[B]04-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]Underhand tactics[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]MUCH as the focus may be on what transpires at the negotiating table in the TTP-government dialogue process, what is taking place away from the negotiating table is equally, if not more, important. With the month-long ceasefire announced by the TTP having officially expired at the start of the month, the outlawed group has cleverly tried to put the government under renewed pressure by officially remaining undecided about continuing the ceasefire while having hard-line chapters of the TTP publicly muse about their intention to end their participation in the ceasefire. What that craftiness adds up to is two things: one, it puts pressure on the government to make further concessions to the TTP or else risk renewed violence in the country; two, it signals to the public that the TTP leadership is committed to talks, but is under great pressure internally to not talk — meaning, the public should be grateful for the TTP’s restraint and its willingness to keep in line the more agitated of its component groups.
Yet, the government too seems involved in subterfuge. The Prime Minister’s Office has tried to downplay reports of low-level prisoner releases and denied that the unusual move is a part of the dialogue process with the TTP, but it does appear that the government is simultaneously trying to dangle a carrot in front of the TTP while maintaining deniability. As the identities of the released figures becomes clear as does the meaning behind what is undoubtedly not simply a routine move, more will be known on whether the government is seeking to buy more time for dialogue or if a truly decisive stage in the negotiations is at hand. Either way, the hard choices for the government will eventually have to be faced. Before that, however, is the issue of resisting the TTP’s thinly veiled blackmailing tactics. Rather than allowing the TTP to shape the issue of whether the ceasefire should be officially extended or not, the government should itself come out and demand an extension — and also a commitment that it will continue so long as the dialogue process goes on. That way the TTP would be denied the leverage of reconsidering its ceasefire every few days.
For all that the government can and should do to stand firm and ensure the dialogue process does not drift into the realm of the unconstitutional and unacceptable, there is also a need to keep a check on the government’s own agenda. On the political side, other than the prime minister and the interior minister, there are few who are privy to the government’s strategy and approach. The PTI may have an idea owing to its representative on the government negotiating committee, but neither has parliament been taken into confidence nor have the provincial governments. Surely, the PML-N’s word alone is not enough in this critical process.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Unsavoury spectacle[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]FOR a politician, there are few downsides to lambasting Pervez Musharraf, the former dictator who is disliked by virtually every segment of the political spectrum for very different, and often contradictory, reasons. So, now that Mr Musharraf has been indicted for overthrowing the Constitution in November 2007, politicians have been queuing up, clamouring and falling over themselves to cast a stone in the former strongman’s direction. The over-the-top condemnations would be almost comical — many a present-day detractor was once an ally or tacit supporter of the ousted dictator — if only they did not have serious overtures and implications, especially the verbal blows being landed by members of the PML-N. Charged with the highest of crimes, Mr Musharraf deserves that his trial be conducted with the utmost of seriousness and with the highest regard for due process being followed. Unhappily, the attacks of the kind launched by Railways Minister Saad Rafique only suggest an attempt to prejudge the trial process and heap political pressure on the court — something that surely the PML-N would do well to avoid.
There is a basic reason the political class as a whole, and the PML-N in particular, ought to resist the rush to condemn Mr Musharraf: too much piling on and gloating would make the very idea of a trial seem politically motivated and thus strengthen the essence of the Musharraf camp’s defence. What Mr Musharraf stands accused of is a crime against the Constitution, of using the power of his army office to illegally overthrow the democratic order to perpetuate his own hold on power. That is not a crime against a set of judges or a given government or a particular political personality, but against the state and society itself. For that crime to be duly punished and done so in a fair, transparent and legal manner, it is best to let the court process unfold according to the letter of the law. Whether Mr Musharraf is entitled to travel abroad or not, for example, is a question of law, not personal opinion. Prejudging the entire process because there are political points to be scored and political capital to be reaped is a disservice to the very principle that is allegedly at stake: the supremacy of the Constitution and the law.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]KP’s LG polls initiative[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]IT would be a pity if the PTI’s willingness to hold local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on April 30 were to fall victim to the crisis that seems to be brewing between KP’s ruling party and the Election Commission of Pakistan. On Wednesday, the PTI’s core committee announced that the provincial government was ready for LG polls by completing the process of delimitation of constituencies. The sticking point now is the voting process. The PTI wants the polls to be held on a biometric basis and has contacted the ECP and the National Database Registration Authority for switching over to electronic voting. However, the ECP seems unwilling to adopt this voting mode and cites many reasons why this is not possible by the end of the month — for instance, 1.2 million KP voters have old national identity cards. Also, electronic voting machines will be available only after the ECP invites tenders, and this is not possible in the time left. The ECP also suspects that the PTI is playing politics, given its row with Nadra over the verification of thumb impressions.
The ECP thoroughly bungled the LG polls issue in Punjab and Sindh. While the two provincial governments themselves were never very keen to hold municipal elections, the ECP, rapped by the judiciary, gave unrealistic dates and had to eat humble pie. In Sindh especially, the delimitation of constituencies became a major issue in pre-empting the polls. But now that the ruling party in KP is ready for the task, the ECP must stir itself. However, the PTI should not insist on electronic voting. It has already stolen a march over the Punjab and Sindh governments by announcing a date for the polls. The ECP has a point about the old identity cards, but what matters is an LG election rather than the voting process. Balochistan has already held those elections. When KP completes the process, Punjab and Sindh will have very little defence left for avoiding municipal polls.[/LEFT]

[B]05-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]Afghan elections[/CENTER][/B]
[LEFT]FIRST, the good news. A third consecutive presidential election in Afghanistan is a historic achievement — Pakistan has only recently managed to hold consecutive on-schedule parliamentary elections.

There is genuine competition, in the sense that the winner of the Afghan presidential election is far from clear. And, after the disastrous and disputed election of 2009, there is a possibility that the 2014 Afghan presidential election may be politically more credible than the last one. To be sure, much hinges on an acceptable electoral process.

This is the year of transition for Afghanistan on the political and security fronts and the country needs a capable and credible leader in the presidency to steer it through arguably the most difficult time in its modern history since the Bonn Agreement of 2001. Now, to the less welcome news. Much as Afghanistan needs a strong and credible leadership via an acceptable presidential electoral process, there are many, many hurdles in the way.

The most obvious hurdle is the credibility of the electoral process. Because international coverage of Afghanistan is shaped by and large by the Western press, there has been much focus on the evacuating of foreign election monitors after several attacks against foreigners in recent weeks. While fewer monitors and observers is certainly an issue, there are other problems elsewhere that have received attention.

A major one is the decision by the Afghan election authorities to not make provision for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, overwhelmingly of Pakhtun origin, to cast their votes as they were allowed to do in 2004.

With turnout already predicted to be a significant problem in the Pakhtun-dominated south and east of Afghanistan, the absence once again of the refugee vote could dramatically impact results — an outcome that myopic politicians inside Afghanistan do not appear too concerned about.

Given that legitimacy in the eyes of the Pakhtuns of the next president could shape much of what happens in the year or two ahead in Afghanistan, the large-scale disenfranchisement of those displaced by war appears to be a short-sighted idea.

Beyond that, there is uncertainty, and fear, shrouding every aspect of Afghanistan over the course of the next presidency.

The year 2018 appears to be a lifetime away over the course of which the option, at least as far as conventional wisdom goes, is between an Afghanistan that limps on or descends into chaos.

Yet, there is another possibility, however unlikely or remote it may appear at the moment: Afghanistan, with the help of its neighbours and regional and international powers, could stabilise and move towards a growing economy, internal security and institutional stability. While much has been made about the intentions and old agendas of the outside powers, it is also true that no side has forcefully vetoed the decisions Afghans have made for themselves.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Auction transparency[/B][/CENTER]
[LEFT]PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif has assured the telecom industry players that the spectrum auction for the introduction of mobile broadband in Pakistan will be carried out via a ‘transparent’ mechanism. We should take him at his word.

However, the recent appointment of the husband of the minister of state for information technology and telecom as a director on the board of one of the leading cellular companies with substantial government holdings ahead of the auction raised quite a few eyebrows.

The gentleman in question has since resigned after the matter was raised by the media. Yet the public concerns relating to transparency and fairness in the sale of 3G/4G telecom licences have hardly lessened, the government’s claims and pledges notwithstanding. There is every possibility that the minister did not use her position or clout in the appointment of her husband to the board of directors of the cellular company. Still, she should have stepped down voluntarily for the sake of transparency in the auction.

The spectrum auction for mobile broadband in the country is a central piece of the government’s budget strategy to cut its fiscal deficit to 6pc in the present fiscal from above 8pc last year. More than that, it is going to be the first ‘test’ of foreign investors’ appetite to invest in Pakistan under the Nawaz Sharif government.

If anything goes wrong with the auction just because one or more of the competing companies felt that they were being cheated in the auction process, the planned privatisation of state-owned enterprises — a major plank of the government’s strategy to turn the economy around and to attract foreign capital — will be scuttled. In other words, the success of the entire privatisation plan and the resumption of the much-needed inflow of foreign direct investment to the economy hinge, to a large extent, on the successful auction of the spectrum licences.

Thus, the government does not appear to have any choice but to ensure that the entire auction process is completed in a transparent manner to the satisfaction of all the bidders. The prime minister’s words do matter. But it is the implementation of his promise that will matter more when it comes to attracting foreign investors.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Maulana’s strange logic[/B][/CENTER]
[LEFT]PAKISTAN’S leaders, both of the political and politically religious varieties, are known to make statements that range from the laughable to the cringe-worthy.

But JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s recent pronouncement takes the cake for its bizarre logic. Speaking to the media on Thursday in Dera Ismail Khan, Maulana Sahib announced that the Sindh Assembly stood dissolved after it had passed a resolution critical of the Council of Islamic Ideology last month.

The resolution, he said, was a negation of the “ideology of Pakistan”. Even the best minds in political science and constitutional law will be hard-pressed to establish that the Sindh Assembly’s resolution is grounds for the house to be dissolved.

In the unanimously adopted resolution, the Sindh legislature slammed the CII’s “anti-women recommendations” relating to the permissibility of child marriage and making it possible for a man to contract a second marriage without the first wife’s consent. The resolution had also called for doing away with the CII itself.

The maulana’s ire against the Sindh Assembly probably stems from the fact that one of his party members heads the CII. But what defies logic is the call for an elected legislature to be dissolved for criticising an unelected body which has, of late, been proving itself a bastion of regressive thought.

Considering the CII’s recent recommendations, especially where it said that the law banning child marriage was ‘un-Islamic’, it was expected that there would be some public outcry and debate. As a representative forum, the Sindh Assembly was well within its rights to criticise the deplorable recommendations.

And if Maulana Fazl feels there should be fresh polls in Sindh as its assembly ‘dared’ to question the CII’s fiats, should the National Assembly also be dissolved as a private bill calling for the strengthening of the law against child marriage has been introduced in the house? Maulana Fazl should refrain from making calls to dissolve an elected legislature in order to defend an unelected body that has become the subject of controversy.[/LEFT]

[B]06-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]TTP in the driving seat?[/CENTER][/B]

IT is possible to read too much in the ebb and flow of the day-to-day developments and minutiae of the dialogue with the proscribed TTP. But, as both sides have constantly reiterated, the process is meant to be a quick one, so mini trends that manifest themselves are important. At the moment, with the government preparing for the next round of talks with the TTP leadership, the trend is unmistakable: the TTP is in the ascendant and the government is coming across as weak and uncertain. Consider the most recent developments. Yesterday Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan announced in one of his habitual press conferences that more prisoners are to be released by the government. Quite who these prisoners are; what precisely they stand accused of, if anything; whether they are individuals whose release the TTP has specifically sought; indeed, how does it help the dialogue process if simultaneously trying to downplay the importance of the released and to-be-released individuals — none of those questions are being answered.

Meanwhile, the TTP has seemingly once again gained the upper hand in the negotiations process. As is now publicly known, the first prisoner releases by the government occurred in several phases over the last 10 days of March. Yet, the TTP publicly made a big show of debating internally whether to continue its ceasefire after April 1 and, when a decision to extend it for a mere 10 days was finally announced, the TTP cast its decision as a difficult choice and a huge sacrifice made in the face of stiff opposition from within many parts of the TTP network. So now, as the next round of talks approaches, the perceptions are clear: the TTP showing great forbearance and generosity of spirit; the government bending over backwards to make concessions to secure a deal.

Consider the change in tone and tenor, and results, from the two occasions in which the government did stand firm. First, when the government negotiating team insisted that any deal would have to be within the parameters of the Constitution, the TTP acquiesced by sidelining Abdul Aziz, the Lal Masjid cleric on the TTP negotiating committee who was opposed to the idea. Next, when the Mohmand chapter of the TTP killed 23 FC personnel they had held since 2010, the government came out and at long last demanded an unconditional ceasefire by the TTP. Once again, to the surprise of many, the TTP agreed — and militant violence significantly declined during the month-long ceasefire. The results speak for themselves. When the state stands firm and the government insists on certain minimal requirements for the dialogue to proceed, pressure on the TTP works. But when the TTP is allowed to grab the initiative and shape the dialogue process, it becomes bolder and more outrageous in its demands. Right now, it appears as if the TTP is calling the shots.

[B][CENTER]Bilawal’s dilemma[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]IF the PPP is to play an effective role in the country’s politics, it must have a development model apart from making “our culture … our weapon” in the fight against extremism. In his latest speech at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh on Friday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari showed he is aware of this. Apart from his assault on extremism, the PPP patron in chief spoke about developing areas under the control of his party’s government in Sindh. He attacked some of the policies of the PML-N at the centre, criticising the ‘anonymous gift’ of $1.5bn, shelving of the IP gas pipeline and what he called “personalisation” in the name of privatisation. And he registered his opposition to talks with the Taliban — an initiative which his party has been supporting in and out of parliament. It was in effect a recap of the Bhutto scion’s take on various issues, at the end of which everyone was left wondering how he planned to find the path to the PPP’s resurgence outside its bastion of Sindh.

The PPP’s Punjab campaign has been on hold mainly because of the threat to the life of its top leadership. The party must find a way to re-enter Punjab, which it is struggling to do without the physical presence of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. It tried working through some of its prominent Punjab-based members, with no success. Threats have been hurled at the young PPP leader recently, and it seems that for now he will not be able to tour Punjab. The slogans from its base in Sindh, in the meanwhile, are, among other things, a way of keeping the party relevant nationally. Other options for the PPP leader are to take the plunge with no care for the consequences or rely on low-intensity politicking by local PPP cadres in Punjab. In the given situation, the party’s politics can be greatly helped by evidence of how it is grasping new realities in areas where it is ‘allowed’ to manoeuvre. Apart from the slogans which the PPP would have done well to translate into action during its most recent stint in power at the centre, the evidence of a party which has learnt from its mistakes must also come from Sindh. This is the least it can do.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Questionable inductions[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]HIRINGS made on questionable grounds, to accommodate favourites in violation of the rules, are a common occurrence in Pakistan, especially in the public sector. Perhaps this is why many of our public-sector organisations have, over the decades, been stuffed with political and personal appointees, throwing merit and actual manpower requirements of the organisations to the wind. Yet when it comes to letting go of individuals inducted through improper channels, the process can be problematic. Such a process seems to have started in PIA, where 300 employees have been sacked over the past six months, reportedly for having fake degrees. The national airline took the step due to instructions from the Supreme Court. It is truly disturbing to know that pilots, engineers and air hostesses were apparently hired by the flag carrier without verification of their academic backgrounds. In related news, the National Accountability Bureau is investigating over 700 appointments made ‘illegally’ in the Ministry of Housing and Works during the last PPP government’s rule. Here, too, the rules were apparently violated to induct the appointees.

Without a doubt there is a need to address inductions made through dubious means as not only are these individuals a burden on public enterprises deeply in the red, but inducting people who possess phoney documents means that unqualified individuals are very likely placed in important positions. We hope similar scrutiny of qualifications is carried out in other state-run departments. However, there are two things the government must be mindful of; firstly, the scrutiny of qualifications must not be an excuse to throw hardworking people with sound credentials out of a job in the name of ‘rightsizing’. Secondly, there must be no purges based on political affiliation. For example, qualified individuals must not be thrown out simply on the basis of their political preferences. Yet if people have cheated their way into securing public employment, then they must face action for professional dishonesty. Hopefully these actions will lead to more productive and capable human resources in public organisations.[/LEFT]

[B]07-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]Taliban’s narrative[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]A BASIC, though major, error the government has made in the process of dialogue with the outlawed TTP so far is to entirely ignore the narrative war. As far as the government is concerned anything that reduces the level of violence in the short and medium term is an idea worth pursuing, regardless of other — less tangible, though no less important — consequences for state and society. Consider the ideological war that is being fought through propaganda and intimidation by the TTP. The latest audacious move on that front was creating and putting online a website run by the TTP’s media wing, Umar Media. The website was accessible for part of yesterday before apparently being taken down, but thus far there is little clarity whether the blackout was ordered by authorities here or whether the website has been taken offline for violating the terms of use of a foreign website-hosting company. Either way, the very fact that the TTP decided to publicly announce the creation of an official website indicates that the propaganda war is being taken to the next level by the group.

Why do narratives matter to begin with? Consider how the country has once again arrived at the stage where a government finds it easier to negotiate with than to take on the TTP. Even though it had long become clear that the TTP’s ideology is an intolerant and murderous one, the religious and political right continued to hawk the line that the Taliban were simply conservative patriots who resented Pakistan’s assistance in the war on terror — and that once the state’s allegedly misguided policy was reversed, the militants would lay down their arms. Because that narrative was not effectively or forcefully challenged, it eventually became the starting point for dialogue at all costs — regardless of what the TTP itself said about its goals and intentions.

Now, with violence and intimidation of the media having silenced the most vocal critics of the TTP and the government’s policy of appeasement, there is little left by way of a counter-narrative in the public domain. Whether it is via ideological allies in mainstream politics and the media or directly executed by the TTP itself, the Taliban worldview is the one being aggressively hawked — and the only one that is aggressively competing for the hearts and minds of the public. That one-sided battle can have tremendously dangerous effects because it brings more and more concessions to the TTP into the realm of the acceptable as far as public opinion is concerned. What Pakistanis really need to hear, what the government truly ought to be reinforcing is that Pakistan is a democratic, constitutional polity in which individual rights and freedoms are sacrosanct. The alternative is the Taliban worldview — and, again, it’s practically the only one being projected at the moment.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Climate change consequences[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]FAR too much evidence of climate change and global warming has by now stacked up to allow the naysayers to keep arguing. Mankind and its activities are adversely affecting the planet, and a process of the wipe-out of natural and renewable resources is under way. Many of the consequences of humanity’s polluting activities can no longer be reversed. The only hope lies in the world taking rapid action to slow down the pace of deterioration as far and as soon as possible. If all this sounds apocalypse-like, it is rendered all the more so given the source: in Japan last week, a comprehensive report released by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change blamed “human interference” for climate change, the effects of which “are already occurring on all continents and across the oceans” in a world that is mostly “ill-prepared” for the risks posed by the sweeping changes. As the IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said, “nobody on this planet is going to be untouched….”

The consequences sound like a library of ideas for grand-scale disaster movies: decreased water availability, changes in crop yields, the compromised supply of food and widespread hunger; devastating coastal flooding and inland flooding that will damage big cities; extreme weather occurrences disrupting the supply of some of what many take for granted, such as electricity and running water; increased chances of armed conflicts between nations and communities as a result of water and food scarcities. The list is a long one, and the report says that while humans may be able to adapt to some of these changes, this will only be within limits. Ironically, while it is the developed world that has contributed most to global warming through polluting activities, it is the world’s poorest populations that will suffer the most from rising temperatures and rising seas. And this is where smaller, underdeveloped countries such as Pakistan need to start formulating plans. As we have seen over the past several years, this country is not equipped to handle flooding; food scarcity is already a growing problem; glacier-melt is a reality. These issues will only intensify. The world as a whole needs to think green; countries that are especially vulnerable need to square up to the challenge.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Acts of desperation[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]TO imagine the state of mind of Nizam Mai is to stare madness in the face. In a country where rape is often not reported to even families, let alone the law, her teenaged daughter was determined to seek justice. Even when the main suspect was granted bail last month, the rape victim refused to give up and went to the Bet Mir Hazar police station to lodge a protest. One does not know how the conversation went, but the fact is that she exited the police station, doused herself with petrol, and set herself ablaze. The burns she suffered led to her death, and her desperate act can only be taken as evidence of the level of confidence with which she viewed her chances of getting justice. That her mother complained on Wednesday that pressure was being put on her to drop the case — even though the Supreme Court has taken suo motu notice of it — is a shameful, damning indictment of the state and the priority it affords to women’s rights and safety.

There can be no denying that victims of rape in Pakistan must resort to desperate measures just to draw attention to their plight, let alone hold out any hope for justice. It was just a few days ago, after all, that in Layyah, a rape victim and her mother put themselves in a cage in the forlorn hope that the police might be induced to pursue the investigation with more seriousness. In this case, the suspects had been released at the request of a member of the National Assembly. Will this situation ever improve? Not until this crime is brought out of the shadows and prioritised by the law enforcement and justice systems. Every country that has relentlessly pursued rape cases has seen a drop in the incidence rate; every country where the police has been sensitised to women’s rights has seen improvements. Pakistan’s problem is the fact that the state does not seem interested.[/LEFT]

[B]08-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]Poll model next door[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]THE Indian general election would appear to Pakistanis not only as a huge project, it would also come across as a sharper, more intense, more pluralistic version of the polls held here. The exercise which kicked off on Monday with voting in Assam and Tripura will be completed by May 16.

Opinion polls speak of a Narendra Modi wave and defeat for the Congress. But while the pros and cons of this expected change are a topic of hot debate, the election campaign itself has been characterised by what is the usual fare anywhere in the world, with very few exceptions. The subcontinent’s flavour — the glamour and darker side — has been on full display.

The election is going to cost the Indian politicians approximately $4.9bn — three times more than the expense incurred on the 2009 polls. The candidates could have got away with paying as little as $60m had they abided strictly by the limits set by the Election Commission.

A large part of the resources at the disposal of the political parties — gathered and wrapped in the respectable title of ‘donations’ — has gone into cultivating the new voter in India. Almost 100 million more voters were enrolled this time in comparison to 2009, and the parties are inclined to adopt new ways to woo the new and the old.

Social media has come into excessive use with time, new apps have been fashioned and mobile phones put to innovative use — on a scale proportionate to the size of India’s democracy — to coexist with old modes of sloganeering, where also, professional handling has lent certain sharpness to the fare.

Though some of the colours visible most vividly at poll time are inherent in the multi-hued Indian society, branding and packaging has been at its most intense during the campaign, reflecting the advancements made both in technology and content handling over the years.

The old communists, the secular capitalist, the imam who cannot ask his Muslim followers to vote for the BJP, show diversity. But the contest, as has been the case in Pakistan, is essentially about who can most efficiently run the chosen system, rather than a vehicle to debate any great changes in the system.

In its diversity, the campaign also brings out the most vicious in politicians in a much more experienced India as it always does in a fumbling Pakistan — personal attacks, wild accusations, jingoism.

Eventually, one proof of the efficiency of the Indian model would be just how quickly and smoothly the politicians there are able to emerge from this assault mode after the election and just how naturally they settle down in their respective roles from then on.

That process begins with the acceptance of whatever truth is thrown up by the ballot box — one basic requirement Indians have learnt to fulfil over the decades.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Unpaid telecom dues[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]SUCCESSIVE governments have failed to recover the unpaid proceeds of privatisation of PTCL from Etisalat. This failure is indicative of the sheer helplessness of the Pakistani state, as well as its inability to protect public interest while cutting such deals with private investors.

The government has been showing an outstanding amount of $800m in its budgets since 2006, and has not been able to recover even a dollar from the UAE telecom major that has bought 26pc shareholding in the company and taken over control of its management. Whenever the issue is raised on the floor of the National Assembly or in the Senate, the Ministry of Finance furnishes the same standard reply that the government is ‘persuading’ Etisalat to pay up the money.

It wasn’t any different when PTI’s Dr Arif Alvi demanded the details of the government efforts to recover the withheld money.

At the heart of the dispute is the government’s failure to transfer 43 properties to the PTCL according to the terms in the deal.

The government is finding it difficult to transfer these properties because some are under litigation and others are in the possession of private parties. When the PML-N government came to power in June last year it was confident it would resolve the matter before the end of this fiscal and recover the money owed by the buyer.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has had a meeting with the Etisalat management last winter and also requested the UAE rulers to mediate on behalf of Islamabad. But his effort has so far not produced any result. The deal cannot be undone, it seems, as the privatisation rules framed in 2003 prohibit its scrutiny.

So what next? The matter is unlikely to be resolved unless the conditions agreed upon are met by Islamabad or the issue is taken up with the buyer through diplomatic channels. Nor is it likely that Etisalat will be forced to pay up the money the government requires badly to cut its budget deficit.

Nevertheless, the government can hold the officials responsible who had helped seal the deal as suggested by Dr Alvi. Also, it can put in place safeguards to avoid a repeat of the mistakes in future privatisation transactions.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Sri Lanka’s victory[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]SRI LANKA’S magnificent six-wicket win over India in the ICC World T20 final in Dhaka on Sunday has yet again established their credentials as worthy champions of the T20 format. In what can be described as a mature performance from a highly professional outfit, the Lankans completely outplayed the hitherto unbeaten squad of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in front of a packed crowd of over 40,000 people to win their first World T20 title.

Lasith Malinga’s men first restricted India’s studded batting line-up to a paltry 130 and then knocked off the required runs with more than two overs to spare.

The victory was, indeed, a fitting send-off to their two stalwarts, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, who were playing their last T20 game. Sangakkara, in fact, overcame a patchy tournament to hit a fabulous half century in the final and win the Man of the Match award. To their credit, the Sri Lankans never dithered from their path in this fiercely contested tournament.

They remained undeterred by Alex Hales’ blistering run charge that led England to a shock win over them in the league round clash and then came out stronger from the one-match suspension of their skipper Dinesh Chandimal to beat the West Indies in a crucial match and qualify for the semifinals.

Sri Lanka’s recipe for success in the event has been their consistency and quietly confident way of going about things.

They have been inspired, too, by the presence of consultant Sanath Jayasuriya and batting coach Marvan Atapattu, both legendary figures of Sri Lankan cricket, who have worked tirelessly with the players to make them a mentally strong bunch. In the final analysis, we feel that Pakistan has a lot to learn from Sri Lankan cricket.

To begin with, we must reorganise school cricket, which has served Sri Lanka tremendously in the past several decades. Also, there is nothing egotistical about the islanders’ cricket which is such a contrast to our set-up where personalities have always been bigger than the game.[/LEFT]

[B]09-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]A veiled warning?[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]ONCE more the country finds itself in a situation where an army chief is pushing back publicly against unnecessary and theatrical political attacks by senior government ministers. Once some of these politicians had decided, for apparently ill-thought-out reasons, to resort to politicising in public the trial of Pervez Musharraf, the risk was that the army leadership would pounce on the ministers’ and sundry other politicians’ comments to question the validity of a trial the army as an institution is reportedly uncomfortable with. But it was an explicit decision by the army leadership to push back publicly. Hence, the army leadership must share the blame for either moving in the direction of a political crisis or indulging in needless theatre at a time when the country should be focused on other challenges. Inadvisable as it was for ministers and sundry politicians to pre-judge the trial of Mr Musharraf, it was for the special court or the senior judiciary to set the record straight and send a firm signal that a trial would be a sombre legal process and would not descend into political theatre. That the army chief himself has chosen to wade into the issue — and in typical military style, without explicitly mentioning Mr Musharraf, the trial or even the allegedly offensive comments — is truly extraordinary. The Pakistan in which Gen Raheel Sharif became army chief last year was supposed to be very different to the one his predecessor had become chief in. The transition to democracy is supposed to be well on track, with a national consensus that elected governments with uninterrupted terms are the only way ahead, as manifested in the historic voter turnout last May. Surely, there is nothing in Gen Sharif’s comments on Monday that buttresses the democratic project or the constitutional order of things. In fact, there should be no reason for an army chief to be seen to put institutional self-interest and self-preservation ahead of the national consensus that elected politicians must lead and that their decisions will be judged at election time.

If Gen Sharif’s comments and the ISPR’s decision to publicise them were inadvisable, that still leaves unexplained the intentions behind the comments. In a polity where perceptions seem to matter more than outcomes, it is possible that the comments were intended only to placate the wider army leadership and the rank and file that the institution’s image of itself and its standing with the public would be protected. Perhaps Monday’s unhappy episode will have no effect on whether Mr Musharraf’s trial will go ahead or if he’ll be allowed to leave Pakistan. But the warning shots have been fired and this could cause civil-military tensions.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Restive Balochistan[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]NOT long after the provincial government’s claim that law and order had improved, violence in Balochistan has once again intensified. On Monday, security forces claimed to have killed more than 30 militants in the districts of Khuzdar and Kalat. The province’s home minister says the militants belonged to banned organisations and were involved in attacks on trains and the security forces, and in bomb blasts. A day later, on Tuesday, there was yet another bomb explosion, on Jafar Express at Sibi — which was immediately condemned in official and non-official forums. However, the situation demands much more than that. The incidents over the last two days indicate persistent and heightened danger for the administration as well as for the people at large who, like those on Jafar Express, are at risk of being caught in the crossfire. This is also a clear sign of lack of progress on the part of the elected government in Balochistan, and at the centre. All those promises of representative rule opening up avenues to dialogue leading to a durable solution are fast turning out to be hollow. If anything, the militant strikes are strengthening the impression that militant outfits are wayward groups whose objective is to terrorise and not to ensure their just rights.

In fact, the needed dialogue is as distant as Balochistan is to Pakistanis living outside the province. There are no signs of even the first few steps being taken. Meanwhile, the information from Balochistan is still taken as if it pertains to incidents happening a long way away from the Pakistani mainstream. Even Quetta, in many instances, appears administratively and politically cut off from the scene of violence. While there may be other places in the country that do not yield easily to inquiries, rights groups say no area, not even parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where militancy has been raging for many years now, are as much under wraps as some districts in Balochistan. This screen has to be lifted as a prerequisite to addressing the suspicions. The militants must be seen. The campaign against them must be transparent. The options must be debated and weighed before one is preferred over the others.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Hidden potential[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]THERE is good news from the football field as Pakistan’s team finished third at the Street Child World Cup held recently in Rio de Janeiro, beating the US 3-2 on penalties. While success has mostly eluded Pakistani footballers at the international level, the achievement of the youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds has strengthened hopes that local players can deliver in the beautiful game. The SCWC, organised and supported by different multilateral non-profit organisations, aims to provide avenues for growth to youths from disadvantaged backgrounds through sports and art. The young sportsmen returned home on Tuesday to Karachi to a rapturous welcome. Interestingly, while most of these children had been forgotten by society before gaining recognition through football, with many falling into the abyss of drugs and crime, on Tuesday politicians and officials lined up to get their photos taken with the lads. The Pakistan Football Federation has also taken notice, announcing a cash reward for the players and promising to train them. It is hoped that after the hype dies down, these young players continue to receive attention in order to develop their football skills and get an education.

The success of the boys in Rio points to two things. Firstly, if football and other sports are patronised and talented youngsters are given training and encouragement, they can perform at the international level. As it is, cricket receives the lion’s share of resources in Pakistan, with most other sports left neglected. The PFF is said to be setting up academies across Pakistan to train young footballers; let us hope these institutions can groom youngsters so that they can represent Pakistan professionally. Secondly, the boys’ performance shows that if given the chance to pursue constructive, healthy activities, children from poverty- and crime-stricken areas can also shine. All these children need is an opportunity that will enable them to leave the streets and discover their potential. Who knows, perhaps one day a Pelé or Maradona may rise from the streets of Karachi or Quetta.[/LEFT]

[B]10-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]System in disarray[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]TWO major blasts on two consecutive days in Islamabad and Sibi have once more brought to the fore the helplessness of the state in the face of frontal assaults by militants. Both attacks involved soft targets — the Jaffar Express in Sibi and a vegetable market in the capital. The proscribed United Baloch Army, a separatist group, has claimed responsibility — reportedly as a response to security operations in different parts of Balochistan — for both incidents in which ordinary men, women and children died. While there is reason to doubt the veracity of the claim in the case of Islamabad, given that Baloch militants from various proscribed groups have so far limited their attacks to targets in Balochistan, if indeed the UBA is involved, it marks the advent of a dangerous trend: the war against the state by Baloch militants is being extended beyond provincial boundaries.

On the other hand, even though no claim has been forthcoming so far from religiously inspired militant groups, the possibility of one of them carrying out the Islamabad attack cannot be discounted. The outlawed TTP may have condemned the Islamabad blast, which took place a day before the Taliban-declared ceasefire ended. But going by other attacks that have occurred after the militants entered into talks with the government and that were claimed by extremist splinter groups, the likelihood remains that the market blast was the work of one of them. In fact in theory the attack could also be the handiwork of groups other than the Baloch militants or religious extremists.

In all this murkiness regarding the perpetrators and their motives, what is tellingly clear is the government’s inability to tackle militancy — from the first step of intelligence-gathering to coming up with measures to put an end to the growing violence in the country. No one in government is addressing the key questions regarding counterterrorism. Even the basics of counter-insurgency don’t appear right. For example, the National Counter Terrorism Authority— the front-line agency designed to deal with the terror threat — is tied up in legal wrangles and for all practical purposes is dormant. At the other end, the security establishment is not learning from its mistakes so that it could evolve an effective and cohesive counterterrorism strategy. The state is lurching from one incident to the other in confusion, which is not limited to strategy but also includes its muddled narrative regarding militancy. The state must now ask itself some hard questions: does the counterterrorism infrastructure have the capabilities to neutralise the threat, and if not what is being done to remedy this? In short, unless the state focuses on the terror threat with clarity, militants of various stripes will continue to run circles around it.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Healthcare shortcomings[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]HEALTHCARE in the country has expanded in leaps if one is to go by the number of ribbons cut to inaugurate hospitals and clinics. But this expansion, accompanied by greater awareness and availability of technology, does not always translate into safer treatment for patients. A report in this paper recently brought out the contrast between expansion — in size and in numbers — and the situation in the public-sector and privately run hospitals regarding the provision of critical care. The report focused on Punjab and pointed out that a large number of privately run hospitals as also big public-sector names did not have a sufficient number of intensive care beds. WHO recommends at least one ICU bed to 50 beds in a general ward, and one nurse assigned to every patient in ICU. Many of the hospitals surveyed were lacking these ‘luxuries’. And if there were a few privately run hospitals where better care could be ensured, often at prices out of most people’s reach, it is common knowledge that in a much larger number of private clinics intensive care units exist but in name only, limited as they are to a sign hung outside a dark, sad-looking room in some obscure corner of the hospital.

The need is to look deep inside and make a list of all that is missing, all that is so crucial to saving lives, and is taken as a given in other countries. The evidence demands some emergency remedies, which are not forthcoming. Specifically in Punjab, progress towards institutionalised monitoring of hospitals is yet to begin as the recently set up healthcare commission tasked with the job is yet to effectively take charge of the situation. There are no citizen groups methodically bringing out the problems at hospitals, though there is always quite a lot of noise created by the public. The government wants to be seen to be doing some good in an area crowded with suffering people, but it hasn’t been able to move beyond the more visible health issues such as outbreaks of illnesses. Unless it evolves a system to keep a constant watch on hospitals, both public-sector and private, those in need of intensive care will go on being unattended.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Locker heist[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]THE confusion that has ensued after the looting of over 50 lockers in Karachi has thrown up challenges in the sector that may well be systemic, requiring a thorough overhaul and stringent regulation. On Sunday, six armed men overpowered the lone security guard at the locker facility of a private bank in Soldier Bazaar. After an eight-hour operation involving specialist equipment, they walked away with all the contents of the strongboxes, including cash, jewellery and valuable documents. Aghast, the holders of the lockers staged a protest demanding the prompt recovery of their assets — even though the success rates of investigations into earlier bank robberies, 10 of them this year alone, have been woefully low.

Their troubles, though, had only just begun. It soon emerged that the facility had not been under the direct management of the bank but of the employees’ foundation subsidiary to it — a technicality that meant that as far as the police were concerned, it could be treated as just an ordinary theft. And this technicality had further ramifications. By design, what is put into such safekeeping facilities is undisclosed and its value is never made known. It is for this very reason that under State Bank guidelines, banks offer a flat ‘act of God’ insurance depending on the size of the lockers rented out. But because this particular facility was not under the bank’s direct management, it seems that this rule does not apply either. What, then, are those who have lost valuables to do? On Tuesday, the employees’ foundation said it would provide compensation — but provided no clarity on how this would be done. It is entirely likely that the matter might linger on for a long time. While those who have lost their belongings deserve sympathy, this should be taken as a clarion call to regulate locker facilities in the country’s increasingly insecure climate. It is appalling that people depositing valuables in ostensibly safe facilities, in trust, can be let down in this way.[/LEFT]

[B]11-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]TTP’s somersault[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]THE Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has never hesitated to own, in fact flaunt, the terror campaign it has been waging for years. Now suddenly, the banned outfit has staged a somersault, terming the killings of civilians un-Islamic and ‘haram’. In a statement issued on Wednesday, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that killing civilians was illegal and claimed that a hidden hand was behind the recent atrocities in Islamabad and Sibi. Two questions come to mind: if we are to accept the absurd notion that killings are to be categorised as Islamic and un-Islamic, who is going to judge? Two, must it take the slaughter of 50,000 people, an overwhelming majority of whom were civilians, for the TTP to wake up, express a bit of remorse and try to find a scapegoat in the two recent acts of terror in Sibi and Islamabad?

Ever since it began its killing campaign, the TTP never wavered from its rigid two-pronged policy about acts of terror: it either had no shame in claiming responsibility for acts of mass murder, or at best chose to keep quiet. The Taliban’s victims have included children in school vans, the faithful at prayer, patients in hospitals, mourners at funerals, peacemakers at jirgas, pilgrims in buses, devotees at shrines, civilians in religious processions, political activists at rallies and media persons on duty. Those murdered or maimed for life have included men and women of all age, and Pakistanis of all professions — doctors tending patients and judges administering justice. They have not spared the ulema: Maulana Fazlur Rahman survived two attempts on his life, and they succeeded in killing Mufti Naeemi of Lahore because he dared to condemn their criminality behind the facade of jihad.

The list of the militants’ acts is too long to be mentioned, but some cold-blooded acts of carnage need to be recalled. For instance, to kill the then interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, a suicide bomber blew himself up at an Eid congregation in Charsadda, on Dec 21, 2007, killing 56 people. Again, on Dec 4, 2009, to kill a major general, militants attacked a mosque in Rawalpindi murdering 40 people, including 16 children, and they had no qualms when they fire-bombed the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Sept 20, 2008, killing 40 people at iftar time. They also need to be reminded that the beheading of captured soldiers was a barbaric act in violation of Islamic laws. The TTP’s now saying that the murder of civilians is un-Islamic is hypocrisy of the highest order. Nevertheless, this is not the end of the story, and the people will watch how the TTP behaves in the future and whether the sentiments expressed by its spokesman signal a change of heart or words uttered out of expediency.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Tax focus on lawmakers[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]evading taxes, providing ‘a bad example’ for taxpayers in the country. The recent publication by the Federal Board of Revenue of the first-ever directory on taxes filed by elected public representatives has done little to improve their image. Whatever details about the tax history of representatives of the people today has so far been made public by the FBR or by the Election Commission shows that a significant number of them do not pay taxes — other than the amount deducted at source from their salaries — nor file returns. Many haven’t even bothered to get their National Tax Number and the lifestyle of a majority of them doesn’t quite correspond to the taxes they pay. This is not expected of them even if we have a history of weak enforcement of tax laws and less than 1pc of our population filing returns.

Against this backdrop, the National Assembly’s decision to accept a motion, requiring the constitution of a house committee to investigate growing allegations of tax evasion by parliamentarians should help clear the air and fill the coffers a bit. The motion, tabled by a PTI leader, was ‘killed’ twice not very long ago and was admitted this time around quite reluctantly. Though most members — from the treasury and opposition benches — supported the move, a few from the ruling party didn’t quite like the idea. Indeed, many politicians consider the ‘propaganda’ of tax evasion against them part of a campaign to malign them. They rightly ask why the media doesn’t focus on other sections of society — generals, judges, businessmen, lawyers and journalists among them — whose lifestyle also doesn’t match the taxes they pay. But they must understand that the media focus returns to them every now and then because of two reasons: one, they represent the people of Pakistan and, thus, should maintain a public image as law-abiding citizens; two, as lawmakers they are supposed to make tax and other laws that affect the common people. How can they expect a man on the street to follow the laws they make if their own image is tainted? Everybody must appear equal before the law. After parliamentarians, others could also be subjected to similar investigations by the FBR.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]False strokes[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]APART from Pakistan cricket’s internal matters, there is much focus still on the issue of the Big-3 — India, England and Australia — dominating the running of the game. The popular Pakistani sentiment against this domination was reflected in the reaction here after the recent T-20 tournament in Bangladesh. Sri Lanka’s win against India in the final, and the fact that neither England nor Australia could turn in a strong performance was celebrated in popular discourse as a defeat for the Big-3. At the other end from this open dislike for the unsporting coming together of the troika is positioned the Pakistan Cricket Board under the leadership of Najam Sethi, who has been found sulking over how Zaka Ashraf as PCB chairman had missed the opportunity to claim a share in the power and riches that the Big-3 are set to enjoy.

Just before going off to a meeting of the International Cricket Council in Dubai which concluded yesterday, Mr Sethi had come up with the latest in his series of disclosures. He said that, at one point, Pakistan had an offer to join the big club, implying that if the PCB, then under Mr Ashraf, had played it right, Pakistan could have joined the dominant powers and there could well have been a Big-4 group in control today. All this talk could have been an attempt by the PCB boss to bring down public expectations by relating the tough circumstances he had been placed in by a ‘blundering’ Zaka Ashraf. Alternatively, it would appear Mr Sethi isn’t in a positive enough frame of mind. He must plead Pakistan’s case and market its potential in the best possible way, and a defensive, apologetic, approach is not advisable. It is good that the PCB has had reassurances of engagement at the latest meeting in Dubai — in return for Pakistan reposing trust in the Big-3. The point is that it is Pakistan competing for the best deal and not a contest between Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf.[/LEFT]

[B]12-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]Recovery — for now[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]THE injection of a few billion dollars by Saudi Arabia and global investors, and Pakistan seems to be racing towards a quick ‘economic recovery’ that was hard to imagine only a couple of months ago. The rupee has battered its American counterpart like anything ever since Riyadh ‘gifted’ $1.5bn in February/March. Islamabad’s successful launch of dual tranche Eurobonds — as dollar bonds are known outside the US — worth $2bn after its long absence of seven years from the international debt market has provided fresh impetus to the rupee. The greenback sold for Rs96.30 in the interbank market on Friday. Sellers with dollar holdings again queued up to pull down the reserve currency’s prices in the open market to Rs97.50.

Bulls are on the rampage in the country’s capital markets as the benchmark KSE-100 index is venturing into unknown territory every morning. Foreign fund managers are also returning to Karachi to invest heavily in equities in spite of risks that a frontier market presents. The external account is now in much better shape as the trade deficit has somewhat narrowed and remittances by overseas Pakistanis have grown by 12pc during the first three quarters of the financial year. The drubbing the dollar has received at the hands of the rupee over the last couple of months appears to have failed to dampen the enthusiasm of Pakistanis working abroad. There’s a significant build-up in the State Bank’s reserves to almost $7bn, or equal to slightly less than two months’ import cover, after the Eurobond flotation, from less than $3bn only a few months ago. It will, indeed, reduce risks to the economy, provide the government space for fiscal and balance-of-payments financing and reduce its inflationary borrowings from the SBP. The expected flow of multilateral dollars for development and sale of spectrum licence before the next budget will further strengthen the external account and help bridge the budget deficit and cause the exchange rate to appreciate further.

But what next? The 10pc revaluation has caused massive losses to exporters, whose margins, in rupee terms, have drastically reduced, spawning demands for compensatory rebates on exports to help them absorb the exchange rate impact. The rupee is likely to remain stable even if it does not appreciate going forward. The government needs to bring down the input costs, especially of electricity and oil, to mitigate the effects of the rising exchange rate on exports. Given the fact that the Saudi gift and Eurobond cash are one-off flows, future stability of the currency will largely hinge on our efforts to increase our exports. Therefore, the government should find a way to cut the cost of doing business to protect its exports and the economic gains it has made so far.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Paved with high hopes[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]NAWAZ Sharif’s speech at the Boao forum on Thursday may sound idealistic at places, but elements of it deserve attention for crafting and implementing realistic policies that could give results. This task involves not just Pakistan but all regional countries that stand to benefit from a revival of the Silk Road. However, given the harsh realities of the current geopolitical situation in the Silk Road region, many of the prime minister’s nostrums for reviving the legendary route sound academic. At issue is the regional powers’ resolve, or lack of it, to take the challenges head on and overcome them by mutual cooperation in the interest of their peoples at a time when the focus of the world’s economic power is shifting from the West to the East. As he put it correctly, the revival of the Silk Road in this age of passports, visas and customs manuals required ingenuity if we were to turn into reality what he called Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “visionary” concept of the route given at the Boao forum last year.

Mr Sharif himself focused on “cohesive laws” for ensuring easy movement of men and material and managing taxation policies, besides developing infrastructure and ensuing convertibility of currencies.

While a revival of the route will help all regional countries, Pakistan occupies a key position because of its location, which could enable it to serve as an economic corridor between China, Central Asia and the Middle East. More importantly, as the prime minister pointed out, Pakistan also has a southern extension of the route in the form of the ports of Karachi and Gwadar. Unfortunately, this corridor cannot see the light of day unless Pakistan removes the biggest obstacle in the way — terrorism. The potential for this corridor to become a growth engine for Pakistan and the region is enormous. But the insurgency in Balochistan and acts of terror in the northwest constitute a major challenge for Islamabad. Thousands of Chinese experts are working in Pakistan on development projects, and they expect security. However, many Chinese have been kidnapped and killed by terrorists of all shades. Without waging a concerted war on terrorism, the economic corridor between Xinjiang and Gwadar will remain a dream.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Obsession with grades[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]THE elephant in the room, it would seem, has finally managed to get itself noticed: students and their parents are becoming overly obsessed with higher grades in examinations. What lends this observation significance is the fact that it was made by the chief executive of the Cambridge International Examination system, Michael O’Sullivan, speaking recently in Lahore after attending the Cambridge Schools’ Conference. Teachers are also excessively focused on training students to score higher grades, he added, pointing out that “this is not an ideal learning experience” since, besides other adverse impacts, students studying for longer hours would be missing physical and cultural activities. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that high grades and excessive competitiveness do not necessarily translate to higher achievements, more personal fulfilment or greater societal contributions in later life. Indeed, there are indications of the reverse, for rarely does life come in as black-and-white terms as an examination paper. Further, there are studies suggesting that the over-emphasis on grades leads students to view examinations, and by association, learning, as a system that must be cracked, instead of as a process of acquiring information and honing the tools that help to make the best use of it.

It is to be hoped that the CIE does go on to limit, as Mr O’Sullivan said, the tendency to focus solely on grades by designing examination papers that force students to develop their thinking skills as well as their ability to analyse and apply knowledge. The system of education prevalent in our times has come under fire often for churning out technicians rather than thinkers; what the world needs most are the latter who can come up with out-of-the-box solutions for myriad, growing challenges. Pakistan, meanwhile, could see its own challenges in terms of education as an opportunity. Even as we struggle to put every child in school, we must be mindful that in building an education system bottom-up, we have the opportunity to re-imagine it.[/LEFT]

[B]13-04-2014[/B]

[B][CENTER]CJ’s remarks[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]ON Friday, in a speech to mark the retirement of a judge of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Tassaduq Jillani touched upon an important issue that has unhappily received far too little attention for far too long in the country. It is worth reproducing portions of the two paragraphs that CJ Jillani devoted to the tensions between security for the collective and the rights of the individual: “While fighting terrorism and protecting democracy, we need to strike a proper balance between the conflicting values and principles i.e. the value of security of the state and individual rights… The court in its endeavour to strike a balance between the conflicting values often attracts criticism from both sides.” What is remarkable about CJ Jillani’s comments is how, a decade since the state mobilised the army to fight militancy, so little has been said about this most fundamental of issues. And when the issue has appeared on the periphery of the national conversation, it has often been cast as a battle for national survival versus desirable, but ultimately negotiable, rights of the individual.

In that sense, that is a disservice to the Pakistani people. States that wage wars, even against internal threats, and states that have a profound and abiding respect for constitutionally guaranteed rights of the individual, are not mutually incompatible. Indeed, the overwhelming, fear-based focus on the security aspect of the equation — why, for example, should those accused of violence against state and society be afforded the same rights as everyone else? — tends to overshadow the very real and long-term effects it has on state institutions and their regard for the people and public they ostensibly serve. Neither is the debate a theoretical one. If the law-enforcement and judicial apparatus in Lahore can accuse a baby of attempted murder in this day and age, how much of a leap of the imagination does it take to understand what individuals can suffer in more remote areas with little media or public scrutiny?

The problem is not that there is no trade-off possible at all, but how best to achieve it from a rights perspective. While Chief Justice Jillani rightly spoke of the tensions between those two principles, what he did not elaborate on is how democratic and open societies wracked by organised, political or militant violence have met the challenge elsewhere. Surely, if the state’s answer to the militant threat is the Orwellian-named Protection of Pakistan Ordinance that seeks to indefinitely jail suspects as opposed to try them, then the state is on the wrong side of the rights equation. Why always blame human rights advocates for tying the state’s hands instead of focusing on what the state can do within the confines of the law and the Constitution? Surely, the foundation of the rule of law cannot be a do-whatever-it-takes approach.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]JUI-F’s exit[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]HE who can split up with everyone can unite with just about anyone. Maulana Fazlur Rehman possesses such a remarkable ability to fit in any governmental set-up that his watchers have run out of adjectives to hail his consistency. He was an ally of the PPP government which he walked away from, going on to secure a reasonable presence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in last year’s general election. Post-poll, his energies were focused on hitting out at the PTI, the new party he had to contend with. The maulana appeared keen to knock over the PTI and was aiming at forming a coalition in KP with the PML-N, the party in power at the centre and thus worthy of a partnership with the JUI-F. Until now Mian Nawaz Sharif has not shown any inclination to try out Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s option against the PTI. Nevertheless, it speaks volumes for Maulana Sahib’s skill that he managed to get two ministries — though without portfolios — from a government with many members in the house.

The JUI-F has now ‘decided’ to leave the government because of disagreement “on major national issues”. While the party doesn’t say what these important issues are, it has not been happy over the government’s habit of not even maintaining the pretence of consultation with allies. Other issues could be the non-assignment of portfolios to JUI-F ministers, the importance given to Maulana Samiul Haq, Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s rival, in the context of talks with the outlawed Taliban, and, of course, the centre’s tolerance of the PTI government in KP. Whatever the reasons, many will be hoping — perhaps against hope — that these differences will wean the JUI-F away from the treasury. The PML-N enjoys a big majority in the National Assembly and it has many of its own prominent names to flaunt. The JUI-F’s being in the opposition (though this appears unlikely) could somewhat correct the parliamentary balance. The maulana has tried the arrangement where he is in the government and yet is free to walk out of the house if and when he pleases. It’s time to attempt the opposite: be in the opposition and ready to support the government’s good steps. Who knows, in the process, the maulana might get rid of the reputation of being power-hungry.[/LEFT]

[B][CENTER]Religious tourism[/CENTER][/B]

[LEFT]GIVEN the violence being unleashed in Pakistan today in the name of religion, it may seem ironic that in many quarters the desire is to see the country’s environment improved so that followers of other faiths may visit places that hold religious significance for them. The location and history of the land that today constitutes Pakistan is such that it has important sites related to Islam and other world religions. There are Sufi shrines and mosques that merit a visit, not least of them Lahore’s architecturally remarkable Badshahi Mosque and the Wazir Khan Masjid. There are churches and places of worship that have been recognised for their beautiful design. While there are places of interest to Buddhists in primarily what now constitutes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab has several shrines central to Sikhism, including the Gurdwara Punja Sahib. A reminder of this came as recently as Wednesday, when some 3,000 Indian Sikh yatris crossed the Wagah border to participate in the Besakhi festival celebrations. Welcomed to the country by the president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbanthak Committee and its senior officials, during their 10-day stay the yatris will visit several places that are of relevance to Sikhism.

There is a great measure of cruel irony in the fact that a land that has been called home by people of so many of the world’s religions is now beset with the sort of problems that are today’s unpalatable reality. Could Pakistan sort out its security and other related issues, there would be plenty of potential to be mined. In the context of tourism, the most talked about avenue of attraction is perhaps the beauty of the country’s north, where until quite recently places such as Swat and Gilgit attracted large numbers of national and international tourists. In addition, there is potential in what has been called ‘religious tourism’, or offering to people access to places of pilgrimage, which, if exploited properly, could also attract students of history.[/LEFT]