Balochistan blues

August 16th, 2012

Some three days ahead of the rest of the country, the people of Balochistan marked what they said was their independence day. According to some reports, the flag of Pakistan was burnt at some places on this occasion and calls were made hailing an independent Balochistan. August 11 marked the day the state of Kalat announced its independence from British India with its parliament stating that it would be acceding neither to Pakistan nor to India. This was accepted by the British rulers of the colony. Kalat makes up 23 per cent of the population of the territory of Balochistan. The state joined the federation of Pakistan on March 27, 1948 as a result of what the Baloch say was severe military pressure. The Khan of Kalat had acknowledged this.

Since then, dissatisfaction with the federal government’s treatment of the province has resulted in major fallouts, with the insurgency in the early 1970s for greater autonomy readily coming to mind — which was put down ruthlessly through military force. This time, too, arrests were made during the August 11 celebrations, which have been severely criticised by some forces. The problem is that there appears to be no solution in sight. Naveed Qamar, the head of the government’s Balochistan committee, has said that not all Balochs are insurgents and many are patriots. He does not, however, state what has been done to offer development and a sense of belonging to the Baloch people, who have been angered to a considerable extent due to the lack of progress in the province and the failure to share resources equally with them. It is only when these issues will be tackled that we can hope to make any dent in the nationalist uprising in Balochistan.

It is also a fact that the majority of Baloch and Pashtun people living in Balochistan favour far greater provincial autonomy than they enjoy right now, according to a recent survey organised by the British aid agency Department for International Development. The fact that many do not favour a complete breakaway from Pakistan is encouraging and should be used by the centre to bridge the existing trust deficit. This is something to build on. But the process must take place quickly. Too much time has already been lost which is why we face the dire situation that confronts us today.

Caretaker conditions

August 16th, 2012

It is always good to see democracy working smoothly and systematically. The ongoing steps between the government and the opposition to set up a caretaker government, ahead of the general elections, marks such a step forward. For the sake of a smooth electoral process without too many accusations of unfair play being hurled about, it is important that major parties agree on the interim set-up that conducts the election and have complete faith in its neutrality. This can also save people from a great deal of confusion and chaos.

In this sense, the phone call made by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali, suggesting a meeting to decide on the caretaker set-up is important. The PPP and the PML-N have already agreed at previous meetings on the matter that the interim government will go into place early November and conduct polls within two and a half months. The constitutionally mandated period is of course 90 days. The terms of the agreement will, as they stand now, take us to a poll sometime in January. Given weather conditions in the north at that time of the year, let us hope the logistics will be sensibly worked out.

Undoubtedly, there will be some bickering during the meetings ahead, on issues like the precise composition of the caretaker set-up. We must hope this can be amicably worked out. It is important that an agreement is reached and caretakers, who are genuinely regarded as neutral by all stakeholders, are put in place so that the election process is a harmonious one without any large obstacles springing up. The expressions of cooperation coming from both sides are encouraging. Let us hope this spirit can continue into the crucial caretaker period, that men and women of integrity and honour can be selected for posts on this panel and that the election itself is conducted in a manner that allows peace and goodwill to prevail so that the positive steps taken now, can continue into the future and our still-unstable democracy strengthened through this crucial process.

Honouring Saadat Hasan Manto

August 16th, 2012

The government’s decision to posthumously award the Nishan-e-Imtiaz to Saadat Hasan Manto — a literary giant whose short stories transcended the genre — gives off a whiff of opportunism. However, both the government and the people should not use the award to gloss over the fact that Manto’s Pakistan and today’s Pakistan bear a lot of resemblances. Manto was put on trial three times by the government for spreading obscenity through his short story “Thanda Gosht” and was penalised for writing something that may have been violent and explicit but served a valuable function by holding up a mirror to the brutal and senseless violence during partition.

Lest we think that Pakistan is different and more enlightened now, keep in mind that just a few days ago, the Supreme Court hauled the Pemra chairman and asked him why there was so much vulgarity on television. The government, too, has been involved in moral policing and has been trying to dictate to citizens what they can or cannot surf on the web. Such censorship would have been anathema to Manto and would most likely have led him to reject any award from the government. It is commendable that the PPP is trying to show its softer and more progressive side by honouring Manto; now it needs to live up to his ideals of freedom and liberty.

There is also a danger that government recognition of Manto’s achievements will end up diluting their impact. This has already happened to some extent in the case of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. A radical poet who existed on the margins of political thought and found much in Pakistan to be angry about has now been turned into a safe, ultra-patriotic figure, who can be loved by a country that often shunned him when he was imprisoned. The same should not happen with Manto, who documented the insanity of the time and place in which he lived. His patriotism was not one of mindless devotion to the country. Rather, he was harshly and brutally critical. Let that not be forgotten.

Attack on PAF base in Kamra

August 17th, 2012

The 27th night of Ramazan is supposed to be one of prayer and quiet reflection. For a group of militants, operating under the guise of religion, it became a night of carnage and death as they attacked the PAF base in Kamra and kept the security forces at bay for over four hours. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has accepted responsibility for the attack. The first thing this audacious raid shows is that, despite a general drop in the number of attacks, the militants are still able to strike at will at some of the most well-guarded security installations in the country. PAF Minhas is the site of some of our more advanced weaponry, including the Saab-2000 surveillance aircraft and our nascent drone programme. Needless to say, militants should not have been able to get within striking distance of a base that should have been impenetrable.

What makes this attack even worse is that it was not a one-off event. We have seen similar militant attacks at the GHQ, PNS Mehran and at the police training academy near Lahore. It would appear that our security establishment has not learned from past mistakes or, even if they have, we would not know about it since any investigation into the attacks is kept under wraps. This time, the military cannot even claim that they were taken by surprise. As a report in this newspaper a few days ago had revealed, intelligence reports received by the home department had claimed that the Taliban were planning on attacking the PAF on the 27th or 28th of Ramazan. As this forewarning was not enough to halt the militants’ progress in Kamra, some would say that it shows our security forces just aren’t prepared to take on the militant threat. The level of security and alertness was found thoroughly wanting.

An investigation into the attack must be held and its conclusions made public. We are generally kept in the dark about militant attacks, such as the ones targeting the GHQ and PNS Mehran. This time, keeping the investigation under wraps should not be an option. There are many questions that need to be answered and the public must be kept informed. Perhaps, the most important question is whether the militants had any inside help. We know that the military, especially in the lower ranks, has people sympathetic to the militants. Not only should anyone who may have assisted in these attacks be named and court-martialled, the military must also cleanse its ranks off any militant sympathisers. Previous investigations into similar attacks have only resulted in the suspensions of a few personnel at best, with no one being held accountable for the serious security lapses.

This and other similar attacks are in many ways an outcome, so to speak, of our skewered security policies, such as of ‘strategic depth’ and of instigating proxy wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The ‘assets’, or at least some of them, that the state used for these proxy wars, particularly the military and its agencies, have now turned against us. However, those in the military are not the only ones who need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Even society at large has obstinately stuck its head in the sand and refused to confront the obvious: that these militants are home-grown and not part of some diabolical American or Indian conspiracy, and failure to recognise even that basic fact is, perhaps, one of the reasons we are unable to extricate and wipe out terrorism and militancy from its root. One TV channel even claimed that one of the attackers was a foreigner, although it never explained how it found this out, especially since the ‘news’ was reported while the attack was ongoing. Conspiracy theories and denial only end up helping the Taliban as it allows it to deflect the blame away from our own society and heap it on foreigners. This mentality will not help in defeating the menace of militancy and terrorism. There is a need to decide on a broader strategy to tackle militants. Foremost among any strategy should be to tackle the TTP head on and at the same time, dispense with our past strategy of using ‘strategic assets’ as part of our foreign policy.

Another sectarian massacre

August 17th, 2012

The menace of sectarianism, with Shias usually being targeted, is often delinked from the militancy that is plaguing the country. Treating both as separate issues is unwise, as many of the attacks on Shias are carried out by the same groups that are at war with the country and, even if the perpetrators are different, they share the same hateful ideology. More so, the unending violence and the state’s inability to tackle it in a meaningful way only emboldens these terrorist outfits, who then feel free to attack with even further impunity. Thus, you end up with an incident like the one on Babusar pass, which connects Gilgit-Baltistan to the rest of the country, where at least 20 people were gunned down in four different buses. Before being murdered, they were forced to show their identity cards, so it is likely that Shias were the target.

Targeting Shias on buses has become something of a modus operandi of militant groups. In the last few months alone, Shias have been killed in bus attacks in Turbat, Parachinar and Quetta. Even in Gilgit, 18 Shia bus passengers were killed in February. The targeting of Shias is usually accompanied by some form of official collusion. Curfews imposed in Gilgit tend to affect the Shia community the most and they are often even stopped from offering Friday prayers at mosques. In Balochistan, the Hazara Shias are now so fearful of the systemic elimination of their community by groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, that they are choosing to leave the province and even the country that they have called home for generations.

Needless to say, the government needs to bring the perpetrators of this attack to task. Realistically speaking, though, that may be hoping for too much. The government and the security establishment have shown scant concern for vulnerable communities. In a country where politicians get gunned down for expressing any sympathy for minorities, there are precious few political leaders willing to risk standing up for the marginalised. A few perfunctory words of condolence are not enough; they have to be accompanied by a full-throated defence of the Shia community and backed up by tangible action against militant groups who propagate a hateful and twisted ideology.

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

Kamra attack — living in denial

August 18th, 2012

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Minhas base at Kamra near Attock was attacked by the Taliban during the early hours of August 16, the 27th of Ramazan. Nine attackers died after killing one guard, injuring a senior officer and damaging a surveillance plane. This was the fourth attack involving the base, which was foretold by intelligence reports in great detail, naming names and locating the germinating spot in North Waziristan under the leadership of the Taliban chief, Hakimullah Mehsud. The assailants were killed but not before they had penetrated the outer wall of the base and entered the facility.

Unlike the attack on the Mehran naval base earlier, which took 17 hours to clear, the suicide bombers were not able to hold the base but were quickly disposed of in 20 minutes. The worrying fact, however, was that despite very detailed intelligence, the terrorists were able to climb over the wall. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) proudly owned the attack, timing it with reports that Pakistan was getting ready to launch an operation in North Waziristan.

The TV discussions that followed ignored a whole lot of straightforward information and chose instead to repeat the charge that the TTP was working for Pakistan’s external enemies. Retired military officers and TV anchors trundled out the usual frog-chorus of how the Americans were paying the likes of Hakimullah Mehsud and getting his suicide bombers to attack Pakistan’s military installations. A report in The New York Times, which had pointed to a rumour that Pakistan was storing its nuclear arsenal at Kamra, was made the basis of how Americans were converging to a strategy of ‘taking out’ Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence. What was ignored was an official statement from Washington that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were safe because they were not at Kamra.

The designation of the ‘enemy’ was arrived at all over again in the face of years of hard evidence to the contrary. It was America, the eternal enemy of the Muslims in general and Pakistan in particular. Tagged to the US were two other ideological and religious enemies: India and Israel. All the previous attacks were also attributed to America, making the discussion absurd. Without proof, the miracle of concocting a mindset of our choice has been achieved. Now, the entire nation believes that its tormentor is not the Taliban who continue to shout from rooftops that they are staging attacks because Pakistan continues to be an ally of the US. Amazingly, the TV discussions after the Kamra attack embraced the Taliban point of view that Pakistan was suffering because of its abjectly slavish policy of following orders from Washington.

Shockingly, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who had said on August 14 that Pakistan’s crisis was internal, related to a general embrace of extremism and violence, was indirectly attacked for presumably planning to stage an operation against the terrorists in North Waziristan. He was guilty of telling us the truth: that the trouble in Pakistan was of our own making and had to be tackled internally. The discussants countered that by saying that if the army chief wanted to confront the terrorists in North Waziristan, he must approach the elected government and ask it to ‘go to the people’ and take their consent to the operation. Reference was made to earlier parliamentary resolutions mandating the army to stop drone attacks on Pakistani territory and demand that US-Nato forces respect Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty.

The main opposition party, the PML-N, has already told the army chief not to attack the terrorists in North Waziristan despite intelligence reports that the Taliban will attack the PMLN-ruled Punjab in the near future. Punjab’s inspector general of police, after receiving the reports, conveniently took off for umrah in Saudi Arabia. Parliament has not framed laws that could prevent the acquittal of killers in the court of law; now, the politicians feel that North Waziristan should not be attacked by the army. If you ask the people, the reply is likely to be not in support of any operation — without any blame attaching to the ordinary Pakistani, poisoned by the lies pouring out of a section of our manipulated media and mainstream curricula.

Avoiding a clash of institutions

August 18th, 2012

Prime Minister Raja Parvaiz Ashraf was directed by the Supreme Court to appear in the Court on August 27 regarding its order in the National Reconciliation Ordinance judgement implementation case. “If the gentleman whom we have issued notice to, and whom we have great respect for due to his office, appears and makes a positive statement, we will certainly accommodate him; and if he fails to do so, then the law will take its course,” said Justice Asif Saeed Khosa. How PM Ashraf will be ‘accommodated’ by the Court is yet to be seen but it is hoped that this time around, a clash between the executive and the judiciary can and will be avoided.

Just a few weeks ago, in an unprecedented move, the Court convicted a democratically-elected prime minister for contempt of court and sent him home. We must not forget that democracy takes a long time to take root and if it is not allowed to function normally, it is bound to be derailed.

After nine years of military dictatorship, we cannot afford to destabilise a democratic government. The judiciary is an integral part of a democratic system and it will only remain independent as long as there is a stable democratic dispensation in place. Our lordships should also take into account how such measures can affect the public perception about the judiciary. This government will complete its tenure after a few months. By acting with some restraint, the judiciary will do democracy a great favour. It will go a long way in strengthening the culture of democracy and reinstating the public’s faith in the electoral process.

The beauty of democracy is that if the public is not satisfied with the incumbents, it can vote them out. In all civilised nations of the world, this is how it pans out. Through the Eighteenth Amendment, Article 58-2(b) was abolished by parliament. Now that the president does not have the power to dissolve the assembly at will, it is hoped that we will not witness any other sword of Damocles to be hanging over parliament’s head. Let democracy take its course.

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

Karachi blast

August 19th, 2012

It is hard to say exactly who is behind the blast near Safari Park on University Road in Karachi that killed two people on August 17. Indeed, we are not even sure if the explosion was caused by an IED, as the police claimed, or whether it was the result of a gas cylinder explosion, as several news channels reported. According to the authorities, the intended target was a bus carrying members of the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) to protest on the occasion of Al-Quds Day. If they were indeed the target, then it is likely that this was yet another anti-Shia attack, since the ISO is one of the largest Shia student groups in the country.

That the explosion came just one day after the incident near Gilgit where 19 Shia passengers were brutally murdered, will only add to the grievance and sense of persecution that this community currently faces. What the authorities now need to do is to ensure that all these lives lost do not go completely in vain. Tracking down the perpetrators of the attacks is only the first step, and yet, one that has rarely been taken up whole-heartedly by the law-enforcement agencies. We need a change in the mindsets of the government and the military which, rather than ignoring the fact that militant groups that have had official patronage in the past are now behind the anti-Shia attacks, need to take them on.

For there to even be a small chance of this happening, the people themselves will need an awakening. The fact that this attack appeared to target protestors heading to an Al-Quds rally will surely be picked up as proof by the conspiracy theorists that external forces, like Israel, are actually behind this and all other similar attacks in Pakistan. The impressionable followers of such propagators will then spread the word and soon the issue will be muddied and confused. For once, let us be clear that there is no phantom Jewish or Hindu conspiracy out to get us. We live in a country where one sect has no problem attacking the other weaker sect. Let us own up to that. Until the time this realisation sinks, we would continue to witness such despicable acts of terror occurring on a regular basis.

Street children and HIV

August 19th, 2012

There seems to be no limit to the varied dangers that street children in Pakistan face. The latest disturbing development that has come to light regarding their predicament is an outbreak of the HIV infection among drug-using street children of Karachi. According to press reports, a local NGO has confirmed that a significant proportion of street children, whose blood samples it tested, were found to be infected with HIV, after having used contaminated needles or being sexually abused by infected men.

Street children are among the most vulnerable part of the population as they are susceptible to disease, violence, sexual abuse and poverty. On top of that, the government does not possess any means to register street children as citizens of the state. This makes the situation vis-a-vis the HIV prevalence among street children even more worrying as there is no way to determine the pervasiveness of the virus among them. In fact, countless street children all over Pakistan may be infected with all sorts of dangerous, contagious diseases with no way to determine the extent of the problem.

HIV is not a dominant epidemic in Pakistan but the number of cases reported annually are increasing and with this latest development, it is time the government woke up to the potential crisis at hand. This problem is a multi-faceted one and a comprehensive approach is needed to resolve it. Taking a long-term view of the situation, the reasons leading children to take to the streets need to be eliminated. But for those already on the streets, the government needs to set up a mechanism to register them as citizens, devise programmes aimed at bringing them off the streets and rehabilitating them, test them for HIV and other diseases, and then provide them with the required treatment. Concerted planning and effective implementation are required to secure our children’s future. However, there first has to be a realisation at an official level that there is a problem at hand that needs urgent resolution.

Wikileaks row

August 19th, 2012

The drama stemming from the leaking of sheaf after sheaf of sensitive documents, including diplomatic cables sent out by the US, continues. Julian Assange, the founder of the Wikileaks website on which the information revealing the truth to the world about murky politics played out globally, continues to occupy centre stage in this piece of theatre. Since June this year, Assange has been holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, after seeking asylum in the South American nation.

For two months, things had appeared to be at a standstill, but they have now moved forward dramatically. Assange’s asylum request has been accepted by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa this month; the Australian’s gambit in picking Ecuador — apparently based on a friendly interview with Correa and the president’s open distaste for the US — seems to have paid off. But both Sweden and the UK are not pleased. Sweden has been seeking Assange’s extradition on sexual assault charges, which the Wikileaks’ founder denies. He is also convinced that extradition to Sweden would be followed by a move to hand him over to the US for trial on the Wikileaks affair. London has said that it is bound by law to respect Sweden’s extradition request and will not allow Assange safe passage out of the country. Ecuador has interpreted this as an assault on its sovereignty and also criticised a warning issued from London stating that the Ecuadorian embassy could be stripped of its diplomatic status and a police raid made to net Assange.

An affair that began with a few leaked documents has turned into a global crisis. The Ecuadorian parliament has backed the presidential decision and 11 South American nations are meeting to discuss the matter. The question of free expression seems to have got lost in the midst of this scenario, since so many other complexities have emerged, which are increasingly hard to unravel. For now, Assange’s future remains uncertain, and it is hard to say what his final fate will be.

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

Eid written in blood

August 20th, 2012

Eidul Fitr is special because it comes after the best month of the Islamic calendar, Ramazan, the month when the Holy Quran was revealed. It is also special for Pakistan because in this month Pakistan came into being. We are lucky because this year Eid has fallen once again in the month that saw the mass movement of Muslim population that marked the partition that took place on August 14, 1947.

It is moving to see the people — rich and poor alike — observing the fasting month with a lot of preparation and ceremony so that they can rejoice on the day of Eid. A lot of things happen on the economic front, which we are not able to interpret right. Consumption goes up resulting in change in the map of supply and demand ending in price hikes in respect of food items.

The paradox is that this happens not because the rich increase their intake but because the poor start buying things they normally would not buy. Another paradox is that the people who benefit are also poor who run small shops. The only negative that happens is that the price hike of Ramazan, being predictable, allows the rich middlemen in the market to hoard goods to make inordinate profits. Perhaps, what is wrong here is also our yearly self-flagellation about ‘Muslim profiteering’. The law of supply and demand is as ineluctable as the law of piety.

This Ramazan, like many before it, has been gory. The Taliban, like every Ramazan, decide to kill us with impunity while retaining their sense of superiority in propagating better Islam. Our defences are down during fasting, especially during iftar when those in charge of guarding us desert their duties and go off to open their fast. This is what happened some years ago when the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad was blown up exactly during the last minutes of the fast. The killers arrived with their truck loaded with explosives, passing through abandoned check posts in Islamabad, and were able to destroy the hotel. What was even more shameful was that the team of terrorists that accomplished this were later let off because of ‘insufficient proof’ to live another day and inflict more damage on Pakistan.

The Taliban strike during the three Eids, the third one being Eid Miladun Nabi. Muslims are regularly slaughtered while celebrating the birth of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). In April 2006, the Eid Milad gathering of the Sunni Tehreek at Nishtar Park in Karachi was blown up by a suicide bomber who had come from the tribal areas. Out of the 1,500 that had gathered, 57 died while over a hundred were injured.

This year, the killers struck at the heart of our defence establishment by attacking the Kamra airbase during the holy last week of Ramazan when many Pakistanis are busy doing ‘aitekaf’, a special prayer when they set aside all involvement with earthly affairs. The man who is the suspected mastermind of the attack was a terrorist, not long ago awaiting death in a Bannu jail. The Taliban attacked the facility and helped him escape from there. The man was an ex-air force officer who knew Kamra well enough to plan the attack.

The state is no longer able to protect its Shia population from the Taliban who many believe are simply reacting to the American presence in the region and Pakistan’s alliance with the US against them. Killings in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan are simply a part of a plot to exterminate the community, while the state stands aside and watches, wondering if the massacres are ordered by the Americans. This Ramazan, too, 25 people going to Astore and Gilgit in buses were identified as Shia and shot dead.

One reason this Eid is sad is that we deliberately mis-identify our enemy, siding with the terrorists by accusing America, while our politicians insist that the Pakistan Army should not take on the terrorists located in North Waziristan. Sections of our media have since long been brainwashed and manipulated into spreading the word against America; now the media is taking revenge by clinging to the isolationist agitprop, while the army actually wants to do something about the killers.

The Taliban and the ANP

August 20th, 2012

It appears that even after the military operation in Swat ended in 2009, those who fled the Valley are still not safe from the Taliban. According to ANP leaders in Karachi, some 65 persons from Swat have been killed by militant elements in Karachi, who had fled the area after fighting was over and the Taliban had been defeated. The ANP leaders, and others opposed to the militants, say that many of those targeted have been punished for reporting the presence of Taliban leaders in various areas or otherwise acting against them. Many of those killed come from the Kabal tehsil, which had long been a Taliban stronghold in Swat. Thirty-six of the victims are said to belong to this area alone.

Those opposed to the Taliban say that for about a year after the military operation, they had assumed a low profile in Karachi. However, after this the Taliban appeared to have come into action with revenge a key motive for their attacks. Both ANP supporters and others have been murdered. Party leaders ask why it is not possible to conduct an operation against them in Karachi as happened in Swat. The ANP’s general secretary, Bashir Jan, however, has pointed out that it is not the Taliban alone who are targeting Pashtuns. Other elements are also involved in this. The fact, however, is that in other places, too, including in camps for displaced people, the Taliban have struck repeatedly generally going after those who they believe oppose militant action.

What is clear is that even in Karachi they have not been tamed. Clearly, something needs to be done to bring groups of the Taliban who have based themselves in various parts of the country under control. Otherwise, there is a real fear that violence will continue to spread as the hunt for anti-Taliban elements continues. The battle then is quite obviously far from over. A strategy needs to be worked out to ensure that people who have fled the conflict zone are safe regardless of their political beliefs or affiliations and are able to rebuild life in their new homes.

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

Height of absurdity

August 23rd, 2012

There appears to be no limit to the brutality and inhumanity the blasphemy law and its misuse has inflicted on our society. The latest case is especially shocking. It features an 11-year-old Christian girl with Down syndrome, a mob and an arrest by the police of the handicapped child. People have reported that the child was spotted desecrating pages of the Noorani Qaida, a booklet used to learn the basics of the Holy Quran outside her home in a slum located near Islamabad. There are many versions of the exact tale with some accounts stating she was merely ruffling through a garbage bag, which contained papers that people said included Quranic verses.

But, where there is no doubt is the fact that following the whipping up of frenzy, the police arrested the child who they agree is not mentally stable and unable to answer questions. Her parents have been taken into protective custody. Numerous Christian families have fled the area after receiving threats. The US government and local human rights groups have taken notice of this act of cruelty committed under the guise of the blasphemy law.

Time and again, we have seen the most terrible acts enacted in the name of the blasphemy law. Just months ago, a mentally unwell man was burnt alive in Punjab after being snatched from a police station following accusations that he had committed blasphemy. It is uncertain what has become of that case. A significant number of victims said to be suffering mental disease remain in jail. Others are behind bars as a result of acts of victimisation or to settle petty disputes. Last year, former Punjab governor and, a few months later, a cabinet minister were shot dead for speaking out against the blasphemy law and the terrible incidents it had introduced to our society.

The president has sought a report on this latest case. This is all very well but we wonder when the government will gather the courage to amend a law that has been repeatedly used in the most hideous fashion against those who are unable to defend themselves. We wonder how many more such cases will emerge before change can be introduced and events such as those that took place in this case will be brought to an end.

Is blocking cell phones the solution to fighting terrorism?

August 23rd, 2012

Pakistan is facing a quandary where it can do little but trust government officials. For those who take the militant threat seriously, acquiescing to government demands is the only possible reaction when the spectre of terrorist attacks raises itself. This is why we, as a nation, have accepted previously unthinkable measures — like security check posts, for example — as a routine feature of everyday life. The inconvenience is worth it if we end up being safer. But the only way to keep the government honest is by maintaining a healthy scepticism and ensuring that too many of our personal liberties are not kept hostage at the altar of civil rights. This government, unfortunately, went a step too far when it blocked all cell phone communication for about 12 hours on the night before Eid.

The justification given by Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whose ministry was ultimately responsible for the decision, was that there were nine terrorist threats against the country and since militants use remote-controlled bombs detonated by cell phones, this was an unfortunate but necessary step to take. Even if one agrees with the interior minister about the urgency of the threat and the need for drastic action, this was a bridge too far. Nearly the entire country is dependent on cell phones as a primary form of communication and Eid day witnesses the highest volume of cell phone volume in the country as Pakistanis exchange greetings and pleasantries. To block this method of communication reeks of a government that is trying to show that it can control the actions of the citizens it rules when, in any representative democracy, it should be the other way around.

The biggest worry is that if authorities can implement such draconian measures without any significant opposition, its natural temptation will be to take even more freedoms away from citizens, again using the threat of terrorist attacks as a justification. And it took barely a day for the interior ministry to show just how valid these fears are. Now, Mr Malik has announced that the blocking of cell phones was so successful in thwarting the militants that he is considering banning the very concept of prepaid cell phone connections. It should go without saying that this proposal is ludicrous. Prepaid connections are primarily bought by the poor and just because some militants may also use it is no reason to deny all Pakistanis the service.

Let us assume for now that Mr Malik and the government are proposing these measures in good faith to thwart future militant attacks. Surely, they can find ways to tackle the militancy problem without actually denying Pakistanis something that has become integral to their lives and a basic means of communication. If there is enough intelligence to indicate that cell phones may be used as a weapon, surely, information can be gathered about the identities of the perpetrators and their likely targets. Providing higher security at proposed targets and arresting those who are going to carry out attacks would be a far better counter-terrorism measure than cutting off people from their primary form of communication. The state cannot justify leaving its citizens without cell phones when they need to call for help in emergency situations.

We also need to strongly consider the possibility that the government may be acting in its own selfish interests and not that of the country’s. Recently, the National Accountability Bureau issued notices to five telecommunication companies in connection with evading Rs47 billion in taxes. The overnight ban could have been a power play by the government to show them who is in charge. If that is indeed the case, it was a monumentally colossal error by the government. Just as it would not react to wrongdoing by a utility company by shutting off the electricity supply of its users, it is wrong to make the entire country suffer for the mistakes of a few executives. This government needs to learn the value of freedom and not cast it away at the first opportunity.

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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 preposterous proposal

August 24th, 2012

In announcing his proposal to ban all prepaid cell phone connections in the country, Interior Minister Rehman Malik is trying to appear proactive in the fight against militancy. We should not be fooled by this. Rather, a mass ban that will affect tens of millions of Pakistanis and deprive them of their primary means of communication is an extremely lazy solution to a real problem. The government’s job should be to strike the right balance between security and liberty by ensuring that personal rights are not sacrificed at the altar of the fight against militancy. This would mean relying on intelligence to make arrests and cracking down on activities of militant groups, both online and on the streets. It does not mean snatching cell phones out of the hands of every citizen.

If the government truly believes that cell phones are the greatest threat facing the country today, it can make it harder for militants to get their hands on them rather than proposing a mass ban. For example, it could tighten restrictions on getting a new SIM card by forcing applicants to give more documentation. It could also limit the number of SIMS one person can purchase under his national identification card. The government has already made telecommunication companies block SIMS that are not verified by a certain date. The sudden need to just do away with prepaid connections all together reeks of a power trip, not necessity.

All tactics that the government has employed so far in the war against militancy have proved resounding failures. Military operations have cleared one piece of land but militants have usually just moved on to another area. Arrests have proven ineffectual because of courts that are unusually eager to release suspected militants and a general inefficiency in collecting evidence. Rather than admitting to these failures and working to strengthen its counterterrorism abilities, the government is holding the entire country hostage because of its incompetence. We should consider this new proposal the latest in a long line of censorship and control efforts, such as the idea to build a giant firewall that would allow the government to block millions of websites at will. We should not give in to fears about militancy to allow the government this power.

India’s internet censorship

August 24th, 2012

As we know all too well in Pakistan, the first instinct of a government facing a crisis is to start asserting its control in ways that are inimical to personal freedom. The Indian government has now joined in the act, threatening legal action against social media networking website Twitter because of users who have been posting inflammatory and untrue messages warning of an impending Muslim attack on students and workers from northeast India. The Indian government wants Twitter, Facebook and Google to block such users and delete their messages because they are leading to one of the largest internal migrations in Indian history. The frustration felt by the government due to the spreading of these rumours is understandable but countering it with mass bans is inadvisable.

India has blocked 245 websites, banned the sending out of bulk text messages and even blocked the Twitter accounts of some Indian journalists. It is unwise to expect Twitter to be able to monitor the countless messages that are constantly posted on it. Platforms like Twitter rely on self-policing. A better solution would be for individual users to identify inflammatory messages and then report them to Twitter. Incitement to violence is not protected under any freedom of speech laws but Twitter will need help to ensure the smooth running of a community that essentially needs to police itself.

India, of all countries, should understand that reversing the tide of technological progress is unwise. The economic boom it witnessed has been driven by an IT revolution. The solution to the current situation is to target those responsible for inciting violence and not go after the medium through which they have been doing it. The internet, along with websites like Twitter, are powerful tools allowing the free flow of ideas. Occasionally, this space can be misused. In the long run, though, the world is better off with Twitter available as a tool for protest. Democratic governments need to recognise this rather than try to stem the tide of progress.

Difference in celebrations

August 24th, 2012

On Eid day and the holidays that followed, we saw numerous pictures on television channels of people celebrating the occasion in parks, on the beach and at family gatherings. We are told that in Lahore, restaurants were packed to full capacity so that there was no room for walk-in customers during Eid. Magazines published to coincide with the occasion featured women and girls wearing henna and bangles; men in crisp, embroidered shalwar kameez.

But this is just one face of Eid. For many others — perhaps, tens of thousands of people — Eid remained a far less festive occasion. The parents who could not buy clothes or new shoes for their children did not figure prominently in the media; nor did those unable to put together a decent meal even on this occasion. There are fathers known to have begged for just a few hundred rupees ahead of the occasion in the hope of introducing just a little festivity in their homes. They were not the only ones to be affected. Shopkeepers in both Karachi and Lahore say that shopping was lower than before and some among the middle class confess they locked doors and pretended to be out of town to avoid having to bear the cost of entertainment. Their sense of misery can only be imagined.

The disparities in our nation, the toll being taken by relentless inflation and the social impact it is having need to be considered very seriously. It is true that philanthropic help is offered generously by many. Presents go out to children in orphanages, food is sent around to some. But this is not enough to cater to their needs. There are far too many people who are simply unable to manage their daily requirements and Eid offered a reminder of this. The real question, however, remains: what is being done to alter social policy, to make life more equitable and to ensure that everyone can enjoy occasions such as Eid — a time when not joy but deep anxiety descended over many homes as reports came in of suicides and other acts of despair committed on the occasion.

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

Our Osama policy under scrutiny

August 25th, 2012

The latest blow to Pakistan’s Osama policy has come in the shape of an anti-Obama book titled, Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him. American author-journalist Richard Miniter claims that the ISI helped the US by providing vital information in locating Osama bin Laden and that Pakistan’s army chief may have been briefed on the Abbottabad raid five months in advance.

There is more damaging information alleged in the book: that the house where Osama lived was carved out of the area owned by the Pakistan Military Academy and that originally, the US and Pakistan had together concocted the story that Osama was killed by a drone but that later President Barack Obama decided not to trust Pakistan and mounted a secret operation. Of course, all or much of this may be untrue or hotly contested, but the fact also is that the rest of the world hardly ever accepts Pakistan’s position on such matters.

The account has been rejected by Pakistan. It is certain that the Obama Administration, too, will not endorse it. However, in Pakistan, the book will create waves not at all helpful in the current atmosphere of political instability and a growing trend of distrusting the army leadership. This will strengthen the resolve of the PML-N to oppose Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

The other element that will use the revelations in Miniter’s book are the proxy warriors of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council which is greatly put off by General Kayani’s decision to allow the Nato supply route to reopen. They have reacted negatively to his Independence Day declaration that the war against terrorism and extremism is Pakistan’s war. The received wisdom in Pakistan is that it is America’s war, which is actually against Islam. Retired generals come on TV channels to assert that America is in the region to rob it of its natural resources and checkmate China.

PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s remark that the drones killing innocent Pakistanis may still be flying from inside Pakistan with the consent of the Pakistan Army is going to further muddy the waters and spawn conspiracy theories involving America and General Kayani. The PML-N is retaliating against the perceived army policy of fielding Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf as a political replacement of the two mainstream parties in the country: the PML-N and the PPP.

General Kayani, it seems, has offended America as a policy aimed at placing him closer to the emotion of the masses in Pakistan, in no small measure fanned by his intelligence agencies. He has now offended this dominant emotion by pronouncing the forbidden formulation of ‘it is Pakistan’s war’. He may face opposition from the Punjabi Taliban, who are increasingly suspected of attacking the army in Punjab, and al Qaeda, which leads the war against America in Pakistan and elsewhere on the globe. Already, the Taliban openly state that the drones that kill their top terrorists are operated with the consent of the army. The policy on Osama bin Laden’s killing in Abbottabad was wrong from the beginning. The army should have gone along with the elected government in power and not taken on the US for ‘violating Pakistan’s sovereignty’, which the entire world knew had been earlier blown to smithereens by al Qaeda and its minions. President Asif Ali Zardari had reacted to the killing in Abbottabad through an article published in Washington Post (May 3, 2011) titled “Pakistan did its part”. It began with these words: “Pakistan, perhaps the world’s greatest victim of terrorism, joins the other targets of al Qaeda — the people of the United States, Britain, Spain, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria — in our satisfaction that the source of the greatest evil of the new millennium has been silenced and his victims given justice. He was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be, but now he is gone…. The war on terrorism is as much Pakistan’s war as it is America’s.”

General Kayani has come around to that point of view but has run against a national mindset that reveres Osama as a hero.

Pakistanis in India

August 25th, 2012

Contact between people is important. It is all the more important when it comes at the official level and involves India and Pakistan. As we all know, it is vital that the two countries establish more harmonious ties if the region is to find the peace it has sought for so long.

In this sense, the visit by a delegation consisting of Pakistani parliamentarians and businessmen to New Delhi and Bihar is important. Parliamentarians, of course, have the power to change opinions in assemblies and influence people within their own constituencies. It is, therefore, important that they gain the opportunity to meet up with their counterparts in India and thus gain a first-hand experience of life in India and the prevailing opinions there. This is also important as it will enable us to look at things from the Indian side of the fence where bias is no less common than in our own country.

What is also significant is that the delegation led by the deputy chairman of the Senate, Sabir Baloch, is to encourage yet further contact at the provincial level for the future. Haji Muhammad Adeel, the representative from Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa and Khurram Dastagir, from Punjab, are both expected to invite parliamentarians from Bihar to visit Pakistan and their respective parts of the country so that dialogue can continue. This is an important process. Until now, too much of the news on crossing borders is gained through sometimes inaccurate media accounts rather than genuine events. The real views of ordinary people — who for the most part seek an improvement in their lives — do not cross borders.

The parliamentary delegation’s visit can help change matters. It is expected that a fairly wide range of issues will be discussed, with businessmen forming a part of the contingents crossing the Wagah Border also likely to put forward their own concerns and suggestions. What we need, however, are many more visits like this one. We must hope that these links can be expanded and ways found to build the structure for a solid relationship that can lead us towards cooperation we so badly need with our eastern neighbour.

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

Defining obscenity in Pakistan

August 26th, 2012

After petitions filed by Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed and a former chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the Supreme Court has directed Pemra to formulate policy guidelines against ‘vulgarity’ shown on TV channels. According to a law already in force, TV channels are barred from telecasting any obscene material, but it does not define obscenity.

The Pemra chairman has insisted defensively that “no definition for obscenity or vulgarity exists in the Constitution, the Pakistan Penal Code or Pemra laws”. One Pemra official thinks a reference to parliament will have to be made, too, but at the present juncture, it appears that the Court might present the legislature with a pious fait accompli.

Defining vulgarity or fahashi is an intellectual exercise. In Pakistan, any clash of intellect with ideology is to be feared because the former will be predictably defeated by the latter. And any reference to ideology is bound to hand the field over to the currently powerful clergy by reason of their direct or indirect nexus with the Taliban, which has already taken steps to extirpate vulgarity from various parts of the country. This is not the first time that an intellectually impoverished Pakistan has confronted the problem of vulgarity on TV. In 2003, under the rule of a ‘permissive’ general, a debate took place on the subject that mainly focused on the ‘obscenity’ of Indian movies. The debate petered out mercifully amid confusion and anger because soon the national mind was exhausted getting itself around the word fahashi in a literalist environment that favours Islamic tradition at the cost of local culture.

The crux of the problem is the Muslim man’s incomplete comprehension of entertainment. He needs it as a social safety valve but prefers to enjoy himself only with a guilty conscience. His curtailed intellect — in deference to ideology he cannot modify — will not respond to the challenge of any redefinition of premodern edicts. Luckily, in 2003, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi was still around in Pakistan, unthreatened by the Punjabi Taliban and came to the rescue although his opinion, too, was guardedly offered.

Ghamidi opposed the ban on Indian entertainment and said that only positive state action was good for the people. Banning anything produced rebellion (sarkashi) and boredom (bezari), as was proved by the imposition of monarchy in Saudi Arabia, ‘mullahism’ in Afghanistan and theocracy in Iran. Banning Indian movies would simply be counterproductive. He favoured nurturing moral values till they became so strong that it would be safe for the people to see any kind of entertainment without being corrupted. Amazingly, Ghamidi, as a religious scholar, was able to say that it was political propaganda to say that Indian culture was bad for Pakistanis: “If we don’t have an answer to Pepsi and Coke, we will have to accept them. And if you stop people by force they will find illegal ways of enjoying something that you ban”.

‘Good taste’ differs from people to people but some will favour a ban on TV anchors who shout inanities in their talk shows and spread narrow-mindedness. But what is more likely is the victory of the ideology of the Taliban — and a reversion to General Ziaul Haq’s regime of censorship of the state-owned media and last-minute assault on the print media by section officers wielding moral scissors.

Judiciary is not debarred from intellectual exercise. There was a time when our chief justices made philosophical assessments and were praised for their tolerant worldview. Since any discussion of vulgarity is bound to tilt into edicts of narrow and literalist interpretation, Pakistani society might once again slip into furtive enjoyment of material that civilised society cannot allow. This has happened in the past; it might happen again. Under General Zia, people took to the cassette player (today we have CDs) and even the small cities were invaded by blue movies, which one can’t eliminate without transforming Pakistan into a police state.

Season of drones

August 26th, 2012

Soon after Eid, the government summoned a US embassy official to protest a drone strike in North Waziristan on the holy day, making it the eighth time it had done so in the last year. This protest turned out to be as futile as the ones that preceded it, as the US launched yet another drone strike on August 24, killing 18 people. It should now be clear that the government is involved in a charade, as futile complaints to the Americans allow the government to maintain plausible deniability even as it seems that both the civilians and military have resigned themselves to the reality of drone attacks. This muddled policy does a great disservice to the Pakistani people, who have a right to know what their government is doing behind closed doors.

Transparency is even more important now that there is talk of a military offensive in North Waziristan. Drone attacks could actually help provide the troops on the ground with air cover, while eliminating dangerous militants. The problem seems to be that the military is in two minds over whom it will target in North Waziristan. The tribal agency is home to both the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as well as the Haqqani network, which has been a thorn in the side of the US in Afghanistan. Drone strikes have mainly targeted militants who are crossing the border to fight in Afghanistan, while Pakistan sees the TTP as the real threat.

However, the recent death of Mullah Dadullah in a drone strike, who was heading the TTP in Bajaur Agency, indicates some level of cooperation between Pakistani and American intelligence. If so, this would be a welcome development as it suggests that the Americans are now targeting militants wanted by Pakistan. Pakistan has a moral duty to take on the Haqqani network. Our complaints about drone attacks are sure to fall on deaf ears as long as we refuse to tackle the challenge posed by the Haqqanis. The US has run out of patience and until we launch a serious military operation in North Waziristan, we can expect even more drone attacks in the future.

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

PTI’s economic policy

August 27th, 2012

One of the most trenchant criticisms of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been its reliance on feel-good sloganeering over the nitty-gritty of policy details. The announcement of the party’s economic plan was meant to change all that although if the early details are anything to go by, this is not going to happen. One of the fundamental mistakes the PTI makes is to treat corruption as a personal rather than structural issue. It simply thinks that getting rid of the current crop of politicians and replacing those with themselves will lead to an automatic halt in corruption, a view that is at stark odds with the reality of Pakistan. Thus, when the party claims that it will recover two trillion rupees by bringing an end to corruption, that figure can safely be ignored as the product of the PTI’s imagination.

Much of the PTI’s economic blueprint is aspirational rather than realistic. It is to say that the cost of producing electricity will be reduced, even though not a single politician in Pakistan has any control over the international price of oil. The same goes for the promise to bring an end to the circular debt issue although the PTI is unable to explain where the money will come from in order for this to happen. The party has also focused on the symbolic rather than the practical. It is politically popular to say that the state will save money by slashing the budgets of the president, prime minister, chief minister and governors’ houses by 50 per cent but these savings will barely make a dent in our deficit. The PTI also wants Pakistan to make do without foreign loans although how this will not lead to instant bankruptcy is again left unexplained.

Many of the proposals also betray an inexcusable ignorance about politics and economics. It is well and good to say that the education and health budgets will be substantially increased but these are subjects that were devolved to the provinces under the Eighteenth Amendment and so will not be under the purview of the centre. The PTI also wants to increase government spending in many sectors, reduce unemployment substantially while bringing down inflation at the same time, which is something that would break all laws of economics if it ever happened. That ultimately is the problem with the PTI: it ignores reality for rhetoric.

Unchanged order

August 27th, 2012

We may as well be living in a different time and age. It seems that life has not moved forward at all. We continue to carry out acts so gory it is hard to believe that human beings in this day and age would be capable of even considering them.

The latest such incident has taken place in a village near Chakwal in Punjab, where a couple was murdered for marrying of their own free will. In our country, many such stories have been heard of before. In this case, Almas Khan, an employee of Mazhar Hussain, eloped with his employer’s daughter Shamim Akhter and fled to Khan’s native Nowshera. Clearly, differences in class, perceived ‘status’ and Khan’s situation as a servant in the house left them convinced they would never get the consent of Shamim’s parents to marry. A kidnapping case was lodged against Khan. However, before anything came of it, the couple was lured back to Chakwal on Eidul Fitr on the pretext that they had been forgiven and then murdered. Sole responsibility for this act has been claimed by Shamim’s brother.

Courts have, of course, given repeated rulings permitting adults free choice in marriage. A landmark judgment in this respect came in the 1990s from the Supreme Court. But more than a decade on, people remain unwilling to accept such rulings. Further complications stem from the Qisas and Diyat laws, which allow the heirs of a victim to accept blood money rather than seek punishment for murder. This factor explains why, in the case of women killed for ‘honour’, their brothers so often take the blame, permitting fathers to accept a ‘payment’ to compensate for physical hurt. The money never actually changes hands, allowing the perpetrators of the crime to, in fact, go scot free. As human rights groups have pointed out, this flaw needs to be plugged. But we also need a change in social attitudes so that such incidents do not occur and the kind of tragedy that was witnessed in Chakwal can be averted.

Trade relations with India

August 27th, 2012

The pace of progress in peace talks between Pakistan and India, since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has recently sped up. On August 1, the Indian commerce ministry repealed a ban that prevented Pakistanis from investing in industrial ventures in India. This has now been quickly followed by a related decision to allow Pakistani individuals and entities to buy shares and convertible debentures of Indian companies. Earlier this year, Pakistan granted India the most-favoured nation trading status, leading to this latest round of economic liberalisation. Each decision in isolation might seem too small to celebrate but taken together they represent a genuine breakthrough that could lead to, if not lasting peace, then at least a long-term détente.

Hopes that the peace process will continue are raised by the fact that even the main opposition party, the PML-N, is on board with the plan to maintain good relations with India. It would have been very easy for the PML-N to play to nationalist sentiment and accuse the PPP of cosying up to our greatest enemy. Instead, it has put forth policies that go beyond even what the current government has achieved. The PTI, too, sees trade with India as an inevitability rather than a matter up for discussion. The main sticking point, as ever, remains the establishments and their proxies on both sides. The twin issues of Kashmir and militancy will always be the final stumbling blocks as hawks on both sides have shown no sign of softening their stance. The PPP and the Congress cannot ignore these issues forever.

Before we get too optimistic, it is important to remember that the two countries still retain the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Just when a liberalised visa agreement was ready to be signed, it ended up being scuttled. Since then, no progress has been made on this issue. Person-to-person contact is necessary for people in both countries to realise that enmity is illogical. The next goal should be to make cross-border travel as painless as possible.

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