27.10.2013

A dirty job
Pakistan is among the countries in South Asia which has shown
east improvement on sanitation commitments
By Aoun Sahi

The fifth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN-V) concluded in Kathmandu on October 24, 2013, with the signing of the Kathmandu Declaration. Ministers and head of delegates from the eight participating nations of South Asia signed the Declaration, which contains nothing new.

The declaration renews joint commitment to the Human Right to Sanitation adopted by the UN and endorsed by Saarc nations to work progressively to achieve an open defecation-free and hygienic South Asia. It also commits to further accelerate sanitation and hygiene behaviour change in South Asia to meet the Millennium Development targets and move towards implementing the UN Secretary General’s call to “Action on Sanitation”.

It recognises sanitation as a matter of justice and equity, with a powerful multiplier effect that unlocks measurable benefits in health, nutrition, education, poverty eradication, economic growth and tourism while also reducing discrimination and empowering communities, especially infants, children, adolescent girls, women, the elderly and people with disabilities, in rural and urban areas.

The leadership of South Asian countries also recognises in the declaration that the time for sanitation is now and that they must capitalise on the strong political will and local leadership and community ownership demonstrated throughout South Asia to boost sanitation coverage and improve hygiene practices substantially by 2015. The only agreement to which leaders has reached at SACOSAN-V is to make an open defecation-free South Asia by 2023.

The basic idea behind SACOSAN initiative was to review progress on implementation of MDGs and provision of basic sanitation to the population of South Asian countries, and share latest development in the field of better sanitation. It is a high-powered ministerial meeting. The first conference was held in 2003 in Dhaka, second in 2006 in Islamabad, third in 2008 in New Delhi and fourth in 2011 in Colombo.

The Kathmandu declaration is more or less similar to declarations of first four conferences. In Dhaka declaration (2003), the leadership unanimously agreed to eliminate open defecation. It seems over the years countries in South Asia, especially Pakistan, lose interest in SACOSAN as sanitation is not a priority subject in the country. The delegations of all other countries in Kathmandu were either headed by relevant minister or the relevant senior-most bureaucrats but Pakistan’s delegation was headed by a member of National Assembly. Pakistan is also among the countries in South Asia which has shown least improvement on SACOSA-IV commitments. According to sanitation country paper of Pakistan presented at Kathmandu, it is not on track even one of the 13 commitments it made in Colombo three years ago.

The on-ground situation in Pakistan on sanitation front is not satisfactory at all. According to Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of WHO and UNICEF, only 47 per cent population in Pakistan is using improved sanitation depicting a wide disparity among urban (72 per cent) and rural areas (34 per cent). Still 23 per cent of the population of Pakistan is practicing open defecation and one out of every three persons in the rural areas of Pakistan defecate in the fields. The people in rural areas spend over 60 per cent of their household income to fight different water-borne diseases. At current rates of progress, Pakistan would miss to achieve sanitation related MDGs by 13 years (2018).

The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey of 2011-2012 also revealed similar results. According to its finding only 24 per cent households of Pakistan have access to underground and covered drains, 42 per cent have access to open drains while 33 per cent live with no system. In rural areas of the country, 49 per cent population has no system while 45 per cent have open drains and only 6 per cent have access to underground and covered drains. Moreover, 75 per cent households of Pakistan live without any garbage collection system. The ratio reaches as high as 95 per cent for rural areas. 38 per cent primary schools have no toilets in Pakistan.

The collection of solid waste and its treatment remains an issue in urban areas. It is true that collection of solid waste has improved in the urban areas as over 60 per cent of households in urban areas of Pakistan have access to garbage disposal but nearly 95 per cent of the sewage is disposed of without any treatment on nearby lands or into water bodies. This untreated solid waste and sewage are creating a lot of problems especially when water and sanitation infrastructure in the country is ageing and in bad shape. It is resulting in mixing of sewage with drinking water supply lines which has been posing serious health threats. It is one of the major challenges to eradicate Polio virus from Pakistan.

Dengue is another product of this bad or no system for water and sanitation. But worst of all is diarrhea and other waterborne diseases causing thousands of deaths in Pakistan every year. WHO estimates that 97,900 people die every year due to poor water and sanitation in Pakistan while, according to UNICEF, 54,000 children under the age of five die from diarrhea every year in Pakistan caused by poor water and sanitation.

The poor sanitation situation has not only been causing health and social damages to Pakistan, but also causing billions of damages in economic terms. According to a report by Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of World Bank in 2011, the total economic cost of poor sanitation in Pakistan is estimated as Rs343.7 billion (USD5.7 billion) which is equivalent to 3.94 per cent of GDP in Pakistan (which is six times higher than the national health budget and three times higher than the education budget). Of this cost, Rs69.52 billion is the direct financial cost, which is equivalent to 0.8 per cent of GDP. Health impacts accounted for 87.16 per cent of the total costs, the equivalent of 3.43 per cent of GDP. Diarrhea alone accounts for 40.5 per cent or Rs 121.5 billion of the total health related economic impacts resulting from poor sanitation in Pakistan.

Pakistan has shown some progress on spending on water and sanitation as share of expenditures made on water and sanitation has increased from 0.16 per cent of GDP in 2010-2011 to 0.18 per cent of GDP in 2011-2012. Pakistan spent Rs36 billon on water and sanitation in 2011-2012 compared to Rs22 billion in 2008-2009, showing an incremental growth of 20-25 per cent each year. It seems a reasonable growth, but looking into needs, these expenditures are peanuts. As per the Sector Status Report of 2012, Pakistan is in need of Rs268 billions (USD2.68 billions) to achieve the target of 100 per cent improved sanitation. The service delivery assessment report of Punjab 2013 showed that the province, which also has the highest number of population with open defecation, needs Rs180 billion for only rural sanitation.

Several officials in Pakistan put blame on big natural disasters over the last few years, especially 2010 super floods, for poor performance of the country on sanitation front but it is not even half truth. The country was never on track to achieve water and sanitation related MDGs even before 2010. Most of the areas hit by these floods never had sanitation coverage. Very less investment is made against the commitments in SACOSAN and there is no gradual increase in it. Whatever allocations are made usually target urban areas while people without services live in rural areas.

The institutional setup for sanitation sector is very complex as well. It was committed in SACOSAN to have single focal institution for sanitation. However, in Pakistan institutional roles still overlap among different departments and ministries. Collaboration among them is not only need of the time but they also need to involve civil society organisations working in the sector to achieve maximum in sanitation.

The health system in Pakistan is also needed to go through drastic changes. It is needed to shift it from curative to preventive services. Over 100,000 Lady Health Workers should be involved in creating awareness about sanitation and its benefits.

Missing political will is another major factor responsible for bad situation in sanitation sector in Pakistan. Sanitation is a devolved function after the 18th Amendment but none of the province in Pakistan has clear vision, strategy or plan for sanitation. Under the 2001 Local Government Ordinance, municipal services, including water supply and sanitation services, are the responsibility of local governments but they are non-existence since 2009.

Pakistan has committed through Kathmandu declaration to capitalise on the strong political will and local leadership and community ownership to boost sanitation coverage and it would only be possible by conducting local body elections, but our political leadership is still reluctant to go for them.

Experts believe Pakistan needs a serious sanitation movement to mobilise necessary political will and address the issue from the point of view of nation-building and addressing major public health problem. “By 2015, every household in Pakistan and public places should have toilets. The government should demonstrate the leadership by providing policy environment, plans and adequate resources to fund a right institutional mechanism to implement the plan,” says Mustafa Talpur, an Islamabad based water and sanitation expert.

27.10.2013

Transcending boundaries, a group of Pakistani and Indian
educationists and environmentalists held fruitful interactions in
Mumbai and Bangalore to explore common agendas
By Sakuntala Narasimhan

Even as security pickets on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan stood glaring at each other in mid-October, a group of Pakistani and Indian educationists and environmentalists was busy with fruitful interactions in Mumbai and Bangalore. The group was discussing the possibilities of how we, as separate nations bound by a common heritage and socio-cultural matrices, could benefit by sharing information, best practices and strategies for meaningful development.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative for bringing together NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) of both the countries, this year-long project, initiated by the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) and the Lahore University of Management Studies (LUMS) facilitated the visit to India, of a 21 member delegation from Pakistan, to look at solutions for day-to-day problems that citizens face in both countries. It was, as both Pakistani and Indian participants in the roundtable discussions said, “an enriching experience”.

Although the main focus was on two infrastructural issues — education and environment — the interactions covered a wider canvas. Agribusiness multinational Monsanto has approached the Pakistani authorities regarding promotion of GM (genetically modified) food grains. Indian activists have been waging a spirited battle in recent years against Monsanto and multinational appropriation of indigenous grain diversity, since their long term safety is still being debated (the European Union forbids imports of GM foods from the US). Pakistani NGOs concerned about people’s rights to safe foods, sovereignty over local produce, and informed choice, can learn from the Indian experience?

Urban woes like degradation of air and water resources due to “development” (with industrialisation seen as synonymous with progress, disregarding the socio-environmental costs) is another problem for both countries. How has Bangalore city, which made international news last year, with its mounds of uncleared garbage, tackled the issue? Why has the problem of increasing waste generation caused by modern lifestyles, received scant attention?

Indian activists briefed the visiting Pakistanis about landfill issues (and the consequent health problems that residents of places like Mavallipura on the outskirts of Bangalore, suffer because of the dumping of thousands of tons of rubbish brought from the city) while other activists shared information about privatisation of water by French companies that seek to make profits from the sale of a natural resource when the right to life encompasses the right to access to water and clean air. What has the Indian judiciary ruled, in the cases filed by activists and NGOs like Bangalore’s Environment Support Group? Can these judicial perspectives provide ideas to activists seeking to uphold basic human rights in other developing countries of the region?

Poverty is another characteristic shared by India and Pakistan. Millions of deprived and destitute tribals and rural populations depend on commons and grasslands, for grazing, fuel and food. Appropriation of such lands for industrial purposes and construction (or building highways) snatches these basic rights from the poor, pushing them further beyond the margins, even while GDP (Gross National Product) grows, as in India. China, as one participant observed, has an impressive 10 per cent GDP growth but the horrendous health costs that the people pay is not taken into account. Can we learn something from these trends?

Our common problem is not political hostility across the border, but the wrong growth models imposed by Western ‘experts’ and multilateral aid agencies that are unfamiliar with the socio-cultural matrices that our economies have to function within. So it makes sense to look at each other’s experience, and see what works, what doesn’t, and avoid replicating mistakes. In fact, the Western concept of “wastelands” is itself questionable — land is never a waste, even ‘wastelands’ serve an ecological-environmental purpose, but this realisation has come only lately to the ‘developed’ countries, whereas Asian cultures have always respected these interconnections that are vital for meaningful development.

As one participant from Lahore put it, Pakistan has had prolonged periods without democracy, so civil society activism has lagged behind that in India. But that is what this project seeks to address, by bringing schools, academics, activists and NGOs in four cities — Mumbai, Lahore, Karachi and Amritsar — together, to explore shared concerns, challenges, and success stories. Proof of the interest evinced by NGOs came in the form of sponsorship of these dialogues in Mumbai and Bangalore, by groups like the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIFFPD) and local educational organisations.

There were also small bonuses, for both sides — “I was pleasantly surprised that the Pakistani delegation had more women than men,” said one Indian participant, while the visitors from across the border expressed their delight at the “similarities” they discovered, in India, and the warmth they received everywhere. The bottom line is that there is a wealth of goodwill between the two countries that could, and should, be channelised for the betterment of both nations.

The writer is a Bangalore-based columnist, author, academic resource person and activist: sakunara@gmail.com

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

27.10.2013

A mixed bag
Though Nawaz Sharif’s engagements in Washington were termed “warm and historic”, there are no signs the US administration is going to change its posture towards
Pakistan
By Wajid Ali Syed

A picture is worth a thousand words. The official picture of the Obama-Sharif meeting that the White House released suggests how the official working visit to the United States by the Pakistani prime minister was regarded. It looks like a picture of a defeated man being consoled. The prime minister kept the same posture in his three speeches that he delivered here on three different occasions. He kept returning to the fact, that everyone already knew, how his government was sacked by a military dictator.

His trip was not how it appeared. The State Department guidelines say that there are different types of visits to be accorded to a foreign government. An official working visit is extended to a chief of state or head of government at the invitation of the US president. The visit normally consists of a meeting with the president at the White House, but without a luncheon, dinner or an official state residence for the period of visit. It’s one of the lowest rank in the list.

Hence, on his arrival the prime minister was received by the State Department officials led by Ambassador Richard Olson. The red carpet and the honour guard was the standard operating procedure. The prime minister was accompanied by National Security and Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistance on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatimi, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani. There were others too, like Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and Salman Shahbaz.

Since the official visit means sit down and work through problems or things that they need to talk about, the prime minister and his four-member official team were invited over a dinner at the State Department right away. The event was attended by senior administration officials, including Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Director CIA John Brennan and SRAP James Dobbins.

From that moment broad-meaning terms were flaunted. Bilateral issues, substantial dialogues, strengthening relationship, security assistance, revival of economy, improvement of law and order etc.

The jargon permeated every gathering, minor or major. From the former Secretary of State Madeline Albright to President Obama, in almost every meeting the prime minister’s delegation boasted about its 4-E plan: Energy, Economy, Extremism and Education.

The State Department officials called this first summit level interaction, since the democratic transition in Pakistan, as historic where every part of the relationship was discussed while the tone remained respectful, warm and honest. This tone and its honesty was, however, not shared with the media covering the event. The first briefing took place on the third day where the foreign secretary basically repeated the prime minister’s schedule.

The whole range of issues was discussed in these meetings. The United States said it wants to listen to Pakistan, but basically it decided to stick to its position on number of issues that include Kashmir, drone strikes and civil nuclear agreement of any sorts, Dr Shakil Afridi, cross border infiltration, talks with Afghan Taliban, Iran gas pipeline etc.

There was a concern about Pakistan’s falling economy, internal security and energy crisis. The US officials said that it was the prime minister who linked the security with the economy. They declared that any significant announcement or signing of something huge was not expected. The most important meeting the prime minister had was with the NSC advisor Susan Rice. There was one scheduled, another unscheduled, and the third prolonged for over half an hour. These were interesting in a sense that when the Finance Minister visited Washington earlier this month to attend the IMF-WB annual meetings, the country had already issued an Anti-Terrorism Amendment Ordinance.

Similarly, before the meeting with President Obama, Pakistan introduced a new Protection of Pakistan Ordinance 2013, with enhanced powers to security forces to take action with a provision to detain suspects for three months at the minimum, stringent punishments and special courts at the federal-level.

The new Ordinance also targets “millions of non-Pakistanis” living in the country “for any reason including distressful conditions in their parent country, especially those since 1979” and they “shall not be allowed to abuse the temporary liberty to commit depredation”.

This move was significant and probably to satisfy US concerns to some extent. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif advocated that Pakistan has fixed itself. He said, “We need to put our house in order first.” It was quite right, and the statement was regarded as courageous.

However, there was no announcement what the new policy was and how it would be implemented. Meanwhile, the US released two different amounts of funds that were stopped or slowed down in the past couple of years.

It also seemed that there were obvious discrepancies. While the US insisted on using wind and solar energy, Nawaz Sharif urged and insisted international investors to support coal. The prime minister also had a meeting scheduled with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. They have always been very critical of Pakistan and thus the committee members grilled the Pakistani leader. They pushed him to release Dr Shakil Afridi who helped the CIA in its Osama bin Laden operation, and put an end to cross-border infiltration.

Finally, Sharif’s meeting with President Obama took place which lasted for two hours. It had two sessions. It was full delegation in the beginning and the second part of the meeting was restricted. The Oval Office, by then, had two leaders from both sides. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had Tariq Fatimi with him, while President Obama was assisted by his advisor Susan Rice.

The general sense was that Pakistan will play a constructive role facilitating peace in Afghanistan ahead of the American withdrawal, which primarily means that Pakistan has to facilitate a dialogue between the US and Afghan Taliban. In return, the US administration will continue encouraging Pakistan’s political and economic development. The US had just one concern: a peaceful withdrawal from Afghanistan. The president acknowledged that tension is likely to continue.

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

27.10.2013

The lingering shadow of Lord Macaulay
By Tahir Kamran

On October 25, the anniversary of Thomas Babington Macaulay, historian, essayist, poet and Whig politician of the 19th century England, was celebrated at Loughborough University, UK. It is a place located adjacent to Rothley Temple in Leicestershire, where he was born 213 years ago.

Macaulay is generally perceived by many as someone who made a difference in the fast changing imperial polity of Great Britain.

Born to highly privileged parents — Zachary Macaulay, who had been appointed governor in West Indies in 1793, and Selina Mills Thomas — he got an idyllic environment in Clapham, suburban London, to grow into a precocious child with extremely retentive memory and immense vocabulary as his principal assets. Later, he went to Trinity College, University of Cambridge for higher education, then to Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the bar.

He could not make his mark in the field of law but, as a parliamentarian, his oratory impressed many.

In the subsequent years, he was destined to be someone influencing Indian populace in multiple ways, which makes him a unique historical figure and warrants us to shed a fresh light on his person and the impact he had on Indian subcontinent — generally in the context of education.

In the subcontinent, Thomas Macaulay is known for his 1835 Minutes on Education, urging the promotion of the English language in India and his support for ‘humanitarian intervention’, ostensibly to promote progress. His attempt to create the Indian Penal Code also makes him relevant to the historians of India and Pakistan.

These are exactly the reasons why Macaulay, though “hardly a romantic figure”, as Prof. Christopher Bayly of Cambridge University contends, continues to receive the close attention of scholars and biographers.

No less than 10 biographies and historical works on him have appeared since the 1950s: John Clive’s 1973 biography was a monument of detailed literary and historical reconstruction; similarly, popular historian like Arthur Bryant produced a book on Macaulay in 1979; and not very long ago, Robert E. Sullivan’s ‘Macaulay: The Tragedy of Power’ received both praise and opprobrium because of its portrayal of Macaulay as an aggressive, ‘liberal imperialist’. Catherine Hall’s ‘Macaulay and Son’ provides a detailed family history with an important section on the Indian Penal Code.

Hardly a few months ago, Zareer Masani’s ‘Macaulay: Britain’s Liberal Imperialist’ got published and attracted the attention of scholars.

Strangely enough, Macaulay is getting all this attention and acclaim when his style of writing has long been antiquated. His Whiggish interpretation of British history is deemed extinct and the Marxist, liberal and post-colonial prism has provided an entirely different way of looking at History.

We will try to make sense of the dynamics of Macaulay’s aggressive support for the introduction of English as a medium of instruction in the subcontinent, leaving the penal code for some other occasion.

Masani considers Macaulay as a key source of Indian modernity, a ‘father of the nation’, who promoted a language which, in the given circumstances, could serve as the only possible link between India’s disparate regions. Contrariwise, Mark Tully thought Macaulay as “the incubus which impeded Indians from developing their own languages and helped encourage in Indians a sense of the inadequacy of their own culture”. Similarly, such post-colonialists working under the shadow of Derrida, notably Homi Bhabha, have also commented on the manner in which Macauley’s Minutes promoted ‘fractured subjectivities’ or ‘sly hybridity’ and encouraged the disempowerment of the subaltern by insinuating that knowledge could only be imparted through a specific language and through a specific form of civility.

Here it seems pertinent to invoke Christopher Bayly’s view on Macaulay’s ‘Minutes on Education’. He categorically contests the oft-cited assertion that the ‘Minutes’ in any way disadvantaged Sanskrit, Persian or any of the vernaculars in support of English. Nor did it, in itself, initiate a great expansion of the use of English in the subcontinent which was well underway before Macaulay set foot in Calcutta. Astoundingly, in Bengal the commercial agents were using English for 50 or more years prior to 1835.

In fact, Ram Mohan Roy, the Bengali social reformer of the 19th century, was the first to disparage the policy of those officials (the Orientalists) espousing teaching of Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. In 1822, he founded the Anglo-Hindu School which taught partially in English. Roy urged the Governor General, Lord Amherst to expand English education.

In her study, Poonam Upadhyaya asserts that Macaulay in fact appropriated Ram Mohan Roy’s notion of the value of the diffusion of European learning which he had presented in his ‘Remarks on settlement in Indian by Europeans’ appended to the 1832 Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on East Indian Affairs. She further says, “The Minutes as a whole is an elaboration of [Ram Mohan’s] letter in Macaulayan rhetoric”.

Thus, Upadhyaya seems to have unwittingly substantiated Prof. Bayly’s point.

Macaulay rather laid stress on the vernacular and emphasised that Arabic ought to be taught at Delhi Madrassah and Sanskrit at the Banaras College. He, however, considered that introduction of English would revitalise the vernacular. He believed quite strongly that most of education in India would have to be in vernaculars.

Despite saying all this, one cannot deny Macaulay being an unequivocal supporter and advocate of modernity — not only through language but combined with English liberty and Norman justice.

Macaulay left an enduring legacy for people like Bholanath Chandra Ghose and R.C. Dutt in Bengal, Syed Ahmad Khan in North Western Provinces (presently UP), Dadabhai Naoroji, Western India’s leading ‘statistical liberal’ and Macaulay’s most persistent spiritual interlocutor G.W. Leitner.

All of them fomented modernity but not at the expense of traditional methods of learning. All of them tried to strike a synthesis between modernity and indigenous modes of learning. Importantly, even the religious seminaries like Darul Uloom Deoband and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama too could not circumvent modernity as Barbara Metcalf demonstrates in her seminal work ‘Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1867-1900’.

Lord Macaulay in view of what has been stated above ought to be scrutinised afresh.

The writer is a noted Pakistani historian, currently the Iqbal Fellow at the University of Cambridge as professor in the Centre of South Asian Studies

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

27.10.2013

Who will educate our children?
The government seems content on relying on aid instead of taking steps towards a more
self-sufficient model to enhance literacy
By Naheed Memon

An abysmal education ranking (Pakistan ranks 189th in literacy), a lack of state allocated resources, and a burgeoning interest in Pakistan’s social fabric for varying and differed reasons has created a space for international donor agencies such as USAID, DFID, The World Bank and others to step into the country’s faltering education framework.

Though there are numerous initiatives and programmes being run by donor agencies in collaboration with the provincial governments, the future is fraught with uncertainty. Pervaiz Ahmed, Special Secretary Education and Literacy Department, Sindh, spoke of the importance of donor agency work but warned against the dangers of complacency and dependence this can bring. “It is very important for the Sindh (or any other provincial government) to be ready for the time when international help is not sufficient. We need to be able to implement all that we have learnt from the agencies in a future without them — these policies and structures need to be sustainable.”

Sustainability might be a problem given the scant provincial budgets for education, and a growing culture of dependency on international and local donors. According to World Bank data listings, Pakistan’s allocation for education dropped from 2.9 per cent of the annual GDP in 2008 to 2.4 per cent in 2011, making the goal of Education for All (EFA) a very distant possibility. EFA is the global UNESCO programme that focuses on providing access to primary education for all children, male and female, and falls under the Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations.

Pakistan aims to spend up to 7 per cent of its GDP on education by 2015, a claim that, given historic trends, has to be taken with a grain of salt. UNESCO claims that Pakistan has some of the worst education indicators ever seen. Pervasive social inequality, gender divisions and an indebted government are just some of the myriad problems at hand. Only 5 per cent of women from the poorest strata of the country have gone to school compared to 70 per cent from the upper-middle class. Of the total out of school children, 60 per cent are girls.

The state’s commitment to social service delivery often loses out to gargantuan defense budgets, and a large, cumbersome government bureaucracy. Post-9/11, there has been a great emphasis on education by international donor agencies, but criticism and insecurity within Pakistan stems from the unreliable pattern of aid doled out over the years. The amount of aid and commitment pledged is often seen as being tied to a shift in political climates and the ebb and flow of interest in the region.

Volatile fluctuations in aid over four decades speak volumes about the often tense, on again-off again nature of the US’ relationship with Pakistan. During the 90s, aid was negligible and according to the Center for Global Development, USAID was barely functioning in Pakistan. This was non-military aid, which directly affects any and all projects underway or planned for in the future. A huge spike was evident in all forms of aid after 9/11, when it became socially imperative for the US and Pakistani governments to get children out of the madrassas and into schools as a counter-terrorism measure.

According to USAID and Congressional Research Service Reports, Pakistan was awarded $4.5 billion for non-military assistance between 2002 and 2008, with $700 million of that money being spent directly on facilitating education. The Obama administration proposed spending $2 billion of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act’s (2010) budget on education, health and humanitarian sectors for the fiscal years, 2010-FY2014.

USAID is currently running a Pre-Service Teacher Education Program which focuses on teacher training, and a Small Grants program that aims to strategically eliminate problems within the education sector. To date, 16 schools in Balochistan have been provided with clean, running water and the programme aims to provide bilingual training to 2000 women in Gilgit-Baltistan. DFID is running a similar programme aimed at reducing gender disparity in Punjab. The initiative “Punjab Economic Opportunities Programme (PEOP)” is poised to train more than 135,000 disadvantaged people, of which 40 per cent are women, in vocational skills.

The list of donor funded programmes is almost endless, yet the criticism has not stemmed. Allegations of inefficiency, corruption, and a fear of the unpredictability and fickleness of International NGOs surround these programmes. What happens once Pakistan isn’t the centre of the post-9/11 conflict? The US is planning its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 which begs the question; once the money starts dwindling, will the commitment to the social development of Pakistan remain?

The dependence on foreign aid can be detrimental to a country’s evolution, but it is also difficult to criticise a donor agency, or even question its agenda when the vacuum created by an absent state apparatus is so high. The Education and Literacy Department of Sindh has estimated that more than 34,000 schools are operating without electricity, 12,000 schools are shelter less, 23,000 of them don’t have bathroom facilities and 25,000 have no access to clean drinking water.

The abysmal situation in Sindh led to a joint World Bank and European Union initiative called the Sindh Education Reform Program (SERP) in 2009, which phased out in June, 2012. The quantifiable results showed an increase in primary net enrolment by 450,000 children in Sindh, a rehabilitation of more than 1,500 schools and the merit-based hiring of 13,000 new contract teachers. SERP-II was signed into being by the World Bank to the tune of $400 million.

If the state apparatus took over this task, it would be easier to criticise the supposed agenda of a donor agency; however that is not the case. It is a given fact that the state is and should be responsible for not just providing access to education, but making sure that all schools have the basic necessities of water and electricity in place. That not being the ground reality, one is hard pressed to point fingers at any organisation that is doing the work the state should be doing.

If the longevity of a project is directly linked to the interest in the region, it is perhaps the risk that Pakistan has to take and live with given the inability of the state to fix the growing education epidemic. It is troubling that the government seems content on relying on aid instead of taking steps towards a more self-sufficient model for the country, that doesn’t hinge on fleeting friendships.

The writer is the CEO of Manzil Pakistan, a public policy think tank in Karachi. She is also a Visiting Faculty at IBA and a Director of a private conglomerate.

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

27.10.2013

School report
KP’s Annual Statistical Report paints a bleak picture of schools in the province
By Tahir Ali

Experts agree that education requires a congenial atmosphere and the provision of certain facilities like water, electricity, washrooms, playgrounds and computer-labs within the school premises. But hundreds of schools in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa still lack basic facilities, an official document reveals.

It is mind-boggling to read that 20 per cent of the functional public schools still have no boundary walls, 30 per cent no water supply, 42 per cent no electricity and 16 per cent no toilets facilities.

According to the latest Annual Statistical Report released by the KP Elementary and Secondary Education (ES&E) Department, there are 28472 government schools in KP of which 27975 are functional while 397 are non-functional/temporarily closed and 100 are newly-constructed. Majority or 23073 (83 per cent) of the schools are government primary schools (GPSs) while government middle schools (GMSs), high schools (GHSs) and higher secondary schools (GHSSs) make up 9, 7 and 1 per cent of all the schools respectively.

Most of the non-functional/temporary closed schools are girls’ schools with 288 of them primary and 7 secondary schools.

Of the total 44873 and 25364 rooms in male and female GPSs, 4563 and 2039 rooms need major repairs, 11929 and 5504 minor repairs while another 3600 and 1416 room need rehabilitation respectively.

Similarly, amongst the 12644 rooms in GMSs, 784 need major repairs, 3048 minor repairs and 634 rooms are in need of rehabilitation. Again, off the total 15377 rooms in GHSs, 2220, 5361 and 2343 rooms are in need of major and minor repairs and rehabilitation respectively. And off the 8167 rooms in GHSSs in the province, 648 rooms need major repairs, 1434 minor repairs and 647 rooms need total rehabilitation.

According to the report, 3.93 million students study in 27975 functional government schools with 2.84 million in GPSs, 0.76 million in GMSs, 0.29 million in GHSs and 0.041 million in GHSSs across the province. Over 1.51 million students also read in 6743 non-government schools here. Most of the 119274 teachers in government schools are male (78172), but female teachers in private schools account for 44466 off 85325 teachers.

The teacher-student ratio in GPSs is 1:39 and secondary schools level is 1:23 but it is much greater in some schools. The report shows that 1175 male and 1450 female GPSs have only one teacher to teach all the classes and the students-teachers ratio for these schools is 1:58 and 1:61 respectively. 344 male and 103 female primary schools have no rooms to shelter students. 10318 off the total primary schools have two rooms and two teachers, obviously short of what is required.

Though females account for over 50 per cent of population here, girls schools make up 36 per cent of all the schools, but their share further comes down to 33 per cent at high and higher secondary levels.

According to a report in The News in 2009, out of total of 4338 and 2609 rooms in all schools in Mardan, as many as 713 rooms in boys’ schools and 399 in the female ones needed major repairs. The recent report says 480 rooms in male schools and 211 rooms in women schools still await major repair.

Overall Net Enrolment Ratio at primary level is 48 per cent (52 and 44 per cent for male and female schools) but it is at 28 per cent (33 and 21 per cent for boys and girls) in all middle to higher schools of the province.

While enrolment overall increased by around 23.9 per cent in the last 10 years (2003 to 2012), increase in teachers and functional schools was recorded at 15.7 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively. Girls’ enrolment grew by 3 times against boys’.

During 2011 and 2012, the dropout rate for the stages from 5th to 9th grade has been recorded at 16, 9, 7, 14 and 16 per cent for boys. For the girls, it has been recorded at 24, 9, 8, 21 and 8 per cent in that order.

But dropout rate could be higher if we analyse the data intently. The date reveals 0.519 million students were admitted in the prep class in GPSs across the province in 2003-04. By 2008-09, when the students reached the 5th grade, their number stood at 0.29 million which means around 50 per cent of them dropped out. By 2012, only 0.16 million students of these are recorded in the 9th grade.

If not for the huge dropout and the spread of private education networks, the existing number of schools would hardly have accommodated all the students of the preceding stages. Are these two phenomena blessings in disguise for the planners?

Though dropout in GHSSs has not been ascertained in the report, it must have considerably decreased as both total male and female enrolment has been recorded at 41000 in last year for both first and second year.

The report further says that 1101of the total 21972 parents-teachers councils (PTCs) in primary schools are non-functional. Similarly, out of 4710 PTCs in middle and secondary schools, 192 are non-functional. The PTCs, it should be reminded, are meant for parents-teachers coordination.

The report shows that out of the sanctioned 133750 (86963 male and 46787 female) teachers, 119274 (78172 male and 41102 female) teachers work these days. It means a deficit of over 14000 teachers. Another 6992 teachers (3185 Primary and 3807 Secondary Schools teachers) will retire during the next 5 years. This, if not tackled soon, may expand teachers-students ratio and the latter’s woes, especially at higher secondary levels. 572 posts of male and 342 posts of female subject specialists, who teach students in grade 11 and 12 in the GHSSs, are still lying vacant, according to the report.

There is no analysis as to how many of the GHSSs in the province afford both medical and engineering classes, but knowledgeable sources say most of them don’t offer courses in science and most of the disciplines in arts for shortage of the subject specialists and resources.

The sector has had received considerable amount in the provincial budget and has been allocated Rs24 billion off the total ADP of Rs118 billion this year. Experts say government schools have spacious buildings and plenty of teachers but loose administration, poor monitoring mechanism, outdated curriculum, flawed examination system, overcrowded classrooms, lack of modern facilities, teachers absenteeism, outdated teaching techniques, and political interference etc are the factors responsible for the poor performance of the public sector schools vis-à-vis their private counterparts.

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

03.11.2013

For the rich only
By Shehryar Warraich

For the last 66 years, the poor and lower middle class has been made sacrificial goat for the rulers. More taxes and long-lasting dearness have been like a bone in the throat for them who always vote in the hope to bring a change in their life. But prosperity has become the right of the rich only; the under privileged voters’ destiny has never changed. Poverty and the imposition of new taxes have become a cruel reality for them. Currently, the elected government is suggesting the people to swallow the bitter pill after increasing electricity and fuel prices.

“The government can generate revenue through the imposition of taxes on the rich, rather than taxing those whose capacity is squeezing day by day. But the government is more interested in suggesting the general masses to swallow sour pills rather than imposing taxes on those who can afford,” says former finance minister and economist, Dr Mubashir Hasan.

The rejection of the PPP in the general election and the huge victory for the PML-N is a proof that people want the government to lessen their economic burden. “After the regimes of both Ayub Khan and Bhutto, governments gradually gratified the rich by terminating those taxes with which the aforementioned governments generated revenues and kept the poor away from taxes,” Dr Mubashir says.

Since 1979, three major taxes imposed on the rich have been stamped out by different regimes. State Duty was enforced in 1950 on the market value of all moveable/immoveable property of a deceased person. “It was a heavy tax implemented till Bhutto’s regime. In fact, in 1886 new income tax was introduced in Great Britain. Inheritance tax was also part of that. Pakistan took this law as Estate Property Tax because it suited us. This is still implemented in some of the European states as Inheritance Tax,” says former deputy commissioner income tax, Dr Ikram-ul-Haq.

“No doubt, it was a big source of generating revenue. Only four cities — Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad — can provide you huge revenue if the government implements this tax again,” Ex-governor State Bank, Dr. Ishrat Hussain states.

The second important tax was called wealth tax. It was 10 per cent during the Ayub’s era, but ZA Bhutto’s government doubled it. “It is close to Islamic Zakat Tax system. The implementation of wealth tax is also easier because to cover all the areas of the country is difficult for government. Through imposing this tax on assets, the government can generate a lot of revenue. It was abolished in 2000 before the joining of Shaukat Aziz as finance minister,” says Rana Naveed, tax law practitioner.

The Gift Tax Act 1963 was premeditated to avert evasion of tax on income and assets, both moveable and immovable, by transferring them through gifts and envisaged that gift exceeding Rs 0.5 million made to sons, daughters, father and mother would be liable to tax. Nonetheless, this tax was abolished in 1985. “It was to help Estate Property Tax and to dissuade people from shifting properties to their relatives,” Dr Ikram-ul-Haq says.

Pakistan is an agriculture state. Unfortunately, the law of agriculture income tax has not been implemented here. The amount of Rs300 only is being collected from the farmers and landlords by the Revenue Department. “Governments after Bhutto gave benefits to landlords. There is no difference between a farmer and a landlord now. Everyone is giving the same amount of tax against per acre and not against the income. Through this tax, governments used to accumulate big amount of revenue. It is now abandoned to facilitate the landlords because both industrialists and landlords are in parliaments and they guard each others’ interests,” Dr Mubashir Hasan says.

“If the government calls off agriculture tax up to 25 acres and start collecting agriculture income tax rather than taking per acre from those who own more land, it would generate huge revenue,” Dr Ikram says.

“There were more taxes on banks, limited and private companies during the Ayub and Bhutto’s periods. Pakistani banks used to pay 65 per cent tax which is now decrease to 35 per cent. Today, in the presence of multinational companies it is a big loss in revenue. 50 per cent tax on limited companies and 55 per cent on private companies have also decreased to 35 per cent,” says Rana Naveed.

“Governments had their points of view to cut these taxes. These taxes were reduced to promote business. To increase revenue, the government should increase income tax ratio from 25 per cent to 45 per cent according to earnings,” Dr Ikram says.

“Governor State Bank told a Cabinet Committee a few days ago that almost 25 million dollars per day, 750 per month and 9 billion per year, are flowing out of the country from different airports without being taxed. It’s obvious that this money belongs to the rich. If the government seriously puts this money under taxation, a large amount of revenue can be generated,” Dr Ishrat Hussain says.

“In fact, I don’t know about the existence of estate property tax, gift tax and wealth tax. In addition, our advisors in economics never told us about these taxes,” Punjab Minister for Finance, Excise and Taxation, Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman tries to explain his position. “To increase revenue and to lessen burden on the poor, our government has imposed tax on large houses. We are also planning to revisit 12-year old property tax which is, hopefully, going to be imposed in January 2014. We are planning to increase tax on those possessing more than 25 acres. The government is trying to document agriculture lands in the province but that is still under process due to the lethargic attitude of Revenue Department.”

Economists agree that decisions and intentions play a fundamental role in impose tax on those classes who can afford. The concept of poor state and rich public will also revert with both good taxation policies and strong system.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan says, “the government has to pay 1300 billion rupees per year to clear debt out of the total revenue of Rs2000 billion and the remaining amount goes to the army. It means that Pakistan is a bankrupt state.” Khan says the policy of conversion black money into white and loopholes in taxation system must be abolished. “Moreover, it should be obligatory for every bureaucrat, judge and politician to declare assets. Seventy per cent parliamentarians don’t pay tax. Prevailing corruption of 4000 billion rupees is becoming cancerous for the country. By overcoming corruption, the government can say goodbye to the IMF.”

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

03.11.2013

The cost of war
The ongoing insurgency and war on terror have badly affected the
economy and environment of Swat and Fata
By Haroon Akram

War has had a continuous legacy from the ancient times to the Syrian crisis in recent months and the environment has always been affected in result, but it often remains as an unpublicised victim. The impact of war on the environment has greatly affected the world. Application of weapons, military transport movements, chemical spraying, destruction of structures and oil fields and crops fires are all examples of the devastating impact war may have on the environment. Air, water and soil are polluted, people and animal are killed, and numerous health hazards occur. Burning the oil wells in Iraq and spraying of Agent Orange to defoliate Vietnam forests would be remembered as icons of environmental warfare.

On November 5, 2001, the General Assembly of United Nations declared November 6 as the International Day for “Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict”.

In recent times, Pakistan has suffered more than any other country due to the “war on terror”. The ongoing insurgency has affected almost every economic aspect of Fata and KPK. All main sources of revenue in affected areas have been hurt, including agriculture and the tourism industry and above all the environment has suffered badly.

Forest cover of the affected area is waning rapidly as a result of timber extraction, prolonged periods of drought, uncontrolled abrasion, and fuel wood and food collection. Before this war on terrorism in Fata, Liquid Petroleum Gas was the main source of energy. However, due to the restricted supply of LPG and frequent blowing up of power infrastructure, deforestation for use as energy or as a supplement income has increased by almost 70 per cent. This has amplified the incidence of flash floods and washing away of rich topsoil impacting agriculture yields and causing severe damages to villages. Following the war on terror, deforestation has further increased because plantation and post management activities are halted.

Security forces activities to eliminate terrorist hideouts have also cleared large territory of forests especially in North Waziristan, South Waziristan and Bajaur Agencies. The gap between production and usage is expanding as a result. This over-exploitation has also affected the natural regenerative capacity of forests.

Environmental services provided by the natural ecosystems have also shrunk with forest resources rapidly disappearing. Water preservation capacity of the soil has decreased, flash flooding in the area has become more frequent and the quality and quantity of food crops has suffered badly. Uncapped hills are unable to gather the soil which results in erosion and this erosion again invites flash floods that wipe away crops, farmland and valuable infrastructure.

Fisheries resources have also been affected and there is a significant decrease in natural populations of fish in rivers and streams. Fata has paid a huge price for the conflict. According to an official report, the cost to the environment would roughly run over 15,000 million rupees.

Agriculture is the main source of revenue in most of the terrorism-affected areas. The districts of Swat, Buner, Shangla and Lower Dir, along with the Malakand Agency, are famous for quality fruit production. According to a report, Malakand division has significant contribution to overall production of various crops i.e. peach (60 per cent), pear (34 per cent), tomato (18 per cent), apple (15 per cent), plum (14 per cent), tobacco (11 per cent), maize (8 per cent), onion (8 per cent), all vegetables (5 per cent), apricot (5 per cent), wheat (1 per cent) and rice (1 per cent). Persimmon alias “Japani Phal” is also a fame of this area.

A survey by the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) shows that nearly 48 per cent of Pakistan’s total fruit is produced by the KPK and Swat alone leads the other four districts in the production of fruits by a large margin.

Record tells that Swat has 98,100 hectares arable land, while 408,175 hectares remain uncultivable. Over 80 per cent of the total population lives on agriculture. It specialises in many commodities like peach and contributes about 60 per cent to the national production. Swat also produces 13 per cent of total national production of tomato. One fourth of overall provincial production of vegetables in the KPK comes from Swat. Normally, 500 to 600 trucks of fruit from Swat are supplied to the rest of the country daily during the season.

In addition, farming system of Swat was a model for the rest of the province in particular and the country in general in the pre-war period. It was a centre of orchards, coupled with multi utility processing industries, cold storages, huge dry storages and an efficient transportation and marketing system. Swat was famous as training centre for budding and grafting of plants and nursery industry was on the rise. The experienced farmhands worked in the rest of the province and even in Balochistan especially for the growth of olives. Its plant nursery production was ranked third in the country after Pattoki and Tarnab.

But, due to the insurgency, the Swat valley has been subjected to continuous attacks since 2007. According to the government of Pakistan estimates, the loss to agriculture alone amounts to Rs35 billion. The local reports say that 55 to 70 per cent of the total fruit produced has gone waste and that has been due to various factors, including hostilities, artillery shelling, blowing of bridges in bomb blasts, blockade of roads, attacks, and curfews. The breakdown in law and order has damaged the district’s fruit-based economy and caused billions of rupees losses. Everyone suffered including the landowners, labourers, dealers and farmers who earn their livelihood from these orchards.

Swat is an important tourist destination in Pakistan which attracted people from across the world not only to its natural beauty but also to its rich civilization and history. Swat is suitable for all sorts of tourism, i.e., eco-tourism, adventure tourism, spiritual tourism, heritage tourism, sports and commercial tourism. Along with over 400 Buddhist sites, it has also a number of snow-capped peaks, waterfalls, glaciers, springs, streams, vast grassy tracts, thick forests, natural parks, lakes and dark forests. It is an ideal place for both summer and winter tourism.

There are almost 1000 hotels, including over 400 restaurants, in the valley and around 40,000 people are associated with these hotels. But during the past few years due to militancy and the subsequent military operation, the tourism based economy had suffered badly. In 2010, the revenue from tourism industry was reported as meager as $454,000.

The government of Pakistan and the US agreed in 2010 to salvage the Swat Valley’s economy. Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority were joined by the USAID to launch a Swat tourism rehabilitation programme. The United States provided $5.4 million for the initiative, whereas USAID provided grants, technical assistance, construction materials, supplies, and equipment. The action brought dramatic change and helped revive the Swat Valley tourism to the extent that in 2012 the industry earned $4.2 million. Hotels now earn eight times more revenue than they did before the project began. The fisheries also earn twelve times more in comparison.

State Bank of Pakistan is also providing both farm and non-farm loans to small farmers for the revival of economic activities in the war-affected areas of KPK since 2009. Under Agricultural Loans Refinancing & Guarantee Scheme, the farmers of war-affected areas are being facilitated in obtaining loans from banks to resume agricultural activities. Banks provide working capital loans to the farmers of Swat, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Malakand, Buner, Chitral and Shangla, while tribal areas of Bajaur Agency, Khyber Agency, Kurram Agency, Mohmand Agency, North Waziristan Agency, Orakzai Agency and South Waziristan Agency are also benefiting.

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

03.11.2013

Tribal tribulations
By Dr Raza Khan

As the country’s public sphere is reverberating with a tense debate regarding ‘peace’ talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), little or nothing is said on the public forums about the socioeconomic and cultural context of the tribal areas which enabled the group to emerge in the first instance. In recent years, there has been out of proportion media coverage regarding Taliban and al Qaeda militancy in Pakistani tribal areas with little attention paid to understand the local socio-political dynamic and nature of the people and their real problems.

The comprehension of these dynamics is critical to know how these have contributed to the problem of extremism and terrorism there. The reason for negligible attention in the media to the socio-political problems has been that most of the writers and commentators on the area have been non-locals who could not understand these dynamics in their true context. Therefore, there is a need to understand the people of the Fata, their problems and issues and how these are connected to the problem of extremism and terrorism.

In this regard, the foremost attempt could be made to understand the grievances of the inhabitants of Fata. Recently, the Minister of State for Frontier Regions (SAFRON), Lt. General (Retd) Qadir Baloch, told the Senate Standing Committee on SAFRON that billions of dollars, provided by international donors, have been misappropriated by unscrupulous officials, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and tribal leaders in the name of development.

The foremost grievance of the inhabitants of the Fata is the lack of economic opportunities to earn decent living. They argue that an area where industries are non-existent and agriculture is limited, the government and international donors should have extended every help to create job opportunities besides helping them in making their lands arable or arrange for alternative livelihoods. In the opinion of residents of the FATA, the government and international aid agencies’ help has always been the only way to alleviate mass poverty there. According to different Pakistani government estimates, the prevailing rate of poverty in the FATA is more than 70 per cent (earning less than two US dollars a day which equals around 220 Pakistani rupees).

Another important grievance of the tribesmen is the existing obsolescent physical infrastructure of their area and the lack of government support to provide them basic amenities of life like well-equipped hospitals, clean drinking water, roads, bridges etc.

According to the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (FATA 2007), conducted by Planning and Development Department, FATA Secretariat, Government of Pakistan with technical assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP), a number of projects were started under successive FATA Annual Development Programmes (ADPs). However, meager financial allocations coupled with increased development cost have resulted in huge throw-forward liabilities. The FATA ADP has throw-forward liabilities of more than Rs40 billion.

With current level of funding by the federal government, it would take at least four years to complete the ongoing projects of the FATA ADP. Even with increased allocation since year 2002, the per capita government funded development investment in FATA (Rs905/- or US$ 11.30) stands very low against the national per capita government funded development investment (Rs2044/-or US$ 25.55).

The annoyance with the malik (tribal chieftain) and Political Agent-based administrative system has also been a source of grievance for a large section of the people of tribal areas. Because they argue that justice in such a system is hard to attain, particularly for the poor.

Successive governments of Pakistan by design or default kept tribal areas on the Afghanistan border backward and without any genuine effort to develop them. British colonial rulers kept FATA a buffer zone between British India and Czarist Russia and subsequently between British India and Soviet Union (1917-1947). Pakistani establishment continued with this policy of the British and maintained the status of FATA as a mere buffer zone with Afghanistan, which has had irredentist claims on many areas of mainland Pakistan apart from the FATA.

In pursuing such a myopic policy, the decision-makers glossed over the prevailing realities in FATA and how could they endanger the stability of the whole Pakistan in future. But as time changed as well the society in the FATA and population there has grown manifold, this policy has somewhat backfired. The disenchantment with the state and sympathy for groups like the Taliban has simultaneously increased due to state failure to provide the basic amenities to tribesmen.

Militants in the FATA or their masterminds have very shrewdly tried to exploit the sentiments and genuine grievances of the population, particularly about the decadent governance and justice system and dominance of tribal chieftains. By providing a system of justice in which there would be ‘speedy’ trials and the rich and the poor would get justice alike and even establishing Islamic Qazi courts in some parts of the FATA and also deciding some cases in no time to the satisfaction of all parties and stakeholders, Taliban got the support of a large part of population.

Realistically speaking, enforcement of Shariah has not been the main concern of residents of the FATA. However, from Shariah the local people mean a system with speedy justice, swift social services and meritocracy. By making people believe at the outset that their movement’s main aim was the enforcement of Shariah in the area, the Taliban got widespread support from the people. In fact, the Taliban needed this ploy to hoodwink people so that they could not react.

Moreover, in this situation there has hardly been any effort from the government to address the old grievances of the tribesmen whereas, the new grievances, which are the outcome of Taliban activities and military offensives, have increased the disenchantment of the people with the state.

So without addressing the genuine grievances of the tribesmen and that too on war footing by the government and the international players, one cannot and should not expect the elimination of extremists and terrorists from the area. The security forces may get back the physical control of the areas but ultimately this would not serve any purpose unless the standards of living of the inhabitants are improved.

The writer is an expert on South Asia, Afghanistan, Political Islam and

Terrorism:razapkhan@hotmail.com

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

03.11.2013

Governance under sunshine
Appreciating the recent parliamentary developments regarding right to information, stakeholders hope the laws will make the state and its institutions
transparent and responsive to citizens’ concerns
By Shiza Malik

Access to information is viewed as an instrument for transparency and accountability, integral to good governance and people’s effective participation in public affairs. It is recognised as a fundamental right in the world today, with 90 countries having passed legislation to ensure their citizens’ right to know and many in the process of realising this aspiration.

Today, 200 million Pakistanis have a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to information. In 2013, the populace enjoys legal cover at the federal and provincial levels. The concept is being embedded in local government related laws as well.

The 18th Amendment expanded the scope of fundamental rights in Pakistan attempting to make these in consonance with free and democratic societies of the world. Though the freedom of access to information and expression was enshrined as Article 19 in the 1973 Constitution, it was not until the passage of the 18th Amendment that the Right to Information was listed as a fundamental right. Article 19-A States, “Every Citizen shall have the right to have access to information in matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law.”

However, the track record of these laws in Balochistan and Sindh where these have existed since 2005 and 2006 respectively shows that mere adoption of these laws will not result in the achievement of this right.

Today while laws exist both at the provincial and federal levels, operationalisation requires much deliberation and effort. With the aim of understanding the challenges and prospects in the way of achieving this fundamental right in Pakistan, the UNDP Pakistan and the Centre for Civic Education organised a stakeholders’ consultation in Islamabad on October 31, 2013.

Appreciating the recent parliamentary developments regarding Right to Information (RTI), the stakeholders hoped that the ‘sunshine laws’ will make the state and its institutions transparent and responsive to citizens’ concerns. However, the journey will be evolutionary to overcome the culture of secrecy that had been the inherent character of governance during the last 65 year.

Speakers dissected the provincial and the federal laws. They urged reforms in Balochistan and Sindh laws related to RTI, emphasising the need to improve record keeping practices in the government and allocate adequate resources. The consensus was to have independent information commissions at the federal and provincial levels as appellate bodies.

The currently prescribed role of office of the Federal Ombudsman with regards to right to information complaints has become obsolete and must be revisited by the parliament. The past performance of this office is reflected by the fact that it has remained empty for long periods of time, the process of taking a complaint from provinces where no separate information commission exists to the Federal Ombudsman is grindingly slow.

Furthermore, the Federal Ombudsman is a largely toothless body without the powers to punish those who stand in violation of these laws. Only the willful destruction of public records is a punishable offence, while no punishment has been prescribed in the law for public officials who stand in violation of this right. In India, deductions are made directly from the salaries of officials against whom a right to information complaint is proven and Pakistan could also prescribe a similar punishment.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have created separate commissions to deal with Right to Information complaints. While the inability of the law to prescribe the number of members in the committee in Punjab leaves room for abuse, it is a more effective mechanism than what has been in place in Sindh and Balochistan. Commentators demanded that the old Right to Information laws in Sindh and Balochistan be repealed and replaced with laws that are more in line with the federal law.

Unfortunately, most Pakistanis are unaware of their constitutional rights. In fact, a speaker at the conference lamented that in Sindh even parliamentarians who had passed this law were unaware of its existence. Efforts should be made for the education of the citizenry with regards to their fundamental rights and processes through which these can be achieved.

The media must play its role in organising workshops for journalists and highlight the importance of transparency in the achievement of good governance for the general public. Unfortunately, in a place where citizens have remained disconnected from the state and democratic processes for decades, creating a citizen who will exercise his constitutional right in holding the government accountable is nothing short of a pipedream. We can, however, begin to take steps in the right direction such as repealing of fines such as the Rs10,000 fine stipulated in Sindh’s Right to Information Act-2006 for mal-complaints so that citizens are encouraged to exercise their constitutional right.

Turning around the culture of secrecy that exists in Pakistan’s official culture is also a slow evolutionary process that requires training of officials at all levels. Rules and regulations regarding the determination of information as Secret or Classified must be revisited and the process for such classification be standardised. The application of a harm-test was suggested by some participants at the conference, whereby officials judge whether the benefit of revealing a piece of information is greater or the perceived harm.

Information is described as the oxygen of a democracy. The parliament, press and public need information to follow and scrutinise the actions of the government. Accurate and timely information enables them to have a meaningful say in decision-making processes and enhances their ability to hold their government accountable.

A democratic government is expected to function in a transparent fashion so that the citizens know what their government is doing at taxpayers’ expense. This enables them to keep a check on the executive and legislative powers and assess the efficiency of these vital pillars of governance. It ensures transparency in social and economic fields, facilitates rule of law, equality and fair competition. Free flow of information helps citizens to articulate their informed political and economic choices.

For legislature, better access to all government records and information can help check powers of the executive. On the basis of accurate info-inputs, the Parliament can better debate and legislate for citizens, instead of merely groping in the dark. Parliamentary opposition can hold the treasury and its executive extensions accountable, besides suggesting policy alternatives. Owing to this rationale ‘Question Hour’ is embedded into the proceedings of almost all parliaments in the world.

Freedom of information also has special significance for the media as better access to information contributes to its credibility, facilitates in depth analysis and encourages investigative reporting. Through timely access to accurate information, media could perform its role both as a vigilant watchdog and whistleblower to ring alarms about possible wrongs.

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