28.01.2014

Killing cricket

Not since that divisive enterprise known to us as the ‘Packer Circus’ has cricket faced a crisis of a magnitude that has the potential to change the course of its history. At least not till earlier this month when revelations were made about a blatant bid to hijack international cricket by a group of businessmen with little love for this great sport. The ambitious triumvirate headed by the money-and-power-hungry Indian cricket board (BCCI) has England and Australia as it members. The so-called ‘Big Three’ are already the richest and most powerful cricket boards in international cricket. But a working paper drafted by the ICC's Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee, the secret details of which have now become the subject of extensive debate in the cricket world, sheds light on their bid to grab a veto, become richer and even more powerful. And the wealth and power they are targeting will come at the expense of other major cricketing nations like South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies – effectively confining them to a second-tier status and eliminating the minnows altogether. Taking a dispassionate view of the whole plan, it can be argued that when it comes to the financial bottom line this makes sense. After all, a major chunk of the money that is pumped into international cricket comes from India so it’s no big deal if the BCCI wants a bigger share in the pie. But if you are a true cricket fan, it’s next to impossible to have a dispassionate line on what is truly a hostile bid to take over international cricket. After all, what’s the point in following a sport if there is no passion involved?

The most iniquitous part of the entire plan is that the cricket chiefs of the three countries involved are trying to impose a cold conspiracy hatched in a basement-type deal on the rest of the cricketing world. Their justification: because we are cricket’s big earners we will have a bigger share of the wealth, as well as sweeping powers in the ICC. If the plan is accepted then any notion of having a level playing field for all teams is Utopian. Any dreams of cricket transforming itself into a truly global sport will fizzle into thin air. The idea of extending it to populated countries like China will also evaporate under the debris of greed. That is why no matter how hard it may seem, other cricket boards will have to resist this move with all they’ve got. It will be a grand battle for survival but fight they must. We have to draw a line between the soul of a sport and the financial bottom line. The money part related to any sport is important in today’s world but it cannot be allowed to tower over everything else. Examples of other big sports like football must be kept in view. After all we are talking about sport, not a shoe-making factory.

A dream betrayed

The third anniversary of the uprising which forced Hosni Mubarak out of office was like any other day in Egypt. Different sides gathered as many of their people as they could and took them out on the streets. There were predictable skirmishes between the groups and security officers. And another 50 people were killed. This has become a depressing pattern of daily life in Egypt after the false hope of the Arab Spring. On the one side there are the supporters of military rule, who have now taken to urging army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to run for president. Then there are those from the Muslim Brotherhood, understandably furious that the military overthrew their president Mohamed Morsi and then outlawed the only organised political party in the country, denouncing it as a terrorist organisation. It is safe to say that Egypt today is a lot like it was under Mubarak – but even worse. Mubarak was mocked around the world for holding referendums on his rule where he would invariably garner close to 100 percent of the votes. That laughable trend is back as the constitution prepared by the military-backed interim government received over 98 percent approval. Should results continue to be manipulated in such an obvious way, Egypt will not be able to taste the democracy it had for such an enticingly short period.

The interim government is still tinkering on the edges even as the machinery of state has broken down. It decided, for example, to hold presidential elections before parliamentary elections, thereby amending the roadmap to democracy laid down last year. None of these cosmetic changes will make a difference, though, so long as the Muslim Brotherhood remains banned and unable to compete in elections. Democracy without the participation of the largest political party in the country is not worth the name. And as long as the Brotherhood retains the street power to protest its repression, Egypt will not be able to return to a state of normalcy. The military is brutal in crushing any signs of resistance to its takeover and the Brotherhood, having survived decades of abuse from the state, is not going to back down without a fight. The dream of the revolution may have soured and the misguided rule of Morsi had a lot to do with that. But the military, were it actually the guardian of democracy it claimed to be, would have known that democracy needs many years to evolve. By taking control of power the military has blocked the chances of democracy taking roots in Egypt.

30.01.2014

Talking to the TTP

A defiant prime minister walked into the National Assembly for the first time in six months but departed without having challenged the status quo in the fight against militancy. Nawaz Sharif’s address to parliamentarians was, for the most part, on the mark. He paid tribute to the victims of militant attacks – his singling out of the Peshawar church bombing was a particularly apt touch – and made no apologies or excuses for the murderous TTP. Nawaz’s speech also served as a telling rebuke to the right-wing politicians, many of them in his own party, who believe and would have others believe that terrorist attacks will come screeching to a halt as soon as drone attacks cease. Without disavowing his principled disapproval of drone strikes, Nawaz attempted to delink drones and the TTP, pointing out that the militant group would continue to attack even if the US stopped targeting them. The stirring and harsh rhetoric employed by the prime minister seemed to indicate an imminent announcement of a military operation. The ground had been set for this shift in tactics in recent days by members of the government. But Nawaz Sharif explained at some length that he was eager to give peace another chance and end the violence tearing the country apart. So he took up a TTP offer of peace talks and named a four-man committee that would advise the government on the proposed negotiations.

The committee itself is a mixed bag. The inclusion of Rahimullah Yusufzai, the pre-eminent journalist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is welcome since Yusufzai is known for his expertise and fairness. The same cannot be said for Major Amir, an old Nawaz loyalist who was part of the Midnight Jackals plot to bring down the first Benazir Bhutto government. Amir’s contribution will likely centre around bringing Maulana Fazlullah to the table since the TTP chief was once taught by Amir’s father at a madressah. The other members of the committee, former diplomat Rustam Shah who is now linked to the PTI and columnist Irfan Siddiqui are both known for being pro-talks. Nawaz Sharif explicitly called this a last chance for peace but did not explain if a cessation of terrorist attacks was a prerequisite for talks. As long as the TTP keeps up its reign of terror there is precious little chance of negotiations working. We all want an end to violence; and for these reasons understand the sentiments expressed rather emotionally by the PM. But at the same time, there has to be caution. The state has already lost much of its writ and power. It cannot afford to give more away. There is as yet no clarity at all on what the agenda for talks will be or what terms will be set. It is obviously necessary to have a clear picture in mind, with parliament taken into confidence. Beyond a certain point, the issue is too big to be kept secret. Imran Khan raised a point about transparency in parliament. The PM must honour his promise to ensure this. From the mainstream political parties the most supportive statement came from JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman who declared this an opportunity not for the Taliban but for the nation. His optimism will only be borne out if the prime minister gives a more detailed explanation of what he hoped talks would achieve. ‘Peace’ is far too vague and unrealistic an answer to suffice. At a time when new thinking is needed, Nawaz Sharif offered us more of the same. He will only have a short time to try and make this approach work before more drastic measures may be needed. The talks option will now be tested out, and it will become easier to know what to do next, depending on the situation that arises over the coming weeks. This will be a crucial time – as the PM has said, announcing a decision of huge significance to his government and to us all.

Talking to the US

The most notable thing about the Pakistan-US strategic dialogue may have been that it took place at all. After a three-year break, marked by one crisis after the other ranging from the Osama bin Laden raid to the Salala incident, foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz’s trip to Washington to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry was an attempt to put past troubles behind and start anew. It is unsurprising then that the elephants in the room were ignored both in pre-talks remarks and the official statement after the meeting. There was no mention of the divisive drone attacks that have played such a role in the mounting mistrust between the two countries. Neither was the vexing topic of negotiations with the TTP brought up, although Aziz did tell the media that the military option remained a strong possibility. On security issues, the focus was predictably US-centric with the imminent pullout of Isaf troops from Afghanistan dominating the conversation. Pakistan stuck to its line that it has no favourites in post-war Afghanistan although such assurances have not convinced either the US or Hamid Karzai in the past. Aziz was correct to point out that Pakistan is worried that the US will forget about us as it did in the 1990s after the Soviet withdrawal and that it wants the relationship between the two countries to be more than transactional.

To that end, Sartaj Aziz did well in focusing on our economy and how necessary US aid is to help us develop. Terrorism cannot be defeated as long as the economy does not improve. For that to happen foreign investment is vital and cannot be tied to security considerations alone. Aziz also reiterated our commitment to peace with India, tying it in with progress on the war against militancy. These feel-good words, of course, obscure the reality that peace is only possible so long as there are honest brokers on all sides, something that has been severely lacking in the complicated Pakistan-Afghanistan-India-US quadrilateral. The success or otherwise of the strategic dialogue can only be judged in hindsight. Only if this initial meeting leads to further, more productive, interactions between the two countries will it be seen as worthwhile. Future dialogues will also have to address the drones issue. In his state of the union address, President Barack Obama did mention that the US was hoping to set rules for the use of drones and limit their use but Pakistan will only be convinced if the situation on the ground changes. Actions, rather than words that may never be enforced, will govern the future of Pakistan-US relations.

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

31.01.2014

Duly discarded

The Supreme Court dismissed Pervez Musharraf’s review petition against their 2009 verdict declaring the former dictator’s emergency proclamation and subsequent Provincial Constitutional Order illegal, as it should have, because the time for filing an appeal is limited and five years is certainly too long. Even if the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the petition there was no chance of Musharraf finding legal relief through this approach. The arguments put forth by his lawyers in support of the petition were laughable. They claimed that because military rulers in the country had subverted the constitution before and since leaders in India and Canada had also declared emergencies, this meant that Musharraf’s actions had historical precedent. This ‘they-did-it-too’ argument does not work when misbehaving children use it as a justification to their parents and it certainly wasn’t going to work for Musharraf.

Musharraf’s legendary lawyer, Sharifuddin Pirzada, also advanced the novel argument that the Supreme Court should not interfere in the working of the federal government. While one can argue about the level of activism that should be practised by the courts, the one thing no one other than Pirzada would contest is that the main function of the Supreme Court is to rule on the constitutionality of actions taken by the executive and legislature. This is the very essence on which our system of checks and balances rests. Musharraf, of course, was never interested in checks, balances or accountability – at least for himself. Musharraf, no longer the marauding cowboy with swagger and arrogance, is now trying to implicate everyone else, claiming that he only imposed the emergency because his crony Shaukat Aziz advised it and so he should not be held liable under Article 6. That the Supreme Court stood by its ruling against the emergency and did not allow the petition to go forward is heartening. The impression being created that after Iftikhar Chaudhry the SC would be weakened has also been washed away. Establishing and maintaining the precedent that a dictator cannot seize power and rule as he pleases is far more important than punishing one man.

Odd man out

The success of negotiations and the credibility of official committees are built on perceptions regarding the people making up these bodies. This is something Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has erred on in setting up the small body assigned to initiate talks with the Taliban. The inclusion on this panel of Major (r) Muhammad Amir has immediately raised eyebrows and drawn negative comment. Major Amir’s past makes this inevitable. He was established by a military court to be the chief architect of the infamous operation ‘Midnight Jackals’, a plot launched in 1989 to overthrow the first Benazir Bhutto government, and replace it with one led by Nawaz Sharif. The modus operandi used by Amir, then serving in the ISI, and Brigadier (r) Imtiaz Ahmed of the IB, was to persuade PPP MNAs to vote in a ‘no confidence’ move against their own leader. Both men were court-martialed and it has since been claimed that the plot was hatched by ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul, who had recently been removed as head of that powerful agency by Benazir.

This was not a glorious moment in our history. The re-emergence of Major Amir and his elevation to a position of eminence is not comforting. For that matter neither is the fact that Amir’s father headed a seminary at which some Taliban figures were educated. This may give him a rapport of sorts with them, but it also opens up questions about his loyalties and his beliefs. Reports have also suggested that Amir has undertaken chores of various kinds for Nawaz Sharif, and himself says he is ‘close’ to a leader he admires. This is not an issue. The real question is why it was thought necessary to include a person with such a dubious past on the talks committee. His presence damages the peace effort by creating an element of controversy that could so easily have been entirely avoided. There are obviously many in the country who could have been nominated, avoiding this kind of murky history coming back to the surface. Some of it will spill onto the committee as a whole, and simply add to the complexities already involved in these talks. The prime minister did so many things right. It is a pity he got this wrong. Major Amir should simply have been allowed to remain a part of the past.

Soul of an artist

Folk singer Pete Seeger symbolised an idealistic alternative to US history. Seeger’s America was one where free expression trumped the stifling effects of the Cold War Red Scare hysteria, where labour was recognised as the foundation of a productive society rather than a nuisance capitalists must endure, where dissent truly was seen as the highest form of patriotism. As a musician, Seeger started out as a card-carrying member of the US Communist Party. Gradually he linked his cause to previous righteous battles fought in the US. Known for being the force behind the revival of folk music, ‘the music of the people’ as he called it, he appropriated songs dating back to the spirituals sung by black slaves and labour anthems that powered industrial workers. In doing so he inspired new political movements, with ‘We Shall Overcome’ becoming the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement. Seeger believed that art could not be separated from politics and spent his 94 years proving exactly that.

Pete Seeger was no musical purist who thumbed his nose at those who sought mass commercial appeal to advance their message. Unlike many in the folk community he did not abandon Bob Dylan for ‘selling out’ because he believed in the message as much as the medium. Some of Seeger’s most famous anti-war songs were gifted to pop artists of the 1960s so that they could reach a wider audience. His own compositions also showed a gift for allegory and nuance that few of his contemporaries could manage. Seeger’s life lived up to the standards he set himself with his songs. He was among the brave artists who did not crumble when forced to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. Unlike left-wingers, like Elia Kazan, who cowered before the bullying tactics of Richard Nixon and his ilk, Seeger stood firm. As a consequence he was part of the Hollywood blacklist but that is something which is now a badge of honour rather than a mark of shame. The acceptance of Seeger was complete with the inauguration of Barack Obama, where he played with some of his musical and ideological followers like Bruce Springsteen. But one cannot help but think that Seeger would have still seen himself as an outsider in the US, perpetually unhappy with the state of the nation but never despondent about his ability to affect change.

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

01.02.2014

Warrant for Musharraf

General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s tryst with justice is one step closer after the special court tasked with ruling on the treason charges framed against him issued a bailable warrant for his arrest and denied the former dictator’s request to go abroad for treatment. Not only is the decision a welcome vote of confidence in our medical system’s ability to treat the rich and politically-connected, it rightly recognises that were Musharraf allowed to leave the country there is every likelihood that he would evade justice and never return. Musharraf is now expected to appear before the court on February 7 – should his medical condition, of course, allow him to do so. It is believed that an array of power-brokers was trying to get Musharraf safe passage out of the country, not because there is any lingering affection for a man who managed to alienate everyone during his ruinous rule but so that the precedent is not set that allows for dictators to face accountability for their crimes. The special court, thankfully, seems immune to such pressure so far. Musharraf’s trial, once it actually begins, should be a watershed moment in our history. For the first time, a dictator will have to answer for subverting the constitution and treating the country like his own personal fiefdom.

We are still some way from the trial beginning, let alone Musharraf being convicted. Many likely obstacles litter the course of justice. It is conceivable that Musharraf will continually cite medical reasons to have himself exempted from court appearances. The hearings at the special court so far have descended into ugliness with Musharraf’s lawyers obscuring their weak case by hurling accusations at opposing lawyers and the media. Such tactics will continue so long as they distract everyone from the central fact that Musharraf violated the constitution when he imposed his emergency, suspended the constitution and introduced the Provincial Constitutional Order. Musharraf, never a man imbued with much patience, may even tinker with the makeup of his representation since their legal strategy has failed to move the special court so far. The Supreme Court has already thrown out a petition challenging its ruling against the emergency so the former dictator is unlikely to win any relief on that front.

Too close for culture

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had described his Sindh Festival as a ‘cultural coup’ but his commitment to culture has to be questioned when the fear of the event being held at the cost of our heritage is very real. The opening ceremony of the festival is to be held at the heritage site of Moenjodaro and photographs released from the site showed scaffolding covering the ruins. The Sindh High Court issued a stay order against the construction of the stage if there was a chance it would lead to damaging the ruins at Moenjodaro but many experts, including those from Unesco, have vouched for the work being done and said that all precautions were being taken. Those assurances are not quite good enough. Even if the possibility of any damage being done were minimal, there would be no reason why even a tiny risk should be taken when such a crucial part of our history is at stake. Why could the opening ceremony not have been held close to the city of Moenjodaro rather than at the site itself?

Comparisons to public events being held at other heritage sites around the world like the Pyramids and the Acropolis are not relevant in this case. Here we have an entire city that needs to be protected and preserved, not just individual structures. A single mistake in the construction of the scaffolding or the stage could have ruinous consequences. Then we also have to consider that the organisers of the Sindh Festival took advantage of a constitutional loophole to get this work done. Under the Antiquities Act this work would certainly not be allowed but the organisers have taken the twisted view that the 18th Amendment devolved heritage protection to the provinces. As it happens, the PPP is in charge of Moenjodaro now while the Bhutto scion is managing the Sindh Festival so the activities of the chairman of the party will be given approval by the very party he leads. Even if they didn’t think the Antiquities Act was operational any more, they should have complied with it to forestall any possible complaints about conflict of interest.

Nukes in Karachi

The K-2 and K-3 nuclear power plants being built in Karachi following the grant of a Chinese loan worth $6.5 billion have generated something of a storm. While the plants are expected to generate more electricity than any existing facility presently running in the country, there is also a cloud of controversy surrounding them. Experts in nuclear physics have questioned the design of the plants and their long-term utility. There have been warnings from environmentalists that a nuclear disaster could lead to a situation where the evacuation of the entire city of Karachi would be required. That is hardly a comforting thought. Comparisons have been made with the tsunami that hit Japan and the consequent disaster at the Fukushima Power Plant. The counter argument goes that a tsunami of the same scale is unlikely to ever hit Karachi.

But can we be sure of this? Are people aware of the different kinds of dangers that arise from irresponsible maintenance of nuclear power plants? We need more awareness on this so that enlightened decisions can be taken and better disaster preparedness put in place. There can be no doubt at all that nuclear energy can be extremely beneficial, especially in the situation we face today when meeting an acute energy crisis has become our most pressing need. In this sense, the progress on the two new power plants in Karachi is good news. But a degree of balance needs to be maintained. The issues raised regarding the way the plants are planned, their location and safety measures should be considered so that never in the future do we face even the possibility of the horror of a nuclear disaster. We must remember that accidents at nuclear plants have affected even the most developed of countries. In our own, where hazards are often higher due to poor precautions and bad planning, even more care is required to protect the people of a city as large as Karachi.

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

11.02.2014

All that glitters...

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is painting the talks with IMF officials in Dubai as a major success since we will now be getting another $550 million tranche from the international lending institution. The benefits of this ‘success’, however, will be restricted to the government and its favoured allies among the business and industrial elite. The money is only being released because we met certain revenue targets but we reached those on the backs of the poor. The IMF had recommended phasing out energy subsidies – a polite way of ordering the government to raise electricity and gas prices – and increasing tax revenue. The government took to the former task with great enthusiasm, and monthly increases in the price of both electricity and gas have become common. There is less will to collect taxes from the rich, though, and so the FBR did not increase its tax collection by nearly as much as it should have. The government has also promised the IMF further “structural reforms”, which is a coded commitment to phase out more subsidies. The IMF has treated neo-liberal economics as a dogma and imposed it on much of the developing world but the results so far have been poor to mixed. We should not expect our own country to fare any better.

Easy though it is to vilify the IMF, our anger should be reserved for the government which is satiating its appetite for foreign currency on the backs of the poor. The Supreme Court tried to block some of the outrageous increases in the prices of electricity by saying that only Nepra had the authority to approve these hikes. Now, as with most other important regulatory posts, Nepra is being headed by an acting chairman who does not have the will to defy the government. A permanent chairman is not being considered both because he or she may not feel the need to stay loyal once secure in office and because the courts may block any appointments that are seen as being overtly political. The same problem is being faced at the State Bank of Pakistan, where the previous governor was forced out and now the government can order the interim replacement to print even more money and continue lending to the government. These are the actions of a government that is not interested in basic reform. And the price is to be paid by the poor as usual.

Agendas

The negotiations process between the government and the TTP took a step forward when the militant group presented its list of demands. The 15-point agenda of the TTP is a mixture of demands that are broadly reasonable and some that are completely out of bounds. Asking for equal rights for both rich and poor is surely something that can be accepted by all and calling for an end to drone strikes is something that is already the position of every political party in the country. But then the TTP also wants Shariah law in the courts and Islamic education in schools, and since we know exactly how narrow and twisted the group’s definition of religion is, this is not something the government will be or should be able to accept. Withdrawing troops from the tribal areas and releasing TTP prisoners cannot be carried out either until we are sure that the TTP has truly stopped carrying out attacks. A suicide attack in Peshawar that killed four people should give the government pause, even though no one has claimed responsibility for it. There has been a definite reduction in attacks over the last week but it is still too early to take the TTP at its word and since smaller attacks are still continuing the government needs to remain wary and vigilant.

This list of demands is, of course, an initial wish list presented by the TTP and should be treated as such. The government negotiating team needs to respond with its own agenda. Now that the negotiating team chosen by the TTP has returned from its meeting with the militant group’s shura, the government also needs to step up its game. Maulana Samiul Haq and Maulana Abdul Aziz have been bombarding the airwaves and putting the best possible spin on the TTP’s intentions. This can be tolerated so long as the government and its team of negotiators isn’t seen as bending over backwards to accommodate the TTP. Peace talks too will be a battle of attrition and any concessions will have to be wrenched from the TTP’s grasp. There should not be a game of giving the TTP an inch and it soon demanding much more. The government needs to respond by demanding an equal number of painful sacrifices from its adversary. This is what negotiations are all about.

Inferno

The inferno that erupted in the Yousafabad area of Rahimyar Khan in southern Punjab, after the outlawed Baloch Republican Army used remote-controlled explosives to blow up three gas pipelines supplying gas to Punjab and parts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, could be seen from many miles away. The massive fire, which engulfed neighbouring localities and killed at least one woman, shows a country at war with itself.

Baloch nationalist forces have blown up pipelines taking gas to other parts of the country before. According to officials of the Sui Northern Gas Company, this is the first time all three pipelines at RY Khan have been blown up simultaneously. This has drastically reduced gas coming into Punjab, with Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Lahore and Faisalabad amongst the worst affected cities. The economic losses of this latest catastrophe, as factories shut off machines and CNG-run vehicles look to other fuels or come to a standstill are yet to be calculated. But it is not hard to estimate that they will be immense. The inconvenience faced is a reminder too of just how important the gas fields of Balochistan are to our country. The highest cost of this latest act of terrorism is in fact borne by the country. The flames that leapt out from the pipes, creating terror as fire-fighters struggled to bring the blaze under control, clearly showed how grave our internal crisis has become. The failure to combat it over the years has allowed them to multiply. Today we struggle to overcome the menace. Strategies have been discussed in Balochistan, but can they be made effective in time to save us? Right now the events in southern Punjab exhibit the perils we face, and the fact that both as a state and as individuals we face ever-increasing insecurity and with it more chaos every day. We cannot continue like this.

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

12.02.2014

As principles disappear

Reports are emerging that the ruling PML-N may consider defanging the judicial commission’s authority to appoint judges. The 19th Amendment to the constitution had increased the strength of the judicial commission from two to four senior judges and given it the power to pick candidates, which had rested with the parliamentary committee under the 18th Amendment. The parliamentary committee’s role then became that of approving the candidates chosen by the judicial commission with extraordinary circumstances required to reject a name. The PML-N, which had been a stalwart in the lawyers’ movement and a defender of the independent judiciary while in the opposition, now seems to be enjoying wielding power so much that it wants to reduce the influence of those it sees as a potential problem. Reversing the 19th Amendment will, of course, require another constitutional amendment and ramming it through both houses of parliament may be difficult. Now that the PPP is in opposition and gets to enjoy the government of the day being held accountable by the judiciary, it may be in no rush to vote in favour of weakening the commission. Since the PPP still has the most seats in the Senate, it can easily vote down any constitutional amendment.

Even if the PPP were to retain its animus against the judiciary, the final say on the constitutionality of any amendment still rests with the Supreme Court. The reason the 19th Amendment was needed was because the 18th Amendment gave more power to the parliamentary committee, something the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. Even with former CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry no longer at the helm, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court will discard the precedent and side with the government. Just because the danger of this constitutional amendment being enacted isn’t imminent, it doesn’t mean we should fail to heed the warning signs. All the PML-N talk of principles when it came to the judiciary vanished as soon as its appointments were being blocked and its initiatives ruled as against the interests of the public. The lesson here is that the executive and legislature will always be at odds with the judiciary because politicians have a natural tendency to crave absolute power. The effort to gain an independent judiciary was only the first stage in a never-ending struggle.

A prisoner speaks

The US holds itself up as a champion of human rights, regularly threatening to strike countries it accuses of violating them. But perhaps the first targets should be those the country itself houses -- or more specifically that monstrous building that makes up the Guantanamo Bay prison, located on a part of Cuba still controlled by the US. After he was elected president in 2008, Barack Obama had promised to close down this house of horrors. Over five years on, it still stands – another of Obama’s broken pledges to his own people. Many in that country would like to see that jail to become a part of history now; human rights groups in both that country and others have campaigned for this. Their efforts have not brought change, something that paints neither Obama nor the US in a positive light.

The ugliness and the sheer inhumanity of Guantanamo is heard of only occasionally. A thick layer of secrecy has been wrapped around it. Obama is as guilty in this as anyone else. But when the truth does slip through, it is truly horrific. Certainly the story of Pakistani national Ahmed Rabbani, held now at Guantanamo for over ten years, sends a shiver down the spine. Rabbani, like so many others from the country, was ‘sold’ to the US during the Musharraf era for a bounty of US$5,000. American human rights activist and lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who visited the Pakistani national this week in prison, and to whom Rabbani has been writing regularly is convinced – after background checks – that the prisoner was nothing more than a taxi driver who spoke Arabic. Smith speaks of the severe torture Rabbani has suffered for peacefully protesting to demand only that he receive a fair trial. He is held in a cell made entirely of steel, has no toilet facilities and weighs barely 100 pounds after years of hunger strike and forced feeding. Other stories of bizarre, grotesque detention conditions at Guantanamo have emerged before. Rabbani has made a desperate appeal to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for help. Certainly this needs to be offered, from the government and from rights groups. The continued existence of Guantanamo Bay is unacceptable. The prison must not stand any longer, and all efforts must be made to have it shut down so that the suffering of inmates like Rabbani can end.

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

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Terror policy

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan may not have been the most inspiring figure to sell the government’s new security policy and so it proved as he faced dissent from the opposition parties while detailing the National Internal Security Policy in the National Assembly. He already faced a stiff task in front of the hostile audience as he explained the three-pronged policy – two parts of which include dialogue and operational aims, while one part would remain secret. This led to a back and forth where the leader of the opposition Khursheed Shah complained that none of the opposition parties were consulted in the six months it took to draw up the document, to which Nisar retorted that all the parties were asked for their input but only the MQM actually provided any. This sniping, sadly typical in parliament, was unseemly at a time when unity is paramount in ensuring the success of military operations in North Waziristan. All the political parties, whether in government or the opposition, seem more intent on scoring points against each other than securing victory against a deadly foe. Instead we had Nisar lambasting the previous government for not formulating a policy of its own while the government of the day was accused of secrecy.

The parts of the policy that Nisar did reveal provided nothing revolutionary. The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), still basically defunct, was touted as the panacea to our militancy problem and the formation of a 500-strong rapid response team to terrorism was announced in Islamabad and the provinces. While such teams are needed in the aftermath of the attacks, the fact remains that they will do nothing to solve the problem of terrorism itself since by definition they are reactive. Nisar’s appearance in the National Assembly was essentially a fait accompli. He told parliamentarians what they already knew: that talks had broken down because of continued TTP attacks and that the group’s leaders would be targeted in their hideouts. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was no more inspiring, making a quick appearance to repeat most of what Nisar had said and saying that the security policy would be discussed with the leaders of all parties to incorporate their concerns. He then rushed out citing a prior engagement. This was reflective of a government that has preferred to either take decisions on its own or through extra-parliamentary means like All Parties Conferences. Winning this war will require keeping all the people’s representatives in the loop and ensuring they have a role in crafting our response to the TTP.

The war within

Murmurings about rifts within the Taliban and suggestions that the group was not a unified entity but one made up of dozens of different factions have been heard for a very long time. It now appears that these rifts could have very serious consequences indeed, with the internal battle perhaps assuming greater significance than all other factors involved in what is a highly complex struggle. The clearest indication of the gravity of this divide has come with the killing on Monday of senior Taliban leader Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani in a gun attack on his vehicle as he was travelling to Miranshah, in North Waziristan. Two others died with him. According to a report in this newspaper, another senior Taliban leader, Said Sajna, is believed to be behind the attack. The feud between Bhittani and Sajna goes back some way, and involves tit-for-tat killings. Bhittani is also known to have played an instrumental role in Mullah Fazlullah’s elevation to the head of the Tehreek-e-Taliban, with Sajna at one point in a key position to gain that slot.

It is difficult to say how things will now pan out. The Bhittani killing goes beyond personal rivalry. While Bhittani favoured the process of dialogue with the government, other elements did not. These issues have cropped up before too, with questions raised over how these divisions would affect talks. There have also been clashes between Taliban groups led by different commanders over leadership issues, with these emerging more openly both after the death in 2009 of Baitullah Mehsud, and then in 2013, of his successor Hakeemullah. Even though the Taliban work under deep shadows, with their interactions and methods of decision-making somewhat opaque, it is obvious the murder of Bhittani will leave deep scars. The existing tensions could intensify, given that Asmatullah Bhittani was both the head of his tribe and a man with considerable standing with the Taliban. The war within the group is then becoming very significant. It could just have as much a say on the final outcome of things as the war being fought against the militants using bombs and guns. Events within the group will be very closely watched then for some time, as the precise lines of division become clearer and make it obvious that different schools of thought exist within the Taliban, with personal rivalry in some cases wrapped around these – making the truth very hard to discern. But these divisions, if cleverly exploited by the government, could also provide an opening to break up the TTP and gain supporters for peace through a give and take policy.

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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

Friday, February 28, 2014

The DMG culture

So cynical are we about the workings of the bureaucracy, with all the tales of laziness and ineffectiveness surrounding the babu culture, that controversies within this rotting institution rarely grip the public imagination. Still, the power plays within the alphabet agencies that make up the bureaucracy have profound ramifications for the professionalism and distribution of responsibility in government. The Pakistan Administrative Service, better known by its previous name of the District Management Group (DMG), received approval from the government to allocate to itself large quotas in the bureaucracy. According to the new rules, the DMG will now make up 65 percent of federal secretaries, 65 percent of additional secretaries, 35 percent of joint secretaries and 25 percent of deputy secretaries. All the other groups, including the police service, foreign service and provincial civil service will have to make do with dividing the remaining posts. The most outrageous aspect of the power grab by the DMG is that it has also allotted itself sizable quotas in provincial posts, something which should never have been allowed after the passage of the 18th Amendment devolved powers from the centre to the provinces. The provincial service officers have now filed a case against the quotas in the Supreme Court and if justice is done then they will be rescinded.

At the same time that the government has favoured the DMG, it is also trying to reform the bureaucracy by favouring merit over seniority. No one disguises the fact that promotions in the bureaucracy are determined either by time served or because of political considerations. There are no metrics for evaluating performance and then deciding whom to promote. Such a culture acts as a disincentive for innovation and competence. Of course, if the government is determined to get better performance from a bureaucracy that stifles any government programme through sheer inaction the very first thing it would do is take back the quotas for the DMG. The only reason for quotas to exist in the civil service is to give opportunities to people from economically disadvantaged areas. Favouring one group within the bureaucratic setup does not serve any vital social function and will only frustrate more deserving candidates for promotion. Favouring the DMG will only exacerbate infighting and lead to resentment against the government among the other services. That, obviously, is going to be of no help to a government that, close to a year in power, has yet to even begin implementing its governing agenda.

A lone warrior

The issue of taxes paid by lawmakers has come up many times, after a report made public in 2012 found that 67 percent of the members of the Senate and the National Assembly did not file tax returns. Reports that have come out since then show that even the tax returns that were filed are disputed by the Federal Board of Revenue. Certainly, some have seemed ludicrously low, with the amounts handed over coming to less than the amounts collected from salaried individuals. This is a matter that certainly needs to be taken up – and seriously. Lawmakers need to set an example and be held accountable for their actions. Much too often have they focused on protecting their own perks – and it would seem their lack of tax payment.

It is encouraging to see a voice raised against this. What is not encouraging, though, is that the voice seems to be a rather lonely one. No chorus has been formed and the voice, of PTI MNA Asad Umar, has gone virtually unheard. Indeed there seems to have been quite an effort to quash it. Umar has submitted a motion twice, on February 4 and February 25, calling for a special committee – consisting of not more than ten members, belonging to major political parties – to be constituted by the speaker of the National Assembly to investigate allegations of non-payment of taxes by some parliamentarians. Each time the motion was put on the agenda proceedings were adjourned before it could be taken up. Asad Umar is a former corporate executive who had campaigned vociferously against corruption through his election campaign, one of the factors that helped him claim the NA-48 seat from Islamabad. He describes himself primarily as a citizen of the nation. There is no doubt that many other citizens would join him in seeking accountability and the application of relevant laws to parliamentarians. A seat in the assembly should make it more imperative that they follow the rules, rather than violate them. But it is deeply disheartening to see no one, not even members of his own PTI, stand with Asad Umar in his fight. He has stood alone, and the NA has scorned his extremely valid motion – even though it apparently has the time to hear meaningless allegations about what goes on in parliamentary lodges. This is a shame. Others must rise to stand with Umar; after all, there can be no hope of tax laws and regulations being imposed if examples are not set. Parliamentarians have been disqualified for presenting fake degrees. Tax evasion is a still more serious offence with far wider consequences. Umar’s voice on this must be heard and others raised as well. Why his own party is so lukewarm is beyond understanding.

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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

Saturday, March 01, 2014

The Afghan dimension

The state may have been forced into a military operation against the TTP after the breakdown in peace talks but it should not take for granted the likelihood of success. Apart from all the usual hurdles to be overcome in a battlefield, there is an added wrinkle in the form of the Afghanistan factor. For years now, the Karzai government has alleged that Pakistan shelters and even funds and trains the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. Now the shoe is on the other foot. The leader of the TTP, Mullah Fazullah, and many of his men from Swat are firmly ensconced in Afghan territory, where the government shows little interest in driving out or targeting these militants. Ironically, the excuses proffered by Afghanistan mirror those we used to make for not taking on the Afghan Taliban. Some variation on familiar themes like ‘we already have a Taliban insurgency of our own to deal with’ are delivered by the Afghan government. Now, with a military operation underway, the danger of Afghan inaction is greater than ever. The Foreign Office has requested the country not to provide a safe haven to any TTP fighters who may cross the border. Based on the past history of the Karzai administration, the hope is a forlorn one.

It is not the case that Afghanistan refuses to take action against Mullah Fazlullah only because its resources are too tied up in tackling its own militant problem. The US found, as was revealed in an American paper, that Afghan intelligence was actively supporting the TTP or some factions of it. The problem afflicting Afghanistan is the same one that we still suffer from. Each country sees the other as its biggest enemy, and not the militants who target them on a daily basis. Instead of working together to deny refuge and material support to all Taliban franchises, the countries have been more interested in undermining each other. With the US now threatening to pull out all its troops from Afghanistan since Karzai still hasn’t agreed to the bilateral security agreement – something foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz has said is for Afghanistan to work out on its own – the two countries can opt either for cooperation or outright hostility that cannot even be tempered with US pressure. Afghanistan’s cooperation as we take on the TTP will say a lot about which course it decides to pursue.

Planning in vacuum

We cannot hold out hope for an improvement in governance when the country’s planning body is bereft of planners. The Minister of Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal told the Senate that the Planning Commission is left without a chief economist because there is not a single qualified individual up to the task. His claim may not be liked by many competent people who do not seek political favours or jobs under a political regime but Iqbal blamed this on brain drain. The problem, though, runs deeper than that. We do not have a culture of encouraging academia and theory as a viable and socially useful calling. Higher education is geared towards churning out recruits for industries like finance. This is reflected in government, where important posts at the State Bank of Pakistan and other regulators are given to commercial bankers rather than economists who are trained in the regulatory regime. The chief economist’s job at the Planning Commission has been vacant since 2011, when Dr Jaffer Qamar resigned. Even though the minimum qualification for the job was reduced from 25 years of experience to 15, not a single worthy candidate has emerged. The consequence of this void, where a strong, independent voice could positively impact economic policy, is that governments can ram through any scheme they like without it being challenged.

The Planning Commission is responsible for approving and advising the government on its borrowing needs, a task it cannot perform without a credentialed economist’s input. So we have ended up in a situation where the government has become the biggest borrower from commercial banks, thus crowding out private borrowers; and the IMF routinely imposes damaging conditions when it doles out more loans. The commission also has a role to play in approving development projects but once again it has not been up to the task, as the government has proposed unnecessary motorways and come up with perplexing plans to tunnel through the Margalla Hills. We can, and should, criticise the government to our heart’s content for its economic agenda but need to realise that so long as vital positions go unfilled because the country lacks qualified people, or they do not want to serve under corrupt politicians, there is little scope for improvement.

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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

Monday, March 03, 2014

Money versus people

Even amidst the technical jargon of a State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) report, the bottom line is all too clear: economic growth is unable to keep pace with inflation. Growth may have been a better than expected five percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year but the rate of inflation was an alarming eight percent. Part of the problem is that all the money that could have been used to spur economic activity and lasting development is instead being taken by the government to pay off debts, whether to the IMF or to keep the crippling circular debt at a manageable level. Government borrowing now stands at one trillion rupees for the quarter, and the worst part is that even private banks now count the government as the biggest borrower. Money that could otherwise have been lent to spur new businesses is instead being diverted to the government. Even the revenue that is coming to the government is not being put to good use. This is why, as Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal told the Senate, Pakistan ranks a pathetic 146th among 187 countries in the Human Development Index. So preoccupied is the government with paying off loans and debts and abiding by the IMF’s austerity measures that vital investments in health and education are not being made.

We need a government that understands the link between human development and economic progress. A population that is educated and healthy will invariably be more productive. The situation in the country right now is that we have a youthful population that is unable to find jobs and does not have a government that represents their needs. Even small steps can lead to significant improvement. Appointing an independent SBP governor, who can turn off the cash spigot to the government, would be a good start. Health and education have mostly been devolved under the 18th Amendment but money provided to the provinces can come with the condition that it be used in these vital sectors. The government needs to move beyond thinking only of the lack of money in its coffers, which is leading it to seek the one-time bounty that will come from privatisation but lead to greater job loss and likely increased prices in the private sector. The most important resources in the economy are not the strings-attached dollars the IMF sends our way or the consumer products we love to import. True economic progress will only come when we invest in our people.

Spoken no more

It is a little known fact that International Mother Language Day, observed on February 21, was inspired by a student protest in Dhaka in 1952. Unesco decided to honour the sacrifice of the 1952 protesters in 1999 by instituting a day to raise awareness about linguistic diversity. The lesson is one we could still use to this day as provincial and regional languages are still in danger of dying out, often with the active involvement of the state. Occasionally, the reason is political. In Balochistan, for example, students are denied the opportunity to be taught in their mother tongue. A private member’s bill in the National Assembly to accord national status to six languages other than Urdu was rejected on the spurious grounds that it would undermine national unity. It is felt, though, that by trying to impose one language alone on a diverse country does more to feed resentment and alienation than recognising our rich heritage ever would.

Of the 27 languages in Pakistan that have been designated as endangered by Unesco, 18 are native to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan. The reasons for this are varied, ranging from the fact that the native communities that speak them are very small to their geographical isolation from the rest of the country. Those few people who were trying to study and preserve the language, such as the Forum of Language Initiatives, had to move their offices from Peshawar to Islamabad due to the security situation. Twelve of the endangered languages are native to the Chitral region, where the TTP, not a group enamoured of diversity, has already threatened the population. The language of the Urmar Burkis. The language is on the brink of extinction because the few tribesmen who speak it have been displaced by military operations to other parts of the country. Last year, the designated theme of International Mother Language Day was Punjabi, which Unesco said was the 11th most spoken language in the world but whose popularity was slipping. It soon may be time to publicise and promote other languages in the country that may not last beyond the only generation now speaking them. We must do this to preserve not only culture and heritage but a large chunk of history that will be lost when these languages die out.

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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