MQM-PTI code of conduct
FINALLY some sanity appears to have prevailed in the fraught relations between the MQM and PTI in Karachi. A day after some supporters of the two parties were involved in a clash in Azizabad’s Jinnah Ground, which was more a spontaneous fracas than a planned encounter, the Sindh governor Ishratul Ibad moved with alacrity to bring representatives from both sides to the negotiating table. A code of conduct for the April 23 by-election in NA-246 was agreed upon during the meeting whose participants included Imran Ismail, PTI’s candidate for the constituency and Kanwar Naveed Jameel, MQM’s candidate for the same. According to Dr Ibad’s statement following thereafter, the parties have agreed to desist from provocation and the use of derogatory language against each other.
The demonstration of such civility can only be welcomed, notwithstanding the ‘hidden hands’ — with their equally obscure agendas — that may be at work behind it. For it is crystal clear to anyone with any stake in maintaining peace in this city of 20 million that the circumstances demand a rational and mature response. Events in recent weeks have thrown the situation in Karachi into a state of flux, and when the chips fall, they may not do so without considerable violence. As a result, the coming by-election, that too in no less a constituency than the MQM bastion of Azizabad, has acquired far greater significance than it would have earlier.
As we have said before, the campaign for this poll will be a test case for both parties to rise above petty invective and slander, and demonstrate they have the political chops to address the myriad problems that plague this city. They can take their cue from the manner in which the brawl in Jinnah Ground on Tuesday was swiftly handled through political efforts rather than being allowed to vitiate the atmosphere. Every party has a right to campaign freely in Karachi and then approach the court of public opinion for its verdict, voluntarily given and unreservedly respected.
Banks and madressahs
MADRESSAHS have complained to the government that banks are reluctant to open accounts for them for fear of becoming entangled in a possible illicit activity investigation. The complaints were shared with the secretary, religious affairs, who conveyed them at a PAC meeting, in the context of an ongoing effort by the government to get all seminaries to register themselves and make disclosures about their source of funding. The effort includes getting the seminaries to fill out a form requiring them to disclose their assets, number of vehicles and bank account information as well as the sources from where funds will arrive into the account. There are five Wafaq boards, and at least two of them have reportedly refused to comply with the instructions to fill out the forms. They argue in return that the procedures being demanded of them are cumbersome, and that banks routinely refuse to open accounts for madressahs. The government has not specified what penalties will apply to those seminaries that do not comply with the new registration procedures, and the issue seems to have reached an impasse.
At this point, it is not clear whether or not the complaints of the seminaries against the banks are valid, but given that Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has himself stated on record that 10pc of all madressahs could be involved in terror-related activities, without specifying which ones, the banks have grounds to be cautious in dealing with all of them. How are they supposed to know whether or not a particular applicant belongs to the 10pc that is allegedly involved in terror-related activity? In the absence of proper bank accounts, seminaries here are likely to continue with the existing practice of using individual accounts of people working for them to transact their finances, or to deal entirely in cash. This complicates the task of tracking and monitoring their funds. It is bad enough that the government has had such a complicated time figuring out how to go about the rudimentary job of registering all seminaries, and acquiring some knowledge of how many are operating around the country.
How are we to expect that the government will be able to conduct higher levels of regulation, such as curricular reform and tracking sources of funding? Clearly, more vigorous efforts are required from the government. Leaving the entire exercise to be carried out by the religious affairs ministry alone is not going to be enough.
Joint session on Yemen
IN a sensible and timely move, the PML-N government has, at the urging of the opposition, decided to convene a joint session of parliament to discuss the conflict in Yemen. The focus will also be on what role, if any, Pakistan may play in what is essentially a civil war inside Yemen —– but one that has been turbocharged by Saudi fears of potential Iranian influence growing in a country that the kingdom shares a border with. While a joint session of parliament cannot issue a binding resolution directing the government on how to proceed in a matter of foreign policy, it should help clarify at least two things: one, the government’s position, thus far at odds with Saudi claims; and two, what is at stake for Pakistan, both internally and externally, when it comes to intervening — diplomatically or militarily — in a region where Pakistan has to necessarily balance competing interests. To begin with, there has been some consistency in the official claims made by the PML-N government: seeking a diplomatic and peaceful solution to the crisis in Yemen; declaring that the government’s red line is a violation of the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia (effectively, if the Houthis were to cross the border into the kingdom); and leaving the door open to sending troops at least for defensive purposes inside Saudi Arabia.
What has been particularly troubling, however, is that Saudi officials and the media there have repeatedly contradicted the Pakistani government claims and bluntly stated that Pakistan has already committed to making a military contribution to the Saudi-led coalition presently bombing the Houthis in Yemen that may be followed by a land invasion. There being a long history of the state here being parsimonious with the truth and making private commitments to outside powers, the fear is that the PML-N government may be saying one thing to its own public and preparing to do something quite different. In the joint session of parliament to be convened on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself needs to speak, explain his government’s policy and address the conflicting claims made by his government and the Saudi regime.
There is also a significant role for the opposition to play in the joint session: laying out the internal implications of a military involvement in Yemen when the fight against militancy at home is at its peak; expanding on the regional implications for participating in a Saudi-led coalition that is aimed at reducing perceived Iranian influence; and dilating on the proper diplomatic and political role for Pakistan in the Muslim world, which is riven by conflict, both state and non-state. In particular, refuting the dangerous and destabilising claims in some quarters here that the Yemen conflict is sectarian or that the Pakistan state has a sectarian leaning of its own is something that all of parliament could do together — and forcefully.
Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial