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National News
Committee for TTP talks meets today
ISLAMABAD: The four-member committee constituted by the prime minister to hold talks with the Taliban will hold its first meeting on Friday.
ISLAMABAD: The four-member committee constituted by the prime minister to hold talks with the Taliban will hold its first meeting on Friday.
Irfan Siddiqui, Special Assistant to the prime minister on national affairs and member of the committee, told Dawn that Nawaz Sharif would preside over the meeting.
Other members of the committee are Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan; Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Peshawar-based journalist, and retired Major Amir Khan.
Mr Mohmand is currently on the advisory board for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and has a soft corner for the Tehreek-i-Insaf.
Mr Siddiqui said the committee’s ‘real task’ would begin once the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) named its representatives and set demands for peace talks. “The prime minister has taken the initiative with an open mind, without underlining any condition,” he said, adding that the government was determined to kick-start the process on a positive note.
Asked about a set of conditions put forward by PTI chief Imran Khan, he said that so far the government had not set any precondition for talks, except one which the prime minister had explained in the National Assembly on Wednesday that there should be no terrorist attacks during talks.
The PTI chairman was of the opinion the constitution should govern the negotiations and there should be an immediate ceasefire soon after the talks commenced.
Rahimullah Yousufzai told Dawn it was understood that the government would not talk on anything that went against the constitution. But, he added, the Taliban had in the past raised demands which were contrary to the constitution and they might do so again. The government was ready for such an eventuality, he said. “The TTP has yet to come up with its terms and conditions.”
About the PTI’s demands, Mr Yusufzai said the party had been calling for negotiations with the Taliban and as a political party, it had a right to adopt whatever stance it deemed fit. A PTI office-bearer told Dawn that Rustam Shah Mohmand was a representative of the KP government on the committee, and not the PTI’s.
“Mr Shah’s name was recommended by the provincial government and Imran Khan has nothing to do with it.” Asked if by disowning Mr Mohmand, the PTI wanted to disengage itself from the peace process, the office-bearer said it was purely a government initiative. However, the party was in favour of it, he clarified.
TTP wants enforcement of Sharia: spokesman
MIRAMSHAH: The objective of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is enforcement of Sharia in the country, according to its spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.
MIRAMSHAH: The objective of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is enforcement of Sharia in the country, according to its spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.
Talking to Dawn from an unspecified location on Thursday, he said what mattered was enforcement of Sharia, “whether through peace or war”.
He expressed satisfaction over the formation of a four-member team by the government for talks with the outlawed TTP.
He said that a session of the central Shura of the TTP had been in progress since Wednesday on the government’s offer.
The spokesman said in a statement that the TTP had taken the government decision seriously and the Shura would present its point of view to the nation in a few days.
He said his organisation believed in serious and meaningful dialogue and paid respect to the emissaries in the past.
He denied that Maulana Fazlullah was not in favour of talks and said that the entire organisation was united under his leadership and obeyed his decisions.
Altaf sees conspiracy against him
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has said that conspiracies were hatched against his mission from the day he launched his movement.
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has said that conspiracies were hatched against his mission from the day he launched his movement.
In a statement addressed to workers and supporters, he said false allegations had been levelled against him and attempts were made to malign him and his party.
“I want to inform the nation that I never bowed to the forces of evil. I suffered imprisonment and defied death but continued my mission. I want to tell my sympathisers that a new web of conspiracy is being woven around me and various false allegations are being levelled.
“Not only a negative propaganda has been launched against me, but false allegations are also being levelled to implicate me in various cases. I want to inform the public that I will never bow to any international forces,” he said.
He asked MQM leaders and workers to continue their struggle and not allow the conspiracies to succeed. “You must be ready for sacrifices.”—Agencies
Nawaz orders dialogue with angry Baloch
QUETTA: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed the authorities to form a committee for initiating a reconciliation process and negotiations with disgruntled Baloch nationalists.
QUETTA: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed the authorities to form a committee for initiating a reconciliation process and negotiations with disgruntled Baloch nationalists.
Presiding over a meeting on law and order at the Corps Headquarters here on Thursday, he said the committee should be constituted in consultation with the political leadership of Balochistan to initiate peace dialogue with the nationalists as part of the reconciliation process.
Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Commander Southern Command Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua, PkMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo, Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad, IG of Frontier Corps Maj Gen Ejaz Shahid, Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Sukhera and senior military and civil officials attended the meeting.
The Commander Southern Command briefed the meeting about the presence of terrorists and extremists in the province and their activities.
Mr Sharif underlined the need for offering job opportunities to angry Baloch youths, besides launching mega development projects to remove the sense of deprivation among people.
He said that both civil and military leadership would play a joint role and evolve a comprehensive strategy to restore peace in Balochistan.
Later, the prime minister addressed provincial ministers, parliamentarians and political leaders at the Governor House and expressed sorrow over loss of lives in terrorist acts. He urged the authorities concerned to take measures to curb terrorism and provide foolproof security to people.
“Terrorism and violence are being confronted not only by people of Balochistan, but the entire country was also facing the same situation.” But, he said, the situation would be overcome soon.
HAZARS: Referring to the recent killings of Hazara Shias, Mr Sharif said the community was not alone in this difficult time. The entire nation was standing with them.
Stern action would be taken against the assailants and no more acts of terrorism and violence would be allowed in Balochistan, he added.
Mr Sharif said the Pakistan International Airlines would launch special flights for Shia pilgrims.
Referring to problems being faced by the people of Balochistan, he said Islamabad would extend all help and resources to the province.
“Balochistan will get maximum resources and help for solving problems being faced by its people.”
Referring to the construction of highways in Balochistan, the prime minister said the federal government had already allocated Rs8 billion for completion of Gwadar-Ratodero and Khuzdar-Naag Highways and these projects would be completed within a year.
He said Rs10bn had been arranged for Kalat-Chaman highway and work on the project would be launched soon.
Mr Sharif said the Gwadar-Khunjerab Highway project would bring a positive impact on economic development in Balochistan and the country at large. He said 90 per cent of revenue earned thorough the highway would be ensured to the provinces.
The government was contemplating provision of solar energy in rural and far-flung areas, he said.
The prime minister said the Pakistan Youth Business Loan programme had been designed to enable youths to set up small businesses. He said every province had a share the programme.
Opposition leader Maulana Abdul Wasey, Sardar Mohammad Saleh Bhootani, provincial ministers Rahim Ziaratwal, Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, Karim Nausherwani, Ms Rahila Durrani and some MPAs also spoke on the occasion and informed the prime minister about the problems of Balochistan.
SBP governor bows out
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has accepted the resignation of the governor of State Bank of Pakistan, Yaseen Anwar, with effect from Jan 31, Ishaq Dar said in a statement issued by the finance ministry on Thursday.—APP
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has accepted the resignation of the governor of State Bank of Pakistan, Yaseen Anwar, with effect from Jan 31, Ishaq Dar said in a statement issued by the finance ministry on Thursday.—APP
Panchayat returns, orders ‘gang-rape’
MUZAFFARGARH: The beasts nurtured in the name of prompt justice were seen to be on the loose again after the surfacing on Thursday of an incident in which a panchayat was accused of ordering gang-rape of a 40-year-old woman in revenge for her brother’s alleged affair.
MUZAFFARGARH: The beasts nurtured in the name of prompt justice were seen to be on the loose again after the surfacing on Thursday of an incident in which a panchayat was accused of ordering gang-rape of a 40-year-old woman in revenge for her brother’s alleged affair.
Witnesses said the woman, a divorcee, was stripped on the orders of a panchayat in Radiwala, a hamlet of some 30 houses located near Ihsanpur town about 80km from Muzaffargarh.
Amid public outrage following the reporting of the incident, six men were arrested out of a total of nine who had been accused.
The entire episode took place a week ago, on Jan 24. A villager, Majeed, sought the formulation of a panchayat after he accused a relative of his, Ajmal, of having an affair with his wife. The accusers cried revenge and forced Ajmal to bring his sister (F Bibi) to the site where the panchayat was held the same day.
Police and witnesses said the panchayat hearing lasted for 10 minutes. The panchayat leader, identified as Nawaz, sentenced F Bibi to be raped by the men from the aggrieved party. F Bibi was taken to a room where a man belonging to the complainant’s side stripped and hit her.
The case was as good as settled, says Ajmal, whose alleged affair had brought it all upon his sister, and he had around him men ready to second him.
“The dispute ended peacefully,” a villager, who gave his name as Akram, told Dawn in Radiwala on Thursday.
“Both the parties are from the same family and nobody felt the need to go to the police.”
If this wasn’t a strong enough display of family bonding in the face of a probe, F Bibi herself was there to deny ‘rape’ and show her concern for her relatives who were now on the run just because the incident had come to light.
Silence ruled Radiwala on Thursday afternoon. Most of the houses, small ones and two-room units, were locked. Only a few villagers, all men, and dozens of media reporters were around.
One of the men accused of the assault admitted F Bibi’s clothes were torn and she was slapped. But this to his mind did not construe rape. “There was no rape,” he maintained.
The reluctance of the ‘affected’ party and the villagers in Radiwala was in sharp contrast to the protests all over Pakistan against the public humiliation of a woman. Voices were raised against the state’s and the society’s failure to come up with an effective system against the occurrence of the inhuman panchayat practices in the name of instant justice.
The incident brought back memories of the Mukhtar Mai gang-rape order passed and carried out in the same Muzaffargarh district in the year 2002.
Mukhtar was there to condemn the Radiwala incident on Thursday, telling a news channel this could have been avoided had justice been done in her case.
The incident occurred in the jurisdiction of Daira Din Panah police, who arrested six of the nine accused by Thursday evening. Cases were registered under sections 354-1, 365B, 376, 511 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice soon after the incident was reported on the electronic media and District Coordination Officer Farasat Iqbal and District Police Officer Usman Akram Gondal were on the spot to investigate.
The DCO confirmed to Dawn a local panchayat had been held and F Bibi had been ordered thrashed and stripped.
Station House Officer Daira Din Panah Mohammad Ramzan Shahid said the affected party did not appear interested in pursuing the case, even though he gave no reason for their reluctance.
The SHO said the police had arrested six men while another three were at large.
Dr Nusrat Rehman, who conducted the medical examination on F Bibi, told Dawn the woman “was not raped”, apparently following a definition which requires something ‘more grievous’ than stripping and physical assault for it to be called ‘rape’.
PM gives Taliban another chance
ISLAMABAD: Contrary to what he called “bitter experiences” of the past and a dominant national sentiment for getting tough with Taliban militants, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday gave them “another chance” for peace talks that each side has alternately offered the other.
ISLAMABAD: Contrary to what he called “bitter experiences” of the past and a dominant national sentiment for getting tough with Taliban militants, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday gave them “another chance” for peace talks that each side has alternately offered the other.
The gesture came as the prime minister made his first appearance in the National Assembly in more than seven months and followed a new wave of deadly militant attacks this month against both civilians and soldiers and a rare offer for dialogue from the Taliban last week after punitive air strikes on their suspected hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area.
Speculation had been rife in recent days in the media and political circles that the government was about to order a military operation in North Waziristan, the main Taliban bastion, like the one successfully carried out in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the previous PPP-led government.
Even before the prime minister made his speech, some of the ruling PML-N lawmakers, who probably had been briefed about the government’s plans during a meeting with him on Monday, pleaded against showing any mercy to those Taliban who refused to talk with the government or did not recognise the constitution.
Mr Sharif too appeared to be taking a hard line in his prepared speech in Urdu by recalling some of the most devastating attacks launched by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan at military and civilian targets. He called them terrorists on the “other side” whose activities “pose dangers to Pakistan’s existence”. He declared that “this situation cannot be tolerated any longer”.
And it was towards the end of the 20-minute text that he toned himself down to offer Taliban “another chance” in response to of their offer for talks and announced forming a disparate four-man committee “to carry the dialogue process forward”. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is its “focal person”, although he would have liked to oversee the process.
The prime minister said he knew that “if the state wants to eliminate terrorists, the whole nation will stand behind it. “However, now when the offer for talks has come from the other side, we, by putting aside bitter experiences of the past, want to give another chance to a peaceful settlement.”
But he stressed the necessity of starting the process with “total sincerity” whose first prerequisite, he said, was that “terrorist activities should be ended forthwith. Dialogue and terrorism cannot go together”.
The prime minister named no one as head of the four-man committee, whose only member representing the federal government would be Irfan Siddiqui, a columnist whom he appointed his special assistant on national affairs only on Monday with the status of a federal minister.
Its other members are Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan and now a ranking member of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) who the prime minister said had been named by the PTI-led government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Rahimullah Yousufzai, a veteran Peshawar-based journalist; and retired army major Amir Khan, a former intelligence operative once accused of playing a role in the failed so-called “midnight jackal” intelligence operation in 1989 to topple the then PPP government of Benazir Bhutto.
It was not clear whether the government had consulted opposition politicians or its allies before announcing the new move, though both the PPP and PTI — the main opposition parties — agreed with it and assured support to the prime minister. Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah of the PPP called for setting a timeframe for the process.
But the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the third largest party on opposition benches but usually supporting the government, rejected the new process. Its parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar called it a “sellout of the blood of martyrs” that he said would buy time for militants to reorganise themselves.
PTI chairman Imran Khan, who has been the main advocate of dialogue from the opposition benches, seemed more pleased with the prime minister’s announcement. He suggested what he called “open dialogue” and got an assurance from the premier for “action” against Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for what the prime minister called an “inappropriate statement” by him that a decision to launch a military operation had been taken and that “operations” would also be mounted in 174 areas in Punjab against Pashtun communities.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the government-allied Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, made it clear that his party was not consulted when he raised unexplained reservations about the formation of the four-member committee. However, he assured his party’s support for the process as a whole.
But before the prime minister’s arrival in the house after a break for Zuhr prayers, Chaudhry Nisar took turns to go to the desks of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and several opposition party leaders. He briefly chatted with them, possibly about the government’s move, but seemed to ignore the opposition leader to whom Mr Sharif personally went later to shake his hand.
Desk-thumping cheers from both sides of the house echoed as the prime minister, dressed in a cream-colour shalwar-kameez with a brownish waistcoat, entered the chamber following his unexplained absence from it since last June. Some female lawmakers of the PPP chanted, with a tinge of sarcasm, “welcome, welcome”.
He tried to be jovial as, in the beginning of his address, he thanked the opposition for what he called remembering him through their token walkout on the opening day of the present session on Monday (to protest against his absence) and assured them he would “not let you get dejected in the future”.
But in remarks later to the points raised by Mr Shah and Mr Khan, the prime minister invited them to sit with him frequently to give their suggestions. Addressing PTI chief Imran Khan, who has a palatial hilltop house in Islamabad, Mr Sharif said: “You invite me to your home; I will be ready to come.”
At a news conference later, adviser Irfan Siddiqui called the four-member committee as an unconventional body, but one that enjoys political support and expressed his hope that the Taliban would respond positively to the prime minister’s move.
Selection of negotiators raises questions
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s latest decision to form a committee to address the scourge of militancy appears to have been made in haste and without much homework.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s latest decision to form a committee to address the scourge of militancy appears to have been made in haste and without much homework.
Turning up in the parliament after two days of speculation and leaked reports that he was going to appear in the National Assembly that he had avoided for months, the prime minister finally appeared to announce that he had formed a four-member committee to respond to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s latest talks offer.
His announcement took many by surprise.
The committee comprises senior journalist Rahimullah Yousufzai, the recently appointed special assistant to the prime minister and columnist Irfan Siddiqui, the Operation Midnight Jackal fame former official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Maj (retd) Amir and former ambassador and a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Rustam Shah Mohmand.
The committee was discussed all day long for a number of reasons – most of them negative.
First, two of its members are once again from the media group that is seen to be very close to the government; the last chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board also came from the same group. And this time around, Siddiqui had just days earlier been appointed a special adviser to the prime minister.
Second, none of its members are politicians, which will impact its credibility generally and especially as far as the political class is concerned.
Third, none of them are known to have any well-known links with the TTP.
Fourth, it is hard to see how they will exercise authority on behalf of an elected government.
Fifth, who they would talk to (there are multiple Taliban groups operating in Fata) and what they would talk about remains unclear.
Sixth, no timeline has been set for how long this latest talks effort will go on.
Indeed, Mr Sharif’s decision has not impressed anyone – including the committee members who appeared quite half hearted about the task that they have accepted.
The immediate reaction of the four members as they spoke on the electronic media betrayed their lack of information about and their faith in their ‘mission’ and that they accepted the offer on the personal insistence of Mr Sharif.
The morning surprise
For instance, Rahimullah Yousufzai told Dawn that the prime minister made him the offer in the morning as he (Sharif) was going to the National Assembly.
“I was surprised,” said Mr Yousufzai, explaining that having gone through the statements of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Adviser Sartaj Aziz in Washington, he had assumed that the government had decided to launch a military operation.
Worse still was the reaction of former ambassador to Afghanistan and PTI leader Rustam Shah Mohmand. In his first reaction to the media, he claimed that he was not consulted by the prime minister before his nomination in the committee.
The prime minister in his speech had stated that Mr Mohmand’s name had been proposed by the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
In fact, some people went so far as to claim that Mr Mohmand’s name would allow the PML-N to achieve a two-fold aim – hold the PTI responsible for the path the talks take and avoid being blasted by it, as the PTI is one of the most vociferous proponents of dialogue and the harshest critic of the use of force.
Confusion reigns supreme
Mr Yousufzai admitted that he was not aware of the framework under which the group would be asked to talk with the militants; what they would be allowed to negotiate or not negotiate and whether or not they would be allowed to make any commitment on behalf of the government.
“We will only play the role of a facilitator since every decision will have to be taken both by the government and the Taliban,” he said.
No wonder then that most of them are pessimistic over the outcome of this fresh initiative, terming the situation complex.
Mr Yousufzai advised the nation not to have high expectations.
About a possible strategy, he said that they would first like to know the reasons for the failure of the previous attempts made by the government to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
Mr Mohmand didn’t appear to be any more optimistic. Talking to a news channel, he said he feared that those Taliban groups which were against peace talks might sabotage the new initiative. All he could offer in terms of details was that the government would have to make its policy clear over the possible demands of the Taliban that include conditions such as release of prisoners and withdrawal of the army from Fata.
Irfan Siddiqui, in his press conference in the evening, did not provide any answers about what the terms of reference were and who they would talk to. All he could say was that he hoped that the Taliban would also form a committee, but did not clarify which Taliban he was referring to.
No wonder then that it was hard to find a politician or an analyst to express any confidence in what this committee would achieve.
In fact, many people termed it a decoy; a stillborn move that would simply allow the PML-N to claim that it tried its best to explore the option for talks.
For instance, one commentator said the committee’s composition was aimed at pre-empting criticism in case talks failed, adding that it would also silence apologists. Another journalist claimed in a tweet that the committee was simply going to deflect attention as the military operation went on quietly.
It was hard to find anyone who was willing to predict that the committee would achieve much.
RAHIMULLAH YOUSUFZAI: Mr Yousufzai, 60, is a Peshawar-based veteran journalist having good repute in the community and political circles. He is considered to be the first journalist to have reported on Taliban in the 1990s. He visited Kandahar in 1995 and is known for his interviews with former Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Mr Yousufzai is currently working as editor of The News International at Peshawar bureau. He is considered an expert on Afghanistan affairs and has complete knowledge of political and social dynamics of tribal life.
MAJ (RETD) AMIR: Major Amir and Brigadier Imtiaz were the two main characters of “Operation Midnight Jackal”, which was allegedly launched to topple the first Benazir Bhutto government through a no-trust motion in 1989.
The former ISI operative used to be a special adviser to former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, once a close aide of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
It is believed that Major Amir still has close contacts with some Taliban groups and new TTP chief Maulvi Fazlullah has a great respect for him because of his father’s role in launching a movement called Ashaat Tauheed-o-Sunnah through his Madressah in Swabi’s Panjpir village.
The Madressah is reportedly being run by Major Amir’s brother. Maj Amir is said to have cordial relations with the heads of both factions of the JUI – Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq.
During the previous PPP government, there were reports that Major Amir had been seen with then president Asif Ali Zardari and even visited Saudi Arabia as part of an official delegation with him in 2008.
RUSTAM SHAH MOHMAND: Mr Mohmand, a senior diplomat and politician who has specialised in Afghanistan and Central Asian affairs, is a member of the PTI, the party which is a staunch supporter of peace talks with Taliban.
He is also a member of the KP advisory committee, headed by Imran Khan. It advises the provincial government on development and planning.
Mr Mohmand had previously served as ambassador in Afghanistan, interior secretary and had held position of chief commissioner for refugees for about 10 years.
IFRAN SIDDIQUI: A columnist by profession, Mr Siddiqui is being dubbed as the only representative of the federal government in the committee because of his recent appointment as special assistant to the prime minister on national affairs.
He writes column in an Urdu daily under the title “Naqsh-i-Khayal”. Known for his close and old association with the Sharif family, Mr Siddiqui had served as press secretary to the then president, Rafiq Tarar, during the Nawaz Sharif government in the 1990s.
Deadly attack on Rangers in Karachi
KARACHI: Around the time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was preparing to unveil on Wednesday his yet another offer for talks with the outlawed Taliban militant outfit, a residential area of Karachi was rocked by three blasts, killing three paramilitary soldiers and a civilian.
KARACHI: Around the time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was preparing to unveil on Wednesday his yet another offer for talks with the outlawed Taliban militant outfit, a residential area of Karachi was rocked by three blasts, killing three paramilitary soldiers and a civilian.
One of the three attacks, which took place in a matter of two hours, was a suicide blast at the Rangers’ headquarters in North Nazimabad, preceded by two others in the same locality. Besides the four deaths, nine people — including six Rangers’ personnel and a policeman — were injured in the blasts.
And soon after, news agencies reported, TTP spokesman Shahidulla Shahid claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Officials believe that the blasts were aimed at warning the Rangers against carrying out an operation against militants in the city.
According to SSP Amir Farooqi and Rangers spokesperson, the suicide bomber wearing Shalwar-Kameez tried to enter Sachal Rangers’ headquarters, and when paramilitary personnel ordered him to stop, he ignored the warning and kept moving to the entrance of the complex.
When two uniformed personnel rushed to intercept him, the bomber blew himself up, killing both the men and a guard of the nearby PTCL office and injuring two other personnel.
The suicide attack was preceded by two explosions caused by bombs planted in the same area.
The SSP said that one of the bombs had been detonated near Nazimabad-7 bridge by a remote control linked to a mobile phone.
As law-enforcement personnel and rescue workers rushed to the place, another bomb hidden nearby went off, causing injuries to three Rangers personnel and a worker of an ambulance service. One of the injured soldiers died in hospital and another was said to be a critical condition.
According to Dr Abdul Haq, additional police surgeon of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, they had received the bodies of Rangers sub-inspector Javed Iqbal and sepoy Umair Liaquat. Another sepoy, Atiq Rehman, died soon after reaching the hospital.
The fourth deceased, the guard of the PTCL, was identified as Gulbahar Channa.
Dr Haq said they had also received the head and legs of the purported suicide bomber who was wearing a long beard and appeared to be aged between 23 and 25 years.
Two more Rangers men, Ghafoorullah and Arshad, were admitted to the JPMC with critical wounds, said Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the hospital’s emergency department.
Raja Umar Khattab, in-charge of CID’s anti-terrorism cell, said the Rangers personnel who had sacrificed their lives had saved the lives of around 30 to 40 colleagues because the suicide bomber carried a bomb with five to six kgs of explosives and ball bearings, which could cause massive casualties.
He said the head of the bomber had been found and his finger prints obtained.
Pakistan Rangers provincial director general Maj Gen Rizwan Akhtar said such attacks would not deter them from combating terror. He vowed to intensity the operation against terrorism.
A Rangers spokesperson announced that the personnel, who had intercepted the suicide bomber and sacrificed their lives, would be awarded the Gallantry Award. Earlier in the day, Rangers conducted targeted actions in Shah Latif Town and Qayyumabad, he said. They arrested 11 ‘criminals including members of banned originations’ and seized 31 weapons and stolen motorcycles.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah described the attacks as part of a ‘heinous conspiracy’… aimed at triggering panic and chaos. Faced with an intensive action, terrorists were carrying out ‘cowardly attacks’ in a ‘bid to escape’, he said.
Sharif ‘talks’ again
Another false start and another abrupt end.
Another false start and another abrupt end.
Just when we were told that the military was raring to go into North Waziristan — an operation that ideally should have begun at the onset of winter and was already late by at least two months — and simply needed two weeks to start rolling, the government suddenly announced that it was sticking to the talk-talk and no action plan.
Talks with a myriad of Pakistani militants, we are told, will be given another chance. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the nation was tired of picking up and burying bodies.
This talk about talks is not new. It began back in April 2004 in the beautiful Shakai valley in South Waziristan, when the state surrendered and ceded its authority amid media glare. On that inglorious day nearly ten years ago, a general was garlanded and a militant commander handed over a rusty sword as a mark of honour.
The rest is history — history that we all know well.
Indeed, talks have been tried and tested again and again — from Khyber to Mohmand and Bajaur, from Orakzai to Kurram and from North Waziristan to South Waziristan. All they have yielded are death and destruction — they have claimed thousands of lives and damaged the social, economic and psychological fibre of the people.
And so, just when we were told that the military and political leadership were, for the first time, on the same page, it turns out that they were not even reading the same book! It seems as if the military is ready to roll but the prime minister is not willing to signal an end to the ‘hold’.
So we are back to square one, which in PML-N world is titled “talk”. If nothing else, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must be given credit — in his seven months in office, the committee he announced on Wednesday is his third endeavour to negotiate with the erring Taliban.
Earlier, a five-member committee formed to negotiate with Tehreek-i-Taliban was stopped in its track, or so we were told, because of the drone strike that killed its chief, Hakeemullah Mahsud.
Later we were told that a senator from the Mahsud part of South Waziristan was secretly tasked to negotiate with Khan Said alias Sajna, and apparently some progress was made. But then last week his house was bombed in Tank, bringing that effort to its logical end.
And now Nawaz Sharif is trying again.
The four-member committee — two very accomplished journalists, a retired military and intelligence officer and a bureaucrat-turned-diplomat-turned occasional columnist — is interesting to say the least.
Three of them have well-known stated positions on talks with the Pakistani militants; in fact, the views of one are diametrically opposed to what has been the stated position of the Pakistani establishment.
A cursory look at the events leading up to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s long-overdue appearance at the parliament, the appointment of a well-known writer and columnist as his adviser on national affairs and the composition of the committee, is enough to illustrate how much time and serious thought was given to the move.
Militarily, the initiative, which ideally should lay with the army, seems to have gone for a six. Even otherwise, the targets in Mirali and other places in the restive North Waziristan, are now believed to have moved to safer locations.
The militants’ visibility in Mirali and Miramshah has already been reduced. The strikes, which were carried out in retaliation to Bannu and R.A. Bazaar attacks by militants, have already dried the swamp, so to speak.
Politically, the now-we-do-it (military operation) and no-we-don’t (talks) approach has not helped the government’s image. It comes across as confused and incapable of taking decisive action.
Yet, it has still won over some political parties - full endorsement from two principal advocates of peace talks with the militants – Imran Khan and his political nemesis, Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
But what happens next will be much more important than the initiative itself. The talks cannot be open-ended. There has to be a timeframe.
Second, their terms of reference will have to be clearly spelled out to ensure clarity and avoid ambiguity.
On their part, the militants have time and again spelled out their demands in no uncertain words – enforcement of shariah in the country; end to drone strikes; withdrawal of military from the tribal regions; release of prisoners; end to military operations; and the parting of ways with the United States.
It seems as if the TTP has not heeded the government demands at all which include terms such as accepting the rule of law and the writ of the state; ending terrorism, stopping cross-border movement; and giving up their support for foreign militants.
Given the experience of the last one decade, both sides lack confidence in each other and would need iron-clad guarantees, should the committee succeed in bringing them to some sort of an agreement.
But the problem is that the TTP is willing to take responsibility for the groups under its umbrella, but it is not willing to give any undertaking on behalf of the many foreign militant groups or the groups not associated with it – even though these groups have been working and living with them.
And this will be the real challenge.
PML-N resolves to take battle to TTP bastion
ISLAMABAD: Although the government and the military continued to discuss matters behind closed doors, government officials took pains on Tuesday to argue that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made up his mind to take the battle to the TTP stronghold in North Waziristan Agency (NWA).
ISLAMABAD: Although the government and the military continued to discuss matters behind closed doors, government officials took pains on Tuesday to argue that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made up his mind to take the battle to the TTP stronghold in North Waziristan Agency (NWA).
“More than one option is being considered for going into NWA; it’s just a matter of time now,” a government official privy to the development told Dawn.
He added that the military planning would take time, but the ball had been set rolling by the PML-N government in meetings between the prime minister and the army chief over the past week or so.
Asked about the ambiguity that seemed to define the PML-N’s stance vis-à-vis the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, the official claimed that the government genuinely wanted talks with militants, but the back-to-back attacks on civilians and military personnel had forced a rethink.
“The government is left with no other option but to use force.”
Dawn has learnt that Mr Sharif gave a go-ahead for the use of force at a Jan 24 meeting, which was attended by civilians as well as military officials. They included Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, ISI DG Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Ashfaq Nadeem, DGMO Maj Gen Amir Riaz, DG MI Maj Gen Sarfaraz Sattar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Information Minister Senator Pervez Rasheed, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi.
The high-profile huddle had taken place after the Bannu and Rawalpindi attacks on security personnel.
On Monday, while talking to journalists in the Parliament House, the information minister, who is also spokesman for the prime minister, also dropped some hints about the government’s strategy. “How come we allow such forces of extremism who want to impose not their ideology but also their lifestyle on us?”
Senior leader Zulfikar Khosa, after Monday’s meeting between PML-N parliamentarians and the prime minister, told Dawn that “an overwhelming majority supported the use of force against the TTP”.
Similarly, a minister told Dawn that the government had already exhausted its backchannel contacts for talks with the TTP. “It’s not only the party legislators but every country that the prime minister has visited has raised the issue of security and militancy in Pakistan. No major investor is willing to come to Pakistan in the current circumstances,” said the minister.
He rejected a perception that the PML-N had never considered any option other than talks. “Some senior members of the government were hopeful of a breakthrough with the TTP which is why the government pursued negotiations, but not everyone agreed.
“However, we should not forget that negotiations were also pursued because at an all-party conference held in September, other political parties also recommended talks.”
However, as the minister and the government official pointed out, the recent attacks had changed the national mood.
A national consensus appeared to be emerging that favoured use of force against the TTP.
“A government has to make sure that it has the nation’s support before making such a critical decision,” the minister pointed out.
Singh to visit Pakistan in March
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Pakistan in March, after the parliament's budget session and before the general elections expected in April, The Business Standard reported on Tuesday.
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Pakistan in March, after the parliament's budget session and before the general elections expected in April, The Business Standard reported on Tuesday.
“It is learnt the visit will take place most probably in March, after the budget session of parliament, yet at least a month before elections,” the paper said.
It said the proposed move appears to be Dr Singh's final major diplomatic gambit as prime minister, which aims to revive the stalled composite dialogue. Dr Singh had given a clear indication at a rare press conference in Delhi earlier this month of his intention to visit Pakistan before he demits office. The press pooh-poohed the suggestion at the time given the strident moves being made by Hindutva hardliners to thwart any such hope.
Lok Sabha elections are expected to start by mid-April and could continue till early May. If the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party makes it an issue to oppose the visit, Dr Singh seems to have no incentive left to pay heed.
Moreover, there are political benefits his party could leverage from not only the minority communities, but also from the liberal and secular mainstream groups that advocate peace between the two countries.
The Standard quoted its sources as saying that the main agenda of the visit will be resumption of the composite dialogue between the two governments.
It said Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has been asked to pave the way for the visit when he goes to Pakistan next month to attend the Made-in-India show, an exhibition expected in Lahore on February 14-16.
A contingent of Pakistani media is currently visiting New Delhi, a move apparently encouraged by the Indian government, as an indication that some ground work in the area of publicity of the visit is necessary.
India-Pakistan talks have remained suspended since an Indian soldier was allegedly beheaded by the Pakistan army on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in January last year. Pakistan has offered a parallel narrative with its own feeling of victimhood. After this, several reports of ceasefire violations by both sides started emerging.
The matter appeared to have been resolved with the much-awaited meeting of the Directors-General of Military Operations on December 24, the first such in 14 years. Both sides again decided to maintain peace on the border and matters appear to have begun to brighten up after this meeting.
The Composite Dialogue Process to be revived spans all the issues pending between the neighbours, including the Kashmir dispute, Sir Creek and Siachen. It formally began in 1997 when the late Inder Gujral was India’s prime minister who had struck a good rapport with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the Maldives Saarc summit. The dialogue deals with other “confidence-building measures”, such as economic and commercial cooperation, cooperation on terrorism and drug trafficking.
“We are committed to forging friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries, which we believe are in our mutual interest and essential for the progress and prosperity of the peoples of our region,” Mr Nawaz Sharif told Dr Singh in his message of greetings on India's Republic Day.
The Standard report spoke of “loud murmurs doing the rounds” that when Dr Singh visits Pakistan, the latter will phase out the ‘negative list’ of items for trade, which technically means giving India the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ trade status, the term for non-discriminatory market access.
Dr Singh is believed to be keen to visit his ancestral village where he was born, Gah in Pakistan's Punjab province.
When contacted, officials in the Prime Minister's office told Business Standard that Dr Singh had spoken the last words on the issue at this press conference.
At the conference, the prime minister had said, “I would very much like to go to Pakistan. I was born in a village which is now part of west Punjab.”
He, however, had also added that as prime minister of the country, he should go to visit Pakistan if conditions are appropriate to achieve solid results.
“I have thought of it many times, but ultimately I felt that circumstances were not appropriate for my visit. I still have not given up hope of going to Pakistan before I complete my tenure as prime minister,” Dr Singh had said.
Several high-level visits from Pakistan have marked the return of the Mr Sharif at the helms in his country. Mr Sharif had invited Dr Singh several times to visit Pakistan, through various diplomatic channels. Immediately after coming to power last May, he sent a special envoy, Shaharyar M. Khan.
This was followed by the visit of Mr Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, who came during the Asia-Europe summit in November and met Dr Singh, urging him to revive the composite dialogue.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, also paid a visit followed by Pakistan's Commerce and Textiles Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan, who met Dr Singh on the sidelines of the Saarc Business Summit earlier this month and again invited him to visit.
Private sector representatives from both countries are also expected to meet next month in Pakistan as part of the Pakistan India Joint Business Forum.
Musharraf’s lawyer invites SC ire
ISLAMABAD: A senior lawyer representing former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in the Supreme Court stirred up a hornet’s nest on Tuesday when he described the present constitution as ‘no constitution’ which did not reflect the will of the people.
ISLAMABAD: A senior lawyer representing former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in the Supreme Court stirred up a hornet’s nest on Tuesday when he described the present constitution as ‘no constitution’ which did not reflect the will of the people.
But Mohammad Ibrahim Satti, the lawyer, had to eat his own words when a 14-judge bench reacted strongly to his remarks against the green book.
The full court headed by Chief Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jillani had taken up a petition seeking review of the apex court’s landmark July 31, 2009, verdict which had denounced successive military takeovers and their endorsement by the superior judiciary after declaring Gen Musharraf’s Nov 3, 2007, emergency and most of the actions taken under it, including the appointment of over 100 superior court judges, as illegal and unconstitutional.
“You did not consider the 1973 constitution a constitution under which you become the president and then you file review petition under the same constitution which you subverted and intends to do the same if situation so arises,” Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, a member of the bench, observed while objecting to Mr Satti’s remarks.
“The constitution under which we have taken oath of office of Supreme Court judges, you say is not a constitution,” Justice Khosa wondered.
“This is a fact,” Mr Satti insisted and explained that his client had every right to advance any argument available to him when the hangman’s noose was the only punishment of a trial he was facing under treason charges.
Whatever Mr Satti said was also part of the arguments in the review petition which stated that the Supreme Court was fully aware of the fact that the present constitution was not a constitution in real sense because it was not enforced or given by the Constituent Assembly elected under the Yahya Khan regime. Further, it said, the 1973 constitution had been passed by a fraction of West Pakistan members of the then National Assembly and as such the present constitution was nothing more than an act of some members of the assembly and, therefore, could never be described as the constitution because it lacked the ingredients of the constitution. Therefore, its violation does not entail high treason.
“We used to see some people in television claiming that they do not recognise the constitution, but I will not allow anyone to say this especially when I have taken oath to protect and preserve the constitution,” Justice Khilji Arif Hussain retorted.
Justice Khosa said this mindset was unfortunate and recalled that one of Gen Musharraf’s predecessors had once said that the constitution was a book which he could tear off anytime. What prompted Gen Musharraf to file the review petition was perhaps the filing of a treason complaint against him by the federal government; otherwise he was probably not pushed, Justice Khosa said.
To get himself out of the trouble, Mr Satti requested the court to let him withdraw his arguments which was allowed but with a warning to be careful in future.
The chief justice asked the counsel what would be his opinion if the Supreme Court while deciding his review petition directed the special court hearing treason charges against Gen Musharraf to continue with its proceedings on its own merit, independent of the July 31 judgment without getting any observations made in the verdict against him.
The counsel said that even such a direction would have its consequences since no court in the world could ignore the July 31 judgment and that was why he was arguing that the judgment was void in the eyes of the law. “This is the question of life and death of a former president who has every right to have access to justice like any other person and, therefore, we are knocking at the doors of the apex court which is the custodian of the constitution,” Mr Satti argued.
He referred to the 2009 Nawaz Sharif case in which he had approached the Supreme Court after a delay of nine years against his conviction in the plane conspiracy case on the grounds that he was out of the country and that he had no hope to get justice from the Dogar court.
He said Gen Musharraf had filed the review petition after four years and five months with the same contention that he was away and that he had no expectation to get justice from former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who had a personal grudge with him.
The court will resume hearing on Wednesday when Sharifuddin Pirzada will argue on bias after Mr Satti concludes his arguments.
Meanwhile, another review petition was filed by Barrister Syed Ali Zafar on behalf of the Lahore High Court Bar Association challenging the scope of the July 31, 2009, verdict. It said that a number of judges who had taken oath under the PCO after the Nov 3, 2007, emergency were forced to quit after contempt cases were instituted against them.
The petition argued that the July 31 verdict was biased and contravened provisions of the constitution because many judges had been removed without following the due process of law and as a result both the bar and the bench were deprived of eminent members of the judiciary.
Pakistan for non-interference in Afghanistan after US pullout
WASHINGTON: National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, who met US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday, has said that only a regional approach of total non-interference can bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON: National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, who met US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday, has said that only a regional approach of total non-interference can bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.
At his meeting with Secretary Hagel and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, Mr Aziz also “underscored Pakistan’s commitment to… facilitating US drawdown from Afghanistan”, said an official statement.
Earlier, Mr Aziz conceded that the US plan to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year would create a vacuum in Afghanistan, but warned that this “vacuum should only be filled by Afghans, not outsiders”.
At the Pentagon meeting, Mr Aziz said that “a forward looking, broad-based and enduring defence partnership between Pakistan and the US is critical for security and stability in the region”.
The adviser, who is visiting Washington for the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, also said that Pakistan would not “pressurise Afghanistan” to sign a security agreement with the United States.
Mr Aziz said that while experts felt the proposed security agreement would help stabilise Afghanistan, Pakistan believed that “it's for the Afghans to decide whether they want to do this deal”.
He said that Pakistan and the US were also working on a framework for defence reimbursement after 2014 when the United States plans to pull most of its combat troops from Afghanistan.
US officials will present their reimbursement proposals at a joint meeting in February, Mr Aziz said.
He visited the Pentagon with Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, Secretary Defence Asif Yasin Malik and Chief of the General Staff Lt-Gen Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad.
The meeting focused on security cooperation and identified key priorities for the strengthening the defence partnership in the future.
Mr Aziz noted that positive momentum in defence exchanges over the last one year had helped both sides make significant progress in a number of areas such as supply routes, counter-IEDs cooperation and counter-terrorism.
Talking to journalists, Mr Aziz said there could be no peace in Afghanistan unless all countries of the region followed the same policy of non-interference and “have no favourites in that country”.
Govt airs mixed signals
ISLAMABAD: The government gave mixed signals in the National Assembly on Monday about dealing with Taliban militants as it assured a protesting opposition that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would come to the house in “a few days” to seek consensus on whether he should still pursue a peace dialogue or order a military operation against them.
ISLAMABAD: The government gave mixed signals in the National Assembly on Monday about dealing with Taliban militants as it assured a protesting opposition that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would come to the house in “a few days” to seek consensus on whether he should still pursue a peace dialogue or order a military operation against them.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan described both courses as difficult options at a “defining moment” in Pakistan’s history over which, he said, the prime minister was consulting various quarters like lawmakers of the ruling PML-N, whom he met earlier in the day, the military leadership and intelligence agencies.
“The prime minister will come in a few days to take you into confidence,” the minister told the house without specifying a date, but said consultations with other stakeholders would take two to three more days.
The opposition had made Mr Sharif’s absence from the house for about eight months since the June budget session a big issue, particularly in light of a wave of deadly terrorist attacks against both civilians and soldiers earlier this month, staging a token walkout from the house immediately after the question hour on the first day of the session before its important figures, in their speeches, appealed to the prime minister to provide leadership to the country from the parliamentary forum at what they called a difficult juncture.
The interior minister said Mr Sharif would feel no embarrassment in coming to the National Assembly, where he said he had taken “big decisions with its consultation” during his two previous terms in the 1990s, adding that the prime minister “had intended to come (to the house) even today” after chairing the PML-N parliamentary group’s meeting at his office but changed his mind as “some more consultation” was needed.
Chaudhry Nisar seemed seeking to keep both the advocates of dialogue -- mandated by a Sept 9 all-party conference -- and of military operation happy as he said he personally favoured dialogue with the Taliban “even today” but wondered what could be done if “the other side refuses dialogue”.
He described some recent statements from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan umbrella offering to talk to the government even after claiming responsibility for some most deadly attacks against army and paramilitary soldiers this month as “a sudden change” that he said appeared to have been prompted by shows of national unity to face the challenge. “If they are sincere (in making the offers), then talks can be held,” the minister said, but stressed “we need to unite to decide on how to move forward”.
Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah earlier lamented that the government delayed the present session from the earlier scheduled dates of Jan 7 and Jan 20, despite the new wave of terrorism and, amid chants of “shame, shame” from opposition benches, noted that the prime minister too did not come to the chamber on the session’s opening day though he chaired a meeting of his own party’s lawmakers.
“This sends out a very wrong signal that the prime minister meets only his own party and cannot come to parliament to represent the people,” he said.
Mr Shah said it was because of the prevailing situation that his Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, and some of their allies, ended a boycott of the house they began during the previous session last month, although no government minister came to them to make amends for they had called an objectionable word – ‘tamasha’ (fun) – used by the interior minister in a speech to describe a PTI campaign for the verification of thumb impressions of voters in some constituencies in Punjab in the May elections.
He asked the government to “waste no more time” to end what he saw as an uncertainty about what it would to do fight terrorism and assured the prime minister that no matter whether his own party stood by him or not, “we will stand by you if you go ahead” and “would not let anybody launch an ambush” against the democratic system.
PTI chairman Imran Khan too regretted the prime minister absence, saying the country needed leadership to take it out of the present quagmire. Mr Khan, who took pains to deny allegations that his party was pro-Taliban, said even if the government went for a military operation, it would need a “political process” for its success.
Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who predicted the year 2014 would very bloody for Pakistan, earlier wondered whether the prime minister attracted the penalty of the constitution’s article 64 that empowers the house to declare a member’s seat vacant for remaining absent for 40 consecutive days of its sittings.
But Speaker Ayaz Sadiq told the house that the prime minister had been granted leave for absence, with Mr Rashid confirming later in the house that he had been shown what he called the prime minister’s “application for leave”.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar saw “confusion” in the approach of both the government and the opposition and said any concession to those who did not recognise Pakistan’s constitution would be a sell-out of sacrifices made by those who fell martyrs fighting them.
At the fag end of the proceedings, the house lost quorum forcing the chair to adjourn it until 10.30am on Tuesday.
Pakistan cautious as US talks resume
WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan emphasised the need for moving their relationship from aid to trade as they resumed their strategic dialogue here on Monday after a three-year gap.
WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan emphasised the need for moving their relationship from aid to trade as they resumed their strategic dialogue here on Monday after a three-year gap.
Pakistan, however, appeared more cautious than the United States in rebuilding a relationship which has deteriorated rapidly since May 2011, when Osama bin Laden was discovered and eliminated in Abbottabad.
In his opening remarks, Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz stressed the need for transforming the post-2014 US-Pakistan transactional relationship into a strategic partnership, but noted that this exercise had an “overbearing and sobering background”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who began his remarks with “As-Salaamo Alaikum to our friends from Pakistan”, was more positive and spoke enthusiastically about the US desire to leave behind the tensions of the recent past and focus on what laid ahead.
“We fully support Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s goal of making Pakistan's marketplace a tiger economy for the 21st century,” he said. “Indeed, greater trade and investment between the United States and Pakistan will make both of our countries more prosperous.”
Mr Aziz is leading a high-power delegation which includes Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Chief of General Staff Lt-Gen Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad and Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani.
The American side, led by Secretary Kerry, includes Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan James Dobbins and US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson.
Mr Aziz said that since August 2013, when Secretary Kerry announced the plan for reviving the strategic dialogue process, he had been “thinking as hard as I could … at what stage a normal or transactional relationship becomes strategic?”
The most important pre-requisite for a strategic partnership, he said, was “mutual trust at all levels and among all key institutions”.
The second most important element from Pakistan’s perspective was “the expectation that the US will not look at Pakistan from the two specific lenses of Afghanistan or terrorism”, said Mr Aziz.
Legitimate US concerns on Afghanistan, he said, “must be balanced by giving due importance to Pakistan's own security concerns” and by giving a “careful attention to the long-term effects” of US policies on Pakistan.
“I am sure, most of you will agree that historically, Pakistan's security concerns were not taken into account when the US decided to withdraw from Afghanistan in the early 1990s after the defeat of the Soviet forces with
Pakistan's active support, or when it invaded Afghanistan after 9/11,” he said.
Mr Aziz said there was also a strong perception in Pakistan that “while a lot of pressure is exerted on Pakistan on issues of concerns to India, our legitimate concerns are not conveyed to India with the same intensity.”
One such concern, he pointed out, was the Kashmir dispute which has strained relations between the two South Asian neighbours since their independence from Britain more than 66 years ago.
“The overwhelming majority of the people in Pakistan support the normalisation of our relations with India and believe that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute would result in achieving this goal,” Mr Aziz said.
“If these important pre-requisites are met, then the contribution of other elements of this important relationship such as expanded trade, higher level of private investment, long-term partnership on some major projects, will become far more significant and mutually reinforcing,” he said.
Secretary Kerry, however, preferred to highlight “vital shared strategic interests” of the two countries, reminding Pakistanis that the US wanted to see their country “at the centre of an economically diverse region and a dynamic South Asian marketplace”.
The two countries had “a common cause and a common obligation to be partners for one another's prosperity in the fight against those who want to limit opportunity and take Pakistan backwards”, he said.
That’s why it was essential for the United States and Pakistan to continue to find avenues of cooperation on counter-terrorism and nuclear security, said Mr Kerry.
“We recognise that Pakistan is a vital partner in supporting a secure Afghanistan. And we know how closely Pakistan's own security is linked to Afghanistan's success. That's why addressing the threats posed to both Pakistan and Afghanistan by cross-border militancy is a key aspect of our conversations this week.”
Mr Aziz noted that the ongoing drawdown of Isaf forces in Afghanistan created both “new challenges and new opportunities” for cooperation between the US and Pakistane not willing to start development on the Pakistan side. The revival of the Khokhrapar-Monabao station for trade between Sindh and India’s Rajasthan is not visible in the near future.
But the commerce minister said that the government intends to set up land-port authorities at major exit points, including Khokhrapar-Monabao, for trade with India. Before 1965, Pakistan and India used 11 land routes for bilateral trade, eight in Punjab and three in Sindh.
The enhancement of trade at Wagah-Attari will certainly benefit land-owning elites that have invested in real estate. The price of land has started moving up on both sides, a person who deals in real estate in Lahore told Dawn.
To control and facilitate the flow of trade and people, both sides have agreed to enhance the number of gates at the border. Currently, there is one gate each for travellers and trade. It is being considered that the latter be increased to three with one additional gate for travellers.
The commerce minister said that the Indian government has agreed to allow a Pakistani bank to open a branch in India. He said banks will have to meet the criteria of the Reserve Bank of India.
A commerce ministry official said that the National Bank of Pakistan, United Bank and Muslim Commercial Bank got the green signal to open branches in India. However, three issues — including money-laundering — needed to be sorted out before licences for opening branches could be issued.
From the Indian side, the State Bank of India and the Bank of India will operate branches in Pakistan. The minister said that banks can file applications for opening branches in either country.
Until 1965, there were nine branches of six Indian banks in Pakistan, while Pakistan’s Habib Bank had one branch in Mumbai. Banks in both countries were seized as enemy properties.
But for the commerce minister, ease in obtaining visas, the allowing of mobile phone facility and television channels are equally important issues for achieving the true outcome of trade liberalisation.
Inquiries expose easy escape for prisoners
LAHORE: Two inquiries into the recent escape of prisoners in Rawalpindi and Okara point to serious lapses in the movement of dangerous criminals from prisons to courts in Punjab, suggesting measures such as video trials to avoid a recurrence.
LAHORE: Two inquiries into the recent escape of prisoners in Rawalpindi and Okara point to serious lapses in the movement of dangerous criminals from prisons to courts in Punjab, suggesting measures such as video trials to avoid a recurrence.
Giving a controversial proposal, one of these reports suggests the use of fetters at the police’s discretion. Sources in the Punjab government on Friday said the reports had been sent to the home, law and prosecution departments for consideration of the proposals.
On Dec 2, Farrukh Khokhar, son of Taji Khokhar, escaped when he was being taken to Rawalpindi jail after production in a local court. Farrukh Khokhar was recaptured two days later.
The same day, five armed men opened fire at a prison van, and freed an equal number of prisoners from Gojera and Okara.
They injured three police officials, two of them seriously, and overpowered others, snatching two official rifles.
The prisoners were being transported back to Sahiwal jail after production in courts at Tandlianwala, Jaranwala and Faisalabad. The escaped prisoners are still at large.
The chief minister had ordered inquiries into both the incidents. The committee for the Rawalpindi incident was headed by Punjab Additional IG Investigation Muhammad Amlish and for the Okara incident by Sheikhupura RPO Abu Bakr Khuda Bakhsh.
The Okara committee found lapses in the system, but the Rawalpindi committee detected connivance of police, mentioning the vast influence of Taji Khokhar, who is the brother of former National Assembly deputy speaker Nawaz Khokhar.
RAWALPINDI REPORT: The report says that since Taji Khokhar has connections in the police, he gets officers of his choice posted. He had also tried to escape on Sept 10 last year.
The inquiry holds that the SOPs (standard operation procedures) were not followed while bringing these prisoners to the courts. ‘Private’ persons were allowed to board the police vehicles along with the prisoners.
Farrukh Khokhar and another two prisoners who accompanied him in the van but who did not attempt to flee were not properly handcuffed. Rather, they were made to hold the handcuffs.
Six police officials found involved in the escape have been suspended from service and arrested. Responsibility has also been placed on many senior officials.
The Rawalpindi inquiry report details how outgoing officers routinely do not brief the incoming officers at the time of handing charge at top police positions. Resultantly, those who are new to the job often do not know much important local law and order issues, and dangerous criminals in prison in the area. It proposes the incoming officers should work with the outgoing officers for at least week at the time of handing over of charge.
The report suggests amendments to the relevant laws including the CrPC to ensure jail trial of dangerous criminals, video trial facility in all districts, extension of the judicial remand period to 30 days to avoid frequent movement of under-trial prisoners and revision of the police rules.
The transportation of under-trial prisoners costs Punjab between Rs50 to Rs60 million each month.
Importantly, what the probe committee members have asked for is a revision of distribution of work among police in Rawalpindi district that was notified last in 1989. “Transportation of prisoners to and fro courts should make an integral part of the monthly meetings of the Criminal Justice Coordination Committees headed by district and sessions judges,” they emphasise.
Some other suggestions made by the report are:
• APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers) should not be used to transport prisoners as no armed policeman can sit on the outside of it as guard. The APC’s use should be limited to protection of the under-trial prisoners.
• Senior police officers hardly ever opt for or accept the research and development assignment happily. These postings should be made more attractive through handsome pay, foreign study tours, and a free hand to the in-charge to select his team from police.
• The handcuffs being used by police were introduced a century ago and have inherent mechanical defects. A prisoner having small wrists can easily free his hand. “Better quality handcuffs which are used internationally should be introduced.”
• Short courses should be held for the operational staff of police to combat new situations
• Trial of all prisoners involved in ATA cases and tried by ATCs should be held inside jails in the face of the security threats and to save resources.
Okara inquiry
The Okara inquiry committee notes that sometimes a murder accused/prisoner, kept in one jail, has to be produced in another district for a minor case. It asks the government to request the judicial authorities to issue a general policy whereby the magistrates/judges should dispose off minor cases of an accused challaned in a major case elsewhere.
The report says: “In case, the criminal cases against the dangerous criminals are scattered in different districts, the police concerned through the prosecution department should file petitions in the high court for consolidation of all these cases in one district to restrict the frequent movement of such criminals. Besides avoiding incidents of escape of the criminals it would also curtail the expenses being incurred on such transportation.”
The committee members are not at all thrilled at the practice where a SP/DSP does not pay due attention to the movement of judicial/under trial prisoners, leaving much of the work to junior officials.
The report proposes amendment to Section 344 of the CrPC, proposing that if there is a reasonable delay in indictment/commencement of trial, the production of the accused be made before a special magistrate as and when appointed in the jail by the government for this purpose. This would minimize pre-trial production of dangerous prisoners in courts.
But then the production of dangerous, hardened and desperate criminals becomes indispensable in many cases. The proposals set out in the report says the prison vans in each district “should be altered so as to provide a shielded and bullet proof sitting area on roof. ... A police guard sitting in this shielded area cannot only command an aerial and all-around view but can also offer better resistance.”
And finally voicing a proposal that may bring rights activities to their toes protesting, this inquiry committee favours fetters to hold down prisoners. “Courts have restrained the use of bar fetters for dangerous convicts in jails, and it is subject to the concurrence of district and sessions judge concerned which is usually delayed or denied. The government may go in judicial review against the rulings so that the discretion of jail authorities for the said purpose can be revived.
“The use of bar fetter is also recommended for dangerous and desperate under trial prisoners for their court production and the police authorities concerned should use this discretion as per PR Rule 175.
Ogra case: nine barred from leaving country
ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry has placed the names of nine people on the exit control list (ECL) on a request by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry has placed the names of nine people on the exit control list (ECL) on a request by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The nine have been named in the reference filed by NAB on Friday in the Ogra scam. They face charges of causing loss to the exchequer and consumers through unfair gas pricing, allowing higher gas losses to the Sui Southern (SSGC) and the Sui Northern (SNGPL), and gas price manipulations that resulted in benefits to certain entities.
According to a statement issued by the ministry on Saturday, those whose names have been placed on the list include Dewan Ziaur Rehman Farooqui, chief executive officer of Dewan Petroleum; Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, the Karachi-based stockbroker; Jawad Jamil, an official of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra); Rashid Lone, a former managing director (MD) of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines; Zuhair Siddique, the current managing director of the SSGC; and a former MD, Azeem Siddique.
The person last named is in the United States as he settled in that country after retirement two years ago.
The crux of the case – grant of permission by Ogra to SSGC and SNGPL for higher gas losses – occurred in 2011. At that time Dr Faizullah Abbassi was SSGC chief, but his name has neither been included in the ECL nor has NAB made a request for it.
Azeem Siddique was appointed MD in May 2012 and retired in November that year after Zuhair Siddique took charge.
Other names in the ECL are: Syed Arsalan, general manager, (finance), SSGC; Yousaf J. Ansari, deputy managing director in SSGC; and Mirza Mehmood, director in the SSGC as well as a board member of the SNGPL.
On Friday, NAB had filed a reference, over the appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq as Ogra chief, against two former prime ministers of the PPP-led government – Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf – in an accountability court. The bureau also filed a supplementary reference in the court in a case pertaining to Rs82 billion corruption committed in Ogra.
NAB’s reference in PHA scam ready
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has completed inquiry into a Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) scam and a reference is almost ready, informed sources told Dawn on Saturday.
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has completed inquiry into a Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) scam and a reference is almost ready, informed sources told Dawn on Saturday.
They said that on the basis of a complaint received in November 2012 about illegal appointments in the PHA, an inquiry was authorised in June last year.
The inquiry revealed that the PHA made 191 appointments in November 2011, with 133 of those employed not fulfilling the criteria, including age, academic qualifications and experience as mentioned in the advertisement inviting applications for the post and schedule 11 of the PHA Service Rules.
Despite several requests, the PHA failed to provide record of applicants, written tests and interviews. The statements of witnesses have been recorded and the accused persons were given fair opportunity to record their versions. These versions have already been made part of the inquiry and converted into investigations after thorough deliberations in the executive board meeting of the NAB headquarters.
An official said the PHA was providing maintenance services to its six projects through 89 personnel.
Three bodies found in Khuzdar
QUETTA: Three bullet-riddled bodies and some body parts were found in Totak area, in Zehri tehsil of Khuzdar district, on Saturday.
QUETTA: Three bullet-riddled bodies and some body parts were found in Totak area, in Zehri tehsil of Khuzdar district, on Saturday.
Official sources said that local people informed Levies Force that some body parts had been spotted in the area. Personnel of the Levies and the Frontier Corps reached the place and found three half-buried mutilated bodies and some body parts.
Balochistan Home Secretary Asadur Rehman Gilani said that security personnel were digging earth in the area to see if more bodies had been buried there. “Recovery of body parts suggests that more bodies may be found in the area,” he said.
Levies took the bodies and body parts to Khuzdar hospital for autopsy and identification.
“The bodies have been mutilated beyond identification,” hospital sources said, adding that bullet wounds were visible on different parts of the bodies. Autopsy will be conducted on Sunday.
National Assembly official kidnapped
MULTAN: An official of the National Assembly Secretariat was kidnapped from his agricultural farm near Wasti Sandila area on Saturday.
MULTAN: An official of the National Assembly Secretariat was kidnapped from his agricultural farm near Wasti Sandila area on Saturday.
Malik Muazzam Ali Kalro, who reached Multan from Islamabad on Friday night, was sitting at his farm on Saturday when four masked men came in a white car and tried to seize him.
Kalsoom, an eyewitness, said Mr Kalro offered resistance but the attackers beat him up with guns and took him away.
Malik Amjad Kalro, uncle of the official, told journalists they had no enmity and had not received any threatening call either.
After the incident, police cordoned off the area and set up checkpoints at the city’s entry points.
Four Indian officials kidnapped by Maoists
An armed group of Maoists kidnapped four Indian officials of a rural development project from Pirtand, 25km from the district headquarters of Giridih, late on Saturday night.
An armed group of Maoists kidnapped four Indian officials of a rural development project from Pirtand, 25km from the district headquarters of Giridih, late on Saturday night.
Those kidnapped included a young fellow of the prime minister’s rural development, Sai Vardhan Wansi. Mr Wansi was part of the team that had gone to rural areas of Naxalite-infested Pirtand region to oversee the implementation of Mahatama Gandhi national rural employment scheme and disbursement of old-age pension in some villages.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Arif Ekram said the incident took place at Peo village.
The Maoists initially held hostage five people, including the driver of the vehicle the officials were travelling in and took them into a forest. However, they released the driver along with the vehicle on Sunday morning.
Others abducted were identified as Shambhi Pandit, Maqsood Ansari and Chandradev.
The inspector general of Hazaribagh zone reached Giridih and discussed the strategy to seek safe release of officials. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren issued an appeal to the Maoists, requesting them to release the officials unharmed.
Ashok Kumar Singh, general secretary of the Jharkhand non-gazetted employees association, threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Monday to press for early and safe release of the officials.
Two days ago, the Maoists had destroyed the panchayat office building at Peo with explosives and left Maoists literature at the scene, warning the government officials against exploitation of the villagers.
No intention of seizing N-weapons: US officials
WASHINGTON: As the United States and Pakistan resume their strategic dialogue on Monday, senior US officials assured Islamabad that America has no intention of seizing its nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON: As the United States and Pakistan resume their strategic dialogue on Monday, senior US officials assured Islamabad that America has no intention of seizing its nuclear weapons.
At a special briefing on the talks, US officials pointed out that the strategic dialogue was resuming after a three-year hiatus as both Pakistan and the United States seek to stabilise a key but tense relationship.
“Pakistan is a large, populous, nuclear-armed power, in a sensitive region,” said one of the officials.
“We have a strong interest in improving relations between Pakistan and India and avoiding the slightest danger of a conflict that could escalate to a nuclear war that would affect every country in the world.”
Another senior official urged Pakistani journalists not to misinterpret America’s concerns about the dangers of a nuclear conflict in South Asia. “We do not want to take your nuclear weapons,” the official said.
The officials disagreed with a suggestion that the US was only interested in Pakistan because of its involvement in Afghanistan.
“The Kerry-Lugar-Berman money is not tied to Afghanistan,” one of them said. “We have common interests in fighting international terrorism. We have common interests in stability and democratic government in Pakistan, and in the consolidation of its democratic institutions.”
The official said the US had made “a major investment” in promoting “constitutional order and democratic processes” in Pakistan. “These are all pretty important interests.”
The official said the US plan to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan would not affect its ties with Pakistan. “The fact that the US has fewer troops in Afghanistan doesn’t mean that Pakistan is less important. It’s more important as far as Afghanistan is concerned,” he said.
While efforts to stabilise Afghanistan will remain a significant element of the US-Pakistan relationship, elements concerning only Pakistan were “also quite separate, independent and important,” the official said.
Pakistan and the US raised their strategic dialogue to the ministerial level in 2010 but the talks stalled due to repeated crises — including over the secret 2011 US raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the resumption of the talks during a visit to Islamabad in August and on Monday he is hosting Sartaj Aziz, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s National Security Adviser, for the first ministerial talks in three years.
The officials who briefed the media said that while economic cooperation was the “centre piece” of Monday’s talks, security concerns were equally important. And instead of taking specific decisions, both sides would focus on preparing a “blueprint” for future ties.
“Having seen the highs and lows of this relationship, both countries have put an enormous amount of effort into assiduously putting this relationship on firmer grounding over the last year and a half,” said an official.
The officials also said that Pakistan and the US were on the same page on a proposed security agreement between Washington and Kabul.
“I think our analysis and Pakistan’s analysis are pretty much the same — that an abrupt termination in the Nato and American presence there would be destabilising, would incentivise Taliban and other militant groups and would demoralise significant elements of the population,” one of them said.
“The prime minister has taken as a personal initiative improving Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan,” said the official while recalling Mr Sharif’s meetings with President Hamid Karzai and his support to the Afghan peace process.
The official noted that Pakistan also tried to facilitate talks between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders.
“Pakistan has… given (Taliban leader) Mullah Baradar freedom to have had meetings. We’ve participated in three-way discussions with Pakistan and Afghanistan to try to make sure that we’re all saying and doing exactly the same thing, and Pakistan has been quite cooperative,” said the official.
“I think President Karzai recognises that Prime Minister Sharif has tried to… respond positively to his request, for instance in freeing Mullah Baradar, but also in trying to encourage the Taliban to enter into a dialogue.”
Five Egyptians kidnapped in Libya
TRIPOLI: Kidnappers seized Egypt’s cultural attaché and three other embassy staff in the Libyan capital on Saturday a day after a group snatched another Egyptian official in the city.
TRIPOLI: Kidnappers seized Egypt’s cultural attaché and three other embassy staff in the Libyan capital on Saturday a day after a group snatched another Egyptian official in the city.
In the south, meanwhile, the toll from ethnic clashes rose to 88 dead and more than 130 wounded.
The four diplomats were kidnapped early on Saturday morning, a Libyan foreign ministry spokesman said.
“The cultural attaché and three other staff were kidnapped in Tripoli,” Said Lassoued said.
The abductions came a day after an unknown group seized an administrative adviser at Egypt's embassy, and despite Libya's announcement of “reinforced security measures” there.
Foreigners have been targeted several times in recent weeks: two Italians were seized last week in east Libya and a South Korean trade representative was released by security forces on Wednesday, three days after he was abducted in Tripoli.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was himself briefly abducted by a former rebel militia last October.
A Libyan security official would not rule out that the kidnapping of the Egyptian administrative official was a response to the arrest in Egypt on Friday of a prominent former rebel commander who fought in the uprising.
Shaaban Hadeia, head of the Operations Centre of Libya's Thuwar (revolutionaries), was arrested in Alexandria, the source added.—AFP
SC throws out Musharraf’s review plea against ’09 ruling
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court threw out on Thursday a petition of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf seeking review of its July 31, 2009, judgement on the grounds that it contained irrelevant precedence and was also time-barred.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court threw out on Thursday a petition of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf seeking review of its July 31, 2009, judgement on the grounds that it contained irrelevant precedence and was also time-barred.
“For reasons to be recorded later, we have found the review petition filed by former president Pervez Musharraf debarred by time, that the precedence cited in the case are distinguishable and the questions raised in the petition neither fall under the jurisdiction of review nor are tenable on merit warranting interference of this court,” announced Chief Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jillani while heading a 14-judge bench which had taken up Gen Musharraf’s petition filed after four years and five months.
It sought review of the apex court’s July 31, 2009, verdict which had denounced successive military takeovers and their endorsement by the superior judiciary after declaring Gen Musharraf’s Nov 3, 2007, and most of the actions under taken it, including the appointment of over 100 superior court judges, as illegal and unconstitutional.
“Finality attained,” said advocate Shaharyar Riaz, who attended all three days of proceedings in the courtroom-1.
Even the lawyers representing Gen Musharraf could not grasp the opportunity provided by the court at least on two occasions when it sought their opinion about the issuance of a directive to the special court seized with the former president’s treason trial to proceed with the case, independent of the observations made in the July 31 judgement against him.
Perhaps this was the reason one of his lawyers, Muhammad Ibrahim Satti, realised the mistake at the end of Thursday’s proceeding. Sensing the mood, he requested the court to accept the review petition and “do make some observations in favour of Gen Musharraf who is in a cage”.
“I thought he is in a hospital,” retorted Justice Nasirul Mulk, a member of the bench. “Reviews are either accepted or rejected; there is no third way,” Justice Saqib Nisar said.
Advocate Satti said that both Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Gen Musharraf were at daggers drawn, but this was an irony that one had become the chief justice and the other the accusM chaotic like a cattle market, where man and livestock jostle for space and people eat their food, right next to the hay dumped around for the animals’ repast.
But it was cold. Even at two in the afternoon, visibility was affected by the heavy fog enveloping the area and the cold wind had a bite to it.
But apart from the harsh welcome provided by nature, the people present also didn’t encourage visitors.
The narrow bridge that led to Dera Morr was partially blocked by stones and planks of wood and a group of men were on guard. Sticking their heads into the cars and rickshaws that passed them, they grilled the passengers to confirm their identity and the reason why they wanted to enter the area.
A junction of borders connecting Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab, Dera Morr has turned into the temporary resting place for the Bugti tribesmen for the past one week, as they have been denied entry into Dera Bugti, only a two-hour drive away. Led by Shahzain Bugti, a grandson of Akbar Bugti, they had tried returning to their homes in Dera Bugti.
The Bugtis have been living in exile for the past nine years, since they were displaced by General Pervez Musharraf’s regime. Musharraf also encouraged the Kalpars (a rival clan) to move to Dera Bugti after the army operation in 2006, which further weakened the position of the Bugti tribesmen in the district.
Having negotiated the permission to enter the Morr, the visitor is faced with a bleak picture.
An old man sat beside a wooden casket — inside was a day-old body of a woman. An ambulance carrying another body was also parked there. Nearby, children sat around a small fire where a woman was cooking rotis to feed them; the small fire provided the only warmth in the open area.
The place reeked of burnt wood and urine.
But amid the death were also signs of joy. An infant, born the night before, was being passed from one family member to another as the anxious mother looked on.
In an open space outside a restaurant was a long line of Mazda trucks housing half of the 180,000 migrating Bugti tribesmen. When the caravan was stopped by the Frontier Constabulary on Jan 17, many people shifted to the houses of friends or relatives living nearby. The rest, mostly poor labourers from Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta, Multan, Lahore and smaller districts and tehsils had no choice but to continue living in the trucks, along with the cattle they had brought.
A heavily guarded, white land cruiser with tinted windows provided a stark contrast to the surroundings. It was owned by Jamhoori Watan Party leader, Shahzain Bugti.
The tribesmen were nonetheless hopeful and insisted that a ‘compromise’ had been reached between Shahzain and the Kalpar tribe chieftain, Jalal Khan Kalpar. But the “government and the agencies” were not letting them through.
Noor Mohammad Bugti, a lanky man, who heads a thirty-member family, said, “We have to make it to Dera Bugti, our ancestors’ graves are there; our lives are there.” A short man with a shawl wrapped around his shoulders, Dholoo Ram, said that Shahzain’s brother Guhram Bugti had already taken 5,000 people back to Dera Bugti and that they would be the next group. “We gathered whatever little we had, arranged for our travel to Kashmore and now we are stranded. We were told that our expenses will be taken care of by the authorities, but they have not even provided us a glass of water.”
As the tribesmen were speaking, a man with a bushy beard and a Kalashnikov hanging on his shoulder appeared, saying that “Nawab sahib is now ready to speak.”
Guards and clan members formed a protective circle around Shahzain’s white vehicle, as he came out, holding his daughter. “Chief Minister Balochistan, Malik Baloch, promised a safe passage to us. We also have the Supreme Court’s orders. What is stopping them from letting us through?”
When asked about the rift between him and Mir Aali Bugti, the present chieftain of the Bugti tribe, who observers say is not allowing Shahzain in, Shahzain smirked. “What conflict can I possibly have with a government-backed sardar?”
The afternoon still had not passed when PPP leader Khursheed Shah turned up. After his chat with Shahzain, the blockades were removed and the traffic began moving. But the Bugti caravan did not move — just two hours short of home.
SC warns of ending judicial restraint
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has described the terms of reference assigned to a one-man commission to find out the whereabouts of 35 missing persons as “superfluous” and cautioned that it is fast approaching the end of judicial restraint.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has described the terms of reference assigned to a one-man commission to find out the whereabouts of 35 missing persons as “superfluous” and cautioned that it is fast approaching the end of judicial restraint.
“We are approaching the end of our judicial restraint which is not that elastic to further stretch it for another eight months,” Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja observed on Monday during the hearing by a three-judge bench of a case relating to a missing man named Yasin Shah.
The case was initiated on an application of his elder brother Muhabbat Shah.
On Dec 10, the court held that the army authorities were responsible for removing 35 internees from the Malakand internment centre. But only seven of them were produced before the court.
On Monday, Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt informed the court that the government had appointed former Supreme Court judge retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan as one-man commission on the whereabouts of the remaining persons.
“There has to be some progress because the issue has put a serious question mark on the ability and effectiveness of the two executives -- the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments,” Justice Khawaja observed.
The terms of reference require the commission to determine whether any person was detained or removed illegally and, if so, identify the people responsible for illegal detention or removal.
In its Dec 10 verdict, the apex court ordered the government to find out the people allegedly involved in removing 35 persons from the internment centre.
The commission is required to complete its inquiry in one month and submit its findings/recommendations to the federal government for action. It will also furnish recommendations in other similar cases.
“We cannot allow going on this issue endlessly,” Justice Khawaja said, adding that expediency was not an option for courts. “Our only concern is to find out the whereabouts of Yasin Shah.”
The court observed that it was for the federal government to constitute the commission and determine its terms of reference.
“However, the terms of reference in the notification appear to be superfluous since it has to determine what has been directed in the Dec 10 verdict. Our concern as expressed repeatedly through different orders is that there appears to be a violation and non-enforcement of the fundamental rights of Yasin Shah and others and that he should be recovered without fail and delay,” the court said, adding that this state of affairs in “our constitutional dispensation cannot be countenance, especially when the principal law officers of the federation and the provincial government have admitted that there is no way out except enforcement of the fundamental rights of the citizens”.
KP Advocate General Latif Yousafzai sought more time and said he intended to go through the record. He said the government was ready to brief the court on the 35 missing persons in camera.
The case will be taken up on Wednesday.
US agencies concerned about losing drone bases
NEW YORK: American intelligence agencies are concerned that they could lose drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan if Afghan President Hamid Karzai does not sign a controversial security deal with the United States, the New York Times reported on Monday.
NEW YORK: American intelligence agencies are concerned that they could lose drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan if Afghan President Hamid Karzai does not sign a controversial security deal with the United States, the New York Times reported on Monday.
The new concerns reflect how US troop levels in Afghanistan directly affect long-term American security interests in neighbouring Pakistan, the Times said, citing administration, military and intelligence officials.
The Obama administration has already organised a team of intelligence, military and policy specialists to devise alternatives to reduce the damage if their attempt to reach the deal fails.
American officials say the agreement was completed last year and has urged Karzai to enact it as soon as possible. But the Afghan president set out conditions for Washington, including the US military must first end its deadly drone strikes and night raids on Afghan homes, which have left hundreds of civilians dead.
US President Barack Obama has threatened to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan if the deal is not struck. In that case, the CIA's drone bases in the country would have to be closed, according to administration officials, because it could no longer be protected, the Times said.
American intelligence agencies say the nearest alternative bases are too far away for drones to reach the mountainous territory in Pakistan, where the CIA claims is a hideout for militants.
The Pakistani government also is unhappy with the US drone operations saying the strikes kill local civilians.
According to the Times, the American agencies are also concerned that the nearest alternative bases would be too distant to monitor and respond as quickly as American forces can today if there were a crisis in the region, such as missing nuclear material or weapons in Pakistan and India.
Prosecution rejects AFIC report on Musharraf’s health
ISLAMABAD: The prosecution in the high treason case rejected on Monday a military doctors’ report on the health of retired General Pervez Musharraf and termed it an “attempt to thwart the judicial process”.
ISLAMABAD: The prosecution in the high treason case rejected on Monday a military doctors’ report on the health of retired General Pervez Musharraf and termed it an “attempt to thwart the judicial process”.
The three-member special court headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court had on Jan 16 ordered formation of a medical board comprising senior doctors of the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology to verify the state of health of Gen Musharraf.
Advocate Mohammad Akram Sheikh, head of the prosecution team, submitted an application before the court and raised a number of objections to the report prepared by the medical board comprising Maj Gen Syed Imran Majeed, commandant and executive director of AFIC; Brigadier Safdar Abbas, deputy commandant of AFIC; Brigadier Mohammad Qaiser Khan and Colonel Mohammad Afsheen Iqbal of AFIC and National Institute of Heart Diseases.
In its report, the medical board declared the condition of Gen Musharraf as critical and recommended his treatment at a place of his choice.
The prosecution said “the (AFIC) report is inconclusive and makes attempts to thwart the judicial process by urging the special court to come to a decision regarding further procedures / interventions without expressing as to whether the prerequisite tests prior to angiogram have been performed, indicating the necessarily for the same”.
It said findings of the report were inconclusive and deliberately vague. “The report discloses no reasons as to why a patient of such a disease needs constant hospitalisation since Jan 2, especially without any progress in his clinical evaluation or management.”
The prosecution said the medical report was unsatisfactory and did not even come close to addressing any of the questions which the board was bound to answer in terms of court’s Jan 16 order.It said the AFIC had been asked to state “how precarious is the health condition of the accused which restricts his movement so as to prevent him from attending the court? Has the accused undergone any surgery or other medical procedure during his stay in the hospital or any surgery or medical procedure is planned to be undertaken during his hospitalisation? For how long the accused has been advised for further hospitalisation?”
It said the instant medical report had come to an erroneous conclusion regarding the state of health of the accused.
The prosecution incorporated into the report the opinion of US cardiologist Dr Ismail Bokhari which said that the “cardiac examination (of Musharraf) was perfectly normal …this patient is in the hospital since Jan 2 and continues to have normal electrocardiograms and cardiac biomarkers. Chance for serious cardiac disease is very low”.
The prosecution contended that military doctors had submitted a self-styled report and it was virtually a duplication of the report of Jan 7 in which the AFIC recommended “coronary angiography” for Gen Musharraf to ascertain the possibility of further interventions, like coronary artery bypass surgery.
“The medical report reveals that no further tests have been carried out on the accused since the submission of the last medical report which has been submitted after a gap of sixteen days and the same diagnosis of coronary angiography is reiterated.”
The prosecution said: “In the instant report the board has come to an entirely new conclusion on the same data as before that this disease is of ‘grave concern’. That if such a grave concern was present as is alleged, then the question arises as to why this concern was not either shown in the first report or why no further diagnostic testing been has carried out. The report also has not suggested any aggressive management of the disease, which shockingly suggests absence of any cardiac ailment.”
It said such a long hospitalisation when no diagnostic process had to be carried out was against the established norms of medical rules. “It is now manifest that the accused is prolonging stay in hospital in order to evade the judicial process.”
The prosecution requested the court to pass appropriate orders for the attendance of the accused as per the mandate of law.
Talks on LoC trade deadlock fail
MUZAFFARABAD: A meeting between officials from both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) failed to end the 11-day standoff over intra-Kashmir travel and trade on Monday.
MUZAFFARABAD: A meeting between officials from both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) failed to end the 11-day standoff over intra-Kashmir travel and trade on Monday.
The 90-minute meeting was held at the Chakothi-Uri crossing point, 60km off here. The Azad Jammu Kashmir side was led by Travel and Trade Authority Director General retired Brig Mohammad Ismail. Names of the officials from India-held Kashmir could not be known.
While the AJK team reiterated its demand for return of all 49 drivers held by Indian authorities, including the one who has been booked on the charge of drug trafficking, the Indians refused to meet the demand.
Mr Ismail said they also sought findings of the investigations conducted by the Indian agencies into the alleged drug transportation, including the evidence to establish the driver’s involvement, but no “solid proof” was shared.
Instead, he added, the Indian officials reiterated their earlier stance that their law did not allow them to free a person found in possession of contraband items.
Mr Ismail said the Indians could not also provide a laboratory report about the contraband item they were referring to as brown sugar (heroin).
Another meeting is likely to be held on Jan 30.
Due to the standoff, 49 truckers from AJK and 27 from India-held Kashmir have been stuck up on each side of the LoC. Besides, 55 passengers have also been stranded as trans-LoC travel also remained suspended.
Meanwhile, Ajaz Ahmed Meer, senior vice president of the LoC Trade Union in AJK, has called upon India and Pakistan to immediately end the deadlock for the benefit of stranded passengers, drivers and traders.
Petrol price unlikely to decline
ISLAMABAD: Prices of major petroleum products are estimated to drop by up to Rs3.5 per litre later this week because of international trend and currency stabilisation, but the government is unwilling to pass on the relief to consumers.
ISLAMABAD: Prices of major petroleum products are estimated to drop by up to Rs3.5 per litre later this week because of international trend and currency stabilisation, but the government is unwilling to pass on the relief to consumers.
A government official said prices of petroleum products would remain unchanged.
He said the exchange rate has stabilised at an average of Rs105.63 per dollar from Rs109 in November and international prices have also dropped by 2-3 per cent over the past week.
He said the government had not increased oil prices for the past two months and it would absorb savings this month instead of passing on the relief to consumers.
Six Egyptians, Libyan militant freed in exchange
TRIPOLI: In a coordinated swap, Egypt released a Libyan militia commander detained over suspected links to the Muslim Brotherhood while six abducted Egyptians, including two diplomats, were released in Libya, officials in the two countries said on Monday.
TRIPOLI: In a coordinated swap, Egypt released a Libyan militia commander detained over suspected links to the Muslim Brotherhood while six abducted Egyptians, including two diplomats, were released in Libya, officials in the two countries said on Monday.
The six Egyptians — two diplomats, three embassy staffers and one Egyptian resident of Libya — were seized from their homes in a wave of attacks late Friday and early Saturday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Subsequently, one of the purported kidnappers who only identified himself as a `revolutionary’ said in a telephone call to the Al-Arabiya TV network that the Egyptians would not be freed until the militia commander, Shaaban Hadiya, was released by Egypt.
Mr Hadiya is the head of the militia known as Revolutionaries Operation Room.
Mr Hadiya announced his release himself on television.
Last year, the Libyan government blamed the group for the abduction of Prime Minister Ali Zidan, who was briefly kidnapped by gunmen in Tripoli.
On Saturday, the militia’s spokesman, Adel al Ghiryani, said that Mr Hadiya, also known as Abu Ubeida al Libi, had travelled to Egypt for medical reasons but was detained there.
Mr Al Ghiryani also denied his group was involved in the kidnapping of the Egyptians.
An Egyptian security official said authorities detained Mr Hadiya because he was the guest of the country’s Muslim Brotherhood group, which has been declared as a ‘terrorist’ organisation in the wake of the military coup that removed first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, from power last July. The official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Egypt’s Interior Ministry only said that Mr Hadiya was being held because his residency permit had expired.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelattie attributed the release of the Egyptians to official and ‘unofficial’ mediation. He did not elaborate.—Agencies
Indian lawmaker ends fast within hours
NEW DELHI: An Indian lawmaker called off hunger strike just hours into his protest on Monday, prompting ridicule over what observers called the shortest fast on record.
NEW DELHI: An Indian lawmaker called off hunger strike just hours into his protest on Monday, prompting ridicule over what observers called the shortest fast on record.
Vinod Kumar Binny initially said he would refuse food for four days to protest his expulsion from the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party which took control of Delhi’s local government after state elections last month.
Mr Binny began his protest after he had eaten his breakfast but by tea-time had announced an end to his fast on the advice of the veteran anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, who has previously gone for nearly a fortnight without food.
The announcement immediately triggered ridicule on Twitter.—AFP
PML-N’s key decision on militancy today
ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary group of PML-N will review the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s offer of talks with the government on Monday.
ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary group of PML-N will review the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s offer of talks with the government on Monday.
The Taliban reiterated on Sunday that they wanted conclusive talks with the government and asked it to create an environment conducive to the dialogue.
Information Minister Pervez Rasheed while talking to Dawn said: “We will review the fresh offer of talks of the Taliban at the first meeting of PML-N’s parliamentary group to be presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.”
Asked whether the meeting would come out with a clear decision about the dialogue or a full-fledged military operation against the Taliban, he said: “Definitely. But since such a decision will be finalised at the meeting, I cannot comment on it right now.”
Some mainstream political parties have been asking the government to call a joint session of parliament so that a decision could be made whether talks should be held with the Taliban or a military operation should be carried out against them. To that, the minister said the ruling party would review the demand of political parties.
All senators and MNAs belonging to the PML-N would attend the meeting and Mr Rasheed said that security situation, the state of economy and energy crisis would top the agenda.
Two bodies found in Washuk
KARACHI: Bullet-riddled bodies of two men were found in Washuk district on Sunday, officials said.
KARACHI: Bullet-riddled bodies of two men were found in Washuk district on Sunday, officials said.
Having been informed that two corpses were lying in Basima area of the remote district, Levies personnel reached the place and retrieved the bodies.
“Bodies were shifted to the hospital for autopsy and identification,” Levies officials said, adding that the victims were 25 to 30 years old.
Quoting hospital sources, Levies officials said the victims carried bullet wounds in their head and chest.
Meanwhile, two more bodies would be recovered from Totak area of Khuzdar district after three were found on Saturday.
Levies personnel also retrieved some body parts from the same area.
The source said on Sunday that two places had been spotted from where the bodies would be recovered.
A Home Department official said: “Bodies are unidentifiable and over a month old.”
Annan in Iran to facilitate dialogue
TEHRAN: Former UN chief Kofi Annan, head of a group of ex-global leaders known as the Elders, on Sunday started a visit aimed at boosting dialogue between Iran and the international community, media reported.
TEHRAN: Former UN chief Kofi Annan, head of a group of ex-global leaders known as the Elders, on Sunday started a visit aimed at boosting dialogue between Iran and the international community, media reported.
Mr Annan is accompanied by Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu and Mexican ex-president Ernesto Zedillo.
The group, formed in 2007, is made up of 12 global leaders who try “to promote peace, justice and human rights”, according to its website.
It said the group will hold private meetings with Iranian officials.
Iranian media reported they would start the three-day trip by visiting the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic.
The group sees “recent positive developments as a historic and strategic opportunity to end decades of animosity between Iran and the international community”, the website said on Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that he would host the delegation.—AFP
Suicide attack near Afghan military bus kills four
KABUL: A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up near an Afghan military bus in Kabul on Sunday, killing four people in the latest attack in the Afghan capital in the final year of Nato combat operations.
KABUL: A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up near an Afghan military bus in Kabul on Sunday, killing four people in the latest attack in the Afghan capital in the final year of Nato combat operations.
Two military officers and two civilians died when the bomber, who was on foot, targeted the bus taking defence ministry staff to work.
The attack followed an improvised explosive device (IED) blast on Saturday evening in which two people were wounded and a massive suicide attack on a restaurant a week ago that killed 21 people, including 13 foreigners.
At least 22 people were also injured, including two civilians, he added. A Taliban spokesman using a recognised Twitter account claimed responsibility for the blast in the southeast of the city shortly after 7am.
The militants claimed 27 Afghan troops had been killed or wounded.
Nato combat forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan this year after more than a decade of fighting the Taliban, but negotiations have stalled over a deal to allow some US and Nato troops to stay after 2014.
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday signalled that talks over the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) were close to collapse after he made a surprise decision last year not to promptly sign an agreed text.
Washington has become increasingly frustrated by Mr Karzai’s manoeuvring over the deal, with some US politicians pushing for a complete US pullout by December.
“Afghanistan will absolutely not accept or sign anything under pressure,” Mr Karzai told a press conference on Saturday.
“If they want to leave, then they can go and we will continue our lives...Our main condition is the practical start of the peace process.
“The start of a peace process would mean that no foreigners can benefit from the continuation of war.” The US had earlier wanted the BSA to be signed by the end of October so that the Nato military coalition could schedule the withdrawal of its troops.
About 58,000 Nato-led combat troops who are still in Afghanistan are due to leave by the end of 2014.
Washington is proposing that 5,000 to 10,000 US soldiers are deployed from 2015 to train and assist Afghan security forces in their battle against militants.
Afghanistan’s fledgling security forces face a difficult year in 2014 as militants attempt to disrupt elections on April 5 that will choose a successor to President Karzai, and as Nato’s combat mission winds down.
Signing the BSA is also a precondition for the delivery of billions of dollars in Western aid for Afghanistan, but Mr Karzai dismissed suggestions that the aid was essential to future development.
The president has had a tempestuous relationship with the US and other foreign allies since he came to power in 2001, often sparking outrage with his criticism of international efforts to help the country.—AFP
Three JI men shot dead in Bangladesh
DHAKA: Three activists from Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party were shot dead in clashes with security forces on Sunday, officials said.
DHAKA: Three activists from Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party were shot dead in clashes with security forces on Sunday, officials said.
Police said the three were killed during two gunbattles between security forces and activists from Jamaat-i-Islami in two southeastern towns. Some officers were injured in the clashes.
“They threw bombs at us and the joint forces opened fire in self-defence. A gunfight ensued,” local police chief Shahjahan Ali said.
Jamaat said the men were arrested and taken to remote places where they were shot dead execution-style.
On Sunday, one of the bodies, that of a Jamaat official and teacher, was found outside a school at Noudaga village near the town of Kotchandpur. Police said he was killed after Jamaat activists attacked security forces at around 1.30am.
Motiar Rahman, a Jamaat spokesman, rejected the police account and said the gunfight never took place.
“He was picked up by plainclothes policemen from the town headquarters a day before. We immediately informed the local press club and police. The forces took him near a school at Noudaga village and shot him three times in his chest, shoulder and waist,” he said.
Police said two young Islamists accused of murdering a ruling party official were also killed during gunfights between security forces and Jamaat activists in the town of Debhata on Sunday.
Jamaat denied any gunfight, saying the pair were targeted for killing.—AFP
Temple under threat
THE tower stands isolated and lonely just 10 kilometres east of the city of Rahimyar Khan. Once this was in the middle of a sandy wilderness which has since greened into new farmland. Locals have forever called it Pattan Minara — tower on the ford — and believe it was a lighthouse to guide rivercraft approaching a now lost city.
THE tower stands isolated and lonely just 10 kilometres east of the city of Rahimyar Khan. Once this was in the middle of a sandy wilderness which has since greened into new farmland. Locals have forever called it Pattan Minara — tower on the ford — and believe it was a lighthouse to guide rivercraft approaching a now lost city.
Indeed, situated on the abandoned bed of a long-lost river, it does seem to be just that. But anyone versed in the tradition of Hindu temple architecture in Punjab and Kashmir would know that the building is a temple dating back to the 11th century CE.
On its three facades, this mysterious building has decorations similar to those found in the Hindu Shahya temples of Punjab’s Salt Range. Here too the elevation of the temple is represented on the three facades and the omega-shaped device representing the Buddhist cella is repeated together with lovely floral motifs. The entire ornamentation is created by the use of cut bricks.
Above the ruinous decorated part of the building is a second floor. This plain, unadorned part is clearly a later addition for it is of much inferior construction. Before the recent restoration work, it was easy to note that the top floor had cantilevered balconies at least on three sides. Some of the woodwork of these balconies was extant until the mid-1990s.
It seems that at some remote time when the Sikhara, or steeple, had collapsed and the temple was no longer in use, the new room was added to serve very likely as a lookout post. But all this is recent: a cursory examination of the site by the Punjab Archaeology Department shows that Pattan Minara and its vicinity have been occupied for a considerable period of time. It is likely that the wasteland around the building was once a thriving city. However, a great deal of work needs to be done before that can be fully established.
To add to the mystery of Pattan Minara, the gazetteer of Bahawalpur gives us an interesting anecdote. In the 1890s, one Colonel Minchin carried out an exploratory dig at this site and uncovered a pot containing a foul-smelling liquid. Swarming on it was a bunch of very peculiar flies that stung some of the workers, killing them on the spot. The gazetteer then lapses into silence as if to magnify the mystery.
Clearly Pattan Minara is a monument to be protected and investigated.
In 2004, relying on the record of rights, the district’s revenue department allocated a large tract of government land to the military for further allotment to retiring officers. Consequently, much of the area around the monument ended up as private holding and came under cultivation. It was not realised that irrigation so close to it was bound to undermine the monument.
A local NGO, Jaag Welfare Association, lobbied for the annulment of the allocation and in 2008, the DCO pledged to reverse the allotment by offering the owner an alternative block of agricultural land. The DCO also pledged to earmark 84 acres surrounding the monument as part of the complex that could not be encroached upon for building or agriculture.
ANOTHER THREAT: However, even before that could come to pass, about eight years ago, this priceless piece of the country’s built heritage came under another threat. A large complex of sewage treatment tanks was built 300 metres from the temple with an overflow conduit directed to discharge excess treated water into the depression around the tower.
The NGO sprang into action again, and the mischief of flooding the area around Pattan Minara with partially treated sewage was halted. Meanwhile, the DCO moved to another assignment and the matter was shelved. Currently, even if the monument faces no threat from the sewage treatment plant, it is encroached upon by agriculture. If it goes unchecked, hutments for farm labour will soon swamp the monument and it will no longer be visible from afar as it has been for so long.
But again there’s hope. The present DCO is keen on heritage preservation and has moved to reclaim the land around Pattan Minara and hand it over to the projected district heritage committee. Those who stand for Pattan Minara’s preservation wait with bated breath to see if the files will move faster in Rahimyar Khan to save the monument, or shift a well-meaning DCO and relegate the case to the deep freeze once again.
Karzai asks US to start talks with Taliban or leave
KABUL: President Hamid Karzai appeared to stiffen his resolve on Saturday not to sign a security pact with Washington, saying the United States should leave Afghanistan unless it could restart peace talks with the Taliban.
KABUL: President Hamid Karzai appeared to stiffen his resolve on Saturday not to sign a security pact with Washington, saying the United States should leave Afghanistan unless it could restart peace talks with the Taliban.
“In exchange for this agreement, we want peace for the people of Afghanistan. Otherwise, it’s better for them to leave and our country will find its own way,” Mr Karzai told a news conference.
The president said pressing ahead with talks with the Taliban, in power from 1996-2001, was critical to ensure that Afghanistan was not left with a weak central government.
“Starting peace talks is a condition because we want to be confident that after the signing of the security agreement, Afghanistan will not be divided into fiefdoms,” he said.
Most diplomats now agree that Mr Karzai is unlikely to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would allow for some form of US military presence in Afghanistan after the end of 2014, when most troops are due to leave.
Along with reviving peace talks with the Taliban, Mr Karzai is also demanding an end to all US military operations on Afghan homes and villages, including strikes by pilotless drones. The United States has threatened to pull all of its troops out unless a deal is signed in good time, but embassies are examining alternative solutions that would enable the Nato-led mission to continue.
Mr Karzai’s defiant tone struck a chord with those in the West who have already decided that further discussion with the president may be pointless and waiting for his successor to be elected is the best option.
“The more people speak about it being signed after the election, the more irrelevant he becomes,” said one diplomat. “Sad as it is, we might have to bank on the next guy.”
But representatives from some countries say this would not leave enough time for them to prepare for a post-2014 mission. Afghans are due to vote in a presidential election on April 5, but it could take weeks for Mr Karzai’s successor to assume power if a run-off round is required.
Mr Karzai initially agreed to a text of the pact in November and an assembly of elders called on him to sign it. But he has since refused to sign.
In his comments to reporters, the Afghan president also denounced the use of advertising – some paid for by the United States – that lobbies for signature of the BSA.
“To harm the psyche and soul of the people of Afghanistan, there is serious propaganda going on,” said Mr Karzai, referring to the advertisements broadcast for weeks by local media but now taken off the air.
“No pressure, no threat, no psychological war can force us to sign the BSA. If they want to leave, they should leave today. We will continue our living.”—Reuters
Editorial News
The regional reality
DESPITE both sides occasionally trying to project the relationship as more than the sum of its parts, Pak-US ties in 2014 and beyond are almost certain to be shaped by events in Afghanistan. Of course, for Pakistan at least, the importance of what happens next in Afghanistan extends far beyond its implications for the relationship and perhaps even holds the key to the stability of Pakistan itself. So while talk about security assistance and energy cooperation between the US and Pakistan are important, the focus must be elsewhere: on “advancing regional peace and stability” as the relevant section of the ministerial joint statement read.
DESPITE both sides occasionally trying to project the relationship as more than the sum of its parts, Pak-US ties in 2014 and beyond are almost certain to be shaped by events in Afghanistan. Of course, for Pakistan at least, the importance of what happens next in Afghanistan extends far beyond its implications for the relationship and perhaps even holds the key to the stability of Pakistan itself. So while talk about security assistance and energy cooperation between the US and Pakistan are important, the focus must be elsewhere: on “advancing regional peace and stability” as the relevant section of the ministerial joint statement read.
In that section, there is reference to a “peaceful, stable, independent and united Afghanistan” (independent seems to be a new addition to the ever-flexible definition of the desired end-state in Afghanistan); “a policy of non-interference in Afghanistan, including by all countries of the region”; “Afghan-led peace and reconciliation”; “Pakistan’s important role in supporting Afghan-led reconciliation”; “improved border control”; and to “call on the Taliban to join the political process and enter into dialogue with the Afghan government”. For good measure, there is reference to “the potential for enhanced stability and prosperity from improved bilateral relations between Pakistan and India. Reading between those lines a familiar bottom line emerges: the US and Pakistan talk a good talk, but little concrete is achieved when it comes to ensuring a stable Afghanistan post-2014. With all eyes on the upcoming Afghan presidential elections and the mercurial President Hamid Karzai appearing more determined than ever to keep everyone guessing about what he’ll do next, there’s no certainty about what the Afghan government will look like in a few months’ time.
Still, there is some good news: ostensibly at least, the US and Pakistan have been able to find some common ground when it comes to agreeing that every option should be explored to prevent Afghanistan plunging into turmoil in the immediate years ahead. Both the US and Pakistan stand to lose if Afghanistan descends into chaos. For Pakistan, there is the added burden of knowing that it cannot physically insulate itself from an unstable Afghanistan the way a superpower located several continents away can. But knowledge of what an unravelling Afghanistan could spell for both sides does not mean the US and Pakistan will jointly do what it will take to avoid the worst-case outcome. Both the US and Pakistan have legitimate security interests at stake — keeping each other engaged and working quietly but persistently (as reflected in the resumption of the strategic dialogue) could help yield a mutually beneficial outcome instead of a mutually disastrous one.
Saving our heritage
THE official approach to preserving heritage in Pakistan has largely been marked by negligence and apathy. It would not be wrong to say that the state and most of society are barely concerned as our heritage crumbles. Take, for example, the method which the management of the Taxila Museum has employed to clear vegetation around the Sirkap World Heritage Site. Instead of hiring landscapers to prune the shrubbery or using other non-destructive methods, those in charge of the area, as reported in this paper, have resorted to setting the vegetation on fire to clear the land. This has resulted in damage being caused to some of the walls of the ancient site. Unesco officials say they are organising a programme to familiarise archaeologists with methods of managing vegetation at ancient sites; let us hope such methods become part of procedure in order to help preserve the monuments at Sirkap.
THE official approach to preserving heritage in Pakistan has largely been marked by negligence and apathy. It would not be wrong to say that the state and most of society are barely concerned as our heritage crumbles. Take, for example, the method which the management of the Taxila Museum has employed to clear vegetation around the Sirkap World Heritage Site. Instead of hiring landscapers to prune the shrubbery or using other non-destructive methods, those in charge of the area, as reported in this paper, have resorted to setting the vegetation on fire to clear the land. This has resulted in damage being caused to some of the walls of the ancient site. Unesco officials say they are organising a programme to familiarise archaeologists with methods of managing vegetation at ancient sites; let us hope such methods become part of procedure in order to help preserve the monuments at Sirkap.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government is planning to kick off the Sindh Festival at the 5,000-year-old site of Moenjodaro on Saturday. The festival, described as a “cultural coup”, is being spearheaded by PPP head Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and seeks to raise awareness about Pakistan’s culture, particularly that of Sindh. However, some citizens have raised concerns about possible damage that may be caused to Moenjodaro by the festival organisers. In a letter to Unesco’s Islamabad office, the citizens have said digging was being carried out by “non-technical staff” and the work at the ancient site could “destroy already weakened ruins and structures”. Also, in reply to a petition regarding the opening ceremony at the site, the Sindh High Court on Thursday ordered the provincial culture department to ensure no harm comes to Moenjodaro’s archaeological treasures. The organisers’ intentions of preserving and promoting Sindh’s culture may indeed be good. Yet good intentions alone — without being backed by proper planning — may end up doing more harm than good. Already Moenjodaro has suffered from the elements and improper restoration work; utmost care must be taken to preserve what is left of this marvel of ancient urban planning. Sindh’s rich culture needs to be promoted. It should be done in a sustainable manner.
Grey traffic
THERE are times when the determination to make money through any means possible finds ingenious methods. Consider, for example, the matter of grey traffic that has become a problem in recent years. This refers to international telephone calls made to Pakistan that are hijacked by illegal gateway exchanges off the legal routes and sent on to the receiver, to whom it appears that the call is being made from a domestic phone. In 2012, the country’s 14 long distance international operators set up the International Clearing House so that all incoming telephone traffic is terminated by foreign carriers through PTCL, the state-owned telephony organisation, which earns from the traffic. But grey traffic bypasses this system, and given the disparity between tariffs for domestic and international calls, the money that can be made is immense. Instead of the state, however, these millions are going to those who operate the illegal gateway exchanges — amongst them, allegedly, some who have been in government. The issue has attained such proportions that, as reported yesterday, some 95pc of calls to Pakistan originating in Saudi Arabia are being routed either through grey traffickers or a third country, with hijackers making the most of a disagreement between the two countries’ operators over rates. Reportedly, even the family members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have complained of receiving calls from Saudi Arabia that appear as domestic numbers, causing him to direct the authorities to look into the matter.
THERE are times when the determination to make money through any means possible finds ingenious methods. Consider, for example, the matter of grey traffic that has become a problem in recent years. This refers to international telephone calls made to Pakistan that are hijacked by illegal gateway exchanges off the legal routes and sent on to the receiver, to whom it appears that the call is being made from a domestic phone. In 2012, the country’s 14 long distance international operators set up the International Clearing House so that all incoming telephone traffic is terminated by foreign carriers through PTCL, the state-owned telephony organisation, which earns from the traffic. But grey traffic bypasses this system, and given the disparity between tariffs for domestic and international calls, the money that can be made is immense. Instead of the state, however, these millions are going to those who operate the illegal gateway exchanges — amongst them, allegedly, some who have been in government. The issue has attained such proportions that, as reported yesterday, some 95pc of calls to Pakistan originating in Saudi Arabia are being routed either through grey traffickers or a third country, with hijackers making the most of a disagreement between the two countries’ operators over rates. Reportedly, even the family members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have complained of receiving calls from Saudi Arabia that appear as domestic numbers, causing him to direct the authorities to look into the matter.
Efforts to address the problem have been made, with the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority having launched an awareness campaign asking people to report any grey numbers received on their phones, information that has led to raids being carried out and some illegal exchanges being shut down. The government has also asked mobile phone operators to set up grey traffic monitoring divisions and to block doubtful SIMs. More urgent efforts are needed, however. Improving technology will only facilitate such illegalities, and the country has to learn to keep up.
Back to square one
UNEXPECTEDLY, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went to parliament yesterday and spoke from the floor of the National Assembly about his government’s plans to combat terrorism and militancy. Then, in line with much of the hype and speculation of recent days, he proceeded to deliver a speech that appeared to be heading towards the only logical conclusion: the dialogue option was being discarded in favour of the use of force against the TTP. But, befitting a prime minister who is giving new meaning to the terms secretiveness and holding one’s cards close to one’s chest, Mr Sharif sprang a surprise that virtually no one saw coming. The government is appointing a four-member committee to give the dialogue option one more chance, the prime minister announced.
UNEXPECTEDLY, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went to parliament yesterday and spoke from the floor of the National Assembly about his government’s plans to combat terrorism and militancy. Then, in line with much of the hype and speculation of recent days, he proceeded to deliver a speech that appeared to be heading towards the only logical conclusion: the dialogue option was being discarded in favour of the use of force against the TTP. But, befitting a prime minister who is giving new meaning to the terms secretiveness and holding one’s cards close to one’s chest, Mr Sharif sprang a surprise that virtually no one saw coming. The government is appointing a four-member committee to give the dialogue option one more chance, the prime minister announced.
If the decision itself was a complete surprise, less surprising were the details: there were none. No deadlines, no red lines, no clarity about who will be reached out to, no specifics about the mandate of the four-member committee — virtually nothing other than the old platitudes about sincere efforts and genuine intentions on the part of the government. Mr Sharif did say that it was unacceptable for the TTP to continue its campaign of violence if the dialogue option is to remain on the table, but, given the litany of attacks since September that the prime minister himself recounted, why is the TTP now supposed to take the prime minister seriously on this count? If all the TTP violence since the dialogue option was endorsed by the APC last September has not taken talks off the table as yet, why would the government wrap up its brand new initiative were a few — even many — more attacks to occur in the days ahead?
Not only does the latest reworking of the government’s anti-militancy strategy look even less like a strategy than the dithering of the past few months, it raises some fundamental questions about the PML-N’s approach to politics and policymaking. Of the four members tasked with helping the government achieve what is by the government’s own admission its principal policy concern, not a single one is a politician. That is a quite remarkable, if implicit, indictment of the PML-N leadership’s trust and faith in the overall political class. And what of the PML-N parliamentarians themselves, who were summoned to a special parliamentary party meeting at the start of the week and whose opinion was sought on what the government needs to do now to address the terror threat? Not only was the general thrust of the PML-N parliamentarians’ advice ignored, they were clearly not even informed of their own leadership’s plans to try and reinvigorate the dialogue option. That hardly bodes well for the transparency Mr Sharif promised in the dialogue process with the TTP.
Dead men can tell tales
ONCE again, there are grim tidings from Balochistan. Barely a few days after the horrific attack on a bus of Shia pilgrims in Mastung, 13 bodies have been found in two locations in Tutak, Khuzdar district. According to reports, local shepherds made the grisly discovery when they came upon two half-buried bodies in a desolate area. After the Levies and Frontier Corps personnel were informed, the bodies were removed from the shallow grave; further digging unearthed 11 more corpses from the site. Given the advanced stage of decomposition, DNA samples were taken to establish the victims’ identity and the bodies were shifted to the district hospital for post-mortem. Aside from the certainty of foul play, one can only speculate at this point as to identity and motive — particularly as Khuzdar district is one of the most volatile parts of the province. Feudal rivalries — both inter and intra — are rife here, and criminal gangs that often enjoy the patronage of local feudals engage in kidnappings, dacoities, etc. Significantly, Khuzdar is also a hotbed of the Baloch insurgency, with a marked security presence, and a large number of enforced disappearances have allegedly taken place here. The hearts of many a family member of the ‘missing’ Baloch must have skipped a beat when the discovery of the bodies came to light.
ONCE again, there are grim tidings from Balochistan. Barely a few days after the horrific attack on a bus of Shia pilgrims in Mastung, 13 bodies have been found in two locations in Tutak, Khuzdar district. According to reports, local shepherds made the grisly discovery when they came upon two half-buried bodies in a desolate area. After the Levies and Frontier Corps personnel were informed, the bodies were removed from the shallow grave; further digging unearthed 11 more corpses from the site. Given the advanced stage of decomposition, DNA samples were taken to establish the victims’ identity and the bodies were shifted to the district hospital for post-mortem. Aside from the certainty of foul play, one can only speculate at this point as to identity and motive — particularly as Khuzdar district is one of the most volatile parts of the province. Feudal rivalries — both inter and intra — are rife here, and criminal gangs that often enjoy the patronage of local feudals engage in kidnappings, dacoities, etc. Significantly, Khuzdar is also a hotbed of the Baloch insurgency, with a marked security presence, and a large number of enforced disappearances have allegedly taken place here. The hearts of many a family member of the ‘missing’ Baloch must have skipped a beat when the discovery of the bodies came to light.
In such a charged situation, it is scarcely surprising that exaggerated versions of the story have begun doing the rounds. The state is increasingly perceived as being accountable to no one but itself. This impression is enhanced, ironically enough, by the protracted and largely unsuccessful efforts of the Supreme Court to compel security operatives to operate within the ambit of the law and produce before it those individuals that have allegedly been forcibly disappeared. The recently enacted Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, along with its yet more draconian amendment, appears to further institutionalise the state’s impunity. It is imperative that the Balochistan government take proactive measures to investigate the circumstances behind the men’s death in a transparent, credible manner and expose those responsible, even though the truth may be an inconvenient one. The facts of this case must not remain half-buried in the murk of ‘national security imperatives’.
Greed for shahtoosh
NO dowry amongst certain sections of the subcontinent’s elites is complete without it. Incredibly soft and warm, shahtoosh shawls are often so finely woven that the entire length of fabric can be run through a ring. Mothers pass it down to their daughters, grandmothers’ eyes glisten as they recall happy evenings in its warm embrace and men sport more sober specimens of it, in the age-old game of displaying their wealth — tastefully in this case. In fact, the price of a particularly fine sample can touch the million-rupee mark. For good reason does shahtoosh get its name from the Persian term for ‘king of wools’; and it seems that the wealthy just can’t get enough of it.
NO dowry amongst certain sections of the subcontinent’s elites is complete without it. Incredibly soft and warm, shahtoosh shawls are often so finely woven that the entire length of fabric can be run through a ring. Mothers pass it down to their daughters, grandmothers’ eyes glisten as they recall happy evenings in its warm embrace and men sport more sober specimens of it, in the age-old game of displaying their wealth — tastefully in this case. In fact, the price of a particularly fine sample can touch the million-rupee mark. For good reason does shahtoosh get its name from the Persian term for ‘king of wools’; and it seems that the wealthy just can’t get enough of it.
The problem is, the shahtoosh wool that is used to weave the shawls comes from the Tibetan antelope locally known as the chiru. And the demand for the shawls is so great that the animal has been hunted to near extinction. For the fur to be harvested, the animal has to be killed, and it takes wool from three or four antelopes to create a single shawl — thus, they have been killed in large numbers. In Nepal, they are already extinct. And while the chiru is protected under international law, and both Pakistan and India, which are amongst the countries that host the small remaining migratory population, have laws to bring to an end the trade in these shawls, sales have proved impossible to stamp out. On Tuesday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wildlife department issued a reminder that trade in the shawls was a punishable offence, and that strict action would be taken against those involved in it. Unfortunately, much success in this endeavour cannot be expected until the demand goes down — and for that to happen, wealthy circles need to develop a conscience. They need to understand that shahtoosh shawls come at a cost to endangered wildlife, one that is much higher than the hundreds of thousands of rupees paid for a single shawl.
Indecision yet again
THERE was a brief flicker of hope — and then, just as quickly, it was dashed on the rocks of reality. With a new session of parliament summoned for Monday — a much-delayed session and the first since the surge in terrorism and militancy across the country in recent weeks — there was talk in the air of the government finally getting serious about its militancy policy and the prime minister himself gracing the National Assembly with his presence to announce his government’s strategy going forward. In the end, no such thing happened and the lifeless parliament limped on with barely any interest from the government side, with the opposition trying and failing to inject new urgency into the parliamentary process.
THERE was a brief flicker of hope — and then, just as quickly, it was dashed on the rocks of reality. With a new session of parliament summoned for Monday — a much-delayed session and the first since the surge in terrorism and militancy across the country in recent weeks — there was talk in the air of the government finally getting serious about its militancy policy and the prime minister himself gracing the National Assembly with his presence to announce his government’s strategy going forward. In the end, no such thing happened and the lifeless parliament limped on with barely any interest from the government side, with the opposition trying and failing to inject new urgency into the parliamentary process.
By now, the prime minister’s aversion to appearing in parliament — always well known in the past — has taken on an entirely new dimension. It is nothing short of astonishing that the day Nawaz Sharif convened a session of his party’s parliamentarians, he was unable to make the short hop to parliament itself. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan offered the feeble excuse in parliament that the prime minister had decided to have further consultations on the government’s approach to dealing with militancy and that the prime minister would appear in parliament soon. But delay by consultation and death by committees and APCs are the oldest tricks in a politician’s handbook when they do not want to take a decision. The interior minister’s rambling speech gave little hope that the government is any closer to a decision point.
The question that ought to be asked of the government is a simple one: if not now, then when? When will this government be ready to decide on how to push back against the rising tide of violence? If events in the new year are not enough to trigger an immediate and sure response, then what levels of violence is the government willing to let the public and the security forces be subjected to before deciding to act? The interior minister’s waffling on the dialogue option was almost cringe-worthy: talking about talks never was a policy and never will be an effective policy. Within the PML-N too, as evidenced by Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid’s tougher line while speaking to journalists and by reports of what transpired in the meeting of PML-N parliamentarians, there seems to be some understanding of the urgency of the situation. Surely, while consensus may be desirable, the fight against militancy cannot be held hostage to it indefinitely. Prime Minister, the country awaits your leadership.
‘Big three’ proposal at ICC
THE simmering ‘big three’ row in cricket involving India, England and Australia poses, perhaps, the biggest threat to the game since the apartheid saga in 1970 which saw South Africa being banned from playing international cricket for 21 years. The three nations, ranked among the richest in world cricket, have raised a storm by announcing their plans to effectively seize control of the game which would also entail restructuring the governing body, the International Cricket Council. A draft proposal of the plan, being tabled at the ICC meeting in Dubai this week, needs seven votes from the 10 leading cricket-playing nations to become final. Going by reports received so far, it appears that while Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are more or less determined to oppose the plan, nations like New Zealand and the West Indies are eager to please the ‘big three’. Pakistan’s response has been rather cautious to date although Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf, prior to his departure for the ICC meeting, reiterated that he would vote for whatever was in Pakistan’s best interest. Informed sources confirm that the plan, which may create serious divisions in the world of cricket, is the brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. This comes as no surprise given the BCCI’s recent record of flouting ICC rules at will and its frequent claims of generating about 80pc of the game’s global revenue.
THE simmering ‘big three’ row in cricket involving India, England and Australia poses, perhaps, the biggest threat to the game since the apartheid saga in 1970 which saw South Africa being banned from playing international cricket for 21 years. The three nations, ranked among the richest in world cricket, have raised a storm by announcing their plans to effectively seize control of the game which would also entail restructuring the governing body, the International Cricket Council. A draft proposal of the plan, being tabled at the ICC meeting in Dubai this week, needs seven votes from the 10 leading cricket-playing nations to become final. Going by reports received so far, it appears that while Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are more or less determined to oppose the plan, nations like New Zealand and the West Indies are eager to please the ‘big three’. Pakistan’s response has been rather cautious to date although Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf, prior to his departure for the ICC meeting, reiterated that he would vote for whatever was in Pakistan’s best interest. Informed sources confirm that the plan, which may create serious divisions in the world of cricket, is the brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. This comes as no surprise given the BCCI’s recent record of flouting ICC rules at will and its frequent claims of generating about 80pc of the game’s global revenue.
What is perplexing, however, is the stance of the England and Wales Cricket Board and that of Cricket Australia. The two leading cricket boards, during the past, have often aired their displeasure at the aggression displayed by the BCCI and its officials and have denounced the board’s intentions to dominate the game through its immense wealth. On the other hand, many former players and high-ranking officials, including ex-ICC presidents Malcolm Speed, Ehsan Mani and Malcolm Gray, have strongly condemned the plan and the ‘big three’s’ abuse of power for private gain. With the players associations in most countries, including Australia, asking the ICC to reject the proposal, the debate looks set to go down the wire before a decision is made.
Book launch thwarted
IT is never advisable for governments to get into the business of banning books. And if the literature in question is written to counter the extremist narrative that is beginning to dominate, as Malala Yousafzai’s I am Malala attempts to do, then official obstructions to prevent the launch of such material can only be termed utterly appalling. As reported, the authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have thwarted the launch of Malala’s book which was supposed to take place yesterday at the University of Peshawar. The PTI-led KP government apparently got cold feet as ministers and university officials pressured the organisers to cancel the event. The police, too, said they would be unable to provide security. This sets a disturbing precedent, especially when we consider that a seat of higher learning was involved. As one of the organisers observed, “It is against the spirit of freedom of expression and promotion of education”. But there is an even graver problem. The KP government’s buckling under pressure reflects a sense of fear that is palpable across Pakistan — the fear of ‘offending’ the militants. The state is ceding more and more ground to the extremists, allowing them to decide what is and is not okay for public consumption. Such resignation and retreat on part of the state is unacceptable.
IT is never advisable for governments to get into the business of banning books. And if the literature in question is written to counter the extremist narrative that is beginning to dominate, as Malala Yousafzai’s I am Malala attempts to do, then official obstructions to prevent the launch of such material can only be termed utterly appalling. As reported, the authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have thwarted the launch of Malala’s book which was supposed to take place yesterday at the University of Peshawar. The PTI-led KP government apparently got cold feet as ministers and university officials pressured the organisers to cancel the event. The police, too, said they would be unable to provide security. This sets a disturbing precedent, especially when we consider that a seat of higher learning was involved. As one of the organisers observed, “It is against the spirit of freedom of expression and promotion of education”. But there is an even graver problem. The KP government’s buckling under pressure reflects a sense of fear that is palpable across Pakistan — the fear of ‘offending’ the militants. The state is ceding more and more ground to the extremists, allowing them to decide what is and is not okay for public consumption. Such resignation and retreat on part of the state is unacceptable.
Malala has been feted by the world for her courageous stand against extremism and activism for women’s education. She has been welcomed in world capitals and august global forums. Should we not hang our heads in shame because she cannot be appreciated in her own country and province? Let us be clear: Malala is someone the people of KP can be proud of, a symbol of the potential of the troubled province’s youth. PTI chief Imran Khan has expressed disappointment at the cancellation of the launch. He would do well to convince the KP government to reschedule the event and facilitate it so that it goes ahead without a hitch.
Unmet development goals
WE can only agree with the assessment of Haoliang Xu, UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, when he says that there is no “sense of urgency” in Pakistan at the national level to deal with this country’s socio-economic crises. To illustrate his point, the UN official, while speaking to this newspaper, highlighted Pakistan’s poor performance where the Millennium Development Goals are concerned. Instead of pushing us further into despondency, such observations, bitter as they are to digest, should prompt us to take remedial measures. Frankly speaking, our performance in the field of socio-economic development is nothing short of shameful. Taking the MDGs as a benchmark, it would be interesting to see how many of our MNAs, for example, could name even a single of the eight goals. The fact is that the state, the politicians, much of civil society and the general population are simply not concerned about human development.
WE can only agree with the assessment of Haoliang Xu, UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, when he says that there is no “sense of urgency” in Pakistan at the national level to deal with this country’s socio-economic crises. To illustrate his point, the UN official, while speaking to this newspaper, highlighted Pakistan’s poor performance where the Millennium Development Goals are concerned. Instead of pushing us further into despondency, such observations, bitter as they are to digest, should prompt us to take remedial measures. Frankly speaking, our performance in the field of socio-economic development is nothing short of shameful. Taking the MDGs as a benchmark, it would be interesting to see how many of our MNAs, for example, could name even a single of the eight goals. The fact is that the state, the politicians, much of civil society and the general population are simply not concerned about human development.
We are in no position to meet the MDGs by 2015. Ever since the global community under the aegis of the UN pledged to meet the goals back in 2000, Pakistan has had only marginal success. For example, UNDP figures show that this country is on track to achieve nine MDG indicators, while we are off track on 25. While Punjab is faring better than other provinces, it is nevertheless true that Pakistan’s most populous province is off track on most indicators. Balochistan, which is at the bottom of the table nationally, has miserable figures all around. In the province, 43pc of children are underweight (against a target of 20pc) while Balochistan’s infant and maternal mortality figures are equally depressing.
It is, ultimately, a matter of priorities. For our state and society, goals like eradicating hunger, achieving universal primary education or ensuring environmental sustainability are evidently not worth focusing on. It is strange that official delegations make it a point to attend international conferences on the MDGs every year, yet the state has very little to show when it comes to actual progress on the goals. Even at a societal level the emphasis is on charity; we are not interested in teaching men to fish, we would much rather give them fish, and that too in unequal measure. Comparatively, others in the region, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are making good progress in meeting the goals. There is still time to act before poverty, illiteracy, hunger and disease combine to completely paralyse the functioning of the state. For this, we will need to reorient ourselves towards achieving social and economic justice. It may be unpalatable to listen to those who say that Pakistan is in “terminal decline”, yet such assessments might prove true unless the rulers and people of this country choose to change the narrative.
How undertrials disappear
IT is not just weak prosecution that allows the accused in Pakistan to sneak out routinely: the police here have perfected many other, simpler options for easily losing suspects. Frequently, undertrial prisoners miraculously unlock their handcuffs, scale walls and disappear into thin air unnoticed by their police escort. Cases have been registered, the ‘negligent’ policemen have been reprimanded and suspended and long-drawn-out inquiries conducted — to little effect. Scenes outside courts across the country confirm there are far too many undertrials for the ever vulnerable police force to handle. Corruption, incompetence, fear of the better-armed criminals, there may be many reasons why fleeing from custody by the men on trial is so uncomplicated. While a couple of in-house inquiries into some such escapes in Okara and Rawalpindi do not go deep into the details of all contributing factors, there are suggestions of a few measures to avoid future incidents.
IT is not just weak prosecution that allows the accused in Pakistan to sneak out routinely: the police here have perfected many other, simpler options for easily losing suspects. Frequently, undertrial prisoners miraculously unlock their handcuffs, scale walls and disappear into thin air unnoticed by their police escort. Cases have been registered, the ‘negligent’ policemen have been reprimanded and suspended and long-drawn-out inquiries conducted — to little effect. Scenes outside courts across the country confirm there are far too many undertrials for the ever vulnerable police force to handle. Corruption, incompetence, fear of the better-armed criminals, there may be many reasons why fleeing from custody by the men on trial is so uncomplicated. While a couple of in-house inquiries into some such escapes in Okara and Rawalpindi do not go deep into the details of all contributing factors, there are suggestions of a few measures to avoid future incidents.
Some of these proposed steps reflect the desperation within the force to live up to its reputation as the first-stage arbiter of the law. The authors of one of these reports appear to reassert the police’s right to act as arbiter at a basic level when they ask for restoring to the police the power to fetter prisoners. On a more reasonable note, they call for video trials but the extent of the problem is truly revealed in suggestions such as those which seek better-quality handcuffs as a way of preventing prisoner escapes. This is just one of the many other aspects highlighted by the reports — one whose discovery should not really have required investigation by senior policemen. And since the issues have been pretty clear to all concerned for long, these two findings do not inspire too much hope of urgent action and reform. There is a danger of this initiative meeting the fate of most such probes in the country. It may again prove to be the ritual that must follow a goof-up somewhere. Given this record the chances of substantial remedy following a more formal diagnosis are not very bright, unless someone is actually ready to break from the past and impart clear meaning to these inquiries.
Violence in Cairo
IT is difficult not to consider the pro-military rallies in Egypt stage-managed or at least encouraged by the state. On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square to demonstrate in favour of army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi running for president. The same day 49 people were killed in clashes between the police and anti-army protesters who included both Islamists and secularists. In a televised speech on Sunday, acting President Adly Mansour announced the election schedule, advancing the presidential polls to April followed by parliamentary elections in July. This is a favourite ploy of all military rulers. Once in the saddle, Gen Sisi will then be able to manipulate the parliamentary polls and further tighten his grip. The state-run media is now welcoming pro-Sisi rallies, and there is no doubt he will win an election that will be anything but transparent. The situation on the ground, however, is different.
IT is difficult not to consider the pro-military rallies in Egypt stage-managed or at least encouraged by the state. On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square to demonstrate in favour of army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi running for president. The same day 49 people were killed in clashes between the police and anti-army protesters who included both Islamists and secularists. In a televised speech on Sunday, acting President Adly Mansour announced the election schedule, advancing the presidential polls to April followed by parliamentary elections in July. This is a favourite ploy of all military rulers. Once in the saddle, Gen Sisi will then be able to manipulate the parliamentary polls and further tighten his grip. The state-run media is now welcoming pro-Sisi rallies, and there is no doubt he will win an election that will be anything but transparent. The situation on the ground, however, is different.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which had spearheaded the movement for democracy against Hosni Mubarak and had won the 2012 elections, is in no mood to accept the status quo. The regime has been harsh to the Brotherhood. Its brutal crackdown on anti-army protesters has killed over 1,000 people, the party has been declared a terrorist organisation, and Mohammed Morsi, the president who was ousted by the army in a coup last year, is in jail facing a number of charges. The party has announced an 18-day campaign — to commemorate the 18 days of protests that led to Mr Mubarak’s fall. The Brotherhood is not alone in rejecting the present dispensation, for liberal elements too have been angered by the regime’s despotic policies restricting civic liberties, including the law requiring police approval for demonstrations. There is no doubt the army has thrown Egypt back to the days of dictatorship. Fraudulent elections may give Gen Sisi fake legitimacy and an army-backed civilian set-up may come into being, but that will merely be a political farce whose unwilling spectators will be the Egyptian people. Their sacrifices in throwing the Mubarak regime out have gone to waste.
Challenge for the police
WITH another seven policemen killed in Karachi on Saturday, the new year has been a very grim one for the provincial capital’s police force — some 23 policemen have died this month so far. As if the bare statistics were not grim enough, the wide-ranging nature of the threat has rendered it even more complicated to deal with. From Taliban threats to old scores being settled to surely some attacks linked to the ongoing low-profile operation in the city to ordinary criminals emboldened enough to take on the police, the always-stretched and perennially under-resourced Karachi police force is facing a host of challenges simultaneously. Quite what can be done in the short term to mitigate the threats and better protect the police is unclear. By the very nature of their job, policemen are vulnerable to attack — and in a tumultuous, chaotic city that large parts of Karachi can be, the dangers only multiply.
WITH another seven policemen killed in Karachi on Saturday, the new year has been a very grim one for the provincial capital’s police force — some 23 policemen have died this month so far. As if the bare statistics were not grim enough, the wide-ranging nature of the threat has rendered it even more complicated to deal with. From Taliban threats to old scores being settled to surely some attacks linked to the ongoing low-profile operation in the city to ordinary criminals emboldened enough to take on the police, the always-stretched and perennially under-resourced Karachi police force is facing a host of challenges simultaneously. Quite what can be done in the short term to mitigate the threats and better protect the police is unclear. By the very nature of their job, policemen are vulnerable to attack — and in a tumultuous, chaotic city that large parts of Karachi can be, the dangers only multiply.
Still, the global experience suggests that two measures are key to keeping the police safe so that they, in turn, can keep the public safe. The first is the intelligence aspect. Killers of policemen or individuals who want to put pressure on the police are usually linked to some kind of wider group, whether political, insurgent or pure criminal. Track those groups, keep a close watch on them and, more often than not, the source of the threat can be identified and dealt with. Of course, in the case of Karachi, knowing where a threat emanates from does not necessarily or automatically mean acting against it. Which is the other part of the equation: bringing to justice the killers of policemen. No police force in the world can operate with the right amount of morale and fearlessness if its own members are picked off seemingly at will — and the killers are never brought to justice. But for that to happen, the age-old problems of political will and a functional judicial system must also be addressed. Realistically though what are the chances of that?
Ultimately, it will come down to what the provincial and federal governments are moved to do, whether of their own accord or because of pressure from the police, or possibly even the public. The prime minister and the Sindh government did demonstrate their willingness to back the police last year when they authorised the latest Karachi operation, but that support now needs to be reiterated and demonstrated anew. To ask the police to take on great risk to try and bring stability to the sprawling city is one thing; to expect them to take the deaths of their colleagues in their stride is quite another — and unacceptable.
Income inequality rises
PAKISTAN’S soaring stock markets may send a positive image to some people, but the fact remains that a very large number of our citizens are growing poorer by the day and income inequality is rising very fast. This holds especially true for those dwelling in the cities as has been indicated by the State Bank of Pakistan in its annual State of the Economy Report for the last financial year. “Population in urban centres is poorer than rural dwellers in Pakistan, and inequality is on the rise for the last 10 years ... The distribution of both income and consumption is highly skewed in urban areas, and this inequality is rising over time,” the report says. The bank’s analysis closely captures the reality as persistent economic slowdown, significant job losses, the crippling energy crunch and runaway food and fuel prices have hit the poor to middle-income residents of cities more than they have affected the country’s rural population.
PAKISTAN’S soaring stock markets may send a positive image to some people, but the fact remains that a very large number of our citizens are growing poorer by the day and income inequality is rising very fast. This holds especially true for those dwelling in the cities as has been indicated by the State Bank of Pakistan in its annual State of the Economy Report for the last financial year. “Population in urban centres is poorer than rural dwellers in Pakistan, and inequality is on the rise for the last 10 years ... The distribution of both income and consumption is highly skewed in urban areas, and this inequality is rising over time,” the report says. The bank’s analysis closely captures the reality as persistent economic slowdown, significant job losses, the crippling energy crunch and runaway food and fuel prices have hit the poor to middle-income residents of cities more than they have affected the country’s rural population.
While city dwellers had no protection from the adverse effects of the economic slowdown of the past five years, the villagers were largely shielded from its impact because of the continuously spiking prices of their crops. This trend is also evident from the shrinking size of the urban savings rate and the increasing rural savings rate. It also means that the urban economy lost more jobs than the rural economy. This does not mean that our villages do not have their share of the poor. However, some of them are migrating to the cities in search of jobs, adding more to the numbers of urban poor. More worrying is the growing income inequality between different segments of the population as the so-called middle class is shrinking in size due to the high cost of living. The top 20pc urban households receive 60pc of the total income and contribute 57pc of the total spending, the bank says. In contrast, the bottom 20pc households share only 5pc of the total income and expenditures. Thus, while corporate profits rising on the back of higher prices may be driving our stock markets, offering our policymakers an opportunity to send out a ‘feel-good’ message to the outside world, they definitely are not helping reduce poverty and inequality in the country.
BCCI offer
THE change in the stance of the Board of Control for Cricket in India towards Pakistan has come as a welcome surprise to followers of the game on both sides of the border. On Friday, the BCCI offered to explore the possibility of holding a short series between the two sides. For more than seven years now, the BCCI had shut its door on our cricketers as far as playing them in Pakistan or any neutral venue, such as the UAE or Malaysia, was concerned. The two rivals last met in a three-match ODI series played in India in December 2012 which was won by Misbah-ul-Haq and his charges. At that time too, the BCCI had displayed a sudden change of heart and invited Pakistan out of the blue to play the ODI series. It had, however, quite bluntly refused to have a similar series in Pakistan, thus openly flouting the ICC’s Future Tours Programme which binds it to pay a return tour almost immediately. The offer made on Friday, however, shows a remarkably flexible intent as the BCCI has talked of squeezing in a short series against Pakistan despite the Indian cricket team’s busy schedule until 2015. The willingness to play Pakistan at a neutral venue of the latter’s choice has come as even more of a surprise.
THE change in the stance of the Board of Control for Cricket in India towards Pakistan has come as a welcome surprise to followers of the game on both sides of the border. On Friday, the BCCI offered to explore the possibility of holding a short series between the two sides. For more than seven years now, the BCCI had shut its door on our cricketers as far as playing them in Pakistan or any neutral venue, such as the UAE or Malaysia, was concerned. The two rivals last met in a three-match ODI series played in India in December 2012 which was won by Misbah-ul-Haq and his charges. At that time too, the BCCI had displayed a sudden change of heart and invited Pakistan out of the blue to play the ODI series. It had, however, quite bluntly refused to have a similar series in Pakistan, thus openly flouting the ICC’s Future Tours Programme which binds it to pay a return tour almost immediately. The offer made on Friday, however, shows a remarkably flexible intent as the BCCI has talked of squeezing in a short series against Pakistan despite the Indian cricket team’s busy schedule until 2015. The willingness to play Pakistan at a neutral venue of the latter’s choice has come as even more of a surprise.
On the face of it, it is a tremendous development for the millions of cricket lovers in the subcontinent who have been starved for an India-Pakistan contest. However, the offer should be treated with caution as it has other connotations as well. There have been observations that the BCCI is attempting to win Pakistan’s support in the thorny debate of the ‘big three’ proposal, to be tabled at the ICC in the coming months, which could see India in a dominant position with regard to international cricket affairs. PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf while welcoming the BCCI offer has discreetly avoided mixing the two issues, which is the right path to adopt.
Road clears for Musharraf
IN ordinary times, the medical facilities of the armed forces are touted as second to none. In ordinary cases, a patient spending his own money can opt for treatment wherever they like and on whatever they want. But context is sometimes everything. The medical board constituted by the special court convened to try Pervez Musharraf has walked a medical and legal tightrope in presenting Mr Musharraf’s own opinion on where he should be treated — abroad — without explicitly stating whether the former army chief’s apprehensions about inadequate cardiac facilities inside Pakistan are reasonable or not. While the team of army doctors can be — and already have been — accused of letting the urge to protect one of their own get in the way of giving a forthright professional judgement, in truth, the responsibility for this growing fiasco rests squarely on the shoulders of Mr Musharraf.
IN ordinary times, the medical facilities of the armed forces are touted as second to none. In ordinary cases, a patient spending his own money can opt for treatment wherever they like and on whatever they want. But context is sometimes everything. The medical board constituted by the special court convened to try Pervez Musharraf has walked a medical and legal tightrope in presenting Mr Musharraf’s own opinion on where he should be treated — abroad — without explicitly stating whether the former army chief’s apprehensions about inadequate cardiac facilities inside Pakistan are reasonable or not. While the team of army doctors can be — and already have been — accused of letting the urge to protect one of their own get in the way of giving a forthright professional judgement, in truth, the responsibility for this growing fiasco rests squarely on the shoulders of Mr Musharraf.
What has become clear is that no trick is below the former army chief if it means delaying the start of his treason trial until some exit can be found. In turning to hospitalisation and emergency medical procedures, Mr Musharraf is certainly not alone. Politicians have also gone down that road in the past. But politicians have presented themselves before courts before — something Mr Musharraf is loath to do in this instance. Perhaps it is the stakes and the reasonably open-and-shut nature of the case; for the former president did not baulk at submitting himself to the judicial process when it came to cases involving the Benazir Bhutto assassination and the assault on Lal Masjid. Still, the contrast is almost impossible to ignore: politicians submitting themselves to even unfair and skewed legal processes over the years and here, a former army chief, embarrassing himself and everyone associated with a trial that the state has tried to keep scrupulously fair and transparent so far.
If embarrassment and humiliation are not above Mr Musharraf in a desperate bid to avoid a conviction and sentencing, perhaps his advisers should try and appeal to his sense of history and country. Surely, in focusing solely on Mr Musharraf and just on the events of November 2007, the state has erred. But even more surely, the former army chief violated the Constitution and betrayed his oath to institution and country. The legal process in this case is not merely about punishment and deterrence: it is about sending a signal about the kind of polity Pakistan wants to be, ie democratic, constitutional and led by civilians. That goal is higher than the fate of an individual who put his own ambitions and personal intentions above the system when he had the power to make that choice. Now, with that power gone, he should be ready to accept the illegitimacy of his actions.
Stopgap measures
IT is a sign of the times that militants can terrorise the state to such an extent that people’s freedom of movement has to be curtailed. In reaction to Tuesday’s deadly bombing in Mastung, in which at least 28 Shia pilgrims were killed, the Balochistan government has stopped bus travel for pilgrims between Pakistan and Iran “for the time being”. Unfortunate as the decision is, it is a necessary precaution to save lives, as the state is unable to secure land routes to Iran. Instead, returning pilgrims are being airlifted from Dalbandin. Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has suggested that PIA launch flights between Quetta and the Iranian city of Mashhad, adding that ferries should also ply from Gwadar and Karachi to ports in Iran. These suggestions should be appreciated; they reflect the positive approach of the Balochistan chief minister, who has made constructive attempts at handling the aftermath of the Mastung tragedy. However, these are stopgap arrangements. These should be added options, not the only option. After all, air travel is an expensive proposition, and for many Pakistanis wishing to travel to religious sites in Iran and Iraq road travel is the only affordable option. Maritime travel, meanwhile, may be possible from Karachi, but who will guarantee that militants will not target those trying to reach Gwadar?
IT is a sign of the times that militants can terrorise the state to such an extent that people’s freedom of movement has to be curtailed. In reaction to Tuesday’s deadly bombing in Mastung, in which at least 28 Shia pilgrims were killed, the Balochistan government has stopped bus travel for pilgrims between Pakistan and Iran “for the time being”. Unfortunate as the decision is, it is a necessary precaution to save lives, as the state is unable to secure land routes to Iran. Instead, returning pilgrims are being airlifted from Dalbandin. Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has suggested that PIA launch flights between Quetta and the Iranian city of Mashhad, adding that ferries should also ply from Gwadar and Karachi to ports in Iran. These suggestions should be appreciated; they reflect the positive approach of the Balochistan chief minister, who has made constructive attempts at handling the aftermath of the Mastung tragedy. However, these are stopgap arrangements. These should be added options, not the only option. After all, air travel is an expensive proposition, and for many Pakistanis wishing to travel to religious sites in Iran and Iraq road travel is the only affordable option. Maritime travel, meanwhile, may be possible from Karachi, but who will guarantee that militants will not target those trying to reach Gwadar?
The real solution lies in uprooting the terrorist infrastructure in Balochistan and wherever else the militants have safe havens in the country. Suggesting alternative routes or enhancing security for travellers are well-meaning steps, but they fail to address the core issue. This week’s bombing in Mastung was not the first incident of its kind. Such atrocities have been occurring regularly over the past few years in Balochistan. Even efforts such as making buses travel in convoys or having Frontier Corps or Levies personnel accompany the vehicles have failed as security personnel can do little when a suicide bomber strikes. Security forces have taken action in the Mastung area. But arresting a few suspects or confiscating a few weapons is not enough. Until the elements that plan, finance and carry out acts of terrorism in Pakistan face justice, we will not see lasting peace.
The people bear the brunt
IN a country where officialdom is slow to move and even slower to take heed, it’s hardly surprising that many people feel that unless their protest is disruptive, no one in a position of power will pay attention. So it is that a familiar pattern has been built up: whether the issue is electricity or gas shortages, or — as was the case recently — understandable anger over the killings of Shia Hazaras in Mastung and trepidation over the government’s inability to control terrorism, citizens take to the streets and city life comes to a halt. While the last couple of days or so saw extensive shutdowns across the country mainly as a result of sit-ins that occurred spontaneously as people vented their grief and outrage, a strike call was also issued by religious parties. As a result several areas of Karachi resembled a ghost town on Thursday and Friday. The movement of goods remained suspended as most markets were closed; goods’ and public transport stayed off the roads. A strong message was indeed sent out, and it can only be hoped that it will be followed by effective action.
IN a country where officialdom is slow to move and even slower to take heed, it’s hardly surprising that many people feel that unless their protest is disruptive, no one in a position of power will pay attention. So it is that a familiar pattern has been built up: whether the issue is electricity or gas shortages, or — as was the case recently — understandable anger over the killings of Shia Hazaras in Mastung and trepidation over the government’s inability to control terrorism, citizens take to the streets and city life comes to a halt. While the last couple of days or so saw extensive shutdowns across the country mainly as a result of sit-ins that occurred spontaneously as people vented their grief and outrage, a strike call was also issued by religious parties. As a result several areas of Karachi resembled a ghost town on Thursday and Friday. The movement of goods remained suspended as most markets were closed; goods’ and public transport stayed off the roads. A strong message was indeed sent out, and it can only be hoped that it will be followed by effective action.
Yet there is a flip side: the fact that 90pc of businesses in the city remained closed meant that the loss incurred by Karachi over these days of protest was to the tune of Rs12bn, according to the president of the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad, the traders’ forum. Hundreds of thousands of workers, including daily-wage workers for whom the loss of a day’s earning usually translates to no food on the table, remained idle. While the intention behind the sit-ins and the strike call may have been noble, the ones who were actually punished were the people. Can this cycle of misery be brought to an end? It is difficult to see how. And yet, the effort must be made. As it is, Pakistan sustains too much damage on a daily basis; it doesn’t need to inflict more on itself.
Columns and Articles
Kafkaesque approach
A COLLEAGUE advised me to take a look at Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan as he thought I might want to recommend the book to students afraid of numbers and statistical concepts. I googled Naked Statistics. I got the following message: “This website is not accessible. The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership within Pakistan.”
A COLLEAGUE advised me to take a look at Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan as he thought I might want to recommend the book to students afraid of numbers and statistical concepts. I googled Naked Statistics. I got the following message: “This website is not accessible. The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership within Pakistan.”
I googled Charles Wheelan and accessed the book. Exactly what are censors in Pakistan trying to achieve?
This was not the first time. Many times when friends on Twitter or Facebook mention links to articles or videos related to books, philosophical topics or even general articles on life and living, a similar message pops up that ‘PTA has blocked access to this website’.
Big Brother wants to protect my purity and morality. I wish, even if he was allowed to do so, which is debatable, he’d be smarter, and differentiate between pornography and a book on statistics.
I don’t want to argue with the puritans who insist that sites with pornographic material should not be accessible here. Many of them are hypocrites, but many genuinely believe in their code.
They should not be allowed to impose their morality on others. But we live in a country where many such battles were lost long ago.
The majority of the people seem to think it’s OK. The courts have often supported such actions by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, actually asking it to intervene, and most politicians spew rhetoric that supports the same position. So, for the moment, these battles have been lost and there’s no point going there. But there are still battles that must be fought.
Do PTA and other agencies have to be crude in the way they select material to limit access to? Should we target words like ‘naked’? Are there more sophisticated ways of doing this? I am sure technology allows for more discerning and discriminating filtering.
Reminds one of the joke about newspaper censorship during Gen Ayub’s time. A news item in an Urdu paper reported that a young man had committed suicide after becoming dilbardaashta (disheartened) due to his living conditions. The army major censoring the news told the editorial staff that the word ‘dilbar’ (beloved) could be printed but the word ‘daashta’ (mistress) was not acceptable. We clearly have not advanced, if not regressed.
YouTube continues to be banned in Pakistan. If a few books are objectionable, do we close down the entire library? It seems so. YouTube has been out of bounds for more than a year now. Have enough souls been saved? Have our morality and values been preserved better? But, again, allowing that moral policing will continue, why have we not been able to develop more discerning filtering mechanisms?
But the censorship here is not just about pornography, even allowing for all the bungling and lack of sophistication in this case. There are many sites that are blocked because of political reasons too. A lot of sites with content on the Balochistan situation are regularly blocked.
It is not clear to me what the law behind such blocking is. If sites are blocked due to the political nature of their content, do agencies get a court order for doing so? If not, why not? Why should this decision be left to the discretion of some unknown agency and not be transparent and open to scrutiny and, even if taken administratively, open to challenge in courts?
Recently some civil society organisations, in collaboration with the Area Study Centre at the Peshawar University, wanted to hold a launch for Malala Yousafzai’s book. The provincial government forbade the launch. The reasons given: the university should not be used for such political activity, the Centre is not the right place for this, and there are security concerns.
However, I do not think there is any ambiguity about why the launch was forbidden. It was not about security issues as security could have been arranged. And clearly the university is the right place for launching books. If debate cannot take place in universities, then where?
Freedom of speech is supposed to be more protected in a university than in almost any other place. And as long as they do not include defamation, hate speech and so on, the university is indeed the right place for such activities.
We have a good idea why the launch was cancelled. The provincial government probably saw the launch of this book as a provocation for the outlawed Pakistani Taliban. And given the pro-dialogue stance that governments have been taking, the KP government panicked and came down hard on the launch.
Eventually they might realise their mistake and let the launch go ahead, even provide security for it. But, in many ways, the damage has been done: we are now in a place where we cannot even launch a book by a 16-year-old in one of our universities.
Wheelan has written two books, Naked Statistics and Naked Economics. Both are worth reading.
But, unless sense has finally prevailed in PTA and it has allowed access, it would be advisable to search for these via the author’s name.
As a society, we need to take up the issue. People concerned with access to information, to the internet, rights of citizens and wanting to stand up against state-imposed censorship should come together to challenge the state more effectively.
The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations, associate professor of economics, LUMS, and a visiting fellow at IDEAS, Lahore.
At the tail end
THE controversy surrounding world cricket’s shift from Dubai to Mumbai is out of place keeping in mind our market-oriented trajectory. From the traditional Lord’s to the upwardly mobile Dubai, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) change of home had gone largely un-mourned, bar a few sighs which were too gentlemanly to have any kind of an impact on the current crop of players.
THE controversy surrounding world cricket’s shift from Dubai to Mumbai is out of place keeping in mind our market-oriented trajectory. From the traditional Lord’s to the upwardly mobile Dubai, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) change of home had gone largely un-mourned, bar a few sighs which were too gentlemanly to have any kind of an impact on the current crop of players.
The further movement of the nucleus into territory ruled by the rich and powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is precisely where logic should have taken it.
The news from Dubai says India, along with Australia and England, appears to be meaningfully pushing towards controlling matters at the ICC. An IBN post reads: “In a landmark move that will change the global structure of cricket administration, the BCCI’s status as the most influential cricketing body in the world was on Tuesday formally acknowledged with the bulk of its demands being ‘unanimously’ passed at the ICC executive board meeting...”
Just how much uncertainty the ICC meeting had generated can be judged from a line inserted early in the official release. It says, reassuringly, that “There will be an opportunity for all members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy; no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status”. That’s an ill-conceived attempt at wrapping generosity in modesty.
The first information reaching the angry cricketing circles in Pakistan didn’t specify if any profit percentages were in the process of being worked out as of now. The message, however, was clear: the big three were determined to withstand whatever resistance other members including Pakistan were able to muster.
From now on, most likely, it is going to be about what Pakistan can secure from the leftovers after India and its chosen global partners have had their fill. That is what some Pakistanis who can combine business with cricket had been advising the cricket board here to concentrate on: the best possible harvesting of leftovers.
This could well be the formula to be applied in other areas of business; only it is too soon for sometimes adamantly old-fashioned Pakistan to realise what buys what on the circuit right now.
There is little dispute about the need for friendly relations between Pakistan and India. That is an objective which has to be chased in all circumstances. The question of India’s ‘takeover’ of the ICC raises relates to the Pakistanis’ inability to come to terms with the current economic diction.
All these reams dedicated to policy notwithstanding it always boils down to getting the best cut out of a given situation. It seems that in the situation that could prevail for some time to come, Pakistanis must learn to be content with what some ungrateful and ignorant souls amongst us call crumbs thrown our way by India.
It may sound unfortunate and lacking in grace but really this country should be thankful to the real powers that it is still playing the game rather than make obnoxious claims in the name of some old, outdated principles it proudly adheres to. This adherence, which is not peculiar to cricketing matters, is dictated by absence of choice.
It is not that the Pakistanis are not learning; they are getting the drift even if slowly in comparison to some others. When the wise surmised the two countries, two hostile countries indeed, should be left to sort it out on the cricket field, it was put down to naivety. At many moments over these years of engagement those theorists have been vindicated.
Away from impending wars, the cricket boards in India and Pakistan were until recent years known to be close allies. Together, they managed to bring world championships to the subcontinent and they were credited with many other successful joint ventures within the ICC.
The gap when it came was Pakistan’s fault. It was rooted in Pakistan’s inability to keep pace with the trends. The security situation in the country deprived it of its share of cricketing tours and turned its cricket board into a pale shadow of the powerful international actor it once was. The board was condemned to negotiate from a weak position.
The Indian board, in the meanwhile, grew bigger and larger and more influential, so commanding in its authority that it could easily attract blame for the cancellation of a tour by Bangladesh of Pakistan. Every country that took on India over cricketing matters now did that at the risk of losing good business. This is a fact that even those who have been ridiculing India for some of its showings on-field and over its unabashed display of greed against convention cannot deny.
Pakistanis are eager to invoke the old world etiquette but the big three alliance at the ICC would be fully aware of how desperate this country is to stay relevant and they are going to take advantage of this. A healthier version of Pakistan cricket would have given the gang of three a tough time. This Pakistani desperation is betrayed by the intensity of the reaction to the ICC takeover.
The experts have yet to fully grasp the reasons why the Pakistani opposition to business ties with India has died down with time. There are groups, not all of them of a religious persuasion, which are at a loss to understand why reports of atrocities in Kashmir don’t quite draw the same response in Pakistan as they used to in the years gone by.
It could be that Pakistanis believe that cricket is something where they can still compete with India. And they are vulnerable here since cricket is a priority with them.
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
What is going on?
A SPATE of killings across the country has ratcheted up alarmism about ‘terrorism’ in recent weeks, provoking a fresh bout of (indiscriminate) military actions, the latest round of polemic about ‘dialogue’ with the Taliban and a new wave of confusion amongst the general public.
A SPATE of killings across the country has ratcheted up alarmism about ‘terrorism’ in recent weeks, provoking a fresh bout of (indiscriminate) military actions, the latest round of polemic about ‘dialogue’ with the Taliban and a new wave of confusion amongst the general public.
It is due to this confusion that, some 13 years since the onset of the so-called war on terror, we’re still far from being able to adequately grapple with millenarian violence.
The easy option is to attribute the prevailing state of affairs to the dithering of elected government (present and past). Such an argument betrays a poor understanding of the military establishment’s foundational role and the inability and/or unwillingness of mainstream political parties to shape fundamental policies.
Similarly, the generally apologetic attitude of the media and ‘official’ intelligentsia towards the militant right reflects a deep commitment to the national security state and its jingoistic ideology.
How much has changed in the thinking and actions of the men in khaki, the original progenitors of the ‘strategic assets’ that appear to have developed minds of their own?
An argument currently doing the rounds posits that the military has definitively turned a corner, and not only recognises the perils of continuing to patronise the militant right but is actually undertaking obvious and not-so-obvious steps to slowly weed out jihadism.
On the other hand is the hypothesis that not much has changed and that GHQ still thinks of jihadis as allies serving a dual purpose: they are a spoiler in the domestic political sphere and also a bargaining tool in the wider regional calculus.
It would be just as inaccurate to suggest that the military establishment has undergone a paradigm shift as it would be to claim that it’s operating exactly along the same lines as it did before Washington & co. initiated the ‘war on terror’. In other words, the thinking of our holy guardians is neither entirely static nor overly dynamic.
Ultimately, a meaningful analysis of what has changed (or not) revolves around the question of whether GHQ clings on to the conviction that it alone possesses the prerogative to define the ‘greater national interest’ or if in fact it has acceded to the idea that it is ultimately answerable to the people of this country (and those that the latter choose to represent them).
Our generals may never have been very self-effacing but they have also always put a premium on maintaining a good image of themselves in the public eye. The military has historically been viewed with suspicion outside the Punjabi heartland, so now, as Balochistan slips out of grasp, the institution will be keen to retain goodwill within its traditional stronghold.
For this reason alone it can be argued that the men in khaki will accept that some things have to change. Their exclusive monopolies over policy matters will have to give way over time to a more negotiated structure of power in which mainstream parties and other state institutions are more substantial players than in the past.
Yet this will be a long process as GHQ’s instinct is to call the shots, especially on matters of ‘national security’, including the question of our erstwhile strategic assets.
Importantly, there are indications that opinions and attitudes towards ‘terrorism’ are not entirely uniform within the top brass of the military, even if there is consensus about the overall corporate interests of the institution. Still, the reality is that long-term linkages between the military and right-wing militant outfits — some even of a directly personalised nature — do not just dissipate, even if one argues that a certain degree of political will has been generated to effect such disentanglement.
In the final analysis, my sense is that the military establishment will continue to sanction selective patronage of the religious right, even while it faces up to the serious ‘blowback’ effects that both state and society have to endure. Democratic forces will continue to have to push hard, and in spite of censure, for what was always a disastrous policy to be abandoned altogether.
Regardless of how much the military is forced to retreat from its holier-than-thou mindset, the right-wing seeds sown in society over the past four decades will continue to give impetus to the politics of hate. In short, we have probably not quite hit rock bottom yet. It is the fear that things will continue to get worse that induces some of us to think in alarmist terms about the phenomenon known as ‘terrorism’.
Yet, more than ever before, we need to analyse what’s really going on, and particularly what the military establishment is or is not doing. This is the first step towards cutting down to size our self-proclaimed holy guardians, both uniformed and not.
The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Practice of patience
THERE come moments in our lives when we feel completely hopeless and helpless. But the Quran shows us the technique to manage such personal states of despair.
THERE come moments in our lives when we feel completely hopeless and helpless. But the Quran shows us the technique to manage such personal states of despair.
The Holy Book has termed this technique sabr or patience. Invariably, God expects human beings not to be impatient. When faced with turmoil and pain, He insists that we should seek help from prayer and patience. As it is mentioned in the Quran, the Almighty is with those who hold on to the practice of patience. Those who practice sabr become satisfied.
Patience can be of multiple types, but two types are very significant. The first is concerned with the physical and outward dimension of our existence. It may be connected with some physical illness, some financial and monetary crunch or some other material difficulties being faced by a person.
The Quran has narrated the incident of Prophet Ayub, wherein he was suffering from an incurable physical illness. The Holy Book has lauded the patience of the prophet, and declared him as one of the “men of purity and patience”, who achieve proximity to God through their acts of piety and patience.
In his acute physical state of pain and suffering, the prophet Ayub cried out to God for His help and mercy. The Almighty communicated to Ayub that he should hit the earth below his feet, and that he would find water pure and curative in nature gushing forth in the form of a spring. Ayub bathed in that healing, therapeutic water and was cured of his illness.
The second form of patience is connected to the emotional and psychological suffering of a person. It may be caused by several intangible sources within the life of a person. One significant cause of emotional depression is betrayal. When a person is betrayed by one’s friend, relative, or co-worker, one is shattered and cannot find a way forward. One experiences an inner darkness. One feels abandoned and lost. One’s self-confidence is badly shaken due to the betrayal by near and dear ones.
Backbiting is another prevalent source of psychological suffering. It becomes more painful when backbiting becomes a favoured practice, and people damage each other emotionally by indulging in backbiting. The Quran has symbolically compared backbiting to “eating the flesh of one’s brother” to indicate the severity of this moral defect.
The backbiter creates psychological pain and suffering in families, in organisations and in societies. Backbiting leads to a sheer waste of energy. Valuable time is wasted by the backbiter, which could have been utilised in constructive pursuits.
This clearly shows that backbiters are in need of professional help from clinical psychologists so that they can experience true happiness and satisfaction and get rid of their destructive habit.
Hypocrites (munafiqun, in the language of the Quran) also cause a lot of disruption and pain in society. Instead of bringing people together and working to create harmony, hypocrites perpetually create divides. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has said that a hypocrite is recognised by his habitual lying and untrustworthiness.
The hallmark of a hypocrite is the creation of doubts and the divisive use of language. By using his or her eloquence or scepticism, a hypocrite will create disharmony and chaos in the social order. The masked activity of the hypocrite unleashes negative forces in collective and organisational settings. This negativity causes despair and despondency amongst the members of society, and hence leads to their eventual collective failure. Those who are two-faced, in fact, have no real face.
Yet by cultivating the habit of patience, one can manage emotional stress and overcome physical suffering. Patience can also help an individual deal with the moral ills identified in this article. Patience is cultivated by building a thorough and committed personality, which helps one forgive and overlook weaknesses in others.
Such a person is open to learning and understands behaviour in different contexts. He or she is candid, generous and forgiving. Forgiveness is the key which opens the door to the city of patience.
In his famed book Kashf al Mahjub, Syed Ali Hujveri has reported an interesting incident in this regard involving the mystic Junaid Baghdadi.
One night when Junaid was busy offering his midnight prayer, a burglar broke into his house and stole some cloth. Junaid became aware of the presence of the thief, but did not intervene. The thief fled from the house.
The next morning, the thief was selling the same cloth in the market when Junaid approached him and insisted on buying back his stolen cloth. The thief recognised the mystic and felt repentant for his act of stealing. He sought the forgiveness of the great mystic. He was forgiven and thereafter, the thief joined Junaid’s circle and led a life of purity and patience.
The writer is a social scientist with an interest in religion.
Of justice for the Hazaras
THE emergency measures taken after the nationwide protest at the latest round of killing of pilgrims in Mastung district offer little assurance that a way to end the ordeal of the Hazara community has been found.
THE emergency measures taken after the nationwide protest at the latest round of killing of pilgrims in Mastung district offer little assurance that a way to end the ordeal of the Hazara community has been found.
While no breakthrough in efforts to nab the culprits has been reported public attention has been focused on the air-lifting of hundreds of pilgrims from Dalbandin to Quetta. Welcome though this operation has been it has also thrown up a few disquieting issues.
First, the volume of the annual pilgrim traffic to and from Iran has proved to be quite large, and the need to manage it has obviously been ignored year after year. Secondly, the administration has conceded its inability to guarantee security of road travel. And, thirdly, there is a danger that a large piece of territory may pass into the hands of militants determined to harass the governments of Pakistan and Iran both. Neither air flights nor a ferry service along the Makran coast will alter the situation.
This means that the anti-Hazara militias will have greater freedom and capacity to continue their murderous attacks on the beleaguered community. What does this portend for the Hazaras (the Shia majority among them, as the small number of Sunni Hazaras are not targeted) and Balochistan?
Since no firm attempt has been made to subdue them, the gangs engaged in massacring the Hazaras consider themselves free to persist in their criminal acts and the threat to the Hazaras remains unabated. The seriousness of this threat can be gauged only if one takes stock of Hazara losses since 2003, when their mass killing began. Forty-seven people were killed in July 2003 in an attack on an imambargah; 36 perished in March 2004 when the Ashura procession was attacked; 63 were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Youm-i-Quds procession in 2010; 26 pilgrims were killed in Mastung in September 2011 and more than 100 were killed in the Alamdar Road massacre last year.
In addition many prominent Hazara professionals and community leaders have fallen victim to targeted killing over the past 15 years. It is necessary to realise that this huge loss of life has been caused not only to the Hazara community but to the whole of Balochistan and Pakistan.
Further, the entire community has been condemned to live all the time in fear of liquidation. They have lost the right to earn their livelihood in peace and thir freedom of movement has been severely curtailed. A large umber of the Hazara have chosen to seek security of life in foreign lands, and many have perished at sea in their attempts to reach Australia in unsafe vessels.
The government has never assessed the economic cost to the country caused by the loss of skilled human resources, the closure of Hazara-owned mines and other enterprises, the stoppage of remittances the expatriate Hazaras’ used to send from the Gulf states and other foreign countries, and the decline in the Hazaras’ share in services. No society can afford the loss of human resources at this scale, and certainly not Balochistan.
The Hazaras have also contributed a great deal to Balochistan’s social development. As they are not a land-owning community they have had no part in sustaining the tribal-feudal tradition. They have distinguished themselves in services and in the field of education. They have established schools and colleges where the young ones of all communities are accommodated.
Their boys and girls are still keen to go to the universities and institutions of higher learning but transporters have been frightened into declining to serve them. Their women are far more liberated than others and have acted as agents of female emancipation.
The Balochistan government, and to a greater extent the federal authorities, have a duty not only to protect Hazara Shias and guarantee them their rights and freedoms, but also to revive their hope of a decent future as full citizens of Pakistan. Their feelings of helplessness and hopelessness stem not only from the state’s failure to protect their lives and property, they emanate from their belief that the state agencies protect their tormentors.
The case of Usman Saifullah Kurd and Shafiq Rahman destroyed the Hazaras’ faith not only in the administration’s competence but also in its sincerity in offering them a fair deal. The two prominent members of a banned outfit were tried in 2007 for attacks on Shias and found guilty. Both confessed to their crimes and bragged about killing more Shias. Kurd was awarded the death sentence and Shafiq life imprisonment. The way they escaped from a high security prison in January 2008 still rankles in each Hazara heart. The community is convinced that the convicts were enabled to escape by the authorities themselves.
Even otherwise, the Hazaras question the failure of the all-powerful Frontier Crops to go for the trigger-happy members of the Punjab-based militia that enjoys the freedom of not only Mastung and Khuzdar but also of Quetta. They make no attempt to conceal themselves or hide their weapons in the street or the mosque. They have already destroyed Balochistan’s reputation as a peaceful multicultural society.
There is every reason to apprehend that the Hazaras will not be the only victims of their violence. The governments of Pakistan, Punjab and Balochistan must together realise the consequences of tolerating the anti-Hazara forces. Hitherto the world has tended to treat the Hazara killings as manifestations of sectarian intolerance. If the killings are not ended the verdict against Pakistan could be much harsher.
Another round
PAKISTAN blipped briefly into view here in Washington D.C. this week as Sartaj Aziz and Khawaja Asif did the circuit in another round of the Strategic Dialogue. In a visit less than 72 hours long, they met with the secretary of state and gave a press conference. Then came meetings with the CIA chief, the secretaries of energy and defence, and a two-hour long intense session with National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
PAKISTAN blipped briefly into view here in Washington D.C. this week as Sartaj Aziz and Khawaja Asif did the circuit in another round of the Strategic Dialogue. In a visit less than 72 hours long, they met with the secretary of state and gave a press conference. Then came meetings with the CIA chief, the secretaries of energy and defence, and a two-hour long intense session with National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
The president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) and Rajiv Shah, administrator of USAID also managed to get a word in edgewise in a dialogue that is otherwise all about Afghanistan.
Along the way they managed a stop at the Atlantic Council where adviser Sartaj Aziz spoke about “his vision for regional peace”.
The talk focused mostly on why regional cooperation is the key to economic development, as well as overcoming the menace of terrorism. A few throwaway caveats by adviser Aziz pointed to the supposedly toughening attitudes towards terrorism back in Islamabad — reference to the “so-called Mujahideen” of the 1980s, for instance.
But the adviser also showed a nuanced view of the menace of terror. The threat operates on three layers he said: sectarian, ethnic and ideological. In different places, at different times, these three levels combine in varying ways to produce a multifaceted danger that will take skill as well as force to eliminate.
Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Centre and host of the event, cut to the chase in the question-answer period, where he opened with this question: are the people of Pakistan and the various institutions of state behind you in this fight?
“There is a broad spectrum of opinion in Pakistan regarding the question of terrorism and how to deal with it,” replied Aziz, and went on to talk about the role that conspiracy theories have played in muddying the discourse. “But democracy is about building consensus,” he reassured the audience, and that his government was comfortable it would be able to go into any operation with a consensus.
Alan Kronstadt — the lead researcher on Pakistan at the Congressional Research Service — was the first to speak from the floor. America has given billions of dollars over the years to Pakistan as counterinsurgency support. Where has all this money gone?
“Those funds were not wasted,” countered the adviser. They were used to build forces that can be used in the fight, but these forces now need better coordination, particularly intelligence cooperation. Those forces are now dispersed across the provinces, and across the various services. “We need to pull together the scattered elements of our experience,” he said, to fashion an effective response with all the tools that those billions have created.
The advisor was careful to remind his audience that America needs to think about more than just its own interests when departing. “We hope Pakistan’s concerns can also be kept in mind, unlike in the early 1990s when our concerns were not kept in mind when that war drew to a close.”
What role will Pakistan play in Afghanistan following America’s departure? The adviser sought to put such anxieties at ease by pointing out that he himself has had three separate meetings with Karzai since the new government came to power in Pakistan, following which the stream of negative comments about Pakistan subsided.
“In his own meeting, Prime Minister Sharif managed to convince Karzai that Pakistan sees Afghanistan’s stability as important to its own stability.” Sure, but how deep does that reassurance run? Between Pindi and Kabul might yet be a bad place to find yourself in a few years’ time.
But here’s what’s on my mind when I look at post-withdrawal Afghanistan: central to securing Afghanistan’s stability is the Afghan National Army. And the ANA is wholly dependent on foreign funding to pay its expenses. In 2013, the US pumped close to $12 billion into the ANA, but its annual expense is estimated at just above $6bn post departure, assuming costs don’t spiral out of control.
Thus far the US has had little success finding partners willing to help foot this bill in any meaningful amount. An army without a fiscal apparatus behind it is like a car without fuel. And a car that runs out of fuel in a bad neighbourhood usually gets stripped down and sold for parts. The vision for regional peace and development that adviser Sartaj Aziz laid out before us was one that is widely accepted, and stays within the bounds agreed on in Istanbul 2011: trade, particularly in natural gas, can tie the region together in mutually beneficial partnerships. The massive energy surpluses of Central Asia and Iran can feed the growing energy hunger of South Asia for decades to come, and create transit rents along the way, enough to give the ANA maybe half of a fiscal framework.
But governments in Pakistan have been talking about this agenda for almost a decade now. Some progress towards regional integration has indeed been made over this time, and it would be unfair to doubt the adviser’s wisdom in urging his government to adopt this course, as well as the latter’s sincerity in pursuing it. But as Aziz Sahib himself pointed out, not everything that needs to happen to realise this vision is under the control of the government of Pakistan.
The writer is a business journalist and 2013-2014 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington D.C.
Twitter: @khurramhusain
A part of history
THE suicide attack on a bus carrying pilgrims from Iran to Pakistan has deeply saddened me not because I was born in a Shia home, but because tolerance and decency have given way to hate crime. Hate crimes are as old as history itself, though concern and action over the violence has yet to show results. Many alibis are put forth for such happenings.
THE suicide attack on a bus carrying pilgrims from Iran to Pakistan has deeply saddened me not because I was born in a Shia home, but because tolerance and decency have given way to hate crime. Hate crimes are as old as history itself, though concern and action over the violence has yet to show results. Many alibis are put forth for such happenings.
Hate crime in the subcontinent raised its ugly head when the British colonialists declared freedom and divided the country into two new states: a majority Hindu India and a predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
Partition caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in riots that broke out in the months leading to and following independence. Millions were turned out of their homes in the largest transfer of population of the times; their homes burned down or residents forcibly evicted.
It inspired many creative works — novels, short stories, poems, visuals and films from a large cross-section of people in India, Pakistan and the world. Notable among them are Khushwant Singh, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Saadat Hasan Manto, Bhisham Sahni, Bapsi Sidhwa, Manohar Malgaonkar and Larry Collins. The sorrows and tragedies of partition continue to inspire creative presentation.
A little known but controversial short-story, titled Ek Insaan ki Mauti is my favourite. It stirred my mind for its bold and non-compromising presentation of the burning issue. Writers like Manto, Ismat Chughtai and Ramanand Sagar were ‘guilty’ of similar dilation of events. “It is a true story,” the writer Khwaja Ahmad Abbas told an interviewer many years later.
A Muslim officer in Delhi was asked to leave for home early as religious extremists were expected to attack his house. He did so as he was concerned about the safety of his wife, a seven-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son and two orphaned nieces.
On reaching home he saw the old sardarji and his grown up sons standing outside the house as though they had already done their ‘deed’. “Ya Allah, am I too late?” thought the Muslim. The Muslim was no friend of his neighbour and made fun of his dishevelled beard and long hair under a smelly turban. That day his tall and hefty sons looked equally fierce.
“O, tusi fikar na karo. Your family is inside my house and safe.” Saying this, the sardarji escorted the Muslim to his house. He ordered his sons to go to ‘uncle’s’ house and collect whatever belongings they could salvage.
Once inside, the sardarji took out his kirpan. So that was the game? To kill all of us inside so that our shrieks will go un-noticed and no one will come to our rescue, mused the Muslim. The sardarji placed the kirpan at the feet of the Muslim saying, “My sons and I will protect you to the very end but if we are killed you should be able to protect yourself and your family.”
Soon enough there was a commotion outside. The Sikh and his sons were arguing with the raiders. Loud voices were replaced by the sounds of abuse and fist fights. Then there was dead silence followed by the sound of a large body falling on the floor and of people running away.
When the Muslim came out of the house he found the sardarji lying motionless on the floor. That day his beard and hair were not dishevelled nor his turban dirty and smelly.
Both were dyed with his own blood. Red like the henna in maulvi sahib’s hair, the sardarji had sacrificed his life to save another human being and the honour of his women and children. Even though they did not profess the same faith.
It is a simple story of human goodness, compassion and sacrifice at the time of need and distress.
Last year when I was in Delhi in connection with the Abbas Centenary to be celebrated in 2014 my classmates hosted a lunch. The surprise package was an email from a classmate settled in the US:
“I have a story that I would like to share with you. While departing for a school trip in 1958, my father as well as Anwar’s father had come to see us off at the railway station. The two elders first looked at one another intently and then held each other in a tight embrace as tears rolled down their cheeks.
The two families were neighbours. During the partition riots in 1947 the family of Anwar was taken to our house for protection. Their belongings were at our house for collection but were never taken away. The belongings are still there as is the memory and friendship that has survived the riots, the killings and the separation. Surender Khoka.”
But for Surender’s family I would not have been enjoying the lunch with friends that day.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
Poor and dead
THERE is hardly a family in Pakistan, middle-class or above, that does not have a relative in Canada, or a juvenile working in its kitchen at home. As one migrant put it, he does not mind having to vacuum his home in Toronto but he would look askance at equating himself with a servant by clearing the meal table in Lahore.
THERE is hardly a family in Pakistan, middle-class or above, that does not have a relative in Canada, or a juvenile working in its kitchen at home. As one migrant put it, he does not mind having to vacuum his home in Toronto but he would look askance at equating himself with a servant by clearing the meal table in Lahore.
Here, we live our own version of the British sitcom Downton Abbey, in which the landed gentry lived in comfort above while their menial staff slaved in the pantry below. In that series, when the young daughter of the aristocrat lapses by marrying their driver, it is the driver who moves up the social ladder into the big house, not the other way round.
A serial shown on a local television channel had a parallel storyline with a difference. A middle-class Pakistani father discovers his daughter is interested in some boy of whom he disapproves. Irate, he forces her to marry their young servant, and when that marriage collapses (the servant becomes more interested in his master’s wealth than his daughter), the father makes her marry her juvenile underage cousin.
Millions of families throughout Pakistan must have watched that serial and empathised with the trauma of the young girl. Not one of them is likely to recall the plight of the teenaged housemaids assaulted or beaten to death by their educated employers. If anything of them remains, it will be as statistics in a thin file, buried in the cemetery known as police records. In Pakistan, the good die young; poor housemaids die even younger.
Whoever chooses to write a social history of Pakistan will find it difficult to pinpoint the exact moment our hearts stopped beating for our fellow citizens. Was it in the 1950s when the anti-Ahmadi riots stained the Mall at Lahore red? Was it when we chose after 1971 to ignore the sufferings of the thousands of prisoners of war and civilians in protective custody? Was it when in 2007 we watched the streets of Rawalpindi being hosed down, diluting a fallen leader’s blood as it trickled down the drain? Or was it when we saw body bags being delivered to hospitals throughout the country as if they were daily medical supplies?
Of course, there never is any one single trauma, no unique Pearl Harbour, that causes a nation to galvanise into a unified remonstrance. Reaction to tragedy is a slow process. It takes time. Meanwhile, crises, like the relentless drip of water on a prisoner’s forehead, gradually numb a people’s consciousness into an inert, unresisting acceptance.
Pakistan can be described as a country whose leadership over the years has institutionalised callousness and indifference to a level where it is indistinguishable from public policy. The state’s ownership of its citizens has been privatised. It no longer has a stake or interest in them.
Were doomsday to occur tomorrow, were Pakistan to implode suddenly, it would solve all its myriad problems. It would certainly satisfy many an armchair Cassandra. Countries with a population of over 180 million humans, however, do not disappear into a black hole of non-existence. They continue to exist because like Mount Everest they are there.
The more mundane reason is that international creditors cannot bring themselves to unplug the life-support system that sustains such bedridden economies. The truth is nations survive because ultimately the will of the people is more resilient than the wilful errancy of its leadership.
In India, class barriers have been eroded by the tsunami of widespread education. In Pakistan, class barriers have themselves become the barriers to the wider dissemination of education. And again, while India has demonstrated that mass education produces a vibrant middle class, Pakistan has inverted that maxim and made the middle class responsible for its own education.
Anyone in government concerned with education would be hard-pressed to provide a clear vision of the contours of Pakistanis in 2030. Will they be open-minded citizens capable of integrating in a modern world? Will they continue to remain stratified in the present class distinctions? Or will they migrate and clear tables in Toronto?
There are some who would maintain that the churning of a troubled childhood produces geniuses. Take Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin. Both of them spent their precious childhood doing menial labour. Dr Abdus Salam (our sole Nobel laureate) came from a backwater: Maghiana in Jhang district.
Dr Salam’s birthday anniversary on Jan 29 should be celebrated as our equivalent of Martin Luther King Day in the US. King lived and died championing emancipation; Salam lived and died advocating education.
Salam, Dickens, and Chaplin are names those unfortunate maidservants would never have recognised. But then, they could barely write their own.
The writer is an author and art historian.
A state of fear
TERRORISM is rule by fear and it is being used by the militants as the most powerful weapon to break the resistance of ever-expanding groups in the country. The relentless spate of killings has generated a state of fear, effectively wearing out the will to fight back.
TERRORISM is rule by fear and it is being used by the militants as the most powerful weapon to break the resistance of ever-expanding groups in the country. The relentless spate of killings has generated a state of fear, effectively wearing out the will to fight back.
Fear for the safety of life is driving many of our public figures, including journalists and writers, to tread a cautious path so as to not provoke the ire of the militants. Even more frightening, some have turned defenders of the militants’ cause. But can this ostrich-like behaviour or compliance be traded with security for long? Not speaking out on mindless killings makes one only more vulnerable. The only way to make ourselves secure is to break this state of fear.
It began with the politicians, most of whom kept silent when the Taliban targeted their rivals during the election campaign. They didn’t speak out when our soldiers were being beheaded. They looked the other way when the extremists massacred Shias and other religious minorities. Instead, they appeased the murderers. Now the same terrorists are coming for them too. No one will be spared, the message is loud and clear. The line is drawn: either you are with us or against us.
Now the militants have turned their guns on journalists. Some days ago, they killed three staffers of the Express TV channel in cold blood. It was not the first time that media persons were killed in violence in this country, which is rightly described as the most dangerous place for the journalists. But the latest killings in Karachi were perhaps the most gruesome.
It was a clear declaration of war by the Pakistani Taliban against those who dare to speak out against the militants’ savagery. The attack was meant to silence the voices of sanity now becoming a rare commodity in this country where freedom of expression is increasingly under threat from rising violent extremism.
The Taliban have issued a fatwa accusing the media of siding with the ‘infidels’ and have vowed to eliminate those opposing their cause. The militant outfit has also reportedly prepared a list of media houses and journalists who according to them have been inciting ‘non-Muslims’ to wage war against the ‘forces of Islam’. Before achieving the freedom it now enjoys, the Pakistani media had to work hard and long under draconian laws. But now, ironically, non-state actors and terrorists are dictating their terms for journalists to operate, once again restricting their freedom. For sure, the main objective is to terrorise the media into submission.
This presents the most serious threat to the freedom of media in the country and fear of attack has already affected the objectivity of journalism. The threat has become much more real after the Karachi incident, forcing some media houses to tone down their criticism of militancy.
One of the most bizarre spectacles was witnessed just days after the Karachi incident when an anchor got on the telephone line Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, live on his television talk show. Ehsanullah not only brazenly claimed the responsibility of the murder of journalists, who ironically belonged to the same channel, but also warned of more such actions in future if the media did not stop what he described as “unfair reporting”.
Even worse was the way the anchorperson grovelled before the Taliban honcho, seeking to placate him, and sought the advice of the militant commander about what he considered ‘balanced reporting’. He promised to give the Taliban ample coverage in the future and to air their views regularly. But it would not please the militant spokesman who kept threatening dire consequences if the media group did not toe the line. Such an approach only makes journalists more vulnerable. Predictably, the fear of retaliation has caused a marked decline in the publications of articles and reports critical of the Taliban in some newspapers. What is worse, however, is that the fear of a terrorist backlash has driven some journalists to propagate the militant narrative. Some of them have even gone to the extent of publicly defending the militants’ actions.
It is so repulsive the way a section of the Pakistani media, particularly the TV channels, readily embrace the Taliban’s position and whitewash their brutalities. It is unique for Pakistan that mass killers are allowed to appear on television shows and their statements are given wide coverage in the national newspapers. Such glorification of the terrorists in effect legitimises the militancy.
To be fair, one cannot pin the blame on the media and journalists alone for succumbing to the threat when the national leadership itself has surrendered to the militants. Who would want to put one’s neck out especially when there’s little faith in the state to provide security?
Another driver of insecurity for journalists is the growing religious extremism and prevailing intolerance in society. The fear of victimisation has limited the intellectual discourse in the country. It is not only the threat by militants that has affected the independence of the media, but also the campaign launched by some right-wing and pro-Taliban political parties against the liberal press.
It is certainly the most testing of times for the media and democratic freedoms. We will lose this battle if the media submits to the terrorist rule of fear. This state of fear must be broken if we want to retain our freedom and win back the soul of this nation.
The writer is an author and journalist.
Twitter: @hidhussain
Culture and soft power
“OUR reading habit has been stolen and changed, for example I think Asian literature is much less narrative … but our reading habit is more Anglo-Saxon, more American. Nowadays all this narrative is very similar, it’s so realism, so story-telling driven … so all the poetry, all the alternative things have been pushed away by mainstream society.”
“OUR reading habit has been stolen and changed, for example I think Asian literature is much less narrative … but our reading habit is more Anglo-Saxon, more American. Nowadays all this narrative is very similar, it’s so realism, so story-telling driven … so all the poetry, all the alternative things have been pushed away by mainstream society.”
These words were spoken by Chinese-British author Xiaulo Guo at the Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) held recently. Guo, who writes both in Chinese and English and has been listed as one of the literary magazine Granta’s best British authors, was lamenting the domination of the global literary canon by American literature.
In conversation with her were American authors Jonathan Franzen and Jim Crace, Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ethiopian author Maaza Mengiste. Many agreed with Guo. Lahiri and Guo both lamented the dearth of avenues for authors writing in languages other than English. The conversation’s conclusion seemed obvious: to be heard, or considered in the global canon, an author must be writing in English.
The dirge of the domination of the global canon exclusively by English or specifically Anglo-American authors and forms of narrative is not new. However, the location of the conversation and its sponsorship add some new dimensions to this old lament. Taking place in India, and at the JLF’s now annual collection of literary glitter, the frustration could be a clue to the shape of things to come.
Recent surveys have revealed that Indians top the list of the world’s newspaper readers, and their appetite is not limited to news. According to the Financial Times, the Indian publishing industry is a $1.6 billion business and is likely to publish more books in English than any other market. It could be hypothesised, therefore, that a change in primary audience augurs a change in who controls the canon and defines what counts as ‘mainstream’ literature.
That would be the case if all there was to the construction of global literary taste was the market of readers. Reality, unsurprisingly, is far more complex, and some clues lie in the sponsorship of the panel itself.
The conversation on the construction and constitution of the ‘global’ novel, like so many other events at the JLF, was sponsored by the British Council. In the words of author Joel Whitney, “To understand how the mainstream is constructed it is also necessary for organisations like the British Council or US nonprofits or government councils to inspect their history in promoting certain narratives.”
Whitney, a founding editor at Guernica, has done just that. In May 2012, he published a piece in the American magazine Salon exposing the ties between the renowned literary magazine The Paris Review and the CIA. According to Whitney’s research, The Paris Review, hailed by Time magazine as the “biggest little magazine,” colluded “to share interviews and other editorial content in its vast quest to beat the Soviets in cultural achievement and showcase American writing….”
“When Xialuo Guo spoke at Jaipur about our reading habit being stolen and changed,” Whitney says, “she is exactly right; it has been, deliberately and conspiratorially.”
The Paris Review was not the only instrument in the CIA’s cultural arsenal. Frances Stonor Saunder’s book The Cultural Cold War tells of the literary magazine Encounter, which was based out of London and also an instrument of the agency. Edited by well-known literary figures, it produced well-regarded cultural commentary and commissioned many writers to produce it. In both cases, and in many others, the CIA avows its involvement in cultural production as a crucial element of using soft power to further American strategic interests.
This “weaponisation of culture”, as Whitney terms it in his essay in Salon, is not in itself a problem. The collusion of various instruments of Western soft power in literary promotion does not by itself de-legitimise all their forays into the literary sphere. Instead, it reveals areas where future investments can correct power imbalances.
One such way could be a literary magazine or platforms that publish new translated work from around the world and have clarity of focus as to why this is important. Places like New Directions, Open Letter Press and the Columbia Centre for Literary Translation are attempting to do just that. Knowledge of how the current cultural mainstream is funded and propped up is crucial in understanding what needs to be done to promote alternative interpretations and narratives.
The theory is a simple one: to counteract the domination of an Anglo-American mainstream, money must be poured into alternative voices and into translations. The challenge of course is that in the contexts from which such initiatives must arise, such as Pakistan, culture is not considered worthy of investment at all.
The hackneyed alternative to ‘Westernisation’ or ‘Westoxification’ has not been an alternative promotion of literature in Urdu. Neither has there been an effort to increase investments in translating existing Urdu literature into English such that international audiences would have access to a literary construction of Pakistan.
The response to the American weaponisation of culture as an instrument of soft power has been to deny the importance of culture itself and to advocate its destruction. The empty bookstores and libraries, the decrepit museums and archaeological sites, are all evidence of this belief.
If the sin of weaponising cultural expression can be pinned on the West, the rest are guilty of prioritising only weaponisation and leaving culture to die or decay, to rely on the strategic leftovers of superpowers.
The writer is an attorney teaching political philosophy and constitutional law.
Road map to Damascus
IT is hard not to sympathise with Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat entrusted with the impossibly tricky task of mediating between some of the warring sides in the atrocious Syrian conflict.
IT is hard not to sympathise with Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat entrusted with the impossibly tricky task of mediating between some of the warring sides in the atrocious Syrian conflict.
In the Geneva talks this week, he was able to draw some sustenance from the Damascus regime’s ‘concession’ on Homs, one of the first urban centres to rebel against Bashar al-Assad in 2011, to the effect that women and children would be allowed safe passage out of the besieged city.
At the time of writing, the conclave was bogged down on the issue of Assad’s future. Geneva I had resolved that a transitional authority would be instituted to manage, well, a transition to a more democratic set-up. In the eyes of the Syrian National Council (SNC), this involved Assad’s departure. Representatives of the Damascus regime, not surprisingly, have focused on ‘terrorism’.
This aspect of the struggle is not altogether a fallacy. After all, many of the opposition’s gains in combat have been spearheaded by the likes of Jabhat Al Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), both of which are believed to be associated with Al Qaeda.
It is frequently posited that had the West chosen to militarily intervene in Syria at, or soon after, the inception of the revolt, the radical Islamist elements could effectively have been edited out of the picture. That seems to be a spurious line of argument, though, given the consequences of Western intervention in Libya, in a similar context, and even more so in Iraq.
Among the Arab Spring states where there wasn’t any intervention, Tunisia has evidently fared best, whereas Egypt has witnessed a restoration of authoritarian rule, with a military-sponsored constitution ostensibly being approved by an unrealistic proportion of voters, and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi poised to emerge as a presidential candidate who will, no doubt, be blessed with an official degree of popularity not witnessed since … well, since Hosni Mubarak was last a contender.
The potential outcome does not augur well for Egypt, which has lapsed into a degree of authoritarianism that even Mubarak might have baulked at. Syria, though, is on a different, and even more dangerous, trajectory,
On the eve of Geneva II, a cache of horrific images depicting the victims of torture reinforced long-standing allegations about the methods deployed by the Assad regime in trampling dissent. They were ostensibly obtained from a regime functionary tasked with documenting its excesses.
They were not, however, obtained right before the conference in Switzerland. The Americans, for instance, had been aware of their existence for months. The timing of their release, and the fact that their authentication by seemingly independent experts was sponsored by Qatar, which is effectively a party to the conflict, does raise suspicions. It does not necessarily follow, though, that the evidence can be ignored.
Another remarkable occurrence on the eve of Geneva II was United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s invitation to Iran to participate in the talks. Given that Tehran is viewed as a primary sponsor of the Assad regime that has devoted considerable resources to sustaining him in power, it made perfect sense for the Iranians to be at the table.
However, the Syrian opposition, which had anyhow baulked at the idea of the talks until it was persuaded otherwise by its sponsors, found Iran’s participation absolutely unacceptable. And the US reminded Ban that the UN was only ever supposed to be a handmaiden to its imperial designs. So the UN withdrew an invitation that Iran had accepted, thereby insulting the conciliatory Rouhani regime and undermining Geneva II’s chances of getting anywhere.
It has lately been suggested that perhaps the best outcome for Syria would be a partition based on ethno-religious grounds. This would not necessarily be a reprehensible result if it could put an end to the mindless slaughter and the suffering of the millions of refugees.
Syria emerged in the aftermath of the so-called Great War nearly a century ago, from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, when the Arab lands were divided essentially between the British and the French empires.
It was only because of French opposition that the Sharif Hussain of Makkah’s son Faisal could not endure as the king of Syria and was transplanted to Mesopotamia, aka Iraq.
It could be said that the wheel of fortune has come full circle. It could also be claimed that it has barely shifted in 100 years.
Syria today sits amid the fault lines of the Shia-Sunni divide that splits the Middle East, with the former colonial powers still very much a part of the picture. Chances are the shape of the future will be determined on the ground, rather than in Geneva. It’s far from a pleasant picture, though, and many of its particulars provide cause for despair rather than hope.
Restoring childhood
WHEN Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet, wrote his famous poem Pity the Nation he probably could not in his wildest dreams imagine the excesses a nation can commit against children, whose souls, according to him, “dwell in the house of tomorrow”. Had he sensed man’s brutality towards his own offspring, Gibran would have added, ‘Pity the nation that robs its children of their childhood’.
WHEN Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet, wrote his famous poem Pity the Nation he probably could not in his wildest dreams imagine the excesses a nation can commit against children, whose souls, according to him, “dwell in the house of tomorrow”. Had he sensed man’s brutality towards his own offspring, Gibran would have added, ‘Pity the nation that robs its children of their childhood’.
The shocking murder of a child in Lahore allegedly by her employer is a small example of how Pakistan treats its children. According to Arshad Mahmood, a child’s rights activist, 24 children engaged in domestic labour have been killed in Pakistan since January 2010 when Shazia Masih was reported to have been brutally killed in the lawyer’s home where she worked.
It must be noted that domestic labour is only one sector where children go to earn a living. Equally deplorable are the Worst forms of child labour as described by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) in two districts of Sindh — Tando Allahyar and Badin.
Researched painstakingly by Zeenat Hisam and her team, these two slim volumes are eye-openers. They highlight the magnitude and various dimensions of child labour in these areas of Sindh. The idea is to keep the public focus on this problem and design interventions to eradicate child labour. The reports also identify the socio-economic factors that have created conditions in which hazardous forms of child labour thrive.
Invariably the areas where the incidence of child labour is high are poverty-stricken with few opportunities for income generation. In the districts of Tando Allahyar and Badin, literacy is low and people lack the skills and education to improve their lives. As such, the average monthly wages are barely half the national average (Rs5,000 in these two districts).
Unsurprisingly, parents are sending their children to work to supplement the family income. Many are engaged in hazardous occupations such as agriculture, transport, fishing, carpentry, auto repairs and waste collection.
The negative repercussions of such labour on the health and socio-psychological state of the child are recognised by families and the children themselves. This awareness in communities is something that is a phenomenon that did not exist before. For parents to feel embarrassed when explaining why their child has to work indicates a change in their ethos.
A stage will come when this embarrassment will change into anger, thus paving the ground for violent upheaval. Thus the Piler team discovered that children themselves did not like to work but were compelled to do so by their parents. Mothers and fathers were also unhappy about their children working but felt helpless in the face of poverty.
There was a marked preference for education but a categorical rejection of government schools which are considered to be incapable of teaching and grooming a child for employment. The children had dreams to become a ‘doctor, a teacher or an officer’. But denied the opportunity, they are resigned to their fates.
The Piler report proposes long-term and short-term interventions. The first asks for measures to improve income-generating projects to help alleviate poverty. That would reduce the compulsion for parents to send their children to work. As a short-term intervention, the study suggests that the government should improve the school system so that it creates an incentive for children to enrol as provided by Article 25-A of the Constitution. This article makes education free and compulsory for children from six to 16 years of age.
These are sound suggestions. They can be reinforced with some further measures. The government of Sindh is ostensibly spending billions on education. A Supreme Court Order of November 2013 informs us that the district of Badin has 2,897 schools of which 294 are ‘ghost’ schools and the annual budget for school education is Rs41.7 million. The Annual Status of Education Report [Aser] 2013 reports that these schools provide education to only 50pc of children aged six to 16. Their learning skills are dismal.
The situation in Tando Allahyar is worse. The district has 843 schools of which 40 are ‘ghost’ and the annual budget is Rs49.3m.The school enrolment is 51pc. Aser terms Sindh to be the worst in educational attainment.
This clearly shows that there is a heavy leakage of funds that can be plugged if the political will exists. This money can be channelled into compensatory stipends for children who give up work to attend school. According to the Piler report the younger, unskilled children earn as little as Rs40 per day which is a measly amount that can easily be generated if the so-called educationists who have sold their souls to the devil are brought to book. The link between low educational provisions and the high incidence of child labour is not coincidental. Only if the vicious cycle could be broken can we restore to our children their childhood.
Privatisation kerfuffle
Recent weeks have seen much debate on privatisation in Pakistan. When the old chestnut — ‘it is not the business of government to be in business’ — is trotted out, what is ignored is that the government is actually never ‘out’ of business. The entire national business environment is created by government, of which the condition of our public-sector enterprises (PSEs) is only a partial reflection.
Recent weeks have seen much debate on privatisation in Pakistan. When the old chestnut — ‘it is not the business of government to be in business’ — is trotted out, what is ignored is that the government is actually never ‘out’ of business. The entire national business environment is created by government, of which the condition of our public-sector enterprises (PSEs) is only a partial reflection.
In its role as legislator, regulator, debtor, price- and wage-setter, the issuer of SROs, infrastructure provider, etc, the government determines business conditions. Political considerations in the design of fiscal policy and the weight of special interests in the making of other policy distort the framework within which business is done. Without economy-wide structural reform, privatisations may simply see private oligopolies replace government monopolies — intensifying private wealth, rather than creating national growth.
Policy failure, over time, has deflated business confidence. Investment levels have fallen to 14pc of GDP, the lowest for decades. Investment by large-scale manufacturing has plummeted, from Rs352 billion in 2009, to Rs198bn in 2013, or by 40pc at current market prices (60pc at constant 2006 prices). Will LSM now make mega investments in privatisation?
The government is clearly committed to an entirely value-optimising privatisation process. But if undertaken in a hurry, there’s a risk that deals may need to be ‘sweetened’ to expedite disposal — for example, by granting the buyer control with only a fraction of share ownership; and/or through an effective price discount, or, selectively, as with independent power producers, high, government-guaranteed dollar returns.
Additionally, privatisation must be designed to be value-additive for the broad economy. In context, it is worth reviewing what past privatisation in Pakistan may have achieved. Most corresponding investment, foreign and domestic, flowed into finance, power and telecom. These sectors have grown substantially, are now reliably efficient, greatly augment consumer convenience, and perform very profitably for their investors. However, identifying their contribution to national growth and development is elusive.
Pakistan has the lowest banking penetration of any country in South Asia, at about 12pc (India and Bangladesh 35pc). Lending to the private sector has fallen, from 67pc of the banks’ investments and loans, to 48pc now. With the government the dominant borrower, ‘crowding out’ is more marked than when banks were government-owned. Capital markets for debt and capacity for project and infrastructure finance — essential aspects of a financial market — are virtually absent. A growth-fostering financial sector must have been envisaged when banks were privatised. It has not been achieved.
What cripples the power sector today is public-sector managed transmission and distribution. Huge losses and poor revenue collection perpetuate the circular debt. The whole case for privatisation emphasises the initiative and ‘best practices’ that private sector control brings. But successive governments have failed to use the private sector to rectify distribution — doable through good management, as KESC is beginning to show.
On the other hand, generation, the least complex part of the chain, is privatised (under expensive, dollar-based, ‘take or pay’ contracts). More generation is planned, which simply means more public debt. We need a complete overhaul in priorities here.
The telecom sector has created excellent connectivity, and may play a powerful development role once its mobile banking initiative proceeds beyond facilitating payments and begins to integrate the huge pool of the unbanked into our banking system. Thus far, though, privatisation’s contribution to national growth remains muted. Looking ahead, the privatisation policy will pivot around two goals: the highest viable value for the government and economy-wide gains.
How can we identify ‘fair-value’ for respective PSEs? Some are financial disasters, others perform well below potential. Persistent subordination of commercial objectives to political ends is the cause, and is inevitable while PSEs function under ministerial control. Had regulation functioned independently, had PSEs enjoyed normal corporate governance and operational freedom, considerable enterprise value could have accrued. Value now can only become transparent when operational realities are stripped of the costs of political impositions, ie managerial weaknesses enhanced by (often) ‘crony’ CEOs and politically convenient rather than professional boards working with controlled prices, and massive overstaffing.
The selling price of a PSE will depend on its privatisation terms, such as the degree to which prior company restructuring absorbs accrued losses, and separates future liabilities and excess employees, as well as independence on pricing policies and credible regulation. In setting these terms, the government will have to evaluate between options. Also, in situations, choices will have to be made between further public listing, outright privatisation, public-private partnerships, or even retention.
Consistent principles would be fundamental for transparency and credibility. But the fact that PSE oversight is fragmented across ministries could lead to piecemeal and divisive approaches, and therefore inconsistency.
To avoid this, PSEs would need to be brought under unified supervision, independent of the ministries and be placed under an overarching holding company board, composed largely of private professionals, who would appoint CEOs and boards for each PSE. Managing the spectrum through an integrated entity provides the benefit of corporate governance focus, development of common evaluation yardsticks, and holistic strategies for optimal outcomes.
Wherever the PSE is to be sold, external privatisation advisers should be appointed after hard appraisal. The holding company should pass its final recommendations to the privatisation commission for implementation. The finance ministry will have final oversight in all matters. Though the divestiture process may then take some months longer, the exercise is necessary.
Cross-political party consensus and popular support should be forthcoming if transparency and professionalism are assured, and the benefit of lessons learnt from experience is incorporated.
The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Common prejudices
IT seems linked to their long history of caste-based discrimination, or it could even be a stand-alone feature in their psychosocial makeup. Ordinary Indians are capable of being utterly racist. Even more than with foreigners, chiefly the black Africans, they can be racially, religiously, geographically intolerant of each other.
IT seems linked to their long history of caste-based discrimination, or it could even be a stand-alone feature in their psychosocial makeup. Ordinary Indians are capable of being utterly racist. Even more than with foreigners, chiefly the black Africans, they can be racially, religiously, geographically intolerant of each other.
The housewife in Delhi’s multiracial Khirki locality, who betrayed her easy, innate racism by accusing its African residents of spoiling the neighbourhood by running out naked during an earthquake, was equally certain that it was “bad enough” when the Biharis lived there. But, the Africans replacing them brought no respite.
Many a political movement has been launched across India by leaning on discrimination and profiling of Indians by fellow Indians. The Maratha supremacist Shiv Sena, for example, campaigned to throw out the Biharis from Mumbai. Earlier, it had targeted migrants from southern India. Maharashtra’s Dalits have been perpetually at the receiving end of Shiv Sena’s bilious politics.
Elsewhere, Brahmins were targeted in Tamil Nadu and then forced to run for their lives from Kashmir, leading to their mass exodus from India’s southern most and northern most states.
In a similar vein it was eerily easy for a chief minister to supervise a pogrom of a community his followers despised and then to put on a mock atonement by likening the massacre to a puppy that came under the wheels of his car. When another minority community was profiled in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination thousands were lynched in Delhi. The prime minister of the day got away with a facile explanation. When a big tree falls, the ground does shake, he told the mourners politely.
Elsewhere in India, students from the northeastern states get frequently beaten up and sexually harassed too at the Delhi University. Newspapers and TV channels berating or endorsing the outrageous racism of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister with African women in the Khirki colony recently, themselves earn revenue from ads vending skin creams that promise to give Indian men and women a coveted fairer complexion.
Cine couple Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar can be heard complaining how Muslims are denied the right to buy or rent accommodation in today’s Mumbai or in other similarly biased cities.
However, black Africans looking to rent a house lead the list of others who are equally disadvantaged in this quest. Very few black Africans are lucky to find a home in the better residential colonies of Delhi. There can be suspicions within one’s own race too.
For example, Punjabi landlords won’t easily give their houses to Punjabi tenants. The ultimate proof of India’s racial prejudice is of course the caste system.
Possibly the most vivid articulation of Indian racism occurred in South Africa where, barring those who joined the African National Congress or who became communists, the Indians were accorded a special chamber in the 1984 tricameral parliament, from which the black majority continued to remain barred. In other words, Indians joined the white supremacists in their continued discrimination of the black majority.
It goes to Nelson Mandela’s credit he stopped a vengeful blowback by the former victims of apartheid against racially inclined Indians. It is heartening of course that many Indians were at the forefront too of the fight against apartheid in South Africa, just as they were in Delhi’s Khirki colony the other day.
Arvind Kejriwal who heads a fragile AAP government in Delhi is made of the same common clay as his other fellow Indians. He spearheaded a reactionary campaign against quotas for lower castes in educational institutions before leading an anti-corruption drive that catapulted him into the big political race ahead.
The guilt of racism and of social discrimination in different spheres should thus be equally distributed among India’s main bourgeois parties. I would give the left grace marks here, though some among them tend to see the angry and alienated tribals of Chhattisgarh as a bigger foe than the prospects of religious fascism engulfing India.
What works for Kejriwal in this period of uncertainty over his better-established rivals is his forthright declaration of clear policies on several fronts. The most vital in my view is AAP’s assault on the nexus between the big businesses and their political clients.
The party is thus the only political group to have dared to name Mukesh Ambani’s links with Narendra Modi. Kejriwal is also the only politician who has named Gautam Adani as an alleged illegal beneficiary from Gujarat’s massive largesse of development funds. In fact, according to Kejriwal, the Congress too benefited from Gujarat’s dole of murky deals.
What also works for Kejriwal despite his apparently regressive past, is that he has stalled foreign direct investments in multi-brand retail trade in Delhi. It is the ubiquitous common man that stands to benefit from this ‘populist anarchy’, which the Indian president slammed in his Republic Day speech. During the Commonwealth Games, when the Congress government had thoughtlessly evicted all fruit and vegetable vendors from the streets, it was AAP lawyer Prashant Bhushan who won them a reprieve from India’s Supreme Court.
What works for Kejriwal is his plan to take on the Congress in Haryana and the Bharatiya Janata Party in its lair in Gujarat. The AAP is due to release its economic worldview when we can verify its political appeal. In the meantime, it is understandable that Delhi’s African residents and the city’s sexual and social minorities are feeling uneasy about the future. Their best bet is to befriend and educate the common man who, according to history, is a great ally and a mean foe to have.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
Wrong impressions
HAVING worked in the policy arena in the US for some years, I often find myself under the gun about all things Washington from colleagues in Islamabad. What amazes me is how precious little we understand about the workings of the world’s capital.
HAVING worked in the policy arena in the US for some years, I often find myself under the gun about all things Washington from colleagues in Islamabad. What amazes me is how precious little we understand about the workings of the world’s capital.
The issue is not as mundane as it sounds. We can’t draw informed conclusions about why the US makes certain policy choices vis-à-vis Pakistan unless we understand how Washington operates.
This lack of basic knowledge has contributed a lot to the distrust and conspiratorial thinking over the past decade.
Let me point to three beliefs I find most problematic.
First, the impression that Washington is somehow a super organised town where everything happens under some grand vision and moves in a set-piece manner on the direction of those in power. We seem to have a sense of Machiavellian town planning and plotting a global game and being fairly good at it.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Washington is just like any other capital. If anything, it may be even less set piece than your average centre of power. There is no automatic consensus on anything; you have debate after debate, tussle after tussle, and multiple opinions on virtually everything.
Of course, it is no less susceptible to group think and imbalances within the various centres of power than any comparable town. But this is also to be expected of a ‘normal’ capital.
Importantly, none of this amounts to any sinister plot; there isn’t a conspiracy behind everything; and there isn’t a policy shop tasked to micromanage Pakistan on a daily basis.
Believing otherwise sends us deep into the conspiracy world: Washington is out to get Pakistan’s nukes, it wants permanent bases in Afghanistan to counter China (and by extension the Sino-Pakistan link); it handpicks Pakistani governments, etc. To be sure, the US has global interests that it pursues with some vigour. Does this mean it keeps a very keen eye on Pakistan? Yes. Has it influenced Pakistani decisions in the past? Yes. But is Pakistan special in this respect? No.
Second, the understanding of the US legislative process is non-existent (with some exceptions of course), even among those who should ideally be on top of it. For a country so dependent on US aid and thus on the decisions made on Capitol Hill, this is unexplainable. It matters tangibly.
Obvious example: the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill.
Very few Pakistani policy pundits and decision-makers understood how various drafts of the bill were produced, how they were to merge in conference, and that each iteration can produce very different texts. Even as recently as last year, I saw a famous TV anchor present an initial version of the bill that included language about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons on camera and insinuated insincerity on the part of Pakistani officials who negotiated it. In reality, that language had never made it to the bill.
There was also no understanding of the difference between an authorisation and appropriation bill. No one got the fact that a decision on the Hill to support Pakistan with assistance is not the same thing as prioritising and tagging money (which is an appropriation function) to the authorisation in any given year.
The fact that Islamabad never bothered to internalise this and educate the public meant that we hyped up the bill, created expectations that $7.5 billion was all but in the kitty and got upset when things moved differently than expected.
Third, the sense that Pakistani voices are unrepresented in Washington or only those that toe a particular line are entertained.
There’s a need to challenge the logic of this concern. When diaspora work in this space, their role is not to promote their country of origin’s views. Rather, they are useful because they are supposed to be able to explain the processes and context of their country of origin from an ‘immersed’ perspective rather than that of a foreigner’s. Done right, this should be invaluable for the host country’s policymakers to understand how leaders and citizens here approach things, why they react in ways they do, and what the most informed policy choice based on this understanding would be.
The number of diaspora working in Washington is not proportional to pro-Pakistan voices. It shouldn’t be. Equally, the benchmark for a Pakistani expert’s objectivity can’t be that he or she must start bashing their country of origin. Either pressure would kill diversity of opinion which is central to this enterprise of generating policy relevant ideas.
If we don’t make an effort to fully grasp Washington’s thought and decision-making processes and do not educate the wider audience about it, constant misunderstandings, angst and a tendency to assume the worst will be all but inevitable. Both sides have been guilty of failing on this count in the post-9/11 context.
The writer is a foreign policy expert based in Washington D.C.
Inequitable austerity
LAST November, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, while attending the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, said that the ongoing round of austerity agreed upon with the IMF would deliver much-needed growth to the country.
LAST November, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, while attending the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, said that the ongoing round of austerity agreed upon with the IMF would deliver much-needed growth to the country.
The finance minister’s continued insistence on sticking with austerity economics at a time when consensus behind austerity-induced growth is already breaking down is not understandable. By then, a handful of influential academic papers peddling the notion of expansionary austerity were exposed to be based on flawed methodology and analysis.
These include papers by Reinhart and Rogoff, and by Alesina and Ardagna, which together made a strong case for introducing fiscal austerity without impacting economic growth. In some of the recent IMF publications there is also an acceptance of the adverse economic effects of austerity.
Despite this mounting evidence the finance minister firmly declared himself in the camp of the ‘austerians’. This approach is showing up in a number of measures that are exerting a negative impact on the lives of ordinary citizens.
One measure is the acceptance of the IMF’s adjustment programme which yokes the PML-N government to an economic reform path. The government has signed up to the deal by reducing subsidies leading to a massive hike in energy, petrol and gas prices.
This bit of the deal was easily done because the measure seeks to extract as much extra revenue as possible from tied captive users of these utilities — much like salaried taxpayers. The result has been unremitting misery for a vast swathe of the population which has seen its utility bills rise. On the contrary, the difficult bit of the deal, which involves extending the tax net to traders and the rich, has been shelved.
There is another way in which austerity economics is working its mysterious hold. The government has undertaken to reduce government spending. However, given that the government operates under the influence of the bureaucracy, spending may not come down where the latter’s pet projects are concerned.
The first casualty of the IMF belt-tightening is always the social development programme. With donor aid petering out, this sector is set to suffer further diminution in its funding, accentuating an already existing crisis in the provision of basic services such as health and education. The military budget, however, remains protected.
Yet another way to reduce government spending has been sought through the typical neo-liberal instrument of privatisation. Pakistan’s record on privatisation is hardly an unalloyed success, as demonstrated by experts on the subject.
The language-strategic divestment to strategic partners surrounding the privatisation process is troubling. The process should be transparent and state assets should not be sold at throwaway prices to preferred bidders. What troubles one more, apart from the transparency issue, is the prospect of massive social dislocation resulting in industrial scale post-privatisation layoffs, redundancies and golden handshakes.
Meanwhile, the ranks of the unemployed are swelling. Add to this unedifying prospect factors such as the worsening energy crisis, the bill inflation and rising cost of living, and it is hard not to imagine the ingredients of social combustion brewing in this stew.
On the positive side, the PML-N has stuck to social protection schemes such as the Benazir Income Support Programme. Yet given the harsh reality of being poor at a time of food inflation, unemployment and rising cost of living, the reach of the programme is limited. There is a need to extend its range and to put in place similar social protection schemes.
These are huge challenges facing the new government which requires a forward-looking and equitable economic agenda going beyond sectional interests.
At the hustings, the PML-N put itself forward as the party of competent economic managers; the party was voted into office on this promise. In line with its wider mandate the party needs to grow beyond its narrow political constituency and govern for all by elaborating a broader reform plan which puts in place structural foundations for prosperity for all and not for just a few.
The current regime of borrowing, both internally and externally, coupled with the printing of money on a Himalayan scale contains the germs of long-term economic instability.
True, there is a need for some difficult decisions. True, there is a need to make sacrifices. Yet the pain of these decisions and sacrifices should be equitably distributed among all sections of society. There is considerable evidence that the rich have done well in all austerity-hit countries. Pakistan can be an exception. Has the new government something in it which could make this exception happen? Perhaps not, many would say. But they can be proved wrong.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
Faustian bargain?
WHAT do you do when the killers say that they will kill you if you say that they are killers? Should you sell your soul to the devil? Or should you venture out saying what you think is right, knowing that it is open hunting season?
WHAT do you do when the killers say that they will kill you if you say that they are killers? Should you sell your soul to the devil? Or should you venture out saying what you think is right, knowing that it is open hunting season?
We have slowly degenerated to a point where the state has lost its monopoly over violence and state officials their autonomy and anonymity. Now we have general and specific terror targets, both within the state and society. The state institutions — the armed forces, intelligence and law enforcement agencies — are general targets. And then there are individuals within institutions who are specific targets either due to their sensitive posts or personal convictions.
Any citizen who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time is a legitimate general target for terrorists. Then there are specific group and individual targets: Hazaras, Shias generally, and now journalists are group targets; religious leaders who speak against the terror-driven tyrannical model of faith or anchors critical of terrorists or perceived as liberal are on individual hit lists. Political parties, of liberal persuasion, and individual leaders, vocal about their opposition to terror, have been marked as group and individual targets respectively.
Aren’t TTP sympathisers forcing officials and citizens to follow their lead and strike a Faustian bargain? If the state cannot protect you, why not seek patronage of terrorists who can hurt you at will? This could work for political parties and citizens who aren’t on target lists.
But what about those who are? What can Hazaras do to appease terrorists? What can non-journalist media staff do to save their lives? Caught in the crosshairs by virtue of their work, what should policemen and soldiers do? What should ordinary citizens do who are at the wrong place at the wrong time?
The gamble of pro-talkers is simple: so long as there is a bigger target, the lesser target is safer. The state and society is thus confronted with prisoners’ dilemma: you can be anti-TTP and a target, or a sympathiser and relatively safe. We have created this dilemma because we fail to unite on basic principles: there can be no justification ever for one set of citizens to kill fellow citizens in pursuit of any political or ideological objective; and the state can never agree to share monopoly over violence with non-state actors.
If negotiations are meant to mainstream Fata and elicit the support of tribesmen for Pakistan, its Constitution and policies, let’s talk to leaders of all tribes and not those of a terror outfit.
If local support in Fata is key to the terror conundrum, let’s propose new self-governance structures for Fata and service delivery guarantees by the state. And if the object is to separate hardened terrorists from misguided accomplices, why not propose a workable amnesty and rehabilitation scheme to those who wish to stop fighting?
Pakistan has too many soft targets: schools, mosques, bazaars, funerals, politicians, policemen, soldiers, defence installations etc. While there is no excuse for security failures, it is not possible to protect all citizens and state assets by protection alone.
The state must focus on extinguishing the threat. We need political leaders to shape the national narrative against terror. And we need the army and police to cleanse themselves of TTP sympathisers, dispel the impression that we have a capacity problem and bolster public faith in the state’s will and ability to win his war.
Our anti-terror policy must focus on minimising collateral damage. But let’s realise that there will be more bloodshed, both by the TTP and in defending Pakistanis against it. Re-establishing the writ of state over North Waziristan and other no-go areas is only one component of an anti-terror policy. The cancer has spread all over. We need surgery for the most affected parts followed by chemotherapy for the body politic. It will be no ride in the park. But this fight is for the existence of the idea of Pakistan that is worth fighting for.
The writer is a lawyer.
sattar@post.harvard.edu
Twitter: @babar_sattar
Treason or travesty?
WELL before a formal indictment, sections of the media and society have already rendered virtual verdicts on the guilt of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf. Given the manner in which public discourse is being framed by the media — and quite separate from whether such framing accurately reflects the majority of public opinion — given the past relationship between the general and
WELL before a formal indictment, sections of the media and society have already rendered virtual verdicts on the guilt of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf. Given the manner in which public discourse is being framed by the media — and quite separate from whether such framing accurately reflects the majority of public opinion — given the past relationship between the general and
several former and serving senior judges, and for other reasons, this writer is of the opinion that a fair trial is not possible.
Yet the trial cannot now be abandoned. Even an unfair trial enables the accused to express a viewpoint. For example, there can be a complete boycott of court proceedings, should they become patently partisan.
The general has not helped by avoiding appearances. While one wishes him good health and complete recovery, if his ill-health continues to require optimal rest, he should use a stretcher, if necessary, to appear in court soonest, listen to the charges, record his responses and request exemption from personal appearances till his condition improves.
By his absences, an impression is fostered of evasion, contrary to his quality of headstrong bravado. A man who did not want to become a fugitive, who ignored the strong pleas to stay overseas by family, friends, well-wishers — even the army?! — to boldly return home when all the odds were stacked against him should not now be reluctant to face trial.
Personal friendship with him of several years suffered with my resignation from his cabinet on Oct 13, 2000.
The reasons for resignation were to do with policy, not with personal issues. However, in public office, policy determinants and personal perspectives become potently fused and sometimes inseparable. One affects the other. But that is another story, better shared at another time.
Despite strong reservations about several of his actions between 1999 and 2008, this writer believes that the general is a fervently patriotic Pakistani capable of bad decisions but incapable of betraying the state. During his tenure, many progressive steps were taken, as were several regressive actions. To try him for high treason may be, by one interpretation, legally valid. But it is also a high travesty of the principles of natural justice.
His original sin took place on Oct 12, 1999. Seven months later, on May 12, 2000, after detailed deliberation, not rushed hearings, a 12-member Bench of the Supreme Court (including then Justices Iftikhar Chaudhry and Rana Bhagwandas) validated the removal of an elected government, legitimised the military intervention and, of its own volition, authorised the general to amend the Constitution.
Earlier, the same judges had taken a fresh oath under the rule of the same general. Only several years later — spurred by personal grievance of arbitrary dismissal of the chief justice in March 2007, not impersonal constitutional principles — a U-turn occurred. Suddenly, the true light dawned. Have those who were parties to the 2000 judgement been held accountable?
Then there is collective responsibility, in 1999 and in 2007. All credit to Chaudhry Shujaat for offering himself for trial for supporting the imposition of the emergency on Nov 3, 2007 — because he too was consulted, amongst many others, by the general before taking the decision.
Collective responsibility also applies post facto. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi generals after the Second World War concluded that those who obey unlawful orders are as guilty as those who give them. This principle has also been enunciated by Pakistan’s judiciary.
Chaudhry Shujaat beat me to the draw. But better late than never. This writer also offers himself for trial for being a cabinet member with the general from November 1999 to October 2000. There is no justification to single out the general alone, be it for 1999 or 2007. His signing the Proclamation of Emergency in November 2007 as chief of army staff does not detract from the hard fact that several dozen persons were aware of the imminent action, and either supported it, or later, obeyed it.
The tragedy of Mr Bhutto’s unjust conviction by the judiciary and callous execution on the orders of Gen Ziaul Haq, and the dismissals/dissolution of Mr Nawaz Sharif’s governments in 1993 and 1999 with indirect or direct participation by the armed forces do not erase
the hard facts of past collaboration with the military by civilians who unfortunately later became victims.
Faced with the fait accompli of a trial clouded by doubts and reservations, Gen Musharraf and his lawyers should nevertheless persevere in their pursuit of justice. Material presented by the defence team during the trial should oblige re-visitation by sections of public, media and legal discourse to the prejudices and pronouncements presently filling columns and air waves.
The writer is a former senator and federal minister.
www.javedjabbar.com
A sorry state
SOCIAL and economic justice is nice to have. So are common cultural obsessions, like chai and cricket, that bind together otherwise diverse groups. But when it comes to the state itself, the most important thing — quite simply — is retaining a monopoly on violence.
SOCIAL and economic justice is nice to have. So are common cultural obsessions, like chai and cricket, that bind together otherwise diverse groups. But when it comes to the state itself, the most important thing — quite simply — is retaining a monopoly on violence.
Now one can quibble about this, add ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, quote political philosophers and lapse into ancient Greek, but the central argument still holds mostly true: we obey the state and its laws simply because the state can hurt us. That violence can take many forms — a monetary fine, the deprivation of liberty or even life — but what is crucial is that the state directly exercises this power, and is seen to be doing it.
When you reach a situation where other groups and forces can credibly, and with impunity, apply violence it is a warning that the state itself is quickly becoming untenable.
He who can destroy a thing finds that he does, in effect, control that thing and is a de facto state unto himself — whether that is limited to a small neighbourhood in a big city or an entire tribal agency.
Sometimes this monopoly is lost due to uncontrollable factors: invasion, natural disaster, a lack of capacity; but the natural tendency of a rational state is to attempt to reassert it, to win back the lost ground.
Sadly, we have a state that has, over the decades, subcontracted and sub-let that exclusive right to violence; in ways big and small, due to short-term expediency and grand — and grandly failed — strategic visions and everything in between. It is a state that has effectively ceded this ultimate hallmark of what we like to call ‘sovereignty’.
No one person or institution bears the exclusive blame, though the greater responsibility lies with those who have, covertly or overtly, controlled the destiny of this nation for the greatest period. There’s no profit here in repeating the sorry tale of the incredible errors made in pursuit of strategic goals. Of how those led to the creation of militias to do the work of the state. Militias that then metastasized were recruited by other actors — state and non-state — until the whole toxic brew simply exploded.
There are smaller manifestations of this malaise as well. Parts of the country were effectively rendered into personal and party fiefs, where local lords, urban and rural, reigned supreme because it was politically expedient to allow this.
Because it was easy to do, because their political support, their votes, their muscle was needed.
Here we must note that this is by no means exclusive to Pakistan. Many other states in history have also, for various reasons, allowed other actors this power. But the key is to remember this must be a time-bound lease, not an open-ended grant.
This kind of behaviour is addictive. The state gets to absolve itself of its responsibilities and save resources, while the favoured force — be it an jihadi militia or a private army or even a particularly powerful crime boss — gets power and legitimacy.
Once surrendered, it’s hard to get back. Once the foundation is laid, the rest of the structure usually follows: dispute resolution, taxation in the form of extortion or ‘charitable donations’.
In effect, all the trappings of a state slowly but surely begin to manifest. Power is a lot of fun to have, you see. Just ask Mullah Fazlullah.
We don’t have to look very far, or very far back, to see the logical conclusion to this. All we need do is look at the entrenched position of a group like Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the mini statelets emerging in present-day Syria. Here in Pakistan we have numerous such groups ready and willing to fill the vacuum. There are criminal gangs, religious militias, private armies and separatist rebels — all of whom would be quite happy to slap on a uniform, print their own official letterheads and hold court. Many of them already do.
Winning back this lost space won’t be easy at all. There will be ups and downs, small victories and great disasters, but it really does need to start somewhere.
Containment is simply not a long-term one, nor is ceding more space to buy time. But here we have a state that seems to do nothing but. We’ve seen it happen every time the thin veneer of civilisation cracks. We saw it on ‘Youm-i-Ishq’, when looters and rioters ran amok in the face of a state reluctant to assert its authority.
We see its manifestations in politicians preferring to appease terrorists to save their own backs and in shopkeepers preferring to pay extortion rather than trust the police. We see its consequences when it becomes more expedient to transport pilgrims by air simply because you can’t secure the roads. Let’s just not say we didn’t see it coming.
The writer is a member of staff.
zarrar.khuhro@gmail.com
Twitter:@ZarrarKhuhro
Apathy towards labour
FOLLOWING the enforcement of the 18th Amendment, the subject of labour was transferred to the provincial governments. Since the majority of legislation relating to labour matters had been promulgated by the centre, they required being re-enacted by provincial governments by June, 2011.
FOLLOWING the enforcement of the 18th Amendment, the subject of labour was transferred to the provincial governments. Since the majority of legislation relating to labour matters had been promulgated by the centre, they required being re-enacted by provincial governments by June, 2011.
However, except for the Industrial Relations Act (IRA), none of the other prominent labour laws have been provincialised, especially in Sindh. The IRA is critical as it deals with the formation of trade unions and workers’ and managements’ joint forums. Due to non-conformance with statutory provisions and the constitutional requirement by the provinces, the government may have to face litigation from employers’ bodies which will be difficult for them to defend before the courts.
For example, the secretary of labour, Sindh has, vide his notification dated Oct 28, 2013, enhanced the wage ceiling from Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 for the purpose of paying the monthly contribution of employers under Section 2 of the Provincial Employees Social Security Ordinance, 1965. Since this amount of Rs10,000 has been prescribed under Section 20 of the ordinance, such an increase should have been effected through the provincial legislature and not by an executive order.
Meanwhile, the Employees Old-age Benefits Act (EOBA), 1976, and the Workers’ Welfare Fund Ordinance, 1971, continue to remain federal laws. The huge funds collected from the employers under both these legislations are managed through the Employees Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and governing body of the Workers’ Welfare Fund (WWF) respectively.
The functioning of both the EOBA and the Workers’ Welfare Fund Ordinance has started causing difficulties in implementation not only for employers but also for the EOBI and the WWF governing body.
By virtue of an amendment carried out in the EOBA in 2005, the monthly amount of contribution payable by employers on behalf of their employees was linked with the prevalent rate of minimum wages as declared under the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance, 1969. Effective from July 1, 2013, the minimum wages for unskilled workers have been enhanced from Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 per month.
The Sindh government has increased minimum wages by issuing a notification dated Oct 3, 2013, under Section 4 of the Minimum Wages Ordinance, 1961. But the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has adopted Rs10,000 as minimum wage by promulgating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minimum Wages Act, 2013. Thus the minimum wage has been increased but under different legislations from the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance, 1969. This has created a dilemma for the EOBI, which has so far not issued directions to employers to pay the monthly contribution at the revised rate.
Similarly, employers are facing the issue of ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Companies’ Profits (Workers’ Participation) Act, 1968. Under this Act, all companies have to allocate 5pc of their net profit to the Workers’ Profit Participation Fund, the bulk of which goes every year to the federal government’s Workers’ Welfare Fund and part of which goes to eligible workers.
In February 2011, the Sindh High Court nullified five of the amendments carried out by the government in five of the labour statutes through the Finance Act, 2007. The court held that those amendments should have been routed through and passed by both houses of parliament as they did not relate to money matters.
One of the amendments affected by the court judgement related to the coverage of contractor workers for disbursement of their share in the companies’ profits and the extension of this share to additional employees under the Companies’ Profits (Workers Participation) Act 1968.
The appeal filed against this judgement is still pending. Meanwhile, employers are perplexed about whether or not to take the risk of paying the share in their profit to additional workers, who became eligible to receive it after the 2007 amendment.
Over the last roughly two decades, successive federal governments have given short shrift to the subject of labour. From time to time labour commissions were formed by different governments for the purpose of consolidating and simplifying labour laws.
These commissions completed their task successfully but unfortunately their efforts went waste as respective governments did not get them passed as acts by the parliament.
The devolution of labour laws to the provinces has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand the provinces have the opportunity to complete the job of the rationalisation of labour laws left unattended by governments at the centre.
On the other, they have to tread carefully, taking into consideration the interests of both employers and workers — any wrongful act may have disastrous consequences for industrial and commercial organisations.
The writer is an industrial relations professional.
Connecting the dots
WHAT should the new national security policy look like? This is a million-dollar question and a challenge for both the security establishment and parliament. The job was initially left to the interior ministry, which is still struggling to find the right answers.
WHAT should the new national security policy look like? This is a million-dollar question and a challenge for both the security establishment and parliament. The job was initially left to the interior ministry, which is still struggling to find the right answers.
This may not be a problem of vision in general terms, but that of the clout of policy narratives which perceives things only in black and white. The political parties including those with a religious bent, the media and civil society leaders are playing with public sentiments as they limit the entire counterterrorism discourse to either ‘talks’ or ‘operation’. Now it has become difficult for the government to conceive of a solution beyond these two phrases. This has caused the collective threat perception to be translated into confused and ineffective actions by the government.
The PML-N government developed the initial contours of its national security framework with a greater focus on peace talks; most of the other initiatives were a continuation of the security sector’s reform policies of the previous government, except for the formation of the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS).
The task of formulating a new internal security policy was given to the federal interior ministry, which has come up with a draft after seven months and presented it to the federal cabinet. The cabinet has advised improvements in the draft to address neglected issues. Nobody exactly knows what components this policy contains except for the broader outline the interior minister shared with the media. According to the media report, the first component of the policy is a secret and will not be revealed. The second is strategic and gives a road map on how to proceed, while the third part involves the operational aspect. Not much can be deduced about the direction of the interior ministry’s national security policy from such opaque statements, and it is not clear what is meant by ‘secret’ and which parts of the policy will fall under this category.
The challenge is beyond the capacity of the interior ministry’s bureaucracy. It is known that the major gaps in internal security responses include the lack of coordination among different institutes and departments. At the same time, incorporating existing responses in a comprehensive policy also remains to be done.
More importantly, gaps exist in the regional strategic approach in that it fails to address the dichotomies in internal security challenges and regional interests. These critical challenges require an institutional mechanism to synchronise the civil-military contribution and the formation of a national security policy in order to remove the gaps.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took a decision which could have provided that mechanism. This decision was the establishment of the CCNS. According to this, the prime minister was to head the CCNS while the top military brass was to have a status equal to the civilian members on the committee. An office of a ‘civilian’ national security adviser was established to make this new body functional.
Experts believe that the CCNS can strengthen and deepen the consultative process between the political government and the military provided the committee functions regularly and the civilians take up security and defence affairs in a more professional manner.
Secondly, it would at least start the process of civilian ownership of foreign and security policies in a country where defence and security affairs, including key foreign policy areas, have been off-limits to civilian governments.
At the time of its inception, it was decided that the CCNS would meet once a month, but it did not meet even once until the end of 2013. The government needs to take this initiative seriously as it could help remove many political, strategic and operational ambiguities in the security policy discourse.
There is a need to make the CCNS functional as it offers an excellent opportunity to connect the scattered responses to a broader counterterrorism policy. Apart from being a policymaking and decision-making body, the CCNS can be given the role of coordinating among various institutions.
The Pakistan Security Report 2013, released by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies has suggested that the key objective of coordination must be to connect both political responses and operational strategies and to evolve a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to keep a check on the performance of different institutions and departments. It will be helpful in reviewing and amending the strategies in the context of the changing nature of the threats.
The CCNS secretariat can resolve the issue of intelligence-sharing and coordination among the various intelligence and law-enforcement departments. A separate joint intelligence committee can be formed under the umbrella of the CCNS, and a special committee of the body can forward information to the relevant departments for operational purposes. The National Counter Terrorism Authority can act as an advisory body to the CCNS, with its special focus on data processing and developing assessments.
To remove ambiguities in operational and political strategies, the CCNS should be made responsible as a coordinating and implementing body for political interventions, including peace talks with militants, reintegration of the militants in the mainstream and counter-extremism measures. This is an area where the CCNS can engage with other segments of society including civil society and media.
The current functional overlaps found among provincial law enforcement bodies, the interior ministry and the security forces can be easily identified, and duplications removed for effective operational responses. Pakistan is facing serious and diverse security problems which cannot be resolved through the uni-dimensional approach of ‘talks or operation’.
The writer is a security analyst.
The silo effect
FOLLOW the trail of crumbs. There are always crumbs. And sometimes they lead somewhere.
FOLLOW the trail of crumbs. There are always crumbs. And sometimes they lead somewhere.
The boys want to go after the bad guys. Whack them. Pulverise them. Put the fear of God and the boys into them for generations to come. Etc, etc.
Let’s go, Greens, let’s go.
And, suddenly, lemming-like, everyone is falling into line. The talks’ talk has scattered. Everyone wants to talk war and formations and brigades and operations and intelligence.
But hang on, where is all of this pressure coming from? The boys, of course. Everyone knows that.
Whacked in Mirali, they hit back. Whacked in Bannu, they hit back. Suddenly, the boys are straining at the leash. They want to finish this. The TTP.
The boys want to do what the boys were raised to do. Be the saviour, defend the country, save the day.
New chief, new resolve, clarity like never before. It’s an irresistible storyline, so why question it? Who cares about motives and intentions, as long as the job gets done, right?
Not quite. Because much depends on how the job is defined. And, surprise, surprise, no one really wants to talk about what the job is, exactly.
So let’s follow the trail of crumbs. Crumb one. Fazlullah is a bad guy. Worse yet, he’s fallen into the wrong company — next door, where terrible things against Pakistan are plotted. Somehow, he finagled his way into the TTP hot seat. He’s an irreconcilable.
Crumb two. What’s changed? We’ve been doing this for years. They even had a name for it: the prioritisation approach. You whack us, we’ll whack you; you play nice, we’ll look the other way. Also known as good Taliban/bad Taliban. Now repackaged as miscreants and reconcilables.
Crumb three. We know where to find them — if we want to find them. And, after years of doing the irregular war thing, we’re still a bit messy at it, but kinda OK too.
Crumb four. There aren’t a whole lot of them. The TTP and sundry other bits and bobs the state might have to fight. A couple of thousand to several thousand to a couple of tens of thousands, at most. Nothing fundamentally unmanageable — even if you accept there’ll be less frontal and more guerrilla/insurgent/ruddy-little-mongrel type of fighting.
Crumb five. Swat is the end state. There is no exit strategy and the best-case scenario ends with a permanent military presence. Good idea/bad idea, who knows. We’ll find out eventually.
Crumb six. Afghanistan. Fill in the blanks.
Those are the crumbs. Add a few, subtract a couple — it doesn’t really matter. Because there’s enough in there for both storylines.
Story A: army has realised militancy is bad and, at long last, wants to end the domestic security threat.
Story B: army is in a belligerent mood because it is being attacked and the public mood is souring, but assets are assets and tamping down the domestic threat now does equal chucking out the Taliban baby with the dirty Pakistani water.
The problem is the boys and their silos.
Three silos matter: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir/India. Maybe two in the present instance: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Sitting atop the silos are the two decision-makers: the chief and the DGI. They can choose which silo to listen to or which combination of silos to listen to or in which sequence the silos should have their say.
But, and this is the crucial bit, the chief and the DGI are always in charge of which silo is heard in public.
Right now, we’re hearing the Pakistan silo. That’s the group of boys tasked with tracking the internal security threat.
The Pakistan silo knows everything about the domestic threat — about the groups, about the flux, about the morphing and chopping and changing, about the aims and ideology and the reconcilability or not.
And the Pakistan silo is clear: get them now or they’ll take you down. Because they are immersed in the threat, studying it, tracking it, mapping it, the Pakistan silo can connect the dots easily enough. And the dots read: do it soon or this won’t end well, for anyone.
So that’s what we’re hearing in public through the usual proxies.
The boys want to go after the bad guys. Whack them. Pulverise them. Put the fear of God and the boys into them for generations to come. Etc, etc.
Let’s go, Greens, let’s go.
And, suddenly, lemming-like, everyone is falling into line.
Everyone, that is, who believes what they hear and forgets the other silo: Afghanistan.
Over in the Afghanistan silo, it’s a different kind of urgency. It’s 2014. The next phase is in motion and interests have to be protected.
Necessarily, the following rules apply: it’s a zero-sum game — others win, Pakistan loses; the interests, and so time horizon, are longish — five, 10, 15 years; and unrest inside Pakistan is linked to the international struggle for supremacy in Afghanistan.
Here’s where things break down: the Afghanistan silo sees the internal security threat as subordinate to the greater, regional threat to Pakistan. Simply, the threat at home is always more manageable than the threat that looms on our borders.
And to forget that the Afghanistan silo inside the army is co-equal to the Pakistan silo is to forget everything that makes the boys boys.
Right now, the Pakistan silo has cranked up its megaphone and been given the go-ahead to shout itself hoarse.
But beware the silent types — they do their best work in the shadows and without much fuss. Beware the Afghanistan silo.
The writer is a member of staff.
Twitter: @cyalm
Mid-level crisis
ALL those who have visited a government office must have come across the famous pronouncement of the Quaid regarding the ideal role of the bureaucracy. Prominently displayed, his vision of a politically neutral and non-partisan civil servant is something that needs to be revalidated in the face of the changed societal milieu of modern Pakistan.
ALL those who have visited a government office must have come across the famous pronouncement of the Quaid regarding the ideal role of the bureaucracy. Prominently displayed, his vision of a politically neutral and non-partisan civil servant is something that needs to be revalidated in the face of the changed societal milieu of modern Pakistan.
Ambivalent borders between the pursuit of a legitimate political agenda and the display of unflinching political loyalty are already exacting a heavy toll on many a conscientious mandarin. Clarity on this score is therefore highly desirable for the mutual benefit of and smooth interaction between politicians and bureaucrats.
To be fair, debate in this regard is nearly settled for lower-grade as well as senior-level functionaries for surprisingly identical reasons. For junior-level functionaries such as the patwari, thanedar and school teacher, it is an issue of survival as they have to secure their existence by keeping the local politicians in good humour. Mutually advantageous interaction, spread over years, favours the localised priorities of both parties.
Similarly, selection of senior-level positions depends on the political leadership’s degree of comfort with the civil servant in question.
However, the true challenge lies for mid-career civil servants, who represent the operational level in policy implementation. It is this level which is typically imbued with the values propounded by the Quaid and invariably ends up being perceived as a stumbling block rather than as a facilitator.
The inability of mid-level public functionaries to appreciate the political dimensions of governance initiatives is understandable. Unlike functionaries at the grass-root or senior level, these poor souls are deprived of the immediate company of the political leadership. This leads to aloofness between the two at a personal level and also creates genuine difficulties for functionaries in understanding political priorities.
Although the transmission of a political agenda to the mid-career bureaucrat from both the lower and the top level is generally a continuous process, the ability to appreciate and follow the agenda is usually highly constrained.
In this regard, the introduction of LGO 2001 deserved to be appreciated. It was a genuine effort to define the contours of interaction between the politicians and bureaucrats. The dispensation unfurled through this law clearly defined the ascendancy of politicians through the offices of zila and tehsil nazim. LGO 2001 strengthened the vision-setting and agenda-fixing role of locally elected politicians vis-à-vis district officials who were assigned a definitive managerial role. The latter were thus required to pursue governance priorities as enunciated by the political heads of district and tehsil governments.
For obvious reasons, civil servants were not too happy with this situation which altered the relationship between the district administration and local politicians. LGO 2001 was nevertheless a major advancement in redefining the perceptions held by mid-career civil servants of ascendancy of the political leadership and its governance agenda.
The situation is all set to become more complex with the steady advancement of the national political scenario towards a two- or three-party political system.
Working to implementation the governance agenda of a specific political party, the civil servant is destined to be seen as wearing party colours. The other option for an ordinary civil servant is to seek unimportant assignments and be consequently rendered inconsequential. For obvious reasons, few career civil servants would be delighted with prospects that could render their service career meaningless and devoid of key appointments.
Both the political leadership and civil servants must work towards avoiding this. The former must realise that the fact that a civil servant has worked under one political dispensation should not be seen as an automatic disqualifier for working under another. Decisions need to be made on the basis of the managerial abilities of an official rather than his having worked under a certain political government.
On the other hand, civil servants must appreciate the clear demarcation between managerial zeal and political ambition as they perform their mandated responsibilities. However, their efforts to achieve set targets should not be dampened by the likelihood of being dubbed as a pursuer of political ambition.
On their part, the manifesto and agenda of political parties ought to be implemented by segregating the purely political aspects from governance and service delivery improvements. It may not appear easy given the recent ascendancy of ‘technocrat’ cadres who actually thrive on eliminating borders between politics and governance. In fact, many so-called think tanks and technocrats seem to have taken over the task of civil servants.
A civil servant, as per with the Quaid’s vision, needs to meticulously guard against the temptation of ending up a technocrat instead of being a neutral bureaucrat.
The writer is a public policy expert.
All who watch
EVERY electorate may or may not get the government it deserves. Voters can fall for a bluff: if they did not believe a promise so sincerely, they might not punish an incumbent so severely either. But every political party deserves the advertising it gets.
EVERY electorate may or may not get the government it deserves. Voters can fall for a bluff: if they did not believe a promise so sincerely, they might not punish an incumbent so severely either. But every political party deserves the advertising it gets.
The first advertisement of the Congress campaign for 2014, focused inevitably on Rahul Gandhi, has been received with jeers despite being created by the sniffy agency, Dentsu. It blundered its way into conversation through a gaffe of serious proportions. It adorned Rahul Gandhi with Narendra Modi’s plumes by lifting its slogan, Main nahin, hum (not me, we) from a Modi poster for ‘Team Gujarat’ without the minimal courtesy of changing even a comma.
The agency shouldn’t be blamed. A chef will produce only what the customer has ordered. This ad proves that neither Rahul Gandhi nor anyone in his workplace has a political memory. Otherwise, an alarm bell would have rung somewhere in the subconscious, loud enough to persuade the agency to double check. It was not as if the slogan was carbon-copied from a message delivered a decade ago. It was used by Modi as recently as in 2011.
The most dangerous fault-line in the culture of dynasty is that accountability plays second fiddle to loyalty. In politics, just as there is high reward for success, there has to be some penalty for failure. But if you belong to a magic circle of jee huzoori, it’s always someone else’s fault, never yours.
Rahul Gandhi and his core team have presided over a series of electoral disasters since the return of UPA in 2009. One could begin with the shock defeat in Punjab, which marked the beginning of the end of this phase of Congress fortunes. Congress has never recovered from the reversal in Punjab. Rahul Gandhi may not have been sole leader in the Punjab operations, but he was most certainly commander in chief when Uttar Pradesh went to the polls, taking charge and rolling up his sleeves with noticeable frequency.
UP was personal. He told anyone who would listen — and there were many who did, both in media and the Central Hall of Parliament — that Congress would get around 100 seats, and 80 would be the worst-case scenario. This would not ensure the restoration of Congress in the Ganga-Jamuna swathe, but also justify the ascent of Rahul Gandhi to the prime minister’s office.
We all know what happened. What many do not know is that nothing happened to those who orchestrated the UP and subsequent campaigns. If nothing happens once, nothing will happen again. And so the unwavering descent from UP to last year’s December Assembly results has been a straight line. Congress has paid a heavy price for such complacence, but no one in Rahul Gandhi’s team has the tiniest scar to show for failure.
The only response has been a throaty “Next time, we’ll show you!” Well, has the last of the “next times” arrived? No. The next next time will be 2019.
Will this slogan, ‘Not me, we’, change? It probably has to be amended, since the embarrassment has only begun. But whoever planted the seed has drawn a forest of narrative as well, proving again that the agency was only delivery boy, not original thinker.
Rahul Gandhi’s election pitch is going to be that one person cannot rule this country. He may be speaking for himself. He is certainly not speaking for his great grandfather, the titan Jawaharlal Nehru, or grandmother, Indira Gandhi, or indeed his father Rajiv Gandhi, who were all hands-on leaders of their governments. Indira Gandhi was often described as the supreme figure in her cabinet, in an analogy which is politically incorrect now (‘the only man in her cabinet’); some admirers equated her with India (‘Indira is India’]. If Rahul Gandhi’s intention is to debunk Modi’s style of functioning, he may have chosen the wrong year. The voter wants firm governance in 2014.
The advertisement is untidy in other aspects as well. There is, for instance, no Sikh in the array of faces on either side of Rahul Gandhi. Is this is a Freudian slip? Has Congress given up already on Punjab and the Sikh voter? But such carelessness can always be corrected in the next visual. The more important debate will be over the ‘I-us’ theme. Modi has already put the counterpoint into public discourse. He, and Team Gujarat, were there first. His Team India claim has precedence.
The election schedule will be announced in the last week of February, and polling will begin in early April, so there’s time. Not too much, but enough for course correction. If responsibility for correction is entrusted to those who did not make the mistakes in the first place, it will be a significant step forward for Congress.
The writer is an author and editorial director of The Sunday Guardian, published from Delhi.
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