05-08-2013

Some lessons: Different approaches to militancy

CONSIDER the difference in responses: the US obtains intelligence on a possible attack against its embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa and it issues a global alert and shuts 21 missions on Sunday; Pakistani law-enforcement agencies and government officials receive specific intelligence on an impending jail raid in D.I. Khan and end up taking defensive measures that collapsed at first contact with the enemy. In the tale of those two episodes lie many lessons. For one, the threat of global jihad, especially from Al Qaeda, has far from disappeared. With so much emphasis on Al Qaeda and the Pak-Afghan region, it is all too easy to forget that global jihadists come in many stripes and are quite easily able to hop from one country to another. So even if Al Qaeda`s active presence has been diminished in Pakistan, there is zero room for any kind of complacency: other jihadists, global and local, continue to own swathes of Fata, while the US drawdown in Afghanistan could attract fresh attention of militants looking to establish Islamist fiefdoms in various parts of the world.
The broader lesson remains, though, one that Pakistani authorities, civilian and military, appear unwilling or unable to absorb: coordination, capacity and will without those elements, Pakistan`s war against militancy will never be won. What is equally overlooked, however, is that even a modicum of increase in competence and will on the state`s part could have dramatic effects on the fight.
Consider the propaganda video of the Bannu jail break that has recently been released by the TTP.
What was believed to be a highly sophisticated and superbly organised raid in fact looks fairly amateurish and rudimentary on camera. In one sense, that is an even greater indictment of the security forces tasked with defending the Bannu jail and ensuring its inmates remain under lock and key. But in another sense, it indicates that even a small increase in preparedness by the state can thwart significant disasters.
Perhaps the greatest lesson that needs to be learned here is clarity about who the enemy is.
The US, for all its confused, contradictory policies in Afghanistan, has since 9/11 focused relentlessly on Al Qaeda, a group that explicitly targets the American state. Here in Pakistan, even groups that explicitly target state and society somehow attract sympathy and even understanding. In that environment, it`s little surprise the militants can wreak so much damage with so little intellectual and organisational firepower.

Not the only solution: Computerisation of land records

PUNJAB`S initiative to computerise land records by next year should help improve land administration, centralise data currently scattered at several levels of administration, cut the cost and time of transactions and clear up titles. The project launched 10 years ago under the poverty reduction programme seems to have gathered new momentum over the last couple of years. Some 61 service centres are working on the project at present and the land record of 17,000 villages in 21 districts has already been fed into the computers. The existing system of manual management of land records is extremely intricate and flawed besides being a major source of corruption and disputes, particularly in the rural areas and at the level of patwari circles, over land ownership in and outside the courts.
Several court rulings have described present land records as contestable for determining land titles.
The disputes over land titles threaten the livelihood rights of the poor and often scare away potential investors. The ruling PML-N claims that the completion of the project will end the patwari culture, a major promise it had made in its election manifesto. In other words, the computerisation of land records is expected to plug the loopholes for widespread corruption and restrict the role of patwaris in the maintenance of the record.But will it?
Few agree that the land record computerisation will clean up land administration and end the corruption in determination of land title rights and transactions. The government, for example, has set up many `model` police stations in the province to improve efficiency of police and rid the people of the thana culture. The results have been quite wanting, not least because police are not trained to help the people who also need to be educated about their rights. The patwari culture will also not go away by feeding land records into computers. For this to happen, the bureaucracy will have to be reformed from top to bottom to change its role as an efficient service provider.

Predictable havoc: Monsoon-related damage

TO nobody`s surprise but, it seems, the authorities`, the monsoons have brought with them reports of death and destruction, the waters washing away before them roads and other infrastructure in the northern parts of the country and large swathes of crops in parts of Punjab. On Saturday, over 40 people died almost half of them in Karachi alone and hundreds of villages were flooded in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as rivers burst their banks. And in cities such as Karachi and Hyderabad, administrative apathy meant that thousands of people had to contend with prolonged power breakdowns and traffic jams, besides dealing with immediate dangers such as possible electrocution as a result of snapped wires. The question, as always, remains why the state always swings ponderously into action after the event. Over a month ago, the meteorological department warned that this year`s rains were likely tobe heavy; does the state`s report card show that enough efforts were made to mitigate the coming, predictable rain-related havoc? The reality is very far from it.
Given the flooding disasters in recent years that left millions in the country affected, it is time that authorities here realised that weather patterns may be changing. The National Disaster Management Authority has warned of more rain and floods in different parts of the country and there is a need to prepare accordingly. It is not merely a question of organising immediate help when the waters strike. As crucial is the aftermath of the rains and flooding when stagnant waters breed disease and families rendered homeless have no place to go, when livelihoods are lost and food becomes scarce. A cohesive plan aimed at preventive strategies, effective rescue methods and rehabilitation will go a long way in reducing the impact of the damage.

__________________
LAIS-AL-INSANA ILA MA SA-AA