DWS, Sunday 29th September to Saturday 5th October 2013

	DWS, Sunday 29th September to Saturday 5th October 2013
The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS offers news, analysis and features of particular interest to the Pakistani Community on the Internet. DWS is sent by e-mail every Saturday. What’s Inside? National News | Editorial | Columns & Articles	For suggestions and comments: Email: webmaster@dawn.com Website: http://dawn.com Fax: +92(21) 35693995 Please send all Editorial submissions and Letters to the Editor to: letters@dawn.com
NATIONAL NEWS
Pakistan is epicentre of terror: Singh By Masood Haider and Anwar Iqbal UNITED NATIONS, Sept 28: A day before an important meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted Nawaz Sharif’s offer for a new beginning, but at the same time repeated his accusation that Pakistan continued to be an “epicentre of terrorism”. . This was the third time in a week that the Indian premier hurled incendiary remarks against Pakistan. Mr Singh’s tirade was in contrast to Prime Minister Sharif’s conciliatory tone the previous day when he made an offer for a new beginning with India in a speech to the UN General Assembly. Mr Singh, however, used the UN forum to once again accuse Pakistan of sponsoring cross-border terrorism in his country. “State-sponsored cross-border terrorism is of particular concern to India, also on account of the fact that the epicentre of terrorism in our region is located in our neighbourhood in Pakistan,” he said. Mr Sharif and Mr Singh are scheduled to meet on Sunday with an aim to resume regular talks between the two countries. In his UN address Manmohan Singh said New Delhi was committed to resolving all issues with Pakistan, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir through bilateral dialogue on the basis of the Simla agreement. “However, for progress to be made, it is imperative that the territory of Pakistan and the areas under its control are not utilized for aiding and abetting terrorism directed against India,” he said. “It is equally important that the terrorist machinery that draws its sustenance from Pakistan be shut down.” Mr Singh also made it clear that any agreement with Pakistan should be based on its acceptance of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India. “There must be a clear understanding of the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that there can never, ever, be a compromise with the unity and territorial integrity of India,” he declared. Mr Singh raised a demand for reforming the United Nations and making India a permanent member of the Security Council. Pakistan supports the demand for reforms, but opposes creating more permanent members. Instead, it supports an arrangement that would give representation to various regions. “The UN Security Council must be reformed and restructured to reflect current political realities. More developing countries should be included as both permanent and non-permanent members,” Mr Singh said. He said multilateral financial institutions should also enable an enhanced voice for developing countries in their decision-making structures. Mr Singh noted that Afghanistan was now preparing for a historic political, security and economic transition. “The international community must support the people of Afghanistan through this transition and beyond in combating terrorism, preserving the progress of the past decade and creating a stable, united and prosperous Afghanistan,’ he said. Noting that terrorism continued to threaten people across the globe, Mr Singh said: “There can be no tolerance for states sheltering, arming, training or financing terrorists. Nor can they absolve themselves of the responsibility to prevent their territories from being used to launch acts of terrorism.”
Four Karachi policemen killed in attacks By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Sept 28: Four policemen were killed and one was injured in grenade and gun attacks in different parts of the city on Saturday.. Two policemen were killed in a grenade-cum-gun attack on a police mobile in Korangi Industrial Area while a third policeman was critically injured, senior police officials told Dawn. They said that a police mobile of Madadgar-15 came under attack at Bilal Chowrangi when two people on a motorcycle threw a home made grenade, followed by a gun attack, causing critical injuries to three policemen. “It was a grenade-cum-gun attack on the policemen,” said SSP East Pir Mohammed Shah. The injured were taken to Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre, but doctors declared head constable Mohammed Bashir, 50, dead. Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the hospital’s emergency department, said another policeman, Juma Khan, died during treatment while the third, Alamdar, was fighting for his life in the hospital in serious condition. Dr Jamali said the policemen died from multiple injuries caused by explosive material and bullets. “Police have recently demolished dens of gambling and drugs in the area and the attack may be its reaction,” the SSP East said. In another incident, a policeman was shot at and critically injured in Orangi on Saturday. Asim Abbas, 29, was riding a motorcycle when two armed motorcyclists attacked him near Rehman Baba Stadium in Orangi-4. He suffered a single bullet to his neck and was taken to a private hospital in critical condition. Mominabad SHO Abdul Moid said the injured policeman was posted in the CID police and was on duty to collect secret information when attacked. In another incident, one policeman was shot dead in Site area on Saturday night, according to police. Syed Rajab Ali, 58, was shot at and injured by some gunmen near a fire brigade station office in Site area. He suffered a single bullet to his head and was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, but doctors declared him dead. SITE-A SHO Aslam said the victim, who was in uniform, was returning home in New Saeedabad by taking a ‘lift’ from a motorcyclist when he was attacked by the gunmen.This was the second murder of a policeman in the same area over the past 24 hours as another policeman, Shahzad Raza, 28, was shot dead in an attack on the police mobile van on Friday night. Karachi West SSP Irfan Baloch said that policemen were being targeted in the west district in ‘reaction’ by different criminals for launching a coordinated action to wipe them out.
Swat TTP claims it carried out Dir attack By Hasan Abdullah LAHORE, Sept 28: The Swat chapter of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the killing on Sept 15 of a major general, a lieutenant colonel and an army soldier. The two officers and the soldier lost their lives when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Upper Dir. . The claim was made in a 20-minute video, which is exclusively available with Dawn. It purports to show a military jeep driving up a mountainous track while a Taliban cameraman tracks the shot. Suspected militants can be heard in the background praying for “success”. A powerful explosion then rips through the vehicle and fragments can be seen flying off. The suspected militants can be heard chanting slogans in the background, rejoicing over their “success”. It could not be independently verified whether the vehicle under attack belonged to the military. The video also shows an interview with Mullah Fazlullah, the reclusive leader of the TTP’s Swat chapter, in which he says that he would abide by the orders of his outfit’s supremo, Hakimullah Mehsud, and those of the Shura, over negotiations with the government. “The government of Pakistan is a slave and not sovereign. It has not fulfilled a single agreement in the past and has instead accused us of violating the agreements. As far as the present talk of negotiations is concerned, we will abide by whatever is decided by our respected Amir, Hakimullah Mehsud, and the Shura,” he said in the interview. Mullah Fazlullah claimed that the TTP was getting support not just from some members of the general public but also from “powerful members of the state”. “There are people in this government and in the armed forces who agree with our ideology. Pakistan was made for this ideology. So many of these Muslims support us on ideological grounds. The examples of us successfully breaking jails and conducting other major operations is a proof of our infiltration,” he said. Mullah Fazlullah, 39, had unleashed a reign of terror in Swat before he lost control of the area following the military operation. He fled to Afghanistan and is believed to operate primarily from that country’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces, from where his men attack Pakistani forces.
Another quake jolts Awaran; 15 dead By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Sept 28: Another earthquake of 7.2 magnitude struck the Awaran district of Balochistan on Saturday afternoon, killing at least 15 people and leaving over 50 injured. . The earthquake compounded the agony of a populace that has yet to come out of the shock of Tuesday’s massive earthquake which caused large-scale destruction and left over 300 people dead. It was a new tremor and not an aftershock of the Tuesday’s earthquake, an official of the Metrological Department in Islamabad told Dawn. “It was a new strong earthquake of 7.2 magnitude that originated some 156km southwest of Khuzdar in Awaran district,” he said. The National Seismic Centre of Pakistan has warned that the region will continue to receive aftershocks. According to Zahid Rafi, a director at the centre, 16 aftershocks have been recorded since the Tuesday’s earthquake of 7.7 magnitude, but Saturday’s earthquake is an independent one. The worst affected by Saturday’s earthquake was Nokjo, a large village of Mushkey tehsil in Awaran district, where over hundred casualties were reported and thousands of people were rendered homeless. The earthquake rattled other areas in Balochistan, including Quetta, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Panjgur, Kharan, Lasbela Kech, Gwadar, Sibi, Nasirabad and Jaffarabad. It was also felt in Karachi and some other districts of Sindh. Official sources have confirmed casualties in Nokjo village. “We have received confirmed reports of 15 deaths in Nokjo,” said Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey. Women and children were among the dead, he added. A spokesman for the Balochistan government, Jan Buledi, said rescue teams had been sent to affected areas. Awaran’s Deputy Commissioner Rashid Baloch said the tremor caused large-scale destruction in Nokjo village, housing about 15,000 to 20,000 people. He said a large number of houses had collapsed and communication system was badly damaged, creating hurdles in information gathering.Official sources in Awaran said that on the directives of the chief minister, two medical teams and rescue workers had been sent to Nokjo village. According to a police officer, Rafiq Lasi, a number of people were trapped under the rubble in Nokjo village. He said villagers had taken out some of them alive from the debris. Hafeez Baloch, a resident of the area, said most houses in Nokjo village remained intact after Tuesday’s earthquake. But the Saturday’s tremor has destroyed the entire village. “The dilapidated mud houses were not able to resist another tremor,” he added. He said the immediate need of people in the village were tents, food items and drinking water. In Quetta, the Balochistan Assembly was in session when the tremor jolted its building. Speaker Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali adjourned the session immediately and lawmakers came out of the building.According to a local journalist, Akbar Sheikh, shocks created panic in the house. “I was covering proceedings of the assembly when we felt a tremor and some lawmakers drew the attention of the speaker to it,” he added.
Four FC men, five Baloch militants die in clash By Our Staff Correspondent QUETTA, Sept 28: Four members of the Frontier Corps and five Baloch militants were killed in an armed clash in Proom area of Panjgur on Saturday. . Official sources said that one FC soldier was seriously injured in the attack. The banned Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the FC said here that Frontier Corps personnel were patrolling between checkposts in Proom area when militants ambushed them, killing three soldiers on the spot and injuring two others. Another soldier died in hospital. The spokesman said the FC troops returned fire, killing five attackers. The troops also took into their custody motorcycles, arms and ammunition. Baloch Liberation Army spokesman Sarbaz Baloch told journalists by phone from an unknown location that the attack was carried out by the BRA in which 10 FC soldiers were killed and over a dozen injured.
Taliban reiterate preconditions By Pazir Gul MIRAMSHAH, Sept 28: The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s spokesman Shahidullah Shahid has said that withdrawal of the army from the tribal areas, cessation of drone strikes and release of prisoners are prerequisites for peace talks with the government.. “The government should pull out army troops from the tribal area and halt US drone strikes before starting talks,” he said while talking to Dawn by phone on Saturday. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York that the Taliban would have to lay down weapons before peace talks. “Nawaz Sharif has made this demand at the behest of John Kerry,” he alleged, accusing the prime minister of misleading the Taliban and the nation. The Taliban spokesman said the government should “stop US drone attacks by force” instead of adopting an “apologetic attitude”. The government is not sincere in talks with Taliban because it is powerless and untrustworthy.” He alleged that the government had killed 12 prisoners whose bodies had been found in Upper Dir. The Taliban had carried out attacks on police in Pishin, Balochistan, to avenge the prisoners’ killing, he said. The spokesman parried a question about PTI chairman Imran Khan’s proposal that the Taliban should be allowed to open an office in the country. He also denied reports that Sirajuddin Haqqani of the Afghan Haqqani network was presiding over shura meetings of the TTP., The group’s chief, Hakeemullah Mehsud, always chaired TTP meetings, he added.
NAB deadlock: PM, Shah likely to meet next week By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah are set to have another meeting soon after Mr Sharif’s return from the US in an effort to break deadlock over the appointment of chairman of the National Accountability Bureau.. Sources said that Finance Minster Ishaq Dar called the opposition leader from New York and told him that the prime minister wanted to have a meeting with him after his return to the country on Oct 1. Mr Dar, the sources said, told Mr Shah that the meeting could take place on Oct 2 or 3. During his last meeting with Mr Shah on Sept 21, Mr Sharif had rejected the name of opposition’s nominee retired Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal and proposed the name of retired Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry for the office of the NAB chief. After that meeting, the opposition leader had told reporters that the prime minister had proposed the name of Justice Ejaz and that he had told Mr Sharif that he would respond to the government’s proposal after consultations with legal experts and party leadership. The sources said the prime minister had objected to Justice Ajmal’s name on the ground that he was the law secretary when Gen Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency in the country and deposed judges on Nov 3, 2007. On the other hand, Justice Ejaz was among those judges of the Supreme Court who had been restored along with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2009. Justice Ejaz retired in 2010 and was later appointed as member of the Judicial Commission by the chief justice. Sources in the PPP said the party had decided to oppose the nomination of Justice Ejaz and would press for the appointment of Justice Ajmal. They said Mr Shah would inform Mr Sharif that it was true that Justice Ajmal was law secretary at the time of the imposition of emergency but he had refused to sign the summary for deposition of judges. The sources said the PPP had some information about “connections” between Justice Ejaz and the PML-N. The government had initially proposed the names of retired Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery and former federal secretary Khwaja Zaheer Ahmed whereas the opposition had suggested the names of retired Justice Bhagwandas and retired Justice Sardar Raza. After rejection of all the four names by both sides, the names of Justice Ajmal and Justice Ejaz are now under consideration. According to the sources in the two parties, a possibility of proposing new names by the two sides in the next meeting could not be ruled out. On Sept 13, the Supreme Court had noted that major operations of NAB had come to a halt in the absence of its chairman and asked the government to make the appointment soon or get ready to face the consequences. The government sought time till Sept 20. NAB chief retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari was removed by the Supreme Court on May 28, after declaring his appointment illegal on a petition of then opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. The sources in the PPP said the opposition leader had planned to discuss other issues of national importance, particularly the situation after the all-party conference, in his meeting with the prime minister. PEACE TALKS: Meanwhile, the opposition leader said in a statement on Saturday that terrorists were least interested in peace negotiations. “It appears that our wish to sit and settle is just a one-sided and wishful thinking and terrorists have no regard for a consensus message of peace talks,” he said. Mr Shah said the PPP had extended unconditional cooperation to the government on all matters of national interest and now it was the duty of the government to come up with people’s expectations because they could not wait for 100 months after 100 days of “lacking performance”. He said it should also be a matter of concern for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan that his philosophy of negotiations for peace had badly failed. The PTI-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the worst hit province since the decision to hold talks with the militants had been taken, he said.
All to benefit from peace, says Sharif Dawn Report NEW YORK, Sept 28: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has emphasised the need for peace in the South Asian region, saying that all will benefit if India and Pakistan were to improve their ties. . “We should stop interfering in India’s internal affairs and they should stop interfering in our internal affairs,” he told a gathering of Pakistani-Americans. “If there’s peace in the region, everybody will benefit.” The prime minister recalled that when he was ousted in a military coup in 1999, he was pursuing peace with India. “What wrong was I doing? Everybody would have benefited with peace and better relations between India and Pakistan,” he said. In an interview to an Indian television channel, Mr Sharif said that during his meeting with the Indian prime minister on Sunday he would renew his invitation to Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan. He said Mr Singh had invited him to visit his country and “I will be very happy to visit India”. In his address to the Pakistanis, Mr Sharif underlined his desire for working towards peace and a policy of non-interference with both India and Afghanistan. “It is only then that the long-term peace and stability in the region can be achieved,” he said, adding that there was a need to bring down the defence expenditure. Mr Sharif said he believed if there was peace in Afghanistan and India, there would be peace in Pakistan too. Mr Sharif also outlined the hardships he and his party had to endure in their struggle for democracy. “Every Pakistani should be proud of the unprecedented transfer of democratic power that has recently taken place in Pakistan,” he said.
Sharif, Singh agree to reduce LoC tensions By Masood Haider and Anwar Iqbal NEW YORK, Sept 29: After an hour-long meeting between their prime ministers, India and Pakistan agreed on Sunday to reduce tensions along the Line of Control in Kashmir as the first step towards a comprehensive peace in the region.. Two senior military officials — director generals military operations — have been tasked to come up with a clear plan to restore ceasefire along the LoC. No timetable for a DGMOs meeting has been decided yet. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif invited his Indian counterpart to visit Pakistan and Mannmohan Singh invited Mr Sharif to visit India. Both accepted each other’s invitation. Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Masood Khan assisted Prime Minister Sharif. The Indian team included their National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and other senior officials. The two leaders met with their teams. The meeting went on for over an hour. The two sides focused on a piecemeal approach of separating the resolvable from the non-resolvable, instead of insisting on tackling the major issues first, as they did in the past. In two separate briefings after the meeting, Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said that the sides had decided to tackle the more immediate issue of LoC first. “And they decided to task their DGMOs to suggest measure to restore ceasefire at LOC,” said Mr Menon. “The DGMOs will meet soon to investigate cross-border firing and ensure that there is no reoccurrence of such incidents in future,” Mr Jilani said. The summit began with low-expectations and the initial atmospherics were not very encouraging. An allegation, attributed to Prime Minister Sharif, muddied the waters as the Pakistani team headed to the New York Palace Hotel, where Mr Singh was staying. The meeting, which both sides had earlier said would be considered successful if it was not called off, produced an expectedly positive result, an understanding on resolving the potential explosive issue of the LoC. The two sides, however, also raised more difficult issue, like dispute over Kashmir, but agreed that instead of allowing those issues to derail the talks, they should move ahead and confront more contentious issues later. The Indian leader urged Mr Sharif to “bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack” of 2011,” Mr Menon said. The Pakistani prime minister reiterated the Pakistani position on Kashmir and also discussed the Indian interference in Balochistan. Each of this issue was explosive enough to derail the talks, but the two leaders decided to go beyond them and focus on an immediate issue that can be resolved, the LoC violations. Prime Minister Sharif also stressed the need for an early understanding on trade and other relations. He also raised the Siachen and Sir Creek disputes. But both agreed that “all these would be possible once we dealt with the immediate issues that we confront today”, Mr Menon said. Asked to give an overall impression of the meeting, Mr Menon called it “useful and constructive” while Mr Jilani described it as “extremely positive”. The two leaders agreed that “there’s no alternative to a positive, sustained and uninterrupted dialogue”, Mr Jilani added. Mr Menon said the meeting was “necessary at this point of time” and provided for high-level contacts. Asked to compare it with other summit meetings between India and Pakistan, Mr Menon said each meeting was different from the other and “today’s meeting dealt with today’s issue”. Asked if Mr Sharif was the right person to partner with India in the pursuit of peace, Mr Menon said he would not like to “characterise the prime minister of another country”. Before the meeting, some Indian officials had said that they believed Mr Sharif did not have enough authority over his security apparatus to address India’s security concerns. Mr Menon said India’s main concern was terrorism and punishing the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks. Mr Sharif promised to address both issues but reminded the Indians that Pakistan too was a victim of terrorism. After the talks, both sides wished to see a better understanding of peace between the countries, he added. “Our effort is focused on moving towards a broader dialogue but that stage hasn’t come yet,” he said. Responding to a question about India’s interference in Balochistan, Mr Menon said: “I haven’t heard of any such concern about export of terrorism from India. If there is any proof, happy to look into it.” He noted that peace and tranquillity along LoC was a precondition for further movement on the peace process. When an Indian journalist asked him to comment on the Pakistan Army’s alleged role in exporting terrorism, Mr Menon said: “We deal with Pakistan. We do not interfere in their internal affairs.” “The main purpose was to create a conducive environment to discuss and resolve all outstanding issues,” said Mr Jilani, explaining Pakistan’s expectations from the talks. “And the leaders expressed their commitment to resolve all their issues.” Mr Jilani said the two prime ministers had decided that an agreement reached in 2003 should be implemented in letter and spirit to ensure peace along the LoC. “We are aware of your concerns on terrorism, and I think our concerns are also known on the Indian side,” said Mr Jilani when asked how Pakistan would address India’s concerns on terrorism. Mr Jilani said that no-one should underestimate the importance of high-level interaction as such meetings had always produced positive results. He rejected the suggestion that the Pakistani Army did not endorse Mr Sharif’s peace moves. “All institutions in Pakistan are on the same page. In Pakistan, the decision making process is following the same way as in all democratic countries,” he said. Mr Jilani said Pakistan also expressed its willingness to address India’s concerns about LeT, JUD and their leader, Hafiz Saeed. The government had already taken over the madressahs JUD was running. Mr Jilani said Mumbai investigations slowed down because of the delay in the visit of the Judicial Commission. After the visit, they would submit the report and the trial process would be speeded up.
KP govt to launch targeted operation By Zulfiqar Ali PESHAWAR, Sept 29: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to launch a targeted operation in Peshawar and other parts of the province after a flurry of suicide bombings over the past one week left more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured.. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Arbab Muhammad Shehzad here on Sunday evening. The meeting was attended by provincial police officer Nasir Khan Durrani, officials of the 11th Corps, Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary and several intelligence agencies. Home Secretary Syed Akhtar Ali Shah told journalists that Peshawar would be divided into at least four zones and police would carry out a targeted operation. According to him, other law-enforcement agencies would be “ready to move formation” to assist police, if required. He said a task force would work out some short- and long-term plans and measures to counter terrorism. The task force will comprise personnel of 11th Corps, paramilitary forces, police and intelligence outfits. He added that different organisations would share intelligence. Mr Shah said that the task force would start functioning immediately. Similarly, he said, there would be another task force for the provincial capital. Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn that the high-level meeting was informed that militant groups based in Mohmand Agency adjacent to Peshawar were believed to be involved in recent attacks at public and religious places. The attacks were a continuation of the acts of terrorism taking place over the past decade. Mr Shah said that the pattern of the terror attacks was identical. According to him, the government had also decided to mobilise the masses and make them aware of security threats at bus stands and in hotels and other public places. Responding to another question, he said a high-level meeting would be held in Peshawar on Monday to recommend some important steps. He said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak would also attend the meeting. A government handout said that Governor Shaukatullah and Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Khalid Rabbani would also attend the meeting.
Savage attack on civilians leaves 43 dead in Peshawar By Ali Hazrat Bacha PESHAWAR, Sept 29: In the third savage attack on civilians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the massive suicide blasts at a church in Peshawar, terrorists targeted the busy Qissa Khwani Bazaar in the city on Sunday, killing at least 43 people, including 15 children and three women, and inuring 101.. Eighteen of the people killed by the powerful blast were close relatives belonging to three families of Matta Mughal Khel village of Shabqadar. They were said to have come to Peshawar to attend a wedding. The main road was littered with human limbs and blood-soaked clothes. The attack was carried out by a car packed with over 200 kgs of explosive, AIG Shafqat Malik, head of the bomb disposal unit, said. About 80 shops located on both sides of the bazar and a number of cars, motorcycles and auto-rickshaws were destroyed or damaged. The blast took place near the Khan Raiziq police station. DSP Gul Nawaz Khan said the powerful explosion had created a four feet deep and seven feet wide crater. He said policemen posted in the bazar were quite alert and checked vehicles, but could not notice the explosives. Another official said police could not stop entry of vehicles into the market and the government needed to work out an effective plan to avert such tragedies. The bomb squad official said shreds of rocket shells had been found at the site and that was the reason the explosion caused such devastation. He said the explosives were locally manufactured and there was no trace of phosphorus on them. Shabir Ahmed, who suffered injuries in his head and legs, told Dawn that he was in his shop and fell on the ground when the huge explosion took place. “A thick smoke engulfed the area and people were screaming in pain. I managed to stand up and walk to hospital. On seeing blood oozing from my head, rescue workers took me to the trauma unit.” He said bodies and injured people were lying all around. Most of the injured were in no position to move and they remained on the road till the arrival of ambulances. The CNG tank of a pick-up van exploded and several people of a family who were in the vehicle were burned to death. Family elder Sartaj Khan said they had come to Peshawar from Shabqadar for shopping ahead of his daughter’s wedding. “I was standing in front of a shop to buy ice cream for my ailing nephew who was with me when a deafening explosion rocked the area,” Mohammad Sajjad, 26, who works in Saudi Arabia as a labourer, said in the hospital. “The explosion was so intense that it threw me and my nephew a few metres away, injuring both of us,” said Mr Khan, who escaped with minor injuries. Weeping relatives of the dead and injured gathered at the hospital as rescue personnel brought in bodies or small bundles of human remains. Mohammad Wajih, 40, said he was repairing a customer’s watch in his shop at the time of the blast. “Half the face of my customer blew up and several splinters hit him in the back.” According to a spokesman of the Lady Reading Hospital, 38 bodies had been brought to the hospital. Frontier Constabulary personnel Azizuddin of Chitral was among the dead. Most of the victims belonged to Peshawar district. Power supply to Qissa Khwani Bazaar, Kochi Bazar, Kohati Gate, Ashraf Road, Jangi Mohalla, Chowk Yadgar and several other localities was disrupted after the blast. Mehfooz Shah of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company told Dawn that the blast had damaged both lines of 11,000kv, plunging half of the city into darkness. “The restoration of power supply will take at least one day,” he said. Meanwhile, organisations of traders and businessmen announced a three-day mourning to express solidarity with the affected families. The organisations have asked the government to install explosive detectors at entry points of main bazaars. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in New York, strongly condemned the blast. “Those involved in the killing of innocent people are devoid of humanity and all religions,” he said in comments released by his office. According to Reuters, there was no claim of immediate responsibility and Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid condemned the attack. After the massive blasts at a church which claimed 82 lives, a bomb tore through a bus carrying government employees on the edge of Peshawar on Friday, killing 18 people.
Remarks attributed to Sharif cast shadow over summit Dawn Report NEW YORK: Remarks attributed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but denied by his team, almost derailed the first summit meeting between Indian and Pakistani leaders in three years. . The report, filed by a private Pakistani channel, claimed that Mr Sharif had called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a “village hag” while having breakfast with the channel’s anchor. Members of the Indian media team started using the report soon after it ran on the Pakistani channel on Saturday and tried to coax Indian officials into commenting on it. They refused to oblige, saying that such reports did not deserve official attention. But BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi disagreed with them. Addressing a huge election rally in New Delhi, Mr Modi said Mr Sharif’s description of the Indian prime minister was an insult to India. He called it “a serious issue” and urged Mr Singh to reconsider his decision to hold a peace meeting with Mr Sharif. “How dare you say this?” Mr Modi said, raising his voice. “What right you have to say this?” Mr Modi said that while he was willing to take on Mr Singh within the country, he would not tolerate any attack on the Indian prime minister by a foreigner. “There can never be a greater insult to the Indian PM. There cannot be a greater insult to India,” he said of Mr Sharif’s reported remark. And as the crowds roared, Mr Modi added: “We will not tolerate any insult to India.” His remarks came hours before the Singh-Sharif meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The BJP leader said Mr Sharif’s description of Mr Singh as a “dehati aurat” had caused him great grief. BJP’s election rally forced Indian officials to notice the dispute and agitated Indian journalists as well. “Very unfortunate,” said Seema Sirohi, an Indian journalist who had come to New York to cover the summit meeting. “You do not make such remarks about another country’s prime minister.” Another journalist, Lalit Jha, said the remarks attributed to Mr Sharif were “extremely unfortunate”. Both journalists, as well as others, however, said they believed the remarks were falsely attributed to Mr Sharif. “He cannot make such remarks hours before a crucial meeting,” Ms Sirohi said. Some Indian journalists suggested that the anchor filed this report because Mr Singh had refused to give him an interview. By 10am, when the two teams arrived at the hotel for the talks, the atmosphere had cleared a little. Indian officials were heard saying that they had checked with Pakistani officials who said that Mr Sharif never made those remarks. “Obviously, not,” said a Pakistani official, “the prime minister cannot and did not make such irresponsible remarks.” Some Indian journalists said the remarks were probably promoted by those who did not want better relations between India and Pakistan. One Indian journalist raised this during the official briefing on the summit, asking the Pakistani foreign secretary if the remarks aimed at derailing the talks.The foreign secretary said the anchor had already withdrawn the remarks, falsely attributed to Mr Sharif. Fortunately, Mr Singh also decided to ignore Mr Modi’s demand and went ahead with the meeting.
Six militants killed in US drone strike By Pazir Gul MIRAMSHAH, Sept 29: Six militants were killed and three injured when missiles fired by a US drone struck a house in Dergah Mandi in North Waziristan on Sunday morning.. The house caught fire and, according to sources, six people died on the spot and three were wounded. The sources said that the dead and the wounded belonged to Punjab and were associated with militant commander Qari Abbas who was killed in an earlier drone strike on a car in the area. The government, says APP, condemned the US drone strike and as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and (a threat to its) territorial integrity. The Foreign Office spokesman called for an immediate end to US drone attacks and said Pakistan had consistently maintained that drone strikes were counter-productive, entailed loss of innocent civilian lives and had human rights and humanitarian implications. Such strikes set dangerous precedents in inter-state relations, the spokesman said in a statement. The US drone strikes, he said, adversely affected the mutual desire of Pakistan and the US to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship and ensure peace and stability in the region. The area attacked by US drone, according to AFP, is said to be the stronghold of Afghanistan’s Haqqani network, a guerrilla faction linked to the Taliban.
Three Karachi suspects held near Wah By Amjad Iqbal TAXILA, Sept 29: Three men suspected to be involved in Lyari gang war, targeted killings and extortion in Karachi were arrested during a raid carried out by security forces in a village near Wah Cantonment on Sunday.. Police said that arms meant for Nato forces, walkie-talkie and radio sets, fake ID cards, passports, a large amount of cash, scores of SIMs and eight cell-phones were seized from the suspects. Tariq Gandassa, Faisal Mulla and Sharafat Khan, who reportedly belong to a political group, were arrested from Gari Afghanan village during the pre-dawn raid. According to DSP Toufail Baloch of CID, the detainees were wanted to various police stations of Karachi for their alleged involvement in cases of extortion, robbery, targeted killing and other crime. He said they were arrested on the lead provided by the suspected target killers arrested at Murree on Sept 18, adding that one of three men was wanted in the murder of four men. Police said the suspects were planning to flee abroad, adding that they had been shifted to some undisclosed location for interrogation. According to police, target killers and extortionists have started fleeing to Punjab and other parts of the country from Karachi after the Rangers and other security forces launched a targeted operation in the city.
Nisar rejects Indian allegations against Pakistan Army By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has rejected allegations levelled by the Indian external affairs minister against the Pakistan Army that it was hindering the peace process between the two countries.. In a strongly-worded statement issued through the Press Information Department on Sunday night, he termed the remarks made by Indian Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid “unnecessary and against diplomatic norms”. Hours before the meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries in New York, the Indian minister was reported to have alleged in an interview to Voice of America that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and its military were sabotaging the Nawaz Sharif government’s efforts to make peace with India. Mr Khurshid said while Prime Minister Sharif was saying the right things, it was imperative for the civilian government of Pakistan to find a way to keep the army and the ISI under control. “We’ve been told that all the government agencies are on the same page,” Mr Khurshid said, but added that “if they were, the things that are happening would not be happening”. Referring to the recent violence on the Line of Control, Mr Khurshid said he would not accept the notion that it could be the work of non-state actors without support from the ISI. He said if Pakistan could not control non-state actors on its territory it should seek India’s help. Commenting on the Indian foreign minister’s remarks, Chaudhry Nisar said the statements being issued by the Indian rulers and politicians at a time when Pakistan was sincerely trying to improve the atmosphere and end confrontation showed that New Delhi was not serious in pursuing the peace process with Pakistan. “It is surprising that the Indian government is levelling allegations in response to the Nawaz Sharif government’s efforts to normalise relations between the two countries,” the PML-N leader regretted. He said no foreign ruler had the right to speak on an international forum about fabricated differences and a gulf between the Pakistan government and its army. The interior minister said there was complete harmony between the army and the government on all international and national security issues. He said Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had himself stated that the military and the government were on the same page on policy matters. He said the Indian rulers were finding it difficult to digest and were issuing statements reflecting their “ill-intentions, negative thinking and anti-Pakistan sentiments”.
Exporters get lucrative orders at 8th Expo By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana KARACHI, Sept 29: Export orders worth millions of dollars were placed by foreign buyers during the 8th Expo Pakistan which concluded here on Sunday.. While Bangladeshi buyers placed orders worth eight million dollars, an investment group from UAE expressed interest for sourcing goods from Pakistan worth $100 million. The four-day mega event started on Sept 26 at the Karachi Expo Centre, and was organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (Tdap). About 1,000 buyers from 55 countries attended the event held business meetings, entered into export deals and signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). According to Tdap sources, the UAE group is keen to import home furnishing goods, including carpets and textiles. The group plans to base their sourcing from Pakistan for its chain stores in UAE and other GCC countries. A delegate of the Dubai Textile City made deals worth $1 million with a Pakistani supplier of textile goods. While another group from Dubai Textile City finalised a deal worth $2 million in home textiles and furnishing. Sources said many MoUs were signed between Bangladeshi buyers and Pakistani companies in the presence of Riazuddin Qureshi, director general, Board of Investment, and commercial attaché of Pakistan to Dhaka Farah Farooq. Under one such agreement, a Pakistani company manufacturing electrical goods would supply fans worth $5 million to Bangladesh. Similarly, Pakistan will export kinnow worth $2 million to Bangladesh during the next season starting in November, 2013. Another major development took place when a Bangladeshi importer placed orders worth over half a million dollars for Pakistani basmati rice and an agreement was signed with a local supplier, said Ms Farooq. At a meeting with Tdap secretary Rabia Javery Agha, the Bangladeshi delegation informed her that there was huge demand for Pakistan-made ladies fabric and designer wear lawns, footwear, pharmaceutical raw material, medicine, spices and marble and an emerging market for mini-trucks. Both sides expressed dissatisfaction over the current low volume of trade between the two countries. It was pointed out that restrictions on business visas which entrepreneurs from both sides often faced, non-signing of FTA between the two counties and lack of implementation of South Asia Free Trade Agreement in its true spirit had affected trade growth. A leading Japanese importer of fruits and vegetables, who has been sourcing from US and Latin American countries, also visited Pakistan and held extensive meetings with mango exporters and placed a big order for the next season. Exhibitors of agro-food in rice, fruits and vegetables and herbal items negotiated deals worth $35 million from buyers of Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and US. Buyers from Azerbaijan, Kuwait and US finalised deals worth $29 million for import of consumers goods.
Monitoring of oil products’ stocks planned By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The government is working on a plan with the oil industry for real-time automated monitoring of prices and stocks of petroleum products throughout the country to check overpricing and black marketing.. An official told Dawn on Sunday that the process of automation of all retail stations was initially started by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) about eight years ago to keep a watch on stocks of oil products held by various retailers and monitor their prices. But the process became controversial when a mafia in the oil industry criticised the automation process, particularly the manner in which contracts were being handled by the country’s largest oil marketing company. A number of audit objections were raised, leading to intervention by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which started investigating the matter. In the meanwhile, the PSO gave up its automation plan. The plan was aimed at recording the quantities of oil products at each station, particularly ahead of monthly and weekly changes in oil prices so that petroleum dealers could not manipulate sales for inventory gains and to ensure that an artificial shortage of products was not created. Other larger oil marketing companies like Shell and Caltex also started real-time monitoring of stocks and oil prices of their dealers but then stopped it because of poor regulation by the agencies concerned and lack of support and coordination by the government. Another reason for suspending the automation programme was the failure of a government plan to have weekly or daily price adjustments because of opposition from various stakeholders, particularly the oil regulator, who said it could cause confusion in the market. In view of the recent build-up of oil stocks to a much higher level across the supply chain, including refineries, marketing companies and retailers, and because of rising international prices and resultant outflow of foreign exchange, the government has felt the need to revive the monitoring programme. A petroleum ministry official said that even though there was a cost of keeping higher oil stocks, the supply chain had been keeping substantial stocks to earn profits through inventory gains. This becomes a problem when retailers, mostly in far-flung areas, slow down sales ahead of monthly price revision to earn higher profits after the change. He said there was nothing wrong with oil industry keeping larger stocks than the mandatory minimum stock of 21-day coverage for strategic reserves but the government needed to keep a constant watch on prices to ensure that all retailers were selling products at prices fixed by the oil marketing companies after approval by the government and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra). Under the automation plan, the marketing companies will have direct access to stock position of each retailer and the prices at which they are sold. All the companies will be linked with a centralised computerised system to be monitored on a real-time basis not only by the marketing companies but also by the government and the regulator. Simultaneously, the government and the regulator will have direct computerised access to stocks held by refineries and the OMCs. This will help the regulators to prevail upon the oil industry to immediately shore up supplies in areas facing shortage. Responding to a question, the official said the government had empowered the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, in consultation with Ogra, to have a market study for a proposed increase in dealers’ commissions and margins of the OMCs.
Power shock followed by petrol bomb: Sharp increase in electricity tariff By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The government announced on Monday a sharp increase in electricity tariff for domestic consumers across the country.. For one category of consumers, using 100 to 300 units a month, the increase will be by an unprecedented 210 per cent. A senior official told Dawn that the government had spared people consuming less than 200 units per month. According to him, the average tariff increase of 30pc will generate an additional revenue of Rs175 billion. With this increase, the government has met a commitment made to the International Monetary Fund to jack up power tariff in two phases to reduce power subsidies by Rs396bn. In the first phase power rates were increased on Aug 1 for commercial and industrial consumers. The rates for ‘lifeline consumers’ using less than 50 units per month have been kept unchanged at Rs2 per unit. Likewise, the tariffs of Rs5.79 for 1-100 units and Rs8.11 for 101-200 units have also remained unchanged. The government has allowed only one-slab benefit when consumption moves into the higher slab of above 300 units per month. The average increase is more than 35pc after including 17pc GST. The tariff for 101-300 units per month has been increased by 72.6pc (Rs5.89 per unit) to Rs14. Consumers in this category will not get the benefit of lower slab of Rs5.79 per unit and their electricity bills will effectively increase by almost 100pc. For example, the monthly bill of a consumer of 300 units, which earlier stood at Rs3,436, will go up by 87.5pc to Rs6,442, including taxes. The consumers in this category will be the hardest hit because they are in the lower income group, using two fans, a fridge, a television and a couple of lights. The rates for the category consuming 301-700 units per month has been increased by about 30pc (Rs3.67 per unit) to Rs16 per unit. This category will get the benefit of previous slab (101-300 units), but not of the first slab. Hence, the effective increase for this category will be of more than 140pc. The tariff for consumers of more than 700 units has been increased by 19.44pc to Rs18 from Rs15.07 per unit. They will get the benefit of previous slab (301-700 units). They will be charged at Rs16 per unit for first 700 units and Rs18 for above 700 units. According to an expert on matters relating to tariff, the monthly bill for consumers in the category of 100 to 300 units goes up by 210pc because they will not get the benefits of first three slabs. The rates for sanctioned load of over 5 kilowatt and above have been raised by 29pc to Rs18 per unit for peak-hour consumption and for off-peak by 52pc, from Rs8.22 Rs12.50 per unit. A senior official at the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority said the government appeared to have made a mistake by withdrawing the slab benefit to consumers in the category of 101-300 units.
Commitment to IMF fulfilled By Ahmad Fraz Khan LAHORE, Sept 30: The unprecedented hike in power tariff will spell disaster for people on three counts: a direct increase of 30 per cent, a similar rise in taxes on bills and withdrawal of slabs for those using less electricity. . Experts say the government decision will simply take electricity out of fiscal reach of most of the people. “The withdrawal of slab system will alone jack up bills by 90pc,” says a former head of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco). Add 30pc direct increase, and people in the lower middle class (consuming between 300 and 450 units) will see their bill going up by 120pc. Add another 22pc of taxes, and see the amount they will be paying. “This is political and financial naiveté at its worst,” he says, adding: “The PPP government tried in 2009 to do away with the slab system for over 300 units. The entire country was engulfed by protests and the government had to form a high-level committee, headed by Raja Pervez Ashraf, which advised the government to restore the slab before it was too late and the government complied with it quickly.” Now the PML-N government has reduced the slab to 200 units. How people would react, the government may realise soon, the former Pepco chief warns. “What makes the increase much worse than it looks is the fact that the PML-N appears to have totally forgotten other options for containing the crisis,” says a former member (power) of Wapda. It has acted under pressure from the IMF conditionalities rather than being more proactive. It could have easily provided gas to the sector and lowered tariff by 60pc. By allocating over 700 million cubic feet gas it could have generated 2,800MW at Rs5 per unit against Rs15 from thermal sources. By providing only 152 million cubic feet gas to some efficient plants near Lahore the government will start getting 840MW and avoiding the highest cost of generation and lowering pressure on tariff. “The PML-N has not even talked about the gas option in its first 100 days in government and readily increased tariff by a socially dangerous 30pc in one go. It appears to have collapsed under the weight of the IMF rather than being more imaginative at local solutions,” he regrets. The second option the government has forgotten is the conservation option, says a managing director of Genco Holding Company. The country, on an average, saved around 1,000MW in three years (2008-10) and the government simply ignored this option. After an energy summit in 2010 also, the saving went up to 1,350MW. Both these factors (gas and conservation) could partially take price pressure off because the planners can stop generating highest cost electricity. Such options were not even discussed during the first 100 days of the present government. The only thing it talked about was to “rationalise tariff as being dictated by the IMF and other international financial institutions” and had acted at the first available opportunity. The government could have at least capped its tax volume on the sector and correspondingly lowered the tax rate, without affecting total revenue. It has not done even that. The only option it looked at and executed it is increasing tariff and being creative to create a three-dimensional impact without mentioning it. This is bad politics and even worse economics.
Petrol, diesel prices up By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD: The government increased the prices of petrol, diesel and other petroleum products by up to Rs5.57 per litre which went into effect at Monday midnight. . Under the revised rates approved by the government, the ex-depot price for petrol has been increased by Rs4.12 per litre to Rs113.25 per litre. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had recommended an increase of Rs5.45 per litre but the government slightly reduced petroleum levy to keep the increase at Rs4.12. On the other hand, the price of high speed diesel was increased by Rs4.69 per litre by raising the petroleum levy. As a result, the ex-depot price of HSD, used in agriculture and transport sector, has been jacked up to Rs116.95 from Rs112.26 per litre. The price of kerosene oil, used mostly in rural areas for cooking and in lamps, has been increased to Rs108.13 per litre from Rs105.99, up by Rs2.14 per litre. The ex-depot price for High Octane Blending Component (HOBC), used in luxury vehicles, has been increased by Rs5.57 to Rs143.90 per litre. The price of light diesel oil, used in industrial sector, has been increased by Rs2.81 per litre to Rs101.24 per litre. The retail prices of petroleum products are usually 30-40 paisa per litre more than ex-depot prices because of transportation cost from depots to retail outlets. An official said Ogra had recommended to the government to absorb a part of the proposed increase by reducing the petroleum levy, instead of passing on full impact to consumers who are already facing inflationary pressures. He said the government was currently getting about Rs7.5 billion per month on account of the petroleum levy and another Rs21.5 billion per month from general sales tax. In Ogra’s opinion, the government could maintain its overall monthly revenue of Rs29 billion if it partially absorbed the proposed increase because of higher product prices translate into higher GST collection. Besides the import parity price of petroleum products, profit margins to dealers and oil companies, the government is currently charging petroleum levy at Rs14 per litre on HOBC, Rs8.67 on petrol, Rs6.46 on HSD and Rs6 on kerosene oil. On top of that the government is charging 17 per cent GST on sale price of petroleum products that rises as import parity prices move up The price of aviation fuel, jet petrol (JP-1), has been fixed at Rs96.42 per litre, up by Rs2.13 per litre and of JP-4 at Rs89.52 per litre, up by Rs3.06 per litre. Likewise, the price for JP-8 has been increased to Rs96.07 per litre from Rs93.95, up by Rs2.12 per litre.
Malik escapes rocket attack By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Sept 30: Two rockets, reportedly fired by Baloch militants, landed yards away from Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik and senior civil and military officials in Awaran on Monday and damaged a vehicle and walls of a government building.. The incident was seen here as a part of the militants’ plan to obstruct rescue and relief operation in the areas affected by this month’s earthquake and aftershocks in Awaran district. Officials here said army and Frontier Corps and government functionaries had come under constant pressure from the militants who appear to be bent on getting relief work stopped. They said two rockets exploded on the premises of the Judicial Complex where Dr Malik and senior civil and military officials were present. “The chief minister was at a place about 400 yards away from where rockets landed,” senior police officer Rafiq Lasi told Dawn. “Militants had fired the rockets at a brief interval at around 6.30 am.” Dr Malik said: “Life and death is in the hands of God. I am not scared of such incidents and would remain in Awaran till completion of relief work.” One rocket hit a residential quarter and damaged a vehicle of the education department. “The driver who had left the vehicle remained unhurt,” Mr Lasi said. “The target of the attack could be the places where the army and FC have stored relief goods reaching Awaran for distribution among the affected people,” one official said. The outer walls of the Judicial Complex were damaged but there was no casualty or any major damage, he said. A police official said that it appeared that rockets were fired from a place 12 to 15 kilometres away. Security arrangements were reviewed by officials concerned after the attack. According to reports from quake-hit areas of Mashkay, armed men set on fire tents, foodstuff and other relief goods distributed by FC personnel. A senior official said they had received such reports and the local administration was confirming it. The Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR) said army and FC troops taking part in relief operation had been attacked in Mashkay. The director-general of the ISPR said at least four attacks on army personnel had been repulsed while helicopters engaged in ferrying relief goods had come under rocket attack and gunfire. But despite the attacks, he said, army was doing its job and would continue to distribute relief goods among affected people.Meanwhile, NGOs and local people put the death toll at 600 and 700 but officials say that casualty is lesser than that. According to sources, the provincial government in collaboration with NGOs has formed the Awaran Disaster Response Forum which has reached Awaran to take part in rescue and relief work. “The provincial government and the NGOs have evolved a mechanism for smooth distribution of relief goods,” sources said. Chief Minister Malik will supervise the operation in Awaran. Saleem Baloch of Action-Aid, who is in the quake-hit areas with a workers’ team and relief goods, confirmed the torching of goods in Malar area of Mashkay. The chief minister met groups of local people on Monday and assured them that the federal and provincial governments would help the affected people. “Pakka houses will be constructed in place of mud-houses in the affected areas of Awaran district,” he said. He said that relief goods were reaching the affected areas of Awaran and 20,000 tents sent by the national and provincial disaster management authorities would soon be distributed.
Second drone strike in 24 hours; 3 dead Dawn Report MIRAMSHAH / ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: Four days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raised the issue of US drone attacks in tribal areas of Pakistan at the UN General Assembly, a second such strike within 24 hours left three people dead on Monday.. A US drone fired two missiles at a house in Dattakhel tehsil of North Waziristan tribal region on Monday morning, killing three people and injuring two others. Local People said the house in Land Mohammad Khel village, some 15km west of the agency headquarters Miramshah, caught fire after the attack. Official sources said that a militant compound had apparently been targeted. They said the dead were stated to be militants. The Foreign Office condemned the continuing drone attacks and renewed its call of their cessation.
Ulema urge govt, Taliban to stop fighting By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: Ulema and representatives of various religious seminaries functioning under Wafaqul Madaris expressed concern on Monday over the “civil war-like situation” in the country and appealed to both the government and the Taliban to observe a “complete ceasefire” till the completion of the process of talks. . The appeal was made in a joint statement issued after a “consultative meeting” of the Ulema and teachers of seminaries held at a hotel. It was presided over by Wafaqul Madaris chief Maulana Salimullah Khan. Abdul Quddoos, the spokesman for Wafaqul Madaris, a conglomerate of seminaries of Deobandi school of thought, said it was a routine “consultative meeting” to discuss the prevailing situation in the country and that was why the media had not been invited to cover the event or for a press briefing. In reply to a question, he said the organisation wanted to play a mediatory role in the peace process, but at the same time it was mindful of the past when the establishment “used our shoulders, but ultimately did what it had already decided”. Mr Quddoos recalled that Wafaqul Madaris played a mediatory role during the Lal Masjid episode in 2007 and later in Swat, but on both the occasions its efforts went in vain because of the use of military force. “This time we don’t want to put our reputation at stake.” Moreover, he said, the organisation had no links with the Taliban. But he added that it would try to establish contacts with all “three stakeholders — the government, the army and the Taliban” — in an effort to know the real issues. Mr Quddoos wondered if the United States could hold talks with the Afghan Taliban after indulging in a bloody war for 10 years, why the army and the government could not hold negotiations with those who belonged to Pakistan. The participants of the meeting, who had come from different parts of the country, expressed sorrow over the loss of innocent lives in the recent incidents of terrorism. But at the same time they expressed satisfaction over the fact that the government and the Taliban had agreed to come to the negotiating table. It was the only way of resolving the issue, they observed. The Ulema regretted that “some elements” were trying to sabotage the “peace process”. “It is a matter of satisfaction for Ulema and Mashaikh that the government, the armed forces and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan all have agreed to end civil war in the country through negotiations,” the statement said. “We appeal to the government of Pakistan, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and the country’s armed forces to observe ceasefire and not to indulge in any armed activity till the outcome of the talks.” The meeting was attended by Mufti-i-Azam Pakistan Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani, Sheikhul Islam Maulana Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, head of Jamia Uloomul Islamia Binnori Town Maulana Dr Abdul Razzaq Iskandar, Maulana Fazal Muhammad, Maulana Sher Ali Shah of Jamia Haqqania, spiritual leader from tribal areas Maulana Mufti Mukhtaruddin Shah, Mufti Syed Adnan Kakakhel and Mufti Abu Labab of Jamiatur Rasheed, Maulana Muhammad Hassan of Jamia Madina Lahore and Secretary General of Wafaqul Madaris Maulana Qari Muhammad Hanif Jalandhary.
Irsa expects 15pc water shortage for Rabi By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has estimated 15 per cent water shortage for the Rabi cropping season 2013-14 and decided not to transfer water from Indus zone to Punjab through Chashma-Jhelum link canal.. A senior official told Dawn on Monday that a meeting of Irsa’s advisory committee, presided over by its chairman Asjad Imtiaz Ali, had approved water availability estimates finalised by its technical committee at 34.22 million acre feet (MAF) for Rabi season (Oct 1–April 1) with a shortage of 15pc. The advisory committee put total river flows during the season at 22.22 MAF and noted that another 12 MAF would be available from the storage. Total system losses were estimated at 3 MAF, leaving behind the water availability of 30.95 MAF to be distributed among the four provinces. As a consequence, Irsa decided to continue with water distribution among the provinces under para-2 of the 1991 water apportionment accord. Therefore, Punjab’s share was fixed at 16.65 MAF, followed by Sindh at 12.58 MAF, 1.02 MAF for Balochistan and 0.70 MAF for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Provincial governments were advised to submit their water withdrawal plans within a week for approval and implementation. The official said the Balochistan government complained that it was not being given its full share by Sindh. Irsa directed the Sindh government to ensure full irrigation share to Balochistan.He said a representative of the Sindh government said that given higher storage and water availability in Mangla dam, water should not be transferred to Punjab from Indus. The Irsa chairman said the issue had already been settled in the distribution plan that ensured water would not be transferred from Indus to Mangla zone in case there was no surplus water in the Indus. The official explained that under the water distribution plan approved by Irsa, the Chashma-Jhelum link canal would not be opened for transfer of Indus waters to Jhelum zone but half of Punjab’s share from Indus zone would be diverted through the Taunsa-Punjnad Link canal.
PTI to host conference of scholars on militancy By Khawar Ghumman ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: After floating a slew of proposals to deal with terrorism and the Taliban which failed to find common ground either with the government or other opposition parties, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has now decided to hold a national conference of religious scholars and intellectuals on Oct 5 for the purpose.. The surprising part of the move is that instead of inviting heads or representatives of political parties, only religious scholars, intellectuals and thinkers will be invited to the conference. In the opening lines of a press statement the party’s media wing issued on Monday about the conference, it criticised the government for sleeping over the recommendations of the Sept 9 all-party conference (APC). “After accepting PTI’s stand and Imran Khan’s formula during the APC which was translated into a consensus resolution, there is no on-ground implementation. This has resulted in continuation of terrorist acts throughout the country, notably in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” It said that taking into account the gravity of the issue, the religious leadership of the PTI had decided to organise a national conference on ‘Islam, Deen and Salamati’ (Islam, religion and peace). The purpose of the conference is to get input from religious scholars and thinkers from across the country on how to deal with terrorism and turn Pakistan into a peaceful and prosperous country. The PTI chairman will chair the conference and the party expressed hope that the initiative would help break a new path. Asked if the PTI, by holding the conference, was trying to distance itself from the recommendations of the APC, an official of the party’s media wing clarified that it wanted to create consensus among religious leaders on the issue of terrorism. He said Mufti Abdul Qavi, who deals with religious affairs for the PTI, was heading the initiative and by no means it was equivalent to the government-sponsored APC in which all political parties had collectively called for a peaceful solution to the ongoing terrorism in the country. However, the announcement made by the party said that it was holding the conference because of the government’s failure to implement the APC resolution. Elated by the outcome of the APC, which the PTI claimed was vindication of its stand on militancy, Mr Khan has been actively arguing how the government should go about the proposed dialogue with the Taliban as recommended by the resolution. Imran Khan, talking to reporters outside the Parliament House on Sept 16, called for immediate ceasefire by the government and the militants and formation of their delegations to kick-start the talks.On Sept 23, after an attack on Christians in Peshawar, Mr Khan said talks could only be held with those willing to renounce violence and accept the writ of the state. “If peace is to be given a chance, it is essential to isolate those who are dedicated to an agenda of violence and carrying out terror attacks against innocent people from those who are prepared to have a ceasefire and talk peace within the ambit of the constitution,” a statement issued by him said. However, Mr Khan came out with a shocker last week when he recommended setting up of a Taliban office in Pakistan on the lines of their Afghan counterparts, who had briefly opened their office in Qatar for negotiations with the US and other stakeholders. Mr Khan and his party have been facing a tirade of criticism from all around over the suggestion. Asad Umar, the newly elected PTI MNA, even had to say that Mr Khan had expressed his personal viewpoint.
SC may hear senior journalist on payment allegation By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The Supreme Court indicated on Monday that it would give the right of hearing to senior journalist Nazir Naji on an allegation that he had received Rs3 million from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) during the second government of PML-N in 1999. . A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked Attorney General Muneer A. Malik to go through the Sept 5 application of Asad Kharal, reporter of an English daily, levelling the allegation against Mr Naji, and assist it in the matter of providing the right of hearing to him. The court had taken up allegations that the last PPP government had drawn Rs270 million from the IB fund in 2008-09 to dislodge the Punjab government. The news item headlined “Govt withdrew millions from Intelligence Bureau’s accounts” was published by the English daily on March 14 last year. The reporter claimed that former director general of the IB Dr Shoaib Suddle had confirmed that the money had been drawn from the bureau’s secret fund and that when he brought the matter to the notice of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani he kept quiet because of political considerations. The report also accused the PPP government of drawing Rs400 million between 1988 and 1990 from the IB fund to buy loyalty of parliamentarians to offset a ‘no-confidence’ motion, win Azad Kashmir elections and remove the provincial government in then NWFP and install Aftab Sherpao as chief minister. On Monday, the court asked IB Director General Sikandar Hayat to go through the application and submit a para-wise reply. In his application, Asad Kharal alleged that the IB had doled out Rs3 million to Mr Naji who at the time was not only a columnist of a Urdu daily but also held a government office as chairman of the Pakistan Academy of Letters from April 3, 1997, to Oct 22, 1999. He said Saeed Mehdi, principal secretary to prime minister Nawaz Sharif at that time, had met then IB chief retired Col Iqbal Niazi in the Prime Minister Secretariat and conveyed Mr Sharif’s message about paying Rs3m to Mr Naji. Col Niazi was the personal staff officer of Mr Sharif in 1998 before his appointment as IB director general. Retired Major Farid Jadoon, who was personal staff officer of Col Niazi, had delivered the money to Mr Naji in his house. The application alleged that the IB had audio and video recordings of Mr Naji’s alleged confession. The conversation was recorded by Col Ehsanul Haq, then Punjab chief of the IB, in the presence of Col Niazi. It also accused the IB of converting Rs100 million into a foreign currency and sending it abroad through illegal channels like Hawala/Hundi. Col Niazi had denied the allegation in the Supreme Court and termed it a conspiracy. Maj Jadoon also denied that he had handed over the money to Mr Naji. On Monday, the two former officers submitted their statements in sealed envelopes. The attorney general said he would like to examine the documents in the office of registrar. Referring to the allegation of doling out Rs400m for political exigencies, he recalled that the IB had already mentioned the purpose of withdrawing the money from its secret fund in 2008-09. On May 13, the IB had informed the court that the money had been used to counter insurgency in Balochistan. It said the spending had been certified by the controlling authority.
$25m flows out of country daily, says SBP governor By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: The State Bank of Pakistan made a startling disclosure before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that $25 million in foreign currency was illegally flowing out of the country each day from airports and that was perhaps one major reason for the recent battering of the rupee. . “About $25 million foreign exchange goes out every day from Quetta, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi airports and we are signing an MOU with the Federal Investigation Agency to check suitcases to control this and plug holes,” SBP Governor Dr Yasin Anwar told the Senate Standing Committee on Finance. Mr Anwar made the statement when senators raised questions about the government’s policy to restore people’s confidence in the rupee that had been losing its value for several weeks, leading to excessive dollarisation. “Even property dealers and big stores are doing business in dollars,” said Senator Haji Adeel of ANP. At the committee meeting presided over by Senator Nasrin Jalil of MQM, Usman Saifullah Khan and Sughra Imam of PPP wanted to know the reason behind Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent meeting with Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros who they alleged was one of the leading global currency speculators and had played havoc with Southeast Asian economies in the 1990s. “We should also know who advised the prime minister for this meeting,” Senator Saifullah said. The official response was that Mr Soros had no presence in Pakistan’s currency market but he had made some philanthropist contributions and his meeting with the prime minister was part of an interaction with leading international investors. Senators criticised the government’s priorities, particularly providing $5 billion to IPPs instead of using the amount for development of hydropower projects like Bhasha dam, Dassu dam and Neelum Jhelum project where only nominal allocations were being made. Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood Khan described the perception of dollarisation as baseless and said there was no evidence to prove that payments were made in foreign currency. He said the government was working to synchronise the anti-money laundering law with anti-terrorism financing to comply with international standards. The SBP chief said economic policies were always designed for longer-term objectives and should not be assessed on the basis of short-term problems. He said the central bank was not a law-enforcement agency which could take direct action. But, he pointed out that its vigilance on market moves had led in the past to FIA’s actions against Khanani & Kalia and Zarco Exchange. The flight of capital has always been a major pressure on foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate but such outflows were previously estimated at between $5-10 million a day. The revelation by SBP governor puts the amount of outflows by illegal means at a staggering $750 million a month or $9 billion a year — almost equivalent to the country’s total foreign exchange reserves. Dr Anwar did not agree that the recent steep fall in the value of the rupee to Rs110 against the dollar was a regular feature because of withdrawal from foreign currency accounts. He said the rupee had touched its lowest point only for two minutes during which only $11.3 million was misappropriated. He said he had already held a meeting with banks and punishments had been decided against banks involved in the inappropriate activity. He said the government and the central bank were being criticised for a single day fall in the value of the rupee but the critics did not appreciate the fact that the SBP managed the foreign exchange position from March to June, when a major transition was taking place from one political government to the interim government and to a new elected government despite predictions of crisis and defaults by major commentators. He said the government’s decision to reach a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was taken at a suitable time because of outstanding foreign repayments of $6.6 billion when major multilateral lenders like the World Bank and the Asian Development Banks had stopped extending loans for development. This led to improved market sentiments and positive comments from international rating agencies. He said parliamentarians should not compare the handling of exchange rate issue with India where 75 per cent banks were state-run, while in Pakistan 80 per cent banking was in the private sector. As senators criticised the economic team for allowing the IMF to take micro-level decisions, both the secretary finance and the central bank governor said daily, weekly and monthly reporting of economic data to IMF was a prerequisite for all member countries but this compliance became strict when a nation adopted to have an IMF programme which was neither unusual nor a Pakistan specific condition. Senator Sughra Imam expressed concern that policy-makers did not offer any incentive to people for keeping rupee deposits in banks and as a result savings were being diverted to foreign currency accounts for the sake of profits because of declining exchange rate. She asked why foreign exchange deposits were not subjected to taxes like the rupee accounts. “They are earning profits just by holding dollars in their accounts.” UNCERTAIN INFLOWS: The senators criticised the government for banking on uncertain foreign exchange inflows through auction of 3G telecom licences, PTCL proceeds from Etisalat and coalition support fund (CSF) from the US which had not materialised over the past four years. Secretary Waqar Masood said appointments to key positions in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had been made and soon the matter would be pushed forward. He said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had taken up the issue of PTCL proceeds with Etisalat. He said out of $1.4 billion CSF inflows expected this year, about $325 million would be disbursed before Oct 15, although these were earlier expected in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
SC hints at order against tariff hike By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: The sharp increase in electricity tariff became a subject of discussion in suo motu proceedings on loadshedding in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. . The court indicated that it would issue an injunctive order if it transpired that the notification of raising tariff for domestic consumers lacked statutory backing. The injunctive order could mean staying or reversing the government’s decision to raise tariff, said a legal expert. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry expressed its desire to review whether the government had the authority to notify the increase in tariff. The court will take up the matter on Wednesday. Under Section 31 (4) of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority Act 1997, the government could issue the notification only after a tariff determination by Nepra. On the court’s instructions, the government through Additional Attorney General Atiq Shah furnished two notifications — one issued on August 5 for increasing tariff for commercial and industrial consumers and the other for domestic consumers issued on Monday. The court was of the opinion that the second notification had been issued without tariff re-determination by Nepra and regretted that the increase should not have been made in such a manner. The Managing Director of the Pakistan Electric Power Company, Zargham Eshaq Khan, explained that the Sept 30 notification was a second phase of the already delayed tariff determination by Nepra in April, although it should have been done in September last year. The increase was still less than what Nepra had suggested, he informed the court. The court regretted that the government was shifting the burden of its inefficiency on ordinary consumers, especially when it still had to recover a staggering amount of Rs441 billion from different consumers, including public and private. “Why don’t you start collecting arrears from tomorrow, instead of passing the burden to the consumers,” the chief justice said, adding that the court was ready to hand down a judicial order in this regard. The court regretted that international prices of petroleum products were going down, but the government was increasing their prices and passing them on to the consumers. Nepra Chairman Khawaja Naeem said the revenue requirement for generating electricity this year was Rs1.25 trillion, but devaluation of the rupee coupled with inflation, Rs40 billion line losses and pilferage, Rs84bn tariff differential, Rs84bn unrecoverable tariff and Rs45bn mark-up on delayed payments to independent power producers to clear circular debt would reduce the cash flow by Rs437 billion. “This industry runs on cash flow and shortage of this important commodity give rise to loadshedding and price increase,” he explained. Mr Naeem presented a list of arrears to be recovered by Wapda from the federal government (Rs3.49bn), Azad Kashmir (Rs24bn), provincial governments (Rs74bn), Fata (Rs20bn), agriculture sector (Rs1.2bn) and the private sector, including domestic consumers, (Rs259bn). Besides, Rs24bn was stuck up because of litigation in different courts, he said, adding that tariff could not be revised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the past three to four years because of a stay order. “Is this the writ of the government when you cannot even recover your arrears,” the court regretted. Under the law, the life of a stay order was only six months. Mr Naeem said the cost of power production could be reduced by 40 per cent straightaway if the allocation of gas was done judiciously, adding that the cut in prices would reduce the chances of pilferage. He said one of the reasons for circular debt was lack of collection of recoverables. He informed the court that the government was planning to introduce a remote monitoring system which could not be tampered with. The court also expressed disappointment over the government’s recent energy policy. Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, a member of the bench, said the policy might appear to be good on paper, but the moment it was implemented, the apex court would be flooded with petitions seeking resolution of disputes between the centre and the provinces. “My guess is that your policy is not practicable,” he said.
Balochistan seeks help from international community By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Oct 1: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has appealed to the United Nations, international community and donor agencies for financial assistance for reconstruction work and rehabilitation of people in earthquake-stricken areas of Awaran and Kech districts. . Addressing a press conference on Tuesday on his return from Awaran after supervising rescue and relief work, he said rebuilding of over 25,000 houses and rehabilitation of over 100,000 affected people would be a difficult task without cooperation of the world community. The chief minister said the government had declared Mushkey tehsil of Awaran and Dandar union council of Kech district as calamity-hit areas. The government is strictly monitoring distribution of relief goods and there is no report of misappropriation of relief goods. Action would be taken if anyone found selling relief goods in the market, he added. Appreciating the role of federal government, army and Frontier Corps, he said without their cooperation the Balochistan government could not carry out rescue and relief work in such a large area. He praised the governments of Punjab and Sindh for providing relief goods for the quake-affected people. The Punjab government has sent about 50 trucks of food items, 15,000 tents and other material and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has given his helicopter for two months for relief work. Mr Baloch said the Sindh government had announced Rs50 million in financial assistance and 5,000 tents. The chief minister said that some people were opposing the relief operation being carried out by the government and wanted that relief goods be handed over to them. “During my five-day stay there I talked to a number of people and tried to convince them that carrying out relief operation was government’s responsibility,” he added. When asked whether he had talked to militants in Awaran who were reportedly opposing the government’s relief operation, he said: “No, I did not talk to militants’ leaders, but some elements who were opposing the government relief operation.” He was satisfied that concerns of the people in Awaran had been addressed and now they were receiving relief goods. The chief minister said the village of Nokjo had not been affected by the Sept 24 earthquake, but the second tremor on Sept 28 had caused large-scale destruction there. He said 276 severely injured people had been sent to Karachi’s hospitals. The chief minister said the government would keep providing essential goods to affected families for three months. But, he added, the reconstruction work would continue for a longer time. Answering a question, Mr Baloch said he had not been threatened by militants. He said roads in the affected areas were now safe for travel and relief items were being sent mostly by trucks. The chief minister was accompanied by provincial ministers Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, Nawab Mohammad Khan Shahwani, Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad, Home Secretary Asadur Rehman and PDMA Director General Hafiz Abdul Basit.
Muttahida alleges conspiracy By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Oct 1: Alleging a plot to implicate a party worker in the murder case of Advocate Naimat Randhawa, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has called upon the prime minister and interior minister to immediately set up a committee to monitor arrests being made during the ongoing operation in Karachi.. In a statement, the MQM coordination committee condemned allegations levelled by Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat regarding the involvement of the MQM worker in the case. It said that the police official had stated at a press conference that Kazim Abbas Rizvi had been arrested on Monday night, but he had been in police custody for five days, since his detention on Sept 27. The MQM said police had earlier arrested former MQM lawmaker Nadeem Hashmi in the case of killing of two policemen but the allegation turned out to be false and he was released. “Now they are trying to falsely implicate the MQM in the Randhawa murder case.” The committee said a person should be produced in a court after arrest but it was unjust to treat someone as guilty on the basis of mere accusations. It urged PM Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to constitute a committee comprising impartial people to prevent arrest of innocent people and their implication in false cases.
MQM man held for lawyer’s murder: police chief By Imtiaz Ali KARACHI, Oct 1: In a surprising development, police claimed on Tuesday to have arrested an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for his alleged involvement in the murder of a senior lawyer in the city last week. . According to Additional Inspector General of Karachi Police Shahid Hayat, the detained suspect, Kazim Abbas Rizvi, had killed Advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa for pursuing the case of TV reporter Wali Khan Babar who had been killed in 2011. The AIG said Advocate Randhawa’s murder was a “politically motivated targeted killing”. Addressing a press conference at the Central Police Office, he said the suspect had confessed to having killed eight people, including the advocate. Mr Hayat, who was accompanied by the Rangers sector commander and West Karachi DIG Javed Alam Odho, said the detained suspect belonged to MQM’s unit 178 and had been arrested during a joint action by police and Rangers on Monday night. An unlicensed 9mm pistol and bullets were found in his possession. Mr Hayat said four other people were also involved in the killing and they were likely to be arrested soon. Answering a question, the Karachi police chief said the ongoing targeted operation was against criminals irrespective of their political affiliation. He said police carried out targeted action whenever they received information about the presence of criminals in any area, be it Lyari, Sohrab Goth or Azizabad. He added that it would take time to clear ‘the chaos’ of 23 years. Mr Randhawa, who was also a leader of the Sindh PML-N’s legal wing, was gunned down by men on motorcycles and his son was injured in Nazimabad on Thursday when they were returning home from office. Wali Babar, who worked for Geo TV, was shot dead in January 2011 in Liaquatabad while he was returning home from duty. Several witnesses in the journalist’s murder case have been killed and the fact has also attracted attention of the superior judiciary. Earlier in the morning, the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, raided an office of a ‘political party’ in Landhi and detained two alleged target killers, seized CCTVs and ‘highly prohibited’ Indian weapons.
Govt submits reply to Supreme Court By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: The federal government has raised a number of questions before the Supreme Court bench hearing a murder appeal and asked if it could make a law about compromise rules on a case-to-case basis when authoritative SC precedents on the issue already exist. . In a reply submitted to the court by Attorney General Muneer A. Malik, the government asked whether the Supreme Court could issue a comprehensive and authoritative judgment on the issue of waiver of Qisas (retaliation) and ‘compoundability’ of murder offences. At the last hearing on Sept 13, a three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had indicated that it would issue a judgment against the rising trend of misuse of the compromise laws as well as the Islamic injunctions by pardoning convicts of heinous crimes ‘Fisabilillah’ (in the name of God). The court had taken up appeals of Mohammad Azam and Sikander Hayat who had killed one Mohammad Arif in tehsil Phalia of Mandi Bahauddin district in 2004. The government asked whether the pronouncement of the Supreme Court should be limited to cases of Qatl-i-Amd (murder) or should such a pronouncement be in relation to all offences involving the waiver of Qisas and compoundability of offences under provisions of section 338-E of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and section 345 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). It further asked: “Whether the permission of the competent court is a condition precedent to the right to waive Qisas and compoundability of the offence and the right to waive Qisas and to compound the offence is not absolute right. If so, under what legal and factual conditions, should approval be granted by the competent court? “In the context of the waiver of Qisas and compoundability of the offence, or the right to compromise, what is meant by ‘freewill and without fear, coercion, under influence and undue pressure? What principles and procedure the competent court should adopt to ensure that the right to waive Qisas and compoundability of the offence, or the right to compromise, has been exercised out of freewill and without fear, coercion, undue influence and undue pressure. “Whether it is the duty of the state to ensure that the right to waive Qisas and compoundability of the offence, or the right to compromise, has been exercised out of freewill and without fear, coercion, undue influence and undue pressure? And what measures (physical protection, legal aid, etc.) is the state’s duty to provide to the legal heirs and/or victim in order to ensure that it performs this duty. “Whether the lack of implementation of section 338-G, CrPC (relating to providing finances to poor prisoners to benefit from this right of Qisas and compoundability of offences and mechanism protecting rights of the victims for the purpose of compensations) is not a violation of articles 4 (right of individual to be protected under the law) and 25 (equality before law) of the constitution? “Whether the competent court can impose punishment under Tazir, as specified in that section, only in cases of waiver of Qisas and compoundability of the offence of Qatl-i-Amd (murder)?”
School, library damaged in bomb blasts By Muqaddam Khan SWABI, Oct 1: Three people were injured when bombs planted outside a girls’ school and a library went off on Tuesday. . DPO Sajjad Khan told Dawn that one bomb exploded near the Haqqani Library and the second near a government-run primary school for girls. He said that three passers-by suffered injuries and were taken to the district headquarters hospital in Swabi. The injured were Syed Muhammad, Rohul Ameen and Samiullah. Police and residents said improvised explosive devices planted near the library and the school went off one after the other at about 9:15pm. The bombs destroyed the boundary walls of the library and the school. Cracks also appeared in the walls and roofs of the school building.
Opposition sharply reacts to power tariff hike By Khawar Ghumman ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: The government’s decision to make a steep increase in electricity tariff has evoked strong reaction from the opposition. . Three major opposition parties — the PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) — have announced that they will hold protests against the increase in and outside parliament. The JUI-F which is allied with the government has also called upon the government to review the decision which would add to hardship of people already suffering from back-breaking inflation. The MQM and PPP submitted on Tuesday adjournment motions to the Senate and National Assembly secretariats, respectively, and the PTI announced plans to hold demonstrations across the country. The PPP and MQM have said that people were already finding it difficult to make both ends meet because of sky-rocketing prices of items of daily use and the increase in electricity tariff would add to their misery. And a JUI-F spokesperson issued a relatively mild statement urging the government to spare the masses of another hike in electricity tariff. PTI chief Imran Khan termed the increase “a criminal act” and said it would make the people not only pay for the cost of electricity but also for the cost of corruption and incompetence. The latest increase in electricity tariff and fuel prices, he added, was yet another anti-poor and anti-middle class action taken by the PML-N government. He said in a statement that instead of nabbing power thieves, recovering outstanding bills from defaulters, increasing the tax net and cracking down on tax-evaders, the government was continuing to take one anti-people measure after another. He warned of forceful protests at all forums if the government did not review the decision. The PTI chief asked the government to explain why it had increased fuel prices when crude prices had declined during September. Meanwhile, the government has defended what it called a difficult decision. Information Minister Parvez Rashid said: “Partial subsidy on more than 200 units has been withdrawn.” He said power rates for agricultural sector had been reduced and flat rates had been introduced for agricultural consumers. He said the government would still give Rs135 billion subsidy to 9.2 million households consuming 200 units or less per month. “The government is not charging a single penny over the cost of production,” he said. He claimed that the government had shared the tariff revision plan with the Council of Common Interests and the nation in its energy policy.
Govt ready for rethink on power tariff, SC told By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The anguish of people over the steep rise in electricity tariff finally reached the corridors of power. Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif turned up in the Supreme Court on his own on Wednesday to inform it that the government would review the Sept 30 notification of increasing the power rate for domestic consumers. . A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which had taken up the matter during the hearing of a case relating to loadshedding, observed that the government should settle the issue on its own by withdrawing the notification or whatever they wanted to do instead of leaving it to the court. At this the minister came to the rostrum and said the government could review its decision. He then hastened to add that the government was reconsidering the notification. The increase has created hue and cry across the country. Three major opposition parties -- the PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement -- announced that they would hold protests outside the Parliament House against the government’s decision. The apex court described the notification as an instrument which lacked statutory backing because it had been done without any fresh determination of power prices by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). The court also explained that its decision should not be taken as adversarial. It should be seen as a helping hand instead. On the other hand, the government insisted that the Sept 30 notification was in continuation of the one issued on Aug 5 for increasing tariff for commercial and industrial consumers. Khawaja Asif made a feeble attempt to justify the jump in rates by linking it to the rising cost of production due to power theft. He cited the example of Peshawar, where only three to 20 per cent consumers paid their bills while the rest were involved in power theft. The court countered by questioning why electricity was being supplied to those who were involved in theft. “The court will not allow law-abiding citizens who faithfully pay their dues to suffer and pay for those who never clear their dues,” the bench said. On Tuesday, the court had indicated that it would issue an injunctive order if it transpired that the Sept 30 notification lacked statutory backing. On Wednesday, Attorney General Muneer A. Malik tried to explain that under Section 7(3A) of the Regulation of General and Production of Electricity Power Act 1997, the government had the authority to notify power tariff after its determination by Nepra. “This is my understanding of the law,” he said. The final notification was to be issued by the federal government on the recommendation of Nepra, he said, adding that had the government considered the determination done by Nepra, it would have been like dropping a nuclear bomb on people. “Drop the atom bomb if you like to and the court would not come in the way,” said Justice Jawwad S. Khkawaja, a member of the bench. He said whatever the government intended to do should be done openly because lack of transparency always created problems inviting undue criticism of the court for interfering in the executive’s domain. The chief justice regretted that subsidy was being given to fertiliser companies, but peasants were neither getting subsidy nor fertiliser. If fertiliser was not available in the market then gas being supplied to fertiliser companies should be diverted to some other industries so that people could get benefit. Justice Khawaja recalled that gas was not being supplied to some plants producing 400MW of electricity. The court said recovery of Rs441 billion power dues from different sectors would help reduce circular debt. The court asked the attorney general to get instructions from the government on the fate of the notification and adjourned the hearing to Friday.
Two troops die in Mashkay attack By Our Staff Correspondent QUETTA, Oct 2: Two soldiers were killed and three others injured in a bomb attack on an army unit in the earthquake-affected area of Mashkay in Awaran district on Wednesday.. According to official sources, four other incidents of firing and rocket attacks were reported in the same area. They said a Pakistan Army unit was carrying out relief work in Jhalwari area, south of Mashkay, when the powerful explosion took place. “It was an improvised explosive device placed on the road and detonated by remote control,” an officer said. Naib Sobedar Zahoor and Sepoy Bashrat died on the spot. The injured were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Khuzdar. Gunmen said to be militants also fired at a security post in Gishkore and in Parwar area, south of Mashkay town, when troops were distributing ration and other relief goods among the affected people. Troops also came under attack at a place between Dhindar and Gishkore. A rocket attack was reported from Nokjo area severely affected by Saturday’s earthquake. Official sources said the militants also fired rocket-propelled grenades on troops. The sources said the attacks failed to force the troops to stop relief work. Meanwhile, Allah Nazar, chief of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Front, claimed responsibility for the explosion in Jhalwari and threatened to step up attacks on security forces. Talking to Reuters by telephone, he said: “They (army) are directly involved in the large-scale killings of Baloch men. “They want to crush us and make money from the disaster relief.” He said: “We claim responsibility for Wednesday morning’s attack on troops near Mashkay. We will step up such attacks in coming days. “We cannot expect relief from the helicopters which routinely fire rockets at our villages.” The army denied involvement in any killings. “We are there to provide relief for the local people. We will continue the relief work for our Baloch brethren even if attacks continue,” Maj Gen Samrez Salik, who oversees the relief operation, said.
Bomb blast at Chaman border leaves 6 dead By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Oct 2: A bomb blast near the Friendship Gate on the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman left six people dead and 13 injured on Wednesday. . The dead included one Pakistani and five Afghan nationals, two of them security personnel. There were seven Frontier Corps personnel among the injured. Some sources said that the blast was caused by a bomb placed on a donkey cart crossing into the Pakistani side from Afghanistan. But officials said it was a suicide bombing carried out by a man walking with the donkey cart. (“It was a suicide bombing. We have found the severed head on the blast site,” local border force commander Colonel Haider Ali told AFP. “One FC (Frontier Corps) personnel and two civilians were martyred and 12 others were wounded,” he said, adding that the bomber had arrived at the border from Afghanistan.) According to other reports, the blast took place inside the Afghanistan territory close to the Friendship Gate. The Frontier Corps closed the Pak-Afghan Friendship Gate after the blast. The official who considered it to be a case of suicide bombing said the head and chained legs of a man had been found at the blast site. Chaman Assistant Commissioner Ismail Ibrahim said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the blast. “We will be able to tell more about it after completion of the investigation,” he said. According to an FC statement, Pakistani officials had lodged their protest with Afghan officials over the incident and asked them to tighten border security so that such incidents do not recur. The injured FC personnel were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta in a helicopter, a spokesman of the paramilitary force, said.
Court scraps land deal between DHA, ETPB By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The Supreme Court scrapped on Wednesday a dubious land deal between the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) which caused an estimated loss of Rs1.934 billion to the latter. . The DHA had approached the ETPB in 2007 to acquire three pieces of its land. Under the deal, the ETPB was supposed to get 642 of the 973 developed residential plots measuring one kanal each to be carved out as per DHA standard. At that time the value of 642 developed plots was estimated at Rs6.42 billion. The ETPB had on July 23, 2007, decided to proceed with the arrangement agreed with the authority in view of the increasing value of developed plots in DHA. In August 2008, the board conveyed its decision to the Ministry of Minorities Affairs and sought a formal approval of the government. The ministry advised the ETPB not to go ahead without the government approval and kept the matter pending till the ETPB was reconstituted on Nov 14, 2007, and again on April 10, 2009. The new board swung into action soon after its reconstitution and in less than a week approved a revised offer of the DHA in which the number of developed plots in lieu of the board’s raw land was reduced by 108 plots. The approval was given by the ETPB at a meeting held on April 16, 2009, and conveyed to the Ministry of Minorities Affairs on April 25. The ministry this time was gracious enough to approve the board’s decision within days and the deal was finally reached on May 8, 2009. In its judgment issued on Wednesday, a three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed that the deal suffered from corruption and corrupt practices. It declared the ETPB decision and subsequent approval given by the government on April 29, 2009, as void and of no legal consequence. But the court gave the DHA an option to accept the ETPB’s decision taken on July 23, 2007, and hand over the developed plots to the board as per the initial arrangements agreed upon. “The acceptance of this offer must be communicated to the ETPB within 30 days, failing which the DHA will be bound to return the land to the ETPB by reversing the mutation entries and also cancelling the sale deeds executed between the two parties,” the order said. Taking note of the record that the DHA had acquired more than the agreed land, the court directed a senior member of the Punjab’s Board of Revenue to make arrangements for demarcation of the ETPB property and ensure restoration of the excess land. The court said the DHA would not be entitled to obtain the possession from the lessee or on the development of land as no evidence had been brought on record. “However, to substantiate the same, if so advised, the DHA has to resort to the court of law to prove its claim by adducing evidence,” it added. The court said the chairman and members of the ETPB had also handed over Rs986 million to two companies for a so-called joint venture which absolutely had no existence. The amount was recovered in pursuance of the court’s June 7 order. Noting that various illegalities, irregularities and violations of financial instructions and laws had been committed in the transactions entered into by the ETPB with DHA Lahore and Islamabad, the court directed the secretary of Ministry of Minorities Affairs to arrange forensic audit of the ETPB for the past five years. On the receipt of the reports, it ordered, action be taken against the delinquents in accordance with the law. The court said both the transactions called for civil and criminal proceedings against former ETPB chairman Asif Akhtar Hashmi and all those who were directly or indirectly responsible for the same. It asked the FIA to complete its inquiry into the matter as early as possible. The court also directed the federal government to appoint the ETPB chairman as soon as possible.
Six Taliban killed in ‘encounters’ By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Oct 2: Six suspected militants were killed in alleged encounters with Rangers and police here on Wednesday.. A Rangers spokesman said that paramilitary personnel acting on a tip raided a hideout of a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in Manghopir area on Wednesday morning. In an exchange of fire, Shahedullah and Khayal Badshah were killed and SMGs, pistols and grenades were seized. According to a Rangers statement, the two were part of a group that had arrived in Karachi for carrying out terrorist activities to avenge the killing of their leaders in the city. In the other incident, CID police killed four suspected militants on Hub River Road. Crime Investigation Department DSP Chaudhry Aslam said that a police team intercepted a vehicle near Lucky Hills but the men in it opened fire, injuring policemen Abdul Rauf and Jamal Khan. Four militants were injured when police returned the fire. They were taken to Civil Hospital where they died. They were identified as Mohammed Sami alias Siddiq, Mohammed Ghani alias Muddasir, Arif alias Dr Maqbool and Abdul Rehman alias Lambu. The injured policemen were shifted to a private hospital after first aid at the Civil Hospital. Police claimed that militants, belonging to the Mohmand Agency chapter of TTP, had killed eight policemen and carried out bomb blasts in the city during the May 11 elections. Meanwhile, Omar Khalid Khorasani of the TTP, Mohmand Agency, alleged in a statement that the four members of the group had been picked up about a week ago in two raids in Quetta Town, Sohrab Goth, and news of their arrest had been telecast by ‘most of the TV channels’. He alleged that they had been killed extra-judicially. He said three other members of the group had also been killed in a similar manner about 15 days ago.
ECC approves 500,000-ton urea import By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet approved a proposal on Wednesday to import 500,000 tons of urea fertiliser for the Rabi season from the open international market.. A meeting of the ECC, presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to ensure shipment of 300,000 tons of urea in November and 200,000 tons in December. It directed the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources to ensure supply of gas during Rabi to domestic fertiliser units in accordance with their quota allocations to enable them to meet their production targets. The meeting constituted a committee headed by Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Mohammad Asif and comprising Board of Investment Chairman Zubair Umar, the chief executive of Engineering Development Board, Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue and secretary of industries to prepare an automobile policy in 45 days. The committee was directed to seek views of representatives of automobile manufacturers and car vendors and circulate the draft policy widely to elicit proposals from stakeholders. An official who attended the meeting said that none of the seven ministers and several federal secretaries present in the meeting said any thing about the increase in electricity tariff announced two days ago. When the finance minister took up the matter, Khwaja Asif and Information Minister Pervez Rashid said they had addressed concerns raised by the media. An official statement said the ECC noted with satisfaction that benchmarks agreed with the IMF had been achieved in the first quarter. The meeting approved a proposal by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for release of the second tranche of 75,000 tons of wheat through the World Food Programme for providing food support to 175,500 displaced families of Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It directed the National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML), Utility Stores Corporation (USC) and Finance Division to reconcile their payments with the TCP in two weeks so to clear the dues. Representatives of the NFML said that Rs1.3 billion had been paid to the TCP on Wednesday. The ECC directed Ministry of Industries to reconcile outstanding amounts of the USC and the TCP in eight weeks. The meeting instructed the secretary of finance to ensure that funds on account of subsidy were released to the TCP so that the import of urea and other activities of the corporation remained unaffected. It noted with satisfaction that the quarterly release of urea subsidy of Rs.7.5 billion was being made to the TCP. The meeting approved a proposal of the Ministry of Commerce and Textile Industry to withdraw its decision of July 3, 2012 to restructure the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC). It decided to reconstitute the committee with 18 members, one each from the four provinces, chairmen of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, Karachi Cotton Association and Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, minister of textile industry, secretaries of the textile industry, finance, planning and development, national food security, vice president of the PCCC and secretaries of agriculture of Sindh and Punjab. The ECC decided to hire an experienced and senior research scientist for the post of vice president of the PCCC through an advertisement in newspapers. The meeting was informed that the country’s year-on-year inflation rate (CPI Index) had registered an increase of 7.4 per cent in September, defying predictions about higher rate as the inflation had registered an increase of 8.5 per cent in August an 8.3 per cent in July. The meeting expressed satisfaction at the present wheat stock of 6.7 million tons on Sept 25.
Musharraf writing his second book ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: At the end of a quiet lane snaking through the well-heeled Islamabad suburb of Chak Shahzad, a terracotta-coloured house modelled on a Moroccan courtyard home stands amid spreading orchards and wheat fields. . It would be a restful, bucolic scene, were it not for the army of 300 policemen, paramilitary personnel, soldiers, snipers and anti-terrorist officers on hand to guard the owner — former president Gen Pervez Musharraf. The one-time dictator is under house arrest, but enjoying detention deluxe: writing his memoirs, working out each day and eating meals cooked by his personal chef. The retired general, who ruled from 1999 to 2008, returned to Pakistan in March after years of self-imposed exile. He came vowing to stand in the general election and ‘save’ Pakistan, but his arrival restarted a barrage of legal cases related to his time in power. The Chak Shahzad house was declared a ‘sub-jail’ by a court in April, and he has lived there in detention since then, as the cases against him grind through the judicial system. As the man who allied his country with Washington in its “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks, Gen Musharraf is in danger from militants who have vowed to kill him. So his prison and refuge is the house he commissioned back in 2006, at the height of his power, which was still under construction when he was forced from power and into exile. “The house was 95 per cent finished before he left, but the first time he spent a night in the house was after he came back this year,” said Hammad Husain, the architect of the house. Second book: According to Mr Husain, the walls of the villa tell the story of Gen Musharraf’s career — photos that form a Who’s Who of world leaders, the swords and guns one might expect of a military man, and a piece from the cloth of Holy Kaaba, which was given by the Saudi king. Aides say Mr Musharraf, 70, is keeping his body in shape with 75-minute workouts every morning and his mind sharp with reading and writing. “He is writing a second book. I have seen the text. He has written substantially but there is still work to be done,” his official spokesman Raza Bokhari said. The new volume will follow on from his first book of memoirs published in 2006, “In the line of fire”. “It is picking up from 2007 onwards, from the peak of his popularity to his downfall, to life in self-imposed exile and then formation of a political party and return to Pakistan,” Mr Bokhari said. The former president lives with his bodyguards, assistants and personal cook in part of the 1,100 square metre house, run under the auspices of the tough Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi. Despite the rigorous security, he still fears his enemies will try to get to him. “His food is not prepared in prison but on the premises, by his cook, for security reasons. He is afraid of being poisoned,” a prison source said. To see him, his family and friends must get permission from the authorities, which can take up to a week. His close family have visited him since his house arrest began, but they spend most of their time abroad. His wife Sehba lives in a luxury apartment in Dubai, his son Bilal is based in the US and his daughter Ayla had to leave Karachi this summer because of threats against her. He keeps a close eye on his legal tussles, accusations his entourage dismiss as politically motivated, “false, fabricated and fictitious”. In Pakistan, court cases can drag on interminably but charges can also be dropped overnight when an agreement emerges to let the accused leave the country. His team admit the cases against him could last years, but insist the old soldier is in top form to “fight another fight he has to fight”. “He is in very good spirits, he’s a strong person. Though he is a little disappointed in the judicial system in Pakistan,” said an aide.—AFP
Missing lawyer in ISI custody, reveals phone data By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The Supreme Court was shocked on Wednesday when it came to know that mobile phone data record of a missing lawyer leads to a safe house of the country’s premier intelligence agency.. Citing a report prepared by the City Police Officer (CPO) of Rawalpindi, Additional Advocate General of Punjab Mustafa Ramday told the court that the cellular data recovery (CDR) analysis of phone calls made by Advocate Zaheer Ahmed Gondal had led them to the safe house of the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI). Zaheer Gondal was picked up by some identified people from Rawalpindi on July 13. His brother Tanveer Ahmed Gondal is believed to be an active member of a banned organisation operating in Punjab and suspected mastermind of the murder of FIA prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar Ahmed. Chaudhry Zulfikar, the investigator in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, was slain by gunmen who pumped 12 bullets into his body as he left his house in Islamabad on May 3. He was killed on the day when a bail application of retired General Pervez Musharraf, a nominated accused in the case, was fixed for hearing before an anti-terrorism court. Mr Ramday said that the CPO of Rawalpindi was trying to locate Zaheer Gondal. If Zaheer Gondal was involved in some crime, the chief justice said, he should be arrested and prosecuted, but if he was innocent he should be produced before the apex court. Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti said that the defence ministry had assured the government that the ISI would cooperate and share intelligence with the police. The case will be taken up again on Thursday.
SC asks judge to submit reply in contempt case By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The Supreme Court ordered a judge of Peshawar’s Special CNS (Control of Narcotics Substance) Court on Wednesday to submit a written reply in a contempt of court case. . The judge has been accused of having made derogatory and scandalous remarks against members of the Judicial Commission (JC) and summoned its secretary who is also registrar of the apex court. The order was issued by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry in the contempt case against Mohammad Azim Khan Afridi who on Sept 27 had summoned JC secretary Dr Faqir Hussain on Oct 3 and accused him of having links with a firm called Saifco which, according to Mr Afridi, was culpable under the anti-narcotics laws. The apex court has already suspended the Sept 27 order of the special judge against its registrar. The matter was fixed before the bench after Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry issued an order stating that without prejudice to the status of the SC and the JC through its secretary, it would be appropriate to deal with the judicial issues involved in the case. The chief justice noted in the order that the name of the presiding judge of the CNS court had not been recommended by the JC to the parliamentary committee for confirmation as a judge of the Islamabad High Court. He ordered that the matter be placed before a bench of the court headed by a judge who was not a member of the JC. Attorney General Muneer A. Malik was asked to appear before the bench. When the case was taken up on Wednesday, the CNS court judge requested the bench to allow him to consult the law ministry for acquiring the assistance of a counsel. But the bench told him that the law ministry could not provide the service of a lawyer in a contempt case. “Then I should be punished without hearing,” Judge Afridi remarked. The special judge had stated in his Sept 27 order: “The platform of Judicial Commission was offered to Saifco by generating/fabricating and providing dustbin material for maligning, slandering and defaming and ousting the honest noble judges and accommodating persons of otherwise character.” To facilitate the firm, he alleged, the registrar secured a complaint against him to extend favour to the “drug master” and also attempted to use the services of the National Accountability Bureau through the Human Rights Cell of the apex court.
Speculations over Gen Wynne’s successor By Baqir Sajjad Syed ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been playing his cards close to his chest as he ponders over whom to appoint as successor to Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne retiring this week as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). . The appointment of chairman of the committee, a largely ceremonial position in the armed forces hierarchy described in the leaked Abbottabad Commission draft report as a post office, has never been so keenly watched before. However, the impending completion of Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s extended tenure has made everyone to closely follow the CJCSC’s appointment in anticipation that it may give some indication about who could be the army’s next boss. More importantly, defence analysts think, the appointment would show who is in the driver’s seat — whether the army has its way by retaining the slot; or the position is rotated among other services thus denting the army’s dominance in the country’s defence matters. It’s no secret that the prime minister’s camp has been pushing for the latter. Although Gen Wynne retires on Saturday, no successor has been named yet because of which speculations have mounted. Some PML-N leaders, however, say that the aura of mystery around the appointment is by design and a successor will be named soon. An official announcement is yet to come, but pundits are already putting their money on army winning the two-horse race – Army vs Navy. If the army retains the office, the next CJCSC will most likely be Lt Gen Haroon Aslam, currently the most senior general in the army, while Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Asif Sandila could be the next man if the position goes to the navy. Why is army the top contender for the post? The arguments given for keeping the position with the army is that it is the largest of the three services, the country is engaged in war against terrorism and the challenges to country’s security in the foreseeable future are land based. Moreover, the proponents of the army believe that since it dominated the nuclear programme, Strategic Plans Division, NESCOM, etc, comes directly under the CJCSC, therefore having someone from the army in the office would help in maintaining amicable relations between the CJCSC and the army chief. A retired general, who did not want to be named, dismissed this argument as “self-serving”. Admiral Sandila had been sitting in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee for three years now and is thought to be better poised to deal with tri-services matters. The naval chief’s appointment as CJCSC could also address grievances within the armed forces about the army dominating the relationship. The Navy and PAF’s grouse of being poorly resourced as compared to the army is well known.
31enterprises up for sale By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The government directed the Privatisation Commission on Thursday to immediately start the process for sale of 31 public sector entities (PSEs) through initial and secondary public offering and transfer of 26 per cent shares, along with management control, to the private sector.. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation, presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, to comply with a structural benchmark agreed to under the IMF programme. Minister of Water and Power Khawja Asif, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, Minister of State for Privatisation Khurram Dastagir, federal secretaries, the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the Board of Investment attended the meeting. An official said the Council of Common Interests had approved these transactions in 2006, 2009 and 2011 and the CCOP just reiterated the government’s approval to go ahead with the ambitious privatisation programme. The meeting considered a list of public sector companies submitted by the Privatisation Commission. “After thorough deliberations, the committee agreed to initiate the process of privatisation and directed the commission to ensure that the interests of employees were to be protected at all cost,” said a statement issued by the ministry of finance. “Most of the PSEs will be offered to the private sector through strategic divestment, including up to 26pc stakes along with management control, while shares of other companies will be offloaded through public offering,” an official told Dawn. He said the committee did not take a decision on which companies be sold through strategic disinvestment because this was something the Privatisation Commission would propose after in-house deliberations and consultations with financial advisers. The companies cleared for divestment include the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Mari Gas, Pak-Arab Refinery, Pakistan State Oil, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Pakistan International Airlines, PIA-Roosevelt Hotel, New York, Pakistan Railways, Gujranwala Electric Power Company, Lahore Electric Supply Company, Islamabad Electric Supply Company, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company, Northern Electric Generation Company, Pakistan Steel Mills, National Power Construction Company and Pakistan National Shipping Corporation. The financial sector entities selected for sale in the first phase include National Bank of Pakistan, First Women Bank, Small and Medium Enterprises Bank, National Investment Trust Limited, National Insurance Company Limited, Pakistan Reinsurance Company Limited, State Life Insurance Corporation and House Building Finance Corporation. The Civil Aviation Authority, Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim Authority and National Highway Authority are also on the list. The government has made a commitment with the IMF to announce a strategy for the sale of 30 firms by the end of September as a benchmark for disbursement of second tranche of the IMF loan. Under the commitment, the government is to announce privatisation plans for remainder of total 65 entities by the end of 2013. “We are developing medium-term action plans to restructure the PIA, Steel Mills and Railways. The action plans include partial privatisation of companies through initial or secondary public offering,” the government had told the IMF. The cabinet has already approved a plan for divestment of 26pc shares along with management control of PIA by stripping non-viable components under a separate public sector enterprise — PIA2 by December.
Shooting near US Capitol; woman attacker killed By Anwar Iqbal WASHINGTON, Oct 3: Police lifted the lockdown of US Capitol late Thursday afternoon after a female suspect was shot and killed.. The lockdown stayed in place for less than an hour — between 2.20pm and 3pm — but it alarmed the entire city as only two weeks ago a mentally disturbed man had killed 13 people in a nearby navy yard. CBS News reported the incident began at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue after a car apparently tried to ram the northeast gate at the White House. The driver then fled towards Capitol. Later, a congressman, Grace Meng, told reporters that the female driver of the vehicle was shot and killed by a Secret Service agent. The White House too was briefly placed on lockdown and President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation. The firing forced the House of Representatives to go on a recess while the Senate went into a quorum call — dispensing momentarily with its official business.According to earlier report, one police officer was injured in the incident. Capitol Police asked people to “shelter in place” and “close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows”. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told a CNN reporter of “one injury”. Congressman Gerry Connolly said he was told by the sergeant-at-arms that a suspect has been apprehended. Mr Connolly said he was standing on a balcony of the US Capitol with Congressman Matt Cartwright when they heard two bursts of gunfire coming from the direction of the Rayburn Office Building. “It was almost like two very rapid fire bursts, very loud,” he said. “They were clearly coming from the direction. That’s when we saw people fleeing, and we realised this was no fireworks. It sounds liked the first volley of a 21-gun salute.” Mr Connolly said he could see people fleeing away from the Rayburn building and police officers running towards it before he was shepherded back into the building. According to CBS News, an announcement over the Capitol public address system said: “Gunfire heard on Capitol Hill. If you are in an office building, shelter in place.” The news channel reported that that a section of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House had also been closed off after the incident. Another official statement said FBI agents were also sent to the scene.
Govt to defend power tariff hike in SC By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The government has decided to defend before the Supreme Court ‘an average 30 per cent increase’ in electricity tariff for domestic consumers announced this week, with ‘minor procedural adjustments’ to balance out an IMF programme with the national mood.. As a last option, it may consider a slight reduction in the tariff hike for consumers using up to 300 units per month in view of the court’s concern for the low-income category. An official told Dawn on Thursday that some amendments would be made to the procedure for notification of the new tariff and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) would issue a fresh notification for the increase after withdrawal of the previous notification. “I cannot rule out minor relief to a group of consumers using less than 300 units per month, but that would not change the overall subsidy allocation,” he said. This could be achieved by extending the benefit of the lower slab to domestic consumers using 200-300 units. As a result, the consumers in the 101-300 units category would be given the benefit of the previous slab of 101-200 units of Rs8.11 per unit. Under the earlier notification, if a consumer consumed less than 200 units, he was to be charged at Rs8.11, but at 201 units his tariff would have gone up to Rs14 per unit for all units. Several meetings were held on Thursday, including one presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which he expressed the desire to protect the low-income groups. A series of meetings were also held between the ministries of finance, water and power, law and justice and Nepra. The official said the court had raised questions over some legal issues which would be sorted out by following the fashion adopted in the matter of oil pricing. He said the regulatory authority would then be advised about the subsidy envelop under Section 31 of the Nepra Act that empowered the government to issue policy guidelines. Nepra would notify the tariff based on the amount of subsidy. He said the government had also considered empowering Nepra to notify tariff as it had determined on the basis of petitions filed by the distribution companies, but this would have increased the rates much higher than those notified by the government and this could have offended the court. Hence the proposal was shelved. The official said the court would be briefed about the ramifications of violation of the agreements signed with the International Monetary Fund that could create difficulties for the entire nation, including international default. According to an official statement, the finance minister briefed the prime minister on electricity tariff ‘rationalisation’. “The prime minister stressed that low-income groups must be protected at all costs.” He said almost 70 per cent of electricity was being produced by using expensive furnace oil and only 30 per cent from water and inexpensive fuels. The finance minister said 67 per cent of the domestic users consumed up to 200 units per month and had been fully protected from the tariff increase. “The national exchequer has incurred heavy losses because of lack of rational tariff adjustments in the past,” the official added. He said the government was paying Rs167 billion in subsidy to protect the domestic users. An official said that about 86pc consumers consumed up to 300 units per month.
Sindh wants three-month ban on Skype, other services By Habib Khan Ghori and Kalbe Ali KARACHI / ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The Sindh government has decided to impose a three-month ban on the use of instant messaging and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, including Skype, Tango, WhatsApp and Viber, to make security operations effective and to smash terrorist works.. Provincial Information Minister Sharjeel Memon told journalists that the decision had been taken at a meeting of the law and order committee which was held at the CM House on Thursday and presided over by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. Attended by inspector general of Sindh police, director general of Rangers, chiefs of intelligence agencies and senior officials, the meeting reviewed progress of the ongoing operation against criminal elements in Karachi. It decided to expand its scope to Hyderabad and other cities of Sindh from Friday. But the announcement of the decision about the ban triggered instant criticism from various quarters and the social media and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan immediately issued a statement in Islamabad saying that the federal government and his ministry had not taken such a decision. He said he was personally against such a ban. “Soon after taking charge of the interior ministry I have stopped the tradition of blocking mobile networks on certain occasions,” he said, adding that “such steps have never been fruitful”. Chaudhry Nisar said if a request to ban instant messaging and VoIP applications was received from Sindh, it would be assessed on merit because the federal government did not want to create inconveniences for people. In Karachi, the Sindh information minister also announced that the provincial government had prepared a code of conduct for collection of hides of sacrificial animals on the occasion of Eidul Azha. Under the code political parties and social organisations will not be allowed to collect hides. Mr Memon said the provincial government had decided to approach the centre for getting illegal mobile phone SIMs banned which, according to him, could cut the number of cases of kidnapping and extortion by 70 per cent. He said the government had imposed a ban on display of weapons and launched a drive for recovery of illegal weapons. Answering a question, he said during the past one month Rangers and police had conducted 3,000 raids and submitted challans against 745 suspects. He said 43 cases under the anti-terrorist act had been initiated. About 1,400 suspects had been detained, 50 of them were wanted in murder cases. Meanwhile, the interior minister directed the DG Rangers and IG of Sindh police not to disclose political affiliation of any person apprehended during the ongoing operation in Karachi. “The release of this information is creating a negative impression about the non-political and non-partisan operation being carried out in Karachi,” he said, adding that “it will raise suspicion about the motive of the operation”. Chaudhry Nisar said justice demanded that law-enforcement personnel must ensure that information obtained during interrogation were not made public or used for a media trial. Earlier, the interior minister talked to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on telephone about the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi. They decided to ban all illegal mobile SIMs. The interior minister praised the role of Sindh police and Rangers in the operation and expressed confidence in the performance of the Sindh government. The two leaders agreed that the role of intelligence would be strengthened so that the path of criminal elements and terrorists could be blocked.
Minister’s warning to KESC ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The National Power Control Centre (NPC) was directed on Thursday to disconnect supply to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) if it exceeded its allocated quota of 650MW.. Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali told journalists after a visit to the NPC that he had directed the power control centre to write a letter to KESC, warning it of shutdown if it used even a single megawatt more than its allocated quota of 650MW. The minister issued a separate directive calling for the warning to be published in the print media and said that Sindh chief minister, the chief secretary and inspector general of police should be intimated through a copy of the proposed letter to brace for any law and order problem, if one arose in wake of the decision. He regretted that the KESC had violated the agreement several times by drawing up to 700MW and described it as discrimination with other sectors which had been experiencing serious shortfall. Mr Ali sought record of the past six months to assess how much losses had been caused to the national exchequer by the KESC. He said the National Transmission Despatched Company and the KESC would be put to a third party audit to resolve problems between them and ensure transparency in the power system. The minister said a smart metering system was being introduced to overcome power theft, adding that 98 per cent feeders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were incurring losses because of power theft.—APP
TTP attacks rival group, 13 killed By Abdul Sami Paracha KOHAT, Oct 3: At least 13 people were killed and 10 injured when a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the house of commander of a rival militant group, Mullah Nabbi Hanafi, in Spin Thall area in Orakzai agency on Thursday.. Tehreek Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. The group of Mullah Nabbi, known as the Hanafi faction in the area, has been against the TTP for a long time. After clashes between them, Mullah Nabbi was expelled from Hangu but he returned to the area in 2009. TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told Dawn correspondent in Miramshah that Taliban had carried out the attack “because Mullah Nabbi is our enemy and the TTP will continue to attack him”. Sources said that Mullah Nabbi was affiliated with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) group and he worked as the party’s general secretary in Hangu. He has been accused of killing PTI MPA Farid Khan who had joined Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf after winning the assembly seat as an independent candidate. Property of Mullah Nabbi and his supporters in Hangu town came under attack after the murder of Farid Khan. Official sources said that in Thursday’s attack more than 200 kilograms of explosives had been used. The injured included Mullah Nabbi’s wife and mother. The civilians injured in the blast were admitted to the Combined Military Hospital in Thall Garrison. The Army and Frontier Corps personnel cordoned off the area after the blast because police could not operate in tribal areas. According to an official, Mullah Nabbi is wanted by security forces in several cases of bomb attacks, kidnappings for ransom and killing civilians on the Parachinar Road over the past several years. Besides the house of Mullah Nabbi, the powerful blast also damaged a seminary, shops and other structures. According to reports from the area, the blast was followed by clashes between militants of the two groups. Agencies add: A senior government official said that clashes erupted when fighters from Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan attacked militant commander Maulvi Nabbi Hanafi’s house.
SC calls for changes in civil service laws By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The Supreme Court noted on Thursday a trend among civil servants seeking blessings from outside of their service hierarchy instead of claiming their recruitment or promotion on merit. . “This ultimately makes obligatory upon them to oblige the persons who favoured them in promotion to the higher rank,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in a verdict issued on a petition moved by Punjab’s Secretary Archives Orya Maqbool Jan seeking promotion to BS-21. The petitioner, also an anchor and columnist, said that during the last month of its tenure the PPP government had promoted officers out of turn to BS-21 on “political exigencies”. He submitted a list of 49 officers who, according to him, were illegally promoted only to oblige Dr Fazlullah Pechuho, brother-in-law of former president Asif Ali Zardari, and Mohsin Haqqani, brother of former ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani. In the 40-page judgment, the chief justice suggested to the government to amend civil service laws to get services of independent persons with knowledge, ability and free from any pressure for the purpose of assisting the executive in discharging its functions as well as maintaining the rule of law. While accepting the petition, the court annulled the promotion of officers to BS-21 against 88 vacancies made in February for being unlawful and directed the government to conduct a fresh exercise of making the promotions. The promotion from BS-20 to BS-21 in available vacancies has to be made in accordance with the reserved quota in different groups such as the Pakistan Administrative Service, earlier known as District Management Group, Secretariat, etc. “Consequently, the notification about promotion of all officers issued in pursuance of the recommendations of the Central Selection Board (CSB) from Feb 11 to 14 and 27 are, hereby, set aside,” the judgment said. It asked the government to undertake the process of promotion of officers strictly in accordance with law and merit under Section 9 of the Civil Servants Act (CSA) 1973, read with rules 7, 7A and 8 of the Civil Servants (Appointments, Promotions and Transfers) Rules 1973 as well as the promotion policies amended up to date. The judgment expressed concern over the lack of protection to civil servants in the 1973 constitution, unlike provisions provided in constitutions of 1956 and 1962. “As a result, this important section of the executive, responsible to make policies for the country, is not feeling as strong as it should have been with the constitutional protection to their services,” it added. Therefore, by enforcing the existing laws, rules and regulations, the verdict said, full protection was required to be provided to the honest and dedicated members of civil service so that they could discharge their function without any fear or favour and follow the principle of honesty and transparency in the performance of their duty, instead of showing eagerness to obey unlawful and uncalled-for demands of their bosses. Referring to the 2013 Anita Turab case in which the apex court had interpreted rules relating to the tenure of officers and immature transfers/postings, the judgment asked the government as well as the CSB to strictly adhere to the law and rules. “If any action is taken against any of the officers denying his case for promotion, such action will be unlawful and will have no leg to stand,” it said. Orya Maqbool Jan had requested the court to order a free and fair inquiry into the assets of civil servants in promotion zone and their families by comparing with their assets at the time when they had joined the service. He had also sought a provision in the law to make bureaucracy free and fair from political affiliations. Besides, he said, efficiency should be linked with the level of independence an officer secured during his service.
Zardari, family allowed to use bullet-proof vehicles, hire guards By Tahir Siddiqui KARACHI, Oct 3: The Sindh High Court has allowed former president Asif Ali Zardari and members of his family to travel in bullet-proof vehicles with tinted glasses and keep private armed guards at their own expense.. The court also directed federal and provincial governments to enhance security for the former president. A two-judge bench of the court headed by Justice Faisal Arab was hearing on Thursday a petition filed by Mr Zardari seeking permission to keep armed guards and travel in bullet-proof vehicles. He also sought strengthening of his security provided by the government. The court directed Mr Zardari to provide details of his vehicles and weapons his private guards would carry to officials concerned before his movement. Mr Zardari, who was represented by Advocate Farooq H. Naek, said in the petition that being the PPP leader and former president he was facing security threats. He said he was commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces and presided over a military operation against Taliban in Swat, the petition said. Mr Zardari said being a leader of a political party he had to travel across the country to maintain contacts with members of his party and the public. He said he had grave apprehensions about his own security and that of members of his family. He cited the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, on Dec 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi. He said he had been receiving threats and various reports of security agencies were of the opinion that his life was in danger. Mr Naek informed the court that there were serious risks to the life and liberty of the former president who intended to travel in bullet-proof vehicles with tinted glasses and wanted permission for private security guards carrying licensed weapons for him and members of his family. He said security provided by the government to the former president was not adequate and he did not want government funds used for the purpose which would put an unnecessary burden on the state finances. He said Mr Zardari wanted foolproof security for himself and members of his family at their own expenses. Mr Naek said security situation in the country was bad and people on important government posts, such as ministers, judges and bureaucrats, needed security squads for their protection and deployment of security personnel at their residences for protection of members of their families. The petition requested the court to direct the respondents as well as law-enforcement agencies and provincial governments to provide 24-hour special security to Mr Zardari and members of his family. The court directed federal and provincial governments to ensure security of Mr Zardari.
Foreign elements may be behind attacks: Aziz By Baqir Sajjad Syed ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The government will continue to pursue dialogue with the Taliban and believes that the deadly attacks which followed the talks offer were sponsored by hostile external elements who wanted to sabotage the initiative.. “Despite the setbacks, dialogue will be pursued,” Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz told reporters here on Thursday after meeting British Senior Minister of State at Foreign and Commonwealth Office Baroness Sayeeda Warsi. He said “hostile elements from across the border may be providing support to some groups” to prevent the talks from taking off. Mr Aziz said the government had “indirect evidence” of external support for the terrorist groups carrying out the attacks. An all-party conference on Sept 9 had endorsed government plans for holding dialogue with militant groups for ending violence in the country that has claimed over 40,000 lives. Barely a week after the talks offer had been made, militants attacked a military convoy, killing General Officer Commanding Gen Sanaullah Khan and two other army personnel in Swat. This was followed by three other major attacks in Peshawar in which close to 150 people were killed. The attacks were initially claimed by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) affiliates and its Swat chapter even released a video of the attack on Gen Sanaullah’s convoy. However, the militant group later renounced the claims of responsibility for the attacks amid growing criticism of the dialogue offer. Defending the offer, Mr Aziz suggested that militancy was “a protest” by those opposed to the country’s involvement in America’s ‘war on terror’. Terrorism in Pakistan, he said, was a result of “global fault lines”. “The people funded and trained by the US to fight Soviet Union” had come back to unleash violence here, he said. The TTP, which had initially asked for release of all of its detained fighters and return of the army from the tribal areas, has now linked the proposed dialogue to an end to US drone strikes. Mr Aziz, responding to the demand, said the government’s strategy was to increase pressure on the US at international forums and through diplomatic channels to persuade it to stop the drone attacks. He also cautioned the detractors against prejudging the process. “The process has just begun. One should not prejudge its outcome.” Ms Warsi, who was here for discussions on increasing Pakistan-UK trade, stayed short of endorsing the dialogue initiative. But while replying to a question she said: “Any dialogue that leads to peaceful existence for Pakistanis is welcome.” She said extremists were the “biggest enemies of Islam and Pakistan” as they “were taking away hope” from Pakistanis and Muslims. According to AFP, Mr Aziz said: “Despite these incidents the dialogue option should be pursued because the Taliban are many groups and many of them have said they do want to pursue dialogue. “There are some elements who want to disrupt the dialogue but the whole purpose of the dialogue is to put an end to such incidents.”
PM, Karzai discuss next steps for peace By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke over phone on Thursday, discussing the next steps they could jointly take to revive the reconciliation process.. This is the first time the two leaders spoke since the government on Sept 20 fulfilled Afghanistan’s demand to release a key Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Release of the former deputy leader of Taliban was thought to be crucial for resuscitating the troubled peace initiative in the neighbouring country. “Pakistan will continue to play its role for peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Mr Sharif was quoted by an official as having told Mr Karzai. Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai had a few days back asked Pakistani leaders to take the remaining steps they had committed to Mr Karzai and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
Afghan Taliban refuse to meet Baradar PESHAWAR, Oct 3: Afghan Taliban commanders refused to meet Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar because he was accompanied by Pakistani security agents, dealing a blow to attempts to resume Afghan peace talks, sources said on Thursday. . An Afghan Taliban commander said Taliban figures refused to come to Peshawar to meet him because he was accompanied by security officials. “Following his release, he spent some time in Karachi and now arrived in Peshawar to hold meetings with senior members of the movement,” the source said. “Unfortunately, no one among senior Taliban leaders agreed to see him in Peshawar because security personnel are around him.”—Reuters
Pakistan not in arms race with any country, says Sharif By Baqir Sajjad Syed ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: During a visit to the National Command Centre (NCC) on Friday Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif renewed his government’s commitment to maintain credible minimum deterrence.. The prime minister, who recently spoke at a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, made a rare visit to an unnamed “technical site” and a “weapons storage site”. The prime minister was accompanied by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Khalid Shamim Wynne, Director General of Strategic Plans Division (SPD) retired Lt Gen Khalid Ahmed Kidwai and other senior military officers. This was Mr Sharif’s second meeting with members of the National Command Authority (NCA) in a month. On Sept 5, he presided over a meeting of the NCA which had decided to preserve “full spectrum deterrence” against any possible external aggression. Mr Sharif’s visit took place days after Gen Wynne inaugurated “two newly constructed state of the art, fully protected Network Centric enabled Command and Control Centres of Naval Strategic Force Command”. At the National Command Centre (NCC) of the National Command Authority (NCA), the prime minister said Pakistan was not in an arms race, but being fully alive to the evolving security dynamics of the region it would maintain full spectrum deterrence to reinforce strategic stability in South Asia. The Prime Minister’s Office said Mr Sharif was briefed on the indigenously developed strategic command, control and support system, which is said to have been designed to facilitate decision-making at the NCC. He was also given a demonstration of the sophisticated connectivity of countrywide strategic assets. In his briefing on the occasion, Gen Kidwai said NCC was a highly secure and fully protected facility. During his visit to a ‘technical site’ Mr Sharif was briefed by Commander Army Strategic Force Command Lt Gen Syed Tariq Nadeem Gilani. Mr Sharif expressed complete satisfaction over the safe, secure and fool-proof security architecture in place for the physical safety and security of strategic assets.
Relief work by army, FC continues despite attacks By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Oct 4: The Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps in collaboration with federal and provincial governments have distributed 1,100 tons of foodstuff and 30,000 tents among earthquake-affected people of Awaran and Kech districts.. Official sources said that though militants had been attacking teams of the army and FC participating in relief work, they had not left the area and had been distributing relief among the quake survivors. About 1,500 personnel, including army’s male and female doctors, had been taking part in relief operations and distributed relief goods, including 1,100 tons of food items, 30,000 tents, medicines, blankets, mosquito nets and other necessary items among the affected people in Awaran, Tarteej, Malar, Gishkor, Mangoli, Bazdad, Mashkay, Dandar and other areas of Awaran and Kech districts, they said. Officials of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said that 12 army helicopters had been participating in the relief operation, adding that 225 sorties had flown so far for Awaran and Kech. Army doctors received and treated 2,500 ailing people and those injured in the earthquake, some of whom were airlifted to army hospitals. The Inter Services Public Relations said on Friday that the army’s relief operation was continuing in Awaran and Kech despite incidents of firing by militants. “The army will continue to provide relief to affected people of Awaran in inaccessible locations relentlessly,” an ISPR spokesman said. He said militants attacked an army unit in Mashkay area on Sept 28. “The FC troops moving to earthquake-hit area from Panjgur were attacked by militants, resulting in martyrdom of four FC soldiers and injuries to two soldiers on Sept 28. One rocket was fired in an area near Awaran when army troops were providing relied goods to people on Sept 30,” he said, adding that troops also came under attack in Jhalwari and Nokjo areas on Sept 30. The ISPR spokesman said that on Oct 1, militants fired rockets on army personnel providing relief in Nokjo and Mashkay areas. He said two soldiers embraced martyrdom and three suffered injuries when militants attacked them in Mashkay area on Oct 2. He said militants attacked thrice helicopters engaged in the relief operation.
Additional 2pc GST at factory level By Mubarak Zeb Khan ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) imposed on Friday two per cent additional sales tax at the level of the manufacturer on several items, to be worked out on the basis of actual value-addition. . The existing GST rate on these products is 17pc. “This is not a new tax or an increase in the existing rate, but only collection of tax which even otherwise was payable by the supply chain,” the FBR said in a statement. The 19pc GST which will be collected from manufacturers at the factory level will now be part of the actual price for end-users and may not be printed on the products. The items on which 2pc additional GST will apply are: air-conditioners, refrigerators, deep freezers, televisions, recorders and players, electric bulbs, tube-lights, fans, electric irons, washing machines, telephone sets, gas ovens, geysers and heaters, foam or spring mattresses and other foam products for household use, auto parts and accessories, lubricating oils, brake, transmission and other vehicular fluids and maintenance products, tyres and tubes, storage batteries, arms and ammunition, paints, distempers, enamels, pigments, colours, varnishes, gums, resins, dyes, glazes, thinners, blacks, cellulose lacquers and polishes sold in retail packing, tiles, biscuits, confectionary, chocolates, toffees and candies. The FBR issued four notifications on Friday to notify the decisions. The concept of charging sales tax on the basis of retail price is to charge the tax of the entire supply chain from manufacturers till retail stage and upfront from the manufacturer. The FPCCI, KCCI and trade associations recently approached the FBR for an alternative mode of tax collection from dealers, distributors and retailers of these goods and said the condition of charging the tax at the retail stage might be done away with. Consequently, the FBR omitted these items from the Third Schedule to the Sales Tax Act, 1990, and imposed 2pc additional tax on these items to be paid by manufacturers in consultation and with the consensus of trade bodies to provide relief to the business community. “The rate of 2pc tax was worked out on the basis of actual value-addition of these sectors from the manufacturers till the retail stage,” the FBR statement said, adding that the chambers and trade associations were of the opinion that it was practically impossible for them to comply with the requirement of printing retail price on each and every item because prices of these goods varied from market to market because of various factors. A tax expert told Dawn that now the tax would be levied at the factory price instead of retail price which would provide enough room for understatement of the actual price of products. This will be a challenge for the FBR to keep a check on manufacturers to declare actual price for the purpose of taxes. According to the FBR notifications, sales tax on import and domestic sale of fabrics has been reduced from 5pc to 3pc. The value-addition tax at the rate of two per cent was also levied on commercial import of fabrics. At the same time, raw materials used in manufacturing of fabrics, which were charged with 17pc tax, will be refunded to the textile sector. The tax on raw materials is 2pc. The rate of withholding tax on goods transport vehicles has been reduced to Rs3 per kg from Rs5. The tax was increased from Rs1 per kg to Rs5 last year. The rate of withholding tax on purchase of taxable goods from unregistered persons has been reduced to 1pc from 17pc. However, this tax will not be adjustable. The rate of withholding tax on purchase from registered persons has been reduced to one-tenth from one-fifth. Withholding agents with free tax number can also withhold sales tax on purchase from unregistered persons.
Infant dies in shelling by Indian troops By Tariq Naqash MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 4: Indian troops shelled from across the Line of Control on Friday, leaving an infant dead and five other civilians wounded in Kotli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.. A Pakistan Army official told Dawn that Indian troops started shelling at around 11am “without any provocation,” during which they used mortar guns. “The shelling came to an end after we responded to it in a befitting manner,” said the official who declined to be identified. Kotli Deputy Commissioner Masoodur Rehman identified the injured as Mushtaq, his brother Rasheed, daughter Shameez, niece Aqsa, 13-month-old nephew Saad and Samina. They were taken to a hospital. However, Saad died on way to the hospital, he said.
Tariff hike decision scrapped By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Succumbing to the countrywide protests against the multi-fold increase in electricity tariff, the government has decided to make what is being described as a strategic retreat. . It announced in the Supreme Court on Friday that it was withdrawing the Sept 30 notification about the increase in the power rate for domestic consumers. “In these circumstances, the federal government withdraws the notification of September 30,” Attorney General Muneer A. Malik informed a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry which had taken up a case relating to loadshedding. After the withdrawal the notification becomes infructuous and the old electricity tariff is revived for the time being. The government will now file a petition in the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to reconsider the determination of tariff of distribution companies (Discos) as well as the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) for the financial year 2012-13. The process will take two to three weeks. But the government made it clear that the determination would be effective from Oct 1 and would include Rs150 billion subsidies for the power sector to maintain the rates for different slabs as per the guidelines issued by the government. “The over-billing, if any, in case of re-determination of tariff will be adjusted in future billings,” the attorney general explained. He made the statement after consulting Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif who himself appeared before the bench and said the government had a reasonable expectation about availability in the system of 780 billion cubic feet of gas per year through the Iran-Pakistan pipelines project by late next year. Everything in the power and petroleum sectors would be rationalised within this month, the minister said. And to keep the prices of electricity at the lower side, he said, the government was working on a plan to convert some power plants, including independent power plants (IPPs) and public sector generation companies (Gencos) being run on residual fuel oil (RFO), commonly known as furnace oil, or on diesel, into coal — a much cheaper mode of power generation — in one and a half years. Khawaja Asif said India generated 70 per cent of its electricity through coal and China 60pc, adding that the Turkish government had offered to install power plants in Pakistan at the mouth of coal mines. The court suggested that instead of independent power plants which mainly ran on RFO, the government should rely more on hydel sources and divert more gas to the power sector from the fertiliser sector whose finished product was usually smuggled to Iran and Afghanistan, forcing Pakistani peasants to buy fertiliser at higher prices. The court regretted that the All Pakistan Flour Mills Association was meeting on Monday to consider increasing the price of flour only because of increase in prices of petroleum products and fertiliser. Khawaja Asif admitted that the fertiliser sector was enjoying a massive concession under a government policy being followed for many years. Nepra Chairman Khawaja Naeem said the cost of electricity production would reduce by 25 to 35pc if gas was diverted to the power sector, but feared that the midway withdrawal of the Sept 30 notification would put Discos in a quandary. He requested the court to order the government to provide 100pc gas to power plants. The installed capacity of gas plants in Pakistan is 4,730MW and that of hydel plants 6,900MW. At present only 276mmcf of gas is being provided to gas power plants, which comes to 10pc of the total gas distributed among different sectors; IPPs get 9pc and captive power plants 12pc. Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, a member of the bench, regretted that the present government’s energy policy did not contain a word about recovering Rs441 billion dues outstanding against different consumers. “It is a reverse sort of Robin Hood where poor are robbed for the benefit of rich,” he said. Khawaja Asif said water reservoirs would deplete in a month to a point where total production of hydel generation would come down to a mere 1,000MW whereas the demand of gas by domestic consumers would reach a maximum peak between November and February. The Nepra chief informed the court that total line losses claimed by generation companies at the national level were 19.8 per cent. The Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company estimates the loss at 27pc which rises to 50pc if the theft factor is added. The line losses of Peshawar Electric Supply Company stand at 38pc, Multan Electric Power Supply Company at 18pc and Islamabad Electric Supply Company at 9pc which is close to the international standard. “Even half of the receivables of Rs441 billion are available, it can be used to replace and improve the already overloaded and deteriorated equipment,” Mr Naeem said.
Malala tops list of likely peace Nobel winners STOCKHOLM, Oct 4: This year’s Nobel prize season opens on Monday with rumours swirling that the peace prize could go to Malala Yousufzai, Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege or rights activists from Russia or Belarus. . The first Nobel to be announced will be the medicine prize on Monday, when the jury in Stockholm will reveal the winner or winners at about 11.30am. But like every year, most of the speculation is about who will take home the prestigious peace and literature prizes. A record 259 nominations have been submitted for this year’s peace prize but the Norwegian Nobel Institute never discloses the list, leaving amateurs and experts alike to engage in a guessing game ahead of the October 11 announcement. The head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Kristian Berg Harpviken, follows the work of the peace prize committee closely and has since 2009 published his own shortlist of possible winners — though he has yet to correctly pick the laureate. Topping his list this year is Malala. Mr Harpviken said she “not only has become a symbol of girls’ and children’s right to education and security, but also of the fight against extremism and oppression”. But others suggest the prize would be too heavy to bear given her young age of 16. “I’m not sure it would be suitable, from an ethical point of view, to give the peace prize to a child,” Tilman Brueck, the head of Stockholm peace research institute SIPRI, told Norwegian news agency NTB. He suggested the award could instead go to Colombia’s peace negotiators or Myanmar’s reformists. Asle Sveen, a historian specialising in the peace prize, meanwhile said he thought the five committee members could give the nod to Congolese gynaecologist Dr Mukwege. The doctor has set up a hospital and foundation to help thousands of women who have been raped in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by local and foreign militants, as well as by soldiers in the army. “The secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Geir Lundestad has repeatedly said the conflict in DR Congo has not gotten enough attention,” Mr Sveen told NTB. Human Rights Watch said the committee could also choose to honour rights activists in Russia, following the worst crackdown since the fall of the Soviet Union. Activists in Belarus, often described as Europe’s last dictatorship, were another possibility, said the group. Russian women activists such as Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Svetlana Gannushkina and Lilia Shibanova could be serious candidates, or rights group Memorial and jailed Belarussian rights activist Ales Belyatski. Meanwhile, Malala has added another award to a growing list of prizes she has received in recent months. On Friday she was given the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award, named after the Russian journalist who was shot dead seven years ago. Malala was presented with the award in London and said she hoped she could be “as brave as (Politkovskaya) was”. “I admire Anna’s dedication to truth, to equality, and to humanity,” she added. The award was presented by the so-called “British Schindler”, Nicholas Winton, who in 1939 saved the lives of more than 600 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia as World War II was about to start.—AFP
US to keep making CSF payments By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: The United States will continue to reimburse the cost incurred by Pakistan in support of the war on terror, through the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for keeping the vacillating bilateral relationship on a “solid footing”.. Commander of the United States Central Command (US Centcom) Gen Lloyd Austin met Secretary of Defence retired Lt Gen Asif Yasin Malik on Friday at the defence ministry headquarters in Rawalpindi to discuss defence relations and the pullout of coalition forces from Afghanistan. A defence ministry statement issued by its press officer after the meeting quoted Gen Austin as telling the defence secretary that: “Continued support in training, education and Coalition Support Fund (CSF) will act as tools necessary to keep relations on solid footing.” The Centcom commander described Pakistan as America’s vital partner for regional security besides being an important country for American national security interests. He noted that defence relations between the two countries were progressing on an upward trajectory. Pakistani leaders had been keenly awaiting a US decision on the future of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), which is essentially the reimbursement of the costs the country incurs on operations conducted in support of the US war on terror. The CSF is the centerpiece of post-9/11 Pak-US defence cooperation. It is drawn from a presidentially designed and congressionally authorised money, but the US Department of Defense has enormous discretion and authority under this programme. Though there have been differences between the two countries in the past on disbursement procedures and auditing of the fund, which quite often led to backlogs, Pakistani leaders see it as an important source for building their foreign exchange reserves. It is an open secret that funds received under the CSF have been used for budgetary support. The CSF has accounted for nearly half of US financial transfers to Pakistan from 2001 to June 2013. Pakistan has since 2001 received about $11 billion under this head from the US. The amount equals roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of Pakistan’s total military expenditures during this period. Gen Austin appreciated Pakistan’s role in facilitating drawdown of US and Isaf forces. Pakistan has lately started playing a more pro-active role with regard to facilitating the reconciliation process in Afghanistan and late last month released a top detained Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who was considered crucial for reviving the stalemated peace process. Though the move is yet to produce any result Pakistan’s role has been appreciated by all stakeholders. Islamabad had earlier helped in setting up Taliban’s political office in Doha, which was closed down shortly after its opening due to a controversy over the name and flag of Taliban. At the same time, Pakistan has been helping transportation of US/Isaf military assets out of Afghanistan. Senate Defence Committee chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain said the drawdown of coalition forces from Afghanistan would be the biggest logistical exercise after World War-II in military terms since 750,000 pieces of armaments, ammunition, equipment and vehicles worth $35 billion would have to be taken out of Afghanistan, 70 per cent through Pakistan and the rest through the Northern Distribution Network via Central Asia. Pakistan and the US are set to resume their Strategic Dialogue next year after remaining suspended for over two years due to challenging events of 2011 which included a US attack on the Salala border checkpost which left 18 Pakistani troops dead. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been invited by President Obama to Washington on Oct 23, where the two leaders are expected to look at ways to take forward the relationship. During his two-day stay in Islamabad, the Centcom chief also met Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne. A statement issued by the US Embassy said: “General Austin reaffirmed the importance of the US-Pakistani security relationship to regional stability. They (Gen Austin and his Pakistani interlocutors) agreed to continue to meet periodically to further common objectives on cross-border cooperation and regional security.”
Punjab MPAs assure full support to the quake-hit By Our Staff Correspondent QUETTA, Oct 4: A 14-member delegation of Punjab assembly having representation from different parties arrived here on Friday to express solidarity with victims of the recent earthquakes. . Talking to media personnel at the airport soon after arrival here, the leader of the delegation and Punjab’s minister for environment, Shuja Khanzada, said the legislators were visiting Balochistan to express solidarity with the Baloch brothers and sisters who had suffered losses because of the earthquakes that devastated Awaran and Kech districts. “The federal and Punjab governments will not leave the earthquake-affected people of Balochistan alone in this difficult time and will continue to extend full financial support to them through relief and rehabilitation work,” he remarked. The Punjab government, he said, would soon establish a hospital having modern facilities for the people of Awaran. “Prime Minster Mian Nawaz Sharif will lay the foundation stone of the health project in Awaran.” Mr Khanzada said both the people and government of Punjab were donating generously so that the affected people could be rehabilitated as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, Speaker Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali, provincial Minister Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal and other MPAs welcomed members of the delegation when they reached the Balochistan assembly. “We welcome the guests from Punjab assembly and hope they will promote better interaction between Punjab and Balochistan,” Dr Baloch said on the occasion. Besides Mr Khanzada, the members of the delegation are Ahmed Ali Khan Dreshak, Ayesha Javed, Qamarul Islam Raja, Faiza Ahmed Malik, Muhammad Arif Abbasi, Murad Rass, Qazi Adnan Fareed, Ramesh Singh Arora, Saadia Sohail Rana, Sardar Vickas Hassan Mokal, Syed Abdul Aleem, Syed Tariq Yaqoob and Syed Waseem Akthar. The chief minister later hosted a dinner in honour of the delegation.
President asks NAB investigators to work honestly By Syed Irfan Raza ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: President Mamnoon Hussain urged on Friday newly trained investigators of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to help ensure rule of law in the country and not to get influenced by any other consideration. . He said NAB was mandated to carry out accountability and its officers were expected to discharge their duty with honesty and integrity. Speaking at ‘graduation ceremony’ of 267 newly trained investigators, the president said the menace of corruption had destroyed the very fabric of human societies and undermined the value of work and dignity of human beings. “To combat the menace of corruption, the role of investigators is critical and crucial. An investigating officer should be thoroughly impartial,” he remarked. Mr Hussain pointed out that investigators were often blamed for delays and for leaving loopholes in cases. He advised the young officers to continue to pursue excellence in their professional life. “The path the new officers have chosen will demand continuous hard work, commitment and high degree of determination,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, NAB’s Deputy Chairman retired Rear Admiral Saeed Ahmed Sargana said the bureau was pursuing the three-pronged policy of awareness, prevention and enforcement. The NAB officers, he said, had undergone a seven-month rigorous training to handle issues relating to corruption and expressed the confidence that they would do their best to eradicate the menace from the country. He also mentioned the media’s vibrant role in highlighting issues of corruption. Rear Admiral Sargana said NAB was vigorously pursuing all cases initiated during the tenures of its previous chairmen. But fresh cases could not be started until a new chairman was appointed or the ordinance concerned was amended. Talking to reporters after the ceremony, Rear Admiral Sargana said no decision had been taken about reopening of cases against former president Asif Ali Zardari. “I cannot take a decision regarding opening of cases against the former president because it is solely the prerogative of the chairman,” he said. Answering a question about the possibility of arrest of former premiers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf in the Rental Power Projects case, he said: “They cannot be arrested without the approval of the chairman.” Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman for the former president, told Dawn that “if NAB reopens any case against Mr Zardari, PPP will face it.”
Editorial NEWS
Slow realisation: Nawaz Sharif’s UN speech WHATEVER else Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif planned to speak about before the UN General Assembly, invariably the focus was going to be on his comments about his government’s policy against militancy and terrorism. And almost inevitably, the day of Mr Sharif’s address coincided with another militant strike — the bus attack in Peshawar — and a declaration by a branch of the TTP that talks within the framework of the Constitution were unacceptable. Perhaps knowing this, Mr Sharif chose his words carefully. The prime minister owned his government’s policy of talks with the TTP but also claimed that “dialogue should not be seen as a sign of weakness or a tool of appeasement” and that his government is “resolved to oppose the forces of terrorism, by all means at our disposal”. It is still some way from laying down specific conditions and red lines in any negotiations with militants, but slowly the prime minister appears to be absorbing that the tone and tenor of the APC resolution and subsequent comments by government officials had sent a weak message. Perhaps the government will now strengthen its present stance.. On drones, the prime minister took the now-familiar line that the US must cease violating Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty and that drone strikes cause collateral damage. But Mr Sharif stopped short of upping the ante: he only called upon the US to stop the strikes, making no reference to the APC resolution which suggested taking up the issue at the UN. Mr Sharif and other politicians and security officials who have expressed unease about an expansive drone programme are right: there are unquestionably problems with both the scope and legitimacy of the drone programme. But there is another side to the problem that Pakistani leaders have long avoided dealing with: drones continue to pursue terrorists in the tribal northwest — in reality, even more narrowly within the Waziristan agencies for the most part — because terrorists with cross-border and international agendas continue to operate in Fata with impunity. If the state here is incapable of addressing a serious threat that projects inwards into Pakistan proper and emanates outwards regionally and internationally, it makes arguing on grounds of principle and territorial sovereignty that much more difficult. In articulating his vision for a prosperous and developing Pakistan, Mr Sharif was right. Pakistan, especially its youth, needs more opportunities to grow and prosper. But there is no such thing as prosperity without security, at least in a meaningful, societal sense. Security is where the greatest challenge lies for Mr Sharif’s government.
Inexplicable action: PPP white paper THE PPP’s latest act does not offer an easy explanation. The party’s white paper on the general election terms the PML-N’s mandate as bogus and fake, but there are no indications as to how the PPP wants to pursue the matter from here onwards. It had accepted the May 2013 verdict with reservations, which as far as statements of intent go, pretty much indicated that it was content with securing Sindh and did not want to challenge the results in any way. In the absence as yet of any legal follow-up, the white paper is part of a political build-up to an effort to revitalise the party in Punjab and other parts. Is this the PPP’s way of going forward?. The complaints in the white paper, as those in a similar document prepared by the PTI, cannot be taken lightly. Using NA-139 as an example to argue its case, the PPP has talked of “imaginary results” in 177 out of 272 polling stations. It talks of irregularities in the appointment of returning officers, adding to the evidence that has already emerged courtesy PTI and some other sources. If the fears expressed by PPP leaders about the possibility of tampering with the record are alarming, the reaction of an ECP official to the white paper is astonishing to say the least. Although the official has preferred to stay anonymous, there is little reason for a state functionary to question why a party had taken so long to make an ‘allegation’. This is a response that best suits a political opponent and it would be sufficient for the ECP to commit itself to investigating the charge. NA-139, Kasur, appears to be a good enough case for a sample probe and if the ECP insists on a formal request to initiate an inquiry, the PPP should not hesitate to file one. The debate on how free and fair the May polls were must now lead to steps that ensure fairer elections in the years to come.
Historic phone call: US-Iran thaw THOSE were wonderful 15 minutes for peace in the Middle East region when an American president and his Iranian counterpart talked to each other for the first time in more than three decades. President Barack Obama placed the call and reached President Hassan Rouhani who was en route to the airport. The US president congratulated Mr Rouhani on his election victory, apologised in a lighter vein for the New York traffic and gave him a Farsi farewell — Khoda Hafiz. Mr Rouhani ended it with “have a nice day”. The conversation, sources said, focused on the nuclear question, even though Mr Obama also talked about the American prisoners in Iran. Mr Obama later showed realism when he said that there were bound to be “obstacles” and success was by “no means guaranteed”. But he voiced the hopes of all peace-loving people when he said he believed “we can reach a comprehensive solution”. At one stage, even telephonic contact appeared doubtful when President Rouhani skipped a lunch where he was expected to shake hands with President Obama, saying it was premature for the two to meet. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif then got together to pave the way for their conversation. President Obama conceded Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and the two agreed to expedite the process to seek a solution to the nuclear question.. A lot depends upon how hardliners in Iran react to this breakthrough telephone talk — their initial reaction has been negative — though spiritual leader Ali Khamenei’s support for President Rouhani’s moderate policies could help him pursue the process. Pakistan should hope for a US-Iran rapprochement, for this will help lift sanctions and remove whatever obstacles there are to the import of Iranian gas.
Words, no action: India, Pakistan PMs meet A MEETING with the lowest of expectations to begin with went off without a hitch yesterday. In the larger India-Pakistan dynamic, that a meeting was held at all is perhaps a small victory — such is the unhappy history between the two countries. On the positive side, the post-meeting press briefings eschewed hard-hitting statements and it became clear that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif believe that normalisation of ties is the desired outcome between India and Pakistan. Less salubriously, neither side was willing to engage in conversation about how exactly ties are to be moved towards the goal of normalisation. For a relationship that has been fraught from its 66-year-old beginning, words do not count for much anymore, only actions will suffice.. Must it necessarily be pessimism that characterises the ebb and flow of India-Pakistan relations though? While the politicians and diplomats meet and shake hands and offer up anodyne sound bites for the media, the temptation to view it from a prism of unremitting cynicism may be great. However, there is some room for cautious realism, if not optimism. Without a shadow of a doubt, Mr Sharif believes that Pakistan’s progress lies, in great part, in the normalisation of ties with India, be it through trade, people crossing borders freely or cross-border investment. And now in the fag end of his prime ministerial career, Mr Singh has demonstrated that even when under extreme pressure domestically, he will keep the door to talks with Pakistan open. Beyond that, however, there is the reality of ties staying in limbo — India complaining about non-action on the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan’s inability to muzzle jihadi elements and, now, cross-LoC violence; Pakistan, for its part, complaining that India is unwilling to take up core and old issues, be it Kashmir or the so-called low-hanging fruit of Sir Creek and Siachen. Ultimately, as this newspaper and many others have argued, improving the India-Pakistan equation will depend on tremendous political will by each country’s political leadership. Much was expected of Mr Sharif in this regard, but so far he’s preferred to play his hand very carefully, almost to the point of inaction. As for Mr Singh, hammered at home on various fronts and going into an election that will almost certainly see him replaced, time has all but run out. Perhaps all India and Pakistan can hope for now is that the next year brings tangible improvements.
Key changes needed: Prison security ONE possible silver lining in any calamity is the opportunity it provides for people to learn from it and finesse existing response mechanisms. The jailbreaks at Bannu and D.I. Khan prisons in KP which took place in April 2012 and July 2013 respectively, and freed hundreds of prisoners including scores of hard-core militants, should thus have served as a catalyst for a comprehensive review of prison security across the country. However, a report in this newspaper on Friday about the Karachi Central Jail detailed systemic flaws that raise serious questions about how far the facility, where 200-plus militants are incarcerated, could withstand assaults of the kind seen on the prisons in KP. The most vulnerable link in the chain are the security personnel themselves. Their abysmally low remuneration encourages endemic corruption and negates even the nominal improvement in security measures that has admittedly been made.. Perhaps the most useful resource at this point for the Karachi Central Jail, not to mention other prisons in the country, would be the findings of the ‘high-level inquiries’ into the KP jailbreaks. But, like virtually all other reports issued after major incidents in this country, these too have yet to be officially released. That is all the more unfortunate because there may well be many similarities between the provincial prison systems as they follow the same jail manual that was bequeathed to this country by the British when the curtain fell on the Raj. It is high time this was revised to bring standard operating procedures in line with the vastly different face of criminality that exists in the country today. Also urgently needed is an inter-provincial mechanism for the police — already a territorial lot — to share information regarding the workings of militants, and the signature aspects of particular groups, such as distinctive methods of fashioning suicide jackets that can offer clues to the identity of the group involved. Apprehending criminals as well as keeping them behind bars requires an integrated approach.
Callous attacks: Quake relief efforts targeted THE misery of Balochistan’s earthquake victims continues. Powerful aftershocks continue to rattle the area affected by Tuesday’s temblor and the one on Saturday while the death toll has crossed 500. Hundreds are said to be injured and in total around 300,000 have been affected. Even in the midst of this misery there have been incidents of relief work being disrupted by armed attacks. The army is leading the relief work; the problem is that Awaran district, the worst-hit area, happens to be a hotbed of the Baloch separatist insurgency. Hence the military is viewed with suspicion in the area, mainly due to the harsh anti-insurgency tactics it has employed. Baloch militant leader Allah Nazar has claimed that the relief operation is a front for the military in order to allow it to conduct an operation in the area. The Baloch nationalists’ grievances with the military notwithstanding, it is callous and insensitive that gunmen have targeted relief work. An army helicopter was fired upon, containing ministers along with the NDMA chief, while troops have also been targeted along with a medical team in separate incidents.. In the aftermath of such a massive disaster, the militants must ask themselves if they are doing the local population any favours by firing at relief convoys and helicopters. If the separatists and the mainstream nationalists have reservations about the army’s presence, they should provide volunteers to spearhead relief work and call for civilian doctors and other aid workers to step in. The army is doing an essential job as it has the resources and infrastructure to carry out rescue efforts in the remote quake-hit areas. It should restrict itself to that and should announce there will be no FC operation in and around the quake-affected areas. The people’s relief and rehabilitation should not be jeopardised as there is no sense in fighting ideological battles at this time.
Clarity needed: Blasts in KP THE facts are few, but incontrovertible. Over the course of a week, various targets were hit in KP. Increasingly, those targets have become soft ones. Beyond that, the facts quickly give way to theory and speculation. Several groups have claimed responsibility for the various attacks, but there remains some uncertainty about at least some of the attacks — who is really responsible and why now, just when the country’s political leadership is bending over backwards to seemingly accommodate the militants? To probe these questions is not to dabble in conspiracy theories that are being peddled by militancy sympathisers. After all, both the prime minister and the interior minister have expressed doubts about who is behind the latest string of attacks and why — and neither man is known to be particularly gung-ho about talks or prone to hyperbole.. What is required though are more cold, hard facts. For too long now, the country’s leadership, be it civilian or uniformed, have talked all too easily about external conspiracies, saboteurs and unnamed enemies of peace without ever offering up public proof. That outside powers or neighbouring countries could be playing dirty games inside Pakistan is and always will remain a possibility. That there are elements within the spectrum of militancy and terrorism who are implacably opposed to talks for ideological or mercenary reasons is also always a possibility. But in the absence of clear public proof, the people are entitled to discount such theories. After all, it is just as much a possibility, if not more, that the TTP does not really want talks. Similarly, having found the state to be so defensive and supine in its offer of talks, more violence now could make sense for the TTP because it can cause a near-capitulation by the state to become a real capitulation. There is a broader problem here. Even when militants are caught, arrested, prosecuted and convicted, there is little attempt by the authorities, or the media even, to explain the linkages and the campaigns of violence to the public. To this day, while the names Baitullah and Hakeemullah may mean something to most people, there is little real public understanding of what the TTP is, who its constituent elements are and how the terror umbrella functions. This is because the state has preferred to alternately peddle in conspiracy theories and obfuscation over the years. The violence that has been visited on Pakistan is apparent to all. It is perhaps time the country’s leadership starts divulging what it does know, instead of always just darkly hinting at the facts.
Hope for peace? UN resolution on Syrian WMDs IT remains to be seen whether the agreement on Syria’s chemical weapons will pave the way for an end to the 30 months of civil war in that country. As always, the UN acted only after America and Russia had clinched a deal. Passed on Friday by the Security Council, the binding resolution calling for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons doesn’t provide for punitive action if the Damascus government fails to cooperate. But it has two legally binding clauses that require the Bashar al-Assad government to abandon its chemical weapons and give UN experts unfettered access to its WMDs. The UN motion followed a resolution by The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which called for “an accelerated programme” for destroying Syria’s chemical arms by the middle of next year, with inspections to begin this month. Syria will obviously oblige because Russia — its major supporter — said the success of the resolution depended on the Baathist government’s cooperation. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also asked Syrian rebels to cooperate. Meanwhile, the OPCW executive committee will meet in November to lay down a timetable for the weapons’ destruction so that the matter is not left open-ended and decisive action is taken, regardless of which party is using these deadly arms. . The Syrian deal must also be seen in the context of what countries can pull off if they work together on a problem — despite their differing views on how to achieve a durable solution. Before the UN Security Council adopted the unanimous resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons, the threat of war had loomed large. While it has not entirely vanished even now, conflict in the immediate future has been averted. Can the consensus achieved by the international powers be taken further to persuade Syria’s warring sides to lay down their arms and approach the negotiating table? For the sake of ending the miseries of the Syrian people and avoiding a larger conflagration in the region, this is the best option.
Poor immunisation: Diphtheria deaths THE recent diphtheria-related deaths of four children in Punjab should cause all four provincial governments to take a long, hard look at the efficacy of vaccination programmes in order to zero in on the loopholes. There have been at least seven deaths in total this year in Punjab attributed to the fatal respiratory tract infection; last year there were two victims in the province. The emergence of diphtheria is not to be taken lightly as according to the World Health Organisation even a single case of the disease is “suggestive of an outbreak”. The shortage of anti-diphtheria serum in public hospitals has made the situation worse. Yet what is most troubling is the fact that figures on routine immunisation in Punjab from last year show that only 57.5pc of children were immunised. This points to gaping holes in the health service delivery infrastructure which allow preventable diseases to turn into epidemics. Diphtheria is included in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation; but when such a large percentage of children in the country’s most populous province are not immunised, should outbreaks of deadly diseases come as a surprise?. While the state’s handling of the health sector is not at all satisfactory, society must also shoulder the blame where low vaccination of children is concerned. Because people don’t trust the state’s health machinery, a large number of parents don’t get their offspring vaccinated. Hence, the provincial governments need to work on improving the public image of health services. Community elders, public representatives and local religious leaders must be taken on board to bridge the trust deficit so that people are convinced about getting youngsters immunised at public health facilities. But good PR alone will not do the trick. Confidence-building and public-awareness measures must be backed up by massive improvements in service delivery.
Not the only answer: Power price hike THE steep rise in domestic electricity prices did not come unannounced. The government had been preparing the ground ever since it presented its first budget and it had raised industrial, commercial and bulk tariffs in August. In anticipation of an adverse public reaction, the government delayed introducing the new prices for domestic connections to minimise the impact on consumer bills because electricity usage at homes drops substantially as summer gives way to cooler months. It also short-circuited the standard procedure for determination of electricity prices by Nepra, giving the impression that it fears that public hearings by the regulator will be an impediment. The apex court has already taken notice of this failure to go through Nepra, and the opposition parties are set to raise the issue in parliament and press for withdrawal of the increase.. Though the prices have been increased by an average 30pc for various categories of consumers depending on consumption, the real impact of this move will be a lot more prohibitive for those falling in the fixed income bracket owing to withdrawal of the tariff slabs. The bill of an average household — already under pressure from surging fuel and food prices and the high incidence of indirect taxation — using between 201 and 300 units a month, for example, will now swell by almost 73pc. If the concomitant increase in sales tax on electricity consumption is also taken into account, the total financial impact on these households will be over 87pc. The government argues it has no option but to jack up power prices for ‘full cost recovery’ to cut its subsidy expenditure from 1.8pc of GDP to 0.3-0.4pc in three years to control its soaring budget deficit under the $6.6bn loan from the IMF. The abrupt and exorbitant hike in electricity prices isn’t the only answer to the government’s financial difficulties. There are other ways to improve returns on generation and to cut power subsidy expenses. The government could focus on controlling the massive electricity theft and distribution losses, collecting unpaid bills from defaulters, improving governance and efficiency of the power sector and disallowing excessive billing by private power producers. This will help at least in part. The solution to its budget deficit woes lies in taxing the wealthy according to their income irrespective of its source. Unless it moves in this direction, it will not overcome its financial troubles. The increase in power prices will only stall economic growth and trigger more trouble for the government and the public.
Disease fears: Eid livestock WITH the country gearing up for Eidul Azha, hundreds of thousands of animals are being brought to cities and towns where they will remain in herds until sold on for sacrifice. But in recent years, an issue that has cropped up repeatedly is the absence of mechanisms to screen livestock and separate infected animals from the healthy ones. After all, it is crucial to isolate infections that could render an animal unsafe for consumption, or affect the human population. As a study conducted by this newspaper with reference to Karachi found on Tuesday, most animals are not vaccinated and many are infected. For many years, Eidul Azha has been followed by a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease — 1,000 outbreaks across the country during the past year alone. And it is not just FMD we need to worry about, but also Congo virus and sundry others.. The reason behind the lack of screening mechanisms can be found in the manner in which livestock has traditionally been reared in this land for centuries. Where in vast parts of the world there are controlled environments for livestock, in Pakistan the old ways still reign supreme. Thousands of families follow the nomadic lifestyle, driving their livestock across the land in search of fresh pastures and then bringing them down to towns and villages when they are ready to be sold. Even where rearing animals for consumption is an occupation for people who root themselves in a certain area, in Punjab and Sindh, for example, it can hardly be said that technology or veterinary practices figure much in the process. But modern times put forward pressing new challenges, and the need to separate healthy from infected animals before they pass the disease on to larger populations — human and animal — is critical. We have been lucky so far that disease outbreaks have been contained; this could change at any time. With animals converging upon sale points ahead of Eid, city administrations still have time to get their act together.
‘Operation’ losing steam: Resurgence in Karachi killings FOLLOWING the prime minister’s visit to Karachi last month, the general impression formed subsequently was that the ‘targeted operations’ initiated by the police and Rangers had begun to yield results. The number of daily killings in the city was down, while reports suggested that criminals and militants were being tracked down not only in the metropolis, but also in other cities of Sindh and beyond the provincial boundary. However, as the number of people killed — at least 13 — on Monday shows, the mission is far from accomplished. The same kind of killings that were occurring before the state swung into action are happening again. In fact, not a single illegal weapon is reported to have been turned in to the authorities despite a much-publicised media campaign warning the public to give up any illicit arms in its possession. As expected, the results since then have not been encouraging either. Although officials have made excuses for the deweaponisation drive’s lack of success (people have failed to hand over their guns because it was the weekend), we had commented earlier that violent elements were highly unlikely to surrender their weapons simply because of a media campaign.. As far as action against criminals and militants is concerned, there needs to be consistency on part of the state. After initially showing enthusiasm to pursue criminal elements, the drive and energy to get the job done by the Sindh administration is definitely missing. Such lethargy will fail to have any permanent impact on reducing Karachi’s bloodshed. Hence the state needs to keep its focus on pursuing criminals and not leave the job half done. Where deweaponisation is concerned, as pointed out earlier, good intelligence coupled with raids to recover illegal arms, as well as busting gunrunning rackets, is likely to produce better results.
Alarming picture: Capital flight THE governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Yasin Anwar, is perhaps the first senior official to concede that capital is being moved out of the country in very large sums, and also to quantify it. In his testimony before senators on Tuesday, Mr Anwar said $25m were being ‘smuggled’ out of the country in briefcases everyday from four major airports — Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Quetta. He did not say how the bank had worked out the size of the illegal capital outflows and since when this practice had been going on — and these gaps in information have left some economists puzzled. However, even if half this staggering amount is going out of the country each day, it would confirm how porous our custom checkpoints have become, not least because of corruption and weak controls. It would also show how the weak enforcement of anti-money laundering laws is playing havoc with the economy. . Some analysts say the capital outflow could be the result of the recent decision to give tax collectors powers to access the bank accounts of the rich in order to apprehend tax cheaters. If so, the outflow could also be a major factor in the speculative pressure on the rupee and the currency’s rapid depreciation in recent days. But the capital flight is not altogether a new phenomenon. The wealthy have been moving their money out of Pakistan in order to avoid actual or expected taxes as well as unwanted government interventions. Earlier, capital flight took place through the informal channels of hundi and hawala. Now the people carry cash to circumvent the restrictions imposed by foreign states on these channels to curb funding for terrorism. In many cases internationally, flight of capital is related to money made from activities such as drug trafficking, gunrunning, tax evasion, theft, etc. In other cases, it reflects the loss of confidence in the economy and its ability to bounce back. In either case, the implications can be serious for economic stability, investment, growth and equality. While the rich can and do move their financial assets out of the country, the poor are left to shoulder the burden of the depleting value of the currency. Therefore, it is imperative to place strict checks to curb the illegal transfer of money through ports or informal channels. But before that the government will also have to remove lacunae in the anti-money laundering laws, abolish ‘legal’ money-whitening schemes, and increase controls over money changers who help people move their ill-gotten money out of the country.
Curse of ‘ghost’ schools: Corruption in education THE section on Pakistan in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report on education highlights familiar, disturbing facts about the state of public education in this country, particularly the menace of ‘ghost’ schools. The report pinpoints corruption as the key factor responsible for bringing down the edifice of public-sector education in Pakistan. The presence of ghost schools — institutions which only exist on paper yet whose staff regularly draws salaries — in the system means that not only is the future of countless children jeopardised by depriving them of education, but precious state funds — said to be in the billions — also disappear into a black hole. The Supreme Court had earlier this year set up a commission to report on ghost and non-functional schools, but despite the apex court’s efforts it appears little has been done to address the issue by provincial administrations. In fact, a few years ago in Sindh, where along with Balochistan the problem of ghost schools is particularly acute, a senior bureaucrat was reportedly transferred for publicly criticising the state of education. This is a small indication of the power corrupt elements wield within the state machinery.. Better management and accountability are essential if the woeful condition of public schools is to improve. As the TI report recommends, audits by government inspectors, verified by independent third parties, are needed to determine if schools physically exist and if they are being used to impart education, and not for other purposes. Independent verification is important as government monitors have been known to fudge reports. Hiring of teachers must also be more transparent and merit-based. Instead of stuffing education departments with political appointees and favourites, qualified, dedicated teachers must be hired to serve in their local areas instead of those who show up once a month to collect a pay cheque. Local communities must also play a larger monitoring role where schools are concerned. In sum, the state must realise the gravity of the matter: for extremely short-term gains, corrupt elements are lining their pockets at the expense of the future generations’ education.
Sharifs: the next generation: Hamza visits Gujrat PAKISTAN’S future lies with its youth, declared a speaker at a function at the Gujrat University on Tuesday — with a great sense of occasion. He was flanked by Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, otherwise known by the rather unworthy title of ‘deputy chief minister of Punjab’. For a city that has had its bright spots in history, this advent of future good governance was a moment that called for celebration. Trust the bad losers in Chaudhry Shujaat Husain’s party to allege that the schools in the area had been closed for the day and students and teachers were forced to give a standing ovation to the honourable guest. Surely, the students will be happy to carry this brush with royalty as a memento for all times to come.. Hamza Sharif’s advance in recent months has thrown up plenty of clues about his — and our — destiny. Recently, he led a long caravan for a sasta Sunday bazaar inspection in Sheikhupura. A few months earlier, veteran foreign players in Lahore, promoting the city as a safe sporting venue, were stunned when asked to abruptly suspend their hockey match for an urgent photo-op with the Sharif heir apparent. There were a few ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’, half-hearted ones if truth be told. These seniors could do with an extra break provided by the emerging leadership. The case for passing the baton to the new was strengthened when a similar veterans’ game the following day had Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as the guest of honour. This time no whistle for an unscheduled halt was blown in contrast to the sound of trumpets that had accompanied Hamza Sharif’s visit. That tradition continues as the Sharif scion seeks to provide a break to another veteran in another game involving the wielding of stick and the occasional dangling of carrot.
Unhelpful stance: Local bodies poll delay WHAT emerged from the Election Commission of Pakistan’s meeting with provincial officials regarding local bodies’ elections on Thursday is that much work still needs to be done before a clear schedule for the polls emerges. While the ECP will hold another meeting on the subject later this month, all indications, despite official assurances to the contrary, are that the LB elections may be delayed until next year. The provinces have been sluggish, to say the least, where preparing for the polls is concerned. In fact, were it not for the constant pressure of the Supreme Court, which has warned of consequences if the polls are not held “soon”, perhaps the provinces would have put the elections on ice for the foreseeable future.. However slow the progress, if all goes according to plan these will be the first LB polls held under a democratic dispensation, that too on a party basis (with the exception of Punjab, which has opted for non-party polls). It is unfortunate that parliamentarians, specifically members of the provincial assemblies, have put up resistance to elected local bodies, mainly because they feel insecure about sharing power. In fact, local bodies can be a training ground for upcoming politicians to hone their skills and equip themselves for tackling provincial and national issues at a later stage. Over the past few years, democracy has been strengthened in Pakistan and it must be realised that the next step in consolidating the democratic process is to ensure that regular local elections are held. Ideally, the polls should be held on a party basis. Although one theory is that municipal services must be free of political influence, the fact remains that even in earlier non-party polls, especially in the urban areas, political parties were instrumental in supporting various candidates and panels. Allowing party-based polls only recognises a political reality. But if a provincial legislature feels non-party elections is the better option, its choice must be respected. Either way, there must be no more dilly-dallying. The provinces have to get their act together where lawmaking, delimitation and other technical requisites of holding LB polls are concerned. Realistic dates must be set for holding the elections and all stakeholders should stick to the schedule. It has been too long since the country has been without an elected third tier of government and the effects of this vacuum have been felt in the unsatisfactory civic service delivery. Let elected representatives manage the affairs of cities and towns, and not bureaucrats and those tasked with looking after provincial and national affairs.
Long delay: Vacant posts THE National Accountability Bureau is no stranger to controversy. Even so, the tug-of-war between the government and the opposition over the appointment of a chairman is somewhat remarkable. For over four months now, the post has been lying vacant. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah, met for the fourth time but were unable to agree upon either of the two former judges who had earlier been proposed for the post. In lieu of a decision, two new names — former bureaucrats Chaudhry Abdul Rauf and Shaukat Durrani — were suggested. Yet another meeting is expected to be held today.. True, selection of the accountability bureau’s next chairman is tricky business. But the lack of progress on this issue takes on greater significance when seen in the wider context of the government’s performance on several fronts. Well into its tenure — past the first 100 days in office that are the benchmark, artificial and yet symbolic, of identifying early trends in governance — several powerful, indeed crucial, top positions are lying vacant. Ministerial posts in departments that are key to stability in the country, including positions in foreign affairs and law, have yet to be filled. We do not have a minister in charge of defence. Also, at a time when Pakistan desperately needs to boost its economic diplomacy and strengthen trade efforts, there is no one to lead the commerce ministry. And even as the prime minister was in New York attending the UN General Assembly session, the country was reminded that the important post of ambassador to the US is still vacant — we wonder if it will be filled before Mr Sharif’s upcoming visit to the US. Various representatives of the new government have said from time to time that the enormity of the challenges warrants careful reflection at the time of decision-making. Certainly, this is the case. But the government also needs to avoid looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
Threat to Iraq’s unity: Sectarian clashes THE news from Iraq is chilling — nearly 1,000 dead in one month. That the casualty toll — 979 — is less than July’s 1,057 fatalities is hardly a matter of consolation. Iraq is now in the grip of anarchy, with sectarian killings nearing the 2008 peak. That all this should have happened when an elected government is in its second term shows that mere elections do not guarantee rule of law. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has failed to give peace, much less a better life, to the people of his oil-rich country. There is, of course, one major reason why sectarianism has re-emerged as Iraq’s scourge — the civil war in Syria. Even though there is now a stalemate between the rebel and government forces, and the accord on chemical weapons has served to slightly lower tensions, the 30 months of fratricide in Syria has generated forces which are going to stay in the region for quite some time. As in Syria itself, so in Iraq, elements loyal to Al Qaeda have created space for themselves and are on the offensive.. Clearly, the Shia-dominated Maliki government has failed to win the confidence of all sections of Iraqi society. Sunnis complain that security agencies abuse the already vague terms of various anti-terrorism laws and target them. The government denies this, but it has little credibility. The prolongation of the present anarchy would constitute a threat to the unity of the Iraqi state and further strengthen secessionist forces in the autonomous oil-bearing Kurdistan. The solution lies basically with the Iraqi people’s elected representatives. It is they alone who can serve as an example to their people by rising above parochial loyalties, countering the extremist elements and focusing the people’s attention on the task of healing Iraq’s war wounds.
Caution required: Privatisation of PSEs PRIVATISATION is one international trend Pakistan is straining to emulate. There is consensus on this across the political divide, and the differences lie in the details. Privatisation has been an important component of the national economic policy since the 1980s. It gained momentum when Nawaz Sharif came to power for the first time in the early 1990s. At that time, several banks and industrial units were sold off to private investors in spite of fierce opposition and charges of corruption by the workers, not to speak of objections raised by political opponents. Governments since then followed the same policy to finance budget deficits until the process was stalled by the Supreme Court that revoked the sale of the Pakistan Steel Mills to a consortium of local and foreign investors in 2006.. In power for the third time, Nawaz Sharif has, as expected, decided to revive the process. His government plans to turn over 31 major state-owned companies to investors, both domestic and foreign, in the first phase of its privatisation programme. The government will sell its holdings in each company either to the public through stock exchanges or to strategic buyers through the direct sale of 26pc or more shares to them. The details are yet to be firmed up by the Privatisation Commission, but the management control of all the ‘privatised’ enterprises is expected to be transferred to the investors who have the ‘experience and expertise’ to run a business efficiently and profitably. By selling off public-sector enterprises, the government hopes to get rid of the losses these companies are incurring every year and, thus, cut its budget deficit. These losses are estimated at around Rs400-500bn. The privatisation of these businesses will also fulfil an IMF loan condition requiring disinvestment of 65 PSEs in the energy, transport, financial, aviation, shipping, industrial and other sectors. Indeed, many PSEs — the national airline, railways and steel mills — are a burden on resources and in a state where they risk shutting down. Having said that, privatisation in itself does not guarantee a turnaround. It can peter out into an exercise where the family silver is sold off to benefit a chosen few. Even if it manages to silence dissent over other aspects the government must proceed carefully to avoid the charges of benefiting its loyalists. Monopolies have to be avoided, transparency ensured and, even if that appears to be out of fashion, workers’ rights guarded to avert the fate that the attempt to privatise the steel mills met with seven years ago.
Absurd proposal: Ban on VoIP apps IF the last PPP-led government at the centre richly deserved the ridicule heaped upon it for not lifting the curbs it imposed on YouTube, the current set-up in Sindh has elicited an equally strong response to its proposal to ban internet chat and telephony apps including Skype, WhatsApp, Tango and Viber. If the reasoning behind the continuing blockade on YouTube is incomprehensible — that it is not possible to filter out all objectionable material — the logic given for blocking off Voice Over Internet Protocol applications — ie instant messaging tools are used by criminals who cannot be traced — is just as difficult to fathom. After Thursday’s decision was taken at a meeting in Karachi, provincial Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said the blockade would make security operations more effective.. There is no doubt that Karachi’s law and order situation requires urgent intervention, but is this the best way to tackle the situation? While criminals may indeed be using VoIP apps, their number is dwarfed by that of ordinary, honest citizens who use them for all sorts of legitimate purposes — from keeping in touch with family and friends to conducting online interviews and conferences in lieu of their physical presence at a location. The Sindh government has asked that a ban be imposed for three months. If the authorities feel this move is vital to the success of security operations, they must make a strong case before the public for whom such restricted access amounts to a curtailment of civil liberties. There is a ray of hope though; the ban cannot be imposed unilaterally by the provincial government, and the request to do so has to be sent to the federal authorities. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that while such a request would be debated he was personally against a proposal that smacked of the previous government’s intermittent shutdowns of mobile network services for similar reasons. This is a more sensible approach. Pakistan needs to find ways of countering criminals other than by declaring war on modern communications systems.
Drap’s silence: Halted drug production AS if the myriad other challenges of life were not enough for the common Pakistani, people now have to live with the unavailability of essential medicines. A drug manufacturers’ association told a news conference in Karachi that the production of between 30 and 40 essential drugs had been halted for the last two and a half years. The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association has said economic factors, such as the rupee’s devaluation and rising costs, had made the production of some medicines “unviable” at existing prices. The drug makers’ group was also critical of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan for its “ineffectiveness”. Though the lobby may have its own axe to grind with Drap, independent observers would also question why the authority has stayed quiet as essential medicines have disappeared from the market. While the genuine complaints of local drug companies need to be looked into by the state, where the availability of affordable drugs is concerned, the common man would benefit from the introduction of affordable generic medicines in Pakistan.. Generic drugs, priced much lower than their branded counterparts, could be lifesavers for the economically disadvantaged in this country. Examples from India show drastic differences between the prices of patented and generic drugs for ailments such as cancer and Aids. Concerns do exist about the quality of generic drugs, and should be addressed through an effective regulatory framework. This is where Drap needs to play a more active role in monitoring and regulating drugs. The authority has experienced a musical chairs-like situation at the top, with heads coming and going with frequency. Such a key national body needs more stable leadership and a professional staff to tackle the numerous issues concerning drugs in Pakistan, including the availability in sufficient numbers of medicines at affordable prices.
Columns and Articles
The bare, hard ‘fracks’ By Rabel Z. Akhund THE ancient Rapa Nui people of Easter Island believed that every Moai statue (a gargantuan monolithic wooden human figure) that they built as a tribute to their ancestors would lead to greater material prosperity for their society.. Ironically, the construction of the Moai statues contributed to environmental degradation when extreme deforestation necessary for the raw material to build the Moai statues destabilised an already precarious ecosystem which, in turn, led to the near extinction of their population. Recent media reports abound with news of Pakistan’s substantial reserves of shale gas and oil with the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources claiming that Pakistan has the ninth largest reserves of shale gas and oil in the world. If the reports are true, this is a welcome development for Pakistan which is energy-hungry and foreign exchange-poor and whose import bill is dominated by payments for foreign oil. Nevertheless, regardless of the veracity of such reports, our government must, prior to allowing exploration of shale gas, recognise that shale gas exploration is not free from serious environmental hazards and any exploration for shale gas must be strictly controlled under environmental regulations. It is far too easy for the government to get carried away by the potential economic benefits of shale oil and gas deposits while ignoring the environmentally harmful effects of irresponsible exploration activities. Shale gas is mostly composed of methane. Unlike conventional gas, shale gas is produced directly from the source rock (shale) deep underground by using the technique known as fracking, which involves systematic fracturing of the shales to enable the gas to flow. And therein lies the rub. Fracking is a technique that uses substantial quantities of water, mixed with chemicals, pumped at high pressure into sub-par rock to create narrow fractures that create paths for the gas to flow into the well bore to the surface. It is fracking which exposes the local environment to serious potential hazards. In fact, in 2011, the UK government imposed a moratorium on shale gas explorations after two seismic tremors associated with fracking for shale gas occurred in Lancashire. Among the other risks involved in fracking for shale gas is the serious one of groundwater contamination during fracking, either through methane contamination or by contamination of the very chemicals used during the fracking process to fracture shale rocks deep underground. Fracking involves using very large quantities of surface or ground water and this makes the consequences of fracking even worse. Not only is clean water used to fracture shale rock but this method also risks contaminating existing ground water resources and sub-par aquifers. The water that returns from the well (flow-back) is likely to be contaminated and harmful for humans and its storage and disposal needs to be carefully planned. With such significant risks to the local environment and population, the regulatory framework for shale gas exploration has to be meticulously devised and rigorously enforced. To begin with, the operator must be responsible for the safety of the wells and the site. Well operators must conform to complex well head integrity regulations. Blow out prevention technology should be made mandatory to prevent fugitive emissions of methane which is more environmentally damaging than comparable conventional gas emissions. There must also be proper safeguards put in place for the efficient disposal of flow-back water in a manner which is not hazardous for the local environment, people and farmland. To mitigate the risks of seismic activity and earthquakes, operators ought to be required to review the available information on faults in the area of the well to confirm that wells are not drilled close to existing faults which could trigger an earthquake. Seismicity should be carefully monitored for several weeks prior to commencement of fracking operations to provide a baseline against which seismicity can be compared during and after fracturing operations commence. If abnormal seismic activity is observed, operations must be stopped forthwith. In order to implement such a rigorous safety regime, the regulator and monitoring agencies would have to work in a coordinated manner. Not only would the federal and provincial environment protection agencies be involved but the appropriate health department would also have to monitor the health of people in the local areas where shale gas exploration is conducted. The shale gas exploration licence fees can be easily used to fund such regulatory activities. At present the approach to energy industry regulation in Pakistan is ad hoc and reactionary. In relation to shale gas, all the regulatory checks and balances ought to be put in place before the first exploratory shale gas well is drilled. A strict code of practice ought to be developed backed up by high level engineering expertise in the regulator’s office so that when well designs based on latest technologies are submitted they are critically reviewed. In short, the risks related to water pollution, seismic activity, air pollution and well safety should be coordinated and mitigated through proper enforcement of regulations but for that we must first codify the appropriate regulations. Pakistan must not commence shale gas exploration activities until the regulatory framework is in place. Shale gas may well be the ray of light for many countries looking for new sources of energy like the UK and Pakistan but without the necessary regulatory safeguards we risk each shale gas well drilled becoming our very own Moai statue. The writer is an international commercial lawyer. rabel.akhund@akhundforbes.com
The Rouhani opportunity By Munir Akram THE election of Iran’s ‘moderate’ President Hassan Rouhani was a pleasant surprise for the West. His ‘charm offensive’, which evoked a positive response from the US and Western capitals, has raised global expectations of a possible resolution to the 30-year confrontation between Iran and the US.. These expectations were on display as the UN General Assembly opened its annual session with the congregation of world leaders in New York. However, this week’s events at the UN session have revealed the gap between hope and reality. The presidential addresses from the US and Iran, though tempered in tone and language, did not yield much on the substance of their respective positions. There were no grand gestures from either side. The Iranians felt it was too ‘complicated’ to arrange for Rouhani’s handshake with President Obama. Israel’s prime minister continued to hew to his ‘threaten and punish’ Iran option. Meanwhile, new legislation was initiated in both Houses of the US Congress to impose additional sanctions on Iran. The positive statements and softer tone from both Iran and the US, and the renewal of serious talks through a ministerial meeting between Iran and the P5+1, are essential steps to resolve their epic confrontation. Both sides seem to feel that there is a positive atmosphere and momentum for a solution to the nuclear issue. But the challenge ahead cannot be minimised. There are difficult political and technical issues that will need to be addressed, and internal challenges that will have to be overcome on both sides to resolve the nuclear stand-off and restore normal relations between Tehran and the West. The central US objective is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Washington believes this would pose an unacceptable threat to Israel and its Gulf allies and propel further nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. Iran asserts that it has no intention to develop nuclear weapons and its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Ayatollah Khamanei has declared that nuclear weapons are un-Islamic. But Iran says, correctly, that under the NPT, it has the right to develop the full nuclear cycle, including nuclear enrichment. The US and its allies point out that the size of Iran’s enrichment programme is well beyond what may be required to fuel its sole reactor. This, and the furtive manner in which the programme was initiated, as well as reports that Iran ‘cold tested’ a nuclear trigger device, have been cited as grounds for scepticism about Iran’s protestations that its programme is solely for peaceful purposes. During the term of the previous ‘moderate’ president Khatami; Iran cooperated with the US to replace the Taliban in Afghanistan. As a goodwill gesture, it temporarily suspended nuclear enrichment. In 2002, Iran proposed a “grand bargain” to the US encompassing a solution to the nuclear issue and political cooperation on regional issues. Nevertheless, Iran was included in the “axis of evil” by former President Bush. The US-Iran confrontation escalated sharply after Bush’s axis of evil speech. The UN Security Council decreed that Iran should halt nuclear enrichment and open itself to “anywhere, anytime” UN inspections. While allowing UN inspections within the NPT framework, Iran rejected Security Council demands. Following President Ahmedinejad’s election, the Security Council imposed additional sanctions; and more significant US and Western sanctions were imposed unilaterally, including on Iran’s oil and banking sectors. This has had an obviously deleterious impact on Iran’s economy and the daily lives of ordinary Iranians. The confrontation has extended further — in Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of the Gulf. The US has escalated support for some of Iran’s domestic insurgencies; waged electronic warfare to damage the Iranian enrichment program and threatened aerial strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. A resolution of the nuclear issue is now further complicated because Iran has built additional enrichment facilities and achieved enrichment levels over 20pc from where weapons grade uranium can be quickly produced. The difficulties in resolving the nuclear issue are greater also due to internal differences on objectives and strategy within the US and Iran. In the context of the polarisation within the US, the Republican Party will be loath to facilitate a diplomatic victory for President Obama. Without Congressional cooperation, he may be unable to lift many US sanctions against Iran. President Obama has recognised that Iran would have to be allowed some level of enrichment activity under international safeguards. Hardliners within the Republican Party — like Israel — want to prevent Iran not only from developing nuclear weapons but also the capability to do so. This will be virtually impossible to achieve, given Iran’s size, resources and technological level. In Iran too, the hardliners, many of whom are close to the Supreme Leader, are opposed to concede on Iran’s ‘right’ to enrichment and will be reluctant to make other concessions so long as Iran remains under sanctions. If the newly renewed talks are not to hit the shoals, both the US and Iran will need to evolve negotiating strategies that are realistic, flexible and imaginative. Three guideposts could serve them well. First, a focus by each side on its ‘core’ minimum objectives. For the US, the core objective is a credible and verifiable commitment from Iran that it is not developing and will not develop nuclear weapons. For Iran, it is the ‘recognition’ of its right to enrichment, even if under stringent international safeguards and the lifting of sanctions. Second, a sequencing of mutual concessions to move the two sides towards their respective core objectives. Thus, partial lifting of sanctions could be accompanied by the transfer or international control of Iran’s Highly Enriched Uranium. Third, a series of confidence building measures which could serve to break down the wall of mutual mistrust and hostility. If managed well, this process of normalisation between the US and Iran can serve not only the interests of the two countries but also contribute to resolving some major problems facing the region, especially the sectarian divisions at the heart of the turbulence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain. If unchecked these could engulf other countries in the neighbourhood. The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.
Understanding Imran By Cyril Almeida EVERYONE thinks Khan is nuts. Even folk in his party. Talk to the Taliban? It’s madness, mishegoss, lunacy.. Yet he persists, insists. Few have bothered to ask why though. Why fight the logic of rationality and the truth? Why be Taliban Khan? Why traverse the distance from appeaser to sympathiser to accomplice? It starts from the beginning. When Imran started out in politics, he knew nothing about politics. He was out to the change the world, or at least his little corner of it, but he didn’t have the slightest clue how. Unhappily for Khan, his opponents knew exactly what to do to neutralise the World Cup-winning, hospital-building, upstart politician who was a national hero. In the political arena, Khan became the Jew-loving, secular playboy with children out of wedlock. Every time Khan wanted to talk about politics, his opponents wanted to talk about paternity tests. It worked. Khan’s politics of opposition were drowned out by the jeering and rumours and salaciousness. His past had followed him into his future; old facts incompatible with new ambitions. So Imran did the obvious thing: he set about converting Playboy Khan into Muslim Khan. By owning religion, by embracing it and carrying a bright, burning torch for it, the godless secularist slowly inched towards safer terrain: the good Muslim. It took years, but eventually the transformation was complete. Now, every time the mullah tried to shout him down, Khan could roar back. His born-again credentials were impeccable, his defence of religion strident, his spiritual anchor unshakeable. Khan could get on with the business of politics freed from the distraction of the politics of religion. Except, somewhere along the way, his re-education made him a believer. Of the personal religious side we can never know, but certainly of the intersection of politics and religion we do know. If religion could be used to keep a man down, it could also be used to pull a man up. Khan, the victim of the intersection of politics and religion in the beginning, realised, once he had broken through to the other side, just how useful a tool it is to build support. Folk wanted a new leader who could drag the country in a better direction, but folk had also become a bit more conservative over Khan’s lifetime. New Imran offered the perfect mix: a do-er who wore his religion on his sleeve. That’s the first part of the evolution into Taliban Khan. The second part is Khan’s Pakhtun roots: he’s just really, really into them now. He’s come to believe he knows what makes the Pakhtun mind tick, the carrots that appeal to it and the sticks that can work. The one-time male chauvinist discovered ethnic chauvinism: Khan as a Pakhtun could tap into the Pakhtun psyche, which, for Khan, was the crucial step to understanding the Taliban phenomenon. There is a deep irony here: for long, the state here has believed that the Pakhtuns could be kept in line, manipulated by one of two levers, nationalism and religion. But the state understood that they are alternating levers, never to be pressed at the same time. Nationalism had to be discouraged because the Pakhtuns straddle the Durand Line and too much of Pakhtun nationalism could give them funny ideas about carving out a land for themselves. But the other lever — religion — if pushed too far could create blowback of its own. See, the Taliban, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That’s also why there are still incurable conspiracy theorists out there who see the MMA government in KP followed by an ANP government as the state playing its old game of alternating between the religion/nationalism levers. But Khan is different: he thinks he understands both, religion and nationalism, and wants to apply them both at the same time to his theory of reining in the TTP. There is a third element in the evolution of Taliban Khan: ignorance. Yes, ignorance of a general kind he’s often accused of, but this particular ignorance is of a specific kind in a specific context. What lines does Khan have open to the TTP? Who does he have access to, behind the scenes, through discreet and secure channels? The Sharifs have shown how it’s done. Punjab has been kept relatively safe and away from immediate harm, folk have long suspected, because of their policy of buying off or co-opting militant threats. But while the contours of that policy can be guessed, the specifics have been much harder to pin down — because the Sharifs are discreet about the behind-the-scenes, back-channel stuff. Then Mauwiya, he of the Punjabi Taliban fame, let the cat out of the bag, jumping the gun on talks and earning himself a temporary punishment from TTP central. Khan insists that talks are the only option, but who’s he got on the inside? Who’s the guy who can give Khan the inside track on what’s going on in the TTP, who’s up for talks, who isn’t, who to approach first, whom to be wary of? Khan has no one. It started to become apparent during the election campaign: if the idea of talks and only talks was a scary enough position Khan had staked out, what was scarier was the realisation that Khan was only speaking to the TTP through his speeches and TV appearances. After the election, it became clearer still: Khan and co approached various obvious interlocutors and asked several to help put the PTI in touch with the TTP. Khan has no one on the inside. Which is almost as horrifying as the idea of talks and only talks: Khan not only doesn’t understand the enemy, he doesn’t even know who it is. He doesn’t know because he doesn’t care. Because he thinks he knows what the real problem is. Which has created a problem for everyone else: how to rein in Taliban Khan? The writer is a member of staff. cyril.a@gmail.com Twitter: @cyalm
Your money or your life By Hajrah Mumtaz SOME time ago, the venerable Reader’s Digest made an attempt to ascertain which cities, or rather, their residents, were more or less honest.. This it did by carrying out an arbitrary social experiment: nearly 200 wallets were prepared by putting into them a family photo, coupons and cards carrying a business address, a mobile phone number and the equivalent of $50 in the local currency. In 16 cities around the world, Reader’s Digest reporters ‘dropped’ 12 wallets in public places where they would be bound to be found. It’s no surprise that the most honest city of all turned out to be Helsinki, where 11 wallets were returned — generally speaking, Scandinavian countries stand out in terms of high levels of prosperity and low crime rates. But if you’d thought that the link between prosperity and integrity was obvious, then you’d be wrong. Next in the level of honesty proved to be Mumbai, where nine wallets were returned. Budapest and New York City each saw eight purses returned, and seven each found their way back in Moscow and Amsterdam. Berlin and Ljubljana had a 50pc success rate, with six of the 12 wallets being returned, while London and Warsaw clocked in at five. Four were sent back by some good Samaritans in Bucharest, Rio de Janeiro and Zurich, with Prague and Madrid occupying the next two rungs. The least honest city, it turned out by this random scale, was Lisbon, where only one wallet was returned. I would have liked to have seen Karachi having figured amongst the cities where this experiment was tried, but then perhaps the city and country’s reputation precludes such an investigation into levels of public honesty. Not that I’d lay my money on none or very few wallets being returned here. Notwithstanding the very high rate of crime in the city, I’d still like to believe that there are plenty of good citizens out there who would do the right thing. Yet the thing is, crime in the city is at levels that, were one not facing constant threat, would be silly. Leave aside, for the purposes of this column, the big crimes that are committed every day in this megapolis, murder and extortion and so on. Being held at gunpoint at a busy traffic intersection, in broad daylight, is an experience so common that those to whom this has not happened would be in the minority. Even in a city such as Karachi, most people don’t expect to be murdered, I would postulate. But they do expect to be mugged. The muggers aren’t discriminate. You’re as likely to be relieved of your wallet and mobile phone if you’re riding on a bus as if you’re driving your own car. More likely, I’ve heard policemen say, because in a bus in an urban area there would be several people to loot all at once. The only guarantee from being subjected to this particular crime, I’d imagine, is if you’re travelling under circumstances or in a vehicle that intimidate muggers. So people who can afford it carry decoys; cheaper phones (not the cheapest; there have been incidents where muggers have been enraged at the meagre pickings available and become violent, or have been disbelieving and insisted on the production of more expensive items), wallets with a little bit of cash in them, a ring that they don’t like very much and could, at a pinch, stand the loss of. If you have the nerve, you offer up the decoys, and hope your real phone, the actual wallet with the credit cards, remains with you. In several instances, the experience of being mugged recounted by several people I know (travelling both in buses and in private cars) is bizarre in the casualness of the exchange. The man holding the gun is calm and businesslike, the victims resigned. I’ve heard of identity cards being returned upon request, and some people I know had ignominy heaped on insult when the muggers took not just the handbags and mobile phones but the fresh fruit as well. It doesn’t even escalate to the ‘your money or your life’ stage, it’s just an irritating, everyday phenomenon: you get unlucky. In most cases, people don’t even bother reporting the matter to the police. What I find interesting about the muggings in Karachi is how well they demonstrate the theory that guns don’t just facilitate crime, they actually give rise to them. In other words, a petty crime such as an opportunist mugging by young men A and B might simply not have happened had it not been for the ease with which the offenders could lay their hands on a gun. In many theorists’ view, it’s not just that X has a gun because he’s a criminal, but also that if he has or has had access to a gun, he’s more likely to become a criminal. From time to time the administrators of Karachi seem to recognise that this is a city simply awash with guns, and light upon some hare-brained scheme or the other to clean the mess up. Some time ago, they addressed the problem of the existence of illegal (unregistered, or of prohibited bore) weapons by deciding that they would register them, thus rendering a lot of illegal weapons legal in one fell swoop. Last week, advertisements were published in newspapers asking owners of illegal weapons to turn them in. This is as likely to work in terms of de-weaponising the city as an ice cube being held up to a flame-thrower. But a solution has to be found, for what makes a citizenry fearful on a daily basis is small-scale, immediate and up-close-and-personal crime. Controlling the number of guns on the street is the logical and crucial first step. The writer is a member of staff. hajrahmumtaz@gmail.com
The revenge argument By Babar Sattar IN 2004 Corps Commander XI Corps decided to meet Nek Mohammad to seal a peace deal. The political agent responsible for South Waziristan warned against the enterprise. . He argued that there existed a civil administration in Fata and an established manner in which the state dealt with recalcitrant tribesmen. And that even if the corps commander wished to conclude a deal with the militant leader there was a way to go about it. The political agent would have his naib tehsildar arrest and lock up Nek Mohammad for a few days before offering him a peace deal that could be formalised in the corps commander’s presence. He warned that if the state took the unprecedented step of a general showing up at Nek Mohammad’s place, it would embolden rebellious tribesmen, render the political agent’s office dysfunctional and wipe out the vestige of state authority in the tribal belt. The political agent wrote this in a letter to the governor. The governor and the corps commander disagreed and the matter was referred to GHQ. Gen Musharraf apparently decided that he would let the corps commander run the show. The corps commander met Nek Mohammad and concluded the infamous Shakai peace deal in April 2004. (The political agent refused to accompany the corps commander and was transferred out.) The very next day Nek Mohammad reiterated his commitment to Al Qaeda and Taliban in a media interview. The peace deal was dead in the water. On June 18, Nek Mohammad was killed in what was then claimed as a missile strike. Reportedly it was the first US drone strike in Pakistan killing an anti-state militant leader. The political agent’s counsel was prophetic. It wasn’t the use of the drone that marked the end of civilian authority in the tribal belt, but the elevation of Nek Mohammad to an equal of a high state functionary such as the corps commander. We have had to rely on use of force to maintain peace in the tribal areas not because structures of political and social authority never existed there but because they were obliterated by flawed policies and not rebuilt. Do the generals then have any justification to chide lack of resolve amongst politicos to fight terror? The only thing that the all-party conference — and the inane resolution it produced — established was that the civil and military leaders are indeed on the same page: they share confusion and pusillanimity in dealing with terror. The argument that drones primarily ignite the sense of revenge within Pakhtuns, which then manifests itself in the form of suicide attacks within mosques and churches, schools and funerals targeting innocent civilians and state officials alike is mindless. That drones comprise a pre-emptive execution programme that is unjustifiable in view of basic rule of law and due process requirements is a separate issue. But citing revenge as the prime cause of terror in Pakistan is obtuse and reckless. Have more Pakhtuns died at the hands of TTP-led band of terrorists or in drone attacks? Do drones contain a special collateral agent that triggers the sense of revenge within the victims’ survivors that suicide attacks lack? Do 15-year-olds blow themselves up along with others because they are mad at the state’s foreign policy? The roots of terror have to be traced to the ‘Good Jihad’ of the 1980s and not the ‘Bad Jihad’ post-9/11 when national security was mixed with religion. The state created non-state actors, armed them with weapons and an ideology of hate inspired by the misuse of religious dogma, and employed them in pursuit of a national security policy. The non-state actors turned on the state in the post-9/11 phase when the state’s national security interests came in conflict with their worldview. And what did the state do? Nothing. It didn’t abandon the use of non-state actors as a ‘safeguard’ — a back up plan — in its national security thinking. It didn’t shut down madressahs set up to infect impressionable minds with a religion-inspired ideology of hate. It didn’t shut down militant camps where non-state actors were trained as militants. So it neither admitted the design fault in the jihadi project nor shut down the assembly line. Instead, it drew an arbitrary line in sand: if non-state actors attack the state they will become an enemy. The flaw in this thinking (now adopted by pro-talks politicos) is that armed non-state actors coexisting and sharing the state’s monopoly over violence can be acceptable, and lasting peace can be built with the state negotiating a mutually acceptable code of conduct that will take away not the capacity of militants but their will to kill. Once a militant elite has grabbed and tasted power, will it give it up voluntarily just because the state is being nice? Problems grow bigger if allowed to fester. The right time to clean up North Waziristan was after the Swat and South Waziristan operations. Lack of gravitas of the civilian set-up aside, the decision not to launch the operation in 2011-12 was that of Gen Kayani. The decision not to reclaim the TTP emirate was ultimately driven by the old desire to preserve whatever leverage the state believed it had with the Taliban to ‘safeguard’ Pakistan’s interests in post 2014 Afghanistan. Now our ruling civilian leaders have bought into this mindset of giving up what we have in a bid to preserve what we don’t. Imran Khan’s suggestion of helping the TTP establish an office and recognise a terror outfit as a legitimate stakeholder reflects this blinkered thinking. Lionising terrorists as angry zealots, projecting surrender as restraint and labeling calls to defend foundational principles of polity as revenge or conspiracy is bad statesmanship even if not bad politics. Integrity and good intentions define gentlemen; vision and judgement define leaders. Imran Khan is singularly deflating the resolve of this nation to stand up against vile terrorists. Our misfortune is that in facing an existential crisis our self-proclaimed agent of change suffers from warped judgement and everyone else lacks the vision or ability to challenge his noxious narrative. The writer is a lawyer. sattar@post.harvard.edu Twitter: @ babar_sattar
Fears of Afghan women By Razeshta Sethna WITH the withdrawal of Nato-led troops and the transition of security to Afghan forces, the future of Afghan women is threatened. That women’s hard-won rights are already eroding is evident as many among the Afghan Taliban target working women. . A pattern of what might unfold is becoming clearer: the number of women killed or injured in the first half of this year alone is two-thirds higher than last year according to a UN report on civilian casualties. High-profile attacks have risen by nearly a third with the Taliban issuing warnings especially in the insurgent-ridden south where women are vulnerable targets. The latest in a series of attacks on policewomen includes the killing of Lieutenant Nigara in Helmand province, shot on her way to work. Nigara, a police officer for decades, had first signed up in the 1990s, but returned to work after the fall of the Taliban. Her senior colleague, Islam Bibi, and another colleague, Sergeant Shah Bibi, were also assassinated earlier this summer. The Taliban have warned they will kill one policewoman every three months according to a local policewoman, one of 30 working in Helmand. The killing of an Indian author in Paktika province and the abduction of a female member of parliament, Fariba Ahmadi Kakar and her children last month — she has since been released in a prisoner swap — indicate that women’s rights are negotiable. As worsening violence against women goes unchecked, talk about supporting basic economic sustainability, training and financing security forces and forging political governance over the longer term takes precedence. More significantly, post-war fatigue could lead to the abandonment of women. Peace overtures by the Obama administration demonstrating this is the beginning of the end for America 12 years on as it pursues talks with the Taliban has left many terrified of a future with the Taliban in government. However, a sustainable political outcome can be facilitated only if peace talks between the Taliban, Kabul and the US become part of the overall exit strategy and involve regional stakeholders. Negotiations inextricably linked to security would in some ways work to secure an environment conducive to women’s socio-political participation as much as prevent civil war and ethnic divisions. Recent drawbacks include the Afghanistan parliament’s not passing a groundbreaking law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women with conservatives calling it un-Islamic and wanting revisions eliminating the minimum marriage age for girls, abolishing women’s shelters and protecting perpetrators of rape. In 2012, to appease religious conservatives, the government weakened the above law (which had come into force earlier anyway through presidential decree) by endorsing a husband’s right to beat his wife. Stressing that the law is a significant component of legislative reform since 2001, Heather Barr, an Afghanistan researcher with Human Rights Watch explains: “Rape, underage marriage and forced marriages were not even recognised as crimes until this law was passed in 2009 by presidential decree. It is as valid now as it was before the parliamentary debate. There is no political will to follow up on implementation [of the law].” Like many, she believes that the international community has lost interest in Afghan women and President Hamid Karzai who might have once relented under pressure to support pro-women laws is backtracking under religious pressure. That’s reason enough for there to be a continuing sense of responsibility towards women’s rights with some donors stressing they would not stand by while women are kept back. Shukria Khaliqi, a lawyer in Kabul says she fears for her life and her work if the Taliban joined the government. Khaliqi works with Women for Afghan Women, a human rights group running a women’s shelter that gave refuge to 15-year-old Gul Meena. Meena suffered a brutal axe attack when her brother violently hacked at her face which has scarred her for life and damaged her memory. In December 2011, Khaliqi represented 13-year-old Sahar Gul who was sold into marriage for 200,000 afghanis. Unable to walk and starved almost to death, Gul was rescued from her makeshift prison in a wheelbarrow inside a basement bathroom. Her fingernails had been pulled out and she had been burnt with red hot metal pipes. Last year, 10-year sentences were handed to three of her in-laws for attempted murder. But an appeals court overturned the ruling citing lack of evidence: another ominous sign of the rollback in women’s rights. This latest setback comes in the form of a proposed criminal law revision that would deny women legal protection from domestic violence. And for now it appears the government has endorsed these changes. If this provision is legally adopted, it would silence victims and family members as witnesses to abuse in domestic violence cases, protecting and effectively preventing prosecutions of those who beat, forcibly marry and sell their female relatives. Afghanistan, one of the largest recipients of foreign aid with $57bn since 2001, has shown fragile progress in education, healthcare, maternal mortality, and employment — deteriorating security and unprepared security forces threaten even this progress. In July 2012, an ActionAid report found that the security of girls and women was linked to economic growth and development. Nine out of 10 women feared the departure of the international community; 87pc reported domestic abuse and the biggest fear under the age of 30 is sexual assault. If the international community lends support to a government that fails to consider the rights of women, then they will be forced to live as they did under the Taliban. That there have been 12 years of rapid change and this could be the high point from where the situation starts to deteriorate is disturbing. Violence suffered by women comes in various forms but the consequences remain the same: disenfranchisement, poverty, abuse, socio-economic isolation. It is no surprise that female legislators are calling for the government to openly state its position on women’s rights. And there are no answers to questions about whether more than half the population will be sent home post-2014. The writer is senior assistant editor at the Herald. razeshtas@gmail.com
Need of the hour in Fata By A. Rauf Khan Khattak THE British put together a well-crafted system for dealing with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The centrepiece of this system is the allowance-holders. These include the maliks or elders (small allowance holders) and the khasadars (not to be confused with policemen). . Other important aspects include the payment of muajib (this can be understood as originally payment to the tribe for allowing the British to enter and stay in the tribal areas), areas accessible and unaccessible to the administration, collective responsibility, and civil and criminal justice. The latter is done according to the local riwaj (traditions) dispensed through the Frontier Crimes Regulation by a jirga appointed by the political agent, the baramta (raid by Frontier Corps or khasadars authorised by the political agent) and the presence of Frontier Corps personnel recruited from Pakhtun tribes. At the centre of the system is the political agent. The system worked for well over a century. But now, what lies ahead for Fata given that the institutions that bound it together have been broken as a consequence of the presence of the militants and the army? The next big need in the context of Fata is a governance model. Here, I would like to raise some issues and point out the scope and urgency of the task. The government has primary responsibility in this matter. Under Article 247 of the Constitution, the president and the governor have wide-ranging powers with respect to the federally and provincially administered tribal areas. Fata, thus, currently amounts to being a gift for the president, with the governor as his agent. The wisdom of this status needs to be questioned. How much active interest have successive presidents taken in the affairs of the area? In fact, it was the blundering president Pervez Musharraf who pushed the army into Fata, which is what has brought us to this pass. Fata is undergoing the most destructive period in its history but our presidents have had either no time or courage to visit the area regularly. The same goes for their governors. Why did they think that remaining silent spectators, like the rest of us, was the best policy? Fata’s ‘governorship’ has mostly been awarded by military presidents as a gift to fellow military officers. In the recent past, the gubernatorial post was effectively on the market for sale. The only time tribal MNAs and senators are profitably employed is when a new government is being formed or when the sitting government is threatened. They can always be counted on for support. We know why. At the time of elections, Fata becomes a thriving bazaar for the sale of votes. Was it a good thing to extend the Political Parties Act to Fata? The demand was made by political parties, not the tribal people, who are organised on the basis of tribes. This is a complex and divisive structure, which will be made even more divisive by the noise and conflicting ideologies of political parties. How will tribal affiliations gel with political affiliations? Will the political culture replace the tribal culture? The latter is very resilient and deep-rooted. The judiciary’s jurisdiction has not been extended to Fata for good reason. The courts demand evidence strictly according to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Evidence Act. It is not possible to meet those standards in the tribal areas where there is no police, no investigative agency and where most of the area is outside the legal jurisdiction of the political administration. This fact is not understood by most people. At times of general uprising, which have taken place and which will continue to happen, the political administration makes arrests, imposes fines and jails the recalcitrant. If the propriety of such acts is left to be determined according to the criteria set by the Evidence Act and the CrPC, the tribal areas will never see quiet times. The ‘systems theory’ concentrates on the idea of a political system as a mechanism by which popular demands and popular support for the state are combined to produce policy outputs that best ensure the long-term stability of the system. Functionalism tries to find the necessary elements by studying the structures and operations of all social systems that are common to any stable social system. The functionalist theory is based on the analogy of biological systems and the way in which a biologist might study the role of a physiological aspect of life. Political culture is the totality of ideas and attitudes towards authority, discipline, government responsibility and entitlements. A related concept is the civic culture. This is the general level of trust that people have in the authority that is supposed to be facilitating political activity on the part of ordinary citizens. The ideal civic culture would be one in which political ideas and the values of the citizenry are attuned to political equality and participation, and where the government is seen as trustworthy and acting in the public’s interest. The government and tribes of Fata have tolerated each other but the element of trust has always been absent. Fata needs a new system based on a social contract with its people. This contract should be the result of extensive consultations with them and should have the elements necessary for that society to stabilise and grow politically. The system cannot be left to be designed behind closed doors in ministries or in committees formed by the government. The writer was formerly a federal secretary. raufkkhattak@gmail.com
An obsolete agency By Shahid Kardar DO we need a Planning Commission (PC) in today’s world? In fact, do we really need a plan? Why should we plan and what? . In today’s world, serious questions arise about the usefulness of planning notions and plan size. It is interesting that none of the six best things that have happened to Pakistan were planned: the green revolution, private tube wells of farmers, small-scale industry, overseas migration and the resulting remittances, the Afghan war and 9/11 which attracted a lot of aid on concessional terms. (We can ignore for the moment the war’s and 9/11’s adverse outcome in the form of militancy and terrorism). Until the 1980s, a key Planning Commission function, which it performed with reasonable success, was soliciting financial assistance on soft terms from bilateral and multilateral aid agencies to fund development activity. Since then, even this role has been substantially whittled down by donor agencies venturing aggressively into social sector projects, leading them to interact directly with the provincial governments with no involvement of the Commission. The Commission’s position in guiding investment and growth and formulating plans has been downgraded. This has followed the transfer of several functions to provincial governments under the 18th Amendment; privatisation of some state-owned enterprises, gradual increase of the private-sector footprint in the economy; massive-sized budget deficits constraining expansion in the scale of government operations; and greater involvement of the World Bank and IMF in the formulation of government policies as a result of the frequent recourse to the Fund since the 1990s. In fact, the Commission has never performed any meaningful role in the formulation of the stabilisation and structural adjustment reforms demanded by the World Bank and the IMF. With the widening of the private sector’s operational scope, the deregulation and liberalisation of the economy and the narrowing base of activities over which the state sector has a monopoly, market forces are playing an increasingly influential part in the formulation of investment decisions. The process of globalisation is further weakening the role of the Commission under which the planning process will trail behind market and external forces to a greater extent, rendering planning even more of an empty box than has been the case so far. Owing to its reduced influence and the loss of competent Pakistani economists to greener pastures abroad, the poor performance record of the Commission has become glaring. Moreover, ministries and public sector agencies are developing their own policy packages and designing and implementing their own projects with limited inputs from the Planning Commission. Resultantly, its inputs are not sought, if not completely ignored, in framing policies or development programmes. The diversion of scarce development funds for MNA/senator programmes has further marginalised its role in guiding investments into areas and assets which would generate the highest economic returns, inhibiting its role even as a coordinating agency. Consequently, there is little link between planning and actual economic growth. What can the Commission plan in such a changed environment? The difficulty has been compounded by the fiscal crisis. The commitments for defence and debt servicing administrative functions will ensure that the government will not have adequate resources thus narrowing the choices available to planners. As all major policy initiation and resource mobilisation efforts are under the control of the finance ministry, the Commission’s role has been further diminished. Thus, it will simply limp along and its traditional role will become titular and insignificant. It will, at best, be able to conduct a broad examination of the inter-sectoral consistency of physical programmes and targets, many of which are likely to be provincial and local government subjects. Therefore, the inescapable conclusion following the massive change in the domestic and international economic environment is that the Planning Commission has become a moribund agency, its condition worsened by its current anaemic capacity to develop anything that even remotely looks like a plan. The Commission can, therefore, no longer be expected to have more than nominal influence in setting the agenda for growth and the public sector development programme, attaching priorities to the PSDP’s components, formulating policies for achieving these objectives and designing the associated implementation instruments and institutional arrangements. This has become all the more apparent after the 18th Amendment. It has resulted in the combined provincial development programmes being more than that of the federal government (despite the latter implementing many projects falling in the domain of provincial or local governments), with growing pressure for greater decentralisation of political, administrative and financial autonomy. The Planning Commission is, however, still stuck in a time warp. Its organisational and functional structure is out of sync with the times and the changed environment and realities. It continues to have members and associated positions for sectors now fully mandated to the provinces. In the light of such developments, the Commission may have to restrict itself to establishing priorities and guiding and influencing investments by designing appropriate incentive structures. Unfortunately, as presently organised and manned, it cannot perform such a role when it comes to, say, energy, and developing the country’s economic vision, taking the lead in establishing priorities and conceptualising and formulating related policies and programmes. To this end, therefore, the incumbent deputy chairman’s desire to convert it into a ‘think tank’ is a step in the right direction. This would require not just a restructuring of the Commission and staffing it with a different and a higher quality skill set (human capital, contrary to general belief, is in scarce supply in the country). It would also have to be empowered differently to attract the quality of skills for such a role. This in turn will require not only a dramatic change in the rules of business but also in the importance of its position in the federal government. And this will be resisted by the bureaucracy (in whose scheme of things the role of the Commission is peripheral and modest) as well as by the politically more powerful individuals occupying ministerial positions, all of whom will jealously protect their turfs. The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Pain of the dispossessed By Nasser Yousaf IT may not be possible to submit this as an impersonal narrative. Most of my visits to Qissa Khwani Bazaar, located at a distance of two kilometres from my house, in recent days have invariably been compelled by the spate of bomb blasts occurring there with unexplained frequency. The latest attack, on Sunday, claimed over 40 lives.. I always ensure that I reach the centre of the age-old bazaar of storytellers from its southern side through one of its busiest openings — the Kohati Gate. The bazaar lies within the parameters of the old walled city and is reachable through many gates built in olden times to protect the city against the brazen attacks of tribal marauders. As one gets past the entrance, the white structure of the late 19th-century All Saints Church — the landmark’s view partly obscured by an ageless banyan tree — comes in sight and then refuses to disappear for a considerable distance. The church has two gates, the main, bigger gate facing south and the smaller one facing west. The two suicide bombers blew themselves up close to the main gate on Sept 22, causing the kind of carnage not witnessed since the 2009 Meena Bazaar car bombing, not far from the present site that had killed around 120 men, women and children. Until just a few days before the recent church bombing, a sentry could be seen guarding the premises languidly at the smaller gate. A white marble tablet with the name of the church and the date of its construction could be seen affixed to the thick boundary wall. I would almost always stop in front of the tablet to contemplate not just its association with our past but also plan my tentative guided tour of the church. I had considered contacting Albert Godin of Godin Pianos for a reference, but he had to leave Pakistan, not without great pain, to join his family in Canada. The diminutive Albert is a virtual ecclesiastical encyclopaedia of the erstwhile Northwest Frontier. On his recently concluded last visit, Albert handed me some booklets containing information of all Christian cemeteries in the province with complete details of the tombs of all English civil and military officers and their families, together with the individual inscription on each tombstone. It was quite a touching and evocative experience, reading all those pages about our past. I learnt about the memorial plaque erected in memory of Sir Herbert Edwardes, the founder of my alma mater, the Edwardes College Peshawar, in the All Saints Church. It reinforced my resolve to see the church from inside and inform my friends and teachers about it since hardly anybody seemed to know that. As dusk descended on Peshawar on Sept 22, and as I stood witnessing the dead bodies of the most dispossessed segment of our society being taken out of the Saint John High School opposite the All Saints Church for burial, I was overcome by a feeling of irrepressible pain and fear — fear for what lay in store for us. My grandfather and my uncles had all studied in the celebrated Saint John High School alongside Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Parsis in exemplary amity before the pangs of partition separated them. There are more than a dozen imambargahs inside the Kohati Gate in close proximity to the All Saints Church. Until my early adulthood, I never missed watching Muharram processions pass through the congested bazaars where Sunnis would always outnumber the Shia mourners. Militancy has put a stop to this as Peshawar now experiences a curfew-like situation during Muharram. As I struggled through the gloom that evening, I wondered if an agonising time will come when curfew will be declared in Peshawar on all religious days. The heart-wrenching evening of Sept 22 brought to mind a similar evening in 2009 after a car bomb had ripped through the Meena Bazaar, frequented mostly by women. Both times, I saw walls covered with scores of posters announcing the funeral timings of those martyred in the bomb blasts, the little difference being in the Muslim and Christian surnames. During the last few years militants have proved time and again that the Qissa Khwani Bazaar and its adjoining narrow alleys and bazaars within a one-kilometre radius are soft targets for them. They move about in these areas with the ease of hunters in a game reserve. Mostly lower-middle class people and villagers frequent these areas. The All Saints Church is also where lowly placed Christians go to pray when they get time off the ‘menial’ jobs that they perform for us — in turn, we accost them and call them disparaging names. After returning home that fateful evening, I found self-important, loquacious politicians and anchors on all television channels still pressing for talks with the militants. Helplessly, I wondered if these people were just trying to appease an unappeasable enemy that has an insatiable thirst for blood. The writer is a freelance contributor.
Smiles trump scowls in Iran picture By Mahir Ali THE first direct conversation in more than 30 years between the Iranian and American heads of state ended with the words “Have a nice day, Mr President” and “Khoda Hafiz”, uttered respectively by Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama.. They were communicating over the phone as Rouhani headed for the airport in New York after a five-day sojourn during which a much-anticipated encounter between him and the US president failed to eventuate, apparently because the Iranians baulked at the prospect. Rouhani failed to attend a lunch hosted by United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon where he inevitably would have run into Obama, ostensibly on the basis that alcohol would be served at the function. There’s adequate cause to assume, though, that he was deterred not by the prospect of proximity to forbidden beverages but the suspicion that a handshake would be a step too far for the hardliners back home. On his return, Rouhani was greeted at the airport by a couple of hundred supporters hailing his diplomatic foray, as well as a smaller crowd that hurled shoes and eggs at his entourage while intoning familiar old slogans such as “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”. The latter chant in particular must have slotted in comfortably into the worldview of Benjamin Netanyahu. The latter made clear well before his address to the General Assembly what sort of views he would be taking to the UN: that Iran is not to be trusted under any circumstances, and that Rouhani’s gestures — variously dubbed “a charm offensive” and “a smile offensive” — are merely a cover for an insidious agenda that entails nuclear weapons capability and fulfilment of a long-standing desire to obliterate Israel. Much to his discomfiture, though, in the emerging scenario Netanyahu comes across as the odd man out. He is not alone, of course. Some of Iran’s neighbours are equally wary of Tehran’s intentions, although they would be loath to officially admit that they partially share the Israeli prime minister’s nightmares. And in recent weeks neoconservatives in the US have been emerging from the woodwork to denounce Obama’s susceptibility to Iranian overtures, with some, including The Weekly Standard’s irrepressibly obnoxious William Kristol, even pushing the demented idea of Israeli military strikes in order to pre-empt any diplomatic breakthrough. Neither the naysayers in Israel nor their counterparts in the US are willing, of course, to highlight the fact that intelligence agencies in both countries concluded as recently as last year that in their opinion Iran had, at least for the time being, set aside the notion of manufacturing nuclear weapons as far back as 2003. Benny Gantz, the head of the Israeli Defence Forces, noted that “the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people”, while acknowledging that Islamic fundamentalists could choose a different course in the future. It was easy to disbelieve Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he claimed his nation deplored the very idea of nuclear weapons, because he was simultaneously prone to offering anti-Semitic sound bites ranging from Holocaust denial to hinted threats against Israel. Rouhani has taken a remarkably different approach, which has included a series of overtures to Jews. The likes of Netanyahu are inclined to cast him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At the same time, as Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has pointed out, Iranian hardliners “probably view him as a sheep in wolf’s clothing”. It is assumed that not only Rouhani’s conciliatory approach but even his resounding success as a relatively moderate candidate in this year’s presidential poll are largly a consequence of Western sanctions against Iraq. These have succeeded in making the economy scream, with scarcities compounded by a steadily deteriorating exchange rate and unsustainable levels of inflation. That is probably true to some — perhaps even a considerable — extent. A great many Iranians, though, have never been comfortable with their country being cast as an international pariah. This is so regardless of how fiercely they resented US intervention in their internal affairs, not least the coup 60 years ago against the nationalist prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh and, subsequently, sustained support until 1979 for the Shah’s oppressive regime — which included, mind you, the gift of a nuclear reactor. When Rouhani’s Western detractors run out of arguments, they tend to say that he is anyway not really in charge in Tehran: that power ultimately rests with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. To the extent that is indeed the case, it’s not exactly irrelevant to recall that Khamenei, as Obama noted in his UN address last week, has issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons. It isn’t particularly difficult to envisage circumstances in which such a decree can be discounted. But they don’t exist at present. And it is not inconceivable that dedicated pursuit of diplomacy at this stage could lead to an international agreement that would make it very hard, if not impossible, to rescind its purported moral aversion to nuclear weapons. It is worth noting at the same time that for the moment the only impediment to a nuclear-free Middle East is Israel’s unacknowledged arsenal. One cannot, in the meantime, discount the suspicion that diplomacy, at some level, might not work. The suggestion that it ought not even to be given a chance is, on the other hand, profoundly reprehensible — not least when its possible success could potentially open the door to stability in Lebanon and accommodation, and at a stretch, perhaps even peace in Syria. The possibility that the sceptics may be right after all cannot altogether be discounted, but for the moment it undoubtedly seems Rouhani and Obama’s smiles are worth much more than the scowl offensive of Netanyahu and his acolytes. mahir.dawn@gmail.com
Crucial to justice By Tariq Khosa IN the investigation and prosecution of crime, particularly the more serious and complex forms of organised crime, it is essential that witnesses, the cornerstone for successful investigation and prosecution, have trust in the criminal justice system.. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has pointed out, witnesses must have the confidence to come forward to assist the law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities. They need to be reassured that they will receive support and be guarded from the threats that criminal groups may hurl at them in their attempts to discourage witnesses from or punish them for cooperating. According to a recent study carried out by the crime investigation department of the Punjab police, more than 80pc of terrorism cases resulted in acquittal of the accused before the anti-terrorism courts due to the witnesses having resiled from their earlier testimony during the trial or simply declining to appear in court because of the pressure applied by hardened criminals. Many examples demonstrate that in witness protection there are no easy solutions. However, the Sindh government must be complimented for getting the Witness Protection Act passed by the provincial assembly recently. It is indeed a historic first and a landmark move as claimed by the provincial law minister. It has been finally recognised that it is a key duty of the state to provide assistance and protection to persons who can be harmed by criminals because they are cooperating with the justice system. Witness protection became a legally sanctioned procedure in the US in the 1970s and was seen as crucial to meeting the challenge of dismantling mafia-style criminal organisations. Until that time, the unwritten ‘code of silence’ had held sway. The threat of death loomed for anyone who cooperated with the police. The Organised Crime Control Act of 1970 empowered the US attorney general to provide for the security of witnesses who agreed to testify truthfully in cases involving organised crime and other forms of serious crime. It was after the ghastly murders of witnesses, especially in the case of the January 2011 killing of TV journalist Wali Babar in Karachi, that the government of Sindh finally realised the significance of protecting key witnesses. There are scores of cases of sectarian murders and targeted killings in which the witnesses have been violently silenced. According to the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the law is a good move. However, she also pointed out that, “it is a trend in Pakistan that laws are designed and approved but their enforcement remains ineffective”. Witness protection is particularly important in fighting against terrorism. The secret nature of militant groups makes it difficult to apply the usual trial methods. Other measures are often required. Examples show that protection can be given in a variety of ways. A police escort could accompany the witness to the courtroom or the witness could be offered temporary residence in a safe place. Modern communications technology (such as video-conferencing) for testimony is another way to protect those giving crucial testimony. There are some cases, though, when cooperation by a witness is hampered by the powerful reach of a group. In such cases, extraordinary measures may be required to ensure the safety of the witness. Often such cases see the witness being given a new name and settled in an undisclosed location either within the country or abroad. Victims have a central role in the court process. They may be the complainant who start the proceedings or they could be witnesses. Because of the victims’ vulnerability, there is general consensus that they should receive assistance at every stage of the trial as well as before and after it. Victim-witnesses should be given preference in a protective programme in the case of critical testimony, the absence of other effective measures of protection and in the presence of a serious threat to their life. The effects of witness protection programmes are maximised when a multi-pronged approach is adopted starting with the application of temporary police measures, continuing with the use of secure evidentiary processes during court testimony and culminating, when all other measures are deemed to have proved insufficient, in identity change and relocation procedures. The Witness Protection Advisory Board headed by the home secretary in Sindh must realise that staffing is a crucial element for the success of the protection programme. Witness protection officers must have particular qualities and skills for their role as protectors, interrogators and investigators. So the first task of the advisory board is to decide where to find people with such qualifications. Some of the most important elements in the successful operation of witness protection programme are: a clear legal basis for designing a methodology; adequate financing that is stable and continues for several years; strict personnel vetting procedures; protection of the programme’s integrity; close coordination with judicial and other government authorities who are responsible for law enforcement and intelligence, prison administration, housing, health and social welfare departments; obligation of all stakeholders to provide appropriate assistance; and safeguarding the information disclosed to them. The success of the programme is dependent on upholding the following principles: operational autonomy from the regular police; secrecy and security of information; and shielding from political and other extraneous influences in the work of the programme. Even though a witness protection programme can be expensive, the costs prove minor when compared to the programme’s contribution to the effectiveness of prosecution in cases of serious and organised crime. Finally, even when such measures have been legislated, implementation remains less than satisfactory. Therefore, it is for the policymakers, legislators, legal practitioners, senior law enforcement and justice officials involved in the protection of witnesses to translate this excellent initiative into a successful model. The federal government and other provinces can emulate it and make a difference to the efforts to promote the rule of law and ensure justice. The writer is advisor on rule of law and criminal justice to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Condemned by society By Rafia Zakaria FOR 40 years after independence, Pakistan did not have a law governing abortions that it had formulated itself.. Until 1997, abortions in the country were governed by the Pakistan Penal Code, developed by the British colonial government. According to provisions developed in 1860, abortion was a crime unless performed in good faith to save a woman’s life. Amended 130 years after its inception, by lawmakers who sought to bring it under the auspices of Islamic law, the abortion law was divided into two sections depending on the stage of pregnancy. It allows abortion only in the early stages of pregnancy to save the mother’s life or to provide necessary treatment. It does not address the question of exceptions based on rape, incest, or abnormalities found in the foetus. In fact, it does not mention any of these issues at all. The provisional law governing abortions was implemented in 1990. In 1994, an International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo. The ICPD called for all women to be given access to treatment for abortion-related complications, post-abortion counselling, education, and family planning services, regardless of the legal status of abortion in the country. Having signed on to the ICPD agenda, Pakistan was required to take a number of measures to ensure implementation. In 2000, a draft reproductive health policy based on the principles outlined by the ICPD was presented. However, this policy never received much attention and was not approved by the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Population Welfare. Last week, the Population Council issued a report on the consequences of this inattention. Titled Post-Abortion Care in Pakistan: A National Study, the report was a follow-up to one conducted in 2002. Its findings are expectedly dismal and provide insight into the layers of discrimination, neglect, and pure misinformation that govern the provision of abortion and post-abortion care in Pakistan. According to the study, which is available on the Population Council’s website, nearly 700,000 women sought treatment last year owing to complications from induced and spontaneous abortions (or miscarriages). Most complications resulted from the use of unsafe methods or the performance of an abortion procedure by an unskilled healthcare provider. The most common method of abortion in Pakistan remains dilation and curettage (D&C), a highly invasive and dangerous procedure that involves significant risk of post-procedure complications. This procedure is being used even though safer and drug-induced methods are available. Unsurprisingly, the situation is most dismal in the rural areas. The data collected reveals that rural poor women who visited an untrained person or a dai (midwife) had a nearly 68pc chance of developing complications. A number of women in both rural and urban areas were still trying to induce abortions themselves, using archaic and dangerous methods such as vigorous exercise, heavy massage to the abdomen, and ingesting herbs. Nearly a third of the abortions in rural areas were attempted by these means. Even if a woman does make it to a healthcare facility, the report concludes, the staffing levels there are highly inadequate, with the absence of gynaecologists and anaesthetists being the most glaring. Of the healthcare providers surveyed, 40pc reported that the medical personnel treating patients often have a negative attitude towards women seeking abortion or post-abortion care. Similarly, 40pc of healthcare providers who treat women for post-abortion care were reported to believe that abortion is simply not permitted in rape cases. The cumulative picture that emerges from the Population Council report is one of a dark and dismal reality in which Pakistani women suffer alone, take incredible risks with their health, and die owing to the inaccessibility of post-abortion access. Despite the fact that 92pc are married, only a third are ever accompanied by their husbands, suggesting that the burden of a complicated pregnancy falls entirely on the woman who may have little control otherwise. The absolute lack of education in reproductive and maternal health (nearly 80pc of rural women are uneducated) exacerbates the problem. With little information on how pregnancies can be prevented and often faced by uncooperative spouses and family structures, women are the scapegoats of a system that seems to see them only as breeders and not as humans. The issue of lives lost as a result of poor post-abortion care gets little attention and does not inspire any efforts to reform the system. The twin taboos — lack of clarity on the legality of termination of pregnancies resulting from rape and incest, and lack of education available regarding the requirements of safe abortions and post-abortion care — make a woman facing an unwanted or complicated pregnancy in Pakistan one of the most unfortunate in the world. If the unwanted pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, she is even more condemned. If a married woman becomes pregnant and loses the baby from natural causes, she may still face discrimination if she chooses to visit a healthcare facility to ensure that no complications arise from a miscarriage. Like so many other issues, the absence of services for post-abortion care and condemning women to the devices of uneducated midwives or discriminatory medical staff reveal how the moral burdens of controversial issues are borne solely by those born female. Even while the government has officially committed to providing post-abortion care to all women under the terms of the ICPD, the reality of what Pakistani women can actually avail is a picture painted in the dismal shades of neglect, misery, ignorance, and, ultimately, cruelty. The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy. rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
A peace to be wary of By Jawed Naqvi AS their prime ministers met in New York to unravel their tangled ties, ordinary Indians and Pakistanis were grappling with their more palpable domestic traumas. . The massacre of dozens of Christian worshippers in a Peshawar church was a sequel to unabated attacks against targeted groups within the Islamic fold and outside, by the same pack of beasts that go by different names in Pakistan. In New Delhi, at the moment of the New York meeting, a right-wing prime ministerial candidate was whipping up communal frenzy with an eye on its cascading domestic implications that can’t be dissimilar to Pakistan’s ongoing brutalisation by hand-reared fanatics. It’s a fallacy that the Pakistani Taliban are a byproduct of the war on terrorism that was launched in the new millennium. Their DNA, though of colonial vintage, was honed and shaped in state-backed hatcheries — first in West Punjab in the 1950s, and later across the erstwhile two flanks of Pakistan. Everyone was complicit, most shockingly Z.A. Bhutto who subsequently gave official cover to Pakistan’s penchant for ethnic and religious feuds. The orchestrated Gujarat-style murder and rape of Muslims in the Muzaffarnagar district, not far from Delhi, days before Modi’s Delhi rally, also had its genesis in urban India’s traditional flirtation with communalism, of which the liquidation of Gandhi at a prayer meeting in 1948 was just one aspect. His assassins were ideological cousins of Narendra Modi. They shared their DNA with the neo-fascist Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. We all know that the RSS modelled itself on Mussolini’s efficient structure of indoctrinated youth and the lumpen squads they spawned. India’s youth bulge the RSS-Bharatiya Janata Party combine is hoping to exploit in the 2014 polls can go any which way, as they did in 1984. That’s when young lumpens turned upon innocent Sikhs thereby boosting the Congress’s kitty of communal votes. It is axiomatic that the overtly liberal Rajiv Gandhi could never have got his unparalleled four-fifths majority in parliament without the tactical benevolence of the RSS. He returned the favour by opening the locks of the Babri Masjid and by giving Indian Muslims a mediaeval law for divorcing their wives. The difference between the two dominant fanatics — Muslim extremists in Pakistan and Hindu revivalists in India — is as stark as are their similarities. The Indian fanatics, who began as a motley group of communally prejudiced petty traders, are being harnessed to an economic agenda that dovetails with the larger global interests, whereas the Pakistani suicide squads are evidently still bereft of that lure for worldly quests. There is no evidence that they can’t be woven too into a global plan, say, to exploit natural gas in Central Asia and keep vigil on the network of politically vulnerable pipelines the project requires. The widely predicted return and anointment of the Taliban in Kabul, not the least as a key stakeholder in the economic pie, could inevitably usher a concomitant surge in the economic preferences of Pakistan’s homegrown brigands. That’s the real and present danger for the ordinary people and for their liberal peers on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. At present, the ordinary Pakistani could at least have hoped to ward off the suicide bomber. They have already successfully declared him the enemy of the state, with the aim to isolate him in the not too distant future. What if the bomber becomes an integral part of the state instead, on his terms too? Imagine two fanatics ruling India and Pakistan. I should imagine they will get along famously. That’s why I don’t believe there could be an India-Pakistan military flare-up in the future, certainly not beyond the skirmishes needed to sustain optimum prejudice towards each, as loose change for domestic purposes. If you haven’t noticed, the chorus today is for more bilateral trade, which will usher lasting peace. It is not the other way round as it once was. Liberalised visas are for traders, not ordinary men and women. So there you are. Ask the right question and you will get an agreeable answer. Do Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata — the main architects of Project Modi — have an interest in a future India-Pakistan conflict? The answer is a plain no in the existing scenario. In fact, Indian businessmen would be eyeing their chance on the big-ticket hydrocarbon sector in Central Asia and other profitable opportunities once Afghanistan opens up for trade. A profitable route for this would only be through Pakistan. Promise of peace with Pakistan and vagaries of the Afghan political conundrum could not be the basis for making high-yield profits in the near future. Those profits would come from elsewhere, most crucially from home. Acclaimed Marxist historian Irfan Habib once observed with his characteristic wry humour that the dream of every merchant was to be able to sell without having to buy. That was Habib’s description of the loot of Bengal by Robert Clive. The phrase now applies to the most crucial military face-off shaping within India’s secure borders. Modi is being built up not to attack Pakistan. As for China, it was the first major country to subvert a boycott of Modi after he supervised a mass murder of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. Nor is there much business sense in laying asunder what remains of Muslim ghettoes within India. They will be attacked to polarise votes and for bits of real estate they vacate, not as a covenant of state policy. The big target of attack in India, more bloody if Modi wins, will be the vast virgin fields with their natural resources, minerals, water springs and rivers within India. That’s where India’s impoverished tribal communities live with or without the ideological support from Maoist rebels. That’s the loot the businessmen are rooting for. Let’s say a total rout of India’s hapless tribespeople by Modi or whoever wins the next polls could spur an era of peace with Pakistan. Would that warm the cockles of Pakistani hearts? The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi. jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Flawed presumption By I.A. Rehman THEY met, shook hands and inquired about one another’s health in their shared mother tongue. But they could not tell the people of their needlessly estranged countries what they have been wanting to hear for a long, long time.. That the prime ministers of India and Pakistan withstood all the pressures brought to bear on them by confrontationists in their camps and were able to devote one whole hour to matters of life and death for one-fifth of humankind can only be welcomed. But the grim challenges confronting both India and Pakistan — all South Asian countries for that matter — do not permit them the luxury of meeting only for the sake of getting together. It is a pity that the statements made by the spokespersons after the New York encounter did not offer much room for optimism. Pakistan has greater reason to feel disappointed because Mr Nawaz Sharif had been extra keen on talking to Mr Manmohan Singh who, for a variety of reasons, had been advised to play hard to get. Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani had to sound satisfied with the talks to a greater extent than realism warranted. So he termed the meeting “extremely positive” because the two leaders “expressed their commitment to resolve all their issues”. But this has been the refrain in all communiqués after bilateral exchanges over the past many years. No politician today denies his readiness to settle any issues. India’s national security adviser Shivshankar Menon was noticeably less effusive. Conceding that the prime ministers’ meeting was “necessary at this point of time” he was keen to clarify that “today’s meeting dealt with today’s issue”. Mr Nawaz Sharif did raise a number of matters — trade, Siachen, Sir Creek, Balochistan, Kashmir, et al — but, according to Mr Menon, both sides agreed that all these issues could be taken up “once we have dealt with the immediate issues that we confront today”. And today’s issues, from India’s point of view, are only incidents along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and punishing of the extremists responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. The outcome of the meeting thus is that Pakistan has been put on notice for good behaviour. Any progress towards India-Pakistan reconciliation will depend on Mr Nawaz Sharif’s ability to meet India’s concerns about Pakistan being, in New Delhi’s view, the “epicentre of terrorism”. This means that India and Pakistan cannot break out of the fallacious assumption that they will become good neighbours only when the issues they have created to fuel confrontation between them have been put out of the way. A realistic assessment of the situation should convince them that contentious issues will be resolved only after they have developed normal and mutually beneficial relations. Any Pakistani who argues that peace with India is impossible without a resolution of the Kashmir issue in fact condemns the people of Kashmir to perpetual turmoil and uncertainty and the people of India and Pakistan to permanent hostility. Progress towards a settlement on Kashmir will begin only when India and Pakistan have resolved to live in peace and cooperate with one another. Likewise, the plea that India-Pakistan issues cannot be taken up till there is peace along the LoC amounts to allowing the autonomous militants to hold the two countries to ransom. Absence of friction along the LoC would be the fruit of understanding between the two neighbours instead of being the basis of such understanding. We are aware of the hazards India’s leaders face while talking of reconciliation with Pakistan during the run-up to the general election. But it should not be impossible for them to realise that Pakistan and India both face a serious threat from the stateless terrorists. Equally clear should be the fact that Pakistan needs India’s help in defeating the terrorists. Any display of haughtiness by India or Pakistan in dealing with one another strengthens the enemies of the people on both sides. Both governments need to break new ground in order to acquire stakes in one another’s progress and prosperity: For instance, instead of Pakistan and India remaining trapped in fruitless quarrels over new dams on rivers coming down from Kashmir they may consider having agreements to share electricity generated by these works, like the one a socialist Soviet Union and the West’s close ally Iran had. Similarly, one of the major causes of contention between India and Pakistan today is their senseless confrontation on Afghanistan. Both have legitimate interests in that country and they also have a duty to help it live in peace. The time for New Delhi and Islamabad to iron out their differences on Afghanistan is now. True, there are vested interests on both sides that have flourished on the people’s suffering and they are mortally afraid of peace and goodwill between their countries. The answer does not lie in mortgaging the coming generation’s future with the merchants of hate. What is needed is the mobilisation of people of goodwill on either side to counter the mischief-makers. Unfortunately, both India and Pakistan have a complete understanding where making contacts between ordinary Indians and Pakistanis more and more difficult is concerned. Even the accord on allowing senior citizens visa on arrival has been turned into an ordeal for the less resourceful people and there are complaints of travellers’ being harassed and turned back on flimsy grounds by the immigration staff. A major effort to promote free travel between India and Pakistan is required, particularly in view of the fact that signs of hostility at the state level have started affecting the behaviour of the public in either country towards citizens belonging to the other country. If this process is not quickly arrested the prospects of India-Pakistan reconciliation will recede further.
A superpower shuts down By Khurram Husain WASHINGTON D.C. is an eerie place these days. The trains are empty and the buses too. The platforms of the underground, normally bustling with commuters and tourists, are practically vacant. . In the office, my inbox is full of emails detailing the impact of the government shutdown. I learn a few things sifting through these; for instance, the postal service will continue functioning because it is independently funded, but mail sorting rooms will be shut down because they are staffed with federal employees. So the mail will arrive, for sure, but it’ll be a while before it finds its way to your mailbox. The shutdown of the federal government here has thrown up its fair share of absurdities. It has sent home a workforce of 800,000 without pay for an indefinite period, but members of Congress, those responsible for the whole mess, are themselves considered ‘essential’ staff and will continue receiving their salaries. Only a few members of Congress are really responsible for the whole situation, prompting some to wonder aloud whether American democracy isn’t being held hostage by a virulent minority. Only a few days ago, a big name TV anchor had two of these members of Congress on her show, and asked them whether their own pay cheques ought to be stopped along with the legion of other federal employees. “Members of Congress should not be treated any different from any other federal employee,” replied one of them. The anchor repeated the question, asking that since the congressman supported sending other federal employees home without pay, would he consent to having his own name removed from the pool of ‘essential’ services and share the suffering he was agreeing to inflict on others. Pat came the same reply, “whatever happens to the average federal employee should happen to us”, as he clumsily dodged the question. The congressman in question was none other than Dana Rohrabacher, Republican, from California, who earned notoriety in Pakistan last year after he held an ill-conceived and foolish hearing on Balochistan with very dubious motivations. Following the hearings, Mr Rohrabacher had gone on to propose legislation that sought to carve up Pakistan. Today, the US government has been shut down by partisans who hold extreme and ill-conceived views of this sort. These people are reckless and think the world is made of Lego where you can simply dismantle a structure and put it together again in any other shape with the ease that children’s toys allow. It’s incredible to watch the superpower tying itself into a knot like this. If nothing else, it is a sobering reminder that fiscal adjustment is a torturous process and takes a heavy toll on the normal operations of the state. This is almost a universal rule; wherever it has been applied, fiscal adjustment has given birth to the most virulently divisive politics and created an opening for the most opportunistic and myopic political actors who eagerly fan emotion and exploit fears to advance their agenda. It’s also a reminder of how much the American polity is consumed by domestic considerations. The debated strike on Syria is already pushed into the background, and the first arrival in Syria of international experts tasked with dismantling that country’s chemical weapons has barely resulted in a word of comment here. Even Israel’s attempts to beat the war drums vis-à-vis Iran have been drowned out. After his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the only questions President Obama was asked were about the impending government shutdown. The Israeli prime minister sat impassively and watched as the Americans largely ignored him and went on about healthcare, appropriations and continuing resolutions and the president talked of America’s leadership role in the global economy and the importance of the dollar and the significance of America meeting its debt obligations. The dialogue is all local all of a sudden, and it’s about the oldest priority that has dogged rulers big and small down the ages: revenues and expenditures, government finances. And it’s also a serious reminder of another important fact: we are not the only basket case country in the world when it comes to matters like government finance and economic growth. Most countries have seen their debt levels soar in the past five years since the great financial crisis of 2008. They’ve seen their growth rates slump and unemployment rise. Deficits have ballooned everywhere, and Greece and Portugal and Spain and the other countries of the European periphery have faced severe drawdowns of their reserves, requiring bailouts so large you could drive our entire import bill through them! Today America is reminding us that the facts of fiscal life remain stubborn and resilient to any happy settlement. A brief walk around downtown Washington D.C., the seat of the most powerful empire ever seen in human history, reveals fiscal dysfunction — with libraries and museums and memorials sealed shut. The debate inside the Capitol shows a democracy coughing on its own fumes. One group of congressmen reminds the other that the law to which they object — Obama’s healthcare legislation — was passed by both houses of the legislature and signed into law by the president. The Supreme Court struck down a challenge to the constitutional legality of the legislation. The process has been followed, the legislation is now a fact and must be accepted. But this group finds that this is a bit like trying to teach a cat to walk on its hind legs. No matter how clearly you lay it all out, it’s not happening. And that kind of stubbornness, of differences that cannot be bridged, is the stuff of Third World dysfunctions, which are settling upon the superpower with increasing speed in the opening decades of the 21st century. Not a pretty sight. The writer is a business journalist and 2013-2014 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington D.C. khurram.husain@gmail.com Twitter: @khurramhusain
Class war By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar IT is a measure of just how weak the labour movement has become that the government’s announcement of its plans to privatise PIA was greeted with virtual silence. . The world has changed, but not so much that workers would think of privatisation as principally beneficial to their interests. Yet there is no resistance because the industrial working class is not politically organised. Pakistan is not necessarily an exception in this regard. Organised labour — and the left more generally — has been on the retreat around the world for three decades. In recent times, the left in some countries has bucked the trend but even in these rare cases industrial workers are no longer the backbone of the political movement. Aside from posing a challenge to the orthodox Marxist premise that the industrial working class must play the role of vanguard in left-wing politics, the steadily decreasing political clout of ‘traditional’ workers reflects structural changes in the international capitalist order. The production of goods and services is now a cross-border business. The industrial factory and other such establishments are becoming increasingly obsolete as multinationals orchestrate the manufacture of their products in any number of locations based on what can be done cheapest and where. The fancy name for the internationalisation of production is ‘outsourcing’. The effects on workers are devastating. The so-called Fordist production method allowed workers involved in any aspect of manufacturing to gather on the factory floor and bargain collectively. With the fragmentation that comes with outsourcing, labour has now become ‘flexible’ in the sense that it is difficult to secure even a permanent job let alone bargain for better wages and working conditions. Alongside this shift in the way actual production takes place, the very kinds of goods and services that are now being produced for mass markets are changing. The most affluent societies — some call them post-industrial — now spend more and more of their time consuming leisure goods and services, the production of which involves computer programmers as much as ‘traditional’ workers. Physical human labour, already exploited, is being pushed completely to the margins with the growing centrality of machines — and that too ‘smart’ ones — in the production process. All of this is coeval with the virtual takeover of the global economy by high finance. For all the talk of the need for change in the wake of the global financial crash five years ago, money continues to beget money and those who control money markets are no closer to being reined in than they were when the crisis erupted. The recession is persisting, say the experts. But who really cares about unemployment when speculative finance knows no bounds? All of these structural shifts cannot simply be attributed to technological progress. Yes, the development of the so-called ‘information’ economy is, objectively speaking, a remarkable step forward for humankind. However, the outcomes of such intellectual and technological advances are always conditioned by the brute realities of history and power. What I want to emphasise in particular is the transformation in the balance of class power over the past 30 years. Until the early 1980s, it was neither possible to ‘flexibilise’ labour nor were financiers able to act with such reckless impunity. Trade unions were major political actors, and intellectual currents across the world reflected the power of organised labour. Decisive shifts took place in different countries at different times. It could be argued, for example, that the Pakistani labour movement went into retreat following the defeat of the famous SITE/Landhi workers’ uprising in Karachi in 1972. A year later the first elected socialist leader in Latin America, Salvador Allende, was murdered in a bloody military coup that brought to power the Pinochet military junta which has been ‘credited’ with initiating the neo-liberal counter-revolution. In Britain, the crushing of the coal miners’ strike after an epic year-long struggle in 1981 proved to be an epochal moment. These defeats were accompanied by a stinging intellectual offensive on the part of the right-wing, featuring both the demonisation of trade unions (often by equating them with ‘communism’) and the eulogising of the ‘free market’. Progressives were blacklisted and evicted from universities, media organisations and policymaking circles more generally. It is thus that neo-liberalism has today become intellectual and political ‘common sense’. Even after the tremendous loss of face suffered by the capitalist establishment as one after another financial institution bit the dust in 2007-08, neither labour movements nor the dissident intelligentsia was able to make major inroads into the popular consciousness in Western countries. A similar vacuum exists in this country. Every once so often we hear populist rhetoric directed against the International Monetary Fund but the (formal) labour movement is too feeble to pose a genuine political challenge to the IMF’s dictates, or, for that matter, any of its sister institutions. Meanwhile, a substantive critique of the economic policy regime is conspicuous by its absence. In recent days a great deal has been made of the fact that the rupee’s value is falling precipitously vis-à-vis the dollar. Just this past week the governor of the State Bank made the revelation that as much as $25 million was likely exiting the country every day in travellers’ suitcases. Somehow I find this to be an insufficient explanation of why the currency is fluctuating so wildly. A more likely scenario is that the IMF and the elected government — committed though it may be to neo-liberalism but afraid of taking too many unpopular decisions all at once — have together worked out a quiet formula to devalue the rupee by printing and/or circulating more currency. This is just another example of how the rich and powerful — both within this country and outside — have closed ranks to impose their will upon the poor. Regenerating a political movement of the dispossessed — industrial workers and everyone else — is the only way to stop them. The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
A poisoned chalice By Sakib Sherani TWO recent developments have brought Pakistan’s latest IMF programme into sharp focus. The rupee has weakened aggressively against the US dollar since June, losing over 7pc. At the same time, the government has sought to implement hefty increases in electricity tariffs in two phases, in August and October. . The latest increase, notified for domestic consumers and slated to be effective from Oct 1 but apparently under judicial review at the moment, also coincided with a steep increase in the retail price of different petroleum products, brought on by the depreciation of the rupee. The rise in the consumer price of the two commodities has been dubbed as a ‘power shock’ and a ‘petrol bomb’ by the media, and has stoked widespread anger in sections of society. Understandably, and true to our past, in generating criticism of the recent measures, the media and others, including usually informed commentators, are viewing the current adjustments solely through the prism of Pakistan’s borrowing arrangement with the IMF. At a broader level, beyond the conditionality of the Fund programme, this is a grave mistake. Pakistan is at the cusp of a wrenching adjustment process that has been oft-delayed to our own peril. While the design of the reform programme, including the pace and sequencing of the recent measures, can be questioned, the need for structural adjustment is as clear as day. Each delay that we have ‘successfully’ managed, has only made the disease worse, the prognosis more dire, and the required treatment more painful and protracted. Thus, trying to protect the rupee with limited foreign exchange reserves or inflows — and to questionable long-run benefit — is as foolhardy as it is to generate electricity at Rs15 a unit and sell it at Rs8.7 per unit. The reaction of the different constituencies to the latest government measures to restore macroeconomic stability is disappointing to the say the least — and revealing. Political parties that had only recently waxed eloquent in their party manifestoes of the grave need for immediate reform, have been quick to gain political capital by criticising the government for moving decisively to correct our economic imbalances. However flawed some parts of the government approach may be, such as its tax moves, the opposition needs to present a sensible and practicable alternate plan to the reform measures to be able to sound credible. An important constituent or stakeholder of the entire reform process is none other than the Supreme Court — unfortunately by active participation, rather than by passive observance and forbearance. Sadly, judicial reviews and suo motu actions in a number of instances over the past several years, even with the best of intentions, have done little service to the cause of better economic policymaking — or to the wider goal of establishing institutional balance and equilibrium. The Supreme Court would do well to calculate the real economic costs of its judgements — such as in the case of the Steel Mills privatisation that it stopped nearly seven years ago, or the scrapping of the Mashal LNG import project that Pakistan had finalised and was ready to launch in 2010. In the case of the Steel Mills, more than Rs100 billion of public money has gone into absorbing the losses of this politicised and corruption-ridden entity since then. In the case of the LNG project, its stoppage has not only set back Pakistan’s efforts to gain access to new supply sources for natural gas by at least five years, if not more, with all its attendant consequences for the economy, but the price the country will have to pay to get the same amount is now likely to be several times that of the contracted price in 2009. Similarly, by no stretch of imagination or malleability of interpretation of Article 38 of the Constitution, can anyone promote or secure “the well-being of the people” by directing what cost-recovery tariffs the government can or cannot charge for any commodity. In fact, in a tribute to the sagacity of Pakistan’s Constitution makers, Article 38 lays out the principle for securing the well-being of the people by the state — not by mandating full employment in badly managed public-sector corporations, or by setting the prices of commodities, or by determining wages, but by “provid(ing) for all citizens, within the available resources of the country, facilities for work and adequate livelihood with reasonable rest and leisure”. Forcing the government to generate electricity at Rs15 a unit, and to sell it at Rs8.7 a unit is neither wise nor affordable — and many would argue, also without jurisdiction. The response of the government to criticism of its policy measures is seriously hobbled on two counts. First, the finance minister has been aloof till now, and like his predecessor, has shown little inclination so far of building a consensus within parliament on wider economic reform. An aggressive and robust case has to be made, led by the prime minister and finance minister, for adoption of all the painful measures that we have so skilfully eluded so far. This is a tall order, and requires a leadership role in engaging with all the different stakeholders in the process — including, more than ever, the provinces. The second count on which this government loses any moral high ground in being able to push through difficult reform measures, is its low credibility on account of the perception of nepotism, cronyism and tax-avoidance surrounding its top leadership. Pushing through difficult reform measures under these conditions is going to be challenging. The writer is a former economic adviser to government, and currently heads a macroeconomic consultancy based in Islamabad.
Decade full of choices By Asha’ar Rehman KAHIN to jaa kay rukay ga safeena-i-gham-i-dil. The journey of sorrows has to end. But when? . The failures of the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), in government since the May elections, have generated much criticism. Some of the latter is mocking of the two parties over the grand claims they made before the PML-N came to power at the centre and the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is not as if the PML-N or PTI are undeserving of the fire they have been subjected to but Pakistan’s loss is greater than the failure of a couple of parties. With these two ‘right-wing’ parties in power, the country completes a round where it has tried all options without any success. A decade ago the debate was about the merits of having a military dictator with a ‘progressive’ intent. The house was divided over what Pakistan wanted most urgently: democracy or strong rule by a liberal general committed to fighting the extremists? Many among the sworn democrats were swayed by their understanding of the situation as it existed then and felt compelled to side with Gen Pervez Musharraf. Those were the times when the knowledgeable would abhor the principled dreamers over the dangers of following a single-vision path resistant to the necessary modifications. The dreamers were told they could put their democratic agendas on hold until the country had appropriately dealt with the menace of militancy under the best available leadership of Gen Musharraf. The general had his allies. Among them the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) came to be hailed by some as a bulwark against the marauding militants. Its middle class appeal was always a central plank in its progress in Karachi and urban Hyderabad but now even the MQM’s reputation as a party which could pay back the armed groups in kind was highlighted at a national level as a plus. It was a ‘secular’ party with the muscle to match the growing militant circle. Gen Musharraf’s contact with Ms Benazir Bhutto later on was indicative of the fact that his original policy, which nonetheless included a clause about appeasing militants every now and then, was not succeeding. The SOS to Ms Bhutto was necessitated essentially by the need to widen the scope of political engagement in the country. The militants were not to be excluded from this expansion of the dialogue. If anything, those who had so eagerly worked out a deal between Ms Bhutto and Gen Musharraf were confident that in Ms Bhutto they would have a prime minister who wouldn’t surrender, or at least not surrender totally to the militants. The advent of the PPP government without Ms Bhutto must have upset the calculations, but with Asif Ali Zardari in command and working by the reconciliation mantra, the frail PPP coalition offered possibilities that could be pursued. In partnership with the Awami National Party (ANP), the PPP did not close the option of dialogue with the militants in KP. Such foreclosure would have been against the spirit of the policy of expansion and democratisation of the politics that had brought Ms Bhutto back into politics. With time, however, it became clearer and clearer that the coalition that bound the PPP with the ANP, MQM and the PML-Q could not help using force in an attempt to curb militancy. It is debatable whether the militants would have agreed to talking meaningfully with these ‘seculars’ even if they did not have military operations and drones to build their case on. Using the political ‘seculars’ to rein in the militants was the second, at the time much-fancied, option that Pakistan had vainly tried after realising that a so-called liberal general couldn’t save it from the asphyxiating grip of terror. An impression that force was succeeding could not be created. The people became increasingly restless as, despite the cries of victory by the likes of Rehman Malik, the militants continued to strike with impunity. They expanded their areas of operation, and carried the fight to cities where the seculars were supposed to be better organised and better equipped to measure up to an armed conflict thrust upon them. Amid its complaints that its coalition partners were benefiting the militants for some narrow vested interests and that the party was denied a proper forum — a local government in Karachi for example — to play an effective role, the MQM was perceived to have been unable to protect the people against the advancing ‘jihadi’. The support it lost in Karachi, as evidenced in the voting patterns of the May elections, was a microcosm of the country, elaborating people’s doubts about the ability of ‘seculars’ all over Pakistan to somehow bring an end to militancy, the biggest challenge the country was faced with. Long before the May election, the factors favoured those who were advocating a dialogue with the militants, those who were supposed to be ‘ideologically not at loggerheads with the jihadis’. The failure of the military option and of the talks-cum-force method tried by the ‘seculars’ had contributed to a situation where the people were once again ready to side with the ‘right-wingers’ committed to having a dialogue with the militants. This was a fact. This was the strength of both the PML-N and PTI in the May polls, as also of some other parties such as the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl. More than the stories of their corruption, it was a perceived lack of progress on the ‘war on terror’ front that cost the ‘seculars’ support — not just of Pakistani voters but also some international backers. Like it or not, the PML-N and PTI came to power with the promise — and mandate — of trying to solve the issue by talking to the militants. Why should anyone, especially a democrat, draw pleasure from the quick re-emergence of doubts? The popular confidence is eroding. From Gen Musharraf to Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, the ‘last option’ in the current Pakistani book of choices. This is an occasion for solemn reflection. The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
Peace and parity By Irfan Husain PARITY. Now there’s a word we haven’t heard for some time. And yet it was a regular feature in Foreign Office statements not that long ago. . Its disappearance from our diplomatic lexicon is a sign of the growing realisation of our relative decline when compared with our giant neighbour. Until the 1980s, we demanded parity with India in our international dealings, but as our rival’s economy — and hence its influence — increased, we began a slide that grows steeper by the day. India always had an edge over Pakistan where soft power was concerned. It was seen as a culturally rich and colourful destination for foreigners, while Pakistan was viewed as a barren and joyless place dominated by the military and the mullahs. Our foul treatment of women and minorities did little to improve our image. But Pakistan still managed to retain a degree of importance due to its strategic location, first after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and then because of Al Qaeda’s 9/11 terror attack. Thus far, Pakistan still figures in calculations made in foreign capitals, if only due to the presence of terrorists on our soil. However, nobody at our Foreign Office uses ‘parity’ any longer. When George W. Bush signed a civilian nuclear agreement with India, there were desultory noises in Islamabad demanding a similar pact. But we all knew that with our dismal record of nuclear proliferation, there was simply no way Washington was going to take us seriously. The other day I tuned into a TV discussion between two three-member panels based in Pakistan and India respectively. Ostensibly, the context was the upcoming meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries in New York. What followed was a free-for-all in which each participant (and both anchors) yelled at the top of their voices. No attempt at a civilised debate was made, and as usual in Indo-Pak dialogue, people spoke to score points and repeat stale positions, rather than make constructive suggestions. The young Pakistani anchor was even more aggressive than his guests, one of whom was my old friend Zafar Hilaly. To his credit, Zafar did urge the panellists to move on and think ahead. However, he then asked the Indian panel why Indians seemed determined to elect Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister who presided over the dreadful massacre of Muslims a few years ago. Understandably, the Indians asked how it was his business who they elected. And so the shouting match went on until I got bored and switched channels. Considering that all the panellists were senior, experienced people, how can we expect any progress in the negotiations that are scheduled between our two countries? One of Nawaz Sharif’s main election promises was the normalisation of ties with India. But it takes two hands to clap. Clearly, there is little appetite for compromise and flexibility across the border. While we harp on Kashmir, Indians have latched on to the presence of militant groups on Pakistani soil like the banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba that is held responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attack. The difference is that while India can afford the low-level insurgency in Kashmir indefinitely, Pakistan needs desperately to free up resources currently being diverted to defence. Nawaz Sharif was right to address the arms race that is bleeding both countries dry in his UN speech. Our prime minister is, first and foremost, a businessman, and he understands only too well that tension and conflict are bad for the bottom line, whether it’s the national exchequer or the Ittefaq balance sheet. Left to themselves, Nawaz Sharif and Manmohan Singh would probably get along very well. This is true for most Indians and Pakistanis. But once you draw boundaries, wear uniforms, and fly flags, the dynamics change. Suddenly, every square inch of soil becomes sacred, and history is disputed territory. Indians just do not realise how much insecurity their country’s size and power causes in Pakistan. And many Pakistanis do not understand how our alleged use of terrorist groups to push our regional agenda causes anger in India. Sadly, much of the media in both countries adds to the paranoia instead of calming fears. One would have thought that the impending withdrawal of US and Nato forces from Afghanistan next year would have concentrated minds in New Delhi and Islamabad. The retreat of the Red Army was seen as a great victory for jihadis. The American pullout will be similarly greeted as a triumph for the Taliban. Large parts of Afghanistan will once again become a magnet for extremists. In this scenario, Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi will need to coordinate their efforts to thwart terrorist groups. But given the prevailing mistrust that grips all three capitals, it is hard to see how there can be any intelligence sharing and coordination between them. Much has been written about the need for greater movement of goods and people in the subcontinent. And yet the regional grouping, Saarc, remains moribund. China, despite its border dispute with India, is now its biggest trading partner. Direct trade between India and Pakistan amounts to only $2.3 billion; according to the World Bank, this could rise by 200pc if we were to accord MFN status to India, something India gave Pakistan years ago. Each time there are prospects, no matter how low-key, of improved ties, all these facts and projections are trotted out by pundits. Each time, hawks on both sides contemptuously ride roughshod over the hopes of hundreds of millions. Well-meaning politicians like Nawaz Sharif and Manmohan Singh seem helpless in cutting the Gordian knot that has stifled peace. Clearly, politicians need to stand up to their security establishments as well as the talking heads in TV studios if they want to break the deadlock. It’s peace we need, not parity. irfan.husain@gmail.com
A non-meeting By A.G. Noorani NEITHER side expected much of the meeting in New York, on Sept 29, between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan. Yet, it need not have gone the way it did even if relations between the two countries are as strained as they are. . Dr Manmohan Singh and Mian Nawaz Sharif did not meet in private but with a full brigade of officials on each side. A talk in private between two peace-loving prime ministers was avoided precisely at a time when a heart to heart dialogue was necessary. But some result, however small, had to be achieved for a total failure would have damaged both the leaders in their respective countries. The mouse did not emerge from a mountain of labour. It was dug up from its hole and exhibited as a trophy of promise. Ironically, it does hold some promise if only to stabilise and improve the situation with all deliberate speed so that we can move on to tackle more important issues. The directors-general of military operations of both sides — Maj Gen Ashfaq Nadeem of Pakistan and Lt-Gen Vinod Bhatia of India — will meet shortly. Their remit as announced by the officials of both countries, does not suffer from an excess of clarity. The Indian version is that they will identify measures to restore and maintain peace and tranquillity along the Line of Control in Kashmir. “The two leaders directed the two DGMOs to come up with measures”, an Indian official said, adding pointedly that the “stage for a broader dialogue has not come” and that “both leaders agreed that peace and tranquillity on the LoC is a precondition to moving the peace process forward”. Pakistan’s version is that the DGMOs “will meet and establish a joint mechanism for not only investigation of incidents on the LoC, but also to ensure that there is no recurrence of violence”. It is 14 years since the two DGMOs met to defuse the Kargil crisis. Each speaks to the other on the phone every Tuesday. A lot depends on their personal approach to the task and, indeed, on the brief they receive from their governments — whether to go ahead speedily, or in slow motion. The arrangement has potentialities though the prospects seem none too bright. The atmosphere was fouled by a series of outrages this year — the beheading of Indian soldiers near the LoC in January, the incident on Aug 6 in which five Indian soldiers were killed near the LoC, and the killing of 12 persons, including a lieutenant colonel, two other army men, and four policemen last month, on the eve of the New York meeting. All these as also the Mumbai blasts were staged by elements in Pakistan who are opposed to their government’s efforts at reconciliation with India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in New York: “Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a dialogue.” But the pragmatic adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, had sensed a change of stance well before that. He told the media at Islamabad on September 17 that Pakistan had lowered its expectations and foresaw no breakthrough at the New York meeting in view of India’s reluctance to talk. We have come a long way from the Sharm El Sheikh joint statement of July 2009 which said that “action on terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process and these should not be bracketed”. Things began to look up after the prime ministers of Pakistan and India met at Thimphu on April 30, 2010. Pursuant to their understanding, foreign secretaries Salman Bashir and Nirupama Rao put the dialogue back on track in February 2011. The prime ministers met twice in 2011. All that now seems to lie in a distant past. The dialogue is held ransom to terrorists. Pakistan’s efforts to control known leaders of the militants are not particularly conspicuous. The last five years have seen no significant progress in the trial of the accused in Pakistan. The agreement on the Most Favoured Nation treatment to India remains only on paper. Pakistan’s minister of state for commerce, Khurram Dastgir Khan, told Indian correspondents last month: “We want to move forward on trade but at the moment it seems that it is not really defensible in parliament and in front of the people unless there is some political movement. One step forward on political issues will yield five steps forward on trade.” He specifically mentioned two disputes whose resolution, he said, is “doable” — Sir Creek and the demilitarisation of Siachen. No such condition was present in the agreement. To return to the immediate task, peace along the LoC in Kashmir, why not enlist the help of traders on both sides in the cause? Peace is very much in their interest too. Right now, the cross-LoC trade is languishing, causing frustration all around. Moreover, it is based on the mediaeval barter system. There are no banking or communications facilities. The poor trader simply does not know the state of the market on the other side. It provides a graphic illustration of the non-seriousness of our leaders in concluding non-agreements at non-summits. Leaders should not allow militants to foil their policies and deflect them from the course on which they had set themselves. Many years ago, on Oct 12, 1984, at 2.45 am, a bomb explosion wrecked most of Brighton’s Grand Hotel where prime minister Margaret Thatcher was staying for the Conservative Party conference. Dozens, including a minister, were injured. An MP and four others were killed. The IRA warned her, “Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once.” She did not stop the M15 from continuing the talks with the IRA. The writer is an author and a lawyer based in Mumbai.
Put up or shut up By Abbas Nasir A TRICKLE of information has started to flow about the all-party sanctioned and military-backed talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).. Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab minister and one of the beacons of the governing PML-N, told the media that talks with the militants have started. But it would have been much better had he also specified which talks he was referring to. This would have been significant because Rana Sanaullah is the man widely believed to have been the go-between in more than five years of delicate negotiations with the TTP and its affiliates that have contributed to keeping Punjab safe. What the TTP has had to give in these negotiations is easily understandable as the country’s most populated province has been more or less immune from the militants’ murder and mayhem witnessed in the other three provinces, in Gilgit-Baltistan and of course in Fata. But what could prove to be of immense value to today’s negotiators would be the details of what the TTP received in exchange in the give and take exercise in which it agreed to leave alone what must have appeared to be a big, beefy target to its mass murderers. Apart from Punjab, as the TTP continues to attack soft civilian targets with apparent impunity, Maulana Fazlur Rehman informs us that though the process may be painstaking, the “negotiations with the Taliban started by the interior ministry are moving ahead satisfactorily”. The maulana, known as much for his political pragmatism as for his knowledge of religious matters, was found wanting in being up to date with current affairs when he gave the example of how the “Sri Lankans talked to the (Tamil) rebels” to resolve the conflict. Perhaps, he could have benefited from advice from his suave, lounge suit attired, clean-shaven spokesman and former BBC man Jan Assakzai. In his media remarks, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl also warned that those opposed to these negotiations will leave no stone unturned to sabotage them. His major detractor, Imran Khan, was in total agreement in saying the many powers opposed to the talks were flexing their muscles through one TTP faction or the other and not just through the drone strikes. In fact, he went a step further: “I have been told Afghanistan has given $350 million dollars to one such militant group” to disrupt the peace process. So, he also warned that while talks take place it would be unrealistic to assume the murder and mayhem would stop. This disclosure by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader in a TV interview to ARY was followed by one to the Guardian where he put the number of bigger groups at between 14 and 18 and smaller ones at around 20 to 25. He attributed these statistics to the interior ministry. Imran Khan told the Guardian he preferred to take army chief Gen Kayani’s advice from three years ago where he said “there will be massive collateral damage, the militants will disperse and you will have a blowback in the cities. Can you afford it?” Last week, one of Imran Khan’s top aides, Naeem ul Haque attributed to the army a statement saying it put at “40pc” the chance of success of any military operation against the militants in the fortified North Waziristan Agency. However, that Imran Khan was expressing a preference for the army chief’s statement from three years ago leads one to conclude that Gen Kayani’s (and his institution’s) current position is different from the one held at the time, despite GHQ’s doubts about the success of the operation. Since Imran Khan has stuck to his guns (wrongly, I believe) and unashamedly articulated his position, he has ended up taking the bulk of the flak from those in the country who believe that the agenda of the TTP does not provide for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. In equal measure, Imran Khan’s supporters – via social media email groups and also on electronic media – have targeted as “pro-war” those who have called for any talks with the TTP being made conditional to a ceasefire declaration. But the biggest player in the whole affair, the heavily mandated PML-N, has more or less escaped any criticism although its election pledge or even its current position is not dissimilar to that of the PTI. In fact, the PTI’s stance may be ideological and misguided but it defends it with vigour as if it considers it principled. But the way the PML-N has kept its head below the parapet or dilly-dallied in public gives one the distinct impression that its view is merely expedient. Even if it is motivated by a desire to protect its huge support base in one province, it has also taken on the task of representing the federation. The PML-N, not PTI, is answerable to the people of the whole country for its acts of omission and commission. It has to demonstrate leadership or else public confusion and ambivalence will only get deeper, stripping the government of options if talks don’t work. It is equally incumbent on opposition parties such as the PPP and the Awami National Party to abandon their hypocritical position on supporting the all-party conference resolution when their public utterances give a totally different impression. Greater clarity and leadership are needed if their failure in power is not to be repeated on the opposition benches. And lastly instead of sniping at each other in TV talk shows, the lawmakers would be well-advised to tighten the legal loopholes that let mass murderers slip away; and debate issues such as the right balance between civil liberties and the demands of tackling rampant terrorism. The writer is a former editor of Dawn. abbas.nasir@hotmail.com
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