Mahesh Bhatt’s views

IT was once Lahore’s Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop’s international festival that earned the country a place on the map of world theatre. Sadly enough, that emblematic event had to be wrapped up several years ago, primarily because of the country’s deteriorating law and order situation. That loss has cost Pakistan dearly, but thankfully there is some saving grace: for some years, now, the role of hosting an international theatre festival has been taken on by Karachi’s National Academy of the Performing Arts. The fourth Napa International Theatre Festival is now nearing its conclusion, having put on several worthy productions. The potential for greater cultural ties, be it in terms of theatre or other forms of the performing arts, between Pakistan and other parts of the world has been obvious.

It would be possible, here, to make an argument about improving the country’s image internationally through such methods of soft diplomacy. And indeed, that is valid. But the fact is that such affairs also go to the heart of the country’s welfare, particularly in economic terms. This was highlighted by Indian film-maker Mahesh Bhatt, who was at Napa with the theatre play Daddy. In a session with the media on Tuesday, he commented that “it was a matter of sorrow” that Indian directors could not shoot in Lahore or Karachi due to the law and order situation. Were that to alter, he added, both countries would benefit economically. Of course, India’s film industry is amongst the biggest in the world, with millions upon millions being invested in and earned by the sector. That of Pakistan, meanwhile, continues to at best limp along, a few notable recent successes notwithstanding. As in many other sectors, were Pakistan able to offer an investor-friendly climate, there is much to be mined that can benefit its own economy and people. At the moment, however, the country’s inability to resolve its law-enforcement issues and provide stability is extracting a huge cost.

Role of the CII

IT speaks volumes for our regressive social fabric that humane points of view that come naturally to so many other countries, and are too obvious to be uttered, must here be held up for appreciation. Into this category falls, for instance, the few voices that speak up in favour of vaccination against polio, and girls’ education. Another example of this was provided by the director general of the Council of Islamic Ideology on Thursday when, in an interaction with the media in Islamabad, he voiced the opinion that children should not be married until they reach “mental maturity”. On an earlier occasion, this public servant surprised many by presenting relatively reasonable views on topics that the CII in general tends to see in a very conservative light. Let it not be forgotten, after all, that in 2013, the CII left many astonished when it said that DNA testing could not be used as primary evidence to establish rape. That pronouncement led many to challenge the very raison d’être of the CII. It was pointed out that the social and political fabric of the country has changed in fundamental ways since the body was first formed in the 1960s. It then went through a change of nomenclature in the 1973 Constitution where it was tasked with advising legislatures on whether or not a law runs contrary to Islamic ideals.

This argument deserves to be highlighted again. The CII has only an advisory role, but the nature of its constitution, as well as its input in earlier decades, means that its pronouncements attain a degree of moral authority that really should not be required in a country where hundreds of elected lawmakers are available in the federal and provincial legislatures. The latter are perfectly capable of deciding on any issue. In terms of the marriage of minors, for instance, the Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2013, which makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to marry, and also provides for the penalising of parents and facilitators of such unions. Earlier this month, the Punjab Assembly approved a bill proposing amendments to the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, which provides stricter penalties for parents and clerics facilitating underage marriages. Such are the legislative successes that need to be built upon, and for which strict implementing mechanisms need to be devised. The views of the CII should not be required at all.

Dormant security plan

IT has been just over a hundred days since the announcement of the National Action Plan. Unfortunately, going by the report produced by Nacta on the status of its implementation, we may have to wait a long time before we see decisive action. NAP contains 20 points. Some are as bland as “militant outfits and armed gangs will not be allowed to operate in the country” and “no room will be left for extremism in any part of the country”. But other action points are a little more specific, such as freezing “all funding sources of terrorists and terrorist outfits” and “registration and regulation of religious seminaries. Yet the implementation report produced by the counterterrorism authority shows that the government has been more busy pushing paper around the bureaucracy than getting results on the ground. In the intervening days since the plan was announced, three imambargahs have been attacked and two churches targeted by suicide bombers while religious seminaries are no closer to being registered and regulated by the government than they were before NAP was announced. In fact, the implementation report shows that the plan appears to be suffering from the fate of all other bombastic announcements of massive and immediate change in decades past.

A list of banned organisations had to be removed from Nacta’s website because it contained the name of a group that is on the UN’s Al Qaeda sanctions list, but domestically has been allowed to operate by the state. A committee “has been notified” for madressah reforms and regulation, but thus far at least two wafaq boards are refusing to entertain the government’s request for all seminaries to fill out a form detailing their assets and sources of funding. The creation of a joint intelligence directorate remains a proposal, which “has been prepared”. A counterterrorism narrative is “being developed”. More than 292,000 people have been “picked up”, but only 140 of them had “terrorist links”. And so on.

In fact, the entire report reads more like a laundry list drawn up to satisfy a bureaucratic requirement rather than reflect ground realities. The lack of progress on the implementation of NAP is entirely consistent with our approach to other national plans and projects. We have seen governments in the past declare solemnly that there will be a massive bill recovery drive, or a national effort to locate stolen assets, or a documentation drive to register informal enterprises. In each case, the declared intention was whittled down as it met the headwinds of reality. And it seems that the resolve to finally tackle terrorism head-on as was announced last December by the prime minister after Peshawar’s school tragedy is also floundering. This is what happens when the wheels of the state touch the ground in Pakistan — it is all spin. Barely any forward movement is discernible.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

No money for hockey

THE abrupt wrap-up of the national hockey team camp, set up in Islamabad to prepare for the 2016 Olympics qualifiers, due to paucity of funds is seen as a new low for the game in Pakistan. While the slump in Pakistan hockey has been in evidence for almost a decade now, with no major titles, except that of the Asian Games, coming our way, the extraordinary development this week has plunged the game into a deeper predicament, with the Pakistan Hockey Federation top brass admitting its failure to collect enough funds to manage the daily allowances of the players. It is no secret that the cash-strapped PHF, for long, has been striving to keep the game afloat amid countless appeals of financial assistance made to the government. Its efforts to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to apprise him of the debilitating state of the game, however, have not met with success. Hence, the embarrassing fold-up of the month-long camp at the Naseer Bunda Stadium, some 10 days ahead of the scheduled closure.

Having said that, the government alone cannot be blamed for the shambolic state of Pakistan hockey today. It was a year ago that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif dished out a hundred million rupees for the PHF to put its house in order. Whatever happened to that grant and who benefited from it is anybody’s guess. In fact, the haphazard manner in which Pakistan hockey has been run over the past decade has been largely responsible for its current state of collapse. The PHF officials have not only allowed the game to become hugely politicised during this time, they have remained too engaged in ego battles and joyrides to concentrate on the game’s development. Unlike cricket, where players and officials are equally held responsible for a debacle — as witnessed in the recent ICC World Cup — the blame for hockey’s decline lies largely at the door of the PHF bigwigs who led the game into a blind alley owing to their absurd, short-sighted decisions.

Illegal constructions

THE Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s demolition squads moved in on Friday to raze a number of illegally constructed wedding lawns in the city. In a metropolis which has been disfigured beyond recognition by encroachments and land-grabbers, this is positive news. But we must also question why the civic authorities are generally so complacent; illegal commercial enterprises, built on amenity plots, have been in business for decades. Why are they allowed to be set up in the first place? The simple answer is that such illegal constructions cannot occur without the connivance of the authorities; whether it is the occupation of footpaths or the devouring of whole parks and other public spaces, criminals — often backed by political and religious groups — bribe or pressure their way to legalising what are clearly unlawful constructions or occupations of somebody else’s property.

In Karachi especially, the land mafia is so powerful that many activists have paid with their lives for raising their voice against such criminality. Yet while land-grabbing may be particularly acute in the Sindh capital, nearly all urban areas of Pakistan suffer from this malady. In the past, anti-encroachment drives in Lahore have been halted reportedly due to political pressure, while even Islamabad, which is supposed to be better planned than other urban areas in the country, is not immune to the depredations of the land mafia. Encroachments cause numerous problems in cities, including adding to traffic congestion and taking away footpaths from pedestrians. Moreover, public spaces meant for the health and recreation of citizens at large are gobbled up and commercialised for the profit of a few. Encroachments also fuel criminality and violence, as land-grabbers are always on the lookout for available spaces. The key to resolving this issue is to put in place proper land use and management mechanisms, and to take action the moment encroachers and land-grabbers move in.

A lack of coordination has been witnessed among the multiple land-controlling authorities in urban areas, particularly Karachi. This needs to be corrected so that there is a single source for addressing the status of land and taking action when illegalities occur. Elected local governments, which will soon hopefully be in place nationwide, are ideally placed to monitor land use and management. With our cities expanding and considerable rural-urban migration, land will become even more sought after, which is why the state must manage it judiciously and protect it from the clutches of criminals.

Pipeline moment

WITH a framework for a nuclear deal in place and with signs of rapprochement between Iran and the international community, now is the time to re-energise the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Last December, the government made a half-hearted foray into the global financial markets to determine investor interest in the plan. It returned with the gloomy report that the sanctions on Iran were making investors wary of getting involved in the project. That may be about to change as the world begins to eye the business opportunities that are about to open up. Pakistan should also start by at least verbally intimating its interest in pursuing the pipeline project energetically. Much has been made of the LNG imports. The fact that the first consignment of LNG has already landed, and there has been much bragging about this feat, is an indicator of the high level of ownership that was given to this project by the government. The high return on equity allowed to power producers who will use LNG is another signal that the government is moving fast to incentivise imports and create a constituency within the country for LNG.

Similar high-level ownership now needs to be given to the Iran-Pakistan pipeline, beginning with the government affirming its commitment to the project, followed by the homework necessary to start construction, creation of the relevant tariffs and policy software to manage injections of the gas into the national transmission system, and proper agreements to govern allocations. Diversifying our fuel mix is an important priority of the government, and the pipeline project is the most promising avenue through which to pursue this goal. Pipeline gas is much cheaper than LNG and more reliable as well. There is no longer any reason for the government to continue to drag its feet. Whatever decision is made regarding Saudi Arabia’s request for troops for the Yemen campaign, it is important to ensure that it does not adversely impact the Iranian pipeline project. Our domestic energy security must take precedence. Thus far, the project has been held up by one specific sanctions law that prevents dealings with Iran’s central bank.

That law is amongst the sanctions that are about to be lifted. Beyond that, there is little in the sanctions regime that prevents Pakistan from moving ahead on the plan. It might still take time to arrange an investor, but much of the homework on the ground, which was not done in the enthusiastic haste to complete the LNG project, can begin now and perhaps some PSDP allocations can be made in the forthcoming budget to add credibility to the government’s resolve. It is imperative that the government seize the moment and involve itself with determination in a scheme that can bring the people considerable relief at time of a serious energy crisis in the country.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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

Back in parliament

THE PTI and its leader, Imran Khan, may not have treated parliament with the respect it deserves, but parliament did the right thing in allowing Mr Khan and his fellow PTI MNAs to once again take their rightful seats in the National Assembly yesterday. On Monday, the PTI may not have been made to feel especially welcome — the MQM and JUI-F predictably claimed the PTI MNAs stood resigned while sections of the PML-N jeered the party for reversing course — but that appeared to be largely about grandstanding and political theatrics. Few, if any, parties in parliament can genuinely prefer that the PTI remain outside the National Assembly. For one, that would reflect poorly on the completeness, and hence, legitimacy of the National Assembly given that the PTI won the second-largest number of votes nationally in the May 2013 election. For another, the PTI’s purpose in boycotting, and at some stage trying to quit, the National Assembly was to bring down parliament — an inherently destabilising situation for any legislature.

Truly, the return of the PTI is a case of better late than never — and credit for this move must go to two sides. First, from the Speaker of the National Assembly to the principal parties in government and opposition, there was an early consensus that the PTI should not be allowed to quit parliament in an attempt to boost its anti-government street protests. Had the PML-N reacted petulantly or the PPP, for example, sought to create mischief, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq could have come under a great deal of pressure to accept the PTI resignations. That would have triggered a spate of by-elections while the PTI was in the midst of its street agitation — a scenario that surely was best avoided. Second, credit must, belatedly, go to the PTI. Critics may contend that the PTI has only returned to the National Assembly after it had become apparent that the government was not going to fall and the party was unable to trigger mid-term elections. That may well be the case, but the PTI has also had to swallow a great deal of ego — no small thing given much of what has been on display over the past years. It appears to have internalised some of the principles of democracy that it seemingly failed to grasp earlier. Anytime a mainstream political party embraces the democratic system and sets aside its ego, it should be welcomed as self-enhancing.

There remains though a problem: the seeming lack of interest in electoral reforms on all sides. The PTI’s quest to expose what it claimed were widespread instances of electoral fraud in May 2013 was, from a non-partisan, democratic perspective, as much about improving the electoral system as it was about establishing the legitimacy or otherwise of the PML-N’s win. Worryingly, with the possibility of mid-term polls having receded, no party seems focused on electoral reforms any longer.

Mullah Omar’s biography

STATESMEN, public figures and politicians the world over pen biographies that are quickly snapped up by people who would like to get a deeper insight into their lives. Now, it seems that even the leaders of militant outfits have caught on to this trend. On Sunday, the Afghan Taliban published online the biography of their supreme leader Mullah Omar to mark his 19th year as the head of the militia that once governed Afghanistan. The Taliban supremo is indeed an enigma; only grainy photographs exist of him and exact details about the man are difficult to verify. So apart from hard-core followers, many ordinary people may also want to find out more about the reclusive militant commander. Reports indicate the publication contains interesting details about Mullah Omar’s tastes in weaponry, as well as the observation that he is not without a sense of humour. The biography may well have been published to stem the tide of defections to the self-styled Islamic State. While the world of Islamist militancy is indeed a murky one, we have seen radical movements make increasing use of the internet and social media for propaganda purposes.

Before he was killed, Osama bin Laden’s fiery exhortations to ‘jihad’ were often uploaded by Al Qaeda as a propaganda tool. The IS, meanwhile, has a considerable web presence. While Mullah Omar’s online biography may be limited to reassuring his Afghan acolytes, the IS is an expansionist concern and uses the internet to recruit followers and brag about its battlefield ‘exploits’. Hence, the use of cyberspace by hard-core Islamists cannot be ignored. That is why the state must keep an eye on cyber-jihadis to ensure they are not abusing the internet to forward the aims of extremist groups. Seeing blood-soaked battlefield videos or listening to fiery sermons can radicalise young minds. Keeping the implications of this in mind, the misuse of cyberspace by dangerous extremist groups should be checked, without the exercise affecting the right of freedom of speech of those who do not promote violence.

GM seeds

AN amendment to the Seed Act of 1976, working its way through the legislative process, could have far-reaching consequences for Pakistan’s agriculture. The amendment will essentially open the door to genetically modified seeds, particularly in cotton which is the country’s largest crop. It does this by providing legal cover for intellectual property rights in seeds. It is important that the legislation be enacted because Pakistan’s per acre yield in cotton has been stagnant for many years now, while India and other countries that have embraced BT cotton, have doubled their yields over a decade. Pakistan’s cotton crop still enjoys higher yields per acre than India, but lags far behind countries like Egypt and Mexico. Stagnant yields in food and cotton will strain the country’s food self-sufficiency as well as industrial growth. Further improvements in yields can only come from opening the door to genetically modified varieties, which is a technological innovation akin to the green revolution. But prospects for the passage of the amendment have been dimmed by a loud chorus of protests. Successive governments have struggled with this amendment, which has been in the works since 2007, and was last brought before the National Assembly in 2010.

Of the arguments that the protesting farmer associations are advancing, there is one that is very potent and should receive high-level consideration. That argument points towards the disruptive impact that the new legislation, particularly its stress on intellectual property rights, will have on the farmers’ right to conserve, sell and exchange seeds amongst themselves. Many of our small farmers rely on informal exchanges of seeds at sowing time, and opening the door to large private-sector seed companies must not be allowed to shut down these local markets or inhibit their operation. Pakistan needs to avail itself of the benefits of new seed technologies to keep pace with domestic growing requirements as well as the output of its main competitors. But it is also important that the new markets that need to be created to make use of these benefits do not shut down existing ones on which the small farmers have become very dependent. Any disruptive impact that the amendment to the Seed Act can have on livelihoods of small farmers needs to be debated in the Senate as well, and institutional reforms should accompany the new legislation to ensure customary practices are not harmed in the course of ushering in the new technology.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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

I will be highly gratified if someone will read my paragraph and point out my mistakes..

Carjacking remedies

EFFECTIVELY fighting crime is a matter of constantly evolving strategies and techniques, as well as staying in conversation with every possible effort to buttress law enforcement. Unfortunately, these are areas where the police in Pakistan often find themselves lacking, particularly in Karachi, where the statistics on street crime — armed muggings, the snatching or lifting of vehicles, etc — outstrip those in any other city in the country. Data available with the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee and the Sindh police, for example, put the figure of four-wheelers and two-wheelers snatched or stolen as running into the thousands every year. According to some estimates, on an average, more than a dozen vehicles are taken away from their owners every single day. Given this situation, and especially in a country where stolen vehicles are all too often used for terrorist and criminal purposes, it would have been rational to expect that time and effort were constantly being invested in plugging the loopholes wherever they exist.

That, unfortunately, does not seem to be the case: on Monday, Karachi’s Anti Car-Lifting Unit drew the attention of the authorities to the fact that a number of security features whose availability could reduce the incidence of auto theft were not being incorporated in cars that are assembled locally. The ACLU letter pointed out that in the UK, for example, the steering column lock has been a standard feature since 1970, and that measures such as sandblasting engine and chassis numbers on windscreens and major metal parts, or embedding electronic, code-carrying chips into the plastic body of ignition keys, could help lower the statistics on carjacking. Indeed, there is really no reason why measures such as these should not be made mandatory at the assembly stage, or even at the sale/transfer point where possible. While the cost of buying a car might rise nominally, decreasing the vehicles’ vulnerability would help bring down insurance premiums. For both the law-enforcement agencies and citizens, this could be developed into a win-win situation.

LHWs’ unpaid dues

GIVEN that Lady Health Workers are a vital cog in the wheel of our sputtering health machine, the shabby treatment meted out to them beggars belief. First it was the regularisation of their services which they managed to achieve only after extensive agitation — not to mention being tear-gassed and baton-charged by police — despite a Supreme Court ruling in their favour. Now it’s their arrears that the government is dragging its feet on. According to a report in this paper, the centre owes the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government Rs2bn in arrears due to the 13,000 plus LHWs in the province. Following devolution in 2010, the centre had pledged to continue financing the LHW programme until 2017, after which the provinces would assume the responsibility, a decision reiterated by the Council of Common Interests. However, a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council decided to suspend funding from June 2015, leaving the provinces with the daunting task of finding space within their own budgets for the outlay.

Even though the programme could be much improved, the 106,000 LHWs in Pakistan play an important role in providing essential primary health services on a community level, especially in rural areas. Reports by public health experts say that households visited by LHWs are 15pc more likely to have children under three years fully immunised, an important consideration in a country where outbreaks of childhood diseases such as measles are fairly common. Moreover, with 85pc of LHWs involved in the anti-polio campaign, they are also on the frontline — in a very real sense — of Pakistan’s war against the crippling disease, one we stand perilously close to losing primarily because of the risk to the lives of polio vaccinators. Over 60 vaccinators and security personnel assigned to safeguard them during campaigns have lost their lives in attacks by militants during the last two years, with the highest number of casualties taking place in KP. It is outrageous to expect them to continue with what has become life-threatening work without the compensation owed to them.

They are not the only health workers seeking their due: vaccinators from the Expanded Programme on Immunisation in KP threatened on Monday to boycott the upcoming anti-polio campaign if their salaries — pending for the last several months — were not paid to them. Let no one think that the government isn’t doing its bit to turn a crisis into a full-blown emergency.

Debate on Yemen

THE ongoing extraordinary joint session of parliament has produced at least one consensus so far: there is no enthusiasm anywhere along the political spectrum for sending Pakistani troops to Yemen. In fact, other than the PML-N, the leadership of every party, be it from the religious right or secular left, has rejected the option of sending troops to Yemen. Even Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could only bring himself to refer to the Saudi requests to Pakistan made public by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday, suggesting that the PML-N itself remains unconvinced of the merits of militarily interfering inside Yemen on the side of the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis. So far at least the sensible approach appears to be carrying the day inside parliament, reflecting the consensus in rational quarters outside the house that Pakistan should not be drawn into a conflict in which it has no discernible interests to protect and where the risks are many. What though is to be made of Prime Minister Sharif’s reluctance to elucidate on his government’s policy on Yemen? Instead of leading the debate, laying out a policy for parliament to focus on, the prime minister yesterday appealed to the house to guide the government.

In the political arena, such deference is usually meant more in spirit than in substance — surely, the prime minister has no intention of allowing parliament to make a choice for the government that he does not agree with. More likely the government is juggling two other concerns: an inability to flatly reject the Saudi demands of military assistance in the Yemen campaign; and the need to give diplomatic consultations an opportunity to find a peaceful solution — at least before an expected land invasion led by the Saudis into Yemen begins. The prime minister clearly hinted at the latter when he referred to the shuttle diplomacy being conducted by himself and the Turkish president possibly producing a breakthrough later this week. Whatever the strategy of the government, it needs to heed the message of parliament: a military entanglement in the Middle East is not in Pakistan’s interest. Not at this time when there is a war against militancy to be fought inside Pakistan first. Not in Yemen, where old, tribal enmities are being given a sectarian edge by outside powers. Not in the decades-old proxy wars of Saudi Arabia and Iran. And not when the Middle East itself appears to be teetering on the brink of catastrophe.

Pakistan does have interests in the Middle East and the relationship with Saudi Arabia is vital, both for security and religious reasons. But protecting one important relationship should not come at the cost of destabilising other ties. Most of all, as underscored in parliament yesterday, Yemen is a potential quagmire that could rival Afghanistan. The public appears to understand this as does much of parliament. Will the PML-N too let better sense prevail?

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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

Good neighbours

IT’S not often when a navy warship, decisively primed for conflict, shows its country’s ‘soft’ side, that too to its ‘enemy’. But that’s what happened when the Pakistan Navy frigate Aslat, which is equipped with missile launchers and anti-submarine rockets, hosted 11 Indians among the 36 foreigners and 146 Pakistanis on their three-day journey out of strife-torn Yemen to Pakistan. The remaining foreign nationals were from China, the Philippines, Syria, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan and Canada. The navy clearly pulled out all the stops in an effort to play the hospitable host. It seems in fact that they did it so well that by the time the passengers disembarked at Karachi port on Tuesday to an enthusiastic welcome, they — including even the Indians — were cheerfully waving the Pakistan flag. Not quite the sight that warmongers on either side would relish but a triumph for track-3 diplomacy nonetheless. The bonhomie was evident in the remarks of the passengers about their trip, which the UK nationals described as having been akin to a luxury cruise. They also mentioned the fact that the ship’s crew had very thoughtfully prepared a special Easter Sunday dinner for them.

The arrival of the Indians to Pakistan’s shores was followed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s offer to send them home on a special flight, which was accepted by the Indian government. In this brewing conflict, Pakistan and India have been good neighbours, with the latter also evacuating some Pakistani nationals from Hodeida a few days ago. The cooperation we have just witnessed is a relief from the hostile posturing by the two countries from time to time. Some years ago, there was similar cause for celebration when several Indians kidnapped by Somali pirates were released through the efforts of the Pakistani government. Just as strategic interests can bring together strange bedfellows in a war, humanitarian impulses can engineer a counter-intuitive situation. Where India and Pakistan are concerned, such an opportunity is no less than PR gold.

Better border vigilance

IT is a considerable challenge for the government to clamp down on militant groups that terrorise the Pakistani people and attack symbols of the state. But when such non-state actors, reportedly based in this country, cross borders and commit acts of terrorism in neighbouring states, Pakistan is put in an even more difficult situation. On Tuesday, a day before the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to Pakistan, militants belonging to the Jaishul Adl outfit reportedly crossed the border from Balochistan and attacked security personnel inside Iran, killing at least eight border guards. While we cannot definitively say the ambush was planned to coincide with Mr Zarif’s visit, the timing was ironic — and embarrassing — for Pakistan. Iranian officials claim the militants crossed back into Pakistan and the seriousness of the incident can be gauged by the Iranian foreign ministry’s statement that border security would also be on Mr Zarif’s agenda in Islamabad. The Iranian government also lodged a protest with Pakistani diplomats in Tehran on Wednesday. Such cross-border incidents are among the major irritants that stand in the way of improved relations between Islamabad and Tehran.

This is not the first attack of its kind, as militants carried out a similarly deadly raid in 2013, while Iranian guards have also been kidnapped in the past by militants reportedly based in Pakistan. Along with creating a rift between both countries through such activities, militants belonging to groups such as Jundallah and Jaishul Adl are also believed to be involved in sectarian violence inside Pakistan. Therefore, to maintain its obligations to its neighbour and for its own security, it is imperative for Pakistan to seriously tackle the issue of cross-border militancy. While there have been several militant attacks that have affected bilateral relations negatively, there have also been occasions where Pakistani authorities have played a major role in tracking down anti-Iran militants. Among these was the capture of Abdul Salam Reki of Jundallah earlier this year, who was apprehended by local security forces from a bus near Quetta. His capture proved that concerted, intelligence-based efforts can neutralise such violent elements.

Some security experts have also called for the reformation of the ‘A’ and ‘B’ policing areas in the districts bordering Iran. Pakistan will need to work with Tehran and improve security in sensitive border regions to ensure its soil is not used by terrorist groups to cause trouble across the border.

State Bank autonomy

IT is encouraging that the government has signalled its renewed resolve to the IMF to pass legislation updating the State Bank’s autonomy. The IMF has been given a commitment that this will be done by June, and the new legislation will include language to bring it in line with international standards. The issue has been the most important sticking point in all reviews of the current programme, and the government has been showing considerable reluctance in undertaking this reform. Legislation was drawn up in April last year, and the Fund found that it did not meet international standards. Another attempt was made in August, but was drowned out by the protests, outside parliament, that began that month. This time the government appears to have signalled seriousness of purpose in seeing the passage of legislation that does more to protect the State Bank from political interference — and there is limited room for failure. The first step in the grant of such autonomy should be the removal of the secretary finance from any decision-making role on the State Bank board. Governments have historically resisted an autonomous State Bank for various reasons, principal amongst them being the difficulties they face in getting other organs and pillars of state to respect their mandate.

Elected governments have routinely had to face headwinds from the military and bureaucracy, both of whom have sought to circumscribe the powers of the elected rulers. They have also been wary of autonomous actors going rogue and engaging in a game of political point-scoring rather than focusing on the discharge of their obligations in a fair and professional manner. Given the powers that the State Bank exercises, such as management of the exchange rate, the conduct of monetary policy, auctions of government debt and regulatory oversight of banks, there is a feeling that in the wrong hands these could do some damage to the sitting government if used for political point-scoring. But such fears are misplaced. Regulators, particularly as important as the State Bank, need to be insulated from political interference because the duties they perform have long-term effects and should not be allowed to become entangled in the short-term thinking that is typical of politics.

And for autonomy to really matter, it must be coupled with proper appointments at the top in order to ensure that the person has no political ambition and brings considerable credibility and expertise to the spheres of banking and economics. Having said that, it is also important that those heading the State Bank show more regard for the hard-fought autonomy that the bank currently enjoys. Those at the top must demonstrate an interest in expanding their areas of autonomous action. There is little sense in passing legislation to enhance the powers of the State Bank if those heading the institution are themselves not interested in exercising them.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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

Early closure of shops

WHENEVER a government runs out of ideas to deal with the power crisis, it resorts to the same gimmicks. Today, we’re hearing the government talk about early closure of shops, for instance. Admittedly, this is only in the capital for now, but it must be remembered that the previous government tried this measure on more than one occasion and failed to implement it for very long. Along with this, there were proposals such as distributing millions of energy-saver light bulbs with electricity bills, turning off air conditioners in government offices during designated hours, awareness campaigns to urge people to set their air conditioner to 26ºC, and even an attempt to introduce daylight savings time. None of these measures worked. Today they have become contents of a bag of failed tricks and gimmicks tried on numerous occasions in the past with few results. If the measure is to be restricted to the capital only, then its impact is going to be minimal. Commercial consumers account for 7.5pc of IESCO’s total units billed, and are amongst the smallest category of consumer in the distribution company, except for tube wells and ‘other’.

Their growth rate is also very small. Moreover, this category includes offices and shops, so the amount of electricity saved by closing shops early is going to be even smaller. As a power conservation measure, this step makes little sense, unless it is part of a larger plan to unroll over the entire country eventually. But that step is going to be harder for the government to implement, especially since much of the power to do so lies with the provincial governments; and shopkeepers, who are a key PML-N constituency, have put up strident resistance to it in the past. It appears the government is trying out various ideas in anticipation of the coming summer months when load-shedding is again set to return as a serious challenge. One can only hope that they have plans beyond publicity stunts of this sort once the temperatures begin to soar.

Organ donation

IN a society where conservative beliefs often impede progress on crucial issues, the endorsement of organ transplantation, including cadaver donation, by a number of well-known religious scholars was very reassuring. On Wednesday, ulema attending a programme at the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre at Karachi University not only supported the life-lengthening medical procedure but praised the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation for its efforts in this regard. The consensus was not unanimous, and true to form Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, who heads the Council of Islamic Ideology, raised concerns about afterlife and interfaith issues that bordered on the absurd. Fortunately, scholars rivaling him in stature had different views, with Mufti Munibur Rehman saying that there was nothing wrong in transplanting organs, regardless of the faith of the donor and recipient. And why should they not take this enlightened view? Even ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is carrying out transplantations, after these were cleared by the ulema there, while the procedure is also routine in Iran. Indeed, instead of allowing organ transplantation to be obfuscated by extraneous considerations, it should be promoted as a praiseworthy intervention — governed by medical ethics — that saves lives.

Although the procedure of cadaveric organ donation is commonplace in much of the world, including Muslim countries, it has had a long, hard climb in Pakistan. Legislation on the matter went back and forth between the two houses of parliament for years, and the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act was finally signed into law in 2010. Next came the formidable task of altering societal confusions and prejudices. Given the situation in Pakistan, getting the religious lobby on board has been important, and SIUT must be given the credit for leading the effort to change mindsets against the procedure as well as investing in the necessary infrastructure, including the training of doctors. Such training can hopefully be extended to hospitals across the country. However, the bigger challenge is instilling awareness and removing inhibitions in society — the ulema’s endorsement was a step in that direction — so that more and more people agree to become donors after death.

There are long lists of patients who need transplant; and unless there is a concerted effort to dispel myths and promote donations such lists will only grow. A good beginning could be made at schools where biology books could spell out the different ways of giving a new lease of life to seriously ill patients.

The search for peace

WHILE there were initial concerns that the PML-N-led government would jump into the Yemeni quagmire to please Saudi Arabia without thinking through the consequences of such an action, it now appears that Pakistan is trying to play peacemaker in the conflict. These were the vibes that we got from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s two-day visit to Islamabad, during which the Yemen conflict dominated the discussion. That both Pakistan and Iran agree that hostilities need to cease is positive; it is the mechanics of how such a ceasefire can be reached which need to be worked out. Clearly, the bombardment of Yemen must stop as it has taken a heavy toll on the population. In nearly three weeks of fighting, WHO has said there have been over 640 fatalities while more than 2,200 people have been injured in the impoverished state. In fact, the situation has been described as “critical” by the global health body. While the need for a ceasefire is essential, it will require diplomatic tact and finesse to pull one off that is acceptable to all sides — particularly the Saudis, who are leading the coalition that is bombing Yemen, and their Yemeni allies, such as the exiled president, as well as the Houthi rebels who are said to be supported by Iran.

The Arab states, by intervening militarily, have clearly taken sides in what was originally an internal power struggle, while Iran, by reportedly backing the Houthis, has also become a party. Hence, the considerable burden of forging a consensus for a ceasefire may fall upon Pakistan and Turkey, two major non-Arab Muslim states with no obvious stakes in the Yemeni fight. While Pakistan has said it will not accept threats to Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity, it has also supported a negotiated settlement to the Yemeni imbroglio. The Turkish president was recently in Tehran and stressed the need, along with his Iranian counterpart, for a political solution. Hence Ankara and Islamabad may be well placed to bridge the gulf between Riyadh and Tehran on Yemen. And while Iran has called for a ceasefire by all sides, there is logic to the position that any pause in fighting must not be used by the Houthis to regroup and rearm. If this is allowed, it will only start the cycle of violence anew in Yemen. Throughout the crisis, the UN has remained quiet, while the OIC, seen as close to Riyadh, has hardly pressed for peace. Russia has submitted a resolution in the Security Council calling for a ceasefire, but there has been no momentum on the issue.

The world body, aided by regional states, needs to have a more prominent role to end the bloodshed in Yemen and bring the parties together to achieve a settlement — one that will hopefully not collapse into violence soon after it is finalised.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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

Yemen conflict: Parliament’s welcome resolution

ON the fifth day of the extraordinary joint session of parliament, a resolution that the legislators can be proud of — and the country satisfied with — was passed unanimously yesterday. Pakistan will not be a participant in the Saudi-led campaign inside Yemen. Instead, the government will continue with its pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the war in Yemen. While language in support of Saudi Arabia is included, there is an unmistakable line drawn: in the present instance, there will be no military deployments from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia unless there is a direct threat to Saudi territory — and then sending the Pakistani military in a combat role is not automatic or guaranteed. All of that is quite extraordinary. Not just because the PML-N government, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself, are perceived to be especially close to Saudi Arabia but also because the Saudi regime has had close ties with the Pakistani military and security establishment for decades. Moreover, with a new king, the first next-generation deputy heir to the throne and a youthful defence minister all dealing with their first major foreign policy crisis and opting for a military response, the pressure on the Pakistani state to join the Saudi-led coalition must have been intense.

The brazen assertions by Saudi officials and media that Pakistan had already committed to participating in the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen were surely only the tip of the iceberg. It is unimaginable that such public assertions were not backed by insistent demands behind closed doors. So it goes doubly to the credit of this government, parliament and the military that the sensible choice — the choice that was in Pakistan’s own national interest — prevailed. There is, however, still much work left to be done, particularly with Pakistan taking an unfamiliar lead in trying to broker a peace in the Middle East on effectively two fronts: the intra-Yemen conflict and the soaring Saudi-Iran tensions. The strident comments emanating from Iran on Thursday are surely unhelpful and the threat of a land invasion remains. Adding to the complications, the US appears to be siding with Saudi Arabia — possibly in a bid to try and balance Saudi, Israeli and domestic US opposition to the US-Iran nuclear deal that may be sealed later this summer. Shuttle diplomacy by Pakistan and Turkey may not yet have yielded any concessions by the sides warring and grandstanding, but it has provided the contours of a possible diplomatic end to hostilities.

There is also, as reiterated in the joint resolution of parliament yesterday, the need for the OIC and the UN to play a greater role here. The more diplomatic forums on the regional and international level get involved, the more likely it is that better sense may prevail and a peaceful solution to Yemen’s long-running woes is found.

LUMS under pressure

AN event scheduled at LUMS had to be cancelled at the last minute “on order from the government”, according to the university’s official statement. The event was a panel discussion on Balochistan and one of the speakers was Mama Qadeer, who came to prominence when he led a march from Quetta to Islamabad to protest the brutal disappearances of Baloch youth that is the hallmark of the counterinsurgency the security forces are waging in the province. Mama Qadeer’s own son is amongst the disappeared. The “order from the government” was personally delivered by an officer of the security services to the acting dean of the programme that hosted the talk, and had been preceded by attempts from officers at the interior ministry to reach the LUMS management. It is totally unacceptable for the government, and more specifically the security agencies, to pressure an academic institution to cancel an event. Universities are curators of the educational process whose sanctity must be defended against all attempts to place curbs on it. But it is also important to note that the decision to cancel the event was made by LUMS. While such pressure being exerted on institutions by the security establishment is not unknown, there is no obligation to act “on order from the government” — perhaps even less so if such orders come from the security services. In fact, LUMS would have been well within its rights to have insisted that such orders be routed through the proper channels, whatever they may be.

The subject of the planned discussion was no doubt an important one, but the organisers ought to have known that the event they were planning could spark such a reaction from the security agencies. It is unfortunate that in this case, LUMS was unable to demonstrate the independence that should ideally be a feature of every centre of learning. The question remains whether such sensitive events should be planned at all if a university is not capable of dealing with their fallout. In fact, buckling under pressure might have done more damage than good to the cause of justice for Balochistan’s disappeared.

Success against polio?

IT is a statement difficult to substantiate, let alone defend. On Wednesday, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tarar, told a gathering in New Delhi that Pakistan has taken an aggressive anti-polio stance, and that the incidence of the disease went down in 2014. Take, first, the earlier part of the comment. In the last month alone, Pakistan’s battle against the disease made headlines when once more polio workers were killed. In the same month, it was discovered that a large consignment of the pentavalent vaccine — worth some $1.3m and of a quantity that could have vaccinated 400,000 infants — had spoiled whilst in storage at the National Health Services Ministry because the required temperature had not been maintained. It was also reported that the problem of parents refusing to allow the vaccine to be administered to their children has grown to such proportions that the state has resorted to the extreme step of arresting such persons. Next, consider the figures. As the sun set on 2014, Pakistan’s polio tally crossed 300, and the country broke its own shameful record of more than a decade of the highest number of cases reported in a single year — the previous high of 199 had been recorded in 2000.

True, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has acknowledged that “strong, functional emergency operations centres are now operational both at the federal and provincial levels” in the country, and that strategising is under way. In view of this, Ms Tarar’s statement was, at best, an attempt to save face. Meanwhile, it is ironic that the forum Ms Tarar was addressing consisted of health ministers from the Saarc countries. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka were all certified polio-free last year by WHO. The only other Saarc country not on this praiseworthy list is Afghanistan, which joins Pakistan as one of the world’s last three (the third being Nigeria) polio-endemic countries. Even there, only one case has been reported so far this year, as opposed to 21 from this country. If Pakistan faces significant challenges vis-à-vis polio, was the same not true of all the other countries mentioned above, but which have succeeded in their endeavour? Instead of trying to gloss over a bad situation, Pakistan would be better served carefully studying the polio eradication strategies developed by its neighbours, and trying to follow suit.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

On Bilawal’s behalf

IT is good to know that at least someone from the Bhutto Zardari household wants to and is allowed to pursue business and agriculture rather than politics as a career. But even as we learn, on the authority of a person no less than her father, that young Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari has chosen to stay away from politics, the focus remains on the future plans of her brother Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Former president Asif Zardari says his son will be gradually eased into a political career. From a few reports of the news conference given by the ex-president it appears as if an acknowledgement has been made that the young scion, already the saviour to look forward to for his party, is not mature enough for the mantle of leadership. Alternately, it has been reported that security concerns kept him away from Pakistan and its politics. Whatever the case, a ‘gradual’ induction could prove a little too late for the PPP, if projections about the party’s falling popularity are true. There will be grumblings and calls for measures focused on the PPP’s classical appeal and its current profile.

There remains the pending case where Pakistanis must debate the demerits of politics by inheritance. Also, there is the issue of a section of Pakistanis wanting to revive the old PPP, something many of them believe can only happen with a reversal of roles currently played by Asif Zardari, who is in control, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who stands at a distance and is sidelined. The young heir was showing sure signs of rebelling against the situation when he was packed off to London last year. It is not improbable for some in PPP circles to be found urging him to skip the ‘training’ and take up the reins. Whether or not he does so is his choice — so long as it is his choice. Whatever decision he makes, given his earlier posture of siding with the people, the latter would like to hear it from Bilawal Bhutto Zardari himself.

Massacre in Turbat

IT is unfortunate that whenever Balochistan surfaces on the national radar, it is usually for all the wrong reasons. Whether it is the separatist insurgency or sectarian bloodshed, violence and insecurity are what have come to define the province in recent times. Saturday’s atrocity in Turbat also falls in line with this unenviable trend. As per reports, at least 20 labourers were killed when militants opened fire on the men as they slept. The victims were reportedly all non-Baloch, with most of them hailing from Punjab, while a few of the men were from Sindh. This is not the first incident in Balochistan where people have been targeted because of their ethnic identity; last year, several workers were killed after their ethnic backgrounds were determined by gunmen in an incident near Hub. Turbat happens to be the hometown of the current chief minister of Balochistan; however, such brazen attacks show that even the native area of the province’s highest elected official is not insulated from the effects of the militant insurgency.

Balochistan remains far from pacified; on Saturday there were reports of the security forces carrying out search operations in Dera Murad Jamali and Panjgur, while a suspect wanted in the 2013 attack on the Quaid-i-Azam Residency in Ziarat was killed by security men in Bolan. Moreover, the missing persons’ question remains unresolved. While many of the issues raised by political activists pertaining to the security establishment’s heavy hand used in Balochistan are genuine, these legitimate grievances are relegated to the back-burner whenever militants carry out atrocities similar to what was just witnessed in Turbat. It is unfortunate that nationalist forces claiming to speak for the rights of Balochistan are either silent or offer muted criticism whenever such gory incidents take place. Nationalists must speak up and condemn such horrendous murders just as strongly as they slam the security forces’ alleged excesses in Balochistan. As it is, for most of the rest of Pakistan — apart from human rights activists and a few concerned groups and citizens — within the general population there is much apathy where Balochistan and its plight are concerned, with the province generally considered a distant entity. The callous murder of non-Baloch workers and ‘settlers’ will do little to attract the sympathy of the people towards Balochistan’s legitimate grievances, which is why those who believe in fighting for the province’s rights peacefully must raise their voices against such unacceptable violence.

Positive vibes from India?

IN the case of Pak-India relations, it seemingly is always a case of either going round in circles or, worse, one step forward, two steps back. Earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his most positive comments on the bilateral relationship since becoming prime minister, in a newspaper interview, by referring to his government’s willingness to engage in dialogue and then specifically mentioning the Shimla accord and the Lahore declaration as the frameworks within which India could conduct dialogue. The Shimla accord has long been hostage to differences between Pakistan and India on a key interpretation — does it allow for international, third-party mediation or does it strictly require bilateral negotiations only? But the Lahore declaration, tellingly, signed by the last BJP government in power, offers much more common ground and one that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself remains wedded to. Then, came the release on bail here of the alleged architect of the 2008 Mumbai attack, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of the Jamaatud Dawa/Lashkar-e-Taiba, throwing a fresh hurdle in the possibility of dialogue between Pakistan and India resuming anytime soon.

The release of Lakhvi has sparked the usual round of accusations and recriminations between the foreign policy establishment of both countries. With the Indian Ministry of External Affairs taking a tough line, the Pakistan Foreign Office responded by suggesting that the case against Lakhvi would have been stronger had India cooperated with Pakistan and offered it greater access to the evidence India claims to have gathered on the attacks. A predictable back-and-forth in a scenario where perhaps no one, not even within the Pakistani government, would suggest that the release of Lakhvi at this time is a step in the right direction. More importantly, however, Prime Minister Modi himself declined the opportunity to directly assail Pakistan in a news conference with French President François Hollande, referring instead to the need for global action against terrorism when the issue of the Mumbai suspect was raised. At the very least, then, the Indian government does not appear immediately ready to return to the bellicose route it has taken with Pakistan for the most part of Mr Modi’s tenure so far. Perhaps, as a recent internal BJP declaration on foreign policy suggests, the BJP government is coming around to the long-understood logic of the need to engage Pakistan rather than hold it at arm’s length.

Within Pakistan though there remains quite a bit of reckoning to be done. The release of Lakhvi suggests a total breakdown of all aspects of the state doing their job: the political government, the security establishment and the superior judiciary. The evidence against Lakhvi was, for the most part, locally gathered and his prosecution depended on the Pakistani state demonstrating some resolve. If such a high-profile case is so poorly handled, what does that say about Pakistan’s overall ability to fight militancy?

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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

Few rape convictions

In the 20-month period between June 2013 and February 2015, 4,960 cases of rape were registered all over the country, according to figures provided by the minister of state for interior to the Senate on Friday. Only 219 people of a total of 6,632 booked in these cases have been convicted. Punjab topped the dubious list. Some 4,322 rape cases were registered here and of the more than 5,700 accused, only 209 were convicted. The high instance of complaints to the police in the country’s biggest province could mean that the victims here were comparatively less intimidated by cultural factors that discourage the registration of such cases. Or it could be taken as an alarming indication that Punjab has not been that successful in the fight against conditions that have encouraged rape, which experts often explain as an act by the powerful to subjugate and humiliate the weak.

In any case, the gap between the number of registered cases and the number of convictions everywhere in the country reconfirms the long-held suspicion about the inability of the system to provide justice to those who dare to speak up. These are staggering figures, especially given all the taboos associated with the reporting of rape cases that ensure that a large number of them are never brought to the notice of the police. The breakdown provided in the list shows just how difficult it is to move towards a conviction once a formal complaint has been made. It is also horrifically clear that the system chases those who are able to survive the shock and pressure immediately after a rape incident. It creates hurdles for those seeking justice at various levels. It guards the rapist, and exposes loopholes that can easily be exploited by a combination of resources and a daunting shaming process which stigmatises the raped. Parliament that has repeatedly demanded to be apprised of the statistics on rape must next take up the responsibility of leading the fight against this most serious of crimes.

Tragedy in Naltar

The tragic helicopter accident in Naltar Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, is also a tragedy for the diplomatic community in Pakistan. Deaths of the Norwegian and Philippine ambassadors and the spouses of the Malaysian and Indonesian envoys are in addition to the three deaths of Pakistani armed forces personnel operating the helicopter. Moreover, among the nearly dozen or so other passengers on board, several diplomats have suffered serious injuries. What was meant to be a confidence-building exercise — the trip was organised as part of an effort by the Foreign Office and the military to showcase the country’s scenic north and its tourism potential — turned into a horrifying event. There is though much courage in adversity. The sombreness and dignity with which the international community, particularly those of the countries whose diplomats have been affected, have reacted to Friday’s tragedy should be noted: this beleaguered nation has many friends internationally who do wish it well, a reality sometimes lost in the noise of geopolitics.

For Pakistan, there remain a host of unanswered questions — inevitable in the wake of a tragedy, though perhaps worryingly familiar. To begin with, however, it was reassuring to see the military and the Foreign Office cooperate smoothly with each other and in a compassionate manner with the affected foreign missions. The authorities also worked well to quickly make public the news from the crash site, dispelling the notion that the Taliban had sought to create that the helicopter crash was an attack by the banned TTP. In present times, high-profile accidents or deaths quickly attract speculation, so it was necessary to quell those from the outset.

Perhaps, though, in the determination to refute TTP propaganda, the authorities here overstepped the mark. As the global experience of aviation crashes suggests, it is almost impossible to immediately and authoritatively identify the cause of an accident — irrespective of how many witnesses there are on the ground or survivors on-board. To claim a technical malfunction of some sort, as several officials did on Friday, is to prejudge the source of the accident. Answers will only be forthcoming once the Pakistan Air Force inquiry board meets and begins the search for answers. That is the stage at which the preference for secrecy by the state ought to be resisted.

The public here deserves to know the full truth, as do the families and governments of the countries affected by the crash. A thorough investigation followed by full disclosure is extremely rare in Pakistan — but that is the only way for systems to improve, and accountability, if necessary, to be pursued. Seven people are dead, a rare and serious incident with diplomatic repercussions has occurred, false claims of responsibility have already been made and military aviation is involved — this is precisely the incident in which the state should seek to set new standards for transparency.

British Pakistani MPs

While the Conservatives defied pollsters and carried the day in the recently held British elections and will now form a majority government, for Pakistanis there is something else to cheer about: this election year 10 British Pakistanis have made it to the House of Commons. The members represent Labour, the Tories as well as the Scottish National Party. This is said to be the most diverse British parliament ever; a number of Indian and Bangladeshi members will also sit in the Commons. While the first person of subcontinental origin to sit in the British parliament was Dadabhai Naoroji back in the late 19th century, in the modern age it wasn’t till the late 1980s that British Asians started to make their presence felt inside the Commons. Since then, their numbers have grown steadily, while former Punjab governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar was the first Muslim and Pakistani-origin MP. However it has been pointed out that while the number of minority MPs may be rising in parliament, the Commons is not as diverse as the electorate.

The election of these British Pakistanis is certainly a good sign. It shows that British citizens of Pakistani origin are engaging with their political system and have to a considerable degree integrated with the local culture. It also shows that despite the scaremongering of the far right in Europe, multiculturalism seems to be working in the UK. For example, the election indicates that British society largely accepts diversity and that voters are willing to vote for persons of colour. This level of acceptability cannot be found in many other parts of Europe. Having said that, there are a number of challenges that remain where the integration of Muslims, including Pakistanis, into British society is concerned.

For one, extremism remains a major issue, as borne out by the alarming number of British jihadis — said to be in the hundreds — who have made it to the battlefields of the Middle East. Also, many immigrants, while enjoying the benefits of the British system, hold local laws and traditions in contempt. Islamophobia remains a problem too as the hard right in Europe seeks to demonise all Muslims for political ends. It is hoped that the increased presence of Pakistani-origin MPs in the British parliament will help address many of these outstanding problems in a progressive, judicious fashion, since these individuals serve as a bridge between the British system and their community.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2015

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

Malnutrition crisis

FOR several years, now, the alarm bells have been ringing but have largely been ignored by policymaking circles. It has been four years since a survey conducted by Unicef and the Sindh government likened the levels of malnutrition in northern Sindh to those prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa. While this was due in part to the devastating floods that had occurred a few months earlier, in March 2011 the World Bank found that as a result of inflation the country’s poorest families were spending 70pc or more of their total income on food alone. Years later, the situation has not improved. Indeed, it has grown to such disturbing proportions that it is no longer possible for the authorities to ignore it.

Last week, during an inter-provincial meeting in Islamabad chaired by the health minister, Saira Afzal Tarar, the director nutrition, Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai, pointed out that nutrition indicators had deteriorated over the past decade; according to him, 43.7pc children below the age of five in the country are stunted, 15.1pc wasted, and 31.5 underweight because of the lack of proper nutrition. At the meeting, it was decided that the way forward lies in fortifying food, particularly wheat. In fact, the meeting was told that this staple provides the most calories for Pakistanis, but that 60pc to 80pc of its nutrients are lost during the milling process. Fortification, then, is one answer and the state needs to embark on the project with speed. However, other means of addressing the crisis must also be put into operation. Most obviously, it is necessary to initiate a large-scale awareness-raising campaign to give nutrition-related information.

Small studies have from time to time found that poverty alone is not the problem; malnutrition has been found even in households that can afford sufficient food, simply because of people’s lack of awareness about a proper diet and food nutrients. Adding vital vitamins to staples is not enough; the citizenry also needs to be told what vitamins and minerals are, and which foods contain what.

Education report card

THE state of public education in Pakistan has been abysmal for years. But instead of just bemoaning the sorry condition of this critical sector, it is more constructive to spot the many weaknesses of the system and work towards rectifying these inadequacies. And reports such as Alif Ailaan’s District Education Rankings help identify the weak spots. The advocacy group recently launched the 2015 edition of the rankings, examining the state of education in the country’s 148 districts and agencies. This effort is important as it gives a district-wise picture. The overall prognosis is that while some parts of the country are marching on despite obstacles such as weak infrastructure and limited resources, other areas are either stagnant or deteriorating further. Sindh’s performance, for example, has been described as “poor” and the report is critical of the provincial government’s failure to address the situation. Even in Punjab — which tends to lead on many counts — the study says there are “stark” differences between the province’s southern, central and northern districts.

Azad Kashmir, on the other hand, has overtaken Punjab and now stands as the second best-performing region. In fact AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan have been praised for trying to improve their performance despite poor infrastructure. Balochistan’s performance can be described in one word: “abysmal”. On a brighter note, the study praises the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration for improving its enrolment, retention and gender parity indicators. The key problems as identified by the report are that learning outcomes in Pakistan are poor and that education quality remains low. In other words, for the most part, our children are not getting a quality education in the public sector even if they make it to school and manage to stay in class. One area that has been highlighted for improvement is the allocation of funds. The country currently spends just around 2pc of GDP on education, whereas the desired figure is at least 3pc. But even the money that is spent is not delivering satisfactory outcomes.

However, as some areas are making an effort to improve themselves — GB, Azad Kashmir and KP, for example — it may prove beneficial to see what sort of practices these governments have adopted to address the education crisis. Clearly, unless the provincial administrations make it their priority to deliver quality education to all children in all districts, there will be slim chance of Pakistan’s education emergency abating anytime soon.

Missing persons

TO his credit, the chief minister of Balochistan, Abdul Malik Baloch, continues to be a leader who speaks relatively candidly on issues few politicians are willing to discuss openly. But when the admission is about total failure on the missing persons’ front, candidness offers cold comfort. Speaking at a book launch in Karachi, the chief minister claimed that his government is still in talks with the so-called angry Baloch – effectively, the soft and hard separatists – but said that there has been no progress on the issue of the missing persons. While the admission will have come as no surprise to political observers, consider the sheer enormity of it. Two years into a government that was elected on the promise of change, seven years into the transition to democracy and over a decade since the fifth Baloch insurgency began and that soon moved away from the traditional tribal centres to one across a swathe of middle-class, non-tribal Baloch areas, the chief minister of the province is effectively admitting that he has no control over a fundamental issue that has for years fuelled the anger of the Baloch.

Dr Baloch also had other dispiriting words: he essentially appealed to the centre to give more information to the people of Balochistan on its plans for Gwadar and presumably the road network that will be needed to make the port in Gwadar a trading hub. But the centre is run by the PML-N that is a partner of the chief minister’s National Party in the Balochistan government. In fact, Dr Baloch became chief minister because Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif preferred that the provincial government be led by the PML-N’s junior partner in terms of seats in the Balochistan Assembly. That Dr Baloch has to turn to the media to try and elicit answers from his coalition partner in Balochistan is perhaps emblematic of how far the NP government has fallen in terms of the promise it held a mere two years ago. In Balochistan, a carve-up of sorts can be seen. The big economic decisions have been ceded to the civilian-run federal government; all the security decisions have been retained by the army-led security establishment.

This has rendered Dr Baloch’s task of reaching out to the disaffected Baloch near impossible. If the chief minister cannot even influence the decision to produce to their families, let alone the judiciary, the disappeared people in the province, what can his standing really be in any negotiations with the separatists? If Chief Minister Baloch does appear to be fast becoming a peripheral figure, a great deal of the blame should fall on the centre. The PML-N government appears to all but have given up on trying to influence the security policy towards a province blighted by a dirty war between separatists and the military.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial

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