Thread: Editorial: DAWN
View Single Post
  #1591  
Old Sunday, June 11, 2017
Man Jaanbazam's Avatar
Man Jaanbazam Man Jaanbazam is offline
Excursionist
Moderator: Ribbon awarded to moderators of the forum - Issue reason: Medal of Appreciation: Awarded to appreciate member's contribution on forum. (Academic and professional achievements do not make you eligible for this medal) - Issue reason:
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Into The Wild
Posts: 1,940
Thanks: 1,140
Thanked 1,478 Times in 754 Posts
Man Jaanbazam has a spectacular aura aboutMan Jaanbazam has a spectacular aura aboutMan Jaanbazam has a spectacular aura about
Default June 11th, 2017

Guidelines to curb terror financing


THE State Bank has just updated its rules for banks so they can be more diligent about handling funds that could be connected with persons or entities designated by the UN as terrorists. The move is obviously linked to the upcoming review of Pakistan’s compliance with global money laundering and anti-terror financing regulations that is due in July. It will be conducted by the Financial Action Task Force, the UN body tasked with developing the regulatory architecture to prevent the use of the banking system by terrorists and criminals. The costs of failing such a review can potentially be high and lead to the disconnection of the country’s financial system from the global financial system, making it impossible for the economy to transact with the outside world. There is little chance that Pakistan will land up there in the near future, but it is a slippery slope; one wrong step can have very damaging consequences — which could mean a terrible hit for our external trade and remittances.

A drama has always played out whenever Pakistan’s case has come up for review before the FATF — the last time was in February 2015 when the country was actually removed from the ‘grey list’ of jurisdictions whose financial system pose a risk to the global financial system. The drama preceding this was linked to the unfinished business of ensuring compliance with the regulatory framework created by the FATF, to which Pakistan is a signatory. The unfinished business has to do with certain individuals and entities that have been designated by the UN body as terrorists, but who roam freely, with some openly operating large organisations and charities that collect donations across the country — work that requires the use of the banking system.

Pakistan managed a step forward in 2015 because it gave a commitment to the FATF to move against these groups before the next review due in July. Of course, that commitment was never delivered on; a small step towards sensitising key stakeholders about the importance of the issue led to the outbreak of civil-military tensions that have only recently subsided. Now we are moving towards another review when Pakistan will be asked again whether action has been taken against the designated groups as it is committed to doing — perhaps, a long-winded answer will have to be furnished. It is in preparation for this review that the State Bank has apparently acted to update its regulations and guidelines, bringing in clauses that hew closer to the requirements mandated by international regulatory authorities. It seems the government is preparing to go back to the FATF with yet another ‘commitment’ to take action — at a later date — against designated terrorist groups, hoping this will be enough to get past the referee until the next review.


Chinese victims


THE kidnapping was a worrying enough sign. The victims were two Chinese nationals and the scene of the crime was a supposedly secure zone inside Quetta. Now, with both Chinese and Pakistani officials saying the two nationals could have been killed and the militant Islamic State group claiming responsibility, a decidedly more serious problem has revealed itself. Earlier in the week, the ISPR had claimed a major success against a Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and IS nexus of militancy in a remote warren of caves in Mastung district, suggesting that local militancy continues to evolve and that the IS is far from the marginal threat some sections of the state have tried to cast it as. It is not known if the Mastung raids and the Quetta kidnapping are linked, but what is clear are two things: Balochistan’s security troubles remain complex with seemingly no end in sight, and Pakistan remains an IS target. Before a strategy can be evolved to address both issues, there must be a frank acknowledgement of the realities.

Balochistan is an integral part of CPEC and there is no future imaginable in which the province is not rapidly opened up to Chinese and domestic investments and infrastructure projects. But the surge in economic activity was always likely to attract threats in a province that has myriad security challenges and therefore demands an approach that goes beyond further militarisation. The low-level Baloch separatist insurgency is more than a decade old; neighbouring Afghan and Iranian regions continue to pose security problems; Balochistan has seen the rise of sectarian and Islamist militancy; and now, with the expansion of the Chinese footprint in the province, pre-existing threats could fuse with new strands of militancy to create an unprecedented threat. There is no realistic scenario in which Pakistan can wage a full-scale war against all those threats at the same time in the same province. In the convergence of the IS and the anti-China threat, there is an opportunity for the state to craft a fresh strategy that politically stabilises Balochistan in order to focus on a militant danger that is spreading to other parts of the country. There must be no space for the IS in Pakistan. The current approach has failed to prevent the group from gaining space; institutional differences must be put aside for the sake of a joint and effective strategy to defeat it.

Pilgrims’ progress


SUCH is the level of hostility between Pakistani and Indian officials that even the most harmless of opportunities for exchange can fall prey to a resolute refusal to consider the bigger picture. Of late, India seems set to take the lead in this unsavoury competition. Some time ago, Pakistani artists working in India had come under intense fire. And now, Sikh pilgrims who were scheduled to visit this country to observe the death anniversary of Guru Arjan Devji on Friday at the Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Hassanabdal have fallen victim to their own administration’s myopia. Up to 300 yatris are able to visit the gurdwara to attend this particular event. This year, 96 pilgrims applied for a visa, 14 of whom were given permission to cross the border by foot at Wagah, with the rest left to travel on a special train sent across by Pakistan. On Thursday, with local authorities still not having been given permission by their Indian counterparts to send across this special train, Pakistan said that the yatris could travel on the Samjhota Express that was in any case scheduled to make the trip to Atari and back. However, the pilgrims were stopped from boarding by Indian authorities on the pretext that this was not the special train reserved for their travel. At this, Pakistan once again reminded India that permission for the special train to cross the border was pending. But in the back and forth, the day dwindled away and these pilgrims lost their chance to attend the event — which, as it turned out, was attended by only a handful of Sikhs who had successfully crossed at Wagah.

If such is the level of obstruction demonstrated by the bureaucracy, it is difficult to harbour much hope for a future where ties between the two countries will normalise. In acting as it did, the Indian authorities not only rebuffed Pakistan’s offer they also punished their own citizens by undermining their right to honour religious duties. In the future, better sense must prevail.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2017
__________________
The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !
Reply With Quote