Exorbitant school fees

Tuesday, 03 Mar, 2009

IT is doubtful that the warning issued by the directorate of private educational institutions to schools not to charge exorbitant admission fees will bring any relief to parents who are being fleeced. The fact is that the government has failed to exercise any effective check on the private educational institutions that have proliferated in Sindh in the last few decades. Although many of them are providing reasonably good education to children — and this has been acknowledged by the authorities themselves — their charges have been high and not always affordable for the class they cater for. School managements take the plea that inflation has meant a heavy toll and they can meet the spiralling costs only by charging higher fees. Of course they have a point there, but without an audit of the school accounts one cannot determine the degree of commercialisation that has also crept in. The real need is to tighten the mechanism for the regulation of private schools if they are to be an integral part of our educational system and parents — as well as teachers — are not to be exploited in the name of good education.

If the government wants the private sector to share its responsibility of educating children in Pakistan it cannot allow schools to operate in an unregulated manner in a sellers’ market. But, can one expect the education, department, which is ultimately setting the policy and acting as the regulator, to claim the moral high ground in checking the wrongdoings of the private sector? The public school system under its own control is in a shambles. When challenged, the private school operators’ retort is that the government would do well to first put its own house in order. There have also been complaints that ‘regulation’ is in effect another name for harassment and an opportunity to demand the greasing of palms. With this stance of the private school management, it is not surprising — though unjustified — that of the 8,000-plus private schools in Karachi quite a number are not registered with the directorate at all. Technically, the directorate finds it difficult to regulate them as many of them have gone into litigation, while others being well connected resort to political pressure to escape the long arm of the law. How these are to be brought into the net is a wider question and the school fee problem is basically linked to these issues.

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Mobile courts

Tuesday, 03 Mar, 2009

WITH the creation of mobile courts through a presidential ordinance, President Zardari has within a week committed two acts that eschew good governance for what appear to be short-term political ends. Last week, the president rocked the political landscape by imposing governor’s rule in Punjab. Ostensibly done to prevent a ‘constitutional vacuum’, that fig leaf has since fallen away with the PPP’s declaration that it will install its own government in Punjab. Now the president has decreed that mobile courts will dispense summary justice, ostensibly because he is “satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action”.

What those circumstances are will be hotly debated. The president’s team will argue there is an urgent need to repair a broken system of justice. That may well be true, but the president’s detractors will ascribe a more sinister motive to him suddenly waking up to the cries of justice. The last time the land that constitutes present-day Pakistan had mobile courts was in 1919 when the British imposed martial law to quell riots in Lahore. In recent years, several ideas have been mooted to improve the delivery of justice to ordinary Pakistanis. The two most well-known suggestions are evening courts and small-claims courts. Nowhere in the debate has there been talk of mobile courts, which could in fact further undermine the law and order situation if defendants and court officers end up clashing over punishment handed down. The mobile-courts ordinance stipulates that the “district police officer shall provide police force and security” to the courts, but if they are in fact meant to operate in remote areas of Pakistan it is difficult to see how such security can be adequately ensured.

However, while in and of itself a mobile court raises many questions, the real focus will be on the stealthy manner and timing of the legislation. Presidential ordinances must be used sparingly and certainly not for tweaking the judicial system of the country. That ought to be the remit of the assemblies, where, ideally, elected representatives should debate such changes comprehensively and then present a bill that passes muster with a majority of members. Anything else reeks of ad hocism and authoritarianism. As regards the timing, opponents of mobile courts will undoubtedly cry foul — and with good reason. The biggest visible threat to the federal government in the near future is the long march for the restoration of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Mobile courts could be used to break up the marchers well before they converge on Islamabad. It remains to be seen if that happens. At the very least though President Zardari should reconsider his lapse into political expediency; it is a slippery slop that history suggests eventually engulfs he who would be master of all that he surveys.

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OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press Media and politics

Tuesday, 03 Mar, 2009

… THERE is a strong body of opinion that the media should work in the service of democracy, while rulers have always tried to use the media to achieve their political ends…. Now politics has become impossible without the media as the latter has an important role to play in running government affairs. The media tries to explain the government’s goals and policies, helping to mobilise and reinforce the public support necessary for effective political action.…

Today, with the ‘help’ of the media, it has become easy for the truth to be perceived as a lie and vice versa. Political parties know this and are experts in using the mass media to forward their interests.

The electronic media and private television channels are a new phenomenon in Pakistan.... In a very short period, the weaknesses of the electronic media have been exposed. The major weakness lies in the way they are used by the political parties. We have seen the electronic media give undue importance to certain issues.

Sometimes it buries the real issues which receive not even a mention. A section of the electronic media has been indulging in this practice. It has been observed that if any event or political decision is not reported in the media, it is [assumed] not to have taken place.

It is surprising that the importance and very existence of events and decisions depend on the media. If someone is not in the media, it means that he is non-existent.

The electronic media has magnified the crisis stemming from the disqualification of the Sharif brothers by 10 times its original size. Overdoing the Sharifs’ disqualification has caused all other issues to be buried.

The live coverage of protests has created a perception that protests have broken out all over the country. Their size and scale … have been presented as larger than life. President Ibrat

Asif Ali Zardari pointed out that the PML-N is playing a media game and the media should stop this game.

There are a number of political parties which issue statements to the media and try to affect the crisis. In fact, such political parties do not represent a sizeable section of society….

This power of the media can be used in a constructive manner. The media can play an important role in highlighting the real issues and searching for their solutions. This would restrain politicians from misusing the media, and would exert pressure on them to pay due attention to the real issues…. — (March 1)

Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi

Tragedy in Lahore

Wednesday, 04 Mar, 2009

EVEN our most esteemed guests are no longer safe in this country. Assured of security reserved for VVIPs, Sri Lanka chose to play in Pakistan when the cricketing world at large saw us as a pariah state. We had stood by Sri Lanka in the past and they repaid us in the same coin. They chose to play in a country whose very mention invokes images of the most gruesome violence imaginable in the minds of most foreigners. Many in the Sri Lankan team are probably regretting that decision after the deadly attack in Lahore yesterday that left a number of policemen dead and injured at least four Sri Lankan cricketers. Two of them suffered bullet wounds but thankfully they are said to be out of danger. This paper has consistently maintained that foreign cricket teams should visit Pakistan. Tuesday’s tragic events have perhaps confirmed that the sides that refused to tour were possibly guilty only of prescience tinged with paranoia.

By no stretch of the imagination can a Pakistani militant or terrorist organisation bear a grudge against Sri Lanka, let alone its cricketers. The context, then, suggests that the attack was carried out by internal or external elements who wish to either destabilise the Pakistan government or to further isolate it internationally. Whose agenda does this attack fit, is the question that needs to be asked, probed and answered. The dozen or so people who attacked the Sri Lankan team bus with hand grenades, at least one RPG and endless rounds of gunfire were no ordinary terrorists. The footage shows all too clearly that this was an attack carried out by individuals who have received highly sophisticated combat training. Their approach was not dissimilar to that adopted by the Mumbai gunmen. Perhaps the same organisation is to blame for both tragedies.

With all due respect to the policemen who died in the half-hour gun battle in which they tried valiantly and successfully to save the Sri Lankans, a security lapse did occur, officialdom’s denials notwithstanding. This aspect of the story must be investigated fully. Tuesday’s assault also highlights the folly of negotiating with those bent on destroying our way of life. The peace deal, or capitulation, in Swat has been described by officialdom as a regional solution to a regional problem. This does not wash, it cannot fly. Militancy and terrorism are national problems that are not confined to a specific region. The obscurantists must be tackled head-on if we are to entertain any hope of redemption. If the state resorts to negotiating with militants from a position of weakness, what we will get is disaster, across the board. The politicians need to wake up, bury the hatchet in the national good and rout the real enemy.

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Confusion at the top

Wednesday, 04 Mar, 2009

EVEN with all hands on deck, overcoming the myriad crises that hold this country in a vice would challenge the best of administrations. Militants roaming the length and breadth of Pakistan, an economy struggling to stay afloat, a transition from a damaging dictatorship to a tenuous democracy — name the malaise and Pakistan probably suffers from it. And in the midst of this all came the mobile-courts ordinance, like a bolt of lightning, with no warning and little justification. Promulgated by President Zardari on the eve of a National Assembly session (itself meant to discuss the president’s controversial imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab), at the very least the ordinance undermined the principles of good governance and parliamentary democracy. But Prime Minister Gilani’s advice to the president to withdraw the ordinance revealed something more: dysfunction in the ranks of the PPP itself. The party will try to brush this issue aside and deny intra-party rifts. Although the ordinance has been withdrawn, the flip-flop has exposed defects in the PPP’s decision-making process that cannot so easily be dismissed.

In recent weeks, speculation on the state of relations between the prime minister and the president has been rife. Conspiracy theorists have thrived, but the reality is that the prime minister has done little that could be regarded as a challenge to the PPP co-chairman, President Zardari. However, the structure of the current dispensation in Islamabad does lend itself to causing uncertainty. De facto as co-chairman of the PPP and de jure as a president who has inherited the powers that Gen Musharraf arrogated to himself, Mr Zardari appears to be the boss. But the prime minister sits atop what was meant to be a system of parliamentary democracy with the president confined to a ceremonial role. When one is armed with the powers the other is meant to have, conflict may appear inevitable. However, when the president and prime minister belong to the same party, in theory conflict should be avoidable. In fact, this was supposed to be a settled issue. Last year, President Zardari stood before the combined houses of parliament and grandly announced, “Never before in the history of this country has a president stood here and given away his powers.” But no powers have been ceded yet, and with the abortive attempt to institute mobile courts President Zardari once again tried to bypass parliament. Meanwhile, the other crises that afflict this state continue unabated. Though if it is to ever tackle those issues effectively, the PPP must first put its own house in order.

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Gaza: aid versus politics

Wednesday, 04 Mar, 2009

PLEDGING aid to Gaza is one thing; taking it to the victims of Israeli aggression quite another. The amount of aid pledged by the donors on Monday — $4.5bn — is about the same that the international community pledged to Afghanistan in 2002. But only a small portion of it reached the Afghans because of continuing conflict and lawlessness in their country. An added problem was of corruption in the Kabul government. In the case of Gaza, the donors appear to be playing politics for the benefit of Israel. The aid, it seems, has been pledged less to provide relief to the Gazans and more to isolate Hamas. Although even Hamas’s worst enemies have not accused it of corruption, Israel and its backers fear that it will gain in popularity if it is allowed to pass on relief to the Gazans. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced the donors’ fears by saying the aid should not get into the “wrong hands”.

The real challenge lies in lifting the 19-month old Israeli blockade of the Strip. The donors went through the ritual of demanding an end to Gaza’s air, land and sea blockade by Israel. They, however, know quite well that the Jewish state has linked the lifting of the blockade to the release of the lone soldier still with Hamas. After all, this is the same Israel whose 22-day blitz left 1,300 Gazans, most of them civilians, dead. The donors are beating about the bush. The first issue to be tackled is to mitigate the suffering of the people of Gaza irrespective of what Israel wants. Tel Aviv has no interest in aid or trade; its sole interest is to continue its occupation of Palestinian territories and block the possibility of a Palestinian state coming into being. At the donors’ conference in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday Ms Clinton paid lip service to the idea of pushing the peace process forward. However, she, along with the rest of the international community, is aware that Washington will hardly press for Israel’s quitting the occupied territories. All sides are playing politics at the expense of the people of Gaza.

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OTHER VOICES - European Press Playing with fire...

Wednesday, 04 Mar, 2009

ALMOST no one wants to say it out loud. But between the threats from extremists, an unravelling economy, battling civilian leaders and tensions with nuclear rival India, Pakistan is edging ever closer to the abyss. In a report last week, The Atlantic Council warned that Pakistan’s stability is imperilled and that the time to change course is fast running out. That would be quite enough for any government to deal with. Then on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court added new fuel upholding a ruling barring opposition leader Nawaz Sharif ... and his brother from holding elected office. That touched off protests across Punjab ... Pakistan’s richest and politically most important province.

The Sharifs charge that the Supreme Court is a tool of President Asif Ali Zardari. They are backing anti-government lawyers who have long campaigned for the reinstatement of the country’s former top judge who was dismissed by former Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2007. We don’t know if Zardari orchestrated this ruling, as Nawaz Sharif and many others have charged. (The government actually argued Sharif’s side in the case, which stems from an earlier, politically motivated, criminal conviction.) We do know the danger of letting this situation get out of control.

When Zardari became president, he pledged to unite the country. He has not. Like Zardari, Sharif is a flawed leader and no doubt is manipulating the combustible court ruling for personal political gain.

International Herald Tribune

For Pakistan’s democracy to survive, a robust opposition must be allowed to flourish and participate peacefully in the country’s political life. That includes finding a way for Sharif to run for office. It also means Pakistan must get serious about tackling its problems, including the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Zardari ... seems to understand.

Unfortunately, the powerful chief of the Pakistani Army, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, still seems far more focused on the potential threat of India than the clear and present danger of the extremists. He is said to have supported the recent deal in which the government effectively ceded the Swat valley — in the border region but just 100 miles from Islamabad — to militants in a misguided bid for a false peace.

Pakistanis need to understand that this is their fight, not just America’s. We hope top American officials delivered that message loudly and clearly when Kayani visited Washington last week. There was a time when Zardari and Sharif pledged to work together for the good of Pakistan. Their country is in mortal danger. And they need to find a way to work together to save it. — (March 1)

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Democracy can work

Thursday, 05 Mar, 2009

WITH the country in the throes of a political crisis yet again, it may appear that we really don’t have a solution to our problems. Give the politicians a situation, any situation, and it seems they will invariably find a way to make a hash of it. Yet, in the past year there have been at least three instances when the politicians have demonstrated what a rules-based democracy could look like, were it ever given a chance to take root. First and most recently is the demonstration by the PML-N that it still has the numbers to form a government in Punjab. More than 200 MPAs responded to the PML-N’s call and have publicly thrown their weight behind the party, an unambiguous informal vote of confidence that should be heeded by Governor Taseer.

From the point of view of democracy, the battle for Punjab could have been less damaging if the protagonists had remained within the confines of the assembly. The PPP erred by imposing governor’s rule and scuppering the Punjab Assembly’s will. The PML-N erred by resorting to street protests in which public and private property has been damaged. Governments rising and falling is always destablising, but worse is the outcome where both sides take the battle outside the confines of the assemblies.

The second positive example is the unopposed election of 31 senators from Sindh, Punjab, the NWFP and Islamabad after rival parties accepted their relative strengths in the assemblies and worked out a compromise. The alternative, an ugly free-for-all in which money plays a dominant role, occurred yesterday with the contested elections of the remaining 19 Senate slots from Balochistan, NWFP and Fata. A report in this paper last week suggested that a Fata Senate seat, elected by the 11 Fata MNAs, could cost as much as Rs300m. The contrast between the two processes could not be starker: greed and defiance engendered uncertainty; cooperation and an acceptance of how the electorate voted produced stability.

The third example is the impeachment process of President Musharraf. The president was expertly isolated by having the provincial assemblies pass resolutions against him and was then left to decide if he wanted to face the humiliation of being ousted by parliament. He chose to resign, and democracy benefited because the battle had been fought inside the assemblies. Apparently then, the democratic method is alive and can and has been used to good effect. The problem of course is that it has been used too infrequently. Yet, while the transition to democracy was never expected to be smooth, it remains the only option for a better future. It is still not too late to put the transition back on track but for that the politicians must remember that rules-based ooperation is always better than no-rules opposition.

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Lapses in security

Thursday, 05 Mar, 2009

LIVING in a state of denial is fast becoming a Pakistani speciality. At least one senior police officer in Punjab and a federal minister insist there was no security lapse and that the police did all they could when the Sri Lankan cricket team came under attack. It is said that police officers died trying to save the Sri Lankans, who in the end escaped with injuries that were not life-threatening. This, it is claimed with an astonishing ignorance of the larger picture, is proof enough that there was no security lapse in Lahore on Tuesday morning. The policemen who laid down their lives did indeed do all they could under the circumstances. But the point is this: the circumstances should have been different. If security had been foolproof, there would been have no attackers and no casualties.

For months the Pakistan Cricket Board has claimed that visiting teams would be given the kind of security cover reserved for heads of state. This was clearly not the case in Lahore. The convoy should have been more heavily fortified and policemen posted every 50 yards or so all along the route, and that too from early morning. In that scenario, the assailants who so easily took up positions in the area would have either had to take on the policemen on duty, which would have alerted the teams while they were still at their hotel, or done nothing at all. The local superintendent of police in charge of VVIP security has apparently taken the plea that he was new to the job and did not know what measures to take. If true, this is a shameful stance to take.

At the same time there are conflicting reports about key errors in choosing a route to the stadium. The Gulberg police station is located a couple of minutes’ walk from where the assault took place, yet its personnel reached the scene after the assailants had fled. And all this when security agencies had informed the Punjab police in January about a possible attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore. After the ambush, the Punjab governor told all and sundry that the Sri Lankans would be ferried out by helicopter. This, clearly, was not the brainiest thing to do from a security point of view. Bringing the attackers to book must be the priority right now but the obvious security lapses should be investigated down to the last detail.
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Appointment of judges

Thursday, 05 Mar, 2009

SOME of us seem to live in a world of make-believe in this country. We believe — and try to convince others as well — that merit is the criterion for appointing people to positions of responsibility. But that is not necessarily the case. How the basic principle of merit has been swept aside for political considerations was demonstrated the other day when a DawnNews team caught on camera a law ministry meeting in which aspirants for various posts in the judiciary were seen putting pressure on the law minister. Mr Farooq Naek’s comments should throw some light on how appointments to public positions are presumably made. Mr Naek pointed to the “compulsions” of accommodating “so many other people to run the government”. The rationale of large, unwieldy cabinets is well-known. In a coalition government where no party has a majority, smaller partners have been won over with offers of cabinet portfolios. We have learnt to live with this aberration. But it is shocking that the same strategy of dangling the carrot is being tried in the judiciary as well. This has profound implications for the independence of the judiciary and it is shocking that a section of lawyers should be party to this kind of wheeling and dealing.

Coming at a time when the lawyers’ movement is nearing its denouement and the independence of the judiciary has emerged as one of the most controversial issues in the country, this revelation is most damaging for the government. It means that one cannot be sure that only the best legal minds with moral integrity and no political aspirations find their way to the bench. It robs the litigant of confidence in the judicial system. What is worse is that the government has adopted this approach blatantly and with no holds barred. The meeting was filmed with the participants fully aware that television cameras were recording the proceedings. They laughed and joked about it; hardly bothering that their words would be public knowledge in no time. This just goes to show how little those on the right side of the government care when it comes to amassing all the ingredients that make up democracy.

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Cricket redefined

Friday, 06 Mar, 2009

CRICKET was a secondary issue in the immediate aftermath of the Lahore assault, and for good reason. Now the time has come to focus on the purely cricketing aspect of that monumental tragedy. The fine line between cricket and politics has been blurred beyond recognition. True, many major teams had consistently been refusing to tour Pakistan for security reasons, and Zimbabwe on ‘moral’ grounds, which meant that sports and politics had begun to overlap anyway. But even so, without setting foot in the country, no one could actually disprove our stand that it was safe to play international cricket in Pakistan. That position, sadly, no longer holds. Tuesday’s attack showed that our detractors were right and we were wrong.

The Sri Lankan tour was supposed to be the ice-breaker that would convince the world that foreign teams could safely visit Pakistan. After what transpired this week, it seems doubtful that even minnows such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will now be willing to play in this country. New Zealand has all but cancelled the tour scheduled for December and it is more than likely that Pakistan will be stripped of its status as co-host of the 2011 World Cup. No major foreign team will play in Pakistan for the foreseeable future, and to try and convince the world otherwise will be tantamount to inviting ridicule. Pakistan cricket has come to be seen in the light of what Pakistan is perceived as a whole: a dysfunctional state where militants and terrorists who subscribe to a medieval ideology can dictate terms to the state. We can’t hold cricket matches without endangering the lives of the players. Let’s face it, we have been reduced to pariah status.

Pakistani cricketers will suffer most in the new dispensation. Fans, who have anyway been shunning the stadiums of late, will still be able to watch matches played at neutral venues on their television screens. It is the cricketers who will lose the advantages that come with home conditions. Playing Australia on seam-friendly pitches in the UK is not the same thing as taking them on in Lahore. Cricket across the world will also change. Already there is talk of foreign players reconsidering their participation in the Indian Premier League. Much of the charm of touring, the imbibing of local cultures, will be lost. Cricketers will largely be trapped in their hotel rooms, as has been the practice in Pakistan for some time now, no matter where they are playing. The precedent has been set and copycat attacks will remain a constant threat. As the chairman of the International Cricket Council put it, the Lahore incident has “completely changed the landscape” and the game may never be the same again.


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Betrayal of Swat

Friday, 06 Mar, 2009

WHAT is going on in Swat? The direction that negotiations between the NWFP government and the Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi have taken is quite intriguing. After having announced a nine-point peace accord on Feb 16 and a ceasefire, the two sides have now entered into a 17-point ‘understanding’ on the enforcement of the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation in Malakand. The new agreement makes further concessions to the Taliban. In fact, some points of the new agreement actually negate the provisions of the one agreed to last month, which required the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan to direct its fighters to remove the barricades erected by them and stop checking people.

Now they are being empowered to act as vigilantes to check obscenity and corruption, close down music shops and expel ‘prostitutes’ and ‘pimps’ from the region. As the Taliban’s demands escalate and the government steps back, the metaphor of the camel’s nose getting into the tent, followed by the rest of the beast’s body, immediately springs to mind.

The new understanding points to the problems that will be encountered in the implementation of the agreement. It virtually amounts to handing over charge of Swat to the Taliban and allowing them to determine arbitrarily the distinction between vice and virtue and impose their own values through an extrajudicial system of vigilantes. Is this the form the Nizam-i-Adl is to take? Is the state ready to abdicate its writ and allow the Taliban to take the law into their own hands?

The fact is that the people of the NWFP voted predominantly for the Awami National Party which does not stand for what is provided in the new deal that has just been concluded with the Taliban through the TNSM. Since Swat is gradually becoming a no-go area for the media, it is not very clear if this strategy of appeasement is designed to buy time for the army to be reinforced and redeployed before it takes on the militants who appear to have the upper hand.

Or, worse still, is the government surrendering its writ in Swat to the terrorists in the hope of containing them in the region and saving the rest of the country? In either case, the matter is greatly disturbing. Once such unreasonable concessions are made, it is difficult to retract them. It is time the government took the nation into confidence on its plans for Swat, especially where official policy and the limits to which the Nizam-i-Adl will be allowed to go are concerned.
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Time for a deal

Friday, 06 Mar, 2009

IT was the politics of reconciliation, it was the politics of confrontation... In the political theatre, where we are so used to contrasting the best and the worst, the tale of two Pakistans has entered a decisive stage. Everyone is for reconciliation, from the disqualified Sharif brothers to their tormentors in Islamabad. But ultimately, it is the worst aspects of the show that somehow come to overshadow the positive side. Successful politics is all about trust and it will take nothing short of a handshake and honouring a pledge to change the perception. The PML-N says it is willing to share space with the PPP but it justifiably fears being let down by President Asif Zardari one more time and understandably indulges in power politics of its own. It wants to take back Punjab which was wrested from its grasp through the imposition of governor’s rule following a controversial court decision that disqualified Shahbaz Sharif from sitting in the provincial assembly.

The PML-N is pushing for the implementation of the Charter of Democracy and wants Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry restored. While it waits for the president to respond to its demands, its workers are turning on the heat in the political arena. Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Asfandyar Wali Khan are trying to mediate as a PML-N thrown out of power in Punjab closes ranks with hard-line Zardari-bashers such as Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed both of whom were so reluctant to make the transition from the Musharraf regime that they chose to boycott the 2008 polls and almost prevented the Sharifs from contesting. Does the full restoration of this old alignment foreclose the chances of a ‘deal’ between President Zardari and the Sharifs? It doesn’t, so long as the mediators do not appear to the Sharifs to be offering a bribe in return for a favour. If the system is to be saved from collapse, this is the time for give-and-take — if ‘deal’ is too offensive a word. For this, the onus is on Mr Zardari since he is widely regarded to be the offender in this case, both by partisan slogan-mongers and independent observers.

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OTHER VOICES - Bangladesh Press Woes of BD women

Friday, 06 Mar, 2009

A TERRIBLE tale of the suffering and abuse of some Bangladeshi women seeking employment abroad has been stated by two victims at a press conference in the city on Monday. Zohra Khatun and Laboni Akthar, who have returned home from Malaysia, alleged that over 100 women have been engaged forcibly in prostitution in a Kuala Lumpur hotel by a group of manpower traders. They alleged that manpower-recruiting agents received money and took the women including them to Kuala Lumpur promising lucrative jobs there. But on arrival there instead of giving them [the] pledged jobs the women were sexually abused by the agents and later engaged forcibly in prostitution. The two victims demanded compensation from and punishment [for] the recruiting agents and urged the government to rescue the women from the … hotel.

Trafficking of women, girls and children from Bangladesh to foreign countries is going on unabated despite the successive governments’ vows and efforts to stop this. According to unofficial reports well over 10,000 women, girls and children on an average are trafficked from Bangladesh across the border every year. Thus the number of women and children trafficked from the country to foreign countries especially India, Pakistan and [the] Middle East over the last 37 years since independence is estimated at nearly 400,000. The report said, most of them are allegedly employed in household work, abused or forced to play the role of jockeys in camel races in the Middle Eastern deserts.

Many women are sent abroad with pledges of lucrative employment there but in fact most of them do not find any jobs. Hundreds of agents … are working across the country to collect women, girls and children…. But once they cross the border, they mostly find themselves trapped in brothels in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi or … Lahore or in the harems of Arab sheikhs…. [D]espite frantic efforts, most of them fail to return home. Sometimes some human traffickers are arrested and some women or children being trafficked are rescued … but trafficking has not stopped leading to a serious crises. It cannot be said that the government is indifferent to this problem as efforts are being made to check trafficking, but the results are far from ... satisfactory.

So, time has come to step up the efforts to stop various types of trafficking of women and children from the country in the national interest. More importantly, the manpower-recruiting agents [who] are allegedly engaged in recruiting Bangladeshi women for jobs abroad and virtually sell them out to foreign buyers for engaging them in forcible prostitution should be severely dealt with. Moreover, Bangladesh missions abroad should be asked to remain alert to ensure that Bangladeshi women seeking employment abroad are not abused there. The missions should also monitor closely the activities of the recruiting agents so that they cannot run [the] human trafficking business while camouflaged by manpower export. — (March 05)

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Cyril Almeida
Friday, 06 Mar, 2009

President Asif Ali Zardari. — APP MANY are wishing it, some are dreading it, everyone’s at least talking about it. Is Zardari on his way out? Two mistakes in the space of a week have set tongues wagging. Im- posing governor’s rule in Punjab was the first. Whatever the purpose, it was clearly a miscalculation.

If the move was meant to buy time to cobble together a PPP-led government in the province, that plan has fallen through. The PML-Q is still split and the Sharifs have emerged stronger, while most of the PPP’s partners at the centre and in the smaller provinces have reacted with dismay. Never say never in Pakistani politics, but surely this could not have been the script Zardari had in mind.

There is another possibility. Governor’s rule may have been meant to foil the black coats and their political supporters intent on besieging parliament to restore the court of CJ Iftikhar. The thinking may have been, rob the lawyers of the oxygen of the Punjab government’s support and the threat is likely to melt away.

But upending the provincial government always ran the risk of sending the Sharifs into a tighter embrace with the lawyers and having to then directly take on two groups instead of one. A smaller headache has now become a full-blown migraine, and even if the lawyers fail, Punjab will remain a tinderbox.

In any case, fear of the lawyers led to Zardari’s second mistake: the mobile-courts ordinance. Forced to withdraw the ordinance on the PM’s mandatory advice, Zardari has been exposed as someone who is clearly not the only master of his domains, the PPP and the government.

For the speculating hordes, it was enough that PM Gilani met Gen Kayani the day the prime minister, for the first time, publicly disagreed with his boss. All is surely not well in the Zardari kingdom.

But does that mean Zardari should be packing his bags?

Not so fast. Zardari is nobody’s favourite, that’s for sure. But like him or hate him, politics is about the art of the possible. And right now Zardari, despite the serious hits he’s taken in the last week, still holds the best cards in the game.

Start with his own party. While opponents may be hoping for a feud between Zardari and his coterie of ‘outsider’ advisers and the inner core of BB’s PPP, that isn’t about to happen. The party’s leaders are simply too disciplined, or, depending on your perspective, pusillanimous, to mount a coup against their leader. They may chafe under his authoritarianism, resent his personal slights, disagree with his policies and loathe his cronies, but, left to their own devices, they will not do anything to jeopardise the party’s position.

Aha, say the conspiracy theorists, but the army may goad Gilani into challenging his boss, secretly assuring him of their support if push comes to shove and it’s either the PM or the president who will be left standing. But even now that’s more wishful thinking than genuine possibility. Sure, the army doesn’t really like the PPP, and probably likes Zardari even less. But the generals aren’t running a Ms Congeniality contest, they’re running the security policy of a nuclear-weapons state beset by internal and external threats.

Is Zardari a hindrance to those policies? He and his government have occasionally been a nuisance. The off-the-cuff pledge to reject a nuclear first strike, the attempt to wrest the ISI away from the army and the offer to send the DG ISI to India were all slapped down. But a year since it’s been back in power, differences between the PPP and the army on the big issues — India, Afghanistan, the US and militancy — are hard to find. As long as that continues, the truce between the two institutions will hold. Talk of ‘American agents’ and an agenda to ‘destablise Pakistan’ is pie-in-the-sky stuff.

Well, that still leaves the Americans and they are unhappy, the conspiracy theorists will argue. But unhappy about what? Sure, the Americans can’t be pleased with Zardari putting a domestic power grab at the top of his agenda.

Yet, there is often a fundamental misunderstanding of the Americans’ role in Pakistan. Far from micromanaging Pakistan, the Americans often react to autonomous local decisions and try to make the best of what comes their way. When asked about the myth of the US puppet master, the Americans sigh. They wish they had that kind of power. In reality, they often have to settle for the acceptable rather than the preferable.

Currently, in Zardari the Americans have as good a partner they can find. At least they have a working relationship. What’s the alternative? Nawaz Sharif? That’s just grist to the rumour mill. In private, Sharif worries about his unacceptability, both to the Americans and the army.

And he has reason to. Since his return to politics, he’s had the luxury of being in the opposition, from where he can be a populist and avoid having to make hard decisions, and the compromises, that being in power demands. But there are unsettling hints that Sharif hasn’t learned the lessons of the ’90s.

Reflexively obstinate and single-minded to a fault, there is every chance that he will take a very different line to the army’s or the Americans’ once in power. What then? So better the devil the army and Americans already know will play ball than the devil who may set his own rules.

But even before that, instability right now distracts the country from the war against militancy. Flux at the top is contrary to the Americans’ interests.

So Zardari is safe for now. What he isn’t safe from are his instincts. It took Benazir three decades to come to terms with the intricacies of Pakistani politics. Zardari has been playing the game for little over a year. There are two keys to navigating the minefield of Pakistani politics: accept that offence isn’t always the best defence and never leave your opponent with no choice. Zardari appears to have grasped neither yet.

Nawaz Sharif may have been cornered by the hawks in his party and the lawyers into continuing to fly the flag for CJ Iftikhar but it’s the dismissal of the Punjab government that has shut his party out of the system. No government in Punjab, no way into Islamabad, isolated from the army and the US, he has one major pillar of support left: the public. Why shouldn’t he run with it?

And if panic spreads in the Zardari camp as the lawyers’ march nears, it may yet force more errors that will assume a logic of their own. From there, the point may not be far off when the powers-that-be accept change as the lesser evil.

That’s not inevitable yet. History though is replete with examples of men who thought they could conquer all but ended up vanquished instead.

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The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Thoughts from the brink By Irfan Husain

Saturday, 07 Mar, 2009.

PAKISTANIS have become so accustomed to terrorist attacks that they are almost incapable of shock when fresh horror strikes.

But the attempted massacre of the Sri Lankan cricket team penetrated even the thickest skin, and brought home to us yet again what a murderous place Pakistan has become.

However, despite the familiar nature of the attack, many Pakistanis are still in denial, and are muttering darkly about the famous ‘hidden hand’. Within hours of the atrocity, Imran Khan was on television, saying categorically that neither Al Qaeda nor the Taliban were behind the incident. He went on to allege that the whole thing had originated from ‘some other country.’ I wonder how he could be so sure, especially when Salman Taseer, the Punjab governor, stated that the attack had all the hallmarks of the Mumbai massacre of 26/11.

The ease with which the killers calmly made their escape speaks of long familiarity with the city. It also speaks volumes for the sheer incompetence of the police deployed to protect the Sri Lankan cricket team. Considering that the gunfight took place for nearly half an hour in broad daylight in the middle of Lahore, one would have expected reinforcements to rush in from the nearby police station to surround the terrorists.

It seems churlish to be critical of the cops when six of them died in the line of duty. But clearly, the security arrangements provided for the visiting team were shockingly inadequate. The Australian and English officials who barely escaped with their lives were very critical of the police escort, saying they had been abandoned to their fate as they lay flat on the floor of their van during the crossfire.

The traumatised Sri Lankans have been extremely gracious and diplomatic, but even they have said that while they had been promised presidential-level security, there had obviously been serious lapses. Equally obvious is the fact that neither Musharraf nor Asif Zardari have depended on the poorly trained cops who accompanied the visitors. Heavily armed army commandos are on the presidential security detail, and dummy convoys head off along different routes to confuse potential attackers.

Apart from the incompetence of our police and administration, this attack once more underlines the complete breakdown of law and order in Pakistan today. We had thought that Lahore, despite suicide attacks there last year, was safer than the rest of the country. But it seems that no part of the country is beyond the reach of the terrorists who have multiplied in the giant safe haven that is Pakistan.

Christopher Dell, the American envoy to Afghanistan, recently said accurately albeit undiplomatically: ‘Pakistan is a bigger place [than Afghanistan], has a larger population, it is nuclear-armed. It has certainly made radical Islam a part of its political life, and it now seems to be a deeply ingrained part of its political culture. It makes things there very hard.’

It certainly does. By placing faith at the heart of our political and social discourse, we relinquish responsibility for our actions. When a man-made disaster strikes, those in charge wash their hands of their responsibility by saying that whatever happened was the will of God. This reduced culpability ensures that no remedial steps are taken to prevent a recurrence of the lapse.

When Benazir Bhutto was almost killed on her arrival in October 2007, one had hoped that her security would be tightened. In the event, no lessons were learned and she was assassinated two months later. Similarly, I have no great expectations that security procedures will be revised in the wake of the Lahore attack.

Another factor that is feeding into extremist violence today is the support these jihadis get from large sections of the media. Each time there is a terrorist atrocity, many pundits either go into denial, or ascribe the violence to western policies. How the Sri Lankan cricketers can be held responsible for these policies is something even rabid nationalists will have a hard time pronouncing on.

As Sri Lanka’s Daily News said in an editorial on March 4: ‘Sri Lanka’s cricketers never deserved the horrendous treatment they were subjected to when masked gunmen opened fire on the team bus…. How harming a group of cricketers whose only role is to bring joy and pleasure to the sports-loving public of Pakistan, can achieve whatever object the terrorists had in mind defies understanding.’

Many in Pakistan are searching for clues to prove the presence of the ‘hidden hand’ in this latest act of terrorism. The links between Sri Lanka’s LTTE and jihadi groups are being explored, while others are insisting that somehow, the Indian agency RAW is behind the attack. But the situation in Pakistan is so dire today that local groups must be the first suspects. After the Mumbai attack, weeks passed before Pakistani officials reluctantly agreed that our nationals and our territory had been involved. Meanwhile, hordes of TV pundits and newspaper columnists were jumping up and down, saying, ‘Where’s the proof?’

By denying that there is a real problem in Pakistan with Islamic terrorism disables us from tackling it. Things have been getting from bad to worse for years while our collective head remains firmly buried in the sand. We either blame Washington for our woes, or we say defensively ‘Where’s the proof?’ And our final defence lies in shrugging, and saying ‘It’s God’s will’.

All three modes of thought and behaviour absolve us of blame, and make corrective action unnecessary. No amount of pain and slaughter seems to convince us that ultimately, we are responsible for what happens within our borders. When we claim sovereignty over our soil, we must also be able to exercise control over it.

We must face the fact that for over three decades, Pakistan has become a breeding ground for religious extremism, and a safe haven for terrorist groups. For years, these gangs have been used by our establishment to further its agenda in the region. Until 9/11, they were provided with money, arms and legitimacy by the Pakistani state. Now, the chickens have come home to roost.

Pakistan can purge itself of these killers only if there is a broad consensus that we will not put up with them any longer. But as long as elements in our security apparatus, our judiciary and our media think that their behaviour can be condoned by ‘western policies’, they will continue to bleed us and ensure our isolation.


Bombing shrine


Saturday, 07 Mar, 2009

Pakistani worshipers gather next to the mausoleum of Sufi poet Rehman Baba, after an explosion that damaged one corner of the shrine, in PeshawarAP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad THURSDAY’S bombing in Peshawar was not the first time a Sufi shrine has been targeted by militants.

In March last year, Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islam destroyed the four-centuries-old Abu Saeed Baba shrine near Peshawar, in the process killing at least 10 villagers who tried to save the monument.

Later in December, suspected Taliban militants attacked and damaged the shrine of Abdul Shakoor Malang Baba, also located near the NWFP capital. But the biggest outrage in terms of symbolic value was yet to come. Thursday’s attack was directed against the final resting place of perhaps the greatest and most revered Pakhtun poet, mystic and Sufi saint of all time.

Rehman Baba is still quoted widely and is a household name in many Pakhtun homes some 300 years after his death. He is a legend on both sides of the Durand Line and the desecration of his shrine has been condemned by both the Pakistani and Afghan governments.

Unlike the vision espoused by the merchants of death now operating in the garb of ‘Islam’, his was a message of love, peace and tolerance. He was not only a mystic and a poet but a cultural commentator of his time.

It would be incorrect to describe the Taliban as ultra- orthodox in their religious views. There are countless people in this country who subscribe to rigid interpretations of Islam but are not in the least inclined to bend others to their will, let alone kill them.

But the Taliban specialise in barbarity and aim to destroy everything they cannot abide. They hate music, clean-shaven men and education for girls, so they blow up CD shops and schools and attack barbers. Since they consider Sufis and their followers to be heretics, the Taliban feel it is their ‘religious’ duty to destroy shrines and kill devotees.

They cannot tolerate Sufi music, dance or mysticism, or the intermingling of the sexes in shrines, or what they see as intercession between the individual and the Creator. It is believed Thursday’s bombing could be linked to the fact that women used to visit Rehman Baba’s shrine.

Sufism with its message of peace, simplicity and equality, and tradition of charity, played a leading role in the spread of Islam in the subcontinent. It is still followed by millions who want little more than to be left alone to pray or rejoice as they please. But bombs and guns do the talking these days and a small minority bent on violence calls the shots.

The people are helpless and the government appears incapable of stemming the rot. Rehman Baba’s words still apply, ‘Contemplate the frantic efforts of the age/ Countless are its antics, boundless is its rage.’

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The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A tale of two countries
By Huma Yusuf

Monday, 09 Mar, 2009


| Mexican federal police patrol the city of Ciudad Juarez amid a massive troop buildup aimed at restoring order to the country’s violence-wracked border region.—Reuters If you googled the phrase ‘failed state’ this past week, the search result would toss up links to several online definitions of the same as well as news stories and blog posts about two countries: Pakistan and Mexico.

Separated by oceans, continents and socio-political contexts, the two countries find themselves facing similar crises. While one tackles militants and the other fights drug cartels — vastly different organisations — the fallout has been similar: destabilisation, compromised governance and deteriorating security.

Interestingly, the stakes for the United States in both countries are also alike, leading to parallel levels — if different versions — of US involvement. Comparing the challenges faced by Pakistan and Mexico, therefore, is a useful thought exercise that might shed some light on what our government might do to win its internal war against militancy.

In January this year, a report released by the Pentagon pointed out the similarities of Pakistan and Mexico’s predicament and warned that both countries could face ‘rapid and sudden’ collapse. The report notes that the government, judicial and law-enforcement infrastructure in both nations is under assault, resulting in a high risk of implosion. The threat to the US in the event that either nation might fail is also outlined in detail. Sadly, solutions to the problems are less forthcoming.

The problems, however, are uncannily similar. In Mexico, drug cartels are openly defiant of government writ. Rampant kidnappings in an effort to safeguard smuggling routes have been reported on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Gun battles between drug gangs and the police are frequent, with the traffickers often coming out on top as they are better equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank rockets, heavy machine guns, night-vision goggles and sophisticated communications technologies.

Not surprisingly, then, police officials and army generals have been blatantly abducted, tortured and killed. Last month, in Mexico’s most violent city, Juarez, signs were widely posted stating that unless the police chief stepped down, a law-enforcement officer would be killed every 48 hours (the police chief resigned immediately). Drug gangs in Juarez have also promised to hunt down the city’s mayor. And in an eerie nod to Islamic militants, narco-traffickers are increasingly beheading their victims. Throughout the country, more than 5,000 people were killed in drug-related violence in 2008 and over 1,000 have already been killed in 2009.

One can’t help but be struck by the parallels. Here, too, kidnappings are on the rise, gun assaults and assassination attempts are increasingly common, and bomb blasts — suicide or otherwise — are claiming too many innocent lives. Through the autumn of 2008, the Pakistani military came face-to-face with the sophisticated weapons and trenches of the Taliban in the tribal belt, where many of its officers were abducted. Before the recent peace-for-Sharia deal in Swat, militants were beheading innocents, attacking government infrastructure in the form of girls’ schools, and targeting law-enforcement personnel.

Militant activities caused widespread demoralisation amongst the police force of the Frontier province and led to unprecedented desertion. Mercifully, the death toll racked up by the militants is less than that of drug cartels — in 2008, 66 suicide attacks caused 965 deaths across Pakistan. But that number seems fated to rise.

Interestingly, the similarities extend beyond each country’s troubles to governance issues. In both Pakistan and Mexico, endemic corruption and the unpreparedness of the respective police and military forces have been blamed for the success of militants and drug cartels. For all their problems, both countries remain hell-bent on not being described as ‘failed states’ — in Mexico, politicians talk about ‘failed enclaves’, areas where violence spikes, while their Pakistani counterparts emphasise the unique governing circumstances of Fata and Pata (a tactic that will have to change in the aftermath of Lahore). Lastly, both countries are dependent on the US — whether they like it or not — to help get them out of the messes they find themselves in.

From the US perspective, the destabilisation of either Pakistan or Mexico would be catastrophic. Indeed, both countries have been described as ‘a threat to US national security’. A collapse in Pakistan would create a nationwide haven for militants and expose the country’s nuclear weapons to misuse. A Mexican implosion, meanwhile, would spill thousands of migrants and a robust drug trafficking infrastructure across US borders. With the nature of US involvement in both countries, however, the similarities end.

In Mexico, the army is a cohesive entity, loyal to the civilian government. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has so far deployed 25,000 troops, but to little avail. For that reason, the US army is now stepping in to train Mexican troops to take on drug gangs. Moreover, the US government is helping Mexico to crack down on gun trafficking (the parallel smuggling enterprise that keeps drug cartels well-armed).

Last week, US Attorney General Eric Holder declared that the ban on importing assault rifles to the US would be enforced (to prevent their subsequent smuggling into Mexico). The US government has also approved a $10m package to crack down on gun-trafficking networks. In other words, the attack against drug cartels is being launched on both the martial and policy levels.

In Pakistan, meanwhile, longstanding tensions between the army and civilian government make coherent action against the militants impossible. The army’s scattered loyalties and propensity for double games have also been the subject of much local consternation. Troop deployment in the northern areas and tribal belt has thus proved largely unsuccessful, failing to stem militancy and instead causing collateral damage and earning civilian ire.

It doesn’t help that the Pakistani government is not consistent in its strategy against the militants, switching constantly between confrontation and negotiation. (In Mexico, negotiating with a drug cartel would be totally out of the question; given the similar methodologies of the militants, however, you’d think the same logic would apply here.)

The government’s pandering to cultural quirks is also problematic. In any situation where militias threaten the state, de-weaponisation seems like a good idea. In Swat, however, militants recently engaged in a semantic tango, insisting that they would ‘lay down’ — rather than surrender — their arms, since a Pakhtun could not be expected to live without his gun.

Finally, unlike Mexico, Pakistan has not been able to utilise support from the US army in productive ways. In the absence of open collaboration, Pakistan is deprived of counter-terrorist troop-training, resource-building and intelligence-sharing. Learning from that Central American example, Pakistan should stick to one strategy and enhance the capabilities of its military in the fight against militancy.

More importantly, Pakistan should heed the warning of the Mexican example, where the rewards of drug trafficking are enabling cartels to out-arm the state. Recently, growing evidence of the link between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s drug trade has been emerging. In February, it was reported that the Taliban generate between $300m and $400m a year from drug trafficking, a figure that was widely understood to be a gross under-estimate. If drug-related financing were to increasingly spill over to militants in Pakistan, they would have access to unlimited financing for state-of-the-art weapons and communications technology. In that case, Pakistan will be saddled with its own — and Mexico’s — problems.

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The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A possible solution

Monday, 09 Mar, 2009

HURTLING as this country is towards the brink of political chaos, there is still time for the politicians to slam on the brakes and reverse course. At the moment though none of them appears to want to do so. The Sharifs have sounded the clarion call for Punjab to rise up, the PPP is busy with the mischief of cleaving forward blocs from the PML-Q and PML-N, and the PML-Q is allowing itself to be courted by both sides while its intra-party divisions refuse to die down. If not stopped immediately, the chain of events triggered by the ouster of the Sharif brothers from electoral politics and the imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab will surely end in tears for everyone involved.

The simplest way to defuse the present crisis would be to withdraw governor’s rule, allow the PML-N to prove its majority in the Punjab Assembly and use the collective will of parliament to pave the way for the Sharifs’ return to electoral politics. Yet, notwithstanding the Sharifs’ fierce assaults on President Zardari, what makes that unlikely for now is the lawyers’ long march. The fear of the PPP will be that even if it reverses course in Punjab, the PML-N and the lawyers will still try to bring down the government in Islamabad. That may be directly attempted by besieging parliament and threatening a violent stand-off until the powers-that-be pull the plug on the federal set-up. Or it may be indirectly attempted by insisting the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry be reinstated and having him then tear down the edifice of a government that he has made clear is in some ways a continuation of the Musharraf era.

So, if a confrontation on the streets is to be avoided and the crisis resolved within the parliamentary chambers, the key to the solution is the PML-Q. A report in this paper the other day suggested that the PML-N and the PML-Q may be set for a reunion, a result which, from the point of the present crisis, may allow all the protagonists to keep the transition to democracy on track. Because of the PML-Q’s strength in the various assemblies, a union between the two PMLs would greatly simplify the numbers game. In Punjab, a combined PML would have a secure two-thirds majority. In the National Assembly and the Senate, the present coalition government’s simple majorities in both houses would not be turned. Moreover, the PML-Q, which is a partner of the PPP in the Balochistan government, could act to cool temperatures between the PML-N and the PPP in a bid to protect its interests in the various assemblies. But will sense prevail? It must if Pakistan is to overcome this crisis, though at the moment that appears distressingly beside the point for the politicians.

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Misery in Darfur

Monday, 09 Mar, 2009

PURELY symbolic gestures can sometimes backfire. The reign of terror unleashed in Darfur was tantamount to ethnic cleansing and all Muslim countries and the African Union should have condemned the atrocities committed in Sudan in the strongest possible terms. That didn’t happen right away. It was left to western governments and NGOs to tell the world that villages were being razed, that men were being slaughtered, that women and girls were being raped by the notorious Janjaweed militia in accordance with the line allegedly laid down by Khartoum itself. According to the UN, some 300,000 lives have been lost in the six-year-long conflict in Darfur, either on account of violence or through starvation and disease. Most, if not all, independent observers have come away from Sudan convinced that the death and destruction unleashed in Darfur has enjoyed the backing of the government in Khartoum.

This week Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir became the first sitting head of state to be issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, charges which in Beshir’s case, according to his critics, appear to be in accordance with the reality on the ground. But here’s the rub. Several African leaders had warned all along that an indictment by the ICC would prove to be counterproductive, and it seems that they have been proven right. In the current global climate it is unlikely that Beshir will be taken from his homeland. Nor can it be hoped that he will set foot outside of Sudan in the near future and run the risk of being arrested by a government that opts to follow international law and the norms of common decency. Obviously he will not surrender voluntarily and let international authorities transport him to The Hague.

He is, in fact, more defiant than ever. What Beshir has done in retaliation is expel all the foreign NGOs that fed refugees and provided shelter to the helpless people of Darfur. The Hague may have struck a moral and legal chord but its actions have deprived a marginalised and brutalised people of the only support they could hope for against forbidding odds. Omar al-Beshir may well be guilty of all that he is accused of, perhaps even more, but he cannot be brought to trial. As such the ICC indictment will do little else but inflict more misery on the people of Darfur.
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Sindh’s cultural wealth

Monday, 09 Mar, 2009

THE federal government has transferred the administrative control of 130 archaeological sites in Sindh to the provincial government. Given that the Sindh government had been lobbying for this move since coming into power, the province’s areas of historical significance may now receive the attention they deserve. These sites remained under the purview of the federal government’s archaeological department after being declared protected heritage under the 1975 Antiquities Act. In Punjab, the provincial government was given control of Lahore’s Shahi Fort and Shalimar Gardens some years ago. Now that the transfer has been effected in Sindh, the provincial minister for culture and tourism, Sassui Palijo, has announced that Rs1bn have been earmarked for the improvement of archaeological sites. This is a worthy move, for the degradation of Sindh’s archaeological sites can be linked to the paucity of funds and administrative will at the federal level. However, the provincial government must remain wary of falling into similar traps. There is no dearth of projects that were initiated with great hoopla but that fell slowly by the wayside as holders of public office changed, financial and bureaucratic corruption set in and interest waned.

It would be sad indeed if this pattern is repeated. The geographical area falling under Sindh has a large number of sites of historical and archaeological significance. Some of them, such as Moenjodaro, are the remains of the earliest urban settlements known to man. Others constitute potential mines of information about communities that once flourished but have now vanished or been reduced to marginalised minorities. Despite this cultural wealth, however, only 130 sites in Sindh have been registered as archaeological sites since 1904. Many more remain in need of attention. Ms Palijo has promised a comprehensive survey to identify locations for exploration and preservation. If her government manages to make good on its promise, Sindh will have the opportunity to not only attract visitors ranging from tourists to archaeologists and anthropologists, but also make a significant contribution to the world body of knowledge about this region.
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OTHER VOICES - North American Press When jobs go missing

Monday, 09 Mar, 2009

THE numbers in the jobs report for February were bad, but the trends were worse. More than half of the 4.4m jobs lost since December 2007, when the recession began, vanished in the last four months. The unemployment rate has also surged to 8.1 per cent last month from 7.6 per cent in January — and from five per cent when the recession began. The ranks of the unemployed now total 12.5m people. It’s fortunate, then, that the nation’s first line of defence against rising joblessness — unemployment insurance — was reinforced in the stimulus law that passed last month.

The law increases unemployment benefits by $25 a week and allows states to extend those benefits through the end of the year. It also provides $7bn to the states to cover more than 500,000 workers … who are denied jobless benefits under outdated rules that apply in many states. Those states, of course, must reform their systems.…

Some Republican governors have resisted doing that, an act of grandstanding that does nothing but hurt their neediest constituents. Recently, however, several governors … and state legislatures have supported making the changes. Other states must step up soon to ensure that broad relief reaches unemployed workers in a timely way.

Congress and the Obama administration must also be prepared to do more as unemployment worsens … In eleventh-hour wrangling last month, a provision was struck from the stimulus bill that would have provided Medicaid coverage to unemployed workers who do not qualify or cannot afford to stay on their former employers’ group health insurance. The measure should be reintroduced and passed into law.

Indeed, all job-related policies should acknowledge that employment is unlikely to turn around anytime soon. That’s because the economy’s other headwinds — the housing bust and the stock-market wipe-out — will delay any labour market recovery. With both sales and prices for homes declining in The New York Times

most places, many people who might otherwise move to take a new job are compelled to stay put, especially if a sale would not bring in enough money to pay off the mortgage. With stocks tanking, many workers are likely to postpone retirement, impairing upward mobility for other workers and crowding out new entrants to the work force.

That means that in addition to providing relief for today’s unemployed, greater emphasis must be placed on job training and retraining and on better education at all levels. If a job slump is short and shallow, old jobs come back. If it is long and deep, like the current one, some old jobs never return and even some industries never revive. That makes it imperative to prepare as a nation for the prospect of a vastly different future. — (March 7)

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Zardari’s gamble in critical phase
Tuesday, 10 Mar, 2009


President Asif Ali Zardari seemed to be coming under renewed pressure from political friends and foes alike against the backdrop of fast-paced political developments on Monday.

Two developments indicated that the president’s political gamble of recent weeks may well backfire rather than pay dividends as his decision to nominate Law Minister Farooq Naek as the Pakistan People’s Party candidate to run for the Senate chairman to replace the retiring Mohammedian Soomro irked a key party leader.

Raza Rabbani, a party loyalist and one of the most trusted lieutenants of the slain leader Benazir Bhutto, is understood to have resigned both as the leader of the upper house and as the minister of inter-provincial coordination to protest against the decision to nominate Mr Naek.

Farooq Naek was Mr Zardari’s counsel and defended him over the course of nearly a decade in multiple cases, including those involving corruption charges, and thus came close to the president.

It is said he is the key adviser to President Zardari in all matters concerning the judiciary now.

It was not just Mr Rabbani’s unhappiness that was threatening to become a major headache for the president as senators belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which the PPP has been wooing in order to have some hope of forming a government in Punjab, unanimously said they wanted their leader Chaudhry Shujaat Husain to run for the Senate chairmanship.

It wasn’t clear if they were seeking the governing party’s support for their leader as a quid pro quo for supporting the formation of a PPP-led government in that ultimate prize, the province of Punjab — where the PML-N administration was dislodged through some controversial means — or were just testing the political waters.

But political circles were quick to point out that Shujaat Husain still enjoyed good relations with the military establishment and that his sudden candidature to a position that is second in line to the most powerful office in the country may not be without meaning and could hint at the army’s growing unease at the political instability.

The PML-Q’s late announcement came after heated exchanges between the PPP and the PML-N that saw the interior adviser and top presidential aide Rehman Malik virtually calling the Sharif brothers’ politics seditious. Ousted Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif accused Mr Malik of using state funds to try and ‘steal the popular mandate in Punjab’.

Given the daunting challenges facing the country, including rampant militancy and the downturn in the economy, the current round of political wrestling that is now threatening to spill on to the streets, poses a serious threat to peace in the country.

With the lawyers’ movement gaining the support of diverse yet powerful political parties and elements in the country and a planned march on to the capital within a week to seek a return to office of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and a government equally determined to stop this march, the fate of the final showdown was proving very difficult to call.




Obama’s approach
Tuesday, 10 Mar, 2009 |



Obama replied with a blunt ‘No’ when The New York Times asked him whether America was winning in Afghanistan.—AP Obama the president seems to be gradually distancing himself from Obama the Democratic candidate for the White House. Gone is the rhetoric that once threatened Fata’s invasion to take out the Taliban’s safe havens. Now the vitriol has given way to a sober assessment of the situation in the Afpak region, for he replied with a blunt ‘No’ when The New York Times asked him whether America was winning in Afghanistan.

In what is seen as a move to open the door to reconciliation with the militants, the American president emphasised the need for recasting US policies with a three-pronged strategy to ensure that ‘Al Qaeda and extremists’ do not have safe havens. More significantly, he had a word of praise for Gen David Petraeus, who reached out to Iraq’s Sunnis in a move aimed at isolating Al Qaeda. This policy worked in Iraq, he said, and believed military, diplomatic and development moves must be ‘aligned’ to deny safe havens to the Taliban. Pakistan should welcome Obama’s statement not only because of the reconciliation he is talking about but also because he included Afghanistan and ‘the Pakistani region’ in his new scheme.

Until recently, Pakistan was being harshly criticised by the American government and media for talking to the militants. The Americans were right up to a point, for one has to admit Islamabad’s own mistakes in the war on terror, the disastrous September 2005 deal with the militants in Fata, and, currently, the over-reliance on Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a doubtful character, to seek peace with the Swat rebels. But the basic principle behind Pakistan’s moves was sound, for it had been speaking for quite some time of the need to combine force with talks, while working for the economic development of the tribal belt.

What Pakistan and America must both remember is that there should be no deal from a position of weakness, and that peace should not mean a licence for the Taliban to establish virtually autonomous regions where they enforce their own concept of religion which violates basic norms of civilised behaviour. To be specific they cannot be allowed to oppress women, enforce conformity in dress, prayer and ritual, and close the doors of economic livelihood on barbers and tailors and the like because they pursue professions considered normal by humanity but which the Taliban regard as ‘un-Islamic’. If they agree to live in peace, the militants must abide by the contract in letter and spirit.

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The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Thursday, 12 Mar, 2009




The lawyers’ long march was never expected to be a smooth affair. But a day before the first marchers were expected to gather, it was the federal government that swung matters in an ugly direction. By moving against lawyers, opposition politicians and, bizarrely, a human rights activist the government clearly hopes to scuttle the long march long before it reaches Islamabad.


However, it is doing so at what may prove to be a terrible, perhaps fatal, cost to itself. For one, history suggests that a crackdown is only the first shot in a downward spiral of violence which greatly destabilises the state. Few governments have been able to contain the fallout of such actions and at the very least the government will henceforth operate under a great cloud of uncertainty. Even if the lawyers are thwarted this week, it is hard to see how the PML-N can be made to go away.



Surely the PML-N, which has been shut out of the system since the imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab, will continue to agitate until it wrests some power back from the PPP. At the moment, the PPP leadership appears not to be thinking that far ahead, but by ignoring the logic of events it is more likely to become their victim rather than the victor.

No less importantly, the PPP is greatly harming its reputation as a democratic party. More than any other party, over the course of its 41-year history the PPP has been synonymous with the politics of protest, often taking to the streets in defence of democratic principles. Today, though, the PPP is taking on two groups that are essentially demanding it adhere to two of those same principles: the lawyers who want to march for an independent judiciary; the PML-N that wants its democratic mandate in the Punjab Assembly to be respected.

Previously, we have argued against resorting to the politics of agitation at this critical juncture in Pakistan’s history and cautioned both the lawyers and the PML-N to pay heed to other national crises. However, while that may still be true, it is obvious that the onus is now on the government to defuse this crisis. At least two things can still be done: one, detained party activists and lawyers can be released and a peaceful march facilitated; and, two, governor’s rule in Punjab can be withdrawn and the PML-N allowed to prove its majority in the Punjab Assembly.



Neither measure will end opposition to the PPP government and its policies. But together they can demonstrate some commitment to resolving differences within a democratic framework. And without at least that commitment, it is hard to see how the PPP can justify remaining in office.

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The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.