Date: 19th Feb 2012

Trilateral summit

THE summit is over, Hamid Karzai and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have departed Islamabad, so what did the latest attempt to bring together key players in the so-called ‘end game’ in Afghanistan achieve? Arguably, and unsurprisingly, not much. In fact, if anything, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s riposte that it was “preposterous” of President Karzai to demand Pakistan deliver the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table has drawn unnecessary criticism for yet again muddying already terribly muddied waters. Leave aside for a minute the specifics of who Mr Karzai demanded Pakistan deliver — Mullah Omar — and Pakistan’s claim that it supports an ‘Afghan-led and Afghan-owned’ peace process, and ask the only hardnosed, reality-based question that matters: if Pakistan does not hope to facilitate reconciliation talks with the Afghan Taliban, then what exactly does it hope to achieve in Afghanistan?

The very reason Pakistan demands and expects a major seat at the table as the next phase of Afghanistan’s future is being decided is because it is known by one and all that Pakistan has some measure of influence, or at least a realistic hope for some measure of influence, over the Afghan Taliban. Convincing the Afghan Taliban to come to the negotiating table is the essence of Pakistan’s potential contribution to the reconciliation process. Surely, Ms Khar was not implying that Pakistan negotiate on behalf of the Afghan Taliban with the other players — the Afghan government, the US and other regional and international countries? That confusion at the heart of Pakistani policy on Afghanistan — what exac-tly does Pakistan want? — will need to be resolved soon. Wanting a Pashtun-heavy dispensation in Afghanistan to minimise Indian involvement in the country to our west in the present scenario may arguably cause the very opposite to occur. If the Afghan Taliban are not convinced about accepting that the other power centres in Afghanistan will have to be reasonably accommodated, it could push the country towards a meltdown, with devastating consequences for Pakistan. The prospect of political and economic refugees pouring across the border again when the economy doesn’t have the capacity to absorb them or the state the ability to manage ethnic tensions within parts of the federation is a downright frightening one.

The Iran-Pakistan connection was more of a sideshow at the summit. Pakistan may have urged Iran to not let its deepening problems with the US spill over into the Afghan theatre and focus on crafting a regional settlement to end the war next door but Iran may, for obvious reasons, not have much to offer on an Afghanistan solution at the moment. Still, engaging Iran is better than ignoring it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doctors’ strike

IF the lawyers can go on a protest strike, so can we. This was the crux of the young doctors’ defence of the ‘inhuman’ shutdown of public-sector hospitals in Lahore recently. The doctors were protesting the suspension from service of some senior colleagues over the large number of deaths believed to have been caused by drugs handed out by the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. On Feb 17, the Lahore High Court warned the Young Doctors’ Association against ignoring a Supreme Court order which had asked for an end to the strike. A compromise of sorts was reached a day later when the PIC doctors were reinstated following an SC call. The young doctors ended their strike, which had led to the closing down of even the out-patient departments at public hospitals and had led to great hardship, even humiliation, of patients by the messiahs who had turned hostile.

In the PIC case, the doctors distinguished those guilty of approving a drug from those who had been marked for investigation only because they had prescribed the drug. The government chose to ignore this assertion, encouraging the doctors to shift to the familiar protest mode. Emboldened by the success of their protests in recent times, these doctors have learnt how to use the same images of ‘suffering hum-anity’ that are beamed to show their callous betrayal of their oath against a government which can itself ill afford such negative publicity. The government has in the past looked for a solution by trying to create a rift within the doctors.
It could alternately inject life into the much-needed watchdog, the health commission formed under the 2009 Healthcare Act — just as, having proven their trade union skills, the doctors must now undertake an exercise in finding a balance between their rights and their responsibilities.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parachinar blast

SECTARIAN terrorism returned to the volatile Kurram Agency on Friday when over 30 people were killed in a suspected suicide attack in a Parachinar market. Among the dead were protesters the security forces reportedly fired upon following the explosion. The incident has severely jolted the fragile government-backed peace accord that has held between the area’s Shia and Sunni populations. Normality was slowly returning to the neglected region and displaced families from both communities had begun to return to their native areas. The arterial Thall-Parachinar road, which was reopened in October last year after several years of closure due to militant attacks, has been closed indefinitely. Though the road was still largely unsafe for civilians, traffic had been running as people had no choice, considering it is the only viable route connecting the region with the rest of Pakistan.

There are quite a few unanswered questions about this incident. Firstly, how could a bomber sneak past the considerable security presence in the area?

It is also unacceptable that security forces fired on protesters when effective non-lethal methods of crowd control exist. And while militant Fazal Saeed, who leads his own faction of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack because “the Shia community of Parachinar were involved in activities against us”, many are circumspect about this claim.
Though Saeed is a notorious militant, other factors need to be considered and the bombing needs to be investigated, as the mainstream TTP’s involvement — which is at odds with the Saeed faction — cannot be ruled out. The bombing may have been the result of intra-militant feuds and the Fazal Saeed claim may be a false flag. Whoever is responsible must be brought to justice and militants of all stripes in Kurram need to be eliminated. As we have said before, it is the state’s responsibility — specifically that of the security forces — to keep the Thall-Parachinar road open and safe for travel and to neutralise the militants.

Unfortunately, the security establishment has failed miserably on all these counts, to the detriment of the people of Kurram. It needs to act now to prevent the resumption of sectarian violence in the agency.