At the UN
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s appearance at the UN General Assembly was an opportunity for the leader of the country to shake off the unfortunate image the world has of Pakistan and present a positive case. In that, he was successful in parts, particularly when starting with the floods that have devastated Punjab and Azad Kashmir, using them as a demonstration of the damage that will be caused by global warming. He did not ask only for sympathy and pity. Instead, he beseeched the world to take urgent action on climate change. His speech came just hours before nearly 400,000 people marched in New York City demanding the world cut its carbon emissions. Pakistan is one of those countries that will be most affected by global warming unless the entire world – especially the largest polluters like the US, China and India – does not take immediate action. Similarly, Nawaz mentioned sustainable energy as the solution to our power crisis and once again asked for investment rather than aid.
This was a low-key visit by Nawaz to the UN, partly because ties with India are strained so the usual meeting between the two countries on the sidelines of the General Assembly session did not happen. We once again reiterated our stance on Kashmir as a disputed territory which has the right to determine its own future through a plebiscite. This is something the UN itself had called for but now ignores. It is telling that no other country even mentioned Kashmir, demonstrating the power India now holds. That Nawaz and Modi, or even their foreign secretaries, do not plan to meet shows just how low relations have fallen since the brief moment of misplaced hope when Nawaz attended the new prime minister’s swearing-in, quickly followed by an exchange of letters. On the military operation in North Waziristan, Nawaz promised victory but was short on details, although he did correctly mention that success needs Afghanistan to take action against militants operating from there. The operation has been going on for many months now and details about our progress are scarce. In fact, the entirety of Nawaz’s speech was short on specifics. Apart from the scarcity of details on the operation, Nawaz had little to offer on improving relations with both India and Afghanistan. His was a rote speech that will be quickly forgotten and not lead to any diplomatic breakthroughs.
Dangerous job
There may be no more dangerous occupation in Karachi than being a policeman. Already this year more than a hundred cops have lost their lives in target killings, mainly for their role in cleansing the city and its outskirts of the growing militant threat. The latest target was SSP Farooq Awan, who narrowly escaped being killed by IEDs left in a car along the route he took to get home. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by Jundullah, a militant group close to Al-Qaeda which has previously taken credit for many killings in Karachi. The attack is reminiscent of the one which took the life of Chaudhry Aslam – another policeman responsible for capturing many militants – earlier this year. The TTP and its affiliates have been rapidly gaining strength in the city and taking advantage of the routine political violence to embed themselves. Many of the targeted killings which have been blamed on the political parties of the cities have actually been the handiwork of militants. On top of that, they have asserted themselves in parts of Karachi and are collecting extortion payments, the way criminal gangs with political patronage have always done. The militant threat in Karachi is real and becomes as much, if not more, of a problem than the violent gangs that ruled the city.
When the Rangers operation was launched last year, it had the goal of eliminating militant groups as well as going after the traditional sources of violence. Police action was launched in areas like Mangophir, where the militants have gone from strength to strength. They especially named four policemen, involved in operations against them, to be marked for death. Of those Chaudhry Aslam and Shafiq Tanoli have already been killed while Farooq Awan and Raja Umar Khitab, the head of the Crime Investigation Department, have been targeted. The TTP and its allies seem to have decided to go after sensitive targets like army headquarters and naval bases and killing off individuals in security posts who go after them. The assassination attempt on Awan indicates that the attackers had intelligence about which route he would take since they had IEDs in place. This, like the attack on the naval target earlier this month, hints at possible inside involvement. Two people died in the attack, including the delivery man for a fast food restaurant, who had the bad luck to be traversing the same route as Awan. For their sakes we need to capture those responsible not just for carrying out the attack but for so meticulously planning it.
Published in The News, Saturday, September 27, 2014