Thursday, November 28, 2013

Team Sharif?: New army chief

AFTER six long years and a strengthening transition to democracy, the country has a new army chief — and separately, a new Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the more senior but less powerful military post. Both appointments tell a tale of their own. In selecting yet another CJCSC from the army, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appears to have yielded to the army’s argument that the CJCSC slot, because of its role in overseeing the country’s military nuclear programme, must remain with the more powerful and much larger army, instead of rotating between the three services. The navy and the air force will likely not be very pleased about the solidifying of a prerogative the army has long claimed for itself, but, in the final analysis, the numerically smaller services probably did not have the necessary clout to win the argument in their favour.

For patently obvious reasons, however, the focus will be on Mr Sharif’s other choice: Gen Raheel Sharif as the new COAS. In selecting the third-most senior general to lead the army, the prime minister has hewed to what is the accepted convention: selecting an army chief on the basis of seniority. In many ways, Mr Sharif’s appointment of Gen Sharif appears to be a canny move: while the other three or four potential candidates were endlessly dissected in the media and appeared to have various groups lobbying for one or the other candidate, Gen Sharif was seemingly no one’s favourite or preferred candidate. A low-key general with impeccable military credentials — perhaps the prime minister has gambled that his choice will more likely play out over the next three years as Team Sharif instead of Sharif vs Sharif.

For the sake of the country, Team Sharif has to work well together, specifically in crafting a meaningful, coherent strategy to defeat militancy and bring stability to the region. Thus far, the prime minister could perhaps have argued that a six-year incumbent as army chief precluded the possibility of serious policy overhaul by a new civilian government. But starting today, that is no longer the case. Now Mr Sharif’s handpicked appointee sits atop the most powerful institution in the country. Will the prime minister demonstrate the kind of leadership he promised before the election but that he has failed to provide since taking office in June? Will Gen Sharif do more to disengage the security establishment from shadowy games and nudge the army to embrace zero-tolerance policy against militancy? On the shoulders of those two men rests a heavy burden and a nation’s hope.

A law unto themselves: Lawyers attack Supreme Court

THE commotion in the Supreme Court on Tuesday proves that despite the passage of 16 years, little has changed in Pakistan. The only difference is that in 1997, it was PML-N supporters that had stormed the Sajjad Ali Shah-led court, while in the latest incident it was protesting lawyers from different parts of Punjab who attacked the nation’s highest seat of justice. The irony is quite evident: earlier it was political hotheads who had led the charge, angered by contempt charges against Nawaz Sharif, who was prime minister at the time. On Tuesday, it was members of the legal profession, who not too long ago had struggled for the ‘supremacy’ of the law and restoration of sacked Supreme Court judges, that were rampaging through the apex court. The incident is one of many in recent memory that clearly indicates the transformation of lawyers as a group from activists to vigilantes. The lawyers in Islamabad were ostensibly protesting against the non-establishment of high court benches in various Punjab cities. However, as past incidents have also proved, the black coats often resort to violence if things do not go their way. Lawyers accuse the police of resorting to brutality to break up the protest. While the unnecessary use of force by police cannot be condoned, the lawyers did not help the situation by delivering fiery speeches outside the court.

The lofty reputation the lawyers had earned through their movement for the restoration of the chief justice has all but disappeared, thanks to the thuggish behaviour of some amongst them. Members of the legal fraternity have clashed with the police, journalists as well as other lawyers while judges have been intimidated in the days since 2007. But what is most troubling is the relative silence of bar associations and senior lawyers regarding the violent tactics of their fraternity. Either bar councils have kept quiet or slapped violent elements on the wrist for aggressive behaviour. Unless this attitude changes, it is unlikely such ugly incidents will end.

Tragic miscalculation: Train ploughs into rickshaw

IT is indicative of the brutalisation of Pakistani society that tragedies that would in other parts of the world cause outrage pass largely unremarked here, invoking little more reaction than a shake of the head. Rarely, if ever, are lessons learned and gaps plugged to guard against future disasters. The horrifying accident in Dadu on Tuesday is a case in point. The driver of the rickshaw carrying schoolchildren miscalculated while trying to cross a level crossing ahead of an oncoming train, which ploughed into the vehicle. Eight children and the driver were crushed to death and other students were seriously injured.

Where can we say the fault lies? With the railway authorities which did not ensure that there was a gate at the level crossing that warns traffic and pedestrians against attempting to cross the tracks? But then, it is common for people to ignore such gates even where they are installed, raising them or ducking under them in the confidence — which often, sadly, proves to be misplaced — that they are better judges of their own speed in relation to that of the train. Of course, blame must be apportioned to the driver of the rickshaw who had not just overloaded his vehicle (the three-wheeler has an optimum capacity of two to three passengers) but who also attempted to cross the tracks at a time when it was clearly unsafe to do so. Yet ultimately, perhaps, what incidents such as this point to is a deeper societal malaise where the value of life is minimal, where the safety of life and limb is disregarded, and where each fresh tragedy is viewed as a stand-alone event that must be lamented but never used as a turning point to prevent further disasters.