Sunday, 23 March, 2014

Protection of journalists

THE safety of journalists and the media in Pakistan received some muchneeded and necessary high-profile coverage this week again, following a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and a senior delegation of the international Committee to Protect Journalists. It is rarely a good thing when the media itself becomes a story, but these are extraordinary times and there are extraordinary dangers present. The picture is both simple and complex. Simple in the sense that the outlawed TTP continues to directly and menacingly threaten the media.

Complex in the sense that countering the Taliban threat is difficult, as is continuing to report on and cover that most critical of policy initiatives of the government le achieving peace through dialogue with the TTP.

Now that the prime minister himself has announced, in the meeting with the CPJ delegation, that a governmentmedia commission will be formed to both pursue the investigations intoattacks already committed against the media as well as to make recommendations for improving the safety and security of journalists and media personnel, the onus should be on the government to make the security of the media a non-negotiable part of the dialogue with the TTP. For, in having opened the door to making the TTP a legitimate stakeholder in the national political process, the government has a responsibility to ensure that the existing stakeholders are protected from the violence of the new entrants.

In this regard, the controversial fatwas that the militant group has issued against the media must specifically be withdrawn while more generally the TTP must be asked to publicly acknowledge and accept the existing norms of media coverage and criticisms.

For some, given that the TTP has threatened huge sections of the Pakistani state and society, there may perhaps be questions about why the media deserves special protections andwhy it should be the focus of particular state interventions. The answer is relatively straightforward: when physical violence is threatened and perpetrated against the media, the coverage of the groups responsible for that violence necessarily becomes less informative, truthful or critical. Which means the public that the media is ostensibly informing becomes less aware of the true nature and agenda of the forces that exist among it. In the here and now, given the critical importance of the talks process between the Taliban and the government, a climate of fear when it comes to reporting or commenting on the TTP is a monumental disservice to the Pakistani public and its right to a full and complete picture of what is being done, or signed away, in their name.

Prime Minister Sharif has said the right things about the media. Now, like with so much else, it remains to be seen if his government will deliver on the promises made.

What about the big fish?

BIZARRE it may be because of the way in which the executive has gone about obeying the judiciary, but at least the Supreme Court`s persistence has paid off.

On Thursday, on the directives of the defence minister, an FIR was registered by the Malakand police against some low-level military men in connection with 35 persons who had gone `missing`a euphemism for alleged kidnapping by the state. The FIR, a copy of which was submitted to the court on Friday by the KP advocate general, named a naib subedar a junior commissioned officer and others for removing 35 internees from the Malakand internment centre. Where they were taken to nobody knows. However, what is absurd is that the defence minister should have chosen junior military officers to be named in the FIR. Surely, officers at that level could hardly be expected to act on their own in a matter that involved the alleged removal of 35 detainees from an internment centre and taking them to an unknown destination. Rather, common sense suggests they could not have acted without orders from officers higher up in the military echelon. No wonder, thelawyer who has been representing the intelligence agencies for long remarked that the lodging of the FIR by the defence minister against the army officers was `an unprecedented development` The army is an institution, a machine that works because orders are passed and obeyed. The question is: who gave what orders to those named in the FIR? If the suspects had violated any orders from the high-ups and acted on their own, to the extent of whisking away the 35 internees, they should have been court-martialled much earlier. There is no doubt the state`s executive arm finds the low rate of convictions, the threats to witnesses and the ponderous judicial process frustrating.

But the solution does not lie in clandestine operations that go against the fundamental principles of the rule of law. The case has been pending since Dec 10 when the Supreme Court held the army responsible for the mysterious disappearance. Now that a beginning has been made, no matter how gauche, we hope further investigation will uncover the authority actually responsible for ordering the subordinates to act criminally.

Deadly roads

WHETHER it is congested city thoroughfares or long stretches of highway, time and again we are reminded of how deadly Pakistan`s roads are.

Saturday`s horrific accident in Hub, Balochistan, which involved an oil tanker and two passenger buses, was another disturbing reminder of this fact. Over 30 fatalities have been reported as an inferno erupted after the pile-up due to oil spillage. One of the buses was also reportedly transporting petroleum illegally and the post-accident fire considerably added to the body count. Insufficient rescue facilities, such as fire tenders and medical teams, also compounded the tragedy. Such horrible accidents are becoming increasingly common on our roads, but the state`s response is not commensurate with the gravity of the problem, while the public, too, disregards all notions of road safety. It is apt to ask if we will ever learn from such tragedies and mend our ways.

Some important questions need to be answered, such as why a passenger buswas illegally carrying fuel. We also need to ask if our rescue facilities countrywide especially on busy highways used by heavy vehicles can adequately respond to emergencies. Overall, there are a few key areas where the state must direct its energies in order to make our roads safer.

Firstly, the driving licence regime in Pakistan is defective. That is why individuals with no road sense can either drive with bogus documents and get away with it, or they can secure licences without passing the requisite tests through bribery.

Traffic experts point out that computerised licences linked to a national database can help uncover phoney documents. Also, our motor vehicle inspection regime is flawed.

For a few thousand rupees, vehicle inspectors can be bribed into allowing death traps on wheels to take to the roads.

Moreover, badly constructed roads with improper signage add to the number of accidents. Unless errant drivers are held to account and adequately punished and the state makes road safety a priority, such tragedies will only be repeated.