India must explain

WHEN foreign spies are caught, a slew of questions inevitably follows. However, this much is already clear: India’s initial response to the Pakistani claims has been unsatisfactory and it does appear that the Indian national apprehended in Balochistan was in Pakistan illegally and for unlawful purposes. For years now, as the Pakistani state has struggled to end the low-level insurgency in Balochistan and contended with other forms of militancy in the province, the government has claimed that the separatists and sundry militants in Balochistan have received external support. The finger of blame pointed at India has been insistent, but the evidence — at least that brought in the public domain — has been lacking. The capture of the alleged Indian spy has changed all of that. It is not only India that needs to answer serious questions here; Iran, which hosted the alleged spy, needs to investigate — and explain — the matter at its end. The national security adviser should be mobilised to make clear Pakistan’s concerns and demand assurances about non-interference.

What is particularly troubling about the capture of the alleged spy is that the Indian national was operating on Pakistani soil just as the state here is working to demonstrate its commitment to fighting terrorism of all stripes. From the relative openness with which the possible involvement of Pakistani nationals in the Pathankot attack has been acknowledged, to the commitment to pursue a probe against those involved in the attack, to the alacrity with which intelligence was shared with India recently to warn of a potential cross-border assault by non-state actors, Pakistan is not just changing international perceptions about the state, but perhaps security policy too. Surely, that is a process in which India should partner Pakistan to achieve the stable and prosperous region that both countries have long desired. But the policy confusion on the part of the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi only appears to be continuing. Mr Modi and his national security and foreign policy teams seem unsure whether they want to engage Pakistan or rebuff it. The doubts about policy cohesion in India look set to continue.

For its part, while Pakistan must vigorously pursue the matter of the Indian spy with the Indian government, the state must remain mindful of two things. First, the matter must be handled professionally, lawfully and soberly — or else there’s a risk of inflaming anti-India sentiment and creating fresh space for extremist elements here. Second, the Pathankot investigation and dialogue with India should be kept on track. An Indian spy captured on Pakistan soil in an area wracked by a long-running insurgency is a very serious problem. Yet, just as India should not make dialogue hostage to a single issue, Pakistan should deal with the matter of the alleged spy in its proper context.

World T20 debacle

THE Pakistanis are out of the ICC World T20. A poor campaign has thus come to the inglorious end it deserved. Early this month, with all the pre-tour security jitters put to rest after assurances from the Indian government at the start of the high-profile event, the players were required to focus on cricket and win three games out of the scheduled four to bag a spot in the semi-finals. Instead, they failed to measure up, winning just one game against the beleaguered Bangladesh side and losing three. The hard truth is that Pakistan did not have the wherewithal — in terms of temperament or tactics — to do well. Either batting first or chasing the target, the Greenshirts never displayed the required gumption. There seemed to be no game plan; what one saw was defensiveness followed by panic. The batting was thoughtless, the bowling wavered and the fielding was atrocious. Skipper Afridi, under fire for his own sketchy form and batting order blunders, fell short of motivating his teammates. Pakistan’s dressing room, too, appeared restive despite the presence of half a dozen coaches as rumours of internal strife and bloated egos became rampant.

Up until the beginning of the new millennium, Pakistan’s cricket team, while living up to their reputation of being mercurial and unpredictable, could still produce match-winners such as Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Aamir, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Asif and others. Regretfully, the cupboard appears quite bare today. The game suffers as it is bereft of competent administrators and professional, match-winning players who were once the fulcrum of Pakistan’s batting and bowling. As most critics would agree, the 15 representing Pakistan at the ICC World T20 were perhaps the best available in the country, give or take a few. Distressingly though, their best was not good enough. Players such as Ahmed Shehzad, Sharjeel Khan, Umer Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan and Khalid Lateef are indeed skilful but they lack the temperament and the mental strength to win pressure games at this level. That is the challenge they need to take on instead of moaning and groaning about the lack of cricket at home and the alleged discrimination of selectors and coaches. In the end, there is not much that the PCB administration and tour management did right in this campaign. And since they don’t seem to have an effective remedy for the many ills plaguing Pakistan cricket, the situation warrants an overhaul.

Erdogan’s war on media

ISN’T President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — with full respect to him — debasing himself by being a complainant in a case that involves one of democracy’s fundamental principles: media freedom? On Friday, a Turkish court ordered that two of Turkey’s leading journalists, Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gul, its Ankara bureau chief, be tried in camera and agreed to have the president as a complainant. The two have been accused of espionage because they published a report that said Turkish intelligence agencies were sending arms to Syria under cover of humanitarian aid, though the government says the trucks were carrying relief goods for ethnic Turkmen. According to President Erdogan, the report was part of an attempt to undermine the country’s international standing. The court accepted the prosecutors’ plea that evidence to be produced in court involved state secrets.

There is no denying President Erdogan’s popularity. The fact that the November re-election gave his Justice and Development Party (AKP) an absolute majority in parliament testifies to a popular approval of his economic policies, which have given the Turks a higher standard of living and made Turkey the world’s 15th largest economy. These assets should help the president develop greater confidence in his ability to stand dissent. Instead, his policies over the years have been characterised by strong authoritarian tendencies, with the media and judiciary coming under intense state pressure. Earlier this month, the state took over Zaman, its sister publication Today’s Zaman and news agency Cihan. Seen in the light of the crackdown on Cumhuriyet the world wouldn’t be wrong if it considered the AKP regime as waging war on Turkey’s vibrant media. There is no doubt Turkey needs political stability more than ever before, especially because of the Syrian civil war and a spate of terror attacks in Istanbul and Ankara. But political stability is not incompatible with freedom of expression. If the Cumhuriyet journalists have violated any laws, they must be given an open, fair trial.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2016.

Nuclear summit

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama came into office with a vision for Global Zero — setting the world onto a path free of nuclear weapons eventually. Lofty as that goal was — or perhaps precisely because it was so lofty — it was quickly and severely tested and soon discarded in all but name. Tellingly, the US Republican party’s likely presidential candidate, Donald Trump, stirred up a nuclear hornet’s nest just as world leaders gathered for the Nuclear Security Summit, a project of President Obama launched in 2010 that seeks to secure the world’s nuclear supplies from terrorist threats and slots into the wider goal of an eventually nuclear weapons-free world. It appears that the narrow, though critical, purpose of the NSS remains an easier subject to address than whether states — and which states — should possess nuclear weapons at all. But even that narrow purpose has been undermined by multiple countries, perhaps most egregiously by Russia, which has the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world and which chose to boycott the summit.

Yet, for all the challenges that the NSS and Global Zero movements face, the NSS at least should not be allowed to disintegrate after President Obama leaves office. While nuclear terrorism remains a remote possibility, the fallout of a possible attack is terrifying enough to demand the focus of the world’s nuclear powers, civilian and military. Surely, as President Obama noted, there are terrorist groups in this world that would be both willing to use and eager to acquire any kind of nuclear material that could be fashioned into a bomb. Even as the threat should not be exaggerated — the nuclear spectre can and has been used in the past to justify grossly wrong decisions, as the Iraq war demonstrated — the need for vigilance should not be downplayed. In four summits over six years, countries with nuclear wherewithal have identified many areas in which cooperation and better security could help further diminish security threats. That process should continue and other world leaders should step up to fill the gap that will be left by President Obama’s departure.

Inevitably, when the issue of nuclear security is debated, the Pakistan-India equation cannot be ignored. The importance that both countries have attached to the NSS initiative can be gauged from the fact that prime ministerial delegations were to have been in attendance. By all accounts, Pakistan has been helpful and cooperative in the NSS process — something that has also been acknowledged by international powers. Yet, technical as the issue of security under discussion may have been, there is another, indirect aspect to the security debate: the larger India’s and Pakistan’s nuclear programmes grow, the more the threats surrounding them will increase. Pakistan has explicitly and consistently maintained that its nuclear programme is India-specific. If India were to rationalise its own military posture and capabilities, surely Pakistan would follow.

Cricket mess

OF late, the ‘gentleman’s game’ of cricket has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in Pakistan. As the past week has shown, both players and officials have contributed in no small measure to the crisis that besets the game today. While a probe is surely on the cards and heads set to roll following the national team’s dismal performance at the Asia Cup and ICC World T20, the series of events that unfolded in the aftermath of the defeat have plunged Pakistan cricket into an even deeper quagmire. Leaked reports, allegations, counter-allegations, the unbecoming conduct of the head coach and captain, coupled with the cricket bosses’ many administrative goof-ups, have provided juicy fodder for the rumour mill. It has led to fans and experts clamouring for a change of policy and personnel at the Pakistan Cricket Board. From the outset, the PCB’s in-house fact-finding committee probing the World T20 flop had caused doubts to be raised about its impartiality in outlining the key reasons for the disaster and focusing on the real culprits. For those who know the game, it shouldn’t be difficult to identify those responsible for the results. With Pakistan’s downward spiral in the limited-over games now a good 20 months old, one wouldn’t even need a day to point out the blundering players and officials who failed to deliver during this period.

Skipper Shahid Afridi, head coach Waqar Younis, manager Intikhab Alam, bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed, batting coach Grant Flower and erratic players such as Ahmed Shehzad, Umer Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Shoaib Malik and a few others have been chiefly responsible for Pakistan’s inglorious performance at the mega events. However, the Pakistan cricket team’s unending woes on the field have been compounded by the glaring management deficiencies of chairman Shaharyar Khan, executive committee head Najam Sethi and chief selector Haroon Rasheed. None of these high-profile men have proved themselves worthy of the challenge. Lacking clarity of vision and decisiveness of action, they have allowed Pakistan cricket to drift into mediocrity, the shameful episodes of the leaking of the manager’s and coach’s reports being the last straw. The continuing unrest in the country is a perfect metaphor for Pakistan cricket. And with a patron completely oblivious to the challenges confronting the game and ad hocism being the order of the day at PCB, it is going to take nothing short of a miracle to retrieve the shambolic situation.

Pak-Iran concerns

THE allegation that Indian spy Kul Bhushan Jadhav was based out of the Iranian port city of Chabahar has put a cloud over the Islamabad-Tehran relationship. In fact, the affair has overshadowed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Pakistan last month. However, it is welcome that both governments appear to be handling the affair maturely and without acrimony. On Friday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar met the Iranian ambassador in Islamabad as both officials pledged to cooperate on security matters. As reported, the Jadhav affair was discussed and both officials sounded positive about the meeting. Earlier, the Iranian embassy had been critical of media coverage of the spy drama, particularly of what it termed as “undignified comments” in the Pakistani press, which it claimed were hurting bilateral ties.

Whenever sensitive bilateral issues emerge, the best way to handle them is through frank and constructive diplomacy rather than emotional public tirades. In this case, Islamabad and Tehran have handled the matter well. In fact, even the Indo-Pak relationship has shown signs of maturity of late. The Jadhav incident and the Pathankot attack before it have largely been handled in a sober fashion by both sides, apart from a few jingoistic outbursts. This, rather than sabre-rattling, is a much more progressive way to conduct foreign policy. The details that have emerged in the aftermath of the Jadhav affair are very serious and Iranian authorities need to follow up on the leads given by their Pakistani counterparts to ensure their soil is not being used by elements to destabilise this country. Whether it is Tehran’s concerns of militant groups such as Jundullah or Jaishul Adl allegedly finding refuge in Balochistan, or Islamabad’s reservations that RAW may be using Iranian territory for anti-Pakistan operations, both sides must realise that until they satisfy each other’s security concerns, regional connectivity and improved economic ties will remain a pipe dream. Security cooperation between Tehran and Islamabad should continue and any elements — whether non-state actors or third parties — using one country’s soil against the other must be uprooted.


Source: EditorialsPublished in Dawn, April 3rd, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

IT has all the hallmarks of a compromise. The operation against criminal elements hiding in a stretch of forested area in south Punjab has been billed as a historic first. Civilian law-enforcement agencies in coordination with paramilitary personnel have set out to eliminate the threat posed by criminal gangs in Rajanpur and adjoining districts. By official accounts, the fight will be fierce given that the criminal gangs have retreated to an inaccessible area and are believed to be well armed. Once the gangs have been defeated, the denizens of the affected region will surely see their security improve and local law enforcement will have fewer hazards to face. Yet, some perspective is necessary. The names of the groups that have been bandied about have no national recognition. Neither is there a clear link to militancy and terrorism that is being fought under the umbrella of Operation Zarb-i-Azb. So, it does appear to be a compromise between the political government and the military leadership.

It is also a compromise that Pakistan does not need. Punjab has a terrorism and militancy problem that is not just a threat to Punjab, but the country itself. The extremism threat in Punjab is perhaps even greater — shocking details this week of a parallel judiciary operating in the provincial capital have given an indication of how far the problem has metastasised in the province. What the province needs — what Pakistan needs — is a counter-terrorism operation that is full-fledged, unflinching and across Punjab. And the operation must be civilian-led with maximum cooperation from the military. If, as the military appears to have recognised, the problem in Punjab is urgent and needs an immediate response, then the military leadership should also recognise its role in creating the political space necessary. But who leads the fight and what special powers the military and paramilitary personnel are given ought to be secondary to the goal of securing Pakistan.

Lost in the civil-military tug-of-war has been the effect on the morale of the civilian law-enforcement agencies. The military regards them as inferior, while the political government will not let them do their job — it is the worst of both worlds that civilian agencies face. The operation in Rajanpur is unlikely to fix that problem. Are the police and civilian intelligence agencies in urban Punjab and central and north Punjab being better prepared, and have their resources been boosted for a fight that is certain to erupt at some point? There is no indication of that at all. Each time the civilians and the military leadership disagree on an issue, there is a tendency to cast it as a parochial dispute between two sides. But when it is Pakistan’s security at stake, all sides need to reflect on what the national interest truly means.

Rape victims

ACCORDING to a distressing news report on Friday, a young woman has accused her employer of raping and taking indecent photographs of her. She has alleged that she was also gang-raped by her employer and police personnel. Raped for eight months in Muzaffargarh district, she took the courageous step of approaching the Supreme Court — in the hope that other women would not have to suffer her ordeal. The statistics are troubling: in 2014, four women were raped in Pakistan everyday, according to War Against Rape. Although rape is clearly defined in Section 375 of the PPC as “a man having sexual intercourse with a woman against her will …”, the state fails to examine institutional and structural failures. HRCP statistics for 2014 recount women and girls as victims of 597 gang rapes, while 828 were raped and 36 stripped in public. Why are the numbers of registered rape cases lower than those reported in hospitals? Women refuse to register police reports because they are judged on the basis of their alleged behavioural history. The horrors of rape are compounded with an inappropriate line of questioning by law-enforcement authorities, such as, what sort of clothes she was wearing when raped.

It’s the constant shaming that feeds the history of rape impunity. With no forensic investigation, police do not immediately register a report leaving time for the victim to succumb to intimidation by the perpetrator, despite rape and gang rape being non-compoundable offences under the Protection of Women Act (Criminal Law Amendment), 2006. Medico-legal officers still use painful testing methods to verify the claims of a victim; DNA facilities are rare, and the need to check for physical evidence disregarded. Judges and lawyers will negotiate out-of-court settlements. If women report sexual abuse, they are often disbelieved or seen as partially responsible. Societal stigma shames victims. Women are raped on the orders of illegal panchayats and jirgas. Mukhtar Mai’s case in 2011 would perhaps have served as a deterrent, but only one of 14 alleged perpetrators accused of gang-raping her was convicted. Rape can only be addressed when perpetrators are prosecuted and shamed; and when victims are supported institutionally to name and shame. Presently, the police and judiciary appear to have failed the state as the protectors and arbiters of justice. Only when state institutions tackle the thinking that goes with violent patriarchal control over women will upward trends in crimes of violence dip.

Doctors’ strike

A CONFRONTATION between the administration and the Young Doctors’ Association in Balochistan is continuing and threatens to affect the anti-polio campaign in the province, besides adding to the miseries of patients. The situation turned ugly on Thursday when protesting doctors were baton-charged by police and faced tear-gas shelling in Quetta. The YDA says several doctors were injured in the melee. Originally, the medics had been protesting for higher pay and other demands. OPDs in the provincial capital have been severely affected while the YDA has said it will boycott the polio eradication campaign.

Doctors do have a right to demonstrate and press for their legitimate demands, and similar protests have been seen in other parts of the country over the past few years. But these protests should not come at the cost of patients. As it is, Balochistan’s health infrastructure is far from satisfactory, so when healthcare providers go on strike, the people’s miseries are compounded. People come to Quetta’s public hospitals from various parts of the province for medical care, and it is totally unacceptable to deprive them of medical facilities, leaving them with no option but to turn to private, more expensive, clinics — or even quacks for those who have few resources. Meanwhile, any attempt at boycotting the polio campaign must be roundly censured, especially in light of the country’s recent successes on this front. Though the crippling disease has still not been eradicated, recorded cases are down compared to last year, which makes it all the more important that no pauses or disruptions occur in the campaign. At the same time, police action against the doctors was unjustified, and Balochistan’s administration must take to task those officials who used force against the protesting medics. The provincial government should address the legitimate demands of the YDA and work swiftly to end the impasse. Both parties should realise that the welfare of the public must be kept paramount, and that there should be no disruptions whatsoever in the country’s polio eradication campaign.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

OIC: a house divided

THE statement issued at the recently concluded Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul is unprecedented for the harsh, undiplomatic tone used for a member state. Buried in between rhetoric about Palestine and Kashmir in the lengthy statement is a scathing attack on Iran, as the document deplores “Iran’s interference in the internal affairs of the states of the region. ...” as well as the Islamic Republic’s “continued support for terrorism”. Hezbollah, Tehran’s Lebanese ally, is also not spared “for conducting terrorist activities in Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen”. For a moment, it appears as if these verbal assaults have come from a more traditional foe of Iran, such as Israel, instead of from within the OIC. This development, unfortunately, reflects the deep polarisation that is today threatening to tear the Muslim world apart.

There is little doubt that the acrimonious content of the statement is a reflection of the ongoing Saudi-Iranian feud. For long, the Saudis have dominated the OIC (the latter is headquartered in Jeddah), yet perhaps rarely has the organisation been used to lambaste a member state in this fashion. Iranian displeasure was indicated by the fact that President Rouhani did not attend the closing meeting. Indeed, the Iranian role in parts of the Middle East is questionable, with Tehran and Hezbollah providing critical support to Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But where the Syrian imbroglio is concerned, no one’s hands are clean: along with the Iranians, the Saudis and other Gulf Arabs, Turkey and the West have all used the unfortunate country as a proxy battlefield, backing different militant groups. So calling out Iran on this count is a tad hypocritical. The fact is the Saudi-Iranian rivalry is playing out across the battlefields of the Middle East. Which is why it is particularly unfortunate that the platform of the OIC — meant to promote unity within the Muslim bloc — is being used to issue inflammatory statements.

The portents are not good. If this is the level of trust among the world’s major Muslim powers, then possibilities of further sectarian fragmentation are considerable. It would be interesting to hear what, if any, Pakistan’s input was on this strongly worded statement. In the recent past, Pakistan has tried to act as a bridge between Saudi Arabia and Iran. While it should continue to maintain cordial links with both sides, under no circumstances should Pakistan be drawn into the partisan politics of the Muslim world. As for the OIC, in its nearly five-decade existence the organisation has achieved hardly anything of substance in any field — political, economic, cultural — and has served as little more than a talk shop for the Muslim world’s princes, potentates and rulers. Sadly, by allowing itself to be used in intra-Muslim bilateral and geopolitical disputes, the OIC risks losing whatever relevance it retains.

LG hurdle lifted

WITH legal hurdles now hopefully out of the way, Sindh can look forward to functioning elected local governments. Though the third and final phase of the much-delayed LG polls was wrapped up last December in the province, legal wrangling has prevented the indirect election of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen etc from taking place. In January, the PPP-led Sindh government changed the mode of balloting so that the mayoral elections would be held through a show of hands instead of a secret ballot. However, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the mayoral elections should be held by a secret ballot, and within 60 days. The case was brought to the apex court by the Sindh government when it challenged a Sindh High Court order also calling for a secret ballot. A legal adviser to the Sindh government has said the administration may file a review petition.

For over five years, Sindh, along with other provinces, was without an elected third tier of government, mainly because the parties running the provincial set-ups tried their best to delay LG polls. This was due mainly to the fear of alternative power structures emerging. Had it not been for the judiciary’s pressure, LG polls might have been delayed indefinitely. Despite the elections, Sindh’s rulers have tried to perpetuate this postponement. The reason for the PPP’s reluctance to conclude the process is apparently that the party does not want the MQM to further consolidate itself in Sindh’s urban areas; the Muttahida had dominated the local polls in Karachi and Hyderabad. Yet delaying the formation of elected local bodies out of fear that political rivals will benefit is both unconstitutional and undemocratic. Sindh’s major cities, as well as towns in the province’s interior, have all suffered due to the absence of elected and responsive local bodies. For example, the civic infrastructure is in a shambles, while facilities are lacking. While local governments should not function as totally independent actors and there must be checks and balances in place, micromanagement of civic affairs by provincial officials and bureaucrats is unacceptable; directly elected representatives of the people should be free to run civic affairs. Instead of resorting to more litigation — as some have hinted — and further delaying the process, the Sindh government must respect the orders of the Supreme Court and the choices of the people and not create any more hurdles in the mayoral elections.

Injectable polio vaccine

ALTHOUGH decades of effort have passed in the pursuit of polio eradication, Pakistan has still not managed to achieve the goal. There has been renewed global focus on this country of late, and perhaps prompted by the need to not just take action but to be seen to be taking it, there have recently been some attempts to rise to the challenge.

Given that refusals to let the vaccine be administered to children had been allowed to grow into such a significant problem, Pakistan felt it necessary to take the harsh step of making such responses an offence deserving of arrest.

Meanwhile, last August, the country put the injectable polio vaccine on its routine immunisation schedule. The first phase of the IPV drive has already been concluded in a few districts of Balochistan. And on Wednesday, the second phase of the drive was launched in 18 union councils of Balochistan’s high-risk Killa Abdullah district, aiming to reach over 16,000 children.

To be sure, there are some advantages to the IPV. For one thing, it carries an inactive virus which means that there is no danger of the recipient contracting the vaccine-acquired polio paralysis (no matter how fractional the incidence of VAPP may be).

Second, it needs to be administered only once, removing the hurdle of the OPV that is given in phased follow-up doses that require each child to be vaccinated several times. This should be balanced, though, with the negatives, one being that the injection must be administered by a paramedic (as opposed to an untrained volunteer).

Given that the state has put its weight behind the IPV, we can only hope that time will produce encouraging results.

Also on Wednesday, Bill Gates — whose foundation has donated billions to fighting polio as well as other diseases — said at a moot in Doha that “with any luck”, polio would be eradicated in Pakistan and Afghanistan by 2017.

Though the ground realities dictate a measure of cynicism, we hope that his prediction will prove correct.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Prime minister’s speeches

IN the unfortunate political history of this country, there have been many ill-advised speeches to the nation by political and military leaders. But Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appears determined to set something of a record for civilian leaders who, flanked by the national flag and seated under a picture of the Quaid, have used national television to make personal and thoroughly un-statesmanlike speeches. Twice now in recent weeks, the prime minister has addressed the nation on television, leaving a host of unanswered and grim questions in his wake. The most obvious question is: whatever has happened to the platform of parliament? So unused is the prime minister’s despatch box in the National Assembly that it appears that he is allergic to it. Never one to fail to remind his audience that he is a thrice-elected prime minister, Mr Sharif appears to hold the very chamber that has elected him as prime minister each time in the lowest regard.

Then there are the questions about the contents of his two most recent speeches. Mercifully, on Friday the prime minister did not at least return to his very personal anguish at the damage caused to his family businesses decades ago. Three weeks ago, the sad tale of a businessman trying to do good by his country and his good intentions being spurned by the republic was a bizarrely indulgent prime ministerial performance. But on Friday, there was no lack of other personal-political history and some rather astonishing attacks on political enemies. Alternating between innuendo and direct verbal assaults, Mr Sharif’s comments would have been unseemly at a political rally. Made from the platform of an address-to-the-nation broadcast by state television and carried simultaneously by news channels across the country, the speech was not just a political travesty — it transgressed the very norms of decent, democratic debate that the prime minister accused his political enemies of crossing.

Finally, there are the questions about what the prime minister should have said on Friday. To call for a judicial commission simply because that has been a section of the opposition’s demand is an inadequate response. If the prime minister’s actions are to match the tone and tenor of his words, there is an obvious thing that can and should be done: declare pre-emptively all his assets and those of his family, at home and abroad, and produce a detailed account of what was acquired when and where and through which proceeds. A full, detailed and scrupulously compiled declaration of assets — regardless of what the letter of the law requires in whichever jurisdictions, inside Pakistan and abroad — should surely not be above the elected prime minister of a democratic nation. Moreover, a full prime ministerial disclosure will force others to follow Mr Sharif’s example, helping deliver the cleaner politics the prime minister says he wants.

Violence in Okara

MUCH as the powers that be may wish it was not so, sometimes the exploited classes will stand their ground. So it is with the Okara Military Farms, a saga that refuses to go away ever since it surfaced in the media about 15 years ago. The controversy centres on 17,000 acres in Punjab’s ‘canal colonies’, and involves issues of patronage politics, state coercion and land rights that can be traced back to pre-Partition days when the British Indian Army — that acquired the area on lease in 1913 — refused to give ownership rights as promised to farmers working on the land. The Pakistan Army inherited this holdover from the British and continued along the earlier pattern, ie a 50-50 sharecropping arrangement with the farmers, without too much by way of defiance from the latter. However, in 2000, during Gen Musharraf’s time — military governments are an ever-reliable catalyst for expansion of the khakis’ economic interests — the authorities in Okara introduced a new system whereby tenant farmers had to pay rent in cash rather than in kind. This would, in effect, turn the sharecroppers, who had tilled the land for generations, into contract labour who could be evicted from the farms on short notice. That laid the foundations of a resistance movement led by a farmers’ union called Anjuman-i-Mazareen-i-Punjab, which has repeatedly been countered by the state through brute force.

The state’s actions this time around make it clear that it will spare no weapon at its disposal to crush the ‘rebellion’, even cynically using the pretext of the National Action Plan to justify preventing an AMP demonstration. Subsequently, 4,000 tenant farmers were booked on various charges, including under the Anti-Terrorism Act, for allegedly blocking GT Road and causing injuries to policemen through aerial firing. There have also been dark murmurings by local authorities of ‘no-go’ areas in the vicinity. One would imagine that some recalcitrant farmers who refuse to give up their customary right to the land — and whose claim to that land by some accounts is stronger than that of the military, notwithstanding the latter’s sense of entitlement — are a threat to the country’s peace. It is all very well to counter militancy in its naked, violent manifestations, but it is equally important to address the socioeconomic distortions that have laid the groundwork for extremist tendencies in the first place. This is not the way to win the larger war.

KP lawmaker’s murder

THE murder of PTI lawmaker Sardar Soran Singh in Buner on Friday highlights, once again, the dangers faced by members of minority communities in Pakistan, even those supposedly in positions of power. It also illustrates the precarious law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a lawmaker belonging to the ruling party can be gunned down with such relative ease. Singh is the fourth PTI legislator in the current KP Assembly to have been killed. It is, of course, true that many groups and communities located near the centres of militancy are at risk in KP and Fata. Those familiar with the area where the MPA was killed say militant groups remain active there; a number of targeted killings have occurred in the recent past, including of workers belonging to the ANP. As for the Sikh community, others belonging to this religious group have been gunned down in Fata as well as in Peshawar. Singh’s commitment to his country was quite evident as he refused to join members of his immediate family in India, preferring to stay in Pakistan.

Soran Singh’s murder is reminiscent of the killing of federal minister Shahbaz Bhatti in 2011. While minorities face varying levels of discrimination in Pakistan, when a high-profile member of a non-Muslim religious group is murdered in cold blood, the psychological impact on minorities is devastating. And although, some say that Singh was not too bothered when it came to matters of personal safety, the KP government should have provided him with extra security detail considering the threats that existed in the area. Regrettably, it appears that the reaction of KP’s ruling party to the killing has been muted, perhaps because everyone’s attention is drawn to the commotion over corruption. We hope this case is not forgotten soon and that the perpetrators are caught and punished. In the long term, the lawmaker’s murder shows that countrywide, the battle against militancy and violence is far from over.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Asset declarations

THE Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to remove all asset declarations of parliamentarians and senators from its website is inexplicable. Moreover, the removal of these declarations at the height of the Panama Papers controversy makes the act appear even more suspicious. The data was removed when a parliamentary subcommittee objected to its online publication, saying that the lawmakers’ privacy was being violated, and the ECP refused to restore the list to its website even after a larger parliamentary panel requested it to do so. Reportedly, the ECP is asking for additional legal authority to upload the list, while paper copies continue to be available to the general public against a small charge. What is puzzling is the ECP’s argument for additional legal authority when the data was already available on their website for two years. Was specific legal authorisation not required for the upload back then? Removing the data now, as the May 9 release of the full Panama Papers dump approaches, even though a parliamentary panel has asked for the upload, makes the ECP’s decision appear arbitrary and designed to accommodate the wishes of a small group of individuals.

The asset declarations do contain some personal information, such as account numbers and addresses, but those seeking elected office should know that these disclosures are a requirement. The ECP itself has done nothing with these disclosures except to shelve them. Making them available to the public would at least be a way of letting people know what the official declarations say and if they are in keeping with the politicians’ lifestyle. By keeping them out of the public’s view, the ECP ensures that the filing of these declarations is nothing more than a mere formality. One consequence of treating financial disclosure requirements for elected officials in such a non-serious way was apparent when the public learned through the international media that two-thirds of their elected parliamentarians don’t even file income tax returns. The country suffered major humiliation due to this disclosure, and it is fair to ask why the ECP knew nothing of this — it certainly did not act on it. All financial disclosure requirements for elections, whether poll expenses, tax details or asset declarations, are public information and should be available online. The ECP is rightly being asked to change course and make the declarations available online, and it should heed this bit of advice.

A voice from Thar

THE report produced by the Thar Commission set up by the Sindh government makes for a very sad read. First of all, the commission based its conclusions on a few interactions with government functionaries and members of the community. One would have expected, given the seriousness of the situation in Thar, a more rigorous methodology to have been followed; any commission should at least have looked at the demographic studies conducted in the region by experts, and tried to get some data rather than basing the findings only on verbal testimony collected through a series of brief interactions with a miscellaneous group of people. Wherever any numbers are used, they often contradict each other, such as the number of reverse osmosis plants installed, and the figure for those that are operational. The report is, therefore, nothing more than a hasty, superficial compilation of impressions formed by commission members during a short trip to the region.

But even those impressions paint a depressing picture. Government doctors don’t show up at their workplace. They feel better when they run private clinics as they are highly demoralised by the conditions in which they have to work. District hospitals are in a shambles. While their operational budgets have increased, funds can take years to be disbursed. Roads and other infrastructure are built without taking the requirements of the community into account. The reverse osmosis plants are either inoperative, or located too far away to be of use to many of the communities. Or, they are poorly maintained so that the quality of the water they provide is suspect. In many cases, the company charges the local community Rs100 per month, taking the money from every household to keep its plant operational. The people of Thar deserve better. Having said that, it is important to underscore that they deserved a far better inquiry into their plight than what the commission served up. The Sindh government should start getting serious about the issue.

F-16 sale in jeopardy

PAKISTAN and American F-16s have a long and complicated political history. A symbol of both Pakistani national-security pride and resentment, the F-16 looks set to reprise its role as a symbol of American betrayal of Pakistan in the 1990s. Back then, with the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets winding down, Pakistan was made aware of the limits of American cooperation and friendship. Infamously, the US not only blocked the transfer of more F-16s to Pakistan, but refused to return the money Pakistan had already paid for them. This time, the specifics are different, but the regional circumstances familiar. With the American war effort in Afghanistan vastly diminished and the need to rely on Pakistan for supply routes virtually eliminated, Pakistan is learning that it has neither any friends in the US Congress willing to release funds for the sale of eight subsidised F-16s, nor apparently anyone in the White House who considers it important enough to lobby Congress on behalf of Pakistan. Pakistan can still have the eight F-16s, but only if it pays the full price — a decision that virtually blocks the sale. Rejecting Pakistan appears to be once again fashionable in Washington D.C.

The story of ties with Congress is a particularly painful one. Where once at least some pragmatic understanding of the need to maintain a security-based relationship could be relied on, now Congress is mostly in the news on the Pakistan front for hostile statements against the country. Be it Afghanistan, Balochistan or India, there are several congressmen and senators who have taken their attacks against Pakistan to an unacceptable level. Part of it can be explained by the inability and unwillingness of the Pakistan foreign policy establishment, and particularly a succession of leaders in the Washington embassy of Pakistan, to cultivate ties in the US Congress. Unlike India, Pakistan has never really embraced the American way of doing business on Capitol Hill. But a great deal of the explanation is that sections of the US Congress, driven by domestic political concerns and freed from the constraints of a major war effort in Afghanistan, are demonstrating an antipathy towards Pakistan because they now can. Pakistan is expected to deliver peace in Afghanistan, allow Balochistan to secede and accept Indian hegemony — and it is expected to do so meekly and immediately. That is not only preposterous, but a dangerous rhetorical escalation by the US Congress.

Yet, it is perhaps not Congress alone that is to blame. Under President Obama, who recently described Pakistan as a “disastrously dysfunctional country” to an American magazine, there has been a growing reluctance to engage with Pakistan other than on the narrowest of security grounds. How much effort has the White House really put into lobbying critical elements in the US Congress who are undermining the Pak-US relationship? Surely, an increasingly disengaged White House is part of the problem.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Sadiq Khan’s victory

JUST about two out of every 100 people in London are of Pakistani origin. It is remarkable then that the city threw up for its 2016 mayoral race two men with distinct Pakistani linkages. ‘Pakistan’ echoed in the air as the campaign took on various hues culminating in a victory for Sadiq Khan. There is much to applaud and be proud of for those who sided with Mr Khan, who hails from a modest background and has been credited with running a clean campaign as compared to the one run by his rival Zac Goldsmith, a friend and former brother-in-law of PTI chief Imran Khan. Mr Goldsmith was accused by many of running a vilification drive in his attempt to deny the Labour Party a win. Mr Khan’s victory consequently has been greeted with joy and relief by those in favour of diversity of opinion and people; it has been hailed as a proud feat — a sign of ‘tabdeeli’ or change.
It is indeed a moment to rejoice and it should not be spoilt by those who sound a cautious note. In fact, it should be pointed out to them that while Pakistanis may have some cause for congratulating each other on Sadiq Khan’s victory, they can also, if they want, see his triumph as a model to follow in their own part of the world. It is, after all, an example born of an unshakeable belief and commitment that has sustained long years of struggle. London and Mr Khan must continue to inspire us. They are placed in a very sensitive position. The local reactions to the new mayor are going to have a profound bearing on the politics of the city, of the UK as a whole, and of the world too. There may be a strong backlash from the narrow-minded which the Khan camp must be ready to face. Hopefully, it is well equipped to face the challenge, urged on by its past record of succeeding against great odds.

Islamabad airport bungling

IN some ways, Pakistan can be considered the gift that just keeps on giving; the scale of blunders continues to grow, and little seems to be learned. The New Islamabad International Airport, the foundation stone of which was laid nearly a decade ago during the Musharraf regime, is after a series of delays and cost overruns, nearing completion —Dec 25, 2016, is the date being given by the Civil Aviation Authority. Shockingly, however, it is only at this late stage that a scandalous flaw in design has come to light. It has two parallel runways, which would allow aircraft to land or take off at the same time, which in turn would improve airport efficiency. But, these runways have been constructed at a distance of 200 metres from each other, while the standard set to allow concurrent landings and take-offs is one kilometre. In short, as the CAA director general informed the Public Accounts Committee in Islamabad on Thursday, it will not be possible for the new airport to handle concurrent aircraft movement. If the head of the CAA admits that the design flaw should have been corrected at the initial stage but was overlooked, it would have taken nothing short of effrontery to do so.
While this may indeed be a “criminal error”, as a PAC member termed it, the tale of monumental ineptitude does not end here. According to the CAA’s own audit report, presented to the PAC the same day, none of the 12 engineering management consultants hired for the airport project hold engineering degrees. Instead, they possess a bewildering galaxy of irrelevant certificates: homeopathy, business administration, technology — and some hold only basic Bachelor’s degrees. Were this not bad enough, according to the CAA audit report, the unsatisfactory performance of these gentlemen was in part responsible for the Rs19.39 billion cost overrun of the airport project, in addition to “different packages [being] awarded without due consideration [and] lack of coordination in execution of [the] package”.
Are these failings a case of inefficiency or corruption? Either way, the result is disgraceful and the matter requires being looked into. It is difficult to believe that such glaring inconsistencies managed to be overlooked by those who are required to execute a project of this scale — and, indeed, by the three successive governments under whose oversight the construction of the new Islamabad airport is now approaching completion. The project was earlier mired in controversy when its physical location became a matter of debate, with another location altogether coming under consideration. Now mismanagement and the wastage of funds have joined the list of talking points. The CAA needs to come up with a convincing explanation, and the parties responsible for such colossal blunders need to be identified and, if necessary, prosecuted. Bungling on such a large scale cannot be overlooked.

Asim Hussain indicted

WITH the indictment of Asim Hussain and his associates by an accountability court, matters are finally where they belonged all along: in a court of law. The former federal minister for petroleum was picked up last August on suspicions of involvement in terror financing. But it turns out evidence to support that suspicion was never found — it certainly does not feature anywhere in the indictment, nor in the reference sent by NAB to the accountability court earlier. Instead, after a wide-ranging inquiry that examined detailed financial information relating to him and to his associates, and with charges ranging from ‘China cutting’ to preferential treatment in gas allocations, the former minister has finally been indicted primarily for his decisions on gas allocations, in which the fertiliser sector was left at a disadvantage. Other charges point towards land acquisition and the financial dealings of his hospital in Karachi. It is now for the court to decide how much merit there is to the charges against him.
In the meantime, another important question must not be allowed to fall by the wayside. What happened to the suspicions of terror financing? It was under this charge that Asim Hussain was originally detained, and it was upon this charge that an extraordinary volume of evidence was accumulated, sometimes through tactics so aggressive they set a precedent for any terror-financing investigation. Now if we are to understand that nothing was found to substantiate those suspicions, it is necessary to ask what gave rise to them in the first place. What are the facts upon which such suspicions were based? The powers that the Sindh Rangers used to detain the former minister were created specifically to fight terrorism. But in the present case, those powers have been used to accumulate material to indict a group of individuals on charges that have nothing at all to do with terrorism. While the court decides the case, the Rangers should be asked to now make public the material that served as grounds for the original suspicion of terror financing. The case also highlights the extraordinary powers of detention that have been created for fighting terrorism, and the need for extreme prudence when utilising them. Perhaps the law needs some safeguards against the possible misuse of these powers by the law enforcers especially when it comes to investigating matters other than terrorism, in order to prevent any dilution of the fight against militancy.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

CASA moves ahead

AFTER decades of discussion, a landmark power transmission project has finally taken the first step towards realisation. In a slightly over-the-top ceremony, the heads of four states that are party to the CASA 1000 project put their hands together to turn the first bolts on the first tower on which will hang a transmission line that will carry 1000MW of electricity from Kyrgyzstan via Tajikistan and Afghanistan to Pakistan. The four ‘stans’ will connect Central and South Asia in the first regional power-sharing arrangement of this sort, involving so many partners. Regional power transmission lines have enormous potential, and CASA is best viewed as the first step towards a larger future where transmission lines run from Iran, Turkmenistan, Russia and China towards Pakistan and help create a regional market for power. The vision is marvellous and holds the promise of creating a powerful convergence of interests of Asian neighbours, binding them together in a mutually beneficial arrangement, and helping lift Pakistan out of its perennial and long-standing power deficits.

But there are a few problems standing in the way which will take much political will to settle if the vision is to advance towards its full promise. One problem is the growing need to reform power tariffs in Pakistan to allow for a greater role of market forces in power pricing. This step has been stuck in limbo since the early 1990s, hostage to a deep-rooted political economy that militates against any changes in the status quo. The second problem is security, rightly highlighted by the World Bank, which is a key partner in the project. The security situation in Afghanistan has already led to upward cost revisions in the project, which will ultimately have an impact on the final tariff. It also casts a shadow over the project’s viability and capacity for expansion. It is imperative that all power centres in Pakistan realise that perpetuating a deeply flawed status quo in both areas — security and power pricing — keeps the country bottled up in a highly untenable situation. Pakistan needs to break out to achieve the next generation of growth to power our future, and this means building linkages in power, natural resources, transport and many more areas. CASA breaks new ground towards this future, but it is just the starting point. Realising the full potential of the project requires some profound changes within the country.

Saudi-Iran Haj row

UNLESS there is an eleventh-hour deal, Iranians will not be able to perform Haj this year because Riyadh and Tehran have not been able to agree on organisational details. The guilty parties include the two governments which have failed to sort out their relations, frozen since January after the unfortunate attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran following a Shia cleric’s execution by Saudi Arabia. Time is running out. But both sides continue to blame each other for the impasse. While the Saudi minister for Haj and umrah said Iran’s was the only side that had refused to sign an agreement and had made “unacceptable demands”, Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance accused Riyadh of sabotage. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is no Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran. Since, in such a situation, visas can be issued only by a third country, Iran wants Riyadh to have the visas issued by the Swiss embassy, which looks after Iranian interests.

The bad blood between these two oil powers has done enormous harm to the Muslim world and worsened the bleak Middle East scene because of their adversarial policies on Yemen and Syria. Instead of resolving their dispute and working for peace in the Muslim heartland, Riyadh and Tehran have adopted inflexible positions. No wonder, Syrian peace talks are being held in Geneva rather than a Middle Eastern capital. The truth is that the deadlock over Haj arrangements is a reflection of the deeper malaise that characterises their bilateral relationship. It is also a measure of Pakistan’s diplomatic impotence that it is in no position to mediate between two of its friends, and it is Switzerland which is looking after Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia. The redeeming feature is that talks continue, even though, as the Iranian minister put it, “it’s now too late”. For political reasons, thus, a large number of Muslims would be deprived of their right to perform what is one of the five pillars of their religion.

Torkham tensions

WHILE yesterday’s meeting between the Afghan ambassador and the army chief resulted in the reopening of the Torkham crossing after nearly four days of closure, a more permanent solution is needed to end border concerns between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Following the Bacha Khan University attack in Charsadda in January, the security establishment here decided to try and finally tackle the Torkham problem. The legendary, and also infamous, border crossing has long been a source of problems for both the Afghan and Pakistani states — mixing with the mass of humanity that uses the border crossing each day is believed to be a significant militant element, such as the one that the security establishment says was involved in the university attack. Aware that the Afghan state, which does not recognise the Durand Line and fiercely resists anything resembling border fencing, may not have reacted positively to Pakistani requests for cooperation, a unilateral plan was developed. At the official border crossing itself, valid paperwork would be eventually required for all those seeking to enter Pakistan. Meanwhile, to prevent illegal crossings from nearby areas, a fence would be constructed inside Pakistani territory on either side of the Torkham crossing.

The Pakistani plan appears reasonable and can create a template to monitor cross-border human traffic. But all plans must be implemented in a manner that minimises on-ground tensions. The Afghan response, while predictably hostile, may also have been exacerbated by the unilateral actions that Pakistan has taken. Instead of immediately attempting to erect a fence, perhaps the Pakistani state should have first used the full spectrum of its diplomatic and military contacts to explain the situation to Afghan officials. Through diplomacy and military-to-military contacts a picture could have been painted of how Pakistan’s proposal would serve the interests of both the Afghan and Pakistani states and people, and that it is militancy and criminality that would be most affected. As for the Afghan concern that the transit rights of local populations might be curbed through the new measures, an awareness campaign could go some way towards encouraging Afghan nationals to acquire passports or other necessary travel documents.

What is unacceptable, however, is the escalation of military tensions along the border as was evident in the last few days. The brinkmanship that the Afghan and Pakistani security establishments find all too easy to indulge in must stop. The Torkham crossing also has a significant humanitarian dimension, with many Afghans relying on it for access to healthcare and for family reasons. Given that the very reason for the Pakistani attempt to institute new measures at Torkham was to ensure legitimate traffic, it is wrong to punish the people who have relied on the crossing for genuine needs. Moreover, Afghanistan and Pakistan have enough troubles of late to deal with for yet another issue to be added to the mix. Such tensions should not be allowed to recur.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

THE latest data on GDP growth may have come in below target, but the government will still try and claim that it has revived the economy despite facing serious challenges. According to data presented to the national accounts committee, this year the growth rate of the economy has been 4.7pc, compared to the target of 5.5pc. Some may well wonder about the merits of quibbling over a fraction of a percentage, but since the data refers to a Rs27tr economy, even that fraction adds up to a lot. Nevertheless, since last year’s growth rate was 4.23pc, the government can claim some success in raising that to 4.7pc this year. But there are two questions to ask regarding this. First, what has fuelled this growth? And second, where has it largely come from? In fuelling this growth, the government has also taken the public debt to unprecedented levels, both domestic and external. And the drivers of growth, when the data is looked at slightly more closely, appear to be temporary. In short, much work remains to be done to put this growth on a sustainable footing, failing which we are bound to be left with large bills to pay and not much to pay them with.


When looking at the drivers of growth, it is important to note the dismal situation in agriculture, which accounts for almost a fifth of our economy. The sector shrank by 0.19pc instead of growing. Some of this can be accounted for by factors beyond the government’s control, such as the collapse in commodity prices around the world, and serious drought and irregular rains. But much of the explanation also lies in the government’s failure to understand, much less reform, the agriculture sector. Smuggled GM seeds still form the mainstay of the cotton crop, even as the updated Seed Act awaits implementation. Crop economics, as the experts call it, have placed highquality inputs far beyond the reach of farmers, making the sector vulnerable to exogenous shocks from the climate and global markets.

In industry, the story is a little more mixed. Much of the growth has come from construction, which is low-quality growth due to its fleeting nature. The services sector met its target largely due to an increase in government salaries, which says nothing about the underlying state of the economy. Power generation and gas distribution have improved undoubtedly, but this simply reflects better utilisation of the existing capacity rather than any improvement in the nature of the economy. A boost has come from increased consumption as in the automobile sector, while exports have plummeted. In short, the economy is sputtering to a short-lived revival of sorts, but can it last? Given the haphazard movements upon which it is built, the growth figure presented before the committee cannot be taken as a sign of an economic rebound.




WHERE self-regulation fails, the situation opens the door to outside attempts to steer the debate. Unfortunately, that seems to have happened with Pakistan’s electronic media industry, which has in recent times been ‹ increasingly in the cross hairs of Pemra, the electronic media regulator. On Friday, Pemra chairman Absar Alam said his organisation had pulled the plug on reenactments of crime stories, monitoring teams having found several instances where the lines of acceptable programming had been transgressed. These, according to Pemra, include the provision of information about rape victims, forced entry into private premises, the overly graphic representation of rape and suicide, and several other examples. Reportedly, this ultimate step was taken after Pemra received complaints and the channels in question had repeatedly been sent notices, in some cases with the imposition of fines.


It is regrettable that matters have come to this pass, but few would deny that unethical practices have over the years been embedded in some quarters in the country’s electronic media output. Take, for example, the concern about forced entry into private premises, which is illegal in addition to being unethical journalism. It had become fairly common for viewers to watch media personnel swoop down on the premises to sniff out some alleged wrongdoing. Such an intrusion can only be undertaken by law-enforcement authorities, and then too under a fully fleshed-out procedure. Similarly, crime story reenactments have been found to at times breach the requirements of dignity and good taste. That said, however, such decisions are ideally left to professional news editors; it is, therefore, up to media houses and their employees to drastically and evidentially improve standards of journalistic judgment so that Pemra is left with no excuse to become involved. Issues of a criminal nature are tricky to handle, and the regulatory authority may not be the best forum to play adjudicator. The delicate balancing act that the media must achieve is perfectly summed up by the situation that the drama serial Udaari finds itself in, the associated television channel being issued a notice for scenes implying child sexual abuse. The fact that this programme is part of advocacy against this rampant scourge, and that it was created/scripted with the thorough involvement of NGOs working on child rights, appears to have escaped Pemra’s attention. Such matters must be left to the professionals, but those professionals must also prove themselves worthy of trust.




THE Evacuee Trust Property Board’s action in Nankana Sahib 10 days ago was a demonstration of how not to go about an eviction operation. The May 14 action was marked by the ‘overzeal’ of a senior politician — Siddiqul Farooq — in the role of administrator, and his highhanded subordinates keen on summarily displacing a set of families who have a long-running land ownership dispute with the ETPB. Some of the scenes have been doing the rounds of the social media and are a source of shame for all those Pakistanis who understand how important dignity is in all matters of life. The details about the latest action to throw these families out of the land they have tilled for decades are chilling to say the least. Claiming they are the legal tenants of the ETPB, they have nevertheless spoken of the violence unleashed on them by the brutal minions of an official who apparently suffered from an illusion regarding his responsibilities. Not only have they talked of being beaten and having sticks thrown at them but have gone on to accuse the ETPB chairman of firing at them with his personal weapon.

The trick appears to have backfired. Reports of a violent attempt at uprooting these tillers will add greater vigour and purpose to calls for an administratively just and humane solution to the issue involving the ETPB and some of the occupants of its lands. But before that important subject is taken up, with due empathy for these occupants, there must be an investigation into what went wrong with the eviction operation in the Nankana village on May 14. There have to be examples of how not to do it. Some of the officials — such as those in the police and the district administration — have expressed their shock and dismay at the way the ETPB raid was conducted. There have to be safeguards against one individual going on the rampage by over-asserting the powers at his disposal.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2016

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

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"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling ,but in rising every time we fall". (Nelson Mandela)

Media & democracy

DURING the hearing of a petition against obscenity on television channels in the country, a three-member Supreme Court bench recently articulated a very valid concern about Pemra. The judges pointed out that while the electronic media regulatory authority concerned itself with issues of obscenity and vulgarity, it made no effort to rein in the attempts to undermine the democratic set-up, provoke fascism and incite sectarian tensions that on its watch continued unchecked on television. Certainly, the tone and tenor of talk shows frequently crosses the boundaries of what can be considered civilised — even animated — discussion. Even more importantly, the programming content is deeply problematic. Reporters Without Borders in a recent report described the Pakistani media as being “among the freest in Asia when it comes to covering the squabbling among politicians”. That characteristic would not by itself, however, serve to increase public cynicism towards the civilian political establishment and by extension, the democratic system — were it not for the silence that the media adopts where other centres of power in Pakistan are concerned.

The debate on the direction of Pakistan’s electronic media must, therefore, be expanded to consider the repercussions not only of what is said, but what is left unsaid. Far from being the watchdog of democracy and guardian of the public interest, the media has become complicit in undermining the system because it allows the actions of the establishment — its political meddling as well as its business interests — to go almost entirely unexamined. Human rights abuses in Balochistan, or activists highlighting them, also get no airtime. Few independent assessments of the situation on the ground are emerging from Fata even with the winding up of military operations in the area. Sometimes, the blinkered coverage is the outcome of self-censorship — characteristic of a media psyche subjected to years of ‘press advice’ from military authorities in the past as well as outright violence from various quarters, including state and non-state actors. On other occasions though, in an increasingly frequent trend, news blackouts in specific instances are the result of direct instructions conveyed by the establishment to the media to desist from covering issues deemed ‘sensitive’.

The media has partly itself to blame for this. Instead of presenting a unified front against forces inimical to democratic ideals, the ugly, internecine rivalry among various media houses — a dimension of the sector’s corporatisation — has allowed space for these elements to erode the fourth estate’s essential oversight role. A fragmented media landscape is unable to either protect its own or fulfil its responsibilities towards society. When issues that must be aired and subjected to rigorous discussion are sanitised or mothballed altogether, news coverage and political debate lacks depth, nuance and context. That serves only the cause of illiberal forces who would rather the public remain uninformed, and hence all the more easy to manipulate.

PM’s absence

IT is an unprecedented and, curiously, a constitutionally unforeseen event: a serving prime minister, the chief executive of the federation, undergoing surgery that will possibly keep him out of the country for several weeks. In terms of a government that is effectively frozen, the event is not new. During multiple political crises over the last two parliaments, the federal government has for long stretches been forced to or opted to put regular governance matters on the back-burner. But it is entirely new for a prime minister to be absent from the country for such a long period and for the federal government to go through the formal budget process without the chief executive. While the government has announced that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will convene the federal cabinet via videoconference a day before he undergoes surgery, it has not clarified what the rules of business state on the matter. There may not be an immediate constitutional crisis, but the situation that has arisen demands at least two things be done.

First, the government should institute the practice of the chief executive undergoing an annual medical examination and the results being shared with the public. The US, for example, has a periodic medical examination of the president, the results of which are released by the White House and that contain specific information on the state of his pulmonary, cardiology, neurological and musculoskeletal systems, among others. The health of the chief executive is a matter of legitimate public interest and democratic concern. Mandating a periodic physical examination of the prime minister will boost transparency and confidence in the system. Second, the government needs to look into whether the Constitution itself or the rules of business need to be changed to introduce a formal temporary transfer of the chief executive’s authority. It is one thing for Mr Sharif to repose great trust and confidence in Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, but quite another to simply hand over the reins of the federation to a federal minister, who is technically equal in rank and authority to other full federal ministers. The constitutional system of governance works by having the public elect its representatives and the elected representatives choosing a chief executive. The government does not belong to Mr Sharif or any other prime minister and it cannot be treated like a private business where ad hoc arrangements are made. A constitutional lacuna has been identified — the government must now address it.

Alisha’s death

THE death of Alisha, a transgender activist, is a tragic tale of how our society treats those who do not have a definite gender identity. Requiring urgent medical attention after she was shot multiple times, Alisha, who was the fifth member of the transgender community to be attacked this year in KP, was rushed to hospital where, according to reports, doctors delayed treatment as there was confusion about whether to lodge her in a ward for male or female patients. Derisive remarks alluding to the sexual orientation of the transgender community were made as alleged by those who accompanied Alisha to the hospital. This depressing attitude speaks volumes for the kind of prejudices ingrained in a society that cannot see even a dying human being in a compassionate light.

While there is a need to investigate the murder and bring the guilty to book, there are other aspects to the situation that demand serious introspection. Such an exercise should not be restricted to those who mock the transgender community, but also include people who call for equal rights and dignity for its members. Did we protest loud enough as Alisha lay dying? In cases like this, there is always regret that we could have been a little more persistent in advocating protection and respect for the vulnerable and the easily discriminated against segments of society. Greater assertiveness is needed. The media has been, for its part, highlighting the transgenders’ case regularly, even if it has not been able to go beyond the already well-known features of their lives. It is time that others, most importantly the political parties so far missing from the scene, showed up and demonstrated some courage in the fight towards restoring dignity to this group of Pakistanis. The politicians must join in to boost the efforts of those who have raised their voices against the treatment meted out to a community that has always been kept at a distance from society’s conscience.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016.

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !