Powerless people

May 12th, 2012

The recent power riots that have broken out across Punjab do not come as a surprise. This was being expected by many for quite some time, with power available in larger cities for barely 12 hours a day or less, and in smaller towns for a far shorter period. In some areas, people have even complained of bulbs barely flickering on for an hour or two every day. While rising temperatures have added to the anger of the people, a major concern is the immense loss being suffered by businesses. This, of course, also means job losses and increased desperation in a situation where unemployment is already high. In Faisalabad, power loom workers have raised this point many times. Now, with the power supply situation worsening again after a brief period of improvement, they have taken to the streets once more, along with other equally distressed people in Lahore, Gujranwala, Bhakkar, Sheikhupura and other towns.

But will the tyres the people burn, the stones they pelt or the slogans they raise lead to any solution to the crisis? The people who have taken to the streets have also threatened to stop paying the bills that turn up far more regularly than the supply of electricity itself. While there was some brief improvement in supply last time round after people took to the streets, the progress could not be sustained for long. We also know now that the problem is essentially one that is concerned with the lack of resources and the crippling pattern of circular debt, rather than with an actual shortage of power. Had money been available, solutions too could have come our way. Around the world, solar power, wind energy and other means to generate power are being used. But generating money is in many ways harder than producing power.

The protests of the people cannot be ignored indefinitely. So far, those who have been out on the streets have been relatively small in number. But these numbers are certain to grow if there is no end to the power crisis. The government needs to prevent the situation from turning into an even uglier one. Political dimensions are involved too, with the PML-Q threatening to pull out of its alliance with the government as the power crisis grows bigger and adds to the general angst running through the veins of our country.

Welcome home, Dr Chishty

May 12th, 2012

All too often, we end up judging the state of Pakistan-India relations through metrics like economics and politics, forgetting that the enmity between the two countries has consequences that have destroyed the lives of thousands of people. Dr Syed Mohammed Khalil Chishty, until very recently, was one of those who had slipped through the cracks — a victim of the double standards that Pakistan and India hold for the citizens of the other country. A virologist in his 80s who hails from Karachi, Chishty was sentenced to life imprisonment in India for allegedly murdering a family member with his trial lasting 18 years. In a sign of improving relations between India and Pakistan, Chishty was released by the Indian Supreme Court on humanitarian grounds some time back and has now been allowed to visit Pakistan on the condition that he return to India by November 1 for the appeal hearing of his case. This will, hopefully, signal a new era in the way the two countries treat prisoners from the other side.

Dr Chishty’s case was a relatively straightforward one because of his age and health but there are hundreds of other similar cases on both sides of the border. Both countries have fishermen languishing in jails for years for the simple crime of crossing an unmarked border. Often, these fishermen are not allowed consular access and are not even charged with any crime. Now that the two countries are slowly inching towards peace, there is no greater step they can take to demonstrate this new era of relations than releasing all those people who are being held for simple border violations.

Neither country is more culpable than the other in this regard; both have treated prisoners from the other country in an uncaring manner. Releasing each others’ prisoners will engender massive amounts of goodwill. Above all, it will demonstrate that peace talks have a human dimension that transcends matters of trade and economics.

Killing humanity

May 12th, 2012

In a highly unusual move for an organisation that rarely ever suspends work even in war zones, is widely respected for its neutrality and the giant ‘red cross/red crescent’ symbol it uses, which signifies that those falling under its wide umbrella are not to be harmed, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has decided to suspend its activities in Pakistan while it reviews the situation in the country and weighs humanitarian needs against concerns for staff safety. The ICRC’s national staff have been placed on paid leave for an indefinite period and its international staff has been recalled to Islamabad. The move follows the discovery of the beheaded body of an ICRC health worker, Dr Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, just outside Quetta on April 29. Dale, a Yemen-born British national, had been abducted some four months ago. A note found with his body stated that the ICRC had failed to meet the ‘conditions’ set for his release. There have been reports that the ICRC had been engaged in talks with the kidnappers, but the Geneva-based organisation has declined to comment on this.

Dale became the third foreigner to be killed in the country by abductors following the murders of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and a Polish geologist who was kidnapped in Attock in 2009. Others, like former UNHCR official John Solecki, have been more fortunate and were released safely. At least one American national, Warren Weinstein, kidnapped last year in Lahore, remains in militant hands.

According to spokespersons for the organisation, the ICRC’s decision affects tens of thousands of people. In recent years, other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have also cut back or stopped their activities in the country. It is, of course, the people — usually the most vulnerable and deprived ones — who suffer when this happens. Pakistan is effectively being turned into a no-go area by militants, whose victims are not only the persons that they abduct and kill, but also thousands of ordinary citizens across the country.