An electronic future

There appears to be universal agreement that there needs to be electoral reform in Pakistan. There are many facets to reform and there is no commonly agreed agenda, but the introduction of electronic voting machines (EVM) as proposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is an item on the agenda whose adoption we are wholly supportive of. This is no small matter and could at a stroke address one of the key issues that have surrounded every election since the foundation of the state — namely ballot rigging. EVMs first made an appearance in the 1960s and have slowly been adopted internationally. They are not without their detractors and there have been well-documented instances where EVMs have recorded wrong results, but there is nothing in the literature to suggest that an electoral outcome would have been reversed as a result of flaws in the EVM hardware or software. The last Indian election was conducted using EVMs, and many countries in South America have been using them without difficulty for a decade.

Whatever their deficits, the benefits of using EVMs in a country such as Pakistan that has a high proportion of illiterates in the population, are clear. It is going to require Parliament to amend the electoral law to allow the introduction of an electronic voting and biometric verification system and it is not going to be a cheap exercise, as each EVM is going to cost around $300. The ECP is planning to pilot the use of EVMs during the upcoming by-elections. Curiously, an exercise to select a vendor for EVMs was carried out before the 2013 election, but never progressed because Parliament never passed the required legislation. There are those for whom the advent of the EVM will be bad news indeed as whilst rigging in terms of electronic manipulation of machines and results is possible depending on the type of machine selected, it is also extremely difficult to achieve and requires technical competencies that are thin on the ground in Pakistan. Any reform that brings greater transparency to the electoral process is to be welcomed, and the EVM is long overdue.

Modi’s US visit

If one saw Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden or sitting around a dinner table with President Barack Obama at the White House, one can be forgiven for forgetting that it was only four months ago that he was still barred from entering the US. A lot has changed since then. For the US, it is a simple case of pragmatism; it is difficult to expect the US to overlook Prime Minister Modi’s indiscretions in the 2002 Gujarat riots now that it has to deal with him as a strategic partner. The US has good reasons to seek better relations with India. Both countries prefer to see an economically integrated Asia without China as its dominant power. Both also consider Islamic extremism a threat and are prepared to take steps to curb it. There is much in the way of mutual interest, but has been hampered by India’s ambivalence over foreign investment, protectionist policies, trade agreements and a stuck civil-nuclear agreement.

The US, aware of Prime Minister Modi’s patchy human rights record, may also have trouble addressing that inconvenient past. Still, that President Obama took him on a private tour of the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial is hardly indicative of a cold shoulder. Cautiously, both countries are looking to better relations, despite the obstacles. The same cannot be said for Pakistan and India. Prime Minister Modi’s speech at the UN General Assembly flatly declined Pakistan’s call for new approaches to resolving the Kashmir dispute and also reprimanded the Pakistani prime minister for mentioning Kashmir at the UN, which India considers a ‘bilateral issue’. Prime Minister Modi also repeated allegations of Pakistan’s ties to terrorism. While the General Assembly was always an opportunity for Indian and Pakistani leaders to meet on the sidelines, this time unfortunately, such a meeting did not materialise. Apart from inviting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his inauguration, the Indian leader has shown little interest in improving bilateral relations with Pakistan, preferring the hostile, aggressive status quo.

Infanticide in Multan

It is unlikely that the world will ever know what lay behind a live but injured newborn baby girl being thrown on to a rubbish tip in the Ghaziabad Colony area of Multan. The incident happened on September 30 and witnesses say the baby was thrown from the back of a car by a weeping woman and that another woman tried to conceal the child, or possibly bury it, whilst still alive. The women left as they had been seen, and despite the best efforts of Rescue 1122 staff, the baby died en route to Nishtar hospital. It is of note that the police took two hours to arrive on the scene, which speaks volumes about where they place female infanticide in their list of priorities. Newborns are killed for a variety of reasons in Pakistan, and there is a marked upward trend of female infanticide nationally. Not all unwanted babies are killed, and Unicef, early in 2014, reported that more than 300 newborn baby girls are abandoned in Karachi alone every year.

Female infanticide is most prevalent in the parts of countries that suffer persistent poverty and have poorly developed health infrastructures that facilitate family planning. There are two voluntary organisations that retrieve dead infants from urban environments in Pakistan, and both have ‘drop boxes’ for unwanted children, but these exist only in urban areas. Untold numbers of children live very brief lives in the countryside, there to be buried and forgotten. Poverty and ignorance are the engines that drive women in particular to kill their newborns, and male children are more likely to survive as they are considered an investment for the future, a pair of earning hands. The solution lies in education for all, because, goes the saying ‘Educate a boy and you educate an individual, but educate a girl and you educate an entire community’. There are going to be many more dead female babies in years to come; this is not a problem that is going away any time soon, and the tragedy in Multan, unfortunately, will be quickly forgotten.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2014.

Failing tax collection ‘strategies’

The government got off to a poor start to the current fiscal year, missing the first-quarter tax collection target by Rs20 billion as question marks were raised as to whether the annual target of Rs2.81 trillion would be met. According to provisional figures released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), an amount of Rs549 billion was pooled between July and September against the quarterly target of Rs569 billion. The collection was, however, 14 per cent higher than the one made in the corresponding period of the previous year. But when one considers the fact that the government introduced new taxes in this year’s budget — mostly indirect and regressive in nature — the growth is hardly impressive. Failing to meet the annual target — let alone the quarterly one — is a routine event that prompts the government to revise it downwards in the latter part of the fiscal year. The FBR has shown time and again that its collection methods are ineffective and its tax policies always have loopholes that evaders can easily identify and exploit. Additionally, tax concessions offered sporadically to hush noisy segments of the economy test one’s faith in the entire system. It is well known that the government placed the most stress on widening the tax base, vowing to bring more people into the tax net to enhance collection. All it did in reality was to increase the rate of tax on those who already pay taxes. This was the government’s idea of enhancing tax collection. Another strategy that raised question marks over the government’s intention was increasing the rate of withholding tax on various transactions. This is an amount that the FBR is supposed to hand back after one has filed income tax returns. How could that enhance revenue collection if it, seemingly, is a liability? The answer lies in a complicated, lengthy and scary-looking document that is enough to discourage people from filing their tax returns. Even those who pay taxes are unable to file their returns due to the complex nature of the document. Maybe that is where the government needed to start to tapping those who pay taxes. Others have already discovered ways to get out of paying them.

Attack on school

Terrorists know exactly where to strike, where it hurts the most and how the narrative of terror seeps into the fabric of society. Unfortunately, the state’s priorities of protection lie elsewhere. While schools have been routinely razed to the ground by militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Fata, the authorities have done little to alter this state of affairs. The hand grenade attack on a school in Shabqadar, Charsadda, which killed a schoolteacher and injured two students on October 1, is the latest such tragedy to occur. The threat to educational institutions in K-P and Fata is all too imminent now. This is not the first such incident and judging from the response of the authorities, it does not seem to be the last one either. Several schools in conflict-ridden areas are threatened by armed militants, who only know how to reinforce their ideology through brute force and violence. While Shabqadar is close to the Mohmand tribal belt, the situation in Peshawar has been no different. There have been incidents where schools have had to pay extortionists to keep the threat at bay. An estimated 2.5 million children are out of school in K-P, with more than 2,000 schools being dysfunctional because of the precarious law and order situation, among other contributing factors. The tribal belt is another story altogether; here, hundreds of thousands people are faced with a battle of survival, so acquiring an education is a far-fetched dream for them. The outrage surrounding the Shabqadar incident will soon subside until another such incident takes place, but the psychological scars being inflicted upon our younger generation will not heal easily. We are told that the school will reopen soon, but needless to say, many children will drop out, as there will be parents who will think twice before sending them to the same school. One wonders if the authorities will set aside their seeming apathy and finally take some concrete measures to secure the future of our children. We will have no one to blame but ourselves if nothing is done to alter this state of affairs.

Rewarded again

In recent years, there has been a flowering in the independent film industry in Pakistan, particularly in the documentary genre, and films with a Pakistan theme made by teams of people that have many with their origins in Pakistan are winning international awards. It is now two years since Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Academy Award for her searing portrayal of women hideously scarred by having acid thrown on their faces. Now, another Pakistani filmmaker — and another woman — has won an Emmy award for her work as the researcher and co-director along with Hilke Schelmann of the documentary Outlawed in Pakistan. The film took five years to make and chronicles the struggle of a young woman seeking justice after she was gang-raped at the age of 13 by four men. Habiba Nosheen won the Emmy for ‘Outstanding research’ under the news and documentary subsection of the awards. The film deals with a difficult subject matter and lays bare the hypocrisies and double standards that are associated with the crime of rape in Pakistan. The law is widely flouted, women who stand up to their rapists like Kainat Soomro whose fight for justice is the thread that runs throughout, often find themselves targets for vilification by misogynists. Ms Soomro’s stand has seen her family persecuted, her brother murdered and her family hounded out of its home and forced to relocate to Karachi. Those who make uncomfortable films about the darknesses at the heart of Pakistani society are also open to abuse. Some question as to why films such as Saving Face and Outlawed in Pakistan are made in the first place, that these films invite national disgrace and shame, and are best not seen by a wider public. We would argue that it is for those very reasons that such documentary films are vital tools in the struggle to bring a greater sense of maturity to our lives. These films are discomforting mirrors held up to the face of a state that has never been good at looking inwards, and owning the horrors beneath. Bravo Habiba Nosheen, may you long continue to create discomfort.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2014.

__________________
"I am still learning."

Afghanistan — the way forward

The Americans are to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, and Pakistan, previously opposed to the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that enables this to happen, has now ‘tacitly endorsed’ it. The Pakistan Foreign Office has made it clear that the signing of the BSA is the choice of the newly elected government of Afghanistan, and as a sovereign nation, our western neighbour has every right to go down this route. But has Pakistan’s Afghan policy really changed? As a sovereign country, Afghanistan has every right to make decisions according to its own geo-political considerations, and it needs to pursue any solution that could lead to some sort of stability within the country and the wider region. While the US plans to pull out a large number of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, the situation there is not even close to being peaceful. Pakistan knows well that only a stable Afghanistan would result in an end to violence in the region. But achieving this will not be easy. The failure to successfully include all stakeholders in an all-inclusive Afghan government, the Afghan Taliban gaining strength and the fear of total collapse of the administrative system are some concerns that might have contributed to Pakistan’s changing stance. Learning from history, the US would also not have wanted to repeat its policy of use-and-abandon in the region, which is essentially what happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Apart from counterterrorism operations, the presence of US forces will ensure that the Afghan security forces will continue getting much-needed aid. While Pakistan now ostensibly seems to be focusing on following a non-interventionist policy in Afghanistan, cross-border attacks and territorial disputes, along with claims of shelling from across the border are issues that will come into play soon. However, while scars from events like the Salala incident will not be easily forgotten, if peace is to prevail, increased cooperation among Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US is a must. But we also need to see how Pakistan’s support for the BSA will be viewed by other powers, like Russia and China. While Pakistan should focus on promoting peace and an independent Afghanistan, it will have to contend with a lot of tricky factors in times to come.

Deja vu time — again

Tinkering with local government rarely meets with the approval of everybody, and Sindh has once again seen major adjustments to the way it is governed — or not governed. A dual system of governance has once again been introduced, which essentially increases bureaucratic control in rural areas, but exempts Karachi and the other major urban conurbations. Decisions taken at the chief minister’s house on October 1 means that all municipal bodies in Sindh, with the exception of Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana, are now under the control of their respective commissioners and deputy commissioners. The reason given for the change is that transparency and fiscal discipline will be better maintained — which remains to be seen in practice. There will be little or no change in Karachi because there are no district councils or municipal committees. The underlying reason for the change was the discovery of what are described as “massive” financial irregularities across all departments. The chief minister had warned bureaucrats to clean up their act on a number of occasions, they failed to do so and the hammer dropped. Even deeper beneath the surface lies the failure to hold local government elections and devolve power to elected representatives at the grass roots. This is as much the need of the hour in the cities as the countryside, but the mainstream political parties have eschewed such a move . The opposition parties in Sindh have taken a dim view of these latest developments, saying it was an attempt to divide Sindh into two administrative units — which is difficult to deny — and also questioned whether the chief minister had the authority to make the changes without supporting legislation. That the ‘new’ system is divisive is undeniable. A similar system introduced by the PPP in the past was a dismal failure, leading to its withdrawal. Ideally, a uniform local government system, manned by elected representatives, should apply to both rural and urban areas, but political jiggery-pokery will ensure the persistence of the divide-and-rule model.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2014.

__________________
"I am still learning."

A miserable record

That the number of polio cases in 2014 was going to exceed 200 had been obvious for several weeks. The explosion of cases is directly linked to the dispersal of internally displaced persons (IDP) as a result of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the high level of refusals for the oral vaccine, primarily among families that are ethnic Pashtuns. There are a number of other factors, such as the continued harassment of polio vaccinators and the failure of both the cold chain and the vaccine itself on occasion. Taken together, Pakistan now stands on the brink of international isolation externally, and internally, the spread of a disease that India managed to eradicate in 2011. Health officials on October 3 confirmed eight polio cases, taking the tally for the year to 202, exceeding by two the previous worst year of 2000. The majority of cases — six — were from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Fata, the other two from Karachi and Quetta, respectively. The case in Quetta is notable because the family did not refuse the vaccine and the child had had seven previous doses of it — which may point to cold-chain and quality control problems. To be fair to the civil administration in K-P and Fata, there has been little or no vaccination in parts of both because of the appalling security situation, and it would have been little short of a suicide mission were vaccinators sent in at any time since 2012. Thus, there is a pool of unvaccinated and highly mobile children living in conditions that are conducive to the spread of the virus. Although many thousands of children within the IDP population have been vaccinated, there is an almost equal number that have not, and they present a significant risk to the wider population. There have been calls at the federal level for the administration of Fata and the government of K-P to make their vaccination campaigns “as effective as possible”, which is a statement of the painfully obvious if nothing else. The buck really does stop at the provincial level, at least when it comes to K-P, and it is for the provincial administration now to concentrate its energies on polio eradication rather than refining the art of street-corner politics in Islamabad.

Getting it wrong — again

Given the frequency of catastrophic floods in Pakistan, it might reasonably be expected that there was a build-up of institutional memory and competencies when it came to dealing with them. It is blindingly obvious that this is not the case. Failure at just about every level appears to be the order of the day when it comes to the provision of flood relief. The latest to protest about the way they have been treated are villagers from Jhang and the surrounding areas, who complain bitterly that with Eid close at hand, the distribution of compensation cheques was either delayed or does not appear to be happening at all. The villagers gathered at the offices of the Jhang district coordinator to protest. It is reported that there are iniquities of distribution — the usual failure to coordinate being cited — and a failure to complete the list of beneficiaries in a timely manner. The flood victims protested for nearly 10 hours, but even if they got their cheques, their chances of cashing them before Eid would be slim indeed. Meanwhile and far removed from the squalor and deprivation and hunger that is the life of a flood victim, the government is rattling the begging bowl in the direction of international donors seeking support for the alleviation and/or mitigation of the effects of this year’s inundation. This is somewhat disingenuous to say the very least as it appears that the government is sitting on money that could be used for reconstruction and rehabilitation. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar made a presentation to the heads of international development agencies to the effect that the economic impact of the floods will be around Rs28.3 billion, a sum that could be covered within the existing resources at the government’s disposal. To be specific, the government has not yet touched the $1.5 billion (a substantial Rs157 billion) that was gifted to it by Saudi Arabia last year and is currently parked in the Pakistan Development Fund. The disjunction between those protesting in Jhang and the corridors of power could not be starker. How not to do flood relief, a tragedy in many acts.

Medical school quotas

The proposal by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to allot 50 per cent of medical school seats to male students is unfair. Admissions into medical schools need to be based solely on merit, rather than on gender or provincial affiliations. The medical discipline is one that requires utmost care in selection of candidates as they will eventually be responsible for human lives. Thankfully, the letter submitted by the PMDC to the Punjab health department in this regard was reviewed carefully and the proposal, for now, will not be implemented. However, it must be ensured that no such proposal, which attempts to allot gender-based quotas in medical schools, is entertained in the future either. The field of medicine requires meticulous and advanced skills in the areas of logic, analytics and problem-solving. Hence, a qualifying candidate, whether male or female, must be selected over someone who has less aptitude instead of merely filling a quota. The primary objective of medical school should be to graduate apt and skilled doctors to improve our national quality of health care. Merit-based selection will encourage those students, male and female, who want to seriously pursue the field and make a career out of it by strengthening their drive and motivation. There is already a paucity of female doctors in the field and the PMDC’s proposal would have only exacerbated this state of affairs. Admittedly, there is a problem of many females leaving the field once obtaining a medical degree without intending to ever practice and thus, this has resulted in fewer female doctors — and fewer physicians overall. What is needed, therefore, is the incentivisation of medical jobs so as to attract not only females with high aptitude, but also male students. The solution being proposed by the PMDC to address the shortage of qualified doctors through the setting of a gender quota at medical institutions will not do anything to improve the situation. This will only result in automatic induction of academically substandard students.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2014.

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"I am still learning."

No room for war

The low-intensity conflict between India and Pakistan has for decades drained the physical and human resources of both countries, taken a steadya toll on military and civilian lives on both sides, and apart from ensuring that military budgets remain cripplingly high, little or nothing has been gained. India is not about to invade Pakistan and Pakistan is not about to overwhelm the Indian armed forces. The war on the Siachen glacier has seen more deaths and disabled as a result of avalanches and extreme conditions than by actual war-fighting and the conflict in the snows is more about ego, ‘face’ and symbolism than strategic advantage. India has spent fortunes illuminating the Line of Control (LoC), enabling it to be seen from space at night and the pot of bile is stirred by politicians and the media on both sides at various times, but with differing degrees of intensity. The PML-N government has adopted a primarily dovish posture towards India since coming to power, but seems to have been thwarted in its quest for peace with the eastern neighbour due to several factors. As is currently the case, India has been involved in unprovoked firing across the LoC and the working boundary. Over the last seven days, the Indian security forces have been firing into Pakistan, claiming several civilian lives. Protests to the United Nations Military Observer Group seem to have had little effect and the Adviser to the PM on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, has called on the Indian government to cease firing immediately in the hope of restoring ‘tranquillity’. He also reiterated his government’s position in terms of extending the hand of friendship and cited the recent sudden cancellation of foreign secretary level talks as being a very unhelpful move by India.

The conflict between our two countries is as old as Pakistan itself. It has resisted resolution for as long as Pakistan has existed as an independent state and there is no sign of its resolution in the foreseeable future. Outright full-scale warfare involving large numbers of troops and air and naval assets is not an option, and both sides at least seem to be able to keep the conflict from escalating to the next level, at the same time as not taking the clear and unequivocal steps that would lead to its resolution. Powerful lobbies clearly have their own motives for ensuring that the LoC blows hot and cold. It must be remembered that artillerymen do not spontaneously fire their guns; an order has to come down the chain of command for that to happen. That chain of command goes up into the highest echelons of governance. It is true that sector commanders have delegated responsibility for the ordering of live fire, but they derive that authority from the government of the day — though perhaps more so in India than in Pakistan where civilian control of military matters is gossamer-light. This conflict is going to be an impediment to development at every level. Pakistan and India should be active trading partners, they should be working together to mitigate the worst effects of climate change on their respective peoples and after 67 years, ought to have acquired maturity sufficient to allow the wisdom of a harmonious relationship to be of mutual benefit. Neither side seems to be willing to allow that to happen, with this pernicious impasse being laced with the vitriol of incidents such as those of recent days. This need not be, should not be. Thus far, the Pakistan side has rightly shown military restraint and we would urge it to continue to do so, no matter the provocation. Diplomatic channels remain open and they must be used to their fullest extent to dial back on this pointless and costly conflict before somebody, somewhere, fires a shell too many or too far.

Delayed payments

There is a national flaw when it comes to the timely or complete payment for anything, be it goods and services or as most recently, the centre to one of the provinces — in this case, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The federal government has been both laggardly and niggardly in the release of funds that are owed to the K-P government for reasons that are not difficult to discern. The K-P government is now facing a Rs14 billion deficit as a result of the delay in transferring the whole amount of taxes and surcharges that have been set aside for the province in the annual federal budget. There are now complaints that the delay is beginning to affect development projects in the province. Considering that K-P is carrying some mighty burdens courtesy the federal government, it makes little sense to throw rocks on the road. There are more than a million displaced people scattered across K-P, but with concentrations near Bannu and Peshawar; there is a full-scale war being fought in Fata that borders K-P and the province is still reeling from the effects of the latest round of floods to hit it. The province needs every rupee it can lay its hands on if it is to keep assorted wolves from the door, and although the shortfall is not huge in proportional terms, it is of sufficient size to interrupt cash flows and supply chains — and salaries — province-wide. The money is already in the federal coffers and it seems that it is only small-minded meanness that keeps it sitting there — along with the strong possibility that somebody, somewhere will be quietly pocketing the interest it generates with no intention of passing this largesse to the people of K-P. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the centre is making life difficult for K-P because K-P in the form of its ruling party and its leader, who is currently containerised in Islamabad, is making life difficult for the centre. It is perhaps, too much to hope that Pakistan has moved beyond the infantile politics of the playpen, a reality that leaves us a Peter Pan state, never growing up.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2014.

__________________
"I am still learning."

Death by drinking

It is relatively common for people to die from the consumption of toxic alcohol right across the country, and there is no province exempted. Eid holidays tend to be the time when deaths due to the consumption of toxic liquor spike and this Eid was no exception, with a heavy toll in Karachi, where 23 people have reportedly died. It is likely that the number will rise as there are another 16 people still in hospital and seriously ill. Almost without exception, the deaths occur in very poor communities, and when a death occurs, families are often unwilling to cooperate with either the police or the medical services, frequently denying that their relative died from drinking poisonous alcohol. The matter is in sharp focus this year because of the profligate issuing of licences to liquor stores in Hyderabad by Mukesh Chawla, who was stripped of his portfolio of Excise and Taxation by the Sindh government on October 5. Mr Chawla was deemed “negligent” as he had issued licences, probably with a ‘commission’ attached to the issuance, to sub-standard ‘wine shops’ in Hyderabad, where another 20 people have died in the last week. A complex set of issues surround these deaths. If the toxic liquor was bought from a licensed shop, then both the manufacturer and the vendor are culpable. If the liquor was illegally made and sold, then again a serious criminal offence has been committed. The government does license the sale of liquor to shops which sell alcohol to non-Muslims and have the necessary permits to do so, but the system is widely abused, and the manufacture and sale of illegal liquor, often with the connivance of the law-enforcing agencies, makes a mockery of the law. It seems unlikely that the manufacture of illegal and often toxic alcohol is ever going to be completely eradicated. However, it is imperative that serious attempts are made by the police in this regard and those engaged in the deadly business are arrested. As for sub-standard liquor sold from licensed shops, it is for the relevant government agencies/departments to ensure that liquor legally bought is at least fit for consumption — because failing in that duty may make them party to an unlawful killing.

Railways’ encroachment

The Pakistan Railways, like all the other state entities including the Pakistan Steel Mills and PIA, has been on a life-support machine for many years. It is massively underfunded and overstaffed for the number of trains it runs, and the freight service is all but dead. Thus, it needs every rupee of revenue it can lay hand on, and the monetisation of the chronic problem of encroachments may be a way of generating an income stream. The railways is a large landowner with 167,690 acres across the country, 2,612 acres of which are illegally encroached by ‘influentials’ and assorted government departments. There have been some titanic legal battles as the railways tries to get its land back, sometimes achieving success: it got back 3,000 acres in two phases since the Supreme Court took suo-motu notice in 2011. Encroachment — the illegal occupation of land not owned by the encroacher — is a national curse. It is an insidious form of theft and often committed by parties that are themselves part of government and ‘big business’. With possession often transpiring to be nine points of the law, it is frequently difficult to dislodge encroachers, who will dodge and weave through the legal system to hold on to their illegal gains. Inadequate policing and a lack of cooperation by district administrations — which are in thrall to ‘influentials’ anyway — compounds the problem. The railways faces further difficulty as there is sometimes no resolution of its title to the land, which it claim to be its own, and various stay orders issued by the courts play into the hands of the encroachers as they halt the anti-encroachment drives that are periodically mounted. A report is to be submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly, which will argue that the railways deserves “a reasonable income” from its encroached lands. Whilst this is not an ideal solution as it leaves the land in the hands of the encroachers, it may provide — if enforceable — an income for the cash-strapped railways. Weak legislation and corrupt administrations underpin the culture of encroachment; neither is likely to improve in the foreseeable future.

Plight of jail inmates

The recent suicide of a teenager in Attock Jail allegedly owing to mental stress, gives yet another clear signal for an immediate overhaul of the system of corrections. The welfare of those in jails is often the last thing on minds of those in authority and the general public, as criminals are on the wrong side of our moral consciousness. Indeed, punishing convicts serves an important social purpose as it helps the erring individual to reform and protects society from crime. But how much and what kind of punishment is needed? Jail inmates have known to become punching bags in the hands of jailers, mistreated on the slightest of pretexts and humiliated for making requests. Despite the legal provision of regular medical check-ups and a balanced diet, jail authorities are often negligent about inmates’ health. In a society where mental disorders are still not acknowledged as problems deserving serious medical attention, soliciting psychologists and psychiatrists for criminals and convicts is a far cry. Maximum limits of punishment are often crossed, with many inmates suffering in the form of psychological disorders, disease and a lost sense of self-respect. Overcrowded jails, lack of sanitation facilities, long hours of loneliness in poorly ventilated cells and poor treatment are enough to drive a grown man to madness, let alone a teenager. Add to this, a justice machinery that is creaking under the weight of unattended case files. With a legal system ridden by delays and corruption, it often takes many years for punishments to be decided. Even under-trial prisoners end up spending long periods just waiting for their trials to complete and in some cases have spent more time in jail then their maximum prison sentence if they had been convicted. The easiest solution to these miseries is but one: the law ministry, in collaboration with some departments of the interior ministry, should assign some staff for regular scrutiny of jails, which holds station and jail personnel responsible for any human rights abuses that take place.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2014.

__________________
"I am still learning."

Malala makes Pakistan proud

The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 has been jointly awarded to Kailash Satyarthi of India and Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan and this has brought immense pride and happiness to us in Pakistan. One is a global household name, the other far less well-known internationally hitherto, but no less important. Malala Yousufzai, at 17, becomes the youngest-ever winner. The award is threaded through with symbolism, being made to an Indian and a Pakistani, a Hindu and a Muslim, and made at a time when tensions between the two countries are at a peak, with daily firing across the Line of Control. It sends the strongest possible message at the time of greatest difficulty and tension to those who determine the levels of cross-border violence on both sides. The joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize come from humble origins and both will have in all likelihood worked in ignorance of one another until today, yet both had a common agenda. They have fought against the suppression of the voices of young people, girls in particular, and struggled to promote education for all, no matter what their status, ethnic origins or faith. Rich and poor alike, all have a right to open the door to a world of knowledge and understanding.

The text of the statement made by the Nobel Prize Committee makes reference to one of the greatest of peacemakers, Mahatma Gandhi — who never won a Peace Prize despite his impeccable credentials — and speaks of the efforts of both the winners. It also points to the very different ways in which the two go about achieving their goals, with Kailash Satyarthi being very much a grassroots activist. He has led a succession of protests and demonstrations over many years, as well as contributing to the development of international conventions on children’s rights. For Malala Yousufzai, her life and its goals are still a work-in-progress, and she has much to achieve in the future — not least the completion of her own education, which is hardly likely to be helped by winning a prize as prestigious as this and the burdens that go with it. Congratulations, Malala Yousufzai, a worthy winner and a Pakistani to be proud of.

A timely visit

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made a welcome — and doubtless carefully calculated — visit to the troops on the frontline in North Waziristan, where they are engaged in Operation Zarb-e-Azb. He was accompanied by assorted government dignitaries and was hosted by the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif. The visit was important as it was the first time a prime minister had visited North Waziristan. But apart from that, the visit held significance quite apart from its contrived symbolism. It would be fair to say that the federal government has had its eye off the ball politically and in terms of servicing the needs of the nation, since mid-August when the dual protests clamped themselves to the national arteries in Islamabad. The visit to North Waziristan may be taken as an indicator that the government not only feels secure — for the time being — but is also moving on from the paralysis of the summer, the protest movement duly noted perhaps, but no longer being considered a significant impediment, even if that assessment proves to be incorrect in the future.

A message was delivered to the military as well, along with a healthy portion of deserved fulsome praise at its sterling efforts to rid North Waziristan of extremists. It has been a hard fight. Those the army is fighting against are not rank amateurs, but hardened veterans in many cases, who are well armed and trained. If the blood-and-guts war is won in North Waziristan, it has to be followed by a win in the hearts-and-minds war that goes with building the post-war peace. To pave way for that, the prime minister also visited internally displaced persons in Bakkakhel, who received the usual promises to rebuild and restore their lives to something better than what they had before. Having had their lives comprehensively blighted by the government of the man talking to them, it is small wonder that there was scepticism on the faces of many — but all in all, Mr Prime Minister, a step in the right direction.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2014.

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"I am still learning."

To what end?

The continued escalation of hostilities along the Line of Control has now been described by the DG Rangers on October 10 as “… a small-scale war”. Small-scale wars have a disturbing tendency to outgrow themselves and become far larger than their architects ever intended. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, also speaking on October 10, said that war with India is not an option but that Pakistan would respond with “full force” at any attempt to challenge our sovereignty. At the moment, the challenge to our sovereignty is limited to the cross-border discharge of munitions in very considerable quantities and the challenge that the prime minister was probably referring to is that of Indian ground troops and armour crossing the Line of Control (LoC) or the working boundary. There have been no reports, thankfully, that this is either imminent or planned by the Indian side, but if it were, then a small war that is highly localised but intense, could quickly mushroom. There have been casualties on both sides, principally civilian, but as most civilians in the area have fled the fighting anyway, the likelihood of further casualties in large numbers among civilians is low. Pakistan has anyway said that it is not targeting civilian areas in India. There have been no independently verified reports of military casualties or losses of equipment and materiel on either side, and with invasion not an option and military gains extremely limited, the point of the exercise must be understood in political terms. This was in part confirmed by the DG Rangers, who said at a briefing that although the objective appears to be military, there could be a political agenda behind the border clashes. Attempting to divine what that might be in the opaque ganglia of Indo-Pakistan relations — with neither side ever fully revealing their hands and mistrust going deep — can be difficult, but it is probably safe to say that neither side wants allout war.

However, the establishments and hawks in both countries have a considerable investment in keeping the pot at simmer rather than boil, and definitely not to allow it to get to the point of boiling over. For the Pakistan Army, the conflict with India has long been considered its raison d’etre, but the geopolitical environment is shifting, and at a speed slightly faster than its usual glacial movement. The recent transition of power in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of foreign troops from that country, coupled with our own fight against extremists in North Waziristan, are producing tectonic ripples. The US is shifting its focus as well, pivoting towards the Pacific for the coming decades and is also doing some fence-mending with India. There is a possibility of Pakistan becoming increasingly marginalised in the middle of this churn. We have few friends and little to offer, which tends to feed the world’s distrust of us. Into the pot in the last 24 hours or so has come the unexpected — but welcome — ingredient of a shared Nobel Peace Prize with India. It may be that the Nobel Prize committee saw a window of opportunity to make what amounts to a political intervention in the affairs of both nations and split the prize between an Indian and a Pakistani. If true, this is quite timely. Malala Yousufzai, in a speech acknowledging the award on October 10, said that the prime ministers of both countries should come to the award ceremony in Stockholm. If this happens, the unlikeliest of brokerages may see a seed sown. Neither India nor Pakistan is going to benefit from a war; both can only lose ultimately. Both have much to gain economically from trade, cultural exchanges and diverting expenditure into development rather than ruinously expensive military adventures. In short, it is time for both countries to move on and allow the politics of peace a place in the limelight.

Tragedy in Multan

With at least seven dead and 100 injured, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rally in Multan on October 10 had an outcome other than that which the organisers would have hoped for — though it may not have been entirely unanticipated. The dead were mostly young, aged between 16 and 28 years, reflecting the age demographic of the majority in attendance. Deaths at mass events such as this which are emotionally charged are not uncommon in the subcontinent though relatively rare in Pakistan. The factors giving rise to tragedies such as this have many similarities wherever they happen — poor organisation, the venue being unsuitable for the numbers involved, poor or absent safety equipment and procedures, and poor coordination between the organising body and local authorities and entities such as fire and rescue services. All were present to a greater or lesser extent when the Multan incident occurred. Additionally, there was another aggravating factor in that the electricity supply to the Ibn Qasim Bagh stadium had been disconnected before the rally started, necessitating the organisers to obtain generators at very short notice. The levels of lighting may not have been optimal when the incident occurred. It would have been virtually impossible for the PTI (or any other party or agency) to predict how many people were going to attend the rally. That the numbers in attendance vastly exceeded the resources of the organisers to cater for them cannot be blamed on the PTI, but it does put down a marker yet again for regulating authorities which license public events, both large and small. The control of entrances and exits is of crucial importance if ‘crushes’ are to be avoided and there appears to be poor coordination and control of entry and exit points in this instance. Several of the exit gates to the stadium were reportedly closed for ‘security reasons’ — and there might have been a different outcome had they been opened. It is unlikely that lessons will have been learned, but it is to be hoped that all concerned take note — even if they then choose not to heed the warnings.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2014.

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"I am still learning."

They lose their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers in acts of terrorism and violence. They themselves are injured and killed. Yet, the women of Pakistan do not have a voice in the peace processes in the country. They are stakeholders and direct effectees of terrorism but have no say in how it should be handled. If there is one thing that glared out at the (in)famous All-Parties Conference (APC) post the Army Public School attack, it was this: there were no women present. With the exception of perhaps, Sherry Rehman, women have hardly ever been included in the most important discussions in the country. As we gear to celebrate the International Women’s Day tomorrow, it remains a bitter truth that Pakistan’s women are considered good enough for things that we call ‘fluff’. They have a voice in health, education and other developmental issues. But there is a deafening and forced silence when it comes to their perspective on peace-building and conflict resolution strategies at all tiers, whether it is the aman jirgas or the National Action Plan (NAP).
In the year 2000, the UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security was adopted. This resolution recognises the need to increase women’s role in peace-building in conflict-ridden countries. However, the scope of 1325 is much wider. It not only calls for women to be included in peace talks, it also presses for a more gender-sensitive perspective to consider the special needs of women and girls during conflict, repatriation, rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction. The UNSCR 1325 focuses on issues of gender-based violence and refugee camps covered in Articles 10 and 12. Thus, the impact gets wider. Post the October 2005 earthquake and the 2010 floods, to name two natural disasters in Pakistan that caused massive damage and human displacement, women trafficking increased.
Since 2000, 48 countries have adopted NAPs on Resolution 1325 to make policies to fulfill the resolution’s objectives. Developing and conflict-affected countries use NAPs to support women’s participation in politics and peace processes, as well as commitments on protection from sexual and gender-based violence. Yet a less than one-fourth of UN member states have implemented these NAPs.
Pakistan has not implemented 1325. Neither has India. It is rather curious that a resolution is unanimously hailed as a step in the right direction, yet is not implemented by the government. While many activists and proponents of women’s rights in Pakistan agree in spirit with 1325, it is not without reservations. The human rights’ camp remains discretely divided over the issue. And the reason is simple. Accepting a UN Security Council resolution comes with its share of possible consequences — consequences in the form of the proverbial ‘boots’ and sanctions. Many feel that such resolutions have other ‘agenda’, which is why Pakistan, among many other countries, remains sceptical of it. Other peace and gender activists strongly assert that Pakistan has no national action plan on 1325 not just because it is afraid of sanctions but because the much-needed political will is missing. These activists regularly urge the government to implement 1325.
The reasons can be debated. But the fact remains that across the globe, from 1992 to 2011, only four per cent of signatories to peace agreements and nine per cent of negotiators at peace tables were women. In Pakistan, the numbers would be even lower. The pandemic of violence against women and girls affects one in three women worldwide, and conflict zones are the worst hit. This correlation is often missed out.
Perhaps, a less controversial and more effective way would be to go via the CEDAW Committee’s landmark General Recommendation (GR 30) on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations. This was adopted on October 18, 2013. Pacifist and more realistic voices from the civil society feel that implementing GR 30 could also have the desired results. But even if these resolutions and recommendations are implemented, will the Pakistani woman at the grassroots level have a say,
alongside the men, regarding how peace should be achieved? It is time this conversation starts, and a narrative around this is built.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2015.

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"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!

With less than two years left in the office of his second tenure, US President Barack Obama is about to call major shots on the Middle Eastern front that will have a monumental impact on the region. In his 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama made clear his position on Iran: of peace through dialogue, a shift away from former US president George W Bush’s policy of isolating Iran till it gives up its nuclear programme. While throughout President Obama’s first term there wasn’t much success on the Iran front, the backchannel between the US and Iran became strong, amidst opposition from Arab and Israeli quarters in Washington.
Enter the last two years of President Obama’s tenure and Iran is back on the front pages. The nuclear deal with Iran has triggered the diplomatic community in Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, and surprisingly in Islamabad — an unlikely place for most observers who are involved in the politics of the Middle East.
Contrary to the common perception in the Muslim world, Israel is not the only country that is uneasy by the US actions of cosying up to Iran. Also, Israel is not the only country in the region that has directly been the beneficiary of the American war in Iraq. Saudi Arabia has equally, if not more, played an active part in toppling Saddam Hussain’s regime and ensuring America’s tough stance against Iran. Saudi Arabia, though diplomatically silent, has been an active player in the Washington power circles. It has, together with Israel, lobbied extensively to ensure that American foreign policy doesn’t tilt towards Iran. But it appears that what is meant to happen, will happen, by all means: the US and Iran are natural allies and rapprochement between the two is inevitable.
There are two reasons driving President Obama’s shift towards Iran. First, the advisers close to the White House and the Obama Administration include Americans of Iranian descent who have, since 2008 and earlier, clamoured that the Middle East needs a new strategy of peace; one through Iran. The failure against militancy in the region, through Arab allies, allowed this group to be taken more seriously within the Obama Administration.
Second, the US has been struggling against the rise of militant groups in the region, a case in point being the Islamic State (IS). That’s one enemy that is common between Iran and the US. The recent Iranian push back against the IS has been a clear indication to the White House that perhaps, engaging Iran may not be such a bad idea to win the war against militants. It seems that the US administration is beginning to recognise militancy in the Sunni-Shia context, which is a well-needed realisation.
Iran has somewhat become a last resort for peace against militancy in the Middle East. On the flipside, however, any deal with Iran will upset the Middle East power dynamics leading to state-level clashes between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and perhaps, Pakistan. Pakistan, a land of proxy wars between the Soviets and Americans, the Saudis and the Iranians, currently has a pro-Saudi government that wants to amend the crisis situation in the Middle East for its own domestic political interest. How far Pakistan goes in its service to Saudi Arabia is yet to be explored, but the talk is that promises of nuclear protection have been given to the Saudi king in the wake of any attack from Iran.
It’s hard to predict what the eventual outcome of the re-alignment of US policy in the Middle East will be, but what can be seen is the end of the status quo in the region. Saudi Arabia and Israel will naturally react, while Iran may start playing a greater role in the region. As for Pakistan, it is likely going to side with the Arab and Israeli bloc on the surface, while at the same time maintain under-the-table ties with Iran pushed by the US. More importantly, at the moment, any change in the Middle East will be a good change, especially if it involves the end of the status quo.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2015

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"Allah is sufficient for us;an excellent guardian is He!