No consensus yet on Fata reforms

THE role of provincial governors may stand diminished since the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, but as the symbolic representatives of the federation, the governors are still influential in their provinces. Therefore, for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Mahtab Ahmad Khan to quit ostensibly of his own accord less than two years into the governorship suggests Mr Khan has his eyes on a greater prize. The resignation has not come as a surprise — for weeks there had been speculation that the governor wants a more direct political role and intends to contest the 2018 general elections. Stepping down now would not disqualify Mr Khan from political office in 2018 as all parliamentarians and provincial assembly representatives are required to not hold a post “in the service of Pakistan” for at least two years prior to an election. The resignation also indicates the PML-N’s growing confidence about its electoral prospects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — Mr Khan is believed to be eying the chief ministership in the next assembly.

Yet, Mr Khan’s resignation will not have a bearing on provincial politics alone — as governor he has also been the de facto civilian in-charge of Fata. And it is perhaps in Fata that Mr Khan’s departure may be felt immediately and deeply. While the army-led security establishment controls most major decisions on Fata, there are at least two areas in which civilian input has been sought, perhaps if only because the military leadership cannot go it alone: return of IDPs and Fata reforms. The quick return of IDPs has been a priority of the military as evidenced by the ISPR statement released after a provincial apex committee in Peshawar yesterday — Governor Khan leading the civilian representation in his last official meeting. But for IDPs to return en masse to a sustainable living environment, Fata reforms are essential — something that both the military and civilian leaderships appear to agree on.

Where the difference lies is in just how far those reforms should go and, crucially, whether Fata itself should be upgraded to a full province or absorbed into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The absorption of Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has proved to be a controversial issue — and is perhaps one that should ultimately be decided by the people of Fata themselves in a referendum. But is the military leadership willing to move quickly on other Fata reforms, not least defanging the anachronistic Frontier Crimes Regulation? Thus far there has been no suggestion that the military is willing to contemplate far-reaching and rights-driven reforms in Fata — nor, indeed, is there any indication that the civilian leadership is close to a consensus among itself. So while the priorities may be right — IDPs must be resettled at the earliest and Fata reforms are a necessity — the lack of consensus on the speed, direction and sequence of reforms appears to be thwarting positive change in Fata.

‘Judging’ IP pipeline

THE nuclear-related sanctions against Iran may be gone, but the ambiguities remain. For many years now, American officials have been clear in their response to questions about the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project: it violates US sanctions, they would always say. When Pakistani officials raised the possibility of exempting the pipeline project from US nuclear-related sanctions back in 2013 on the sidelines of the strategic dialogue, they were told quite clearly that no exemptions could be granted. Last year, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reportedly raised the issue with Secretary of State John Kerry on the latter’s visit to Pakistan, no response was received. But as of Jan 16, when the nuclear-related sanctions against Iran were formally lifted, the responses have become ambiguous. Most recently, an assistant secretary from the US Department of Energy was asked about the pipeline project during his visit to Pakistan, and his only response was that the matter “is still to be judged”. One could read any number of meanings into this odd choice of words, but its ambiguity and non-committal nature stands in stark contrast to all earlier pronouncements by American officialdom on the matter.

This ambiguity on the project may be new to American language, but Pakistan’s continued shilly-shallying even after the lifting of sanctions paints a confusing picture. Most recently, the petroleum minister did the project, and Pakistan’s standing in the eyes of its newly resurgent neighbour, no favours when he flatly stated that the pipeline project could “not be completed due to international sanctions on Iran”. What made this otherwise bland statement remarkable was that it was given only a few weeks before the sanctions were formally lifted. The words did not go down well in Iran, where official media said that the minister had “put the kibosh on expectations that a pipeline intended to take Iranian gas to the country could ever be completed”. The same article noted the ambiguous and even “contradictory” statements from senior officials in Pakistan and failure to take gas deliveries from the end of 2014 or even build its section of the pipeline. It would have been better if the creeping ambiguity in American language was met by growing clarity in Pakistan’s stance, that the time had come to push this project, and all excuses to not commence gas deliveries now stood exhausted. It is indeed time to judge this project favourably and get moving on it.

Top conspiracies

EVEN when the collectors of creative data are not counting, it can be safely assumed that the average Pakistani unmasks a couple of conspiracies every hour. Some Pakistanis are more prolific when it comes to seeing through ‘nefarious’ designs, while others are in a perpetual state of being conspired against. They would be all very pleased to have found justification for their preoccupation with theories voiced in absolute tones by the very leaders who should be assuring the people that no one is plotting their downfall. Two new conspiracies that were revealed to national readers on Tuesday stood out. Teachers in Sindh blew up the embarrassingly inadequate cover on the dark scheme to take over public universities, and the prime minister ordered an investigation of the PIA management’s role in the ongoing strike that has crippled the operations of what is still a national airline. Reports say the management might have colluded with the workers, ‘hand in glove’, to bring PIA to a halt. Needless to say, this latest conspiracy follows the slow, deliberate death the airline was subjected to by a government out to dispose of state assets.

It would appear that no other term has the expanse and efficacy of the word ‘conspiracy’. Consider a group of officials forced to explain to the boss, say a prime minister, how a certain package, for example about privatisation, didn’t quite unfold as it had been predicted to. Would it suffice for them to come up with a straightforward note explaining the dissenters’ grievances and the possible answers to address those? Not quite when there is at hand a worthy term that can so profoundly cover all aspects of an issue and project one as the victim of a sinister plot. The conspiracy theorists will be emboldened when topnotch functionaries can at will parade a handful of conspirators shamelessly working against development. The creative monitors of fancy trends need not despair. Given the current acceptance of the term, conspiracy talk is not leaving this land anytime soon.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016

After the strike

THE end of the PIA strike is a moment of relief for everyone, not least the government.

The latter might be tempted to think that it has triumphed and crushed the workers’ protest, but such a feeling would be misplaced.

As for the workers, while they demonstrated their ability to bring airline operations to a standstill, they were not able to win significant concessions from the government, at least none that have been made public.

This is not surprising considering they had no exit plan as such, no demands that could be credibly met without having grave ramifications for the larger economy. With no clear road map about what to do afterwards, the workers’ decision to end the strike was not entirely unexpected.

But the strike has also put PIA employees at the centre of a national conversation, a debate about public-sector enterprises and what path forward is best to bring them out of their serious difficulties. On that front the workers can still strike out, if they have the capacity.

The union leadership should now acknowledge that overstaffing is a problem at PIA. It may not be the biggest problem and is certainly not the only one, but it is indeed a challenge, and they should present a viable plan for addressing it.

Simply demanding that the privatisation agenda be abandoned is not going to win them any battles. The government should also resist any temptation to overreach.

Protests by workers of the sort that we have just witnessed have not been seen in Pakistan in many years, and there still exists the possibility of a resurgence. This is a moment to consolidate and negotiate for both parties, and it should be utilised as such.

The entire episode, particularly the tragic deaths, was avoidable and the product of mismanagement by the government, and the government would be making a mistake if it were to start behaving like a conquering army at this stage.

The privatisation agenda outlined by it is an ambitious but delicate affair; it also lies at the heart of the structural reforms that the government is trying to undertake.

The promises made to the workers that their grievances will be given an audience, should be upheld, and both parties should sit down and decide on the path to rationalise the staffing of PIA.

Many amongst the airline’s staff may need to be moved to a surplus pool, and agreements should be in place that the unions will cooperate with the future management in return for a stable and orderly rationalisation of the human resource requirement of PIA.

Both government and the unions need to realise that they are not the primary stakeholders in the airline. It is the customers, and all decisions should prioritise the customer experience.

The matter remains sensitive, and due care should be taken to put the recent disruptions firmly in the past.

Saudi coalition

AS speculation grows over whether Saudi Arabia and its allied states will deploy troops on the ground in Syria, lawmakers have rightly asked the government to explain where Pakistan stands on the matter.

At a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, legislators stated that the government had failed to inform the committee whether Pakistan had joined the ‘anti-terror’ coalition cobbled together by the Saudis.

When asked about the matter, the foreign secretary said details about the coalition “were still not clear”. This opaqueness on such a key foreign policy issue is frankly unsettling.

While the Saudis have said that a possible deployment in Syria would be designed to target the militant Islamic State group, clearly, considering that Riyadh has called for regime change in Damascus, the reaction from Bashar al-Assad’s government will hardly be welcoming.

In fact, senior Syrian officials have minced no words in criticising the Saudi plan. Any effort to counter IS and other extremist groups must be aligned with Damascus, or else chances are fair that the Syrian conflict will get even more complicated than it already is.

The reason for increased talk of Saudi, Turkish or other anti-Assad boots on the ground in Syria is because the government in Damascus, backed by Russian air power as well as Iran and Hezbollah’s help, is on the verge of retaking the key city of Aleppo.

Should the Syrian government retake this strategic city, it would be a major blow to the opposition — moderate or otherwise.

The question is: if the Saudis decide to embark on a mission that can only be described as folly, should Pakistan plunge itself into the maelstrom also?

The logical response to this would be that Pakistan should maintain its neutrality and refrain from getting involved in what will be a very messy fight.

Pakistan can surely continue its counterterrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia, but committing our troops to an unclear, ill-defined mission would be a huge mistake.

This country did the right thing by resisting Saudi pressure to join the war in Yemen. By all accounts that conflict is not going well for the Saudis and the Yemeni rebels are far from neutralised.

Where Syria is concerned — though the peace process may be all but dead — regional states must not give up on a negotiated solution. However, if the Syrian conflict takes an unpredictable turn, Islamabad must very clearly state where it stands.

Farcical terror exercise

THERE is obviously something wrong when a nation faced with danger that threatens to cut down its very future, chooses to reduce that horror to the level of a spectacle.

Consider the farce put up at Karachi’s Jinnah University for Women on Tuesday when the student body attended the Sindh police’s ‘hostile environment awareness training’ session on campus.

Students were informed about weapons of different calibres and told which ones the militants use most commonly, such as the AK-47 or M16 rifles — as though being able to identify a particular gun would in any way translate into being able to ward off an attack.

This piece of rather meaningless detail was followed by Special Security Unit commandos staging a mock battle with armed attackers, and killing them amidst gunfire, smoke and explosions. At the inception of the proceedings, SSU SP Mohammad Muzaffar Iqbal told the students that the programme would equip them with the basic skills to counter such a situation.

Other than give physical shape to nightmares that the young in Pakistan already suffer, how would such an exercise help prepare the students in any way?

This was not a one-off; the tableau was held at the University of Karachi last week and more are planned at different institutions.

Neither are the Sindh police the only ones to react in such a bizarre fashion. From other parts of the country have come reports of efforts to teach students and teachers to handle weaponry so that they can act as the first line of defence, the suggestion that if a guard is not trained in handling weapons he can bring in a relative who can do the job, and other such foolishness.

Meanwhile, exercises that could actually save lives, such as evacuation drills, have taken place hardly anywhere. Perhaps those are not of high-enough visibility to interest those who plan counterterrorism procedures, but there is nothing to be gained from drills such as those outlined above other than the waste of time and resources.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016

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

IS threat

IT is a blunt, though perhaps unsurprising, warning: the country’s top civilian spymaster, director general of the Intelligence Bureau, Aftab Sultan, has told the Senate Standing Committee on Interior that the militant Islamic State group is in fact an emerging threat in the country, particularly because sectarian militant outfits and elements of the banned TTP are sympathetic to its ideology.

The DG IB’s warning stands in stark contrast to the interior ministry’s repeated claims that IS is not a factor inside Pakistan and that suggestions to the contrary were mere propaganda — claims that never quite sat comfortably with the facts emerging operationally.

Also read: IS emerging as a threat, warns IB chief

The logic of what Mr Sultan said on Wednesday is both undeniable and worrying: militant groups have morphed before and many have borrowed bits of ideology from one another.

The experience with Al Qaeda is a particularly dangerous example. Sectarian groups latched on to the sectarianism ingrained in Al Qaeda’s worldview, while other militant outfits learned tactics from and shared operational resources with the organisation.

If Al Qaeda’s ideology and tactics proved seductive enough for some militant groups here in Pakistan, the IS’s ideology is frighteningly close to what sectarian groups in particular would automatically be drawn to.

The problem is particularly acute in Punjab, where, for all the ambivalence and outright denials of the PML-N, reside some of the biggest threats to national stability following the launch of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in Fata.

Both demographics and virulent ideology allowed to spread itself over decades have turned areas in Punjab, and not just in the south, into virtual sectarian tinderboxes.

It is not unknown for villages to be divided spatially along sectarian lines and now that trend is emerging in some of Punjab’s cities and towns — across the province.

Similarly, the TTP — unlike the Afghan Taliban — are an easy ally of IS. Unlike the Afghan Taliban’s more nationalist aims — dominance of Afghanistan — the TTP has a more pan-Islamic view and has always sought to extend its influence outside the geographical boundaries of Pakistan.

Moreover, with the TTP fractured and on the run, a boost in the form of new alliances, such as with IS, is likely to be sought by the group.

The DG IB is not alone in the assessment of a threat from IS; the military leadership too appears to be aware of the dangers that lie ahead nationally, particularly as the bulk of the fighting in North Waziristan winds down.

While army chief Gen Raheel Sharif on Wednesday once again identified “hostile external intelligence agencies” as responsible for some of the terrorism inside Pakistan, he also referred to “sympathisers at home” who provide “refuge and shelter”.

Surely, many of those sanctuaries are in Punjab — the only province that has not had a major crackdown in any part of it. Terrorism being a national problem, the time has come to focus on the Punjab-based aspects of it.

Investing in people

FOR too long now, economic orthodoxy has focused on macroeconomic fundamentals to assess the health of an economy.

So when reserves rise or growth resumes, celebratory pronouncements pour forth without much thought as to who exactly is reaping the benefits.

But for people to benefit from an improvement in macroeconomic conditions, greater measures need to be taken to ensure broader participation in the institutions that dominate the economy, and to ensure that a fair share of the benefits are reaching those who need it the most in the form of strengthened institutions for delivery of health and educational outcomes.

Also read: Inclusive financing improving in Pakistan, says Queen Maxima

This is why the words of the World Bank president, who just concluded a two-day visit to Pakistan, are welcome.

He acknowledged the growth story being peddled by the government, but added that he “would encourage the country to be more ambitious with reforming its economy so that more people are lifted out of poverty more quickly, and prosperity is more widely shared”.

As part of the reforms to lift people out of poverty, and ensure prosperity is “more widely shared”, the World Bank has ramped up its engagement with programmes that seek to reach those traditionally neglected by the macroeconomic growth process, with some emphasis on financial inclusion.

Three sectors are notoriously underdeveloped in their capacity to reach and empower the poor: the financial sector and health and educational institutions. In each of these, Pakistan has some of the most dismal realities compared to most other countries.

In the financial sector, for instance, only 13pc of Pakistani adults have a bank account, with only 5pc of women included in the financial sector, compared to a South Asian average of 37pc.

Likewise in education, Pakistan has one of the highest numbers of children out of school, and almost 20pc of the population was undernourished in 2012 when the last figures were released — sadly, almost 32pc of children were also undernourished.

These are sobering statistics and if they are not corrected, then we are surely laying the groundwork for a human catastrophe for the next generation.

The government’s efforts to promote financial inclusion through the Universal Financial Access Initiative launched during the World Bank president’s visit is a welcome development, but the bulk of the work to rectify the dismal state of the human condition in the country lies ahead of us. The time to start work on it is now.

Bajia’s departure

SOME names reveal everything about a personality — such as bajia, a variant for the respected, loved (and in command) elder sister in Urdu. It is impossible to separate Fatima Surayya Bajia, the individual, from family — both hers in real life and the one she breathed life into on television screens all those decades back.

And as the search for microcosms goes, her personal struggle can be equated with that of her adopted city — and this country after the demise of its founder in September 1948. Bajia’s family arrived in Karachi a week after the passing of the Quaid.

Faced with challenges, this resolute lady was, in time, to lead her siblings’ search for a new life, she herself graduating through various stages to ultimately emerge as a playwright of merit — and a much-loved, respected sister and an in-command mentor.

She was able to portray a culture with all its intricacies, fallouts and conflicts that defined the contours of her drama.

This was in the tradition of the so-called social novels written in the era of Partition, like the ones by A.R. Khatoon that she was apparently inspired by.

The reader — and later television viewers under the guidance of Bajia — was taken on an exhaustive round of a complex world filled with interplaying family connections exposed to pressures brought about by new influences including education and a collapsing feudal structure.

It was a life that was attractive but that also encouraged reform. Bajia wove her stories around the scenes she must have first come across before her migration and that, post-Partition, were transported to her new home Karachi in bulk. She contributed richly to a vibrant cultural stream and without trying to expand her canvas too much.

She covered the one robust parallel she was well versed in and did it with quiet grace and pride, and what is paramount for a communicator, effectively and in a distinct style. There has been no one like her. She remains incomparable in her field.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016

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

Saturday, February 13th, 2016.

Pakistan’s lost universe

IF the world of science, in particular physics and astronomy, is referring to the Ligo discovery in superlative terms such as “transformational” and “the beginning of a new era” for mankind’s understanding of the universe, it is for good reason.

Albert Einstein first postulated the existence of gravitational waves, or what have been described as “ripples in the fabric of space-time” a century ago.

Then followed 50 years of trial and error, and a quarter century was spent merely perfecting instruments that were sensitive enough to identify a distortion in space-time — in this case the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away.

Finally, on Thursday, having completed the scientific arc of prediction, discovery and confirmation, physicists of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory team announced in Washington, DC: “We did it.” Researchers say that the confirmation of the existence of these waves will allow them to probe the universe, even its origins, in new ways.

A moment of such breathtaking excitement comes all too rarely in any field of study.

There is no doubt that like other great leaps of scientific understanding in the past, the Ligo discovery will galvanise further interest in astronomy and physics. But when such interest is considered in the context of Pakistan, the picture becomes immediately bleak.

Academic decline in this country is evident in most subjects, not least those included in the sciences. Both the quality of textbooks and teaching have done nothing to inculcate a sense of curiosity and wonder in our children. Rote learning, rather than an understanding of even fundamental concepts, has led the way. And few schools and colleges have science clubs that could have fostered interest in young minds.

Our students are thus deprived of a chance to come together to explore the many mysteries of the universe.

The grim reality is simple: this is a nation where even those trained as scientists can put their stamp of approval on a car said to run on water. Could there be a greater indictment?

Karachi security

ON the day the head of the military’s media wing was in Karachi to discuss progress on the city’s law and order situation, three small explosions were reported from different parts of the metropolis.

A police station, college and school were among the targets attacked, though fortunately, there were no fatalities reported.

So DG ISPR Asim Bajwa was not off the mark when he observed that more work needed to be done to rid Karachi of terrorism and violence.

Lt-Gen Bajwa quoted a number of figures in his briefing, stating that since the commencement of the law-enforcement operation in Karachi in September 2013, there have been over 12,000 arrests.

Indeed, violent crime and militancy in the metropolis have come down in this period — a fact most independent observers will confirm. With the exception of last year’s Safoora Goth carnage, there have been no major terrorist attacks in Karachi over the past few years, and crimes such as targeted killings, extortion and kidnappings have also come down.

But as Friday’s attacks have shown, the mission is not yet accomplished. Militants very much appear to be active under the radar.

For instance, over the past few weeks Rangers’ check posts have been attacked, while earlier this month two schools in the Gulshan area were targeted with ‘crackers’. The modus operandi in most of these incidents — explosives lobbed by motorcycle-borne assailants — has been similar.

Karachi’s vastness and its seemingly unending urban sprawl provide an ideal environment for militants of all hues to melt away into anonymity, and then strike at an opportune moment.

In order to further reduce the space for militants in the city, it is essential for law enforcers to conduct intelligence-led operations to uncover extremists and their sympathisers.

For this, along with the Rangers, the civilian intelligence apparatus, especially outfits such as the police’s special branch, must be increasingly deployed as it is these units that have an ear to the ground, especially to gauge the situation in neighbourhoods.

Moreover, considering the fact that several educational institutions in the city have been targeted, the police as well as the schools’ administrations must speed up efforts to implement the ‘safe schools’ project’.

As police officials have stated, over 100 of the city’s some 5,000 schools have been declared ‘sensitive’. Hence the state must make every effort — in an unobtrusive and sensitive way — to protect youngsters from violence.

LNG: the second round

EVER since the government proudly declared the completion of the LNG terminal to be one of its emblematic successes, there has been a barrage of attacks against it, and the petroleum minister in particular, for failing to have made the arrangements to actually import the gas.

Almost a year after the terminal began commercial operations, we finally have a signature on a long-term supply contract for LNG, at a price that is lower than what most other customers are paying.

In the meantime, it has been a story of epic muddling through as the embattled minister tried to bulldoze his will through a reluctant and lethargic bureaucracy to make the arrangements for importing the fuel that he claimed would change the destiny of the country.

Makeshift arrangements were resorted to, in the meantime, as the minister attempted to get the bureaucracy to furnish the approvals he needed. Along the way, LNG was controversially declared to be a petroleum product to get around messy provincial government claims on natural gas.

But now the deal is finally done and we can be reasonably sure that regular deliveries are about to begin a full one year after the commencement of commercial operations.

It may not make for a story of tight management, but the minister has delivered and the country is one step closer to achieving a truly historic landmark as it prepares to receive the first of its regular supplies of imported gas.

This is his moment and it would be unfair to try to tarnish the scale of what has been accomplished, or to place hurdles in the way.

So despite all the attacks that his performance was subjected to throughout the year, and despite the delays, it is time to give credit where it is due.

Now comes the difficult part. How to transfer the gas which lands at Port Qasim in Karachi to its consumers in southern Punjab?

It turns out that here too the homework has not been done, and from the looks of it, we are now in for round two of muddling through our way to getting a workable LNG import scheme up and running.

Transferring the gas from the port to upcountry consumers can either be done through a dedicated pipeline, or through the SSGC network.

In the former case, the price tag is large and the gestation period long. The latter option activates provincial claims all over again.

Funding for the dedicated pipeline has not been arranged, and the controversial proposal to shift the cost onto consumers through a cess is likely to land the government in a new set of squabbles all over again. How hard the Sindh government presses its claims to the imported gas remains to be seen.

Let’s hope round two is shorter and a lot less painful than the first round.

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

Can anyone Share DAWN Editorial of 2016 in PDF?

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All the quotes in the world won't make us a pious person, It's our actions that are going to be judged...!! !

As Editorial mostly based on minor current issues and with the passage of time their significance decline. So my suggestion is go thoroughly, broaden your concept. No need to compile them and reading again and again.

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

Sunday, Feb 14 ,2106.

Deep-rooted sectarianism

AS opposed to much more recent problems with ‘jihadi’ militancy, the state has been battling the monster of sectarian terrorism since at least the 1980s. Regrettably, it is also true that both the military and civilian leaderships have played ball with the political facilitators of sectarian militants whenever the need has emerged. But the scenario may finally be changing, especially in the aftermath of the APS tragedy in Peshawar, as the state has begun to take visible action against sectarian militants. For example, in his media briefing in Karachi on Friday, DG ISPR Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa announced that amongst 97 arrested militants were three ‘most-wanted’ leaders of banned outfits. This included Naeem Bukhari, a dreaded Karachi-based militant associated with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. On the same day, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department said it had apprehended nine militants in Lahore, again associated with various militant outfits. And 2015 was marked by the killings of Malik Ishaq and Usman Saifullah Kurd, in separate ‘encounters’; both men were associated with LJ and were notorious for perpetrating sectarian violence.

For there to be effective and long-lasting action in Pakistan against sectarian militant groups, two things must be considered. Firstly, it appears as if the establishment is continuing with its ‘good militant, bad militant’ policy. For instance, while the ‘bad’ militants are being pounded in Fata and rounded up in the cities, the ‘good’ ones — especially Kashmir-centric fighters — are hardly being touched. The authorities must know that sectarian outfits and jihadi groups have a symbiotic relationship. In many cases, they share ideologies, while also providing each other with manpower. For example, Naeem Bukhari, the LJ leader, has been described as being instrumental in bringing his concern closer to Al Qaeda. The criteria must be simple: any group espousing or condoning violence against innocent people — whether in the name of religion, sect or ethnicity — must be dismantled. Unless action is taken against all militant groups, efforts against sectarian concerns will not prove effective.

Secondly, while the state pursues counterterrorism activities, there is a lack of movement on countering extremism and sectarian tendencies within society, which are arguably high. Taking out sectarian killers will not be helpful in the long run unless the factors contributing to sectarian intolerance in society are addressed. Of course, communal violence in the Middle East has done much to fuel sectarian feelings in Pakistan. And while there is little the state can do to shield the country from what is happening in Syria or Iraq, or the effects of the Saudi-Iranian spat, it is entirely possible to at least mitigate the effects of these situations. A credible counter-narrative is needed which stresses that while doctrinal differences and various interpretations of Muslim history have always existed, in today’s Pakistan such differences must be tolerated and accepted. This message must particularly resonate within the mosque, madressah and curriculum.

Military ‘justice’

IT is a strange pattern: the army chief endorses death sentences handed down by military courts operating under the 21st Amendment and the Supreme Court suspends the executions pending a decision on the judicial appeals. This week has seen 12 more individuals accused by the military of terrorism being condemned to death, and the death sentences of four earlier terrorism convicts suspended by the Supreme Court. As noted by the Supreme Court judges hearing the appeals, the endorsement by the court of military courts in the 21st Amendment judgement has left a narrow window for appeal by those convicted by military courts. What is troubling is that neither is there any light emerging from the military court trials nor is the Supreme Court moving swiftly enough to examine if justice is indeed being carried out. This newspaper stands against the death penalty in all its manifestations — but the conveyor-belt manner in which military courts are handing down death sentences is especially troubling.

The approach so far by the military has been to give no details to the public or the media about ongoing trials and then revealing the sentences and the crimes the terror suspects are accused of at the time of endorsement by the army chief. No evidence is provided — often to even the family members — and the trial record is withheld. This in trials of individuals the state has accused of being ‘jet-black terrorists’ — how can evidence be so lacking and the willingness to produce it so low when it comes to terrorist acts that are some of the worst in the country’s history? There are few answers. More than halfway through the life of the 21st Amendment, the state’s approach has only seemed to worsen. Perhaps the only hope is the Supreme Court. Some of the justices have shown a willingness to examine military court convictions and, at least in verbal remarks, acknowledged the heavy burden on them when it comes to ensuring justice is done. While the 21st Amendment judgement left only relatively narrow grounds on which military court convictions can be overturned, there are two things that the court can still do. One, it can expedite the appeals process, prioritising them over normal court work. Two, the Supreme Court can act to set aside death sentences in cases where basic doubts still exist and the trial is deemed patently unfair. The death penalty is fundamentally and morally wrong — the court must act to curb it where it can.

Valentine’s Day

IT is not the hammer all through. There are practices discouraged and prevented by law and official decree and then there are acts which those who find them offensive must counter by setting a personal example. With all its ‘outrageous’ and ‘unwanted’ public manifestations, Valentine’s Day, ultimately, is about too personal a sentiment to be open to a legal, official or societal intervention or censure. Whatever plausible or implausible reasons those opposed to the occasion may have, if the truth according to their own values is what they are out to prove, they must try and convince people by debate instead of taking the easy option of browbeating the vulnerable, in the process betraying their own weaknesses.

But then, this is not what the ‘powerful’ in this land are inclined to do, their urge to control is reflected in a series of bans and other acts meant to control popular freedoms. It is not just about a government stopping people from flying kites or a student organisation barring interaction on campus. The attitude that encourages a ban as the final solution is there to be contended with in many everyday situations. It is an attitude steeped dangerously, and conveniently, in self-righteousness. In a country where a large number of people quietly submit to restrictions on wedding feasts, many of those in positions of authority show off their influence when violations propel them to stop the proceedings forcibly. There are district governments and administrations in the country that have barred Valentine’s Day in their areas and these authorities have since been joined by a functionary of state no less than the president of Pakistan. President Mamnoon Hussain didn’t say he did not celebrate the day — for this would have amounted to an attempt at setting an example, something that those in power here are reluctant to do. He chose to take sides where he could easily have been neutral. He urged Pakistanis to not observe Valentine’s Day. Perhaps he should have been quiet on that point.

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

Date: Feb 17, 2016

India-Pakistan talks

THE start of the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue has now been delayed by more than a month, but comments by the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale suggest that officials from both sides are trying to create the so-called right environment for the CBD to begin.

While not mentioning any preconditions for the start of the CBD, Mr Bambawale did reveal that the foreign secretaries and national security advisers of Pakistan and India are trying to determine when the talks can begin, a timeline presumably linked to progress on the investigations into the Pathankot air base attack.

But what stage have the investigations reached? After early and seemingly rapid movement, the trail appears to have gone cold — or at least news of further progress has been missing.

The relative restraint that both sides showed in the face of immediate accusations and recriminations over the Pathankot attack will only matter if it can lead to meaningful cooperation.

There are still some basic questions about the Pathankot attack that have not been definitively answered. Who were the attackers? Did they cross the international border? Who were the architects and planners of the attack?

Each of those questions needs not only a factual response, but a legal one so that justice can be pursued on both sides of the border.

Yet, neither India nor Pakistan seems keen to publicly put all speculation to rest immediately.

Perhaps behind the scenes there are disagreements over what amounts to actionable intelligence and which parts of the public allegations are speculative, but that would suggest that politics is interfering with forensic investigation.

Given the resources of the two countries and the importance of what took place in Pathankot in early January, a month and a half ought to have been enough for at least the basic facts to be mutually established and shared with the public in both India and Pakistan.

Worryingly, it does not appear that lessons have been learned from the investigations into the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

Perhaps what is needed is a further dose of direct prime ministerial intervention. After all, had it not been for the boldness of prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi, the CBD was unlikely to have materialised.

In making the decision to resume full-fledged talks, the two prime ministers rightly realised that the India-Pakistan relationship cannot be reduced to a single issue for either side.

Discussing terrorism to the exclusion of all other issues was unlikely to bring peace, a fact that Mr Modi eventually realised.

Similarly, notwithstanding the centrality of the Kashmir dispute, the Pakistani attempt to cast terrorism as a side issue was never going to succeed.

The Pathankot attack has not undone the logic of the CBD; far from it, the attack has reinforced the need for India and Pakistan to engage each other.

Surely, a purposeful investigation can proceed alongside and become an early success of the CBD.

Hindu marriage law

AFTER an inexcusable delay, the Sindh Assembly on Monday became the first legislature in Pakistan to pass a law governing the registration of marriages for the Hindu community, as well as other religious groups, such as the Sikhs.

Though the passage of the Sindh Hindus Marriage Bill 2016, is welcome, the fact is that it was long overdue, and the lack of legal recognition for Hindu marriages had created major problems for members of the community, especially women.

The campaign for legal recognition was spearheaded by minority rights activists and civil society, while even the Supreme Court had to step in and call for such a law. Experts say the law should help curb child marriages — it fixes 18 as the minimum age for matrimony — while also helping clamp down on forced conversions of Hindu women.

It is significant that Sindh took the first step, as the vast majority of the country’s Hindus reside in this province.

Moreover, it is welcome that a controversial clause calling for the union to be annulled should one partner convert to another faith has not been included in Sindh’s law.

Though some minority leaders and politicians have criticised parts of the law, it is important that a legal structure has now been established; should shortcomings emerge in its implementation, these can always be addressed through amendments.

Beyond Sindh, there is now the need to enact marriage legislation for Hindus living in other parts of the country. There can be two ways to go about this.

Firstly, the other three provinces can pass their own respective laws governing non-Muslim marriage. Or, if the National Assembly passes legislation in this regard — the lower house’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice has already cleared a Hindu marriage bill, which now awaits passage — the federating units can adopt the national law.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies have already passed resolutions authorising the centre to legislate on the matter.

Whatever legislative route the federating units choose, the process must now be expedited as legislation related to non-Muslims’ marriage cannot be left in limbo forever.

As it is, the issue had been left unattended for decades, which resulted in major problems for Hindu women having their unions recognised by the law, having official documents issued etc.

Also, to reflect the fact that the law will cover other religious groups apart from the Hindu community, a suggestion is that its name could be amended accordingly.

Mayor for ICT

IT is a measure of Pakistanis’ short memory that the election of a mayor and his subsidiaries for Islamabad Capital Territory is being hailed as the first chance at local government that the country’s capital has been allowed to have.

How easily it has been forgotten that Karachi — now a shambles of legendary proportions — was the original seat of the federal government until the machinations that led to the creation of a new city altogether.

Nevertheless, even though it is incorrect that this is the first time the country’s capital is poised to have an elected person assume the mayorship, it is a first for the area that now holds the seat of honour.

Also read: PML-N's Sheikh Ansar Aziz elected Islamabad's first-ever mayor

While other cities have intermittently been allowed to form local governments in recent years, Islamabad has been a glaring exception; the reason why this is so is no secret: successive governments have seen the area as the exclusive domain of whichever party is ruling at the centre, with city affairs — even basic ones such as housing, sanitation or road maintenance — often being dictated from senior ministerial platforms that ought to have little, if anything at all, to do with such matters.

However, as it became increasingly clear on Monday that mayor-elect Sheikh Ansar Aziz would take charge of ICT in the coming days, there can be hope for a different trajectory.

There is no shortage of issues to be resolved, and a number of departments and responsibilities are to be fully devolved to the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation, of which the mayor will be the elected head.

But success rests almost entirely on the ability of Mr Aziz to carve out a role for himself and his team in city management, and the willingness of the bureaucracy to respond to a changed environment.

Given that the mayor-elect belongs to the ruling party at the centre, dare we hope that the local and federal governments might find a way to work in concert for the greater good of the city?

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

Date: Thursday Feb 18, 2016.

Syria invasion talk

OVER the last several days, there has been a series of statements coming from senior Turkish and Saudi officials indicating that plans for a ground invasion of Syria are on the table.

The latest comments came on Tuesday, when a Turkish official was quoted as saying that Ankara wanted a ground operation in Syria “with our international allies”.

These are troubling words and bring into focus the dangerous game of brinksmanship that is being played in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has also said it is willing to commit troops for a ground assault in Syria.

Till now, foreign countries — both those allied to Bashar al-Assad’s government and those opposing the Syrian strongman — have mostly been conducting aerial raids targeting the militant Islamic State group and others.

However, if foreign troops were to arrive in Syria, under whatever pretext, without the assent of Damascus, matters would be likely to spiral further out of control.

The Syrian regime has scoffed at the talk of invasion, while Iran and Russia, Mr Assad’s primary backers, have also let their displeasure be known. Turkey is already pounding Syrian Kurds, whom it refers to as ‘terrorists’, across the border. This has led to criticism that Ankara is more interested in crushing Kurdish ambitions in the region rather than clamping down on IS.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is conducting ongoing massive military exercises in its northern region.

Numerous Muslim states are participating in these manoeuvres, including Pakistan. Some Saudi analysts have said the manoeuvres are designed to send a message to Iran. While there is no harm in counterterrorism cooperation between Islamabad and Riyadh, if the military exercises are a dress rehearsal for a Syrian invasion, then Pakistan would do well to stay away.

If foreign forces do invade Syria, the bloodbath in that unfortunate country is bound to get worse.

Therefore, if external actors are incapable of bringing Syria’s warring factions to the table, they should at least refrain from further complicating matters through direct military action.

Price of drugs

A RECENT increase in the prices of drugs has put the focus back on the remarkable laxity and leisure that characterises the crucial area of health in Pakistan.

As expected, the increase has the media and stakeholders such as the chemists protesting on behalf of the people. A ‘mafia’ is alleged to be behind the hike, in partnership, indeed, with ever-willing officials.

The still unsettled Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has tried to appear blameless, saying that the prices have been increased without its approval and in pursuance of the proceedings in court.

Just as the pharmaceutical companies ask to be heard over the din of objections to the hike, the Punjab government has declared it will ensure the old prices by applying tough administrative measures such as a close monitoring of the market.

It is because of the impassioned responses that the real issue causing the controversy remains eclipsed. The basic issue is that this country has failed to evolve a mechanism for regulating prices.

Meanwhile, this recent hike didn’t come out of the blue. The government and the drug manufacturers — local and multinational — have been at loggerheads over a formula for the increase in the prices of medicines.

The makers point out that in the face of ever-rising costs, retail prices have remained constant for a decade and a half — since 2001.

Amid pressure on the government to make a list of essential drugs, whose prices it must keep under watch, in November 2013, Drap notified an increase of 15pc on a number of drugs, excluding those categorised as life-saving. The notification was withdrawn the next day on the direction of the prime minister.

The manufacturers have been demanding an increase calculated on the basis of inflation and they point out their court cases seeking hardship relief had been pending since the year 2008.

They say they were forced to increase the prices of a few drugs in the absence of a mutually agreed upon policy.

According to the drugs companies, all they are asking for is hardship allowance, a claim which is open to valid questions by the chemists and people at large.

The hike has been greeted by a shake of the head on the part of a disapproving government.

The officials, including those in Drap, could have better utilised their energy in building a reasonable mechanism with the people’s interest held above all else.

Criticising NAB

NOBODY likes accountability and ferreting out traces of corruption in government affairs, but given the sad realities of our country, it is an indispensable task.

In some form or the other, constant vigilance over government conduct is required by a strong and independent body empowered to detect, investigate and prosecute corruption wherever it may be found.

Also read: Sharif threatens to clip NAB’s wings

But unfortunately, this is not the only sad reality of our country. In the past, hunting down corruption has taken on a political hue and, on many occasions, the exercise has been selective.

The result is that it is difficult to tell when the National Accountability Bureau is actually pursuing a corruption investigation and when it is allowing its strings to be pulled from the shadows for the purpose of settling political scores.

Today, we have a situation where everybody is annoyed with NAB, the prime minister and the chief ministers, which means they might be doing something right, or perhaps the anti-corruption bureau is drawing its strength from Rawalpindi.

That question will be hard to answer in the absence of strong evidence one way or the other.

What is not hard to see, however, is that those indulging in criticism have no alternative suggestions on how to institutionalise accountability in Pakistan. Keeping accountability under governmental control has aggravated the politicisation of corruption allegations in the past.

In 2004, for instance, NAB famously issued a clean bill of health to the PML-Q leadership while continuing to pursue cases against the opposition leaders.

And who needs to be reminded of how the Ehtesab Bureau acted during the last Nawaz Sharif government in the late 1990s? Even today, evidence of how corruption has become a political football is in painfully high supply.

The PTI, which only recently reformed its own accountability law in KP in an apparent move to clip the powers of the Ehtesab Commission, is assailing the PML-N over the prime minister’s statement that NAB is harassing civil servants and serving as an obstruction to the completion of important projects.

The PPP too seized on the prime minister’s outburst and momentarily forgot its own complaints against the heavy-handed exercise of accountability powers.

The parties need to agree amongst themselves on how to institutionalise accountability in the country, then allow the process to operate.

A truly independent accountability set-up is needed, with its head being chosen by consensus, perhaps along the lines of the ECP.

Stronger rules are also required on what conditions are necessary before an inquiry can be initiated. Above all, a consensus needs to be built on how accountability will proceed in the country, and its writ needs to be respected.

It is an unseemly sight when political parties rally around NAB as it goes after their opponents, and then start to cry foul once it begins to go after them.

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

Date: Friday, February 19, 2016.

Indian objections to F-16 sale

The sale of F-16 aircraft has appeared to annoy India more than it helps Pakistan’s overall counter-insurgency efforts. It should not.

But the very fact that it does — that New Delhi appears to feel it necessary to protest the American sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan — demonstrates the extent to which the Pak-India relationship needs to be protected from reactionaries in India.

It may be true that the use of F-16s is not central or fundamental to the Pakistani counter-insurgency effort in Fata. But neither are the additional aircraft vital for Pakistan’s overall deterrence efforts against India.

What is troubling though is that Indian authorities appear to insist that the Pak-US relationship has some automatic implications for the Pak-India context. It does not.

Eight new aircraft does not change the strategic — or operational balance — anymore than a similar addition of similar aircraft by India would.

Much as Pakistan — and possibly India — is trying to restart dialogue between the two countries, it appears that the old approach continues to dominate.

The objections to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan are not the only recent Indian intervention.

It is fairly well established that Indian authorities attempted to — and perhaps succeeded in— temporarily blocking the sale of JF-17 aircraft to Sri Lanka.

There too the Indian intervention was neither bashful nor remotely principled. It was simply a case of leveraging influence to ensure a politically desirable — if short-sighted — outcome.

The Pakistani state’s deterrence against armed conflict with India has neither been shaped nor determined by US arms transfers.

Much as Pakistan achieved deterrence capability against India while US sanctions were in effect against Pakistan, the same logic applies today: US transfers to Pakistan will not change the latter’s fundamental ability to protect itself against Indian hegemony.

Perhaps what Indian authorities ought to consider is another reality: can Pakistan really ever defeat terror — the kinds that threaten the Pakistani state and also regional powers — if it does not have all the necessary tools at its disposal?

From Indian objections to American arms transfers to Pakistan, a strange pattern can be discerned.

India wants to not only dictate to Pakistan what the latter’s national security interests ought to be, but also the manner in which they ought to be fought — and the resources with which they should be fought.

Pakistan has every right to the F-16s and doubly so when it comes to the possibility of using them to combat perhaps the foremost threat to regional stability.

It does not behove India to pretend otherwise or to try and prevent Pakistan from acquiring the weapons platforms from which it can defend itself.

What Indian officials really ought to be directing their energies to is achieving an immediate resumption of the bilateral dialogue. Pakistan and India deserve better than the old approach of endless complaints and no forward movement.

Altaf’s ‘appeal’

ON Wednesday, the familiar feeling of dread returned to Karachi, though only briefly. The source of commotion was a statement attributed to MQM supremo Altaf Hussain that started doing the rounds on TV and social media. The message was part cryptic prophecy, part weather report; the Muttahida chief asked the people to stock up on food and medicines as, according to him, the next 15 days would be critical due to “an uncertain political situation and chances of natural calamities due to climate change”. The London-based leader, as well as his party leadership in Pakistan, failed to give any details regarding this doom-laden augury. However, for the people of Karachi, the ominous statement indicated trouble on the horizon, unleashing a wave of panic and paranoia. In fact, the paramilitary Rangers, who have been in the forefront of recent law-enforcement efforts in the Sindh capital, had to issue a call for public calm after Mr Hussain’s statement.

Altaf Hussain is, of course, no stranger to making impolitic remarks in public. In the past, his calls have often resulted in this city of teeming millions shutting down within hours, as if on cue, while his supporters have been accused of enforcing shutdowns by resorting to strong-arm tactics. Such announcements only result in sowing fear and spreading uncertainty in Pakistan’s biggest city. In fact, it is largely due to Mr Hussain’s unguarded public commentary that a court-ordered ill-advised ban on his speeches was announced last year. It is unfortunate that the MQM is reverting to its old style of confrontational, and controversial, politics. Calling for shutdowns or unending protests, or warning the public of dire days ahead without substantiating the facts ends up punishing the people of Karachi besides dealing a blow to the city’s economy — even if, ironically, the Muttahida claims to speak for the metropolis. Last month, the party had taken a positive step by peacefully demonstrating for its rights on Karachi’s roads without causing any disruption to civic life or violence. Moreover, the party has proven its resilience at the ballot box both in by-elections and the recently held local polls in Sindh, despite being subjected to pressure by the security establishment. So why revert to the politics of fear? Altaf Hussain and his party leadership should refrain from making statements that can upset the law and order situation in urban Sindh and pursue their rights solely through democratic methods.

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