DWS, Sunday 10th November to Friday 15th November 2013

	DWS, Sunday 10th November to Friday 15th November 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
Uncertainty persists over LG elections By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: There was a lot of confusion over the status of local government elections in Punjab and Sindh even after issuance of public notices by returning officers concerned on Saturday. . Although candidates for the polls can obtain nomination forms after issuance of the notices, many of them were unaware till the last minute about appointment of district returning officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers. It has been learnt that printing of nomination forms is continuing and a limited number of forms have so far reached the offices of returning officers. The provinces have not yet issued notifications about delimitation of constituencies, causing confusion among voters and candidates. Nobody knows whether he will be able to cast vote in the ward he voted in during the last LG polls or his vote will be enlisted in the rolls of another ward as a result of a hasty delimitation exercise. Since the Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to hold the elections on the dates announced by the provinces, it has not been able to complete the groundwork. The ECP has not even published handbooks containing guidelines for presiding officers and polling agents. An official of the commission said nomination forms were also available at the Election Commission’s website, but conceded that many intending candidates in remote areas lacking internet facility would not be able to get the forms. A resolution unanimously adopted by the National Assembly spurning the announcement of a hasty schedule and a petition filed by the Sindh government in the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry seeking postponement of the polls have compounded the confusion. The resolution reflects a consensus among political parties that the elections must not be held in haste so that questions are not raised about their transparency. The official said a meeting of the ECP on Monday would review the situation arising out of the resolution passed by the assembly. He said the challenge of printing over 400 million ballot papers and procuring at least 2.2 million magnetised inkpads in a short time would also be discussed at the meeting. The government has expressed its inability to print ballot papers during the prescribed period and the resolution has rejected the proposal of involving private sector in the task. The Pakistan Security Printing Corporation has said it cannot print ballot papers in a short span of time because it is busy in printing currency notes, postal stamps and passports. The Printing Corporation of Pakistan has also said it is not possible for it to print ballot papers in such a huge quantity within the deadline. The ECP meeting will coincide with the first day for submission of nomination papers by candidates in Punjab and Sindh. They can submit the forms on Nov 11 and 12.
3 shot dead in Gujranwala Imambargahs By Our Correspondent GUJRANWALA, Nov 9: An office-bearer of the Shia Ulema Council and two other members of the community were shot dead in two Imambargahs in Baghbanpura on Saturday morning. The council’s finance secretary, Javed Talat, was shot dead with an automatic weapon by two men riding a motorcycle who forced their way into the Zainabia Imambargah, on Naushera Road. . In the other incident, Muazzam Yousef and Amanat were gunned down by two men who barged into Qasr-i-Abu Talib Imambargah in Shahrukh Colony. Both attacks took place during Fajr prayers. Members of the Shia community placed the bodies on the road, smashed windowpanes of vehicles and blocked traffic on major streets of Gujranwala. They raised slogans against the government and called for suspension of the police officials concerned. Police claimed to have arrested nine suspects, including activists of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. Commuters faced problems because of the closure of roads for 10 hours. The snarl-up in traffic on the G.T. Road stretched for at least five kilometres. The situation in the city remained tense throughout the day. Punjab Environment Minister Shuja Khanzada arrived in the city and ordered an inquiry into the attacks.
Centre to consult KP govt on Taliban talks By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said the new strategy on talks with Taliban will be finalised after taking the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into confidence. . This was stated by the minister during a meeting with KP Governor Shaukatullah Khan here on Saturday. According to an official handout issued after the meeting by the interior ministry, Chaudhry Nisar and the KP governor exchanged views on the issue of talks with Taliban and reviewed the security situation in the country’s troubled tribal areas, or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). “On this occasion, the interior minister vows to take the KP government into confidence while making new strategy on the issue of talks with Taliban that have been stalled due to the recent drone strike,” it said. The minister said Islamabad would also take the KP government into confidence on security-related issues and keep it updated at every stage on the progress in the talks with Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He said the federal government would assist the provincial government in bringing the people out of the present difficult situation keeping aside political differences. There was no mention in the handout about whether the minister and the governor discussed the issue of stopping Nato supply. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, whose party heads the coalition government in KP, while taking part in a debate in the National Assembly on the recent drone attacks had declared that his party had decided to stop Nato supply after November 20. Seeking support for the decision from the PML-N’s government at the centre, Mr Khan said the provincial government had decided to block Nato supply at all cost. During his meeting with the governor, the interior minister also vowed to make the new talks strategy in the light of the ongoing debate on the matter in the National Assembly. The interior minister is expected to wind up the debate in the assembly on Monday. Protesting over the continued absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from the parliament, the opposition parties led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have announced that they will boycott the National Assembly session, if he did not come to the house on Monday. Chaudhry Nisar was of the view that sentiments should be kept at a distance while making decisions at this crucial time. He further said it was not the time for making “useless statements”. He stressed the need for making decisions and policies keeping in view the larger national interest.
Objections by France snarl up Iran deal GENEVA, Nov 9: Diplomats grappled to secure a landmark deal at talks on Iran’s nuclear programme on Saturday, but Tehran raised the prospect of negotiations being put off after cracks emerged among world powers. . France in particular voiced concerns about a proposed deal, questioning whether it would go far enough to limit Tehran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. As intensive negotiations continued in Geneva, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged world powers not to miss the chance for a deal. “I hope that the P5+1 group makes the most out of this exceptional opportunity that the Iranian nation has offered to the international community, so that we can reach a positive result within a reasonable timeframe,” he was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. The US, British, French, German and Russian foreign ministers had rushed to Geneva to join the talks amid hopes of a breakthrough towards ending the decade-old standoff on Iran’s nuclear efforts. US Secretary of State John Kerry cut off a Middle East tour to fly to Geneva and, despite reports that the talks had broken down, joined Iran’s foreign minister and the chief EU diplomat, Catherine Ashton, for fresh negotiations on Saturday evening. The proposed agreement —seen as a first step ahead of further talks on a final deal —would see Iran freeze parts of its nuclear programme for as long as six months in exchange for some relief from the sanctions battering its economy. —AFP
SBP, FIA move to curb dollar flight By Kalbe Ali ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: The State Bank of Pakistan and the Federal Investigation Agency will sign a memorandum of understanding next week to curb smuggling of foreign currencies from the country. . “The MoU will allow our staff to be posted at Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar airports,” SBP Governor Yaseen Anwar told Dawn. The arrangement stipulates that first SBP officials will identify ‘dollar carriers’, the FIA will check their luggage and then arrest them, if needed. The carriers (popularly known as ‘khepias’) carry suitcases stuffed with dollars and they can be picked out easily from other passengers, but so far the FIA and the Customs department have not taken any action against them. The limit for physically taking dollars out of the country through legal means is $10,000. The country has been facing a significant decline in foreign currency reserves and the State Bank governor had said recently that smuggling could be up to 25 million dollars during a certain week. A PIA airhostess said some passengers carried a huge baggage and they even purchased additional tickets for it, but it was not “our job to check them”. “There is an illegal outflow from the country, but that does not constitute a major chunk of declining foreign exchange reserves,” a banker told Dawn. “The poor inflow of dollars is the real problem.”
Punjab will hold party-based polls By Intikhab Hanif LAHORE, Nov 9: The Punjab government on Saturday promulgated an ordinance that amended the Local Government Act 2013 and provided for party-based local bodies elections in compliance with an order of the Lahore High Court. . The ordinance was promulgated by Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar on the advice of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. It deleted a clause of the act specifying non-party local elections in the province. After the amendment, officials said, political parties can now take part in the polls. The ordinance included a new clause in the Local Government Act which said the recently concluded delimitation of local bodies constituencies could not be challenged in a civil court. Sources said the clause had been introduced in anticipation of litigation over the delimitation exercise. However, the high court has the constitutional authority to hear such cases. Earlier, the Punjab government wanted to hold non-party local government elections and had provided for it in the act despite objections from opposition parties and civil society organisations. The opponents of the move believed that it would further divide society and lead to unrest in the province. However, some analysts said the PML-N wanted non-party elections because it did not have an organisational set-up at grass-roots level and was not sure of its victory in party-based polls. The party will try to force a majority of winning candidates to follow its command and those offering resistance would not be allowed to freely function with the help of a strong controlling mechanism provided in the act, they feared. The government said that since local governments were not legislative bodies, there was no need for party-based elections. It also held the view that political parties should allow people to independently take part in these elections so that they could “become their own masters”. To the surprise of its opponents, the government welcomed the Lahore High Court’s decision and speedily promulgated the ordinance, allowing political parties to contest the elections.
Taliban accuse govt of sorcery By Ashfaq Yusufzai PESHAWAR, Nov 9: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed that the government resorted to sorcery to cause headache and body pain to its slain chief, Hakeemullah Mehsud. Hakeemullah sought spiritual treatment from an Arab faith-healer prior to the Nov 1 drone strike in which he was killed, the TTP said.. In a statement on the death of its leader, the TTP said Waliur Rahman, Saeed Allah, Jalal, Wali Badshah and his uncle Khair Mohammad also lost their lives when his car was hit by three missiles at the entrance to Mehsud’s home. Towards the last days of his life, Hakeemullah had received spiritual treatment, which improved his health and he had been able to step up militant activities, the statement claimed. “Although he had no symptom of any disease, Hakeemullah’s health had been steadily declining because of the government’s sorcery,” the TTP alleged. The TTP paid tribute to its slain leader for “masterminding a suicide bombing” by a Jordanian fighter at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, in December 2009 and the car bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square by Faisal Shahzad in May 2010.
600 Afghan students get scholarship By A Reporter ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Pakistan will sponsor the study of 600 Afghan students in its institutions of higher education this year. . So said Pakistan’s Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq in Kabul at a ceremony attended by a group of Afghan students coming to Pakistan under a scholarship programme. The function was organised by the Pakistan embassy on Saturday, according to a press release issued by the press information department. Mr Sadiq said that Pakistan had been offering scholarships to Afghan students since 2009 under the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Scheme for Afghan Students. Presently, about 2,000 Afghan students are studying in various disciplines — including medical, engineering, agriculture, computer science, business administration and economics — in top universities of Pakistan. He said that more than 30,000 Afghan youths had graduated from educational institutions in Pakistan over the past three decades. Most of them have returned to their homeland and are playing a significant role in the reconstruction, capacity building and socio-economic uplift of their country. The ambassador said that Pakistan was contributing to the efforts to develop and strengthen health and education sectors in Afghanistan. Referring to the projects Pakistan had undertaken in Afghanistan, he mentioned Liaquat Ali Khan Engineering University in Balkh, Rehman Baba Hostel in Kabul, Allama Iqbal Faculty of Humanities at Kabul University, Sir Syed Post-Graduate Faculty of Sciences at Nangarhar University, Jalalabad, Nishtar Kidney Centre in Jalalabad, 400-bed Jinnah Hospital in Kabul, 200-bed Naeb Aminullah Khan Hospital in Logar and 73-km Torkham-Jalalabad dual carriageway. He said that education was a key to success and urged the students to concentrate on their studies so that they could steer their country on the path of development.
Hassan asked to tender apology By Syed Irfan Raza ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Munawar Hassan’s controversial statements giving the certificate of martyrdom to Hakeemullah Mehsud, the ruthless PTI leader killed in a US drone attack, and deriding military personnel who have rendered sacrifices in the war against terrorists, has drawn strong ire of the army which has asked him to tender an unconditional apology. . In a rare reaction to remarks made by the chief of a political party, the army asked, the Jamaat, once trusted ally in the Afghan war, to clarify its position. The JI amir’s statement was condemned also by almost all political parties and non-political circles in the country and some of them even termed Mr Hassan a ‘traitor’ and demanded his trial. “The people whose loved ones have laid down their lives while fighting terrorists and families of Shuhada (martyrs) of the armed forces demand an unconditional apology from Syed Munawar Hassan for hurting their feelings. It is also expected that Jamaat-i-Islami should clearly state its position on the subject,” a spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement issued on Sunday. The ISPR spokesman said: “These were irresponsible and misleading remarks by Syed Munawar Hassan in a TV programme, declaring the dead terrorists as Shaheed while insulting the Shahadat of thousands of innocent Pakistanis and soldiers of Pakistan’s armed forces.” He said Mr Hassan had tried to invent a logic based on his political convenience. “Strong condemnation of his views from an overwhelming majority leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that all of us are very clear on what the state of Pakistan is and who its enemies are. Sacrifices of our Shuhada and their families need no endorsement from Syed Munawar Hassan and such misguided and self-serving statements deserve no comments,” the statement added. The spokesman said the statement by the chief of a party founded by Maulana Maududi, who was respected and revered for his service to Islam, was both “painful and unfortunate”. Mr Hassan expressed in a recent TV programme doubts about martyrdom of thousands of army and security personnel who have sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorists in the country since the 9/11 attack in New York. When asked about the definition of Shaheed and the status of thousands of Pakistani security personnel killed in the fight against militants, he said: “If an American is not a martyr, then how a person who helps and supports him (American) can be called a martyr.” In another statement, the JI amir declared Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, who had accepted responsibility for killing thousands of innocent civilians and security personnel and was killed in a recent US drone attack, as martyr and said: “America has killed more people than Taliban.” Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also gave a controversial statement defending the Taliban and calling them martyrs. He said: “Even a dog killed by the Americans is a martyr.” The ISPR statement made no mention of the Maulana’s statement. Observers are of the opinion that the statements of the two religious leaders have hurt the sentiments of most Pakistanis, who even after suffering from the worst kind of terrorism in which more than 50,000 people were killed, want the government and the TTP to hold talks for permanent peace in the country. Awami National Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement also condemned the remarks made by the JI chief. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari appeal to the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of Mr Hassan’s statement. Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Ahmed Shah condemned Mr Hassan’s statement and urged him to retract it. He said the JI chief should also describe the status of thousands of innocent citizens killed in terrorist attacks. “How will Mr Hassan describe the innocent people who were killed indiscriminately in attacks on mosques, imambargahs, churches and markets,” he asked. The ANP reacted even strongly to the statement and urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice and try the JI chief for treason. “There must be a lifetime ban on Jamaat-i-Islami so that no-one could dare do this in future,” ANP’s spokesman Senator Zahid Khan said. He alleged that the JI had vehemently supported the US in its war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. “How would he describe those JI men who died in the Afghan war while helping and supporting the Americas,” he asked. Mr Khan said the JI amir’s statement reflected his party’s line and policies, adding that Mr Hassan badly hurt the feelings of families of the martyrs who had died in the war against terrorism. PTI leader Imran Ismail condemned the statement and said Mr Hassan had put himself in big trouble. He was a seasoned politician, the PTI leader said, adding that it was important to see how “he gets himself out of this situation.” Senior political and foreign affairs analyst Hassan Askari described the JI amir’s remarks as a big shock for the nation and said: “Rejecting sacrifices of thousands of martyrs of personnel of the army, police and paramilitary forces is condemnable and the nation will not support such views,” he said.
ECP wants poll postponed in Sindh, Punjab By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: In a significant development, the Election Commission of Pakistan decided on Sunday to approach the Supreme Court to seek postponement of local government elections in Sindh and Punjab because there was not adequate time to complete groundwork and lack of preparations by the provinces. . The decision was taken at an emergency meeting held to review arrangements for the elections scheduled to be held in Sindh on Nov 27 and in Punjab on Dec 7. A senior ECP official told reporters after the meeting presided over by Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani that a formal request would be submitted to the apex court on Monday to give adequate time to the commission as well as the provinces to make arrangements for the polls. The meeting was attended by all four members of the commission, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan and senior officials. Sources in the ECP told Dawn that the meeting had reviewed poll arrangements and discussed the situation in the light of a unanimous resolution adopted by the National Assembly criticising the schedule issued in haste and a petition filed by the Sindh government in the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry seeking postponement of the elections. The resolution said all political parties agreed that holding elections without adequate preparations would raise questions about their transparency. The sources said the ECP meeting had found some legal and technical lacunas in the ordinance recently promulgated by the Punjab government following the Lahore High Court’s decision that the elections should be held on party basis. The meeting was informed that the provinces had not yet issued notifications about delimitation of constituencies, causing confusion among voters and candidates. The ECP has already announced election schedules for Punjab and Sindh in line with the SC directive. According to it, candidates will start receiving nomination papers from Monday. The sources said the ECP had so far failed to send nomination papers to all areas, specially the remote places in Sindh and Punjab. The commission notified election officials for Sindh and Punjab at the eleventh hour, causing confusion among candidates who still had no idea about the appointment of district returning officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers. Since the Supreme Court has directed that the elections should held on the dates announced by the provinces, the ECP has neither been able to complete the groundwork nor even publish handbooks containing guidelines for presiding officers and polling agents. An ECP official said the nomination form was available at the commission’s website but because of lack of internet facility in remote areas many intending candidates would not be able to download it. He said it would not be possible for the commission to meet the challenge of printing about 500 million ballot papers and procuring at least 2.2 million magnetised inkpads within the given time. The federal government has already expressed its inability to get the ballot papers printed by state-owned presses in the prescribed time and the National Assembly resolution has rejected the proposed involvement of the private sector in the process. The Pakistan Security Printing Corporation says it cannot print the large number of ballot papers in the given time because it is printing currency notes, postal stamps and passports. Transfers, postings: The ECP meeting also took notice of media reports that the government had decided to change the Sindh chief secretary and the managing director of the Printing Corporation. The commission’s additional secretary has written a letter to the establishment division secretary, informing him that under the law, transfers and postings in the provinces cannot be made after the announcement of the election schedule. “The acting Chief Election Commissioner has expressed serious concern over the above-referred postings and transfers and has directed that the notification about these be immediately suspended. He has also directed that an explanation as to why these postings and transfers have been made in violation of the aforesaid directive be sent to the commission, along with a list of officers whose transfers and postings have been made over the past 48 hours,” the letter said.
JI says statement personal By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE: A senior leader of Jamaat-i-Islami said on Sunday that Syed Munawar Hassan’s statement on the status of army soldiers killed in the war against terrorism was his personal opinion and not of the party. . Dr Farid Piracha told Dawn that the JI would definitely respond to the army’s reaction and soon release an official statement after a meeting of its Shura to be held on Monday. “Decisions to speak on various issues of national interest are taken by the party’s supreme council (Shura). The JI will respond in detail after discussing the matter at the meeting. Till a final decision by the Shura, the party will consider Mr Hassan’s statement as his personal opinion,” the JI leader said. He said JI founder Maulana Maudoodi had always described his statements on certain matters relating to Fiqah as his personal opinion. “In this situation, the JI amir might have followed Maulana Maudoodi,” he added. Mr Piracha said the JI had always supported the armed forces on important issues of national interest. He said the party never thought of making insulting remarks about the military, adding that the army had reacted to the JI chief’s statement in haste.
Kashmiris’ role in talks sought By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Pakistan’s foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz was reminded by Hurriyat Conference leaders here on Sunday to include Kashmiris in future peace talks between India and Pakistan. They also told him that recent military flare-ups on the Line of Control were against the interests of civilians on both sides of the divide.. Mr Aziz, who arrived on Sunday, will participate in a Europe-Asia meeting on Monday, followed by a bilateral meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to host a dinner for the foreign ministers participating in the two-day conference at which Mr Aziz could get an opportunity to talk to him briefly. It was not clear if there would be a separate call on the prime minister by the Pakistan prime minister’s adviser. Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) described Mr Aziz’s meeting with the Hurriyat as a diplomatic blunder by India. However, Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq quickly pointed out that Kashmiri leaders had been meeting senior Pakistani officials even during the Vajpayee regime. BJP president Rajnath Singh said: “By allowing Sartaj Aziz to hold talks with Kashmiri separatists the UPA government has committed another diplomatic blunder with serious costs to national security and national interest.” The Indian government, however, maintained it was not compromising in any way on the Kashmir issue. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said: “The Hurriyat should also introspect on this matter that if they are really representatives of the people then they must participate in the democratic process.” Emerging from an hour-long meeting at the Pakistan High Commission, the moderate faction led by Maulvi Farooq said that the talks were aimed at finding a lasting political solution to the Kashmir issue, a key element for normalising ties between the two countries. Besides the Mirwaiz, JKLF chief Yaseen Malik and hardline Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Dukhtaran-i-Millat had separate meetings with Mr Aziz. Mr Malik told Dawn he reminded the visiting official that four generations of Kashmiris had been destroyed and of those who survived 95 per cent were stricken with depression. “Without progress on the most heart wrenching human tragedy, how can the two countries normalise relations?” Mr Malik asked. Mr Geelani, who had arrived near Pakistan High Commission much before time, decided not to enter the premises till the team led by Mirwaiz was there. The moment they came out, Mr Geelani went in. “We want to see that the relations between the two countries are good and this would be possible only after the Kashmir issue is settled in accordance with the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Mirwaiz said. To a question that the BJP had opposed their meeting with Mr Aziz terming it as anti-national, the Hurriyat chairman replied, “I wonder how is this anti-national. The meeting is aimed at finding a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue which is in the interest of India, Pakistan as well as people of Jammu and Kashmir.” The Mirwaiz replied that Hurriyat had been meeting with Pakistani leaders during the NDA regime under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his deputy L.K. Advani.“Sad to see them (BJP) terming this meeting as anti-India. In fact such talks must be encouraged,” he said, adding, “We seek cooperation not confrontation” from BJP and other political parties.
Govt urged to take US on board before Taliban talks By Ikram Junaidi ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: The Wifaqul Madaris Al Arabia (WMA) has advised the government to take the US on board before opening talks with Taliban to prevent incidents like the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud.. During a telephonic conversation with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, MWA General Secretary Qari Hanif Jalandhari said that confidence building measures should be taken to make the talks result-oriented. The killing of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakeemullah Mehsud in a recent US drone attack has adversely affected the government’s efforts to initiate talks and recurrence of such attacks can further complicate the situation and intensify the TTP’s distrust of the authorities. Chaudhry Nisar and Qari Jalandhari agreed on the need for holding talks and engaging all stakeholders in the process to increase the level of trust among them. Qari Jalandhari urged the government to resume efforts for the talks and said that religious scholars had always supported negotiations for the sake of peace in the country. The minister urged Ulema to play a role in evolving confidence building measures and assure Taliban that the government was serious about talks. They agreed that resolving the issue of militancy required dialogue and if the US and Afghan Taliban could hold talks, what stopped Pakistan and the TTP to do so. Talking to Dawn, WMA media coordinator Abdul Quddus said that some elements had been trying to derail the dialogue process. “Pakistan has been fighting against the TTP for over nine years. Now both are of the opinion that issues can be resolved only through talks,” he said. “Although there is a perception that new TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah is against Pakistan and it is difficult to initiate talks with him, there are some people in the TTP, like Khalid Haqqani, who can persuade him to engage in dialogue and play a role for its success,” he said. “The WMA believes that peace can be achieved through dialogue but we should not ignore external stakeholders because the world has become a global village,” he said. The presence of Nato in Afghanistan, he said, also demanded that they should be asked to support the talks because another US attack might do irreparable harm to the efforts for peace.
Clerics ask Mullah Umar to help stop attacks By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE: Over 100 clerics associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council have sought Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Umar’s help to stop TTP’s terrorist activities in Pakistan.. “We appeal to Mullah Umar to use his influence and order Pakistani Taliban to stop terrorism activities in the country besides making them agree to accept the constitution of an Islamic state,” the clerics said in a joint statement issued by the Council on Sunday. They said since Pakistan supported Afghan people at all crucial stages and had recognised the Taliban government in Afghanistan, it was now Mullah Umar’s duty to play his role for bringing peace to Pakistan by forcing the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to surrender and accept the authority and writ of the state. They said as the Pakistani Taliban’s ‘jihad’ was against the teachings of Islam, Mullah Umar should order them to wage ‘jihad’ against America. The clerics also asked leaders of the Deobandi school of thought to play their role in controlling Pakistani Taliban.
President wants Kuwaitis to invest in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: President Mamnoon Hussain underscored on Sunday the need for Pakistani and Kuwaiti governments to take their bilateral relations to new heights by focussing on trade and investment. . During his meeting with Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah at the Presidency, the president said Pakistan had huge potential for investors in various sectors, including defence and energy, and invited Kuwaiti businessmen to avail the attractive incentives offered by its government. The two leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations, the situation in the Middle East and other regional and international issues. Mr Hussain said the Kuwaiti prime minister’s visit to Pakistan demonstrated the special bonds of friendship and brotherhood between the two countries and expressed confidence that it would add momentum to the existing close ties between them. At the outset of the meeting, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah congratulated Mr Hussain on assuming the office of president. President Hussain thanked the Kuwaiti prime minister and conveyed on his behalf and on behalf of the people of Pakistan best wishes for Amir of Kuwait and the people of Kuwait. He praised the support and assistance extended by the government and people of Kuwait to Pakistan in every hour of need, especially the 2005 earthquake and the devastating floods of 2010. Discussing bilateral relations, the president said there was great potential for increased cooperation between the two countries in a broad spectrum of areas and Pakistan was keen to enhance and diversify economic ties. He said the presence of a sizeable Pakistani community in Kuwait was a manifestation of close bilateral ties between the two countries. On the occasion, he also sought the prime minister’s help in addressing the difficulties confronted by Pakistanis in Kuwait, particularly businessmen and entrepreneurs who sometimes faced problems in acquiring Kuwaiti visa. This step, the president said, would lead to greater people-to-people contacts and increased interaction among businessmen of the two countries. Turning to the regional situation, Mr Hussain said Pakistan was committed to peace and stability in the region and the world and that Pakistan wanted to have friendly, cooperative and good relations with its neighbours. On the prevailing situation in the Middle East, he said Pakistan supported efforts to facilitate a resolution in Syria that met the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people through a comprehensive political dialogue involving the entire spectrum of the Syrian polity. On his part, the prime minister said that Kuwait and Pakistan would continue to work for further cementing bilateral cooperation. He added that his government would support Pakistan’s endeavours for economic development. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kuwait Syed Abrar Hussain were present on the occasion.—APP
Gas utilities may be ‘un-bundled’ to end their monopoly By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: As the government considers increasing gas levy to generate around Rs100 billion (0.4 per cent of GDP) in accordance with an undertaking given to the IMF, it will also have to un-bundle the two gas utilities and address other bottlenecks in the market to ensure import of natural gas and liquefied natural gas from any source.. The government has committed to the IMF to impose a new levy in December under the $6.6bn Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The un-bundling of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company is considered crucial to ending their monopoly in the transmission and distribution system, allowing private sector to enter the distribution network and finding creditworthy buyers for imported gas. The move to create several distribution and transmission companies is being fine-tuned by the government, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and other ‘stakeholders’. According to a study by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies of the University of Oxford, Pakistan is ideally placed to develop a modern gas market and attract imports to overcome its gas and power shortages, but has failed to do so because of a number of unresolved issues. “Pakistan has been unable to implement any import project despite being involved in several pipeline and LNG schemes,” it said. It said the un-bundling of the SSGC and SNGPL, allowing producers to access creditworthy buyers, would help develop a more competitive gas market. Although not ideal when compared to natural gas, Pakistan should also look at its domestic coal supplies to provide some respite during the power crisis caused by shortage of gas. The issues mentioned in the study include political and security instability and absence of an internationally respected entity, thereby preventing large international companies from becoming involved in the supply initiatives. Pipeline projects are geopolitical issues and complicated transit routes. In addition, Pakistan and India have not teamed together. Moreover, domestic end user prices are still considered below market parity, requiring further adjustments to accommodate import prices. Also, the fragile economic situation compounded by fuel payment defaults by power companies, requiring continuous budgetary support, is creating the issue of credit worthiness. The institute also found faults with the LNG regulation because its prices still required to be regulated by Ogra when selling to government-controlled entities. It said the integrated re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) concept was also problematic because all risks were to be borne by project developer, requiring a strong balance sheet and appropriate credit support, while political interference and subsequent cancellation of three LNG tenders posed risk to the credibility of the proposed schemes. It said Pakistan’s gas environment was ideal for development because it had a large consumer base, with anchor end users in the power, industrial and CNG sectors and mostly large low-cost gas producing fields spanning several sedimentary basins. A comprehensive gas infrastructure already exists. Moreover, unlike China or India, coal is not a serious competitor in power generation in the country. Also, a very large supply gap could underpin either international pipelines or whole LNG projects. The study said an assessment had suggested the country having 3.6bn barrels of oil and 66.3 trillion cubic feet of gas, but over the past few years there had actually been a decline in gas reserves. “The critical issue for Pakistan is that the reserve replacement ratio is becoming negative.”
Haqqani network leader killed in Islamabad By Munawar Azeem & Khawar Ghumman ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: While the federal government is still recovering from the aftershocks of the killing of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, a key member of the powerful Haqqani network is reported to have been killed in Bharakau, in the suburbs of Islamabad, on Sunday night.. Nasiruddin Haqqani, elder son of the legendary Jalaluddin Haqqani who founded the deadly Haqqani network, was shot at by two attackers equipped with automatic weapons between 8 and 9pm in a busy market of Bharakau. An FIR of attempted murder was registered against unidentified attackers at the local police station. However, no senior government official spoke on the incident, which many believe would heavily figure in ties between the US and Pakistan, as questions would be asked about his presence in Islamabad. A retired military official, who preferred not to come on record, said the targeted killing of Mr Haqqani would prove to be another Osama bin Laden-like episode and definitely questions would be raised about the presence of such a high-profile Taliban leader with his family right in the capital. Osama bin Laden was killed by Americans in Abbottabad, close to the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in May 2011 after he had been living there for several years. Sources in police and various agencies confirmed that the slain Haqqani had been living in the area for the past three to four years. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) preferred not to comment on the killing. Known as Zabihullah Mujahid, Nasiruddin was a spokesperson for his group. He was also the chief finance controller of the group and would regularly visit Middle East countries to raise funds. Although the Haqqanis had thrived on US funding during Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the late Nasiruddin had been declared a global terrorist by the US treasury department. The US has always been suspicious of ties between the Haqqani network and the Pakistani security establishment. In September 2011, the then head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, famously called the Haqqani network a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), in a testimony before the US Senate. Pakistan strongly reacted to the statement and termed it mere accusation. An effective presence of Haqqanis on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border, however, was an open secret, the retired military official said, adding that if there were any chances left of resuming peace talks with the TTP, they had gone after the killing of Nasiruddin. “No final peace deal between the TTP and Pakistan can be done without approval of the Haqqani network,” he added. During the past two years, four senior members of the Haqqani network have been killed. Badaruddin Haqqani, brother of Nasiruddin, was killed in August 2012, Jan Baz Zadran was killed in October 2011 and Mullah Sanggen Zadran in September this year. The capital police neither denied nor confirmed the assassination of Nasiruddin Haqqani. The Inspector General of Police, Sikandar Hayat, said the killing of anybody named Haqqani was not in the knowledge of police. Two persons were injured in the attack and the identity of one of them was not known because he was taken away by some people along with his vehicle. Besides, it had also not been established whether the man had been killed in the attack or only injured, he added. Sources told Dawn that it appeared to be a targeted operation, recalling that two persons armed with sub-machine guns ambushed him from different sides when he appeared in the market. As a result Mr Haqqani and a bread maker, Mohammad Farooq, suffered injuries and started bleeding after falling down. The gunmen, after ascertaining the death of the target, escaped on a vehicle, according to an eyewitness. Afterwards, some people appeared at the scene and took away the body of Haqqani and his SUV, the sources added. They said the body was taken to the house of Mr Haqqani, in nearby Shahpur, where a number of officials, including senior police officers in their official vehicles with police lights, also arrived. Transport was arranged and the body was dispatched to Miramshah, North Waziristan, they added. A police team also visited the spot and collected over 50 empty bullet shells. The bread maker was taken to a hospital. A shopkeeper, Khurram, told Dawn that the victim had gone to a Tandoor to purchase Naan when two persons started indiscriminate fire. “The attackers emptied their weapons and also confirmed the death of Mr Haqqani before leaving.” Another shopkeeper of the area said bloodstains remained in the market till late in the evening when some policemen cleaned the place.
JI terms army’s reaction interference in politics By Khalid Hasnain LAHORE, Nov 11: Jamaat-i-Islami termed on Monday the army’s reaction to its chief Syed Munawar Hassan’s statement a direct intervention in the country’s politics and said groups with “certain objectives” and a specific mindset were trying to ignore important issues and demands of national interest through secondary debates. . On Sunday, the Inter-Services Public Relations condemned the JI chief’s recent statement in which he had expressed doubts about martyrdom of thousands of army and security personnel who have sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorists. “If an American is not a martyr, then how a person who helps and supports him (American) can be called a martyr,” he is reported to have said in a TV programme. He described Hakeemullah Mehsud, the ruthless Taliban leader killed in a US drone attack, as martyr. “In a high-profile meeting of our party, the participants were of the view that the army has no right to directly intervene in the country’s politics and democratic issues. The JI will never tolerate such military interventions,” Secretary General Liaquat Baloch said at a press conference at Mansoora, also attended by senior party leaders, including Naib Amir Sirajul Haq. The JI chief did not attend the news conference, although he presided over the meeting. Mr Baloch did not take media questions. “Why the army ignored JI’s resolutions and the party chief’s policy statements which condemned the tragic incidents of Salala Post and Upper Dir and paid tribute to the martyrs. Through such resolutions and statements, the JI acknowledged and paid tribute to the sacrifices of army officers and Jawans, besides appreciating the role of the armed forces in the country’s defence,” he added. Mr Baloch alleged that since it was time to discuss and accept the demand for closing Nato supplies and stopping drone attacks, the people with certain mindset were trying to divert the nation’s attention to non-issues. He said JI leaders were of the opinion that the country must be pulled out of the US war immediately because it was a continuation of the policy of military dictator Pervez Musharraf. He said the JI would continue its struggle to free Pakistan from US slavery and safeguard the country’s ideological and geographical boundaries. “The JI also plans to intimate the government in this regard.” Jamaat’s central leader Dr Farid Piracha told Dawn after the meeting that the party had issued its policy statement and considered Mr Hassan’s statement as his personal opinion. Earlier, a JI leader told Dawn that Mr Hassan would not speak to the media for the next couple of days because of sensitivity of the issue. Asked if the party had stopped him from doing so, the leader said: “No. But he (Mr Hassan) will not speak to the media on this or any other issue for the next couple of days.”
Plan for Taliban talks shelved for now: Nisar By Raja Asghar ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: The National Assembly heard on Monday the government virtually shelving, for now, its plan to revive a disrupted peace effort with Taliban insurgents, ending a heated six-day debate without even endorsing a previous mandate in this regard given by an all-party conference.. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan succeeded in soothing angry opposition lawmakers, so they came to the sitting without their condition of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s presence being met, but he appeared helpless on another key issue, saying no dialogue could make headway until the United States stopped drone strikes at suspected militant hideouts in the tribal belt. He repeated his argument that a dialogue process initiated by the government as mandated by the Sept 9 APC had been “sabotaged” by a Nov 1 drone strike that killed the fugitive Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud. He said he had told leaders of parliamentary parties earlier in the day that “we have to review the situation for the next three to four weeks” before deciding what to do next. Although he assured the house that “we have to pick up the pieces” in the face of what he called “broken paths”, he spoke of no remedy for drone attacks, which a government ally, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leader Mehmood Achakzai, bluntly said were “beyond our power to stop” without an agreement among Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. Even an earlier threat by Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, to retaliate against the drone attacks by blocking Nato supplies passing through the PTI-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Nov 20 seemed to have become toothless as he told the house that his party would instead hold a “historic” protest against Nato supplies on that date, possibly in Peshawar. The opposition parties had threatened on Friday that they would not attend the session on Monday if the prime minister did not come to the house to brief them about the situation after they felt frustrated with the interior minister who had left for a trip to the earthquake-hit Awaran district of Balochistan and Karachi with Mr Sharif instead of giving a promised winding up speech. But they came back when the house started its sitting after a 105-minute delay, with Chaudhry Nisar regretting his Friday’s absence on the plea that he thought he would be required to wind up the debate on Monday. Yet, some opposition lawmakers demanded that the prime minister come to the house, possibly on the last day of the session on Tuesday. Unlike other parliamentary party leaders, Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah of the PPP refrained from responding to the minister’s long speech, which rejected allegations of delaying the APC-mandated process by recounting problems in what he called building “a foundation brick by brick” before it was “shattered” by the drone attack a day before three emissaries were to fly to the area to contact the Taliban leadership. “There can be no headway in the next few days,” he said, referring to a “strong reaction from the other side” and the appointment of a new hard-line Taliban leader, Mullah Fazlullah. He added: “It takes two hands to clap and not when there is talk of ‘dialogue, dialogue’ from this side and ‘refusal, refusal’ from there.” Chaudhry Nisar referred to a “wide consensus” of all political parties on the need to continue the dialogue process, that drone attacks should stop and that whatever was decided should be unanimous, but his meeting with party leaders decided against passing a resolution in the face of several drafts. However, Imran Khan complained of finding a “divided nation” after the APC consensus, although he invited all parties to join the PTI’s Nov 20 protest. Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman called for continuing peace efforts and making new approaches to Taliban ranks to break the present deadlock, saying it was the test of politics to find “a way out if the path has been blocked by thorns, water or rocks”.
Prime minister to be briefed at GHQ today By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will visit the General Headquarters on Tuesday to get a briefing from the top military leadership on the current security situation in the country. . A brief official handout issued on Monday said Mr Sharif would first lay a floral wreath at the memorial of martyrs and then hold a meeting with the outgoing Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. It will be followed by a detailed briefing. Although the media wing of the Prime Minister’s Office has downplayed the meeting, close watchers say many pressing issues, including talks with the Taliban and appointment of a new army chief and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee — the post currently held by Gen Kayani after the retirement of Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne in the first week of October — will come under discussion. Prime Minister Sharif has said before and after his election that the next army chief will be appointed on merit and the most senior general will get the charge. Haroon Aslam is the most senior general after Gen Kayani. But despite Gen Kayani’s announcement that he would not seek another extension, observers believe, the prime minister’s apparent foot-dragging on the announcement of next COAS means he is keeping his options open. Information Minister Senator Pervez Rashid, who is also spokesman for the prime minister, recently said the announcement for next army chief would be made on Nov 28, the day General Kayani retires. He dropped no hint as to who would be the next army chief and only said the decision would be taken in the best interest of the country. “Prime Minister Sharif may have made up his mind about the future army chief, but his visit to the GHQ at this time will be keenly watched because he will get first-hand information about the entire top brass of the military,” a government official said. Besides getting input from the retiring army chief, Mr Sharif would also use his own judgment in choosing the next COAS and probably this visit was meant for this very purpose, the official added. Taliban talks: The prime minister will also be briefed by the military leadership on the pros and cons of contacting new TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah, a sworn enemy of the army. Following the TTP’s latest threat to carry out attacks on the military and government installations and functionaries, the government is virtually in a bind as far as the proposed peace talks with the Taliban are concerned. Although in his speech in the National Assembly on Monday Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan linked the resumption of peace talks to the halting of drone attacks by the Americans, the military establishment wouldn’t be feeling comfortable with the government’s contact with Fazlullah.
ECP expresses inability to hold polls even on Dec 7 By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: While the Supreme Court referred to the Election Commission of Pakistan on Monday a Sindh government’s request for a 10-day extension in the schedule which had set Nov 27 for local government elections in the province, the commission pleaded that it would not be possible to hold the polls even if the date was extended. . “Even the extended date as requested by Sindh will not help in holding the elections in the province because procurement of paper and printing of ballot papers will not be possible even during the extended period,” the ECP said in a concise statement. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry referred a review petition filed by the Sindh government on Saturday to the ECP and asked it to accommodate the request and, if convenient, extend the polling day to Dec 7 -- the date set for polls in Punjab and Balochistan. During the hearing, Sindh’s Advocate General Khalid Javed explained that all activities otherwise necessary for holding the elections had to be suspended because of some logistic problems coupled with two Muharram holidays on Nov 14 and 15. Moreover, he said, a delegation of the Shia community and other major stakeholders had met Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and expressed concern over holding the elections in haste and called for extending the poll schedule. Despite their request, Mr Javed said, the Sindh government reiterated its commitment to holding the polls in compliance with the apex court’s order. The court said in its order that polling dates were to be fixed by the ECP and observed that the provincial governments were bound under the constitution to hold elections for establishing the local government system and devolving political, administrative and financial responsibilities and authority to the elected representatives. APPLICATION: Advocate Akram Sheikh, representing the ECP, drew the court’s attention to the commission’s concise statement seeking postponement of the LG elections. But the apex court excused itself from hearing the application because it was not before it at the moment. In its application, the commission had requested the court to allow it to make necessary arrangements to meet the requirement for holding elections in Punjab and Sindh, and then fix a date or dates in consultation with the provincial governments. “It is important that mandate should be discharged in a manner which inspires confidence, transparency and fair play,” it said, adding that Article 218(3) of the Constitution called upon the ECP to ensure that elections were conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with the law and guarding against corrupt practices. The commission explained that representative institutions and other segments of public opinion had opposed the option of getting ballot papers printed by private presses. The Printing Corporation of Pakistan press was not in a position to print within the deadline a large quantity of ballot papers -- 110 million in three days for Sindh and 300 million in two weeks for Punjab, it added. The commission argued that the involvement of private printing presses would make the entire process controversial and erode credibility of the elections. The application pointed out a number of changes needed to be made in different laws and said the constitution required every Muslim candidate to give a declaration in nomination papers about absolute finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH), but this column had not been provided in the prescribed nomination form in the Punjab Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules 2013. Therefore, a change is required in the forms. Similarly, the ECP said, the election schedule issued for Punjab envisaged the holding of polls on non-party basis, but the Lahore High Court had recently declared it void. The commission said the printing of ballot papers would be undertaken after the issuance of final list of candidates by returning officers on Nov 23, whereas the Printing Corporation of Pakistan press had yet to get exemption from PPRA rules to procure paper through direct contracting. Besides, it also expressed its inability to print more than 0.7 million ballot papers a day. “This means they roughly need about four months to print the required quantity of ballot papers after the procurement of paper” the application said. Similarly, it added, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories (PCSIR) had been requested to provide 1.5 million magnetised inkpads for Punjab and one million for Sindh, but the existing capacity of its lab to produce and supply the inkpads was a maximum of 600,000 and indelible ink 400,000 vials per month. The PCSIR also said that it would need three to four months to supply 2.5 million magnetised inkpads to the two provinces. “The continuation of the delimitation exercise is also affecting the appointment of returning officers and assistant returning officers and changes are being proposed on a daily basis not only in their number but also in their respective jurisdictions where they are supposed to conduct the elections,” the ECP said.
Sartaj Aziz stresses equitable growth By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Pakistan on Monday spelt out its priorities for economic development to a summit of Asian and European foreign ministers, and underscored equitable growth in which the country’s minorities together with other vulnerable segments of society would remain in focus.. Addressing the foreign ministers of the 51-nation club here meeting for a two-day conference, Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, said there was a divergence and convergence in the stress laid by the developed and developing member countries towards the future. “The developed world is focused on sustained and eco-friendly economic growth; the developing world is striving to promote productive capacity employment and decent work. The common denominator for both the regions, however, is inclusive, sustainable and equitable economic growth at all levels,” Mr Aziz said. He lauded India for bringing innovative ideas to the club and for showing “a vigorous way forward”. He did not spell out what these ideas were. “There is no gainsaying the fact that business-as-usual is no longer an option. We need to improve, if not reset, our economic models to achieve these goals,” Mr Aziz said. He said that among the important development challenges of the future for Pakistan was that of employment, specially the employment of younger workers. He broadly made the following points: Two-thirds of Pakistan’s population of 185 million, for example, is under the age of 30. The labour force grows at 3 per cent annually. Like other developing ASEM partners, Pakistan faces the formidable task of creating jobs and decent working conditions in the face of multiple global crises. “We are pursuing reforms which include: improved governance; better economic management; investing in human capital; bringing the poor and vulnerable into the mainstream of development and; focusing on empowerment of women, minorities, youth and the disabled,” Mr Aziz said. Pakistan was aiming to create 1.5 million new jobs a year through accelerated growth – from 4 at present to over 6pc in the next 5 years. “But our efforts will not go very far, if the global environment does not become more favourable,” he warned. The global economy is affected by uncertainty resulting from recessionary and turbulent trends in regional and international markets. “The ongoing world financial and economic crisis, and its impact on developing countries underscores the importance of a collective response to address systemic fragilities and imbalances inherent in the international financial and trading systems to improve liquidity for developing counties and to generate the sustained growth and employment,” he said. Mr Aziz is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khursheed on Tuesday.
Curfew in Miramshah after attack on post By Our Correspondent MIRAMSHAH, Nov 11: Security forces resorted to heavy shelling following an attack on a checkpost in Miramshah on Sunday night, local people said.. They said several shells hit residential compounds, partially damaging houses surrounding Miramshah. Officials said security forces took the retaliatory action after miscreants fired at Amin checkpost. Heavy exchange of fire continued for over an hour. No casualty was reported. On Monday, authorities imposed a curfew in North Waziristan Agency to provide protection to a military convoy. An improvised explosive device planted along the road at Karamkot in Mirali Tehsil was defused. Helicopter gunships kept flying over the convoy. A large number of people were stranded in Bannu because of curfew. Witnesses said security personnel fired at two men, identified as Sajidullah and Inamullah Khan, who were working in their fields. Both were injured and taken to hospital in Mirali.
Ban likely on export of tomato, onion for a few weeks By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: The government is considering to ban exports of onion and tomato to end sharp increases in their prices. . Sources told Dawn on Tuesday that a formal decision to impose the ban for a few weeks was expected to be taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet to be presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday. The ECC is also expected to approve a transaction advisory services agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project and order an energy efficiency audit of captive power plants and boilers for natural gas allocation. The price of tomato has jumped to over Rs120 per kg from Rs80 because of late arrival from Sindh and Punjab and restricted supplies from India through Wagah land route. Tomato produced only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is available in the market, but most of the crop is making its way out of the country. The price of onion has also risen by 15-20 per cent. The unusual increase in prices of vegetables not only echoed in the Supreme Court but also came under discussion in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Ahmad Shah complained about the shortage of vegetables and their high prices in Sindh, particularly Hyderabad and adjoining areas. A federal minister told Dawn that the proposal to ban the export of vegetables had also come under discussion at a previous ECC meeting, but no decision was taken because of divergent views over the interest of growers and associated political angle. He said consumers in Sindh and Punjab were particularly suffering because of late arrival of crop in the market, but it was a rare opportunity for growers in the conflict-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to earn higher return on their cash crops. Since the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is ruling the province, he added, it could become a political issue and, therefore, the federal government would have to create a balance between the interest of growers and consumers. The problem can be solved only through a time-bound ban on exports. The minister said vegetables from Sindh and Punjab would start arriving in the market later this month which would ease pressure on retail prices, adding that a stopgap arrangement was required to provide relief to the consumers. An official said the petroleum ministry had requested the ECC to approve the transaction advisory services agreement with the ADB for the TAPI pipeline to kick-start the process for project structuring and financing arrangements. Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and India have already cleared the appointment of ADB as project adviser and it requires a go-ahead from Pakistan to formalise the agreement. The ADB has already been advising the participating nations on the $7.5 billion trans-boundary pipeline project and is likely to be its lead financier under its regional energy cooperation initiative. The ECC is also expected to approve a concessionary gas sale price for Engro Fertiliser Limited in accordance with its gas sale agreement with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited. It will also take up the issue of transfer of Engro Corporation’s investment in Engro Foods Netherlands B.V. to Engro Foods Pakistan at the request of the finance ministry. The ECC would be briefed on the latest economic indicators, incidental charges on import of urea and portfolio investment in the country.
Sharif terms martyrs ‘our benefactors’ ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: It was Benazir Bhutto who had famously said ‘democracy is the best revenge’ — the words later became her party’s slogan — but it was Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who visited the General Headquarters (GHQ) and felt the benefit of democracy as he received a guard of honour there on Tuesday. . Mr Sharif was booted out of power in October 1999 by the then generals, headed by former president Gen Pervez Musharraf. As a third-time prime minister, it was his first visit to the seat of military power in Rawalpindi. The prime minister placed floral wreath at the Martyrs Monument and prayed for them. Wearing a black suit and maroon necktie on a bright sunny day, PM Sharif was received by the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, at the military headquarters. According to the media wing of the Prime Minister’s Office, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi accompanied the prime minister. Although the visit was planned earlier, it coincided with the army’s strong reaction to a statement of Jamaat-i-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hassan that slain Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud was martyr, an honour which he doubted could be given to personnel of the army for joining hands with the Americans in the fight against terror. Understanding the sensitivity of the ongoing controversy for the military commanders, PM Sharif said: “Those who have fought for Pakistan, Ghazi (living) and Shaheed (martyred), have sacrificed their today for ensuring a better tomorrow for our future generations and all of them are our benefactors.” He said the nation held the army in the highest esteem as it had always shown professional excellence in times of war and peace. “It is this passion and high morale that is the biggest strength of our forces. Those who have laid down their lives in the fight against terrorism would be remembered forever.” The prime minister said every soldier of the Pakistan Army entered the battlefield with a passion to sacrifice his life for the country and with a desire for martyrdom. Rightly so, the PM also didn’t miss the opportunity to underline the importance of democracy to the country. He said Pakistan was a democratic and peace-loving country and wanted proliferation of stability in the world. “The people of Pakistan repose complete trust in democracy and believe that strong defence and stable democracy are essential for the country,” he said, making a clear reference to the win of his party in the general elections. The chief of army staff and principal staff officers briefed the prime minister on the operational environment, spectrum of threat, national security issues, contributions of the army in nation building and support to civil administration in law and order situations and natural calamities, a handout said. He was also apprised of engagements of army battalions in border areas and the level of preparedness against external and internal threats. After the briefing, the prime minister visited various sections of the GHQ and expressed satisfaction over their performance. However, the press release didn’t say anything about whether the proposal for talks with Taliban came under discussion. Neither did it mention anything on the appointment of the new army chief as Gen Kayani is retiring on Nov 28. Had it been a courtesy call, Mr Sharif wouldn’t have taken his aides along with him to the GHQ. For sure, he wanted to have firsthand information about the prospective army chief and the army’s input over contacts with the TTP after the banned group has been taken over by Maulvi Fazlullah, argued an official. He said the prime minister had a good time at the GHQ and had a frank discussion in a friendly and cosy ambience. BRITISH SECRETARY: Talking to a delegation headed by the British Secretary of State for Defence, Philip Hammonds, Nawaz Sharif emphasised the need to increase cooperation between the defence forces of the two countries. Both sides agreed to enhance the level of cooperation in counter-terrorism measures. The post-withdrawal Afghanistan scenarios also came under discussion. The prime minister said Pakistan wanted a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. He thanked the British government for supporting Pakistan’s case for a preferential trade status.
No two opinions on martyrdom: JI By Our Staff Reporter LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami secretary general Liaquat Baloch says there is no difference of opinion on the issue of martyrdom of civilians and personnel of security forces in the ‘war on terror’. . “There are no two opinions on the issue of martyrdom of the military personnel,” he said while replying to journalists’ questions after a seminar at the JI’s headquarters on Tuesday. He said that when a political and democratic government was functioning in the country, the armed forces and their public relations wing ISPR had no right to serve a notice on the head of a political party or to issue a press release. This act, he added, was a violation of the constitution. “If the army had any concern over the issue it should have taken up the matter with the Ministry of Defence rather than directly seeking an explanation from the JI chief.” Mr Baloch said the JI had not written any letter so far to the government or the prime minister against the ISPR press release. He said the US was trying to provide a legal cover to drone attacks despite being aware of the Pakistani nation’s unanimous demand for ending them. He said former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, who had surrendered to the United States on a phone call, was responsible for the entire situation. Mr Baloch said the political and religious parties had a right to criticise his party. The nation was aware of its views about the armed forces and their institutions, he said. “The JI had consistently maintained that the US was at war with Islam and the Muslims after 9/11 and it was not lawful for any Muslim country to support this war in any way. The JI had consistently held this view and time and developments have vindicated its stance,” he said. Mr Baloch said the JI was firm on its principled stance and would not yield to pressure. The rulers, he said, had chosen a wrong path which had led to dreadful results for the nation. It is the time for the policy-makers to review their policies that have ruined the country and the nation. He said the whole scenario would change if the government stopped the Nato supplies and drone attacks.
No takers for increasing judges’ retirement age ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: There were no takers in the National Assembly on Tuesday for a private constitution amendment bill seeking to increase the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to 67 years from 65. . The bill, widely seen as linked to the retirement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Dec 11, was sought to be introduced by Jamshaid Ahmad Dasti, a volatile independent house member from south Punjab and a former PPP turncoat. On an objection raised by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, the house refused to grant Mr Dasti leave to introduce the bill and Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq even disallowed the member to explain the objects of the draft. Mr Dasti was spared possible disqualification as member of the previous National Assembly on the allegation of possessing a fake academic degree as a court bench allowed him to resign from his seat and contest for it again, which he did successfully. His bill had no chance of materialising or benefiting the chief justice because an amendment to the constitution needs for its passage support of two-thirds majorities of the total membership in both the 342-seat National Assembly and the 104-seat Senate.—Raja Asghar
NA’s 2nd challenge to hurried LG polls By Raja Asghar ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: Soon after suffering its first legislative defeat in the present National Assembly on Tuesday, the government joined hands with the opposition to pose a second challenge to hurried local government elections on Supreme Court’s orders. . The demand, in a unanimous resolution, to fix a new “practical date” for the elections in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan – while a schedule for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is yet to be announced – was made to the Election Commission of Pakistan, but the swipe was indirectly directed at the Supreme Court on whose orders the ECP issued the controversial schedules. But, despite the sound and fury in the house, including complaints of “stubbornness” in one institution encroaching upon the domain of others, and assertions of the concept of supremacy of parliament over all other institutions in the country, questions were asked about how to force the implementation of this as well as another unanimously adopted house resolution of Thursday on the same issue if they were ignored either by the ECP or the Supreme Court. The new resolution, which followed a fiery speech by Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah of the PPP talking of the present government making the life of people miserable and of judicial “stubbornness” that he said could destroy an institution, came the day the ECP found its petition seeking permission to extend the election schedules returned by the SC registrar as being not worth entertaining -- on the ground that the main petition had been disposed of earlier by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The ECP, which had expressed inability to hold the elections under the present schedules, has vowed to file a new petition next week. The four-paragraph text, voted upon before the house was prorogued after a nine-day session, said the house was “fully conscious of the imperative” to hold local government elections, and -- as if to emphasise a perceived lack of scope for the apex court to intervene in matters like election schedules --demanded that the ECP carry out its functions “as stated in Article 140A (2) of the Constitution” and hold the elections “in a fair, free and transparent manner as soon as possible”. And it added: “This house reiterates that elections carried out in haste will violate the above article.” The main Article 140A says that “each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments”, while its sub-clause (2), inserted through the Eighteenth Amendment, says: “Elections to the local governments shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.” Calling for new schedules to allow for more time needed to complete jobs like delimitation of constitutions and printing of millions of ballot papers by the state-run Printing Corporation of Pakistan, the resolution, signed by the representatives of all parliamentary parties in the house, demanded that the ECP “fix a practical date after ensuring that all legal and administrative arrangements are in place in the entire country”. Mr Khursheed Shah, apparently referring to the judiciary, called for refraining from taking decisions that can “destroy institutions” and said: “This house appeals that don’t destroy this institution with stubbornness. This is clear it is stubbornness.” From the government side, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said some way out would have to found and, while speaking of the danger of contempt of court, quoted a line from the poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor of undivided India: “Baat karni mujay mushkal kabhi aisi to na thi” (it has never been so difficult to talk). And one ruling PML-N back-bencher, Shaikh Rohale Asghar, asked for how long this house would continue tolerating insults with the disregard to its supremacy and said: “Refusal to accept this resolution would mean a refusal (to accept) your existence”. A government ally and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai said that while the lawmakers did not seek a “clash of institutions”, this resolution “has the position of an order to the Election Commission”. GOVT OUTNUMBERED: Earlier, the treasury benches, hit by absenteeism, found themselves outnumbered by the opposition when, after formal objection from Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, they failed to stop the introduction of an amendment to the house rules of procedure tabled by eight members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. While more members stood up in their seats to support the amendment than were present on the government benches, Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq avoided to announce the count result, conceding the ruling party’s first legislative defeat in the present house without ordering a count of the move’s opponents. However, a face-saving was found by referring the amendment -- seeking to curtail the period to two months from six months for government divisions to inform the house about matters of privilege referred to them -- to the concerned standing committee of the house. The house allowed the introduction of three other ordinary private bills and their reference to standing committees concerned for consideration. One bill introduced by Shirin Mazari of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf seeks to provide for parliamentary approval of all treaties signed by the government with other countries. Another bill, authored by S.A. Iqbal Quadri and six other MQM members, seeks amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide for up to seven years’ imprisonment and fine for an SHO of a police station refusing or delaying the registration of an FIR of a crime. Another bill of seven MMQM members seeks to amend the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal Act of 1992 to provide bearing expenses of medical treatment of poor citizens for fatal diseases like cancer, hepatitis-C, heart disease, renal failure, cirrhosis, etc. SPARROWS: It was during a discussion on a private member’s resolution seeking government steps to alleviate poverty that the last day of the session saw what the speaker said were two sparrows, or “strangers in the house”, which somehow sneaked into chamber -- but signalled no spring in early winter. One of the birds, dark brown with a black tail, even came to the press gallery and sat on a fence for a moment before flying down to the far end of the ruling party back benches. While somebody from the house cried “drones in the house”, the speaker informed the house that his staff had been trying to drive out the two birds since morning but without a success. However, he jokingly remarked that “we have sought army help”, which he said would make a successful job.
ECP to approach SC again after rejection of appeal by registrar By Iftikhar A. Khan ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: The Election Commission of Pakistan has decided to approach the Supreme Court again after the SC registrar rejected on Tuesday its application seeking postponement of local government elections in Punjab and Sindh. . The registrar contended that the ECP’s concise statement could not be entertained because the constitutional petition No 77/2010 had already been disposed of with an order on Nov 5. A senior official of the ECP told Dawn that the commission would approach the apex court again. He said the commission would either challenge the registrar’s decision or file a review petition against the court’s Nov 5 order which had asked the commission to hold elections on the dates announced by the provinces. The official said the ECP would soon take a decision on one of the two options and approach the court after 10th of Muharram. He said there were 24,000 candidates in the general elections whereas 22,000 people were contesting the LG polls in Balochistan alone. The intending candidates were facing numerous problems in obtaining and submitting nomination papers and the ECP was receiving a large number of complaints in this regard, he added. The official recalled that the date for filing nomination papers had to be extended by two days in the general elections. He said the people contesting LG elections in Punjab and Sindh had earlier been given only two days to file papers, but the date was now extended to Wednesday (today). But he said the extension too was not sufficient. Referring to other challenges, the official said the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) had expressed its inability to print the required number of ballot papers within the given deadline. Similarly, he said, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research had expressed its inability to provide over 2.2 million magnetised inkpads. The official said delimitation of union councils was still in progress in Sindh, adding that the provincial government was continuously making changes in local areas after hearing appeals. He was of the opinion that many laws and rules would have to be violated if attempts are made to hold the polls on the dates announced by the provinces without consulting the ECP and completing the ground work. He said that under the law the commission could undertake the exercise only after completion of prerequisites, including delimitation and removal of flaws in local government laws, but it had to announce the schedule to abide by the apex court’s orders. The official said the Supreme Court should take into consideration the ground realities and give the ECP proper time to hold credible elections. Otherwise, he added, billions of rupees would be wasted on what could be termed “the most flawed LG polls ever held in the country”.
Iran pipeline contractual obligation, US told By Anwar Iqbal WASHINGTON, Nov 12: As top US and Pakistani officials met here on Tuesday to consider plans for helping Islamabad overcome its energy crisis, Pakistan reminded the Obama administration that it was under “contractual obligations” to complete the Iran gas pipeline project.. Talking to Dawn, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif expressed the hope that improved relations between the United States and Iran would also ease American pressures on this issue. Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Pakistan was seeking new technology and investments from the United States to meet its ever increasing energy demands. Earlier, top US and Pakistani officials and investors began a day-long meeting at Washington’s US Institute for Peace to discuss various proposals for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the energy sector. “Building the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is our contractual liability,” said Khawaja Asif while explaining his government’s position on the controversial project. “If we do not, we will have to pay the penalty for breaching the contract.” Without naming the US administration, the minister said that those who wanted Pakistan not to build the project “should be ready to pay the fines”. A US law requires the Obama administration to oppose major foreign investments in Iran’s oil and gas industry. Those who breach the restrictions can face US sanctions. Pakistan, however, insists that the pipeline project does not breach this law as Iran, and not foreign investors, were building the pipeline. Last week, the US and Iran came close to reducing their differences which, Mr Asif said, was a good sign for the pipeline project. The minister also said that Pakistan was committed to building both Dasu and Bhasha dams. “It is not either one or the other. We need both and we will build them with our resources if we do not get outside support,” he said. Officials who attended the meeting said delegates also considered a proposal for the integration of energy infrastructure in South Asia, which can bring gas and oil from energy-rich to energy-starved nations. This includes encouraging energy cooperation between India and Pakistan and building the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which, unlike the Iranian project, enjoys US support. Carlos Pascual, the US Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, the two visiting ministers from Pakistan and the US ambassador in Islamabad, Richard Olson, co-chaired Tuesday’s meeting. “The US and Pakistan have worked closely and on a sustained basis to better develop and diversify Pakistan’s energy sector, a key priority of the Pakistani government and people,” said a US official. “The US has supported increased energy generation, improved distribution, management, revenue collection, and policy reform,” he added. Other proposals discussed at the meeting include exploring alternate sources of energy and helping Pakistan develop its capabilities in those fields, including solar energy. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told Dawn that Pakistan was seeking technological cooperation from the US to tap its huge reserves of shale gas, which, he said, were the 9th largest in the world.
Aziz-Hurriyat meeting strains ties with India NEW DELHI, Nov 12: India and Pakistan seem to have settled for populist posturing until the Indian elections due next year are over. It became clear on Tuesday as Islamabad produced a glum statement on the meeting of their foreign ministers, and New Delhi slammed a largely pro-forma meeting between Sartaj Aziz and the Hurriyat leaders to berate it as counter-productive.. The belated compulsion for Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid to adopt a tough posture towards Sunday’s meeting here involving different factions of the Hurriyat and Pakistan’s foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz had at least two clear triggers. His own party hawks, led by Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, do not want to be accused of befriending Pakistan. Anything less would leave them open to the by now familiar vitriol of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of a slew of state polls shortly and the general elections next year. Consequently, if there was any progress in the meeting of the two foreign ministers their statements did not support the notion. “Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, today held a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in New Delhi,” said Pakistan’s statement. The saving grace was that the “meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. Both sides reviewed bilateral relations in a constructive and forward-looking manner”. Mr Khurshid addressed the media to cover his flanks after the talks. About the Aziz-Hurriyat meeting, Mr Khurshid said he did not want to give advice to his “colleague from across the border” but added that if Pakistan is serious about having a meaningful dialogue with India it would be necessary to respect “India’s sentiments, point of view and sensitivities of our country”. He was quoted as saying more. “This is not a dialogue that happens in isolation, this is a dialogue that is contextual and needs public support, and we think we have done a great deal to help the Pakistan government get the public support that it needs to be able to have a fair and transparent dialogue with India.” Mr Khurshid did not name the meeting per se, but said: “The events in recent times are not seen by us or indeed by anybody in India as encouraging events, I think they are counter-productive and I would imagine if there is any seriousness in desire to reach some point of situation in which a dialogue meaningfully can take place. Whatever be the end result of the dialogue, I think for a meaningful dialogue to take place conducive conditions have to be created, and it will have to be done by both sides, it cannot be only on one side.” “Some of these events have been somewhat counter-productive unfortunately,” Mr Khurshid said on the discussion with Mr Aziz on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting. The BJP had strongly protested the meeting and criticised the government for allowing it to take place. India also raised its concerns over heightened ceasefire violations and infiltration across the Line of Control with Pakistan during the talks. Earlier on Tuesday, Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde dismissed the BJP’s protests against the Hurriyat meeting, saying such meetings were taking place more regularly under the Vajpayee regime.
Call for contempt proceedings against Sharif By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: A former president of the Rawalpindi High Court Bar filed on Tuesday a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and some government officials for not complying with its order of prosecuting former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf for treason. . In his petition, Sheikh Ahsanuddin also sought a court order restraining Gen Musharraf from leaving the country till the conclusion of legal proceedings against him. Proceedings for committing contempt of court in respect of the July 3 order should be initiated against all respondents and, if found guilty, they should be punished under the law, the petition said. The Supreme Court had on July 3 wrapped up further proceedings on the petitions seeking trial of Gen Musharraf under treason charges while expressing confidence that the federal government would honour its undertaking of trying the former military ruler without unnecessary delay. The case was closed after Attorney General Muneer A. Malik had submitted a statement on June 26 and assured the court that the government would proceed in accordance with the law and prosecute Gen Musharraf after taking political forces into confidence. Other respondents in the petition filed by Mr Ahsanuddin are secretaries of the interior and law and the director general of Federal Investigation Agency. The petition said that only an inquiry committee/investigation team had been constituted by the government after the July 3 order, adding that the committee had not moved an inch and apparently no investigation was carried out because the petitioner, who is one of the complainants in the case, was never contacted in connection with the investigation, despite the lapse of four months. Similarly, it said, neither any special court to prosecute Gen Musharraf under Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitution had been constituted nor periodical reports sent to the Prime Minister’s Office by the FIA director general. The PM Office also did not take any step for implementing the court’s July 3 order. “Thus the respondents were deliberately and intentionally disobeying the direction of the apex court,” the petitioner said, alleging that they had lowered the prestige and dignity of the court in the eyes of the general public with mala fide intentions only to provide a safe exit to Gen Musharraf. “Thus all the respondents are guilty of committing the contempt of court, especially the prime minister who heads the government and is captain of his team comprising ministers, secretaries and heads of all departments,” the petition said, adding the prime minister should be conscious and aware of his duty in respect of court’s orders. In a related development, Chairman of the Communist Party of Pakistan Jameel Ahmad Malik filed in the Supreme Court a petition seeking immediate arrest of Gen Musharraf under high treason. The petitioner also requested the court to constitute a special bench to implement its order as was done in the National Reconciliation Ordinance case.
Options for cantonment poll under consideration By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: A week after the framing of contempt charges against Defence Secretary retired Lt Gen Asif Yasin Malik, the government indicated on Tuesday that it wanted local government elections in all the 43 cantonment boards in the country under the existing laws, instead of waiting for amending them. . Some progress had been made because the government was considering the first option suggested by the apex court at the last hearing, Additional Attorney General Shahkhawar told a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. But he hastened to add that he needed time to submit a written statement on the government’s point of view. The cantonment boards have been without public representation for 14 years. On Nov 5, the court had suggested to the government to hold the elections under the existing laws or consider restoring Section 15e of the Cantonment Board Act, 1924, that envisaged revival of the bodies dissolved after completing their tenure. The court had indicted the secretary on contempt charges for not honouring his undertaking of holding the elections in the cantonments by Sept 15 with a caution to the government about examining Section 15e in case of its failure to make any headway on the matter in seven days. The court had hinted at examining under which authority expenditures were being incurred from the funds meant for the cantonment boards. If no satisfactory explanation was offered, the court would be free to protect the rights of the general public by issuing an appropriate order, it had said. “The government has no option but to honour the command of Article 140A of the Constitution by establishing the local government system to devolve political, administrative and financial responsibilities and authority to the elected representatives.” A senior counsel told Dawn that the government would still need an amendment to the laws because the elections would have to be organised by the Election Commission. Since the National Assembly session had been prorogued, he said, an ordinance might be promulgated to address the issue. On Sept 23, Attorney General Muneer A. Malik had told the court that the government was contemplating some amendments to the Cantonments Local Government (Elections) Ordinance, 2002, by incorporating qualifications and disqualifications for the councillors. The law envisages a 25-member board with the station commander acting as its president and nominating half of the members. Only half of the members are to be elected. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not happy with the composition and had described the elections to the cantonment boards meaningless in the presence of the 50 per cent nominated members. He expressed the desire for a new regime and the matter was referred to a special 12-member committee of the cabinet headed by Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid. The committee has finalised its recommendations but the summary is pending for approval of the prime minister. The court postponed further proceedings till Nov 20.
SHC hears Musharraf’s Dubai plea By Tahir Siddiqui KARACHI, Nov 12: The Sindh High Court issued notice on Tuesday to the federal law officer, the chief provincial law officer and prosecutor general, asking them to submit their comments on an application filed by retired Gen Pervez Musharraf seeking removal of restrictions on his travel abroad because he wanted to see his ailing mother in Dubai. . A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, heard the application filed by the former president, praying to the court to modify its earlier order restraining him from leaving the country without permission of the trial courts. The applicant’s counsel, Advocate A.Q. Halepota, submitted that Mr Musharraf had appeared on March 29 before an SHC division bench and requested for a 21-day transitory bail for enabling him to surrender before the trial courts in cases pertaining to the killing of Akbar Bugti and Benazir Bhutto. The court extended his bail for 21 days with the condition that he would not leave the country without permission of the trial courts and his name was placed on the Exit Control List. Advocate Halepota said the trial courts had confirmed Musharraf’s bail in both cases. He said the former army chief had also been granted bail in a case relating to murder of Lal Masjid cleric Ghazi Abdul Rasheed during an army operation in 2007. The counsel said Gen Musharraf wanted to see his 95-year-old mother who was seriously ill in Dubai. The lawyer said it was the uppermost desire of Gen Musharraf to be with his mother after his release on bail. He said placing the name on the ECL was a violation of fundamental rights and prayed to the court to modify its earlier order in this regard. After hearing initial arguments, the SHC issued notice to the deputy attorney general and the Sindh advocate general and prosecutor general to file comments by Nov 18. On March 22, the high court had granted protective bail to the retired general in three high-profile cases in which he was facing arrest warrants. Then chief justice Mushir Alam granted him protective bail for 10 days in the case of ‘illegal confinement’ of 62 judges after declaring a state of emergency on Nov 3, 2007. The same day, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah granted protective bail to him for two weeks in the Benazir and Bugti cases, in which he was facing non-bailable arrest warrants. Gen Musharraf’s daughter Ayla Raza had filed a constitutional petition on behalf of her father to seek protective bail so that he could appear in court to defend himself. On March 29, the two benches accepted the 69-year-old former ruler’s request for extension of the bail in the three cases. However, he was barred from leaving the country without the trial courts’ permission by the SHC. A shoe was hurled at him during the appearance -- the second time in two years.
20 injured in blasts near Imambargahs in Karachi By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Nov 13: Three bomb and grenade attacks near Imambargahs in North Nazimabad and North Karachi on Wednesday night left about 20 people injured. The attacks sowed fear in the city on the eve of Ashura processions that have drawn tight security measures across the metropolis. . The injured included policemen, Rangers personnel and media persons. Officials believed that the attacks took place in ‘sensitive’ areas and were aimed at creating disturbances. Two men were wounded when a small improvised explosive device (IED) went off in Pahar Ganj area and over 15 others suffered injuries in another blast not very far away. “The first explosion occurred at the shrine of Abul Fazal,” said DIG West Javed Alam Odho. The shrine was closed at the time of the attack. An Imambargah is located in the area. The injured were identified as Aftab Hussain, 20, son of the shrine’s caretaker Khalid Hussain, and Naveed Mohammed, 22. Aftab suffered multiple and serious injuries on his back, according to additional police surgeon, Dr Abdul Haq. Bomb disposal expert Abid Farrukh said an IED -- weighing 500 grams, containing ball bearings and wrapped in a shopper -- had been attached to the wall of the shrine and detonated through remote control. The wall collapsed, a car was destroyed and two other vehicles were damaged. After an hour, another blast occurred at a distance of around 50 yards from the shrine, leaving a policeman with critical head injuries. Two Rangers personnel, a policeman and some media persons and other people received minor injuries, said the DIG. He said the second explosion took place in a heap of garbage.The injured were taken to hospital. They were identified as CNBC reporter Khizruddin, CNBC photographer Syed Shariq Hussain, Waqt TV reporter Raza Abdi, policemen Faheem Iqbal and Zahid Hameed, Mohammed Ali, Samar Zaidi, Khalid Raza, Rasheed Mehboob, Faisal Ejaz, Nadeem Qasim, Farid Qadir, Nawaz Ali, Naseem Ahmed and Danish Shabbir. In the third incident, a grenade was hurled at a police check-post near an Imambargah in North Karachi after a Majils had ended. According to SSP Central, Amir Farooqi, two men on a motorcycle hurled a ‘cracker resembling a tennis ball’ at the check-post, injuring policemen Mushtaq and Yusuf.
PTI shows the door to QWP By Intikhab Amir PESHAWAR, Nov 13: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan ended his party’s alliance with the Qaumi Watan Party after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak ‘dismissed’ two QWP ministers on Wednesday on corruption charges.. “PTI chairman Imran Khan today issued a strong advisory to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM to pull out of the coalition with the QWP,” a press release issued by PTI’s central media cell said. “Today, two of their ministers were dismissed by the CM,” it added. In a rejoinder, QWP leaders said their provincial chief, Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, would present at a press conference on Thursday documentary evidence about PTI ministers’ “misdeeds and corruption”. “Sherpao will divulge details of how the CM got 165 persons appointed in the Workers Welfare Board and how Imran Khan requested him to transfer an engineer to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Organisation,” a QWP spokesman said. The two QWP ministers expelled from the provincial cabinet were Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain. The former held the ministry of industries, commerce and labour, while the latter was the environment minister. The QWP was the first among the smaller parliamentary groups in the provincial assembly that had consented, after being contacted by Mr Khattak, to support his party in forming the coalition government after it emerged as the largest party in the province. By virtue of Mr Khan’s decision, it also happens to be the first party that has been shown the door by the PTI. The PTI press release did not mention the details of corruption on the basis of which the action had been taken against the ministers. QWP spokesman Tariq Khan termed the move ‘politically motivated’ and without justification. He said the QWP had taken an independent course on the question of disrupting Nato supplies, going against the PTI’s ‘extreme and extra-constitutional move’. “You just can’t take action against somebody by levelling verbal accusations. We have never been provided any concrete evidence against any of our representatives in the provincial cabinet,” he said. Had they shared documentary evidence with the QWP leaders, the party would have taken stern action against them, he said. However, according to the PTI: “Mr Khan said the QWP was given two warnings about the corruption of two of their ministers, but this party chose to tolerate corruption and instead showed its displeasure at the corruption being pointed out by boycotting provincial cabinet meetings.” Talking to Dawn, Ibrar Hussain said they had never been informed about the charges against him or his other colleague. “We held a meeting with Sikandar Sherpao after electronic media reported our expulsion, following which we contacted the CM who denied that he had issued the notification,” Mr Hussain said. Peshawar experienced a political drama during which PTI’s local leaders appeared elusive and QWP leaders adamant to confirm the expulsion of their ministers. “I am not authorised to speak on this matter,” the chief minister’s spokesman Shiraz Paracha said. The dust cleared only after the PTI media cell issued the party chief’s press release announcing the end of the alliance with the QWP. The Qaumi Watan Party has a 10-member parliamentary group in the provincial assembly. NUMBERS GAME: The move will result in the coalition’s numerical strength going down to 68 members in the house of 124. Among the coalition partners, the PTI has 53 members in the assembly, Jamaat-i-Islami eight, Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan five, while two independent MPAs are supporting the government. “We are quite comfortable even after QWP’s departure,” a PTI leader said. He denied that any provincial minister belonging to his party was involved in corruption. Action against some ministers was being anticipated for the past few days. The PTI chief had said at a press conference in Nowshera last week that action would be taken against ministers found involved in corruption. He had given an impression that no one would be spared if found guilty, whether he belonged to the PTI or a coalition partner. However, the QWP spokesman said the PTI had committed ‘dishonesty’ by not taking action against some of its ‘known corrupt’ members in the provincial cabinet. QWP HITS BACK: Accusing the PTI of being insincere, the QWP’s provincial chairman, Sikandar Sherpao, stepped down in the evening as senior minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said his party had pulled out of the provincial government. In a statement, he said the PTI leaders were not sincere in addressing the problems being faced by Pakhtuns. The PTI ministers had done nothing during the past six months and wasted the funds meant for well-being of the people. He alleged the PTI ministers were being remote-controlled from Bani Gala in Islamabad, a reference to the party chief Imran Khan’s home. Mr Sherpao said the PTI had not consulted the QWP, its coalition partner, on key issues. Accusing the PTI leadership of interfering in the affairs of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, he said the party had disregarded merit and blamed its coalition partners for the mess it had created. “The PTI leadership was neither interested in solving the problems of Pakhtuns nor understood them.” The PTI was not interested in addressing the law and order issue and had ignored mega projects which were crucial for development of the province, he said. “The PTI ministers neither visited the site of bomb blasts nor attended the funeral prayers of the martyred cops who were killed in acts of subversion.”
ECP allowed to set new LG poll dates By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Supreme Court put an end to raging arguments over the schedule for local bodies’ elections by taking a step back and acknowledging on Wednesday that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the provincial governments had demonstrated their commitment to the constitution in this regard.. Since a revised poll programme had been issued for the polls in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, besides the elections in Balochistan on Dec 7, as already fixed, therefore, “we are of the opinion that the ECP and the provincial governments have shown their commitment to the constitution,” the court said. Legal observers are of the opinion that the order amounts to accepting a request of the ECP to reschedule the elections to Jan 30 in Punjab, Jan 18 in Sindh and in February in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The order came a day after a second unanimous challenge by the National Assembly and perceived reluctance by the ECP to implement earlier directives of the court to honour the constitutional provisions of organising the elections by Dec 7 as suggested by the provinces. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which had taken up a letter of the commission in this regard, disposed of the matter, thereby ending the ruckus over the issue. The ECP letter requested the court to allow poll date extension in the provinces and cantonment areas. While the court accepted the request, it had some flak reserved for the ECP. It said the commission should always remain prepared to meet the challenge, and whenever any request for holding elections was made by the federal or a provincial government it should entertain it at the earliest. “It is the duty of the ECP to hold the elections of local bodies in terms of Article 140A(1).”The observation came against the backdrop of difficulties mentioned by the ECP in its letter, like unavailability of magnetised inkpads and printing of a huge number of ballot papers in a short time. The court recalled that while hearing a case on the law and order situation in Balochistan on April 5 last year, it had felt that the main problem of the province was of a socio-economic nature which could be solved only if the general public was empowered by holding local government elections which was a constitutional obligation of the government under Article 32 of the Constitution. It said the provisions relating to empowering the people politically, administratively and financially through their chosen representatives by establishing a system of local government under Articles 32 and 140A of the Constitution should be strictly observed. Attorney General Muneer A. Malik said the government had requested the commission to hold the elections in cantonment areas. However, the ECP had asked the government to meet certain requirements which, he said, would be done soon. The court emphasised that the federal and provincial governments were duty-bound to hold the elections in their areas.
JI complains to premier over army statement By Amjad Mahmood LAHORE, Nov 13: Insisting that the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has overstepped its constitutional bounds by directly addressing a political party, Jamaat-i-Islami says the army is a national and constitutional institution which should follow the policies set by elected representatives of the people. . “Directly addressing a politico-religious party (unprecedented in the past) by the Pakistan Army’s tarjuman [public relations department] seems over and above the established constitutional obligations,” says a communiqué written by JI Secretary General Liaquat Baloch to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “There have been serious irregularities, transgression, exploitation and expression by various elements, individuals and institutions in our history, but no respected institution has ever questioned these acts,” it says. The four-page letter has been written in response to the ISPR’s reaction to statements made by Jamaat chief Syed Munawwar Hassan expressing doubts about the status of martyrdom of army soldiers killed in the war against terrorists and describing Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud as martyr. The ISPR had asked the JI chief to tender an unconditional apology. Almost all political and religious parties and various sections of society have condemned the controversial remarks made by Mr Hassan. “The military is a national and constitutional institution which, for the defence of Pakistan, should adopt the policy and resolutions set by elected representatives of the masses,” the JI letter says. It, however, lauded the sacrifices rendered by the armed forces personnel. It also recalls the role played by the Jamaat in support of the forces. But it regrets that “an artificial and grave atmosphere created by the mass media on the basis of JI chief’s two statements and the way the respected national institution of Pakistan Army (through ISPR) directly charge-sheeted a political party” forced the Jamaat to address the prime minister. The Jamaat feels that the “outcry on un-related issues” is a bid to divert attention of the nation from real concern and sabotage through fresh US drone attacks the peace efforts agreed upon by both the political and military leadership. It recalls that the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud has been condemned by sections of society and that the JI considers this “an attack on national consensus that annihilated the peace efforts”. The JI communiqué says that the military and political establishment should confess to all declared and secret and verbal agreements reached with the US and repeal them. How the rulers could protest against drone attacks after receiving a huge amount of foreign aid in the name of Coalition Support Fund and accepting the obligation of providing logistic support and information to Nato forces. It regrets that “our government and institutions, under slight foreign pressure, have been diverging from the national consensus built repeatedly in all-party conferences” held by various parties.
SBP raises interest rate to 10pc By Shahid Iqbal KARACHI, Nov 13: The State Bank of Pakistan increased on Wednesday the interest rate by 50 basis points to 10 per cent because of high inflation and rising fiscal deficit. . The new rate will be effective from Nov 18 for two months. The SBP said in its bi-monthly monetary policy that the CPI inflation was likely to remain at the high level of 10.5 to 11.5 per cent, adding that an increase in inflation with the interest rate remaining at the current level could add to the incentive for borrowings and discourage savings. “This can potentially increase demand pressure through consumption and dampen investment and thus the productive capacity of the economy.” The SBP ignored a suggestion by some economists that a further increase in the interest rate would keep the private sector out of banking money which would eventually suppress economic growth. The central bank believes that “fundamentals of the economy are going forward against the backdrop of the recent monetary policy and reform measures appear stable”. It said there were indications of a pick-up in economic activities. The growth in large-scale manufacturing was 8.4pc during the first quarter of financial year 2013-14. Similarly, exports marginally picked up, growing at 1.3pc. “Notwithstanding rising inflation, the prospects of an economic revival inspired by successful political transition and resolution of energy-related circular debt issue are encouraging,” the SBP said. It estimated that fiscal deficit for the current fiscal year would be slightly higher than the budgeted target of 6.3 per cent. The decline in the estimated fiscal deficit, from 8pc in the last fiscal year, owes much to the realisation of non-tax revenues such as the Coalition Support Fund. The first instalment of CSF ($322 million) was realised in October and the remaining is expected during the current and forthcoming quarters. “Similarly, the realisation of other proceeds is also critical to maintain the deficit within the estimated level,” the bank said, adding: “What is more important to consider is the fact that these are either one-off receipts or may not be relied upon on a long-term basis. A more permanent solution still lies in tax reforms.” Justifying the increase in the interest rate, the SBP said the negative real return could encourage outflow of foreign exchange increasing the pressure on exchange rate. The deterioration in external accounts continued in the current financial year, largely on account of weak financial inflows. The speculative sentiments on account of end-Sept targets set by the International Monetary Fund resulted in exchange rate volatility. “Such sentiments are an attribute of uncertainty over foreign exchange flows,” the SBP said, adding that the successful completion of structural benchmarks under the IMF programme would also ensure additional financial inflows from other international finance institutions. In the absence of such reforms, it said, the burden of adjustment fell disproportionately higher on interest and exchange rates which might perpetuate speculative sentiments in the market. “The revision in power tariff is expected to contribute in curtailing subsidies and thus creating fiscal space for other expenditures. Such fiscal consolidation measures, however, have their inflationary consequences also,” the bank said. It said adjustments in administered prices were directly reflected in higher inflation and raised inflationary expectations, as is evident from the current trend in CPI inflation. “After witnessing a significant decline in FY13 (last fiscal year), inflationary pressures are resurging and could be observed in the sharp increase in inflation during the first four months of FY14. This trend is being contributed by both food and non-food groups. However, the reversal in food inflation is relatively sharp,” the SBP said.
Govt wants to resume talks ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Wednesday Pakistan wants resumption of dialogue with India to resolve outstanding issues between the two countries, including the Kashmir dispute.. At his weekly briefing, Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said Kashmir was the core issue between the two countries and negotiations were the only way to resolve it, adding that Kashmiri leadership should also be allowed to take part in talks. “The ongoing repression of Indian security forces in held Kashmir is a matter of grave concern for Pakistan. Several prestigious human rights organisations have also raised voice against human rights violations in occupied Kashmir,” he said. In reply to a question about Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s new chief Mullah Fazlullah, he said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan not to allow its territory to be used for activities against Pakistan. He expressed the hope that Afghanistan would take steps in this regard. He said a visit by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Kabul was on the cards but dates had not yet been fixed. About the whereabouts of Mullah Bradar, the spokesman said he was in Pakistan and could contact his family. “He has been freed to advance the Afghan peace and reconciliation process. Pakistan will continue to play a positive role in this regard.” Answering a question about the recent US drone attack in North Waziristan, he said protest over it had been conveyed to the US through its ambassador to Pakistan.—APP
Minister says talks with Taliban not possible soon By Syed Irfan Raza ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Minister for Defence Production, Rana Tanveer, has ruled out the possibility of talks between the government and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) within the next few months.. But Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has offered help to revive the peace process and said he would soon convene a tribal jirga somewhere in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in this regard. “At present talks with Taliban are not possible because they are angry over the killing of their chief Hakeemullah Mehsud,” the minister said in an interview with the BBC. The government was waiting for conducive atmosphere for the talks, he said, adding that it would take a few months to normalise the situation. Talks were not possible until Taliban cooled down, he said and expressed the hope that another attempt for opening talks could be made in two to three months. The government believes that the recent killing of TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud in a US drone attack has widened the gulf between it and the militant organisation. It is unlikely that the TTP will agree to hold talks in future. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has blamed the US for disrupting the peace process by killing Hakeemullah Mehsud at a time when the TPP has agreed to join talks. “If drone attacks continue, the hope for a dialogue would be merely an illusion,” he said. About the option of a military operation, Rana Tanveer said the government would avoid it and try to persuade Taliban to hold talks. Meanwhile, the JUI-F chief has stressed the need to look for new ways to revive the peace process stalled in the wake of the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud in a US drone attack. A statement issued by JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai quoted him as saying that the jirga convened in February in Islamabad had the support of the national leadership and they would go back to that forum to seek new ideas for moving forward. “Without involving the people of Fata, there can be no effective mechanism for talks with the Taliban,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman said. “The jirga will guide the government in its efforts for reconciliation.” The “third party” should not be allowed to hijack attempts to seek peace and reconciliation, he said. FATA LAWMAKERS: During meetings with President Mamnoon Hussain on Nov 4 and 12, some legislators from Fata offered their services to persuade Taliban to join talks. “MNAs from Fata can play an effective role in their areas to reduce the gap between the TTP and the government,” MNA Bismillah Khan, who was among the parliamentarians, told Dawn. He said the TTP had different factions in the tribal agencies and they could be approached by Fata parliamentarians with peace overtures. In the wake of the killing of the TTP chief, he said, the tense situation in the tribal areas was not conducive for talks. “But, we believe that TTP leaders will act sagaciously and agree to hold talks because people of Fata want it.” “We hope that the peace process will resume but it will take some time,” Senator Abbas Khan Afridi said.
ECC shelves proposal to ban onion, tomato exports By Khaleeq Kiani ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: Although the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet expressed concern over sharp increases in prices of kitchen items on Wednesday, political considerations did not let it decide to ban exports of onion and tomato. . A senior government official told Dawn that the Ministry of National Food Security and Research had proposed an immediate ban on exports of the two perishable items in view of a sharp increase in their prices. The ECP meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was informed that shortage was the main reason for the increase in prices of tomato and onion which would come down soon with the arrival of fresh stocks in the market. Some participants representing the interests of farmers claimed that only a negligible quantity of tomato was finding its way out of the country and opposed the ban on export of onion. According to the official, National Food Security Secretary Seerat Asghar strongly proposed the ban on exports of the two items in view of their short supplies and rising prices, but his arguments met with a staunch opposition from some ministers. The ministers argued that onion crop in Punjab had been harvested and farmers there had drawn benefit and it would be unfair if the government banned the export at a time when Sindh’s crop was about to be brought to the market. It will be a disadvantage for farmers in Sindh and also Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to some extent. “Let farmers in Sindh and KP also make some money for a few days,” one of them was quoted as saying. An official said the finance minister was of the opinion that the government should watch the situation for some more days before reconsidering the matter. The meeting was told that a three-day survey of local markets suggested that prices of onion and tomato were going down and the situation would improve by the end of the month. According to an official statement, Finance Minister Dar advised officials of the Ministry of Food Security to come up with a practical suggestion to curb the rising prices on a long-term basis. He directed the ministry to keep a watch on prices and deferred the matter till the next meeting. The statement said the minister had expressed concern over inflation and price hike in the country and said it was mainly because of an increase in international oil prices. ENERGY AUDIT: The ECC decided to form a committee on energy efficiency audit of captive power plants. It will be headed by the water and power secretary and comprise representatives from the ministries of industries and production, petroleum and natural resources and commerce, Nepra and Ogra. The committee will prepare a plan for capacity building for energy efficiency audits and introduce transparency in the system. The finance minister said: “We shall start the process of conducting energy efficiency assessment from the public sector and will initiate awareness campaigns for the private sector to use methods that can save energy and help in ending the energy crisis”. The meeting was informed that large-scale manufacturing grew by 12.8 per cent in September. Foreign remittances reached $5.2 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2013-14 — 6.3 per cent more than in the corresponding period last year. Foreign direct investment increased by 85pc. The ECC decided to appoint the Asian Development Bank as transaction adviser for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
S. Africa beat Pakistan in T20 DUBAI, Nov 13: South Africa outclassed Pakistan with a commanding nine wicket win in the first Twenty20 international in Dubai on Wednesday to go 1-0 up in the two-match series. . Dale Steyn took 3-15 in his four hostile overs as Pakistan were restricted to 98-9 — their lowest Twenty20 total against South Africa — after they won the toss and opted to bat. South Africa easily reached the target in 14.3 overs with opener Quinton de Kock hitting 48 not out and skipper Faf du Plessis making an unbeaten 37, knocking off the runs without being troubled by Pakistan’s spin-packed attack. The second and final Twenty20 will be played in Dubai on Friday. De Kock hit three boundaries and two sixes off 38 balls while Du Plessis hit four boundaries and a six off 40 deliveries as South Africa made short work of their opponents. Du Plessis was impressed with how his bowlers had set up the victory. “It was a pretty good game and that’s how you want to start the series by breaking their back initially. “The wicket was quite dry and our bowlers have been putting their batsmen under pressure. I wasn’t too surprised by their selection but seeing (Shahid) Afridi at three was a surprise against the new ball.” Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez blamed poor batting. “I personally feel that we couldn’t set up the total we wanted to, the early wickets did the damage and the South Africa bowlers really bowled to their plans,” said Hafeez who failed to score. “Our batsmen are not taking the responsibility which individuals have to in a team and that’s a concern.” Pakistan’s batsmen once again failed to fire just as they did in the 4-1 one day international series defeat.—AFP
Four Afghan Taliban killed By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Nov 13: Four Afghan Taliban were killed in a gunfight with Afghan forces in Helmand province close to Pakistani border on Wednesday. . According to security officials posted in the Pak-Afghan border area, Afghan Taliban attacked a checkpost of Afghan forces close to the border. Afghan forces returned fire and in the ensuing gunbattle both sides used heavy weapons against each other. According to reports reaching here, four Taliban were killed and another injured in the fighting.
Boycott-marred C’wealth summit begins today COLOMBO, Nov 14: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa hit back angrily on Thursday against allegations of war crimes which are set to overshadow Commonwealth summit starting here on Friday, saying he had “nothing to hide” from his critics.. Mr Rajapaksa, who will chair the three-day summit, told reporters he was ready to confront the likes of British Prime Minister David Cameron but would not be lectured to. The summit has already been dogged by boycotts, with the leaders of Canada, India and Mauritius all staying away over the bloody end in 2009 to one of Asia’s deadliest civil wars.Mr Rajapaksa has been under fire from rights groups and UN bodies for refusing to allow an independent investigation into the finale of the conflict, which pitted ethnic Tamils against the majority Sinhalese government. “We are very open, we have nothing to hide,” the president told a press conference on the eve of the summit. Mr Rajapaksa said he was ready to meet Mr Cameron to discuss allegations that up to 40,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan forces in the closing stages of the 37-year conflict in the island’s north. “I will be meeting him and we will see what (happens), I will also have to ask some questions,” said the president, who visibly bristled and raised his voice as he took questions. Mr Rajapaksa, president of the former British colony since 2005, mounted a stout defence of his administration’s handling of allegations of rights abuses. “We have a legal system in Sri Lanka,” he said. “We have a human rights commission, now the Commonwealth is ready to strengthen it. If there are any violations, we will take actions against anybody.” The 67-year-old said his administration deserved credit for ending the conflict. “People were getting killed for 30 years; at least after 2009 we have stopped it. There is no killing in Sri Lanka today.” At least 100,000 people lost their lives in the conflict. Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the BBC: “We are a sovereign nation. You think someone can just make a demand from Sri Lanka? We are not a colony. We are an independent state.” As well as allegations against government forces, Tamil Tiger rebels – known for their trademark suicide bombings – are also accused of killing thousands of people. Mr Cameron, who intends to travel to the war-torn northern Jaffna peninsula, has said he wants to have “tough conversations” with Mr Rajapaksa. The British premier, who stopped off in India, reiterated calls for a “proper” investigation into the last stages of the war. Mr Cameron, who has rejected calls to join the boycott, will be the first foreign leader to visit the north since Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948. “There needs to be proper inquiries into what happened at the end of the war, there needs to be proper human rights [and] democracy for the Tamil minority,” he said in comments broadcast by India’s CNN-IBN network on Thursday. “There’s always a case for not going somewhere but I think actually we will get further by going and having conversations with the Sri Lankans about what needs to happen and shining a light on some of the issues and problems that are there.” Ahead of Mr Cameron’s arrival, his Foreign Secretary William Hague met leaders of the main Tamil opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance, who won a large majority in recent provincial elections in Jaffna. Critics say the polls did little to address Tamil demands for more autonomy and Mr Hague urged “both the government and the TNA to work constructively together towards a political settlement that delivers meaningful devolution”. Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth’s Secretary-General, denied the organisation had turned a blind eye to allegations against the summit hosts. Asked whether Sri Lanka’s rights record made a mockery of the Commonwealth, the former Indian diplomat said the organisation had made progress by engaging with Mr Rajapaksa’s regime. “It (the alleged rights abuse) is not making a mockery. It is showing the Commonwealth in action,” he told reporters. At the last summit in 2011 in Perth, Commonwealth leaders drew up a charter of common values which committed members to respecting human rights. Rights groups said the relevance of the organisation was now on the line. “The Commonwealth risks its credibility as an international forum if it doesn’t publicly press Sri Lanka on its rights record and the lack of accountability for wartime atrocities,” said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director. A report by Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group, said Colombo’s “attempts to mask its growing authoritarianism...appear increasingly flimsy”, accusing it of undermining judicial independence after the impeachment of the chief justice earlier this year. Despite the allegations of abuses against Tamil civilians, who account for some 12 per cent of the 20 million population, Mr Rajapaksa said he was determined to heal the island’s pain. “My policy is to win over even the terrorists,” he said. “We are ready to talk to them, but we will not allow anyone to divide this country.”—Reuters/AFP
PM arrives in Colombo COLOMBO, Nov 14: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived here on Thursday to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting beginning here on Friday.. He was greeted at the airport by the Leader of the House in Sri Lankan Parliament, Nimal Siripala D. Silva, Senior Minister for Municipal Affairs A.H.M. Fawzi, Minister of Power and Energy Pavithra Wanniarachchi. Mr Sharif is accompanied by wife Kulsoom Nawaz and Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi. The theme of the summit is “Growth with Equity-Inclusive Development”. Pakistan is one of the eight founding members of the 53-member Commonwealth, which signed the London Declaration of April 1949. It makes annual contributions to five organisations -- Commonwealth Secretariat, Commonwealth Foundation, Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, Commonwealth Youth Programme and the Commonwealth of Learning. Mr Sharif greeted the government and people of Sri Lanka for hosting the significant event. He expressed confidence in the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and expressed the hope that the Commonwealth would become a stronger and more cohesive organisation under his leadership. He said that Pakistan, being a democracy and a responsible member of the global community, contributed to efforts made by the Commonwealth for promoting peace through international cooperation and alleviating poverty through sustainable economic and social development.—APP
Pakistan ready to work with Modi: Aziz By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, Nov 14: Pakistan has no favourites for the Indian elections due by next May. However, should rightwing candidate Narendra Modi become the next prime minister, Islamabad would be ready to work with him. . This was stated by Pakistan’s foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz in an interview published here on Thursday. He told The Economic Times in Delhi that a delayed meeting of the directors general of military operations (DGMOs) of the two countries was finally expected to be scheduled when they have their weekly hotline contact on Tuesday. They should be able to fix the issues on the Line of Control in Kashmir that had led to a breach of the ceasefire. One of the breaches occurred on Aug 6, which had seriously set back prospects of any progress. Peace with India was Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s poll plank and he launched his peace mission immediately after becoming the prime minister, Mr Aziz said. “There were positive results in the initial six weeks. Sharif and Dr Manmohan Singh spoke with each other twice over telephone. Thereafter, back-channel talks were launched between Shahryar Khan and S.K. Lambah. One round was held in Delhi and the other in Dubai.” Mr Aziz met Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in Brunei and decided on six working groups to improve ties. “However, the unfortunate incident of Aug 6 along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir was a big setback. This has affected bilateral relations. In my opinion it got entangled with India’s election process.” He said Pakistan desired an independent inquiry into the Aug 6 incident and other incidents along the LoC this year. “We also lost 11 soldiers last January. It is difficult to hold anyone responsible for firing at LoC at this stage without a thorough probe. It is important to hold on the ceasefire along LoC reached in 2003.” Did he feel the Indian government lacked political capital to engage boldly with Pakistan with elections approaching? “Both countries hope to maintain momentum in the run-up to Indian elections,” Mr Aziz said. “From now on, till elections in your country, the focus could be on trade and purchase of power from India.” Mr Modi has been widely seen as a Pakistan-baiter. Would Pakistan be comfortable working with him if he wins? “Elections in India are a great experiment in democracy, which we monitor and follow closely. It is prerogative of the Indian people to elect whom they consider right for their future and we cannot comment on your electoral process. We do not have any favourites,” Mr Aziz said.“We will be ready to work with Narendra Modi if he is elected the prime minister of India. Or for that matter we will be ready to work with anyone who is voted to power.”
Unprecedented security for Ashura By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: Unprecedented security arrangements have been made in cities and towns across the country, particularly in the four provincial capitals and Islamabad, to ward off any untoward incident during the observance of Ashura, the day of martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA), on Friday. . Army, police and paramilitary personnel have been placed on high alert and deployed at sensitive places, particularly in Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Hangu, Gilgit, Jhang, Bahawalpur, Bhakkar and other cities and towns of southern Punjab. The arrangements appear to be stricter this year because of threats posed by militants in the wake of killing of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in North Waziristan and a member of Taliban’s Haqqani group, Nasiruddin, in Islamabad. After the peaceful observance of the 9th of Muharram on Thursday, the federal and provincial governments have directed the authorities to step up vigilance on the Ashura day to thwart any terrorist activity. According to security officials, most of the roads leading to bazaars, cantonment areas, Imambargahs, important buildings and residences of VIPs all over the country will remain closed throughout the day. In some cities, police directed transporters not to bring their vehicles on the road. The authorities have also decided to keep private vehicles at a considerable distance from the routes of main processions. Special parking lots have been set up. Pillion-riding has already been banned in many cities for the 9th and 10th of Muharram. The routes of main Ashura processions have been sealed in some cities and walk-through gates have been put in place. Mourners will be allowed to join the processions only after a thorough body search by security personnel and volunteers. Rangers and other security personnel will also be deployed on roofs of buildings and houses along the routes of processions and no-one will be allowed to witness processions from rooftops of commercial and residential buildings. Besides, close-circuit TV cameras have been installed at important places. Talking to reporters after reviewing security arrangements in Lahore on Thursday, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that no-one would be allowed to participate in the processions without security check. He said four helicopters would assist the administration and monitor the progress of the processions. About 4,000 policemen will be on duty on the Ashura day. In Islamabad, special gadgets have been installed and people will be asked to swipe their national identity cards before joining processions. A special software has been developed by the capital city administration to check the identity cards. Army troops are being deployed in Karachi as a back-up arrangement at the request of the Sindh government. Troops will also be deployed in Hangu and D.I. Khan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has directed the divisional and district administrations to take effective measures to maintain law and order and ensure security of citizens on Friday. He issued the directives to commissioners and deputy commissioners through a video conference from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Peshawar. The commissioners informed the chief minister about security and measures taken to avert any unpleasant incident. The D.I. Khan commissioner said army troops had been deployed in some areas of the district to help the civil administration. The chief minister directed the Kohat commissioner to make effective security arrangements in Hangu district with special focus on possible threats of terrorist activities from adjoining areas and mountains. In Rawalpindi, some 6,000 security personnel will be on duty. There will also be surveillance of processions. APP adds: An official of the Islamabad administration said that over 5,000 personnel of police and law-enforcement agencies would be on duty on the Ashura day. Rangers have set up a quick response force and surveillance cameras have been installed along the routes of the main processions. He said rescue teams would also remain vigilant round the clock. About 400 policemen in plainclothes will be on duty with processions and at the venue of congregations in sensitive places.
Cellphone service may remain off By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD: Cellphone service was suspended for 8 to 14 hours in almost all major cities and sensitive towns across the country on Thursday as part of security measures for Muharram.. The services were restored partially in some cities, including Islamabad and Rawalpindi, after 6pm and completely by 9pm in other cities. According to sources, the service is likely to be suspended again from 6am to 10pm on Friday in about 80 cities and towns as part of strict security measures for Youm-i-Ashur. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is reported to have sent a list of the cities and towns to cellphone companies. On the basis of intelligence reports, authorities in Punjab have decided to suspend the service in the districts of Chakwal, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Jhang, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi, Layyah, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, Bhakkar, Gujranwala, Lahore and Multan. In Sindh, the service will be shut in Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Sehwan, Nawabshah and Larkana, and in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Peshawar. Balochistan is reported to have written to the federal government to seek closure of the service in Quetta and some other places.
Afghan suicide bomber arrested near Islamabad By Munawer Azeem ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: An Afghan man said to be on a suicide mission was arrested here on Thursday after a brief encounter with security personnel in the suburbs of the federal capital. . According to sources, Matiullah had arrived from Afghanistan via Torkham a few days ago and stayed at a house in Tarnol area. He was reported to be wearing jacket stuffed with about five kilograms of explosives and was planning to attack a 9th Muharram procession near Asna Ashari Imambargah at G-6/2. The sources said the bomber had been arrested on information provided by an alleged Afghan agent detained by a team of security forces and capital police. Syed Mohammad Abdullah told interrogators that he had brought the bomber from Torkham for attacking the procession. When security personnel raided the house in Tarnol, Matiullah opened fire at them and tired to escape. The sources said Abdullah used to work for an Afghan intelligence agency. He had also spied for the French Embassy in Islamabad from 1996 to 2010. He had been arrested by Khasadars in Khyber Agency in December 2010 when his movement in Wazir Dhand aroused suspicion. Abdullah was handed over to a joint investigation team comprising officials of the ISI, Intelligence Bureau and police. The report submitted by the team said that he had been involved in spying against Pakistan. The report said that two cases, one relating to a murder attempt, had been registered against him in the Margalla police station in 2010. During interrogation Abdullah admitted to have come to Pakistan in late 1970s after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and managed to get an identity card. During his stay here he worked for foreign embassies on different missions, including spying for them. The report graded him as ‘Black’ – a person found guilty. It described him as “a cunning and devious person who could do anything to harm the integrity of Pakistan for his interest”. On the basis of the report and after proceedings of a jirga, the political agent of Khyber Agency jailed him for three and seven years on different charges and fined him Rs100,000. The political agent directed the National Database and Registration Authority to cancel his ID card and take action against people who had helped him to get it. It is not known how and when he was freed and how he managed to enter Pakistan on Oct 27 this year on a visa (38941-13) issued on Oct 24 on an Afghan passport (A2007634) issued on Oct 22. The multiple entry visa was for six months. It may be mentioned that an integrated border management system (IBMS) was installed at the Torkham border last year to prevent entry of terrorists and criminals into Pakistan. The system was linked with Interpol, passport office, Nadra and the Federal Investigation Agency.
Two Afghan policemen found dead in Chaman By Saleem Shahid QUETTA, Nov 14: Bullet-riddled bodies of two Afghan security personnel were found on the outskirts of Chaman, a town on the border with Afghanistan, on Thursday. . “The bodies were found in the mountainous area of Boghara,” Chaman Assistant Commissioner Ismail Ibrahim told Dawn. The deceased, identified as Mohammad Usman and Faraz Kabuli, belonged to Panjwai village of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province. According to officials, people of the area informed the administration about the presence of the bodies. Police rushed to the place and shifted the bodies to the District Hospital Chaman for autopsy. Hospital sources said that both the personnel had been hit in the head and chest. “They suffered multiple bullet wounds which caused their death,” the doctors who carried out post-mortem told the administration. “The bodies’ condition suggests that they might have been killed two days ago,” they said.
‘QWP made scapegoat to cover up PTI By Ali Hazrat Bacha PESHAWAR, Nov14: The Qaumi Watan Party’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chairman Sikandar Hayat Sherpao alleged here on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s interference in the work of ministries allocated to his party and forcing the ministers to make illegal appointments had led to the break up of the two parties’ partnership in the provincial government.. Speaking at a press conference at his Hayatabad residence, he said the QWP would play its role in the opposition for the welfare of Pakhtuns and development of the province. “We never run after ministries but others, including the PTI, approached us with offers of ministries. We honoured its mandate and joined the coalition for the sake of the soil of Pakhtuns,” he said. Formally announcing his resignation as provincial senior minister, he said one example of interference was a recommendation letter sent by Imran Khan to him for the appointment of an engineer, Khushhal Khan, son of Zareef Khan, as chief executive of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company on priority basis. “I was sent the letter in July, but I turned it down because I thought it was in violation of merit. We have many such things to present to the media. The two removed ministers, Ibrar Hussain and Bakht Baidar, will also divulge more information in separate press conferences after Sunday.” Mr Sherpao said the PTI chief had failed to run the affairs of the province. He had given an ambitious agenda of curbing corruption, but could not implement it and as a result he could not face the people. So he had made the QWP a scapegoat, he added. “Had he possessed any proof of corruption against any of our ministers he was bound to tell us the names and specific reasons, but the chief minister did not dare share any information with us,” he said. “The chief minister did not even inform us verbally and the news about sacking the ministers came to us through media,” he said. The QWP leader said the PTI-led government lacked comprehension of the complex problems of the province. “Time and again the PTI leaders were asked to address the worsening law and order situation and militancy, but barring rhetoric they did not take any concrete steps.” The former senior minister said no consultation was done on political and administrative matters. He also rejected a notion that Imran Khan had twice warned the QWP about alleged involvement of its ministers in corruption. “He should produce in black and white whatever the government has against our ministers. We had already declared that our party had zero tolerance for corruption and our politics were aimed at serving the oppressed Pakhtuns,” Mr Sherpao said. He said his party had repeatedly tried to draw the attention of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to its grievances but he had not taken the calls seriously. As a last resort the QWP had boycotted the provincial assembly session and even a cabinet meeting a couple of days ago to raise the level of protest so that the PTI might realise the gravity of the situation. The QWP leader also opposed the PTI chief’s politics of deadlines on different issues, including drone strikes and Nato supplies, and confrontation with the centre. Imran Khan also frequently took a ‘U-turn’ on issues, he alleged. The law and order situation was going from bad to worse, but PTI leaders and ministers were unable to take steps for the restoration of peace and were unable even to attend funerals law enforcement agencies personnel and their own MPAs due to threats, Sikandar Sherpao observed. “Had Imran any will to stop corruption, he would have focussed on legislation against corruption, but he did not do anything.” Mr Sherpao said governments could not be run by remote control from Bani Gala or through unelected people.
No compromise on corruption: Imran ISLAMABAD: Hitting back at the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said on Thursday that he was determined not to compromise on corruption in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.. In his reply to allegations levelled by QWP leader Sikandar Sherpao, he said the nation donated money for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital because of his honesty. The PTI chief said the Namal College in Mianwali was another proof and he never interfered in working of both institutions. “I challenge everyone to prove corruption against me. I will not allow corruption in the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said. The party’s information secretary, Dr Shireen Mazari, said the QWP leader’s allegations were baseless and an attempt to cover up the corruption done by ministers of his party. She claimed that Mr Sherpao had shown at his press conference a forged letter with fake signatures of the PTI chairman.—Ikram Junaidi
Hong Kong advises PIA to take precautionary measures By Bhagwandas KARACHI, Nov 14: Hong Kong authorities have alleged that a malaria patient arrived in the special administrative region of China aboard a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft and advised the airline to take precautionary measures in this regard, according to sources. . The authorities also instructed the PIA officials to inform them in case any of the crewmembers of the flight concerned had shown any signs of the disease, the sources said. According to the sources, on Sept 16 Dr C.K. Wong of the chief port officer’s office, department of health, the government of Hong Kong, sent a letter to the Jardine Airport Services (local handling agent of PIA at the Hong Kong airport), which said: “A passenger who arrived in Hong Kong from Pakistan on Sept 6 by PIA flight PK892 was confirmed to have contracted malaria. “Mosquitoes biting the passenger would become infective and remain so for life. This will pose a risk to other passengers and crewmembers.” The letter went on to advise the airline to disinfect the aircraft concerned and take other vector control measures, if not already taken. It also stressed the need to make the crew aware of the symptoms and dangers of malaria. PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts. According to the sources, malaria is among the diseases which have been wiped out from several countries. The authorities of such countries are extremely careful about the disease and restrict the entry of malaria patients because they don’t want the disease to be reintroduced in their countries. The international community is already worried about the possibility of spread of polio from Pakistan, where the crippling disease is endemic. Reports about the possibility of transmission of yet another disease from the country may prompt the international health organisations to call for a travel ban on Pakistanis. That was why Pakistani organisations like the PIA and the CAA should take precautionary measures as soon as possible, the sources warned.
PML-N leader sees peace in Karachi soon MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 14: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said on Thursday that Karachi would become a peaceful metropolis within the next three months as the PML-N government was striving to achieve this goal. . “More than 60 per cent of peace has been restored in Karachi and within next three months there will be complete peace,” he said while talking to journalists here at the residence of PML-N vice president and a former mayor of Muzaffarabad, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed. “Before long, you will also hear promising news with regard to Balochistan,” he said. Listing fiscal woes and other problems the PML-N government inherited, he said the biggest issue before the government was to overcome the energy crisis, eliminate terrorism, increase the revenue base through taxation and consolidate economy in consultation with all political forces. “We do not want that the unity of political parties on these issues should suffer any dent for any reason.” According to him, it was one of the reasons that the PML-N had pulled out of the no-confidence move against AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed in July this year. Secondly, since the PML-N was not in a position to form its own government in Azad Kashmir, it was decided to keep away from any such move.—Staff Correspondent
Editorial NEWS
Ambience of terror: Karachi operation IT’S going to be a long haul, and the prime minister seems aware of it. On Friday, Mr Nawaz Sharif told a news conference that he expected the Rangers and police to persist with the ongoing operation for an indefinite period if Karachi was to be rid of militants and criminals. That there has been some improvement in Karachi’s law and order situation must be acknowledged. The results show that the situation is not irredeemable, and that a realistic and well-planned operation conducted without fear or favour can still rescue the nation’s biggest city from being overwhelmed by the crime wave. Evidently, Mr Sharif is conscious of the hurdles on the way, but he dwelt at length on the poor rate of conviction because of threats to witnesses and flaws in prosecution. More unfortunately, some judges, too, are afraid of consequences. This is a phenomenon not confined to Karachi and merits a commentary on society and its failure to stand for truth and justice in an ambience of lawlessness and terror. One of the suggestions made by Mr Sharif was to move hardened criminals with links to organised mafias to other cities so that trials could take place in an atmosphere free from coercion. Notable in this category is the trial of those accused of murdering journalist Wali Babar.. If the past is any guide, cleansing Karachi of its sprawling underworld is a major challenge for the law enforcement agencies, because, as we have repeatedly pointed out in this space, ‘pure’ criminals are just one segment of the army of outlaws terrorising Karachi; an equally greater part of the menace to Karachi’s peace comes from political violence. This lethal combination of politics and crime has led to hundreds of deaths, besides countless ‘wheel jam’ strikes, which have done incalculable harm to the economy of the nation’s industrial and commercial hub, frozen its cultural growth and damaged its social fabric. Virtually all political parties have well-armed militant wings deeply entrenched in the underworld. This link between politics and crime must be smashed if the city is to have lasting peace. Finally, a word of caution: the go-ahead given to the law enforcement agencies must not be misused by them. The law enforcers are there to protect the people’s life, liberty and property and not to hurt these essentials of civilised living. We are constrained to sound this cautionary note because there have been examples in the past when men in uniform have used excessive force, often resulting in severe injuries and even fatalities.
Hopeful signs: US-Iran stand-off WASHINGTON and the major European powers have reached closer to an interim nuclear deal with Iran to end a decade-long stand-off with Tehran on its nuclear programme. If American and European diplomats meeting the Iranian foreign minister in Geneva succeed in negotiating a breakthrough with Tehran, and if the latter agrees to curb its nuclear activities, it will pave the way for some relief where the economic sanctions in place are concerned. And if matters progress smoothly, a permanent agreement and removal of sanctions can follow. Though US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in the Swiss city that some very important issues remain unresolved, there is reason to believe that both sides are eager to bridge their differences. After his telephonic conversation with the new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani in September — the first direct contact between the leaders of Iran and the US since 1979 — President Barack Obama said that discussion with his Iranian counterpart showed a “basis for resolution” of the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.. The agreement between Iran and the US will indeed be a positive development from Pakistan’s perspective as well. Islamabad has vested interests in the success of the ongoing negotiations. The removal of sanctions on Iran will ease concerns in Islamabad that the plan to import Fars gas through a pipeline could invite similar restrictions on Pakistan. Besides, it will help Pakistan raise international money, the lack of which is the second biggest obstacle, after pressure from the US, in the way of completing the pipeline on its side of the border. Although Iran’s oil minister had recently cast doubts on the pipeline’s future, later statements from Tehran were encouraging enough to revive hopes that the project had not been written off despite the repeated delays caused by Pakistan’s weakened enthusiasm. If Iran arrives at a nuclear deal with Washington and Pakistan successfully raises funds for the project, we may start receiving the much-needed Iranian gas in a little more than a year.
Wayward flock? PTI chief’s instructions IMRAN Khan wants to hold the PTI ministers in KP accountable. And he wants the chief minister to do this job. Not all that the PTI chief has instructed Mr Pervez Khattak to do so far has been immediately complied with. For instance, it took Mr Khan many months to convince Mr Khattak to give up party office to free himself for his chief ministerial assignment. The holding of dual offices was explained by some as a mix unavoidable to, even necessary for, the running of a government. The peculiar ‘necessities’ of governance in Pakistan — which require that certain minor and not-so-minor instances of corruption be overlooked — may come to haunt the PTI again, if and when an effort is undertaken to fulfil the chief’s latest order.. The country is yet to evolve an idiom for accountability, some recent statements by Mr Khan suggesting how far we are from developing that language. The question is, where to start? In this latest case pertaining to the KP ministers, the argument is that while the PTI had received complaints of corruption for a while, it was waiting for ‘evidence’. To others, an inquiry is instituted on the basis of an allegation and the appointed investigators must then look for ‘evidence’. The rather careless use of terms adds to the impression that these clean-government statements also belong to a long series of political gimmicks. Care shown in the selection of words, and institutionalisation of the process to free it from the pressures of expediency, are essential to lending earnestness to in-house exercises in accountability. Until that is done, it will be a classic replay of the arrangement where a leader, as a well-meaning elder, goes on advising his flock while the latter may continue going their own way.
Ominous signs: Dialogue with TTP IT is the most bizarre of stalemates: the government insists that dialogue with the TTP will still be pursued while the TTP is now aggressively rejecting even the possibility of talks. And if that were not an odd enough spectacle, the government continues to apparently work on the dialogue option without being too concerned about explaining what, if any, its strategy is. Trust us, the government is essentially saying to the country – but must faith be so blind?. To add to the alarm — as if there were not enough of it already — the TTP under Mullah Fazlullah appears determined to launch a new wave of attacks across the country, but the government has evinced little interest in urgently ramping up the country’s lines of defence. Consider just what Mullah Fazlullah and Sheikh Khalid Haqqani’s appointment as new TTP chief and deputy could mean for KP. Already showed to be so thoroughly vulnerable in recent months, the province ought to be furiously strengthening the intelligence and security apparatus that can help protect KP and its population. Instead, the PTI insists that dialogue is still the preferred and necessarily first option. And when Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan talks about discussing and coordinating the federal government’s strategy on militancy, it is dialogue with the TTP that the interior minister has in mind — not working on protecting the province from the wave of attacks the TTP has virtually guaranteed will occur in the days and weeks ahead. By now, it’s clear that clarity is not the forte of anyone who wants to still determinedly push for dialogue with the TTP. The only clarity that exists appears to be on the TTP’s side. Perhaps, depressing as this may be, the government would be better served by taking a leaf out of the TTP’s book. For the best part of a year now, the TTP has cannily floated the idea of dialogue while simultaneously waging its war against the state. And the TTP has proved very sophisticated when it comes to manipulating public opinion and discourse. Consider the latest distinction the TTP leadership has made: the public must not be targeted deliberately in their attacks; only the state and the security apparatus will be the focus. Meanwhile, the country’s leadership still helplessly laments the lack of a consensus in Pakistani society on whether the TTP is a military problem or a political one. When one side is shrewd and ruthless and the other side weak and beset by confusion, what hope for a good outcome?
Global effort needed: Resurgence of polio WHILE all hope has not yet been lost to make this a polio-free world, the virus seems to be in resurgence. The global effort to eradicate the disease has spanned a couple of decades and has cost, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, some $10bn. Most countries have managed to bring the virus under control — except for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria where it remains endemic. Last month, the virus reappeared in Syria after a gap of 14 years and it has been found in sewage water samples in Egypt. Now with Syrian war refugees arriving in Europe, there is fear that it may reappear in the West too. As pointed out by two German doctors in the medical journal The Lancet on Friday, the vaccine used in the US and Europe offers only partial protection against the virus.. The gravity of the threat cannot be overstated, and is made particularly poignant by the fact that just a few years ago, it seemed as though the world was poised to manage complete eradication. While other countries must make appropriate efforts, Pakistan urgently needs to do more to control the spread of the virus within its own borders. There’s not just a matter of the attacks targeting polio workers, or the fact they have to work under armed escort now. Perhaps much more urgently, what we need is to develop a fully fleshed-out counter-narrative in favour of the vaccination to convince the naysayers that saving their children from the disease is very much in their own interest. The anti-polio campaign has taken several hits over recent years, including the role a fake vaccination drive played in the hunting down of Osama bin Laden (even though that did not concern the disease). Extremists have articulated and spread the conspiracy theory that vaccination is harmful, and until that narrative is countered and people’s minds are made to change, little will be achieved by the polio teams trying to convince parents to inoculate their children.
In the midst of violence: Building a counter-narrative GIVEN the ominous developments on the militancy front, in an atmosphere in which the country almost seems to be holding its breath in anticipation of more violence, any effort towards generating civilised discourse and sustaining positivity should be appreciated. What to cynics might seem like a fiddling-while-Rome-burns attitude, is a life-affirming exercise to others. According to a report in this paper last week, Lahore, which recently played host to the much-acclaimed children’s literature festival, is to have a world class aquarium named ‘Aqua Land’ built with public-private partnership on seven kanals of land and which takes its inspiration from a similar facility in Singapore. In Karachi too, where people have become inured to grim daily statistics in which anyone can find themselves at the wrong time in the wrong place, not all citizens are prepared to accept this as a fait accompli and let others with criminal tendencies define the city on their terms. A group of artists here are working on ‘Pursukoon Karachi’, a festival to raise awareness about how violence affects citizens’ lives and bring about a change in attitudes. A number of activities are planned, several of them involving children. One activity, a long-term one that is already under way, involves the restoration of the venerable Cantonment Station. . While a literature festival, a proposed aquarium or a peace promotion project may appear very disparate entities, they all work towards building a counter-narrative in testing times in which malevolent forces are striving to impose an exclusionary worldview on society. Such activities provide a platform for a beleaguered populace, particularly its younger, more impressionable segment, to expand their understanding of the world, what they can aspire to, and offer a glimpse of how things could be.
A dangerous discourse: JI leader’s remarks HARDLY any political party chief in Pakistan has been so unanimously and unreservedly condemned as the Jamaat-i-Islami emir who has bestowed the title of ‘martyr’ on the late TTP head Hakeemullah Mehsud. The latter, who was killed in a US drone strike earlier this month, led a band of conscienceless killers who have terrorised the country for years and killed thousands of Pakistanis, most of them civilians. Schools, hospitals, peace jirgas, mosques, funeral processions and bazaars have all been targeted by the Taliban. To then call Mehsud a shaheed, vesting in him all the qualities of what Muslims consider as the ultimate sacrifice in the way of faith, is to dishonour those who fell victim to acts of terrorism carried out by the TTP and its associates. Counted amongst them must be the soldiers killed by the Taliban, but whose death in the line of duty has meant little to the JI chief. His rejection of the shaheed status for these soldiers has caused ISPR to condemn his views and demand an apology. The JI might have rightly termed this response as interference in political affairs, but in its own choice of heroes in a war that has devastated the country in more than physical terms, it has clearly shown which side it stands on. . Having said that, the military establishment needs to revisit its own history of active propagation of religion. For most of Pakistan’s existence, the army has controlled the national political, security and religious discourse. It has, in fact, erected the entire structure of ‘jihad’ (most notably during the Afghan war) in its aim to defend religious ideology as opposed to focusing on what a military’s traditional role is: defending state borders. Years of looking at adversaries and politics from the lens of religion has left the security establishment mired in an ideological muddle: the men trained to raise the standard in the name of Islam are now confronting an enemy that is waving an even bigger flag as it seeks establish a theocratic state. The time has come to separate the intertwined strands of religion and the state. This ‘martyr’ episode has caused most political parties to condemn the JI’s views — though, sadly, only after ISPR’s denunciation. They must now see the truth for what it is and understand that it is not Islam that is endangered in a country where the majority are practising Muslims; it is the very existence of Pakistan itself.
Ignoring reality: IMF ‘satisfaction’ LIKE Deng Xiaoping, who opened up China to the world in the late 1970s, the IMF does not care about the colour of the cat that catches the mice. Otherwise, it would not have given a clean chit to Islamabad for “broadly on track” progress under its $6.6bn loan thus far. On the conclusion last week of its staff mission review of Pakistan’s progress on the programme prior to disbursement of the second loan tranche of $550m, the IMF said the country had “met all the quantitative performance criteria”. It was pleased with the “strong fiscal performance” as the government successfully held down budget deficit far below the target. It does not matter that the deficit target was achieved through massive cuts in federal and provincial investment spending, and the transfer of the money that belongs to cellular companies into the government’s accounts. The “implementation of structural reforms” — an exorbitant rise in electricity prices for all consumers, for example — appeared to be another cause for IMF satisfaction although little has been done to check power and gas theft and distribution losses. . The Fund was also “encouraged” by the increase in tax revenues even if it has come through higher indirect taxation mainly imposed on those who shouldn’t be paying these additional taxes. The below-the-target accumulation of foreign exchange was the only area where Islamabad was found lacking in effort. The global lender will ignore it — at least for now, in spite of a breach in the deal caused by the State Bank through its intervention in the forex market to support the fast falling rupee. In future, such violations may not be condoned. But should the government be happy with its ‘performance’? The excessive obsession of its finance management team to achieve the programme targets has led to the use of means that cause more hardship for the common people. The rich and the corrupt have again escaped unhurt. It is time the government chose the right set of policies in order to avoid slippages going forward.
Improved performance: Hockey win THE Pakistan hockey team sprung quite a surprise for its diminishing fan base on Sunday when it clinched the Asian Champions Trophy title in the Japanese city of Kakamigahara by beating the hosts 3-1 in the final. Though the Asian event did not put the national team’s combative abilities to real test, since leading teams such as Australia, Holland, Germany and Spain were, naturally, not competing, the win salvaged a bit of pride for them at the fag end of a rather disastrous year that saw them miss out on a spot in next year’s World Cup in The Netherlands, for the first time ever. . Mohammad Imran’s men clearly showed signs of improvement by scoring narrow victories over Malaysia and arch-rivals India in key games at the Asian event. In Sunday’s final, too, they held their nerve to make a strong comeback after hosts Japan had taken an early lead. Critics and followers of the game, however, remain sceptical about a possible revival of the game despite Sunday’s win. The repeated setbacks in the past decade and the plummeting graph of the national team in international events deter them from harbouring any false hopes. A host of former Olympians, therefore, have launched a series of protests against the incumbent Pakistan Hockey Federation regime for its failure to take the necessary measures to resurrect the game. While the emergence of talented youngsters like Hammad Butt and Shafqat Rasool bodes well for the future, a continued dearth of academies to groom upcoming hockey players has led to the decline of Pakistan hockey and the issue needs to be addressed on nothing less than a war footing. Considering that hockey’s golden era in Pakistan spanned a number of years, recovering lost ground is still possible.
Clear plan needed: Talking to the TTP WHILE the federal interior minister’s comments in the National Assembly on Monday confirmed that peace talks with the TTP have been put on ice, the reason he cited — American drone strikes for “sabotaging” the process is difficult to buy. After all, as Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan himself pointed out in his speech, while the government is pushing for dialogue, the militants aren’t exactly bending over backwards to make peace with the state. The fact is that the TTP is simply not interested in talking to the government. If there was any chance of the militants softening their rigid stance before Hakeemullah Mehsud’s death in a drone strike earlier this month, the appointment of Fazlullah as the TTP’s new supremo has caused all such hopes to evaporate: the militants have, once again, declared war on the Pakistan government and military.. The state should know better than to pin the blame for the breakdown of talks on the American drone strikes. There is no doubt that these strikes violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and should not occur unless Islamabad is on board. But, at the same time, there is near universal consensus in the country that Mehsud’s elimination was a positive development. After all, this was a man who led a band of ruthless militants who continue to terrorise the entire nation; civilians, men in uniform and government officials were targeted with equal ferocity on his watch. True, talks with the militants have slim chances of succeeding given the Taliban’s stance; but, in keeping with the endorsement of the major political parties, the state should still make efforts to engage the TTP. However, it must be the one to lay down the terms of engagement and draw the red lines. All stakeholders must be clear about what the contours of any peace agreement will be and what is not open for debate, ie democracy and the supremacy of the Constitution. In this regard, the prime minister discussed the security situation during his visit to GHQ on Tuesday — his first after taking office. The state must realise that if the militants do not accept its terms for dialogue, preparations should begin for a security operation. There are just two alternatives at this juncture: either the government should proceed with taking the talks forward from a position of strength, or move in to neutralise the militant threat. There can be no sitting on the fence.
Ashura fears; Extra security WITH Ashura just days away, on Monday army troops started taking positions around Karachi to provide beefed-up security at a time when the threat level in the city is high. Officials have stressed that a security plan has been chalked out by the police and Rangers, and that army troops have been called in at the request of the provincial government — though only as a back-up force. Nevertheless, the very knowledge of their presence will be of comfort to residents in a city that fears violence in the coming days. As it is, the start of the period of mourning was stained with blood: early last week, five people of the Shia community were killed in sectarian attacks; soon afterwards, six activists of the ASWJ were killed in what appeared to be reprisal attacks. That extra effort is being made to ward off violence in Karachi is laudable, and no aspect of security should be left unaddressed.. It is crucial, however, that the provincial and central governments recognise that the risk of sectarian violence is far from restricted to Karachi. Three worshippers in two different imambargahs were killed in Gujranwala last Saturday. There are many other known flashpoints that are at risk of witnessing sect-related violence over the next few days, including Khairpur, Quetta, Jhang, Bhakkar, Hangu and Parachinar; there are risk zones in all the provinces that need enhanced protection. While security has been increased in many places, too often it turns out that sectarian and other militants are a step ahead of government authorities. The intelligence-gathering network must therefore cast its net as wide as possible, and remain alert. Further, while the political face of sectarianism is well-recognised, what is missing is a concerted crackdown on militants. Thanks to the restraint shown by various communities even when their members have been targeted, communal flare-ups have been rare. Yet the possibility of sectarian violence cannot be discounted in the face of extremist groups determined to sow the seeds of discord.
Restored to glory: State funds for monuments KARACHI’S Christ the King monument, located on the grounds of the imposing St Patrick’s Cathedral, has received a Sindh government grant of Rs10m for its beautification. The superbly crafted monument, which had suffered from the vagaries of time as well as pollution emanating from the unchecked urban sprawl outside the cathedral gates, received official attention after the local Christian community initiated efforts for its rehabilitation. Another positive move in this regard is the Punjab archaeology department’s decision to release Rs22m for conservation of a Sikh samadhi and a Hindu temple in Lahore. It is welcome that in a society that generally does not treasure its heritage and at a time when non-Muslims in this country face threats from zealots, the Sindh and Punjab governments have taken such steps. These moves need to be replicated across Pakistan, especially where the cultural and religious heritage of the country’s non-Muslim citizens is concerned. After all, there have been instances where monuments or the places of worship of various religious communities have been encroached upon or damaged during communal violence, or have simply fallen into disrepair.. Lahore, in particular, has various structures that could do with the state’s attention. While some Sikh monuments are well kept, thanks to the financial support of the global Sikh community, other structures, especially in the old city, are not in very good shape. Funding remains an issue and the government can perhaps work with communities to raise finances, along with offering infrastructure and expertise for preservation efforts. Such moves would send a strong message that the state respects the heritage of its non-Muslim citizens and wants to preserve it. For if Pakistan wants to be known as a pluralistic nation, it must treat the heritage of all communities as national heritage.
Same tired rhythm: Pakistan-India ties ISLAMABAD has noted the “cordial atmosphere” in which talks between Pakistani foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz and India’s foreign minister, Salman Khurshid, were held. Meanwhile, New Delhi sugarcoated its advice to “colleagues from across the border” regarding a meeting between Mr Aziz and leaders of India-held Kashmir’s Hurriyat Conference that has generated controversy in India. That’s about all. There was a ceremonial call by the Pakistani delegation on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There was some material for analysis in remarks such as: “This is not a dialogue that happens in isolation, this is a dialogue that is conceptual….” Originally meant to serve as calculated criticism of the Pakistani envoy’s meeting with the Hurriyat, this statement from Mr Khurshid is tempting enough to be used in support of an inclusive process. And can there be inclusiveness without the Kashmiris? Along with this old issue, the latest parleys in New Delhi raised new questions. For instance, how does the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif intend to balance pro-bilateral trade views with the Kashmir issue?. As for solutions, the sum of this latest engagement is an overdose of old diplomatic lingo that leaves the jury confused about the verdict. Those inclined to take this lingo at face value point out two prominent factors impeding movement on progress. One, Mr Aziz was touring India after weeks of an uneasy situation along the Pakistan-India borders. And two, there was a feeling that, with a general election due in India soon, the Congress government was not fully empowered to negotiate with Pakistan. But perhaps this old approach has to change for officials and politicians on either side to commit more strongly to the peace effort. For how long will these statements of positive intent suffice? This latest review of “bilateral relations in a constrictive and forward-looking manner” is something we are all too used to accepting as a sign of development. Dialogue, by definition, is a forward-looking and constructive option. That needs no reiteration. It is the only choice and the choice that needs to be asserted most forcefully. It serves little purpose to go on habitually hailing the holding of talks between the ‘two hostile neighbours’ as a development worth celebrating without a strong follow-up that demands both speed and purpose. If those who chase peace and coexistence as an ideal are to appear in a better light than the official negotiators on either side, they will have to do much more than simply be satisfied with these resumption reruns.
A victory for all: LG polls A FEARED clash of institutions has been averted and the uncertainty about local government elections is finally over. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court finally broke the ice and agreed to a new election schedule for three provinces as suggested by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The National Assembly must be happy, and the ECP must have heaved a sigh of relief. Often, it appeared the body charged with holding the elections was caught in the crossfire between the judiciary and the legislature, both equally adamant. While the apex court insisted on elections at the earliest possible date, the lawmakers vented their spleen twice. Last week, and again on Tuesday, the National Assembly passed unanimous resolutions seeking a postponement of the elections and saying things that must have sounded quite unpalatable to some ears. Both resolutions spoke against a hurried job and pointed out that elections held in haste wouldn’t be fair and transparent and the results would be anything but credible. But Tuesday’s resolution was couched in strong language, and Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Ahmad Shah minced no words as he accused the judiciary obliquely of “stubbornness” and pleaded with it not to destroy “this institution”.. The judiciary’s concerns over the delay in holding LG elections were legitimate. During the 2008-13 era, none of the provincial governments led by the PPP, PML-N and ANP held LG polls, the debate focusing often on the need or otherwise of amending the laws made by the Musharraf government. Thus, while the superstructure had democratic trappings, elected bodies at the grass roots were missing. The situation was even worse in ‘garrison areas’, which have been without elected local bodies for 14 years. The relief now granted to the ECP must serve the cause of a transparent election well. Millions of ballot papers are to be printed and many constituencies to be delimited. This breather will also enable the political parties to gear up for LG elections, which they themselves never had the foresight to organise.
Dire straits: Cricket team’s dismal run THE Pakistan cricket team’s embarrassing run of defeats this year has thrown up serious questions about the future of the game in the country as the crisis deepens with each passing day. The team’s dismal run which began during the tour of South Africa in January this year, where Misbah-ul-Haq’s men bore the ignominy of a 3-0 whitewash in Test matches, has gone from bad to worse with only a couple of wins to show for nearly a dozen international matches played during this period. The unceremonious first round exit at the Champions Trophy in England in June, the humiliating Test loss against unranked Zimbabwe in Harare and the recent thumping at the hands of South Africa in the UAE have ruthlessly exposed the brittle foundations of Pakistan cricket. As opposed to the last many decades, observers of the game now appear convinced that cricketing talent in the country has all but dried up, and that no more top players are emerging from domestic cricket to provide a good back-up to the ageing brigade. While old warhorses like Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez and Imran Farhat have clearly struggled to provide Pakistan with the spine that had been the hallmark of their game in the past decade, newcomers such as Asad Shafiq, Umar Amin and Nasir Jamshed have not really lived up to expectations.. There are other drawbacks too. The defensive mindset of skipper Misbah and the perplexing failure of yet another foreign coach, Dav Whatmore, have irked both fans and experts. Needless to say, the legal wrangling in the PCB has compounded the problem. Nothing short of a drastic team overhaul and good governance at the top can rescue the game from its current predicament.
Pipeline ambiguity: Honouring commitments FINANCE Minister Ishaq Dar’s assertion on Wednesday that Tehran was backing out of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project by not giving Pakistan funds to proceed with the project has confused matters even more. Just a day earlier, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif said, during his visit to the US to attend a meeting on Pakistan’s energy needs, that completing the project was a “contractual obligation”. It is indeed. But Islamabad’s hemming and hawing — the result of US (and Saudi) pressure to not go ahead with the project and the risk of sanctions if it does — has made the Iranians justifiably impatient. Clarity is needed on the issue; that would only be fair to Iran — and the millions of Pakistanis who for some years now have been in the throes of a major energy crunch.. The fact of the matter is that, political considerations aside, the shortage of gas and electricity has become an unfortunate part of life in Pakistan, hence the state needs to grab hold of any feasible opportunity that presents itself to help it address the country’s energy woes. Oil is expensive, as is alternative energy, which also generates low output. Where viable power production is concerned, as things stand, gas and coal are our best options. Pakistan may have considerable coal reserves, but it has done little to exploit these and seems to have few intentions of doing so at the moment. Our gas reserves, meanwhile, are dwindling and this means we need to import the resource to keep the country’s economic engines running. As Khawaja Asif pointed out in Washington, since a contract has been signed with Tehran, Islamabad is under obligation to see it through; or else, it should be ready to face the consequences which will go beyond monetary penalties and extend to a worsening of the power situation in the country. Mr Ishaq Dar has talked of Iran not wanting to finance the project. The fact remains that while Iran has completed its side of the pipeline, Pakistan has still to begin construction at its end. Asking Iran to provide finances for the pipeline comes across as a stalling tactic, and it is Pakistan that must focus on raising these. Meanwhile, the US and those in the world community who oppose the project must understand Pakistan’s predicament and not create any obstructions in the pipeline’s completion. For its part, Islamabad needs to take a clear, bold position on the pipeline and put all ambiguities about its future to rest.
The real reason? QWP’s departure THE grand promise to purge the KP government of corruption could turn out to be a mere political ruse to get rid of unwanted allies. The PTI has thrown out the two KP ministers belonging to the Qaumi Watan Party ending an uneasy and short-lived partnership. The QWP is determined to not go out quietly, and there are some who point out that the real reason for the split could be the difference of opinion on political issues rather than allegations of corruption. It may be no coincidence that the parting of ways came just a week before the PTI’s scheduled blocking of the Nato supply route. Even though the truth is difficult to get to amid a plethora of allegations and counter-allegations, opposition to the Nato blockade by a coalition partner, the QWP, could have made it awkward for the PTI-led government. Imran Khan appears to be confident he has the numbers on his side in a house in which the PTI has 53 members out of a total strength of 124. But the mathematics apart, his praise for the JI ministers following the QWP sacking is reflective of his desire to be with ideologically compatible friends. . When Imran Khan made the pledge to dismiss corrupt ministers earlier this week, questions were raised as to how he could assign the job to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. As the head of the cabinet, Mr Khattak had been tasked to carry out an exercise that could stigmatise his government. Still, principally, Mr Khan’s statement was hailed. So much so that the more hopeful in the crowd hastily celebrated it as, even if partial, fulfilment of the PTI’s flaunted dream for change. That hope has since been tempered by the demands of realpolitik and the much-trumpeted campaign against corruption is liable to be seen as discriminatory. The PTI might ultimately move to inspect and clean up its own stables, but that’s for the future. For the moment it must brace itself for a counter-attack projecting it as an agent of no-change dressed in pious clothing.
Unclear move: Interest rate increase WHILE increasing the cost of borrowing by 50bps to 10pc, the State Bank of Pakistan has in its monetary policy statement also raised market expectations of a further hike of 1-2 percentage points in interest rates by the end of the present fiscal. The bank insists that higher credit rates are necessary to maintain price and exchange rate stability. It, however, remains unclear how such a meagre increase will keep prices from spiralling up or the rupee from declining. The price inflation of the last four and a half months is the direct outcome of the government’s fiscal policies — increase in electricity tariffs, the resort to excessive indirect taxation, etc and external factors such as higher global oil prices. Similarly, the weakening exchange rate is linked to the fast declining foreign exchange reserves of external official and private flows and certain prerequisites of the new $6.6bn loan from the IMF. If the higher credit cost could successfully counter inflation and strengthen the rupee, the bank would not have hesitated to push the credit price substantially to, say, 11-11.5pc. Apparently, the decision has been prompted by IMF pressure prior to the disbursement of the second loan tranche of $550m.. Whereas the positive impact of higher interest rates is unclear, the SBP decision anticipates a significant surge in public debt, an increase in fiscal pressure on the budget, a reversal, albeit slight, in the recent uptick in private credit, and decline in fixed investment, etc. The tight monetary policy hasn’t been successful in tackling inflation or exchange rate volatility in recent years. Few expect it to pay off now. The government will have to revisit its fiscal policies to deal with the challenges — slow growth, high deficit, inflation, etc. And that will entail wide-ranging tax and expenditure reforms.
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On partisan grounds By Umair Javed RECENT academic research by Zahid Hasnain, Ali Cheema, and others, on local development spending in Pakistan shows that outlays made by politicians are hardly ever needs-based and almost always patronage-driven with the explicit view to securing electoral blocs for re-election.. It goes without saying that a country facing a whole host of development challenges — many which need to be resolved through local political processes — can’t really afford such crass patronage politics. The good thing is that all four provincial governments, by passing legislation of varying quality, have shown some intent of holding local government elections in the next few months. The only issue left, and one closely linked to distortionary development spending, is whether the Punjab government will comply with court orders and amend Section 18 of its existing act to ensure polls on a political party basis. The PPP, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the PML-Q, and a group of civil society actors had taken the government to court on the premise that non-party polls are undemocratic. They have a point here, which the Lahore High Court has very recently upheld. But more than the polemics and the sloganeering of democracy versus Sharifocracy, there is also a very strong development-related argument to be made in favour of party-based polls. Part of the reason why Pakistan has seen such an entrenchment of patronage-based politics — one that is so obviously distortionary in its development outlay — is because political parties, as organisations, are weaker than individual candidates at the bottom tier. It is also why dictators, or dictator-propped parties, with vague, or non-existent grass-roots level entrenchment — think PML-Q in 2002 — prefer that candidates prove their mettle by winning in non-party polls. It saves them the hassle of deciding who rides their ticket, and it allows them to carve out majorities of their own liking in district councils. The counterpoint, ie the benefit to democracy of party-based local government elections, is that they help in strengthening political parties as coherent, hierarchical institutions — which they currently aren’t. This basically means that while the electorate can identify personalities at the top, and in some cases, in the middle of each party, the general connection with, and recognition of, locality-specific office-bearers is non-existent. Sure, people know who functions as an election-time ‘tout’ for which party, but there’s a persistent information gap in terms of who to go to for issue-based representation, or for the purpose of lobbying after a general election. By having fixed, designated office-bearers, holding political office — councillor, naib-nazim, nazim — at the lowest tier, political parties will be opening themselves up to a much wider, and much more frequent engagement with the electorate. Following from that and the larger point of addressing development challenges through politics, weak party organisation at the local tier — both a cause and result of non-party based polls — encourages politicians to engage in flashy, strategic spending that doesn’t really address core development problems. For instance, in a non-party election, aspirants would like voters, especially those who can influence other voters, to see and hear about the tangible work they’ve done. In other words, re-soling a street in otherwise usable condition, repairing the boundary wall of a school actually suffering from teacher absence, or influencing public-sector employee recruitment, take precedence over improving teacher attendance rates, increasing child enrolment, or ensuring presence of medical staff at a local Basic Health Unit. This is largely because local spending isn’t linked to any larger party programme or manifesto that the provincial or federal government might wish to implement, and subsequently take credit for. What’s confusing (and I guess at one level, telling) is that this preference of local mohalla kingpins exists despite the PML-N repeatedly stressing its commitment to improving the state of social sector service delivery in Punjab. The party leadership holds forth on tackling issues plaguing primary and secondary education, and basic health, in the province, and has formed many a ‘strategic’ partnership with DFID, the World Bank, and other development partners. What they seem to miss, through default or design, is that their entire agenda of implementation hinges on a creaking, heavily compromised provincial bureaucracy coupled with ad hoc, executive-ordered measures of accountability. There’s no political ownership of these initiatives at the local level, no source of social accountability, and almost no input from the people at the receiving end of delivery failures. In fact, any lessons learnt (if at all) from the process of making MPAs publicly responsible for dengue eradication in their constituencies two years ago seem to have been discarded or ignored in the design of this new local government system. The 2013 general elections saw a sharp, albeit still small, rise in the importance of ‘party brand and message’ over individual candidate performance. It explains why many patronage politicians lost National Assembly seats, and why the PML-N was able to secure a larger-than-expected haul. Bringing that recognition and messaging down to the local level will encourage politicians to actively compete for party tickets. In the presence of a choice of candidates, parties will discard those candidates that are less successful in implementing initiatives taken by the provincial government, or those who cause harm to the party image by engaging in targeted, wasteful expenditure. While, admittedly, such explications offer an abstract, ideal form of party-based governance, they do provide a blueprint worth working towards. The PTI and PPP deserve lots of credit for their intention to signal a break from past practice and carry out local body polls on partisan grounds in their respective provinces. The PML-N, who’ve played an important role in the existing democratic transition, and have often talked about the ills of dictatorships, should take similar initiative to shun this particularly troublesome legacy of past misadventures. The writer is a freelance columnist. umairjaved87@gmail.com
Terms of engagement By Munir Akram WHEN a US drone killed Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s interior minister proclaimed it had killed the chances of negotiating peace with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).. In fact, Pakistani reactions to this event have laid bare the confusion and contradictions within Pakistan on policy towards the TTP and security policy in general. The TTP is an umbrella group of jihadist organisations with elements of the Mehsud tribe at its core. It is credited with the killing of hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and thousands of civilians. By all accounts, Hakeemullah Mehsud was a particularly vicious killer, resorting to gruesome beheadings of Pakistani security personnel and attacks that slaughtered men, women and children indiscriminately. The TTP is involved in all forms of criminal activity: drugs, kidnapping, extortion. Notably, its shock troops are Uzbeks and Chechens. Hakeemullah Mehsud’s relative was recently caught by US forces in Afghanistan plotting with Afghan intelligence to escalate terrorist operations against Pakistan. Could Indian intelligence have been far behind? Thus, while the government’s pro forma protest against US violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty was de rigeur, Pakistani leaders should have been pleased with the elimination of this vicious enemy of the state. Instead, we witnessed the interior minister’s outburst, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader’s threat to close US transit through Pakistan, and the call by one of his party members to shoot down US drones. The defence ministry, on the other hand, reported that, incredulously, there had been no civilian casualties from recent US drone strikes. There could be various explanations for these incoherent responses: playing to the popular hostility towards the US; avoiding being outflanked by political rivals; fear of the TTP’s revenge; a genuine, if naive, belief that negotiations with the TTP can lead to peace. Negotiating peace with the TTP will be nigh impossible within the present parameters. Firstly, the TTP’s demands — for (Sunni) Sharia rule in Pakistan and the creation of an Islamic Emirate in Pakistan and Afghanistan — are not negotiable. We had a glimpse of such rule when the TTP controlled Swat. Even partial acceptance of the TTP’s demands would negate the basis on which Pakistan was created. It would prevent Pakistan from emerging as a modern country. Second, the experience of negotiating with the TTP has not been a happy one. Accords with the Mehsuds in South Waziristan and with Mullah Fazlullah in Swat were failures. Each such arrangement resulted in emboldening the extremists. In Swat, the torture inflicted by the TTP was so abhorrent that public sentiment called for intervention by the armed forces. Many lives, soldiers and civilians, had to be sacrificed in the subsequent military operations to undo the ‘peace’ negotiated with Fazlullah. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is one definition of madness. Third, Mullah Fazlullah, upon assuming the mantle of the TTP’s leadership, has rejected negotiations. The last elected Awami National Party government in Peshawar pressed for negotiations and its leaders lived (or rather, died) to rue their decision. Finally, negotiations cannot succeed unless they are pursued from a position of strength. The TTP’s response to appeals for negotiations from the governments in Islamabad and Peshawar has been to escalate attacks, including the murder of PTI leaders, a church bombing and the assassination of a general. Lessons should be learned from some recent examples of successful counter-insurgency operations, such as in Sri Lanka and Colombia. The present elected leadership should evolve a coherent counter-insurgency and counterterrorism strategy, perhaps within the Defence Committee of the Cabinet. This strategy should incorporate what I would call, the six Ds for success. One, dictation. The government should set out the parameters for negotiations, including: acceptance of the Constitution, surrender of all heavy arms, expulsion of foreigners within the TTP, end to collaboration with external powers. It should not allow the TTP to set the agenda. Two, defeat. The TTP must be put on the defensive. Unlike the foreign forces in Afghanistan, the Pakistan Army has the numbers and capability to conduct multiple and simultaneous operations to kill or capture TTP militants in Fata, Swat, Peshawar and Karachi. It should be authorised by the civilian government to do so. Three, division. The TTP is an association of extremist groups. Under military pressure, and with appropriate incentives and disincentives, some of these groups or elements within them will accept the government’s terms. It will be easier to deal with the smaller number of insurgents. Four, decapitation. Groups depend on leadership. Charismatic leaders are not easy to replace. Those TTP leaders who remain recalcitrant would be legitimate targets for elimination. Pakistan’s security forces should acquire the capabilities to conduct such operations. We can then stop complaining about US intervention. Five, demotivation. The TTP’s rank and file and some of its leaders can be persuaded by ‘carrots and sticks’ to disengage from their violent course. The state has vast reserves of both. Six, deradicalisation. Now that Pakistan’s military ‘alliance’ with the US is ending, there is no ideological justification for the attacks on the Pakistani state. Over the longer term, many of those amenable to the TTP’s brand of extremism can be turned to more positive paths through education, jobs and other opportunities. This has been tried with some success elsewhere. There is, of course, an external dimension which must be addressed. Islamabad will have to convince Kabul to end its collaboration with TTP elements. In turn, Pakistan will need to cooperate more actively to promote reconciliation between Afghanistans fighting factions, including the Afghan Taliban. If the present elected leaders in Pakistan are able to execute such a coherent and effective security policy, it will open the doors to foreign and domestic investment, economic growth and employment generation. It will reinforce democracy. If it fails, extremism, violence and terrorism will spread further in Pakistan, turning it into an Iraq or Syria and, ultimately, either an Egypt or Somalia. This is a moment for rational determination; not hyperbole and hysteria. The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.
The fear factor By Cyril Almeida YES, OK, we get it. The pols really, really want to talk to the Taliban. The Taliban really don’t want to talk to anyone. And this will end pretty much how it looks like it will end.. Watching from the sidelines, it can all seem very confusing. If one side is crazy and self-destructive and threatening to take everyone down with it, why can’t the other side push back? Why is one side always so quiet, always ceding so much space to even the mainstream enablers and sympathisers of the Taliban? After all, there’re some pretty good, fairly obvious, hard-to-refute talking points available. Like: seriously, you think Islam can be in danger in a country where 98pc of the population is Muslim? Eid is always going to be a national holiday, mosques will exist in every neighbourhood and public life will always have a distinctly Muslim character. Relax. Like: no one has any interest, at all, ever, in thwarting anyone from being religious in any way they like. Pick the length of beard that works for you, the size of veil you want for yourself — just stop wanting to determine the length of some girls’ sleeves, and what some folk pour down their throat. It’s a conservative society; everyone gets that and is OK with it. Like: you know how one moment you’re bashing the West for being secular and the next for being Christian or Jewish? Exactly! It’s both. The Muslim character of Pakistan is in its DNA. See: 98pc of the population. It’s possible to be both. But you never get to hear any of that. Want to know why? Fear. Imagine you’re on a talk show. The usual suspects from the right are yammering on about the usual: warmongering liberals; poor, misunderstood Taliban; the great deviant nation that Pakistan has become thanks to the godless secularists; more — austere — religion the answer to everything. Now you’re sitting there and thinking, God, I can’t take this anymore, I’m going to say what I think. So you launch into your pretty good, fairly obvious, hard-to-refute talking points. They listen quietly, for a minute perhaps. Then it happens. There is much shock and horror and anguish on their faces. Some anger too maybe. But what you’re saying is against Islam, they cry. Game over. You protest; you say that’s a distortion of what you’re saying; you repeat what you had said, slowly, spelling it out this time — but none of it matters. Because it’s already game over. They don’t have to accuse you of a crime. They don’t have to say you’ve committed blasphemy. Hell, they don’t even have to say what you’ve said is wrong; they could just accuse you of not showing enough respect or deference to religion. But what you’re saying is against Islam, they will cry — or maybe even just allude. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you’ll start worrying about someone putting a bullet in the back of your head when you leave that studio. Maybe just one of those ubiquitous armed guards watching on a TV outside. So you decide not to go on the talk show. Instead, you decide to go out to dinner, leaving the usual suspects on TV to yammer on about the usual unchallenged. But fear isn’t that easy a fella to shake off. You’re at the restaurant now, chatting to friends and enjoying a good meal. Because the usual suspects are always yammering on unchallenged on TV, everyone’s always talking about them. Even your friends. Ah, but you’ve got your pretty good, fairly obvious, hard-to-refute talking points, and it’s a friendly audience anyway. So you decide to launch into them. Except first you glance at the adjacent tables and size up whoever is within earshot. You never did this before. Your favourite restaurant was an oasis. But now you never know. Fear. He’s a difficult fella to shake off. So you decide not to go the restaurant. Instead, you stay at home and watch the usual suspects yammering on about the usual on TV unchallenged. And what you hear makes you more fearful. But fear only explains why one side doesn’t push back. There’s a trick the other side — the mainstream enablers and sympathisers of the Taliban — plays that makes them so successful. They are driven by a deep, profound, unshakeable sense that they are the aggrieved party. That they are the ones who are under pressure from the other side. That they are the ones who have to fight to be heard. That the structures of state and society conspire to silence and intimidate them. That they are plucky upstarts fighting against a godless, secular, religion-hating behemoth. That they are the ones fighting against the odds. That the side of the right is always destined to struggle against the more powerful side of the wrong. It is a most remarkable thing to behold: one side fearful of a bullet to the back of the head; the other adamant that it is the underdog. So we have this silliness about talks instead. The pols really, really want to talk to the Taliban. The Taliban really don’t want to talk to anyone. And this will end pretty much how it looks like it will end. Just don’t expect to hear much about why. The writer is a member of staff. cyril.a@gmail.com Twitter: @cyalm
Naked face By Hajrah Mumtaz FOR good reason is William Golding’s 1954 dystopian novel Lord of the Flies considered amongst the most in-sightful works of the modern age.. It is a remarkable exploration of how human impulses conflict with the urge to aspire towards civilisation. This need is undercut by humanity’s simultaneous need and greed for power, individualism and self-interest. As each new horror unfolds, the lesson is unmistakable: moment to moment, humanity’s capability for savagery and cruelty — its heart of darkness, so to speak — must wilfully be overcome by the rational, ethical impulse, and the ability to do so is perhaps humankind’s greatest trait. The book imagines a group of boys marooned on an island. Most of them are strangers to each other, and while they start off as well-educated children making a good effort to coexist, they soon hurtle down a spiral of savagery. Far from civilisation, they regress to a primitive level, committing acts of awfulness that would have been thought beyond the ken of schoolboys and choirboys. All the characters in the book are boys, either in middle childhood or preadolescence. The only even slightly adult-type voice is that of Piggy, who quotes his aunt frequently, serving in the book as a tool to remind the children of what the rules of civilisation were and how far behind they have left it. Piggy is also the character whose pitiful, violent death serves to remind readers of the end of innocence, to look deep within themselves and fear. There’s a reason I provide this précis of a book that I hope most people would have read: there’s a reason why Golding might have chosen young boys as his characters. It’s important that they are all preadolescent; some argue that it’s because children that age are not understood as being good or bad, that they are as yet untainted by the awareness, even cynicism, that comes with adolescence and adulthood. I disagree. I think the writer might have chosen this age group because childhood, for all its wondrousness, is also a time of incredible self-interest. Anyone who has spent any time around a child, or better still studied interaction between a group of them, will attest to that. At root perhaps, but certainly in the first few years of life, the human being is almost entirely selfish and will take the most obvious route to getting what he or she wants. Without the direct intention, perhaps, that can be ascribed to an adult, children can be remarkably cruel. Empathy, sympathy, the difference between right and wrong, these are all emotions — the building blocks of civilisation — that are the domain of more mature minds, more intricate thinking abilities. Children have no rules; they are made to learn them — in most cases in the face of strong resistance, I’ve heard many parents argue. The more complex emotions come even later: pity, compassion, mercy, etc are linked to experience and circumstance. Fortunately, children grow into decently sensitised adults and civilisation as we recognise it rubs along, on the whole. But what happens if the circumstances under which a child is growing are such that he’s seen nothing but violence and death, and has not had the opportunity — or, perhaps, walked away from such opportunities — to familiarise himself with emotions such as mercy and compassion? Perhaps you get peddlers of hate and destruction such as the individuals who comprise the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The crimes various members and factions of this hydra-headed monster have committed are so barbaric as to be beyond the imagination of anyone who considers themselves civilised: burnings and beheadings? Public hangings and bodies strung up from lampposts? (Of course death is death and the euphemistic terms that self-proclaimed bastions of civilisation use to mask murder, “surgical strike”, for instance, or “collateral damage”, are no more defendable; still, that a Swat intersection saw so many bodies as to be renamed khooni, or bloodied chowk is appalling.) In the case of the Afghan Taliban that took over the country during the 1990s, the predominant age was in the 20s and early 30s. The foot soldiers were the children of war, born and raised and steeped in violence. Perhaps the same argument can be made, now, for many of the conductors of chaos here. Consider the two TTP names most recently in the news: Hakeemullah Mehsud was not yet 35 when he died; Mullah Fazlullah is 39. The former was born the year the Soviets invaded and the ‘jihad’ rhetoric started taking shape; the latter was in his impressionable 20s when the World Trade Centre was brought down. One’s experience of adulthood was in the post 9/11, awash with blood, Pakistan; the other was 33 when he took over Swat. Further, the TTP is fuelled by men who, as is much discussed, received a madressah education. Whatever else that implies, here’s a basic ground reality: they were students who at a young age found themselves removed from a family setting — removed from contact with mothers, sisters, etc — and placed in an all-male environment devoid of any of the softer, empathy-creating things or situations in life. So why would we expect people of this ilk to have any veneer of civilisation, to even have the impulse to cover their naked ambition and bloodlust with any sort of fig leaf? Why would they understand why it’s not ok to shoot a child, or that women have rights? The incredible thing, in fact, is this: the murderers are absolutely clear about their pitilessness and their appetite for violence; how insane an entity is Pakistani society that it nevertheless refuses to recognise them for what they are and keeps thinking of them in terms such as ‘wayward’ or ‘misguided’? The writer is a member of staff. hajrahmumtaz@gmail.com
Reclaiming Pakistan By Babar Sattar THE grand narrative hatched by our elected representatives in confronting the challenge of terrorism is this: the life and security of Pakistanis is either at the mercy of the US or the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). . That if the yanks keep provoking our terrorists, our lives and security will remain a legitimate target for the TTP. But if the yanks back off and let terrorists in Pakistan alone, the TTP will not be provoked into killing innocent Pakistanis and there will be peace. How does one explain the absolute abdication of responsibility by our elected representatives for the lives and future of Pakistanis? In other nations would leaders get away with holding a foreign country primarily responsible for the death of thousands of citizens, police officials and soldiers admittedly killed by fellow countrymen (other than Afghanistan of course that holds the ISI responsible for everything)? The US might be the big bad wolf it is made out to be, but its elected leaders have sworn no oath to protect the lives or interests of Pakistanis. And what is the great vision of our leaders for a secure and prosperous Pakistan? Let’s unite in hatred for the US in order to become a nation. You need to be no conspiracy monger to understand the US position. Post 9/11 the US resolved to take the war to enemies who had expressed the intent to attack the US and its citizens. Leaving aside the question of legitimacy, the US pre-emptive self-defence doctrine is built upon the idea of exterminating enemies before they are able to carry out attacks against the US. Al Qaeda is one such enemy, and the TTP is its joint venture partner, primarily focused on capturing the state of Pakistan but in the process also working with and providing sanctuary to Al Qaeda. So long as there is territory within Pakistan that the Pakistani state has no control over and that is used by terrorists to plan and execute attacks against the US, the US will keep droning them with or without Pakistan’s consent. And even if we cry ourselves hoarse about it, we will get no sympathy or support from the world because in an age where non-state actors have emerged as a key threat to state security, our friends and enemies alike are worried sick about our tolerance for non-state actors that have the ability and the desire to carry out attacks beyond our borders. A majority of terror incidents that make international headlines find some link back to Pakistan. If we were nurturing terrorists that were only attacking segments of our society, we might have had a point, no matter how morbid, to proclaim the sovereign right and freedom to deal with an internal menace as we please. If we raise the issue of illegality and immorality of the drone internationally in the context of killing of innocent women and children, the world might express sympathy and support for our concern and anger. But when we froth at the mouth for breach of sovereignty in the aftermath of a vicious terrorist such as an OBL being found and hunted within our territory by the US or a Hakeemullah being droned, the world gasps in horror over our disconnect with sanity and our disregard for the security concerns of other states and that of our own citizens. The drumming up of hatred and anger by our leaders for the evil world led by infidel America in the context of our domestic anti-terror debate cannot be explained away as misplaced nationalism or injured pride. What kind of a nation are we where a Munawar Hasan can condemn soldiers defending the flag and sacrificing their lives fighting ruthless terrorists as pawns of a foreign state, and declare the ringleader of terrorists to be a martyr even when his declared object was to attack the state, its soldiers and citizens into submission? By appointing Fazlullah as its new head, the TTP has tried to slap out of confusion those of us who believe that terrorism is simply a tribal response to drones and will wither away once strikes end and the US withdraws its troops from Afghanistan. But the TTP’s reality check might not be enough. What we are witnessing is our internal one-man’s-terrorist-is-another-man’s-freedom-fighter moment. We are a confused nation because we are not sure if militants killing our soldiers and citizens in the name of Islam and its glory are terrorists or freedom fighters. The TTP suffers no such confusion. Anyone who supports and defends the system of governance established under our Constitution and accepts the existing nation-state system and the international order under it is an apostate who deserves no mercy. If we wish to survive as a nation, we will need to make up our minds about our terrorists and our freedom fighters. We can quarrel over matters of detail, but we will need to agree on the foundational basis of our nationalism. In this conversation with ourselves we will need to revisit what we think Pakistan stands for and its ambition as a nation-state. Standing up for the interests of Pakistan where they conflict with those of the US is one thing, but punching above our weight and declaring ‘death to America’ as the purpose of our existence is quite another. Do we wish to create a Sunni theocratic state that will use force and terror to expand its territory in an effort to realise the dream of a pan-Islamic mega-empire dominating the world? Or do we wish to be an inclusive pluralist state comfortable in its skin and focused on realising the true potential of its citizens as a means to rising in the global hierarchy of states? Do we wish to be a state where Muslims, Christians and Hindus might be equally Pakistani, or one where Shias will need to pay jizya and concern for Muslims around the world will trump that for non-Muslims at home? Munawar Hasan and others of his ilk have picked their side. It is time for the rest of us to pick ours or fall in line. The writer is a lawyer. sattar@post.harvard.edu Twitter: @babar_sattar
Beyond law and order By Mohammad Ali Babakhel IT is time for Pakistan to devise a strategy to integrate counter terrorism functions with traditional policing.. In response to the escalation in acts of terrorism, the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced the formation of anti-terrorism forces. This decision is, in itself, a realisation that anti-terrorism is a specialised field. The other aspect of this decision is that political ownership is associated with the initiative. Universally, the police are the first line of defence. Dr Kalev I. Sepp, a senior lecturer in defence analysis who authored Best Practices in Counterinsurgency, studied 17 insurgencies and stressed that the police need to be in the lead role. Similarly, a study regarding counterinsurgency campaigns in Malaya and Cyprus also concluded that the police play an effective role. Civilian law-enforcement agencies have poor capacity to detect and fight militancy, which has convinced the Punjabgovernment to establish a new wing to counter terrorism. The Punjab anti-terrorism force (ATF) will be a highly paid force with initial induction of 500 personnel. Their training is to be completed by February 2014 and the force will have helicopters at its disposal. Provincial police organisations have, in the past, taken a number of initiatives to combat terrorism. Nevertheless, today there is no province that does not face this foe. Therefore, there is a dire need for a synchronised, standardised and well-coordinated approach. In 1995, the Criminal Investigation Department was created by the Punjab police and it operated under the CID manual of 1937. During a surge in sectarian extremism, the CID Punjab did exceedingly well regarding its mission, the placement of professional talent and political ownership. In 2010, the CID Punjab was renamed the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), with the exclusive mission to fight terrorism. The CTD claims having completed the indexation of 42,800 militant and sectarian activists, having placed 2,120 sectarian activists on the 4th schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and having arrested 634 proclaimed sectarian offenders. The ATF can be regarded as the operational wing of the CTD which it had until now been lacking. In 1985, during the Afghan war, the then NWFP police raised a CID police force. Its mandate was to collect intelligence, investigate and conduct special operations. However, in the mid-90s it lost its original mandate. In 2009, the CID was renamed the Directorate of Counter-Terrorism. The DCT KP police claims to have completed the indexation of 12,056 militants. Now, there is a plan to rename the organisation and review its mandate; the KP police intends to entrust the DCT with operational and investigation responsibilities. In 1997, the introduction of an Elite Force was a step towards reinforcing the Punjab police. Much before that, in 1981 the Balochistan police introduced the Anti-Terrorist Squad converted to the Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) which comprises 11 wings with 900 personnel. In 2009 the Sindh police introduced its Rapid Response Force with an initial 2,000 personnel. Neither the Police Act of 1861 nor the Police Order 2002 contains any reference to the role of the police in counterterrorism. Article 160 of the Police Order authorises the National Police Management Board to carry out research on terrorism. However, it also highlights the need for hiring experts in the police. Effective counterterrorism requires the assistance of experts in fields such as information technology, explosives, chemicals, and cyber technology. However, our police departments appear reluctant to hire experts. Recruitment is the first step that requires fairness. The recruitment criterion for an anti-terrorist force has to be rigid and different from the recruitment process for police stations. If terrorists can hunt out the best ‘talent’, why have we failed to do the same? We could make effective recruitments but this requires missionary zeal and a selfless approach. A professional anti-terrorism force requires state-of-the-art training facilities. Pakistan needs to set up more exclusive training facilities. An elite training school in counterterrorism training is active in Bedian, Lahore, while the joint elite training school of the KP police in Nowshera will be operational by the end of 2013. A few countries have opted for the proactive approach and equipped themselves to respond to security threats. In 2009, Jordan took the lead in partnership with the US and established the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre which claims to be the most sophisticated counterterrorism training facility in the world. Training plays a decisive role in counterterrorism. Focus on a few physical exercises and being able to hit the target at the firing range will not serve the purpose. Pakistan needs to design such courses keeping in view its past failures and the best practices adopted by international law enforcement agencies. As the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said: “If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.” In the 1980s increased terrorist attacks compelled the Sri Lankan government to notify a special committee to assess the counterterrorism capacity of its police force. The Ranasinghe Committee report concluded that the police could not be effective in combating terrorism and recommended the establishment of a special task force. The new force was initially trained at an army training facility. Keeping in view Sri Lanka’s success, Pakistan must first assess the capabilities of its police force and then design training and capacity-building regimens accordingly. Performance assessment is another weak link in our law-enforcement apparatus and therefore promotions have to be linked with tangible performance indicators. In the past, the augmentation of the numerical strength of personnel remained the prime focus. This compromised capacity building, infrastructure development and the introduction of technology-led initiatives. The recruitment of quality talent, continuous training and its exclusive utilisation for counterterrorism will yield dividends. The writer is a deputy inspector general of the police. alibabakhel@hotmail.com
The law disconnect By Basil Nabi Malik AN associate justice of the US Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, once said, “The impetus for the changes [in legal education] is the sense that what has been taught and how it has been taught may be embarrassingly disconnected from what anybody does.” . It is this statement that comes to mind when one thinks of the state of legal education in Pakistan. Pakistani law, although based on a common law tradition, has been consistently infused with Islamic concepts coupled with local cultural, economic and social considerations. Hence, over time, in attempting to reconcile the complications in assimilating variant traditions, unique questions and issues have arisen. In order to address these local issues, development of home-grown jurisprudence is imperative. However, this has seldom been understood. Legal education in Pakistan centres on local programmes dealing with domestic laws and external programmes solely educating students about foreign legal systems. Completing either one of the two programmes makes one eligible to be considered for enrolment as an advocate. Although the local programmes attempt to teach local statutes and concepts, several factors have taken away from the development of jurisprudence peculiar to domestic affairs. Firstly, minimal pay scales and lack of permanent faculties in most institutes or universities have severely hampered the ability of academia to dedicate sufficient time to research and develop legal concepts from a Pakistani perspective. As most faculty members in law departments or schools are full-time practitioners and part-time teachers, the whole concept of a separate academia dedicated to jurisprudence as opposed to procedural practicalities is non-existent. Furthermore, the quality of teachers and the curriculum also leaves a lot to be desired, and essentially is only meant to cram certain basic knowledge into the minds of students as opposed to challenging them to think for themselves. The sluggishness of the Pakistan Bar Council as well as the Higher Education Commission in attempting to set quality standards have added to the issues in imparting quality legal education. Therefore, in light of the sorry state of affairs of most local programmes, legal education has seen a mushrooming of external programmes at local institutes, often described as ‘tuition centres’. Although they suffer from many of the same issues of local programmes, external programmes offer one singular advantage: perceived credibility. However, while the perception of credibility may convince students to matriculate in such programmes, their overall effect, or lack thereof, on the development of local laws cannot be highlighted enough. These external programmes, although designed to have the opposite effect, nudge students to rely on tried and tested formulas to secure the maximum number of marks without recourse to innovation or creativity in legal thinking. Furthermore, the sole focus of such programmes on foreign legal systems and their research techniques seldom used in Pakistan also point to the severity of the disconnect between what is being taught and what is relevant for the field in question. In a nutshell, the external programmes seem to focus on addressing issues and problems unique to foreign systems, so much so that graduates, although quite talented, are, ironically, out of their depth when it comes to starting a legal career under a local system, which ironically, is quite alien to them. In fact, the said graduates enter the local system learning the tricks of the trade through trial and error, sometimes at the expense of clients. Although no short-term solution is in the offing, certain measures may drastically be taken so as to arrest the criminal lack of focus on local laws and jurisprudence. In fact, the Supreme Court had already taken a step in that direction as far back as 2007 by, amongst other things, directing a special committee to propose recommendations for improving curriculum and the standards of legal education in Pakistan. However, and unfortunately, to date, the exercise appears to be a work in progress. That said, any such set of proposals may benefit from concentration on the importance of well-rewarded permanent faculty dedicated to academic pursuits. Universities and institutes must be set up and maintained with the objective of being research universities utilising the Socratic method of teaching to enhance the quality of students being generated each year. Legal education must be uniform throughout the country, and not be separated into local and external programmes. In fact, as noted, any programme which essentially focuses on a foreign legal system without any mention of or concentration on local jurisprudence should be discouraged. If practical considerations deter the conversion of such programmes into local ones, at the very least, it should be proposed that a minimum number of courses imparting knowledge of local laws and concepts, including clinical legal education, may be made compulsory so as to familiarise such students with the Pakistani legal system. These steps won’t resolve all issues afflicting legal education in Pakistan. However, they can be an initial move towards legal education reforms. It may be noted that although education as a whole has been neglected by the corridors of power, the absolute lack of interest in legal education has been appalling, especially considering that legal education is the bedrock on which a strong, independent legal structure is erected and advanced. It is time that the pertinent authorities/bodies, such as the Pakistan Bar Council, realise that the actual battle for the rule of law lies not on the streets, but in our universities. The writer is a lawyer. basil.nabi@gmail.com Twitter:@basilnabi
Challenge of imbalances By Shahid Kardar INFLATION is certainly a challenge today but then growth is a bigger challenge. With the latter are associated issues of employment, savings, investment, trade, external capital inflows and the overall balance of payments situation. . Striking the right balance between growth and inflation will facilitate supply improvements, thereby addressing both the fiscal imbalance and inflation in the medium term. Similarly, there is a need to balance the requirement for low interest rates to stimulate investment activity and thereby growth and high interest rates to defend the exchange rate and attract capital inflows. All this is not an easy task by any means. It will continue to require directional perseverance that is difficult to sustain in the face of external factors beyond our control and the limited life spans of elected governments. It will also need a great deal of imagination, more research for innovation on what can work and fine-tuning of strategies, policies and instruments going forward, and, of course, the patient support of our donors like the IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Most serious analysts would rightly argue that the structural drag on Pakistan’s economic growth and the country’s budgetary dilemmas can only be addressed over time through deep-seated fundamental reforms. The technocratic solutions to our problems are well known. The issue is how we implement them even in the medium to long term by achieving and managing the balance argued above. Admittedly, the test of the deftness and acumen of leadership lies in creating an environment in which a constituency for reforms can flourish over time. The reality at present is that there is no constituency for serious reform, considering the long slog out of this valley of despair and the pain that will have to be administered to correct these wrenching imbalances — albeit on the basis of the ability of different social classes to bear this burden of adjustment. How will these fundamental reforms be launched and who will launch them? It is chronically difficult to tell home truths to people whose votes have been courted, especially if the leadership itself is not seen to be tightening its belt while expecting the rest of the population to tighten its own. Moreover, most of us are not aware that sacrifices will have to be more broad-based than hitherto realised. The top 5pc account for, at best, 12pc to 15pc of the national income. Therefore, some contribution will be required from households earning Rs20,000 per month. How do you get traction for such adjustments when the leadership and richer segments of society are seen as not just enjoying luxurious living but also successfully resisting any change to it? Especially if much of their lifestyle is at the expense of those being asked to forgo some improvement in their own lives that they have attained after prolonged hard work and effort? Resultantly, each economic group or social class is seen to be blaming others for the mess we find ourselves in. They contend that while they are bearing more than their fair share of the burden of a bloated, corrupted state structure, it is other interest groups that need to contribute more to the running of the state and the creation of a more equitable, just social order. While all this is critical, a huge employment challenge faces the country. Every month there are 250,000 new entrants to the labour force, a majority of whom are ill-equipped in terms of marketable education and skills. These youngsters, who represent our much-mentioned demographic dividend, need jobs if we are to avoid social unrest. Without productive non-agricultural employment, they will add to the hordes of visible unemployed youth roaming in our neighbourhoods. They aspire to a good lifestyle, for which they are prepared to adopt whatever means necessary to acquire it. Without meaningful jobs they will earn a living by joining the gangs of touts, petty brokers, criminals, smugglers, etc. Those who are able to muster some funds will pay a bribe to get a job in the police, land, labour or some other government department and then fleece the ordinary public to recover the bribe they paid. Apparently, this fear kept Deng Xiaoping sleepless at night and helped launch the Chinese economic miracle. Another daunting challenge is presented by the widening disparities between the rich and the poor. This, combined with strong perceptions of growing relative poverty and slowing down in the availability of job opportunities, is damaging social harmony. The benefits of economic development during the previous decade have largely accrued to the richer and more educated because the bulk of this growth was witnessed in the relatively skill-intensive sectors of finance, telecommunications, IT and oil and gas, and also in the capital-intensive industries of cement, motor vehicles and motorcycles. Those with limited skills, the majority of the labour force, could not participate meaningfully. Moreover, future employment growth under liberalisation will increasingly depend on skilled labour, and the resource requirements (both financial and human) for the creation of such skills will be massive. With growing capital intensity of production processes and the attempt to make gains from the economies of scale, simply to remain competitive, it will be difficult to maintain even current rates of employment let alone absorb huge additions to the potential labour force with limited skills. It is neither desirable nor feasible to separate economic growth from distributional outcomes since they are inextricably linked through employment growth. Therefore, despite budgetary constraints and difficulties of raising tax revenues in a slow growth environment, for political and social stability there will have to be special efforts to stimulate growth, and tweaking of spending priorities to launch initiatives to help such groups (through, say, public works programmes and direct cash grants/transfers). This would thereby reduce the worst levels of poverty and ensure inclusive growth. Admittedly, this is easier said than done, considering the formidable constraints and the magnitude of financing that would be required to even make a marginal dent in the fate of those living in extreme poverty. The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Control of the narrative By Khadim Hussain THE emerging narrative in Pakistan, especially in the Punjabi mainland and the urban centres of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, shows that the militant discourse is fast moving from social to state control. . The discourse constitutes a zeal for war against everything that is different or at variance with the cultural, political and social domains. It manifests itself in the collective desire of mostly middle-income, urban groups to shape a homogenous world. Diversity appears inimical to this discourse. Isolation from and conflict with the states of the region and the wider world is at its core. The mainstream electronic media, social media, right-wing and religio-political parties, apart from militant groups themselves, seem to be vying with one another in propagating the elements of this discourse out of compromise, complicity or fear, or all of these. The popular narrative of the militant discourse is quite clearly indicated in the response to the elimination of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud in a recent drone strike. Although the history and aims of the slain TTP chief are well known, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief, Imran Khan presented a simplistic argument — something like this: the TTP chief was (perhaps) going to initiate a peace dialogue with the government which would have led to peace in Pakistan. The US killing of the TTP chief was based on malevolent intentions of not giving peace a chance in Pakistan. The argument has several problems. First, several media reports, both local and international, establish that the drone strike which eliminated Hakeemullah Mehsud had nothing to do with the peace dialogue. They show that US intelligence had been after the TTP chief since it was claimed he was involved in an attack on the CIA establishment in Afghanistan’s Khost province a few years back. Second, according to many observers, the assumed peace process between the TTP and the state had few prospects of success on several counts. The TTP chief’s interview with the BBC some days before his death is cited as partial evidence of his lukewarm attitude towards the peace process that is being vehemently advocated by the political leadership. The drone strike killing the TTP chief must be seen against the background of three intertwining circles. There is a national circle with links to insurgency, terrorism and militancy inside Pakistan. There is a regional circle which outlines factors related to political events in the regional states, especially Afghanistan, Iran and India. There is the last circle which links national and regional security factors with the international community, especially Europe and North America. The political leadership and military establishment have to become aware of the increasingly complex phenomenon that has evolved over the past several decades. To disentangle the complexities, state institutions and the political leadership have to adopt a five-pronged strategy mustering all the will power at their disposal. First, an alternative pluralistic discourse has to be constructed through education, the media and civil society to replace the militant narrative that has permeated the veins of both the state and society over the past several years. Second, the strategy of employing ‘privatised jihad’ to achieve foreign policy objectives in the region has to be disbanded altogether. Instead, political and economic interests need to be clearly articulated, and negotiated with regional states as well as the international community. Third, an economy of war has been in place in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past several years. This economy constitutes drug trafficking, the smuggling of natural resources, kidnapping, human trafficking and the narcotics trade that keep feeding the insurgency, terrorism and Talibanisation. This economy needs to be replaced with an economy of peace. Four, the use of power to dismantle the command and control structure, supply lines and recruitment and training centres of irreconcilable militant organisations needs to be time-bound, accountable and targeted. Five, a rational framework needs to be put in place to engage the reconcilable militant organisations politically. The framework of dialogue for reconciliation and integration needs to be chalked out for the purposes of identifying the mechanism, legality and constitutionality of the task. There seems to be a virulent effort by the religio-political parties to construct and manipulate the cultural and political discourse in Pakistan in the wake of Hakeemullah Mehsud’s elimination. These parties, as evidenced in the words of the Jamaat-i-Islami leader most recently, propound the view that the slain TTP chief was a ‘shaheed’, which has both religious and cultural connotations. By implication this means that all the innocent victims killed in terrorist attacks are ‘infidels’ who were out to destroy Islam and Muslims. The militant organisations’ social media and mainstream media sympathisers seem to have almost succeeded in totally confusing the middle-class educated youth. The majority of the educated middle-class youth seems to have started choosing the discourse of the Taliban and religious militancy as an alternative to US economic and political domination. They seem to think that it is only the US which is standing in the way of their redemption and salvation in the hereafter. All those sane voices who try to dissect the situation objectively are instantly dubbed as US agents thus divesting them of their fundamental right to express their opinion. The writer is a political analyst based in Peshawar. khadimhussain565@gmail.com Twitter:khadimhussain4
Chile geared for change By Mahir Ali IT is not particularly surprising that Michelle Bachelet, who served as the president of Chile from 2006 to 2010, is expected to return to the role following next Sunday’s elections.. She was not re-elected only because she could not run again at the time: consecutive presidential terms are prohibited under Chilean law. But she exited the presidency with a popularity rating northwards of 80pc. That’s a fairly extraordinary accomplishment. What is arguably even more extraordinary is the fact that this time around her primary rival is a childhood playmate: their fathers were both air force generals in the run-up to the coup 40 years ago that installed Gen Augusto Pinochet in power. Gen Alberto Bachelet was loyal to the elected president, Salvador Allende, and refused to switch allegiances. He was jailed, tortured and died in prison shortly thereafter. His wife and daughter also faced imprisonment and torture, followed by exile. Gen Fernando Matthei, on the other hand, was promoted to air force chief and became a key member of the Pinochet junta. His daughter, Evelyn Matthei, is the presidential candidate of the conservative coalition that currently rules Chile under Sebastian Pinera — and opinion polls suggest she does not have a hope in hell of getting within cooee of La Moneda, the presidential palace that daddy’s forces were happy to bomb on Sept 11, 1973. It’s a legacy issue in more than one respect, though. Evelyn Matthei’s candidacy is also marred by the fact that Pinera, a billionaire businessman, has been the least popular president since the return to democracy. His tenure has been distinguished, above all, by popular protests not witnessed since the Pinochet era, including mass mobilisations by workers demanding a new constitution and students agitating for free education. Bachelet has promised both, but her ability to deliver will depend on the results of the concurrent parliamentary elections. Substantial legislative changes require considerably more than a simple majority, and the existing rules are skewed against parliamentary results that truly reflect the popular will. The nature of the rivalry between the leading presidential hopefuls is not exactly unique. A parallel could easily be drawn, for instance, with Bangladesh, where opposing political forces have been led for decades by the daughter of the nation’s founding father on the one hand and the widow of its first military dictator on the other. It is nonetheless unusual, at least in respect of the individuals at its forefront. At a broader level, though, it reflects a divide that blights several nations in the aftermath of traumatic national experiences. To take but two examples, Spain is yet to completely emerge from the dreary shadow cast by Francisco Franco’s extended fascist dictatorship, and Pakistan is still grappling with the consequences of Gen Ziaul Haq’s fundamentally vile misrule. Chile has made considerable progress, though — to the extent that both Pinera and Matthei felt obliged to at least partially disavow allegiance to the dastardly dictatorship on the 40th anniversary of its inauguration in September, even though Matthei campaigned for the general in the 1998 referendum whose unexpected result effectively ended his reign. There is still a tendency on the conservative side of politics, though, to perpetuate the myth that the 1973 coup was unfortunate but necessary, given the Allende government’s “excesses” in the sphere of economics. No mention is made, in this context, of the concerted efforts by the privileged classes to thwart Allende’s socialist reforms, let alone of the considerable assistance provided to the naysayers by the CIA at the behest of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who were determined to “make the economy scream” by way of punishing Chileans for voting the wrong way. In her first inaugural address, Bachelet echoed Allende in a pointed reference to his last speech by referring to the wide avenues in Santiago that he hoped one day would once again belong to a free people. Although she was broadly viewed as a constituent of the so-called pink tide that washed across Latin America in the wake of Hugo Chavez’s ascendancy in Venezuela, Bachelet managed to retain her popularity without seriously interfering with the institutions of neoliberal capitalism. This time, it seems, she is determined to adopt a more activist stance. Her potential parliamentary supporters include student leaders Camila Vallejo, Karol Coriola and Giorgio Jackson, the first two representing the Communist Youth party, all of whom are expected to be elected on Sunday. A crucial factor in these elections is that Chileans are no longer obliged to vote, and the level of the turnout will inevitably be reflected in the results. On the basis of opinion polls, the gap between Bachelet and Matthei is more accurately a chasm, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the former will gain a simple majority at the first attempt, in which event she will have to rely on the Dec 15 run-off, which may produce a lower turnout. There is no guarantee, though, that her rival will surround the first round. If she doesn’t, Bachelet’s opponent in the second round could conceivably be a fellow victim of Pinochet: Marco Enriquez-Ominami, whose father was killed in a shootout with Pinochet’s forces. As a young guerilla candidate in 2010, Enriquez-Ominami received 20pc of the popular vote in the first round. Chile’s present constitution was introduced by Pinochet, which makes it an anachronism by definition. The country’s natural resources have stood it in good stead economically, but an equitable redistribution has thus far been something of a pipe dream. Sunday’s elections offer a potential opportunity to move on. Chances are it won’t be wasted.
Media’s perilous path By Zohra Yusuf Vo intizar tha jiska, ye vo sahar to nahin (It’s not the dawn we expected; It’s not the dawn we were looking for — Translated by Mahmud Jamal) . THE words of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, written in August 1947, may well be applied to the outcome of the long struggle for freedom of the media in Pakistan. As someone who came into journalism in the early 1980s when direct censorship was in force, I was in awe of the courage and defiance of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the journalists who stood up to the brutal military dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq. While the press became relatively free during the tenure of the first Benazir Bhutto government, private television channels first came on air in 2002, with the launch of Geo in October of that year. There has been no looking back, no time for introspection. Private channels were expected to present alternate and critical views to citizens fed up with the propaganda of PTV. No one expected that the alternate viewpoint would be more reactionary than any propagated by the state-owned channel. Sadly, what we have to contend with today is not only a dumbing down of debate but its more insidious redirection. Sometime back I had written about the media becoming the third ‘m’ in the existing nexus between the mullah and the military. The ‘mullah’ may not be physically present in most programmes but the thinking of most television talk show hosts and scriptwriters ensures that they are never really absent. When a young Hindu man is converted to Islam on prime time television and in a programme that is not even categorised as ‘religious’, the presence or absence of clerics doesn’t really count. The anchor is not just converting the hapless Hindu youth but audiences both within and outside the television studios. The recent coverage of the killing of Taliban leader, Hakeemullah Mehsud, in a drone attack on Nov 1, demonstrates where a major section of the media’s sympathies lie. While the politicians took the lead in mourning the death of a mass murderer, the media contributed to raising the hysterical pitch at which all news and debate concerning Hakeemullah’s killing was being aired. Whether out of fear or ideological beliefs, the media, by and large, focused on the illegality of the US drone attack, glossing over the many murderous attacks ordered by Mehsud in which soldiers were beheaded and ordinary Pakistani citizens were killed. It was only when the army condemned the Jamaat-i-Islami chief’s statement in which he called Hakeemullah Mehsud a martyr that leading politicians and television channels changed their stance. In a possible tactical strategy, the Taliban have recently taken to denying attacks on civilians and naming obscure groups as being responsible. In the interest of fairness (and perhaps landing a scoop), the media could have taken the initiative in investigating instances where the Taliban claim non-involvement, such as the suicide attack on the Peshawar church in September. However, the media has chosen to stay away from exposing the brutal truth about the Taliban. On the other hand, the intensity with which drone attacks are discussed gives the impression as if it is the biggest human rights violation in Pakistan and the most serious threat to the country’s sovereignty. Private television channels have acquired tremendous power and influence. This has led to talk show hosts not only gaining celebrity status but trying to take on the role of power brokers. The Lal Masjid case of 2007 is a perfect example. After persistently castigating the government for non-action against the militants who were beginning to practically set up a parallel administration, members of the media took on the role of negotiators with the Ghazi brothers when they were holed up with arms and ammunition at the mosque. Later, they turned their guns on the Musharraf regime for taking out the militants by laying siege to the mosque. The judiciary, too, partly influenced by the media it seems, has sided with the militant Ghazi brothers and against the army action, acquitting Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi on all charges, including murder. The spread of religiosity by the media has had some frightening — and deadly — consequences. In September 2008, in Geo’s Aalim Online, derogatory language was used against the founder of the Ahmadis when a participant justified the killing of members of the community. Soon three Ahmadis had been killed in Sindh. In the case of Salmaan Taseer, the hate campaign launched by the mullah-media alliance began shortly after he visited blasphemy accused, Aasiya Bibi, in prison and said that the blasphemy laws needed to be amended. Soon after, Samaa TV allowed a participant in a discussion programme to proclaim that the killing of Taseer was justified. On Dec 5, 2010, Nawa-i-Waqt in an editorial accused him of blasphemy. On Jan 4, 2011, Taseer’s own guard shot him in cold blood. The response of the media to the assassination and the glorification of the killer, Mumtaz Qadri, are black chapters in the history of the Pakistani media. Periodically, the Anjuman Ahmadiyya sends meticulously compiled clippings of news items published in the Urdu press against the community. It should be noted that all leading Urdu newspapers participate in the anti-Ahmadi campaign. Most of the opinions expressed would fall under the category of hate speech, a crime allowed to flourish in Pakistan and which, to a great extent, is stoked by the media. The objective of pointing out the dangerous path the media is treading is not to deny it its long cherished freedom. Intentions to set up monitoring bodies or complaints commissions need to see the light of day. Freedom must be tempered with responsibility. In Pakistan’s volatile situation, this realisation must be at the heart of every journalist’s work. The writer is a freelance contributor.
A measure of ‘loyalty’ By Rafia Zakaria IN a state whose citizens face increasing scrutiny before gaining admission to any other country, the debate over belonging and citizenship has often equated patriotism with the possession of a Pakistani passport.. In the debates of assemblies past, which will undoubtedly be resurrected in the future, the possession of a foreign passport has been considered as grounds for exclusion from holding political office. In the venom-filled rhetoric of television debate and newspaper reports, those possessing foreign citizenship have often been deemed duplicitous in their loyalties, insufficiently committed to the welfare of the country and hence unpatriotic. The equation of these constructions is simple: those holding Pakistani passports are the only ones who belong, who can be trusted, who truly love Pakistan. Vehement and passionate as the discussion over passports and patriotism has been, it has largely omitted issues of class and wealth. It has also left unaddressed the options available to the very wealthy who purport to possess only Pakistani citizenship, pushing the fact as prima facie evidence of their undying devotion to the nation. The assumption underlying this premise is simply that those who do not have dual citizenship or citizenship of a foreign country cannot escape either the laws or the accountability that they may be subject to vis-à-vis their time in office. Possessing Pakistani citizenship, it is imagined, makes them subject to all the restrictions imposed on the ordinary Pakistani citizen, sentenced to suffering like millions of others. An analysis of the means of procuring citizenship for other countries, however, reveals the error of such easy proclamations regarding passports and patriotism. Not only has a robust economic market for the purchase of citizenship always existed, it has in recent years burgeoned and ballooned, providing ever more options for the wealthy of poor countries looking to abscond once they have exhausted their political ambitions. So while nation states like Pakistan remain embroiled in the politics of passports, international travel brokers have perfected the art of providing passports to the wealthy in a matter of days. According to immigration scholar Katy Long, countries that make this possible include places like St Kitts and Nevis, where investment and legal fees of about $400,000 can provide you with the requisite passport. Dominica provides a ‘family option’ for a neat $100,000. American permanent residency can be obtained with an investment of $500,000 in a rural area with high unemployment. The permanent residency can be converted into an American passport after five years without ever having to work in that country. A million-pound investment in the UK can obtain permanent residency, which can be converted into citizenship after living there only 185 days out of the year. Simply put, once wealthy politicians are done with the countries they wish to rule and no longer need to make loud proclamations of their citizenship to the gullible poor, they can avail of such options. A notable example includes former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, now a proud citizen of Montenegro. As Katy Long aptly notes, money allows the world’s wealthy to turn citizenship into a monetary transaction. Interestingly, while the fact that the rich can, at any time, leave a country and begin to belong to another is happily ignored, added burdens are placed on those who obtain foreign citizenship the hardworking way. In the Pakistani case, the $14 billion a year obtained in remittances from foreign workers is never considered worthy of mention when evaluating patriotism or economic contributions to the country. Demands for renunciation of foreign citizenship are routinely lobbed at engineers, computer programmers, doctors, and others whose path to foreign citizenship has involved not large sums of cash but huge amounts of time away from home, friends and family, for the sole purpose of earning a living. In the political constructions of Pakistani patriotism, it is these foreign workers who are the ‘traitors’, not the Pakistani passport-toting politicians who know full well that their bank accounts will enable them to purchase a passport at a moment’s notice. In the midst of these discussions, the point often forgotten is that citizenship itself and the passport, are largely legal ‘fictions’ created by countries to limit the application of rights. In this sense, if one goes beyond all the lofty rhetoric of belonging and equality, the idea of citizenship and the bureaucratic mechanisms that enable it exist largely to benefit wealthy nations wishing to restrict rights and entitlements to only those they deem worthy. In poor countries, where rights and entitlements are hardly ever available to the deprived, citizenship becomes something almost fictive, conferring perhaps some feeling of belonging but hardly ever any means of survival or social insurance. For millions of Pakistanis, their passports are unlikely to come to their rescue if a natural disaster destroys their homes, a boss fires them from their job, or if they are struck by a life-threatening illness. Rights exist in theory, poised on the legal fact of citizenship, but are in reality unavailable and nonexistent. When the two factors — the purchase of citizenship for the rich and unavailability of rights for the poor — are considered, the fallacies of the equation that posits possession of a Pakistani passport as patriotism are exposed. Whether they malign at home or restrict abroad, visa and passport regulations exist largely to limit the rights of upwardly mobile, middle-class professionals who are not rich enough to purchase citizenship and not poor enough to be indifferent. The millions of Pakistani doctors, engineers, computer programmers, and financial managers who cannot find jobs at home thus must not only beg for visas from foreign countries, they must also be the target of hurtful accusations of rich politicians who can hide their own lack of patriotism behind huge stacks of cash. The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy. rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Two films and a thought By Jawed Naqvi I SAW two good films this week that offer hope for gritty journalism. . Hansal Mehta’s Shahid (The witness) is the story of Shahid Azmi, a 32-year old Mumbai lawyer who was shot dead in his office in 2010, evidently for representing Muslim youths in false terrorism cases. Callum Macrae’s No-fire zone is an intensively researched account of the mass murder and sexual abuse of Jaffna Tamils by government troops in 2009. Remember what Faiz Ahmed Faiz said about writing in adverse conditions. Mat’a-i-lauh-o-qalam chhin gaee to kya gham hai; ke khoon-i-dil mein dubo li hain ungliyan maine. (They took away the quill, so I’ll still write the message with my blood). Far too many journalists and other chroniclers of our times have gone down doing their duty. Kidnappings, killings or dire threats have not deterred the good men and women from doing a good job in spite of the fact that South Asia has a heavy turnover of ill-fated journalists of integrity. From Pakistan to Bangladesh, from Nepal to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, not to leave out Afghanistan — there isn’t a limit to the dirty tricks used by the state (or its equally dubious adversaries) to crush the media’s self-respect. In India, which is flush with money at the top, they stuff the faces of ‘useful’ journalists with it. No wonder the Radia Tapes exposé was hushed up. It isn’t surprising also that some of the high-ranking journalists who doubled as go-betweens for leading business houses — as lobbyists pressing for corporate-friendly candidates to be sworn in as ministers with handy portfolios — now appear to be supporting Narendra Modi, their logical mascot, if he ever gets to where he wants to be. I watched Mehta’s Shahid on a pirated copy of very poor quality. But it was worth the travesty. Played in brilliant low key by new actor Rajkumar Yadav, the real-life role of the besieged lawyer Shahid Azmi is etched with compassion as the centerpiece of an everyday story in South Asia. It is a tale of an individual’s stand against pervasive bias that drives the system and its keepers. Seeing a movie with a serious story to tell without the use of overwrought messages is indeed a rare experience. Azmi’s trials and tribulations are retold by Mehta and Yadav all the more effectively as an eerie understatement. The film was too quickly taken off the few movie halls it was shown at, and the usual Delhi shops that sell legal DVDs didn’t have it on their shelves. This subversion of the truth by trying to hide it away is par for the course with exposés written as books. As more and more journalists of integrity lose their livelihoods, if not their lives, there comes the odd one with a heartwarming candour, not in a newspaper or a TV channel, but as a book — or a movie, or a spectacularly researched documentary. The Mystery of Birla House, for example, was written in 1953 by Debajyoti Burman as an account of a leading tycoon’s sleight of hand with bookkeeping. It was bought by the Birlas, including all copies (except perhaps one copy) of its first two editions, followed by the copyright itself. This was under Nehru’s watch. What did Mr Burman do with the useful loot? He opened a leftist press with it. As a souvenir of India’s early tryst with a journalism of integrity, a copy of the book did survive, and is preserved in the Nehru Memorial Library in the rare books section. The other significant book on the underhand shenanigans of the corporate world that was mysteriously removed from the shops by an unknown district court’s order was The Polyester Prince. The 1970s gem was a painstakingly researched account of the rise of Dhirubhai Ambani as India’s leading and politically influential businessman. Pirated copies of Hamish McDonald’s seminal book are available near Mumbai traffic lights, but I am not sure if it retains all the details about the political dramatis personae, some occupying very high offices today as defenders of India’s constitution. The book was written before Modi came on the scene but it could reveal how and why he rose. British director Macrae’s No-fire zone was shown to a shockingly sparse audience at Delhi’s highbrow India International Centre by the film’s otherwise committed promoters, a group of left-wing activists. As expected, Macrae was denied an Indian visa to be present at the film’s release, underscoring a standard practice by Delhi to hide an inconvenient truth. How many others have met a similar fate, been banished or denied visas for holding upright views on India’s dismal rights record? Some of Macrae’s gut-wrenching visuals, for example, of prisoners being shot at point-blank range by mimic soldiers or the horrendous rape and mutilation of suspected Tamil Tiger women, have already done the rounds on the YouTube circuit. What he released this week was a full-length film as an alert to the Commonwealth leaders who are meeting in Sri Lanka this month. India has grudgingly cancelled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s participation in the summit but it has refrained from confronting the bigger question of rights abuse. It is heartwarming that the ascent of the corporate media, led by private channels that mouth daily inanities on Modi’s behalf, has not gone unchallenged. Relentless chronicler Manisha Sethi and journalist Ashish Khetan have led the field with several other dedicated journalists to expose the compulsively right-wing state India is becoming. Khetan’s cinematic exposés are infused with the humanism he feels for the besieged Muslims. But he is not the only one readying for a grim battle with the religio-ethnic bigotries that have emerged as the preferred vehicle to ply corporate fascism and its global allies. The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi. jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Of prisoners’ rights By I.A. Rehman THE eminently sound recommendations adopted at the recent Federal Judicial Academy seminar on prisoners’ vulnerability should not fail to move the government to take up the long-delayed task of doing justice to one of the most neglected segments of society.. The seminar was remarkable for the attention the prisoners’ cause received from the judges of the apex court. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry pleaded for respect for prisoners’ inviolable dignity, Justice Mushir Alam criticised harsh punishments for petty offences, Justice Jawad Khawaja dwelt on cruelty towards them, and Justice Nasirul Mulk stressed convicts’ post-release rehabilitation. One hopes the relevant authorities in government will have time to study the detailed reports of the seminar and the will and inclination to do their duty. All discussions on prisons and prisoners begin with references to overcrowding in jails, a topic on which Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court spoke at some length. That 52,318 prisoners should be forced to rot in Punjab’s jails that have a total capacity of only 21,527 is simply unbearable. Despite much noise about plans to reduce overcrowding in prisons, the problem remains as acute as ever. While there were 49,889 prisoners in Punjab’s jails at the end of 2012 against a capacity of 21,527, in Sindh there were 14,119 prisoners against a capacity of 11,939. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the number of prisoners (8,113) was marginally higher than the capacity (7,996) and in Balochistan the difference between prison population (2,483) and capacity (2,473) was even lower — only 10. And in Gilgit-Baltistan there were only 260 prisoners in jails that could house 645 detainees. Overcrowding in prisons is essentially a Punjab problem. In 30 out the 32 jails in the province, the number of prisoners exceeded the capacity (at the end of 2012) by 200pc in seven jails and by 100pc in 11 jails, while in the Multan district jail the number of prisoners was 350pc higher than the capacity. Since Punjab is not a cash-starved province and threats to its jails are much less serious than elsewhere, its failure to address the problem of overcrowding denotes a major failure of governance. That overcrowding in jails aggravates the suffering of certain categories of prisoners more than others is known. The worst affected are juveniles and death-row prisoners. Women prisoners, too, need special care. As has often been pointed out, prison conditions can be radically improved by reducing the population of undertrials. Out of the Punjab prison population of 49,889, as many as 32,108 — two-thirds of the total — were yet to be convicted. A large number of these undertrials should not be in prison at all. They are made to suffer for three shortcomings of the state: a tendency to throw every suspect into prison and open abuse of the remand procedures; an unreasonably harsh bail regime; and unconscionable delays in the disposal of cases. Reform in all three areas has long been overdue. While on the subject one may invite the attention of the lawmakers to the patently unjust and oppressive vagrancy law. It is inhuman to throw in jail anyone who has neither a home nor a job. No civilised society can treat its homeless and jobless people as criminals. If anybody is to be punished for their condition it is the managers of public affairs. An end to the indiscriminate use of Sections 109 and 110 of the CrPc should reduce the jail population. Traditionally, attention has been paid to prisons in the settled districts of the country, whereas conditions in the tribal areas are indescribably worse. The jails and lock-ups there have not yet been placed under the prison department and everyone visiting these detention centres has described them as torture chambers. There is also a need to review the conditions of detention at special internment centres, set up under the Actions in Aid of Civil Power Regulation. Complaints of overcrowding in small rooms, lack of ventilation and poor sanitation facilities were made by the families of detainees that had been allowed access to them under Supreme Court orders. The question of conditions at ‘special’ detention centres is likely to cause greater concern when the provisions of the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance for detaining convicts at places other than regular prisons are enforced. Pakistan’s prisons, with their oppressive rules, rampant corruption, discrimination between rich and poor, and unbridled resort to violence, only present a microcosm of the general state of affairs in the country. There is no rational communication between the jailers and the detainees, just as there is no meaningful discourse between the rulers and the citizens. The debate now is dominated by fears of militants’ attacks on jails. These concerns do need to be given priority but nothing should be allowed to interfere with prisoners’ rights and dignity. No offender, and certainly no one who is merely a suspect, should be made to suffer more than what the law prescribes. The most pernicious feature of the prison system is perseverance with the regime of retributive justice and emphasis on humiliating the detainees, a system based on retaliation and reprisal, as the chief justice pointed out. There was a time when prisoners were sought to be reformed by encouraging them to acquire education and useful skills. Some sort of educational facilities are still available in principal prisons but the vocational training and industrial sections in most jails have been closed down. Besides enabling prisoners to earn some money during incarceration and yielding government revenue from the sale of jail products — blankets, radio sets, carpets, furniture, et al — these sections helped prisoners to improve their capacity for making an honest living besides learning the benefits of teamwork. A revival of such activities should not be put off because of threats from extremists. Indeed, schemes of productive labour in jails might be one of the better ways of reclaiming misguided militants.
Formulating public policy By Ishrat Husain THE consolidation of democratic polity in Pakistan in the last few years has raised a legitimate and interesting question. Who sets public policy in Pakistan and how is it formulated? . Under the Constitution, the responsibility of policymaking rests solely with the executive branch, with further division among the federal, provincial and local governments. Under the 18th Amendment, the concurrent list has been abolished and most of its powers transferred from the centre to the provincial governments. The provincial government can further delegate authority, powers and resources under its control to the local governments. The recent legislations on local government are highly restrictive as far as the power of the lower tier of government is concerned except in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The 2001 Local Government Ordinance that lapsed in 2010 was an attempt aimed at the substantive devolution of powers. So who initiates the process of policymaking? In theory, an elected government has a manifesto on the basis of which it is voted to power. The ruling party and its leadership should in principle decide the priorities enshrined in the manifesto and then the timing, sequencing and phasing of different policies. Ideally, the government in Pakistan would then ask the concerned ministries to prepare a draft document that takes stock of the existing situation, diagnoses the problems, analyses the various options, outlines the preferred option, costs out its financial implications and spells out the action plan along with milestones and deadlines. (In many countries, China, for example, each ministry has a research institute which helps in compiling data, carrying out analysis and preparing background material.) This draft policy document would then be circulated among various stakeholders for their views, comments and suggestions — some countries also hold public consultations on critical policy documents. Once the stakeholders’ views are incorporated, the revised draft would be circulated among the concerned ministries and provincial governments for their views. The draft, once again updated, would then be presented to the ruling party whose think tank or leadership would evaluate whether the policy document conforms to the promises made to the electorate or not. In some cases, modifications can be made if the deviations are significant. In other cases, they would be endorsed and sent to the ministry in charge to steer it through the process. The ministry concerned would then forward the draft to the Economic Coordination Committee or the full cabinet for deliberations and approval. The ECC or cabinet will either approve, modify or send back the draft with observations to the ministry. Once the policy is approved it may be necessary in some circumstances to back it with some legislative instruments that are prepared by the law ministry and steered though the relevant committees of the National Assembly and the Senate and finally before the floor of the houses. Smart governments in Pakistan would bring the policies to parliament even when no legislation is required for soliciting the views of the opposition parties to ensure a consensus that paves the way for the policy’s implementation without friction and continuity. Conversely, myopic governments, in the arrogant belief that they enjoy absolute majority, might ignore this step, later discovering to their chagrin that the policy is being resisted or opposed or obstacles are being created in its way. Both the policy and its accompanying legislation once approved by the legislature would then be entrusted with the ministry in charge for execution with specified timelines and milestones. Progress would then be periodically reviewed and monitored either by the prime minister, the cabinet or the ECC. How much does policymaking in Pakistan deviate from the ideal process described above? — First, the stakeholder consultation is either superficial or the views of the stakeholders, if found at variance with those of the formulators, do not find any place in the revised documents. The motions of consultation having been fulfilled, it does not matter whether substantive changes have been taken cognisance of or not. — Second, the inter-ministerial consultation is more confrontational than collaborative in nature. Ministers feel personally offended if their policy documents are criticised by other ministers. The critique may not be an attempt to put down or denigrate one personally but a genuine desire to strengthen and improve the document that is the collective responsibility of the entire cabinet and not the minister in charge alone. But personal vendettas and suspicions mar this process in Pakistan. — Third, very little attention is given to implementation modalities and the constraints that may arise during the implementation phase. Dispute-resolution mechanisms are non-existent and the diffusion of responsibility and lack of clarity make accountability for results difficult. Hence the biggest risk in Pakistan is the performance gap as very sound policy documents have remained buried in the dust. — Fourth, the monitoring mechanism is not only weak and sporadic, but highly lopsided. Some slick players with the gift of the gab can make impressive PowerPoint presentations and mesmerise the audience. They create the impression that things are going well while the facts are to the contrary. Others who are not so well versed in this art are rebuked and taken to task although their achievements may be worthwhile. Prime ministers and cabinet ministers are always pressed for time and the outcomes of such meetings are perfunctory with a lot of platitudes and generalisations. The underlying problems remain unaddressed. Implementation therefore remains off track as interest shifts to another urgent policy or some other pressing problem. — Fifth, the capacity of the ministries and provincial departments in preparing policy papers is limited. They do not have the necessary expertise or competence in the subject to come up with evidence-based options. The use of systematic data is normally shunned. — And finally, the communication strategy of explaining the rationale and disseminating the policy widely is almost non-existent in most cases. As the success of the policy depends upon people outside the government their understanding and support are absolutely crucial. The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Banishing the ghost By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar RECENT comments made by the Jamaat-i-Islami emir, Syed Munawar Hasan, regarding who can rightly be declared a shaheed in a country whose military supports ‘infidels’ against the forces of the ummah have truly set the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons.. Drawing-room liberals, army spokespersons, TV personalities and just about everyone else have all had their say on the matter, dilating on a host of issues related (or not) to the JI chief’s utterings. Intriguingly, amidst all the chatter, there has been virtually no conjecture on the changing nature of the JI’s relationship with the state, and particularly its ideological apparatus. This is perhaps unsurprising given how shallow public discourse is in this country. The JI has had a profound influence in shaping contemporary public culture and we really ought to dedicate more thought to whether the JI’s time in the sun might actually be coming to an end. The initial opposition of JI founder Maulana Maudoodi to the Pakistan idea is an established historical truth. Less well-known is the fact that Maudoodi immediately ingratiated himself with the new state and was rewarded with a syndicated programme on Radio Pakistan in the first year following partition. It was during these broadcasts that the hitherto unheard of ‘ideology of Pakistan’ was first mooted. Through the 1950s the fledgling establishment — particularly the military and the superior judiciary — was not necessarily partial to the JI; Maudoodi even briefly faced a death sentence following the so-called ‘Ahmadi riots’ of 1953. Even so, space for religio-political organisations continued to expand as the state realised the immense potential offered for centralisation of power by Islamic ideology. Ayub Khan acquiesced in adding ‘Islamic’ to the ‘Republic of Pakistan’ in the 1962 constitution largely on the back of mobilisation spearheaded by Maudoodi. By the late 1960s, the consensual relationship between the state and the JI was confirmed as left populism threatened the entire edifice of the political order. Maj-Gen Sher Ali, Gen Yahya Khan’s political czar, pledged support to the ‘Islam-pasand’ parties to counter the ‘taraqqi-pasand’ wave and cemented the place of the ‘ideology of Pakistan’ in the polity and wider society. The rest, as they say, is history. Domestic developments were reinforced by Washington’s policy of openly patronising the religious right in Muslim-majority countries. Thus crystallised the historic alliance of imperialism, the state and the JI, the consequences of which we continue to bear to this day. Again unknown to most who did not live through that particular era, there was until the 1980s a disjunct between the JI and other major religio-political organisations, particularly the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam, today headed by Maulana Fazlur Rahman. His predecessor and father Mufti Mahmood was an outspoken critic of the JI. Indeed, when Gen Zia took power in 1977, both the US and Pakistani military relied heavily upon the JI for support and virtually designated it the ideological bulwark of ‘Islamisation’. Four JI ideologues were inducted into Zia’s first cabinet, the crucial portfolios of education and media handed to them. It has been the long-term impact of the JI’s time in power that we have yet to live down. Committed right-wingers were inducted into the media and education fields with devastating effect. To this day, colleges, universities, newspapers and the like are heavily influenced by JI ideologues or sympathisers. It is thus entirely accurate to refer to the generations of Pakistanis born after 1977 — today at least two-thirds of the total population — as ‘Zia’s children’. Following the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, the world changed, and with it ‘Zia’s Pakistan’. Neither is the troika of imperialism, the state and the JI intact, nor does Munawar Hasan occupy as central a position in shaping the ideological direction of the Pakistani state as Maudoodi or his successor (and Gen Zia’s close friend Mian Tufail) did. In fact, the JI’s long-term contribution to the cause of the religious right has been to inadvertently create the conditions of its own decline inasmuch as there are now a plethora of religio-political organisations in this country trying to curry favour with the state (not to mention older ones like the JUI). For this reason alone, it would be premature to suggest that a very dramatic shift has taken place in the corridors of power and that the spirit of the JI has been exorcised from the ideological state apparatuses. To be sure, individuals with an unflinching commitment to Maudoodism and the so-called ‘ideology of Pakistan’ continue to occupy most important positions in both educational institutions and media organisations. The JI’s influence can be measured by the fact that it is not only in the state sector that right-wing ideas predominate. Private media and education are as ‘Islamised’ as their public counterparts. Yes the space for dissent is now greater than it was, but one bad public relations moment for the current JI chief will not precipitate substantial ideological and cultural transformations. It is worth thinking about what is currently unfolding in Bangladesh to get a sense of just how significant a role the JI continues to play in Pakistan. Many will not agree with the manner in which the war crimes tribunal is sentencing JI leaders in Bangladesh to the harshest punishments for their support of the Pakistani military during the civil war of 1971. Yet a large number of ordinary people in Bangladesh do believe it is necessary for the JI to be held to account. In this country, ordinary people still fear the consequences of speaking openly about the cynical role of both the religious right and a state that continues to employ Islam as an ideological cover for transgressions against its own citizens. Only when this unsaid taboo is broken will the ghost of Ziaul Haq be banished from our midst. And banish it we must by regenerating a popular politics on the left. The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Behind the curve By Sakib Sherani AS Pakistan skirts dangerously close to another stretch of ‘heavy weather’ on the balance of payments front, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan are both seriously behind-the-curve in forestalling another panic attack on the rupee.. It has taken nearly two years for the State Bank to understand — and that too under IMF compulsion — that with scarce foreign exchange reserves, it primarily has a trade-off on its hands: it cannot preserve the country’s forex reserves, defend the exchange rate, and keep interest rates unchanged all at the same time. In a combination of naivety and inexperience — and giving in to political expediency — it chose to squander nearly $3.5 billion of precious foreign exchange from its reserves to prevent the rupee from hitting a century against the US dollar. It could have learnt a valuable lesson from the East Asian crisis. In 1997, in trying to keep the value of the baht stable, the Bank of Thailand (central bank) frittered away more than $10bn in a single week — before losing the battle against capital flight and succumbing to a huge devaluation of the currency. In the given circumstances, interest rates are the central bank’s primary line of defence, supplemented by measures that will drain liquidity from the inter-bank market, and other measures that make imports more expensive. In addition, it needs to step up vigilance on capital flight and any delays in repatriation of export proceeds. This in a nutshell is the tried and tested template that the State Bank has followed since our all-too-frequent balance of payments difficulties from the early 1990s. How do higher interest rates help in preventing pressure on the exchange rate? Consider someone who is neutral to a decision to convert his or her rupee-denominated assets or cash holding to another currency. Let’s call this person an ‘economic agent’. With pressure on the rupee building up, and public expectations rising of a depreciation of, say, 10pc against the US dollar, our economic agent will now have an incentive to convert from rupees to US dollars — to preserve the value of her capital. To pre-empt this, if the central bank raises the return on rupee deposits by 10pc or slightly more, the economic agent becomes neutral once again to the option of converting from rupees. This reduces the selling pressure on the rupee and punctures the excess demand for US dollars, thus maintaining equilibrium in the exchange rate market. The finance minister, on the other hand, is distracted by ‘other’ supposedly pressing issues of a non-economic nature — at a time when the economy needs a steady and seasoned hand 24/7 at the helm to navigate through a difficult period. As a close confidant of the prime minister, the finance minister had made the same mistake — to disastrous effect — in his brief stint in 2008. After announcing at a press conference that the economy was in far worse shape than what was known publicly, and shattering everyone’s confidence in the economy even further, he took the next flight to London with his party supremo to take up the ‘judges’ issue — without presenting any credible road map on how to get us out of the mess. After a few days he resigned. This time around, while Senator Ishaq Dar has been scrupulously burning the midnight oil at the finance ministry, he remains distracted by ‘larger’ political issues. The result? Crucial decisions are being delayed, such as the finalisation of the terms of the deal to borrow around $600 million from banks. If this money had come through by now, it would have bolstered forex reserves — and confidence — at a vital time. In addition, according to unconfirmed reports from insiders, the finance minister is positioned at the central node for many other crucial decisions ranging from privatisation to appointment of key personnel that pertain to other ministries. According to this version, his frequent absence from the country is creating a backlog of decision-making that may delay the inflow of privatisation receipts or the auction of 3G licences. Whatever the truth on this count, the finance minister certainly needs to play a far bigger — indeed central — role in one critical area where he has not done so as yet. This is the issue of building a wider coalition within parliament on economic reform. It is absolutely crucial that parliament understands the need for reform, legislates accordingly and takes ownership. Logically, it is the country’s finance minister that has to take the role of stewardship on this front. Another important stakeholder in terms of coalition-building for structural reform is the business community. Keeping them informed and bringing them on board are crucial for any success on this front. Two channels of regular communication with the business community which Shaukat Tarin used as finance minister were found to be very effective. Apart from his frequent meetings with the business community across the country, he formed a formal group representing all the chambers of commerce and industry of Pakistan. Called the Business Persons Council, it formally met once a month where the group heard from the finance minister and senior finance ministry officials on the state of the economy, the reform plan of the government, and the status of implementation of key measures. From the business community’s side, the group heard first-hand about their problems especially those relating to the Federal Board of Revenue. This regular channel was extremely useful in disseminating the government’s proposed economic reform path, obtaining regular feedback and instilling a sense of confidence in the business community. In conclusion, both the State Bank and the finance ministry need to become more proactive and nimble in their responses to navigate us through the period ahead. The writer is a former economic adviser to government, and currently heads a macroeconomic consultancy based in Islamabad.
Old partners split ‘formally’ By Asha’ar Rehman WHEN did the Jamaat-i-Islami have it so good on the national stage the last time? . Perhaps in the old ideological days when this country was divided across the left and the right. Or before the days it resigned to playing second fiddle to the PML of Nawaz Sharif. The current row that separates the JI from today’s moderates is a formalisation of a split necessitated on the part of the PML-N by the demands of power. Over the last 25 years since the end of the Zia era and the return of democracy in 1988, the Jamaat has won a few elections, including one local government poll in Karachi in the absence of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Its biggest success was when it formed the government in then NWFP in alliance with the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam. But as solo runs go, the current sprint caused by Syed Munawar Hasan’s declarations about who is a martyr and who is not has to be politically most fulfilling for the JI in recent history. Once, there would be leftists and then there would be the Jamaatis provoking each other. The divide was extended across territory and time, and quite often you would come across a remark which bifurcated the country into the Jamaat and PPP camps. In those days, ideologically speaking, even someone like Nawaz Sharif who was yet to evolve a creed of his own would be readily categorised as a Jamaat sympathiser. Thus, when Nawaz decided to give up a National Assembly seat in favour of a provincial one after his election on both in Lahore in 1985, everyone thought it was natural that his replacement in the by-election was a maulana from the Jamaat. The maulana won hands down, with Nawaz’s backing. The partnership continued over the following many years. The Jamaat would be given a few seats and they would return the compliment by pledging Jamaat votes across the country to the PML faction headed by Nawaz Sharif. This was far from a perfect partnership. Polarisation set in fast and there was a feeling that while Nawaz valued the Jamaat support in his effort to secure an election, his governments were increasingly constrained by the demands of this once natural ally. The Jamaat also understood that it was losing its support base to the PML-N, which had over time found acceptance in the anti-PPP sections of the people as a more moderate and practical ‘right-wing’ choice. Then-Jamaat emir Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s electoral Pakistan Islamic Front was an attempt at breaking free from the debilitating PML-N influence. The advancing Qazi failed to catch the people’s fancy and the Jamaat had to retreat and contend with its position as an appendage of the PML-N. The ‘maturing’ of Nawaz Sharif in recent years since his return to Pakistan in 2007 has had its own ramifications for the Jamaat. In recent times, there has been growing criticism of the Jamaat over links with militant elements who shared its avowed dismissal of the US as the root of all ills, in particular the problems of the ‘Muslim world’. This affiliation made it extremely difficult for a PML-N which was trying to sell itself as America’s trusted ally in power in Pakistan. An association with the loudest opponents of the war on terror could cost the PML-N dear. Nawaz kept his distance from the Jamaat-i-Islami even when, viewed from the ideological prism of the 1980s and 1990s, some domestic political realities appeared to favour a re-alliance between him and the Jamaat. Over the last five or six years, there have been moments when the Jamaat leadership has been found wooing the PML-N, and moments where it seemed to prefer Nawaz for an alliance over Imran Khan. Especially in the period where it was impossible to put numbers to the public appeal of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the Jamaat emir, Syed Munawar Hasan, did send feelers out for the PML-N leadership to respond to. In one instance, the emir asked Nawaz to seek forgiveness for his past follies. It was as if, to Syed Munawar’s eye, a reunion between the Jamaat and the PML-N was a forgone conclusion and only subject to a formal apology from Nawaz. It was as if all the other details had been settled. That wasn’t to be and even when the PML-N was confronted with a real challenge from Imran Khan, a Nawaz request for ideological reinforcement from the Jamaat was never on the cards. Imran, on the other hand, had shown respect for the Jamaat right from the days when Qazi Hussain Ahmed was its emir. Not entertained by the PML-N despite reports about the presence of a solid pro-Nawaz group in its ranks, the Jamaat found a more compatible partner in the PTI. This PTI-Jamaat alliance is essentially an alliance between two opposition political parties — an alliance, if recent political indicators are something to go by, can only be struck in the opposition. The moment a power player feels that he is beholden to the international interests he would want to dissociate and split from the fundamentalist and extremist. Even the PTI has had to send an emissary to the US to read out the American messages about Hakeemullah Mehsud the Jamaat would find difficult to own up to. Many of the terrorist-militants of today were at one stage part of the Pakistani establishment. They are one part of the old establishment many of the political parties are willing to trust more than the army due to ideological affinity or out of fear for their destructive power — unless these parties are in power or close to being in power. The PML-N and the PTI, the two main contenders for power at the centre in the last election, may want to review their positions according to changed circumstances and prospects. The Jamaat has been more consistent and earned ideological rewards for this consistency. The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
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