President Zardari in India
April 9th, 2012
One of the more unheralded achievements of the PPP government has been the way it has repaired relations from the nadir of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, when war seemed a very realistic possibility. Rather than try to be overly ambitious, the government has cautiously taken small steps towards lasting peace, with trade and regular high-level meetings inching the process forward. President Asif Ali Zardari’s trip to the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer, which allowed him to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, was yet another indicator that the two countries are moving firmly towards setting up a lasting peace between them. By all accounts the talks were cordial and Dr Singh accepted Zardari’s offer of a return visit to Pakistan. This was also the first time a Pakistani head of state had visited India since Musharraf in 2005, marking another landmark in the slow return to normalcy.
The two countries are fortunate that they both have leaders who are committed to the peace process but that does not mean that danger is not lurking around every corner. The army could easily scuttle whatever progress has been made by working around the elected government and embarking on yet another military adventure along the lines of the Kargil conflict. In India, too, the hawks (of which significant sections of the media is a part) remains resolutely anti-Pakistan. Issues like Hafiz Saeed, who had a bounty placed on him by the US for actionable information leading to his conviction, are still unsolved. The two have so far decided to at least go ahead with lowering trade barriers with Pakistan set to grant India Most-Favoured Nation status by the end of the year. However, the rigid visa regime between the two, which makes it next to impossible for the citizens of either to visit, must be relaxed as well.
Also, as the recent landslide tragedy at Siachen has showed, both countries need to realise that perhaps the time has come to demilitarise the glacier.
Far more lives on either side have been lost to the ravages of weather than to actual combat and the cost of maintaining troops for both countries on the world’s highest battlefield should be enough to necessitate a final push for a bilateral drawdown.
Lessons from Turkey
April 9th, 2012
Successive civilian governments in Turkey, as in Pakistan, have had to tread fearfully around the all-powerful military for fear of being overthrown. In the last 50 years, the Turkish military has removed four governments from power. Finally, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party seem to be trying to alter the balance of power in favour of the civilians. The government’s decision to put on trial Kenan Everen, who as army chief led a coup and installed himself as president, is a reflection of the growing tide to keep the military as far away as possible from the levers of power. As a nation that would like a dose of justice for military adventurers at home ourselves, we should be cheering Turkey for its attempts to rein in the military.
There is certainly no doubt that Evren needs to be held accountable for his actions. Not only did he carry out a military coup against Turkey’s elected government in 1980, he also shredded the country’s constitution and was credibly accused of torture and executions. No country can move forward without accounting for its past. Putting Evren on trial will help the Turkish government dissuade other ambitious generals from lusting for power and will allow the Turkish people to get a sense of justice for the brutalities from Evren’s era.
None of this is to say, however, that Erdogan is the perfect vehicle for bringing the military to heel. In the past, Erdogan has shown a voracious appetite for power himself. In January, he arrested former army chief General Ilker Basbug for plotting to overthrow the government even though the evidence against him amount to little more but a few anti-government articles on the internet. Erdogan has also shown tremendous zeal in detaining opposition politicians, academics and journalists. His crusade against the might of the military is certainly laudable but the Turkish people need to watch out for some of Erdogan’s anti-democratic instincts. There will be little benefit from putting past tyrants on trial if it is accompanied by a new kind of tyranny.
Safer nukes
April 9th, 2012
The security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons has figured into mainstream debate with the US, India and other nations on several occasions. The greatest fear of all is, of course, that the weapons could somehow fall into the hands of militants creating what could be a global nightmare. It is, therefore, good news that Pakistan has taken steps to avoid such a situation by setting up the new Special Response Force (SRF), which will add to the elaborate security procedures already in place to guard the stock of nuclear weapons.
The SRF has been trained by the Strategic Plan Division Training Academy and a passing-out parade to officially inaugurate it was held recently. A military spokesman stated that the force is intended to protect the weapons against any threat from external, as well as internal elements. The new security set-up is said to consist of expertly trained personnel with top-notch abilities to defend what is one of the country’s most important security assets. Even more significant is the fact that its actual range of ability is that its presence will make people in many places feel safer. Despite these measures, the potential of an attack cannot be denied, but the SRF ought to provide some buffer. The internal security situation remains a volatile one with the Taliban still wielding significant power.
It is also a fact that other nations had their eyes firmly fixed on the weapon. We have heard rumours of Israeli plans to take out the nukes with a strike. All such scenarios, of course, represent the highest level of danger for our country and also for the region. The establishment of the SRF should help calm fears and take some of the pressures off Pakistan as it attempts to deal with other pertinent problems linked to its relations with the US, India and also governments in other capitals who have raised the issue of nuclear security again and again.