Editorials from DAWN Newspaper (2nd Feb 2013)
 

[SIZE="2"][B][SIZE="4"][CENTER]A move forward[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]


RUMOURS of delayed elections and an extended caretaker set-up didn’t die down once the Dr Tahirul Qadri spectacle had come to an end without changing anything much at all. Such speculation has continued in the days since, including in public remarks made by the prime minister and a prominent parliamentarian from the ruling party. To what extent these observations were based on reliable information is unclear, but they were made while the Supreme Court and the administration had entered into another one of their matches in which fatal blows hadn’t been dealt but enough punches thrown and resisted to revive the perception of an executive-judiciary tussle. At a time when rumours of delayed elections refuse to go away, then, the court has done the smart thing by stepping in to announce that under no circumstances should polls be delayed.

This order has served multiple purposes. For one, it should help quell worries about a possible delay or intervention, particularly since it warns both the military and the civilians against interrupting the democratic process. But it also makes a deliberate effort to distance the judiciary from any such plans — the court made it clear that no interventions should be carried out in its name. This is a point that, unfortunately, now needed to be made. The order for the arrest of the prime minister in the rental power plants case — and Dr Qadri’s public reaction to it — was only the beginning of what has become an increasingly dramatic stand-off that has included resistance from the National Accountability Bureau, the suicide or murder of one of its investigators and the NAB chairman’s now-public complaint that the court is impeding its work — and that it could end up delaying elections by doing so.

The judiciary has delivered a direct denial of such motives. That should provide breathing room to the ruling party and the opposition to focus on solutions rather than threats. Talks about caretaker set-ups are under way within both camps, but they don’t seem to be talking to each other in any constructive way; the leader of the opposition’s latest announcement, even if it was driven by politics, that they will not be discussing the issue with the ruling alliance doesn’t help perceptions about the civilians’ ability to engineer a smooth transition. Meanwhile, various dates for dissolving the assemblies and for elections have been handed out by various members of the ruling party without any official confirmation. The SC has thrown the ball in the civilians’ court. It’s time for them to get talking, and to get down to specifics.


[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"]State of anarchy[/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]


THURSDAY’S attack targeting two clerics and a madressah student in Karachi reinforces a disturbing truth: gunmen roam the city’s streets leaving death in their wake, and law enforcers are unable to stop them. That the ambush took place on Sharea Faisal, one of Karachi’s main thoroughfares, in broad daylight, also highlights the brazenness with which killers operate in the metropolis. Many ‘sensitive’ locations, including armed forces’ installations, are situated in the area. The clerics belonged to Jamia Binoria, one of Karachi’s most influential Deobandi madressahs. The hit was recorded by CCTV cameras belonging to a wedding lawn in the vicinity. The chilling footage shows three assailants calmly spraying the vehicle carrying the victims with bullets, then riding off on a motorcycle.

Over the past week a number of workers belonging to different religious and political groups have been killed in Karachi, which is not news in itself considering ‘routine’ levels of violence in the metropolis. Police have attributed Thursday’s ambush, which, thankfully, has not resulted in the usual violent reaction, to the “ongoing spree of sectarian killings”. If this assessment is correct it would be in line with other incidents of cold-blooded shooting of Shias and Sunnis including some high-profile political and religious activists. While one hopes that the camera footage in Thursday’s killing will provide solid clues, overall, the police’s investigative capabilities have hardly kept pace with such incidents. The force’s investigations wing was merged with the operations wing in 2011.

So whatever little work was being done by the investigations wing has been greatly reduced. Also, with so many factors behind Karachi’s violence — ethnic, political, sectarian, criminal — no one, especially in government, seems to have any idea about what’s going on, or how to stop it. It seems that the state does not have the intention or motivation to lift the lid off Karachi’s boiling cauldron of violence and identify the problems. Nor do the city’s various political actors. Sindh government officials have said an “operation” will be launched to crack down on crime. Unless there is action to back up such words, which have been heard countless times, such pronouncements will remain meaningless.


[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"]Israel’s adventurism[/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]


THE Israeli attack on a Syrian research centre on Wednesday was a foolhardy adventure and has added to apprehensions that the conflict in the Levant could escalate, with grim consequences for the region. Flying low to evade radar detection, Israeli planes destroyed the scientific research centre and not, as later stated by a Syrian military spokesman, a convoy on the way to Lebanon. There is no doubt Israel is taking advantage of the civil war to advance its geopolitical interests at the expense of what it regards its most implacable foe. Convinced that the beleaguered Damascus government is in no position to retaliate, Israel is flexing its military muscle and threatening further attacks if chemical weapons purportedly in Syria’s possession fall into rebel hands. With the neutrality of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, backed by Nato powers, already compromised and Hezbollah said to be deeply involved, Tel Aviv’s recklessness is deserving of strong condemnation. Instead, only Russia has denounced the Israeli strike. At the same time, Nato-supplied Patriot missiles have been positioned on the Turkey-Syria border. What purpose this will serve is beyond guessing, for Damascus is unlikely to even think of firing lethal missiles on its northern neighbour. Iran, too, has issued a grim warning, with Ali Akbar Velayati, aide to the Iranian supreme leader, declaring last week that an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran.

This dangerous drift towards escalation needs to be arrested. The misfortune is that the intensity of the civil war in Syria shows no signs of abating, though there are clear signs that a stalemate has been reached, with neither side in a position to clinch victory. With the Arab League and OIC having washed their hands of Syria, and the UN a mere spectator, there is little possibility of normality returning to the country.[/SIZE]

[B]03.02.2013[/B] [B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Ambitious target[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

MEDIUM-TERM strategic frameworks are important for policy continuity and consistency. Both are crucial for attracting new investments to the economy. Governments use such frameworks to give their preferred direction to the economy and to set targets that they plan to achieve over a certain period of time.
These documents also spell out the strategy and initiatives a government intends to launch and the interventions it will make in the market to facilitate private business to attain policy objectives. They also bring about the element of certainty and predictability in the markets, which is essential for businesses to grow, to make informed decisions on their future investment plans and to diversify their products. This was precisely why the business community overwhelmingly appreciated the government’s decision in 2009 to do away with the annual trade policy regime and substitute it with a three-year strategic trade policy framework.

But, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating; the private sector has learnt to its peril that it can neither trust annual policies nor rely on medium-term strategic regimes. The strategic trade policy framework 2009-12 remains buried in bureaucratic files just like most other government policies. The government blames paucity of funds for the lack of implementation of the promises made. Now the commerce ministry has announced its second strategic trade policy framework for 2012-15. With more than seven months already lost, few believe that it will ever take off. Many of the initiatives — such as the formation of Exim bank, development of land ports, establishment of sectoral export promotion councils, and the execution of measures to improve domestic commerce — will boost regional trade, drive up exports and reduce costs of capital investment and production if implemented.

However, doubts about implementation remain. Although the total cost of the incentives and initiatives announced in the new trade policy framework is less than $250m or five per cent of the total power and other untargeted subsidies given by the government during the last fiscal, not many are optimistic about the release of the funds.
The aim of the initiatives and incentives is to boost cumulative exports to $95bn by the end of fiscal 2014-15. The target appears to be ambitious and unrealistic given the fact that a large portion of the installed manufacturing capacities, especially in Punjab, is lying idle due to energy shortages. Even if the trade policy framework is implemented, we will not be able to produce enough to export. After all, how can we sell something that we cannot make? Still, we keep our fingers crossed.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]State’s failure
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
RUMOURS of delayed elections, tales of corruption at the highest levels of government, pre-poll deal-making, judiciary-executive tussles — these stories dominate public discourse for days at a stretch and trigger hectic activity within the government and opposition. When a bomb kills Shia worshippers, Ahmadi graves are desecrated, a journalist dies in mysterious circumstances, a Baloch activist disappears or a mentally ill person is charged with blasphemy, the news is quickly forgotten and the state barely responds. In rare instances, such as in the cases of Malala Yousufzai and Rimsha Masih in which children were involved, the story might linger for longer, prompting protests and some state action. More often, though, as is apparent from the Pakistan section of Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2013, human rights abuses are simply treated as a routine feature of Pakistani life.

It is not clear that the state is really as complicit in some of these atrocities, particularly those carried out by violent religious extremists, as the human rights watchdog claims. What cannot be argued with, though, is the claim that the state is not doing enough to prevent them. Attacks on Shias, for example, have become increasingly frequent and predictable in several parts of the country. But as far as is publicly known, no one has been successfully held to account, sending a signal to those who want to attack other people for their religious beliefs that in Pakistan this crime can be carried out with impunity. The report also talks about extrajudicial detention and killings and drone attacks, pointing to one of the most complicated moral questions Pakistan faces today: in the unique security situation we are in, how do we combat those who violate human rights without violating theirs? How do we balance the need to uphold strict standards of justice with the need to prevent further attacks on the state and civilians?
Distracted by politics, afraid of offending right-wing sentiments and lacking the will to overhaul our security strategy and tactics, the state continues to ignore its responsibility to protect each citizen’s right to life,

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Glory at the top
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
SOMETIMES, to move mountains you have to climb them. And that’s what an eight-member women’s team recently did to promote the cause of tourism in Pakistan and project a positive image of the country. Their expedition saw them scale three peaks, and set several records in the process. It was the first time non-professional Pakistani women had climbed the 6,035-metre Julio Sar, the first time an all-women’s team had successfully undertaken such an expedition, and the first time any amateur Pakistanis — men or women — had summited three peaks back to back. It all came about from an idea that Karachi-based documentary film-maker, Shehrbano Saiyid, had for a film about the women of the breathtaking Hunza valley, which lies in the embrace of some of the highest mountains in Pakistan.
Guides at a local mountaineering school introduced her to the seven young women, all students at the institute, who undertook the arduous expedition.

The feat achieved by these enterprising women gives a much-needed shot in the arm to a nation weary of the pall of gloom engendered by terrorist attacks and multifaceted economic woes. In such a climate, stories of personal endeavour are no less than acts of resistance that speak to the indefatigable spirit of its people, not least its women. The publicity surrounding the mountaineers’ success may also help revive the tourism industry which was once the lifeblood of the Hunza valley but which has seen a steady decline over the last decade. Most importantly perhaps, the women’s accomplishment helps further an alternative discourse about this country, and the plura-listic nature of its socie-ty. This instance, for example, serves to highlight the markedly egalitarian nature of society in the Hunza valley in which families encourage their daughters to study, pursue careers — and climb mountains.

[B]04.02.2013[/B] [B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]More bloodshed
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
AN audacious strike on a military installation and a cruel attack on worshippers at Friday prayers — what ought to be the unacceptable exception appears to have become the norm in Pakistan’s insurgency-hit areas. Lakki Marwat and Hangu have been hit by terrorism before, were hit by terrorism over the weekend — and the unhappy truth is, those towns, and many other places, are almost sure to be hit by terrorism and militancy again. By now it has also become clear that defensive tactics have gone as far as they can. Body searches and security perimeters outside mosques during Friday prayers are common across Pakistan. But mosques are by definition venues that have to allow the public in — and so can only be secured up to a point from suicide or other attacks. The same goes for military installations — the more high-profile and sensitive sites can have layers and layers of security, but when located in remote areas and on the frontline in the fight against militancy, there will be vulnerabilities that cannot be fully protected. The problem, then, is really of how to build a more proactive and aggressive strategy to fight militancy.

Both attacks have been owned by the Pakistani Taliban — and it’s clear where the centre of gravity of the Taliban now lies: North Waziristan Agency. And yet, North Waziristan appears to have slipped off the to-do list in the fight against militancy, a victim of the security establishment’s sympathetic approach towards the Haqqanis and reluctance to be seen succumbing to American diktat. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata, Pata and parts of Punjab will fundamentally remain vulnerable while the Agency stands lost — but where is the conversation, let alone action, on what needs to be done to recover North Waziristan?

With Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hit hard, yet again, by violence in recent months, the ANP is trying to mobilise political support and public opinion to create a new consensus on the need to fight militancy. But the response to the ANP’s efforts has been less than encouraging. Politicians are wary of courting controversy ahead of a general election and the army has failed to clear apprehensions about its true intentions. Little support, no plan — the upshot is, sadly, that Pakistan must brace itself for more
violence.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Double-edged sword
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
IN Pakistan’s security situation, there are no simple answers. On the one hand there is the challenge of apprehending militants under circumstances that make the gathering of evidence and eyewitness accounts complicated, to say the least. Then, the crimes for which such people are being pursued are generally so heinous, and the terrorism network so strong, that the possibility of pressure being brought to bear, directly or indirectly, on witnesses and prosecution or judicial personnel cannot be ruled out. Yet, the importance of following the law and due process cannot be overstated. Special times, it has been argued, require special provisions of the law, and into this category falls perhaps the Investigation for Fair Trial Bill, 2012, which passed unanimously through the Senate on Friday, having earlier been cleared by the National Assembly.

The bill authorises the government to tap, under certain circumstances, into private communication between people — phone calls, emails, text messages etc — and renders it admissible in court. The hope, obviously, is that this strengthening of the prosecution’s hands will help improve the country’s currently abysmal conviction rate, which is one of the main obstacles to controlling terrorism. While the move must be welcomed, then, it must be with caution. Opponents of the move argue that there is great scope in it to be misused, particularly in view of the intelligence agencies’ history of involvement in manipulating political outcomes. The provisions do build in some safety mechanisms against such abuse, and specify that the legislation should be used for the purposes of counterterrorism and that information can be gathered under it after a warrant has been issued by a sessions and district judge in his chambers. Nevertheless, great caution and discretion must be urged on all quarters. True, in the post-9/11 world, several countries have come up with communications-interception legislation — but there too they were grudgingly received, with reservations expressed about the loss of civil liberties. Pakistan needs a better framework of laws to turn the security situation around; but it must stay on the side of the angels while devising one.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Unacceptable delay
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
WHILE the current National Assembly has passed some important laws during its tenure, including the landmark 18th Amendment, its performance has remained tardy in other areas where legislation is direly needed. As per a report in this newspaper, 176 private members’ bills are pending approval, with some dating back to 2008. Considering that the life of the Assembly is limited, it is unlikely they will be passed into law. All laws are important, yet some of the pending bills concern long-standing issues that require immediate attention. These include a law relating to the legal status of Hindu marriages in Pakistan. Some minority activists say the Hindus Marriage Bill 2011 has been held up as it was introduced without consulting stakeholders. There are also indications that some members of the Hindu clergy have issues with certain clauses of the bill. The proposed law has also bounced back and forth between different official bodies, perhaps a victim of the legal confusion that has prevailed following devolution. For example there is considerable debate over whether the centre can legislate on Hindu marriages, or if such matters now purely fall within the provincial domain.

The homework should have been done and consensus should have been achieved before tabling the law, which has already been delayed for too long. Due to the lack of a marriage registration mechanism Hindu women in particular face multiple issues. These include problems with accessing state benefits as well as making it easier, as minority activists claim, for Hindu women to be abducted, forcibly converted and married. It is a matter of regret that both the state and the minorities’ elected representatives have failed to legislate on this key issue. We hope the law is passed soon to give Hindu marriages legal sanction and all the benefits that go with it.

[B]05.02.2013[/B] [B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Preconditions for talks[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

THE mystifying offer by the Taliban for talks with the government was renewed on Sunday with the release of a video in which Ihsanullah Ihsan, the TTP spokesman, appeared to scale back the TTP’s preconditions for talks. Release several prisoners and invite guarantors to the talks, the TTP has now demanded — but is it just another tactic to sow confusion and perpetuate the uncertainty in society and the state? There is good reason to be sceptical of the TTP’s latest offer: after all, the TTP spokesman has made the offer before, only for Hakeemullah Mehsud to spell out what the TTP was willing to do and accept — and none of what the TTP chief suggested is remotely acceptable. The constitution cannot be scrapped, democracy cannot be done away with and the state cannot accept armed militias as legitimate entities — all of which Hakeemullah Mehsud demanded in his own elaboration recently about what the TTP wants.

There are at least two plausible reasons for the TTP’s offer. One, the umbrella organisation has found itself under intense pressure from the state and senses its growing isolation, particularly with public opinion turning against the TTP’s violence and perverse agenda. Two, the TTP may sense that its principal and last big sanctuary, in North Waziristan, will be taken away eventually and is trying to delay the squeeze there for as long as possible. For now, it does not appear the TTP is in fact genuinely interested in talks: Ihsanullah Ihsan made his offer while accompanied on camera by Adnan Rashid, whose presence will be a red rag to the army given his role in attacks against the military. And even if it were inclined to genuinely negotiate with the state, would the minimum conditions that the state would impose — giving up violence, evicting foreign militants and not disrupting the electoral process in Fata — ever be agreed to by the TTP?

If it were just a game of cat and mouse and PR battles between the TTP and the government that has been playing out in recent months, it would be easy enough to dismiss. But there is a disturbing, and perhaps not incidental, effect that the TTP’s offer is having: injecting the militants into mainstream politics. Picking favourites, suggesting some parties are more reliable guarantors than others and explicitly marking some parties as targets of violence have the effect of arranging parties in some vague way in pro-Taliban and anti-Taliban camps. The politicians need to be unequivocal in their rejection of militancy and the Taliban’s agenda. Or else the TTP may just end up hijacking the politicians’ agendas.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Restore the system
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
SENDING the Balochistan government home made sense at the time for both practical and symbolic reasons; the administration’s complete failure to protect the province’s residents needed to be acknowledged, in particular for those who had lost loved ones and those at risk of future attacks. But the JUI-F’s call for lifting governor’s rule — along with the election of a new chief minister — has some merit. For one, governor’s rule is an interruption of the democratic system. And while general elections might be just weeks away, giving any new provincial administration barely any time to govern, it is precisely for that reason that restoring the elected set-up is important. The existence of a functioning provincial legislature would make the democratic transition smoother, given that the processes laid out in the constitution for dissolving the assembly prior to elections and for appointing a caretaker chief minister require a legislature and a head of government to be in place. The major parties in the Balochistan Assembly would do well to jointly work out a way to lift governor’s rule and elect a new chief minister so that no questions are raised when the country goes to the polls.

Doing so would in no way imply, though, that all is right in Balochistan. Since the governor took charge the bureaucracy appears to have taken some steps to improve the security situation in the province. But preventing sectarian attacks, working out a settlement with nationalists and ending enforced disappearances and killings are enormous tasks that remain largely unaddressed. To confront these problems any new government, now or after the general elections, would have to shed the indifference that characterised the previous administration. And until the military establishment changes its approach and priorities in Balochistan, including giving the civilians more room to operate, no real transformation can take place. Restoring the democratic set-up at this point is important in the interests of avoiding any questions that could make the elections controversial or delay them. But that should not be interpreted to mean that Balochistan’s security problems are anywhere near being resolved.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Bilateral US-Iran talks?
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
IRAN’S positive but guarded response on Sunday to America’s offer of bilateral talks on the nuclear question deserves to be welcomed. Laced with usual anti-American criticism, the Iranian reaction to Vice President Joe Biden’s offer at the Munich security conference could serve to lower tensions and perhaps lead to the solution of an issue that has the potential to set the Middle East aflame. Saying that Mr Biden’s offer would be given “serious consideration”, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi asked the US to desist from its “threatening rhetoric” and reminded the world that Tehran had previously held direct talks with Washington in Baghdad several times. The mutual distrust was obvious when both Mr Biden and Mr Salehi asked each other to be “serious”. Serious they must be, because the several rounds of multilateral talks over the years have failed to produce a formula that could be acceptable to the West while satisfying Iran’s legitimate desire to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. By clinching an agreement, they could prove they have succeeded where larger talks have failed.

The two sides have to demonstrate their commitment to a negotiated solution. In America’s case, this involves restraining Israel, where a hard-liner, Benjamin Netanyahu, has become prime minister a third time. Periodic threats from Israeli leaders serve to vitiate the atmosphere and make Iran adopt a tougher position. At the same time, by accepting the Biden offer and negotiating in earnest, Tehran will dispel the impression that it relies on anti-Americanism to bolster the regime’s domestic position. It is also time Washington reviewed its sanctions policy. Iran is an oil power, and while it is under considerable pressure, the sanctions haven’t made Tehran desperate — even though those who suffer are common Iranian citizens. This strengthens rather than weakens the Iranian regime.

Editorials from DAWN Newspaper (6th Feb 2013)
 

[SIZE="2"][SIZE="4"][B][CENTER]Talking about talks[/CENTER][/B][/SIZE]

THE symbolism of the Karzai-Zardari meeting in the UK was clearer than its specifics. Six months for achieving a settlement with the Afghan Taliban is obviously overly optimistic; the slow progress and eventual breakdown of the Doha talks are evidence of how difficult it is to negotiate confidence building measures, let alone a peace agreement, with the insurgent group. It is also unclear what exactly the summit statement means by a “peace settlement” or “peace and reconciliation”, likely because the participants have no concrete idea of what they can expect out of talks with the Taliban. By all accounts, the process of talking to the group has so far been a slow, complex one with several different strands of dialogue facilitated by various countries but no single venture that has made significant progress.

Specifics aside, the meeting did send two important signals. For one, its positive vibes reinforced the increasing Pak-Afghan cooperation seen over the last year, particularly the former Pakistani prime minister’s public appeal to the Taliban in February 2012 to join intra-Afghan dialogue and Pakistan’s release of around two dozen Taliban prisoners. Second, while six months might be an unrealistic timeframe, it sends a message about the need for urgent and concrete forward movement in talks given the ongoing Western withdrawal and the approach of the upcoming Afghan presidential and parliamentary elections. For too long, the reconciliation process has been a piecemeal, decentralised and hesitant one. But the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan now agree on the importance of talking to the Taliban, and despite their refusal to negotiate with President Karzai, the Taliban have spoken to his representatives in France and Japan. That should be enough to re-launch the process in a more focused and vigorous way.

And that is perhaps what the summit statement meant when it supported the much-delayed opening of a Taliban office in Doha. But President Karzai has always been uncomfortable with that idea, and its success will in part depend on whether he feels reassured that he will not be sidelined. There is also the usual list of challenges in the way of reconciliation, including the residual presence the Americans want after 2014, ideological differences and ethnic rivalries. But the most pressing issue is the ongoing violence in Afghanistan. Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US need to work on a political settlement. But they also need to work on a ceasefire, and the latter shouldn’t have to wait for the former or for the complete withdrawal of American troops. Along with all the talk of peace after the Americans leave, the core group also needs to push for peace as soon as possible.


[SIZE="4"][B][CENTER]PML-N demands[/CENTER][/B][/SIZE]


THE problem with a ‘conceding mood’ is that the demands continue to pile up. This is what is happening here as we see pressures mounting on the present government to give relief to political groups in the run-up to a scheduled election. President Zardari’s much-flaunted magnanimity is under severe test. Dr Tahirul Qadri besieged Islamabad last month and from his cosy existence inside a five-star container he was able to draw a galaxy of ministers to his doorstep. Though the government did not give in to his main demands, it was seen to have been forced into taking Dr Qadri seriously. This was a cue for other, visibly much bigger, political entities in the country to confront the PPP government with sets of their own demands. The PML-N sit-in on Monday might not have been the tumultuous event some people were hoping for, but it did get the support of some other parties and the message, ‘for greater empowerment of the Election Commission of Pakistan’, was conveyed. The PML-N has upped the ante by coming up with a long list of other ‘necessary’ steps which it wants the government to take before the polls.

This is a real tall ask which requires the PPP administration to replace a number of officials, from provincial governors to heads of the government-run radio and television setups. The intent obviously is to stay in the public eye as a group which has deep distrust of the government — a line consistent with the argument which says President Zardari is an impediment in the conduct of fair polls. Since this plank is intrinsically linked to the PML-N’s election rallying cry against a “corrupt” PPP, the complaints about the Zardari government’s alleged excesses are going to grow louder as the election nears. While all demands deserve to be heard, there is still plenty of reason in the reply to the PML-N’s call for these wholesale changes, as enunciated the other day in a statement by Punjab Governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood: those who are asking for these changes in connection with the election now had the parliament as the proper platform to raise the issue. Not a bad counter-argument.


[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"]Syria’s hope for peace[/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]


THE Syrian opposition’s willingness to talk to the Damascus government indicates a major shift in the policies of the motley group of factions that comprise the anti-Baathist camp. This also shows that the civil war has reached a stalemate. President Bashar al-Assad, too, has signalled his desire to negotiate, but not with the National Coalition, which he says backs armed rebellion. On Monday, Moaz al-Khatib, a National Coalition leader, repeated that the opposition was willing to negotiate with the regime, and that it was President Assad who should say “yes or no”. Until recently, when the regime’s fall appeared imminent, the opposition’s stance was that it wouldn’t negotiate with the Baathist leadership and that President Assad must go. It had also rejected any provisional government if the president were part of it. On Sunday, Mr Khatib also had a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who remarked that the dissidents’ insistence on President Assad’s departure was the main reason for the continuation of the Syrian tragedy.

Now that this major hurdle has been crossed, President Assad must realise he is in a position to bring the slaughter to a halt. Mr Khatib, no doubt, ruled out direct talks with him and said that the opposition would talk to his vice president, who should be authorised by President Assad to negotiate on his behalf. This is not such a big obstacle.

After all, the vice president will negotiate according to the brief given by the president, and the final authority will rest with the head of state. The danger is that if the peace moves do not gain momentum, and fizzle out, the conflict would not only prolong, it could drag the region into the Syrian charnel, and perpetuate the misery of a nation which has already suffered tens of thousands dead.[/SIZE]

[B]07.02.2013[/B] [B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Not credible enough
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
THE White House’s description on Tuesday of drone strikes as being legal, ethical and wise is not the first time the American government has characterised them that way. That formulation has been used before, including in a speech last year by the chief counterterrorism adviser, and senior legal officers from the government, the military and the CIA have argued publicly that drone strikes are legal. And yet the memo leaked this week that lays out the legal basis for them has attracted much more attention in the United States, perhaps because it focuses on strikes against American citizens. But the same human rights issues the American media has now raised also apply to Pakistanis, Somalis, Yemenis and citizens of other countries killed without trial in drone attacks. This memo and earlier comments find it legal to kill members of Al Qaeda or its “associated forces” who pose a significant and imminent threat to the US. But as the American media has pointed out, it is unclear whether every person killed is about to attack the US. And this is all the more true in the Pakistani context, where ‘signature strikes’ target people, sometimes in groups, simply moving or acting in ways considered suspicious.

The American reaction to the memo also goes to the heart of something Pakistanis have been asking for — increased transparency. Recent media reports that rules being formulated for carrying out drone strikes will not be applicable to strikes in Pakistan have only increased the general suspicion here about the drone programme. The more the way the programme is actually carried out differs from the narrowly defined version described by American officials, the more room there will be to doubt its legality and ethicality. And the longer the US appears to carry out unilateral attacks without the real — and publicly acknowledged — involvement of the Pakistani government, the more mistrust and resentment these attacks will breed.

The Pakistani state has its own failures to account for. Going after some militant groups but sheltering or turning a blind eye to others has provided an excuse for another country to tackle a problem they say we can’t handle. Failing to evolve a mature partnership with the US means we haven’t been able to negotiate a joint drone programme. And North Waziristan, for any of a number of reasons, remains untouched. But nor is it enough for America to simply say, as it now repeatedly does, that drone attacks are carried out after careful scrutiny of targets. More information is needed to convince both Americans and Pakistanis that their civil liberties are not being eroded in the name of their security.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Candid camera
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
IMAGES of last week’s brutal slaying in Karachi of clerics belonging to Jamia Binnoria, caught by security cameras, are still fresh in the mind. Though the footage was recorded by cameras installed at a marriage hall near the scene of the crime, the incident has raised legitimate questions about the effectiveness of closed circuit television camera networks, particularly the official networks on which public money has been spent. Two such CCTV networks exist in the metropolis; one run by the city government and the other belonging to the police, which has not yet been ‘officially’ launched. But these as well as cameras installed at private facilities such as banks have failed to help in reducing crime, even though in many instances the faces of the culprits are clearly visible on camera. What is the utility of having a CCTV network if it is not used to identify and track down criminals? Such footage practically becomes excellent prime-time viewing, with the electronic media using it to draw more viewers. Surely there is a more constructive use for security cameras.

CCTV footage can play an integral role in beating crime and terrorism. The London tube and bus bombings of 2005, after which investigators sifted through extensive footage to zero in on the perpetrators, are a prime example of how to use the technology. But far from the potential of this technology being put to efficient use in a country that desperately needs effective crime detection, quite often it turns out that cameras that could have recorded footage are not even in working order. Now that the money has already been spent, the existing CCTV network in Karachi needs to be put to some good use by developing a comprehensive and integrated database. Further, no more money ought to be spent on them until law enforcement authorities come up with some data on how useful they have been. Not just in Karachi but to a lesser extent in some other urban centres too, law enforcement personnel tout CCTV networks as an important crime fighting measure. But are they actually any good? The public needs to be told.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Systemic issues
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
THE situation in Pakistan concerning polio leaves little room for optimism. When the WHO launched the Global Eradication Initiative in 1994, the disease paralysed roughly 3,50,000 children every year in 125 countries. Between then and now, most countries’ efforts in this regard have brought it under control. Not Pakistan, though, which is one of only three polio-endemic countries that remain. Internationally, the clouds seem to be darkening over the country’s polio eradication efforts. In December, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s independent monitoring board joined the voices calling for making it mandatory for Pakistanis to present proof of having been vaccinated against polio before travelling abroad. And international donors, who claim that they have been pumping in about $100m a year for polio-prevention initiatives, have refused to provide any more funds.

Fortunately, the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank has approved a $250m loan for the three-year polio eradication plan that has been devised by this government, and into which the latter has promised to inject a further $49m. Will this spur our efforts to combat the virus? There are indications to the contrary. In earlier years, when money for polio eradication was plentiful and adverse conditions such as the resistance by the TTP and others were absent, we failed to succeed. At root, the problem is at least partly systemic. The polio vaccination drive has indeed been massive, but it has had gaps and areas of thin coverage; there have been reservations over the integrity of the drops — and such flaws can simply not be tolerated when tackling a disease that spreads like polio. If any further evidence were needed of this, there is the measles issue: although the disease is completely preventable and the vaccination is common and non-controversial, dozens of children are sick or dying of it. Pakistan needs to vastly improve its vaccination awareness and coverage campaigns.

[B]08.02.2013[/B] [B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Move with caution[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

JUST because a move has political merit doesn’t mean its timing does. No one can argue with the spirit behind Dr Tahirul Qadri’s demands: who wouldn’t want free and fair elections? Pursue such a goal without considering timing and methods, though, and one could end up with no elections at all. Dr Qadri’s agenda remains unclear, so perhaps that logic doesn’t fully apply in his case. But Imran Khan’s agenda is much easier to speculate on. He is on the cusp of breaking through as a significant politician whose party can make a dent at the polls. So while he is well within his rights and the norms of politics to be talking to potential allies, he should think more carefully before getting behind a dubious agenda with potentially disruptive consequences.

It is all very well for Mr Khan to claim that under no circumstances does he want elections to be delayed. And presumably, given how important these polls are for him, he really doesn’t. But it is hard to square that sentiment with his demand for a new Election Commission of Pakistan so late in the game, especially when several top legal minds consider the current ECP to be constitutional and when there is no clear constitutional mechanism for disbanding it and creating a new one. The process for appointing the ECP that is now in place as a result of the 18th Amendment is the most inclusive the country has ever had. So even if those jumping on Dr Qadri’s disband-the-ECP bandwagon — including the PML-Q, even as it works out its election strategy with the PPP — think the current commission isn’t perfect, they should ask themselves if it is biased enough for them to risk delaying a democratic transition.

The chief election commissioner did the right thing yesterday by taking a public stand against the dissolution of the ECP. The hope is that he will not resign out of pressure or frustration before seeing the country through these historic elections. The best way for the ECP to respond to critics is to carry out its task in the most reasonable but independent way possible, and it has shown it can do this through its decisions to carry out voter verification but not delimitation in Karachi, and to ban government recruitment but consider some requests on a case-by-case basis. Much will also depend on the Supreme Court’s choices. As it responds to Dr Qadri’s petition asking for the commission to be scrapped, the SC would do well to keep in mind the critical juncture the country stands at today.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Time to act
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
IT has lingered uneasily in the background for years now: a highly politicised individual occupying the highest apolitical office in the land. And after years of staying in the background, the matter of President Zardari simultaneously serving as co-chairman of the PPP appears to be coming to a head in the Lahore High Court. The next hearing of the so-called ‘dual offices’ case is set for Feb 15 and perhaps it is time for Mr Zardari and the PPP to do some forward thinking. What worked in the uncertain and difficult days of 2008 does not necessarily make good democratic and institutional sense in 2013. This paper has in recent times suggested that President Zardari consider stepping down as co-chairman of the PPP and reject any party office while serving as the country’s president. Now, it is time to make that suggestion more emphatic: President Zardari should resign his party office immediately; it is the right thing to do from a national, democratic standpoint and it is time the awkward and unsustainable official dual role of Mr Zardari be brought to an end.

Why? For one, a general election is around the corner and formal campaigning about to begin. The PPP is a major contender in the upcoming elections and the whole point of having a neutral caretaker set-up is to minimise both the perception and the reality of political interference in the election cycle. The president has few formal powers left but perceptions do matter.
Officially combining the presidential megaphone with the PPP platform during the campaign season would be a regressive step and would send a signal that narrow politics continue to triumph over broader democratic goals. Second, yet another crisis between the PPP and the superior judiciary at this juncture would create all manner of unneces-sary distractions and
re-energise speculation about elections somehow being put off. Third, and a point interrelated to the previous one, there is a burden on the politicians to secure the democratic project and improve its quality: drag it into controversy, as the dual-office issue has, and unnecessary threats to the system linger.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Gwadar port
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
TURNING Gwadar into a modern port must become one of Pakistan’s planning priorities, Indian objections being irrelevant and of no consequence. As the foreign office spokesman said on Wednesday, it was none of New Delhi’s business which country or party Islamabad decided to work with on that port.

A day earlier, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony had said that China’s “role” in Gwadar was “a matter of concern”. His remarks came after Pakistan handed over the management of the port from Singapore’s PSA International to state-run Chinese Overseas Port Holdings. Already, Pakistan is quite late in making Gwadar a going concern. Even though it was little better than a fishing village when Pakistan acquired it from Oman in 1958, the decades that followed saw little activity that could develop Gwadar and turn it into a major port to give relief to the overworked Karachi docks.

A flurry of development activity took place in Gwadar and Balochistan during the last decade. Though this produced some justified resentment among a section of the Baloch, who feared they would be denied the benefits of progress, the port was nevertheless developed with Chinese help and is now in a position to receive bigger ships. But sloth has characterised activities at the port for quite some time. This needs to be altered, and Gwadar readied for the vital part it has to play in the region’s economic development. Situated close to the Straits of Hormuz, this Makran coast port has the potential to become the hub of an energy corridor running all the way from China’s western parts to the oil-rich Gulf. But this presupposes both the
prioritisation of Gwadar’s development and the improvement of law and order in the hinterland. With unsettled conditions in Balochistan, Gwadar’s development into a bustling commercial port will remain a dream.

[B]09.02.2013 [/B][B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Talks with TTP
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
THE timing was likely a coincidence, but the stark contrast in the comments made on Thursday by Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Nawaz Sharif says much about the confused response of the state to the threat from militancy. In a meeting with outgoing Isaf commander in Afghanistan Gen John Allen, the Pakistan army chief is quoted in an Isaf press release as having acknowledged that “there is more to do”. Yes, there is more to do, Mr Sharif echoed in a statement of his own, but it is for the government to better negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban. What is particularly striking about Mr Sharif’s statement is how it contained not a word of condemnation of the TTP’s violence or its agenda. Instead, the PML-N supremo saw fit to throw in several digs at the government for its “track record” of unreliability.

Since Mr Sharif has raised the issue of a track record, it would make sense to examine the track record of the Taliban themselves in both honouring previous peace agreements and in carrying out ugly and savage attacks against both state and society repeatedly. Which peace agreement have the Taliban ever adhered to? Have they evicted the foreign terr-orists operating among them on Pakistani soil? Have they renounced ties with Al Qaeda? Have they laid down their arms and accepted the democratic system? Have they exhibited any tolerance for the basic principles of the Pakistani constitution? The answer to each of those questions is no — so perhaps the more relevant question for Mr Sharif, and others advocating peace deals with the TTP at this stage, is: who will guarantee that the TTP will abide by the terms of an acceptable peace deal, and how? It’s almost perverse that the offer of talks by the Pakistani Taliban has come in the middle of an alarming wave of violence carried out by them — and yet some politicians are advocating extending the hand of peace to groups that want nothing more than to hack off that arm and plunge a knife into the heart of the very idea of a modern state.

Sifting through the possible reasons for the TTP’s offer of talks, it is apparent that driving a wedge in politics and society was a likely priority. As Gen Kayani and his army have lamented — though of course there is much more than meets the eye there — the state cannot win a war in which society and politicians are divided about the very necessity of that war. Mr Sharif appears to have taken the TTP’s bait and the country will be all the worse off for it.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Women in sport
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
IT is unfortunate that Pakistan often sees progress in many fields falter because of a lack of follow-through. The country had hopes of turning in a reasonable performance at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup under way in India, despite security hurdles in the host country that the players were not prepared for. But the team failed to win any of the four matches it played, and ended up ranked eighth. The factors blamed for this dismal performance are as varied as poor selection of the playing XI and an inability to utilise new talent to the best advantage; though the Pakistan Cricket Board tried to increase the team’s chances by bringing in former Test player Basit Ali as batting coach, he was appointed too late in the day to be able to make much of a difference to the quality of play. The tale is one of an unprofessional approach on the part of the PCB, and it is this that must be altered if we are to see wins again — there have been several notable ones — and remind ourselves that reaching excellence is not beyond reach.

If the PCB is not doing enough to support and build up the women’s team, the managing bodies of the other major sports in which women participate are doing even less. There is a women’s football team, too, which has to exist because Fifa rules stipulate it — but existing is about all it does. The women’s hockey team, once relatively high-profile, is not active on the scene now. Everywhere, it’s the same story: lack of meaningful effort on the part of the state to promote women in sport by providing facilities and popularising their presence on the field. The problem is not that Pakistan does not have sportswomen; it is that they receive very little institutional support. This means that where we see winners, it is largely because of the players’ own initiative, grit and resources — which are also limited. In a country whose leaders frequently boast about a commitment to women’s empowerment, that is a sorry indictment.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]HEC autonomy
[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
A NEW controversy has emerged over the National Assembly’s attempt to amend legislation regarding the Higher Education Commission. The Higher Education Commission Amendment Bill 2012 seeks, among other things, to bring the institution under the Federal Ministry of Education and Training. This has been criticised by vice chancellors of public sector universities in Pakistan, with some warning of political motives behind the move. First, with the current assembly nearing the end of its life, it hardly makes sense to push through legislation that concerns something as critical as higher education, especially if important stakeholders have reservations about it. Second, lawmakers should listen to academia’s concerns and not make any politically inspired amendments to the law. It is important that any changes made to the HEC’s status be dictated by the need to improve the institution’s performance, not by vengeance. In this context it is useful to remember that the HEC did not yield to pressure during the saga of lawmakers’ fake degrees.

Of course the HEC is not a perfect organisation and there is room for improvement. Critics have in the past said there is an undue focus on producing an increasing number of PhDs and establishing more universities instead of concentrating on quality. There are concerns about lax anti-plagiarism checks, while it is also pointed out that the HEC favours the natural sciences at the expense of the social sciences. While these and other relevant issues must be addressed to improve the HEC’s performance, there can be no compromise on its autonomous status. We have seen the effects that decades of politicisation and mismanagement have had on the primary education sector. Nearly all indicators regarding that sector are negative. The HEC — with all its faults — has made progress in improving higher education in Pakistan over the last decade. Efforts to rein in the institution must be resisted.

[B]10.02.2013[/B] [B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Blissfully asleep[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

WARNINGS of serious difficulties regarding the foreign exchange reserves are refusing to go away, despite repeated attempts on the part of the government to either ignore the alarm bells, or to minimise the problem. A serious situation has arisen as a consequence. Market players and other stakeholders are now asking in earnest: is the government actually aware that there is a problem? Or does it actually believe its own denials of any difficulties? Thus far, there are no signs of any latent understanding on the part of the government that the ship of state is veering towards dangerous waters, and that this is happening precisely when an election is approaching, and an interim government is about to take charge.

In interviews given on the record, Minister of State for Finance Salim Mandviwala has minimised the challenges on the reserves front, saying there are no difficulties in making repayments to the IMF, nor will any difficulties arise in the foreseeable future. The State Bank has also shied away from acknowledging that there may be difficulties ahead on the reserves front, preferring to say only that debt repayments are drawing down reserves and the consequent shrinkage of the import coverage ratio is, “unfortunately”, set to continue. Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh is quiet, and giving no indications of busily working to redress any problems behind the scenes.
Neither the fiscal policy statement, nor the debt policy statements released by the finance ministry give any indications that Pakistan may end up knocking on the doors of the IMF during the year 2013. In fact, going by government pronouncements and body language, it would appear that all is well.

But the markets fear that the government is simply hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock again and again. The refusal to issue a clear-cut acknowledgement of Pakistan’s serious economic difficulties is now feeding confusion in the markets, and people are preferring to hedge all bets. The custodians of Pakistan’s economic stability are duty-bound to clarify where they see the ship of state going. If Pakistan’s is washed up on the doorstep of the IMF in the next six to eight months, today’s economic custodians will have some accountability to face. They will need to answer some basic questions. How did they fail to recognise the growing vulnerabilities within the economy? Why did they minimise the warnings being sounded by quarters such as the IMF, or other multilaterals? What will it say for their quality of mind, or their intellectual integrity, if their assurances of today are shattered on the rocky reefs of tomorrow?

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]The contagion spreads[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

N a globalised world, it seems that religious militants are also exchanging notes on tactics and strategy. On Friday, gunmen in the northern Nigerian city of Kano killed at least 10 polio vaccinators, nine of them women. The grisly incident drew instant comparisons to similar attacks in Pakistan at the end of last year. Suspicion for the attacks has fallen on Boko Haram, dubbed by some as the ‘Nigerian Taliban’. The group is one of Africa’s deadliest Islamist militant outfits; it has reportedly killed hundreds in Nigeria, including members of the security forces, Christians and those among Muslim clerics opposed to Boko Haram’s obscurant worldview. As in Pakistan, some clerics in Nigeria have cast doubt over polio vaccines, claiming they are a Western ‘plot’ to eliminate Muslims. Such resistance to anti-polio campaigns has existed in Nigeria for around a decade. Apparently taking another cue from Pakistani militants, Boko Haram has set a number of schools on fire in Nigeria, although militants in this country have been far more destructive, reducing hundreds of schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata to rubble.

Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only polio-endemic countries left in the world, with the West African state reporting the highest number of polio cases last year.
Considering this, the silence of Muslim religious authorities — in these countries and elsewhere — is unforgivable. Militants are dooming the future of children in Muslim countries, or those with large numbers of Muslims, making them vulnerable to disease and forcing them to stay illiterate. Unfortunately, the religious authorities have not yet mustered the courage to confront their extremist worldview. Institutions with influence in the Islamic world — such as Egypt’s Al Azhar and the Saudi religious establishment — need to play a far greater role in countering militant propaganda against polio vaccinations. The OIC should also take up the issue with the seriousness it deserves. Meanwhile, the help of those Muslim countries that have successfully elimin-ated the virus, Iran and Bangladesh among them, must be sought to counter the situation where polio persists. Militants cannot be allowed to jeopardise the future of countless children in the remaining polio-endemic countries.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]The ties that bind[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

IS it tone-deafness or brazenness? One of the two must be behind the president’s embrace of a massive property in Lahore reportedly gifted to him by Pakistan’s most controversial real-estate tycoon. And even if it wasn’t a gift, the mansion’s location in Malik Riaz’s Bahria Town means that it doesn’t take a public-relations genius to figure out how bad the optics are. Rumours of the businessman’s closeness to the president — and other top government and military officials — have long done the rounds, and in the public’s eyes this action will only connect the two men more directly than ever. The message is clear: the country may grumble on about corruption in politics, but the head of state doesn’t particularly care. And the details don’t help; even if half the rumours about several acres of land, a helipad and a runway, bomb- and bullet-proof exteriors, and a price tag in the billions of rupees are true, they make the president look like a man remarkably out of touch with the economic problems of ordinary Pakistanis. Sadly the sprawling estate nearby of his political arch rivals, the Sharifs, is a reminder that the lack of sensitivity cuts across party lines.

The irony is that the point of the Lahore house is reportedly to serve as a base from which to strengthen the PPP’s electoral prospects in Punjab and deflect some of the Supreme Court’s irritation in the dual-office case. Call a building Bilawal House instead of President House and move it from Islamabad to Lahore, and somehow that will resolve the contradiction involved in a head of state strategising and negotiating, if not campaigning, for a particular party in the run-up to elections. The concrete images of the Lahore mansion, though, might prove a little harder to shake off.

[B]11.02.2013 [/B][B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Case closed[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

THE president has immunity against criminal prosecution under the Pakistani constitution — thus has declared the Swiss attorney general, according to the law ministry here. Has the long-running and vexing so-called Swiss letter saga finally come to an end? It would appear so, though never say never in Pakistan. After all, anything is possible, as Prime Minister Ashraf discovered in the rental power case, where the Supreme Court caught the country by surprise and seemingly ordered the arrest of the prime minister as Tahirul Qadri’s thousands were staging a sit-in near parliament last month. But with matters now in the hands of the Swiss authorities, who are presumably less unpredictable than their Pakistani counterparts, it would appear that at least as far as the millions of dollars once upon a time lodged in Swiss accounts and allegedly belonging to President Zardari are concerned, the file can be considered shut.

In a better world, there would be hard lessons learned. Article 248(2) of the constitution has always read: “No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or a Governor in any court during his term of office.” While an argument could be made that the Swiss letter only sought to reinstate Pakistan’s role as a civilian party laying claim to the allegedly ill-gotten gains lying in Swiss accounts, it was always a stretch that the Swiss legal system would dance to the tune of Pakistani indecision: prosecution under Nawaz Sharif and then Gen Musharraf; then withdrawal of the cases under the latter after political realities at home had changed; and then the attempted reinstatement of the withdrawn cases at the behest of the superior judiciary. Unsurprisingly, the Swiss probably are not very interested in having their legal system used as a pawn in Pakistani political games. Should the court here have known better? Yes. Should it have acted differently? Yes. Will it absorb the right lessons from this episode? We don’t know.

As for the PPP, will it learn that there is a different way to approach challenges than always as a zero-sum political game? Farooq Naek was the law minister when the NRO-related matter first erupted and he was the law minister again when the Swiss letter was finally dispatched — how much time and energy could have been saved had calmer, more reasoned counsel been listened to earlier? And for the public at large, a more fundamental challenge: to argue Mr Zardari has immunity and the democratic transition needed to be kept on track is not to deny Pakistan has a serious corruption problem; how does it build pressure to have cleaner representatives without bringing the democratic system itself down?

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]A complex situation[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

THE gravity of the security situation in Karachi is clear to all. Several deaths a day, whether due to sectarian, ethnic, political or criminal activity, have become a depressing routine. All too often the city finds itself shutting down out of sheer fear when some party or the other puts out a strike call. The crime rate, meanwhile, remains unacceptably high in the country’s largest metropolis, where paramilitary forces are deployed on a regular basis. Do the police and other law enforcement leaderships have a plan to counter the situation? Perhaps not, judging from the answers provided by senior police officials to questions posed by a bench of the Supreme Court in Karachi on Friday. At the hearing on the Karachi killings case, it was pointed out that some 400 under-trial policemen are currently on duty. Similarly, the bench observed that it had earlier asked Nadra and the IG police to set up a joint cell to identify illegal immigrants that law enforcement agencies often simplistically blame for violence in the city. This has not been done. Indeed, beyond promises of investigations and inquiries, few meaningful moves have been in evidence.

While the law enforcement agencies must certainly, and urgently, do more, so must other groups, including political and religious parties. The reasons behind organised violence in Karachi are complex, and the combined failure of the police and the lawmakers has led to a situation where new, more lethal groups continue to crop up. Experience has dictated that when there is agreement among the leaderships of political, religious and other groups to ensure peace in the city, organised violence is minimal. Such a lasting agreement, with focus on political, sectarian and ethnic concerns, is what it will take to free the city from being held hostage to violence. The Supreme Court could help by giving firmer guidelines, and law enforcement agencies need to step up to the challenge. But ultimately, it is political and other stakeholders who hold the key to a peaceful Karachi. Tragically, going by past experience, it is unlikely they will use it anytime soon.

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Clean cricket[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]

THE recent hearings of disgraced Pakistan players Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif at the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne have given the two banned cricketers renewed hope of making a comeback. The two men, along with young fast bowler Mohammad Aamir, were banned by the International Cricket Council in 2011 following the infamous spot-fixing scam in England that saw the three serving sentences in a British prison. While Aamir has since pleaded guilty to the charges, both Asif and Salman have maintained their innocence and have now decided to contest allegations that they connived with bookies to underperform in the Lord’s Test against host England in the 2010 series.

Whether the CAS overturns their ban or reduces it to give some reprieve to the disgraced duo is not as significant as the fact that the current Pakistan team, under the able Misbahul Haq, has come a long way from the turbulent times of 2010 and has done well overall to re-emerge as a cricketing force while keeping unwanted controversies at bay. To their credit, Pakistan have not only won four of their last five Test series, the national players have also successfully managed to resurrect the country’s image through their impeccable conduct on and off the field in the last two years, earning praise from the ICC and other quarters. Only time will tell what fate has in store for both Salman and Asif at the CAS, which is set to announce its verdict early next month. But the induction of any tainted element in the national team at this stage would once again put Pakistan cricket under the microscope and would undo the good work done by the players as well as by the current Pakistan Cricket Board.