24.06.2013

Barbarous attack at Nanga Parbat

That the scenic mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), thus far known for their snow-capped peaks and as a haven for mountaineers, will now become known for the gruesome tragedy that panned out there on June 23, is yet another reminder of the vortex of perpetual violence that has engulfed our country. According to reports, gunmen dressed as paramilitary troops killed nine foreign tourists, including Ukrainian and Chinese climbers, as well as a Pakistani, who were staying at the base camp area of Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-highest mountain at a height of over 4,000 metres in the Diamer district of G-B. The responsibility for the attack was initially claimed by the militant group Jundallah, which has in the past also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on the Shia community, including one in February 2012 when gunmen shot dead 18 bus passengers. Later, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also accepted responsibility, saying that the attack was a retaliation to the killing of their leader Waliur Rehman, who was killed in a US drone strike recently.

Condemnations have come thick and fast, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif being in the forefront of these. However, the fact remains that whoever the actual perpetrator of the attack may be — the TTP or Jundallah — our security apparatus has completely failed to apprehend these groups despite the people of our country being repeatedly targeted by them. It is quite clear that those responsible for gathering intelligence to detect the possible attacks these groups may be planning to carry out, and then taking every measure possible to prevent them, have failed in their duties.
It remains to be seen how the new government will deal with the fallout of this incident. The PML-N government has so far laid emphasis on dealing with the security situation through holding talking with the TTP. However, the violence and terrorism that continues to afflict Pakistan clearly shows that talking to those who only believe in violence is not going to solve the huge crisis at hand. The government needs to come down hard on the various militant groups that have killed thousands of our people, and have no qualms about attacking foreign tourists either. It is time that the whole country unites on the issue of terrorism before Pakistan becomes further isolated in the international community.

Security rethink

Considering that security is a key issue for our country, the decisions taken at a high-level meeting in Islamabad on June 20 to rethink the way security personnel are deployed is welcome. The question though is whether the steps announced will be implemented and if so, how effectively and for how long. We have frequently seen lofty promises made by politicians in our country simply fizzle out.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that apart from the president, the prime minister and the chief justice of Pakistan, security protocol by civil security services will not be offered to any other individual in the country. He has emphasised that playing the role of guards is not what security forces are intended to do. This is indeed correct. In the past, there have been accounts of how the deployment of personnel belonging to various agencies on VIP security duty reduces the number available for other key tasks in a country torn apart by terrorism and a lack of law and order.
The other decisions taken are also welcome. The interior minister has said that two task forces will be set up — one to review internal security and the other to look into the issue of missing persons. This, too, is a much-needed measure. Both areas are a cause of deep concern in a country where no one can be assured of safety any longer. If the present government can succeed in even partially improving the security situation, it would have taken a huge step and set the bricks in the road, which can lead to more investment, economic growth and development. But, of course, this task will require far more than promises. What has been said is good. It would now be even better to see it being implemented and followed through by sound measures, which can truly bring about a positive change in the situation we all currently live in, with Pakistan considered one of the most dangerous places on earth.

26.06.2013

Trial for treason

We have a new “first” in our history. A former military ruler faces treason charges for acts committed during his tenure in power. The Nawaz Sharif government has brought a case for high treason, which carries a maximum penalty of death under Pakistani law, against former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who ruled the country from 1999 to 2008. Aside from his illegal takeover of power in 1999, overthrowing the elected Sharif government, the emergency he declared in November 2007, suspending the superior judiciary, clamping down on the media and other basic rights have been widely interpreted as acts of treason. The Supreme Court had already said it was the government, which was required to bring a treason case against General (retd) Musharraf, who currently remains under house arrest in Islamabad.

There can be no doubt the PML-N government needs to be congratulated for its courage in taking this step. It could prove vital to our future. Doing the “right thing” has never been a pressing priority in the country, especially when it comes to issues related to the military. This time round, things could change. As citizens, we must hope this will indeed happen, setting a key precedent for the future. The appearance of General (retd) Musharraf in court for treason should certainly make others think harder before taking similar steps in undermining democracy, seizing power and subverting the Constitution.
General (retd) Musharraf’s lawyer has immediately dismissed the move as a means to distract people from other problems, such as the energy and the economic crises. But this may be too simplistic a view of the development. The key question for Pakistan will be how the military reacts to the action against General (retd) Musharraf and what the final outcome is to be. Certainly, the court proceedings themselves will be closely followed and each statement made during them carefully noted. This, in itself, is extremely significant in the light of our history, where domination by the military has blighted democracy, and in fact, made it impossible for elected governments to operate. Perhaps, things will now change. We must hope this is the case.

India and the Af-Pak question

Recently, US Secretary of State John Kerry elaborated on the need for India to take on a proactive role in Afghanistan’s elections next year. According to him, Indian involvement in Afghanistan could lead to greater institutional stability in the country and help Afghanistan’s nascent, troubled democracy. This statement may ring alarm bells in Pakistan, especially its security establishment. A key concern of Pakistan’s strategists for post-2014 Afghanistan is not to be encircled by its traditional arch-rival. Pakistan has often stated its geostrategic concerns to the world, including to the US. Secretary Kerry’s comments do little to alleviate those reservations. With India to the east and an Indian presence in Afghanistan to the west, Pakistan’s conventional security paradigm gets challenged. Indian influence in Afghanistan may also lead to Pakistan further militarising the Durand Line. Pakistan may even be pushed to embark on a relentless drive to increase its influence in that country, even if it were to involve alignment with the Taliban.
Unless Pakistan’s concerns are taken seriously, it is likely that a post-2014 Afghanistan may turn into an arena for proxy wars between India and Pakistan. This is recipe for further instability in the region. Afghanistan and Pakistan need to forge constructive relations so that they can fight the menace of terrorism together. Hostilities between them would allow insurgencies to foster, further relegating the region to a spiral of militancy.
The Af-Pak question cannot be answered without the involvement of India, but the US’s reluctance to view Pakistan’s concerns as viable does nothing to mend South Asia’s most fragile relationship. Lastly, elections in Afghanistan must be an Afghan-led process where all political factions in that country agree to resolve their differences through dialogue rather than through guns, while all regional countries firmly commit that they will not interfere with its internal political process.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

27.06.2013

Attack on judge’s convoy

The law and order situation in the country’s financial hub continues to deteriorate with yet another bomb blast rocking Karachi on the morning of June 26. The convoy of the Sindh High Court Justice Baqar Maqbool was the target of the explosion that took place in the Burns Road area of the city. The bomb was planted on a motorbike that was parked near a mosque, which exploded as the convoy passed by, killing 12 people and injuring 14 others. Thankfully, Justice Maqbool, who is currently performing duties as the acting chief justice of the Sindh High Court, escaped only with injuries.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have accepted responsibility for the attack, stating that Justice Maqbool was targeted for his “anti-Taliban and anti-mujahideen decisions”. Our law-enforcement agencies have clearly failed to fulfil their responsibility of ensuring peace in Karachi. The obvious weaknesses in the law-enforcement apparatus — which not only fails to gather intelligence and pre-empt such attacks by infiltrating into terror networks, but also fails to apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes after they have taken place — point to the lack of political will to rectify this state of affairs. It is well known that the police in Sindh need to be depoliticised and provided with sufficient resources to deal with the Herculean task of ensuring peace. The justice system also needs to develop the capacity to convict those who have been arrested for being involved in terrorism and other subversive activities. This will only happen when the police employ modern investigation methods that help in gathering irrefutable evidence, which can stand in a court of law.
During the last five years, targeted killings, suicide attacks, sectarian and political violence in Karachi went on unabated. It remains to be seen if the provincial PPP government is able to reform the security situation this time around. It will have to take other political parties of the province on board if it wants to find a long-term solution to this menace. A unified stance on terrorism and the will to deal with it effectively is needed if peace is to be established. A peaceful Karachi is crucial for the economic well-being of Pakistan; therefore, the PML-N government at the centre must also extend its complete support to the provincial government in this regard.

More bureaucracy

The federal bureaucracy has only one answer to every problem in the country: more bureaucracy. When the finance minister announced that the government wanted to give the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) the power to access banking data of every person in Pakistan, we, along with the Senate finance committee and a large majority of the country’s business community, reacted with concern. It is understandable that the FBR will need data to crack down on tax evasion. But we did express our view that not enough safeguards for privacy were built into the system.
After apparently having mulled over the matter for several days, the FBR has an answer: only its chairman and board members will be granted access to banking data. Is that really the solution to this issue? Granting the power to access data to the FBR where there is massive scope for the data to be misused, while not giving the power to the NADRA data analysts, who are actually creating the algorithm designed to track down tax evaders and estimate their tax liabilities? This so-called solution only serves to exacerbate the impression that the FBR does not really want the data to go after tax evaders, but simply to use it to allow corrupt officials to blackmail people with substantial sums of money.
The theory behind the need for the bank account data being made accessible to the FBR was to allow it to complete the algorithm it is trying to construct that would not only identify potential tax evaders, but also estimate accurately how much they should be paying in taxes. It is an attempt to use Big Data the right way. The algorithm, however, is not being constructed by the FBR. It is being constructed by NADRA, an institution that has a much better track record of handling people’s personal data and, therefore, has a much better public profile. If the finance minister is serious about catching tax evaders, he would do well to hand over the data to NADRA, which the public trusts, and not the FBR, where this information can be misused.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

28.06.2013

Reviving backdoor diplomacy

The Pakistani government has decided to revive backdoor diplomacy channels with India. The earlier such attempts under the Musharraf regime were on the right track. The parleys between presidential aide Tariq Aziz and veteran Indian diplomat SK Lambah led to the evolution of the famed four-point formula as a workable option to resolve the Kashmir dispute. These efforts came to a standstill due to political instability in Pakistan and eventual exit of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in 2008. Given the troubled history of Indo-Pakistan relations and the existence of slow-moving bureaucratic machinery, backdoor diplomacy is a feasible route to be adopted. If this back channel diplomacy does materialise, then the Sharif government’s move should be welcomed.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is committed to securing peace and boosting trade with India. However, he faces a formidable baggage of history and the national security paradigm that sees the Indian threat as the gravest facing the country. Taking charge of foreign and security policies is a medium- to long-term objective for the civilian rulers of Pakistan. Indo-Pakistan engagement is also dogged by cyclical events and the menace of terrorism, which brings official parleys to a halt. Hence, back channel communications are also an insurance strategy for the peace process to move forward. There are hawks on the Indian side, too. In fact, there is a lack of consensus within India on a Pakistan policy. The former remains hostage to minor and major issues of terrorism, media hype and public opinion. As India moves to a general election within a year, it would be wise to keep the talks low-key and not raise expectations on both sides.
Pakistan’s security is now dependent on its economic progress and political stability. Normalisation of ties with India and increased regional trade are essential for its growth. Pakistan’s military has time and again acknowledged that the internal threats to the country need to be tackled on an urgent basis. With a new government in Islamabad, perhaps this is the right time to rethink our security policy and revise the “perpetual enmity with India” as an unstated policy goal. We wish all luck to the backdoor diplomacy efforts.

Thank you, Mr Snowden

The not so pleasant whistle-blowing saga, which the US has become caught up in, continues to make headlines the world over. In its latest episode, Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency operative, who exposed US eavesdropping on tens of thousands of emails and other private conversations transmitted electronically, has left Hong Kong where he had been based when he began his stunning revelations and turned up in Moscow. His next destination is uncertain with Ecuador considering his asylum request while Cuba is another possibility. The Venezuelan president has also said that he would consider an asylum request for him.
Mr Snowden’s fate then hangs in the balance. The US is desperate that he be extradited to its shores to face trial for treason. But whether it succeeds or not in getting hold of Mr Snowden, whose story came to the world via a correspondent at The Guardian, remains to be seen. The fact is that the damage has been done. Mr Snowden’s revelations about accessing electronic communications illegally and tapping into internet hubs around the world have exposed American hypocrisy. As a self-proclaimed champion of human rights, the US has always stated that it upholds the right to privacy and has criticised other countries, including China, for prying into the lives of citizens. Being caught doing so has left many faces blushing bright red in Washington.
What we have heard first from Wikileaks, and now from Mr Snowden, gives us an insight into the world of international espionage and politics. Admittedly, most countries of the world are involved in some form of spying, but the fact that the US was involved in it at such a massive scale, as well as its attitude, which shows that it feels it can get away with whatever it pleases, even if it is illegal, is what has come under much criticism. The question now is whether what we have been hearing will change the reality for all of us.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

29.06.2013

Budget goes through

It is nowhere close to being a perfect budget, but at least Finance Minister Ishaq Dar can take credit for sticking to his guns and pushing through even the most unpopular bits of the finance bill through the National Assembly. We do not agree with everything that is in the budget, but we do believe that it is important for a government to stick to its convictions, particularly about the tough choices that the country needs to make.

With that said, we do have some reservations about the manner in which the increase in the general sales tax was imposed. It is entirely appropriate for the new finance minister to propose such a measure for debate in Parliament, and we are glad that the Supreme Court made him do so, rather than relying on a colonial-era law that allowed him to bypass the elected representatives of the people. However, imposing a tax retroactively from June 13 rather than July 1 is clearly unconstitutional. The government cannot violate constitutional principle — and a highly self-evident and logical one at that — simply because the Federal Board of Revenue does not want to have to bother with paying out refunds to companies that overpaid for the few days that the extra tax was imposed.
The opposition members may complain that their opinions were not taken into consideration, but the fact of the matter is that in a parliamentary system like ours, while they would be wise to heed good advice, the government is under no obligation to listen to the opposition’s proposals. Besides, the opposition had plenty of opportunity to express its opinions through their members on the Senate finance committee, where they are still in a majority, and to its credit, the Nawaz Administration has continued, what is now a parliamentary convention, for the National Assembly — to incorporate proposals from the upper chamber’s panel into the final bill.
The current finance bill was written mostly by civil servants, with the new finance minister having little time to give it the shape he truly wanted. We are glad that he, at least, built himself some room to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund. From next year onwards, however, he will be solely responsible for what goes into the finance bill, both good and bad. We hope he is better prepared next year.

Higher and higher

Drug abuse is a problem we talk about with increasing infrequency. Yet, a report presented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicates it continues to rise. The technical summary for 2013, presented at a seminar held by the National Council of Social Welfare to mark International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, stated over six million Pakistanis used drugs during the year. Hashish was the most commonly used substance, while there were also some 450,000 injecting drug users in the country — almost all of them men. This figure has remained more or less static for many years and suggests we are making little headway against the use of heroin and other injectable drugs. Seven thousand women now count among users and past studies have shown that with such use often kept “hidden”, due to social factors, the actual number may be higher with female users receiving least help and support.
Also of concern is the UNODC finding on the high rate of misuse of opiate-based painkillers, with nearly 1.7 million people, 930,000 of them men and 760,000 women, resorting to them last year. As we all know, painkillers and indeed all kinds of other medicines which should be sold on prescription are easily available over the counter in our country. This, of course, explains their wide usage, especially among women who have easy access to them. As was stressed by the speakers at the seminar, the government needs to develop a policy to prevent drug use of all kinds. Given the wide ranging nature of the problem, the policy will need to be fairly wide in its outlook. We also need to consider the social issues as to why drugs are used so frequently. Depression, as pointed out by mental health organisations, is clearly a factor in this. What we require is a strategy to raise awareness on the danger of drug abuse of all kinds, including that of pills easily bought at pharmacies and tighten up laws which can prevent the sale of these pills and potions with ease.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

30.06.2013

Resolving the energy crisis

When it comes to the energy sector reforms, the Nawaz Administration appears to be making relatively sensible choices. What makes the administration’s plan particularly impressive is that it seeks to balance what is politically possible with what is technically and financially necessary. So, for instance, the government is seeking to pay off the energy sector’s circular debt in one go in order to significantly reduce power cuts and win the public’s confidence before tackling the harder bits of the problem, like raising tariffs and forcing electricity thieves to pay their bills. We also admire the government’s commitment to reduce the weighted average cost of producing electricity for the national grid by moving towards cheaper fuel sources. We worry, however, that some of these moves are being made without a more thorough analysis of the future costs.
Take, for instance, the government’s agreement with the independent power producers (IPPs) to switch their expensive oil-fired power plants to a cheaper fuel source, coal. This apparently seems like a sensible policy. Coal-fired power generation costs approximately Rs10 per kilowatt-hour, even when running on imported coal, compared with the Rs18 a unit or higher that oil-fired power plants cost. A sensible saving that would have the added advantage of reducing the cost of power generation to just under the upper limit set by the prime minister for how high the government is willing to let retail electricity tariffs rise to.
We applaud the effort, but we would encourage the government to take a little more time to study the long-term implications of converting from oil to coal. According to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s 2012 state of industry report, oil-fired power plants account for over 8,000 megawatts of installed capacity. Converting all of those to coal is an effort likely to cost several billion dollars. The government of Pakistan has a tendency to make energy policy by simply going for the latest fads. That is how we got into the trouble of having too many oil-fired power plants in the first place. We set them up in the mid to late-1990s, when oil prices were at historic lows in inflation-adjusted terms, and it seemed to make all the sense in the world to build power plants for something that we could fuel either through our own indigenous resources or through imports from friendly regional countries. As we now know, that turned out to be a disastrous idea.
When in the mid-2000s, the prices of oil started going up, we started converting many power plants to natural gas, under the assumption that the country had abundant gas reserves, not realising that much of those had been depleted due to a half-century policy of horribly mispricing the commodity and incentivising its waste. And so, just under a decade later, we are once again talking about changing the fuel source for our power plants.
The government would do well to realise that a thermal power plant has an operating life of about 30 years. That means that any plan that only takes into account fuel prices this year, and not how they might fluctuate over, at least, the next decade is likely to come up short-sighted. Pakistan has tried several different iterations of this strategy at least twice now and is looking set to repeat the same mistake a third time. Have we learnt nothing from our mistakes?
We are not opposed to the idea of switching to coal-fired power plants, though there is something to be said for the environmental hazards of doing so. However, we do urge the government to take the trouble to figure out whether or not the mathematics that currently make the option so attractive are likely to hold true for the next few years. Otherwise, we will be back to square one in another decade.
Pakistan cannot afford another lost decade. We understand the prime minister’s urgency to get things done. But taking just a little more time to get them right is likely to be an investment worth making.

Butt’s admission of guilt

After vehemently denying his involvement, disgraced Pakistan cricketer and former captain Salman Butt admitted to and apologised for his role in the spot-fixing scandal that brought much shame to the country. Two years after the International Cricket Council (ICC) found him, as well as fast-bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir guilty of taking money in exchange for deliberately contriving no-balls during the fourth Test against England, during the 2010 tour of the country, Butt was “apologetic” for the pain he caused to fans and the country. He was banned from all cricketing activity for at least five years and also put behind bars in the UK.
Butt’s admission of guilt comes after he has done time in jail, appealed to the ICC, as well as to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, only for his appeals to be dismissed each time. Only last year, after being released from jail and returning to the country, he insisted that he was innocent. However, delving deeper into his statement, given on June 28, we clearly get the impression that after using up all the cards in the deck, the former opener is now looking to take the opportunity of a new chairman at the helm, namely Najam Sethi, and find a way that would enable him to make his comeback. Mr Sethi recently stated that he would make a plea to the ICC to reduce the duration of Amir’s ban. This statement seems to have alerted Butt and he appears to now look to earn a similar favour through a manipulative, apologetic press conference.
Is this what our country has been reduced to? Do the supporters of the national team want to give a chance to a corrupt player, who not only committed corruption himself but also led one of the brightest stars in Pakistan cricket on the same dreaded path? His manipulation aside, Butt, the “orchestrator” of the spot-fixing saga, needs to spend time off the field and made to regret his actions — actions that let down the fans and the country after raising their hopes when he was made captain.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

03.07.2013

Electricity: Consume now, pay never

It is now official: the two state-owned utility companies that supply electricity to most of Sindh have effectively decided that they will not try to collect unpaid bills and have managed to get billions of rupees in losses written off by the federal government, expecting the rest of the country to foot the bill in the form of bailouts and subsidies. That the defaulting customer in this case is the Sindh government itself makes it an absolute outrage.

The two companies in question are the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), which are responsible for distributing electricity to customers in all districts of Sindh, except those covered by the privately-owned Karachi Electric Supply Company. The contrast between the KESC and these two state-owned utilities could not be more striking.
Hesco and Sepco have some of the highest line losses in the country, which are compounded by an appalling bill collection rate. Of the electricity it buys from the national grid, Hesco loses 28 per cent to theft and a crumbling infrastructure and then loses another 31 per cent by not being able to collect bills from its customers, according to data compiled by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). The figures for Sepco are even worse: line losses of 40 per cent and losses on uncollected bills accounting for 49 per cent of the total electricity it is able to sell.
This is a case of catastrophically bad management for which the blame is to be shared by the federal and Sindh governments. The federal government owns these two companies and appears to have made no effort to try to improve their management. Indeed, by some accounts, the only effort being made is to perhaps hide the true scale of losses using techniques such as billing the government for electricity otherwise consumed by powerful and well-connected local individuals, so that the taxpayer ends up footing the bill.
The Sindh government, for its part, likely has a legitimate grievance when it says that it should not be billed for electricity consumed by others, but in a sense, it is crying over the symptom of a disease that it created itself. Is it not the responsibility of the Sindh Police and the Sindh government to crack down on theft and abuse of power? Instead of complaining about being overbilled, why is the provincial government not doing anything to stop people from stealing electricity? It seems ironic to have a province run by a left-leaning political party do almost nothing to do away with the vestiges of aristocratic privilege that have persisted in the modern era.
What makes matters worse is that — far from doing anything to solve the problem — the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government used its last few days of influence in Islamabad to get those outstanding amounts written off, bypassing the institutional checks and balances that would have prevented them from doing so in the first place. The PPP proudly proclaimed in the election campaign that it has set up institutions that will serve the country well in the future, and this claim does have merit. But what is the point of creating those institutions if the rules that govern them are ignored?
The real cause of the problem with the PPP’s bad management of Sindh is that it appears to feel that it is possible for it to keep on promising their voters free goods and services and never have to actually deliver on this pledge. This is simply not sustainable.
One would have hoped that the electoral shellacking that the PPP received at the hands of voters in May would induce some soul-searching in the party. But the initial signs are not looking good. The PPP must realise that governing means making hard choices, and that politics is the art of getting people to accept and agree to those hard choices. Getting people excited about free stuff is easy: rallying them towards a common purpose that involves self-sacrifice is hard, but much more necessary. If the PPP wishes to remain electorally relevant, it may want to start by making the rich and powerful in the province pay their electricity bills.

Good intentions

Balochistan Chief Minister (CM) Abdul Malik Baloch certainly appears to have a can-do attitude towards what is unquestionably one of the toughest jobs in Pakistan. We applaud his optimism and his approach to the task at hand and believe that he deserves the fullest of support from the federal government, as well as the other provinces.
CM Baloch’s approach to the job involves creating a more transparent and accountable government focused on service delivery in key social sectors like education and health, while at the same time, ensuring that he maintains cordial relations with federal institutions like the Frontier Constabulary (FC), which holds disproportionate influence in the province. Unlike some of his predecessors, who were satisfied with just blaming the FC for many problems, CM Baloch seems focused on actually working with it to solve the problem.
The chief minister is clearly a more intelligent man than many who have occupied his office in the past, but his shrewdness and pragmatism alone are not enough. He needs a team that can execute the vision for Balochistan that he has laid out in his budget speech and in his interview with this newspaper. And in that, he will need the support of Islamabad and Lahore.
The Balochistan government is desperately short of competent civil servants to the point that, in the past, it has offered to double the salary of any grade-22 officer from the elite district management group of the federally-run Civil Service of Pakistan, who would serve in the province. Unfortunately, most civil servants look upon a stint in Quetta as a punishment assignment and provincial governments are unwilling to let go of the few officers who are willing to take up Balochistan’s offer.
For Balochistan to catch up with the rest of the country, the other provinces will need to be generous with more than just money. For once, Quetta has a talented professional at the helm. He needs other such professionals to succeed, a need which the rest of Pakistan would do well not to deny.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

09.07.2013

A bomb blast in Lahore

What should have been a pleasant weekend outing turned into a nightmare for dozens of families who had thronged to the popular food street in Old Anarkali in Lahore on the evening of July 6. An explosive device, placed in a freezer located outside a restaurant, went off as people dined, killing five, including a six-year-old girl. Over 40 others were injured, as the crowded area was thrown into chaos by the blast.

Terrorism is, of course, the first motive which comes to mind, with people asking if the scourge has returned to a Punjab which had remained largely peaceful for months. In past years, there have been attacks on juice kiosks frequented by young couples, CD shops and theatres, but in this case, no element of “morality” seems visible. The warped thinking of extremists should, however, not be forgotten; while eating out or strolling along a street lined with cafes would, for almost all of us count as an entirely innocent activity, it is worth keeping in mind that some years ago, threats were made to restaurants in Quetta hosting families, on the basis that women should be kept away from public places.

All the various possible angles need to be looked into. The police investigating the blast have noted that shrapnel or ball bearings — the hallmark of militants intending to inflict maximum damage — were not found. This has led to conjecture that business rivalry may have been behind the blast. This has happened before. Terrorism can also be used to disguise other crime. A careful investigation is required to get to the bottom of the matter. Top police officials in the city must ensure this is carried out properly, so that the perpetrators can be identified. Acts of violence, such as the one at Old Anarkali, add an unwanted element of fear to the lives of citizens. It is crucial that they be prevented and this can happen only if law enforcers are able to determine who is behind this latest incident and what they hoped to achieve by unleashing so much terror on people spending an evening away from their homes.

Living in a city

We all know that planning in our major cities is nightmarish. The infrastructure in the largest centres, like Karachi and Lahore, is close to collapse as people pour in, desperate for a better life. A report from Bath Island in Karachi explains what has gone wrong and why. The report speaks of a total lack of coordination between the agencies involved in approving new buildings and providing them the infrastructure they need. While 15 new apartment blocks are to go up in that locality, each housing some 10 times the people who lived in the older residences they replace, the city’s water board says it was not consulted and cannot provide this necessity to them. While the Metropolitan Corporation and the Sindh Building Control Authority are part of the “master plan” under which approval is given, it seems the water board has been left out completely.

The top city administration says it is trying to sort out matters. But the fact also is that very similar scenarios exist everywhere. The haphazard planning, in virtually every urban centre, has created a situation that resembles chaos. This is visible in many areas of Karachi and Lahore, but also in cities such as Faisalabad, Hyderabad and Rawalpindi, as well as others. Clearly, we need better planning with all relevant agencies involved in this process. But we need also to think about just how many people our cities can accommodate. Beyond better urban planning, the migration from rural and smaller urban areas across the country also needs to be looked at. It is simply not sustainable. More work opportunities need to be created in places everywhere and more amenities provided to check the tide of people entering the biggest cities, while at the same time, putting in place a plan to check the collapse of the structures intended to meet the needs of people. The fact is that they are under tremendous strain anyway and without better planning and organisation can simply not survive as pressures on them grow.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

10.07.2013

Abbottabad leak

We have our own version of Wikileaks. Indeed this leak, of the Abbottabad Commission report into the May 2011 raid by US Navy Seals, which ended with the killing of Osama bin Laden, constitutes virtually a hemorrhage of information, rather than a leak.
It is, indeed, unfortunate that the report, completed by the Commission set up under Justice Javed Iqbal by the Supreme Court in June 2011, was not officially made public and we needed to wait for a media leak to learn of its contents. The Commission itself had recommended, after it was submitted to then prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, that it be realeased. This, of course, never happened, and the emergence of the report with the al Jazeera channel, from where it has, of course, been widely picked up by the media, raises questions regarding the possible exchange of money and the matter of who profited from this. The aspect needs inquiry in itself, with a commission possibly required to do so.

But meanwhile, the details of the report leave us quite a lot to think about. The Commission, after interviewing some 300 witnesses, has painted a picture of total chaos and a lack of coordination between key agencies — and attributes this as the factor, which allowed the world’s most wanted man to remain in the country for some nine years, embarrassingly going undetected even though he had located himself in the garrison town of Abbottabad. The Commission blames this on the top leadership of military and civilian agencies, stating that it is finally responsible for the inefficiency demonstrated by subordinates at all levels, who failed to pick up information about the presence of Osama in Abbottabad. Also disconcerting are the details of the US raid. While the Commission’s finding that it took place on the basis of intelligence provided from the ground and support leading up to it, is not surprising, we should be concerned over how long it took to detect a foreign presence, ominously close to our capital city, with air force planes scrambled from the Sargodha Airbase only hours after the US troops had conducted their mission.
As a nation, we should also be concerned about the lies told by persons in responsible positions. The Commission has identified lies told to the effect that all that had happened had been with Pakistan’s consent. There must have been others who lied as well in the highly sensitive matter, though the Commission also notes that some key witnesses who appeared before it, including the then defence minister, were truthful and made no pretences.
The Osama episode, and all that it entailed, then clearly involved a security failure at the top level. As a country with a great many security and intelligence concerns, we should carefully consider all that has come out and all that we now know. The Commission sensibly decided to name no individuals. This was wise given that the entire issue is one of the overall working of the system rather than the responsibility of one or two individuals. Something else to look at is also the secrecy of our state. The report, which has now made headlines everywhere, should have been before us long ago. This did not happen. As in many other matters before this, there may have been an attempt to cover up what happened in Abbottabad that night in May 2011. Naturally, this is unfortunate. All those responsible for matters of governance should remember that we live in an age where nothing can remain hidden for very long. It tends to surface one way or the other, and the best policy in such circumstances would be to put it before citizens openly so that the whole saga of leakages and what these entail can be avoided. This would be just one lesson to learn from the Abbottabad saga and its aftermath.

The Balochistan conundrum

Pakistan’s largest province, Balochistan, continues to bleed. Decades of neglect and exclusion have created a sense of alienation in its population, which partly fuels the insurgency in the region. There is also the spectre of the involvement of foreign powers in the province. The recent statement of Sardar Akhtar Mengal about foreign hands’ involvement in the province is telling. Long, porous borders with Afghanistan and Iran make Balochistan vulnerable to movement of arms and people and the state capacity to track these movements is limited. Nevertheless, the state has yet to show evidence of this interference.
Sadly, the state has not been dealing with the genuine grievances of the population politically. Instead, what we have witnessed are military operations, compounding the resentment against the federation. Recent elections have renewed the hope for a political rapprochement between the estranged Baloch people, their leaders and the state. Due to its strategic importance and growing role of China in the region, Balochistan is also an arena where Pakistan claims that it is fighting external intervention and support to the insurgents. Also, the upper districts of Balochistan have become a hub of sectarian violence due to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s activities. Reportedly, the Afghan Taliban have also operated from the province. This makes Balochistan a complex area to be governed. The absence of state institutions also makes it more difficult for civilian administration to maintain law and order. There is a critical need for the provincial government to take full charge of the security and build the institutions of governance with public support. It is vital for the civil and military leadership to view Balochistan, not from the short-term “insurgency” lens, but from the long-term perspective of giving Baloch, Pashtun, Hazara and other communities in the province, their due political and economic rights.
The prime minister in his recent visit also issued the right directive: that the intelligence agencies should coordinate better and report to the provincial government. PM Sharif realises that this may be the last chance to solve the Balochistan problem. Pakistan must not lose this opportunity of reconciliation and strengthening the federal structure.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

11.07.2013

The drone equation

The issue of US drones stealing across the border and striking targets in our territory has come up again and again. It is a matter that simply fails to fade away, with strong opinions expressed on the matter during the election campaign and debate continuing in many quarters. A key problem is that we do not quite know what the true official stance on the matter is, and if we are being told anything resembling the truth, or merely a bunch of lies.

Suspicions on this count will be raised further by the leaked comments of the former ISI chief Lieutenant General (retd), Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who told the Abbotabad Commission that the drone attacks “had their uses”. The contents of that document strongly suggest Pakistan has for years covertly backed the drones. The former ISI chief, in his comments, also said it was no longer easy to stop the incursions by unmanned aircraft and that in the past, the Shamsi airbase had indeed been used by the Americans. This has, of course, never been officially acknowledged by our government. It should be noted that the drone attacks, which began in 2004, were initially approved by former army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. He should be asked about his decision.
Given the leaked information, and all the conjecture that existed even before this, it is time to come clean. The PML-N government, now in power, has stated publicly many times that it is opposed to drone attacks and sees them as counterproductive as far as tackling militancy goes. If this is indeed genuinely its position, it needs to take the matter up with the US and make its desire to end the strikes known. If, for any reason, it is unable to do so or if there is a dichotomy of opinion amongst forces within the country, then we must be told about it. After all, we have been lied to for far too long, creating confusion in minds. In a democracy, people must not be fooled on so crucial an issue, central to our sovereignty, but must be informed of the full facts, whatever they may be, as well as the government’s real role in the drone affair and all that it entails.

Promoting long-term growth

While most people will by now have noticed the astonishing post-election rally on the Karachi Stock Exchange, analysts at the country’s investment banks are picking up other, more subtle, yet more important indicators that things are looking up for the Pakistani economy. Some of the largest and most conservative businesses in the country are looking to make long-term investments in capital expansion, and are even willing to do so by taking on debt.
This is an excellent thing. But what delights us most is that the apparent trigger for this optimism is a stable, peaceful and democratic transfer of power.
Corporate Pakistan is betting on democracy and that is excellent for the country’s long-term stability, but perhaps the politicians should pay attention to some of the needs of the nation’s businesses. And on this front, they should copy their previously successful methods: just as the 2006 Charter of Democracy paved the way for political stability to begin taking shape in Pakistan, the country’s leaders would do well to come up with a similar Charter of the Economy.
This idea, of course, is not new. It was originally proposed by Shaukat Tarin, a former finance minister and currently an adviser to the government on economic affairs. And it is more doable than the Charter of Democracy ever was. While Pakistan’s political parties have significant differences on what they believe is the right balance of political power in the country, they disagree far less on economic matters.
The charter would not have to confine parties too narrowly to specific policy prescriptions, but certain generally agreed principles would go a long way towards giving businesses the kind of predictability they need to make long-term investments, which is the only sensible way to organically grow the economy. For the economy-focused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, this should not be a difficult task to undertake and we hope he does so.

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"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)