Vigilance required
THE absence of large-scale sectarian violence in the last few weeks should be no cause for complacency. The menace of sectarianism is alive and well in Pakistan, as illustrated by the tragic targeted killing of two Hazara Shia brothers in Quetta on Monday, the latest among a series of such murders in the city since April. The men, both in their 20s, were outside a passport office when two assailants gunned them down and also killed a policeman who confronted them. While the operations being carried out by the military in the northern areas and by the Rangers and police in Karachi appear to have disrupted sectarian-jihadi networks to some extent, the massacre of Ismaili Shias on May 13 in Karachi shows that their capacity to unleash mass murder has certainly not been neutralised. That is even more so a cause for concern whenever a religiously significant event in the Muslim calendar — such as Hazrat Ali’s death anniversary which will fall tomorrow — comes around and is commemorated with majalis and processions.
By their very definition, processions are relatively difficult to secure. A mass of people moving along a route with potentially multiple points of vulnerability are a security challenge of no mean proportions. And conversely, one that extremists are tempted to exploit. In 2009, the bombing of an Ashura procession in Karachi killed around 50 people, while in early 2012, a similar attack on a Chehlum procession in Rahim Yar Khan left nearly 20 dead. Religious tensions also run high on such occasions: a communal clash in Rawalpindi two years ago, reportedly incited by provocative sermons from a mosque along an Ashura procession route, resulted in a number of deaths. For their part, the authorities have of late pulled out all the stops — including recourse to aerial surveys — to ensure that peace is maintained on these sensitive days. However, while Ashura and Chehlum processions/gatherings have been targeted most often, the authorities cannot afford to let down their guard on other similar commemorative occasions.
Islamabad LG polls
A CLASH of institutions emerging over Islamabad’s local government polls, scheduled for July 25, is threatening to overshadow the long-awaited elections in the capital. At the centre of the controversy is the disturbing fact that the Senate is yet to pass the bill that would give the green light for the polls, with the result that the ECP has announced a schedule — under Supreme Court orders — based on draft legislation. On Monday, the ECP came under a barrage of criticism in the Senate, led by Chairman Raza Rabbani. Mr Rabbani said the commission’s election-related activities were “without lawful authority”. Moreover, the upper house wants LG polls in the capital held on a party basis. In a related development, the attorney general told the Supreme Court on the same day that he did not expect the bill in question to be passed before Eid.
In principle, the Senate’s complaint is valid: legislation is purely parliament’s domain and it is inadvisable for other state institutions to encroach upon this territory. Yet it is equally true that were it not for the Supreme Court’s insistence on holding LG polls across Pakistan, elections would not have taken place in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in the cantonment areas. The apex court had in March ordered for polls to be held; thereafter, the National Assembly passed the Islamabad LG bill which went to the Senate in April. We are now well into July. Hence, we fail to realise why the upper house has not fast-tracked the passage of the legislation. If the senators had reservations about the bill and wanted to amend it, they should have gone ahead with their input and sent the legislation back to the lower house to be debated so that it could have become law by now. We can appreciate the Senate’s insistence on parliament’s sovereignty, but we also realise that the people of the federal capital have a constitutional right to elect their local representatives — a right that has been denied to them for several decades, and which lawmakers have blocked through their tardiness. The Senate needs to give the Islamabad LG bill the attention it deserves and keep the legislative process moving forward. If a slight delay is unavoidable perhaps a brief extension of the election date could be considered. However, there should be no compromise over the holding of LG polls in the capital so that democracy reaches the lowest tiers.
Sindh CM’s accusations
SINDH Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is suddenly an angry man. The target of Mr Shah’s ire are the FIA and NAB — federal organisations that are, according to the Sindh government, busy conducting raids against the provincial authorities without the authorisation or support of Mr Shah’s government. The Sindh chief minister has even vowed to take the matter of granting additional powers to the FIA under federal legislation to the superior courts. While the centre has claimed that new powers to detain suspects for 90 days have been granted to the FIA are applicable to all provinces and not just Sindh, Mr Shah made it clear that his government believes it has been singled out for punishment. Unsurprisingly, the MQM has come out in his support and is also concerned by the FIA and NAB investigations. As with virtually everything else in the growing conflict between the centre and Sindh, there is some truth in what both sides are claiming.
Clearly, for all the federal government’s clarifications, there is something Sindh-specific about the FIA and NAB’s recent crusades. Where are similar actions in the other provinces? Have provincial offices in Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa been raided? Has Punjab seen an uptick in investigations into financial fraud or corruption by provincial authorities? The answer is obvious from the media headlines alone: Sindh appears to be the inordinate focus of interest by federal investigators in recent months. Add to that the fact that a city-specific operation is in place only for Karachi and that the army leadership has expressed some very blunt opinions about the quality of political leadership in Sindh, and the reasons for the siege mentality of the Sindh government become clear. While the federal government has for the most part tried to suggest that the many facets of the Sindh crackdown are entirely coordinated and led by the PML-N, there are clear and worrying signs that much of what is happening is occurring at the behest of the security establishment behind the scenes. A Sindh government that is at odds with not just the federal government but the military is a dangerous development in an ostensibly democratic framework.
Yet, the Sindh government will win little sympathy from any quarter so long as it continues with its hapless ways. That there is epic corruption and mis-governance in the province is no longer questioned by even the most ardent of democrats. That the Sindh government has done nothing to stamp out corruption in its midst is also not seriously questioned by independent observers. That the province could take the lead and has the powers necessary to fight corruption and mis-governance is also quite clear. If Sindh won’t put its own house in order, is it a surprise that the centre should be attempting to do so itself?
Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial