Acts of revenge

October 05, 2010

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for two audacious attacks on oil tankers carrying supplies for NATO forces in Pakistan. At least ten people are reported to have been killed in the attacks, which took place in Shikarpur and Islamabad. Thirty-eight or so tankers have been destroyed. Ominously, following the attack on the outskirts of Islamabad, a Taliban spokesman has warned that more will follow as revenge for drone strikes in the north. Anger has obviously been heightened by recent bombings by manned NATO aircraft. The response by Pakistan to the assaults by the US-led force has only added to feelings of rage. Whereas the prime minister had said NATO supplies had been blocked in protest, a foreign office spokesman has described this as only a temporary suspension for security reasons. This obviously adds to the confusion. The risk of further assaults on convoys carrying supplies to the Torkham border is heightened by this ambiguity.
There appears also to be some doubt over which force is responsible for keeping the vehicles safe. The Islamabad police have said they are not responsible. In Karachi, drivers of NATO vehicles say they are forced to proceed along the long route to the north unprotected and uninsured. The lives of these hapless drivers are of course at huge risk. The danger of accelerated attacks following the Taliban warning makes it all the more imperative that these drivers be given cover in view of the hazardous nature of their task. As for those in Islamabad who plan policy, a strategy is urgently needed to cope with the situation. The attacks not only endanger lives, but raise very serious concerns about the security situation. It seems evident that we are unable to guard our highways. The continued drone attacks of course add to the dangers. The central issue of our territorial sovereignty and our ability to defend it has become a matter of growing concern. Officials say talks are on with NATO officials and guarantees have been given. But till more solid evidence of this emerges, the danger of more attacks on vehicles will remain in place, highlighting both our inability to deal adequately with the drone strikes and the fact that, even now, the Taliban remain a force able to stage terrorist strikes across the country. This is a highly alarming thought, given the sacrifices made in the battle to end militancy.

Unsavoury

October 05, 2010

The scenes in Lahore spotted over the past few days would have been unsavoury at any time. We have seen lawyers hurling abuse at senior judges including the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, clashing violently with police, beating up journalists and pelting onlookers with stones. They banned prominent members of the legal profession, including former presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association Hamid Khan and Aitzaz Ahsan, from entering the Lahore Bar Association offices. All this does nothing for the standing of the men in black coats who form a central part of our legal system. In the recent past too, they have been guilty of hooliganism and seem to have failed to mend their ways.
What makes the affair still more distasteful is the suspicion of political involvement. Whispers that have spread from the bar rooms at the LHC speak of instigation by the federal law minister. Mr Babar Awan, it should be noted, has also been accused in the past of using money handed out to lawyers to serve his own ends and those of key cronies. It is not inconceivable this is the case again, though we hope that the legal fraternity would not lower itself to such depths in a bid to hurt the judiciary. The matter at the centre of the latest stand-off involves the question of a district and sessions judge and complaints from lawyers about his attitude in the courtroom. This is something that does indeed need to be sorted out. So do other matters linked to the working of the lower judiciary. There are many complaints. But certainly there are better ways of highlighting issues. The displays of rowdiness seen recently inflict great damage and must be avoided. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chudhry has taken notice of the way police dealt with the protesting lawyers the other day and has called for senior lawyers to sit together to resolve the issues that have led to all this. They would do well to heed this advice.

Minister's antics

October 05, 2010

Pakistan's sports officialdom continues giving a bad name to the country. As if Ijaz Butt, the controversial Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, was not enough, another senior sports official has put Pakistan in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Dr Muhammad Ali Shah, Sindh's sports minister and Pakistan's chef-de-mission at the Commonwealth Games, insisted on carrying the Pakistani flag as his contingent marched at the glittering opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Sunday night, although it was already decided that Shuja-ud-Din Malik, a gold medalist weightlifter at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, will be Pakistan's official flag bearer. A crowd of 60,000 cheered for Pakistan as an announcement was made that Malik was carrying the country's flag, unaware that it was an aging provincial minister rather than a champion weightlifter at the helm of Pakistan's contingent.
Malik and fellow weightlifters threatened to stage a walk-out from the games unless Shah apologised. Shah claims that he just 'spontaneously' decided to carry the flag. Lt-Gen (r) Arif Hasan, president of the Pakistan Olympic Association has declared that he has resolved the matter and that the weightlifters will compete in the games. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has ordered a probe into the incident. But the damage has been done. Pakistan went to New Delhi with little hope of winning any medals and have now begun their campaign on the wrong foot due to a spotlight-loving sports official. Pakistan, once a regional superpower in the field of sports, has already become a laughing stock of the cricket world because of Ijaz Butt's antics and his handling of the ongoing spot-fixing scandal and now this latest episode at the Commonwealth Games has once again highlighted the fact that something is really wrong with the people at the helm of our sports.