Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Talking security
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired the first meeting of its kind as the chief ministers, key federal ministers, chief of army staff and other military and intelligence officials discussed the security of the country. Given the importance of the attendees it is perhaps a little disappointing that the meeting seems to have been convened only to rubberstamp the security policies that the government has been touting ever since it came into power. Among the decisions reached, all of which are part of the national security policy the government unveiled last month, one was to set up a joint intelligence directorate to better coordinate intelligence-sharing between the various agencies and to have a rapid response force that can immediately provide help after a militant attack. There may have been a paucity of ideas at the meeting but at least it gave the prime minister an opportunity to brief government and military officials on the progress of peace talks with the TTP. Here, Nawaz Sharif was more encouraging as he insisted that talks with the TTP would only be held in accordance with the constitution. This presumably means that expected TTP demands like imposing their interpretation of Shariah law in the country will not be accepted.
The prime minister was perhaps being a little optimistic at the meeting when he said that it would be up to the TTP to tackle the threat of any splinter group that has opposed the ceasefire and talks and is still carrying out attacks. The TTP has distanced itself from attacks that took place recently, with the new Ahrarul Hind group claiming responsibility for them, but it has not condemned the attacks outright or offered to take action against the group. One reason the government may not agree to the TTP demand of releasing all its prisoners is that many of them would have grown even more bitter during their years of imprisonment and may just end up carrying out further attacks against the state after being freed. The TTP's claims about 300 women, children and other non-combatants being secretly held by the state have been denied by state officials repeatedly. But we have as yet no way of ascertaining the truth that may lie somewhere between TTP media manoeuvrings and the state's concern with ‘security’. Be that as it may, what must always be upheld is due process and human dignity and rights. Innocent people caught between militancy and counter-militancy are not exactly an unheard of possibility here. And, unfortunately, as hearings in the Supreme Court have made clear, the practice of abducting people and holding them indefinitely leads to alienation that militancy of all kinds feeds upon. If there is an element of truth in the claims, the situation needs to change – not to appease the TTP but for the sake of justice.
Drought disaster
Even as some in the Sindh government, including Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, quibble over semantics and whether what is happening in Tharparkar qualifies as a famine or not, many residents of the drought-stricken area continue to wait for food and medication. The recriminations have already begun, with the Sindh health secretary having issued show-cause notices to 450 doctors for a supposed dereliction of duty. At the same time, the Supreme Court, having taken suo motu notice of the government’s response to the crisis in Tharparkar, has been grilling the health secretary and chief secretary. Among the questions posed by the court which went unanswered was why the government was not ready for a disaster of this magnitude given that it had received warnings from the Food and Agriculture Organisation five years ago about the increased likelihood of droughts in the area. Despite knowing that a drought could hit at any time, the provincial government had done nothing to prepare Tharparkar. Hospitals in the area were uniformly substandard and even today, more than two weeks after news of over a hundred children dying was known to all, they do not have sufficient medicines to treat residents. Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah may have called the famine a naturally-occurring phenomenon but the plain truth is that all the deaths were caused by malnutrition and that is something the government could and should have done something about.
The disorganised and tardy nature of relief efforts leaves no confidence in the ability of the provincial government to respond to disasters of such magnitude, even though forecast. Soon it will be the government of Punjab that is being tested. Reports are emerging of a similarly devastating drought having hit Cholistan, causing mass migration. There is no water in the area as reservoirs have dried up and pumping stations remain inoperable. The Punjab government seems not to have realised the extent of the problem in Cholistan or made any effort to provide water to its citizens. As with Thar, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has been missing in action. The NDMA was specifically set up after years of flooding to ensure the effects of natural disasters are minimised. It has been so ineffective at its job that the scattered efforts of NGOs appear more effective and coordinated. But disasters like the one which hit Tharparkar and which is looming in Cholistan need full fledged and direct government help. This, sadly, has rarely been forthcoming.