Replacing NAB

IN an unexpected but welcome move, the federal government has taken to parliament once again the issue of replacing the National Accountability Bureau with a new statutory body to combat corruption among holders of public office.

While the NAB still limps on — on Tuesday, its executive board has announced investigations into, among other issues, allegations of corruption by the chairman of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, a former chairman of the Competition Commission of Pakistan and officials of the sales tax department — it is a body that for all intents and purposes no longer has either the moral mandate or necessary financial and legal resources to combat corruption and promote accountability at the national level.

That the PML-N has announced it wants a consensus inside parliament on the new accountability law will further boost hopes for a fair, transparent and powerful new accountability commission, especially if parties such as the PTI are also brought on board.

There remains, though, a gap between what the government, and the PPP, says it wants to do and what it may end up doing. In the last parliament, where the PPP and PML-N’s roles were reversed, there were at least two attempts to replace the moribund NAB with a new statutory accountability organisation but, after most of the details had been extensively negotiated on, neither the PPP nor the PML-N seemed quite able to get the job done.

While both sides will contend that it was less a disagreement over fundamentals and more about how the new organisation should be structured that thwarted a final agreement, the suspicion remains that the two parties were unable to resolve their differences because ultimately it was not in their interest to do so, and clearly was never a priority.

Will this time be any different? The PTI, if it does return to the National Assembly as seems likely, could be another complicating factor, now. While the PTI’s input could lead to a more muscular and independent accountability commission, the party has a tendency to undermine negotiations with its abrasive approach.

It remains to be seen whether the cooperative PTI or the populist, politician-baiting PTI will appear at the negotiating table — if the government does move ahead with the new bill presented in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Finally, there is a broader issue here: much as an accountability commission is needed, that very need suggests the system itself requires overhaul.

Be it the judicial system, checks and balances within government departments or the regulatory framework for how government and the private sector interact, little works as it should — which is why accountability is such an overarching issue.

How much would corruption be reduced and accountability promoted if the normal systems of oversight were also to be strengthened? Parliament would do well by looking beyond just creating a new accountability commission.

LNG muddle

THE first shipment of imported LNG should be landing in a few days, yet the negotiations with the Qataris still seem to be continuing.

The recent visit by the emir of Qatar was expected to clear up the issues that are holding up the agreement, but going by the statements coming from the authorities in the wake of the visit, it hasn’t. It appears, going by the reluctance on the part of the government to discuss the matter, that the price remains to be set.

This is a serious issue, and is already showing early signs of becoming politicised. What is even more serious, though, is the evident lack of planning and preparation for the project.

This is especially difficult to fathom considering the great fanfare with which the government announced the project, and the great hopes it seemed to pin on it.

The project has been struck by delays for almost a decade now, from court challenges to the inability of the previous government to implement a tendering process.

But today the delays look like they will be on account of something so basic as an inability to plan and meet deadlines. Not only that, delays this time will mean capacity charges, which are substantial.

So why has an agreement on long-term supplies eluded the government thus far? There is little to no word from the ministry of petroleum about the crucial questions hanging over the project at a crucial moment, in contrast to the celebratory rhetoric in which they wrapped the project in its early days.

In all likelihood, the long-term arrangement will materialise soon — although it must be added that there is no firm basis for believing so. But the delay, the last-minute nature of the whole effort to finalise the deal before the capacity charges kick in, is another reminder of how the government is largely muddling through most of its initiatives.

This was true of the Gadani power park, which has been shelved, and it is true of the coal conversion in power generation. Once LNG imports get under way, whenever that is, it’s very likely that there will be continuing loose ends being tied up on a last-minute basis in matters such as transmission pricing and allocations. The project which ought to have been an emblem of this government’s success appears instead to be turning into an emblem of its lack of competence.

Misbah hits out

THE outgoing Pakistan skipper is in the mood. At a media briefing in Lahore on Tuesday upon his return from the World Cup campaign, Misbah-ul-Haq picked up from where he had left off in the quarter-final game against the Australians.

Just as uncharacteristically as he had broken the calm by stepping out to try and heave Glenn Maxwell out of the stadium in his last one-day international innings, Captain Cool decided that it was time he furnished some crisp answers to his critics.

Without being too loud and without naming names, he was aggressive and quite a lot of what he said made sense. It doesn’t take too deep an inquiry to establish that much of what was said against — and not so much about — him or his team in the media reeked, if not of personal vendetta, then of a propensity to be sensational.

His target was undoubtedly some ex-cricketers looking to build careers as critics in a competitive market sustained by the Pakistani passion for the game.

Misbah has been pulled up for being ungrateful to the media, by and large. Whereas he has been brutally reminded of the huge role the media does play in advertising the game and the players, indeed there has been some debate about how it is a two-way avenue now: under the new rules, the one who is under attack has a more recognised right of response today than was the case in the past.

The trend is reflected in how strongly ‘accused’ cricketers elsewhere have asserted their right to reply in recent times. The Pakistan team had gone about their World Cup expedition like a group put on trial.

Pakistanis must now show generosity even if some are a little perturbed by some of the reactions by the outgoing ODI captain. The criticism must always continue — about what Misbah lacked as player and captain — just as his rebuttal should in no way prevent recognition of his contribution to national cricket.


Published in Dawn March 26th, 2015

Forgotten war

REPORTS that the military has presented to a tribal jirga of elders from North Waziristan an eight-page document setting out the terms under which IDPs can return to their homes in some parts of the agency has brought some welcome coverage, even if tangential, to what is rapidly becoming a forgotten war.

As Operation Khyber-II and the operation in Karachi dominate, it seems a lifetime ago that Operation Zarb-i-Azb was initiated amidst claims and rumours that it was to be the biggest, most decisive of all counter-insurgency operations attempted by the military.



In fact, that lifetime was just nine months ago. It is also not the first time that a military operation has been launched amidst a torrent of official propaganda before quietly slipping off the public agenda. Consider that before North Waziristan, there was South Waziristan.

And before South Waziristan, there was Swat. What’s common to all these places is that relevant, verifiable information dries up, the military’s presence is extended indefinitely and the local populations struggle to return to their normal, pre-insurgency lives.

In the latest case of the military requiring some North Waziristan tribes to pledge, among other things, to keep out militants from their areas before IDPs are allowed to return home, what is particularly disturbing is that the military, via the Fata administrative apparatus, is effectively seeking to return to the pre-insurgency status quo of the FCR, collective punishment and the jirga system.

Not only does that suggest that the very idea of Fata reforms has indefinitely been put on hold, it also suggests a fundamental misreading of what led to the unprecedented insurgency in Fata over the last decade and a half.

Specifically, while the war in Afghanistan, the state reliance on proxies and the growing radical Islamist discourse in the country were all contributing factors, Fata has been on fire because it has been for all intents and purposes kept as a buffer zone between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a no-man’s land meant to extend Pakistan’s influence into Afghanistan and prevent Afghan influence from radiating into Pakistan proper.

While the immediate priority in Fata has to be to tamp down militancy and recover all territory under control of militants, no strategy to achieve that will succeed if it does not factor in long-term considerations. Fata needs to be reformed and, administratively and legally, made like much of the rest of Pakistan — not returned to the anachronism it has always been.

As for the rest, with independent, verifiable information from North Waziristan all but impossible and the state, both civilian and military wings of it, seemingly preoccupied with new issues, there needs to be some political pressure — from parliament, through the media or perhaps even civil society — to prise more information from the state about what is happening in North Waziristan.

An information blackout is contrary to the public interest.

Circular debt again

ONCE again, the government has tripped up on the circular debt. In a written statement in response to a question asked in the National Assembly on Thursday, the water and power minister confirmed that the total amount under circular debt is at Rs258bn as of end February, whereas the receivables of the Discos are Rs552bn.

The reasons he gave for the return of the issue were familiar: problems in recoveries, failure to pass through markup costs on outstanding payables to consumers and delays in tariff determination and notification. Of these, the attempt to have consumers pay the markup on payables deserves to be resisted strenuously.


The least-convincing part of the minister’s answer was on the steps being taken to tackle the problem. We’re promised a concerted recovery effort, and the imposition of a Debt Recovery Surcharge “to ensure repayment of loans” taken out to pay Discos’ liabilities to private power producers.

Additionally, we’re promised some amount of technical upgrades to reduce line losses. In other reports, there are signs that NAB is going to be made party to power sector recoveries once again, as it was a number of years ago, but with little idea on how the process will be made effective this time.

Last time, NAB was unable to recover any more than Rs5bn or so, out of the total recoverables more than 10 times that amount. The problem was not in the lack of capacity to force payment. The problem was in faulty billing, and rectifying that appears to be beyond the capacity of the power bureaucracy.

A Debt Recovery Surcharge is just another way of passing the cost of interest on outstanding payables to consumers, except that by calling it a surcharge the approval of the regulator is no longer required.

It can be implemented by executive order, like an SRO, instead. Upgrading the technical apparatus of transmission and distribution is a good measure, but it will prove highly unequal to the task of increasing the number of billed units and recoveries.

All of the steps mentioned by the minister, except for the surcharge, should be implemented, but it also needs to be acknowledged that the power bureaucracy will never be able to solve this problem.

For a lasting fix to the problem of power-sector mismanagement, which is in large measure the cause behind the circular debt, the role of the bureaucracy needs to be reduced dramatically.

Minimum wage

THE long-delayed process to raise the minimum wage in Sindh as promised in the last budget provides a window into the careless way the concerns of the poor are handled by the state.

First of all, it was not necessary to allow the process of issuing a notification to take so long. Two separate notifications have been sent, by two departments, creating confusion about the status of the announcement.



The first notification went out in December, and the second in March. The lack of coordination between various departments of the Sindh government that this shows is startling, and industrialists now have an opportunity to take advantage of the confusion and refuse to pay the higher minimum wage till the matter is clarified.

But bureaucratic incompetence aside, the minimum wage — upon which the majority of workers in the country depend for their livelihood — also raises important issues for other provinces.

How exactly is it determined what the minimum wage ought to be? Setting benchmarks of this sort, like the poverty line or the minimum wage, is a very complex exercise and touches on important philosophical issues, such as what is the minimum nutritional intake or educational level that a citizen should consider entitled to as a right.

The poverty line in Pakistan is set by assistance from the World Bank, where much of the debate and measurement required for the exercise is carried out. But how exactly is a minimum wage decided?

Without proper data, for instance the labour force participation survey, how can the state even decide what the minimum wage ought to be? The last labour force survey was conducted two years ago, and the process has become irregular.

No major effort is made to gather real-time data about the labour force, making it very difficult to believe that the yardstick being used to determine the minimum wage is anything other than arbitrary. This seems to be just another sad reminder of how the poor are treated as an afterthought by the state.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

__________________
"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

Murky waters

WHEN a secretly recorded conversation between a national politician and one of his advisers is leaked to the media and public, the temptation is to examine the substance of the conversation and explore the gap between public positions and private exultations. But that temptation must be resisted. There is one and only one issue that ought to matter in this rather unfortunate instance of an alleged conversation between PTI chief Imran Khan and PTI MNA Arif Alvi being leaked to the media: who did it, why did they do it, and did they have any legal authority to do so? Unhappily, the PML-N government appears neither to comprehend nor be particularly interested in the fundamental issue here, preferring instead to gloat over the embarrassment caused to the PTI and seeking to add to it in any way can.

The PML-N reaction has raised suspicions that the federal government itself may have authorised the secret recording and leaked it now to put the PTI on the defensive. Certainly, the Intelligence Bureau, which reports directly to the prime minister and whose director general is serving on an extension in duty at the prime minister’s personal intervention, has the capabilities to tap local mobile phones. As for motive, the PML-N’s continuing struggles with the PTI, with Imran Khan again warning of taking to street agitation if the judicial commission to investigate allegations of rigging in the May 2013 election is not convened by the government as promised, give it a surfeit of motives. However, the PML-N, via the IB, is by no means the only possible culprit. It is entirely possible that the most usual of suspects and the oldest of culprits in such matters are once again involved: the intelligence wings of the military establishment.

That there is no parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies, that there are no clear statutory limits on what intelligence agencies can do, and that military-run intelligence agencies report only to the army leadership and regard the civilian side of the state with historical mistrust is well known. What is not known at all is the scope of the intelligence agencies’ snooping on civilian politicians, and to what end. In the Khan-Alvi recording, there can be discerned only political purposes, with the PTI being made to look duplicitous and untruthful. Consider that in recent days the MQM, PPP and now the PTI have all been undermined by sudden revelations amidst a media frenzy. There is no clear or obvious reason why the military-run intelligence wings, pre-occupied as they must be with the fight against militancy, would try to muddy the waters for the PTI too at this moment. But there is enough happening on several fronts now for both the federal government and the military to determine who is behind the PTI leak and put an end to these dangerous shenanigans immediately.

LNG confusion persists

THE first-ever consignment of LNG arrived in the country to far less than the fanfare that one would have expected. There has been a rush to claim credit for the development, threats of a court challenge from one provincial government, confusion in the media about who really imported the consignment, and continuing mystery over the negotiations for a long-term supply contract from Qatar. Not only that, it appears that very little of the homework required to effectively manage the injection of the imported gas into the system has been done. It turns out that the government had decided to swap the molecules injected into the system at the port with those produced from fields in upper Sindh as a mechanism to transfer the gas to its consumers in Punjab. But the provincial government of Sindh is upset that it was not consulted when this mechanism was finalised, especially since it involves the diversion of its own gas. The private sector parties, which imported the first consignment, discover that there is no pricing mechanism in place to draw the gas out from their respective points of consumption upcountry. Additionally, they are being told that losses through Unaccounted for Gases (UFG) will be applied to their imported consignment, and there is much to debate about how these will be calculated.

In fact, the first consignment of LNG appears to have sparked a bit of a wrangle between the myriad stakeholders in the gas supply chain. In due course, pricing issues between the various publicsector entities will also surface. Most of the issues coming up are nothing more than glorified teething problems and should not be blown out of proportion. But it is still astonishing that all this work was not done prior to the arrival of the first consignment. The government had months in which to get these issues sorted out, and none of them constitutes rocket science. Now that the first consignment has landed, the confusion has created the space for frivolous controversy mongers to have a field day. The petroleum ministry must bear some of the responsibility for the growing chorus of confusion that is engulfing the project, because it was its job principally to ensure that the policy framework to absorb the imported gas into the national system was in place. Now the work has to be done in amateur haste, for which there will doubtless be a cost to pay.

Moon-sighting consensus

IN Pakistan, even occasions of joy can end up being marred by controversy. Take the celebration of Eidul Fitr, for example. Almost every year, there is disagreement over the start of the month of Ramazan, as well as the sighting of the Shawwal crescent, which marks the beginning of Eid. Without fail, some clerics in different parts of the country end up disagreeing with the decision of the central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, which results in the celebration of Eid on two different days. There have even been occasions in the past when the nation has witnessed Eid celebrated on three different days. To try and prevent the recurrence of this strange phenomenon, the Supreme Court on Friday summoned the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee’srules and notifications regarding the appearance of the moon. A petition concerning the moon-sighting controversy had been filed with the apex court a number of years ago.

While the SC’s concerns about the matter are valid, resolving this controversy is essentially the job of the ulema. After all, many Pakistanis take decisions about when to celebrate Eid as per the views of the clergy. Unfortunately, as in many other matters, our divines have failed to reach a consensus where moon-sighting is concerned, despite the fact that all major Muslim schools of thought are represented in the central Ruet body. To ensure Eid is celebrated on a single day countrywide — as is the norm in most Muslim countries, where the official Eid announcement is rarely contested — the ulema must work towards building consensus on the issue. Tradition and science must both be employed to arrive at a dependable method of moon-sighting. There might always be mavericks that choose to go their own way, but if religious scholars of repute of all confessions work towards celebrating Eid on the same day and communicate the message to their flocks, it will do much to promote national harmony. Perhaps when this goal is achieved the ulema can work to address other divisive issues.


Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

__________________
"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

Yemen conundrum

It has long been an unhappy feature of Pakistani foreign and national security policy that many of the more sensational revelations are left to foreigners to make. So it has been with this sudden and frenzied will-we/won’t-we speculation that Pakistan will send troops and other military resources to the Middle East — either to intervene inside Yemen on the side of the Saudi-led coalition or help defend the Saudi border from a possible invasion by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Bizarrely, it has been the Saudi news media — hardly known for their independence, especially in matters of regional policy — that has led with loud, insistent claims that Pakistan has agreed to make a military contribution to the Saudi-assembled coalition that has been aerially pounding the Houthis since last week and which may soon become a fully fledged land invasion.

Here in Pakistan, the government has seemingly tried to downplay the issue, without giving any clear indication of what is being discussed and why. Why the gap between the thinly veiled official Saudi claims and the watered-down government statements here?

Part of the reason could well be that the Saudi government, keen to have as broad a coalition as it can assemble in Yemen, is using public statements and media leaks to put pressure on Pakistan.

In times of crisis — and the Saudi monarchy appears to be either grimly determined or in a state of panic already — it is to be expected that every bit of leverage, public and private, will be used to achieve the ends that the Saudis are looking for in Yemen.

It could well be that private and very cautious Pakistani resistance to the idea of getting involved in Yemen, or even on Saudi soil, is being very publicly countered by the Saudi media campaign.

However — and this can never be discounted given the Pakistani leadership’s penchant for secrecy — it could also be that the Saudi cajoling is aimed at making Pakistan deliver on the far more extensive private reassurances it has already given to Riyadh in contrast to what the Pakistani leadership has publicly claimed.

Whatever the truth, it is time for the Pakistani government to publicly and clearly set out what it is and is not willing to do in Yemen or on behalf of Saudi Arabia and on what terms and for which reasons.

In doing so, the government may also help dispel an unfortunate impression that has been created inside the country that the conflict in Yemen is essentially sectarian in nature. It is not. Allowing the misinformed notion of a sectarian conflict abroad to go unchallenged can be dangerous for stability here. As for troops: none for offensive purposes anywhere should be considered. Defensively, for clearly articulated and rational reasons, deployment could be considered — as a last resort, which the situation is nowhere near at the moment.

Deserving winners

For all the hype leading up to Melbourne on Sunday, it can be said the contest for the world cricket crown lasted but only five deliveries. Brendon McCullum, the man behind New Zealand’s dream campaign during the 11th edition of the cricket World Cup with his aggression, was out without scoring to Mitchell Starc.

The die was cast. The spirited challengers to the Australian dominance of the game over the last two decades were jolted into adopting a defensive strategy in their batting. That sealed the fate of the Kiwis, with Michael Clarke and Steve Smith providing the finishing touches to the successful Australian chase for the title.

Clarke, the master in a more traditional mould, played his last ODI innings, and Smith, the likely successor, used the grand stage to display his flair for innovation. This was some spectacle to be inspired by.

As always, this World Cup also has its own stories of near misses, of potential winners and botched attempts, of underdogs and chokers. There would be memories of artists with bat and ball and of workmen determined to get the job done.

All these accounts add to the romance of the game and none should detract anything from the Australian feat.

To have won the cup five times in the span of 28 years is an achievement any country would be proud of. Additionally, as the co-hosts along with New Zealand, Australia would be pleased by the element of speed and mobility this latest edition has highlighted.

This was a tournament remarkable for its pace — reflected in the bowling analyses as well as in the rate at which the runs were amassed. But as the old cautious approach built upon conservation and consolidation fades out, there were indications the thinkers were willing to consider corrections to restore a more equal competition between the bat and the ball. The conclusion of a World Cup tournament is a good time for initiating these much-needed changes to make the contest as even as possible.

Applause for economy

The economy has been receiving quite an ovation in the last few days. First the State Bank applauded how more indicators are moving “in a favourable direction” in its last Monetary Policy Statement. Then Moody’s upgraded the outlook on Pakistan’s credit rating, from positive to stable, pointing towards a strengthened external position, efforts towards fiscal consolidation and steady performance under the IMF programme.

The latest to join the applause is the IMF itself, where the Executive Board issued an upbeat assessment of the government’s “strong performance”. Three major institutional voices, representing diverse sets of interests, have each pointed out that the economy is on the mend through fiscal consolidation and the strengthening of external accounts.

The government deserves its share of credit for this.

But it’s also important to remember that each of these voices has its own priorities to safeguard.

For instance, Moody’s has one overriding interest: to determine whether Pakistan can meet its debt service obligations to foreign creditors in the forthcoming year. If that is fine, then all is good.

The IMF is similarly mostly interested in strengthening the debt service capacity of the country, with a little bit of focus on structural reforms as a garnish.

The State Bank has lost its voice of late, and a question mark hangs over its own credibility. One voice that is unfortunately absent from the choir is that of the common citizenry of the country. Are people seeing this improvement in the economy through job creation, income growth, stabilising household finances, falling poverty, and so on? Thus far, the naked eye can see the following: investment and business activity is in a slump, but consumption and speculation are charging ahead.

Factories are sputtering but the malls are packed. Investment is down, but the property market is booming. If one listens to the institutional voices mentioned above with a trained ear, one can hear powerful caveats tucked away in their language, for instance, when Moody’s points out – two-thirds of the way down in their statement – that “most of the build-up in official reserves has come from external borrowings”. The government is justified in taking a bow at the end of this round of applause coming from those entrusted with safeguarding the interests of external creditors. But the rest of us are still waiting for our turn to join in. Let’s hope we find reason to do so soon.


Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2015

__________________
"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

Karachi bye-election campaign

In the old days, a bye-election in Azizabad — the heart, as it were, of the MQM’s power in Karachi — would have barely registered as a blip on the political landscape.

But much has changed since then; and the increasingly charged rhetoric around the bye-poll in NA-246 on April 23, occasioned by the intriguing resignation of Nabil Gabol from the seat he won in the 2013 elections, is indicative of that.

For one, the last general election saw the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf arrive as the new player in town challenging the MQM’s virtually uncontested writ in Pakistan’s financial jugular since several decades, aside from the two army-led operations against it in the ‘90s.

Meanwhile the changing demographics of Karachi were already a source of concern to the party, which essentially draws its strength from the politics of ethnicity.

Then, a slew of multi-pronged, MQM-specific actions of late under the rubric of restoring law and order in the city, including the raid on Nine Zero — the party headquarters in Azizabad — and Saulat Mirza’s death row confession accusing some of its top leaders of complicity in murder, has made the last few weeks particularly torrid for the party.

From a virtually unassailable position in Karachi that by extension gave it a significant role on the national stage, the MQM is currently on the defensive.

Recent developments have brought its siege mentality to the fore, one that it has assiduously cultivated in tandem with its strong-arm approach. If not carefully managed with maturity and foresight by the political parties concerned, the situation can easily strain the fragile equilibrium in the city to breaking point.

The campaign for the upcoming bye-election can well be seen as a test case in this respect. It is an opportunity for the MQM, which has been sending representatives to the assemblies since 1988 and has its finger on the pulse of Karachi, to demonstrate it is also capable of issue-based politics and that its support in the city is based on more than coercive tactics as alleged.

For its part, the PTI can use the campaign to illustrate its understanding of the dynamics that underlie this complex city. Judging by the rhetoric on display, however, it appears that both Imran Khan and Altaf Hussain are loath to rise above the same old histrionics and personal attacks that have marked their style of politics thus far.

There is undoubtedly a crisis of governance in Pakistan’s largest metropolis. And that is what the PTI must build its campaign for the bye-election upon, rather than Imran Khan assuming a patronising ‘saviour’ mantle.

Such a stance could even backfire; there are enough questions hanging over the chastening of the MQM — its timing as well as the ill-conceived, highly questionable tactics employed — to give pause to the public whose vote Imran is courting.

Power sector infighting

A tussle under way in the power bureaucracy perfectly illustrates the myriad dysfunctions that afflict our power sector.

A number of officers at Fesco, the power utility serving the industrial city of Faisalabad, have challenged their transfer orders before the Lahore High Court, arguing that these were issued on political grounds after the utility conducted a raid on the factory premises of an MPA from the ruling party.

The managing director of the utility has referred some of these transfer orders back to his counterpart at Pepco, from where they originally came.

In their court petition, the officers argue that they are being targeted on political grounds, and the Pepco managing director does not have the authority to order anybody’s transfer since that power has been handed to the independent Board of Directors under which the utility has been operating for a number of years now.

What sounds like a simple case of government functionaries challenging their transfer orders is actually illustrative of the weaknesses that mire the power sector. First of all, the raid is an example of the difficulties involved in raising recoveries, which is an essential part of the strategy to reduce the circular debt.

The consequences visited upon the functionaries are a typical example of political interference, if they do indeed relate to the raid.

The Fesco managing director’s refusal to entertain the transfer orders is a good example of the governance failures within the power bureaucracy, where arbitrary decisions are made, and challenged on a daily basis.

Has the MD done a fair job of taking his instructions from the BoD, whose authority is being invoked to refuse the transfer orders? The resort to judicial authority is also typical, not only in the case of power sector governance, but billing matters too frequently land up in court if pushed too hard.

The confusion created by this state of affairs is very typical of the confusion that has gripped the power sector for almost a quarter of a century now, ever since a mix of private- and public-sector interests began operating within it.

And it is precisely this sort of confusion that has hampered the ability of the power bureaucracy to adapt to the changing challenges of its time, or to accept the kinds of reforms it needs urgently. It’s time to reform this system and remove these governance weaknesses if the power crisis is ever to be resolved.

A job well done

From time to time, there is an episode or an event that makes us proud to belong to this country. The successful evacuation of more than 500 Pakistanis from Yemen over the weekend is one such example.

Both the Foreign Office and PIA deserve credit and a round of applause for a tough task executed well. More specifically, the Pakistani ambassador in Sanaa, and the entire embassy team there, did a heroic job arranging a large bus convoy to transport all the Pakistanis there to safety, overcoming great dangers along the way.

The convoy was stopped and the documentation of each traveller checked along the way, putting their lives in danger as the conflict raged around them. But they made the journey to safety under the leadership provided by the embassy team, and as they landed here in Pakistan, the whole country heaved a sigh of relief.

PIA did its part too in rapidly arranging an aircraft, along with a back-up plane ready to be dispatched if the need arose. Additionally, a corridor had to be opened up for the plane to fly through treacherous skies, which was complicated by the fact that Yemen’s airspace has been shut down by the Saudis while the air strikes are under way.

The fact that the plane made it there, and successfully lifted all Pakistani citizens out of danger and brought them safely back to their country, was an enormous job. It’s been gratifying to see our institutions, PIA, the Foreign Office, the CAA and the Ministry of Defence, all working together and coordinating to ensure that this vitally important mission succeed.

The smooth execution of the operation has brought credit to these institutions and Pakistani citizens can take a moment of pride to absorb the fact their government pulled together to come through for its citizens in their hour of need. This was a job well done indeed, and those who were part of it deserve our gratitude.


Published in Dawn, March 31th, 2015

__________________
"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

Party-based LG polls

MOST of the country, apart from Balochistan, which has already conducted the exercise, is finally on the path to holding local government elections, largely thanks to the efforts and persistence of the higher judiciary. And interestingly, it is also the courts that are actively working to address the anomalies that stand in the way of representative, democratic local polls countrywide. On Monday, the Lahore High Court declared that non-party polls in cantonments were “unconstitutional” and ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold these on a party basis. This is indeed a welcome decision as there is no reason why LG polls in cantonments — scheduled to be held this month — should be conducted on a non-party basis. For all purposes, most cantonments across Pakistan have today become residential areas much like the ‘civilian’ parts of town where citizens from all walks of life reside along with military personnel, retired or otherwise. Gone are the days when these facilities used to be located far from population centres and housed only those in uniform. In recognition of these realities, the residents of cantonments must have the right to choose local representatives with political affiliations. If party-based polls will now take place countrywide, there is no logical reason why party-less elections should be held in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

As per the bill passed in the National Assembly recently, the federal capital is supposed to have non-party polls. This legislation needs to be reviewed. What is ironic is that while the courts are pushing for party-based polls, the military, in the areas it controls, has shown resistance to the idea, while the PML-N wants party-less elections in Islamabad lest one of its political opponents ends up heading the capital’s local government. It needs to be realised that non-party LG polls, as well as party-less elections to the national legislature, are amongst the legacies of military rule; a democratic ethos demands that people be free to choose candidates with political affiliations from the local level up. After much nudging and prodding by the judiciary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab are all now working to hold the polls before the Supreme Court’s September deadline arrives. KP is due to hold the elections in May while Sindh and Punjab’s polls are due in September. As we have said before, local polls help instil the democratic spirit at the grass-roots level and local governments serve as nurseries for politicians who can be groomed to serve at the provincial and national levels.
What is more, the absence of elected local governments for an extended period has had a negative effect on civic life where both infrastructure and services are concerned. Representative rule at the local level is essential to provide timely solutions to people at the neighbourhood and town level, without citizens having to line up before the provincial bureaucracy or lawmakers.

A role for the OIC?

AS the aerial bombardment of the Houthis in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition continues and as Pakistan continues to flirt with the possibility of entering the latest Middle East conflict militarily — Defence Minister Khwaja Asif is in Saudi along with representatives of all three services for talks with Saudi officials — there is also an effort by Pakistan to keep the diplomatic wheels turning. On Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office put out a statement that, while not explicitly saying so, suggested an effort to activate the OIC to play some kind of role to bring the conflict in Yemen to an early end and prevent it from spilling over onto Saudi soil. That is a good idea, not just for a moribund organisation, but for restoring peace in the Saudi-Yemen region of the Middle East. It seems likely that a military solution will perhaps only temporarily quell the Houthi uprising. Therefore, involving the sum total of the Muslim world and using the preeminent forum for Muslim states to attempt a diplomatic solution in the Yemen conflict would, if successful, have all manner of positive consequences for a Muslim world riven by conflict. There remains though — despite the federal government’s best intentions — the first problem of carving out a credible space for the OIC to act as an impartial mediator in the Yemen conflict.

Under the present Saudi secretary general, Iyad Ameen Madani, the OIC has taken a distinctly anti-Houthi, pro-Saudi stance. The OIC has not only supported the Saudi-led military actions in Yemen but its secretary general has openly blasted the Houthis, blaming them for the civil war and claiming that military action was necessary to save Yemen from “the chaos unleashed on it by the Houthi group and its repercussions for the entire region”. Given that fierce stance by the OIC’s chief, it hardly seems likely that the Houthis will want to negotiate at an OIC table. However, the OIC’s present slant is also a function of it becoming hostage to political bickering and the Muslim world being pulled between two poles, Saudi Arabia and Iran. If countries like Pakistan were to promote the idea of the OIC becoming a conflict-resolution forum and were to do so without explicitly favouring one side in the intra-Yemen conflict over another, there could be a possibility of making the OIC relevant again. But then much would depend on the Pakistani delegation presently in Saudi first not committing to fight on the side of the Saudi-led coalition.

Stock market upheaval

THE strong bout of volatility that just hit the Karachi Stock Exchange shows that the country’s capital markets continue to have fundamental weaknesses in spite of a decade of reforms. According to market players, the volatility began when a foreign fund began pulling out its money, said to be around $130m, for reasons of its own. The outflow, hardly a large amount, sparked panic which went out of control very quickly. Company fundamentals had no role to play in this. The month of March saw $87m pulled out by foreign investors with normality returning when $2m flowed in on March 30. The amounts are tiny, but the swings they were able to spark were very large, showing the market’s vulnerability to sentiment. The community of brokers has already been on edge due to some actions taken by the regulator to stem wrongful practices such as insider trading and front running. The edginess is a clear indicator that such practices remain an important part of doing business in the stock market, and the powerful storm of sentiment that just swept the trade floor shows the weak footing on which the market stands.

Small investors should continue to look at the stock market as a place to keep their savings, but the vulnerabilities show that it would be better to take a long-term view and not become easily spooked by the wild swings that are the hallmark of the stock market. Between speculative swings, panic withdrawals and wrongful practices, the stock market remains a good place from where to secure a decent return on one’s savings, but only if one has the staying power to remain in the game long enough. Swings of this sort tend to wipe out small investors with no staying power, and that is one reason why further reforms are necessary to ensure that sentiment remains as tightly chained as possible, and wrongful practices are duly prosecuted. In the meantime, let the buyer beware.
Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

__________________
"But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail." _Shakespeare, 'Macbeth')

The joke is that many of those in the forefront of the campaign of the Young Doctors’ Association for a better service structure in Punjab are no longer that youthful. But it is not funny.

This is an issue that has not been fully addressed while, at the same time, there is no one who is prepared to pronounce it untreatable.

It is symbolic of much that exists in limbo in this country — including the health sector which is a bundle of the confused priorities of those who make policies and the ones who implement them.

Take a look: Young doctors take to streets

The Young Doctors in Punjab have taken to the streets again, a familiar sight since 2012 and even before. When their movement was at its peak in 2012, some kind of a compromise was reached between the protesters and the provincial government.

An agreement exists. Some kind of progress is also said to have been made towards addressing these demands. But just as expectations are raised, the doctors say there is some hiccup that stalls the process and they are left with no choice but to come out protesting once again.

There are many layers to the demand. The demonstrating doctors are often eager to include points such as the free flow of medicines to patients on their list, which gives a more wholesome, popular look to their movement.

Primarily, however, it is about promotions and other such details that determine perks and privileges in service for the doctors working in public-sector hospitals.

The main hurdle is lack of finances, to which the response of the doctors as well as other independent observers is standard: the government must get its priorities right.

The Young Doctors’ situation is after all only one aspect of it, even if it is agreed that, as in all such cases, not all their demands are reasonable or not all of them can be readily met.

There are many other instances justifying the criticism of the official penchant for fancy schemes at the cost of basics such as education and health. Even the courts have in recent times noted this, in the latest instance during the hearing of a petition against the construction of a new road in Lahore.

Having said that, the doctors’ protest has been allowed to continue for far too long. It is so replete with allegations of apathy and indeed betrayal that it must rank among the worst advertisements for the ‘efficient’ Shahbaz Sharif set-up.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1173287/young-doctors-again

__________________
Every thing is possible with Hard work-but Luck is still factor over there

Removal of barricades

THE presence of VIPs perhaps never rankles the average Joe quite as much as it does when those VIPs gobble up chunks of real estate — that should by right be accessible to the general public — in an avowed quest for security around their spacious and already fortified abodes.

Where Karachi is concerned, that includes numerous diplomatic missions as well as former presidents’ residences. Increasingly, many ordinary citizens of Karachi have also resorted to barricading the streets and even entire localities where they reside, in the name of security.

Take a look: Inside Karachi: Over 125 street barriers removed

Some schools and even commercial enterprises have erected such barriers. Several days ago, the Rangers, citing the need for access to all thoroughfares as part of their operation to restore law and order in the city, issued a three-day ultimatum whereby everyone who had taken recourse to blocking off roads with barricades was to ensure their removal; otherwise the Rangers would undertake the task themselves.

After initial resistance, it seems even Bilawal House — which over the years has swallowed up a service lane and a green belt plus a two-way thoroughfare (one side was reopened in late 2013) by erecting concrete walls — has agreed to comply. Let us hope this is not a temporary concession.

There is no legal provision whereby a public thoroughfare can be closed permanently or on a long-term basis. Those engaging in this practice are thus not only creating a public nuisance but also violating the rights of their fellow citizens who, by virtue of being equal under the law, are entitled to unfettered use of public land.

Security concerns of course cannot be discounted, and here is where the state must do its duty by all citizens.

As things stand, the law-enforcement apparatus is geared towards providing security in the so-called elite areas where residents are already in a better position to safeguard themselves while localities lower down the income scale have little else but flimsy barricades to stave off threats to their lives and property.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1173286/removal-of-barricades


Little progress on Afghanistanistan

THE criticism levelled by the Afghan High Peace Council — tasked for many years now to engage the Afghan Taliban in talks — against its government’s decision to allow American forces to delay the final drawdown of troops from Afghanistan is yet another indication that neither Kabul nor the US appears to have anything resembling a plan to deal with the Taliban.

Half the US troops in Afghanistan were scheduled to depart at year’s end with the other half likely to have gone by the time US President Barack Obama leaves the White House in January 2017.

Know more: Afghan peace council assails decision to slow down US pullout

To the extent that the US forces are staying on in higher numbers for a longer period than originally planned, it will officially be cast by the Afghan and American sides as a decision aimed squarely at not allowing Afghanistan to become a sanctuary for global terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.

In truth, however, the decision is about shoring up the Ashraf Ghani-led Afghan government in the face of the Taliban threat.

But to what end? As suggested in the US-Afghanistan joint statement at the end of President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to the US late last month, “reconciliation and a political settlement remain the surest way to achieve the full retrograde of US and foreign troops from Afghanistan”.

Without reconciliation with the Afghan Taliban, there will be no real stability or relative peace in Afghanistan. But the Afghan government seems unable to interest the Afghan Taliban in talks at the moment while the US seems too preoccupied with strife in other parts of the world. Who then is to lead the multidimensional and multiplayer push for talks with the Taliban?

It is little wonder that the HPC appears to be frustrated. Then again, in the murky world of Afghan politics, the HPC could simply be trying to distance itself from an Afghan government decision that could complicate its task of engaging the Taliban.

As ever, and as also underlined in the joint US-Afghan statement (“need for an Afghan-led peace process, enjoying regional support, in particular from Pakistan”), the key remains Pakistan.

Despite the increased cooperation in terms of taking on anti-Pakistan militants on both sides of the Durand Line, there seems to have been little attempt by Pakistan to even create the conditions for dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban leadership.

The fear, and it is hardly an unfounded one, remains that the massive push against anti-Pakistan militants has not changed the strategic perspective within the military leadership on what needs to be done in Afghanistan.

If that is in fact the case, it would be a significant, possibly insurmountable, hurdle in achieving regional peace. A settlement in Afghanistan is as urgent for Pakistan as is the dismantling of militant groups inside the country. Will the military accept this?

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1173288/lit...on-afghanistan

__________________
Every thing is possible with Hard work-but Luck is still factor over there

MQM-PTI code of conduct

FINALLY some sanity appears to have prevailed in the fraught relations between the MQM and PTI in Karachi. A day after some supporters of the two parties were involved in a clash in Azizabad’s Jinnah Ground, which was more a spontaneous fracas than a planned encounter, the Sindh governor Ishratul Ibad moved with alacrity to bring representatives from both sides to the negotiating table. A code of conduct for the April 23 by-election in NA-246 was agreed upon during the meeting whose participants included Imran Ismail, PTI’s candidate for the constituency and Kanwar Naveed Jameel, MQM’s candidate for the same. According to Dr Ibad’s statement following thereafter, the parties have agreed to desist from provocation and the use of derogatory language against each other.

The demonstration of such civility can only be welcomed, notwithstanding the ‘hidden hands’ — with their equally obscure agendas — that may be at work behind it. For it is crystal clear to anyone with any stake in maintaining peace in this city of 20 million that the circumstances demand a rational and mature response. Events in recent weeks have thrown the situation in Karachi into a state of flux, and when the chips fall, they may not do so without considerable violence. As a result, the coming by-election, that too in no less a constituency than the MQM bastion of Azizabad, has acquired far greater significance than it would have earlier.

As we have said before, the campaign for this poll will be a test case for both parties to rise above petty invective and slander, and demonstrate they have the political chops to address the myriad problems that plague this city. They can take their cue from the manner in which the brawl in Jinnah Ground on Tuesday was swiftly handled through political efforts rather than being allowed to vitiate the atmosphere. Every party has a right to campaign freely in Karachi and then approach the court of public opinion for its verdict, voluntarily given and unreservedly respected.

Banks and madressahs

MADRESSAHS have complained to the government that banks are reluctant to open accounts for them for fear of becoming entangled in a possible illicit activity investigation. The complaints were shared with the secretary, religious affairs, who conveyed them at a PAC meeting, in the context of an ongoing effort by the government to get all seminaries to register themselves and make disclosures about their source of funding. The effort includes getting the seminaries to fill out a form requiring them to disclose their assets, number of vehicles and bank account information as well as the sources from where funds will arrive into the account. There are five Wafaq boards, and at least two of them have reportedly refused to comply with the instructions to fill out the forms. They argue in return that the procedures being demanded of them are cumbersome, and that banks routinely refuse to open accounts for madressahs. The government has not specified what penalties will apply to those seminaries that do not comply with the new registration procedures, and the issue seems to have reached an impasse.

At this point, it is not clear whether or not the complaints of the seminaries against the banks are valid, but given that Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has himself stated on record that 10pc of all madressahs could be involved in terror-related activities, without specifying which ones, the banks have grounds to be cautious in dealing with all of them. How are they supposed to know whether or not a particular applicant belongs to the 10pc that is allegedly involved in terror-related activity? In the absence of proper bank accounts, seminaries here are likely to continue with the existing practice of using individual accounts of people working for them to transact their finances, or to deal entirely in cash. This complicates the task of tracking and monitoring their funds. It is bad enough that the government has had such a complicated time figuring out how to go about the rudimentary job of registering all seminaries, and acquiring some knowledge of how many are operating around the country.

How are we to expect that the government will be able to conduct higher levels of regulation, such as curricular reform and tracking sources of funding? Clearly, more vigorous efforts are required from the government. Leaving the entire exercise to be carried out by the religious affairs ministry alone is not going to be enough.

Joint session on Yemen

IN a sensible and timely move, the PML-N government has, at the urging of the opposition, decided to convene a joint session of parliament to discuss the conflict in Yemen. The focus will also be on what role, if any, Pakistan may play in what is essentially a civil war inside Yemen —– but one that has been turbocharged by Saudi fears of potential Iranian influence growing in a country that the kingdom shares a border with. While a joint session of parliament cannot issue a binding resolution directing the government on how to proceed in a matter of foreign policy, it should help clarify at least two things: one, the government’s position, thus far at odds with Saudi claims; and two, what is at stake for Pakistan, both internally and externally, when it comes to intervening — diplomatically or militarily — in a region where Pakistan has to necessarily balance competing interests. To begin with, there has been some consistency in the official claims made by the PML-N government: seeking a diplomatic and peaceful solution to the crisis in Yemen; declaring that the government’s red line is a violation of the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia (effectively, if the Houthis were to cross the border into the kingdom); and leaving the door open to sending troops at least for defensive purposes inside Saudi Arabia.

What has been particularly troubling, however, is that Saudi officials and the media there have repeatedly contradicted the Pakistani government claims and bluntly stated that Pakistan has already committed to making a military contribution to the Saudi-led coalition presently bombing the Houthis in Yemen that may be followed by a land invasion. There being a long history of the state here being parsimonious with the truth and making private commitments to outside powers, the fear is that the PML-N government may be saying one thing to its own public and preparing to do something quite different. In the joint session of parliament to be convened on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself needs to speak, explain his government’s policy and address the conflicting claims made by his government and the Saudi regime.

There is also a significant role for the opposition to play in the joint session: laying out the internal implications of a military involvement in Yemen when the fight against militancy at home is at its peak; expanding on the regional implications for participating in a Saudi-led coalition that is aimed at reducing perceived Iranian influence; and dilating on the proper diplomatic and political role for Pakistan in the Muslim world, which is riven by conflict, both state and non-state. In particular, refuting the dangerous and destabilising claims in some quarters here that the Yemen conflict is sectarian or that the Pakistan state has a sectarian leaning of its own is something that all of parliament could do together — and forcefully.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

__________________
"But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail." _Shakespeare, 'Macbeth')

Kenyan campus attack

THE list of depredations carried out by religious extremists grew ever longer on Thursday. This time in Kenya, where gunmen belonging to the Somalia-based terrorist group Al Shabaab massacred at least 147 people, mainly students, at the Garissa University campus during a 15 hour-long siege, the worst ever attack on Kenyan soil since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi. The town of Garissa lies almost 200km from the border with Somalia, and the attack is the latest act of retaliation carried out by the Al Shabaab against a joint Somali-Kenyan military operation to destroy the Al Qaeda-linked group. For Pakistanis, the atrocity bore a chilling resemblance to the APS Peshawar attack less than four months ago. Around the same number of students and teachers were murdered that day by militants of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan who went from classroom to classroom hunting down unarmed children, leaving behind a trail of blood on scattered schoolbooks, devastated families and a nation in mourning.

Earlier, even among the most violent of ideologically driven groups there were some red lines. Now, however, the distinction between combatants and innocents is increasingly blurred. Nothing is sacred, not even children or young people studying in schools and colleges. In fact, students and/or educational infrastructure — not to mention other soft targets — are increasingly being targeted by terrorists, whether by Boko Haram in Nigeria or the TTP in Pakistan. A worldview more twisted and nihilistic can scarcely be imagined. There was another sinister element to the attack in Garissa, one that is common to several recent acts of terrorism by Al Shabaab in Kenya. The campus attackers singled out Christians for murder, a move calculated to drive a wedge between the country’s vast Christian majority and its sizeable Muslim minority.

It would be doubly unfortunate were such intentions to bear fruit, for nothing would suit religious extremists more than a world riven along the lines of faith and engaged in a never-ending, apocalyptic battle.

Iran N-deal in sight

IN the midst of numerous crises raging across the Middle East, the news that emerged from Switzerland on Thursday was exceptionally positive. After over a decade of mutual mistrust and suspicion, the framework for a potential deal between Iran and the P5+1 to resolve the Islamic Republic’s nuclear question has been agreed to. While scepticism has been expressed by some quarters, the principal stakeholders appear satisfied with the results of the marathon negotiations. The potential deal — which is to be finalised by June 30 — calls for greater IAEA access to Iranian nuclear facilities and a more transparent atomic programme, though there will be no rollback. Most critically, Tehran will have the debilitating UN, EU and US sanctions, which have primarily hit its finance and petrochemical sectors, lifted as part of the deal. Credit goes to both sides for choosing the route of dialogue over bellicosity and confrontation. Yet to assume that years of mistrust will magically be transformed into bonhomie would be naive. Progress on the deal will be incremental and the P5+1 and Iran will need to show flexibility and avoid taking hard-line positions.

Many of the tricky details remain to be ironed out; for example, what will be the timeline for sanctions’ relief? Also, on a number of other geopolitical fronts, such as Syria and Yemen, the West and Iran are clearly not on the same page. And it can be expected that Israel and the Republicans in the US will try and sabotage a final deal. The deal should not be held hostage to the whims of Tel Aviv or domestic American politics. For this, Barack Obama, in the time he has left in the White House, as well as European leaders will need to show statesmanship and diplomatic tact to ensure the agreement goes through smoothly. But what is important is that progress has been made in a dispute that, until very recently, seemed intractable, with neither side willing to budge and often demonising the other. The developments show that other difficult situations in the world, such as the India-Pakistan relationship, or the battles currently being fought in the Middle East, can be resolved through diplomacy and negotiations — if there is a desire to move forward by all parties.

And where Pakistan is concerned, the lifting of sanctions against Iran may well pave the way for projects such as the gas pipeline, should Islamabad play its cards right.

Military ‘justice’

HAD there been any hesitation in recognising that the constitutionally empowered military courts system hastily set up in the wake of December’s Peshawar school massacre is one that is abhorrent and in violation of the most basic principles of justice, then the revelation that six accused have been sentenced to death and a seventh sentenced to life imprisonment should extinguish even that vestige of doubt. Consider first the form as announced over the DG ISPR’s Twitter account — “#Mil Courts: Army Chief confirms death sentence of 6 hard core terrorists tried by the recently established mil courts.” There is surely something terribly wrong with a judicial system in which the first time the public learns about death sentences for six individuals is via a press officer of a non-judicial head of a military institution. Are judges no longer allowed to speak via their judgements in even the most solemn of cases?

There are then the substantive issues. Who are these men? What crimes have they been accused of and now convicted for? What evidence was presented? What kind of legal representation was available to the accused? And what is the appeals process that is available to the convicted men? All that is known, via an ISPR press release, is that “In view of the nature and gravity of offences preferred against each, 6 terrorists have been awarded death sentences and one life imprisonment by the military courts”. Even that vague offering has a serious flaw. How were six of the accused deemed deserving of death, but one given life imprisonment for the same category of crimes? From a sceptical point of view, could it be that one of the first batch of convicts was ‘only’ sentenced to life imprisonment to try and dispel the notion that the new military courts are little more than execution chambers?

This week’s announcement also grimly underlines the basic problem with the new military courts — they are run by the military to try individuals accused by the military, with verdicts confirmed by the military. Even allowing for all the problems of collecting evidence in war zones and on battlefields and the messy nature of counter-insurgencies, what has been done is nothing short of obliterating the very idea of justice, due process and a fair trial. Who though should bear the ultimate responsibility? The military for seeking these sweeping powers, or the elected political leadership of this country for giving those powers to the military? What is incontrovertible is that there would be no new military courts if the politicians had not agreed to pass the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. What is also true is that nothing — nothing at all — has been done to try and reform the broken criminal justice system in the country. If the politicians don’t lead, will other institutions not try and grab more power?

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

__________________
"But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail." _Shakespeare, 'Macbeth')