Hyderabad blast

Many questions remain regarding Monday’s tragic tanker blast in Hyderabad’s Hala Naka. Several people were killed while many more were injured in the explosion which occurred at a truck depot. At the time of writing police and government officials were offering differing versions about what was inside the tanker. Some said the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder while others claimed that the truck was carrying thinner. Still others maintained that the tanker contained LPG, while the injured conductor of the vehicle told Dawn’s correspondent in Hyderabad that the truck was transporting carbon dioxide to a soda factory. The confusion over what was inside the tanker and whether the blast was accidental or an act of sabotage will only be cleared once a proper investigation is carried out.

Oil price deregulation

powers of the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority to determine the domestic prices of petroleum products and give them back to the refineries and oil marketing companies from next month. There is no evidence, however, that the petroleum ministry has resolved the issues that had prompted allegations of price manipulation by the OMCs’ ‘cartel’ and forced the government to assign the job to Ogra. The return to the old mechanism, goes one argument, would give the refineries and OMCs another opportunity to unfairly manipulate the market. Price deregulation does not work to the advantage of consumers in the absence of strong and effective market checks.

While recommending the changes, according to a report in this newspaper, the federal petroleum ministry has totally ignored the concerns of the Planning Commission, Ogra and some experts. The logic behind the opposition to the move is simple. It stresses on the need to phase in price deregulation to see how it works out in practice. This is to allow the government sufficient time to introduce legal checks and empower Ogra to prevent market abuse. This is important. The absence of strong regulations could provide the refineries and associated companies room to manipulate the market to an extent where they edge out the smaller OMCs. We have seen this happen in the LPG sector. The summary sent by the petroleum ministry to the Economic Coordination Committee also proposes to continue to let the refineries charge 7.5 per cent deemed duty on the local production of diesel and kerosene. But the refineries have not been given a deadline to reduce sulphur content in their diesel to 0.05 per cent for which this concession is meant.

Further, the proposal permits the refineries to continue to reap the benefits of protection of guaranteed tariff for transportation of their products through pipeline instead of charging the actual cost incurred on this count. This runs counter to free-market principles and consumer interests. Allowing fixed margins to OMCs and dealers on their sales eliminates competition at the retail level at the cost of the consumers. The only good news for consumers is that the proposal recommends deregulation of rail and road freight on transportation of petroleum products, which will bring down upcountry retail prices by Rs0.50-2.50 per litre. The ECC, which will be taking up the proposals, must seriously consider the concerns and objections against the ministry’s summary and also consult the Bhagwandas Commission Report on the price-determination mechanism of petroleum products before stamping its approval.

However, the blast raises pertinent questions about safety precautions. For instance, it must be ascertained what safety precautions are in place for vehicles carrying flammable material. Do heavy vehicles meet safety standards or do they ply the roads without following the rules? Moreover, the state’s emergency response and public reaction to such incidents leave a lot to be desired. Television footage showed people crowding round the location of the blast. In fact, this is a familiar sight; whenever disasters of this kind occur in Pakistan curious onlookers often obstruct rescue work. In the Hyderabad blast, law-enforcement officers had to bring the crowd under control and clear the way for the rescue effort.



Undoubtedly many people must have reached the area in order to help in the effort to look for survivors and shift them to hospital. However, such zeal must be properly channelled and the government should make efforts to raise public awareness about how to respond in emergencies. Volunteers from the public can be essential in saving lives but it must be an organised effort. Individual efforts and simply arriving at the scene of disaster out of curiosity is of no use. The government must have well-trained rescue squads in all cities and towns. Mercifully, there are volunteer ambulance services in the country. But their efforts need to be supplemented in times of trouble.

Shift for the better

Going by Adm Mike Mullen’s latest statement, America seems to be coming round to the idea of adopting a more pragmatic attitude towards Pakistan’s nuclear-power status. His speech is significant, because it covers two thorny issues which have been nagging US-Pakistan ties, i.e. the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and the need for Islamabad to have them in the first place.



Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pakistan was making “extraordinary efforts” to protect its nuclear weapons, which, he said, Pakistanis considered their “crown jewels”. At the same time the admiral showed an understanding of South Asia’s geopolitical environment when he noted that Islamabad had reasons to have those “important weapons in Pakistan’s arsenal”, because it saw a threat from India. Pakistanis, he said, “see a threat in India” and [having nuclear weapons] is their deterrent”.

Mullen may be the first American general to have spoken this way. But similar statements on Pakistan’s ability to guard its nuclear assets have come from the political leadership, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In an interview with the New York Times in April, President Obama said he felt “confident that Pakistan has secured its nuclear weapons”. Similarly, in October last, while on a European tour, Secretary Clinton expressed confidence in Islamabad’s ability to guard its nuclear weapons and dispelled the impression that some non-state actors could take them over. Her statement came in the wake of the daring attack on the GHQ in Rawalpindi by the Taliban, raising doubts in Washington and elsewhere about the vulnerability of Pakistan’s N-weapons to terrorist designs. She said, “We see no evidence they are going to take over.”

It is significant that during last week’s meeting of the nuclear suppliers’ group America did not raise any objection to the Pakistan-China civilian nuclear deal. Having signed a similar deal with India, it is in no position ethically to object to Islamabad’s decision to have two nuclear power reactors from Beijing. However, more than an ethical question, Washington’s decision should be seen in the light of the gradual but definite shift that seems to be evident in the Obama administration’s attitude towards Pakistan’s nuclear status. By making it clear that Pakistan’s nuclear pursuits are not in the same category as those of Iran and North Korea, Adm Mullen has made a significant policy statement that should serve to reduce the area of mistrust that characterises Pakistan’s ties with America on a number of issues, including the nuclear one.

Media under fire

It seems that the chains are being readied once again for the media. Their ominous rattle was heard yesterday in the Dawn report that the government has convened a meeting of the “media coordination committee of defence planning” to thrash out “policy guidelines” for private electronic and print media organisations. Proposals submitted by the foreign affairs’ ministry, the information ministry, the cabinet division and the army’s Joint Staff Headquarters are to be deliberated with the goal of evolving “a policy for tuning in the private media to national outlook and securing national security interests”. Another report states that the government has introduced a bill in parliament to impose fresh restrictions.

This echoes disturbingly of attempts by earlier regimes to undermine media freedom. It indicates that the government is joining hands with the military to consider codes that could amount to censorship and the violation of the public’s right to untainted news reporting. Beyond the fact that the ‘committee’ was so far unheard of, why have media representatives not been invited? Last November, editors of Pakistan’s 16 major TV channels agreed upon a code of conduct to ensure that public interests are not jeopardised. This self-regulation of the media must not be interfered with in a top-down fashion. The meeting’s agenda also says that “A charge on glorification of terrorism offence could be lodged or registered if a publication of a statement glorify the commission, create sensation of preparation of acts of terrorism … [sic]”. This would allow the hate-mongers to carry on, while media houses are penalised for reporting their statements.



The foreign ministry suggests that “our media strategy should encompass a balance between political and economic reporting, positive and negative news, emotionalism and objectivity, freedom and responsibility”. This could lead to media houses being dictated their content. Regardless of what codes are hammered out, convening the meeting shows that the country’s leadership remains intolerant of media organisations that report freely on matters inextricably linked to the citizenry’s wellbeing. The state should remember that past regimes have tried similar tactics to muzzle the media and failed. Censorship is a swamp that no government should get bogged down in.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

Data Darbar attack

Lahore came under attack yet again on Thursday. This time the militants targeted devotees at the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, one of the earliest saints to introduce this land to Sufism and its spirit of brotherhood. It is tragic that the safety of devotees at the shrine of one revered as Lahore’s protector should be dependent today on the little security the administration can provide in these dangerous times. No less disappointing has been the response that some can still come up with, even in the wake of continuous terrorist strikes. The most common reaction on the streets in Lahore a day after the Data Darbar tragedy was that this could not have been the work of ‘one of our own.’



People, in a desperate attempt to disown the terrorists and their acts, were again eager to point fingers at anti-Pakistan, anti-Islam elements outside the country. A similar pattern of thought was reflected in the statements of some officials. Their attitude does not stem from apathy, criminal negligence or incompetence. It is part of a deliberate policy. Perhaps there is a fear of the consequences involved in the identification of the terrorists. Surely it is part of a strategy which says that the only way we can survive is by pretending that we have no enemies at home.

Just how much data do we need to unearth the truth? Mounting evidence points to the monumental flaws in our theories of self-preservation. The clues to local involvement provided by terror incidents of the past aside, the attack on Data Darbar should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind just how expansive the designs of the terrorists are and how easy it is for them to find recruits in the vicinity of a planned strike anywhere in Pakistan. While details are coming in and ‘investigation is under way’, initial reports say one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up at Data Darbar belonged not to Waziristan nor to southern Punjab but to a suburb of Lahore. He apparently belonged to the Barki Hadiara area which makes him as much a Lahori as the large number of people killed in the blast. His involvement is indicative of the expanse governments in the country themselves need to cover once they have decided to fight terrorism in earnest. The government action — call it operation or whatever — will have to go much beyond Waziristan or southern Punjab or any particular region. It will have to be a campaign that covers the entire country

A matter of principle

President Zardari’s approach to the burning issue of the allegedly fake degrees held by some lawmakers appears misplaced. The president recently lashed out at certain elements that he claims are exploiting the matter to dislodge him from the presidency. He slammed “anti-democracy” forces for conspiring against him using the degrees’ issue. He may have been correct in pointing out that the “people alone have the right to elect their representatives and send them to parliament” but does that justify being dishonest in order to get elected? On Thursday, the federal education minister more or less echoed Mr Zardari’s stance, albeit in a slightly less confrontational tone. He admitted that faking educational qualifications was not appropriate, but argued that expelling parliamentarians to correct this wrong was not the solution either.

The suitability of the graduation requirement for legislators, put in place by Gen Musharraf, has been discussed at length. The issue here is that of principles and the ethical and moral standards of our elected representatives. Some have argued that the democratic experiment is young in Pakistan and it would be unwise to rock the boat by highlighting the degrees’ issue at this juncture. True, the question of why the issue is being raised now is a valid one, as are concerns regarding why the Election Commission did not do a thorough job of scrutinising the candidates’ educational credentials.



But the fact remains that the graduation requirement existed when those sitting in the assemblies today filed their nomination papers for the February 2008 polls. It was only struck down later by the Supreme Court. So the question is certainly not that of conspiracies against democracy as Mr Zardari makes it sound: it is of politicians compromising on their integrity in order to get elected. It is also correct that past rulers have got away with far graver sins. But the spirit of democracy requires the representatives of the people to display some moral calibre and not engage in forgery and fraud which are crimes under the penal code. Hence as the fate of over 100 lawmakers hangs in the balance, the principles of democracy demand that the politicians embark on an exercise in self-introspection.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

National conference

PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s call for a national conference to evolve a strategy on combating terrorism and Prime Minister Gilani’s endorsement of the proposal have come not a moment too soon.

The Data Darbar tragedy in Lahore has underscored a grim reality: the militants are not only at war with the Pakistani state, they are bent upon subjugating the Pakistani people as well. Security installations, government buildings, mosques, schools, shrines, hospitals and markets, all have been attacked. With this blurring of targets, there is also a need to realise that, whatever their nomenclature, ideology, agenda and area of operation, the militants must now be seen in holistic terms — and their tactics unanimously condemned. This should be the thought behind the attempt to form a consensus on a strategy to curb terrorism. True, there will always be differences of opinion between those whose religious inclinations find resonance in the ideology espoused by the militants and others who believe that faith is a private affair and should be kept out of the national discourse.

But that is a debate that will have to run its course as the Pakistani nation attempts to resolve a crisis of identity that has dogged it almost since the time of independence. What is not a matter of debate is that the terrorists are prepared to stop at nothing to destroy the state and inflict their obscurantist agenda on the people.

So when the national conference takes place — and one hopes that all stakeholders will be on board and that the meeting will include not only representatives of political parties — it should be with the realisation that there is a common goal to pursue. There should be no room for blame-games or fiery speeches. Serious discussions will be required, with informed input from all concerned, so that a workable plan to thwart militancy can be put in place. Such a plan would include suggestions on how to prepare the people to take on those who threaten their way of life.

We have the example of Malakand division. Soon after the army launched an operation there in April 2009, an all-parties conference more or less unanimously backed the military action. Such political support, combined with the public’s backing, was instrumental in the army’s success in flushing out militants from the area. It will be a long-drawn-out struggle against the militants who will no doubt strike again in an attempt to demoralise the public. But given similar consensus, there is no reason why terrorism cannot be eradicated from larger swathes of Pakistan.

US sanctions on Iran

It is highly unlikely that adding American sanctions to those imposed by the UN Security Council last month will make Iran change course.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed into law sanctions that stop the export of petroleum products to Iran and prevent American banks from doing business with financial institutions that provide services to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The American law, which comes within a month of the fourth set of sanctions passed by the UN, is to be followed by the bans which the European Union is set to impose in late July. This seems to be part of concerted western moves that assume their efficacy. This is patently wrong, because these sanctions affect Iranian utilities only marginally and are unlikely to make Tehran desperate. In any case, Iran has been under sanctions for three decades, and that has in no way made any of the revolutionary governments relent on the nuclear issue or on Tehran’s over-all foreign policy posture.

Negotiations, which are the proper way for addressing western fears about Iran’s intentions, have remained suspended since October. Now they are unlikely to begin, if at all, before August, because Tehran expressed its displeasure over Resolution 1929 by suspending the talks for two months. Nevertheless, it is significant that Tehran has not in principle given up the idea of negotiations with western powers and insists that more parties should be part of the negotiating process. It points out rightly that Brazil and Turkey voted against the UN resolution and helped it clinch an agreement that shows how things can work out peacefully on such an emotive issue as its nuclear programme.

There is no doubt Tehran has pursued policies that often appear unnecessarily confrontational. But the US-led bloc has not helped matters by failing to realise the reasons behind Iran’s hard line. The truth is that, while the western powers follow Iran’s nuclear programme with a microscope, patronising Israel, the Middle East’s only nuclear power, continues to be the basic principle of their policy. This has robbed western diplomacy of a moral basis for going tough on Iran.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

Criminal mindset

vThe crime committed against two women in the southern Punjab town of Shehr Sultan on Sunday is a despicable example of the ‘jungle justice’ that is witnessed all too often in the country.

Over a dozen men publicly stripped and thrashed a middle-aged woman and her teenaged daughter, allegedly because of a relationship that one of the men’s daughter was having with the older woman’s son. The shocking incident is yet another reminder of the manner in which the country’s women continue to suffer gross injustices resulting from twisted constructions of male honour. This case is not without precedent: in 1984, the public stripping and beating of two women and a young girl in Nawabpur prompted the government to insert Section 354-A into the Pakistan Penal Code, raising the maximum sentence for this crime to death penalty or life imprisonment.

Yet in 2002, Mukhtaran Mai was publicly stripped and gang-raped in Meerwala village. Then in September 2007, less than a year after the Protection of Women Bill 2006 was signed into law, the same ‘punishment’, for the same reason, was meted out to a woman in Sahiwal tehsil. All these cases were reported from southern Punjab.

Sadly, legislation developed with regard to protecting women has failed to act as an effective deterrent. This is partly because the awareness that the persecution of women is not only wrong but also criminalised in certain forms is far from sufficient. For the prevention of such crimes, it is vital that the guilty parties be awarded exemplary punishment. It is hoped that the perpetrators in Sunday’s case, who have been charged under Section 354-A of the Penal Code, are speedily brought to justice. But what is also needed urgently is a public campaign to alter the barbaric mindset that strips women of their rights and dignity as human beings and prompts such crimes.

Wrong signals

Reports that the water and power ministry has blocked an $800m hydropower project are baffling. The 500MW project, proposed for Mahl in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, has been shelved supposedly on procedural and technical grounds.
According to reports in this paper attempts to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Gilani and the AJK premier in order to sort out the issue have also been thwarted by the ministry. Left in the lurch is a Korean consortium which was supposed to finance the project. According to a senior official in the ministry the go-ahead for the project was “premature” due to poor geology and boundary problems between AJK and Punjab.

However, observers say the Punjab government has no problem with the scheme. Also, if the project was not suitable why were international bids called and selections made? Wapda is apparently interested in the scheme but does not have the funds to finance such hydropower projects. The Koreans — engaged in the project since 2005 — now want an independent investigation into the issue.

At the root of this confusion seems to be the fact that elements within the bureaucracy are delaying the project for their own benefit. However, though doing so may actually benefit a few, it appears to be detrimental to the nation’s interests. Pakistan is going through a painful energy crisis with the shortfall ranging between 3,000-3,500MW. Hence all feasible power-generation projects must be considered and implemented, especially when foreign investors are willing to provide the needed capital. The government must realise that foreign investment in the country in such times of instability and violence must be welcomed, not shunned.

What signals are we sending to potential investors when deliberate hurdles are created by vested interests? If the government wants to create an investor-friendly atmosphere, this is certainly not the way to go about it. If the Mahl project is feasible and if all the stakeholders are expressing an interest, then all irritants in its way must be removed. The government needs to put its house in order as Pakistan cannot afford to deter investment, especially in such a critical sector.

America & dictators

US Congressman Howard Berman’s argument is simple enough. Addressing a meeting of US physicians of Pakistani descent, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee stated the obvious on Sunday when he said that democracy cannot prosper if civilian governments do not enjoy complete administrative control over the armed forces.
He pointed to President Barack Obama’s recent decision to change his top commander in Afghanistan, and seemed to suggest that a similar move would not be viable in Pakistan. Mr Berman may be right on this count, nor can it be denied that the democratic process in Pakistan has been repeatedly derailed by military dictators. The Congressman’s comments, incidentally, came a day before the 33rd anniversary of Gen Ziaul Haq’s coup against the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a move that many believe could not have taken place without the tacit support of the US. That was a defining moment in the country’s history and we are suffering from its fallout to this day. Would Pakistan in the 21st century be wracked by militancy and terrorism if the US hadn’t supported Gen Zia and pumped millions into the Afghan ‘jihad’?

The point here is that America has long been hand in glove with military dictators and varied despots, not just in Pakistan but across the globe. In Central and South America it has even engineered coups to oust democratically elected administrations. Bloodbaths followed but that did not deter the US from throwing its full weight behind regimes that were answerable to no one but Washington. US foreign policy inflicted grievous harm on countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Chile and Nicaragua in the Americas and Indonesia and the Philippines in the east. Then there was the generous support for the likes of Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran and of course every single Pakistani dictator dating back to Gen Ayub Khan. A lot of this had to do with the exigencies of the Cold War. But the fact remains that the US itself has derailed democracy throughout the world.

In our case America’s response to military coups has followed a strikingly similar pattern: initial condemnation or criticism, then endorsement and finally whole-hearted support for the junta in question. Mr Berman is no doubt sincere when he says that the US wants to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan. But what guarantee do Pakistanis have that the self-styled champion of democracy will not play the same old game if the tide somehow turns? Can the US confirm in no uncertain terms that it will never support a Pakistani dictator again irrespective of circumstances?

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

Violence by lawyers

Pakistani lawyers have been in the news since March 2007 for reasons right and wrong. Their struggle against Pervez Musharraf’s dismissal of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and for the independence of the judiciary was epic — a long and hard struggle that, despite the state’s brutal response, ended in unqualified triumph.

The movement hit world headlines and earned the nation’s gratitude though, regrettably, it was not without its seamy side, with the black coats often behaving in a manner that was not in keeping with the dignity of their calling. Over the years, the situation seems to have deteriorated, with lawyers often found involved in fracas not only among themselves but also with others, including judges, court staff and newsmen. The latest in this series of bizarre incidents is the clash between some Lahore lawyers and judicial officers.

While one has to be circumspect while fixing guilt when there is a ‘clash’, what happened on Monday doesn’t cast the lawyers in a good light. Protesting against the alleged misbehaviour of a district and sessions judge, some lawyers stormed into his court, threw him out and locked the court. Unbelievable as it sounds, this group of lawyers was led by their elected representative — the Lahore Bar Association chief. The matter didn’t end there. When some judicial officers came to their chief’s rescue, the lawyers pelted them with stones. Lawyers throwing stones at judges: this is something unheard of even in a society like Pakistan where all time-honoured values and institutions are under threat.

This is not the first time that our lawyers have been involved in acts of violence. TV cameras have caught them scuffling among themselves, they have been involved in fisticuffs with policemen and they have attacked journalists for coverage they didn’t approve of. It is quite possible that the conduct of the judge in question offended the lawyers. But they could have made their case peacefully and perhaps earned our sympathy. Instead, by resorting to violence they felt no shame about abjuring due process. While the nation expected them to set an example for others and uphold the law, they have struck at the very concept of civilised behaviour.

Economic mess

Pakistan’s economy is a mess. Growth remains sluggish, not least because of falling investment, energy shortages, political instability and an unfavourable security environment.

Inflation is resurging and the rupee showing signs of weakness. The fiscal deficit is estimated to have swelled to 6.2 per cent of GDP last year from an earlier official forecast of 5.1 per cent. Could these be the signs of reversal of the recent economic gains? That will be too early to say though the country’s future economic outlook remains precarious. The country’s economic future largely hinges on external capital flows. But, as things stand today, financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other donors is likely to get delayed due to Islamabad’s failure to hold down its fiscal deficit to the agreed level and implement Value-Added Tax (VAT). It is important that the government took convincing steps to show to the world that it is serious about fixing the economy. The curtailment of unproductive expenditure and increase in tax revenues will be a crucial step in this direction.

The failure to boost tax revenues has led the government to cut price subsidies and development expenditure. But it has done nothing substantial to plug the leakage of about Rs200bn through various loss-making state-owned entities like PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills and the railways. The cut in ‘wasteful’ price subsidies alone, though necessary, will not help. These measures have only spelled more difficulties for the man on the street. The budgetary deficit is growing in spite of the massive cuts in subsidies and reduction in development budgets. Besides, Islamabad should also take the provinces on board on its economic policies. Its finance managers blame provincial deficits for the widening of the fiscal gap. Now they want the prime minister to intervene and convince the provinces to slash their expenditure to help cut the overall fiscal deficit. The provinces are required to create a surplus equal to 1.5 per cent of GDP this year for controlling the overall fiscal deficit.

The provinces, however, should be cautioned against axing their development spending to throw up surplus. It will hurt the poor and result in the loss of more jobs.

Also, the prime minister has been requested to defuse political opposition to the implementation of VAT, which is crucial if tax revenues are to be boosted for development. It remains to be seen if the chief executive of the country will be able to neutralise opposition to the tax. If that does not happen, the country will actually risk the reversal of the economic gains of the last 20 months. That will be disastrous for both the country and its people.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

A state of confusion

Washington’s lack of direction in its Afghanistan policy is perplexing. The mixed signals coming from the US suggest that the Afghan imbroglio is not being dealt with in a desirable fashion.

As reported in this newspaper, US opposition has halted efforts by Pakistan to bring the Haqqani network to the table in order to make peace with the Afghan government. The hardening in the American stance came after Gen David Petraeus replaced Stanley McChrystal as the Isaf commander. Petraeus wants the militants defeated in the field and favours designating the Haqqani network as a terrorist group. This, it is said, will torpedo efforts for a political solution to the Afghan quagmire.

However, one US senior official said recently that there is room for those who want to “come in from the cold”. Differences between the American civilian and military leadership over how to deal with Afghanistan were brought to light by Gen McChrystal’s indiscretions. But Washington must clearly spell out what sort of policy it wants to pursue in Afghanistan. Abrupt about-faces in this regard will not help. Washington needs to communicate to Islamabad and Kabul its vision for an Afghan solution. The US administration’s own lack of clarity was evident in the frustration expressed by senior lawmakers as they grilled Richard Holbrooke during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

The confusion needs to end and Washington needs to pursue a solid Afghan policy. As long as confusion prevails only the militants will benefit and an end to the war will be unlikely in the foreseeable future. If the US keeps changing its stance every time a new general takes command of the operation it will cause much bitterness in both Islamabad and Kabul.

It is significant that both the Afghan and Pakistani governments are on the same page with regard to bringing most of the Afghan Taliban into the political mainstream. This is a welcome departure from the mistrust of the past. If the Americans have credible information that the link between Al Qaeda and the Haqqanis is too strong to be severed, they should share it with Kabul and Islamabad. Or else it’ll be seen as an effort to scuttle Hamid Karzai’s efforts to forge an ‘all-Afghan’ solution. Senior American lawmakers have admitted that the Haqqanis are the most significant threat to stability in Afghanistan. They must now decide whether to engage the militants politically or to dig in for what appears to be an open-ended conflict.

Mr Ramday’s point

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday’s observations on the judiciary’s responsibility vis-a-vis a military takeover deserve attention. While hearing the petition challenging the 18th Amendment on Tuesday, he said the amended constitutional clauses singled out judges for being guilty of treason if they legitimised a military coup.

He buttressed his argument by saying that the judiciary was not the only institution that accepted military interventions. Justice Ramday is right — up to a point. No doubt the judges were not the only ones who kowtowed to generals who overthrew elected governments, tore up constitutions, arrested and humiliated prime ministers and their families and rounded up and persecuted for years politicians and bureaucrats by means of the fraud called “accountability”. The civil bureaucracy too willingly collaborated with the general in question while politicians opposed to the ousted regime welcomed the military, and sections of the media also felt no shame in eulogising and welcoming those who seized power by extra- constitutional means. But there are differences we cannot gloss over.

The other institutions which acquiesced in military rule followed the courts’ legitimisation of coups d’etat. The politicians who collaborated with the ‘saviours’ did so as a consequence of the judicial pronouncement upholding the coup. We know, for example, that in the case of Zia and Musharraf, the Supreme Court not only validated the takeover but also authorised them to amend the constitution — something grotesque, because the apex court was giving to the general powers which it itself did not possess. Once given legitimacy Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf proceeded to consolidate their hold politically. They mostly created a ‘king’s party’ – the name in each case was Muslim League – tailored politics for years, hounded and jailed those who refused to fall in line by issuing a series of decrees for which they had the court’s authority, and then organised bogus elections.

The parliaments which thus came into being lacked moral legitimacy. No wonder parliamentarians grateful to the generals passed constitutional packages that indemnified the generals and whitewashed their crimes. While the collective guilt is there, there is no doubt the judiciary’s initial legitimisation of the coup paved the way for others to follow.

Assault on women

In the violent country that is Pakistan, women remain amongst the most vulnerable sections of society.

Disturbingly, the violence appears to span all economic and social divides; neither education nor the threat of legal action seems to deter men from committing all manner of crimes against women. On Wednesday, for example, a doctor associated with Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre was arrested under the suspicion of assaulting a trainee nurse, who jumped out of an apartment’s window to save herself. Further investigation appears to indicate that the assault was sexual in nature. The circumstances under which the nurse was found also point to this conclusion. On July 12, meanwhile, a woman in Larkana jumped out of a moving car to save herself from being drowned by her husband. And on July 4, over a dozen men publicly stripped and thrashed two women in Shehr Sultan. Sadly, there is no shortage of cases of women’s rights violations in the country.

Reported from different areas, these cases show that neither are women’s rights respected nor the laws designed to protect them. It is vital that the state step up the campaign to empower women and make the citizenry at large aware that the coercion and victimisation of women is in many cases criminalised. This awareness is vital, as the difference between the Shehr Sultan and Larkana incidents demonstrate: in the former, people stood by and watched the crime while in the latter, villagers and police came to the victim’s rescue, thus saving her life.

A drop in the ocean though this may be, it indicates that given sufficient awareness, citizens can step in to resist the victimisation of women. That, and the effective prosecution of offenders, will go a long way towards protecting Pakistan’s women.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

Degrees’ debacle

The saga of lawmakers’ fake degrees has taken yet another twist. It emerged on Monday that the verification process of the legislators’ educational qualifications may take longer than expected.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has expressed a lack of confidence in the way the Higher Education Commission is conducting the process of scrutiny. It will now re-verify the HEC’s findings. According to the ECP secretary, every lawmaker whose degree has been declared fake would be given the chance of a personal hearing “to prove their claim”. The secretary was also quoted as saying that “we don’t need anybody’s direction on how to do our job”. If this were true the fake degrees’ issue would not have emerged in the first place. What can also prolong matters is that the HEC will now have to submit its findings to the education ministry, instead of directly to a parliamentary committee on education.

The HEC appears to be doing an impartial job. Without naming names, it declared the degrees of 37 lawmakers to be bogus. Resultantly, the government was seen to apply pressure tactics to HEC chairman Javaid Laghari when his brother Farooq Laghari was picked up by security men on July 12 in Hyderabad. Farooq Laghari was charged with corruption during his tenure as DCO of Tando Mohammad Khan. Regardless of the veracity of the claims against him, the timing of Mr Laghari’s arrest casts a dubious shadow on the government’s intentions. It strengthens the belief that his arrest was a pressure tactic aimed at harassing the HEC head. Prime Minister Gilani’s intervention — in the aftermath of which Farooq Laghari was released on bail — indicates the government’s involvement in the harassment of Javaid Laghari in order to influence the verification process. Mr Gilani also asked the Sindh chief minister to “avoid any victimisation” of the Laghari family after the HEC head met the premier on Monday. The fact that a democratic government can apply pressure tactics more suited to totalitarian regimes is troubling.

The issue has dragged on long enough. The government must not interfere in the verification process and refrain from harassing those tasked with scrutinising the degrees. The issue needs closure so that the country can move on. The lack of a clear direction is fuelling speculations about mid-term elections, which is not what the country needs at this point. The government cannot delay the issue indefinitely hoping that it will go away. The matter needs to be resolved — and the best way forward is for the task to be accomplished honestly and speedily.

Gastroenteritis outbreak

Clean drinking water and adequate sanitation remain a distant dream in Pakistan. Given that the reality on the ground is not going to change any time soon, it is critical in the immediate term that attention be focused on measures which can help prevent waterborne diseases.

It is estimated that upwards of 230,000 Pakistani children die every year from waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera and gastroenteritis. Such is the scope of the problem that water-related ailments account for nearly 40 per cent of bed occupancy in the country’s healthcare facilities and cost the exchequer roughly Rs120bn on an annual basis. It may be impossible to bring this seemingly never-ending cycle of misery to a complete halt. However, it is well within our means to significantly reduce the human suffering caused by waterborne diseases.

Nearly 60 patients, most of them children, were rushed to hospital on Monday after a gastroenteritis outbreak in Karachi’s Landhi area. This should serve as a wake-up call for the authorities. Summer and the monsoon season are both catalysts for waterborne diseases and a major media campaign must be launched informing the public about basic preventative measures. In particular, stress needs to be placed on boiling drinking water, a simple procedure for many that can save countless lives. Of particular concern here are villagers who do not have ready access to healthcare facilities or the means for treatment. In this context there is a need for mobile medical units that can be dispatched to areas where outbreaks are reported.

The corporate sector can also show greater responsibility and play its due role. For instance, firms manufacturing liquid oral rehydration products could distribute their goods to the poor for free because the powder format is of little use when mixed with contaminated water. For both the government and the private sector, the time to act is now.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

Margalla tragedy

The tragic air crash in the Margalla Hills near the heart of Islamabad yesterday is a terrible capstone to a tragic few days for Pakistan. With rain and floods claiming lives across the country, bad weather has again played its part in claiming 152 lives in one go.

Our thoughts go out to the families of the victims at this moment where no words can suffice. At this point, little can be said with certainty about the causes for the crash. Investigations may take weeks or months, and perhaps answers will never be had. But there are some things that are relatively obvious at this early stage. The heroism of ordinary Pakistanis is one of them. The plane crashed in a part of the hills where access for rescue services is difficult; but this did not deter locals in surrounding villages from converging on the scene to try and help. In normal circumstances, volunteerism at the site of accidents can be counter-productive as untrained rescue workers can do more harm than good and impede the efforts of trained personnel. Nevertheless, at least initially many ordinary people showed a brave impulse by racing towards the site of the accident.

Beyond that, it is a story of grim, familiar questions. First of all confusion quickly set in at the accident site because the various agencies that converged there appeared to be working without a central command centre to coordinate search, and if needed rescue, operations. Then, the army was called in to help, but ended up sealing off the site — even from rescue personnel. An hour after the crash, rescue workers complained they were being held back from proceeding towards the crash site by security forces. There was little by way of traffic management. Main avenues in Islamabad were sealed off quickly, but the narrow roads snaking up towards the general vicinity of the crash were choked with traffic, not all of which was rescue-related. To be sure, some element of chaos in the immediate aftermath of an accident of this proportions is perhaps inevitable, but the test of the efficiency and competence of civic and rescue agencies is to see how quickly they can impose order where disorder prevails. On the basis of yesterday’s response time, the authorities in Islamabad have some way to go.

Problems were also evident at the medical end. With no victims surviving, the emergency response of hospitals like PIMS was not tested. However, a well-known problem quickly surfaced: the acute lack of refrigerated mortuary services in the capital city and Rawalpindi. Altogether, less than 20 bodies can be kept refrigerated at any given time in the two cities. With DNA testing and other painstaking processes ahead for identifying the remains of the victims, there is a big question mark over how the authorities will be able to preserve the remains in a dignified manner until identifications can be made.

Perhaps worst of all was the information vacuum, and the misinformation disseminated by the interior and information ministers. With families looking to the authorities for reliable information, the ministers suggested victims had been rescued alive, triggering acute scenes of anxiety and desperation among families suddenly given hope. Surely, ministers should be helping impose order, not creating false hope. Similarly, both the airline concerned and the Civil Aviation Authority did not appear to have a clear response plan that was activated immediately. Training to cope with disasters is an integral part of the airline business, so the rareness of the event is no excuse. Why is it so difficult for professionalism and compassion to go hand in hand? The anxiety etched on the faces of families waiting for news of their loved ones should have been reason enough for them to do so.

New anti-terror bill

The draft of the amended anti-terror law placed before the Senate on Tuesday contains quite a few clauses that should raise concerns among human-rights watchers.

Given the deadly and pandemic nature of the wave of terrorism and the consequent challenge before the security agencies, one can understand the reason behind the government’s keenness to have a stringent anti-terror law. The rate of acquittals is uncomfortably high — suspects in the Islamabad Marriott bombing case were acquitted — and the numbers of those on bail who abscond and under-trial prisoners who are shot dead in courts testify to the lackadaisical way in which the anti-terror machinery operates. For that reason one is not sure whether amendments sought in the law will improve the rate of convictions and mete out justice to all those criminals involved in killing innocent men, women and children throughout Pakistan.

One clause of the bill, which is an expired ordinance recycled, moved by Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the upper house, runs counter to a basic principle of justice — a man is innocent unless proven guilty. For that reason one cannot understand how those who in Mr Malik’s words are the “best of the best legal experts” could approve a clause that places the onus of proving innocence on a person accused of possessing explosives or being involved in acts of terrorism in an area where the armed forces operate. We know how our security agencies, especially the police, operate. ‘Recovering’ explosives — or, as the joke goes, even an F-16 — from someone who is on the wrong side of a security agency or a police officer is something that has been part of the tactics our investigation agencies employ. Already, a large part of our police is corrupt, and ‘disappearances’ and extrajudicial killings are common. With this new clause added to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 there is every possibility that the law may be misused more than ever before.

More regrettably, one of the 25 clauses enables the security agencies to detain for 90 days a person found to be in possession of property considered out of proportion to his known sources of income. This is an obnoxious clause. For decades our governments, both civilian and military, have perpetrated a big fraud on the nation in the name of ‘accountability’. The addition of this clause will give this and future governments a legal nostrum to throw their political foes into prison for 90 days on charges stemming from the anti-terror law. It is true that since 9/11, the world has changed in a big way, and many countries have amended their anti-terrorism laws. But the amendments being made in the Pakistani law are contrary to the universally accepted principles of fundamental rights and are bound to be misused by the police. The truth is that terrorism cannot be defeated merely through draconian laws that pose a threat to civil society. It must be tackled through overall improvement in the working of the prosecution machinery and investigation techniques.

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

Uncalled-for criticism

Criticising Pakistan for its handling of the Taliban is one thing, talking in a way that is almost calculated to hurt the country’s interests quite another.

Unfortunately, British Prime Minister David Cameron proved on Wednesday that he was quite capable of doing the latter. Mr Cameron’s harsh criticism of Pakistan in India was seen by many as an attempt by the British prime minister to please his hosts. After all his entourage included one of Britain’s leading arms manufacturers that will get $775m from India for selling 57 trainer jets. But Mr Cameron appeared to go overboard when he used words that even those who count among Pakistan’s harshest critics have not.

For nearly a decade now, there have been many foreign officials who have asked Pakistan to ‘do more’ where the war on terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan is concerned. They have included, first and foremost, American officials — from George Bush and Barack Obama down to State Department spokesmen and officers at all levels in the Pentagon. It is unfortunate that this mantra should have taken precedence over acknowledging the losses Pakistanis have suffered in the war — including civilian casualties. However, no one — with the exception perhaps of New Delhi and Kabul — had ever accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism. In doing so was Mr Cameron attempting to bracket Pakistan with countries that have been or still are anathema to the West? Never missing a moment to blame Pakistan, President Karzai pleaded on Thursday for extending the war in Afghanistan to this country.

However, Pakistan must look inwards and see why it lends itself to such criticism and epithets. To wit, the establishment must not give the impression that it makes a difference between good militants and bad ones. All terrorists kill without mercy and must face justice. The war on terror is Pakistan’s own war, but there is a general impression that Pakistan still supports groups like the Haqqani network and the Lashkar-i-Taiba. Pakistan needs to dispel this impression by taking necessary action, and not by resorting to platitudes. We must not only come clean, we must appear to be so in our dealings.

Disastrous floods

The recent torrential rains have resulted in a truly alarming situation. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, already reeling from escalating terrorism, has in particular been hit hard.

Extensive flooding has affected over 400,000 people and killed well over 400. Thousands of homes across the province and the adjoining tribal areas have been inundated, and in Swat, houses, bridges, hospitals, roads and communication networks have been washed away. Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir are virtually cut off because landslides have blocked major road links, while the arterial Karakoram Highway has suffered extensive damage. In Balochistan, floods have affected over 60,000 people and killed 80 in just one week. The other provinces have not been spared either. Devastating flash floods and hill torrents have caused widespread damage in three districts of Punjab, while in Sindh, hundreds of acres of agricultural land have been inundated in Sukkur. Yet this unleashing of the wrath of the elements may not be over. The Federal Flood Commission has noted that the level of water in dams and barrages across the country continues to rise, while flooding in low-lying areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could worsen within days. Meanwhile, Sindh faces a massive in-rush of water flowing downstream.

The response of disaster management cells and authorities has been slow to say the least, and officialdom has in many areas been conspicuous by its absence in bringing relief. That said, however, it is clear that the scale of the disaster is such that it has inevitably overwhelmed whatever resources are available to bodies such as the National Disaster Management Authority. The thousands of people affected by the rains and floods need help, and need it fast. The stranded need rescuing while those in risk zones need to be evacuated; it is essential that the government divert every possible resource towards this end. Meanwhile, shelter, food, drinking water, medicines and clothing must be distributed without delay. Efforts made in this regard by the government, as well as civil society, could prove invaluable and save lives. The country must mobilise itself to meet the challenges posed by the worst monsoonal disaster seen in decades.

After the initial crisis is weathered, policymakers should turn their attention to the long-term measures required to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. This includes not just preparing contingency and coordinated response plans but also addressing issues such as wide-scale deforestation and the need to construct small dams and reservoirs in places where they could absorb excess river flows and rainwater, and store it for use during dry periods. Experts believe that climate change is increasingly giving rise to extreme weather. Pakistan must prepare itself.

Fancy registration plates

The Sindh government recently launched a drive against the elaborate ‘number’ plates affixed to some vehicles. This is a welcome development considering the rampant use of such plates, especially in Karachi.

In this respect, a government advertisement correctly pointed out that the “use of fancy number plates, AFR [applied for registration] and fabricated (handmade plates) of all types is illegal”. The advertisement also mentioned that the Sindh High Court issued orders saying that all vehicles using such plates should be impounded.

Often the most brazen violators of the law in this regard are government officials, lawmakers and those associated with political parties. Rather than displaying standard government-issued plates, such people use plates inscribed with the names of their departments or their status as members of parliament. The use of party flags and other paraphernalia is also common. Drivers, aides and relatives also misuse vehicles with illegal licence plates to proudly display their connections with those in power. The violation of the law sends the message that those with connections have no need for following the rules. The Sindh High Court took suo motu notice last month when a retired air force officer was reportedly beaten up by a teenager and his guards; the assailants were driving a vehicle with a foreign number plate as well as an MNA plate.

There have been similar drives before, with little success. The real challenge for the police is to apply the law to the ministers, lawmakers and government officials who use such plates. The law-enforcers must be allowed to take action against those who break the law, regardless of the power or influence of their office. Only then can the campaign be effective. Unless the government applies the law to its own functionaries, how can it expect average citizens to follow the rules?

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.