Dated 3/11/2015

A debatable judgment

SALMAAN TASEER was murdered by an unrepentant Mumtaz Qadri in a deliberate, premeditated and ruthless manner for the vilest and most distorted of reasons. That makes Qadri a murderer who must be punished. The Islamabad High Court hearing Qadri`s appeal did both the legally and morally correct thing in upholding Qadri`s conviction on Monday. Where the court appears to have unnecessarily created confusion and caused uncertainty about his ultimate fate is in its decision to set aside his parallel conviction under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. In a single paragraph dealing with the anti-terrorism conviction one paragraph among 47 that constitute the overall judgment the court found that none of the prosecution witnesses (barring one), and neither the investigating officer nor the prosecution evidence, suggested that Qadri`s act amounted to an attempt to create panic, intimidate and terrorise the public, or to create a sense of fear and insecurity among the public.

With due respect to the court, that is a very surprising and quite unsustainable finding.

Qadri`s killing of then governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer is the very definition of terrorism. It was an undisguised political act meant to send an unambiguous message of fear and intimidation to the public. As the judgment itself notes, Qadri claimed that the murder of Taseer `is a lesson for all the apostates as finally they have to meet the same fate`. In assassinating the Punjab governor, Mumtaz Qadri was not simply killing an individual, he was sending a message to state and society that only the particular version of religion and Pakistan that he and his supporters are in favour of ought to be the one implemented here and anyone who deviates from that distorted, horrifying vision is deserving of death. If that is not religiously inspired terrorism, then what is? Surely, the scores of individuals who have been celebrating Qadri`s act and are now welcoming the decision to strike down the terrorism conviction because it will allow them to openly and publicly venerate him and the hateful ideas he stands for only emphasise that the act of murder was not just against an individual, but was meant to distort society itself.

There is a further problem here. If Qadri`s murderous act in the name of religion is not terrorism, then what about killings on sectarian grounds and violence targeting non-Muslims? The court appears to have unnecessarily embarked on a slippery slope with all manner of unpredictable consequences. Has, for example, the court unwittingly provided a `Qadri defence` to religiously inspired terrorists who have so blighted this country in recent decades? Finally, in unnecessarily tampering with the original judgment in such a high-profile case, has the court not reinforced the perception that the criminal justice system favours the accused over the victims? The original conviction should have been allowed to stand in its entirety.

Solar takes off

A SOLAR-POWERED aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for a voyage around the world that will take five months to complete. About a year ago, that goal seemed very distant. The speed with which developments in solar energy are progressing is truly breathtaking, and we should take heed of the enormity of the promise that is gradually opening up before us. We are living on the cusp of a revolution that promises to transform our lives much like the spread of cellular communications did. Prices of solar panels are dropping steeply, by almost 70pc since 2011, and the cost of a unit of solar energy has fallen from 21 cents in that year to 11 cents today. At six cents, the technology becomes viable for largescale commercial adoption because its costs will be competitive with those of coal. That goal is less than five years away.

In many ways, the move towards alternative sources of energy is already under way in Pakistan. Across the mountainous north, for instance, micro-hydel turbines that generate electricity from streams are being adopted at an accelerating pace, and many inaccessible villages are already lit up at night with free electricity in the summers. A few enterprising entrepreneurs around the country are already setting up solar operations, selling residential equipment that can charge a UPS capable of running an entire house. The International Finance Corporation is already offering enterprise loans for manufacturing outfits in Pakistan that wish to run their operations entirely on solar energy. In villages across the country, solar panels are becoming an increasingly common sight.

There may still be a long way to go, but the distance can close fast once the right price point is crossed. All the government needs to do is to get out of the way. An upfront tariff for solar energy is a good beginning, but the real potential for this innovation will be in household use, what is called point-of-consumption use within the industry. For that, incentives for import and local manufacture of solar panels will play a big role, as well as net metering, a technology that enables households to sell surplus electricity generated in their homes back into the national grid. The heroic flight of Solar Impulse demonstrates that no heights are too high and no distance too far when imagination is coupled with the power of technology.

Unusual IMF visit

In a slightly unusual move, a three-member IMF team led by the mission chief for Pakistan has visited the country just days before the documents from the sixth review are to be circulated to the Fund`s executive board for approval. Once approved, it will pave the way for release of the seventh tranche of the $6.7bn loan that Pakistan took in 2013. The visit is unusual because normally there is no reason for the mission chief to visit the country after the review is completed, and the wide range of meetings that he is holding show that this is not a simple courtesy call. What is not unusual though is the list of its `achievements` drawn up by the finance ministry, presented to the Fund team and detailed in a press release issued after the visit. Foreign exchange reserves have crossed $16bn, the press release says, without mentioning that most of this is borrowed money. All structural benchmarks have been met, it adds, without casting further light on the fate of legislation to grant increased autonomy to the State Bank. New power projects will add 4,000MW to the national grid, it boasts, without saying anything about the circular debt.

The press release may do its best to put a happy spin on the visit, but the metrics of success being used by the finance minister are problematic and almost each one could easily be deflated by a couple of astute questions. Were any of these questions asked by the Fund? We can only conjecture, but a good guess would be `yes`.

In all likelihood, Pakistan`s request for the seventh tranche will be approved by the board when it meets at the end of the month, although much depends on when the documents are circulated to the board. But it would be better if the finance minister could give an indication or two once in a while that he does not entirely believe the public relations line taken by his ministry.

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A still tongue keeps a wise head.