Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Pakistan – his 19th in total but the first since the Nawaz Sharif government took over – was notable for all that was left unspoken. The two leaders’ press conference was a collection of platitudes but with tense undertones. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke a lot about ‘peace and reconciliation’, which has now become a kind of code for the release of Afghan Taliban prisoners being held by Pakistan. Karzai realises that he will be left to the mercy of the Taliban once US troops begin their withdrawal in 2014, which is why he is desperate to kick-start negotiations. He believes that Pakistan, which had strong ties to the Taliban, can bring them to the bargaining table. Pakistan has so far released 26 Taliban prisoners but Karzai’s Islamabad trip is believed to have emphasised that peace talks can only commence once top Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is released. Pakistan, for its part, has to be cautious in how it proceeds. Its relations with Karzai have been strained because whenever there is a Taliban attack in Afghanistan he instantly blames Pakistan for either being behind it or for supporting the Taliban. Now Karzai has found himself in a position where he needs Pakistan to reverse its crackdown on the Afghan Taliban even as he continues to point the finger at it whenever there is violence.
Karzai himself has been so erratic in his commitment to peace talks with the Taliban that Pakistan, while rhetorically supporting all peace efforts, needs to tread lightly. Pakistan’s release of Afghan Taliban prisoners is what kick-started talks in Doha but then Karzai sabotaged the process in June when he objected to the Taliban using flags that bore symbols from the time of their rule. The Afghan president needs to be savvier than that. Whatever leverage Pakistan has over the Taliban is limited and a lot of it was squandered during the Doha fiasco. Should Karzai continue vacillating, there is not a lot that can be done. As it is, we face an internal insurgency from the TTP, which is stretching our troops to the limit. Prudence dictates that we do not make an enemy of the Afghan Taliban and that too to help a president who seems unsure of what he wants. Karzai and Nawaz Sharif may have been all smiles and exchanged only kind words at their joint press conference but the joviality was a charade that masked tensions which may come to the fore over the next year.



The continued bouts of firing along the Line of Control (LoC), which on Sunday claimed the lives of two Pakistani civilians, show just how important it is to have peace that is not built on shaky foundations. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has taken every opportunity to insist that he is committed to better relations with India but his good intentions have been thwarted at every turn by an Indian government that is afraid of appearing weak as it ends its term, and media sensationalists on both sides who thrive by sounding the drumbeats of war. Add to this volatile mix the jittery soldiers who are engaged in an indefinite standoff and it is no surprise that each new day brings more such incidents. The unfortunate truth is that it is the LoC itself that is the provocation. The heavily-militarised de facto border, where troops from both countries are separated only by a fence and thousands of land mines, naturally lends itself to these periodic bouts of violence. Indian soldiers are always on the lookout for militants trying to smuggle arms into Kashmir while Pakistani soldiers are equally alert to any Indian aggression. A simple misjudgement is all it takes to spark one incident, which then leads to a constant back-and-forth of retaliatory fire.
The ultimate solution, of course, is a negotiated settlement over the disputed territory of Kashmir. But for now that is a very distant possibility. Even incremental forward movement requires years of patient negotiations. For now, the two countries need to make progress on economic ties. The closer their economic destinies are bound together, the less incentive they will have to rile up nationalist anger over border incidents. Pakistan should prioritise granting India Most-Favoured Nation trading status while India can reciprocate by exporting cheap electricity to us. It is also necessary to continue people-to-people contact. Both Pakistan and India will be tempted to make it harder for citizens from the neighbouring country to visit them but this urge should be resisted. Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh need to also meet at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session next month and use that as a springboard for further talks. Thanks to the nuclear deterrent, both sides know that a military solution to Kashmir is out of the question. This is why negotiations are the only way forward and belligerent talk a distraction from the inevitable. That lesson needs to be learned by both the state and the media.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013


Karachi needs peace, not only for the sake of the people who live there but for the country as a whole. Any hope for calm or anything resembling normalcy has, however, slipped further from our reach with the resumption of gang wars in Lyari, as areas in the locality are attacked with rockets and the ugly sound of gunfire rings out across it all through the night. Several people have been killed and scores injured as reports of more violence continue to come in. While this problem persists, there can be no hope of an end to violence in the city. The MQM has demanded, in the name of the constitution, that the army be called in to restore order. While army deployment may be questionable, the government clearly needs to find some way to restore order in a city where rule of law has clearly fallen apart. Past record of the PPP government in this respect is hardly reassuring, and the centre also seems to be taking its own sweet time in outlining any definite plans regarding Karachi. Such delays lead us to question if there is even any will at their end for such plans. But steps need to be taken urgently to tame Karachi’s mafias, gangs and ‘political’ parties. Hundreds of families from the Katchi community, which had fled Lyari for Badin and other districts in June and July this year to escape violence, gathered at the Karachi Press Club on Monday, as they returned home. They demanded safety which does not seem possible for now, thanks to the callous indifference of the political forces for which their plight exists only to be used for political exploitation.

Lyari is not the only area in Karachi to suffer gang activities; the city has been terrorised by gangs operating as extortion mafias. Violence is also driven on by sectarian warfare, as a consequence of which the spokesman of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was gunned downon Sunday, triggering protests. We obviously need decisive answers and decisive action. But as things stand now, none seem to be available with everyone looking on as Karachi continues to crumble under the weight of violence that has overwhelmed it. The lack of official clarity on what should be done is criminal. The sooner it ends the better. Perhaps some good will come as the Supreme Court resumes hearing on the Karachi law and order case today.


The government’s decision to seek a further $12 billion in loans from the IMF over the next three years will throw Pakistan even further into the debt trap. The most optimistic thing the finance minister has been able to say about the new loan is that it won’t send the country into default. While this may be an improvement on previous governments, admitting that we need further financial assistance but that it will not make us completely insolvent is hardly an achievement worth boasting about. IMF and World Bank loans never come without strings attached and in this case will likely mean imposing higher prices on consumers for essential goods and services like electricity. Dar has denied that there are any conditions to the loans saying that any painful measures taken are those which the government would have carried out anyway. It is hard to take this assertion at face value. The GST has already been increased and the cost of electricity has gone up in a tacit admission that the government cannot raise more revenue through taxation. We can also expect deficit financing to rise by 1-1.5 percent of the GDP as the government pays off the circular debt. Even then, this loan will be like taking an aspirin to treat cancer since the circular debt rises by as much as Rs1 billion a day, having snowballed already to Rs70 billion since it was cleared in a controversial move a few weeks back.

Essentially Pakistan is taking on new foreign debt to pay off previous loans. We do not know yet how much interest the IMF will charge us for this latest bailout but we can be sure that it will ensnare us in yet another cycle of indebtedness. To eventually escape it we will have to find new sources of revenue – at home. Punishing the honest few who pay their taxes or have them withheld should not be an option. Broadening the tax net is essential. It is feared that the closeness of Nawaz Sharif’s government to big business may not help and we may see punitive measures like further increases in the price of electricity and gas and more indirect taxes. These are all counterproductive measures that the IMF will expect us to take just to qualify for its latest loan. Far better to reject more external debt than to draw even more blood from suffering citizens.


The US should have learned its lesson about costly foreign interventions after the quagmires in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade but it seems poised to make the same mistake in Syria. All we know so far is that chemical weapons have been used in the civil war between the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and those who seek to topple him. There is no confirmation yet of which side deployed the chemical weapons. That apparently does not give the US pause, which now seems to be waiting to decide only when it will intervene in Syria, not whether it should. When it actually does, the US will be unlikely to have UN cover since the Russians may veto any resolution for military action at the Security Council. This will be Iraq 2.0, where the Americans get bogged down in a country they know nothing about and where morality during a time of conflict is so fluid that no side is entirely free of taint. All that is left for the US to decide is if it wants to spare itself any casualties and launch only an air war or if it will have boots on the ground.

The US does not seem to want to admit that even a light presence in Syria will spiral out of control. It is also not entirely clear which side should be supported. Assad may be a brutal dictator massacring his own people but many of his opponents have ties to extremist militant groups, including Al-Qaeda. It could also end up in an Egypt-like situation, where a long-serving dictator is ousted but powerful institutions – despite elections having been held – are not inclined to observing the norms of democracy. The US would be better served to stay out of the conflict altogether than to take sides in such a complex situation. US military adventurism in Syria will have little credibility. Previous claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were so off base that American credibility is unlikely to be restored anytime soon. While the situation in Syria is tragic, any US involvement will only multiply that effect.

Karachi, already precarious for so many years, did not stop taking a turn for the worse on Wednesday when more people were killed in various acts of violence. So bad is the situation now that all branches of government have taken note of it. The Supreme Court, which has been hearing suo motu cases on Karachi’s violence for more than two years, summoned the DG Rangers and gave him yet another dressing down for the paramilitary organisation’s ineffectiveness. The court has now summoned Attorney General Munir A Malik and asked for all correspondence between executives of the national and provincial governments regarding Karachi. The federal cabinet, meanwhile, will hold a special meeting in Karachi on September 3 where the provincial governor and chief minister as well as the DGs of the Rangers, ISI and IB will be expected to explain why Karachi keeps going from bad to worse. This flurry of activity does not mean, however, that anyone has devised sensible solutions. So far the only proposal has come from the MQM, which wants the army to be sent into Lyari. The MQM knows all too well just how disastrous military intervention in Karachi was in the 1990s. That this is mere grandstanding and not a serious proposal can be seen by the fact that the MQM only wants the army in those areas where the party’s influence is limited – and not in other violence-stricken parts of the country.

The best solution to ending the violence in Karachi came from the DG Rangers in front of the Supreme Court. He said that the main actors behind the violence were the armed wings of political groups. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan expressed the same sentiments at a press briefing on Wednesday, saying that identifying target killers and extortionists was simple but taking action against them was much harder because they had political cover. Unfortunately, ending this state of affairs is easy to demand but impossible to implement. Power in Karachi is decided by a combination of arms, guns and patronage. Controlling areas by force has been the norm in the metropolis. No party would be willing to stop lending support to armed gangs unless everyone else does it at the same time. This is where the PML-N, itself a marginal force in Karachi, can play the role of the honest broker with the MQM, the ANP and the PPP. Chaudhry Nisar has said that targeted operations may be necessary but that the orders for such operations need to come from the provincial government since law and order falls under their domain. At the special cabinet meeting, instead of letting the political parties blame one another, they should be told in no uncertain terms that first they will have to renounce violence themselves. The only alternatives to that would be continuing to allow Karachi’s daily deterioration or launching armed operations that will invariably end up alienating everyone.



The contempt of court case against Imran Khan, which could so easily have boiled over into a full-fledged drama no different to the ones we have seen before, is finally over. Acting with admirable maturity, the two-member bench of the Supreme Court hearing the matter, dismissed the case on Wednesday bringing the issue to a close. We could so easily have remained tangled up in it for much longer, distracting attention from more urgent affairs confronting our nation. However, something we need to pay attention to are the court’s observations that if insults and abuses were hurled at the courts in this manner, the culture of building respect for institutions will be undermined. The contempt case stems from a press conference in July, during which the PTI chief had termed judicial behaviour during the conduct of the May 11 election ‘sharamnak’ or ‘shameful’. Imran has consistently said he had no intention of being disrespectful or abusive to the judiciary, that his remark was directed towards Returning Officers and other polling officials and that the word used was not a form of abuse anyway. This may be convincing to Khan or his supporters but not to many others and the court understandably rejected this argument, first turning away a brief rejoinder submitted through the counsel for Imran and then a 21-page reply on Wednesday, in which detailed discussion was made as to the context in which the word that caused the court ire was used, and what the intentions were. A simple apology from Imran would have ended the matter and saved court time. Perhaps from the case he can take home a lesson regarding greater caution in the choice of phraseology used and also of the merits of conceding a mistake. Indeed this is something many of our politicians can learn from.

Khan needs to realise a few other things as well. His constant refrain – of him and his party having made more sacrifices for the judiciary than any other party – was not in good taste and gives the impression that it was a favour done to the judges or is a cause for them to interpret his latest statements about the court in that light. This path has been trodden by other parties like the PPP and the ANP before, when they were in power and developed similar problems with the judiciary. Like all half-truths, such statements do no good at all or expose our leaders to be political opportunists. But, all is well that ends well. Imran Khan is still embarking on a career in politics and will undoubtedly become savvier as his walk down this treacherous path continues. Imran’s position has not been accepted but the case sensibly put away. We can now move on from here and Imran can proceed with the tasks of governance in KP which seek his attention, having put the contempt case firmly behind him.

Akhtar Mengal, who won a seat to the Balochistan Assembly from his own BNP-M party after returning to the country from years of self-imposed exile, finally took his oath as a member of the Balochistan Assembly on Wednesday. Mengal had claimed that the elections, in which his party won only two provincial seats and no National Assembly seats, were massively rigged and hence he was hesitant to take up his seat. That he ultimately did so does not come as a surprise. Since returning to Pakistan, Mengal has positioned himself as the voice of rationality on Balochistan. While he is still as harsh on the military as ever before, he now tempers it with equal criticism of the separatists. Mengal has expressly disavowed himself from the separatist movement and in a previous interview had even hinted that he believed it received foreign funding. The stance Mengal has taken is a dangerous one since this middle ground risks alienating both the nationalists and the establishment. Nonetheless, he continued down the same path in his speech to the assembly after being sworn in. Mengal explicitly said that being loyal to Pakistan means being loyal to Balochistan, which was a clear indication that while remaining committed to the cause of Baloch autonomy he wants it to be within the rubric of the Pakistani state.

That does not mean, however, that Mengal has become a total pushover. He wants all deals Nawaz Sharif makes with China regarding the future of Gwadar to first get the approval of the Balochistan Assembly. As always, Mengal reiterated that the military must stop ‘disappearing’ people from the province. This is not something the army would like to hear but it would be pragmatic of them to listen to and accept what Mengal is saying. Apart from the sheer immorality of abducting political activists, the situation in Balochistan has worsened to such an extent that the viewpoint of the separatists is now becoming more popular and entrenched. For the sake of keeping the federation together, the voices of relative moderates like Mengal must be heard. That doesn’t mean just allowing him to operate and give speeches. It also means implementing the agenda he is presenting. The model for this could be the Balochistan plan that was drawn up by the PPP government but never put into action. Autonomy and control over their natural resources is the very minimum that moderate Baloch nationalists will expect if they are to continue repudiating the separatists.



The federal cabinet approved on Wednesday the signing of the Council of Europe Convention, which deals with the transfer of prisoners who have been sentenced abroad. Signing this treaty would finally allow us to request the repatriation of convicted citizens even from countries with whom we don’t have an extradition treaty. But for now the focus is on only one prisoner: Aafia Siddiqui. Everyone has an opinion on Aafia Siddiqui, one that lines up carefully with existing ideology but has little do with the facts of her case. Those who defend Aafia and want her brought back to the country and immediately freed pay little attention to the mounting circumstantial evidence that she had Al-Qaeda connections. Meanwhile, those who are convinced she is a terrorist who should be locked up forever rarely acknowledge that she was put on trial only for attacking US soldiers in Afghanistan while she was being detained – and not for having terrorist connections. Her whereabouts before she suddenly showed up at the Bagram airspace are a mystery no one seems keen to explore. That may be because she was being illegally detained and perhaps even tortured by the US. This would explain why she couldn’t be tried in New York for terrorism charges since any evidence obtained through an unlawful detention would be inadmissible in a court of law. For Aafia to be dismissed as a terrorist, though, is unfair when she has never been charged with that offence. She and her three children have suffered a long ordeal; one that no one should have to undergo and the issue, which has simmered on for a very long time, has appalled people everywhere. Islamabad, at one point, was reported to have suggested that she be exchanged for Dr Shakil Afridi, jailed in Pakistan for his involvement in fake polio campaigns in collusion with US forces hunting for Osama bin Laden. It is interesting that just a day after the cabinet’s decision on Aafia, the commissioner FCR overturned the 33-year jail sentence of Shakil Afridi and ordered a retrial.

Aafia is a dual US and Pakistani citizen so the American authorities could well argue that she has already been tried and convicted in her home country. We have also to consider whether she can get a trial in Pakistan that is any more free and fair than the one that found her guilty in the US. Those who have adopted her as the ‘daughter of the nation’ will probably want her to be released immediately. Second, if she is convicted will we be able to detain her safely in prison? Aafia Siddiqui is a cause celebre for militant groups and they have already shown how adept they are at jailbreaks. But the undisputable truth remains that Aafia, just as anyone accused of a crime, deserves better than she has received so far; simply as a matter of basic human rights. But we have to be sure we can provide that. We must now hope that things proceed along track, and that the necessary agreements can be signed to achieve what is required. This would be useful not only in Aafia’s case but would facilitate the return of other prisoners caught up in similar situations in other countries as well.

The decision by the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) commissioner to overturn Dr Shakil Afridi’s 33-year prison sentence may finally bring some clarity to a case that has always been shrouded in confusion and subterfuge. Afridi is best known for colluding with the CIA in the hunt for Osama bin Laden by administering fake vaccines to collect DNA but he was never charged for that crime. Instead he was incarcerated for working for the militant Mangal Bagh group, an accusation that has never been proven to anyone’s satisfaction and which seems unlikely given Dr Shakil’s CIA associations. On top of that, Afridi was put on trial in the tribal areas under the FCR, which did not allow him to mount a sturdy defence or even have a lawyer present. The FCR is an anachronistic law which the PPP government had promised to do away with or, at the very least, reform because it frequently leads to injustice. The FCR commissioner has overturned the verdict on technical grounds, saying that the assistant political agent did not have the authority to hand down such a long sentence and Afridi will now be re-tried by the political agent. This does not address the issue at hand. Afridi should be tried for the accusation that he worked with the CIA and his trial should be held under regular law, and not the FCR, since this is a case with significant national security implications.

If Afridi was part of the Osama bin Laden manhunt and worked as a tool of an agency of a foreign power, putting him on trial would be the most appropriate thing to do. Punishment would be desirable also because his actions have contributed to the paranoia against vaccinations being a western plot against Muslims, even though his lawyers can make a case for leniency since ultimately he helped in the hunt for the world’s most wanted terrorist. There have also been suggestions that the developments in Afridi’s case have been orchestrated so that he can be swapped for Aafia Siddiqui in a prison exchange. However, the US has never openly hinted at the slightest inclination to release Aafia. Be that as it may, justice calls for Afridi to be tried for his CIA work, and not for unsubstantiated charges of helping militants. Afridi’s retrial under the FCR will commence within a week, which is sufficient time for the government or the Supreme Court to intervene and bring him under the ambit of the mainstream judicial system.



The International Day of the Disappeared is marked on August 30. The day was designated against enforced disappearances in 1981 at a meeting in Costa Rica between representatives of various Latin American countries. That continent has had a long history of disappearances, with August 30 marked especially poignantly in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and other nations by the families of those who went missing in past decades and never returned home. Mass graves have since been dug up in many of these countries. Other countries, in other continents, have also grappled with the problem of disappeared people, those picked up illegally by agencies or other forces, often as a consequence of the views they espouse or for their actions. Africa, Asia and other parts of the world have all seen the agony such enforced disappearances can cause. It is sad that Pakistan has joined the list of these nations. Disappearances were never a problem in the country before around 2001, when the first cases of persons ‘picked up’ by agencies began to come in as an aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Since then, the problem has multiplied at a frightening pace, with Balochistan the worst-affected province. This year, we saw meetings and marches in the province against disappearances, demanding that those who had been taken away be brought back home. We also saw human rights activists and other members of civil society take to the streets in Islamabad and other cities. It is a welcome sign that more attention is being paid to the suffering of the families of the disappeared.

But at the same time, we must accept that all our efforts so far to discover the whereabouts of the hundreds reported to be missing in our country have failed. The Supreme Court, despite most sincere efforts, has not made much headway in this respect and neither have other groups struggling to stop more persons from being illegally detained in secret places. This is largely due to the complacency, or perhaps even complicity, of mainstream political forces in such happenings. Stronger and more consistent political and social efforts are needed to end the violation of law that is involved in all enforced disappearances and to ensure an end to the misery of families who have no way of knowing what became of their loved ones.



Continuing on a path it first set out on in November 2012, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has now ordered all mobile-phone operators to ban packages offering bundle calls and SMS services at any time of the day. A compliance report has been sought from these companies by September 2. The action comes after the PTA noted that nighttime packages had been restored using different names and guises. The action by the PTA is, it says, intended to quash ‘immorality’ and ‘obscenity’. Whether it is any business of the PTA to become engaged in this is a matter of debate. While mobile phone packages may be used for undesirable purposes by some users, the vast majority of them utilise these simply to make calls at cheaper rates or keep up communications with families and friends.

The whole matter raises many issues. It is also one that is fiercely opposed by the mobile-phone companies who took the November 2012 ban before the Islamabad High Court, but withdrew the matter after the PTA apparently produced recordings of obscene conversations. A petition by the operators remains pending before the Supreme Court. They seem likely to take the latest ban to the courts too. After all, it will cut deeply into their earnings, disturb figures marking profits and also upset consumers. We do not know for certain how many of these consumers may be using package services but we must ask if anybody has a right to intervene in this manner on their activities through a blanket ban which affects everyone and injures even those who use mobile phone services wisely, sensibly and with good intent. There are laws which deal with obscence talk which can be done even on land lines. So unless there is a complaint, this cannot be accepted as an excuse for a blanket ban. The advocates of the ban must also keep in mind that technology is not stopping for any bans. There are many features offered by today’s smart phone that can be used to communicate even without subscribing to a special ‘package’.

The last thing a ticking time bomb like Karachi needs is for the fuse to be lit but the interior ministry may have done just that in an internal intelligence report it submitted to the Supreme Court. The report, which included recommendations on how to tackle violence in the city, mentioned a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Muhajir Republican Army. The very name of this group, whose existence cannot be confirmed, has incited the MQM with its chief Altaf Hussain comparing it to the Jinnahpur concoction of the early 1990s. There is nothing that riles up MQM activists more than reminders of the days when they were labelled traitors and separatists so the interior ministry should have been able to substantiate the claim about the Muhajir Republican Army before submitting it to the Supreme Court. And if it is a concoction, then it is indeed a shameful deed. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan now wants to withdraw the report from the court because he feels it should never have been submitted, but has not backed away from the Muhajir Republican Army accusation. Other parts of the report are more sensible, including advice to avoid operations in the city, particularly in Lyari. Operations, especially by the military, may bring about an uneasy peace for a few weeks but invariably lead to greater resentment and bitterness which only fuels the cycle of violence. It is surprising, though, given that it has borne the brunt of previous military operations, that it is now the MQM which is the one party pushing the idea. The cynical explanation for this MQM turnabout is that the party does not like being in opposition and is merely trying to create trouble for everyone else.

Despite not supporting military operations, the federal government has proposed a beefed-up role for the intelligence agencies in Karachi. This is not an entirely unobjectionable idea but simply collecting intelligence will not be enough; that intelligence must then be acted upon. This is where the reality of the situation comes crashing in. Everyone knows that the violence in Karachi is caused by a series of turf battles between gangs. Those gangs have political patronage which essentially renders them immune. The police, too, owe their loyalties to one party or the other so their capacity for action is strictly limited. Well-meaning people often suggest deweaponisation as a possible solution to the violence. This, as we witnessed in the Supreme Court this week, is not easy. The director general of the Sindh Rangers told the Supreme Court that over the past few years around 19,000 containers of weapons and vehicles had gone missing from the port. How will it ever be possible to rid a city of weapons when more illegal arms can be obtained so easily? The only hope in the immediate future lies in the various law-enforcement agencies operating in the city finally doing their job. Then, in the long run we need the city’s political parties to finally decide that politics, not violence, is the way to hash out disagreements.



The PML-N agenda for peace talks with the Taliban has yet to take a defined shaped, with many opposed to the idea of negotiations with the militant group. The military is believed to be reluctant to talk to those who have been directly targeting it, although the PML-N is confident that it will come in line with the government. The opposition parties, particularly the PPP and the ANP, are also not quite as keen on peace talks as the PML-N and the PTI. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has now also received a fillip from the JUI-F, whose leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman has now said that he is willing to help out the government although he refuses to be an intermediary between the government and the TTP. Fazlur Rehman also brings to the table the trust of the Taliban, with whom he always had links. In wondering if the PML-N had the support of everyone else in going ahead with negotiations, there was little curiosity about whether the TTP had any interest in holding talks. This is where Fazlur Rehman could prove to be a vital asset since he could convince a reluctant TTP that it is also in their interest to meet the government halfway.

Talks with the TTP now seem to be an upcoming reality but the PML-N must beware certain pitfalls. It must not fall into the trap of seeing the negotiations as an end in itself. The ultimate aim is to neutralise the Taliban and make them lay down their arms. We also have to convince them to stop their relentless campaign of bombings in our cities. In return, there might have to be taken the painful step of recognising the TTP as de-facto rulers of parts of the tribal areas. If this point is reached it would be a compromise that we were forced into by an intractable foe. The TTP has never abided by peace deals it previously made and we shouldn’t expect this time to be any different. That is another reason to ensure that the Taliban don’t stall for a couple of months so that negotiations can be held in winter, a time when the TTP is not equipped well enough to fight as effectively. Because if that happens, as soon as the weather improves the TTP will have regrouped and be ready to take the fight to the government. Such outcomes must be avoided at all costs.



The unthinkable has happened. Pakistan, four-time world champions, have even failed to qualify for World Cup 2014 to be played at The Hague. The Green-shirts suffered this ignominy when they fell 1-2 against South Korea in the Asia Cup semi-finals in the Malaysian city of Ipoh on Friday. After having flopped miserably in their previous opportunity to win a World Cup spot, Pakistan needed to win the Asia Cup as it represented its last chance to make the cut for the quadrennial spectacle. Unfortunately, they failed again. Pakistan is the most successful team in the history of the Hockey World Cup, having won the prestigious title in 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994. But all that glory is history now. Today, the bitter truth is that Pakistan is not even counted among the leading hockey-playing nations. Languishing at No 9 in the world rankings, the country is slowly but surely moving towards the unwanted status of an underdog. That is a huge comedown for a team that once rode roughshod over its rivals and won major international titles almost at will.

Our hockey chiefs make hollow promises of the game’s revival. They are now talking of raising a strong team for Olympic Games 2016. But with their dismal track record, Pakistan may not even qualify for the Olympiad in Brazil just like they failed to make the cut for next summer’s World Cup in Holland. The Pakistan Hockey Federation has failed to come up with a plan to lift the game even though it has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ rupees over the last five years mostly on half-baked projects. For years, PHF bosses have been refusing to take responsibility for Pakistan’s consistent failures. They should do so now and step down. Pakistan hockey needs a new leadership with vision and motivation. People with a better game plan should be given charge to pick up the pieces.

It is an established, uncontroversial fact that the violence, extortion and land-grabbing that have become a routine part of life in Karachi are facilitated by political parties who have their own armed wings and also patronise criminals. Should we now add a branch of the military to the list of culprits? An investigative report has revealed that officers from the naval intelligence had been caught kidnapping a fisheries trader for ransom. Two other members of the gang were found hiding at the naval intelligence headquarters. The navy has denied this account. It needs to do better than issue rote denials. It is entirely possible that these were rogue members who were operating without the knowledge of anyone in the naval intelligence, but the longer the navy stonewalls the harder it becomes to defend that proposition. The navy needs to realise the wisdom of the famous maxim that the cover-up is always worse than the crime. Its credibility will be damaged far more if it continues to protect these men rather than provide an honest accounting and ensure that justice is served. A scandal only has legs when the authorities misuse their power to protect their own. Those involved in the kidnapping should be dishonourably discharged and face justice, whether civilian or military.

The incident exposes further just how big a problem abductions for ransom are in Karachi and indeed in other cities where they seem to be spreading. There have been incidents, reports, revelations and complaints showing that not just political parties and naval intelligence personnel but men from other security outfits in Karachi may be involved as well in the ‘lucrative business’ and this may well be a much more organised network than we may have thought. This year alone, at least 72 people are reported to have been kidnapped for ransom in Karachi alone. For 2012, the number stands at 134, and of course it is possible that some cases are not reported at all, with families preferring to make private deals and simply paying off the amount sought without taking the risk of involving police or other forces. It is ironic that this incident came at a time when political parties, particularly the MQM, had been calling on the army to intervene in Karachi to sort out the law-and-order situation. Conditions in Karachi are so bad right now that almost all institutions are corrupted by the knowledge that it is easy to make a quick buck. The promise of power and easy money has proven too tempting for our political parties and, as this episode may have shown, there is no reason to believe that others will not be lured in by the temptation. The only way to stem this criminality is with openness. The activities of intelligence men are considered above the ambit of public scrutiny. That will have to change. We simply cannot afford to see our most sensitive forces engaged in such crimes or forming part of a mafia. The matter must be investigated thoroughly. If there is even a smidgen of truth to it we must get to the bottom of the whole matter. This is too dangerous a situation to ignore.



After suffering the ignominy of losing against the weakest team in the Test-playing world, Pakistan came back with a vengeance to win the One-day International (ODI) series 2-1 against Zimbabwe in Harare on Saturday. What was expected to be a cakewalk turned out to be quite a challenge for the tourists especially after a shock seven-wicket win by the hosts in the opening ODI last week. In fact, the three-match series will be remembered for Zimbabwe’s spirited showing in the opening game rather than Pakistan’s back-to-back wins in the last two games. The upset loss suffered by Misbah-ul-Haq and Co ignited stinging criticism from various quarters and rightly so. It was the first time in 15 years that Zimbabwe beat Pakistan. What made the loss unacceptable was the fact that the current Zimbabwean team is far from being a winning unit unlike the 1998 squad that last beat Pakistan. Just a few weeks back, a second-string India team led by Virat Kohli whitewashed the same home team 5-0 in Zimbabwe. Unlike India, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent a full-strength squad to Zimbabwe despite repeated demands from experts, critics and former stalwarts for the inclusion of a maximum number of new faces in the touring party.

With accomplished players like Misbah, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal in the side, it was expected that Pakistan will win all its tour matches in Zimbabwe hands down. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. A defeat against the underdogs wouldn’t have hurt so much had Pakistan fielded a second-string team in the ongoing series. A much-needed infusion of young blood in the squad would have been a welcome step as it would have gone a long way in preparing a strong and balanced squad for the 2015 World Cup. The morale-shattering result should serve as a wake-up call for Pakistan cricket’s think tank which needs to shape concrete plans to make sure that such disasters are not repeated in the future. The question is not whether Pakistan needs to rebuild its limited-overs squad in the lead up to World Cup 2015 to be played in Australia and New Zealand. The question is whether our cricket authorities – PCB chiefs, national selectors, coaches and captains – have the will and capacity to go for it.

The fracas along the Line of Control (LoC) seem to have ebbed over the last couple of weeks but hawkish emotions are still freely flowing. Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid all but ruled out the possibility of prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Manmohan Singh meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly session in New York. Khurshid said that a meeting would only be possible if Pakistan took responsibility for the violence triggered along the LoC. Khurshid must know that this is never going to happen and so he is using his tough, unreasonable stance to convince his domestic audience that the Congress can be just as anti-Pakistan as the BJP. The only other explanation is that the Indian government has decided that it has nothing to gain from talks with Pakistan and is looking for ways to blame us for the death of the peace process. To recap what ignited the latest tensions along the LoC: India claimed that two of its soldiers were killed by militants and Pakistan Army personnel. This set off tit-for-tat from both sides which continued for over a week. Till now, India has been unable to provide any evidence that the army crossed the LoC and killed the Indian soldiers. Indeed, even if it is true that the killers included men in Pakistan Army uniform, that does not mean that they were actually our men. If members of the military did want to kill Indian soldiers, wouldn’t they be smart and prudent enough to not cross the LoC in their regular uniforms? Their first choice would have been to don Indian military jackets.

Logic, however, is not something India is interested in right now. Demanding we take responsibility for the LoC clashes is simply a bullying tactic by the more powerful country. The challenge for us now is to refrain from taking the bait and continue trying to be constructive. So far Nawaz Sharif has been admirable in the way he has stood up for our interests while making it clear that peace with India remains one of his top priorities. If Manmohan Singh does refuse to meet Nawaz Sharif at the UN, the prime minister might want to consider emulating Pervez Musharraf, who at a Saarc summit in 2002 went up and unexpectedly shook hands with Atal Behari Vajpayee. Such a PR stunt would show the world that we remain committed to peace, not war, and would force the Indians to respond more constructively.



Western military intervention in Syria now seems to be a matter of when, not if. US President Barack Obama made clear that he favours strikes on Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, even though he is yet to provide conclusive proof that it was Assad and not the rebels who were responsible for the chemical weapons attack. While Obama has said that he will be putting the matter up for a vote in Congress, he has also made clear that he does not necessarily see the vote as binding. France has been even more vocal about intervening in Syria. Only Britain, where a House of Commons chastened by the Iraq war experience voted against military measures in defiance of Prime Minister David Cameron, has explicitly said that it will not take part. The rest of the west seems to have forgotten the lessons of Iraq. Military campaigns tend to have unintended effects and the massive loss of life sets off conflagrations throughout the region.

What is even more worrying is that the US doesn’t even know who it will be ostensibly helping. The rebels in Syria are a ragtag bunch of groups with differing ideologies but few fit the mould of the secular democrats the west seems to be expecting. Rather, Al-Qaeda and assorted other militant groups make up an important part of the opposition to Assad. It is undoubtedly true that Assad is a dictator without scruples but no one knows if the alternative will be any better. The US should be using its influence to convince both sides to agree on a ceasefire and commence negotiations, rather than picking sides in a civil war. This has become a distressingly familiar pattern for the US. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan it trained and funded the mujahideen only to turn against them. The same happened when the US turned a blind eye to Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against Iran, an act later used as a justification for invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam. This is certainly what will happen in Syria if the US is successful in regime change. It will realise that the new government is not particularly pro-American or committed to democracy and what was presented as a short campaign will end up being open-ended. Better sense should prevail in the US but all signs are pointing to yet another Middle East folly.



As is the case across the country, crime has been on the rise in Lahore – with monitoring groups reporting a significant upsurge. For instance till July 2013, 3,300 cars and motorbikes had been taken away from various places in the city. Other incidents of vehicle theft may never have been reported. We also know that many of the stolen cars will not be recovered. Police efficiency is, after all, not something we are particularly known for.

Lately, though, there has been an increase in other kinds of street crime, forcing people in the city to draw comparisons between Lahore and Karachi. According to newspaper reports, a spate of robberies involving the snatching of expensive cell phones from car drivers has been reported from areas across the city. The methodology used is quite distinct, with a motorbike rider first knocking askew a car mirror and then, as the person at the steering wheel leans out to re-align it, another member of the same gang swooping in and lifting away phones. Smart phones and other expensive mobile sets are most often targeted, indicating those behind this crime carefully monitor the victim before carefully picking on them. Women have frequently been targeted, perhaps because it is perceived they are easier prey. Of course, it is possible to block cell-phone numbers and even to retrieve data, but even so the intrusion and the threat is a frightening one. That the people of Lahore are now going through what seems to have become part of daily life in a city like Karachi is also alarming. Quite clearly, a single set of persons is behind these particular crimes. Their repetitive modus operandi should make it easier for police to track them down and also to take measures to combat street crime which is rising rapidly in Lahore and turning it into a city that may not be considered relatively safe for long.

The first day of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s two-day visit to Karachi was a chance for political parties to put aside their parochial differences and thrash out a consensus over what course of action to take for the sake of the city. Instead they reverted to form, more interested in grandstanding than problem-solving. First, MQM representative Farooq Sattar was disinvited from attending Wednesday’s special cabinet meeting in Karachi and in exchange for the snub was offered a one-on-one with the prime minister after the All-Parties Conference (APC) at the Governor’s House. The MQM dismissed that as a mere photo opportunity and refused to take part. At least the party participated in the APC. The PTI continued its politics of rejection and refused to attend because it had not been issued a ‘formal’ invitation. After winning two provincial and one National Assembly seat from Karachi, the PTI should have been mature enough to realise that it is now a stakeholder in the city and has a positive role to play in governance rather than pack its bags in a huff over the pettiest matters possible. The lead-up to the APC did not inspire any confidence in the political parties and their ability to look beyond their narrow interests.

And so it proved, with the MQM reiterating its demand for army intervention, a move that no one else supports and which the MQM itself should be horrified, knowing how badly it had suffered in the past. The only suggestion the PPP had to offer was a deweaponisation drive – which sounds nice in theory but is impossible to implement so long as all the parties, including the PPP itself, have armed wings. The PPP also suggested that the MQM-Haqiqi should have been part of the conference, which can be seen as little more than an attempt to provoke the MQM. The party suggested allowing the chief minister a free hand to deal with the situation in Karachi, but neglected to mention that its own government could have done that over the last five years but never availed the opportunity. The one thing all the parties agreed on is that targeted operations are needed against criminals in the city, regardless of their political affiliation. Since Nawaz Sharif has promised to listen to the recommendations of the political parties, this is likely to emerge as the course of action after approval at the cabinet meeting. But should we not be sure that, once operations start, the parties will distance themselves from it and claim that their workers are being targeted unfairly? That attitude, learned and mastered over many years, is why Karachi is in such strife today.



As was expected, the government raised the price of petrol once again – the second time it has done so since coming to power. What is surprising was the extent of the hike – a Rs4.71 per litre increase. This can likely be explained by the sudden rise in the world prices of oil, prompted by the probability of US military action in Syria. Although Syria itself is a relatively marginal contributor to the world’s oil supply, traders fear that US intervention could spur greater instability throughout the Middle East. This, though, will be of little consequence to the vast majority of people in the country, whose main priority will be to consider how they are to manage already over-stretched budgets given the latest increase. The price of oil determines much else, including the costs of commuting, cooking and travelling. Since we rely heavily on imported oil, this means that our energy bill has just gone up again and the government is simply too broke not to pass on a lot of that increase to consumers. Even without this unexpected rise in oil prices, we should still be prepared for regular increases in the cost of petrol, gas and electricity.

The government has made some attempt to manage this, by retaining the subsidy on High Speed Diesel, the fuel most often used for agricultural purposes and transport. HSD goes up by Rs2.50 a litre; this too will have an impact. But other fuels rise far more steeply: petrol by Rs4.64 per litre; kerosene – which still lights many stoves – by Rs4.71. Inevitably the pinch will be felt and it will be experienced across the economic spectrum, with the middle class, the salaried and others too struggling to manage. The decision to raise the prices is also a controversial one since the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has in the past advised the government to avoid passing on the entire impact of oil hikes to consumers. The consumers would agree. There have already been protests against the price hike, with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf staging one in Lahore on Monday. The party plans more in other cities. But whether or not they come out on the streets to protest, it is clear the oil price hike will cripple lives. Continuing inflation has already taken a big toll on them, even if the issue is perhaps not one discussed as often as militancy. Maybe that needs to happen, so that measures can be taken to control it. The latest oil price hike will obviously make matters worse and leave families even more unable to cope as other commodities go up in response to the petroleum product rise. The priority for our government must be to enable people to see this through. The people of the country have been stretched far enough and simply cannot take any more without falling apart. Their cries of pain need to be heard. It would be unfair to ignore them indefinitely, given the anguish we see all around us.

Pakistan has always insisted that its nuclear programme is safe, with multiple checks and balances to ensure against theft. Most of the security protocols were put in place after the AQ Khan network was revealed and despite our protestations of safety, our nuclear arsenal has been viewed with suspicion since then. We got a confirmation of just how strong that suspicion is when documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden to The Washington Post revealed that the US is constantly trying to gather surveillance about Pakistan’s nuclear arms. So worried is the US about this issue that it has only two categories for nuclear proliferation: Pakistan and the rest of the world. We will naturally express outrage that an ostensible ally is spying on us, even if it comes as no surprise that it is doing so, and then assure the world that our nuclear weapons are safe from militants. On the latter point, we would actually be right. Nuclear technology is not simply something that militants can come and pick up. The location of warheads is kept secret and often changed. It would require our entire system of government to be overthrown and the militants to take over the country before they have a shot at getting our nuclear technology.

The more worrying development here is yet another glimpse of how toxic the US-Pakistan relationship has become. The leaked files also claim that the US was worried that the government was carrying out extrajudicial killings of suspected militants – although how that is different from drone strikes is not explained – but chose to keep quiet about it since it may have forced a cessation of aid. The picture painted is one of mistrust: the US has no other choice but to work with Pakistan but it doesn’t like doing so. This shaky alliance is built on necessity and is unlikely to last once the US doesn’t need Pakistan any more. The lesson for this country is to start preparing for that eventuality by building better regional alliances and becoming less reliant on American money. Our nuclear weapons will always make us a potential target so we need to devote even more attention and resources to their safety. And above all, we need to realise that in international relations the only permanent thing is a temporary convergence of interests.


One of the greatest checks on excessive government power is the right of all citizens to get information about what their representatives are up to. The general principle which should be followed, but rarely is, when it comes to freedom of information laws is that all information should be available to the public except for the rare documents that concern national security. Just because a document reveals government wrongdoing or corruption is not sufficient reason to hide it from public view. The PML-N, however, has turned this ideal on its head with its draft of the freedom of information law. The draft bill seems to be trying its very best to ensure that citizens receive as little information as possible. If a request for information is deemed to be ‘malicious’ or ‘frivolous’ – although the desire to keep a tab on government activity should never be described as such – a fine of up to Rs10,000 can be imposed. To further discourage disclosure, individual departments have the right to decide if they want to make documents public, with the ombudsman only able to advise them, rather than order them, on which course of action to take. Add to that a burdensome fee that must be paid for each request and the freedom of information law begins to sound like an oddly misnamed law.

The PML-N already had two other laws dealing with the same matter to use as a guide: Pervez Musharraf’s 2002 Freedom of Information Ordinance and the PTI’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Ordinance. The two laws are poles apart, with Musharraf’s a masterpiece in obfuscation and doublespeak while the PTI one a model for those who welcome disclosure and accountability. The PML-N opted to use the dictator’s law as a model. It is also unlikely that the opposition parties will clamour for the law to be strengthened since they too might be in power one day and would also prefer not to be scrutinised. Any law that allows our representatives and bureaucrats to operate in the shadows while the public remains unaware of their doings should not be passed by parliament. The PML-N needs to scrap this bill and go back to the drawing board. Even apart from the PTI provincial bill, there are many better examples of freedom of information legislation the government can look at as a guide.



Ex-dictator Pervez Musharraf – already facing charges for the 2007 dismissal of judges, the Benazir Bhutto murder the same year, the 2006 killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti – has now also been charged with the killing, in July 2007, of the deputy head cleric of the Lal Masjid, Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, alongside his mother and a still unknown number of others including the seminary students. The case was brought by Ghazi’s son and an FIR produced by the police before the Islamabad High Court. This is a case that quite obviously requires investigation. Things may not be quite what they seem. Much was made of the Lal Masjid affair in Islamabad and the days leading up to the operation. But was the danger said to be posed by those in the mosque really as big as it seemed – or was it exaggerated? Certainly, the huge arsenals of arms and the foreign fighters we were told were based at the masjid never surfaced. There are also questions that have been put up regarding the excessive use of force and the possible use of napalm and chemical weapons. Could the bloodbath that occurred have been avoided and lives spared? Why was the offer made at the time by political groups allied to Musharraf to mediate in the matter ignored? These are all questions that need answers, and even today, six years on from that gory summer, we seek them.

This then should be the focus of any inquiry regarding the Lal Masjid. One argument goes that the centre was indeed a bed of extremists, that Musharraf had every right to attack it and that he should not be prosecuted for this. Rationale is crucial in this situation. The Lal Masjid affair sharply divides public opinion. What we need then is a full, impartial and transparent investigation into all that took place, so that all the facts come to light and informed opinion-making made possible. The law needs to take its course in the matter and all the provisions laid down in it carefully followed if we are to discover the truth and end the controversy surrounding the whole affair.