Sectarian curse

The bomb that exploded at the funeral of a Shia cleric in Dera Ismail Khan brought to a climax the flurry of sectarian violence seen in the town ahead of the attack. The cleric being buried had been shot a day earlier; hours before his funeral took place the caretaker of a Shia mosque was gunned down outside his home. The bombing at the funeral, in which ten people died and 43 were injured triggered violence by mobs that rampaged through the streets setting vehicles ablaze.

Such scenes of anger are of course familiar to us. We have lived with worsening sectarian hatred over the past two decades or more. Killings and counter-killings organized along the lines of sect have seen areas such as Hangu in the tribal areas literally descend into chaos and a frenzy of killings. Similar violence has been seen in other areas at various points in time. Shias, who make up somewhere between ten and twenty per cent of the population, depending on which set of data you believe, live in a state of fear. Many have chosen to give children names that cannot instantly identify their sect; guards stand outside the homes of many prominent Shias and informal surveys suggest there are more and more people in the country, from amongst the pre-dominantly Sunni majority, now question the right of Shias to call themselves Muslim. Myths are deliberately spread about the school of thought and its practices. The growth of intolerance, which led to anti-Ahmadi laws being ushered in 1974, under which the group was declared 'non-Muslim', continues. Shias fear they could be the next target.

The question is what is being done to check the tide. It seems evident a well-planned strategy is needed to eradicate the menace of hatred that is now a part of lives. As a step towards this, laws that pertain to the spread of sectarian hatred must be enforced. Currently, we have a situation in which certain television show hosts, many newspapers and other publications have been able to add to intolerance in many places. CDs and video cassettes available in the market deliver the same message with still less subtlety. We also need to address the issue within school curriculums and resist the opposition to such changes that comes from orthodox elements each time an attempt is made to bring in change. And as the month of Muharram approaches, adding to the tensions, the government needs to send out a clear signal that sectarianism will not be tolerated. The current practice, of banning the entry of specific persons to various districts, is largely useless given that hatred can be disseminated easily in this day and age through cassettes or even over the Internet.

Changing society is not an easy task. In most cases it takes years, if not decades, to achieve. It also becomes a particularly difficult task when hatred has been woven deep into the fabric of society and is retained there through the teachings imparted at madressahs and indeed in many other places. Prayer leaders at Sunni mosques have been known to make their own vicious attacks on Shias. But despite these challenges, an effort to halt the tide of hatred must be made now – otherwise we will face still greater mayhem and violence in the days ahead.

Security in Karachi

During a visit to the city, President Asif Ali Zardari has called on the provincial administration to ensure an improvement in security in the metropolis. He has quite correctly stated Karachi holds the key to development in the country, and that only a sense of safety in the city can help bring this about.

Whereas the city authorities will need to assess if the president's orders that all people coming into the city and taking up residence there be registered can be, in practical terms, carried out – it is clear there is a need to create a better security environment within it. The spate of kidnappings, robberies and street crime that Karachi has seen in recent times has affected the life of everybody living in it. Tales are told of people being murdered for the sake of a mobile phone, of children being wrested away from mothers. Tall walls and iron gates stand around homes. People are more reluctant than before to venture out and crime is a topic of talk in more and more places. This lack of safety also holds back investment and development. Few would be willing to move into such an environment. Indeed, many have moved away. But as Pakistan's main port, Karachi is central to business. It also serves as the home for the largest number of people in the country. As the president has noted, more pour into it almost every day in search of jobs and a better life. For these reasons there is a need to make it a safer place in which to live in and in which to carry out business activity so vital to the welfare of the nation as a whole.

Rough roads

Transporting the materiel to fight the war on terror in Afghanistan has for many years been a hugely profitable business for the long-distance hauliers of Pakistan. It is Pakistani vehicles, their owners, drivers, loaders and ancillary staff who have all benefited from the US using the Karachi-Khyber Pass route to supply the 67,000 foreign troops – including about 32,000 Americans – currently stationed in Afghanistan. Almost 75 per cent of all NATO and US supplies including petrol, food, military equipment and possibly ammunition are moved overland through Pakistan. It may not be for much longer.

Militants in the tribal areas through which the vehicles pass en-route to Torkham have made a series of effective high-profile raids which forced the government to suspend the operation a week ago – resuming it last Monday after security was belatedly improved. Tens of millions of dollars-worth of supplies have been lost in the last ten months. March saw between 40 and 50 tankers burned out, and in April the Taliban captured a consignment of helicopter parts – which they will have no trouble selling on the international arms black market. The straw that seems to have broken the camels back was the hijacking of 13 trucks recently, containing among other things two Humvee jeeps. The trucks were recovered, the jeeps were not.

A report in the Washington Post says that the leakage along the route through Pakistan has forced the Pentagon to look for alternative routes. These will be more expensive in terms of the fuel needed to traverse them – but safer. They are likely to run through Europe, the Caucasus and some Central Asian states, but not Iran or Uzbekistan. Agreement for transit has already been reached with Georgia and talks are under way for a similar agreement with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

The supply of foreign armies fighting in landlocked Afghanistan has for centuries been the Achilles heel of every nation that has fought a war there. The British in their numerous military adventures used almost exactly the same route as is being used today – but without interdiction by the Taliban. The Mujahideen almost brought the Russians to their knees by cutting their lines of supply. America and its allies are rich and powerful enough to circumvent the problem by simply walking around the Taliban in Pakistan. If they make life too uncomfortable here, Uncle Sam will simply take his business elsewhere, with Pakistan the loser again. It would have made both economic and strategic sense to protect our goods vehicles in their transit of the tribal areas. The distance is not great, there is only one road and it should have been within our capacity to secure it. We didn't -or couldn't - and it will be the Pakistani haulage industry (and the other big loser, the Karachi Port Trust) that will end up paying the price of poor planning and yet another failure of foresight.

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Regards,
P.R.