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Maha Khan · #**1128** Friday, February 21, 2014

World records and realities

| 2/21/2014

WITH good reason did the PTI acidly remind the Punjab government on Wednesday that the masses need not world records but electricity, gas and employment opportunities. Organising the former has become a hallmark of the provincial administration, and while this may send out a signal of hope, with each fresh effort the exercise is rapidly being taken into the realm of the ridiculous.

Several newspapers yesterday carried photographs of rows of chairs arranged at the Punjab University campus for 150,000 people to sing the national anthem in a bid to set the world record. Just a few days ago came the news that Lahore had broken the Guinness World Record for the largest national flag created with the most number of people over 29,000 students participated in the stunt. Amongst the records Lahore was instrumental in getting for Pakistan last year was that for the largest mosaic made out of sequins (depicting Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif)and that for opening the most bottles within one minute with the head. In the wake of such grand displays of soft power, many have been left wondering whether there exists a record for being a country vying for the most GWR recognition while having the most serious crises on its hands, and whether Pakistan ought to put in a bid.

Displays of nationalism are all very well, but they need to be moderated by the recognition that there are much more urgent tasks to tackle, not the least of them an economic climate that is leading to rapidly worsening employment and poverty figures. The PML-N was voted in on the back of promises of economic reform and an improved climate for business and industry. Yet nearly a year after it was elected to the centre, there has been little difference in economic and other realities. By all means, it should carry on with attempts to set records if it feels these are of value, but we wouldn`t mind improved governance to go with it.

Dangerous roads

| 2/21/2014

IN a news cycle dominated by terrorism, mass murder and general lawlessness, deaths caused by horrific road accidents, like the one that occurred in Karachi on Wednesday, hold our attention for a few hours and are subsequently forgotten or buried deep within the collective consciousness.

Rarely does the shock and outrage transform into concrete action to make our roads safer. Wednesday`s tragedy, which occurred on the Lyari Expressway, was compounded by the fact that the 10 victims belonged to the same family that was en route to a wedding. The unfortunate souls fell into the river when the pick-up truck they were riding in lost balance. Not only was the vehicle said to be speeding, it was a goods carrier that was carrying passengers. According to some accounts, the accident occurred when the driver tried to avoid a police mobile coming in the wrong direction.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Pakistan`s roads are becoming increasingly deadly. Official estimates regarding road deaths suggest an average of 5,000 fatalities per year. Tragedies occur with regular frequency, ofteninvolving deaths or grievous injuries. For example, it was only last month that a major accident involving a school van occurred near Nawabshah which took 20 lives, mostly of children. Yet despite recurring incidents little is done to address the issues that make our roads so dangerous. People continue to drive without paying heed to any sort of road sense; traffic police are willing to overlook flagrant violations if palms are sufficiently greased while road safety doesn`t even make it to the priority list of the state. Meanwhile, a fatalistic attitude is common amongst many drivers; if life is to end in a gory crash, it must be written in the stars, it is thought. With such attitudes prevalent, where does awareness of road safety feature? However, it is the state`s job to raise awareness about road safety amongst the public. This can be done through the strict enforcement of traffic rules as well as making sure drivers are issued licences only after they pass road and theory tests. Introducing drivers` education courses at the secondary school level could also help make Pakistan`s roads safer to drive on.

Enemy` of the state

| 2/21/2014

THE interior ministry`s report on the internal security threat presented before the National Assembly`s Standing Committee on Interior is at once an eyeopener and a confirmation of long-held suspicions. The cities of Pakistan not just faraway Fata or obscure corners have thoroughly been infiltrated by militants of every stripe, local and foreign. The names are as familiar as they are scary: Al Qaeda, Taliban, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. So are the targets: ethnic, sectarian, provincial, subnational. Equally telling, however, is what was left off the list: whereas Indian-sponsored militancy in AJK and arms being smuggled into the country across both the eastern and western borders were highlighted by the interior ministry official, nothing was said of the pro-state non-state actors who have also proliferated across the country. And therein lies the real tragedy of Pakistan today: not only has the state been negligent in securing the peaceinternally, it has actively colluded with elements along the very spectrum that is threatening the existence and moorings of the state as we know it today.

Start though with the strands of militancy the state ostensibly does not support or condone, groups such as LJ and Al Qaeda. These are not new threats and, despite the creative rewriting of history in some quarters, existed long before 9/11 or the American return to the region. How seriously has the state taken the elimination of such strands of militancy on Pakistani soil? Officials may point to the dozens, if not hundreds, who have been captured or killed over the last decade but the success rate is neither particularly high nor adequate. If it were, then why is the interior ministry today warning of swathes of the country being at risk from such groups? Yet, as is well known, the problem is not just one of state inaction or inadequate action but of collusion and complicity too. Set aside the Kashmir and India-centric groups that the state, or at least the security establishment, has little interest in reining in. Consider just the sectarian elements that the security establishment and political parties have either coopted or turned a blind eye towards for parochial reasons. In Balochistan, for example, there are persistent rumors of sectarian killers being recruited for eliminating Baloch separatists. In Punjab, nearly every political party has followed the lead of the PML-N in learning how to either buy off or co-opt sectarian elements for electoral purposes. The idea that violent extremist groups and mainstream politics or the state can peacefully coexists a nonsensical one of course.

All the security establishment and parts of the political spectrum have managed to do is to create a bigger, more formidable problem than they could ever have imagined.