A licence suspended

January 19th, 2012

Out of the many possible casualties in the Supreme Court’s push against the PPP government, Babar Awan’s law licence is probably one of the last things to get worked up about. On January 18, the Supreme Court took Awan to task for the remarks he had made maligning the judiciary in the media. The former law minister added fuel to the fire by refusing to retain a lawyer or answer contempt charges against him, leading to the predictable suspension of his licence. There is no need to shed crocodile tears at this turn of events. Awan seemed to be courting martyrdom by deliberately provoking the court and now has to pay the price for his words and actions. As it is, the loss of his law licence is unlikely to prove much of a hindrance in his true profession: that of politics, not law. Already there are rumours swirling that Awan will be welcomed back to the law ministry and he is already a senator.

Whatever happens to Awan, the PPP government has a lot more to worry about. By now it should be obvious that the Supreme Court will pursue charges against the government, especially on the NRO case, with the prime minister scheduled to appear in court today. There are some who say that despite its welcome judicial activism, the Court has not been the neutral dispenser of justice given that illegal actions by military dictators in the past have hardly attracted judicial censure or disapproval. The problem that the PPP has is that it just cannot disengage from the Court the way Awan did in his contempt of Court proceedings. The government tried to do just that when the Supreme Court challenged the appointment of the National Accountability Bureau’s chief and ended up having to grovel and apologise. It has tried a similar tack in the NRO case by refusing to write to the Swiss authorities asking them to reopen cases against Zardari and that too will end in tears.

Defiance has cost Babar Awan his ability to practice law; if the PPP remains similarly bullheaded it will have its ability to govern snatched away from it.

Children on the gallows

January 19th, 2012

According to a letter sent in to this publication, five young persons, presently held at the Mach Jail in Balochistan face the death sentence. All were juveniles at the time they were sentenced, and have remained on death row for several years. In all the cases, appeals to the Balochistan High Court as well as the Supreme Court are pending. One of the boys was only 13 years old when he was arrested. Long delays in the trial process mean he has already spent over five years in jail. The case of the others is similar. Pakistan ranks among the dwindling number of countries in the world which retain capital punishment and is also part of an even smaller list of nations that apply it to minors. The poorly-enforced Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) of 2000 sets up some safeguards for detained children, and discourages the award of death or long jail stints for minors — but the law does not override existing legislation which somehow permits them to be sentenced to death. Awareness of the JJSO’s provisions remains low, while of course, the issue of the death sentence itself is one which is rarely discussed in our society, with only a very small number of organisations campaigning against it. The writer of the letter, however, points out that in the case of the Mach detainees, their lawyers did not bring up the issue of their age at the time of their trial, or seek leniency on these grounds for them. The Islamabad-based Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child has written to the Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court, pointing out a need to review the issue.

The central problem appears to be that our criminal justice system focuses on punishment, rather than reform. In the case of children this is especially unjust. At the very least, parliament should amend the existing laws so that the benefits of the JJSO can be passed on to juvenile offenders, and this clearly means no death penalty for any crime committed when the offender was not an adult.

Neglectful care

January 19th, 2012

A visit to the doctor is usually expected to make a sick person feel better. In our country just the opposite is often true. Medical neglect in one form or the other is virtually a daily occurrence in the country and it is rare for the doctors concerned to be acted against or their misdoing reported by patients in a bid to gain justice. This, of course, is precisely the reason the issue of negligence has received relatively little attention, with doctors, secure in the knowledge that they are safe not acting with, perhaps, the degree of care and caution that is part of their profession. The move made by a patient in Rawalpindi to take a doctor at a private clinic before the consumer court may help alter this.

In March 2011, the patient who is a trader, visited the doctor complaining of high fever. The doctor, reportedly watching a cricket match on TV, administered an injection. Some days later, the trader, who had felt acute pain as the shot was administered, noticed his arm was becoming paralysed. It appeared that he had suffered from nerve damage. No longer able to run his shop because of his condition, the man approached the consumer court. The doctor, who had initially agreed to pay damages, later refused to do so. The case continues.

The consumer court route is an interesting one and could open up new possibilities for patients. Laws on medical negligence exist and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and the Pakistan Medical Association are empowered to monitor standards of healthcare education and provision; but their role has not been very effective. For patients who have suffered neglect — or in the worst cases such as that of three-year-old Imanae Malik who lost her life at a Lahore Hospital after being given a lethal injection following a minor scald injury — justice can be hard to find. This means that the case brought by the trader and its eventual outcome has a particular significance.

The PM’s day

January 20th, 2012

The appearance of a sitting prime minister before a court is not a usual event. Yet accompanied by his carefully picked counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan, and a bevy of leaders from the PPP and other parties, Mr Gilani appeared in the contempt case with dignity, signalling that despite the allegations to the contrary, his government indeed respected the judiciary and was eager to work within the constitutional framework. An unruffled Mr Gilani told the court that he had not written the letter to Swiss authorities, as the president enjoyed immunity under both the law of the land and international law. This of course is a point many experts agree on.

While many had expected — or even hoped for — fireworks in the court and a showdown of some kind, this did not happen. Aitzaz Ahsan, who took the line he has taken before, that the government should write to Swiss authorities but that the president enjoyed immunity, reiterated this stance. His emphasis that this provision came with the post of Head of State and was in no way intended to protect Mr Asif Ali Zardari alone, should help clear an environment filled with conjecture that the government’s reluctance to write the letter is based on a desire to protect a single individual. The point raised by the court that the president needs to seek immunity, which is not available to him automatically, is one that Mr Gilani and Mr Ahsan will need to examine over the coming days. For now, the case has been adjourned till February 1, after the court granted a request from the prime minister’s counsel to study the matter. We will need to wait then till next month to see how matters proceed. But for now, one could say that things may become relatively calm. The law is holding sway, and this is most important of all, given the overall need of our country.

Certainly, General Pervez Musharraf’s NRO was a bad law. But what is most important right now is that the Constitution be respected, equilibrium restored between institutions and the tensions that have built be dissipated so that governance can proceed smoothly.

Death of a journalist

January 20th, 2012

Words — whether spoken or written — have become one of the most dangerous commodities in our country, as the threat for those who live off them grows. The cold-blooded killing of journalist Mukkaram Khan Atif, proves once more just how acute this threat is. We live in a country which has been declared the most dangerous place on Earth for media professionals by international monitoring groups. Twenty-nine journalists have died since 2004, with eight murdered in 2011 according to the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres. And now, Atif joined them in the grave.

The journalist was shot by two hooded gunmen while he was offering prayers at a Charsadda mosque and the responsibility for his death has been claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The motives are unclear; the TTP may have been angered by some piece of reporting by the journalist, who worked from Mohmand Agency for both the Voice of America and a local television channel. Or he may have been targeted simply because he also worked for an organisation with American links. It is hard to understand how the militant mind operates, but easy to see the tragedy that has befallen another family because extremists in our country remain able to act without any check on their activities, engaging in games of murder as and when they please. The failure to get to the bottom of killings such as that of Saleem Shahzad’s in May last year will have only emboldened them. The judicial commission examining his death has come up with no motive and could not point to the culprits.

It is also clear tribal journalists are at special risk. The organisations these brave men work for in remote, lawless areas which few others can reach, must do more to protect them. Compensation doled out to families is not enough. The state too needs to act so that information can continue to reach people and the voices of journalists are not muffled by guns again and again.

Saying no to SOPA

January 20th, 2012

Surfing the internet was all but impossible on January 18 without being bombarded with messages about SOPA — the Stop Online Privacy Act that the US Congress wants to pass. Wikipedia shuttered its site for the day while companies like Google and Amazon posted messages urging people to campaign against the bill. Critics argue that the bill is unduly draconian since, in a quest to stem the tide of intellectual copyright theft, it hands private companies the right to censor the internet. Their fears are justified. So sweeping is the language of SOPA that it grants the holders of intellectual copyrights the ability to shutter down non-American websites that they claim are pirating their material. No court would be required to adjudicate the matter; the companies’ word would be enough. The bill also gives payment processors like PayPal and content providers like YouTube the power to shut off services to any site they consider to be engaged in piracy. So long as they do this in “good faith” they cannot be held liable for their actions. The bill is even more odious considering the fact that these actions can only be taken against foreign websites and not those operating out of the US. Right now, the internet is controlled by the US-based Internet Corporations for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and regulatory oversight is provided by the US government. The system has worked well because ICANN is generally considered to be apolitical and fair to other countries. If SOPA passes, however, it will show how precarious an arrangement this is as the US will effectively be able to shut down websites of other countries without proving just cause.

Piracy is a real problem that badly hurts the US economy but SOPA is not the answer. So vast is the internet and so difficult to monitor, that innovate solutions are needed to counter piracy. When Napster threatened to bring the music industry to its knees, Apple stepped in with its pay-per-song model that revived the fortunes of record companies. Similar solutions, not totalitarian legislation, are needed to tackle piracy.

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

Rejection of CAA’s Airblue report

January 21st, 2012

More than a year after the Airblue crash in the Margalla Hills that killed all those on board, the only thing that the families of the victims have which may ensure justice is the tenacity of the Peshawar High Court (PHC). In December 2011, the PHC, for the first time in Pakistan’s history, was able to force the authorities to release a crash report. Now, the authorities have rejected the findings of the report as incomplete and error-ridden and have demanded a new report that uses international experts for greater transparency. Had it not been for the court, the authorities would have blamed the crash entirely on pilot error and left it at that. But now there is a chance, however slim, that we will know for certain if the pilot was the only one at fault.

The Airblue crash report did at times read like a cover-up rather than a true investigation. The report described the young, inexperienced co-pilot as someone who was too scared to contradict the senior pilot, even though he knew that the latter was endangering the lives of the passengers. It seems scarcely believable that the co-pilot would fear a dressing-down from the pilot more than he would the possibility of losing his own life. The report also claimed that both the pilot and co-pilot were not fasting, hence their reflexes and concentration were not affected. How they came about this information is not revealed. Also, missing from the report, or at least the version of it released to the public, is the full transcript of the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder. These may shed some light on the causes of the crash and so need to be released for public scrutiny.

The PHC, meanwhile, is ensuring that it is not only Airblue but the entire aviation industry that is held accountable. It has directed PIA to prove that its aircraft are safe — a review that is sorely needed after a spate of recent incidents. The court is also taking a proactive role in ensuring that Airblue pays compensation to all families of the victims. Thus far, Airblue has only paid out compensation if recipients have agreed not to pursue further damages in court. If the PHC continues on its crusade, justice, both emotional and financial, may finally prevail.

A clinical finish

January 21st, 2012

There are many things we expect from the Pakistan cricket team but boring consistency isn’t one of them. Yet, captain Misbahul Haq has so thoroughly moulded the team in his own image that it is scarcely recognisable from the thrilling but infuriating Pakistan teams of the past. Not every Pakistani has taken to Misbah, who bats as if in a stupor and captains a team that is short on the tear-away fast bowlers the likes of which have come to be taken for granted in Pakistan. But at some point, substance has to trump flashy style. Misbah has now reached that point.

It certainly helps that the captain has in his team Saeed Ajmal, arguably the best spinner in the world. Ajmal — who had already got into the English batsmen’s minds by talking up his new delivery, the teesra — proved to be simply unplayable and ended up bamboozling the strongest batting line-up in the world. He was ably supported by Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Abdur Rehman and Mohammed Hafiz. Team Misbah is certainly not going to win any awards for style and charisma, in both bowling and batting, but they have shown a ruthlessness and, more importantly, an ability to win that his predecessors lacked.

Misbah takes the same approach to his batting. Where previous Pakistani batting line-ups had a tendency to frequently capitulate, Misbah, through sheer bloody-mindedness, holds our batting together. He may be one of the dullest batsmen around but he gets the job done — in painfully excruciating fashion. New batsmen like Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq have followed his example. They may not possess the wristy excellence that has come to be associated with Pakistani batsmen but they have proved worthy of blunting bowling attacks into oblivion. Even our fielding, while still well below international standard, is not as clownish as before. Above all, by winning so frequently, Misbah has exorcised the ghosts of our spot-fixing past. For that, he deserves the gratitude of the nation.

Captured land

January 21st, 2012

The Christian community in Lahore continues its desperate protests over the bulldozing conducted several days ago by the Lahore Development Authority of a school, a church and the ‘Gosha-e-Aman’ home for old people. The land on which the buildings stood had been on lease to the Catholic Church since 1887. The lease was not automatically renewed in 1987 and the matter is before the court. Christian leaders, including the Bishop of Lahore, Alexander John Malik accuse the Punjab government of seeking to seize the highly valuable two acres of land which stood in Garhi Shahu in the heart of Lahore. Minority leaders have strongly denied the claims made by the Punjab Minorities Minister, Kamran Michael, that the land had been taken over by a land mafia. He stated this was simply an excuse to take possession of property.

While Christian groups have been protesting fervently — joined by nuns from various convents in the city — only a handful of activists from mainstream Muslim society have joined them. This is, despite the fact that the Gosha-e-Aman home offered shelter to persons of all beliefs. The fact that few such facilities exist would suggest that every effort should have been made to protect it. Instead, the opposite was done by the government itself. Helpless inhabitants who had lived in the shelter for years saw it being torn down before their eyes, as they watched — in many cases — shedding tears. Church property was desecrated and attempts to obtain an immediate stay failed. The action does nothing to improve ties with a community which already feels marginalised, and this sidelining only adds to the growing social tensions we face. Media attention has also been too limited. The enormous services of missionaries in our land need to be acknowledged and the action at Garhi Shahu reversed immediately by a government which has demonstrated scorn for their efforts to better the lives of some of the most deprived members of our society.

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

Another women’s commission?

January 22nd, 2012

This time the vote was unanimous in the National Assembly: to set up another national commission on the status of women. Does it mean that a women’s commission set up under this unanimously-passed law will succeed in convincing the state to remove some of the disabilities and discrimination women suffer in Pakistan? Women’s commissions have been set up in the past but their recommendations have either been ignored or shot down because of religion or on the pretext of religion. The clerics of course tend to fly off the handle; and this time they have the suicide-bombers of the Taliban standing behind them. The law will set up possibly a third national commission on the status of women and want it to: “examine the federal government’s policy and programmes for gender equality, women’s empowerment, political participation, representation, assessing their implementation and making suitable recommendations, reviewing all laws, rules and regulations affecting the status and rights of women and suggesting repeal, amendment or new legislation to eliminate discrimination, safeguarding and promoting the interest of women and achieving gender equality.

Even if one accepts that the PML-N will let a women’s commission function because it has voted on the latest legislation about it, it might balk at the recommendations when they come. However, before the clerics go at the commission, there is the Federal Shariat Court to reckon with. In December 2010, it ruled sections of the Women Protection Act of 2006, among other legislations, as being violative of the Constitution and gave the government till June 2011 to remove the flaws in it. It asserted its remit over the matter saying it was expressly permitted to do so by the Constitution. What can the women’s commission do, given the appalling conditions in which women — especially at the lower strata of society — live in Pakistan? Anyone visiting Pakistan after India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will say Pakistan is medievalising itself in regard to treatment of women. Any commission worth its salt will want to remove these conditions of inequality but will immediately get into trouble with an ideologically-driven state.

We have seen this happen in 1997. The women’s commission set up by the PPP government rendered its report when the PPP government was gone and the PML-N was in power. The Report recommended reform in laws pertaining to the status of women in light of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. There was an ‘alim’ in the Commission, from the Council of Islamic Ideology, who acquiesced in them. The most important recommendation by the Commission was the removal of the Hudood Laws “because they were conceived and drafted in haste and are not in conformity with the injunctions of Islam”. The Commission instead favoured the retention of ‘tazir’ which is bound by Qanoon-e-Shahadat (1984) applicable to all laws. Another revolutionary recommendation of the Commission pertained to the financial support to the divorced woman under the Quranic injunction: “For divorced women a provision in kindness: a duty for those who ward off evil” (2:241). But all of it came to naught because the PML-N government was not willing to take on the clergy. The Commission met the same fate as the Zari Sarfraz Commission did in the General Zia era. Also, can any commission with women sitting on it ignore the infamous Zina Ordinance which entraps an already wronged woman on the ‘condition’ of producing four male witnesses to the act? If the victim can’t prove rape she is punished under ‘qazf’ (wrongful accusation).

This may sound overly cynical but the truth is that conditions are much worse than they were in 1997 when the PML-N quietly shelved the recommendations of a past commission. The Taliban are pulling down girls’ schools in Fata and several settled districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. They have also inflicted ‘rijm’ (stoning to death) in the areas they control. That said, it remains to be seen how effective the next National Commission on the Status of Women will be.

Norway’s spies and Pakistan

January 22nd, 2012

Earlier this past week, Norway’s Police Security Service Janne Kristiansen caused a furore when she accidentally revealed that intelligence agents from Norwegian military intelligence were in Pakistan. On January 20, she resigned from her post in ignominy. The reaction to the spy scandal in Pakistan has been quite interesting too. When asked about the presence of these agents in the country, Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied knowing anything about it and then said that when intelligence agents operate in a country, they do not necessarily seek the host’s permission. While, he may be correct technically, the interior minister did come across as sounding a bit facetious and probably should have been able to respond in a more sensible manner. The minister did say that questions regarding the presence in Pakistan of intelligence agents of other countries was probably something that the country’s intelligence services would be in the know of. However, the minister should not really expect journalists to seek answers to these questions from the intelligence agencies directly. This was perhaps why, when he raised this issue in the Upper House, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani also asked the interior minister to let parliament know if any accord existed between Norway and Pakistan allowing such an arrangement.

The fact is that countries spy on each other all the time, so it’s not exactly a revelation that we have intelligence agents in Pakistan who happen to be from countries other than the US, UK and India. Even in the case of the three named countries, their governments have never officially admitted to their presence — just like Pakistan would never do for its agents overseas. However, since the matter has now come under the spotlight, and has been raised by a senior and respected member of parliament from the ruling party, it would be good if the government were to share details of all arrangements that it has with foreign states, allowing the physical presence of their intelligence agents on Pakistani soil. It is precisely because such official information is hardly ever divulged by the state that an atmosphere is created, particularly in this country, in which conspiracy theories of all kinds are given birth and thrive.

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

A question of Sindh’s division

January 23rd, 2012

The Sindh Assembly has reacted to the MQM’s move in the National Assembly for the creation of “Southern Punjab and Hazara provinces” through the Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2012, by vociferously opposing on January 20 what it thinks is furtive action meant to divide Sindh and carve out another province where it would control everything. The MQM bill, targeting Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was seen as actually paving the way for it through an amendment in Article 239(4) of the Constitution, which currently says: “A bill to amend the constitution which would have the effect of altering the limits of a province shall not be presented to the president for assent unless it has been passed by the provincial assembly of that province by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership.”

In a rare show of an across-the-board party consensus (of the PPP, PML-F, PML-Q and the ANP) a National Peoples Party member proposed the moving of the following resolution: “No province can be created without two-thirds majority vote of the assembly concerned. This move may lead to a break-up of Sindh in future. We will not allow it. It is against the provincial autonomy.” The speaker, for the time being, disallowed the resolution aimed at “not only saving Sindh but other provinces too from the threat of fragmentation”, but the house heard angry reactions to what the MQM had proposed.

The MQM members sat patiently through the reaction but must have known what was coming beforehand. The party has been thwarted from claiming its local government control on the basis of its popular strength in Karachi and Hyderabad. The PPP has shown lack of resolve on the issue and has joined the ruling parties in other provinces in postponing the local bodies’ polls on one pretext or the other. The PPP’s central leadership has been rocked by the intra-party reaction to its dealings with the MQM although it denies that Zulfiqar Mirza has created any deep impression within party cadres in Sindh. The fear, expressed more clearly by the nationalists of Sindh led by Dr Qadir Magsi, is that parts of Sindh may be taken away from Sindh, thus offending the Sindhi ‘nation’ which, according to him, was promised a ‘sovereign state’ in the Pakistan Resolution of 1940.

The PPP has to swallow the irony: the separatism of Sindhi nationalists is being opposed by a presumed MQM separatism. The MQM, however, has other objectives to achieve. Its effort to become a national party through creating its presence in provinces other than Sindh, has been thwarted. Why it is convinced that it can spread its power of representation from Sindh to elsewhere in Pakistan was explained in the recent polls in Azad Jammu Kashmir and the representation it was able to achieve in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. It may be coincidental that it has fallen foul of the PML-N in Punjab and the ANP in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and its ‘more provinces’ resolution in the National Assembly was seen as aimed at surgery in their territories.

The PPP is a national party which accepts the federation and opposes all kinds of separatism in Sindh, its political base. It has stood in the way of the Sindhi nationalist parties and prevented them from making headway, but its rivalry with the MQM dims the line dividing it from those who would change Pakistan’s federation into a confederation and create a new quasi-state out of the province.

The age-old formula for avoiding pressure on the federation is having more federal decentralisation. So far Pakistan has legislatively achieved this objective through the 18th Amendment without much promise to actualise it given the current economic weakness of the state. Whether we like it or not, the provinces will not reap the real fruits of this autonomy if they refuse to decentralise further. The PPP should let the ANP and the MQM contest Karachi and rule its local councils and avoid the larger issue of ‘more provinces’ for the time being.

Distributing death

January 23rd, 2012

At a premier government hospital institute in Lahore, intended to save the lives of heart patients, at least seven persons have died after consuming sub-standard medication handed out by the hospital. The deaths occurred after patients at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology were given medicines to help with their condition. A series of deaths were reported with the patients being rushed to hospitals across the city. The reasons for the fatalities are as yet unclear though some suggestions have been made that the medicine concerned was a blood thinner — a substance frequently administered to those with cardiac problems — but ended up affecting the blood’s platelet count. The health sectary has ordered an enquiry into the incident. But of course it is too late to save the lives of those who have died. A hospital that should have been acting to save lives instead appears to have brought about swift death. We hope the investigation that has been ordered will lead to real results and not just yet another cover-up. There is a need also to take a broader look at the picture. The Punjab Institute of Cardiology was set up as a leading heart institution. There have been previous stories about deterioration in standards within it and long waiting times for patients requiring urgent surgery. This, of course, is also the case at other government hospitals across the country. Similarly, cases of sub-standard or spurious medicines have been reported from many places.

Urgent measures are required to make medication safer and put in place checks on their manufacture and storage. Our disregard for human life is one of the reasons for why we have failed to do so as yet. The entire episode reflects the need for a complete overhaul of our healthcare system so that people can receive the attention they need when they are sick without the danger of falling into still greater peril as seems to have happened in this case. This means a greater scrutiny of the medicines that are provided to patients at government medical facilities and this can happen only with more stringent and frequent monitoring of quality at the pharmacies housed in such places.

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

Not coming after all

January 24th, 2012

Like any publicity hound with a healthy sense of self-regard, Mansoor Ijaz could have kept his will-he-or-won’t-he charade going indefinitely. For the rest of us it is time to admit that he will not be coming to Pakistan to testify in the very case that he ignited with one newspaper column and kept fanning with daily media appearances. Finally, after weeks of bluffs and counter-offers, Mr Ijaz’s lawyer said that he and his client aren’t satisfied that security arrangements for Ijaz are sufficient as a result of which, he won’t be appearing before the judicial commission investigating the memogate case. As a US citizen, Mr Ijaz has every right to absent himself from Pakistani legal proceedings. But to continue making statements that will never face judicial scrutiny but place the government at risk is highly irresponsible at best.

Part of Mr Ijaz’s reasoning for declining to come to Pakistan is that the government has been harassing him for his decision to testify before the judicial commission. But the PPP has a solid line of argument against him. If he is appearing before the judicial commission, goes the PPP reasoning, then why can he not appear in front of a parliamentary panel investigating the same matter? For him to cherry-pick which commission he would like to speak to and which he would rather avoid, raises questions about his credibility. Now that he won’t be appearing in Pakistan at all, perhaps it is time to discount his many media statements since they will no longer be receiving the official scrutiny that they deserve. It is also worth noting that Mr Ijaz’s concerns about his personal security are overblown. The government assured him of foolproof security and with the military in his corner, the chances of any harm coming to him are miniscule. The prime minister simply said that Mr Ijaz would not be given the same level of security as that given to a visiting head of state which is a fair argument. Quite clearly, those who thought that Mr Ijaz was an attention-seeker who would not visit Pakistan will have their perceptions strengthened by his decision because their argument will be that the issue of security is a mere pretext. While the commission will now decide whether Mr Ijaz’s testimony will be recorded overseas, the fact that he has refused to come to Pakistan itself casts doubt on the integrity of any such communication from him.

Dogs of war

January 24th, 2012

The sight must be a horrific one. Every Sunday afternoon, at an open ground near the town of Mirpur in Azad Kashmir, dozens of dogs try to maul or tear each other to death — cheered on by their owners and a crowd of hundreds of onlookers. The ‘winners’ receive trophies and prizes; those who have bet on the animals collect their winnings. Some dogs die; others are badly injured or perhaps maimed for life. The macho show of brutality using creatures that have no voice — according to a report in this newspaper — is organised and patronised essentially by British nationals of Pakistani origin, with the dogs brought in for the ‘contest’ from across Punjab and Kashmir. It is uncertain quite what pleasure spectators get from watching the dogs take chunks of flesh from each other, accompanied no doubt by the yelping that comes with pain, but it seems a large number of persons take pleasure from the ‘entertainment’ put on before them.

Dog fighting is of course illegal in Britain, the home of many of the owners of the unfortunate canines. What few realise, including the local authorities in Mirpur — and other parts of the country where such contests take place — is that it is also illegal under Pakistani law. But animal welfare societies which function here, lack the necessary funds to take action or even lodge a serious protest. For the same reason, ‘sports’ such as bear-baiting or camel fighting also continue, despite laws to ban them and campaigns launched by international NGOs. The entire display, the laughing, the clapping and the cheering which accompanies it demonstrates our lack of humanity; our basic lack of civilisation. The law in this regard, of course, needs to be upheld. But any law will work only if there is an awareness and a realisation that such acts of cruelty amount to a barbarism we simply do not want to see continue in our society. Some way must then be found to uphold the law and bring the terrible Sunday spectacle to an end as swiftly as possible.

A failed coup

January 24th, 2012

Like Pakistan, Bangladesh has had a surplus of army generals who think that they are better suited to run the country than the civilians voted in to do the job and frequently act on that impulse. In its 40 years since independence, Bangladesh has suffered through three army coups and many mutinies. Most recently, a military caretaker government ruled the country for two years before Sheikh Hasina came into power as prime minister. What makes the recent coup attempt — revealed by the army leadership last week — so different is that the plotters were mid-level army officers, inspired by religious zeal and not top generals lusting after power. What is ominous about this coup attempt is the religious motivations that reportedly fuelled it. In recent years, Bangladesh has been plagued by extremism and groups like Hizbut Tahrir have gained a following. These groups are strongly and violently opposed to the secular government of Sheikh Hasina.

But the tussle in Bangladesh is not as simple as a secularists-versus-conservatives battle. The military will always be a wild card for reasons that might sound familiar to Pakistanis. The generals hold the view that Hasina’s party, the Awami League and the main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party, are both hopelessly corrupt and frequently use that as an excuse for their meddling. Some 800 soldiers are still awaiting trial for their role in an earlier mutiny, which has led to tension between the civilians and the anti-democracy military establishment. The Awami League has also made many enemies by targeting mainstream Islamic parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami. But this new alliance between the religious parties and elements within the army may be the most toxic possible combination. Fuelled by their sense of mission and armed to the teeth, their rise can spell nothing but trouble for Bangladesh. One coup attempt may have been averted but more are likely in the future. Democracy in Bangladesh, it seems, has so many enemies that it is hanging by a thread.

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

The mystery of the drone attacks

January 25th, 2012

Inside Pakistan there is ‘national consensus’ on the drones: the US must stop its Predators because they kill innocent citizens in collateral damage and increase the pressure on Pakistan Army fighting the Taliban by swelling the ranks of those who fight it for revenge. Outside Pakistan, there is an impression that the drones are being used against the terrorists in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas under some kind of secret deal between the CIA and Pakistan Army. Another al Qaeda top echelon leader has been killed on January 11 in Miranshah in North Waziristan through this alleged ‘coordination’. This was said to be Abdullah Khorasani, who is believed to have been playing a key role in planning the overall strategy of terror acts in Pakistan. The man’s real name was Aslam Awan, and he was a citizen of Abbottabad, where Osama bin Laden was killed last May by US commandos. As per routine, the drone attack was effective because it was directed by spotters on ground calling the strike precisely on to the victim.

The strike ended a 55-day-long pause after the Salala checkpost attack by American gunships in November 2011. Following this, a foreign news agency quoted Pakistani officials who said that the drones are being operated under an agreed US-Pakistan plan which remains classified. This clearly contradicts the government’s public stance on this issue, which, quite stridently believes that drones violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The American stance in the past has been that drone attacks had to be carried out without bringing Pakistan into the loop because the Pakistani side tended to ‘pass on’ the information about the attack to the terrorists who then moved away from the target area. This was understood all over the world in the light of the belief that Pakistan was actually a allowing safe haven to foreigner terrorists in North Waziristan whom it used for attacking inside Afghanistan to retain its stake in the Afghan endgame. The new ‘information’ — including quotes from unnamed Pakistani officials — belies much of that. It purports to verify that the Pakistani side was indeed keeping the strikes secret and, instead of passing on the information to the terrorists, was actually helping the CIA target them with spotters on the ground. Given the nature of these revelations, it remains to be seen what the Pakistani military’s response will be to them.

One should understand that the drone attacks have been a success story as far as the US and its allies are concerned. The ‘analysis’ about the ‘wiping out’ of al Qaeda and the sharp diminution in its ability to target America and Europe is based on the number of al Qaeda terrorists killed by the drones inside Pakistan. As if to confirm this, a meeting took place between an al Qaeda leader and Mullah Umar in the presence of other commanders in which the al Qaeda representative was quoted as appealing for help for more attacks by allies in Pakistan. Pakistan’s wrath against the CIA after the Raymond Davis case in Lahore early 2011 had brought the US-Pakistan quarrel to a boiling point. Since then, and since the May 2 attack that killed Osama bin Laden, the relationship has been hurtling downhill, ending in Pakistan’s decision not to attend the Bonn conference on Afghanistan. This would then lead to many arguing that with this all as a backdrop, how could Pakistan possibly be cooperating with the US on the drone attacks.

Yet there is logic to the opposite point of view. Pakistan has benefited from the attacks in the sense that some of its most dangerous enemies have been killed by the drones. Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban chief, whose intercepted telephone call revealed that he was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, was killed by a drone. Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a drone strike and Hakimullah Mehsud, who succeeded Baitullah, was killed ‘twice’ in drone strikes. The first one was false but the second more recent one is yet to be proven false. Clearly, drone strikes are effective. However, Pakistan’s policy of saying one thing in public and quite the opposite in private should be replaced by when where the people should be persuaded of this strategy’s effectiveness.

Strong indictment

January 25th, 2012

The report for 2011 by the New York-based human rights body, Human Rights Watch (HRW), uses strong words to describe the situation Pakistan faces. Indeed the manner in which reports fom both local and international human rights bodies grow more and more critical of the state of affairs in the country from one year to the next is something that should kindle far more thought about what is happening around us. Sadly, most such reports tend to go unheeded, making newspaper stories for a few days and then vanishing from view, the actual document perhaps lying on shelves in a few offices, or then accessed occasionally by researchers using the internet.

The latest report by HRW tells of a State in which a democratic government, under greater and greater pressure from the army, has failed to check extremism, abuses by the military itself or by other violent elements. It speaks of growing attacks by bombers, the wave of politically motivated killings that claimed some 800 lives in Karachi, the growing chaos in Balochistan and the clamp down on free speech marked by the death of 10 journalists, including Saleem Shahzad. The killing of ex-governor Salman Taseer further highlights this point. As we all know, all kinds of other horrors unfold in our midst.

They involve the killing or maiming of women, the persecution of minorities and the use of torture of all kinds in custody. What is most frightening is that things have worsened sharply when we compare the situation to that which existed three or four decades ago. This is reflected in the HRW report. What the detailed chapter on Pakistan does, however, is to also pin-point one of the key reasons for at least some of the major issues we face: chiefly the chains that bind the government, preventing it from acting freely, remaining tied up with a contest quest for survival and coping with issues that leave it even less able to manage the real affairs of the country. There seems to be before us no visible way to swiftly change things and move towards a better and brighter future.

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

Filming death

January 26th, 2012

Many people in this country seem to have an odd definition of sovereignty: to them its violation seems to be applied selectively. Thus, the Nato attack on Salala checkpost counts as an aggressive violation of our sovereignty — which it undoubtedly was — and a possible act of war but when the Taliban, who are harbouring many foreign militants in their midst, release a video showing their brutal execution of 15 Frontier Constabulary personnel, their actions barely solicit a yawn. This double standard translates into misguided policy. We have taken punitive action against the US for the Salala raid; cutting off land routes for Nato supplies into Turkey. The Taliban, meanwhile, end up being rewarded and have legitimacy conferred on them as the government treats them like an equal by inviting them to peace talks. What this video should teach us is a lesson that we should have already learned. We are locked in an intractable battle against an enemy that does abide by the rules of war. An enemy like that cannot be trusted at the negotiating table. This is something that should have been clear from previous peace deals, which the Taliban merely used as a breather to allow them to regroup stronger than ever. This has been a lesson we have studiously ignored. If we refuse to listen to the strategic case for refusing peace overtures, perhaps now the moral case can be more persuasive.

This video, we can be sure, will be used for propaganda purposes by the Taliban. Other Taliban and al Qaeda factions will watch the executions of the FC men and celebrate it as something to emulate. Rather than become further fodder for the Taliban propaganda mill, the civilian and military leadership needs to stop being so indecisive about their options in the fight against militancy. The fact is that peace will only be achieved through a military rout of the Taliban, with the dangling of the negotiation carrot coming only later, to a weakened enemy.

Asghar Khan’s petition

January 26th, 2012

Even when its judgments have been legally sound, a common complaint heard against the present Supreme Court is that it seems to have concentrated its ire on the democratically-elected government, while sparing the far more powerful military. As much truth as there may have been in this claim, one hopes that this perception will be corrected, now that the honourable Court has set a date to hear a petition filed by Asghar Khan, some 15 years ago against the ISI’s alleged meddling in politics. On February 29, the Supreme Court will hear the petition, whose contents have been printed, and reprinted, in the country’s newspapers over the years. The allegation against the intelligence agency is that it used a slush fund to pay various amounts of taxpayers money to politicians to cobble together an alliance by the name of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad. The petition alleges that this was done in 1990, in an attempt to deny the PPP victory in general elections that year. Among those accused are a former army chief and a former chief of the ISI.

What makes this case even more interesting is that it will raise questions about the role of the current opposition party, the PML-N, and how it has, at least in its past, benefitted from military largesse. Nawaz Sharif’s party is one of the main backers, of late, of the apex court’s trend towards judicial activism and may find itself in the dock this time, during the hearing of Asghar Khan’s petition. Especially in an election year, this petition could politically be very damaging for the PML-N.

It is because of that potential for damage that Leader of the Opposition, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has asked that the Supreme Court expand the scope of the petition and investigate all of the ISI’s payments to politicians, not just those made in 1990. Although he has suggested this for all the wrong reasons, the Supreme Court would be wise to take his advice because a hearing on this matter could focus some much-needed attention on how the establishment interferes in the country’s politics, which is something that is quite clearly not part of its constitutional responsibility. And by doing that, it could perhaps act as a deterrent for future meddling.

Progress in Myanmar

January 26th, 2012

During his annual State of the Union address on January 24, US President Barack Obama made mention of the ongoing process of democratic reforms in Myanmar that was kick-started in March 2011, and has been gaining momentum ever since. Similarly, President Asif Zardari’s visit to Myanmar and his emphasis on strengthening trade ties with the country is a representation of the progress emerging there. Although previous experience should teach us to be cautious in our optimism, it does indeed seem as if the country is on the path to some kind of democracy. In January, the military junta that has brutally ruled the country released more than 600 political prisoners and specifically allowed them to become part of the political process. That same month, the government signed a peace deal with the Karen National Union, which had been waging an armed struggle.

Myanmar is still far from being a democracy, but after decades of brutality and suppression, it appears as if the army is finally ready to give up most of its power and allow the civilians to have a say in the running of the country’s affairs. The international community has responded in kind and is now considering lifting sanctions on the country. This would be a wise move as the flooding of European and US money, goods and influence should help speed up the liberalisation process. The next test for the military will be the by-elections that are to be held on April 1. Among the candidates is Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The opposition group, the National League for Democracy, has also announced that it will take part in the by-elections. Should the elections proceed smoothly and the process gets certified by independent international groups, it will be the strongest sign yet, that the military is actually serious on reform. Just a year ago, Myanmar was an international pariah. The rapid speed of change has been to the credit of the tireless opposition that has suffered death, prison and torture to advance its cause.

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

Acts of terror

January 27th, 2012

Hundreds of Shias died in targeted attacks across the country last year and most tragically, this year seems to be no different. The deadly process continues. Three Shia lawyers were gunned down in Karachi on January 26. On the same day, three other professionals — including an FIA official, an accountant and a poet — all from the Shia community, were killed in Quetta. Extremist groups are believed to be responsible and may well be deliberately targeting Shia professionals as means to spread terror amongst the community. The tactic has worked, with hundreds of professionals — notably doctors — who have fled the country after being targeted in this manner. This is a loss that is hard to sustain in a nation where professionals are badly needed. To add to the targeted shooting, there have been attacks on Shia processions such as the one taken out earlier this month in the town of Khanpur in Rahimyar Khan district, where Shias were mourning the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain.

We all know who is behind the attacks; the rise of sectarian organisations in the Punjab in the late 1980s and 1990s is well-documented. Through the years these groups have split up, and re-grouped under different names again and again. The question is: why can’t more be done to go after them, both in their base in the southern Punjab and in other centres where they have spread like a virus against which we have no antidote. We need to tackle the issue head on. The fact that we have waited so long only makes matters more difficult. On a short-term basis, our intelligence networks need to determine how these groups operate, where they are based and devise a strategy to marginalise them. The increasing hatred and intolerance in society needs to be tackled and we need to end the targeting of those from the Shia community which is destroying so many aspects of life in our society, effectively tearing it apart. In the short-term, this means hitting those involved in such sectarian attacks with an iron fist. As for the longer term, this will have to involve a comprehensive overhaul of the national curriculum and regulation/monitoring of madrassas.

Falling like flies

January 27th, 2012

Patients who had consumed pills doled out by the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, the premier heart facility in the province, continue to die like flies. Contradicting his own health department, which put the toll at 72, the Punjab chief minister said on a visit to PIC that 100 people have died. He has set up yet another commission, the eighth so far, to look into the matter. None of these bodies have given in results, as yet. Meanwhile, the PPP has demanded a case against Shahbaz Sharif, as news comes in that a company which had lost its licence had been supplying medicines to the PIC.

The massive 22-member commission set up by the chief minister, headed by Dr Javed Akram, who is the principal of the Allama Iqbal Medical College, believes that the death toll could further increase as people continue to suffer the mysterious ill-effects of the tablets which they took as a part of free treatment for their cardiac condition. Hospitals in other places have warned patients to discontinue the medications. Three pharmaceutical companies, headquartered in Karachi, are under investigation, with the FIA reportedly set to arrest their owners. Medical experts say the pills — or some of them — created bone marrow suppression or aplastic anaemia. This is in itself a mystery as none of the listed ingredients would be expected to have this effect.

Certainly, those responsible need to be held accountable, but we also need a wider examination of the process of manufacturing and testing the safety of medicines in the country. We already know many of those sold lack quality; some entirely spurious compounds are put together in backstreet labs. A system needs to be put in place to stop this, while Punjab also needs to review the working of its health ministry, given the dengue debacle suffered last year, followed now by a new series of deaths, the health ministries confidence that it can help cure the ailments patient suffer because of its reputation and standing, is ill-founded.

Banning concerts?

January 27th, 2012

The decision by the Punjab Assembly to pass a resolution calling for a ban on ‘objectionable’ concerts at educational institutions may be one of the worst examples yet of lawmakers trying to impose their version of morality on the constituents they serve. Although the resolution is non-binding, it still needs to be vociferously opposed before members of the provincial assembly decide that they have the support to convert it into a binding bill. What is most dangerous about the bill is its refusal to define ‘objectionable’. A morality brigade imbued with the fumes of self-righteousness could use it to shut down everything from classic dance to rock concerts. Whether artistic content is ‘objectionable’ lies in the eyes of the beholder and cannot be legislated by politicians, especially when the majority party in the Pubjab Assembly is the one that banned the wearing of jeans by pop singers on national television in the 1990s.

The resolution was spurred by a tragedy at a concert in Lahore where three girls were killed in a stampede. Rather than shutting down the venue and jailing the organisers, who allowed the overcrowding which caused the stampede, legislators decide to play the morality card. Furthermore, in this debate no mention was made of safety laws that would ensure the well-being of attendees. It is almost as if they think those who attend ‘objectionable’ concerts have no one but themselves to blame. The actions of the Punjab Assembly would suggest that MPs have granted themselves the right to ban anything they don’t personally approve of. This is not how a free society should be governed. Inevitably, politicians who think they can ban cultural events will try and expand the list of proscribed activities. Such moral policing only ensures that there are fewer public spaces that welcome youngsters, driving them further away from mainstream society. For the sake of culture, free speech and the youth of the country, this Punjab Assembly resolution needs to be repudiated by all.

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

Victory for the transgendered

January 28th, 2012

Credit must be given where it is due. As such, we must celebrate and continue to support the effort various government departments have made to put into practice the Supreme Court’s directive that people from the transgender community be given computerised national identity cards and registered as voters for the upcoming elections. On January 25, transgendered persons got a morale boost as the first voters from their community began to be registered in Punjab. Scenes of celebration dominated the day as eunuchs expressed hope at finally being integrated into the larger social and political landscape. The swift action by the Punjab government, NADRA and the Election Commission is commendable. Still, it must not be forgotten that registering transgendered persons as voters is simply the first step towards a larger goal: that is, elevating their status to a point where social stigma no longer hinders their ability to function in society. This, unfortunately, is as pervasive as ever and has been cited as a reason for delays in their registration in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Eunuchs claim that society’s more conservative elements will never accept them and their fears are not unfounded — for most continue to live a ghettoised existence.

It is essential to note that this stigma cannot be overcome without significant effort from both sides: the government and the transgender community. Now that the government is taking definite measures to uphold the community’s rights, transgendered persons are urged to take a step forward and demonstrate readiness to participate in social and political life. That Shahana Abbas Shani, President of the She-Male Association, intends to contest elections from Muzaffargarh is an encouraging sign. Shani’s intention signifies a desire to participate in political life as an equal and, it is this belief in their own equality that will help transgendered persons command the society’s respect. Now that their equal legal status is being cemented, it will no longer do for eunuchs to think of themselves as second-class citizens. If the eunuch community continues to motivate its own, a rush of voter registration from other provinces is sure to follow soon, heralding a new beginning for a misunderstood community.

Illiterate students

January 28th, 2012

We know already that our educational situation is a bleak one, with official figures still putting the overall literacy rate at under 60 per cent. This is drastically lower in some parts of the country, with vast regional differences opening up their own set of problems. Now we learn from a new survey that even children who do go to school — in a significant number of cases — remain unable to read or perform basic mathematical functions. In other words, they are emerging illiterate from the schools they attend.

The Annual Status of Education Report 2011, based on a survey by the South Asia Forum for Education Development, found that only 41.8 per cent of children between the ages of 5-16 can read a sentence in Urdu or their regional language, while merely 25.8 per cent of those assessed are able to read a sentence in English. Even at class five level, 52.6 per cent of children cannot read class two level stories in Urdu or their mother tongue; and 59.4 per cent cannot read class two level sentences in English while 62.7 percent cannot do three-digit division. A total of 146,874 children in 2,502 villages and 97 urban blocks were covered by the survey.

Shocking as the findings are, they do not come across as a major surprise. ‘Literacy’ has long been assessed by the ability to sign ones name — a largely meaningless exercise, while volunteers who work at government schools report a frightening number of children who simply cannot read even after five years or more of schooling. While the report identifies teacher absenteeism as a major problem, it is also true that teaching methods are an issue. Rote-learning means that there is no grasp of the actual means to read, while curriculum design at the primary level is so bad that children have problems moving from one stage of reading to the next. Inadequate teacher training and poor motivation adds to the crisis. This is a disaster that needs to be addressed urgently and without attempting to turn away from it.

Twelve years in jail on no charge

January 28th, 2012

The Supreme Court’s suo motu powers are often questioned since, the cases that are picked up are open to public criticism, especially that there seems to be no standardised process. Occasionally, however, it leads to the correction of an injustice so glaring that one finally understands that, at its best, suo motu powers exist to help those who have been forgotten and discarded by the legal system. Such was the case with Bilal, a mentally challenged man, who was held in Hyderabad jail for 12 years, without being charged! It appears that he was arrested on the vague charges of walking in a suspicious manner and simply left to rot in the system. Had his family not learned of his whereabouts and had the Supreme Court not taken action, it is very likely that he would have languished in prison indefinitely.

As welcome as this suo motu action was, the problem with it is that it helps out an individual without tackling the rot in the system. So corrupt and dysfunctional is the prison and judicial system in Pakistan that on many occasions people have spent years there awaiting trial. A study done by the International Crisis Group in 2011 found that out of 78,000 people in prison, as many as 50,000 were still awaiting trial. The problem with this, apart from the denial of a citizen’s fundamental human right to a trial, is that it breeds recidivism. Prisoners who have been treated unfairly are far more likely to return to a life of crime. Add to this, the overcrowding in prisons with absence of any checks on police brutality, and you end up with tens of thousands of people who have yet to be judged guilty but are being treated as if they are.

A complete overhaul of the criminal justice system is badly needed to ensure that cases like Bilal’s are anomalies rather than the norm. The police have to be educated about the proper procedure for detaining and charging prisoners and the courts need to be more efficient at hearing cases.

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