Editorial: DAWN - Page 118

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1171** Monday, April 14, 2014

14-04-2014

Questionable appointments

AS the federal government belatedly turns to filling a range of senior appointments in various government and semi-governmental organisations, it appears to have forgotten its own advice and promises. As reported in this newspaper yesterday, a pattern is emerging of the government selecting individuals for top posts who are past the age of retirement and whose services are either retained or hired on a contractual basis. That very practice was so fiercely criticised and opposed by the PML-N during the last PPP government that a senior PML-N leader Khawaja Asif moved the Supreme Court to help stop it. Now, the government is lamely defending its U-turn by claiming that while the PPP’s appointments were done on the basis of nepotism, cronyism and corruption, the PML-N is making its selections on merit and within the laid down criteria. Of course, since the eligibility criteria for certain posts have been specifically relaxed to allow individuals over the age of 60 to apply, the PML-N’s defence is weak at best.

What all of this unseemly manoeuvring comes down to is two things. One, governing through favourites. What exactly does the new Pakistan Tourism and Development Corporation head bring at the age of 65 that someone below the age of retirement cannot bring to the job? If the new managing director really does possess a unique skill set to manage some extraordinary challenge at the PTDC, why not tell the public what those are? Even where an attempt is made at giving some kind of explanation, it is scarcely credible. For example, perhaps the DG, Intelligence Bureau does have a reform agenda that only he can see through and which necessitated an extension in service — but what does that say about reforms themselves if they can only be pushed through by one individual? Surely, little of lasting effect can be achieved. Those are but two recent examples of a list that is growing worryingly long.

Two, the PML-N’s utter lack of interest in institutional and structural reforms. While the government denies that is true, it also claims that what is needed are quick results, which is another way of saying that the slow and painstaking work of nuts-and-bolts institutional reform can wait until the economic and security situation of the country is stabilised. All of this the country has heard before — and seen the results too. A growth spurt is engineered, the veneer of security is created and then, three to five years later, the game of illusions ends and the country has to bear the cost of the focus on short-term gains. It is not as if politicians as a group, including the present government, are unaware of the risks, but there is little pressure on them to choose the more responsible, and difficult, path.

Prime minister’s absence

THE prime minister must have taken note of the moves to amend the Senate’s rules of procedure to make the chief executive’s presence in the upper house compulsory at least once a week. The need for such a move would not have arisen if Nawaz Sharif had attended parliamentary sessions regularly. As of now, Mr Sharif is upholding a rather unsavoury tradition: most Pakistani prime ministers have never been habitués of parliament. Obviously, they failed to realise that one of their duties is to strengthen democratic traditions by being a regular participant of parliamentary sessions. Mr Sharif’s record is among the worst of any Pakistani prime minister — he didn’t attend a single session of the upper house during the parliamentary year ending last month. And unlike Yousuf Raza Gilani, who regularly participated in debates, Mr Sharif’s record of presence in the lower house is even worse. He attended a National Assembly session on Jan 29 after a gap of seven months, and then was last seen in the people’s house on Feb 26. Since then, he has not been visible in parliament. No one should be surprised if his ministers take their cue from him, for his interior minister has been accused by senators of having resorted to an undeclared boycott of the upper house since those November days when opposition members in the Senate held sessions outside the parliament building, and the senators wanted Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to apologise for allegedly giving faulty information.

Granted, Mr Sharif is a busy person but then so are prime ministers of other parliamentary democracies. In Britain, the prime minister himself answers MPs’ questions and stands the booing and heckling that is an intrinsic part of a parliamentarian’s life. That Mr Sharif should absent himself from a house where his party has a majority is astonishing and demands an explanation. By appearing in parliament only rarely Mr Sharif is doing no service to himself or to democracy in a country that needs strong parliamentary traditions. ‘A clash of institutions’ is often talked about and feared in Pakistan. The best way to pre-empt such a malignant event is to strengthen parliament and make it a truly sovereign body that commands the respect of unelected institutions.

Security guards’ plight

GLANCE through any news report of a bank heist or robbery at some other commercial establishment. Chances are that among those who got injured or shot dead is the security guard employed at the premises. We only get to hear of him again if he’s found to have had some culpability in the break-in. A recent report in this paper gave an insight into the back story of private security guards whose dire work conditions have a direct bearing on their morale and, by extension, on the security of those they are employed to protect. Although it focused on security guards and agencies in Punjab, there is enough anecdotal evidence to indicate that similar conditions prevail throughout the country.

The plight of the majority is pathetic by any standard: less than minimum wage for 12-hour shifts seven days a week, lack of training, no overtime, sick leave, or medical cover. Moreover, despite their high-risk job, they have no social security cover, which means their families are not entitled to compensation if they lose their lives in the line of duty. The security agencies that employ them on such terms are not only flouting norms of humane behaviour by exploiting the desperation of those in need of an income, howsoever humiliating the circumstances in which it is earned, but also breaking the law in some respects. Aside from refresher training for the guards, the provincial government also stipulates that agencies insure their guards with respect to death or serious injury amounting to disability in the discharge of duty. Action has indeed been taken against some 70 agencies for operating counter to the requirements of the law and human decency, but a lot more remains to be done. Potential customers of security agencies would do well to consider how effective guards are when they are malnourished, demoralised and insecure about their future. If they were discriminating about which agency to do business with, it may prompt unethical establishments to review their practices.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1172** Tuesday, April 15, 2014

15-04-2014

Conspiracy theories

NOTHING ever changes in Balochistan it seems. On Sunday, Sanaullah Zehri, senior provincial minister, expanded on what he believes to be the real causes of violence and unrest in Balochistan: India. Furthermore, if the port in Gwadar were to become a regional trading hub, an unnamed superpower — how many of them are left anyway? — and sundry unnamed regional countries would do their best to destabilise the entire country simply to cause the port to fail. There was nothing new in what Mr Zehri said. Theories and conspiracies along the same lines have been peddled for years now. Nevertheless, the minister’s words are cause for dismay — because the provincial government he is a part of and the prime minister whose party he is a member of both have long assessed the problems in Balochistan very differently, and correctly: the long-running, low-level insurgency in the province that has all but cut off the Baloch areas from the rest of the country for years now is the result of alienation felt by the Baloch and a security-centric policy towards the province by the security establishment.

The problem with Mr Zehri’s analysis is that it misses the point altogether. For years now, Pakistani authorities have routinely complained of Indian interference in Balochistan — and yet never once publicly produced evidence of the so-called interference. But even if the euphemistically referred to interference is real, is that really a symptom or cause of the real problem in Balochistan? While India is hardly to be taken lightly or its intentions always assumed to be the best, tarring the security crisis in Balochistan with the India brush makes the resolution of the real problem that much more difficult. If “progress and prosperity cannot be achieved until peace is restored in Balochistan” in Mr Zehri’s own words, then how is that peace to be achieved if a peripheral issue is given centre stage and little is said about why Balochistan is still in a world of trouble?

Yet, the conspiratorial worldview does not stop at India. The senior minister from Balochistan decided to roll out the conspiracy theorists’ other favourite game, ie the phantom war between China and the US over the Gwadar port. Somehow, despite bilateral trade between the US and China growing to more than half a trillion US dollars last year and the US policy towards Pakistan focused on expanding trade opportunities regionally and globally, the port in Gwadar — one of many in the region — is seen to be crossing some strategic red line that is all too obvious to the chosen few. Gwadar has not taken off for many reasons, not least opposition in some Baloch quarters itself. Surely, the problems of Balochistan will never be resolved if its leadership keeps getting the diagnosis wrong.

Harmful SRO culture

THE culture of the Statutory Regulatory Order has over time deeply entrenched itself in the country’s tax administration because of the excessive misuse of legislative powers delegated by parliament — through laws — to the tax authorities. By definition, the use of SROs should be restricted to framing rules and procedures for implementing a tax law or laws. Or it can be used to remove ‘hardships’ and ambiguities — without involving new levies, exemptions, concessions, waivers, etc — that taxpayers may encounter during the enforcement of a tax law or laws passed by the legislature. In Pakistan’s context, however, the FBR has also been given statutory powers to give unlimited tax concessions, waivers and exemptions without parliamentary approval. That is why experts find the excessive misuse of delegated legislative powers favouring powerful interest groups at the cost of honest taxpayers to be at the root of our tax woes. The practice of handing out massive financial favours in the name of tax exemptions, concessions and waivers is not restricted to one particular government or the other. If, for example, the previous government gave away Rs1tr to different powerful lobbies in five years through SROs, the incumbent rulers have already doled out Rs104bn in the first half of the present fiscal, according to a report in this newspaper.

It was with a view to putting an end to the misuse of SROs that the IMF had made the government agree to withdraw tax exemptions to the tune of Rs350bn in three years in exchange for a bailout. It, nevertheless, is surprising that the government is still continuing to offer tax favours, notwithstanding its plans to revoke some tax exemptions in its next budget. FBR officials say notifications issued by the board to give exemptions and concessions are ordered by the political authorities. While it is largely true, the board has overstepped its delegated legislative powers in many cases at its own discretion. The practice of helping favourites through SROs cannot be ended without drastically limiting the taxman’s authority to make rules and remove the ‘hardships’ of taxpayers through notifications. The powers of giving tax exemptions, concessions and waivers should rest entirely with parliament as ruled by the Supreme Court a few times in the past.

Destruction of mangroves

IT is the kind of inexplicability that can perhaps be recognised only in the context of Pakistan. As a report published in this newspaper yesterday highlighted, bulldozers are in the process of destroying dozens of mature mangrove trees in Karachi’s Port Qasim area, clearing the land ahead of a private company’s plans to establish a power project. Why does this leave us scratching our heads? Because these mangrove forests have enjoyed protected status since the 1950s, and their cutting down in this manner is illegal — as pointed out by several officials contacted by Dawn. The private company has not obtained the forest department’s approval for uprooting the trees, the environment impact assessment report required by the law is yet to be submitted, and the chief conservator of the Sindh forests department says that the federal government has not contacted its provincial counterpart in this regard. Indeed, he emphasised that damaging mangrove forests without taking the government on board was illegal. Be that as it may, the work is under way at a rapid pace. Reportedly, the foundation-laying ceremony is to be performed by the prime minister.

There is never any shortage in this country of examples where the lure of short-term gains trumps a holistic vision for the future, and the case of the diminishing mangroves must be one such instance. Do the conservators and managers of the province’s natural resources need reminding of the tremendous pace at which forest cover is being lost, and of their duty to put on the brakes? In terms of mangroves, the density has decreased by an appalling 60pc since the 1950s. Clearly, they have also forgotten how important a part mangrove forests play in the coastal and marine ecosystems, which are already suffering from considerable and accelerating deterioration. It is true that the energy crisis that has the country in its grip means power generation is a priority. But surely not at the expense of the law being flouted and long-term ecological damage.

Zaheer Qadri · #**1173** Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Life without dignity

16/4/2014

CAN a family survive with dignity on the minimum wage of an unskilled worker, asked the Supreme Court on Monday in the context of an application regarding the price of wheat flour. It is high time, indeed, that the question was asked. Pakistan`s most open secret is also its most shameful: vast swathes of the population, whether rural or urban, live in near or abject poverty; rising prices of everyday essentials from food to schooling to electricity and fuel mean that more and more families continue to quietly slip under the poverty line; in a country that refers to itself as an agriculture-based economy, people struggle with hunger and malnutrition as their constant companions. There is no doubt about this. Study after study, survey after survey, has shown that every year, the ranks of the poor keep swelling in Pakistan, and that even amongst the relatively better-off sections of society living standards are plummeting.Dignity is the key word here. The court identified the average family as comprised of two adults and two children, but family sizes are generally much larger than that in Pakistan. The minimum wage is officially set at Rs10,000 per month, as announced by the finance minister last June; the standard that is actually in existence is even lower, ranging between Rs7,000 and Rs9,000, as noted by the court.

When these figures are put in the context of a price tag that comes with all the other `benefits`many would call them compulsions of being Pakistani, where is there room for people to lead lives with even basic dignity or honour, let alone dream of a better future for their children? The state fails its most populous sections of society every day, and this can be traced to two broad reasons.

First, the more fortunate sections of society, including the political and policymaking elites, display an utterlack of concern and compassion for the majority of the population. Were this not the case, public outrage at the levels of poverty would have forced change already change that did not limit itself to piecemeal interventions to better the lot of some, but that was sustained and aimed at reducing general poverty. Second, the state seems unable to bestir itself and implement even those rules and laws that have been formulated. Concerning the minimum wage, there are clear arguments that it must be raised. But, as some will argue, what is the point, given that the state does so little to ensure that even existing standards are followed? Then, there are armies of workers who aren`t protected by the minimum wage standard at all, and haven`t even heard of it, for example daily-wage and domestic workers. Between the ailing unions and an unconcerned state, millions of Pakistanis are left in an unenviable situation.

One-way `talks`

IN the ebb and flow of negotiations between the federal government and the outlawed TTP, the government appears to have lost its way of late. Everything seems to be taking place on the TTP`s timeline and to the TTP`s liking, be it the extension of the ceasefire or the release of prisoners or when and how to engage the government in the next round of talks. Meanwhile, the government seems reduced to, if not quite grovelling, waiting around for the TTP to decide if it still wants to talk and which further concessions it will demand from the government. Sadly, even the most forceful public criticism of the government`s negotiations strategy is also proving to be myopic with the PPP seemingly focused on just the release of two scions of party members instead of a broader criticism of a process that is turning out to be lopsided.

If there is anything that can be discerned about the government`s approach to negotiating with the TTP it is this: keep the ceasefire going as long as possible. Beyond that there is little that can be said about what the governmenthas demanded so far of the TTP. Abiding by the Constitution and keeping any deal confined to a geographical area where the TTP is in the ascendant were the baselines set by the government. But what do those mean in practice? Where, for example, are the demands to hand over militants who are caught violating the ceasefire? And if even that small demand has not been made, then what of the more significant, and important ones, such as renouncing violence, expelling foreign militants and allowing the state apparatus to function freely again in Fata and parts of KP? Unhappily, the show being run by Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan with the explicit backing of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is drifting towards farce with the government making many promises while the TTP merrily goes along their way. In fact, so lopsided has the process become that the TTP has turned to deal with internal schisms and fighting first while essentially telling the government to wait until the TTP leadership is ready to focus on talks again. Surely, this is not what dialogue was meant to be?

Parveen Rehman case

MANIPULATION has been found written all over the Karachi police`s tackling of the murder of Parveen Rehman, the late director of Karachi`s well-known Orangi Pilot Project. A judicial inquiry report prepared for the Supreme Court more or less dismisses the evidence collected to pin Ms Rehman`s killing on a man named Qari Bilal, and casts serious doubts on the version that the killer was himself shot dead in an encounter with the police. A reinvestigation, the inquiry says, would be in order, by policemen who can be trusted. This is painful but something which was being feared. All sane voices coming together with the aim of having Ms Rehman`s killers arrested failed to make much of an impact on the investigation. In fact, the police wasted crucial time more than a year on preparing a case that turned out not to be based onfacts and hard evidence.Itis feared that some of the evidence may already be irretrievably lost, resulting in ahuge challenge for those who will now investigate the case. This is material for not just criticising the police but also taking to task those officers responsible for apparently distorting the facts. This is reflective, once more, of the deep malaise that exists within the police force.

Manipulation is more than simple ignorance or oversight or incompetence.

Manipulation is deliberate. It requires will and ability and is resorted to when there is a firm conviction that the truth will never come out. If a number of policemen believe they can conceal facts about such a high-profile crime, the fate of lesspublicised, routine investigations can only be imagined. Ms Rehman`s case also shows the extent to which a corrupt system allows officials to operate with impunity and to encroach on the rights and space of people. The court may intervene from time to time but ultimately, the system will have to be reformed so that no one is able to use it to hide the truth.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1174** Thursday, April 17, 2014

17-04-2014

Too much for too little

THERE is no deadlock, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan had told the country regarding talks with the outlawed TTP. There is a deadlock, the TTP emissaries and a member of its negotiating committee had claimed. Now, the TTP leadership has cancelled its month-old ceasefire and the future of the government-TTP dialogue has been plunged into chaos and uncertainty. Immediately, the TTP negotiating committee has talked of trying to keep the talks alive and restoring the ceasefire, but it appears difficult that the two can be attempted at the same time because talks amidst violence had previously been ruled out by the government, and rightly so. The government has already conceded far too much in return for far too little, the latest case in point being the statement made by new KP governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan on Tuesday.

Swearing-in ceremonies and initial comments to the media are supposed to be fairly innocuous affairs. But KP’s newest governor, Mehtab Khan, chose to wade straight into controversy by mooting the idea of a general amnesty for the Taliban. According to Governor Khan, many militants would apparently prefer to return to mainstream society and lead peaceful lives, but could not do so because the path to their return is blocked. Quite how Mr Khan arrived at that conclusion is problematic enough. But it is what the KP governor went on to recommend that is truly extraordinary: a general amnesty for militants. The questions that Mr Khan’s suggestion raise are many, and grave. For one, as the senior-most representative of the federation in KP, was the governor speaking in his personal capacity or inadvertently stating the government’s eventual policy? Surely, it could not have been uttered in his personal capacity, but then ought the federal government not to distance itself from the governor’s recommendation or censure the governor or clarify the government’s position on the matter?

The troubling part of an amnesty is that it flows logically from the prisoner releases — not even swaps, just unilateral releases — that the government has engineered in recent weeks. If militancy suspects in state custody can be handed back to the TTP, then why not an amnesty for the individuals who are already roaming free? It also works in the other direction: if those already free can get an amnesty, then even the most hardline of militants convicted by the court and serving their sentences in prison could also be set free. Follow through the logic of Mr Khan’s amnesty suggestion and it would appear that there is no one really whose capture the state ought to seek for perpetrating or planning violence against state and society. Is that really what the PML-N had in mind when it opted to give dialogue one last chance? Is the TTP ceasefire withdrawal a way to put yet more pressure on a wilting government?

The name of the game

WHAT’S in a name? A lot, it turns out, at least in the case of a proscribed organisation that wants to participate in the elections. It seems that one such organisation, the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, which was banned by the government in February 2012, contested the polls last year under the name of Pakistan Rah-i-Haq Party as part of an alliance of five religio-political parties called the Muttahida Deeni Mahaz. A report in this newspaper cites an office-bearer of the ASWJ confirming that the party did indeed contest the elections; when asked why this fact was concealed from the ECP, the individual avoided giving an answer. Although the alliance had not won any seat in the polls, an election tribunal recently declared ASWJ leader, Maulana Ludhianvi, the winner from Jhang after disqualifying the original victor. While this result looks set to be contested in the courts, it is worth considering the ease with which banned organisations evade state action against them by changing their names and in the process make a mockery of the law.

There are a number of organisations today — those with political ambitions that is — that have gone through several iterations in their history. The ASWJ itself is better known by its earlier name, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan. After the SSP was banned in 2002, it briefly re-emerged as Millat-i-Islamia until that too was banned in 2003. It has since been known as ASWJ. Similarly, the Tehreek-i-Jafria after being banned in 2002 reinvented itself as Tehreek-i-Islami, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s post-ban reincarnation as Jamaatud Dawa is well known. While it may be tempting to hold the ECP responsible for allowing a proscribed organisation such as the ASWJ to participate in the elections through the latter’s onomastic jugglery, it is the loopholes in the law itself that need to be addressed. It is not enough to merely ban an organisation while leaving those at its helm free to further its agenda in another capacity, sometimes by participating in elections as independents or under a ‘new’ party name. The expediency of the political elite in Pakistan also bears mention here, for it is only with their tacit complicity that extremist elements make it into mainstream politics through the back door.

Roles reversed

THE story has been repeated ad nauseam over the decades, but is still a favourite with many Pakistanis who bemoan their country’s failure to join the ranks of the Asian Tigers. During the Ayub Khan days, it is said, and not without basis, that a South Korean delegation came to Pakistan to study this country’s economic progress and find out why its Five-Year Plan had been such a success. Ayub was development-oriented — and lucky, because in those days when communism was anathema to the US, the American criterion for economic and military support depended on whether one was with the ‘free world’ or with the Reds. For the Americans, human rights and democracy were non-issues. If a country chose the ‘free world’, Western coffers were open for it, even if its ruler was a tyrant. Ayub can be categorised as one. His era saw democracy being stifled and political opposition being suppressed. Moreover, the unequal economic focus on the two wings of the country during his time paved the way for the secession of the east wing. Nevertheless, he did lay the foundations of Pakistan’s industrialisation. Foreign investment flowed in, and tourists came in droves. Pakistan had some symbols of progress to show the world — for instance, PIA became the first ‘free world’ airline to begin flights to China.

Since the end of that era, uninterrupted periods of economic growth have been scarce. While democracy has taken sturdy strides overcoming one military dictator after another, terrorism and poor governance have left their mark. Many countries that were once backward have become ‘tigers’. South Korea’s progress has been impressive. American money and technology flooded South Korea, and the Koreans utilised it well. Today, with the South Korean prime minister in Pakistan, the two countries cannot be compared in terms of economic growth. South Korea is the world’s 12th biggest economy with a per capita GDP of $33,200, and 98pc literacy. Pakistan’s per capita GDP is $3,100 and it has a despicably low 55pc literacy rate.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1175** Friday, April 18, 2014

18-04-2014

For economic stability

GIVE the minister credit where it’s due: Ishaq Dar had promised economic stabilisation to set the stage for a take-off and, thus far, the minister has delivered on his stabilisation promises at least. The string of successes in recent months for the all-powerful and micro-managing finance czar of the country is already long and, to his obvious pleasure, looks set to grow further in the immediate future. Be it the sentiment in the private sector or the much-needed approval from the IFIs led by the IMF or just generally a feel-good sentiment among the consumers, the mood on the economy has picked up. Animal spirits are flying high again, as it were. As ever, the medium- and long-term outlooks are a little more complicated than the government would want the public and investors to believe.

First, with many one-time or irregular inflows filling up the state’s coffers, what is the plan to consolidate and entrench these gains? Yes, the fiscal deficit may eventually clock in at an acceptable level this financial year, but is there any serious debate on or serious concern given to the next budget that will go into effect on July 1? Last year’s budget was a disappointment in terms of reforms on the revenue or expenditure side, a disappointment that the government has tried to cover up and compensate for by arranging special inflows and working on macro stabilisation. But surely another year of ad hoc financing of gaping holes in the budget, such as by accelerating the privatisation process perhaps, will do little to address the underlying structural problems. Simply put, spending twice as much as it earns in tax revenue is not a sustainable model for any government — not least if it comes on the back of years of massive borrowing. Are Mr Dar and his team willing to address the massive leakages on the revenue side and the gross wastage on the expenditure side? In any case, after defence, debt servicing and current expenditure of the federal government is met, there is hardly anything left in the budget for development priorities. Is that a concern for the PML-N?

Second, as the government rushes the economy into take-off mode, who is it really who stands to gain? Crony capitalism looks good in the beginning as investment grows and jobs are created, but soon enough, going by the international experience, the flaws become more and more apparent. In a weakly regulated economy, the big get bigger — and little ever trickles down to the rest. It appears the PML-N is all too willing to accept the creation of a class of super-wealthy individuals and families if it means eye-catching overall growth numbers. But those numbers could be meaningless if the vast majority are excluded from its bountiful effects.

Ulema’s call

WITH Pakistan being sucked into a vortex of militancy since the past decade or so, the fallout is all too evident: tens of thousands of lives lost, massive damage to infrastructure and a state administration left wobbling. But these are far from the only disservices that the amorphous groupings of militants, terrorists and religious extremists have done us. Of arguably greater significance, though perhaps less apparent, are other unpleasant realities such as an emotionally battered populace, and a societal narrative that has been twisted so grotesquely that it is easy to spot and identify apologists for those who kill and maim. It is with reference to this last evil that a convention convened by the Pakistan Ulema Council deserves strong appreciation. In Karachi on Wednesday, representatives of more than 30 political and religious parties joined hands with citizens to denounce violence unleashed in the name of religion, and called upon the government to deal with the terrorists with an iron hand. A joint communiqué read out by Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, the head of the PUC, appealed to all political and religious parties, and people belonging to all religions and sects, to respect each others’ views. It sought to remind the public that all citizens have equal rights, and any kind of injustice in the name of religion was against the Constitution. We can add that the greatest victim of this particular tactic is religion itself, which has been grossly misused.

It is a sad reflection on Pakistani society that something which is self-evident in more mature societies — ie the use of faith to justify violence increases divisions — needs to be spelt out here. Sadder is the fact that voices that say this are all too few and far between. A battle over ideologies is under way, and Pakistan is at the heart of it. If the side that desires tolerance, plurality and peace is to win, we need more people — particularly those affiliated with religious parties and organisations — to take a stand against violence masqueraded as part of religious belief. The militants’ success lies in having turned what is actually a power struggle into a religious debate. This needs to be urgently countered.

Who’ll drive out the pests?

“ONLY three out of 20 aircraft owned by the plant protection department are operational, a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Food Security and Research was informed on Wednesday … the remaining 17 aircraft, which were used for conducting aerial spray to control locust attacks on crops, were not operational due to shortage of funds.” Trust these rural folks to play the spoiler every now and then. We travel on the solid roads that have been built, the flyovers that have come up in urban Pakistan, we imagine the airports that are in the making and the chimneys which are about to billow smoke, and then we suddenly veer in the opposite direction. Just when everyone in the visibility zone is busy chasing their urban dream there is a 200-word news item from somewhere deep inside the country brutally updating us about who we actually are and where our roots are. We are reminded of the budget speech the last year, the year before that, in fact, during all these years.

This is an agricultural country that we are living in and off. There are fields — and ‘hands’ that work these fields — which lie mostly concealed thanks to the urban model of development and urban concerns which are but to be protected. If the news item about the absence of aircraft — only three available where 20 were previously assigned — for aerial spray is taken as a barometer, the country is meeting only 15pc of the commitment it made to rural Pakistan. The standing committee on food security and research ‘recommended’ to the government that required funding should be provided for the upgrading and maintenance of the spray planes. A close watch has to be kept for signs of the government’s will to actually intervene on behalf of rural Pakistan wherever it is necessary. Let’s see if the committee has some real purpose or is just another forum to create the impression that the government cares.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1176** Saturday, April 19, 2014

19-04-2014

Yet another chance

WITH the government determined to have a dialogue with the TTP come what may, the rest of the stakeholders have seemingly fallen in line — except perhaps the TTP itself.

What was once touted somewhat facilely as ‘give peace a chance’ became even more improbably ‘give peace one last chance’ earlier this year and now has returned yet again to simply ‘giving peace a chance’. Perhaps the catchphrase of the season should be rephrased to more accurately reflect reality: give the TTP a chance — to do whatever it likes.

Few details are known about the Committee on National Security — when and how was the name changed from the original Cabinet Committee on National Security? — meeting and what was discussed, but the bottom line is clear: talks with the TTP will continue, though first of course the outlawed militant group will have to be persuaded to again announce a ceasefire and perhaps even to return to the negotiating table itself.

The policy of dialogue may be the government’s initiative, but it is also apparent that there is no alternative vision elsewhere in the political spectrum of the country. Even the PPP, whose leader, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has been so critical of the TTP, has repeatedly and publicly backed the dialogue process.

But the ultimate responsibility is the government’s: both for pursuing talks with the TTP come what may and for ensuring the safety and security of the public. So now that the TTP has ended its ceasefire, surely part of the blame if — rather, when — further attacks occur must lie with the government.

For even in continuing to pursue talks and a restoration of the TTP ceasefire, the government is hardly showing the kind of urgency that it has itself argued is of vital importance. Instead, everything appears to be moving at an almost languid pace, the government unable to even quickly respond to the TTP’s public posturing.

Cravenness and capitulation to the TTP it may be, but the government’s ongoing non-strategy is likely being watched very closely by other groups with an interest in reorienting the Pakistani state and willing to use violence to achieve their aims. In fact, what the TTP is doing is creating a step-by-step playbook for how to wrest space, advantage and concessions from the state.

The TTP has even appeared to have mastered the art of psychological warfare and propaganda: just yesterday the TTP claimed that an end to the ceasefire would not mean a resumption of attacks against the public. Essentially, the TTP is trying to drive a wedge between state and society by picking and choosing targets to alternately sow fear and hope — the perverse hope that the only meaningful safety lies in not attracting the ire of the TTP. More and more, the TTP looks like a shadow government — and certainly more resolute than the one Pakistan elected last May.

‘Adoption’ laws

THE problem is as heart-breaking as it is readily visible. Across the country, there are children who have, for one reason or another, lost their parents or been abandoned. Many end up on the streets; others find shelter in orphanages; some fortunate ones find loving homes with new guardians.

The one problem all of these uncounted thousands share is the difficulty in having Nadra issue them basic identity papers: the Form B that becomes the basis of a national identity card. Why? Because the application form does not have a provision for children under the guardianship of anyone other than their biological parents: those who have been legally ‘adopted’ through the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, or who are living in orphanages.

It is therefore worthy of appreciation that the Supreme Court has finally taken up again the matter of rights and protections for children of unknown parentage.

It is essential that answers to the many knotty questions be found with speed — but, as Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani observed on Thursday, with earnest recognition, the outcomes will have far-reaching and potentially life-altering consequences. The path is nothing less than a minefield.

Consider, for example, that while it is essential that Nadra create provisions for the registration of children whose biological parentage is unknown, making this distinction public by putting it on Form B or the CNIC could lead to stigmatisation.

These documents are, after all, accessible to educational institutions, employers and a host of others who have no business knowing such details. Indeed, in 2011, the Council of Islamic Ideology recommended that documents carry the names of legally ‘adoptive parents’ or guardians.

The issue is that under Pakistan’s laws, true adoption is not possible; instead, merely guardianship is permitted. Seeing that the court has taken up this very crucial matter, it is time to fix the legislation and modernise it to allow adoption in the real sense, a move that would benefit thousands of children and their families. Religious scholars could, for instance, adopt forward-looking interpretation in light of the scale of the issue. The questions must be worked through, slowly — but deliberately — and with a care to the benefit to individuals.

Out in the open

BY renaming the library at Lal Masjid’s Jamia Hafsa seminary after Osama bin Laden, Maulana Abdul Aziz has finally nailed his colours to the mast. According to a source at the institute, “He [Bin Laden] might be a terrorist for others but we do not consider him as a terrorist. For us he was a hero of Islam.”

While in a personal capacity one may be free to lionise whomever one chooses, the public domain is very different, particularly so when the individual being honoured was an internationally designated terrorist, and one who continues to be an inspirational figure for several militant movements wreaking havoc in many parts of the globe. In this case, it’s even more problematic, considering that Bin Laden was hunted down and killed by the US inside Pakistan, a fact that has attracted international opprobrium against the country.

Immediate notice must be taken of the library’s renaming, or else it would not only reinforce this negative impression but also encourage other similar ‘tributes’.

That said, why should the maulana’s latest move surprise us? After all, a policy of appeasement towards those who advance an extremist agenda only serves to embolden them further. However, it’s not only the state but the media too which is responsible for the invidious spread of this narrative.

Consider the resurrection of Maulana Aziz from the ashes of the Lal Masjid episode. The older, somewhat reserved brother of Maulana Abdul Rashid, who died in the Lal Masjid siege in 2007 from which the former tried to escape — rather ignominiously disguised in a burqa — has had his image burnished by the media’s excessive pandering to his views.

And these views, like those of others pontificating frequently on TV and in print these days, are nothing if not on the far right of the spectrum.

But for those who still had their doubts, the Jamia Hafsa library’s new name should be an eye-opener. Maulana Abdul Aziz has clearly thrown off his burqa.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1177** Sunday, April 20, 2014

20-04-2014

More than money needed

IF it weren’t for the history and the present context, it would have been a grand announcement. Balochistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pledged, will see investments on a large scale in the next few years, from the long-hyped new trading hub in Gwadar to investments in health, education, technical training and other infrastructure. If the PML-N sticks to its pledges, the impact on Balochistan would not be insignificant. By any measure, use any metric and the Baloch areas of Balochistan are at or near the bottom of national socio-economic rankings. Investments in health, education and infrastructure are truly needed. But does the PML-N’s latest plan hold the key to addressing Balochistan’s chronic problems? The answer, hardly unsurprisingly, would have to be no.

Without security there can be little development, progress or prosperity — and no amount of money thrown at Balochistan will change that. Over the last five years, owing to the 18th Amendment and the subsequent NFC award, Balochistan has been flush with cash. The amounts involved are staggering and stunning — and yet, five years on, nothing has changed in Balochistan. It is not just that the previous provincial government was non-representative, given that it was elected after moderate Baloch politicians boycotted the 2008 polls and so was only interested in looking after itself. Neither was it simply because the previous government selected unfit and unqualified bureaucrats to run the province. The truth is that Balochistan’s problem is about state policies towards it and, after that, about structural problems that no amount of money can cure without there first being meaningful and wide-ranging reforms of the relevant governance structures.

Take for example this notion of a brand new city in Gwadar that will be the pride and joy of the province. The Baloch militants and even non-violent provincialists see Gwadar as an attempt to dilute the Baloch presence in Balochistan — the theory being that a thriving new city will attract many from other ethnicities looking for economic opportunities. Meanwhile, nearly everything the state needs to build a new city — from manpower to administrators to skilled professionals — will have to be imported from elsewhere, at a time where, as underlined by two reports in this newspaper this week, non-Baloch are leaving rather than returning to the region. It may be possible to build an airport, and much of the seaport is already in place, but can Gwadar really be anything other than a high-security fortress or a ghost town in the circumstances? Sadly, the PML-N appears to be falling into the old trap of surrendering security policy and turning to economic plans as a viable alternative. What happened to all the promises the PML-N, and Nawaz Sharif in particular, made before the election? The original diagnosis is very different from the treatment the PML-N is now advocating.

Measuring poverty

POLITICALLY, poverty has been a sensitive issue in Pakistan, as it has been in many other developing countries. It is no surprise that governments try to avoid counting the number of poor to protect themselves from such an exercise’s possible political fallout. When they do, they use methods that tend to mitigate the actual incidence of poverty rather than bring out a true picture about the level of deprivation experienced by the people. Therefore, when the government under Pervez Musharraf conducted a survey in the mid-2000s to show to the world that its economic policies had cut the number of poor, many global organisations like the World Bank immediately raised questions about the efficacy of the methodology used to arrive at that conclusion. The previous PPP-led government did not even bother to undertake such an exercise, fearing the figures would show a hefty increase in the numbers living below the poverty line owing to the economic slowdown.

Regularly updated data on the poor are crucial to framing economic policies, allocating fiscal resources and undertaking initiatives to target poverty in an integrated and comprehensive manner. Now the Nawaz Sharif government has launched the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index, based on the globally recognised methodology and developed by the Oxford Poverty and the Human Development Initiative, for measuring the incidence of poverty. The index is being released by the UNDP’s human development reports since 2010. It is also being used by dozens of other countries and is said to have helped some such as Nepal lift a significant number of people out of poverty by ‘building a deprivation profile’. The MPI will calculate poverty on the basis of multidimensional deprivations — such as healthcare, education, water supply, income, etc — and highlight the real situation and intensity of the deprivation being suffered by the people at the national, provincial and district levels. This kind of data should give policymakers sufficient knowledge about the actual status of deprivation that is the lot of different regions and help them formulate policies and allocate funds according to the needs of the people. It is hoped that the MPI data will actually be used to pull millions out of the poverty trap and not just kept to fill official files.

Lure of the blue passport

PASSPORT and visa issues continue to occupy our leaders. The latest evidence of this came on Friday when members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed a resolution demanding the passport of officialdom. The move was stamped by a rare show of camaraderie among the members, and divisions at home and in the house were forgotten in favour of shared, apparently cherished, international destinations. Members belonging to both the treasury and the opposition benches readily put their signatures to the demand sent to the federal government for the issuance of the coveted blue book. It was apt that a provincial lawmaker belonging to the JUI-F, a party whose chief has in the past had some of his own global journeys cut short over visa issues, read out the resolution. There have been other incidents indicating that the parties most prominent in KP have been particularly upset with these travel restrictions. The spirit which gave birth to the rare joint resolution contrasted with the logic behind these restrictions and reflected just how eager everyone in the house is to get around.

The official blue passport allows entry to some 70 countries around the world without the formality of a visa. According to the rules, provincial ministers are entitled to the blue passport, but provincial lawmakers are not. However, there is a tradition in the country where the government — or a particular minister with clout — has lavished the privilege on selected individuals. There was a blue passport scandal during Shaukat Aziz’s time as prime minister when retired bureaucrats and former ministers were declared entitled to carry it. Then, last year, it emerged that some 2,000 such passports had been illegally issued during the last PPP government, the assertion being that some of them had actually been sold. That should have been enough reason to frame tough rules about who does and does not deserve the privilege, freeing the KP lawmakers to take up some local issues of the people instead.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1178** Monday, April 21, 2014

21-04-2014

Scope of suo motu

THE judicial conference held in Islamabad over the weekend ended with an important declaration read out by Supreme Court Chief Justice Tassaduq Jillani which, among other things, sought to define the scope of the superior judiciary’s suo motu powers. Suo motu, of course, has become a household term in Pakistan thanks largely to the Iftikhar Chaudhry era. So expansive had the court’s interpretation of fundamental rights become by the end of that era that suo motu powers were invoked to seemingly push the judiciary into whichever arena it liked — with little concern for the separation of powers and the proper scope of fundamental rights. The much-needed correction was always likely to only begin after Mr Chaudhry went home and that has in fact proved to be the case with Chief Justice Jillani far more circumspect in wielding his suo motu powers.

What though is the proper scope of suo motu powers to protect the fundamental rights of the citizenry? The easy cases, those that clearly merit exclusion, can and were summed up in the declaration: one, ensuring that the “exercise of judicial powers neither hampers nor stunts executive policies”; and two, keeping front and centre “the sanctity of the people’s trust in the legislature to legislate” when exercising judicial review. Legalese may not lend itself to easy understanding sometimes, but it is reasonably clear that issues such as ‘Memogate’ or the review of the superior judiciary appointment process that led to the 19th Amendment ought to be off limits. As the declaration rightly indicated, not every action or choice of the executive should be justiciable – how exactly were fundamental rights of Pakistanis at stake in a discredited memo sent to the US government, for example? — and the elected legislature’s right to legislate should only be examined, let alone overruled, in circumstances where legislation is obviously and unquestionably infringing on constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. Under the latter formulation, judicial review of the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance would not only be sensible but also desirable, whereas questioning a constitutional amendment to lay out a fairly open and transparent process for the appointment of superior court judges would be neither sensible nor desirable.

Yet, in the day-to-day applicability of suo motu powers, it is perhaps the declaration that “the superior courts may not exercise a roving and supervisory role to ensure fundamental rights are complied with” that is the most important. The judicial conference got the actual problem right: it is the subordinate judiciary that needs to be strengthened, so that justice is delivered at the local level, rather than relying on the necessarily selective right of a high court or Supreme Court judge to intervene in, say, a rape case. While such interventions make the superior judiciary popular, they can in fact impede the systematic delivery of justice.

Another attack on the media

THE murderous attack on Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan’s most recognisable faces in the TV news industry, may have been shocking, but is anyone truly surprised? The media is specifically under threat and the spate of attacks culminating with the one in Karachi on Saturday against Mr Mir may only be the beginning.

Across the media, there is a growing fear that something truly dreadful and on a spectacular scale may be in the offing. And what is the government’s response? Verbal condemnations and an emergency meeting convened by the prime minister yesterday at which it was decided to form a judicial commission to investigate the attack. That, as the many commissions that have come before it are a testament to, is the government effectively saying there’s nothing it can do.

But there is much that the government can do. It could, for example, take a hard line with the group that directly, routinely and openly threatens the media: the outlawed TTP, the very group with which the government is negotiating.

At the very least, the TTP could be asked to take back its fatwa against sections of the media. The TTP could also, as part of the dialogue process, be asked to explicitly renounce violence against the media. Yet, a judicial commission whose report may never see the light of day if it ventures too close to uncomfortable facts is all the government has to offer.

There is also silence in another difficult area that became the focus in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Mr Mir: the role of Pakistan’s military-run intelligence agencies. While many of the accusations were emotional and bereft of hard information, there is a wider point to consider.

Instantaneous denials via the ISPR are never followed up with what should be the next step: finding the actual culprits. Who killed Saleem Shahzad, for example? All that is publicly known is who denied having anything to do with his death. Is it any surprise then that in moments of emotion, the same set of accusations is repeated? Unless such cases are investigated and the culprits brought to book, fingers will always be pointed at those whose duty it is, in fact, to provide protection to media personnel and other citizens.

Army security for polio teams

THE numbers speak for themselves. Out of 47 total cases of polio so far recorded in Pakistan this year, North Waziristan accounts for 33, an unsurprising, if tragic, outcome of the ban imposed on vaccinations in the area by the TTP since 2012. Meanwhile, South Waziristan has recorded two cases, Khyber one and Bannu two indicating the spread of the virus in contiguous areas and beyond.

Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures, and the looming threat of a polio epidemic in the country certainly qualifies as such a situation. It is against this backdrop that the army has offered to help the government in its efforts to eradicate polio by providing security to health workers while they conduct vaccination drives in the militancy-affected tribal areas of North and South Waziristan, and the Bara tehsil of Khyber, to try and prevent the disease from transmission further afield.

The consequences of failure could not be more dire: the WHO has already declared Peshawar the world’s largest reservoir of endemic polio with more than 90pc of current polio cases in the country genetically linked to strains in that city.

While it is unfortunate that the local administration through its civilian law-enforcement agencies has been unable to address the challenges to the polio eradication campaign in the tribal areas, the reality is that in that hostile terrain, the army alone has the logistical capability to undertake the task of providing security to the health workers in a coordinated manner.

Even in other parts of the country, where there is a proper administrative set-up, polio vaccination teams and police personnel providing them security have repeatedly come under attack, and a considerable number have lost their lives.

Any strategy that can achieve results must be employed. Pakistan is one of three polio-endemic countries in the world — the others being Afghanistan and Nigeria — and the only one where the disease is gathering steam rather than being on the decline. There is not a moment to lose.

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1179** Tuesday, April 22, 2014

22-04-2014

Autonomy for State Bank

THE IMF doesn’t seem happy with the quantum of independence the government plans to give the State Bank of Pakistan to meet one of several benchmarks of the Fund’s $6.7bn loan. The IMF mission chief in Pakistan has made it quite clear that the level of autonomy sought for the bank in the draft SBP (Amendment) Act, 2014 isn’t enough. This newspaper quoted him yesterday as saying that the IMF “may have some reservations and may seek some revisions” in the bill. The issue will be discussed at the third review of the Extended Fund Facility starting from April 30 in Dubai. The trend of giving central banks maximum legal, policy and operational independence has caught on in recent years. The purpose is to rule out political interference in their working that can, and often does, lead to cycles of economic boom and bust. Autonomous central banks are seen as crucial for the sustainable performance of the economy. Transparency in and the credibility of their policymaking process makes market expectations much more responsive to the signals sent out for price and exchange rate stability. The more operational and policy independence a central bank possesses, the more effectively it will regulate financial markets.

Nevertheless, while a few governments are willing to part with their influence over the central bank, the present Pakistan government is certainly not one of them. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is known for his aversion to the ‘creation of a state within the state’ entailing the surrender of powers that the government has over the SBP. For him, this would mean that, at least theoretically, the government would lose the power to influence the process of determining interest rates, to have an impact on the exchange rate and to favour or punish commercial banks and other financial institutions regulated by the SBP. Once the bank is free of such controls, for example, it may not be easy for Mr Dar to influence the exchange rate through public statements. Any change in the value of the rupee will be determined by the actions that the SBP deems fit to achieve this policy goal for long-term economic stability.

For the IMF, the SBP’s complete operational independence is an important medium-term objective for price stability and the effective governance of Pakistan’s financial markets. Islamabad has taken certain steps in the amendment bill to cut the government’s role in the SBP’s functioning. But the Fund’s reservations indicate that it will not settle for anything less than a completely autonomous SBP. Apart from the previous government’s reluctance to implement value added tax, its failure to increase the independence of the central bank was a major factor in the premature termination of the $11.3bn loan obtained in 2008. It is hoped that differences of opinion on this issue don’t lead us to the same position once again.

No housing for the poor

AFTER several weeks of back and forth, for many residents of Islamabad it appears that the worst is about to happen. Last week, a high-level meeting was held by the Capital Development Authority and it was reportedly decided that action would finally be initiated against the city’s katchi abadis. The people living here had so far been spared the long arm of the law because police authorities and the local administration feared a strong backlash. But with the Islamabad High Court remarking on Thursday that these slums constituted the illegal occupation of land, and directing the CDA to clear them, renewed resolve seems to have been found. If the operation against the slums delivers what it promises, the government will get its land back and to the city will be restored that pristine quality which is held so dear by well-off residents. But thousands of people from the poorest sections of society will no longer have homes.

It is true that such slums, not just in Islamabad but in cities across the country, are often unauthorised and encroach illegally on government land, amenity plots, etc. Through the lens of the law, therefore, the people who live in them are in the wrong. We cannot help but wonder, though, where the burden of responsibility rests when little to no effort is evident on the part of city planners to cater to the needs of low-income groups. Such groups have large populations in urban areas, and rural-to-urban migration is a fact of life in a country where finding the means to earn a livelihood is no easy task. It would be reasonable to expect that amid all the glittering towers of steel and chrome that city managers love to boast of, some attention would be paid to low-income housing zones for those who are the invisible cogs that keep the city wheels turning. Lacking that, people construct houses on whatever land they can find. City planners always wake up when the eyesores grow big enough, and react by either clearing the land or, if it is too densely populated, regularising it. But, it would seem, even basic planning is too much for the great and the good.

Houbara bustard butchery

NEWS of the Gulf Arab royals taking over large swathes of territory in Pakistan to hunt the vulnerable houbara bustard is not new. Despite some local outcry over hunting of the endangered bird, moneyed foreigners, aided by officialdom, continue to indulge in the blood sport, with some individuals killing hundreds of houbaras per trip, making a mockery of conservation efforts. As a news item, based on a report by the Balochistan forest and wildlife department, pointed out in this paper, some months ago a Saudi prince hunted around 2,000 birds along with members of his entourage in Balochistan. The prince hunted 1,977 birds while those accompanying him hunted 123 birds during a 21-day expedition in January. While the ‘special permits’ issued by the federal government only allow the holder (and not those accompanying him) to hunt up to 100 houbara bustards in 10 days, simple arithmetic suggests that the bag limit was exceeded by a wide margin. Apparently, the hunters also ventured into protected areas. This is not an isolated incident. Similar violations are reported nearly every year involving both royalty and influential commoners from several Gulf sheikhdoms. Locals in areas where the houbara is hunted are more than eager to help the foreign visitors as they are amply rewarded in cash and kind for their efforts.

Yet the main responsibility for allowing the wanton, yearly massacre of the houbara bustard lies with the state, specifically the foreign ministry, as it issues the permits. The state might want to prove its hospitality to its foreign friends who want to hunt in Pakistan, but surely not at the price of violating local laws and international covenants designed to protect endangered wildlife. The issuance of permits by the centre despite devolution of the wildlife department has also been raised. It is indeed ironic that while some in the Gulf are working to protect the houbara bustard in their own countries, our government seems to care little when it comes to well-connected foreigners decimating the local bird population

Kamran Chaudhary · #**1180** Wednesday, April 23, 2014

23-04-2014

Militant groups in Punjab

THE Punjab government, in response to a report in this newspaper, has furnished statistics pertaining to the last six months to show its commitment to tracking down militants and pursuing sectarian groups and hate-mongers in the province. It has also said that 3,500 cases have been registered against those who have resorted to activities such as delivering incendiary speeches and spreading hate literature. The official statistics and an accompanying statement, however, fail to inform us of what action it has taken on the piles of intelligence reports at its disposal about the growth of ‘sleeper’ cells of weapons-trained militants. There has also been the issue of allegations of an unannounced alliance forged by the ruling PML-N with a sectarian group made up of members of a proscribed outfit, ostensibly to ensure peace in the province.

True, there has been some positive activity in recent weeks. The provincial police have reportedly traced and arrested perpetrators involved in some high-profile attacks — but the government has yet to crack down on militants and sectarian organisations operating out of the province. For instance, no action has been taken to remove sectarian slogans scribbled on walls across the province, including major cities such as Lahore and Multan. Banned organisations collect funds with impunity and, in certain cases, act as final arbitrators in commercial and family disputes. Hate speeches are common and sectarian literature is distributed without fear of action. Other provinces may face the same situation, but that has to change, with Punjab showing equal resolve to deal with the problem as any other.

Punjab is the ‘birthplace’ of many sectarian and militant organisations. In the 1990s, it was at the centre of sectarian violence in the country. Violence has significantly declined in the province since the mid 2000s, but the militant organisations based in Punjab have grown both in size and operational capabilities and entrenched themselves deep in many parts. These organisations have cultivated close links with the banned Taliban in the tribal areas of Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan, and export cadres as well as violence to other parts of the country. In fact, some analysts argue, militancy in Punjab has elevated itself to an ideological phenomenon as violence has shifted to the conflict areas of the country. Or why would the strongest voices denouncing a military operation against the Taliban rise from here? The battle against militancy and sectarianism in Punjab cannot be won through half-hearted action. The government will have to increase its intelligence-gathering capacity and undertake a full-fledged operation to break up the underground networks of militant groups. More importantly, this fight will have to be fought on the ideological front as well.

Railways: debatable priorities

IT appears the stage is being set for another wonder. Pakistan Railways has recently issued an advertisement flaunting a new rail link from Islamabad to Murree and Muzaffarabad. The Railways “intends to hire national/international consultants or consortium consultants” to undertake a “feasibility study for laying” this link. The project is at a nascent stage but at first glance it does suggest that some sort of a turnaround in the Railways is in the process — until, of course, the gaze is lowered from the high spectacle in the making. We are then confronted by the same sluggish routine that has held trains in the country hostage for so many years now. Maybe the government will dispute the impression. Maybe a few schedules being followed and a few engines and wagons up and running again will be presented as proof of recent improvements. This may be true to some extent, but to think that PR has actually moved on from fixing the old, sprawling system to a point where it is about to implement ambitious projects requires much more than imagination and grand desires. It requires stability and mobility which the department doesn’t have. True, at the moment the focus is only on whether or not such a project is feasible, but that too is indicative of the government’s priorities.

The PML-N government almost specialises in finding new ways of coming up against a wall. Back in the mid-1990s, when the then PML-N government decided to have a motorway between Lahore and Islamabad, voices were raised and questions asked as to why the allocated funds could not be used to set the railways right countrywide. No doubt, it is a much-used route, but it is defined — as our some other landmarks on a smaller scale — by the principle of creating a grand model on top of grim realities which do not go away. The government may find the latest rail link feasible, and chances are it will be hailed by many, like the motorway of the dual-carriage road from Islamabad to Murree, as a ‘gift’ to the people from the Nawaz Sharif government. Sadly, that will not change one fact: a more basic effort to revive the Pakistan Railways remains on hold.

Surge in Karachi violence

IN the midst of a spate of sectarian killings in Karachi and with tortured bodies turning up in and around the metropolis, it is strange that the prime minister should sound optimistic about the results of the law enforcement operation thus far. Nawaz Sharif, who chaired a meeting on law and order in the city on Monday, said the operation was yielding “positive results”. While crime in parts of Karachi, such as Lyari, may be down relatively speaking, the fact is the city is far from pacified and it is premature to dub the operation successful. Numerous incidents over the past few days point to the precariousness of the city’s law and order situation. The attempt on journalist Hamid Mir’s life on Saturday was perhaps the most high-profile act of violence in the city in recent weeks, but there have been other incidents. For example, killings have continued on a sectarian basis. In fact, on the day the prime minister was chairing the meeting in the Sindh capital an assistant professor of a government college was shot dead, while four bodies with bullet wounds were found near the city limits in Thatta district. In other incidents, professionals, traders and seminary students belonging to both the Shia and Sunni communities have been gunned down, while the bodies of two MQM activists, tortured and stuffed in gunny bags, were discovered on Friday. The Muttahida has termed the deaths “extrajudicial killings” of its workers and said its supporters are being picked up by security forces without following due process.

In light of the above, whoever has briefed Mr Sharif about the “positive” results of the operation is clearly misinformed. As far as controlling sectarian, political and ethnic killings goes, until the gangs of professional killers, including those with political links, are busted, the violence will continue. On the other hand, the high-handedness and extrajudicial methods of the security forces will only aggravate the situation. The state must ensure all action is within the ambit of the law.

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The Following User Says Thank You to Zaheer Qadri For This Useful Post:
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