Poll-spending reform
Jan 9th 2012

IT is welcome that the Election Commission of Pakistan is considering the reform of election-spending rules before the next polls. Given the possibility of early elections, the sooner these reforms are implemented the better. The current spending limits on candidates’ campaigns for the legislatures are widely considered unrealistic and routinely violated while transparency is also lacking from the whole process. For example, an aspirant to a provincial assembly seat is officially not allowed to spend more than Rs1m, while estimates suggest that in the 2008 elections, on average candidates spent Rs10m on their campaigns. Similarly, the spending cap for a candidate trying to make it into the National Assembly is Rs1.5m, while in 2008 it is believed candidates spent around Rs30m each. On the whole, it is estimated that Rs200bn was spent on the last general election. The impracticality of the current spending caps is demonstrated by the fact that a well-organised political rally may well cost more than the current spending limit for a single candidate, let alone myriad other campaign costs such as election paraphernalia and media campaigns.

It is true that for the most part politics in Pakistan is the pursuit of the rich. Even with the current spending limits, how can candidates who are not moneyed hope to reach the legislatures? While the ECP must indeed rationalise laws related to campaign funds, there is also the need to effectively monitor candidates’ spending. If it is proved that spending limits have been violated, the ECP should have the powers to suspend such candidates. Parties also need to raise funds in a much more transparent manner. A system needs to be evolved whereby parties can put up candidates from the middle and working classes to ensure that politics doesn’t remain the preserve of the rich. Political fundraising has always been a murky business, and indeed is an issue in political systems around the world. Hence the need for campaign finance reform and oversight by the ECP cannot be stressed enough. Perhaps Pakistan can learn in this regard from the experiences of more mature democracies.

No security for prosecutors
Jan 9th 2012


IT is unfortunate that in a country where terrorism is rampant, the success rates in even those cases that are brought to trial is abysmal. During the past year, anti-terrorism courts in Rawalpindi maintained an acquittal rate of 60 per cent, even though the cases that came up included a suicide attack on Rescue 15 in Islamabad and the murder of a Polish engineer. Shocking though this is, the reason cited by prosecutors is even worse: they say that they and their families are exposed to threats from all sides while the police force does nothing to help. As we reported on Saturday, despite efforts over several months, the Punjab prosecution department has been unable to have the Rawalpindi police extend security to its prosecutors. Various communications in this regard, including by the prosecutor general to the relevant authorities, have produced no results.

The situation cuts to the very heart of the reason why so many terrorism-related cases in Pakistan never see convictions. Our report quoted a prosecutor as saying that under such circumstances, prosecutors ended up prioritising their own safety over their job. It is difficult to blame them, given the ever-present danger of reprisal attacks in the sort of cases handled by the ATCs.
Yet the reality is that unless prosecution success rates start climbing, the signal being sent out is that the perpetrators of violence are likely to get away with it by threatening more violence. True, the understaffed police force is in a bind: the CPO Rawalpindi pointed out that there are dozens of ATCs in Punjab and if the Rawalpindi police started providing personal security staff to prosecutors, other prosecutors would also demand it. Yet a compromise is urgently required. Reducing crime and terrorism is largely about building a successful prosecution. Without that, lawbreakers will continue to operate with impunity.

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Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

APC on Balochistan
Jan 10th 2012

THE pledge by PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif to convene an all-parties conference on Balochistan and the PPP’s willingness to join the APC are at least positive sentiments in the context of the long-suffering province.
While violence in the province is down from the peak of the latest insurgency several years ago, the killings on both sides remain unacceptably high. On the Baloch side, the absence of Brahmdagh Bugti and Haribyar Marri from the country appears to have been more than compensated for by the rise of middle-class, educated, non-tribal insurgents like Dr Allah Nazar. The demand of the separatists, then, however small their numbers, continues to dominate the security landscape in Balochistan.

On the state’s side, the continuation of the so-called ‘kill and dump’ policy — in blunt terms, the extrajudicial execution of Baloch accused of direct or indirect involvement in the insurgency — has meant that even though the Musharraf-era full-blown military operation is no longer in evidence, the mistrust of and anger towards the state felt
by swathes of the Baloch population has not ebbed.

An APC in this difficult environment would appear to have few chances of success. But the support of the PML-N and the PPP at least brings to the table the combined strength of Pakistan’s two largest political parties and perhaps what is needed to bring the warring sides closer towards negotiations are powerful interlocutors. Having said that, the APC will only be able to achieve anything of note if the full spectrum of the Baloch are represented there. Even if at this stage the attempt is only to hear the grievances of the mainstream Baloch nationalists, engaging the more militant separatists would be essential for a realistic road map to peace. To include the separatists — though there is a crucial caveat in that it is not known if the separatists would respond to overtures from the PML-N, the PPP or the moderate Baloch parties — would by no means imply an acceptance of their demand for an independent Balochistan. The territorial integrity of Pakistan cannot be up for any kind of negotiation.

However, the fact remains that the use of violence to suppress the fifth Baloch insurgency has been going on for at least seven years now and Balochistan still does not appear to be a province on the verge of returning to normality. A political solution is the only way to rescue Balochistan. Crush the separatists through the use of force and the state may eventually succeed in ending the fifth insurgency, but it would almost certainly set the stage for a sixth insurgency down the road.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

Removal of subsidies
10th Jan 2012


IMPLEMENTING a plan to recover the entire cost of electricity and compensating lifeline and poorer consumers using up to 300 units a month f or a higher price can be a major step in eliminating the massive untargeted energy subsidies. The move would also remove distortions in the economy. The proposal under the government`s consideration seeks to follow a similar plan implemented by Iran to recover the market price of food and fuel from consumers and transfer cash grants to those who need them. If Tehran can save $6bn in subsidies in the first year of the implementation of the plan, Pakistan can also save a substantial amount.

In the last four years, the government has handed out more than Rs1tr more than half of the taxes it hopes to collect this year in indirect power subsidies. Total power subsidies this fiscal are projected to grow to Rs350bn against the budgeted amount of Rs50bn. The growing burden of untargeted subsidies is not sustainable. Electricity subsidies have created a permanent inter-corporate debt in the power sector, which is pushing up electricity prices, increasingthe supply gap and stalling fresh investment in new generation. Additionally, it is forcing the government to borrow heavily from commercial banks and print new money to finance its ballooning budgetary deficit which is likely to shoot to seven per cent of GDP this year fuelling inflation, discouraging private investment and restricting job creation and exports.

Indirect energy subsidies are also bad because these benefit the rich more than those who need help. Almost three quarters of electricity subsidies this fiscal will go into the pockets of the 20 per cent richest consumers. It also encourages the inefficient consumption of energy resources. Thus, elimination of power subsidies should help ease the strain on the budget, remove distortions from the economy created in the name of the poor, discourage the wasteful use of electricity and revive the ailing power sector. Removal of subsidies, however, must also follow other powersector reforms like changing the energy mix to cut generation costs, reducing system losses and theft, etc. Abolition of subsidies alone will not bring down electricity prices.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

Guantanamo 10 years on
11th Jan 2012

TEN years ago on this day, Guantanamo, the US military`s dreaded detention camp for suspected militants on the eastern tip of Cuba, received its first detainees. In the decade since the prison has been in operation, it has become a symbol for all that is murky and morally questionable about the `war on terror`.

The prison has also been in the news recently following reports that the US is negotiating with the Taliban to release three senior leaders of the militant group held at Guantanamo; the tentative opening of a Taliban `office` in Qatar is supposed to pave the way for the detainees` arrival in the Gulf sheikhdom. Yet apart from suspected militants, many ordinary Afghans (and others) with only the feeblest if any link to militancy have been picked up and bundled off to Guantanamo.

Nearly all have been held without trial. Around 800 detainees have passed through Guantanamo; currently 170 inmates are lodged at the camp. Most detainees have been released without charge, while others have been repatriated to their countries of origin or sent tothird countries. A handful have been convicted by American military courts.

Torture at Guantanamo is systematic while children as young as13 years have been held at the facility.

The UN has criticised the prison, as have others, while human rights groups have termed it a `gulag`.

Considering the US claims to respect human rights, it amounts to dual standards that it has operated Guantanamo for a decade to prevent detainees from being tried under American law.

Whether innocent civillans or suspected hardcore militants, all detainees should have access to fair trials. True, militants who use terror as an instrument of policy must be punished. But this must be done within the ambit of the law and due process.

Rather than bringing militants to justice, Guantanamo and similar facilities have instead stoked the fires of radicalism and increased anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. The US should close down Guantanamo, a move ordered by President Obama three years ago which failed to materialise, and give the remaining detainees access to due process.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

Dangerous times
Jan 12th 2012

THE lurid spectacle that is Pakistani politics took another grim turn yesterday, with rumours of a possible coup gaining momentum. The army hit back against the prime minister`s statement of a day earlier; the government sacked the defence secretary who defied it; the prime minister reiterated that the `rules of business` were not followed by the army and ISI chiefs in submitting their statements to the Supreme Court in the memo case it`s hard to tell whether what is unfolding is a slowmotion train wreck or one in fast forward. Never say never in Pakistan, but perhaps at this stage some thanks can be offered that times appear to have moved on. Had this been 10 or 15 years ago, after the prime minister`s statement on Sunday the country may have already seen a coup take place. But with a raucous media and a fierce Supreme Court now in the mix, the space for a direct and unconstitutional intervention by the army appears to have been eroded. So, given the painful history of this country when it comes to army interventions, there is at least something positive in the present state of affairs.

Nevertheless, the PPPled federal government appears to have decided the ultimate aim of the government`s opponents is to oust the PPP cochairman Asif Zardari from the presidency andto perhaps even bring down the government and everyone from the prime minister downwards in the PPP has decided to fight rather than meekly surrender to their fate. Fuelling the attitude of defiance and anger within the PPP is the sense that other institutions of the state have made it all but impossible for the government to go about its business.

Whether that perception is right or wrong, it does appear to exist and that is something that the other institutions must shoulder the blame for.

No government anywhere can function under the kind of pressure the government here has found itself under. Yet, the PPP needs to introspect too.

The team it has assembled to run ministries and departments and defend the government`s performance can make the most hardened of realists wince at the utter incompetence and gratuitous aggressiveness that is often on display. It may be impossible to expect sympathy and compassion from other institutions when the most unsympathetic of characters are put forward to run the show and defend how it is run.

What next? One week the country pulls back from the brink; the next week it is back on the brink none of it adds up to a prediction that can be made with any degree of certainty. We can only hope that better sense prevails all around.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

Politics and malnutrition
Jan 13th 2012


ON the face of it, Pakistan`s greatest problems appear political in nature.It is almost as if there are few other points of contention, thus allowing those tasked with keeping the wheels of governance running the leisure to indulge in political games. But far from the commotion regularly witnessed in the corridors of power is a population keeping body and soul together on hope alone the hope that their plight will some day receive attention. How all the politicking distracts attention from this sad reality is reflected in the manner in which, over the past few days, moves and counter-moves at the top have relegated information of critical importance to the back burner. The report of the National Nutritional Survey 2011, launched in Karachi on Tuesday, paints a shocking picture: at the national level, 58 per cent of households are food insecure. The situation in Sindh is abysmal: 72 per cent of the population is food insecure, and of children under five, 17.9 per cent in urban areas and 32.8 per cent in rural areas are malnourished enough to face severestunting. Access to food is the most basic yardstick to measure people`s welfare. The continuous downward trajectory of practically all social and economic indicators is well-documented, with interrelated issues such as the gas and power crises, rising unemployment, and the increasing cost of living extracting a devastating toll.

What is being done to address these issues? The ruling elites, civil, military and judicial, appear unable to think beyond the struggle over power and various political and constitutional issues. The importance of settling such points cannot be denied, but the one thing that can keep them from appearing a political charade is simultaneous and earnest focus on bringing about improvements in the people`s lives. It is not just the government that is failing the citizenry; all in positions of influence must shoulder equal responsibility for failing to prioritise the people`s welfare. Those fighting so hard to save the country, through the various means they deem fit, might wish to consider how meaningless a state is without a citizenry.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

Some breathing space
Jan 13th 2012

AFTER a day of high drama, the country took a deep breath yesterday, but with a rowdy session of parliament scheduled to begin this morning, the respite may be brief. With little certainty about the direction that events will take in the hours, days and weeks ahead, perhaps a stocktaking of what has transpired so far is in order. One thing in particular bears stating: if Pakistan had been a more developed democracy, the authors of the ISPR statement this week would have been summarily sacked. To directly challenge a prime minister duly elected by the public under the letter of the law and the constitution in such a public and blunt manner would amount to, in more advanced democracies, an intolerable challenge to the democratic dispensation. Alas, Pakistan is a very different country.

On another track, it appears that for now the PPP`s coalition allies are not bolting for the exit.

What this suggests is that the possibility of the drama shifting from the hallowed precincts of the Supreme Court to the equally hallowed halls of parliament may not become an immediate reality. The relative strength of the coalition may for some, particularly those fiercely opposed to the government come what may, be a bad signalbut when it comes to a thinly veiled attempt to destabilise the government on matters of dubiaus import, the survival of the political government is a matter to be thankful for.

Much of what is happening in the country at the moment is too focused on personalities: Asif Zardari, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Ashfaq Kayani, Shuja Pasha, Iftikhar Chaudhry. A step back from the personality-driven narrative can help clarify matters. The individuals at the helm of their respective institutions will last no longer than 2013 (the civilians aspiring to a further term will have to get a fresh mandate from the public).

What kind of Pakistan do Pakistanis want in 2014? One where yet another group of would-be saviours is floundering in the morass of politics and illegitimacy? Or a state that for the first time in living memory has seen a democratic transition of government from one elected government to the next? In the Pakistani context, in which neither option, elected or unelected, has delivered the choice may not seem to matter much. But that choice is vital. To send Mr Zardari or Mr Gilani home, only the ballot box is needed. To send the other options home, the price the country has to pay is much higher.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

India`s anti-polio efforts
Jan 14th 2012

INDIA is marking the passage of a full year since its last case of polio was reported. If this trend continues, and no new or previously undisclosed case of the dreaded virus is reported, the country would be considered poliofree. As the head of the World Health Organisation`s global polio eradication initiative commented, India`s example is a `game-changer` in the fight against a crippling disease that the world had vowed to control by the turn of the millennium.

India`s efforts must receive their due appreciation. If India is declared polio-free, just three countries Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan will remain polio-endemic.

Just a few years ago, Pakistan seemed to be on the verge of bringing the virus under control. A number of factors though haveledtoaresurgencein polio cases. These include parents reluctant to have their offspring inoculated because of aspersions cast by clerics on the immunisation campaign, thefalling rates of routine vaccination, the inability of health teams to access remote areas and the displacement of people by conflict and floods. In 2005, the country reported its lowest annual figure of 28 new cases. But last year, over 170 new cases were documented and the virus started showing up in localities earlier considered polio-free. True, there has been some progress. In the early 1990s, the annual incidence of pollo in the country was estimated at over 20,000 cases, yet much remains to be done.

Amongst the factors to which WHO attributes the resurgence of the virus is the war in the areas bordering Afghanistan. The conflict limits safe access to children and exacerbates managerial problems, meaning that the targeted population in high-risk areas does not receive adequate doses of the polio vaccine. While the former is a knotty problem, surely the gaps that the latter present can be plugged.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.

Desecration of the dead
Jan 14th 2012


ANY and all condemnation of this heinous act is fully justified. American President Barack Obama is said to have shared the views of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta who called the incident `utterly deplorable`. The US-based Council on Islamic-American Relations condemned the apparent `desecration of the dead` and termed it a violation of US military regulations. Others rightly called urinating on corpses an act of barbarism. The issue here appears to be straightforward with no ifs or buts if the video evidence is to be believed. Three dead bodies of Taliban fighters were allegedly defiled by four US Marines acting in a manner that transcended arrogance. At least two of the four accused soldiers are said to have been identified, according to the US Marine Corps.

Some analysts in the West point to stress endured by US soldiers in the battlefield but that explanation will not cut ice in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.

It only makes sense that Nato and Isaf troops should have realised bynow that friends are not made through acts of outright barbarism. If anything, they are alienating allies of any faith or nationality instead of building crucial bonds. It also needs to be pointed out that such unwarranted US aggression will only lead to more anti-American sentiment in the region and hasten debate on where our loyalties should lie. Think also of this. Who will benefit from this show of barbarity? Only the Taliban and the religious right-wing in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Such material evidence, which appears to be credible, will be exploited by those who feel that America is the enemy. Abu Ghraib, and the torture that took place there in Iraq, is still fresh in people`s minds. It was humiliation on a large, calculated scale and for many it is not easy to forgive and forget those horrifying accounts. Now we have this desecration of bodies in Afghanistan. Action has to be taken and the guilty should be brought to book.

The video evidence seems clear and the appropriate authorities must do what is necessary.

__________________
Real richness is that you are so expensive that no one can buy your character.