Olympic hopes

July 27th, 2012

The eyes of the world will be on London as the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games kicks off tonight, with excitement around the world reaching fever pitch as the mega event sets into action. Avid fans, not only from the US, the UK, China and Europe, but also from countries like Jamaica, Kenya, Morocco, Iran, India and even Afghanistan, will be rooting for their athletes, who have put in their utmost efforts preparing for the various disciplines in which they will be taking part.

It is sad to see that the Pakistani contingent has little hope of winning an Olympics medal — unless, of course, we witness a major surprise in the coming weeks. The place on the hockey podium that was once anticipated before every edition of the mega event is now no longer a surety. A Herculean effort will be required by the Greenshirts to pull off a medal-winning performance, which though unlikely, cannot be ruled out entirely, considering that the national team ended up being crowned the Asian Games champions in 2010 when no one gave it a chance of doing so. What is also true is that despite our immense potential in other disciplines, very little effort has been invested to nurture it. Sporting federations have failed to perform their key duties, many citing a lack of funds as a key reason for this. Pakistan has boxing talent in Lyari, footballing talent in various pockets and a flair for volleyball in the country’s north which, if harnessed, could give us hope of shining at the international level in the future. Indeed, if a proper sporting programme was instituted and implemented, there is no reason to believe that we could not do better at athletics, swimming and a host of other events at the Games.

The sight of an athlete with a medal around his or her neck raises national pride and lights up the image of that country. Pakistan certainly needs its image to be brightened up. Sports would appear to offer hope in this direction. However, the failure to nurture talent effectively means that in this particular edition of the Games, we have limited hopes of our contingent bringing back a medal. This is a failure we simply must not accept but instead we must work diligently towards reversing this state of affairs.

Kidnappings for ransom

July 27th, 2012

According to a report in this newspaper, there has been an alarming increase in incidents of kidnapping for ransom over the last few years, with more than 450 such cases being registered in each of the last two years. This is obviously a law-and-order issue, which the various police forces across the country must tackle but, even more than that, it is also a national security concern. It has always been feared that militants, particularly in Peshawar and Karachi, have been using kidnappings for ransom as a particularly macabre form of fundraising. Even now, over a year after they were kidnapped, Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, and Warren Weinstein, a US aid worker, are still being held, presumably because a high enough ransom hasn’t been paid to secure their release.

Kidnappings carried out by militants aren’t just about the money. Often, they will let go off their captives only if the government releases incarcerated militants. This is done quietly so that the government doesn’t have to admit that it negotiates with terrorists. Obviously, this is not a strategy the government should be employing. If abductors know that they will never be hunted down but rather given money for their crime, it will only lead to a further increase in kidnappings for ransom.

Dealing with abductions for ransom has to be made a priority by the government because they tend to target the already-vulnerable minority communities. In Balochistan, the Hindu community has been particularly affected by abductions to the extent that many of its members have left the province. This community has been targeted, both because a lot of Hindus are traders and thus have the money to pay ransom and also because the government is less likely to pursue kidnapping cases if the victims are part of a minority group. Such stances are detrimental to the country’s progress and the government needs to evolve a comprehensive strategy to chase down abductors.

Smuggling stories

July 27th, 2012

Our willingness to dispatch important elements of our heritage overseas is frightening. We appear to have no qualms about parting with items that rightfully belong to our soil and to the generations of our future. Four gazelles dispatched from Bahawalpur in small baskets have been confiscated at the Karachi Railway Station after a tip-off to the Sindh Wildlife Department. The smugglers themselves, who used false names to attempt the transaction, have not been apprehended, though an effort to do so continues. The rescued animals are currently being kept at the Wildlife Department office and will eventually be released at the Kirthar National Park.

Of greater significance than the fate of the gazelles, which have fortunately been saved before they could be whisked away, is the larger issue of wildlife as a whole and what we can do to save it. Experts say that there were once huge stocks of gazelles in Bahawalpur, Thar and Khairpur. These have now dwindled to a point where the antelope, with its delicate colouring and natural beauty, is nearing extinction. A key reason is that despite being a protected species, it is smuggled abroad, most often to the Middle East where people keep them as pets. Indeed, even at home, the gazelles are kept in private zoos alongside all kinds of other exotic species.

What we need then is to create more awareness about better protecting our faunas. Poaching and smuggling have destroyed huge stocks of animals, leaving us with an increasingly empty and barren land. This is a tragedy. It can be prevented only if people across the country work to protect what little we have left of our wildlife. We owe this to our country. Allowing hunting for foreign delegations, who visit the country annually to shoot species, such as the Houbara Bustard, needs to be stopped and we need to tighten and enforce laws that allow people to easily obtain licences to keep protected animals as pets. Only if such strategies are developed can we hope to save wildlife and stop incidents of the kind seen at Karachi.

Politics and the military

July 28th, 2012

Ideally, the Ashgar Khan petition currently being heard by the Supreme Court will serve two purposes: to punish those who tried to illegally influence the 1990 elections and to deter the military establishment from interfering in future elections. The decision by former ISI chief Asad Durrani to reveal the names of those officers, who handed out money to politicians, should help achieve both aims. It is crucial to know not just which politicians were bribed but who in the establishment had bribed them. In 1990, the establishment had a one-point agenda to ensure that the PPP was not returned to power and it used all means at its disposal to secure that outcome. Now it is up to the Supreme Court to investigate and punish all those responsible for this scheme, even if it includes senior officials of the establishment of the time.

Simply making the details of this election rigging public is not enough. Neither is heaping all the blame on the politicians who accepted the money from intelligence agencies. There should be some kind of accountability of those in the military who indulged in these shenanigans so that a clear message is sent to all and sundry that they cannot simply buy an election. This is important, not least because of the sorry record of the military and its intelligence agencies in manipulating the outcome of elections in this country.

At the same time, it is important to know which politicians were the beneficiaries of military largesse. The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad was formed by the establishment with the express purpose of dislodging the PPP and those of its leaders who took military money need to be named and shamed. The 1990 elections were expected to be too close to call, yet this right-wing group somehow managed to get more than twice as many seats as the PPP and its allies. The role played by the establishment in this surprising landslide needs to be investigated. The Supreme Court should also broaden the terms of the Asghar Khan petition and look more deeply into the military’s role, not just in the 1990 elections, but in subsequent elections as well.

The plight of Rohingya Muslims

July 28th, 2012

The recent upsurge in violence being perpetrated against Rohingya Muslims in Burma has highlighted the Burmese regime’s complete disregard for basic human rights. The Burmese security forces are guilty of killings, rapes and mass arrests. The 800,000-strong Rohingya community has never been accepted as part of Burma and has always been discriminated against, with the violence against them seemingly intensifying in recent weeks. One catalyst was a statement by Burmese President Thein Sein that all Rohingyas should either be deported or placed in refugee camps. Since many Rohingyas trace their roots to Burma, going back many decades, such a move would essentially leave them stateless. Bangladesh has always been reluctant to accept Rohingyas, while Burma sees them as illegal immigrants. The Rohingyas seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

These recent happenings have highlighted Pakistan’s tendency to call for appropriate action to be taken in various cases of violence against Muslims across the world, instead of focusing on those violent acts being perpetrated on its own soil. The persecution of Rohingya Muslims has caught our eyes, to the extent that even the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has killed as many Muslims as any other entity, is calling on the Burmese government to stop the killings and for the Pakistani government to cut off all ties until this is done. Lawyers groups and political parties have also carried out protests. What makes our concern for Burmese Muslims ironic is that many of them are ethnic Bengalis, a group which we discriminated against with impunity in the past.

Despite their dire situation, there is little Pakistan can do. We have too many problems of our own to make this a priority. At most, we can raise the issue at international forums. It is hoped that the world does not ignore the plight of Rohingya Muslims and ensures that their rights are protected and that the Burmese regime stops its violent acts against this community.

A televised conversion

July 28th, 2012

Ramazan is meant to be a month of modesty, empathy and quiet reflection; sadly, all being qualities that our media lacks. This year, television channels have heaped one indignity after the other on its viewers. The latest among these is the spectacle that is Maya Khan. This vigilante posing as a talk show host was able to land a cushy gig almost immediately after being fired from another TV channel and is now back to her old tricks. On her Ramazan programme, Ms Khan broadcast the conversion of a Hindu man to Islam live on television, an act that combined sensationalism with insensitivity.

Obviously, prima facie, there is nothing wrong with a Hindu converting to Islam. But in a country where Hindu girls have been known to be abducted, forcibly converted and married off to Muslim men, showing this conversion on television will serve only to embolden those who discriminate against minorities. Also, given that we live in a country where minorities can freely convert to Islam but Muslims are banned from converting to any other religion, television channels should show a bit more sensitivity to minority religions. The media should act as an agent of tolerance. Instead, it is pandering to the base instincts of the majority, all in the name of earning attention and notoriety and, most importantly, the advertising rupees that accompany them.

Easy as it is to heap all the blame on Ms Khan, her employers and advertisers, it is also important to look inwards. There is no way she would be able to get away with her antics if there wasn’t a public demand for this. The stark reality is that we have become a nation that is enamoured of all the rituals associated with religion but display none of the tolerance and humility that religion requires. If we want the likes of Ms Khan off the air, the way to do that is by switching the channel. It is impossible to demand a more responsible media when our remotes automatically turn to the bigots and sensationalists.

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

Invitation to Dr Manmohan Singh

July 29th, 2012

Following President Asif Ali Zardari’s invitation to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan, it is likely that the visit will take place in November 2012 barring any untoward incident which brings back the war hysteria between the two neighbouring states.

Mr Singh has defied an anti-Pakistan opposition in Lok Sabha to assert that he wants to remove interstate tensions with Pakistan. On the other hand, Pakistan has chosen to revisit its foreign policy paradigm that is India-centric, bringing it negative dividends.

The two sides have made public gestures to soften the bilateral hostility felt at the level of the common man. President Zardari has visited Ajmer Sharif in India and applied his usual ‘reconciliatory’ diplomacy to New Delhi while giving the go-ahead to its party to forge ahead on the question of opening free trade with India; India has accepted the Pakistani cricket team’s tour to India and has announced that it would not join the US in enhancing its presence in Afghanistan to the detriment of Pakistani interests.

The positive fallout of the visit will actually begin with trade-related agreements in September so that Mr Singh will look good while exploiting photo opportunities in Pakistan. The world will look on with bated breath because normalisation of Indo-Pak relations will bring down the temperatures of conflict in the region now focused on Afghanistan. While the world is in favour of the visit, the impediments are mostly at home: the extreme right-wing elements in India do not want it because of the continuing scandals relating to the 2008 Mumbai attacks; in Pakistan, jihadist organisations united under the banner of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council have warned India of reprisals in response to its Afghan policy.

This diplomacy will have to proceed against the current of public opinion. The Indian media is riled after Pakistan’s stubborn denial campaign following the revelations made by Abu Jundal, the Indian terrorist who was present in Karachi when the Mumbai attack was being planned; the Pakistani media is full of stories about the Taliban being funded by the US and aided by India in its bloody forays into Pakistan’s cities, killing innocent citizens. Earlier, Pakistan told India that it is interfering in Balochistan by aiding and abetting the Baloch separatists but without presenting to New Delhi any internationally credible proof of its allegations. A separate campaign has been unleashed in Pakistan about the ‘stealing’ of Pakistani waters from rivers by India building hundreds of dams in violation of a waters treaty.

If Pakistan and India are left to themselves, they will probably not be able to prevent more wars between each other. The outside world is featuring more and more in the current diplomacy by the two, mainly because any conflict between them threatens to escalate into a nuclear war. Both are dependent in varying degrees on the outside world; Pakistan in terms of aid which it needs to survive and India because it wants to expand its stature globally, which the old ‘stay at home’ doctrine will not deliver.

Out of the two, Pakistan is in dire straits. Unfortunately, this will make progress difficult because of the rise of suicidal ‘ghairat’ on the basis of the slogans popularised by politicians and the non-state actors aligned with al Qaeda. The opposition is presenting serried ranks to President Zardari’s initiative with the media playing its frog chorus. It is Pakistan that will have to change the domestic rules of the game set by the army and face the outside world more attuned to pragmatism and economic opportunism to stave off state collapse.

The future of Pakistan is threatened no longer by conflict on the eastern border but by the rapid unfolding of the ‘endgame’ of international military presence in Afghanistan on the western border. India and Pakistan need to coordinate policy in order to secure themselves against any hostile post-withdrawal developments there. For that, they need to normalise relations, move forward on the creation of pro-peace vested interests on both sides through free trade facilitating infrastructure connectivities in the region and adjacent regions like Central Asia.

British envoy’s remarks

July 29th, 2012

The definition of a political gaffe is when a public figure accidentally tells the world exactly what he is thinking. Adam Thomson, the British high commissioner in Islamabad, was not far off the mark when he called Pakistanis the “world leaders in the visa fraud business” but it is nonetheless a shocking lapse in etiquette from a diplomat who should have known better.

Mr Thomson would have been better off staying quiet at a time when the alleged visa scam reported by a British tabloid is still being investigated by authorities. A diplomat who ends up badmouthing the country where he is serving is unlikely to be very effective at his job. Good diplomacy is conducted quietly behind closed doors, not loudly at press conferences. If there is going to be outrage directed at Mr Thomson for his poor timing and choice of words, then it is fully deserved.

Mr Thomson’s diplomatic lapse, however, should not distract us from the essential truth of what he is saying. Pakistanis have a poor track record when it comes to visa applications. Many of them are so desperate to leave the country that they often end up taking shortcuts by submitting forged documents. Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was once asked in an interview what he thought about the large percentage of Pakistanis who want to emigrate elsewhere. Mr Gilani’s answer was, why then, don’t they leave the country? What he chose to ignore was that they may want to leave the country but there are very few that want to accept them.

Given that Mr Thompson did not exactly exaggerate in his comments, it may be better for the government to simply ignore what he said. Its efforts would be better utilised in investigating the visa scam. Simply firing a few employees and then enveloping yourself in a cocoon of denial is not a strategy worth pursuing. We need to transparently figure out the truth and then take on this serious problem. We must not reach a point where the world shuns us simply because our passports are no longer trusted.

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

The need for free and fair polls

While visiting the offices of the provincial Election Commission in Karachi, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim has said that all possible efforts would be made to ensure free, fair, impartial and transparent elections. His exact words were: “If free, fair and transparent elections are held once, the fate of the country will change”. Ironies bristle: two of the three elections that were fair according to him — 1970 and 2008 — led to disaster in one case and unprecedented political instability in the other. The PPP, which won in both, had to endure the hanging of its founder and today, faces the most acidic internecine politics ever seen in Pakistan.

One can say that Pakistan is in for tough times in governance as the bipartisan system crumbles and makes way for multi-party coalition politics after 2013. But these Third World oddities aside, the CEC has his plate full: the new computerised electoral rolls have to be issued with, hopefully, no glitches, while he is “still trying to understand the working of the Election Commission and to acquaint himself with the difficulties faced by the election staff”. Predictably, he found the staff quite experienced and competent. He is thinking of visiting all the provinces and meeting the election staff there to assess what, if any, operational changes needed to be made.

Already new issues are being raised regarding electoral supervision. The Supreme Court has removed the election manpower borrowed by the Election Commission from the judiciary, which means that the entire national-level exercise will be dependent on the provincial bureaucracies. Columns have been written and a former Election Commission official has gone on record having said that these bureaucrats could be biased. This precisely means that the ruling parties in the provinces will likely be able to somehow influence the conduct of polls in their favour, while the caretakers are running the country.

It is also assumed that the manpower drawn from the magistracy will not be biased. In fact, the PPP might see the old system as being biased against it and could be happy about the Supreme Court removing its manpower from the election process. The action taken by the Court could actually mean that it does not want the odour of partiality to cling to the electoral process in 2013. The ex-official of the Election Commission who brought up the point could be speaking from a position that the PPP could already be regarding as partial. Of course, the option of calling out the army is there.

Mr Ebrahim’s presence is already a guarantee for fairness because he is trusted to blow the whistle when he sees anything being ‘fixed’ at any level by anyone, including feared interference with the election commission’s computer. He is a legal mind with a broadness normally required to understand Third World fallibilities when it comes to voting. Rules are going to be broken, especially when it comes to spending money beyond the limits fixed by electoral law. He will surely take into account the new habits developed by the electorate, like voters not coming to polling stations unless transported from their homes and given food during travel.

The most serious problem will relate to the carrying of weapons and firing them off by supporters, whose rivalries are on short fuse. The capacity of the police to cope with weaponisation is by now well known: they are less well armed than the supporters of political parties. In Karachi, law and order has been destroyed by the citizens’ resort to arms and the coming elections could prove to be more problematic there than in the past.

Finally, there is the factor of terrorism to be considered. Al Qaeda-linked terrorists are following an agenda of intimidation through bombing. It is quite clear that some parties will be safe because of the foreign policy stance they have adopted, while others could be targeted. One could say that fair elections also require a firm writ of the state, which does not seem to exist in Pakistan. About that, the CEC can hardly do anything.

Hidden deeds

While there has been much focus on corruption in certain instances in our country, it is astonishing what deeds politicians get away with. Few questions are asked by their parties and it appears that only some accounts of wrongdoing hit the media. At present, former Punjab chief minister Sardar Dost Muhammad Khosa is in the news once again. It ought to be noted that Khosa, the youngest son of Sardar Zulfikar Ali Khosa, a PML-N veteran and senior adviser to the Punjab government, had been accused in 2011 of having allegedly murdered his ex-wife, a film actress. A case was registered against him in March 2012, and he subsequently resigned from the Punjab government following a request from the chief minister, who noted that the criminal case against Khosa was embarrassing the government.

But it seems that there is further embarrassment to be faced by the Punjab government. We learned from a report in this newspaper that Khosa, who was allocated an official residence as chief minister, a post he served between April to June 2008 as a ‘stand-in’ for Shahbaz Sharif, first had the bungalow provided to him in the GOR-1 area of Lahore, lavishly furnished and refurbished. Then, when he vacated the residence in November 2011, after a falling out with the government in which he had held two ministries, he is reported to have taken away items worth four million rupees, as he shifted to a private residence. Since then, furniture, paintings and other such items are believed to have been shifted to the Khosa ancestral residence at Dera Ghazi Khan, making them far harder to retrieve.

As would be expected under such circumstances, Khosa and his staff have denied wrongdoing. No reply has been made to a letter sent out by the Communications and Works Department seeking a return of these items. Some sub-standard pieces of furniture were reportedly handed in but have been rejected by the department. The former chief minister must not be allowed to get away with this act. The chief minister of Punjab, who has spoken so often against corruption, must act and back what he says, so that a proper example can be set to others.

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

The president’s strong words

July 31st, 2012

We must ask if the speech delivered by President Asif Ali Zardari in Khairpur district in the heart of Sindh is suitable for a head of state. President Zardari made no real effort to present himself as a neutral figure and made it clear that he was with the PPP — virtually at the same level as one of its workers. The question of holding dual posts as party chairman and as president has raised questions in the past. More will come up following this speech.

In his speech, President Zardari indirectly attacked the judiciary — with which the executive has been long locked in a tussle — over the manner in which a former prime minister was disqualified and boasted that he had been replaced by a new one just as loyal to the party. The president also claimed that the PPP would win the next election and denied that there would be any attempt to delay it. It is certainly hoped that the balloting process will proceed as per schedule and with the transparency that is required for such a key event. The president should, in fact, assure the people of this by adopting a position that rises above party lines.

As he has done before, President Zardari also spoke of ‘conspiracies’ against his party and said that the PPP would not engage in underhand deals. Again, it is hoped that this will be proven true. To his credit, the president admitted that there was a grave energy crisis in the country, which had driven people to the streets. There are also other problems that he needs to address. As rumour goes, the real reason for his visit to Khairpur was to win back former Sindh home minister Manzoor Wassan who it is believed may be joining the PML-F. Clearly, the PPP does not wish to lose vital hands in Sindh. But it is questionable if the president himself should be playing such a direct role in party politics rather than leaving this to others who may be able to tackle such issues without raising quite so many eyebrows.

Anti-loadshedding violence in Punjab

July 31st, 2012

If the Punjab government wanted popular violence to register its opposition to the PPP, it has got more than the measure it perhaps, desired. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the incumbent ANP is under pressure from mobs gone berserk as outage went up to 20 hours in rural areas and Fata. In Punjab, after the mobs had their fill, public opinion swung more in favour of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf; in KP the mood could have swung to the Taliban as democracy’s alternative.

Public and private property was damaged or burned as the mobs, spearheaded by teen and pre-teen youths, went on a spree of destruction. Wapda installations were destroyed, which may actually further complicate the crisis: vandalism became the new creed for a generation that will make Pakistan even more ungovernable in the coming days.

In Punjab, the shortfall of 5,139 megawatts trashed the federal government’s pledge that there will be no loadshedding during sehri and iftar. Multan, otherwise inclined in favour of the PPP, erupted in destructive violence, urchins hitting the streets and putting everything in sight to the torch, including vehicles and eventually burning the Multan Electricity Supply Corporation (Mepco) offices. Mepco estimated the losses at Rs500,000, counting also the items the crowd stole.

There was no water to drink after the long outage, which provoked the mob to more felony regardless of the pieties of the holy month of fasting. Close to Lahore, Muridke saw 300 mobsters burn tyres and chant slogans against the government. They headed towards the Shamka grid station where the police tried to stop them in vain. They ignored the baton charge and vandalised the station as well as a police van. On Ferozpur Road, mobs blocked the traffic for hours in protest.

The tragic breakdown of civilised behaviour spread to Faisalabad, where the crowd besieged the Faisalabad Electricity Supply Corporation grid station, pelted stones and chanted slogans. Some of them were from a neighbouring suburb and had endured a 24-hour outage. Shockingly, in Attock, bordering KP, ‘journalists decided to launch an indefinite but peaceful protest against loadshedding’. Shocking, because this is what the Punjab government should have encouraged. In India, where loadshedding spread to seven states on July 29, this was what the citizens did.

There is politics in this anti-loadshedding protest. No doubt the common man is at the end of his patience and will be inclined to violent acts but not to the extent it is happening today. The crowds that come out are not the most educated lot, which means our ramshackle system of education has let us down, but the abandon and righteousness with which they attack public and private property is bordering on the criminal. MNAs and MPAs come on TV and harangue the citizenry against one another’s parties and raise the temperature. The mob almost expects to see themselves on the TV screen ‘teaching the government a lesson’.

The drama unfolds in the provinces while the federal government is deemed responsible. The politician in the opposition wants early elections and wants the PPP government on its knees, agreeing to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. The chief minister of Punjab says that he has sympathy for the suffering masses of his province and has even joined a march or two. This has unleashed a change in the collective behaviour of his voters. He, perhaps, doesn’t realise how much damage his strategy is doing to his own constituency. If one glances at the spectacle of negative coverage by TV channels, he is getting flak from his ‘beloved’ masses equally with the PPP.

Like everything else, loadshedding, too, is being politicised, including the strategy of going to the Supreme Court with puny points of law. It will come to no good. The stock of the protest-supporting PML-N is down too. It may have shot itself in the foot but it has also done permanent damage by habituating the next generation of citizens to outlawed behaviour.

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

New deal on NATO supplies

August 1st, 2012

After weeks of tension, Pakistan and the US have agreed to sign a new deal under which the Nato supply routes through the country will resume. This deal will hold through till December 2015, with the option of being renewed for a further year. In many ways this is good news, ending the controversy that had broken out since the Salala incident in November last year, where over a dozen Pakistani soldiers were killed in an air attack from across the Afghan border. Given the levels of rising instability seen since then, it was crucial that things be sorted out. This time, in doing so, Pakistan has been able to assert its own demands to a far greater extent than in the past. Against a hugely powerful ally this marks a big success.

The deal, negotiated by officials from both countries involved an apology from the US for the Salala incident, which has already been made. Pakistan has dropped its demand for a transit fee in exchange for the release of long-term payments and stipulated that arms and ammunition not be transported through its territory. It will also offer security to the Nato vehicles, but not take responsibility for any losses that may incur. No warehouse facilities are to be offered and both the northern route through Torkham and the southern route through Chaman will be opened. The transparency in the details of the deal, which has been approved by the federal cabinet, also breaks with the past and is welcome.

The deal should help clear up many matters. At the least, it lets people know exactly where relations stand. At the moment, Nato vehicles are stranded at both Torkham and Chaman. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. The provincial governments have already sought help from the centre. The new agreement should help clear up the logjams on the two borders.

It is obvious that we needed to bring ties with the US back on an even keel. While Pakistan must strive for sovereignty, this can only be attained one step at a time and this agreement marks an important step forward towards this goal.

Scuttling of arms trade treaty

August 1st, 2012

That the Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (CATT) ended without an agreement after a month of negotiations should come as no surprise. After all, the countries that benefit most from the current unregulated arms trade are the five UN Security Council members with a veto power. When something is not in the interests of the superpowers, it tends not to happen. It appeared that the CATT would be successful but, at the last minute, the US said it needed more time to consider the proposed treaty, with Russia and China quickly following suit. In doing so, these countries have essentially scuttled the treaty for the foreseeable future.

The treaty proposed at the CATT would have outlawed the sale of arms in case there was a good chance that they would land up in the hands of terrorists or regimes that violate international human rights standards. In theory, this sounds unobjectionable. But the truth is that all major powers in the world, despite their high-sounding rhetoric, actually rely on selling arms to dubious actors to sustain this multibillion dollar industry. China and Russia, for example, are currently arming the violent Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, while the US is the biggest supplier of arms to a host of unsavoury governments in the Middle East. This includes Israel, which is engaged in a brutal war against the Palestinian people, the Egyptian military currently undermining democracy in the country and a Bahraini monarchy at war with its majority Shia population.

Pakistan, too, would have been a beneficiary of a treaty regulating the global arms trade. We are currently engaged in a war with well-armed militants who receive their weaponry from wealthy individuals in the Arab states and from the international black market. A treaty that is strictly enforced would make it harder for such non-state actors to have easy access to conventional arms. At the CATT, money won out over common sense. After a short period of reflection, everyone needs to get back to the negotiating table and finally sign this treaty.

A good step by the NDMA

August 1st, 2012

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) recently announced a plan to provide disaster risk insurance for Pakistan’s 180 million people to cover the loss of human lives, livelihoods, shelter and livestock. This would be the biggest ever insurance venture in the world. While this is a welcome move, considering how natural disasters have caused widespread damage across Pakistan in the recent past, it remains to be seen whether the NDMA will be able to successfully implement its plan and provide relief to disaster-struck communities.

The way the government reacted to the 2010 and 2011 floods that devastated vast tracts of land, rendered people homeless and destroyed their properties displayed the lack of planning and foresight regarding the rehabilitation of those affected by these disasters. However, it seems that the government and the NDMA have now realised that something needs to be done to ensure that this state of affairs is not repeated in case of another natural disaster. There seems to be a realisation that apart from providing timely assistance, there is also a need to rehabilitate the affected people.

Last year’s flood affectees still have not been fully rehabilitated. All available resources are needed to help these people who are among the poorest in the country. Thus, the NDMA’s plan to provide disaster risk insurance to the entire nation is commendable. If and when this initiative is commenced, an awareness campaign to educate the people about disaster risk insurance must be launched simultaneously. Also, in the past we have seen how good initiatives are launched with much fanfare but then remain on paper only. It is granted that we need good laws and/or initiatives but what we also need is a mechanism that allows for these projects to be effectively implemented. Merely coming up with good ideas is not a solution. Translating those ideas into result-oriented programmes is the way forward. Let’s hope the NDMA follows through on its plan.

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

A car that runs on water?

August 2nd, 2012

In recent days, talk show hosts who really should know better have been touting a peculiar invention known as the water kit. An engineer has claimed to have found a way to use water as a fuel that can run cars. He claims to have done this by splitting the oxygen and hydrogen molecules in water, a feat which, if real, would represent one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of science. However, we must not forget that water is not a fuel and the fact that the matter is being debated and hyped up without proper scientific investigation, displays our profound scientific illiteracy and the media’s irresponsible response to this claim.

Belief in the ability to run vehicles on water seems to now have become a matter of national pride. Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, whose hyper patriotism seems to have swallowed the scientific nous he possesses, has treated the ‘discovery’ as if it was real without examining it scientifically. The cabinet, perhaps, in a burst of excitement at the prospect of our energy woes being solved, wants a demonstration of the water kit. A lone scientist or two have been trying to inject sanity into the debate but have been shouted down by others who see a genuine scientific breakthrough where none may exist. We have often been accused by our detractors as a people ruled by emotion rather than reason. By being gullible enough to believe that we can use water as a fuel, we are doing our best to live up to the caricature.

The problem here is that we are so insecure about our achievements on the world stage that when one of our own claims to have done something incredible, our first instinct is to believe him, defend him against all criticism and see the person as improving the image of the country. Naysayers are instantly denounced as self-loathing individuals. Meanwhile, those who have genuinely advanced scientific knowledge in their fields, like Dr Abdus Salam, are forgotten simply because of their religious beliefs. It is sad that when the Higgs boson particle was recently discovered, none of our media pundits conducted the kind of extensive talk shows on Dr Salam’s contribution to this great discovery, like the ones they have devoted to the ‘invention’ of the water kit.

History at the Olympics

August 2nd, 2012

The debates and claims of standing atop Mount Olympus have now been silenced. By winning his 19th medal at the Olympics — out of which an astounding 15 have been gold medals — American swimmer Michael Phelps is now, without debate, the greatest Olympian of all time. Phelps has leapfrogged legends like Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi and gymnast Larisa Latynina, whose medal record Phelps beat with a victory in the 200-metre freestyle relay. At the age of 27, Phelps has reached the summit of his career. Any further victories will simply be the gravy that confirms his legend. Earlier in the day, when a silver medal tied Latynina’s record, Phelps looked disappointed. Such is his level of perfection that he couldn’t even take a moment to savour his achievement.

Undoubtedly, the Phelps who has shown up in London is not the same man who set the world on fire in Beijing. The ravages of age, which appear at a more tender age for athletes, have dulled some of his speed and enthusiasm. The intervening years have been marred by a dope-smoking scandal and a comedown from the fanatical fitness regime Phelps maintains. He is now competing not because he is leaps and bounds ahead of the other swimmers but through sheer force of will. This is why we tune in to the Olympics day after day, to see history being made and watch adversity being vanquished during that one perfect moment.

Still, there is a lot more action to be played out and a lot more history to be written. Pakistanis will be fervently praying that its hockey players can snag the country’s first medal since 1992. The incomparable Roger Federer is on course to add his first tennis singles gold to a resume that includes just about every title in the sport. China and the US, in a mirror of the political jostling between the rising and fading superpower, are locked in a battle of their own for the most overall gold medals. This is, indeed, a thrilling time to be a sports fan.

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

A momentous decision

August 3rd, 2012

India’s symbolic decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) from Pakistan in all sectors, except defence, space and atomic energy, is a move that has widespread repercussions, far beyond the simple economic gains that both sides may accrue as a result of this step. Apart from the vast opportunities that this has opened up for Pakistani investors and the potential employment opportunities that this may create in India, the move promises prospects of immediate and long-term political gains as well. As neighbours who have complementary economic strengths, Pakistan and India should have been natural trading partners. War and politics has kept this from becoming a reality. But if progress continues to be made on issues such as FDI, it should lead to a massive increase in cross-border trade and that will ultimately help the economies and people of both countries.

On the political front, allowing Pakistanis to invest in India also represents a big breakthrough. Progress in peace talks has been halting and piecemeal. For all the hope that comes from every cordial summit between high-level officials of the two countries, there is usually a step back, such as when an agreement could not be reached on liberalising the visa regime. Now that India has opened its economy to Pakistani investors, we should reciprocate. There may be far less interest among Indians in investing in Pakistan but the gesture would be seen as another confidence-building measure on the long, rocky road to peace.

The important thing for both India and Pakistan now is to ensure that breakthroughs such as this help the peace process gather momentum. Now is the time to follow up with other nods to peace. India has invited our cricket team to play in their country. Another positive and much-needed step will be to make it easier for citizens of both countries to get visas to travel across the border; easing the visa regime should be a priority. There is no greater way of defeating the hawks on both sides than by making an India-Pakistan alliance an inevitability and a reality. This can only be done by ensuring that the fate of both the countries is tied together — whether by trade or political necessity.

No sacred cows

August 3rd, 2012

On August 1, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to start criminal proceedings against three former generals for their involvement in a land lease deal that led to losses worth billions for the Pakistan Railways. This is an unprecedented, yet, a very welcome move. In the past, corruption by military men largely went unnoticed as the PML-N’s Khawaja Asif rightly pointed out: That the media was always quick to deal with politicians whereas uniformed personnel were often dealt with in a much different manner.

Due to the military’s power, it often seems that its personnel are not held accountable for their actions in the way politicians are. No military dictator has been taken to task for holding the Constitution in abeyance after overthrowing civilian governments. In the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden raid and the attack on the Mehran airbase in Karachi, no military personnel have been held responsible so far, either for incompetence or complicity (barring a few suspensions in the case of the latter). But we saw that a serving ambassador — a civilian — had to resign following the uproar caused by the memo affair. The Supreme Court has held the Frontier Corps responsible for the missing persons in Balochistan but there seems to be no way to monitor its activities.

Pakistan has faced difficult times, globally, in terms of international isolation, due to what many perceive as the military establishment’s stance on the war on terror. However, there seems to be little analysis of the role that uniformed personnel have played in various matters of import over the years. What we usually see is a witch-hunt against democratically elected governments but the real powerbrokers are not questioned about their policies. It is now time to hold all entities accountable for their excesses. Thus, the PAC’s move to take action against the retired generals is something to be lauded. No one should be above the law.

Censoring by Twitter

August 3rd, 2012

Usually, when we talk of free speech we expect threats from governments, not private companies. Censorship has usually been a tool of repression deployed by insecure governments seeking to silence restive populations. Now, though, we may have to set our sights on corporations that increasingly hold the power to silence us. Take the recent case of Guy Adams, a journalist for the British newspaper The Independent. He posted a series of tweets on social-networking site Twitter, criticising television coverage of the Olympics on the US channel NBC, and provided the work email of an NBC executive, to whom viewers could complain. For his efforts, Adams was rewarded by having his Twitter account suspended for over a day for the ‘crime’ of posting someone’s private email address, although the address posted was the executive’s work email.

Twitter ultimately unbanned Adams and apologised for the mistake. The fact that they took this drastic action in the first place raises a lot of red flags. For one, we need to be aware that the words we write are being done on property that belongs to a private corporation and hence, we have no rights over it. As much as we like to see Facebook, Twitter and the like as our virtual water cooler, these are ultimately profit-seeking entities, which can simply banish all our words into oblivion should they see them as a threat to their corporate strategy.

A more proactive interpretation of freedom of speech is urgently needed. Adams would have lost years’ worth of tweets and had no legal recourse if Twitter authorities had not come to their senses. What’s ironic is that even Twitter realises the threats that governments pose to our freedoms, while helping corporations restrict speech. It is currently fighting off the US government, which is demanding it hand over tweets by an Occupy Wall Street protestor suspected of criminal activity. Yet, it was happy to give in to NBC’s demands on a highly trivial issue. Hopefully, Twitter will learn a lesson from this and reform its process for dealing with such matters.

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

SC’s verdict on contempt law

August 4th, 2012

We see spread out before us a labyrinth that is, as things look now, virtually impossible to negotiate. Parliament and the Supreme Court have clashed directly with the latter on Friday striking down the new Contempt of Court law passed by parliament (in one hour and eight minutes) less than a month ago. The new law, as some members representing the government have conceded, was intended to protect the prime minister from meeting the same unfortunate fate as his predecessor and stated that a person holding public office could not be held in contempt. For that very reason, and because it was a political ploy by the PPP, the apex court’s verdict of August 3 was quite expected.

The question asked by the Supreme Court as to how one treatment could be meted out to one prime minister and a different kind to another is a valid one. But the whole issue raises the point of how the Constitution is to be treated and where final authority in this matter lies. The law in question was blatantly intended to suit the PPP-led government’s own interests. When going through with the new law, the ruling party knew the path would be opened up for greater confrontation with the judiciary and this is precisely what has happened. No well-wisher of Pakistan would have wanted this situation to emerge but it has. It is uncertain how we are to weave our way out of this maze with its many obstacles and dead ends.

One also needs to consider that even with the old contempt law in place, there is a question on some people’s minds and it is not entirely an irrelevant one. It has to do with holding the judiciary accountable, much like any other pillar of the state. The perception that politicians are singled out for criticism in a country like Pakistan, with generals and judges considered holy cows, keeps on getting reinforced. As for the generals, they should be considered equal under the law and by the courts. And as far as the judges are concerned, there is the Supreme Judicial Council but it is headed by the chief justice of Pakistan so it can be argued that this accountability mechanism, insofar as the country’s judiciary is concerned, is not entirely transparent.

Revamping the Pakistan-US alliance

August 4th, 2012

Before sending his ISI chief General Zaheerul Islam to Washington to meet the CIA Director David Petraeus, Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani set the tone after meeting the top US commander in Afghanistan General John Allen: “The meeting helped towards improving strategic and operational understanding between the Pakistan military and ISAF”.

In Washington, General Islam expressed Pakistan’s desire to move to ‘new beginnings’, resetting cooperation in the two countries’ strategic projections. The ‘new beginnings’ indicate progress from where it was disrupted when the former ISI chief General Ahmad Shuja Pasha broke off talks with his counterpart in high dudgeon several months ago. Pakistan follows policy cues of its army with public opinion swinging along as moulded by the media and a divided political community competing in keeping the army on its right side.

Pakistan’s defiance did not last long because a voluble parliament and such ‘civil society’ organisations as the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) hammed it up and destroyed the fine nuances of the strategy adopted by the army when it closed Nato supply routes after the November 2011 Salala incident. The upshot of this overkill was that in July, Pakistan was politically cornered with its frayed economy sending out distress signals to an international community that was not willing to listen. The drop scene was that Pakistan reopened the supply route ‘for free’ but got $1.1 billion from the Coalition Support Fund that its policy had put in abeyance.

The Allen-Kayani meeting was obviously significant, possibly achieving some kind of agreement on how to handle the Haqqani network on the Pakistani side attacking Afghanistan and the terrorist Maulana Fazlullah’s gang in Nuristan and Kunar in Afghanistan attacking Malakand in Pakistan. The foreign office in Islamabad seems to have found its voice — with a go-ahead from the GHQ — when it declared dead the policy of strategic depth for which Pakistan had sacrificed more than it should have. If the army was once wedded to it, it may have backed off after seeing the dire straits that the Pakistan economy was in and the changing mood of the captains of the national economy who were in favour of opening up the occluded trade with India.

The new voice in the foreign office was expressed through Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar who defied the much dreaded DPC and opportunistic politician by saying that the ‘I am sorry’ type of apology from America was enough for Pakistan to forgive and forget, emphasising that Pakistan could not afford to be isolated. The phase in which the foreign office put its shoulder to the strategic depth obsession of the army was put aside at the risk of offending the non-state actors of the DPC. Pakistan is, therefore, well on its way to ridding itself of the international pariah status and thinking straight about confronting its internal weaknesses.

The theme of opposition to drones developed by Pakistan and its media will not be easily suppressed. To get Washington to stop them will depend on how honest Pakistan is in pledging to get after the terrorist outfits on its side and admitting its limitations in this regard. The other side will have to mount new operations in Kunar, a Wahabi stronghold, and in Nuristan, a province with little or no ISAF presence, to stop the Fazlullah gang from carrying out attacks inside Pakistan. Though Nato’s ability of precisely targeting enemies through drones might achieve results, Pakistan may have problems coping with the Haqqani network whose outreach in Pakistan is considerable outside North Waziristan. Pakistan has to overcome its passion with sovereignty and nationalism. Both concepts are unrealistic and have come to be associated with victimhood and an inclination to promote suicidal policies. The only viable strategy is one geared to promote Pakistan’s economy. There are signs that the GHQ is now desirous of this change. The war against terrorism will be fought in Pakistan whether we like it or not. And Pakistan cannot fight it alone.

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

Hizbut Tahrir and the army

August 5th, 2012

The Pakistan Army has taken the right course by deciding that officers owing allegiance to banned organisations cannot be tolerated. A military court has sent to jail five military officers, including a brigadier, for membership of a terrorist organisation called Hizbut Tahrir (HUT) and for attempting to overthrow the political order in the name of religion. Brigadier Ali Khan got five years while Major Sohail Akbar, Major Jawwad Baseer, Major Inayat Aziz and Major Iftikhar have been jailed for three years, two years, and 18 months each, respectively. Brigadier Khan came into the focus of army investigators after al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad in May 2011. He called for the resignation of army and ISI chiefs over bin Laden’s killing and wrote letters to army generals on how to become self-reliant and cleanse the army of American influence.

The army is a part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Anyone who arrogates to himself the right to work towards overthrowing the constitutionally established military institution in favour of whatever personal programme is guilty of treason and cannot be allowed to operate freely.

UK-based HUT and its sister outfit al Muhajirun were allowed into Pakistan in the early 2000s under former General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s government. Their founder, Umar Bakri, a Syrian Arab preacher, has since been exiled from the UK. Among his followers were many Pakistanis belonging to the largest Muslim minority in Britain.

According to a former HUT activist, Majid Nawaz, the HUT was set-up in Pakistan in the early 1990s by Imtiaz Malik, a British Muslim and in 1999, a call was sent to British HUT members to move to Pakistan, which prompted the movement of some of the UK’s top quality activists to South Asia. At least 10 British activists were planted in each of Pakistan’s main cities. Egypt, Libya and Pakistan banned the HUT which was proscribed by Pakistan in 2004, following an alleged plot to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf.

More recently, on October 22, 2009, the HUT was banned in Bangladesh for allegedly trying to destabilise the country. The home secretary of Bangladesh said the government “feared the HUT posed a serious threat to peaceful life”.

In his book, Islam under Siege: Living Dangerously in Post-Honour World (Polity Press 2003) Akbar S Ahmed, a former Pakistan’s High Commissioner in the UK, wrote:

“In Britain, Sheikh Umar Bakri’s Khilafah, the journal of the Hizbut Tahrir, attacked Jinnah as a kafir and an insult for a Muslim. Moreover, it accused Jinnah of being an enemy of God and of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) because Jinnah supported women, Christians and Hindus, and advocated democracy. Why, I asked myself, did they pick on Jinnah? Because, I concluded, Bakri saw him as a major ideological opponent. Significantly, after the American strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998, Bakri emerged in the media to claim that he represented Bin Laden in Europe” (P 113).

It is common knowledge in Pakistan that non-state actors have decided to shift their allegiance from Pakistan to terrorist organisations like al Qaeda. The Pakistan Army is fighting them in parts of our tribal areas and offering sacrifices in the shape of casualties to save Pakistan from the clutches of these terrorists. One deserter army officer, Major Haroon Ashiq, is in jail for working for al Qaeda, putting the nation on notice about the kind of danger Pakistan faces.

Misguided officers were moved more by blind emotion than by reason and information, otherwise they could not have joined an outfit that condemned the founder of Pakistan and the idea of Pakistan on the basis of which Pakistan has given itself a constitution. The army is overwhelmingly loyal to the ideology of Pakistan but a few officers may be led astray because of their insulation from civil society. In Pakistan, despite its efforts, the HUT has not won any support from an electorate that accepts democracy and votes for parties that accept the representative system operating in the country.

UK ‘honour’ killing verdict

August 5th, 2012

Shafilea Ahmed was killed by her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, simply for being too “Westernised”. A British jury found both parents guilty of suffocating their 17-year-old daughter to death in 2003 and gave them life sentences, an appropriate punishment for a crime as heinous as any that can be imagined. The implications of this case are likely to fester for a while as the British state grapples with the problem of integrating a nearly two-million strong Muslim population that is growing at a rapid rate but is resisting casting off its retrograde interpretation of religion. As Muslims in Britain gather in self-contained ghettos and refuse to become part of the wider culture, they continue to cling even more strongly to their outdated beliefs and impose that lifestyle on often unwilling children.

The British state will have to tread carefully when dealing with this issue. Obviously, it can never condone or excuse ‘honour’ killings but it must not be seen as scapegoating the entire Muslim community because of the actions of a small minority. One possible solution is to partner with trusted clerics who have a more enlightened view and try to marginalise preachers who spew hate. This effort should encompass many different areas, from the rights of children to the tolerance of non-Muslims. The 7/7 London bombings are still fresh in the minds of many in Britain. Rather than use that as a reason to further marginalise an alienated community, British authorities need to figure out why some Muslims have essentially declared themselves at war against their own country.

In the 1980s, Norman Tebbit, a minister in the Margaret Thatcher government famously proposed what became known as the Tebbit Test. This test would ask immigrants if they supported England or the country of their origin in cricket. The test was correctly derided at the time as giving off a whiff of racism. Now, however, might be the time to update it. Muslim immigrants need to prove that they will respect the rights of everyone, even those in the community who may not follow the version of Islam they practice.

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