DWS, Sunday 26th May to Saturday 1st June 2013

	DWS, Sunday 26th May to Saturday 1st June 2013
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NATIONAL NEWS
14 children die as school van catches fire By Waseem Ashraf Butt GUJRAT, May 25: Fourteen schoolchildren and a teacher were burnt alive when their van caught fire, apparently due to a spark in a petrol container, near Kot Fatehdin on Saturday. . Eight children were injured in the blaze. According to AFP, 16 children perished. Eleven of the dead were nephews and nieces of teacher Sameya Noreen who lost her life trying to rescue the children, aged between four and 10. Police registered a case on the complaint of Riaz Warraich, a police official who lost two daughters and a son. Ms Sameya was Riaz Warraich’s sister. The van was going from Rageki village to a school in Mungowal, a small town 25km from Gujrat. The fire erupted when the vehicle was hardly three kilometres from the Jinnah Public School. Gujrat’s District Coordination Officer told Dawn the administration had handed over 14 bodies to the heirs. Asif Bilal Lodhi said the injured children had been taken to the burns unit of the Combined Military Hospital, Kharian. One of them was discharged after first aid while two others were in critical condition. The van driver managed to escape soon after the fire erupted. Ambulances of Edhi, Rescue 1122 and Al Khidmat Foundation took the bodies and the injured to the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital. The dead children were identified as Abdullah Riaz, Zara Riaz, Kanwal Riaz, Ahmed Raza, Taimoor, Salman, Rehan, Saqlain, Hasnat, Aftab, Hamdan, Hubaria, Ishtiaq and Hassan. Dar Ali Khattak, the district police officer, said the van driver had been arrested. The driver, Irfan, told media that the fire erupted after he switched from CNG to petrol. Asif Lodhi, the DCO, said initial inquiry showed that the blaze was apparently caused by a spark in electric wires of the vehicle. The fire then spread swiftly because there was a petrol bottle in the van and it was connected to the engine’s fuel line. The CNG kit and cylinder remained intact. Mr Lodhi said Daud Aftab, a student who survived the fire, recalled that the driver had got the bottle filled with petrol from a fuel station on way to school. He said the van was owned by the school administration, it did not have any route permit and its fitness certificate had expired recently. The DCO said the district emergency officer had been asked to investigate the incident and submit a report within 48 hours. After the tragedy, the district administration ordered 4,000 private schools to submit fitness certificates of their vehicles in two days. Mr Lodhi said the Punjab government had announced a compensation of Rs500,000 each for the heirs of the deceased and Rs100,000 each to the injured. Funeral prayers of the victims were offered in the evening.
PM hopes new govts will solve Balochistan problems SOHBATPUR, May 25: Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso expressed the hope on Saturday that the elected federal and provincial governments would strive to resolve the social and economic issues confronting the people of Balochistan. . Speaking at a ceremony to mark the upgradation of Sohbatpur to district, the prime minister said the resolution of problems would help the province play its role in national development. Retired Justice Khoso said there were speculations regarding the elections when the caretaker government assumed charge, but it had concentrated on its sole mandate — holding of free and fair polls. “I believe that only public representatives can bring about prosperity and ensure welfare of the nation.” He thanked all parties for taking part in the elections and cooperating with the caretaker government. The prime minister also thanked the civil and military institutions for their efforts to ensure peaceful elections. “I also salute the people of Pakistan who have proved their liking for democracy by casting votes,” he said. He said the government was cognisant of the people’s sufferings and was taking all possible measures to address them. The country was facing numerous internal and external challenges which could only be tackled through coordinated efforts, he said. The caretaker government had not set aside the public issues and had immediately released funds to improve the power supply, he said. He said the federal government had banned air conditioners in its offices to conserve energy and expressed hope that the new government would take effective steps for a durable solution to the problem. He said all health-related departments had been brought together to improve coordination among the federal and provincial governments.
Shahbaz asks PML-F to join federal govt By Habib Khan Ghori KARACHI, May 25: Shahbaz Sharif, the PML-N leader, met PML-F President Pir Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi here on Saturday and invited his party to join the incoming government at the centre. . Talking to newsmen after a luncheon meeting at the Raja House with Mr Rashdi, he expressed the hope that all Muslim League factions would unite on one platform soon. The incoming federal and provincial governments would make joint efforts to solve the problem of loadshedding because the power shortage was a problem confronting the entire country. Pir Pagara said “we discussed a number of issues, including the possibility of bringing all Muslim League factions at one platform”.
Khursheed nominated leader of opposition in NA: PML-N govt should complete term: PPP By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, May 25: The PPP-nominated leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, has said his party would like to see the incoming PML-N government completing its five-year term and believes that this will “permanently close the door to dictatorship”. . “If the PML-N government completes its tenure, then no force will be able to even think of derailing democracy,” Mr Shah told reporters at the PPP’s central secretariat here on Saturday after he was nominated as leader of opposition in the National Assembly Mr Shah, who is known for his good relations with all political parties and had acted as a key negotiator of the PPP-led government in testing times, said his party would support all “pro-people” policies of the new government “The PPP will not create any hurdle for the PML-N government unless it feels that public interests are being compromised.” He said the PPP was even ready to cooperate with the PML-N if it wanted to amend the constitution to promote national interests. By extending support to the upcoming government, he said, the PPP wanted to enable it to meet challenges being faced by the country. The party would cooperate with the government on national issues because next five years would be crucial for the country, Mr Shah said. He claimed that the previous government had adhered to 80 per cent clauses of the charter of democracy signed by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in May 2006 in London. He said the PPP had accepted results of the May 11 elections despite serious reservations only in the interest of democracy. “The results are beyond comprehension.” He said the PPP expected fair and transparent elections but “unfortunately it did not happen”. Deploring the Election Commission’s warning about contempt proceedings against anyone criticising the conduct of the elections, he said: “This announcement by the ECP is upsetting because there is a big question mark over the elections.” Referring to the ECP secretary’s assertion that the commission enjoyed powers to conduct a trial under contempt charges, he said: “The ECP should not talk about new laws. Only parliament has the prerogative to enact laws.” Mr Shah said it was unfortunate that the PPP was not allowed to run its election campaign freely. He said the PPP-led coalition government had taken a stance on the issue of terrorism according to the aspirations of people who wanted peace. Highlighting achievements of the previous government, he said it had announced seventh National Finance Commission award. He expressed the hope that the incoming federal government would develop good relations with the provinces.
Isaf chief discusses border coordination with Kayani By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 25: Gen Joseph Dunford, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, said on Saturday that coordination among Pakistan, Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) was crucial for peace in the region. . Gen Dunford, who was on his second visit to Pakistan since assuming command of Isaf, was quoted by the US Embassy’s information office as saying: “Communication and cooperation between Isaf, Pakistan and Afghanistan is critical for regional stability.” His visit has come amid renewed friction between Islamabad and Kabul that is threatening the gains made so far in terms of regional security. Gen Dunford met Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to discuss issues relating to tripartite coordination along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The meeting was held to review implementation of the Tripartite Border Coordination Mechanism established by the three sides in last November. The Isaf commander said the meeting was “part of an ongoing dialogue to address security challenges of mutual concern”. The discussion mainly focused on various ideas for improving communication and cooperation and ways for pressurising militants along the border. Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa did not explain the new ideas. Pakistan and Afghanistan have sparred over repair of a border post by Pakistani military over the past few months. But, the situation was prevented from deteriorating further by Isaf intervention. A debate over the status of Durand Line, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, sparked by statements of the Afghan leadership, has recently made headlines and intensified tension between the two neighbours. Gen Dunford’s visit precedes the start of the last phase of a five-stage security transition plan under which lead security role in the most difficult districts in Afghanistan would be handed over to Afghan forces. In a few months Afghan forces will be responsible for security in the entire country despite doubts about their preparedness, which are evident in rising violence in areas whose control has already been transferred to them.
PTI to field Hashmi for PM’s post By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE, May 25: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided to field Javed Hashmi as its candidate for the prime minister’s slot. . Imran Khan, the party’s chief, will be its parliamentary leader in the National Assembly while Dr Arif Alvi will be its chief whip in the house. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee, chaired by Mr Khan at his residence here on Saturday. Briefing reporters on the decisions, the party’s vice chairman, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said Sheharyar Afridi from Kohat and Munaza Hassan, the party’s women wing president, would be fielded for the slots of National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker. He said MNA-elect Ghulam Sarwar Khan would represent the PTI in the assembly’s Business Advisory Committee. The committee decided that the party’s secretary general Pervaiz Khattak would be the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Asad Qaiser speaker of the provincial assembly. The meeting was attended by MNAs-elect Javed Hashmi, Arif Alvi, Shafqat Mehmood, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Hamidul Haq, Murad Saeed as well as Shirin Mazari, Munaza Hassan, Nafisa Khattak, Robina Farid and Lal Chand Mali. Mr Qureshi said the meeting had developed a consensus that the PTI would play an effective and responsible role as an opposition party in the National Assembly. The PTI vice chairman said Mr Khan had lauded the party’s workers and supporters for their participation in peaceful protests against rigging. He (Imran) said the party would not open a Pandora’s box by rejecting the outcome of the elections, but the Election Commission of Pakistan should investigate the complaints of rigging. Mr Khan asserted that the truth would prevail if the ECP investigating the matter in only six constituencies. “The PTI is not questioning the validity of the entire elections, it is asking the authority concerned to investigate the complaints in order to fix the problems so that such anomalies do not surface again in by-elections as well as local government elections,” Mr Qureshi quoted Mr Khan as saying. The committee said the number of election tribunals was not sufficient to entertain the large number of complaints. It demanded that the ECP should increase the number of tribunals so that complaints could be disposed of at the earliest. Mr Qureshi said the party’s candidate had won after re-count in Haripur but the ECP was not notifying the results, thus aggravating doubts about its credibility. He said the ECP had conceded rigging in NA 230 and announced re-poll in 43 polling stations on June 1. He demanded that the re-polling should be held under the supervision of Rangers and troops, as had been the case in NA 250. He said the decision about vacating seats by candidates who had won from more than one constituency would be taken later. He said Mr Khan would not be able to attend the first session of the National Assembly because he had been advised by doctors to take complete rest. The PTI chief was recovering fast and would stay in Lahore for now, he said.
Challenge to NAB chief’s appointment: Nisar’s petition has become infructuous: Bokhari lawyer By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, May 25: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari submitted before the Supreme Court on Saturday that a challenge to his appointment by PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had become infructuous since the petitioner was no longer the leader of opposition in the National Assembly. . “Since the petition has become infructuous, involves no public interest…[it] is no more maintainable [and therefore] it should be dismissed forthwith,” Advocate Sardar Latif Khosa, representing the NAB chief, told Dawn. A five-judge bench will continue the hearing on Monday. Chaudhry Nisar had filed the petition on Oct 22, 2011, seeking a declaration that the appointment was void because it had not been made by the president in consultation with the leader of the house and the leader of opposition, nor the chief justice. President Asif Ali Zardari had appointed Admiral Bokhari NAB chairman on Oct 16, 2011. In his reply submitted on Saturday, the NAB chief said the criteria of consultation by the president with the prime minister and the opposition leader had been complied with in accordance with Rule 6(i) of the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999. “The president had duly adhered to the consultative process by writing a letter to the then opposition leader before appointing Admiral Bokhari,” Sardar Khosa said, adding that the then opposition leader’s demand that the president nominate a panel of candidates for consultation was wrong. He said the chairman could not be removed from his office midway since he enjoyed a tenure post of four-years which could not be extended and he could not be removed except under Article 209 through the Supreme Judicial Council. The counsel said Admiral Bokhari had resigned at the time when then army chief Pervez Musharraf had imposed military rule after staging a coup, adding that his client had a meritorious career to his credit. The petitioner had not objected to the qualification or competence of the chairman, he said. Moreover, he said, the former opposition leader could not become a party to the process of the appointment of NAB chairman because a reference against his party’s chief was under review in NAB. Chaudhry Nisar also said in his petition that the appointment was tainted with personal motivation on part of the president. Chaudhry Nisar had won a favourable verdict from the court on a similar petition against the appointment of retired Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah’s as NAB chairman.
Men arrested on PIA plane being quizzed LONDON, May 25: Two British nationals of Pakistani origin arrested on a PIA plane after fighter jets were scrambled to escort it to a London airport remained in custody on Saturday for questioning by the police.. The men were detained on suspicion of endangering the aircraft which was carrying 308 people from Lahore to Manchester in northwest England. Soon after the Boeing 777 landed at the Stansted Airport outside London, armed police officers boarded it and arrested the men, aged 30 and 41. The incident was not believed to be terrorism-related and a PIA source said it had stemmed from a family row on board. “There was a family of eight to 10 people on the plane and they were quarrelling among each other,” the source said. “When PIA staff approached them and asked them to calm down, they told them to go away otherwise they would blow up the plane. “PIA staff became scared and they raised the alarm to avoid any untoward situation.” Later, the plane departed and landed at Manchester. According to one passenger, the cabin crew said the two men had repeatedly tried to get into the cockpit. Umari Nauman told Sky News: “The cabin crew informed us that basically they tried to come into the cockpit a few times and because they had been asked not to do that they got into a bit of an argument with the crew and made a few threats.” She said all the passengers were ordered to leave their possessions on board before leaving the plane.—Agencies
PTI, MQM hold protests in US NEW YORK, May 25: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have been holding competing demonstrations here since the murder of PTI leader Zara Shahid Hussain in Karachi. . The members and supporters of the PTI mounted a protest in front of the British Consulate in New York on Friday. They blamed MQM chief Altaf Hussain for the death of Ms Hussain. On their part, the MQM supporters held a protest demonstration on Saturday at the United Nations, condemning the PTI for what they said were malicious allegations hurled at Mr Hussain. The MQM has held protest rallies in eight American cities, including Washington, Dallas and New York. It has vowed to keep holding demonstrations until PTI relents and apologises to Mr Hussain.—Masood Haider
Mechanism worked out: PML-N, JUI-F in accord on Taliban talks By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, May 26: The PML-N and JUI-F may not have reached the power-sharing formula at the centre, but they claim to have worked out a mechanism for holding talks with the Taliban.. Sources in the two parties told Dawn that both sides had decided that the talks with the Taliban would be held through a “grand peace jirga” as suggested by all the mainstream political parties in a “declaration” of the all-party conference (APC) organised by the JUI-F in Islamabad on Feb 28. When contacted, JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai quoted party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman as saying that an agreement had been reached between the two parties on the steps needed to be taken for achieving peace in the country through negotiations with the Taliban. The JUI-F chief said that soon after coming to power, the PML-N government would prepare a “serious plan” for talks with the Taliban after taking all “stakeholders and policy-making institutions” on board. The government, he said, would then prepare a “roadmap” in the light of the outcome of the consultations. The issue was discussed at a meeting of committees of the two parties currently engaged in dialogue to reach an understanding on a formula for sharing power at the centre. About 30 mainstream political and religious parties had agreed at the APC to negotiate with militant elements through a broadened tribal jirga that had earlier been formed by the JUI-F. All members of the grand jirga were present at the conference. The APC was hosted by the JUI-F two weeks after a similar gathering organised by the ANP which had also called for holding dialogue with the militant groups, but had not come up with any concrete plan. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had boycotted both the events and termed it a futile exercise. The JUI-F spokesman said the PML-N leadership had already endorsed his party’s viewpoint that “indigenous conflict resolution mechanism” should be adopted. He explained that the two sides had agreed that the grand jirga constituted at the APC would be reconstituted and activated for talks with the Taliban. He said the jirga backed by all mainstream parties could not start its work because of the general elections and had to wait till the formation of the new government. Answering a question, he said the leadership of the two parties had already agreed on the mechanism and the talks at the committee level were being held on other issues, such as Madressah reforms, legislative agenda of the new government, etc. Mr Achakzai said national agenda of the two parties were by and large similar as both of them wanted peace and economic reforms. When asked if the JUI-F wanted to have a written agreement with the PML-N, he said that was desirable, but it was not its demand. A PML-N leader privy to the talks between the two parties endorsed the JUI-F’s version and said the former had told the Maulana that it would stand by its commitment made in the APC joint declaration. He said Nawaz Sharif had himself attended the APC and they could not even think of backtracking on the commitment made in the joint declaration. He said the PML-N had assured the Maulana that it would fully cooperate with his efforts to bring peace in the country and the region by using his influence and links in the tribal areas. Moreover, he said, the future PML-N government at the centre would also extend its full cooperation to the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa government in its efforts for peace in the province. The PML-N leader denied reports that his party was negotiating with the JUI-F because of any international pressure. “There is no truth in such reports that we want to take the JUI-F along because the US wants to see it happen,” he said in categorical terms. Actually, he said, the PML-N wanted to seek cooperation of all political parties in and outside parliament in its efforts to steer the country out of crisis. A source in the JUI-F denied any foreign pressure, but admitted that “the line of communication between the Maulana Sahab and the US are open”. The source said any “concrete regional or international consensus” would be taken into account. But, he said, the supreme interest of the nation would override any such consensus if there would be any “conflict of interests”. “There might be some international consensus and the party will definitely keep it in mind. But eventually the national interest will prevail,” he added.
Altaf revamps committee in ‘cleansing’ exercise By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque KARACHI, May 26: In a major reshuffle in the organisational set-up of his party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain relieved some senior leaders of their responsibilities and appointed a 23-member coordination committee on Sunday.. Prominent among those who were not included in the new committee are MNA-elect Dr Farooq Sattar, Anis Kaimkhani, Senator Syed Mustafa Kamal, Salim Shahzad, Raza Haroon, Anis advocate, Kanwar Khalid Younus, Waseem Aftab, Iftikhar Randhawa and Ashfaq Mangi. According to analysts, the exclusion of several known ‘MQM faces’ from the top decision-making forum indicated that Mr Hussain carried out the exercise to strengthen his control over the party and to punish those who had failed to defend him and take decisions he wanted to be taken. Mr Hussain told a workers’ convention that ‘inquiries are being held’ against people whose names were not included in the new coordination committee and they would be given time to reform themselves. The MQM chief announced the new set-up while addressing on phone from London a ‘general workers’ meeting’ held at the Jinnah Ground. He called it part of a ‘cleansing process’. Journalists were not invited to the event. In the new set-up, the position of the convenor of the coordination committee, last held by slain leader Dr Imran Farooq, remained vacant. Three deputy convenors — Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Engineer Nasir Jamal and Dr Nusrat — and 13 members of the committee — Aamir Khan, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Wasay Jalil, Hyder Abbas Rizvi, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Adil Khan, Khalid Sultan, Aslam Afridi, Mian Atiq, Yousuf Shahwani, Nisar Panwhar, Nasreen Jalil and Mumtaz Anwaar — will oversee organisational matters in the country. Nadim Nusrat will be the deputy convenor of the committee in London and its members will be Mohammad Anwar, Tariq Mir, Mustafa Azizabadi, Tariq Javed and Mohammad Ashfaq. The MQM chief also announced a 10-member Karachi Tanzeemi (organisational) committee, headed by former minister of state Dr Nadim Ahsan. He nominated Dr Sattar as the parliamentary party leader of the MQM in the National Assembly. A five-member international and diplomatic affairs committee was also formed — headed by Dr Sattar with Senator Kamal, Mr Younus, Ms Jalil and Mr Rizvi as members. Mr Hussain said that the MQM would not tolerate corruption and no worker or office-bearer should be seen involved in illegal occupation of land. He said it was unfortunate that “some of our people” were involved in illegal occupation of land, which had nothing to do with the party. “I am thankful to Almighty Allah that He saved the movement from destruction.”Mr Hussain asked the office-bearers of the sectors and units of the MQM’s organisational structure not to get involved in affairs of Bachchat bazaars, cable television, etc. He asked the new members to listen to the grievances of workers and said that any office-bearer or elected representative found misbehaving with workers would be removed.He said four former members of the coordination committee — Kaiful Wara, Saif Yar Khan, Adil Siddiqui and Gulfraz Khattak — had been given responsibilities in other wings of the party. He said that all former members of the coordination committee would serve the party as workers in their areas. Meanwhile, the MQM suspended the basic membership of former federal minister Mohammad Shamim Siddiqui and Mohammad Ahsan aka Chunnu because of numerous complaints against them and said it had nothing to do with their ‘business affairs’. The party relieved Anis Ahmed of all organisational responsibilities. On May 23, Mr Hussain had dissolved the coordination committee and appointed a 12-member ad hoc panel.
Several parties protest against poll rigging By Amanullah Kasi QUETTA, May 26: Supporters of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Jamiat Ulema Islam-Ideological, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat held a sit-in outside the election commission offices on Sunday in protest against the alleged rigging in elections. . Leaders alleged that rigging had been carried out on a large scale and results had been changed at the polling stations. Agha Hasan Baloch, Maulana Abdul Qadir Luni, Ahmed Nawaz Baloch, Qasim Suri, Maulana Mahmoodul and Maulana Kabir Shakir said that the election commission had failed to conduct the polls in a free and fair manner. They added that ‘hidden hands’ had played an active role in ensuring the victory of some candidates. They called upon the election commission to order re-voting at the polling stations where rigging had been carried out.
‘N’ leaders propose Nawaz for premier By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE, May 26: Senior PML-N leaders nominated Mian Nawaz Sharif on Sunday for the post of prime minister. They will forward their nomination to the party’s parliamentary committee to take a formal decision and announce it within two days. . With a large number of newly-elected independent MNAs from the four provinces joining the PML-N and legislators to be elected on reserved seats for women and minorities, the party will be in a position to gain majority on its own in the National Assembly. According to the party sources, the decision to nominate Mr Sharif was taken in an informal meeting of the leaders. They would submit a resolution in a meeting of the parliamentary committee scheduled for Tuesday, before the commencement of the National Assembly session. Meanwhile, Peoples Muslim League chief Arbab Ghulam Rahim met former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif at Raiwind and announced the merger of his party into the PML-N. The PML-N leader termed the development a major step which would bring about prosperity in the country, particularly in Sindh. Meanwhile, caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi of Punjab told reporters that Shahbaz Sharif would take oath as chief minister on June 6. He denied reports of his appointment as the country’s ambassador to the US. He said he was not in a position to say anything because as caretaker chief minister he was not supposed to make political statements. He added that he would be able to answer such questions on June 7 after the elected government took oath.
Oil import bill may decline by 10pc By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, May 26: With a massive reduction in import of diesel and furnace oil because of sluggish economic activities, the government has estimated the oil import bill at about $15.5 billion during next fiscal year will be about 10 per cent less than during the current year.. The estimate is based on a decline in import of petroleum products and anticipated decrease in international oil prices. The total consumption of diesel and furnace oil has been estimated to post a growth of about five per cent, according to budget estimates available with Dawn. The government has finalised next year’s oil import budget in consultation with the oil companies’ advisory committee on the basis of actual oil imports between July 2012 and March 2013 and estimates for remaining three months (April-June 2013). For the current year, the oil import bill was estimated at $17.24bn but it came to $15.2bn due to low consumption because of a slowdown in economic activities. According to budget estimates for 2013-14, the ministry of petroleum and natural resources has anticipated the import of high speed diesel (HSD) to fall by 50 per cent because of economic stagnation caused by energy shortages and better utilisation of domestic refining capacity. The import of HSD has been estimated to come down to 1.5 million tons in 2013-14 from 3m tons during the current fiscal. In terms of value, foreign exchange requirement for diesel import has been estimated at $1.4bn for next year which, compared with $3bn of the current year, is down by 53 per cent. The international price of diesel for next year has been anticipated at $934 per ton, compared with $1022 per ton this year. But the ministry said that overall consumption of HSD would post a slight increase of five per cent to 7.50m tons next year, compared with 7m tons this year. Likewise, the import of furnace has been estimated to be about 17 per cent lower than current year mainly because of circular debt which has limited the capacity of fuel suppliers to maintain growth. The furnace oil import has been estimated at 5m tons during 2013-14 which, compared with 6m tons of this year, shows a reduction of 16.7 per cent. The foreign exchange requirement of furnace oil has been estimated at $3.32bn which, compared with $4.7bn during the current year, marks a decrease of 29.4 per cent. The international price of furnace oil has been estimated to be lower at $664 per ton, compared with $779 per ton of the current year, a reduction of about 14.8 per cent. The country’s overall consumption of furnace oil has been anticipated to stay unchanged at 9m tons. The petroleum ministry expects that 1.5m tons of motor spirit costing $1.485bn will be imported next year which, compared with 1.745m tons during the current year at the cost of $1.727bn, marks a reduction of 14 per cent both in terms of quantity and foreign exchange requirement. The international price of motor spirit has been estimated to average $990 per ton next year, down by 13.6 per cent from $1146 per ton during the current year. The consumption of petrol has been estimated to register a growth of 15 per cent to 3.6m tons next year from 3.1m tons during this year, because of diminishing availability of CNG. On the other hand, the import of crude oil has been estimated to maintain a growing trend. The budget estimates have put crude import requirements at 85m tons with an increase of 37 per cent from 62m tons of the current year. The foreign exchange requirement for crude oil has been estimated to rise to $9.3bn from $7.6bn of this year, an increase of 22 per cent. Crude prices in the international market during the coming year have been estimated at $109 per barrel, a decrease of 13.5 per cent from $126 per barrel of this year.
‘Presidency received no advice for NA session’ By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 26: The Presidency has denied reports about Prime Minister House having sent an advice for summoning the session of the newly-elected National Assembly. . Some TV channels quoted unknown sources as saying on Sunday that Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso had sent the advice to President Asif Ali Zardari for summoning the NA session on May 29. “It (advice) has not reached the Presidency so far,” President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn.
PML-N to head govt in Balochistan, says leader By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, May 26: The spokesman for the provincial chapter of the PML-N rejected on Sunday reports that the party leadership had agreed to offer the post of Balochistan’s chief minister to the National Party (NP) and insisted that it had decided that the post would go to the PML-N. . Talking to reporters at the press club, Santosh Kumar said the PML-N had acquired majority in the provincial assembly and the voters had empowered it to head the provincial government. “It is a democratic tradition to choose the chief executive of a province from the party which has majority in the legislature.” He claimed the central leadership of the PML-N wanted one of the party’s MPAs-elect to be the chief minister. Posts like speaker of the assembly and senior minister could be given to the allies, he added. He said consultations with the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), National Party and others parties were in progress for formation of the coalition government. The PML-N has 14 members and the NP and PkMAP have a combined strength of 18 in the 65-member assembly. But PML-N MPAs-elect are divided over who the chief minister should be. Half of them are for Sardar Sanaullah Zehri and the other half supports Nawabzada Jangez Marri. The deadlock has helped NP chief Dr Abdul Malik Baloch to emerge as a strong contender for the post. He has been nominated by the PkMAP.
New PM to take oath on June 5: Nizami: Power transfer process likely to begin on 1st By Khawar Ghumman ISLAMABAD, May 27: Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso advised President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday to summon the National Assembly’s session on June 1. . A press release issued by the prime minister’s secretariat confirmed that the advice had been sent to the president for convening the NA session on June 1. Talking to journalists at the National Press Club, Islamabad, Information Minister Arif Nizami said the National Assembly would meet on June 1 when the newly-elected members would take oath. On June 3, the speaker and deputy speaker will be elected and on June 5 the leader of the house. He said soon after the oath-taking of the new cabinet in the afternoon of June 5, the term of the caretakers would end. Presidency’s spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said the Presidency had received a summary from the prime minister for summoning the NA session on June 1. The office had sent it to the president, who was in Karachi, for his signatures. “It appears that the National Assembly will meet on June 1, but the president enjoys discretionary powers to call its meeting even before that date, if he so desires,” said a senior government functionary, referring to Article 91 (2) of the constitution. He said June 1 was the cut-off date because the house had to meet no later than 21 days after the general elections. Meanwhile, the party position in the new National Assembly, according to tentative results, gives the PML-N clear majority in the house with 175 seats, including 30 it is likely to win on seats reserved for women and minorities. The PPP holds the second position with 44 seats and the PTI is third with 35. Iftikhar A. Khan adds: The PML-N finally crossed the magic number of 172 in the National Assembly required to form and run the government single handedly. An ECP official said the commission was striving to address the issue of reserved seats for women and minorities because a stay order issued by the Balochistan High Court might affect the entire schedule, beginning with the swearing in of the members on June 1 and followed by election of the speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly and finally the prime minister. He said the notification was likely to be issued on Tuesday. The PML-N, having gained 145 seats in the house after as many as 19 independent members-elect joined it, is all set to get 30 reserved seats, exhausting the priority list submitted by it to the commission. According to sources, the name of Anushe Rehman — who headed the party’s committee that finalised the names for women’s reserved seats — appears on top of the notification that is ready to be issued. Others on the list from Punjab include Zaib Jaffar, Tahira Aurangzeb, Parveen Masood Bhatti, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Shaista Pervaiz, Nighat Parveen, Majeeda Wyne (widow of former chief minister Ghulam Haider Wyne), Khalida Mansoor, Asiya Naz Tanoli, Rida Khan (daughter of PML-N information secretary Senator Mushahidullah Khan), Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Laila Khan, Arifa Khalid Pervaiz, Surriya Asghar, Shahzadi Umerzadi Tiwani, Maiza Hameed, Farhana Qamar, Shaheen Shafiq, Iffat Liaquat, Shazia Ashfaq Mattu and Romina Khurshid Alam of the PML-N. Two reserved seats for women from Punjab will go to the PTI — Dr Shireen Mazari and Munzza Hassan. Belum Hasnain of the PPP and Tanzeela Aamir Cheema of the PML will also become members of the assembly on the reserved seats from Punjab. There are 35 reserved seats for women from Punjab and the eight remaining ones will be filled after issuance of a new schedule inviting nominations from the parties. All the eight seats are also likely to go to the PML-N. Of the 14 reserved seats for women in the assembly from Sindh, seven will go to the PPP, five to MQM and one each to PML-F and NPP. Those who are to be notified as returned candidates include President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur who has also won on a general seat from Benazirabad. Others from the PPP set to become MNAs include Shagufta Jumani, Nafisa Shah, Shazia Mari, Mahreen Razaque Bhutto, Alizeh Iqbal Haider and Mrs Musarrat. Kishwar Zehra, Tahira Asif, Saman Sultana Jaffri, Dr Nikhat Shakeel Khan and Dr Fauzia Hameed of the MQM, Reeta Ishwar of PML-F and Shahjehan of NPP are also set to become MNAs from the quotas of their parties. Of the eight reserved seats for women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four will go to the PTI, and one each to the JUI-F, PML-N and Jamaat-i-Islami. The result for one seat is unclear. Those are sure to become MNAs on reserved seats from the province include Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Mussarrat Ahmadzaib, Sajida Begum and Aasiah Gulalai of the PTI, Shahida Akhtar Ali of JUI-F, Tahira Bukhari of PML-N and Ayesha Syed of the JI. The PkMAP’s Naseema Rehman and JUI-F’s Aliya Kamran will become MNAs on two of the three reserved seats for women in the National Assembly from Balochistan. The third seat will be decided by lot. MINORITIES: Six of the 10 reserved seats for minorities will go to the PML-N’s Dr Darshan, Dr Ramesh Kumar, Bhawan Das, Isphanyar Bhandara, Tariq Christopher Qaiser and Khalil. The other seats will go to Ramesh Lal of the PPP, Lal Chand (PTI), Sanjay Parwani (MQM) and Aasiyah Nasir (JUI-F).
DSP among 5 policemen killed in Shangla bomb blast By Khalid Khan ALPURI, May 27: Five policemen, among them a DSP, were killed in a roadside bomb blast in the Poran subdivision of Shangla district on Monday, police said. . DSP Khan Bahadar and the other policemen were going to Poran Kotki from Aloch when a bomb went off near their vehicle at Piryanai, some 4km from Aloch. The DSP, his guards Osman and Tauseef, driver Jamial and cook Saeed Anwar, who was from the community police, died and their vehicle was destroyed. The bodies were taken to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Poran. Shangla Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ziaul Haq said the bomb had been detonated by remote control. The body of DSP Bahadar was sent to his native Peshawra town of Swat Valley for burial. The bodies of other policemen were dispatched to their respective hometowns.
Violence as shortfall rises to 7,000MW By Ahmad Fraz Khan LAHORE, May 27: The country continued to be in the grip of the worst power crisis on Monday, stoking nationwide protests and violence as electricity shortfall rose to a phenomenal 7,000MW – total generation of 10,500MW against a demand of 17,500MW.. However, the shortfall rises exceptionally when contribution to the Karachi Electric Supply Company of over 700MW is deducted from the figure, along with exemptions (defence installations, hospitals, so-called VVIP houses) of around 1,500MW and line losses of around 22 per cent. “It leaves only around 6,000MW for the common man against a demand of 15,000MW,” said a former managing director of the Pakistan Electric Power Company. Of the 6,000MW, a section of the industry is still getting 18-hour supplies and consumes around 1,500MW. After all these deductions, the sectoral planners have only 4,500MW to 5,000MW to play with for meeting a domestic demand of around 15,000MW. This explains the extent and depth of the crisis and fraying nerves of people who do not have even fans in scorching heat. On Friday, the mercury broke a 69-year record (hitting a baking 48 C) in Lahore and the city went virtually without power. “On Monday, it were Mirpur and Faisalabad, on Tuesday it may be other cities, but protest and violence would continue,” he feared. “With this kind of power generation all urban feeders are suffering up to 18 hours of loadshedding and there is simply no schedule, or electricity, for rural areas. It means that at any given moment, 70 per cent of Pakistan is without electricity.” “There is simply no electricity in the system,” says an official of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company. The whole day is spent juggling the power around, whatever the system has. Mercifully, enough hydel contribution may bring a ray of light. It is now providing around 50 per cent of total generation. Even more importantly, water is stored during the day in dams to be released during peak hours to maximise generation. Otherwise, there is neither oil nor gas to meet the current demand. Had it not been for hydel at this stage, it would have been a total collapse. With temperature falling in Skardu and other parts of the Northern Areas, water supplies might go down and spell more disaster in the next 48 hours. Several plants are offline because there is no oil or gas to run them. All payments that the government and power sector make are adjusted against outstanding amounts rather than being used for fresh oil purchase. No amount of money thus brings relief to the sector or common man, he observed. “The only hope is improvement in weather in a few days,” says an official of Genco-I – a public sector generation company. If weather turns harsh, the power riots would only become severe and frequent. The sector has hit its peak as far as generation, within these resources, is concerned. Water contribution would at best sustain the level or go down. Oil supplies are hard to come by because the Pakistan State Oil is struggling to avoid international default rather than streamlining supplies. Gas fields are at annual maintenance. Where would electricity come from, unless, of course, the caretakers pump huge money … which they have already refused. It is a scary scenario, threatening to get worse, he concluded.
50 injured in Mirpur riots By A Reporter ISLAMABAD: A clash between police and people protesting against 18 hours of unannounced loadshedding left over 50 injured in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, on Monday. Eight policemen were also among the injured. . The prolonged outage amid a merciless sun prompted people to take to the streets on a call given by opposition parties in Azad Kashmir, including the Muslim Conference and the PML-N, and organisations representing lawyers, transporters and the business community. The protesters first gathered at a place and then started marching to the Mangla dam power house. Joined by other people, they overran a police barrier on the Mirpur-Mangla road. But police placed containers on the Medial College road to prevent the protesters from going to the power house. Police resorted to baton charge and fired teargas shells when the protesters tried to climb up the containers. The situation soon went out of control and the protesters started pelting police with stones and forced them to retreat. Eight policemen, including SHO Thothal police station Khawaja Abdul Qayum, were injured. A number of political leaders, traders and lawyers also suffered injuries. Several vehicles were damaged. The protesters continued their march but were stopped on a bridge near Mangla dam, where police were better equipped to meet the mob under the command of deputy commissioner, SSP and DSP. They ordered police to resort to baton charge to disperse the mob. Another clash took place in which a number of people were injured. The injured were taken to the Mirpur District Hospital. Most of them were discharged after treatment. Traders said they would observe a token strike on Tuesday against what they called police action on peaceful protesters.
Indian PM’s special envoy meets Nawaz By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE, May 27: Satinder K. Lambah, the special envoy to Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, called on PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif at his Raiwind residence here on Monday. . Mr Lambah conveyed Dr Singh’s warm greetings and good wishes to Mr Sharif which was ‘deeply appreciated’. They discussed ways of taking forward the dialogue process between the two countries. According to a PML-N press release, the meeting was a follow-up to a conversation between Dr Singh and Mr Sharif when the former called to facilitate the latter on his victory in the May 11 elections. The press release said the PML-N chief and the envoy also discussed ways of promoting peace, friendship and cooperation between the two South Asian neighbours. During the conversation, Mr Sharif had invited Dr Singh to attend his oath-taking ceremony. Meanwhile, the chief of India’s Council for External Affairs, Dr V. P. Vaidik, called on PML-Q President Senator Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Monday. Chaudhry Shujaat said both countries should hold talks on all outstanding issues, including Kashmir and water. His sons, Shafay Hussain and Salik Hussain, were present. Dr Vaidik said the political leadership of India wished to have good relations with Pakistan and it hoped the newly elected leadership in Pakistan would move ahead on problems of the region.
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi lauds Malala’s struggle ABU DHABI, May 27: General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, received here on Monday Malala Yousufzai, the brave girl who was shot in 2012 in the head for advocating the cause of girls’ education in Swat. . Malala, along with members of her family, had stopped over in Abu Dhabi on way to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and to thank the UAE government and particularly Shaikh Mohammad for his support during her treatment. The United Arab Emirates had sent a medical team and an air ambulance to transfer Malala from Pakistan to the UK. Shaikh Mohammad praised Malala’s determination to overcome difficulties and continue to carry forward her noble message even when she was in hospital. He said it was the duty of everyone to stand by Malala in her mission of promoting the principles of love and peace. Malala stood with courage against extremists who prevented girls from going to school. “Malala works to promote the values of forgiveness and tolerance,” Shaikh Mohammad said.—Courtesy Gulf News
Pepco, NTDC chiefs to appear before SC By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, May 27: The managing directors of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) and the National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) may find themselves in hot water if they fail to satisfy the Supreme Court on Friday (May 31) on reasons behind the shortfall in electricity generation.. The managing directors are required to appear in person before a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, to explain the perceived failure on the part of Pepco and NTDC to comply with the May 21 orders of the court that had asked them to improve electricity generation and its distribution in an equitable manner. In case they fail to satisfy the apex court for not implementing its May 21 order in letter and spirit, they will be asked to furnish why legal action should not be initiated against responsible functionaries. The Pepco and NTDC will submit a report in the court about the distribution of electricity with effect from May 21 to date despite their earlier assurance that the situation would improve soon. At the previous hearing on May 21, Pepco Managing Director Zarghoon Ishaq Khan had assured the apex court that arrangements were in place for the supply of furnace oil and as a result, the system would start generating electricity. He said adequate steps would also be taken in the near future to enhance the generation capacity. On his assurance and after hearing other parties in the case, the court had ordered equal distribution of whatever electricity was generated amongst consumers — both domestic and industrial — so that no one could allege discrimination. But the court noted with dismay that despite the order, reports of protests over power cuts have been flooding the media. It is obvious that the Pepco and NTDC had failed to comply with the May 21 orders of the court, observed the Supreme Court before issuing notices to Pepco and NTDC.
SC urged to take notice of Gujrat tragedy By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 27: Former law minister Senator Babar Awan has asked the Supreme Court to take notice of the May 25 incident in which 16 children and a teacher died after their school van caught fire near Gujrat.. In an application filed on Monday, Mr Awan urged the court to take a suo motu notice and hear the matter on an urgent basis. The senator has named as respondents the chief secretary of Punjab, home secretaries of the four provinces, the chief commissioner of the Islamabad Capital Territory, the motor vehicle authorities of all the provinces and the motor vehicle examiner of Gujrat; SP Traffic, Gujrat and Islamabad; the Inspector General, Motorway, Islamabad; and IG Punjab. He requested the court to direct the police to treat the incident as an act of terrorism and register an FIR under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, because it had shaken millions of people in the country. He sought information about vehicles converted from petrol to CNG. The senator said it was unfortunate and depressing that three children of a police official had lost their lives in the tragedy and the fourth received severe burn injuries. He recalled that the apex court had taken notice of the incident in which 35 school students had died after their vehicle on a trip to salt mines resort skidded off the motorway and fell into a ditch in Kallar Kahar on Sept 27, 2011
NAB files first RPP reference By Syed Irfan Raza ISLAMABAD, May 27: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday filed a reference in one of the cases of Rental Power Projects (RPPs) scam. The reference did not carry the name of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.. Ramzan Sajid, a NAB spokesman, said that the reference had been filed in an accountability court in Rawalpindi. Twelve different cases involving the RPPs scam are being investigated by NAB and it is the first reference filed by it. This case relates to Naudero-II Power ProjectNine firms had won contract to install their projects to overcome electricity shortage. They received more than Rs22 billion as mobilisation advance from the government to commission the projects, but most of them are accused of not setting up their plants. And the few that did install, did so after an inordinate delay. Of the total recoverable amount of Rs22 billion, NAB has so far recovered Rs5 billion, in addition to Rs8 billion paid by the firms on the directives of the Supreme Court. In reply to a question, the spokesman said the name of the former prime minister was included in the case, but reference against him could not be filed before June 3, the deadline by which he has to submit a detailed reply in NAB. Mr Ashraf appeared before NAB investigators on May 17 and recorded a brief statement. He had been given a questionnaire and he sought time till June 3 to answer it, the spokesman added. Mr Sajid said if NAB investigators were not satisfied with the reply of Mr Ashraf, a supplementary statement would be filed with the accountability court to include his name in the reference. Mr Ashraf has been accused of having received kickbacks and commission in the RPPs deal when he was federal minister for water and power in 2008. As per directives of the Supreme Court, NAB had to file the reference on the RPPs scam before May 27. The Supreme Court directed the NAB on Jan 11 to arrest the people involved in the RPPs scam, including Mr Ashraf who was prime minister at that time. A bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the chief justice, asked NAB to fix criminal liability and submit a report. Mr Ashraf, three former ministers and four former secretaries may face charges in the case.
Petty disputes, gas misuse shut 1,900MW plants By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, May 27: As the power sector subsidy reached Rs350 billion on Monday, petty disputes and misuse of allocated gas have resulted in the closure of relatively cheaper power plants, mostly run on gas, taking 1,900MW off the national grid. . In some cases, the plants having dedicated gas supplies have been forced to close down because of minor issues involving paltry payments and technical faults while billions of rupees of public money have been pumped into fuel guzzling plants which produce electricity at over Rs26 per unit. A finance ministry official told Dawn that Rs10bn had been released to the power ministry on Monday for onward payment to the Pakistan State Oil to arrange fuel. With the latest disbursement, the total power sector subsidy reached Rs350bn against a budgetary allocation of Rs120 billion. Another Rs30-50bn was expected to be injected into the power sector next month, he added. According to officials, total power generation on Monday stood at 10,500MW and the demand at 16,000MW, leaving a shortfall of 5,500MW, or an average loadshedding of 11 hours in the Wapda system, although hydropower generation has increased to 4,367MW and the Chashma nuclear plant is running at its full capacity of 600MW. The most interesting case relates to the 235MW Liberty Power project. The plant has been installed on about 730mmcfd permeate gas which, if processed for injection into the gas system, can produce only 20mmcfd. The plant’s tariff is about Rs6 per unit because it does not involve capacity charges, but it has been closed down for the past five months owing to a contractual dispute with the Sui Northern Gas Company involving Rs11bn. The official said the management of two independent power producers (IPPs), which enjoyed good relations with the PML-N, was running one plant and keeping the other closed or at low production to continue to draw capacity payments because energy related bills to be paid by public sector organisations took time due to circular debt. Likewise, three plants of 300MW capacity — Sepcol, Saba and Japan Power — have been closed down because of fuel shortage. Given the fact that these plants could be brought into production by providing fuel, the finance ministry has offered to arrange fuel for them on credit. Similarly, Hubco Narowal plant of 240MW has been closed down for want of fuel. The Hubco management has been seeking for months advance payment to purchase fuel and the power ministry has been asking it to start production and then get payment. Now the ministry has agreed to make down payment to arrange fuel for the plant. The most efficient IPPs — Saif, Saphhire, Halmore and Orient — have also been facing gas shortfall. While diesel had been arranged to run them at about Rs26 per unit, the finance ministry was opposed to be generous to arrange diesel. Halmore’s 200MW is still out of the system. Sources said Jamshoro and Kotri power plants were currently producing about 364MW and this could be increased to 600MW with minor improvement in fuel utilisation. Guddu Thermal Station is producing about 462MW, though it can generate 700MW because of dedicated gas supply from nearby Kandhkot gas field. One of its machines caught fire during operation and another unit was closed as a precautionary measure. Since the Guddu plant is on a transmission line that also connects three other power plants of 900MW — Uch, Habibullah Coastal and Foundation — they were also taken off the grid, plunging almost entire Balochistan into partial darkness. So 1,600MW (700MW of Guddu and 900MW of three IPPs) went out of the system because of technical reasons. After five days of closure, the 500MW Uch power plant has now started producing 20MW. Likewise, Hub Power’s 1,200MW plant, which has been producing 600MW for almost a week, is now generating 900MW.
SC dismayed at Rs38bn loans rescheduling by BoP bosses By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 27: The Supreme Court on Monday took exception to what it called “compromise” on part of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) by rescheduling loans worth Rs38 billion, including Rs9bn borrowed by some directors of the bank. . “You misused the Supreme Court and wasted our time,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while pointing towards Advocate Anwar Mansoor representing the bank. “This (loan rescheduling) is…eyewash,” the court said. The observation came during the hearing by a three-judge bench of the Rs8bn loan scam in the BoP. The proceedings had commenced on a petition the bank had filed against the Haris Steel Mills in 2008. What is the use of proceedings before the Supreme Court or following cases pending with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) when the bank has already restructured the loans, the chief justice observed. Now what relief did the petitioner want from the court, asked the chief justice, adding ‘should we dismiss the petition right away’. “You want that there should not be any action against the directors of the bank and the case is remanded back to the Islamabad High Court,” observed Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, one of the members of the bench. Advocate Mansoor tried to explain that the bank had not made any compromise to reduce the criminality aspect of the directors involved by misusing the court, rather the loans had been rescheduled only to get the money back. “We will get the money back if we allow the business to run,” the counsel said. The bank had rescheduled the loans in 2010, even before the previous Punjab government got an inquiry conducted into the matter by former Additional Inspector General Aftab Sultan. In a voluminous report, Mr Sultan had recommended to unleash full wrath of the criminal law against Sheikh Mohammad Afzal, the principal accused and owner of the Haris Steel Mills, and the bank directors responsible for collectively defrauding the bank. “The bankers have schemed, connived, aided and abetted Sheikh Afzal in executing the swindle, therefore none of them deserves any leniency; it’s time they face full wrath of the criminal law,” the report had emphasised. “Deceit, deception and an insatiable lust for money shook the bank’s foundations and it lost an inestimable amount of deposits and profits,” the report highlighted. It said the bank’s very existence became doubtful and owing to unprecedented media scrutiny its equity market capitalisation declined by a staggering amount to around Rs64bn within a short time. Apart from highlighting the role of Sheikh Afzal and associates in the scam, the report had discussed in detail the oversight and negligence on part of the former chairmen of the bank’s board of directors and ex-chief secretary Punjab Kamran Rasool, Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa, Shahzad Hassan Pervez, Salman Siddique and Shahzad Ali Malik during the period when Hamesh Khan was president of the bank. Sheikh Afzal, who was arrested in Malaysia with the help of Interpol in 2010, also confessed how he had bought a whole lot of “worthy” people to get out of the country despite his name being on the Exit Control List. Mr Mansoor argued before the court that loan rescheduling had been approved by the Lahore High Court on Aug 2, 2010, and that the loans secured by the directors had now swelled to Rs22bn. He said that the BoP had submitted 30 complaints to NAB against its directors and 66 complaints were pending with the State Bank for violating banking laws. Also, a reference is being proceeded against former BoP president Hamesh Khan and directors, including Fareed Mughees, Gohar Ijaz and Khurram Iftikhar, for borrowing loans from the BoP for the companies owned by them. The court will resume the proceedings on Tuesday.
‘Energy crisis will take time to resolve’: We have nukes but no power, bemoans Nawaz By Zulqernain Tahir LAHORE, May 28: Prime minister-in-waiting Nawaz Sharif has said it is a tragedy that Pakistan is a nuclear power but it has no power (electricity). . He asked the people to remain patient because there was no quick fix to the energy crisis tormenting the country. “I will take oath (of prime minister’s office) on June 5. But people should not start saying from June 6 that Nawaz has come but electricity has not come. You will have to demonstrate patience. “I can say we will solve the problem in three or five years but I will not say so. But we will try to overcome the energy crisis as early as possible,” Mr Sharif said while speaking at a function held here on Tuesday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the country’s nuclear tests. Resolving the energy crisis was the main slogan on which the PML-N had built its election campaign. The PML-N chief’s younger brother Shahbaz Sharif had promised during the campaign to end loadshedding in six months to two years. After achieving victory in the May 11 polls, the former prime minister had asked people not to take seriously whatever Shahbaz said when he was emotionally charged. On Tuesday he dwelt upon the energy crisis and economic challenges faced by the country. “Isn’t it unfortunate that a nuclear power is without power for up to 20 hours a day? Are other nuclear powers in a similar state? We should determine why the country does not have electricity. India is also a nuclear power. Both countries were at the same level when they carried out nuclear tests. Pakistan was even ahead. Our currency was stronger than India’s and now see the grave challenges we are facing today,” he said. “The people ask me when the issue of loadshedding will be resolved. I tell them: do not expect that the power problem will be solved in days. I tell them we will make sincere efforts to solve it as early as possible,” he said, adding that the people would see that things were heading in the right direction and everything would be right soon. Concerned over his party’s image, he said when the PML-N government came to power earlier, there was a flour crisis and people had started saying the “lion had eaten up flour”. “Now I ask them not to start saying that the lion has eaten up electricity.” Mr Sharif said the PML-N government was going to inherit “mountains of problems”. “Which problem we address, poverty or loadshedding?” he asked. Asking the people not to forget these problems, he said: “We have passion to solve them and the people should see our passion. We had carried out nuclear tests and now we will carry out an economic explosion in five years.” About the options the government would have while dealing with the energy crisis, Mr Sharif said electricity would have to be produced from coal and bagasse. Bhasha Dam is nearing completion but the project needs $10-15 billion. He said those involved in power theft must not escape punishment. “If the power theft is checked half the problem will be solved.” He said the PML-N would get the best managers, even from abroad if needed. He urged China to set up power plants in the country. “We want to live with respect and do not want to beg,” he said, adding that foreign firms setting up power plants would be allowed to transfer their profits. Mr Sharif had his own interpretation of the voting pattern in each federating unit. “Punjab’s decision is wise, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s emotional, Sindh’s traditional and Balochistan, a tribal province, voted for the PML-N,” he said. The PML-N has secured an overwhelming majority in Punjab, but it was routed in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the media used to say that no party would secure a majority. It talked about “fractured and split mandate”. “Pakistan needs no fractured mandate. It needs a stable government with the writ to solve problems.” He said: “Those who have voted for the PML-N as well as those who haven’t are pinning hope on us. They have confidence in the PML-N and we will not disappoint them.” He talked about a joint plan with China to address poverty and joblessness. “The Chinese prime minister who has been elected recently told me that everyone in China knows me. We have made a joint plan and if it is implemented both countries will benefit from it. There will be prosperity in Pakistan. I will talk about it in detail after taking the oath,” he said. Mr Sharif said the PML-N government would make a plan to give shelter to the homeless and provide loans on soft terms.
Mengal wins his seat at last By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, May 28: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday issued a notification, confirming the victory of Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, the president of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, in the election for PB-3 (Khuzdar-III) seat. . According to the official results, Sardar Mengal bagged 16,824 votes while his opponent Attaur Rehman Mengal got 7,830 votes. Also on Tuesday, the ECP announced distribution of the seats reserved for women and minorities among various parties in the Balochistan Assembly. According to the announcement, out of 14 seats reserved for women and religious minorities, four each have been allotted to the PML-N and Pakhtun-khwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), three to National Party (NP), two to JUI-F and one to PML-Q.
SC removes NAB chief Fasih Bokhari By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, May 28: Only a week before a new government is to take over, the Supreme Court set aside on Tuesday the appointment of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari on a petition filed by former opposition leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, about 19 months ago. . Admiral Bokhari was the second choice of President Asif Ali Zardari for the constitutional office after the apex court in its March 10, 2011, verdict had declared the appointment of retired Justice Deedar Hussain Shah as illegal, also on Chaudhry Nisar’s petition. “We struggled in the last parliament for the constitution of an independent accountability commission for across-the-board accountability and fought tooth and nail for this,” said a jubilant Anusha Rehman, who had represented the PML-N in the National Assembly’s Committee on Law and Justice. The committee deliberated upon the controversial National Accountability Commission (NAC) bill for more than four years. Ms Rehman, a lawyer by profession and who has been notified by the Election Commission as MNA for another term, said her party would continue to work for completing the pending agenda of the last assembly, indicating that the party would now try to bring the new accountability law to parliament as early as possible after getting the SC verdict in its favour. The bill proposing constitution of the NAC was moved in parliament by the last PPP government, seeking replacement of the Musharraf-era NAB with an independent National Accountability Commission in line with the Charter of Democracy signed by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in May 2006 in London. But it became controversial and put on the back burner after certain clauses were opposed by the PML-N. The proposed law suggests the setting up of a three-member NAC to be headed by a chairman who has been a judge of the Supreme Court or a federal government officer in BPS-22, a deputy chairman who has been a judge of a high court or a federal government officer in BPS-21 and a prosecutor general who is qualified to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court. Legal and political experts are of the opinion that the focus of the incoming PML-N government will now be on setting up of the accountability commission, instead of finding Admiral Bokhari’s replacement because the apex court in its verdict has not set any timeframe for the appointment of new chairman. The court has ordered the government “to make fresh appointment without further loss of time”. “Given the stated position of the PML-N, the new government may focus more on pursuing the pending accountability bill in the National Assembly rather than appointing a new NAB chairman,” said Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, a Supreme Court lawyer. He was of the opinion that after the court’s two verdicts on the same subject, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly had now assumed the role of appointing authority instead of the president – a situation the PML-N government might never like to see being exploited by the PPP. “Chaudhry Nisar must be a very happy man because he has won again,” said another senior lawyer. He said since the PML-N government would be requiring some time to draft an accountability law and its first priority would be to get the federal budget passed by the new assembly, Nawaz Sharif might have to appoint a new NAB chairman to comply with the court’s order. In that case the PML-N would not like to see the PPP exploiting the same principle of “meaningful consultation”, as laid down in the court’s two verdicts. “It’s like a game of chess,” said former Supreme Court Bar Association president Tariq Mehmood, explaining that the May 11 elections had only replaced the position of the checkers in the chess board. Now the seat of opposition leader, earlier held by Chaudhry Nisar, is expected to go to a legislator nominated by the PPP whereas Nawaz Sharif will be holding the office of the prime minister, held by Yousuf Raza Gilani when the appointment of Admiral Bokhari was made.
Three killed, 14 hurt in sectarian attack PESHAWAR, May 28: Three people were killed and 14 injured when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in the Imamia Colony here on Tuesday night. . “The explosives were planted in a motorcycle detonated by remote control,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Ismail Karak said. Another police officer said most of the people living in the area belonged to the Shia community which appeared to be the target of the attack. An Imambargah is quite close to the site of the explosion. The area is frequented by youngsters who usually gather there in the evening to spend their free time. Witnesses said the device which exploded with a bang created panic in the area. The injured were taken to the hospital where three of them were pronounced dead.—Bureau
Landmarks await NA’s first session By Raja Asghar ISLAMABAD, May 28: As he still seemed reeling from his party’s rout in the May 11 elections, President Asif Ali Zardari summoned on Tuesday the new National Assembly for June 1 to begin a parliament process to install victors.. Quite some landmarks are on the cards in the process, culminating next week in Mian Nawaz Sharif, president of the victorious Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), taking over as prime minister in continuation of an historic, democratic transition in the country’s chequered life, about half of it under military rule. The Saturday sitting, called as advised by caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khosto and due to begin at 10am with oath-taking by the newly elected lawmakers, will mark the beginning of a five-year term of the new 342-seat house, succeeding one that completed its full term for the first time in the country under a civilian set-up despite a split mandate. This time, the PML-N will have a comfortable majority of its own to be able to govern — though power-sharing deals have been made with some smaller parties — unlike its predecessor, President Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), that lacked those numbers and depended on often-unpredictable coalition partners. No schedule for the remainder of the session has been formally announced by the National Assembly secretariat except that the oath to new lawmakers will be administered by the previous assembly’s speaker, Fehmida Mirza of the PPP, who, as required by law, retained her office even after the house stood dissolved on March 16 at the end of its term. But according to a time-frame divulged to journalists by the caretaker government’s information minister, Arif Nizami, on Monday, the house will elect its new speaker and deputy speaker on June 3 and prime minister on June 5, when the term of the caretaker government comes to an end. Mr Sharif, nominated by his party to be prime minister for the third time in about 22 years and with his election being a foregone conclusion because of the PML-N numbers in the house, will be the first Pakistani to take that job for as many times. Former PPP leader Benazir Bhutto was denied the potential of that distinction by her Dec 27, 2007, assassination in Rawalpindi in the midst of an election campaign, and when the PPP emerged the single largest in the previous National Assembly in a delayed February 2008 vote, Mr Zardari, as co-chairman and effective party leader, handpicked Yousaf Raza Gilani to take the office that would have gone to her wife if she were alive. Despite the historic nature of such a smooth transfer of power never seen before in more than 65 years of Pakistan’s life -- 33 under four military rulers -- the capital has missed the kind of drama it saw after the 2008 vote. Then Mr Zardari, much before his election as president, held court for weeks at his private Islamabad residence for the prime ministerial choice and coalition arrangements with the PML-N, which, as the second largest party in the house, stayed in Mr Gilani’s cabinet for months while the PPP remained part of the PML-N’s Punjab provincial government for three years. This time, no such back-stage activity was seen in Islamabad until now. Mr Sharif has been planning his moves from his luxurious house at Raiwind, near Lahore, to the exclusion of the PPP, which has been routed in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, though retaining its dominance of Sindh and likely to have the consolation of getting the office of leader of opposition in the National Assembly as the second largest party there. Also, Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, whose stunning performance gave it second highest popular vote nationally and the third place in the National Assembly, remained confined first to hospital and then to his home in Lahore while convalescing from serious injuries suffered in a fall at a campaign rally, but guiding from there his party’s plans on matters like leading a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, put up a token challenge in prime minister’s election and pursuing complaints of election rigging, particularly in Lahore. Similarly, just before the election victors arrive in Islamabad, a shocked president Zardari chose to go to his Karachi residence rather than be at the presidency here, to ponder what went wrong for his party in the election -- besides the public anger against power shortages, high prices and militant threats of violence against liberal parties -- and why most voters disregarded his and previous government’s historic role in restoring a genuine parliamentary system, giving more autonomy to provinces and curtailing arbitrary presidential powers. But he will have to be in Islamabad to administer oath of office to a new prime minister, who is to be the man he taunted in a famous June 21, 2011, speech at Naudero with a remark, “learn politics from us”, as he assailed Mr Sharif for allegedly following of Gen Ziaul Haq, of whom the PML-N leader had once been a protégé.
Woman killed in attack on polio team Bureau Report PESHAWAR, May 28: A woman health worker was killed and another seriously injured in an attack on a polio team here on Tuesday. The two women were part of a three-day campaign against the crippling disease in the city. . The health department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced suspension of the campaign after the attack. According to Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Jawed Marwat, the two women were administrating anti-polio drops among children in Kaga Wala village when they were attacked. According to a police officer, the campaign’s local supervisor Aurangzeb Khan told police that the vaccinators did not need any security because they were from the same area and wanted to keep a low profile. The deputy commissioner confirmed that the vaccinators had not sought a police escort. “Probably they thought it was good not to go with police escort and become a target,” he said. The KP government had ordered police protection for polio teams after persistent attacks on health workers in which many lives were lost. The police officer said two gunmen on a motorcycle had opened fire on the polio team and escaped. The deceased was identified as Ms Sharafat and the injured as Ms Sumbal who was taken to the Lady Reading Hospital. He said a search operation had been launched in the area but no arrests were made. During the operation sub-inspector Saleem Khan died apparently because of cardiac arrest. A total of 1,803 polio teams were involved in the three-day campaign which began on Tuesday, an official in the health department said. Sixteen cases of polio have been detected across the country this year, four of them in KP. The provincial health department suspended the campaign for three days to express solidarity with the families of the two vaccinators. The WHO, a main supporter of the government in the polio campaign, also suspended its activities. Dr Elias Durry, the chief of WHO polio team in Pakistan, said the attacks on polio teams in Peshawar were unacceptable and highly condemnable. “We request Ulema and religious leaders to come forward and play an active role in making Pakistan a safe country for health workers,” he told Dawn. Dr Durry said his organisation was working closely with the KP government to monitor the situation.
Afghan withdrawal discussed with Nato By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 28: Nato Military Committee Chairman Gen Knud Bartels met Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne and Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday to discuss withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan and the post-2014 Pakistan-Nato relationship.. According to the ISPR, Gen Bartels discussed during the meetings the security situation in Afghanistan, coordination measures between Nato and the Pakistan Army and the post-2014 situation. Pakistan is one of Nato’s eight “partners across the globe” — a phrase used to describe the countries with which the transatlantic alliance seeks to develop security cooperation outside its usual partnership frameworks. “Pakistan is an important partner for Nato. I look forward to working with Pakistan’s new leaders in their efforts to achieve long-term peace and stability in Pakistan and the region,” Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had said in a statement about the May 11 elections. Pakistan and Nato have discussed signing a joint declaration to formalise their relationship. However, there has been little progress because of tense Pakistan-US ties.
PPP names Qaim as Sindh chief minister By Habib Khan Ghori KARACHI, May 28: The Pakistan Peoples Party nominated on Tuesday Syed Qaim Ali Shah as leader of the house in the Sindh Assembly. . Mr Shah, who is a founding member of the party, will earn the distinction of holding the office of the Sindh chief minister for the third time. The decision was announced by PPP Parliamentarians President Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who presided over a meeting of the newly elected PPP Parliamentary Party at the Bilawal House.President Asif Ali Zardari was also present at the meeting. The meeting nominated Agha Siraj Durrani as a PPP candidate for the post of the speaker and Syeda Shehla Raza for deputy speaker. Nisar Ahmad Khuhro was named parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly. The meeting discussed formation of the provincial government in coalition with all other parliamentary parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Sources said in the first phase Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Manzoor Hussain Wasan, Sharjeel Inam Memon and Dr Sikandar Mandhro might be inducted into the provincial cabinet. The meeting discussed strategy for the maiden session of the assembly, which will meet on Wednesday, and budget priorities and goals for the next financial year. President Zardari told the newly elected lawmakers that people had reposed their confidence in the PPP for continuation of Benazir Bhutto’s policies and asked them to make every effort to come up to their expectations. Later Makhdoom Amin Fahim told newsmen that all decisions were taken with consensus. He said Syed Qaim Ali Shah was not only a senior member of the party but also the most suitable person for the office of the chief minister. Mr Shah expressed gratitude to the party leadership and colleagues for reposing confidence in him and pledged to make every effort to fulfill their expectations. He said his government’s priority would be to restore peace in Karachi and it would take every measure to attain this objective.
Nepra approves tariff hike By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, May 28: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) approved on Tuesday an increase of 75 paisa per unit in the electricity tariff for Wapda companies on account of fuel adjustment for April. . The decision was taken at a hearing presided over by Nepra’s vice chairman, Khawaja Mohammad Naeem. The increase will generate about Rs5.9 billion for Wapda’s distribution companies. Nepra plans to separately notify the schedule of recovery of the tariff increase because it has already ordered recovery of fuel adjustment of past eight months over the next five months. Representatives of the central power purchasing agency (CPPA) said on behalf of distribution companies that the regulator had increased the fuel-based tariff at Rs7.68 per unit for April although the actual fuel-based cost of power generation had been worked out at Rs8.42 per unit because of adverse fuel mix. The CPPA said the distribution companies sold about 6.13 billion units of electricity whose fuel cost was estimated at Rs51.72 billion of which Rs120 million worth of electricity was wasted due to system losses. It said the major contribution to higher fuel cost was because of higher contribution of generation from furnace oil and diesel. It said the cost of diesel-based generation stood at Rs21.48 per unit, furnace oil-based tariff at Rs16.48 per unit followed by gas-based generation at Rs4.82 per unit and nuclear energy at Rs1.43 per unit compared with about 11 paisa per unit of hydropower generation. It may be noted that Nepra had already forwarded the fuel-based tariff adjustment ranging from Rs1.33 to Rs1.55 per unit for eight months of last year for recovery from June to October, 2013. The ministry of water and power has not yet notified these revisions because the caretaker government has decided to leave the matter for the coming government. A Nepra official said that due to non-notification of revised tariffs, the CPPA had adopted the reference tariff for April, 2012 at Rs7.68 per unit instead of Rs9.97 approved by Nepra. As a result, the fresh tariff revision necessitated an increase of 75 per unit instead of reduction of Rs1.55 per unit for April, 2013. The increase in tariff will not apply to Wapda consumers using less than 50 units per month and consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Company.
Women, minority seats allotted By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, May 28: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Tuesday the names of candidates selected on seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly after making some unexplained changes in the draft notification earlier prepared by it. . The ECP notified allocation of 25 of the 35 reserved seats for women from Punjab, dropping the names of Belum Hasnain of the PPP and Tanzeela Aamir Cheema of the PML-N which had been included in the previous draft. Their names had been mentioned in the lists of candidates for the seats submitted by their parties. Syed Sher Afgan, Director General (elections) of the commission, could not be contacted for comments on the matter. According to the notification, 23 seats from Punjab have gone to the PML-N which, on the basis of number of its MNAs elected on general seats from the province, is to get 31 seats. The reason for the shortfall is the presence of only 23 names in the list submitted by the party. Under rules, no change can be made in the list at this stage. Therefore, the commission has issued a new schedule to fill the eight vacant seats. Under the schedule, candidates will submit nomination papers to returning officers on Wednesday (today), which will be scrutinised by the officials on Thursday. Then a revised list of candidates will be published. Those allotted 25 seats are: Anushe Rehman Ahmad Khan, Zaib Jaffar, Tahira Aurangzeb, Parveen Masood Bhatti, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Shaista Pervaiz, Nighat Parveen, Begum Majeeda Wynne, Khalida Mansoor, Asiya Naz Tanoli, Rida Khan, Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Laila Khan, Arifa Khalid Pervaiz, Surriya Asghar, Shahzadai Umerzadi Tiwana, Maiza Hameed, Farhana Qamar, Shahin Shafiq, Iffat Liaquat, Shazia Ashfaq Mattu, Romina Khurshid Alam of the PML-N and Dr Shireen Mehrunnisa Mazari and Munaza Hassan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). According to the notification, those selected on 14 seats from Sindh are: Faryal Talpur, Shagufta Jumani, Nafisa Shah, Shazia Marri, Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Alizeh Iqbal Haider and Musarrat Mahesar of the PPP; Kishwar Zehra, Tahira Asif, Samina Sultana Jaffri and Dr Nikhat Shakeel Khan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM); Reeta Ishwar of the PML-F, Ms Shahjehan of the National People’s Party and Marvi Memon of the PML-N. According to the draft notification, the MQM was to get five seats but the final notification does not contain the name of the party’s fifth candidate, Dr Fauzia Hameed. She has been replaced by Marvi Memon. The names of President Asif Ali Zardari’s sisters Faryal Talpur and Azra Fazal Pechuho, who have been elected MNAs on general seats, were also included in the PPP’s list. But the notification does not contain the name of Ms Pechuho. Nobody in the ECP could explain the reason for this. From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Musarrat Zaib, Sajida Begum and Aisha Gulalai of the PTI, Shahida Akhtar Ali and Naeema Akhtar of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), Begum Tahira Bukhari of the PML-N and Aisha Syed of Jamaat-i-Islami have been selected on reserved seats for women. From Balochistan, Kiran Haider (PML-N), Naseema Rehman (Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party) and Aliya Kamran (JUI-F) have been allotted seats. MINORITIES: Dr Darshan, Bhagwan Das, Insphanyar M. Bhindara, Tariq C. Qaiser and Khalil George of the PML-N, Ramesh Lal of the PPP, Lal Chand of the PTI, Sanjay Perwani of the MQM and Aasiya Nasir of the JUI-F have been elected on nine of the 10 seats reserved for minorities. The name of Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of the PML-N, which was on the draft notification, has been dropped. Meanwhile, a day after dissolution of the three election tribunals in Sindh, the ECP has dissolved all the tribunals in rest of the country. There were five tribunals in Punjab and three each in other provinces. An apparent reason for dissolution of tribunals is a deviation from the procedure and formation of the tribunals without consultation with the chief justices of the high courts. An official said the commission had received and approved names of the members of new tribunals. He said the number of tribunals would be doubled in Punjab, Sindh and KP and another two tribunals would be established in Balochistan.
Political transition delays Iran gas project By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, May 28: The crucial Iran-Pakistan Pipeline envisaging import of 750 million cubic feet of natural gas has been delayed due to political transition in the country and now it cannot be completed by the contractual deadline of Dec 31, 2014.. The ministry of petroleum and natural resources, however, told a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum, headed by Senator Mohammad Yousaf, on Tuesday that Iran had shown willingness to do away with penalties on delay in project implementation. The committee was also briefed on the status of the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. Under take or pay clause of the gas sales and purchase agreement between Pakistan and Iran, the failure on part of any party to complete the pipeline attracts penalties equivalent to the quantity of gas. It works out at about $200 million per month. The agreement required first gas flows on Dec 31, 2014. Petroleum Secretary Abid Saeed told the meeting that delay was caused by the transfer of power process because some important approvals for initiating the construction work on laying of the pipeline could not be obtained during the caretaker tenure. He said the delay would aggravate energy crisis in the country. The Managing Director of Inter-State Gas Company (ISGC), Mobin Solat, told the committee that Iran had completed about 900km pipeline from the gas field to Iranshehr out of a total 1,150km inside its territory. It was working on two sites of 250km from Iranshehr to the border at Gabd and about 60 per cent work had already been completed on this section. He said the construction work on Pakistani side could not take off because engineering, procurement and construction firm required sovereign guarantees for mobilisation of machinery and workforce. Petroleum Secretary Abid Saeed said the Pakistan government was required to issue a sovereign guarantee to Tadbir Energy of Iran, the EPC contractor, which obviously had been delayed until the new elected governments took over and direct the finance ministry to issue sovereign guarantee. Once the sovereign guarantee is issued, the financial close of the project would be complete to enable Tadbir Energy to carry out project mobilisation. He said Pakistani companies had been short-listed to take the construction work in hand under the supervision of Tadbir Energy. The project cost had earlier been estimated at $1.5bn, but it had now been revised to $1.8bn because of escalation and currency devaluation factors. About $1bn would be provided through the gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC) for the project. Abid Saeed said Iran would provide $500m finances for services, pipeline and compressors of the pipeline inside Pakistan territory. Chairman of the committee Sardar Yousaf said that it appeared the cost of the project could further go up in view of the exchange rate. The petroleum secretary agreed. Senator Jehangir Badar of the PPP said both the Iran-Pakistan and TAPI gas import projects were critical for the future of the country irrespective of any government in Pakistan. Senator Sabar Baloch said the project had already been delayed and expressed his reservations over the performance of the ministry of petroleum and the ISGC, saying a lot of progress should have been achieved by now. He said the project was moving slowly even though it involved many international players. The committee was informed that the steering committee on gas import projects had not yet formally approved the TAPI project. The project structure was different from the IP project, said Mobin Solat and added that four participating countries would invest minor amounts as equity in the project while the rest of financing would be arranged by a consortium of international petroleum companies.
Tanker with Pakistani sailors hijacked LAGOS (Nigeria), May 28: Pirates hijacked a fuel tanker off the coast of Nigeria’s oil-rich delta, taking Pakistani and Nigerian sailors hostage in the latest attack targeting the region, private security officials said on Tuesday.. The gunmen boarded the MT Matrix I some 40 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria’s Bayelsa state early Saturday morning, the officials said, taking a number of the crew hostage. It wasn’t immediately known what happened to the rest of the crew. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as the Nigerian government was not speaking publicly about the hijacking. A military spokesman in the delta referred calls for comment on Tuesday to Nigeria’s navy. Commodore Kabir Aliyu, a navy spokesman, said there had been no report of a hijacking made to officials. Some shippers in the region don’t report hijackings publicly, out of fears of having their insurance premiums rise. Telephone numbers for Pakistan’s High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, could not be immediately connected on Tuesday. Nigerian naval authorities listed the ship as one of several allowed to bring subsidised gasoline into the country in May as part of a programme costing the nation billions of dollars a year. Naval officials listed the ship as being operated by a company called Integrated Shipping Services Nigeria Ltd. A telephone number for the company could not be immediately found. Other registries listed the ship as being operated by Val Oil Trading SA of Athens, Greece. A number for that company could not be immediately found. Officials at Matrix Energy Ltd., a Nigerian company listed as doing business with Val Oil Trading, did not immediately return a call for comment. The Gulf of Guinea, which follows the continent’s southward curve from Liberia past Nigeria to Gabon, has seen an escalation in violent pirate attacks from low-level armed robberies to hijackings and cargo thefts. London-based Lloyd’s Market Association — an umbrella group of insurers — has listed Nigeria, neighbouring Benin and nearby waters in the same risk category as Somalia, where two decades of war and anarchy have allowed piracy to flourish. Oil tanker hijackings have happened more and more in recent months, with pirates stealing the fuel onboard, as opposed to kidnapping sailors for ransom. Estimates suggest pirates likely are able to make as much as a $2 million profit for offloading 3,000 tons of fuel. Foreign hostages still draw tens of thousands of dollars in ransoms, with nearly all released unharmed after their companies pay for their freedom. The piracy and kidnappings have grown around Nigeria’s oil delta, despite a 2009 government amnesty programme for militants there.—AP
Top Taliban leader killed by US drone By Pazir Gul MIRAMSHAH, May 29: A front-rank leader of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan was killed in a US drone attack in the volatile North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, security and tribal administration officials said. . Waliur Rehman, TTP’s second-in-command and its commander-in-charge for South Waziristan, was among six militants killed in the attack. Two senior commanders and two foreign militants of Uzbek origin were among those killed, the officials said. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan declined to comment on reports about the drone strike and the death of Waliur Rehman. “This is a major setback for the TTP. He was a cool-headed and calculated militant who wielded a lot of influence,” a senior government official said of Waliur Rehman. The drone fired four missiles on a house in Chashma Pull area, about two kilometres east of here at around 3am. “The loud noise after the missile strike was heard in Miramshah. The drones continued to hover above. We couldn’t sleep afterwards,” a resident said. Local militants cordoned off the area immediately after the attack and carried away the bodies and the injured, one resident said. Authorities in the militant-infested North Waziristan have particularly no presence in the region and have to rely on tribal contacts for information. The drone strike has taken place just six days after President Obama had unveiled his policy of curtailing the use of drone to limit civilian casualties. Incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who assumes office next week, plans to negotiate peace with militants and end drone attacks through ‘serious’ negotiations with the Obama administration but analysts said the strike was a wake-up call to the PML-N leader and has the potentials of derailing his peace overtures to Taliban. The US has carried out more than 360 drone attacks in the tribal region, but there have been fewer attacks this year after the controversial programme came under renewed scrutiny of human right groups and demand made by congressional critics for increased transparency in its operation. The 42-year-old TTP commander had Rs50 million bounty on his head announced by the Government of Pakistan and carried $5 million reward from the US which had enlisted him as a “specially designated global terrorist”. Waliur Rehman, who studied at a seminary in Faisalabad, joined the TTP in 2004 but he was believed to be closer to the Haqqani network than to Hakeemullah Mehsud’s group with which he had less than comfortable relations. A government official in Peshawar said it would be interesting to see how things shape up within the TTP over Waliur Rehman’s successor, considering his influence over commanders in his native South Waziristan. US KEEPS MUM: The United States refused to confirm that it killed the number two in the Pakistani Taliban, despite President Barack Obama’s promise of more transparency on the drone war, AFP adds. “We are not in a position to confirm the reports of Waliur Rehman’s death,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “If those reports were true, or prove to be true, it’s worth noting that his demise would deprive the TTP of its second-in-command and chief military strategist,” Mr Carney said. The spokesman would not confirm whether the attack on Waliur Rehman satisfied the new criteria for drone strikes established by Mr Obama last week during a speech that aimed to recast the country’s decade-long battle against terrorism.
MQM not to join Sindh govt By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque KARACHI, May 29: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has decided not to join a coalition government in Sindh and announced fielding bureaucrat-turned-politician Syed Sardar Ahmed as its candidate for the office of the chief minister against PPP’s Syed Qaim Ali Shah. . Although the PPP does not need support of any party to form a government in Sindh, it had asked the MQM to join it in a coalition. Mr Shah recently said at a press conference that his party was in contact with the MQM for the formation of a coalition set-up. According to sources, most members of the newly-formed coordination committee of the MQM were against joining the government and had convinced the party chief Altaf Hussain not to accept the PPP offer, at least for now. “We are not against the politics of reconciliation, but contesting election for any office is our democratic right and we are exercising it,” said an MQM member. “Anyone desiring to take us on board should seek our cooperation publicly.” The sources said that as far as the National Assembly was concerned, the Muttahida had no option but to sit in the opposition because the PML-N also enjoyed a simple majority in the lower house of parliament. The MQM said in a statement on Wednesday that its lawmakers would sit on the opposition benches at the centre and in Sindh. It said Mr Ahmed would contest the election for the post of chief minister scheduled for Thursday. The decision was taken by the coordination committee on the recommendations of the party’s parliamentary committee. The statement, however, did not say nothing about the PPP offer and whether Mr Hussain had endorsed the decision. GOVERNOR: The MQM explained its position with regard to the Sindh governor, saying a decision about the post would be taken by the federal government. Neither Mr Hussain nor the coordination committee was considering anything about the office of the governor, the statement said. “Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad is a representative of the federation and he is serving only in this capacity. He had resigned as a member of the MQM before taking oath as governor and, therefore, any decision whether to retain him (as governor) or not will be taken by the federation,” it said.
Size of federal cabinet to be limited to 25: Nawaz vows to contain loadshedding By Zulqernain Tahir LAHORE, May 29: Incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday that after assuming power his government would end ‘unannounced loadshedding’ as the first step in resolving the energy crisis faced by the country.. Presiding over a meeting of senior party leaders and energy sector experts at his Raiwind residence on Wednesday, Mr Sharif said all resources would be used to contain the crisis. “The PML-N government will have to work day and night to rid the country of this menace,” Mr Sharif said, adding that difficult decisions would have to be taken to address challenges the country was facing today. He has already made it clear that there is no quick fix solution to the energy crisis and the people needed to demonstrate patience. Several other proposals were also discussed at the meeting. The leaders also decided that development funds would not be frozen to address the issue of loadshedding. Earlier there was a proposal from some party members that development funds of lawmakers should be frozen for at least two years and the amount be used to contain loadshedding. Mr Sharif’s close aides are reported to have disagreed with the proposal of freezing development funds of lawmakers. The meeting also discussed short-term measures of seeking help from friendly countries to reduce the effects of the energy crisis and long-term indigenous plans to resolve the issue. Mr Sharif said all resources would be used to end the crisis. The meeting suggested that no subsidy and relief should be given to the people in the forthcoming budget and funds should be diverted to the energy sector. The meeting discussed a proposal put forward by a senior member of the party that ministers should not be allowed to have flags on their vehicles. Besides, the size of federal and Punjab cabinets should not be more than 25, and 32 members, respectively. The proposal of reducing the protocol of the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister was also discussed. Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif, Pervaiz Rashid, Sartaj Aziz, Ahsan Iqbal, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Mian Mansha attended the meeting.
Allocation for defence likely to be raised By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, May 29: The finance ministry has finalised the federal expenditure estimates for the next fiscal year, envisaging Rs171 billion for pension and retirement benefits, Rs627bn for defence services and Rs313bn for subsidies and miscellaneous expenses.. The allocation for defence services is 15 per cent more than the Rs545bn allocated in the current financial year’s budget. Besides, an allocation of Rs33bn has been made for civil armed forces, Rs4bn more than the current year’s Rs29bn. This will be in addition to Rs6.3bn for the Frontier Constabulary, Rs1.5bn for the Pakistan Coast Guards, Rs14.5bn for Pakistan Rangers and Rs8.7bn for the interior ministry. The Airport Security Force will get Rs3.66bn. The allocation for subsidies and miscellaneous expenditures has been put at Rs313bn, 32.7 per cent less than Rs465bn in the current year. The allocation for superannuation allowances and pensions has been estimated at Rs171.2bn — an increase of 32.5pc over current year’s Rs129bn. Allocations for grant in aid and other adjustments between federal and provincial governments have been estimated at Rs87.4bn — up 3.6pc from this year’s Rs84.3bn. Even though incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has announced that he will reduce expenditures, including those on his security and protocol, the ministry has increased the allocation for the prime minister’s secretariat by about 22pc to Rs853 million. About 18pc increase has been proposed for cabinet’s expenses and the allocation for cabinet division’s expenses has been jacked up by about 43pc to Rs4.7bn. This will be in addition to about Rs6.5bn for ‘other expenses’ of the division. The allocation for atomic energy has been proposed to be increased by 17pc to Rs6.3bn and capital administration by 56pc to Rs14bn. The allocation for the commerce division has been kept unchanged at about Rs5bn, but that for the communications division has been increased by about 8pc to Rs6.6bn. While the allocation for the finance division has been proposed to be increased by about 26pc to Rs18.26bn, the amount for the Planning Commission has been scaled down by 11pc to Rs968m. The allocation for the Higher Education Commission has been proposed to be increased to Rs39bn from current year’s Rs32bn. The allocation for Pakistan Post has been increased to about Rs15bn from Rs12.8bn. An allocation of Rs2.5bn has been made for the National Assembly and Rs1.35bn for the Senate. An amount of Rs14bn has been earmarked for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, compared with Rs12.5bn this year. The government has estimated next year’s development budget at about Rs450bn, compared with the current year’s Rs360bn.
JUI-S chief Sami keen to mediate, but clueless about TTP By Ismail Khan AKORA KHATTAK, May 29: His back leant on a cushion against the wall, eyes half-closed, he gave some quick lesson to one of the disciples in waiting while another massaged his leg and in-between managed incessant phone calls for him. . A religious scholar who heads the sprawling Darul Uloom Haqqania, on the Grand Trunk Road in Akora Khattak, Maulana Samiul Haq’s political stock has suddenly gone up, his eldest son’s defeat on a National Assembly seat notwithstanding. “The Taliban consider me their father”, Samiul Haq obviously relishing the talk, continues. “The Afghan Taliban,” he hastens to add in the same breath. The religious institution created by Sami’s father, Maulana Abdul Haq in Sept 1947 includes some famous alumni, the likes of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and the head of the Haqqani network, the veteran Jalaluddin Haqqani. The Afghan Taliban have influence but no control over the Pakistani Taliban, he explains. But he acknowledges that he does not know the Pakistani Taliban. The 76-year-old Maulana from Akora has become the fifth politician to jump into the fray to help end Pakistan’s over a decade-long violent militancy. Incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Jamaat-i-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan have all called for dialogue with the Taliban. But while there seems to be some consensus on negotiations, there does not seem to be little or no understanding of the complexity of the issue, the groups involved, their ideological linkages, but often divergent agendas, in tactical and regional context. What to negotiate and with whom? KNOWING YOUR INTERLOCUTOR: Broadly speaking, there are six categories of militant groups — foreign, national and local — operating in Pakistan. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and its Affiliates: Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan: Led by its ameer, Hakeemullah Mehsud, this is the largest network. Having been displaced from its native South Waziristan, the TTP, now headquartered in North Waziristan, serves as a platform for several other groups with cells and operational capabilities across Pakistan. It has a national agenda but collaborates with other groups, too, both across the border as well as inside Pakistan. Then there are several affiliated groups, which though independent in operational matters, have ideological and operational linkages with the TTP. These include the Tehreek-i-Taliban Mohmand, Tehreek-i-Taliban Bajaur, Tehreek-i-Taliban Swat, Tehreek-i-Taliban Darra Adamkhel, Orakzai and Khyber. The TT(B) and TT(S) have in the past had separate peace talks with the government. Hafiz Muhammad Gul Bahadar Group: The Miramshah-based Hafiz Mohammad Gul Bahadar has also had a peace agreement with the government since 2008 (revived), the terms of which have never been implemented amid attacks on security forces and counter-artillery shelling. Authorities in North Waziristan’s regional headquarters have no control over the area whatsoever. The Gul Bahadar group and the state operate on the principle of live and let-live. Smaller & Independent Groups: These are all based in Khyber tribal region and include Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islam, Nahi-wa-anil-Munkar, pro-government Ansarul Islam and another relatively smaller group. There are a few independent groups also operating in Darra Adamkhel and other places. Pro-government group: The Wana-based late Maulvi Nazir Group is the only so-called pro-government militant group, whose interests lie across the border in Afghanistan and has so far refused to be drawn into conflict with the Pakistani security forces following an agreement in 2007. That agreement still holds. Authorities in South Waziristan’s regional headquarters, therefore, enjoy some administrative control. The Punjabi Taliban: There are at least nine known groups called the Punjabi Taliban, many of them disillusioned by what they saw as retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s betrayal of the Kashmiri freedom struggle. Others have stridently violent sectarian agendas — all based in North Waziristan. Foreign Groups: In terms of strength, chief among the foreign groups operating from North Waziristan, are the Haqqani network (the biggest group), followed by militants affiliated with Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al Qaeda Central, the Islamic Jihad Union, Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Turkish Gamaat, Dutch Taliban, DT Mujahideen, Islamic Movement of Turkestan, Azeri Jumaat, Taifatul Mansurah and one other group. WHAT TO NEGOTIATE? 1) What does the TTP want? Based on failed peace agreements, aborted talks and statements at different times, the TTP’s main talking points could be summed up as: 1) Establishment of caliphate and enforcement of Sharia to replace the existing “infidel” democratic system and the Constitution. 2) Pakistan pulls out of the US-led war on Terror, end drone strikes, sever ties with Washington and foreign policy should be within the dictates of Islam.
Rape cases: CII says DNA data not acceptable as primary evidence By Ikram Junaidi ISLAMABAD, May 29: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has declared that DNA test is not acceptable as primary evidence in cases of rape, but it could be used as a supporting evidence for confirmation of the crime. . A meeting of the CII, presided over by its chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani on Wednesday, also maintained that there was nothing wrong with the blasphemy law and it didn’t need amendment. The meeting was of the view that Islam has set procedures to determine cases of rape and said Islamic procedure should be adopted during investigation. It declared human cloning illegal because it is against Islam. The CII directed the Higher Education Commission and other institutions to correct English translation of ‘Allah’, ‘Rasool’ and ‘Masjid’. It said the usage of ‘Holy Book’ and ‘Holy Place’ was illegal. The meeting expressed concern over changes made in the syllabus of Islamic Studies, especially in Punjab, and instructed the provincial government to include the deleted chapters/essays from the curriculum. It instructed the Director General, Research, Mohammad Ilyas Khan who is also CII secretary, to send letters to all provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan asking them to ensure Islamic education in their syllabus. The meeting ordered the authorities to look into the books being taught in educational institutions and rectify errors. The council suggested dialogue to resolve the issue of ‘Ruet-i-Hilal’ (sighting of moon) due to which every year a dispute arises between religious scholars of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and other provinces. Maulana Mufti Ghulam Mustafa Rizvi, retired Justice Nazir Akhtar, retired Justice Mushtaq Ahmed, Dr Mohammad Idrees Soomro, Allama Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi, Saeed Ahmed Shah Gujrati, Maulana Hanif Jalandhari and others attended the meeting.
Five hideouts bombed; 15 killed By Our Correspondent PARACHINAR, May 29: Fighter jets bombed suspected militant positions in Parachamkani area of Kurram Agency on Wednesday, killing 15 militants and wounding several others, officials claimed. . They said five hideouts were targeted in the mountainous area. The official claim could not be verified independently, however. Security forces had moved into the area after a bomb blast at an election rally left 26 people dead. The election was postponed after the deadly attack.
Caretaker CM locks horns with official By Our Staff Correspondent QUETTA, May 29: A dispute is reported to have emerged between Balochistan’s Caretaker Chief Minister Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Barozai and Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad over a summary for convening the inaugural session of the provincial assembly.. According to sources, the chief minister had objected to the chief secretary sending the summary to Governor Mir Zulfiqar Ali Magsi before forwarding it to him. When the chief minister later received the summary he refused to sign it and threatened to resign. But sources said the chief secretary had sent the summary to the governor because the chief minister was then in Lahore. The summary was prepared by the provincial law department.When contacted, the chief secretary denied that he had engaged in an argument with the chief minister during a discussion on the summary as reported by some private TV channels. He said he had neither meet Mr Barozai nor talked to him on phone over the past week. A spokesman of the Balochistan government rejected the reports as false.
Red Cross office attacked in Afghanistan JALALABAD, May 29: Militants on Wednesday launched a two-hour suicide and gun attack on a Red Cross office in Jalalabad city, east Afghanistan, killing at least one guard, officials said. . “A suicide attacker first detonated himself at the gate of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) compound,” said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the interior ministry. “Attackers infiltrated the office. Seven (ICRC) foreigners were evacuated, one hurt in the leg.” Mr Sediqqi said the bodies of two attackers had been found and that security forces were completing clearance operations to search for others killed or wounded in the fighting. Provincial government spokesman said that one Afghan guard was killed in the attack, for which there was no claim of responsibility.—Agencies
India wants Nawaz to keep his word on ties By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, May 29: India expects Pakistan’s incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif to “convert into reality” the “positive signals” he had given during his election campaign, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has been quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.. “There were many positive signals from Nawaz Sharif with relation to India during the election campaign. We hope that he will work towards converting these positive signals into reality upon assuming office,” Mr Khurshid told journalists on Wednesday. Mr Sharif had told Indian correspondents during the election campaign that he would seek to fix responsibility for the Kargil fiasco and share with India any useful information on the Mumbai terror attack. The minister parried a query about Mr Sharif’s reported decision to keep the sensitive portfolios of foreign and defence with himself, “a move that is being perceived as his attempt to bolster himself against the powerful army which had dethroned him in a bloodless coup more than a decade ago,” the PTI said. “Prime ministers often tend to keep important portfolios with themselves if they perceive there is a need for the same,” Mr Khurshid said. “There have been instances when our prime minister too has taken a personal interest in a certain sphere and hence kept the concerned portfolio with himself for a period of time. Foreign policy is a field in which heads of governments across the world take a lot of interest,” he said. In a lighter vein, the PTI said, Mr Khurshid was thrilled at the prospect of the opportunity of dealing with the Pakistani premier. “Though it is likely that on most of occasions he would be speaking directly to our PM.” To a query, he said, “there have been complaints from people in various parts of the country that some relative of theirs was lodged in a Pakistani jail”. “We take such complaints seriously and any such information is handed over to the India Pakistan Judicial Commission comprising two retired judges from each country. The commission has been empowered to visit jails in both countries and suggest remedial measures.”
Sindh CM, KP speaker take oath Dawn Report KARACHI / PESHAWAR, May 30: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad administrated oath of office to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Thursday evening. . The governor also administrated oath to a seven-member provincial cabinet comprising Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Manzoor Hussain Wassan, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Makhdoom Jamil Zaman, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Sharjeel Inam Memon and Ali Nawaz Mahar. Mr Shah was earlier elected leader of the house for the third time. He secured 86 of the 151 votes cast while his closest rival Syed Sardar Ahmad of the MQM bagged 48 votes. The three legislators belonging to the PTI did not vote. Also on Thursday, Agha Siraj Durrani was elected the 16th speaker of the Sindh Assembly, getting 87 of the 155 votes cast. Syeda Shehla Raza was re-elected deputy speaker, securing 86 of the 152 votes cast. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: In Peshawar, Asad Qaisar and Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, joint candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Jamaat-i-Islami and Qaumi Watan Party, were elected unopposed speaker and deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Assembly. Shortly after recitation from the Holy Quran, Speaker Kiramat Ullah Khan Chagharmatti adjourned the sitting and convened a meeting of parliamentary leaders in his chamber in order to elect the speaker and deputy speaker unopposed. He urged the JUI-F, PML-N and ANP to withdraw their candidates and they agreed. Opposition parties had fielded Munawar Khan of the JUI-F for the post of speaker and Akbar Hayat Khan of the PML-N for deputy speaker. The assembly will elect leader of the house on Friday. Pervez Khattak of the PTI, Maulana Lutfur Rehman of the JUI-F and Wajeeh-u-Zaman of the PML-N have submitted nomination papers for the post of chief minister.
Death of Waliur Rehman confirmed: Taliban retract offer for talks By Pazir Gul MIRAMSHAH, May 30: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has confirmed the killing of their front-rank leader Waliur Rehman in Wednesday’s US drone attack and, at the same time, withdrawn its offer for peace talks. . It has also announced that it would avenge the death and get even with the government and military establishment. “We announce an end to our peace overtures because we believe that the Pakistani government is equally involved in the drone attack,” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a statement on Thursday. He said the death of Waliur Rehman would not “dampen our spirit” but would add to our determination. The spokesman declined to comment on Waliur Rehman’s likely successor, saying an announcement to the effect would come after a Shura meeting. Waliur Rehman was the deputy chief of the TTP and its commander-in-charge for South Waziristan. The US attack evoked a strong reaction from Pakistan and according to TV channel reports, Imran Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, called incoming prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to either get drone attacks stopped or decide to shoot them down. Meanwhile, signs of differences have emerged within the Pakistani Taliban over the issue of Waliur Rehman’s successor and militant leaders from South Waziristan met in Miramshah and nominated Khan Said to be their new commander.The 36-year-old Khan Saeed, also known as Sajna, was nominated by six militant leaders belonging to his group. Sajna was not present at the meeting. He was reported to be in Afghanistan on Wednesday when Wali was killed. “Like Wali, Sajna is also more active across the border than in Pakistan’s tribal region,” an official of the tribal administration said. “Sajna has no basic education, conventional or religious, but he is battle-hardened and has experience of fighting in Afghanistan,” the official said. He said Sajna was involved in the Bannu prison attack in April last year which led to escape of nearly 400 prisoners. BURIAL: Waliur Rehman was buried hours after he was killed in a drone strike on Wednesday, Pakistani intelligence officials and militants said on Thursday, agencies add.
Fahim likely to be PPP’s candidate for PM By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE, May 30: The Pakistan People’s Party is reported to have almost reached a consensus to field its own candidate for the post of prime minister and not to give Imran Khan a chance to shine as the main force of opposition.. Most of the senior PPP leaders are learnt to have told President Asif Ali Zardari that it would be ‘disastrous’ for the party’s future if it voted for PML-N president Nawaz Sharif in the election for the post of prime minister. In view of their opinion, President Zardari is likely to inform Mr Sharif about the party’s desire to field its own candidate just before the election. PPP Parliamentarians President Makhdoom Amin Fahim is being tipped as the party’s candidate. “The PPP is likely to field its own candidate for the slot of the prime minister as it does not want to leave the field open for the candidates of other parties. However, a final decision will be taken by President Zardari,” PPP secretary general Latif Khosa told Dawn on Thursday. The party, he said, had discussed whether to field its own candidate or to vote for Nawaz Sharif. There is almost a consensus that the PPP should field its own candidate because it is the second largest party in parliament and it should not appear to be subservient to any other party. Mr Khosa said the PPP would play a constructive role in the opposition and would not allow anyone to thrive on its politics. When asked whether the PML-N had ‘formally requested’ the PPP to vote for Mr Sharif, Mr Khosa said: “Yes, but the Charter of Democracy is no more there between us.” Khurshid Shah is a PPP candidate for the post of leader of opposition. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has already fielded Makhdoom Javed Hashmi as its candidate for the post of prime minister. The PPP has 38 and the PTI 33 members in the National Assembly. Senior party stalwarts believe that voting for Nawaz Sharif will get them the label of ‘friendly opposition’. “I have told President Zardari in a recent meeting that we would harm ourselves if we vote for Mr Sharif,” a senior PPP leader from central Punjab told Dawn. “Other leaders and I also told the president that the grassroots tier of the party also wants us to engage in aggressive opposition politics because of Imran Khan’s threat. We will not be considered to be in the opposition despite having our own opposition leader if we go soft on the PML-N,” he said. On the other hand, the PML-Q which has two seats in the National Assembly has decided in principle to abstain during voting. “Both the PPP and PTI have contacted us but we have decided to abstain,” a PML-Q leader told Dawn.
Balochistan: Nawaz in catch-22 situation By Zulqernain Tahir LAHORE, May 30: While the PML-Q put its weight behind the National Party’s candidate Dr Abdul Malik, the PML-N leadership failed on Thursday to resolve differences among contenders for the post of Balochistan chief minister.. After a four-hour meeting with the leaders of various parties and MPAs-elect from Balochistan belonging to the PML-N, NP and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif could not pick one from among the three contenders — Dr Malik of the NP and Sardar Sanaullah Zehri and Nawabzada Changez Marri of the PML-N. The NP and PkMAP have 18 members in the provincial assembly, while the PML-N has 14 seats and PML-Q five. According to sources, the three aspirants could not be persuaded by Mr Sharif on Thursday to agree on one among themselves, the discussion will continue on Friday. Since the Balochistan Assembly’s first session is due on Saturday, Mr Sharif will have to resolve the impasse by then. “Mr Sharif does not want to annoy any of them. Since the aspirants are ‘Sardars’ of Balochistan the PML-N chief is not interested in imposing his decision,” PML-N sources said. They said PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had asked the five members of his party to support the NP. Dr Malik and NP Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo met Chaudhry Shujaat and discussed the situation in the province. “The support of the PML-Q may put Dr Malik out of the race because the Sharifs’ do not want to see the Chaudhrys of Gujrat playing any role in Balochsitan politics,” the sources said. However, Mr Zehri is reported to have claimed to have the support of PML-Q legislators. The sources said Mr Zehri was not showing any flexibility because the Sharif brothers had earlier given him the assurance for the coveted post. Hasil Bizenjo told reporters after the meeting that there was no deadlock on the matter. “We have authorised Nawaz Sharif to appoint anyone as chief minister. We will have no objection,” he said. Mr Zehri denied reports that a forward bloc would emerge if Mr Sharif did not make him the chief minister. “The PML-N, NP and PkMAP can make the government without any differences,” he told reporters. PML-N leaders Chaudhry Nisar, Khawaja Asif, Asim Kurd and Abdul Qadir Baloch also took part in the discussions.
Move for forward bloc in Senate By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, May 30: In a significant move, some dissident senators from the PPP met at a hotel here on Thursday to discuss the formation of a forward bloc in the upper house of parliament to extend its support to the PML-N government, sources told Dawn.. A number of independent senators from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas also attended the meeting. The sources said the meeting had taken place at the initiative of some PPP senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the participants decided to meet again in a couple of days to finalise their strategy. When contacted, Senator Adnan Khan confirmed the meeting but said it was an `informal get-together’ at lunch. He, however, admitted that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future course of action after a change in the country’s political scenario after the elections. He said the meeting basically wanted to know the viewpoint of independent senators from Fata whether they would extend support to the future PML-N government. “We have not decided anything yet. We are holding consultations on the nature of future relationship with the next government,” Mr Adnan said. Answering a question, he said so far they had not been approached or contacted by the PML-N. Despite having its government at the centre, the PML-N may face difficulties in carrying out its legislative agenda since it lacks majority in the Senate. The PPP is the largest party in the 104-member house with 39 senators. Those who attended the meeting, according to the sources, included Abbas Afridi, Humayun Mandokhel, Waqar Ahmed Khan and Saifullah Bangash. The sources claimed that the forward bloc could comprise about a dozen members.
Dr Asim Hussain grilled by NAB for two hours By Syed Irfan Raza ISLAMABAD, May 30: Dr Asim Hussain, former adviser to the Ministry of Petroleum, was grilled for two hours by NAB investigators on Thursday for his alleged role in the controversial appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq as chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in 2009. . But former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani did not respond to a notice issued to him by the National Accountability Bureau on the matter. Dr Hussain was summoned to also explain his alleged role in supplying free gas to a private hospital for two years and a large-scale gas theft from the Kunarpasakhi gas field. NAB spokesman Razman Sajid refused to divulge details of the investigation and only said: “Dr Asim appeared before the NAB team on Thursday and since the matter is sub judice, I cannot comment on it in the media.” When asked about Mr Gilani, he said a notice had been served on him but he neither responded to it nor visited the NAB headquarters to record his statement in the case of Tauqeer Sadiq’s appointment. “We will shortly issue another notice to Mr Gilani,” the spokesman said, adding that according to the NAB ordinance a person could be arrested if he did not respond to three consecutive notices. According to NAB sources, Dr Asim told the investigators that he had nothing to do with the appointment of Sadiq because it was made before he had taken over as adviser to the ministry. When asked about his alleged role in issuing licences for setting up CNG stations, Dr Asim said these had been issued by Ogra and, therefore, the ministry had to provide gas to the stations. Tauqeer Sadiq has been declared a proclaimed offender since he is also a principal accused in a Rs82 billion corruption case. He fled abroad soon after the Supreme Court declared his appointment as Ogra chief illegal on Nov 25, 2011, and ordered NAB to arrest him. Mr Sadiq managed to leave the country although his name was on the exit control list. Two former prime ministers — Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf — have been accused of being involved in the ‘illegal’ appointment of Sadiq. The apex court was informed that Raja Ashraf was chairman and federal secretaries Zafar Mehmood and Nargis Sethi were members of the interview board which had appointed Mr Sadiq. Mr Gilani was prime minister at that time. On April 17, 2011, the Higher Education Commission had declared the master’s degree of Sadiq, brother-in-law of PPP secretary general Jehangir Badar, as fake. But Mr Sadiq had claimed in a statement that the master’s degree had nothing to do with his appointment since the qualification for the post of Ogra chairman, as given in section 3 of the Ogra ordinance, was an LLB degree and 20 years of experience. “I did my LLB in 1987 and have 22 years of experience and, therefore, I am eligible for the post even without this master’s degree,” he said.
Pakistani woman languishing in Indian shelter home NEW DELHI, May 30: The husband of a Pakistani woman waiting for deportation at a state-run shelter home here has appealed to the Indian government to either send her to Pakistan immediately or reunite her with her family in Old Delhi. . “Send my wife back to Pakistan or release her to the family. Just don’t forget her in Nirmal Chhaya (shelter home for women),” pleaded Mohammad Gulfam, the husband of Nuzhat Jahan who has been living in Delhi for the past 30 years and is now awaiting deportation for overstaying in India illegally. According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, Ms Jahan was married at the age of 17 and has stayed with her husband in India ever since in their small house in Sitaram Bazaar, Old Delhi. In 2002, she was picked up for overstaying in India without a valid visa. Earlier this month she was sentenced to six days’ imprisonment, awarded a fine and ordered to be sent back to Pakistan. After serving her punishment, she is currently lodged in the shelter home awaiting further orders from the central government. “My wife was taken away early this month and we haven’t had proper access to her since then. A Delhi court has ordered her deportation; she has served her punishment and now is being kept in Nirmal Chhaya where we have had very little access to her. It is worse than being in Tihar Jail,” said Mr Gulfam. “The last time I spoke to her, she said ‘please ask the Indian government to send me back to Pakistan or kill me… but don’t let them forget about me in Nirmal Chhaya’,” he added. “The wait is the worst punishment,” said 27-year-old Gulsher, the second of Ms Jahan’s three children. —Monitoring Desk
Call for ban on CNG use in public vehicles By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, May 30: Asking the government to impose a ban on the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in public service vehicles, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has directed all transport authorities to launch a crackdown on vehicles fitted with uncertified cylinders of CNG and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). . A senior official told Dawn on Thursday that Ogra had been advising the federal government over the past few weeks to place a ban on the use of CNG in public vehicles. On Thursday, Ogra Chairman Saeed Ahmad Khan wrote a fresh letter to secretary of the petroleum and natural resources ministry, reiterating his stance regarding the use of CNG in public vehicles. The Ogra chief said that tragic accidents involving CNG cylinders were on the rise even though considerable time and energy had been spent on formulation of Standard Operating Procedures. He said the chief justice of the Lahore High Court had taken notice of loss of lives and damage to property in such incidents and that a case was still pending before the LHC. Mr Khan reminded the secretary that through a May 10 letter, chief secretaries, transport secretaries and inspector generals of police of the four provinces had been requested to take action against the uncertified CNG cylinders installed beneath passenger seats in public vehicles and all those involved in installing dubious CNG kits and fittings. He deplored that no worthwhile result of the exercise was achieved and the incident of May 25 in Gujrat was an eye opener for all stakeholders. He asked the government to prevail upon regional transport authorities to launch a campaign against vehicles having uncertified CNG cylinders.
Transfer orders withdrawn, Khoso tells SC By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, May 30: Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso assured the Supreme Court on Thursday that he had withdrawn his orders regarding transfer and posting of about 20 senior government officials. . Facing contempt proceedings over alleged violation of a court judgment, the prime minister said in a two-page statement submitted through his counsel Arif Chaudhry that withdrawal of the orders amply demonstrated and proved beyond any doubt his sincerity in abiding by the writ of the apex court. Headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, the Supreme Court bench is seized with petitions moved by senior bureaucrat Shafqat Hussain Naghmi, Secretary of the National Commission for Government Reforms Imtiaz Inayat Elahi and others against their transfer to different government departments in “violation of judgment in the Anita Turab case”. On May 9, the Supreme Court issued contempt notices to the prime minister, along with his Principal Secretary (PSPM) Khawaja Siddiq Akbar and Establishment Secretary Taimur Azmat Usman, and made former PSPM Sirat Asghar a party in the matter. The notices were issued under section 3 of the Contempt of the Court Ordinance 2003, read with article 204 of the constitution, with a direction to submit replies explaining why the transfers/postings should not be declared null and void. The court held that prima facie the transfer/posting of the officers seemed to violate judgment in the Anita Turab case. In that judgment, the apex court had held that civil servants were not bound to obey illegal orders of their superiors as they owed their first and foremost allegiance to the law and the constitution. On May 24, Mr Akbar filed a reply expressing willingness to submit to the court documentary evidence explaining reasons for the transfer and posting of the officers. He said the transfers/postings were made for compelling reasons, involving the general reputation, conduct and performance of the officers. He added that the evidence could be presented in camera, if so desired by the court. In his statement on Thursday, the prime minister said the withdrawal of the transfer orders showed his commitment towards implementing the court’s judgment in the Anita Turab case. “Indeed, the Election Commission of Pakistan’s notification of April 2, 2013 was the root cause and origin of issuance of these orders for the transfer and postings which led this court to contemplate action in this case,” the statement submitted on behalf of Mr Khoso said. The prime minister said the postings and transfers were made inadvertently and without any intention to cause offence. He went on to say that he had the greatest respect for the Supreme Court, held it in highest esteem and honour and firmly believed in its supremacy.
Leaders’ wealth — Shahbaz richer than Nawaz By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, May 30: PML-N leader Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif, who is set to regain the office of Punjab chief minister, is richer than his elder brother, the incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif. . According to statements of assets and liabilities submitted by them to the Election Commission along with their nomination papers, the net worth of Nawaz Sharif’s assets was Rs261.6 million last year and that of the assets of Shahbaz Sharif Rs336.9m. Interestingly, the worth of Nawaz’s assets increased by Rs95.6m in a year and that of Shahbaz dropped by Rs56.5m. In 2011, the assets of the two brothers were worth Rs166m and Rs393m. According to tax details, Nawaz’s total income in 2010 was Rs9.7m, which grew to Rs10.6m in 2011 and Rs12.4m in 2012 and he paid Rs2m, Rs2.8m and Rs2.4m as income tax. The land holding of Nawaz increased from 934 kanals in 2010 and 2011 to 1,707 kanals in 2012. His agricultural income was Rs5.2m, Rs5m and Rs8.3m and he paid agricultural tax of Rs0.75m, 0.73m and Rs12.3m during the years. He lives in a house owned by his mother. The income of Shahbaz was Rs3.1m in 2010 which swelled to Rs12.8m in 2011 and Rs14.9m in 2012. He paid Rs0.25m, Rs2.2m and Rs2.6m as income tax. In 2010, his agricultural income from 867 kanals was Rs3.5m. The land holding dropped to 677 kanals in 2011and the income remained at Rs16.5m and Rs16.4m in 2011 and 2012. Agricultural tax paid by him during the three years was Rs0.44m, Rs2.7m and Rs2.5m. Shahbaz Sharif lives in a Rs120m house owned by his spouse. PTI chief Imran Khan paid Rs1.8m in taxes in 2010 when his income was Rs11m, but when his income more than doubled to Rs23.5m in 2011, he paid Rs0.32m as income tax. The income declined to Rs16.1m in 2012 and the tax to Rs0.27m. His agricultural income from 931 kanals remained Rs0.75m and Rs2.3m in 2010 and 2011. It rose to Rs3.5m in 2012 when the land holding increased to 1,346 kanals. He paid Rs61,500, Rs0.29m and Rs504m tax. Mr Khan holds four foreign currency accounts, with one of them showing a deposit of over $0.5m. He has shown net worth of his assets in 2012 at Rs30m. Former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf, whose nomination papers were rejected, mentioned the worth of his assets in and outside the country at Rs0.64m, but showed an increase of Rs129m in value in one year. PPP Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim paid Rs1.17m, Rs1.25m and Rs1.35m as income tax in 2010, 2011, and 2012 for the income of Rs11m, Rs11.4m and Rs12.4m. He mentioned salary and rent as sources of his income. He holds agricultural land measuring 360 acres and his agricultural income was Rs5.46m, Rs5.45m and Rs4.12m. He paid Rs0.74m, Rs0.72m and Rs0.52m as agricultural income tax. The value of assets owned by Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao grew from Rs43.7m in 2011 to Rs126m in 2012. He paid Rs55,327, Rs46,832 and Rs58,862 as income tax in 2010, 2011 and 2012. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman paid Rs27,208, Rs46,832 and Rs57,064 as income tax on his salary. He has declared the worth of his property, including two houses and a five-kanal plot in Dera Ismail Khan, at Rs4.7m. Syed Khurshid Shah of PPP, who has been named leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, has put the worth of his assets as Rs11.8m.
Nawaz deeply disappointed by drone attack: PML-N wants US to give peace a chance By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE, May 31: Irritated by this week’s drone attack which killed Taliban’s front-rank leader Waliur Rehman, the PML-N said here on Friday it would ask the United States to exercise “restraint and give peace a chance”. . The chief of the party and incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif expressed “serious concern and deep disappointment” over the drone strike. “The drone attack is not only a violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity but also an action that has been declared a violation of international law and UN charter,” he said in a statement. According to a PML-N leader, a close aide of Mr Sharif has conveyed his point of view to US Chargé d’Affaires Richard Hoagland. The diplomat was told that the attack — days after President Obama’s ‘crossroads’ speech — was highly regrettable, “particularly as the president had spoken of initiating a new policy which would ensure greater exercise of care and caution in the use of this technology”. Mr Sharif’s aide also pointed out that meaningful consultations and close cooperation between the two countries should be the “desired course of action”, rather than unilateral measures. PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid said the drone strike was not good for the incoming government’s efforts for peace. “The US should have shown restraint knowing the government is going to hold peace talks with Taliban,” he told Dawn. “The PML-N hopes that a single incident will not sabotage the peace efforts the incoming government intends to initiate (with the Taliban). Even during negotiations such incidents take place,” he added. Mr Rashid, who is reportedly being considered for the post of information minister, said: “We are not panicky about Taliban’s announcement for withdrawal of the offer for peace talks. We are confident that our noble cause will not be affected by this incident.” The Taliban withdrew their offer for peace talks and vowed to avenge the killing of Waliur Rehman. Asked if his party would be able to persuade the TTP to come to the negotiating table despite the death of its important leader and ask it not to insist on revenge, Senator Rashid said: “The PML-N will not only tell the US but also the Taliban to give peace a chance. There has been a lot of bloodshed and now peace should be given a chance.” Punjab chief minister in-waiting Shahbaz Sharif said: “We will hold talks with the US on the issue of drone attacks because these are against the country’s sovereignty and integrity.” The PML-N circles are wondering why the US launched the drone attack when had Nawaz Sharif made it clear that he was serious about peace talks with the Taliban. They said the US had even hinted that it had no objection to the incoming government’s initiative for dialogue. US Ambassador Richard Olson recently told reporters that it was a prerogative of the (PML-N) government to hold talks with Taliban. “The US government has no objection if Pakistan enters into talks with Taliban,” he said. In a speech after winning the May 11 elections, Nawaz Sharif said about 40,000 precious lives hade been lost and the national economy was suffering a loss of billions of dollars (in the war against terrorism). “Why should not we sit for a dialogue to restore peace? Is it a bad option? No, it is the best available option as guns are not a solution to every problem. Taliban’s dialogue offer should be taken seriously,” he said.
Balochistan CM issue lingers on By Zulqernain Tahir & Saleem Shahid LAHORE / QUETTA: PML-N chief and prime minister in-waiting Nawaz Sharif could not finalise the name for the post of Balochistan chief minister on Friday, even a day before members of the new provincial assembly are to take oath. . A meeting Mr Sharif held with his close aides at his Raiwind residence ended inconclusively. “There has been no decision so far on the name of Balochistan chief minister,” PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid told Dawn. When it was pointed out that the Balochistan Assembly was to hold its first session on Saturday which would make it impossible for its members to visit Mr Sharif in Lahore, he said: “We may go to Balochistan for the purpose.” On Thursday, Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with leaders of various parties from Balochistan and MPAs-elect belonging to the PML-N, National Party (NP) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP). It was also attended by three main aspirants for the post of chief minister — Dr Abdul Malik of the NP and Sardar Sanaullah Zehri and Nawabzada Changez Marri of the PML-N. According to sources, Mr Sharif is taking time because he does not want to annoy any ‘Sardar’ of Balochistan. The PML-Q has already asked its five legislators to support Dr Malik. The sources said Mr Zehri was not being flexible because the Sharif brothers had earlier assured him that he would be their choice for the coveted post. Although the PML-N, PkMAP and NP have empowered Mr Sharif to nominate a leader of the house, Sanaullah Zehri, the PML-N’s Balochistan president, said principles of autonomy required that the province itself took a decision on the formation of government like other provinces. He was of the opinion that under the 18th Amendment it was the right of the majority party to choose a chief minister. “PML-N is a majority party and the chief minister should be from it,” he told reporters at the Quetta airport on Friday after returning from Lahore. But he said the leader of the house would be chosen with consensus and “we will support him”. He rejected a perception that there were differences in the PML-N ranks over the issue and said it was being spread by “certain quarters”. Mr Zehri said the PML-N chief was aware of the situation and would soon take a final decision. “The interest of the people of Balochistan will be given priority in formation of the government,” he said. Responding to a question, he said he would have no objection if Nawabzada Marri supported Dr Malik Baloch for the post of chief minister, but a decision in this regard should be taken with consensus. Meanwhile, Nawabzada Marri told reporters that consultations were under way to agree on a name for the leader of the house. NP chief Dr Malik Baloch said the PkMAP had suggested his name for the post of chief minister, but any decision taken by Nawaz Sharif would be “acceptable to us”. He said it had been decided in Quetta and Lahore that the PML-N, PkMAP and NP would form a coalition government in Balochistan. He said his party had presented its point of view during meetings with Mr Sharif.
Petrol price up by Rs2.18 ISLAMABAD, May 31: The government increased on Friday the price of petrol by Rs2.18 per litre and reduced the price of high speed diesel by Rs1.48 per litre with immediate effect. . According to price adjustment approved by the government, the ex-depot price of petrol (motor spirit) has been revised to Rs99.77 per litre from Rs97.59. The price of light diesel oil (LDO) has been increased by 7 paisa to Rs89.13 per litre from Rs89.06. The prices of other petroleum products have also been reduced. The ex-depot price of high speed diesel (HSD) has been reduced to Rs104.60 per litre from Rs106.06. The price of kerosene oil has been reduced by 38 paisa to Rs93.79 per litre. Officials said the average crude oil price in international market had dropped by about $1 per barrel during the month of May.—Khaleeq Kiani
Promises to be fulfilled, says KP’s chief minister By Zulfiqar Ali PESHAWAR, May 31: Pervez Khattak of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was elected by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly here on Friday to head the first ever PTI government in the country’s history. . Addressing the assembly after his election, Mr Khattak spelt out his programme for ‘positive change’ and said the promises made by the party and its Chairman Imran Khan would be fulfilled. He said people pinned high hopes on the PTI government and he would strive to come up to their expectations. He criticised drone attacks and said that terrorism and drones were among the main problems the country faced and the federal government must address them. He said his government would extend cooperation to the centre and expressed the hope that the PML-N government at the centre would adopt a clear policy on the issues (Details of speech on inside pages). Later, Mr Khattak and two senior ministers of his cabinet — Sirajul Haque of Jamaat-i-Islami and Sikander Khan Sherpao of Qaumi Watan Party — were administered oath of office by Governor Shaukatullah. The oath-taking ceremony was attended by Presidency’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, PTI’s Jehangir Tareen, newly elected PMAs and MNAs, diplomats and senior officials. Sources said the provincial cabinet would be expanded soon and the names of expected ministers had been sent to Imran Khan for approval. During the election of the leader of the house, Mr Khattak, who was joint candidate of the PTI, JI, QWP and Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan, secured 84 and his opponent Maulana Lutfur Rehman of JUI-F 37 votes. The PPP and former president Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League as well as two independent legislators voted for Mr Khattak. The PML-N withdrew its candidate Wajeh-uz-Zaman in favour of Maulana Rehman shortly before the voting. Born in Manki Sherif in district Nowshera, Mr Khattak, 63, studied at Aitchison College in Lahore. He entered active politics in 1983 and was elected MPA in 1988. He served as minister for industries and also as district Nazim of Nowshera. He was elected MPA in 2008 on a ticket of the then PPP (Sherpao) and later joined the ANP-PPP coalition government and became minister for irrigation. Last year he quit the ministry and joined the PTI. Mr Khattak contested the PTI intra-party elections against Asad Qaisar for the post of KP president but was defeated. He was appointed the party’s central general secretary.
Bokhari files petition, seeks review of verdict By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, May 31: Three days after the Supreme Court set aside his appointment as chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari on Friday moved a petition before the SC seeking review of the court’s judgment. . In his petition, Admiral Bokhari pleaded that the findings of the court were devoid of legal or logical basis and were a “clear violation of section 6 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999”. The petition contended that the president was not answerable to the SC with regard to appointment of the NAB chairman. It said the July 31, 2009 judgment of the SC that declared the Nov 3, 2007 proclamation of emergency illegal had become the basis for NRO, 2007, which was extended by means of that judgment in violation of article 89 of the constitution. This extension of the ordinance beyond four months provided the basis for the court and the petitioners who had challenged the NRO to “completely paralyse the functioning of the NAB” which was taken over by the Supreme Court. The petition argued that the short order was devoid of any reasons whatsoever which could even remotely establish that the appointment of the NAB chairman was in violation of section 6 of the NAO. The review petition contended that the NAB chairman could only be removed by the president once he had been appointed to the position. Also on Friday, the apex court issued detailed version of the short order it issued on Tuesday on a petition filed by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, a former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, about 19 months ago. An irresistible and unavoidable conclusion suggested a failure on the part of President Asif Ali Zardari to make any serious, sincere and genuine effort to evolve a consensus with Chaudhry Nisar over the appointment of Admiral Bokhari as NAB chairman, said the detailed judgment. Justifying reasons for holding the appointment illegal, the verdict said: “We have entertained no manner of doubt that proper consultation as required by the provisions of Section 6(b i) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, and as interpreted by this court in various judgments … had not taken place in the present case before the appointment of Admiral Bokhari.” Authored by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the verdict expressed concern over the haste shown by the president after writing a letter on Oct 9, 2011 to Chaudhry Nisar and said this was not understandable as the federal government had already slept over the matter of appointment of the NAB chairman for about three months. It highlighted the role of the Chief Justice of Pakistan in such appointments as a consultee and in his capacity as a guardian and defender of the constitutional and legal rights of the people. The chief justice could play a salutary role in such appointments, particularly when there is a serious difference of opinion between other consultees over the proposed appointment of the NAB chairman, said the verdict. The role of the chief justice as a neutral arbiter in disagreements, differences or disputes over issues of national importance already stood recognised by the constitution through Articles 152 and 159(4). The verdict reiterated the importance of consulting the chief justice in the matter of appointment of NAB chairman and expressed the hope that recommendations and suggestions repeatedly made by the court through different judgments would be given effect in all future appointments to that office. “We entertain no manner of doubt that anybody interested in making an honest and good appointment to that office would not feel shy of consulting the chief justice in that connection,” it said. According to the verdict, the leader of opposition in the NA does not represent just his/her own political party in the National Assembly, but the entire opposition in the house. Explaining why a person of eminence and prestige should be appointed as NAB chairman, the verdict said the president had to consult him for the appointment of a deputy chairman, prosecutor general (accountability) and all other officers of the bureau. Moreover, the NAB chairman was the one to decide whether or not to make a reference with respect to corruption or corrupt practices and no court could take cognizance of any such offence unless such a reference was made by him or by an officer authorised by him.
Working group hacks away at power crisis By Khurram Husain IN his inaugural speech before the new National Assembly, the newly inducted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to talk at length about the steps his government intends to take to tackle the power crisis. In the run up to that moment, a working group of senior party and business leaders has held five meetings — with another scheduled at noon on Saturday — in an effort to draw up a roadmap out of the crisis.. Background conversations with members of this group show that the new government will mean business. And thats no idle metaphor. “In the immediate term, a 30-35 per cent reduction in loadshedding is feasible,” says Khwaja Asif, who has been assigned the hottest seat of them all in the cabinet — that of the Minister Water and Power. “Basically we should get rid of the circular debt first, and make arrangements to prevent its return.” If the countrys power engines are going to start whirring again, the circular debt is indeed the first hurdle to be crossed. But the amounts required to “get rid of the circular debt” are not small — Rs156 billion is owed to Pakistan State Oil — and for a government coming in at the end of the fiscal year, addressing this problem while keeping the fiscal equation even minimally in control is a tricky job. The government intends to raise at least a substantial amount of this money from a combination of a treasury bill auction and what some members of the working group called “deficit financing” before the end of the fiscal year. The sam e members of the working group suggest the IMF has given them feelers to the effect that an increase of 1 to 1.5 per cent in the deficit to GDP ratio would be acceptable. “They are saying do whatever house-cleaning you have to do before June 30 and then we can talk”, says one member of the group. That would be step one and the working group believes that the measure can bring online up to 3000MW of electricity. But clearing the circular debt only buys time. The real challenge lies in what to do during the brief window of respite that this will open up. “Prices need to be rationalised, you have got to sell the electricity at the right price”, says banker and industrialist Mian Mansha, who has been at all the meetings of the working group. “Inefficiencies must go, and you need honest people to do the job.” The working group anticipates its real challenge to lie in these days, when the initial large dose of liquidity will fire up the engines for a brief period. They envision greater private sector participation in running the power bureaucracy, leading eventually to outright privatisation, starting with the Distribution Companies (Discos) and leading to the Generation Companies (Gencos). They also plan to aggressively follow up on the money owed in the form of unpaid electricity bills. “Substantial financial respite can come from the receivables,” says Khwaja Asif. But other members of the working group acknowledge that substantial difficulties also lie in the way. “Hundreds of billions of rupees are stuck in disputes”, says one member and goes on to list the amounts owed by entities private and public all over the country. But hes also quick to confirm that curtailing any supplies to Karachi is not on the cards. “KESC is reluctant to generate electricity from furnace oil because the subsidy the government owes to them in return for this is not paid”, he says. “But does it make sense to then generate that electricity from furnace oil up in Punjab then transmit the electricity back down to Karachi?” Instead of a curtailment, he argues, it makes more sense to find a way to resolve the issues KESC faces in generating from furnace oil so they are able to use their power plants to full capacity. Bringing idle capacity into action is another big part of the plan being worked out. As of Friday, the private power producers were pumping 6100MW into the system, with two thirds of that coming from the older family of plants that were brought under the 1994 power policy, and the rest from the newer plants that came under the 2002 policy. Getting the newer plants going will be priority. “Gas supply must be on efficiency basis, the more efficient the plant, the greater its priority” in allocations of the vital and increasingly scarce fuel, says Khwaja Asif. “An estimated 1000MW additional electricity can come from here.” Then there tariff adjustments also scheduled to be carried out during the days of respite. “We are selling the electricity for 9 rupees per unit whereas our generation cost is closer to 14 rupees,” says another member of the group. “An increase in the selling price is inevitable.” But the future minister is quick to add that lifeline consumers will be protected from the burden of this increase. “We need to simplify the slabs”, he says, arguing those at the top should pay more. “But there are problems in the purchase price as well”, he continues. The cost build up of the purchase price shows the price at Rs9.6, GST at Rs1.62, transmission and distribution losses at Rs1.6. “Then there a category they call ‘additional losses due to theft’ and they are charging us Rs1.8 against this item, with 30 paisa as GST on it”, he says. So not only are consumers paying for the electricity that is stolen from the system, they are also being taxed on the theft! “This is outright corruption”, says Mr Asif, adding that in his opinion a purchase price of Rs10 is possible.
India, Pakistan want to resolve issues peacefully, says Singh By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, May 31: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that both he and Pakistan’s prime minister-designate Nawaz Sharif wanted to take bilateral relations forward and resolve outstanding issues peacefully.. The Press Trust of India said Dr Singh told journalists on his way back from Japan and Thailand that both leaders had invited each other to visit their countries but dates had not been fixed yet. “I rang up Prime Minister Sharif on the very first day the election results were coming out. I conveyed my congratulations to him and I reciprocated his sentiments that India-Pakistan relations should move forward. “I also invited him to visit India. He also invited me to visit Pakistan. There is an invitation from the Government of Pakistan for me to visit Pakistan. “There is no firm decision on either side. No dates have been fixed but we would certainly like to have good neighbourly relations with Pakistan.” Indian analysts have been debating Mr Sharif’s poll-time comments with Indian journalists in which he had promised to fix responsibility for the Kargil fiasco. He also offered to share details with India of the Mumbai terror attack being investigated in Pakistan. Analysts feel Mr Sharif could find it difficult to carry the army with him on fulfilling his promise to Indian journalists.
Error leaves 9 reserved seats vacant By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, May 31: At least nine PML-N members of the National Assembly will not be able to cast their votes in elections to the offices of Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly because of revision in the schedule to fill the vacant reserved seats in the House from Punjab. . The commission had notified as many as 25 out of a total of 35 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly from Punjab. Twenty-three seats went to PML-N and two to the PTI. According to the ECP’s own calculations, the PML-N, which won 129 general seats, was supposed to get 32 seats, the PTI was to get two seats while the remaining seat was to be decided through a draw between PPP and PML-Q, both of which secured two seats each on May 11. From the PPP side Belum Hasnain’s name was on top of the priority list while Tanzeela Amir Cheema was the first in the priority list of the PML-Q and one of them was to be declared the winner. Since the priority list provided by the PML-N exhausted after the notification, as it contained only 23 names, a fresh schedule inviting nominations for rest of the seats was issued the same day. But here, a mistake was committed once again and nominations were invited from the PML-N only for eight instead of nine seats. Another mistake was that no time had been provided for deciding appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers in the schedule. The nomination papers, according to the schedule, were to be filed on May 29 and scrutinised on the following day while the official notification was to be issued on May 31. Instead of issuing a notification of successful candidates, the ECP on Friday issued a revised schedule to rectify the mistakes in the previous one. Now June 1 has been set as the last date for filing appeals against the decision of returning officers. June 6 has been set as the date for deciding the appeals by tribunals, and June 7 will be the last date for withdrawal of candidature. The revised list of candidates will be published on June 8 — five days after the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker and three days after the election for the coveted office of prime minister. ELECTION TRIBUNALS: Around three weeks after the general elections, the ECP has yet to notify the election tribunals meant to resolve election disputes. The tribunals had been formed but dissolved before being officially notified. The reason was that the chief justices of the high courts were not consulted as required under the law. An official of the ECP said since a decision had been taken to increase the number of election tribunals from 14 to 27, an approval was being sought from the finance division. He said for the first time in the country’s history, retired district and session judges were being hired for the purpose on a contract basis for one year in BPS-22. He said they would be required to dispose of cases within 120 days after day-to-day hearing. He said the election tribunals were being formed for the first time at divisional level. Under the law, the election tribunals can be approached within 45 days after results are notified since he results of the May 11 elections were notified on May 22, they are set to lose around one-third of the time provided under the law. An old woman who contested elections from Bannu expressed her displeasure to the ECP when on a plea for recounting she was advised to go to the election tribunal. “Where are the tribunals. Are these on earth or in the skies,” the woman, who is in her 80s, wondered.
Pak, US hold another round of strategic talks By Baqir Sajjad Syed ISLAMABAD, May 31: Pakistani and American officials held yet another session of strategic talks in Washington on Friday, but much like previous such meetings made no headway except keeping lines of communication open. . “The delegations had a cordial and productive exchange of views on issues of mutual importance, including international efforts to enhance nuclear security and peaceful applications of nuclear energy,” a joint statement issued after the fifth round of talks of Working Group on Security, Strategic Stability, and Non-Proliferation (SSS&NP) noted. At the session co-chaired by Acting Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva, Ambassador Zamir Akram, the two sides shared views on non-proliferation challenges, as well as the multilateral regimes on chemical and biological weapons, export controls and the importance of regional stability and security. The session took place as Islamabad prepared for transition of power to the next elected government. The schedule for meetings of other working groups is likely to be finalised after the PML-N government is installed. The Pakistani side, a source said, reiterated the demand for access to civilian nuclear technology, while the Americans insisted on Islamabad allowing talks on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) to begin. The US has been accusing Pakistan of “withholding the consensus to begin negotiations”. The FMCT seeks to stop production of fissile material at the current level of stocks. Pakistan supports reductions in existing stocks fearing that a cut-off treaty could put it into a disadvantaged position as compared to India, particularly after the US-India agreement on nuclear cooperation. With no common grounds existing, the meeting ended with exchange of views and an agreement to meet again later this year in Islamabad. “The delegations reaffirmed that the SSS&NP Working Group remains an invaluable forum,” the statement said.
Three security personnel, 34 militants killed in Kurram Dawn Report PARACHINAR / LANDI KOTAL, May 31: Thirty-four militants and three security personnel, among them a captain, were killed in clashes in Parachamkani area of Kurram tribal region on Friday. . According to the Inter-Services Public Relations and political administration, the fighting erupted late on Thursday night and continued for a few hours. At least 34 militants were killed and 12 others wounded in the gunbattle during which three security personnel, including a captain, also lost their lives and another eight suffered injuries. The officer was identified as Captain Salman. The officials claimed that security forces had established control over Mohammad Top, a bordering height between Khyber and Kurram agencies where scores of militants had taken shelter after the Pakistan Army launched offensive against them in parts of Tirah, Khyber agency. An ISPR statement said that the army gained control of Haider Kandaw in Maidan area of Tirah after some tough resistance put up by militants. It said security forces were able to reach all the dominating heights and establish a foothold in areas considered key to controlling most parts of Maidan. The Taliban had captured Maidan area of Tirah in February, forcing more than 40,000 local residents to flee it for safety. It said that village defence committees had been raised in areas where the army had established its control to ward off any counter-attack by militants.
Editorial NEWS
All are responsible: Van fire tragedy REACTING to the tragic van fire near Gujrat town on Saturday, a local official said lives could have been saved if the driver of the vehicle had shown some courage. That statement provides the starting point of a probe to identify all those responsible for the heartbreaking, horrible tragedy. The killing of at least 15 young school-bound children and a teacher in the fire was no accident. This was nothing short of murder or at least manslaughter.. The guilty include money-minded transporters who justify the low safety standards they maintain by boastfully stressing on the affordability factor. Never is their greed more obscenely manifested than in the hot summer months. The routine sight of children crammed in rundown vehicles in the suffocating heat is the worst advertisement for our education system. It is a horrifying throwback to those dark times that we would like to pretend we have left far behind. Sadly, the same era of ignorance and negligence continues, frequently throwing up tragedies of this sort. Those responsible also include school administrations and the officials who run the affairs of government. Finally, cruel though it may sound considering the grief of those whose children have perished, parents too must bear part of the blame for not demanding a better deal for their offspring, for being the meek of the earth who accept their fate unquestioningly. In a saner country, the Gujrat fire would be the only news worth pondering over for days and weeks if not months. In Pakistan, it is likely to be quickly overtaken by other, ‘more pressing’ events, as has happened in the aftermath of similar incidents in the past. Such incidents have included the killing of children in gas cylinder blasts, deaths of school-bound students at a railway crossing at one place and a bus overturning during a school excursion at another. After a period of initial mourning, these tragedies are forgotten in the interest of the continuation of the system. A similar pattern appears to be emerging now and the design could succeed once again unless a genuine effort is made to devise and enforce safety measures in transport used by our schoolchildren — and urgently. The blaming of one individual — the driver of the van — and the convenient, standard identification of short-circuiting as the cause of the fire are dire signs of the guilty seeking to take the old escape route. They are no less than murderers. If they are allowed to flee now, they will return to kill again.
Zero-tolerance needed: Depriving women of voting right TRADITION, particularly those pernicious aspects of it that serve to empower one segment of the population at the expense of the other, is never easy to counter. But countered it must be if human rights are to be uniformly applied across Pakistan. That is why the ECP should resist the determined attempts in parts of the country to keep women voters disenfranchised despite the re-polling held on its orders on May 23 at two polling stations in Battagram after receiving complaints that women voters registered there were not allowed to cast their ballot on May 11. Reportedly, not a single woman came to vote throughout the day of re-polling either. As a consequence, according to the local election official, the previous result would be retained.. The ECP had acted correctly in ordering the re-poll, thereby sending the message that women must be able to freely exercise their right of franchise. It should do the same wherever misogynistic tactics were employed in the recent elections, and several instances of agreements between local chapters of political parties to restrain women from voting have come to light. However, for the ECP to accept the outcome of the re-poll in the Battagram constituency as a fait accompli is to hand victory to the regressive mindset that sees women as having no right to public space and no voice in the political sphere. Moreover, to believe that women willingly did not even take the second opportunity to exercise their right of franchise is to allow hidebound elements to pull wool over our eyes. The fact is that those who restrained women from voting on May 11 could have ‘persuaded’ them otherwise this time around, had they chosen to do so. The ECP should take an unequivocal stand on the issue and annul the results of this constituency. Those who have won the election by depriving women of their vote do not deserve a place in the assemblies.
Muttahida in flux: Organisational restructuring THE national political landscape has rapidly changed following the general elections and as recent events have shown, one of the parties under-going considerable internal changes is the MQM. The incident that kicked off the current crisis seems to be Altaf Hussain’s impolitic statement (later clarified) targeted at PTI supporters protesting against alleged rigging soon after the elections. From that point on, one dramatic event after another involving the Muttahida has unfolded. Following Imran Khan’s unsubstantiated allegation holding Mr Hussain responsible for the murder of a PTI leader and the subsequent uproar, MQM workers turned on many of their leaders at the party’s headquarters in Karachi. On May 21, the Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, a key body in the party’s organisational structure, was disbanded while on Thursday, the main Coordination, or Rabita, Committee was dissolved. Altaf Hussain told his party workers that he was cleansing the party of “corrupt and unwanted elements”, and that those collecting ‘donations’ on the MQM’s behalf or involved in land-grabbing would be expelled.. The issues rightly pointed out by Mr Hussain, coupled with the reputation for high-handedness that has dogged the MQM for many years, seem to have had an impact on voters in Karachi. Though the MQM managed to bag nearly all the seats it contested from the metropolis, the PTI’s candidates put up a decent show, finishing second behind the MQM on many seats. ECP figures confirm the MQM’s vote bank has shrunk — though slightly. This shows the voter cannot be taken for granted. The time has come for the MQM to do some soul-searching and address the negative perceptions about it. Unless the issues confronting the MQM are addressed in a forthright manner, there’s no guarantee the party will continue to dominate politically in urban Sindh.
Killing fields: Journalists under fire FOR years now, Pakistan has been considered amongst the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. The impunity factor is used to demonstrate the depth of the problem: the state’s lack of interest in pursuing cases of journalists being murdered or harassed. This is apparent through just the bald facts: more than 20 journalists have been murdered in reprisal for their work over the past decade but not even one case has been solved. Why this is the case is fairly well recognised, even if challenging to address. Between the various forces that hold sway in the country — from the state and political parties to the security establishment, as well as the militant/extremist network and crime rings — there are linkages at play and there exists a web of shifting alliances. This means that this range of actors can and do, in different combinations, look away or collude to bury the cases of journalists being targeted, in order to suppress information in an otherwise vibrant media landscape.. If much of this was speculation earlier, it has come closer to substantiation with a special report published recently by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Roots of Impunity: Pakistan’s endangered press and the perilous web of militancy, security and politics. With the investigation using the prism of the killings of two journalists in particular — Wali Khan Babar in Karachi in January 2011 and Mukarram Khan Aatif in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a year later — the report illustrates in a chilling fashion “the culture of manipulation, intimidation, and retribution that has led to this killing spree [of journalists]”. Members of this profession are targeted by any quarter that feels that too much information, or information they consider ‘wrong’ is being reported, with the persecutors even being affiliated with political parties, state-sponsored agencies and the military establishment. The problems facing Pakistan are vast. Resolving them requires “a government willing to go head-to-head with the all-powerful security forces. By demanding accountability from the government, journalists can play one of the most important roles”, notes the report. Does the state have the will to do what it can to ensure that journalists are in a position to operate without fear? Given the apathy towards cases involving journalists’ deaths as well as the indications that state-sponsored agencies are involved in the harassment, it would appear not. 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.
The right note: PPP’s support IN power, the PPP was unable to deliver on governance, but that has long been the party’s Achilles’ heel. Now about to return to the opposition after five years, the PPP is continuing to demonstrate its consistent commitment to the democratic project — a vital commitment that for better or worse was subsumed by its abject performance on the governance side over the past five years. Nominated by the PPP as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly on Saturday, Khursheed Shah has started off on the right note. He has spoken of the PPP’s hope that the incoming assemblies complete their terms and that the PML-N gets a full five years in office. He has even promised that the PPP will not be a legislative impediment and will even consider further amendments to the Constitution if they are in the public and national interest — a significant comment given that the PPP will enjoy a near veto in the upper house of parliament until the next Senate elections in the first quarter of 2015.. Welcome as the words of Mr Shah and others within his party are, the reality is that words alone will not help nudge the country in the right direction. The role of the opposition need not be a passive one in which the PPP simply reacts to whatever ideas the PML-N brings to parliament — the PPP can actively support the democratic project by putting to use its experience over the past five years and helping the PML-N navigate the fraught world of Pakistani politics and incumbency. On counterterrorism, on legislative priorities to rectify long-standing structural flaws in governance, even on establishing a common platform for local governance across the four provinces, the PPP has much more than words of cooperation to offer — it can offer advice and direction freed from the exigencies of running an unwieldy coalition in the immediate aftermath of a military-run dispensation.
Dismal tourist scene: Liquidating PTDC assets NEWS about the caretakers’ move to liquidate the assets of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation has coincided with a damning BBC report that places this country nearly at the bottom in terms of positive global influence. Despite the Eighteenth Amendment and the consequent devolution of powers to the federating units, the PTDC insists it has not played out its role and that it will continue to look after the “non-devolveable” aspects of the “devolved subjects”. As to its union’s claim that the interim government should have waited for the elected set-up to be in place, a PTDC spokesman said the liquidation process had nothing to do with the transfer of power, and the evaluation of the corporation’s assets was being done under the said constitutional amendment. These assets include 39 hotels and motels at places that few countries in the world can rival in terms of scenic grandeur. Can we expect a turnaround in tourism now that the provinces will run those assets?. To have a booming tourism industry on modern lines, a country need not be in league with Switzerland or Germany; even developing countries like Egypt and Sri Lanka earn billions of dollars because of their modern, tourist-oriented infrastructure. In Pakistan, unfortunately, even domestic tourism has never been what it should have been, given the country’s potential. But whatever was there was destroyed by terrorism. Swat, the tourist paradise, is no longer occupied by the Taliban but it will take time to reach pre-2009 levels. Frankly, it would be unfair to solely blame the federal and provincial tourism outfits for the lack of foreign arrivals. So long as Pakistan is stigmatised by suicide bombers and militants, no foreigner in his senses would consider this country his tourist destination.
Rigging concerns: What ECP should do TWO weeks after the general elections, allegations of rigging from various quarters refuse to die down. Some politicians have held aloft ‘ballot papers’ on TV while others have uncovered them from garbage dumps — papers that are meant to be in the ECP’s possession. Meanwhile, poll monitors have asked the ECP to publicly release detailed election data. Perhaps the best way to address these valid concerns is for the ECP to upload the various forms that serve as documentary evidence of the polling process on its website. These include Form XIV (Statement of count), detailing how many votes were cast at each polling station, and Form XV (Ballot paper account), which lists how many ballot papers were used. Making the forms public will allow for an objective evaluation of what might have gone wrong at a particular polling station, helping to determine if erroneous data was entered and if it was due to a mistake or otherwise. The various forms can be reconciled with each other. For example, claims of stuffing and rigging can be addressed if the number of votes polled at a certain station is cross-checked with the number of ballot papers issued. The ECP can order re-polling if discrepancies are found.. The electoral process on May 11 was largely fair and the ECP did improve on previous elections. Yet bugs remain in the system and allegations of irregularities and rigging need to be addressed. There are more long-term issues which need the ECP’s attention. For example, reports have emerged that polling staff at some stations was not properly trained. Admittedly, the training of tens of thousands of individuals deputed at nearly 70,000 polling stations across Pakistan is a mammoth task. But elections are an ongoing process and that is why training of polling staff should be undertaken periodically by the ECP so that the training process is not rushed through a couple of months before an election. Another issue that requires attention is the fact that some polling stations were changed at the eleventh hour, which added to the voters’ confusion. Better management of the electoral process and capacity building of electoral staff is essential for the conduct of credible polls. People need to be taken into confidence by the ECP that should release the detailed election data while corrective measures need to be taken now for better elections next time. Only if such irregularities are meaningfully addressed can there be hope of a better-managed election in future.
MBS or KCR? Karachi mass transit plans ILL-INFORMED they both may be on the subject, Shahbaz Sharif and Qamar Zaman Kaira have nevertheless pleasantly surprised many people by taking an interest in a mass transit plan for Karachi. The PPP leader’s criticism of the statement by Punjab’s former chief minister, now poised for another term, was political in nature. Reacting to Mr Sharif’s declaration that launching a metro bus service for Karachi was one of the PML-N government’s top priorities, Mr Kaira said a Lahore-style MBS for Karachi would need a subsidy of more than Rs1billion per month. If the MBS would prove a white elephant for Karachi, Mr Kaira didn’t tell us what alternative he had in mind. Mr Sharif, too, it seemed had heard little about the plans for the revival of the Japanese-funded Karachi Circular Railway, and did not appear familiar with the story of Karachi’s mass transit scheme. . First proposed in the 1970s by the PPP government, the Karachi mass transit scheme involved a 9km underground ‘spine’ from Liaquatabad to Tower. The military government scrapped the scheme in 1977. It was retrieved by the Junejo government, and the project accommodated the requirements of a Karachi that had fast expanded physically and demographically. But the scheme never saw the light of day. In the 1980s, an Indus Mass Transit Company, with technology and funds coming from many countries, was set up. But the scheme remained a pipe dream. Now we have been hearing about the KCR’s revival, and it seems — assuming there will be no bureaucratic sabotage — Karachi may after all see the completion in 2017 of its first phase, providing service to 700,000 commuters daily. Quite understandably, the PML-N leadership is keen to create political space for itself in urban Sindh. But, in his haste, we hope Punjab’s would-be chief minister will do nothing that will delay or scuttle the Japanese plans for the KCR. Surely we do not want to see the KCR revival abandoned without the MBS scheme materialising.
Up in smoke: Public health and tobacco THE figures are shocking enough in themselves: since the revenue department established the Anti-Illicit Tobacco/Cigarettes Trade in Pakistan cell in February last year, around 50 million sticks of smuggled foreign or locally manufactured but untaxed cigarettes have been confiscated. With the market across the country flooded with such tobacco products that have paid no tax — the money going into the pockets of shopkeepers and dealers — the illicit trade steals around Rs10bn annually from the country’s earnings. Entering the country through several routes including the porous border with Afghanistan at Chaman and Torkham, each truck that carries an untaxed cigarette consignment causes a loss of some Rs3.5m to the exchequer. . Yet much more crucial than the monetary angle is the health risk that this irresponsible practice poses. Most such smuggled cigarette packets do not carry the health advisories that Pakistani law mandates, such as pictorial warnings, messages in Urdu, the limitation on sale to underage children and the price. This means that this industry of death in effect neutralises efforts the country has made to deter citizens from smoking, including legislation such as the bar on smoking in public spaces and the campaign to highlight the risks of this evil practice. The same argument can be used for this industry as that used in the fight against drugs: given the very serious issue of public health that is at stake, while the authorities must continue to do what they can to curb the smuggling and catch the offenders, those peddling the products must also be brought to book. Such cigarette packets are widely available across the country, at upmarket hotels and roadside stalls alike; the owners of these concerns, too, should be held responsible for endangering people’s health.
People’s misery: Power woes MOST parts of the country were without electricity when incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif delivered a speech at a function in Lahore to mark the 15th anniversary of the nuclear tests. The persistent power cuts of the past several months led him to remark that it was a tragedy that a country with a nuclear arsenal was facing chronic electricity shortages. But he could not give a definitive time frame for when the shortages would end, and instead warned the people against harbouring too many hopes that the formation of his government would lead to an instant solution. How the voters, especially in Punjab, who have returned his party to power with an emphatic majority, are going to react to his appeal for patience will become clear in the next several weeks, given that the party’s pledge to end the power crisis was a key plank of the PML-N’s poll strategy. . For now, many people in different parts of the country are protesting against unannounced blackouts of up to 18 hours a day. In Mirpur, where scores of demonstrators had clashed with police, Mr Sharif’s own party called for public protests against the power cuts. Indeed, growing power shortages have not only crippled daily life, they are also disrupting industrial production. The incessant power cuts are estimated to cause an economic loss in excess of 4pc of GDP a year. Hundreds of factories have been forced to close down while others are operating far below their capacity. Thousands of jobs have been lost. The reasons for the country’s power sector woes — mismanagement, corruption, lack of investment, etc — are well known. So are the solutions to the power crisis — deregulation and privatisation of generation and distribution companies, change in the energy mix, reform of the pricing structure of different fuels, investment in hydel and coal generation, etc. The crisis has worsened ever since the caretaker government took over. But it would not be fair to fault it for doing too little as it has had neither the mandate nor the money to carry out reforms. Meanwhile, considering the extent of the crisis, it is hardly likely that the problem will go away soon. Yet the incoming government will have to move swiftly to minimise shortages by implementing power sector reforms and ensuring optimal utilisation of the available generation capacity to revive growth. Those who voted the PML-N into power in the hope that it could end the crisis will be watching the government’s performance closely on this front.
Dangerous connection: The internet and crime THANKS to timely action on part of the police department and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, Mustafa Dossal has been rescued in Karachi from the clutches of his captors. As the CPLC chief pointed out, this was a particularly sensitive case since the kidnapper was known to the victim, thus putting the latter’s life in jeopardy. In the first crime of its kind, the 13-year-old was kidnapped by the older brother of an acquaintance he met on Facebook, shanghaied away under the pretext of a lunch invitation and handed over to Lyari gangsters who then made the ransom calls. The kidnapper was identified through photographs that he had uploaded online, and he was tracked down late Sunday night. Had the 25-year-old captor planned his crime a little better, it might have proved a much harder task to trace Mustafa.. Given that this is a country where kidnapping for ransom has become a distressingly common crime, there are lessons here that must urgently be learned by young people and their parents or guardians. The dictum of ‘never talk to strangers’ is, in the online world, more valid than ever. In virtual social communities, identities and age-demographics can easily be masked, information manipulated and gleaned — and these can be used to commit any sort of crime. The Western world, where online activity has been the norm for a longer period of time, has already learned this after crimes from paedophilia to abduction or fraud were found to have been engineered through internet contact. Urban Pakistan, where the social media is becoming increasingly popular, must also recognise the risks and make young people aware of them. In terms of online content that is unsuitable for children, filters can be put in place to restrict internet access in the home. But filters don’t work in terms of social networking sites such as Facebook. The answer lies, therefore, in parents having friendly relations with their children and engaging in discussion about the benefits and risks of the virtual world.
Looking the other way: Culture of plagiarism THERE is no shortage of irony in this country. Take, for example, the University of Karachi’s draft policy on plagiarism. As pointed out by a Dawn report, KU’s document designed to fight the menace of plagiarism itself appears to be plagiarised. Material for the document has been taken from the Higher Education Commission’s plagiarism policy without accreditation. The document has been approved by KU’s academic council, though it needs to be passed by the syndicate. What is more, penalties for plagiarism have been toned down as compared to an earlier draft policy, which was also apparently plagiarised. The problem is not with KU alone as high-profile cases of plagiarism have also been reported from Punjab University and Quaid-i-Azam University. The root of the problem is that plagiarism is tolerated by society, specifically the higher education sector — and the policy adopted by many in academia regarding unethically copied work is to look the other way. In the past plagiarists have either been let off the hook or have received light penalties. Apparently, to many students and teachers in our universities there is no shame in claiming someone else’s work as your own.. While positive changes have been made in Pakistan’s higher education sector since the Musharraf era, the fact is a lot more needs to be done by the HEC and the universities to crack down on academic dishonesty, specifically plagiarism. Not only does plagiarism smear the reputation of Pakistani higher education as a whole, but those researchers who genuinely put in hard work to conduct original research get a rough deal, getting tarred with the same brush. For the sake of higher education in Pakistan and to safeguard the reputation of our genuine scholars, the HEC needs to enforce its ‘zero-tolerance’ policy on plagiarism in letter and spirit.
Question of priorities: N-arms vs development A NUCLEAR power but with little electric power: incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s apt observation on Tuesday is worth dwelling on. Guns versus butter — the apparent trade-off between arms and development — can be and often is grossly oversimplified. Pakistan exists in a tough neighbourhood, the need for a strong military, particularly to deal with the internal security threat, is very real and to wish away defence expenditures altogether is unrealistic. But it is also a question of gradation, of degree, and Mr Sharif’s words can be interpreted as a need to recalibrate the state’s priorities.. In theory, once Mr Sharif assumes office early next month he will preside over the National Command Authority, the apex body that guides Pakistan’s nuclear strategy. In reality, of course, the army controls nuclear policy entirely. But as prime minister, Mr Sharif has also made clear his intentions to seek a broader and faster normalisation of ties with India that has been attempted by other governments and regimes — and given that Pakistan’s nuclear programme is entirely predicated on the threat from India, it puts the incoming prime minister in a unique position to directly and indirectly address the tilt towards guns instead of butter in the region. Aside from occasional alarm in international circles, there has been very little focus in India or Pakistan outside the strategic community on the complex calculus of nuclear deterrence between South Asia’s two nuclear powers. Pakistan’s seeming push towards acquiring tactical nuclear weapons has been decried as unwise because it threatens to lower the nuclear threshold — tactical nuclear weapons essentially being battlefield weapons that must logically be placed in the hands of commanders several rungs down the chain of command. But Pakistani nuclear strategists have long argued that the provocation is really on the Indian side — because of India’s growing conventional warfare capacities, its push towards acquiring a missile defence system and flirtation with warfare ideas like Cold Start. Who is right and who is wrong is a matter of great consequence but of even greater consequence is the notion that Mr Sharif alluded to on Tuesday: arms alone do not bring security. Creating some elbowroom for civilians at the nuclear policy table may be the hardest of tasks for Mr Sharif but in his India policy could lie the seeds of regional de-escalation in the medium and long term. It will require both boldness and the most delicate of touches but this at least is a fight worth fighting.
An active threat: Renewed sectarian violence AS two events demonstrated on Tuesday, the incoming governments will have their hands full dealing with the threat of sectarian militancy. In Peshawar, at least three people were killed when a motorcycle bomb went off in Imamia Colony, a Shia-dominated area. Though no one has claimed the attack, there are strong indications the bombing had sectarian motives. Meanwhile in Karachi, a Shia lawyer, together with his two young sons, was gunned down as the man was dropping his children to school. This is the latest in a chilling trend in which killers have targeted members of a family. Earlier this month, another Shia father and son, also lawyers, were gunned down in the same area of the metropolis.. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says 69 people have been killed in sectarian attacks in Karachi between January and April. In Peshawar, over a dozen victims have fallen prey to sectarian targeted killings since the beginning of the year; KP police have failed to make a breakthrough in any of these cases. The range of the threat shows that efforts are required at both the provincial and national levels to counter sectarian militancy. Clamping down on such violence will be a formidable challenge for the PTI-led KP government. Imran Khan has criticised groups like Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in the past; it is now time for his party to take action against sectarian killers in the province. Meanwhile, the previous PPP-led Sindh government completely failed to control sectarian violence in Karachi. It is hoped the PPP vastly improves its record this time around. Sectarian violence in the metropolis seemed to dip when the caretaker set-up took over and some Sindh police officials have said the ‘targeted operations’ initiated against criminals yielded results. If this is the case such opera-tions must continue in order to bring sectarian militants to justice. On the national level, all newly empowered political forces must forge consensus and a plan to tackle the monster of sectarian militancy.
Peace prospects dim: Pouring arms into Syria THE international community seems to have abandoned its duty to end the slaughter in Syria; instead, the rivals are being armed. With the European Union lifting its arms embargo on Syrian rebels, and Moscow confirming the sale of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the regime, ground has been prepared for more bloodshed in the Levant. Both the EU and Russia have criticised each other’s move, trading accusations that more arms to the belligerents will mean a prolongation of the conflict. Critical they might be of each other, both must know they are contributing to a widening and worsening of the Syrian conflict.. Israel, which has already fired missiles on its northern neighbour three times, has declared it will not allow the Russian missiles to reach Syria, because they could fall into Hezbollah’s hands. The Shia militia is already a factor in the conflict. It is fighting on the side of the Baathist government, raising fears that Lebanon could be sucked into the conflict. Just recently, three Lebanese soldiers were killed by suspected Hezbollah guerrillas. With three regional states — Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — on the rebels’ side, with the EU pledging more arms for them and Russia offering missiles to Damascus, there is every possibility the conflict could widen and add to Syria’s misfortunes. Already, 1.3 million Syrians have become refugees. Instead of arming either side, the Western powers and Russia should do spadework for the proposed peace talks in Geneva. Earlier this month, Washington and Moscow agreed to convene a peace conference with the avowed aim of forming a transitional government and holding general elections. However, the moves made by the EU and Russia have all but sabotaged the conference. The ones to suffer will be the Syrian people.
Now is the time: TTP leader’s death IN death, Waliur Rehman has caused almost as much controversy as he did when he was alive. The TTP second-in-command appears to have been taken out by an American drone strike, triggering consternation in public and more considered cost-benefit analyses in private. For all the cries about yet another violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, however, one fundamental point must not be overlooked: it appears that the US knew how and where to find the militant, whereas the Pakistani security and intelligence apparatus did not.. Waliur Rehman had in the past been cast as a ‘moderate’ Taliban, someone the state here could do business with, but the truth was that he was a moderate only in that he was determined to attack inside Afghanistan too — meaning his attention was split between Pakistan and Afghanistan, unlike, say, Hakeemullah Mehsud who is known to focus most of his attention on attacks inside Pakistan. So here was a highly dangerous, highly motivated and highly effective militant leader in the form of Waliur Rehman and the Pakistani state appears to have had little clue of his whereabouts, appearing to believe that he would likely be hiding out on the border between North and South Waziristan. This is where the role of the security establishment should be questioned. The drone argument also has the unhappy effect of deflecting attention to a far more serious issue: what the Pakistani state intends to do about North Waziristan, now the last redoubt of militants in which they can operate and plan largely unmolested. The incoming civilian leadership has talked up talks again while the military leadership has tried to indirectly warn about the futility of negotiations — but then the army high command has not shown any decisiveness when it comes to North Waziristan for years now either. Now, with the Taliban once again ‘suspending’ their offer of talks in the wake of Waliur Rehman’s killing, there is one of two ways to proceed: flounder in the face of a continuing threat or take strength from the decisiveness showed by the electorate in rejecting the Taliban path. For all the reasons for inaction, to avoid a military operation in North Waziristan, to further delay establishing the state’s writ there, there is a simple truth: the TTP and Pakistan as imagined by its people, and endorsed in the recent elections, are incompatible. How to take on the TTP militants in North Waziristan is an important question but it is secondary to the need to take them on now not later.
Regressive approach: CII’s recommendations NEARLY 25 years have passed since the death of Gen Ziaul Haq but the legacy of the mischief he wrought refuses to go away. The latest example of the manner in which the chessboard he designed is set up to pull Pakistan backwards is shocking in its lack of logic. The Council of Islamic Ideology, which can make observations on laws and constitutional mechanisms on the basis of religious interpretation, declared on Wednesday that DNA test results are not acceptable as primary evidence in cases of rape. The meeting also made several other debatable points — for instance, the blasphemy law needs no amendment — but these pale in comparison with the outrageousness of the remark regarding DNA testing. It has been conclusively established that DNA testing is an entirely accurate means of establishing identity and it is admissible as primary evidence in courts across the world. According to the CII, there are, from an Islamic point of view, procedures to determine the commission of rape, but to ignore the benefits of science would amount to regression. It is in the light of such examples that it becomes difficult to refute the views of those who say that Pakistan is where logic comes to die.. In the larger scheme of things, it is worth asking why the CII is necessary at all. With an elected parliament in place to examine all aspects of proposed and existing legislation, and with the courts and the media to vet and/or criticise these, there is little to be gained from an additional advisory body whose pronouncements, as in this case, often do little to demonstrate or further the country’s commitment to progressiveness. That the latter exists is evident in the manner in which various elements, from those in the assemblies and the courts to those on the street, have energetically pushed for and achieved change on several fronts. The ghosts of the past need to be exorcised. The newly elected government must recognise this as a top priority.
Needless deaths: Measles outbreak ONCE everyone is through with their views on the more obvious challenges such as energy shortages, there is much else in Pakistan for the rulers to lose sleep over. The death of over 120 children in Punjab because of a measles outbreak will, hopefully, also get noticed. Many of these young lives could have been saved with some responsible work at the governmental level. The measles vaccination could not be procured on time, a major reason being the lack of coordination between the centre and the provinces to which the health sector has been devolved. The centre wanted the provinces to arrange for the vaccine on their own whereas the provincial governments maintained they were not fully equipped to take up the job post-devolution. In the end, the centre agreed to provide the vaccination to the provinces for the period ending June 2013, after which the provincial units were to obtain the medicine themselves. Then, there were no funds, an inability to rope in international donors exacerbating the crisis. Precious time was thus lost and a vaccination drive that should have been launched last winter could only be initiated many months later, and that too partially. . The caretaker Punjab government’s vaccination drive was quite visible yet it has failed to have the kind of impact that was expected of it. Also, numerous cases from the suburbs continue to surface, adding to those still being reported in Lahore. The summer viruses make it worse, as does malnutrition, which has been observed as contributing significantly to the lack of proper immunity among many children struck down by measles. There must be greater official emphasis on the fight against the measles outbreak now and better coordination among federal and provincial governments in future to avoid a repeat.
Room for improvement: Pakistan-US ties WITH the incoming government just days from taking office, the pace of diplomatic activity has picked up and, as ever, leading the pack are the Americans. The newly appointed Af-Pak special representative James Dobbin met Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Thursday and made the usual noises about commitment to a strong bilateral relationship. In truth, however, the Pak-US relationship is entering a new phase and while its contours can be guessed at, only the weeks and months ahead will reveal how exactly Mr Sharif intends to reshape the bilateral relationship. The incoming prime minister is not exactly an unknown variable: he has of course ruled twice before and over the past five years has frequently met American officials. But during the campaign Mr Sharif said precious little about what could prove to be a critical aspect of at least the first third of his prime ministership: the transition in Afghanistan revolving around the December 2014 cut-off date for most foreign troops to leave that country. . The good news is that Mr Sharif is inheriting a bilateral relationship that has stabilised somewhat and recovered from the dangerous lows of a couple of years ago. While there has been no obvious movement forward in developing an arrangement that can see Afghanistan remain relatively peaceful post-2014, the US and Pakistan appear to at least have understood each other’s positions better. So, for example, while drones continue to fly over Pakistan, the frequency of missiles fired has gone down. And while North Waziristan and the Haqqanis remain a serious concern for the US, demands to ‘do more’ have receded. Almost as importantly, as the country’s economic stewards grapple with the necessity of returning to the IMF or not, the US has not tried to nudge the country in a particular direction beyond advising sensible reforms — a low-key approach that can help mollify suspicions here that the US wants to have economic leverage over Pakistan, be it for the Afghan project or some broader security reasons. So there is genuine room for Mr Sharif to negotiate mutually beneficial ties with the US. The most obvious problem is that domestically there are two power centres when it comes to foreign policy and national security. With US considerations in the short and medium term security-related, they could be tempted to encourage Mr Sharif to wrest space back from the army quickly. Or they could decide the army is the only institution to do business with in the time frame available. Both would be a mistake.
Grave risks: Safety of CNG vehicles AS in so many other areas that are problematic in Pakistan, the issue is not that safety codes and standardisation guidelines aren’t in place regarding CNG cylinders and kits. The devil lies in the detail, which is vigilant enforcement of the rules and ensuring that there are no violations. Though kits are imported and safety standards are on the books, in practice both cylinders and kits are often mishandled by improperly trained mechanics and welders, used beyond their recommended life and fitted into locations on vehicles where they should not be. While the law allows for just one cylinder in the prescribed place, buses and wagons often carry several, stashed away under seats or on the roof. In short, what should be a highly regulated area has, in Pakistan, become a cottage industry, and the cost of this is evident in the horrifying deaths of children in a recent van fire in Gujrat.. It is encouraging, therefore, that on Thursday two bodies raised this grave public safety issue. Following up on an earlier letter sent to provincial administrators and the police, the chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority wrote to the petroleum ministry reiterating his demand for a ban on the use of CNG and LPG in public vehicles given the authorities’ inability to ensure that uncertified vehicles were kept off the roads. The Lahore High Court, meanwhile, issued a ban on the plying of commercial vehicles with substandard gas and fuel conversion kits in Punjab. Though motivated by good intentions, both these moves miss the central point: what we need is a thorough and sustained countrywide drive to examine all commercial vehicles in light of safety standards and ensure that each vehicle owner obtains a fitness certificate. In this effort, provincial administrations, transport authorities and police departments would have to share equal responsibility. The task is challenging, but it is the only way to ensure that faulty CNG kits or cylinders do not extract a further toll.
Bridging the divide: Coalition politics in Sindh AS the new Sindh government settles in, all indications are that the MQM, the PPP’s former coalition partner, will not join the party on the treasury benches. The MQM fielded Syed Sardar Ahmed for the post of leader of the house, though the Muttahida candidate eventually lost to Qaim Ali Shah during Thursday’s chief ministerial election. Earlier, the PPP did make overtures to the MQM in order to persuade it to join the government, but its efforts bore no fruit. Yet knowing the unpredictable nature of Sindh politics and the love-hate relationship between the PPP and MQM, the situation can change at any time.. Despite pre-poll predictions that the PPP would face a tough time in Sindh, the anti-PPP vote never materialised. In keeping with the established pattern the PPP largely won in the Sindhi-speaking interior while the MQM, with its mostly Urdu-speaking support base, maintained its electoral hold over urban Sindh. This reflects the reality of Sindh’s politics. So with the MQM choosing to opt for the opposition, questions arise about the viable functioning of a government dominated by one party. Simply put, coalition politics is the need of Sindh. The PPP has the numbers to comfortably lead the government. However, governance in Sindh is not about numbers alone but having representation of all the province’s communities. The MQM’s reasons for snubbing the PPP’s offer are not known, though previously the Muttahida has sparred with its former coalition partner over the local government system, and accused it of supporting ‘criminals’ in Lyari. Rhetoric aside, for a strong provincial government that can handle Sindh’s myriad issues, especially lawlessness and militancy, which have caused hundreds of deaths in Karachi and adversely affected trade and industry, the MQM should reconsider its stance while the PPP should continue reaching out to its former ally.
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Dangerous deterrence By Munir Akram THE speech made by the chairman of India’s National Security Advisory Board and former foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, at India’s Subu Centre on April 24 should be required reading for those Pakistanis who believe that relations with India can be “normalised” through trade and people-to-people exchanges even if security issues remain unresolved.. Shyam Saran — a friend and respected adversary — has been consistent and candid in his view that Indo-Pakistan relations will remain adversarial for the foreseeable future and the realistic aim should be to construct ways to manage their rivalry. The Subu speech was designed to refute foreign and Indian critics who have asserted that India’s nuclear programme is driven by prestige and its quest for great power status whereas Pakistan’s programme has strategic clarity — deterrence against India — and has been better managed. Some of the events cited by Saran, in fact, confirm, rather than refute, the critics. Thus, prime minister Nehru did say when inaugurating India’s civilian programme that its nuclear capability could be also used for India’s “protection”. But this was in the early 1950s, when India faced no threat from Pakistan, China or elsewhere. Mr Nehru’s assertion was inspired by pride rather than strategic requirement. Likewise, India’s 1974 “peaceful nuclear explosion” was not in response to China’s 1964 explosion and the American deployment of the Enterprise in the Bay of Bengal during the Bangladesh war. If it was indeed such a response, the explosion shouldn’t have been described as “peaceful”. If anyone should have felt the compulsion to acquire nuclear deterrence at the time, it was Pakistan which had been recently dismembered by India’s military aggression. Similarly, in 1998, India justified its nuclear explosions by asserting that it was threatened by China, despite significant improvement in Sino-Indian relations preceding the explosions. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party had declared it would conduct the explosions if elected. The timing of the tests, as Saran admits, was dictated by the impending adoption of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which India had so far championed. Such hypocrisy has been the hallmark of India’s nuclear narrative. The plutonium for its 1974 and 1998 tests was diverted from its “civilian” nuclear facilities. After 1974 India continued to claim its explosion was “peaceful” and advocated global nuclear disarmament, even as it rejected initiatives to denuclearise South Asia and developed nuclear weapons and missile capabilities. Saran has argued that Pakistan’s programme was helped by China. In fact, India has been the principal beneficiary of external assistance. Its plutonium came from the reactor provided by Canada without IAEA safeguards and uranium supplied by the US and France; its early missiles utilised the US Apache and other missile technologies; its current missiles are based on prototypes and technologies acquired from Russia and the US (ostensibly for its space programme). After its 1998 nuclear tests, India’s nuclear doctrine was hastily put together, in a ‘draft’ form. It mimicked the US-Soviet doctrines of seeking a ‘triad’ of land, air and sea nuclear deployments. Such a vast programme was not needed for Pakistan-India deterrence. The demonstration of their respective nuclear capabilities was sufficient for the purpose. Indeed, in a 2001 joint communiqué, Pakistan and India declared that a stable deterrence existed between them. However, India rejected Pakistan’s call for a “strategic restraint regime” in South Asia. It proceeded, even if in a haphazard manner, to develop and deploy its nuclear ‘triad’. As in the past, Pakistan is being compelled to respond and preserve stable deterrence. India has been enabled by the US and others to pursue its nuclear ambitions in the belief that India’s capabilities can serve to ‘contain’ an increasingly powerful China. They will rue this strategic miscalculation at some future date. India’s capabilities are unlikely to overly trouble China for the foreseeable future. India will pursue its own priorities, principal among which is to neutralise Pakistan’s military and political power and influence in the region. Shyam Saran’s speech sought to build the case for the continued discrimination and greater restrictions against Pakistan in the nuclear and missile arenas. To this end, he repeated the familiar allegations about Pakistan’s “proliferation” and the fantasy of a terrorist takeover of its nuclear weapons. India’s non-proliferation record is not unblemished. Its chemical weapons assistance to Saddam’s Iraq and others is an open secret. And, as some analysts have pointed out, Pakistan’s strategic assets are more tightly controlled by the military, as in other nuclear weapon states, than India’s ‘civilian’, in reality bureaucratic, control. While India’s capabilities hardly serve as credible deterrence against China, they do pose a serious threat to Pakistan. Declarations of non first-use of nuclear weapons are convenient for a larger conventional power and are never credible. Nato rejected such assurances from the Soviet Union. What counts is capabilities not intentions. The danger is that India may believe that its nuclear triad, together with the acquisition of anti-ballistic missile systems and advanced conventional weapons, will enable it to pursue a conventional war against Pakistan. The Cold Start strategy has not been disavowed. This danger is magnified by the endorsement of India’s ambitions by the US and its allies. There is no assurance that a ‘limited’ war is possible between nuclear-armed states. Rapid escalation is likely. There is no assurance that while Kashmir and other Pakistan-India disputes fester, there will be no war in the future. It is thus in the vital interest of both countries, and their people, to construct a regime for mutual strategic restraint, nuclear and conventional, and to resolve their outstanding disputes, first and foremost, Kashmir. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who authorised Pakistan’s nuclear tests after India’s in 1998, and negotiated the Lahore Declaration, will be required to address India’s nuclear threat again in his third term in office. The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.
The silence is broken By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar GIVEN just how much hyperbole circulates within this country about America and its evil designs, the absence of any meaningful commentary about the possible contours of Washington’s future ties with the incoming government has been glaring. . That all changed with Barack Obama’s speech at the National Defence University in Washington on Thursday. His announcement of a more circumspect policy vis-à-vis the use of drone technology has set off yet another debate within media and political circles about ‘state sovereignty’ and our much-heralded ‘national interest’. The two primary victors in the general election, the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), spent considerable time during their campaigns promising the electorate that they would resist Washington’s dictates and thereby restore Pakistani self-respect (and presumably, self-reliance). It has been argued that the PTI won a decisive victory in KP precisely because of Imran Khan’s impassioned commitments to shooting down drones and rejection of American hegemony. What is interesting is how Washington has reacted to this rather hackneyed rhetoric. Let us not forget that commentators and politicos in Pakistan and the US were preoccupied only a year ago about an apparently irreversible breach in the relationship between the two countries. The media convinced us that there was an irreconcilable contradiction over a prospective military operation in North Waziristan. Within Pakistan, China and other non-Western powers were being touted as far more reliable allies than the US. Today the bad blood appears to have dissipated. Pakistan may not be Washington’s ‘most allied ally’ again but it is definitely not being advertised as a rogue state. Clearly both parties found a way out of the morass, and that too quite comfortably. Nowadays the Americans seem to prefer dialogue and reconciliation over indiscriminate military operations and other such indicators of a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy vis-à-vis ‘terrorism’. The PPP and Awami National Party (ANP) are clearly the biggest losers of this change in posture; their unabashed commitment to the so-called ‘war on terror’ did them no favours on May 11. Meanwhile the PML-N and PTI have been basking in the glow of countless congratulatory messages from, and courtesy visits by, the diplomatic corps (and Western attachés especially). One can only conclude that the ‘free world’, and Washington in particular, has no gripe with Imran Khan and the Sharif brothers. One of the major promises made by Obama during his second successful presidential campaign was that he would end what has become another unpopular war in Afghanistan. Washington’s preparations for the so-called ‘endgame’ in our neighbouring country have included a reappraisal of which political actors in Pakistan can facilitate a mutually beneficial outcome for all major protagonists. It is worth being reminded that the association between Islamabad (read: Rawalpindi) and Washington has historically revolved around both countries’ security establishments. From at least as early as 1954, the Pentagon and GHQ have cultivated a strong corporate relationship that has not been hugely affected even at the worst of times. It would not be incorrect to assert that the Pakistani military is still largely dependent on its American counterpart to provide hardware, training and other facilities whereas the American military continues to rely on its Pakistani counterpart to secure its strategic objectives in southwest Asia. In short, so long as the American engagement in the region continues to be a primarily military one, the Pakistani security establishment will continue to call at least some of the shots. The PML-N and PTI, meanwhile, are much better equipped to perform the political task of reaching out to and reaching a compromise with the militant right-wing, than the earlier PPP-ANP combo. Whether this realignment will precipitate a shift away from war, suffering, profiteering and exclusion is another matter altogether. Indeed, most seasoned analysts are predicting a return to unbridled conflict soon after the American ‘withdrawal’. It is premature to speculate on what will happen post-2014. What is clear in the here and now is that the Empire is no more committed to the welfare of the people of this region now than it was when it invaded Afghanistan in 2001; indeed such considerations have never informed the policies of imperialist powers. The principle Pakistani protagonists of this ‘long war’ will continue to be just as cynical in their strategic calculations. Lest we forget, the foundations of war were laid almost 40 years ago when Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabbani were invited from Afghanistan, thereby kick-starting a political economy of jihad which is now so complex and vast as to make comprehension of it a virtually impossible task. The PML-N and PTI will need to do more than sloganeering if they are serious about ending this ‘long war’. As for the liberals who were convinced that the Americans would fight our war against the establishment and the obscurantist outfits that it has spawned: they should have known better. The mainstream parties that pitched the ‘liberal card’ to Washington — the PPP and ANP — will now have to pick up the pieces of a failed gamble. And then there is the media. Both in Pakistan and the Western countries, the media has chosen to keep mum about strategic realignments over the past year or so and those that might follow the swearing in of the new government. The Pakistani media has preferred to spout hot air about a ‘naya Pakistan’, and its Western counterparts have seamlessly accepted the shift in priorities of their governments. The passive recipients of the media’s selective depiction of facts continue to be torn between the slogans of the various protagonists in this most cynical of imperialist adventures. On all sides there is talk of freedom, dignity and peace, even while the brutal realities of war continue to unfold. Obama’s speech may have broken an uncomfortable silence, but it only indicates just how little has actually changed. The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Straight talk or double-talk? By Cyril Almeida ELECTIONS over, it’s time to get back to the real world. Jihad lives, the militants are strong and no one seems to have a clue what to do about any of it. . Gen K has been a busy chief the past month, speaking Janus-like to his troops and to the people. To the troops he has said, at ease, soldier, Islam is Pakistan and Pakistan is Islam. To the people, and the politicians who purport to lead them, he has said, it’s our war, get over it and get with the script. Listen separately to his message to his two audiences and it comes across as some much-needed plain-speak. The troops — raised as they are on a diet of Islam, quasi-jihad and grandiose notions of the meaning and purpose of Pakistan — need to be told that Pakistan is Islam and Islam is Pakistan because the other option is: Taliban are Islam and Islam is Taliban. That other option has the unhappy potential of unravelling the Pakistan project as defined and guarded by the boys. So best to try and reclaim Islam for the army, lest the rank and file get funny ideas about shifting their Mecca from GHQ to NWA, Muridke or Kandahar. Good idea, then, the message to his boys? Sure, why not. The people and their representatives — raised as they have been on a diet of conspiracy and stupidity — need to be told that it’s our war cause you can’t win this war without the people and their representatives solidly behind you. Actually, you can’t even really fight this war if the people and their representatives keep drifting off, goldfish-like, in pursuit of wacky theories and ideas — ideas like sauntering up to the Taliban, peace pipe in hand, and convincing them to, y’know, just learn to get along with everybody. Thumbs up for Gen K’s insight and clarity, then? Sure, why not. Two thumbs up. The trouble is, both those messages, for the boys and for the people/their representatives, necessarily have to be public. Half a million troops, a hundred and eighty million people — you can’t exactly talk to them in secret. And because both messages are public, both the intended audiences get to hear both the messages. That tends to screw things up. For side-by-side what individually looks like plain-speak ends up looking a whole lot more like doublespeak. For how do you possibly convince the boys, your rank and file, that you’re on the right side of Islam when you’re still imploring the wider public to reject those rejecting this war as unnecessary and against Muslims and Islam? If you can’t convince the many, how do you convince the few? And how do you convince the people and their feckless representatives to abandon their conspiracy theories and ingrained notions of what’s good and what’s bad when you can’t even convince those under your command of the absolute logic of your argument, of the rightness of your war? If you can’t convince the few, how do you convince the many? Forget for a minute the incredibleness of trying to convince your foot soldiers and the public of the merits of a war you’ve been fighting for a decade. We are after all a special nation; incredibleness becomes us. Now in the twilight of his career, Gen K has gone out on a bit of a limb. He seems to get that a national conversation on militancy is needed — a less emotional, more rational conversation, that is. And having failed at goading the civilians into leading that conversation, he’s tried to instigate it himself. But, as with most things army, the more you look at it, the more you can’t help but wonder: is that the best you’ve got? Granted the conversation starter we really need is the one we’re least likely to get: hey everyone, Gen K could say in this hypothetical, removed-from-the-real-world world, jihad was a bad idea, non-state actors a misdirection and it’s time to clean up our own mess ourselves. Go Pakistan, no Taliban — now there’s a bumper sticker or T-shirt we’re not going to see, soon or ever. But how about: go on, give us some more — to the army? Years as the head of the not-so-clandestine clandestine service, years more as chief and now, with the last grains of sand trickling down the hourglass of his career, all we’re still getting is tepidness. Hemming and hawing, ifs and buts, arguments within arguments, different audience, different message, jihad lives but militancy bad, save us but we must save ourselves — it’s a step forwards, sure, especially given what’s come before, but zoom out a bit and it’s still a whole lot of depressing. Were a genuine appeal buried inside all that public messaging by the chief — guys, you the people, their leaders, help us help ourselves, here, take the reins, fix this, fix us — it would be a moment to rejoice, to dance a little jig on the tilted field of civ-mil relations. But the chief is still playing the Pied Piper of GHQ, leading us little rats around in circles, too confused to think and vulnerable as ever to being picked off by the enemy the army purports to defeat. Sure, the constraints are real, the fears genuine, the concerns legitimate — if the Pied Piper marches too far ahead of his flock, he, and his flock, could end up in a bloodier entanglement. But between Moses leading his people out of the wilderness and Jonah running in the opposite direction, there is much room for mere mortals to fall. And let’s just say Gen K has much more to do before getting to the Moses side of things. The writer is a member of staff. cyril.a@gmail.com Twitter: @cyalm
Dialogue with the Taliban By Tariq Khosa THE incoming prime minister has extended an olive branch to the terrorists who are responsible for the unprecedented electoral violence in the run-up to the May 11 polls. . May 11 can be termed a victory for the democratic forces against the extremists who had declared their intentions to disrupt the electoral process through bloodshed. However, the next chief executive may have revealed a defensive approach to tackling militancy. The PML-N chief said: “Forty thousand precious lives have so far been lost and the national economy is suffering a loss of billions of dollars. Why should not we sit for a dialogue to restore peace? Is it a bad option?” Then he answered himself: “It is the best available option.” The army chief has also spoken on militancy after the elections. “In these elections, the people of Pakistan not only courageously withstood the threat of terrorism, they also defied the unfounded dictates of an insignificant and misguided minority,” he said. Does one not get the impression that the political hub in Lahore and GHQ are not on the same page on tackling militancy? Did the post-election three-hour tête-à-tête in Lahore not broach the issue of the civilian-military disconnect on national security issues? Unlike diplomatic negotiations with an enemy on account of the threat of war or amidst active hostilities, the dialogue with the militants, who are your fellow citizens, resembles negotiations with hostage-takers or outlaws who must be brought within the bounds of the law. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a proscribed militant organisation that has unleashed suicide bombers on security and law enforcement agencies and is involved in the brutal killings of thousands of innocent citizens. Hundreds of schools have been bombed and educating young girls has been declared un-Islamic by these religious extremists. Thousands of inhabitants of terror-affected areas have fled and become homeless. The militants have even termed democracy un-Islamic. So, under what rules of engagement will the democratic government explore avenues of negotiations with the utterly non-democratic, obscurantist and obdurate extremists? Will the battle-hardened warrior brigades of the Pakistani Taliban express remorse for the huge loss of life at their hands and agree to shun violence and to give peace a chance within the constitutional framework? Will the state security forces accept the responsibility for human rights violations during operations wherein innocent men, women and children were caught in the crossfire or displaced in the thousands and dumped in camps away from the comfort of their homes? These are some of the questions that the Pakistani state and society must answer before hastily entering into negotiations with the extremists. This is not only a battle for hearts and minds; it is a matter that revolves around a comprehensive national approach to tackling militancy. The following course of action is suggested for a mature and concerted strategy before initiating a dialogue with the TTP. The first step should be hard talk with the US on the drone attacks. This is a major point of national resentment and affects our self-respect and sovereignty. Despite a clandestine agreement by an earlier military regime and a look-the-other-way approach by the previous government, the new political government has to clearly redefine the red lines with the US administration. This firm and fair approach will surely soften the TTP resistance and the state will be seen as reasserting its authority on national security matters. On the home front, a new parliamentary committee on national security should hold in-camera as well as open hearings in order to lay down a broad strategic framework to tackle militancy. The legislature’s taking the lead will reflect the political will and vision of the new government. Another simultaneous step is for the executive to firm up the rules of engagement for dialogue with the insurgents and terrorists. The Defence Committee of the Cabinet under the prime minister, with key federal ministers, the military services chiefs and heads of the intelligence agencies must come up with a strategy and a plan of action that should be comprehensive and practical. The political and military leadership must be on the same page and approval of the cabinet must be obtained on the rules of engagement and negotiations with the TTP. A national security team of experts, with military, police, civil armed forces and intelligence backgrounds, should analyse all the previous operations undertaken by the military in the federally and provincially administered tribal areas (Fata and Pata) so that a professional counterinsurgency doctrine is followed that allows the military to undertake quick operations followed by police response in the middle and the military on the periphery. Within the bubble of military security, the police are meant to treat insurgents as criminals rather than as targets beyond the protection of the law. The terrorism problem will not go away unless the civilian law enforcement approach is followed for legitimacy and justice. A strong-arm military strategy is not a sound approach to building up public resistance against the terrorists. The military commanders should enable the transition security activities from combat operations to law enforcement as quickly as possible. The great effectiveness multiplier in the use of state power against violence is the allegiance and support of the public. Any use of force, military or police, must serve a political purpose, namely de-legitimising the terrorists and legitimising the government. A successful counterterrorism strategy is balancing the kind of force used, not foregoing force altogether. Getting the balance right between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ uses of force is the key strategic decision. Finally, to talk or fight or to talk and fight; that is the question which requires to be answered with clarity by building a national consensus which is the essence of democracy. This will be the main challenge of the incoming PML-N government — to show whether it has the vision and will to forge a fresh security strategy in pursuit of our national objectives. The writer is former DG, FIA.
PIA peacekeepers By Hajrah Mumtaz IF one wants to speculate on what might have been said on PIA’s flight 709 that caused RAF fighter jets to be scrambled on Friday, one has only to think in Punjabi and recall how altercations on the street progress. . It would be unsuitable to repeat, on these august pages, the phrases in which the average son of Punjab’s soil (whether Pakistani or Indian) so succinctly relieves himself of ire; but the use of the word ‘explosion’ in Punjabi can be easily imagined — though in a vastly different context from that in which it was apparently understood by the flight crew. Regardless, one must reflect on one’s words before uttering them and Pakistan as well as PIA can consider themselves fortunate in the extreme that the reason the plane was diverted did not turn out to be more serious. The national flag carrier is too often in the news for the worst of reasons. One of the more cringe-worthy instances was PIA crew being accused of petty theft and shoplifting in Manchester. The picture one got was that as soon as a PIA flight lands in the city, small shopkeepers such as corner and grocery stores (enterprises that can’t afford expensive security measures) and hotels (where the crew are accommodated) start pulling down their shutters to defend themselves against a wave of petty crime that they know will follow: towels, bathrobes, gowns and tea kettles stolen from hotel rooms, packets of crisps, biscuits and similar items from friendly Mr Singh’s little concern. The matter came to light in April last year because the Greater Manchester Police sent the PIA management a letter. This was so worded that the embarrassment of the author at the preposterous situation he was facing was palpable: here he was, writing to the management of the national flag-carrier of another country, to ask them, please, tell ’em to stop nicking the teabags. “Often the relatively low value of stolen property, the fact that your crew have openly disclosed that they’re returning to Pakistan the following day and the fact that the store has recovered its property has meant that police arrests have not been sought,” said the letter by Superintendent Stuart Ellison. “However, given that there may be three PIA crews in the city at one time, the regularity of reports of theft (shoplifting) by PIA crew has increased to a point where positive action has to be taken.” I don’t know whether anyone was hauled up before the principal, but the matter died out of the news so I suppose one must assume that Manchester’s biscuits and bathrobes stopped disappearing at the earlier pace. On the other side of the coin, PIA’s ground staff demonstrates a marked skill at resolving situations of potential conflict, indefinitely deferring them to the point of neutralisation. This skill is employed when a flight is delayed, which is a pretty routine occurrence. There’s a pattern that is followed. You call before leaving for the airport and are told that the flight is on time. By the time you get to the check-in counter, it’s delayed by half an hour. In the waiting lounge, that soon stretches into a longer period. First, passengers are resigned to the wait, displaying irritation and boredom. Soon enough, though, a stir of unrest ripples through the room. A few men gather at the counter — but the PIA staff is no longer there. (The airport staff can’t, of course, explain the delay.) Having its staff disappear is the first of the PIA peacekeepers’ tactics to ward off the coming conflict. The men harangue the airport official, and the other passengers’ attention is for a while absorbed in this spectacle. Eventually, the man finally becomes irritated enough to go and fetch a PIA staffer. This buys the airline at least half an hour, usually more. The PIA staffer fetched will be a newbie (because more experienced employees know better than to present themselves before irate passengers that have been waiting about for a couple of hours), and generally a young woman (because people are less likely to be rude to her). She looks flustered and doesn’t know why the flight is delayed; she makes a few calls that aren’t answered and goes to find a senior, promising to return soon. The peacekeepers have just bought their airline another hour. Another young man or woman will appear and disappear; passengers’ growing anger is managed by being indefinitely delayed through providing glimmers of hope but no solid answers. By now two or three hours have passed and people have got to their feet in irritation; the crowd around the counter has grown and is louder, and the newbie has been backed into a corner. That’s when the big guns of the PIA peacekeepers are sent out — grounded matriarchs with tightly-coiffed hair stiff with hairspray, no-nonsense expressions and years of dealing with such situations under their belts. Their job is to remain unmoved by entreaty and demand alike; their hearts are stone against everything from crying children to businessman late for appointments to tourists missing their connections. Another hour passes and passengers are wondering why, against all odds, no violence has broken out. When the mood starts finally to tip again, the peacekeepers make their final move: the aircraft has arrived, announce the hatchet-faced ladies, fixing their stare on those who wanted their bags back; the plane is being loaded. That buys another hour at least. When, six hours later, the flight finally leaves, the PIA peacekeepers allow themselves a prim smile of triumph: while violence was always imminent, it never quite crystallised. Perhaps PIA should consider putting some of its peacekeepers on-board aircraft as well. The writer is a member of staff. hajrahmumtaz@gmail.com
New face of imperialism By Muin Boase THE use of drones that administer lethal force could radically alter our ideas about sovereignty. Drones allow the integration of territory into spheres of influence through the exercise of surveillance and punishment. . By normalising intervention and war, they undermine the principles of non-intervention and the prohibition of the use of force under the UN Charter. They threaten to create a world that is divided into closed spaces where lethal drones are prohibited, and open spaces where their use is tolerated. Drone strikes are being used as an alternative to exercising criminal jurisdiction. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: “Their policy is to take out high-value targets, versus capturing high-value targets. They are not going to advertise that, but that’s what they are doing.” This displacement of existing legal systems reverses the presumption of innocence. The securitisation of new spaces comes at the cost of the life and liberty of others, redefining vast swathes of territory as areas that are beyond the law. The fact that drones only became a political issue in the US Congress because of the targeting of American citizens betrays a racialised and selective application of human rights. Whilst drones are seen as threatening the “right to privacy” in the developed world, their lethal use elsewhere is tolerated without regard for the “right to life” of others. Drones challenge the traditional framework regulating the use of force. All states possess full sovereignty over the airspace above their territory. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the use of force against the “territorial integrity or political independence of any state”, whilst the principle of non-intervention is part of customary international law. The repeated use of drones in international conflict, outside the exceptions of self-defence and Security Council authorisation, constitutes an armed attack in breach of the Charter. The fact that drones may be operated from multiple locations, by competing state or private actors, or could one day become completely automated creates the potential for increasingly de-territorialised and dehumanised forms of warfare, making it difficult to fix responsibility on any one state or institution. There is an inconsistency in the arguments put forward for the use of drones in Pakistan. The argument of self-defence implies conflict of an international character, while the argument of consent implies invitation to assist the government in a non-international armed conflict. A state acting in self-defence does not ask permission from the state it is purporting to defend itself against. Moreover, self-defence counters an armed attack that has already occurred or is ‘imminent’. An imminent attack is defined by the Caroline affair (1837) as “instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation”. The implication of urgency is absent because hostile forces that pose a foreign threat can be apprehended by Pakistan itself. The argument of consent is more interesting. The joint resolution of May 14, 2011 made it clear that Pakistan’s parliament considers drones to be unlawful, yet under Article 247 of the Constitution, Fata is subject to presidential executive authority. However, the president’s authority in the tribal areas is restricted to creating “regulations for peace and good governance”. Authorising drone strikes is not conducive to peace and fails to uphold the human rights of the people of Fata. Secondly, there are certain principles in international law known as peremptory norms considered so fundamental to the international community that they can never be breached, such as aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, colonialism, slavery and torture. The killing of a large number of Pakistanis, including many civilians, contravenes several of these norms. Treaties that violate peremptory norms are void under Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969; therefore any consent, even if given, would be invalid. Akbar Ahmed, in his recent book The Thistle and the Drone, points out how the majority of drone strikes target remote tribal areas in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan which are themselves in conflict with central government. In instances of civil war, drones have the prospect of becoming instruments of authoritarian state terror against indigenous peoples and ethnic secessionist groups. It is difficult to imagine any developed state permitting such violations of their airspace, let alone the use of lethal force; yet in the aforementioned countries, both are becoming routine. International lawyers are today struggling to construct a test of last resort when it is permissible to use drones, such as when a state is ‘unwilling or unable’ to capture or kill designated ‘non-state actors’. But this test only operates in one direction — by strong developed states against weaker developing states. Such a division, with certain states classified as ‘unwilling or unable’, is reminiscent of the civilised/uncivilised distinction created in the 19th century as a result of technological advances in the West. This first denied the sovereignty of societies outside Europe and America, and then legalised the annexation of their territory. During the scramble for Africa, numerous treaties were signed with tribal chiefs or sovereigns, ceding land or placing themselves under the ‘protection’ of foreign empires. There is a danger of a similar scramble for the skies, in which weaker governments give consent to the use of drones through executive orders and memoranda of understanding without parliamentary scrutiny. The recent decision by Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan in the Peshawar High Court on the criminal illegality of drone strikes is a step in the right direction, but Pakistan’s new government needs to be unambiguous. In the words of Thomas Paine, “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression.” The writer is a teaching fellow and PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London.
Energy: tough decisions By Shahid Kardar THE public narrative oversimplifies ways of eradicating load-shedding. Just settle the ‘circular debt’ and improve governance — prevent electricity theft, collect bills on time and install prepaid meters — and we’ll reach the promised land. . To begin with let’s examine what constitutes ‘circular debt’. The numbers reported in the press are the sum of the amounts of each organisation’s receivables from others. This results in double counting. After all, one party’s payables are the other’s receivables, which should cancel out on subtraction. In our case, they don’t. There is an unadjusted amount, which the government picks up through the budget. This amount is growing by Rs1 million a minute. Three-fourths of this build-up represents the inadequacy of consumer tariffs set by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority to cover generation, transmission and distribution costs. When tariffs are not revised for any increase in prices of inputs (like oil), the government bears the subsidy. Presently, the tariff charged to consumers is Rs3 per unit less than the cost of generation. The cost of producing an additional unit of electricity from imported oil is Rs18, while the existing tariff is around Rs9.50. Increasing load-shedding then makes sense because generation using this resource raises the government’s subsidy bill by almost Rs9 per unit. By failing to foot this subsidy bill the government builds up the circular debt. Three components which partially raise power rates for consumers and partially require budgetary allocations are the following: — The technical and managerial inefficiencies of government and generation and distribution companies (Gencos and DISCOS), cosy deals with rental power plants, overstaffing, free provision of electricity to employees of the Water and Power Development Authority, poor equipment maintenance, obsolete technologies, mismanagement, corruption, etc all adding to the cost of electricity provision. — The mega issue of electricity theft, especially in DISCOs in Hyderabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Fata, with no one paying in the latter. — Poor bill collection; more than Rs200 billion due from federal and provincial agencies; well-connected individuals and companies not paying bills and not being disconnected (Rs150bn) — although close to Rs120bn of this are ‘dues’ from fictitious consumers. This is simply theft in collusion with Genco staff. So, what is the way forward? This writer has argued in these columns that the short-term solutions are fairly obvious: ‘print’ money for a one-time settlement of the circular debt, divert generation to independent power producers which produce power more efficiently that Gencos, etc. But, these efforts will only buy us four to five months. There are no quick and easy sustainable solutions to end load-shedding and provide energy at affordable prices. They require fundamental policy adjustments beyond the power sector, political determination to take on powerful interest groups, give and take between the provinces, the merger of almost two dozen agencies under one ministry, etc. Some of these are being repeated below. For a variety of reasons it will be difficult to get meaningful private participation in the sector. Therefore, massive government investments in hydel power and coal development (plus upgrading of Genco equipment and infrastructure for importing liquefied natural gas and coal) will be required to produce electricity at affordable rates. Each project will take more than seven years to complete — a period beyond the tenure of any government — during which there will be load-shedding, and employment of scarce funds on schemes with limited visibility and no immediate political returns. Such levels of funding will need a combination of enormous tax effort and a major restructuring of the Public Sector Development Programme (with Rs1.6 trillion still to be spent on on-going schemes — almost five years of annual development expenditure). It will require some projects to be abandoned, which could involve penalties for rescinding contracts, and deferment of others cutting subsidies on fertiliser, wheat, etc. (with their political costs). Regrettably, there are serious doubts about the present capability of government institutions to implement this formidable agenda. A decision will also be required on the allocation of gas, a scarce resource, along with its price rationalisation, since it is presently one-fourth its international equivalent. Should this heavily ‘subsidised’ gas be used for power generation, as fuel for CNG and industry or for fertiliser production? If fertiliser units are denied gas, fertiliser will have to be imported, requiring a decision on the level of subsidy and the courage to face up to the ‘cost’ of diverting gas from fertiliser companies where huge investments have been made. But after the Eighteenth Amendment the first right over gas use is of the province of source. Consumers in Punjab pay a higher tariff for greater theft in Sindh, Balochistan and KP. To address this issue should DISCOs be privatised or transferred to the provinces — with electricity being provided at a uniform price at the provincial boundaries for them to determine tariffs? If they are privatised, a first-rate regulator will be needed, a role which Nepra is incapable of performing. All this will require legislation covering Nepra’s future responsibility, empowering provinces to set tariffs, etc. Will this have to be routed through the Council of Common Interests, requiring Sindh, KP and Balochistan to raise tariffs sharply for the higher rate of leakages? A decision will also be required on maintaining supply of 650MWs from Wapda to the KESC (despite greater load-shedding in other parts of the country) and on whether other consumers should continue to bear the cost of oil provision at subsidised rates to richer Karachiites while they themselves pay for it as ‘fuel adjustment’ charge. All in all, this is a politically daunting undertaking. The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Why PTI lost By Omar Waraich SCARCELY has a party been more disappointed with success. . For the past 17 years, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lingered in the political wilderness, only ever winning a single seat. Now, the party has secured the second highest number of votes in the country. It will run a province, winning the highest number of seats there since the MMA’s vow to “revive fear of God”. It has seats in three provincial capitals and the federal capital. And it is the second most popular party in the two largest cities and the most populous province. But instead of celebrating a modest triumph, Khan’s supporters have responded with paroxysms of sorrow and rage. Some can hardly believe they lost, and are quietly trying to swallow the indignity of defeat. Others don’t believe they lost, and are angrily denouncing the results as somehow less credible than Gen Zia’s 98.5pc referendum win. In the tradition of Pakistani cricket captains, Khan promised them victory. And much like after a match that saw a few promising moments but ended in a crushing loss, many fans won’t accept an explanation that doesn’t maintain the outcome was fixed. For over two years, Khan insisted he would be Pakistan’s next prime minister. The analogy of a flood, drowning opponents as it swept in, was quickly deemed inadequate. This was going to be a “tsunami”, he famously declared, with its violent waves destroying a despised political system. The extravagant claims made some tactical sense. During an election campaign, no party says it will lose. To lure voters, Khan had to persuade them he was capable of winning. They wouldn’t have been tempted by expectations of third place, and five more years in purana Pakistan. The mistake the PTI leadership made was that of a foolish army: it believed its own propaganda. On television, Khan advanced the complacent view that PTI would be swept to power by a wave of new young voters. No supportive data was furnished. Neither the media, nor Khan’s team, scrutinised the claim of a monolithic youth vote. In reality, young voters were divided. In Lala Musa, for example, Qamar Zaman Kaira’s corner meetings featured a curious throwback to the 1970s, with teenagers chanting pro-PPP slogans in Punjabi. As polls now show, the bulk of Punjab’s youth voted for PML-N. The PTI only gave polls convenient attention. When surveys of public opinion revealed them to be the most popular party, as they were for some months between end 2011 and early 2012, they breathlessly publicised the results. When the same polls showed them haemorrhaging support, it denounced them. The pollsters, they said, were in the pay of their N rivals and shouldn’t be taken seriously. By contrast, N paid close attention to polling data. In Lahore, they surveyed key seats, and knew beforehand they would lose NA-126. In other constituencies, local MNAs commissioned their own polls, and then tried to overturn any negative perceptions. There was also overdependence on the media. In PTI’s obscure years, Khan’s many television appearances yielded publicity disproportionate to his political clout. The exposure was crucial to the party’s recent growth. But when it came to a national campaign, airtime was a deceptive means of measuring popular support. The media, keen for a competitive race, wasn’t going to spend six weeks talking about Nawaz Sharif cruising to power for a third time. With barely any campaigning in the three smaller provinces, television screens lent the illusion of a close race, with split screens showing Khan tirelessly gathering momentum with up to seven events a day in Punjab, while Sharif could only manage one or two there. Jalsas and television ads, as the campaign showed, have a limited effect. Throughout South Asia, colourful rallies are key events. But they are only good at motivating an existing voter base. The sight of a leader rousing the party faithful might sway reluctant supporters. But rallies are a poor means of measuring support, or persuading new voters of a party’s worth. A large rally in a city, where perhaps 50,000 people turn up, only represents a fraction of the total vote where each constituency has up to 400,000 registered voters. Khan’s aides, who tend to view their leader with unquestioning awe, would delight in assuring him that each successful jalsa represented a seat in the bag. Television ads were good for news channels, some of which were able to pay off months of debts, but ultimately failed to shake the electorate. All of the negative ad campaigns failed, from the PPP’s swipes at Shahbaz Sharif to PML-N’s dig at Khan’s alliance with Sheikh Rasheed. Local efforts mattered more, where parties combined the clout of a viable candidate with a strong party ticket. In Punjab, even strong PPP candidates collapsed under the oppressive weight of their ticket. The PTI ticket helped, as many respectable second place votes show, but victory proved elusive for obscure candidates. The PTI’s Punjab winners have all served in parliament before, or are related to former parliamentarians. But PTI’s biggest mistake was targeting the wrong kind of voter. In KP, it tapped feelings of anti-incumbency and war-weariness. But in Punjab, it focused too narrowly on the thrusting but numerically small urban middle classes. It missed out on the poor majority. While PTI talked about visas and patwaris, PML-N offered those who can’t afford to travel abroad or sell land a seductively simple idea. Khan conjured a fanciful dream of a new country the Swiss would envy. Sharif proved more effective in offering voters a more plausible return to an old country, where the lights work, fans whir, and shops do a reliable trade. The writer covers Pakistan for TIME.
Tehran’s change of guard By Qasim A. Moini POST-revolutionary Iran’s 11th presidential election, scheduled for June 14, will be watched around the world for a variety of reasons. . Among these is the fact that Iran is one of the key geopolitical players in the Middle East, sitting on a sea of oil and natural gas, while the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities have created an uneasy stand-off between Tehran and the West that awaits resolution. Then there is the fact that 2009’s election, in which outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected to a second (and final) term, attracted a fair share of controversy, with allegations from the opposition Green Movement that polls were rigged. The post-poll unrest was perhaps the biggest internal challenge the Islamic Republic has faced since the establishment of Iran’s new order in 1979. But before discussing the dynamics of next month’s elections, a brief introduction of Iran’s political system is in order. While some may be inclined to dub the Iranian system of governance an autocratic theocracy, speaking strictly from a political perspective this is not the case. The guiding principle of the Iranian state since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has been vilayat-i-faqih (guardianship of the jurist), as expounded by Ayatollah Ruhollah al-Mousavi Khomeini. In the post-colonial age this is a unique experiment in governance in the Muslim political sphere. It fuses elements of Shia theology, jurisprudence and political theory with democracy and anti-imperialist revolutionary rhetoric. So while the rahbar-i-inquilab (Supreme Leader of the Revolution), currently Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, elected by the Assembly of Experts, is head of state and occupies the top post in Iran and has considerable power, it would be wrong to assume the directly elected president (who is head of government and has a four-year term with maximum two back-to-back terms) is a mere puppet controlled by conservative clerics. If that were so it would be difficult to explain reformist former president Mohammad Khatami’s two terms in power (1997-2005) or the fact that there were reported differences between Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr Ahmadinejad, himself a conservative, during the latter’s second term. The fact is that Iran has multiple centres of power and as in any other country multiple currents of political thought that do not always agree with each other, the ugliest manifestation of which we witnessed in the 2009 post-election events. Getting back to the current election, eight contenders have been shortlisted by the Guardian Council to run for president. Though one may disagree with the process of vetting the candidates, the fact is that some sort of shortlisting was required as nearly 700 individuals had initially registered to run. The logistical nightmare of allowing 700 people to run for president can be well imagined. Yet there are valid questions about the process: of the eight candidates five are from the conservative or ‘principalist’ camp, along with a centrist, reformist and independent each. The leaders of the Green Movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, remain under house arrest and declined to run. Interestingly, the bid of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, seen as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anointed successor, as well as that of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the veteran centrist politician and for-mer president, were both rejected. Hence the race seems to be principally between the conservative candidates. Leading the pack are Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf. It may well turn into a close contest between these two men on polling day. Mr Jalili, a Mashhad native, has a doctorate in political science and has served in the foreign ministry and as a senior aide to the Supreme Leader. He fought and injured his leg in the Iran-Iraq war while in recent years he has been Iran’s top nuclear negotiator. Viewed as a dyed-in-the-wool revolutionary, he has publicly said the next president should “continue on the path of the Islamic Revolution”. Mr Qalibaf, the other frontrunner, is from a village close to Mashhad and hails from a humble background. He also saw action during the Iran-Iraq war and later commanded the air force of the Revolutionary Guards, the crack ideological military force that is said to be more powerful than Iran’s regular army. He also has a doctorate and is a trained pilot, while he has won praise for his management of Tehran. Baqir Qalibaf has promised to fix the economy and with Iran suffering from mismanagement on the economic front and financial duress brought on by Western nuclear-related sanctions, this may play a critical role on June 14. The lone reformist candidate is Yazd-born Mohammad Reza Aref, an accomplished academic with a doctorate from Stanford who served as first vice-president during Mohammad Khatami’s second term. But Mr Aref lacks the charisma of Mr Khatami and with the opposition largely in disarray, it is unclear how big a challenge he will pose to the conservative contenders. Considering the events of 2009, voter turnout in June’s elections will be key not only in the continuation of the political process in Iran, but also for legitimacy of the regime. Many Western commentators have already written off the polls, saying that Iranian voters may boycott the elections or cast blank ballots. Iranian state media, on the other hand, is predicting a high turnout. Press TV quoted a survey in which over 60pc of Tehran residents polled said they would vote. The truth will become clear on June 14. The election of a new president could also serve as a trigger to reset relations between Iran and the West (though hopefully on terms of equality and respect) and with new governments in office both in Islamabad and Tehran, there is room for further expanding Pakistan-Iran relations. The writer is a member of staff. qasim.moini@dawn.com
On top of the world again By Mahir Ali SIXTY years after the world’s highest peak was first scaled, intrepid adventurers have literally been queuing up lately to reach the summit of Sagarmatha, better known internationally as Mount Everest. . Among them have been the first Saudi woman (Raha Moharrak) and the first Pakistani woman (Samina Baig of Hunza) to accomplish this feat, as well as the first female amputee (Arunima Sinha of India) and the first pair of twins. Despite all the innovations that make it a somewhat easier endeavour than six decades ago, it’s no child’s play. It may qualify, however, as a competitive playground for old men. Last week, when Japan’s 80-year-old Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to reach the top, his record was already at risk of being broken by Nepal’s 81-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan, renewing a rivalry that dates back to 2008. This summer’s climbing season began last month on a dour note, however, with a high-altitude altercation between three European climbers and a team of Sherpas engaged in securing ropes to the mountainside. The Sherpas claim the climbers interfered with their work, dangerously dislodging a block of ice, and that one of them turned abusive when challenged. The Europeans claim they were later assaulted in their camp by a large crowd of Sherpas and could have been stoned to death had other climbers not intervened. This was apparently the first incident of its kind in decades of climbing expeditions, in which Sherpas indigenous to the surrounds of Sagarmatha have traditionally played a crucial role. The surfacing of tensions between relatively privileged climbers and the locals who facilitate their endeavours with little expectation of being treated as equals is not particularly surprising. In fact, even the first successful Everest expedition wasn’t entirely trouble-free in this respect. Tenzing Norgay, who had been striving for better working conditions for fellow Sherpas, was reportedly incensed when his team was offered the floor of the British embassy’s garage in Kathmandu as a place to sleep on the eve of the 1953 climb. “Next morning,” Ed Douglas writes in The Guardian, “lacking access to any facilities, the Sherpas relieved themselves in front of the embassy, prompting fury from embassy staff, but offering an eloquent reminder that the Sherpas weren’t servants who could be arrogantly dismissed.” Within a few days, Tenzing and Edmund Hillary became the first men to take in the view from the very top of Everest. The Sherpa was evidently more excited than the New Zealander, although it may have been just a cultural difference. Hillary stretched out his hand. Tenzing threw his arms around his companion and slapped him on the back. Their ascent — perhaps inevitably hailed by the media as a ‘conquest’ — was treated as a British triumph. Although the achievement was recorded on May 29, news of it conveniently took a couple of days to filter through to London, coinciding with the day of Elizabeth II’s coronation. The down-to-earth, 33-year-old New Zealander was not particularly impressed when, walking down to Kathmandu a few days after the ascent, he received a letter addressed to “Sir Edmund Hillary KBE”. He later wrote of the consequences of his elevation: “I met the well-connected, the powerful and the rich; it was tremendously entertaining although I saw little to envy or, indeed, much to admire. We were being lionised by a class of society with which we had little in common.” Hillary subsequently channelled his fame into spearheading projects for Nepalese uplift, taking a direct role in setting up schools, hospitals and other infrastructure. He remained an adventurer, though, counting among his accomplishments a trip across Antarctica to the South Pole and another tracing the trajectory of the Ganges. In 1985, he travelled with Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, to the North Pole in a ski-plane, which made him the first person to have stood on both poles as well as the summit of Everest. The same year he was appointed New Zealand’s envoy in New Delhi, serving concurrently as ambassador to Nepal and high commissioner to Bangladesh. A decade and a half later, interviewed on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, he chose Joan Baez’s poignant ‘Song of Bangladesh’ among a bunch of other protest songs. Hillary, who died in 2008, was guest of honour in Kathmandu at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the first ascent of Sagarmatha. Tenzing wasn’t there, having died in 1986, and the Nepalese government resisted pressure to declare him a national hero because he had accepted Indian citizenship. Having spent some of his youth in Darjeeling, the Sherpa eventually ran a successful mountaineering school there. Hillary was present at his cremation. In the autumn of his years, the New Zealander could be quite scathing about the commercialisation of the Everest climb, and one can only imagine what his thoughts would have been on discovering that the most arduous segment of the ascent — a near-vertical rock face of about 40 feet near the summit — is now likely to be embellished with a permanent ladder. Back in 1953, after descending to base camp, Hillary made an offhand comment that has gone down in mountaineering history, even though it wasn’t intended for public consumption. “Well, George,” he remarked to a fellow climber from New Zealand, “we’ve knocked the b------ off.” That remains an arguably unrepeatable sentiment. Three decades earlier, when asked by an American reporter why he wanted to scale Everest, George Mallory — who perished on his way to the summit the following year, in 1924 — had declared: “Because it’s there.” Many of today’s climbers will no doubt recognise that as a valid reason. mahir.dawn@gmail.com
The post-US order By Rafia Zakaria THE US loomed large during Pakistan’s election campaign season as leaders pounded their fists, promising an end to American meddling in Pakistan, a return to sovereignty and a refusal of American aid. . The most victorious of Pakistan’s electoral contenders were unsurprisingly those most fervent in their denunciations and strident in their promises. It was all very well; most Pakistanis hoped for such a change, not worrying — as is the habit of voters — about its details or the obstacles in the path of self-reliance. Now that the new Pakistani order is on the point of taking over the country, there must be some discussion on the prospects of creating an alternative alignment that is focused away from the US. One of the most promising new economic conglomerations to have emerged in recent years as a foil to American power has been the BRICS platform. Comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS first met as a possible coalition of interests in September 2006 when the foreign ministers of these countries met in New York. Several years of meetings followed, ultimately leading to a summit held in the summer of 2009 amid the dirge of a global North plunged into financial crisis. It was at this meeting that the policy agenda of BRICS began to emerge as focused on multi-polar regionalism, technological cooperation between BRICS partners and pushing the importance of dialogue over the use of force. Hu Jintao, then president of China, declared BRICS as “the defenders and promoters of developing countries” and “a force for world peace”. Historian Vijay Prashad, whose book The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, assesses the possibilities of BRICS in terms of geopolitics and dominance of the global North. According to him, the BRICS platform has certain strengths. Home to 40pc of the world’s population, it controls collectively 25pc of the entire world’s landmass as well as 25pc of the world’s GDP. Three of the five BRICS states are declared nuclear powers and two enjoy permanent seats on the UN Security Council. Add to this some benefits of timing; the IMF says that come 2016, the US will no longer be the largest economy in the world, overtaken instead by China. At the same time, notes Prashad, BRICS faces significant challenges. The countries have enormous cultural and religious diversity and differences of opinion which may pose a risk to them acting collectively. In addition, they have not yet been able to create institutional challenges to global North-dominated organisations such as the IMF and World Bank and have for the most part not changed the character of policymaking from a neo-liberal model to one that invests more in the uplift of the poor in their own countries. At the last BRICS summit held this year in South Africa, the launch of a new development bank was announced but without much fanfare or details regarding its constituency or capacity. Finally, the biggest hurdle in the BRICS’ objective of championing dialogue and defending the interests of developing nations is that they do not have the capacity to sequester the military dominance of the UN and Nato. In effect, this means that when UN intervention is decided upon, BRICS has few means with which to thwart the carte blanche given to Nato states to intervene in global conflicts. The assessment of the capacity of BRICS is crucial to a Pakistan that seeks to align itself away from the US and has elected a pro-business government. A move away from reliance on countries such as the US necessarily imputes that Pakistan must consider the possibility of new alliances. In this case, the fact that India and China are aligned on the BRICS platform should make Pakistanis who believe that the hostility between the two can be exploited for Pakistan’s benefit reconsider that strategy. If Pakistan truly seeks a turn from the crushing policies of the IMF and World Bank that have routinely exacerbated poverty in developing countries, then building an alliance with BRICS nations may prove a fruitful avenue. It can be argued that much of the selection of new leaders in Pakistan was motivated by grievances against the US and also long-standing gripes against the vagaries imposed by transnational institutions. Whether or not Pakistan chooses to pursue a closer relationship with the BRICS countries, its objections to military interventionism need to be expanded further into an ideology of also resisting economic policies that keep poor countries poor indefinitely. While eschewing aid and rent-seeking mechanisms which have until now artificially maintained the Pakistani state are worthy objectives, they cannot succeed without a plan of alternative economic possibilities that explore how regional alliances and global multipolarity can further national economic objectives. Ultimately, as the BRICS countries are themselves learning, the task of creating a viable alternative to hegemony is far more complicated than the rhetoric-fuelled act of criticising hegemony. While mutual enmity can unite for a while, it cannot unite forever when gripes return to the fore and threaten to divide and dissuade. If the new leaders of Pakistan wish to chart a course away from geopolitical subjugation, they must also make a visible move away from all sorts of neo-liberal interventions, including the economic basis that always lets the rich win and ensures that the poor will lose. The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy. rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Beyond the drones By I.A. Rehman THE renewed debate on drone attacks in Fata and the response from the Pakistan authorities deserve due attention. . The latest flurry of drone-related statements began with a report that drones were going to continue discharging their lethal cargo on Pakistani targets for 20 years. This report, though denied soon afterward, created a perfect setting for President Barack Obama’s address at Washington’s National Defence University, and his announcement that the use of drones would be reduced and that CIA was to be divested of its monopoly over the drone programme apparently led to more relief than it deserved. Meanwhile, powerful voices continued to be raised against what was described as killing by remote control. The American Lawyers for Civil Liberties renewed their call for the cessation of drone attacks. Amnesty International again condemned such attacks for causing extra-legal killings and for violating international law. And now the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has taken exception to the drone attacks. That the US had begun to rethink the drone programme could not but please the Pakistani authorities. The Foreign Office declared it had always opposed the drone attacks. The incoming prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, apparently tried to close ranks with the country’s most powerful and permanent establishment by reminding the US of Pakistan’s sovereign rights and the need to stop drone flights, as a follow-up to his plea for talks with the Taliban — a gesture Secretary of State John Kerry has not been late in appreciating. In addition to the views of eminent persons quoted above, notice may also be taken of two detailed studies on the subject. The report that Medea Benjamin heckled President Obama during his speech in Washington reminded one of her book published last year, Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, in which she has narrated her experience after visits to the theatre of drone attacks and after meeting with some innocent victims. She quotes two sources to establish the killing of non-combatants. According to the New America Foundation, between 1,717 and 2,680 people were killed during 2004-2011 and of them 293 to 471 were “civilians”. The UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism puts the number of civilian deaths during the same period at 391 to 780, including 175 children (out of 2,372 to 2,997 casualties). But killing of non-combatants is only one of the author’s concerns. She also argues that some of those labelled as terrorists might not have deserved that description. She challenges the very legality of drone attacks, expresses alarm at the growth of the drone-manufacturing industry and highlights the US fears that many countries could soon be using predator planes. That should put an end to the Pakistani government/military’s hopes of receiving drones or the relevant technology from the US. Medea Benjamin raises the level of the debate on drones to the more fundamental issues of the rules of war and the drone threat to international peace. Pakistan must surely participate in that debate. Then the highly rated International Crisis Group released its report Drones: Myths and Reality in Pakistan in which it has argued that the drones kill fewer militants than the young men they turn into militants. It blames the US for not officially acknowledging the drone programme (one wonders how the ICG could say this) and Pakistan for doublespeak. The ICG plea that “Pakistan must ensure that its actions and those of the US comply with the practices of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law” bypasses the issue of legality of the drone strikes and settles for a pragmatic compromise: “The US should develop a legal framework that defines clear roles for the executive, legislative and judicial branches, converting the drone programme from a covert CIA operation to a military-run programme with a meaningful level of judicial and congressional oversight.” Here ICG seems to be pinning its hopes on reports of President Obama’s initiative to transfer control of the drone warfare from CIA to Pentagon. It is not clear that Pakistan will benefit from this switch and even if it did there are reasons to doubt the ability of the US military or even its justice authorities to objectively analyse matters concerning Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The most important message from the ICG is about the need to push political, legal and socio-economic reforms in Fata. What Pakistan is confronted with is a many-sided dilemma. Its case against the drone attacks suffers from a lack of proper investigation into their impact on Pakistan’s population. This obstacle must be removed by facilitating a thorough probe into the drone programme by an independent commission comprising civil society and government representatives. The second issue is that drone attacks will not be ended until the US is offered a quid pro quo. Despite the goodwill the TTP have displayed for it, Pakistan’s new ruling party may find it impossible to prevent militants’ activities in Afghanistan. That will also undermine Mian Nawaz Sharif’s negotiations with the Taliban. He may find that those who hope for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban, except for a deal on their inflexible terms, constitute a tiny minority. Reliance on talks with the Taliban for a breakthrough means their recognition as bona fide representatives of the tribal population, which may not be factually correct. Instead of talking to the Taliban it would be better to hold wider consultation with the tribal population. It is necessary to ascertain whether party-based elections in Fata and the decision of the newly elected MNAs to join a Pakistani mainstream party have prepared the tribal population for accepting the reform agenda such as the one proposed by the ICG. Without a long-term plan to stabilise the tribal areas, efforts to have peace with the militants or to stop drone attacks will touch only the fringe of the problem, not its heart.
Anchoring a troubled nation By Jawed Naqvi INDIAN Maoists said they got a key tormentor in a well-planned ambush in Chhattisgarh on Saturday, or you could agree with the TV anchors that the rebels carried out the cowardly murder of 28 men from a convoy of 20 cars belonging to state-level leaders of the Congress party. . The attack is thought to have been carried out mainly by women guerrillas in revenge for what the Maoists and independent analysts say have been horrific incidents of rape and murder carried out periodically by Mahendra Karma, founder of the dreaded state-backed Salwa Judum militia. He was killed in the ambush. To have an approximately cogent picture of the incident you have to understand the worldview of the TV anchors that break the news and interpret it on a daily basis in India. To balance their narrative you could watch Sanjay Kak’s new documentary that gives a rare glimpse of life in the Chhattisgarh forests where a ragtag army of poorly armed but highly motivated tribespeople have dug in for a long-drawn battle for sovereignty and dignity. Images of young men and women in military uniform, but also often wearing bathroom slippers and sarongs, with an archaic gun slung casually on their shoulders as they dance and sing to tribal rhythms offers an untapped visual of India’s “biggest internal security threat”. I recommend the documentary, Red Ant Dream, to all TV anchors and their wider audiences for an informed assessment of the current state of Maoism in India. But this is not how television channels and the deep state whose views they mostly echo would want you to understand or see India’s Maoists. The demeanour of the anchors reminds me of a movie I watched in 1960. “Main Hindustan hoon [I am India]”, bellows the baritone voice as the map of India slowly rises from its horizontal stupor to light up the screen. That’s how the all-time classic Mughal-i-Azam began to tell its riveting story — a splendorous musical replete with close-to-authentic costumes, great acting and sustained myth-making. Of late, the ‘I am India’ syndrome has afflicted successful and aspiring TV anchors but the one who takes the cake is he who daily barks out orders to the army chief and to the prime minister, or to a Shakespearean mob, to chop a few Pakistani heads in revenge for a badly reported border incident or who does a bit of sabre-rattling with Russian-built missiles that target China. When the border saga tends to drag somewhat the anchor, as do his rival colleagues, quickly conjures up an Indian quarry. Hang the rapists in a public square, put suspected Muslim terrorists before a kangaroo court. The other day the bespectacled anchor was livid, furious. When that happens, and it must happen frequently enough to sustain the TRP ratings that intertwine with TV-induced nationalist fervour, you can feel the Bengali-accented English giving way to heavier Bengali-accented English. The expressive Kathakali demeanour of the anchor begins to resemble Emperor Akbar in rage. “I am India. And there will be bloodletting.” Trusted analysts then go into a chorus of yelling and screaming to justify the state’s arriving retribution A less angry explanation for Saturday’s incident could be found in India’s recent history. There are Maoists and Maoists. After initially opposing them in Nepal, India is currently engaging with them there. In Iran, the powerful Maoists got the better of the mullahs for a long time, unlike their pro-Soviet Tudeh comrades who were quickly decimated after the Islamic Revolution. The Iranian Maoist attacks on Khomeini’s Islamic state would make their Indian counterparts look like novices. In one instance, they blew up parliament with the prime minister and his cabinet buried in it. The West applauded and we can safely assume even helped them. They became the CIA’s eye in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Clearly, Maoism is not the solution to India’s myriad problems with rapidly depleting social justice. Nor does the official argument for “development” offer real hope to defeat them because colonialism also developed India’s infrastructure, laid railway lines, set up schools. The question is the same as then: what is the state’s motive? The current war in Chhattisgarh is a two-way street of vendetta and brutality in which the state and the Maoists are complicit, with the state bearing the greater responsibility to end the cycle of violence peacefully. The Maoists deserve to be censured unequivocally for the death of too many innocent people on Saturday. But it is dishonest to characterise their war as a battle between democracy and bloody-minded rebels. Which democracy, the Maoists asked? Remember that Mao Zedong died in September 1976 at about the time when Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule was in full cry over India. If we bear this seemingly unrelated fact in mind we can at least verify again, if any verification is needed after the traumatic events of 20th-century Europe, that authoritarianism afflicts socialist and capitalist societies alike. When the emergency was lifted in India in 1977, it left behind the pulsating idea that dictatorship could be honed into statecraft more quietly and insidiously than Mrs Gandhi did. India’s drift from its promise of liberal democracy towards a repressive police state is a work in progress in which regional authoritarian tendencies are competing with a federal penchant for militarist solutions. The disillusionment of Faiz Ahmed Faiz with a situation in which it could be deemed criminal to walk with your head held high, applies just as nicely to many parts of India today. Senior lawyer Shanti Bhushan recently described the current criminal justice system as a notch worse than the one run by colonialism. There was no TV channel to note his remarkable observation. The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
Power failures By Khurram Husain ASK around why we’re in a power crisis, and you’ll hear three different narratives. . One narrative says this is all an institutional issue. This camp believes that the crisis grows out of an inability to advance power-sector reforms past the 1994 Private Power Policy. The net result of this failure is that we’re reaping the worst of both worlds: the inefficiencies of the public sector with the costs of the private sector. The way out, therefore, is to advance the reforms and complete the handover of the power sector to private companies, like in the case of KESC, and the private operators will find a way to increase recoveries, reduce losses and meet customer obligations in the most efficient manner. Another narrative says the whole crisis grows out of a bad pricing regime being implemented by the government. This camp will tell you that we’ve been lying to ourselves all along, and the lie is now beginning to catch up. The big lie has been this: we’ve been telling ourselves that energy — whether in the form of gas or electricity — is cheap and abundant whereas in fact it is scarce and precious. The lie is propagated through the price we sell these goods at. Since the government determines the price of electricity and of gas in this country, this camp argues that what we get is a political price but not a market-determined one. Like the neoclassicals of a decade or so ago, their take has it that we can begin the journey out of the crisis once we stop lying to ourselves and ‘get prices right’. The third camp will tell you the whole crisis is driven by the growing shortages of indigenous natural gas. These shortages began around mid-decade in the Musharraf years, but have kicked in seriously since 2010. Sometime in the last couple of years, our peak deficit of natural gas crossed 1 billion cubic feet per day. In another decade, if things float on as they are, this could touch 8bcf, meaning there’s nothing left. Gas was supposed to be the fuel of choice for much of our thermal power generation system but the shortages have left us with no option but to import expensive furnace oil as a substitute. So the receding tide of our gas reserves has left our power-sector investments of the past two decades high and dry. All three narratives touch on an aspect of the power crisis, and each suggests a different solution as the starting point. The institutional camp wants to see a growing role for private-sector management in the running of the power-sector companies, leading eventually to full management control, perhaps even full ownership like what happened with the big banks. The pricing people want to see what they call ‘tough decisions’ in the pricing of natural gas and electricity, like what happened with petrol and diesel in 2008, when the circular debt was eliminated in these two fuels by passing international prices straight to the consumer at the pumps. The gas shortage people want to see expedited work on arranging alternative gas supplies — eg via a long-distance pipeline or an LNG import terminal — along with new petroleum policies that give market-based incentives for further domestic exploration. At their rudest, these camps devolve into monkey business that only they can understand. The institutional folks get into fist fights with the power bureaucracy, while the pricing folks start talking with insensitivity about the need to hike power tariffs immediately. And the gas shortage people start pushing us to risk the wrath of the international community by entering into dubious pipeline ventures with pariah states, or start chasing mirages in the desert in the shape of underground coal gasification schemes or some such. The monkey business notwithstanding, each of them is right in their corner. But they’ll all agree that there is one overarching cause behind the failure to articulate a response to the challenges that a changing world has thrown our way over the past two decades. Put simply, we are in the midst of a massive and growing power crisis because we have been muddling through things for the past 20 years. The political noise in our system has drowned out all attempts to implement the broad array of measures that need to be advanced in tandem to address the power crisis. The failure therefore stems more from the political climate within which policy has to be made and implemented, and less from specific issues of the power sector itself. It follows then that the most important ingredient in resolving this power crisis is political stability — a government that enjoys a mandate to rule and is not preoccupied with legitimacy issues. We had this state of affairs once before, in 1997, and some progress was indeed made in getting reformist legislation through. But the promise of that moment was held hostage to the mercurial impulses of one man — Nawaz Sharif — who preferred to pick fights everywhere rather than let the better minds of his team do their job. His idea of institutional reform at the time was to send the army into Wapda. His idea of price reform was to arrest the management of Hubco and force a renegotiation of the purchase price from the independent power producers at gunpoint. Since then, we’ve had one government embroiled in legitimacy issues, and another held captive by the play of coalition politics. The next time the stars have aligned again is, ironically, again with Nawaz Sharif, who has all the political cover that he needs to implement a wide-ranging policy agenda. All eyes, therefore, will be on his mercurial impulses, his reflex to stand and fight rather than stand and deliver that would determine whether the hope carried by the moment lights up our future or fizzles out before our eyes. The writer is a Karachi-based journalist covering business and economic policy. khurram.husain@gmail.com Twitter: @khurramhusain
New policy on drones By Najmuddin A. Shaikh PRESIDENT Obama’s speech at the American National Defence University last Thursday attracted a great deal of attention and analysis. . It is particularly important for us in Pakistan to understand exactly what was said and what it means for the continuation of drone attacks in the Af-Pak region and for the possible release of Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo. (The latter will be analysed in a subsequent article.) We must do so bearing in mind what US officials had said earlier and the new classified policy guidelines that Obama approved the day before his speech. The first thing to note is that while limits have been placed on the use of drones these do not apply to areas of “active hostilities”. President Obama said: “In the Afghan war theatre, we must — and will — continue to support our troops until the transition is complete at the end of 2014. And that means we will continue to take strikes against high-value Al Qaeda targets, but also against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces. But by the end of 2014, we will no longer have the same need for force protection, and the progress we’ve made against core Al Qaeda will reduce the need for unmanned strikes.” Does the Afghan theatre include Pakistan’s tribal areas? Does the phrase “forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces” include Taliban insurgents assembling in Pakistan’s tribal agencies? I believe that as in the past Af-Pak is the theatre and will continue to be treated as such. After 2014, Obama says, the need for drone strikes will be reduced. The fact sheet put out by the White House on this subject says: “Lethal force will be used only to prevent or stop attacks against US persons.” This would suggest that if there is no residual American troop presence after 2014 drone attacks will cease but otherwise there will be a legal justification for continuing them. Does the new policy mean the discontinuation of “signature strikes” ie strikes against groups exhibiting terrorist patterns? It would seem that, for the Americans, this would now be covered by the “massing of forces to support attacks on coalition forces” and are therefore likely to be seen as covered by the current guidelines. Can such attacks be launched on Pakistani territory even if the latter is included in the Af-Pak theatre without Pakistan’s consent? In the past Obama had maintained that such attacks could be launched if the host nation was unwilling or unable to take action. Now the new guidelines say that “whenever the United States uses force in foreign territories, international legal principles, including respect for sovereignty and the law of armed conflict, impose important constraints on the ability of the United States to act unilaterally — and on the way in which the United States can use force. The United States respects national sovereignty and international law”. This suggests that Pakistan’s consent would be necessary for such attacks. It speaks, however, of “constraints” not of a ban. Moreover, the same guidelines say: “These new standards and procedures do not limit the president’s authority to take action in extraordinary circumstances when doing so is both lawful and necessary to protect the United States or its allies.” In my view before resorting to an interpretation of “constraint” or the “extraordinary circumstances” clause, the Americans will try to secure in some form or the other the same sort of understanding with the new government that retired Gen Musharraf recently revealed he had reached in 2004. There was in Obama’s speech a fresh emphasis on international and bilateral partnership. Pakistan finds a mention as the country that has lost “thousands of Pakistani soldiers fighting extremism”. Again there is a mention of the need to rebuild the US-Pak “important partnership” in the context of the damage done by the Osama bin Laden killing in Abbottabad. But there’s no mention anywhere of Pakistan’s frequent assertion that the drone attacks do not now enjoy its consent and are seen as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. The number of drone attacks in Pakistan has decreased sharply. Peter Bergen of the New American Foundation, which does a good job of tracking such attacks through newspaper reports and other sources, estimates there were only 12 attacks in 2013 as against 122 in 2010. Drone attacks were reduced sharply after the Raymond Davis affair, the Salala incident and more recently during the election period. The conclusion one can draw is that the impact on US-Pak relations will weigh in making decisions on whether or not to launch drone attacks but the overriding priority will remain the protection of American lives. One can argue that the drone attacks have not been as effective as originally envisaged. It has been calculated that in the 355 strikes in Pakistan only 37 leaders of Al Qaeda or affiliated organisations were killed and even if Taliban leaders were added the total number would not exceed 80 or so. The remaining of the total of 1,600 — a conservative estimate — were either low-level Taliban or civilians. This ineffectiveness has been one important facet of the groundswell of international protest against drones. This has however, as is apparent from the new Obama policy, not been enough to secure an abandonment of this weapon. The new government will face a dilemma. On the one hand, it needs American support to get assistance for its beleaguered economy. On the other, Pakistan’s charged public opinion, built up by a steady stream of unwise propaganda, wants the drone issue to be the determinant of future Pak-US relations. Can the new government work on mitigating public opinion? Can it seek US agreement on making Pakistan party to targeting decisions and secure an unequivocal commitment that no such attacks will be envisaged after 2014? The writer is a former foreign secretary.
Revival lessons By Sakib Sherani THE PML-N has made a number of pronouncements since the elections on how it intends to revive the economy. In conjunction with its stated policy objectives from the election manifesto, the intended measures broadly encompass:. • Delaying any approach to the IMF • Borrowing massively from the banks to ‘pay down’ the outstanding stock of circular debt • “Growing” the economy via infrastructure spending • Reviving private fixed investment presumably via exemptions and incentives While it may be premature and unfair to comment on PML-N’s plans in the absence of a more meaningful and comprehensive policy statement, some conclusions are inescapable. First, the policy balance is heavily skewed towards getting short-term financing, rather than on bringing public finances on a sounder structural footing via much-needed reform. In terms of the binary ‘equation’ I have used so often (courtesy Paul Krugman), PML-N’s policies are all about “financing” rather than reform and “adjustment”. Second, there is a strong Keynesian bias to PML-N’s policies, and its playbook on the economy seems straight from the 1990s — pretty much picking up from where its last government left off in 1999. Pakistan is a vastly changed country since then, with both the economic as well as political (and constitutional) landscape having changed dramatically. Some of the new realities a PML-N government will encounter at the centre include: • A public debt burden which is demanding an ever-larger share of revenue and bank deposits for its servicing • A complete collapse of the energy sector • A public sector in near-complete ruin, with corruption and lack of morale at their peak • A Federal Board of Revenue which has dissolved into a non-entity as an organisation, and cannot deliver revenue in its existing state • Low capacity and morale in the civil service • An expanded fiscal transfers base from the centre to the provinces under the NFC Award However, even with the larger transfers from the divisible pool, provinces are claiming that they are unable to fund their enhanced service delivery obligations post-18th Amendment. Without an appreciation of the changed environment at the centre, an unintended consequence of PML-N’s “bull charge” may be a further complication of Pakistan’s complex economic situation. Fortunately, should PML-N’s mandarins choose to be guided by history — global as well as Pakistan’s own, including from their party’s policy experience in the 1990s — there is a sliver of hope that wiser counsel can prevail. A brief summary of the relevant policy experiences is presented below. Lesson(s) from East Asia Since the bulk of the fascination in Pakistan’s policy circles with Keynesianism is attributable to the World Bank’s 1989 report The East Asian Miracle, brilliantly authored by Professor Joseph Stiglitz and his team, it seems strange that people have drawn the wrong lessons from such a seminal report. While everyone in Pakistan appears to remember the strong endorsement for big, patriarchal government and robust public sector infrastructure spending budgets, that is by far a narrow and self-serving reading of the report. The real lesson of the report — and the reason why Prof Stiglitz titled it The East Asian Miracle — is that “big government” in the fast-growing East Asian economies was guided by capable, well-meaning and visionary leadership and a competent civil service. This combination delivered high growth with equity. That was the defining lesson from East Asia — not that you need muscular development spending programmes, but the necessary condition is good governance. I would urge the PML-N’s economic brains to revisit the East Asian miracle, and tell Mian Sahib the whole story: he will need to deliver capable and effective governance — not a PSDP of 10pc of GDP. The other equally important lesson PML-N’s leadership will need to be told is that, by and large, the East Asian economies financed their growth trajectories from internal revenues (running very low budget deficits) and foreign direct investment. Why haven’t we seen a focus on collecting tax revenue by fixing Pakistan’s broken tax system? Lesson from Japan Japan has been fighting a deflating economy since 1989, to be precise. A combination of a zero interest rate policy and massive fiscal stimulus via huge public investment spending over the past nearly 25 years have produced only one outcome: a public debt level of nearly 250pc of GDP, the highest amongst OECD countries. Growth remains mired in a low-level equilibrium since 1989, with frequent periods of recession in between. Lesson from Pakistan: Fortunately, there is a powerful lesson from a PML-N government’s attempts to grow the economy in the early 1990s. Offering a “big bang” opening up of the economy to investors in terms of liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation, it didn’t touch upon Pakistan’s most pressing issues of revamping of tax policy and administration. Instead, it introduced a financing “gimmick” on the balance of payments side — the partial convertibility of the capital account. Resident Pakistanis were allowed to open and freely maintain onshore foreign currency accounts (FCAs). The only caveat: the government of Pakistan had started to dip into these FCAs to finance its ever-larger current account deficits. The source of the higher current account deficits? Unchecked public spending and an untenably high rate of expansion in the monetary base. Despite widespread misgivings of independent commentators, the IMF, and then State Bank governor, Dr Yaqub, the PML-N government and its pliant finance ministry led us down the path of the biggest Ponzi scheme in Pakistan’s history. The rest is history, but surely there is someone in PML-N with a thinking cap on, and a degree of intellectual honesty, to remind the future prime minister that we have been down this path as well. The writer is a former economic adviser to government, and currently heads a macroeconomic consultancy based in Islamabad.
Illusions of nationalism By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar THIS past Tuesday marked 15 years since we formally entered the world’s nuclear club. . While patriots of all stripes remind us of our ‘achievement’ every year, this time the ‘celebrations’ were ratcheted up a notch following the PML-N’s election victory. Indeed, delivering the ‘Islamic bomb’ is, along with the motorway, touted as the Sharifs’ most significant contribution to Pakistan. Lapping up the applause on ‘Youm-i-Takbeer’, the elder Sharif nevertheless sounded a rather sombre note in pointing out the obvious: a nuclear power Pakistan may be, but successive governments have proved incapable of meeting the country’s electricity needs. The prime minister-in-waiting could have added a host of other basic needs to the list as well. Many suggest Nawaz Sharif is a more mature politician to the one who oversaw the nuclear tests. This might explain his voluntary admission of failure on a day that marks his single biggest ‘achievement’. Yet reading between the lines one finds that the PML-N chief — with the rest of his followers — exonerates his party and heaps the responsibility (for the power crisis and almost all other structural problems) on everyone from Pervez Musharraf to Asif Zardari. Virtually all Pakistani politicians coming into power — and I include generals — tend to explain the prevailing state of affairs to script: previous governments have failed because they were committed only to their parochial interests whereas the new government will succeed because it is patriotic and selfless. In power, our rulers never tire of reminding us that they are unwavering nationalists. In Pakistan this means going on about Islam, its applicability to all spheres of social life, and the machinations of its enemies. This is the only state in the world that attributes religious characteristics even to its prized nuclear possession. It is therefore difficult to believe that Nawaz Sharif’s lament about our failure to meet electricity needs signals a new political ethos. Until such a time as the PML-N — or any other mainstream party — admits that the rot is at the level of the state, and not the doing of a particular government, moments of lucidity will count for very little. To be sure, the Pakistani nationalist project, and the state that has sustained this project for almost seven decades, is the single biggest reason for the quagmire we find ourselves in today. Deconstructing and then building an alternative to this stillborn project must be the lowest common denominator that brings Pakistani progressives together today. This is not to suggest that the Pakistani state is an exceptional case. Nationalism everywhere has played a similar role throughout the modern era. It is undoubtedly the most seductive of modern ideologies and, as oppositional politics, has the power to bring large numbers of disenfranchised people together in the hope of a better world. Throughout the 20th century Western colonial powers were sent packing by vibrant nationalist movements across Asia and Africa, amidst the hope that a just social order would be fashioned by newly freed nations. Yet in hindsight it can be said that much of the optimism was misplaced: many new ‘nations’ were themselves invented constructs, and structures of power put into place under colonial rule remained very much intact. Mobilising a nation in opposition to power is qualitatively different to nationalism as state ideology. As the latter goes, ours is a unique case because religion became the marker of citizenship in the new state rather than, say, ethno-linguistic identity which was the norm in most newly independent countries. While post-colonial nation-building projects of all kinds have faltered, ours has imploded spectacularly. We retain the dubious distinction of being the world’s only modern state in which more than half of the population has seceded to form a new country. We have created a sectarian, misogynistic and insular Frankenstein within our own society, the roots of which can be directly traced back to our insistence on ‘Islamising’ every aspect of social life. And we are increasingly prone to proclaiming righteousness whilst simultaneously engaging in cynical everyday practices. This last point is, for me, the crux of the matter. The reason why our nationalism has become increasingly toxic is precisely because of the societal contradictions that it embodies. The state tried to foment a nation on the basis of an exclusionary and insular ideology. It may have failed in conquering the peripheries, but nationalistic attitudes and contradictions have nevertheless seeped into the nooks and crannies of Pakistani society. In other words, it is not just mainstream political parties and state institutions that harp on about religion and the infallibility of the Pakistani ‘nation’. The problem is that many of us ordinary people have taken on the work of the state by propagating myths about conspiracies against Islam, the security guaranteed by the ‘Islamic bomb’, and the inextricable link between Islam and state affairs. Of course things do change; it is no longer possible to argue — as our first finance minister Ghulam Mohammad did — that we must spend more than 70pc of the budget on the military, or — as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did — that we will eat grass to secure The Bomb. So even while state nationalism continues to be reproduced at the societal level, enough ordinary people — those in the Punjabi heartland in particular — are fed up of loadshedding and the like so that the incoming prime minister feels it necessary to temper his nationalistic sloganeering with a dose of realism. Alas it was only a dose. We need much more. Only once we have moved beyond the illusions and reconciled ourselves to the complex realities that we face — both within society and outside — will we be able to foment a politics beyond the two-nation theory and the miseries it has wrought. The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
The wise & the traditional By Asha’ar Rehman MIAN Nawaz Sharif’s has to be the final word on everything now, beginning with the elections of May 11. . The maturity that everyone was ascribing to him since his last term in the 1990s is shining through his speech, latest in his masterful, unparalleled evaluation of the election results. There could have been no better occasion for him to divulge what no one else seems to have fathomed on the auspicious 15th birthday of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, May 28. He was all praise for the wise voters in Punjab (minus perhaps the millions who didn’t vote for him) and fit in well into his role of the elder brother when he only mildly admonished the emotional in KP and the traditionalists (purely in the Pakistani-Sindhi context) in Sindh. Even the incoming prime minister appeared not too sure about Balochistan. He did acknowledge the province had sided with him but didn’t for the moment have the evidence to say whether the small percentage of people who did vote in Balochistan had acted wisely or otherwise. Mian Sahib’s frank statement on Yaum-i-Takbeer followed a long-running tradition of its own. When a newspaper conducted a survey just after the nuclear blasts in May 1998 its respondents by and large were the wise and the knowledgeable of Punjab. But somehow a stray Sindhi working in Lahore also managed to have his say, for whatever it was worth in that proud moment in the nation’s history. Asked what he thought of the nuclear test, the traditionalist replied with the characteristic unawareness of a man cut off from the mainstream: “Can’t say. I was away [on leave] in Sindh [when the bomb came around].” If Mian Sahib’s certificate to the PPP voters in the province was not sufficient bemoaning of tradition, May 28 offered further proof of a continuation of the bad old habits in Sindh. The PPP defied the vociferous attempts at diverting it by nominating Qaim Ali Shah for another term as chief minister. It was bound to be taken as a statement that the PPP was determined to stay the course, notwithstanding the post-poll chorus that egged the party towards reforms and revival in parts of the country where it had been reduced to a ghostly existence. Only a few days earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari had bravely come down to his Bahria Town fortress in Lahore to express his regrets over a PPP no-show in elections in Punjab. Secure that the moment could not be re-enacted and he could not be forced to run a dangerous public campaign, he said he should have resigned as president before the elections and led the PPP’s polls campaign. The statement had a truly magical impact on those who were pretty sure the party, and more specifically President Zardari, had duly earned the beating the PPP got on May 11. Now with a single remark the cause behind the problem was elevated to the status of a potential remedy — as per tradition that is hard to practise in the given circumstances. If the PPP is to be revived, if it is at all necessary to whip it back to life, if at all it has a role to play in Pakistani politics, it cannot return all by itself and by the old mode. Asif Zardari cannot bring it back with his promised prolonged camping in Lahore. Bilawal Zardari can hardly hope to do any better unless the PPP leadership recognises the changed landscape which requires sustaining an urbanised lifestyle in an increasingly conservative population too fearful of walking out of line. The party has to be built anew with a fresh mission statement based on current public aspirations. The old cannot be, should not be revived. The PPP cannot rise in isolation. Wishing for a PPP or an Awami National Party for that matter as an expression of Pakistani pluralism is too romantic a notion for these difficult times. The space has shrunk for those who appear to be asking for as little as variety in thinking. Only in some cases it has been more visible and some of the contained have been more loudly blamed than others. Maybe some had a greater responsibility and a more central role in the fight than others, but the retreat has been bigger and far more widespread than manifest in the loss of an election by a political party. Take the lawyers, the most recent leaders of a public movement whose unions today are a patchwork of often contrasting political hues that limit rather than encourage free debate. Take the media which lives forever in fear of the ‘dominant’ and which maintained a campaign tone against the PPP government over all these five years. It is not about whether or not they had the right to go after the government. They might have had all good reasons. The point is the media image of the PPP was a major factor that facilitated the party’s fall, a factor not taken fully into account in the pre-poll projections of who would win how many seats nor now in discussions about the PPP’s revival. The seat estimates for the PPP some in the media came up with reeked of modesty that didn’t quite gel with the media’s own powers to crystallise and standardise as far as possible the public mood against a bad government. Nor did they go well with the stated ideals of cleansing the country of the corrupt. The question the Napiers running the media conquest should now be asking is how the PPP won in (the traditional, unaware, insulated?) Sindh instead of why it lost elsewhere. It is strange they should be wasting time on discussing the revival of the corrupt and the inefficient. Now is the time for the campaigners to shed some of their professional modesty and objectivity, celebrate their victory and maybe mock the feudal and the traditional. The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
The BJP’s dilemma By A.G. Noorani WHATEVER else Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, accomplishes in his fiercely ambitious drive to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party and to become prime minister of India, he has succeeded in creating rifts galore — within civil society, within his party, with the party’s allies and in the country itself. . This is not a very promising beginning especially when details of his own culpability in the Ahmedabad riots have now been placed before a magistrate’s court in a 514-page protest petition filed by the 75-year-old Ms Zakia Jafri. Her husband, Ehsan Jafri, a Congress MP, was killed in the carnage at Gulberg Society in the city in 2002. The protest petition challenges the clean chit given to Modi, his officials and 58 politicians by a special investigation team appointed by the Supreme Court. The documents she cites have been widely reported by the media. One detail suffices to show the gravity of the charges. The train carrying volunteers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists was returning from Ayodhya when on the morning of Feb 27, 2002 it was torched at Godhra — 59 of them died. A senior police officer testified that at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Modi that very evening he told the senior civil servants and police officials in explicit terms “Hindus must be allowed to vent their anger”. The rift within the party can only undermine its prospects of success in the 2014 general election. Despite two defeats, in the 2004 and 2009 elections, L.K. Advani still nurses ambitions. In the event of a split vote within the party or a deadlock between rival parties, he might be accepted as an elder statesman. So he calculates. There are two criminal cases pending against him alleging participation in a conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid in 1992. Since they did not prevent him from becoming union home minister and deputy prime minister, he reckons, they will not impede his path towards the post of prime minister either. But Advani faces a far more serious obstacle. The BJP’s leaders reckon that his shelf life has expired — he cannot win the votes required to lead the party to victory. It is now accepted by all that the days of single-party rule are gone. In the foreseeable future, coalitions will be the norm in India. A party which emerges as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha will attract allies. The smaller parties will shed reservations of old to share power. Advani is simply not seen as one who can help the party to win that position. Narendra Modi’s rise is due to the belief in the demoralised BJP that he can achieve the miracle. Advani, who ironically saved Modi from dismissal in 2002, is opposed to his candidature for the prime minister’s post. Another irony — his protégé Arun Jaitley, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, supports Modi. The latter’s prospects became brighter after his third victory in the Gujarat assembly elections. But the crucial factor is the eventual stand of the RSS, the mentor, and indeed, creator of the BJP. On Jan 22, 2013 the RSS relented and agreed to let its nominee Nitin Gadkari resign as president of the BJP following allegations of corruption. But it replaced him with another RSS faithful Rajnath Singh. He is no supporter of Advani and tirelessly sings praises of Modi while keeping the options for 2014 open. “We are very proud of the leadership of Narendra Modi. But who shall be the PM candidate of the BJP, the party’s parliamentary board will decide at the appropriate time.” The BJP’s National Council meeting which concluded on March 3, gave Modi a rousing reception with Rajnath Singh reviving the cry of Hindutva as the party’s credo and construction of a Ram temple on the ruins of the Babri Masjid. It was a prelude to what followed at the end of the month. On March 31, the BJP president Rajnath Singh inducted Narendra Modi into the party’s apex decision-making bodies, the parliamentary board and the central election committee. Modi will thus wield powerful influence in the selection of the party’s candidates for election to the Lok Sabha next year. They will be beholden to him for the party ticket and will vote for him in the election to the leader of the parliamentary party eligible to be called in to form a government, if the BJP musters the required strength. Advani has made it known to all that none of this would deter him from persisting in his drive for the prime minister’s job. Addressing party workers, on April 6, he asserted that he very much remains “active in politics” with a “dream to make India the greatest nation”. That he felt the need to deliver that reminder at all is a measure of his adversity. Senior leaders, like two former foreign ministers, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Singh, were dropped. The new party executive is heavily laden with fanatical advocates of Hindutva. Success has not made Modi complacent. He opened an important front by making a bid to secure the support of the corporate sector and the middle class by flaunting his planks of development and speedy clearance for industrial projects. Top guns of the industry like Mukesh and Anil Ambani paid fulsome tributes to him with Ratan Tata joining enthusiastically in the conclave. Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is in coalition with the BJP, has openly rejected Modi’s credentials. His party, Janata Dal (United) is an ally of the BJP at the national level with its president Sharad Yadav as convener of the BJP-dominated National Democratic Alliance. Narendra Modi plans to tour the country in July. He will succeed only in dividing the nation with unfortunate consequences. His rhetoric is coarse and his appeal rabidly anti-secular. The writer is an author and a lawyer.
The people have spoken By Irfan Husain OVER the last five years, if I had a dollar each time somebody complained about democracy, I might not have become rich, but would at least have been able to afford a meal at a top restaurant in London. . Basically, the refrain from angry readers went something like this: ‘Is this the democracy you have been pushing all these years? How long more do we have to put up with Asif Zardari?’ Another variation on this theme: ‘Dictatorship is better than this corrupt and inefficient government.’ I would invariably counsel patience, and remind these critics that dictatorship was one of the reasons we were in such a mess. I argued strongly for the completion of the PPP-led coalition’s term: ‘Why don’t we let the people of Pakistan decide? It’s much better for the government to be voted out for incompetence, rather than be removed through a military or judicial coup. That way, they won’t be able to wear the halo of martyrdom.’ And so it has proved: the people have spoken loudly and decisively, and handed the coalition partners a stinging defeat. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement may have retained more or less the same number of seats in the National Assembly, but it has seen its votes decline. And it is a sign of the PPP’s bankruptcy of ideas that it has nominated Qaim Ali Shah as the chief minister of Sindh after he has presided over the mayhem in Karachi these last five years. Apart from showing the previous government the door, voters have also sent a strong signal that they are fed up of feudal families treating their constituencies as their personal fiefdoms. Many powerful candidates who took parliamentary seats as their birthright were defeated. The Khars and the Gilanis, among many others, will be absent from assemblies. And remarkably, for the first time in decades, there’s no Bhutto from ZAB’s line in any assembly. This, too, has been a constant refrain from anti-democracy voices: ‘How can you expect illiterate voters to choose wisely? Their votes are just bought by the local chaudhry.’ Not this time, it seems. While I’m sure there must have been an element of chicanery in some constituencies, by and large, the May 11 elections were free and fair. Another thing voters appear to have grasped is that a split mandate produces weak coalition governments that are shaky, and subject to blackmail by internal and external elements. They have therefore handed one party — Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League — an outright majority against all expectations. Virtually every pundit — this one among them — had predicted a coalition led by the PML-N to form the federal government. But ordinary, often illiterate voters decided differently. After the declining turnout witnessed over the last few elections, critics also questioned the legitimacy of governments produced by less than half the electorate exercising their right to vote. ‘What kind of democracy is this that parties with a combined vote of a quarter of the number registered should rule the country?’ However, a 60pc turnout gives the system a level of credibility it has not enjoyed since the 1970 elections. In this, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf deserves much credit: by motivating young people to go out and vote, Imran Khan has helped strengthen democracy at a time it was in danger of falling into disrepute. Voting patterns and preferences also reveal the rapid urbanisation that has taken place in Pakistan over the last decade or so. The PPP had become a largely rural-based party, and pitched its message to this constituency. And when it was in government, many of its policies were designed to attract the rural voter. However, in the event, it saw itself being squeezed out of the few urban seats it had been confident of retaining. Urbanisation has been accompanied by a rising middle class that is demanding what the middle class everywhere demands: better infrastructure, more jobs, improved education and security. The PPP largely failed to address these concerns and paid the price. The religious parties, too, won a small fraction of the total votes. This has been the pattern for years as clerics are widely viewed as people who might deliver in the next life, but not in this one. Thus, between them, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the JUI-F received just over 5pc of the vote. In fact, ideology appears to have played little part in this election: there was no left-right division, even though the PML-N is conservative on many issues, while the PPP professes itself to be the flag-bearer of the poor. However, the latter has moved so far from its founding principles that the rhetoric is all that’s left now. Indirectly at least, voters have approved of Nawaz Sharif’s quest for better relations with India. Even though he was criticised for making this a campaign pledge by many of his opponents, the fact that he was given a virtual majority suggests that most people are sick of the unending state of hostility with our neighbour. It is especially significant that the bulk of Nawaz Sharif’s support came from Punjab, the province that was supposed to be the most hawkish in terms of the Kashmir dispute. There was a school of thought that the PPP and the Awami National Party would get a sympathy vote as they were being targeted mercilessly by the Pakistani Taliban. But it would seem that most people felt that the previous government’s policies towards these terrorists had failed, and they would rather try the path of negotiation. I personally feel this is a misguided approach, but then mine is a solitary voice. So while I might disagree with Nawaz Sharif on a range of issues, I am glad he has a strong mandate, and hope he gets on with it. irfan.husain@gmail.com
Some Sharif memories By Abbas Nasir OF all political journeys Pakistan has witnessed, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif’s must rank among the most remarkable. . Sharif was 29 when his family-owned industrial empire, nationalised by ousted leader Z.A. Bhutto, was returned to them by military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq in 1978. By 1981, the bond between the two had been cemented further as Nawaz Sharif had been drafted in as the finance minister in the Punjab administration by the military governor Lt-Gen Ghulam Jilani Khan. Of course in the 1985 party-less elections, the Sharif family scion bagged the biggest provincial prize when he became the chief minister. First as a student, then as a Karachi-based journalist, I watched his steady ascent to power from a distance only to come face to face with him in 1988. Soon after the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) was created in September 1988 to unite all right of centre parties in order to block the march to power of Benazir Bhutto, and years before Gen Hamid Gul’s confession that he was responsible for its formation as DG ISI, it was clear to many of us that this was the case. So, after a meeting at Jamaat-i-Islami leader Prof Ghafoor Ahmad’s Karachi home, I put the charge to Sharif that IJI had been formed by the ISI. His rosy cheeks acquired more colour. Visibly angry, he only said: “Mein iss sawal kaa jawab dena zaroori nahin samajhta” (I don’t think it necessary to answer that question). He was quickly ushered away. Despite the machinations of Hamid Gul & Co, the national elections saw PPP emerging as the largest single party. Benazir Bhutto’s political Achilles heel, her spouse, was yet to become a factor. Had the provincial elections been held simultaneously with the National Assembly polls, Pakistan’s political landscape could perhaps have been different. PPP won the most seats from Punjab and could have quickly enthroned itself in Lahore also. But the gap between the two elections witnessed a vicious campaign run on malicious ethnic lines with the slogan: ‘Jaag Punjabi jag, teri pagg noon laga daag’ (Awaken O Punjabi your honour is at stake). This was an obvious reference to the Sharif-led IJI’s dismal showing in Sindh where all stalwarts who ran on IJI tickets lost the elections, with the MQM (Karachi and Hyderabad) and PPP taking all but one Sindh seat. The campaign was effective. The IJI clawed back some of the ground lost in the national elections and then with a friendly, all-powerful president, army and intel chiefs was able to take power in the critical Punjab province and become a launch pad for most anti-PPP activity. The next I was to see Nawaz Sharif was two years later during the reign of (then) caretaker Sindh chief minister Jam Sadiq Ali when he addressed a press conference at the CM House. Some of us asked questions that Sharif, with the colour in his ample cheeks turning several shades darker, steered towards Mushahid Husain and Asif Vardag. With the press conference over, Sharif walked over to where some of us were seated several rows back, shook our hands and said something to the effect that he was pleased to meet ‘robust, educated’ journalists before walking away. His DG, Punjab Information Department, didn’t seem to agree. After his boss walked away, he lingered long enough to tell us in a tone dripping with contempt: “Kamal hai aap loag kaise sawal karte hein. Lahore mein to kissi ki jurrat nahin hotee” (Amazing, you ask such questions; nobody would dare to in Lahore). In a city which produced journalists such as I.A. Rehman, Nisar Osmani, Mazhar Ali Khan, Husain Naqi and Aziz Siddiqui to name just a few in no particular order, it was amazing to us that the DG was saying what he was. Mian Sahib won the next election. And several months into his prime ministerial stint headed to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Somehow the invitation was passed from the chief editor down to me, and I boarded the VVIP flight for the first (and gratefully the last) government-funded junket of my professional life. “Mian Saab saade bande hege nein. Take-off toon badd sirif ekko e request hondee ae una dee: keema te porauntha” (Mian Sahib is a very simple man. After take-off he has just one request: qeema, paratha); this is how the man in charge of catering on board described his boss to me. When we stopped for a day in Zurich on our return, I was to discover another side of the prime minister. No, he wasn’t singing one of his reportedly favourite Bollywood’s songs: ‘Kon he jo sapnon mein aaya’; it was his love of cars. I got up early and headed out for a walk. Just beyond the porch, Mian Sahib’s former neighbour and close family friend Mujibur Rahman (yes, the infamous Senator Saifur Rahman’s younger brother) and Pakistan’s main BMW importer then (you would recall the SROs which allowed hundreds of duty-free beamers in) was holding open the door of a flame red, BMW coupe. Appearing eager to sink into the plush leather-upholstered seat, the prime minister saw me ogling at the car but since he was in my line of vision, he must have thought I, a journalist, was stunned that a poor country’s leader was admiring such an expensive car. So he hurriedly moved away. Not long after his return home, he was to be pushed out of power, only to stage another comeback, this time with such a ‘heavy’ mandate that he all but proclaimed himself amirul momineen. But his handpicked army chief, a near-suicidal adventurist, exiled him after overthrowing and jailing him. His latest comeback is the stuff dreams are made of. His supporters say his conduct since signing the Charter of Democracy with Benazir Bhutto is a testament to his new-found maturity; that the vindictive, intolerant, power-hungry man was buried in exile. In his place, has been born the democrat, the statesman. We wait with bated breath to find out if that’s true. n The writer is a former editor of Dawn. abbas.nasir@hotmail.com
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