immediately

after the PPP politician took oath as prime minister. A special Central Development Working Party meeting called by

the Planning Commission on the directives of the Prime Minister‘s Secretariat took practically no time to clear three

development projects worth several billion rupees between them. Work star-ted even before the approval process

was completed. But why should NA-51 not enjoy a day in the sun when others have had their turn before? By all

accounts the constituency of Yousuf Raza Gilani was similarly treated during his tenure. This is a pattern we have

witnessed regardless of which party has been in power.

Of course, the welfare of voters in their constituencies is important to politicians, and that is how it should be.

Happy voters mean better chances of electoral success. But also discernible in this pattern, where the

constituencies of those in power are treated better often at the cost of others, is the reason why development work

remains so patchy. Politicians should in fact be focused on improvements for the country as a whole. Their thinking

is easy to understand: secure voter goodwill and gain an edge over the competition. But it achieves little for the

country as a whole and creates resentment at the fact that funds are not spent in an even-handed manner. Until

this mindset on the part of the politicians changes, governance will continue to resemble a court where favours are

handed down on royal whim.

A laudable step


On the rare occasion, parliament can produce a pleasant surprise by taking on issues of genuine national

importance. So it was on Friday that the Senate defence committee held parliament‘s first-ever public hearing in

which experts from outside the official state apparatus were invited to address three critical areas of national

defence and security: the country‘s nuclear doctrine, the strategy to counter extremism and the state‘s policy on

Afghanistan. Friday‘s hearing was part of an exercise that will culminate in December or January with the Senate

defence committee publishing a report containing recommendations for a new defence and national security

strategy. In a country where ‗civil-military imbalance‘ is a euphemism for the utter dominance of the army-led

security establishment over the civilian political class, the committee‘s actions must be lauded for making a

genuine attempt to recover the ground the civilians have over the decades surrendered to the army on nationa l

security and defence policy.

The basic problem of Pakistan‘s national security policies is their over-militarisation, an inevitable outcome when

the army decides what the national security priorities are and how to advance those interests and defend against

threats. But a viable national security strategy also has economic, social, political and diplomatic planks that have

for the most part been ignored by the security establishment. To correct that historical imbalance — an imbalance

with deeply damaging consequences for Pakistan‘s overall security — the civilians will need to assert themselves

and force other aspects of national security to be considered alongside the military aspects. And for that to happen,

the first step must be a more open and frank debate about matters that hitherto have remained strictly in the

military purview. So in inviting speakers to address issues concerning Pakistan‘s nuclear doctrine, its counter-

extremism strategy and the policy on Afghanistan, the Senate committee has initiated a historic change that other

elements of parliament must reinforce and support.

Equally important is that the Senate defence committee does not limit its scope to policy scrutiny alone. Advancing

civilian control over national security and defence policies also entails exercising greater oversight over how the

armed forces are run and operated. What is an adequate budget for the armed forces, where the balance should be

struck between addressing internal security threats from militancy and external threats from states, how are top-

level appointments decided, what equipment needs to be acquired and in what priority — these and many more

questions are matters in which civilian input, and eventual control, is necessary. The Senate defence committee

has taken the first step; are other civilian agencies ready to do their bit?


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A new wave


Sectarian killings are becoming common in different parts of Pakistan, especially Quetta, Gilgit -Baltistan and

Karachi. Yet a particularly chilling aspect of such killings is emerging in Karachi: families — Shia and Sunni — are

being targeted on the basis of their beliefs. So grim is the situation that on Friday, the country‘s chief justice

termed Karachi ―the hub of terrorist activities‖, blaming intolerance for the violence. Earlier this month, the

chairman of a Shia trust and senior advertiser was attacked along with his son and grandson. Only the grandson

survived. In the past week, there were a number of similarly gruesome incidents: three brothers were attacked last

Monday in the Jaffar-i-Tayyar neighbourhood, one of whom died. Later that day, four brothers belonging to the

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat were gunned down in North Karachi. A day later, a Shia trader was shot dead along with

his two sons. While a few incidents of this nature occurred during the sectarian bloodletting of the 1990s, currently

there seems to be no check on this horrific trend. It indicates that militants belonging to their respective sects are

engaged in tit-for-tat killings, intent on killing several generations of a family. The police, administration and

religious leaders are mostly silent, and there is only muted concern coming from political quarters.

Such a response to the steady stream of kil lings has been highly disappointing. The police are hardly bothered; no

unit has been assigned the task of investigating the rash of killings of family members and bringing the killers to

justice. The police need to actively investigate these cases, which are part of a pattern, and not treat the killings as

‗business as usual‘. The silence of the religious establishment is also disturbing. Religious leaders agitate over a

variety of issues; so why has there been no outrage over these brutal killings? The recently reactivated Milli

Yakjehti Council, which features representatives from all the major Islamic factions in Pakistan, has said it wants to

counter sectarianism. If that is the case, it should organise a meeting where the religious establishment — clearly

and unequivocally — condemns such sectarian murders as a first step.

Bomb disposal hero


Habib Jalib once composed a limerick that mocked the tendency in Pakistan to add the honorific ‗shaheed‘ (martyr)

to anyone killed in polit ical violence. However, if there are those who truly deserve the title, they include the

unsung heroes of Pakistan‘s bomb disposal squads. On Friday, Inspector Hukam Khan entered the ranks of such

heroes when he was killed as he attempted to defuse a bomb. The bomb was one of the two killing and maiming

devices that had been planted on a roadside near Khyber Agency. Hukam Khan had already disabled one bomb and

was in the process of dismantling the other when the terrorists who had planted the devices detonated it by remote

control. Hukam Khan, who had joined the squad as a low-paid constable in 1978, had defused countless such

devices. Despite its risky nature, he was committed to his job and had risen to his rank as bomb disposal squad

inspector.

The psychological pressure on the men of the disposal squad is immense as they begin to defuse a bomb to save

others from death and injury. Given the fact that such killing tools planted by terrorists are discovered every day,

the disposal squad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — which has been the worst-hit province in the war against militancy —

has managed to deactivate them with remarkable professionalism. However, its task is getting deadlier by the day

— eight of the men have died while defusing lethal devices. Under-resourced and understaffed, the squad in the

province has approximately 40 members. They are not in possession of jammers to disrupt signals, protective suits

or other necessary gear. They do not even have sufficient fuel for vehicles. Meanwhile, the insurgents are

improving their skills and assembling more sophisticated devices. It will be a losing battle unless the squad‘s

training and resources keep pace with the terrorists‘ technology.


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EDITORIALS FROM THE MONTH OF OCTOBER

A handy excuse

October 1st, 2012

―I don't know why foreign hands are visible only to Rehman Malik and the agencies,‖ asked Akhtar Mengal, the

head of the BNP-M, during comments to the media on Saturday. Indeed. It‘s the most reliable tool in the oldest

playbook here: every time the state struggles to impose control over an area and the local population is alienated,

anonymous officials in the orbit of the army-led security establishment start hinting darkly about outside powers

stirring up trouble in Pakistan to destabilise the country and/or perhaps dismember it. The first and most direct

benefit of this cynical theory is that it takes attention away from the actual problem: in Balochistan, the state‘s

policy over the decades that has resulted in swathes of the Baloch population never really believing they are

wanted inside Pakistan on equal terms with other populations; in Fata, state policy over the last three decades that

created an infrastructure for jihad which led to the creation of a fearsome opponent with its guns trained on

Pakistan proper; in Gilgit-Baltistan, exploiting sectarian tensions for national goals since the 1980s in a previously

largely peaceful area. The list goes on and on.

The legend of the ‗foreign hand‘ is greatest when it comes to Balochistan. From Brahmda gh Bugti‘s ‗Indian

passport‘ to detonators and explosives used by Baloch separatists being sourced from Indian or Afghan enemies of

Pakistan, the claims have been persistent and extraordinary — and they have never once been officially and

publicly proved. The unwillingness to go public with the proof of the allegations is attributed variously to not

wanting to endanger intelligence assets or to darker theories about how states play games at unseen levels and

exposing them publicly would be counterproductive. Of course, all the while, the actual problem keeps festering.

Whether Dr Allah Nazar is an agent of India or Afghanistan is almost beside the point; he was radicalised by what

he witnessed happening to his province and what was done to him while under detention by the security apparatus.

And the youth of Balochistan who fear and loathe the Pakistani state do so not because of some great love for or

support from outside powers but because they have seen the iron fist of the security apparatus brought down on

their peers, friends and families.

Throughout history, states have surely tried to take advantage of their opponents‘ weaknesses. But the ‗foreign

hand‘ isn‘t the problem in Pakistan; the state‘s misguided policies are. Until those policies change, prob lems will

fester and Pakistan‘s internal security will remain tenuous.

The fishermen’s tale

October 1st, 2012

The plight of Pakistani and Indian fishermen who stray into each other‘s waters is usually as predictable as the

ocean currents that buoy up their boats. They are arrested by maritime security agencies and thrown into prison

from where, often after several years, groups of them are released from time to time in ‗goodwill gestures‘. The

story of Nawaz Ali, the fisherman who died recently in an Indian hospital, was different for a number of reasons,

and not only because he never saw the light of freedom after his arrest. For one, Nawaz Ali and three of his

relatives had been missing since 1999 after their boat was caught in a cyclone while they were out fishing. But it

was more than a decade later that his family learnt they were alive and incarcerated in India. Secondly, news of

Nawaz Ali‘s death on Sept 8 was conveyed to the Pakistan High Commission by the Indian authorities well over two

weeks later, after which his family was informed.

According to an agreement signed by the two countries a few years ago and pertaining to cross-border prisoners,

news of the death of a foreign prisoner must be conveyed immediately to the relevant high commission and his


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body sent to his home country within one month. It must be asked not only why immediate notification was not

made in this instance, but also why Nawaz Ali‘s family was kept in the dark about their relatives‘ imprisonment for

so long. Consular access for prisoners needs to be ensured so that none can slip through the cracks and languish

behind bars, unseen and undocumented. While the release on Friday of 46 Pakistani fishermen by India is

welcome, they do not include members of Nawaz Ali‘s family. It is also high time that India and Pakistan tackled

the issue of maritime boundary demarcation, the lack of which plays a big part in inadvertent trespass by

fishermen on both sides. While relaxed visa regimes for businessmen and tourists are all very well, the plight of

some of the most impoverished members of society must not be given short shrift.

Undocumented Afghans

October 1st, 2012

The displacement of Afghans from their homeland has been described as the world‘s longest -running refugee crisis,

now entering its fourth decade. And due to a variety of reasons, Pakistan has borne the brunt of the crisis. Last

week, the National Assembly‘s Public Accounts Committee was told that there are around one million Afghans living

in Pakistan illegally. This is in addition to 1.7 million registered refugees. The PAC was informed that the Ministry of

States and Frontier Regions (Safron) — which deals with refugees — was facing a paucity of funds, as millions of

dollars promised by international donors had been held back. Yet there was also stinging criticism that funds meant

for refugees were spent on officials‘ junkets and air conditioners. Some parliamentarians were quite critical of the

refugees, describing them as a ‗burden‘. Considering the pressure put on the system by such a large number of

people, the Afghans are an easy target for criticism. While the situation in Afghanistan may not be conducive for

the refugees‘ return due to militant violence and a weak economy, Pakistan‘s problems, including a creaking

infrastructure unable to cater to a large population, are also considerable.

Some officials have voiced support for evicting the Afghan refugees. However, we feel repatriation should be

voluntary. The state needs to focus on registering all undocumented Afghans so that the refugee issue can be

properly managed, as well as for security reasons. As for the shortage of funds, while the international community

needs to deliver on its promises as the ‗problem‘ is not Pakistan‘s alone, Safron must also plug the leaks. The

ultimate solution to the Afghan refugee question is a peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan. Until that seemingly distant

goal is realised, the international community needs to continue to help Pakistan repatriate Afghan refugees wanting

to go back and care for the ones still residing in this country.

No transparency

October 2nd, 2012

The Sindh local government law that was virtually bulldozed through the provincial assembly on Monday has

attracted controversy ever since it first appeared as the Sindh People‘s Local Government Ordinance 2012. The PPP

and MQM had the numbers and saw the law through the legislature — without debate — even as other parties in

the Sindh Assembly protested. The new law has attracted the criticism of Sindhi nationalists, some government

allies and opposition figures. While it may be difficult to question the merit of a local government system that

encourages grass-roots democracy, what cannot be condoned is the mishandling of an issue which has the

potential to create deep divisions in society. The SPLGO 2012 was promulgated in early September and the

notification to implement it was issued on Friday. Why such haste? It would have been more sensible to have called

an assembly session and put the draft before Sindh‘s elected representatives. That this procedure was not followed

has raised suspicions about the political motives behind the move.

The law calls for f ive metropolitan corporations in Sindh, with the province‘s remaining 18 districts to be governed

by councils. It also restores the Police Order of 2002 — but only in Karachi. The rationale behind leaving other

areas out of the purview of the police order is unclear: did the MQM want the system only for the Sindh capital, or

did the PPP not want to implement it in the districts where it wields power? What is clear is that there should be

one system — police, administrative and other — of governance in Sindh. Having two separate systems will be

controversial and impractical. True, cities and rural areas have different needs. Nevertheless, a uniform system is

needed to address development issues in an even-handed manner.


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Considering that there is a need for public representatives at the grass-roots level, nationalists and others who are

opposed to the law itself should be asked to clearly enunciate their views on the LG system and describe its flaws.

Voicing their opinion is their right, but by not participating in the debate in a coherent manner, and not giving

alternative suggestions, they only come across as trying to gain political mileage. Meanwhile, the PPP-led

government has done itself no favours by turning an idea with merit into a highly controversial law. It must now

dispel the impression that a separate system for Karachi has been proposed as a ‗favour‘ to the MQM. There is still

a chance to salvage the situation if the government reaches out to disgruntled parties inside and outside

parliament and consi-ders amending legitimate weaknesses in the law.

For fair polls

October 2nd, 2012

Election rhetoric apart, Mian Nawaz Sharif‘s apprehensions about electoral malpractices deserve to be taken

seriously in a country where polling and vote count are far from transparent. Talking to journalists in Sukkur on

Sunday, the PML-N chief said there would be a strong reaction if the general election was rigged and asked the PPP

to help form a truly impartial caretaker set-up for the purpose. The sources of electoral malpractices are varied and

stem from the kind of feudal- and militant-dominated society we live in. The administrative machinery is often

open to pressure, and violence or threats of violence militate against fair voting. This is in addition to what

Mehrangate revealed — the ISI funding parties of its choice.

Mercifully, we can see that all parties have agreed on the two major deterrents against electoral malpractices — an

impartial caretaker regime and a truly independent election commission. The PPP-led government and the

opposition have chosen the right man in Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim as chief election commissioner, and the 20th

constitutional amendment laying down the mechanism for choosing a caretaker prime minister has parliamentary

consensus. The acting prime minister has not yet been chosen, but the opposition has come out with several

names to which the government side has not reacted negatively. Let us hope that the spirit shown in the CEC‘s

appointment will also be there in the choice of the interim prime minister. However, when the interim set -up is in

place, the political parties and media, amongst others, must show a sense of responsibility, behave with restraint

and lend full support to the caretaker regime and the CEC. This means a pledge to adopt a less emotional approach

towards the issues of the day and to work collectively for fair polls. Placing the administrative machinery under the

CEC, as has been demanded by some opposition leaders, is perhaps not immediately possible, but it can be

considered later. However, transparency and smooth voting can be ensured if the caretaker government lends its

full support to the CEC. This is a crucial step towards stabilising the democratic process.

The Afghan advance

October 2nd, 2012

The Asian Cricket Council‘s recent decision to back Afghanistan for associate membership of the International

Cricket Council is recognition of the fast-improving Afghan team and makes plenty of sense. The would-be

associate members have shown glimpses of their talent and the combative qualities the Afghans are famous for

have won their side admirers. The Afghan cricketers are looked upon with a certain amount of pride in Pakistan not

just because they are currently considered the most likely underdogs to upset the giants; Pakistanis look at these

Afghan f ighters as their protégés. This country is happy to have played a big part in nurturing the cricketing talent

among Afghan refugees over many decades. Many of the cricketers who first brandished their skills in the streets

of Karachi and Peshawar are now distinguished members of the Afghan national side. They are coached by an ex-

Pakistan player and have taken part in domestic competitions here.

So huge is Pakistanis‘ support for this Afghan conquest that the happenings in a match of the ongoing T -20 world

championship sort of revived the old strategic -depth theory here. Afghanistan were playing India and playing them

well and at one time genuinely threatened M.S. Dhoni‘s team — softening them up before Pakistan were scheduled

to play India in the next round. But just as the best of coaching may have its faults, there is one area where the

Afghans need to ‗de-learn‘ their Pakistani experience.


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The Afghans do not have to drop all these balls to prove their affinity with their neighbours. They are as notorious

as their teachers when it comes to catching the ball. As a team worthy of the associate stature they must improve

their fielding, and maybe they can inspire their teachers to catch a few, amid these chants of ‗do more‘ and

‗Whatmore‘.

Tax amnesty

October 3rd, 2012

The confusion of those absorbing Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh‘s comments on the planned tax amnesty for the

3.8 million potential tax dodgers with undeclared assets here and abroad is perfectly understandable. He is being

ambiguous, perhaps intentionally. He says such proposals are meant for netting those with large amounts of black

money to hide. But he reminds everyone that it is not yet ‗government policy‘ (because it requires presidential

approval). He doesn‘t say that it will not become government policy and so it may be safe to assume that the

proposal remains on the table. Apparently, the minister favours the amnesty and wants the Federal Board of

Revenue to shift its focus to those with large amounts of black money. He has chosen to be ambiguous in his

comments possibly because of objections raised by visiting IMF officials.

When the PPP government came up with its first tax amnesty scheme in 2008, it promised not to reward dodgers.

It has failed to keep its word. Only a few months ago, it announced a reprieve for stock investors to provide a fresh

trigger to investment in shares for boosting capital markets. The amnesty is being touted by the FBR as the last

opportunity for tax dodgers to come clean. Still, chances of tax evaders availing of the scheme are as slim as that

of government action against them. After all, they already have legislation in place guaranteeing tax exemption for

money brought into Pakistan through normal banking channels as remittances. This legislation gives tax evaders

enough space to whiten their untaxed money. They pay a small commission to a money-exchange dealer and get

remittances in their names. It is hugely frustrating to see the state rewarding those who cheat the government

with the help of a corrupt tax machinery.

Media reports suggest the FBR is pushing the proposal as a one-time effort to generate additional revenues to meet

the tax target for the current fiscal. However, the scheme is unlikely to help the FBR rake in significant amounts of

tax. The 2008 amnesty had yielded just about Rs2.5bn. India has had more than 14 disc losure schemes but the

response has been far from encouraging and the ‗parallel‘ economy continues to thrive there. Shouldn‘t we learn

from the Indian experience if not from our own? A better way would be to deal sternly with tax dodgers whom the

government intends to help in laundering their illegal wealth. The FBR claims to have all the required information

about them. If it must reward someone, it should reward honest taxpayers and not tax evaders.

Not a good idea

October 3rd, 2012

The PTI is set to go ahead with its rally to South Waziristan despite reservations from official quarters about safety

and security, but the question must still be asked: is the PTI‘s rally a good idea? To the extent that political parties

have an undeniable right to campaign in various parts of Pakistan and to energise the base ahead of an election,

the PTI‘s rally is well within its democratic rights. Particularly in an area which has long remained on the margins of

Pakistani society and virtually cut off from mainstream po litics, the attempt by a political party to fortify its support

can seem like a good idea. But the PTI‘s goals must also be set against other national imperatives — and seen from

the perspective of the fight against militancy, Imran Khan‘s high-on-drama, low-on-results pilgrimage to Fata is

unadvisable. To the extent that the PTI leadership is calculating that a very public denunciation of drone strikes

and military operations from an area gripped by violence for the better part of a decade will yield elect oral

dividends in Pakistan proper, perhaps even in the tribal areas, the party may well pick up a few votes here and

there. But the PTI‘s policy on drone strikes and military operations is so well known — indeed, is a fundamental

part of its campaign platform — as to render a made-for-TV opportunity at best peripheral to its electoral success.

The downsides, however, are very real and potentially serious, for the country, if not for the PTI. South Waziristan

is an area no one, not even the most optimistic military official, would claim is anywhere near an acceptable


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normal. Militants are still active and the security forces face a battle that has morphed from frontal confrontation to

fighting a shadowy but dangerous enemy. In that environment, a political rally that will echo inside Pakistan and

internationally and seek to undermine the tenuous state narrative that the fight against militancy is Pakistan‘s own

will only bolster the enemy‘s morale, and even endanger lives. The PTI won‘t listen to good sense but its planned

action is certainly deserving of criticism.

Children of a lesser god

October 3rd, 2012

Even in a country as inured to deprivation and tragedy as ours, the recently confirmed news of the death of nine

newborns within a space of 12 hours at Larkana‘s Chandka Medical College Hospital was shocking. The details, as

they emerged, painted a picture of a hospital with far too few resources for the number of patients in its care and

no neo-natal ICU with functional incubators; instead, a paediatr ic emergency ward where babies, including

preemies, are accommodated together several to a bed, increasing the risk of cross-infection. These are among the

factors that seem to have been large ly responsible for the deaths.

Last June, a fire at the Services Hospital in Lahore — entirely preventable had timely action been taken — killed 10

babies. Despite the conclusion drawn by several investigations that the hospital‘s nursery section be moved

elsewhere as it had no f ire escape, this has not been done. At the Chandka Hospital, many infants are underweight

because they are born to anaemic, malnourished women who make the journey from far-flung communities where

there is little or no medical care, let alone hospital facilities, available. The distance also puts at risk the lives of

both mother and child in case of complications in home deliveries. While on the surface, the incidents appear very

different, they are both evidence of the official apathy and institutional disregard for human life — especially that

which commands the least political clout — in this part of the world. Also, given the ruling PPP‘s symbiotic

relationship with Larkana, the fact that a leading government hospital in this city has such a paucity of resources

for the ‗ghareeb awam‘ that the party claims as its constituency is particularly shameful. When will our political

elite treat health as a fundamental human right rather than a privilege to be enjoyed by the select few?

A positive move

October 4th, 2012

Reversing the damaging decision to boycott the 2008 general elections, the National Party has thrown its hat into

the electoral ring this time round, a widely expected decision that should bode well for the moderates in strife -torn

Balochistan. The BNP-M leader, Akhtar Mengal, did not announce his party‘s participation in the upcoming elections

during his brief visit to Pakistan last week but the BNP-M is also expected to contest the elections. Similarly, the

mainstream Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party is expected to try and recover the space it ceded to rivals after the

disastrous decision to boycott the 2008 polls. All told, this is good news for the province. While the army -led

security establishment has rightly been blamed for much of the mess in the province, the present provincial

government and assembly has been a disaster at every level imaginable. In fact, so cynical has opinion in

Balochistan become that many suspect the present civilian leadership of Balochistan is content to let the security

forces and militant separatists fight it out because that ensures the flow of unprecedented funds to the province

that can be easily skimmed off. A change, then, in the political stewardship of Balochistan is desperately needed.

Nevertheless, these are early days. The fate of the elections in Balochistan will depend on delicate negotiations

conducted behind the scenes between the various players, none of whom trust each other. As of now, the army‘s

position on the elections is not known: will they let the electoral chips fall where they may or will they try and

manipulate results in favour of allies? Gen Kayani‘s statement yesterday pledging the army‘s support for

constitutional solutions in Balochistan was a welcome note but promises have been made before and not

implemented. Moreover, the moderates will have to walk the narrowest of tightropes. Without convincing the

militant separatists that relatively free and fair elections are in Balochistan‘s interest, the moderates could easily

find themselves in the crosshairs of the separatists during the campaign. There is yet another unknown. Will the

army and the separatists halt the violence ahead of the elections to ensure a period of calm in the province? If

neither side backs down, the elections could become a bloodbath and Balochistan could s piral further out of

control.


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Perhaps the greatest unknown, on which much of Balochistan‘s future could rest, is which way the province will

vote if moderates do participate and if the elections are relatively free and fair. The moderate parties believe t hey

still command substantial support. But if Balochistan‘s population spurns the moderates at the election, who will

rescue that unfortunate province and how?

Averting a clash

October 4th, 2012

Adding a new twist to the dual nationality debate, the National Assembly Secretariat has apparently refused to

comply with the Election Commission of Pakistan‘s order to obtain declarations from legislators confirming that they

do not possess citizenship of a foreign country. The ECP‘s move was the result of last month‘s Supreme Court order

requiring parliamentarians to submit affidavits clarifying their nationality status. It appears that the NA Secretariat

is going ‗by the book‘; the ECP was told that the rules of business do not allow the obtaining of such dec larations,

meaning that the commission should obtain the declarations from the lawmakers itself. Since the court has passed

the order and since holding dual nationality for lawmakers is forbidden under Article 63 (1c) of the constitution, it

is obvious that our legislators should abide by the SC‘s directives and cooperate with the ECP by either filing their

affidavits directly or through the NA Secretariat. There is little room for debate on this point.

But, having said that, the situation must also be seen from a broader perspective. The life of the current national

and provincial assemblies is limited, with probably three or four months remaining before the legislatures complete

their tenure. So, to avert an institutional clash over the matter it is advisable for the ECP to put greater focus on

ensuring that candidates for the upcoming polls do not have dual nationality. Such verification has been carried out

before recent by-elections and must be repeated as part of a regular process in the run-up to general elections.

The Senate, however, is a different case as it will remain after the current assemblies complete their term. Hence

the senators should file their aff idavits without delay. Whether it is filing wealth statements or details of their

nationality, the public‘s representatives are accountable to the courts as well as to the people, who have a right to

information about their financial status and other details. If the lawmakers have nothing to hide, there should be

no delay in filing the statements required by the ECP.

A new benchmark

October 4th, 2012

Pure in name and known for its abstinence, Pakistan must nevertheless attract attention for the variety of cocktails

it offers. But this one has the potency to send the whole bar into a spin. The instance where an honourable judge

seeks to spike the legal with the moral makes for a mixture too heady even for these times of most ingenious

experiments. The honourable chief justice of the Peshawar High Court on Monday granted bail to a woman accused

of running a brothel. A new benchmark in the treatment of the accused was set when the respected judge referred

her to a certain imam sahib of a certain mosque in Hayatabad — in recognition of the respected cleric‘s ability to

correct the wayward. The accused was asked to attend daily reformative classes at the mosque for a month, and

no less a moral keeper than the local SHO was directed to make sure the accused successfully completed the

course.

This is reformative justice and this is progress —true Pakistan style, may we add. An example has been set against

the old retributive model and for using the clerics effectively beyond their traditional role. But, leave alone what

sentence a judge can pronounce, is this woman a convict already? The news reports say it was a bail plea the

honourable judge was hearing. The prosecution was yet to begin. The accused did get bail but the accompanying

order that put her in the care of a cleric could lead to the impression of her being guilty before the trial itself was

held. Only if she had been found guilty could she have been asked to go through a reformative process. It would


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appear that amid so many ‗whats‘ and ‗whys‘ surrounding the case the imam sahib‘s entry was a tad premature if

not simply unwarranted.

Tax evasion

October 5th, 2012

There are times when the audacity and mismatch between what is being said and what is being done leaves us all

dumbfounded. Recently, the National Database and Registration Authority completed an exercise aimed at

identifying those individuals who have lifestyles of opulence and luxury yet pay no taxes. The results strain

credulity, in a country where credulity is already in short supply. Tens of thousands of people live in posh areas of

big cities, own luxury cars, engage in luc rative professions such as medicine and law and possess licenses for

weapons — yet they pay no taxes. Over a million and a half people travel abroad multiple times in a year, and

more than half a million people own multiple bank accounts without being registered as tax payers.

The numbers may not be very large in proportion to the overall population, but the audacity of living in this

manner without paying taxes, and in many cases without even being registered with the tax authorities, is

confounding even for Pakistan. We all knew these numbers would be large when they came in, but we weren‘t

prepared for how large and how audacious the picture of tax evasion in Pakistan really turned out to be. This would

be just another data release were it not for the timing. Nadra‘s disclosures come only days after the announcement

of another ‗tax amnesty scheme‘, the purported intent of which is to bring evaded wealth into the tax net. Past

schemes of this sort have had as much success as de-weaponisation drives in conflict areas.

Pakistan has one of the highest cash-to-bank deposit ratios in the world, which basically means that Pakistanis

prefer holding their wealth in cash, and prefer to execute their transactions in cash rather than use banking

channels. The reason is obvious: cash transactions are difficult to trace. The volume of money that circulates in the

cash economy in Pakistan is larger than it is in most other countries of the world. Bringing this money into the tax

net, a fact whose importance and urgency has been highlighted by the numbers compiled by Nadra, will not

happen with more ‗amnesty‘ schemes. It will happen when there is a will to connect the dots and identify the

evaders on the part of the Federal Board of Revenue, when there is a will to document commercial transactions

through a value-added tax, and above all, when there is a will on the part of citizens to change their mindset and

carry their part of the burden to pay for their state‘s expenses.

A rock and a hard place

October 5th, 2012

The killing of Abdul Haq Baloch, who reported for a private television network, in Khuzdar on Saturday has

highlighted yet again the increasingly dangerous terrain that the country‘s journalists must negotiate in the line of

duty, particularly in conflict-hit areas such as Balochistan and the north-western parts of the country. Mr Baloch

was only about 100 yards from the local press club when he was gunned down by masked men. As in so many

similar cases, the killers fled and the police case has been registered against ―unidentified gunmen‖. The list of

those who could be behind the attack can potentially include elements ranging from militants or separatists to

sections of the law-enforcement apparatus, for journalists who report from the country‘s trouble spot s complain of

facing pressure from both sides in relation to their work. Over the years, a mounting body of information suggests

that amongst the persecutors of reporters could be elements within state-sponsored agencies that seek to suppress

the flow of information and place impediments in the path of citizens‘ right to information — the death of Saleem

Shahzad being a case in point. In such a situation, where the state makes little effort to even signal its support for

journalists, honest reportage can be considered under threat.

Will Mr Baloch‘s killers ever be brought to book? Given the state‘s history in this regard, this would appear unlikely.

Earlier during the year, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists warned that ―deadly, unpunished

violence against the press rose sharply‖ in Pakistan, and the country‘s rating on the CPJ Impunity Index worsened

for the fourth year in a row. In this bald statement can be found the truth of the matter. The index rates countries

where journalists are killed regularly but the government usually fails to solve the crime. In other words, Pakistan

is a deadly country for journalists not just because they are threatened, but also because the state consistently


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refuses to pursue the persecutors in any meaningful fashion. Unless this pattern changes, there is danger that

those in the media, particularly in conflict-hit areas, will have to work with so much circumspection as to render

themselves impotent.

Aviation safety

October 5th, 2012

The state‘s machinery is not exactly known for its clockwork efficiency. But when it comes to investigating

Pakistan‘s worst air disasters, the government needs to show some urgency. As reported in this paper the Safety

Investigation Board, which works under the Ministry of Defence and is investigating April‘s Bhoja Air crash on the

outskirts of Islamabad, has not met for two months. The reason for this is that the investigation chief is on sick

leave while another investigator has retired. The SIB is also waiting for the International Civil Aviation

Organisation‘s feedback, as the global agency is looking into the crash as well. Meanwhile, the probe into July

2010‘s Airblue crash, in Islamabad‘s Margalla hills, is also proceeding at a snail‘s pace. Earlier this year the

Peshawar High Court ordered a re-investigation into the tragedy as it was dissatisfied with the official probe.

Reportedly, in the Airblue investigation as well a response from the ICAO is awaited.

If it is indeed a lack of feedback from foreign experts that is holding up both investigations, perhaps the local

authorities need to approach the ICAO and request it to update them on the findings thus far. However, delaying a

probe because an investigator is indisposed or has retired is simply unacceptable. Surely the state can appoint

competent experts in their place. The government needs to show urgency and interest in both probes for two key

reasons: first, there is a need to ascertain what exactly brought down the two airliners so that rectifications can be

made where safety protocols are concerned in order to prevent future accidents. Second, the investigations need to

progress at a satisfactory pace so that the heirs of the victims can be duly compensated. Overall, the state needs

to urgently review its lethargic attitude towards aviation safety standards in Pakistan.

Military mindset

October 6th, 2012

Laconic it may have been, but the army chief‘s recent statement on Balochistan came across as full of meaning and

revealed a disturbing mindset. Before flying off to Moscow, Gen Pervez Kayani said the army would support any

solution to the Balochistan crisis provided it was ―within the constitution‖. His statement was elaborated upon by an

army official when he denied that the army was blocking any political initiative on Balochistan. The army chief‘s

remark came in the wake of Baloch nationalist Akhtar Mengal‘s appearance in the Supreme Court and the talks he

had in Islamabad with some leading politicians culminating in his ‗six points‘. Whether or not Mr Mengal ‘s nostrum

for solving Balochistan‘s problems is in the interest of the province or the country is for the representatives of the

people to decide; unelected institutions need not be officious. On the other hand, Gen Kayani‘s could have been an

off-the-cuff remark. But given the number of times the military has suspended or tampered with the constitution in

the past, it is not surprising that not everyone took his words at face value. We hope that the generals have learnt

their lesson and stay well within the limits of the constitution.

While space doesn‘t permit a fuller review of the army‘s forays into politics and how it made and unmade

constitutions, an example or two can be noted. Ziaul Haq at least was not being a hypocrite when he proclaimed

that the constitution was nothing but a piece of paper he could tear up. What he considered to be his right as a

general had already been demonstrated by two army chiefs. A fourth was to follow in 1999. Coinciding with Gen

Kayani‘s remark, a defence ministry offic ial denied before the SC the existence of a political cell in the ISI, a denial

that flies in the face of Pakistan‘s history. As irony would have it, the refutation came during the hearing of the

Asghar Khan case in which a former ISI chief has himself placed before the court documents corroborating his

assertion that the intelligence agency distributed money among its favourite politicians to create a multiparty

alliance and manipulate the 1990 elections. Way back, another ex-ISI chief had also admitted to such tactics.

Army interventions have done enormous harm to Pakistan, militated against the evolution of democratic

institutions, eroded the concept of civilian supremacy and corrupted the judiciary. Each time the army quit, the


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country was left in a greater mess and twice without a constitution (1969 and 1971). Today, the task before all

Pakistanis is to consolidate the democratic process.

Syria-Turkey tensions

October 6th, 2012

The Syrian conflict has always had the potential to escalate into a regional conflagration, and recent events have

taken a worrying turn in that direction. The Turkish parliament on Thursday authorised military action against Syria

for upto a year after five Turks were killed, reportedly by cross-border Syrian shelling. Ankara has responded with

shelling of its own. Relations between the neighbours have been frosty ever since the Syrian uprising began last

year; in June the Syrians shot down a Turkish surveillance aircraft over the Mediterranean while Syria blames the

Turks for hosting rebels. Analysts nevertheless take comfort from the fact that neither Ankara nor Damascus has

gone beyond what was expected; the Syrians struck a conciliatory tone while Turkey has said the parliament‘s

move is not a declaration of war. There have also been anti-war demonstrations in Turkey. Meanwhile, the UN and

international players have urged restraint; showing rare unanimity over Syria, the Security Council condemned the

Syrian shelling in ‗the strongest terms‘.

Syria is in a state of civil war, with around 30,000 casualties reported to date. Rebels control considerable swathes

of land along the Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders. Opposition f ighters took control of a border town near

Turkey a few weeks ago, which may explain Syrian shelling of the region. While Damascus has crushed the revolt

with great brutality, the armed opposition is also quite unpredictable, rife as it is with internal divisions and

infiltrated by religious extremists. Already a proxy war is being fought within Syria, with the rebels receiving

support from Gulf Arabs, among others, while Bashar al-Assad‘s regime has Iranian backing. In such a scenario if

Turkey were to formally enter the fray, the results would be disastrous. Turkey is part of Nato and other members

of the pact can be drawn into a conflict if the territory of a member state is attacked. Fortunately, at this point such

a development seems unlikely. The ideal — yet unlikely — solution would be a ceasefire by all belligerents to pave

the way for a democratic transition. Meanwhile, regional states must exercise restraint to prevent the conflict from

spilling over into other countries.

Out of the finals

October 6th, 2012

The Pakistan cricket team‘s roller-coaster campaign in the ICC World Twenty20 f inally came to an end in Colombo

on Thursday with their semi-final defeat against hosts Sri Lanka. Living up to their reputation of being the most

unpredictable outfit in the game, the Pakistanis made heavy weather of a rather small target of 140 to lose the

contest by 16 runs on a track that held no perils for the batsmen. Sri Lanka, despite being a competitive side and

enjoying home advantage, were by no means better equipped than Mohammad Hafeez and his charges for the T20

format. However, credit must be given to them for keeping their cool in the end and outplaying the opposition for a

spot in the final.

Although the Pakistanis delighted fans by taming the formidable Australians and South Africans in the thrilling

event, their inexplicable loss in the semifinal as well as in the crucial game against arch-rivals India in the Super

Eight stage raises some serious questions about their ability to sustain their act on the cricket field, especially when

playing under pressure. It also put a question mark on the future of some of its most experienced players including

Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq. The three veterans of Pakistan cricket are clearly a shadow of what

they were during their heyday and would be well-advised to hang up their boots. The overa ll leadership of skipper

Hafeez is also bound to be put under the microscope. On more than one occasion he failed to read the pitch

correctly and his persistence with opener Imran Nazir and all-rounder Yasir Arafat and the constant omission of

talented Asad Shafiq has put off cricket enthusiasts. The way forward would involve inducting new blood into the

team and more purposeful input from coach Dav Whatmore.


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Electoral rolls

October 7th, 2012

Much has been said about all the names that are missing f rom the electoral rolls. This is about missing political

parties — parties that are absent when it comes to doing their duty to have enrolled as many people as voters as

possible. In Lahore on Friday, Chief Election Commissioner Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrah im (retd) said not a single

political party had so far obtained a copy of the revised electoral rolls. This comes as a shock amid all the criticism

of the Election Commission of Pakistan‘s voters‘ list. The CEC‘s remarks indicate that objections on the lis t have

been raised without anyone bothering to first go through the evidence. The aim should be to add to the list of

eligible voters, which has swelled over time but which is still far from complete. It is a process that requires the

political parties to be constructive. The big political parties have cells to look after various areas of interest. There

is no reason why they should not have in-house groups solely attending to this matter of paramount importance

which Mr Ebrahim has pointed out. An efficient commission is dependent on greater participation by all

stakeholders — political parties, media and other civil society organisations and, not least, on the individual who

must press for rights guaranteed under a democratic order.

It is not too difficult to understand the unease with which the ECP is viewed here. It has had a negative image,

built up over the years, which will take time to fade away. It is only in recent times that an earnest attempt has

been made to ensure a fair and free commission. Mr Ebrahim was hailed as the man who could initiate the process

of turning the ECP into an independent institution. He was expected to be active and at the same time extra -

cautious in his assignment — so that there is no confusing an election commissioner with a political leader who has

his own agenda of reforms.

He has been busy and high hopes are attached to him, but his first few months as CEC are illustrative of the

enormity and sensitivity of the task before him. There is the issue relating to dual nationality of lawmakers, while

the problem of electoral rolls lingers on not just in the discourse of politicians but also in the accounts of individuals

who are yet to make it to the voters‘ list. It appears the CEC will have to call the politicians over for work that

benefits the political parties and the people they are answerable to. It should not expect them to turn up on their

own.

A conservative stance

October 7th, 2012

The State Bank of Pakistan is in a tight corner. It is also confused as it tries t o adjust its monetary policy stance to

strike a balance between growth and inflation. The textbook view of monetary policy preached by the IMF requires

the SBP to maintain high interest rates to control prices and inflation expectations. The bank has relig iously

followed this policy since 2007. The need to revive investment and growth, on the other hand, demand substantial

rate cuts. It is a fine balancing act as both contractionary and loose monetary stances have benefits and

drawbacks. The tight monetary stance pursued for f ive years failed to tame prices and restrain government from

bank borrowings to finance its budget. Rather, it threw the private sector out of the banking sector, dried up fresh

investment and stalled economic growth.

In view of this ‗marginalisation‘ of its tight policy stance the SBP decided to cut interest rates by 200bps — 50bps

in August and 150bps in October last year. But it soon developed cold feet and changed course in the face of

escalating prices on the back of inflationary government borrowing and a deteriorating balance-of-payment

situation. In August this year, the bank again saw an opportunity in slowing inf lation to reduce its policy rate by

150bps to revive private investment for pushing growth. The latest policy review on Friday, however, indicates the

bank has again lost its momentum as it decided to adopt a more conservative stance by slowing the pace of

monetary easing. The rate cut of 50bps to 10 per cent was far below the market expectation of 100-150bps.

Indeed, availability of cheaper credit may motivate government borrowing and push prices up. Still, the lowering of

rates will revive private credit that shrunk to just below Rs18bn last year and allow businessmen to replace their

ageing technology, expand their capacity, invest in coal-fired generation, create jobs and increase exports. Also,

the government may get fiscal space in its substantially reduced debt -servicing to spend more on development.

Unusual times require unusual solutions. The SBP could either go by the textbook or attempt bold steps.


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March to Kotkai

October 7th, 2012

As these words are being written, Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf supporters are en route to the tribal

areas as part of a ‗peace march‘ to protest American drone strikes in the Waziristan agencies. Earlier, there was

some ambiguity about the state‘s willingness to provide security to the marchers. The South Waziristan Agency

administration had denied permission for the march, citing its inability to provide security to participants. Yet

Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday reportedly stated that no impediments were being created for the PTI

rally, while the Dera Ismail Khan authorities said they would make ‗fool-proof‘ security arrangements. These are

welcome developments indicating that better sense has prevailed in government circles. Now, the state should not

create panic by issuing warnings, and work on ensuring maximum possible security for the participants. While the

wisdom of the march itself is debatable, the fact remains that it is the democratic right of every political party to

hold rallies and public meetings. Having said that, the PTI needs to cooperate with the authorities as safety of the

marchers is of paramount importance.

Looking beyond the PTI march, the state cannot make the excuse that rallies or meetings should be cancelled

because of militant threats. Issuing advance threat warnings and later saying ‗we told you so‘ is the easy way out

for the government in order to shirk its responsibilities. The authorities can also use the existence of threats to

disallow religious processions in Muharram and Rabiul Awwal. Yet the militants cannot be allowed to set the

agenda. People have the right to peacefully assemble for political, religious or other purposes and the state must

guarantee their safety. Providing security to the PTI march was the right move; hopefully the state will not be

reluctant to provide protection to its citizens in similar cases.

Parliament’s challenge

October 8th, 2012

Two bills are set to be tabled in parliament this week by the government according to a report in this newspaper

yesterday and both will have far-reaching consequences if not vetted and passed in a responsible and effective

manner. At the moment, the government‘s intentions in that regard are anything but clear. Both the much-delayed

accountability bill and the fair trial bill have language that can be used to thwart their ostensible aims and end up

either toothless, in the accountability bill‘s case, or infringing on the people‘s rights, in the fair trial bill‘s case. Start

with the language in the accountability bill. The impasse over whether the proposed national accountability

commission should be headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or by a retired one is not really where the

main difficulty lies, though the PPP and PML-N have used the disagreement to conveniently delay the bill‘s passage

for a couple of years now. More worrying is the ‗good faith‘ exemption to holders of public office if they are found

guilty of wrongdoing — the slippery slope of exemptions could end up gutting the entire bill and rendering it a

meaningless piece of legislation. Also important, and unknown, is the implementation mechanism. After all, even

the best legislation in the world can be meaningless without a robust implementation mechanism.

Of more direct worry to the public is the fair trial bill. The use of advanced communications technology by militants

and terrorists is well known and the state‘s ability to intercept these communications and then use the evidence so

gathered in a court of law is woefully inadequate, at least when it comes to admissibility of evidence. But in trying

to solve a problem, the state‘s idea of a solution can often involve gross overreach. Take the example of the

Actions (In Aid of Civil Power) Regulations, 2011 for Fata and Pata (the Malakand area) which were promulgated by

the president in an attempt to ease the problem of illegal detentions of militants and suspects captured during the

various military operations. But then the regulations were used to re-incarcerate the Adiala 11 after they had been

set free by the courts. So unless there is a robust system of checks and balances and unless citizens have solid

guarantees that their privacy will not be wantonly breached, the fair trial bill may create more problems than it

attempts to solve.

The test, then, for parliament is a stern one. But it should be welcomed by parliament for without learning to

grapple with such complex matters, the democratic project will never truly take root.


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Bank robbers’ week

October 8th, 2012

Four bank robberies in one week serve to highlight the nightmarish crime picture in the nation‘s biggest city. On

Friday, armed men, who had obviously rehearsed their commando-style operations, got away with half a million

rupees from a bank branch in the harbour area, raising to more than Rs6m the amount looted by outlaws in just a

few days. That the robbery bid at a North Nazimabad bank failed gives no credit to the law-enforcement agencies,

for the bandits had mistimed their crime. But in both cases, the sophistication in their modus operandi was

obvious. They were wearing the uniform of security guards, and that made their job easy, for no one challenged

their entry into the banks. They had also done their intelligence homework, knew the police were not around, and

the cellphone — that cheap but valuable tool for the good and bad — must have been in their possession. In

contrast, the banks have no defence mechanism except security guards, who are sitting ducks.

Friday‘s crimes raise to 18 the number of bank heists in Karachi this year, with the loot amounting to almost

Rs70m. Are these ‗ordinary‘ criminals in action or militant groups gathering money for terrorist purposes? The

security agencies have no clue. The banks had pleaded with the authorities for an effective mechanism for a

coordinated plan of action against robberies, but there is no evidence that the law-enforcement set-up has

accepted their pleas or come up with an effective scheme of its own. CCTV cameras are there in most bank

branches, and in many cases criminals have been identified. But nothing has been done by way of unearthing the

gangs and taking them to court which would have boosted the image of the police force in the eyes of the people of

Karachi. Bank robberies are just one aspect of the harrowing law and order situation in a city that is Pakistan‘s

industrial and commercial hub. From street crimes, carjacking and extortion rackets to home burglaries and bank

robberies, crime is thriving in Karachi and the administration seems helpless.

A happy lot?

October 8th, 2012

Post-colonial nation that we are, we‘ve become used to receiving wisdom, often about our own society and

situation, from the West. On numerous occasions, it has taken studies endorsed or carried out by Western agencies

to convince us of the veracity of the picture staring us in the face, be it of child malnutrition in rural Sindh or the

worsening economic crisis. Indeed, such is the reach and credibility of several well-funded First World organisations

that in many cases, producing the same data through local channels would be quite a challenge. Nevertheless,

there are occasions when the results produced by the mighty number-crushers on the other side of the planet

seem literally that: from another planet altogether. That is the case with the Happy Planet Index 2012, the results

of which were announced on Wednesday. Pakistan never appears anywhere near the top of a list gauging

prosperity, but in the case of ―sustainable wellbeing‖, which the Index purportedly measures, it seems we occupy

the 16th slot out of 151 countries, ahead of both India and America and one spot below Israel.

Upon receipt of this news, the average Pakistani could be forgiven for looking around in disbelief. But as always,

the devil lies in the detail. The HPI, which was introduced in 2006 by a British NGO that also has a branch in the

US, is calculated using human life expectancy and wellbeing, and the ecological footprint, of countries through data

collected by a range of sources such as the UNDP and Gallup. Pakistan rated ‗mediocre‘ on the first two counts but

was saved by its ecological footprint — or lack thereof. What that means is that the average Pakistani‘s perception

that this is a tough country to negotiate is probably true, but fortunately we are not in the business of actively

harming the planet — which, we must suppose, is encouraging.


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Shrouded in secrecy

October 9th, 2012

As a peaceful protest, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf‘s anti-drone march fell well within democratic norms. What was

also clear, though, is that its motive was election-era politics rather than confronting the roots of the problem

itself. While roundly criticising the Pakistani and US administrations, the party focused far less on the fact that

Pakistan‘s drone policy, whatever it may be, is being carried out with the approval of the Pakistani army and the

cooperation of Pakistani intelligence. So while it may have been effective politic al propaganda, whether or not the

protest will put pressure on those really responsible for the drones mess is questionable.

The frustrating truth is that the real nature of America and Pakistan‘s agreement, or lack thereof, on the drones

programme is growing more, not less, murky. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that a programme that was

once jointly conducted by the two countries, at least in terms of intelligence-sharing and Pakistan providing a

physical base, had now become one conducted by the US without Pakistan‘s involvement. But a series of reports in

Western media outlets are now claiming that Pakistan is still given some knowledge of upcoming drone strikes.

Even then, there is no consensus on the extent of the information provided — whether it is just an indication of the

broad area within which strikes will take place or an actual list of targets — or on whether or not Pakistan

acknowledges receiving the information. The bottom line is that the extent of collaboration remains behind a veil o f

secrecy that neither the US nor Pakistan governments and intelligence agencies seem eager to lift.

Nor is it clear whether or not the drones are legal — partly because it is unclear how much consent Pakistan

provides — how targets are selected, or how militants are distinguished from civilians present in areas where

militant activities are being plotted or carried out. All of which has turned drones into a genuine human-rights issue

of great sensitivity for many Pakistanis. That in turn means the programme has become a lightning rod for anti-US

sentiment and is also being used to support the argument that military action is not the solution in even Fata‘s

most militant-infested parts. Until the Pakistani military makes a genuine effort to root out militants from the tribal

areas, or the government develops a joint mechanism with the US for conducting the programme and shares it

with the public, the controversy over drones could derail the objective of cleansing the tribal areas of militants who

threaten not only other countries, but Pakistan itself.

Worrying portent

October 9th, 2012

Violence has become an unfortunate component of Pakistani politics. And when political meetings and rallies

become easy targets for trigger-happy assailants, the need to reform the country‘s political culture assumes even

more importance. A number of people were killed as gunmen opened fire on a village public meeting on Sunday in

Sindh‘s Khairpur district. The majority of victims were PPP supporters. There are mixed views about what prompted

the attack with some officials citing the cause as enmity between two groups of the local Janwari community.

However, PPP MNA Nafisa Shah, who was to speak at the meeting, indicated ‗political motives‘. Given intra -

communal tensions and a charged political atmosphere, neither aspect can be ruled out. Political tensions have

been prevailing since the passage of the Sindh People‘s Local Government Bill 2012 by the provincial assembly last

week, with Sindhi nationalists and some erstwhile PPP allies in the assembly agitating against the new law. If the

meeting was attacked due to political motives, it would set a dangerous precedent. One can only hope that the

police are right when they say they know the perpetrators; in that case we expect t he assailants to be

apprehended soon. To clear the air, all political forces in Sindh need to condemn the attack unequivocally,

whatever their view of the government. Criticism of government policies must remain within the bounds of

democratic practice — either in the assembly chamber or through peaceful protests.

With general elections on the horizon electioneering activities will begin to gather steam in the days ahead. In this

context it is not very reassuring that a meeting of the ruling party has been attacked in its home base. Considering

the possibility of similar incidents, political parties need to sit down and discuss a code of conduct whereby it is

agreed that electioneering will be a peaceful exercise. If the trend of attacking political rallies and meetings catches

on, an excuse can be made to curtail political activities altogether. This would be unacceptable. Hence both political


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parties and the state need to play their respective roles to ensure a peaceful run-up to the elections.

T-20 championship

October 9th, 2012

On Sunday, cricket‘s unpredictability once again got the better of the many experts on the game. The West Indies

victory against the much-fancied Sri Lanka gave the T-20 championship its fourth winner. The Windies join past

winners India, Pakistan and England to reconfirm the openness of this short version of cricket which offers all

participants a good shot at the title, consequently adding to the appeal of an already popular format. The purists

may be appalled by the damage the T-20 bombardment is causing the gentleman‘s game. They better brace

themselves for more of the same. The longer variety, not just the Tests but also the one-day internationals, is in

danger of being stroked out of the stadium.

In the Colombo final Sri Lanka badly erred by complicating the issue. They calculated too much and hit out at too

few. They may have approached it in too defensive a frame of mind. As hosts, they were placed in the easier group

and defeated Pakistan in the semi-finals. But in the biggest game of the championship, the Lankan intent seemed

to be on getting one underneath the tall and merry West Indians rather than to surpass them. The pitch the game

was played on cost Mahela Jayawardene‘s team dear. Tailor-made for slower, lower-trajectory bowlers, it led to the

Lankan skipper‘s downfall and that of ace batsman Kumar Sangakara. It neutralised the Lankan trump card, Lasith

Malinga who bowled full as per his style and went for plenty at the hands of a very talented Marlon Samuels.

Caribbean skipper Darren Sammy summed up the story of how a theory can go wrong out in the field rather well.

Otherwise an innocuous, reluctant bowler, he cut down on pace to great effect and stole the cup the West Indies

had long been waiting for. They were worthy winners in the end.

Accountability bill

October 10th, 2012

As planned, the government introduced a new accountability bill in parliament on Monday. And as expected, it is a

flawed bill. The National Accountability Commission bill that has been sent to a standing committee for vetting and

approval before being returned to the full house for a vote — expected sooner than later — will be examined and

critiqued outside parliament in the days ahead as its language is digested and its implications unders tood. Already,

however, two glaring issues have arisen: the ‗good faith‘ exemption in the previous bill, now withdrawn by the

government, has been retained while the clock on accountability has been set back only as far as October 2002.

Limit ing accountability to the last decade for public office holders is a particularly egregious flaw in the new bill.

Previously, the government wanted to go as far back as 1985 while the PML-N had insisted on 1947 as the starting

point from which accountability of public officials could be undertaken under the law that is to replace the

Musharraf-era National Accountability Ordinance. Ten years is a particularly short period and one that conveniently

excludes the so-called decade of democracy in the 1990s when the PPP and PML-N traded office every couple of

years or so and claims of corruption and other wrongdoing were rife. As a signal that the government is serious

about accountability the 10-year limit is a particularly poor idea: few will believe the government is interested in

across-the-board accountability if it‘s limited to only a slice of our history.

The retention of the ‗good faith‘ exemption to accountability is also problematic. If the language is drafted loosely

and the use of the exemption not tightly patrolled — and who can expect politicians to implement the language of

legislation to their own disfavour? — accountability could become a farce. For example, if a lucrative contract for an

important public-works project is handed out without proper vetting and transparent bidding, could the public office

holder later claim the project‘s importance justified cutting corners (and presumably lining the pockets of allies and

family in the process)? To be sure, a draconian accountability law could in some circumstances have adverse

effects if it makes public officials too skittish about performing their duties as they fear prosecution by an

overzealous accountability machinery later. But as it stands, the ‗good faith‘ exemption appears too broad to be

justified.

Yet, will the bill receive the scrutiny it deserves inside parliament? From Monday‘s events, it appears that the PML-


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N‘s objections may be more for the cameras than substantive. Behind-the-scenes understandings could scuttle

necessary scrutiny of an important law.

Women as chattel

October 10th, 2012

Last year, a bill was passed that outlaws, among other practices that exploit women, offering the latter in marriage

to settle disputes. But the emergence of a new wani case in Balochistan proves that in Pakistan putting down laws

on paper is only the starting point of a long, hard struggle for women‘s rights. Such a struggle will have to involve

making the judicial system accessible to citizens across the country if entrenched customs of tribal justice are to be

rooted out. As long as the official justice system remains slow, inconvenient and expensive, and as long as it is not

woven into the fabric of Pakistani society, turning to councils of tribal elders will remain a tempting solution even if

its results are inhumane and discriminatory by modern standards. The second piece of the problem is that

mindsets remain regressive and misogynistic at the very top. The claim that a sitting member of the Balochistan

Assembly may have been part of the jirga that allegedly advised that 13 girls of one tribe be offered to another

tribe as compensation for a murder brings to mind another shocking instance of wrongly exercised influence, when

in 2008 a senator from the province defended the alleged burying alive of five women for reasons of ‗honour‘. As

long as those in positions of power within their tribes and constituencies continue to hold views like these, changing

conditions for women will remain almost impossible.

If there is anything positive about the news, it is that a story such as this one may have gone unnoticed just a few

years ago. And many stories still do. But there is some hope that the media attention the incident has received and

the suo moto notice taken by the Supreme Court — if it leads to some accounta-bility — could work as deterrents

in the future, especially in preventing influential people in the public eye from supporting actions against women.

Until the slow, hard work of providing modern justice and holding those in power to account is done, making a

noise about such instances is the only real weapon there is.

Killer amoeba

October 10th, 2012

A rare, mysterious amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri has been linked to at least 10 deaths in Karachi since May.

It is a waterborne organism found in swimming pools and freshwater bodies and can infect the nervous system

with deadly results. With often deceptive initial symptoms, such as headache and fever, a proper diagnosis is

difficult to make. The concern generated by the lethal amoeba and presumably the fact that of the 10 victims only

one had visited a swimming pool, led to a meeting of health officials and other stakeholders on Monday. Here, the

Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was urged to increase the chlorine content of the city‘s water to neutralise t he

deadly organism. At the meeting it was revealed that 22 per cent of water samples were found to be either non-

chlorinated or containing insufficient amounts of chlorine — hence the need to closely monitor the quality of

Karachi‘s water and ensure adequate levels of chlorination.

Nevertheless, alarming as the situation is, it is important that there is no fear-mongering that could lead to

unnecessary panic. What would be more helpful is public information regarding preventive measures — such as the

recommendation that people use purified water for ablution as the amoeba is at its deadliest when it enters the

body through the nasal passages. Considering that the amoeba is rare, medical professionals should not be left out

of the loop, and hospitals and clinics would do well to ensure that they are fully aware of the diagnostic procedures.

Meanwhile, timely reporting to the health authorities of deaths or infections linked to the amoeba by public and

private hospitals is essential for proper management. Nearly all the fatalities have been reported from private

hospitals. This is a clear indication that public health facilities are underreporting the number of cases they handle.


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Symbol of resistance

October 11th, 2012

The news of a gun attack on young Malala Yousufzai, who had become a symbol of resistance in Swat to the

Taliban‘s obscurant agenda, has been met with revulsion in Pakistan and abroad. The 14-year-old, a crusader for

girls‘ education and an outspoken critic of the Taliban, had been receiving threats from the latter, and in that

respect the attack, claimed by the Taliban, has come as no surprise — even though Malala‘s family reportedly did

not think that the Taliban would target her.

However, it must be borne in mind that the militants‘ targets have over the years become extremely blurred; and

apart from state and military installations they have bombed hospitals, marketplaces, mosques and bazaars, killing

or maiming thousands of civilians in the process. Besides they routinely issue warnings to people not to support

groups working on community welfare projects. With such a regressive thought process, their violent rejection of

anything that stands for democracy, secularism, in fact the basic freedoms themselves, is only to be expected. In

keeping with their hidebound ideology, they have atomised 2,000 schools — almost all of them catering to girls‘

education, to which Malala, since the time the Taliban ordered the school her father ran to be closed down, is

inextricably linked.

The attack on Malala was the third such incident in Swat in recent months. In the earlier two crimes, the Taliban

had targeted a hotel owner and the chief of the hotel owners‘ association. Does the crime in Mingora on Tuesday

forebode Swat‘s return to tyranny in the name of religion? We hope not, for the tourist paradise has made a

remarkable return to normality. The 2009 army operation against Mullah Fazlullah and his men by all accounts was

a success story: the militants have been chased into nearby Afghan provinces fro m where they carry out attacks

inside Pakistan — a reminder that their defeat has not been complete. Since their flight, though, Swat has been

largely peaceful; domestic tourism has returned, while welfare works have picked up. This turnaround in the

situation has been due mostly to the efforts of the people of Swat who suffered under the Taliban, seeing their

livelihoods ruined and their traditional way of life disturbed, besides witnessing the group‘s barbarity on almost a

daily basis. However, there is still no room for complacency, and even sporadic targeted attacks could indicate the

presence of a support base for the Taliban in the area. Better intelligence-gathering then is needed to thwart the

designs of those who are waiting to once more snuff out the dreams of thousands like Malala.

End of saga?

October 11th, 2012

At long last, the saga of the so-called Swiss letter appears to be coming to a close. Yesterday, Law Minister Farooq

Naek and the five-member Supreme Court bench agreed on a draft letter and the letter is to be made public —

presumably to prevent the government from backing out of its commitment. Since December 2009, when the NRO

judgment was handed down, the government has played politics with the letter while the court has appeared

inordinately interested in a single letter. Befitting the murky ways of Pakistan, it‘s not quite clear what caused the

apparent change of heart on the government‘s side in deciding finally to write the letter and why the court was

willing to give the law minister so much leeway while the government appeared to continue with its games. Indeed,

even as late as Tuesday, the government appeared ready to challenge the court once again. Then, suddenly, on

Wednesday a quick agreement was reached.

Perhaps though, it is best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Whatever the reasons, the end of the Swiss letter

saga is a welcome one. Countless hours of the court have been wasted, a prime minister has been dispensed with,

the government has held innumerable meetings to discuss the minutiae of the letter, endless debates have been

held at the very highest levels of the coalition on the merits of writing or not writing the letter — it all became a

little too much, even by the peculiar standards of Pakistani politics and t he law. Had the end come earlier, the

government may — but only may — have given greater attention to more pressing matters of governance. In any

case, with a general election on the horizon, the conclusion of the affair may steer the narrative away from t he tale

of victimhood and allow voters to focus on genuine matters, i.e. the government‘s performance in office and

whether it deserves to get another five years. As for the court, perhaps it can now broaden its focus to include

matters of more importance than a mere letter that may or may not have any meaningful consequences for


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anyone.

Blasts in Sindh

October 11th, 2012

While there has been criticism of the new Sindh People‘s Local Government law, matters took an ugly turn on

Tuesday. The residences of six PPP leaders in different Sindh towns were attacked with low-intensity explosive

devices. The attacks came days after a PPP public meeting in Khairpur was targeted by gunmen, killing a number

of party workers. Pamphlets belonging to the Sindhudesh Liberation Army were recovered from several of the

targeted locations in Tuesday‘s attacks. This is the same outfit that in the past has been held responsible for

orchestrating small blasts targeting railway lines and bank branches in Sindh. There are indicat ions that militant

elements sympathetic to the nationalist cause in Sindh may be using the SLA tag. The PPP‘s erstwhile allies in the

Sindh Assembly have condemned the attacks, but this has been qualified with criticism of the new LG law.

Condemnation from nationalist parties has been even more lukewarm, with some leaders supporting conspiracy

theories that the government orchestrated the blasts itself.Denunciation of the violence must be unambiguous, as

terrorism is not a legitimate method of protest. If all parties fail to condemn the attacks it will establish a

dangerous precedent — that it is okay to use violence if one disagrees with a law or government policy. Parliament

is the best forum to raise objections to a law, while for those parties outside the legislature there exist peaceful,

democratic methods of protest. The recent attacks need to be properly investigated to uncover the perpetrators.

Also, the PPP needs to engage those parties that are peacefully opposing the new LG law and lend a sympathet ic

ear to their concerns. While such dastardly attacks should not lead to compromises, the PPP can lower the

temperature by consulting opponents of the law and making amendments where legitimate loopholes exist.

Moment of truth

October 12th, 2012

For once, and at long last, Pakistanis appear to have woken up to the consequences of the extremism that has

been allowed to take root in our country. The reaction to the attack on Malala Yousufzai is significant not just

because of its scale and outrage, but because it is marked by something that is depressingly rare — across-the-

board condemnation of the Taliban. A handful of voices, even in parliament, have tried to link the incident to

America‘s role in Pakistan or implied that it was Malala‘s own fault. Refreshingly, though, these have been drowned

out by an outpouring of anger ref lected in the strongly worded condemnation of the attackers in the National

Assembly and Senate, the army chief‘s resolve against the ―twisted ideology‖ of the perpetrators, extensive media

coverage, and civil society efforts from protest rallies to prayers for Malala in schools. For once, the focus is on the

threat to Pakistan from the intolerance in its own society, not on devising conspiracy theories, blaming foreign

powers or coming up with justif ications for terrorist acts.

But where is this near-universal outcry when Shias are killed in Quetta or Gilgit, when mentally challenged or

juvenile targets of blasphemy accusations are burned alive or imprisoned, and passers-by die in attacks against

security installations? The victims of those acts may not necessarily be children or rights activists, but they are

every bit as innocent as Malala. And yet it took the particularly jarring targeting of a particularly brave child to jolt

Pakistanis and their leaders out of their doubts about, and desensitisation to, the threat that violent extremism

poses to our security and way of life.

Which makes it all the more important to make the most of this moment of national consensus. Parliament has

demanded accountability and the army has said it will ―fight, regardless of the cost‖. But what actions will these

words lead to? When anger erupted in 2009 over the video of a girl being flogged in Swat, the next step was clear:

a defined set of people had set up a state within a state in a specific area, and it had to be dismantled. This time

the next steps are less clear-cut and the enemy harder to pin down, but that shouldn‘t become a reason not to

take action. The military needs to analyse why its efforts against the Taliban have failed and what is needed next in

terms of military action, and where. Politicians and civil society need to prop up the current national consensus

against extremism so that it doesn‘t die down. This is not a moment Pakistan can afford to waste.


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Slander or fair criticism?

October 12th, 2012

The debate has always been on and will continue. A restraining order by the Islamabad High Court to the Pakistan

Electronic Media Regulatory Authority has added greater urgency to the discussion about freedom of expression

and law in the Pakistani context. The order asked Pemra to ensure that nothing defamatory of the superior judges

is aired by the television channels. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC has called the Pemra cha irman and the

federal secretary of information and broadcasting on Oct 16 to explain the code of conduct evolved to prevent the

airing of scandalous material. The restraining order has drawn a strong response by some leading lawyers, one of

whom compared it with martial law directives of the past, remarking: ―nobody should be afraid of the truth.‖ This is

an important point since it is the search for the truth which brings new laws in place of old debilitating ones and

that also allows for a liberal interpretation of the text concerned. Strict adherence to the text could block fair

criticism and consequently stall the process of constant reformation of society and the law.

The counter argument in this case seeks to defend the honourable judges against ‗scandalous‘ statements on the

basis of existing laws. Pemra does have a rule book on what can be allowed on the channels and it can be pressed

into strictly implementing this code. It has also been said that ―no one can conduct a slanderous press conference

against …any of the judges of the superior courts, as under the constitution the relevant forum for their trial is the

Supreme Judicial Council not television channels‖. Two points arise. One, if all are equal before the law, what

protection does the latter offer to others, for example politicians and government functionaries, who are so

routinely lambasted on television? Surely there are legal and political forums available where these routine victims

of media trials can be held accountable. Two, while the tone in which a grievance is expressed can be upsetting,

the grievance seeking the notice of a court needs to be addressed nonetheless — in accordance with the

magnanimity of the independent office.

Neglect of seniors

October 12th, 2012

Senior citizens are amongst the most vulnerable of Pakistan‘s many disadvantaged groups. According to figures

from the United Nations Population Fund, the number of people over 60 in this country is more than 10 million. The

combination of an insensitive state and society means that many senior citizens here do not get the care and

support they deserve in their old age. Rights activists point out that the elderly face a tougher situation in urban

areas as more traditional family structures in rural areas serve as a safety net. There is some good news in this

regard, as a seminar in Islamabad was told by an official of the capital administration and development ministry on

Wednesday that a draft law to protect the rights of seniors would be presented in the National Assembly ‗soon‘.

However, it should be noted that the draft bill has been in existence since 2007; it has come close to being passed

yet bureaucratic hurdles have prevented the bill‘s adoption.

The draft law covers several areas that would make the lives of the e lderly easier. It envisages the setting up of a

senior citizens‘ welfare council. It also calls for separate counters for seniors, discounts on medicines and medical

tests, discounts on rail, road and air travel as well as tax relief measures. A Rs1bn endowment fund for seniors in

need of financial assistance has also been proposed. Along with legal safeguards, society too needs to modify its

attitude; it should stop treating elders like a burden and start thinking of them as assets. The government needs to

expedite the passage of the bill and set up a seniors‘ welfare council so that a framework can be put in place to

enable the elderly in Pakistan to spend their golden years comfortably and with dignity.


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Policy on militancy

October 13th, 2012

Strong words from the army at a time of intense emotions over the attack on 14-year-old Malala are an important

addition to the national revulsion at the Taliban and the way of life they seek to impose on Pakistan. Important as

it is to have clarity in the national discourse about the Taliban — something the religious right even now is seeking

to obfuscate by talking of conspiracies and bringing up red herrings — what is equally, if not more, essential, is to

have the determination to build and then implement a clear strategy against militancy. At a meeting of the senior-

most officers of the armed forces convened by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Shameem Wyne on

Thursday, the armed forces did try and lay down a marker against the Taliban. In tone and tenor, it was in keeping

with the straight talk of Gen Kayani on Aug 14 and will help dispel some of the propaganda being spread by those

sympathetic to the Taliban and their cause.

But — and this is a critical qualification — the strongest of words will not substitute for meaningful policy. And

policy will never be meaningful until a fundamental decision is taken: a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy.

Only from that starting point will a clear and coherent strategy emerge and only from there can we have a chance

of definitively rescuing Pakistan from the grip of militancy and the non-violent extremism that creates an enabling

environment for violent action. Too much attention is paid to the details sometimes — which groups should be

taken on first and where, what should be done about North Waziristan, how should Pakistan adjust its preference

for a Pakhtun-dominated set-up in Afghanistan. All these are very important questions in their own right and

intrinsic to solving the riddle of militancy but they do have the unfortunate effect of detracting from a core

understanding: until Pakistan adopts a zero-tolerance policy towards violent militancy and its superf icially non-

violent extremist counterpart, the country will slip deeper and deeper into the vort ex of instability and insecurity.

Given the unfortunate political history of Pakistan, the idea that a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy is state

policy can only come if the military lays down that marker. Through its actions it must make it clear t o its civilian

counterparts and the public that the stated policy is in fact the actual policy. Of course, when it comes to rolling

back the infrastructure of jihad, the armed forces will need the civilian leadership to exhibit courage and leadership

too. But the first step must be taken by the men in uniform.

Gas woes

October 13th, 2012

The country has been in the grip of a severe gas shortage for several years now. The demand and supply gap has

been increasing by the day, not least because of the rapid growth in demand from domestic and transport

consumers. But little has been done in the last four years to plug this gap either by increasing domestic production

through new discoveries or importing gas through a pipeline from Iran or in the form of liquefied natural gas. A

senior official of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd has informed a Senate committee that gas shortages will peak to

1bcfd in January from the existing 566mmcfd. Some estimates project that shortages will rise to 1.8bcfd. Punjab

will again suffer the most because it will be sharing maximum shortages due to Article 158 of the constitution. This

gives the first right to natural gas to the people of the province where the resource is located. Until recently,

shortages were equally distributed among all the provinces. As the supply gap widened, many in Sindh and Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa, which like Balochistan have gas reserves of their own, went to the courts to invoke this

constitutional provision. As a consequence, Punjab‘s economy has suffered massive economic losses due to

industrial closures, production cuts and job and export losses, which have triggered violent riots across the

province.

The government has taken steps recently to bridge the gap. The new petroleum policy offers price incent ives to oil

companies to make new investments in this area and also increase output from the existing fields. It has also

decided to import 800mmcfd of LNG per day through two long-term projects in the private sector and 200mmcfd

through a short-term SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) project in the public sector. While it will take a long while to


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implement the private projects, the government can help the industry and protect jobs by escalating work on the

SPV project and also accepting the Indian offer of 200mmcfd LNG through a pipeline to be laid between Bathinda

and Lahore. With an election anticipated, the government must act quickly to show it is capable of solving energy

problems.

A welcome addition

October 13th, 2012

It is indeed laudable that Pakistan has become the first country in South Asia to introduce the pneumococcal

vaccine as part of the state‘s Expanded Programme on Immunisation. With the addition of the anti-pneumonia

vaccine, the EPI will now cover nine vaccine-preventable diseases. As per estimates, over 350,000 children under

five die in Pakistan every year; pneumonia is said to be responsible for nearly 20 per cent of these deaths. The

vaccine campaign has been initiated in Punjab and the federal capital, with Sindh due to follow. It is an expensive

vaccine, yet international agencies have managed to procure it for the state at reduced cost: most of the financing

will be borne by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.

While the addition of the vaccine should be welcomed, the re are indications that the state still accords low priority

to public health issues. For example, the prime minister was supposed to launch the vaccine in Islamabad earlier in

the week yet did not show up. Though his appearance would have been largely symbolic, it would have sent a

positive message to citizens as well as the international community that Pakistan takes the health of its children

seriously. Also, the government has mostly focused on polio eradication, perhaps because of international scrutiny

of Pakistan for its inability to wipe out the disease. While the fight against polio is crucial, the health authorities

must give equal attention to other diseases grouped under the EPI umbrella. Regular public awareness campaigns

need to be undertaken informing parents and the medical community about the importance of the EPI. It must also

be ensured that vaccines are available in remote and low-income areas; awareness campaigns in these two areas

are particularly important. With strong commitment and proper planning, it is possible to reduce child mortality in

Pakistan.

Balochistan ‘consensus’

October 14th, 2012

All significant statements on the national level these days lead to Balochistan. Last month, Sardar Akhtar Mengal,

the self-exiled Baloch leader, came up with his six-point demands for the state to start the process towards

normality in Balochistan. Then, some 10 days ago, Gen Ashfaq Kayani pledged the army‘s support for any political

process within the constitution for an end to the province ‘s woes — also saying that the armed forces abided by the

government‘s directives. The momentum picked up when, within the span of a few hours on Friday, both the

National Assembly and the Supreme Court added their weight to the ‗campaign‘ for a solution t o Balochistan. In

Quetta, the apex court strongly censured the provincial government and sternly asked the centre to look for

remedies — within the constitution. The court said that while Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani‘s administration

had lost the authority to govern, all the federal government had done was to deploy the Frontier Corps in the

province. Around the same time, in Islamabad, the National Assembly adopted a rare unanimous resolution seeking

an ‗all-parties‘ commission to ―rectify past mistakes and ensure the supremacy of the constitution, the rule of law

and dispensation of justice‖ in Balochistan. The House recognised that the urgently sought commission will also

have to include parties outside the elected assembly to be effective.

In theory, this appears to be a concerted push towards exit from a precarious situation. But Balochistan and its

people have for far too long been victims of clashing interpretations and positions which are not always reflected in

statements and vows for upholding the constitution. In fact, these grand pledges often thwart a realistic look at the

issues.

The problem in the province is taking ever newer dimensions and the bomb blasts at Sibi and Dera Bugti recently

are brutal reminders of the intent on the other side. Against this threat, the allusion to the need of political process

would mean reconfirmation of Balochistan not just as a law and order issue but as a political problem. An earnest

follow-up would require more than a rhetorical recourse to the constitution. The politicians are supposedly in


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charge of the effort, yet they happen to be the least trusted and the most easily blamed. They are also the ones

who have set an example by owning up to ―past mistakes‖.

The Supreme Court order, the resolution by par liament, the soldier‘s oath will only live up to their theoretical

promise if the academic exercise of swearing by the constitution yields to an honest and frank acceptance and

assigning of responsibilities with regard to the parties involved.

Ticking bomb

October 14th, 2012

In an increasingly resource-scarce world, Pakistan is a particularly populous country. ‗Youth bulge‘ is the term used

to describe a situation where the single largest section of society — a hundred million, or 65 per cent of the overall

population — comprises people under the age of 25. The bland term masks a demographic disaster in the making,

given that according to UN figures, 32 per cent of the people aged between 15 and 29 years are illiterate, less than

six per cent have acquired technical skills and only 2.5 per cent have received on-the-job training. In a country

where the state seems to have neither the will nor the capacity to invest in educational and other infrastructure,

the workforce is increasing at the rate of three per cent annually — which the UNDP refers to as ―alarming‖. What

we desperately need, if there is to be any chance at all of a brighter future, is a sharp decline in the rate at which

the population is growing. The problem is not a general lack of awareness about the importance of family planning.

According to some estimates, some 25 per cent of married women in the country would opt for family planning but

are unable to access relevant resources for one reason or another.

In this situation, then, it is welcome news that the Aman Foundation, a local not-for-profit trust, and the Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation have signed a five-year framework agreement under which $5m will be invested by each

party in addressing the gaps in reproductive health and family planning services in the country. The reiteration of

the importance of family planning has been at the top of the list of the country‘s priorities for most of its existence,

yet while the population growth rate has seen a slowdown, it is still at unsustainab ly high levels. The non-

governmental sector has played an important role in this regard, and the state needs to match its efforts. While

partnerships such as that signed in Dubai between the Aman and Gates‘ foundations can play a key role, the state

must not be lulled into reneging on its own responsibilities.

Health threat

October 14th, 2012

As tap water in Pakistan is of poor quality, many citizens — cutting across economic lines — opt for bottled water.

Some estimates suggest 50 per cent of Pakistanis don‘t have access to clean drinking water. Catering to this

demand there has been considerable growth in the number of companies selling bottled water in the country.

However, government regulation of the industry is, by all accounts, weak. As reported, h igh levels of arsenic have

been found in samples of 10 brands of bottled water. According to the quarterly report of the Pakistan Council for

Research in Water Resources, some of the samples contained levels of arsenic way over the allowable limit. Other

samples were found to contain high levels of sodium and potassium. PCRWR officials say that after the errant

brands are identified and their names made public, they shut down operations only to resurface after an interval

with new names. Data collected by the PCRWR shows that over the past decade, every year the number of water

brands declared unsafe remains consistently high; the fact the number is not going down means that while the

reporting authorities appear to be doing their job, the state‘s surveillance and enforcement mechanism is failing.

The number of brands declared unsafe may only be the tip of the iceberg, as in Karachi alone there are countless

factories churning out substandard bottled water. Reports of corruption within the state‘s quality -control

mechanism persist, as it has been alleged that some brand owners pay off the inspection authorities. The Pakistan

Standards and Quality Control Authority needs to improve its performance while those officials involved in fudging


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reports or not taking action against unsafe water brands need to be removed. Considering the risk contaminated

water brands pose to public health, the state cannot afford to be complacent in this regard.

Faceless and forgotten

October 15th, 2012

Such is the cycle of news in Pakistan that citizens have had to become inured to tragedy being elbowed out of the

headlines by horror; one outrage follows another in the grim progression of this country‘s tale. That this process

has not quite left the citizenry entirely desensitised is evident in the storm of protest that has erupted after the

murder attempt on Malala Yousufzai. But the flurry of rapidly changing headlines also means that the citizenry is

caught in what is immediate — issues or tragedies are rarely resolved or addressed, they merely drop out of the

collective consciousness. Nowhere is this pattern more evident than in the situation faced by nearly five million

people in parts of Sindh and Balochistan that were hit by devastating floods just weeks ago, some of them f or the

third year in a row. While they remain in desperate need, as far as the citizenry as a whole is concerned they have

been rendered faceless and voiceless, and thus there is hardly any pressure on either state or society to inte rvene

in a meaningful fashion.

Their plight is desperate indeed. According to the World Food Programme, over a million people in the five worst -

affected districts are in need of food assistance, while hundreds of thousands of people are living either in

temporary camps or simply under tarpaulins, waiting for the waters to subside. As the UN launched an appeal for

donations over the weekend, its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that in some areas people

are still being rescued by boat. And even after the waters recede, most of these people will need assistance to

rebuild devastated lives and livelihoods, given that with some 3,800 square kilometres of land still flooded, the

prospects for planting the Rabi crop (which is sown in winter) look remote. The focus needs to return to these

silent millions, and efforts stepped up to allay their misery. Reportedly, the main challenges to expanding the

response are funding gaps and access. While the average citizen can perhaps not do much about the latter, surely

the former is within control.

Childhood denied

October 15th, 2012

A recently released United Nations report paints a disturbing picture of child marriages in the world. According to

its findings, if current trends continue, within the next decade 142 millio n girls will be married by the time they are

18. This translates into 14.2 million each year, or 37,000 girls married each day. The highest proportion of such

marriages — 46 per cent — occur in South Asia. Local studies suggest that around 30 per cent of marriages in

Pakistan are those of girls below 18.

More often than not, being born a girl in Pakistan carries with it inherent disadvantages — less access to education,

healthcare, legal rights etc. However, nothing quite so devastatingly compounds these as early marriage. Aside

from the emotional trauma of being cast into a relationship with adult responsibilities that a child is ill-equipped to

handle, the long-term physical repercussions can be debilitating or even fatal. The UN report states that

approximately 5,000 cases of obstetric fistula occur every year in Pakistan, with young girls disproportionately

affected. The condition, which is one of the risks associated with early childbirth, results in urinary or faecal

incontinence to varying degrees. Although in many instances it can be surgically treated, the dismal healthcare

facilities in much of the country mean that most of these young sufferers bear their condition in silence and shame,

and are often, in a twist of cruel irony, spurned by their husbands as well. Although the legal age for marriage in

Pakistan is 16 years — in most countries it is 18 — evidence indicates that this law is repeatedly flouted especially

where poverty and patriarchy conspire to deprive girls of their childhood. While it is heartening to note that a

number of such marriages have been prevented by timely media reporting, a concerted awareness campaign in the

media is needed to root out this despicable practice in its entirety.


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Civilian culpability

October 15th, 2012

With more than a dozen killed and scores injured, the suicide attack in Darra Adamkhel that apparently was meant

to target an anti-Taliban lashkar leadership but ended up killing and injuring ordinary civilians is yet another grim

reminder that all is far from well in the tribal areas and adjoining districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But grim

reminder after grim reminder has come and gone and still the state is struggling to contain, let alone eliminate, the

threat from militancy. Few areas have truly been stabilised despite operations in six of the seven agencies of Fata

and in Swat and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Today, the Tirah valley nestled between the Khyber and

Kurram agencies and North Waziristan are the areas in which the state has virtually no control and yet this

intolerable state of affairs is somehow tolerated on various grounds. While some concerns cannot be entirely

dismissed, there is a sense in more independent quarters outside the army-led security establishment that the

factors cited in delaying action are neither as serious nor as unresolvable as sometimes argued.

Undoubtedly, given the peculiar political history of this country and the near-total control over security policy that

the army-led establishment has, the resolve to stamp out militancy will have to come from the military. But that

argument, while true, has had the unfortunate effect of deflecting attention from the civilian leadership‘s culpability

in the present state of affairs. While a military strategy is the fundamental plank of recovering parts of Fata and

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the grip of militancy, by itself it can never be an adequate strategy. Development,

governance, education, jobs — all of those are central elements of any winning long-term strategy against

militancy. And none of those elements can be provided by the armed forces because that is simply not what they

are meant for or capable of. So without the civilians stepping up and doing what they are by definition expected to

do — to devise and implement policy in a range of areas — the fiendishly complex riddle of militancy will never be

solved.

There is also another element that the civilians have fallen terribly short of: putting pressure on and working with

the establishment to establish a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy. At the moment, it seems that the job of

making the establishment recognise the folly of its ways has been left to the media, to civil society and to

individual voices. The politicians can and must do better.

Skewed narrative

October 16th, 2012

Let's get one thing straight about the attack on Malala Yousufzai. It is not comparable to drone strikes. It is not

comparable to the Lal Masjid operation. Nor is it likely to be comparable to other incidents the religious right might

use to try to divert attention from the particular evil of this one. Because here is what this incident was: a

deliberate attack on a specific teenage girl in retaliation for her activism for girls‘ education and opposition to

Islamist militancy, a harmless, non-violent cause the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan happen not to like. Drone strikes

may be unacceptable in their current form and end up killing innocent children, but doing so is not their intent. The

figure of 1,200 women killed in the Lal Masjid operation is highly dubious; this paper‘s investigations had indicated

that most women left the compound during the amnesty granted before the operation. And yet moves are afoot to

position these events as comparisons in an attempt to dampen the widespread recognition of the Malala incident

for what it was — the targeting of an innocent girl by an outfit that does not believe in the most basic of human

rights and is prepared to attack even children to promote its regressive ideas.

These attempts to fudge the truth and make false comparisons indicate that the religious right feels threatened by

the public outcry against Malala‘s attackers. But it is also a chilling reminder of the degree to which most right -wing

groups harbour sympathies for violent extremism. The Difa-i-Pakistan Council is an obvious member of this club,

but even leaders of the more mainstream JUI-F and JI have questioned the focus on Malala, compared the attack

to other events or dismissed its real implications by declaring it a conspiracy to trigger an operation in North

Waziristan. And while secular political parties have not been as quick to do so, most have shied away from naming

the TTP and demonstrating the single-mindedness that is needed to dismantle that organisation‘s ability to


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terrorise Pakistan.

Battle lines have been drawn across the political landscape, and few groups are taking as courageous and clear a

stand as is needed. The reaction in the first couple of days after Malala was attacked had inspired hope that a

political consensus against the TTP, not just violent extremism, might be formed. But that has not taken place,

despite the public‘s demonstrated anger at the terrorist group. And as long as political forces hold back, the

military will have a reason to hold back too. The moment Pakistan should not have wasted is being squandered

before our very eyes.

Parties, partings, partners

October 16th, 2012

Pre-poll partnerships are difficult. One, they come about when they do, without the partners knowing each other‘s

actual vote value. Two, having to chisel pre-poll speeches to please allies can be inhibitive and counter-productive.

Even when alliance talk is forging ahead in Pakistan in anticipation of a general election, most of these projected

groupings will probably not materialise. The reason: in a country divided among so many claimants, results are

more difficult to predict this time than ever before. Nonetheless, smaller players who must tag themselves to

bigger challengers for power will continue to talk about the ‗urgent ‘ need for joint fronts e.g. the Jamaat-i-Islami

which has been courting Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf. The PTI was in all probability JI‘s second choice after JI was not

entertained by PML-N. This was not surprising since as the long-accepted alternative to the PPP, the Sharifs are

serious enough contenders to be risking embracing anyone who doesn‘t enjoy too clean a reputation

internationally. On the other hand, Imran Khan has an additional factor to consider. He has worked hard on

garnering anti-America, anti-Nato, pro-native sentiment. Should he now be prepared to share it with the JI or, for

the latter‘s sake, put at stake his appeal as the ‗real‘ alternative?

Some relatively smaller players want a grand alliance against the PPP- ANP-MQM-PMLQ combine — even when

there is no alliance between the PPP and MQM or PPP and ANP. Many of the president‘s allies in power want to keep

open their options for a possible coalition with other parties post -election. The PPP itself would have liked to ensure

more options but for the rather difficult position it finds itself in over its ties with Punjab and the PML-Q, which has

emerged as the most reliable of all of Mr Zardari‘s partners to help him stretch the present term. Thus the current

PPP PML-Q hobnobbing is aimed more at preservation in the current situation. It is an untried fusion waiting for

unknown box office response. The by-elections next month, which the PPP and PML-Q will f ight jointly, will show

the potential and viability of their alliance.

Why at this time?

October 16th, 2012

In a move that has left many people around the world, including in that region itself, shaking their heads in

disbelief, this year‘s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the European Union. Why on earth at this time, people

are asking, when the EU is in the grip of a severe debt crisis to which a solution is still being sought. Given that

many EU members are facing grave economic difficulties and social unrest, with riots in Athens and Madrid, the

decision is strangely evocative of the world inhabited by Alfred E. Neuman.

The logic, as explained by the Nobel committee‘s chairman Thorbjoern Jagland, does have some currency: the

formation of the EU brought peace to a continent that rent itself apart with two world wars in which tens of millions

of people died. While announcing the award in Oslo on Friday, Mr Jagland said the Nobel committee ―wishes to

focus on what it sees as the EU‘s most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for


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democracy and human rights‖. Nevertheless, many citizens, in Greece in particular, where the debt crisis is having

a crippling effect, are viewing the award as an insult to and a mockery of their situation. Indeed, the fact of the

matter is that while the EU‘s success in unit ing the region is significant, the dire straits the single-currency zone

faces today has perhaps greater relevance for Europeans, given that they are feeling its effects at present. People

may well ask why, freed from the shackles of war, they are now being held hostage to poverty and reduced social

benefits. Has the committee lost its grip on reality to the extent that it may one day award itself the prize for

making the ‗right‘ choice in identifying groups of individuals that have contributed to peace?

In the balance

October 17th, 2012

The will-they, won‘t-they pendulum on North Waziristan seemed to momentarily slip towards the possibility of a

military operation but it appears, in fact, to resolutely be stuck on, no, there will be no significant military operation

in North Waziristan any time soon. The army claims the launching of an operation is a ‗political decision‘ thereby

seemingly tossing the matter into the civilians‘ lap, while the political leadership hems and haws and occasionally

deploys Interior Minister Rehman Malik to add to the confusion. In theory, the decision to launch a full-scale

military operation in North Waziristan ought to lie with the civilian leadership. In acceptable practice, the decision

ought to be taken by the civilians in close consultation with the army. In reality, the decision will be taken by the

army itself.

That reality is very signif icant in the context of the ‗national consensus‘ that the army insists must be created

before an operation in North Waziristan can be launched. But what has the army-led security establishment done to

try and create the much-touted national consensus? Not very much — unlike during the run-up to earlier military

operations in other parts of the north-west.

If North Waziristan has militants of every stripe projecting power from there into Pakistan proper, Afghanistan and

beyond, it is also a black hole of information — nothing really gets out. Privately, senior security officials admit that

the panoply of militant groups must be taken on sooner rather than later if the security situation in the country is

to slowly be pulled back towards normality. Privately, senior security officials admit that from Al Qaeda to the

Haqqanis and from Punjabi Taliban to foreign militants from countries as diverse as the Maldives — yes, the

Maldives — to Sudan and groups such as the Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs, North Waziristan has become a global

hub of terrorism and militancy. But next to nothing has been done to educate the Pakistani public about the nature

of the threat in North Waziristan and what the proper response to it is. How, then, will the national consensus for a

military operation in North Waziristan be developed?

And if the mapping out of the threat has been poor enough, even less is known about t he army‘s strategy to

eventually fight it. Are the Haqqanis eventually in line for some kind of financial and military squeeze? Is the policy

really to slowly win over some groups temporarily to clear the way for a fight with others? Is there a plan to

prevent militant leaders from escaping the battle zone as they have in operations elsewhere? If Pakistanis are told

nothing, not even the barest details, how can they form a consensus?

Need for oversight

October 17th, 2012

Security guards‘ involvement in the looting on Monday of a van carrying cash is not the first case of its kind in

Karachi or in other Pakistani cities. As in many such cases the crime was committed with commando-style

precision: two motorcyclists trailed the van that belonged to a currency exchange company; the guards-turned-

robbers inside the vehicle had it stopped at a given point, held the manager inside the van hostage, transferred the

loot, estimated at over Rs10m, to those on motorcycles and all four vanished. A few hours later, gun men robbed a

bank at Gulistan-i-Jauhar, killed a security guard, injured another and decamped with Rs3.6 million. While in one

case, the security guards turned criminals, in the other they were the victims. This highlights the dilemma the

authorities face, because private guards generally now outnumber the police and are very much needed. A


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wholesale denunciation of all security guards and their employers would be unfair, because quite often those on

duty fight back and get killed, and their sacrifice needs recognition. The issue is how to eliminate the black sheep

among the tens of thousands of uniformed security guards throughout the country and make security at banks and

other enterprises foolproof. We also know that many security agencies are not very meticulous in following

government regulations.

Most security agencies stand registered with the government, but merely screening the employers is not enough;

what is needed is the vetting of every single candidate through a system that is modern and comprehensive and

not confined to routine police verif ication since that can be managed easily, especially in the rural areas. Nor

should verification be a one-time affair. Given the extent of organised crime with suspected links to terrorism, all

security guards need to be vetted yearly to guard against a possible change in outlook. Further, every person

performing guard duties and carrying arms should be readily identif iable as such. Regrettably, instances are

growing where gunmen in mufti accompany certain persons. This is an affront to citizens, to say nothing of being

openly threatening. The government must ensure that all private guards don uniforms.

Spying janitors

October 17th, 2012

Now that we‘ve established lawmakers should not be dual nationals, let ‘s extend this principle to government-

employed janitors, gardeners and peons too. They might, after all, overhear details about the actual pace of

development of our nuclear programme or what we really think about China while they are watering the plants or

fetching tea. Who knows whom they might leak such sensitive state secrets to. Speaking of which, the bureaucrats

they would be fetching the tea for should also obviously come clean about any other passports they might be

concealing as a way to cover up their divided loyalties. As should the chairman of the proposed federal drug

regulatory authority, so that he or she is in no danger of colluding with foreign pharmaceutical firms.

The truly unfortunate part of all this is that none of it is made up. Punjab has asked all government employees,

from top bureaucrats to support staff, to submit proof they are not dual nationals — despite the fact that as

Pakistani citizens they have the right to simultaneously maintain the passports of certain other countries.

Meanwhile, the opposition has demanded in the National Assembly that the person in charge of the much-needed

central drug regulatory authority not be a dual citizen. There, is, of course, a simple explanation for this extension

of the principle to jobs far from the country‘s top public offices (which it makes sense to limit to those who have no

other passports): demonise dual nationality and earn populist credentials while positioning yourself in opposition to

a ruling party that doesn‘t even want legislators to have to meet the constitutional, and far more justifiable,

requirement that lawmakers not be dual citizens. So what if this strategy results in a witch-hunt of dual nationals

who quite legally happen to work anywhere in government? If it serves a political purpose, no initiative is too

absurd.

Welcome consensus

October 18th, 2012

The eventual, unanimous passage of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan Bill, 2012 by the National Assembly

on Tuesday is a step in the right direction. The consensus achieved underscores the ability of this set of lawmakers

to come together for a common cause. It vindicates the feeling that, with a little more purpose, this House could

have had an even more productive record than it has shown overall. On Tuesday, t he not so minor step of

removing the single word ‗only‘ was agreed to by all parties. ―…[No person shall be appointed as the CEO or

director of the authority unless he is a citizen of Pakistan only‖, read the original draft. The MQM sought the

deletion of ‗only‘ from the line, opening up the way for Pakistanis with dual nationality to hold the posts. This was

in sync with the position of most parties in the National Assembly.

The need for regulating this sphere has in recent times been highlighted by unfortunate deaths resulting from the

consumption of spurious or low-quality drugs and by scandals surrounding the granting of quotas for substances

used in the manufacture of medicines. Even without these high-prof ile incidents, the greed of pharmaceutical

companies is well known, as is the fact that other makers and suppliers of fake, substandard drugs have remained


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a threat to public health. Governments have failed to take due action and, in return, have exposed themselves to

allegations of not just apathy but collusion with such unscrupulous manufacturers and suppliers. Whatever

mechanism the country had for controlling the sector was made largely ineffective by the transfer of the subject of

health to the provinces under the 18th Amendment, and reminders were sent to the legislators that they needed to

move fast and decisively on this.

The bill, which now needs a nod from the Senate to become law, raises genuine hope about regulation of the drug

sector. One of the drug authority‘s vital tasks would be to streamline the inter-provincial trade of drugs. The

authority will also help define the federal government‘s response and role in relation to obligations and

commitments with international organisations. Not least, it will help develop ethical criteria on drug promotion,

marketing and advertising, and on the rational use of drugs, on research and development. The authority ―shall

undertake measures to ensure self-sufficiency … to create a conducive environment for manufacture, import and

promotion of export‖. This is not an easy agenda but the Drug Regulatory Authority bill is an expression of intent to

allow experts to oversee the sector. So long as the emphasis is on merit, so long as the authority is free of politics

and is willing to improve its working while learning through experience, success can be achieved.

No money for dams

October 18th, 2012

The financial constraints facing Wapda are likely to hit another hydropower project — Gomal Zam dam. The

contractor, the Frontier Works Organisation, has put the authority on notice for immediate clearance of its dues of

Rs4bn. In case Wapda fails to do so, the work on the dam will be stopped. It means the commissioning of the

project, which was scheduled to be completed five years ago, will be further delayed. The nearly completed dam

will produce 17.5MW electricity and irrigate 191,000 acres of land in Tank and D.I. Khan. Gomal Zam is not the

first hydropower project hit by the paucity of funds. There are many others, like Neelum-Jhelum, while the work on

the 4,500MW Diamer-Bhasha dam is yet to start because of unavailability of financing.

Several factors — security conditions, fund shortage and no political consensus — can be cited as responsible for

the failure to develop Pakistan‘s hydropower potential. Indeed, the scarcity of funds for new projects remains on

top of the list. Hydropower generation is crucial for Pakistan not only to ensure its energy and water security but

also to change the existing generation mix for providing affordable electricity to consumers. Currently, we have an

installed hydel generation capacity of just 6,500MW — 13 per cent of the country‘s estimated hydro-power

potential of over 50,000MW. India too has developed just 15 per cent of its hydropower potential, but is making

fast progress on several projects to change the hydel-thermal power mix to 40:60. We, on the other hand, are

doing little to exploit this natural source of affordable power at the expense of economic development. No

significant project has been undertaken since the completion of the Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project with a

capacity of 1,400MW almost a decade ago. That project came decades after Tarbela. Wapda claims that it could

add 6,000MW of hydel power to the system in five years and another 15,000 by 2020 provided it receives

uninterrupted funding. It is time that the government spared some funds for hydel generation to prevent further

damage to the economy due to power shortages and high energy prices.

Polio drive in Balochistan

October 18th, 2012

It is indeed ironic that on the day an advertisement was published in a number of papers proclaiming the

‗achievements‘ of the Balochistan government — particularly the province‘s chief minister — two news reports were

also printed highlighting the frequent acts of violence that occur in this troubled province. A vaccinator taking part

in an anti-polio campaign was shot dead on the outskirts of Quetta, while four men belonging to the Shia Hazara

community were also gunned down in the Balochistan capital on Tuesday. T he frequently targeted Hazara have

become Balochistan‘s most vulnerable community, while the targeting of the vaccinator is also cause for concern,

especially considering that Balochistan is one of the key areas of polio transmission in Pakistan. In the face of such

rampant lawlessness, the Balochistan government is hardly qualified to trumpet its ‗achievements‘.

At this point it is not clear if the vaccinator was shot because of his association with the anti-polio drive, or due to


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some other motive. What is certain is that the attack affected the campaign, as vaccinations in several parts of

Quetta were suspended following the murder. While no major incidents of intimidation of polio vaccination staff

have previously been reported in Balochistan, the authorities need to keep their guard up, for elsewhere in the

country opposition to the drive has manifested itself in unambiguously brutal ways. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

has banned the campaign in parts of the tribal areas while in Karachi a local anti-polio campaigner was shot dead

in July. The attack came just days after a foreign WHO consultant was targeted in the port city; the expert luckily

survived. These incidents lend weight to calls that vaccination teams be provided security, especially in high-risk

areas. The state cannot allow extremists to violently derail the anti-polio campaign and put the lives of countless

children at risk.

A vicious circle

October 19th, 2012

When it comes to bringing suspected sectarian terrorists to justice in Pakistan, we seem to be moving in circles.

Militants are captured and paraded by the police with much fanfare, locked up — then released due to ‗lack of

evidence‘. In the meantime, terrorist violence and targeted killings continue with frightening regularity. Hence, the

capture of Hafiz Qasim Rasheed, the Sindh chief of a Lashkar-i-Jhangvi faction, announced by the police in Karachi

on Wednesday, should be met with some circumspection. The suspect, believed to be involved in over 100

sectarian killings, has been arrested twice before but released on both occasions due to — once again — ‗lack of

evidence‘. Malik Ishaq, one of the founders of LJ and linked to 43 cases involving 70 murders, has also been either

acquitted or granted bail in most cases. The reason? Lack of evidence. A report on Thursday also claimed one of

Malala Yousufzai‘s attackers was captured by security forces in 2009 but released as no evidence was found against

him. There are allegations that sympathisers within the police and other state organs either suppress evidence

against the militants or don‘t work hard enough to collect it.

Simply capturing suspected militants and presenting them in front of the media is not enough. For there to be any

permanent disruption of terrorist activities the captured men must be tried and punished so that they are not back

on the streets soon after their capture. The militant captured in Karachi very clearly told mediapersons he would

kill more people if given the chance. While statements like these make headlines, they are not enough to lead to a

conviction; as per the law, only a statement recorded in front of a judicial magistrate has legal value.

Also, militants often deny earlier confessional statements in court. In many cases witnesses turn hostile for fear of

their lives due to intimidation from militants. This can scuttle a strong case and is reflective of the state‘s inability

to make significant progress on an effective witness protection programme.

For militancy to be countered the justice system needs to deliver. A number of complementary steps should be

taken to ensure suspected terrorists are convicted. These include proper investigations carried out by capable,

unbiased officials, strong prosecution as well as a protection programme that gives witnesses the assurance that

they or their families will not lose their lives for testifying against a terrorist. Protection must also be given to the

judges, lawyers and police officers involved in the cases. More than anything else, the will of the state is required

to convict and punish terrorists.

The hungry millions

October 19th, 2012

There was a time — not too far in the past — when the general reality in Pakistan was that while people were poor,

few went to bed hungry. With an economy based on agriculture, a sector that constituted the single greatest

source of employment, most citizens had access to enough food, even though of the most basic variety. This is no

longer the case. Over the years, the number of citizens who do not have access to sufficient quantities of food has

been steadily increasing, and caloric intake has been compromised in even middle-income households. The

situation faced by the poor is extremely disturbing. For some time now, various groups have been sounding the

alarm. Unicef last year likened the levels of malnutrition in post-flood Sindh to those in Chad and Niger, while


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Oxfam International said that over a quarter of the population was undernourished. A survey undertaken earlier

during the year showed that two-thirds of the population spends between 50 and 70 per cent of income on food

alone.

Despite these stark realities, Pakistan has failed to come up with a concerted action plan to fight hunger and

malnutrition. Committees have been formed, persons appointed and much paper has been moved around, but little

difference can be seen on the ground. On Tuesday, the Minister for National Food Security and Research Mir

Israrullah Zehri informed the Senate that according to the National Nutrition Survey 2011 (conducted by the

Benazir Income Support Programme) around 58 per cent of the population is food insecure, while nearly 30 per

cent suffers hunger or severe hunger. It is unfortunate then that there has been no action, as in the case of the

National Zero Hunger Programme announced earlier by the then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. That

announcement, Senator Zehri was forced to admit in the Senate this week, has yet to be given formal approval.

Meanwhile, a draft Zero Hunger Action Plan prepared by the World Food Programme still lacks operational details.

Time is indefensibly being wasted; it seems that our decision-makers have no idea of what it means to not know

where the next meal is coming from.

Caught in the act

October 19th, 2012

The CCTV system is there to nab terrorists, thieves, shoplifters and other criminals. But here it has the habit of

shooting the powerful in action. In Lahore alone, the CCTV has been guilty of spying on a PML-N lawmaker

breaking the norms at the airport. It has also disclosed a credit card fraud, again involving a PML-N lawmaker. In

its latest trick the CCTV has captured Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ‘s daughter at a bakery, her finger raised at a

young man identified as an employee. Further footage shows a youth being slapped and kicked by plainclothesmen

outside the same bakery, watched closely by sleuths in Elite Force uniform. There is said to be a few hours‘ gap

between the two incidents but the two were linked in an FIR which took a whole nine days to lodge.

The FIR was registered on Oct 16 — only after the chief minister took notice of the incident upon his return from a

foreign trip. By then, courtesy of the footage, there were plenty of people questioning why no case had been

registered against Mr Sharif‘s daughter. She is not seen in the footage where the boy is being beaten but

allegations are that the thrashing was connected to her visit to the bakery a few hours earlier. Police and the PML-

N have tried to de-link her from the affair; meanwhile her husband, who is not to be seen in either footage,

courted arrest on Wednesday. This rather unexplained arrest came amid a rising chorus for equality before the law.

The case is being dubbed as a test of Mr Sharif‘s principles and casts a shadow on his politics. Those who have

tried to get him over his Danish school delicacies — opponents who couldn‘t quite stomach his sasti roti — are keen

instead to have cake at his expense.

A historic ruling

October 20th, 2012

The 1990 general election was rigged. The then army chief, ISI chief and president colluded to rig the election. And

a special ‗election cell‘ was established in the presidency to woo politicians and manipulate the election results.

Yesterday was an important day in Pakistan‘s political history. Not because the plot to keep the PPP out of power

after Benazir Bhutto‘s first government was sacked in 1990 was a secret but because it is now part of the official

historical record, cemented in a Supreme Court order that has instructed the government to initiate unprecedented

legal proceedings against a former army chief, a former DG ISI and sundry politicians implicated in a tawdry

chapter of Pakistan‘s political history.

Whether any meaningful action will be taken against those the SC has identified as having committed crimes is

almost beside the point. While jail sentences and fines may be cathartic to some, to truly exorcise the ghosts of

Pakistan‘s undemocratic past it is perhaps more important that history be laid bare before the public in the grimiest

of detail. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan is dead. Generals Beg and Durrani are alive but already mere historical


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footnotes. The biggest beneficiary of the 1990 election, Nawaz Sharif, is now an implacable opponent of military

intervention and perhaps one whose years in exile have led to a democratic rebirth. And while Benazir Bhutto was

killed in another terrible chapter in Pakistan‘s history, her party has survived to steer Pakistan to the verge of the

first democratic transition of power in many years. So Pakistan has already moved on in many ways. But if the past

is to be prevented from repeating itself — and particularly with a general election on the horizon — the bald truth

as stated by the SC is an essential part of turning the page on Pakistan‘s undemocra-tic history once and for all.

The more complicated part will be to break the nexus between the security establishment and parts of the civilian

political spectrum. For the ugly truth is that whenever the army has sought to manipulate the democratic process,

it has found willing partners on the civilian side. Ambitious generals and politicians can be a toxic combination for

the democratic project and one way of countering that would be to have more robust and transparent electoral

laws and monitoring mechanisms. Even as the army has pulled back from serious electoral interference, in

Balochistan and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular an army-politician nexus is feared at the next election.

Now is the time to find ways to prevent that from occurring.

MMA is reincarnated

October 20th, 2012

In the absence of the Jamaat-i-Islami, the JUI-F‘s decision to revive the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has failed to

create much of a splash. This is an altogether new MMA and JUI-F‘s need for the alliance could be linked to its ties

with the federal government. In the ruling coalition, Maulana Fazl was blamed for aiding the war on terror. Out of

it, he was seen as a most friendly opposition. Lately, with one eye on the polls, the other on those seeking to steal

his vote, his criticism of the government has become stronger. From the JUI-F‘s perspective, as an alliance the

MMA would send out the message that the JUI-F is back in the right spot and also facilitate acceptance of the party

among at least its core voters.

There is more than one explanation why the JI stayed away from the alliance. One relates to the JUI-F‘s being

viewed as an ally of the current government while, during the same period, the JI championed many ‗anti-

government‘ causes. This could be a bigger factor behind the JI‘s staying away from the MMA than any

disagreement over the selection of MMA office bearers. A more compelling reason can be found in comparing the

situation today with the one that led to the MMA‘s creation more than a decade ago. When the MMA won the 2002

polls in the then NWFP, the crucial element was the absence of PML-N as a serious contender. It got votes that

would have gone to the PML-N had the Sharifs been around. The Sharifs have since returned to stake a strong

claim in the province. They have traditionally stayed close to the JI and at a distance from JUI-F. It was thought

that the JI would be able to renew its old ties with PML-N, but this did not happen. Instead, the JI was pushed

towards PTI, a new entrant which could eat deep into right-wing pockets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Today‘s realities

dictate that the JI seek a partnership with either the PML-N or PTI for meaningful poll impact not only at the

provincial level but also on the national scale.

Impact on Pakistan?

October 20th, 2012

With the spectre of double-dip recession looming, global economic leaders gathered in Tokyo for the World Bank-

IMF annual meetings last week to debate ways of dealing with depressed growth and weak governments. Advanced

economies are struggling to emerge from the financial crisis amid rising social discontent. Huge anti-austerity

demonstrations in Europe regularly make headlines. In developing countries, where the situation is more complex

with deeper inadequacies and insufficient means to cope, the global crisis has further c urtailed options on

development issues. The IMF forecasts a 3.3 per cent global output growth, down from 5.1 per cent in both 2010

and 2011 leading to projections of less than two per cent global growth in the current year. Hopes of expansion

during 2012 were clouded by a sense of risk and fear at the gathering of finance ministers in Tokyo.


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IMF chief Christine Lagarde, responding to the needs of changing times, hinted at revising her organisational

position to deal with the fiscal stress. She endorsed findings of a recent study that Brussels and the IMF have

underestimated the impact of austerity measures on growth. She said that fiscal policy needs to be appropriately

calibrated to be as growth friendly as possible. How would the IMF change of heart play out for Pakistan that, it

seems, could soon be knocking at its door for credit? There are fears that higher spending in an election year and

depressed resource mobilisation and slow growth will widen the income-expenditure gap. Besides, the slowdown in

remittances and export earnings against import payments and debt retirement is building pressure on foreign

exchange reserves that, already depleted, could touch new lows. If leveraged properly the change in IMF outlook

may improve prospects of striking a better deal with the key donor if the government decides to seek its support.

In the doldrums

October 21st, 2012

Girls' education in Pakistan, particularly in the conflict areas, is today symbolised by a teenaged girl hospitalised

after a brazen attack on her by the Taliban. Like Malala Yousufzai, millions of Pakistani girls face formidable

obstacles in their path to acquiring an education. If the overall statistics are dismal enough, with 25 million children

out of school in this country — the second highest number in the world — then the picture for girls is even bleaker.

According to the just-released Education for All Global Monitoring Report, two-thirds of out-of-school children in

Pakistan are girls. Only 16 countries fare worse. The report also f inds that efforts to address this issue are not

keeping pace with those of other countries in the region. While Pakistan has managed to reduce the number of out -

of-school girls by 16 per cent, India, Nepal and Bangladesh have done so by over 50 per cent du ring the same

period.

Other recent studies indicate that only 39 per cent of girls complete primary school against 59 per cent of boys.

Many of the girls that do so find it diff icult to continue with their education for a number of reasons. For one thing,

there simply aren‘t enough secondary schools for girls, so access is a very real problem. The lack of basic facilities

such as drinking water and toilets at many schools, not to mention buildings and boundary walls — particularly

important in a conservative society — also contributes to a high dropout rate. Then, girls must contend with a

patriarchal mindset that sees their primary roles as that of wife and mother for which education, at least beyond

the basics, is considered an unnecessary indulgence.

As though this were not enough, floods for three consecutive years have severely impacted school enrolment in

general. While nature‘s fury has been more even-handed, the militancy in the country‘s north-west has singled out

girls‘ education with a vengeance. A majority of the schools levelled by extremists in the region were those

catering to girls‘ education. For example, out of 164 completely destroyed schools in Malakand, the worst affected

area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 104 were girls‘ schools. Continuing security threats and bureaucratic delays have

meant that little or no reconstruction has taken place. But education cannot be put on the back burner. The

government must take its responsibilities towards ensuring education, and specifically gender parity in education,

more seriously. In that lies the only long-term salvation for Pakistan. Unfortunately, as of now, it seems the fate of

education in this country, especially for girls, will continue to hang in the balance.

Crisis in the Levant

October 21st, 2012

The bombing which targeted a senior Lebanese intelligence official in Beirut on Friday does not bode well for

regional peace. Seen to be linked to the Syrian civil war, it indicates the conflict within the borders of Lebanon‘s

eastern neighbour is spilling over. The man targeted — Wissam al-Hassan — was reportedly in the anti-Damascus

camp and had overseen an investigation which linked Lebanese and Syrian officials to a bombing plot inside

Lebanon. Syria has condemned the attack. Considering the region ‘s history, it is easy to see how tiny Lebanon can

be sucked into the Syrian war. Syria has long been the power broker in Lebanon; its military intervened in the

brutal 15-year Lebanese civil war under an Arab League mandate and only withdrew following the 2005

assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Internally, Lebanon is divided; politically there are


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pro- and anti-Syria factions while the country, which is administered under a confessional system, has sharp

sectarian divisions. There have already been communal clashes and kidnappings in Lebanon linked to the trouble in

Syria; communities in both countries have religious linkages. The bombings and kidnappings are an unhappy

reminder of the war that ravaged Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Long the battlefield of regional proxy wars, it

appears as if the unforgiving cycle is beginning anew in Lebanon.

Beyond Lebanon, the situation on the Turkish-Syrian border remains grim. Syrian shells aimed at rebels operating

in the border area often end up in Turkey and in the past have killed Turkish civilians. The Turks have responded

by shelling Syrian positions. It is easy to imagine this disturbingly frequent exchange escalating into something

larger. Meanwhile, UN-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi was in Damascus on Saturday pushing for the Syrian

belligerents to accept a ceasefire over the Eidul Azha holidays. The Bashar al-Assad government as well as the

Syrian rebels need to seize such opportunities as steps towards a peaceful settlement. Also, regional and extra-

regional players must refrain from supporting factions within Syria. If opportunities for peace are lost, the Syrian

conflict will inflame the entire region.

On home turf — finally

October 21st, 2012

The arrival of the International World XI in Karachi to play two exhibition matches — one of which was played

yesterday — is a breath of fresh air for Pakistan cricket. While the tour is primarily a private venture which has the

blessing of the Pakistan Cricket Board, it is being hailed as a step towards the revival of international cricket in the

country after a gap of almost three and a half years. No foreign cricket team has toured Pakistan since the terrorist

attack in Lahore on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009. All endeavours at the government, individual and

organisational level to persuade teams to play in Pakistan proved fruitless.

The smooth staging of the World XI matches in Karachi, the general excitement and hopefully a positive feedback

from the visiting players, who belong to Sri Lanka, the West Indies, South Africa and Afghanistan, should

contribute greatly towards convincing the International Cricket Council that Pakistan is a safe venue for cricketing

events. Besides, the matches may also alter the outlook of the foreign teams themselves, concerned as they are

about the security situation in the country, and help persuade them to show off their skills in Pakistan more

regularly. It was indeed a welcome sight to see thousands of cricket -starved fans at the National Stadium

yesterday while many others remained glued to their TV sets. Since Independence, the game has been hugely

popular with Pakistanis and, in the midst of so many societal divisions, has often proved to be a uniting force and

given us some memorable moments. Dedicated efforts are now needed to ensure the revival of international

cricket in Pakistan. Not only will these ease tensions all around, they will also help channel youthful energies

towards healthy pastimes. This is desperately needed at a time of growing, dangerous divisions.

Immature politics

October 22nd, 2012

The Supreme Court dropped the bombshell, now the political parties are fighting over the fallout. The open secret

that the presidency and the security establishment colluded to rig the 1990 elections received an official

imprimatur last week — predictably leading to all manner of political attacks and counter-attacks in present-day

Pakistan, where a general election is around the corner. Rather than say mea culpa and focus on its more recent

record of robustly supporting the democratic process, the PML-N has tried to dredge up allegations of electoral

manipulation and partisanship in 1993. For its part, the PPP is enjoying the discomfiture of the PML-N and taking

liberal pot shots at its rival for national power. None of it is edifying or becoming of a mature political process. Of

course, with elections on the horizon in a fractured polity, few will be thinking about the long-term interests of the

democratic project. Survival is the name of the game at the moment.

However, this is precisely the kind of political moment in which leadership can make a difference. President Asif Ali

Zardari and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif carry a heavy burden today, much like the one Benazir Bhut to and


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Mr Sharif tried to shoulder in the 1990s but failed. The burden is to carry the democratic project forward and away

from the interference and interventions of the army. Slanging matches and throwing f istfuls of mud at one another

is not the way forward. Yes, Nawaz Sharif benefited from the patronage and tutelage of the security establishment.

But since his return from exile, he has steadfastly and very believably maintained that the army‘s inf luence in

politics must be pushed back against. And for al l the PPP‘s schadenfreude at the moment, those with longer

memories will remember that the PPP‘s founder cut his political teeth in the country‘s first military government.

The central challenge, then, is the same for all political parties: to strengthen t he democratic project against

military intervention. The PPP, the PML-N, indeed all political parties, will benefit from rolling back the army‘s

internal predominance.

But how to do it? A truth and reconciliation commission, occasionally mentioned by the PML-N, would be a good

idea. So was the Charter of Democracy, and a reincarnation of that platform today would be helpful too. Ultimately,

though, the political class will only truly be able to exert control if it learns to govern better and challenge the

army‘s formulation of the national interest and national security in a more intelligent manner. But will self -interest

prevail over the common interest?

Who’ll go first?

October 22nd, 2012

The interior minister kicked off the speculation with his assert ion that the attack on Malala Yousufzai originated in

Afghanistan, and a handful of media reports have been suggesting the same. Maulana Fazlullah‘s Swat Taliban are

behind the attack, the argument goes, and they are located in eastern Afghanistan, where t hey fled after the Swat

operation in 2009. Whether or not it‘s true, this analysis has been enough to revive the questions that first came

up after Pakistan began seeing cross-border attacks from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011: between Pakistan on

the one hand and Afghanistan and Isaf on the other, who will tackle safe havens on which side of the border f irst?

The Afghans are unlikely to go after Pakistani militants in Kunar and Nuristan until Pakistan tackles the Afghan

Taliban on this side; if this wasn‘t already clear, President Karzai‘s remarks in response to the Malala incident —

that ―using extremists as a tool against others is not in the interest of Pakistan‖ — made it clear enough.

Which only intensifies the need for the state to seriously cons ider what it‘s going to do about North Waziristan, a

project it appears to have abandoned at the moment. There are least two goals in that tribal agency. For one, for

its own survival Pakistan will have to tackle the militants holed up there, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan,

who have been carrying out attacks within Pakistani borders. Even if the Malala attack didn‘t originate there, North

Waziristan remains a threat to Pakistan itself. Second, it is also becoming increasingly obvious that pursuing the

Haqqani network there is not just a matter of resisting American pressure. It is now also a matter of Pakistan‘s own

security, as nothing much is likely to be done in Afghanistan about Fazlullah‘s increasingly dangerous organisation

until some action is taken here against militants focused on attacking the Americans and the existing Afghan

government. The origins of the attack on Malala might not yet be clear, but it has highlighted once again that a

stubborn refusal by both sides to cooperate will only make both less secure.

Unanswered questions

October 22nd, 2012

While thousands of animals have already been slaughtered, many questions remain unanswered. The public has

yet to be clearly informed about the central — and simplest — point: were the 22,000 Australian sheep, which were

originally bound for Bahrain but ended up in Karachi in early September, diseased? If so, what disease was it? All

we‘ve had so far is several weeks of confusion, obfuscation and conflicting explanations from all the centra l

characters in the drama. The health hazards being talked about have ranged from foot -and-mouth disease to

anthrax to Orf disease. The charade ended over the weekend when the importer — for reasons unknown —

withdrew his court petition against the culling and the Sindh livestock department finished off the reportedly

11,000 animals that had so far survived.


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This episode has thrown into stark relief two different issues that should be of concern. First, the inhumane

treatment of the animals. As culling progressed in bouts, reports surfaced that some animals were clubbed to death

or stabbed, left bleeding to die or buried alive — perhaps a sign of the manner in which Pakistani society is

becoming increasing brutal. Second, the system in place needs to be revamped to ensure that everything that

enters the market is indeed fit for human consumption. The flaws in the system can be gauged from the fact that

conflicting findings resulted from the tests conducted at provincial- and federal-level laboratories. It was eventually

a UK lab that said that the animals were healthy — though local authorities now claim that the foreign lab never

tested for the diseases that the provincial health authorities had suspected. If so, why were the sheep not

quarantined on arrival, as required? Without following the systems that are in place, Pakistan will continue to court

all manner of public health disasters.

A question of will

October 23rd, 2012

Like a political hot potato, the issue of consensus keeps getting passed around. First the army suggests it cannot

launch a military operation in North Waziristan unless there is a political and public consensus. Now President

Zardari has said that a consensus — on key issues of national security, not just a North Waziristan operat ion — is

not possible because the civilian political opposition is unwilling to engage the government. And the political

opposition is sure to reject the president‘s claim and suggest that it is not being consulted meaningfully on any

matter, so there is no real role for it. Meanwhile, the main issue — developing a national consensus against

militancy, radicalism and extremism — goes unaddressed: a country faced with a growing threat is unable to

decide how to counter it. With no one seemingly willing to lead the way and with the logical institutions for such

decisions moribund — the Defence Committee of the Cabinet isn‘t strong enough, the parliamentary committees on

defence and national security are still struggling to find their feet, and the national sec urity adviser slot remains

unfilled — perhaps the government and the army need to develop a special mechanism to draft and formalise a

national policy against militancy, extremism and radicalism.

A starting point could be to rationally demarcate the various strands of conservatism and Islamism: religious

political parties that operate within the constitutional framework are very different from the violent non-state

actors, for example. That would help both isolate the real threat and placate conservative political elements that

the war against militancy isn‘t a surreptitious plot to nudge them out of the political arena. From there, the next

step could be to articulate a clear, realistic policy on Afghanistan, the link between militancy in Pakistan and the

state‘s quest to dominate Afghanistan being fairly well-known though rarely acknowledged. The last step could be

to define and articulate the threat from militancy inside Pakistan: identify the various groups, explain their agenda

and outline what needs to be done — militarily, politically, governance-wise, etc — to purposefully end the threat.

Will the government and the army demonstrate the necessary leadership, though? The problem is an old one, at

least a decade old since the world changed on 9/11 and Pakistan struggled to accept that the sell-by date for non-

state actors had passed. Throughout the Musharraf era — when there was no real distinction between the military

and civilian leadership — the ambivalence towards militancy and the reluctance to adopt a zero-tolerance policy

bedevilled policymaking. A decade on, the problem is more complex — hence the question mark over the will to do

what‘s necessary.

Behind the numbers

October 23rd, 2012

When it comes to the cost of living in Pakistan, personal experiences and government statistics don‘t match up.

Having finally dipped below double digits in July, according to the official numbers, inflation has been declining ever

since and fell to 8.8 per cent in September. This would be good news if consumers and businesses weren‘t

continuing to feel the pinch of rising prices and having trouble making ends meet. It‘s true that the government

isn‘t claiming inflation is zero per cent or that prices are declining — in other words, official statisticians concede


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that prices are still going up, but argue that they‘re not going up as fast as they used to. The trouble is, though,

that questions are being raised about the methodology used to calculate the number. The base year for

comparison, for example, has been changed to 2007-2008, when prices were higher than in the previously used

base year (2001-2002). The basket of goods on which the calculation is based has also been changed, raising

questions about how representative it is of consumer experience.

There are a couple of things the Bureau of Statistics can do to address suspicions that the calculation has been

manipulated to show inflation lower than it actually is. For one, it can continue to publish results based on the old

method alongside the numbers it publishes now. It can also produce one consolidated report laying out what

changes have been made to the calculation method, and on what dates. The new method will continue to produce

lower numbers, but being transparent about changes should help address conc erns that inflation statistics are

being manipulated in time for elections or to bring down interest rates in order to lower the cost of the

government‘s heavy borrowing. The question is not whether inflation has come down — it undoubtedly has from

the early days of this government‘s tenure, partly because of the fall in international commodity prices. The

question is how much it has come down. More transparency is needed before policymakers get complacent about

the below-10-per-cent number or the public loses all faith in this official statistic.

Record after record

October 23rd, 2012

The importance of new Pakistani entries in the Guinness Book of Records cannot be underestimated. As these lines

are being written, an attempt is being made at a stadium in Lahore to create the world‘s largest painting. Hold it —

the biggest painting has already been made and a record set. Such is the pace at which the enthusiasts at a mela

sponsored by the Punjab government are going about scaling new heights. The giant picture is particularly pleasing

since, more than what we are, what seems to matter to everyone around is the kind of image we can convey to the

world. All acts of patriotic Pakistanis are consequently aimed not so much at our own salvation and progress, but at

our international audience.

The Guinness record book provides people here, as anywhere else, eager to break records a forum to flaunt their

talents. Apart from the record for the largest gathering of people singing the national anthem — an honour we

have just snatched from India — a man has come up with the fastest rotis — mixing, kneading, baking all included.

Someone has just pulled a van with his moustache. A young man has been noted for ‗kicking‘ 617 times in three

minutes. One charming young lady has displayed brilliant skill in arranging all 32 pieces on a chessboard in a flash

— a relevant comparison with a powerful group of people who set the pawns before an election back in 1990. So

many records have tumbled that it is difficult to keep track of all of them — and there may be a million more in

store. The categories in which a record can be made or broken are endless and the mela is a lot of fun. The

Guinness people might want to consider setting up a permanent record breaking place here.

Missing the point

October 24th, 2012

If Pakistani politicians have a talent, it is the ability to waste opportunities for meaningful change even when these

are handed to them on a silver platter. For all its symbolic importance, the Supreme Court‘s short order in the

Asghar Khan case is in the news for all the wrong reasons. In no uncertain terms, the order declares that ―it has

been established‖ that former generals Aslam Beg and Asad Durrani ―acted in violation of the constitution‖ by

rigging the 1990 elections. And yet what is getting lost in the heat of the ensuing political battle is precisely this

point, which is also the most important point — the role of the generals. Between the ruling party‘s attempts to

make political capital against the PML-N and the latter‘s attempts to defend its reputation and argue about the

FIA‘s lack of independence, the focus has shifted to which politician received how much money. Meanwhile, those

who did the real and enduring damage to Pakistani democracy are watching comfortably from the sidelines of this

schoolyard brawl.

In part the room for this distraction from the real issue has also been created by the SC order itself. After leaving

no doubt about the generals‘ guilt, it does nothing to hold them to account beyond t hrowing the ball in the


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government‘s court. In a slew of high-profile cases this court has found ways to enforce accountability directly or

appointed people to do so and then monitored their progress. From directly appointing investigation commissions

to demanding status updates from law-enforcement agencies and government officials to bypassing the NA speaker

and disqualifying the prime minister, it has not hesitated to take action itself. And yet, in this preliminary order at

least, it has simply asked the government to take the ―necessary steps‖ against the generals without specifying

what these should be.

This lack of urgency from both the SC and the government is worrying mostly because Pakistani democracy may

not be out of the woods yet. Memories are still fresh of the ISI propping up the PML-Q in the 2002 elections. The

defence secretary has said that the agency‘s political cell had stopped functioning five years ago — implying it was

active until very recently. Even now, there are suspicions that certain interest groups and political parties are being

supported by the establishment. The military‘s involvement in politics may be less blatant this election cycle, but

we do not know that it is not taking place. Nor will we know so long as the SC and the government shy away from

holding past manipulators to account and politicians continue to focus on fighting each other.

Presidential debate

October 24th, 2012

The final presidential debate in the US was the first real opportunity to assess Gov Mitt Ro mney‘s likely foreign

policy if he is elected president in November. With the race tightening, the possibility of a Romney presidency is

very real but because the US electorate is more focused on domestic matters, little is known about the kind of

worldview the presidential aspirant has and what his administration‘s foreign policy would be like. Surprisingly, on

Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Romney came across as measured and reasonable-sounding. In fact, there was little

to separate the policies of President Obama from that of a putative President Romney. The presidential contender

embraced the Obama administration‘s 2014 withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan; endorsed the policy to go after Al

Qaeda aggressively, including the use of drones; and berated neithe r Afghanistan nor Pakistan. When asked by the

moderator if it was time for the US to divorce Pakistan, Mr Romney responded: ―No, it‘s not time to divorce a

nation on earth that has a hundred nuclear weapons and is on the way to double that at some point, a nation that

has serious threats from terrorist groups.‖ The bottom line: Pakistan‘s stability is of deep concern for the US but

that does not translate into a policy of isolation or containment with devastating consequences for Pakistan‘s

positive interconnectedness with the outside world.

Of course, a presidential debate on foreign policy does not make for a properly fleshed-out policy. Both Mr Obama

— whose approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan is, for all the talk of clarity and purposefulness, racked by

contradictions and internal squabbling — and Mr Romney were sparse on details. Conditioning aid, not cutting

Pakistan loose, not isolating Pakistan — none of that really articulates either a vision or the nuts and bolts of policy.

If Mr Romney does win the election two weeks from now, he is expected to pick his foreign and national-security

policy teams from among the ranks of neocons and hardliners. So ‗Moderate Mitt‘ could just be a temporary

phenomenon, one designed to tick the commander-in-chief box for an electorate not very interested in the outside

world.

Paradise lost?

October 24th, 2012

Many of the famed tourist destinations in the north, including until recently Swat, have been lost to militancy and

extremism. But other relatively safe areas are also in danger of losing their charm — because of both the

inattentiveness of the state and the attitude of local people and visitors. A case in point is Saiful Maluk Lake in

Naran Valley, a spot of pristine natural beauty. After the number of visitors to the area increased, the Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa government declared it a national park in 2003 in a bid to protect it. Commendably, in 2009, the

provincial wildlife department launched a Rs7.7m conservation project and took measures to curtail activities tha t

were causing soil and water pollution, such as boating and commercial dealings.

All that was very well, until the project was declared complete this June and the staff recruited for the management

and conservation of the park was withdrawn; almost , the destructive activities resumed, so that all the earlier


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efforts have more or less been rendered useless. Reportedly, local people have brought motorboats to the lake to

give visitors rides, encroachments have been set up again, and the area is littered with solid waste of all sorts.

Though the wildlife authorities have registered dozens of complaints of lawbreakers this summer, the police have

done nothing. While the authorities must certainly act to protect the park, a good share of the onus must also be

borne by the residents of the area and the visitors. All need to show a sense of responsibility towards doing their

bit to keep it beautiful. The local people must recognise that destroying the beauty of the lake amounts to killing

the golden goose; and visitors must learn to take their trash away with them. More than the authorities, it is the

people who need to change their attitude.

Law of the jungle

October 25th, 2012

More than a year after the Supreme Court issued its order regarding law and order in Karachi, progress, as the SC

discovered this week, has turned out to be as negligible as most Karachi residents predicted it would be. True, the

nature of some of the city‘s violence may have changed; it hasn‘t seen the same intensity of violence it saw last

summer, with hundreds of people dying in a handful of weeks in politically motivated killings. But each day brings

news of four or five or eight people shot dead in targeted attacks for belonging to one political party or another, a

sectarian group, or simply for being Shia or Ahmadi or of a particular ethnicity. The explosive spikes in death

counts have been replaced by a slower but still unrelenting pace of killings that Karachiites have become

desensitised to and that the rest of the country barely notices.

As the Sindh attorney general admitted himself, more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city this year

already. Add to that street crime: from cellphone snatching and mugging to kidnapping and extortion, Karachi‘s

residents live under the constant threat of having their property snatched and their lives endangered.

Nor can this be excused as being typical of the world‘s largest metropolises. To some extent a city this large, with

so many places to seek cover and so many people and weapons moving in and out of it, will never entirely be

controlled by law enforcement. But Karachi also suffers from its own unique mix of politics and crime, with the

competition for resources backed, or at least overlooked, by those who have political clout — people who, if they

wanted to, could disallow crime in their fiefdoms within the city or permit law enforcement to function freely.

Second, law enforcement here suffers from a dire lack of resources relative to the scale of the problem; with over

half the city‘s police assigned to VIP duty, administrative work or specialised units, about 11,000 policemen remain

for maintaining law and order, a ratio of over 1,600 people per policeman that compares appallingly to other large

cities around the world.

Ultimately that is why the SC‘s instructions issued last year have not been followed: they do not address the roots

of the problem. Solutions like deweaponising the city, depoliticising the police force, eliminating ‗no-go‘ areas and

rezoning police stations may well reduce violence if carried out.

But they simply cannot be implemented without more resources and, crucially, without the requisite political will of

the various groups that hold the levers of power in this city.

Problem of impunity

October 25th, 2012

There is no doubt that for journalists, this is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Journalists are killed

or harassed because of their work or in the line of duty partly because the state has consistently refused to track

down the killers or intimidators. Here, journalists are sandwiched between a rock and a hard place: at one end is a

shadowy establishment that tries to keep certain information cloaked, and at the other, a war with elements that

consider no means too foul to achieve their end. Yet the harassment of journalists, and their killing with impunity is

a global problem. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that some 49 journalists have been killed around


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the world so far this year, while Reporters Without Borders‘ ‗P ress Freedom Barometer‘ points out that over 270

people, including journalists and ‗netizens‘, have been put in prison during these 10 months. In this tug-of-war

between those who seek to expose the truth and those who try to contain it, what is at stake is the citizens‘ right

to know.

It was in defence of this right that the world media community expressed dismay at the ineffectiveness of UN

efforts to ensure the safety of newsmen — the 2006 UNSC Resolution 1738, among other matters, reminded all

parties in situations of armed conflict to respect the professional independence of media personnel. At a

symposium on ‗Media Responses to Matters of Life and Death‘ that took place in London last week, ahead of the

second UN Inter-Agency meeting on ‗the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity‘ that is to be held in Vienna

next month, representatives of 40 media organisations from around the world called upon the UN to persuade

member states to create a safer environment for journalists. The symposium has drafted a set of proposals in this

regard. This needs to be given due attention. Too many governments, among them the Pakistani government, are

guilty of either perpetrating violence against media personnel or standing by as such violence occurs. If the world

is concerned about the freedom of speech, here is where it begins.

Cellphone shutdown

October 25th, 2012

The government is setting an ominous trend by resorting to the shutdown of cellular phone networks on major

holidays or each time there is a threat of terrorist acts. Plans are now afoot to suspend cellular services in parts of

the country over the Eidul Azha holidays as the interior ministry has information of possible terrorist strikes during

the festival. Cellphone services were also blocked on the eve of Eidul Fitr and suspended in Balochistan on

Independence Day. But how effective has this practice proved so far? While it is true that no major act of terrorism

took place during Eidul Fitr when the shutdown was enforced, the measure failed to c urb the widespread violence

that occurred in major cities last month on the day officially dedicated to protesting an anti-Islam film.

Shutting down cellphones amounts to addressing the symptoms, not the disease. There was indeed life before

cellphones; but so deep is their penetration in society that the devices have become essential communication tools

that cut across economic lines. Equally true, shutting down cellular services particularly on occasions like Eid spoils

the festivities. While terrorists do use cellphones to coordinate and carry out attacks, millions of common citizens

also use the devices to check on loved ones during these times. What is more, militants are constantly adapting

their methods and unfortunately often stay ahead of law-enforcers where technology is concerned, so it is

unrealistic to assume blanket bans on cellphone usage during certain periods would hinder their activities too

much. A more intelligent counterterrorism approach is needed. The easy availability of cheap, unverified SIMs

needs to be checked, while the relevant authorities need to ensure that all connections are properly registered.

Inconveniencing the public through methods such as road blockades, pillion-riding bans and cellphone shutdowns

hurts common people more than the terrorists.

Not a remedy

October 26th, 2012

There is much that is wrong with the management of the energy sector in Pakistan. But little of what has gone

wrong and continues to go wrong can be rectified by the superior judiciary. Yesterday, the Supreme Court declared

illegal the pricing mechanism for CNG and has ordered a price revision by Nov 1, a move that is likely to

substantially reduce the price of CNG for use in vehicles across the country. Similarly, prompted by the SC‘s

intervention, the weekly adjustment of petroleum prices has been halted by the federal government until the

Economic Coordination Committee issues fresh directions. Both moves are likely to be hailed by the public — but

for the wrong reasons. Take the case of CNG. The basic problems in the gas sector are: proven gas reserves are

fast dwindling because exploration for new reserves or a satisfactory import policy has not been forthcoming for

many years; the gas that is being produced is utilised inefficiently because it is disproportionately allocated to


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unproductive uses such as to power vehicles rather than to business and industry; and the low price of gas in

Pakistan has meant that companies were reluctant to explore for new gas reserves while the consumer is

unprepared for the substantially higher prices that imported gas would bring.

It is with this in mind that the government announced the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Policy 2012 in

August in which substantially higher rates and other incentives were offered to lure foreign companies to Pakistan

to explore for much-needed gas that many believe is underground. The alternative is to become dependent on

imported gas which would dramatically push up the price of gas. So how does the SC‘s move to get the price of

CNG, available at gas stations across the country, reduced help the basic math and puzzle of Pakistan‘s energy

crisis? It doesn‘t.

To be sure, the politically connected CNG fuel station owners across the country may be earning windfall prof its but

the bigger problem is that they are selling cheap gas that the country desperately needs to be channelled towards

more productive uses. Instead of recognising that the historical policy itself is flawed, the court is tinkering with

prices. CNG station owners will applaud, motorists with CNG kits will be grateful to the court, but the medium- and

long-term logic are inexorable: suppressed prices will not spur investment in the gas sector, meaning the country

will quickly run out of gas and either turn to more expensive fossil fuels or imported gas. At that not-too-distant

point, what will a court order be able to achieve?

‘Do not enter’

October 26th, 2012

In addressing the issue of barricades being placed on public roads, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany was driv en to

adopt an acidic tone on Tuesday in Karachi. And why not, for this has become a detestably common and

inconveniencing tactic. Justice Osmany directed the bulk of his ire towards Bilawal House, the Karachi residence of

President Asif Ali Zardari that has swallowed up three lanes of a much-used artery. Yet, particularly in Islamabad

and Karachi, citizens are impeded in their passage across their city by bollards, barricades, walls and barbed wire

‗protecting‘ the residences and workplaces of politicians, senior government functionaries, diplomats, police, army

officers, etc. Some roads have been off- limits for so long that they have dropped out of the public‘s consciousness

— Islamabad‘s Constitution Avenue or the portion of Aabpara Road serving the ISI headquarters and the CDA

building are examples.

Without doubt, the threat leading the authorities to curtail access is very real. The militants demonstrably seek to

strike wherever they can — any and all venues are kosher, the more high-security the better. Equally true, across

the world the movement of those in high office or those who are potential targets for other reasons is accompanied

by impediments in the movement of ordinary citizens. Crucially, though, such measures are not permanent. In

Pakistan, by contrast, we‘ve turned ‗security needs‘ into a form of high art that involves increasing encroachment

on citizens‘ freedoms — the very citizens who continue to lose so much to the terrorists. Yet why should we blame

those in high office only? Citing similar reasons, in affluent areas across cities, citizens have through mutual

agreement cordoned off entire localities with barricades and have employed private security to ensure that no one

of the ‗wrong sort‘ gets in. While it is true that the law-enforcement apparatus has failed to control crime in the

same way that it has been unable to curb terrorism, the solution does not lie in making it an ‗every man for

himself‘ situation. The solution lies in building pressure on the state and its mechanisms to subs tantially improve

security.


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Spare the rod

October 26th, 2012

While the report in this paper that a Gujranwala man beat his 10-year-old son to death for smoking may be an

extreme exception, the fact remains that corporal punishment is common in Pakistan, especially in educational

institutions. One survey from 2009 says that corporal punishment was used in 89 per cent of Punjab‘s schools. Yet

despite the prevalence of corporal punishment in society comprehensive legislation addressing the problem is still

lacking. The response of the state to tackling this issue indicates that protecting children from violence and abuse

is quite low on the government‘s list of priorities. For example, as noted at a recent workshop in Karachi, a draft

law has been pending with the Sindh government for close to a year. The only province to have passed significant

legislation concerning children‘s welfare is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan authorities

have all issued notifications banning corporal punishment. Yet these efforts have failed to eradicate the cruel

practice, mainly because government notifications are not replacements for proper laws. Another issue is

addressing corporal punishment in madressahs. As many seminaries are not registered, this put s them outside the

purview of government enforcement.

Violence against children cannot be condoned in any form. When youngsters are beaten in school, they not only

become alienated from the educational process, they also develop emotional and psychologica l problems, often

repeating the cycle of violence once they enter adulthood. The provinces need to formulate laws that disallow

corporal punishment at public and private schools, madressahs and children‘s welfare institutions. Section 89 of the

Pakistan Penal Code, which is seen by many as a loophole allowing for the use of corporal punishment for children

under 12, also needs to be re-examined. Passing laws is the first step; the real challenge lies in enforcing them and

convincing people that beating children is not ‗good‘ for them.

Untenable claim

October 27th, 2012

If there is a point on which all Afghans unite, it is on the Durand Line. The British-drawn frontier is more than a

century old and has been accepted by the world community as an internat ional border. But Afghans to this day

have shied away from recognising this reality. On Oct 21, Marc Grossman said in a TV interview that the US

considered the Durand Line an international frontier. A few days later, the Kabul government rejected the views of

America`s special envoy, prompting the State Department to reiterate its position by upholding Mr Grossman`s

declaration. On Thursday, the Foreign Office reaffirmed Islamabad`s position on the issue and said the

international frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan was `a closed and settled issue.

Irrespective of tribal, ethnic, political and ideological differences, the Afghans speak with one voice on the Durand

Line and refuse to abandon a stance that has been rendered obsolete by the march of time . Since 1947,

Afghanistan has seen governments that differed in internal makeup and foreign policy orientations.

The overthrow of the monarchy by Daud Khan, Zahir Shah`s cousin, and the establishment of a republic made no

difference to Kabul rulers` stand on the border with Pakistan, and the four communist rulers who followed them

Nur Mohammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin, Babrak Karmal and Mohammad Najibullah shared the royalty`s view ofthe

border drawn as far back as 1893. Because Kabul`s communist rulers rec eived greater support than before from

the Soviet Union, their stance on the Durand Line and the issue of Pakhtunistan was hawkish. True, their views

were echoed by many Pakhtun nationalists here but the bigger challenge of militancy among Pakhtuns has now

taken precedence. Understandably upsetting for Pakistan, the victorious Mujahideen showed no interest in having

the issue resolved and accepting the line. Even the Taliban, perceived to have been created, funded, armed and

trained by Pakistan, showed litt le gratitude towards their hosts and preferred to follow their royal and communist

predecessors in rejecting the status of the Durand Line. The Durand Line is a fact, and no day passes without Kabul

acknowledging its de facto existence by talking about cross-border incursions. One can understand Kabul s anti-

colonial approach in the 19th and early part of the 20th century. But cataclysmic events have unleashed new

forces, altered the area`s geopolitical picture and rendered old concepts incongruous.

Manned checkpoints on both sides testify to Kabul`s de facto recognition of the line. President Hamid Karzai should


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realise that official recognition of the Durand Line would serve as a confidence-building measure, remove a source

of friction and help in fighting a common enemy.

Back from the dead

October 27th, 2012

It is heartening to learn that where in Pakistan there are elements ready and willing to set out to destroy, there are

others prepared to show resilience in the face of adversity. When out -ofcontrol violence accompanied protests

against a religiously offensive film last month, amongst the victims were several of the country`s already few

cinemas. Three cinemas were burned down in Peshawar, and in Karachi six were ransacked and reduced to ashes,

including the venerable Nishat, Capri, Prince and Bambino. In many cases, owners watched damage worth tens of

millions being inflicted on their properties as enraged young men engaged in arson in some cases, where fire

department authorities initially managed to bring the blaze under control, repeatedly, until they succeeded. A

number of owners told newspapers later that in view of the scale of the damage, the lack of support from the

government and the fact that such incidents could well happen again, they saw few chances of rebuilding.

In this dim scenario, the proprietors of Bambino Cinema are indeed showing steely resolve in restarting operations.

Having spent millions on restoring part of the cinema hall (the damage to the faÃ§ade is so extensive that it will

take more than a year to repair), the doors are to be opened to the public today. Reportedly, Capri also intends to

restart operations.

These businesses ought to be offered support by the government, if not financially then at the very least from the

security angle. It is odd to have to think of a cinema as a `sensitive installation`, but the violence cited above is

not the only one of its kind to have occurred. In 2003, when protesters burnt down Melody, Islamabad was left a

capital city without a single cinema. It is hard to understand why venues that exist solely to divert and delight

attract violence and that too from the very people who benefit, for these are cinemas where ticket prices are

relatively affordable. Regardless, they are deserving of special protection. The cinema culture should be promoted

as too intrinsic a part of the country`s cultural fabric to be lost in this manner.

Eid hygiene

October 27th, 2012

Animal sacrif ice is one of the defining characteristics of Eidul Azha. However, extra care needs to be taken both by

the citizenry and the state to ensure that the sacrifice is a safe and hygienic affair.

Where the removal of offal and animal waste is concerned, the situation has improved considerably from what it

was in the past; over a decade or so ago, waste used to lie unattended on garbage heaps, creating a foul

atmosphere. To their credit, over the last few years civic agencies across Pakistan have made efforts to highlight

hygiene in the run-up to Eid through the media, while during the three days of the festival offal is picked up fairly

quickly.

Public awareness has also increased. Yet loopholes remain. While civic agencies must continue their efforts, it is

essential that citizens carry out the sacrifice in a disciplined manner as well.

Collecting animal waste from every house is im-practical, hence people need to dispose of offal in designated

collection areas and not just leave it on the street. Rotting animal waste in the open is not only an obvious health

hazard, it also attracts the attention of animals and birds. The presence of birds hovering over offal is a matter of

particular concern in neighbourhoods located close to airports, hence civic bodies must be particularly vigilant in

these areas to prevent bird strike. Perhaps ideally it would be best if Pakistanis adapted their lifestyles so that

sacrifices could be carried out in abattoirs, ensuring the religious obligation is fulf illed while maintaining health and

safety standards. Until more such facilities are built and until people change their habits, citizens need to avoid

sacrificing in the open and dumping waste wherever they feel like. After all, while the sacrifice is an integral part of

Eidul Azha, maintaining cleanliness is also a religious duty.


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No lessons learnt

October 30th, 2012

Coming as does on the heels of a factory fire in Karachi‘s Baldia Town that killed at least 258 people, the inferno

that decimated another factory in SITE over the Eidul Azha holidays was a stark reminder of how unprepared t he

authorities remain. While it was a relief that no loss of life was reported, it should be noted — as witnessed earlier

— that fires at such locations can spread at a horrifying pace and prove very difficult to bring under control. The

fire fighters that first reached the scene realised that they would be unable to contain the situation, which rapidly

reached the level of a third-degree inferno — no doubt partly because of the highly flammable contents of the

warehouse. An SOS resulted in fire tenders arriving there from across the city, including PAF fire tenders from the

nearby Masroor Airbase. Even so, it took around 30 hours to contain the blaze, with the fire fighters finally leaving

when it was feared that the building would collapse.

That there was no loss of life was sheer providence and not a result of any safety measures being put in place.

Hundreds of people worked in the building, and had the fire broken out during a working day rather than on Eid

weekend, when it was empty, the possibility of another catastrophic event could not have been ruled out. In the

wake of the September incident, vociferous commitments were made by various administrative quarters to

concentrate on improving safety standards in industrial units and to reinstate the factory inspection process. A little

over a month later, however, the matter seems to have been swept off the radar. While legal proceedings against

that factory‘s owners are under way, the much more crucial issue of rendering workplaces safe and ensuring the

availability of adequate escape routes, fire extinguishers and f ire hydrants etc is not receiving due consideration.

For obvious reasons, the importance of protecting workers, whether at industrial units or elsewhere, cannot be

overemphasised. Wherever peop le find employment, it is the employers‘ duty to ensure that neither life nor limb is

at risk, and the responsibility of the state apparatus to make certain that rules and regulations are followed. Safety

standards in general are lax in Pakistan, and the state does little to intervene.

In order to alter this trajectory, a pressure lobby needs to be built up in society, with the aim of not just prompting

the administration to act but also to raise the workers‘ awareness level. Strong unions could have a much-needed

effect in this regard.

Myanmar violence

October 30th, 2012

Fresh communal violence has erupted in Myanmar‘s Rakhine state, between the majority Buddhist population and

members of the minority Rohingya Muslim community. The scale of the violence is disturbing; Myanmar authorities

say some 90 people have been killed in the latest bout of bloodletting while the UN has said over 26,000 people,

mostly Muslim, have been displaced over the last week or so. Hundreds of homes have also been torched in the

rioting. Satellite images released by Human Rights Watch point to ‗extensive destruction‘ in a Rohingya -dominated

area. Earlier in June, similarly horrif ic violence was witnessed in Rakhine after the rape and killing of a Buddhist

woman, blamed on Rohingya men. The incident sparked savage reprisals and the Myanmar military had to be

called in to restore order.

Sectarian and ethnic strife is unfortunately quite common in Myanmar. The transition from decades of military rule

to a quasi-democracy in 2010 has failed to bring relief to many of the minority groups unhappy with their

treatment in Myanmar. This is particularly true of the Rohingya, who have been described by the UN as amongst

the world‘s most persecuted minorities. Numbering about 800,000 in Myanmar, the Rohingya are a stateless

people as the government does not extend citizenship rights to them; even amongst the general population the

community faces widespread discrimination. And whenever there is communal violence, the Rohingya often have

nowhere to flee; neighbouring Bangladesh, which already hosts thousands of Rohingyas, has turned back refugees


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as it did in June. But perhaps what is most disappointing is the silence of Myanmar‘s pro-democracy icon Aung San

Suu Kyi over the plight of the Rohingya. Ms Suu Kyi, who struggled against the military junta for years, has

maintained an ambiguous stance on the ethnic strife in Rakhine, perhaps due to the impact any defence of the

Rohingya may have on her party‘s electoral fortunes; some of her party‘s leading officials have reportedly made

openly anti-Muslim statements. Considering her stature, Ms Suu Kyi must rise above communal politics and raise a

voice for the Rohingyas so that a permanent solution to Myanmar‘s sectarian strife can be found.

Slaughter season

October 30th, 2012

Of what use are bans when they are not put into effect? Flouting all local and international laws that prohibit the

hunting of the endangered houbara bustard, the authorities have issued at least 30 hunting permits to Arab

dignitaries to further reduce the numbers of Pakistan‘s annual winter visitor. This number is up from the 25 or so

permits granted during the last hunting season. Attempts to soften the blow by issuing a code of conduct and

monitoring a bag limit of 100 birds may not be the answer either, especially when the greed of local officials or

their lack of clout allows them to look the other way when the rules are not adhered to. Given that the hunting

continues unabated, studies claim that the houbara population, which has been driven to extinction in Arab lands,

may not survive beyond another 15 or 20 years. This would be a great pity, and for Pakistan its loss would deal a

further blow to the dwindling number of migratory birds wintering in the country.

A related controversy has been the trapping of young peregrine and saker falcons (migratory species) that are

used to hunt the houbara. A number of local lager falcons are used as bait to capture the former varieties. This

results in the death of a large number of local falcons. For the returning hunters, though, it means the acquisition

of a younger peregrine or saker falcon that they can take back — on the same permit that allowed the older falcons

to enter the country. There can be no excuse for such unethical practices, which, if not checked in time, will only

increase and cause extreme damage to Pakistan‘s biodiversity. It‘s about time our government and wildlife officials

woke up to the larger concerns posed by natural habitats under threat.

Still far behind

October 31st, 2012

With three years left to go to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Pakistan‘s performance doesn‘t exactly

inspire confidence. There has been some criticism of the MDGs, including that they are too basic or that some

indicators are difficult to measure. But for a less developed country like Pakistan, they provide a reasonable

framework for assessing progress in fundamental areas of concern including poverty, gender equality, health and

education. The UNDP claims that ―sufficient progress has only been made on about half of the targeted indicators‖.

But a closer look at the organisation‘s own assessment of Pakistan‘s progress paints an even bleaker picture. There

has been movement in a handful of areas, including the Lady Health Wo rkers programme, women‘s political

participation and treatment of tuberculosis. But the literacy rate, for example, was 54 per cent in 2008-09,

according to the UNDP, versus the goal of 88 per cent in 2015. Only 30 per cent of those living in high-risk areas

are receiving malaria treatment and prevention versus the goal of 75 per cent. Poverty ranges from 17 to 35 per

cent of the population depending on whom you believe, compared to the 13 per cent goal for 2015.

Speak to experts about why Pakistan is not making better progress, and the answer usually depends on what

organisation they come from and development theory they buy into. There is the view that only economic growth

will lead to better socio-economic indicators. Others argue that the government has to provide a social safety net

to improve the lives of citizens and the quality of the workforce. On both counts, the country is failing. Last year‘s

GDP growth of less than four per cent was far below the seven to eight per cent needed to employ the coun try‘s

growing population. As far as the state goes, beyond the reasonably successful Benazir Income Support

Programme, it is entirely unclear what other large-scale projects the government has undertaken.

Real progress towards the MDGs requires a concerted effort on a number of fronts: better preparing the provinces


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to take on the recently devolved health and education sectors, increasing the budget for development, continuing

to include the MDGs in economic planning — the latest Economic Survey and growth framework do not incorporate

them — and involving the private sector and civil society. Even spreading the word would be a good place to start;

shockingly few parliamentarians, citizens, businessmen and members of the media are aware of what the MDGs

are and what is being done to achieve them. Without a genuine campaign on the issue, Pakistan has no hope of

even coming close to the goals for 2015.

The virus within

October 31st, 2012

Three attempts by the banned fundamentalist group Hizbut Tahrir in less than 10 years to launch a coup against

the military and civilian leadership and establish a modern-day caliphate in Pakistan — the details as revealed in a

report in Dawn yesterday are disturbing enough. More worrying is that little is known even today about the true

scale of the fundamentalist threat within the armed forces and what steps have been taken to purge them of

extremist, anti-state elements. There is little doubt that a stealthy campaign by Hizbut Tahrir and other extremist

groups to penetrate the ranks of the armed forces is ongoing. But both the facts and the strategy to combat the

threat, if indeed there is one, have been shielded from the public. In the absence of any public scrutiny of what are

admittedly sensitive security matters, the chances of repeat offenders cropping up and mistakes being made in

tracking down dangerous elements within the armed forces cannot be downplayed. Why, for example, were the

same HuT activists able to establish contacts within the armed forces in two separate instances in 2009 and 2011?

Was there no way to prevent this? And what has become of the HuT activists detained after the arrest of Brig Ali

Khan last year and then released after pressure from the courts over illegal detentions? Does anyone in the

intelligence wings of the armed forces know where the released detainees are and if they are trying to lure fresh

recruits from the armed forces?

From the narrow issue of disabling the particular activists identified and suspected of involvement in plots to

overthrow the state, the broader issue of a missing counter-extremism strategy cannot be separated. Hizbut Tahrir

survives and thrives in Pakistani society and is able to try and recruit from among the armed forces because there

is no attempt to develop a counter-narrative against violent jihad and assorted militancy. Perhaps closer vetting

and surveillance of the armed forces could prevent a devastating plot but if the ideological virus continues to

spread, will the failure of HuT and likeminded groups still be guaranteed?

Judicial backlog

October 31st, 2012

IT appears as if the country‘s superior judiciary is more interested in pursuing high-profile cases, guided by a sense

of ‗judicial activism‘. While this approach may have its merits, there is an equally important need to fill the

vacancies in the provincial high courts and thereby clear the huge backlog of cases pending before the courts. As

reported in this paper, only 24 out of a sanctioned strength of 40 judges are hearing cases in the Sindh High Court.

Around 50,000 cases are pending before the court, some of which have not been decided for over 15 years.

Reportedly, over 200 cases are fixed before an SHC bench per day; it is humanly impossible to plough through all

the cases during the working day. The situation in the other three provincial high courts and Islamabad High Court

is no different; all are operating below strength. The dearth of judges is one of the main reasons for the tens of

thousands of pending cases before the high courts, the bulk of them in Punjab and Sindh. A lack of infrastructure

— not enough chambers and courtrooms — has also been cited as an impediment.

Efforts have been made to fill the vacancies, but the process needs to be streamlined and speeded up. Each

provincial chief justice sends his recommendations to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan, which forwards these to

a parliamentary committee. Of course the vacancies cannot be filled overnight, for selection must be a careful

process as only individuals of sterling credentials should be appointed to these key posts. Yet there needs to be a

sense of urgency so that the delays in the selection and appointment process of high court judges can be reduced.


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Both the Judicial Commission and the government need to make greater efforts to fill the vacancies so that justice

can be delivered to the people in a timely fashion.

EDITORIALS FROM THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER

Apolitical office

November 1st, 2012

The Supreme Court has issued an order, the Lahore High Court has weighed in too and now the presidency appears

to be responding: official political activities at the presidency have been curbed and more informal meetings are

taking their place, according to a report in this newspaper yesterday. The presidency is doing the right thing. T he

constitution may be silent on whether a president can continue to hold an official position within a political party

but the office of the presidency does at the very least seem to be apolitical in its design. Much can be made out of

the unnecessary and excessive needling between the government and the superior judiciary but in the case of

political activities at the presidency, a central fact ought to be kept in mind: whatever the precise legal and

constitutional position, the presidency ought to steer clear of partisan politics, particularly given the unfortunate

use of the presidency over the decades to further narrow political and personal goals.

In structure at least, President Zardari has unquestionably ceded powers to parliament and the prime minister. The

18th Amendment has put in place a system wherein parliament and the prime minister theoretically enjoy

paramount power and over the course of time that theory can become practice as the democratic project continues

to develop. While President Zardari is the unquestionable boss of the PPP and as such any prime minister from his

party will defer to him if deemed necessary, there have been signs — though admittedly not robust signs — that an

internal party dictatorship is not totally skewing the desired structure of the state and political government. For

while former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani eventually sacrificed himself defending his boss against action by

the Supreme Court, the strained relationship between the president and Mr Gilani was also undeniable. The tension

has been attributed to President Zardari‘s unhappiness with some choices and policies of Mr Gilani while he was

prime minister. So it does appear that the presidency is not exercising its veto as blatantly as it could, nor is it

totally running roughshod over the various ministries, though Mr Zardari still has the unfortunate habit of referring

to ‗his‘ ministers when in fact they are technically the prime minister‘s.

Still, much more needs to be done. And perhaps also it is time to start thinking about a hitherto taboo subject:

President Zardari‘s parallel role as co-chairman of the PPP. The co-chairmanship came at a time of wrenching

change in the PPP, but nearly five years on, the democratic project could be strengthened by a further noble

gesture.

Miles to go

November 1st, 2012

At the UN Human Rights Council this week, the foreign minister presented a brighter picture of the human-rights

situation in Pakistan than many would be willing to accept. But quick as we are to critique the country‘s

performance on this front, it‘s only fair to acknowledge the progress that has been made. An elected government is

about to complete a full term. The 18th Amendment and the reformulated NFC award have strengthened

democracy and given increasing rights and resources to the provinces. Pro-women legislation has been passed,

including against sexual harassment, acid throwing and forced marriages. While there is a long way to go to reform

the legislation that governs Fata, the extension of the Political Parties Act to the tribal areas and the weakening of

the Frontier Crimes Regulation were steps in the right direction.

Any analysis of Pakis-tan‘s human-rights record wouldn‘t be a balanced one without factoring in the progress made

in terms of constitutional and legislative reform.


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The problem, of course, is that the proof of any of this lies in implementation, which ranges from successful in a

handful of cases to piecemeal or nonexistent in most. And none of it negates the very real problems many groups

of Pakistanis face, among them attacks on just about every religious minority, including a rash of Shia killings;

enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings; the harshness and misuse of the blasphemy laws; and the

condition of IDPs fleeing militancy and natural disasters. Both state and society have become desensitised to the

value of human life and the rule of law, and it is hardly surprising that calling Pakistan ―pluralistic and progressive‖,

as the foreign minister did, was met with disbelief from her audience. If there is one bright spot, it is that the

Pakistani media continues to report more rights violations today than it ever has before. There was a time when

this kind of news came from foreign sources. Though at the cost of too many journalists losing their lives in the

process, today the country‘s own media is at least able to report on much of the abuse that takes place.

Missing the bus

November 1st, 2012

Lahore's already famous Metro Bus System excites and exacerbates. The Punjab government is possessed by this

pre-poll wonder in the making and the media comes up with one aspect after another related to the initial 27-

kilometre stretch that is being built day and night. The chief minister is always around proudly talking about the

project amid less-than-cautious calculations which say that while officially this is a Rs24bn venture, in actual terms

it may cost the taxpayers up to Rs70bn. Buses, said to be 18 metres in length, are being manufactured; a Turkish

team which is to run it for some time is being awaited, all kinds of construction, even mazaars and bazaars,

standing in the way have been razed and billboards celebrating the development strategically placed. Amid this

excitement there are anonymous officials out to inf lict their scepticism on everyone. Some of them told Dawn that

they couldn‘t quite fix a date for the realisation of Mr Shahbaz Sharif ‘s Turkish dream.

Officials say the minimum time required for the project was two and a half years. The chief minister, they maintain,

wants the work done much faster. No one has specified a deadline — and no one, it seems, has anticipated the

problems. Unforeseen difficulties have held up progress from time to time, yet the fanfare accompanying the work

is sending out the message that the job could be completed overnight. People are getting impatient and they are

talking about how the money lavished on the MBS could have been better spent elsewhere. This view can only be

countered by giving them the opportunity to experience the facility firsthand and then decide on its merits and

flaws. Until then, an honest estimate of how much and how long it will take could have the needed calming effect

on proceedings.

Joint effort

November 2nd, 2012

With Pakistan mere steps from the finish line an election that could mark the country`s first uninterrupted transfer

of power from one democratic government to another the conduct of the polls will be more important than ever. If

carried out reasonably fairly and transparently, they could mark another milestone in the evolution of Pakistani

democracy. Which is where the Election Commission of Pakistan`s code of conduct for political parties, a new draft

of which was issued this week, comes in.

Most of the restrictions whose violation the code claims should be met by legal action and possible disqualification

are reasonable. They are calculated to avoid law and order problems, ensure that voters and electoral staff are not

pressured, and that citizens and local administrations aren`t inconvenienced by campaigning. But historical

experience suggests that many of the rules will be ignored, which is why the ECP must focus on two things.

First, getting buy-in from the political parties. The draft has been circulated to them for their comments a useful

first step. And this ECP has already demonstrated its willingness to compromise; the previously prescribed

campaign expenditure limits of Rs1.5m for a National Assembly seat and Rsim for a provincial assembly seat are

being revisited because of feedback that they were unrealistic. Thisconsultative approach between the Commission

and the parties on formulating the rules should pave the way for the second key step: a good-faith effort by the

ECP to actually enforce them, which is important not just for the outcome of this election but for the authority of


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the ECP over future polls as well. Wall chalkings and larger-than-prescribed posters might not call into question the

fairness of elections, but such violations as pressurising voters and preventing women from voting both sully the

polls and diminish the ECP`s authority if no action is taken against them.

This leads to another task that political parties and the ECP must focus on together getting added to the voter list

the up to 20 million Pakistani adults who remain unregistered. Nadra and the ECP have taken a transformational

step by linking voter registration to CNICs, but without a noticeable public information campaign and reaching out

to citizens in rural and remote areas, many will remain unregistered or will be registered at the wrong addresses.

The ECP did hold a day of awareness last month, but that campaign wasn`t enough and voter lists aren`t

accessible as widely as they should be. Nor can the ECP ensure all adults are registered without the help of political

parties, in whose own interest it is to get more people on the rolls.

Scenes of anarchy

November 2nd, 2012

Cause for serious concern should be read into the rising number of cases of mob violence in Pakistan. There have

been several instances where incensed individuals, often egged on by malicious elements, have united under

perceived common grievances to take the law into their own hands. One such incident, too heartbreaking to be

forgotten, was that of two brothers being beaten to death by an enraged mob near Sialkot in August 2010. Now we

learn that on Wednesday, a large number of protesters gathered in Lahore`s Ravi Road area after rumours of an

act of blasphemy started swirling, and turned violent. Holding off both police and the f ire brigade, they set alight

three buildings of a private school whose staff was implicated in allegations of blasphemy and torched the owner`s

car. Reports suggest that activists of some religious groups were among the mob, no doubt adding fuel to the fire.

Whether or not blasphemy was actually committed is a matter for investigators acting under the mandate of the

law to decide. What is undeniable, however, is that vigi-lante action is simply unwarranted in the context of any

norm of justice or, indeed, of civilisation itself. Regardless of the enormity of the perceived provocation, under no

circumstances can individuals or groups be allowed to take it upon themselves to deliver their version of `justice`.

Such incidents constitute dangerous precedents and only embolden future offenders that nurse anarchic

tendencies.

To avoid sending out the signal that the state and its justice system are either blind to or tolerant of such

behaviour, the administration must act fast and come down with a heavy hand on t he perpetrators.

The ringleaders of the mob need to be identified, investigated and prosecuted, sending out the message in no

uncertain terms that the law will not stand by while citizens` rights are violated by those who have no authority to

act in the matter. In the case of the Sialkot lynching, several men were eventually sentenced to varying degrees by

an antiterrorism court last year. A similar procedure needs to be initiated and expedited in terms of the Ravi Road

arson too.

Learning from Sandy

November 2nd, 2012

Pakistan must learn from America`s Sandy experience, especially how, in spite of the deadly potential of the

superstorm, human suffering was reduced to a minimum. Weather warnings helped. But what mattered greatly

was how the people and the emergency services reacted to minimise the storm`s ravages. The administration and

relief agencies seem also to have learnt from Katrina and acted with speed and planning. As TV images showed,

conurbations along the long coastline were pounded by walls of killer waves, and houses were simply smashed and

washed away. But because the evacuation of the coastal communities was done well in time and the people


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cooperated with the relief agencies there were very few casualties. The people also heeded the authorities`

warnings to keep off the roads there was no panic and no one called 911, unless there was a lifethreatening

situation.

In drawing lessons fromSandy, we have to be mindful of the obvious differences between a developed country and

any Third World nation. The absence of a well-oiled rescue machinery and a late, inadequate response tend to

aggravate the misery.

Also militating against a scientific response to disasters and contributing to chaos are features typical of developing

countries unplanned housing in depressions or close to coasts, lack of discipline among communities with little

education, the absence of unity in cities teeming with migrants and the lack of mutual trust and sympathy between

the victims and help providers.

The trauma of the 2005 earthquake and the havoc wrought by the devastating floods in 2010 and last year are

fresh in the people`s memories. We do not know how the monsoon will behave next summer, but it is time the

National Disaster Management Authority learnt its lessons and prepared itself in advance for any disaster that may

strike Pakistan.

Balochistan crisis

November 3rd, 2012

The shambles that is the Balochistan government has taken yet another turn for the worse this week with Chief

Minister Aslam Raisani under siege from rivals within his party, the speaker of the Balochistan Assembly and the

Supreme Court. Citing an Oct 12 Supreme Court interim order, Speaker Aslam Bhootani has turned to the governor

for constitutional advice on whether Mr Raisani s government is still intact and if a session of the Balochistan

Assembly can be convened as demanded by the chief minister. Meanwhile, the Balochistan chapter of the PPP has

suspended the membership of Mr Raisani on grounds of various allegations of corruption and inc ompetence against

the chief minister. But so far the central command of the PPP has not weighed in on the matter. In the murky

world of Balochistan politics all is rarely as it seems. Both the speaker and the PPP Balochistan leader, Sadiq

Umrani, are believed to be upset with the chief minister for political reasons supporting rivals, manoeuvring a

caretaker set-up in place to favour Mr Raisani, etc and that may have much more to do with the crises that now

confront Mr Raisani. The chief minister is expected to survive his political challenges in the age-old fashion of

Balochistan politics: wheeling and dealing and reassurances given to wary and suspicious allies.Yet, the central

problem remains: the Balochistan government is dysfunctional and Balochistan continues to suffer all manner of

problems. Added to this is the searing scrutiny of the Supreme Court which, while by and large beneficial to putting

Balochistan back on the national agenda, has introduced an unpredictable element in the provincial equation. If

there is any part of the country that desperately needs fresh elections and a new political leadership, it is

Balochistan. But provincial elections are now synchronised with the federal elections and both are very much on the

horizon. So an intervention for rapid elections in Balochistan at this late hour may actually create more problems

than it could solve. Better then to focus on creating a fairer electoral environment.

The caretaker set-up, the participation of all parties in the election and a polling machinery that better represents

the will of the people all are areas that need serious attention. The pressure on Mr Raisani, then, could serve some

useful purpose in perhaps forcing him and his government to make better decisions in the crucial mont hs ahead. It

may seem like a forlorn hope given the appalling record of Chief Minister Raisani & Co, but nothing concentrates

the mind of a politician like a battle for survival.


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Collective failure

November 3rd, 2012

Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh is correct to remind his cabinet colleagues that the failure of this government

to resolve the power crisis is a collective one, that they must all share the burden of accountability. The figures

given by the minister tell us the scale of this failure. Despite pouring Rs1.4tn into the power sector since this

government was elected, the scale of the crisis has only grown. It`s also important to note that the same time

period has seen power tariffs climb by almost 75 per cent, by some estimates.

Where did all this money go? And the power crisis is not the only failing for which the government needs to be

collectively held responsible. The finance minister was compelled to remind his colleagues of their joint

responsibility after they had reacted with displeasure and disbelief to his admittedly rosy take on the state of price

inflation in the country.

It is true that problems like power shortages and price inflation are beyond the scope of any one ministry to

address. In the power sector for instance, a proper execution of the right policies will need tight coordination

among the ministries of petroleum, finance and water and power. It is a mystery why the government has not

appointed a strong and credible minister to head the water and power ministry. The same applies to price inflation.

The finance minister has a large role to play in maintaining fiscal discipline, which is essential for price stability, but

his role must be matched by the rest of the government that must draw up proper spending priorities. If the

cabinet fails to pull together in setting and executing the policy agenda the result will inevitably be failure, in spite

of the best efforts of individuals. And that is the biggest letdown on the part of this government. It has not been

able to come together to draw up and execute a policy agenda that addresses key problems. Instead its approach

has been piecemeal and ad hoc. As a result, its performance has been chaotic. That failure belongs equally to each

member of the cabinet.

Death in custody

November 3rd, 2012

There are conflicting claims regarding the death in an alleged encounter on Tuesday of Azizullah Janwari, the prime

suspect in last month`s armed attack on a PPP meeting in Khairpur. A number of people were killed in that

incident. The suspect was held in a police lock-up near Sukkur after being arrested from Bahawalpur.

The police claim members of the suspect`s community tried to free him from detention, which resulted in a

shootout with the law enforcers. However, Mr Janwari`s clansmen have alleged that the suspect was eliminated in

a staged encounter. Several questions about the `encounter` need to be answered, namely how come the injured

attackers managed to flee and no police officers were injured in the `shootout.` Also, serious allegations reported

in a section of the media that a ruling party lawmaker wanted the suspect killed in an encounter need to be

addressed by the government. Considering that elections are close, it is essential that this case is investigated to

unearth exactly who attacked the PPP meeting and why, as well as the circumstances behind the suspect`s death

in custody.

Custodial and extrajudicial deaths are unfortunately quite common in Pakistan. One of the main reasons for this is

that the legal system has failed to deliver. Since the courts take too long to try suspects or free them on ball,

eliminating `troublesome` suspects through encounters is seen as an easy solution by the law-enforcers. This is

totally unacceptable. As stated countless times, the system of investigation and prosecution needs to be

overhauled while the culture of tolerating or even encouraging, as it has been alleged extralegal killings by the

police must be done away with. It is for the courts to decide who is guilty and who should be punished. Condoning

extrajudicial and custodial killings will further speed up our descent into lawlessness.


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Time to pay up

November 4th, 2012

Now it`s the turn of cricketers to be named and shamed for tax evasion or failing to pay their full income tax dues.

The Federal Board of Revenue`s income tax division has issued notices to over 20 cricketers for tax dues owed to

the state and a sum of at least Rs100m is expected to be recovered.

As a percentage of the overall tax revenue projected at nearly Rs2.4tr in the current financial year the sums are

insignificant, but as a means to alert tax dodgers that the taxman means business, the measure is a public

relations coup. The idea stems from the creation last year of an income tax investigation department within the

FBR that has been busy accumulating data on wealthy Pakistanis who pay little or no tax.

Data drawn from Nadra last month helped assemble a list of 2.3 million Pakistanis who have multiple bank

accounts, travel abroad frequently and live a wealthy lifestyle but do not figure in the direct tax net at all.

Previously it had become known that of the abysmally low three million people with a national tax number, less

than half file their tax returns. That the system is broken is universally known. That it has forced a highly unjust,

unfair and regressive tax system on the public at large is less well understood. State expendi-tures have to be paid

for regardless of whether or not the rich pay their mandated share of income tax.

And because the rich don`t pay income tax the less well-off have to carry a disproportionate burden of the tax

burden through indirect taxes like the sales tax, customs duties and other levies. Roughly, for every Rs3 raised as

direct taxes, Rs7 are raised through indirect taxes. If that were not bad enough, the overall tax collection is

disastrously low, forcing the government to borrow heavily from the local market, which creates inf lationary

pressures at the same time as it crowds out private investment. So it isn`t just a double whammy for the less well-

off higher taxes and inflation but a triple whammy: the squeeze in credit for the private sector slows down growth

and the creation of much-needed jobs.

The picture is even bleaker when the power crisis and circular debt are factored in: the rich still get subsidised

electricity because of the tariff structure and even then don`t always pay for it, driving up government expenditure

which is largely paid for through more borrowing and the indirect taxes. So if naming and shaming the wealthy

produces results, the FBR should go after the real untouchables including politicians and the media.

A province on edge

November 4th, 2012

While acts of violence continue to plague Balochistan, officialdom seems bent on denying the fact that a major

problem exists. At least 18 people were killed in the ensuing blaze when gunmen attacked abusatafuelstation

outside Khuzdar on Friday. Initial police reports suggest personal enmity triggered the attack, with the fuel pump

as the target. Aside from the latest tragedy Khuzdar has been on edge for the past several weeks; last month two

sons of a local journalist were shot at one of them died while a journalist was gunned down in September.

Balochistan overall suffers from rampant lawlessness, with murders, kidnappings and enforced disappearances

being common.

What is ironic is that the bus attack in Khuzdar occurred on the same day the government was defending its record

on Balochistan during a Supreme Court hearing on law and order in the province. An interior ministry report cited

at Friday`s hearing suggested that the violence in Balochistan was a `limited local issue` concerning some `so-

called nationalists` and that the provincial government had not failed. These observations, echoed by the interi-or

minister in the apex court, would be laughable had the matter not been so serious.

The violence in Balochistan is complex and involves many actors.

There have been sectarian and ethnic attacks, lawenforcement personnel have been targeted while extrajudicial

killings of Baloch political activists have been reported in the province. The security apparatus (said to target


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Baloch political workers and separatists), sectarian groups (who have claimed attacks targeting mostly Hazara

Shias) and nationalist militants (believed to target non-Baloch citizens, security personnel and pro-government

individuals) all appear to be involved. In such circumstances, claiming that law and order in Balochistan has not

collapsed is selfdelusional. As a first step, the federal and provincial governments need to stop pretending that all

is well in the province and face the facts. While the state is responsible for maintaining order, Baloch nationalists

also need to clearly condemn ethnic and sectarian violence. Balochistan`s problems must be handled on several

fronts, foremost of which are addressing the grievances of the people and establishing the rule of law.

Losing the plot

November 4th, 2012

The problem is not that Pakistan gets it wrong; it is that the country goes astray even when headed in the right

direction. Proper planning, realistic projections of the future, oversight these factors are generally missing from any

given endeavour. Consider, for example, two reports published yesterday. The debate on large dams aside, t here

has been general agreement for years that sma ll dams can prove very useful.

Accordingly, over the first decade of the new millennium, 20 small dams were constructed at the cost of some

Rs2.62bn in the Potohar area to provide water to 30,000 acres of farmland. But, according to a recently released

Punjab Irrigation and Power Department report, in actual fact they are irrigating a mere 7.45 per cent of the target

area. One of them, Sawal Dam in Jhelum Division, is irrigating just three acres against a 930-acre target. Why?

Because of insufficient geological investigations, f laws in design and execution, mismanage-ment in supervision

and substandard construction materials.

On the other side, it has been recognised for some years that school curricula use pedagogical methodology that

promotes rote learning and fails to interest or challenge the students. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, to its

credit, made an intervention. A revamped curriculum which, for example, teaches science through experiment, was

introduced two years ago. But since only a fraction of the schoolteachers were actually trained to use it 22,000 of

roughly 87,000 primary and middle school teachers students are still learning by rote. Disparate though irrigation

and education may appear, the problem is the same in both stories: the administration intervened, but didn`t think

it through long enough. The result? Wastage of time, effort and funds, to the benefit of none. Until Pakistan learns

to stop losing the plot halfway, its `progress` will be characterised by halfbaked initiatives.

Judicial limitations

November 5th, 2012

The Supreme Court goes to Quetta, it goes to Karachi, it summons officials to the court headquarters in Islamabad,

all the time trying to get the other institutions of the state to do more to stabilise trouble spots and protect the

public. Controversial as the attempts may be in some quarters, the court`s moves have definitely helped put on

the national agenda issues that otherwise languished at the margins: for instance, a slow-burn insurgency in

Balochistan and the state`s brutal response, and unending violence in parts of Karachi even as the main political

players in the city are in government together. But the longer the court`s intervention continues, the more t he

limitations of the judiciary are becoming apparent. True, the judiciary was never really designed for interventions

on the security front but the main problem appears to lie elsewhere: a numbing reluctance by the state the political

government, the security establishment and the security apparatus to do its job, that is, effectively counter

security threats and to keep the public as safe and secure as reasonably possible.

There is no easy comparison between events in Karachi and Balochistan, as indeed there is no direct comparison

with the threat posed by militancy in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Counterterrorism measures are different from

a counterinsurgency, and an IslamistTHE Supreme Court goes to Quetta, it goes to Karachi, it summons officials to

the court headquarters in Islamabad, all the time trying to get the other institutions of the state to do more to

stabilise trouble spots and protect the public. Controversial as the attempts may be in some quarters, the court`s

moves have definitely helped put on the national agenda issues that otherwise languished at the margins: for

instance, a slow-burn insurgency in Balochistan and the state`s brutal response, and unending violence in parts of


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Karachi even as the main political players in the city are in government together. But the longer the court`s

intervention continues, the more the limitations of the judiciary are becoming apparent. True, the judiciary was

never really designed for interventions on the security front but the main problem appears to lie elsewhere: a

numbing reluctance by the state the political government, the security establishment and the security apparatus to

do its job, that is, effectively counter security threats and to keep the public as safe and secure as reasonably

possible.

There is no easy comparison between events in Karachi and Balochistan, as indeed there is no direct comparison

with the threat posed by militancy in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Counterterrorism measures are different from

a counterinsurgency, and an Islamistinsurgency in the northwest of the country has very different drivers to a

separatist insurgency in the southwest. But as months have become years and the years threaten to become a

decade, policy drift continues to bedevil Pakistan`s attempts to find internal stability. Perhaps most worrying is the

ad hoc approach to the disparate problems. When violence flares in one place, urgent meetings are held between

political principals to tamp down the problem. When the killings and attacks on various targets go up in another

part of the country, suspects are temporarily rounded up and then after a short while the same cycle of violence

and counter-violence begins again. Missing throughout is a coherent, long-term policy.

In Balochistan, without a political leadership that is tenacious about reconciliation between the warring separatists

and the security establishment, swathes of the province will effectively remain cut off from the rest of Pakistan. In

many parts of urban Pakistan, the coordination between the various arms of the security apparatus is still very

unsatisfactory, the judicial framework is still too inadequate to deal with terrorism and militancy and a meaningful

counter-extremism strategy has yet to be discussed. So, perhaps a rethink in strategy isneeded by the superior

judiciary and the various arms of the state it is trying to cajole into behaving more responsibly.

Need for caution

November 5th, 2012

It has been indicated by officials that 7,000 Taliban operatives may have infiltrated Karachi. Media reports have

since alleged that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan have taken over several of the city`s large localities. It has long

been known that the Taliban have some presence in Karachi, but the kind of claims that are now being made could

prove dangerous for a couple of reasons. For one, Karachi is a tinderbox, and ethnic rivalry is one of the main

forces that can set it alight at a moment`s notice. Seven thousand is a significant number, a frightening sound bite

that will easily be repeated, but it is unclear where it came from. Add to that the assertion that the TTP is in control

of several of the city`s Pakhtun neighbourhoods, and such arguments, if not made carefully, can easily spark

violent clashes in the port city. Of course the TTP`s Friday statement, in which the outfit set up a direct

confrontation with the MQM, did not help matters. But it is essential to avoid tarring an entire ethnic or linguistic

group with the same brush. Criminal ele-ments exist in all communities in this metropolis, and conflating them with

specific communities, or overstating the extent of Taliban influence in Karachi, can quickly lead to bloody ethnic

conflict. Secondly, the hype about a Taliban presence can become a convenient way for law enforcement to claim

that outsiders who have infiltrated Karachi are making it harder to control crime and violence.

The SC has now asked the provincial government to act against the Taliban threat in the city, but where was law

enforcement when thousands of Taliban activists were supposedly entering it? Nor is Karachi s violence entirely a

product of outsiders; as a senior bureaucrat in the provincial home ministry said on Friday, all political parties need

to rein in their militant wings if law and order is to be restored. The Taliban threat needs to be taken seriously, and

law enforcement should act against it with as much discretion as possible. But it should not be used to distract

attention from Karachi`s underlying political problems, or to spark an ethnic war.


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Stock market puzzle

November 5th, 2012

The spectacular rise of the stock market is bringing back memories of 2007, when the market showed dramatic

rises as political uncertainty mounted. To what extent is the continuous upward spiral of the market being driven

by corporate earnings and dividend payouts, and to what extent is it speculative buying in the context of a

declining interest rate environment? Ever since the State Bank started cutting interest rates, the only measure of

economic activity that has risen is the stock market, with values and volumes both registering steep increases.

Corporate earnings in the listed companies are encouraging, but investment is still nearly zero, and private -sector

credit off-take from the banking system is similarly low. Given this context the refusal on the part of the corporate

sector to invest it is surprising that the earnings alone could be generating such enthusiasm on the trade floor.

It`s noteworthy that theSecurities and Exchange Commission has initiated a high-profile probe into the stock

market crash of 2008 at precisely this time, when the market is touching record highs all over again.

It`s important to understand why the stock market tends to register such sharp increases in times when all other

indicators of economic activity show a moribund economy and deteriorating investor confidence. In the present

case, for instance, it`s interesting to note that different categories of stocks have played their role in driving up the

index at different points in time. Not too long ago, we were told that penny stocks is where the rally is, with large

purchases being made by a single bank. Today, the activity has moved to cement and other blue chips. The shifting

winds of trader interest belie most economic analyses given by the market players themselves. The hype

surrounding these spikes needs to be carefully scrutinised. Let the buyer beware.

Few answers

November 6th, 2012

State institutions and the relations between them are back in the news but it‘s difficult to interpret what it all

means at the moment. President Zardari, Gen Kayani and Chief Justice Chaudhry have all spoken publicly in the

space of a day about what is best for Pakistan going forward and the first question is whether they have all said the

same thing, i.e. that the constitutional order needs to be protected and strengthened, or if they have hinted at

some underlying conflict that could boil over in the weeks and months ahead. When President Zardari spoke on

Sunday of ―the dying kicks of the old order‖ and of some threats still existing against parliament, was he painting a

picture of slow but meaningful progress in the democratic order or was he obliquely warning of new dangers?

Should the emphasis in Gen Kayani‘s statement be on his reference to moving forward with ―consensus‖ or on his

warning that ―conspiracy theories‖ and ―rumours‖ were trying to drive an ―unacceptable‖ wedge between the public

and the armed forces and between the leadership of the armed forces and the rank and file?

And was Chief Just ice Chaudhry‘s statement that it is the responsibility of the Supreme Court to ensure the

―supremacy of the constitution in connection with the actions of state institutions and authorities‖ a routine

reiteration of a line that the judiciary has consistent ly taken under Chief Justice Chaudhry or a pregnant comment

aimed at other institutions?

If the questions are many and the answers few at the moment, it is because of the unfortunate history and nature

of institutional power in Pakistan. What is clear is that the old order is crumbling at the edges. New power centres

— the judiciary, the media, an increasingly informed and vocal public, and even the political class — are jostling for

space and trying to exert their newfound influence. So far, while forward movement in the democratic project has

been halting it is also very real — the various power centres have avoided a truly destabilising clash that could take

the country back to square one. Perhaps, then, it is a sign of progress that sniping between institutions through

public speeches and press releases is as far as things go before common sense prevails and all sides back down

temporarily.

Perhaps also this is the way forward: a messy system in which no institution enjoys predominance and all fight for

space. But the ghosts of the past have not truly been exorcised either. Which is why the alarm bells start ringing

when elliptical warnings, and threats, are brandished. The days ahead will reveal more.


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American cliffhanger

November 6th, 2012

Americans go to the polls today in a cliffhanger that analysts predict might end up in a tie, leaving the choice to

Congress. Sandy did help the incumbent, as did two Republican heavyweights — New York Mayor Michael

Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. But Mitt Romney can still spring a surprise, so forceful has

been his indictment of the Democratic administration‘s economic performance. Indices over the last few weeks

have favoured the president, but they cannot serve to veil the Obama administration‘s lacklustre economic record

since 2008. Mr Romney remains an unapologetic defender of corporate sharks, but asserts that his policies will help

revive the economy, create jobs and restrict the state‘s interventionist role. President Barack Obama has

hammered home his foreign policy achievements — the end of the Iraq war, the drawdown from Afghanistan by

2014, and the crippling blows dealt to Al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden‘s killing. But the campaign has largely

revolved around domestic issues, and that ‘s where Mr Obama is vulnerable. Most analysts agree it is the swing

states that will clinch the election.

The real issue will be the victor‘s post-election discomfiture, for neither Mr Obama nor Mr Romney will find it easy

to push forward his agenda through a divided Congress. If Mr Obama gets a second term, he will have to face a

lower house that is under Republican control, while a victorious Romney will have to deal with a Senate that has a

Democratic majority, even if wafer-thin. The mid-term polls could further create problems for the winner and

obstruct legislation on such key issues as a quick economic recovery, healthcare, combating climate change, and in

Mr Romney‘s case an extra $100bn for the Pentagon. For the world at large, there will be little change:

notwithstanding differences in shades, American foreign policy is largely bipartisan. Mr Romney‘s kind words for

Pakistan contradicted his support for drone attacks, and Mr Obama‘s June 4, 2009 speech in Cairo turned out to be

nothing more than a PR exercise for he has failed to bridge the divide between America and the Muslim world.

Patients’ misery

November 6th, 2012

Doctors in Balochistan‘s public hospitals have been on strike for nearly three weeks now due to the abduction of Dr

Saeed Khan, an eye specialist, in early October. Only emergency services are available while operation theatres

and OPDs have remained closed. Doctors have complained that the provincial government has done nothing to

recover the kidnapped medic, while security for medics in Balochistan is very poor. Perhaps Dr Khan‘s abduction

was a trigger. While the security situation in Balochistan is highly unsatisfactory overall, it has been particularly so

for doctors of late; over the past few months several medics have either been murdered or kidnapped for ransom

in the restive province. In fact media reports say that in some cases doctors have identified the kidnappers, ye t the

state has failed to act.

From the facts on the ground nobody appears to be safe in Balochistan. Yet when doctors are targeted and hence

unable to perform their duties in a secure environment, the miseries of the common man in Balochistan are

compounded. Many patients do not have the means to afford private medical care, the only available option when

public health institutions shut down. The doctors appear to have a very genuine reason to protest. The provincial

government needs to make concrete efforts to recover the kidnapped doctor, while security for medical

practitioners needs to be beefed up, especially in public institutions. Doctors commuting to and from work must

also be provided extra security. However, as legitimate as their demands are, the doctors should consider other

methods of protest. Going on strike for weeks on end hurts the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.

The medics have every right to pursue their legitimate demands. But this should be done in such a manner that

while their message is clearly communicated to the state, people are not denied medical care.


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Army’s concerns

November 7th, 2012

As the country digests the army chief‘s latest foray into, strictly speaking, non-military matters, it appears that Gen

Kayani‘s comments on Monday were directed at his prin-cipal constituency: the armed forces itself. The discomfort

within the rank and file and the leadership too in recent weeks is not very difficult to fathom. Mehrangate, the NLC

scam, inquiries into a luxury resort in Lahore, and myriad other questions about the army‘s political role and

management of security affairs have all combined to probably create a sense of siege. For an institution as proud

and domestically predominant as the army has been over the decades, it may well be bewildering to be subjected

to the kind of scrutiny and commentary that non-uniformed leaders have long been used to. So Gen Kayani‘s

words — targeted as they appear to have been against the judiciary and sections of the media, and not really the

civilian political leadership — were probably intended to allay concerns within the armed forces that somewhat

legitimate criticism of narrow problems, from the army‘s perspective, were growing into wanton and gratuitous

criticism of the entire institution.

Questionable as the army‘s concerns may be — those never subjected to intense scrutiny will always resist a

changing order — it is perhaps a sign of the times, and a good one at that, that the army chief chose tough words

instead of strong action. In eras past, a discreet phone call or a public swipe would have been enough to tamp

down criticism and make unwanted investigations disappear. So perhaps in time, even the dubious use of the ISPR

to put out such controversial statements will be a practice curbed.

For the long road to civilian control of the state to be travelled, however, one of the key elements is the question of

who determines the ‗national interest‘. Gen Kayani was correct in saying that ―no individual or institution has the

monopoly to decide what is right or wrong in defining the national interest‖ and that it should emerge throug h a

―consensus‖. But in truth, it must go much further than that in a truly democratic polity. While other institutions do

have some role to play, the central pivot has to be the civilian leadership that represents the will of the people

through parliament. It cannot and must not be forgotten that the internal and external instability the country faces

today is largely rooted in policies pursued by the army itself in the name of the national interest. But if a few court

cases and investigations so unsettle the armed forces, can they really be willing to cede control of the ‗national

interest‘?

Development projects

November 7th, 2012

Any way you look at it, Balochistan is in dire straits. On the political front, the air is murky especially following a

Supreme Court interim order last month which led to the current predicament of Chief Minister Aslam Raisani and

the crisis over the convening of the Balochistan provincial assembly. (An assembly session has now been called for

Nov 13.) On the law and order front, matters are even worse. Many commitments and expressions of good intent

later, there has been no improvement in the security situation. The missing have yet to be traced; minorities

continue to be targeted; and the average citizen remains under threat from several quarters. It could have been

hoped that matters were better where development is concerned — this would have gone a long way towards

putting balm on old wounds. But that, it seems, is far from being the case. The blame for this rests squarely on the

shoulders of the provincial administration.

On Monday, several Balochistan senators and Planning Commission officials told a sub-committee of the Senate

that none of the 32 federally funded development projects initiated in Balochistan over the past decade have been

completed. All these projects had been handed over to the provincial administration for completion. Together, they

are worth some Rs60bn. The list reads like a roll of shame: a technical college in Gwadar completed some years

ago by the federal government but now derelict because access roads and facilities were not built, and teachers

never appointed; the Pat Feeder Water Sector Project launched 15 years ago by Wapda and then taken over by the

provincial government, but completion remains around 10 years away — these are just two examples of numerous

others. To be fair, some Baloch senators have accepted the onus of responsibility; however, that is hardly enough.

If the crisis in Balochistan is to be turned around, here is the simpler part of the solution: develop the province,

raising education and employment rates and thus pierce the environment of resentment. If the provincial


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administration cannot do that, it would be dangerously undermining its own position as the people‘s representat ive.

Still no YouTube

November 7th, 2012

Almost two months after the government blocked YouTube, the video-sharing site remains inaccessible to

Pakistanis. Google and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority have failed to reach an agreement over block ing

links to The Innocence of Muslims, despite the fact that such arrangements have been made with other

governments, and as a result the PTA has stuck to its convenient solution of putting in place a wholesale ban on

the website.

In some countries Google is more willing to comply because it has large, localised operations and banning certain

videos in those countries would not block the same videos elsewhere. But if the Internet giant is not going to

budge on the issue, surely the Pakistani government should be trying to find a way to block specific videos, even if

that requires buying more staff or new technology.

The fundamental question is this: after the massive strides Pakistan has made towards freedom of expression, will

it continue to take a step back every time someone irresponsible in some part of the world posts something

offensive on the Internet? Pakistanis now have the ability to generate and consume a profusion of content through

traditional media outlets, social media, and websites and blogs, giving them more space to express themselves

than ever before. That has been one of Pakistan‘s defining achievements over the last decade. And yet in its

populist or moralistic zeal, or simply for security reasons, the government continues to take clumsy , arbitrary

actions that block large chunks of the Internet when banning specific material becomes inconvenient or

challenging. In today‘s globalised world, there will always be something online to take offence at. The PTA needs to

find a way to target its efforts so that it can stop depriving Pakistanis of a fundamental right they are becoming

increasingly accustomed to.

Obama & Pakistan

November 8th, 2012

As a country that has been the focus of world attention for reasons more than one, Pakistan will watch with hope

and concern how the foreign policy of President Barack Obama during his second term will affect it in the years to

come. Will the new Obama administration reassess some controversial aspects of its foreign policy, like the

unceasing drone attacks in the northwest, or will the new mandate serve to reinforce its belief in the righteousness

of its policies and stay the course? Since 2008, the US-Pakistan relationship has gone through unprecedented

turmoil. Three events last year aggravated tensions between the two — the Raymond Davis affair, the American

commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden and the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers at Salala in a US-led Nato

attack. In anger, Pakistan boycotted the Bonn conference and suspended the Nato supply line, insisting on an

apology. The damage-control exercise took nearly a year to succeed; but it still remains to be seen to what extent

the frosty rapprochement can remove the mistrust. The task before the two governments now is to strengthen

bilateral ties and cooperate to achieve common objectives.

The obvious goal is to give peace and stability to Afghanistan during and after the Nato forces‘ withdrawal by the

end of 2014. There are some harsh realities: the Afghan Taliban have not been defeated; the peace talks stand

frozen, or if at all there has been progress, America has kept its cards close to its chest; and the beleaguered

Karzai regime seems to be in no position to maintain security after 2014. It is here — and not because of the 100

nuclear warheads Mitt Romney spoke of — that America needs Pakistan. Given the bonds of history, culture,

economy and geography that unite Pakistan and Afghanistan, the transition to a long-lasting peace west of the

Durand Line would not be possible without engaging Islamabad and addressing its legitimate concerns. More

important, it is in Washington‘s interest to de-velop a long-term relationship with Islamabad instead of ‗returning‘

to Pakistan only when a crisis beckons.

As for its policy towards the Muslim heartland, President Obama should re-read his Cairo speech and judge whether

America under him has achieved any of its goals. Iran continues to be under harsh American sanctions, and Israel


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builds settlements in utter disregard of President Obama‘s warnings, toothless as they have been. His commitment

to the two-state solution has become academic, because Israel has blocked the peace process, and Washington is

at the Likud government‘s beck and call to deny state status to Palestine at the UN.

Drug regulation challenge

November 8th, 2012

The passage of the 18th Amendment to the constitution has thrown up a number of challenges on different fronts,

some of which have proved trickier to resolve than was anticipated. Amongst these is devolution to the provinces

of functions of the erstwhile federal health ministry. In recent months, this sector has been in the news frequently.

Particularly in the wake of several deaths in Lahore due to the consumption of low-quality or fake drugs, and the

scandal that surfaced regarding the manipulation of quotas of medicinal ingredients, the sphere has been the focus

of public attention. Much of the confusion has been cleared up as a result of the law establishing the Drug

Regulatory Authority of Pakistan. Under this, the functions of the health ministry have been taken over by this

agency. Yet cracks remain, as was highlighted by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday in

Islamabad.

Having taken up the matter of the availability of spurious drugs on the market, the SC bench ordered the four

provincial governments to apprise it of steps they have taken to not just control the flow of fake or substandard

drugs into the market, but also address the rising prices of medicines. The latter, it seems, does not fall under the

purview of DRAP; according to a report submitted before the bench by the additional advocate general, Punjab,

Jawwad Hassan, drug prices are fixed by the federal government under Section 12 of the Drugs Act 1976, through

notification in the official gazette, and the provinces have no role in the matter. This is as it should be, since drug-

pricing needs to be standardised across the country and availability must be uniform. Yet having regulations in

place on paper is one matter; ensuring that they are adhered to is another altogether. In actual fact, the state‘s

role in keeping a check on the quality and sale of drugs is piecemeal to say the least. This gap must be plugged on

an urgent footing. The cost to public health is too great to allow anything to fall t hrough the cracks.

Yet more questions

November 8th, 2012

A US appeals court has upheld the September 2010 verdict that sentenced Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison. The

severity of her sentence raises yet another question in a case already riddled with them: what is Ms Siddiqui really

being held accountable for? Is life imprisonment justif ied for firing at a handful of FBI agents and soldiers, none of

whom were killed or injured? These questions will only add to the air of murkiness that still surrounds the case.

That Ms Siddiqui had links to radical Islamists is not really a matter of dispute. What remain problematic are the

circumstances of her arrest, the nature of her crimes and the conduct of her trial. Where was Ms Siddiqui between

2003 and 2008? Was she in Pakistani or American custody? If so, is the story of her arrest in 2008 real? If she

wanted to carry out a terrorist attack against America, and possessed plans to do so when captured, why was she

only charged with the crime of firing a gun at American officials after her arrest?

The problem with all this uncertainty is that it creates the impression that US authorities are hiding something,

which raises doubts about the fairness of Ms Siddiqui‘s custody and trial. All of which only provides an excuse to

Pakistani firebrands to turn her into a symbol of everything that is wrong with America and a reason for Pakistan

not to cooperate with the US (despite the fact that the Pakistani government has not been particularly forthcoming

about her whereabouts prior to 2008). After four years of unanswered questions and a sentence that seems out of

proportion to the charges that have been framed, the Aafia case will continue to be a lightning rod for anti-

American sentiment in Pakistan.


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The drama ends

November 9th, 2012

The end of the so-called Swiss letter saga has come in the softest possible way. Buried in the avalanche of news

from the US presidential election, the government announced that the letter demanded by the court and finally

agreed to by the government has been dispatched to Switzerland. The good news is that a crisis between the

government and the judiciary that at times threatened to derail the transition to democracy has been defused

ahead of the next election cycle. The bad news is the toll it has taken since December 2009, when the NRO

judgment was handed down. Most notably, gone is the unanimously elected prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, a

sacrifice that seems ever more inexplicable on the part of the PPP given that the letter was eventually written. For

the longest time it appeared that the PPP had settled on a political strategy to fight its legal troubles with the court.

Why that was the strategy has never been fully explained. After all, even veteran PPP leaders with legal and

political experience had argued, mostly privately but sometimes publicly, that writing the letter to Swiss authorities

would have little to no impact on the legal status of Mr Zardari‘s presidency.

The educated guess — though, admittedly, based on multiple presumptions with little real evidence — was that the

PPPs strategy of defiance was linked to political calculations: yielding too quickly on the Swiss letter could have

opened the floodgates to all manner of other legal headaches for the government, while not yielding had the

benefit of bringing into question the court‘s motives and perpetuating the myth that a PPP government always finds

itself under extreme, and unjustifiable, pressure from the establishment. In hindsight, however, there is a sense

that perhaps it was as much incomprehension and incompetence that propelled the PPPs strategy of defiance as

opposed to shrewd political manoevrings. The party leadership under President Zardari has shown an uncanny

ability for political survival but perhaps not so much for the nuances of institutional strengthening. Virtually forcing

the Supreme Court to take a tougher stance, sacrificing a prime minister, and playing to the political gallery with

hard-hitting comments — there were more sophisticated ways of engineering a compromise, even if Mr Zardari‘s

eye was on running down the clock on the statute of limitations in Switzerland.

Nevertheless, a soft end to a dispute that once loomed ominously over the political landscape is something to be

thankful for. Have lessons been learned by both the PPP and the court? The country will only know when the next

confrontation erupts. Perhaps with experience will come maturity.

Young doctors win

November 9th, 2012

The prolonged standoff between the Punjab government and the young doctors could finally be over. The chief

minister is expected to issue a notif ication soon in a formal acceptance of the demands of the Young Doctors‘

Association in Punjab. Hopefully, this time the agreement will be for real. Previously, many truce declarations have

turned out to be false, unleashing the painfully familiar scenes of men and women in white coats leaving treatment

rooms for the streets in defiance of government and court orders. The YDA accused the government of reneging on

its promise of a change in the service structure for doctors in public -sector hospitals. Its distrust of those

negotiating on the government‘s behalf earlier was reflected in Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif eventually replacing

some old negotiators with new ones from the top tier of the PML-N. At an estimated Rs1.5bn, the money required

to introduce the new structure was an issue as was, the doctors claimed, an overtly bossy bureaucracy unwilling to

loosen its control over hospitals. In return, and not unsupported by public sentiment, the young doctors were

painted as a group lacking in professional ethics and the principles of trade unionism. The fact remained that there

were problems with the conditions these doctors had been long working under.

The announcement of the agreement — pending official notification — must come as a relief for doctors and those

they must treat. Under the terms, the Punjab government appears to have committed to facilitating the withdrawal

of a July 2012 murder case filed by the father of a patient against a group of doctors for alleged negligence. While

this case will need some sorting out, there is no reason why this glorious moment for doctors should be allowed to

impede calls for rules that more effectively cover the issue of negligence. A health commission tasked to take up

such cases and other aspects related to healthcare and health practitioners exists only on paper. It should be made

functional immediately as a forum where grievances can be heard without the situation deterioratin g to the level to

which it had during this tussle between the government and YDA.


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Regressive steps

November 9th, 2012

Though the Bahraini state crushed last year‘s popular Arab Spring-inspired uprising for greater civic and political

rights with Saudi help, the movement has failed to fizzle out. Despite state repression, political activists have

continued to rally Bahrainis for change. In order to contain this momentum, the tiny Gulf kingdom has taken a

number of regressive steps of late, including banning protests and most recently, stripping 31 Shia activists of their

citizenship for ―undermining state security‖. Among those affected are former parliamentarians and clerics. While

some of the individuals are abroad and have dual nationality, most will become stateless as a result of the move.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the action, as clearly the men have been

targeted for their political activism. It has been pointed out that no substantial evidence proving the individuals

threatened state security was produced, while the decision is said to violate international law. Interestingly, while

the Bahraini authorities revoke the citizenship of political opponents, the kingdom has been accused of naturalising

foreigners in an attempt to engineer a demographic shift.

Revoking citizenship is apparently not a new tactic in the region. Last year the UAE reportedly cancelled the

citizenship of seven individuals linked to the Islamist Al Islah group due to their political activities. Yet as disturbing

as the Bahraini government‘s actions are, it is doubtful they will stop the movement for greater rights in the

kingdom. Instead of smothering dissent, the Bahraini state needs to heed the people‘s call for reform and work

towards initiating an inclusive political process. As a start, it should reverse this drastic decision. Also, what is

ironic is that while many in the international community have berated Bashar Al Assad‘s regime for unleashing

atrocities on the Syrian people, the human rights abuses and authoritarian tendencies of oil-rich, strategically

important allies in the Gulf are being ignored.

Politicians’ reactions

November 10th, 2012

With refreshing maturity and more than a little cleverness, the ruling party and the PML-N have managed to spin

the army chief and chief justice‘s recent remarks as cooperative steps forward for Pakistani democracy. This was,

for several reasons, the wise thing to do even as some commentators and public figures were ringing hasty alarm

bells about clashes of institutions and threats to the current set -up. For one, Gen Kayani‘s statement seems to

have been designed to boost morale within the army rank and f ile and demonstrate a show of strength in the face

of a media and a judiciary increasingly willing to hold the army to account. Best for the civilians then, including

Nawaz Sharif, to stay out of the fray and focus on the less hard-hitting bits of Gen Kayani‘s speech. And while the

information minister did take the opportunity to reiterate that it is parliament that sets the constitution, his

welcoming of the chief justice‘s remarks was a sensible response. Whether or not it was appropriate for the chief

justice to opine publicly on good governance, little would have been gained from reviving the not-so-distant

antagonism between the government and the Supreme Court, especially given the relative calm that has followed

the much-awaited writing of the letter to Swiss authorities.

More importantly, both politicians emphasised a specific and quite critical point: they focused on the two chiefs‘

remarks about upholding the constitution and law. The constitution as it stands, though, is more supportive of

elected representatives than it has been for several decades, and recent judgments have left little room for doubt

about the unconstitutionality of military interventions. So by focusing on this aspect, both Mr Sharif and Mr Kaira

managed to use Gen Kayani and Justice Chaudhry‘s remarks to strengthen the argument for democracy and for

institutions remaining within their def ined roles.

There was much hype in the hours following the two chiefs‘ statements: who was Gen Kayani sending a message

to? Were his words an indication that the military‘s patience was running out, a veiled threat that things were

about to change? And even if the timing of Justice Chaudhry‘s speech was simply a coincidence, was he once again

trying to assert the superiority of the judiciary over other state institutions? Would Pakistan make it to the next

elections? Reactions from the ruling party and the main opposition not only defused the impact of such overexcited

speculation, but also cleverly offered interpretations that bolster the case for upholding the importance of

parliament and the democracy it represents.


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A welcome step

November 10th, 2012

Life is hard enough for the average Pakistani, but for those unfortunate enough to belong to certain marginalised

communities, the scale of the challenge is much more intense. Where religious minorities face the threat of

violence, for others on the margins the hurdles are often placed by the government itself. It is encouraging, then,

that in the recent past the way has been made smoother for members of two such communities. Last month, the

Supreme Court reiterated during a ruling that transgender people are entitled to all the rights afforded to citizens

by the constitution, and directed the police and provincial administrations to ensure that such people have no

complaints. Last year, following an SC order, the National Database and Registration Authority fixed things at its

end and created a third gender-related category for transgender applicants for the computerised national identity

cards — the requirement for accessing practically everything. Now comes the news that Nadra has taken another

laudable step: on Wednesday, it announced that henceforth it would issue CNICs to people with unknown

parentage.

As matters stood earlier, children of unknown par-entage could not legally obtain B-Forms, which are the basis on

which CNICs are issued after the age of 18. It cannot be ascertained exactly how many people will benefit, but the

figure is bound to run into several thousands. The move is the result of a petition filed in the Supreme Court by

Abdul Sattar Edhi in 2010, and Edhi Home alone says that some 15,000 babies have been left in its cradles — i.e.

abandoned by their parents — over the past two decades. There are several other reasons, too, due to which

children may not be aware of their parents‘ names or not have proof of their parentage. This category includes

runaways and street children amongst others. In the case of transgenders, there are in many cities entire localities

of people who cannot access their most basic rights, including the right to vote or file a police complaint, because

they lack a CNIC or have to resort to fraudulent means to obtain it. Nadra has taken a progressive step, and this

must be appreciated.

Dangerous location

November 10th, 2012

It is a small miracle that Thursday‘s truck bombing which targeted a Rangers‘ compound in Karachi‘s North

Nazimabad area didn‘t cause more havoc. The vehicle was reportedly laden with 150kg of explosives, yet fatalities

were mercifully few. Considering that the compound is located — as in many other cases where the paramilitary

Rangers are stationed in Karachi — in a densely populated residential area, and that the early morning bombing

occurred at a time when vans are on the roads taking children to school, the number of deaths could have been

high. The incident bears a resemblance to 2008‘s bombing of Lahore‘s FIA centre, which is also located in a heavily

populated area. Over the last year, the Rangers have been targeted in Karachi several times. Though the

paramilitary force has been involved in operations against political and religious militants in the city, this attack

appears to be the handiwork of the Taliban. Mullah Fazlullah‘s faction of the TTP has reportedly claimed the

bombing as ―revenge‖ for the security forces‘ actions against the terrorist group.

The Rangers are often called out in Karachi whenever violence spins out of the police‘s control. However, while the

force‘s presence in the metropolis may be necessary due to the police‘s deficiencies, the state needs to think

seriously about relocating the Rangers‘ barracks and offices away from residential and commercial areas. One idea

is to house the force in isolated areas, such as the city‘s outskirts. But then questions about quick deployment in

times of trouble arise. It is true that Karachi‘s growth has been haphazard, thus security installations once located

in isolated zones are now surrounded by urban sprawl. Yet for the security of both the Rangers and civilians, the

force needs to be relocated in such a way that while remaining far from population centres, rapid deployment of

personnel is still possible.


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Fight for life

November 11th, 2012

Even for a country where victims of tragedy and callousness are left to fend for themselves, the manner in which

ASI Sher Mohammad has been forgotten by the organisat ion he served for 25 years is shocking. Of the 55

policemen injured in Islamabad during the mindless violence witnessed on Sept 21 during protests against an anti-

Islam f ilm, he suffered grievous injuries when hit by a stray bullet fired by one of the prot esters. Initially given up

for dead, he was rushed by his colleagues to the nearest hospital an hour later. With the bullet having shattered his

ribs, punctured his lungs and oesophagus and grazed his spinal cord, doctors say that even partial recovery, if it at

all occurs, will take years. While his medical bills have climbed to Rs2.8m, the police department has, as routine,

doled out the sum of Rs200,000 and now appears to have dusted its hands off a man who put his life in the line of

fire.

To whom shall his family — two wives and six children — turn? Does the state and society care that the life of a

man mandated to protect the citizenry hangs in the balance? Ironically, a hospital owned by the business tycoon

Malik Riaz offered to treat the policemen injured that day, but Mr Mohammad is the only one in need of expert

medical care and is in far too fragile a condition to be moved. An intervention, most suitably by the police

department, is urgently required, and ought to be given impetus by the realisation that this is not a matter of just

one man‘s life. As security in the country‘s towns and cities worsens, civilian law-enforcers are the ones at most

immediate risk. Paid a pittance and under-trained to counter the new challenges that policing an increasingly

violent polity involves, they cannot help but be cripplingly demoralised by the knowledge that if injured or killed,

their organisation would be loathe to go beyond the bare minimum to help them or family members that survive

them. The police department needs to learn lessons from the army, which does at least look after its own.

Militarised formula

November 11th, 2012

The words of Hamid Saeed, the retired brigadier who executed the orders of the military high command to rig the

1990 elections while posted with the Military Intelligence in Karachi, are only a footnote in the Mehrangate scandal.

But as laid out in pages 12-14 of the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court released on Thursday, Mr Saeed‘s

words provide an eye-opening account of the framework in which the army-led security establishment judges

domestic politics and the unshakeable certainty that the militarised worldview is what is best for the national

interest.

To begin with, Mr Saeed refers to the fallout between the MQM and PPP be fore the collapse of Benazir Bhutto‘s first

government, and quickly connects the dots between the violence in southern, urban Sindh and Indian designs.

This, for Mr Saeed, was ostensibly proved because the PPP‘s alleged policy of ―revenge‖ against the MQM had led to

statements by the MQM leadership that Mohajirs needed to look to India for the protection of their rights which led

to unnamed Indian leaders vowing to protect ―India‘s ex-citizens‖ against ―state terrorism and genocide‖. Mr Saeed

concludes: ―Such statements reminded one of the Indian interventions in former East Pakistan which finally

resulted in the dismemberment of our country.‖ The sleight of hand is unmistakable: domestic political matters —

in which the army‘s role was already known to be s ignif icant but which Mr Saeed conveniently ignores — were

creating the space for Enemy No 1 to hurt Pakistan. Then the retired brigadier continues with a litany of charges

against the PPP and Ms Bhutto: the alleged criticism that Pakistan‘s uranium-enrichment programme, under the

military‘s control, had crossed a threshold that was ―not acceptable to big powers‖; alleged endorsement of the

Indian state‘s attempt to crush the Khalistan movement, the continuation of which presumably suited the military

here; the induction of Al Zulfikar activists into public -sector enterprises here, activists who had been trained by

India in espionage and warfare; and having the temerity to allegedly criticise the army for ordering training

exercises in Sindh without the prime minister‘s approval.

Publicly, then, the army- led security establishment accused Ms Bhutto‘s government of corruption and bad

governance, when in private the real reasons for seeking her ouster was because she was seen as a threat to the

India-centric security paradigm that viewed domestic politics as merely yet another weakness for India to exploit.


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When the military both defines the threat and determines the response, the national interest becomes a cudgel

against anyone who disagrees with its militarised formulation. That was the problem in 1990, and it still is the

problem today.

The apology issue

November 11th, 2012

It is a welcome sign that, despite the deep grudge many in Bangladesh still bear against the West Pakistani military

action of 1971, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reportedly accepted Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar‘s

invitation to attend the D-8 summit in Islamabad this month. Dhaka would like a proper apology from the Pakistani

government for the large-scale killing of Bengalis. It was not satisfied with then president Gen (retd) Musharraf ‘s

expression of ―regret‖ in 2002. According to the Bangladesh foreign secretary, ―some unresolved issues‖ still exist

although, he says, Ms Khar stated that Pakistan had ―regretted in different forms and … it was time to move on‖.

The debate by academicians and propagandists on both sides will continue; they will fight over the actual number

— in thousands for some, millions for others — of Bengalis killed while resisting the injustices perpetrated on them

by an insensitive western wing. What cannot be denied is that brute military force was used to exterminate

activists, intellectuals and ordinary supporters of what was united Pakistan‘s largest political party, and that

consequently led to Indian action and the creation of Bangladesh.

On its part Pakistan must recognise the wrongs committed by its leadership during those days, and issue a full-

fledged apology — not just expressions of regret — that is acceptable to Dhaka. In doing so, it would be joining the

ranks of other countries and institutions that have been courageous enough to admit the historical wrongs they

have committed in order to give both themselves and the victim nation a chance to move on. The Vatican has

apologised for the actions of Catholics who persecuted non-Catholics, and expressed sorrow over the attack on

Constantinople during the Crusades. Japan has apologised to Koreans for wartime aggression. It is time for

Pakistan, too, to come to terms with its past.

Muharram security

November 12th, 2012

Many parts of the country remain on edge as Muharram approaches. In Karachi, several people — both Shia and

Sunni activists — have been murdered in the past week in a renewed wave of sectarian killings. Victims have

included an adviser to the Imamia Students Organisation and a Shia scholar as well as activists of Ahle Sunnat Wal

Jamaat and students of a Deobandi madressah. Quetta has seen its share of targeted killings, particularly of

beleaguered Hazara Shias. The situation in Gilg it-Baltistan, which experienced an outburst of sectarian violence

earlier in the year, is also tense. There are intelligence reports of threats in Khairpur, Sindh too.

While the law and order situation in many parts of Pakistan is already precarious, the administration faces

additional challenges during Muharram. Large numbers of people are on the streets on their way to and from

mosques and imambargahs, while countless majalis are organised and processions taken out across the country.

Securing the venues in such a charged atmosphere, with the threat of terrorist violence ever present, is indeed

challenging. The authorities have begun to go through the usual motions. For example, pillion-riding has been

banned in certain cities while meetings have been organised with ulema to ensure harmony. Scholars from all sides

must ensure harmony while the Shia community needs to cooperate with law-enforcers, and vice versa, for a safe

Muharram. Enhanced security, greater deployment and effective intelligence-gathering and sharing are all required.

Where need be the army should be deployed; it has already been tasked with maintaining peace in Hangu during

Muharram and is reportedly on the standby in Quetta.

Police officials point out that it is essential for military and civilian intelligence agencies to share advance

intelligence in a timely manner so that action can be taken. Coordination becomes all the more important when a

number of agencies are involved in gathering different types of intelligence. Also, the intel ligence passed on to the

police and Rangers needs to be ‗actionable‘ and specific — vague information helps little to avert attacks. Increased

surveillance of suspected militants on the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act is also necessary. Reports in


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the media that security agencies in Punjab have lost track of 50 terrorism suspects are not encouraging. And in

case anything untoward does occur, security forces, specifically the police, should be properly trained in disaster

management and crowd-control techniques, especially in non-lethal methods of managing crowds. With

cooperation from all stakeholders — the general population, the Shia community, the security establishment and

the state — the terrorists‘ plans can be foiled and the period of mourning observed peacefully.

Cops as bill collectors

November 12th, 2012

With unpaid electricity dues well in excess of Rs300bn, the power crisis in the country needs to be urgently

addressed. To this end, the Council of Common Interests has approved the use of the police force to aid power

companies in the recovery of electricity dues from defaulters. Provincial police departments are to designate one

DSP with 40 personnel to be placed at the disposal of each distribution company to accompany recovery offic ers in

their quest for the elusive dues. While none can quibble with the objective, the means proposed to achieve it raise

concerns regarding fairness and practicality. For one thing, it appears that this modus operandi will be employed

against defaulters across the board, at the institutional as well as individual level. The biggest defaulters of power

dues are public-sector institutions, not to mention government departments and the armed forces. Until these

recalcitrant offenders are proceeded against, the process cannot be seen as transparent and even-handed.

However, one can safely assume that they don‘t face the prospect of a police contingent beating down their doors

to recover the dues any time soon. Politically well-connected private defaulters can also rest assured that the all-

pervasive culture of patronage will continue to protect them. In areas where kunda (illegal) connections are rife,

power personnel seeking to disconnect these have often been confronted with mob violence from locals and there

is no reason to believe that matters will be any different if police officers accompany them. It may even result in

the situation getting completely out of hand.

Moreover, the potential for abuse in the proposed method is enormous. The prospect of the police, an institution

that does not — to put it politely — have a sterling reputation in terms of integrity, being given the power to barge

into private homes on the pretext of dues recovery is alarming. It would serve the power distribution companies far

better to implement the methods so far employed only in a lackadaisical manner, such as lodging FIRs for power

theft and pursuing them to their logical conclusion, and doing so without fear or favour.

Tough climb ahead

November 12th, 2012

As the world geared up to mark the Global Action Day for Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistan government launched on

Friday a literacy programme to provide free education to children, primarily girls. The four-year Waseela-i-Taleem

initiative, undertaken under the umbrella of the Benazir Income Support Programme, aims to educate three million

poor children, with President Zardari noting during its launch that ―no country can make any progress without

investing in its human capital‖. We hope the state remains committed enough to achieve its goals. There is no

doubt that, as report after report has pointed out, Pakistan faces an education emergency with the young not being

able to attend school due to a wide variety of reasons ranging from convention or poverty to security — as the

injuries suffered by Malala so horrifyingly demonstrated. Not only are there not enough schools in the country,

Pakistan‘s dropout rates are much higher and enrolment figures woefully lower than they should be.

The grim picture of the fate of the next generation, particularly its female members, is drawn in clear lines by the

recently released Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Pakistan is among the bottom 10 countries in terms of

education for females in straitened financial circumstances. It was also amongst the last 10 for the amount of time

girls spend in schools in their lifetimes, with almost two-thirds of the poorest girls never going to school at all.

These figures are cause for serious concern, for coupled with population growth and demographic figures, they

point towards a future where growing numbers of people are not just poor but illiterate as well, thus further

decreasing opportunities for uplift. Only if the government takes strides towards achieving the Waseela-i-Taleem

initiative‘s goal can it be considered to have demonstrated its commitment to this crucial sector.


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A rare opportunity

November 13th, 2012

Even as the ruling party tries to make what political capital it can out of the Asghar Khan case, it will probably not

be able to sweep under the carpet the real question: who will punish the generals? If Nawaz Sharif and other

politicians took bribes to rig polls, who doled out those bribes? And here‘s another complication: at whose direction

was the money handed out? For all the temptation to use the case to make the main opposition look bad before the

general elections, the ruling party knows it will look just as bad if it tries to implement only those parts of the

Supreme Court verdict that suit it best. Because along with so rdid tales of how low Pakistani politicians can go,

there are two other important things at stake as the IJI saga unfolds in all its gory detail: the government‘s

courage in the face of the military, and its willingness to accept that a Pakistani president should not be involved in

politics.

Perhaps that is why the FIA has yet to start investigating who received the money, despite the ruling party‘s

protests about the evil machinations of the PPPs opponents and the PML-N itself now courting a probe. For the

opposition party, this appears to be a reasonable political gamble at the moment: invite accountability, betting that

the ruling party will not have the fortitude to open up a can of worms that will require trying retired but very senior

army generals and will also invite more questions about the PPP co-chairman‘s occupancy of the presidency. Add to

this the assessment that concrete proof about who received bribes will be hard to come by, and the opposition‘s

push for an investigation emerges as a reasonable risk-reward calculation.

But that is consistent with the opposition‘s primary goal at the moment — performing well in the general elections.

For a ruling party that claims to have achieved a milestone for Pakistani democracy, something more last -ing

should be at stake. Through a combination of its own political savvy and because of the leanings of the current

chiefs of the military and the judiciary, the government and the president have managed to bring the country to

the brink of completing a full democratic tenure. But during that time they have hardly been willing or able to

assert their authority as the military‘s commanders. This could be the last real test of the current set-up‘s

commitment to democracy. With just a few months left to go, a civil ian trial of generals Beg and Durrani, rather

than leaving their fate to the military, would add to a lasting legacy.

Pragmatic approach

November 13th, 2012

A potentially disruptive confrontation involving the Election Commission of Pakistan and a number of lawmakers

over the issue of dual nationality has been put off, at least until Nov 30. That is the new deadline the ECP set on

Monday for lawmakers to submit their affidavits declaring that they do not hold dual citizenship. While the original

deadline had expired last week, according to the latest reports around 200 lawmakers, including the prime

minister, had not filed their documents. MNAs, senators and members of the provincial assemblies are all on this

list. The Supreme Court had ruled in September that holding dual nationality for lawmakers is unconstitutional, and

the ECP proceeded to seek affidavits following the apex court‘s verdict. Around 12 legislators have already been

disqualified for holding dual citizenship.

As a matter of principle, since the Supreme Court has ruled on the matter and as the ECP is insisting on it,

lawmakers need to file their affidavits along with the requisite paperwork without delay. Senators especially should

submit their documents as the upper house will remain after the present assemblies complete their tenure. Yet it is

also true that general elections are on the horizon and with only a few months remaining before the assemblies

complete their term, any drastic action taken against a large number of lawmakers at t his point may upset the

apple cart and create another unwanted confrontation between state institutions. Hence, it is imperative that all

stakeholders — the lawmakers, the ECP and the Supreme Court — handle the matter tactfully and pragmatically to

ensure a new crisis does not emerge. The ECP should work on creating an effective procedure through which

candidates are thoroughly scrutinised for the upcoming polls to ensure dual nationals do not contest. Also, if the SC

deems it fit, it can review its earlier order on the issue to facilitate a smoother democratic changeover. And if the

legislators feel the law is unfair, perhaps they should amend the constitution to allow dual citizens to hold public


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office, though this newspaper agrees with the view that dual nationals are, as per the constitution, ineligible for

public office in Pakistan.

Airblue crash

November 13th, 2012

It seems to be a case of ‗who do they think they‘re fooling?‘ The investigation into the causes that led an Airblue

plane to crash two years ago, dragged on for long. After a series of delays, a report on the tragedy prepared by the

Safety Investigation Board was released by the government. It seems to pin the blame on the crew in charge of

the ill-fated plane. But if the families of the victims — 146 passengers and six crew members — thought that they

had finally been allowed closure, they were wrong. After the Peshawar High Court issued an order opening a

reinvestigation into the crash in January, a fact-finding team of the International Civil Aviation Organisation visited

Pakistan in June. No words were minced in pointing out that the report released by the government was not only

inadequate, but that the ―accident investigation authority — SIB as well as the investigation process — is indeed

not independent‖.

The ICAO report noted that the fact-finding team was not provided a copy of the main report and was only allowed

to examine it under supervision. And, there were omissions that even to the layman must seem glaring: no

information, for example, about the crew members‘ f light hours (which would indicate experience), medical history

and duty and rest times, or about maintenance checks carried out on the aircraft. As a result, not just the victims‘

families but anyone who travels by air is left wondering. Was the plane safe to fly or not, and if it wasn‘t, what

guarantee do we have that domestic fleets and their crew comply with international safety standards? This

confusion must end. A credible and comprehensive inquiry into the tragedy needs to be conducted with speed, and

the results made public. Further prevarications will not be acceptable.

Saving the saviours

November 14th, 2012

While the security situation has been derailed across the country over the past decade or so, it is Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa that has borne the brunt of increasing incidents of bombing. Lives are not only lost when terrorists

hit security or civilian targets; even the bomb disposal squad is at risk when it attempts to defuse an unexploded

device. The latter point was underscored by the death of explosives expert Inspector Hukam Khan who was killed

while defusing an IED device in September. The incident highlighted the fact that bomb disposal is a potentially

lethal line of work and each attempt at defusing explosives is haunted by potential tragedy. It is fitting, then, that

yesterday‘s newspapers carried photographs of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police dep-artment initiating the use of

robotic systems operated remotely through a computer interface and capable of defusing explosive devices.

Purchased from the British government, the robotic systems can scan a suspicious object or vehicle and defuse

explosives if present. Equipped with camera sensors and with the capability to dig up explosives, they can be used

for dealing with IEDs, bombs, parcel bombs and vehicles rigged with explosives. Indeed, on Monday such a robot

was used to defuse a device in Peshawar‘s Nasirpur area.

Police departments all across the country, particularly in metropolises where bomb attacks are common, need to be

equipped with such technology. The hard fact is that militants and terrorists are conversant with technology of

various kinds for their grim purposes — from cellular communication tools to the Internet to ever-mutating

methods of blowing things up. Worryingly, however, the country‘s law-enforcement agencies, particularly on the

civilian side, continue to operate with archaic methodologies and insufficient technology. Investing in machines and

systems that can help save lives and avert tragedy is expensive, but the country‘s hostile — and worsening —

climate demands just this.


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New wave of violence

November 14th, 2012

Even as the law and order situation in Karachi gets increasingly out of hand — dozens have been killed since the

start of the weekend — the reaction to the sectarian violence that has flared up has been as inadequate as the

usual response to political violence in the city. When clashes erupt between activists of ethnic or mainstream

political parties, those parties let a certain amount of bloodshed take place before they hammer out a deal and

then issue instructions to their workers or affiliates to retreat. While that process is taking place, law enforcement

appears to be at a complete loss as it sits back, taking only reactive action, and waits for the politicians to sort out

the mess. Meanwhile, the interior minister blames mysterious and unnamed external forces. As sectarian clashes

now dominate the Karachi hea-dlines, a similar pattern of response — or lack thereof — seems to be emerging.

In this case it is the ulema who are issuing empty platitudes in public while in reality being unable or unwilling to

order their followers to stop the bloodbath. Over the weekend the Milli Yakjehti Council met in Islamabad — not in

Karachi, where a meeting of this particular organisation, meant to promote cooperation across sects, would have

sent a strong signal against sectarian violence. And while it discussed everything from the role of religious parties

in Pakistani politics to unity of Muslims across the world to supporting the blasphemy laws, what got lost in all this

talk was the carnage taking place in Karachi, which should have been the focus of the meeting. A couple of days

later, the interior minister made the rather remarkable assertion that there is no sectarian conflict in Karachi and

that the recent clashes are being carried out by ―invisible forces‖. He said this after another meeting of the ulema

— again held in Islamabad.

The upshot of all this is that officials and lead-ers appear to be doing nothing, leaving an ill-equipped, poorly

trained and understaffed law-enforcement structure to react to incidents once they have already taken place.

Putting in place extraordinary Muharram security arrangements is a necessary st ep, but that is only a short-term

fix. What it will not improve is the fundamental inability of law enforcement to tackle a problem that is simply

beyond its scope; even the army is now vulnerable to anti-state groups, and the Rangers have demonstrated that

they cannot fill the void created by an undermanned and easily influenced police force. As long as the ulema and

the government fail to develop a more lasting political solution, there is only so much any of these organisations

can do.

Changes to Army Act

November 14th, 2012

Though the army may not seem to be too enthusiastic about changing its internal justice system, the Supreme

Court has asked the government to consider amendments to the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, to allow for documents

of the field general court martial to be made available to the accused. The apex court said this while hearing two

related petitions concerning the army‘s internal judicial process on Monday. As per the current practice, convicts or

the accused in military courts do not get copies of judgments or depositions immediately, which makes appealing

decisions difficult. The petitioner also claims that taking a statement from an accused under oath in a court martial

and using it against him as evidence clashes with the Qanoon-i-Shahadat, an assertion some legal experts agree

with as, according to them, the investigators need to establish independently whether the charge is correct. The

court adjourned the hearing of the petitions for three weeks on Tuesday due to the Ministry of Defence‘s plea for

more time.

Constitutionally, every citizen has the right to a fair trial and due process. Considering the SC‘s observations, the

Army Act should be amended to bring it in line with constitutional requirements; providing the accused with

judgments and other details immediately would be a first step. As far as the appeals process is concerned, some

lawyers recommend that a special appellate tribunal be constituted that features members from outside the

military hierarchy, as it is highly unlikely that serving officers will take decisions that differ from those of the high

command. If military trials cannot become more open, at least the appeals process should be made more

transparent. The accused also need to have access to the defence counsel of their choice. While the army‘s

concerns about internal discipline may be valid to an extent, these have to be balanced with other factors, such as

constitutional requirements and respect for fundamental rights. Also, as the SC observed on Monday, if the air


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force and navy have made certain amendments to their internal judicial processes, there is no reason why the

army cannot do the same.

Beyond lip-service

November 15th, 2012

It has been argued that if one were to look for a starting point that has led Pakistan to the woeful place where it is

today, it may be lack of education. Alongside the low literacy levels, the curricula, the lack of oversight and the

knowledge base of even those who have been to school have continued to be called into question. The challenges

faced by the country on this front are myriad and multi-dimensional and begin from the general lack of

infrastructure. A population skewed heavily towards the young features low enrolment and high dropout rates, with

one in every 10 out-of-school children in the world being Pakistani. Add to this a worsening economic climate which

forces parents to keep their children out of school, and the targeting of schools by terrorists, and it is hardly

surprising that, as a study undertaken last year estimated, there are 26 countries poorer than Pakistan, but that

send more children to school.

Fortunately, though, in the recent past there have been a couple of developments that give some hope. As a

consequence of the 18th Amendment, Article 25-A of the constitution directs the state to provide ―free and

compulsory education‖ to children aged between five and 16 years. And on Tuesday, the National Assembly

adopted the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2012 — it has already been passed by the Senate — and

called upon the provinces to adopt similar bills. The legislation has worthy features, including infrastructure

development and teacher training, stricter regularisation of private schools and punishment for employers who do

not send children working for them to school. There is no denying that much would improve if the count ry could

educate its children.

As usual, though, the devil lies in the detail. Has the state the will to undertake the change in mindset that is

necessitated to put every child in school? To put every child in school, we would immediately have to see teachers

being trained and schools being built on virtually every street. We would need a countrywide strategy to reduce the

need for children to work, or for their parents to keep them out of school for other reasons, to create employment

opportunities for matriculates or incentives for further education, and to install an educational net that embraces all

children, everywhere. And doing that would require far more spending — by some estimates six or more per cent

— than the 1.7 per cent of the GDP currently being spent. So, the question then becomes one of political will. Is

the state willing to put its money where its mouth is?

China’s new leader

November 15th, 2012

Immense challenges face the new leadership as Xi Jinping, whose assumption of office is now only a formality,

becomes the first post-1949 Chinese to become the Communist Party‘s general secretary. The astonishing pace of

China‘s economic development has made its econ-omy the world‘s second largest. But this has not been without a

price in terms of social pressures, a widening rich-poor gap and such a high level of corruption that outgoing

president Hu Jintao had to devote a considerable part of his speech to the subject on the opening day last week of

the Chinese Communist Party‘s 18th Congress. Mr Hu said if China failed to tackle corruption it could prove ―fatal‖

to the party and cause ―the fall of the state‖. These are grim words from a veteran during whose decade-long rule

China overtook Japan as an economic power. Western experts forecast that the Chinese economy will pass

America‘s during the Xi rule. But voices within party and government are calling for urgent political and economic

reform to address growing discontent as seen in the social media.

While the Bo Xilai affair highlights the ideological dissent within the party, the conviction of Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel

laureate, shows dysphoria in the fast-expanding and vibrant middle class, especially among the intellectuals. Mr Bo

was a powerful member of the politburo and a candidate for the top post. His reservations about what is called

Dengism and emphasis on a return to Maoism triggered a rift within the top brass, leading to his expulsion from

the party. Mr Xi, the fifth-generation leader, is said to be a man of vision and must move fast to reform the

system. There are indications the party constitution may be amended, and the economic reforms could include the


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breakup of large state-owned enterprises. Mr Xi, who will replace Mr Hu when he is elected president by parliament

next March, will also have to tackle some knotty foreign policy issues and develop rapport with a re -elected

American president to remove differences on such issues as Syria, Iran and the quarrel with neighbours over

disputed islands.

A welcome initiative

November 15th, 2012

Speaking to a counter-narcotics conference on Tuesday, the president called for regional efforts to eliminate the

drug trade. A contact group has been formed in this regard and the initiative seeks to target all stages of the illicit

trade — from the cultivation of raw material to the trafficking of the end product. This is an important step as

Pakistan, partly due to its geography, is a major transit point in the global drug trade. Afghanistan to our west is

considered the world‘s largest opium producer and according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,

around 40 per cent of Afghan opiates end up in or transit through Pakistan. This situation has had very negative

consequences on Pakistan; considerable numbers (estimates range from 500,000 to over a million people) in this

country are struggling with heroin addiction while the drug trade is also big business for the Taliban and criminal

groups. Also, UNODC says that Pakistan is a ―known destination and trans-shipment point for precursor chemicals

— substances used in the production of drugs‖. Ephedrine, over which there has been much domestic uproar, falls

in this category.

It is welcome that a regional approach is being applied to the problem. Yet simultaneously, we need to put our own

house in order. On paper our anti-narcotics policy is fine, but the problem occurs in its implementation. Better

efforts need to be made to prevent the transportation and transit of illegal drugs through Pakistan. Spots along the

Balochistan coast and the area along the Afghan border need to be particularly monitored. The manufacture of

drugs in mobile labs must also be addressed while the Anti-Narcotics Force‘s capabilities, specifically its ability to

gather advance intelligence, must be vastly improved if Pakistan is not to be considered a major conduit for

international drug smuggling.

Shift in the wind?

November 16th, 2012

Finally, a possible breakthrough. After months of apparent reluctance to help facilitate Afghan reconciliation,

Islamabad‘s handing over of a handful of Afghan prisoners is a promising sign that Pakistan‘s thinking on the issue

might be shifting. Little is known publicly about who the released prisoners are, and what level of influence they

have on decision makers within the Afghan Taliban. Mullah Baradar and other high-profile prisoners the Afghans

requested remain in Pakistani custody. The rifts within the Taliban over whether or not to talk t o the Karzai

government are well-known. But Pakistan‘s move has at least two important positive implications. It could, if the

prisoners handed over are able to help, breathe some life into an Afghan reconciliation process that appears to be

stalled.

The more likely and long-term benefit of the exchange, of course, is that it has the potential to become a turning

point in Pak-Afghan relations, creating the opportunity for future initiatives that could pay off even if these

particular prisoners aren‘t able to do much. There is also the matter of a lack of willingness on both sides to take

action against groups carrying out cross-border attacks, something they may be more willing to do as relations

improve. As the clock winds down, bringing the region closer to Afghan elections and the Nato withdrawal, the lack

of a constructive relationship is not something either Pakistan or Afghanistan can do without. Pakistan‘s coming to

the table is hopefully a recognition of just this fact. Also promising is how this move could boost Pakistan-US

relations, even as America‘s role in this exchange, of whatever nature and extent, was wisely played down. The

focus on the bilateral aspects of this particular agreement is important, a confidence-building measure between the

two countries that will have to manage affairs once Western troops leave.

No matter what choices Pakistan makes regarding a role in Afghan peace, it is hard to predict how things will play

out. If, for example, the Afghan Taliban have a role in a future Afghan government, one facilitated by Pakistan,

might they provide shelter to Pakistani Taliban seeking refuge there? But if reconciliation doesn‘t work and the


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country descends into further conflict once Nato forces leave, might there be spillover in Pakistan? The outcome of

any given Pakistani approach is hard to predict. But one thing we now know for sure: impeding peace in

Afghanistan by trying to hedge our bets through proxies has been a losing strategy. Supporting or sheltering them

has only caused damage here at home. It is time to back a peaceful political process next door instead.

Inhumane punishment

November 16th, 2012

Given the strong pro-death penalty lobby in Pakistan, it has been difficult for the country to join the ranks of the

majority around the world where this most ultimate of punishments has either been removed from the law books

or is not administered. Nevertheless, during the tenure of the current government, a middle ground had been

found and there was a de facto moratorium on execut ions. Since the PPP came to power in 2008, Pakistan has

been one of 36 countries that do not implement the death penalty. Conversely, it is also one of the countries with

the highest number of prisoners on death row — according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the figure

is over 8,000, while prison records show that it is at least 7,164. But the moratorium came to an end on Thursday

as a soldier, sentenced to death for having killed a superior officer four years ago, was hanged early Thursday

morning in Mianwali Jail. His mercy petition had been rejected by the president last December.

Human rights agencies refer to the death penalty as the ultimate in cruel, degrading and inhumane punishments.

They see it as violating the right to life as enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The global

campaign to abolish it spans decades and two-thirds of all countries have done just this — either by law or in

practice. Pakistan, too, needs to follow suit. Right to life takes on added significance here. The prosecution process

and investigation methodologies are so f lawed in most cases, it is difficult to ascertain whether the accused is

indeed guilty of murder beyond any shadow of doubt. There were some indications that the government wanted to

take up the issue. Early this month, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that the government was

planning to introduce in parliament a bill converting the death penalty to life imprisonment. Since then, though,

nothing has been heard on the subject. That bill needs to see the light of day at the earliest. Meanwhile, the de

facto moratorium on executions should be restored. The world needs to see capital punishment being abolished.

New names

November 16th, 2012

Lahore had set out to rediscover Shaheed Bhagat Singh by pressing for a city square to be dedicated to the

freedom fighter close to where he was hanged. The process has helped it to find many others whom it should have

honoured long ago. A committee established by the government has now given recommendations for honouring

others close to the people‘s heart. We are in urgent need of our heritage being recognised. It was no small

coincidence that on Wednesday as the committee searched for a spot worthy of boasting the great Bulleh Shah‘s

initials, a group was protesting in Shadman, imposing their own ‗anti-Islam‘ and ‗unconstitutional‘ identities on the

proposed Bhagat Singh memorial. This makes the public honouring all the more desirable.

Of the 26 names endorsed by the Dilkash Lahore Committee, the formality of seeking feedback has been

completed for the Bhagat Singh and Chaudhry Rehmat Ali chowks. The remaining will be advertised for comments

before being officially notified. From among these, someone like Jalaluddin Akbar would have perhaps liked a

memorial closer to his fort instead of the rather distant placement he has been given. Also, the committee could

have looked for a few more female names to adorn the city‘s expanding landscape in addition to Habba Khatoon‘s.

Obviously, some political choices have been accommodated and great caution seems to have been exercised in

celebrating non-Muslim personalities. Apart from Bhagat Singh, only Justice A.R. Cornelius and Jogindar Nath

Mandal, who chaired the f irst constituent assembly of Pakistan, have made it to the list. The old practice was to

choose a spot drawing its name from a British colonial personality and to give it a new name. This has been

shunned. The effort to not encroach on the past signif ies progress. The addition of new names while the old

identities remain undisturbed will make Lahore richer.


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Another clash?

November 17th, 2012

It's that time of year again. For the more conspiracy-minded Pakistanis, enough has happened in the last few days

to get them wondering if a new front has opened up in the land that lurches from one real or perceived clash of

institutions to another. Through a slew of cases, the judiciary charges or accuses serving and retired army generals

of everything from picking up people in Balochistan and r igging the 1990 election to mismanagement and

corruption at the NLC, Pakistan Railways and Fauji Foundation. The chief justice announces that ―missiles and

tanks‖ will not keep Pakistan secure, and a few days later issues another public defence of accountability and the

constitution. A petition questioning the army chief‘s extension is revived, and the Rawalpindi bar passes a hard

hitting statement against the COAS. Meanwhile, Gen Kayani publicly asks institutions to stay within their domains

and the lawyer filing the petition against extension gets beaten up by unidentified thugs.

That is enough to lead to wild speculation and rumour-mongering in Pakistan, but it is also enough to raise the

need — yet again, sadly — to urge all parties involved to take a deep breath and a step back. The government and

the judiciary seem to be getting along better, especially since they reached an understanding on the Swiss letter,

even though the Supreme Court continues to intervene in some areas where the executive should have the last

word. And while the government has from time to time tried to challenge the military, it has largely accepted the

limits of how far it can go on that front and has worked out ways to keep itself in power, if not fully in control. But

now a judge-versus-general tussle could be brewing, and it has the potential to create instability just as Pakistan is

six months away from the finish line of on-time elections.

This is not to say that corruption charges against the military should not be invest igated to the fullest extent. The

revival of the petition against Gen Kayani‘s extension is also perfectly legitimate. The timing of the move is

arguably suspicious, since the petition has been rejected before, but on its merits the case is a strong one. W hat is

needlessly provocative, though, are public speeches asserting the judiciary‘s superiority and tacit encouragement

to lawyers‘ associations to jump into the fray. The same goes for the khakis: public pronouncements and a blatant

physical attack on a perceived troublemaker will achieve nothing more than raising tensions. Both these institutions

have plenty of work to do to address the real challenges the country is facing. Can they afford these petty

distractions?

Lame excuses

November 17th, 2012

This week the Supreme Court was informed by the national carrier‘s own counsel that PIA‘s accumulated losses

have risen to Rs119bn. This is a staggering figure even though it has been at least eight years in the making. In

the nine-month period running from January to October 2012, PIA posted a loss of over Rs22bn, which had been

Rs19bn in the corresponding period the previous year. The airline‘s losses began in 2004 and have gathered

momentum ever since, in spite of sharp increases in the cost of travel. T he present authorities, through their

counsel, have told the Supreme Court that they will not accept responsibility for the failures of past managements,

thus implying that since the accumulated losses were largely incurred by previous PIA managements, no

explanation will be provided for them today.

This is a deplorable attitude. Ever since the current losses started becoming apparent, the airline has been serving

up one excuse after another to explain them away — all the while increasing passenger fares sharply. Last year‘s

annual report, for instance, blamed the losses on factors like ―slow economic growth in developed economies‖ and

―the Gulf countries, natural disasters and continued global recession‖ and the depreciation of the rupee. The latest

quarterly results, filed in October from where the carrier‘s counsel took the figure of Rs119bn in accumulated

losses, add ―turmoil in the Middle East, uncertainty about eurozone economies, stress on Pak-US relations‖ to the

list. This is an old trick that managements typically use to explain their poor performance as they hide from the

headlines. The board of directors has a duty to ask the necessary questions that cut through this fog of hype and

zero in on the main issue: why are operating losses mounting in spite of passing the costs of rising fuel prices to

the passenger? The fact that PIA has been able to include such diverse and frivolous reasons in its annual reports

shows that the board of directors has not been doing its job of properly monitoring the management‘s


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performance. Perhaps the Supreme Court should ask the board to explain.

Ineffective solutions

November 17th, 2012

High drama was witnessed on Thursday when Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that motorcycles would

not be allowed to ply the roads of Karachi and Quetta on Friday, the first day of Muharram. In its turn, the Sindh

High Court, responding to a petition, swung into action late Thursday night, suspending the interior minister‘s ban.

While Karachi‘s million-plus motorcyclists must have been pleased with the court‘s intervention, the Balochistan

government decided to implement Mr Malik‘s order, though the ban was challenged in the Balochistan High Court

on Friday. The action against two-wheelers was taken due to fears that motorcycles may be used in acts of

terrorism; Mr Malik told the Senate on Friday that motorbikes had been used to carry out over 400 bombings

across the country. And in what now appears to have become standard operating procedure during any major

religious occasion or whenever there are heightened threats of terrorism, cellphone services in Karachi and Quetta

were also suspended on Friday.

These methods are arbitrary and unlikely to counter terrorism in a big way. They are easy ways for the

government to wriggle out of its responsibility of maintaining law and order. The logic behind the motorcycle ban is

shaky; if tomorrow there are intelligence reports that cars or trucks will be used in acts of terrorism, will the state

order all vehicles off the road? True, perhaps the SHC should have acted more prudently and listened to the

government‘s view before suspending the ban as it is not clear whether the court was aware of the threat level.

Nevertheless, while various remedies have been given for the security situation, especially in Karachi, and have

included Senator Raza Rabbani‘s impractical solutions, little has been done to beef up intelligence -gathering and

counterterrorism efforts. These would be far more effective than stopgap measures which paralyse daily lif e.

Customer comes first

November 18th, 2012

The automobile industry in Pakistan is correct in registering its protest against the flood of used cars that have

been entering the country for the last year and a half. It takes courage and tenacity in business affairs here to lay

down large stakes in the economy, and substantial fixed investments require a stable policy environment in order

to be viable. It‘s true that in the past, demands for policy stability have been used to cover up rent -seeking

opportunities. But this isn‘t always the case, and the present situation with the automobile companies protesting

against the tsunami of used car imports should not be seen as a demand for rentier protections. It‘s a fair and

reasonable demand for policy stability and the government needs to treat it accordingly.

But on the flip side, the government also has a point in underlining the rising costs of local cars, and the

degradation of quality. The auto companies are reminding us all of the jobs that they create, and the foreign

exchange that is saved through local assembly. But they should also recall that the main purpose of any business is

to make money thro-ugh satisfying consumer demand. There are legitimate complaints of constantly rising prices

of local cars and constantly falling standards of quality. The automobile companies need to understand that there

are grounds for the suspicion that they are using the protections afforded to them as opportunities for making

rentier prof its. Of course some of the complaints are very challenging to address, such as artificial shortages

created by speculators who buy up large quantities of new cars and then sell them on with ‗own money‘ charges.

But addressing these complaints must remain a priority, and the companies are welcome to publicly ask for the

government‘s assistance where it can help, such as in tracing speculative buyers.

So where does one take things when both parties have a valid point? In this case, the automobile industry and the

government should sit down together to devise a long-term policy for the sector. The mixed experience of previous

strategies should be allowed to become a source of discouragement. The last long-term strategy was the so-called

deletion programme which sought to use the sector as a job-creating motor by emphasising the growth of

indigenisation and local manufacture. Those are worthy goals, but in today‘s world, where further liberalisation of

trade is a certainty, the emphasis needs to be on competitiveness. And our auto sector can only hope to become

truly competitive when it is more sensitive to the needs of its customers.


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Gaza violence

November 18th, 2012

There is no better way for Benjamin Netanyahu to win the January election than to have yet another murderous go

at Gaza. Dozens of Palestinian Gazans and three Israelis have been killed in four days of rocket exchanges between

Palestinian militants and Israel as reports mount that the Likud government has called 75,000 reservists for a

ground assault. What has piqued Israel is the extended range of Palestinian rockets, some of which Israel‘s Iron

Dome anti-missile system failed to intercept, for one of them hit Jerusalem. Mr Netanyahu, however, could

strengthen his claim to another term as prime minister because Israeli strikes have killed Ahmad Jabari, Hamas‘s

military commander, and destroyed hundreds of Fajr missiles supplied by Iran to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The issue before the international community is to move fast and stop Israel from launching yet another invasion of

the kind it did in 2008-09. That invasion had flattened Gaza‘s cities and killed 1,417 people, most of them civilians.

Of the war crimes committed by Israel, the most barbaric was the use of phosphorus shells on civilian targets as

confirmed by international human rights organisations and the UN. There is every possibility that Israel may repeat

this performance and, as always, will get away with it because of its overwhelming military advantage, its utter

disregard for the laws of war and its diplomatic clout with the US and the European Union. While Russia accused

Israel of disproportionate use of force, President Barack Obama said he supported Israel‘s right to ―defend itself‖,

and asked Egypt and Turkey to use their influence to end the rocket war. With Egypt under a Muslim Brotherhood

leadership and Turkey still sore over the peace flotilla attack, it is unlikely Mr Netanyahu will listen to them. Israel

has no intention of quitting occupied Palestinian territories, the 2005 ‗disengagement‘ of Gaza being a fraud,

because Israel continues to control the strip‘s air, land and sea exits. So long as Gaza remains occupied, the

Palestinian people will continue to fight for freedom, and in this lie the roots of the violence now in evidence.

Poetic licence

November 18th, 2012

A full court meeting headed by Pakistan‘s chief justice on Friday adopted the song ‗Justice for All‘ written by Justice

Tasadduq Hussain Jillani and f irst heard at a Supreme Court function on Aug 14, 2006. The meeting also

deliberated upon and granted a request by the vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council seeking permission to

play the song at PBC events. The etiquette followed by the PBC here may be a bit confusing to those outside legal

circles. Why would an organisation — even of lawyers — need the court‘s permission to adopt as its anthem a piece

of verse — even one written by an honourable judge? The PCB likes it and can have it, in the same way lawyers, if

they so desire, can address the judges as janab-i-wala without petitioning the courts. If there is a case here, it may

be one for the literary critics to judge.

Feared as a law unto them, the most unyielding of critics would concede a trend is shaping here. The bench likes to

quote from literature to add emphasis to their observations — turmoil facilitates the lavishing of all kinds of

poignant sayings on this beloved land. This nation has been pitied and it has been reminded of Faiz‘s lines in recent

times. If these were allusions made within the larger body of a court ruling, the anthem is different in that it is an

original. ―The toil, the sweat, the tears and the blood … Thou may belong to any religion, creed or caste, Oh! The

vision is distorted, the march is thwarted, Castles in the sand, babes in the woods.…‖ This is poetry — that too of

the revolutionary variety to which all struggling people have a right. Once the poet has spoken there can be

absolutely no embargo on who can adopt the lines as their own.


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Witness protection

November 19th, 2012

Much has been said about the absence of an effective witness-protection programme in Pakistan. The fact that

Haider Ali, the sixth and last witness to the murder of journalist Wali Khan Babar, was killed in Karachi on Nov 11

only underscores the immediate need for one. Reportedly, there were 23 witnesses to Mr Babar‘s January 2011

killing in the metropolis. Only six took the risk of testifying. Each man was gunned down in a frighteningly

systematic manner. Mr Ali, for whom the Sindh High Court had ordered extra protection, was shot dead despite

being underground. Policemen have also numbered among the murdered witnesses. These killings expose the

callousness of the state and its inability to protect witnesses; when it knew that the men were at risk of being

eliminated, stronger efforts should have been made to protect them. Witnesses in other high-prof ile terrorism

cases have been similarly killed. This creates a frustrating situation: when people are afraid for their lives they will

not testify, which means suspected killers will walk free.

The Sindh information minister said on Friday that Rs10m would be given to the home department to provide

protection to witnesses. While this amount, however meagre, is welcome, as it is expensive to relocate witnesses

and give them new identities, funds are just one aspect of the issue. What is also required is direction and

planning. The president has reportedly ordered the Sindh government to draft a new witness-protection law. Yet a

clause for protecting witnesses exists in the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2007, so perhaps the main focus should be on

strengthening this provision. Anti-terrorism experts suggest that a witness-protection programme should be

implemented incrementally as local authorities lack the capacity to initiate a programme simila r to what is being

practised in developed nations. Initial steps can include making sure that witnesses get to court without their

identities being disclosed, and in-camera trials have been proposed. Another suggestion is to give witnesses

financial incentives, as presently they get nothing for risking their lives.

Meanwhile, the police must revise their standard operating procedures where the gathering, preservation and

analysis of forensic evidence is concerned. A forensic lab exists in Lahore, so police investigators should be

required to submit evidence to this facility, while similar facilities need to be built in other cities. Nitish Kumar, the

chief minister of Bihar, recently told his counterparts in Sindh and Punjab that he controlled rampant crime in that

Indian state through speedy trials, strong prosecution and taking action against suspects irrespective of their

connections. Perhaps our officials should have been taking careful notes.

No boost to the economy

November 19th, 2012

The cabinet‘s approval of an amnesty scheme offering millions of tax dodgers a ‗last‘ chance to legalise hidden

assets and income and to register themselves as taxpayers by paying the paltry amount of Rs100 to whiten their

black money has spawned a new controversy. The scheme will have a life of three months and take effect after it

gets legal cover from parliament. The approval of the amnesty scheme — comprising the Tax Registration and

Enforcement Scheme and Tax Investment Scheme — in spite of widespread opposition shows the authorities‘

desperation to increase the number of active taxpayers and generate additional revenues to raise the abysmally

low tax-to-GDP ratio of less than 10 per cent, equivalent only to that of some extremely poor African nations. The

success of the scheme is also expected to enable the government to win back the confidence of the IMF, upon

whose approval of Islamabad‘s policies hinges the flow of billions of dollars in multilateral and bilateral loans and

grants. Islamabad had to terminate the IMF loan facility in 2010 because of its failure to implement tax refo rms

due to political problems.

That the amnesty for tax dodgers has drawn flak from all quarters indicates the low level of trust in such measures.

Its opponents have been pleading with the government to launch a crackdown against the 3.8 million tax dodgers

it has identif ied and to shame them publicly rather than offer them yet another opportunity to launder their illegal

money at the expense of honest taxpayers. Their criticism has a valid point: such schemes haven‘t delivered in the

past and will not work in future years. The government promises it is a one-off opportunity for tax thieves and

plans to take stern action against those who do not avail themselves of it. Why not take action now? Only a few tax

evaders are likely to sign up for the amnesty and millions will line up for yet another scheme some years down the


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road. The authorities‘ obsession with the scheme appears to justify the perception that the amnesty aims at

benefiting some powerful and wealthy people rather than helping the economy.

Tip of the iceberg

November 19th, 2012

It is a discovery that ought to cause more worry than is what is currently visible. Access to fake driving and

weapons‘ licences, identity and travel documents, etc can facilitate crimes that range from terrorism to human

smuggling to remaining unidentified after a traffic violation. It was thought that the creation of the National

Database and Registration Authority, which in many respects has been a success story, and the changeover to

computerised documents would plug many of the gaps. Yet the police had an inkling that forged documents were in

circulation since many times during verification certain individuals had remained untraceable on Nadra‘s database.

Their fears turned out to be well-founded when an operative of a gang involved in forgery was arrested in

Islamabad. Subsequently, the police uncovered a network that specialises in forging crucial documents. And it

seems that this is only the tip of the iceberg, for the arrested man told the police that the gang has separate wings

in different cities; the main operators of the gang remain undiscovered which is disturbing to say the least.

The investigation instituted by law-enforcement agencies should be lent urgency by the fact that terrorists

apparently have obtained fake identification papers and arms licences in large numbers from different operatives of

the gang. Wherever documents of the type that the gang is known to have replicated are required to be produced,

such as at airports or cellphone outlets issuing Sims, more stringent checks need to be put in place immediately.

Reportedly, it was very difficult to identify the differences between 30 documents recovered during the operation

and the authentic article. Further, Nadra must step up its campaign to have people switch to its new Smart

national ID card, which is chip-based and would be much harder to forge.

‘Unverified voters’

November 20th, 2012

It is encouraging that Pakistan is f inally undertaking much-needed electoral reforms. An important step in the right

direction has been the linking of the electoral rolls to Nadra‘s identity cards‘ record. But that has also thrown up the

ongoing contentiousness over the issue of ‗unverif ied‘ voters. On Friday, the Election Commission of Pakistan

disclosed that it had detected some 4.8 million ‗unverif ied voters‘. The estimated figures per constituency are such

that legislators have expressed the fear that these could upset the entire elec tion scenario. Some of them have

demanded these ‗unverif ied‘ voters be immediately removed from the lists. Thankfully, the next day Nadra clarified

that ‗unverif ied‘ voters did not mean false identities or bogus votes, but referred instead to verification of voters‘

places of residence. All these people have valid and verified identities, confirmed Nadra chairman Tariq Malik, and

CNICs have been cross-referenced with other data such as bank accounts and machine-readable passports.

The problem, evidently, is that these 4.8 million people are ‗unverif ied‘ because their current place of residence —

as opposed to the permanent place of residence listed on the CNICs — has not been verified through the door-to-

door contacting process. The current place of residence determines the constituency in which a citizen would vote.

Nadra says that for all these individuals, verification was attempted three times. According to Mr Malik, not

contacting the ECP for changes indicated that the individuals were ―satisfied with t he status of their entries‖.

Certainly, no one should be disenfranchised — and it is worth noting that the unverified millions include 69

lawmakers, six judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, and many bureaucrats and army officers.

What we need then is a large-scale campaign involving the administration as well as citizens to set the record

straight and to ensure that people‘s status is verif ied. The question is, where are the politicians in all this? The only

interest they have shown so far is in demanding the arbitrary disenfranchisement of several millions. Are they not

the primary stakeholders in a free and fair election? They should be far more involved in the process of registering

people on the electoral rolls, helping verify their places of residence, the constituencies in which they are eligible to

vote and other relevant details. Once the elections take place and results start rolling in, it is easy to predict that

bickering will occur. How about helping the ECP and Nadra with the unwieldy but crucial task now? That would be a


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more valuable contribution to the democratic project than constantly complaining.

Muharram fears

November 20th, 2012

Sunday's blast at an imambargah in Karachi has heightened the immediate fear of the city‘s residents that this

year‘s Muharram could be a bloody one. This was a nagging concern even before the weekend, both because of the

record of violence during the holy month in past years and especially because of the sectarian violence that has

plagued Karachi in the weeks leading up to it. Now, with an attack having been successfully carried out despite

heavy security and several days still left to go before the particularly sensitive first 10 days of Muharram have

passed, the spectre of another, and possibly more deadly, attack has become more real than ever.

As is the case every year, extraordinary security arrangements have been put in place for the month and

volunteers from various communities and law enforcement are present at religious gatherings and processions in

large numbers. And last year‘s success in preventing large-scale attacks in the city shows that the authorities have

built up some expertise in how to address the risks that Muharram brings. But Sunday‘s blast showed that existing

measures are still not enough. The attack, in which a motorcycle parked near the imambargah blew up, makes it

clear that one obvious measure is to increase the radius around at -risk places of worship within which vehicles

should not be parked, however inconvenient this might be for worshippers and nearby residences and businesses.

But it also remains important to balance the need for security with citizens‘ basic needs; this attack should not be

taken as a reason for a blanket ban on motorcycles, on which over a million people in the city depend. Given this

year‘s record of sectarian violence across Pakistan, Sunday‘s blast also begs the question of where else in the

country an attack might take place and argues for an even greater effort in other sensitive areas as well. Karachi‘s

horrific Ashura blast of 2009 is still a recent memory, and this year‘s trajectory suggests that law enforcement will

have to step up their efforts to prevent another tragic event.

Public’s responsibility

November 20th, 2012

CNG cylinder blasts are not something that can be entirely blamed on the government while the public plays the

innocent victim. In fact, such explosions — the latest blast in Karachi on Sunday took two lives — are very much of

the people‘s own making. They are mostly the result of greed, disregard for safety and a general disrespect for life.

They can hardly be attributed to the lack of a public -awareness campaign. The frequent explosions are loud enough

in themselves to remind the public of the dangers posed by faulty CNG kits. CNG stations have to prominently

display a notice refusing gas to the drivers of those vehicles that do not carry certificates declaring that their gas

kits are in working order. There has been no let-up in official and media reminders about the urgency of a CNG kit

examination. Aside from private hands — some of them competent, others adept only at complicating matters —

there is the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan that requires these kits to be examined every five

years and has its own designated inspection centres. At around Rs500 per kit the job doesn‘t entail too high a

price. It is criminal how vehicle owners ignore all these warnings at such huge risk to life and limb.

Of course the government can be asked to set up more examination centres and expedite their working. It also has

a responsibility to haul up all those vehicles fitted with all kinds of improvised and unfit CNG cylinders and find

effective ways to punish their users. At the same time, for their own sake, the citizens must look around and help

in the identification of lawbreakers. Provided that everyone is willing to come out of their false security zones and

get their kits checked, many precious lives may yet be saved.


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Deadly consequences

November 21st, 2012

A picture carried by this newspaper yesterday was certainly worth a thousand words. It showed rows upon rows of

military uniforms on sale at a market in Mardan, despite a ban on such sale. It is pertinent to highlight here that

several major terrorist incidents over the past few years have been carried out by perpetrators clad in army

uniforms. These include, among others, the massacres of Shia bus passengers in Kohistan and Mansehra in

February and August this year, respectively, as well as the attacks on the PNS Mehran and Minhas Kamra airbases.

The army itself fell victim to this ruse when terrorists in army uniform attacked the GHQ in October 2009, after

which a ban was imposed on the unauthorised sale of military uniforms. By all accounts, the ban has never been

enforced.

Impersonating members of the army or law-enforcement agencies is a virtually foolproof tactic of gaining access to

at least the outer parameters of high-security areas, not to mention an effective way of intercepting vehicles on the

road. It is thus incomprehensible how army uniforms, as well as those of civilian law-enforcement agencies, can be

openly sold in markets to which the public has access. Moreover, the particular market depicted in the photograph

mentioned above is not in some remote outpost in the tribal areas but in Mardan, the second largest city in Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa, which is the province most affected by terrorism. While it may be difficult to completely prevent

people bent on creating mayhem from acquiring such uniforms, the government can at the very least ensure that

the ban is strictly enforced and those flouting it are penalised to the fullest extent of the law. In a country where

terrorists are running amok, let‘s not make their job easier.

Slaughter in Gaza

November 21st, 2012

International efforts to effect a ceasefire in Gaza had not succeeded when these lines were being written, but eight

days of Israeli rocket fire on the Mediterranean enclave‘s crammed population centres has led to over 100 deaths.

More menacingly, as reported by a Western wire agency, Israel has ―signalled a readiness to expand‖ the war. That

was hardly a reportable ―readiness‖. Delegates from the two sides have met in Cairo to stop the killings, but the

United Nations has done nothing to put an end to them. Instead all that the diplomats at the Security Council have

done is to draft a statement which they have sent to their respective foreign offices, while the international media

continues to convey graphic scenes of the death and devastation inf licted on the Palestinian people.

A ceasefire will sooner or later come into effect, but the pertinent question to ask is: when will Israel launch its

next blitz? Are peacemakers — from the secretary general of the United Nations to the re-elected president of the

sole superpower — really making an effort to solve the problem for good and seeking a solution that will last? In

other words, do they really think they can put out the fire by tackling the flames instead of going to the source of

the blaze? The issue is the Palestinian people‘s right to self-determination; the issue is the continued occupation of

the Palestinian people‘s ancestral land by settlers; the issue is how to end the occupation of the Arab lands and

give to the people of Palestine a state of their own, with Jerusalem, now under Israeli occupation, as its capital.

Not that the world doesn‘t know of this historic injustice. It does, but only in theory. The UN has passed at least

two landmark resolutions — 242 and 338 — calling for Israel‘s withdrawal from Palestinian territories, and at least

two American presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, had the wisdom and courage to make Israel accept reality

and give up what was not its own. The 1978-79 Camp David agreement made Israel withdraw from the Sinai while

the 1993 Declaration of Principles laid down a timetable for the Israeli withdrawal. But, after the man who signed it

for Israel, prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, was murdered, successive Israeli governments have reneged on it. Since

then, there has been a stalemate, and Israel continues to build new settlements on the West Bank to alter the

occupied territory‘s demographic character. As experience shows, a ceasefire serves to end a slaughter only

temporarily; it doesn‘t root out the cause of the conflict that has continued for decades.


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Anti-polio efforts

November 21st, 2012

For several years now, any progress on Pakistan‘s anti-polio efforts has been followed by several steps backwards.

At one point, there was hope that the crippling disease would soon be eradicated in this country. Instead, along

with Nigeria and Afghanistan, we remain one of the world‘s last three polio-endemic countries. Formidable

challenges have raised their heads on numerous fronts. On the side of the state, these have included vaccinating

teams missing children because of the remoteness of their area of residence and interruptions in the cold-chain

storage system. Immense damage has also been done to the vaccination campaign by the rhetoric of hard-line

c lerics in the northwest that the drops would harm children. To add to this, the Pakistani Taliban ‗banned‘ polio

vaccinations in areas under their thrall, while a jirga decided that they too would resist the campaign unless drone

strikes were halted.

All this has meant that cases of polio are being reported in an increasing number of spots in the country with

alarming frequency. Now, it seems, officialdom has realised that in the north, Peshawar is a ‗polio reservoir‘, with

at least 10 new polio cases repo rted over the province‘s five districts having originated in the provincial capital.

Reportedly, the provincial health secretary chaired a meeting and ordered that special anti-polio drives should be

initiated in 42 high-risk union councils. Further, it was decided that records would also be kept of those children

that had missed vaccinations. This last step may prove useful in identifying the trends in the failure to administer

the drops and to create more targeted interventions. No doubt the challenges are myriad but they must be

surmounted. The resistance to polio vaccinations may actually be growing in Pakistan, as indicated recently in a

survey conducted in Karachi: of well-off parents interviewed in five large shopping malls across the city, 72 per

cent believed that the vaccine was harmful while 8.5 per cent said it was unnecessary, indicating that the problem

is not one of low-income or the lack of education. This profoundly depressing f inding should add to the impetus of

anti-polio efforts.

Sound and fury

November 22nd, 2012

For all the talk of deweaponisation in the last few days, it‘s clear what the drama is really about: politics. Any

genuine concern for law and order is at best a secondary concern for Karachi‘s main political parties; that much

was obvious from the way the debate shaped up this week. Trying to avoid a special focus on Karachi and deflect

any talk of a military operation there, the MQM argues that deweaponisation should take place not just in Karachi,

but across the country. The ANP argues for the opposite, likely in part because stripping people of arms would be

culturally unacceptable in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, but mainly because it wants the focus to remain precisely

where its political rival does not want it to be — on Karachi. Meanwhile, in a glaring display of lack of concern about

policy effectiveness, the ruling party supports both moves in an attempt to protect its political alliances.

Proceedings in the National Assembly and the Senate this week were thus a farce, with parliament becoming a

forum for political parties to one-up each other rather than address citizens‘ concerns.

Lost in all this rhetoric were the practical challenges of carrying out deweaponisation, whether in Karachi — where

it has been tried and has failed — or elsewhere in the country. Who, for example, would carry it out? In Karachi, at

least, with an overwhelmed police force and the Rangers‘ ability to operate effectively in the city in question, the

military would likely have to be called in, which would be a political minefield. Who would be targeted?

A first step might be to choke off supply lines, focusing on curbing smuggling rather than trying to retrieve huge

amounts of unlicensed arms from their owners. Whatever the answers, the lack of substance in this week‘s debates

proved that the conversation was about political posturing and appearing to be concerned about law and order.

And ultimately, regardless of the methods used, deweaponisation in Karachi would run into the same road block

that other law and order problems do: the extent to which violence and politics are intertwined in this city. Short of

a no-holds-barred, bloody military operation — which would only temporarily relieve political rivalries, as previous

operations have done, rather than addressing them — the only way to tackle the problem is for all the city‘s major

political players to reach a sustainable agreement on arms control. But as this week‘s drama has proved, nothing

will change as long as they continue to view Karachi as a zero-sum battleground rather than a city in which millions

of people are trying to survive.


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Kasab’s execution

November 22nd, 2012

The secret execution and burial of Ajmal Kasab, the sole gunman to survive the 2008 tragedy in Mumbai, revives

the memory of a senseless but well-planned act of mass murder that brought Pakistan and India to the brink of

war. Four years later, many questions still remain unanswered on this side of the border: who were the brains

behind the slaughter of the innocent civilians? What did they propose to achieve? Where and how were the gunmen

trained and armed? Who brainwashed them into undertaking that ignoble mission? Who provided the operational

facilities, including the boat journey to the Indian port? And why did these activities go unnoticed in Pakistan?

Subsequently, the authorities in Islamabad acted to establish facts that distanced the state from the work of a few

fanatic killers. But that doesn‘t serve to hide the shortcomings in the working of Pakistan‘s anti-terrorism apparatus

and its inability to keep tabs on organisations — not necessarily banned — which manage to amass enough resour-

ces to run clandes-tine cells that undertake fiendish operations of such magnitude.

The Pakistani part of the trial is dragging on, prompting allegations from New Delhi that Islamabad is not serious.

The fact that the prosecution came up with some new information about the Pakistani handlers of the suspects and

the money transfer mechanism to shed some light on the case gives hope that the case will be pursued with speed

and that justice will be done so that those responsible for the massacre are exposed. Above all, Pakistanis deserve

to know what the government intends to do to ensure that such a tragedy is not repeated. The issue is linked to

the hydra-headed monster that terrorism has become for us. Militants are now operating throughout Pakistan and

feel free to choose their targets, strike at will and plan operations abroad. The lesson to be drawn from the Mumbai

events and its aftermath is that the government must make efforts to ensure that the state and citizens unite to

root out what has become the biggest threat to our peace of mind as well as to our own and regional security.

No end in sight

November 22nd, 2012

As the doctors‘ strike in Balochistan expands in scope, there has been a parallel increase in the people‘s misery.

While previously the strike was limited to government hospitals, doctors in private healthcare facilities have now

joined the protest. Matters took an even uglier turn on Tuesday when emergency services and out -patient

departments were shut in reaction to the rough treatment meted out by the police to protesting medics on Monday.

In a related, equally disturbing development, doctors‘ bodies in Sindh on Tuesday also threatened to stop work if

their colleagues in Balochistan were not freed and cases against them, lodged in reaction to Monday‘s protest, not

withdrawn. Doctors in Balochistan have been on strike now for over a month; the protest was sparked by the

kidnapping of eye specialist Dr Saeed Khan, who was abducted in October. Several doctors have either been killed

or kidnapped in the restive province in the recent past.

The police action against protesting doctors is condemnable while it is well-known that security in Balochistan is

very poor. We sympathise with the plight of doctors, yet there can be no justification for adding to the grief of the

people by denying them medical care. Harrowing images came out of Quetta on Tuesday, of patients desperate for

medical attention. Doctors in public and private facilities need to immediately return to work and pursue their

rights through other methods of protest. While industrial action may be an acceptable mode of protest in other

professions, when it comes to doctors it is literally a matter of life or death for patients, so shutdowns of hospitals

should be out of the question. Also, instead of adopting a confrontational posture, the Balochistan government

needs to respond to the medics‘ demands, especially by recovering the kidnapped doctor and providing the medical

community with adequate security.


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Sound and fury

November 23rd, 2012

For all the talk of deweaponisation in the last few days, it‘s clear what the drama is really about: politics. Any

genuine concern for law and order is at best a secondary concern for Karachi‘s main political parties; that much

was obvious from the way the debate shaped up this week. Trying to avoid a special focus on Karachi and deflect

any talk of a military operation there, the MQM argues that deweaponisation should take place not just in Karachi,

but across the country. The ANP argues for the opposite, likely in part because stripping people of arms would be

culturally unacceptable in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, but mainly because it wants the focus to remain precisely

where its political rival does not want it to be — on Karachi. Meanwhile, in a glaring display of lack of concern about

policy effectiveness, the ruling party supports both moves in an attempt to prot ect its political alliances.

Proceedings in the National Assembly and the Senate this week were thus a farce, with parliament becoming a

forum for political parties to one-up each other rather than address citizens‘ concerns.

Lost in all this rhetoric were the practical challenges of carrying out deweaponisation, whether in Karachi — where

it has been tried and has failed — or elsewhere in the country. Who, for example, would carry it out? In Karachi, at

least, with an overwhelmed police force and the Rangers‘ ability to operate effectively in the city in question, the

military would likely have to be called in, which would be a political minefield. Who would be targeted?

A first step might be to choke off supply lines, focusing on curbing smuggling rather than trying to retrieve huge

amounts of unlicensed arms from their owners. Whatever the answers, the lack of substance in this week‘s debates

proved that the conversation was about political posturing and appearing to be concerned about law and order.

And ultimately, regardless of the methods used, deweaponisation in Karachi would run into the same road block

that other law and order problems do: the extent to which violence and politics are intertwined in this city. Short of

a no-holds-barred, bloody military operation — which would only temporarily relieve political rivalries, as previous

operations have done, rather than addressing them — the only way to tackle the problem is for all the city‘s major

political players to reach a sustainable agreement on arms control. But as this week‘s drama has proved, nothing

will change as long as they continue to view Karachi as a zero-sum battleground rather than a city in which millions

of people are trying to survive.

Kasab’s execution

November 23rd, 2012

The secret execution and burial of Ajmal Kasab, the sole gunman to survive the 2008 tragedy in Mumbai, revives

the memory of a senseless but well-planned act of mass murder that brought Pakistan and India to the brink of

war. Four years later, many questions still remain unanswered on this side of the border: who were the brains

behind the slaughter of the innocent civilians? What did they propose to achieve? Where and how were the gunmen

trained and armed? Who brainwashed them into undertaking that ignoble mission? Who provided the operational

facilities, including the boat journey to the Indian port? And why did these activities go unnoticed in Pakistan?

Subsequently, the authorities in Islamabad acted to establish facts that distanced the state from the work of a few

fanatic killers. But that doesn‘t serve to hide the shortcomings in the working of Pakistan‘s anti-terrorism apparatus

and its inability to keep tabs on organisations — not necessarily banned — which manage to amass enough resour-

ces to run clandes-tine cells that undertake fiendish operations of such magnitude.

The Pakistani part of the trial is dragging on, prompting allegations from New Delhi that Islamabad is not serious.

The fact that the prosecution came up with some new information about the Pakistani handlers of the suspects and

the money transfer mechanism to shed some light on the case gives hope that the case will be pursued with speed

and that justice will be done so that those responsible for the massacre are exposed. Above all, Pakistanis deserve

to know what the government intends to do to ensure that such a tragedy is not repeated. The issue is linked to

the hydra-headed monster that terrorism has become for us. Militants are now operating throughout Pakistan and

feel free to choose their targets, strike at will and plan operations abroad. The lesson to be drawn from the Mumbai

events and its aftermath is that the government must make efforts to ensure that the state and citizens unite to


169

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root out what has become the biggest threat to our peace of mind as well as to our own and regional security.

No end in sight

November 23rd, 2012

As the doctors‘ strike in Balochistan expands in scope, there has been a parallel increase in the people‘s misery.

While previously the strike was limited to government hospitals, doctors in private healthcare facilities have now

joined the protest. Matters took an even uglier turn on Tuesday when emergency services and out -patient

departments were shut in reaction to the rough treatment meted out by the police to protesting medics on Monday.

In a related, equally disturbing development, doctors‘ bodies in Sindh on Tuesday also threatened to stop work if

their colleagues in Balochistan were not freed and cases against them, lodged in reaction to Monday‘s protest, not

withdrawn. Doctors in Balochistan have been on strike now for over a month; the protest was sparked by the

kidnapping of eye specialist Dr Saeed Khan, who was abducted in October. Several doctors have either been killed

or kidnapped in the restive province in the recent past.

The police action against protesting doctors is condemnable while it is well-known that security in Balochistan is

very poor. We sympathise with the plight of doctors, yet there can be no justification for adding to the grief of the

people by denying them medical care. Harrowing images came out of Quetta on Tuesday, of patients desperate for

medical attention. Doctors in public and private facilities need to immediately return to work and pursue their

rights through other methods of protest. While industrial action may be an acceptable mode of protest in other

professions, when it comes to doctors it is literally a matter of life or death for patients, so shutdowns of hospitals

should be out of the question. Also, instead of adopting a confrontational posture, the Balochistan government

needs to respond to the medics‘ demands, especially by recovering the kidnapped doctor and providing the medical

community with adequate security.

Restricted contact

November 24th, 2012

Once again the government has resorted to suspending cellular phone facilities on a day when security concerns

are high. In the approach to Ashura, it has gone one step further by also banning wireless phone services. Whether

or not these steps are actually effective in averting a terrorist attack remains a moot point; we still await evidence

to prove that such measures, which also restrict access to essential services such as police and emergency

helplines, are necessary in the fight against extremism. While we can still take heart from the fact that the

suspension of phone services is temporary, what possible defence can be found for the Pakistan

Telecommunication Authority‘s first imposing a ban on night -time and low-rate cellphone packages, and now

preventing cellphone operators from offering chat-room services to users?

PTA says it is following the directives of the Supreme Court, and that legislators say such services are being

misused, especially by students. On the floor of the National Assembly, a few voices have raised such concerns,

with one legislator tabling a private member‘s bill on the issue: MNA Nosheen Saeed is reported as having

commented ―Are these mobile telephone operators offering telephone services or running other services to

misguide young people?‖

Obviously, then, in the view of certain circles the threat to Pakistan‘s social fabric comes not from entrenched

issues such as terrorism, poverty and the lack of education, but from the morality codes of the young. According to

this regressive view, it is the state‘s responsibility to take up the role of morality police. Nothing, perhaps, can be

more repugnant to those who stand for civil liberties and who point out that the answer does not lie in curbing

personal freedoms. Further, each such step becomes a precedent for the next that shifts the goalposts and

imposes more restrictions. The state has already established that people‘s online freedoms can arbitrarily be

curtailed — YouTube has remained offline for several weeks now, and PTA has not yet clarified its position or made

a firm announcement that it will be reinstated. Does the government really want to go down this path? Regression

is what extremists in Pakistan also want. The state and its functionaries, as well as the representatives of the

people, need to dwell on the fact that the citizenry needs to be empowered through increasing freedoms and


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choices, not disempowered still further with the state itself taking on the role of an enforcer of bans and a restrictor

of liberties.

Morsi’s ‘coup’

November 24th, 2012

Buoyed up by his success in effecting a ceasefire in Gaza, President Mohamed Morsi has acted the wrong way — he

has given himself sweeping powers in a move that the opposition calls ―a coup against legitimacy‖. The new decree

issued on Thursday says decisions taken by the president cannot be overturned by any authority, including the

courts. This negates the very spirit of the Arab Spring. Already, the president had enormous powers, because there

is no legislature and he himself makes the laws. By pre-empting a judicial review of his actions, the president has

armed himself with absolute powers. No wonder opposition leaders, who include such names as former Arab

League secretary general Amr Moussa and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, allege that the president has

anointed himself ―Egypt‘s new pharaoh‖. More menacingly, there is a hint of witch-hunting in his moves, because

he has decided to reopen Hosni Mubarak‘s trial and sacked chief prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, a Mubara k

loyalist. The charge against him was that he failed to secure adequate punishments for pro-Mubarak demonstrators

who had attacked the security forces. He had earlier withdrawn his decision to fire Mr Mahmoud under pressure

from Egypt‘s powerful legal fraternity.

An acute and dangerous polarisation could grip Egypt, because Muslim Brotherhood activists have demonstrated in

the decree‘s favour, while the opposition has begun street protests and attacked Muslim Brotherhood offices. On

Thursday, shortly after the decree was announced, Muslim Brotherhood activists staged demonstrations in front of

the main court building, demanding that the judiciary be ―purified‖. This is a disturbing development. Unless such

demands for purges are discouraged in time, the country could head towards authoritarianism. At present, Egypt

has no parliament, and a Brotherhood-dominated assembly is still drafting a new constitution. The absence of any

constitutional and legal checks on a head of state who already wields executive and legislative powers could

throttle democracy, strengthen totalitarian tendencies and dash the populist hopes for which the people of Egypt

had launched a valiant struggle against a despotic regime. As an opposition leader said, the anti Mubarak stir was

not launched ―in search of a benign dictator‖.

Law for senior citizens

November 24th, 2012

The announcement by a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister that the province would soon introduce legislation focusing

on senior citizens‘ rights must be welcomed. If things go as planned, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be the first

provincial government in Pakistan to introduce a much-needed law addressing the rights and concerns of the

elderly. What is also important is that the minister said that once the proposed bill becomes law, efforts will be

made to enforce its provisions. It is well-known that many finely drafted laws are rendered ineffective in this

country due to lack of enforcement. Pakistan has a large number of senior citizens. This age group is expected to

grow in keeping with global trends of longevity. Yet neglect of elders in society is widespread and as economic

pressures on families increase, traditional safety nets are beginning to fall apart. As a result, seniors have ended

up as one of the most vulnerable sections of the population. Many do not have access to proper healthcare or social

services. Seniors are especially vulnerable in emergency situations, such as natural disasters.

Along with other issues, the legislation should address access to affordable healthcare for seniors as well as a

respectable pension and social security payments, including coverage for those elders who have worked in the

informal sector. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‘s initiative must be lauded while the other provinces must follow suit.

However, there is a need to speed up the lawmaking process as it has already taken too long; a draft bill on senior

citizens‘ rights has been pending since 2007, though neither the centre nor the provinces have up till now made

efforts to pass the law. Statements of intent are fine, but the provinces need to introduce the legislation so that a

legal framework for the protection of seniors‘ rights can be established.


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Another crisis

November 25th, 2012

Barely has one controversy between the presidency and the superior judiciary been put to rest with the dispatch of

the letter to Switzerland that another crisis is brewing: this time over the appointment and seniority of judges in

the Islamabad High Court. The plot is complicated and involves multiple judges and t heir futures but in essence it

started with the decision to elevate the chief justice of the IHC, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, to the Supreme

Court. The controversy started when the Judicial Commission nominated, and the parliamentary committee

endorsed, Justice Mohammad Anwar Kasi to the chief justice‘s post as the senior-most judge of the IHC. When the

summary appeared before President Zardari for routine signing, an anomaly was cited: another judge of the IHC,

Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan, had been considered senior to Justice Kasi and therefore in line to succeed Justice

Rehman as the IHC chief justice. In the midst of this tussle, two other judges of the IHC have become collateral

damage because their continuation as judges beyond Nov 20 was contingent on approval by the Judicial

Commission — which did assent but whose composition was taken as incomplete by the presidency owing to the

dispute over who was the IHC‘s senior-most judge.

If that sounds complicated, it is. On the face of it, the presidency appears to be inserting itself into a decision-

making process that is two-tiered — judicial and parliamentary — and in which the role of the president was not

really envisaged to include questioning the decisions taken by the judicial commission and endorsed by the

parliamentary committee. But scratch the surface and the matter becomes more complicated because it appears

the presidency may have a genuine case that Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan and not Justice Mohammad Anwar Kasi is

technically the senior-most judge of the IHC behind the chief justice who has been elevated to the SC. The bigger

mystery here is why the Parliamentary Committee, which is meant to debate and scrutinise the Judicial

Commission‘s recommendations, appears to have simply rubber-stamped a change at the top of the IHC that may

be out of line with accepted convention. Considering the speculation that has been generated, it is important to

know the reasons behind the out-of-step nomination of the next IHC chief justice.

Meanwhile, legal experts are hoping these developments have nothing to do with a petition challenging Gen

Kayani‘s extension as army chief that was to be taken up by the two judges whose tenure expired on Nov 20. The

presidential reference to the SC should be moved quickly to end this unnecessary impasse.

Food security

November 25th, 2012

The government‘s decision to raise domestic wheat support price for the next harvest by 14 per cent to Rs1,200

per 40kg has its pros and cons. It will encourage farmers to grow more wheat to reap a record output of 26 million

tons next spring. The hike in the cereal‘s price will not only offset the surge in input costs but also increase the

growers‘ margins, which should help cut rural poverty. Additionally, it will make the country more food-secure than

ever in the past in terms of availability and bring down the food import bill. But is higher crop production alone

sufficient to reduce food insecurity? More than half the households, including subsistence farmers, in the country

remain food-insecure despite a rapid increase in grain production during the last few years on higher-than-global

domestic wheat prices. It means surging prices, especially of wheat, have put food out of the reach of most people.

The new crop will be 80 per cent dearer than the one harvested in 2008, restricting the access of more people to

enough food. Thus, while giving price incentives for increasing food production, the government should evolve a

mechanism to feed everyone. Food inf lation isn‘t the only disadvantage of h igher wheat price. It will put additional

burden on the cash-strapped government that would be required to borrow greater funds from banks for its wheat

procurement operations to keep the market from dipping, and pay heavier costs for the storage of grain. Moreover,

the higher price may encourage farmers to bring more land under cultivation keeping them from becoming more

efficient.

While the decision has its economic value, it will also help raise the ruling PPP‘s stock in the rural areas of Punjab

and Sindh in an election year. With a considerable number of people in rural Sindh angry with the PPP over the new

local government law and many in south Punjab frustrated by its failure to create a new province for them,


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increasing support prices is perceived as a move to help the party win back a large chunk of its unhappy voters.

Unregistered vehicles

November 25th, 2012

From time to time, this newspaper has carried photographs of vehicles with illegal number plates — that is,

personalised plates as well as those reading ‗Applied For Registration‘, or ‗AFR‘ for short — which have proliferated

across the country. In a status-conscious society, vehicle registration plates are another means of gratuitous self

promotion. There is no dearth of vehicles bearing ‗MNA‘, ‗MPA‘ or ‗Senator‘ plates plying the streets, or ‗Shaikh‘ and

‗Nawab‘ for that matter. In a sign of the times, when contempt of the law is itself deemed an act of bravado, one

can even come across an occasional ‗Gangster‘ brazenly affixed to a vehic le. Two prominent notices by the Sindh

government in this newspaper on Friday offer hope that the days of unregistered vehicles may be coming to an

end, at least in this province. One stated that owners must register their vehicles within 60 days, failing which they

will be fined between Rs5,000 to Rs100,000, depending upon the delay in registration. The other notice addressed

those vehicle owners who have inexplicably not picked up their government -issue number plates despite having

applied and paid for them, and who are now presumably driving without plates.

Although there have been a number of ineffectual campaigns of this kind over the years, there seems to be a new

urgency to this drive given that the Supreme Court‘s Karachi bench, during a recent hearing on law and order in

the city, ordered that unregistered vehicles, those without number plates and non-custom paid illegal vehicles be

impounded. The practice in question not only deprives the government exchequer of taxes due on newly registered

vehicles but, particularly important in the context of Pakistan, also makes it impossible to trace vehicles involved in

terrorism as well as other crimes, including hit-and-run incidents. This time, there is no room for any laxity.

Fatal medicine

November 28th, 2012

Death by drinking is not unheard of in Pakistan. The number of deaths caused by consuming substandard liquor

runs into many scores each year. The incidence of such fatalities invariably picks up during holidays when imbibers

revel as a group. But the 17 who died after having apparently drunk a cough-syrup based concoction in Lahore

over the Ashura holidays did not consume the poison in a group. They had their f ill individually. An initial official

inquiry indicated they may have spiked the cough syrup, sold under the brand name of Tyno, for an enhanced kick.

While the bottles they bought carried the same brand name some of them bore a price tag of Rs19 as opposed to

the standard Rs42. But these clues raise more questions than offer explanations. One, a brand must have a certain

reputation to attract the attention of fake manufacturers. Two, if users had bought the syrup individually, it is odd

that each one on that particular day mixed it with a substance which turned it into a cocktail of death. T he

investigators should focus on whether the unfortunate users had bought some other drug from the same or

another nearby shop to get the desired mix. The concentration of the deceased in one area of Lahore — Shahdara

— should make it easier for police to narrow down the problem and unearth the racket. The outcome is almost

expected: the probe is going to expose the nexus between desperate addicts and their heartless, greedy suppliers.

What has already been exposed though is the official failure of not learning from deaths caused by substandard

drugs in the past. Almost a year ago, Lahore lost 150 precious lives due to the administration of a contaminated

drug at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. Investigations into the case still continue while monitoring remains so

lax that it allows the sale of all kinds of substances. On Tuesday, the district coordination officer arrived in grief -

stricken Shahdara to discover a factory making spurious medicines — a few days late.

According to a health official, Punjab is yet to fully understand its requirements and responsibilities under the Drug

Regulatory Authority of Pakistan law signed by the president recently. The law, among other objectives, seeks to

regulate the working of the pharmaceutical industry and aims to prevent the manufacture of fake drugs. This delay

in understanding the new system is criminal and while the fog must be cleared as early as possible, the blame for

the havoc caused by substandard drugs, as well as the misuse of known brands does, by and large, lie with the

province.


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In the line of fire

November 28th, 2012

It is unfortunate that society‘s lack of respect for the police obscures the fact that men of the force regularly risk

their lives in their attempt to carry out their duties in an increasingly violent country. They do this with poor

training and equipment — a situation that renders them a prime target for a variety of violent elements. Take the

example of Karachi, where, as reported, more than 100 policemen have been gunned down so fa r this year.

Similarly, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over 600 police personnel are estimated to have fallen in the line of duty since

2007. Many of the murdered policemen in Karachi‘s case were targeted by criminal gangs, as well as sectarian and

religiously mot ivated militants. In the past, policemen associated with the 1990s‘ Karachi operations have been

systematically targeted, reportedly by ethnic militants, but the sheer number of those slain this year is a matter of

concern. Most of those killed were from the lower ranks.

Although such a large number of policemen have been killed while performing their duties, the Sindh police high-

ups appear to be unmoved. For example, there has been no real progress when it comes to following up on the

cases of murdered police personnel. What is more, when policemen are killed or injured compensation is

announced, but bureaucratic hurdles are created which make it difficult for the heirs to claim f inancial

compensation, while corrupt elements within the police also demand a cut of the money before the families have

access to it. Such disregard for the welfare of policemen and their families results in a corrupt, demoralised force

unable to meet the challenges of urban policing. While better training and equipment are import ant, what is equally

vital is to assure policemen that they will be looked after if injured and that their families will be cared for if they

fall in the line of duty. This may boost their morale and result in better performance. The process of compensatio n

payment must be reformed to make the amount sufficient, while the process should not be a humiliating one that

adds to the miseries of the affected families.

Detestable practice

November 28th, 2012

‗Two jirgas decide fate of four girls‘ — this headline in yesterday‘s edition of the paper masks a universe of

suffering and pain. Variations of it are printed with disturbing frequency in other newspapers too. In one of the

cases reported yesterday and pertaining to the Sukkur/Shikarpur area in interior Sindh, a man accused of having

had illicit relations with the wife (subsequently killed) of another man was ordered by a tribal court to hand over his

two sisters and a niece to the aggrieved family under the ‗sang chatti‘ custom (also known as swara or vani).

Currently underage, the girls are to be handed over once they reach puberty. In the second case, a jirga in

Khairpur district settled a ‗free-will marriage‘ dispute by ordering a 13-year-old girl to be immediately handed over

in marriage to a 50-year-old man. The police have been directed to register cases and make arrests.

The victims can technically be protected by more than one law including child protection laws and the Prevention of

Anti-Women Practices Act 2011, which specifically lays out punishments for giving females in marriage to settle

disputes. Jirgas themselves have been actively discouraged or banned, as in Sindh. Yet the detestable practice

remains as entrenched as ever. This is partly because while there is much talk of the law in urban areas, it is not

so easy to implement these in the dark hinterlands where state justice is elusive. What is needed is effective and

prohibitive implementation. In the two cases, the names of the men convening the jirgas are known. They must be

pursued, and made to face justice. Until the majority of men in the country are aware that the abuse of women is

criminalised and that violators will face the full force of the law little real change will be forthcoming.


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Court’s expenses

November 29th, 2012

Once again, the Supreme Court is in the news — and once again not necessarily for the right reasons. Parliament‘s

Public Accounts Committee has renewed its demand for the Supreme Court registrar, Faqir Hussain, to appear

before the committee and present the superior court‘s administrative budget and expenses for scrutiny by the PAC.

The demand that the registrar appear before the PAC is an old one. It is also one that the court has resisted over

the life of this parliament, in fact since the mid-2000s. This time the PAC has not as yet set a fixed deadline for Mr

Hussain to appear before the committee but the matter should come to a head by the second week of December if

the court digs in its heels. Legalese aside, there is no clear legal or constitutional reason why the court can or

should resist the PAC‘s demands to scrutinise its expenditures. These expenditures are duly audited by the auditor

general of Pakistan but not scrutinised by an independent body like the PAC. The court has taken refuge in a court

decision from the mid-2000s after which the PAC‘s oversight was rejected but few independent constitutional or

legal experts accept the court‘s rationale or argument.

Why, then, has the court resisted parliamentary scrutiny of its expenses? The assumption is t hat given the strains

between the superior judiciary and the government, the court fears a public hearing on its expenses could become

a political tool to undermine the court‘s credibility and standing with the public. On the face of it at least, there is

no reason to suspect the PAC will find anything seriously amiss in the court‘s administrative expenses. Judges

salaries‘ are part of the official record and the lump sum transferred to the court to use in its discretion for salaries

of court staff, upkeep of buildings, travel, etc is also known. Perhaps the court apprehends that the PAC, with its

public hearings, could turn into a circus where politicians bandy about the sum it costs to keep a Supreme Court

justice in office and the amount spent on infrastructure and travel — sums that even if innocuous could resonate in

a negative way with the public in a struggling economy and with questions about the court‘s ability to deliver

effective, timely and low-cost justice still lingering.

But perceptions are not the law and neither is the PAC a government entity — even after the exit of Chaudhry Nisar

Ali, the PAC remains a cross-party parliamentary body. Every other institution, including the military, has

submitted to PAC scrutiny. So should the Supreme Court.

Friendly exchanges

November 29th, 2012

After being treated to some charged scenes, the audience has finally been given relief. Information Minister Qamar

Zaman Kaira on Tuesday showed his opposition to any move to disqualify Nawaz Sharif — the FIA probe of

allegations that the PML-N chief had taken money from the ISI in 1990 providing the likely background. Though he

didn‘t give the context, the minister said those who thought Mr Sharif could be ousted from politics were living in a

fool‘s paradise. A couple of days earlier, Mr Sharif had said he would not mind taking oath from President Asif Ali

Zardari if elected prime minister after the next polls. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has also in recent days offered

the PML-N leaders some praise. Such has been the history of this country that even a handshake involving two

opposing politicians can conjure up drastic scenarios about the intentions of a non-political force. Past

interventionists will have to stay committed to elected rule for a much longer perio d before these fears are

banished altogether.

Like life and television soap, Pakistani politics is full of intrigues and squabbles and frequent cheek-rubbing among

friends and partners, enemies and nemeses. The relationship between the PML-N and PPP is in focus because of

their central role and their vow to change the political culture. These two parties may be mercurial by design. When

they are at each other‘s throat, they scare the faint-hearted but do endear themselves to those who want

hostilities to continue. Contrarily, an exchange of reconciliatory messages between the rivals pleases one group at

the risk of angering brash fighters in their ranks. Neither party can be seen to be intimidated by the other, but

then, neither can they brandish their firepower as they had done in the past for fear of alienating large groups of

wary Pakistanis. This is a difficult balancing act to perform. As for those looking for some decency in politics, they

have no choice but to look at the increased number of polite exchanges between politicians as the beginning of a

lasting tradition where issues can be discussed in sober tones.


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TTP vs media

November 29th, 2012

If certain sections of the media were still attempting to justify the TTP‘s agenda or divert attention from it, the

attempt on television anchor Hamid Mir‘s life should leave no journalist or media outlet with any excuse to continue

serving as apologists for the Pakistani Taliban. The TTP‘s claim that it was behind the attack is not solid proof, but

in the absence of any denials from the group, one can only take it at face value. And so it appears the Taliban have

reached new levels of boldness when it comes to targeting the media. Going beyond just sending personal threats,

which they have done with other journalists in the past, this time they have publicly announced that a particular

journalist is a target — and that they plan to continue targeting him. The same unrepentant message of defiance

came through recently when the TTP claimed the attack on Malala Yousufzai and some sectarian attacks: they have

said they will continue trying to kill the young girl and Shias.

In the case of the media in particular, the Pakistani Taliban‘s antagonism is alarming because it underscores that

they cannot stomach any crit icism. Simply speaking out against them is a crime in their eyes, one for which the

only punishment is death. As such, they stand against everything that Pakistan‘s hard-won media freedom

represents. On a practical level, intelligence agencies must ensure that journalists are made aware of any threats

to their lives; while the odd interior ministry notification is issued from time to time, there are instances of direct

threats not having been communicated to the journalists they are made against. But more importantly, recent

events should serve as a red flag for journalists — and politicians — who support, defend or excuse the TTP‘s

actions that they do so at the cost of their own freedom of expression.

Not so simple

November 30th, 2012

The much-touted but largely ignored National Counter Terrorism Authority may be about to receive a new lease of

life following approval by the federal cabinet of the Nacta bill on Wednesday. Next up for Nacta — created by an

executive order in the late 2000s and so lacking the proper legislative cover — will be a debate in parliament, at

the committee stage first presumably, before the bill can be converted into an act. So far so good, it would seem.

But few things concerning Nacta are ever simple. Conceived as an intellige nce coordination, research and

international liaison entity, Nacta has suffered from the scepticism of lawmakers and the territorial attitude of

various intelligence agencies at the provincial and federal level.

In principle, Nacta is an excellent idea and one that the country‘s counterterrorism and counter-extremism

strategies desperately need. At present, particularly at the coordination level, cooperation among Pakistan‘s

intelligence agencies is so ad hoc and shambolic that it almost borders on the criminal. While pragmatists have

speculated whether an agency like the ISI would ever really consent to treating civilian counterparts as equals or

even deserving of serious attention, we are still left with a situation where a number of civilian-run agencies could

do with better coordination. For example, if the Sindh police are searching for a terrorism suspect who has escaped

to another province, there is no institutional way at the moment to consistently and reliably share such information

in a timely manner. Nacta could help plug that gap at least.

But if Nacta is to productively contribute to counterterrorism and counter-extremism strategies, it has to be

organised along professional and independent lines. The draft bill approved by the cabinet is not avai lable for

scrutiny as yet but it is believed to have resolved the impasse over whether the prime minister‘s office controls

Nacta, as the Punjab government has demanded, or the interior ministry does, as Rehman Malik has wanted, by

sharing control of the authority in a way that will effectively give the ministry the power to operate it. That may be

a recipe for resistance from many intelligence agencies, who will likely balk at control by a highly politicised entity,

as the interior ministry inevitably is under any government. In addition, who will guarantee that Nacta is staffed

with competent and qualif ied analysts and administrators as opposed to political appointees who tend to populate

such offices without a robust and transparent recruitment mechanism? The problem with entities like Nacta is that

as good as they are on paper, without purposeful implementation of the idea, more problems are created than

solved.


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Indefensible delay

November 30th, 2012

It had emerged sometime back that a massive backlog had developed in the issuance of passports, due to reasons

that included absence of staff, the slow release of funds and non-payment of dues to the Security Printing

Corporation (SPC) which provides the blank booklets. The Directorate General of Immigrat ion and Passports had

said that a mere 5,000 passports were being issued per day, against a daily application rate of more than 15,000.

It had been hoped that the relevant administration would take urgent steps to plug the gaps, but regrettably that

has not been the case. On Wednesday, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior was informed by the director

general, Immigration and Passports, Syed Wajid Hussain Bokhari, that the backlog of passport applications had

crossed the 300,000 mark. In September, applicants were waiting for up to two months for a document issued

through the normal (as opposed to urgent) process. There does not appear to have been any change for the better.

According to Mr Bokhari, the main reason behind the delay is that the money allocated to his department has not

been released. Consequently, the department is unable to pay the SPC which, in turn, is releasing only 5,000

booklets a day against a much larger demand. He claimed that were the funds to be released immediately by the

finance ministry and the SPC induced to provide 25,000 booklets a day, the entire backlog could be cleared within

one month.

That such a crucial part of the state‘s work is not being done for such a reason leaves us lost for words. Obtaining a

passport is the basic right of every citizen and it is far too important a document to not issue indefinitely —

particularly since many applicants need to travel urgently for medical treatment, education, employment or other

reasons. Moreover, given that all the applicants affected have already paid the fees required for the issuance of

their document, no excuse by the state is acceptable. The finance ministry and the passport issuing authority need

to get their house in order soon.

Dangerous environs

November 30th, 2012

The fact that a newborn at a Rawalpindi hospital was bitten by a rat earlier this week is a horrifying, extreme

example of the lack of hygiene in the nation‘s health facilities. It is perhaps sheer luck that the baby escaped

serious harm. Officialdom‘s response to the scary incident has been predictable: inquiry committees have been

formed while senior officials at the hospital concerned have been suspended. Rodents and cats are said to be

frequently spotted at the facility, yet it is not the only one in the country where animals and pests compromise the

high sanitary standards that are expected at a hospital. With hygiene standards at public hospitals in all provincial

capitals extremely poor, one can only imagine the state of rural health units. While the condition of private

hospitals is relatively better, it is public health facilities which cater to most patients.

A shortage of funds for maintenance and upkeep is one of the reasons behind the unhygienic conditions.

Overcrowding in public facilities is another concern, as there are not enough beds to cater to the number of

patients, especially in gynaecology wards. Some quarters also disagree with outsourcing sanitation duties to

contractors as the latter reportedly cut corners. Unfortunately, those tasked with keeping hospitals clean are paid a

pittance, work long hours and hardly receive any training; there is little to motivate them into doing their job

diligently. Health authorities in all provinces need to rethink their approach towards maintaining sanitary

standards. The environment within and outside hospitals must be free of filth as well as animals. For this, sanitary

staff must be motivated with higher salaries and better working conditions. In fact, all stakeholders, including

doctors, nurses and hospital administrations should look upon it as a challenge that can only be met with a

collective effort.


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EDITORIALS FROM THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

Kalabagh issue

December 1st, 2012

Kalabagh dam enjoys support in the capital of Punjab which is the only unit in the federation backing its

construction. For some, the proposal has been a dream for many decades now. For just as long, the ‗smaller

provinces‘ have opposed the construction of the dam, their opposition intensifying even at the mere hint of

attempts to force the project through. But on Thursday, there was more of a thrust — from the blue. The Lahore

High Court‘s order has been met with the standard objections outside Punjab. In fact, so sensitive is the subject

that even those who support Kalabagh‘s construction have been guarded in their response to the LHC decision that

the federal government is constitutionally bound to start the project in the light of the decisions of the Council of

Common Interests. The decisions referred to in the LHC short order were made in the 1990s and called for

technical and political issues associated with the dam to be addressed to make the latter acceptable to all.

The court says the project‘s fate should not be sealed on the basis of presumptions and surmises , perhaps seeking

to put the focus back on the CCI‘s calls for evaluation of contentious aspects of Kalabagh. Maybe there is a hope

that this would help iron out the differences between the provinces manifested in the anti-Kalabagh resolutions

passed by the assemblies of Balochistan, Sindh and the erstwhile NWFP some years ago.

In any event, the matter will ultimately come to the people‘s representatives which is only fair. Regardless of

whether or not they agree with the court, the politicians have, without exception, spoken of the lack of consensus

on Kalabagh in response to Thursday‘s ruling. The question is: if it is to be ultimately referred to the politicians why

did the LHC have to intervene in the first place? The temptation is there to find an answer in the judiciary‘s

relationship with a government whose decision to shelve the Kalabagh project ―forever‖ was among its first

resolutions. In more recent times the superior judiciary has ruled that a provincial government (in Balochistan) has

lost its mandate to govern. It has also sought to fix CNG prices. This approach to addressing problems can be

termed risky since it can increase the gap between two pillars of the state which cannot do without each other and

must complement one another. The Kalabagh ruling by the LHC has already been dubbed ‗anti-federation‘. It could

cause — perhaps it already has caused — greater polarisation in a country confronting major provincial and ethnic

divisions.

Palestinian victory

December 1st, 2012

It may be ―unfortunate‖ for America and ―meaningless‖ for Israel, but an overwhelming majority of the General

Assembly‘s members voiced the feeling of people across the globe when they voted on Thursday to grant Palestine

the status of a ―non-member observer state‖. The vote takes the Palestinian people a step closer to their ultimate

aim of having a sovereign state of their own on their native soil. President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote ―a birth

certificate‖ for the Palestinian state and said the UN move was the ―last chance to save the two-state solution‖.

Already, more than 130 states recognise Palestine as a sovereign entity; Thursday‘s 138 yes votes and only nine

nays (with 41 abstentions) show that more states have swung to the Palestinian cause and rejected the Israe li

stance that seeks to perpetuate Israel‘s occupation of Palestinian territories. The vote also shows the diplomatic

isolation of Israel and America — the two principal opponents of the move. Thursday‘s vote also means Palestine

will be able to join the UN‘s specialised agencies, including what America is seen to dislike most — Palestine‘s

membership of the International Criminal Court.

While Palestinians have hailed their diplomatic victory, they and their supporters will have to reckon with Israeli

intransigence, America‘s unqualified support for the Jewish state, continued settlement activity in the West Bank

and Israel‘s arrogance stemming from its armed might. In fact, Israel‘s UN ambassador clearly indicated the future

course of the Likud government‘s policy when he said the vote would put the peace process ―backwards‖, while

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Mr Abbas, alleging that his UN speech did not contain ―the

words of a man of peace‖. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, like the American and Israeli ambassadors, called for


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direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel to achieve peace, forgetting perhaps that Israel has

torpedoed every peace plan, including the ones to which it is party. Palestine‘s diplomatic victory at the UN has

embarrassed Israel and America, but they have no choice except to bow to reality, for the Palestinian people have

a strong case based on history.

Skyfall

December 1st, 2012

Man has always looked heavenwards for answers but on Wednesday night, disconcerted residents of Dadu district

in Sindh had more than the normal vexations of life to quiz the higher powers about when large chunks of

unidentifiable equipment dropped out of the sky over an area spanning several villages. That no one was hurt and

no property damaged can only be termed a miracle, for the pieces were far from small. The biggest fragment

weighed some 187 kilograms, while a former nazim of the area described a piece of iron as being five feet long and

two feet wide.

Military authorities soon took possession of the remains and Pakistanis were left speculating whether the

unidentified equipment was a bird, or a plane. Or, going beyond the Superman terminology, a dismembered

satellite perhaps? Or even a missile? The last theory gained currency rapidly. Earlier on the same day, ISPR had

reported that the army had successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable Hatf-V Ghauri ballistic missile. Following this

line of reasoning, a few wary souls started wondering whether or not the huge amount of public funds spent on

missile-system development produce stable results. Fortunately for the future of defence-system development,

military authorities issued a statement yesterday saying that the objects constituted the part that separates in the

normal course of a rocket launch; the missile reached its destination, so the test had been successful. That will no

doubt come as a relief to the nervous, sky-gazing residents of Dadu, and other citizens, too, who may fear f inding

themselves in the flight path of a missile at any time after this incident. We can only wish that such tests would be

conducted in more remote areas and with much more care. Surely working out which regions are populated is no

rocket science.

Delimitation

December 2nd, 2012

Due to the Supreme Court‘s recent actions, there is renewed focus on the electoral dynamics of Karachi. Two cases

before the apex court have raised issues concerning how the metropolis votes. In the f irst, the court has called for

new delimitation of electoral constituencies in the city while hearing the suo motu case on law and order as a

measure to quell violence. In the second case, in reply to petitions filed by several political parties arguing that

votes have been ‗shifted‘ out of Karachi, the Supreme Court has suggested the army be called to assist in door-to-

door verification of voters.

Clarity in a number of areas is needed before these moves proceed any further. Firstly, controlling crime and

redrawing the map of electoral constituencies are two very different things and have little in common. Clamping

down on violence in the metropolis requires other, more direct solutions. It is unclear what delimit ing new

constituencies will do to crack down on criminal elements. Secondly, as far as the act of delimitation itself is

concerned, there are two pertinent questions: why just in Karachi and why now, when elections are just months

away? Legally and practically, a new census is essential for the delimitation process to be error- and controversy-

free. But there has not been a population count since 1998. The law requires that constituencies be delimited after

every census. Also, redrawing only Karachi‘s constituencies may open a Pandora‘s box. For example, it has been

pointed out that there is as dire a need for new delimitation in Balochistan and Fata as there is in Karachi. As for

the number of voters that have been registered outside Karachi despite living and working in the metropolis for

several years, this also needs to be clarif ied. A figure of three mi llion such voters has been cited. Where did this

number come from? Election observers note that while the issue may be genuine, the number of such voters is

much lower. The Election Commission of Pakistan needs to investigate and come out with the facts, keeping in

mind that while Karachi‘s population grows due to its status as an economic hub, other parts of the country are

also experiencing population shifts, which need to be reflected in the electoral map.


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Ideally, a census should be carried out after the general elections; when reliable population data emerges, the

delimitation process can be carried out countrywide. Perhaps this point deserves due focus. Meanwhile, electoral

matters are best left to the ECP to decide, as the court‘s intervention in these affairs may complicate the situation,

even if guided by the best of intentions.

Iran N-stalemate

December 2nd, 2012

We are familiar with the ‗smoking gun‘ shibboleth. The Hans Blix commission, searching for weapons of mass

destruction in Iraq, reported to the Security Council it had found no ―smoking gun‖. America and Britain still chose

to invade Iraq. That‘s why Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh‘s assertion at Friday‘s Vienna meeting that the

International Atomic Energy Agency had found ―no smoking gun‖ in Iran is no guarantee of peace. Given Israel‘s

gung-ho record, its obsession with the Iranian nuclear programme and Tel Aviv‘s frustration over the Palestinian

diplomatic victory at the UN last Thursday, the Likud government could still choose to have a go at Iran — smoking

gun or no smoking gun. The issue is not only Iran‘s right to a nuclear programme for peaceful purposes, it is also

the Iranian leadership‘s failure to address predominantly Western concerns about uranium enrichment. Iran admits

it has an ongoing uranium enrichment plan but insists it is meant for power production. That is where it runs into

trouble with the IAEA. Friday‘s Vienna meeting followed the release earlier last month of an IAEA report that

claimed Tehran continued to violate UN resolutions.

On the day Mr Soltanieh spoke, the US Senate approved — 94-0 — another sanctions package against Iran,

something the House of Representatives has already done. A day earlier, the American envoy to the IAEA said if

Iran showed no ―substantive cooperation‖, Washington would take the issue to the Security Council. There Iran is

unlikely to have the benefit of a Chinese or Russian veto, for the talks with P5+1 have so far produced no results.

With the IAEA scheduled to meet again this month, and talks with P5+1 likely to resume shortly, Iran must make a

determined bid to reassure them about its nuclear intentions. Statements like the one made by its nuclear chief,

Ferydoon Abbasi Davani, that his country would expand its nuclear activity ―with force‖ do not help, nor does Mr

Soltanieh‘s threat that Tehran ―may‖ pull out of the NPT if Israel bombed the country. It wouldn‘t matter whether

Iran remained in the NPT or not if there was war.

Cause for concern

December 2nd, 2012

The first World Aids Day, Dec 1, was observed in 1988. For the bulk of the years since then, it seemed that the war

against this disease would never be won. Finally, however, in 2010, the UN said that the world had turned the

corner and the tide had been reversed. Given this context, then, it is unfortunate in the extreme that in Pakistan,

despite local and international efforts, HIV prevalence is continuing to rise in 19 cities. On Friday, in anticipation of

World Aids Day, WHO issued a statement expressing concern over Pakistan‘s high rates of unscreened blood

transfusions, and poor infection control practices in healthcare centres across the country. Other factors that raise

the risk of HIV transmission are as endemic: un-sterilised medical equipment, the re-use of syringes by drug

addicts and the lack of awareness on part of vulnerable groups.

It gets worse. Since 1987 when the first Aids case was reported in Pakistan, the spread has been progressive with

it now reaching the status of a concentrated epidemic in high-risk groups. Its incidence in injecting drug users

stands at 27 per cent and in transgender sex workers at six per cent; both groups have breached the five per cent

threshold set as the division between a first- and second-stage HIV epidemic. Further, we have seen outbreaks in

rural communities such as Jalal Pur Jattan in district Gujrat because of overlap between injecting drug use, unsafe

hospital infection control practices, the demand for therapeutic injections and commer-cial sex. This is a frightening

trajectory. Given the passage of the 18th Amendment, provincial governments must evolve their own strategies

and divert funds. Stretched though they may be, addressing this issue is vital. Already mired in a battle against

polio, Pakistan must do more on the Aids front too.


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Further delay

December 3rd, 2012

Trade with India is supposed to be the game-changer in relations between the two countries. Better ties with India,

including flinging open the doors to mutually beneficial trade, is supposed to have become a bedrock principle

among mainstream politicians. But few things here follow a smooth script. According to a report in this newspaper

yesterday, Pakistan has missed a self-imposed deadline to allow all tradable items to cross the land border with

India — as opposed to many goods which presently make their way into Pakistan via the sea — because

agriculturalists and their supporters in cabinet are reluctant to endorse the government‘s own plan ahead of an

election. The thinking is typically protectionist, and bereft of a full understanding of what Pakistan would have to do

after cabinet endorsement of trade liberalisation with India. Allowing goods to cross over from Wagah and other

land routes will not automatically hurt agriculturalists and their powe rful supporters because key products like

sugar, wheat and cotton would still be regulated. But given the quality of debate in the cabinet and the electoral

considerations of politicians becoming paramount with an election on the horizon, rational argument is an

unfortunate casualty in decision-making.

Just as worrying is how easily the decision-making process can be manipulated by vested interests, even on the

civilian side. The outreach to India could be the centrepiece of this government‘s foreign policy credentials going

into the election; the manifold benefits of trade, including the positive spillover for other security aspects of the

fraught Pakistan-India relationship, are undeniable; and with an economy struggling to return to a high growth

path, every little bit can help — and yet the process of trade liberalisation with India has been gummed up because

of parochial interests. For constituency politicians, even the impression of hurting their voters‘ interests can be fatal

— but then that is the point of a federal cabinet: to rise above narrow, local interests and promote policies that

benefit society overall.

Over 65 years of a dispiriting relationship with India, there are few reasons or excuses that have not been

proffered to thwart better ties. But at least this much has become clear: without bold and courageous political

leadership, meaningful improvements in Pakistan-India relations will never materialise. The issues and disputes

between Pakistan and India are very real. The hawks on the Indian side are equally real, as is the growing

suspicion of Pakistan across the Indian elite in government, civil society and the media. But none of that is reason

to stop trying. Trade is a win-win situation for both Pakistan and India; the federal cabinet needs to better

educated in the matter.

Upwards, downwards

December 3rd, 2012

After flying on their fancy bridges for long, Lahore‘s minders have woken up to the need of going under at a crucial

point. Kalma Chowk that has been subjected to much chopping and building under the current government is to be

now given an underpass as well. As the sequence goes, they first made a road there, then came up with the

bridges and are now digging for gold in the form of an underpass. Presuming all this is our top-most priority,

shouldn‘t they have begun with the underpass? The time is up for another few rows of trees, causing a lot of

heartache to not just romantics but also to practical ones opposed to the arbitrary development model. In official

books, the new underpass at Kalma Chowk was always on the cards and it was only a question of when. But still

the entire exercise has come in for a lot of criticism. Much of this criticism has solid basis to it, often drawing upon

the peculiar character of the city of Lahore, and made to sound like a long unending lament for lack of an official

ear.

The antithesis is strong. Beginning with the more petty monetary side, a professional plan could have saved the

taxpayers‘ money. Under the erratic plan, of which Kalma Chowk is a prime example, newly laid roads have been

dug up to create passages. If this wastage of public money spent on projects undertaken without any evidence of

consultation with the people is not a big enough reason for concern, little heed has been paid to the argument

which calls for spending money where it is more urgently needed. Where the environment and cultural preservation

are concerned, these are subjects those who are trying to create a new Lahore virtually by submerging the old


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have never appeared to care for. It is almost impossible to get the message through to Chief Minister Shahbaz

Sharif especially when he is in a creative mood. What his city requires at this moment is some relief from his

speed, pause and ref lection.

New targets

December 3rd, 2012

While Ashura passed off relatively peacefully in the days since Muharram 10, sectarian killings in Karachi, targeting

mostly Shias, have resumed, with militants also attacking women and children. At least five people were killed in

such attacks on Friday, including a man dropping off his 12-year-old daughter to school; the schoolgirl, who saw

her father killed in front of her eyes, was injured in the attack. On Thursday, a husband and wife, employees of a

local hospital, were gunned down on their way to work in what is also believed to be a sectarian attack. If these

incidents are harbingers of a rising trend, it would mark a new low even for sectarian militants. Women and

children indeed have died in terrorist bombings. Yet as police officials point out, the killing of the couple is probably

the first incident in the city where a woman has been directly targeted in a sectarian murder. In an incident last

month, an adviser to the Imamia Students Organisation was gunned down in front of his wife, but the killers

spared the woman. Also, in the recent past we have witnessed militants target male members belonging to the

same family, both Sunni and Shia.

Even in the shadowy world of religious militants women and children have usually been considered off -limits. Some

of the ideologues of the modern jihadi movement have specifically outlawed the targeting of these two groups. Yet

in an increasingly violent, anarchic scenario, sectarian militants seem to be doing away with such strictures. To

them, nothing is sacred. Unfortunately, the core problem remains unaddressed. While blanketing cities with

security cover during religious occasions may be a successful way to ward off terrorist strikes, no coherent strategy

is being seen to combat the relentless, frequent waves of targeted killings. It is this menace which the security

establishment must counter.

Voter verification

December 7th, 2012

All appears set for launching a door-to-door verification of voters in Karachi after the chief election commissioner

said on Wednesday that his organisation was ready to implement the Supreme Court‘s orders. Given the anomaly

pointed out in a petition to the apex court, a rectification of the electoral rolls would serve to give the voting right

to those millions who have been registered in their hometowns despite being Karachi residents for a long time. A

verif ied and up-to-date voter list would pre-empt manipulation allegations after the election. The issue is the

gigantic nature of the task within the short time available to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Mobilising

adequate manpower to go door to door in a sprawling city with an estimated population of 18 million is a huge

task. In the normal registration process done leisurely years in advance, the ECP falls back on part-time workers

like school teachers to register voters. But with little time available, it remains to be seen how the ECP goes about

it. The SC has suggested that the services of the army and Rangers be utilised. This raises a major question: can

the army spare men for the job in the violence-prone metropolis?

There is no doubt Karachi‘s police force has its hands full. Its resources are stretched, given the city‘s endemic

ethnic and sectarian violence, acts of terrorism, the crime mafias, as in Lyari, and the security duty to protect VIPs.

Besides, the force is politicised. It is, therefore, the army and Rangers that may have to step in. But, again, the

men of the two forces can only provide protection to enumerators; they cannot do the paperwork. With the CEC

having pledged himself to the task, all one can do is to hope the commission would be able to complete verification

well in time despite the odds. What matters is an on-time general election. Nothing should be done that in any way

upsets the schedule for the next polls for which the electorate and the political parties seem ready.

Finally, it is relevant to mention the delimitation debate here. While the verification of voters can enhance the

credibility of the elections, delimitation at this point in time would have the opposite effect. It is a potentially


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divisive and dangerous exercise in a city mired in ethnic politics, especially if it is carried out without a census and

only in Karachi. Although close to the polls, the verification of voters should go ahead while the ECP should put off

delimitation till the next census.

Power tussle

December 7th, 2012

Instead of aiming for a speedy resolution to the benefit of all, the tussle over the post of executive director at the

Higher Education Commission has been allowed to drag on — unfortunately, the normal course of affairs in

Pakistan. HEC chairperson Dr Javaid Laghari believes that the commission had the right to extend the tenure of Dr

Sohail Naqvi as executive director, which it did on Aug 27 this year; the government, however, gave the additional

charge of executive director HEC to the secretary, Ministry of Education and Training, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

Meanwhile, the HEC invited applications for the post of executive director through advertise ment, but a day before

the Aug 28 deadline, it deferred the recruitment process and extended Dr Naqvi‘s contract. According to Dr

Laghari, this was because the commission came to know about a ban on new appointments in the management

pay scale category, under which the executive director is employed.

In all this, it is the future of the HEC and the spending of billions on higher education that it oversees that is at

stake. If quarters within the HEC have concerns that the commission‘s autonomy may be undermined, these are

not unfounded. The direction in which it is headed has remained confused since it was decided that in the wake of

the 18th Amendment, the HEC should be split up into provincial units. In June, the government decided to give

administrative and f inancial control of the commission to the Ministry of Professional and Technical Training. It is

true that devolution makes certain demands on several institutions, including the HEC — which the latter is

resisting. But while the commission‘s detractors may have some fair points, it nevertheless is one of the few

institutions with a good track record. While reform is necessary, particularly on the issues of audits, plagiarism and

transparency, it should be progressive and participatory, and the government should not tamper with that which

works. The country‘s concerns about primary and secondary education, quality, etc, notwithstanding — and the

state must step up efforts in these contexts — higher education is far too important a sector to demolish merely for

a slice of the pie.

Inoki’s return

December 7th, 2012

The visit of Antonio Inoki — known as Mohammad Hussain after he embraced Islam — to Pakistan has generated

quite a stir. The ace Japanese wrestler of yore is on a goodwill visit to celebrate six decades of Pakistan-Japan

diplomatic relations. Mr Inoki is accompanied by an entourage of Japanese wrestlers who took part in exhibition

matches in Lahore and Peshawar. Many Pakistanis will remember his classic December 1976 bout with local hero

Akram Pahalwan. The match, held in Karachi‘s National Stadium, was quite the sporting spectacle and telecast live

on TV with a running commentary on Radio Pakistan. Inoki was then in his prime; earlier that same year, he had

met boxing great Muhammad Ali in a mixed martial arts duel and held the mighty pugilist to a draw.

It was a challenge from Akram that brought Inoki to Karachi. Inoki, who was younger and fitter, made short work

of Akram. Though the local wrestler had said he would finish off the Japanese f ighter in three rounds, fate would

decide otherwise. It was Inoki who — barely into the third round — applied a devastating arm-lock to Akram, which

not only dislocated the latter‘s shoulder but decided the match in the foreigner‘s favour. A brief mélée wa s

witnessed as Akram‘s supporters stormed the ring after the shock defeat. As an editorial in this newspaper‘s Dec

14, 1976 edition put it: ―Akram — the proud scion of the immortal Gama clan — fell before the mighty matman

from Japan in the much-vaunted encounter in Karachi…‖ A few years later, Mr Inoki also wrestled Akram‘s relative

Jhara. It is good to see M.H. Inoki back in Pakistan. Being a true gentleman, he said he had also come to pay his

respects at the graves of Gama and Akram. The visit by the veteran Japanese athlete not only brings back

memories of an exciting match, it may also help promote freestyle wrestling in Pakistan.


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Too soon

December 8th, 2012

The one-man Suddle commission has established that Arsalan Iftikhar, the son of the chief justice of Pakistan,

received favours from a controversial property magnate with complex political and business relationships — and

after reaching that preliminary finding, the commission has simply been wrapped up by the Supreme Court. That

is, quite simply, extraordinary.Transparency demands that at the very least a larger commission be set up, the new

commission be given a wide-ranging mandate and powers, and a serious effort be made to establish who did what

and, perhaps most crucially, why. A behind-the-scenes powerbroker like Malik Riaz is unlikely to lavish foreign trips

and other goodies on a scion of a top judge just as a means of establishing good relations. Even if Mr Riaz was

testing the waters as opposed to actually having a deal in hand, what led him to believe that partially financing

Arsalan Iftikhar‘s lavish lifestyle was an investment worth making? As for Arsalan Iftikhar, could the Malik Riaz

connection be just the tip of a dirty iceberg in which other powerful business and political interests also coddled the

scion of the chief justice in the hope — or false promise — of favourable treatment by the superior judiciary? The

citizenry of Pakistan, which has reposed such trust in the superior judiciary as a born-again institution of principle,

deserves to know the truth.

The unhappy, larger truth here is that the tawdry Arsalan Iftikhar-Malik Riaz episode cannot be assumed to be an

isolated set of circumstances. Fear of the gavel being brought crashing down ensures that even the most serious of

allegations remain only whispered and rarely aired in public. Almost certainly, given the suspicion and mistrust

between the government and the court, there is no chance for a full, proper and fair inquiry into potential

wrongdoing in judicial circles. To expect the judiciary to open itself to such scrutiny by a critical, if not hostile,

government is perhaps unrealistic. But the Suddle commission has established enough facts to warrant a new high

powered commission to probe existing allegations, and new ones that may arise if such a commission were to

seriously solicit input from the public.

What may be necessary too is to investigate the nexus between politics and big business in Pakistan. How and why

does an individual like Malik Riaz command such inf luence? Are those links the unavoidable cost of a nascent

democracy with weak institutions? Much seems inevitable until an unexpected crossroads arrives and reforms are

forced through by circumstance. Pakistan can do with fewer individuals operating in the shadows of the state.

Illegal transmissions

December 8th, 2012

In understanding how much damage can be done by failing to crack down on the wide dissemination of divisive

speech, the case of militant leader Fazlullah is instructive. He was amongst the f irst extremists to turn to FM radio

to cast the shadow of fear over parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, so much so that he became popularly known as

Mullah Radio. It was only after his group virtually took over Swat and imposed upon it an extremist version of

religion that the Pakistan Army was moved to push it out in 2009. But the problem of hate speech being broadcast

by FM radio remains; diverse militant and/or extremist outfits continue to use the medium to spread their divisive

views. Indeed, the bloody battle fought in the Khyber Agency between the Lashkar-i-Islam and Ansar-ul-Islam

occurred in part over the illegal FM channels each group broadcast.

Given this background, it is a step in the right direction that about a dozen unlicensed FM radio channels have been

shut down, and their equipment seized in Swabi district over the past few days. They were being used to air

programmes concerning different religious schools of thought of a nature that made the authorities fear

breakdowns in law and order. However, the state needs to bolster this crackdown on illegal radio stations by

creating incentives for legal, licensed channels that produce superior and non-controversial programming. The

further one is from the urban and settled areas, the lower the penetration of FM programming — even though a

sizeable audience is clearly available. Lowering licence fees and making it possible to apply for an FM radio licence

— instead of having to wait for Pemra to announce an auction, as is currently the case — would go a long way as

an incentive. True, a large portion of the northwest is covered by Radio Pakistan‘s medium-wave transmissions;


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but FM has appreciably better broadcast quality and in a region that Pakistan needs to develop, a case can be

made for the plurality of voices. Responsible radio programming can make a difference. The rest of Pakistan has

benefited from the FM revolution; so should the northwest.

Forbes list

December 8th, 2012

This list does what most others do not. The Forbes roll of the most powerful people on earth includes Gen Ashfaq

Kayani, which was not unexpected given Pakistani army chiefs have always been among the most influential in the

world — for whatever reason. What makes the list special is the rare instance it provides of a Pakistani imp roving

his or her ranking. Gen Kayani was rated 29th in 2011 and is 28th this year. Some two dozen posts adrift, at

number 52, stands Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, chief of the ISI which in its own right is known for its clout.

The magazine describes some recent court observations ―holding the military accountable for human rights abuses

and political meddling‖ as representing a ―low light‖ for the general. However, this new factor has not had any real

impact on the ranking which appears to attach considerable s ignificance to a person‘s international value, along

with their importance in the area and field they belong to. Consequently, both Gen Kayani and Lt Gen Islam being

America‘s allies in the ‗war on terror‘ is a factor of critical import. Lt Gen Islam‘s first visit to the US is described as

a ―highlight‖ and ISI, the magazine says, ―will be hugely influential in determining the region‘s future‖. Obviously,

given the angle from where the jury has appeared to have selected the entries, there is little room for any other

Pakistani to make the list. It was out of the scope of this exercise to analyse why Pakistan continues to be

represented by its generals in comparison to political and business faces emerging on the chart of honour

elsewhere. But the point does add to the never-ending list of occasions where Pakistanis have wondered about the

old tag of a nation governed by the army sticking to them despite grand pronouncements about democracy.

The forgotten

December 9th, 2012

In the midst of the high drama perennially offered by Pakistan`s political scene, with its plethora of headline-

grabbing personallties, other important stories featuring `ordinary` people sometimes slip off the news agenda

altogether. One such story is that of the nearly five million people affected by this year`s floods, whose desperate

plight has been highlighted in a series of recent reports in this newspaper. According to the National Disaster

Management Authority, over 600,000 homes were `partially or fully damaged` by floodwaters t his year. In Sindh

the worst-hit province nearly 142,000 people are still living in government -run relief camps. Hundreds of

thousands more all over the country are either living in tents provided by NGOs or in makeshift shelters they have

constructed on the wreckage of their homes and even along roadsides.

Having waited in vain for sufficient compensation from the government, many are trying to rebuild their homes

through their own resources, an undertaking that is pushing them further into debt as they have to take out loans

to pay for the construction.

Those whose livelihoods depended upon the land are now at the mercy of relief goods distributed by NGOs. Large

areas remain submerged, and little or no effort has yet been made to drain out the water. In Jacobabad, the main

ricegrowing area of Sindh andthe worst affected district in the province, the standing water may severely impact

the next rice crop by delaying its sowing.

Aside from the immediate steps the government needs to take to ameliorate the lot of those affected ensuring that

compensation is paid quickly and basic needs are met, particularly given the approaching winter it is imperative

that long-term plans are put in place to minimise the fallout from what has now become a recurring natural

disaster. And if, as some water experts believe, this requires some rethinking of irrigation infrastructure

development, then those difficult decisions must be taken.

Ad hoc measures are no longer excusable.


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In some ways, however, the vast human tragedy unfold ing in the hinterland was perhaps inevitable. After floods in

three consecutive years, donor fatigue was always a possibility. The apathy of officialdom was also scarcely

surprising, even more so with a cashstrapped government.

Also, most floods tend to be a slowly developing catastrophe which does not sync with the short attention span of

the media nor the public whose tastes it influences. It is nevertheless the media`s responsibility to ensure that the

suffering of millions of our compatriots is not a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Only in that lies hope that the issue will be comprehensively addressed.

School crisis

December 9th, 2012

It is a strange juxtaposition. Two stories printed on the same day in this paper point to the anomaly in the

education sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas. In one report, the ANP-led government of the

province no doubt with an eye on the elections has proclaimed its achievements in the field of education during its

tenure. Below this is a story which says that in Mohmand Agency, only six out of the 112 schools targeted by

militants have been rebuilt.

Fears of kidnapping, especially of female teachers, have also adversely affected educational activities in the

agency. More schools have been destroyed by militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa than in Fata; government figures

show that around 750 schools have been blown up in the province since militancy gained ground over the past few

years. Floods damaged another 1,700 schools.

There are two distinct areas that need attention in order to improve Khyber Pakhtunkhwa`s educational system.

The first is a purely academic and administrative problem. The ANP has made some impressive claimsregarding its

improvement of the education sector; these include raising the provinc ial literacy rate by seven per cent to an

overall 56 per cent, as well as recruiting teachers, building more colleges and universities and raising enrolment

rates. Yet while there have been improvements in the province`s educational infrastructure, the administration of

schools leaves much to be desired. Hence perhaps the focus should be on quality rather than numbers. The second

issue is that of security. While the government builds and rebuilds schools, militants keep destroying them. It is

simply not possible to protect every school by posting security men outside them. Besides, there`s little a

watchman or police officer can do when a group of militants show up and decide to blow up a school. The issue is a

much larger one that of improving security in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata by uprooting militancy. That is

something the administration and security apparatus need to handle. Unless the environment is secure, the

students of the province and Fata will be unable to realise their full potential.

Meshaal`s return

December 9th, 2012

Khaled Meshaal s return to Palestinian soil after 45 years comes in the wake of some positive developments for his

people, though challenges still lie ahead. First, Israel called off its ground invasion, deterred as much by

international pressures as by the determination of the Palestinians not to surrendertoforce.Second, Palestinians

won a resounding victory last month at the UN where the majority of the General Assembly`s members voted

`yes` to give Palestine nonstate member status. Mr Meshaal is a hero to his people. Co-founder of Hamas, Mr

Meshaal assumed the resistance movement`s leadership after its other founder, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, was

murdered by Israelis. Now based in Damascus, Mr Meshaal, who himself survived an assassination attempt by the

Mossad in Jordan, has turned Hamas into an organisation that combines political and military activities with

extensive social welfare work in Gaza. The apogee ofHamas`s power came when it swept the polls for the

Palestinian legislative assembly in 2006, routing Fatah. In this lay the seeds of disunity and fratricide, because


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Fatah did not reconcile to the lapse of its traditional monopoly over the Palestinian people. The civil war that

followed led to Gaza`s `secession` from the West Bank.

Today, Gaza and the West Bank are working under two different administrations. This has reduced Palestinian

territories to two cantons which have no status in international law. Mahmoud Abbas was the man behind Oslo. To

him also goes the credit for Palestine`s diplomatic victory at the UN last month. Mr Meshaal s first -ever visit to

Gaza on the 25th anniversary of Hamas`s founding provides them with the right moment to bury the hatchet and

unite in the interest of their people. They should know Pa lestinian unity is the prerequisite for a united struggle for

ending the Israeli occupation of their land.

Another row

December 10th, 2012

When Afghanistan pushes, Pakistan pushes back — it is almost an immutable law of relations between the two

countries that until days ago seemed to be inching closer to a more stable and productive relationship. But then

the attempted assassination of the Afghan intelligence chief last Thursday prompted President Hamid Karzai to

suggest the attack had been planned in Pakistan and now the Pakistan Foreign Office has lashed out against Mr

Karzai. As with the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, also blamed by the Afghan government on Pakistan, the

attempted murder of Asadullah Khalid, the Afghan intelligence chief, will further complicate already complex ties,

though this time even closer to the crucial 2014 deadline that all sides have their eyes on. The Pakistani state‘s

demand for proof that Mr Khalid‘s assassination was planned in this country is unlikely to be met by Kabul; that is

simply in the nature of such murky and dangerous issues. But perceptions can matter as much, if not more, than

the proven facts in such issues.

As an Afghan known to be hostile to Pakistan and sceptical of reconciliation with the Taliban, Mr Khalid has had

many enemies in the grey areas of overlaps between the state here and the insurgents in Afghanistan. Few in the

Afghan state will be willing to believe Pakistan or its alleged Afghan proxies were not in some way involved in the

attempt on Mr Khalid‘s life. The fact that he is such a senior official in Afghanistan will only make those suspicions

harder to overcome and cause them to linger much longer than otherwise. The timing also could not have been

worse for those seeking to stabilise relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Accusations and recriminations aside, the problem for Pakistan policy on Afghanistan is two-fold. One, the recent

positive developments between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been discrete events at the highest levels —

elsewhere along the operational and intelligence apparatus, there is still little day-to-day contact and much

suspicion. Two, for all the talk of Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation, the security establishment here

continues to hedge its bets and play both sides. Whether that is out of fear or ambition, it is untenable to talk one

line and walk another. Clarity is needed; or Pakistan may end up losing the very thing it craves in Afghanistan:

influence.

Factors behind delay

December 10th, 2012

The water and power ministry has blamed the ―reluctance‖ of international lenders like Asian Development Bank in

providing funds for delays in the launch and completion of different hydropower projects in the country. But does

the statement of the ministry‘s high-ups before the Senate Standing Committee represent the true situation? While

officials blamed foreign lenders for not financing mega hydropower projects, the Americans were committing

$200m for the Bhasha dam. Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh has also rejected reports that ADB wasn‘t interested in

the project. He told the media in Washington the same day that both ADB and the US would finance the

preliminary work on the multi-billion dollar project to be completed in Gilgit-Baltistan in eight to 10 years. So the

much sought-after foreign assistance for hydropower projects is likely to start flowing in even if it was slow in

finding its way to Pakistan until now.

However, the delay in foreign assistance is not the only factor responsible for the lack of development of the

country‘s vast water resources for cheap hydropower generation. Lack of political will, bureaucratic inefficiencies


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and mismanagement are other important factors keeping the country from improving its unsustainable energy mix.

Pakistan is estimated to have a massive generation potential of at least 50,000MW electricity from micro to mega

projects against the existing hydropower capacity of 6,500MW. According to Wapda, the authority could complete

projects with a generation capacity of 20,000MW by 2020 if funds are provided without interruption. It says many

smaller projects could be completed over the next few years if the National Transmission and Despatch Company

released the outstanding electricity arrears of Rs80bn to Wapda. It could be a good start on hydropower generation

for mitigating growing power shortages. At the same time the government could take a few steps to ensure

transparency in the implementation of plans and prevent bureaucratic lethargy from further delaying under-

construction projects to avoid cost overruns and inordinate delays in completion. We have to prove that we are

serious about developing our hydropower sector if we want to rope in international lenders. Complaining about

them will not get us anywhere.

Inflated bills

December 10th, 2012

NEPRA‘s disclosure that an ―inadvertent error‖ was made in the schedule of tariff for KESC is enough to shake all

confidence in the power bureaucracy. For three years now, we are told, an erroneous calculation of the power tariff

charged to various categories of consumers in the city of Karachi has resulted in inflating their bills by an average

of 14.5 per cent. What‘s more, the government also has had to pay more in the form of power differential subsidy

on account of this error, with the exact amount not yet calculated. It is puzzling that the error was not detected

over three years. It is equally inexplicable why two additional offices of government — the chief engineering

adviser of the water and power ministry, and the auditor general — both failed to catch the error. Perhaps a little

less puzzling is KESC‘s own silence over the years, though somebody there must have noticed the error. And if not,

what does that say for the professionalism of the private management running the utility? Is their silence explained

by the fact that the error went in their favour?

KESC must be made to repay the money by adjusting its receivables from the government under the tariff

differential subsidy head. And the power bureaucracy must be made more transparent to restore some measure of

confidence in its ability to perform its job. This error, as well as a similar episode in Faisalabad recently, speaks of

the chaos in the power bureaucracy, a state of affairs for which the general public is bearing the cost. Aggressive

accountability and transparency are the only solution now. A template for regular disclosure of information needs

to be developed, and made legally binding upon the power bureaucracy. Once key information starts to be

disclosed regularly, attentive minds in the public will take care of the rest.

Wali’s proposal

December 11th, 2012

Asfandyar Wali‘s statement, made in Peshawar on Sunday, reaffirms what we have always been saying in these

columns — that it is the politicians who hold the key to Karachi‘s peace. Speaking at a press conference in

Peshawar, the chief of the Awami National Party said things that are often lost in the din of the phenomenon that is

Karachi. Not all Urdu-speaking people supported the MQM, he said, nor were all Pakhtuns in the lap of his party. He

then asked President Asif Ali Zardari to call a conference of all stakeholders to ensure lasting peace in Karachi.

Undeniably, there is more to Karachi than ethnicity. Not all violence has ethnic overtones, nor do all killings have

political motives behind them as there are crime mafias, such as those in Lyari. But what has turned Karachi into

all but a war zone is essentially political in nature. Which means politicians can give the nation‘s biggest city peace

if they really make up their minds not to arouse passions in the name of ethnicity.

In the past we have seen how President Asif Ali Zardari managed to effect peace in Karachi by bringing the MQM,

ANP and his own party together. There is no reason why such a ‗truce‘ cannot last longer. A multiparty conference

called at this hour could have a salutary effect on the Karachi situation. The delimitation of constituencies is a

controversy that has disturbed the MQM. Several of its leaders, including Altaf Hussain, see in this move a

conspiracy to snatch the mandate which they say the people of Karachi have given them in several municipal and


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general elections. While nobody can ‗snatch‘ any party‘s mandate, a conference of the kind demanded by Mr Wali

could serve to address the MQM‘s fears. The focus of such a conference should essentially be on ensuring lasting

peace in Karachi by making the politicians realise that it is they who can make a difference to the lives of Karachi

residents by pledging to abjure vio lence, disassociate themselves from militant groups and use the political weapon

to remove differences among them.

Collection of hides

December 11th, 2012

The strange case of the hides has not been brought to the fore by Robert Louis Stevenson but it does feature a

split personality belonging to none other than the government. On the one hand, rulers instruct officials to stop

banned faith-based groups from collecting the skins of sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha. On the other, members of

these, often pro-militancy, groups freely roam the streets, collecting hides. An intelligence report prepared in

Punjab says the hides collected by some groups that have been proscribed or are under watch sold for more than

Rs78m on the market last Eid. The actual figure may be much higher since it is almost impossible to verify the

number of hides sold. An effort seems to have been made to come up with round figures. For instance, one group

is said to have collected 60,000 hides in Lahore alone. But whatever the estimates, they piece together a picture

that is disturbing and calls for action. Also mentioned in the intelligence report are specific instances which bring

out the dangers of carrying out directives to keep these banned organisations from the lucrative business of hide

collection.

The police have encountered the might of political groups over claims to hides. But in this case, they appear to shy

away from their duties in the face of threats by banned faith-based groups. Indeed, the instance where police in a

Punjab district are shown to have quickly released three men arrested for gathering hides is a true manifestation of

the influence, actually fear, that some banned organisations exercise over the whole system. The report says the

release came on the orders of senior police officers who are in turn answerable to the rulers.

Reflective of the general approach that manifests itself in other instances too, it seems it is the rulers who do not

want to take on the might of such groups. There is a tendency to explain away this matter in terms of the growing

religiosity in Pakistani society. This is something that cannot be denied; but what we have here is a classic case of

camouflaging what is essentially a law and order issue. Just as policemen are inclined to blame petty crimes on

poverty, the administration chooses to explain the leeway it allows banned groups on hides and the collection of

cash donations by referring to the religious choices of the people. It is a simple problem: what is legally banned

cannot be allowed. Unless we truly want this practice stopped, there is no use having intelligence officials trace all

these hides to the market.

Culture lives

December 11th, 2012

Two recent events — the International Urdu Conference and the International Book Fair (both held in Karachi) —

are a welcome reminder that the country‘s soul, though gasping for air, is alive. The usual symbols associated with

Pakistan are of violence and anarchy, so it is good to occasionally witness cultural events which prove that some

aesthetically inclined citizens with a taste for literature and learning also live here. This was the f ifth edition of the

Urdu conference, which lasted four days, while the book fair attracted book-lovers over a period of five days. The

audience at the Urdu conference was treated to highly absorbing discussions focusing on literature and critiques,

while papers on the lives and work of giants such as Manto, Miraji and Krishan Chander, among others, were read

out by scholars from all over the country. Debates also centred on the condition of Urdu. New questions were

raised while rarely discussed literary topics were highlighted. It was encouraging to see young Urdu aficionados as

well as families at the sessions. Some of the discussions were jam-packed while certain debates ran late into the

evening. Nevertheless, the organisers should note the views of some literature buffs who felt that the event could

have been smoother — maybe next time more Urdu scholars from India could be invited too.


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Meanwhile, at the city‘s Expo Centre, bookworms flipped through an assortment of tomes; here too it was

heartening to see families in attendance. However, the number of books on religious topics overshadowed other

genres — a sign of the times in changing Pakistan. The next time, the organisers should try and include a greater

variety of titles. In a society where debate and freedom of thought are becoming endangered concepts, such

cultural activities need to be encouraged to defend against the onslaught of ignorance.

Still no progress

December 12th, 2012

The current administration touts the strengthening of democracy as its most important achievement. Yet one of the

building blocks of democracy remains unavailable to Pakistanis. An elected government is about to complete its

term and a number of constitutional amendments have strengthened parliament and handed more rights to the

provinces. But at the local level Pakistanis have no representatives, leaving only inaccessible provincial- and

national-level lawmakers to turn to for the resolution of their everyday concerns. The federal and provincial

governments have come up with a string of excuses to avoid sharing power with elected representatives at the

local level, including law and order, electoral rolls and passing the buck to the Election Commission. In Islamabad

bureaucrats prefer to hold on to the city themselves. And in Sindh the issue has deteriorated into a political mess,

with opposing camps trying to implement or block local government elections based on their own narrow concerns.

Across the country, then, the root of the delay is an interest in power over democratic reform.

Monday‘s Supreme Court hearing on the subject brought up another problem that persists even when local

elections are held. In Pakistan, cantonment areas are now more than just cantonments — they are real estate

ventures. With plots originally owned by soldiers sold outside the military over the years, depriving cantonment

areas of the right to vote effectively means disenfranchising millions of civilians. And yet, despite the issue having

been brought up in parliament, no legislative work has been done to allow them to participate.

It is this foot-dragging that has also created space for the SC to weigh in on yet another matter that should be the

domain of lawmakers. The holding of local government polls and the issue of allowing cantonment residents to vote

are matters properly debated in parliament and executed by the federal and provincial governments, and have

been discussed in the assemblies several times. But the lack of movement on this front has become one of the

glaring failures of this administration, as has been the case during previous democratic set-ups, yet again allowing

the current Supreme Court to opine on matters of governance. But at this point, holding local elections seems

logistically impossible until after the general elections. With all its rhetoric as well as its real work to strengthen

democracy, including some historic constitutional amendments, movement on the local bodies could have become

a lasting legacy for the current elected administration. But like many others before it, it has failed to make

government responsive to the people at the level at which it most closely affects their lives.

3G licence auction

December 12th, 2012

The country‘s seemingly endless journey towards acquiring 3G cellphone technology appears to have taken a small

step forward with the setting up of a five-member oversight committee by the prime minister that will apparently

independently monitor the 3G licence auction. Essentially, there are three stakeholders: the federal government,

the cellphone operators and end-users. The government stands to collect somewhere in the region of $1bn from

the auction — though the estimates vary wildly from a few hundred million dollars to several billion. For a revenue-

starved government staring at yet another record fiscal deficit, a 3G licence auction would be a welcome fillip. Less

salutary is the speculation that where vast sums are due to the government, there may be well-placed officials

hoping to make a windfall through kickbacks and bribes. Cellphone operators so far have only expressed cautious

interest in 3G licences, knowing that the market for expensive data packages is very small at present and that the

cost of delivering such a service, from acquiring a licence to installing the necessary infrastructure, may be in the

region of half a billion dollars per 3G licence.

Set against those government and business interests is a simple fact: small as the base may be for high-end data-

driven mobile services at present, there is a market of premium customers who can and should have the best


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technology available to them. At the end of the day, cellphone operators will buy the licences because there is a

business opportunity to tap customers who want to stream video or surf the net at decent speeds and are willing to

pay a premium for it. Why, then, is the market in which both sellers — the cellphone operators — and buyers (end-

users hungry for faster ways of using the Internet on the go) — are available not being set up? The answer

appears to lie somewhere between the incompetence, indecision and greed of the government. It is a familiar and

sorry tale that the latest committee set up by the prime minister may do little to resolve; 3G technology may

remain a mirage for some time yet.

Tragic fall

December 12th, 2012

THE death of Owais Baig is a unique kind of tragedy. The young man, attempting to escape a fire in a high-rise

building in Karachi, jumped to his death with the grim event shown live on television. A large crowd of spectators

as well as rescue personnel were present as the youth fell from the building. Yet many important questions

regarding the unfortunate incident remain. For instance, did rescuers try and convince the man to stay put until

they reached him? Or were some efforts made to bring in rescue equipment that could have broken his fall?

Unfortunately, human life is of little value in this society. So whether it is one man jumping to his death from a

burning building, or over 250 people perishing inside a blazing factory, as was the case with September‘s Baldia

inferno, we soon move on without learning lessons from such incidents. The case of Owais Baig is in the limelight

perhaps because it unfolded live on TV; yet similar tragedies happen almost daily in Pakistan.

The problem is one of mindset. There is no public awareness of how to react during emergencies. On our roads we

don‘t give way to ambulances or fire tenders, while mobs congregate at sites of traffic accidents or other disasters,

turning tragedy into a spectacle and obstructing rescue work. One hopes that society learns from these incidents

and changes for the better. But for that to happen major efforts are required, and it will be a lengthy process. The

state should start with devising effective emergency response mechanisms as well as by launching public

awareness campaigns about these. These should educate citizens in how to act during emergencies, to make way

for ambulances in disaster sites and to call rescue services. Continued complacency will only cause tragic events to

repeat themselves.

Hockey bronze

December 13th, 2012

It is hard to recall the last time Qasim Zia and Akhtar Rasool appeared so happy. A bronze in the Champions

Trophy in Australia has provided the two hockey stalwarts their moment of vindication. Others will dispute their

claim, which won‘t detract from a reasonably good show by Pakistan at the Champions Trophy — a tournament

close to this country‘s heart. Pakistan started this tournament and won its first two editions when hockey was at its

peak here. The sport is not quite the same anymore. Nor is the Pakistan side what it used to be. The pushes have

given way to vulgar shoves and some harsh stick-work. But the attempt at finding refuge in the glory that was

Asian-style hockey is of no use and the show has to go on. Pakistan must improve to feature as a worthy

contender. That‘s where everyone needs to chip in.

The national giants of yore have of late been found trying to score goals against each other. The current

management has been on the defensive for not coming up to the expectations that hockey still generates here. It

has particularly been under tremendous pressure from some vociferous ex-national stars, many of whom have also

run the affairs of the team in recent years. Pakistan Hockey Federation president Qasim Zia‘s call to these greats to

contribute to the progress of hockey at a time when Pakistan has shown some promise should be re ciprocated.

Simultaneously, the management needs to concentrate on removing the flaws he has identified — the two major

ones being lack of initiative upfront and of mental strength among the players generally. Pakistan hockey has been

through a dark chapter. If it can sustain these signs of improvement in the Asian Champions Trophy in Qatar later

this month it can genuinely hope to stay in the game.


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Under scrutiny

December 13th, 2012

On Tuesday some members of the Public Accounts Committee argued that Pakistan needs to step up auditing of

NGOs receiving foreign funding, in particular the large sums flowing through in the form of Kerry-Lugar assistance.

This is tricky business. There is some logic to their concerns: if aid is coming in from a foreign government, there is

a need to know that it is being spent in a way that is beneficial, that doesn‘t break Pakis-tani laws or compromise

Pakistani security, and that reflects positively on Pakistan‘s relationship with the foreign government. But the idea

of increased scrutiny of NGOs is a slippery slope, and can easily fall prey to agendas that have little to do with

misspending and everything to do with paranoia and political concerns.

Quite often NGOs become the focus of negative attention in Pakistan; two recent examples include accusations by

the right during Gen Musharraf ‘s tenure that NGOs were promoting un-Islamic values, and the harassment of

foreign-funded organisations after the killing of Osama bin Laden. In the wake of questions surrounding the role of

Dr Shakil Afridi in tracking down the Al Qaeda chief, workers of some foreign-funded NGOs have come under

heightened surveillance, had their movement restricted, required increased approvals for travel within the country

and been denied visas for entry into Pakistan. It is clear that the increased scrutiny and constraints are driven not

by concerns about corruption or mismanagement but instead by mistrust of American intentions and broader

foreign-policy agendas, thus ignoring the role that NGOs play in a country like Pakistan.

In the absence of social safety nets provided by the government, it falls to NGOs to provide many of the services

that a government should be providing. Put simply, the country and its citizens cannot do without them. So while

some monitoring is necessary, it needs to be carried out in a way that doesn‘t affect their ability to function

effectively. Foreign governments, including the US, already work with Pakistani officials to define priority sectors

that need funding. Beyond that, it would make sense for the government to know which NGOs are receiving

funding, how much, and what for. But to repeat audits that USAID and other donor groups are already carrying out

would only create additional work and costs for both the government and NGOs, lead to more government

interference than is necessary, and become a reason to scrutinise NGOs for all the wrong reasons. There is a need

to proceed cautiously with any plan to do so.

Pre-budget session?

December 13th, 2012

While the budget is a good six months away, it is a positive sign that our parliamentarians are taking note of an

exercise that is the foundation of a nation‘s development. However, they need to remind themselves that budget -

making calls for careful, informed input which should begin months before the annual exercise is undertaken. At

present, budget-making is a thoroughly bureaucratic job. A bureaucracy stuck in a groove has many

disadvantages, like the unwillingness to take risks and indifference to popular urges. Nevertheless, the bureaucrats

are armed with statistics and have the requisite academic qualification and expertise to make a budget. The issue

is to make the budget welfare-oriented, and that is possible only when officialdom is checked and guided by the

people‘s representatives. This exactly was the purpose of the move in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Thwarted

for procedural reasons, the proposed amendment to the rules of procedure demands that every ministry send its

budgetary proposals to the relevant house committee, and that the lower house have a pre-budget session to

finalise demands for grants and appropriations.

In developed democracies, political parties have panels of their own on key issues — economy, education and

foreign and defence policies. In many Commonwealth countries, parties have shadow cabinets — in Australia, the

opposition elects shadow ministers — which not only criticise the government but have well-argued policy options

of their own. This system is lacking in our country. Parties mostly impart a ‗dynastic‘ flavour and revolve round

personalities. This leaves hardly any room for political parties, even those among them that do not have an heir

apparent, to study a given issue independent of political considerations and come up with s uggestions that they

could implement if they are elected to govern. The budget debate in the National Assembly is mostly political


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rhetoric, and it is only seldom that we hear a speech that is truly economic in essence. While the move for a pre -

budget session is welcome, it is time our parties developed expert panels on economy and f inance to make the

annual parliamentary budget debate meaningful.

Hopeful signs

December 14th, 2012

Is it finally time for some cautious optimism? Islamabad and Kabul‘s friendly overtures this week in Turkey were

the latest of a number of positive signs that have provided some hope that the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan might

be working their way towards closer cooperation for peace in this region. Pakistan‘s release of Afghan Taliban

prisoners, an encouraging sign, had been a long-standing Kabul demand that had been resisted for years. It

followed a number of public statements by Pakistani officials about wanting to help facilitate talks with the Taliban.

On Wednesday, despite accusations that Pakistan was behind the attack on the Afghan intelligence chief,

presidents Karzai and Zardari were able to showcase some degree of unity against the security threats that have

destabilised both countries. Mistrust persists, and much remains to be worked out — in particular the issue of each

country‘s militants taking refuge across the border. But movement on the Taliban reconciliation project has created

at least one avenue of concrete cooperation despite lingering suspicions.

On the Pakistan-US front too, after the post-Salala agreement, there is reason to hope that ties are being rebuilt,

and this time in a more intelligent fashion. The constant media leaks and provocative public statements from both

sides that plagued ties last year and through the first half of this year have subsided, suggesting acceptance that

squabbling in public was worsening matters. Visits and interactions have been more low-key but are continuing,

indicating behind-the-scenes forward movement in understanding each other‘s needs and constraints. The US

defence secretary‘s statement on Tuesday that Pakistan was willing to take action against safe havens — this from

the same man who earlier said that the Haqqani network was a ―veritable arm‖ of the ISI — was clearly intended

to preserve progress in the relationship.

But Pakistan‘s ties with the US are, in significant part, about Afghanistan, and any improvement in them also bodes

well for what will happen in both Pakistan and Afghanistan over the next two years and once most Western troops

leave. All in all, the increased cooperation and less fraught communication among the three sides hold great

potential. The challenges are still enormous — questions remain about whether the Afghans will be able to handle

their own security post-2014, to what extent Pakistani and Afghan militants will continue supporting each other and

foreign militants, and whether the Afghan Taliban will come to the table in a meaningful way. But at least when it

comes to the three governments cooperating with one another, the signs are encouraging. The question is how well

they will take advantage of this moment.

Corruption tag

December 14th, 2012

Financial corruption is all too often overblown. The media has a vested interest in publicising corruption stories, and

is often guilty of overstepping its limits. This is a reality governments have to live with. Case closed. However, the

matter is viewed differently when an election is near and the government is fighting a serious image problem and

the ruling party has been taken to task by television channels. At the very outset of his latest stint as information

minister that began a few months ago, Qamaruzzaman Kaira had shown his intent to match the tone of the

government‘s strongest detractors in the media — read television channels. His government now vows to directly

take on the media in this sensitive phase leading to elections. To ―combat‖ the ―vicious‖ media campaign against it,

the government has formed a four-member committee comprising fede ral ministers, seeking to ―unmask forces

stigmatising‖ the PPP.

Politically, the party rightly evaluates it will have to fight the negative perceptions of its rule in the context of the

next election. It is also correct in pointing out that it has had the rawest deal from the media in recent years. At


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issue, however, is how the PPP government goes about dealing with this situation. What does the government plan

to do in the not-unlikely event of its worthy ministers unearthing the bit of truth they are looking for? Turn to the

media with proof? Also, if it is to be conceded that the media is biased, has it been inventing on its own all these

surveys that paint Pakistan as one of the most corruption-infested places on earth? The latest of them is the

National Accountability Bureau‘s f igure which says the country is being ravaged by corruption to the tune of Rs7bn

a day. The best option for a government battling such allegations is to restore transparency to its workings. For

instance, Mr Kaira could have made a better impact had he announced that the ministers and treasury MNAs who

had in the past failed to file their tax returns now stand corrected and would open their accounts for public perusal.

Marriage bureaus

December 14th, 2012

It could well be the oldest profession in South Asia. No, not the one that conjures up images of Umrao Jan, but the

one typified by the elderly aunt with a gimlet eye and paan-stained mouth who knows just about everyone in town.

The matchmaker — immortalised through several incarnations in Hasina Moin‘s TV plays — has been a staple of

Pakistani culture for generations. In a society where opportunities for men and women to meet are limited or, in

many quarters, frowned upon, families have often needed help to find life-partners for their marriageable sons and

daughters. This is particularly so when no suitable candidates are available within the extended family, usually the

first port of call. As technology developed, this role evolved and diversified. The matchmaker went commercial. Ads

for marriage bureaus multiplied faster than you could say ―Shadi Mubarak‖ (although many were questionable,

hole-in-the-wall operations) and matrimonial websites offering an array of mind-boggling choices sprang up.

A recent ad for a marriage bureau placed prominently in newspapers and on Karachi billboards illustrates that

marriage is bigger business than ever before. The bureau in question boasts a well-designed website, a FAQ page,

a newsletter, and a photo gallery with images of its corporate-looking office which, incidentally, is located in one of

Karachi‘s most expensive office spaces. Such an investment implies confidence in high returns. This booming

business can be seen as a commentary on Pakistani society; migration has scattered families , which means the

extended family networks are no longer as strongly established. And even though, as Jane Austen said, ―It is a

truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife‖, it

seems that he still would prefer one from his own culture.

Downward trajectory

December 15th, 2012

Poverty figures are often controversial, and in the past some estimates provided by NGOs and international

development organisations have been met with scepticism in Pakistan. But now the government itself has admitted

how much worse poverty has grown during its nearly f ive years in power. The Ministry of Food Security told the

Senate this week that 58 per cent of the population was food-insecure last year compared to the Sustainable Policy

Development Institute‘s figure of 49 per cent for 2009. It also pointed out that the SDPI‘s estimate of 22 per cent

of Pakistanis living in extreme poverty in 2009 was higher than a UNDP and World Bank number of 17 per cent

living below the poverty line in 2007-08. By the government‘s own admission, then, Pakistanis are poorer and

hungrier today than they were when the current administration came to power.

Inflation figures provide one major clue to why this is the case. The Planning Commission published its latest report

on the food basket — the minimum recommended intake of various food items — which reveals that the monthly

cost of the basket has grown by 81 per cent since 2007-2008, and that actual consumption is about 1,700 calories

rather than the food basket‘s prescribed 2,150 calories per person per day. A square meal is now clearly beyond

the reach of the majority of Pakistanis, leading to the demonstrated problems of undernourished and

underdeveloped children, poor rates of mother and child survival, and a weak and ailing labour force. Add to this

the following statistic: for the poorest Pakistanis, the cost of food now makes up 59 per cent of total spending.

Combine this with the lack of high-quality and accessible subsidised healthcare and education, and it is obvious

that the average Pakistani is increasingly worse off when it comes to the basic necessities of life.

Government officials often cite the Benazir Income Support Programme as an example of the administration‘s p ro-


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poor policies. But as the numbers demonstrate, one flagship programme or one type of intervention is not enough.

BISP is considered successful on a particular front — providing extra cash to the poorest families through women —

and has added some features, such as health insurance and small business loans, that should enable the poor to

earn higher incomes. But the need for more and different interventions has only increased. Given the extent of the

problem, these interventions don‘t need to be brilliant ly innovative. Plenty of models exist elsewhere. Making a

dent in the poverty numbers in Pakistan is rather a question of political will, and of placing a value on the most

basic human rights.

Delimitation exercise

December 15th, 2012

A decision has been taken. The ECP has said that Karachi alone will have its constituencies delimited as per the

Supreme Court‘s directives. The court felt that such an exercise would reduce violence in the metropolis. However,

as we have stated before, it is not a wise idea to focus on delimitation in Karachi alone for a number of reasons.

Keeping the city‘s many conflicts — political, ethnic, sectarian — in mind, delimit ing constituencies at this point and

in this manner will almost certainly prove divisive. For example, t he MQM — whose chief has been issued a

contempt notice by the court for criticising the judiciary on the matter — opposes delimiting Karachi only. In

contrast, parties such as the ANP, seen as competing with the MQM over Karachi‘s spoils, support the idea. In fact,

the ECP will consider proposals from several political parties before redrawing the constituencies. So delimitation at

this time can have unintended consequences; instead of reducing violence in the city it may actually add to it.

Also, the contention that new delimitation would be faulty without a fresh census report stands as there is no

headcount on the horizon. The other question —why Karachi alone — remains valid. After all, there have been

complaints regarding the redrawing of constituencies in other parts of the country. So why is Karachi being singled

out? No satisfactory answer to this has been forthcoming from the relevant quarters. As reports indicate, the date

for general elections is due to be announced soon. And it is hoped that the delimitation exercise is not used as an

excuse to postpone polls. Elections must be held as per schedule for continuity of the democratic process; hence

there is much logic in the suggestion that delimitation across the country be carried out after the pol ls based on

new census numbers. There is no need to rush such a delicate process, that too in one of the country‘s most

politically volatile cities. Instead, we feel the ECP should concentrate on other areas, such as an error-free voters‘

list, and ensure that political parties respect its code of conduct. It should leave the issue of delimitation for

another day.

Doctors’ strike

December 15th, 2012

After a long stand-off between public-sector hospital doctors and the government in Punjab, an almost two-month

strike by doctors in Quetta threw up familiar scenes of patients‘ misery. In both cases the doctors were called upon

to not punish those whom they were bound by oath to look after. In both, the protesters held firm, resolving to not

resume work until the acceptance of their demands. In Quetta, the local press club intervened and brought the

strikers and government together for a fruitful dialogue. That was a crucial step towards reconciliation and the

doctors in the Balochistan capital returned to work on Friday. In Lahore earlier, an important demand of doctors

was for the government to drop the cases against some 74 of their colleagues booked under charges of interfering

in official work, etc. The government agreed to do so, paving the way for an end to the protest.

Similarities apart, the causes behind each of these strikes were different. In Punjab, the doctors were fighting for

improvements in service structure, whereas in Quetta, personal security was the main issue. The Quetta strike

came in the wake of a spate of attacks and kidnappings targeting doctors. That ransom has been paid in all cases

where a doctor‘s release has been secured in Balochistan points to a weak official security setup. Unless some

drastic measures are put in place, the danger will loom, with all its painful ramif ications for doctors and patients.

Also, some kind of a forum must be established to address the grievances of the medical staff to prevent their


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resort to the extreme option of a strike. The provision of this forum and security are vital to building an

atmosphere where doctors can be more easily asked to stand by their oath and by those who need them.

Simply a coincidence?

December 16th, 2012

Corruption isn‘t good for Pakistan. But that doesn‘t mean that the manner and timing of revelations about it cannot

be questioned. The NAB chairman‘s public claims about the extent of wrongdoing by powerful people have

effectively been political statements whose tone, timing and content suggest that combating corruption is not his

only motive. The job of his agency is to investigate specific instances of corruption, not to make sweeping public

statements without providing concrete evidence. What makes the chairman‘s motives even more questionable are

his estimates of the value of corruption allegedly taking place in Pakistan on a daily basis, a f igure he nearly

doubled from Rs7bn to Rs13bn overnight and which counts items — such as the gap between potential and actual

tax collection and the financial losses of public -sector enterprises — of which corruption is only one component.

Add to this another statement that the Punjab government was at least as guilty as the federal government, and it

becomes clear that politics, though with an unclear endgame, has at least partly shaped these claims.

This being Pakistan, the corruption story is hardly unfolding in a vacuum. Take two other recent developments: the

report on lawmakers not filing tax returns and underpaying taxes, and the decision to create a new delimitation of

constituencies in Karachi before the general election. The underlying problems in both cases are not new and are

well-known. Pakistan has a dismal tax-to-GDP ratio, and the elite avoiding taxes is a major part of the problem.

There are long-standing objections to the way constituencies have been drawn up in Karachi, and the city‘s

demographics have likely changed significantly since the last census (though delimitation should be carried out

across the country if it is carried out in one city). But is now the best time to bring up these issues? Or, to ask the

question another way, what would be gained — and who would benefit — by bringing them up or tackling them

three months before a caretaker government is meant to take over?

Asking these questions doesn‘t mean excusing corruption, tax evasion or efforts to limit the value of certain votes.

It is an unfortunate outcome of the fears that have been spawned by Pakistan‘s history of interrupted democracy.

Just as important as addressing these issues is the need to ensure that Pakistan doesn‘t waste the progress made

over the last four-plus years in managing to cling on to a democratic system, as flawed as the current set -up may

be. If the coincidental emergence of these latest developments represents a threat to the system, they must not be

allowed to derail that progress.

Not enough

December 16th, 2012

There is no doubt that both the new India-Pakistan visa regime and the bonhomie were welcome. But substance

was lacking when Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Sushilkumar Shinde, his Indian counterpart, celebrated the

formal signing of the accord in New Delhi. The new regime will increase the number of cities accessible to visitors

from three to five and exempt those holding a business visa from reporting to the pol ice — an exercise of

considerable hassle at the moment. Similarly, while senior citizens will get their visa on arrival, the application

process for younger visitors travelling by land will take 45 days or less. While these are positive moves, they hardly

constitute a festive prelude to the cricket-crazy subcontinent‘s first series since 2007. It is clear, then, that despite

several meetings between Indian and Pakistan officials since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, including at the very top,

the trust deficit has hardly been plugged and bureaucracy continues to hamper greater people-to-people contact.

The news about a new visa accord, had, in fact, been broken by former Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna more

than a year ago, and had raised hopes all around. There were speculations that consulates would reopen in Karachi

and Mumbai, police reporting would be done away with and visa processing would be easier in terms of the time

taken and the volume of documents required. Not much of that sort has happened and obtaining a visa for most

people remains a hassle as before; perhaps the only real piece of good news in this context was the granting of


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visas to more than 3,000 Pakistani cricket fans. So the new regime remains a baby step at a time when giant

strides are needed to build up trust. Evidently, security agencies view all visa-seekers as potential terrorists and

forget that actual terrorists do not seek visas. Indian officials continue to say there has been little progress in the

Mumbai trial in Pakistan, and Islamabad has done little to assuage New Delhi‘s concerns. Indian policy indicates it

has made the normalisation process conditional upon the Mumbai suspects‘ trial. This is unfortunate, even if New

Delhi‘s frustration is justified.

Lost heritage

December 16th, 2012

In Pakistan, where crime is all too common, the plundering of our historical legacy doesn‘t often get the attention it

deserves. That it should is underscored by a report in this newspaper yesterday that some 60 apparently smuggled

Gandhara artefacts went under the hammer at Christie‘s in New York in March 2011, even though the matter was

being pursued by Pakistan‘s Department of Archaeology and Museums. These items included bronze and stone

depictions of the Buddha — prominent among them was a statue of the fasting Buddha — and constituted priceless

treasures in terms of their historical and cultural significance. But since nothing passes through an auction house

without a price being settled on its head, the fasting Buddha went for more than $11m. It seems the artefacts had

been illegally excavated and smuggled out from Pakistan in the early 1980s. While the archaeology department

and the Pakistan embassy in Washington had been pressing for their return, they could not provide details of

exactly when and from where the items were stolen. Moreover, there is no bilateral agreement between the two

countries for the protection of cultural heritage. These factors allowed the auction to take place.

Pakistan‘s history and its pre-Islamic heritage are being sundered from the very people who should be fighting to

conserve them. A few months ago, Karachi police acted on a tip-off to intercept an entire container of Gandhara-

era relics meant, no doubt, for foreign shores. Yet even there, the lack of respect for such irreplaceable artefacts

was in evidence: the pieces were handled so roughly that many of them were damaged. The unpalatable truth is

that Pakistan‘s own lack of interest in conserving its heritage is matched by the voraciousness with which such

relics are sought in other parts of the world. It‘s up to us to ensure that such theft does not take place.

Another attack

December 17th, 2012

Another military airbase attacked; another full set of lessons that perhaps will not be learned. Since the attack on

the Mehran airbase in Karachi, the militants have demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of both the

psychology and methodology of high-profile attacks. Targeting an airbase in even a semi-successful attack

captures public attention in a way that a highly successful attack against other military targets would not. And

while the security forces appear to be protecting vulnerabilities at airbases better than was the case before the

Mehran attack, the militants are also adapting. They appear to be probing for weaknesses by deploying new

combinations of fidayeen and suicide attackers, and still have fairly good intelligence on their targets. Why this is

so is a question that the public has not received an answer to. So the focus must necessarily turn to more

transparency and accountability within the security and intelligence apparatus.

Every new high-profile attack is a reminder of how little is known publicly about the investigations into previous

such attacks. Was physical security as rigorous as it could be? Was the vetting of security personnel posted at

these installations thorough? Were maps and schematics and other information protected adequately? And after

weaknesses were exposed, how effective was the response of the security apparatus to ensure a repeat would be

difficult? Clearly, as the attack on a foreign airbase in southern Afghanistan proved, the militants can exploit

weaknesses in defences in even the most hostile environment. But in the absence of transparent and public

investigations and accountability, we can‘t be certain that negligence, incompetence or complicity in the security

apparatus here is being identified and punished as thoroughly as it should.

Then there is the broader question that always comes up in these moments. Peshawar is adjacent to the tribal

areas and as such will always remain more vulnerable than most Pakistani cities unless a coherent policy for

eliminating militancy is developed. But despite having tens of thousands of troops stationed in Fata and launching a


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series of military operations that have recovered swathes of territory that had virtually been ceded to the militants,

the absence of a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy has made it difficult to win this war. Apologists for the

Taliban, who refuse to see that the militants‘ war is against Pakistan and its people, have stood in the way of a

unified stance. North Waziristan, and also the Tirah valley, remains a fundamental threat to security in Pakistan.

Yet it is still not clear how the army-led security establishment intends to defang that threat. Paralysis and policy

drift will only enable the militants to push harder to find even more weaknesses.

Not a long-term solution

December 17th, 2012

The State Bank of Pakistan managed to cross another rickety bridge on Friday without putting further pressure on

the weakening external sector or jeopardising growth prospects. The small cut of half a percentage point in the key

policy rate may have dismayed some businessmen. But given the challenges the ec onomy faces at the moment it

was perhaps the right response. By continuing monetary easing in response to the broad-based decline in price

inflation, though at a slower pace than expected by the private sector, the bank has indicated its desire to support

new private investment in the economy to counter weak growth. At the same time, the move is calculated to

protect the economy from risks emanating from a deteriorating exchange rate on dwindling foreign financial inf lows

and huge debt repayments.

But the question is: will the bank be able to continue its monetary easing in its next review two months down the

road? Any rise in inflation may force it to put the brakes on, or even reverse, the process of monetary easing. And

the risk of inflation very much remains in the shape of a deteriorating exchange rate and massive fiscal borrowing.

Unless the government stops or substantially reduces its borrowing from domestic sources and foreign private and

official capital inflows start coming in, the inf lation risk w ill remain. The direction of monetary policy in the near

term will thus be determined by the successful auction of 3G telecom licences and the release of coalition support

fund payments by the US. The medium- to long-term sustainability of low interest rates will hinge on reduction of

the fiscal deficit and a substantial increase in foreign inflows. The four-percentage-point reduction in the cost of

borrowing during the last 16 months has perked up the economy somewhat. Inflation declined fast, growth

momentum picked up and corporate profits rose. Yet private investment remains muted. While investment will not

pick up unless interest rates are brought down further, the reduction in credit cost alone is not enough. The energy

crisis will have to be addressed, security improved and the fiscal deficit bridged.

Tendulkar’s dilemma

December 17th, 2012

Legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar‘s fall from grace in the ongoing cricket series against England has not

only dismayed millions of his fans across the world but has also compelled critics to ask him to hang up his boots.

Rated as perhaps the greatest post-war batsman, Tendulkar has been a picture of misery in the four-match series,

struggling to put together a decent score against an opposition which by no means can be dubbed as menacing for

a player of his class and stature. His rare but continued failure with the bat in 2012, both at home and abroad, has

drawn boos and jeers from the crowds, even in places like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Nagpur where he has been

revered as a demigod since making his international debut 24 years ago. His former colleagues Sourav Ganguly,

Rahul Dravid and a few others have openly criticised him for not looking the part anymore, mainly due to his slow

reflexes and poor shot selection.

But Tendulkar is certainly not the first Asian batsman to face this unpleasant situation. A number of great players

before him, including compatriots Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, our own Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and

Zaheer Abbas, and several others have been forced out of cricket after repeated failures or have simply faded into

history after refusing to quit the game at the right moment. It was only recently that one of Australia‘s most

successful captains and batsmen, Ricky Ponting, retired after realising that he could no longer cope with the rigours

of international cricket. Tendulkar, unfortunately, has not been able to choose his departing moment and must now

be ruing the blunder of not having called it a day in March 2011 when India won the ICC Cricket World Cup.


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Set a date

December 18th, 2012

It's time for the government to announce an election date, and not just to silence political opponents calling for

change and a population dissatisfied with the current administration‘s chronic ally poor governance. Even more

important is the need to fend off forces that seem eager not to let the last elections lead seamlessly to the next.

The political rumour mills are churning once again, this time about whether or not polls will be allowed to proceed

on time. As much as this may be dismissed as unreliable gossip, recent developments make it hard to escape the

conclusion that an environment is being created in which the usual complaints against civilian governments —

corruption, incompetence, economic mismanagement — could be used to postpone a democratic transition.

The theory that those currently at the helm of Pakistan‘s key institutions aren‘t in favour of an outright military

takeover doesn‘t rule out more subtle moves. An interruption could well be more restrained this time around: delay

polls while still keeping civilians at the helm by installing a caretaker government of technocrats, for example, and

getting the judiciary to bless the move as being within the bounds of even the updated and more democracy-

friendly constitution. What will not be new are the arguments that will be made to defend such a move: the need

to stabilise the country, particularly on the economic and law and order fronts, by taking a break from ineffect ive

and dishonest politicians.

None of this is to say that our politicians are not, in fact, ineffective and dishonest. But the alternatives have been

tried before, multiple times, and they have failed. More importantly, the answer to Pakistan‘s problems is not to

deprive its citizens of the right to build up a democratic system, however slowly and painfully, that will eventually

hold those politicians accountable. The answer is to get out of the way so that this country can truly embark on the

long-term project of creating a sustainable democracy that responds to the people‘s needs. From leaks and

revelations about corruption and tax evasion to calls for delimitation in the tinderbox that is Karachi and

businessmen calling for military interventions, several potential disruptions seem to have sprung up at the same

time. In a moment like this, politicians, particularly in Karachi, need to avoid playing into the hands of those who

may be out to delay elections. And whether or not it decides to complete its full tenure, the government needs to

consult immediately with its coalition partners and the opposition on a date for elections, and announce it as soon

as possible.

A ‘business’ of billions

December 18th, 2012

Tax frauds in Pakistan are common. There are numerous loopholes in the system that enable the dishonest to

swindle the government. This is in the FBR‘s knowledge but nobody cares. After all, FBR officials have a vested

interest in preserving the flawed system. The rampant fraud in sales tax refunds and input tax adjustments, for

example, is not new. It is as old as the law allowing input tax adjustments and sales tax refunds on imports for

exports. Some time ago, the authorities had proudly claimed to have removed the lacunae used for bogus claims.

But the practice continues as pointed out in a story in Saturday‘s issue of this paper. According to the report, more

than Rs63bn were released in bogus refunds and input tax adjustments in the first four months of the current fiscal

against fake — often called flying — invoices across the country. In many cases, the refunds were disbursed on a

fast track in spite of ‗red alerts‘ from the intelligence wing of the FBR.

A few years ago, we had ‗factories‘ in Faisalabad selling flying invoices to help fraudsters. Now the sw indlers have

become more sophisticated. They set up fake companies to file ‗legal‘ tax refund claims. As the Securities and

Exchange Commission of Pakistan does not physically verify the addresses given in the application for registration

or check the credentials of the sponsors of such companies, it is easy for the cheaters to get away with the fraud.

Should the SECP examine its record, it would find thousands of such companies that do not exist at all. Since these

frauds cannot be committed without the connivance of tax officials, the FBR needs to clean up its own act as a first

step to preventing them in future. The guilty should be punished and made an example of. That should be followed


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by restructuring of the tax regime in such a way that all loopholes are actually plugged. This will not be easy

because of the resistance from within the department. Yet it is possible if the authorities have the will to stop tax

frauds in future.

Easy accessibility

December 18th, 2012

The proliferation of guns is one of the major problems facing Pakistan today. It is not just a crime-related issue or

a danger that leads to the phenomenon that is terrorism; the issue has a bearing on society‘s evolution. With a gun

in hand, there is considerable possibility of arguments being settled by firing a shot or two. In societies where

children are regularly exposed to shootout scenes on screens, the fascination with guns and the temptation to kill

and be ‗a hero‘ leads to tragic consequences. The latest reminder of the dangers o f easy accessibility to guns was

last week‘s shooting in a Connecticut school. The killing of 26 people, mostly children, was just one example of the

senseless massacres in schools and shopping malls in America. The recurring tragedy stems from the failure of

Congress to have effective gun control laws in a country where reportedly there are more guns than people. One of

America‘s biggest lobbies is the National Rif le Association, which has succeeded in pre -empting every move to

curtail the easy availability of handguns. The most determined attempt at gun control was made by James Brady,

one of Ronald Reagan‘s aides who was injured in an assassination attempt on the president in 1981. Yet all that

the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act achieved was to ensure checks on the purchaser.

Pakistan‘s problems are different than America‘s. In the US they know the manufacturers and sellers: it is all legal

and constitutional (by virtue of the Second Amendment). In Pakistan, it is all illegal. The constitution says only the

state can maintain armed forces; in practice there are dozens of private militias, besides criminal groups. There is

no constitutional ban in the way of gun control; what we need is effective law-enforcement.

In the dark

December 19th, 2012

Tuesday marked yet another day of violence in Pakistan‘s north-west. After the audacious attack on the PAF base

in Peshawar on Saturday and the shoot-out in a nearby village with some of the fugitive attackers the following

day, the deadly car bombing in Jamrud on Monday, and yesterday‘s grenade attack on an army recruiting centre in

Nowshera district, the area has suffered from an outburst of organised terrorism. And yet the public remains

clueless about what is going on in this troubled area in and around Peshawar, one of Pakistan‘s largest and most

populated cities. Security imperatives obviously demand some level of secrecy about any plans to tackle the

problem. But what is perfectly within the rights of Pakistani citizens, and especially the residents of the affected

areas, to expect is some indication about the nature of the various threats and what the authorities intend to do

about them.

One particularly opaque question that has emerged as a result of the airbase attack is that of the presence of

Russian and Central Asian fighters alongside Pakistani militants. While foreigners are known to have collaborated

with factions of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas, this is a rare instance — aside from the Mehran airbase

incident and the Bannu jailbreak — of their involvement in an attack in the settled areas. The implication is clear:

Pakistani security forces have been unable to convince Fata‘s most powerful tribal leaders, either through deals or

the threat or use of force, to stop harbouring foreign fighters. In fact, collaboration has only grown more

audacious. Maulvi Nazir may have taken a stand against them in South Waziristan, but they have simply sought

refuge elsewhere, particularly in North Waziristan, with other Pakistani groups. With both Afghanistan and their

own countries no longer safe for them, Pakistan clearly continues to be their safe haven of choice. How many such

fighters there are, and who is offering them shelter and using their services, is information that Pakistani

authorities have never shared with the public.

The last few days have created yet another moment that demonstrates Pakistan‘s militancy problem is far from

over. That the airbase attack took place despite available intelligence, and that the Jamrud and Nowshera attac ks

were able to take place despite the heightened security that should subsequently have been put in place, are

worrying facts. But given the official reaction thus far, this will likely turn into another moment that both civilian


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and military authorities will fail to capture to inform the public about the extent of the danger, or to turn public

opinion against those responsible.

Support still needed

December 19th, 2012

Tipped to unite the status-quo parties, Imran Khan has already brought female parliamentarians of all hues on a

single platform. On Monday, they joined voices to condemn a statement by the PTI chief in which he opposed

reserved seats for women in the assemblies. Mr Khan‘s argument was that the women who entered the assemblies

on these seats were not directly elected. Though he did subsequently suggest that some sort of system should be

developed to elect rather than nominate female lawmakers to reserved seats, his earlier comment raised concerns

about his intentions regarding the support that women still need in Pakistan to ensure that they are adequately

represented in parliament.

Despite Mr Khan‘s qualifications of this comment, the female legislators‘ alarm about it was understandable, the

result of a genuine concern about any potential changes to the system that might impact women‘s representation.

Reserved seats are an unfortunate necessity, the continuing need for them a grim reminder of how the group the

quota seeks to benefit is still being denied equal opportunities in politics. In an ideal world the most promising

candidates would be allowed to represent their parties, contesting against all other candidates regardless of their

gender or religion. But Pakistan has not yet provided girls and women with the opportunities that would allow them

to enter the public sphere, and especially politics, as equal participants. Mr Khan is right in wishing for a more

active role for women in politics. But until that day arrives, there will have to be systems in place to ensure that

women‘s voices are heard in parliament, particularly to represent a section of the population whose needs are

routinely overlooked; the legislative work that has been done during this administration and the last to protect

women‘s rights is testament to that. Since Mr Khan is in the process of learning the nitty-gritty of the system, he

would do well to be more conscious of the struggles Pakistani women face in his future comments on their role in

society.

Turkish soaps

December 19th, 2012

What's being aired on Pakistan‘s television screens is in the news again, this time because of the Turkish soap

operas that are being broadcast by some leading private television channels. They have been broadcast for several

months now, and garnered a large and lucrative following. What‘s changed, though, is the decision of certain

private channels to start airing them during prime time broadcast hours. On Monday, the United Producers

Association, which represents a large number of private television producers and production houses, held a press

conference in Karachi to protest against this. On the same day, the issue was taken up by the Senate Standing

Committee on Information and Broadcasting and concern was expressed about this programming running contrary

to local culture.

But this is to dangerously misinterpret the situation. As was highlighted by the UPA and the Senate committee

itself was informed by PTV managing director Yousuf Beg Mirza, the problem is that with such content being run on

prime time, the space for broadcasting locally-produced material is being restricted. Those against the broadcast of

foreign content at peak viewing hours believe that it could seriously harm the local television production industry,

which has grown rapidly since the country‘s media policy was liberalised a little over a decade ago. Given the

manner in which perceived threats to culture tend to provoke a violent, knee-jerk response in Pakistan, it is

important not to confuse matters. The controversy over Turkish programming is about economics, and must be

treated as such. The local industry‘s concerns should be heard seriously and addressed, but the answer does not lie

in restricting viewers‘ choices. What the ministry of information needs to do is devise ways to provide incentives to

and revitalise the local production industry, so that it is better able to compete with international standards. Other

countries have created protectionist regulations without banning material; Pakistan needs to be able to do the

same.


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National shame

December 20th, 2012

Make no mistake. Though it is receiving far less attention, this is no less, if not more, a shameful tragedy for

Pakistan, than the attack on Malala Yousafzai. The facts speak for themselves: eight polio workers killed and

several injured in the last three days in a chilling succession of attacks. One shot dead on Monday, with little sign

of the carnage that was to come in the following days; five shot dead within a chillingly short span of time on

Tuesday in seemingly coordinated incidents; a string of attacks yesterday, killing a worker and her driver, carried

out by undeterred imitators or co-conspirators. The reported ages of those killed in these incidents vary, but a

number of them were teenagers, and most were women. Their crime? Administering free medication to children at

risk of polio, a crippling disease that no child in the world should have to suffer in 2012. These were not security

forces engaged in a war against militants. They were not the officials of a government perceived to be America‘s

stooge. They were simply harmless citizens carrying out a service for their countrymen for a pittance and despit e

the threats to their safety.

How did politicians react? In Sindh, the president distributed awards at a ceremony in Karachi, the scene of many

of the attacks, and the Awami Tehrik and supporters of MQM chief Altaf Hussain held rallies in support of their

respective political causes. From other parties, too, including the ANP, the party in power in the province where the

remaining attacks took place, there was relative silence on the issue. True, there was condemnation of the attacks

in both houses of parliament, but was this enough? In the face of an incident that should have brought business -

as-usual to a halt, those in power went about focusing on their planned tasks instead of calling off all events and

registering strong public outrage and determination against the unjustifiable evil that Pakistan has become home

to.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of all is that Pakistan, one of only t hree nations where polio is still endemic, was

beginning to see a slowdown in the spread of the virus. Down from 173 cases detected by this time last year, only

56 cases have been registered in 2012, a 68 per cent decline. The commitment of international donors, the WHO

and the provincial and federal governments had begun to pay off. But the attack against a local polio worker and

his WHO colleague in Karachi in July should have led to the establishment of a system in which no polio team goes

out unprotected.

In the coming days, the authorities owe Pakistanis answers to several glaring questions. How did the security

lapses take place; does the polio campaign have to do a better job of ensuring security, or do the police have to do

a better job of providing it? Why are these attacks taking place now, even though polio vaccination has long been

opposed by certain groups within Pakistan? Who was responsible? Were these coordinated or copycat attacks? And

perhaps most important of all: what next? The WHO has asked for the campaign to be suspended in Pakistan, and

until more dependable protection is put in place, that is the wisest course for both international donors and local

administrations to take. But failing to resume the campaign as soon as possible will hand victory to those bent

upon Pakistan‘s destruction.

Three things must be done immediately. Those responsible should be found and punished. Second, a foolproof

system to protect polio workers has to be devised and implemented. And third, if there was ever a moment that

called for a coordinated response from clerics and politicians and the launching of a high-profile national awareness

campaign in support of polio and against the worldview of those who violently oppose it, this is that moment. It is

deeply unfortunate that the nation has barely recovered from the Malala incident when we have a new tragedy on

our hands. But all Pakistan can do with these moments is capture them to try to turn the ship around.

Better sense has prevailed

December 20th, 2012

Squabbling and occasional brinksmanship may be in the nature of Pakistani politics and the new era of relations

between the superior judiciary and politicians, but it is perhaps a welcome sign that at least on the political side,

more mature responses than in years past are becoming evident. The call for restraint by MQM chief, Altaf Hussain,

ahead of the Jan 7 contempt hearing by the Supreme Court against Mr Hussain should help calm the worrying


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escalation in accusations and recriminations between the court and the political party that dominates Karachi.

Whatever the concerns, legitimate or otherwise, about the court‘s foray into Karachi‘s electoral and political

problems, the response by the MQM until Mr Hussain‘s intervention on Tuesday had drifted far from the norms and

decorum of constitutional politics and institutional independence. Given the history — and the attack by members

of the PML-N on the Supreme Court in 1997 in particular comes to mind here — the call for MQM workers to

descend on Islamabad and protest the Supreme Court‘s move against the MQM chief could easily have escalated

into another shameful chapter in politician-judiciary relations in Pakistan‘s history. That the possibility of a

dangerous clash appears to have been averted is a testament to the good sense prevailing in a fraught

environment.

Rightly, then, the focus should now switch to the Supreme Court‘s increasingly liberal use of its contempt powers

to stem the tide of criticism of the superior judiciary. The media has found itself in the cross-hairs as have certain

politicians — the PPP senator Faisal Raza Abidi is a notable example — and it is becoming clear that some serious

debate is needed on where to draw the line between unacceptable criticism that undermines the institution of the

judiciary and critiques of the court‘s actions that legitimately seek to inform the public and alert the court to

differences of opinion rooted in reasoned argument. Robust criticism that questions the court‘s actions is part of

the process of strengthening the institution of the judiciary and should not automatically be seen as attacks on the

judiciary‘s independence or as attempts to influence it. The barring of legitimate critique and criticism will only lead

to other forms of speculation and rumour. More directly, the court needs to flesh out the proper and acceptable use

of contempt powers and apply them evenly. Perhaps Jan 7 can be an occasion for more complete answers.

Out of hibernation

December 21st, 2012

There is no shortage of complaints against government departments in Pakistan. Yet it is not always clear to whom

citizens should turn so that they can lodge their complaints for meaningful action. The institution of the federal

ombudsman, however, was designed to address this concern; its raison d‘être is to deal with complaints regarding

maladministration in the federal government. Hence it is welcome that Salman Faruqui, secretary general to the

president, has been given temporary charge of the institution. The post of ombudsman had been lying vacant for

two years, ever since the last occupant left office. As a result, the institution had become dormant.

In fact, some 75,000 complaints have piled up in the last two years as the approval of the ombudsman is required

for the resolution of grievances; meanwhile, it is distressing to hear that because of the absence of an ombudsman

many foreign agencies have withdrawn support to the institution. The office of ombudsman has much potential and

was well-received by the public when it was first set up. Though it is not an alternative to the courts, it has the

potential to take part of the burden off the legal system. Its promises are attractive. For example, the institution‘s

charter says it will accept or reject a complaint within 24 hours, while it will try and resolve grievances within three

to six months. In a legal system that is notoriously slow, where the backlog of cases in court is said be in hundreds

of thousands and where decisions can take years, this is relatively quick justice. Also, the ombudsman looks into

complaints free of cost, which is a big plus for citizens who cannot afford lawyers or court costs. Yet the office does

have its limits, as it does not accept complaints regarding matters related to defence or which are sub-judice or

other issues concerning external affairs.

If the federal ombudsman remains inactive, people will have no option but to take their grievances to court, thus

putting further stress on an already overloaded system. Its reactivation is positive, but has come a bit late in the

day, even if Mr Faruqui is a capable individual. The institution must be assigned a permanent head while it must be

ensured that it does not go into hibernation the next time the person in charge leaves midway or retires after

completing his tenure. The presidency must not be slow to name a new ombudsman when the time comes. What

the federal and provincial ombudsmen need to do is to publicise the institution to let people know where they can

lodge their complaints regarding the workings of the state.


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Where will the money go?

December 21st, 2012

The receipt of another $700m under the Coalition Support Funds comes at an important time for Pakistan. With

reserves eroding, and the outlook on the external sector getting darker, any inflow at this time is helpful. But here

the good news ends. After this receipt, further inflows are not visible on the horizon. The 3G auction is up in the

air, efforts to cajole a balance payment out of Etisalat are under way but chances of success look slim. The rate at

which the country‘s reserves are falling is set to accelerate further as large debt repayments become due in the

second half of the fiscal year, and where $700m is clearly helpful in meeting these obligations, the amount by itself

is insufficient to strengthen the outlook. Hence, the unfortunate search for additional inf lows continues.

The bigger question is what will we do with the money? The last large inf low, a $1.1bn payment in August, was

used to retire money borrowed from the State Bank. It also helped bring our current account deficit into surplus

briefly. Buoyed by these developments, the State Bank found comfort in the numbers and gave away a full

percentage and half cut in interest rates. The beneficiary was the government, since industry has yet to use the

declining interest rate environment to restart investment. So what should be spelt out in clear terms is what these

inflows will be utilised for. It should also be made clear at this stage that once the funds arrive, they wil l produce a

small and very fleeting uptick in our external sector, and in some of our fiscal indicators. That small increase must

not be used to pop any corks, and there should be no haste in putting the funds to work. Let‘s restrain the

enthusiasm a little, and recall that the long road ahead is still there, and while foreign inflows are important it will

take more than these to meet the challenge. Foreign inf lows must be accompanied by restructuring of the domestic

economy and tough fiscal reforms to fend off a balance-of-payment crisis.

Mirwaiz’s concerns

December 21st, 2012

Looking at it from the Kashmiri point of view, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq‘s concerns can be understood. Speaking at a

seminar in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, the chief of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference couldn‘t help saying that,

after 2008, Pakistan was not playing the role expected of it. Similar sentiments were voiced by another APHC

leader, Abdul Ghani Bhat, who felt that, instead of prioritising other bilateral matters, the Kashmir issue should be

resolved first. The impediments arose after the Mumbai tragedy that saw India freeze all talks with Pakistan and

call off the ‗composite dialogue‘ the two sides had agreed upon in Islamabad in 2004. Talks were later resumed

after the two prime ministers‘ meeting in Thimphu. But even after that, and despite many high-level meetings on

the sidelines of international conferences, the two governments failed to take steps that could be called a t haw in

the frosty environment.

The Mirwaiz‘s concerns stem from the fact that most of the time Islamabad and New Delhi have been talking about

other, secondary issues — Indus waters, Sir Creek, Siachen and cultural contacts — in a manner that may give the

impression that Kashmir is no more on Pakistan‘s agenda. In fact, Pakistan has made a conscious effort to take up

all outstanding issues with India. Islamabad believes that attempts to resolve the Sir Creek and Siachen disputes

or to liberalise trade creates the kind of conducive atmosphere that is needed for comprehensive talks on Kashmir.

It is a pragmatic policy aimed at improving relations and does not relegate Kashmir to the back burner. On its part,

India, whose human rights record in the occupied territory has been severely criticised, knows full wel l that unless

the Kashmiris are given the right to self-determination, chances for lasting peace in the region will continue to be

remote.


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Protection vs privacy

December 22nd, 2012

With its passage by the National Assembly bringing the Investigation for Fair Trial Bill one step closer to becoming

law, Pakistan stands on the edge of a new world of legal but risky information gathering. Several countries have

gone down this route since 9/11, and there are conditions specific to Pakistan that make it just as important here,

if not more, to be able to intercept the communications of those suspected of criminal activities. In combining the

country‘s terrorism problem with limited forensic tools and training, lack of protection for judges and witnesses and

laws restricting the admissibility in court of several kinds of evidence, the need to strengthen the hands of

intelligence agencies and police in preventing crimes is clear. As it stands, this inability of the state to punish

perpetrators has consequences beyond creating incentives to carry out crimes and releasing terrorists who are then

free to strike again. It also contributes to extrajudicial killings, deaths in ‗encounters‘ and enforced disappearances

that the security establishment has come to rely on as an alternative to the existing legal system.

Be all of that as it may, Pakistan is also a place where the ability to legally intercept communication carries

particular risks. Wiretapping and other types of monitoring have been used both by and against politicians as tools

of politics and corruption. There is little training, among either the judges who will grant warrants for monitoring or

those who will carry it out, on how to balance privacy concerns against the need for information, and little case law

to fall back on. The newly legal method could well be overused by overzealous intelligence agents, with

investigators tracking too many people who have no intention of committing crimes. And unless some of the other

weaknesses of the investigation and prosecution systems are addressed, intercepting communications will be of

limited value.

Given the last-minute changes that were made to the bill in the Assembly, the exact language of the legislation is

not yet known. Opposition and coalition parties did play an important role by asking for some much-needed

amendments, including, reportedly, punishment for misuse by investigators, reducing the time period for which

warrants will be valid and restricting the number of agencies that can intercept communications. But as the bill

goes to the Senate on its way to becoming law, it still needs to be looked at with an extremely cautious eye —

including carefully defining which crimes it will cover and creating a rigorous monitoring mechanism — so that the

legislation that ultimately goes into effect doesn‘t impinge on privacy and citizens‘ rights more than is absolutely

necessary.

Renewed cooperation?

December 22nd, 2012

As the text of the latest Pentagon report on the war in Afghanistan submitted to the US Congress is parsed, more

nuggets have come tumbling out that shed light on the state of Pak-US-Afghan ties. According to a report in this

newspaper yesterday, ―complementary raids‖ have been carried out along the volatile region of the Pak-Afghan

border in the Afghan east and Pakistan‘s Fata and tribal areas further north. This hints at renewed cooperation over

the fiendishly complex problem of cross-border raids wherein Afghan Taliban with sanctuaries on the Pakistani side

of the border penetrate eastern Afghanistan, and Pakistani Taliban escaping military operations in Fata and the

Malakand region have set up shop on the Afghan side from where they harass and target Pakistani security forces.

The problem of cross border raids by militants affects not only stability in eastern Afghanistan and north-western

Pakistan but broader Pak-US and Pak-Afghan relations because of the recriminations and mistrust that such raids

generate.

Still, it is far from clear what level of cooperation is actually taking place to try and stem at least some cross-border

militant activity. The US military strategy of focusing on population centres has meant a withdrawal from posts in

remote border areas, while the Afghan forces are still unable to rise to the challenge that cross-border raids

present. This leads to complaints from Pakistan that the necessary hammer-and-anvil strategy cannot be

implemented. It also generates suspicion that cross-border raids from the Afghan side are a tit-for-tat response to

militant activity from Pakistan into Afghanistan. More worryingly, from Pakistan‘s perspective, it also serves to

delay the inevitable operation in North Waziristan, from where emanates the single greatest threat to stability on

both sides of the border and also Pakistan proper. Perhaps none of this can edge closer to a resolution until the US


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strategy in Afghanistan is reevaluated and the course of action over the next couple of years made clear. Now that

President Obama has been reelected, the reassessment should occur soon. But if it resembles a kind of

contradictory surge-and-exit strategy, little may be clarified or resolved.

Politics and state

December 22nd, 2012

Two slogans in Pakistan‘s two largest cities — both emphasising the leader. In Lahore the stage is being prepared

for the return of Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri. In Karachi, wall chalkings of the MQM‘s earlier slogan, ‗Manzil nahin

rehnuma chahiye‘ (leader not destination) have cropped up once again. The catchphrase for Dr Qadri‘s Dec 23 rally

is ‗Siyasat nahin, riyasat bachao‘. Literally, this means ‗save the state, not politics‘ but a clearer translation would

be ‗discredit old politics to create room for your own‘. This is so typical of born-again tehriks. Politics and the

Pakistan Awami Tehrik have somehow not combined well, even though Dr Qadri has a large following and despite

his past attempts. Dr Qadri rose to prominence during Gen Zia‘s rule as a law teacher and religious scholar. Later,

he chose to grace Gen Musharraf‘s 2002 National Assembly. It is unfortunate the state could not be saved then and

there, leaving it precariously in the hands of who else but the politicians.

Having decided politics was something not worth saving, Dr Qadri is happy over the backing he has got from the

MQM — when no one quite knows how PAT is going to go about its campaign. When Dr Qadri thanked the MQM

chief for his support recently, he said it was the fight against feudalism that had brought PAT and the MQM closer.

It is ironic then that the wall chalkings in Karachi do not reflect this. Unless the objective is to convey that the

leader is a destination unto himself, the slogan might come across as somewhat feudal in modern times. In earlier

times, when the MQM was subjected to severe persecution by the state, the frustration was unders tandable, but

now that it has entered mainstream politics as a democratic force in its own right it must aim for higher standards.

Hope and trepidation

December 23rd, 2012

Punjab is heating up. A new governor is set to take over from Sardar Latif Khosa. Shahbaz Sharif, Imran Khan,

Manzoor Wattoo and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi are all out drumming up support for their parties, with Allama Tahir ul

Qadri introducing a new angle to it with his appearance. From somewhere an intelligence document by the Punjab‘s

Special Branch has entered the discussion saying the general polls scheduled after March next year could be

delayed. Bridges and roads are fast coming up in Lahore in anticipation of the general vote and their builders are

extremely keen on ensuring the elections coincide with the opening of these grand avenues. Chief Minister Sharif

has upped the ante by warning against any delay in the polls — and he has accelerated the pace to wind up his

projects before going into an election. Also, there are reports the PPP politicians in Punjab are keen on having the

election in early April next year, to avoid popular anger generated by long hours of power suspension in hot

summer months. These are all signs of a forthcoming election whose delay would be easier sought then effected.

Yet confusion seeps into the proceedings from time to time and the old fears about a delay in polls still hang in the

air.

In any event, PPP on its own is lacking in authority to put off the polls. It is clear that those who are warning

against a postponement are actually warning against some outside intervention in politics. This is where actors

such as Allama Qadri are identified as outside agents painting all politics as bad and allegedly seeking to create

room for a non-elected setup. These rumours will only die down with the announcement of an election date.

Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood‘s sudden selection as the new governor of Punjab will or should add to the pre -

election feeling — until there is solid evidence that some conspiracy to put off the elections is indeed afoot. It will

boost the alliance-making activity in the province. The federal government will want the effects of this step felt well

beyond Punjab, using it as an example of the reconciliatory politics it has been claiming to practice since its arrival

in power. The move has been explained in the context of politics in southern Punjab where PPP is looking to woo

voters with a new Seraiki province. No less signif icant is the politics of PML-N whose grand search for allies has

won it some notables, ruff-ling the feathers of some big birds. Lagging well behind in the catch-the-influentials

race, PPP would be hoping for more crossovers to bring the competition to upper Punjab areas.


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CNG prices

December 23rd, 2012

The Supreme Court‘s order to Ogra to devise a consumer-friendly CNG pricing formula has apparently put the

government in a difficult position. Although the court has told Ogra to consider the government‘s policy guidelines

on the matter, it has stopped the regulator from following them if these aren‘t in the interest of the CNG users.

That‘ll make it much more difficult for the government to achieve its policy objective of discouraging use of the

depleting gas resource for filling the car tanks of the wealthy. While it isn‘t advisable for courts to encroach upon

the territory of the executive, the government is to blame for the situation it has landed itself in. Its decision in

2008 to let CNG station owners rip off consumers and later to link the fuel‘s price with imported petrol without legal

backing led the court to intervene in the ‗public interest‘. Even the court‘s intervention failed to move the

government and it delayed determination by Ogra of a new CNG pricing formula. Ever since the court order to de -

link the fuel‘s price from imported petrol and curtail illegal profits of CNG station owners on Oct 24, the

government has been hoping that the hefty reduction in their profits may force them to wind up their business or

switch to LPG.

Meanwhile, the consumers, whose interests the court wants to protect and whom the government wants to switch

to petrol by increasing the CNG prices, have suffered for the last two months. After all, who would not want to use

CNG when it is available at 35-40 per cent of the petrol price even if it means waiting in long queues for hours?

Their ordeal is unlikely to end until a new price is fixed as the majority of gas stations remain closed on one pretext

or the other as part of their ‗unofficial‘ protest against the cut in their margins. The government will need to change

the relevant laws if it really wants to restrict the consumption of CNG for public transport to benefit the poorer

segments of the population and put the precious resource to productive use.

Sheer madness

December 23rd, 2012

Where is this society headed? Two gruesome incidents that occurred on Friday clearly indicate the depths we have

sunk to. In the first, a 1,000-strong mob beat to death and later burnt the corpse of a suspect for allegedly

desecrating the Quran in Sindh‘s Dadu district. The mob prised the victim out of police lock-up and decided to

dispense ‗justice‘ themselves. Meanwhile in Karachi, in an apparent revenge attack, the associates of an ANP leader

shot earlier in the day barged into the emergency department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and killed

one of the suspected assailants. Firing into the air, the enraged men had arrived at the hospital where the body of

the slain ANP leader was brought and, upon discovering that one of the suspect ed assailants was in the same

facility, shot him while he was in the casualty ward.

One can imagine the sheer terror that must have overtaken the patients, doctors, and others present at the

hospital. Doctors are often manhandled by emotional attendants. Also, in Karachi it is normal for political activists

to resort to heavy gunfire every time a fellow worker is brought to hospital for treatment or autopsy. The JPMC was

also targeted in the past, when a bomb went off on Chehlum in 2010. But this is a frightening new development —

perhaps the first time a victim has been shot inside a casualty ward in the city. Yet no satisfactory steps have been

taken to improve security for doctors or patients at the facility. As far as the lynching case is concerned, suspected

criminals as well as alleged ‗blasphemers‘ have been meted out similar treatment by charged mobs in the past.

Both incidents are indicators of the madness and zea-lotry that is now swee-ping across Pakistan. In this violent,

brutal society, logic and sanity are fast becoming nebulous concepts.


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Undefeated militancy

December 24th, 2012

Bashir Ahmed Bilour, an ANP stalwart and an implacable critic of militancy and Pakistan‘s drift towards extremism,

is no more. Killed by the same ideology he preached against and which saw him as a threat to the agenda of

remaking Pakistan into a darker and more troubling place, the tragedy of Mr Bilour‘s death is that it was perhaps a

death foretold. In recent weeks, the surge in militant violence across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata may have

come as a surprise to some, but to anyone following the arc of militancy in the region closely, the signs of an

unbowed and undefeated militant threat looking to reassert itself were plentiful. And given that the state‘s

response in the face of the morphing threat from militancy appears to have been yet more uncertainty and near

paralysis in some areas, the likelihood of high-prof ile attacks that would grab headlines and inflict further blows

against the morale of the state and the public was very high. Now, Mr Bilour is dead and it‘s almost certain that the

recent wave of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata will continue.

What can the state do? In moments like this, well-meaning commentary about better strategies and tactics and

who to fight where and when are almost beside the point. Once, and only once, Pakistani state and society develop

a consensus that militancy, radicalisation and extremism need to be decisively reversed, can any military, political

or social strategy work. There is often much focus put on the role of the army-led security establishment in

prolonging Pakistan‘s association with militancy, radicalisation and extremism. The focus is correct and necessary

because until the army adopts a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy, the state is unlikely to ever develop the

will or capacity to smother the threat permanently. However, there is a serious burden of responsibility on the

civilian political class too — a burden of responsible leadership that few have been able to carry well when it comes

to confronting the militant threat.

For all the levers and control the security establishment may have over state and society, if there is to be

meaningful change, it is the civilian political leadership that will have to demonstrate courage and clarity. Too much

obfuscation, too much dithering, too much doublespeak has characterised many civilian politicians‘ response to the

threat from militancy. Myopia can only take a politician so far; ultimately, the militants have made it clear: it is

them versus everyone else.

Ulema’s fatwa

December 24th, 2012

Even though the Pakistan Ulema Council did not specifically refer to the polio workers‘ tragedy, its condemnation of

the murder of innocent people deserves to be applauded. A fatwa, issued on Thursday by some of Pakistan‘s

leading Darul Ulooms grouped under the PUC, denounced all murders and declared categorically that a suspect

could be given justice only by the state. The fatwa has a direct relevance to the situation in Pakistan today,

because it also denounces murders in ―streets or markets‖. The PUC fatwa recognises the equality of all citizens

when it declares that a non-Muslim killed by a Muslim citizen deserves the same legal process as when a Muslim

falls victim to murder. Technically speaking, the PUC fatwa breaks no new ground when it reiterates the justice

inherent in Islamic law; but its signif icance lies in its timing, for it comes at a time when some leading Islamic

scholars and religious personalities have refrained from condemning acts of terror and the recent killings in Karachi

and KP of anti-polio workers, most of them women. PUC Chairman Hafiz Tahir Ashraf i said the decree was issued to

disabuse some people of the notion that the ulema approved of terroris m or were involved in it.

While the fatwa must be lauded, the silence which most heads of religious parties have maintained is astonishing.

Even if some of them have condemned the polio workers‘ murder as a matter of form, what is missing is a

unanimous and categorical denunciation of the barbaric attacks on people engaged in the noble task of immunising

the future generation of Pakistanis against polio. Isn‘t it time for men like Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Maulana Samiul


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Haq, Munawwar Hassan, Hafiz Said and others to not only unequivocally condemn these murders by bigoted

fanatics but also declare their full support for the polio campaign?

Kerry gets the post

December 24th, 2012

The nomination of Sen John Kerry as the next US Secretary of State is a welcome move from the Pakistani

perspective. Sen Kerry has demonstrated two key understandings in his dealings with this country: one, that

continued engagement and patient diplomacy are essential if fundamental divergences are ever to be narrowed;

and two, the civilian political leadership needs the consistent and serious support of the US, which in the past has

too quickly and too fully relied on the Pakistan Army as its principal ally. With elections in Pakistan on the horizon,

the drawdown in Afghanistan coming closer and a post-war-in-Afghanistan focus on Pakistan likely to grow, Sen

Kerry will steer his country‘s diplomatic approach to Pakistan at yet another critical juncture in this country‘s

domestic political evolution and regional security environment. The more pragmatic approach to Pak-US relations

over the last year — gone is talk of a strategic relationship and the like — should help Sen Kerry keep his goals

narrow and focused, though that still leaves much to do. Take just the aid under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman law that

has not flowed in the quantity originally conceived nor has it really had the kind of impact that its sponsors would

have hoped for. On the political front, with elections on the horizon in Pakistan, the further away the US stays from

ill-conceived ideas like the abortive Musharraf-Benazir alliance of 2007 and just opts to support relatively free and

fair elections with the chips falling where they may, the better off Pakistan‘s democratic transition will be.

Even in the pared-back relationship, the challenges will be mighty, though. Complicating the scenario for Sen

Kerry, and Pakistan, is the reality that under President Obama, foreign policy has been crafted by a small core of

presidential adviser sinside the White House. Secretary Clinton‘s relatively innocuous term, at least with regard to

policy, may be the template for Secretary-nominee Kerry, who enters the job as an avowed Obama loyalist. So it is

to the White House and changes in the national-security positions there that attention must also turn to understand

how the Pakistan policy may be tweaked in the months and years ahead.

A new contender

December 25th, 2012

All rallies, even mammoth ones, are not equal. Slightly over a year since the PTI rally in Lahore shook the count ry‘s

political foundations, another would-be saviour arrived in the Punjab capital to preach a slightly different kind of

politics. The turnout on Sunday for Tahir ul Qadri, chief of the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran, was massive, and expected.

As head of a populist, Barelvi group, Mr Qadri commands support from a group of dedicated followers cultivated

over the decades through an educational and preaching network that‘s especially strong in Punjab but that has also

spread its roots to the other provinces. Despite being a political lightweight, the charismatic Mr Qadri has adroitly

meshed conservative Islam with modernist values to craft a message that appeals to a far wider cross -section of

people than that of the PTI. Which is why, scanning the crowd at Manto Park on Sunday, both rural and urban, rich

and poor, highly educated and less literate persons could be seen in large numbers.

Yet, support for a religious leader is one thing; turning out voters quite another. This is where Mr Qadri‘s message

becomes problematic. Mr Qadri has demanded that a clean, technocratic, patriotic and efficient caretaker set -up to

fix all that ails Pakistan be put in place — or else his followers would descend on Islamabad and pressurise the

government until his demands are met. Within that demand lies a tacit admission perhaps that the TMQ does not

have the electoral support to convert his political agenda into an electoral victory that could lead to reform from

within the system.

Mr Qadri‘s message will strike many who have followed the trajectory of democracy in Pakistan as old and failed.

But the fact that it comes so close to the first civilian-led transition in decades will have raised some alarm bells.

For all its failings, the political class, that has disillusioned so many, has the one thing that other would-be saviours

do not: genuine political legitimacy. It may be flawed, it may be problematic, but support for the mainstream

political parties represents the democratic will of the people. It is this legitimacy, which Mr Qadr i and others like


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him do not appear to recognise or accept, that needs to be protected by the electorate when attempts are made to

snatch it away. The country is close to a general election that will be intensely competitive and which represents a

genuine opportunity to move the democratic project forward. That is the fundamental change the country needs,

no matter what the personal ambition of leaders like Mr Qadri may suggest.

A better democracy

December 25th, 2012

One measure of the maturing of Pakistani politics will be its evolution away from a system in which voters can only

choose among a small number of established political parties with money to burn. And yet a couple of the electoral

rules being developed by the Election Commission of Pakistan run the risk of preserving the status quo. The limit

on election spending is a particularly tricky decision. Set it too high and there‘s the risk of legalising an uneven

playing f ield. Set it too low and it will be unrealistic and flouted blatantly. As the ECP proposes a four-fold increase

in the limit, to Rs6m for a National Assembly seat and Rs4m for a provincial assembly seat, it needs to publicly

share the basis of these numbers — and a plausible plan for how it will enforce them — so that civil society can

weigh in on whether they are reasonable. Beyond limits, there is also the question of transparency. Aside from

records of how much was spent and on what, it‘s important to channel candidates‘ personal funds through parties‘

accounts, for example, and to document contributions from business interests and other large donors. Campaign

finance is not as simple as setting a spending cut-off, and the ECP needs to be more open and consultative about

how it plans to enforce transparent political spending.

The other piece of the proposal that needs to be rethought is the requirement that parties demonstrate a specified

level of public support or a wide enough national presence to qualify for an election symbol. It‘s true that

taxpayers‘ money should not be spent on supporting non-serious candidates or those simply out to strike deals

with bigger parties. But emerging political voices should not be stifled either. One way around this could be a

system such as the one in India, where parties are allowed to ‗graduate‘ from local to provincial to national polls.

The ECP‘s efforts at electoral reform, including consulting political parties and civil society, have been a welcome

change from prior years. But some of the rules need to be reconsidered to move Pakistan towards a more equitable

democracy.

Victory for Morsi

December 25th, 2012

The approval of the new constitution by the Egyptian people, confirmed in the second round of the referendum on

Saturday, hands yet another victory to President Mohamed Morsi and paves the way for the general election due in

about two months‘ time. The low turnout — alleged by the opposition to be 30 per cent — doesn‘t serve to

denigrate the importance of a 64 per cent ‗yes‘ vote. What matters is Egypt‘s gradual advance towards democracy

after decades of authoritarian rule, even after the country became a republic in 1953. Hosni Mubarak was ousted

from power about two years ago, but in this short period — despite some anxious moments, including the refusal

of the old guard to quit — President Morsi has on the whole managed to control the situation. He has been tough

where necessary and conciliatory where expediency so demanded. His sacking of Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein

Tantawi as supreme commander and defence minister and the dismissal of the three services chiefs strengthened

his power and dealt a coup de grâce to the Mubarak remnants. His mistake was the decree that debarred courts

from reviewing his actions. He, however, had the foresight to take it back when it evoked strong domestic and

international criticism.

The National Salvation Front, a coalition of opposition parties, has now decided to fuse into one party and struggle

by democratic means to amend the constitution. The opposition has reservations about the constitution because it

has been crafted by an assembly dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Front says the constitution ignores

the rights of Egypt‘s Christians, who constitute 10 per cent of the population. There is no doubt the parliamentary

elections will be a milestone in Egypt‘s march towards freedom. A constitution is in place, and that should serve as

the bedrock for the growth of democracy.


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Economy bombast

December 30th, 2012

Sometimes, election-related messaging and sloganeering can stretch the bounds of credulity. Now it seems that

the government is preparing a set of ―talking points‖ to take to the general public regarding its ―economic

successes‖. The minutes of a cabinet meeting held earlier in December are reflective of a weak effort to try and

hype up an economic track record for election purposes, to develop a narrative of economic success for a

government that is notorious for its indifference to the economy and its myriad ailments. And of all people, it is the

so-called technocratic finance minister, only recently labelled a ―suitcase economist‖ by some of his own party

colleagues, who has been tasked with developing this blueprint of hype.

From the minutes of the cabinet meeting where the plan was discussed, it appears the common man will be told

that between Pakistan and neighbouring countries, the prices of food items are lowest in Pakistan, and this is

because of the government‘s policies. Will it work? Highly unlikely. Does the common man really care what the

state of affairs is in neighbouring countries? And isn‘t it possible that in spite of being more dear, such items of

daily use may actually be more comfortably within reach of the common man in those countries because their

targeted subsidy schemes are better than ours, or the rate at which incomes are growing for the common man

over there is higher? It‘s a long shot for this government to try and spin a narrative of economic success since the

hype and the hopes it seeks to fan will fly massively in the face of the lived experience of t he common citizenry of

Pakistan.

The one area where this government could claim success has been the effort to normalise trade ties with India.

This is a potential strategic game-changer and could form the most important legacy of this government in the

decades to come. Yet even here it has not done the needful. Dec 31 was the date by when the grant of MFN status

was to have been made and the negative list abolished. Nothing of the sort is about to happen, because the

government has not been able to build the consensus, or stand up to certain groups that prefer to remain wedded

to the past. With failure as its track record in all major areas of economic management, it might be better for the

government to avoid any mention of governance altogether rather than develop a strategy to sell a hyped-up

version to the general public.

A shared problem

December 30th, 2012

The death of the female student who was gang-raped on a Delhi bus earlier this month is a tragic conclusion to a

shockingly violent event that highlighted the threats to women‘s security in South Asia. Rape does happen around

the world. But the attitudes towards women in this region make them particularly susceptible to sexual violence.

For one, they are considered objects belonging to their male relatives, which leads to rape being used as a tool for

settling personal scores, tribal feuds or commercial disputes, defending one‘s honour or taking revenge on

someone other than the rape victim. In the Delhi case, too, the violence may have been linke d to an argument

between the rapists and the victim‘s male companion. But even when a motive is unclear, the sentiment is not:

such attackers not only lack any respect for women, but in this part of the world they also expect no consequences

for mistreating women in the worst possible way. This is largely because those who should be helping victims share

similar attitudes; the suicide this month of a teenaged rape victim in Patiala harassed by police, who wouldn‘t take

action against the accused and tried to make her settle the issue out of court, is just one instance of the

discrimination rape victims face in South Asia.

The latter instance is all too familiar here in Pakistan. Societal attitudes towards rape victims — who bear the brunt

of social disapproval — combined with the likelihood that they will not be taken seriously or their attackers

punished, makes reporting rape far more trouble than it is worth. The Protection of Women Act passed in 2006 was

an important step to rectify some of the problems with the Hudood Ordinance, and the law no longer allows for a

rape accusation to be used as an accusation of adultery against the victim. But the deeper problem — the attitude

that paints a rape victim as somehow being the guilty party — persists. Delhi has been dubbed the rape capital of


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India with good reason. However, thousands of women in Pakistan are the sufferers of a police system that fails to

respond to victims‘ needs and a society that shuns them.

Cellphone disruption

December 30th, 2012

Cellphone services were once again shut down in Karachi on Friday, reportedly due to threats of terrorism. Such

shutdowns have now become a favoured tool of the government every time there is a signif icant threat of

terrorism, especially during religious occasions and major national holidays. In the current year, cellphones have

fallen silent nationwide on several occasions, including both Eids, during Muharram and when an official holiday

was declared to protest an anti-Islam f ilm. However, while in the case of most previous shutdowns the state gave

the public advanced warning, on Friday cellphones in the metropolis went silent for over seven hours without any

prior intimation. While the interior minister said the shutdown was necessitated by the threat of terroris m, it is also

true that several high-profile visitors were in the city on Friday, including the prime minister, the chief of army staff

and the naval chief. Hence, there is some discussion that the cellphones fell silent for the security of these officials .

There appears to be some truth to the claim that terrorists use cellphones to set off explosives. A Sindh

government official quoted in this paper has said over 40 improvised explosive devices connected to cellphones

have either exploded or been defused this year. However, we do not believe that cellphone bans are the best

method to prevent acts of terrorism. If the authorities feel such actions are inevitable, prior warning must be given

to the public so they are not caught unawares. For example in a teeming city like Karachi, panic levels can

accelerate drastically if cellphones are abruptly silenced and people are unable to contact friends and relatives. The

state must resort to cellphone shutdowns very selectively. They must not be used for discouraging revellers during

festive occasions like New Year‘s, or worse, to sabotage political gatherings in the name of countering terrorism.

Nature of the threat

December 31st, 2012

From Peshawar to Mastung, with Quetta and Karachi thrown in to add to the t oll of blood and gore, the country has

endured another weekend of tragedy and violence. Policemen, Levies personnel, Shia pilgrims and, it seems,

ordinary travellers — the range of targets was diverse, as are the likely groups involved in the killings.

Unsurprisingly, but dispiritingly as ever, the response of state and society has been relatively muted, almost a

collective shrug of helplessness and confusion. Meanwhile, militant conglomerates like the TTP seem to mock the

Pakistani state with their arrogant offers of talks that are thinly guised terms of surrender by the state.

Can state and society here come together and understand the nature of the threat in their midst? Part of the

problem at present is that many strands of the threat are shadowy and amorphous. In Balochistan, the suspicion

for Sunday‘s attack on the bus convoy carrying Shia pilgrims will immediately fall on Lashkar-i-Jhangvi — but who

is the face of the LJ in Balochistan? There is none, just a group of killers who may number a few dozen or several

hundred. In a society where so many overlapping strands of violence exist, the seeds of doubt and confusion in the

public imagination are buried deep and are difficult to dislodge. Meanwhile, in Karachi, militant activities have

picked up in recent months, but little is known publicly about these groups and their leaders. Adding to the

confusion, authorities have yet to establish if the Karachi bus was bombed or exploded because of a faulty gas

cylinder.

But the failure in creating public awareness of the militant threat is necessarily the state‘s. When Maulana Fazlullah

was in territorial control of Swat and Baitullah Mehsud was in control of South Waziristan Agency and swathes of

Fata, the threat was obvious — Pakistan had physically lost control of parts of its territory to armed groups seeking

to overthrow the state — and the symbols of defiance well known: Maulana Radio, Sufi Mohammad and Baitullah

Mehsud. This time round, with North Waziristan Agency and the Tirah valley under the virtual c ontrol of militant

groups, the state has failed to take the extra steps necessary to bring these more remote areas to national

attention for the right reasons, i.e. building a consensus to fight militancy. North Waziristan has infamously become

tied up with the American demand to ‗do more‘ rather than be recognised for a more relevant reason: it is the

single greatest threat to the stability and security of the country. The state, both the security establishment and


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the civilian-led parts, cannot expect the public to understand the nature of a threat that is kept hidden from them.

To ban or not to ban?

December 31st, 2012

About three-and-a-half months after it was imposed, the government announced that the ban on YouTube was

finally to be lifted.The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, it said, had now acquired a powerful software

firewall to comprehensively block blasphemous online material such as the trailer of an anti-Islam film, Innocence

of Muslims, which had led to the ban in the first place. The joy of millions of Pakistani Internet users was short -

lived however, when YouTube, soon after being unblocked on Saturday, was banned again on the government‘s

orders.

One can concede that given the trailer‘s provocative content the government had little choice but to impose a

blockade in the charged atmosphere of the first few days — although many other countries blocked only the

offending video and not the entire site. Pakistan did initially approach Google Inc. — the Internet giant that owns

YouTube — to take down the offending trailer, and failing that, to block access to it. But it is a measure of PTA‘s

incompetence that it did not have an agreement with Google that would have allowed it to block the video. All this

notwithstanding, the PTA cannot justify such an extended ban that deprives Pakistanis of thousands of sources of

online information. Concerns for security should not outweigh people‘s fundamental right to information. Also, the

PTA cannot hide behind the excuse that it did not have the tec hnical means until now to counter the situation

arising from the uploading of offensive material. Telecommunications is one of the healthier sectors of the economy

so finances certainly could not have been a factor. The lack of a coherent policy on the Int ernet or the social media

seems more to blame in this case. The Internet is a vast space that can be put to positive and negative use and

the authority should have been prepared to deal with such an eventuality. Moreover, the on-again, off-again ban

reinforces the impression of a government out of step with the times where a mature approach is needed to

navigate the minefield known as the World Wide Web.

Tobacco-free Islamabad

December 31st, 2012

One hundred thousand dead. That‘s the number of tobacco-related deaths that occur in Pakistan every year. The

campaign announced in the media during the past several days that Islamabad is to be a tobacco-free zone from

Jan 1, 2013, is therefore a step in the right direction, and long overdue. For years after the iconic Marlboro man fell

from grace in the West, he continued to gallop his way across many an advertisement and into the hearts (and

lungs) of millions of people in the developing world, with dire consequences.

In Pakistan, smoking was banned at all public places in 2002, including offices, hotels, hospitals, educational

institutions, airports and shopping centres. However, implementation has been lax. The ban on smoking inside

public transport vehicles is also flouted with impunity, as is the requirement that cigarette packets display a

pictorial health warning. A study conducted in Karachi found most of the outlets in the survey even sold cigarettes

to minors. Assuming that is the template for the rest of the country, it‘s little wonder that an estimat ed 1,200

Pakistani youngsters take up smoking every day. In short, the health burden of tobacco-related illness, which

includes soaring rates of lung and oral cancers, the latter thanks to widespread consumption of chewing tobacco, is

one that Pakistan with its myriad problems can scarcely afford. The media campaign by the government‘s tobacco

control cell promises that the law will henceforth be ―strictly enforced‖. The law stipulates that violators can be

fined up to Rs100,000 and jailed for up to three months. With Islamabad hopefully the starting point of a

countrywide campaign, it would be fitting if government functionaries, especially those with a public profile, set an

example by not smoking in public. If that can be done and the ban strictly enforced, one would have to say,

―You‘ve come a long way, baby‖.

Editorials From August to December 2012

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Transcript of Editorials From August to December 2012