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  #1411  
Old Sunday, July 05, 2015
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IMF review

THE latest review of progress under the Extended Fund Facility Pakistan signed in 2013 tells us more about the International Monetary Fund than it does about Pakistan. Despite serious weaknesses in the economy, the Fund is content to pronounce that progress is “encouraging, thanks to strong performance under the programme”. Performance has indeed been strong — but only when viewed with one eye. Reserves have gone up, and the fiscal deficit is being brought down to manageable proportions. At this point, though, the good news ends, even if the Fund has found plenty to spin out of this. Macroeconomic indicators are only the headline items in a country’s economic performance; the real story lies in how these have been achieved, at what cost, and how things are faring beneath the headlines. Falling exports, industry shutting down, collapsing investment, spiralling consumer spending, rising bank profitability even as advances to the private sector shrivel up, are all unhealthy signs for the real stakeholders in Pakistan’s economic health. But for external creditors, the only points of interest are the country’s creditworthiness and its capacity to meet debt-service obligations. And that is the only area in which the Fund has given the government’s economic performance a clean bill of health, because that is the only area that the Fund really cares about.

Pakistan’s case illustrates the dangers of an economic management philosophy whose number one priority is to keep foreign creditors satisfied. Governments, when guided by such a philosophy, will produce absurd actions, such as basking in the approval of international credit rating agencies and multilateral lenders while gnashing their teeth at international NGOs and being suspicious of their motives. The former are pampered stakeholders for our economic managers, and the government serves to please them, while the latter serve only the poor and vulnerable segments of the population who have little voice in policy circles. Pakistan deserves better economic management than this, but looking to the IMF for support in bringing about any meaningful reform is increasingly appearing as an exercise in futility.
There is little evidence that the government has successfully increased recoveries in the power sector or broadened the base of taxation, but the fiscal house can be declared to be in order simply because the deficit is marginally within control. Likewise with the quality of the growth, which is centred heavily on fly-by-night industries such as services and construction, while employmentgenerating industries continue to languish. But the real challenge — an economy increasingly geared to serve the rich and offload the costs onto the poor — is the product of Pakistan’s own political leadership over the years. The present government is no exception. The Fund review makes clear what to expect in the forthcoming fiscal year: more tariff increases to pay for the inefficiencies of the power sector, heavier taxation on those already within the net, and an anaemic attempt to expand the tax base.

Trauma in Nigeria

A NEW president who vowed to crush terrorism doesn’t seem to have made much difference to Nigeria’s fortunes, for on Friday, the militant group Boko Haram once again demonstrated its chilling power to spread death and destruction in the land. By a rough estimate it has murdered some 200 people during the last few days, targeting among other places a mosque where a 15-yearold girl blew herself up to kill and maim the faithful at afternoon prayers. That the government is helpless became evident when 50 terrorists on motorcycles made the Mussa village a target for the fourth time, shooting innocent people, burning houses and dragging women from their homes to kill them. Evidently, Boko Haram has stepped up its killing spree, slaughtering more than 450 people since May when President Muhammadu Buhari took over. The overall casualty toll since Boko Haram began its murderous campaign has now reached 15,000, and the Nigerian government seems unable to respond forcefully to the militant group’s reprehensible tactics.

The trauma in Nigeria must be seen in the global context, for the last week of June saw an extraordinary rise in acts of terror across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, following incitement to violence by the so-called Islamic State, which asked its supporters to increase attacks in this month of fasting. In Tunisia, a gunman spewed death on a beach, killing 37 tourists; in Kuwait a Saudi suicide bomber caused havoc in a Shia mosque leaving almost 30 people dead, and in the Somali village of Lego, Shabab militants raided an African Union base, massacring 50 people and beheading many. Three agonising facts hit us with force: one, the terrorists are in a position to strike whenever and wherever they wish; two, the international community — the Muslim world especially — has failed to degrade much less crush the monster that is international terrorism; three, the silent majority in the Muslim world seems cowed by a microscopic minority of bloodthirsty extremists, who insist on imposing their concept of Islam through brute terror. The challenge, thus, is not merely the state’s military response; the greater task involves countering the extremists through other means. In Kuwait, we see an example that deserves to be emulated by the entire Muslim world, for last Friday saw Shias and Sunnis praying together. The task before Muslim intellectuals is to work for a tolerant, pluralistic polity that accepts and embraces all human beings irrespective of their beliefs.

Forced charity

KARACHI’S business community and its citizens in general have long complained of being shaken down by criminals as well as elements associated with political parties and religious groups in the name of ‘donations’ and ‘charity’. In fact, eliminating extortion in the metropolis has been one of the key aims of the law-enforcement operation currently under way in the city. While extortion is a yearround menace, during religious occasions such as the month of Ramazan or Eidul Azha, citizens are under additional pressure to forcibly cough up dues such as zakat and fitra to decidedly undeserving elements, or to hand over sacrificial hides. This year, the Rangers seem to be displaying extra zeal in order to stop the forced collection of religious dues. On Thursday, members of the paramilitary force picked up several MQM workers from Karachi’s Rizvia neighbourhood for ‘forcible’ collection of fitra. An official told this paper that “the Rangers will not allow any political or religious party to collect Fitrana from residents forcibly”. The MQM, meanwhile, has protested the Rangers’ action, claiming that the paramilitary force is preventing the party from carrying out “welfare activities”.

Forcible collection of charity by any party or organisation cannot be condoned. The very idea behind charity is that it should be a voluntary act. Hence efforts by the state to crack down on forcible collection of funds are positive. However, the campaign must be across the board and should not be directed at a single party. The state should also keep a close watch on extremist outfits that use the mosque and madressah to collect funds in the name of religion. There is very little accountability of these funds, which can very easily end up in the hands of hate groups or outfits that promote violence and militancy. Pakistanis are known for their philanthropy as it is, and people should be free to decide who they want to give charity or religious dues to, without any sort of duress or coercion.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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  #1412  
Old Monday, July 06, 2015
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Hockey disaster

WITH the national team’s ignominious failure to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 at the World Hockey League semi-finals in Antwerp, Belgium, Pakistan hockey has reached a dead end. The recent fiasco, which has come on the heels of an equally humiliating disqualification from the Hockey World Cup in 2014, caps a disastrous period spanning some two decades which has been replete with losses and setbacks with only a few laurels coming the players’ way. Though the Antwerp humiliation has been termed as Pakistan hockey’s darkest hour, there have been countless such occasions in the recent past which clearly put in the shade decades of glory and success achieved by the country in the annals of the game. Bad luck can intrude unexpectedly and play havoc with a player or a team’s progress. Still, Pakistan has no such excuses to offer for its defeat to a lowly-ranked Ireland on Friday or to other less-equipped outfits earlier in the tournament that led to this final blow.

But while the players have erred badly, the blame for hockey’s overall shambolic state lies squarely with the Pakistan Hockey Federation and its utterly incompetent and, often corrupt, regimes. It is ironic that many of the game’s ex-Olympians who once did the country proud by excelling on the field, have been instrumental in blotting the national game’s impeccable record by either indulging in needless ego tussles or resorting to selfish gains at the game’s expense. It is, indeed, a shocking scenario today where out of the 18 hockey training centres or academies, none can be seen as operational anywhere in the country. An overhaul is imperative, with stringent measures in place to keep the incompetent and corrupt out of the PHF set-up. However, with politics having saturated the PHF rank and file and with governments overly keen to run the game through their handpicked officials there is little hope that any serious effort for the revival of the national sport will be made in the near future.


Tariff increase


POWER consumers in the city of Karachi recently woke up to news that read a little like an electric shock. For a while it appeared that not only were their power tariffs about to be hiked significantly, but that they would also have to pay arrears on elevated tariffs being applied retroactively. But as the day progressed, clarity seeped in that the hike was only applicable for the top two slabs of consumers, and all arrears would be paid by the government. In fact, what had happened was a fairly straightforward matter. Since the summer of 2013, the Sindh High Court had stayed any tariff increases for K-Electric, which are decided on a quarterly basis. That stay was only vacated this June. In the meantime, tariff increases had been effected for consumers in the rest of the country, thereby creating a large differential in what Karachi consumers were paying versus everybody else. Therefore, new tariffs were decided by Nepra, the power regulator, for K-Electric spanning the entire period from the summer of 2013 till the present, finally creating uniform tariffs for all power consumers in the country.

It is important that in the matter of key administered prices such as power, gas and fuel, there be no discriminatory treatment between consumers in different parts of the country. The stay issued by the Sindh High Court appeared to interfere with this principle, and ended up creating two different power tariffs in the country. A similar stay issued by the Peshawar High Court in 2011, and extended in 2013, had much the same effect. Not only did these stays end up creating a highly unfair price framework for power in the country, they also introduced serious distortions in the government’s subsidy expenditures and in the case of the PHC order, also wrecked the financial health of the Peshawar Electric Power Company. The exercise of judicial power in the matter of administered prices resulted in hurting consumers, government finances as well as the financial health of the power distribution company. In short, there were no winners. It is true that the government should be dissuaded from passing the cost of inefficiencies in the power sector onto the consumer through regular tariff increases. But the present case illustrates that using the courts to interrupt key policy decisions on administered prices does more harm than good. The courts ought to be more judicious in using their power to grant stays in matters that relate to administered prices.

Implementation of NAP

THE controversial remarks attributed to a Supreme Court bench against the government’s lacklustre implementation of the National Action Plan are unfortunate. The specific issue before the court in that hearing had to do with NGOs, so it would also appear to be the wrong occasion for seemingly off-the-cuff remarks about NAP. Yet, there is no denying that, unfortunate though the language used may have been, there is a serious problem with NAP: namely, that there is no real progress on many of the clearly defined issues in the plan. Consider just this one, small fact – it took media reports of the criticism in the Supreme Court for the interior ministry to pledge to provide up-to-date details on NAP’s implementation. And even in the preliminary numbers of arrests and seizures mentioned by an interior ministry spokesperson, there are some obvious issues. The interior ministry has claimed, for example, that there have been over 60,000 arrests related to the plan since its implementation six months ago. That is a very large number, but is it of any significance? All too often, lawenforcement agencies simply inflate such numbers by rounding up peripheral or even innocent suspects.

What of the extremist and militant groups and their leaderships? The interior ministry has not yet released a detailed list of banned organisations in the country and the specific actions taken against each of them. Which are the groups involved, who leads them, where do they operate, what are their subsidiaries and alternate structures, how are they funded and by whom, and to what extent have specific groups been dismantled or disrupted – none of the facts are known. Without such specifics, few outside government and military circles could have the confidence that the country is moving towards the shutting down of the militant and extremist infrastructure. What the state appears to want to do is to continue with the selective push against certain kinds of anti-state militants while treating the so-called pro-state and pro-Pakistan militant and extremist organisations as a problem for another day. But that will only delay the inevitable. As years of cutting peace deals and delaying military operations in Fata eventually proved, coexistence of the state and radical Islamist militant groups is simply not possible, let alone advisable.

Finally, there is a problem that the interior ministry, the lead ministry in the NAP structure, itself faces: funding. NAP is grossly underfunded, as is Nacta, the counterterrorism authority, and as are the various programmes for building counterterrorism capabilities in the provinces, especially the urban areas. Surely, it is not the responsibility of the federal government alone to fund the entire National Action Plan. But plans can only be executed to the extent that there are funds made available, whether by the centre, the provinces or through external funding, to do so. At the very least, Nacta should be adequately funded.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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  #1413  
Old Tuesday, July 07, 2015
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Greece on the brink

RARELY, in recent times, has the voice of a people echoed so loudly around the world. The decisive ‘No’ vote served up by the Greek electorate in their historic referendum was unexpected and has created perhaps the biggest crisis the European Union has ever faced. The crisis has rekindled memories of the German reparation payments of the 1920s, and some have pointed out that Germany itself, which has taken the toughest line demanding full compliance from Greece on its debt service obligations, has been the beneficiary of historic write-downs of its own external debts, most recently in 1953. The most dramatic invocation of history came from the French economy minister just before the voting began, saying “[i]f the ‘No’ wins, it will be our responsibility not to create the Treaty of Versailles of the eurozone”.

The crippling repayment terms spelled out in that treaty and the stubborn insistence of the creditors — particularly France — that they be met in full led to the collapse of the economy of Weimar Germany and paved the way for the rise of National Socialism. The present crisis is already stirring atavistic passions across Europe, although the fact that 31pc of the Greek electorate still voted ‘Yes’ shows that many remain mindful of the immense risks they are being asked to take.

In the days to come, some may well ask whether or not Pakistan ought to also engage in similar brinksmanship. Of course, we are not at such a crisis point at the moment, but the underlying realities can change fast in this country, as the financial crisis of November 2008 made clear. Before any wrong lessons are derived from the events in Greece, it is worth noting a few things about the drama there. First, the world is growing weary of arranging repeated bailouts, as evidenced by the willingness of Greece’s creditors to walk up to this precipice, even if they are not willing to go over the edge at this point. Second, the immense strength that it took for the Syriza party to face down its creditors came from its close connection with the electorate, something that nobody in our political arena enjoys. When facing pressure in any form from the international community, Pakistan’s strength has almost always come from its geopolitical endowments rather than the credibility of its institutions. These are weak foundations upon which to build our standing in the world community. They are likely to deplete faster than durable institutions. And finally, it is worth bearing in mind that the present mess in Greece is ultimately the result of profound misgovernance by the generation that came before the current youthful leadership of Syriza. We should think harder about leaving our next generation with a mess of similar proportions in a world exhausted from bailing others out.


Neglecting history

THE treatment of cultural and historical artefacts by the authorities in Pakistan leaves a lot to be desired. Either the state has been neglectful in preserving historical treasures, or it has looked the other way as artefacts have been smuggled out or sold for profit. An example of this official carelessness was highlighted in a report published in this paper on Sunday: priceless historical relics in Karachi belonging to the Moenjodaro and Mehrgarh periods may be facing the risk of theft as well as damage due to improper handling by the authorities concerned. The artefacts are being transported from private premises to the National Museum of Pakistan in the metropolis. However, the manner in which they are being packed and transported seems to be highly unprofessional. Though Sindh Archaeology Department officials say the shifting is being overseen by qualified technical staff, professional archaeologists told this paper they had serious reservations about the way the objects were being handled. Moreover, they point out that the archaeology officials are not properly keeping track of what is being shifted, which means the objects — some of which date back millennia — can be ‘disappeared’. A photograph published with the news report clearly shows the artefacts casually placed in boxes, as if they were regular objects of little worth.

This is not the first time ad hoc measures have been applied when dealing with antiquities; in the past there have been reports of similar non-professional methods used to deal with the objects kept in the Taxila museum. With the provinces now firmly in charge of the cultural sphere, they must address these inadequate methods of dealing with our history. In the present case, since the relics had to be moved, experts should have been consulted in order to package and transport them in a professional manner. Instead of applying the usual unfeeling bureaucratic touch, perhaps students with a passion for history and culture could have been engaged to help shift the objects with due care. There is still time to bring in professionals in order to properly shift, list and transport the objects, which are about 35,000 in number, if the Sindh authorities so desire. Looking at the bigger picture, officialdom needs to reconsider its attitude towards handling history for unless things change, very soon there may be very few artefacts left to display. This uncaring and apathetic approach towards dealing with our rich history requires an urgent reset.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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  #1414  
Old Wednesday, July 08, 2015
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Vigilance required

THE absence of large-scale sectarian violence in the last few weeks should be no cause for complacency. The menace of sectarianism is alive and well in Pakistan, as illustrated by the tragic targeted killing of two Hazara Shia brothers in Quetta on Monday, the latest among a series of such murders in the city since April. The men, both in their 20s, were outside a passport office when two assailants gunned them down and also killed a policeman who confronted them. While the operations being carried out by the military in the northern areas and by the Rangers and police in Karachi appear to have disrupted sectarian-jihadi networks to some extent, the massacre of Ismaili Shias on May 13 in Karachi shows that their capacity to unleash mass murder has certainly not been neutralised. That is even more so a cause for concern whenever a religiously significant event in the Muslim calendar — such as Hazrat Ali’s death anniversary which will fall tomorrow — comes around and is commemorated with majalis and processions.

By their very definition, processions are relatively difficult to secure. A mass of people moving along a route with potentially multiple points of vulnerability are a security challenge of no mean proportions. And conversely, one that extremists are tempted to exploit. In 2009, the bombing of an Ashura procession in Karachi killed around 50 people, while in early 2012, a similar attack on a Chehlum procession in Rahim Yar Khan left nearly 20 dead. Religious tensions also run high on such occasions: a communal clash in Rawalpindi two years ago, reportedly incited by provocative sermons from a mosque along an Ashura procession route, resulted in a number of deaths. For their part, the authorities have of late pulled out all the stops — including recourse to aerial surveys — to ensure that peace is maintained on these sensitive days. However, while Ashura and Chehlum processions/gatherings have been targeted most often, the authorities cannot afford to let down their guard on other similar commemorative occasions.

Islamabad LG polls

A CLASH of institutions emerging over Islamabad’s local government polls, scheduled for July 25, is threatening to overshadow the long-awaited elections in the capital. At the centre of the controversy is the disturbing fact that the Senate is yet to pass the bill that would give the green light for the polls, with the result that the ECP has announced a schedule — under Supreme Court orders — based on draft legislation. On Monday, the ECP came under a barrage of criticism in the Senate, led by Chairman Raza Rabbani. Mr Rabbani said the commission’s election-related activities were “without lawful authority”. Moreover, the upper house wants LG polls in the capital held on a party basis. In a related development, the attorney general told the Supreme Court on the same day that he did not expect the bill in question to be passed before Eid.

In principle, the Senate’s complaint is valid: legislation is purely parliament’s domain and it is inadvisable for other state institutions to encroach upon this territory. Yet it is equally true that were it not for the Supreme Court’s insistence on holding LG polls across Pakistan, elections would not have taken place in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in the cantonment areas. The apex court had in March ordered for polls to be held; thereafter, the National Assembly passed the Islamabad LG bill which went to the Senate in April. We are now well into July. Hence, we fail to realise why the upper house has not fast-tracked the passage of the legislation. If the senators had reservations about the bill and wanted to amend it, they should have gone ahead with their input and sent the legislation back to the lower house to be debated so that it could have become law by now. We can appreciate the Senate’s insistence on parliament’s sovereignty, but we also realise that the people of the federal capital have a constitutional right to elect their local representatives — a right that has been denied to them for several decades, and which lawmakers have blocked through their tardiness. The Senate needs to give the Islamabad LG bill the attention it deserves and keep the legislative process moving forward. If a slight delay is unavoidable perhaps a brief extension of the election date could be considered. However, there should be no compromise over the holding of LG polls in the capital so that democracy reaches the lowest tiers.

Sindh CM’s accusations

SINDH Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is suddenly an angry man. The target of Mr Shah’s ire are the FIA and NAB — federal organisations that are, according to the Sindh government, busy conducting raids against the provincial authorities without the authorisation or support of Mr Shah’s government. The Sindh chief minister has even vowed to take the matter of granting additional powers to the FIA under federal legislation to the superior courts. While the centre has claimed that new powers to detain suspects for 90 days have been granted to the FIA are applicable to all provinces and not just Sindh, Mr Shah made it clear that his government believes it has been singled out for punishment. Unsurprisingly, the MQM has come out in his support and is also concerned by the FIA and NAB investigations. As with virtually everything else in the growing conflict between the centre and Sindh, there is some truth in what both sides are claiming.

Clearly, for all the federal government’s clarifications, there is something Sindh-specific about the FIA and NAB’s recent crusades. Where are similar actions in the other provinces? Have provincial offices in Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa been raided? Has Punjab seen an uptick in investigations into financial fraud or corruption by provincial authorities? The answer is obvious from the media headlines alone: Sindh appears to be the inordinate focus of interest by federal investigators in recent months. Add to that the fact that a city-specific operation is in place only for Karachi and that the army leadership has expressed some very blunt opinions about the quality of political leadership in Sindh, and the reasons for the siege mentality of the Sindh government become clear. While the federal government has for the most part tried to suggest that the many facets of the Sindh crackdown are entirely coordinated and led by the PML-N, there are clear and worrying signs that much of what is happening is occurring at the behest of the security establishment behind the scenes. A Sindh government that is at odds with not just the federal government but the military is a dangerous development in an ostensibly democratic framework.

Yet, the Sindh government will win little sympathy from any quarter so long as it continues with its hapless ways. That there is epic corruption and mis-governance in the province is no longer questioned by even the most ardent of democrats. That the Sindh government has done nothing to stamp out corruption in its midst is also not seriously questioned by independent observers. That the province could take the lead and has the powers necessary to fight corruption and mis-governance is also quite clear. If Sindh won’t put its own house in order, is it a surprise that the centre should be attempting to do so itself?

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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Old Thursday, July 09, 2015
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Report on corruption

THE report submitted by the National Accountability Bureau to the Supreme Court listing the details of 150 cases being pursued by NAB inspires little confidence. For one, the list appears to be a casual exercise, giving only a broad outline of the cases with names and the “gist of allegation”, with amounts arbitrarily put down. Many of the cases are over a decade old, yet are listed as “inquiry under progress”. The history of pursuing corruption cases in Pakistan is a chequered one mainly because of the repeated compromises struck between parties on account of political interference, the selective nature of the allegations, and political motivations behind many of the charges. It is worth noting the absence of names from the armed forces on the list. Why is it that three generals named in the Asghar Khan case, against whom the Supreme Court ordered legal proceedings, have still not been prosecuted? It is also worth recalling the zeal with which Gen Musharraf promised to pursue corruption cases at the start of his decade in power. Within a few years, he was forced to reach out to the same political class he had vilified in the early stages for being corrupt, and NAB granted a clean bill of health to the leadership of the PMLQ while continuing to pursue cases against the leaders of the other parties. This ignominious history ended with the NRO that saw Gen Musharraf come full circle in bargaining away his corruption allegations in return for political support.


In fact, one of the main reasons why NAB’s list of pending cases is so long is precisely because corruption has become a political trope in our lexicon, a generic allegation with which to smear political opponents. The selective use of corruption allegations means that the real culprits get away. Everybody knows how large a role corruption plays in the articulation of our politics and distortion of our policy environment, but the only place where the allegations get to stick is in the public perception, rarely ever in a court of law. By not being able to solve the cases before it, NAB proves that corruption is little more than a red herring in our society, used to malign and victimise political opponents. Establishing an independent anticorruption body is necessary, with appropriate powers to initiate an inquiry and take it all the way to prosecution. But ensuring that such a body is not politicised will be a big challenge.

Towards Afghan reconciliation

IT was the sign that perhaps all those on the side of peaceful conflict-resolution were looking for: the Pakistani state getting directly involved in bringing together representatives of the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban to effectively discuss the possibility of a peace and reconciliation process. That the US and China also had observers present at the Murree meeting suggests that it was a concerted, international effort — exactly what Afghanistan needs. To be sure, a peace process needs to be Afghan-owned — without the government and the Taliban leadership fully on board, there is no possibility of stability in Afghanistan — and final terms will have to be negotiated directly between the state and the insurgents. But regional and international support for a peace process is also key. Perhaps until there is a full-fledged peace process, the outside powers can nudge efforts along to produce an Afghan-owned peace process.
Clearly, were it not for Pakistan’s willingness to use its influence over the Afghan Taliban, the Murree meeting would not have taken place. Until now, the degree of influence the state here has over the Taliban has been disputed by Pakistan. The claim was that Pakistan’s influence has diminished and it never was the mastersubordinate relationship that many in the West allege the Pakistan-Taliban relationship to have been. What was perplexing though was quite why Pakistan had not made an obvious effort to reciprocate Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s determined outreach to it. Now, perhaps some of those doubts will dissipate. As the Foreign Office spokesperson indicated yesterday, the Murree meeting is not expected to be a one-off and that post-Eid another round of dialogue may be hosted by Pakistan. There truly has not been a better moment for Pakistan to take the diplomatic lead on Afghanistan. The American determination to withdraw militarily from Afghanistan, China’s willingness to engage more on Afghanistan and Pakistani military operations in Fata having won back a great deal of space for the state here all mean that now is the time to encourage the Afghan Taliban to seek a peaceful compromise that brings stability to the region.
Yet, welcome as it is to see the Pakistani state play a frontline role in a possible peace process, there is still a long, long way to go and much can go wrong. The most obvious challenge is that past apparent breakthroughs have gone nowhere and this time round, a talks process would play out with the Afghan Taliban having the momentum on the battlefield. Much as the world may want a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan, does the Taliban’s leadership share that vision? And even if it does, can the leadership convince the rank and file to lay down their arms, especially when the new generation has known nothing but war? There are, as ever, many unanswered questions in Afghanistan.


Stunning act by Younis

THERE are many remarkable feats woven into Pakistan’s victory against Sri Lanka in Pallekele on Tuesday. The win was due, ultimately, to the combination of new talent and the veteran. This not just symbolised continuity but also reconfirmed the merits of perseverance. After the game, Younis Khan praised the effort of Shan Masood, his partner, in the all-important 242-run alliance in the chase for the 377-run target. The compliments reflected brightly on Younis himself, who followed his grand stand with Shan with a final and decisive push towards the target with skipper Misbahul Haq. The unbeaten 171 by Younis ranks among his finest scores. It must be one of the best innings played in a run-chase by Pakistanis who are not exactly renowned for going after targets, however big or small. In rare instances, when they have managed to overcome their tendency to self-destruct in panic, success has often been preceded by hiccups, unlike this one which many could predict 100 runs earlier.

Pakistan’s 2-1 series win was contributed to by so many players that the occasion adds to cricket’s reputation as a team sport. The happy twist came in the shape of the extraordinary stand between a very determined Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed in the first Test, with Yasir Shah, who is hailed by some as the best leg-spinner in the world today, bringing a much-needed air of mystery and guile to the game. The team lost the second Test to the Sri Lankans led by a very gutsy Angelo Mathews. But if the loss in the second game triggered familiar fears about Pakistan’s ability to slip after every climb, the urge to stay calm during the chase in the final, series-deciding game offered something that fans of the Pakistanis would want their team to build upon. There are many aspects the side would want to work on to ensure consistency in performance. However, as they guard against panic, their nemesis, they have a new example in Sri Lanka which they can emulate.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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Old Friday, July 10, 2015
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Rangers’ stay in Karachi extended


THE renewal of the Sindh Rangers’ mandate to stay in Karachi has rarely made the news.

That wasn’t surprising, considering that the paramilitary force — whose mandate can be extended for a maximum of four months — has been deployed in Karachi since 1989, in some capacity or the other, to assist the city police in maintaining law and order.

But what was routine once is no longer so, since the Rangers — who were given special powers of policing and arrest in late 2013 — have turned their guns, so to speak, on individuals in the provincial government for their purported misdeeds. That would explain Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah’s eleventh-hour recollection about constitutional requirements that needed to be met following the 18th Amendment, which incidentally was passed in April 2010, for extending the Rangers’ law-enforcement mandate in Karachi.


In any event, after some hemming and hawing, the extension has been granted, albeit for one month.
It was not an unexpected outcome, given the army’s support for the Rangers-led operation in Karachi and, apparently, all that it entails. This was underscored by the corps commander Karachi’s high-profile visit to the force’s headquarters in the city and his appreciation of its actions just three days after a Rangers’ contingent raided the Sindh Building Control Authority’s offices. For a provincial dispensation that along with its erstwhile partner in government, the MQM, increasingly perceives the Rangers’ actions as being carried out with overtly political, security establishment-approved objectives — with some justification, we might add — the SBCA raid was the last straw. It provoked the normally restrained Asif Zardari to lash out against the military, and prompted the chief minister to accuse the Rangers of overstepping their mandate. Strictly speaking, Mr Shah is not far off the mark.

Corruption of the kind that the paramilitary force has now turned its attention to falls more in the domain of whitecollar crime, and while the latter may have an undesirable knock-on effect it cannot in itself be defined as terrorism. And it was to act against terrorism in Karachi that the Rangers’ powers were enhanced. That said, it does not mean that corruption in high places and abuse of power should not be investigated and prosecuted. The Sindh government — even in a country where patronage-based politics is the norm — is largely seen as the most brazenly self-serving and corrupt of the provincial dispensations. The corollary to this is a thoroughly politicised police force that has been fashioned to serve the rulers rather than the ruled.

The question, therefore, is who is going to undertake the cleaning of the stables? There is good reason why the Sindh government’s tribulations are being met by the public with either indifference or outright support for the Rangers’ actions. It is thus that the politicians compromise themselves, and undermine democracy in the process.

Withholding tax

AS expected, the government has reached a compromise with the traders’ community on the question of a new withholding tax on all bank transactions by non-filers of tax returns. In a large meeting held at the FBR headquarters in Islamabad, representatives of trade bodies from around the country urged the finance minister to withdraw a withholding tax of 0.6pc being charged from non-filers on all bank transactions, whether through paper or electronic instruments. A compromise was struck between the government and the assembled delegates at the meeting. It involves reducing the amount of tax deduction to 0.3pc via an ordinance. In return, the traders will be required to file their returns in the period the ordinance remains in force. If the government feels at the end of the 90-day period during which the ordinance remains in force that the number of returns filed is satisfactory, it will renew the ordinance. Otherwise, it will lapse and the tax will revert to 0.6pc.

The good news here is that the measure itself remains in place, although some scope exists for softening the impact of the withholding tax on those who are inadvertently caught up in it, such as pensioners and students. This measure is exactly the sort of approach that is needed to encourage a culture of tax filing, something that is sorely needed in this country where only 0.9 million people filed their returns last year, and out of 64,000 registered businesses, only 15,000 filed by the deadline. In addition, there is the widespread misuse of bank accounts, where personal and benami accounts are used to conduct business transactions. The scope for additional revenue from registered corporates is very large, and it is important to pursue it through measures that are tough but not coercive. This withholding tax draws that balance appropriately. Having struck a deal with the traders to encourage compliance, the government should now set the bar high. If the delegates gathered at the FBR for the meeting on Wednesday wish to claim that they represent the will of a large number of traders, then they should be required to generate tax returns in the next 90 days on an equally large scale. The government should lay down a target for them, and set it very high, and demand that if returns equal to the target are not filed, the ordinance will be allowed to lapse.*

Lack of evidence?

PERHAPS one of the main reasons why militancy continues to thrive in Pakistan is that the government refuses to emerge from its state of denial where certain extremist outfits are concerned. The remarks made by Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch in the Senate on Tuesday are a reflection of this. Mr Baloch said that as there was no evidence to link Jamaatud Dawa with Lashkar-e-Taiba, it would not be possible to proscribe the former, which he termed a ‘charity’ outfit. The statement seems to echo the ‘good militant, bad militant’ line apparently pursued by Pakistan’s security establishment. While the minister is yet to discover any solid evidence, and while JuD chief Hafiz Saeed may deny all links, the fact is that Jamaatud Dawa and LeT enjoy a symbiotic relationship. After the latter was banned in 2002, it began operating under the JuD moniker — itself a new take on Jamaatud Dawa wal Irshad formed in the 1980s at the height of the Afghan jihad. Hafiz Saeed was a key figure in LeT and it is no coincidence that both groups’ infrastructure and memberships overlap. The minister’s remarks in the Senate point to the persistent problem of militant groups rebranding themselves after proscription and carrying on as usual.

This phenomenon is not limited to JuDeT. Jaish-eMohammad, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and Tehreek-iJafariya Pakistan — all supposedly banned— have renamed themselves after proscription. Only the names have changed; the leaderships, infrastructure and activities remain the same. The problem is that despite much outrage, especially after the APS Peshawar tragedy, we do not have a comprehensive counterterrorism plan to neutralise militant actors. Confronting the militants on the battlefield is one option, but to crack down on groups active in the cities, the best course is to build cases against leaders and workers of militant groups, freeze their funds and prevent them from carrying out propaganda activities, not merely ‘ban’ them. Unless the National Action Plan is recalibrated towards fully neutralising militant groups our counterterrorism efforts will continue to deliver unsatisfactory results.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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Old Sunday, July 12, 2015
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Flood season begins

AS the first monsoon showers get under way, it is time to remind ourselves that the past five monsoon seasons have all brought large-scale flooding with them. We can hope that this time things will be different, but, in any case, we must prepare for any eventuality. Given the delays in finalising the fourth National Flood Protection Plan, it can be easily surmised that we are far from prepared. Key to our lack of preparation is the fact that no single government department is tasked with the responsibility of developing a response to flood alerts. In response to a Supreme Court directive, the government has decided to set up a committee consisting of more than a dozen departments, but it is still not clear how the committee will help to coordinate in the midst of a rapidly unfolding situation. Numerous attempts have been made in the past to set up committees and other bodies to develop a floodresponse strategy, but sadly, hardly anybody takes these responsibilities seriously until the inundating waters are upon us.

The annual reports put out by the Federal Flood Commission make for depressing reading, primarily because they all read the same year after year, indicating they are more an exercise in formality than anything else. Flood alerts have been issued only 48 hours prior to the arrival of the flood peak in each case, and little has been done to lengthen this time. A better signalling system also needs to be in place by sending SMS messages to alert affected populations along the route of the approaching flood peak. In the past, the affected populations have often been the last to be informed, mainly because there is no SOP about how the alert will be sent out and who will send it. Once an alert is issued, there are no SOPs to fashion a response, which in the past has been developed in the hours leading up to the arrival of the flood peak. Once the latter is approaching, decisions such as where breaches need to be made in the irrigation system are arrived at on the spur of the moment, usually with the heavy involvement of local notables who seek to protect their own areas and push the floodwaters towards others.

This ad hoc and haphazard management of floods must not be repeated. Five consecutive years of flooding have not taught us a lesson, and in many cases, Pakistan has ended up asking for international assistance to cope with the aftermath. This year there is ample warning, coupled with years of experience, for us to ensure that should conditions leading to floods materialise, the response should not be hastily cobbled together. If there are floods this year, it would be a failure of epic proportions were the government to be caught by surprise again.

Vulnerable NGO sector

THERE is a point at which legitimate national security concerns tip over into paranoia, xenophobia and insularity. The Pakistani state, including the civilian government, appears to be dangerously close to that point. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s ongoing war on INGOs and local NGOs with external funding and links increasingly appears to be about some misguided sense of nationalism as opposed to anything to do with genuine security. Thousands — thousands — of foreigners have over the years come to Pakistan in the guise of NGO workers to undermine the national interest and harm the country’s security, the interior minister told the Senate on Thursday. That is preposterous. The interior minister’s aggressive rhetoric has deliberately and very provocatively equated virtually anyone in the NGO sector, though especially those linked to the West, with a threat to this country. The NGO community may well be wondering if Chaudhry Nisar’s rhetoric has crossed the line into incitement — after all, NGOs often operate in insecure areas at great personal threat to their employees from all manner of violent elements in society. Should the interior minister not feel a sense of responsibility towards the many good, decent, hardworking and honourable men and women who have dedicated their professional lives to improving the lot of Pakistan’s most vulnerable citizens?

The problem though goes far beyond the interior minister and his crusade. A narrow, security-centric worldview was once upon a time something that mostly existed in the security establishment. Over the years, however, politicians have increasingly begun to mimic their military counterparts in terms of viewing the Western world with suspicion. The public at large too appears to have increasingly conspiratorial views about an international plot, devised by the West of course, to undermine the security and stability of Pakistan. Anyone who hails from a Western country is viewed as a potential enemy out to destabilise the state. Contrast that with the regional experience — whether in South Asia or the Gulf. Foreigners are welcomed, indeed eagerly recruited, for their productivity and skill sets. Those countries have security concerns of their own, but they aren’t allowed to overwhelm all other considerations. Why is Pakistan so bent on being the exception? The political leadership could have tried to shape public opinion in a responsible way. Instead, it appears to be content with pandering to fear and paranoia — and maligning a sector that fills many of the gaps left by the state.



LHWs protests

LADY Health Workers have been featuring in the news every now and then. Several months back, they were out on the streets of Lahore, getting beaten up by the police for demanding better pay and job security. Not very long ago, they were being tear-gassed on the roads of Peshawar for organising demonstrations to press the KP government to move them to higher pay scales. When they are not protesting on the streets they are fighting a legal battle for their rights in courts. A few days ago, they again made headlines when hundreds of them came out to agitate in cities in Sindh and south Punjab to pressure the two provincial governments to give them the promised raise in their salaries, and other dues.

Unfortunately, neither the centre nor the provincial governments appear willing to bear the expense of their services after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution that devolved many federal functions and programmes to the provinces. Or is it a case where the provincial governments have decided to turn their backs on this crucial community programme because Ecnec this summer formally stopped federal funding for it and transferred its ‘financial burden’ to the provinces? But despite the shabby treatment they suffer at the hands of the authorities, LHWs are responsible for saving the lives of mothers and newborns in areas where no other medical service is available and are at the forefront of the dangerous fight against polio. External evaluations of the LHW programme have shown that the communities or areas served by them enjoy substantially better health indicators than those where their services are not available. The programme has also led to the development of a well-placed cadre whose outreach is crucial to the improvement of primary healthcare services and accessibility. The success and trust it has earned from the community is unprecedented. Therefore, the provincial governments would be doing a great service to the people if they removed the problems facing the workers rather than refusing to listen to their grievances.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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Resistance to accountability

POLITICIANS have long been wary of accountability because it has so often been used to stunt the democratic process in the past. But there is a line that separates legitimate concerns from the desire to be above the law and that line appears to have been crossed by the present political leadership of the country. Consider the reaction by politicians, and especially leaders of the PML-N, to the National Accountability Bureau informing the Supreme Court of inquiries and investigations under way and references that have been filed against senior politicians, bureaucrats and sundry well-connected businessmen and public figures in scams involving billions of rupees. Instead of a sensible and measured response to what is effectively NAB doing a part of its job by inquiring into alleged fraud and scams, the political class has taken it upon itself to attack the integrity and professionalism of the accountability bureau itself. Curiously, Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, who has demonstrated much equanimity in the long-running personal saga of Imran Khan and the PTI contesting the result of the seat they lost to Mr Sadiq in May 2013, appears to have been flustered on the PML-N’s behalf and has even threatened to file a reference against NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry. Earlier, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid had launched his own attack against NAB and its working.

There is no real doubt about what has provoked the outrage of parliamentarians: they seem to be allergic to the very idea of accountability. There also appears to be a sense of entitlement at work here, that somehow anything that attracts public and media criticism is unjustified when it comes to the reputation of politicians. In fact, it should be the other way round: politicians ought to be able to respond to every allegation of misconduct or corruption by proving that the allegations are without merit. But the trend is not new. In the last parliament, the PPP and PMLN feigned interest in a new accountability body, but then created an impasse over who should lead the organisation. Now, with the PPP still the largest single party in the Senate and the PML-N having a majority in the National Assembly, there ought to be no reason at all for delaying what the last parliament was unable to do – and yet there is no hint that the legislators are interested in taking up the matter anytime. Indeed, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq should be more concerned by the legislative disinterest of the house he presides over.

A basic point needs to be reiterated here: corruption — and the public’s perception of corruption — damages the democratic process. Few, if any, would argue that the political process is cleaner today than what it was at the start of the transition to democracy. An empowered, independent and professional accountability body is needed. NAB has many flaws, but so do many politicians have much to hide.

Pensioners’ lot

A RECENT picture in this newspaper shows an elderly woman pensioner being helped out of the bank by her son and grandson. Frail, and in obvious discomfort, she had just been told to come another day to collect her pension. The image may be worth a thousand words and more, but the indications are that, yet again, such telling signs have been ignored by those who can help these senior citizens by introducing a respectable method whereby they can receive the monthly allowance they are entitled to. We have written previously on the subject, but comments and news items pointing to their lot have failed to have any kind of an impact. Pensioners in the country do get much sympathy — especially during the first few days of the month when they are seen lining up outside banks to receive their dues. But what they and their more conscientious backers from among the well-meaning have been unable to get is official notice and consequent steps towards relief.

What more prompting does a government need than a senior citizen telling a reporter to not bother with his lost cause? Another explains the link between his appearance and the pension that he is so grudgingly provided after a painful, prolonged process every month: he is forced to come in person — at least once every three months — to prove he is still alive. That is quite a remarkable standard to maintain. The attitude towards senior citizens is generally insulting and is one that makes them feel as if they are unwanted by society and the state. That is a terrible feeling and the remedy requires much more than the improvement of facilities at banks that at the moment so begrudgingly give pensioners their entitlement. There has to be a campaign led by the government aimed at restoring to the elderly the respect which was thought to be their due before they were made to suffer the ignominy of standing, waiting for ‘favours’, in these ‘dole-out’ queues.

Guns vs books

THE challenge that Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has thrown down for us deserves to be taken seriously. The young and courageous campaigner for education said at a UN-sponsored education summit in Oslo that $39bn is all that is required to give 12 years of free education to every child in the world.

To put the number in context, she placed it next to global military expenditures, showing only eight days of military spending could pay for the education of every child in the world. This is a staggering comparison, and becomes even more important when one considers the growing role of child soldiers in conflicts in Africa and many other parts of the world.

Global military expenditures have been showing very slight declines in the past three years, coming in at $1.776tr last year according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute. But these declines hide a fundamental reality: the centre of gravity of military expenditure is moving away from the Americas towards the Middle East and Asia.

Countries in our neighbourhood are arming themselves at an alarming rate. The US remains the world’s leading arms spender, but the list of the top 15 countries with the highest military expenditures today includes India, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is heartening that Pakistan does not feature on this list — we can hardly afford to. But each of these countries has a special responsibility to ensure their growing military expenditures are matched by equally robust increases in their education spending.

Pakistan too, as a rival of one of these countries and a strategic partner of the remaining three, shares a special responsibility to ensure that the competition it chooses to pursue does not come at the cost of educating our future generations. The young Malala took enormous risks to underline some very obvious facts: that education is necessary, that girls are as entitled to it as boys. Now she is once again reminding us of our tragically misplaced priorities in which our hatred and thirst for power today trumps our investment in our children’s future.

If even eight days of military spending sounds too much of a sacrifice for the sake of educating every child in the world for 12 years, then our grip on humanity has withered to a great extent. The least we owe our children is to think about how we got to this point, and more importantly, how we might extricate ourselves from the situation.

Published in Dawn ,July 13th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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Old Monday, July 20, 2015
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SBP report card

THE State Bank’s latest report on the health of the economy glitters on the outside, but the caveats buried inside tell the story. The press release begins by talking about “a visible improvement in the country’s macroeconomic environment”, but in the detailed report the caveats are enough to take the shine off this assessment. Inflation may indeed have moderated, the budget deficit has certainly narrowed, and reserves have also risen. But a deeper look shows there’s little room for celebration. The same day as the report was released, export data showed a drop of 4.9pc from last year, making this the worst year since 2012. Much of the decline appears to be the result of slow demand for Pakistan’s low-valueadded exports from China and Bangladesh, as well as growing competition from Indian basmati rice in UAE markets. The report points out that “it has become critical to design an industrial policy that clearly spells out the country’s strategic objectives”. Comfort in the real sector, evidenced by rising foreign exchange reserves, is largely temporary and the State Bank cautions that “the burden of external debt servicing is increasing” because much of the reserve accumulation has been via debt.

On the fiscal side too, after noting a narrowing of the deficit, the report notes “low growth in tax revenues and high share of non-discretionary spending” as key drags in the fiscal framework. The increase in direct taxes was large — 17.2pc — but much of it came from withholding taxes and not from a broadening of the tax base. In expenditures, the bulk of the increase came from development spending, both provincial and federal, which is a good sign. Overall growth was heavily driven by construction and automobiles, hardly bellwether industries. The State Bank feels far more comfortable criticising the performance of the provincial governments than the centre. Except for Sindh, much vilified for many other failures, the revenue effort mounted by the provinces was unimpressive, which “is a source of concern for overall resource mobilisation in the country”. Overall, the State Bank has tried its best to put a smile on an oddly shaped economic situation, marked by high levels of consumption and speculation and low levels of investment and output growth. Nevertheless, a closer reading of the report vindicates the sceptics by laying out the weak foundations upon which the government’s claims of having turned the economy around are built.


Intimidatory tactics

In extraordinary times will inevitably come extraordinary measures — but the costs are piling up and perhaps now unacceptably from a civil rights perspective. That an ex-minister belonging to the MQM, Rauf Siddiqui, has to approach the Sindh High Court to obtain protective bail after the police booked him under anti-terrorism laws for listening to a speech by his party leader Altaf Hussain is mind-boggling.

So too are the arrests of senior MQM leaders for allegedly facilitating and arranging the broadcast of Mr Hussain’s recent speech in which he lambasted the military leadership. Surely, inadvisable as Mr Hussain’s tirade may have been, there is no justification for arresting and intimidating MQM leaders for having simply listened to or arranged a political speech by the leader of their party. The actions are being explained away on the grounds that what Mr Hussain said amounts to hate speech and an incitement to violence. But this is patently false.

Consider the extraordinary contrast between the repression of the MQM and the space once again being afforded to a banned group like the ASWJ, which is no stranger to hate speech and that yesterday held public rallies rather incredibly in defence of the military. It is truly alarming that the law-enforcement and criminal justice systems are being used to shut down vocal dissent by a mainstream political party, howsoever controversial its actions, while banned militant groups are being allowed to preach in favour of the state and military. Could there be a worse indictment of all that is wrong with the state’s approach to fighting crime and terrorism in Karachi and beyond? To be sure, Altaf Hussain is only attacking the military leadership because his own party is under siege by the security apparatus. It was only recently that his party still seemed to regard the military as a panacea and urged it to intervene in national politics. Still, while there may be objections to the tone and tenor and some of the impolitic language used, what Mr Hussain has said now on several occasions against the military is no different to what politicians routinely say about each other or other institutions of the state, particularly the bureaucracy.

It is troubling that such a blatant double standard is being enforced, one for what can be said about any political leader and most state institutions and another for what can be said about the military. Yet, the pressure on the MQM at least is not about to abate — the extension of the Rangers’ mandate in the province for a year suggests the PPP government in Sindh has also been convinced of the need to continue the Karachi operation. That a wide-ranging operation is needed in the province cannot be disputed. That it should focus on crime and terrorism, including atrocities committed by MQM militants, and be mindful of civil liberties is very clear too.


Violence against journalists

A JOURNALIST’S life in Pakistan is often a perilous one, and never more so than when those in the profession work in small towns or remote areas. On Wednesday, a large number of media-persons held a six-hour sit-in on the Indus Highway to protest against an attack on four journalists in Dadu district and the police’s inaction in apprehending the culprits.

The victims were allegedly abducted and detained by a feudal lord and his henchmen and subjected to such a brutal assault that they were left with grievous injuries; they were also paraded in their hometown of Johi so as to publicly shame them. The local influential, whose family is well-represented in the provincial assembly, was apparently enraged when he found the journalists reporting on illegal tree felling in the area.

District correspondents have to contend with multidimensional problems in places where the feudal setup, often reinforced by powerful political connections and a pliant, corrupt police, is unwilling to countenance any challenge to its clout and authority. Moreover, unless they work for one of the larger media groups, outstation reporters are often poorly paid and sometimes not paid at all — which leads to problems of ethics — and are thus easily disowned by their parent organisations when they run afoul of local pressure groups.

However, in a country deemed one of the world’s most dangerous for journalists, especially since militant groups began to proliferate here, Balochistan presents the most high-risk scenario of all. More than 30 journalists have been killed over the last five years in the province, where all manner of threats menace them: feuding tribals, religious extremists, insurgent groups and security forces, all of whom try to use the media to further their own agendas and sometimes, silence its practitioners. In all these years, the murder of only one Pakistani journalist — Wali Khan Babar — has been successfully prosecuted.

In all these years, the murder of only one Pakistani journalist — Wali Khan Babar — has been successfully prosecuted. Only a media that stops pandering to various interest groups and transcends its internal divisions can effectively counter this outrageous impunity.
Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/newspaper/editorial
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Old Monday, July 27, 2015
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Unnecessary burden


WHEN it comes to children, especially their education, our attitudes seem to be incredibly regressive. For example, it is not unusual in Pakistan’s cities and towns — as in many other countries — to see little boys and girls lugging around oversized school bags that are obviously much heavier than what they should be carrying. While some schools ask parents to purchase stationary and books and deposit them at school, not all institutions follow this practice, which means children have to trudge to and fro every day with an unnecessary burden on their backs. But the Indian state of Maharashtra has taken a progressive step to address this issue. As reported on Saturday, the state government has passed a resolution which says that children will not be allowed to carry bags that exceed 10pc of their body weight. As a local education official pointed out, youngsters were carrying loads that were 20pc to 30pc of their weight. This, he observed, was harmful to the children’s health and caused “stress and fatigue”.

Perhaps similar steps are needed to lighten the load of Pakistan’s schoolchildren. The 10pc-of-body-weight rule is a standard backed by health professionals, hence provincial education departments need to look into ways to discourage the carrying of heavy bags. Both schools and parents have a responsibility. Educational institutions — both public and private — must ensure kids are not made to bring unnecessary books or stationary every day, while parents should also monitor the weight of their children’s bags. Lockers and drawers should be used within schoolhouses to store books while in the digital age, technology-led solutions must be employed to impart lessons and reduce the physical load children have to carry. Overall our attitudes towards educating children — and their safety — are uncaring. For instance, look at the way we stuff children inside overcrowded and rickety school vans. Reducing the weight of school bags can be one small step in making the educational process more enjoyable and less of an ordeal for the younger generation.

Turkey’s shift


THIS newspaper has argued that to defeat the self-styled Islamic State, regional powers must combine forces in order to dislodge the extremist outfit from the territory it has occupied in Syria and Iraq, and to bring its leaders and fighters to justice. The fact that Turkey has decided to take a more active role where countering IS is concerned may be a major step towards realising this goal. On Friday, Turkish jets reportedly targeted IS positions inside Syria, killing a number of militants. It is likely the strikes were motivated by the recent deadly suicide bombing in the Turkish town of Suruc on the Syrian border; over 30 mostly Kurdish civilians were killed in that atrocity, which Ankara believes was carried out by a bomber with IS links. Along with the air strikes, Turkey has also given the US-led coalition access to its airbases in order to target the extremist group, while police have also launched swoops inside the country, picking up hundreds of suspects believed to have sympathies for the ‘caliphate’.

Though Ankara’s change of heart has come late in the day, it is nonetheless welcome. After all, media reports have suggested that “thousands” of foreign “volunteers” have made their way to the battlefields of Syria via Turkey, while IS and al-Nusra fighters have also allegedly taken refuge on Turkish soil. While officially the Recep Erdogan-led government opposes IS, it also has no love lost for the Assad regime, which is why it has been accused of looking the other way as extremists use its territory to dislodge the Damascus government. But supporting or even ignoring the activities of militant groups can have adverse effects, particularly for Turkey’s internal security, as the Suruc bombing has painfully illustrated. That is why all regional states must review their policies and stop any support for extremist groups. At the same time, world powers must work towards bringing about a negotiated settlement to the Syrian civil war, which is now in its fifth year and has cost over 200,000 lives. Similarly, the government in Baghdad must be supported by regional players in its fight against IS. It is clear that should countries of the region ignore the IS threat and continue to fight proxy wars against each other, the security situation in the Middle East will become increasingly precarious. Should Turkey — a Nato member — take a firm stand, its anti-IS campaign could be a game-changer.

More flooding lessons


ONE more time the monsoon season finds us struggling to cope with widespread inundation, flooding and the attendant destruction of infrastructure and livelihoods. Although the scale of the devastation does not compare with what previous monsoon seasons have left behind, it is important to keep in mind that the rainy season has just begun. What is already apparent is the proliferation of threats that the climate presents. Previous monsoon seasons have seen large-scale flooding from overflowing rivers as well as breaches in the embankments. In 2010 there were serious fears that the barrages on the main stem of the Indus river could be swept away, something that thankfully did not happen. This year we add Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (Glof) to the list.

It is not clear yet how many Glof events occurred in Chitral, and what triggered them. Reports from the ground deny that Glof events created the floods, pointing instead towards rains as the trigger. They point out that the most heavily impacted region has no glaciers nearby. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in its situation reports, first reported that the floods were caused by Glof events, then later added torrential rains from a cloudburst to the causes too. In any case, what is clear is that the Met department failed to issue any kind of an alert. If the flooding was caused entirely by a series of large-scale, simultaneously occurring Glof events, then the Met department would be largely powerless to forecast. But if the rains served as a trigger for the Glof events, and the timing would suggest it did, then an alert should have been issued.

According to KP government authorities, the Met department is not equipped to issue proper forecasts for the mountainous regions, and all of KP province does not have any functioning weather radars. This is a dangerous situation because the mountains are particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather, and water run-off from the mountains will always find its way into the rivers, just like it did in 2010. The past five years have taught us that the monsoon season is turning into a dangerous season, and only luck has ensured that thus far no major breaches of large hydrological infrastructure have occurred. Not only that, the nature of the threat is also multiplying. The many emergencies arising out of a changing climate are now knocking at our door with increasing ferocity. It is high time to realise that meeting this challenge is a critical priority. Investment needs to be made in upgrading forecasting capabilities, building on our current capability which relies almost exclusively on empirically observing weather patterns towards forecasts that use climatic models, and thereby providing longer lead times. We cannot afford to drive blind into the coming storms.

Source: Editorial
Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2015
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Last edited by Man Jaanbazam; Monday, July 27, 2015 at 12:12 AM.
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