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National News
More deaths and clashes in North Waziristan
MIRAMSHAH: The violence in North Waziristan Agency triggered by a Wednesday-night suicide attack against security forces continued on Friday as another three people were killed after security forces opened fire on a vehicle during curfew hours near Khajori check post. The death toll in this week’s clashes has reached 53 according to locals.
MIRAMSHAH: The violence in North Waziristan Agency triggered by a Wednesday-night suicide attack against security forces continued on Friday as another three people were killed after security forces opened fire on a vehicle during curfew hours near Khajori check post. The death toll in this week’s clashes has reached 53 according to locals.
Still unclear is whether the individuals who have been killed in this week’s clashes are civilian or militant. Indeed, the entire chain of events that has left the whole of North Waziristan under a curfew for four days is shrouded in confusion. Competing version of events between military sources, militant groups and local residents cannot yet be reconciled in an area that is inaccessible to most journalists.
Curfew was relaxed for two hours between 11am and 1pm in Mirali town and the local administration allowed people to remove the dead bodies. Following a rocket attack on a base, security forces resorted to heavy shelling in the area. There is still however no sign of a large-scale military operation against suspected militants in the area.
Local people said that Waziristan had been virtually sealed and residents stranded in Bannu and other adjacent areas were not allowed to go home.
Security forces fired at a car near Khajori checkpoint during curfew hours, killing three passengers. Troops resorted to retaliatory firing when miscreants fired three rockets at a security forces’ base near Mirali town. Artillery and mortar shells rained on residential compounds in Mirali, Mosaki and Epi village. Helicopter gunships also fired rockets at suspected positions.
The trouble started in Mirali, the second largest town of North Waziristan Agency, after a suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden vehicle targeted a mosque at Khajori check post on Wednesday evening. Officials said that one soldier and a contractor were killed and 11 personnel suffered injuries in suicide attack.
According to the official version, militants ambushed a convoy transporting wounded soldiers from Khajori to Mirali on Wednesday night. Troops retaliated and 24 militants, including Uzbeks, were killed. The ISPR said 10 more militants were killed during search operation in the area on Thursday.
Residents denied the official claims and said that security forces encircled two hotels and that the dead were non-combatants.
Residents said that 12 more bodies were found in different localities of Mirali Bazaar on Friday. Bodies were sent to Bannu, Lakki Marwat districts and villages in Waziristan. Two bodies were buried in Lakki Marwat and six were shifted to Bannu.
Residents said that heavy shelling by tanks, gunship helicopters, use of light and heavy artillery had caused widespread damage to private properties, including shops in Mirali bazaar.
The media cell of the proscribed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan released images of the burnt shops and destroyed buildings showing marks of artillery shells. The pictures were sent to various media outlets and the TTP accused security forces of killing innocent civilians in operation.
On the other hand political administration in Miramshah and civil secretariat Fata in Peshawar have adopted silence and yet to release press note or clarification about the deteriorating situation in North Waziristan.
Over 30 killed in Mirali flare-up
MIRAMSHAH / PESHAWAR: Ten suspected terrorists were killed during a search operation in Mirali town of North Waziristan on Thursday after a fierce overnight clash between security personnel and militants had left 28 people, including two women, dead and several others injured.
MIRAMSHAH / PESHAWAR: Ten suspected terrorists were killed during a search operation in Mirali town of North Waziristan on Thursday after a fierce overnight clash between security personnel and militants had left 28 people, including two women, dead and several others injured.
According to security officials, 24 militants were killed in retaliatory action following an attack on Wednesday and most of the killed were Uzbeks.
However, local people rejected the claim.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a Taliban leader who had signed a peace agreement with the government in 2006, asked his followers to defend themselves in case the army launched an offensive.
A statement issued by the ISPR, the military’s public relations wing, said 10 terrorists were killed during a search operation launched by security forces after receiving an intelligence report that they were rigging vehicles with improvised explosive devices at a hideout in Mirali. The terrorists killed on Thursday also included Uzbeks, the statement said.
Residents said clashes had taken place in the volatile area hours before a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden mini-truck into a mosque at the Khajori security post on the Bannu-Miramshah road on Wednesday evening.
Denying media reports that five soldiers had been killed and 34 injured in the explosion, security officials told Dawn in Peshawar that one soldier and a civilian contractor of the Frontier Works Organisation had died and 11 troops had been injured.
“Only one soldier, Tahir Rashid, was killed in the attack on the mosque,” an official said. He said the injured soldiers had been taken to Peshawar and five of them were in critical condition.
Details about the incidents were vague because the local media have no access to the troubled town and Waziristan has been under curfew for the past three days.
Local people said in the evening that there was a tense pause in fighting in Mirali, Miramshah and other areas of North Waziristan.
Security officials said 24 militants were killed in an exchange of fire when they ambushed an army convoy sent to rescue the soldiers injured in the suicide attack.
The militants ambushed the convoy between Khajori and Mirali. Security personnel returned fire and encircled fleeing terrorists.
The officials said all those killed in the clash were terrorists and three security personnel had been injured.
However, local people said 28 people, two women among them, were killed when security personnel encircled two hotels after the bomb attack and started indiscriminate firing.
Maulvi Gul Abbas of Mirali said 26 truck drivers, cleaners and labourers staying in the Dawlat Khan and Honeymoon hotels because of the curfew had been killed. Several loaded trucks were set on fire. According to reports, two women in villages adjoining the town were killed by artillery shells fired by the security forces. Several families of the area had shifted to safe places.
MNA Nazir Khan of North Waziristan discussed the situation with military officers at the Peshawar Corps Headquarters and urged them to immediately lift the curfew.
“Local people retrieved the bodies of 23 truckers and labourers from the hotels and the security forces have stopped firing,” he said.
He said the officers had assured him that the curfew would be lifted on Friday.
The MNA also said that security personnel had left Mirali town.
He said all the dead were civilians belonging to Bannu, Lakki Marwat and adjoining areas.
He said heavy firing had continued in the town throughout the day and the number of casualties could increase while currently there are conflicting reports in this regard.
According to AFP, helicopters attacked compounds in the morning and troops fired mortars at intervals throughout the day at suspected militant hideouts.
A local resident said the security forces also demolished a few compounds in Mirali they suspected were used by militants.
He added that the landline telephone service had been suspended in the area.
“Pakistani security forces raided two hotels in the area close to the site of the suicide bombing and intense gun battles left six suspected militants dead and 12 others wounded,” a local security official said.
He also said that shells fired by the security forces hit a house in Moski village and killed a woman and her two daughters.
No reimbursements if US supplies disrupted
WASHINGTON: A proposed new law that has the White House’s approval seeks to fiscally squeeze Pakistan if interruptions to the US/Nato ground supply route through Pakistan continue.
WASHINGTON: A proposed new law that has the White House’s approval seeks to fiscally squeeze Pakistan if interruptions to the US/Nato ground supply route through Pakistan continue.
In addition, the US National Defence Authorisation Bill of 2014 seeks a certification from the US defence secretary that Pakistan is taking demonstrable actions against Al Qaeda and other militant groups active along the Pak-Afghan border.
The development comes on the heels of Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel’s recent visit to Pakistan during which he was reported to have warned of the mood in the US Congress souring on Pakistan.
The bill, already approved by the House of Representatives, includes a one-year extension for reimbursing Pakistan for supporting the US-led war against terrorists.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the White House noted that “the bill will … support (US) capacity building efforts with foreign military forces, and support contingency or stability operations.”
The bill includes a section which extends funding Pakistan’s counter-terrorism activities for one year with certain modifications.
In a section titled “Limitation on amounts available”, it reduces the amount available for reimbursing Pakistan from $1.65 billion in 2013 to $1.5bn in 2014.
It also says that no amounts authorised to be appropriated by this bill, and no amounts authorised to be appropriated for fiscal years before 2014 that remain available for obligation, may be used for reimbursing Pakistan, until the US secretary of defence certifies to the congressional defence committees each of the following:
(A) That Pakistan is maintaining security and is not through its actions or inactions at any level of government limiting or otherwise restricting the movement of US equipment and supplies along the Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs) through Pakistan to Afghanistan so that such equipment and supplies can be trans-shipped and such equipment and supplies can be retrograded out of Afghanistan.
(B) That Pakistan is taking demonstrable steps to:
(i) Support counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militant extremists groups such as the Haqqani Network and the Quetta Shura Taliban located in Pakistan;
ii) Disrupt the conduct of cross-border attacks against United States, coalition and Afghanistan security forces located in Afghanistan by such groups (including the Haqqani Network and the Quetta Shura Taliban) from bases in Pakistan;
(iii) Counter the threat of IEDs, including efforts to attack IED networks, monitor known precursors used in IEDs, and systematically address the misuse of explosive materials (including calcium ammonium nitrate) and accessories and their supply to legitimate end-users in a manner that impedes the flow of IEDs and IED components into Afghanistan; and (iv) Conduct cross-border coordination and communication with Afghan security forces and US armed forces in Afghanistan.
The bill also requires the secretary to certify that Pakistan is not using its military or any funds or equipment provided by the US to persecute minority groups for their legitimate and non-violent political and religious beliefs, including the Baloch, Sindhi, and Hazara ethnic groups and minority religious groups, including Christian, Hindu and members of the Ahmadiya community.
The bill, however, authorises the US secretary of defence to waive the limitation if the secretary certifies to the congressional defence committees in writing that the waiver is in the national security interests of the United States and includes with such certification a justification for the waiver.
“Although the bill includes a number of provisions that restrict or limit the Defence Department’s ability to align military capabilities and force structure with the president’s strategy and implement certain efficiencies, overall the administration is pleased with the modifications and improvements contained in the bill,” the White House said.
The bill addresses “most of the administration’s significant objections with earlier versions regarding these issues and the administration supports passage of the legislation,” it added.
Musharraf apologises for any misdeeds
ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on Thursday sought “forgiveness” for any wrongs he may have committed during his nine-year rule.
ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on Thursday sought “forgiveness” for any wrongs he may have committed during his nine-year rule.
“Whatever I did, I did it for the country. It could be wrong but there was no bad intention in it. Even then, if someone thinks that I have committed a mistake, I seek forgiveness for it,” said an emotional Musharraf in a TV interview with ARY News, which the channel claimed was his first interview after getting bail in all cases pending against him.
Wrapped in a shawl, Gen Musharraf termed revival of the economy and tackling extremism and terrorism as the most serious challenges the country is facing.
This is for the first time that the former army chief, who ruled the country from 1999 to 2008, has offered an apology for the actions and decisions he took as the country’s president.
The former military ruler, facing treason charges for the imposition of emergency in the country on November 3, 2007, said he wanted to clear himself in all cases he is facing and said that he is ready to face courts.
Gen Musharraf said that whatever he had done for the country he did it with good intentions and he was proud of that.
Gen Musharraf, who had overthrown the Nawaz Sharif government in Oct 1999, criticised the economic policies of the present PML-N government. “The beggars always get kicked wherever they go,” he said while criticising the government for approaching IMF and world donors for aid. He claimed that he had broken the begging bowl during his tenure and regretted that the present regime had once again started begging.
He asked the people to support the army and the ISI and said force should be used wherever it was needed. He also supported the idea of holding talks with Taliban.
Iran vows to support anti-terror efforts
ISLAMABAD: Iran on Thursday vowed to support Pakistan government’s efforts for eliminating terrorism from the country.
ISLAMABAD: Iran on Thursday vowed to support Pakistan government’s efforts for eliminating terrorism from the country.
The commitment was conveyed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who had called on him.
Pakistan and Iran have a history of mutual security concerns, which partially eased after the execution of Jundullah leader Abdol Malek Rigi in 2010. However, the concerns were revived in October this year after a cross-border attack on Iranian security personnel by terrorists belonging to Jaish-ul-Adl in the border region of Saravan in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
Pakistan and Iran, who have a bilateral security agreement, launched a joint investigation into the incident afterwards.
“We will enhance bilateral cooperation and make it stronger,” Mr Zarif said.
Meanwhile, the Thursday interaction on the sidelines of D-8 Council of Ministers meeting was one of the rare occasions when the Iranian and Pakistani leaders did not discuss Iran-Pakistan pipeline project.
Iran had last week cancelled its $500 million financing facility for the gas pipeline.
Mr Zarif quoted Afghan President Hamid Karzai as having said that matters on reconciliation with the Taliban were moving in the right direction because of Pakistani support.
Mr Sharif said his government placed strong emphasis on friendly and good-neighbourly relations with all neighbouring countries including Afghanistan, India and Iran.
Foreign Minister Zarif extended invitation, on behalf of President of Iran Hasan Rouhani, to Mr Sharif to visit Iran. The prime minister accepted the invitation.
Govt says youth loan terms set by banks
ISLAMABAD: The government has blamed the banks funding its signature youth development programme for the tough terms and conditions for loans.
ISLAMABAD: The government has blamed the banks funding its signature youth development programme for the tough terms and conditions for loans.
Parliamentary secretary for finance and revenue Rana Mohammad Afzal Khan faced a barrage of complaints in the National Assembly on Wednesday from both sides of the aisle over what they said strict conditions attached to the loan scheme.
Dr Mahreen Razaque Bhutto of the PPP and other lawmakers of the party had moved a call-attention notice on the matter seeking government’s reply.
On the face of it, she said, the scheme had been formulated to help poor and unemployed young people, but in fact it appeared to be for the rich class.
“How would a poor applicant from a rural area manage a government officer in BS-15 or someone with net worth of 150pc more than the amount of loan being sought as a guarantor,” Ms Bhutto asked.
With these conditions, she said, one could only assume that the loan scheme was meant to benefit only a certain class.
She read out a downloaded application form of the scheme and said it was clearly written in the form that the government at any given time could change the mark-up rate which at the moment had been set at eight per cent.
Imran Zafar Leghari, another PPP lawmaker and mover of the call-attention notice, said that youth and student loan schemes all over the world were not only interest-free, but also without the condition of a guarantor. The government would have to review the scheme if it was genuinely interested in taking the downtrodden out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
A women lawmaker belonging to JUI-F urged the government to make the scheme interest-free because it was un-Islamic and against Islamic teachings. “When people elect us they don’t seek any guarantee, then why we are asking them for guarantors,” she said.
After listening to the complaints, parliamentary secretary Rana Afzal Khan said that since it was banks’ money the government had to address their concerns for safety of the investment. The government wants to nurture a new breed of entrepreneurs through this scheme so that only genuine applicants come forward and avail themselves of this opportunity.
About the condition of guarantor, Mr Afzal said that an applicant could also present documentary evidence of owing property worth 150pc of the loan sought. They will have to present some sort of a guarantee.
In the past, he said, many such schemes, like the yellow cab scheme and the president’s Rozgar programme, had failed to produce results. Learning from the past experience, the government decided to give loan only to those who were interested in starting some business, he added.
Five troops killed in N. Waziristan suicide blast
MIRAMSHAH: At least five soldiers were killed and 34 others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a mosque at a security checkpost in North Waziristan on Wednesday evening.
MIRAMSHAH: At least five soldiers were killed and 34 others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a mosque at a security checkpost in North Waziristan on Wednesday evening.
According to officials, the bomber rammed his mini-truck loaded with explosives into the roadside mosque at the Khajori post, some 40km east of Miramshah, the administrative headquarters of the tribal agency adjacent to Afghanistan.
“Around 40 to 50 soldiers of the army and Frontier Corps were offering Maghrib prayer in the mosque when the explosion took place,” an official said. Five bodies were retrieved from the debris and 34 injured rescued, he said.
Khajori is a major checkpost on the Bannu-Miramshah road that is jointly manned by army and paramilitary forces. The post was also attacked in February 2008 when nine soldiers were killed.
The injured were taken to a military hospital in Bannu. According to reports, six of them were army men and 28 FC personnel. Local people said curfew had been imposed in North Waziristan since morning for the protection of military convoys.
According to AFP, Ansarul Mujahideen, a militant group linked to the TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iraq attack leaves 3 Pakistanis dead
BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say attacks across the country have killed 11 people, including three Pakistani pilgrims.
BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say attacks across the country have killed 11 people, including three Pakistani pilgrims.
Police officials say the deadliest among Wednesday’s attacks was in the town of Khalis, where a suicide bomber struck a group of Shia pilgrims, killing six and wounding 16. Khalis is about 80km north of Baghdad.
Outside the city of Samarra, 95km north of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims, killing three Pakistanis and wounding 12, along with two Iraqis – the group’s driver and the translator.
At a checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi, a suicide car bomber killed two policemen and wounded five.—AP
Strategic dialogue with US to resume in Feb: Aziz
ISLAMABAD: The strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the United States, suspended in 2010, will resume by February in the perspective of post-2014 situation in the region after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
ISLAMABAD: The strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the United States, suspended in 2010, will resume by February in the perspective of post-2014 situation in the region after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
This was stated by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz who was winding up a debate in the Senate on Wednesday on foreign policy with particular reference to the prime minister’s visit to the US, drone attacks and repercussions of the expected reduction in the number of forces in Afghanistan next year.
He said that four of the six working groups which were scheduled to meet before start of the strategic dialogue had already met.
The talks were suspended after the Raymond Davis episode, attack on Salala military post and the US raid in Abbottabad.
Mr Aziz claimed that the government had for the first time taken a clear stance on the issue of drone attacks and conveyed to the US the concern of the Pakistani nation.
He informed the house that the UN General Assembly was about to adopt a resolution regarding use of force during the war against terrorism that would strengthen Pakistan’s position on the drone attacks.
He said the first priority of foreign policy was to have a “peaceful neighbourhood”.
He claimed that there had been considerable reduction in anti-Pakistan sentiments in Afghanistan after three meetings between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Hamid Karzai, and a new border management system was being prepared to check movement on the Pakistan-Afghan border.
He said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had agreed that elections in his country should not be contested on anti-Pakistan rhetoric. He expressed the hope that the peace process with India would resume soon after the elections. Mr Aziz assured the house that the new national security policy would be placed before parliament.
He rejected a perception that five people, including Prime Minister Sharif, were running the foreign ministry and said he had all the powers of a federal minister.
About the US-Taliban talks in Doha, he said Pakistan had facilitated the process but, according to his information, the process had been disrupted and it would not go ahead. He did not say anything about the government’s policy for talks with Taliban which, according to him, concerned the interior ministry.
Earlier, giving a policy statement on the issue of circular debt and agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claimed that the government had saved 14 per cent interest amount being paid for delay in payment of Rs500 billion circular debt to independent power producers and others left by the previous government.
He said 1,700MW had been added to the national grid after the payment of circular debt. He criticised the opposition for its criticism of the government’s economic policies and claimed that things had started improving. He said details about the agreement with the IMF and circular debt payment were being placed on the ministry’s official website.
Mr Dar informed the house that the government had abolished the secret funds of 32 of the 34 departments. He said the PML-N government was clearing the mess left by the previous PPP government.
Responding to Mr Dar’s remarks, Leader of Opposition in the Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said the finance minister had ignored the prevailing price hike in his speech and challenged him to make the budget of a common man with a monthly salary of Rs10,000.
“How a person who cannot make the budget of a common man can make the budget for 180 million people,” he said while rejecting Mr Dar’s claim about the poor performance of the PPP government.
Speaking on a point of order, Tahir Mashhadi of the MQM drew the attention of the house to reports about two Chinese nuclear power plants being set up in Karachi. He said there were reports that these nuclear plants called “ASP 1000” were “untested and untried”.
He demanded that the plants be set up outside the city and far from population to avoid any mishap caused by radiation and contamination of water.
Attack on polio teams disservice to people: Imran
NOWSHERA: People of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may face travel restrictions and international isolation “if we don’t vaccinate all our children against polio”, PTI chief Imran Khan said here on Wednesday as he announced a plan to step up efforts in this regard.
NOWSHERA: People of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may face travel restrictions and international isolation “if we don’t vaccinate all our children against polio”, PTI chief Imran Khan said here on Wednesday as he announced a plan to step up efforts in this regard.
“Our people could lose their jobs abroad and suffer economically. We need to join forces for polio vaccination to avert such threats,” he said while inaugurating a polio vaccination campaign at a rural health centre in Akora Khattak.
Maulana Samiul Haq, the patron-in-chief of Darul Uloom Haqqania, was present on the occasion.
Mr Khan said the people who attacked polio workers neither served the cause of Islam nor of Pakistan or Pakhtuns, but put children at the risk of getting handicapped.
The health workers and policemen killed while doing their job during efforts to eradicate polio deserved commemoration for their sacrifice for the cause of protecting children from the crippling disease, he said.
“There is a looming danger of travel restrictions on our people if we don’t administer oral polio vaccine to under-five children.”
“We must vaccinate our children in every campaign,” he said.
Mr Khan announced that he would lead the anti-polio campaign in the province and said the provincial government would provide security to vaccinators. He also appealed to elements attacking vaccination teams to stop such attacks.
He said the people of Khyber Pakhtunhwa were facing various challenges with great courage.
He claimed that the PTI had stopped Nato supplies to create a congenial atmosphere for peace and asked how talks with the Taliban could succeed while American drone attacks were increasing.
“All these efforts are for creating windows for peace in the war-torn society and this is the top priority of the PTI,” he said.
The PTI chief said federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had admitted that the government had lost $100 billion in the “war against terror”, but he was now criticising the blockade of Nato supplies.
“After nine years, every party was now calling for negotiations with the Taliban, instead of continuing the war.”
He urged the federal government to chalk out a proper plan for talks.
He said it was the duty of the federal government to take steps to keep prices of goods in check.
Claiming that people could feel a change in every department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa compared with other provinces, he said the PTI was introducing a local bodies system which would prove to the effective in solving local problems.
Maulana Sami criticised the federal government’s policy relating to peace with the Taliban. He alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was acting on dictates from abroad.
Later, the PTI chief visited the home of a policeman killed in a recent attack during an anti-polio campaign in Peshawar.
According to AFP, Mr Khan launched the campaign by administering polio vaccine drops to children at the health centre.
“Those who are attacking polio workers are doing injustice to our province, our country and the whole of humanity,” he told reporters.
“If we run a full-fledged campaign against polio in the coming three months we can eradicate polio from the country and I will personally lead this campaign.”
Dr Imtiaz Khan, focal person for the anti-polio campaign in the province, said up to 2.3 million children in nine districts would be targeted in the immunisation drive.
“As many as 52 cases of polio have been reported from the tribal areas and 10 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year,” he said.
Remarks evoke Taliban threat
ISLAMABAD: In a late night development, a spokesman for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) stated that the life of party chairman Imran Khan was seriously under threat from a militant group over his stance on the polio campaign.
ISLAMABAD: In a late night development, a spokesman for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) stated that the life of party chairman Imran Khan was seriously under threat from a militant group over his stance on the polio campaign.
“PTI chairman Imran Khan has been informed that according to information from Waziristan there has been a serious threat to his life by (a militant group) Ansarul Mujahideen because of his polio announcement,” the spokesman said in a text message sent to Dawn.
Inaugurating a polio campaign by administering drops to children in a government hospital in the town of Akorra Khattak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr Khan, without naming Taliban or any other militant group, had stated that those who were attacking polio workers “are doing injustice to our province, our country and the whole of humanity”.
The PTI spokesman said the party would raise the issue on Thursday either in the National Assembly or through a news conference.—Staff Reporter
Little data, lots of debate on drone raids
PESHAWAR: After years of drone strikes, whose number remains contentious, not a single state agency and government department has any authentic data to detail the number and identities of those killed, including civilian casualties.
PESHAWAR: After years of drone strikes, whose number remains contentious, not a single state agency and government department has any authentic data to detail the number and identities of those killed, including civilian casualties.
Deep investigations, wide-ranging interviews and research of existing information conducted by Dawn shows that the drone debate, which has dominated the political discourse in Pakistan, at best stands on a weak information ground, and at worst is speculative, almost completely devoid of verifiable data. Lost in political rhetoric, thus, is the quest for finding the truth in arguably the CIA’s biggest known operation in Pakistan. The numbers just don’t add up.
The Drone Strikes
Take the number of drone strikes, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, with ingress in the tribal region picking up human and electronic intelligence, offer different figures. Since, the first drone strike that killed Nek Mohammad in June, 2004 to the attack that killed five people in Hangu; the figure maintained by state agencies hover around 334.
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Secretariat, on the other hand has so far counted 352 drone strikes in the tribal region.
Officially, Pakistan has not released any figure about to the total number of drone strikes but Interior Minister, Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan, in a written reply to the Senate on behalf of the defense ministry in Oct, put the number since 2008 at 317.
The Long War Journal puts the total number of drone strikes in Pakistan at 353. The UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism numbers the drone strikes at 380 while The New America Foundation has estimated the number of drone strikes in Pakistan at 364.
The Number of Casualties
Clearly, while foreign organizations maintaining records of the number of strikes, have largely based their own estimates on media reports and therefore, their accuracy may be open to question, what is more ironical however, is the inability of the state agencies to collect more credible and authentic figures, indicating just how difficult it has been to operate in an area infested with militants.
The total number of civilian deaths, according to one outfit, since 2004, has been 134, another department, puts it at 259.
The Fata Secretariat, which gets its information from political agents, has classified those killed as “Locals” and “Non-Locals.” It does not make any distinction whether the dead were all local civilians or also included local militants. No word on who the “Non Locals”, either.
A Fata Secretariat document, a copy of which is available with Dawn, shows that since 2004, there have been a total of 2293 fatalities in drone strikes, out of which 1730 were classified as “Locals.”
The same list was provided to the UN Special Repporteur Ben Emmerson in March, 2013.
Chaudry Nisar in his statement before the Senate put the total number of “terrorists killed” in drone strikes from 2008 to 2013 at 2160. His statement, that only 67 civilians have been killed in drone strikes since 2008, caused a pandemonium in the Senate. He was not wide off the mark.
State agencies however, give out the number of the number of “terrorists” killed since 2004 at 2330 and 2240 respectively.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism put the total death toll in drone strikes at 2629.
The Confusion over Civilian Casualties
Political Agents, North & South Waziristan however, provided a completely different list to the Peshawar High Court in a writ petition challenging drone strikes in Pakistan, identifying all 1450 killed from 2008 to 2012 as Pakistani civilians. Fata Secretariat says the PAs did the classification on their own.
The list submitted to the PHC did not contain names of the victims, but included top militant commanders, the likes of TTP chief, Baitullah Mahsud killed in August, 2009, the mastermind and architect of suicide bombings in Pakistan, Qari Hussain killed in October, 2010 and Al Qaeda associate, Ilyas Kashmiri killed in June, 2011.
Had Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan asked for the names, he would have been shocked to know that Fata Secretariat did not have names of the civilian casualties. In fact, it does not even have all the names of the 47 foreign fighters, it claimed in the court, to have been killed in the drone strikes.
This is the figure being widely quoted by Imran Khan, whose party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, is spearheading the campaign against drone strikes, and has been blocking supplies to Nato in Afghanistan.
The only “officially” acknowledged civilian casualties, have been the 41 killed in a drone strike on a tribal jirga convened to settle a chromite mine dispute near Miramshah in March, 2011. The strike prompted a terse statement from the then Army Chief Gen. Kayani, condemning the strike as “regrettable”, “carelessly and callously” targeting “a jirga of peaceful citizens” with complete disregard to human life.”
An officer posted in North Waziristan at the time said the federal government promptly dished out more than 30 million rupees. The families refused to take the money, the official said.
There have been at least three other incidents drone strikes that, according to Fata documents resulted in massive civilian casualties. One occurred on Jan 13, 2006 in Damadola, Bajaur tribal region, when a drone strike killed 16 people died, five women, five children and six men. Another strike on October 30, 2006, on a seminary in village Chingai, tehsil Mamund left 81 people dead, eighty children and one man.
Similarly, on June 23, 2009, according to the documents, a drone hit a funeral of Khozwali Shabikhel, a militant commander, (killed in an earlier morning drone strike the same day), killing sixty people. Intelligence officials believe the drone strike was the result of a flawed intelligence.
The Foreign Militants
Fata Secretariat does not have any figures for the number of foreign militants killed in drone strikes. The only figure they have for “Non-locals” is 563 since the beginning of the drone strikes.
A security agency puts the number of “foreigners” killed in the strike at 618, while another outfit gives out the figure of 701. Men of Middle-Eastern origin top the list, followed by militants from the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, Chinese Uyghurs, Turkmen, Chechens, Tajik and British and other nationalities.
Naming the Dead
While there has been much political rhetoric and debate over drone strikes and the number of civilians killed, ironically, there is not much of a data available with any of the state institutions and the government departments to corroborate it.
Fata Secretariat does not possess any data containing names of the drone victims. Officers, who have served in the twin tribal regions of North & South Waziristans at the peak of the drone strikes from 2008 to 2012, witnessing 303 strikes, acknowledge the absence of such a data, owing to the difficulty of access.
They admit that their only sources for information were local tribesmen closely linked with local and foreign militants and the radio wireless chat between militants, which they used to closely monitor.
“If there was a prominent militant commander, we would hear increased chatter on radio and we could decipher the code name of the commander killed”, one of the officers said. “We would also often figure out the number of dead from the number of fatehas offered. But those fatehas would only for the local militants. The Punjabis and foreign militants would never hold fatehas”, the officer recounted.
“There was no mechanism. If there was a senior militant commander or prominent foreign fighter killed, the information would be shared with the Governor, KP and the Additional Chief Secretary Fata. There was no mechanism and no database.”
The only list of names, sent to the Fata administration, regarding the identity of those killed in the March, 2011 strike, seems to be missing. Dawn could obtain the names of only 19 people, that too from a security source. Fata Secretariat officials say there may be some other names, but those are buried in the Daily Situation Reports (DSRs) routinely sent to the secretariat.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which launched an ambitious program to name the dead, says that by the end of Jan 2013, it was able to identify 544 civilians by name out of the total 2629 killed in drone strikes.
Compared with political administration in the two Waziristans, the intelligence agencies have had a wider network of human intelligence and have had better electronic capabilities to gather intelligence and information.
But Dawn has seen documents which show that the perhaps the only data available with one of the state institutions is too sketchy and incomplete, identifying 24.32 per cent of over two thousands listed dead between 2010 and 2013, comprising entirely of local and foreign militants – and no civilians.
Three killed in suicide attack on Imambargah
RAWALPINDI: Three people, a policeman among them, were killed and 15 others injured in a suicide attack on an Imambargah in the heavily guarded Gracy Lane area here on Tuesday night.
RAWALPINDI: Three people, a policeman among them, were killed and 15 others injured in a suicide attack on an Imambargah in the heavily guarded Gracy Lane area here on Tuesday night.
According to police and witnesses, the bomber blew himself up when he was stopped for search at the entrance of Imambargah Asna Ashari near the Nur Khan Airbase. About 700 people were attending a majlis at the time of the attack.
The blast was heard far away. Police and military personnel cordoned off the area and all roads leading to Gracy Lane were closed to traffic.
Khalid Mehmood, the driver of a police van who was on duty at the Imambagah, said a man parked his motorcycle by the roadside and started walking towards the Imambargah. When Sub-Inspector Amanat Ali and other policemen asked him to stop for search, he detonated the bomb.
The dead and the injured were taken to the Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital.
Those killed were identified as Sub-Inspector Amanat Ali, Ghulam Shabbir and Wasim Zaidi. Among the injured were five policemen – SHO Airport Rub Nawaz and constables Ghulam Abbas, Ijaz Ahmed, Javaid Shah and Manazir Hussain.
City Police Officer Akhtar Umar Lalika told Dawn that it was a suicide attack. The bomber blew himself up when he was intercepted by policemen outside the Imambargah.
Several bikes and cars parked outside the Imambargah were damaged.
According to bomb disposal experts, four to five pounds of high explosives, laced with ball-bearings, were used in the attack.
The head and legs were believed to be of the bomber. Black clothes and a green jacket were retrieved from the scene.
A damaged pistol, wooden butt of a rifle and four spent bullet casings were also found. However, it could not be ascertained whether the pistol belonged to the suicide bomber or police.
Pakistan, India DGMOs to meet on 24th
ISLAMABAD: The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan has invited his Indian counterpart for a meeting on Dec 24 to strengthen mechanisms to ensure ceasefire on the Line of Control in Kashmir.
ISLAMABAD: The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan has invited his Indian counterpart for a meeting on Dec 24 to strengthen mechanisms to ensure ceasefire on the Line of Control in Kashmir.
This was announced in a statement issued by a Foreign Office spokesperson.
The prime ministers of the two countries had agreed in their meeting held in New York in September that talks between the DGMOs should be held.
The LoC is quite after months of intense skirmishes and the DGMOs have been speaking over the hotline, but were yet to meet.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on National Security — in its first meeting on Tuesday — directed the ministries of foreign affairs and defence to take steps that could contribute to making the neighbourhood peaceful.
Decision to tighten security in tribal areas
ISLAMABAD: The civilian and military leadership decided on Tuesday to beef up security in tribal areas, but stayed short of announcing an all-out military offensive against Taliban militants.
ISLAMABAD: The civilian and military leadership decided on Tuesday to beef up security in tribal areas, but stayed short of announcing an all-out military offensive against Taliban militants.
The posturing is apparently meant to turn the heat on the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that has not been responding to the government’s offer for talks, particularly since the November drone attack which killed its leader Hakeemullah Mehsud.
An official statement said there was a consensus among the participants of the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) that “economic development and prosperity of the people of Pakistan is dependent upon ensuring security and stability of the country”.
The meeting discussed formulation of national and internal security strategies and ties with Afghanistan. Besides augmenting security, it called for developing Fata and bringing it on a par with other parts of the country.
The statement talked about engaging various Taliban groups in talks instead of only the umbrella organisation — TTP.
These elements of the strategy for restoring writ of the government in the tribal areas -- enhancing security and developing the long ignored region -- may not be new but had been overshadowed by an excessive desire for opening talks with the Taliban. Therefore, their reiteration reflects a likely change in tactics.
Interestingly, the committee echoed the words of US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel who had told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week that “root(ing) out terrorism and militancy on its (Pakistan’s) own territory is essential for creating a stable environment for promoting economic growth and prosperity.”
The meeting was presided over by the prime minister and attended by Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Adviser to the PM on National Security Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistance to the PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatmi, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Rashad Mahmood, Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Asif Sandilla, Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, the director general of the ISI and secretaries of ministries of foreign affairs and interior.
Meanwhile, the concept of peace talks was dismissed by the Taliban immediately after the CCNS meeting. They said that they had information that plans were already under way for a military operation and warned that they were ready for battle.
“They should happily launch a military operation against us. We have seen their operations in the past and would like them to start this long-awaited operation,” TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid was quoted as saying by agencies.
“Like previous governments, this one is also a puppet of the United States. It’s powerless and dollar-hungry,” he alleged.
But a government official said that the Taliban’s tough rhetoric did not mean that negotiations had failed.
“Their public posturing is different from what’s going on in the background,” said Tariq Azeem, a senior official in the prime minister’s team. “They want to appear tough but back channels show that they are also interested in talks.”
Fuel adjustment charge ruled illegal
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court ruled on Tuesday that fuel adjustment charge (FAC)/fuel price adjustment (FPA) levied by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on electricity bills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was unconstitutional and illegal.
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court ruled on Tuesday that fuel adjustment charge (FAC)/fuel price adjustment (FPA) levied by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on electricity bills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was unconstitutional and illegal.
A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Nisar Hussain Khan issued the short order on 80 petitions filed by industrial units and other entities challenging the levy.
The court ordered the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to adjust through monthly bills the extra amount received from consumers on account of FAC.
Pesco’s counsel Abdur Rauf Rohaila told reporters that the company would challenge the PHC order in the Supreme Court.
During the proceedings, Mr Rohaila said the Lahore High Court and the Islamabad High Court had declared the fuel adjustment charge as illegal and the petitioners had challenged the orders in the Supreme Court.
He said the Supreme Court had decided most of these issues in the Gadoon Textile Mills case in 1996. He contended that electricity generated through hydel power became part of the national grid from where it was distributed across the country and the provincial government received net profit for hydel power generation.
Chief Justice Dost Mohammad observed that there was no mechanism available in the law to check pilferage taking place during supply of fuel to power generating units. He said the efficiency of power generating units set up many years ago had reduced and now they had to consume more fuel for generating electricity, but Nepra had turned a blind eye to the matter.
Advocate Attaullah Kundi, representing Nepra, said that under the 1997 act, the authority was empowered to determine electricity tariff -- both for power generation and distribution companies.
He said there was a misperception among the petitioners that the hydel power generating unit in KP belonged to the province whereas in fact it belonged to the federal government.
Advocate Shumail Butt, the petitioners’ counsel, informed the court that the cost of hydel generation in the province was Rs1.30 per unit but consumers were paying Rs14.75. It was unjustified to change tariff every month on the pretext of fuel adjustment surcharge. He said the mechanism for FPA was introduced first time in section 31 (4) of the Nepra Act by adding a provision to it through the Finance Act 2008.
The counsel contended that the amendment had been made through a money bill which was unconstitutional because the mechanism for FPA did not fall in the criterion of a money bill as envisaged in the constitution. He said that even the Council of Common Interests had not been taken into confidence in this regard.
Advocate Naeem Bukhari, representing the federal government, argued that the petitioners had misinterpreted Article 157 (2) (D) of the Constitution which stated that a provincial government might determine tariff for distribution of electricity within the province. But, he added, the sub-clause of the constitution should be read with other clauses of Article 157. A province could determine tariff only if it generated electricity and laid its own transmission lines, he said.
Earn your bread, Nisar tells legislators
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan gave a dressing down to PML-N lawmakers on Monday for their lack of interest in proceedings of National Assembly.
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan gave a dressing down to PML-N lawmakers on Monday for their lack of interest in proceedings of National Assembly.
Chaudhry Nisar who in the absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was chairing a meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee told the legislators to at least justify perks and privileges they received as MNAs by showing their presence in the house.
“Throughout the 30 years of my parliamentary career, I have never seen such blatant disinterest in the business of the house from a ruling party. We are majority party but people hardly turn up, which attracts criticism from the opposition benches,” a participant of the meeting quoted the minister as saying.
Chaudhry Nisar, who often fills in for the prime minister in the assembly to give policy statements, be it on drone attacks, ties with the US or national security, chastised the party lawmakers for ‘embarrassing the government’ before the opposition.
“Opposition benches are fully justified when they point out absence of our ministers and empty treasury benches and we can only respond to them by ensuring our attendance in the house,” he said.
And he didn’t stop there. He constituted a committee comprising senior Ministers Zahid Hamid, Barjees Tahir and Riaz Pirzada to monitor attendance of the party lawmakers in the assembly sessions.
The committee, he warned, would see which member spent how much time in the house through a computerised system.
A 20-member committee was recommended to oversee issues relating to legislation in the house.
The minister urged the members to come forward with new ideas to improve the participation of legislators in the daily business of the house.
He also had a tip for the lawmakers on how to get media attention. He advised them to come up with call-attention notices on issues of public importance.
Although no-one complained during the meeting, Chaudhry Nisar said he was aware of resentment permeating among party MNAs over lack of accommodation in the cabinet and on other assignments. “It’s entirely the prerogative of the prime minister so I have nothing to say on this.”
But some members did speak about their lack of interaction with the prime minister, unavailability of development funds and bureaucracy’s disrespect in Punjab which they said only listened to the Chief Minister’s House. According to one lawmaker, there should be a day exclusively for the prime minister’s meetings with his party’s legislators.
Complaining against district coordination officers in Punjab for their rude attitude towards public representatives, at least two members asked Chaudhry Nisar to convey their concerns to the Punjab government.
The interior minister promised to take up the issue with the CM, but also advised them not to get involved in petty issues.
On the issue of development funds for members of the National Assembly, he said this concern would be addressed soon.
He said he would advise the prime minister and the chief ministers of Punjab and Balochistan to personally attend to concerns of the lawmakers in the next parliamentary committee meeting of the party.
A senior lawmaker said if the party leaders were seriously concerned about the attendance the prime minister should himself start attending NA sessions. PM Sharif hasn’t come to the house since his election in June.
The member claimed that a majority of legislators of the party weren’t happy over cabinet portfolios which had largely been allocated to MNAs from Lahore and Gujranwala divisions and close family members.
“The party leadership must pay heed to the growing disenchantment within its rank and file before it’s too late.”
Loan for the youth is here, no guarantor!
LAHORE: The Prime Minister Youth Business Loan Scheme appears to have hit a major snag over the condition that makes it mandatory for loan-seekers to have a resourceful guarantor ready to accept responsibility to repay the loan in case of default.
LAHORE: The Prime Minister Youth Business Loan Scheme appears to have hit a major snag over the condition that makes it mandatory for loan-seekers to have a resourceful guarantor ready to accept responsibility to repay the loan in case of default.
“The government is in a fix on how to secure the loans it plans to disburse without reducing the access of ‘eligible’ loan-seekers to the subsidised credit just because they can’t find a guarantor,” a senior official told Dawn on Monday.
Under the initiative, a government employee in BPS-15 and above or someone with a net worth 150pc more than the amount of the loan being sought can be a guarantor.
The official, who has attended a number of long meetings chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to design the initiative, conceded the condition to have a guarantor could “exclude” thousands from the scheme. He said the banks were reluctant to implement it without a “solid mechanism” for recovery of their money from defaulters because the “fatality rate in the SME businesses in normal conditions is above 35pc. The participating banks fear the infection rate under the scheme could be above 50pc”.
The government is trying to sort out this problem and might come up with a solution soon. “This is an initiative very close to the heart of the prime minister and he won’t want to see a project headed by his daughter, Maryam, fall apart. Its success is also important for the ruling PML-N to woo the middle class youth away from Imran Khan’s PTI,” the official said.
The government rolled out the Rs100bn scheme earlier this month as part of the Prime Minister’s Youth Development Programme.
Under the scheme, 100,000 loans will be given out at a subsidised interest rate of eight per cent.
The individual loan amounts will range between Rs100,000 and Rs2 million and they will be given out to young entrepreneurs between the ages of 25 and 45 to set up small businesses.
The government will pick up the seven per cent differential in the rate paid by borrowers and charged by the banks.
The government intends to disburse Rs500 billion as loans over the next five years. The rate of subsidy at the current credit cost is estimated to cost the budget Rs3.5-5bn in the present fiscal, depending on the size of loans disbursed by the end of June.
The initiative has caught the imagination of hundreds of thousands of loan seekers. A spokesman for Smeda said that during the initial 18 days the agency had recorded 4.8m downloads of the scheme-related ‘generic’ documents posted on its website.
Another official, who was also involved in development of the initiative, said finding a guarantor shouldn’t be that much of a problem.
“If you’ve a good business plan it should not be difficult to persuade anyone to become your guarantor. There’s also a chance that many will be ready to offer guarantees on your behalf provided you agree to share a small percentage of profits (from the business) with the guarantor as cost of risk he is willing to take for you,” he argued.
He, however, shook his head when asked if he would be ready to act as guarantor himself. “I have too many financial responsibilities of my own to allow me to take the risk. Even the best of businesses can fail.”
Finance Secretary Waqar Masood told Dawn the money being lent under the scheme belonged to banks and their depositors. “You cannot expect banks to give out loans without proper safeguards for recovery.
“You can well imagine what will happen if loan-seekers know they don’t have to repay their loans.”
He acknowledged the problem of finding a guarantor exists for some. Yet, he added, the demand (for loans) was immense. “We have already done away with the condition of post-dated cheques from the guarantors and will see if we need to (relax) it as the programme moves ahead.”
Some officials insist the loan scheme is more “suitable” for those who are already in business. “Such people don’t have to worry about finding a guarantor; they can collateralise their loans. After all, the scheme offers them a huge subsidy on the price of the loan,” another official said.
“Those who cannot find a guarantor and don’t have collateral to mortgage against the loan should wait for the microfinance initiative under which the government plans to give Rs50,000 per person through organisations like Akhuwat as Qarz-i-Hasna,” he said.
BANKS RELUCTANT: Although the government plans to initially implement its flagship initiative through two state-owned banks – National Bank and FWBL, it is considering “encouraging” private commercial banks to also participate in it at a ‘later stage’. Background interviews with senior bankers, who spoke on the condition that their or their banks’ names will not be revealed, show their reluctance to take up this responsibility.
“We’ll resist the pressure to join this scheme, which we think isn’t
commercially viable,” the head of retail banking at a major bank said. “It will end up in billions of rupees in toxic debt just like a scheme Mr Sharif’s first government had launched in the early 1990s: the Yellow Cab initiative.
“When there’s political interference the banks always end up losing money,” he argued.
The head of risk management department of another bank agreed, but said it would be difficult for “us to resist the pressure beyond a limit”.
“I’d rather the government spared us. But if we’re forced to join it, we will demand two things: one, the guarantors should be made liable to pay the defaulted amount; two, the government should share losses with the banks.
“The banks are prepared to take a chance on our people. But we first owe to our depositors and our shareholders. We can afford to lose a couple of billions but the amount involved (in the scheme) is huge and unless the government is ready to share losses how can we risk our depositors’ and shareholders’ money?” he wondered. He said he was hopeful that Ishaq Dar, the finance minister, would ensure credible safeguards to “eliminate or minimise delinquencies if he wants us to participate in it”.
NA divided over BD hanging
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly blew hot and cold on Monday over an opposition leader’s execution in Bangladesh for aiding the Pakistan Army in the 1971 war, ending up with just an expression of “concern” by a divided house at what Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said was “judicial murder”.
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly blew hot and cold on Monday over an opposition leader’s execution in Bangladesh for aiding the Pakistan Army in the 1971 war, ending up with just an expression of “concern” by a divided house at what Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said was “judicial murder”.
The government and its allies as well as the opposition PTI tried hard for a show of parliamentary consensus on the 42nd anniversary of “fall of Dhaka” as they supported a resolution proposed by the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami seeking to condemn the execution of Abdul Quader Mollah of the Bangladesh Jamaat-i-Islami.
But the opposition PPP and the MQM refused to sign the draft and openly opposed it for different reasons in speeches before the house passed a toned down resolution by voice vote.
Contrary to a mild comment made by the foreign ministry on Friday, Chaudhry Nisar used some tough language in the house, saying Mr Mollah’s hanging had “opened old wounds again”.
He said Mr Mollah and his party remained loyal to Pakistan till the last day of its united existence, adding “that personality was put to the gallows through a judicial murder”.
But the PPP rejected the minister’s call for a consensus on the Jamaat resolution, with a lawmaker from Sindh, Abdul Sattar Bachani, saying his party would not sign the draft because the Jamaat had supported the execution of its founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto following a controversial conspiracy-to-murder conviction.
Since the Dhaka execution had taken place on the orders of the Bangladesh Supreme Court on the charge of killing thousands of Bengalis, he said it was not proper to interfere in another country’s internal affairs.
A PPP source said the Awami National Party too had refused to sign the draft resolution though no ANP member was seen in the house at the time.
The original Jamaat draft had wanted the house to “strongly condemn” the hanging, but an amended draft that was moved by a party member from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, only “expressed concern” of the house over the hanging of Mr Mollah for what it called “supporting Pakistan in 1971”.
It urged the Bangladesh government to “not revive the issues of 1971” and “terminate all cases registered against the leaders of Jamaat-i-Islami, Bangladesh, in a spirit of reconciliation”.
Bomb disposal experts die in blast
PESHAWAR: Four personnel of the Bomb Disposal Unit of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police were killed in a roadside explosion in Badhber village, near the provincial capital, on Monday.
PESHAWAR: Four personnel of the Bomb Disposal Unit of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police were killed in a roadside explosion in Badhber village, near the provincial capital, on Monday.
According to a police official, the BDU personnel were going to Suleman Khel village where suspected militants had exploded a bomb outside a motorcycle spare parts shop early in the morning when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb.
Three shops and a house were damaged in the first blast.
The BDU team’s Inspector in charge Abdul Haq, 61, of Batkhela; Kashif, 33, of Bahadur Killi; Imtiaz, 30, of Musazai; and Aminul Haq, 40, of Swabi, were killed and a passer-by was injured. The bomb weighed about 6kg.
Another bomb was defused in the same vicinity later.
Talking after the funeral prayers, provincial police chief Nasir Khan Durrani said police had recently repulsed four attacks on their posts and checkpoints.
Punjab CMs set Pakistan, India agenda
NEW DELHI, Dec 15: If India-Pakistan talks appear to have hit the doldrums, the chief ministers of Punjab provinces on both sides would have none of it. They issued instead a joint statement on Sunday that, in a limited sense, goes beyond the stymied ambitions of their national bureaucracies, possibly even their political masters.
NEW DELHI, Dec 15: If India-Pakistan talks appear to have hit the doldrums, the chief ministers of Punjab provinces on both sides would have none of it. They issued instead a joint statement on Sunday that, in a limited sense, goes beyond the stymied ambitions of their national bureaucracies, possibly even their political masters.
The joint statement, believed to be the first such exercise between any two provinces of India and Pakistan, has proposed the free movement of academicians, students and interns, an idea that the home ministry in India would have none of.
The ministry openly discourages academics and intellectuals from almost any country to travel and communicate freely inside the world’s largest democracy. But India’s Punjab could prove to have the clout to make this change.
During the interaction between Pakistan’s Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Parkash Singh Badal, “it was mutually agreed to promote cooperation for the common interest of peace, harmony, economic growth and leveraging each other’s potential,” said their statement. It was issued in Amritsar at the end of Mr Sharif’s five-day tour of India during which he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other high-ranking officials in Delhi.
During the trip to Punjab, Mr Sharif visited the Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana and also addressed the ‘Conference on Punjab-Punjab Cooperation’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). He also held meetings with Mr Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal and their delegation.
Recognising the benefits of mutual cooperation both sides agreed to facilitate exchange of academicians, experts and researches and to promote community contacts and understandings through exchange of delegation consisting of professionals and practitioners from different sectors, including agriculture, trade, industry and commerce.
The two would encourage exchange of students and interns from different educational institutions; that would “promote people to people contact through encouragement, development and participation in sports, cultural and tourism activities”.
A favourite subject of the two Punjabs, the chief ministers focused on the promotion of cooperation and sharing of learning in livestock sector, including dairy development, breed improvement, vaccinations, animal husbandry, veterinary sciences and water management.
They would encourage holding of joint workshops, training programmes and R&D projects in agriculture and allied sector, especially crop improvement.
Manufacturing of agriculture machinery and implements, exchange of knowledge and experiences in health and education sectors were the other topics mentioned in the statement.
The two provinces would share each other’s experience and good practices in land administration and public service delivery systems for improvement of governance and public facilitation. They would pursue policies for easy access for people of both sides to religious places of their respective faith. They would press for policies to reduce trade barriers for promotion of business and encourage new routes of trade.
Both the chief ministers resolved to pursue with their respective central governments to facilitate enhanced cooperation and formulate supportive policies in this regard.
Mandela laid to rest amid vows to pursue his ideals
QUNU (South Africa), Dec 15: Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, was laid to rest on Sunday after a state funeral filled with tearful eulogies and strident vows to pursue his ideals of equality and justice.
QUNU (South Africa), Dec 15: Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, was laid to rest on Sunday after a state funeral filled with tearful eulogies and strident vows to pursue his ideals of equality and justice.
Mandela’s casket was buried at a family plot in his rural boyhood home of Qunu, watched by his widow Graca Machel, ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, other family members and around 450 selected guests.
The interment followed a ceremonial state funeral that ran well over its allotted two hours, as speaker after speaker paid emotional tribute to the man who led South Africa out of the apartheid era.
“The person who lies here is South Africa’s greatest son,” said ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
A 21-gun salute and full military honour guard had escorted Mandela’s coffin to the marquee where 4,500 mourners said their final goodbyes.
His flag-draped casket was placed on cowskins, surrounded by 95 candles — for each year of his extraordinary life.
The frail and ageing leaders of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle also attended: George Bizos, Desmond Tutu and Ahmed Kathrada, whose voice broke as he delivered a eulogy for his old friend.
“I first met him 67 years ago,” said Kathrada, who along with Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1963.
He recalled his fellow inmate as a powerful amateur boxer who could cope far better than others with the physical challenge of hard labour.
“What I saw in hospital was a man helpless and reduced to a shadow of himself,” he said, struggling not to break down.
“Farewell my dear brother, my mentor, my leader. Now I’ve lost a brother, my life is in a void and I don’t know who to turn to.”
Kathrada’s words left many in tears among the invited guests, whose ranks included foreign dignitaries and celebrities ranging from Britain’s Prince Charles to US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
President Jacob Zuma told the country to carry on Mandela’s legacy.—AFP
Nadra to be under ECP control for three months: Nisar
ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: In order to complete the process of verifying thumb impressions of voters in a transparent manner, the government has decided to place the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) under the administrative control of the Election Commission of Pakistan for three months.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: In order to complete the process of verifying thumb impressions of voters in a transparent manner, the government has decided to place the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) under the administrative control of the Election Commission of Pakistan for three months.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said at a press conference on Sunday that the decision had been approved by the prime minister. A legal framework will be prepared in consultation with the ECP and formal orders will be issued on Monday (today). The ECP should now find out if magnetised ink has been obtained and their batches inspected to see if these meet the required specification and places where it cannot be used.
Chaudhry Nisar said this was being done under an arrangement between the ECP, Nadra and the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), adding that he would suggest to the Ministry of Science and Technology to give administrative control of the PCSIR to the ECP for three months.
He said that under the acting Chief Election Commissioner, the ECP was the forum which could find out the truth. If it was not done in three months he would approach court, the minister added.
“The ECP should thoroughly probe the matter and I will order registration of FIRs and arrest of culprits,” he said, adding that the FIA would carry out instructions of the ECP during the three months.
Chaudhry Nisar said he was unable to understand why FIR was not registered about problem in a few constituencies of Karachi. He said he had offered to make retired Justice Wajihuddin of the PTI in-charge of the process of verifying thumb impressions. “We have made the offer because we have confidence in Justice Wajih.”
NADRA CHIEF: Although the interior minister said repeatedly that he would not go into details on the controversy about termination of the contract of Nadra chairman, a substantive part of his press conference was devoted to the matter.
He said Nadra Chairman Mohammad Tariq Malik held nationality of four countries.
He undertook over 100 foreign visits in five years, most of them without permission from the prime minister and the controlling ministry.
Chaudhry Nisar said there were serious allegations against Mr Malik, including financial misappropriation and award of contracts in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules. All his three appointments -- induction as general manager and elevation to the post of deputy chairman and to that of chairman -- were illegal. “I will bring many facts on record after a verdict by the court in the case,” the minister said, adding that the role of the previous government in the matter would also be revealed. He said the Nadra chairman had initially resisted an audit but reluctantly agreed when he had been told in clear terms that those refusing audit would not remain chief executive officers. He said the preliminary audit reports had ‘earthshaking revelations’.
He said Mr Malik was drawing a monthly salary of Rs2.1 million. “Had he been inducted as chairman under the Nadra Ordinance his salary would have ranged between Rs250,000 and Rs300,000 in MP-1 scale. He uses his contacts to withdraw the hefty salary, but when it comes to his termination he refers to the Nadra Ordinance,” the minister said, adding that he would not allow this plunder to continue in any department under his ministry. “The government has invested billions of rupees to set up Nadra. This is public money and I am there to protect public money.”
He said that during the proceedings of a Senate committee, Mr Malik claimed to have studied at Harvard and Stanford. “These claims amount to perjury as he merely attended two-to-three-day seminars there.”
Chaudhry Nisar rejected a perception that the decision to sack Mr Malik was taken late at night.
TNFJ leader shot dead in Lahore
LAHORE, Dec 15: Prominent Shia scholar Allama Nasir Abbas was gunned down near the FC College here on Sunday night.
LAHORE, Dec 15: Prominent Shia scholar Allama Nasir Abbas was gunned down near the FC College here on Sunday night.
He belonged to the Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh Jafaria (TNFJ).
He was attacked when he was returning home after addressing a Majlis at Qaumi Markaz, Shah Jamal, in Shadman at around 11pm.
He was taken to the Shaikh Zayed Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Model Town SP (Operations) Tariq Aziz quoted witnesses as saying that Allama Nasir Abbas and his student Hafiz Anjum were going to his Eden Value Homes residence near Thokar when assailants on motorcycles intercepted their car and opened fire.
The student and Allama’s driver escaped unhurt, the SP said, adding that the gunmen escaped.
Protesters raised slogans and blamed the Punjab government for the killing.
Police officers inspected the place and supervised the collection of forensic evidence. In the hospital, they recorded the statements of the survivors.
Large contingents of police were at the crime scene and at the hospital till late in the night.
Allama Nasir Abbas, 42, has left behind six daughters and a son.
Meanwhile, the Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, Tahafuz Azadari Council and Jafaria Alliance Pakistan announced three days of mourning and demanded immediate arrest of the killers.
Provinces refuse to finance local bodies’ elections
ISLAMABAD: Provinces have refused to meet the entire cost of local bodies’ elections and declined to clear outstanding electricity bills of hundreds of billions of rupees without ascertaining their credibility.
ISLAMABAD: Provinces have refused to meet the entire cost of local bodies’ elections and declined to clear outstanding electricity bills of hundreds of billions of rupees without ascertaining their credibility.
The two issues were discussed at the biannual (January-June 2013) meeting of the National Finance Commission presided over by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar. The commission finalised half-yearly report for submission to parliament.
Sources said the federal finance ministry had asked the provinces to provide finances to the ECP to meet the local bodies’ election expenses, but it was informed by the four provinces that since the elections were to be conducted by the ECP as required under the 18th Amendment and the commission was a federal institution its expenses should be met by the centre and not by the provinces.
After discussing the relevant clauses of the constitution and detailed negotiations, the provincial finance ministers were persuaded to at least share 50 per cent responsibility. The total expenditures on LB elections are estimated at about Rs6 billion.
The provinces also strongly contested the federal government’s move for at-source deduction of electricity bills through the office of federal adjuster.
The commission, therefore, asked Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Mohammad Asif to have separate sessions with the provincial ministers to work out some arrangement to ease the cash situation of the power companies.
Dar’s tip to traders: sell your dollars
LAHORE, Dec 14: If you have dollars, sell them now. This tip was proffered on Saturday by none other than Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to businessmen and others allegedly hoarding the greenback in anticipation of a further decline in the exchange rate.
LAHORE, Dec 14: If you have dollars, sell them now. This tip was proffered on Saturday by none other than Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to businessmen and others allegedly hoarding the greenback in anticipation of a further decline in the exchange rate.
“The rupee is going to bounce back,” Mr Dar said with an emphatic tone in a speech at an annual dinner thrown by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association.
But many in the audience were not pleased with the ‘advice’. One businessman expressed dismay over tarring his community with an ‘insinuation’ that “all of us are dollar hoarders.
“I wasn’t expecting such a rash statement from him at a function where we gathered to celebrate the grant of GSP+ status. If he knows that any exporter or any businessman has squirrelled dollars outside the country, he should name and shame him.
“But he should have avoided stigmatising the entire community,” the tycoon fumed.
Mr Dar, who often insists that he is “allergic” to the very idea of currency depreciation or devaluation, said he could “guarantee” that the dollar was not going to appreciate against the rupee any longer. “You should trust me when I tell you that the rupee is going to improve from now on,” he told the textile tycoons who had gathered at the Governor’s House from across the country.
The minister promised to take steps for improving the exchange rate over the coming days and weeks, but sought to clarify that he had never claimed to bring down the rate to Rs98-99 a dollar, as the media had widely quoted him as saying.
The rupee has regained some of the ground in the inter-bank market it had lost against the greenback since July as a result of Mr Dar’s meeting with the heads of the commercial banks a few days back. He said the exchange rate would improve further once the foreign official inflows — Coalition Support Fund dues of $1.5bn, PTCL privatisation proceeds of $800m, assistance from multilateral donors like the World Bank for power and other projects, etc — started pouring in from Jan 1.
“The reserves will keep building on a daily basis and reach $20bn in three years.”
NOT IMPRESSED: Commenting on the minister’s ‘advice’, A financial analyst agreed, saying the exchange rate was determined by the market forces of demand and supply. Instead of advising the people to unload their dollar stocks, he argued, the minister should be working to improve the foreign currency reserves to end speculative pressure on the rupee. “Once the supply of the dollars improves in the market, the rupee will strengthen by itself.”
The analyst said the minister’s statement reflected his desperation to check foreign exchange drain as the reserves fell to a 12-year low of $2.9bn on Dec 6.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was to chair the event, could not make it to the dinner because he was unwell.
The minister said the government would extend its full support to the textile industry to take full advantage of the trade concessions given by the EU. In response to a demand by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association leader Gohar Ejaz, he said the government was taking measures to provide gas to the captive power plants of the textile industry in Punjab for two days a week during the winter. “We will ensure that the textile industry continues to get gas even if it means short blackouts of 1-2 hours (for domestic consumers) and increased use of expensive furnace oil to keep the power plants operative.”
He promised to provide the industry cheaper credit and greater market access to the United States as well.
He urged the business community to take the advantage of an amnesty scheme announced last month to encourage people to bring out their black money and invest it in new projects to create jobs.
“It is time to invest in Pakistan,” he said, adding that no question would be asked about the source of their investments if their new projects started commercial production before June 30, 2016.
He said the GSP+ status would revolutionize the economy and compensate for the loss of infrastructure because of the war on terror.
European and American diplomats and members of the European Parliament were also present on the occasion.
Chinese rover lands on moon
BEIJING, Dec 14: China on Saturday carried out the first soft landing on the moon since 1976, joining the United States and former Soviet Union in accomplishing the feat in a major step for Beijing’s ambitious space programme.
BEIJING, Dec 14: China on Saturday carried out the first soft landing on the moon since 1976, joining the United States and former Soviet Union in accomplishing the feat in a major step for Beijing’s ambitious space programme.
The emerging superpower is also set to become the third country to complete a lunar rover mission when it deploys its Yutu, or Jade Rabbit vehicle.
Scientists burst into applause as a computer-generated image representing the spacecraft, named Chang’e-3, was seen landing on the moon’s surface via screens at a Beijing control centre, state broadcaster Chinese Central Television (CCTV) showed.
“Chang’e-3 has successfully carried out a soft landing on the moon. This makes China the world’s third nation to achieve a lunar soft landing,” said the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in an online post on the mission’s official page on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent.—AFP
JUI-F bags highest number of seats; PkMAP, NP big winners
QUETTA, Dec 14: Balochistan’s election commissioner announced on Saturday that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl clinched 964 seats, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party 765, National Party 562 and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz 472 seats in the elections for local bodies held last week.
QUETTA, Dec 14: Balochistan’s election commissioner announced on Saturday that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl clinched 964 seats, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party 765, National Party 562 and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz 472 seats in the elections for local bodies held last week.
“We have received results from all districts and according to final and official results, the JUI-F won 964 seats, PkMAP 765, NP 562 and PML-N 472 seats,” Syed Sultan Bayazeed said, adding that all results were compiled in a transparent manner.
He said local bodies elections could not be held in three districts — Harnai, Turbat and Awaran – because of law and order situation as well as some other reasons.
The provincial election commissioner said that local government elections were held for 4,036 seats on Dec 7, including 472 seats of district councils, 772 of metropolitan, municipal corporations and municipal committees and 2,842 seats of union councils.
Giving details of results of local bodies’ elections in the provincial capital Quetta, he said that 21 seats out of 58 of the Metropolitan Quetta were won by independent candidates while PkMAP bagged 18 seats, PML-N 5 seats, Hazara Democratic Party 3 seats, BNP-M 3 seats, Tehreek-i-Insaf 3 seats, National Party 2 seats, Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen 1 seat, JUI-F 1 seat and JUI-N 1 seat.
“Two-hundred-eighty-four candidates were elected unopposed on seats of municipal corporations and municipal committees while 2,120 candidates were elected unopposed on union councils’ seats in different districts,” he said.
He said that local bodies’ elections were yet to be held on 34 vacant seats of municipal corporations and municipal committees and 511 seats of union councils.
He said that election for mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman would be held after elections were held for seats reserved for minorities, women, labours and peasants.
“Thirty-three per cent seats of the total seats in all local bodies’ institutions have been reserved for women and five per cent each for farmers, labourers and minorities, respectively,” Mr Bayazeed said, adding that councillors to be elected on reserved seats would be eligible to vote for mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman. He said 2,330 seats were reserved for women and 744 each for farmers, labourers and minorities.
Uncertainty about foreign service postings persists
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Senior Foreign Service officer Aizaz Chaudhry is saddled up for the foreign secretary’s office as the incumbent plans to leave for Washington to take up his new assignment within the next fortnight. But those jockeying for the position have not given up as yet.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Senior Foreign Service officer Aizaz Chaudhry is saddled up for the foreign secretary’s office as the incumbent plans to leave for Washington to take up his new assignment within the next fortnight. But those jockeying for the position have not given up as yet.
The delay in official notification of Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani’s successor is not only keeping behind-the-scenes power struggles at the Foreign Office alive but is also stoking uncertainty among the cadres.
Officials say the delay is because of notification of Mr Aizaz Chaudhry’s promotion to the next grade, but the gossip in the corridors of Foreign Office tells a different story.
Indecisiveness because of which so many postings – Mr Abdul Basit’s nomination as foreign secretary, Mr Ibne Abbas’ choice as high commissioner to India and Kamran Shafi’s London appointment — have been overturned in the past month or so has made the government to look hapless and inept.
Reversal of all these appointments betrays dysfunction in the institution, which some believe is engineered particularly because all this is happening against the backdrop of a behind-the-scenes struggle between Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi for control over the Foreign Office.
The foreign ministry bosses, who had advised the government on outgoing foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani’s successor, had clearly not done their homework because none of the contenders for elevation were then in the federal secretary’s pay scale and therefore had to be promoted before being assigned the office of the foreign secretary.
The entire episode has led to plenty of questions and speculations, but so far no real answers. The government didn’t bother to find out how it all went wrong. The loophole infested and nepotism affected the system of appointments at the Foreign Office was always due for a scrutiny. It now looks that time has come.
BASIT EPISODE: The government’s first choice for the foreign secretary’s office was Abdul Basit, currently serving as ambassador in Germany. Mr Basit was called back in October on a short notice for an interview with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and picked for the assignment. It was then anticipated that he would be promoted to BS-22 when the board meets to select officers for elevation.
The script did not play out as intended. Mr Basit could not be considered for promotion because all available BS-22 positions in the Foreign Service were filled up before his case could be taken up.
But there is a strong belief in the Foreign Office that Mr Basit’s elimination from the race was manipulated.
Politicking within FO bureaucracy aside, Mr Basit had been chosen amidst Sartaj Aziz-Fatemi row.
Sartaj Aziz preferred Sadiq Khan whom he had already got posted as secretary of the newly formed Cabinet Committee on National Security, while Mr Fatemi backed Mr Basit’s candidature. Initially, Mr Aziz felt upset for not getting an officer of his choice, but later reconciled with the development and phoned Mr Basit in Germany to congratulate him and tell him that he looked forward to working with him.Apparently, the gulf was bridged, but others in the race jumped in to cash in on Mr Aziz’s discontentment.
Things started to go wrong even before the ‘selection board’ for BS-22 could meet. The Establishment Division reduced the number of BS-22 positions for Foreign Service from 15 to 12, but the sloppy FO didn’t fight against the cut. Instead the FO mandarins, quite unlike of them, meekly settled for the Establishment Division’s explanation that the three positions had in the first instance been added up without due procedure.
But even then no effort was made to get government’s nominee for Foreign Secretary (Abdul Basit) considered against upcoming vacancies. There is precedence of promoting officers in anticipation of vacancies in future. In this instance, four openings are coming up in the next four months. Had politics been not involved in blocking government’s choice, an insider said, the foreign ministry could have asked the board for promotions against the positions being vacated due to impending retirements of senior officers – Alamgir Babar (January), Akbar Zeb (February), Malik Abdullah (April) and Rizwanul Haq (April).“The foreign ministry goofed up. Obviously they allowed it to happen because of internal politicking,” a Foreign Service officer said asking not to be named.According to grapevine, the board was instead warned that not going by the seniority list could cause legal complications.
Was the intent really to uphold seniority?
That’s presumably not the case here. While choosing Aizaz Chaudhry as the next foreign secretary, two officers, more senior to him Murad Ali and Seema Naqvi were bypassed.
Seniority is, however, technically not a requirement for the top position that requires suitability in addition to seniority.
Going by history, outgoing foreign secretary Jilani was junior most in his batch at the time of his elevation. And so was Mr Jilani’s predecessor Salman Bashir.
It also needs to be remembered that the same board, which ignored Mr Basit for not being senior enough, had superseded officers in other occupational groups – DMG, Accounts and Secretariat.
If the story that Mr Aizaz was picked instead of Mr Basit to placate Sartaj Aziz was to be believed, then even in Mr Aizaz’s case it was Mr Fatemi, who accompanied Mr Aizaz to the interview with the prime minister because it’s Mr Fatemi who calls the shots at the FO.
CHANGING AMBASSADORIAL NOMINATIONS: Two of three nominations made in October by the government along with the initial foreign secretary’s nomination have been reversed – one is that of Kamran Shafi, designated as high commissioner to the UK and the other was Ibne Abbas who was selected for India.
Mr Abbas’ case is particularly interesting because in his instance ‘Agrément’ had already been received from Delhi. Changing nominations after the receipt of Agrément is very rare.
The government was reportedly compelled to withdraw Mr Abbas’ nomination because of the heartburn in FO over his posting. Mr Abbas had remained at the headquarters for a shorter time before getting the prized posting.
Mr Shafi’s nomination fell victim to military establishment’s reservations about his views.
In both cases, the FO bureaucracy ought to have given the government a complete picture instead of leaving it in an embarrassing position.
FO’S RESPONSE: After remaining quite for almost a week now, the FO is getting over the embarrassment as it offered first official comments on the affair, though in the context of ambassadorial appointments.
Putting on a brave face, Aizaz Chaudhry, slated to become the next foreign secretary, said appointments are leadership’s prerogative. “I might add that sometimes unconfirmed reports appear in the media even before formal decisions are taken,” he said. He was speaking at his final weekly media briefing as the FO spokesman last Thursday.
As is the case always, the FO bureaucracy instead of giving answers for the triple snafu has found it easy to lay the dead cat on media’s doorstep by blaming it for speculative reporting.
Good grief, Mr Basit entirely relied on “unconfirmed media reporting” before setting out for farewell calls. No one is either talking about the note that was sent to Berlin by the foreign secretary’s office that Mr Jilani would leave on December 1 for Washington and Mr Basit should plan his return to Islamabad accordingly.
A man of few words
The television cameras are still there but the crowds milling in front have thinned down. The imposing Supreme Court building seemed quieter on Thursday morning as the lawyers holding impromptu press conferences, the hyper television reporters, politicians and anchors were missing.
The television cameras are still there but the crowds milling in front have thinned down. The imposing Supreme Court building seemed quieter on Thursday morning as the lawyers holding impromptu press conferences, the hyper television reporters, politicians and anchors were missing.
The few television correspondents around were chatting on the grassy knoll by the side of the building instead of holding forth, mike in hand, in front of the SC stairs.
“There are fewer observations now; he only speaks up when there is a question to ask,” said one of them.
Inside Courtroom No 1, the new Chief Justice of Pakistan, who took over on December 12, has had no less of an impact.
It was far quieter and there were far fewer people. The sides of the room, which in the past were full of journalists, pushing and jostling for chairs and space as they strained their ears to catch each word now contained so few individuals that each had a chair to sit on.
The seats — for lawyers, ordinary people and others — were half empty and once the Balochistan hearing ended, it seemed as if only petitioners, lawyers and security guards were left. There was no one standing in the doorways or in the aisles.
The sense of quiet in the room emanated from the three-member bench. Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani is a man of few words — far fewer than his predecessor. He offered few observations or ‘quips’ in newspaper language; when he speaks it is only to ask questions — succinct ones — or dictate an order.
Proceedings are interrupted by pauses and silences as the judges confer with each other softly.
The CJ’s tone is raised only when he asks a question or dismisses a petition. In a property dispute, he told the lawyer that if he pursued the case any longer, he would make his client pay the costs for the defendant. The latter picked up his pile of documents from the rostrum and melted away. Earlier in the day, “he dismissed a petition about the appointment of the Nadra chief saying that the case was being heard at the IHC. The proceedings took just a minute,” says another journalist who regularly covers Courtroom One.
The CJ’s placidity has affected the television reporters who now move languidly. They rarely rush out to feed their channels’ appetites. Despite those who are still hanging about the courtroom in the hope that the past will rub off on the present, the CJ and his companions seem oblivious to their presence.
The famous Balochistan case was heard — in the midst of low-profile cases of individuals that earlier were mostly ignored — but with no fireworks.
Twice the bench was told that Irfan Qadir, the counsel for the Frontier Corps IG, had not been able to make it to the SC because “of the fog in Lahore” and there was no reaction.
The last time this case was heard — on 11/12/13 — Qadir’s fiery exchange with the last CJ was discussed all day long in Islamabad in hushed whispers.
The deputy FC IG who came after the proceedings had begun and the bench had asked for his presence was not told off; his explanation for his earlier absence was accepted.
The high pitch of a Bollywood film has been replaced by the low-key emotionalism of an ‘art film’.
A doctor representing Pakistan Medical Association spoke about the kidnapping of his colleagues in Quetta. He asked for protection to which the CJ turned to the police official and the home secretary. Told about the efforts being made to protect the doctors, the CJ asked the PMA representative: “Are you satisfied with the measures?” before encouraging him to tell the police about the identity of those threatening to kidnap the doctors.
There were a few observations and ‘instructions’ to the officials present — civil and military (at which a journalist making notes smirked and quickly jotted down a few words on his note pad) — but the thunder and populism of previous weeks were missing. There were no emotional harangues about the crisis in Balochistan and what the executive was not doing to address it.
The reporter sitting right in front had little to do but chew gum.
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad
Drone use should comply with international law: UN
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling on states using drone strikes as a counter-terrorism measure to comply with international law.
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling on states using drone strikes as a counter-terrorism measure to comply with international law.
The unanimous call for regulating the use of remotely piloted aircraft against suspected terrorists was contained in a comprehensive 28-paragraph resolution, titled “Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism”.
The portion about drone strikes was included as a result of intensive efforts made by a Pakistan delegation, an official of the country’s mission here told reporters.
“It is the first time that the General Assembly has spoken out on the use of armed drones — a key but controversial component of the US war against terrorism, including against targets inside Pakistan,” he noted.
In this regard, the assembly stressed the “urgent and imperative” need for an agreement among member states on legal questions about drone operations.
The resolution urges states “to ensure that any measures taken or means employed to counter terrorism, including the use of remotely piloted aircraft, comply with their obligations under international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, human rights law and international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of distinction and proportionality”.
The text also calls for taking into account “relevant United Nations resolutions and decisions on human rights, and encourages them to give due consideration to the recommendations of the special procedures and mechanisms of the Human Rights Council and to the relevant comments and views of United Nations human rights treaty bodies”.
The resolution also takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur Ben Emersson, “which refers, inter alia, to the use of remotely piloted aircraft and notes the recommendations, including the urgent and imperative need to seek agreement among member states on legal questions pertaining to remotely piloted aircraft operations”.
It also encouraged states countering terrorism “to undertake prompt, independent and impartial fact-finding inquiries whenever there are plausible indications of possible breaches to their obligations under international human rights law, with a view to ensuring accountability”.
ECP refuses to take control of Nadra
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected the interior ministry’s proposal for placing the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) under its administrative control for three months to the extent of verification of voters’ thumb impression.
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected the interior ministry’s proposal for placing the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) under its administrative control for three months to the extent of verification of voters’ thumb impression.
“The commission, after an in-depth consideration, has observed that the powers and functions of the commission envisaged by the constitution and the law do not seem to provide for exercising the power or issuing direction regarding verification of thumb impressions or for that matter any other action being undertaken by any institution or executive authority of the federation or of a province, specially when such exercise or action is being carried out or done as a result of an electoral activity conducted by the commission itself,” a letter sent to the ministry said.
The letter sent by ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said that only a neutral arbiter, such as a court or judicial tribunal, could take cognisance of any dispute arising out of an electoral activity.
The commission said verification of thumb impression by Nadra through its optical scanning system was a kind of forensic analysis and the report produced by it would be considered as forensic evidence and examined by the election tribunal which issued orders for verification. The commission said it was not supposed to become a party in such matters for ‘obvious reasons’.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had said on Sunday that the government had decided to place Nadra under administrative control of the ECP for three months to the extent of election-related matters. He said the decision had been approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The following day, Interior Secretary Shahid Khan called ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad to convey the government’s decision, but he was told to send the proposal in writing which could be placed before the commission for a decision.
A letter was sent by the ministry to the Election Commission the same day. The letter signed by Interior Ministry’s Joint Secretary Aftab Alam said: “In keeping with the provisions of Article 218(3) and 220 of the Constitution and the government’s unequivocal declaration that all possible assistance and cooperation will be provided to the Election Commission of Pakistan in the matter of verification of thumb impressions of voters, and in order to ensure complete transparency in such verifications, the federal government intends to entrust/vest in Nadra, for a period of three months, all functions/powers relating to verification of thumb impressions, to be performed/exercised, as the case may be, in accordance with the directions of the Election Commission of Pakistan and relevant provisions of the constitution and law, without further reference to the federal government.”
AGPR to challenge suspension
ISLAMABAD: After the chairmen of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) has decided to drag the federal government to court.
ISLAMABAD: After the chairmen of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) has decided to drag the federal government to court.
AGPR Tahir Mehmood is likely to file in the Islamabad High Court on Friday a petition against his Dec 18 suspension by the establishment division for three months.
The notification issued in this regard did not mention any reason for the sudden suspension of Mr Mehmood who is attaining the age of superannuation in March next year.
On Dec 2, the federal government had terminated the contract of Nadra chairman Tariq Malik and of Pemra Chairman Chaudhry Rashid Ahmed on Dec 15. In both the cases the government had to face embarrassment as the IHC suspended the termination orders within 24 hours.
AGPR Mehmood told Dawn that he had been suspended for sending references against senior government officials for alleged misuse of public money as well as for advising the State Bank governor not to release any direct advance to the federal government from the Federal Consolidated Fund.
“On Dec 10, I sent references to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against officials of the finance ministry for releasing Rs317 billion to oil marketing companies in a shady manner. The same day I also sent a reference against the release of funds to a private contractor for the construction of a hospital and a hostel in Afghanistan,” he said.
The government of Pakistan had in March 2007 announced that it would build Jinnah Hospital in Kabul at a cost of Rs1,200 million.
Mr Mehmood said he had also sent a reference to NAB against alleged embezzlement in procurement of polio vaccines.
He claimed that some senior government officials had met the Auditor General of Pakistan for his transfer but he refused to entertain the request.
In his petition, Mr Mehmood maintained that he had neither been given any show-cause notice nor reason for the suspension.
He said that in compliance with a Supreme Court judgment in a case relating to release of funds for the constituency of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, he had sent references to NAB against the finance division officials for alleged misuse of authority in releasing the funds for the above mentioned projects, but in return the government had started victimising him.
When contacted, finance ministry’s spokesman Rana Asad Amin said that since it was an administrative matter he could not comment on it. He, however, said the filing of petition was a fundamental right of Mr Mehmood and the government would follow the court’s orders.
CM warns against devolution rollback
QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has said that some political parties are working against the powers granted to provinces under the 18th Amendment and warned that his province would strongly resist any such move.
QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has said that some political parties are working against the powers granted to provinces under the 18th Amendment and warned that his province would strongly resist any such move.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the Chief Minister’s Policy Reform Unit and department of inter-provincial harmony, he said provinces had secured their constitutional rights after great sacrifices, adding that the old mindset about provincial powers should be changed.
He said the 18th Amendment was an important milestone in the journey to “true federation” as it had laid the foundation stone of a meaningful partnership between the centre and the provinces.
The chief minister called upon the ‘stakeholders’ to ensure implementation of the amendment in letter and spirit.
Under the amendment, he said, the provincial and federal governments had an equal share in oil and gas resources and should draw equal benefits from oil and gas exploration.
He warned that the Balochistan government would not become part of any unlawful act which harmed the interests of the province.
He called for replacing the ministry of petroleum with a body in which all provinces would have equal representation so that they could be taken on board on the issues and agreements concerning them.
He also cited the example of India where the government had accorded recognition to 17 languages.
Hafeez stars in hard-fought win
SHARJAH: Pakistan survived a late order scare from Sri Lanka to pull off an exciting 11-run win in the first one-day international in Sharjah on Wednesday, to go 1-0 up in the five-match series.
SHARJAH: Pakistan survived a late order scare from Sri Lanka to pull off an exciting 11-run win in the first one-day international in Sharjah on Wednesday, to go 1-0 up in the five-match series.
Pakistan’s innings was built around a brilliant 122 from Mohammad Hafeez which saw them post an impressive total of 322-5 in their 50 overs, but were made to work hard for their win, finally bowling Sri Lanka out in 49.4 overs.
Besides Hafeez’s 122, Sohaib Maqsood (73) and debutant opener Sharjeel Khan (61) were the main contributors on a flat pitch.
Sri Lanka had all but lost the match at 221-7 but Sachithra Senanayake (42) and Seekkuge Prasanna (42) gave Pakistan a scare during their 87-run partnership for the eighth wicket — a record for Pakistan-Sri Lanka one-day internationals.
Sri Lanka needed 27 off the last two overs but both the batsmen were out in quick succession to hand Pakistan a deserved win.
Hafeez smashed 122 off 129 balls in a power-packed Pakistan batting performance after they won the toss.—AFP
Taliban torch US vehicles in Afghan border area
JALALABAD: Taliban fighters wearing army uniforms attacked US military vehicles in a parking lot in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one policeman and torching several trucks, an official said.
JALALABAD: Taliban fighters wearing army uniforms attacked US military vehicles in a parking lot in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one policeman and torching several trucks, an official said.
The attackers detonated a car bomb outside the entrance to the facility at Torkham gate, a key crossing into Pakistan for Nato supplies leaving Afghanistan as the US-led coalition forces withdraw.
“During the three-hour fight with security forces, one policeman was killed, five wounded. Several vehicles were torched,” Nangarhar provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told AFP.
“All attackers, who had military uniforms on, were killed.” The parking lot was run by a private company and used by the US military for vehicles waiting to exit Afghanistan, he said.
Nato shipments through Torkham are currently suspended after Pakistani activists opposed to US drone raids forcibly searched trucks and threatened drivers.
A Taliban statement said their fighters had torched more than 30 US military vehicles on Wednesday.
Militants on both sides of the Afghan border frequently target Nato supply lines, forcing Nato to shift towards alternative routes via Central Asian countries.—AFP
Strategic arsenal’s custodian replaced
ISLAMABAD: The government replaced on Wednesday the head of the department that administers the nuclear programme with a serving army general. Lt Gen Zubair Mehmood Hayat has been named as the new Director General of Strategic Plans Division (SPD). He replaces retired Lt Gen Khalid Ahmed Kidwai.
ISLAMABAD: The government replaced on Wednesday the head of the department that administers the nuclear programme with a serving army general. Lt Gen Zubair Mehmood Hayat has been named as the new Director General of Strategic Plans Division (SPD). He replaces retired Lt Gen Khalid Ahmed Kidwai.
Gen Hayat is currently serving as the Corps Commander of Bahawalpur.
This is the most important appointment announced by the government since the change in the army’s command and appointment of the new chairman joint chiefs of staff last month.
The SPD, formed in 2001, serves as the secretariat of the National Command Authority that oversees the research, development, production and deployment of nukes. In this capacity SPD executes policies of the NCA.
Outgoing Gen Kidwai was the founder director general of SPD.
He had joined the directorate as a major general in 1999, even before it (SPD) had been officially notified (in 2001).
Six US troops die in Afghan air crash
KABUL: Six US soldiers from the Nato mission fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday, with officials saying it was not a suspected militant strike.
KABUL: Six US soldiers from the Nato mission fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday, with officials saying it was not a suspected militant strike.
However the Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the deaths, using their main Twitter account to report that their fighters had shot down the US helicopter in the southern province of Zabul.
The incident was the single biggest loss of life for the Nato mission in Afghanistan since seven Georgian soldiers died when a suicide bomber blew up a truck loaded with explosives outside a base in Helmand province in June.
“Six International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) service members died following an aircraft crash in southern Afghanistan today,” an Isaf statement said.
“The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash.” US defence officials in Washington said the fatalities were US troops.
“I can confirm six Americans were killed,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
An investigation was under way to determine “the cause of engine failure,” the official said.
The Taliban Twitter account, under the name Abdulqahar Balkhi, said the helicopter was brought down on Tuesday afternoon while flying low over the district of Shah Joy in Zabul.
“(The) chopper crashed in (a) ball of flame... killing all 8 invaders aboard,” the account said.
The Taliban regularly make unsubstantiated claims of attacks on Nato and Afghan forces and also exaggerate casualty numbers in proven strikes.
Provincial officials confirmed the incident in Zabul, a restive province bordering on Helmand and Pakistan.
“I can confirm a helicopter crashed in Shah Joy district this afternoon but we don’t have any information about the casualties or the cause of the hard landing,” Mohammad Jan Rasolyar, deputy governor of Zabul province, said.
Local officials said that Isaf and Afghan forces rushed to the scene of the crash and were still on patrol around the site when darkness fell.
Aircraft crashes are fairly frequent in Afghanistan, where the 75,000-strong international mission relies heavily on air transport as it battles the militancy alongside Afghan forces who now take the lead in most military operations.
The last fatal helicopter incident for US forces occurred in April, when an Apache chopper went down in eastern Afghanistan, claiming the lives of two American troops.
Five US troops also died in the southern province of Kandahar in March when their helicopter came down during a heavy rainstorm.
Before Tuesday’s crash, there had been 149 Nato fatalities in Afghanistan this year, 119 of them US soldiers, according to the independent causalities website.
The annual total peaked in 2010, when 711 Nato troops died.
Nato combat operations in Afghanistan are due to end next year, and coalition commanders say that the local army and police have made enough progress to provide general security and keep the Taliban at bay.
There are currently 42,700 US troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led force that is due to withdraw by the end of 2014.
A small US-led contingent is due to stay in the country pending the signature of a security agreement between Washington and Kabul.—AFP
CNG price reduced on court order
ISLAMABAD: The CNG may not be available at all to motorists in Punjab and may remain in short supply in other provinces, but its prices have been reduced all over the country.
ISLAMABAD: The CNG may not be available at all to motorists in Punjab and may remain in short supply in other provinces, but its prices have been reduced all over the country.
According to a notification issued by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority on Tuesday, the reduction in prices became necessary after the Supreme Court declared a nine per cent additional general sales tax on compressed natural gas as illegal.
Prices were reduced by Rs1.23 to Rs74.25 per kilogram for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Potohar and Balochistan and by 61 paisa to Rs66.14 per kg for Punjab and Sindh.
The gas supply to CNG stations in Punjab has already been stopped for two months and for Sindh two days a week. The CNG stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may remain closed for one day a week, most likely from next week. The situation in Balochistan – there are only two CNG stations in Quetta – will remain unchanged.
The new rates come into effect immediately. The government was charging 26pc GST on the sale of CNG instead of 17pc.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that additional 9pc GST should be withdrawn forthwith and the amount so collected by the government since announcement of the budget in June be deposited in the court because the levy was violative of the constitution.
Couple killed in Kurram blast
PARACHINAR: A couple was killed and six other people were injured in three blasts in the Kurram tribal region on Tuesday.
PARACHINAR: A couple was killed and six other people were injured in three blasts in the Kurram tribal region on Tuesday.
Sources said a car was blown up after hitting an anti-tank mine near Paywar Tangi area, leaving the couple dead and three people injured.
Ghazi and his wife, who hailed from Khpay Kalay, were going from Teri Mengal to Sadda in upper Kurram.
Two people were injured in a landmine blast in Margho Cheena area.
The blast was so powerful that it was heard far and wide. Two of the injured were identified as Mohammad Azam and Salih Khan.
They were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital in Sadda where one of them was said to be in critical condition.
Another blast occurred in Paywar Zangal area when Abid Hussain, a tribesman, stepped on a landmine, injuring himself. He was shifted to Parachinar hospital.
SC seeks ECP report on thumbprint verification
ISLAMABAD: Without going into the merits, the Supreme Court heeded on Monday a passionate appeal of PTI chief Imran Khan seeking verification of thumb impressions of voters in at least four constituencies of Punjab.
ISLAMABAD: Without going into the merits, the Supreme Court heeded on Monday a passionate appeal of PTI chief Imran Khan seeking verification of thumb impressions of voters in at least four constituencies of Punjab.
The court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to summon reports from two election tribunals on non-compliance of the commission’s directive to complete the findings in time.
The constituencies from where the compliance reports have to be sought are NA-125 Lahore won by Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq and NA-154 Lodhran bagged by Siddiq Khan Baloch. Both are PML-N stalwarts.
“Zabardast (wonderful)” was the instant reaction of Imran Khan who attended the proceedings along with other party leaders and briefly addressed the court with its permission though the case was argued by PTI vice-president Advocate Hamid Khan.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan had taken up the miscellaneous application of PTI’s additional secretary Saifullah Nayazee in the 2012 Workers Party case.
Mr Nayazee had requested the court to order recounting and scrutiny of thumb impressions in four constituencies, including NA-110 Sialkot from where Minister for Defence and Water and Power Khawaja Mohammad Asif got elected and NA-122 Lahore from where National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq won the election.
The ECP secretary is required to summon reports from the election tribunals and submit fortnightly para-wise comments on the petition.
Hamid Khan regretted that despite a clear directive by the ECP to complete the scrutiny of thumb impressions in 120 days, the matter was still pending.
Imran Khan described the May 11 elections as the most rigged ones in the country’s history and said his party’s appeal involved breach of fundamental rights because sanctity of the ballot was massively eroded in the elections.
He said that taking note of the rigging by the apex court in at least four constituencies would give a broad general idea to the extent of rigging and also help in ensuring that the next general elections were held in a free, fair and transparent manner. Otherwise, the election tribunals will take almost four years in deciding the matter.
“This is not a party-specific case; it involves a question for the future functioning of democracy and future generations,” he said.
The chief justice, however, observed that the court would not like to comment at this stage on merits of the case and said the Supreme Court was a court of precedent. “If we allow this case, several other matters from Karachi to Khyber will come to the court,” the chief justice said and asked how would “we then stop them”.
US asks India to include civilians in DGMO talks
WASHINGTON: The US has asked India to accept Pakistan’s suggestion for including civilian diplomats in the proposed DGMOs’ dialogue, US and Indian media reported on Monday.
WASHINGTON: The US has asked India to accept Pakistan’s suggestion for including civilian diplomats in the proposed DGMOs’ dialogue, US and Indian media reported on Monday.
Under a mechanism agreed between Indian and Pakistani prime ministers in New York, the two countries agreed that their Director Generals Military Operations would hold regular talks for reducing tensions along the Line of Control (LoC). But the process is yet to take off.
Media reports claimed that the US proposed involving civilian diplomats because it believed it would help strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan. The US also felt that involving diplomats in an issue that still remains a preserve of the military in Pakistan will also boost the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Indians, however, turned down the request, the media reported.
Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, who just concluded a visit to Washington, told US officials that the LoC was a military issue and New Delhi “did not see a diplomatic role in what was essentially a military issue,” said one report.
Senate puts off vote on judges’ nationality
ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari put off on Monday voting on a resolution calling upon the government to publish the names of judges with dual nationality, after Information Minister Pervez Rashid sought time from the house to make a fresh effort to seek the details from the Supreme Court registrar.
ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari put off on Monday voting on a resolution calling upon the government to publish the names of judges with dual nationality, after Information Minister Pervez Rashid sought time from the house to make a fresh effort to seek the details from the Supreme Court registrar.
Seemingly as a result of a behind-the-scenes understanding between the treasury and opposition members, the chairman readily granted time to the minister to make an effort to obtain the names.
It was after some fiery speeches from the treasury and opposition benches, criticising the judiciary for not providing the names of the judges holding dual nationality, that the minister said he would write a letter to the Supreme Court registrar with a request to provide information sought by the members a number of times.
The resolution on the subject had been moved by PPP’s Farhatullah Babar. Initiating the debate, he said questions had repeatedly been asked both in the Senate and National Assembly over the past 16 months about the identity of dual-national judges, if any, but it was merely stated that the law and the constitution did not bar dual nationals from becoming judges.
Haji Adeel of the ANP, Saeed Ghani of the PPP and Hafiz Hamdullah of the JUI-F supported his point of view.
Meanwhile, the house passed the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2013, moved by ANP’s Ilyas Bilour on Dec 2, which seeks to block the promotion of bureaucrats bearing dual nationality in the basic pay scale of 20 and above.
The house also passed two resolutions and a private member’s bill.
Final draft of security policy ready, says Nisar
ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said the final draft of national internal security policy is ready and will be presented before the cabinet committee on national security, most likely to meet on Tuesday, and later to the cabinet for approval.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said the final draft of national internal security policy is ready and will be presented before the cabinet committee on national security, most likely to meet on Tuesday, and later to the cabinet for approval.
He said at a press conference on Sunday that there would be three components of the time-bound policy. Two of the components will be strategic and operational while the third will be confidential.
He said a clear timeframe had been spelt out and the target would be to have an operational institutional network in place in a year, adding that security agencies would be organised and strengthened.
Chaudhry Nisar said his decision to cancel illegally issued ‘official passports’ had annoyed a lot of people because those affected included leaders of his party (PML-N) and men in military uniform and robes.
He said he also had withdrawn the civil armed forces who were serving unauthorised persons because only the president, the prime minister and the Chief Justice of Pakistan were entitled to the service.
He said these forces had been retained and used for land-grabbing by many.
Bilawal invites Sharif, Imran to Sindh festival
KARACHI, Dec 15: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari invited on Sunday all political rivals, including the prime minister, to an “apolitical” Sindh Festival to be held in February.
KARACHI, Dec 15: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari invited on Sunday all political rivals, including the prime minister, to an “apolitical” Sindh Festival to be held in February.
“I invite the prime minister, his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, among others, to participate in our Sindh Festival. All Pakistanis are invited,” he said at an event while unveiling plans for the festival.
Held at the Mohatta Palace in Clifton, the colourful event was attended by national and international dignitaries and PPP leaders. Bilawal hosted the event along with his sister Bakhtawar.
On the occasion, he said that for the first time in years Karachi would be hosting Basant, and that too on the beach, and spoke about how it was banned by the provincial government in Punjab.
“I have realised that Pakistan is gradually moving towards becoming ‘banistan’. If we find someone offensive on YouTube, we ban the website. If we can’t compete with the Indian cinema, we ban movies. And if we see people having fun at weddings, we ban weddings,” he added with a smile, pointing towards where Sindh Assembly speaker and acting governor Agha Siraj Durrani and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah were seated.
The event started with Bilawal making a speech about the gradual degradation of the archaeological site, Mohenjodaro, which he said is “disappearing before our eyes”.
It was followed by a small but impassioned speech by a German professor and an authority on Indus valley civilisation, Dr Michael Jansen.
Bilawal announced that opening ceremony of the Sindh Festival 2014 would be held in Mohenjodaro. “Let’s bask in the glory of Indus civilisation. Let’s live in the Pakistan we want to see. Move away London 2012, we have Mohenjodaro 2014,” he said to a cheering audience.
Bilawal said that Pakistanis were being dragged backwards, towards “more regressive dark ages”.
“We have been taught distorted history about our culture and religion by military dictators like Ziaul Haq, and his protégés. They want to put a gun to our heads and impose their rules on us. But we won’t let them,” he added.
Introducing the events to be held during the two-week festival, Bakhtawar said it would have “best of what Sindh and Pakistan has to offer”. She said the festival would have a cattle race, grand Mushaira, donkey cart race, deep sea fishing tournament, etc. It will be held in various parts of Sindh and Karachi.
Handicrafts and work of poor craftsmen will be arranged at Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim in Karachi. Free stalls will be given to craftsmen from Sindh to showcase their work.
“We don’t need anything from them in return. They will get the entire return for what they sell,” Bilawal said.
Bilawal introduced a number of artistes and cricketer Wasim Akram to announce their part of the programme.
PTI wins assembly seat in by-election
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Dec 15: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Ikramullah Khan Gandapur won the by-election held on Sunday for PK-67 Dera Ismail Khan constituency of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by a margin of 13,087 votes.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Dec 15: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Ikramullah Khan Gandapur won the by-election held on Sunday for PK-67 Dera Ismail Khan constituency of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by a margin of 13,087 votes.
According to unofficial results, Mr Gandapur bagged 28,073 votes, defeating independent candidate Sardar Fatehullah Khan Miankhel who got 14,986 votes.
Mr Miankhel had the support of an alliance of six seasoned politicians of Dera Ismail Khan.
The seat fell vacant after provincial law minister Israrullah Gandapur of the PTI was killed in a suicide attack.
Mr Ikramullah is a brother of Mr Israrullah.
There were about 109,000 registered voters in the district for which election authorities set up 91 polling stations and 233 polling booths. Thirty-six polling stations were declared as highly sensitive and 55 sensitive.
Accord for Balochistan solar power plant signed
QUETTA, Dec 15: The Balochistan government signed on Sunday an agreement with a Korean company to set up a 300 megawatt solar power plant at a cost of $700 million.
QUETTA, Dec 15: The Balochistan government signed on Sunday an agreement with a Korean company to set up a 300 megawatt solar power plant at a cost of $700 million.
Work on the project will start next year and complete by 2017.
Provincial Energy Secretary Fawad Hashim Rabbani and Chief Executive Officer of the Korean company Dr Choi Moon-Sok signed the agreement.
Speaking on the occasion, Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch expressed the hope that the power plant would help solve the energy problem in the province.
“The 300MW solar energy project will cater to the needs of industrial, agricultural, commercial and domestic sectors and boost economy,” he said.
The chief minister invited foreign investors to Balochistan and said great investment opportunities exist in the province.
The provincial government would provide all facilities and security to investors, he added.
The government has provided 1,500 acres of land near Quetta for establishing the solar power plant.
US softens stance on Afghan deal
WASHINGTON, Dec 15: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday appeared to give Afghan President Hamid Karzai extra time to sign a bilateral security deal, saying the pact did not have to be concluded by January.
WASHINGTON, Dec 15: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday appeared to give Afghan President Hamid Karzai extra time to sign a bilateral security deal, saying the pact did not have to be concluded by January.
And while he said it must be signed as soon as possible, he raised the option that the deal governing the presence of US troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 could even by inked by Mr Karzai’s successor. In an interview with ABC TV, he stressed the bilateral security agreement needed to be signed as soon as possible.
“If American forces were not there, I think there would be serious challenges with respect to Afghanistan’s security,” Mr Kerry said. “But...I believe that Hamid Karzai, either he or his successor, will sign this,” he said.—AFP
Four Pakistanis held in Greece
ATHENS, Dec 15: Greek authorities arrested four Pakistani nationals accused of smuggling migrants and freed eight Syrians held captive in a house near Athens, police said.
ATHENS, Dec 15: Greek authorities arrested four Pakistani nationals accused of smuggling migrants and freed eight Syrians held captive in a house near Athens, police said.
“The four arrested Pakistanis are members of a criminal organisation specialising in snatching and illegally smuggling migrants, who were kept captive and forced to pay money,” police said on Sunday.
Police freed eight Syrian nationals from the house in Koropi, who were found chained and had been subjected to frequent beatings.
Authorities were alerted after two other Syrians managed to escape from the house and sought help.—AFP
Iran withdraws offer for gas pipeline loan
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: The Iranian government formally withdrew on Saturday its offer to partially finance the laying of the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline to Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: The Iranian government formally withdrew on Saturday its offer to partially finance the laying of the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline to Pakistan.
In comments posted on Iranian petroleum ministry’s website, deputy petroleum minister Ali Majedi said it was Pakistan’s responsibility to lay the gas pipeline on its side.
Iran had pledged in February this year to provide $500 million to Pakistan for laying the pipeline. The groundbreaking of the long delayed pipeline project was performed after the Iranian assurance.
However, the long delayed project once again ran into uncertainty following the change in government in Islamabad after the May 11 elections. The PML-N government initially looked hesitant in going ahead with the project because of US sanctions and Saudi pressure, but renewed the interest following the landmark US-Iran deal over the nuclear programme.
Pakistan’s petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who visited Tehran earlier this month, had asked the Iranian authorities to review the deadline for completion of the project saying sanctions on Iran were making it difficult to finance it.
After Mr Abbasi’s Iran visit, the Foreign Office had said in a statement: “Pakistan and Iran have decided to fast track implementation of the IP gas pipeline project and to formulate a roadmap to address the challenges and have effective coordination and cooperation on this significant project.”
The Iranian announcement on cancelling the loan offer reflected its frustration about Pakistan’s attitude towards the project. Cross-border militant activity is also thought to have increased Tehran’s mistrust about Islamabad.
“Iran’s petroleum minister Bijan [Namdar] Zanganeh recommended Islamabad to demand help from third-party companies for the completion and acceleration of the project on the Pakistani soil,” Ali Majedi was quoted as having said. He also asked Pakistan to seek financing from European companies.
Mr Majedi said: “Iran has so far invested two billion dollars in this project and it is likely that this sum would rise to nearly three billion dollars when the project would be completed. The construction of the Pakistani side of this pipeline is estimated to cost between two and 2.5 billion dollars.”
The projected 2,800-km pipeline is planned to extend from Iran’s giant South Pars gas field to Pakistan. Iran has already built 907km of its 1,227-km share of the pipeline.
A team of Iranian experts is due to visit Islamabad in coming days for discussions on the project.
AP adds: Mr Majedi says Iran has no obligation to finance the Pakistani side of the project and also doesn’t have the money.
He said Tehran will demand compensation if Islamabad fails to take Iranian gas by end of next year.
There are serious doubts about how Pakistan could finance the $2 billion needed to construct the pipeline.
Police suggest change in venue of Musharraf trial
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Police have suggested to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that venue for trial of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in the judges’ detention case be changed for security reasons.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Police have suggested to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that venue for trial of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in the judges’ detention case be changed for security reasons.
An ATC judge was hearing an application by the counsel for Gen Musharraf seeking his client’s exemption from appearance during the trial.
The court had sought reports from the Islamabad police, administration and the interior ministry on the application. In his report, the deputy inspector general (security) expressed his inability to provide security to the former military ruler during his presence in the court.
The report expressed apprehensions that the presence of Gen Musharraf would put the lives of many people in the surroundings of the court at stake. It suggested that because of grave threats to Gen Musharraf the venue of his trial should be changed from the F-8 district courts to a more secure place.
Tehran claims arresting UK spy
TEHRAN, Dec 14: Iranian security forces had arrested a ‘spy’ working for the British government in Kerman, a judicial official in the southeastern province told the state IRNA news agency on Saturday.
TEHRAN, Dec 14: Iranian security forces had arrested a ‘spy’ working for the British government in Kerman, a judicial official in the southeastern province told the state IRNA news agency on Saturday.
The announcement came just a day after Iran’s new envoy to Britain, Hassan Habibollah-Zadeh, held talks in London on his first visit since his appointment last month, which ended a two-year freeze in diplomatic relations.
“Through the efforts of Iranian security forces, an MI6 spy has been arrested,” the head of the Kerman revolutionary court, Dadkhoda Salari, said, referring to Britain’s foreign intelligence service.
“He has met British intelligence officers in person 11 times, both inside the country and abroad, and provided them with intelligence,” Mr Salari said. He said the suspect had confessed to his crimes and was now being tried. Mr Salari gave no details as to the suspect’s nationality or identity.—AFP
10-year exemption from audit likely for tax evaders
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: The government plans to expand scope of its proposed amnesty scheme for rich people and provide to them exemption from tax audit for a maximum of 10 years in order to bring them on tax rolls of the country.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: The government plans to expand scope of its proposed amnesty scheme for rich people and provide to them exemption from tax audit for a maximum of 10 years in order to bring them on tax rolls of the country.
The facility would be available to the affluent people who neither had valid national tax numbers (NTNs) nor had filed income tax returns on their businesses by Nov 28, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the incentive package, sources said.
A spokesman for the Federal Board of Revenue, Shahid Husain Asad, told Dawn on Saturday that a summary on the subject had been sent to the finance ministry for approval and “we will issue notifications regarding the scheme in the coming week”.
Under the proposed scheme, the government will exempt those who don’t have NTNs from paying additional tax, penalty on late filing of tax returns and default surcharge on payment. The scheme will be available until Feb 28.
For availing the facility, an individual doing business but not having an NTN will have to file tax returns for the past five years, with the maximum payment of Rs25,000 per year as fixed rate. Under the income tax law, the past returns can only be filed for five years.
The FBR spokesman said the returns would be filed from the year of initiation of the business and the five-year period had been mentioned just to comply with the law.
“An individual can file a single return or two for coming on the tax roll under the scheme,” he added.
Immunity from audit will be available for the tax years for which returns are filed and for an equal number of subsequent years. In case returns for the past five years are filed, the audit exemption period will span a maximum of 10 years.
The National Database and Registration Authority has identified over three million potential taxpayers, who have luxury houses or who go abroad frequently but do not figure on the tax rolls. The scheme is being launched to bring them into the tax net.
To increase tax collection and reduce the gap between the number of people having NTNs and those who regularly file tax returns, the government has decided to make them file returns for the past five years and exempt them from any penalty, additional tax and audit. Such individuals will have to pay Rs20,000 per annum.
But exemption from tax audit in the future will not be available under this scheme. The scheme targets 3.3 million NTN holders who do not file tax returns.
Editorial News
Tough loan condition
THE widespread complaints against the tough conditions of the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme finally found their way into the National Assembly on Wednesday. This was expected because not every loan-seeker, particularly those from the lower income bracket, can apply for money under the scheme let alone obtain it. The initiative is probably one of the most appreciated and the most infuriating plans at the same time. The project promises to disburse Rs100bn in one year; 100,000 soft loans in the range of Rs100,000 and Rs2m amongst jobless young men and women to start their own small businesses.
THE widespread complaints against the tough conditions of the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme finally found their way into the National Assembly on Wednesday. This was expected because not every loan-seeker, particularly those from the lower income bracket, can apply for money under the scheme let alone obtain it. The initiative is probably one of the most appreciated and the most infuriating plans at the same time. The project promises to disburse Rs100bn in one year; 100,000 soft loans in the range of Rs100,000 and Rs2m amongst jobless young men and women to start their own small businesses.
Since its launch, the concept has been widely appreciated because it shows the government’s determination to take a chance and help the country’s youth access subsidised finance. But if the idea is to hold the hands of the poor, underprivileged young people, then the plan in its present form can hardly be expected to achieve this objective. The condition for loan-seekers to have a guarantor will exclude a large number of lower-middle-class young men and women with workable business ideas, who are willing to work hard to realise their dreams through the scheme. The initiative makes it mandatory for the loan-seekers to have a guarantor who can be a government employee at the level of BPS-15 or above, or someone with a net worth of 150pc more than the amount of the loan being sought. Not everyone can arrange for such a guarantor.
The ‘popularity’ of the scheme can be assessed from the number of downloads of loan application and other documents posted by the Small and Medium Development Authority on its website. By Dec 18, the number had already crossed the 5.5m mark. How the condition of guarantor is stalling the majority from applying for the loans is indicated by the negligible number of applications received by the two state-owned participating banks. So if the opposition legislators have brought the matter into the House on behalf of those who will be excluded from the scheme, the government should not be upset. It must listen to what the opposition parties, or any other stakeholder, have to say on this issue and allay their fears. Blaming the banks, whose money is involved, for tough conditions will not do. If the scheme was designed by the banks keeping their own interest before them, why is the government taking credit for it? Instead of getting emotional about criticism of the scheme, the architects of the initiative should work to find a way to accommodate those who cannot arrange guarantors and who do not have collateral for mortgage against the subsidised loan. And the solution should not put the banks’ money at risk like previous initiatives such as the Yellow Cab scheme had done.
PTI chief’s laudable step
WHILE both the state and the provinces have by all accounts been putting in efforts to traverse the increasingly challenging terrain that the countrywide polio vaccination effort is, it is noteworthy that political and other leaders have largely remained silent. In the several years that have passed since opposition to the vaccination first reared its head — Mullah Fazlullah’s campaign through his illegal radio broadcasts was notorious in this regard — the country has seen an increasing trend of vaccine refusals. Worse, polio workers and their escorts have come under attack from KP to Karachi. For years, now, it has been obvious that the inability to control the spread of polio poses a clear and mounting danger to the health and freedoms of Pakistanis, given that in 2011 the Independent Monitoring Board for Polio Eradication recommended a travel ban. Yet the very leaders who otherwise routinely trot out the ‘national interest’ arguments have spoken barely a word on an issue that cuts right to the heart of the future of this country.
WHILE both the state and the provinces have by all accounts been putting in efforts to traverse the increasingly challenging terrain that the countrywide polio vaccination effort is, it is noteworthy that political and other leaders have largely remained silent. In the several years that have passed since opposition to the vaccination first reared its head — Mullah Fazlullah’s campaign through his illegal radio broadcasts was notorious in this regard — the country has seen an increasing trend of vaccine refusals. Worse, polio workers and their escorts have come under attack from KP to Karachi. For years, now, it has been obvious that the inability to control the spread of polio poses a clear and mounting danger to the health and freedoms of Pakistanis, given that in 2011 the Independent Monitoring Board for Polio Eradication recommended a travel ban. Yet the very leaders who otherwise routinely trot out the ‘national interest’ arguments have spoken barely a word on an issue that cuts right to the heart of the future of this country.
It comes as something of a relief, then, that PTI chief Imran Khan has expressed his resolve to get involved in the matter. On Wednesday, he administered vaccination drops to children near Peshawar. His visit to the home of a policeman killed recently in a polio-related attack too sends out the right signals. Let alone the fact that his party is at the helm of affairs in KP, where the vaccination campaign is under greatest pressure, there is a lot that a person in Mr Khan’s position can bring to the effort. Besides being a politician with proven popularity amongst the younger generation of voters he is also the cricket idol of millions around the country. With the Jamaat-i-Islami as an ally in the KP government, he has the attention of religio-political parties and conservative sections of society. The anti-polio effort needs the involvement of high-profile people to lift it to the forefront of public consciousness; if more national leaders and heroes joined in, the tide could yet be turned. The effort that started more than two decades ago with the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto administering polio drops to her child is badly in need of similar shows of solidarity from powerful quarters.
North Waziristan blast
WHETHER it is a mosque or a church, religiously motivated militants care little; whether it is a school, a hospital or a garrison, they are indifferent. What matters to them is the enemy’s death — and it is of little consequence whoever else gets killed in the process. Wednesday’s suicide bombing killed reportedly five soldiers and wounded many others when the driver of an explosives-laden truck rammed his vehicle into a mosque next to a major checkpost in Khajori, North Waziristan, although some reports indicate that it was the checkpost that was targeted. The suicide bomber struck when nearly 50 soldiers of the Frontier Corps were offering evening prayers. Such was the power packed into the bomber’s vehicle that the mosque collapsed.
WHETHER it is a mosque or a church, religiously motivated militants care little; whether it is a school, a hospital or a garrison, they are indifferent. What matters to them is the enemy’s death — and it is of little consequence whoever else gets killed in the process. Wednesday’s suicide bombing killed reportedly five soldiers and wounded many others when the driver of an explosives-laden truck rammed his vehicle into a mosque next to a major checkpost in Khajori, North Waziristan, although some reports indicate that it was the checkpost that was targeted. The suicide bomber struck when nearly 50 soldiers of the Frontier Corps were offering evening prayers. Such was the power packed into the bomber’s vehicle that the mosque collapsed.
This is not for the first time that a mosque has fallen victim to the practical manifestation of the Taliban’s concept of jihad. In their attempt to kill politician Aftab Sherpao, they bombed an Eid prayer congregation at Charsadda, killing over 50 people in December 2007; two years later, the militants blew up a Rawalpindi mosque during Friday prayers in a high security zone, killing 40 people, including children and a major general; and in 2010, over 70 Muslims lay dead after the Taliban blasted a mosque in Darra Adamkhel. The list is long. With talks in the air and some mainstream politicians acting virtually as Taliban spokesmen, the militants’ attack on the soldiers at prayer conveys a chillingly clear message — the Taliban leadership is not going to exercise restraint to create a congenial atmosphere for talks. That the Taliban have left to the government to do — unilaterally and without expecting any reciprocity. It is now for those who conferred shahadat on Hakeemullah Mehsud to let us know who was the shaheed this time round: the suicide bomber or the soldiers at prayer?
A few clues but no more
BIG decisions are unlikely to come from a single Cabinet Committee on National Security meeting. But Tuesday’s meeting was significant because it was the first since a new military leadership was installed late last month. Unhappily, the old tradition of saying little of substance after national security discussions and leaving everyone to guess as to what was debated and decided has continued with the new CCNS. So the official statement released after the meeting had to be parsed for clues about the state of civil-military relations, how the known differences in approach to dealing with the TTP were squared or resolved and what to expect next on the India, Afghanistan and Fata/KP fronts. At least the clues that can be gleaned are positive.
BIG decisions are unlikely to come from a single Cabinet Committee on National Security meeting. But Tuesday’s meeting was significant because it was the first since a new military leadership was installed late last month. Unhappily, the old tradition of saying little of substance after national security discussions and leaving everyone to guess as to what was debated and decided has continued with the new CCNS. So the official statement released after the meeting had to be parsed for clues about the state of civil-military relations, how the known differences in approach to dealing with the TTP were squared or resolved and what to expect next on the India, Afghanistan and Fata/KP fronts. At least the clues that can be gleaned are positive.
The reiteration of the government’s talks-first approach to dealing with the TTP was unsurprising. But there is a sense that — with the TTP routinely rejecting the possibility of dialogue and the government’s talks strategy stuck in limbo — for the first time some attention was paid to the possibility that if the talks-first approach fails, the state would have to consider other steps to deal with the TTP threat. In that regard, the reaching out to India after the CCNS gathering in the shape of seeking the much-delayed meeting between the two countries’ DGMOs and mentioning the need to focus on the security of Fata while beefing up the checks on cross-border movement suggest an impending military focus anew on the Fata region. While the words ‘military operation’ may be anathema to the government at the moment, hoping for the best and preparing for the best are not a viable strategy alternative.
Problematic as ever is the government’s articulation of its talks-first approach: now the country has learned that the state is reaching out to multiple groups at the same time instead of just focusing on the umbrella TTP network and its leadership. The government may even argue that putting out feelers on multiple fronts will help bring down violence inside Pakistan quickly — but does that in fact aid or impede a long-term settlement? If ending militant violence is the aim of talks as the government claims, how will a number of micro deals be policed and enforced? Which brings the issue back to the CCNS. Having a formal structure for debating and formulating national security policy is definitely a step in the right direction, but the process will yield little unless the ideas being discussed are well-thought-out and based on reality. The government has yet to convince the country of the theoretical soundness and practicality of its strategy against militancy.
Gas for industry
THE partial restoration of gas supply to textile factories in Punjab is but a small step towards the complete resolution of what has turned out to be a chronic energy shortage for the manufacturing industry in the province. The Economic Coordination Committee’s decision on Tuesday to allow the supply of 85mmcfd of gas to the export-oriented industry against its total need of some 450-500mmcfd means that factory owners will get the fuel seven hours a day to operate their captive power plants. This is just 30pc of their daily gas need, and the remaining requirement has to be met by electricity. The supply of gas can cut their production costs and is likely to result in additional export revenues of $1bn over the next three months to February.
THE partial restoration of gas supply to textile factories in Punjab is but a small step towards the complete resolution of what has turned out to be a chronic energy shortage for the manufacturing industry in the province. The Economic Coordination Committee’s decision on Tuesday to allow the supply of 85mmcfd of gas to the export-oriented industry against its total need of some 450-500mmcfd means that factory owners will get the fuel seven hours a day to operate their captive power plants. This is just 30pc of their daily gas need, and the remaining requirement has to be met by electricity. The supply of gas can cut their production costs and is likely to result in additional export revenues of $1bn over the next three months to February.
This will be the first winter in three years that the industry will be receiving gas — diverted from power generation by the IPPs to industry — on a daily basis. It is a good initiative for the industry, but one that comes at a certain political cost to the government. The government will be forced to cut electricity supplies to domestic consumers or spend more money on furnace oil-based generation to avoid blackouts. But, at the same time, the decision will save a significant number of industrial jobs and prevent substantial production losses during the winter months. It has, thus, sent the right vibes to manufacturers and investors about this government’s seriousness to attempt to heal the ailing economy and has shown its willingness to take risks to help the industry boost its exports and create new jobs. By ensuring the supply of gas and electricity for their uninterrupted production operations, the government has virtually thrown the ball in the court of the large textile manufacturers and exporters. It is now for them to implement their part of the ‘agreement’ by reviving their now limited production capacities and by investing their efforts in expanding output to take full advantage of the wide-ranging trade concessions allowed to Pakistan by the European Union under its GSP Plus scheme. Their failure to do their part of the job could prove disastrous for the economy and the people.
Intelligence failure
A TRIBUTE is owed to the Rawalpindi policeman who was killed as he attempted to tackle a suicide bomber at the entrance of an imambargah where some 700 people were present. His presence of mind is in contrast to the skills of the security agencies that had some weeks ago on Ashura failed to foresee the communal attack on a madressah in the same city. The fact that Tuesday’s suicide bombing occurred close to Nur Khan base in a high-security zone of the garrison town which houses GHQ further exposes the flaws inherent in the security and intelligence apparatus. And that a bomber and his handlers should have felt confident enough to penetrate the security cover with the intention to kill and maim does little to instil confidence in the state’s ability to protect. We have a plethora of intelligence agencies, but regrettably they have failed to do their job. Militant organisations operate all over the country. They have training bases and funding and information-gathering mechanisms and are often a few steps ahead of the state’s counterintelligence efforts. This is true not just of the Taliban and their religiously motivated affiliates but also of other militants such as those active in Balochistan, not to speak of the criminals operating in Karachi’s underworld. The most glaring intelligence failure, of course, concerned Osama bin Laden whose hideout was within the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.
A TRIBUTE is owed to the Rawalpindi policeman who was killed as he attempted to tackle a suicide bomber at the entrance of an imambargah where some 700 people were present. His presence of mind is in contrast to the skills of the security agencies that had some weeks ago on Ashura failed to foresee the communal attack on a madressah in the same city. The fact that Tuesday’s suicide bombing occurred close to Nur Khan base in a high-security zone of the garrison town which houses GHQ further exposes the flaws inherent in the security and intelligence apparatus. And that a bomber and his handlers should have felt confident enough to penetrate the security cover with the intention to kill and maim does little to instil confidence in the state’s ability to protect. We have a plethora of intelligence agencies, but regrettably they have failed to do their job. Militant organisations operate all over the country. They have training bases and funding and information-gathering mechanisms and are often a few steps ahead of the state’s counterintelligence efforts. This is true not just of the Taliban and their religiously motivated affiliates but also of other militants such as those active in Balochistan, not to speak of the criminals operating in Karachi’s underworld. The most glaring intelligence failure, of course, concerned Osama bin Laden whose hideout was within the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.
We don’t dispute that there have been successes, such as the arrest of Mullah Baradar and other high-profile figures. But the very fact that militants can strike almost at will across the country shows the state’s ineffectiveness. Developed countries have their own terrorism concerns, but they have in most cases succeeded in giving security to their people by having foolproof cyber-age intelligence systems. It is time that Pakistan’s various security and intelligence outfits too coordinated their efforts to stall what has become an increasingly bloody trend.
Dual nationality
THE issue of dual nationality of public officials continues to rumble on, with the Senate on Monday passing a bill that prohibits senior civil servants holding dual nationality. It also deferred a resolution, at the government’s request, calling on the government to make the superior judiciary give details of judges with dual nationality. The issue of dual nationality is an emotive one, a debate grounded here in the specific political and historical context of Pakistan. This much is clear: there is little public acceptance of parliamentarians who possess dual nationalities and the superior judiciary’s attempts to weed them out of the assemblies have by and large been well received by public opinion. The danger, of course, is always that such debates can mask xenophobic or insular agendas and given Pakistan’s increasing drift towards isolationism, the debate needs to be grounded in rational and reasonable discourse.
THE issue of dual nationality of public officials continues to rumble on, with the Senate on Monday passing a bill that prohibits senior civil servants holding dual nationality. It also deferred a resolution, at the government’s request, calling on the government to make the superior judiciary give details of judges with dual nationality. The issue of dual nationality is an emotive one, a debate grounded here in the specific political and historical context of Pakistan. This much is clear: there is little public acceptance of parliamentarians who possess dual nationalities and the superior judiciary’s attempts to weed them out of the assemblies have by and large been well received by public opinion. The danger, of course, is always that such debates can mask xenophobic or insular agendas and given Pakistan’s increasing drift towards isolationism, the debate needs to be grounded in rational and reasonable discourse.
Since the beginning of the superior judiciary-propelled debate on dual nationality, this paper has held that it is a reasonable bar on parliamentarians — who are specifically restricted by the Constitution from acquiring foreign citizenship. This should also hold for senior bureaucrats, judges and security officials. Given their various roles in making law, setting policy and executing policy, those senior state functionaries will invariably face a conflict of interest. How, for example, can a dual national in the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Commerce deal with issues pertaining to rights or privileges extended to a foreign country in a transparent manner that keeps Pakistan’s interests supreme if the individual making the decision has also pledged allegiance to that other country? Or, when it comes to matters of national security, on which even judges sometimes have to adjudicate in a limited manner, why should a state secret that is kept shielded from ordinary citizens of Pakistan be made known to a citizen of another country?
Clearly, other countries can and do allow senior state functionaries to hold dual citizenship. But context matters and in a fledgling system where public trust in state institutions and functionaries is yet to mature and be taken as a given, steps that could undermine that developing trust should be avoided. Which is why it is particularly surprising that the superior judiciary has thus far declined to provide information to parliament on dual-national judges on the grounds that the law does not permit it. If the superior judiciary is so zealous in its pursuit of dual nationals in other institutions, should it not necessarily offer itself up to the same level of scrutiny? The country deserves to know the truth.
BDU’s unsung heroes
GIVEN Pakistan’s dire circumstances, it is little wonder that law enforcement and security personnel are in constant danger — with some among them facing relatively higher risks than the others. This is especially true of the bomb disposal units in the country. The death of at least four BDU personnel of the KP police in an IED explosion near Peshawar on Monday shows the threat level faced by those working in this department. While these men were killed as they headed to the site of an earlier blast, several BDU men have died while defusing bombs, including Hukam Khan who was killed last year and who had defused hundreds of explosive devices in his career. Many more have been injured and some have lost body parts. It is unfortunate then that while BDU officers put their lives on the line to protect the people, neither the state nor society appears to be doing enough to recognise their efforts or to support them.
GIVEN Pakistan’s dire circumstances, it is little wonder that law enforcement and security personnel are in constant danger — with some among them facing relatively higher risks than the others. This is especially true of the bomb disposal units in the country. The death of at least four BDU personnel of the KP police in an IED explosion near Peshawar on Monday shows the threat level faced by those working in this department. While these men were killed as they headed to the site of an earlier blast, several BDU men have died while defusing bombs, including Hukam Khan who was killed last year and who had defused hundreds of explosive devices in his career. Many more have been injured and some have lost body parts. It is unfortunate then that while BDU officers put their lives on the line to protect the people, neither the state nor society appears to be doing enough to recognise their efforts or to support them.
True, bomb squads themselves may be partially responsible. For instance, equipment to minimise the risks that BDU personnel face includes robotic systems to defuse explosives. However, it has been noted that BDU officers don’t always use the robots, and at times circumvent standard operating procedures. It must be ensured that whenever officers are deployed in the field, all procedures are followed. That said, the provincial authorities have dragged their feet over matters like compensating the men for their efforts. For example, bomb disposal officers in KP receive a pittance where allowances are concerned as compared to their counterparts in Punjab and Sindh. They must be compensated for the dangerous work they do and the state must constantly update their efforts by bringing in new technology and expertise to minimise the risk to their lives. This is true for bomb disposal units across the country.
In tragedies like the one on Monday, the state must care for the victims’ families and help them through difficult times. Most of all, the government and people must show their appreciation to boost the men’s morale and let them know that their efforts are not going unnoticed.
Buried rights of coal miners
IN industrial towns and cities across the country, there is no shortage of resentment on account of the insufficient generation of electricity and shortage of natural gas. Those whose businesses and livelihoods have been hit are loud in their protests. Yet there is a group of people who are equally, if not more, affected by Pakistan’s increasing energy woes, and whose very real victimisation is going entirely unnoticed by the state and society.
IN industrial towns and cities across the country, there is no shortage of resentment on account of the insufficient generation of electricity and shortage of natural gas. Those whose businesses and livelihoods have been hit are loud in their protests. Yet there is a group of people who are equally, if not more, affected by Pakistan’s increasing energy woes, and whose very real victimisation is going entirely unnoticed by the state and society.
They have neither a voice nor a lobby to take up their complaints, and thus continue to suffer in silence. They comprise the thousands of coal miners of Balochistan who work deep underground in the dark and in conditions so hazardous and appalling that their expected working lifespan is only about 20 years — around the age of 30 or so, most develop severe respiratory illnesses that stop them from mining.
Working conditions for Balochistan’s coal miners, as indicated by a report in this paper yesterday, have always been exploitative. They are paid a pittance and there are no safety measures in place. The fruit of their labour generally goes to the mine owners. Yet with the demand for coal increasing in the country to plug the gap left by the shortage of gas, it behoves the state and society to step in. On paper, the regulatory system is there, with inspectors, and safety and other checks. In the absence of these, a mine, theoretically, can be shut down. In reality, though, the considerable influence that mine owners wield over government representatives means that the exploitation of men and boys continues. The state must of course intervene, and this is a fitting case for labour rights’ bodies to take up. Addressing the plight of the poorest in the country’s least developed province can send out a strong signal of hope.
CM’s visit to Indian Punjab
THE sentiment was the right one as were the ideas explored. Investment in the energy sector, allowing academics and students easy movement across the border, and anything that helps nudge the moribund India-Pakistan relationship forward should be welcomed. Indeed, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had been visiting Indian Punjab even before the current PML-N government was elected at the centre. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, too, in his days as chief minister, found enough common ground on the other side of the fence to drop by. As the generation that experienced the atrocities witnessed at Partition fades away, there is a feeling that the commonalities of language and culture will in time blur the troubled history of Punjab, and give way to greater interaction and opportunities that businessmen and others are already eying. What is becoming problematic, though, is that little is being done to build on the ties that already exist between the two Punjabs — just as Islamabad and Delhi demur from actively taking the peace process between India and Pakistan forward.
THE sentiment was the right one as were the ideas explored. Investment in the energy sector, allowing academics and students easy movement across the border, and anything that helps nudge the moribund India-Pakistan relationship forward should be welcomed. Indeed, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had been visiting Indian Punjab even before the current PML-N government was elected at the centre. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, too, in his days as chief minister, found enough common ground on the other side of the fence to drop by. As the generation that experienced the atrocities witnessed at Partition fades away, there is a feeling that the commonalities of language and culture will in time blur the troubled history of Punjab, and give way to greater interaction and opportunities that businessmen and others are already eying. What is becoming problematic, though, is that little is being done to build on the ties that already exist between the two Punjabs — just as Islamabad and Delhi demur from actively taking the peace process between India and Pakistan forward.
Sending his closest confidante with messages of goodwill across the border might reflect the prime minister’s good intentions. It may also be a matter of great convenience that his younger brother is eager and willing to take on more responsibilities, despite already running a province which is beset by many problems. But by relying on only a very small group of advisers that includes family members, the prime minister is doing little to institutionalise the peace process. Personalities, not issues, are inevitably in focus when the prime minister sends personal emissaries. The fanfare generated by each of these ‘resumptions’ must be followed by a widening of the dialogue for these ceremonies to be meaningful.
There are three other provinces in the country, each of which have regional preferences and interests and each of which is run by a government headed by a different political party. If Shahbaz Sharif wants to moot people-to-people contact with his counterpart in Indian Punjab, then what is to stop the PTI government in KP talking to Kabul about border affairs, the National Party-led government in Balochistan talking independently to Iran or the PPP in Sindh reactivating old ties with Rajasthan? Also problematic is the message that Shahbaz Sharif’s diplomacy will send to the other provinces: the PML-N remains concerned first and foremost with the fortunes of Punjab. Only if Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to Indian Punjab leads to the active revival of the peace process between the two countries will it be seen as a move by Islamabad to improve ties with Delhi. Otherwise it comes across as an exercise in PR.
Census go-ahead
REPORTS indicate that the prime minister has given the go-ahead for the much-delayed sixth census. Considering the numerous problems that arise when evolving a framework for governance and planning without reliable data, the decision must be welcomed. It is essential that Pakistan has a proper database of its population not only to ensure equitable distribution of the country’s resources, but also to enable proper representation in the legislatures. The census is a constitutional requirement and has political implications. Constituencies are delimited on the basis of population while seats for the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures are also allocated on the same basis. This affects both inter- and intra-provincial dynamics. Internal migration is substantial, which means the demographic position that existed in 1998, when the last head count was conducted, has changed considerably and must be reflected in official data. Because of internal population shifts due to various reasons, the number of seats allocated to the provinces in the National Assembly as well as the number of seats each district gets within the provincial legislatures is affected. Should such essential requirements of democracy be governed by guesswork?
REPORTS indicate that the prime minister has given the go-ahead for the much-delayed sixth census. Considering the numerous problems that arise when evolving a framework for governance and planning without reliable data, the decision must be welcomed. It is essential that Pakistan has a proper database of its population not only to ensure equitable distribution of the country’s resources, but also to enable proper representation in the legislatures. The census is a constitutional requirement and has political implications. Constituencies are delimited on the basis of population while seats for the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures are also allocated on the same basis. This affects both inter- and intra-provincial dynamics. Internal migration is substantial, which means the demographic position that existed in 1998, when the last head count was conducted, has changed considerably and must be reflected in official data. Because of internal population shifts due to various reasons, the number of seats allocated to the provinces in the National Assembly as well as the number of seats each district gets within the provincial legislatures is affected. Should such essential requirements of democracy be governed by guesswork?
A house-listing exercise, considered the preliminary step of the census, was abandoned halfway in 2011 as some political parties raised questions about the credibility of the process. We hope the same mistakes — resulting in a huge waste of time, effort and money — are not repeated this time around and the process is more transparent. Details of the census are to be finalised in the next meeting of the Council of Common Interest. Hopefully the CCI will meet soon and any contentious issues between the federation and the provinces, or among the provinces themselves, will be discussed and sorted out so that the census is not delayed indefinitely. Security remains an issue, especially in areas such as Fata, Balochistan and parts of Karachi. The state must plan accordingly and ensure the enumerators have adequate security where it is needed. Pakistan’s rulers, political parties and people must all accept the demographic realities of the country and the census must not be put on the back burner to protect vested interests.
Boost for women’s sports
THE recent participation of the Pakistan women’s team in the Kabaddi World Cup in Jalandhar, India, is seen as a ground-breaking move for women’s sports in the country, and one that has come as a breath of fresh air. Although Pakistan finished fourth in the eight-nation event, it was heartening to see our 16-member women’s team holding their own against some of the more experienced teams including England, Denmark and Mexico in a rigorous sport like kabaddi. More importantly, the inspiring stories of a number of these players and how they defied the odds to turn their dream of competing in the mega event into reality is bound to go a long way in encouraging women to take up various sports in Pakistan. Earlier this year, the Pakistan women’s bridge team also did the country proud by winning the BFAME Bridge title in Ahmedabad, India, while a couple of Pakistani swimmers put up a spirited display of their talent at the Islamic Solidarity Games held in Indonesia during September this year. These are encouraging signs for women who are aspiring to take up sports as a career in this country and are keen to take their game to the international level which can bring both recognition and good money.
THE recent participation of the Pakistan women’s team in the Kabaddi World Cup in Jalandhar, India, is seen as a ground-breaking move for women’s sports in the country, and one that has come as a breath of fresh air. Although Pakistan finished fourth in the eight-nation event, it was heartening to see our 16-member women’s team holding their own against some of the more experienced teams including England, Denmark and Mexico in a rigorous sport like kabaddi. More importantly, the inspiring stories of a number of these players and how they defied the odds to turn their dream of competing in the mega event into reality is bound to go a long way in encouraging women to take up various sports in Pakistan. Earlier this year, the Pakistan women’s bridge team also did the country proud by winning the BFAME Bridge title in Ahmedabad, India, while a couple of Pakistani swimmers put up a spirited display of their talent at the Islamic Solidarity Games held in Indonesia during September this year. These are encouraging signs for women who are aspiring to take up sports as a career in this country and are keen to take their game to the international level which can bring both recognition and good money.
However, while it is true that women compete regularly in national events such as cricket, hockey, squash, tennis, volleyball, basketball and swimming, there are scant opportunities available to them to showcase their talent at the international level owing to reasons that can be frustrating and demoralising. The chauvinistic attitude of many sports officials and the step-motherly treatment meted out to women players by the authorities have often created hurdles in their way and it seems they have to work harder than the men everytime to prove themselves at any sport.
Indecision at the top: Foreign service postings
WHEN the raft of changes in the Foreign Office were first announced in October, they were well received as sensible, by-the-book appointments of career professionals. A new foreign secretary and a number of key ambassadorial appointments had been awaited since the PML-N government came to office in June, but the delay was perhaps explained by the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had decided to keep the foreign ministry portfolio for himself. What is inexplicable though is what has transpired since. Chopping and changing assignments, swapping out the foreign secretary-designate before he could even return to Pakistan, then allowing uncertainty over the final appointments to continue for days and now weeks — it is an entirely unnecessary and terribly messy situation the government has created for itself.
WHEN the raft of changes in the Foreign Office were first announced in October, they were well received as sensible, by-the-book appointments of career professionals. A new foreign secretary and a number of key ambassadorial appointments had been awaited since the PML-N government came to office in June, but the delay was perhaps explained by the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had decided to keep the foreign ministry portfolio for himself. What is inexplicable though is what has transpired since. Chopping and changing assignments, swapping out the foreign secretary-designate before he could even return to Pakistan, then allowing uncertainty over the final appointments to continue for days and now weeks — it is an entirely unnecessary and terribly messy situation the government has created for itself.
At this stage, to simply quickly confirm the ambassadorial appointments and the next foreign secretary will no longer be sufficient. Mr Sharif will need to reconsider his decision to not appoint a full-time minister or, at the very least, establish what Mr Aziz and Mr Fatemi are individually in charge of and responsible for. In addition, the prime minister needs to inject some life into his foreign policy – on ties with India, Afghanistan, the US and Iran in particular. Drift and platitudes are not meaningful policy alternatives.
Miracles will never cease: PM’s figures for growth
PRIME Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif says Pakistan’s economy has expanded by 5.1pc (in the first quarter of the present fiscal). Seriously? If what he says is true then it is no less than a miracle. How else can one refer to such a staggering growth rate when the ground reality does not quite support the claim? A large number of factories remain shut or are operating far below their capacity because of the energy crunch; investment has hit rock bottom and foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank were equal to its borrowings from the commercial banks on Dec 6. The rupee is under enormous pressure and prices are escalating. The government’s cash flow troubles are far from over despite an increase in tax collection. The government has stopped the payment of bills of power companies and their fuel suppliers, and slowed down work on development projects to keep its budget deficit within IMF-prescribed limits. And the economy isn’t creating new jobs at all. The few jobs available to the millions of unemployed are in the informal sector where wages are extremely low and working conditions far from satisfactory.
PRIME Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif says Pakistan’s economy has expanded by 5.1pc (in the first quarter of the present fiscal). Seriously? If what he says is true then it is no less than a miracle. How else can one refer to such a staggering growth rate when the ground reality does not quite support the claim? A large number of factories remain shut or are operating far below their capacity because of the energy crunch; investment has hit rock bottom and foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank were equal to its borrowings from the commercial banks on Dec 6. The rupee is under enormous pressure and prices are escalating. The government’s cash flow troubles are far from over despite an increase in tax collection. The government has stopped the payment of bills of power companies and their fuel suppliers, and slowed down work on development projects to keep its budget deficit within IMF-prescribed limits. And the economy isn’t creating new jobs at all. The few jobs available to the millions of unemployed are in the informal sector where wages are extremely low and working conditions far from satisfactory.
Shocking figures: Convictions in rape cases
What the situation is in other parts of the country, especially in rural or remote areas where the bias against women is more marked, can only be guessed at. On Thursday, all the opposition senators staged a token walkout as a mark of protest against the non-performance of the police and judicial system. But that is hardly going far enough. The most basic element of curbing rape and other forms of violence against women is successful pursuit and prosecution. When no push is evident to prioritise even this, how can we expect to start bringing such dark crimes out into the open?
What the situation is in other parts of the country, especially in rural or remote areas where the bias against women is more marked, can only be guessed at. On Thursday, all the opposition senators staged a token walkout as a mark of protest against the non-performance of the police and judicial system. But that is hardly going far enough. The most basic element of curbing rape and other forms of violence against women is successful pursuit and prosecution. When no push is evident to prioritise even this, how can we expect to start bringing such dark crimes out into the open?
Dangerous proposals: Draft bill on missing persons
To be sure, the criminal justice system is broken and all too often, terrorists and militants walk free. That is the problem that needs to be fixed and it will take a huge effort by various arms of the state — legislative, executive, security and judicial. But everything the state does with detainees in its custody must be done within the parameters of the law and the constitutionally guaranteed rights of individuals. To insist on that is not to tie one hand of the security apparatus behind its back, but to acknowledge an eternal truth that must always be guarded against: the state can err and the state can terrorise its own people if given the freedom to do so. To allow for extended lawful detentions without any charges or trial is a power so patently open to abuse in an already broken system that it appears borderline criminal in and of itself.
To be sure, the criminal justice system is broken and all too often, terrorists and militants walk free. That is the problem that needs to be fixed and it will take a huge effort by various arms of the state — legislative, executive, security and judicial. But everything the state does with detainees in its custody must be done within the parameters of the law and the constitutionally guaranteed rights of individuals. To insist on that is not to tie one hand of the security apparatus behind its back, but to acknowledge an eternal truth that must always be guarded against: the state can err and the state can terrorise its own people if given the freedom to do so. To allow for extended lawful detentions without any charges or trial is a power so patently open to abuse in an already broken system that it appears borderline criminal in and of itself.
Slow progress on peace: Shahbaz Sharif’s India visit
SHAHBAZ Sharif’s visit to India is a sincere message from Pakistan to India to revive the peace process. Arguably Nawaz Sharif’s most trusted lieutenant by virtue of being his brother, the Punjab chief minister conveyed to the Indian prime minister his Pakistani counterpart’s keenness for an early normalisation of relations in spite of the many difficulties involved. The visit followed a relative improvement in the Kashmir situation when the two director generals ordered a halt to skirmishes following the New York meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Manmohan Singh. Also noteworthy was Prime Minister Sharif’s proposal, made during a meeting with the Indian high commissioner, for a counterterrorism dialogue at the level of security advisers. In his interaction with the media, Shahbaz Sharif emphasised the need for ditching the “baggage of the past” and resolving all disputes, including Kashmir, through peaceful means.
SHAHBAZ Sharif’s visit to India is a sincere message from Pakistan to India to revive the peace process. Arguably Nawaz Sharif’s most trusted lieutenant by virtue of being his brother, the Punjab chief minister conveyed to the Indian prime minister his Pakistani counterpart’s keenness for an early normalisation of relations in spite of the many difficulties involved. The visit followed a relative improvement in the Kashmir situation when the two director generals ordered a halt to skirmishes following the New York meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Manmohan Singh. Also noteworthy was Prime Minister Sharif’s proposal, made during a meeting with the Indian high commissioner, for a counterterrorism dialogue at the level of security advisers. In his interaction with the media, Shahbaz Sharif emphasised the need for ditching the “baggage of the past” and resolving all disputes, including Kashmir, through peaceful means.
Polarising move: Molla’s execution
Apart from the legal lacunae, the hanging and other planned executions of those who have been convicted will only widen fissures in Bangladeshi society. Coming more than 40 years after the secession of East Pakistan, the punishments appear to be driven by vengeance and political expediency rather than justice. Elections are scheduled next month in Bangladesh. But if the opposition continues to be hounded, there will be genuine concerns about the legitimacy of the polls. Sheikh Hasina’s government should refrain from executing the other individuals it says are guilty of war crimes. The administration in Dhaka should learn from the legacy of Nelson Mandela that is being celebrated today. The icon of millions, despite his sufferings, urged reconciliation, not revenge. Dhaka would do well to emulate this spirit.
Apart from the legal lacunae, the hanging and other planned executions of those who have been convicted will only widen fissures in Bangladeshi society. Coming more than 40 years after the secession of East Pakistan, the punishments appear to be driven by vengeance and political expediency rather than justice. Elections are scheduled next month in Bangladesh. But if the opposition continues to be hounded, there will be genuine concerns about the legitimacy of the polls. Sheikh Hasina’s government should refrain from executing the other individuals it says are guilty of war crimes. The administration in Dhaka should learn from the legacy of Nelson Mandela that is being celebrated today. The icon of millions, despite his sufferings, urged reconciliation, not revenge. Dhaka would do well to emulate this spirit.
Columns and Articles
Early interventions
AFZAL, who works in the city while his family lives in the village, has three daughters and one son. One of his daughters, now 10, still does not attend school. When she was two she started getting episodes of what appeared to be epilepsy.
AFZAL, who works in the city while his family lives in the village, has three daughters and one son. One of his daughters, now 10, still does not attend school. When she was two she started getting episodes of what appeared to be epilepsy.
Afzal took her to a number of maulvis, hakeems and pirs to have the ‘evil’ removed, but that did not work. He finally took her to a doctor when she was around six years of age, and the doctor confirmed that she did have epileptic episodes but thought that with some care and minimal medication these could easily be controlled.
Afzal did send his daughter to school during this time, but the teachers did not want to take the responsibility of having an epileptic episode in class and, in addition, they also thought that the child was ‘slow’, linking it to her epilepsy, and sent her home. According to the teachers, she could not follow what was going on in class very well.
It is only now, when the girl is 10, that Afzal has found out that while the epileptic episodes were indeed there, though they have been in control for years now, the child is not ‘slow’. She has weak eyes and could not see what was written on the board and hence could not follow the lesson being taught. And since she lacked confidence and was shy, partly due to her epilepsy, she did not really speak up in class either. Hence the teachers thought she was slow.
We now have a 10-year-old who has lost four to five years of schooling already. And this because of lack of timely but minimal interventions in early childhood. If the child had been taken to a doctor earlier for an eye examination, she would have developed in a different way. What we have now is an illiterate child with significant psychological issues to deal with.
There are other stories too. A few years ago while conducting household surveys in the rural areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, we came across a number of cases where malnutrition, poor hearing, poor eyesight and other relatively minor ailments that could easily have been detected in routine health examinations and easily corrected with minor interventions, had led to the isolation of a child. He or she was cast out of the mainstream and years later it was all but impossible to make up for lost time and opportunities.
And the problem seems to be growing. The latest health and nutrition surveys show that almost one half of the children born in Pakistan are, to one degree or another, malnourished. Is the future of this country not dependent on the children of today? If so, do we need justification for large and significant early childhood intervention programmes: programmes that ensure our children are well-fed, healthy, and provided an environment where they can develop optimally?
There is some evidence that Lady Health Worker/Visitor programmes, where they function, do have a significant impact on health and other outcomes of women and children of the area. Maybe we have a vehicle, if made effective, can be utilised for scaling up interventions quickly.
We are also finding, by design or default that children are being made to go to ‘school’ earlier as well. Parents start looking for schools at age three or so. And this trend is creeping from cities to rural areas and from higher income groups to middle and lower ones. Where both parents work, the demand for early enrolment is more of a demand for childcare than education, but that is not the whole story.
There are many parents who say that unless a child is enrolled in the right preschool and at the right age, his or her chances of making it to a good school stand compromised. There are major issues here, about child development and the right age for the right activity and the tendency to put too much pressure on our children too early in their lives that the society needs to think through.
But given the trend, for individual parents there might be little or no choice in the matter. And if private schools are offering preschool, the government has to think about doing the same in the public sector. We do not want children going to public schools being left behind or left out due to lack of instruction at preschool stage.
Article 25A of the Constitution gives the right to education to all five-to-16-year-olds in the country. We will need to revisit this at some point. If preschool becomes, de facto, a requirement, we need to make sure all children have access to it and some are not left behind for any reason whatsoever.
The demographic dividend, which we are hoping for, given our large and young population and our still significant fertility rates, will only work if our children are well-nourished, healthy and educated or skilled. But current nutrition and education surveys show a poor picture.
This requires a major rethink in our social-sector policies. We need to think about early childhood development and education programmes for the entire country. And we need to get them in place as early as possible: having millions of children malnourished or lacking basic health and educational facilities is not the road to a bright future.
The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations, associate professor of economics, LUMS, and a visiting fellow at IDEAS, Lahore.
With strings attached
JUST when the two chief ministers of Punjab were, recently, exchanging pleasantries in Ludhiana, a grievous attempt was being made at stealing Basant. In Karachi, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came up with, by many accounts, his more impressive political show so far, as the host of a cultural event announcing the Sindh festival.
JUST when the two chief ministers of Punjab were, recently, exchanging pleasantries in Ludhiana, a grievous attempt was being made at stealing Basant. In Karachi, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came up with, by many accounts, his more impressive political show so far, as the host of a cultural event announcing the Sindh festival.
He was frank in a subtle sort of way and registered his disappointment over his own party’s failures: the PPP’s inability to avoid, or later lift, the YouTube ban during its last term and its indifference to heritage exemplified by the neglect of Mohenjodaro through the party’s many stints in office.
At some point during the show, he widened his scope to pull up the ban imposers operating outside the PPP’s influence and domain: those who were so anti-fun that they barred wedding feasts and Basant. His remarks appeared to strike a chord with some of those looking for resistance to the threat posed by the anti-culture, anti-life elements in Pakistani society.
Bilawal was hailed as a brave someone who could at least record his preferences in public. He was praised as a new PPP leader who had managed to somewhat free himself from the effects of his in-party tutors so very eager to coach him at the outset of his career. There were problems with the language in which he chose to speak but then these minor hitches were ignored in the interest of the indigenous looking for a worthy patron.
There was in BBZ’s words, however, also a sense of being contained in his own rooftop. His solution was to shift the venue of Basant to Karachi, a proposal that for the umpteenth time provided a measure of the depth of the PPP’s retreat in Punjab that so proudly hosted the kite-flying festival until recent years and which had some room to fly the PPP colours not so long ago.
Seeking to make the statement for long in Punjab, the PPP has happily tagged itself to any mela or fair, without much success in invoking the free spirit of the people as a counter to the ‘Talibanisation’ of society.
These cultural overtures from the PPP have been bogged down by stories of its incompetence. During its latest term in office, officially patronised cultural activity was confined to protected venues and to some activity and a lot of statements of intent by the two PPP governors, first Salmaan Taseer and then Latif Khosa.
Basant was very much a potential rallying cry but the most the two governors could do was to openly desire a return of the kites to the Lahore horizon. These calls gradually faded away against the ever-growing pile of evidence that presented kite flying, which is the soul of Basant, as gravely hazardous.
The threat of the festival’s shift to Karachi is going to create craving for the old in Lahore. It is going to bring back all those old memories of the Lahore skies hidden behind a rainbow of colours … plenty of nostalgia but little in terms of practical solutions that could help revive Basant.
The remedies have not been discussed because there is no resolve on the part of the Punjab government to give the mela back to the people. The government is not partial to such pastimes. Or it knows there are no remedies and doesn’t want to waste its time on a futile exercise.
The other side, which the PPP’s young chairman now seeks to represent, has hardly fared better. Apart from the argument that kite string was not the only danger looming over people, there has been little by way of debate on how the sport can be revived with fewer risks involved. A young man who is looking to reinvent and reinvigorate would do well to try and raise the slogan to a level where it becomes a source of meaningful discussion.
Basant is only an example. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would find himself at a farther distance from Punjab if he were to stick to the old techniques of politics. To signify change he needs to display a fresh approach to all issues, and ensure that positions are adopted on the basis of an informed debate. These trial balloons, released a long way away from the people with the strongest craving, may turn out to be less helpful than the current fanfare indicates.
At the moment the most the sport can do is to stimulate some political games. Hamza Shahbaz Sharif sent out his own feelers about the possibility of a limited Basant in and around Lahore a day after Bilawal proudly brandished the kite in Karachi. This sets it up nicely for those who believe the old-style entangling of the new generation of elite politicians is one way of maintaining tradition. It doesn’t inspire too strong a hope for revival or invention.
Hamza says deliberations are under way about the possibility of allowing Basant in Jallo Park in Lahore or Changa Manga a little outside the city. But the news doesn’t quite conjure up the image of the Lahori population going out in droves to the Basant venue loaded with kites and string.
That was what was so special about Basant. All anyone in the city needed to do was to step up or step out to be a part of a festival that broke all kinds of barriers. Basant was above all these prejudices, a one-of-its-kind fair that united. That’s why this mock exercise for its revival every winter makes all those colourful memories all the more painful.
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
Politics of liberation
THE emergence of the ‘development sector’ in recent decades has had numerous impacts on the so-called ‘underdeveloped’ societies within which it has thrived. One has been to make gender into an issue in a way that it previously was not.
THE emergence of the ‘development sector’ in recent decades has had numerous impacts on the so-called ‘underdeveloped’ societies within which it has thrived. One has been to make gender into an issue in a way that it previously was not.
In the era of left radicalism that persisted through the late 1970s, women’s liberation became a major plank of progressive politics mostly in Western societies, while popular movements in countries such as ours focused primarily on challenging class, ethnic and imperialist structures of domination. This is not to suggest that the Third World left totally ignored patriarchy, but it nevertheless remained a secondary concern.
The non-governmental organisation ‘revolution’ through the 1980s and 1990s was a major game-changer, and has raised the bar as far as the struggle for women’s emancipation is concerned.
First, in the NGO conception of ‘sustainable development’, women’s uplift and participation in collective affairs is a central component. Second, a large number of women have found work in the NGO sector thus making it one of the more gender-balanced working environments in the contemporary period.
Importantly, the rise of NGOs coincided with the fall of actually existing socialist regimes and the retreat of left politics in general. It is thus that ‘development’ came to be seen as mutually exclusive from ‘politics’. This, as far as I am concerned, is a major argument against what on the surface appears to be the development sector’s positive role in raising the gender agenda.
I do not want to present a full-fledged critique of NGO approaches to women’s liberation here. I simply want to question whether or not ‘liberation’, of women, the toiling classes, oppressed nations or any other segment of humanity is possible without political engagement.
The buck starts and stops at patriarchy and capitalism, the interlinked oppressive structures that condemn most women to serf-like status, whether overt or hidden. The cause of women’s emancipation, then, must be about speaking truth to power and challenging it, or, in other words, engaging in political struggle. Unfortunately, too many progressives, men and women, do neither.
For example, it is damning that there is no place on the ‘development’ agenda, not to mention within mainstream political discourse, for the growing number of girls and women who are becoming the face of the Baloch national movement. As this article is being read, at least a dozen Baloch women and girls are walking through the plains of Sindh, soon to enter Punjab, to call attention to the ongoing state policy of kidnapping, torturing and killing Baloch youth.
This is aside from the daily role that women are playing in sustaining radical strands of that movement, particularly in southern parts of Balochistan.
In neighbouring India, women are highly integrated into another radical movement which is taking on state (and corporate) power in the eastern and central regions of the country. Contemporary Naxalism, with its base within the adivasi communities who live in vast forest enclaves, is a distinctive anti-systemic politics for many reasons, mostly because gender barriers have been broken down within the movement in unprecedented ways.
My guess is that these movements’ methods — their use of violence in particular — pose serious dilemmas to those who consider themselves principled defenders of the public interest. But then the ‘development interventions’ in the name of gender equality that we have so readily internalised are objectionable for a whole host of reasons too, not least of all the fact that fundamentally oppressive structures remain unnamed and unchallenged.
Indeed it is an unwillingness to think critically about the dominant development discourse that throws us out of whack when we discover that women are drawn towards decidedly retrogressive forms of politics.
The example of recently christened TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah during his previous romp in Swat is a case in point. While the narrative may have been exaggerated, it was nevertheless true that large numbers of women confined to their homes were moved by Fazlullah’s calls to action during his daily radio broadcasts.
The point is that there can be no alternative to building a politics of women’s liberation, lest right-wingers of whatever denomination fill the void. Insofar as the emergence of NGOs has exposed more working women — and men — to the broad contours of what such a progressive politics would look like, the experience can be depicted in a more or less positive light.
But to the extent that ‘civil society’ has shunned anti-systemic politics, there is an urgent need to revisit the prevailing assumptions about ‘gender and development’.
Women not only bear the burden of all forms of productive work in society — including reproduction of life itself — but also fight their subjugation in everyday, unspectacular ways. It is time to build a visible and proactive politics of the left that foregrounds gender. ‘Development’ is just not good enough.
The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Hostility to vaccine
SOME people in our country are campaigning against polio vaccination on the basis of apparently religious reasons. It is important, therefore, that the reasons they are presenting are analysed on religious grounds to see if they are valid.
SOME people in our country are campaigning against polio vaccination on the basis of apparently religious reasons. It is important, therefore, that the reasons they are presenting are analysed on religious grounds to see if they are valid.
Two reasons are often presented: the campaign is a conspiracy of the non-Muslim world against Muslims to check their population growth by making their future generations impotent and infertile. It is said that Dr Shakeel Afridi’s fake hepatitis campaign has lent further credence to this theory.
The other religious argument presented is that the disability of polio-stricken children is ordained by God as a test for a Muslim, one that he should face with patience.
Both arguments have apparent merits for gullible followers of religious leaders who the former rely on completely for spiritual guidance. Both should therefore receive a proper response if the anti-polio campaign is to succeed in our country.
As far as the conspiracy theory goes, the Holy Quran has suggested a clear solution to it which all believing Muslims must follow.
While talking about rumours spread by mischief-mongers during the time of the Prophet (PBUH), the Quran suggested this strategy: “Whenever these people receive information regarding peace or threat, they spread it across. Had they presented it before the Messenger and the ones in authority among them, those who have the ability to get to the truth of the matter would have verified it. …” (4:83).
In other words, the Quran is suggesting that if there is disturbing information circulating in society relevant to collective matters, it must be verified by the rulers through experts in the field.
That is exactly what should be done in response to the apprehensions that are being expressed regarding the polio vaccination.
A team of experts in the field of medicine should be appointed by the government to look into the question of fake vaccination campaigns. To make the exercise credible, the government should have at least one member in the inquiry committee who enjoys the confidence of the clergy.
And it should be made known to everyone that the task is being done exactly in accordance with Quranic guidance. Once the report of the commission is made public, every Pakistani shall be bound to follow the decision of the government which will decide on the matter in light of the report.
As for the reason that this life is a trial and therefore we must face its difficulties as such, the truth is that the trial does not require us to be casual about our well-being and security. God expects us to do our bit as best as we can to protect ourselves from the dangers to our life and health and then trust Him. The Prophet said to a person who did not tie his camel, leaving it in God’s care: “Tie it and then trust God.”
The Quran mentions the fact that God has arranged for certain elements to cure diseases in nature. If polio is a threat to the healthy body, God desires that we should benefit from all scientific discoveries human beings have made to counter it. Doing so will very much be consistent with the will of God.
It also needs to be emphasised that the Quran makes it binding on the believer to obey the rulers. “Believers, obey God, obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you. …” (4:59).
Religious leaders should not be allowed any authority to block a campaign which is approved by parliament and implemented by the executive. Parliament legislates on the basis of the Islamic principle of consultation (42:38). The executive implements the decisions on the basis of the authority they enjoy from God mentioned in 4:59.
God-fearing Muslims are under obligation to obey both divine rulings. If they have to say anything against the decision of parliament and the executive, they can influence parliament by presenting their arguments or have recourse to the judiciary which would satisfy the condition of the second part of 4:59, which says “…If you dispute in any matter, then refer it back to God and His Messenger. …”
The result of the phenomenon of blind following of scholars in religious matters is that numerous mini-states within the state have emerged. The common man follows his religious leaders instead of the state authority whenever he is convinced that the matter under consideration is religious in nature and the state authority should have no say in deciding about what God and His Messenger have already decided.
The real solution to the problems like the one we are facing in the form of challenge to the polio vaccination drive lies in establishing the state’s authority over all its citizens.
The writer is a religious scholar.
Vicious proposals
THE honourable members of the federal task force on disappearances have resolved to undo whatever has been done over the past decade by the judiciary and civil society to find a just solution to enforced disappearances.
THE honourable members of the federal task force on disappearances have resolved to undo whatever has been done over the past decade by the judiciary and civil society to find a just solution to enforced disappearances.
Involuntary disappearances, often wrongly described as cases of missing persons, mean in Pakistan the unannounced arrest of citizens and their indefinite detention without charge, in complete violation of their right to be detained only under judicial orders and with information provided to their families and counsel.
The efforts of the judiciary, civil society, affected families and international organisations (such as the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances — WGEID) have all along been concentrated on two points: i) to secure the appearance of the illegally detained persons in courts; and ii) to hold the officials concerned accountable.
These efforts failed on both counts. Despite the Supreme Court’s best efforts, in the heyday of its activism, all illegally held detainees were not produced in court. And all attempts to call those responsible for enforced disappearances to account have been frustrated.
Now comes a deadlier blow: a law has been drafted to legitimise extended detention without charge.
The people have as usual not been taken into confidence about the draconian draft law but the limited disclosure of its sinister contents is enough to cause alarm to defenders of the rule of law.
One recommendation that might escape censure is that ‘enforced disappearance’ will be made a criminal offence. This suggests that the authorities are not unaware of the recommendations of the UN working group.
One hopes the proposal will go beyond Section 340 of the Pakistan Penal Code and will respect the UN group’s call for “a new and autonomous crime of enforced disappearance… following the definition given in the 2006 Convention for the Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearances, and with all the legal consequences flowing from this qualification”. (The WGEID has described how action should be taken against offenders.)
Under the proposed law, security forces are to be given blanket immunity for picking up a person if they have credible evidence against him and detaining him for more than 90 days. According to reports “it is a demand of the armed forces and intelligence agencies to strengthen their hands by equipping them with the authority to detain a person for an extended period”. It should be possible to examine this strange demand.
Detention of a suspect before and during his trial is justified for two reasons. First, proof of his crime is to be secured in the form of his confession and, secondly, he is to be prevented from continuing with his mischief. If the first objective cannot be achieved through torture, which is the only form of investigation/interrogation known in Pakistan, for more that 14 days, chances are that he will be in no position to help the investigators afterwards.
Anybody kept in extra-judicial custody for more than 14 days is exposed to the risk of death or disability. If a person’s detention beyond 90 days is considered necessary to prevent him for doing anything wrong, why should he remain under non-judicial custody?
Except for the plea for financial relief to families of victims, the whole scheme is not only contrary to the recognised principles of law and the inviolable guarantees of human rights and fair trial, it also dismisses with contempt the rulings of the Supreme Court. It seems the 10-day long proceedings of the apex court this month made as little impression on the powers that be as water poured on a duck’s back.
The people have a right to know on what grounds the authors of the antediluvian suggestions have rejected/ignored the recommendations of the three-member judicial commission of 2010. That commission had reprimanded the police for being party to illegal arrests as part of disappearances. The criticism has been met by freeing the security forces from reliance on the police. How ingenious!
The commission did concede the possibility of a special law on disappearances but one should like to know to what extent the proposed measure is in accord with the commission’s report.
What nobody seems to be talking about is the commission’s call for concrete steps to rein in the intelligence/security agencies. Instead of trying to bring the working of these agencies under control, their demands for blanket immunity are being received with awe and reverence incompatible with even the elementary principles of modern jurisprudence.
References to non-conviction of a rape accused amounts to trivialising the painful issue of enforced disappearances and adds insult to the injury caused to the affected families who are bearing cold and rain and trudging long distances with swollen feet in search of justice. Next, somebody might say the law enforcers should be allowed to shoot dissidents because rapists cannot be convicted. The bill will send a wrong and dangerous message to Balochistan in particular.
If the citizens sent up for trial, for rape or treason or terrorism or anything else, cannot be sentenced for want of evidence the answer does not lie in incarcerating them without reason; it lies in cleaning the investigation and prosecution agencies of corruption and incompetence, in training them in non-custodial methods of investigation, and in improving the training of both lawyers and judicial officers.
The people cannot be punished for the inefficiency of the privileged custodians of law or the collapse of a decrepit legal order.
For a few dollars more
I SUPPOSE we should start with the good news. The finance minister should be congratulated for taking such strong ownership of the country’s economic problems.
I SUPPOSE we should start with the good news. The finance minister should be congratulated for taking such strong ownership of the country’s economic problems.
After years of seeing the post of finance minister filled by someone who struggled to have his voice heard, it’s a bit refreshing that Ishaq Dar is able to fill that void with his booming and indignant voice. Finally Q Block has a captain on board.
And now the bad news. Having acquired a voice, Q Block must now find a way to calibrate its pitch and volume. If amplitude alone could solve economic problems, we would never be in the situation we’re in.
Take Mr Dar’s recent pronouncements on the delicate matter of the exchange rate. Actually the pronouncements aren’t all that recent if you consider that he’s been talking angrily about defending the rupee since at least early October, saying he wants to bring it back to 100 to a dollar, the rate that prevailed at the start of the fiscal year.
One simple question to put to him: why don’t you go ahead and do it? Why has he been talking so stridently about bringing the rupee to 100 for so long now without being able to make it happen? The answer is simple: he doesn’t have the reserves to make it happen.
In order to lift the rupee exchange rate, the government needs to sell large amounts of dollars to the money markets. With a large supply, prices of the greenback will automatically come down. But to do this, you need to have large supplies of the greenback to begin with. And in Pakistan’s case, these supplies are measured by the reserves, which currently are at levels described as “dangerously low” by informed quarters.
So how do you offload large quantities of dollars into the money markets when you don’t have the reserves from where to get those dollars? Historically, governments have taken to shaking down other large stakeholders in the money markets: banks, exchange companies, exporters. There used to be another instrument back in the ’90s called ‘swaps’ with private parties like Dubai-based gold traders, but the less said about that the better at this stage.
Last week, we heard of a dressing down that Dar delivered to heads of major banks, blaming a small number of them for speculatively withholding dollars from the market in the hopes that the precious greenbacks will be worth a few pennies more later. Apparently it worked because the rupee stabilised and even gained a few paisas following the meeting.
Then he gave his address to the country’s textile industry, more specifically spinning sector heads who form the largest segment of our textile industry. Bring your dollars back, he told them, if I may paraphrase. This time too, it would appear, the ‘advice’ worked.
The good news here is that somebody is strenuously working on the matter at hand. Speculative pressures against the currency always break out when reserves go low and managing these pressures is not easy. Arranging supplies of dollars on a war footing is what the game is all about in these times as is arranging future supplies in a reliable manner.
But playing the game too hard also carries risks. For instance, one cannot shake down exporters and banks forever. They’re likely to run out of funds too if you keep up this game, but more importantly, sensing your desperation, they’re likely to start demanding their pound of flesh in return and start bargaining over the terms of compliance.
Want your dollars, they’ll ask? Then get the taxman off my back, and tell the State Bank to stop increasing the returns I’m obligated to pay on savings accounts. A little more gas for us please, the textile tycoons may ask, and we have our own difficulties with the taxman.
“The minister also exchanged views with the banking industry on the current economic, monetary and fiscal situation,” said the report from last week on the meeting with bankers. Has such a bargaining process begun already?
The textile tycoons were reminded of the benefits they are about to reap from the GSP Plus scheme, perhaps as a way to pre-empt any quid pro quo. But this lot is famous for their thirst for gas and it won’t be long before they’ll be telling us all that without winter gas allocations, the GSP Plus benefits will not flow and the precious dollars will remain out of reach.
So it’s worth considering that shakedowns can get you a few dollars here and there, but they should be used sparingly.
There is another risk Dar is running when he takes such a strident line so publicly on the exchange rate. After promising so hard and forcefully to shore up the rupee’s value, what if he is unable to deliver and devaluation becomes necessary?
In that case he will look weak and his credibility will take a hit. Not a good thing to happen so early in his tenure. Any future commitments he gives will be taken with a grain of salt, and stakeholders will be slower to respond to his frenzied ‘advice’.
Given the risks, is Dar’s strategy of stridently ‘talking up’ the rupee really well thought through? One hopes he has in his inner circle people of equally strong conviction, who are not afraid to speak truth to power, who can counsel a little restraint. After all, strictly speaking, it’s not really the finance minister’s job to manage the exchange rate, now is it?
The writer is a business journalist and 2013-2014 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington D.C.
Twitter:@khurramhusain
While diplomacy dawdles
WHILE diplomacy between Pakistan and India dawdles, nuclear capabilities are moving forward at a brisk pace. Since testing nuclear devices in 1998, both countries have flight-tested no fewer than 17 types of missiles that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons — a pace of more than one per year. New families of cruise missiles are joining expanded families of ballistic missiles. Nuclear weapon delivery systems are moving out to sea.
WHILE diplomacy between Pakistan and India dawdles, nuclear capabilities are moving forward at a brisk pace. Since testing nuclear devices in 1998, both countries have flight-tested no fewer than 17 types of missiles that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons — a pace of more than one per year. New families of cruise missiles are joining expanded families of ballistic missiles. Nuclear weapon delivery systems are moving out to sea.
No other state possessing nuclear weapons has proceeded at a faster pace since 1998 than Pakistan and India.
In contrast, nuclear risk reduction agreements appear paltry by comparison. Efforts by New Delhi and Islamabad to seek more normal relations have proceeded at a snail’s pace. There have been modest overtures, such as the release of fishermen captured in contested waters, and promises to do more, but little has come of them.
Since 1998, Pakistan and India have agreed to a ceasefire along the Kashmir divide and two military-related confidence-building and nuclear risk-reduction measures — a 2005 accord to provide prior notification of ballistic missile flight-tests, and a 2007 agreement to provide notification of nuclear accidents.
The ambitious agenda to normalise relations and reduce nuclear dangers mapped out in the 1999 Lahore Memorandum of Understanding has been a dead letter since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
One of the arguments in support of nuclear testing in 1998 was that it would stabilise deterrence and permit greater diplomatic progress on the subcontinent. In actuality, deterrence has become less stable and diplomacy has been pursued minimally.
Before the 1998 tests, Pakistan and India agreed to important steps to reduce dangers associated with misperceptions, including hotline agreements, advance notification of certain military exercises, and protocols regarding air space violations. They have accomplished less after 1998 than before. When one government wants to negotiate, the other is usually weak and on the defensive.
To their credit, the governments of India and Pakistan have taken steps to increase the security and command and control arrangements for their nuclear deterrents.
They have not, however, made a priority of negotiating bilateral measures to reduce nuclear risks. Instead, they view these measures as bargaining chips for negotiating outcomes that are deemed to be more important. It is a common conceit, regardless of nationality, to assume that more and better nuclear capabilities mean stronger deterrence. But a nuclear arms competition does not result in added security or stability. Instead, the more one side builds up its nuclear deterrent, the more uncomfortable the other feels.
Differing cycles of missile development and flight-testing add to difficulties in stabilising nuclear competition on the subcontinent. From 1998 to 2005, Pakistan tested twice as many nuclear weapon-capable delivery systems than India. Since then, India has tested three times more missile systems than Pakistan.
The most notable missile developments of late have been New Delhi’s achievement of an extended range ballistic missile to deter China, and Pakistan’s stated requirement for short-range nuclear weapon delivery capabilities to deter India. Evolving military doctrines have also raised new complications for deterrence stability and escalation control. Since the 1999 Kargil war, Indian military exercises have focused on faster and more flexible force deployments for limited war without triggering the use of nuclear weapons. Pakistan’s military exercises practise shorter timelines and new tactics for blocking action.
Nuclear doctrines complicate matters further. Pakistan adheres to a doctrine of first use to counter India’s conventional military advantages — including the possible first use of short-range weapons deployed near the forward edge of battle. India has adopted a nuclear doctrine of massive retaliation.
Opposing nuclear doctrines that rely on tactical nuclear weapons and massive retaliation are inherently unstable or lack credibility. When diplomacy lags far behind advancing nuclear capabilities and doctrinal change, deterrence naturally becomes less stable. Existing stabilisation measures between Pakistan and India are too weak to serve as a sufficient foundation for nuclear risk reduction.
Hotlines have been unreliable and sometimes not employed during periods of tension. They have not prevented or defused severe crises.
War broke out on the heights above Kargil only two months after the Lahore Declaration. The 2005 pre-notification and 2007 nuclear risk reduction agreements have not dampened the impact of spoilers. Indeed, signs of progress towards normalisation seem to embolden them to blow up the process.
Despite the professionalism of those responsible for nuclear stewardship on the subcontinent, nuclear dangers are rising. The greatest danger to deterrence stability is an absence of normal relations between nuclear-armed neighbours.
The unwillingness of national leaders to extend themselves to improve relations stands in sharp contrast to the willingness of spoilers to disrupt diplomacy and trigger crises that will be hard to defuse.
The writers are co-editors of a new book, Deterrence Stability and Escalation Control in South Asia, which can be found at
His eyes have closed
HUMAN beings like Nelson Mandela do not die: they simply stop breathing.
HUMAN beings like Nelson Mandela do not die: they simply stop breathing.
Fifty years from now, another generation will ask of us their elders: who was that person whose life could evoke such worldwide adulation and whose passing released such pervasive grief?
One will have to tell them that such a phenomenon is better experienced than explained. Meanwhile, for those of us who recall the death of John F. Kennedy 50 years ago, the clock of remembrance has begun another silent count until eternity.
In 1955, when John F. Kennedy was writing his book Profiles of Courage, Nelson Mandela was presiding over the Congress of the People, a multiracial assemblage that decided to challenge the racist South African government. That congress adopted a Freedom Charter which declared that “only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief”.
The charter continued: “And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers … pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.” Mandela’s African National Congress later used that charter as its manifesto.
Kennedy never knew Mandela. He may have known of him, but unknowingly, he outlined in his book the contours of the courageous leader Mandela would become. “A man does what he must,” Kennedy had written, “in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures.”
And again, without South Africa specifically in mind, Kennedy warned: “A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — but a revolution is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”
The British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, could see that inevitability more clearly. For him, it was just around the corner. After an eye-opening tour of African countries in 1960, he cautioned the all-white South African parliament: “The wind of change is blowing through this continent and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”
It would take another 30 years or so (of which Mandela spent 27 in jail) for that growth of national consciousness to blossom into South Africa’s first multiracial elections, and Mandela’s appointment as its first black president.
It is a strange quirk of history that the 20th century should have produced on mainland Europe such belligerents as Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Adolf Hitler, in Italy Benito Mussolini, and in Spain General Franco. And before the century ended, down in the lowest tip of the African continent, two leaders — Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela — who would use non-violence as their weapon of moral force.
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Mandela were much married men. Gandhi was wedded first to his wife Kasturbhai, then to Politics, and finally to Martyrdom.
Similarly, Nelson Mandela’s married life mirrored the three different stages of his career. His first wife Evelyn occupied the pre-revolutionary years, his second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela the firebrand years of agitation while he was in jail, and after his release Graça Machel whom he married on his 80th birthday to share his calmer evening years.
Both Gandhi and Mandela had seen the inside of South African jails. Through their prison bars, they viewed the prospect of revenge separately and differently. Gandhi countered the biblical concept of revenge with the sensible observation: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” Mandela outdid his fellow Christians, deciding he would forgive his enemies not just once but repeatedly.
One wonders whether, had Mandela been a white European leader post-Second World War, he would have persuaded the victorious Allies to appoint a truth and reconciliation commission instead of conducting as they did the vengeful Nuremburg trials. The Christian Allies at the time though were in no mood to forgive Christian Germans.
Mandela’s oppressors had subtracted 27 years from his active adult life. They tortured his body. They threatened his very sanity. But what they could not succeed in doing was to extinguish his humanity.
Alan Paton — a white anti-apartheid South African lawyer who had once defended Mandela — wrote a memorable line in his seminal novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948). It anticipated Mandela’s philosophy: “But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.” Mandela did not need to seek power. He had it and the courage to use it compassionately.
His friend Alan Paton also seemed to foresee Mandela’s peaceful end: “Happy the eyes that can close” and not die.
The writer is an author and art historian.
A right royal mess
IF anything has changed in Nawaz Sharif’s style of governance in his third term in office, surely it is for the worse. Not only has the government increasingly become a family enterprise, its ineptness is getting more glaring by the day. The high-profile launch of the prime minister’s daughter in public office marks further strengthening of the family hold over power.
IF anything has changed in Nawaz Sharif’s style of governance in his third term in office, surely it is for the worse. Not only has the government increasingly become a family enterprise, its ineptness is getting more glaring by the day. The high-profile launch of the prime minister’s daughter in public office marks further strengthening of the family hold over power.
Maryam Nawaz is, however, not the only second-generation Sharif being groomed for leadership. Hamza, the eldest son of Shahbaz Sharif and a member of the National Assembly, has already been given important administrative responsibilities in Punjab as his father gets more and more involved in running affairs in Islamabad. He is virtually acting as the de facto chief minister.
It is all in the family when it comes to taking important policy decisions. The two Sharifs with in-law Ishaq Dar form the main power nucleus. No one else is to be trusted. Mr Sharif’s highly personalised style of governance is much more pronounced this time than in his previous two terms. It has hugely affected institutional functioning and resulted in the current disarray and paralysis in government.
It has taken months for the prime minister to make decisions even on important diplomatic and government appointments. Perhaps the most glaring example of the prevailing dysfunction is the foreign affairs ministry. The irony is that the prime minister himself holds the portfolio of foreign minister with an adviser and special assistant to help him run the affairs of this critical ministry. Prolonged indecision and uncertainty over key appointments have paralysed this ministry.
It is scandalous the way the appointments of the new foreign secretary and envoys to India and Brussels were reversed weeks after their announcement. As it is, all those appointments were approved by the prime minister after he sat on the decisions for months. It has been embarrassing for senior Foreign Office officers who were informed about the change only days before they were to join their new postings.
Abdul Basit, the ambassador to Germany, was named as the new foreign secretary in October. But the decision was overturned some six weeks later because he was thought to be too junior for the post. Similarly, the decision to post Ibne Abbas and Aizaz Ahmed as envoys to New Delhi and Brussels respectively was reversed after their nomination papers were accepted by the host countries.
This is humiliating and demoralising for all these senior career officers. There is still no announcement of a new foreign secretary, though Aizaz Ahmed is believed to have been nominated for the top slot.
Such confusion and chaos are also prevalent in the conduct of foreign policy. The reported turf war between Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatemi is actually a symptom rather than the cause of the disarray in foreign policy. There is certainly a need for a full-time foreign minister to deal with complex and critical issues confronting Pakistan. But the prime minister seems too keen to hold on to this portfolio as well as others.
Mr Sharif’s concept of foreign policy is limited to foreign tours and personal diplomacy. There is no coherent policy on any important issue. Effectively there is no one in charge and policies are based on the whims of the prime minister. An old guard, Mr Aziz as an adviser was supposed to be guiding the foreign and national security policies, but he has effectively been sidelined. He seems to have already lost the turf war and rumour has it that he may soon be shown the door.
In fact, foreign policy too has become family domain with Shahbaz Sharif dabbling in external affairs as well. The Punjab chief minister has been participating in almost all the meetings of the prime minister with foreign dignitaries. He also accompanies his elder brother on most foreign official visits. But his latest trip to New Delhi and his meeting with the Indian prime minister lends credence to the criticism questioning his role in external relations. Shahbaz Sharif seems to have initiated his own agenda seeking to build relations with Indian Punjab.
A joint statement issued after Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to Indian Punjab proposed free movement for academicians, students and interns between the two sides. It was the first such exercise between a Pakistani province and an Indian state. For sure such exchanges can be very positive. But the issue is would the Pakistani government allow other provincial administrations to reach the same kind of agreements with neighbouring provinces or states across the border? Certainly not.
In the absence of a clear policy direction it is a free for all. On several instances, cabinet ministers have publicly contradicted each other. An embarrassing situation occurred when the all-powerful interior minister publicly ridiculed Mr Sartaj Aziz on his statement on the US assurance to suspend drone strikes.
Worse still, Chaudhry Nisar reminds us of former interior minister Rehman Malik. He’s fond of commenting on every issue, particularly foreign policy which is certainly not his domain. His hawkish statements, in particular on ties with the US often contradict the official line.
The chaos and confusion in the foreign ministry is a mere symptom of the greater malady afflicting the government. Neither is the state of affairs in other departments encouraging. It is a royal mess given Mr Sharif’s ways of ruling the country like a family enterprise.
The writer is an author and journalist.
Twitter: @hidhussain
Art in exile
THE Babylonian Ishtar Gate, excavated from Iraq, cannot be seen by most Iraqis. This is because it is displayed at the Pergamon Museum of Berlin, far away from the sight of Iraqis.
THE Babylonian Ishtar Gate, excavated from Iraq, cannot be seen by most Iraqis. This is because it is displayed at the Pergamon Museum of Berlin, far away from the sight of Iraqis.
The gate, along with many other artefacts, was excavated by German archaeologists before the First World War in the territory that is currently modern Iraq. In the manner of the colonial enterprise in the Middle East and South Asia, the Ishtar Gate and other treasures were shipped to Germany and have been there ever since.
In May 2002, the government of Iraq appealed to the German authorities to return the gate (which is actually an entire tower that was lifted and taken away). Their request was refused then, and the gate, which the museum’s website calls “one of its major attractions”, remains at the museum.
The colonial plunder of the antiquities and treasures of former colonies is a well-worn gripe, familiar to those whose histories are smattered with past glories and present want.
In the subcontinent’s own tale of woe, the Kohinoor diamond, taken away under the auspices of the Empire’s East India Company, was presented in 1850 by the then governor-general to Queen Victoria. The 105-carat diamond has been set in the crown ever since and is on display at the Tower of London.
Britain, one of the most actively plundering colonial powers of yore, also holds Egypt’s Rosetta Stone and the Grecian Elgin Marbles, which it refuses to return to their home countries. When asked about the issue Prime Minister David Cameron said, “I certainly don’t believe in ‘returnism,’ as it were; I don’t think it is sensible.”
The logic of the sensibility of art and treasures looted during war and conflict takes a different turn when it is Western treasures that are at stake. In The Fate of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, author Lynn Nicholas documents the Nazi plunder of art from countries that were occupied by Hitler.
The book details how art was taken, smuggled, preserved and often sold at bargain prices by Nazi purveyors, often secretly, in order to obtain international currency. In other cases, artwork was recovered by the Allied Forces after 1943.
In that year, the monuments, fine arts and archives programme was established under the civil affairs and military government sections of the allied armies.
The purpose of the programme was to protect the cultural property and art of areas affected during and after the Second World War. Not only did the staff of the programme work to preserve the cultural and historical artefacts and treasures from the affected areas, they actually made significant efforts to return them to their rightful owners after the cessation of conflict.
This task of reversing the plunder of war and occupation continues today. The discovery this November of a huge trove of art, some of it allegedly seized by Nazis, in an apartment in Munich is expected to fuel a new slew of restitution cases. Ownership, you see, does not end if the original owners belong to the Western, industrialised world.
The wronged post-colonial world of robbed treasures cannot, however, afford any self-righteous smugness. If the occupations of former colonists, the plunder of antiquities, and the stubborn resolution that anything taken belongs to those who took it present one side of the equation of appropriation, the other presents conundrums that are just as vexing.
The condition of antiquities, art, and archaeological finds that have been left behind presents this narrative. Not far from Islamabad is the archaeological site of Taxila, whose complex of ruins includes a Mesolithic cave, four settlement sites, and several Buddhist monasteries. Each of the settlement sites is said to belong to a different century, cumulatively revealing the course of urban evolution over five centuries, with the oldest going back to the 6th century BC.
The ruins at Taxila, though in the possession of Pakistan, are in danger. The threats come not from abroad but from within.
The monument of Sarai Karwan, located within Taxila, has been increasingly encroached upon by development around the area, with outlying areas of the ruins subjected to decay and even garbage disposal.
Sandblasting and quarrying in the adjoining areas has exacerbated the deterioration of both the ruins and artefacts stored in the museum nearby. One report on the site alleges that sound-waves from the blasting have dislocated the shelves in the museum’s glass cases, leaving them lopsided and distorted.
Those are just the structural problems. A report from the Global Heritage Fund alleges that the biggest threat to the artefacts discovered in Taxila is not simply inattention and neglect, but the political and ideological vagaries of changing times.
In the words of the report, “over 2,000 priceless objects housed inside the Archaeological Museum of Taxila are vulnerable to theft and terrorist attacks, as the museum has insufficient security measures in place”.
There is good reason for such fears; the blowing up of Buddhist statues and artefacts by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the recent burning of the Ziarat Residency near Quetta are both tragedies that underscore the point.
In the Pakistani post-colonial case, the danger lies not simply in the appropriation and looting by powerful others in the past, but also by the petty politics of the present. In contexts where history is so contested, perhaps the exile of art and artefact is not a tragedy but instead a necessary measure to preserve what would be lost at home.
The writer is a lawyer teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
House of Kim
“DESPICABLE human scum” is not an altogether unusual turn of phrase in the context of official pronouncements from Pyongyang. What makes it remarkable is that it was part of a lurid description of North Korea’s second most powerful man.
“DESPICABLE human scum” is not an altogether unusual turn of phrase in the context of official pronouncements from Pyongyang. What makes it remarkable is that it was part of a lurid description of North Korea’s second most powerful man.
Jang Song-thaek also happened to be the supreme leader’s uncle. His fall from grace would have been intriguing even if it had not swiftly been followed by brutal retribution. As the official news agency KCNA put it, once a military tribunal gave its verdict, “the decision was immediately executed”. Unofficial reports suggest a machine-gun was used to carry out the sentence.
It is not unknown for members of North Korea’s ruling family to be sidelined. The nation’s founding father, Kim Il-sung, banished one of his brothers to the countryside in the mid-1970s, and Jang himself appears to have been purged at least once and possibly twice in the past — he not only survived but was able to return to the hierarchy.
A year or so before he died in December 2011, the present ruler’s father, Kim Jong-il, picked his sister, Kim Kyong-hui, and her husband Jang to groom his designated heir, Kim Jong-un, for the leadership. The latter’s turn at the top appears to have come rather sooner than anyone expected, which evidently made Jang the power behind the throne.
We are now told he was a monster of depravity who distributed pornography among his confidants, was addicted to sexual promiscuity and a “decadent capitalist lifestyle” — in 2009 alone he is accused of having squandered at least 4.6 million euros, including on “enjoying himself in a casino in a foreign country”.
Profligacy and corruption weren’t his only vices, though. “Dreaming a fantastic dream to become premier at an initial stage to trap the supreme power of the party and the state”, Jang purportedly “schemed to drive the economy of the country and people’s living into an uncontrollable catastrophe”.
One of the primary problems with reflecting on developments in North Korea is that external knowledge about the secretive Kim-dom is strictly limited and based largely on hearsay. As a result, opinions about what exactly is going on and the possible consequences tends to be highly speculative.
For example, analysts initially presumed that Jang’s fate would also reflect on his wife (now his widow), but it was indicated at the weekend that Kim Kyong-hui had been named as a member of the ruling Workers’ Party’s funeral committee. It is unclear whether the irony was intentional, but this is supposedly a prestigious position. Unofficially, there are even suggestions that she helped to nail her treacherous husband.
Notwithstanding the paucity of objective information from Pyongyang, one thing is clear: the official reaction to Jang’s ouster and execution is unprecedented. A quiet purge, without much in the way of official comment, would have been less surprising.
It has been reported that some of Jang’s colleagues were indeed quietly dispatched last month, while others are said to have sought asylum abroad. It is also true that initial indications of Jang’s fate came from South Korean sources. Yet entire front pages of North Korean newspapers have subsequently been devoted to colourful accusations and sordid details.
There can be little doubt that to a large extent this has been intended for domestic consumption, although analysts are unclear as to whether the impetus came from Kim Jong-un himself or from hardliners in the military hierarchy. Is it a case of the latest Kim establishing his supremacy, or has the nation’s most powerful institution stepped in to sound a warning against civilian interference?
Another explanation for recent events could lie in the notion that Jang, a leading interlocutor with Beijing, was keen to instigate Chinese-style economic changes, and that the denouement of his career is chiefly intended as a warning to China to mind its own business. If true, that would be remarkable, given that Beijing is one of Pyongyang’s only allies — and there are limits to its indulgence.
The American reaction to the recent events in Pyongyang has been reasonably predictable, with spokespeople decrying the brutality and warning against provocations by the nuclear-armed state.
One of the main problems with the hermit kingdom is that, unfortunately but inevitably, its opacity and proclivity towards bizarre pronouncements make it easier to mock than to analyse. Power struggles within North Korea are hardly a novelty, but their precise nature is hard to ascertain.
There is something appallingly Stalinist about the latest developments — but, personality cults notwithstanding, neither Josef Stalin nor Mao Zedong sought to establish hereditary rule.
In its present state, North Korea cannot survive forever — although it’s worth noting that predictions of its demise have proved premature in the past. How soon the House of Kim might crumble remains an open question, but the end could come as suddenly as it did for Jang.
The media’s role
LAST week the Indus Resource Centre (IRC) and the Sindh Education Foundation held a joint consultative roundtable — the second such event in a series — to study the impact of the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013.
LAST week the Indus Resource Centre (IRC) and the Sindh Education Foundation held a joint consultative roundtable — the second such event in a series — to study the impact of the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013.
The project funded by UKAID and DAI Europe seeks to mobilise schoolchildren to create a visible demand for education.
This consultative process has proved to be an instructive exercise and holds great promise, provided the IRC’s strategy remains judicious and does not succumb to ill-considered demands by the financiers. Ideally, education projects should be indigenously funded to ensure local discretion to determine strategy. But this is not always possible given resource constraints.
Initially, the IRC held a baseline survey in eight districts of Sindh. Called ‘It’s my right, make it happen’, the survey found that barely 2pc of the respondents knew about the right to education (RTE) law. Even the functionaries of the education department lacked awareness of the act passed in February 2013.
This would not have surprised me but for the fact that recently Shahzad Roy, a pop singer and the darling of the youth, had cycled around Pakistan advocating the cause of education. He was featured in a programme titled Chal parha by a TV channel said to be the most influential in Pakistan.
One would have thought that this exercise by Shahzad Roy would have created more understanding of the issues that have proved to be obstacles in the spread of education. Unfortunately, this did not happen.
Apart from the law against corporal punishment, which was enacted after Roy highlighted the problem, nothing much has changed. And the law notwithstanding, corporal punishment has continued with the same frequency as before. The IRC’s survey confirms it.
This should explode the myth that the media is the magic wand that can blow away all our problems. Education needs a serious approach to understand the obstacles in the way of progress. The crisis in education will not be solved by gimmicks. Yet many NGOs and think tanks have been led into believing that without the support of the media nothing can be achieved.
Since we are a society where illiteracy is accepted unabashedly as a way of life, it is believed that only the electronic media can take the message to the common man.
Even the IRC project’s sponsors speak of “engaging with media to highlight campaign activities and promote awareness about the Sindh RTE law”.
It is time we realised that the electronic media has a role to play only when there is advocacy to be done to create social acceptance of an idea that is new and is meeting resistance from the public.
Those working on the ground and various surveys have conclusively established that the advocacy campaigns of the earlier decades have created acceptance of new values. Only a minuscule minority now resists them and obstructs the process of social change. The next step after raising awareness is creating the infrastructure which obviously cannot be done by the electronic media. It calls for a carefully thought-out strategy of capacity-building and interpersonal communication to persuade people to go the extra mile to achieve results.
This second phase cannot be handled by the electronic media which itself ‘creates’ many problems and then offers itself as the redeemer. Thus foreign financiers who fall into this trap spend millions paying media houses to carry on campaigns that achieve nothing.
Education and population are the most vulnerable sectors in this context. Televised campaigns on these issues give the impression that education and family planning programmes are failing because the people are dead against limiting their family size or sending their children to school.
Surveys on the ground have a different story to tell. The Population Council’s latest factsheet says that there is an unmet need of 25pc. In other words, eight million women want family planning services but don’t get them.
As for religion being a factor in keeping couples away from birth control methods, the Demographic and Health Survey showed that a very small ratio of respondents said that it was religion that held them back from family planning. Yet some very ‘popular’ anchors harp on the theme when it should be left alone.
Similarly, the IRC’s baseline survey reports that most parents and children cite the heavy cost of schooling, the students’ fear of teachers and the irregular attendance of teachers as the cause of high dropout rates. Will media programmes rectify these ills? Or will administrative measures produce better results?
The IRC plans to hold one-to-one briefing exercises with the stakeholders, ie political party representatives, policymakers, functionaries of the education department and even community leaders. That is a more sensible approach rather than turning the project into a media circus which is only counterproductive.
Regulating the NGO sector
ECONOMIC development strategies in the last 50 years have been relatively successful in alleviating poverty and raising the living standards in developing countries.
ECONOMIC development strategies in the last 50 years have been relatively successful in alleviating poverty and raising the living standards in developing countries.
The Millennium Development Goal of poverty reduction has been achieved ahead of the 2015 deadline. Human development indicators have improved significantly in almost all countries with very few exceptions.
Developing countries now account for almost half the world’s income, and most of the growth in the global economy in the post-2007 period has been contributed by them. Technological revolution particularly in information and communications technology has been a major driver of economic growth.
Strategies of the past, however successful in boosting growth and alleviating poverty, have given rise to second-generation problems that have surfaced in the last decade or so.
Consumption standards of advanced countries that are being imitated by developing countries are likely to give rise to global warming due to heavy emission of carbon dioxide caused by increase in the consumption of fossil fuels. Income inequalities, the concentration of income in the top 1pc of the population and regional disparities resulting from rapid growth have become a threat to social cohesion and harmonious ties within multi-ethnic nation-states.
It’s therefore obvious that these strategies have to be altered in fundamental ways to ensure environmental sustainability and social equity in addition to economic efficiency. The 21st-century model of development would thus stand on three pillars — economic efficiency, environmental sustainability and social equity.
To implement this model, the respective roles of state, market and civil society have to be redefined in a mutually reinforcing way. There is sufficient scope for work for all these three actors and the false dichotomies of state vs market, state vs civil society and market vs civil society have become redundant. With increased connectivity, the social media’s influence and the march of technology, the world can benefit from the comparative advantage of these three actors while containing the adverse effects.
The state’s role is to protect the life and property of citizens, maintain the rule of law and enforce contracts, provide an enabling environment for the private sector, regulate markets and develop physical infrastructure and social services. Macroeconomic stability and social safety nets for the poor are tasks that cannot be performed well by any other actor. The market is good at efficiently allocating scarce resources but poor at generating equitable distribution. Production, distribution, marketing, trading of goods and services is therefore best left to market forces. But it is the state’s duty to regulate the markets so that cartels, oligopolies and monopolies do not distort the structure and deprive consumers of the gains of efficient allocation. Taxes and public expenditures should be geared in a way to help better income distribution. Civil society is, relatively speaking, a newcomer in the field of development. Nonprofit or non-governmental organisations have emerged as the new force. There are several types of NGOs — those involved in the advocacy of single issues, others addressing humanitarian assistance and still others delivering basic social services such as education, healthcare, nutrition etc.
In Bangladesh, the success achieved in family planning, microcredit, female education and primary healthcare owes a great deal to the consistent efforts made by NGOs such as Brac, Grameen, etc. Pakistan is a relative newcomer to the NGO sector but the record so far is impressive. The Citizens Foundation, Indus Hospital, the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Edhi, the Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust, Care Foundation, the Shalimar Hospital are some excellent examples where poor citizens can access essential services in education and health.
Rural support programmes, the Kashf Foundation, Akhawat etc are engaged in delivering microfinance services to the poor for several decades. Several international organisations such as Oxfam and Action Aid have a presence in Pakistan but they become highly active in relief and rehabilitation activities in the face of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods etc.
The recent move by the government to regulate the NGO sector should be examined in the above context. Registration of all NGOs raising funds from outside and within Pakistan is essential for transparency and the accountability of the NGO sector. But this must be done in a way that does not create bureaucratic hurdles in their functioning and delivery of services.
The certification by the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) has been used as a mechanism for allowing tax exemptions. This certification should be used by the government to permit NGOs to receive foreign contributions and raise funds locally, grant work permits to expatriate employees and allow duty-free imports.
The process of screening, scrutiny and approval by the PCP can be strengthened by seeking the input of government departments or ministries and by instituting uniform standards for information seeking, reporting and verification.
Like publicly listed companies the certified NGOs should get their accounts audited by reputable firms and submit an annual report disclosing the required information on their activities. This non-bureaucratic approach will achieve the same results as desired by the government in its policy statement without creating hassles.
Other restrictions, such as employing foreign nationals for not more than 10pc of staff positions and obtaining the prior concurrence of the government are superfluous and should be done away with.
The imperatives of the new development model require an all hands-on-deck approach in which stakeholders are enabled to work in tandem for the larger welfare of the population.
The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
A rainbow over India
BY most accounts reference to Turk-i-Shirazi, in an oft-quoted Hafiz verse, alludes to a good-looking lad, the Persian poet’s muse. Agar aa’n Turk-i-Shirazi bi dast aurad dil-i-mara; bi khaul-i-hindu yash bakhsham, Samarqand-o-Bukhara ra.
BY most accounts reference to Turk-i-Shirazi, in an oft-quoted Hafiz verse, alludes to a good-looking lad, the Persian poet’s muse. Agar aa’n Turk-i-Shirazi bi dast aurad dil-i-mara; bi khaul-i-hindu yash bakhsham, Samarqand-o-Bukhara ra.
For the pleasure of the black mole on the young man’s cheek, the poet was willing to surrender the fabled cities of Samarkand and Bukhara to him. The king whose domain the cities were took offence and got the verse deleted from the collection of Hafiz’s poems, or so the legend goes about one of Iran’s greatest poets.
In 19th century India, Mir Taqi Mir, the beloved Urdu poet is thought to have given a hint of his liberated sexuality in the verse: “Mir saada hain, ki beemaar huey jiske sabab; usi attar ke laundey se dawa lete hai’n.”
Josh Malihabadi and Firaaq Gorakhpuri were among the great Urdu poets in post-independence India who confessed to their homosexuality openly. Ismat Chughtai too may have been giving her own sympathetic hints about women in a relationship with each other. Sadat Hasan Manto and Chughtai were charged under the British laws of obscenity, but they survived.
Gay relationships have been as common and as troubled as trans-gender heroes/heroines right across the world. In the cinematic depiction of Howard Fast’s Spartacus, Tony Curtis plays the good-looking slave boy to the Roman Senator played by Laurence Olivier. When it comes to the crunch, however, the slave deserts his master to join the revolt against Rome under the leadership of Spartacus.
Before turning to Buddhism, Fast had led the Communist Party of the United States through a difficult period. A leading inspiration for transgender votaries in India is Lord Shiva, who is often worshipped in his avatar as Aradhanarishvar, a half-woman half-man image depicting the more open society South Asia was.
In his/her most recent book Transgender Warriors, Leslie Feinberg catalogues the travails of history’s “hero/ines”, as the writer calls them to stay gender neutral, who fell victim to religious and cultural onslaughts against their ilk.
Feinberg is one of America’s leading transgender activists that daily grapple with ignorance and prejudice. Joan of Arc is retrieved in Feinberg’s book as a successful warrior who fell foul of the church and became its victim for the way she dressed as a man.
“Even though she knew her defiance meant she was considered damned, Joan’s testimony in her own defence revealed how deeply her cross-dressing was rooted in her identity,” Feinberg reveals in the book, and quotes the ill-fated French warrior as declaring in her final moments: “For nothing in the world will I swear not to arm myself and put on a man’s dress.”
As a few thousand gays, transgender activists, cross dressers, and their supporters — a full political genre of gender rights activists straddling LGBTQ, covering lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites, and queers — gathered on Sunday at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar rendezvous, the meeting found unusual support from India’s political left, and brazen opposition from the Hindu right.
I would have been surprised, possibly even terrified, had the political right supported the rainbow gathering of gender activists and their growing army of supporters. How can one forget Hitler, deified by the Hindu right, who sent thousands of homosexuals to concentration camps where many of them perished?
Speaking for the political left at Jantar Mantar, a woman activist spelt out the agenda. The movement was a coalition of India’s oppressed minorities and women. They included apart from the LGBTQ community, the Dalits, the Muslims, the tribespeople, the working class, the landless peasants, in other words a rainbow of resistance to the country’s corporate-feudal ruling elite.
One activist even brought in Faiz Ahmed Faiz as a possible defender of gay rights. He recited excerpts from a Faiz poem that mocks the bigoted nation where lovers are forced to hide their love. “Nisaar mai’n teri galiyo’n ke ae watan, ke jahaa’n, chali hai rasm ki koi na sar uthaa ke chale; jo koi chaahanewaalaa tawaaf ko nikle, nazar churaa ke chale, jism-o-jaa’n bachaa ke chale.” The roar of applause thus installed Faiz as an instant hero for gender rights.
The Jantar Mantar meeting coincided with several similar protests staged around the world on Sunday, including different cities of India. Gender activists everywhere have endured sustained attacks and persistent threats, not the least from a Victorian mindset that tortured Oscar Wilde and gave the world regressive laws to heap pain and misery on millions.
India’s tryst with the black law goes back to 1861. Article 377 of the British Indian Penal Code, and ruled by India’s Supreme Court recently as still valid, seemed to have been rooted in vendetta, apart from being a product of plain British perversion.
Far too many Indians who had revolted against colonial rule in 1857 were either cross-dressers or admirers of Wajid Ali Shah, the dissident ruler of Awadh, who “danced like a woman” and wrote love songs to Radha and Krishna. The British could never accept the resolute political resistance from those that were not “manly” enough.
Courtesans and their transgender attendants attracted British ire and they theirs. Among the victims of this seething bias was Gauhar Jan, the courtesan of Calcutta, who became the first Indian to cut a record of her music.
She offered Gandhi her community’s support but he was not interested other than in their money. The prejudice continues, but the campaign against Article 377 has caught India’s self-declared guardians of morality off guard. Rainbow is a symbol of the LGBTQ community. It seemed this week to have acquired a wider political appeal for India and beyond.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
No room for diversity
PAKISTAN has become an excessively bigoted place. We suffer from striking levels of intolerance across ethnicities, sects, faiths and so much else that we now seem inclined to sacrifice human life needlessly.
PAKISTAN has become an excessively bigoted place. We suffer from striking levels of intolerance across ethnicities, sects, faiths and so much else that we now seem inclined to sacrifice human life needlessly.
The state and much of society is preoccupied with trying to figure out how to deal with the Islamist violence that engulfs us. One can’t really disagree with this priority. But focusing solely on what is only a manifestation of a much deeper set of problems leaves the real disease intact.
We ought not to forget that violence is born of intolerance and the lack of ability to appreciate and live with diverse views. If we want to rid ourselves of violence permanently, we have to tackle the hatred and antipathy various segments of society have for others across countless fault lines.
Sadly, not enough attention is paid to devising coherent policies to tackle these deeper problems.
The state uses its coercive and persuasive powers but much of this is aimed at dealing with active violence. There is also some investment in civil society initiatives — both from the liberal and conservative ends of the spectrum — to bridge the divides but one hasn’t seen the sum total of these amounting to much either.
The permanent fix to the problem lies in altering the way we shape our young minds and the socialisation experience we provide them within our society. The focus of the policy interventions to achieve this will principally have to be on the multiple education systems operating within the country.
Much is said about the education system’s failure — but not nearly enough about how the dynamic between the public, private and madressah schooling — our three parallel education systems — plays out to create conditions for an exclusionary Pakistan that is anything but tolerant of the diversity in our society. These education systems are stratified along socio-economic, ideological, and qualitative dimensions.
While admittedly reality is more nuanced and complex, by and large madressahs cater to children from the poorest segment of society; the majority of public school and non-elite private school students belong to the lower-middle to middle socio-economic groups; and elite private schools apply stringent socio-economic screening and are reserved exclusively for the rich.
These three cohorts operate in complete silos — herein lies the socialisation problem. Think about it: at what stage of their schooling or their adult life do students from these three systems engage intellectually with each other? Beyond the rich interacting with children of their house help, is there another urban experience in Pakistani cities that allows for cross-pollination? Rural areas make for somewhat better showing but not by much.
Gone are the days when middle-class families sent their kids to public schools; or when the rich felt their country was safe enough to let theirs play street cricket; or for kids from across the divide to mingle in parks; or for the elite to put their kids on public transport.
The discrimination carries itself into adulthood as only the elite private school kids are well prepared to compete in the job market. This perpetuates the socio-economic divide. I’d still live with this if the schooling systems taught their students to respect everyone’s points of view. The reality is anything but.
Again, glossing over the nuances and exceptions, whatever research is available suggests that kids from the three systems diverge starkly on their world views. Children of the elite are dismissive of their Urdu medium counterparts and rural youngsters from lower socio-economic backgrounds. A sizable segment from within this cohort considers itself superior to and more progressive than the rest.
Madressah students from the lower socio-economic strata blame the elite for having robbed them of necessary resources and causing hardship for society. Their sense of alienation and deprivation is shared by the public school, and to a lesser extent the non-elite private school students. (The one issue where they seem to converge is in their opposition to US foreign policy in the Muslim world.)
Ultimately, these disparate visions make it virtually impossible to forge a consensus on a national narrative in Pakistan. In fact, frustration, alienation, internal discord and polarisation are built into this mechanism.
Very little is being done to work in this space with any conviction. We need to consider mandating enrolment from all socio-economic strata in the private schools. Mandatory regular interaction across school systems through intellectual debates, sports, interfaith trips, and the like are also crucial. Most importantly, we need to mandate opportunities for the elite to experience the less fortunate realities that the overwhelming majority of Pakistani kids live with.
Of course, benefits will be very slow to accrue but they will be permanent. When they do, we’ll stop threatening to fall back into cycles of violence even in periods when we are peaceful.
The writer is a foreign policy expert based in Washington, D.C.
Politics of revenge
BANGLADESH’S moment of truth has arrived: should it strive for political stability, unity and national reconciliation or pursue a policy of vendetta?
BANGLADESH’S moment of truth has arrived: should it strive for political stability, unity and national reconciliation or pursue a policy of vendetta?
Capital and other forms of punishment awarded by the controversial International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka over the last year have led to a serious backlash by the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), many of whose activists have been charged with mass killings in the military operation of March-December 1971.
The controversy deepened when Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat, who earlier this year was awarded life imprisonment by the tribunal, was sentenced to death by the Bangladesh Supreme Court in September and executed this month.
If his execution was welcomed by the ruling Awami League, others termed the judgement as politically motivated and devoid of the basic principles of justice. The question remains: why did the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina Wajed decide to raise the issue of war crimes at this stage when Bangladesh requires political harmony, not further polarisation?
It is not only the war crimes tribunal which has become a source of the political divide in Bangladesh. Another matter negatively impacting the political environment is the violent agitation of the BNP-led 18-party alliance that is demanding a neutral caretaker set-up to hold national elections due in January 2014. It wants Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign before the elections.
The large-scale violence unleashed on the repeated calls for strike by the alliance has not only paralysed civic life but also caused severe economic losses. Bangladesh’s vast majority is fed up with the continuous political squabbling between the Awami League and BNP as it is the common citizen that is suffering as a result of the unabated strikes and agitation.
The Guardian recently quoted Ahsan Mansur, director of the Dhaka-based Policy Research Institute, as saying that “a compromise looks unlikely. … The Awami League thinks that if there is a fair election it will be out of power. The BNP think that if there isn’t a fair election, they will be out of power. … The longer the hostilities continue, the more bloody and bitter the aftermath”.
Large-scale corruption, nepotism and bad governance on the part of subsequent regimes have further augmented a sense of pessimism regarding the future of Bangladesh.
In a society where ill-gotten wealth has created a new class of super rich people, and where politicians, whether they belong to the Awami League or BNP, are least committed to dealing with issues of poverty, particularly the plight of millions of garment factory workers, one cannot expect any positive change soon.
It is true that Bangladesh, since its emergence as an independent state in 1971 has done well in some social-sector areas like population control, microcredit particularly for rural women, famine control and self-sufficiency in food.
But this is in contrast to the picture of a country, which has a history of struggling for democracy, political pluralism and religious tolerance, being plunged into chaos and disorder because of its leadership.
It is a pity that Bangladesh’s rulers have failed to look ahead and much is left to do to provide good governance and eradicate poverty, corruption and nepotism. Past and present regimes have either sought legitimacy from the events of 1971 or focused on party, personal or group interests.
At this time, when the world has come together to praise a man who, despite his sufferings put the past behind him and looked forward with the goal of reconciliation, one is reminded even more starkly of the flaws in the Bangladeshi leadership.
Nelson Mandela brought together a country divided by racial discrimination. He proved to be a statesman and not an agitator when he was elected South Africa’s president. His policy of burying bitterness and moving forward prevented further bloodshed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission helped to integrate a deeply divided South Africa.
Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who suffered enormously at the hands of West Pakistan, and whose party (Awami League) spearheaded the struggle for democracy and social justice in the then East Pakistan, could have become the Nelson Mandela of Bangladesh. But his lack of statesmanship led to bloody violence after the fall of Dhaka.
Ironically, Mujib and most of his family members were killed in a military coup. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who twice became prime minister, instead of dealing with national issues has only reinforced the politics of vendetta against those she held responsible for the massacre of the Bengali population in then East Pakistan.
Bangladesh could have been better off had its leadership acted to urge reconciliation instead of revenge. The latest events in Bangladesh will only deepen political polarisation in that country.
The writer is a professor of international relations at the University of Karachi.
Continuity or change?
IT is not easy succeeding someone as polarising as Iftikhar Chaudhry. Those who love him would want Chief Justice Tassaduq Jillani to be his clone. Those who hate him would want the new chief justice to be a complete opposite.
IT is not easy succeeding someone as polarising as Iftikhar Chaudhry. Those who love him would want Chief Justice Tassaduq Jillani to be his clone. Those who hate him would want the new chief justice to be a complete opposite.
Building on the strengths of today’s Supreme Court and doing away with its weaknesses makes most sense. Except that it would leave both the aforementioned camps dissatisfied. The first challenge for CJ Jillani would be to not let Chaudhry’s legacy define his term or seek to be popular.
We need the Supreme Court to go back to being a court of law as opposed to being a peoples’ court. It will always remain a peoples’ court to the extent that it is a fair, efficient and judicious arbiter of the law. But it must never aspire to be the peoples’ court that panders to transient public sentiment or engages in popularity contests with an elected government. As pillars of the state, the executive and the judiciary are neither rivals nor replacements of each other.
If district courts are not brought out of the woods the Supreme Court will remain at best a pressure valve or a forum for catharsis that it became under CJ Chaudhry, unable to quench the judicial needs of ordinary Pakistanis. And in reforming the lower judiciary the patchwork of the sort that comprised the National Judicial Policy of 2009 is a non-starter. If we wish to introduce efficiency and accountability within the justice system we must first undertake an objective needs and performance assessment to ensure that the proposed solutions actually address problems.
Saying that we need more judges is not good enough. We need to calculate the actual case load and corresponding disposal time and then come up with an optimal docket size for each court in line with the desirable disposal time to specify the number of judges needed. We need automated and non-discretionary court management systems. Why continue with a manual system for case assignment? If administrative discretion within the executive is to be structured to prevent its abuse, why treat administrative discretion of a judicial office differently?
If Lord Acton’s assessment of the influence of power is correct, would it not be wonderful if the chief justice were to share more widely the administrative powers of his office in such manner that it no longer remains susceptible to abuse to influence the timing or outcome of cases? Giving up monopoly over entrenched power is not easy for a mortal even when it is the right thing to do.
In the realm of jurisprudence, there is urgent need to revisit the manner of exercise of jurisdiction under Article 184(3). This jurisdiction must be exercised in matters where the problem relating to abuse of fundamental rights is systemic (such as in the missing persons’ case or the continuing failure to provide education to children across Pakistan), and either falls beyond the jurisdiction of a single high court or needs the highest court to throw its collective weight behind a matter to fill the gap between law and its implementation.
The desire to amass popularity and power, while natural human desire, doesn’t belong to the judicial office. A judge who sees judicial authority as power and not responsibility and its exercise as a route to popularity cannot be a neutral arbiter of the law. Let us hope CJ Jillani will help usher back the age of judicial propriety that now seems like legend.
The writer is a lawyer.
sattar@post.harvard.edu
Twitter: @babar_sattar
Nuclear Karachi
WORK has started on preparing the site for two large nuclear power plants in Karachi. Each of these reactors will be larger than the combined power of all the nuclear reactors currently operating in Pakistan.
WORK has started on preparing the site for two large nuclear power plants in Karachi. Each of these reactors will be larger than the combined power of all the nuclear reactors currently operating in Pakistan.
This will be by far the largest nuclear construction project ever in Pakistan. It is not too late to ask a few basic questions so that people, especially those living in Karachi, know what they may be letting themselves in for.
Everyone knows the new reactors are being purchased from China. They will be designed and built by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
What people may not know is that the reactors will be based on a design known as the ACP-1000 that is still under development by this Chinese nuclear power company. In effect, Pakistanis are buying reactors for the Karachi site that so far exist only on paper and in computer programmes — there is no operating reactor in China based on this design.
It was reported in April 2013 that the CNNC, the developer of the ACP-1000, had completed a “preliminary safety analysis report”, and was “working on construction design”.
This means so far there is not even a complete design. Since the new Karachi reactors will be the first of a kind, no one knows how safe they will be or how well they will work. The 20 million people of Karachi are being used as subjects in a giant nuclear safety experiment.
The Fukushima nuclear accident has shown that safety systems can fail catastrophically. The accident in 2011 struck Japanese reactors of a well-established design that had been operating for decades. Still, all kinds of things happened that were not expected by the reactor operators or managers or by nuclear safety authorities.
An important lesson of Fukushima is that nuclear establishments underestimate the likelihood and severity of possible accidents. Another important lesson is that these same establishments overestimate their ability to cope with a real nuclear disaster.
At Fukushima, the nuclear authorities failed dismally despite Japan’s legendary organisational capability, technological sophistication and social discipline.
Nearly 200,000 people living close to the Fukushima reactors were evacuated and some may never be allowed to return. Radiation was blown by the wind and contaminated the land to distances of over 30 km.
The US suggested its citizens living in that area of Japan move at least 80km away from the reactor. The government of Japan considered forced evacuation of everyone living within 170km of the reactor site and organising voluntary evacuation for people living as far as 250km from the plant.
Contaminated food and water was found at distances of 250km.
The financial cost of the clean-up so far is estimated to be about $100 billion and could eventually be much higher.
An analysis undertaken two years ago, in 2011, by the science magazine Nature and Columbia University in New York showed that the nuclear reactor site in Karachi has more people living within 30km than any other reactor site in the world.
It found that, in 2011, there were eight million Karachi citizens living within this distance of the reactor. All of Karachi falls within 40km of the reactor site.
So far, there have been no public hearings or discussions of the suitability of the site for the new Karachi reactors. There is no report of an Environment Impact Assessment for the proposed new Karachi reactors. Neither the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission nor the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority has explained what will happen in case of an accident at the proposed reactor.
A preliminary study by one of the authors found that the plume of radioactive material that could be released from a severe nuclear accident could be blown eastward by the wind over the city, engulfing the most populous areas of Karachi.
There is also no information on the terms for the supply of nuclear fuel, such as how long the very hot, intensely radioactive spent nuclear fuel will stay at the site and how will it be safely stored until it is returned to China, if it is returned at all. The spent fuel stored at Fukushima was damaged in the accident and led to the release of radioactivity.
Here is a question for those in charge of Karachi, in charge of Sindh and the federal authorities in Islamabad: how do you propose to evacuate many millions of people from Karachi in case of a severe nuclear accident at the new reactors?
One expects mass panic, with people deciding to save themselves and their families as best as they could, clogging the roads, and delaying the escape of others closer to the reactor. Can any plan work in such an environment?
Finally, there is the cost in terms of money. Reports suggest the two reactors may cost $9-10 billion. They will be paid for by taking loans from China. There is little information on the details of the financing of the reactors, including the final cost of decommissioning and waste disposal.
There is not even a publicly available government study showing that these reactors are the least-cost option for producing the expected amount of electricity.
The issue of cost also must include the consequences of accidents. If there is an accident at the new Karachi reactors due to a problem with the reactor design or the construction, who will pay the vast sums needed to cover the damage and clean-up — Pakistan or China?
The people of Karachi have a right to know the answers to these questions. It is time they started asking.
The writers are physicists with an interest in nuclear issues.
Made of clay
“THEY shouldn’t have shown Jinnah like that, smoking a cigarette. That’s not Jinnah!” This is the reaction a friend of mine had, years ago, after we had finished watching Dehlavi’s movie.
“THEY shouldn’t have shown Jinnah like that, smoking a cigarette. That’s not Jinnah!” This is the reaction a friend of mine had, years ago, after we had finished watching Dehlavi’s movie.
We had both been brought up in the Zia era, where the Quaid’s farman was “Kaam, kaam aur kaam.” There was a lot the Quaid didn’t say, he was silent about going to your temples, he didn’t remind the armed forces that they were the servants of the people, and he certainly never smoked.
My friend seemed genuinely upset at this very different Jinnah he saw because apparently, it wasn’t enough for Jinnah to have been the leader he was or to have achieved what he achieved; he must also live up to his ideal of morality.
My friend isn’t the only one to feel this way. For many, it seems as if someone’s personal failings and vices, to use those terms very loosely indeed, have some bearings on his actual ability and accomplishments. They don’t. Not really.
Not being able to keep your family together has little to do with being able to run a country. Having one or more drinks at the end of the day doesn’t mean you can’t also be a visionary economic planner. Cheating on your spouse doesn’t make you any less of a master statesman, even if it may make you a horrible person.
There’s more: Would you expect a man who can’t control his own body to control an empire? Well Julius Caesar did just that. An accomplished general and politician, Caesar also suffered from what is believed to have been epilepsy. If you ask the Gauls, they’ll say it really didn’t matter.
What about letting a man suffering from bouts of crippling depression conduct a war on which your national survival hinges? The British did, in the Second World War, and that seems to have turned out well. The non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian Hitler on the other hand proved to be a bit of a letdown.
None of them are likely to survive the electron microscope scrutiny those in the limelight are subjected to today. Every detail is picked over, every flaw exposed and linked to every single aspect of that person’s career and ability.
Ironically, rather than cause leaders to be more open, it forces them to hide behind a façade of morality, and in Pakistan’s case religiosity. Which leader today can even think of declaring, as ZAB did, that he drinks, but didn’t drink the blood of the people?
Our heroes are as flawed as the rest of us. None of us really have clean slates, or closets free of skeletal remains and assorted baggage. We’ve all done things that we’re not proud of.
For the most part, it doesn’t stop us from going on with our lives and work. To perform surgeries or teach classes. To direct traffic or write pithy columns that will wrap a bun kebab the next day. We’re flawed, and we should celebrate that not only in ourselves but also in those we look up to.
Unfortunately, too many of us seem to be bent upon searching for the mythical sadiq and ameen in the daylit streets like latter-day Diogeneses. It’s a bad idea for a number of reasons.
Turning good or even great people into idols is dangerous business: When the cracks surface, as cracks inevitably do, the all too human clay shows through and that loss of faith can be quite painful to those who would rather admire the alabaster smoothness of a marble cheek, and not the often pockmarked skin real people have. More practically, the more you deify, the easier it is for others to demonise.
Worse still, we then relieve ourselves of the responsibility of living up to their example. We can admire, but never have to emulate. That’s lazy, and says more about the idol-makers than the idols themselves. After all, they rarely have any say in the matter. We do.
The writer is a member of staff.
zarrar.khuhro@gmail.com
Twitter: @ZarrarKhuhro
Sindh: beyond symbols
SINDHI Culture Day was celebrated this month: television channels broadcast songs, shows and skits celebrating Sindhi culture and all its symbols: ajraks, Sindhi topis, rilis and matkas.
SINDHI Culture Day was celebrated this month: television channels broadcast songs, shows and skits celebrating Sindhi culture and all its symbols: ajraks, Sindhi topis, rilis and matkas.
Poets and musicians recited and sung the verses of Shah Abdul Latif and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, and we Sindhis were reminded of the greatness of our cultural heritage, which includes Mohenjodaro, Sehwan Sharif, the Thar desert and the Indus river. In Karachi, Jeay Sindh Jeay by Ahmed Mughal, the unofficial anthem of Sindhi Culture Day, blasted from loudspeakers and men dressed in topis and ajraks danced happily long into the night.
But what do these symbols really mean, beyond their function as identity markers, and are we limiting ourselves by elevating them to the status of objects of veneration, without really placing them in their proper context?
Levesque used examples from movies, music videos, paintings and photographs to illustrate an obsession with a ‘pure’, idealised version of Sindhi life firmly rooted in the rural traditions of an agrarian society. This portrayal ignores how so many Sindhis have sought to transcend the rural environment, moving to Sindh’s urban centres in search of better opportunities in education and economy. It also ignores the changes in Sindh’s ethnic makeup, the emigration of Sindhi Hindus after Partition, and the migration of Pakhtuns, Afghans and Urdu-speaking Mohajirs over the last several decades.
Sindhi Culture Day came about in part as a reaction to comments made by television anchor Dr Shahid Masood, who criticised then president Asif Zardari for wearing a Sindhi topi and ajrak, saying that it showed obvious bias towards one province over the others that made up the federation. Was this truly appropriate national dress, he asked?
But there’s a deeper motivation at work behind Sindhi Culture Day — fear. Since the creation of Pakistan, Sindhis have worried that they would lose their language and culture. This caused prominent Sindhi intellectuals to attempt to ‘fix’ Sindhi culture in a timeless vacuum. The Sindhi Adabi Board, established in 1951, began a process of selecting symbols that would represent Sindhi culture, taking previously unselfconscious cultural practices and turning them into permanent overarching symbols of Sindh and Sindhiyat.
The Institute of Sindhology, established in 1961, continued this process, which Levesque terms “the colonial state turning flexible identities into rigid types and categories”. A glance at the museum in Jamshoro with its permanent tableaus of a Sindhi Thari homestead, a Sindhi Hindu family, and a Memon household peopled with inanimate mannequins speaks ironic volumes about the intellectual attempt to construct a definitive representation of Sindh for all time.
The folklorisation of Sindhi culture, the fetishisation of the ajrak and topi beyond identity assertion may be a feel-good gesture to appeal to popular sentiment, and may help shore up the connections that many Sindhis seek to maintain between their urban existence and their rural roots.
Yet this ultimately limits Sindhis and has long-term negative effects: we end up rewriting our culture and history. We also turn ourselves into a caricature that others can use against us to keep us restricted to the country bumpkin role that suits a national narrative where Sindh and its people need to be ‘managed’ by the existing hegemony.
Many Sindhis remember the terrible period of the 1980s and early 1990s when to openly display signs of being Sindhi could result in death in certain quarters and no-go areas, because of the tremendous ethnic conflict between Sindhis and Mohajirs. Those times are long gone, and Sindhis finally feel secure in being able to wear the topi and ajrak and speak Sindhi again, a very positive development.
However, the symbols run the risk of becoming empty vessels if we do not recognise that they are “containers, not content”, according to Levesque. This can only happen when Sindhis critically examine their society in order to place those symbols in their proper context: Sindh as it exists today, not the idealised Sindh of centuries gone by. “Sindhis must try to study their society by using observation and participation,” says Levesque, and need “a little deconstruction and critical thinking” in becoming aware of the risks and consequences of relegating Sindhi culture to a proscribed definition too narrow to reflect reality.
Levesque gave an example of how Sindhi culture can be contextualised today: the PTV drama serial Marvi, a modern retelling of the traditional Sindhi folktale of Marvi and Umer the Soomro king. By placing it in present times, the serial conveyed Sindh’s culture without romanticising or exoticising it; yet the programme was socially critical, and portrayed the challenges of Sindhis trying to negotiate a modern society.
Sindh and its people have to move beyond symbols. We need a larger, fuller picture of who we are, that includes what’s happened in and to Sindh and its people. We can’t continue to define ourselves by what we put on our heads, and ignore what’s really going on inside those heads. Nor can we represent ourselves by the cloth we put on our bodies unless those bodies have a strong sense of where they’re going today and tomorrow. This is the only way our Sindhi culture will continue to have both relevance and resonance for our times and for the generations yet to come.
The writer is an author.
binashah@yahoo.com
Lethargy is the response
ONE should not be surprised by reports of alleged corruption in the National Counter-Terrorism Authority. Though Nacta is still struggling to become an authority on counterterrorism, it has already started to tread along bureaucratic lines on the domain of other government departments with less focus on its original objective and more on departmental politics and corruption.
ONE should not be surprised by reports of alleged corruption in the National Counter-Terrorism Authority. Though Nacta is still struggling to become an authority on counterterrorism, it has already started to tread along bureaucratic lines on the domain of other government departments with less focus on its original objective and more on departmental politics and corruption.
It is not for the first time that alleged reports of embezzlement in Nacta are appearing in the media; hundreds of candidates, aiming to become experts on counterterrorism in the organisation, have been caught in the past solving papers through internet browsing on mobile phones.
This is not only the story of Nacta; other state institutions responsible for internal security are also struggling to evolve and implement proper counterterrorism responses.
The current state of security in the country cannot be regarded as satisfactory by any account as there is no let up in incidents of violence. In November, a total of 115 terrorist attacks were reported across Pakistan, which claimed the lives of 114 people (despite posting a decrease of about 16pc compared to the previous month) and injured 221 others.
The Pak Institute for Peace Studies’ monthly security reports for Pakistan reveal more or less similar trends of insecurity and violence every month.
Apart from the Taliban-led militancy and the government’s inept responses, sectarian violence is another challenge for the government. During Ashura processions in Muharram, violent sectarian incidents occurred throughout the country leading to several killings and fatal injuries.
The situation in Rawalpindi was more gruesome and showed the risks of mobs getting involved in sectarian clashes. Nonetheless the law-enforcement apparatus once again proved incapable of handling such critical situations. Indeed, the matrix of security threats is far wider than the government supposes in its counter-militancy approach.
The situation in Balochistan is also getting more worrisome with the passage of time albeit a Baloch nationalist party currently rules the province. Analysts have time and again said that the Balochistan issue needs national attention including that of the army and federal government and that the provincial government alone cannot perform miracles.
Meanwhile, confused and incoherent responses by the political parties to the death of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan head Hakeemullah Mehsud revealed the absence of will of the political leadership, including the government, to deal with the threat of militancy emanating mainly from the TTP and its associated groups.
That implies that the militants are quite clear in what they want but the government is still confused on how to proceed when it comes to countering the threat.
There are still slim chances that the government will succeed in engaging the Taliban in dialogue but a total reliance on this aspect of government policy for achieving peace and security in the country will not help in the medium to long term.
Security indicators across Pakistan are not good, except in Punjab where five low-intensity attacks were reported in November. This situation cannot be conceived of as normal in Punjab as the surveillance level is high across the province. This does not help to reduce the sense of insecurity among the people.
It has been witnessed in the past that when the number of attacks decreased, security authorities became complacent and the focus on terrorism, security and extremism lost its attraction in public and media debates. The departments, which are dedicated to eradicating terrorism, including Nacta, also lost focus.
This is directly related to the threat perception of counterterrorism bodies, and the political leadership and both parties have to broaden their vision to get the complete picture. If terrorist attacks spike in the coming days and weeks, there will be no excuse for the leadership’s lethargy. It will have to learn from the previous government’s mistakes.
The writer is a security analyst.
Security and accountability
EVERYONE knows. Everyone knows what needs to be done; they’ve just got to summon the will to do it.
EVERYONE knows. Everyone knows what needs to be done; they’ve just got to summon the will to do it.
It’s an enduring Pakistani myth. That somehow the solutions are all known, just awaiting the right amount of political will and determination to see them implemented.
Except, not really.
Yeah, if only.
Economy? Ohho. Just raise taxes, increase savings, lower the cost of borrowing, create jobs and export, export, export. Asian Tiger, move aside; Pakistan’s in the house.
What will win the day are ideas. Smart ones. Innovative ones. At the micro level and in the big picture. The kind of ideas that won the day for other countries that have dragged themselves up from the bottom of the pile and planted themselves in the middle band and above.
Where the ideas will come from — on education, on health, on the economy, on a whole bunch of other vital stuff — God only knows. We’re not really an ideas factory, at least of the good variety anyway.
But there’s other stuff we can do in the meantime, stuff that can allow the system to take advantage of the ideas when — if — they finally materialise.
Broadly speaking: security and accountability. Specifically, job security and accountability within that job.
No security, no accountability — no system, or a broken system at best. And no system or broken system equals inability to capitalise on ideas that can fix things.
The concept is simple enough, getting it to work is fiendishly difficult.
Let’s start with job security. We’ve known the problem it’s created at the political level for decades.
Now, we’re finally getting to a place where politicians can be reasonably sure the system will continue. Continuity means reasonable job security. So that’s Problem A on the way to being solved — at the political level.
We’ll get to Problem B in a bit.
But job security works at other levels too. Like the levers through which the state does, or tries to do, what it’s supposed to do: bureaucrats, administrators, the police.
Ever hear a politician talking about a bureaucrat or a bureaucrat talking about a politician? Five minutes of that and you’ll figure out why nothing works here.
Policemen too, but, perhaps because of what they do and what they’ve seen, the two-way vitriol tends to be less intense.
If your job is always on the line, if you can be transferred at the drop of a hat or the whim of a minister or an assemblyman, if you’re shunted and shuffled and tossed around quarter after quarter, year after year, that leaves you with just one purpose in life: saving your job, not doing your job.
And even the best ideas in the world to fix stuff will fail in a system in which everyone is just trying to save their jobs. So security is vital.
Have a look at the superior judiciary in recent years. It hermetically sealed itself, decided for itself who could or couldn’t be a judge, and itself adjudicated over its own conduct.
So while accountability existed in theory, it didn’t in practice.
But the politicians have also got a point: super bureaucrats have their own agendas and they’re hard to control. Like the Yes Minister comedy of yore, except not quite as polished or funny and with more insidious results.
Essentially, free bureaucrats and policemen from the whims of their political masters, but bind them to rules and performance. That’s security and accountability.
Aha. Gotcha, you’re thinking. Isn’t that exactly what was mocked to begin with: the Pakistani myth that just getting the basics right will fix everything?
And isn’t it, then, just a question of political will, of politicians allowing the system they preside over to work as it was intended to, instead of to work as they want it to?
Kinda, but also not really.
Having an education bureaucracy with both job security and job accountability doesn’t automatically add up to a better education system that nudges the literacy rate upwards.
Or having a finance ministry or investment ministry with the right staff with the right incentives doesn’t mean there are readymade, off-the-shelf plans waiting to be implemented to make the tiger roar.
That’s where the ideas come in. The ones we don’t really have yet.
The good news: at least we can work on the system in the meantime. Umm, if the politicians will it.
The writer is a member of staff.
cyril.a@gmail.com
Twitter: @cyalm
‘Common man’ rising
SOON after the scale of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) success in the Delhi state elections became apparent, Shah Mahmood Qureshi keenly likened the Indian anti-corruption party to his own.
SOON after the scale of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) success in the Delhi state elections became apparent, Shah Mahmood Qureshi keenly likened the Indian anti-corruption party to his own.
Rare are the moments when a feudal dynast discovers common cause with ‘the common man’. But the comparison between South Asia’s new middle class parties, which vaulted from zero seats to the status of a third force, is worthy of some consideration.
In 2011, just as Imran Khan was gathering vast crowds at national monuments in Lahore and Karachi, similar-sized rallies were taking place, across the border, at the Jantar Mantar landmark in New Delhi. Both gatherings were full of people, mostly new to politics, who wanted to haul down a venal order.
Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP grew out of Anna Hazare’s anti-graft movement. Like Khan’s campaign, it relied on social media and direct action, and was supported by the youth, celebrities and the assertive middle classes.
Even the rhetoric on both sides of the border forms a near-perfect echo. On Sunday, Kejriwal was asked if he would sit in the opposition.
“We’re the only ones who have been offering opposition,” he replied to anchor Barkha Dutt. “BJP aur Congress dono milay hue hain.” Now, where have we heard that line before?
Kejriwal is no Khan, of course. The former civil servant prides himself on his aam aadmi image. Though partial to bouts of rage, he often slips into a soft, self-effacing tone.
During the May elections, Khan leveraged his cricket fame. Angrily brandishing a bat, he vowed to thrash his opponents with it. Kejriwal chose the gentler symbolism of a jhaaru, or broom. One wanted to break the system; the other, humbly, sweep it away.
The changes in India and Pakistan are part of a broader global upheaval among the middle classes. Just this year, crowds in Egypt, Turkey, Brazil and now Ukraine have taken to city squares to revolt against what they see as inept, grasping and distant political elites.
The South Asian examples stand out for embracing democracy. The Taksim Square protesters of Istanbul have no political vehicle to transport their ambitions. And the Cairene, famously of Tahrir Square, toppled two governments only to back a military coup this July.
At the start of this century, as economist Ruchir Sharma has noted, there was near-universal economic growth across the developing world. The chief beneficiaries of that growth have usually been the urban middle classes, as was the case in Pakistan during the Musharraf boom.
In more recent years, growth has faltered as outrage at corruption and poor governance has soared. The now larger middle classes, with twin assets of education and wealth, have developed a new political voice.
Not all of the middle classes support these movements. Many vote for alternatives, like the PML-N or the Bharatiya Janata Party. But the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and AAP represent the first time that parties with national ambitions have put the middle classes’ concerns at the centre of their platform.
It isn’t just the economy that animates these movements. As the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote this year, a recurring feature of the protests has been demands for dignity and respect — themes that Khan stresses in his anti-drones protests.
After an election, the divisions become clearer. Khan’s more liberal supporters now feel uneasy with his position on the Taliban. And many conservatives in PTI aren’t thrilled by his enthusiasm for peace with India.
Both Khan and Kejriwal cast themselves as the tribunes of the entire awam or janata. And yet, for all the populism, their voters tend to be more well-heeled than most.
Khan’s party clinched the wealthiest seats in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, where house prices can exceed $1 million. It also had a strong showing in other outposts of prosperity, like the Sialkot and Lahore cantonments.
Unlike the poor majority, the middle classes have diminished their reliance on the state. They use private education, private energy, private security and private transport.
One of Khan’s poorly directed assaults during the May elections was on the Lahore metro bus, a flawed but rare expansion of public transport. The project won PML-N support from the Lahori poor, who easily outnumber Khan’s usually car-owning supporters.
In South Asia, driving your own car is a mark of being middle class. The poor can’t afford them, and the rich have drivers. But car owners form merely 2pc of the population. Even with five passengers to every vehicle, the segment amounts to fewer than one in 10 people.
Even smaller numbers travel abroad, own land, or use social media. When Khan mentions the faded esteem of a green passport, the villainies of patwaris, or the potential of tech-savvy youth, he is speaking to the concerns of a small minority.
In poor countries, the middle classes can resemble a rival elite. It would seem odd, then, that the most successful slice of society also happens to be the most disillusioned one.
But rather than looking at fellow South Asians, the comparisons they draw are with the middle classes of the West and the Gulf — where many have travelled, lived, studied or have relatives.
This is why Khan constantly invokes Sweden, California and even Singapore. Yet none of those countries currently represents a plausible future for Khyber Pakthunkhwa.
The writer is a journalist.
The law must be wise
NO penalty points if you have never heard of a certain Henry Glapthorn. After all, he lived some three and a half centuries ago, and as a dramatist he was no Shakespeare. But one line in his play Revenge for Honour has deservedly become immortal: “The law is such an Ass.”
NO penalty points if you have never heard of a certain Henry Glapthorn. After all, he lived some three and a half centuries ago, and as a dramatist he was no Shakespeare. But one line in his play Revenge for Honour has deservedly become immortal: “The law is such an Ass.”
This view (more accurately, that the law can on occasion be foolish) has been repeated down the years, so one would have thought that contemporary judges, particularly those who are supreme, would be able to rise above a bad law, and correct the rotten to better preserve the larger good.
But India’s Supreme Court has chosen regress against progress in its obiter dicta on Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which makes homosexuality a crime. This law was imposed by the British in 1861, and remains long after the British have gone.
Hypocrisy is not an English disease; merely a symptom of prevailing attitudes. How they rise and ebb is another story, but these cycles in morality exist. During the 19th century’s Victorian era, the British became particularly insufferable about what was called social vice.
One wonders if this was a consequence of a parallel development: the widespread passage of the English elite through private boarding schools for boys, where homosexuality was rampant without necessarily being consensual. But such was the power of this Victorian morality that it controlled British law on homosexuality till the last decade.
The 19th century was also the period when the British Empire grew to become great. The new masters extended such social laws to their colonies, and India, the jewel in their crown, could hardly escape the attention of do-gooders. The East India Company, which created the Raj, knew enough about India to limit its interventions into Indian life.
Some recent commentary suggests that this reflected the stern admonishments of religious law in the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Hinduism, in contrast, has accepted same-sex love within its belief system. But the Mughals took an equally benign view of homosexuality. How could they not? The founder of the Mughal Empire, Babar, has some exquisite descriptions of his love for a young man in his journals. The Mughal attitude, like that of Indians generally, was practical.
The best understanding that I have come across was offered, perhaps inevitably, by the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. It is a great injustice and cruelty, said Freud, to persecute homosexuality as a crime.
The Supreme Court of India has, sadly, lent authority to injustice and thereby weakened its credibility. The Delhi High Court created a historic opportunity to correct an old wrong. Instead of setting a benchmark for the next 150 years, the Supreme Court has restored the dubious logic of the past 150 years.
An alibi has been offered, that change is the responsibility of the legislature, but this is only an excuse. The Delhi High Court (which will contribute its share to the next generation of Supreme Court judges) did not think that a decision was beyond its purview.
Freedom is a non-negotiable fundamental right in India. Liberty is meaningless if it is extended only to those who agree with you. The law becomes a guardian of human rights only when it creates space for the other. Some arguments offered in the Supreme Court judgement are specious. It does not matter if there is only one homosexual in India out of 100. That one person has rights too, as long as they are not invasive or oppressive.
Is it too late for course correction? The court consists of human beings, not gods; to err is human. Perhaps a quotation from that great theorist of liberty, Robespierre, might help show the way: “Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust, and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.”
The writer is an author and editorial director of The Sunday Guardian, published from Delhi.
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