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Old Wednesday, November 30, 2016
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Default November 30th, 2016.

Date : Wednesday, November 30th, 2016.


Passing the Baton


Pakistan has witnessed what may be a seminal event in its youthful history as a nation. The Change of Command ceremony for the army chief of staff occurred on Tuesday morning at the GHQ in Rawalpindi. The outgoing General Raheel Sharif had completed his tenure and General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the 16th army chief, has assumed command of the Pakistan army, one of the largest and most battle-hardened fighting forces in the world. Why this might be regarded as seminal is because it was routine, a part of a process, and took place with due protocol and the sense of dignity that the occasion demands.

General Bajwa was the Prime Ministers selection for the job and he has a full agenda as was acknowledged in the address by General Sharif that accompanied the handover. Active issues are the support and protection of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that is gaining relevance and importance almost by the day, taking the heat out of the situation along the Line of Control, corruption and crime generally and the linked items of terrorism and the implementation of the National Action Plan that is in need of revivifying and which would benefit from a fresh and emphatic restatement.

All of the above are ‘carry-overs’ and in that sense General Bajwa is a ‘continuity COAS’ but as with his predecessors once he has taken office he will be putting his own stamp on how the army and he as its leader moves forward. His appointment is good for the army in that it allows movement at the top of the command structure that a three-year cycle serves well. For the civilians the complex and not always easy relationship with the military may — may — have just got a little easier. General Sharif did not seek and was not offered an extension of tenure, an indication of the green shoots of maturity in the political cadre perhaps that is already eyeing the 2018 elections. The most encouraging news for all sides is that the new COAS came into post within the context of a routine set of protocols, and the very ordinariness of the process renders it seminal.

The PTCL downsize


Pakistan has a slew of bloated and inefficient state entities that are either proposed as possible privatisation targets or ‘in process’ towards privatisation. One entity that has passed into the private sector is Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and it is reported that it is to offer half its workforce voluntary separation — redundancy by any other name. Up to 9,000 of its workforce of around 18,000 are being offered a Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) in a bid to bring PTCL into competitive line with other telecoms players in the market. This is the fourth time that PTCL has sought to cut its workforce since 2008 when a similar offer was made to 35,000 employees — and around 30,000 took the golden(ish) handshake — a clear indication if it were needed of just how overmanned the organisation was. In 2006 when the government sold off its 26 percent stake to Etisalat there were 64,000 employees.

The reason for the latest downsize is clear enough — the digital world has overtaken the analogue world that PTCL was set up to operate in. The fixed landline business that used to be its mainstay has gone into rapid decline with the advance of the mobile phone and other smart products. The older PTCL workforce are not educated or trained in the new technologies and the generation below them is, making sense for the company to recruit people that are familiar with today’s fast moving communications industry. The other factor is the cripplingly high cost of human resources. Around 35 percent of PTCL revenues are soaked up by the wages bill compared to a ratio of 12-15 percent in other telcos — unsustainable in a crowded market.

The business is currently making a profit, earning Rs8.8 billion in 2015 that was 69 percent higher than the previous year. A leaner more efficient workforce is going to allow that profit to grow, but is not going to be cheap in the short term. The model being deployed in PTCL could equally well be applied to Pakistan Steel or the national carrier PIA which is long sclerotic. A little political grit could go a long way.

Cyber labs


Cybersecurity is an underdeveloped area in Pakistan. Anti-state actors have been using the World Wide Web for years to communicate ominous plans to threaten innocent lives. Our government and talent is finally working to secure the Internet space used by citizens. This was due for some time and now, as connectivity is enhanced in rural and remote areas, the threat to cybersecurity has become greater. This is supported by statistics on the increase in malware by 36 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, according to the Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec. The corporation also detected a 125 per cent increase in 2015 in zero-day vulnerabilities, which are ‘holes’ in software that hackers can exploit to affect networks, data and programmes. The Lahore Garrison University (LGU) and government and military entities have awoken to these threats. The LGU’s Digital Forensic Research and Service Centre comes as a sign of reassurance that the threat to cybersecurity is being acknowledged.

Safeguarding public areas, including the virtual ones, is a government responsibility, but we know the call to action stems from worry about outsiders seeking to weaken Pakistan’s stealth and damage its sanctity. A lower priority is the safety to citizens. Nonetheless, the government’s focus towards developing and providing cyber protection is critical. More universities should be encouraged to establish research and development centres. The digital lab ventures at LGU and other universities in the future should be afforded support and network protection. Recently, a server at a public university in Michigan, USA was hacked, leaking sensitive student data. While Pakistan continues to catch up on the technological front, it needs a strong policy on Internet usage and cybersecurity with recent cybercrime laws enforced — though being cautious not to impinge on citizens’ rights. Especially in this time of transition of powers, be they military or government, the country cannot waver when anti-state actors are at play everywhere.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30th, 2016.
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