The ISI and politics


For too long in our history, the military and its intelligence agencies have pulled strings from hidden corners. These actions, in turn, have determined several political events at home and abroad. In many cases, we as citizens do not know how they have gone about this task or what events they have manipulated. But some things have risen to the surface from time to time, like scum over standing water.
It has become clear that the ISI played a part in influencing the results of the 1990 general elections through a mysterious political cell. The Ministry of Defence told the Supreme Court bench hearing the case — commonly called the Asghar Khan Case — that it was unable to find in its files a notification said to have been issued in 1975 while setting up this particular cell. Given the evidence put before it, the Court has declared that the political cell of the ISI stands null and void from the start. It has also made some strong remarks in its ruling in favour of the democratic order, criticising intervention of outside forces, welcoming the appointment of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as constitutionally correct and commenting that no model of a long-term interim government made up of technocrats should be put in place in the country.
The Court, of course, has spoken wisely. We need to do all that we can to push the ISI out of politics so that it can play its designated role fully and is made accountable to parliament for all its activities,so that the notion of civilian supremacy and democracy is upheld. The ISI has been able to alter the shape of events in the country through various means for far too long. This is essentially both unconstitutional and has inflicted tremendous damage on our democracy. The question now, however, is whether the clear-cut Court order will be implemented but there is a danger that this may not happen.
Let us hope that the military establishment and all the bodies that form a part of it are willing to follow the verdict delivered in good faith and ensure that the political wing of the ISI, in whatever form it exists, is genuinely shut down so that the Constitution can be adhered to.

Diplomacy on the pitch


The temperature of relations between Pakistan and India has often been measured by events on the cricket field. Cricket diplomacy has been used before and it seems that it is now at play again. The gentle half-volley that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has lobbed towards the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) offers a resumption in cricketing ties that had remained suspended ever since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The last time the two nations played each other in a bilateral series was in 2007, when Pakistan toured India. The offer from the BCCI is for a short tour at the end of the year comprising three One-Day Internationals and two Twenty20 contests. The swift acceptance of the tour by the PCB is welcome. The development follows on the heels of intense efforts made by the two boards to resume relations on the pitch.

This development marks a softening in relations between the two countries on the whole. Things have quite obviously cooled down on the political front. This is a good omen for all. Cricket can pave the way for greater harmony on many other matters and for a sense of normalcy as far as relations in the region go. The significance of the BCCI offer then reaches out far beyond the game of cricket itself.

There is nothing that generates quite as much sporting excitement as a cricket contest between Pakistan and India. This tour will help build a sense of trust between the two nations that we so badly need even though, ironically enough, it will come in an intensely competitive environment with the two teams undoubtedly battling it out fiercely, but even as they do so, they will be creating links that may turn out to be vital to the future of their countries. This is an important service and one that will stand us in very good stead for the future given the need to develop warmer bilateral ties with India after a stand-off that has already lasted far too long and set both countries back quite a long way in terms of solving mutual problems.

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There Is Only One Thing That Makes a Dream Impossible To Achieve - The Fear Of Failure

Resistance to polio vaccination

July 19th, 2012

In what amounts to a major setback to the ongoing anti-polio drive in the country, Taliban leaders in tribal areas have placed a ban on teams visiting North and South Waziristan, as well as several other areas. The reason for this, the Taliban say, is that they fear the health workers may be acting as spies for the United States. This, of course, refers to the infamous case involving Dr Shakil Afridi and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. A commander in North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, has also demanded that drone attacks be stopped before anti-polio teams are allowed in.

The Taliban ruling has led to a suspension of the campaign in the Waziristan area, affecting some 250,000 children. If they are not vaccinated in this round, the polio virus would be given dangerous space in which to strike. So far, Pakistan has been faring better in its fight against polio this year as compared with 2011, with only 22 cases reported so far as compared with 59 by the same period last year.

There is a possibility that there may already have been further repercussions from the Taliban ban. A UN team carrying out the anti-polio campaign in Karachi was shot at near the Sohrab Goth area. A Ghanian doctor and his driver were both injured. There is, as yet — and as the World Health Organisation has emphasised — no direct link to events in the north. But given that the area contains a huge Pakhtun and Afghan population, the possibility of a spillover is very real. If the trend spreads, it would be tragic with health workers in Islamabad already quietly expressing fears that this could happen.

For now, government representatives are said to be attempting to persuade the Taliban and particularly Commander Bahadur to change their minds. However, little progress is reported. As has happened before, militants have used efforts to halt anti-polio campaigns as a means to put across their own message. The most affected by this are children of the tribal areas who have, at any rate, been deprived of vaccination for far too long as a result of the conflict raging in the region where they live.

Pakistan-India mistrust on 26/11

July 19th, 2012

For four years, Pakistan has been trying and failing to convict those believed to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks. The alleged mastermind of 26/11, Hafiz Saeed, was all but declared innocent by the courts. India, of course, was not happy about this and essentially accused Pakistan of being soft on terrorism. That process is essentially playing out all over again as an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi — where the trials of Pakistanis suspected of involvement in the attacks are being held — ruled the findings of a Pakistani commission that went to India inadmissible. According to the court, the commission wasn’t allowed to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, so its findings cannot be admitted into court.

India’s response has been swift and brutal. The Indian government has once again taken this opportunity to claim that Pakistan isn’t serious about this trial or about jailing terrorists generally. It does seem that our courts have been easy venues for accused terrorists. Mostly, though, that is because of structural and procedural flaws that benefit accused terrorists. Witnesses, policemen and judges are all terrified of possible repercussions, while many of the accused have been illegally picked up and detained by intelligence agencies and hence their confessions are of no legal value. However, India isn’t interested in considering these details.

What is important is that India follows the rules set by Pakistani courts if it wants justice to be done. This means allowing the Pakistani commission to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. Ultimately, however, even that may not satisfy India. India is convinced that the Pakistani state had some role to play in the 26/11 attacks. The testimony of those involved in the attack does, in the eyes of the Indians, seemingly indicate the involvement of some form of state apparatus — and this problem of perception is likely to remain given these recent developments. Simply putting a few people on trial is unlikely to satisfy India and those who want to know the real truth about 26/11.

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

Sectarian mayhem in Orakzai

July 20th, 2012

The latest sectarian attack in the country, this time in the Orakzai Agency indicates just how far the curse of hatred based on beliefs has sunk in our society. In the attack on July 18, a passenger van carrying over a dozen members of the same clan was attacked by a remote control device planted on the road, which was detonated as the vehicle passed over it. Those killed included three women and at least three children. A rival Sunni tribe based in the same remote area is thought to have been involved in the killings, while the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan arm based at Darra Adam Khel has claimed responsibility for planning it. This is one of dozens of attacks orchestrated by militants on Shias in recent years and shows their ugly sectarian face.

These details are in some ways irrelevant. The fact is that we have seen many attacks of similar nature carried out by extremist groups operating in various parts of the country. The real question is how do we bring such violence to an end? How do we end the sequence of meaningless deaths, which take place so often? There are no easy answers. We have walked too far along the road of bigotry to turn back easily. The time when no distinction was made in the country between Muslims belonging to different sects is long gone. Right now, sectarian hatred has spread further and further, reaching parts of the country where it was virtually unknown before. We need to press the rewind button and go back to the better times of our past. Another question is on how to go about achieving this.

A multi-pronged strategy is required. It must start at one level with the implementation of laws that prevent the propagation of hatred. But much more will also need to be done. The ulema of the country need to be involved in the process. They must persuade mosque imams in towns, villages and hamlets everywhere in the county to work towards unification rather that division; to spread the message of tolerance rather than murder. This can only happen in stages but the plan to do so must be orchestrated at the highest level of government with genuine will demonstrated to drive it forward.

Beginning of the end for Assad?

July 20th, 2012

Resistance movements, by their very nature, invariably end up responding to the violence perpetrated by the regime they are battling, with violence of their own. That is no justification for the suicide bombing in Damascus that killed five top members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. But such retaliation was inevitable given the brutality with which President Assad has tried to hang on to power. He is now surrounded by hostile forces on all sides and even former allies find themselves unable to defend him. Jordan has threatened to take control of Syria’s chemical weaponry and Kofi Annan — the UN envoy dealing with the matter — now seems to endorse international action against Assad. Assad’s time is up but he seems not to have realised that.

The biggest hurdle in the way of UN action is Russia, which has warned that it will use its veto power in the Security Council to prevent further sanctions or the threat of a multinational force being used against this regime. Despite this, it is time for the international community to intervene. Claims of sovereignty do not give a government the right to massacre its own people and the Syrian regime needs to be removed. Mr Annan, given his moral authority and official position, needs to come out in favour of this.

While recognising the need to remove Assad from power, it should also be kept in mind that the resistance has some unsavoury characters of its own. The presence of Islamist groups in the opposition is certainly a worry as no one would want a post-Assad set-up to include groups that endorse suicide bombings and who want to impose their own version of faith on the country. Here, too, the onus will be on the international community to ensure that the transition of power in Syria is smooth and that elections are held in a fair and timely manner. The power void in Syria may end up being filled by groups that are as undemocratic as Assad without the right kind of help from the world.

A plan for drones

July 20th, 2012

For the first time, Pakistan has come up with a distinct plan on the handling of the controversial drone attacks which have created much havoc in the country. A senior security establishment official speaking to this newspaper provided some details of the plan under which the CIA would be involved in surveillance. It would then pass on information regarding the location of ‘high value’ targets to the Pakistanis who would then act as they see fit. To ensure action, the official said that the US would be welcome to carry out monitoring operations using drones, if required.

This proposal builds upon the new trust that is being developed stage by stage between Washington and Islamabad. In the past, the lack of US faith in Pakistan’s real intentions and its suspicions that the country was playing a ‘double game’ had led to a host of problems. The official stressed that Islamabad was keen on doing away with any duality of purpose and creating a working system with the US that would allow militants to be brought down, but in a manner that could lessen the degree of public anger regarding US-led drone strikes. It has also been made clear that ground action by US forces will not be permitted.

This suggestion marks a key step forward. Till now, Pakistan had offered no real solutions to the drone problem and the repercussions it caused. The official also said that the number of civilian casualties was not as high as that portrayed by some NGOs and that ‘the taking out’ of top al Qaeda figures helped both countries. Let us hope that things can move forward from this point. The mechanism laid out makes a lot of sense. What is important, however, is that Washington be convinced that the mechanism will be acted upon and that action — not just words — form part of the plan. Pakistan, at last, has shown that it has the ability to be proactive and this is a good step forward in the battle against terrorism and in maintaining good relations with Washington.

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

Keeping it in the family

July 21st, 2012

Undoubtedly, much to the relief of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, his son Abdul Qadir Gilani has been able to hang on to NA-151, the seat in Multan vacated by the disqualification of the senior Gilani. The family, of course, considers Multan its very own fiefdom and any loss on the home turf would have been, to put it mildly, highly embarrassing. It is significant that Abdul Qadir won by only 4,096 votes against his closest rival, Shaukat Hayat Bosan, an independent candidate — picking up 64,628 votes as compared with 60,532 by Bosan. The polls remained close right till the end, decided only as the totals came in from the last few polling stations. Bosan was backed by the PML-N and the PTI. The PML-N’s own candidate, Malik Ihsan Bucha, crossed the line over to the PPP camp earlier this month.

The PPP and, of course, the Gilanis have clung on to a traditional bastion of power. There have mercifully been no accusations of large-scale rigging. Bosan, graciously enough, has said that the polls were transparent and spoke only of minor violations of rules and regulations. This is a good omen with the general election not very far off. But it is also true that the PPP has some things to think about. Abdul Qadir’s win came rather narrowly and should lead the party to consider if there are reasons why people may be disgruntled with it. There may still be time to make amends and set things on track. Some recent polls have indicated that the PML-N and the PTI are well poised in Punjab and while the results of these may not be totally reliable, the warning signals may be worth taking heed of.

The poll brings another Gilani into parliament; Abdul Qadir’s brother, Ali Musa Gilani, is already an MNA after having won the NA-148 seat with a convincing margin earlier this year. The politics of family — so entrenched in our political culture and that of south Asia as a whole — continues; new members of the same dynasties come into power. But what will be most significant of all is how well they serve their people and prove correct the faith placed in them.

Need for media accountability

July 21st, 2012

Rather than playing its role as a disinterested purveyor of news, the Pakistani media has always seemed to have craved becoming a political actor itself. From magnates who seek power through media ownership to talk show hosts who like nothing better than igniting controversy, our media stars have often abdicated their responsibilities in a quest for glory-hunting. Now, some prominent journalists have approached the Supreme Court to form an accountability commission that would draw up a code of conduct for the industry and also investigate revenue streams of news channels and advertising agencies, while also keeping an eye out for talk show hosts who may be on the payroll of various state actors. The petitioners have the right idea even if some may find their way of going about it to be flawed.

The media, for all its problems, is still the best defence against unchecked government power. Allowing any government body to investigate the media may end up inviting the government to launch a witch-hunt. It would, perhaps, be better if media organisations started policing themselves. The first thing they must do is to make their financial dealings completely transparent and regularly release financial reports that lead to increased accountability.

Media organisations also need to cooperate in instituting an industry-wide code of conduct. This will require good intentions as channels may be tempted to stray from rules if it gives them a momentary advantage. The media group that owns this newspaper should, perhaps, take the lead in instituting a code of conduct for itself that would regulate its programming as well as financial dealings. The incentive that should keep everyone in check is the possibility that if the industry does not police itself, the government may do it for them in a manner that may not be as fair. A media that is seen as tainted and susceptible to undue outside influence will be trusted by no one and will fail in its mission.

Trilateral summit

July 21st, 2012

Afghanistan and Pakistan understandably treat each other with a lot of suspicion. For the Afghans, Pakistan has always been a thorn in its side, from its support of the Taliban regime in the 1990s to its refusal to take action against the Haqqani network. Meanwhile, our security establishment has seemingly continued to stick with its discredited policy of ‘strategic depth’, which has harmed relations with Afghanistan. In this scenario, any talk of dialogue between the neighbours is to be welcomed — but with a healthy dose of caution. The talks between Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister David Cameron in Kabul ended on a positive note with the two neighbours agreeing to hold joint talks with the Taliban.

But just the promise of talks is not enough to engender much optimism. First, even if the civilian government in Pakistan has good intentions, this does not mean that the military establishment will necessarily follow suit. As long as the Pakistani state does not take action against the Afghan Taliban based in Pakistan and as long as these militants continue to carry out attacks in Afghanistan, we will not be trusted partners in any peace talks. In this scenario, Afghanistan may feel that we are simply trying to negotiate the Taliban back into power in a post-US withdrawal set-up and any future attack could bring these talks to a crashing halt.

Also, having the militant group become a part of negotiations is fraught with danger. We have seen that the Taliban is not a group open to compromise. Rather, there is every chance that it will simply use talks to gain some breathing space and re-launch regular assaults. A group so committed to violence can never be entirely trusted. And if Afghanistan also feels that Pakistan is siding too obviously with the Taliban, then talks could collapse. For now, we should be glad that the two governments are trying to reduce tension but that should not blind us to the obvious dangers ahead.

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

‘Panchayat raj’ and a woman stoned

July 22nd, 2012

The Supreme Court has taken suo-motu notice of another horrendous panchayat crime in Punjab and found that the police were inclined to ignore the criminality of the local so-called council of elders, which was dictated by a local strongman. The case is related to the stoning to death of a woman at Chak 15 in Kacha Khu, Khanewal.

The report goes like this: Maryam Bibi, 25, mother of five, was cutting grass in the fields of a local landlord who forced her to submit to his sexual advances. When she refused, the landlord levelled allegations against the woman and took the matter to a local panchayat, which ordered that the woman be stoned to death. The order was carried out in her home. Her husband was abducted but later recovered.

What the Supreme Court discovered was an effort on the part of the Punjab police to let the panchayat off the hook. The Court censured the Punjab government and said that the Khadim-e-Aala (chief minister) should take immediate notice of it (which he has since done). The Court observed that “The police knew about the incident but did nothing” and rejected the police report that did not mention the role of the panchayat. The Punjab advocate general tried to lessen the shock of the incident by saying that the panchayat had been called “to resolve the matter and not to punish the woman”.

The strange fact that emerged in front of the honourable Court was that the police recovered the woman’s abducted husband the moment the Court moved in the matter, while it had previously dithered for three days without any action. What the Court has laid bare is the shrinking writ of the state even in the traditionally ‘well-governed’ areas of the country. Local vigilante-terrorists have virtually taken over the country in vast tracts of Pakistan, while the Taliban threaten the big cities with suicide bombings and bank robberies.

The stoning to death of Maryam will shake the world just as an earlier case in Punjab did a decade ago in the case of Mukhtaran Mai whom the local panchayat had ordered to be gang-raped. In August 2002, the anti-terrorism court (ATC) found the six defendants guilty of several offences under the Hudood Ordinance and the Pakistan Penal Code. These included rape and aiding and abetting a rape. They were sentenced to life imprisonment, a fine, six months of rigorous imprisonment, the death penalty and 30 lashes — the last two were subject to confirmation by the high court. (There were eight other defendants who were part of the panchayat that ordered the rape of Mukhtaran Mai and were charged with unlawful assembly. All eight were acquitted by the ATC.)

The Mukhtaran Mai case was mishandled by the Pervez Musharraf government, above all by General (retd) Musharraf himself who said that women bring such matters to the court in order to vie for visas to foreign countries. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of the satanic panchayat in 2005. However, this time the Court is determined to get to the root of the matter and go into the phenomenon of the dwindling writ of the executive in Punjab, which is considered better governed than Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where some MNAs brazenly defend panchayat transgressions against the law.

‘Panchayat raj’ in Punjab runs parallel to the weakening of state outreach in the face of growing power of the non-state actors nurtured by the state in the past. Made to look like an ascendancy of Islamic sharia, the vigilantism of the clergy linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda has subordinated the local executive, which stays away from the scene of the crime till it has made sure that it will not offend the local religious leadership. Seeing this dereliction, the local feudal strongman has increased his tyranny by strengthening the old panchayat system as an abetting institution. Lahore has to reassert its authority in the outlying mufassil areas while it copes with the rising number of bank robberies in the big cities that are reportedly funding the terrorist groups that Pakistan is avoiding to confront.

Lessons from Colorado

July 22nd, 2012

The shooting in a movie theatre in the US state of Colorado that killed at least a dozen people and wounded over 50 others, is the stuff of nightmares. It is hard to imagine the fear that must have filled the darkened hall as a man dressed in a helmet and body armour stepped out from behind the screen playing the latest batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and created true darkness as he opened indiscriminate fire at the audience. The mental state and possible motives of the man identified as 24-year-old James Holmes are being examined. Holmes was a neuroscience graduate student — in the process of withdrawal from the programme — with no previous criminal record.

But what is also under scrutiny, once again, as in fact happens after any such incident, are the gun laws in the US and the ease with which people are able to acquire arms. All of Holmes’ four guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were apparently bought entirely legally. Calls have come in for tougher gun control laws but there is already much scepticism as to whether these will ever be implemented given the power of the gun lobby in the country and the backing it receives from politicians and others in powerful places.

This brings us to our own country. Gun laws are not as relaxed as in the US, but due to their lack of implementation, the end result is the same. Pakistan is rated as a country with one of the highest number of weapons in circulation; Karachi is said by international agencies to have more small arms than any other major city in the world. It is true that we may not have seen the kind of psychotic killings the US has experienced over the years, but the easy flow of guns through society is responsible for the repeated gun fights in Karachi and violence of all kinds elsewhere. In this age of the internet and instant TV coverage, we may not even be far from a ‘copycat’ killing spree such as that carried out by Holmes. We need then to remove guns from people’s hands, just as should happen in the US, to make society a safer place.

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

The president’s riposte

July 23rd, 2012

What looked like a riposte to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, President Asif Ali Zardari said on July 19 in Karachi that parliament was supreme as it expressed the will of the people. He said that “parliament had every right to enact laws and would continue to do so in the future”. The chief justice had earlier said that the “Constitution trumped all institutions” and stood supreme in Pakistan instead of parliament. Very soon, the judiciary will have occasion to give its verdict on the matter when it hears the case against the ruling coalition’s passage of a law relating to contempt of court.

The presidential remark was also a repartee to the Lahore High Court, which ordered him “to cease using the presidency for political purposes by September this year”. His answer to the order was given to party men and allies gathered around him: parliament was his constituency and that no law barred the president from meeting his constituents. He asserted: “No one can bar me from meeting with elected representatives of the PPP in the presidency. You have elected me and I have become president because of your votes”. He added that “those who want to restrict political forces would not succeed”.

If he sounded overly aggressive, he quickly applied the palliative: “It is necessary for the system’s stability that every state institution respects the mandate of other institutions. However, while some institutions may, at times, appear to be overstepping their mandate in developing democracies, this is part of the system’s evolution and should not be a matter of concern”. The world outside, too, is aware of what is happening in Pakistan and has been advising ‘restraint’ to the Supreme Court and asking it not to get into the vicious circle of precedents of disqualifying prime ministers.

The judiciary has been maltreated in the past and books have been written about how the judges in Pakistan were humiliated by dictators and military rulers. The judiciary, today, is responding to this past record and is trying to prove to an admiring civil society that it is possible for the courts to stand up to coercion and challenge rulers defaulting on governance and luxuriating instead in corruption. President Zardari, while rightly putting on record his opinion about the supremacy of parliament, must also be mindful of the abysmal performance of the party in power. It is very difficult to stand up to a court that enjoys the support of civil society, to say nothing of the opposition hitting the road all guns firing trying to topple the government.

There are other factors the people of Pakistan must keep in mind in the interest of fairness. If the executive is constantly hounded by other institutions and made to feel insecure, the outreach of the executive would be curtailed and service delivery affected; ministers feeling unsure about survival in power would begin to indulge in graft. In Pakistan, some factors are atypical of the Third World paradigm. There is terrorism to cope with, which successfully exercises intimidation to persuade the politicians to blink terrorism when it happens against the ruling party. Since law and order is the domain of the provinces, most damage is done not at the federal level but at the grass roots. On top of that, there is the reality of the supremacy of the army, which seems unable to defend the citizen either against the terrorist or foreign invasion.

President Zardari also took cognisance of the growing disenchantment of the Sindhi hinterland with the PPP leadership. There is much to be said about the feudal aspects of the party with firm constituencies but neglect of rapidly growing cities in Sindh’s interior. The PPP faces the challenge of the nationalist parties in the interior where Sindhis complain of leaders who live comfortably in Karachi and rarely visit them. This has allowed the PML-N to plant its feet more firmly in Sindh, even as Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf makes inroads in Punjab and urban Sindh.

Stolen artefacts

July 23rd, 2012

You can learn a lot about a country by the way it treats its heritage. Pakistan, unfortunately, has always fallen short on that count. From the ruins of Mohenjodaro and Harappa to our lost Gandhara art, we have never taken preservation all that seriously. It is this laxness which can explain the loss of artefacts stolen from a police station in Karachi. Over the last couple of weeks, the police in Karachi had managed to recover hundreds of pieces of Gandhara art, although it was not known how many were genuine and how many were forgeries. However, the artefacts were simply left at police stations because of a dispute between the central government and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government over who should take possession of these pieces.

Needless to say, thanks to this tussle, many of the pieces have now been stolen and are no longer around to be claimed by either. This question of ownership should, at best, have been a secondary one with the primary duty of both governments being that the pieces are kept safe and publicly displayed at museums for the benefit of citizens. Such artefacts belong to the entire country and now that the police have finally decided to become serious about keeping smuggling in check, we shouldn’t be reliant on our self-interested government to allow us to appreciate our heritage. Even though we don’t have a culture of setting up and maintaining museums, it is high time we now do so to properly display our heritage. Not only will it be of educational value to citizens, it can also boost tourism and bring foreign researchers to the country.

Apart from recovering these lost items, we still need to do a lot more to appreciate the value of our past. The rare fossils that were destroyed by the military raid that killed Akbar Bugti barely merited a footnote in all the news coverage of the event. And the fact that so much of our heritage is now in India means that we show it scant attention. Heritage, however, transcends present-day borders and we should work with India to facilitate the display of our joint heritage in both countries. It is the least the government can do to educate its citizens.

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

Nawaz Sharif’s advice to America

July 24th, 2012

It was a delicate moment for the PML-N chief, Mr Nawaz Sharif, when he met the outgoing US ambassador, Cameron Munter, doing his farewell rounds. He had to say something that would go down well with his right-wing vote bank, sworn to enmity of the US and straining at the least against the reopening of the Nato supply route. So he said, “The US should reorient its policies towards Pakistan in a manner that the country’s democratic institutions become stronger and its economy made less dependent on foreign aid”.

He also called upon Washington to pursue a policy of mutual respect and trust with Pakistan because only such a policy “could restore cooperation between the two countries and serve the cause of peace and stability in the region”. At least in the press reports, he avoided bringing up the ghairat question with regard to drones and the Nato route, in the same way it was being allowed by the ruling PPP and ostensibly also by the military. Mr Munter, on the other hand, practised routine verbiage: he was “full of admiration for the people of Pakistan and said that he is deeply impressed by the enormous changes taking place, which made him confident that the country is headed in the right direction”.

What else can one say during a farewell call? But Mr Sharif, more or less, repeated what President Asif Ali Zardari has been telling the Americans: give us trade openings instead of aid. In a way, this would be better because aid is to be audited by thousands of American bureaucrats who find faults — sometimes justifiably — in the way we spend American money. A country with a corruption index as high as Pakistan’s is better off trading. But America is protectionist, believe it or not, compared with wide-open China and will not let go of the leverage of aid so that it can mould the behaviour of the army that controls policy in Pakistan. Pakistan’s economic crisis may have forced it to pocket its ghairat and allow the Nato route to reopen without any major conditionalities.

The PML-N is close to Pakistan’s right-wing army in its thinking. It is unfortunate that it had a bad moment with General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew it after a period of struggle for superiority. The army reacted when Mr Sharif tried to pick favourites within a force that agreed with his worldview. It was he who increased the wallop of the army not only in Pakistan but in the region and the world by testing Pakistan’s nuclear device in 1998, defying US President Bill Clinton, who had tried to stop him. Later, when General Musharraf, as his own chosen army chief, botched the Kargil operation, he had to go and ask Clinton to get a ‘victorious’ India to simmer down. The PML-N chief is a bit of a statesman too, relying on ambiguity to avoid ruffling too many feathers in foreign policy.

Is the PML-N anti-America? In domestic policy, it has to haul the rival PPP over the coals for being a ‘slave of America’. The argument officially is: stop going with a begging bowl to America, which doesn’t care for you and is a friend of India. It knows that Imran Khan is hitting the campaign trail with an aggressive anti-American line to snatch its right-wing votes. So it is unavoidable for the PML-N to get a rasping Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to bash America in the National Assembly. But Mr Sharif has many sides to him. He doesn’t want to spoil relations with the US because it would make his association with his friends in Saudi Arabia difficult. He may criticise the PPP’s India policy but deep down, he knows he is the only leader in Pakistan who will finally normalise ties with India — to the chagrin of the army.

Mr Sharif can’t be unaware of the need to practise flexibility of approach towards the US, which can work on him through the UK where he is vulnerable. He is a practical man and can be relied on to make a transition from his current aggressive rhetoric to a mildness that will suit Pakistan in extreme economic distress. All said and done, between him and President Zardari, there is not much room for manoeuvre as far as the US and its powerful allies in Europe are concerned.

Smooth sailing for Mr Mukherjee

July 24th, 2012

Living in a country where there is so much political turmoil, it seems odd to peek across the border and see just how smoothly transition can take place. In India’s presidential election, veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee was elected the 13th president of the world’s largest democracy, in a transition unmarked by controversy or any form of turmoil. This continues a tradition that India can be justly proud of and one that Pakistan ought to emulate so that some stability can be introduced to our faltering democracy. Certainly, this is an urgent need of the hour where fresh chaos shakes the country virtually every day.

Mukherjee, who has enjoyed a long career with the Congress Party, was the candidate of the United Progressive Alliance, led by the Congress and backed by a number of smaller parties. The 518,000 votes he collected from members of parliament and state legislative assemblies far exceeded the number collected by his rival, PA Sangma, a former parliamentary speaker. When changes like this proceed smoothly and as per constitutionally laid-down guidelines, it should be noted how much energy is injected into the system. In our case, energy is constantly drained away by doubts, interventions and rumours that surround virtually every political issue, thereby contributing to difficulties with governance and the inability to cope with many matters to which more time needs to be devoted.

Mukherjee will make a well-respected president who has earned this respect over the years. This factor is important in giving the sense of unification that stems from the presidency. India has done well in building strong democratic foundations. This is something we need to learn from so that we are able to reach a stage when we, too, are able to move from one election to the next without the sense of danger that constantly stalks democracy in our country. Recently, and over the decades, we have witnessed interruptions that have barred us from building a durable system that is able to stand strong no matter what direction the winds blow from. Let us hope that we can learn from the example of our neighbour and progress in the fight for preserving democracy.

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

Strengthening the democratic process

July 25th, 2012

Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, after being sworn in as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), has made it quite clear that he has a one-point agenda. “We only have a one-point agenda and that is public justice through free, fair, transparent and impartial elections so that no one could ever point a finger at the impartiality of the election commission and all employees of the election commission should work to achieve that goal”, said the CEC. This is great news for the future of democracy in Pakistan. After nine years of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s military dictatorship, democracy finally made its way back in our polity in 2008 after a long and hard struggle. There may be some anti-democratic forces still vying for power but the people of Pakistan have been quite vocal in their desire for the continuation of the democratic process.

History demonstrates quite convincingly that even the worst democracy is certainly better than the best military dictatorship. Thus, the new CEC’s promise to give a democratic Pakistan to the new generation is indeed commendable. In any civilised state, free and fair polls are a given but in Pakistan, which has been under direct military rule for more than three decades, it is a rarity. As Justice Ebrahim commented, we have only had three relatively free and fair elections in our history — in 1971, 1988 and 2008. The establishment’s role in undermining the electoral process in many an election is no longer a secret. From distributing ‘secret funds’ to political parties of its choice to employing pressure tactics, our establishment has indulged in all sorts of rigging in order to influence election results.

The right to vote is an integral part of a just and democratic society. Nobody should be allowed to either take away that right or to let it go to waste. It is hoped that under Justice Ebrahim’s able command, the election commission would now be able to freely exercise its power and would not allow any foul play during the next general elections. The media must also play its role as a watchdog and be more vigilant during the polls. The people of Pakistan deserve to choose their leadership in a free and transparent manner.

UK visa scandal

July 25th, 2012

Why are we so prone to scandals? Just days before the 2012 Olympics get underway in London, a controversy, which could create huge waves, has broken out with the British tabloid The Sun reporting a criminal ring in Pakistan involved in obtaining two-month visas for persons to visit London in the guise of Olympic participants or officials. One million rupees have reportedly been charged from each individual seeking such a visa with a Lahore-based politician alleged to be behind the scam. The paper has claimed that a travel agency, whose owner was charged with human trafficking in 2003, is involved in the racket as are NADRA officials.

The whole affair does nothing for Pakistan’s image. We must remember that it was only two years ago that another tabloid broke the news of the spot-fixing scandal, which placed three leading Pakistani cricketers behind bars. The evidence presented by the tabloid was able to stand before the UK court. The immediate reaction on the part of Pakistan’s chief of the Olympics mission has been to deny the newspaper’s story. He has said that there are only 39 participants and officials from Pakistan in the Olympics village. But this does not make it clear if others may have travelled on visas citing Olympics participation. Such events have occurred before — with ‘bogus’ Pakistani athletes visiting foreign countries and then vanishing.

The tabloid has also suggested that some of the persons entering the UK could be terrorists. This may, or may not, be accurate. Certainly further investigations are needed. The president of Pakistan is said to have taken serious notice of the issue with six NADRA officials having been suspended. A joint investigation team has also been set up. We will need to see where these findings lead. But the fact is that for now, Pakistan once more stands in the dock despite all the denials being made.

Arsalan Iftikhar and NAB

July 25th, 2012

The crux of the Supreme Court’s cases against various PPP leaders has been the unassailable assertion that no one should be above the law, no matter how powerful they are. By not appearing before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Arsalan Iftikhar, the son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, has now gifted the PPP with the same argument. Arsalan contends that he did not receive any summonses from NAB, an excuse that will not wash, since all he had to do was pick up a newspaper to know that he was expected to appear before the body. Arsalan seems like the typical son of privilege, a man who has sailed through life by using his father’s name. He has to answer for his misdeeds and his stonewalling is merely delaying the inevitable.

At the same time, the PPP will have to ensure that it does not stand accused of the very same allege crime, which it has levelled against the Supreme Court: that it is out on a witch hunt. Obviously, NAB’s investigation into Arsalan’s case was ordered by the attorney general on the Court’s orders and so was not officially initiated by the PPP. But there are many whispers that the PPP had first leaked the story of Arsalan’s alleged transactional relationship with Malik Riaz to the press. The best thing the government can do is to let the process play itself out without involving itself in it. A transparent investigation and trial of whose fairness there can be no doubt about is the only way to wrap up this matter.

Accountability bodies, from Nawaz Sharif’s Ehtesab Bureau to NAB under General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, have usually been used as a cudgel against opposition figures. The PPP, to some extent, has avoided falling into the same trap. It should not succumb to the temptation of using NAB against the chief justice’s son and it should certainly not favour Riaz, who is just as guilty as Arsalan if the charges are found to be true. Helping the PPP in its struggle against the judiciary should not automatically grant Riaz a get-out-of-jail-free card.

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

Tangled web

July 26th, 2012

We seem to have become caught up again in the same tangled web, which had ensnared our last prime minister and brought him down. Is Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf now headed for a similar fate? We can only hope that this is not the case given the instability it would cause. Additionally, it would make us the laughing stock before the world due to the farcical nature of the entire situation. We seem to be going round and round on a circular route, with no means to escape. It is rather like being trapped on a merry-go-round that refuses to stop.

In the latest chapter of the NRO saga, the government wrote to the Supreme Court stating that it was unable to write the letter to Swiss authorities, as this would be a violation of the Constitution, which grants immunity to the president of the country. The reply to the Supreme Court emphasises the fact that the government is responsible for safeguarding the Constitution and if it has to write the letter seeking the reopening of cases, it would require the consent of the whole cabinet as the letter cannot be written by the prime minister acting on his own. This response was placed before the Supreme Court one day before Mr Ashraf was to appear before it. The line taken by the government’s legal team on the matter does not, however, appear to have impressed the Court. The Court has rejected the reply and suggested that a review petition may have been a more appropriate way to respond. It also stated that immunity for the president under the Constitution exists only as far as official acts are concerned.

We have then another stand-off between the Supreme Court and the government. This is not a pleasant situation to be in, all the more so given our experiences over the last months and how the tussle effectively clogged up the system, rendering it ineffective. We seem to be locked in the same situation again. The Court has given the prime minister until August 8 to write the letter to be dispatched to Geneva. We can for now only wonder how things will evolve or what the final outcome will be.

Truth or dare

July 26th, 2012

As the hearing of the turbulent state of affairs in Balochistan continues with the three-member Supreme Court bench investigating the petition filed by the Balochistan Bar Association, which is especially perturbed over the fate of missing persons, events do not appear to be headed in an especially promising direction. On the orders of the Supreme Court, the Frontier Corps (FC), on July 24, failed to produce the missing persons held by it, and it stated that it in fact holds no one in illegal custody.
This, of course, goes against logic: the Court had already heard detailed evidence that the ‘disappeared’ people were in FC custody, with the Balochistan police also testifying to this and stating that FC personnel had been spotted taking people away. The police said they were helpless under the circumstances. Human rights groups had already said that the paramilitary force was primarily responsible for the whisking away of people, many of them linked with nationalist elements or known to support them in ideological terms.

Such blatant defiance of the Supreme Court by the FC is aggravating the situation playing out in Balochistan. In neighbouring India, a serving Indian general was made to appear in a magistrate’s court in response to summonses against him that accused him of offering bribe and spreading misinformation in an army press release. And then we have the FC, who quite clearly intends to defy the Court. However, the question that still remains before the bench is how to sort matters out.

The FC has also refused to obey federal government orders to report to the provincial government. As the Supreme Court has noted, we now have a complete breakdown of the rule of law in Balochistan. The challenge then is to see how this anarchy can be ended and the FC brought under some kind of control, so that we at least know quite who this force is answerable to and how it can be reined in and held accountable.

Getting a fake ID

July 26th, 2012

In Pakistan, just about anything can be had by those who can afford it, from cricketers who get fake birth certificates to US-bound college students who want identification proving they are 21 years of age so they can frequent nightclubs. Pakistanis have the option of simply purchasing any type of identification they desire. The investigation carried out by the British tabloid, The Sun, into the fake passports being sold to those who wished to escape to England during the Olympics is merely the tip of the iceberg. The response from the government so far has been tepid. A few NADRA and passport office officials have been arrested but there seems to be no will to tackle the fake identification epidemic.

The dangers of being a country where fake identifications are so easy to purchase are multiplied in an age of terrorism. Previously, the issue was one that could be swept under the carpet. Now, however, there is a very real possibility that militants could simply buy a new identity and further become impossible to trace. With passports also available for sale, this problem is given an international dimension. If the international community decides that Pakistani passports are no longer guaranteed authenticity, there is a possibility it could lead to further delays at airports for Pakistani passengers, who are already under a cloud of suspicion, or even the voiding of our passports altogether. International travel is partly based on trust, where other countries have to accept that the passports being presented are kosher. In Pakistan’s case, that trust may have evaporated.

Even at home, just about every activity we carry out is done on the basis of our identification, from opening a bank account to driving a car. If Pakistan hands out fake identifications, we will become a haven for drug smugglers looking to launder their money and criminals will be extremely hard to catch. Safeguards need to be put in place to ensure no official can hand out fake identification. Otherwise, identification handed out by the government will not be worth the paper it is written on.

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