Friday, January 03, 2014

A culture of impunity

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and its chairman Tariq Bajwa are trying to attempt the impossible: convince the public that all parliamentarians pay their fair share of taxes. The politicians have an obvious advantage here since tax information is rightfully private and cannot be disclosed to anyone. These privacy laws, however, allow parliamentarians to cynically lie about their tax returns to their hearts’ content, safe in the knowledge that their information will never be released. For them to say that they pay income tax is disingenuous; after all the salaries they receive as members of parliament have taxes deducted at source. But few, if any, members of parliament rely solely on this income. They usually have business interests, property and agricultural concerns on which they either pay no tax or severely underreport their income. We expect our politicians to lie to us, be it about taxation or any other matter, but the FBR should not be part of the cover-up. If they cannot disclose the tax details of those who are not paying their fair share then they certainly should not be allowed to defend the politicians either. Right now we have nothing but Bajwa’s word to ease our concerns – and the word of a political appointee is simply not sufficient.

There are two reasons why the tax returns of our elected representatives should be of such concern. First, we want those we vote into power to be honest, productive members of society who do not play by a different set of rules to the rest of us. Then, tax collection in this country is such a problem that few outside the salaried class pay what they owe. The problem lies in the culture of impunity that exists in the country, where the more you have the less responsibility you feel to do your bit for society. Tax dodgers are aided in their lawlessness by the FBR, where corruption reigns from the very top to the bottom. The higher-ups have political connections that lead them to turn a blind eye to tax evasion by the wealthy while the tax collectors at the bottom are happy to accept a personal bribe in lieu of paying taxes. To try and change this rotten culture is why we put pressure on parliamentarians to make public their tax returns. We have been misled too often to take them and their cronies at their word when they deny cheating the nation.

Bloody beginnings

The pilgrimage they had just completed did not bring good fortune for the 35 or so bus passengers travelling towards Quetta from Taftan on the Pak-Iran border. A suicide bomber driving a car laden with explosives slammed his vehicle into theirs in the Akhtarabad area on the outskirts of the Balochistan capital. The locality is a predominantly Hazara one. The three persons killed aboard the bus were Shia; so were most of the 30 others who were injured. The sense of fear was driven home by reports of security concerns regarding another attack, and consequent shifting of the injured to ‘safer’ hospitals, away from what police described as the most vulnerable areas. There are really few words left to describe the horror of what has been happening. Our familiarity with such horror is great. We have no doubts regarding which extremist groups carry out these attacks – whether or not they make a public claim of responsibility.

As more graves are dug, the question we need to ask is why we have been unable to stop the violence that has occurred again and again, with 2014 beginning with the ugly splash of red we see in Quetta. It seems we are to see the same pattern of death that occurred much too often through the previous year. This must end. For that to happen, we need better intelligence, with the ability to infiltrate the groups responsible for the spread of sectarian hatred and the suicide bombings or other acts of violence motivated by it. Our failure in this respect is discouraging. We also need security personnel better trained to deal with the terrorists so that they can be tracked down and their training camps disbanded. Perhaps most of all we need to persuade people everywhere in our country that difference in belief or opinion cannot be a reason to harm other citizens. The onslaught of hatred has washed over logic and humanity and what is left needs to be rescued from beneath the tide. We must have some hope of an end to the killings and the peace that so many had hoped for as they wrote out their new year’s messages or expressed sentiments wishing for a better future for the country.

Out in the cold

Babli was a victim of human neglect and indifference. The young female chimpanzee died apparently as a result of pneumonia and exposure to cold after suffering sickness at Safari Park, Karachi. Such deaths are indeed not uncommon at our zoos and safari parks. While these institutions should be places where people can be educated about animals, breeding programmes run for endangered species and the animals we share our planet with protected, they are instead run as virtual slaughter houses.

Babli, whose death needs to be investigated, was not the first to die. The death of a male chimpanzee had been recently reported at the Karachi zoo. A few years ago the female elephant Saheli, not yet a teenager in elephant years, died under mysterious circumstances at Islamabad’s zoo. A number of tigers at both the zoo and the safari park in Lahore have also died due to sickness. The conditions of ‘wildlife parks’ in various parts of the country remains deplorable: animal thefts, poaching and deaths have all been reported, while the unfortunate inhabitants of these centres are often penned up in tiny cages. All this needs to change. We need to create awareness about animals and their rights. In keeping with international law we also need to ascertain how Babli and her mate, a pair of endangered West African chimpanzees landed up at the Karachi Safari Park. The problem of smuggling, neglect and the poor maintenance of zoos and parks need to be tackled. We have had too many animals die unnecessary deaths and suffer pain they could easily have been spared had we shown a little more humanity in handling them.

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Justice and generals

The irony of Pervez Musharraf now being the one to cut a deal to avoid jail time would be delicious were it not so tragic. There will invariably be many who draw comparisons between Musharraf’s current situation and that of Nawaz Sharif, who came to an agreement with Musharraf to be exiled in Saudi Arabia. But there is one crucial difference which should never be forgotten. Nawaz was a democratically-elected leader who had to face the ‘justice’ of a dictator; Musharraf is now in the dock for legitimate reasons. Make no mistake about it: Musharraf seems likely to evade justice. From his conveniently timed heart issues to his admission in a military hospital and the opportune timing of a visit by the Saudi foreign minister, all the pieces are in place for Musharraf to get off scot-free. Expect his lawyer to show up in court on Monday waving a medical report advising that he be sent abroad for treatment. And then expect him to never return to the country again. It seems as if Musharraf was at least partly right when he said he had the entire army behind him. The events of the last few days have the fingerprints of the military all over them. The ISPR could have rubbished Musharraf’s comments but it chose to remain conspicuously silent and it is noteworthy that Musharraf fled immediately to a military hospital. It was always said that the military would never let ‘one of their own’ face civilian justice. The conventional wisdom appears to have been correct.

The last hope for those who want Musharraf to face the consequences of his ruinous dictatorial rule is that the Islamabad High Court judge will refuse to take Musharraf off the Exit Control List and that the interior ministry will not defy the court’s orders. It is an increasingly forlorn hope. No military dictator has ever faced accountability for his blatant violation of the constitution and now Musharraf probably will not be the first. It says much about the power of the military that a man who has no friends in government or the judiciary and is so obviously guilty of the treason case instituted against him can still evade justice. The one scant consolation we can take is that at least Musharraf returned to the country and got to experience first-hand just how irrelevant and unpopular he had become. For a man of his considerable ego that had to be at least a little chastening. Now we as a nation will have to move past Musharraf and hope that even if prison isn’t in his future at least he won’t darken our doors again.

Altaf’s demand

The tone of MQM chief Altaf Hussain has become bitter and harder over the last few months as he and his party leaders face Scotland Yard investigations of possible money laundering in London. With signs of some desperation creeping in, Altaf Hussain has been talking of the post-Altaf scenario. On Friday he seemed to have lost all patience and restraint and spoke on issues for which his party has been severely criticised in the past – the division of Sindh on ethnic lines. Speaking to his supporters via telephone in Hyderabad, the MQM chief raised the spectre of a new province in Sindh, a Mohajir province, without mincing any words. He even warned that if his demands were not met the matter could go even further – to a break up of Pakistan and an independent Mohajir state. Altaf’s tone was threatening and he talked of the ultimate Mohajir card that MQM can use if its demands were not met. He talked of a 50-50 share in Sindh, a demand that has been raised for the first time as Altaf Hussain now claims that Urdu-speaking people are almost equal in numbers or even more than Sindhis and have been denied their rights. He also took up the Musharraf case forcefully and strongly defended the former military dictator, saying that Musharraf was being targeted because he was an Urdu-speaking person. These issues are critical indeed, but coming from the leader of a political party which has been in power in the centre and in Sindh under almost every government – civilian or military – raises some key questions about the motives behind Altaf’s talk of dividing the province, and possibly the country, at this particular juncture.

It is true that the government in Sindh has denied the MQM its right to run local governments by not holding the local bodies polls for many years. Yet, the MQM remained a coalition partner of the PPP all that while and only separated a few months ago. LB polls have not been held in other provinces as well and the matter is a hot political potato, which is being handled by provincial governments in manners that suit their political and vested interests. In Sindh the price is being paid by the MQM to some extent, but that does not mean the MQM should become so desperate that it starts talking of dividing a province and the country. Altaf Hussain should realise that by doing so he will only lend credence to the fears and allegations of all those who have been accusing the MQM of dreaming of separating Karachi from the province and even the country. In a democratic setup, which has now been in place since 2008 elections, going this far and in such a manner is not good politics. The immediate reaction from Sindh and other political forces has been one of shock and condemnation. The MQM should show some restraint and like others try to work within the system so that the entire political applecart is not overturned. Altaf Hussain has already said he will not return, but his supporters may be the biggest losers, besides Pakistan.

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Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Manmohan and peace

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has always been, in speech if not practice, a proponent of peace with Pakistan and his latest public statements were no different. After a period of months in which ties between the two countries have taken a nosedive thanks to competing allegations of incursions across the LoC, Singh expressed a desire to visit Pakistan before he leaves office next year. After Singh and Nawaz Sharif met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York there has been a marginal improvement in relations and a renewed rhetorical commitment to peace and understanding. For his part, Nawaz, since his ascension to power, has been a vocal supporter of better relations with India and so, in that spirit, he should extend Singh an invitation to make an official trip to Pakistan. Doing so may not lead to any immediate breakthroughs since Singh is now a lame-duck leader and will not want to risk any initiatives that could be used against him as a cudgel by the hard-line BJP. It may, however, create an environment conducive to progress on economic issues.
Ultimately, of course, the rate of improvement will depend on the result of the Indian elections. The BJP, under the notorious Narendra Modi, is in no mood to engage with Pakistan and should it defeat Congress under Rahul Gandhi any prospects of peace could be stalled and breakthroughs reversed. Lasting peace, though, is as distant as ever since outstanding issues between the two countries, such as Kashmir, have no end in sight. For now it would be wiser to seek progress in other areas – by relaxing the visa regime and facilitating greater person-to-person contact – before tackling more thorny issues. Rebuilding trust after the 2008 Mumbai attacks took years and similar effort will have to be extended to get back to the status quo that existed before the LoC fracas. There is no space for dramatic breakthroughs right now but that doesn’t mean either country should give up on slow, steady progress.

India’s rape crisis

Hard though it may be to declare with any certainty if there has been an actual increase in incidences of rape in India or if there are just more cases being reported to the police now, no one can deny that the country has a serious problem that it seems reluctant to tackle. Even with all the media attention given to horrifying rape cases ever since the gang rape of a student on a bus in Delhi last year led to widespread protests, the death of a young girl in Kolkata who was raped twice and then set on fire should shock the conscience of the world. Eight men have been arrested in the case but the negligence of the police should not go unpunished. After being raped the first time, she went to the police to report the assault and was then raped again after leaving the police station. Two months went by without significant action being taken and then she was set on fire. The police, once again preferring not to confront the problem, made it out it to be a suicide attempt and it was only after she told her parents on her deathbed that she had been attacked that the police were forced to register a murder case. Meanwhile, demonstrating a truly twisted sense of priorities, the West Bengal government has chosen to focus its ire on the province of Bihar because the chief minister gave the girl’s family compensation of INR 1.5 lakhs.
Rape cases are often not investigated because the victim belongs to a lower caste while the perpetrators are richer and more influential. There is also a tendency to blame the victim, a she-was-asking-for-it phenomena that needs to be thoroughly debunked as the anti-women bias it truly is. A majority of cases involve someone that the rape victim knows and so, as often happens in South Asia, the police prefer to let it be dealt with within families, which always means that the rape victim or survivor is denied justice. At a national level India has strengthened its anti-rape laws recently and in urban areas there have been protests against the state’s indifference to rape as a crime, but until that attitude seeps through the entire justice system, from the police to the courts, India will continue to be a country where women will live in fear of reporting and pursuing rape cases. Laws on their own, while needed, will have scant effect when the disease is so widespread throughout society.

New man in DC

Pakistan’s ambassadors to the US have tended to be colourful, controversial figures who have quickly made their mark on the diplomatic circuit in Washington DC. People like Sherry Rehman and Husain Haqqani were never the types to go about their jobs quietly, without drawing attention. Our new man in DC, Syed Jalil Abbas Jilani, may turn out to be of a different breed. Unlike his predecessors, Jilani is a lifelong diplomat who previously served as ambassador to the EU and Belgium and so will be less politically contentious a figure. With the Memogate fiasco sure to be fresh in his mind, Jilani will be well aware of the many possible pitfalls he faces. The first thing he has to establish immediately is that he represents the state of Pakistan and is not there to present the American view to Pakistani officials backs home. When ambassadors ‘go native’, their usefulness is diminished since they cannot be relied upon to best represent our interests.

Jilani will have a difficult time in Washington and he will have to get the ball rolling immediately. There is, as always, the question of making sure that the aid spigot isn’t turned off. Jilani will also have to navigate the choppy waters of Afghanistan, as the US begins to withdraw. Jilani’s unenviable task is to convince the Americans that Pakistan is not going to interfere in Afghanistan on behalf of the Taliban and that we can be seen as a reliable ally in the war against militancy. While the new ambassador should present himself as a friend and a partner, that does not mean he should paper over genuine differences. On drones, for one, the public justifiably believes that the government is not as vociferous in expressing disapproval to the US as it should be. Jilani should try and change that, particularly after a year in which the tide of international opinion appeared to decisively turn against the use of armed unmanned drones. Pakistan’s relationship with the US has suffered many blows, from the Raymond Davis saga to the Salala attacks to the US Navy SEALS attack in Abbottabad. Jilani may have the toughest job on the diplomatic circuit but it is a crucial one that he must succeed in.

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If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.(Che Guevara)

Monday, January 06, 2014

Missions abroad

Penny-pinching at home is leading to a diminution of our influence abroad as the government goes ahead with plans to shut down Pakistani missions in Ireland and Chile, as well as commercial wings of consulates in eight other countries. Plans are also afoot to reduce the number of personnel in Pakistani missions, with all this cost-cutting leading to savings of Rs2 billion. That the government is looking to save money wherever it can is a good thing. Our budget deficit is unsustainable and we need to find whatever savings we can. This should not mean, however, that we simply start shutting down missions anywhere we can. These missions serve a very important purpose of aiding Pakistani citizens abroad, as well as facilitating the visits of foreigners to our country. Wherever they are shut down, Pakistanis in those countries will find their lives a little more difficult. There are, for example, nearly 6,000 people of Pakistani origin in Ireland who will now have to make an extra effort to maintain their ties to the mother country. Shutting down commercial wings also does not appear to make much sense at first blush since the purpose of such wings is to generate revenue by creating economic opportunities for the country and pushing trade and investment. If they have failed in that task, they should be reformed rather than done away with altogether.

Some of the other reforms, like requiring most staffers at missions abroad to know the local language, make a lot more sense. Of course, this can only be put into practice if the Foreign Service actually ensures that it provides instruction in all languages, something which seems impractical now since there will be very few trained instructors for most languages and will surely end up costing a lot of money to be effectively implemented in the future. Removing Nadra officials and employees from other non-Foreign Service offices so that there is uniformity in all our missions is another idea that has merit and should lead to a reduction in political appointees who are given cushy jobs abroad that require very little work but end up paying quite handsomely. Before we go too far in cutting jobs, though, we should remember that everyone, from a press officer to a community outreach officer, has a vital job and that all of them cumulatively are responsible for burnishing the image of the country. These people are needed and should not be discarded so readily.

Cruelty in Lyari

The Slaughter House area in Lyari lived up to its name. The images of brutality that the word ‘slaughter’ implies have been converted into reality by the actions taken in the area to drive away hundreds of Christian and Hindu residents who had lived there for decades. The problems began in October when gangs of criminals began threatening the minority communities, already stricken by fear due to the ongoing violence around them, as part of a plan to drive them out and capture the land they lived on. Such incidents are not uncommon in Lyari or in the rest of Karachi, where land mafias have repeatedly targeted the poorest of the poor, those least able to defend themselves.

But what is shocking is that the authorities have not come to their help. Indeed just the opposite appears to have been the case with the problem continuing and families living nomadic lives with relatives, or seeking shelter wherever they can. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has stated at a press conference alongside members of the displaced Christian community that the Rangers force – deployed in Karachi to protect its citizens – had been standing back and doing nothing at all as gangsters persecuted Christians. It was alleged at the media talk that the Rangers wanted the Christians driven out so that they could build a headquarters in the area and had been involved in acts of torture which have continued now for months. If true, this is appalling. The accusation that a major law-enforcing organisation is involved makes matters worse still. It is essential that a full inquiry be carried out and punishment meted out as per its findings. The displaced minorities must be brought back to the only home they know and protection provided to enable them to remain there in safety. The suffering must end and all those responsible for inflicting such violence on helpless people identified and penalised as per the law.

Building peace

Talks bring with them many dividends. This was highlighted once again at the end of the five-day biannual meeting between senior officials of the Pakistan Rangers and the Indian Border Security Force at the Punjab Rangers Headquarters in Lahore that concluded on December 28. During the talks, it was agreed that everything possible should be done to maintain order and tranquillity along the frontier dividing both countries and the working boundary. As a means to help achieve this, it was agreed that border fencing would be kept in good condition, illegal construction work along the frontier disallowed, over-grown areas cleared and the infrastructure kept in good shape. All this is important no doubt, but the real significance of the meeting lies beyond these practical measures. It does so in the fact that top officials responsible for border security have met and discussed things openly and in good spirit. Their interaction is important – all the more so given the skirmishes that have recently repeatedly marred peace along the Line of Control. A better understanding between officials on both sides of the border could help control the situation more effectively.

Beyond the political, there are also human dimensions to the problem. Along the often poorly demarcated border, accidental crossings take place frequently. When these occur, the person is often taken in custody. Periods of better communication between the Rangers and the BSF have resulted in people, including children, who have quite obviously strayed across the border by mistake being handed back swiftly, minimising the suffering of the victims and their families. At the same time, it is also important to curb smuggling and other criminal activity that takes place across the border. The Wagah meeting should help tackle these matters better. It also demonstrated just how important it is for regular meetings of this kind to be held, so that means can be worked out to resolve the problems that come up – and continue to fester – between India and Pakistan. Such interactions also help resolve the consequent strains of our long-standing issues which could quite easily be avoided by establishing better lines of communication and ensuring concerned persons know their counterparts so as to ease discussion when it is required.

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Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

MQM and Sindh

The MQM may have changed what the first initial in its name stood for in attempt to appear more inclusive but even now, so many years later, its leader Altaf Hussain is as decisive as ever. Addressing a public gathering on Sunday, in an ostensible attempt to clarify earlier remarks that were interpreted as a call for the partition of Sindh, Hussain instead ended up making references to “Sindh 1” and “Sindh 2”. Once again, Hussain will criticise those who suggest that he was threatening to split the province, yet this is exactly what the MQM chief did once again. He may have put the blame for this on the PPP but this was a clear case of playing the ethnic card. The speech took a myopic view of affirmative action, calling on the PPP to abandon the quota system. He is one of those who believe that any opportunities given to a historically marginalised community are snatched away from the community that has been luckier in terms access to education and other privileges. This system reflects the relative poverty of those who live in rural Sindh and provides them opportunities to get jobs in the civil service – one of the few ways left to rise to a comfortable middle-class existence.

Historically, the vision behind the quota system when it was introduced was to bring the less privileged at par with their more privileged countrymen but the subsequent incompetence, indifference and class interests of those who ‘represent’ the less privileged made sure that vision was abandoned and the system became a part of the convenient status quo. They used the quota system as an end in itself, playing their own ethnic card – they still do. Altaf Hussain and MQM’s politics – particularly with its proclaimed ‘Muttahida’ aspiration, should have been for a system that would ensure enough material progress for society and the economic uplift of all for the quota question to become obsolete. But it, and all the other political parties operating in Sindh, have preferred to take advantage of the status quo and thrive on it, by defending it or by opposing it, depending on which groups and ethnicity they are playing politics with. For long now Muttahida has been a partner in power of those ‘feudals’ and other sections of the privileged who ensured that no change came to threaten their order which necessarily leads to underdevelopment – something that the quota system is symptomatic of.

The chief’s ire has been provoked by the upcoming local government elections, where the process of delimitation, as it always is, was surrounded by controversy. The MQM certainly has a point that the PPP was misusing delimitation to create the maximum number of safe seats for itself. This is going to be a problem in every province and involve every political party in power. The MQM too has been guilty of carving out seats for itself before previous elections. Legitimate though the complaint may have been, it did not merit the kind of trademark Altaf Hussain outburst where threats of partition and secession are bandied about. The Sindh High Court has already declared the delimitation and other amendments to the province’s local government act as unconstitutional. Is the MQM trying to prolong the conflict so that it can flex its muscles and perhaps wrangle a concession or two out of the PPP? The party also reminded the provincial government that while it may not be in power its sheer numbers and ability to organise are still to be feared. Altaf Hussain, though, should by now have matured enough as a leader to recognise that calls for separation, in any shape and form, do no one, least of all the party he leads, any good.

The farce

Results are filtering in from the most uncompetitive elections held in Bangladesh’s history and the incumbent Awami League has secured a wholly unsatisfactory victory. The Awami League only faced opponents in fewer than half of the 300 seats up for grabs while voter turnout hovered around 20 percent – a fall of 50 percentage points from the 2008 elections. Nearly 20 people were killed in violence as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the elections and took to the streets while its Jamaat-e-Islami allies were banned. They have reasons to doubt the validity of the elections. Normal constitutional practice in the country has been for a neutral caretaker setup to come in before the elections are held so that the ruling party cannot have too much influence on the conduct of the polls. The Awami League rammed through a constitutional amendment in 2010 that overturned this eminently sensible practice. Then there is the ongoing saga over recriminations from the country’s 1971 war of independence, as elderly members of the Jamaat-e-Islami who opposed the independence fight are being executed for war crimes. The judicial process under which the alleged war criminals have been tried was criticised by impartial observers for being unfair. That the Awami League chose the period just before the elections to litigate the past only adds to the anticlimactic nature of the elections.

Bangladesh’s democracy is in a particularly brittle state right now as political battles are being fought on the streets and not in parliament. The elections have lost legitimacy in the eyes of the world, with the US and EU even refusing to send observers to keep an eye on the process. The one thing this farce of an election shows is that it is time for some fresh blood to be transfused into the Bangladeshi political system. Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and the BNP’s Khaleda Zia have been alternating between government and opposition for the best part of two decades, and their multiple periods in power have been divisive and disappointing. The rise of the Jatiya Party as a credible third power should have invigorated the elections but the constant dithering of its leader Hussain Muhammed Ershad over whether to join the boycott neutralised any impact the party may have had. As the violence in Bangladesh continues, it will be obvious to all that these elections have lost much of their credibility and should have been held under a neutral government.

__________________
Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

A few days of violence

The near-daily barrage of militant attacks have left us so jaded that we barely notice anymore when any place outside the major urban areas is targeted. In the last two days alone, there have been seven different attacks. Separate attacks in the Tirah Valley and Bara Tehsil killed 11 people, including three children, while a student in Hangu was killed when he tried to stop a suicide bomber from entering his school. There were also three attacks on the police and Frontier Constabulary personnel in Peshawar. Then, on Tuesday, five people were injured when an explosive device detonated in a marketplace in Lower Kurram Agency. Taken in isolation, these attacks barely merit a mention in the media since we have now become inured enough to the violence that our attention is only grabbed when the death toll is at least in the dozens and takes place in areas where the largest TV audiences live. We need to resist such cynicism since it obscures the true strength and nature of the militancy. The militants are still as strong as ever in the tribal areas and still committed to targeting law-enforcement officials wherever they can. Anyone who believes that they have perhaps reduced the intensity of their violence needs only to look the sheer number of attacks to be disabused of that notion.

The one small bit of good news that came amidst this unrelenting assault was the capture of the former head of the Chilas chapter of the TTP for his role in the June attack on foreign mountaineers at Nanga Parbat. Even this is no cause for celebration. Attacks of that magnitude require lots of planning and would involve a large team. That it took more than half a year to arrest just one person from that team – even if the authorities are claiming that he was the mastermind – shows just how unprepared we are to take on the Taliban threat. As it is, arrests alone will do nothing to change the culture and mindset that make the TTP such a formidable foe. For every person that is arrested, forgetting for now that even most arrests amount to nothing as the accused are usually released for want of efficient and effective prosecution, there are countless more waiting to pounce. There are many disagreements on how best to tackle the Taliban, with options ranging from military operations to negotiations, but the one thing we can surely agree on is that arrests alone will be insufficient. Are we even capable of extracting crucial information from these arrested top leaders? It doesn't seem to be so. As just a few days of violence have shown, the TTP’s ability to strike anywhere at any time requires more concentrated and thoughtful action.

Regional fire

The US invasion of Iraq pushed the country to the brink of civil war and now there is a fear that it may go over the edge. The Sunni-led Al-Qaeda group in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), has been taking advantage of sectarian tensions in the country to attack government officials and extend its reign of influence in Fallujah and Ramadi. The Sunni minority in the country had always been suspicious of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the arrest of a Sunni lawmaker in Ramadi has only exacerbated tensions. Away from the international glare after the US withdrew its troops, last year Iraq had more people killed in violence than in any year since 2008. Even at this early stage, 2014 is looking to be just as deadly. The US invaded and occupied the country without any thought to the sectarian monster it may be unleashing and then withdrew without having done anything to tame the beast. Now the long-suffering Iraqi people have to suffer the horrific violence with no one particularly interested in their plight. Iraq is no longer a matter of international concern even though it may be at its most unstable right now.

Soon the world will have to take notice. ISIS is not content sowing sectarian hatred in just Iraq and has spilled over to Syria. One of the reasons it changed its name from Al-Qaeda in Iraq to ISIS was to reflect its regional ambitions. The porous border between Iraq and Syria has allowed ISIS fighters to move easily between countries and take advantage of the funding and weapons being given to anti-Assad rebels in Syria to continue the fight in Iraq. The group has now also begun to operate in Lebanon, taking responsibility for a suicide bombing in a Hezbollah-ruled area of Beirut. The one link between the three wars that are being fought across the Middle East is the realisation that they may all be part of a proxy war between different countries and groups and interests in the region. Regional rivalries and power politics have always been the bane of the Middle East and they may end up igniting a wider war that will end up hurting everyone.

__________________
Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Saudi visitor

The seemingly never-ending Musharraf saga may have overshadowed Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal’s visit to Pakistan but he quickly rubbished reports of any involvement in a potential deal at a joint press conference with his counterpart Sartaj Aziz and moved on to matters of bilateral interest. As one of Pakistan’s longest-standing allies, the Saudis have a large role to play in the region. Similarly, we can be counted on to help in the Middle East so Faisal had a lot to discuss in his meetings with Nawaz Sharif, Mamnoon Hussain and Sartaj Aziz, especially since this was the first time in years that a high-ranking Saudi official had come to the country. Predictably, the agenda was dominated by the flashpoints of Afghanistan and Syria. The two sides had all the right things to say about post-US withdrawal Afghanistan, with both calling for an end to terrorism. Since Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are seen as countries that could reach out to the Taliban, and the US and the Karzai administration are seeking talks with them, we could have a role to play in facilitating productive negotiations that make it less likely that the country continues its drift towards a civil war.

On Syria, Saudi Arabia was one of the few countries in favour of a proposed US intervention to bring about regime change. Now that Syria is cooperating with the US, with Russian assistance, on destroying its chemical weapons arsenal the chances of military action are close to nil. Still, the Saudis would like to count on Pakistani support to keep international pressure on Assad. While we should be wary of entangling ourselves in a distant civil war, it may be worth providing diplomatic cover to the Saudis if we get economic assistance in return – particularly to reduce our oil import bill. Saudi Arabia had been the first country to step up with cheap oil during Nawaz Sharif’s previous stint in power after the US had imposed sanctions on us for testing nuclear weapons. Pakistan may not be as internationally isolated as it was back then but the power crisis in the country has become exponentially worse and could lead to instability in the country. Should Faisal’s trip lead to greater cooperation on energy we can count his visit to have been a resounding success.

Keeping the law

In a city torn apart by crime and violence, it is not comforting to know that the enforcers of law are themselves violating it, and by doing so adding to the dangers that stalk Karachi. We can expect little in the way of crime control from such a force; and their actions are hardly a good example for the rest of the citizens. This is significant given that the lack of trust between people and the police, perceived according to surveys by Transparency International and other groups to be the most corrupt of all departments, adds immensely to the problems of keeping order and persuading people to cooperate in achieving that.

According to a startling report in this newspaper, well over 3,000 police vehicles, including four-wheel drives, motorbikes, pick-ups and cars in some cases used by senior officials are merrily careening through the streets using fake number plates. These generally come from old vehicles now in disuse. The excise department, which is owed Rs419 million by the police for new plate registrations and more to renew old ones says that despite repeated reminders no new police vehicle has been registered in the city since 2007. As citizen’s organisations point out, this situation is unacceptable. There have been several drives in the very recent past to remove cars using fake plates from off the streets. We cannot possibly hope for these to succeed if the police are themselves committing the very crime they are intended to stop. What we have here is a farce. The problem is that it could so easily end in yet further anarchy. The police appear to embrace crime, rather than fighting it. It seems our primary task must be to ensure that law enforcers themselves follow the law. The police have, in the past, been accused of involvement in all kinds of wrongdoing. Any outfit that considers itself to be above the law cannot hope to uphold it. Without doubt, the rot and decay we see within the police force has been a key factor in accelerating the rate of crime. The large number of vehicles with fake number plates only adds to the sense of chaos we live with, blurring the lines of distinction between those upholding the law and those defying it.

Suicide plans

What would have happened had the attempt to smuggle suicide jackets into the Peshawar Jail succeeded? While there can be no definite answer, the possibilities are horrendous. The prison houses a number of high profile prisoners, including Dr Shakil Afridi and the heads of key outfits. We can then thank our lucky stars that the plan to provide Taliban inmates of the jail with the explosive materials failed. But it was rather a close shave. A team of some 150 army personnel searched the prison and its barracks after the report that a prisoner had asked a warder to collect some jackets left for those housed in the prison by a visitor. The warder had duly done so, but apparently not given them over to the prisoners.

The plan hatched by the terrorists apparently involved filling the jackets with explosives and using them for suicide attacks, presumably within the jail. The warder and other staff were all questioned. But the episode again raises the issue of security at our jails, especially at those where a large number of militants are housed. What happened in Peshawar came only days after the release of the report into the Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak in which 250 prisoners, many of them militants, escaped. The inquiry commission found collusion as well as lapses in security to be a key factor in this. Before that mass escape in July 2013, nearly 400 men had broken out of the Bannu jail. We need to review prison security carefully and also assess if it is wise to house a large number of militants under one roof. This does not appear to be a very wise decision. Why can't we have something like the Alcatraz prison in one of the islands near Karachi for top risk prisoners and terrorists? Alcatraz Island is only 1.5 miles away from the US shore. There also seems to be an urgent need to examine staffing and security measures at prisons if we are to avoid further mayhem at any of them.

__________________
Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Friday, January 10, 2014

Death of a policeman

Chaudhry Aslam seemed to be the man with nine lives – no matter how often the Taliban targeted him he would manage to get away. His luck finally ran out on Thursday as an explosion near Hassan Square in Karachi killed Aslam and two other policemen. It is believed that the TTP was behind the attack, which also left seven people injured. In fact, just earlier that day, Aslam had been leading an operation in Manghopir against the militant outfit. Aslam had made plenty of enemies in a city where taking on anyone with power and influence can be fatal. The government is yet to confirm that the TTP was behind the attack, although the group itself claimed responsibility and suicide attacks aren’t a tactic used by other violent entities in the city. The specific nature of this attack is what makes it so chilling. The TTP had only one man in their sight – a man they had previously tried to kill in a brazen attack in his own home – and they did not give up till they got him. This will have a chilling effect throughout the ranks of the police, both in Karachi and the rest of the country. If you dare take on the militants they will not rest till they have exacted revenge.

His past has its fair share of controversies. He was an integral part of the infamous police operations in the 1990s and he was one of the few who managed to survive them with his job and life intact. Now, at a time when the police, prosecutors and judges are all fearful of taking on the TTP because of the possible repercussions, Aslam will be held up as an ideal security official who had confronted the militants and was seen by the TTP as a prime enemy because of his persistence. Matters of security will also come up in the wake of the killing. How were those carrying a heavy volume of explosives able to enter and roam through the streets of Karachi – a city where the Rangers and the police are deployed in large numbers? Why was it that the crossing on the Lyari Expressway, where attacks have also been carried out previously, not made safer? Have such questions become an inevitability after every incident of terrorism that claims common citizens or those whose job it is to guard our cities against the militants? The militant threat now grows stronger and its perpetrators certainly bolder having pulled of an attack and killing of this kind. So the most vital question will remain the one asked most often: what progress have the state and the government made in efforts to end militancy?

Drugs, prices and power

A powerful private industry defying the orders of regulators should not come as a surprise. In fact, in the case of medicines, it had been universally predicted that Nawaz Sharif’s decision last November to withdraw a proposed 15 percent price hike was simply a temporary populist measure that would soon be abandoned or ignored by drug companies. The latter has proven to be the case except the pharmaceutical companies have been even more shameless than expected, raising the prices of medicines from anywhere between 20 and 80 percent. The government may not come right out and say it but the general philosophy here on pricing, as seen with the constant attempts to raise electricity and gas prices, is that they should be as high as the market will bear. Such a Darwinist view could be tolerated when it comes to luxury, consumer items but it just comes off as heartless when applied to desperately-needed, life-saving items like medicines, whose demand is relatively inelastic because of how vital they are. Were it up to the drug companies, without a regulator setting prices, the pharmaceutical companies would run amok gouging patients who need the drugs.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) will now have to haul up the pharmaceutical companies and levy a large, punitive fine against them for disobeying the regulator. The government should step out of the way of the DRAP no matter how beholden it feels to the executives that head the drug companies. With little government assistance being provided to those who can’t afford drugs, allowing such price-gouging will only increase the misery of the public. When medicines should be subsidised by the state, we have instead ended up in a situation where they are complicit in making us pay even more than the regulator deems necessary. The PML-N should also take this opportunity to re-examine its priorities. All its actions so far have led to widespread inflation throughout the economy. Increasing the price of petrol and gas makes it more expensive to transport goods around the country, leading in turn to increases in the prices of everything else, including food. The government’s priority needs to be the long-suffering people who are told that their pain will have to be increased because the IMF or some other distant entity demands it. The time for putting their demands over our needs should now be over.

__________________
Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Saturday, January 11, 2014

The heart of the city

The gulf between painful reality and the comfortable cocoon inhabited by complacent politicians has never been as vast as it is right now in Karachi. The city, always violent and rife with division, has to face an explosive new threat in the form of the Taliban. The group has already shown its strength in the way that it continually hounded SP CID Chaudhry Aslam for years before finally managing to kill him on Thursday. In the face of this deadly threat, one would expect that the warring political parties of the city would finally unite and realise that there is a greater danger to the city than their turf wars. That has not happened, with the PPP, MQM and ANP all still at each other’s throats. When they are not fighting each other, the politicians are sticking their heads in the sand. Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah actually had the audacity to tell the World Bank country director Rachid Benmessaoud that Karachi – which, remember, is one of the most dangerous cities in the world – was in a position to attract more foreign investment. The truth is entirely different. Just how dysfunctional a city Karachi has become can be seen in the fact that 2,507 people were killed there in 2013, with no significant reduction in violence after the Rangers operation began. Even though the paramilitary organisation boasts of the thousands of target killers and other killers it has apprehended, that has made no difference to the murder rate.

The total number of people arrested in the operation stands at 12,000, a number so large that another five anti-terrorism courts will start working from this month to handle the caseload. But politicians and law-enforcement agencies should not start patting themselves on the back just yet. It is only once these cases are heard and disposed off – a process that could take years – that we will know if those arrested were actually guilty of any crime or were just rounded up to massage arrest statistics and create the impression of action. The fear is that even if the authorities do finally take the problem of violence in the city seriously they will end up further inflaming the situation. The police in Karachi is known for its fire-first-ask-no-questions-later attitude to law enforcement. With the Sindh government now agreeing to implement the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, which has been criticised for turning all criminals into enemies of the state, the police may even have legal cover for its notorious ‘encounters’. Karachi needs vigorous and innovative police work to turn the city around. That should not include lawlessness that will only end up further inflaming a city that is already on fire.

Young hero

While we claw to get out from the deep pit we find ourselves right now, too few adults would be willing to display the kind of bravery Aitizaz Hasan of Hangu did. The teenager physically prevented a suicide bomber from entering his school in a Hangu outskirt and died in the process. The boy, aged around 15 years, lost his own life – but saved those of scores of other children. Calls are coming in for him to be awarded, perhaps even decorated, with the Nishan-e-Shujaat – Pakistan’s highest civilian award for courage. Certainly, the teenage martyr, being lauded as a hero in his own village of Ibrahimzai, deserves recognition. This could perhaps make us reflect a little more, as indeed we have begun to do now as stories about Aitezaz and the way he lost his life flash across the media. If we as a collective force stood up to militancy, perhaps we would be more successful in pushing it back. Right now the militants have captured more and more ground from right beneath our feet because they were given room to move forward.

Aitizaz literally denied this space to the bomber he tackled outside his school. Who knows what final thoughts raced through his head before the terrible explosion that ripped through the area? But the spirit that lived in the youngster’s heart is visible to us all. It shines on even after his death, and this light will not dim. Yes, Aitizaz Hasan certainly deserves an award. This would add to the pride his father says he feels – and highlight the idea that it is possible to defy obscurantism in more ways than one. Physical actions are not necessarily required. Raising voices, speaking out against sectarian hatred or extremism and refusing to accept such violence in our society would all count as acts of courage; as services to our nation. A boy in a remote village gave his life to thwart militancy. We cannot hope for many to match what he did. Indeed no one should be expected to act as he did. But we can take inspiration from his act and find a variety of ways to defy the militants. By doing so, we would be paying tribute to young Aitizaz and ensuring that his heroism does not go in vain.

__________________
Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai

Monday, January 13, 2014

Nuclear safety

Many Pakistanis will pounce on the US Nuclear Threat Initiative Report and gloat that we are ranked one position higher than India when it comes to the safety of nuclear materials. Such facile comparisons should be avoided since securing nuclear weapons is a grave matter that should transcend nationalist concerns. A bit of humility is called for. We are still ranked only 22 out of 25 countries, which is nothing to be proud of. We should look upon the improvements mentioned in the report – we have received increased scores for laws that provide more on-site protection of nuclear material and better security reviews – and figure out ways to do better. Concerns have recently been raised about two new nuclear reactors being built in Karachi, which will be more powerful than all our other reactors combined, whose design is new and untested and hence could prove a safety threat. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, the dangers of failing safety systems should be paramount and the possibility of accidents should not be downplayed by governments. Even the smallest accident can lead to mass evacuations and years, even decades, of problems caused by fallout.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons will always be the subject of international scrutiny both because of our past history of proliferation and the fear that militants may be able to get their hands on nuclear material. The latter concern is also pointed out in the Nuclear Threat Initiative Report and there are perennial stories in the US media about how our weapons could fall into the wrong hands. These worries are slightly overblown. The Nuclear Command Authority has so far proved competent at guarding the safety of our nuclear technology and the command and control structure should prevent non-state actors from ever acquiring nuclear weapons. Despite that, we may safely believe that the US is not about to grant us the same sort of nuclear deal it gave to India and we can expect worries about our arsenal to be aired regularly. The greater concern will always be safety as there are doubts about the quality of materials used and the procedures in place to guarantee that all handling and transportation is safe. The examples of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in the former Soviet Union and the US, respectively, show that complacency can always lead to disaster. No matter how safe we may think our weapons are, we should still strive to do better.

Stemming the rot

The corrupt can be found everywhere in our country. Wrongdoing of various kinds takes place in many government departments – and has over the years leached away resources we badly need from a depleted exchequer, affecting the ability to deliver to people the good governance they so badly need. The National Accountability Bureau in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has obtained a further remand for former IG Police, Malik Naveed, allegedly involved in an arms purchase scam worth billions of rupees. Naveed, who has already been in NAB custody for nearly two months has offered to return Rs80 million as a plea bargain settlement. As the case continues, with its tentacles stretching ever closer to former KP CM Ameer Haider Hoti, it seems likely more money may be returned. The accountability court has been told that Hoti had been warned of the need to keep a close watch on police arms purchases. In the latest development a relative of the ex-CM is in NAB custody as investigations continue into a scam that had regularly attracted media attention, but with little action coming until a few months ago.

The activity we have seen within NAB, perhaps most notably in KP, suggests that it is possible to combat corruption when determination exists. The former IG has apparently already seen he has no option but to return the money. If a sufficient number of other individuals can be pressurised through NAB actions to do the same, two important achievements would be made. In the first place, some money could come back into the hands of a state consistently robbed by its own functionaries. Second, an example would be set, which could perhaps deter others from following the same line. The fact that so many people in the past got away with corruption encouraged others to follow. If the guilty can be nailed, and the trail perhaps followed until those at the top of the hierarchy are also nabbed, we will have taken a major step towards solving a problem that has proved to be our undoing, leaving us with malfunctioning departments whose heads are more intent on building bank accounts than serving people.

Out in the cold

There is little concrete data on how many children live without shelter on the streets of Karachi. Estimates suggest this number may stand at 30,000 – a significant increase within a decade. A more accurate count is urgently required. As we snuggle at night into warm beds, how many of us consider where these children sleep? For most, a park bench, a doorway or a bus stand is the best they can hope for. NGOs working with street children speak of the respiratory illnesses and other diseases they are vulnerable to, notably in winter as temperatures fall. This winter has been an exceptionally harsh one through much of the country – and Karachi was no exception.

The Sindh government’s pledge to build shelters for homeless children never materialised. Such shelters are essential; the children on our streets need to be protected against the cold and the many other hazards they face. No child should be left alone to handle them. We have a growing population of homeless children, driven away from families by poverty, desperation and discord not only in Karachi but across the country. In the bitter cold nights of northern cities they face even grimmer times. This issue is not one we can ignore; it is one we must not ignore. A programme is needed to bring these children in from the cold and away from the sheer misery of their lives. Child protection laws, where they exist, need to be strengthened so that children – particularly those in the streets, away from their loved one – can be kept safe, provided the physical and emotional warmth they need and saved from the perils they face now. Voices must be raised to draw attention to their plight so that the matter can be taken up both by civil society groups and the government. The suffering of these children must end. Their plight says a great deal about our lack of humanity and our sheer callousness.

__________________
Ye sab tmhara karam hai AAQA k bat ab tak bani hoi hai
May is karam k kahan ti kabil ye HAZOOR ki band parvari hai