01-08-2013

Poor ability to fight: D.I. Khan jail attack

A DAY after the epic debacle that was Monday`s assault on Dera Ismail Khan`s Central Jail, KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said it was `very strange that people came in pickup trucks, motorbikes, broke into the jail and took away 250 prisoners easily`. Strange may be the correct term but it is equally applicable to the failure of his administration whose responsibility it is to ensure that such security breaches are prevented. This was no repeat of the Bannu jail raid last year. In this case, security and administration officials knew that such a hit was imminent. On Monday, hours before the attack, the area`s commissioner held a conference to discuss the matter with law-enforcement agencies and the civil administration. For the provincial administration to say, then, that it was an intelligence failure was both disingenuous and an irresponsible effort to deflect culpability. It was a tactical failure, pure and simple.
Why this tactical failure occurred, though, is extraordinarily disturbing in its implications. After the jail-break information was shared, standard operating procedures were fleshed out and specific response tasks were worked out. Over 100 jail guards and 75 personnel of the Frontier Reserve Force were available, as well as the Elite Police Force and armoured personnel carriers. But when it came to holding the line, the defences melted away. As a disgruntled security official said, metaphorically, the gun was there but there was no one to pull the trigger. Do law-enforcement personnel even have the capability of facing hordes as organised, single-minded and well-armed as the various militant groups clumped under the TTP? True, money has been pumped into the police force, particularly in KP, but most of it has gone towards salaries and increased strength. There has been little consideration of the fact that the numbers of personnel are immaterial if they aren`t trained for a fight that makes very specific demands.
If we are not to reach a situation where militant groups can set their sights on ever higher targets, the law-enforcement apparatus needs an immediate overhaul to meet the escalating challenges posed by what has been the reality for several years now. Pakistan needs to set up modern maximum-security prisons designed to resist assault and prevent escapes; colonial-era internment centres, relics of another age, are simply not enough. The equation is, on paper, simple: the militants are increasingly well organised, trained and armed; the state law-enforcement apparatus is not. The outcome of the conflict will ultimately be decided on the basis of the disparity between the two sides` capabilities.

Welcome drive: Gas and power theft in Punjab

THE PML-N government has launched a crackdown against power and gas thieves in Punjab. The drive has been welcomed and is an important part of the new national energy policy. It is expected to help public power and gas utilities save billions of rupees and cut their surging revenue losses. The FIA has also been engaged in this campaign to make it more effective. The two gas companies are facing theft and losses of around 11pc, with each percentage point costing them over Rs2bn. Similarly, the theft and losses suffered by Pepco are estimated to be a whopping 25-28pc of the total electricity output. Each percentage point adds Rs8.5bn to the revenue loss of the company. Gas and power theft not only adds to the losses incurred by the utilities, it also puts additional financial burden on consumers who pay their bills honestly as governments tend to incorporate these losses into their bills.
While the results achieved so far have been encouraging, those involved including powerful businessmen and corrupt officials have yet to be apprehended. Many of the suspected gas and power thieves are either related to politicians or are elected members of the provincial and national assemblies. Mostly they belong to the ruling party and sometimes to opposition parties, including the PPP. The crackdown should not be seen to be aimed at political opponents alone and it is hoped that the government will also punish its own people who are involved. The drive launched by the utilities against gas and power pilferage is not new. The PPP government had also launched a campaign to prevent theft.
But it lost momentum before it could even take off because the companies did not get the required cooperation from the PMLN provincial government then. Police would refuse to accompany the raiding teams and to register cases if PML-N leaders were involved. With the PML-N in power at the centre and in the province, it is hoped that the campaign maintains its momentum in the weeks to come.

Helipads not the answer: Fighting fire

MINUS the harebrained helipad part of it, the plan to give a modern fire-fighting system to Lahore`s multistorey buildings has many positive points. Knocked into consciousness after the Lahore Development Authority Plaza tragedy on May 9, the civic agencies of the provincial capital have got together to give input to a fire safety commission set up on the orders of the Lahore High Court. The commission has representatives drawn from the city government, the LDA and the Pakistan Engineering Council. Their recommendations make eminent sense: there should be sprinklers on all floors (except the basement), emergency lights, smoke detectors, external stairs for emergency exits and regular fire drills. These are quotidian measures that should have been in place long ago instead of being discovered and suggested now. Were these rules not already there in the LDA`s worm-eaten building manuals? If they were, why were they ignored? Well, since wisdom tells us it is never too late, let`s hope the recommendations will be implemented not only for high-rises that are to come up but in the case of existing ones as well ― assuming of course that their construction, location and unauthorised alterations leave room for such essentials.
The interesting part of the input concerns helipads which high-rises are supposed to have. We assume that the new constructions will be strong enough to withstand a helicopter`s landing and takeoff, because we would not want the roofs to cave in. But the question is why we go for such mod solutions when the meticulous observance of time-tested techniques could do just as well. Fires grow. Timely action can stop a minor blaze from turning into a conflagration. Old is gold. Let`s not forget those red coloured fire-extinguishers bequeathed to us by the British. We need them rather than helipads.

__________________
LAIS-AL-INSANA ILA MA SA-AA