Another airline crash

April 22nd, 2012

The first thought, when confronted with a tragedy of the magnitude of the Bhoja Air crash that killed everyone on board, is to mourn the unnecessary loss of life and offer condolences to the friends and families of all the victims. As appropriate an emotion as grief is at this moment, it is also accompanied by anger. This is the second plane to have crashed in the vicinity of Islamabad in less than two years with bad weather initially assumed to have played a role in both crashes. There is no reason why Islamabad should become a new Bermuda Triangle, which is why we need answers as quickly as possible. This time there should be no scapegoating, no obfuscation, no delays and no cover-ups. What we want — actually what we need — is the unfiltered truth if we are ever to feel safe in the skies again.

The first obvious target in the investigation into the crash will be Bhoja Air itself. The airline had only resumed operations last month after a decade-long hiatus. It needs to be ascertained if this airplane should have been in the skies in the first place. Media reports indicate that it was over 40 years old and knowing as we do the shortcuts that are taken in this industry — indeed the country as a whole — there can be no guarantee that the aircraft was properly maintained. The age and experience of the pilot, too, needs to be investigated. Stormy weather can always be a major risk for an aircraft but experienced pilots have the ability to skilfully navigate treacherous conditions. At the same time, each and every aircraft in Bhoja Air’s fleet needs to be thoroughly checked to see if they meet safety standards. Until then, it would be best to suspend the airline’s operations. Any financial losses Bhoja Air suffers pale in comparison to the risk those airplanes may pose to the flying public. Putting Farooq Bhoja, the head of Bhoja Air, on the exit control list and conducting an investigation that is thorough and far-reaching would be a start but the government must show that this is not a mere public relations exercise.

The next obvious avenue of investigation is the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). As the main regulatory body of the industry, it is the CAA’s job to carry out an impartial investigation. We hope that this will be the case, but the CAA’s role does not stop with simply dealing with the aftermath of a plane crash. It is the job of the regulatory body to ensure safety on all aircraft to minimise the chances of such crashes in the first place. There is reason to believe that the CAA may have failed on this account. For one, it is mainly staffed by former employees of the airlines themselves, creating an undeniable conflict of interest. Then, the performance of the CAA in investigating the Airblue crash two years ago was also not up to the standards one expects from a regulator. That crash was blamed entirely on pilot error, in a report so shoddy and erroneous, that the Peshawar High Court rejected it and had to demand a new report that used impartial international experts only.

This time around, more information needs to be shared with the public about the circumstances of the crash. With the Airblue crash, we were never allowed access to the full transcript of the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight data recorder. Since both the airlines and the regulatory authority are trusted by no one, such transparency is essential to ensure an investigation that has the confidence of the public.

Ultimately, the Courts too will have to get involved. Justice needs to be done at both the emotional level, by providing families of the crash victims’ closure through an impartial investigation, as well as the financial level, to compensate those who lost bread-earners and loved ones. After its crash, Airblue only gave compensation to those who promised not to pursue further legal action against the airline. The Courts cannot allow similar agreements now. In the end, it may be up to the judiciary to ensure that we get answers and not another cover-up.

Forced marriages

April 22nd, 2012

That police in Bahawalpur stepped in to prevent a forced marriage on April 19, is a faint ray of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape of human rights in the country. According to a news report, a 12-year-old girl was allegedly being married off to her cousin in order to settle a debt her father owed. The marriage was against her wishes and also against the laws governing the minimum age of marriage in Pakistan. The Muslim Family Law Ordinance of 1961 stipulates that a girl under the age of 16 is a child whose marriage is illegal.

However, the facts on the ground are that child marriages are distressingly common in Pakistan. Children are often betrothed at birth and marriages of pre-teen girls with men thrice their age barely raise an eyebrow. A few months ago in Sargodha, two other marriages — a watta satta — were prevented by the police: a 14-year-old girl was being married to a 30-year-old man, while a 12-year-old girl was being married to a 50-year-old. The Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP) estimates that about 30 per cent of marriages in Pakistan fall under the category of childhood marriages. It is not just girls who are married off young, but often both the bride and the groom are barely in their teens when they are forced into marriage by family.

One of the causes of such marriages is poverty, as illustrated in this particular instance. Children are looked upon by their parents as property and in the absence of money to settle debts, they can easily be traded instead. Not only do these marriages constitute a gross violation of human rights, they also contribute to Pakistan’s lamentably high fertility rate. Unfortunately, these practices have become deeply ingrained in our culture and it is the parallel justice system — the panchayats which are called upon to settle various disputes — that often decides that such marriages are the way to resolve conflicts.

Also culpable are the clerics who willingly solemnise the marriages of children, though it violates the conditions of a nikah and flies in the face of Islamic edicts. To uproot this malaise, it is these clerics and panchayats that need to be convinced and co-opted.

A vote for women

April 23rd, 2012

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has registered nearly 40 million women in the country, as part of the process of ensuring that every adult woman in the country has a national identity card and is able to cast a ballot. This is an important exercise, given that for decades the figure for women voters has remained far lower than that for men. This is an anomaly statistically, which has lacked the attention of the authorities concerned for decades. By handing out national identity cards to women, we create awareness about the need for them to come forward at polling time.

It is to the credit of NADRA that it has made such a big effort for this purpose, dispatching mobile teams all over the country — especially to remote areas — in an attempt to reach a large number of women. It has already been able to put over five million women in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on the rolls. This is significant in an area where the registration of women has traditionally remained low and stigmatised. The matter is also being approached in a highly pragmatic fashion, with NADRA acknowledging the role that NGOs have played in raising awareness of the issue and assisting the body in its campaign.

However, we must remember that more needs to be done after putting down the names of women on the rolls. The fact is that in too many places, agreements are reached between male heads of clans or tribes, which disallow women from going to polling stations to cast their votes. This practice has to be prevented. The Election Commission of Pakistan has taken note of such ‘deals’ in the past and the ongoing NADRA exercise marks another step forward in this regard. Efforts must also be made to make women aware that they should use their individual judgment in determining who to vote for. They need to look at how their own interests can be best protected through the use of their votes. Perhaps, this process will begin in earnest across the country as more and more women receive their national identity card documentation and realise that they too have a standing as citizens.

Trade with India

April 23rd, 2012

During his campaign aimed at responding to the increasingly harsh challenge of the PML-N in Punjab, President Asif Ali Zardari has been touring the stronghold of the ruling party, shoring up the PPP’s position. When he reached Okara he spoke near the old Sulemanki border post with India, declaring that “Pakistan is willing to have dialogue with India on all issues, and is also open to trade with the neighbouring country”.

He was speaking against the background of the recent visit to New Delhi and Attari by the commerce minister, confirming an initial agreement between the two countries to enhance bilateral trade and soften the visa regime. The two sides are preparing negative lists of commodities so that free trade can take place and they can begin the transformational process to dwarf long-standing bilateral disputes. Beyond the bilateral focus, there is the prospect of South Asian trade across Pakistan to Central Asia and across India to East Asia.

Are we standing at the gateway of a big change? A look at history tells us that wars and trade have always brought about big changes. In our day, wars are difficult to wage as the global order is firmly bound to the status quo. Trade remains the only medium of radical change. It removes the national frontier as a locus of tension and conflict, and reintroduces it as the medium of developmental synergy between sovereign states. Pakistan anticipates big traffic on the roads that traditionally connected the two states and is already expanding the road leading to the Wagah border.

Initially, the attraction of this new project is for those industries and traders who export: Pakistan expects to export 1,650 items — woven fabrics, garments, bed linen, footwear, dates and chickpeas. India expects to export 3,286 items — automobiles, diesel trucks, black tea, pneumatic tyres, antibiotics and reactive dyes. Pakistani exporters will gain from the negative differential between the currencies of the two countries: the Pakistani rupee is half the value of the Indian rupee. India expects Pakistani investments to land in East Punjab pending the bad law and order situation in Pakistan.

President Zardari cannot have missed the rapid progress Bangladesh has made with respect to the opening of multiple routes connecting India with other neighbours across its territory. It has crossed the psychological barrier that bedevilled Dhaka because of the primacy of bilateral disputes in its relations with India. Bangladesh intends to provide transit facilities to India, along with Nepal and Bhutan by March 2013. It has already allowed a wide transit road joining India with its states in the northeast.

Opponents of trade opening often say that there is no big potential in the free-trade regime that is being inaugurated. After all, the export potential from India to Pakistan is $9.5billion, while that from Pakistan to India is $2.2billion. It is apparently nothing compared with India’s trade with China at $75billion. They say trade with Central Asia through Pakistan will be of small value because Central Asia does not have the population that could be counted as a big market for Pakistani and Indian goods. This position is belied by the rising energy needs of South Asia and the potential of energy export from Central Asia based on regional surplus now going from Central Asia through Russia to Europe. If Pakistan looks closely at the smuggling of its agricultural commodities through Afghanistan, it will realise that a regional network of roads to Central Asia will transform Pakistan’s economy, which is now admittedly strong in agriculture. A landlocked Central Asia is bound to grow economically with higher standards of living, which means it will need trade outlets to the sea through Pakistan.

Pakistan is shifting from its ‘military’ view of geopolitics — prevent transit trade to gain advantage — to a civilian view, which allows transit to gain economic advantage and prosperity of the people. The new paradigm is late in coming and this delay is being felt by Pakistan, as other South Asian states are currently posting high growth rates.

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

Making air travel safer

April 24th, 2012

In an attempt to be seen as performing its job after the Bhoja Air crash, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has now ordered an inspection of every aircraft owned by private airlines. Although the CAA is trying to be proactive in responding to the crash, this is actually a reactive move. It is the job of the CAA to regulate airline safety and in fact, it should have ensured that all airplanes were safe to be flown long before the Bhoja Air tragedy. Nonetheless, belated though the move may be, the CAA must now carry out safety inspections that are thorough, even if it means disrupting the schedules of airlines. The safety inspections should be expanded to include the national airline. When it comes to safety in the skies, shortcuts are not an option.

The rest of us need to be patient because investigations into airline crashes can take many months. The very last thing we need is for politicians to advance their political interests at a time of a national tragedy. The early signs are not encouraging. Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali has already blasted the judicial commission set up to investigate the crash, saying that it had been appointed without the advice of the judiciary. He also accused the president of trying to cover up the tragedy. However, this accusation is without merit. There is no reason to believe that the president had any involvement with Bhoja Air and Chaudhry Nisar Ali could not explain why he would try to cover up the causes of the crash. Indeed, it is not too cynical to suggest that if a judicial commission had not been formed so speedily, the opposition would then have accused the president of dragging his feet.

What is clear at this moment is that Pakistan’s airline industry needs strong regulation. On April 23, an airplane of Shaheen Air had to make an emergency landing in Karachi after its tyres burst, causing the runway to be closed for several hours. Such incidents will now come under greater scrutiny as the public’s fear of air travel grows. Only the CAA can assuage the legitimate fears that have now sprung up after the Bhoja Air crash. Transparency, not obfuscation and excuse-making, is vital to restoring confidence in the airline industry.

Fear overhead

April 24th, 2012

Is there a Lahori love for adventure and acts of daring? Does the city suffer from a widespread fear of heights that has never been noted before? Perhaps, the matter needs to be researched. The fact is that only a small number of pedestrians use the dozens of overhead bridges built in the city — at a cost of Rs332 million — to facilitate them crossing busy roads. Yet, these people tend to ignore the massive steel structures built over roads, treating them as some kind of decorative monument and instead choosing all kinds of hazardous and far more complex ways to cross roads.

Along the Multan Road, eight overhead bridges were built to help pedestrians tackle heavy traffic that races down the highway. Walls were also erected to cut off the drain that runs through the middle of the road and was intended to stop people crossing over it. Now, cuts have been made in these walls. In some places, metal bars or narrow planks have been placed across it, with people — even the elderly — preferring to balance carefully on these ‘makeshift’ crossings rather than using the bridge that stands metres away. Some suggest it is too strenuous to climb the stairs, but yet they have no trouble clambering over waist-high walls. The same scenes are witnessed on Canal Road, along which eight bridges stand. On other roads, including Ring Road along which traffic passes constantly, pedestrian users, including women, prefer to use bricks or iron rods as steps to get over the roads’ high walls.

The whole thing is something of a mystery. It is only near college campuses that we see bridges actually being used. The mind block that prevents other pedestrians from doing the same, in fact places them at risk and makes something of a mockery of official efforts to assist the millions of pedestrians on our roads. Old habits, it is clear, die hard — and changing this proclivity to use almost any means possible to steer clear of bridges is not going to be easy to change in a city where people see dodging cars, trucks, motorbikes and vans apparently as a kind of addictive game.

What’s in a name?

April 24th, 2012

Surely a person should know what his or her religion is. It should not be left up to NADRA to determine this issue. Yet, this is precisely what has happened in the case of Rana Asif Mahmood, a PML-N member who won from a minority seat in 2008. He has now been faced with a court notice from the Lahore High Court, before which a petition has been placed claiming that NADRA records show he is a Muslim and he had posed as a Christian only to win a seat. Rana Asif fervently denies this, claiming the whole problem has been created because NADRA mistook him for a Muslim on the basis of his name and listed him as a Muslim. The error was only recently brought to his notice. The above-mentioned belongs to an established Christian family with his father also having fought elections as a Christian. He maintains that the matter has been brought up by Christian rivals seeking an assembly seat.

The entire situation is a ludicrous one. Human rights activists have pointed out that NADRA cannot determine the religion of a person; what the person says should be the final word on the matter. To add to the problem, NADRA now says the record listing Mahmood’s religion as ‘Islam’ cannot be changed. Any other religion can be altered but Islam. It seems impossible to believe that a clerical error cannot be rectified and that Mahmood is ‘stuck’ with a faith he says is not his.

A name is, of course, no basis to decide an individual’s religion. There are many names shared by Muslims, Christians and those of other faiths everywhere in the world. Granting Mahmood the status he seeks as a Christian should not be made into an issue. The evidence we have so far indicates a simple error was made, with no malice involved. Surely, it is possible to rectify this and as the activists have suggested, allow the MPA to declare for himself what his religion is. This is a basic right which no citizen should be denied by any other individual or authority.

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

Lost evidence

April 25th, 2012

There are some who have criticised the Supreme Court’s proceedings in the Asghar Khan petition on the grounds that, even if the intelligence agencies did pay off politicians to influence elections, it happened more than 20 years ago and is irrelevant now. That is a dangerously misguided view. With elections scheduled to be held less than a year from now and with the military as powerful as ever, an investigation into the conduct of the intelligence agencies and those politicians who benefited from it is clearly in the public interest. This is what makes the April 23 revelation that reports regarding the petition compiled by judicial commissions in 1994 and 1996 had gone missing so disconcerting. Although there is a possibility that these reports may have been innocently misplaced, given our past especially with regard to threats — real and perceived — to democracy it is always better to err on the side of cynicism.

There are now two things that the Supreme Court and Attorney General Irfan Qadir must do. The first is to locate the missing documents since making a case against the ISI and corrupt politicians will be difficult if the judges have to rely solely on spoken testimony. Just about every politician in the vicinity of the Mehran Bank case has some ulterior motive or the other, making it very difficult to take their testimony at face value. Secondly, the Court must determine who was behind the disappearance of these documents. If it can establish who had the motive to make sure these reports are never aired in public, the Supreme Court will get further confirmation of the forces that were responsible for the bribery of politicians in the first place.

It is ironic that those who have previously complained the most vociferously about lost evidence are now most likely to stay quiet on the issue. When former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani said that he no longer had the BlackBerry through which he communicated with Mansoor Ijaz, the right wing political parties and military circles instantly accused him of lying, even though cell phones are routinely lost and replaced. For the sake of their credibility, these same political actors should now speak out even more loudly for the recovery of the lost reports. For the reports to be permanently lost would show just how little respect these groups have for the independence and work of the Supreme Court.

The battle continues

April 25th, 2012

Pakistan is fighting a very deadly battle all over the country. No village, hamlet, town or city has been spared of its wrath. But this is not a war that involves tanks, guns or grenades. In fact, the only weapons in the fight against the deadly battle are an amber liquid and some droppers. The enemy is polio — a disease which Pakistan has been attempting to gain control over with inadequate success.

Despite the fact that a national emergency on polio was declared last year, we have struggled to limit its occurrences with 198 cases recorded in 2011, which is the highest anywhere in the world. As a result, Pakistan has been declared the world’s focal point for the spread of polio, with experts from the World Health Organisation converging to discuss what they consider a highly dangerous situation. Adding to Pakistan’s embarrassment is the fact that this year, India was taken off the world’s list of polio-endemic countries after it competed 12 months without a new case being recorded. Today, only Afghanistan and Nigeria stand on that list alongside Pakistan.

Can Pakistan gain an upper hand in the battle against polio once more? Till the early 2000s we appeared to have been making progress. Even so, it is still encouraging that this year, only 15 cases have been recorded in contrast to 28 by the same time last year. But, of course, it is too early to say if we are indeed moving towards success. In the last year, polio re-emerged for the first time in districts of Balochistan that had remained polio-free for years. The latest anti-polio drive has been backed by a strong media campaign. This is wise, but we also need to take other steps suggested by experts, including better-run campaigns, an effort to reach every child, persuading people to vaccinate, dealing with migrations that result in children failing to receive the drops and combining the drive against polio with more generalised healthcare for children, which incorporates other vaccinations that they should be receiving. Pakistan needs to win this battle. The consequences of losing it are terrible.

Draining away talent

April 25th, 2012

It is only normal to expect that government bodies would work for the country and its people. Yet, the federal government’s Overseas Employment Corporation appears to be doing just the opposite by encouraging highly qualified persons, who are needed desperately in the country, to leave it. The body is currently facilitating a team from the health and defence ministries in Saudi Arabia to recruit doctors to be employed at hospitals and other medical centres in that country. Specialists in various fields are being sought and, quite naturally, the Saudis will be looking for the most highly skilled practitioners.

As is already happening because of the ongoing brain drain, Pakistanis are being deprived of the expertise of these skilled individuals. The same process is, of course, taking place in other fields as well. Nurses, scientists, teachers and others are all leaving the country. The very last thing we need is for an official body to encourage them to leave. While senior doctors have expressed concern over the situation, younger doctors say they are eager to work in Saudi Arabia and other countries because of the better salaries and working conditions there. They can, of course, like other professionals hardly be faulted for such sentiments. But at the same time we need to find ways to persuade people — especially in critical fields such as medicine — to stay in Pakistan.

This can only be done by improving salary structures and working conditions. Nurses and young doctors have both been demanding this over recent months. The drifting away of talent is an area we need to give more attention to; ways need to be found to curb this detrimental practice. Certainly, a government body should not be working to send doctors abroad, but perhaps focusing its efforts on the unskilled and semi-skilled labourers, who are perhaps in more dire need for such help. The body ought to assist these people so that a better future can be built for their families so that they may have a chance of escaping the poverty trap as well.

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

The kidnapping of a comedian

April 26th, 2012

Another proof that Pakistan is embroiled in lateral issues like corruption and honour-in-foreign-policy, and ignoring the erosion of the state at the hands of terrorists was forthcoming when a comedian from Peshawar was kidnapped at gunpoint by terrorists on April 24. He was performing at a wedding and there was nothing anyone could do to save him despite the vaunted efficiency of the 1122 call system for emergency police help.

Comedian Nisar Khan made fun of the terrorists operating under warlord Mangal Bagh’s gang, who operate under the banner of the Lashkar-i-Islam and the version of religion that they were trying to impose in Khyber Agency through savage punishments. His funny line was: “Shave my head, paint my face black; mount me on a donkey and make fun of me”. It lampooned the way the Taliban punished people whom they accused of theft. He was picked up last year too but was released. Only time will tell his fate this time around.

Whether he has been picked up by the Lashkar-i-Islam or the Taliban is not known. Both are active in Peshawar and have nullified the writ of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government. Outside Peshawar, a string of cities along the Kohat Road are also under a diarchy with the Taliban calling the shots and commanding more obedience on the part of the citizens than the state. One fears that the Pakistani state, under the tutelage of the establishment, may try to make itself safe from the terrorists’ savagery by becoming pro-Taliban and anti-US. The war which many say is “not Pakistan’s war” is, therefore, not wholeheartedly supported by all and, people like Nisar Khan are made an example of by the terrorists.

Mangal Bagh is rich because he has been kidnapping wealthy people of Peshawar for ransom. He has not been able to absorb himself into the Taliban led by Hakeemullah Mehsud under the umbrella of al Qaeda. Unlike him, another warlord, Swat’s Maulana Fazlullah, was able to join the Taliban and al Qaeda in 2007, after laying waste to the economy of Swat and then fleeing into Afghanistan. Mangal Bagh, however, has been fighting both the Pakistan Army and the Taliban for the last seven years. Needless to say, that the savagery of the warlords allows them to amass wealth and organise themselves.

When the Taliban took hold of Kabul in 1996, their version of religion came to the fore. Initially, people liked the ‘quick justice’ the Taliban meted out, but, with time, they woke up to the tyranny of the regime. All the singers and musicians of Afghanistan fled the country, including the famous singer, Nashanas. In 1999, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf came to power in Pakistan and started ruling with the help of an electoral clerical alliance of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), especially in then-NWFP. After the MMA promulgated new laws of conduct under the Hasba Bill, which the Supreme Court shot down, the same thing happened to Peshawar and other cities of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa: singers and entertainers either changed professions or left for Lahore — while cinemas were abolished.

The ‘quick justice’ syndrome still exists among the Afghan people, who must be getting ready for another migration into Pakistan as the Taliban look like they will be getting back to Kabul after the Americans leave Afghanistan. But this ‘quick justice’ did not sit well with the people of Swat who were grateful when the army rescued them from the clutches of Maulana Fazlullah. But another round of Talibanisation seems to be around the corner as the Difa-e-Pakistan Council — composed mostly of Pakistan’s infamous non-state actors — gets ready to fight the US and the 350,000-strong Afghan National Army that Washington will leave behind. Already the first big jailbreak in Bannu has pointed to the big muster of the mujahideen, who will wage the next war in Afghanistan, as well as maintain control of the areas they have supposedly ‘conquered’ in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the government, the Supreme Court, and the army are busy looking the other way.

Lahore railway blast

April 26th, 2012

Beyond their immediate death toll, the worst thing about terrorist attacks is the sense of insecurity they breed. Paralysed by fear, citizens are unable to go about their daily routine. That will be the likely impact of the attack on April 24, in the Business Express lounge at the Lahore Railway Station that killed two people and injured over 60 others. This was the first major terrorist attack in Lahore in over a year and, it has shattered whatever hopes of serenity may have begun to emerge in the country’s cultural capital. Coming as it did, just four days after the Bhoja Air crash in Islamabad, the railway attack will further engender greater fear of using transportation. Safety in public transport will now be seen as an illusion with both air and rail travel proving to be fraught with risk.

Easy though it may be to repeat platitudes about how life must go on, terrorist attacks have become so pervasive that we tend to dismiss the toll of terrorism. From the multiple check posts we have to endure every day, to the fear of going to places that might be possible targets, our quality of life is adversely affected in ways that we cannot even measure. In addition to that, there is also the significant economic impact of terrorism. In the days ahead, there will undoubtedly be fewer people willing to risk rail travel and that will have a ripple effect throughout the economy. As much as we pride ourselves on being resilient people, the psychological and emotional effects of terrorism cannot be underplayed.

What makes it even worse is that we have no confidence that the authorities will do anything, or everything, to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. In those rare cases where militants are caught, they usually end up being released by a dysfunctional court system. The government in Punjab is in denial about the problem of home-grown militancy, while the military seems to have decided it has done all it can to fight militancy in the tribal areas. We now seem to have reached the point where it has been decided that a certain amount of terrorism is a given and there is very little we can do to tackle it. It is this despondency by the authorities that allows militancy to thrive and strike seemingly at will.

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

In contempt!

April 27th, 2012

Now that the Supreme Court has found Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court, this would be a good time to both, look back at the circumstances that led to this unprecedented outcome and gaze into the crystal ball to figure out what happens next. Whether out of loyalty to the president and his party or a genuine belief that the immunity clause of the Constitution gave him cover, Mr Gilani refused to follow multiple directives of the Supreme Court to write a letter to the Swiss authorities reopening corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. At any point, Mr Gilani could have ended the contempt proceedings by writing the letter but in choosing not to do so, it can be said that he brought this judgment down on himself. That said, the PPP-led government has been held to a standard that was never applied to previous civilian governments and certainly not to the military. In fact, there are many who believe that the Court’s verdict on the NRO case was something that the petitioner had not asked for and by that it (the Court) had pushed itself into a corner. And the April 26 verdict may be a way out of that.

The carefully-crafted verdict is perhaps indicative of the Court’s desire to punish the prime minister without actually upsetting the democracy applecart. One hopes that this is the case because strengthening the hands of anti-democratic forces is presumably the last thing that the Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry-led Court would want to see happen. This is perhaps why the Supreme Court sentenced him (to “imprisonment” — re: the actual text of the short order) for only a few minutes until the court adjourned. But this does not mean the prime minister should consider himself safe in his position as prime minister. Since he has now been convicted, he could eventually be removed from office or, perhaps, take the moral high ground and resign. Of course, this outcome appears unlikely given the press conference of the prime minister’s lawyers, Aitzaz Ahsan. Conducted later in the day, Mr Ahsan cited what he thought were several faults with the verdict and said that he had been asked by the prime minister, with the full backing of the federal cabinet, to file an appeal.

As hard done by as the PPP may feel at this point, the contempt verdict could also be a blessing in disguise for its electoral chances. The party has always, with some element of truth, painted itself as a party that is scorned by the military and plotted against by the establishment. It can now include the Supreme Court, which in 1979 sentenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to death, as part of the same conspiracy. This could well be a strategy that it uses for the next elections. Meanwhile, with the prime minister taking the fall for not writing the letter to the Swiss authorities, the PPP can continue to rule if it so wishes by bringing in another loyalist as prime minister.

It is hard to either criticise or praise the Supreme Court for its verdict until the full written judgment is released. But it can be said that the Supreme Court’s new-found independence and power is a mixed blessing. We should all be thankful that the Court is no longer a docile body that exists simply to rubber stamp whatever the government wants. This great power, however, comes with great responsibilities. In order for the Supreme Court to be a responsible political power, it has to demonstrate that it is committed to treating all political actors and all institutions equally. The truth of the matter is that right now there are many people — and not all are members of the PPP — who believe that the Hounourable Court is perhaps unfairly targeting the party. However, in the Mehran Bank, missing persons and Balochistan cases, the Court now has an opportunity to show that it will treat all violators of the law and the Constitution on an equal footing. The PPP, meanwhile, needs to put this verdict behind it and resume concentrating on governance. Of course, that is a wish because the coming weeks are likely to become increasingly turbulent, especially if the prime minister does not step down and make way for another consensus candidate.

Welcome back, Shabnam

April 27th, 2012

Actress Shabnam’s visit to Lahore, the city where her film career blossomed and grew, reminds us of a brighter time when the Lollywood industry was thriving. Her fame as an acclaimed actress, from the 1960s well into the 1980s, coincided with an era when cinemas brought entertainment to so many lives. Shabnam is best known for her roles opposite reputable Lollywood actor Nadeem and is said to have played a crucial part in keeping this industry alive during the dark and difficult times under General Ziaul Haq’s regime. This was a time when censorship was harsh and female TV newsreaders or comperes had disappeared under voluminous dupattas.

A symbolic icon, Shabnam is the link between two countries which were once one. The Bangladeshi/Pakistani star returned to Dhaka, rather suddenly in the 1980s, and has hardly been heard of since then. Credit must be given to PTV for persuading her, along with her music composer husband, Robin Ghosh, to return to a city where, judging by the warm reception they have received, there are many who still love and respect her. It is also fitting that PTV is scheduled to organise a function to honour a woman, who has dedicated so much of her life to the world of film in Pakistan. It was heartening to see Shabnam speak with warmth about Pakistan and still care so deeply about Lollywood. During her visit, she has expressed dismay over its downfall and the plight it now faces.

This is something we, as a nation, should think about. It is true that today many forms of entertainment are available, but movies still remain a key form of human expression. It is disappointing that Lollywood has struggled to keep pace with the rest of the world, while Bollywood has clambered to become a film industry giant. Iran, too, has gained a reputation for top quality films. The demise of Lollywood has also meant the loss of thousands of jobs for billboard artists, stuntmen, musicians and others. Shabnam’s visit should serve as a reminder for us to revive what was once the essence of Pakistani entertainment.

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

On drone strikes

April 28th, 2012

When the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) decided it wanted to reset the terms of our alliance with the US, it forgot to keep one thing in mind: what if the Americans didn’t want to go along with the new terms? This is exactly what has happened. In a recent interview, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that although we had demanded an immediate cessation of drone attacks, the US has not complied. The true scandal here is that we ever expected the US to simply go along with whatever the PCNS and parliament recommended. As a decidedly junior partner in the alliance, our capacity to redefine the terms of engagement was always going to be severely limited.

The PCNS was essentially an exercise in public relations with the true target of its proposals being the Pakistani people, not the US. With anti-US sentiment near-universal in the country, the government wanted to show the people that it was on their side. In refusing to make it clear from the start that it was unlikely that the US would follow our proposals, the PCNS was being fundamentally dishonest. Given the recent history of our relations with the US, it is entirely possible that the PCNS was a smokescreen with the real terms of the alliance being worked out behind the scenes. When the US first started carrying out drone strikes, the government and military pleaded ignorance and vociferously condemned the attacks as a violation of our sovereignty. Only later, was it revealed that they had known about them and had given permission for the drone strikes.

We could have only unilaterally imposed a new alliance on the US if we had credible bargaining chips with which to do so. If, for example, there was any chance that we could shoot down drones would the US have taken our demand for a halt to drone strikes seriously? As things stand, doing something like that would not only be practically impossible, it would also be extremely foolish. Right now, we need US financial aid and and the US willingness to strike militants is far greater than its need of anything else from us. The government has only made things worse by antagonising both the US and the Pakistani public by vesting so much importance into the PCNS.

Preventing dengue

April 28th, 2012

As the dengue season approaches again this year, one wonders what concrete measures the government has taken to ensure that the virus does not wreak the damage on public health witnessed last year. In Punjab, the worst-affected province, over 12,000 were infected with the virus out of which 10,000 were in Lahore. Public hospitals were flooded with people and mass panic reigned in the absence of a clear government plan to battle the epidemic. Curiously, across the border, Amritsar has not reported a similar outbreak, which hints at mismanagement on the part of the health authorities.

The first dengue cases have already emerged. In February, a seven-year-old girl in Lahore was diagnosed with dengue. This month, another dengue patient has died in Peshawer. Last year, when Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif launched the high-profile Qadam Barhao Dengue Mukao campaign, he claimed he would not rest until the dengue virus was eliminated. He now has the chance to prove that the campaign was not simply a good photo opportunity. There is still time to take preventive measures, such as spraying and drainage of stagnant water and ensuring that hospitals are provided with blood platelet kits that are a first line of defence for those diagnosed with the disease. While these steps can ensure that the mayhem witnessed last year is not repeated, their implementation and follow-up are crucial.

Perhaps, the worst aspect of the outbreak last year was the panic and ignorance of the general public. Quacks promising a dengue cure in three days not only cropped up, but also attracted many patients as hospitals charged exorbitantly for treatment. Consumers were forced to pay exorbitant prices for mosquito repellents and sprays. There are clear steps that the government can take at this stage to limit distress once the dengue season starts in earnest. One hopes that the cases surfacing right now serve as a wake-up call.

Reviving dance in Lahore

April 28th, 2012

While dance has gradually crept back into the country with classes being held at schools and private centres, national bodies responsible for promoting dance, alongside other art forms, seem to be oblivious to the fact that the dark days of General Ziaul Haq are over and dance, in fact, needs to be promoted to help it recover from the ban imposed during that time. Neither the Punjab Arts Council nor the Lahore Arts Council will be marking the International Dance Day that falls on April 29, which was first introduced in 1982 by the International Theatre Institute, a Unesco-supported organisation.

The Punjab Arts Council, which has branches in eight districts of the province, has said that its dance ensemble, created in 1976, collapsed a few years later following orders that all female dancers be replaced by men. Despite the gradual relaxing of such policies following Zia’s death in 1988, the Council has apparently failed to revive the ensemble, despite the passage of over two decades. This is a reflection of the mentality created by Zia that still lingers on, with dance in all its varied forms still treated with suspicion by many. This is despite the fact that dance has deep roots in our soil with many aspects of classical dance, notably the kathak form, developed at the courts of the Mughul rulers.

While the Shakir Ali Museum, affiliated to the Islamabad National Council for the Arts is celebrating the day with classical dance performances, it is obvious that dance needs wider and more enthusiastic official patronage. The national Arts Councils need to make more determined efforts to do so. The same holds true for PTV which should go through its archives and examine the shows aired during the mid-1970s, which featured the performances of top-ranking classical dance exponents. Such shows need to be revived so that dance can enter our lives once more instead of being cast away into the shadowy sidelines.

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

Fighting over a verdict

April 29th, 2012

As predicted, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has gone to the National Assembly and challenged the opposition to oust him through a no-confidence vote. He could do this because the short order by the Supreme Court that sentenced him till its rising — for contempt — was not clearly expressive of the honourable Court’s intent. There was a reference in it to “mitigating” factors, but no lexical expert in the world can unravel the sentence that contains it. Hence the confusion and the bickering till the Court delivers the full judgment.

The PML-N jumped the gun despite commentaries in the media generally accepting the next step in the process that will unfold in the National Assembly and the Election Commission of Pakistan. It told the PM he was no longer prime minister and declared that it will try to stop him from entering the National Assembly because he had lost its membership as an MNA. Outside the National Assembly, the country was divided: there were crowds in the streets celebrating and there were rallies condemning the ‘one-sided’ justice in the country. Clearly, once politicised, justice itself is in jeopardy.

Should the PM resign as prime ministers do elsewhere in the world? The tradition in Pakistan is not to resign no matter how reductive of honour the allegation is. The TV channels counted the number of highly-placed people in public office who should have resigned after scandals emerged in their domain of functions, but did not. The PML-N thinks that the PM should break the tradition and go away for five years because that is what is indicated in Article 63 to which the short order has referred. One cannot think how this stance can persist. After all, Mr Gilani is still entitled to an appeal at the Court.

Acting Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan believes he needs the Supreme Court to provide him the detailed judgment convicting Mr Gilani before the Commission decides what it has to do next and determine whether the speaker of the National Assembly has a role to play in the matter. Once again, the professional opinion is divided. Therefore, the opposition would be well-advised to show restraint till the full judgment is promulgated. It would be embarrassing if the PML-N is deployed aggressively in its long march and the judgment arrives merely to endorse it.

Inside the House, the coalition partners are either following a wait-and-see policy, or are determined to stay behind the PM. In Sindh, the assembly has already decided that the verdict is unfair, just as the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf seem to have prejudged the matter without knowing the clear intent of the Court.

Maybe the Court should have taken pains to either write the full judgment, or should have written the short order more clearly. One says this because rumours of a ‘third option’ have been floating for some time: that after the ensuing of a post-trial chaos, the powers that be will put the brakes on the present political order and hand the country over to an interim government of ‘experts’ who will undertake to set things right in quick time. If the two big parties tilt once again into the mutually damaging vendetta reminiscent of the 1990s — after which both went into a decade of political eclipse — the country will become too destabilised to be managed under any democratic dispensation.

Of course, one option for the PML-N would be to do nothing tangibly and wait for the weight of swelling public opinion to bring down Mr Gilani. But the PML-N may fear that by abiding by this more peaceful course of action, the PPP’s stay in power may be prolonged through serial contempts and dismissals, thereby, allowing more ground to be lost to Imran Khan’s fast growing public clout. Somewhere along the line, our politicians must think of the survival of the country instead of obsessing about ruling it.

Safe passage for the Taliban

April 29th, 2012

The decision by the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan to allow ‘reconcilable’ elements of the Afghan Taliban a safe passage into other countries seems to be a case of convenience trumping good sense. The US timetable to begin its phased withdrawal from Afghanistan is approaching and the Obama Administration realises that it can no longer win that decade-old war. The only way for it to leave Afghanistan and claim any kind of victory is by negotiating with the Taliban and hoping that some kind of uneasy truce is brokered. Whether this approach will work or not, remains to be seen. The Karzai government is weaker than ever, while the Taliban seem to be on the ascendancy. For the Taliban, negotiations appear to be a way to ultimately come back into power.

For Pakistan, this development vindicates its stance of calling for engagement with those elements within the Afghan Taliban who were open to reconciliation. Pakistan will now be hoping that the peace process in the region will receive a boost and move forward.

These negotiations also show hypocrisy in the approach adopted by the US. On previous occasions, when Pakistan negotiated with the Taliban based within its territory, the US denounced us as appeasers and Taliban supporters. The US also repeatedly insisted that we go after the Haqqani network, which is allied to the Afghan Taliban. Now, on the other hand, we are part of the negotiations that have allowed the Afghan Taliban safe passage. This will likely mean an increase in Afghan Taliban fighters making their way to Pakistan. Since we have agreed to this, it is time the US realises that it is practically impossible for us to rout every Taliban group based in the country. The US cannot be the only country allowed to dictate how reconciliation takes place.

America also needs to realise that the difference between the so-called ‘moderate’ Taliban and the rest of the group is one of tactics, not ideology. Ousting the Karzai government and taking over Afghanistan, as it had done in the 1990s, is the ultimate aim of the Afghan Taliban. As fruitless as the Afghan war now seems, the current stalemate will pale in comparison to the defeat the US suffers if the Taliban return to power.

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

The IDPs of Khyber Agency

April 30th, 2012

While media and public attention has largely shifted away from the issue of Internally Displaced People (IDP), the fact is that life still remains tough for them. The flow of people moving out of Khyber Agency, mainly from the conflict-torn Bara tehsil, continues with their numbers increasing by the day. The process began in January. According to the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, over 208,000 individuals are now registered at Jalozai Camp as IDPs.

International humanitarian agencies involved in the process of collecting preliminary data, have found that a significant portion of IDPs living outside Jalozai are food insecure. A very large number do not collect the food rations they are entitled to. The contributing factors to this being confusion over the timing of distribution and the high cost of transportation among other reasons. Many of these IDPs also need to travel many kilometres to gain access to any healthcare while shortages of other vital items are also commonplace. A majority of women who were breastfeeding infants have stopped doing so, adding to the health concerns of their young. The reasons are unclear, but may be linked to living in the crowded homes of near-strangers.

The problem for humanitarian agencies arises because only 15 per cent of those listed as IDPs choose to live on camp sites. The remainder have opted to move in with relatives or into rented accommodation, for reasons linked to tradition, culture and concerns about privacy for women. This pattern was noticed when mass displacements began due to the conflict in 2009, and the agencies conceded they were taken unaware by the strongly rooted trend of the IDPs to make their own arrangements instead of choosing the agencies. Hence, they were unable to cater to their needs. But now that this is an established phenomenon more needs to be done to ensure help also reaches those living away from camps and some method needs to be found to offer them the assistance they require.

Liberalisation of visas

April 30th, 2012

In yet another indication that the peace process between Pakistan and India is inching forward, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet has reportedly approved a relaxed visa regime which seeks to allow businessmen on multiple entry, non-reporting visas to travel to five cities with everyone else permitted to visit up to three cities. Taken in isolation, this seems like the kind of baby step that should certainly be welcomed but not necessarily seen as a harbinger of lasting peace. Doing so, however, would be a mistake. Rather than going for a grand gesture, the two countries have steadily been making progress on a host of issues of common interest, including trade, coupled with regular meetings between government officials on both sides. All this adds up to the best relations Pakistan and India have enjoyed in many years, a milestone that has been slightly obscured by the slow pace with which it has been achieved. For now, though, this may be the most effective way of normalising relations between the two countries.

There are certainly other small steps, even in the visa process, that can be taken to help the peace process along. As important as trade and commerce is, there are other fields where both countries should be welcoming visitors. The arts, culture and sports are all areas where person-to-person contact can help change hearts and minds. Making it easier for people from such areas to visit the other country is a low-risk and high-reward endeavour. In addition, now may be the right time to release all the fishermen held in India and Pakistan indefinitely for the crime of inadvertently crossing an unmarked border.

Even if all these measures are put into place, it would be naive to think that all outstanding issues between the two countries can be solved anytime soon. The twin problems of Kashmir and terrorism are unlikely to be negotiated in the foreseeable future and with the establishment in Pakistan and the hawks in India still exerting considerable influence, even those as committed to peace as the PPP and the Congress will not be able to make headway. Far better is the current approach that puts these issues on the backburner. Once enough steps have been taken to increase trust on both sides, these issues can be addressed.

Falling short

April 30th, 2012

In September 2000, a pledge was made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Today, four years short of the deadline of 2015, Pakistan finds that little progress has been made on the MDG objectives.

One of the most abysmal performances has been in achieving education for all. Fifty million children under the age of 10 are illiterate and 34 per cent children of primary school age are out of school. From 2001, when 58 per cent of the children of primary school age were enrolled in school, the progress made has been minimal. What is more worrisome, however, is that the quality of schooling is subpar with only the privileged having access to quality education, which deepens the disparity between different income groups.

That Pakistan would not achieve its education goals by 2015 became clear last year, when the Education Task Force published its report, Education Emergency in Pakistan. This does not mean, however, that the goal should be abandoned altogether. Examining the reasons for this would be instructive in charting out a future course of action. One of the conclusions reached by the forum was that the government was not committed to achieving these goals, an indication of which is given by the education budget — 2 per cent of GDP, whereas governments are committed to spending at least 4 per cent of GDP under the MDG. At the same time, the education department is notorious for corruption and red tape, another stumbling block.

This is a time of reassessment and realistic goal-setting. Even if universal primary education cannot be achieved, resources can still be devoted to luring more children in school, and providing better training to teachers. Better management of current resources, better governance and a larger education budget can set us on the way to achieving our education goals — provided there is consensus on the goals themselves and the political will to achieve them.

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

The first day of May

May 1st, 2012

Marked as the universal labour day globally, May 1 has a significance that dates back centuries — beginning in 1884, workers in the US fought for an eight-hour day, and then, as the movement gained momentum, for other rights. But is the significance of that movement still understood in our country, or will the occasion — as has, in fact, happened for many years — be regarded by most as a welcome day off from work, with a few rallies by workers waving red flags being staged here and there. The sad truth is that despite valiant effort on the part of labour leaders and unions, who bravely fight on for their rights across the country, the number of people attending these gatherings has declined; fewer people march along the streets and even fewer cheer them on. The decline of the labour movement in Pakistan is a huge loss. As a result of government policies, often put in place with the connivance of industrialists who are part of that entity called the ‘ruling elite’, the once vibrant labour movement has been decimated, and the strength it enjoyed through the 1950s and 1960s gradually withered away.

The Railways Union, once a powerful force, has virtually fallen apart — much like the Railways itself. Parties, NGOs and other groups established to protect the rights of workers continue to wave their flags, but they simply refuse to flutter quite so freely. This of course means that workers have lost the power to demand fair treatment; attempts to do so have been made in recent years — agricultural workers working on military farms in Punjab being one example — but these efforts have proved difficult to sustain.

As a result, we have millions of workers, including women and children, toiling in the most miserable conditions on farms, in mines, factories and elsewhere. Despite the introduction of legislation by the present government to protect rights of workers, its implementation remains poor. The ability of the labour movement to produce more leaders, or to have a greater political impact, affects our lives in many ways and may be counted as one reason why we struggle to find new leadership and new ideas in so many spheres of life.

Continuing Lyari violence

May 1st, 2012

Violence in Lyari is now so prevalent that it has become impossible to distinguish the different periods of bloodletting; one incident simply bleeds into the other. As an illustration, consider the month of April. On April 1, a member of the Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) was killed in an encounter with the police’s Anti-Extremist Cell, leading to a day of violence. Ten days later, PAC leaders were arrested in connection with the murder of a policeman, which was followed by two more days of killings. Then, on April 26, another policeman and a former deputy nazim of Lyari were killed. This has caused violence, with both sides indulging in their fair share of killings.

It is easy to blame the police for being trigger-happy, to denounce the PAC for using the word ‘peace’ cynically, since it was set up by a gangster with its members being armed to the teeth, and to criticise Karachi’s political parties for using violence to pursue their narrow agendas. While all this is true, it does little by way of proposing solutions. What we have learned is that police operations tend to do more harm than good, pitting the inhabitants of an area against those that are meant to protect them. Violence begets violence, especially in a city where there is no shortage of guns and blood feuds.

For political parties to disassociate themselves from the armed gangs that roam the city is the only way out. For example, everyone knows that the dominant political party in Lyari is the PPP. When Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was convicted by the Supreme Court in the contempt case, protests sprung up in the area. Thus, the PPP should realise (if it has not already) that it is responsible for restoring peace in the area. This means ordering its members to have nothing to do with the likes of the PAC. The same principle applies to the MQM and the ANP. Only when Karachi’s politicians can go about their businesses without having gangsters and guns involved, will there be peace in the city.

Death of a Red Cross official

May 1st, 2012

Nearly four months after he was kidnapped in Quetta, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker Dr Khalil Rasjed Dale’s body was found decapitated and dumped along a roadside. Dale had been kidnapped in January at his high-security housing area of Chaman Housing Scheme, with the ICRC claiming that it never received any ransom demands for his release. It seems that the sole purpose of kidnapping him was to send a message to all foreigners in Pakistan that their lives are under constant threat. Although we do not know for sure who kidnapped Dale, it doesn’t really matter. All militants groups in Pakistan have the same ultimate goal: to create havoc and spread hate far and wide.

Already, the effects of Dale’s kidnapping and murder are being felt. Ever since he was abducted, the ICRC has severely curtailed its activities in Pakistan. That it should do so is tragic but understandable. Every foreigner in Pakistan, no matter what work he is involved in, knows that there is a mark on his or her head. Warren Weinstein, a development expert who had devoted much of his life to Pakistan, was kidnapped last year and is yet to be recovered. Even Pakistanis who are seen as ideologically ‘impure’ by militant groups are not safe, as Shahbaz Taseer’s family can testify.

The purpose behind these kidnappings is two-fold. First, capturing high profile targets gives huge publicity to militant groups and reminds everyone of how grave a threat they pose. Second, these kidnappings often lead to ransom demands which are usually paid, even though the Pakistani state and other countries deny ever paying ransom. Thus, these kidnappings are like a fundraising tool for the militants. The problem is that no amount of security will ever be foolproof, making it almost impossible to protect every person under threat. The only way to get rid of the problem is by cutting it off at the source. This means the military defeats the militant groups that are behind the kidnappings.

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