It’s just not cricket

June 8th, 2011

In Pakistan cricket, the term ‘player power’ is hurled as an insult towards cricketers who are perceived as working against the interests of the team. It is true that in the past, players have formed cabals to get their way, as with the betrayal of former captain Younus Khan. Shahid Afridi, however, does not fall under that category. In retiring from cricket and publicly expressing his displeasure with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) at a press conference on June 6 and filing a case in the high court a day later, Afridi will have the backing of all well-wishers of Pakistani cricket. Yes, Afridi transgressed when he criticised coach Waqar Younis, but stripping him off the captaincy of the ODI team was a disproportionate punishment. For the good of the team, the PCB needs a shake-up, starting from the very top with Chairman Ijaz Butt, and lessons in how to manage its players.

The case for Shahid Afridi is simple: He has been a successful captain of a very weak Pakistan team. He took us to the semi-finals of the World Cup, beating the mighty Australians and Sri Lankans in the process. He then nabbed a series victory in the West Indies. Throughout this period, his bowling has been outstanding — he was the leading wicket-taker in the World Cup. Afridi is a vital member of the ODI team and to lose him because the PCB does not treat its player with respect would be tragic.

Another important factor in arguing Afridi’s case is his honesty. A recent investigation into illegal gambling on cricket by Sports Illustrated India revealed that even bookies think Afridi is incorruptible. Given the match-fixing scandal that has blighted Pakistan in the last year, we need more players with integrity. The PCB chairman reacted to the match-fixing scandals with petulance, blaming the English for also being corrupt and had to deliver a groveling apology when threatened with a lawsuit. Under his watch, cricket has disappeared from Pakistan thanks to terrorism, players are unhappy and Butt himself has become a laughing stock of the cricket world. In the fight between Shahid Afridi and Ijaz Butt, there should be only one winner, and it isn’t Butt.

Tales from Tori

June 8th, 2011

Officials, including the chief engineer at Guddu, his supervisor and the then irrigation secretary of Sindh have been found responsible by a four-man commission set up by the Supreme Court for the breach of the Tori Dyke near Jacobabad at the height of the floods last year. The commission presented its detailed findings before a three-member bench of the court, and also noted that the concerned officials had made matters worse by deliberately attempting to mislead the commission. The breach of the Tori Dyke led to large-scale flooding and destruction in Balochistan, as water flowed across the provincial boundary. The purpose was to save the Shahbaz Airbase at Jacobabad and also, according to allegations made by the Balochistan government and some residents, to save agricultural lands belonging to influential persons in Sindh.

The broader findings of the commission, set up to investigate the issue of dyke breaches across the Indus River System, are immensely important. The commission has, in the first place, noted significant neglect in maintaining the dykes. Attempts had, for instance, been made to plug weak areas in the Tori Bund by removing materials from its top, leading to a reduction in its height. The same failure to maintain other embankments led to them being breached. The commission also noted that encroachment of land, the construction of roads and highways without leaving safety channels for water flow and the failure to take full advantage of information from the World Meteorology Organization — of which Pakistan is a member — had all contributed to additional damage caused by the floods.

There can, of course, be no excuse for this. Rules are set up to create safety margins in times of natural disaster. Their blatant violation, as we saw last year, aggravates the suffering of people. It is quite obvious that regulations need to be tightened. The court is set to make its own recommendations but the authorities also need to assess the upkeep of dykes ahead of the next rainy season and ensure drainage channels are created along roads so that a future disaster on the scale seen last year can be avoided.

AG report on rental power

June 8th, 2011

We have been hearing a great deal about rental power plants (RPPs), which, under a government plan, were to add 2,700 MW of power to the national grid system, easing the power crisis we face, even though the cost of power would also rise. We now hear that, according to a report by the auditor-general (AG) of Pakistan, of the 19 proposed RPPs, only one had come online, adding a mere 62 MW of electricity — a meaningless drop in the ocean, given the scale of the power shortfall we face and the disastrous economic impact it is having. Still more worrying is the finding that Rs16.6 billion have been paid out in advance to the RPPs, creating a massive liability of $1.7 billion for the government. The AG has recommended that the contracts of all the companies who had failed to meet their obligations by coming online in time be cancelled.

The situation is certainly a disturbing one. It has also continued for far too long. The RPPs were originally approved under the Musharraf administration in 2006. Thereafter, both the caretaker government that took over prior to the PPP set-up and the current administration carried on with the policy, approving the plan and awarding even bigger contracts. Today, the whole scheme is in a mess. There are contracts that were never signed and others that were never honoured, while some companies are reported to have installed old equipment. Most crucial of all is the fact that nothing has happened to solve our power crisis which, in fact, continues to worsen. Allegations of nepotism in the award of the contracts float everywhere. As the AG has suggested, the matter needs to be fully investigated. It would be unwise to ignore it any longer, given the cost we are paying as a nation for a fiasco that has resulted in both a terrible drain on resources and in a continuing failure to solve the energy crisis, despite the many promises made and the rhetorical statements we have heard year after year, while in reality the situation has rapidly worsened.

Gojra and Pakistan’s judicial system

June 9th, 2011

The latest news on the case of the communal killing of Christians in Gojra in Punjab in 2009 is that a Faisalabad Anti-Terrorism Court has released all the 70 accused on bail because of ‘no-show’ of some witnesses against them.

The Christian colony in Gojra was attacked by sectarian terrorists on the excuse that the Christians there had committed collective blasphemy at a wedding. Using special explosives, the terrorists blew up 60 houses and killed eight Christians. The incident shook the world and shocked many ordinary right-thinking Muslims. This was one of a series of violent acts perpetrated against Christians in Pakistan on the pretext of blasphemy. Almost a year later, a court is once again helpless and has let the killers go, albeit on bail. However, given the time lag, it is unlikely that anyone will ever be convicted for what happened in Gojra.

The case had 70 suspects and 185 witnesses but, as it proceeded, witnesses kept slipping out. The latest decision to bail out the accused was taken after five witnesses apparently left the country. The Christian community knew that the killers would go scot-free in the end and are now pointing fingers at political pressure. The killers, belonging to a sectarian organisation which has a wing aligned with al Qaeda in North Waziristan, enjoy, according to the view of many neutral observors, a ‘comfort level’ with elements in the Punjab government.

This is nothing unusual. If those killed are non-Muslims, the killers are sure to walk free. The al Qaeda-aligned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Akram Lahori has been under trial in Multan with witnesses gradually slipping out of prosecution because of fear of being killed. The government looks on with dread, knowing that the case will end the same way as that of another sectarian killer, Malik Ishaq, who has been let off by a court in Lahore. Ishaq is quite ironically being kept in custody by the Punjab government on the legal commitment of paying a ‘monthly sustenance’ to his family!

Judges have been known to complain that they are not protected against threats. If the accused is linked to al Qaeda, he can threaten even the president of the country from his cell, as happened with President Musharraf when he received threatening calls from convict Umar Sheikh from a jail in Sindh. Similarly, there is no protection for witnesses once they unwisely enlist themselves in a case considered open and shut because of its blatancy. Most Pakistanis have a foreshortened view of law: They complain about terrorists surrendered to America without trial but pay no regard to what is happening to the courts where such trials would be held.

A well-known lawyer who has studied these cases in some detail had this to say of some prominent cases: “Individuals arrested in connection with some of the worst attacks in Pakistan (and India) have managed to simply walk free. Those convicted in the 2002 beheading of The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl have yet to exhaust all their avenues for appeal. The three men arrested for the suicide attack on French engineers in Karachi have been acquitted. Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid‚ the site of a violent showdown between security forces and besieged militants‚ was released for lack of evidence‚ despite supporting and encouraging unsavoury and unlawful activities. Ditto for those arrested for the Benazir Bhutto assassination‚ the attacks on the Marriott Hotel and the Danish Embassy”.

The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 is vague and needs changes to include effective protection for judges and witnesses, but a bigger hurdle than that is the hidden political alliances the killers are able to make with politicians in power. The Act of 1997 was sought to be improved through ordinances, but that provision has lapsed after the 18th Amendment disallowed the president from decreeing them into effect again. Who is going to look after this lacuna in law? The politicians are busy pulling one another down and venting spleen against America, while terrorists captured by the army and arrested by the police are laughing all the way to the court.

Targeting tax evaders

June 9th, 2011

The statement by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Salman Siddique that tax evaders, especially those with great wealth, would be targeted for collection should be cautiously welcomed. Siddique has made all the right noises, vowing that even those who are politically connected will not be spared. But we should be wary. Such rhetoric has been heard before but never enforced. Even if Siddique is well-intentioned, the FBR has a justifiably poor reputation for corruption and the chairman alone may find it difficult to change a culture of under-achievement and inefficiency. In the battle between entrenched political and business interests and reform, the reformists have always had to compromise their idealism.

It is heartening, though, that the FBR chairman seems to realise how crucial tax collection is to the economic and political health of the country. Pakistan’s budget deficit for the last financial year was over five per cent and IMF dictates to bring it down to four per cent can only be met by increasing revenue. Double-digit inflation has also wrecked the economy as the government has had to resort to printing money to meet its expenditures. Slashing the security net for the poor and eliminating subsidies has so far been the government’s only response to the deficit; nabbing those who have evaded tax collectors could allow more government spending on the poor.

Politically, a government that can find its footing is less likely to follow the orders of others. We must do what the IMF tells us because to ignore their orders could spell financial suicide. The same is true of US aid, which always arrives with conditions affixed to it. Much is made of the political sovereignty of the country but few have debated how our economic sovereignty has also been eliminated. Right now, the workings of the Pakistan government are being funded by foreigners. It naturally follows that the government will be more beholden and accountable to those foreigners than to its own citizens. Widening the tax net will not only give Pakistanis a say in the running of the country, it will also prevent the wealthy from getting a free ride at the expense of the salaried classes.

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Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

The death of Sarfaraz Shah

June 10th, 2011

We watched in disgust as a mob in Sialkot lynched a suspected criminal while the police stood idly by, watching the carnage. The shooting at point-blank range of an unarmed civilian by Rangers on June 8, in Karachi’s Benazir Bhutto Park may be even worse. In this case, law enforcement authorities were not just malicious bystanders but active participants in the violence. Nineteen-year-old Sarfaraz Shah was confronted and then shot by Rangers, who claimed that he was a robber who refused to surrender, although the footage of the incident does not support these claims. The video showed Shah beg for mercy as Rangers personnel surrounded him. His pleas to be taken to a hospital went unanswered, as he bled to death.

The incident is shocking — there is no law in the world that allows such cruelty to be meted out to a robber. The Rangers said that Shah was armed but all the police were able to recover was a toy gun. Too often we hear tales of police brutality and shrug it off. We should not reserve our outrage only for those instances when police inhumanity is captured on camera. The incident has attracted the attention of the prime minister and various political parties, all of whom have vowed to hold the Rangers officials accountable. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that this response has been engendered by anything other than the fact that the ruthless murder was filmed. Police and paramilitary officials who think their badges give them immunity from prosecution are a dime a dozen and the sad part is that they are right. When eyewitness testimony is the only evidence available, police ‘encounters’ always end up with innocent people dead and the police spared.

An investigation needs to be conducted by an independent commission, not by the Rangers, which should arrive at its findings within a reasonable period of time. These findings should be made public, so that the guilty people can be punished. However, prosecution of the officials responsible is only the start of the solution. The police and Rangers need to have instilled in them values that are expected to be upheld by the guardians of the law.

Focus on intelligence

June 10th, 2011

A PML-N MNA has raised a tricky question at the National Assembly during the discussion of the national budget, asking how much of the defence budget goes to intelligence agencies. In Pakistan, ‘intelligence’ means ‘secret’ and one assumes that anything to do with our secret agencies must remain a national secret. Where are these funds tucked away? One guess is that it must be something like the information ministry’s Rs2.97 billion going, among others, to someone providing ‘secret service’.

Before we ask the Pakistan Army how much they spend on Military Intelligence (MI), we must be clear in our minds where the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) stands on the administration chart. Is it a civilian or a military organisation? In Pakistan, there is confusion about whose turf it is, after the PPP government tried unsuccessfully to place the ISI directly under the interior ministry.

Past events also point to confusion about its charter, especially after the creation of a ‘political wing’ in it by a prime minister. And by the time we reach the 1990s, things becomes murkier, when the ISI mounted what is known as the Midnight Jackals Operation, aimed at overthrowing the parliamentary majority of the very prime minister it was supposed to serve.

The ISI looks after external threats and provides counterintelligence against external enemies. But if you stretch the point a little, everything is kosher, and that is not very different from how ‘external threat’ agencies work elsewhere in the world. The ISI was recently rated as being one of the top ten intelligence agencies of the world. If we are looking for how much money it gets officially, hear this: It delivers meritoriously with the least amount of official money in its kitty. But, like the military, it might be raising its own funds too, which can be a bit worrying.

Why did the MNA ask to know the amounts allocated for intelligence? We think the inquiry emanates from the anxiety aroused among the public about the capacity of the intelligence agencies in general and the ISI in particular. Intelligence has generally proved ineffective against terrorism — it is often said that terrorism can be countered only through pre-emptive intelligence — and it has particularly been found wanting in the case of Osama bin Laden, who remained hidden in Abbottabad for five years.

There is also a much more serious accusation of there being no coordination among the various civilian and military secret services when it comes to creating a warning system against terrorism. This has become the biggest chink in the armour of security in Karachi. Even the 2009 terrorist attack on the GHQ was anticipated by one agency but ignored by the one directly in charge. Surely, parliament is well within its rights to ask for the details of funds spent on agencies that have failed some tests of their efficiency, especially when the money comes from the very taxpayers who make up the electorate.

There is no question that intelligence agencies, like in all countries the world over, are needed and in fact necessary — provided of course they abide by their mandate and are overseen by parliament or some form of a democratically-elected body. It is normal for states to get into periodic complications with their spies, needing the government to initiate reforms to make them function better. Neither the CIA nor RAW have been exempt from such ‘reforms’. It is no longer satisfying for the public to hear from our sleuths that acts of terrorism by the Taliban are actually orchestrated by RAW, Mossad and the CIA!

Nor is it satisfying that the ISI and CIA are engaged in a war of their own while the Taliban have a free run of the country. It will be very off-putting if it is disclosed in the end that the ISI gets its big money by simply sending little unsigned chits to the finance ministry. We want our intelligence agencies well-funded, with proper parliamentary and judicial oversight, linking their finances to their effectiveness and their ability to beat the enemy.

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Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Reading the military’s message

June 11th, 2011

The Pakistan Army is different from that of India in that it makes its opinion known on national matters. The 139th Corps Commanders’ Conference on June 9, 2011 at the GHQ, presided over by Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has said that it wants its ‘military-to-military’ relationship with the US reassessed in light of the post-May 2 Joint Parliamentary Resolution of May 14, 2011, which had asked the army to end America’s trespass into Pakistan’s territory and end US drone attacks on Pakistani soil.

The statement wants Pakistanis to stand united. It vows political neutrality but may have shown the military’s hand a bit on the subject of the establishment of a joint commission by the government in the follow-up to the parliamentary joint resolution: “Some quarters, because of their perceptual biases, were trying to deliberately run down the armed forces and the army in particular”. If this is intended at the criticism in the media following the Abbottabad raid and the PNS Mehran attack, then one has to see that much of what the media is saying is an accurate reflection of public sentiment. Many people are angered by the fact that a major chunk of the annual budget goes to the armed forces and for that they expect better results in terms of fighting off terrorists, securing their own installations or even in tracking down the world’s most-wanted terrorist.

Another point mentioned in the statement is that US assistance meant for the military be diverted towards economic aid “which can be used for reducing the burden on the common man”. This rejection of American assistance by the army is based on the following numbers which must come as a surprise to all in Pakistan. Instead of the $13-15 billion in military aid, the civilian government got only $8.6 billion, out of which only $1.4 billion were given to the army over the last decade! The world has been led to believe, however, that the Musharraf government received $10 billion as civilian aid, which it heavily diverted to the army. Releasing these figures would suggest that the army wants to dispel the notion that it is the biggest beneficiary of US aid. That said, it should be understood that the issue shouldn’t be that of the Pakistani military having a direct relationship with the US military but rather that it work with the Pentagon along the parameters set for it by parliament and the elected government of the day.

As for public sentiment, it would be fair to say that the Pakistan Army clearly stands with the people of Pakistan since most of them also seem to dislike America. It stands also with the ‘Voice of the People’ in parliament, which has issued a strong directive to the army — supported by all political parties — to end drone attacks, if need be by ending Nato supplies through Pakistan. But the statement has a message for the people of North Waziristan Agency too, asking them to get rid of the ‘foreigners’ in their midst and defend their territory — a clear pointer to the army’s intent of sooner or later going after the terrorists in North Waziristan. Perhaps we may also see a change of policy insofar as the seeming tolerance of various jihadi outfits is concerned. If that happens, that would be good for Pakistan.

The military’s statement must be examined carefully, in particular by the US, since it must see why so much of its pledged assistance has not been delivered. The opinion in Washington is divided, but those in office think the US cannot do without Pakistan if it wants to fight al Qaeda. Those who oppose this view point to the anti-Americanism within the military, its isolationist India-centric mindset and the infection of sympathy for extremists within some in its ranks. In the final count, the question that must be asked is: How realistic is the objective that parliament set before the army (in the former’s joint resolution)? Politics may get a fillip from exaggeration and hyperbole but wars are not undertaken on the basis of jazba. One journalist died revealing the odds facing Pakistan, indirectly stressing the need to avoid isolation through rejection of international support. Soon the ‘national consensus’ may come to be built on coercion and fear of death.

__________________
Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Nawaz Sharif and the military establishment

June 12th, 2011

Speaking at the headquarters of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) in Lahore on June 10, on the occasion of a reference meeting to protest the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif called on the Pakistan military to change its mindset. He called for its accountability under the country’s democratic system, asked the GHQ to abandon its hold on the foreign policy of the country, especially its India-centric obsession, and its tendency not to tolerate criticism. It was clear which institution he was addressing as he made reference to his own policy of détente with India after acquiring nuclear status for Pakistan. He said former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit was sabotaged by an unauthorised invasion of Kargil to pre-empt his party’s initiative. He said: “End your domination of foreign policy if you wish the criticism to end”. Careful to avoid indicting the entire institution, he pinpointed his observation: “The army is under the domination of a handful of people with a specific mindset”.

Since the SAFMA reference was about the death of a journalist with clues pointing to some elements in the establishment, Mr Sharif urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the killing, pledging that he and his party would stand with the journalist community “till the killers are brought to book”. Given that a campaign is on to muffle the public protest against the killing of Saleem Shahzad, the PML-N leader has spoken out at the right time and in defence of an aspect of democracy that has gone missing in Pakistan.

The positive side of the PML-N policy is its steady adherence to the strategy of normalising relations with India as a corollary of its stance on Pakistan’s status as a nuclear power. The unspoken rule in nuclear theory and practice is that after having achieved nuclear deterrence, two rival states must achieve agreement on status quo. Mr Sharif’s reference to Kargil was actually aimed at conveying the fact that the Pakistan Army was wrong to pursue conflict — overt or covert — after the 1998 nuclear testing by Pakistan when he was prime minister.

Stemming from the PML-N’s adherence to the 2006 Charter of Democracy signed with the PPP, its policy plank of seeing with India goes against the continuing India-centrism of the GHQ, abhorred by the international community and diagnosed by it as the root of the strategic mismatch in the war against terrorism. This is also the fatal bedrock on which the GHQ is isolating Pakistan in the world, confirming the impression that some elements with the Pakistani state are interfacing with al Qaeda instead of fighting it.

This is not the first time that Mr Sharif has expressed his determination to continue his post-1998 policy with India. His repeating it on June 10 points to the dynamic nature of his thinking often identified by his opponents with policy contradiction. The effort to remove Pakistan from the rut of isolationism apparently contradicts his party’s position that the war against terrorism is not Pakistan’s war. If the PML-N wants the GHQ to relent on India and thus ensure Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence, it will have to own this war — the journalist Mr Sharif came to SAFMA to defend died saying Pakistan was wrong in not owning this war. As the PML-N policy stands today, it persuades one to focus on the various unexamined aspects of its relationship with the army. When it says the war against terrorism is not our war, it is getting cosy with the elements in the armed forces sympathetic to the cause of the extremists willing to interface with al Qaeda. Less directly, its rather strident expression of anti-Americanism also allows it to retain its influence within the rank and file of the army. Since Mr Sharif has criticised the current military leadership rather than the institution itself, one must understand PML-N’s anti-Americanism as a less permanent part of its domestic rivalry with the PPP with whom it expects to contest the next elections.

Mr Nawaz Sharif knows that his right-wing party has more traction within a Punjabi-dominated army than the PPP. Everyone else knows that only his party can achieve normalisation with India to clinch the war against terrorism. The world outside is also realising this.

Budgets in Punjab and Sindh

June 12th, 2011

The controversy over whether a Christian member of the provincial assembly would be able to present Punjab’s provincial budget thankfully passed with good sense finally prevailing. On June 10, a budget with an outlay of Rs654 billion was presented by Punjab Finance Minister Kamran Michael. Several features presented in the 2011-12 budget seem to be populist in nature, in particular schemes regarding the establishment of so-called ‘danish’ schools in 15 districts of the province, mobile hospitals and the re-introduction of the yellow cab scheme. The figures table before the provincial assembly indicate an external debt amount of over four trillion rupees and the planned subsidies for 2011-12 will perhaps increase this amount, despite the fact that the chief minister has said that he plans to refuse any foreign aid for the province henceforth. An allocation of five billion rupees to provide free medicines at government hospitals is well-intentioned but we hope that it will not be squandered given that most such facilities usually ask patients to pay for any medicine, with the subsidised ones making their way to the open market, thanks to corrupt hospital staff. Similarly, the police have been given a hefty Rs50 billion but the force remains among the most corrupt and ill-trained of any government department, so again one cannot say that it is money well-spent.

As for Sindh, whose budget was also presented the same day by Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah, the aftermath of the 2010 floods has taken centre-stage. In announcing a budget for 2011-12 of Rs457.5 billion, the minister said that taking care of flood victims would be among the government’s top priorities. Again, well-intentioned words but the fact of the matter is that there is not much to show on this matter during the fiscal year that is about to end. Perhaps, a comprehensive survey needs to be conducted to ascertain the efficacy of government spending on rehabilitation of flood victims so far, so that any gaps and/or neglected areas can be given prompt attention. The issue of who will collect the sales tax is an important one. Ideally, it should be the provinces, because it allows them greater fiscal autonomy. One hopes that the centre will agree to Sindh’s request in this regard.

__________________
Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Karzai visit

June 13th, 2011

The 23-point Islamabad Declaration signed by Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai may hint at better relations between the two traditionally hostile states. And, in fact, there are a few signs of improvement, particularly on the economic front, as the two countries pledged to increase trade and cooperation in the minerals and mines sectors. But for the most the declaration provides a temporary sheen to a relationship that at best seems to be chequered. Vague statements were made to clamp down on the cross-border travels of militants and come to the negotiating table with the Taliban in Afghanistan but any agreement reached on these matters is likely to be best lukewarm.

It is hard to get past the fact that the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship faces hurdles that are unlikely to be cleared. Take for instance negotiating with the Taliban. For Mr Karzai, talks are a must. The writ of his government barely stretches outside Kabul and the US troops that have been propping him up will soon begin withdrawing. At this point, all the Afghan Taliban has to do is bide their time and make a takeover attempt as soon as the Americans are gone. If he wants to continue ruling Afghanistan he has to make a deal with the Taliban. For Pakistan the situation is a little different. Militants control swathes of the tribal areas and are able to strike in the cities at any point but are in no position to overthrow the government. For Mr Zardari, fighting militants is the way to go.

The issue of India, too, will always hamper relations between the two countries. Afghanistan has always been wary of Pakistan’s meddling – and rightly so. Our attitude towards Afghanistan has been determined solely by our fear of India and ruled by fanciful concepts such as ‘strategic depth’. We deny the presence of the Quetta Shura but admit the presence of the Haqqani network. Perhaps the recent military statement that Pakistani soil shouldn’t be used by foreigners for terrorist actions may bring about a change on this issue, but even if it does not, we should understand that our policies push Afghanistan into India’s lap. Seen in a void, the Islamabad Declaration will lead to greater co-operation and seemingly improved relations but these problems will always be lurking in the background.

A culture of impunity

June 13th, 2011

If ever there was an open-and-shut case where the identities of the perpetrators are known, it is the killing of Sarfaraz Shah. The Rangers’ personnel who shot him and the colleagues who were egging him on were caught on video. That the Supreme Court has now taken suo motu notice of the case is a positive development. This shows that the judiciary has the courage to take on even the dreaded paramilitary force. The same unfortunately can’t be said for the Sindh government which, while expressing its condolences to the family, still seems intent on defending the Rangers. So long as they do not have support from all organs of the government, it is unlikely that Shah’s family will get the justice they deserve.

Already, the brave cameraman who took the video that exposed the Rangers’ brutality has been receiving death threats. These, too, need to be investigated and the parties responsible hauled up before the courts. Shah’s family has fled Karachi and is in Islamabad seeking justice. Their efforts must not go in vain and their lives should not be threatened. As we saw in the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, when those with power seek to silence someone, they usually succeed. Shahzad’s family has been unable to register a case against his kidnapping and murder and they, too, feel under threat. This depressing exercise should not repeat itself with Shah’s family.

The director general of the Rangers, Ajaz Chaudhry, vowed that those involved in the murder of Shah would be severely punished. However, he immediately undercut his words by ordering an internal enquiry that will be conducted by a brigadier and two lieutenant colonels. This is a recipe for a whitewash. Expecting army men to hold a transparent enquiry when the accused are paramilitary officials is absurd. Above all, the scope of the enquiry should go beyond just the killing of Sarfaraz Shah. The culture of impunity that governs Rangers’ conduct needs to be examined and remedied.

A good first step

June 13th, 2011

Pakistan on June 9 ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It must be recalled at this point that Islamabad ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990.

The ratification of the Optional Protocol is a step in the right direction, and must be commended. However, it must be pointed out that despite Pakistan’s initial support for a similar treaty, child abuse is still rampant across the country, as highlighted last year by the reported abuse and death of a 12-year-old female maid, at the hands of her employer, a lawyer. Sexual abuse of children is also a major problem, especially in the poorer circles, cases of which are rarely recorded, with one of the impediments being that most of the children targeted are already in vulnerable positions — perhaps already working for a living — while another is the cultural taboo attached to the issue. Moreover, a common sight is that of child beggars, young children who are never taught any better, with some of them badly disabled. Such children are also vulnerable to child prostitution and pornography.

Therefore, it would seem that when it comes to such treaties, the government is quick to ratify them, but their implementation may never happen. This is not to in any way take away from the major step by this government of signing this treaty, but now it must ensure that its requirements are put in place. One of the first steps should be to bring together the few individual efforts being made to better the situation of children, especially with regards to child labour, education, child sexual abuse, and the provision of associated health care and legal help in putting away the perpetrator of the crime. Another, and perhaps the most crucial step, is to bring awareness to the society on this issue, through the sustained efforts of the government, media and civil society.

__________________
Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Intelligence matters

June 14th, 2011

CIA Director Leon Panetta’s brief visit to Pakistan follows a sharp downturn in relations between Pakistan and the US since the Raymond Davis saga and the US raid which killed Osama bin Laden. Panetta only met Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI head Ahmed Shuja Pasha during his sudden, unscheduled trip, and it appears he swiftly left after being unable to secure any improvements in the troubled relationship. Panetta, unlike during past visits, did not pay even courtesy calls to the president and prime minister. He seems to have realised and is making it clear to all observers that the military is the true power in the country. And it is the military that is taking an increasingly hard line against the US, demanding the removal of all American military forces and CIA agents. Reports indicate that the military has also refused offers of joint operations by the two countries to kill ‘high-value’ militants.

As troubling as the fracture in the relationship is, what is even more disturbing is further evidence of possible Pakistani duplicity in the war against militancy. A few weeks ago, the CIA provided Pakistan with satellite imagery of two bomb-making facilities in North Waziristan that were supplying weaponry to the Afghan Taliban. When the Pakistan Army invaded the facility, it turned out that all the militants had mysteriously vanished. The CIA believes that the militants were tipped off by elements in the military. Although the proof may be circumstantial, it does deepen the mistrust between the two sides and will lead to greater pressure on Pakistan to launch a massive operation in North Waziristan.

Before relations with the US, who it should not be forgotten provide us the aid that keeps us financially afloat, deteriorate any further, the army has to decide whose side it’s on. It can no longer make distinctions between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban, fighting the latter while ignoring the presence of the former. In protesting our violating sovereignty, we never seem to notice that the Afghan Taliban are also operating with impunity in a foreign country. It is their disregard for our sovereignty that we need to fight.

Kharotabad victims

June 14th, 2011

We may never know exactly what happened at Kharotabad but it is already quite clear that the official version of events was so distorted that it bore no relation to reality. The original story, that five foreigners were killed because they were potential suicide bombers, has now been thoroughly dismantled. The latest piece of evidence comes from a key witness of the government version, the driver who was accompanying the foreigners. He had earlier told the tribunal investigating the matter that the foreigners were armed. He now says he had been threatened by the police into saying that.

This is only the latest piece of proof to show that the police have played fast and loose with the truth. The statements of other eye witnesses have been conflicting, while the bomb-disposal squad and post-mortem reports on the bodies of the foreigners show that they were not carrying explosives or wearing suicide vests, which has nullified the claim that they were suicide bombers and needed to be killed immediately. Even more bizarrely, the superintendent of police, the senior-most police official at the scene, told the tribunal that he could not identify which policemen were the shooters since his eyesight was too weak. The Balochistan Assembly speaker has already promised that the perpetrators of the shooting and cover-up will be punished once the tribunal completes its investigation. And it is to the credit of the tribunal that it has not shied away from the truth, even when it casts the police in a very unflattering light. The inquiry into the Kharotabad incident looks to be one of the few occasions where public malfeasance is actually acknowledged and punished. This is a victory in itself but we need to aim higher. Such inquiries need to become the norm. The brutal murder of Sarfaraz Shah by Rangers’ personnel needs to be pursued equally vigorously. And justice in such cases needs to go beyond punishment and include reform.

Keeping prices in check

June 14th, 2011

Of the innumerable economic problems Pakistan is currently facing, by far the most pressing may be double-digit inflation. Latest figures show a rise in prices of over 13 per cent in May, as compared to the same period last year. Inflation can be acceptable, even necessary, when it is accompanied by equal or greater economic growth. That, however, is not the case in Pakistan, where economic growth remains sluggish. What we are experiencing is an extreme case of stagflation, one that requires austerity to get through. The first thing the government needs to do is reduce inflation by reducing central bank financing. Since the PPP-led government came into power, it has relied on borrowing from the central bank, which in turn prints more money. The last figures available, for July 2010-January 2011, show that the government borrowed Rs120 billion from the central bank and a further Rs217 billion from private banks. The only way to reduce this borrowing is by tightening the federal budget and reducing the deficit. The government also needs to replace borrowing with increased revenue, in the form of better tax collection.

There is a danger, however, that the government will try to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, who are already hardest hit by spiralling inflation. Cutting welfare programmes, as the government is seeking to do with the Benazir Income Support Programme, will only further shift the burden towards the poor. Already, thanks to IMF dictates, subsidies for food and power have been slashed. Instead, the government should offer targeted incentives to the agricultural sector to ensure a steady supply of food. Equally importantly, there needs to be an end to power breakdowns so that industry can work to its full potential. Electricity prices are skyrocketing but they are not being matched with constant supply. Any chances of economic recovery are being hampered by the law and order situation and the costs associated with flood relief. Loadshedding that lasts longer than even 10 hours a day is a further impediment.

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Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Of khaki and mufti

June 15th, 2011

Islamabad has quietly witnessed another extremely important meeting — for the first time at such a level — between the entire top brass of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the prime minister and president, representing the civilian setup of the country. According to reports, the meeting was attended by the military leadership comprising Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Khalid Shameem Wynne, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman and Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Syed Athar Ali.

Since the one-line official statement about the meeting revealed nothing, the media excusably went on a guessing spree, starting with a civil-military resolve ‘not to make any compromise on national security matters’. This was followed by other obvious topics: Better coordination between civilian and military institutions, the Abbottabad probe commission, investigations regarding the terrorist attack on the Mehran base and the new wave of terrorist attacks. Unofficial sources added more spice by saying: “The civilian and military leadership resolved to launch an operation against the terrorists to stem the new wave of attacks and decided not to accept any external pressure.”

The meeting took place at the Presidency, thus highlighting a dialogue between party and government on the one hand and the Pakistan military high command on the other. The ultimate guess, given the general reading into the recent American visits to Islamabad, was that the military wanted to reaffirm the ‘national consensus’ on not operating against the terrorists in North Waziristan on the bidding of the US. Earlier, a separate statement from the meeting of the corps commanders had already pointed to the said consensus by reiterating the army’s resolve to go into North Waziristan at a time of its own choosing and opposing the operation of US drones in the area. What was the need to go through the same exercise again?

The meeting was attended by chiefs of all the arms of the military, including the naval chief, who has come under particular pressure after the al Qaeda attack on PNS Mehran in Karachi. The meeting also featured the air chief, who had reportedly offered to counter the drones operating in Pakistani territory with an air force response. General Wynne — who has been taking the current US-Pakistan flurry of contradictions in his stride — was there too. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have already endorsed the ‘charter’ of ‘reassessing relations with the US’ awarded to the Pakistan Army by a unanimous resolution of a joint session of the parliament. What more could they have told the top brass except that they oppose the US policy in the region and are against the US-proposed operation in North Waziristan?

It is difficult to say what exactly transpired but other possible topics are: A discussion of the anti-army statements issuing from all quarters in the political community and the media. The top brass could have gone through the contents of the recent high-level meetings with the Americans which have not gone well, including the one with CIA Director Leon Panetta where, according to Time Magazine, Mr Panetta accused Pakistan of colluding with pro-Afghan Taliban militants in the tribal areas. The military leadership may have pointed to other ‘irregularities’, such as a recent statement by a Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa minister that Pakistan alone can’t fight the terrorists and that it must act together with the US to defeat them. Next year, the Americans are going to start leaving Afghanistan. Unlike Pakistan, where policy is stuck obsessively on India, Washington is going to change tack and show flexibility, which some have already called defeat; but it may pan out negatively for Pakistan even if Islamabad and Kabul move closer and Pakistan can retain some semblance of leverage or control over the Afghan Taliban under Mullah Omar. It is from the inside that Pakistan is getting defeated through al Qaeda’s terrorism. From Nek Muhammad to Baitullah Mehsud and Ilyas Kashmiri, Pakistan has been able to tackle its tormentors only with America’s help. Hence, a break with the US might go in favour of al Qaeda’s plans to impose a ‘nuclearised’ theocracy on Pakistan.

Karachi’s electricity problem

June 15th, 2011

The tussle between the management of the KESC and its employee unions is now well into its second month and, rather than agreeing to compromise, the two sides are becoming more inflexible, ensuring that residents of Karachi face a cruel summer. The KESC management has now declared that it will stop all its operations, which would likely include both electricity generation and repairs and could plunge the city into a permanent blackout. This latest gambit by the management is unlikely to get it any sympathy in the court of public opinion and will serve only to prolong the misery of electricity consumers.

It is worth recalling how the union-management standoff began. The KESC was running massive losses and the management decided it needed to downsize the bloated staff in order to make the company profitable. The unions, naturally, opposed the move. But rather than protest peacefully, they went on strike, refusing to carry out repair work and physically manhandling those who did. This thugishness has made compromise impossible and the management, too, has now decided to act petulantly. The government, both local and federal, has tried to mediate but their motivations need to be questioned. The unions usually have political backing behind them, allowing them to operate with impunity, while there are some politicians who see this mess as a golden opportunity to re-nationalise KESC. Amidst all these vested interests, the plight of Karachi’s residents has been ignored.

All parties involved need to act with some maturity. The unions need to agree to come to the negotiating table in good faith. This means a promise that they will not attack KESC installations. The government needs to be an honest broker and provide, as they had earlier promised, security at KESC buildings. Moreover, the management needs to get the company operating more efficiently. The KESC may be a private, for-profit company but it also exists to provide a vital service to the city. Any agreement that is hashed out must keep the needs of Karachi’s citizens as a priority. That means an uninterrupted supply of electricity during the summer months, no matter how it is achieved.

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Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Violence in Karachi

June 16th, 2011

The group clashes that started in Karachi on June 12 have taken 24 lives and the carnage is going on at the time of writing. It is a terrible déjà vu with additional frills, like the laid-off KESC employees using scorched earth tactics to get what they want, students killing each other at a university and the shooting of an innocent citizen by security personnel caught on camera. If the criminals were killing each other like the drug mafias in the United States of yore, one would take dubious satisfaction from the mayhem, but it is citizens getting killed at the hands of thugs who shoot to kill indiscriminately.

Opposed groups in Orangi are simply not giving up, despite a period of lull, and their war has spread to other settlements like Banaras, Qasba and Aligarh. The killing rage has spread through Karachi and peace is now described not as absence of violence but as low level of violence. After four years of a ruling coalition in Karachi, it is no longer unreasonable to conclude that politicians are involved in this killing spree: Some are directly involved and represent an interface with the underworld, others staying on the fringes are unwilling to stop what is going on because it has become a part of the political dynamic or because they simply can’t stop something that has become too big to stop.

On June 14, the ANP and MQM condemned the renewed wave of killings in the city and agreed to work together to prevent such incidents and weed out criminals who were causing a breakdown of law and order. This pantomime was organised by the Sindh governor, after both parties had predictably blamed each other for the latest bloodshed. No one in Karachi and rest of the country believed a word of what was said at the meeting. The two sides agreed that those involved in the killings had no political support. The MQM also piously staged a token walkout from the Sindh Assembly to look as if it meant business this time.

Everybody is practicing violence now and conspiracy theorists have run out of scenarios in which terrorists with sophisticated weapons and training are killing Pakistanis at the behest of the US, Israel and India, because Washington is after our blessed nuclear weapons. (This was the scenario given after the PNS Mehran attack). Enraged students of a ‘student wing’ attacked and vandalised a private hospital. Our educational institutions are hardly the safe places they were supposed to be in the past and remain closed after student violence. The result of this closure will come in the shape of more personal savagery in the years to come. The rest of the country is not yet violent the way Karachi is, yet some cities living under the shadow of al Qaeda look somewhat like Karachi. Criminal authority there is single and not a brawling trio.

In truth, Karachi is the shape of future Pakistan as it comes apart at the seams. The fundamental characteristic of a state is its ability to ensure security of property. Political scientists say the state came into being because of the human need to secure ownership of property. In Karachi, land grab mafias, with links to the city’s three ruling parties, are rapidly pulling this crucial plank from under the megacity known in the past for being the best example of civic virtue. Crime and greed for illicit funds has overcome the ideology of the three, all of them secular-liberal in their thinking and therefore the best bet against the creeping ‘takfeeri caliphate’ of al Qaeda. Because of the internecine nature of Karachi politics, al Qaeda is getting stronger in Karachi despite the city’s relatively more cosmopolitan worldview.

Osama bin Laden probably made a mistake hiding in Abbottabad. He could have come and presided over the chaos of Karachi without ever being found out, given the city’s various pockets where sympathy runs high for extremists.

Crying out for justice

June 16th, 2011

Recently, a news report in this paper revealed that a middle-aged woman in Haripur was dragged from her house, assaulted, stripped naked and paraded through the streets of her village, with the blessing of a local jirga, after her son was accused of raping a woman. The woman claims she is traumatised not just by the event but also by the apathy of her community, from which no one came to help. While the apathy is shocking, on reflection it’s also understandable given the prevalence of violence against women in the country, and the fact that while for most women in the village, the act was probably justified, expected even, others feared being meted the same treatment.

This is also because the concept of a woman as a symbol of society’s honour, has made her even more vulnerable, with women being raped or paraded naked if someone influential is angry at their father, brother or son. Meanwhile, after such crimes are committed, more often than not, recourse through the law is not an option. Even if a woman gets her voice heard, justice may not be served. Take for example the Mukhtaran Mai case, where five of the six accused of gang-raping her were acquitted. Years on and justice has still not been served; she continues to file appeals. Such is the tenacity of the prejudice against women, such is their weakness, that one wonders if justice can ever be done. The mother, humiliated because of something her son allegedly did, can no longer even live in the same community. If she moves, her humiliation will travel with her. It is ironic that precisely that which can be argued to promote out culture, the position that women are accorded in our society as mothers etc, is now being used as a weapon against women. Such is the situation that it’s not just about giving women separate police stations to report such crimes in, it’s about dismantling the entire jirga culture, along with the notion of society’s honour being linked to their women. It’s about educating the new generation with a fresh perspective, so that no notion of taking revenge by punishing innocent women remains.

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Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

Journalists under threat

June 17th, 2011

The ‘dharna’ by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in Islamabad demanding adequate inquiry into the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad has finally forced the government to take the promised inquiry commission to the level of the Supreme Court. The refusal of journalists to accept a probe at any level less than that of the Supreme Court indicated the determination of the profession to get to the bottom of a series of acts of violence against journalists of late. Investigation of the death of Saleem Shahzad — he had already indicated to a press organisation and a human rights body that an intelligence agency had given him threats — by a judge of the Supreme Court will go beyond just the usual ‘damage control’ devices applied by cornered governments.

Violence has crept into all sections of society — students attacked the press club in Multan and killed an innocent citizen — but the beginning has been provided by the war against terrorism in which both sides of the conflict have sought to suppress what they thought was adverse coverage. It is unfortunate that while terrorists have punished those who revealed their atrocities, the state, too, has killed to hide its derelictions. Journalists reporting from the tribal areas have faced this two-pronged danger and many have died because it was humanly impossible for them to abide by the diktat of the two sides at once. Pakistan is today in the front row of countries where journalists lose their lives or are thrashed mercilessly. Law-enforcement and intelligence agencies have been accused of picking up people and of using intimidatory methods against them. In the case of Sarfaraz Shah, his brutal and merciless murder by Rangers personnel was caught on tape and seen by many a shocked and angered Pakistani. All this must come to an end and the appointment of a Supreme Court judge as chairman of the inquiry commission on the gruesome murder of Saleem Shahzad is expected to contribute to the righting of a wrong being endured by the people.

The protest launched by the PFUJ has achieved an initial success by forcing the government to take the death of Saleem Shahzad seriously. What the PFUJ might achieve further is the ‘alternative’ narrative that Shahzad honestly contributed to the ‘official version’ about the origin and spread of terrorist activities in Pakistan. His steady stream of on-the-spot reporting, interviews with al Qaeda leaders, and his book Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 will challenge the integrity of the inquiry commission and will persuade it to take another look at the ‘infection’ of al Qaeda within the establishment and, above all, the affair of Lal Masjid, which the judiciary has not been able to comprehend so far. The following insights mentioned in Shahzad’s book will give Pakistan the opportunity of self-correction that it direly needs:

1) It is al Qaeda rather than the Taliban who plan militant attacks in Pakistan and the Taliban execute no operations without the former’s permission; 2) jihadi organisations are subservient to al Qaeda; 3) the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan was shaped by al Qaeda through Uzbek warlord Tahir Yuldashev after the 2007 Lal Masjid affair; 4) ‘retired’ army officers, earlier handling proxy jihad, defected to al Qaeda but continued to use their personal contacts with elements in the armed forces; 5) Benazir Bhutto was killed by al Qaeda and not Baitullah Mehsud; he was merely an instrument; 6) the Mumbai attack was carried out by al Qaeda through former military officers and with help from the Lashkar-e-Taiba without the knowledge of the ISI; 7) freedom fighters trained by the military for the jihad in Kashmir have spearheaded al Qaeda’s war against the armed forces; 8) Islamic radicalisation of Pakistani society and media, mixed with fear of being assassinated by al Qaeda agents — which include former military officers — have tilted the balance of power away from the state of Pakistan to al Qaeda; and 9) the so-called ‘Punjabi Taliban’ operate under the Haqqani network, which, as accusations go, is given sanctuary by the establishment.

Plight of Pakistani women

June 17th, 2011

A recently published global survey that lists Pakistan as the third-worst country in the world for women should awaken us to the reality that we are systematically neglecting the rights of about half of this country’s population. According to a survey compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Pakistan is ranked third on the basis of “cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women.” Other countries that made the top five were Afghanistan, which took the top slot, The Democratic Republic of Congo, India and Somalia.

But what does this mean exactly? The survey rightly points out that Pakistan is not on the list merely because of its high rate of physical violence against women — it makes the list because “basic human rights are systematically denied to women.” This becomes evident from a merely cursory perusal of local media. The most recent example of horrific human rights abuse was brought to light on June 14, when the media reported that Shaheen, a woman from Neelor Bala village in the Punjab, was beaten, stripped and paraded naked in public on the orders of a tribal jirga — to avenge a rape her son allegedly committed. These practices leave no room for a woman to be viewed as anything but chattel. Not only are women exposed to these barbaric acts and perverse ‘judgements’ on an almost daily basis in Pakistan, they are also losing hope in their right to appeal to any higher authority.

Mukhtaran Mai, who saw all but one of the men who allegedly raped her in 2004 acquitted by the Supreme Court recently, is a prime example of how justice is denied to women. Her case bounced around the courts for years, delayed by inefficient documentation and pressure from local influentials. Though she had in the past expressed optimism about her case, she now says she does not associate hope with the courts anymore.

Rhetoric and political statements will not change the status of women in Pakistan. Only careful revision of existing laws and procedures and their strict enforcement will help safeguard women — and even then, we will still be left with cultural biases to overcome.

__________________
Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga