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Predator Monday, April 13, 2009 10:12 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Ominous conditions[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Monday, 13 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE systematic pressure being exerted on Pakistan is souring relations with America by the day. The latest setback comes in the form of conditions attached by the US to a new aid bill for Pakistan. In an ill-advised departure from practical politics, the bill contains India-specific clauses that are bound to raise yet more hackles in Islamabad and the GHQ. It seems the Obama administration has bought the Indian line on Pakistan hook, line and sinker. America, apparently, has come to see South Asia through the eyes of India, a country whose regional ambitions have always been viewed with suspicion by its neighbours. Foreign assistance almost invariably comes with strings attached, but such provisos generally apply to worldwide commitments or capacity-building undertakings by the recipient country. Introducing the India factor changes the picture completely and makes the US approach wholly one-sided. The Indian argument is bought wholesale while no thought is given — at least not publicly — to Pakistan’s reservations about India’s growing role in Afghanistan. Why are Indians constructing roads in Afghanistan that lead to the Pakistani border? Why is no heed paid to accusations, grounded in reality or otherwise, that third parties operating out of Afghanistan have been fomenting rebellion in Balochistan? Why is state-sponsored terrorism in Indian-occupied Kashmir not condemned by the US? These questions need to be answered by Washington before it zeroes in on Pakistan.

Displeasure over recent developments is evident from the almost defiant line now being taken by Islamabad. Strong differences on how to contain militancy have been aired publicly by both sides. Trust deficits have been acknowledged. On the Pakistani side, the executive branch and the security establishment appear to have come up with a unified stance. Washington, meanwhile, has gone a step further from the old tactic of leaking stories to the US press while publicly praising Pakistan’s efforts. Top US officials now openly accuse the Inter-Services Intelligence of colluding with the Taliban and berate Pakistan’s security apparatus for not tackling the militants head-on.

This is a huge step backwards. No one can deny that Pakistan has made some huge mistakes — as has the US — in dealing with the insurgency raging in the tribal belt and parts of the NWFP.

Deals struck by successive governments in Islamabad have allowed the Taliban to establish safe havens, to regroup and redouble recruitment drives. Be that as it may, the harsh views currently being voiced by Washington can only be counterproductive. Pakistan is supposed to be America’s front-line ally in the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Yet Washington seems to repose greater trust in New Delhi than in Islamabad. This mindset will not deliver the desired results. The more tangled the web we weave, the greater the chance that neither Islamabad nor Washington — or New Delhi, for that matter — will emerge on the winning side.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Education policy on hold[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Monday, 13 Apr, 2009[/B]

NOT many were surprised when the education policy that should have been announced on March 23 was put on hold yet again by the cabinet last week. After all, knowing the priorities — and education is low among these — of successive governments there was really no room for shock when the cabinet postponed its approval of the draft policy of the federal education ministry. The main reason cited for the postponement by the information minister was that the policy was not comprehensive enough. It is strange that having worked on the draft for a year, the ministry should fail to draw up a sound implementation plan and targets to be met within a specified time frame. Hence the draft will be sent back to the provinces and we can expect it to go into cold storage.

Meanwhile, the challenges before the education sector continue to be formidable, especially as no relief is in sight. The three major issues that are undermining education in Pakistan remain unaddressed. One is the quality of education — at least in the public sector — which is deplorable. Second, there is no effective and independent monitoring to ensure that policies are being implemented transparently and corruption is being checked to prevent wholesale damage to the education sector. Third, the capacity to utilise funds flowing into the sector to the maximum, and in a judicious manner, is not being developed. Obviously, all this calls for policy guidelines that may differ in detail in different areas but broadly follow similar principles all over the country. Hence the need for a national policy.

The danger is that the spread of education will be curtailed enormously due to spiralling inflation and the unceasing quest for profits by the private sector. The two have combined to make education costly and beyond the reach of ordinary persons. The new concept of public-private partnership promoted by the government assigns a growing role to private entrepreneurs in education. That has left the public sector even more deprived of funds and attention. The low-income groups have few choices. They can send their children to government schools that impart virtually no education. Or they can enrol them in private schools that may teach them something but leave the family impoverished in the process. Parents have yet another option. They may not educate their child at all, and that is what the bulk of them are doing.

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[B][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Without helmets in Lahore[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/B]

[B]Monday, 13 Apr, 2009[/B]

OFFICIAL attempts to make helmets mandatory for Lahore’s motorcyclists have proved to be a non-starter. In fact it is difficult to detect any trace of enthusiasm or resolve on the part of the city authorities to ensure that unprotected heads are no longer seen on two-wheelers. April 1 — the deadline set by the city’s traffic police department for motorcyclists to buy and don helmets or else pay a fine — has come and gone. And hardly anybody has paid heed. Bareheaded motorcyclists swarm Lahore’s streets without fear of punishment. This state of affairs is being blamed on the double change of guard at the senior level of the Lahore traffic police in a matter of weeks. But the malaise runs much deeper and is not merely about a communication gap between the outgoing administration and the incoming one. In one sense, this is how the writ of government works in Pakistan — more in words and less in deeds. But in another, the blatant disregard for this important safety rule shows a collective indifference, in fact disrespect, to whatever the authorities enjoin, even when their orders concern public safety.

Understandably, disobeying authority in certain situations is the only form of protest, even if it is not acceptable from most points of view. But it is still incomprehensible why people are so careless about their own safety and give precedence to a defiant attitude over instructions for their own well-being. This cavalier approach to life is perplexing and even excuses like not wanting to don safety gear because motorcyclists find it suffocating in the summer are not convincing. It does not matter whether or not there is a trust deficit between the government and the public. Our careless attitudes towards rules and wrong-headed notions of personal comfort can only bring us grief, especially in matters of safety. A high number of deaths among motorcyclists has been caused by head injuries sustained in road accidents. Most of these deaths could have been avoided if the helmet issue had not been turned into a statement of defiance. That it has only turns the tragic into the horrifying.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - North American Press A call for action[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Monday, 13 Apr, 2009[/B]

THERE is a jarring disconnect between the downward spiral of the economy and the prime minister’s upbeat pronouncements.

Canada is losing jobs faster than at any time since the painful recession of the early 1980s. Statistics Canada reported yesterday that the national unemployment rate has reached eight per cent, with the country’s manufacturing heartland bearing the brunt of the bad news. At 8.7 per cent, Ontario’s rate is the highest outside the Atlantic provinces. Toronto’s 8.8 per cent unemployment jumped a half-point in a month, pushing it higher than any major city outside Ontario.

Nationally, some 357,000 people have lost their jobs since the downturn began last October. In Edmonton yesterday, Harper shrugged off the figures and said his government is already putting an “awful lot of money” into supporting the unemployed and retraining them for different careers. The numbers suggest otherwise. Remarkably, even as the number of unemployed rises, the percentage of the jobless who are collecting Employment Insurance (EI) is declining. Last December, 33 per cent of unemployed Ontarians received benefits. A month later, that figure had dropped to 31.84 per cent. The bottom line is that two out of three unemployed workers do not qualify for EI in this province. By contrast, 42.8 per cent of unemployed Canadians nationally qualify.

That’s because outdated and discriminatory rules set by Ottawa make it harder to qualify for EI in areas like Toronto and much of southern Ontario, where the economy was once healthier. But with economic activity slowing down dramatically in Ontario, the notion that a laid-off worker can bounce back to another job faster in this province than elsewhere is unsupportable.

[B]Toronto Star[/B]

The prime minister has obstinately refused to relax the requirements for EI. Indeed, his human resources minister, Diane Finley, has declared of the unemployed: “We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it.”

For many of these workers, the only recourse is to seek welfare. And welfare rules require recipients to strip themselves of most of their assets before qualifying — thereby further handicapping them when the economy eventually rebounds. Harper persists in boasting that Canada is doing its fair share among G20 nations in stimulating the economy. But economic stimulus is about more than building infrastructure or cutting taxes. It’s also about keeping workers afloat when they lose their jobs through no fault of their own, so that they can continue to meet their basic expenses and, at the same time, keep money circulating in the economy.

The longer the Harper government waits to make EI more accessible, the more blame it will bear for letting workers down. — (April 10)

Predator Tuesday, April 14, 2009 10:46 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Thailand on the brink[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 14 Apr, 2009[/B]

POLITICAL showdown on the streets of Thailand is nothing new. Since 2006 when its populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra was eased out by an army coup, the country has been in the grip of upheaval. But the latest round of unrest could have more serious repercussions. On Saturday demonstrators forced the Asean summit to be cancelled. A state of emergency has been imposed and Mr Thaksin, who is in exile, is calling for a “revolution”. It seems unlikely that a constitutional solution can be found to the crisis. It is plain that Mr Thaksin cannot be wished away as his supporters’ electoral victory in 2007 clearly established. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the present prime minister, had to be installed by resort to dubious tactics. The battle lines have now been drawn.

While the prime minister is supported by the palace, army, bureaucracy and big business, he has been facing the wrath of the people. Mr Thaksin, who emerged as the hero of the masses in the years he ruled Thailand, continues to be popular with the downtrodden. His democratic credentials are not impeccable and his financial integrity is not above board either. But he enjoys the support of the oppressed whose cause he espouses. When in office he adopted pro-poor populist policies that provided for low-cost healthcare and improved education for the common man. The tussle has now translated into a colour-coded battle between Mr Thaksin’s “Red Shirts” and the “Yellow Shirts” of the ruling party.

Thailand’s political crisis is taking the country to the brink. Its economy is being destabilised and the value of the baht is falling as investors shy away. At the root of Thailand’s political chaos is the socio-economic chasm that has divided the privileged elite minority and the disadvantaged and marginalised majority which can never hope for social justice in a system heavily weighted in favour of the rich. Though the contenders for power adopt similar political styles — both swear by democracy and look towards the army for help in their power struggle — the determining factor will be their ability to actually deliver the goods to the poor.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Nizam-i-Adl regulation[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 14 Apr, 2009[/B]

DID the federal government do the right thing by placing the Nizam-i-Adl regulation before parliament for debate? We believe it did. With a matter as complex as Swat, there are inevitably many aspects to consider. Begin with the ANP. The party threatened to pull out of the federal government if President Zardari did not sign the Nizam-i-Adl regulation immediately. But this was not the kind of politics the country needed. Granted the constitution gives the president the authority to make “regulations for the peace and good government of a Provincially Administered Tribal Area”, and the Sharia deal was struck on the understanding that the president was on board. But what the ANP and TNSM agreed to implement in the Malakand Division is no ordinary change — it effectively cedes judicial control of a part of Pakistan to a band of militants who have been waging a savage war against the state.

Surely the correct approach politically was to bring parliament into the loop on such a dramatic change to the state’s writ. However, President Zardari must shoulder some of the blame for the mess. If the pact with the TNSM was unacceptable, then why did the president originally give his approval, tacit or otherwise? And if parliament was the right forum to debate the issue, then why wait for two months to do so?

The fact is that both the ANP and the president painted themselves into corner over the Nizam-i-Adl. The ANP perhaps calculated that in caving in to the militants’ demand in Swat, the party would at least be able to govern the rest of the province and consolidate support among the electorate. Having relied on the president for backing, the ANP found itself in an awkward position vis-à-vis the militants to whom they promised much. As for President Zardari, he tried to appease all sides — an impossible contortion act always destined to leave both allies and enemies fuming.

The Nizam-i-Adl has been approved by parliament and promulgated by the president. But the debate in parliament was yet another missed opportunity. The bigger point is that the politicians still need to reach a consensus on how to counter militancy. When force is used some segments in the political spectrum erupt in anger and indignation. When peace deals are pursued, other segments denounce them as appeasement. Yet, no one seems serious about devising a credible strategy to fight militancy. The time for platitudes has passed. If Swat and the Nizam-i-Adl were a test case, then the politicians have not done justice to finding that credible strategy. Already the militants have spread to Buner. Mardan and Swabi seem to be the next likely districts. Simply endorsing the Nizam-i-Adl in a bid to bring peace to the Malakand Division may be too little and have come too late.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Desperate times[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 14 Apr, 2009[/B]

BUFFETED by ill winds beyond their control, people are often left with no option but to protest in the hope of publicising their cause and attracting the intervention of either the state or influential individuals. Viewed from this perspective, it becomes clear that in a large number of cases, what is seen as a ‘protest’ is actually a call for help. Yet all too often in Pakistan, many such appeals go unheeded — even in the most desperate cases. The lack of response deepens societal despondency and strengthens the increasingly common construction of the state as an entity divorced from the concerns of the citizens. Matters are worsened by the immense disparities of power and privilege between the rich and the poor, and the fact that the elected representatives of the people show few signs of looking out for the electorate’s concerns.

The most basic function of the state and its institutions lies in providing an environment in which citizens can flourish, and in setting up an effective justice system where complaints can be heard and quickly adjudicated upon. Notwithstanding the success of the movement for the independence of the judiciary, this is an area where Pakistan continues to have a poor track record. So, in cases where citizens perceive themselves as having no option but to try and bring attention to their plight through desperate means, it is incumbent upon the state and its functionaries to, at the very least, provide a response. If this is not forthcoming, there is a danger of the aggrieved parties or persons resorting to violence, either against the state or in terms of taking the law into their own hands.

For this reason the plight of people like 70-year-old Wali Dad, who died in Karachi on Sunday after a 20-day hunger strike against the excesses of his landlord in interior Sindh, must be taken very seriously indeed. No doubt he leaves behind friends and family whose disillusionment with the state apparatus will only have grown, with the added lesson that peaceful protest harvests no dividends. In a country where armed insurgencies are under way, it is of vital importance that the state refrain from giving cause for further loss of faith in its effectiveness, which only provides more cannon fodder to the militants who continue to make inroads. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It is abundantly clear that times are getting desperate for average Pakistanis, howsoever peace-loving they may be.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press Nawaz Sharif should take a clear stand[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 14 Apr, 2009[/B]

EVER since the democratic government came to power, the relationship of the two major political parties of the country namely the PPP and PML-N has been in a constant state of flux. While sometimes they are on good terms, confrontation has often led to a deadlock on various issues. Following the restoration of the judges, the people hoped that both parties would have cordial relations.

The PPP took the lead and filed a review petition regarding the disqualification of the Sharif brothers which led to the restoration of Shahbaz Sharif as chief minister of Punjab. It was expected that the PML-N would opt for reconciliation after this. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

The PML-N does not plan to join the PPP-led federal government. The apparent reasons behind this decision seem to be the deepening economic crisis, load-shedding, lawlessness, unemployment and other pressing problems. At this juncture whoever will rule the country is likely to lose popular support.

Nawaz Sharif does have conditions for joining the federal government: implement the Charter of Democracy and repeal the 17th Amendment. In retaliation the PPP wants to be in opposition in Punjab. It has indicated that it would join the Punjab government if the Sharifs’ party agreed to join the cabinet at the centre.

President Asif Ali Zardari has directed Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to make a last-ditch effort to coax the PML-N into joining the federal cabinet; otherwise the PPP will sit on the opposition benches of the Punjab Assembly. For the PPP leadership it would be ideal if the PPP joins the PML-N-led Punjab government, and the PML-N joins the cabinet at the centre. Furthermore, there were differences between the central and provincial government over the Swat agreement.

[B]Ibrat[/B]

How else is one supposed to reconcile? President Zardari has complained about the aggressive position taken by the PML-N which has endangered democracy in the country. A few weeks back speculations led to great uncertainty.

We think that it is Nawaz Sharif’s responsibility to adopt a path of reconciliation. Especially now that he has his government in Punjab. There are various pressing issues such as drone attacks, terrorism, which need attention. At present it is only the PPP which has to deal with all these issues. Cooperation is essential for the welfare of the country. The ANP is a coalition partner at the centre but its influence is limited to the provincial level.

These problems facing Pakistan cannot be solved unless there is cooperation between the PPP and PML-N. Strangely, Nawaz Sharif despite understanding this critical situation faced by the country is unwilling to do so. He may advocate reconciliation but is not taking concrete measures to forge a working relationship with the PPP. The PML-N which claims to be a well-wisher of the country should come forward and instead of using rhetorical devices take some practical steps in the greater interest of the people and the country. — (April 11)

— Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi

Predator Wednesday, April 15, 2009 09:20 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Tokyo donors’ meeting[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 15 Apr, 2009[/B]

IT is argued by some that the physical battle against militancy has been a drain on Pakistan’s resources. Seen in this light, the prime minister’s adviser on finance is stretching a point when he says that health and education suffered over the last few years because funds had to be diverted towards security needs. The fact of the matter is that healthcare and education have been routinely neglected by successive governments, irrespective of their ideology or the geopolitical needs of the hour.

The word from Islamabad is that Pakistan will be seeking $4bn at an international donors’ meeting in Tokyo on April 17. Japan alone, it is said, may commit to an outlay in the region of $1bn. On paper at least, these funds are to be spent on health, education and poverty alleviation — areas that are clearly interconnected — over the next two years. Access to healthcare and schooling are of course basic human rights that must be respected across the globe. On one level there is the unacceptable human misery associated with disease, illiteracy and poverty. There are tens of millions of people in this country who spend a lifetime in conditions that others from more privileged backgrounds would not bear for a day. On a wider level, no developing country can hope to prosper until it ensures that the majority of its citizenry and workforce is healthy and educated. In the context of Pakistan, there is another pressing reason why the social sectors cannot be neglected any longer. Poverty, hunger and illiteracy are preyed upon by the Taliban who draw most of their recruits from among the ranks of the marginalised and ideologically susceptible. An educated populace with prospects is less likely to be tempted by the call of extremist ideologies.

The final numbers are not known yet. Nor is it clear how the funds pledged in Tokyo will be utilised. Will the money go directly to the government or will it be channelled through intermediary organisations and private-sector implementing authorities? The latter option may not be acceptable to Islamabad. As such, to ensure transparency in execution — never the forte of Pakistani officialdom — we may profit from a combination of non-governmental and public partnerships in which each learns from each and helps keep an eye on the other. Any money received for healthcare and education must be wisely invested and with honesty of purpose. We can make or break our future. The latter should not be an option.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]A transient peace?[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 15 Apr, 2009[/B]

BALOCHISTAN is limping back to normality, but this is no guarantee of a lasting peace, for underdevelopment and the lack of provincial autonomy responsible for the Baloch people’s dissatisfaction have yet to be addressed by the centre. It is a measure of the influence wielded by the province’s nationalist leaders that their call for a strike evoked a violent response in every nook and cranny of the province. The wave of anger and lawlessness in the wake of last week’s kidnapping and murder of three Baloch leaders cannot be attributed to the crime alone. Matters had been drifting in that direction for a long time, and the triple murder merely served to ignite passions once more. The current phase of the unrest began in 2005, with fighting in the Sui area when the government moved in the army to secure gas installations that were being subjected to regular rocket attacks by private militias loyal to Nawab Akbar Bugti. The latter’s death in August 2006 may have caused a temporary setback to the insurgency, but dissatisfaction in the country’s largest province continued to simmer. However, those who thought that holding general elections and the assumption of power by democratic governments in Islamabad and Quetta, together with the PPP’s apology for past excesses perpetrated on the Baloch, would defuse the situation were disappointed. Attacks on vital installations continued, even if they were of a sporadic nature as the military scaled down its operations in the area.

It should be noted though that government apathy is not the only reason why Balochistan has suffered all these years. The province has also suffered as a result of the political rhetoric on the part of some Baloch sardars who have glossed over the genuine grievances of people, including their poverty in a land of immense natural wealth. For instance, at a recent press conference in Karachi, a Baloch political party demanded Balochistan’s “sovereign right” to self-determination. This is loose talk that does not advance the cause of the Baloch. The government and Baloch leaders have no choice but to find a democratic solution to Balochistan’s problems within the ambit of the constitution. Two parliamentary committees formed during the Musharraf era came up with useful suggestions but these were not carried forward. The absence of concrete proposals from Baloch nationalists for constitutional am-endments and enlarging the area of provincial autonomy is also noted with regret. Insurrection and agitation can, no doubt, focus the world’s attention on the grievances of the Baloch people, but in the long run the politics of violence is counterproductive and enables non-state elements, including external powers, to exploit the situation.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Rise in power tariffs[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 15 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE government is unlikely to immediately notify the increase/decrease that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority has recommended in the power tariffs of the country’s nine distribution companies. Nepra will take its time to transfer the burden to the consumers. But the power bills are set to rise substantially sooner rather than later. Pakistan has already made a commitment to the World Bank and the IMF to eliminate power subsidies before the current fiscal is out. The objective is to cut ‘non-essential’ spending in order to narrow the gap between the government’s resources and expenditure. In its monthly ‘determination’ of power rates, Nepra has proposed an increase ranging from just four paisas to a hefty Rs1.21 per unit in the tariffs of eight distribution companies of the Pakistan Electric Power Company. It has also recommended a decrease of four paisas per unit for the consumers of the privatised Karachi Electric Supply Company.

The decision is an attempt to cover the increasing costs of power-generation. In line with its past practice, Nepra has kept itself from penalising the distributors for their inefficiencies and huge distribution losses. The regulator has done its job and it is now for the government to either transfer the burden to the consumers or subsidise their bills. The increase in power bills will have a profound impact on the country’s slowing economy and severely hit the manufacturing sector, which is already suffering due to energy shortages and higher production costs. Exports could decline further if countermeasures are not taken to offset the increase in the cost of industrial production on this count by reducing the cost of credit and transportation charges. Domestic consumers would also be forced to reduce other essential expenditures to absorb the increase in their power bills as real incomes decrease with high inflation. That would be adding insult to injury as they are already paying a big price for the inefficiencies of the distribution companies. There is a strong possibility that a further rise in their electricity bills could see many unhappy consumers taking to the streets in protest. Those in power must be prepared for the political fallout of the higher tariffs.


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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES -European Press Optimism is the best[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 15 Apr, 2009[/B]


WITH the domestic environment still awash with the bout of ‘self-congratulatory’ aura that surrounded the swearing-in of a new president following the consensus won over his election, the onslaught of bad economic news … receded a bit into the background…. Eastertide generally uplifts the spirits ... local discussion is never short of the usual trivial ... controversies … in the wake of the election of the new president, a man who comes straight from the Labour camp but who was proposed for the post by a Nationalist prime minister….

... Immediately after Easter, the scene will be set for … the election for the European parliament.… Nationalists present[ing] themselves as the best possible guardians of Malta’s European Union membership and Labour … feel they can win better benefits through their representation.

[B]Times of Malta[/B]

... It is not surprising either that Labour keeps harping on the financial aspect of membership. No doubt, their trait of valuing practically everything in financial terms is directly inherited from their past socialist masters. Having so strongly opposed membership ... it is going to take Labour much more than a simple declaration of conversion to the membership idea to persuade the majority that they truly believe in Malta’s new place within the European Union.

The impact of the economic downturn on the economy will not probably figure much in the final lap of the individual campaigns the candidates are carrying out … but, on a national level, the country can hardly afford deflecting its attention from the need to grapple with the problems. Pessimistic talk ... can only make matters worse…. As one psychologist remarked in The Daily Telegraph the other day, “optimism is our best defence against the downturn ...”.

Of course, optimism will not work miracles by itself. It would have to be well fuelled by well-planned concrete action meant to stimulate the economy generally; directly helping firms that have been hit following a reduced demand for their goods, as the government is doing; and … eliminating obstacles to efficiency at various key points of service to private industry. — (April 14)

Predator Thursday, April 16, 2009 09:11 AM

[FONT="Georgia"][/FONT]
[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]North Korea’s reaction[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 16 Apr, 2009[/B]

NORTH Korea’s decision to pull out of the six-nation nuclear talks comes as a severe blow to the disarmament process in the region. Irked by the UN Security Council’s statement condemning Pyongyang’s rocket launch earlier this month, North Korea has announced measures that will not promote international peace and stability. It has threatened to restart its partially disabled nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and has asked IAEA inspectors to leave the country. While this show of defiance has caused a stir in UN circles prompting appeals to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to show “calm and restraint”, it is also being interpreted as a North Korean move to push in the direction of its long-established policy of “military first”. Given its international isolation and the autocratic nature of its regime that allows it to clamp down on unrest, North Korea can afford to adopt such extreme steps.

Pyongyang may, however, not find many supporters for its policy of brinkmanship — presuming that its latest move is designed to show its muscles to the Obama administration and its ally in Tokyo. For six years North Korea has been engaged in on-off negotiations with the US, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. These talks have been of more significance than apparent. They led to the imposition of some controls on Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities and as a quid pro quo fetched economic assistance for the North Koreans that provided relief to the impoverished people. The latest move, if it leads to the breakdown of the six-nation talks, will have grave repercussions for the nuclear non-proliferation process itself. The fact is that at a time when the two biggest nuclear powers, the US and Russia, are talking about reducing their atomic arsenals, it is ironic that other countries are clinging to their weapons of mass destruction. The time has come to make the entire world a nuclear weapons-free zone. The NPT has failed to promote this ideal because of its inherently flawed approach of dividing the world into nuclear haves and have-nots. It is now up to the nuclear states, big and small, to rethink their strategy.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"]Worrying uncertainties[/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 16 Apr, 2009[/B]

NOW that the Nizam-i-Adl regulation has been approved by the president, the ball is in the court of the militants in Malakand Division. Sharia for peace was the deal, so will the militants live up to their promise? The jury is still very much out on that question. Sufi Mohammad struck a deal with the provincial government in the NWFP on the basis that he could convince Maulana Fazlullah and the TTP militants to lay down their arms and allow the state to resume its duties in Swat. At the moment though no such thing is happening; the militants are still visible, they are still carrying out patrols and they are heavily armed. Even if it is accepted that it will take time for the militants to dismantle their terror infrastructure, the point is that they have yet to even begin such a process. Moreover, Sufi Mohammad has sent unsettling mixed signals. He must clarify if in fact he has called for immunity for the militants in Swat. If he has, then was this part of the deal struck with the NWFP government? Surely adding conditions as Sufi Mohammad sees fit cannot be the basis of a viable deal.

One of the basic problems with assessing what is going on in Swat is that many things have yet to be clarified. There are rightly reservations about the bona fides of the militants as potential peace partners in any case. But compounding that uncertainty is the murkiness surrounding what has been agreed to and what hasn’t. Consider the issue of the revamped judicial system that is to be introduced in Malakand Division. Has the jurisdiction of the superior courts in Pakistan been ousted? Is it even constitutionally possible to remove the Peshawar High Court or the Supreme Court from the picture? There is no doubt that Sufi Mohammad has been pressing for a self-contained judicial system for Malakand, one in which it is locally decided what the Sharia says and how it is to be implemented. So if differences arise, as seems inevitable, on the interpretation of the deal and what the constitution permits, then by what process will Sufi Mohammad and the NWFP government resolve them?

The obvious worry is that if the militants remain armed to the teeth and roam freely in public, they will be able to browbeat the government into accepting their position in any dispute. The second problem is of time frames. When President Zardari dithered over enforcing the Nizam-i-Adl, the militants cried foul and demanded its immediate implementation. But no such immediacy seems to concern Sufi Mohammad when it comes to the militants holding up their end of the bargain. Without a definite timeline to leave the public arena, the fear is that it is the militants who will now be engaging in delaying tactics.

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[B][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Massacre of forests[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/B]

[B]Thursday, 16 Apr, 2009[/B]

CALLING for “positive and unique” steps to halt deforestation, the federal environment minister warned on Tuesday that the situation may spin out of control if current trends are not reversed. He is absolutely right. Pakistan’s forest cover is dangerously low and whatever little remains is fast disappearing. In fact, the reality on the ground is even more alarming than the picture portrayed by the minister. Many believe that the official forest-cover estimate of 4.8 per cent is grossly exaggerated. Independent sources put the figure at roughly three per cent and some go even as low as 2.5 per cent. It is believed that the country lost nearly 25 per cent of its forests, or some 6,250 square kilometres of covered area, between 1990 and 2005. While reduced water supplies and rising salinity are a factor in the south, overlogging and illegal felling are by far the biggest culprits. The scale of the massacre is not surprising given that forest department officials are sometimes hand in glove with the timber mafia. Even the Taliban have joined the slaughter to raise funds for the insurgency in the north. Deforestation comes with devastating consequences. Forests absorb heat and carbon dioxide and play a crucial role in climate regulation. Besides oxygen, they release moisture that returns to the earth in the form of rain. As such the mass cutting of trees can lead to higher temperatures and less rain. Biodiversity is lost as habitats shrink and communities whose subsistence livelihoods are tied to non-timber forest products suffer acute privation. With nothing to bind the earth and no forest-floor flora to check the flow of rainwater, landslides and flash floods become more frequent and deadly. Dams and rivers silt up as soil is carried down from denuded mountainsides, raising the risk of floods not just in the immediate vicinity but across the country.

Even if it is implemented in letter and spirit, the government’s Mass Afforestation Programme will not meet its forest-cover targets if illegal logging continues. The problem is not limited to the NWFP where the vast majority of the country’s forests are located. Sindh’s forests are disappearing as rapacious landlords seek to increase their holdings and the fate of the mangroves also stands in the balance. Balochistan’s juniper forests, where some trees are at least 2,500 years old, are also under severe threat. The environment minister must ensure that his concerns are translated into action on the ground.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - Middle East Press[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 16 Apr, 2009[/B]

[B][SIZE="4"][I]Iran must be more transparent[/I][/SIZE][/B]

IF Tehran’s nuclear programme is peaceful, inspections should not be a problem. The possibility of direct dialogue between Iran and the US is becoming more real as both nations have described how such a process might come to pass. But [for this to happen] … Iran will have to be totally transparent in support of its denial that it has weaponised its nuclear programme…

... [I]ran has now mastered the complete nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining to enrichment. The International Atomic Energy Agency … has repeatedly given Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities a clean bill of health. But the IAEA has been unable to verify Iran’s denial of the 19-odd allegations which have been lodged with the IAEA and contain evidence of a previous and possibly current nuclear weapons programme.

Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is peaceful, but it has refused to allow verification by the IAEA of its denial of these allegations.

This refusal is the sticking point between Iran and the international community, and its continued refusal to open up about these allegations has allowed the suspicions of a nuclear weapons programme to persist. This is where Iran needs to make a concession, since if it has nothing to hide, it should be willing to open up its nuclear sites to … inspections…. — (April 10)

[B]Since Nujood went to court[/B]

… APRIL last year, a nine-year-old girl shocked … the world with her story. She was married off against her will to a 30-something … man and lived with him as his wife for two months.

She managed to escape and went to court where eventually … she obtained her freedom and became an icon for early marriage victims in Yemen.

Since then, Nujood has been to the US, France, Germany and Lebanon to tell her story…. [J]ournalists [have come] to Yemen to write about the brave little girl selected as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year 2008.

She has been presented with several other awards by the media, given money and gifts, and a book has been published about her.

But on the sidelines of Nujood’s story await many other Yemeni girls who are either still locked up in an unjust marriage, or have escaped the ordeal of a premature marriage only to find themselves in a world that is not yet prepared to deal with them….

Today Nujood … lives in poverty…. You can occasionally find her begging … although [once] … people waited on her hand and foot. The silver lining is that … media [coverage of] Nujood ... has helped draw attention to the issue of early or premature marriage in Yemen…. —(April 13)

Predator Friday, April 17, 2009 09:08 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Terror and Punjab[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Friday, 17 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE New York Times is not the first one to underline the growing militant threat inside Punjab. This has been a constant refrain. For instance, last year Frontier Governor Owais Ghani said in Lahore that terror in Fata and parts of the NWFP had links with groups in southern Punjab. NYT sums up previous reports when it charts the advance of militancy to Dera Ghazi Khan and even Multan and writes of a tactical alliance between the so-called Punjabi militants and the extremist outfits that had thus far operated mainly in the Frontier. The paper has attributed the attack on the Lankan team in Lahore in March and the one on The Marriott, Islamabad, some months ago to this ‘new’ terrorist nexus where Punjabi elements are said to be providing logistical support to resourceful Pakhtun Taliban and Arab militants in the Al Qaeda fold.

There is evidence to support the assertion — television channels flashing the news of two Punjabi bomb-makers in Islamabad just as these lines are being written. We are also told that all the 10 men who besieged Mumbai last November could have come from various Punjab districts. But despite all this, there is reluctance in Punjab to concede that its own people could be involved in the violent anti-state campaign run in the name of Islam and anti-Americanism. There is this urge, and perhaps psychological need, to ideologically de-link the militants in Punjab from those in the Frontier. It is often said that militants in Punjab’s south and elsewhere in the province are exclusively committed to jihad in Kashmir, that, under no circumstances, are they to leave their brief and switch to other wars being raged in the name of religion. The question is: what do they do when they are not or cannot be in Kashmir?

There are obviously no guarantees that these trained hands won’t be pressed into service in pursuance of another holy cause. One other reason that quite often stops governments from taking cognisance of extremist threats in their own backyard is as global a concern as should have been the war on terror. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are as afflicted with the syndrome of denial as those who administer Punjab today. They are wont to blame terrorism on outside forces, absolving people in their own jurisdiction of any involvement and wishing other regions to snuff out a problem that is as much their own as the rest of the world’s. This policy is not going to work as terror closes in. It is hard to contain and cannot be dealt with in isolation. We tried doing it in Swat only to be hit by a suicide bomber in Charsadda a few days later.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]More harm than good[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Friday, 17 Apr, 2009[/B]

IN refusing the Pakistan High Commission consular access to 11 Pakistani students arrested on the suspicion of involvement in bomb plots, the UK government has displayed a knee-jerk reaction that bodes ill for future cooperation in terms of controlling terrorism. The UK government, and in particular Prime Minister Gordon Brown, accuses Pakistan of not doing enough to curb terrorism. But given that both countries have a stake in this struggle, there is every reason to foster an environment of close and candid communication. By refusing access to the arrested Pakistanis, the UK government in effect has put impediments in the path of local authorities to investigate the suspected terrorists’ links in this country and the wider network they may be part of.

The UK government’s lack of cooperation also raises doubts about the credibility of evidence on the basis of which the men were arrested. It has already been reported that while British officials spoke of intelligence regarding the suspected terrorists’ involvement in the plot, they admitted that this information could not be presented in court. This raises the possibility of the evidence having been improperly collected, in which case the arrested men are being punished — through arrest and probable deportation — without their guilt having been wholly proved. If, on the other hand, the ‘evidence’ is of such an incendiary nature that the risk of it being made public cannot be taken, Pakistani authorities have a right and a need to know since Islamabad is already deeply mired in the struggle to curb terrorism.

Given that the arrested men are Pakistani nationals and, reportedly, a decision has already been taken to deport them, the UK government is exposing itself to criticism for having violated their rights by denying Pakistan consular access to the students. Furthermore, the move sets a dangerous precedent for the security of thousands of other Pakistani students in the UK, who can now no longer depend with any confidence on their embassy’s ability to intervene in case suspicion falls on any one of them. The UK government’s move has about it the sinister echoes of the manner in which wartime prison camps are operated — infamous amongst them are the US camps established during the Bush years — where detainees are held incommunicado and outside the reach of their governments. Through this move, the UK damages its own reputation of subscribing to the values of fair play and does irreparable harm to those who, on currently available evidence, may well have been targeted on mere suspicion.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Now they must govern[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Friday, 17 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE meeting of the central working committee of the PML-N has yielded the expected response to the PPP’s offer to rejoin the federal government: the PML-N will sit in the opposition and will ‘support’ the government from the outside. In what were generally conciliatory remarks to the media, Nawaz Sharif did however intimate that his party’s support was conditional. Top of that list of conditions yesterday was the need to address the problems in Balochistan, but Mr Sharif tied that demand to his party’s position that the PPP-led federal government honour its pledge of abiding by the Charter of Democracy. It seems though that now, after a year of uncertainty, the configuration of power in Islamabad has been resolved, at least in the near term: the largest party in the National Assembly, the PPP, will lead a coalition with a clear majority while the opposition will be headlined by a watchful PML-N willing to extend its cooperation on an issue-to-issue basis. Given that the major political storm clouds have cleared — the controversial presidency of Gen Musharraf is over, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been restored, and the party that is to govern Punjab has been established — the present set-up appears to be the most realistic outcome in the circumstances.

Now it is incumbent on the PPP and PML-N to make the arrangement work. President Zardari has sent the right signal to the parliament by asking it to take up the issue of constitutional and legislative changes needed to amend the balance of power between the institutions of the state. Political parties must now get down to hammering out what those changes are to be. At first blush, this may appear an easy task but serious, and legitimate, differences remain. Consider the case of provincial rights. Doing away with the concurrent list, which allows the federal government to excessively interfere in what should be provincial matters, is not enough. The distribution of financial resources, water rights, pricing and movement of staple foods — these are just some of the other provincial disputes that will take a lot of time and serious effort to resolve. What’s really needed is for the politicians to switch from their perennial politics mode to a governance mode.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - Bangladesh Press Diarrhoea and Wasa[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Friday, 17 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE diarrhoea situation continues to worsen in the capital with 700 to 800 patients, mostly children, thronging to the ICDDR,B for treatment every day…. [O]ne day the number of diarrhoea patients admitted to this hospital stood at 1,000.

The main reason behind this alarming situation is scarcity of pure water. The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) has been contributing to this crisis enormously by failing to ensure supply of safe drinking water. It is unfortunate that no effective measure could be taken to arrest the spread of diarrhoea which has [affected] several thousand people and claimed at least two lives in the city recently. Normally diarrhoea breaks out in and around the capital in April every year.

But this year the disease broke out about three weeks earlier and now continues to spread….

[B][I][SIZE="3"]The Bangladesh Today[/SIZE][/I][/B]

The outbreak of diarrhoea on a large scale is attributed to hot and humid weather and scarcity of pure drinking water as well as unhygienic conditions … especially in the slums and suburban areas. According to reports, the patients coming to ICDDR,B for treatment are from the impoverished areas….

There is a huge gap between the [demand] and supply of water in the city. Moreover, even the scant amount of water which is supplied by Wasa is not free from dirt and insects in many areas and is thus unsafe….

The authorities hardly pay any heed to the complaints made in this regard to them. The cases with many other areas of the city are also the same. This is perhaps because of the fact that Wasa, instead of serving as [a] water supplying agency, has turned into [a] haven [for] a section of corrupt people who are running after money ignoring their duties.

It is good that the government has removed both the chairman and managing director of Wasa and the board is going to be reconstituted soon. Let us hope that the change at the top level of Wasa will bring about a qualitative change in its services and help resolve the persistent crisis of safe water.

Meanwhile, to mitigate the sufferings of the city dwellers, who are forced to use dirty, contaminated and fetid water for cooking and drinking ... the authorities should try their best to ensure increased supply of safe water, make water purification tablets and other medicines available and enhance treatment facilities at hospitals. — (April 16)

shah110 Sunday, April 19, 2009 01:35 AM

18-04-2009
 
[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Green"][CENTER]Friends in need[/CENTER][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[SIZE="2"]18-04-2009[/SIZE]

A HUGE challenge lies ahead. It is clear that the international community acknowledges the importance of a socially and economically stable Pakistan, a goal that differs markedly from the current reality. The pledges made at the Friends of Pakistan meeting in Tokyo show that the world is cognisant of the dangers facing Pakistan, and realises that our problems are not ours alone. The domino effect of Pakistan falling to the militants was summed up by President Zardari when he said that “If we lose, you lose. If we lose, the world loses.” He is spot on in his assessment, even if it carries with it a touch of Gen Musharraf’s ‘you can’t do without me’ strategy of dealing with the West. Also, should his words be construed as an inadvertent admission that Pakistan is indeed the global hub of terrorism and militancy? Why else would the nation’s welfare be so important to far-flung countries?
Pakistan has been in tight spots before but our predicament today is perhaps unmatched. We are dealing not with an external enemy or separatists but an army of home-grown barbarians that wants to impose a system of ‘governance’ wholly at odds with our core values. We need all the help we can get. But here’s the real challenge: we have to keep our side of the bargain. So far, successive governments have capitulated to the Taliban who need to be taken head-on, not appeased. A drastic rethink is in order. Otherwise the state will end up ceding territory one district after the other and no amount of foreign aid will help reverse the tide.

The money pledged at Tokyo — $5.28bn at last count — covers a range of issues, from energy needs and economic support to healthcare, education and poverty alleviation. In the short term, this show of support could bolster investor confidence and give local markets a much-needed jab in the arm. It is also hoped that creating job opportunities and building more schools and hospitals in the tribal belt will change mindsets and thereby deprive the Taliban of fresh recruits. True, uneducated and unemployed young men with no prospects are lured by the militants’ promises of a monthly wage, immediate empowerment, eternal salvation and, equally importantly, a sense of identity. But here’s the rub. How can infrastructure be developed in areas controlled by the Taliban? How can new schools be built when the few educational institutions that still exist are blown up by militants? Who will invest in a factory in Waziristan knowing that his managers could be kidnapped for ransom and his stocks destroyed or stolen? No progress is possible while the Taliban call the shots. The sooner the government understands this, the better off the country will be as a whole.

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[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="green"][CENTER]More ‘accountability’?[/CENTER][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[SIZE="2"]18-04-2009[/SIZE]

LIKE the law and constitution and all noble concepts reduced by our politicians and generals to a farce, accountability, too, has been nothing more than a convenient shibboleth. While rulers Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto relied on ‘screening’ and wholesale dismissals to get rid of officers presumed corrupt or on the wrong side of the regime, it was Ziaul Haq who used accountability unabashedly as an instrument of political persecution. In the post-Zia period, both the PPP and PML-N harassed, arrested and tried their rivals for reasons which were more often than not political and parochial. A large number of these politicians and public servants were justifiably perceived as guilty of malfeasance, but they were incarcerated — sometimes without trial — not for meeting the ends of justice but because they were on the wrong side politically. When political vendetta was the motive, the accountability process had to be selective. During the Musharraf era, some politicians known to be corrupt were spared accountability and given key posts in the federal cabinet because they agreed to collaborate with the military regime. Then a new concept found its way into our accountability jargon — plea bargaining, which, in effect, meant a corrupt politician or public servant could keep part of the loot if he accepted guilt and surrendered the rest.
On Wednesday, the government tabled in the National Assembly a bill designed to scrap the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and establish an Accountability Commission to mete out justice to corrupt public officeholders in a “just, transparent and non-oppressive manner”. The bill will apply to former presidents, prime ministers and parliamentarians accused of corruption and excludes public servants. It doesn’t matter what the new name of the accountability institution will be; what does is that the process of justice should conform to the aims mentioned. The laws already on the statute books are comprehensive enough for this purpose provided the government of the day follows due process, and the laws are applied to all citizens in a manner that does not smack of dishonesty and excludes pardon or reprieve under foreign pressure — or for reasons of political expediency manifested in the National Reconciliation Ordinance. One is surprised, however, that the proposed law disqualifies a convict from becoming an MP only for five years. This is astonishing. Someone whose guilt has been truly established has no business to sit again among those who make laws for the nation’s good.

like the law and constitu- tion and all noble concepts reduced by our politicians and generals to a farce, ac- countability, too, has been nothing more than a conven- ient shibboleth. while rulers ayub khan, yahya khan and zulfikar ali bhutto relied on ‘screening’ and wholesale dismissals to get rid of offi- cers presumed corrupt or on the wrong side of the regime, it was ziaul haq who used ac- countability unabashedly as an instrument of political persecution. in the post-zia period, both the ppp and pml-n harassed, arrested and tried their rivals for rea- sons which were more often than not political and paro- chial. a large number of these politicians and public servants were justifiably per- ceived as guilty of malfea- sance, but they were incar- cerated — sometimes with- out trial — not for meeting the ends of justice but be- cause they were on the wrong side politically. when politi- cal vendetta was the motive, the accountability process had to be selective. during the musharraf era, some pol- iticians known to be corrupt were spared accountability and given key posts in the federal cabinet because they agreed to collaborate with the military regime. then a new concept found its way in- to our accountability jargon — plea bargaining, which, in effect, meant a corrupt politi- cian or public servant could keep part of the loot if he ac- cepted guilt and surrendered the rest. on wednesday, the govern- ment tabled in the national assembly a bill designed to scrap the national accounta- bility ordinance, 1999 and es- tablish an accountability commission to mete out jus- tice to corrupt public office- holders in a “just, transpar- ent and non-oppressive man- ner”. the bill will apply to former presidents, prime ministers and parliamentari- ans accused of corruption and excludes public servants. it doesn’t matter what the new name of the accountability in- stitution will be; what does is that the process of justice should conform to the aims mentioned. the laws already on the statute books are com- prehensive enough for this purpose provided the govern- ment of the day follows due process, and the laws are applied to all citizens in a manner that does not smack of dishonesty and excludes pardon or reprieve under for- eign pressure — or for rea- sons of political expediency manifested in the national reconciliation ordinance. one is surprised, however, that the proposed law dis- qualifies a convict from be- coming an mp only for five years. this is astonishing. someone whose guilt has been truly established has no business to sit again among those who make laws for the nation’s good.

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[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="green"][CENTER]Is Israel to be believed?[/CENTER][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[SIZE="2"]18-04-2009[/SIZE]

TO attack or not to attack? That is the question Israeli policymakers are toying with when it comes to their stance vis-à-vis Iranian nuclear facilities. The latest statement has come from President Shimon Peres’ office rejecting speculation that his country might attack Iran to preempt its manufacture of atomic weapons. The Israeli president’s words would have been seen in a positive light in a region where conflict always seems just round the corner. But in the Middle East brinkmanship is the name of the game. Hence to be believed Mr Peres and his hawkish prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be expected to do more to assure Tehran that Israel is renouncing the military option. After all, less than a week ago President Peres had warned on Israeli radio that his government would “respond with force” if the American offer to Iran for a dialogue on uranium enrichment failed. Hence it would not be surprising if Thursday’s statement is perceived as being directed towards assuring the Obama administration of Israel’s moderation.
Interestingly Israel’s attempts at repositioning its stance come at a time when Iran and the US are moving closer to a dialogue in preparation for which the political climate between them has become more conciliatory. On Wednesday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicated his willingness to build new ties with the US. He said that he was working on new proposals to break the nuclear impasse with the West. With so much hope in the air it would be a pity if Israel were to jeopardise peace prospects. Israel’s past record does not inspire much confidence in its peace credentials. It launched strikes on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 and has traditionally used excessive military force against the Palestinians even when the two sides were not engaged in conflict and aggression was not warranted. If Barack Obama wants his new strategy in the Middle East and Afghanistan to work he will have to take Iran on board. He has shown sagacity in seeking a broad-based inclusive approach to the region. But he must do more to keep Israeli bellicosity and ambitions in check if he doesn’t want Mr Netanyahu’s government to be throwing a spanner in the works.

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[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Green"][CENTER]OTHER VOICES : Srilankan Press : A historic visit[/CENTER][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

PRESIDENT Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday paid a land- mark visit to Kilinochchi — the first Southern leader to under- take such a visit since the visit of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake nearly 60 years ago. The visit by President Rajapaksa to Kilinochchi, until recently the de facto political capital of the LTTE’s so-called Eelam, also marks a watershed in the three- and-half-decade-long ethnic con- flict. It is a symbolic occasion heralding the dismantling of hitherto entrenched structures built by the LTTE and also sends a clear massage that the writ of the government is about to take firm root where once the Tiger terrorists held sway….
This will no doubt herald the development of the north as a whole to bring it on par with the rest of the country. The road may be long and the journey arduous. But a beginning has been made….

Hopefully the president with his constant emphasis on supporting the local producer will be able to revisit that not so distant past when the economies of the north and the south were interlinked to the greater benefit of the national economy.

But first the healing of the scars of the three-decade-long war should take precedence and this we are certain will be uppermost in the mind of the president who has already put in motion several projects and programmes towards achieving this objective. The president’s visit to Kilinochchi thus sends a significant message to the nation in the just-dawned Sinhala and Hindu new year.

We must all be grateful to our heroic security forces for liberating Kilinochchi and the rest of the north, shattering the myth of [the] Tigers’ ‘invincibility’. By going all the way to Kilinochchi to meet the troops and express ing [his] gratitude, he has re minded us all that we are breath ing free due to the valiant efforts of the forces.

The presidential visit also serves to highlight the govern ment’s commitment to develop the newly liberated areas….

Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Elephant Pass and Mullaitivu have been re gained…. With the LTTE facing oblivion, the nation has a golden opportunity for peace and recon ciliation without a ruthless divi sive factor. — (April 17) ¦

president mahinda rajapaksa yesterday paid a land- mark visit to kilinochchi — the first southern leader to under- take such a visit since the visit of prime minister d.s. senanayake nearly 60 years ago. the visit by president rajapaksa to kilinochchi, until recently the de facto political capital of the ltte’s so-called eelam, also marks a watershed in the three- and-half-decade-long ethnic con- flict. it is a symbolic occasion heralding the dismantling of hitherto entrenched structures built by the ltte and also sends a clear massage that the writ of the government is about to take firm root where once the tiger terrorists held sway…. this will no doubt herald the development of the north as a whole to bring it on par with the rest of the country. the road may be long and the journey arduous. but a beginning has been made…. hopefully the president with his constant emphasis on sup- porting the local producer will be able to revisit that not so distant past when the economies of the north and the south were inter- linked to the greater benefit of the national economy. but first the healing of the scars of the three-decade-long war should take precedence and this we are certain will be upper- most in the mind of the president who has already put in motion several projects and pro- grammes towards achieving this objective. the president’s visit to kilinochchi thus sends a signifi- cant message to the nation in the just-dawned sinhala and hindu new year. we must all be grateful to our heroic security forces for liberating kilinochchi and the rest of the north, shat- tering the myth of [the] tigers’ ‘invincibility’. by going all the way to kilinochchi to meet the troops and express- ing [his] gratitude, he has re- minded us all that we are breath- ing free due to the valiant efforts of the forces. the presidential visit also serves to highlight the govern- ment’s commitment to develop the newly liberated areas…. kilinochchi, jaffna, elephant pass and mullaitivu have been re- gained…. with the ltte facing oblivion, the nation has a golden opportunity for peace and recon- ciliation without a ruthless divi- sive factor. — (april 17) ¦

Predator Monday, April 20, 2009 09:24 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Shutting parliament out[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Monday, 20 Apr, 2009[/B]

FOURTEEN months, 1,841 incidents of terrorism, 1,395 lives lost. The number of inquiry reports presented in the National Assembly? Zero. Democracy, the politicians seem to forget, isn’t about form over substance. When there isn’t a National Assembly or its composition is jiggered to please a strongman, the politicians are rightly up in arms. But once a relatively freely elected and representative National Assembly is in place, the government of the day seems to regard its mere existence as enough for the democratic project. It is not. Particularly when it comes to militancy and its roots — about which there is still a disastrous lack of consensus — the government must do everything it can to involve parliament.

What can parliament do? At the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency level, it can assess what has gone wrong in the state’s response and what to do about it. The nearly 2,000 incidents of terrorism have occurred across the length and breadth of the country. What happens in southern Punjab is connected to what occurs in Swat which is connected to what happens in Fata which may, perhaps sooner than some realise, be connected to a surge of terrorism in Karachi. At the tactical level, the fight against militancy in Pakistan’s cities, for example, will no doubt have to largely be fought by the provincial governments. But the National Assembly has an important role to play, too. Consider the fact that even when the police do capture militants and their leaders, successful prosecutions are rare. This happens for many reasons: the police investigations are conducted unprofessionally, the prosecutors rely on tainted evidence and witnesses, the law needs to be updated, etc. Where more resources are needed by the provinces, parliament can look into the matter and devise a national response. Where the legal side needs to be revamped, parliament can enact the necessary laws. But if the National Assembly isn’t seized of the matter of terrorism generally, if even the details of terrorist acts are not laid before it, it can hardly be expected to develop a response, let alone a credible, coherent one.

No doubt last October a special joint session of parliament was convened on the security crisis and a special parliamentary committee on national security was formed to develop a strategy to counter militancy and terrorism, a strategy which has now been presented before parliament. But absent a consensus on what is the threat from militancy, policy recommendations will inevitably be what they are: weak and desultory. Put the facts and figures and reports before parliament. Let the people’s representatives see for themselves how often the evidence points towards the Baitullah Mehsuds and the Lashkar-i-Jhangvis and how often towards the Indians or Americans. Empower parliament with information before expecting it to reach the right conclusions.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Environment in education[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

Monday, 20 Apr, 2009

‘CATCH ’em early’, so goes a famous dictum that could not be truer when it comes to teaching children about subjects that touch on matters of life and death. Thus awareness of environmental concerns and of the need to preserve the ecological balance can facilitate society’s efforts to promote public health by fighting pollution and environmental degradation. It is an encouraging sign that environmentalists and educationists are now recognising the importance of this approach. In Islamabad, the federal minister for environment promised to include environment studies in the school curricula as part of the government’s efforts to motivate the youth to become involved in a national effort to address environmental concerns. There was also the report of a school principal from Multan who spoke of the need to include environment studies in the school and college syllabi.

Now that this recognition is gaining strength, one hopes that it will be translated into action soon. The environment minister assured his audience that a new syllabus was under preparation and courses on the environment would be incorporated in it soon. However, it is a sad thought that given the pace at which things move in the education ministry it may take several years for the changes to prove effective. Meanwhile, serious damage would have already been inflicted on the environment. Why can’t a beginning be made right away — say on Earth Day next week — by getting all teachers to play a role in promoting a healthy environment in the course of their teaching?

While designing a course on environmental studies for different levels would be time-consuming, environmental issues can be informally integrated with all other subjects. A highly motivated teacher who is conscious of environmental concerns can inculcate in children an interest in the preservation of nature more effectively than the best of textbooks. This would also create an interdisciplinary understanding of the environment. After all, environmental concerns are multi-sectoral and knowledge about them cannot be imparted by ignoring other subjects. Some educational institutions in the private sector have been introducing their students to this important issue by adopting a practical approach. Their children have been participating in tree plantation campaigns, cleaning the beaches and learning about turtles from the WWF. GCSE courses now offer environmental management as a subject. This indicates the changing priorities of academia abroad. The sooner we catch up the better as it would only be in our own interest to do so.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Salary raise for police[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Monday, 20 Apr, 2009[/B]

WHAT motivates people to work well? Part of the answer is: remuneration — and they must be paid well if performance is expected. After all, it is those who are not distracted by financial worries who can focus their minds on the task ahead and put their energies to work. Going by this logic, the salary raise that was announced for police in Punjab the other day makes sense. In recent years, the cost of living has increased phenomenally and government salaries have hardly kept pace. In fact, the police have had it worse than many other government workers. Their pay scales and remunerations have lagged far behind their counterparts in other departments. Even within the police force there have been disparities with some like the national highways and motorways police drawing bigger salaries than those whose job is to maintain law and order and secure people’s properties and lives — at the risk of their own.

All said the raise comes at a time when the performance of the Punjab police has perhaps been at its worst. The provincial police force seems to have failed in all three of its core functions: providing people protection against crime, maintaining law and order and securing VIPs. Street crime is on the rise, the general law and order situation in the province is abysmal and the attack on the Sri Lankan team last month proved that even VIPs are vulnerable if their security is left to the Punjab police. Coming at such a time, the massive salary raise almost appears to reward inefficiency.

A better way of giving the police salaries compatible with those of other government servants and in line with the economic realities would have been to tag the raise with structural and institutional reforms in the police force. The so-called thana culture that persists stubbornly and the fact that the police are hardly answerable to any political authority below the chief minister are the two main hurdles in the way of improving police performance. Keeping them as they are and allowing their salaries to double in one go is, in fact, to throw good money after the bad.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - North American Press A clean water act[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Monday, 20 Apr, 2009[/B]


[B][SIZE="3"]A clean water act[/SIZE][/B]

CLEAN water policy is in a terrible muddle, and the country has the Supreme Court to thank for it. The 1972 Clean Water Act was written to protect all the waters and wetlands of the United States. Two unfortunate Supreme Court decisions narrowed its scope, weakened its safeguards and thoroughly confused the federal agencies responsible for enforcing it.

...The remedy lies in a Senate bill called the Clean Water Restoration Act.... The good news is that Lisa Jackson, President Obama’s new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, cares about clean water issues....

... An internal EPA report furnished to Congress last year revealed that the agency had dropped or delayed more than 400 cases involving suspected violations of the law.... The reason in every instance was that regulators did not know whether the streams and wetlands in question were covered by the law.

Until the two Supreme Court rulings, the Clean Water Act had been broadly interpreted by courts and by federal regulators to shield all the waters of the United States.... The Supreme Court, however, exploiting ambiguities in the law, effectively decreed that only navigable, permanent water bodies deserve protection.

... The Clean Water Restoration Act would establish, once and for all, that federal protections apply to all waters, as Congress intended in 1972.... — (April 17)

[B]Job of newspapers[/B]

THREE newspapers are being honoured ... for a kind of journalism that is acutely endangered. The Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers ... honours traditional newspaper values of balance, accuracy and transparency that are too often lost in all the talk about broken business models and online competition.

... It took thousands of documents and hundreds of interviews for The Charlotte Observer, winner of the award, to uncover horrifying patterns of worker abuse at a North Carolina poultry processing plant....

The Columbus Dispatch spent six months analysing whether proposed legislation targeting illegal immigrants would be right for Ohio. Forgoing easy ‘balance’ by quoting advocates on either side of an emotional issue, the paper’s team delved into databases to trace immigration’s actual effect on jobs, education, crime and healthcare....

.... Quality journalism — the type that verifies claims, shines its light into every corner and demands attribution — is expensive. A blogger with a slingshot can hit a few targets, but can’t easily take on entrenched institutions. In 2002, the Globe exposed the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston — an effort that cost the paper on the order of $1m.

... It isn’t news that The Boston Globe is facing an existential crisis. But journalism of the sort only great newspapers provide is essential to every person in a democracy. We don’t yet know all the answers to this crisis. But we know the stakes. — (April 16)

Predator Tuesday, April 21, 2009 08:17 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Judicial independence[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 21 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE National Judicial Committee has taken a good step towards disentangling the judiciary from the executive by resolving that no chief justice or judge of the superior courts will in future accept an appointment as the acting governor of a province. The most egregious example of involving the judiciary in the executive was Gen Ziaul Haq’s decision to appoint the chief justices of the high courts as the acting governors of their respective provinces after his 1977 coup. However, the practice has stayed in vogue: only last Friday the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, declined Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s offer to become acting governor in the absence of Mr Taseer. Besides just being bad for the perception of the judiciary’s independence, such involvement in the executive can create awkward legal circumstances. Imagine a situation in which an ordinance has to be promulgated by an acting governor and is later challenged in the courts — it is conceivable then that a judge may be asked to rule on the legality of a law he himself promulgated while wearing the hat of the governor.

There is also a more fundamental, less hypothetical problem. The trouble with the executive offering jobs to judges is that the offers can become carrots dangled to entice a judiciary to be more pliant. This is why the National Judicial Committee has also called upon the executive to refrain from making such offers and upon judges to resign from such offices and to reject such offers in the future. Adjusting retired superior court judges in specialised tribunals and courts, often of a lower status than the superior courts, smacks of special consideration extended to judicial favourites. This practice must stop.

Herein lies the rub though: by itself the judiciary can only do so much to escape the executive’s meddling. If there is ever to be a truly independent judiciary, the executive must learn to abide by the principle of an independent judiciary. Key is the selection of superior court judges. At present, an opaque process gives the president wide latitude: he need only consult the governor or the chief justice of the relevant court before making judicial appointments. The Charter of Democracy suggests an alternative. It envisages a judicial commission, with representation from the judiciary and the major bar associations, which is to send a list of three candidates to the prime minister against each vacancy in the superior judiciary. The prime minister can select one, but his choice must be approved by a joint parliamentary committee consisting of treasury and opposition members. Compared to the present system, the CoD process is a substantial improvement. But for it to become a reality, the government must do something about it. Part structural, part practice — the quest for judicial independence will require change in many areas.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Fallout of the deal[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 21 Apr, 2009[/B]

SUFI Mohammad has declared that the high courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan should no longer have appellate power over judgments handed down by the so-called Sharia courts established under the Nizam-i-Adl agreement. Arguing that the judicial system laid out in the country’s constitution is ‘un-Islamic’, he has demanded that the regular court system be replaced with the Darul Qazas as the only forum for filing appeals that will then be decided in line with what Sufi Mohammad vaguely calls ‘Islamic principles’. The demand constitutes cause for the gravest concern since, if accepted, it will remove the existing courts from the jurisdiction of the country’s judicial system. Appellate power will go to Darul Qazas headed by qazis with no legal training and appointed by Sufi Mohammad himself. In attempting to decide cases in line with ‘Islamic injunctions’ that have never been defined in full, the qazis will effectively be not only making their own laws but making them according to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Sufi Mohammad’s own skewed version of the Sharia. Not only does this put paid to any chance of transparency or justice in Swat and Malakand, it bodes ill for the rest of the country as well, given the Taliban’s expansionist tendencies.

Sufi Mohammad’s latest demand is a potent example of the fallout that can be expected since the government cut a shadowy deal with the Taliban, the full details of which remain unclear. On available evidence, the militants make ever-increasing demands under the banner of the Nizam-i-Adl, and the government, after some dragging of the heels, capitulates. But there are no indications that the Taliban are doing anything to uphold their end of the deal — which was to bring an end to terrorist activities and allow the government to regain administrative control of the area. Far from laying down arms, at the very time the deal was being brokered the Taliban were expanding their operations to Buner and Mansehra.

Meanwhile, Sufi Mohammad has claimed that criminals accused of murder, extortion and terrorism cannot be brought to book. Furthermore, the demand illustrates how Sufi Mohammad has used his position as peace-broker to manoeuvre greater power and relevance towards the extreme right-wing agenda. It underscores the danger inherent in depending for peace on the man who heads the TNSM, an organisation banned for its militant and subversive activities, and whose credentials in terms of respecting the jurisdiction of the lawful government are extremely suspect.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Wind power potential[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 21 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE answer, clearly, is blowing in the wind. Pakistan’s first wind power farm, located at Jhimpir in district Thatta, was formally inaugurated by the prime minister on Sunday in a ceremony that was hopefully the first of many of its kind. Once all the towers are in operation, the Turkish-operated plant is expected to generate some 50 megawatts of electricity. And this, it must be stressed, is just a drop in the ocean where the combined wind power potential of Pakistan’s coastline is concerned. Officials now maintain that the Thatta corridor in Sindh could ultimately yield more than 50,000MW, which is significantly higher than earlier government estimates of 11,000MW. That said, even the conservative estimate is staggering when seen as a percentage of Pakistan’s total installed generation capacity of roughly 20,000MW. If the wind power sector is developed to its potential, along with other renewable energy resources such as biomass, tidal and solar power, a day could come when we might be self-sufficient in terms of our energy needs.

This is no idle dream. It can be materialised through hard work, provision of the right incentives and security guarantees to local and foreign investors, elimination of red tape and, above all, honesty of purpose. The small hydropower projects approved and funded by the Asian Development Bank can only add to what is a promising mix.

A country whose fiscal well-being is dependent on foreign aid cannot afford to be a slave to imported oil and the vagaries of international markets. But this paucity of resources also means that the state cannot go it alone in pursuing Pakistan’s renewable energy policy. As was successfully achieved at Jhimpir, foreign investors will have to be lured in addition to local industrialists. But here’s the snag. Sindh is not racked by insurgency or the kind of violence seen in the north but it is no stranger to kidnapping for ransom and other violent crimes. Even more significantly, foreign players are anything but convinced of the stability of the central government. As in every other area of life, the quest for renewable energy will be successful only when the country is at peace with itself.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press Silence and people’s representation[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Tuesday, 21 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE Sindh Assembly after completing its first year has entered its second. During the first parliamentary year, a majority of Sindh MPAs … kept quiet in the house. If at all they spoke it was not on issues of public interest. In all 11 sessions were held and 12 bills passed. Of them 10 signed by the governor were enacted as law and one of them … referred back with objections, while one is still waiting for the governor’s signature.

… How much does it cost the people? … Each member of the provincial assembly gets … Rs41000 … other fringe benefits, TA, DA and expenses incurred on protocol are additional. The peculiarity of the Sindh Assembly is that it is not only a graduate assembly but except for one group all members are part of the government. The opposition … is only in name. Earlier there had been strong opposition and people have witnessed … slogans of ‘no no’ and ‘go go’. In such a situation it was difficult for the government to pass a bill or adopt a resolution.

In today’s changed situation when … practically no opposition exists, the performance of the house is poor. Is this justice…? Did they not see any problem faced by the people of their constituency or some pressing issue pertaining to Sindh?

The members maintained a silence on public issues. It is really painful that 99 members failed to speak and also failed to highlight an issue or problem of public importance. We do not want to wash away the joy of completing one parliamentary year.

The house remained peaceful but the situation in the province was contrary to it. Whether it is a law and order situation or jirgas held under official patronage, issues of NFC award and natural resources, there were much louder voices outside the house as compared to within the provincial assembly. Despite the loss of one whole year and huge spending on legislators, we still hope that the voice of Sindh and its people will echo in the house in the second parliamentary year.

That the treasury as well as the opposition benches will get themselves recognised as the people’s representatives. That the assembly will not treat subjects which are vital, as something taboo and will indeed break the fast of silence. — (April 19)

— Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi

Predator Wednesday, April 22, 2009 08:05 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Great people to fly with?[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 22 Apr, 2009[/B]


THE gradual disintegration of our national flag carrier is disconcerting, to say the least. Mired in controversy — from corruption, nepotism to passenger discontentment — the recent past has witnessed serious setbacks that have kept PIA from soaring in the skies. Its latest predicament is dissent from within — the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (Palpa) has demanded a minimum pay raise of 35 per cent along with increased allowances. Their ‘go slow’ movement has, in less than a week, incurred the airline a staggering loss of Rs13m. However, the errant pilots are not likely to find many who would support their demands as the latter reek more of greed than need. Statistics show that pilots in the service of PIA are highly paid with starting salaries of approximately Rs100,000. Secondly, a gasping airline that has amassed a colossal shortfall — reportedly Rs 72.4bn — over the last four years can hardly be expected to turn around its dismal state of finances if encumbered by demands likely to take a hefty toll on its coffers.

While no one can dispute that the welfare of pilots is critical to the aviation industry and by extension to the safety of passengers, would meeting Palpa’s grievances be the best way to ensure their interests? Is it too much to ask them to scale down their demands for stays in five-star hotels at ports of destination, domestic staff, enhanced allowances in foreign currency and huge grants for their children’s education, to name a few? Given the trying times we live in, surely the expenditure incurred on these demands could go towards stemming layoffs, creating employment opportunities and upgrading the pay structure of PIA’s lower staff. Palpa must demonstrate some degree of flexibility; it must heed the call of the times and make room for negotiations, as ‘going by the book’ may mean that the airline revise the said ‘book’ in line with the crippling burden of a global recession. In this situation, it is incumbent upon the pilots’ association to either postpone its charter or to negotiate over the more crucial elements of its agenda instead of holding passengers hostage to endless delays and disrupted flight schedules.
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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Monetary policy[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 22 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE State Bank of Pakistan’s decision to cut its discount rate by just 100 bps (or one per cent to 14 per cent) to spur an early economic recovery will be seen by many as a case of ‘too little, too late’. The market had been anticipating 200 bps reduction in the discount rate amidst signs of macroeconomic stabilisation and declining monthly inflation over the last several months. Some economic experts had even suggested that the SBP follow the global trend and cut interest rates substantially to stimulate growth. The SBP has been a target of criticism for maintaining decade-high interest rates in recent months. But the SBP did not have many options until now. Pakistan’s economic crisis was caused by factors different from the ones that triggered the global financial crunch and recession. Thus, our response to these factors had also to be different. The SBP had to be cautious of the internal and external challenges and threats to the economy, some of which continue to persist even today while determining its monetary policy. The focus of the monetary policy had to be on curbing inflation, controlling external account deficit, reducing the budgetary gap and improving liquid foreign-currency stocks to stabilise an economy almost on the verge of bankruptcy, which had forced the government to reluctantly approach the IMF for a bailout.

The latest SBP decision to ease monetary policy is backed by the projection of headline inflation declining to 14 per cent year-on-year during the last quarter to June of the current fiscal and to eight per cent during the next financial year. That would pave the way for further easing the monetary policy. As the SBP statement points out, the contraction in aggregate demand in the economy has encouraged the SBP to “capitalise on the firmly established macroeconomic stability by initiating forward-looking countercyclical policies”. The $5.28bn aid pledges made at the Tokyo meeting of the so-called Friends of Democratic Pakistan group last week mean further strengthening of the balance-of-payments situation and a decrease in the risk to the currency. But the reduced credit price is unlikely to trigger economic recovery in the short term as commercial banks remain risk-averse and continue to invest in government securities due to the increasing size of bad debts. The SBP would have to now focus on rationalising the prevailing high risk-aversion by the banks in order to “restart the credit cycle and expedite the process of economic growth recovery”.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Sufi’s world[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 22 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE uproar is understandable but should it really come as a surprise that Sufi Mohammad and his band of barbarians are opposed to all that we hold dear? Of course not. The position held by people who kill those who don’t subscribe to their point of view is diametrically opposed to that of all right-thinking persons. From day one, the stance of these militants who murder in the name of religion has been all too clear. These people are savages, yet we don’t put them behind bars. Why? If we don’t have the wherewithal to take them on, we should admit as much and stop making ludicrous claims that the enemy will be defeated in due course. Striking ‘deals’ with an enemy that is simply buying time won’t help either. Talibanisation is not just a threat, it is the reality today. Face it.

Sufi Mohammad’s organisation, which is sympathetic to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, is interested less in matters of faith and more so in power in Pakistan. It is now clear that the Taliban will not stop until they have their way. And this is their prescription for Pakistan: a nation, armed with nuclear weapons, jerked back to a mediaeval age. A country where men without beards are flogged, and women killed if they choose to express themselves. That is where we are headed. And one is wrong if one thinks this can’t happen in Pakistan. It can and it will unless we strike a decisive blow for the silent majority.

We must resist this onslaught. Should we be surprised when Sufi Mohammad says that that the high courts and the Supreme Court are un-Islamic? Certainly not. Are we to register shock when he says that democracy is un-Islamic? Of course not. He is merely articulating what he and his followers have thought from day one. Sufi Mohammad’s Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi, the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda are all committed to overthrowing the State of Pakistan. How many times do we have to say this? Their interest is not limited to enforcing — at gunpoint — Sharia law in Swat and the rest of Malakand. They want to take over all of Pakistan and subject each and every citizen to their brand of ‘justice’. This government is ceding them territory and emboldening them to an extent where they will be able to dictate terms without fear. Fazlur Rehman of the JUI may say that Sufi Mohammad, a terrorist Mr Rehman supports despite being a member of parliament, speaks for himself. No, you are wrong Mr Rehman. He speaks for thousands of extremists who have no respect for the law. He is renouncing the constitution, which is perhaps tantamount to treason.

We didn’t vote for this on Feb 18, 2008. We didn’t vote for barbarity in the garb of religiosity.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - OTHER VOICES[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Wednesday, 22 Apr, 2009 [/B]

[B]South Africa’s election[/B]

AT lunchtime today, if the weekend reports are correct, Paul O’Connell of Young Munster, Munster and Ireland will be named captain of the British and Irish Lions to tour South Africa this summer.

He and the 35 other players, their backroom team and the tens of thousands of supporters who will travel to support them, will visit a country unrecognisable to the one visited 35 years ago….

In 1974, South Africa was still a divided and nasty country. The majority population were treated like third-class citizens and kept in poverty and uneducated servitude. The minority white government used force to maintain the status quo. Dissent was not tolerated, even the movement of the non-white population was restricted by the hated Pass Laws.

So bitterly divided was the country that the loudest Lions supporters were the black South Africans corralled behind the goalposts at each game. They cheered not so much to support McBride’s Lions but to defy Premier Balthazar Vorster’s racist government. At that time it was unimaginable that South Africa would have a black president much less that he — Nelson Mandela — would wear a Springbok jersey and inspire the Springboks to win the 1995 World Cup.

And yet, despite those great advances, South Africa seems to be at another crossroads today. The population of that beautiful country go to the polls tomorrow. It seems inevitable that ANC candidate Jacob Zuma will succeed Thabo Mbeki as that Republic’s president. Mr Zuma is a ‘colourful’ character….

Mandela’s support was not constrained by the fact that three years ago Mr Zuma was acquitted of rape charges. Two weeks ago the attorney general’s office dropped the last 14 outstanding charges of fraud, racketeering and corruption against the candidate, eliminating the last obstacle to his coronation. More of Mr Zuma’s habits — four wives, 20 children — suggest that he may be the post-colonial African leader straight from central casting.

South Africa faces huge problems, crime-ravaged cities, a reeling economy and an ongoing Aids crisis. Unemployment among young blacks is hovering around 50 per cent.... Ireland’s bilateral programme to South Africa runs for another three years and last year Irish Aid spent euros 11.4m on three programmes….

South Africa was to be the example that the rest of post-colonial Africa might model itself on but the fear is that under Zuma, South Africa will be modelled on other African countries, that it might in time become a Greater Zimbabwe.

Of course these concerns may be based on stereotypes but the evidence at least demands consideration. Let us hope we are wrong and that Mr Zuma can confront South Africa’s challenges and be an example for the region. Let us hope too that Paul O’Connell’s Lions are as successful as Willie John’s. — (April 21)

Predator Thursday, April 23, 2009 08:20 AM

[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]PPP’s poor performance[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 23 Apr, 2009[/B]

THE PPP has quit the Punjab government. The party is in the process of quitting Punjab. The prospect of Mr Shahbaz Sharif having a free hand in the province doesn’t bode well for the PPP, which has failed to come to power in Lahore on its own in the last four decades. Under President Asif Zardari, the party is a pale shadow of the popular organisation it once was. Its fortunes were somewhat revived in the absence of the Sharifs some years ago and later due to the sympathy generated by Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007. The current Zardari-Sharif combination — where Punjab’s lack of trust in Mr Zardari proportionately manifests itself in growing support for the Sharifs — ensures a troubled future for what remains of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s party. It is bereft of any leadership that could challenge the Sharifs especially after their recent triumph over President Zardari in the judges’ restoration issue.

Many say that so hopeless has been the PPP’s performance in Punjab that it has been unable to use the recent governor’s rule for the purpose it was imposed. The people assigned the task of cobbling together a government that could replace Shahbaz Sharif’s could do no better than lure a lone PML-N member from Hafizabad. On other occasions, when it has gone looking for a strong Mustafa Khar-like governor to keep watch on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, it has ended up with Salmaan Taseer. This mindless wandering has led to consequences that many had been warning the PPP against. They had an opportunity to salvage some lost pride had they chosen to exit from the coalition more gracefully. The reluctance with which the PPP ministers have gone, after acting as mere spectators in a cabinet eclipsed by Chief Minister Sharif, has dealt the party another blow. The party now has no option but to invent an argument to counter the PML-N. Or it can wait hopefully for the Sharifs to reinvent and revive their opponents. There are chances of this happening as the Sharif brothers move with the robustness, the swagger and the dangerous authority of kings restored.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]A dangerous change[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 23 Apr, 2009[/B]

BACK in the spotlight are the country’s controversial blasphemy laws. The reason: the Supreme Court’s Shariat Appellate Bench dismissed an appeal against a 1990 Federal Shariat Court judgment which decreed that under Article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) should be punished with death, and not the alternative of life imprisonment. Because of non-prosecution by the appellant the Supreme Court did not go into the merits of the appeal, but the result is that the FSC judgment is now operative: the death penalty is now mandatory under Article 295-C. Having opposed the penalty — although there is no doubt that the commission of blasphemy is deserving of the most stringent punishment — we regard Tuesday’s decision as regrettable.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the blasphemy laws there is a tendency to debate the issue from a religious perspective — but that is not the main issue here. From a purely technical perspective, the blasphemy laws contain too many loopholes to be considered soundly drafted in legal terms. Consider Article 295-C, which states: “Whoever by word, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death …” The wording is vague and over-inclusive. Conceivably, someone belonging to another religion asking about the details of Islam or expressing his own religion’s position could be booked. Surely that is not something that should fall in the category of ‘blasphemy’.

The point is that vague laws always create opportunities for abuse and that the dangers increase manifold when vagueness is linked to something as extreme as the death penalty and as inflammatory as blasphemy. Pakistan’s experience with the blasphemy laws suggests they are potent tools of oppression that have been used to victimise the innocent. Score-settling, petty property disputes, personal revenge — all have been linked to blasphemy cases registered over the years. Upping the ante by making the death penalty mandatory in certain cases will only increase the already horrifying leverage that the unscrupulous have over those they wish to target. We have opposed the death penalty because given Pakistan’s broken judicial system there is always the likelihood of a grave miscarriage of justice. In the case of blasphemy, the possibility of a fair trial is anyway tremendously reduced — meaning now far more of the innocent may face the prospect of the ultimate penalty.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="darkgreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]Too little, too late?[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 23 Apr, 2009[/B]

PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif has conceded that the Taliban are “now threatening to get out of Swat … So we’ve got to avoid that situation”. His comments provide a distant ray of hope in Pakistan’s currently grim situation, where barbaric criminals make a mockery of the state and everything it stands for. Therefore, notwithstanding Mr Sharif’s and his party’s traditional alignment with the religious right, the belated recognition that the TTP’s manoeuvrings constitute a serious danger to the nation’s sovereignty must be appreciated. Supported by so-called peace broker Sufi Mohammad’s TNSM, the Taliban are no longer a threat but a grotesque reality. They already occupy certain sections of Pakistan’s territory where they formulate and enforce their own ‘laws’ that are neither just nor have anything to do with the country’s system of justice.

As such, Mr Sharif’s statement may prove a case of too little, too late. The Taliban have already taken control of Buner and adjacent areas such as Mansehra are in serious danger of being overrun. The writ of the government weakens by the hour, while the terrorists are steadily emboldened. Yet the state and its institutions — including the military — have so far shown an appalling lack of commitment or wherewithal to force back the swarm. In the face of the Taliban’s growing list of atrocities, the government’s silence has been deafening and the army’s lack of success inexplicably humiliating. Success has been claimed in negotiating with the terrorists but there is no evidence to support this. Far from laying down arms and allowing the government to re-establish administrative control, the Taliban advertise with impunity the goal of enforcing their own brand of Sharia across the country.

The time in which to turn back the tide is fast running out. It is of vital importance that other political leaders and parties recognise the threat posed by the Taliban and their expansionist agenda. A clear line has been drawn and members of both the government and the opposition — and the citizenry — must make clear which side they are on. The religious right and their political parties are of particular importance; they must stop disseminating ill thought-out rhetoric on the virtues of a system that has so far never been defined in terms other than the vaguely ideological. The steady indoctrination of the citizenry by the religious right was one of the factors that allowed the Taliban to garner so much power and support in the first place. The Taliban are using the banner of religion to mask their agenda for control of the country. That agenda, and their methods, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms and opposed through every means possible. Stripped of the guise of religion, the Taliban’s activities are clearly revealed as treasonable and seditious offences.

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[B][U][CENTER][COLOR="DarkGreen"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Georgia"]OTHER VOICES - Middle East Press[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER][/U][/B]

[B]Thursday, 23 Apr, 2009[/B]

[B][I][SIZE="4"][COLOR="DarkOrange"]Protect the whistle-blowers[/COLOR][/SIZE][/I][/B]

INVESTIGATORS from the police and the security arm of the defence ministry raided the home of Dr Yehoshua Gozes this week to search for and confiscate his documents and his computer, detaining him for questioning. The suspicion: spilling deep secrets he learned as a senior employee at the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Nes Tziona. At this institute, Israel prepares defences against biological and chemical attacks on its civilians and soldiers. The activity at the institute is secret, so as not to reveal Israel’s capabilities in this sensitive area to its enemies.

The role of information security and law-enforcement bodies, including the police and the defence ministry, is to protect Israel’s security measures from declining in value.

If the suspicions are dispelled when the investigation is concluded — so much the better, but there should be no complaint about the desire to enclose the state’s secrets within a sturdy wall….

It is being said that he was in contact with journalists and that he gave them internal information regarding the affair of the development of the anthrax inoculation….

Even if this claim proves to be true, it would not justify the raid, the siege and the stalking of Gozes. They emit an odour of vengefulness, directed personally against Gozes and collectively against whistle-blowers.

It is predictable that journalists who leap to the whistle-blower’s fight will be accused of having a stake in it, that they are defending their source or their colleagues’ source.

In fact, this is the fight of democracy, which is nourished by journalistic revelations of senior officials’ involvement in hidden affairs.

The agencies of law enforcement and proper government, and at their head the attorney general, the state comptroller and the legislators, are obligated to protect those who disclose corruption. Without them … Israel will rot away. — (April 22)


03:47 PM (GMT +5)

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