Flawed strategy against IS
THE burning to death of 45 people in western Iraq and the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic hostages in Libya should make regional states and world powers revise their pusillanimous strategy if they are serious about destroying the criminal hordes operating as the self-styled Islamic State. The response by the US-led coalition hasn’t served to break the IS militia’s strength, for it continues to remain in occupation of large chunks of territory and seems to be expanding its area of influence. Its stunning advance from western Iraq to Syria as far as the Turkish border has come to a halt, and now, like similar militant groups looking to conquer territory, it will need time to consolidate. However, there is no room for complacency, for it would be a great mistake to let IS consolidate its gains and plan for more ‘conquests’.
Egypt has called for UN intervention in Libya, and a military ‘summit’ conference is in session in Riyadh. However, going by media reports the task before the generals is not the drawing up of a new strategy that would turn the tide against the IS but ‘a general reappraisal’ of the situation and ‘what needs to be done’. That only shows that the military chiefs stand circumscribed by their governments’ lack of required political will to wipe out IS. Turkey, the region’s strongest military power, has shown little or no interest in joining the anti-IS coalition, even though the militant outfit is knocking at its door. Jordan, following the burning to death of one of its pilots, has shown greater zeal for punishing IS for its crimes. But why regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are coy about combining forces against a common threat is a question that remains unanswered. The generals can do little unless the political leaderships in the Gulf states, Tehran and Ankara first put aside their geopolitical differences and paper over the cracks in order to unite on a common strategy for destroying the source of terrorism in the region.
Corridor of controversy
THE furore has been raging for weeks now and we are still no closer to getting a clear picture on what is happening with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor project. The multiparty conference convened by the ANP stoked the fires a little more, and yet again dire warnings were sounded that the project could become another Kalabagh dam if the government refused to clarify what it was doing with the route. The declaration issued at the end of the conference makes clear that the project is as political as it is technical. Part of the purpose is to connect Gwadar with Khunjerab, the high-altitude border crossing with China. But in equal measure, the project has political ends.
The declaration points to the “uneven socioeconomic development in Pakistan” and underlines the importance of rectifying this imbalance through “proactive policies”. The responsibility of the federal government is to look after the entire federation, not only one province, the declaration points out. It says the CPEC project should be approached with the interests of the underdeveloped provinces as a priority. This is a powerful narrative that is taking shape around the project. Equally powerful was the line-up of the speakers at the conference. There was Asfandyar Wali Khan of the ANP, the PPP’s Khursheed Shah and Shah Mehmood Qureshi of the PTI. These are not lightweights from marginal parties. They were joined by Rauf Mengal of the BNP, Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party and Aftab Sherpao of the QWP. Between them, these people could mobilise a formidable political challenge to the ruling PML-N, and if for no other reason than a purely pragmatic one, the prime minister would be well advised to take the declaration seriously.
It is surprising to see the government’s lack of effort to get its own message out regarding the CPEC project. This is either because they completely underestimate the seriousness of the challenge that is developing, or take their own position for granted. Either way, it is not only folly on their part to continue to ignore the growing protests around the project, it is also highly irresponsible. The project is an important one and deserves proper stewardship, in both the technical and political spheres. Bland assurances that the route remains unchanged are clearly not enough. The government needs to release further details about the many projects that are being advanced under the umbrella of CPEC, and collect them all in one place for ease of access. If it has a case to make, it should step up and make it. But if it has no case in the face of such a serious challenge to such an important venture, then it is inevitable that people will ask whether the government can be trusted at all with its stewardship.
Police lines attack
STOCK-TAKING is under way in the wake of Tuesday’s suicide attack in Lahore which ended five precious lives. The incident was followed by yet another bombing at an imambargah a day later on the outskirts of Islamabad. In Lahore, a bigger, more devastating incident was avoided since the attacker was apparently unable to reach his target; yet, significantly, the bomber escaped notice and managed to reach the gate of the police lines that should have been one of the most protected places in the city and is a very obvious target. The recent incidents of terror which have come in quick succession have caused much unease across the country, and are enough reason for law-enforcers brought together by the National Action Plan to review measures, reaffirm their resolve and consolidate their efforts to root out militancy. For the sum to be meaningful, each part must first be fully empowered and committed to the job. The bombing in the capital of Punjab came not too many days after the passing out of a rapid response special force tasked with tackling militancy. Given this fact and considering that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government has been credited with leading the drive to implement NAP, it is more than discomforting that the rescue operation at the police lines could not be initiated with the expected level of alacrity.
Reports say there was a gap of some 20 minutes between the time of the blast and the first rescue response. It has also been observed that prompt administration of first aid could, perhaps, have saved some lives, besides sending the right message about the level of official preparedness in a war that must be fought and won. By far the most important part is where duties and responsibilities are assigned to various components that are then represented in the apex committees dealing with militancy. From the top leadership down to the basic level, the ideal of harmony and chain of command and national cohesion must not make others totally dependent on the army. Others must be sufficiently chastened by the instance of the army having to come to their rescue, and must strive to perform, now. Plenty has been said about ensuring and increasing the efficiency of the police to counter militancy. Ways have to be found to give confidence to the police — in all the provinces — and to introduce a culture in the force that is moored in professional command.
Published in Dawn February 19th , 2015
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Sectarian scourge
THE juxtaposition between Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s words uttered to a think tank audience in Washington D.C. and events in his hometown of Rawalpindi on Wednesday demonstrated just how far the state still has to go before the militancy threat can be defeated. After yet another attack on an imambargah this week a pattern is now undeniable: sectarian strife is being deliberately stoked by militant elements. Quite why that is so can only be debated at this point. What is well-known is that the militants have a menu of opponents that they wish to attack and, depending on the circumstances, they tend to concentrate on certain categories at any given time. After the Peshawar school massacre, security has been stepped up around core military and governmental targets, perhaps putting them out of the militants’ reach for now. Or it could be that the wave of arrests, detentions and killings of militants after the Peshawar school attack has shaken the militants and left them unable to mount immediate attacks on anything other than relatively soft targets, such as places of worship, which must remain open to the public and so are always vulnerable to breach by suicide bombers and armed gunmen.
Finally, there could an international element to the rise in sectarian attacks here, with sectarian battles growing in various parts of the Middle East — the so-called IS effect, whether real or virtual. Whatever the case — and it could well be a combination of the above reasons in addition to several others — the basic question remains the same: what is the state doing to combat such forms of terrorism and the extremist environments that help create new militants? Going by the words of the interior minister in Washington D.C., the answer seems to remain: not much. In his comments on Wednesday, the interior minister seems to have stuck to a familiar script: glossing over his government’s — and his own personal — culpability in long pursuing talks with the people who follow their “animal instinct”, ie the banned TTP; claiming that the December Peshawar school attack was a turning point; and suggesting that the government is serious in pursuing a full-spectrum approach to fighting terrorism — but then failing to really develop or deploy that full-spectrum approach.
Consider the issue of sectarianism. Capturing or killing sectarian militants is a way to bring down the intensity of attacks, but no more. To truly roll back sectarianism and to do so methodically, the state needs to work on the engines of hate: the preachers, the literature, the extremist mosque-madressah-social welfare network that urges citizens to consider each other enemies and provides new recruits for the armed groups. But none of that is happening and it cannot happen until the state is forthright about which groups are involved and names the leadership of these groups directly. How can an enemy that a state is unwilling to meaningfully define be defeated?
Trees along the Canal
YEARS and years later, an issue that should have been settled by now continues to fester. Lahore, which has seen fairly rapid expansion over this decade past, has a traffic flow problem, particularly north to south. A major road artery along this route has always been the Canal Road, running the length of the city from Jallo Park to Thokar Niaz Beg. In its wisdom, the city government seems to think this road can endlessly be widened, thus solving the traffic problem. If this were not evidence enough of the authorities’ wrong-headedness and predilection for falling for easy fixes, consider the fact that the road-widening project means the felling of hundreds of venerable trees that grace the green belt along the Canal — and which makes this particular road one of the most prominent features of the city, contributing both to beauty and the environment.
The case can be seen as a microcosm of what’s happening in cities across the country: a severe lack of planning, the adoption of short-term measures and, above all, administrators’ inability to keep in mind sustainability and the city’s future. Whether it is Islamabad, the landscape of which has been scarred by an endless criss-crossing of seemingly overlapping roads, or Karachi which is a sorry mess of mushrooming high-rises and unplanned construction, the story is the same. In the case of the Canal Road, thankfully, the resistance to the project was enough to land the matter in court, and on Thursday the Supreme Court again stopped the Punjab government from felling any more trees. The case that had come up relates to some senior government officials being accused of contempt of court for flouting a 2011 judgment on the decimation of vegetation. But such an embargo cannot be expected every time folly takes hold of the city planners’ minds. Pakistan is a rapidly urbanising country and the challenges will only grow; taking the wrong steps now will lead to much tougher circumstances in the years to come.
NAB censured
NEVER before has the Supreme Court been so candid about what it thought of the honourable National Accountability Bureau. On Wednesday, two benches of the apex court heard two different cases, and expressed dissatisfaction with the way NAB was operating and failing to protect its own officials under threat. In the first case, a Supreme Court bench hearing a real estate fraud rejected NAB chairman Qamar Zaman’s excuse that the bureau had been hamstrung by financial constraints and human resources when he took over as its chief in 2013. The court was angry over NAB’s failure to arrest a proclaimed offender who had been at large for four years and wondered why no disciplinary action had been taken against the seven “delinquent” officers who had failed to arrest the man. Justice Jawwad Khawaja minced no words and said there was “lawlessness” in NAB, and, even though it had a budget running into billons of rupees, its performance was not worth 1pc of it. A day earlier, the court had taken notice of a warning by a desperate investigating officer who said he had been threatened with arrest by influential people and that he had informed his bosses about this.
In the other case, the bench was critical of NAB’s decision to close an inquiry against six revenue officials accused of embezzlement. Changing its nomenclature and headed at least once by a corrupt politician, NAB had been used by successive governments as an instrument of persecution. Ziaul Haq, the man who began this fraudulent exercise, was so brazen that the word ‘accountability’ developed a twisted connotation contrary to its professed objective. The purported aim behind NAB’s formation — purging society of corruption by punishing the big fish — was lost when civilian governments, too, continued this hoax.
The cases tried were selective and well-known personalities were shielded. The cases against some prominent personalities lie dormant, and NAB hasn’t bothered to take action against the Mehrangate generals held guilty by the Supreme Court judgment of Oct 19, 2012. The truth is that NAB should have never come into being, for the laws existing on the statute books provide enough of a framework for investigating agencies and the judiciary to punish the corrupt. Now that we are saddled with it, NAB has no choice but to set its house in order and justify the billions of rupees in its kitty.
Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2015