Violent start to Muharram

BARELY has the month of Muharram started that there has been a terrible reminder of the malign elements tearing this country apart. On Tuesday, four Hazara Shia women were killed and one was seriously injured in Quetta when gunmen opened fire on the bus in which they were travelling. This is only the latest instance of violence against a community that has long been in the cross hairs of sectarian terrorists in Balochistan. They have been mercilessly cut down in targeted killings as well as massacred in large-scale attacks, such as those that took place in Quetta in the first six months of 2013, which killed at least 220 and injured over 500.

However, although as a community the Hazara have suffered the most concentrated levels of sectarian violence in Pakistan, the scourge of sectarianism has eaten into the very vitals of this country’s social fabric. Incidents such as the one on Tuesday pose an added danger. In Muharram, the traditional month of mourning, a few careless words uttered by overwrought religious leaders can easily inflame already heightened emotions and lead to widespread civil unrest. In the aftermath of the murders in Quetta, the administration must respond in a firm but sensitive manner to ensure that the situation does not spiral out of control. One of the measures that provincial authorities take every year to contain the tinderbox of tensions that prevail in Muharram is to ban the movement of incendiary Sunni and Shia speakers within their jurisdictions and across provincial lines. The list issued by the Sindh government on Tuesday includes around 300 names. Herein lies an indication of how pervasive the problem is, and the concerted efforts required to disrupt the networks that give sustenance, if not direct support, to faith-based violence.

The battle against militancy, undertaken with much fanfare a little over two years ago, may have by now at the very least hobbled the organisational framework of extremist outfits, but the latter’s determination to inflict death and destruction — possibly through splinter groups — has clearly not been dimmed. On Eidul Azha some three weeks ago, the deadly intentions of two would-be suicide bombers were foiled by police at an imambargah near Shikarpur. In this case, as in a number of recent incidents of sectarian violence in Sindh such as the bombing last year of a Muharram procession in Jacobabad that caused over 20 deaths, the trail appears to lead to Balochistan-based terrorists. The pitfalls of a selective approach towards ‘useful’ non-state actors that is cynically premised on regional/local strategic objectives have been illustrated time and again with the blood of innocent Pakistanis in their tens of thousands. The prime minister has demanded action on moribund aspects of the National Action Plan. Can we hope that a clearer vision backed by the courage of conviction will prevail?

Turkish purge

TURKEY’S massive post-coup purge shows no signs of abating. In fact, the targets of President Erdogan’s wrath only seem to be increasing. On Tuesday, nearly 13,000 police officers were suspended for alleged links to Mr Erdogan’s arch-nemesis, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, while a Kurdish TV station was shut down. Moreover, the three-month state of emergency declared in Turkey after the failed July putsch has been extended for a further three months. It is not just the police or the military that are being combed by the AKP-led government for signs of ‘traitors’; nearly all organs of state have been targeted. The judiciary, civil service and education department have been affected by the purge, while even the private sector is under surveillance. Around 32,000 people have been arrested for suspected links to Mr Gulen’s movement — dubbed by the state as the ‘Fethullah Terror Organisation’ — while 70,000 individuals have been investigated. Several of Mr Gulen’s family members have also been taken into custody. The media has not been spared either — over 20 radio and TV stations have been closed down by the state. These include outlets broadcasting in Kurdish, stations with left-leaning orientations, as well as channels representing the minority Alevi religious community.

While the Turkish state has every right to investigate and punish those involved in the failed coup attempt, this exercise should not be used as an excuse by Mr Erdogan and his allies to wipe out dissent. Simply branding all supporters and sympathisers of Mr Gulen, or those of Kurdish groups, as ‘terrorists’ and ‘traitors’ is unacceptable as it violates all democratic norms. Modern Turkey had seemingly come a long way from its recent troubled past when a strident military would often step in to crush democratic opposition and send elected governments home in order to protect what it termed as the ‘national interest’. Unfortunately, many of the current Turkish administration’s moves bear an eerie resemblance to the iron-fisted policies the country’s military dictators used to enforce. While the populist Erdogan government has indeed managed to check the power of the generals, it has also unleashed a ‘democratic authoritarianism’ of its own. As it is, Turkey is situated in a geopolitically sensitive neighbourhood, with a brutal civil war raging next door in Syria. In the interests of domestic stability and continuation of the democratic process, the AKP government should halt the purge and refrain from further targeting critics and opponents of the administration.

The PTI puzzle

IMRAN KHAN, supreme leader of the PTI and would-be national conscience against corruption, is an individual of many words and frequent speeches.

Seemingly, every day, in some part or the other of the country, via some medium or the other, on some stage high or low, Mr Khan speaks to his supporters, the undecided and the very nation itself.

Perhaps never before has there been a political leader with so much to say on so many occasions and with such gusto.

And yet, Mr Khan appears to suffer from an unusual allergy: parliament, the house of the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan.

Yesterday, as the nation’s elected leaders gathered in the house of the people just off Constitution Avenue in Islamabad, Mr Khan and his PTI representatives were conspicuous by their absence during the joint sitting.

Mr Khan had thundered a day before his refusal to accept the legitimacy of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his disdain for a parliament elected by dodgy means — according to the PTI at least.

There is no gainsaying, lamenting or remonstrating with Imran Khan and the PTI. Theirs is a singular mission — the overthrow of the elected order and the installation of the PTI as the one true leadership of the country.

To the extent that democratic means are pursued in order to achieve power, the PTI is well within its rights to try whatever strategy and tactics it deems necessary to achieve its objective.

But the outsider must still marvel at and be perplexed by the party’s decision-making.

For what better podium, what better stage and what better opportunity for the PTI to deliver its message than a joint sitting of parliament, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself seated nearby and forced to listen?

If, in an incidental manner, a word or two was said about the Kashmir dispute and India’s intransigence, all the better. But perplexing remain the PTI’s ways.

Published in Dawn October 6th, 2016

Foreign policy woes

THIS much appears to be a consensus among the country’s political leadership: serious and peace-minded diplomacy needs to be put front and centre of the country’s foreign policy. Be it a Senate resolution passed on Friday, another passed by a joint sitting of parliament or the comments of the special Kashmir envoys sent to foreign capitals by the PML-N government, there is a sense that unless urgent corrective steps are taken, Pakistan may slip towards international isolation. To be sure, Pakistan is not globally isolated. Even countries that have expressed unease about certain aspects of this country’s overall national security policies have made clear that they want to continue to partner and work with Pakistan on several economic and security issues. Further, Pakistan does have legitimate grievances of its own. The state repression in India-held Kashmir, the interference by foreign countries in Balochistan, and the security threats emanating from Afghanistan are all serious issues that Pakistan can and must forcefully press on the global stage.

Nevertheless, a hard, honest look at Pakistan’s international standing and security policies is called for. As political leader after political leader has stated in recent weeks, both in government and the opposition, Pakistan is being too narrowly defined globally because of a perception that self-defeating security choices are dominating the policy discourse. Putting trade and the economy at the centre of foreign policy and addressing all regional issues through diplomacy ought to be the way ahead. A Senate Committee of the Whole report has some sensible and practical suggestions that the government should seriously consider. There is also the matter of an unacceptable vacuum at the top of the foreign ministry with the continuing absence of a full-time minister. Served by a special adviser and special assistant on foreign affairs, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is simply not in a position to give the foreign ministry portfolio the kind of attention it deserves. Not appointing a full-time foreign minister has been an enduring scandal of the present PML-N government.

Finally, there is the issue of institutionalising decision-making. Critical foreign policy and national security debates should not be left to a flurry of meetings, joint sittings of parliament and special gatherings. There must be an ongoing conversation in various forums — in the government, in parliament, between the government and the military leadership. Unhappily, the PML-N government does not appear to understand that or to believe in regular, institutionalised, structured debate and deliberations. Nor too do the various opposition parties in parliament seem to have the appetite or interest in a sustained dialogue with the government and state institutions. The current challenging environment for Pakistan externally may well subside, but if the country is to emerge from it stronger, its politicians need to demonstrate a greater and sustained capacity for leadership.

Zikri leader’s murder

TWO separate acts of violence in Balochistan on Friday clearly show that the province’s militancy problem remains unresolved. In one attack, separatist militants bombed the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express train; at least seven people were killed in the Aab-i-Gum area in the bombing claimed by the proscribed Baloch Liberation Army. In the second incident, another banned separatist group — the Baloch Liberation Front — claimed the murder of Syed Mullah Akhtar Mullai, spiritual leader of the Zikri community, in Kech. Both incidents are condemnable and reflect the fact that the state has failed to protect targets that are known to be vulnerable.

The religious leader was shot only days after the All Pakistan Muslim Zikri Anjuman had issued a statement condemning acts of violence targeting the community on Sept 20 in Panjgur. According to the statement, the group’s places of worship and houses of community members were set on fire. Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of incidents in which minority sects and communities have been targeted in Balochistan. There have been frequent attacks on the Hazara Shia community that have left hundreds dead. However, the Zikris have also been facing various types of violence. The Zikris are a small Muslim sect found mostly in Balochistan, though community members also reside in Karachi and other areas. There have been periods in history where the Zikris have had to face the wrath of the ruler of the day, but in modern times, their persecution became particularly acute during the Ziaul Haq dictatorship. Over the decades, as religious extremists established themselves in Balochistan, the persecution has only increased. In 2014, at least six Zikris were massacred in Awaran, while slogans have appeared in the province, warning the Zikris to ‘convert’ or die, signed off by an outfit calling itself Lashkar-i-Khorasan. While religious extremists have long been active against the Zikris — observers say the recent Panjgur violence was of a sectarian nature — it is now apparent that elements within the separatists have also turned their guns on the vulnerable community. For example, the BLF said Syed Mullai was killed because he was ‘working against’ the outfit; those familiar with Baloch politics say this means the religious leader was targeted for his pro-state sympathies. Squeezed between religious extremists on one end and separatist militants on the other, the Zikris need the state’s protection, while those responsible for acts of violence against the community must be brought to justice.

Arrest for cyber stalking

FOR all the wondrous possibilities of the internet, the anonymity it affords can bring out some of the worst impulses in men. Online spaces can appear inviting to misogynists where they can, in the safety of their cloaked identities, slander and humiliate women at will. On Friday, an assistant professor at Karachi University’s psychology department was suspended after the university administration received a letter from the Federal Investigation Agency informing them about his arrest for having repeatedly posted indecent, doctored photographs of a female professor on a Facebook page. The woman in question has been working as a part-time teacher at KU as well as three other universities. Her ordeal goes back to at least two years during which she filed four complaints against the professor. The case was registered under Section 21 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 which deals with cyber stalking.

The harassment, abuse and trolling that are par for the course on the internet assume an altogether different and vicious dimension — replete with sexual connotations — when directed towards those belonging to the female gender. Articulate and assertive women are particularly the target of online abuse. The internet is also a friend to those bent on vengeance against former partners in intimate relationships; such attacks usually, though not exclusively, also target women. The echo chamber that is the online world amplifies the individual’s humiliation: some instances of cyber stalking and harassment have even led to the victim committing suicide. In conservative societies like Pakistan, where women have to tread a fine line between tradition and personal aspirations for educational or career advancement, online attacks that cast aspersions on their character can be even more damaging. While Pakistan’s cyber law contains several draconian provisions that limit individual freedoms and impose state hegemony on information, it appears to have been used judiciously on this occasion. Nobody should have to contend with the threat of cyber stalking.

Source: Editorials
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2016

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October 18th, 2016

PPP’s rally in Karachi

THE PPP’s impressive show in Karachi on Sunday sought to reinvigorate the party’s political fortunes in the city at both the provincial and national levels. And though many moons remain before 2018’s general elections, party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari made his intentions clear by pledging to win the next national polls. However, as the young PPP leader must have learnt by now, there is a world of difference between engaging in political rhetoric and organising displays of street power, and translating these into success at the ballot box. This is not the first time the PPP has pulled in massive crowds in the recent past. For example, the annual birth/ death anniversaries of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto are usually marked by large rallies in Larkana, while even in Karachi Mr Bhutto-Zardari held a major show in 2014. But on Sunday, with the PPP high command in tow and the rally snaking through the streets of Karachi, the party tried to capitalise on the fluid political situation prevailing in the city and nationally.

The PPP chairman did not let the opportunity to take aim at the MQM — which is in the throes of internal crises — slip, while also hauling the PML-N over the coals by promising to ‘free’ the people from ‘Takht-i-Raiwind’. But in order to mount a serious political challenge, the PPP has to reorganise itself. The party has seen many highs and lows over the decades; Bhutto introduced populist politics when he founded the party while Benazir Bhutto used its platform to fight Ziaul Haq’s martial rule. Due to the charisma of both these leaders the PPP won four general elections. However, its performance in the 2013 polls paled in comparison; perhaps much of this was due to the fact that Asif Zardari had little time for governance or the party’s organisational affairs.

Whether the PPP wants to regain or solidify its position in Karachi, the rest of Sindh or nationally, it must concentrate on two words: good governance. Unfortunately, despite the party’s struggle for democracy, when it comes to governance, especially in the recent past, the PPP’s performance has been mostly lacklustre. Though the party chairman claimed he had brought ‘change’ to Sindh by replacing its chief minister, time will tell if the changes are systemic, or merely cosmetic. For example, despite Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s energetic drive to revive Karachi, the city remains submerged in rubbish, with its infrastructure in tatters. This is mainly because the provincial administration has appropriated many of the powers of local governments in Sindh. If Mr Bhutto-Zardari wants his party to regain power nationally come 2018, he will have to show people in the rest of Pakistan that the PPP is serious about responsible and responsive governance. For this, it is essential that he reorganises the party at the national level.

Failing the PSEs

IF there is one area in which the government has utterly failed to bring about any improvement, it is in the state of public-sector enterprises. The last review of the IMF programme, released by the Fund’s staff, points out that the accumulated losses of the three large public-sector companies and the power sector are now greater than the country’s annual development programme. Standing at Rs1.365tr, they can be said to be at record highs today, though this is one record we will not hear the government bragging about. The PML-N came to power promising to rectify the dismal situation in the public-sector enterprises. So what went wrong? Looking at each case, it turns out that the government had neither the political will nor the capacity to undertake such a massive task. The attempted privatisation of PIA was clumsily handled, leading to protest and the eventual unfortunate tragedy amongst the striking workers. The steel mill was supposed to be given to the Sindh government, but that process has been stalled for a number of years now. We stopped hearing about the railways reforms, and now the government is busy pumping billions of rupees into it in preparation for a massive Chinese injection. The power sector has shown improvement in recoveries by five percentage points, and reduction of line losses by one percentage point, and further accumulation in the circular debt has been halted. But it is hard to tell how much of this is because of superior management, and how much due to falling oil prices, rising tariffs and the new policy of recovery-based load-shedding which allocates more power to low-loss areas and dispenses with the need to increase recoveries in high-loss areas.

Admittedly, the pace of increase of these losses has been brought down, but that has not happened by putting them on any sustainable footing or by any strategic reform. It has happened largely through heavy-handed measures, or by passing on a significant portion of the burden to consumers. Nobody is arguing that privatisation is the only way forward, but the government has produced no vision of how to turn this situation around while retaining management control of these entities. This is a massive failure which must be emphasised each time we hear the government brag about accumulating its ‘record-high reserves’ or of having turned the economy around.

Bus tragedy

ANOTHER terrible road crash has shocked everyone and brought us face to face with what we ignore at our own peril. This time the site of the early morning accident was Rahim Yar Khan. Initial reports blame overspeeding. Indeed, there are reports that the driver of one of the buses involved in the collision was warned that he was going too fast soon after he set off on a journey that proved to be the last one for many of his passengers. The combined death toll of the two buses was said to be somewhere between 24 and 30. Whatever the actual figure is, the fact remains that many lives were lost because of criminal negligence.

In fact, there is usually a pyramid of negligence behind public-transport road crashes. Although, pending an investigation, one cannot squarely blame the drivers of the ill-fated buses for Monday’s accident, in a majority of cases, those driving public-transport vehicles are found to have been speeding in their bid to make a quick profit. There is often a whole system to ensure that these buses keep going on the roads, veering in all directions in an intimidating manner. And while the general maintenance of these vehicles might have improved somewhat, a lot of work must still be done to establish the benchmark of what can be allowed in the name of competition. What is also sad is the speed with which such accidents are forgotten and buried under a pile of statistics, as well as overshadowed in the news cycle by other reports. Such accidents will only be taken seriously when there is a concerted effort to investigate them and follow up with measures to prevent their frequent recurrence. The tendency to close the case after blaming the drivers is dangerous. The factors behind the rashness that is a dominant feature of public transport, intra- and inter-city, must be exposed. A good start may be to identify transport companies frequently involved in road accidents.

Published in Dawn October 18th, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

PTI’s protest tactics

IMRAN Khan and the PTI have a democratic right to protest, and the party’s focus on the as yet unresolved Panama Papers issue is an important source of political pressure on the PML-N government.

The latter appears disinclined to allow an investigation of the first family and does not seem to take the public’s concerns about corruption seriously.

Therefore, before addressing some of the more dangerous and overheated rhetoric of the PTI, it is necessary to focus on the core of the PTI’s protest: the absence of any investigation by any commission or statutory body into what were certainly very troubling revelations in the Panama Papers.

Moreover, the PML-N government seems intent on shielding the first family from any inquiry that prioritises an investigation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s and his family’s wealth and assets.

More than six months since the Panama Papers first became international news, the government’s stance remains egregious and indefensible.

With or without the PTI protests, the PML-N has a duty to the public to demonstrate that the first family is not tainted by corruption.

Wrongheaded as the PML-N’s position may be, it still has time to change course. With the Supreme Court scheduled to take up several petitions calling for judicial action on the Panama Papers issue tomorrow, the pressure is once again building. Rare is the political issue that remains at the centre of the national discourse for so long.

But in the case of the Panama Papers, a growing public unease about rampant corruption in the public sector and among the people’s representatives appears to be behind the sustained interest in the matter.

The PML-N would be mistaken to believe that were it not for the PTI’s relentlessness, the Panama Papers issue would simply disappear. Perhaps the government should note how the opposition remains united on the demand that the first family be investigated independently and transparently.

Where this is some concern about the PTI, it is with the tactics it is threatening and the incendiary rhetoric it deploys. The threat of a so-called lockdown of Islamabad on Nov 2 could lead to violence and clashes with law enforcement — an outcome that would be anti-democratic and that could trigger a grave crisis of democracy itself.

Mr Khan’s freewheeling speeches and political rhetoric is often explained away by the PTI as a matter of style rather than substance. But Mr Khan does drift all too often uncomfortably close to a line that should not be crossed — that of the distinction between forcing better outcomes from within the democratic system and a heedless plunge into democracy-destabilising approaches.

If the government’s approach has been unacceptably stubborn, the opposition should remain mindful that no-holds-barred protesting can have catastrophic effects on the democratic system. The Supreme Court may yet step in and offer a sensible way out. All sides should remain amenable to refining their strategies accordingly.

BRICS summit

THERE was a time when the BRICS grouping was considered a serious affair by the world community. Comprised of the largest emerging world markets, the group was looked upon as an engine for the global economy, with a potential role in lifting economies out of the wreckage of the great financial crisis of 2008. BRICS has presided over the formation of large regional cooperation blocs and a multilateral development bank modelled after the World Bank. The latest summit of the group, held in Goa, India, had an extensive agenda — ranging from trade and investment to climate change. But India made a mistake in coming to the summit with a one-item agenda foremost in its plans, dwelling on terrorism, more specifically as it related to Pakistan. The results have not been impressive. In its treatment of terrorism, the Goa declaration does not add anything to the one at Ufa. Clearly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to use the Goa summit as another opportunity to isolate Pakistan found little traction with the participants.

The dispute between India and Pakistan held another grouping of states hostage for many decades now. Saarc was formed to promote cooperation between the regional countries of South Asia; instead, it has become a valve to dissipate Pak-India tensions. Now it seems that Mr Modi tried to bring his grievances and the language of the long-standing Pak-India discord to BRICS, in an attempt to drag the grouping, with its world-encompassing agenda, into the quicksand of his country’s disputes with its neighbour. The episode should awaken the Indian leadership to the basic fact that there is no alternative to dialogue and engagement between India and Pakistan. No country wants war, and efforts to pull others into the dispute fail every time they are brought to international forums. A narrow approach to their grievances brings both countries to the point of stalemate. Mr Modi would be better advised to look for ways to include his country in OBOR, since this will be necessary for him to realise his ambition to include India in the Eurasian Economic Union. Pressing on with his misguided policy of isolating Pakistan is likely to do damage to both states’ prospects of greater participation in the emerging regional connectivity arrangements that are the hallmark of the present moment. Mr Modi brought a small mind to a large gathering. It is time to change course.

Academic dishonesty

MANY dream of transforming Pakistan into a ‘knowledge society’; however, this dream will remain unfulfilled if those sitting in the hallowed halls of academia continue to take a soft line on plagiarism. As reported in this paper on Tuesday, the University of Karachi has failed to launch a formal inquiry against the acting vice chancellor of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology even after evidence emerged that the individual in question had apparently plagiarised. KU had awarded the doctorate. The Higher Education Commission has said the acting VC’s PhD thesis, as well as many of his research papers, contains unacknowledged material lifted from other sources. Despite these serious allegations of academic misconduct, it is unclear why he continues to remain in charge of a major tertiary institution. For example, he reportedly managed to get 17 research papers published in seven months. Any serious scholar will testify that even a single research paper takes several months of painstaking inquiry to produce. In his defence, the accused professor said it is in fact others who have plagiarised his work.

The problem is larger than just one individual with questionable academic qualifications and work ethics; it is one of the academic culture prevalent in most of Pakistan’s tertiary institutions. Unfortunately, far too many within the academic community here are willing to look the other way to protect one of their own. This attitude has only resulted in stunting the growth of Pakistani academia, as unscrupulous elements have used plagiarism to secure promotions and other short-term gains. The HEC has repeatedly said it has a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism. But clearly, this policy needs to be enforced more rigorously at institutions of higher learning across the country. By indulging in academic dishonesty, or protecting those who do, Pakistani academics are abandoning the pursuit of knowledge in favour of the baser goal of personal enrichment, while sullying the reputation of the academy.

Published in Dawn October 19th, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

Auditing asset declarations

THE move by the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct random audits of asset declarations filed by election candidates is a long overdue step. The whole exercise of filing asset declarations by all elected representatives is a legal requirement for good reason, and not just a procedural formality. Elected members have been treating it casually thus far, with many failing to even fulfil the condition of filing asset declarations of their spouses and dependants as required by the law. Thus far, all declarations have been simply filed away, and old ones even removed from the ECP website. This turns the entire exercise into a meaningless formality, because the declarations submitted stand in stark contrast to the visible lifestyles that many of the lawmakers lead. For instance, several among them claim to not own a car, yet they are seen moving around in a motorcade. Clearly, these people are making full use of assets that they are unwilling to disclose in writing, raising obvious questions.

Hopefully, the ECP will not take this obligation lightly. Auditing asset declarations will require specialised expertise, as well as a rigorous selection methodology that must be truly and transparently random. If the names of important legislators from the ruling party should come up during the selection exercise, they will need to be pursued as vigorously as those of anybody else. If the exercise turns out to be weak, or is viewed as a tool to victimise political opponents, it will simply add to the pointless bickering that fuels so much of our political culture. Clearly, it will not be easy to avoid these pitfalls.

It would also be a good idea to monitor election expenses more vigorously. The same law that mandates the asset declarations also places a ceiling on how much candidates contesting the elections are allowed to spend. That ceiling is currently set at Rs1.5 million for national and Rs1m for a provincial assembly seat. But going by the kind of cash that is spent in some constituencies, for example the NA-122 by-election last year, which saw obscene amounts of money and gifts being showered upon the electorate, candidates are still able to assert they stayed within the ceiling by claiming that the funds were spent by their ‘supporters’. Likewise, they get away with declaring negligible assets and claiming that the lifestyle they are seen living is paid for by others, including family members. Clearly, money raised from rackets is playing a growing role in politics, and in turn political power is being used to support and maintain these rackets as a quid pro quo. This is the jugular vein of contemporary Pakistani politics, and if the ECP wants to take action, it must do so in a strong and credible manner.

Kabul-Taliban talks

THE news has been swiftly and emphatically denied, but in the past too there have been denials after the news was broken. In all likelihood, the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban have, indeed, met for tentative early talks in Qatar over the past month — a revelation that introduces a positive element into the relentlessly negative news from Afghanistan in recent months. While the Taliban do appear to be committed to waging war on the battlefield and incrementally expanding their zones of influence and areas of control across Afghanistan, the very notion that senior Taliban leaders are willing to meet Afghan government officials suggests that there is an understanding that total victory on the battlefield remains an unlikely possibility for the Taliban. That notion has been reinforced by the US and Nato commitments to not only finance the Afghan security forces until at least 2020, but for American troops to once again help fight the Taliban. With the National Unity Government also not unravelling, despite the clear and continuing strains, the possibility of state collapse in Afghanistan is low. And while there should be no illusions about the Taliban’s capacity and willingness to wage an endless war, there is the reality that a war that cannot be decisively won opens the door to a negotiated, political settlement.

For Pakistan, the latest revelations offer both an opportunity and the possibility of further complications. According to news reports, Pakistan has not played a role in the recent contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, allegedly because both sides are wary of Pakistani involvement. That is not necessarily a problem for Pakistan: an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process has been the mantra of all stakeholders, internal and external, for a while and if a process can be kick-started without direct Pakistani assistance or involvement, that could be interpreted as a positive development. At the very least, Pakistan should not try and disrupt contacts between the warring Afghan sides — much of the blame that is heaped on it, including in the latest news reports, is linked to the belief that Pakistan prefers a negotiating process that gives it a prominent say in what is decided. Indeed, Pakistan should consider doing the opposite: encouraging whatever political contacts the warring Afghan sides want to have and discouraging cross-border militancy. A peaceful and stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interests, but the peace and stability must be forged by the Afghans themselves.

Jerusalem resolution

JERUSALEM is one of the world’s most sacred — and contested — cities. Yet what is beyond doubt is that ever since 1967, Israel has been occupying Arab East Jerusalem, a fact that virtually the entire global community recognises. However, any mention of the city’s Palestinian and Arab character, and the fact that it is under illegal occupation, is enough to send the Israeli establishment — which considers the city its ‘eternal capital’ — into a paroxysm of rage. This is exactly what happened when Unesco recently passed an Arab-sponsored resolution critical of Israel’s actions in the holy city. The resolution refers to “occupied Palestine” and terms the Zionist state the “occupying power”, while criticising Israeli attempts to restrict Muslims’ access to the Al Aqsa complex. As a result of the Unesco resolution, which was passed by a vote of 24-6, with 26 abstentions, Israel has ‘suspended’ cooperation with the UN’s cultural body, while claiming that the resolution denies Jewish historical links to Al Aqsa, which Israel refers to as the Temple Mount. This accusation is patently false as the resolution recognises the fact that Jerusalem — Al Quds to the Arabs — is sacred to all three great monotheistic faiths: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. What the document highlights — much to Tel Aviv’s chagrin — is Israel’s high-handedness in Jerusalem. In the recent past, there have been calls by extremist Jews to demolish Al Aqsa and replace it with the ‘Third Temple’.

Unesco has taken a bold step by passing the resolution, even though many in the Western bloc opposed it. The UN body in the past has also taken progressive steps where the Arab-Israeli dispute is concerned; for example, in 2011 it admitted Palestine as a member, for which it was punished by the US — Israel’s biggest benefactor — as Washington blocked funds for the cultural body. The Unesco resolution may be a small victory for the Palestinians; but perhaps it offers this dispossessed nation the hope that, one day, they will be able to live with freedom and dignity in their homeland.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

MQM in disarray

OVER the past few days, an invective-filled exchange has been taking place in Karachi that has brought into the open the internal turmoil convulsing the MQM, while also involving those political factions that have broken away from it.

Many of the things being said about the party and its Byzantine, often bloody, internal workings were once discussed in hushed tones; now these stinging allegations are being repeated on national television.

The latest in a series of episodes was sparked on Monday when former Karachi city mayor and current head of the Pak Sarzameen Party Mustafa Kamal unleashed a barrage of allegations against Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad.

The tough-talking PSP chief accused the governor of indulging in ‘massive corruption’ and providing ‘oxygen’ to Altaf Hussain.

The normally mild-mannered governor has responded in kind, levelling similar charges against Mr Kamal.

The latest salvo came on Thursday, when the PSP leader called for a probe against the allegations made against him. Mr Kamal claimed he had approached Mr Ibad for a possible political alliance when the former returned to politics in March; apparently, their stars were not in alignment, which explains the venomous exchanges.

At present, it is clear that the MQM has split into four distinct factions — in addition to the Haqiqi faction: the loyalist group in London that has rallied around Altaf Hussain; the Farooq Sattar-led MQM Pakistan; the PSP which contains many former Muttahida cadres; and the Sindh governor who, while currently without political affiliation, was once an MQM stalwart.

All four factions have levelled serious allegations against each other, with murder, militancy and corruption being common themes.

Even Mr Sattar, once a diehard Altaf loyalist, has taken pains to distance himself from the party supremo after the latter’s inflammatory Aug 22 speech.

Perhaps the public muckraking is one way for these factions to clear their conscience. After all, all these individuals — Mustafa Kamal, Ishratul Ibad, Farooq Sattar and others — were once central cogs within the Muttahida machine.

Their current ‘admissions’ confirm suspicions that the party was run more like a mafia racket, though it must be said that these high-ranking politicians could not have been completely unaware of the party’s undesirable activities, even if they were not involved. So why the lengthy silences and sudden appreciation for the ‘truth’?

All factions must admit that there was a dark phase in the MQM’s history when many misdeeds were committed, and that they were aware of them.

Whether it is the May 12, 2007, mayhem, the murders of Hakim Saeed, Azeem Ahmed Tariq and others, or the epidemic of violence Karachi suffered under the MQM’s watch, the truth must come out, especially if what is being said is more than just political rhetoric.

Further investigations are in order, and if those involved in making these accusations are serious, they must present proof in court in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.

A campaign code

CERTAIN aspects of electioneering in Pakistan have retained colonial-era features that many would say are out of sync with the modern age’s staggering social changes wrought by superior technology. Large public rallies, for instance, were a most effective way of political mobilisation at a time when the literacy rate was shockingly low and modern means of communication were not what they are in this day and age. Today, Pakistan’s electronic media has become perhaps the most important tool of mass communication and influencing thought — far more than the rallies of yesteryear. And yet, it is possible to dispute the proposed blanket ban on rallies contained in the draft code of conduct for the 2018 elections prepared by the Election Commission of Pakistan. True, for many the proposal might come as a relief as such mass gatherings are often associated with, and do cause, inconvenience to the public. However, public rallies are very much a part of the robust South Asian electoral culture and should not be dispensed with, although restrictions on their locations might be considered. In any case, corner meetings are more popular among candidates now.

In the same vein, the ECP’s proposal to prohibit many other activities that appear legitimate appears odd. Why should, for instance, there be a ban on advertisements on electronic media and on banners, posters and flyers? The electronic media is a most potent medium for political parties to convey their achievements and future goals to voters. The ban on graffiti makes sense; it is an eyesore and disfigures buildings and infrastructure. But banners, posters and flyers do not fall in this category and must be considered a legitimate way of mass contact. Most bizarre is the ECP’s suggestion that only state media should be utilised for campaigning, with Pemra, the electronic media regulator, allotting equal airtime to all contestants. That the ruling parties shouldn’t misuse official machinery and state-owned media goes without saying, but the move to keep private radio and TV channels away is not logical. Instead, the ECP should incorporate a very useful clause in the Philippines’ electioneering code whose Section 81 makes it unlawful for any foreigner to aid a party or candidate “directly or indirectly” in “any manner”, or make financial contributions. There is plenty of time for all political parties to study the code and cooperate with the ECP to help develop a sophisticated electoral culture.

Pak-India cultural ties

IF any illustration were needed of the extreme pressure that India’s right-wing lobby is exerting on citizens to link patriotism with hawkishly anti-Pakistan sentiments, one has only to turn to the video released earlier this week by Karan Johar.

With it, he broke the silence that he had so far maintained over the controversy that erupted over his upcoming film, a big-budget multi-starrer that counts amongst its cast Pakistani actor Fawad Khan. Mr Johar is a giant in a cinema industry that is amongst the world’s largest.

That even he has been bullied into stating that in future he will refrain from engaging talent from the neighbouring country speaks volumes for how the citizens’ loyalty is being questioned.

In the tensions that flared following the attack in Uri in September, cultural ties and representatives on both sides of the border have been prominent casualties.

In India, a cacophony of voices has called for the expulsion of Pakistani artists; even the few big names that dared present reasonable views have been hauled over the coals.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan, matters have been taken to an equally, if not more, damaging juncture. Cinema owners have decided to halt the screening of Indian films, while on Wednesday, Pemra, the electronic media regulator, imposed a complete ban on Indian content being aired on television and radio (which was otherwise legal as long as the limit of 6pc of airtime was not breached).

With this move, the state has now entered a phase where the fallout of soured relations is affecting the softest of targets ie cultural ties.

It bears repeating that in precisely such innocuous, mutually beneficial exchanges lies the path to eventual normalisation.

That both countries have allowed those who would take the fight further to dominate the narrative is regrettable in the extreme.

This pattern must be made to change, for without that, ie without better sense prevailing, any softening of stance at the level of the state will be of short duration.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

DPC rally

IN the shadow of the rising tensions between the PTI and the PML-N, an even more foreboding spectacle is readying itself. The Difa-i-Pakistan Council, an umbrella group of hard-right religious parties and banned militant groups, is preparing to hold rallies next week in Islamabad and Azad Kashmir to protest the violence in India-held Kashmir. Undoubtedly, the ongoing crackdown in the latter deserves the strongest condemnation and the plight of the people there ought to be highlighted at every forum. Yet, there is something deeply troubling about the return of the DPC — a delegation of which met the interior minister yesterday — and its determination to once again grab the national spotlight. Where the PTI, the third-largest party in parliament and the second-highest vote-getter in the last general election, has a democratic right to protest, the DPC’s case for doing so is far more ambiguous. To begin with, several of its constituent groups are either banned or their leaders are on various local and international watch lists. Moreover, most of the religious political parties in the DPC have an ambivalent attitude towards democracy, constitutional supremacy and the rule of law.

Arguably, a mass protest by the DPC in the federal capital and in AJK could end up hurting the Kashmir cause internationally more than helping it. An outside world already impatient with Pakistan’s perceived lack of progress in challenging certain militant groups may become even less willing to listen to the country’s historically and morally correct stance on the Kashmir dispute. Locally, too, the DPC rally poses a challenge for a government that is already contending with pressure on multiple political and institutional fronts. What the government should most definitely avoid is to try to politicise the matter, as some of the PML-N’s spokespersons attempted to do on Thursday when suggesting that the PTI and DPC are planning violence in the federal capital. A potentially serious question of national security should not be tarred by the usual brush of politics.

What, then, should the government do? Allowing or disallowing the proposed DPC rallies to go ahead as announced is only a small part of the challenge — the central issue is how an amalgamation such as the DPC is able to both pledge and feel confident about delivering a grand spectacle? The withholding of no-objection certificates for rallies or the imposition of Maintenance of Public Order notifications against sundry DPC leaders will be no more than the flimsiest of band-aids. What the country needs are institutional responses to deep-rooted challenges. The national counter-extremism policy of Pakistan, to be formulated by a committee working under the banner of Nacta as announced recently, can become one of the elements of an organised, institutional response to the extremism challenge in Pakistan today. Entities such as the DPC cannot be wished away or temporarily swept out of sight — a long-term approach is the only viable option.

Cross-LoC tensions

WHILE war hysteria in the subcontinent may have subsided somewhat, normalisation still eludes Islamabad and New Delhi. One disturbing sign of this came in the shape of a briefing the new defence secretary gave senators on Thursday in Islamabad. The official told lawmakers that India had moved an additional army division to the Line of Control while also bringing fighter jets to a forward base. The defence secretary also apprised the senators of the fact that India had committed 58 ceasefire violations at the LoC since last month’s Uri attack. Moreover, on Thursday the Foreign Office summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner over “unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian troops”; officials say a 28-year-old man was killed and several civilians injured due to Indian firing earlier this week. While these reports are indeed cause for concern, there is no reason to believe that cross-LoC tensions cannot be addressed through dialogue.

True, the Uri attack has put the peace process on the back burner and caused shrill, jingoistic lobbies to beat the drums of war; yet, neither establishment seems to be in the mood for the escalation of hostilities. In the peculiar environment of the subcontinent, this is positive news. The fact is that even in the immediate aftermath of the Uri attack, the DGMOs were in contact, as were the two countries’ national security advisers. These channels should continue to be used to address the issue of LoC violations and other irritants. India’s inquiries into the Uri incident can continue, but the Modi government should not forsake dialogue with Pakistan, while all sides should realise that the subcontinent cannot afford another war. At the same time, the root cause of the present bitterness, indeed of the bitterness that has poisoned Pak-India ties from the beginning ie the situation in Kashmir should not be forgotten. It cannot be denied that the current stir in the India-held region is indigenous. Instead of pushing the narrative of bilateral tension, India should realise that crushing the aspirations of the Kashmiris is not likely to dampen their quest for freedom. For both Islamabad and New Delhi, the better option is to forsake confrontation and bring all issues to the table — including prickly ones such as Kashmir and terrorism — and negotiate a way out of the morass so that the people of both countries, as well as the Kashmir region, can look forward to a better future.

Market closure timing

IN the project to regulate those aspects of citizens’ lives that can pose problems, it should be a rule that governments announce remedial measures only when they have been carefully examined through the lens of fairness and enforceability. Unfortunately, this does not always happen in Pakistan. A case in point is the attempt made on several occasions, both at the federal and the provincial levels, to dictate when city markets should shut down, the aim being to save electricity, which has in recent years become a commodity the country finds itself increasingly short of. The idea is not a bad one, and could theoretically go some way towards plugging the shortfall; however, in most such instances, the state has been unable to enforce the regulation across the full spectrum of commercial areas in various cities and, importantly, has also selected unrealistic timings. A deadline by when businesses must wind up their activities across Sindh was most recently suggested by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who pitched 7pm, pending the input of stakeholders. This came on Thursday when government officials met representatives of traders’ and businessmen’s bodies at the Sindh Secretariat. Unsurprisingly, the latter group, while agreeing to the move in principle, said that 7pm was not feasible and suggested 9pm instead.

It is difficult not to agree with their proposal, given the realities of life in not just Karachi but also other urban areas. With office hours generally extending till 5pm, and given a milieu where increasingly both men and women work, early shop closures would not only inconvenience the citizenry they would also constitute a reason for violating the unreasonable timings. Given that a 9pm deadline has been suggested by the trade lobby itself, it is more likely to be adhered to. If the plan does go ahead with the change having been incorporated, the challenge for the administration will be to ensure the enforcement of the rules across the board, in large malls and shops frequented by the elite as well as smaller businesses.

Published in Dawn October 22nd, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

The age of xenophobia

ALL over the world, a new kind of populism is gaining momentum — one that is frightening in the kind of appeal it relies on for support. Its thrust is in two directions: the first against the democratic conventions enshrined in the discourse of rights, citizenry and tolerance; the second in the anger aimed at an amorphously defined other, whether resident minorities within a country or immigrants and refugees. There are other undercurrents too, such as resentment at growing inequalities and the tightening grip on power by big business, as evidenced by the anger directed at banks and trade agreements. But those animated by such strong feelings arising from the increasingly unrepresentative character of contemporary democracies through their near-complete subordination to the needs of big capital, are finding it hard to turn their anger into a viable political project. This has left the stage wide open for a more atavistic, xenophobic anger as the principal opposition to a discredited status quo. Bernie Sanders bowing out of the race, leaving the field to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, illustrated this perfectly.

Undoubtedly, this new populism has been many years in the making. Long before Mr Sanders, there were the anti-WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, and the Howard Dean campaign in 2004. And long before Mr Trump, there were innumerable congressmen who ran on anti-immigrant, xenophobic platforms. But today the firebrand variety of populism is on the march around the globe, capturing state power at the top in countries from India to Turkey, and upsetting national elections and referendums from Europe to Australia. A delicately drawn and embattled consensus around the politics of rights and citizenship, in place since the end of the Second World War and embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, now wears a haggard look in a world where inequities rule and state power is crumbling setting into motion some of the largest movements of people ever seen in history.

This new populism presents a stark challenge to the continuation of the democratic project. The biggest challenge it presents is the latent threat to the democratic experiment — not more than a few centuries old — from within through the ruthless suppression of dissent and the branding of all those who are not marching in lockstep with it as traitors, terrorists, agents of foreign powers or enemies of the state. The challenge for the old guard now is to advance a vision to drain the growing swamp of discontented constituencies that are flocking to the toxic allure of xenophobia and hyper-nationalism. Mounting an effective opposition to this juggernaut of hate is emerging as global priority number one. Citizens and intellectuals in each country where this trend is sweeping the landscape, must forge solidarity and find a way to face this challenge together.

Organ trafficking

IT is Pakistan’s shameful open secret that despite having passed legislation and set up regulatory authorities, the trafficking of human organs — almost always kidneys — continues. The incidence of this practice was at its highest around the turn of the millennium, and subsequently an estimated 2,000 vended kidneys were being transplanted per year. The passage of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance in 2007, and then the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act in 2010 brought about a steep drop in the numbers, and it was hoped that the legislation, along with the promotion of cadaveric donation, would finally bring to an end this heinous form of exploitation. Regrettably, this has not been the case. As illustrated by an investigation by this newspaper last month, the numbers have been rising again over the past couple of years, and the tactics used to trap victims are becoming more extreme. In recent days, police carried out a raid on a building in Rawalpindi and recovered 24 would-be organ ‘donors’ who were being kept there in detention, having been stripped of their mobile phones and identity papers, etc. All of them desperately poor, these people had been drawn into the net of kidney trafficking gangs with the promise of being paid enough to create a much better life for themselves.

Though the trade of human organs is criminalised, it is argued by some that the ‘donors’ agree to their part of the bargain knowingly and willingly. That is distortion of the ugliest variety. The people freed by the police in the recent Rawalpindi case include brick kiln workers, bonded labourers and daily-wage earners — in other words, the poorest sections of society. ‘Choice’, in their case, is a meaningless concept. The scale of their exploitation merits the state acting with far more urgency than it has so far demonstrated, the first part of its challenge being the reform of the human organ transplant authorities in all the provinces. It is the job of these authorities to ensure that transplants do not involve organs obtained through coercion or payment. A few arrests were made in the recent raid, and one Rawalpindi hospital suspected of being involved in this crime was sealed on Thursday. Much more, however, needs to be done; all those colluding in this practice, at all levels, from agents to surgeons, need to be brought before the law.

Lawyers’ behaviour

A RECENT incident involving a group of advocates has once again highlighted the extent of lawlessness that exists among many members of the legal community. There has been yet another incident where a group of lawyers, who reportedly included the honourable office bearers of the bar association, actively helped two men accused of murder escape from the court premises in Lahore on Wednesday. Similar scenes have been enacted so many times, that it hardly comes as a surprise that the reputation of lawyers has been tarnished and that the term ‘wukla-gardi’ is reserved for categorising acts of violence and other violations of the law by members of the bar. Yet there appears to be nothing to suggest that a review is under way of such appalling behaviour, or that a reversal of this dangerous trend is being urgently sought from within.

At the same time, it is true that the use of such physical force by professional groups to resolve an affair is not restricted to lawyers. Other professionals working in the public area, for instance, doctors, and also at times members of the media, have been found wanting in situations that have required them to prove the sterling credentials of their profession. This underscores the need for introspection — these professional associations must address the issue of growing rowdyism in their ranks and the urge to self-righteously dispense ‘justice’. Indeed, this is a sign of weakness, as it shows that by using violent means to achieve their goals these bodies are incapable of dealing with tough situations in a mature, wise manner. Indeed, the matter has reached such proportions that today not even a respected judge is safe from the wrath of the easily irritated lawyer who is sure he has — and may actually have — the weight of the entire bar behind him. It is time the bar associations gathered the courage and stood up with other counsel who do not believe in taking the law into their own hands.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

Wrongfully hanged

GHULAM Sarwar and Ghulam Qadir are names that must not be forgotten if the criminal justice system of the country is ever to be reformed. Even by the distressing standards of a broken justice system, the case of the two brothers is shocking: they have not lived to see their convictions for murder overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court because they were executed by the state before the appeals could be decided. An astonishing and macabre miscarriage of justice is made worse still by the fact that a full year has elapsed since the execution and the Supreme Court announcing its acquittal verdict, suggesting deep anomalies and a fundamental lack of coordination between the judicial and prison systems.

The shocking matter calls for at least two immediate steps to be taken by the government. First, a moratorium on the death penalty should be reinstated. Second, a comprehensive, national index needs to be developed to record all condemned prisoners, where they are imprisoned and the stage of the appeals process each case has reached. This paper opposes the death penalty in all forms and in all cases and will continue to do so. However, the Ghulam brothers’ case is not the only troubling matter to have emanated from the criminal justice system in recent days: the declaration by the Supreme Court that a medically diagnosed schizophrenic patient, Imdad Ali, can be executed by hanging has sent ripples of concern across medical and human rights fields.

Consider that while thousands of individuals in prisons across the country have been awarded the death penalty and await execution pending the appeals process being completed, the enforcement of capital punishment in several hundred cases since the lifting of a moratorium by the government has already yielded a storm of controversy. In good conscience, therefore, can the country really afford to stay the current course, instead of pausing and reviewing the entire system of capital punishment that is currently in place in Pakistan? Consider also this timeline: the murders the Ghulam brothers were accused of took place in 2002; the trial court handed down its verdict in 2005; the Supreme Court first took up the appeal against a Lahore High Court verdict upholding the brothers’ death sentences in 2010; and it is only in October 2016 that the Supreme Court overturned the convictions. While the gravity of the death penalty means that a deliberate and measured appeals process is called for, there is also the matter of two lives spent 11 years behind bars — years that the executed brothers would never have got back, even if they had been alive today. Criminal justice reforms are necessary for a fair and just society.

Countering extremism

WHILE the national counterterrorism effort sputters along, it is welcome that initiatives to address extremism — militancy’s attendant evil — are also being taken. As reported in this paper recently, a national counter-extremism policy is being hammered out by a steering committee and a draft document should be ready by November. Those familiar with the process, being steered by Nacta, say the draft will then go to the interior minister for further action. The committee members will also get the input of administrative and law-enforcement officials, while deliberations with political and religious elements, academia as well as other civil society groups have already been held. From the reports, it appears the policy will be a comprehensive document, covering all the necessary bases needed to counter extremism. For example, included in the ‘policy themes’ are educational reform, reviving culture, media engagement, etc.

Many experts and observers have long called for a policy to address extremism that complements the counterterrorism plan. Indeed, terrorism and militancy have a symbiotic relationship with extremism; in fact, extremism can be described as the ‘gateway’ to terrorism and is more insidious. The reasons for the present high levels of extremism are obvious as during the Ziaul Haq era religion was misused for geopolitical ends — mostly through the promotion of a narrow-minded curriculum and space given to jihadi forces. These myopic policies have resulted in today’s divided and intolerant society. Correcting the mistakes of three decades will not be a quick process, but an effective, realistic counter-extremism policy can be a starting point. Some experts have called for a ‘national dialogue’ between sects and religions to promote harmony, while it has also been argued that religious justifications used by militants need to be deconstructed and countered. Along with these suggestions, as the steering committee has discussed, changes must be brought about in the curriculum, while the media must not be used by extremists to preach hatred. Moreover, to address extremism at the grass roots, the state must pursue madressah reforms regardless of the clergy’s pressure tactics. But welcome as the initiatives to mould a counter-extremism policy are, we must ask how serious the state is when many of the very elements primarily responsible for the spread of sectarian and extremist venom in Pakistan are able to secure an audience with a senior state functionary, such as the interior minister. For a successful policy, it must move beyond statements and be implemented throughout Pakistani society.

A shameful incident

THE resort to violence by a law enforcer against a journalist outside a Nadra office in Karachi is indeed condemnable, and a stern warning is in order. The footage of the incident is appalling — and has been played over and over again by the channels; it must be a source of shame for all those who have power and authority but do not guard against their misuse. According to many observers, the offence is all the more deplorable since the recipient of the security man’s wrath was a woman. Indeed, there are no easy answers to the question raised: would the security man have acted in a different manner had the ‘provocateur’ been a man able to match his angry action? No new evidence is needed to confirm just how vulnerable Pakistani women are to verbal and physical attacks, but maybe the issue here relates more to journalism than to their protection and rights. This was certainly a case of an overly assertive woman who wanted information for the people at large; the journalist’s own approach to telling the story must also be examined.

Among the many points the incident has raised is an old one about respect for the uniform. And, also, to what extent should a journalist be allowed to go in his or her search for a story. The unfortunate incident, which has now been viewed by the whole country and by people living beyond, must now act as a catalyst for the rule books. There are surely some guidelines to be set for those who represent the government. All officials, beginning with those who are involved in public dealing, must be sensitised to their roles in accordance with changing public demands which are often reflected in the additional effort put in by restless journalists. Likewise, there has to be some kind of a realisation on the part of journalists about the need to keep their operations free of violence and unnecessary confrontation.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)

Imran Khan’s warning

WAS it political provocation, an implicit threat or a statement of fact? Or perhaps it was a bit of all three? The build-up to the PTI’s promised lockdown of Islamabad on Nov 2 has already taken an unpredictable turn with Imran Khan’s warning that if a so-called third force were to intervene in the days ahead and democracy derailed, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself would be responsible. Mr Khan is no stranger to incendiary political rhetoric and has frequently flirted with the bounds of democratic discourse. This paper has consistently maintained that not only does the PTI have a democratic right to protest, but that its position as the third-largest party in parliament and second-largest vote-getter in the last general election gives it an important place in the political order in the country. As such, the dismissive attitude of the PML-N government towards the fair and just PTI demand that the revelations in the Panama Papers be thoroughly and transparently investigated is deeply lamentable.

Nevertheless, the more mature and democratic course for Imran Khan to have taken would have been to maintain that the only solution is for more democracy, not less; for democratic institution-building, not the dismantling of the democratic order itself. After all, the current demands of the PTI, as far as the Panama Papers issue is concerned, are explicitly and avowedly about introducing a cleaner, more transparent and responsive system of government. What precisely is the role of the military that Mr Khan sees in the Pakistani polity? A fair historical account of Pakistan’s weak institutions and low levels of democracy would suggest that much as the politicians have rebuffed opportunities to strengthen the democratic order, the fundamental weaknesses of the system are rooted in unconstitutional interventions in the democratic system. In a moment of heightened civil-military tensions, Mr Khan should think twice — and then twice again — before blithely imperilling the democratic order. A cleaner democracy this country surely needs, but the system must remain democratic if it is ever to be cleansed of corruption.

Perhaps given the crucial moment in this country’s history it is worth reiterating what precisely is at stake. The current democratic transition, begun in 2008 and on the verge of delivering a second full-term government and a second successful peaceful transition of power between parliaments, is still flawed in many ways and needs a great deal of improvement. The opposition of Imran Khan and PTI could be part of the necessary pressure to improve the government, governance and quality of public life. But let there be no misunderstanding: this democracy belongs to the people, is rooted in the Constitution and flows from the wishes of the founding father of this great nation. It is the only legitimate system and it is the only system worth protecting. Imran Khan should pay heed to being on the right side of history.

Polio survivors

WITH the country reporting 16 polio cases so far this year, a substantial decrease over the previous years, and the virus hopefully in its dying phase, attention must concurrently focus on the rehabilitation of survivors. True, the government is putting in extra effort to eradicate the disease as it battles mindsets that reject polio drops as well as security threats in its aim to vaccinate children across the country. But it has yet to recognise the suffering of those left crippled for life. For the most part, polio survivors are left to defy the odds on their own, as illustrated in a report carried yesterday by this newspaper: Naqeebullah Ehsas’s struggle as a polio survivor shows his resilience. Not able to walk, he crawled to school through a two-kilometre rugged stretch of land. When beaten viciously and unable to defend himself, he turned to education rather than wallow in self-pity. His determination is to be saluted, but his experience could have been less painful had he had some support from a caring state and access to free rehabilitation centres and mobility aids at a young age. This is an area where the state should invest greater efforts so that polio survivors are in a better position to cope with their handicap — even if the physical effects of the infectious disease are irreversible. It should think in terms of making the lives of polio survivors more comfortable and independent — and publicly encourage their determination to live productive lives.

Regrettably, the government lacks multi-disciplinary healthcare approaches aimed at treating and integrating polio survivors into society. While it is commendable that a coordinated national immunisation programme and the surveillance of high-risk populations has accelerated efforts to lower the incidence of polio, the goal being to reach the zero mark, medical interventions would provide survivors with more opportunities to lead independent lives. Consider where the healthcare infrastructure is weakly serviced is also where the polio virus has spread rapidly. It is because the government has failed to provide social and economic safety nets to the most vulnerable in society that development comes piecemeal. The provincial health departments must prioritise their resources and expertise for the rehabilitation of polio survivors, so that even after the virus is eradicated, such programmes will demonstrate the state’s commitment to tackling the fallout of this crippling disease.

Dance controversy

SUCH are the realities of modern-day Pakistan that when a voice of reason sounds, it tends to surprise. Into this category falls the statement made by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, when on Sunday he attempted to put an end to the controversy over whether or not dance is being taught at some private schools in the metropolis, and if so, whether this was permissible. Earlier over the weekend, the managements of private schools had reportedly been sent letters by the education department, stating that the practice could not be tolerated. It was left for Mr Shah to point out the progressive values that the province rightfully tries to uphold: “The government of Sindh firmly believes in preserving and promoting culture and heritage as enshrined in the Constitution and it will not be dictated to by isolated extremist elements.” He went on to add: “Dance and music are integral parts of a liberal society and we will continue to support such activities.” The ‘ban’ now stands revoked.

This is exactly as it should be. With the Sindh government putting its weight behind the issue, there can be some hope of schools and colleges not just continuing with the cultural activities that may be part of their agendas as institutions, but of expanding them. While the subjects taught at these premises aim to give students knowledge and hone their faculties of reason, activities that fall into the domain of culture are what give young people a sense of their identity, history and shared belonging. This is invaluable in a society riven with divisions, where the push and pull of competing narratives leaves many feeling confused and rootless. The chief minister is to be commended on taking such an unequivocal stand, and it is hoped that the state administration as a whole, at all levels, strives to promote the liberal values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Therein lies the country’s salvation.

Published in Dawn October 25th, 2016

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To succeed,look at things not as they are,but as they can be.:)