Born to die

January 9th, 2012

According to the Edhi Foundation, the extent of infanticide in the country has grown by some 100 percent over the last decade. A spokesperson for the organisation has been quoted as saying that more bodies were being found in the streets in urban centres than ever before. Most of the tiny corpses belong to girls, considered an economic burden by many families. We can only wonder at the impact of religion at such moments, and wonder why the clerics so rarely bring up the teachings of Islam against female infanticide. The ministry of religious affairs should be working to have the message driven home from every mosque. A situation in which over 1,200 bodies of slain infants were found in a single year is after all not one to be disregarded.

It is believed that some of the infants, who are killed within a few hours of being born, are illegitimate; many others die simply because their parents are too poor to raise them. It is this that explains the fact that more girls than boys are murdered. After all, the number born out of wedlock is likely to include an equal number of male and female infants. There is also a question here of mindset. In the 400 cradles placed outside its centres by the Edhi Foundation, only some 200 babies are left each year. People evidently prefer to murder their children — rather than give them a future, and allow adoption by, say, a childless couple.

Such thinking is hard to understand — but it says something about how brutal we have become as a society. Nothing seems to move us any longer. It take immense hardness of heart — or perhaps sheer desperation — to kill a helpless child. Since poverty appears to be a root cause, this too needs to be addressed. We also need to look at the reasons behind our failure to promote family planning, allowing people to limit the burdens they face and perhaps saving the lives of infants who die even as they are born, ending up on garbage dumps or open plots of land.

An arrest in Turkey

January 9th, 2012

Imagine if every time a former military man in Pakistan accused the elected government of corruption and incompetence, the civilians could just haul him off to jail. Obviously, this would justifiably be seen as a gross abuse of power but it would represent a stunning turnaround in the balance of power between the military and civilians. Yet, this is almost exactly analogous to what is happening in Turkey. The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrested former army chief General Ilker Basbug for plotting to overthrow the government, although the evidence for this charge seems sketchy since he appears to have done little else but write scathing articles against the government on the internet.

As refreshing as it is to see the civilians reclaiming political space from the military, Erdogan is an imperfect vehicle for this transformation. His actions are inspired as much by religion as a desire to establish civilian supremacy. In his quest to root out anti-government figures, Erdogan has also arrested academics, journalists and other civilian politicians. The idea of the army being the final arbiter in Turkish politics has always been profoundly anti-democratic, but in diminishing its power, the end result could be a reduced role of secularism in the country, an eventuality that certainly not its founder, Mustafa Kemal, would have envisioned. That he is doing so on the basis of flimsy evidence is even worse. So far, it seems that Basbug is guilty of nothing more than exercising his right to criticise the government.

Even though Erdogan seems to be going too far, there is no doubt that the military in Turkey needed to be brought down a peg or two. In the last 50 years, the Turkish army has brought down four governments and, although the army has never shown the same appetite for indefinite rule in Turkey as its counterparts in Pakistan, it is to Erdogan’s credit that he is trying to forestall such an eventuality from arising. Fears about Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party bringing about Sharia law in the country by taking on the army are overblown but he needs to reduce their political role in a lawful manner. Erdogan promised to introduce a new constitution that would do just that but, regrettably, he is now taking the path of mass arrests.

Songs of death

January 9th, 2012

The changing reality of life in many parts of this country, especially in the conflict-ridden zones, is such that it is having an impact on even

things like the kind of music people are listening to. The manner in which this has begun to change is in itself reflective of the kind of society we have mutated into. According to a recent report, in Peshawar popular singers, such as Gulzar Alam, have begun singing once again. Even this is a step forward given that the Taliban had, in many areas, banned all forms of music, dance and much other entertainment. In Peshawar, too, CD shops were burnt to the ground and many folk musicians left the city. They have only now begun to return. But the lyrical content of what Gulzar sings has changed dramatically. His songs speak of the blood spilled in his home city and of the horrors people live with on a day-to-day basis. It is these thoughts that today occupy minds rather than ideas of romance, love and happiness. Others in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been following the same trend and it has spread wider. One of the country’s best known singers, Ali Azmat, recorded a song some months ago called ‘Bomb Phatta’. This too is the reality with which people everywhere live.

The music of our times reflects the kind of lives we lead. The omens are rather disturbing. We need to find a way to return to a normal existence, one in which people can proceed with the tasks of life without facing constant peril. The fact also is that music and other means of entertainment sink deep into minds. They leave a lasting impression. We have then, today, a generation growing up with images of violence that is a part of the popular music that they hear. This has become something they live with. How long can things continue in this vein and will a time ever come when singers are able to perform without fear and their songs speak of joy rather than death.

The president’s interview

January 10th, 2012

Opinion in Pakistan is so polarised that it is difficult to get a consensus that President Asif Ali Zardari’s interview, aired over the weekend, was a good one. Yet, compared to how his peers in politics would hold up in a long interview, it was a surprisingly good performance marked with good humour and persuasive arguments. It dissipated the impression created by the media after his recent illness and trip to Dubai that he had broken down under the stress of the memogate affair. The big giveaway, the body language, was flawless.

He said no one had asked him to resign, meaning that there was no stand-off with the army, which can be taken with a pinch of salt given the affidavit of the army chief at the Supreme Court. He said he knew that the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had got Benazir Bhutto killed through his men but he was on the scent of who was behind Mehsud. He tried to stop Ms Bhutto from coming to Pakistan in 2007 but she did not listen, he said, and her going to the venue in Rawalpindi where she was killed was made possible by a female member of the party who insisted that Ms Bhutto expose herself through the vehicle’s sun roof at the rally. The clear reference to the unnamed female member — the now-rebel Naheed Khan — was important because it put on record his answer to the opposition charge that he and his cohorts in the party (like interior minister Rehman Malik and now party vice-president Babar Awan) were somehow involved in the assassination. But it also put on record Mr Zardari’s anxiety over the rebel Naheed Khan-Safdar Abbasi duo within the party that may threaten to damage the PPP in its next electoral test after four disastrous years in office. Mr Zardari’s explanation of his much-maligned article in the Washington Post after the death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, once again clarified that he was in no way privy to the American plot to attack Abbottabad. One must say that the expression in the article of modest joy over the death of bin Laden was completely justified. It is tragic that most Pakistanis forgot that the man was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent Pakistani citizens.

The interview contained an important message meant for the Supreme Court which has asked the government for the last time to write a letter to a Swiss court to restart a case of money-laundering against the president. He said that reopening the case would be like a “trial over Benazir Bhutto’s grave”. Of course, the honourable Court doesn’t see the case like that, nor does the opposition and a whole range of politicians who want Mr Zardari to lose his job and go to jail once again. But more clearly the cabinet of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has resolved not to write the letter, thus bringing forward the highly politicised final showdown between the judiciary and the executive. Of course, his denial of a clash with the judiciary was forgivably disingenuous. But his defence of the former minister for religious affairs now languishing in jail for involvement in the gouging of funds set aside for the annual hajj was out of place. Furthermore, his refusal to accept that the railways, PIA and other key public sector organisations are on the brink of collapse only reinforces the public perception that the government is out of touch with reality. His reference to former foreign minister Mr Shah Mehmood Qureshi was apt, as the latter was quite unthinking in saying at a public rally recently that he could “swear that Pakistan’s nuclear programme was not safe in the hands of Zardari”. It will take a long time for a Pakistani elected leader to get near enough to the nuclear programme to influence it. Also, criticism over the way in which the Benazir Income Support Programme is going to be used by the party to garner votes in the next election is not entirely out of place. That all said, President Zardari came across as a party leader with whom one could do business under the Aristotelian slogan of politics as the art of the possible.

An unimpressive rally

January 10th, 2012

For the umpteenth time since he was forced out of power and had to flee the country, Pervez Musharraf vowed that he would be back, this time within the month. Given that he would likely be arrested and put on trial for a host of alleged crimes, from the killing of Akbar Bugti to the Lal Masjid operation, his words should be taken with a very large helping of salt. Even though he is safely ensconsed in London and Dubai, Mr Musharraf decided to hold a rally in Karachi in response to the mega-rallies Imran Khan has been organising throughout the country. The turnout was anaemic, with between six and ten thousand people in attendance, quite a few of whom had left before the former president’s live video speech, leading many to speculate that the All Pakistan Muslim League had perhaps rented much of the crowd.

What Musharraf had to say wasn’t any more inspiring. Taking inspiration from Imran Khan’s tsunami, he described his rally as an “earthquake”, perhaps not the wisest word choice by a person whose government was so roundly criticised for its handling of the 2005 earthquake. In fact, the only point of Musharraf’s rally seemed to be taking shots at Imran Khan. He even co-opted the PTI chief’s use of cricket metaphors, saying that he had already scored a century in politics while others hadn’t even had a chance to bat yet.

But Musharraf spent much of his speech defending the indefensible: his record as dictator. The man, in whose regime Akbar Bugti was killed, claimed to have done more for the province than anyone else. The ruler who made peace deals with the Taliban which failed before the ink on them had dried and was unable to control extremism, somehow managed to place the blame for that on the current set-up. The president who encouraged the import of luxury consumer goods now blamed the PPP government for being in the clutches of the IMF after being the one who spent more than we could afford. It seems Musharraf is not content at the opportunity he has got to live out his retirement in peaceful obscurity rather than in a jail cell. But as today’s rally showed, no matter how much he might think otherwise, his political party is devoid of both ideas and supporters.

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

High noon

January 11th, 2012

Once again, the civil-military crisis is upon us; and a government feels it is about to be ousted prematurely from power. The stage is set for it: the Supreme Court finds the government ultra vires of the law as constitutionally interpreted by it and has now said that it may, “to restore the delicately posed constitutional balance in accord with the norms of constitutional democracy”, take appropriate action and that such action it proposes may be “quite unpleasant”.

A 12-page order dated January 10 in a criminal appeal filed by Adnan A Khawaja reads like a damning indictment of the PPP-led government and the inability of it and its various organs and officers in defying the apex court’s verdict in various cases, especially the one relating to the NRO. A close reading of this order would convince most members of the PPP-led government that the time is not far when there will be some major change in the country’s current political structure and that the government’s refusal to implement the NRO may be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. At this point, questions may be asked — in all fairness — that how come the person in charge of the country at that time, a former army chief who usurped power and abrogated the Constitution after overthrowing a democratically-elected prime minister, is not being held to the same test. And why haven’t military dictators who have done far worse, been held to the same standard? Given the situation at present, one is not sure if any answers to these questions will be forthcoming from any quarter, but that doesn’t make them any less relevant.

The order lays out six options before the Supreme Court and the attorney-general has been asked to obtain replies of the president and the prime minister on these. One of the options, ominously, is that the president, prime minister and the law minister could all be disqualified from holding public office if they persist in refusing to implement the NRO verdict, which also requires, among other things, the federal government to write to a court in Switzerland and re-open cases of alleged corruption against President Asif Ali Zardari. The basis for this possibility is Article 5 and the order noted that the president and the prime minister, it appeared, seemed to be loyal not to the state but to a “political party” [Aristotle and a former judge of the US Supreme Court, Justice Louis Brandeis, are quoted at this point to indicate what happens when those in government break the law themselves]. The president, as well as the government, has already indicated that the holder of the post is provided immunity by the Constitution to which Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had responded that if the president believes that he has immunity, he needs to claim it before the court. This comes a day after the state-owned APP news agency released remarks made by the prime minister to the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily Online where he said that the army chief and the ISI head had not been given approval by the ‘competent authorities’ before submitting their responses in the memogate case.

As far as the non-implementation of the NRO verdict is concerned, clearly the government should have made more of an effort to at least attempt to investigate officials whom the court had said should have been probed for alleged wrongdoing. As a result, the order uses very strong language, calling the current NAB chairman’s reasons for not proceeding with such cases “contemptuous disregard” of the court’s orders on the matter. It has also noted of what it said was the NAB chief’s “willful disobedience” in this regard. It says that “over the last about two years the Federal Government had demonstrated no interested in carrying out some of the directions of this Court”. Another option suggests a possible case of contempt against the prime minister, the federal law minister and the federal law secretary. Yet another option would see the apex court exercising “judicial restraint” and leave the matter for parliament to decide.

Indeed, the next few weeks, or even days, could prove to be very eventful.

A concert gone bad

January 11th, 2012

The tragic and needless deaths of three young girls at musician Atif Aslam’s concert in Lahore should finally lead to long overdue legislation mandating certain safety laws at public events. The venue reportedly had a capacity of 4,000 people but an additional 3,000 people were crammed in. This would be the ideal place to start. For the sake of maximising revenue, organisers cannot be allowed to pack an auditorium with more people than it can reasonably hold. That the stampede took place at a venue which is one of Lahore’s best known is an indication of the low priority given to crowd safety regulations. After a spate of concert deaths in the US, many states required that seating be provided at all indoor and outdoor concerts, and that only as many tickets can be sold as there are seats available. We should emulate that and pass identical legislation.

But the problems in Pakistan go far beyond overcrowding. The power of the land mafia is such that many buildings in the country are deathtraps with the potential to kill only increases when a large group of people congregate in one place. Having emergency exits is essential in case of fires and stampedes, as is the provision of fire extinguishers. Even if emergency exits are available, it is the duty of concert-goers to familiarise themselves with secondary exits. In addition, concert organisers should also have to make provisions for first aid and emergency medical services, not only to treat members of the audience who suffer from dehydration, but to have a response in place should there be a tragedy like the one at this concert. Entry and exit from a concert should also be staggered, so that there isn’t an uncontrollable rush of people in the direction of one exit.

These regulations need to be in place not just for rock concerts but for all public events. Since this seems to be the season of jalsas, it is worth noting that rallies held by political parties also need to come under the rubric of such requirements. As much as political parties love to boast about turnout, and how they filled an area to such an extent that it was overflowing, this should be secondary to the safety of attendees. Not a single death is worth the satisfaction of a large crowd, be it drawn by a politician or a pop singer.

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

Not another coup, please

January 12th, 2012

The military statement released by ISPR on its website on January 11 spoke of many things. One point in particular was jarring. To quote: “Allegiance to State and the Constitution is and will always remain prime consideration for the Respondent, who in this case has followed the book.” — the respondents being the army chief and the head of the ISI, in the memogate case before the Supreme Court. The first question that comes to mind as one reads this is that did the military’s actions in 1958, 1977 and 1999 also reflect an “allegiance to State and the Constitution”. Is not a former army chief on record as having said that the Constitution was a mere piece of paper? Hasn’t Pakistan been ruled for over half of its existence by military dictators and did it come out any better during the time they were in charge? Does not the Constitution clearly state that the military is to be subservient to the elected government and that its constitutional mandate is guard the country’s physical boundaries and to act as directed by the executive organ of the state? Yes, the executive organ may not be performing well on its own front, i.e. of delivering good governance to the electorate, but as per the Constitution, the call is not for any other institution to make, and that the only constitutional recourse to getting rid of a government that does not do well is to conduct an election. The electorate can then decide that government’s future and vote it out.

The ISPR statement also said that the “allegations” against the army chief and the head of the ISI made by the prime minister in his interview to the Chinese People’s Daily Online, and circulated by the state-owned news agency APP, could have “very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the Country”. A plain reading of this would see this as a clear threat to the PPP-led government, that it should fall in line or risk being booted out. No wonder, after the prime minister sacked the defence secretary, for “gross misconduct and illegal action” and after this statement appeared on ISPR’s website, many Pakistanis began to wonder whether a coup was imminent. The fact of the matter is that the prime minister is well within his rights if he wishes to sack the defence secretary, who is one of several federal secretaries serving the government of Pakistan. Though the details of why he has been fired from his job were not made clear, it is assumed that this would have to do with a statement he made some days ago before the Supreme Court in the memogate case where it was said that though the armed forces fell under the defence ministry’s jurisdiction, the ministry had no control over them.

It has to be said that the military’s practice of playing to the gallery by issuing seemingly self-righteous press statements, to assert its independence from the executive, is unfortunate. Such statements were issued to the press in the past as well: to clarify the telephone call that the army chief made to the president when the latter was convalescing recently in Dubai; during the heated debate on the Kerry-Lugar Bill and the clauses contained in it that would have diverted more US aid to Pakistan for civilian needs, and following revelation in a British newspaper that Mansoor Ijaz’s transcripts had suggested that the DG ISI was travelling to Arab states to garner support for a change in the government.

The executive, that is the prime minister, is the elected head of the government and serves at the pleasure of parliament, which in turn means that he serves at the pleasure of the people of Pakistan. This role is not for the military’s to appropriate — or should one use the term ‘usurp’? — to itself, by referring to acting in the national interest. This is to necessarily suggest that an elected civilian government is not in the national interest, certainly not the one which tries to assert itself against the military’s might. One doesn’t like to end editorials, or begin them, with quotes from dead people, but perhaps here it is opportune: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Who killed Saleem Shahzad?

January 12th, 2012

The purpose of government commissions, it seems, is to obfuscate rather than illuminate. They exist not to investigate but to give the impression of hard work. So, it was in the case of the judicial commission investigating the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad. The commission was supposed to find out who was responsible for the killing but in its final report has declined to do so. It was meant to wrap up in six weeks but has ended up taking six months. In the end, all the suspicions everyone had after Mr Shahzad was murdered remain but we are no closer to the truth. The commission has recommended giving Rs3 million in compensation to the dead journalist’s family but it has denied them the opportunity of getting justice.

The investigative process of the commission was flawed from the start. It faced inordinate and unexplainable delays in getting Mr Shahzad’s email and cell phone data, information that may have been crucial in solving his case but which could well have been scrubbed of anything incriminating by the intelligence agencies. When he was murdered, the initial reaction among journalists and human rights groups was to blame the military, since Mr Shahzad’s reporting focused on its alleged ties to militants. Indeed, just two days before he was killed, he had written a story on the infiltration of al Qaeda in the Pakistan Navy. The commission’s inconclusive report will do little to allay those suspicions.

By failing its mandate, the judicial commission has also failed in its task to help out vulnerable journalists. Having seen that a prominent reporter can be killed with no consequences for those involved is sure to have a chilling effect on the profession. Will those who report critically on the military refrain from doing so in the future for fear that they may end up in a ditch somewhere? The commission has also shown Mr Shahzad’s killers, whoever they may be, that they can operate with impunity. Already, Pakistan has been described as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists by Reporters without Frontiers, with 10 journalists having been killed here in the last decade. The failure of the commission may have ended up making it just a little more dangerous.

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

Siachen and water

January 13th, 2012

Our problems sometimes seem insurmountable; we wonder if they can ever be solved and if so, how this will happen. The solutions are out there; we only need to look more carefully and resolve the political issues which make such situations more complex and as a result, harder to solve. The water crisis we face in our country, with less and less pouring down the Indus and causing massive agricultural losses as well as land erosion, notably in Sindh, is a problem we are all familiar with. The other consequences of severe water shortages are also with us and the UN, among other bodies, has made rather frightening predictions that Pakistan will, within a few years be a country desperately short of water, with fewer and fewer unpolluted resources left to meet the drinking water needs of people.

There is no point in sitting back and twiddling our thumbs. The crisis is an acute one. We can only then hope that the prime minister — once he gets past the current crisis — will take a serious look at a letter written to him by the Islamabad-based Sustainable Policy Development Institute. The NGO has quoted experts from India, who at conferences held at various capitals around the world, have made a series of suggestions to improve the volume of water in the Indus. The key suggestion in this regard involves the demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier and also other glacial areas surrounding it. Battles for control of the strategically significant area have been fought intermittently between Pakistan and India since 1984. Experts believe, troop presence hampers water flow downstream into rivers and contributes to the shortage crisis.

A suggestion for the setting up of an Indus Water Commission, involving representatives from both countries, has also been put forward by the experts. These possible measures all need to be considered. The demilitarisation of Siachen would also ease tensions between the two nations and killing several birds with one stone is always a good idea.

Khyber Agency bombing

January 13th, 2012

Any hopes that the new year would usher the conflict-ridden regions of the country into peace have dashed to the ground. The ugly spectre of terrorism unleashed its fury in the town of Jamrud in Khyber Agency on January 10, when a pickup truck laden with hundreds of kilogrammes of explosives ripped through a bus terminal, killing at least two dozen people. At least 25 paramilitary troops have been executed by the Taliban since the start of this month in two separate incidents in North Waziristan and Orakzai agencies. There was no immediate claim of responsibility of the dastardly act of January 10, but, the finger of suspicion inevitably points to the Taliban. Some officials suspect that the bombing appeared to be a revenge attack for the killing of a Taliban militant Qari Kamran, who was recently killed by the security forces in Khyber Agency. Jamrud is inhabited mostly by Zakhakehl, a sub-tribe of the Afridis. The tribe has put its weight behind the government in resisting the onslaught by the Taliban and should be commended for its brave resistance. The militants, on the other hand, have upped their ante and show no mercy towards innocent women and children as they continue to wreak havoc. The militants also seem emboldened by a reprieve from US drone strikes.

Since the killing of Qari Kamran, security forces were expecting reprisal attacks and should have been more alert. Local militias and tribes who have offered their resistance to the Taliban, also need to be better armed and equipped instead of being abandoned to fight the militants alone, as often seems to be the case. The bombing is also a grim reminder of the futility of any peace talks with the militants. It is obvious that the militants want anything but peace and, typically use the pretext of talks to regroup and consolidate their strength. What is also, perhaps, depressing is how there isn’t any outrage in society against such attacks by the militants, with much of the media and citizenry still crying themselves hoarse over America’s apparent arrogance in its ties with Pakistan.

Pir Pagara (1928-2012)

January 13th, 2012

The spiritual head of the Hurs in Sindh, and a politician who was anything but predictable, Pir Pagara passed away on January 10. His mark on Pakistan, though it is mixed and controversial, is indelible. He was at the forefront of every major event in the country’s politics, although one could never be certain what his ideology was at any given time. He was a supporter of every dictator that usurped power in Pakistan, giving his imprimatur to Ayub Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. But he also took on the religious parties that were propped up by the military with gleeful abandon.

If there is one way to describe Pagara’s politics it is that he mixed the political with the personal. Thus, he held a life-long grudge against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a person whom he considered a pretender and had personally introduced to politics, only to end up being snubbed by him. His hatred for ZAB could partly be explained by the fact that Pagara never liked the idea of anyone from Sindh being more influential than him or not being beholden to him. Thus, Pagara was not only part of the civilian protests against Bhutto after the 1977 elections, he also joined Zia after his coup. It was during Zia’s time that Pagara reached the peak of his political power, with his hand-picked man, Mohammad Khan Junejo, chosen as prime minister. But as was Pagara’s wont, he ended up falling-out with both of them.

What truly explains Pagara’s popularity, both as a political and spiritual leader, was his rough-hewed charm. There was nothing he enjoyed more than having a group of journalists sit at his feet and listen to his prophecies and predictions. Sure, most of them turned out to be incorrect, but his certainty and charisma were part of the appeal. Whatever faults he may have had, Pir Pagara, at least in his rhetoric, always advocated education and equal rights for women. Pagara was a relic of a bygone era, whose influence is undeniable.

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

Delicate balancing act

January 14th, 2012

The threat of an overt military coup may have waned a bit over the last couple of days but that does not mean that the government, and far more importantly, democracy is now safe. If anything, the dangers have become more acute and actors who should be working to protect the system may well end up undermining it. First, there is the Supreme Court. The chief justice has been admirable in his continued insistence that he would not countenance military rule, but his court’s decisions are providing the military with its biggest opportunity to thwart civilians. In a meeting with his top commanders, Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani decided to throw the full might of the military behind the court, and is now willing to use his soldiers to enforce any possible anti-government verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance. So, in the end, there may be a situation much like the one that is being discussed as a possibility, with the government eventually being made to yield through a court order.

Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N seems to be equally blind to some of the dangers they are posing to the democratic system. Among the options that the opposition party is weighing include introducing a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, mass resignations from the assemblies and street protests. Despite being the party that has been most cognisant of the military’s designs on political power, the PML-N has now decided that its own thirst for power is a more vital cause than a full-throated support of democracy. For the PML-N, early elections are crucial to arrest the PTI’s growing rise in popularity and if that means unintentionally doing the army’s dirty work for it, then that is a cross the PML-N is willing to bear.

The PPP, for now, is on the offensive against the army but on the defensive against the Supreme Court. Removing Nadeem Lodhi from his post as defence secretary was a bold move, one that may have precipitated a coup in years past. But taking the fight to the military means that the PPP has to back down on the NRO case and give in to the wishes of the Supreme Court. It is a difficult balancing act, but if the PPP can pull it off, it will save not only its own government, but it might just end up shifting the balance of power between the military and the civilians in favour of the latter for years to come.

Cyber crimes

January 14th, 2012

We will have to prepare ourselves for more and more crimes involving computer hacking and other modern technology. In a case recently reported to a commercial bank in Lahore, a client complained that his credit card had been misused. It appears the person responsible, who has been caught red-handed, had acquired detailed National Identity Card data and used this to hack credit card information. He later fed this onto his own credit cards, created by using sophisticated machinery which included devices to produce machine readable strips and the other elements which are intended to make a card safe.

It seems quite obvious that NADRA officials are involved in the racket. Without their help, it should have been impossible to invade the privacy of citizens by obtaining such detailed information from what the citizens may have submitted to the organisation responsible for issuing CNICs and other documents. The development is a rather alarming one. Today, more and more people everywhere are using credit cards for purposes of all kinds, hence, we must find some way of making this technology safe. There have been reports of credit card frauds in the past. Shop owners and bank staff are understood to have been involved. But the involvement of NADRA, as a major official body, puts a whole new twist on the problem. If they are willing, and able to give out information, in exchange, no doubt, for their own share of the reward, we are obviously in very deep trouble. It is hoped that a full investigation will take place within NADRA to uncover who was responsible for what happened and how the identity card information was leaked out.

This can be dangerous in other ways as well. It could help terrorists replicate cards or gain access to identities which are not their own. The potential for fraud is immense. While the FIA already has a cyber crime unit, we must consider if it is working properly and what must be done to improve it.

Safer cylinders

January 14th, 2012

Following the series of accidents involving bursting cylinders in public transport vehicles fuelled by CNG, a task force set up by the ministry of petroleum and natural resources has come up with a plan to ensure greater safety for the cylinders and avoid the kind of accidents we have seen in the past, costing dozens of lives. Under the plan, which is to be submitted to the Supreme Court by the 15th of this month, CNG kits will need to be tested at especially designated private and public sector centres, where engineers will be employed. At a meeting with various stakeholders, it was also agreed that CNG filling stations would employ better trained staff, aged over 18, who would be better able to detect a flawed kit or one that had been poorly maintained. It should be noted that at present there are shops selling CNG kits in virtually every town in the country, while hundreds operate in cities — but there is no check on the quality of the potentially hazardous product they sell.

As such, the new scheme to set up better safety standards is badly needed; we must hope it will be approved and implemented as soon as possible, with courts also taking notice of the issue. But we have a problem. However, as with so many matters in the past, the main issue will be that of implementation. The measures of a similar nature taken in the past have failed to work because they have not been enforced. As with almost every law in the country, our capacity to do so is notoriously poor. We can only hope things will be different this time round. Perhaps CNG pump owners and kit manufacturers will themselves realise the gravity of the situation, and cooperate with the efforts to make cylinders safer. Only if they do so, can the plan devised work. Most of the laws regulating the sale of corrosive substances have been around for almost two decades, so the issue clearly has to do with lack of enforcement.

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

The politics of a dysfunctional state

January 15th, 2012

On January 13, the National Assembly heard the text of a resolution saying that the house supported the basic constitutional principle of trichotomy of powers — “in which parliament is regarded sovereign and above the executive and judiciary” — and reposed “full confidence and trust” in the country’s political leadership. The house will vote on it on tomorrow when the deadline given to the government for acting on the verdict of the Supreme Court in the NRO case also falls. The ruling coalition has a large majority in the National Assembly — and claims that it is actually two-thirds — but it is not certain if the PPP’s partners in government will stick by it all the way in its broad-front stand-off with the judiciary, the army and the opposition led by the PML-N. Many sections of the media remain hostile to the PPP-led government and people in the street, tortured by the fast-dwindling infrastructure of the state and a collapsing economy, also want to see it gone for good.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is in the eye of the storm although it is President Asif Ali Zardari who seems to be the target. The Supreme Court is hearing the memogate case and a bad decision for the government could see the president being implicated in it. In addition to this, the NRO case is closing in on the president as well since the apex court has asked the government to write a letter to revive a money-laundering case against him a court in Switzerland.

No one is immune to criticism. The Court, universally applauded for its independence since its restoration in 2008, is being reprimanded by a section of the legal community for being excessive in pursuit of judicial activism and for encroaching onto matters that are the exclusive domain of either the executive or the legislature. Indeed this negative trend is sharp-edged and attracts the penalty of contempt of court but it gives us a measure of how divided the national opinion is. The army is similarly warned against doing anything in the past tradition like overthrowing the government. The constitutional principle that each government enjoying a majority in parliament must be allowed to finish its five-year tenure is under challenge in this chaotic situation.

The opposition, led abrasively by the PML-N, wants an early election which seeks to interpret the sixth option presented by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court, which speaks of letting the people decide the issue, a euphemism for another election. It wants early polls brought on by Prime Minister Gilani dissolving the National Assembly under pressure from the rising political storm. The opposition wants President Zardari out of office and a caretaker government in place immediately so that elections can be held without letting the PPP achieve a majority in the Senate in March — which it is expected to, given its current electoral strength. The opposition comprises the elected one led by the PML-N and an unelected one led by the PTI, but both are also at loggerheads with each other, further confusing the political battlefield in the country.

If inside Pakistan the armies of political difference are fighting in the dark, outside too the government has abdicated to the military — in the latter embracing an isolationist path. If US aid stops it may not hurt much but if the rest of the world including the multilateral lending institutions button up, the situation will become dire given that foreign aid finances the bulk of the country’s development budget. Whoever comes to power next will find it impossible to run the economy brought to its knees by a debt overhang and large fiscal and trade deficits.

We don’t know how we will finance the five-billion dollar budget of the military which is fighting manfully not only against the combined power of the US, India and Israel — if some establishment analysts are to be believed — but also the Taliban terrorists addicted to killing our innocent population in a war that many Pakistanis unfortunately think is ‘not our war’. What is going on is the politics of a dysfunctional state on the bases of a series of ‘national consensus’ issues which no one outside Pakistan considers realistic.

A whitewash

January 15th, 2012

Now that the commission tasked to find out who was responsible for killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad has released its detailed final report we can see just how negligent it really was in doing its job. The report is one that the intelligence agencies of the country can be proud of, since it all but exonerates but without providing any convincing reasons for why it has done so. And those reading the report may end up being convinced that Mr Shahzad was killed not by bullets but by the rotten profession of journalism. Among the many travesties in the report is its claim that Mr Shahzad’s killing shows that journalism needs to be reformed and regulated so that inaccurate stories do not end up being published. This is absurd. Whatever problems one may have with the state of journalism in this country, he was killed because he was getting too close to the truth and so was silenced.

We had been promise a commission that was independent but ended up with one that saw its mission as whitewashing the whole affair. What makes this even more galling is that one of the members of the commission was the president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, who should have refused to sign off on a report that blasted journalists for reporting secrets and at every turn seemed to want to find reasons why Shahzad could have been killed by someone other than the country’s security and intelligence establishment.

The testimony provided by Mr Shahzad’s family to the commission is also very disturbing. His wife and brother seem to also be deflecting the blame away from the agencies, despite the fact that Mr Shahzad himself felt his life was being threatened by them. On the face of it, this would suggest that his family was being pressurised by the powers-that-be, something that would have been ripe for investigation by the commission had they any access to the agencies beyond a written statement and a perfunctory appearance by a low-level official. It is now up to the prime minister, and the journalist community as a whole, to shun this farce of a report. Saleem Shahzad deserves a real investigation, not this sham which seems to have ended up, as a headline in this newspaper pointed out, doing everything but pointing to those responsible for his death.

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

Food insecurity

January 16th, 2012

A detailed survey conducted by the government in conjunction with Unicef has made the disturbing, though not entirely unexpected, revelation that only 28 per cent of households in Sindh are “food secure”. The National Nutrition Survey showed an alarming level of malnutrition throughout the country, but particularly among women and children in Sindh. About the only positive outcome the study has shown is an improvement in iodine intake; this, however, is more than offset by deterioration in levels of other nutrients, including vitamin A and vitamin D. Worrisome as this is, there have been warning signs. Last year, the International Food Policy Research Institute ranked Pakistan nineteenth on the Global Hunger Index, declaring it as a state that faced “a serious hunger threat”. Over the years, various UN agencies have issued similar warnings but policymakers have not heeded. In 2001, a survey placed Pakistan among the top 20 countries in the world with chronic undernutrition. Over the past decade, others in the list improved their ranking but Pakistan’s stayed the same.

Policymakers need to realise that hunger is not merely a health problem but a complex socioeconomic issue that requires well-designed interventions. The fact that Pakistan has made no gains in this area since the 2001 survey — despite having the capacity to do so — points to criminal apathy on the part of policymakers. Of course, this is not to say, that hunger and malnutrition can be overcome easily. The floods of the last two years have exacerbated the situation, leading to massive increases in food prices. According to the Planning Commission’s calculations, the monthly cost of the minimum caloric intake that an average Pakistani should be consuming has gone up by 74 per cent, from Rs960 in 2007-2008 to Rs1,670 in June 2011. A World Food Programme study estimates that an additional 18 million people became undernourished in 2010 because of these price increases, swelling the undernourished population from a baseline of 77.6 million people in 2005-2006 to 95.7 million people. What is needed is a comprehensive policy to increase agricultural production by better managing our resources — particularly water, reducing wastage, improving dietary practices and ensuring more equitable food distribution.

The futility of censorship

January 16th, 2012

When considering what level of freedom a country wants, government bodies may want to avoid emulating China. Yet that is exactly what the Delhi High Court, which seems to take its role as a censor as seriously as the high court in its brother city Lahore, has done, saying, “You must have a stringent check. Otherwise, like in China, we may pass orders banning all such websites.” The websites in question refer to Facebook and Google, two websites that have also been under threat in Pakistan for their apparently dangerous belief that information should be freely shared. The Delhi High Court made this case for internet censorship on the grounds that the websites need to screen all images to make sure there is nothing religiously insensitive or that fake nude pictures of politicians are not uploaded.

The danger of online censorship being practiced in the largest democracy in the world is even more acute because the Indian government has also thrown its weight behind this case, all in the name of inter-religious harmony. For a country that touts itself as a hospitable environment for technology companies to operate in, this would be a profoundly self-defeating move. Google saw no compunction in pulling out of China, one of the largest markets in the world, when authorities there tried to censor its search results. India cannot afford to do the same. A law passed last year by the Indian parliament holds companies responsible for content uploaded to sites by users. Given that it is nearly impossible for sites to monitor everything, this law needs to be repealed.

As we have seen in Pakistan, once the authorities decide they have the power to censor the internet they always go too far. And the way the internet is structured and works, such bans simply do not work. Petitions that call for the wholesale censorship of the internet need to summarily for precisely this reason: giving governments so much power always leads to abuse of that power.

Sealing a store

January 16th, 2012

Lahore shoppers have been left in the lurch. One of their favorite shopping hangouts, the giant Al-Fatah store in Liberty Market, home to crockery, clothing, toys, cosmetics and all kinds of luxury food items was sealed by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on January 13, on charges of violating various building laws. The sudden closure prompted angry protests by other traders in the market as they stormed the area around the shop, shouting slogans against the provincial government. Traders in the area had already been displeased for some time anyway over measures taken by the PML-N government to build a new parking plaza in the vicinity — a move many believe is aimed at earning profits rather than facilitating citizens in Lahore.

The Al-Fatah case appears to be quite obviously politically motivated. The LDA has sighted a plethora of building rules which have been violated, including the construction of an illegal basement and two additional stories. Such action to ensure regulations are adhered to would have been admirable had there not been so inconsistency in their application. The fact is that hundreds of other shops and plazas have violated rules in a similar manner across the city. They have been left untouched and are able to continue their business. In some cases the violations are far more evident than in the case of the said store.

It cannot be an accident that the owner of the store had joined the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf just three days ago. He believes, like many others, that he is being punished for this. Such measures can only add to the lack of respect and faith in the government and indeed bolster the fortunes of the very party provincial leaders are targeting. It also demonstrates the PML-N government’s degree of panic over the rise of the PTI. The measure taken is petty and transparent in terms of bias. Owners of the store claim no notices had been served in advance, warning them of potential action. The action has infuriated the trading community further and as such weakened the Punjab government in the eyes of people.

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

A testing time

January 17th, 2012

The prime minister’s detractors may think that following a contempt of court notice by the Supreme Court on January 16, his days in office may be numbered. However, his supporters will point out that this is just a notice and that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will now have the opportunity to explain himself — he can either defend his actions or, as often happens in such cases, throw himself at the mercy of the court and offer an unconditional apology. What actually happens remains to be seen and depends on how the prime minister responds to the notice — in fact, there were reports on January 16 saying that he had offered to resign.

A day earlier, on January 15, Mr Gilani gave a full-throated defence of democracy and the Constitution when he told journalists in Vehari that he was not answerable to any individual but to the people of Pakistan. He must have made this statement after the media reported that in their one-on-one meeting on January 14, Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani told President Asif Ali Zardari that the latter should ask the prime minister to retract his statement where he had said that the army chief and the head of the ISI had acted unconstitutionally when they filed replies to the Supreme Court in the memo case. The prime minister’s remarks of January 15 were in response to questions from journalists asking him for his views on General Kayani’s purported remarks. Apart from indicating where he stood as far as answering to various entities and groups was concerned, the prime minister also suggested that the military had a constitutional role to play as well, and no one will disagree with the fact that over the years it has quite often ventured outside of that as set down by the country’s Constitution. For his vigorous defence of democracy, and for the paramountcy of parliament and elected civilian governments, Mr Gilani deserves appreciation. This should come not just from his party but from the entire nation that can ill-afford another general who thinks the reins of power rightfully belong to him.

Of course, all this could come to nought if, for example, the prime minister is found guilty of contempt of court. If that were to happen, he would have to step down and would perhaps be disbarred from contesting elections for a certain period of time.

Arfa Karim

January 17th, 2012

The natural tendency when someone dies too young is to mourn the potential of a life that was cruelly ended before a person could achieve anything. In the case of the 16-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa, who died on January 14 after complications resulting from an epileptic stroke, that natural desire to mourn should also be accompanied by celebration of a person who in her short life, did manage to achieve more than what most of us could hope for in their lifetimes. At the age of nine, she became the youngest-ever Microsoft Certified Professional, earning kudos from Bill Gates himself and an invitation to visit his company’s headquarters in America. A year later, she was certified as a pilot by a flying club in Dubai. Not only is Arfa the youngest ever recipient of the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance, she was also awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in Science and Technology and the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award. The word genius may be bandied about too freely, but in Arfa’s case it was a moniker well-earned.

Various government figures are busy renaming buildings and technology programmes after Arfa as a tribute to her achievements and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But there is more that can be done to honour her memory. Unlike Arfa, whose parents provided the full support necessary to ensure that her talent could blossom, there are other potential geniuses who do not have that kind of emotional and financial backing. It would be far better to establish a trust in her name and this could financially assist those, like Arfa, who show precocious talent and intellectual promise. Even though we do not know where Arfa’s limitless skills would have led her, we should ensure that future Arfas are not lost simply for lack of resources. It is also important to ensure that her memory lives on and she is not forgotten like so many heroes in this country. Arfa Karim was an inspiration in her lifetime; in death she can continue to be a guiding light for millions of ambitious children.

Khanpur killings

January 17th, 2012

There are two main lessons to be learned from the bomb blast at a Chehlum procession in the Khanpur area of Rahim Yar Khan that killed 18 people and injured 30 others. First, what is euphemistically called ‘sectarian violence’ is actually a low-grade war against the country’s Shia community. And second, rather than concentrate on preventing and investigating such attacks, law-enforcement officials prefer trying to concoct excuses to justify their ineptitude. On September 20 last year, a bus carrying Shias near Quetta was stopped and the passengers shot dead. A couple of weeks before that, also in Quetta on Eid, there was a similar incident. And this targeting of the Shia community is not a recent phenomenon but can be traced back to General Zia’s rule, who in his zeal to enforce an Islamic system in the country, patronised hardliners, many of whom considered any other Muslim who did not subscribe to their rigid interpretation a heretic.

Even though it will take years to undo the structural discrimination against Shias as introduced by Zia, one small way to begin is by aggressively investigating such attacks. The immediate response by the police to the Rahimyar bombing does not inspire any confidence. The police’s initial response was to ludicrously claim that the explosion was the result of a transformer blast. Later, the DPO changed his story and admitted that a bomb blast had indeed been detonated by remote control. Although the prime minister has ordered an immediate inquiry into the blast, if this is an indication of the competence of the police, then the culprits can rest easy. The PML-N controlled Punjab government for its part, announced Rs500,000 in compensation for the families of the victims. Given that the PML-N at best turns a blind eye to sectarian outfits operating in the province, such gestures seem hollow. Until all mainstream political parties recognise that an organised attempt is being made to target the Shia community and they unite to prevent them, such attacks will continue to take place.

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

What the prime minister should do now

January 18th, 2012

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has finally been called to the Supreme Court for contempt for not permitting the writing of a letter to the Swiss government withdrawing an earlier letter quashing a Swiss court proceedings against President Asif Ali Zardari following the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). The Court had adjudged the NRO null and void after the National Assembly declined to legislate the ordinance.

Tied to the NRO case is the immunity granted by the Constitution to the President of Pakistan. For its part, the PPP thinks that this issue is not subject to review by the court after sensing that the latter will remove the immunity to expose the president to a punitive decree by the Swiss Court in a case of money laundering. The PPP is vulnerable on many counts — including the political — within its own coalition, its allies thinking it should agree to early elections after negotiating them with the opposition led by the PML-N.

One very cogent force behind this apparent wobbling of the government resolve is its ongoing tussle with the military. The coalition had managed an easy resolution asserting the sovereignty and supremacy of parliament among the institutions of the state. However, it is also the case in most democratic states that all laws can be reviewed/scrutinised by the superior courts to see if they are in line with the letter and spirit of the Constitution. And the authority of the Supreme Court as interpreter of the Constitution is final and there is no cavil with it.

Pile a lot of lethal politics on this and you have the crisis of the Pakistani state on your hands. The issue is not that the government or state is dysfunctional. The real issue is that the military is dominant in Pakistan and calls the shots in foreign policy or any other such issue it considers connected with the security of the state. The Supreme Court tacitly accepts this and will not use its suo motu powers to adjudicate the problem of military dominance under the Constitution or to consider cases in this regard pending before it.

The politicians have developed a Pavlovian reflex about toppling the government. The political opposition inside parliament and outside is sensing another collapse of the government in the judiciary-executive quarrel — especially given the way the military has become involved because of the memogate affair — and will give no quarter. The bottom line is that when he appears before the Supreme Court on January 19, the prime minister will have to be flexible.

A fiery defiant speech will not do and will only raise tensions and exacerbate the current situation. He will have to buy time to reconsider the issue of writing a letter to Switzerland. His coalition partners have stood by him on the resolution about the sovereignty of the parliament but may bolt when it comes to standing by his side at the Court. There were rumours, though denied by official quarters, that the government is discussing the possibility of Mr Gilani resigning and letting the National Assembly elect another prime minister. There is an opinion within the PPP which says that the government should write the letter to the Swiss government. If this prevails, then one could see the prime minister submitting an unconditional apology before the court and pledging to write the letter. In the current situation, and with the prime minister more than having made his point in recent days vis-a-vis the memo issue, this may be the advisable option.

As for the opposition, it has stiffened its stance after seeing which way the wind is blowing. Led by the PML-N, it may not be flexible on the October 2012 date for the next election. It may want the Gilani government to go home and President Zardari to quit and let the country be run by a caretaker set-up to hold elections as soon as possible under a reformed Election Commission. This only reinforces the suggestion that the prime minister should agree to write the letter and then engage in talks with the opposition about the next elections. The opposition will come to heel once the threat of the disqualification of the current prime minister — or the next one — is removed.

Peace in Balochistan

January 18th, 2012

Two pieces of news highlighted just how lawless Balochistan has now become, and how both sides of the fight in the province are responsible for inflaming the situation. On January 16, the Supreme Court directed three agencies, the Intelligence Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Department and the Daily Secret Reports of the Special Branch, to hand over the last three months of intelligence reports on the province. The court accused the agencies of downplaying the violence that is plaguing the province and said that it would not hesitate to ask the ISI for its reports, should the need arise. That very same day, Shahzain Bugti, a grandson of Akbar Bugti, offered a reward of “one million rupees in cash, a bungalow worth Rs100 million and full security” to anyone who would kill Pervez Musharraf for allegedly ordering the killing of his grandfather.

So ingrained is the cycle of violence in Balochistan that 1) a popular political figure in the province can call for the assassination of a former president and not even face the possibility of arrest for incitement to violence and 2) the intelligence agencies can hide their role in the violence by simply prevaricating before the Supreme Court. While the government and the military has been blamed, justifiably, for being initially responsible for sparking the violence, there is now no doubt that both sides have a lot to answer for. Separatist sentiments in the province prevail and Punjabi settlers, living in the province for many generations, fear for their lives. Even those in noble professions like education aren’t safe anymore.

So ingrained is violence in the mindset of both sides that a solution seems close to impossible. Should Musharraf follow through on his promise to return to the country by the end of the month, arresting him for the murder of Akbar Bugti would be a start. The government should as soon as possible implement the Balochistan package, announced with much fanfare two years ago. There is probably no single thing that can be done to defuse tensions that would have as much effect as withdrawing the army. But this does not mean that separatists who tend towards violence should be given a free hand. Reintroducing the rule of law in Balochistan will require compromises from both sides.

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