The president’s address
December 29th, 2011
President Asif Ali Zardari’s annual address on the anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was less significant for what he said then who he said it with. Accompanying on stage was formerly estranged Aitzaz Ahsan, rather than his son and party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. In fact, Aitzaz was even allowed to deliver the address after President Zardari and he used the speech to attack the PTI, a party that has already been attracting disgruntled PPP members. This not only signals Aitzaz’s return to the frontline of PPP politics but should also be seen as a political master stroke, bringing back to prominence and using as a weapon one of the PPP’s oldest and most respected political members.
President Zardari’s speech itself was less combative than the addresses given by Gilani in recent days. He never overtly mentioned the military or its machinations and reserved his harshest words for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, saying that he had taken no action in bringing to justice Benazir’s killers. That he would criticise a Supreme Court that has eagerly taken up the memo case and seems bent upon nullifying the NRO and the president’s immunity from prosecution, is understandable. But his choice of criticism left much to be desired since President Zardari’s own government has been strangely lethargic in pursuing Benazir’s assassins.
Equally curious was his assertion that his government has fulfilled 80 per cent of its agenda. With so many problems, plaguing the country, the boast rang hollow. In fact, the president seemed to equate the mere presence of democracy with good governance. He told the crowd that democracy can and will deliver, but questions remain whether a scandal-plagued government widely perceived as corrupt can actually deliver on its promises. The sentiments President Zardari expressed about democracy are welcome at a time when there is a severe strain in civil-military relations but the president needs to be careful not to whitewash his government’s poor record with rhetoric.
Beyond paper
December 29th, 2011
Just recently, two women were made victims of an acid attack in Karachi, after one of them refused a marriage proposal. Such incidents continue to take place, despite that fact that we have in our statute books more laws protecting women than at any previous time in our history. Most have been introduced by the present government. We also have more women in assemblies than many other countries. The harshest provisions of the dark Hudood law have also gone and since 2008 more legislation has been added offering women protection against domestic violence, against harassment in the work place and safeguarding them and their rights by putting in place tougher penalties for acts such as forced marriages, the deprivation of property or traditional customs such as vani. A new law on acid attacks has also been introduced and made its way through parliament.
All this is obviously good news for women who remain among our most vulnerable citizens. But despite the pieces of legislation introduced over the years, we haven’t seen change in the status of women on the ground. Perhaps it is too early to expect so much. But given the urgency of our own situation and the number of fearful crimes committed against women, perhaps, we need more action. In fact, worryingly, several reports produced over the last few months have noted that atrocities against women appear to be increasing rather than declining.
First of all we must think about creating greater awareness about the laws. This effort should be concentrated on police and administrative officials as well as the general public. We need to go even further. There are too many laws in our country which have remained nothing more than words inscribed on paper year-after-year and decade-after-decade. This must not happen in the case of the laws against women and for that we need to take proactive action at many levels, beginning with media campaigns and changes in school curriculums.
Energy crisis
December 29th, 2011
The cost of an ill-thought out energy policy is being felt acutely this winter, with a two-month ban on gas supply to CNG stations contemplated in Punjab, gas supply closure to industrial units in Sindh and Balochistan and non-supply of gas to domestic consumers.
The blame, of course, lies in the Musharraf-era policy of promoting a fuel whose reserves were unknown but ignorantly declared abundant, with the result that today demand for gas has soared to eight billion cubic feet (bcf) while supply is a paltry 4.2 BCF. While both consumers and industry are suffering, perhaps the worst affected is the fertiliser industry which uses gas as an essential raw material and has no other alternative.
Load-shedding is merely a stopgap measure and a massively unpopular one at that. The key question is, what energy resources are being developed for future use? At this juncture the government needs to develop a new exploration policy for domestic gas reserves. While Iran has massive gas reserves, the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project seems unlikelier by the day, given the current geo-political scenario. The US is strongly opposed to the pipeline and has been nudging Pakistan towards the hopelessly complicated TAPI pipeline project instead. On December 23, the National Bank of Pakistan refused to finance the IPI pipeline because of the threat of sanctions by the US. A recent purchase agreement signed with Turkmenistan has given some hope that a steady supply of gas may be achieved via TAPI by 2016, but that project is marred by numerous security threats.
It is crucial that we start looking to tap other sources of energy to prevent an energy crisis such as the one we are currently facing, from engulfing both consumers and industry in the future. It is imperative that the government exhibits the political will needed to execute both the IPI and TAPI projects. Above all, energy policy needs to be based on sound research after thorough number crunching, not mere bluster.