01.09.2013

Fighting to lose
With Egypt’s foreign reserves fast depleting and foreign investment shrinking, people will soon feel the financial brunt of continuing unrest
By Dr Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi

Egypt, a nation of 82 million people strategically situated at the crossroads of North Africa and the Middle East, is passing through an unprecedented series of revolutions for civil and democratic rights. Last time, the entire nation was fighting against Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorial regime. Now it is the Muslim Brotherhood, whose democratically elected government under the leadership of President Morsi was overthrown, and hence they are demonstrating for their civil and egalitarian rights.

The difference between the two revolutions is that the first one was not handled by the use of force. But the later was dealt with an iron hand — a blatant and blunt demonstration of shameful gun power. Muslim Brotherhood officials say adamantly that “they were willing to ‘die for their cause’ if that’s what it came down to.”

A peep into the Egyptian society shows that it’s a competition between minority and majority. Majority came into power on the basis of ballot. Muslim Brotherhood was a legitimate custodian of the country as per norms of democracy and rule of law. However, military rule does not care for any law or democratic norms. They rule country undemocratically in the name of democracy and play havoc with the rule in the name of law. The ‘us versus them’ narrative propagated by both sides is becoming entrenched and what little middle ground left is further eroding.

For Egypt, the situation has gone out of Arab nationalism and Arab Spring. Almost the entire world has condemned the carnage in Egypt. US President Obama also came out with blunt statement condemning Cairo killings and cancelling the US-Egypt joint military exercises which were scheduled next month in Egypt.

The Brotherhood has been painted as an internal security threat with global tentacles. At this stage, President Obama was very right in clearing the doubts by saying: “We don’t take sides with any particular party or political figure.”

It is very easy to give a colouration of foreign hand in debilitating domestic problems of a third world country. Same is the case with Egypt. The disparagement of the Brotherhood as terrorists funded and supported by foreign countries has been an easy sell across much of the Egyptian society. One cannot ignore the judiciary factor which worked hand in hand with the military regime in starting the bloody crackdown. It has had nothing short of an antagonistic relationship with the Morsi regime which took over numerous judicial powers from them to strengthen presidency.

The Muslim Brotherhood blames the Christians’ financial ties to the West which are alleged to be behind the demise of the Morsi regime. Thus Christian churches, homes, and businesses have also been burned in retaliation. Making up only 10 per cent of Egypt’s 86 million people, Christians are easy targets for majority of the Brotherhood supporters.

Denmark suspended economic aid to Egypt. The United States — which provides about $1.6 billion in annual aid to Egypt — is continuing to review such programmes ‘in all forms’, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. If Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins continue, it will also be an international embarrassment that will keep away tourists; much needed foreign capital and investment. Thus state will be economically affected and ultimately people will bear the brunt.

The foreign direct investment is now down to zero. Egypt’s foreign reserves are fast depleting. There was a strong and energetic tourism industry, which employed 2 million people. All of them are sitting idle with tourists continuing to shun their visits to the country — that is $1 billion of lost revenue every month. If Egypt’s economy remains in deep troubles, the boss of IMF will soon reach Cairo to fix their economy. He would ask for economic reforms, devaluation of currency, more taxes, reduced public subsidies and privatisation of industries. Thus Egyptians will have to take the devil’s kiss for their beleaguered survival.

Egypt has turned into an extremely polarized society. Contempt and hate between the security forces and the Brotherhood will lead to further clashes without any heed to their economic and political losses. This would mean more killings, more curfews, more emergency and as a result more damage to the country as a whole. It will be a lose-lose game. Only Egyptians will have to decide as the ultimate winners or sufferers will be themselves and none else.

The author teaches International Relations at the University of Peshawar. syedshaheed@hotmail.co.uk

01.09.2013

Radicalisation sans borders
In its current form, radicalisation is no more a localised issue of tribal areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. The US and Europe are now facing a serious internal challenge of containing extremism in their own cities
By Naseer Memon

If anything that has gripped the whole world with alarming intensity, it is nothing but a rapid rise of radicalisation. It is no more confined to Islamic countries of Asia, Africa and Middle East. The so-called free world is emerging as a hotbed of radicalisation.

The post-9/11 war against terrorism has in fact provided it a new impetus and the world has witnessed a far more violent form of radicalisation in the recent years. It would be unrealistic to trace the genesis of this phenomenon in a single incident. In fact, an assortment of complex historical and socio-political factors has shaped and nurtured the current wave.

In its current form, radicalisation is no more a localised issue of tribal areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Although these areas are believed to be epicenters of Islamic radicalisation, Europe and the US cannot be fully absolved of their role, specially in the context of Pakistan that was chosen as a surrogate battlefield for their wars in Afghanistan.

The US and its allies even circumvented their much avowed affection for democracy and human rights by underpinning unconstitutional military regimes in Pakistan during 80s and 2000. Their myopic and strayed foreign policy has actually done a disservice and culminated in a global whirlpool of extremism. The US and Europe are now facing a serious internal challenge of containing extremism in their own countries. Thickly populated Muslim cities and neighborhoods in these countries engendered various forms of extremism that occasionally erupt into violent incidents.

Dream city of London can be a pertinent example to cite. Visiting the salubrious city as a tourist is a feast but peeping into lives of Pakistani community dampens the verve of recreation. Pakistani immigrants’ neighbourhoods paint a grim picture, where one finds all reasons of consternation. Retrogressive social milieu prevails even after decades when first generation of Pakistanis arrived here. During those heydays, Pakistani community earned respect for their hard work and amity.

Pakistani students were known for their stellar performance. Gone are those old good days and almost everything has degenerated. Pakistanis are now besmirched and stigmatised with social and political ills. Youth delinquency has surged, religious extremism has skyrocketed, women fenced in four walls, education attainment on rock bottom and social integration is unraveling at alarming pace. Seminaries are multiplying and formal schooling is being eclipsed by substandard teachings. A generation is growing in social seclusion of Pakistani and Muslim enclaves where identity crisis looms with all perils. Equally appalling is the situation in other cities like Bradford, Manchester etc.

France has the highest Muslim population among European countries, where some six million Muslims are living, mostly with North African origin. Social indicators of French Muslim are believed to be a major cause of disgruntlement. From education to employment, Muslims are disadvantaged. As a consequence, Muslim identity is proliferating with an alarming vengeance.

The post-9/11 developments have globally demarcated new borders between Muslims and the rest. Uncanny strategic shift of super powers between 1979 and 2001 wars triggered ideological tremors. The jihad espoused by the US and West coddled during the cold war era and patronised more vehemently in 80s refused to wilt with the demise of socialist Soviet Union.

As Allies failed to produce one right out of two wrongs, extremism found new legitimacy among the faithful in the wake of post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even second and third generation of European and American Muslims obviously could not remain insulated from the tide. Gradually a piqued Muslim identity started obscuring other domains of social fabric in these countries. Organic process of assimilation rapidly reversed over the years and now vanishing with the speed of light.

A survey of British Muslims conducted in October 2006 found that 82 per cent of respondents believed that the British Muslims have become more politically radicalised and 81 per cent believe the war on terror is really a war on Islam. Several other surveys confirm a similar trend among British Muslims. An abominable carnage of 7/7 that claimed more than 50 lives sent shockwaves throughout the Europe that did not fully recover from the nightmare of 9/11. The gruesome incident proved that security shields alone can’t clamp religiosity and the Britain is infested with radicals whose machinations could outsmart its fastidious systems.

Radicalisation among Muslim youth is not confined to Britain only; it has straddled across other European countries. According to a recent report of the International Herald Tribune, a large number of young Muslims with Western passport are sneaking into Syria to reinforce rebel crusaders who have waged a war against the government of Bashar al Assad. Some European and American Intelligence officials claim that more Westerners are fighting in Syria than have fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen. Various sources estimate that the number of fighters from Europe, North America and Australia fighting in Syria is more than 600. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls termed it a “ticking bomb”.

The phenomenon of radicalisation in Europe is not so simple and does not have single complexion or a linear trajectory. A research report “Radicalisation of Muslim Immigrants in Europe and Russia: Beyond Terrorism” (PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 29) challenges the notion that radicalisation is merely an outcome of social disintegration among various ethnic communities in Europe. In fact it implicitly berates the approach and quotes examples where well-integrated second and third generation citizens were found involved in terrorist acts.

The report postulates that the issue is intertwined with global political panorama. The report reads “while some of their own socio-cultural experiences may prepare them to advance what they believe is the cause of fellow Muslims suffering around the world, violent Islamists frame their actions in a quasi-religious, politicised, and almost “neo-anti-imperialist” discourse of global confrontation with the West, shaped and visualised, above all, by what they see happening daily in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.”

These factors are creating a new gulf among Muslims and other communities, which leads towards a precarious disintegration and friction. A radical Muslim identity is snowballing with every passing day and Nato’s exit from Afghanistan in 2014 would inculcate a sense of triumph and bestow it with a new pinnacle.

Islamic extremism is also breading a reciprocating anti-Muslim extremism. According to surveys, perceptions about Muslims among non-Muslims have grown. In 2008, 52 per cent in Spain 50 per cent in Germany, 38 per cent in France and 23 per cent in the UK felt negative about Muslims, considering them a threat to Western civilization.

Vagaries of the US and European foreign policy have resulted in this unmanageable global chaos. For decades, religiosity was eulogized as a bulwark against communism. Muslim countries were made a dumping ground of religious obscurantist elements, without realising that it will not remain in endless hibernation. It resurrected with ferocity of inconceivable proportions and now refuses to recoil.

In a globalized world, it is impossible to preclude tenacity of such congenital sentiments. In fact post-cold war follies of the West have revived the Pan Islamist fervour with a profound gusto. Religious radicalisation seems to have dwarfed all barriers and poses far reaching ramifications for posterity.

The author is an analyst and civil society activist: nmemon2004@yahoo.com

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

01.09.2013

The creation of Swat State
This obsession with a straight-jacket definition of a ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Pakistani nation’ has mired us in a complex web of, simply put, catastrophes, but we are still oblivious to its fatal effects
By Yaqoob Khan Bangash

The more I study Pakistan the more fascinated I get by the diversity and complexity of its regions, peoples and cultures. Unfortunately, for most of Pakistan’s history the focus of the central government has been to ignore and suppress regional identities, rather than make them an integral part of the national identity.

Therefore, we had the failed experiment of the One Unit system which tried to wipe away any distinctions between the different provinces of Pakistan; we still try to impose Urdu as the ‘national’ language and practically ostracise regional languages; and, most dangerous of all, we still attempt to impose one version of Islam on the whole country.

This obsession with a straight-jacket definition of a ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Pakistani nation’ has mired us in a complex web of, simply put, catastrophes, but we are still oblivious to its fatal effects. I shall spare the reader the obvious comparison with India, and its comparatively successful experiment with diversity and multiple expressions of nationhood and ‘Indian-ness,’ to focus on the creation of one erstwhile princely state in Pakistan — Swat.

Today Swat is simply a district in our northern province, and only became newsworthy recently due to the Taliban takeover there a few years ago, but till March 1969 it was a princely state and internally autonomous. It was a fascinating state since not only was it the last state to be formed and recognised in the British Indian Empire, it was a peculiar example of state formation in this region. What follows below, therefore, gives us an insight into the complex state and social structure inherited by Pakistan, and should, I hope help us to appreciate the diversity of our country.

Swat State was a creation of the lack of centralised control in the aftermath of the fall of the Afghan and Sikh empires. The history of the Swat is inextricably linked to its neighbouring states of Dir, Chitral and Amb, and the adjoining tribal area, but its foundation was very distinct from the other states. Whereas in the other Frontier states, chiefs of locally powerful tribes rose to such prominence that they became the rulers of the state, in Swat, the rulers did not consolidate the state on the basis of tribal leadership alone.

At the time of the British occupation of Peshawar in 1849, the Swat valley was mainly inhabited by Yusufzai Pathans who were enjoying virtual independence after the demise of the Durrani Empire. The Sikhs had not ventured into the area and so the administration of the area was on primitive tribal lines. When the British sent an expedition to pacify certain border tribes in the Swat valley, the Swatis responded by creating a joint front of tribes against the British attack. The tribal jirga also ‘elected’ Syed Akbar Shah as ‘King of Swat’ in 1849, creating, for the first time, some form of unitary government and authority in the valley.

Syed Akbar Shah immediately set upon organising a revenue and administrative system in the state and created a standing army. However, soon it was clear that these unifying measures were unacceptable to the local population and resentment grew against the ruler. As stated by Abdul Wadud, the later ruler of Swat, ‘the people, who were accustomed to self-willed, independent ways and disorganised life for quite a long time, found it difficult to submit to the checks and restrictions imposed by the new government.’ In 1857, therefore, this unwillingness to be ruled brought about the effective end of the first ‘State of Swat.’

The real power broker in the Swat valley, however, was not the elected king, but the ‘Akhund’ [a type of a religious leader] of Swat, affectionately called Saidu Baba. It was due to the influence of the Akhund that Akbar Shah was elected in 1849 and it was again through his influence in 1857 that Akbar Shah’s son was expelled from Swat and the state collapsed. The later rulers of Swat were then descendants of the Akhund.

The Akhund ‘whose real name was Abdul Ghafur, was born in 1784 of Safi Mohammad parents, probably in Upper Swat. He emigrated at an early age to the Yusufzai tract of British India, where he acquired great reputation for sanctity with the title of Akhund.’ As attested to in government documents, the Akhund was the leading man in Swat throughout his life ‘a position he owed rather to his great spiritual reputation than to any attempt to exercise temporal authority.’

After the death of the Akhund in 1877 the valley relapsed into factional fighting with a section led by his eldest son, Abdul Hanan, called the Miangul. Swat also got embroiled in the power struggles in Dir and Chitral. The end of the Chitral Expedition of 1895 and the restoration of Sharif Khan as the Chief of Dir did not end factional fighting and now the grandsons of the Akhund began jockeying for power in the valley. Meanwhile, in 1915, the tribes of Upper Swat elected Sayed Abdul Jabbar Shah as their ‘king’ mainly to fight against the Nawab of Dir. Abdul Jabbar Shah did manage to oust the Nawab of Dir from most of Swat in 1915, but could not defend the territory in a counter attack in 1916. Chaotic anarchy then ensued resulting in a jirga being called in September 1917 in Upper Swat, which decided to oust Abdul Jabbar Shah as king and appointed Miangul Abdul Wadud, one of the grandsons of the Akhund, as king.

Miangul Abdul Wadud spent the next three years consolidating the state, part of which was still under the control of the Nawab of Dir. He inflicted a crushing defeat on the Nawab of Dir in August 1919 in the Adinzai Valley, but the British political authorities prevailed upon him to abandon the Adinzai valley in favour of Dir through a tripartite agreement in 1922. Thereafter, Miangul Abdul Wadud focused on Buner and Chakesar and successfully annexed that territory from the Nawab of Amb in 1923.

Despite being in control of most of the Swat area by 1923, the GoI still had not recognised Miangul Abdul Wadud as a ruler, and Swat formally as a princely state. This was only sanctioned in March 1926, and in May 1926 the Chief Commissioner of the NWFP visited Swat and held a public Durbar at which the Miangul was proclaimed the Wali of Swat with an annual allowance of Rs10,000 from the Government of India. It is significant that even though Miangul Abdul Wadud was elected ‘king’ and locally known as ‘Bacha’ or ‘Badshah,’ the GoI only granted him the title of ‘Wali,’ which meant a religious ruler. This was obviously with reference to his descent from the Akhund of Swat.

Miangul Abdul Wadud wanted to retain the title of ‘Badshah’ or ‘Bacha’ but this was flatly denied by the political authorities on the basis that no ruler in India was a ‘king,’ and that only the King-Emperor in Britain had the right to be styled in such a manner. Miangul Abdul Wadud again petitioned the government for the title of ‘Bacha’ in December 1927, but the request was again declined.

Swat was a very peculiar state in terms of its origin and rulers. It was the only state in the Indian subcontinent which had thrice elected its own ‘king,’ and deposed two of them on account of unsatisfactory rule. While the use of the title ‘king’ was also certainly distinctive in India, as no ruler after the Mughals [bar the Oudh Nawabs very late in their rule] had employed that title, it is clear that the tribal jirga which elected these kings was not conferring full sovereignty on the thus chosen king.

The ‘king’ was to exercise power subject to the jirga, which was seen as the highest sovereign and judicial body. The title of ‘Wali’ which signified a religious connection was also singular in its application as even in Hindu principalities, where the religious and secular role of the prince was often inextricably linked, such a title or a similar one, was never used. In practice, however, none of the Wali’s of Swat indulged in religious affairs.

Despite the late recognition of the state, anthropologist Barth, who worked extensively in Swat, emphasises that “It is a notable fact that the state was an indigenous, not a colonial creation; it reasserted previously unsuccessful efforts of centralisation during the nineteenth century and seems to have arisen without external support and subsequently to have relied only marginally on colonial and post-colonial national establishments.”

The small state of Swat survived the Transfer of Power in India in 1947 and acceded to Pakistan in late 1947. Since its ruler, Miangul Abdul Wadud, and later his son, Miangul Jehanzeb, were very loyal towards Pakistan, the central government allowed them a large measure of autonomy. As a result, Swat became a model of development in the then-North West Frontier area.

For example, in education the central government’s Inspector of Schools had noted in 1957: “I am glad to remark that the educational progress of the State in all its activities under the able guidance and sympathetic patronage of its talented Wali is really appreciable…” As a result the literacy rate of the state increased from below 2 per cent in 1951 to nearly 12 per cent in 1961. However, soon the life of the state was cut short and it was merged in the erstwhile NWFP during the martial law regime of General Yahya Khan (for more details on the Swat State see my forthcoming book on the princely states, and that of Sultan-e-Rome on Swat).

Therefore, yet again, a ‘different’ state formation, a ‘different’ way of doing things came to an end in Pakistan, despite the fact that in terms of welfare provision (not democracy though) the state was well ahead of its peers at that time.

When will our obsession with uniformity end, I wonder....

The writer is the Chairperson of the Department of History, Forman Christian College, and tweets at @BangashYK. He can be contacted at: yaqoob.bangash@gmail.com.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

01.09.2013

Prisoners of artificial boundaries
The poor fishermen are left languishing in jail without any reason or ground of detention, and without jurisdiction or lawful authority. The state thus treats them like prisoners of war and political pawns, deprived of any right to a fair trial
By Shaffaf Shahid

The escalating arrests of fishermen inadvertently crossing the Pakistan-India maritime border, and their prolonged and unlawful detentions have compelled civil society organisations to step in to counteract the egregious lapses on the government’s part in securing the safety and liberty of its citizens.

On July 23, Indian border security forces arrested Pakistani fisherman Gul Bahar in the Sir Creek area, in response to which the Pakistani Acting Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi served a démarche.

Although the respective Foreign Ministries’ have issued timely joint statements agreeing on recommendations for the release and deportation of detained fishermen, state agents have, otherwise, remained resolutely silent on the issue.

While the media may rejoice over the release of any detained fishermen, such sporadic releases are usually meant to be expressions of good-will, or they merely mark the ‘successful end’ of the most recent round of political talks between India and Pakistan — not unlike the release of a few celebratory fireworks — and they need to be guaranteed and not left to the political/diplomatic whims of the few.

Nevertheless, such discrete acts reveal the inherently paradoxical nature of the nation-state as on the one hand it promises to protect the life and liberty of its citizens, and on the other it validates the use of violence in state surveillance to protect its ‘sovereignty’. There are two interesting aspects to this; first is the absurdity of the artificial creation of physical boundaries specific to and constitutive of modernity, and second is the act of privatisation of seas and oceans by creating these boundaries, which necessitates the use of force by the state to protect its ‘sovereignty’ and to reinforce itself, leading to the subsequent militarisation of these seas and oceans.

The marginalisation of traditional fishermen is then inherent in the very imagination and conception of the nation-state and the concomitant reconstruction of space, as the inadvertence on the part of the fishermen is translated into a deliberate attack against the myth that is the nation-state.

Multiple factors can be attributed to the straying of fishermen into foreign waters, including lack of navigational tools and depleted resources forcing them to tread out into deeper waters for a better catch. Another reason is the dispute over the maritime border at Sir Creek at the Rann of Kutch, which flows out into the Arabian Sea. Pakistan claims possession of the entire creek through the Bombay Government Resolution of 1914, while India insists on a mid-channel border on the basis of the Thalweg Doctrine in international law.

However, while the dispute might be a reason for the accidental straying of fishermen, there is another cause underlying their arrests and detention, which began in the 1980s: that reason is the creation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which, ironically, provides against the arrest or detention of such fishermen.

Pakistan signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on December 10, 1982, and ratified it in 1997, in order to establish a legal order for the seas and oceans, as recognised by its preamble. The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) prescribed by UNCLOS hammered the final nail as it created a 200 mile zone over which the state exercises special rights of exploration of marine resources, stretching out from the coastal baseline beyond the customary territorial waters.

With the disputed area at Sir Creek transformed into a zone of exclusive economic rights, the Pakistani state associates any breach of the border as a threat to its sovereignty. The Atlantique incident of August 1999 is another example of the militarisation of the space, when a Pakistani naval aircraft was shot down over Sir Creek by the Indian Air Force, allegedly for violating its airspace.

Henceforth, straying Indian fishermen became a national threat. On the other hand, Pakistani fishermen straying out of territorial waters have been deemed disposable, for as Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued, modernity is constituted by the boundaries erected between the normative and the disposable.

This narrative verbosely plays out in our laws — or at least in their interpretation. Indian fishermen, including juveniles, are arrested by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) and prosecuted and convicted under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and orders for their detention are made “in the interest of the security of Pakistan”. Although the statute also provides that such detentions shall not exceed two months, renewals are sought after every three months, and the poor fishermen are left languishing in jail without any reason or ground of detention, and without jurisdiction or lawful authority. The state thus treats them like prisoners of war and political pawns, deprived of any right to a fair trial and to be released only in exchange for the release of Pakistani fishermen detained in India.

It is interesting to note that following the latest meeting in May 2013 of the Indo-Pak Joint Judicial Committee, a committee constituted in 2007 to expedite the release of detained fishermen, some news articles reinforcing the state narrative were published. The articles termed the efforts of civil society organisations as misguided and claimed that Indian fishermen were poachers causing huge losses to Pakistan’s fishery resources. One wonders why our fishermen would live in such abysmal poverty or be compelled to tread out into deeper waters to fetch a decent livelihood when our waters are teeming with resources attracting these exploitative and scheming Indian fishermen.

Regardless, how can a misinterpretation of the law and the degradation of imprisonment be justified and seen to be proportionate when the PMSA can simply direct them back to Indian waters? As per a report in the Indian daily The Hindu, the recently arrested Pakistani fisherman Gul Bahar was heavily manacled by Indian forces on his arrest “in the manner of a dreaded outlaw”, despite the Supreme Court forbidding manacling except in some “rare and extreme cases” — cases of rogue fishermen, one assumes.

As far as relief is concerned, the executive has been erratic at best and motivated by political interests. One of the statutory functions of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) is the protection of fishing vessels and crew against any threat. The PMSA needs to devise a mechanism whereby Pakistani fishermen are prevented from straying out into disputed waters or are guided back to safer waters. Moreover, it needs to engage with the Indian Coast Guard to draft a ‘release at sea’ policy for the prompt release of fishermen accidentally entering disputed waters.

The Foreign Office must also work to obtain information of missing/arrested Pakistani fishermen and make all efforts to engage with the Indian authorities for their release and deportation. It also ought to abide by its part of the Consular Access Agreement of 2008 and enforce the recommendations of the Indo-Pak Joint Judicial Committee, which are within its power to do so, regarding detained Indian fishermen. The judiciary has played a somewhat more active role and has directed the government to release Indian fishermen on several occasions.

The straying of fishermen is an issue that needs to be depoliticised, and straying fishermen need to be protected and not continually treated as Bauman’s ‘waste products of globalisation’.

The political nature of such detentions is also evident from the fact that we don’t have any bilateral agreement with India under the Transfer of Offenders Ordinance, 2002, although similar ones have been signed with Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom. The State also needs to be careful when bandying the term ‘sovereignty’ about — while the killing of innocent civilians by drone strikes does not deserve a response, apart from formal condemnations, the straying of poor Indian fishermen into Pakistani waters is a national threat and demands instant retribution — in either case, it is the poor citizens that lose out.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

08.09.2013

A middle class kingdom
Considered as backbone of market economy and democracy in a globalised world, the ‘new’ middle class in Pakistan seeks good governance, meritocracy and end to corruption
By Dr Pervez Tahir

A debate is raging about the nature, size and the role of the middle class in Pakistan. Like the Chinese view themselves as the middle kingdom or the centre of the earth, the only definite thing about the middle class is that it lies between the poor and the rich. The measurement of its size is as suspect as the count of the poor. Both are based on the same survey, Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM).

Analysis based on the 2010-11 survey shows that only 12.9 per cent of the population is poor. At least this is what page 158 of the Annual Plan 2013-14 indicated, before it was removed from the website of the Planning Commission. The proportion of the rich has to be smaller than the poor. The rich and the poor thus leave too large a space between them to make sense, especially in terms of the Weberian continuum of wealth, power and prestige.

The self-view of the members of the middle class is one of having been crushed by inflation, low economic growth, poor formation of human capital and the elite capture of the state. “I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality,” said Bernard Shaw. Not quite. Consumerism, or Veblen’s conspicuous consumption, is the reigning morality.

In countries with high levels of poverty and large populations, the multinationals and the local assemblers of consumer durables eye a segment in the middle that can afford to buy their products. Growth in India is said to be spurred and sustained by this class of consumers.

According to the estimate being debated, Pakistan has a middle class larger than that of India as a proportion of population, and rising. The services-led, consumption-based growth of the Musharraf period is said to have been driven by the same middle class. That the Musharraf bubble burst too soon and the Indian bubble is bursting before our eyes is not much of a concern.

In popular political discourse, the failure of a strong middle class to emerge has always been described as a destabilising factor. More interesting than the economistic views of a growing middle class are the social and political interpretations. One theory is that a growing middle class proves that the current wave of obscurantism, religiosity, anti-modernism and Islamic militancy is a passing phase. The “progressive” middle class is expanding regardless. Just as Pakistanis have never voted the religious parties into power, the middle class consumerism will drive the militants out of the market place of ideas and influence. The proponents seem to disregard the fact that jihadis do not seek any vote. It took one all powerful dictator to sow the seeds of the crop being harvested now. At any rate, the jihadis view democracy as a Western implant. Power to them flows out of the barrel of a gun, not votes.

A connection is made with the diaspora also. Educated, innovative, upwardly mobile overseas Pakistanis imbued with democratic ideals and modernist perspective are said to be an influence on the rising expectations of the middle class back home.

Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf is viewed as representing the aspirations of the emerging middle class. His maverick thoughts on ghairatmandi and Taliban are seen as an anti-imperialist (read anti-American) stance, which reflect the anti-Western streak that the diaspora develops once its members find that the road to the top is closed to them in their host countries, sometimes in formal and at others in informal ways. In their reactive nationalism, which in the case of Pakistani Muslims assumes an Islamic dimension, they perceive that the people in the homeland also think like them or should think like them if they don’t. Many actually joined Jihad and are surprised why the majority of Pakistanis are not doing the same.

Commonly known as the party of big business, the current debate attributes the PML-N’s electoral success in the last elections to the middle class disillusionment with the misgovernance of the PPP, a party of the feudals masquerading as the party of the poor. The MQM, which has always defined itself as a secular party of the lower middle class, and the Jamaat-e-Islami drawing its followers from the religiously inclined lower middle class are less prominent in the debate than the uppish middle class followers of Imran Khan. Some economists think the middle class is the backbone of market economy and democracy in a globalised world. Others link it with faster growth, especially in countries with ethnic homogeneity. The parties leading the middle class in Pakistan have autarkic preferences, anti-market and anti-democracy tendencies. Ethnic heterogeneity and sectarian polarisation are not good for growth.

Too much is thus being read into the role of middle class in political and social change. Irked by Obama’s frequent references to middle class, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum castigated the term as “Marxism talk” of the liberals. Marx used the term middle class, even a lower middle class, but did not see it as a “class” with revolutionary potential. Class to him was a category in the relations of production — the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in conflict.

Middle class was placed in the relations of distribution, or what then was described as unproductive labour. It could play a revolutionary role only by de-classing itself. The political aspirations of the middle class in Pakistan have been to see technocratic setups in place, be it a military-bureaucratic regime or a prolonged caretaker setup.

What the “new” middle class seeks is good governance, meritocracy and end to corruption. The lawyers movement, an activist judiciary, high density of social and electronic media, free press and a youthful population have all contributed to these yearnings. In Aristotle’s “perfect political community”, the middle class was “in control” and larger than other classes. However, the Pakistani middle class is neither in control nor large enough to assume the role described by the economic historian Landes in 18th and 19th century Britain.

A middle class kingdom is an unrealistic dream. The middle class tendency of seeking upward mobility rather than aligning with those down below through political mobilisation acts as a counterrevolutionary force.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

08.09.2013

Policing the police
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has taken a number of measures to reform police. Will it bring a real change or just prove another cosmetic effort?
By Javed Aziz Khan

Just imagine the pleasure of getting your complaint registered with the police comfortably sitting home and without facing the haughty and fearsome police walas in police stations. Police stations have virtually become a place known only for maltreatment, corruption and injustices.

Most of the criminal cases go unreported because of the typical police attitude and the treatment an ordinary man gets at the police station. The general impression about the police force is that it causes more problems to the public instead of doing their duty of providing security and helping the aggrieved party. For many, the force is infamous for corruption, misuse of power, supporting the mighty and suppressing the weaker. This may not be correct for the entire police force, but there are a number of policemen from top ranking officers down to constables who are doing no good to the society but only minting money by misusing their unlimited powers.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has recently taken a number of measures to bring improvement in the system and give some relief to the general public. Though the ideas are new and being appreciated all over, it is to yet to be seen as to how much commitment the police force and the government authorities show to really reform the force instead of making cosmetic changes.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has taken the lead recently by introducing the online FIR system for the public under which one can now register a complaint or initiate lodging an FIR while sitting miles away from the concerned police station. The system is initially working well in the province where the new provincial government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is claiming to be completely reforming the police force.

“Now everyone can lodge a case from his or her home. He or she does not need to go to the SHO who have already been directed to register each and every FIR when someone approaches them,” the inspector general of police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ihsan Ghani told TNS.

According to the official statistics a total of 309 online complaints were received from July 1 to August 20 out of which 44 were converted into FIRs and 177 others were lodged in daily diaries. As many as 54 complaints were being worked upon while the rest were rejected or the callers could not be traced.

Besides the online FIR system, a toll free phone number has been introduced where one can call or SMS to get immediate police help in case of any crime, terrorism or complaint against policemen. “The cops will immediately rush and check the nature of the crime and respond accordingly,” claimed the IG KP.

Women counters at over 60 police stations have started receiving complaints and delivering justice. The authorities have set up women counters in at least three police stations of every district so that women, hesitant to visit male cops, would freely come to these desks to lodge their complaints and FIRs.

“We are receiving a number of females. They feel happy when they find a policewoman waiting for them to listen to their complaints and deliver justice with the support of the SHO and other staff of the police station,” Afshan, the in-charge of female desk in Kalu Khan Police Station of Swabi district told TNS. Afshan had registered five cases during the first one month of her duty. Most of the cases coming to the female counters are those of domestic dispute.

“We have deployed around 116 policewomen on women counters so that female complainants can come and discuss their cases without hesitation. The response is tremendous,” said IG Ihsan Ghani. The official added the female counters will be provided all the basic facilities including vehicles to immediately respond to complaints. To overcome the shortage of policewomen, the quota of female cops has been increased in the new recruitment from five per cent to 10 per cent.

“A number of steps have been taken that needs to be appreciated. However, the main thing is the proper implementation of various announced projects — like female counters must not be restricted only to a desk at a corner of the police station with a policewoman behind it. The female counters need to perform independently and not become a deadwood like that of the women police of the province,” Qaisar Khan, a local journalist covering the affairs of police and crime, told TNS.

Highlighting the measures taken for reforming the police force, the IGP said that at least two police stations in every district have been declared model police stations, which will be having all the basic facilities as well as proper working conditions. To overcome the workload on the cops, shift system has been introduced, initially at moharrar and their assistants’ level, while later it will be implemented in the entire force. The bosses of the police force are looking to have solar system at all the police stations, more explosive detectors and scanners, wireless sets and well-protected police stations and posts.

To ensure the smooth flow of traffic through an improved traffic system, the KP police are looking for amendments in rules to get well-educated sub-inspectors as traffic wardens. The traffic police force will be trained on the pattern of the National Highways and Motorway Police. Also, sub-inspectors are to be recruited as specialist investigators to improve the investigation system of the force.

“Teams under DIGs will visit the site of a terrorist attack or a major crime immediately not only to properly follow the case but to find if the cause was any security lapse. Also, teams have been formed for surprise visits of police stations to check irregularities and illegal detentions,” said Ihsan Ghani.

Colleges of investigation, traffic courses and others have been set up to impart short refresher courses to polish the skills of policemen. For monitoring the police station, CCTVs are being installed at all the police stations of the province.

“The CCTVs of all these police stations will be connected with the central police office in Peshawar and the offices of the respective district police officers. The project has been started by installing CCTVs at Gulbahar and East Cantonment Police Stations. I can monitor these police stations on the screen of my cellular phone wherever I move, even abroad,” revealed Ihsan Ghani.

Checking corruption by cops is a real challenge for the PTI government as well as the police chief. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, while expressing dissatisfaction over the performance of police force, had warned all the corrupt police officers against corrupt practices. “Those involved in any kind of corruption will be sent behind the bars,” Pervez Khattak told media persons. Khattak paid surprise visits to three police stations of Peshawar on different occasions and suspended the concerned SHOs for negligence and other issues.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have established a commission at the provincial level and other committees at range level to go after the corrupt cops. All the officers and SHOs have been directed to submit details of their assets within 15 days after which intelligence agencies will probe about what they and their families own and what they had on the day they joined the force. The corrupt and strong mafia within the force, however, will not easily surrender to the new policies and will definitely create hurdles in the anti-corruption drive.

Tariq Waheed, a journalist, believes the government must go after the corrupt cops who are only minting money. “The proposed vigilance committees must have people of good reputation. In the past, only the blue-eyed of SHOs and DSPs (who were having criminal background) were inducted in such committees that did no good to the force and the society but only misused their powers,” said Tariq Waheed. He opined that it will not be easy for the bosses of the force to go after the powerful corrupt mafia within the force. “The commitment of the government and police bosses, however, can really reform the 80,000 force of the troubled province to give relief to people.”

The writer is senior reporter The News at Peshawar and can be contacted a javedaziz1@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @JavedAzizKhan

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

08.09.2013

Hounded labour
Brick kiln workers see hope as Supreme Court fixes responsibility of their exploitation on DPOs
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

Ever wondered how it feels like trading in human slaves and making them work for you for peanuts, and a few morsels of food? Just talk to some contractor who manages workforce for brick kiln owners and buy these workers and families like cattle, to have an idea of the situation.

A surprise visit to a typical brick kiln would reveal that these people are under a different type of detention and cannot move from the place till they pay their outstanding debts. In many cases, these debts have been passed on to generations after generations, and the poor workers have no option but to pay back these amounts through deductions from their meager wages.

Though by law, owners cannot extend advances (peshgi) having value more than two-week wages of a brick kiln worker but unfortunately this practice goes on unabated. This peshgi system is the mother of all evils, says Safdar Mahar of Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF), while talking to TNS. He says the poor brick kiln workers do not have access to any basic facilities and are highly underpaid. They have to take loans from the brick kiln owners whenever there is a financial emergency, health issues, injuries, illness, marriage or death in the family.

The owners are always waiting for such moments, he says, adding they waste no time in extending loans to them. This makes it is easy for them to retain their services as they know these people would never come out of the debt trap. Besides, they know the debt would keep on increasing over the time.

So, what then is the solution to this problem? The answer comes from the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) which has strictly ordered Social Security Departments to register bonded labour and extend them due benefits under the concerned rules.

It all started with the habeas corpus complaint of a lady, Rasoolan Bibi, which she had filed in the court against a brick kiln owner. The court took immediate action and sent instructions to the Punjab Police Inspector General. These instructions were supposed to be circulated among all the law enforcement agencies and District Police Officers (DPOs). The court made it clear that in case a bonded labour incident is found or if a similar complaint of habeas corpus is received in future, the DPO concerned shall be held responsible for the violation.

To uproot peshgi system, the court has directed all the concerned departments to register all the labourers at brick kilns with the Social Security Department and given them a deadline of September 30 to return with positive results.

The social security card entitles its bearer to benefits like medical treatment, maternity care, death and disability grants, marriage and dowry grants, free education and so on. Once they have the social security by their side on all these occasions, they would never have to seek advances from the brick kiln owners, says Syeda Ghulam Fatima, secretary general of BLLF. She says the brick kiln owners should not worry about the nominal contribution they have to make to the Social Security Department. Even if they register the family heads, the dependents would automatically be covered, she adds.

Fatima and her team is aggressively pursuing the case and working on a project titled “Support Social Protection and Decent Work,” run jointly by his organisation, ActionAid and the European Union.

She tells TNS her team held many sessions with Sialkot DPO Muhammad Gohar Nafees and sensitised him about the grave human rights and labour laws violations at brick kilns. The DPO, she says, arranged a campaign through police and civil society organisations and discovered that 379 labourers were detained at brick kilns for not paying back the peshgis given to them, their parents or their forefathers.

The Sialkot police, under the command of DPO, got all these labourers released and registered about 150 cases against the brick kiln owners who had detained them and submitted their challans in courts.

A major problem, she says, is that the brick kiln owners do not get their employees registered for the reason that they want to avoid documentation of their businesses. Under the existing laws, workers can be registered only once their employers have confirmed they are working for them.

However, in this particular case the court has shifted the onus of eradicating bonded labour on the DPOs concerned. The situation across the province is that DPOs of different cities are running after Social Security Department officials, brick kiln owners and other stakeholders to meet the target of getting at least 15,000 social security cards issued to labourers by September 30, 2013.

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992, talks about introduction of vigilance committees at local level so that they can identify cases of bonded labour in their vicinity. This is not possible in the absence of local government system, says Salman Abid, Punjab head of Strengthening Participatory Organisation. Local councilors can reach everybody in the area and knows such issues very well. “Therefore, my request to the government is to hold local government elections as early as possible. They can play a great role in different fields at the grassroots level.”

Punjab Employees’ Social Security Institution (PESSI) Director General Tariq Bajwa tells TNS they are going to register brick kiln workers at any cost. Though they can do that forcefully, they are negotiating with brick kiln owners and asking them to do that voluntarily. He adds this September is very important for the department as the deadline given by Supreme Court is about to end, and they are far from meeting the targets.

He tells TNS that the PESSI is taking steps to issue maximum number of social security cards to workers. Besides, he says, they have organised mobile teams which visit different places and register employees right there and then. They have also equipped their staff with cameras so that they can take pictures of labourers to be used later as evidence, he concludes. The PESSI is going to issue around 15000 social security cards to the brick kiln workers before September 30, 2013.

shahzada.irfan@gmail.com

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

08.09.2013

Early warning
Efficient and simple use of information technology, such as through a mobile phone, can make a difference in floods warning system
By Akseeb Jawed

News items about flood victims have been the highlight of media in the past few weeks. Despite all the loss of life and property, nothing substantial seems to have been done in this regards so far.

As a result, the damage in terms of infrastructure and casualties is escalating. This situation is due to the fact that the flood management systems in Pakistan have always been more focused in the rectification of the after-effects of flood disaster rather than building up community resilience through participation and by setting up people-centered-flood early warning systems.

In this respect, the use of Information Technology can play a crucial role during the flood season. We can remember that mobile phones proved helpful in providing early warnings during the floods of 2010. SMS or calls proved to be an efficient and cost-effective way of disseminating early warnings during the monsoon season.

Since monsoon is a yearly occurrence in Pakistan and floods can’t be prevented entirely, a lot can be done to lessen the damage. For this reason, important changes are taking place the way floods are managed around the world, for instance, in United States of America, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Switzerland, and Asian countries like Japan and Bangladesh have advanced IT-based flood early warning systems installed.

Information technology has been further developed by an Environment Agency, Halcrow, (UK) which is a licensed flood-warning service provider. They have developed Flood Alert, smartphone flood warning applications, which enable the users to get real time updates on flood warning in England and Wales.

In Pakistan, mobile phone use has quadrupled in the last decade both in urban and rural areas. One of the effective uses of mobile technology in flood early warnings was observed in Muzaffargarh district during 2010. Ameer Pur of Muzafargarh Tehsil faces frequent flooding because it is situated along the eastern bank of river Chenab.

Doaba Foundation surveyed this area and conducted a workshop to educate the locals about early warnings. As per the requirement for the area, the foundation formulated early warning committee that was responsible for issuance of warnings during flooding events.

An inhabitant of Ameer Pur, Sajjad Hussain Bhatti, reported that he got flood early warnings through mobile phone and was able to take necessary measures well in time to save not only people’s lives but also their crops by making dykes of 6 feet height and 8 feet width (this became possible with the collective efforts of 5 villages).

He further added that the people of his locality were given proper training to use the people-centered flood early warning system. Some of the people were given responsibilities to get information about the water level and in case of any emergency report back to the people via mobile phone.

As compared to previous techniques, the integration of IT in flood early warning systems proved to be more effective and less complex.

There are many proposed and on-going projects on the use of mobile phone in flood early warning systems. One such example is the FloodSMS, a modular flood early warning application proposed by ekgaon technology.

Such a technology would be able to give flood early warnings to a number of people that are in the range of/access to mobile phone/networks. The range of the network could be improved by making use IT-based technologies discussed above. The system would be able to handle multiple languages to overcome the communication barrier in the way of flood warnings.

There are number of mobile phone companies working in Pakistan. The government and the concerned authorities should encourage and support these companies in this venture of issuing flood warnings through mobile phone. This would not be a difficult task because the cell phones are equipped with number of applications and Internet facility as well.

There is need to install flood warning software which is most commonly used in the smart phones and ipods. There is diversity in culture of Punjab therefore; things could be further simplified by integrating a flood alarm bell in the cell phones so that illiterate, blind, old people, etc could understand the warnings.

Moreover, the PMD should enhance the potentiality of the existing commercial cellular network by increasing the storage for data and voice, introducing new handsets that have long-battery lifetime, more data capacity, and advance functions. For instance, 22 new sets of HF radio sets have been installed to improve communication of the meteor burst telemetry stations however, this could further be improved if technically advanced cellular network in installed.

In Pakistan the weakest element in the flood management activities is the dissemination of early warnings. In many areas warnings were either not issued or didn’t reach vulnerable population on time. The flood warning system could be further enhanced by integrating IT in the flood early warning system as people are now more familiar with different shades of technology.

So to speak, every other person have the availability of camera phones, internet availability on the cell phones, ipods, electronic gadgets, wikis, the web, voice email, voice messages, and text messages.

Channeling these resources properly can proved to be a valuable source of information and possess a great commitment for providing early warnings (particularly in initial response stages) to disaster managers. People could be actively engaged by recruiting them to assist in disaster response; keeping them informed as how to and when to relatively act. In addition, they could be vital auxiliary IT resources as it’s evident that traditional sources are mostly banged by a disaster.

IT mechanisms that amalgamate disaster response agency information systems to interactive public communications channels such as internet, or wireless communication could collectively provide an information gathering and dissemination mechanism that could give a considerable space to the agency being overload by the affected population seeking situational information.

The above given approach would increase the reliability of the communications, improve the performance of assistants, and develop public perception of appropriate actions. Some of the genuine concerns about the authenticity of information have restrained any major mileage towards integrating entirely the mentioned changes. Some important part of usage of IT technology may be missed as various individuals are involved in improvement of technology and during the filtration process some quality of technology may not be applied as the public officials usually have limited resources.

The writer is a researcher based in Islamabad

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

08.09.2013

Historical roots of Pak-Afghan mistrust
Pakistan and Afghanistan ought to change their old policies of strategic depth and territorial claims for better relations
By Raza Khan

The recent visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan, after initially raising hopes of a thaw in Kabul-Islamabad bilateral relations, cut no ice in finding a solution to the Afghan problem. The statement by Afghan President Office at the conclusion of President Karzai read: “The Pakistani side is expected to take specific and practical steps in accordance with the decisions made during these negotiations.”

Karzai, who agreed to visit Pakistan after a flurry of diplomatic effort by Islamabad and nudging by the United States and the United Kingdom, wanted some sureties from Pakistan. These included making stability in Afghanistan, Islamabad’s real priority; releasing rest of the incarcerated Afghan Taliban commanders and using its influence over Afghan Taliban to negotiate peace with Afghan High Peace Council. Reportedly, Pakistani interlocutors could not promise handing over of some top Taliban commanders like the group No. 2 Mullah Ghani Biradar as well as ensuring Afghan Taliban talks with the Afghan peace body citing its incapacity in this regard.

Pakistan, according to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz, succeeded to convince the visiting Afghanistan president that Pakistan did not have control over Afghan Taliban. It meant Islamabad could not compel the insurgents to negotiate with Afghan High Peace Council. Afghanistan’s charges against Islamabad for supporting Afghan insurgents may be an immediate reason for strained Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, but the tension and mistrust between the two countries have roots in the history.

In recent years, the main complaint of Afghanistan has been that Islamabad is supporting Afghan Taliban with cash and kind due to which Afghanistan remains highly unstable and the global war on terror in the region totally ineffective. President Karzai had stated “Pakistan was nourishing ‘snakes’ on its soil.” However, the Afghan government could not substantiate its charges making it extremely difficult to ascertain the level of substance in Karzai’s charges.

On Islamabad’s part, no amount of refutation and justification by its authorities has convinced the World and Afghanistan that the Pakistani soil is not being used against the interest of Afghanistan. If one analyses the present situation between Afghanistan and Pakistan in historical context, the reasons of strained relationship have always remained the same.

It has always been at the back of the mind of Pakistani establishment, public posture notwithstanding, that Afghanistan is an unfriendly country and has always been on the lookout to hurt Pakistan’s interest. The historical irredentist claim of Afghanistan on Pakistani territory has always been cited as the root of mistrust between the two states. Noticeably, no Afghan government ever renounced its one-sided claim on Pakistani territory. Even the Taliban regime, despite under great pressure from Pakistan, did not recognize the Durand Line as the permanent border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This in a way supports Islamabad’s contention that it does not have control over the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan ruler General Zia-ul-Haq (1977-88), after sensing that Afghanistan would never be able to fulfil its revanchist claim by force, thought it adequate to make Afghanistan its ‘strategic depth’ vis-à-vis India. This Pakistan attempted by flaming religious feelings in Afghanistan and the anti-Soviet war came in handy to do so. However, this policy worked in the short run during the Soviet-Afghan war and to some extent afterwards, but it backfired as it was myopic and against the international cannons. The present state of relationship and Afghan accusations are the direct result of this policy of Pakistan.

Afghanistan has also stuck to its old claims over territory on our side of the Durand Line without realising fundamental changes in the ground realities. For instance, Pakhtoons are the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan and there are few desirous among the Pakhtoons of Pakistan to join Afghanistan. The continued Afghan recalcitrance over the Durand Line issue has also made things difficult for Pakistan.

So if Afghanistan and Pakistan want to allay their mutual mistrust they ought to change their old policy regarding one another. For this to happen, Pakistan must change its policy of making Afghanistan its strategic depth while Afghanistan must renounce claims over Pakistani territory.

The latest point of friction between Islamabad and Kabul is the manner and nature of peace process in Afghanistan. However, it is unfortunate that the US and its European allies have found Kabul’s stance more credible than that of Pakistan. It is important to note that Kabul has been accusing Pakistan of sponsoring Afghan Taliban insurgency.

In the present tense environment, no meaningful peace process is possible inside Afghanistan and there can be no improvement in the relations between Kabul and Islamabad. President Karzai started levelling increasingly serious charges against Pakistan as part of a well-orchestrated strategy. The foremost motive of this strategy is that Karzai is desirous of winning the hearts and minds of his people. Pakistan-bashing has been an attractive slogan inside Afghanistan for politicians and rulers to rally public support particularly at a time when they lack legitimacy.

Afghan self-imposed president Sardar Daud in the 1970s also resorted to unprecedented anti-Pakistan propaganda and launched the Pakhtoonistan stunt in order to get political legitimacy inside Afghanistan. Daud did so because he had dethroned the legitimate Afghan King Zahir Shah and had usurped state power. So in order to cultivate political constituency and to get legitimacy, he adopted a profoundly anti-Pakistan stance.

Karzai, seemingly, is replicating Daud’s tested strategy for internal consumption. Karzai would have to relinquish power at the end of his second presidential stint early next year. Although under the Afghan constitution he cannot be elected for the third term, he wants to be known as a ‘successful’ president and ‘architect of new Afghanistan’ and for that he needs to do something and the soft target, as always, is Pakistan. This does not mean that Pakistan has never been negatively engaged in Afghanistan. However, accusing Islamabad for Kabul’s own incapacity and failure has been an important tactic and feature of the Afghan rulers.

On its part, Pakistan has been coming up with plans and strategies to bring peace to the war-ravaged country, but the Afghan rulers never let Islamabad to implement these plans effectively. For instance, in 2006 Pakistan had successfully negotiated a peace plan with Mustapha Zahir Shah, the grandson of late King Zahir Shah. According to the peace plan, Mustapha would have to play an instrumental role in a newly-launched peace initiative. He would also have to occupy a key place in the new dispensation comprising all ethnic groups of Afghanistan. The plan envisaged that Pakistan would help bring a consensus political dispensation in Kabul comprising all ethnic groups.

The writer is a political analyst and researcher: razapkhan@yahoo.com

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

08.09.2013

Educational challenges
Different schemes to improve education standards need continuous monitoring
By Afsheen Naz

The education sector in Punjab is experiencing a number of positive interventions by the government of Punjab. Universal Primary Education survey and Universal Secondary Education survey are amongst the educational schemes which are aimed to enhance admission rate and ensure enrolment of all school going age children.

With remarkable achievements in the education sector, these schemes have certain bad effects on female teachers as well. This task (of survey) ended up with increased burden on teachers which is other than their basic duty of teaching. Teachers have to work extra hours and out of track. Thus, efficiency and focus of the teachers to teach is disturbed. The government should appoint volunteers or local persons of the community to conduct surveys.

Another step of the Punjab government to increase the quality and quantity in education is “monitoring and evaluation system”. This system has resulted in enhancing quality of education in all tiers of the school education. However, with all its positive aspects over education sector, pressure on teachers has also been increased. Since, M&E officers require a number of evidentiary documents to be produced and certain requirement to be completed, teachers use some improper ways to complete the M&E files which actually do not bear fruits.

Despite efficient steps by the Punjab government in the field of education, rural urban gap is still prevailing in service delivery, access and quality. There is a need to concentrate more on the schools in rural areas to attain a balanced literacy rate in terms of access, quality and quantity. Proper implementation of rationalisation policy can prove to be a good cure for the problem.

Gender gap in education also contributes to rural urban gap. The phenomenon is present in both rural and urban areas, however, it is more intense in rural areas. To cope with the issue, certain schemes are being implemented. Female stipend programme is one of these schemes and is subject to female student’s 80 per cent attendance. However, socio-economic conditions of the masses are hurdles in any government step to improver female literacy rate.

All the above information is based on research conducted by SDPI in Ilm-ideas project. Thus, to conclude, situation of education sector has somewhat improved. The government has taken some rigorous steps to improve the quality of education and literacy rate. However, continuous monitoring, with proper check and balance, of such steps is needed.

The writer is Research Associate at SDPI and can be reached at afsheen@sdpi.org

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)