DWS, Sunday 19th October to Saturday 25th October 2014

October 25, 2014 Leave a comment

DAWN

WIRE SERVICE

DWS, Sunday 19th October to Saturday 25th October 2014

The DAWN Wire Service(DWS) is a free weekly news-service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS offers news, analysis and features of particular interest to the Pakistani Community on the Internet. DWS is sent by e-mail every Saturday.

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National News

SC promises to interpret Articles 62, 63 for all times

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: In a forceful observation, the Supreme Court said on Thursday it would interpret Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, with no concern for whether “one member goes home or half the parliament”. Both articles lay down the qualifications and disqualifications for becoming a member of parliament.

“We are not bothered whether one member, or ten, or half of the parliament has to go, we will decide the matter before us,” observed Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja.

He is heading a two-judge bench that is hearing three identical petitions, filed by Gohar Nawaz Sindhu, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Ishaq Khakwani and PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. All three seek the prime minister’s disqualification for his allegedly false statement, made on the floor of the National Assembly on Aug 29, saying that the government did not ask the army chief to mediate or become a guarantor between the government and the protesting parties in a bid to end their sit-in on Constitution Avenue.

Also read: DO ARTICLES 62 AND 63 REQUIRE REFORMING?

At the last hearing on Oct 16, the court had acknowledged that the Constitution was silent on the exact definition of the words sadiq (truthful) and ameen (righteous).

On Thursday, the court said that election disputes were bound to arise in the context of the criteria for elected representatives’ qualification and the courts would be flooded with litigation, questioning the credentials of intending candidates whenever elections were held, be it after a year or after the present government completes its term.

Justice Khawaja observed that, as Mr Sindhu had contended, the matter of the disqualification of a member of parliament had come before the apex court for the first time after the passage of the 18th Amendment. Therefore, it was incumbent upon the court to interpret Articles 62 and 63, which laid down the qualifications and disqualifications for membership of the parliament, respectively.

Sindhu also argued that it should be settled once and for all what kind of people should sit in parliament.

Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt, meanwhile, told the court that similar questions regarding the disqualification of the members were pending before a five-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court. The key question the court should consider in these cases is whether the high court, where Sindhu first moved the petition, had the jurisdiction to decide the matter in view of certain protections that were available to members of parliament under Article 66 of the Constitution.

But Justice Khawaja observed that the court’s interpretation of Articles 62 and 63 would make Article 66 redundant.

It is incumbent upon every citizen to always speak the truth, regardless of whether he is inside parliament or outside. Truth is a trust which belongs to the nation, the judge observed.

The Supreme Court asked the AG to submit a concise statement on behalf of the government within seven days and answer the questions raised by the petitioners through their petitions.

The court also asked Chaudhry Shujaat, Ishaq Khakwani and Sindhu, who is also vice president of the PTI Punjab lawyers’ wing, to submit written statements in court, clarifying whether they had moved the petitions on their own or on behalf of their respective parties.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Pakistan suspects India planning to build new bunkers near border

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan suspects India is planning new bunkers near the Working Boundary in violation of a 2010 agreement that bars fresh construction in close proximity to the boundary.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan suspects India is planning new bunkers near the Working Boundary in violation of a 2010 agreement that bars fresh construction in close proximity to the boundary.

“Over the past few days Indians have tried to move construction material close to the Working Boundary. This could be for making new bunkers,” a military official told Dawn.

Heavy exchange of fire along the Working Boundary is believed to have prevented them from beginning the construction work.

The activity is said to have taken place in Charwah and Chaprar sectors of the 190km Working Boundary. The two sectors have witnessed some of the most intense engagement over the past few days.

On Thursday, Indians twice shelled civilian population in the Charwah sector, according to the ISPR.

Pakistan and India had in 2010 signed an agreement that no construction would be undertaken within 500 metres of the Working Boundary.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told a weekly media briefing that attempts to build new bunkers were in violation of the accord and Pakistan would not allow the construction.

She said Pakistan’s response to the unprovoked Indian aggression was measured to prevent harm to Kashmiris on the other side of the Line of Control and Working Boundary.

“We do it carefully because on the other side of the LoC and the Working Boundary there is Indian occupied Kashmir and Kashmiris are our own brothers and sisters. We want no harm to them,” she said.

IRAN: Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Ibrahim Rahimpour will visit Pakistan next week for “bilateral consultations” with Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry.

The visit is taking place against the backdrop of clashes on Pakistan-Iran border last week, which renewed friction in relations.

The FO spokesperson said the visit was planned before the border incident, but the issue would be discussed at the meeting.

“The visit will reaffirm the commitment of both countries to resolve these minor irritants and strengthen the relationship,” she added.

The two sides are looking at improving their border coordination mechanism to prevent such occurrences in future.

Nomination of focal persons for coordination on border incidents is being considered.

About the reasons behind the flare-up on the border, Ms Aslam said: “You have to understand that we have a border with Iran which is long and not always manned.”

SAARC INVITATION: Nepalese Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Panday has delivered to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif invitation for the 18th Saarc Summit from Prime Minister Sushil Koiralato.

Ms Aslam said the prime minister is likely to attend the summit on Nov 26-27.

Prime Minister Sharif had during a meeting with the Nepalese foreign minister said Pakistan was particularly keen to promote Saarc activities in partnership with Nepal.

Resolution of disputes among Saarc countries was important for the organisation’s progress and Nepal could play its due role in this regard, he added.

The prime minster is also likely to visit China next month for attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Dialogue to which he has been invited.

PROTEST: Media personnel attended the FO briefing wearing black armbands in protest against the killing of journalists in the country.

About 113 journalists and media workers have been killed over the past seven years. Thirteen journalists have been killed this year, including two in Hafizabad district earlier this month.

“We are going through a phase where we have witnessed violence. More than 55,000 Pakistanis have been martyred but there is a resolve in this country, in our institutions and among our people that we will not accept violence whether it is against minorities, any professional group or any section of society,” Ms Aslam said.

“We condemn attacks on media. We would like to see all of you safe and sound and working in a healthy, safe and secure environment,” she added.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Canadian PM sees IS behind attacks

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the slain gunman in Wednesday’s shooting at the Ottawa War Memorial and Parliament buildings, was a convert to Islam and a self-declared jihadist.

WASHINGTON: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the slain gunman in Wednesday’s shooting at the Ottawa War Memorial and Parliament buildings, was a convert to Islam and a self-declared jihadist.

The 29-year old Canadian also had a criminal record in Quebec and British Columbia. The Islamic State (IS, which was formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) terrorist group claims that he was one of their sympathisers and posted his alleged photo on social media.

Also read:Canada’s Harper pledges tougher security laws after attack

Zehaf-Bibeau killed an unarmed Canadian military guard in Ottawa on Wednesday and then entered the parliament building, presumably to massacre lawmakers. He was shot by the sergeant of arms.

The attack came two days after another Muslim convert, Martin Couture-Rouleau, ran over two Canadian soldiers in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was killed in the incident.

Police killed Richelieu after a car chase.

Authorities had raised terror threat level in Canada to medium after the first attack and hiked it to high after the Ottawa shootings.

Weeks before the two attacks, the Islamic State had urged its sympathisers to target government offices in the United States and Canada in retaliation for air strikes on their hideouts in Iraq and Syria.

On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his nation that the government had reasons to believe the attacks were inspired by the Islamic State group.

“We will be vigilant, but we will not run scared. We will be prudent, but not panic,” said Mr Harper while addressing the parliament. “As for the business of government, we are here in our seats, in our chamber, in the very heart of our democracy, and we are working.”

US President Barack Obama, however, said it was still not clear if “this was part of a broader network or plan or whether this was an individual or series of individuals who decided to take these actions”.

But US intelligence officials, who spoke to various media outlets, said they saw a pattern in these attacks, pointing out that other similar incidents across the world were traced to the Islamic State group as well.

They noted that on Sept 25 a Muslim convert, Alton Nolen, allegedly beheaded a co-worker in Oklahoma.

Police said he was an ISIL sympathiser.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Footprints: Cut down in an alien land

Saher Baloch

SINCE morning people in the neighbourhood have been asking Fahad Iftikhar’s maternal uncle, Azam Mohammad Khan, when Iftikhar’s funeral prayers will take place. “They say it is an honour to attend the funeral of a shaheed,” he says, his shoulders hunched as he sits across us in Iftikhar’s home in Korangi number 4, Karachi. “There’s never been a funeral for a martyr in our colony.” The family has decided to bury him in Bagh-i-Korangi, a graveyard close by.

Among his family, three brothers, two sisters and his mother, there is a quiet acceptance of Iftikhar’s death. A sepoy with Pakistan Army and part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), the 31-year-old was among the squadron of Unit 32, Punjab, and left for Bangui a month ago from Karachi. The family received a call from the Sialkot headquarters on Iftikhar’s SIM card, which he had left with his brother, two weeks ago, informing them that he had sustained a fatal head injury in an attack on the UN convoy. The attack was part of the fresh round of violence that recently rocked Bangui.

One hundred and forty-one peacekeepers from Pakistan have so far been killed serving in far-off conflict zones.

A UN official, who sought anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the UN peacekeeping missions in Pakistan date back to the partition of the subcontinent. “Pakistan became a part of the mission in September 1947 and we faced a lot of criticism from the Afghanistan government for our involvement. But since then, our troops and policemen have served in various conflict-hit countries, such as Bosnia and Somalia. We cannot guarantee success or at times even security for our troops. What makes me glad is the number of young soldiers and policemen enthusiastically joining our mission, eventually bringing honour to our country,” the official said.

“Iftikhar’s was the first batch of 250 officers to have gone to Bangui,” says one of his batchmates, Mohammad Aizaz, a resident of Zamanabad, Landhi, who is now on his way to the CAR. “Along with some 500 colleagues, I am from the second batch that is now leaving. We are posted for two years in one area,” he said.

“Iftikhar was a close friend. We used to help each other a lot during the missions. The conditions are not so good where we serve mostly, and having a friend means a lot. I was the first one to know about his death.”

Iftikhar’s family waited for his body to arrive for over a week and buried him on Friday with a large number of mourners from their neighbourhood and beyond. Looking at the enthusiasm in evidence at the funeral, his younger brother, Shahrukh, 20, showed an interest in joining the forces as well.

Soon after the funeral, there is silence in their home apart from the noise in the veranda where children are playing. Iftikhar’s maternal uncle speaks about the conversation that happened before his nephew left for Bangui. “I had a discussion with him in this very room,” he says. “I told him Bangui would be difficult, but he reassured me that when he can survive postings in Wana and Kashmir, he’d survive Bangui as well.”

The home is inhabited by three of Iftikhar’s brothers, who pay the rent jointly, and one of the two sisters. Among the brothers, the eldest one was inducted in the police soon after his father’s death. “They waited for me to turn 18, which happened after a week, and I was given the job. That was back in 1996. Iftikhar on the other hand was forced by the family to serve in the army. His other choice was to work in a garment factory,” he says in a steady voice, holding his five-year-old daughter in his arms. But his swollen eyes tell a tale of their own.

“He was really happy to go this time around,” adds his mother, Iqbal Sultana. “I don’t know why, but he seemed quite content. He used to withdraw into himself on his return from earlier missions, but this time his body language was different.” She sits amidst her relatives who have come from Hyderabad, Thatta and Rawalpindi for the funeral.

“He didn’t tell me everything. I doubted that earlier but now I’m sure. One of his friends from the squad came to meet me and told me how horrendous the conditions were in some of these places. Before he left, he told me that we won’t have to pay the rent anymore as he promised to buy a house for me. I don’t need the house, I told him,” she says, crying quietly.

Iftikhar, who got married four months ago, worried about attaining financial stability, which he thought impossible with a salary of Rs16,000. On my visit, his wife was nowhere to be seen and when approached by a family member she refused to speak about her husband. “She’s our daughter now and will stay with us,” says the uncle, “We are realistic enough to realise we are facing financial problems, but I know we’ll make it through.”

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

PM’s recipe for good governance

Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD: It seems that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has woken up to the governance issues that have been plaguing his third stint in office. The head of government has ordered all cabinet members to prepare their own departmental performance reports, detailing all the work they have done since taking charge in June last year.

In a written directive, Mr Sharif asked ministers to prepare briefs on their ministries and departments, explaining whether they have been able to achieve certain targets that were set for them, over the past 16 months.

The ministerial progress reports, according to the orders issued by the PM’s Office, should address these basic queries: the extent to which they (the ministers) have implemented the party’s manifesto; steps taken for public welfare; a roadmap for the future; and, reforms initiated under their leadership.

The PM has also convened a special cabinet meeting on Oct 28 “for the review (of) all ministers and the meeting will continue until (the) completion of this exercise”. For political input, this special sitting of the cabinet will also be attended by party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra.

The PM’s Office has already completed its own in-house performance audit. The ministerial progress reports will now be scrutinised in the light of the PM Office’s findings to establish whether ministers’ performance was up to the mark or not. This exercise, insiders say, may be followed by a cabinet reshuffle.

For many, Nawaz Sharif’s decision to hold members of his cabinet accountable is no doubt motivated by the relentless criticism being hurled at them by the protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. Ever since they have been camped out on D-Chowk, Mr Khan has taken the government to task every day for everything from unprecedented hikes in gas and electricity prices to corruption and wrongdoing in official business.

Talking to Dawn, a PML-N minister accepted that governments can no longer hide their failures. Gone are the days when a regime’s dirty laundry was only discovered by their successors, he said.

“In this age of 24/7 media coverage, it is almost impossible to stay in power without delivering. One mistake and the media will ruin your image. We have, therefore, decided to conduct annual performance audits and come what may, those who do not perform will have to go,” the minister said.

When asked if the prime minister had made up his mind on changes in the cabinet, the minister said that the special cabinet sitting had been called for this very purpose, where the PM would decide who to axe and who to keep.

However, sceptics are asking whether this exercise will unseat Abid Sher Ali and Khawaja Asif, the state and federal ministers, respectively, of the Water and Power ministry, which has committed quite a few blunders over the past year. The young Mr Ali is a nephew to the prime minister, while Mr Asif is a party heavyweight.

Talking to Dawn, a federal secretary confirmed they had already sent in their reports to the PM’s Office and the ball was now in the PM’s court to decide who would stay on his cabinet and who would have to go.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

New power meters are 30-35pc faster than old ones: commission

Ahmad Fraz Khan

LAHORE: In a rare admission of mismanagement and fleecing of people by the power sector, the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission has observed that distribution companies (Discos) have installed new meters which run at least 30-35 per cent faster than the old ones and that the companies can adjust their speed according to their needs.

In a letter — (1(3)/DISCO/S.M/PMIC, dated 22/10/14)) and titled ‘most immediate’ — to the heads of different distribution companies, the prime minister’s commission has warned chief executives of these companies against the issue and sought specific answers to pointed questions regarding the metering and overbilling issues bedevilling the sector.

Know more: Massive over-billing by power companies

“Your office must be well-conversant with the issues and unrest caused by overbilling and extra loadshedding by your company and employees under your control. In view of the situation, your department has done nothing so far but replacing old meters with new ones (during 2012-13) that run at least 30-35 per cent faster.”

“As observed, fast speed had been adjusted on demand of the company to increase revenue. It has also been learnt that major bulk of meters got defective after a few days (of operation) and give exorbitant readings than the standard speed. Observing the situation, the company adopted a strategy of replacing the defective meters with new ones and correct meters, but the situation has not been improved so far. Many defective meters found slower than standard had not been reported due to apparent reason that benefit goes to the consumers,” the letter says.

In view of the situation, the commission demanded immediate information (for further probe) on nine issues:

“How many old meters have been changed in your jurisdiction in the last two to three years? How much expenditures were incurred on the change of meters? Which companies had supplied these defective meters? Who reported defects in these meters; maintenance department or testing laboratory? How much fast speed noticed than the standard installed already? Who recommended the new meters being installed now? How much budget had been allocated in the last three years (year wise)? Which companies are supplying these meters? Name some testing labs capable to check the capacity of existing meters,” says the letter and directed the CEOs to furnish all required information through return fax.

“Everyone in the sector knows the issue, as well as its extent and depth,” says a former head of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco).

He said Lesco alone had replaced a little less than two million meters in the past two years, and its own record had proved the figures. Its August billing this year was a record figure of Rs27.33 billion — at least Rs5 billion higher than the amount collected in the previous month (July), he added.

The former head of Lesco is of the opinion that all these issues are matters of record and everyone in the Ministry of Water of Power knows about them. The Prime Minister Office has woken up to the situation only because of political situation. Otherwise, all ad hoc appointments in the sector are meant to keep them docile, use them to fleece people and artificially improve financial health of the situation. One hopes that the commission does not forget people’s plight once political pressure goes off the government and takes the matter to its logical conclusion, which should also include returning 35 per cent money back to people, he says.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Senators rap agencies over Quetta incidents

Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: Expressing concern over volatile security situation in Balochistan, senators blamed on Thursday the country’s intelligence agencies for the suicide attack on JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and killing of Hazara community people in Quetta.

The attack on the Maulana was a result of “intelligence failure”, declared Tahir Mashhadi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) during a brief debate on the suicide attack on the JUI-F chief.

The discussion on the Quetta incidents began when the house met after a 20-minute break for Maghrib prayers. The members came to know about the attack on the Maulana through TV channels.

Earlier in the day, some unidentified armed men had killed eight members of the Shia Hazara community in the Hazarganji area of the city.

The MQM senator alleged that the law-enforcement agencies were not taking action despite fully knowing about the hideouts of the militants. The banned outfits were now openly operating in urban areas of the country, he added.

“We will continue to collect bodies if operations are not carried out (against militants) in Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar,” Mr Mashhadi said, adding that militants from the banned groups were involved in kidnappings, robberies and extortion in various cities right under the nose of law-enforcement agencies.

Veteran PPP leader Taj Haider also criticised the role of the intelligence agencies in the “war against terror”.

“There are 26 intelligence agencies in the country. And most of these (agencies) had created these terrorists,” he said, adding: “This practice must end now.” The terrorists, he said, were not so strong that they could take on the “state’s organised force”.

“Although there are some groups within the government and state institutions which are patronising these militants, the nation is determined to fight militancy,” Mr Haider said.

PPP’s parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani said the militants did not allow the ANP, the PPP and the MQM to run their election campaigns last year. He was of the view that only those parties were being targeted which were opposed to the Taliban and which talked about “supremacy of the constitution”.

Mr Rabbani called for a better intelligence-sharing mechanism without which, he said, the war on terror could not be won. He claimed that the forces which wanted to “destabilise” Balochistan were behind Thursday’s attacks in Quetta.

Another PPP senator, Farhatullah Babar, said the attacks in Balochistan were an outcome of the government’s “unclear and flawed policy” to fight militancy. He regretted that Asmatullah Mu’awiah, from south Punjab, had recently announced that they would now turn their guns towards Afghanistan, but there was no response from the Pakistan government.

He also accused the provincial government of “backing” militant groups in south Punjab.

Haji Adeel of the ANP said that after targeting liberal and secular parties, the militants had now started attacking even the religious parties.

The party’s Zahid Khan criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for not taking steps to curb terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“What else can we do when the PTI ministers are themselves paying extortion to the terrorists?” he alleged without naming anyone. He said although law and order was a provincial subject, the federal government could not absolve itself from its responsibility of sharing intelligence.

“Was there no intelligence report about the attack on the JUI-F chief?” he wondered.

Mr Khan regretted that politicians were not united on the issue of militancy as there were still people who had “soft corner for terrorists”.

Kamil Ali Agha of the PML-Q termed the incident “alarming” and a result of the lack of intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Terming the suicide attack on the Maulana an attack on the entire political leadership of the country, he said it was the third major incident in a matter of days in Balochistan. Four labourers from Punjab had been shot dead after identification through their identity cards a few days ago, he recalled.

The JUI-F minority senator Heman Das termed the attack on his party chief a result of the callousness of the provincial government which, he said, did not take appropriate security measures for such a big political gathering.

Opposition leader Aitzaz Ahsan suggested that the government arrange briefings for parliamentarians on the security situation after every two or three months.

Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq saw international conspiracy behind the attacks in Balochistan, saying that “there are some countries which do not want Pakistan to live in peace”.

Mr Haq said the militants were targeting people belonging to every community – Sunnis, Shias, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus. He said terrorism was a “national tragedy and a national challenge”.

The PML-N leader regretted that despite the fact that the Pakistani nation was the biggest victim of terrorism, the international community considered the country a “producer of terrorism”.

He admitted that the main burden of combating terrorism was with the intelligence agencies. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had already called for improving coordination among the intelligence agencies and had announced that the government would provide resources for the task, he added.

Earlier, Farhatullah Babar withdrew a controversial bill seeking to give powers to lawmakers to punish officials and people for breaching their privileges. He announced that he was withdrawing the bill because journalists had some apprehensions that the law could be used against them.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Maulana Fazl escapes suicide attack

The Newspaper’s Staff Correspondent

QUETTA: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, and some other leaders of his party escaped a suicide attack here on Thursday evening.

QUETTA: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, and some other leaders of his party escaped a suicide attack here on Thursday evening.

According to police, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest near a bullet-proof vehicle carrying Maulana Fazl, JUI-F Secretary General and Minister of State Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akram Durrani and some other party leaders.

The attack, claimed by the banned militant organisation Jundullah, took place on Mecongi Road, near a shopping plaza, after the JUI-F chief left Sadiq Shaheed ground where he addressed a large public meeting organised by his party.

Two JUI-F workers, Shah Mohammad Tareen and Mohammad Usman, were killed and about 30 others injured.

The Deputy Inspector General of Quetta, Aizaz Goraya, said Maulana Fazl was the main target of the suicide attack. According to him, the Maulana and his colleagues remained safe because the vehicle provided by Balochistan police was bullet- and bomb-proof.

Police said the suicide bomber was 18 years old.

“The participants of the meeting (Mufti Mehmood conference) were offering Asr prayers after the Maulana’s address when the powerful explosion took place outside the ground,” Aminullah, a witness, told Dawn.

Maulana Fazl told journalists that the suicide bomber ran towards his vehicle and blew himself up near it. “Splinters of the explosives hit my vehicle and pieces of the bomber’s body fell over it. Smoke filled the vehicle and I struck against the window of the vehicle,” he said. “I was target of the bomber.”

Soon after the attack, a heavy contingent of Frontier Corps, police and other law-enforcement personnel cordoned off the area and took Maulana Fazl and other JUI-F leaders to a safe place “in tight security”.

Rescue teams took the bodies and the injured to the Civil Hospital. Six of the injured were later shifted to the Combined Military Hospital because of their critical condition.

Hundreds of JUI-F workers donated blood at the Civil Hospital.

Bomb disposal personnel collected evidence from the scene.

“It was a suicide attack and about 8kg of explosives containing ball bearings were used,” an official of the bomb disposal squad said. Pieces of the bomber’s body found at the blast site were sent to the Civil Hospital for identification. His face was badly damaged and beyond recognition. Several shops and vehicles parked around the shopping plaza were destroyed in the powerful blast, heard miles away.

BALOCHISTAN CM: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the attack and said his government had no intelligence report or information about an attack on Maulana Fazl.

Talking to reporters, he said the bullet-proof vehicle provided by the authorities had saved the life of the JUI-F chief.

In reply to a question, he said the militant Islamic State group, formerly called Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham, might be working in Balochistan. “There are several militant groups working in the province and the IS may be one of them,” he said.

The chief minister also condemned the killing of eight Hazara Shias near the Hazarganji fruit and vegetable market, saying the community had received threats on Wednesday night, but did not inform the government.

He said his government had full support of the federal government, army and other law-enforcement agencies to curb terrorism and militancy in Balochistan.

The chief minister called the JUI-F chief and thanked God that the terrorists could not succeed in their nefarious designs.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said efforts were being made to trace and arrest the perpetrators behind the attack.

The provincial government’s spokesman Mir Jan Mohammad Buleda said the suicide bomber could not enter the Sadiq Shaheed ground because of extensive security arrangements made by police.

A spokesman for Jundullah told journalists on phone from an unspecified place that his organisation had carried out the attack on Maulana Fazl, but did not give any reason.

All markets and shops were closed soon after the blast and panic gripped the city. Security was beefed up and law-enforcement agencies started investigation into the attack.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

TERROR AGAIN STALKS QUETTA: Eight Hazaras gunned down; three killed in bomb blast

Saleem Shahid

QUETTA: The Hazara Shia community, which has been a constant target of sectarian militants for several years, suffered on Thursday another deadly attack in which eight of its men were gunned down.

QUETTA: The Hazara Shia community, which has been a constant target of sectarian militants for several years, suffered on Thursday another deadly attack in which eight of its men were gunned down.

Later in the day, a bomb rigged to a motorbike was detonated by remote control near a vehicle of a law-enforcement agency, killing three civilians and injuring 14 others, including two Frontier Corps personnel.

The Hazara killing took place near a fruit and vegetable market on the outskirts of the city. Four armed men on two motorcycles came to the Hazarganji market, boarded a mini-bus and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing six people on the spot and injuring three, Sariab Superintendent Imran Qureshi said.

Capital City Police Officer Abdul Razzak Cheema said police and other law-enforcement personnel were investigating the attack which appeared to be sectarian.

According to police, the victims who owned vegetable shops in Hazara town had come to the Hazarganji market to buy vegetables. “After loading vegetables on the roof of the mini-bus they were sitting in the van waiting for it to leave when the gunmen appeared and sprayed them with a volley of shots. Nine people were in the mini-bus and eight of them suffered multiple bullet wounds. Six died on the spot and two others succumbed to their injuries in the Bolan Medical College Hospital.”

The lone injured man was taken to the Combined Military Hospital. “He is stable,” doctors said.

All assailants escaped soon after the incident.

Five of the dead have been identified as Abdul Aziz, Aashoor, Ali Shah, Safeer Ali and Ghulam Sarwar, while the identity of other three could not be ascertained.

Meanwhile, Lashker-i-Jhangvi spokesman Noorudddin Zangi called the NNI news agency office and claimed responsibility for the Hazarganji and Kirani road attacks. The man killed on Kirani road was identified as Abdullah.

The Hazara Democratic Party and Shia organisations have given a call for a shutter-down strike on Friday in protest against the killings.

The other incident which claimed three lives took place on Qambrani Road. Police said explosives were detonated when a vehicle of Frontier Corps was passing through the area. “The target was the vehicle of Frontier Corps patrolling the area,” police said.

The spokesman for FC, Balochistan, Khan Wasey, told Dawn that two FC personnel were among the injured.

The dead were identified as Abdul Rauf, Sardar Mohammad and Haji Nooruddin Achakzai.

Azad Baloch, a spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army, told newsmen on phone that his organisation had carried out the attack.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Protesters march on Hong Kong leader’s residence

Reuters

HONG KONG: About 200 Hong Kong protesters marched to the home of the city’s Beijing-backed leader on Wednesday to push their case for greater democracy a day after talks between student leaders and senior officials failed to break the deadlock.

Other demonstrators continued to occupy main streets in the Chinese-controlled city, where they have camped for nearly a month in protest against a central government plan that would give Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017 but tightly restrict the candidates to Beijing loyalists.

A wide chasm separates the protesters and the government, which has labelled their actions illegal and repeatedly said their demand for open nominations is impossible under the laws of the former British colony.

“I’m here hoping the government will listen. If they don’t listen we will come out again and again to fight for our basic, grassroots nomination right,” said protester Wing Chan, who took part in the march.

Expectations had been low for a breakthrough in Tuesday’s cordial, televised talks which pitted five of the city’s most senior officials against five tenacious but poised student leaders wearing black T-shirts.

Protesters were unhappy about what they felt was a lack of substantive concessions. Andy Lau, a 19-year-old college student, said now was the time to step things up.

“I think it is time to seriously consider escalating the movement, such as expanding our occupation to many more places to pressure the government to really face and answer our demands,” he said.

Demonstrators marching to the home of the city’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, repeated calls for him to step down. Many were angry at remarks he made this week that more representative democracy was unacceptable in part because it would result in poorer people having more say in politics.

Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage as an ultimate goal. But Beijing is wary about copycat demands for reform on the mainland eroding the Communist Party’s power.

Mr Leung told reporters before Tuesday’s talks that the panel that picks candidates for the 2017 election could be made “more democratic”. That was first indication of a possible concession.

The end-game for the protests remains unclear. Hong Kong’s high court issued injunctions this week barring protesters from blocking roads, but the police appeared unwilling or incapable of carrying them out.

On Wednesday afternoon, a handful of taxi drivers who had filed the injunction turned up at the Mong Kok demonstration zone, on the Kowloon side of the picture-postcard harbour, and started to pull apart makeshift barricades.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Relaxed PM meets parliamentary leaders

Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held on Wednesday yet another meeting with the heads of parliamentary parties to get their input after Dr Tahirul Qadri of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) called off his sit-in on D-Chowk.

Chaired by a very relaxed-looking prime minister, according to one of the participants, the meeting presented an altogether different scene as compared to previous discussions held while the protesting duo of Dr Qadri and Imran Khan were still camped outside parliament. During that time, the prime minister remained in constant contact with allied and opposition political parties, while also attending an unusually long joint session of parliament.

“Now, with Dr Qadri out of D-Chowk, the prime minister had a reason to sound relieved in Wednesday’s meeting. He chatted with the participants and even shared a few jokes, unlike previous sittings when he would look really worried,” a source said.

Another participant of the meeting told Dawn that some of those at the meeting had suggested that PTI lawmakers’ resignations from parliament be accepted. However, a majority was of the view that the issue of resignations should be kept pending and Mr Khan should be allowed to continue his protest.

Another participant, speaking off-the-record, said Dr Qadri’s decision to leave Constitution Avenue had been described as a “big victory” for parliament, providing a much-needed breather to the government, which over the past two months, had remained virtually under siege. The constant presence of PAT workers on D-Chowk used to give an impression, at least to the outside world, of a round-the-clock sit-in.

A cabinet minister told Dawn that after Dr Qadri’s supporters packed up and left, “we have been asked by the prime minister to focus on the performance of our miniseries and forget about the protestors”. On the issue of PTI MNAs’ resignations, he said that under the Constitution, the speaker wasn’t bound to follow a certain timeline. Until the PTI lawmakers individually met the speaker to confirm their intent to resign, the latter would not take any decision, the minister said.

“Although Mr Khan is hell-bent on securing the resignation of the prime minister and has been asking the speaker to relieve his party’s lawmakers from the membership of the house, we hope that sooner or later, a way out of the crisis will be found and PTI will come back to the National Assembly,” he said.

The official press release on the meeting said that the prime minister chaired the sitting of parliamentary party leaders to “consult them on (the) prevailing political situation at the PM’s Parliament House chambers”.

The PM emphasised that all political issues should be discussed and resolved in parliament. “All political parties should play their due role in transforming Pakistan into a prosperous and developed country. We are trying to ensure good governance in the country through a consultative process which also includes the opposition parties,” the communiqué quoted the PM as saying.

“Pakistan wants to cultivate cordial relations with all countries in the region. Our armed forces are fighting courageously against terrorists in North Waziristan and rendering sacrifices to ensure a peaceful and secure Pakistan,” he said.

The meeting was attended by PPP’s Khursheed Ahmed Shah and Aitzaz Ahsan, MQM’s Farooq Sattar and Abdul Rashid Godail, PkMAP’s Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the ANP, Ijazul Haq, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Sahibzada Tariqullah, Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal, Abbas Khan Afridi, Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Zahid Hamid and Dr Asif Kirmani.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Modi is anti-Pakistan, says Musharraf

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Former president retired General Pervez Musharraf sees Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim politician but he hoped in an interview with an Indian TV channel beamed on Wednesday that he would change the negative stance for the sake of peace in South Asia.

Speaking to Headlines Today from Karachi, the former army chief cautioned that India and Pakistan had a nuclear dimension in their strained relationship that neutralised the unequal conventional military parity of about 4:1 in India’s favour.

“The world knows that there is a nuclear connotation involved. So please don’t incite trouble,” Gen Musharraf said. “You are already inciting trouble on our border, in Afghanistan, in Balochistan. I think it’s very unbecoming that you are trying to take advantage of Pakistan’s internal problems, which we are trying to face and fight, especially terrorism,” he said.

“Modi is anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan,” Gen Musharraf said as he accused the Indian prime minister of subverting the peace dialogue with Pakistan. He rejected India’s demand that Pakistan should stop meeting representatives of Kashmir’s Hurriyat Conference.

“Prime Minster Modi is your prime minister, not Pakistan’s prime minister. We don’t get any dictations from him. We know his credentials. We know his anti-Pakistan credentials.

“Now, it may be a red line for you that people of Pakistan or the foreign secretary must not meet the Hurriyat (leaders). That is not our red line. We do not follow your red line,” he said.

Gen Musharraf, who engaged in a dialogue process with prime ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, said he used to meet Hurriyat leaders every time. “Why is there a change of heart? That itself shows and proves aggressive credentials of PM Modi.”

He said the Pakistan government under Nawaz Sharif has been extremely positive on the peace process. “In fact they have been maligned for being overly appeasing towards India. People of Pakistan really understand your ill-intentions towards Pakistan.”

Rejecting New Delhi’s allegations of Islamabad’s involvement in terror activities within the Indian territory, Gen Musharraf said, “India has no proof of any Pakistani involvement.”

Instead, he accused India of creating troubles in Pakistan.

“Our guard on the eastern borders are never down,” Gen. Musharraf said.

The Indian army has been asked by the Modi government to step up border patrols and retaliate with more force if they come under attack. New Delhi has insisted there can be no talks with Pakistan unless it ends shootings to push militants into Kashmir.

Gen Musharraf said Pakistan had stopped raising the Kashmir issue at the UN under his watch because his Indian interlocutors were conducting a bilateral dialogue to resolve the issue.

Islamabad had to return to the UN after Mr Modi suspended all talks.

He challenged Mr Modi to pick up the thread of the Kashmir dialogue with three watchwords he had subscribed to: sincerity, flexibility and boldness with courage to sell the deal to the public.

The interview has come at an awkward time for both governments amid hopes that the two prime ministers were looking to end their aloofness at the forthcoming Saarc summit in Kathmandu.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Iraqi Kurds approve deployment of fighters to Kobani

Reuters

ARBIL: Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers approved a plan on Wednesday to send fighters to the Syrian town of Kobani to relieve fellow Kurds under attack by Islamic State (IS) militants, marking the semi-autonomous region’s first military foray into Syria’s war.

Kobani lies on the border with Turkey and IS fighters keen to consolidate territorial gains in northern Syria have pressed an offensive against the town even as US-led forces started bombing their positions.

The battle has also taken on major political significance for Turkey, where the siege has sparked protests among Kurds and threatened a peace process with Turkey’s own Kurdish insurgents, who are angry at the government for failing to aid Kobani.

Under pressure to go beyond humanitarian assistance for those fleeing the violence, Turkey said on Monday it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters, known as “peshmerga” or those who confront death, to cross its territory to reach Kobani.

Iraqi Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Haji Omer said the Kurdish parliament approved the plan in a session on Wednesday. “Today in parliament we agreed to send the peshmerga forces to Kobani as soon as possible,” he said.

Iraqi Kurdish official Hemin Hawrami said on Twitter the peshmerga would be equipped with heavy weapons. This would help the besieged fighters, who say they need armour-piercing weapons to fight the better-armed IS militants.

Gunshots rang out throughout the day and an air strike occurred near the centre of the Kobani in the early afternoon, while five Kurdish fighters were buried in the Turkish border town of Suruc to defiant speeches and Kurdish songs.

Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said clashes had taken place in the east, southeast and southwest of Kobani.

“They (IS) are always bringing more people and weapons from the surrounding areas and also from (the Syrian province of) Raqqa and Iraq. It’s obvious every time they attack,” he said.

One resident who visited Kobani said IS fighters were still in control of the town centre.

The pro-IS Amaq News Agency released a video of fighters speaking from what they said was the centre of Kobani, claiming that their morale was high and that they were advancing despite coalition air strikes.

Two senior Kurdish officials said late on Tuesday that preparations were under way to send a small number of peshmerga to Kobani, known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab, but it would take several days until the necessary arrangements were in place.

The United States said on Sunday it had air dropped medical supplies and weapons to Kurds in Kobani provided by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) — a move Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan criticised on Wednesday because IS fighters managed to seize some of the weapons.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday two bundles of military supplies for Kurdish fighters in Kobani went astray during an air drop earlier this week, with one destroyed later by an air strike and the other taken by IS militants.

Twenty-six other bundles of supplies were dropped to Kurds in the city and reached their targets.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Malala receives US Liberty award

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Malala Yousufzai, a rights activist and youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has now received the US Liberty Medal and pledged her $100,000 award to promote education in Pakistan.

The 17-year-old student from Swat received international recognition when she stood up to the Taliban who wanted to prevent her and other girls from going to school.

On Tuesday, the US National Constitution Centre held a reception for Malala in Philadelphia and awarded the prize for her “courage and resilience in the face of adversity”.

In her acceptance speech, Malala outlined her desire to see all 57 million out-of-school children in the world going to schools.

Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct 12 together with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist.

Jeffrey Rosen, president of the US National Constitution Centre, said that Malala was a powerful voice for those who have been denied their basic human rights and liberties.

“I speak for those without a voice, I speak for girls who have been persecuted,” Malala said about her struggle against the Taliban. “Why should I not speak? It is our duty to our country. I needed to speak for our right to go to school.”

She said the Taliban committed a big mistake by attacking her, because the attempt on her life made her stronger.

“We all need to protect children’s’ rights,” she added, saying that young women in Syria and Nigeria also had a right to education, despite the struggles in those countries.

“Why not spend this money [used for war] on education,” she said.

The Liberty Medal was established in 1988 to commemorate the bicentennial of the US Constitution.

Given annually, the medal honours men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe.

The Liberty Medal was first administered in 2006, when Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were honoured for their bipartisan humanitarian efforts on behalf of victims of tsunami in Southeast Asia and the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.

Malala is the 26th recipient of the medal. Last year’s medal was awarded to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Meanwhile, the Canadian prime minister’s office announced on Wednesday that it had cancelled two scheduled events with Malala because of several shooting incidents in Ottawa.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was scheduled to moderate a Wednesday afternoon question-and-answer session with Malala at a Toronto high school.

Later in the evening, he was to confer honorary Canadian citizenship on the 17-year-old Pakistani activist.

“Both events have now been cancelled,” the prime minister’s office said, adding that Mr Harper had been rushed away from the Parliament building in Ottawa and moved to an undisclosed location.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

CII calls for ban on hate speech

Kalbe Ali

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology has recommended a ban on ‘hate speech’ which leads to sectarian violence.

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology has recommended a ban on ‘hate speech’ which leads to sectarian violence.

This was stated by the Chairman of the Council, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani, here on Wednesday.

He told newsmen that the two-day CII meeting had discussed the issue of maintaining harmony during Muharram.

“We also call for the protection of non-Muslims. The government is responsible of providing security and protection to them and their places of worship.”

The Maulana also said that the council had declared that the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance (PPO) was against Sharia. He expressed reservations and said the law had its roots in the Western concept of a ‘New World Order’.

Maulana Sheerani said the council had provisionally ruled that the PPO was ‘un-Islamic’.

“However, the ruling would be finalised following consultations with legal, political and defence experts, as well as Islamic scholars,” he said, adding that, “This law grants extensive powers to the army in civil affairs, which was against the constitution as well.”

He said the PPO would turn the Pakistan Army against the masses as they have been granted the right to prosecute civilians.

“The PPO actually abolishes civil rights and the National Security Policy is interlinked with the PPO, which grants army the right to interfere in civil affairs,” Maulana Sheerani said, adding that, “This is interference because law and order is the mandate of the civil administration.”

The items on the agenda of the 196th CII meeting included amendments to the Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, Corporal Punishment to Children and the National Security Policy, among other matters.

When the council discussed the Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, on Tuesday, its members had observed that a woman cannot be the judge in Hudood or Qisas cases.

They also concluded that a marriage is not annulled if a woman leaves Islam, but it is annulled if the man turns from the religion.

Separately, the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) organised a convention of Islamic scholars from various sects to develop a consensus and ensure harmony during Muharram.

Presiding over the convention, PUC Chairman Tahir Ashrafi expressed concern over growing violence and intolerance in the country.

The convention strongly condemned the killings of scholars, clerics, doctors and learned people on sectarian grounds in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

Although hailing from the traditionally conservative Deobandi school of thought, Maulana Ashrafi had been at odds with the extremist elements inside his own sect because of his seemingly liberal stance towards religious minorities.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Accord with Iran to boost border security

The Newspaper’s Staff Correspondent

QUETTA: Pakistan and Iran agreed on Wednesday to tighten security along their border and share intelligence to maintain peace there.

QUETTA: Pakistan and Iran agreed on Wednesday to tighten security along their border and share intelligence to maintain peace there.

Officials from border forces of the two countries met in Tehran and discussed recent incidents of cross-border firing and other issues pertaining to the border.

The Pakistani delegation was headed by Inspector General Frontier Corps Balochistan Maj Gen Ejaz Shahid and the Iranian team was led by Chief of Iran Border Police Gen Qasim Razai.

The meeting reviewed the situation arising out of the recent incidents of cross-border firing and mortar shelling from Iranian side into Pakistani territories. At least one Pakistani paramilitary officer was killed in the clashes which caused damage to property in Chagai and others Pakistani districts.

“Both chiefs of border forces…agreed to tighten security at the border besides sharing intelligence information to maintain peace and order at the border,” an FC spokesman said.

He said Maj Gen Shahid told Iranian officials that Pakistan was making efforts to curb terrorism, extremism and armed aggression. He stressed the need for Iranian cooperation to maintain durable peace in the region.

“Maj Gen Ejaz Shahid told Iranian officials that Pakistan wants durable relations with its neighbours and peace in the region,” the spokesman said.

The meeting agreed to evolve a joint mechanism to strengthen border security.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

MPs want firm reply to Indian tirade

Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan says its army has given a “matching response” to India in recent deadly border clashes along the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, lawmakers in the National Assembly demanded on Wednesday a firm tit for tat in words as well.

Several members of different parties denounced Tuesday’s warning by Indian Defence Minister Arun Jaitley that Pakistan would “feel the pain” if it persisted in alleged ceasefire violations as a manifestation of the new Indian government’s plan to end the special constitutional status of the Indian-held Kashmir to integrate it fully in the Indian union and suggested that the Pakistani response should be more firm rather than weak.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to a poorly attended house and heard some speeches in the later part of the debate on the situation arising from what a government motion moved on Monday called “indiscriminate and unprovoked firing and shelling on the border by Indian forces” along the Line of Control.

PML-N member Marvi Memon told the house in her speech earlier that the Kashmir situation had figured in a meeting prime minister held earlier in the day with leaders of all parliamentary parties that had stood with him in a standoff with protest sit-ins, outside the parliament house since mid-August.

Know more: India warns Pakistan of ‘more pain’ in border fighting

The issue briefly came up also in the Senate where Mian Raza Rabbani, parliamentary leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, demanded that either the prime minister or his Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz brief the upper house.

“Who are they to inflict pain on us?” PML-N lawmaker Awais Leghari, who is also chairman of the house standing committee on foreign affaires, said about Mr Jaitley’s threat in an interview with India’s NDTV network, adding that Pakistani forces were a much hardened lot after years of fighting against terrorism.

Conceding that Pakistani embassies abroad and their public relations officers were “not doing what is expected of them to expose the Indian designs”, Mr Leghari said that though “we don’t want war”, the other side must be paid in the same coin.

But the most forceful criticism of the Indian government came from opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) members Nafisa Shah and Shazia Marri, both of whom also lamented alleged foreign policy weaknesses of the PML-N government.

“I don’t think we are prepared to face new India,” Ms Shah said and wondered “what will happen to the Kashmir cause and Azad Kashmir” if the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi succeeded in its aim to abolish the special constitutional status of the Indian-held Kashmir and integrate the territory with India.

Ms Shah talked of a “non-existent foreign policy” in an apparent reference to the absence of a foreign minister in the nearly 17-month-old PML-N government — and said “we have to have some strong responses”.

Ms Marri asked why the prime minister could not find a suitable member of the National Assembly to be appointed foreign minister and said this was time for Pakistan to give strong response as a nuclear power rather than what she called academic response.

Yet she called for a resumption of the stalled peace talks between the two countries.

PML-N’s Ms Memon disagreed with the perception that Pakistan’s response to India had been weak, saying “we have responded decisively at every level”.

But she said some practical steps would have to be taken to draw world attention to the latest Indian action such as a visit to the affected areas of LoC and the Working Boundary by all members of the National Assembly on what is planned to be marked as a ‘black day” of protest on Oct 27.

The debate, which began on the first day of the session on Monday, is to continue on Thursday with a possible winding up speech by adviser Sartaj Aziz.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Terror attack on parliament rocks Canadian capital

Reuters

OTTAWA: Canada’s capital was jolted on Wednesday by the fatal shooting of a soldier and an attack on the parliament building in which gunshots were fired outside a room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking.

The gunman in the parliament building was shot dead, and Mr Harper was safely removed.

Canadian police said they could not “at this point” confirm whether the man who shot dead the soldier, who was guarding the National War Memorial, was the same person who shortly afterwards attacked the nearby parliament building.

Witnesses said at least 30 shots were fired after a gunman entered the parliament building and was pursued by police.

The assault came very near the room where Mr Harper was meeting members of his Conservative party, a government minister said.

“PM (Harper) was addressing caucus, then a huge boom, followed by rat-a-tat shots. We all scattered. It was clearly right outside our caucus door,” Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement said.

Parliament and buildings in downtown remained on lockdown.

Mr Harper stressed that government and parliament should continue its work, a spokesman said. “While the prime minister stated that facts are still being gathered, he condemned this despicable attack,” the spokesman said.

Police said that an operation was under way to make parliament safe and they were still in the middle of an active investigation.

“It caught us by surprise… If we had known that this was coming, we would have been able to disrupt it,” Gilles Michaud, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, (RCMP) told a news conference.

Dramatic video footage posted by the Globe and Mail newspaper showed police with guns drawn inside the main parliament building. At least a dozen loud bangs can be heard on the clip, echoing through the hallway.

Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino, a former policeman, told the Toronto Sun that parliament’s head of security, Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, shot dead a suspected gunman.

“All the details are not in, but the sergeant-at-arms, a former Mountie, is the one who engaged the gunman, or one of them at least, and stopped this,” Fantino said.

Our correspondent in Washington adds: The US State Department said that its embassy in Ottawa had been shut down after the incident.

“Our embassy in Ottawa has been locked down,” the department’s Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told a briefing in Washington. “All embassy personnel are safe and accounted for but we are restricting their movement as a precautionary measure.” The US official said she did not want to speculate if militants of the Islamic State group or any other militant outfit were behind the shooting.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

PTI says it will continue protest till PM quits

A Reporter

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri called off his dharna after 69 days, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan announced on Tuesday to continue his party’s sit-in till the resignation of the prime minister.

Addressing the participants of the sit-in, he said: “I will not leave this container until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns and an independent investigation into rigging in the 2013 elections is held.”

He said the system would not change if those involved in the rigging were not held accountable and dealt with in accordance with the law. Electoral reforms would be useless without accountability of rigging in the last elections.

“A government was formed as a result of rigged elections in violation of the constitution while we are still being denied justice,” Mr Khan lamented.

He said the PTI would move the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of Pakistan for its failure to upload Form 14 (result sheet at a polling station) and Form 15 on its website.

Addressing National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, he said: “How long will you delay recounting of votes in your constituency? I will not leave this place until the audit of votes starts.”

Mr Sadiq had defeated Mr Khan in a Lahore constituency in the last year’s elections.

“What is this drama that you are not accepting our resignations? You should accept the resignations because we do not recognise you and your assembly,” he said.

The PTI chief asked the government to reduce prices of diesel and petrol by Rs15 per litre in line with the decline in oil prices in the international market.

He said the prices of petroleum products determined the prices of other commodities and people should be aware of this. “This is an additional tax which the government is imposing on the people.”

Mr Khan asked the people of Islamabad to get ready for a protest demonstration in front of the head offices of Pemra against its decision to suspend the license of ARY News channel.

“The rulers have dented democracy by banning the channel.”

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

US designates TTP leader Sajna as terrorist

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: The United States designated on Tuesday Khan Said Sajna, the deputy leader of outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a global terrorist.

WASHINGTON: The United States designated on Tuesday Khan Said Sajna, the deputy leader of outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a global terrorist.

The designation list also includes Ramzi Mawafi, a former physician of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Both have been designated under an executive order targeting terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism.

Khan Said became TTP’s deputy leader following the death of Wali-ur-Rehman in May 2013. Said has had experience fighting in Afghanistan, is believed to be involved in the attack on a Naval base in Karachi, and is also credited with masterminding a 2012 jailbreak in which the Taliban freed 400 inmates from a prison in Bannu.

Said leads the Mehsud faction, which split from TTP in May 2014. In a public statement following the split, Said stated his continued commitment to terrorist activity.

Ramzi Mawafi is an Egyptian national and long-time Al Qaeda member best known as the former doctor to Osama bin Laden.

The consequences of these designations include a prohibition against US persons engaging in transactions with Said and Mawafi, and the freezing of all property and interests of Said and Mawafi in the United States, or come within the United States or the possession or control of US persons.

The US Treasury Department, which keeps a record of these designations, also deleted some key Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders from the list, as they are believed dead.

Last month, the Obama administration designated 21 people and three groups as global terrorists. Most of them were militants operating in the Middle East.

In the last week of September, the United States put Fazlur Rahman Khalil, the long-time emir of Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, on its list of global terrorists. His group was listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in 1997.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Power tariff hike withdrawn

The Newspaper’s Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided not to burden consumers with the new tariff determined by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and maintain it at the current level.

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided not to burden consumers with the new tariff determined by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and maintain it at the current level.

According to an official statement issued on Tuesday, the decision was taken in accordance with a directive of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Nepra had determined the tariff for 2013-14 at Rs13.81 per unit while the current average national tariff is Rs11.52.

The government recently notified a 29 paisa per unit equalisation surcharge which it has decided to offset with a reduction of 30 paisa due to fuel price adjustment, causing no adverse impact on consumers.

The government has also decided to continue to provide subsidy to domestic and agricultural consumers to lessen the burden of expensive energy mix in power generation.

Power plants in the country use mainly expensive fuel which results in higher generation cost and tariff. According to the statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the government is trying to absorb the impact of higher tariff and pass on minimum impact to end-consumers.

The power generation mechanism has also been lined up to ensure that least expensive plants are run first and minimum fuel charges are passed on to the consumers.

The statement said new projects with an estimated generation capacity of about 10,400MW based on cheaper fuel like coal and hydel power were being pursued to reduce the cost of generation.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

KP opposition to withdraw no-trust move against CM

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR: The combined opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is set to withdraw its no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Wednesday as part of a broader strategy to do the necessary spadework for a fresh bid to topple the PTI-led coalition government in the province, an opposition leader said.

He said the no-confidence motion against Mr Khattak would be withdrawn to gain time and space for thorough homework to launch a fresh bid against the tripartite coalition government.

“We are withdrawing the no-confidence motion,” Qaumi Watan Party leader Sikandar Sherpao told Dawn.

The combined opposition in the KP assembly had moved the motion against Mr Khattak in April to forestall a possible move by the PTI leadership to dissolve the provincial legislature. The move, claimed some opposition leaders at the time, had been initiated on the direct request of the KP chief minister to save his government as well as the KP assembly.

Mr Khattak had made it clear so many times that he would not oblige the party leadership with dissolution of his government or of the KP assembly, thus stopping PTI chairman Imran Khan from taking the ultimate decision.

Opposition leaders say the decision to prepare a proper strategy for the removal of the PTI-JI-AJI government had been taken following a nod from the PML-N leadership which after initial reluctance had finally given the go-ahead to JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to explore the possibility.

The decision came following meetings between Fazlur Rehman and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The JUI-F leader later met QWP leader Aftab Sherpao in Islamabad to discuss the proposition.

One opposition leader in the know of latest political development said the PML-N leadership might surprise the KP chief minister in the next couple of days with a move that could put him in an awkward situation vis-a-vis the federal government and the leadership of his own party.

“This would be the beginning of the shaping up of environment for moving a no-confidence against the chief minister,” the opposition leader said.

He said the opposition also planned to field its own candidate, PPP’s Muhammad Ali Shah, against the treasury benches’ candidate for the slot of the deputy speaker in KP assembly. “Even if we don’t win the slot, we want to give PTI a run for money,” the leader said.

The ANP, he said, had already agreed to Muhammad Ali Shah’s candidature. “We may not win but this would be our first bid to test the waters for the no-confidence,” the leader said.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Steps taken to keep Ebola virus out

Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services said on Tuesday it had finalised arrangements to counter Ebola virus across the country.

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services said on Tuesday it had finalised arrangements to counter Ebola virus across the country.

Meanwhile, Dr Michel Thieren, the World Health Organisation’s representative in Pakistan, said WHO was satisfied with the steps taken by the Pakistan government.

The ministry said a number of meetings had been held to devise a strategy to stop the virus from entering Pakistan. Isolation wards have been set up in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, Services Hospital in Lahore, Fatima Jinnah Chest and General Hospital in Quetta, Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar, District Headquarters Hospital in Gilgit-Baltistan and Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences in Muzaffarabad.

Advisories have been issued to the authorities concerned to take measures to mitigate the threat of Ebola virus disease (EVD).

A ministry official said the heads of tertiary care hospitals in the provinces had been asked to take measures, including designation of isolation rooms on an urgent basis to ensure timely management of EVD cases.

“A training session on EVD case detection and its prevention has been jointly conducted by the National Institute of Health, Central Health Establishment and World Health Organisation for in charges of points of entries (POEs),” he said.

Health staff will be available round the clock at POEs to manage any public health emergency of international concern, including EVD. Ebola screening desks have been set up at major airports in the country.

“Health staff at POEs has been advised to coordinate with provincial health departments for emergency management if any EVD case is detected at POEs. Arrangements are being made to share information about any passenger arriving from an EVD-affected country,” he said.

Health officials at POEs will take history of such a passenger and, if necessary, will keep him under observation/quarantine for 21 days. The passenger with suspected symptoms of EVD will be shifted to the tertiary care hospital.

Talking to Dawn, the WHO representative said no country was immune to the threat of Ebola, adding that WHO recommended screening at airports so that the person with symptoms of EVD could be detected there.

Dr Thieren said WHO had been cooperating with Pakistan to ensure that the virus did not enter this country. If a person is detected with the symptoms of EVD, he should be immediately shifted to an isolation ward and detached from the community.

The Ebola epidemic, which broke out earlier this year, is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in West Africa. Every day hundreds of Ebola cases are being reported, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

According to the WHO’s Global Alert and Response Situation Report, 4,493 deaths have been reported till Oct 17. Although Ebola is still concentrated in the three African countries, a few cases have been confirmed in other countries as such persons had a history of travelling to the affected countries.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Canadian soldier dies after being run down by suspected militant

Reuters

SAINT RICHELIEU (Quebec): The fatal attack on a Canadian soldier by a suspected Islamist militant in Quebec was “clearly linked to terrorist ideology”, Canada’s public safety minister said on Tuesday.

It was the first fatal attack on Canadian soil involving Islamist militants, and the first incident since Canada joined the battle against Islamic State (IS) fighters.

The 25-year-old suspected militant deliberately ran over two soldiers with his car in the Quebec town of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on Monday and was shot dead by police shortly afterwards.

Police said on Tuesday that one of the soldiers had died.

“What took place yesterday is clearly linked to terrorist ideology,” Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney told reporters in the Quebec town, about 40km southeast of Montreal.

“I can assure you we take the terrorist threat seriously. This tragedy reminds us painfully that this threat is very real.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office said the man driving the car was known to federal authorities, and that there were clear indications he had become “radicalised”, a term the government has used to refer to those who support Islamist militancy.

Canadian security officials have been worried for years about the potential threat of radicalised young men.

Canada is sending six fighter jets to take part in the US-led campaign against IS militants in Iraq.

Canadian media, citing police sources, identified the driver as Martin Couture-Rouleau, a resident of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, and said he had a Facebook page under the name of Ahmad Rouleau. Reporters were unable to verify the identity of the driver.

Mr Blaney declined to give any details of the police investigation into the attack and did not respond when asked about media reports that said Canadian authorities had confiscated Rouleau’s passport earlier this year.

A neighbour alleged that Rouleau became radicalised about a year ago after getting involved with extremist Muslims.

Television footage outside the house of Rouleau’s father showed a police investigator leaving with a bag overnight.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has for years fretted about the dangers posed by home-grown extremists.

Jeff Yaworski, deputy director of operations at the spy agency, said on Monday the agency was worried that IS’s “message and successful social media strategy could inspire radicalised individuals to undertake attacks here in Canada”.

He told legislators the CSIS was aware of at least 50 Canadians involved with IS and other militant groups in the region.

Ottawa said last week it planned to boost the powers of CSIS by giving it the ability to track and investigate potential terrorists when they travelled abroad.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Sweden ready to use force against suspected submarine

AFP

STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s armed forces chief warned on Tuesday it could use force to bring to the surface a suspected Russian mini-submarine its navy has been hunting for days.

STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s armed forces chief warned on Tuesday it could use force to bring to the surface a suspected Russian mini-submarine its navy has been hunting for days.

Battleships, minesweepers, helicopters and more than 200 troops have scoured an area about 30 to 60 kilometres from the Swedish capital since Friday following reports of a “man-made object” in the water.

Supreme Commander General Sverker Goeranson said there was “probable underwater activity” off the coast of Stockholm and he was ready to use “armed force” to bring the mystery vessel to the surface.

Sweden released a hazy photograph of what might be a mini-sub on Sunday.

“The most important value of the operation — regardless of whether we find something — is to send a very clear signal that Sweden and its armed forces are acting and are ready to act when we think this kind of activity is violating our borders,” the general said.

“Our aim now is to force whatever it is up to the surface… with armed force, if necessary,” he added.

Despite widespread speculation that the “activity” is a Russian U-boat — amid unconfirmed reports of intercepted transmissions to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the other side of the Baltic Sea, and the presence of a near stationary Russian oil tanker off Swedish waters since the operation began — authorities in Sweden have not singled out Russia in their comments.

Russia has denied having any submarine in the area, and pointed the finger at the Netherlands, which laughed off the claim, saying its submarine had already docked in the Estonian capital Tallinn after taking part in exercises with the Swedish navy.

“We have not found any vessel. We consider that the reports… confirm something is happening. There is probable underwater activity,” Gen Goeranson told reporters, adding that it was “extremely difficult” to locate submarines.

“We never succeeded in the past — and no one else has either.” Still, he said, the massive military operation — which focused on Tuesday afternoon on the island of Ingaroe, just 30 kilometres from Stockholm — would continue for as long as necessary.

During more than a decade of hunting Russian U-boats in the 1980s and early 90s, Sweden never succeeded in capturing one, except in 1981 when the U137 ran aground several miles from one of Sweden’s largest naval bases.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

India warns Pakistan of ‘more pain’ in border fighting

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India, accusing Pakistan of continued ceasefire violations along the Kashmir border on Tuesday, warned Islamabad of pain if it didn’t desist, but Defence Minister Arun Jaitley also said that it was up to Islamabad to create the conditions for a resumption of stalled talks.

“Our conventional strength is far more than theirs. So if they persist with this, they’ll feel the pain of this adventurism,” Mr Jaitley told NDTV.

“When Pakistan used to fire, we always had a shield in our hand. This time we also had a sword,” he added, emphasising that India had asked its armed forces to retaliate forcefully to alleged ceasefire violations.

The minister noted that for the last few days, there have been just sporadic incidents unlike the “huge number” of violations allegedly by Pakistan earlier.

“… When Pakistan fires, either in International border, the BSF (paramilitary Border Security Force) responds, they fire in LoC, the army responds. Our conventional strength is far more than theirs and therefore if they persist with this, the cost to them would be unaffordable. They will also feel the pain of this kind of adventurism,” Mr Jaitley said in the interview.

His comments followed an analysis in the Indian Express on Tuesday, which said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategy to up the ante for Pakistan along the border was akin to shooting oneself in the foot. “The lesson from the data is simple: firing on the LoC helps Pakistan pursue an escalatory strategy; quiet makes it harder,” The Express said.

Mr Jaitley’s interview also coincided with the announcement by Mr Modi that he would spend the festival of Diwali with the victims of the recent floods in Jammu and Kashmir.

Though analysts are seeing the move as linked to pending state elections in Jammu and Kashmir, there was also a view that the LoC flare-up had helped Mr Modi lead the polls in Maharashtra and Haryana, where his Bharatiya Janata Party evicted the Congress after 15 and 10 years respectively.

In the worst border violence in over a decade, at least 20 civilians have been killed this month on both sides of the border; dozens more were injured. While the firing has abated, tension remains high along the border.

India’s top army officials and the government have been quoted as saying that Prime Minister Modi has given the defence forces a free hand on handling the tension and violence at the Kashmir border.

Mr Modi invited his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, to his swearing-in ceremony in May. After that, talks between foreign secretaries of the two countries were scheduled for August but India opted out after Pakistan’s envoy to Delhi met Kashmiri separatists ahead of the meeting.

Kashmir’s Hurriyat Party chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told Dawn from Srinagar that Mr Modi’s government had failed to keep its promise to rush relief to the afflicted state after the devastating floods. “It would be far more useful if he sent the aid instead, or at least allowed international agencies to help us out. His visit at this juncture would be little more than of optic value.”

Referring to the recent firing and shelling by Pakistan on the International Border and Line of Control, Mr Jaitley said this time the violations were high and therefore the response had to be proportionate.

On future dialogue with Islamabad, Mr Jaitley said his government had never said it would not talk to Pakistan.

“Of course we are ready to talk. It is for Pakistan to create the environment for talk. That is the message which has been given to Pakistan.”

Pakistan will have to stop the “triggers” which upset the environment in which talks are held, Mr Jaitley said, identifying the “triggers” as cross-border terror and tensions at LoC.

“If they dilute their stand on these issues, perhaps you will have an atmosphere of talks,” he said.

Referring to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s meetings with Kashmiri separatists ahead of foreign secretary-level talks two months back, Mr Jaitley said it was an “extremely provocative” act.

“You can’t be talking to the Indian state and simultaneously talk to people who want to break the India state.

“Therefore, a strong message needed to be given to Pakistan, and that is where the NDA government is a little different. We did give that strong message to them,” he said, referring to cancellation of the foreign secretary-level talks because of that.

He dismissed the recent sighting of ISIS flags in Jammu and Kashmir as “stray incidents of individuals”.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

30 killed in North Waziristan air strikes

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR: At least 30 suspected militants were killed in air strikes in North Waziristan on Tuesday.

PESHAWAR: At least 30 suspected militants were killed in air strikes in North Waziristan on Tuesday.

The Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement that military planes bombed militants’ hideouts in the Dattakhel area, adjacent to Afghan border, killing 30 local and foreign militants.

The claim could not be verified from independent sources. People have left their homes in Dattakhel and a majority of them have fled to Afghanistan after the Zarb-i-Azb Operation was launched in June.

More than half a million people have been displaced because of the operation and the military has claimed that over 1,200 militants have been killed so far.

The operation was launched after a bloody raid on Karachi airport ended peace talks between the government and militants.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Pakistan, Russia to enhance cooperation

Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia agreed on Tuesday to take concrete steps for injecting substance in the bilateral relationship.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia agreed on Tuesday to take concrete steps for injecting substance in the bilateral relationship.

“The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister is visiting Pakistan to hold 2nd Round of Bilateral Strategic Dialogue with Pakistan. The Dialogue held with Mr Nadeem Riyaz, Additional Secretary (Europe), focused on a review of political, economic, parliamentary and cultural relations,” a Foreign Office statement said.

The two sides also explored possibilities for enhancing cooperation in the energy sector.

The composition of Pakistani delegation led by an additional secretary prompted speculations about Islamabad losing interest in the process and, therefore, quietly lowering its level of engagement.

At the inaugural edition of the dialogue held last year in Moscow, the Pakistani side in contrast, was led by the then Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani.

Russians have, meanwhile, kept their level of representation at the dialogue unchanged.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Morgulov Igor Vladimirovich, who was the leader of Russian delegation at the talks last year, was again heading his team at the Islamabad meeting.

The commencement of the strategic dialogue in 2013 had marked a new phase in Pak-Russia bilateral ties that had been characterised by a long history of estrangement. The strategic dialogue was then said to have provided the institutional framework for rebuilding the relationship.

Deputy Foreign Minister Morgulov, however, separately met Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry.

“Both sides shared their resolve to undertake concrete steps to enhance their cooperation, especially in the economic sphere to strengthen the existing cordial relations,” the statement on the latest round of dialogue said.

Russians had long complained of absence of substance in the bilateral dialogue. Russian President Vladimir Putin had cancelled his trip to Pakistan in 2012 for lacking deliverables.

Issues such as absence of bilateral Preferential Trade Agreement and Free Trade Agreement; and existence of unresolved financial disputes including the issue of $160 million of Russian money held by Pakistani banks have been impeding progress in ties.

The statement on the dialogue, importantly, made no mention of the defence cooperation which formed the basis of reset in ties and is still said to be going strong.

Commenting on the strategic dialogue with Russia, former additional secretary Munawer Bhatti said it was on a positive and constructive trajectory.

About lower level of representation from Pakistani side, Mr Bhatti said that it was true that Foreign Secretary Jilani led the delegation at last round, but the additional secretary was the actual counterpart of a deputy foreign minister in Russian hierarchy.

Protocol mismatch has been a chronic problem in Pakistan’s foreign policy operations and has mostly been caused by the nature and level of engagement with the other country concerned.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Qadri winds up Islamabad sit-in

Irfan Haider

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief declared an end to his party’s sit-in on Constitution Avenue on Tuesday, conceding implicitly that he had not succeeded in his objective – forcing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign.

“We came to Islamabad to change the regime, but before that could happen, a change came about in the nation’s way of thinking,” Dr Tahirul Qadri told a sea of disappointed followers.

“You may now gather your luggage and return to your homes with the spirit of success in your hearts,” the PAT chief said in his last address from atop his container at D-Chowk.

Emotional scenes were witnessed at the PAT camp late on Tuesday night after Dr Qadri made the announcement to pack up. Men and women alike huddled together and many hugged their friends and wept at the prospect of leaving the place that had been home to them for the past 70 days.

In an emotional outburst, he asked the audience: “Do you believe I would make a deal?”

“Now, I am entering the second phase of my revolution; I will be taking this movement on the road and spread it to other parts of the country as well,” the PAT chief said and explained that he would hold a brief demonstration in all major cities.

He announced plans to hold public meetings in Abbottabad (Oct 23), Bhakkar (Nov 23), Sargodha (Dec 5), Sialkot (Dec 14) and Karachi (Dec 25).

He also lashed out at the government, saying that there had been no headway in talks with the ruling party. “No change has come about in PML-N’s way of thinking over the past two months,” the PAT chief remarked.

After his speech, just before midnight, Dr Qadri made his way out of the container that had been his home for most of the past two months and left the sit-in.

The party’s President, Raheeq Abbasi, told Dawn that this was a “mini-revolution” and that the party was only changing the face of the sit-in by taking it on the road.

He said that the PTI – which has been camped alongside PAT on Constitution Avenue – was aware of their plans to end the sit-in. “But they have their own strategy and we have ours. They want to keep the sit-in going for as long as they can because they feel they can build pressure that way. We feel that we cannot achieve anything further by camping outside parliament,” Mr Abbasi said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has advised all PML-N parliamentarians to show grace and not pass any negative comments about the PAT following their decision to end their sit-in.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Tribal elder shot dead

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

LANDI KOTAL: A pro-government tribal elder was gunned down in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency on Monday.

LANDI KOTAL: A pro-government tribal elder was gunned down in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency on Monday.

Family sources said some people came on motorcycles and knocked at the gate of Malik Khani Jan’s house in Mandu Khel locality of Ghundi. When he came out, they opened fire.

He was an important member of the Kukikhel grand jirga.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

US airdrops weapons for Kurds

AFP

MURSITPINAR (Turkey): Kurds battling the ‘Islamic Sate’ group’s militants for the Syrian border town of Kobane welcomed a first US airdrop of weapons on Monday as neighbouring Turkey said it would help Iraqi Kurds to join the fight.

Turkish government has refused land deliveries of arms to the Syrian Kurds, who are linked with Turkey’s outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), but said it was helping Iraqi Kurds to reinforce the strategic town.

Also read: Turkey helping Kurdish fighters cross into Kobani

The main Syrian Kurdish fighting force in Kobane hailed the airdrop, saying it would “help greatly” in the town’s defence against a nearly five-week offensive by the IS.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said it would have been “irresponsible of us, as well as morally very difficult, to turn your back on a community fighting” the group.

The top US diplomat said the situation amounted to a “crisis moment” and insisted the move was not a shift in policy.

He echoed remarks by a senior administration official that the airdrop was in recognition of the “impressive” resistance put up by the Kurds and the losses they were inflicting on the IS.

The Unites States government’s hope was that “Kurds who have proven themselves to be very strong and valiant fighters will take this fight on,” Mr Kerry said.

Three C-130 cargo aircraft carried out what the US military called “multiple” successful drops of supplies, including small arms, provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq.

The supplies were “intended to enable continued resistance” against the IS in Kobane, said the Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East.

A US-led coalition has carried out more than 135 air strikes against IS targets around Kobane, and an AFP correspondent just across the border in Turkey reported a fresh raid on Monday afternoon.

The main Syrian Kurdish fighting force in Kobane, the People’s Protection Units, welcomed the US arms drop.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Fight against Ebola shows signs of success

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: The World Health Organisation on Monday declared two major African countries, Nigeria and Senegal, Ebola free.

WASHINGTON: The World Health Organisation on Monday declared two major African countries, Nigeria and Senegal, Ebola free.

There was good news in the United States as well where 42 people, who came into contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, were officially cleared on Monday after not demonstrating any symptoms during a 21-day monitoring period. Officials said one more will be cleared shortly and four others will complete their 21-day monitoring period soon.

Reports of success in the fight against Ebola followed a global panic, causing health officials to warn people not to overreact.

Also read: Panic over Ebola reaches fever-pitch despite calls for calm

A country is declared Ebola free once 42 days have passed and no new case detected. The 42 days represent twice the maximum incubation period of 21 days. This 42-day period starts from the last day that any person in the country had contact with a confirmed or probable Ebola case.

Ebola is still spreading rapidly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO officials said. More than 4,500 people have died from the virus in West Africa, and the WHO warned that the region was still suffering from “widespread and intense transmission” because patients did not have access to adequate healthcare.

There’s a social crisis, too. Orphans of victims are often abandoned, their relatives terrified of taking them in.

ALARM IN US: Reaction in the United States is particularly severe where politicians even accused President Barack Obama of underplaying the threat because of his African origin.

In some places, officials closed schools and urged parents to take additional precautionary measures to avoid infection.

Nearly two-thirds of those queried in a Washington Post/ABC News poll said they’re concerned about an epidemic in the US. The Centres for Disease Control, in the first week of October, fielded 800 calls from concerned Americans.

In Oklahoma, public Schools asked students and faculty who were on a cruise with an Ebola suspect not to come to school.

A college in Dallas sent out rejection letters to some applicants from Nigeria because the country had a few Ebola cases.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Footprints: Resurrecting a culture

Aurangzaib Khan

The beat to which the youth prance and swirl is only a dhol or a dafli, but could it be a war drum, martial music? The attanr, the Pashtun folk dance, is just a dance, but could it be a formation of ranks, an expression of solidarity?

The verse only poetry, a song a song. But no more do they extol aspects of physical love. The land and the people are the new beloved.

In the Pak-Afghan borderlands, culture is a battlefield. It has been so for 35 years now, ever since the region caught fire in the wake of Afghan jihad.

Is it any wonder that one of the soldiers on this battleground is an Afghan youth? His name is Asad Hamid Attar and he is unarmed. Turned out in traditional red Afghan-Turkmen chapan and a shaggy wool telpak cap, the 21-year-old from Faryab is fighting conflict by celebrating life.

“After nearly 35 years of war, the Afghan people are still alive and strong,” says Asad, a geeky bespectacled ambassador of his Turkmen culture, surrounded by Afghan youth at the Pak-Afghan Peoples’ Forum (PAPF) at the Nishtar Hall in Peshawar. “We came to the Forum to tell the world and the United Nations that Pak-Afghan relations are not subject to the whims of armies and governments but the people’s desire for peace.”

This desire for peace underpinned the speeches and activities at the Forum last weekend where both Afghan and Pakistani delegates upheld cultural expression as a manifestation of identity in their multicultural, multinational milieus. Decades of war and terror have asphyxiated cultures and civil societies in the two countries, said speakers at the Forum, making room for more conflict. All across the land, identities have been reduced to ghosts. In Pakistan alone, nations, cultures and languages on the margins of mainstream are losing substance, turning diaphanous for want of revival and protection. Their stock, no matter how resilient, has been chipped to the bone.

As proof, the Pakistani participants at the Forum pointed to the borderlands: in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, musicians grew beards, women on billboards had faces smudged black and Nishtar Hall, Peshawar city’s only cultural centre, grew cobwebs.

“Our culture is our fort against forces bent on destroying our identity and sense of self,” says Dr Syed Alam Mehsud, who leads the Pakhtunkhwa Ulasi Tehreek. “Only by rebuilding what they destroy can we really hope to defeat these forces. We now have an annual day — Sept 23 — to celebrate Afghan cultural identity all over the world.”

The Afghans think no differently. Among the participants at the Forum is the ageing academic Dr Mohammad Ghous Hakimi, a professor of chemistry from Kabul. “Afghans are born in war, they die in war,” says Dr Hakimi, with the characteristic resignation of a world-weary scholar. “We are told that Pakistan is bad — just look at how education prospers in Islamabad while they blow up our schools. You are told that Afghans are belligerent. We keep fighting while others win. Fears and misunderstandings can be dispelled when people meet because historical identities and bonds are stronger than suspicions.”

It was perhaps in keeping with these common cross-border identities that the Forum leaned heavily towards the Pashtun expression of culture. There were many Khans there, turbaned and chapaned. And naturally, they were not terrorists — rather nationalists, offended that their culture was killed and hijacked by elements that did not represent them or their way of life.

Although the regional conflict has its locus in the Pashtun territories along the border, they, by no means, are the only victims of war. Equally robbed of the joy of living are other ethnic groups inhabiting the border regions. In recognition of their disparate identities, the Forum brought together Hazara, Hindku, Seraiki, Turkmen and Chitrali representatives who introduced the participants to their cultures.

“We have all these groups living here that make our culture rich,” says Alamzeb Mandanr, chairperson of the Pakistan chapter of the PAPF. “We own them. They are our brotherhood.” Beyond culture, the Forum plans to take the people-to-people interaction to trade, education, health, transfer of technology and human rights. “Every day, four planes full of Afghans leave for India to seek health care,” said Alamzeb. “Why can’t they come here when we are closer? We are planning to set up facilitation points on both sides of the border to help Afghan patients get proper attention and care when they come to Pakistan.”

Out in the hall, there are stalls showcasing artefacts made by Afghan refugees, among others. One of them is Abdul Malook, an Afghan carpet dealer with a shop in the old city. “Such gatherings would help people appreciate their culture and craft,” says Malook, the 35-year-old Pashtun from Nangarhar. “They elevate our status as a nation in the eyes of the world.”

In a region where rebranding local culture as confrontational and radical serves vested interests, cross-border bonhomie has been rare due to insecurity, leaving little room for voices to deny or dilute distorted impressions, manipulated narratives. Hearing the youth — for it is largely a show of cross-border and cross-cultural camaraderie on the part of youth — and the elderly speak of culture as the last bastion for reassertion of true identities, it is easy to construe the proceedings as a show of force, of defiance.

There couldn’t have been anything more natural, more organic than this convergence around a common culture, a fact reflected in the opinion of the Afghan woman poet Nizakat Jaidi from Laghman: “Women are mothers and sisters that introduce children to culture in the cradle. We create it, we keep it alive. If women were oppressed in Afghan culture, as the world likes to believe, I wouldn’t be standing here before you.”

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

SC allows transfer of OGDCL shares to successful bidder

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court allowed the federal government on Monday to transfer its 10 per cent shares in Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) to the successful bidder.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court allowed the federal government on Monday to transfer its 10 per cent shares in Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) to the successful bidder.

But the permission came with a condition that the amount generated from the divestment would be deposited in the Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) till the Supreme Court decides on the government’s appeal against the Oct 3 interim order of the Peshawar High Court staying the sale of OGDCL’s 10pc or 322 million ordinary shares.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk hearing the government’s appeal issued notices to the law officers of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is already being represented before the court.

On Oct 9, the apex court had allowed the government and the Privatisation Commission to accept bid offers from the buyers but not to transfer the shares till the court’s decision on the appeal. Subsequently, the court summoned the entire case relating to OGDCL privatisation from the PHC.

A division bench of the PHC had issued the interim order on a petition moved by the KP government against the sale of OGDCL shares.

On Monday, senior counsel Waseem Sajjad, representing the KP government, emphasised that the 18th Amendment had amended Article 172(3) of the Constitution, which deals with the ownerless property in a province, in such a way that natural resources would now have to be equally distributed among the provinces.

He said the actual worth of the shares being divested had not been worked out so far and suggested that every province should have a mechanism to work out equal shares among the federating units.

The counsel said the apex court should restrain the government from selling the OGDCL shares because KP had not been consulted. He argued that the government had mainly relied on the 1997 decision by the Council of Common Interests (CCI), but the entire situation had now been changed, especially after the amendment to Article 172(3).

But the chief justice observed that the government was not divesting the entire ownership of OGDCL, but only 10pc of its shares in the company.

Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt explained that the word ‘vest’ used in Article 172(3) did not mean that it also bestowed the complete ownership of natural resources in a province. That asset or a property is in fact a public trust and belongs to the entire nation.

He said OGDCL with an exploration license and a production lease was a public limited company like 28 other companies and the provinces had shares only in the lease money, concessions and royalty on minerals, oil and natural gas and could not have a claim on the entire company.

He said a company did not need a prior permission from the provinces if it decided to sell its share. However, he added, the provinces had the right to claim equal shares if there was an issue of royalty.

The AG argued that the CCI had approved the sale of OGDCL shares in 1997 – a provision which was covered under Article 173 of the Constitution dealing with the power of the federation to acquire a property and make contracts.

He said the KP government was trying to create an impression that there was a national economic crisis which did not exist. It could severely affect the foreign investment in the country.

He said the value of OGDCL share had come down to Rs20 because of the stay granted by the high court and it would further decline if the uncertainty continued. The loss on this account runs into hundreds of millions of rupees.

In its appeal, the government pleaded that the PHC’s Oct 3 interim order was arbitrary, perverse and unreasoned and, therefore, liable to be dismissed in the interest of justice.

The case will be taken up after three weeks.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014

Border incident not to affect ties with Iran, says Aziz

Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said on Monday that the recent border incident would not affect relations between Pakistan and Iran.

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said on Monday that the recent border incident would not affect relations between Pakistan and Iran.

“Improvement in relations with Iran would continue,” Mr Aziz told media personnel on the sidelines of China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Dialogue.

Know more: Pakistan asks Iran not to ‘externalise’ its problems

The dialogue was organised by Pakistan-China Institute in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). It was the first session of the dialogue among think-tanks of the three countries in Pakistan. Its earlier edition took place in China and the next would take place in Afghanistan.

Mr Aziz’s comments came as Pakistan and Iran have summoned each others’ ambassadors to lodge protests over a border incident.

A Pakistani Frontier Corps soldier was killed by shelling from Iranian troops.

The Iranians, however, want Pakistan to stop “terrorists and rebels” who they allege have sanctuaries in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and commit activities after crossing into Iran’s province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Answering questions about the incident on the Pak-Iran border, the adviser said ties with Tehran had improved ‘significantly’ after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Iran in May this year. There was also progress on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, he added.

Mr Aziz described the border shootings as “very unfortunate”.

He blamed the incident on “large number of militant groups” and “criminal elements” operating in the border area.

He said the way forward lay in better border management both at local and higher levels.

Earlier speaking at the conference, Mr Aziz asked India and other countries to stop interference in Afghanistan.

He said the countries competing for influence in Afghanistan should instead compete in the country’s reconstruction.

“We cannot afford to have a ’90s like situation,” he said while referring to the instability in Afghanistan that followed the Soviet withdrawal.

On improvement in Pak-Afghan ties, he stressed that the starting point would be a commitment by both sides not to allow the use of their territory against each other.

He noted that Pakistan and China shared a vision of peaceful and stable Afghanistan and could effectively help in addressing challenges facing the war-torn country.

Chairman of Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said: “The purpose of the dialogue wasn’t only academic discussion”, but to come up with some practical recommendation as a way forward.

PCI Executive Director Mustafa Hyder Sayed suggested a five-point proposal as a way forward in cooperation among China, Afghanistan and Pakistan — institutionalisation of trilateral dialogue between think-tanks; setting up of a joint trilateral counter-terrorism task-force; establishment of a joint trilateral task-force; holding youth summer camps; and convening a trilateral media conference.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014

Seven children among 11 killed in Uthal accident

The Newspaper’s Staff Correspondent

QUETTA: Eleven people were killed and 30 others injured in a head-on collision between a coach and a truck on the RCD highway in Uthal area on Monday.

QUETTA: Eleven people were killed and 30 others injured in a head-on collision between a coach and a truck on the RCD highway in Uthal area on Monday.

The cause of the accident is said to be speeding and fog.

Uthal police said the accident occurred early in the morning when the Karachi-bound coach collided with the truck coming from the opposite direction.

“The collision took place between the Karachi-bound coach coming from Quetta and a truck, leaving 11 people dead,” a police official said. Seven children, two women and the truck driver were among the dead, he said, adding that the accident left 30 others wounded.

Six people were killed on the spot and five others died on their way to hospital.

Rescue workers had to cut the twisted wreckage of the two vehicles to pull out the bodies and the injured.

The victims were taken to Uthal and Hub hospitals. Some of the critically wounded were later shifted to Karachi hospitals.

Police said the coach driver fled the scene after the accident which might have been caused by speeding and fog.

Some shopkeepers in the area said the bus was moving in high speed and visibility was very low because of heavy fog at the time of the accident.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014

MQM stages token walkout from NA

Dawn Report

ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) brought its latest spat with the PPP to the National Assembly on Monday by staging a token walkout from the house.

ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) brought its latest spat with the PPP to the National Assembly on Monday by staging a token walkout from the house.

It was a follow-up of the party’s withdrawal from the PPP-led government in Sindh on Sunday in protest against some remarks of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at the party’s rally in Karachi on Saturday and of opposition leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah a day earlier.

However, the MQM’s members returned to the house while a PPP lawmaker, Abdul Sattar Bachani, was in the midst of an angry rejoinder to MQM’s Abdul Rashid Godail.

While Mr Shah arrived in the house after the bitter exchanges between the two sides — the speaker expunging some remarks of both the speakers — a senior PPP lawmaker, Naveed Qamar, went to Mr Godail’s desk and spent some time in an apparent move to cool tempers.

Also on Monday, the MQM submitted two resolutions to the National Assembly Secretariat, including the one seeking debate on the issue of creation of new provinces in the country.

Talking to Dawn after the assembly session, Mr Godail said the party had also submitted a resolution seeking an apology from the leader of opposition for uttering abusive language against the Urdu-speaking people.

Mr Godail said the MQM had moved the resolution on the creation of new province with the aim of initiating a national debate on this important issue. In the resolution, he added, the party had not made any demand for creation of new provinces and it had only called for a debate so that a consensus could be achieved on this thorny issue.

The MQM has been demanding creation of new provinces in the country on administrative grounds. The party, however, is facing criticism on the issue from Sindh-based political parties, including the PPP.

Answering a question, Mr Godail said the MQM had not submitted any motion to remove Mr Shah from the office of the opposition leader, but said the party had no more confidence in him after his recent statement in which he had ridiculed the “Mohajirs” who had migrated from India at the time of the country’s independence.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014

Talk of N-hazards in Kashmir clashes

Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD: A federal minister sought on Monday to draw world attention to the dangers of nuclear rivalry between Pakistan and India as lawmakers in the National Assembly, across party lines, blamed India for the recent spate of cross-border clashes along the disputed Jammu and Kashmir.

But the Minister for States and Frontier Regions, retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, stressed that he was not making a threat after he said countries possessing nuclear capability would “not keep it merely in cold storage” but could use it “in time of need”.

Also read: ‘Kashmir million march’ to go on despite Indian efforts: Barrister Sultan

However, he promised a “matching response” to what he called India’s “aggressive policy” while opening the debate on a motion moved by Kashmir Affairs Minister Chaudhry Birjees Tahir over what was described as indiscriminate Indian firing and shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the Jammu and Kashmir and what is called working boundary between Indian-held Jammu and Pakistan’s Sialkot and Narowal districts.

The series of clashes, which have so far claimed more than 20 civilian lives, 13 on the Pakistani side, since early this month, have been some of the most serious violations of a 2003 ceasefire between the two sides.

Mr Baloch, who said he had served along the LoC for seven years while in the army, accused India of seeking to complicate matters and incite Pakistan, but said this “serious situation” could not be mtade an excuse for war.

“One thing that the entire world should realise that we both are nuclear powers,” he said of India and Pakistan, adding that “we have kept our (nuclear) capability with utmost responsibility”.

But he warned India not to “remain in the misunderstanding” that Pakistan would treat New Delhi’s “aggressive policy” with total silence.

“If any countries possess any capability for their defence, they don’t keep it only in cold storage,” he said, adding: “This capability can be used in time of need.”

However, while saying this should not be taken as a threat, Mr Baloch said: “We will not let our unarmed people become target (of Indian forces) any longer.”

Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid described his constituency’s Pasrur area of Sialkot district as one of the hardest hit by Indian shelling, which, he said fell up to 5km inside the Pakistan territory.

Assuring support to the armed forces in meeting the challenge, Asif Hasnain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Azra Fazal Pechuho of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, praised what they called a government policy of restraint against provocations, which the PPP member said reflected a “confrontation mode” against Pakistan of the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India.

Khusro Bakhtiar, a back-bencher of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N, said the BJP was likely to continue this “orchestrated” policy until the next state assembly elections in Indian-held Kashmir after benefiting from it in some other recent state elections.

SALUTE TO MALALA: Earlier, the house unanimously adopted a government-moved resolution congratulating Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai on sharing this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with an Indian campaigner against child trafficking and labour, Kailash Satyarthi, and saluting the Swat valley girl’s “struggle and sacrifice for the cause of girls’ education”.

But while other lawmakers enthusiastically cheered the resolution by desk-thumping, some members of the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami, sat unmoved in their seats, seeming unwilling to share what the resolution called the “great pride” of the house in the worldwide acknowledgement of Malala’s achievement.

But there was no “no” vote as the resolution was put to the house and was declared by Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq as adopted unanimously.

SIT-INS IGNORED: Unexpectedly, the house ignored the protest ‘dharnas’ of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT).

Both the National Assembly and the Senate, separately and then in a joint session, have been debating ‘dharnas’ until they went into a recess on Sept 19.

But on the opening day of the new National Assembly session on Monday, no lawmaker from either side of the house, talked of the ‘dharnas’, nor of the pending resignations sent by at least 30 PTI members of the house to the speaker.

A PTI ally, Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, appeared in the house for a while and tried to raise the issue of a one-month ban imposed by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority on anchor Mubashir Lucman of the private ARY television network from appearing in any programme. But the speaker gave him a short shrift.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014

BJP ousts Congress in two states

Jawed Naqvi

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggressive campaign in Maharashtra and Haryana, most notably his sustained anti-Pakistan rhetoric, yielded rich political dividends on Sunday after his Bharatiya Janata Party was set to form the next government in both states.

In Maharashtra, the BJP won 123 of 288 seats from Wednesday’s assembly elections, needing another 22 to easily form the government. In Haryana, the party won an absolute majority on its own for the first time.

“Today’s results show that the Modi wave is still the tsunami that can crush the opposition,” said BJP president Amit Shah.

The results brought more embarrassment for the Congress whose ally and former minister Sharad Pawar offered external support to the BJP in Maharashtra. The BJP was expected to stay with the Shiv Sena though, without completely shutting the doors on Mr Pawar’s party.

Some BJP leaders want it to review options against a possible reconciliation with former ally Shiv Sena.

Top BJP leaders, including Rajnath Singh, will travel to Mumbai tomorrow to hold consultations on how to form the government.

Sources in the Sena say that the party is willing to accept the post of Deputy Chief Minister for Maharashtra, and is open to talks about other key portfolios.

The alliance ended after 25 years in September because the BJP was unwilling to remain the Sena’s junior partner in Maharashtra.

The results will also boost the government’s confidence in clearing more economic reforms. On Friday, it lifted controls on diesel prices, a political hot potato.

State elections determine seat shares in the Rajya Sabha or upper house of parliament, where the BJP and its allies lack a majority. Gains in state elections will make the government less dependent on support from the opposition to get legislation cleared.

Haryana and Maharashtra have been bastions of the Congress and the party’s decimation in both states continues the massive decline it marked in May when it accrued its worst-ever result in the national election.

Mr Modi described as “historic results” the electoral victory in Haryana and Maharashtra and said it was a matter of immense happiness and pride for BJP.

BJP president Amit Shah, a fellow Gujraati and close confidant of the prime minister, said that the victory in Haryana and Maharashtra were two steps more in making ‘India Congress-free’.

Mr Shah added: “From the victory it is clear that Narendra Modi has become the undisputed leader of India.”

He reiterated that the election result is a stamp of approval of Mr Modi government’s work and policies at the Centre.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Underwater activity triggers Swedish military operation

AFP

STOCKHOLM: Mystery deepened on Sunday over a Swedish military operation triggered by “foreign underwater activity” off the coast of Stockholm, amid an unconfirmed report of a hunt for a damaged Russian submarine.

Late on Saturday, Swedish armed forces stepped up an operation — involving more than 200 men, stealth ships, minesweepers and helicopters — in an area about 50 kilometres east of the Swedish capital.

The manoeuvres were initiated on Friday after the armed forces said they had been informed of a “man-made object” in the water.

Officials denied they were “hunting submarine”, calling the mobilisation — one of the biggest since the Cold War — an “intelligence operation”.

Russia denied on Sunday that any of its submarines were involved. “There have been no irregular situations and, even less so, accidents involving Russian naval vessels,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

But the respected Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reported that a damaged Russian submarine was at the centre of the mystery.

The report said that Swedish military intelligence had intercepted radio signals between an area off the coast of Stockholm and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad — home to much of Russia’s Baltic Sea naval fleet.

“It was transmitted on a special frequency, used by Russia in emergency situations,” the newspaper wrote, citing Swedish military sources involved in the search.

Sweden’s armed forces remained tight-lipped, but did say its focus was on “underwater activities”. “The Swedish Armed Forces are not in a position to deny or verify media news or speculations recently published about a missing foreign submarine,” spokesman Erik Lagersten said.

“At the moment we are conducting an intelligence operation in the archipelago of Stockholm with optical reconnaissance as well as with naval vessels equipped with qualified underwater sensors… to establish if there are or have been foreign underwater activities in the area.”

Anonymous military sources told Svenska Dagbladet that the emergency signal in Russian was intercepted on Thursday evening, and that further encrypted signals were sent on Friday after Swedish armed forces began combing the area.

In August 2000 the Kursk, a Russian nuclear submarine, sank in the Barents Sea, killing the entire crew of 118. Russian authorities were later criticised for refusing international assistance and for misleading the public about the pace of their failed rescue operation.

In recent months, Sweden has seen an uptick in Baltic Sea manoeuvres by the Russian air force. In one incident in September, two SU-24 fighter-bombers allegedly entered Swedish airspace in what Foreign Minister Carl Bildt at the time called “the most serious aerial incursion by the Russians” in almost a decade.

During the 1980s and early 90s the-then neutral — and now non-aligned — Nordic country was regularly on alert following Russian submarine sightings, including one notable case in 1981 when a Soviet U-boat ran aground several miles from one of Sweden’s largest naval base.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Indian and Pakistani troops exchange fire

Agencies

ISLAMABAD: Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire on Sunday, officials said, the latest in a series of clashes that began earlier this month and have claimed at least 20 civilian lives.

ISLAMABAD: Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire on Sunday, officials said, the latest in a series of clashes that began earlier this month and have claimed at least 20 civilian lives.

No-one was injured in the latest incident, which according to a Pakistan Army statement began when Indian troops resorted to “unprovoked” fire across the Working Boundary in Sialkot.

Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, meanwhile, had a phone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, officials said.

Mr Aziz told Mr Ban that Pakistan “is fully united and determined to thwart any aggression” but had responded to India’s provocations with utmost restraint and responsibility, according to a statement released by his office.

The UN chief reiterated his concern over the escalation of violation of ceasefire along the Line of Control and deplored the loss of lives.

He emphasised the importance of taking necessary steps by both sides to de-escalate the situation and resolve all outstanding issues through negotiations.

According to the Foreign Office’s spokesperson, they discussed the situation along the LoC and the Working Boundary.

On Oct 11, Mr Aziz had sent a letter to the UN secretary general on the situation arising out of the ceasefire violations by the Indian forces over the past weeks.

He briefed the secretary general on the frequency and intensity of the unprovoked and indiscriminate firing and shelling by the Indian forces and resultant civilian deaths and injuries and damage to property.

He said India should be advised to adopt a mature and reasonable approach, and restrain its armed forces from acting irrationally.

Reiterating Pakistan’s policy of maintaining good neighbourly relations, he underlined the need for early restoration of peace and tranquillity on the LoC and the Working Boundary.

He said that in the interest of durable peace in the region, there must also be a way forward for resolving outstanding disputes, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir, on which the UN itself had permanent responsibility to implement its own resolutions that promised self-determination to Kashmiri people.Rejecting bilateral dialogue and denying international engagement and legitimacy were unhelpful and counter-productive, he pointed out.

Appreciating the work of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, he said its role should be strengthened to facilitate more effective monitoring and reporting of ceasefire violations. The UN’s engagement would add to its credibility in managing crisis situations, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Street clashes in Hong Kong as impasse enters fourth week

Reuters

HONG KONG: Violent clashes erupted in Hong Kong on Sunday for a second night, deepening a sense of impasse between a government with limited options and a pro-democracy movement increasingly willing to confront police.

The worst political crisis in Hong Kong since Britain handed the city back to China in 1997 entered its fourth week with no sign of a resolution despite talks scheduled for Tuesday between the government and student protest leaders.

Beijing has signalled through Hong Kong’s leaders that it is not willing to reverse a decision made in late August that effectively denies the financial hub the full democracy the protesters are demanding.

“Unless there is some kind of breakthrough in two hours of talks on Tuesday, I’m worried we will see the standoff worsen and get violent,” Sonny Lo, a professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said.

“We could be entering a new and much more problematic stage. I hope the government has worked out some compromises, because things could get very difficult now.”

Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader Leung Chun-ying, who has so far resisted calls to quit, said more time was needed to broker what he hoped would be a non-violent end to the upheaval.

“To work out a solution, to put an end to this problem, we need time. We need time to talk to the people, particularly young students,” he told Hong Kong’s ATV Television. “What I want is to see a peaceful and a meaningful end to this problem.” Hong Kong’s 28,000 strong police have been struggling to contain a youth-led movement that has shown little sign of waning after three weeks of standoffs.

Roughly a thousand demonstrators in the Mong Kok district launched a fresh assault early on Sunday, putting on helmets and goggles before surging forward to grab a line of metal barricades hemming them into a section of road.

Scores of riot police had smashed batons at a wall of umbrellas that protesters raised to defend themselves. Amid shouts and hurled insults, violent scuffles erupted before police surged forward with shields, forcing the crowds back.

An activist in a white T-shirt and goggles was hit with a flurry of baton blows, leaving him bleeding from a gash in the head. Several protesters were taken away.

Dozens of people were reportedly injured in the two nights of clashes, including 22 police officers. Four people were arrested early on Sunday, police said.

The clashes came hours after the talks were confirmed for Tuesday. They will be broadcast live.

On Sunday evening, crowds again began building as protesters stockpiled helmets and fashioned home-made forearm shields out of foam pads to parry baton blows.

The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, have been demanding China’s Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the former British trading outpost.

Hong Kong is ruled under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage for Hong Kong as an eventual goal.

But Beijing is wary about copycat demands for reform on the mainland and it ruled on Aug 31 it would screen candidates who want to run for the city’s chief executive in 2017.

Democracy activists said that rendered the universal suffrage concept meaningless. They are demanding elections with open nominations.

Mr Leung appears hamstrung, unable to compromise because of the message that it would send to people on the mainland.

Hong Kong’s Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok said some of the clashes in recent days had been initiated by activists affiliated to “radical organisations which have been active in conspiring, planning and charging violent acts”.

The city’s embattled police chief, Andy Tsang, also expressed his frustration when he broke three weeks of silence on Saturday to say “extremely tolerant” policing had not stopped protests becoming more “radical or violent”.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Koreas trade gunfire along border

Reuters

SEOUL: North and South Korea exchanged gunfire on Sunday when the North’s soldiers approached the border and did not retreat after the South fired warning shots, the South Korean Defence Ministry said.

The North’s troops fired back in an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 10 minutes. However, the situation did not escalate, a ministry official said.

“There were no casualties or property damage,” the official said.

The incident was the latest in a series of confrontations in recent weeks between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war, and follows an urgent meeting between senior military officials on Wednesday to discuss how to ease tensions.

The North’s soldiers on Saturday approached the so-called Military Demarcation Line that separates the countries but retreated after the South fired warning shots, the official added.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Doubts over girls’ release after breach of Boko Haram ‘truce’

Reuters

LAGOS: A wave of violence after Nigerian government announced a truce with Boko Haram raised doubt on Sunday about whether more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist militants would really be released.

Nigeria’s armed forces chief Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh announced the ceasefire on Friday to enable the release of the girls, who were abducted from the remote north-eastern village of Chibok in April.

But Boko Haram has not confirmed the truce and there have been at least five attacks since — blamed by security sources on the insurgents — that have killed dozens. Talks were scheduled to continue in neighbouring Chad on Monday.

“We were celebrating. We had every reason to be happy… but since then the ceasefire has been broken in quite a number of places already,” Lawan Abana, a parent of one of the missing girls, said by telephone.

He added that there were doubts about the credentials of the reported Boko Haram negotiator Danladi Ahmadu, who was unheard of before.

“Can we trust him that he will deliver on this promise of releasing the girls when he has not delivered on the promise of the ceasefire?” Mr Abana said.

The government says the attacks may not have been carried out by Boko Haram but by one of several criminal groups exploiting the chaos of insurgency.

Analysts point out that Boko Haram is heavily factionalised, so what matters is whether the faction the government is talking to has control over the girls’ fate.

“Boko Haram is deeply fractured. The Nigerian government has had a… difficult time identifying a Boko Haram representative who could make compromises and guarantee the entire group will observe them,” risk consultancy Stratfor said in a note.

“It is quite possible that Abuja has reached an agreement with a legitimate representative of a specific cell … that holds the kidnapped schoolgirls captive,” it said on Saturday.

Boko Haram, whose name translates roughly as “Western education is sinful”, has massacred thousands in a battle to carve an Islamic state out of religiously mixed Nigeria.

Its only known method of conveying messages is via videotaped speeches by a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, its leader whom the military last year said it had killed.

Ahmed Salkida, a Nigerian journalist who was once close to Boko Haram and shared a jail cell with its founder Mohammed Yusuf in 2009, tweeted that whoever Ahmadu is, he is not a member of Boko Haram’s senior “Shura” council nor does “he speak for them, as far as I know”.

A swift release of the girls would bode well for the campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan for Feb 2015 elections. Mr Jonathan has faced relentless criticism for failing to protect civilians in the northeast or resolve the Chibok girls crisis.

Boko Haram is regarded as the worst threat to the future of Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer.

Mr Jonathan is expected to declare he is running for a second elected term soon, and the opposition is keen not to allow him to capitalise on efforts to free the girls.

“It’s interesting (because) Mr Jonathan is about to announce he wants to run for a second term. Is it by sheer coincidence?” the spokesman for the main All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed, said by telephone.

But Nigeria’s military has scored some successes against Boko Haram over the past two weeks, wresting back some territory near the northeast border with Cameroon.

Oby Ezekwesil, whose “Bring back our girls” campaign has highlighted daily protests in Abuja, said she was “cautiously optimistic” but “extremely anxious, not knowing what the details of this ceasefire really are.

“If it happens, it would be the best news in decades.”

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Iran summons Pakistani envoy over border attacks

AFP

TEHRAN: Iran has summoned the Pakistani ambassador and demanded immediate steps to stop attacks by “terrorists and rebels” that sparked deadly clashes on the border, state media reported on Sunday.

Noor Mohammad Jadmani was called to the foreign ministry on Saturday evening following deaths in the restive border province of Sistan-Baluchestan, the official Irna news agency said.

Two Iranian border guards and a Pakistani paramilitary officer were killed in a shooting on Thursday evening, sources on the two sides said. Iran said rebels had tried to infiltrate the country.

“It is unacceptable that terrorists and rebels attack our country from Pakistani territory and kill our border guards,” the foreign ministry’s western Asia director, Rasul Salami, told Irna.

He asked Pakistan’s government to “take serious steps to prevent any recurrence of such incidents,” the news agency said.

Thursday’s incident came after rebel attacks killed five people in Sistan-Baluchestan province earlier this month, four of them security personnel.

Iranian media said 14 people were arrested in connection with those attacks.

Last month, an Iranian soldier was killed and two pro-government militiamen were wounded in an attack authorities blamed on Jaishul Adl extremist group.

The same group captured five Iranian troops in February, four of whom were released in April. The fifth soldier is presumed dead but his fate remains officially unknown.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Power tariff raised to salvage IMF talks

Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD: The government is reported to have increased electricity tariff for consumers of all distribution companies, except K-Electric, by about 43 paisa per unit to service about Rs147 billion bank loans ahead of the resumption of suspended talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Dubai from Oct 29.

Sources told Dawn on Sunday that the increase in tariff was imposed through an ‘equalisation surcharge’ by the Ministry of Water and Power after the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) declined to make ‘imprudent costs’ part of the base tariff on legal and technical grounds.

Also read: Faltering IMF talks

The increase would be charged to consumers in the next billing month — with effect from Oct 16. Talks between Pakistan and the IMF mission on the fourth review of Islamabad’s economic performance on Aug 18 had proven inconclusive, leading to the suspension of a planned $550 million disbursement in September. With the support of the United States, the IMF agreed to resume talks between Oct 29 and Nov 7 after merging the 4th and 5th reviews for possible disbursement of $1.1bn in December.

As the government faces problems with the planned sale of OGDCL shares in the international capital market owing to cases in court, it considers a tariff increase ‘low hanging fruit’ and a bid to minimise the hurdles in the revival of the IMF programme.

The tariff increase was notified when additional secretary in charge of the power ministry, Sohail Akbar Shah, formally excused himself from working under the newly-appointed Water and Power Secretary Younas Dagha. Mr Shah wrote to the Establishment Division, asking them to post him elsewhere, grant him leave or make him officer on special duty (OSD), because he could not work under a junior officer.

A senior bureaucrat said Mr Shah had forwarded the summary for a 43-paisa per unit increase, along with the advice that such an increase could be exploited by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in the ongoing protests. The tariff notification was, therefore, not made public.

Know more: Electricity tariff raised by 43 paisa

Joint Secretary Zargham Ishaq Khan, who deals with tariff issues in the ministry, was not available for comment despite repeated attempts. Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif could not be reached for comment either.

However, another officer close to Mr Ishaq, who declined to speak on record, confirmed that the tariff had been increased through a special surcharge, but insisted it was a routine increase and had nothing to do with the IMF requirement. He also said the “increase may be 28 or 29 paisas per unit but not 43 paisas” and refused to give a specific number.

He also confirmed that Nepra had refused to include the cost of servicing bank loans obtained for distribution companies in base tariff through Nepra determination but the federal government could achieve the objective through a surcharge.

On May 29 of this year, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet – headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar — had decided to charge consumers the cost of about three per cent additional technical losses and interest on power sector loans through an average of Rs2.35 per unit impact in power tariff.

“The ECC also considered and approved a summary from the Ministry of Water and Power for issuance of policy guidelines to Nepra to incorporate debt servicing on an actual basis in revenue requirements of distribution companies which would be adjusted in tariff of Discos on annual basis,” an official statement had said.

This was considered necessary because about Rs147bn worth of additional loans and syndicated term finance certificates were contracted over the past couple of years by the government or on its sovereign guarantees and this was proposed to be financed through the inclusion of interest payments in the consumer tariff. The debt servicing cost on this account was estimated at about Rs10bn.

A previous dispensation of similar debt stock of about Rs306bn taken over by the federal government a few years ago was made part of the federal budget but the government had given a commitment to the IMF to reduce the burden on the power sector in the budget and instead, passed it on to consumers.

The ECC had also issued policy guidelines to Nepra to rationalise the target of transmission and dispatch losses from 12.82pc to 15.75pc as had been done in the case of power tariff for 2012-13. The distribution companies now claim that their technical losses stood at 17.55pc for 2013-14.

Both advices were turned down by Nepra. A Nepra official said the federal government did not have the power under the Nepra Act to issue policy guidelines on tariff standards and other benchmarks that become part of the tariff at any stage.

He said that Section 31 of the Nepra Act empowered the federal government to issue policy guidelines to the extent of final consumer tariff on the basis of average tariff determined by the regulator for prudent revenue requirements of power companies. He said the regulator had held that increase in borrowing was a direct result of non-recovery of bills by power companies from government departments and dishonest private consumers while losses were resulting out of mismanagement and inefficiencies, for which honest consumers should not be burdened any more.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Eight labourers kidnapped, killed in Balochistan

Saleem Shahid

QUETTA: Bullet-riddled bodies of eight labourers kidnapped from a poultry farm in Sakran area near the industrial town of Hub after Saturday midnight were found on Sunday.

QUETTA: Bullet-riddled bodies of eight labourers kidnapped from a poultry farm in Sakran area near the industrial town of Hub after Saturday midnight were found on Sunday.

The workers had come to Hub last month from Muzffargarh and Rahimyar Khan in Punjab after their native areas had been devastated by recent floods.

The bodies were dumped in a mountainous area. Another labourer, who had been seriously injured, was found lying near the bodies.

According to DPO of Lasbela Bashir Ahmed Brohi, the labourers worked in a poultry farm owned by Haji Ali Rind, brother of Rajab Ali Rind, a leader of the ruling National Party.

Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the killing and ordered the IG of Balochistan to investigate the gory incident and arrest the culprits.

“The brutal act of killing innocent people is sheer violation of Islamic teachings and Baloch traditions,” he said in a statement.

He offered condolences to relatives of the deceased.

According to sources, the kidnappers stormed the poultry farm at around 2.30am when the labourers were sleeping. They blindfolded 11 labourers, tied their hands and took them to the nearby mountainous area.

The injured worker, Azhar Ali, said the kidnappers had handed the labourers over to another armed group. The gunmen interrogated them to determine their ethnic identity, separated nine of them and opened fire at them. They let go two others who were from Lasbela district.

“Eight labourers who had suffered multiple bullet injuries died on the spot,” he said. The bodies were taken to the Jam Ghulam Qadir District Hospital in Hub.

“Most of the bullet wounds were found in the chest,” a police officer quoted doctors as saying.

The United Baloch Front (UBF) has claimed responsibility for the killings. Calling from an unspecified location, the front’s spokesman Musa Sarbaz told reporters that his organisation was behind the kidnapping and killing of labourers.

The people killed were identified as Rajab Ali, in-charge of the farm, Muhammad Shafi, Sajjad Ahmed, Muhammad Aslam, Shah Fahad, Nasir Ali, Muhammad Arshad and Shafi Muhammad.

The bodies were sent to Edhi Foundation in Karachi to be transported to the victims’ native areas.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Aziz conveys Sharif’s invitation to Afghan leader

APP

ISLAMABAD: Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz paid a day-long visit to Kabul on Sunday as the prime minister’s special envoy and delivered Nawaz Sharif’s formal invitation to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai to visit Pakistan.

President Ghani appreciated the invitation and said he would visit Pakistan in near future, said a statement issued by the Foreign Office’s spokesperson.

Mr Ghani underlined that there was a historic opportunity to transform Pakistan-Afghanistan relations into a warm and mutually-beneficial partnership.

The president said he would like to share with Prime Minister Sharif his vision of bilateral relationship over a five-year perspective.

He identified the preparatory work that needed to be undertaken by both sides on different dimensions of ties, including political, security and defence cooperation, economic and trade relations, business-to-business contacts, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Mr Aziz conveyed felicitations on peaceful transfer of power and formation of a government of national unity in Afghanistan.

He underscored Prime Minister Sharif’s desire to build a comprehensive and enduring partnership between Pakistan and Afghanistan marked by trust, understanding and close cooperation and his belief that the two countries had a historic opportunity to move in that direction.

He emphasised the importance of bilateral mechanisms for interaction at different levels in political, security and economic realms.

He said Pakistan would fully support and facilitate Afghanistan’s efforts for peace and stability. He also emphasised the importance of enhanced trade and economic relations as well as regional connectivity for trade and energy.

The adviser also called on Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and conveyed the prime minister’s cordial greetings and invitation to visit Pakistan at a mutually convenient date.

Appreciating the invitation, Mr Abdullah said that both sides must work closely to realise opportunities to build a close and cooperative relationship.

Mr Aziz held separate meetings with Foreign Minister Zarar Ahmad Osmani and National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

During these meetings, discussions focused on preparatory work for President Ghani’s visit to Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Edhi head office robbed

Imtiaz Ali

KARACHI: In what is being described as a shameful incident, the head office of the country’s leading charity organisation headed by renowned and widely respected philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi was robbed on Sunday morning. The robbers took away about Rs30 million worth of gold and cash.

According to Edhi Foundation officials and police, eight robbers stormed the office in Mithadar area at about 9.45am, held its staff hostage at gunpoint and woke up Mr Edhi to get keys of lockers in which gold ornaments, other valuables and cash had been kept.

According to SSP Sheeraz Nazeer, the Edhi family lives in the office. The robbers came on motorcycles and four of them entered the office and locked staff members in a room.

He said that most of the cash and gold ornaments had been kept by people for safe-keeping because they trusted Mr Edhi.

The SSP quoted the staff as saying that the robbers knew where the cash and gold had been kept. He said the possibility of involvement of an insider could not be ruled out. A special team is investigating the matter from different angles.

He said the authorities had provided four police guards to the office but Mr Edhi returned them some three months ago saying that he did not need any special protocol. According to the SSP, Mr Edhi told police that since the office was located in a small room, the presence of guards could affect the working environment.

Edhi Foundation’s spokesperson Anwar Kazmi told Dawn that five persons aged over 30, one of them wearing a mask, had entered the office. They asked three women staff to hand over lockers’ keys. They then entered a nearby room where Mr Edhi was sleeping. They woke him up and pointing a pistol at him demanded the keys.

According to the spokesman, Mr Edhi told them that the keys were in the custody of his wife, Bilquees Edhi, who had gone out for some work. The robbers made two or three calls from their mobile phones to get ‘instructions’ and later broke open two of the shelves. They tried to smash the third locker but did not succeed.

“The robbers remained in the office for about half an hour,” Mr Kazmi said, adding that he suspected that they might have been helped by an insider because they knew the exact location of the gold and cash, including foreign currency.

The office houses a room shared by five to six children, a maternity home and an outpatient department (OPD).

According to Mr Kazmi, the robbers took away an estimated Rs30m worth of gold ornaments (about 5kg) and cash.

Senior officers, including DIG South and Rangers commander, visited the office.

The IG suspended the Kharadar SHO and formed an inquiry team comprising DIGs South and CIA and SSPs South and investigation.

Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah directed police officials to arrest the culprits and bring them to book.

According to an official statement, Mr Shah also directed the additional inspector general of Karachi to provide security to the Edhi office and submit report of the inquiry without any delay.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

MQM decides to quit Sindh govt

Azfar-ul-Ashfaque

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement decided on Sunday night to quit the PPP-led Sindh government, only six months after having joined it.

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement decided on Sunday night to quit the PPP-led Sindh government, only six months after having joined it.

The decision taken at a joint session of the party’s coordination committee held simultaneously in Karachi and London has been endorsed by MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

The MQM joined the coalition government in April and five of its MPAs were inducted into the cabinet of Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.

Addressing a press conference outside the Nine Zero residence of Mr Hussain, senior MQM leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s “persistent verbal attacks” on the Muttahida leadership and PPP’s politics of “hatred and discrimination” had made it impossible for the party to remain in the Sindh government.

He also criticised PPP leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah’s statement that he considered Mohajir “a swear word” and said the MQM now believed that strengthening the hands of PPP was tantamount to weakening Pakistan.

Accompanied by Farooq Sattar and other leaders, Mr Siddiqui said the MQM had suffered a lot during PPP governments and if the party wanted to do politics of hatred and ethnicity, the PPP had provided it enough material in 1997.

As MQM workers raised slogans of ‘Go Zardari go’ and ‘Go Bilawal go’, he asked Bilawal Bhutto what he had done to bring to book the people who had killed his mother Benazir Bhutto and his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The choice of words used against the PPP chairman suggests that the MQM, which gained notoriety for reversing its decisions, will not join hands with the PPP anytime soon.

“What merit do you have to become the chairman of the PPP at this age,” Mr Siddiqui asked Bilawal Bhutto. “If inheritance is the merit then heir to a Bhutto should be a Bhutto, and not a Zardari. You may inherit the Bambino cinema but not the PPP.”

He said the province had been virtually divided into “Sindh 1 and Sindh 2”. He said the MQM would continue to raise demand for new provinces in the country.

Sources in the MQM told Dawn that the coordination committee had also discussed ways of getting the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khurshid Shah, replaced.

They said the MQM was considering to support the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf if it decides to withdraw resignations of its legislators.

According to the National Assembly’s website, the PPP has 46 MNAs, the PTI 33 and the MQM 24.

If the PTI and the MQM join hands their number would reach 57 and they can get their own leader of opposition.

The MQM will ask Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani to allot opposition benches to its lawmakers. The party’s two ministers and three advisers will tender their resignation on Monday.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Footprints: Sheedi Mela – the festival that was

Imran Ayub

ADJACENT to the mazaar, a maze of concrete structures has sprouted over the hilly terrain that was once the hub of dhamaal, a vibrant facet of the four-day Sheedi Mela at Karachi’s Manghopir shrine.

ADJACENT to the mazaar, a maze of concrete structures has sprouted over the hilly terrain that was once the hub of dhamaal, a vibrant facet of the four-day Sheedi Mela at Karachi’s Manghopir shrine.

Where not too long ago the air was filled with drumbeats and crowds of worshippers danced late into the night, now one’s ears are assailed by the noise of heavy trucks carrying marble slabs. Several shops stand in the narrow alleyway going down the shrine. Once, it used to teem with humanity but now, forlorn sellers stand with their wares with hardly a buyer dropping by.

Patronised by the Sheedi community residing in Sindh and Balochistan, the Sheedi Mela had an enduring appeal and was one of Karachi’s cultural highlights.

But for the past five years, says Mohammad Yaqoob Qambrani, only fear and encroachments have prospered in Manghopir. This is what has replaced the devotees and visitors that used to congregate at the shrine of the 13th-century saint Hazrat Sakhi Sultan Baba Manghopir.

“We last organised the mela in 2010,” says Qambrani, the Sheedi community leader, as we make our way to the shrine from his home in Lyari. “No one threatened us. The government never issued any directive. But the security situation and the overall environment had become such that community elders decided to halt festival activities for a while.”

That “while”, however, continues since the situation in the neighbourhoods around the shrine has deteriorated to such an extent that festival organisers like Qambrani prefer visiting the mazaar during the day and returning home before the sun sets.

“Even now, the local administration doesn’t want us to arrange the mela,” he says. “They cite security threats. We can’t disagree with them as over the past few years some elements have crept into this neighbourhood that pose a serious threat to the centuries-old tradition.”

Sakhi Sultan, the Sheedis believe, was the Hindu highway robber Manga Ram who after meeting four saints of his time, Baba Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakar, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Bahauddin Zakaria Multani and Baba Ghor, had a change of heart.

The Manghopir shrine is dotted with miracles associated with each saint. A pond swarming with crocodiles is one of them. Nearby is a hot water spring that, it has been believed for centuries, cures skin diseases.

But interacting with devotees at the shrine leaves me with the feeling that the wounds left by the recent wave of militancy and violence may take quite some time to heal.

I meet Akbar at the waterhole. He is waiting for a devotee to bring chicken as nazrana [offering] for the reptiles. This is the first time in a week that they’ll get fresh meat, he says.

“Gone are the days when we got such nazrana nearly every day,” he says. Akbar has been looking after the pond for more than a decade as a contract employee of the Sindh Auqaf department, which manages the province’s prominent shrines. “Now it happens only once or twice a week. Beyond that, we buy food for them from the market with whatever donations we get.”

As we talk, a jeep pulls up containing baskets of fresh chicken. Akbar hurriedly enters the pond premises with his two aides, each of them carrying wooden skewers with pieces of chicken for the crocodiles.

Inside the mazaar a few people offer fateha. Shuja Hussain is among them with his wife and four siblings. “We live in Korangi and used to visit this shrine at least once a month or two until a few years ago,” he says. “But now we rarely visit. I got married recently, so today we came here only for haazri.”

The ‘city situation’ Shuja can’t explain but moves his hand to signal the growing unchecked population around the shrine and says: “Don’t you see how congested and strange this place has become? Many of us don’t feel comfortable coming here. Despite the occasional news report about these neighbourhoods, I have hardly seen any police van.”

Outside the mazaar chamber, Faiz Muhammad offers them nuquls (sweets) as they depart. Having spent his days at Baba Manghopir’s shrine for decades, the 70-year-old devotee has witnessed the barren land around becoming densely populated.

“Karachi became a megalopolis but not Manghopir,” he says. “We have been hit by a double-edged sword: governments’ negligence and militants’ extremism. The Sheedi Mela is not held because of the security threat and the number of visitors has dropped amid depleting infrastructure.”

Once home to two residential facilities — Allah Bachayo Goth and Sheedi Goth — Sultanabad in Manghopir is now burgeoning with several irregular neighbourhoods and is in the news mostly for grim reasons.

“Two days ago, an operation was carried out by the Rangers in the Sultanabad area,” says Ali Shah, depositing ice on roses at his flower stall. “Rumours are they came for militants who attacked a senior police officer recently. Some thought there were militants holed up in the area who were planning attacks in Muharram. How can one live and earn in a situation like this?”

The threat to the shrine is not new. Manghopir’s shrine was closed for a couple of days in 2009 when provincial authorities received intelligence reports about possible militant attacks. The October 2010 attack on Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine killed at least eight people and left dozens injured.

Nevertheless, Qambrani has not lost hope. “We are making efforts to resume the Sheedi Mela next year,” he says. “I have met officials in the Sindh cultural ministry. We are proud of our traditions and this is the only festival that will help us bond. We simply can’t give it up. We just can’t.”

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Bilawal spells out bold agenda for PPP

Habib Khan Ghori

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday outlined a bold and ambitious agenda for his party and vowed to foil “conspiracies hatched” to derail democracy.

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday outlined a bold and ambitious agenda for his party and vowed to foil “conspiracies hatched” to derail democracy.

Read Saturday’s live updates and comments: For Bilawal, politics is ‘Bhuttoism’ or ‘Dictatorship‘

Speaking at a mammoth rally at Bagh-i-Jinnah, near the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam, he said some external and internal forces wanted to push the country into the kind of civil war raging in Syria and Iraq, claiming that only Bhuttoism could save the nation.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s speech lasted about 90 minutes and was punctuated by almost all well-known slogans of the PPP. He touched on most issues confronting the country and inveighed against the `puppets’ staging dharnas in Islamabad, the Nawaz government, perceived involvement of the Shahbaz government in the Model Town killings, the judiciary and even the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief`Uncle Altaf’.

He dwelt at length on what he described as sacrifices rendered by leaders of the PPP, especially former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

He underlined the need for free and fair elections in 2018 and transparency in governance.

Referring to Karachi, the PPP’s 26-year-old chief said it was not only the country’s economic hub and mini-Pakistan, but also the “chain that holds the federation together”. Indeed, he added, Karachi was the `Koh-i-Noor’ in the crown of Sindh where besides old Sindhis, new Sindhis, Urdu-speaking people, Punjabis, Pathans, Seraikis, the Baloch, Bengalis and Kashmiris lived. “If all of us join hands, we can make it a cradle of peace and a great city.”

Addressing the prime minister, he asked him to give Karachi its due as it was not just a Sindh city, but the only megalopolis of the country. As such, he added, the centre should contribute to the provincial government’s fight against “all sorts of mafias” by coming up with a generous package.

In a vaguely worded warning, Mr Bhutto-Zardari cautioned unidentified forces against attempts to subvert the Sindh government.

The PPP leader said it was high time that “we unite to banish terrorism, dictatorship and poverty”.

He called for resolution of Kashmir issue, saying it was a part of PPP manifesto.

He did not mince his words while talking about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. “The MQM has been in power in Karachi for the past 20 years and everyone knows what has gone on over the two decades.

“But we will not give up Karachi. Let us join hands to build our city and turn it into a cradle of peace.”

The youthful leader was highly derisive of the Tehrik-i-Insaf, terming its sit-in a drama and alleging that it wanted to become the “MQM of Lahore”.

“The PTI should realise that it is enjoying freedom only because of Bhuttoism. Had there still been dictatorship in the country, your fate would have been no different from Akbar Bugti.”

The PPP chief invited the prime minister and the Muttahida to “work with me to serve the people. Pakistan can make progress if all come together”.

He called upon the people to “wake up” as the country was facing grave threats. The country had to be saved from “political orphans” by defeating them in the next elections, he added.

He invited PPP members across the country to attend the party’s anniversary convention on Nov 30 at Bilawal House, Lahore. Decisions would be taken on their suggestion for reorganisation of the party and for thrashing out its new programme.

The PPP chief asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to correct the direction of the federal government “We have not forgotten episodes like imprisonment of Asif Zardari and the memogate scandal, but are only supporting the government for the sake of democracy.”

Referring to “the outcry against rigging” in last year’s elections, Mr Bilawal- Zardari said his party had been cheated in every elections. He expressed a hope that if the 2018 elections were held in a transparent manner, Karachi “will win its freedom”.

He Paying tributes to the enthusiasm of and spirit of people present at the Bagh-i-Jinnah he said he was standing before the tomb of Quaid-i-Azam, Father of the Nation who gave Pakistan, but the life did not gave him time to give the nation gift of the democracy but this dream was fulfilled by Quaid-i-Awam by giving 1973 constitution. The mission of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was taken up by Benazir Bhutto to give back rights to people and peoples power should be used in the interest of the people.

He said in Pakistan there had always been two forces in Pakistan one is Bhuttoism and the other are follower of dictatorship.

He recalled the sacrifices of the PPP in the struggle for democracy in the country against dictatorship including bomb explosion in the mammoth rally of Benazir Bhutto on Oct 18, 2007, in Karachi and martyrdom on Dec 27 in Rawalpindi. He said Bhuttoism is against extremism, and dictatorship an did not indulge in politics of religion, ethnicity and region but only of Pakistan because PPP is the symbol of Federation and Bhuttoism the chain of the country. He said if there would be no PPP, the caravans of light would lost their way.

He said Nawaz Sharif is the prime minister of Pakistan but he had spent all resources to check sit-ins. He said the sit-ins were also staged against the PPP government but we rolled back our government in Balochistan after the sit-ins by Hazara community while in the government of Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif 14 people were killed ad an FIR was also registered against him but he is product of Ziaul Haq.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Two soldiers killed in Bajaur blast

Anwarullah Khan

KHAR: Two soldiers were killed and another two seriously injured in a roadside bomb explosion in a remote area of Salarzai tehsil in Bajaur Agency on Saturday.

KHAR: Two soldiers were killed and another two seriously injured in a roadside bomb explosion in a remote area of Salarzai tehsil in Bajaur Agency on Saturday.

Officials said a tanker carrying water to a security checkpost in the mountainous area of Mala was hit when an explosive device planted along the road went off.

Two Frontier Crops soldiers in the tanker were killed and two others suffered critical injuries.

According to local people, the tanker was partially damaged in the blast.

Volunteers of a village defence committee and residents of the area took the injured to a hospital in Khar.

The proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.

Calling from an unspecified place, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told reporters that members of his organisation had carried out the attack.

Later, security forces with the help of the members of the village committee mounted a search for attackers in areas surrounding the place where the bomb blast occurred. Local people said several tribesmen had been arrested under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Iranian envoy given demarche over border clashes

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Iranian ambassador was summoned to Foreign Office on Saturday to receive a demarche following border clashes that left a Pakistani paramilitary soldier dead.

ISLAMABAD: Iranian ambassador was summoned to Foreign Office on Saturday to receive a demarche following border clashes that left a Pakistani paramilitary soldier dead.

No statement was issued by FO about the summoning of Ambassador Ali Raza Haghighian.

However, a source said that Iran was asked to investigate the incident in which a Frontier Corps (FC) soldier was killed and at least three others were injured due to firing by Iranian border guards.

The incident happened after some militants attacked an Iranian border post.

The Iranian ambassador’s visit to FO was preceded by another incident of Iranian troops firing mortars into Pakistani territory.

The Iranian envoy was reminded that the border management committee was supposed to deal with complaints regarding movement of militants along the frontier.

According to a source, both sides agreed to resolve the matter amicably.

The border incidents followed a number of statements made by Iranian officials who accused Pakistani authorities of failing to control the situation along the border with Iran.

On Friday, the FO spokesperson had asked Iran not to “externalise” its problems.

Iran, meanwhile, has alleged that militants attacking its border posts have sanctuaries in Balochistan.

Saleem Shahid adds from Quetta: Iranian forces fired on Saturday morning mortar shells at Mashkel town, in Balochistan’s Washuk district.

It was the third border violation by the Iranians since Thursday night.

According to security officials, mortar shells fired by Iranian forces exploded in an open area of Mashkel town.

“Iranian border forces fired mortar shells early in the morning without any provocation,” Mashkel Assistant Commissioner Asghar Shahbaz said. No loss of life or property was reported in the attack.

FC troops reached the area soon after the attack, after which the shelling stopped.

More FC troops were deployed in the area and patrolling was enhanced along with border, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

LI chief’s son killed in Bara

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

LANDI KOTAL: Gunmen from a renegade group of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam militant organisation killed the younger son of LI chief in Bara on Saturday.

LANDI KOTAL: Gunmen from a renegade group of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam militant organisation killed the younger son of LI chief in Bara on Saturday.

Officials of the political administration said that Israfeel, son of LI chief Mangal Bagh, was killed along with his associate Hanif by gunmen belonging to the former LI leader Faqir in Speen Qabar area of Sipah.

Meanwhile, helicopter gunships targeted LI positions in Merikhel and Gandao localities of Malikdin Khel and Akkakhel areas.

Officials said at least 50 LI activists with one of their leaders, Mualim, surrendered to security forces in Meel Wat. Security officials claimed to have advanced towards Sultan Khel area which was previously considered as an LI stronghold.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Raheel says Kashmir settlement key to peace

Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif said on Saturday peace in the region could only come through settlement of the Kashmir issue.

ISLAMABAD: Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif said on Saturday peace in the region could only come through settlement of the Kashmir issue.

“Lasting peace in the region will only come about with a fair and just resolution of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the will of Kashmiri people as enshrined in UN resolutions,” he said at the passing out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul.

“Let there be no doubt that any aggression against our beloved country will get a befitting response and no sacrifice will be too great in this sacred cause,” Gen Sharif said.

He said Pakistan desired regional stability and relationships based on equality and mutual respect.

Taking a swipe at New Delhi for its handling of protests in India-held Kashmir, the army chief said repression of Kashmiris by Indian forces would not deter them from exercising their freedom of choice.

“It is our firm belief that the determination of our Kashmiri brethren and collective conscience of the free world will bear fruit and their aspirations will eventually be realised,” he added

Gen Sharif made these comments against the backdrop of heightened tensions with India over the LoC and Working Boundary in which 12 people have been killed due to shelling by Indian troops.

The violations of the 2003 ceasefire accord have been happening since 2010, but have become particularly intense since last year. The peace dialogue between the two countries, which has been suspended since January last year, has been a major victim of the clashes.

Gen Sharif had also said while visiting the LoC late last month that “provocation along the Line of Control will be responded to effectively”.

Despite his tough words Pakistan’s response to Indian shelling has been measured.

Figures shared with the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday showed that India fired approximately 36,000 rounds in the current episode of ceasefire violations. Pakistani troops in response fired about 8,000 rounds.

Military operation

Turning to the operation in North Waziristan, Gen Sharif said Zarb-i-Azb should not be seen only as a counter-terrorism action, but as a commitment to rid the country of terrorism forever.

In North Waziristan, the military operations were delivering decisive results, he said.

In addition, he pointed out, terrorist networks across the country were being targeted.

He said displaced people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas “will be able to return to their homes sooner than expected” because of the successful operation.

“Nonetheless, in order to bring about lasting peace in Fata and the country at large, cohesive, dedicated and timely involvement of all stakeholders and state institutions is essential,” he said.

The army chief renewed an offer of support to the Afghan security forces.

APP adds: Gen Sharif said that the rapidly changing geopolitical environment and globally asserting no-state actors had put Pakistan in the centre stage.

“In its wake it has brought numerous challenges and opportunities for Pakistan. This has put enormous burden of responsibility and deliverance on Pakistan Army.

Shying away from adversities is not in our nature, we have resolved to face these squarely, as this is the surest route to success,” he added.

“May it be external aggression, internal security, national building tasks or natural calamities such as floods and earthquakes; we have always lived up to the expectations of the nation.”

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Editorial News

Measures against Ebola

Editorial

WITH a fatality rate of around 70pc, according to WHO, the Ebola outbreak raging mainly in parts of West Africa has, with good reason, triggered much anxiety across the world.

WITH a fatality rate of around 70pc, according to WHO, the Ebola outbreak raging mainly in parts of West Africa has, with good reason, triggered much anxiety across the world.

The disease has ravaged the society and health infrastructure of the hardest-hit countries which include Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

In Pakistan, after an initially lackadaisical response to the threat of the virus entering the country, the health authorities appear to have woken up to the risk and scrambled to put preventive measures in place. Isolation wards have been set up in at least seven tertiary care hospitals all over the country.

Round-the-clock health staff has been appointed at all international airports to screen passengers arriving from Ebola-affected countries, document their history and if necessary, coordinate with relevant personnel in the provincial health departments to keep such passengers under observation/quarantine at one of the isolation wards.

Training in detecting and handling cases is being conducted for the health staff deputed at points of entry. WHO has provided 15 sets of protective gear to the Sindh government in case doctors and paramedics in the province have to handle an infected person.

This is all very well, and WHO has also declared itself satisfied with the measures Pakistan is taking to contend with this health emergency.

However, key to success here is consistency and rigorous application of the protocols that are being put in place. Such discipline does not come naturally to us, but harness it we must. Adherence to preventive measures is essential right down to the micro level in the health chain where laxity is most likely. For this, training of everyone concerned must be mandatory.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

PTI’s new dilemma

Editorial

ONE preached revolution, the other freedom. But their basic cause was common: the overthrow of the Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N government.

ONE preached revolution, the other freedom. But their basic cause was common: the overthrow of the Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N government.

Now Imran Khan has lost a critical partner, Tahirul Qadri, in sustaining the protests on Constitution Avenue and it is difficult to see how Mr Khan and the PTI will be able to keep more than a flicker of interest alive nationally in the anti-government sit-in in Islamabad.

While Mr Khan’s nightly oratory in Islamabad — when he is not travelling the country attending rallies, that is — has often been the focal point over the last two months, it was really Mr Qadri’s supporters who held down the fort as it were and gave the site the feel of a genuine sit-in.

Mr Khan is now alone on Constitution Avenue, and more and more it appears that the PTI chief has miscalculated. Perhaps the real downturn for Mr Khan began when he made the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a sine qua non — an essential condition — of ending the PTI protest. Clearly, barring intervention by the army leadership or street violence, Mr Khan had no real way of forcing a prime ministerial resignation.

Had the focus remained on electoral reforms and scrutiny of the May 2013 results in certain constituencies, Mr Khan could well have achieved his goals. But by aiming too high, Mr Khan seems to have left himself with no tangible gains at all.

Yet, the spectre of failure by Mr Khan to secure even the just and legitimate demands of the PTI should not absolve the PML-N in any way of its own failure to do the right now. With the Qadri threat apparently gone — whether or not blood money is paid to the victims of the Model Town incident is politically hardly of the order of magnitude as compared to the chief ministership of Shahbaz Sharif still hanging in the balance — the PML-N seems fairly confident of two things.

It believes it has more than enough support inside parliament to ignore Mr Khan and that the PTI chief does not have a tidal wave of support outside parliament, among the public, to be able to force the government to pay attention. That though would be a travesty of democracy. Unwise and provocative as Mr Khan’s methods may have been, electoral reforms are needed and they should be a priority. Unhappily, the PML-N seems unwilling or unable to grasp that idea.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Attacks in Quetta

Editorial

ONE day, one provincial capital, three violent incidents — Quetta in particular, and Balochistan in general, appear to be slipping back towards outright anarchy and the state seems utterly clueless and impotent.

Start with the attack on the Shia Hazara community. With the majority of Hazaras settled in one particular zone in Quetta and the community under sustained and deadly threat, the law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus in the provincial capital ought surely to be able to do better to protect the community. Yet, whatever measures were taken in the wake of the devastating bombings in early 2013 on the Hazara community have clearly proved inadequate.

If preventing a drive-by shooting of a bus is fiendishly difficult, far more obvious is the failure to follow up on intelligence reports suggesting that Quetta is infested with sectarian militants with an explicit agenda of attacking the Hazaras.

All that ever seems to happen is after each terrible crime against the Hazaras, the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies briefly go into overdrive, raiding suspected terrorist hideouts, arresting people, etc before slipping back into complacency until the next hideous attack, when the cycle is repeated all over again.

Of course, if failure to defend a shocking vulnerable and under-siege community were not bad enough, the law-enforcement apparatus led by the paramilitary Frontier Corps was unable to even defend its own soldiers in a roadside bombing in Quetta yesterday.

Again, no counterterrorism system can be perfect and some attacks in a state of insurgency are inevitable, but that only underscores the wider point: whatever the army-led security establishment has done to counter terrorism and insurgency in the province over the past decade has not worked — indeed, is not working.

To add to that already chaotic scene came a third attack, this time on Fazlur Rehman in the evening. There are obvious possibilities for who can and would want to attack the JUI-F chief, including an unverified early claim of responsibility last evening, and those possibilities suggest that yesterday’s attack could have ramifications far beyond Quetta, given the maulana’s political base in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and his party’s presence in parts of Fata.

What is also clear is that across the spectrum of the country’s political leadership, there are very real and disturbing threats to the lives of politicians for any number of reasons.

Returning to Quetta, however, the signs are ominous. The attack against the Hazaras and the JUI-F chief in particular come in the run-up to Muharram, when security worries and religious sensitivities tend to spike.

The first priority of the provincial and federal governments and the law-enforcement and security apparatus should be to urgently reassess any and all plans for keeping the peace in Quetta in the uniquely challenging weeks ahead. Else, the forgotten problems of Quetta could burn right through to the front of the national stage.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Confused priorities

Editorial

THE Council of Islamic Ideology appears to be playing a familiar tune. Following a meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday, CII chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani said that a Muslim woman cannot object to her husband’s second or subsequent marriages.

He added that the relevant section of the Muslim Divorce Act, 1939, contravened Sharia hence it should be repealed. It seems that the learned doctors of religion that serve on the council have an obsession with marriage laws — this was the fourth meeting this year to discuss the subject — and are bent upon reversing whatever progressive legislation exists to protect women and children.

For example, in May the CII had issued a statement that endorsed child marriage. As it is, due to the patriarchal, almost medieval mindsets that prevail in society, the odds are stacked against women and children in Pakistan. So when an official body makes such questionable pronouncements — even in an advisory, non-binding capacity — it sends all the wrong signals to society.

The council, as it stands, is dominated by the chairman, who is a cleric from the far right of the conservative brand. Hence, space in the body for progressive religious voices is minimal. With society already sinking in the bog of extremism and obscurantism, will such pronouncements from an official body help improve the situation?

Like so many other state institutions, the CII seems to have misplaced priorities. While it does occasionally add positive input to important issues, such as calling for a ban on hate speech during Muharram and condemning the practice of declaring Muslims non-believers, as it did on Wednesday, at the same time the council also endorses regressive thoughts.

This dichotomy should be addressed. If the CII cannot endorse progressive religious views that help heal society’s rifts, it should be wrapped up. As it is, we have an elected body in the shape of parliament that is qualified to legislate on all issues, hence the presence of a parallel advisory institution makes little sense.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Power fumble

Editorial

LESS than six months into their second fiscal year, the government is already fumbling its response to the power crisis.

LESS than six months into their second fiscal year, the government is already fumbling its response to the power crisis.

This is a government that campaigned on ending load-shedding and whose senior leadership, when in opposition, skewered the previous government for its many mistakes in the power sector.

This is a government that borrowed an epic half a trillion rupees in a matter of days to settle the circular debt as one of its earliest actions, promising us that this problem would not be allowed to return as it did after every other such settlement in previous years.

This time it would be different, we were told last summer. This time reforms would be introduced to bring about efficiency, lower losses and raise recoveries, with minimal impact on tariffs for end-consumers.

All these promises appeared to be enshrined in a single line in the last budget: the massively reduced allocation for power tariff subsidies for fiscal year 2014-15. The government meant business it appeared, because with reduced allocation for subsidies, there would be no choice but to raise recoveries and efficiencies.

Since then, we have had an overbilling scandal, which cost a veteran bureaucrat her job, and now the ramshackle attempt to sneak through a power tariff increase, apparently in the hope that nobody would notice. But somebody did notice, and the whistle was indeed blown, and now we have a hasty withdrawal from that decision from an authority no less than the prime minister himself, signalling a wavering and weak-kneed commitment at the top levels of government to follow through on their own decisions.

Fact of the matter is that the government is struggling to formulate a response to the power crisis in the same manner as its predecessor. The current political difficulties are no excuse; after all, Pakistan’s politics have almost always been tumultuous.

Did the PML-N not know at the time of making its campaign promise that the party would be required to deliver on its pledges in the midst of a stormy political environment? Without underlying reforms that alter the incentive structure the bureaucracy operates under, top-line measures such as tariff increases and raw pressure to raise recoveries will only generate more problems and provoke a powerful backlash.

In the second year of its rule, we are entitled to see a more coherent response from the government towards delivering on its principal campaign promise regarding the power crisis.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Education in a shambles

Editorial

THE information may not be new, but the issue is so crucial that it bears repetition: Pakistan will have no future unless it invests heavily in the young — and this investment begins with the long-neglected, even forgotten, sector of education.

Despite having a clause on the law books that makes education a universal right for all children, the country is still struggling to put every child in school.

On top of that, we now have stark facts and figures about the difficulty in keeping children in school, even if they make it there in the first place. On Tuesday, education campaigner Alif Ailaan released its latest report, Broken promises: The crisis of Pakistan’s out-of-school children.

The figures are worrying: of those that do enrol in school, only one in four make it to Grade 10; as indicated by data from various sources used by Alif Ailaan. That means some 25 million children drop out of school.

A perusal of the reasons the report lays out for this shamefully high figure is as revealing as it is instructive. A couple of myths are busted, for example, only 1pc of girls were forced to opt out of school because of marriage.

Some reasons are obvious — poverty, the need to start pulling in an income and the expense of schooling are deterrents for both boys and girls. But other factors are an indictment of the education infrastructure and its handling. Consider, for example, that 5pc of male dropouts find that school is too far off to make attendance viable; and 51pc of such boys don’t go because they themselves are not willing to continue. The figure for girls not attending for the latter reason is 28pc. But why would children be unwilling to go to school?

An answer is found in what the Rawalpindi deputy district education officer had to say to this newspaper. The major reasons, according to him, are “[in]consistency of policies, poverty and a shambolic education infrastructure”. A schoolteacher from the city commented in addition: “a poorly managed system of examinations and teachers’ maltreatment of students”.

The path to remedying the situation on paper is quite clear. But so far the country has lacked the sort of political will needed to make it happen. For instance, in the wake of devolution after the passage of the 18th Amendment, the centre seems to have abandoned the subject as a provincial matter; the provinces have, meanwhile, done little (other than Sindh, which has started to try and weed out political appointees in schoolteachers’ positions).

The low school enrolment rates coupled with high dropout rates are a disaster in the making for the country’s social and economic future. But going by the response to this abysmal state of affairs, the dire implications have not yet filtered into the consciousness of those at the helm.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Talk of nukes

Editorial

THE nuclear boast by a federal minister in the National Assembly on Monday was not required. The minister, retired Lt-Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, says he spent seven of his years in the army on the Line of Control, which apparently qualified him to talk of what he called a “matching” response to an “aggressive” India. But his warning was rather superfluous, for the dangers of having two skirmishing nuclear-armed neighbours are too well known to need further elaboration. The thought is chilling enough even without the good minister having to throw in a few thrills of his own. In fact, once such fears are sparked, particularly given the current spike in border hostilities, all adventurous talk even remotely connected with the use of nuclear force should be shunned. This logic did not seem to strike Mr Baloch who was heard reminding everyone that if “countries possess any capability for their defence; they don’t keep it only in cold storage. This capability can be used in times of need”. Most people would be likely to miss the balancing act that Mr Baloch was trying to put up by “reassuring” his audience that Pakistan had maintained its nuclear capability with “utmost responsibility”.

The minister was obviously indulging in the kind of posturing that has sadly been considered necessary at this moment in both India and Pakistan. However, he took the intimidating battle that the two sides have been locked in to an altogether different level — perhaps compelled by all the critique of his government which has been accused of reacting too softly to Indian aggression on the borders. There are other political parties that have tried to use the situation to press their own credentials and Pakistanis are reacting with anger to news about their countrymen being hit by cross-border fire from the Indian forces. The current spur in hostilities makes it difficult enough for Pakistan and India to jointly pursue a less dangerous future. Let’s not aggravate the situation by bringing in the nukes.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Licence suspension

Editorial

A MERE four months after Geo News was fined and its broadcast licence temporarily suspended by Pemra, on Monday it was ARY News that was similarly cautioned with a 15-day licence suspension and a Rs10m fine. The institutions these channels are deemed to have harmed are different — it is the ISI in the former instance and the judiciary in the second. But the root of the problem is the same: the airing of content that has displayed a problematic journalistic ethos and the failure to weed out undesirable or reckless commentary. Whether the punishment meets the scale of the transgression is debatable in such cases. But what is not debatable is that on several occasions, in different ways, Pakistan’s vibrant and outspoken electronic media have erred on the side of being too lax in their application of filters, and have consequently underscored the need for regulation.

There is, of course, a lot of difference between censorship and regulation. Across the world, the functioning of the electronic media is subjected to the scrutiny of regulatory bodies that act as the media’s conscience and in the public interest. This was precisely the reasoning behind the establishment of Pemra. That said, however, there are in practical terms certain problems with the watchdog. These require rectification — and on an urgent basis. First, where regulatory bodies are effective, they also have considerable power to implement their decisions and, more importantly, are viewed as having an entirely independent and transparent functioning. What is Pemra’s implementing power? Now that ARY’s licence has been suspended, the country will no doubt see the same situation as it did with Geo: depending on individual cable operators’ inclination, the broadcast will cease in some areas and not in others. Second, as a result of the Geo/ARY debacle, Pemra as it stands today has been tainted with political hues, and there are reasons to fear that its decisions may not be as independent as could be hoped for. This needs to be reversed. Further, there is no argument that Pakistan’s electronic media landscape can do with better, clearer rules that should be applied fairly, with transparency, and across the board. All this can be achieved if the Pemra regulatory framework is subjected to close parliamentary re-examination. As long as the main stakeholders are kept part of the consulting process, there is no reason a new regulator with new rules cannot be created.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Tensions on Pak-Iran border

Editorial

WHILE certain sections of the geostrategic community in Pakistan have always touted the geographic importance of the country and the enviable place it has as a regional trade corridor, the reality is that the state’s borders have more often proved a liability than an asset over the decades. With friction on the Pak-Afghan border having been a near constant over the last decade and the Pak-India border — or, more specifically, the Line of Control and Working Boundary with Kashmir — having flared up recently, a third border has seen a rise in tensions over the last week: Iran-Pakistan. A flurry of diplomatic activity has followed the killing of a Pakistan Frontier Corps soldier in an attack on Pakistani soil by Iranian border security forces and the Iranian side at least seems to be in a bellicose mood. This is not the first time this year that the Iran-Pakistan border has been a flashpoint: earlier the abduction of Iranian border guards caused a sharp response from Iran and small, localised incidents on the border are frequent enough.

The basic problem is well known. Iran accuses Pakistan of allowing its territory in Balochistan to be used to destabilise the Sistan-Baluchestan region in Iran — though the Iranians usually make the connection to foreign (read Western) intelligence services operating in the Balochistan and southern Afghanistan region. Yet, the problem is much wider than what Iran often claims and not necessarily uni-directional. The porous Iran-Pakistan border that runs over 900km is a magnet for smugglers — of humans, drugs and petroleum products — criminal elements and even militants. While Iran has invested more than Pakistan in shoring up its border controls, security officials here have privately over the years suggested that Iran is not above interfering in Balochistan and southern Afghanistan, especially given the Shia Hazara population in the region.

Identifying the problem though does not mean that either side has been particularly keen on solving it — not that cross-border movements in remote regions can ever really be fully eliminated, especially when there is a significant financial incentive. But surely, given the alarming potential for friction that exists on the Pak-Iran border, it is in the interests of both sides to go beyond diplomatic barbs and systematically diminish the threat. The Pak-Iran relationship has over the years been characterised by coolness towards each other, not just because of Pakistan’s closeness to Saudi Arabia and its relationship with the US, but also because neither country’s leadership has been willing to think in creative or innovative ways to improve ties. The physical links that the IP gas pipeline, surplus electricity supply from Iran to Pakistan and higher volumes of official trade would create could help make ties mutually beneficial and move them away from the present security-centric character. But for that to happen the leadership on both sides would need to show greater vision.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Targeting of non-Baloch

Editorial

ONCE again, the blood of innocents has flowed in Balochistan. Eight labourers kidnapped in the early hours of Sunday from a poultry farm in Sakran, Lasbela district, were found murdered later that day, their bodies dumped in a mountainous area.

Another labourer, who had been kidnapped in the same incident, was discovered in an injured condition close to the other victims.

The men belonged to various parts of Punjab, driven by economic compulsions to seek work in the insurgency-wracked province following the devastating floods in their native areas. From the details that have emerged, this is yet another grisly chapter in the Baloch separatists’ campaign to define their enemy along ethnic lines, in which any non-Baloch is worthy of elimination.

Evidently, 11 men had been kidnapped, but two were released after a perusal of the victims’ identity cards revealed they were Baloch. Earlier this month, a barber shop and a photographer’s studio in Quetta, both owned by non-Baloch, were attacked with hand grenades, killing and injuring several.

Armed struggles, when they are particularly protracted, run the risk of straying from their original ideological context: frustrations boil over and rivalries stemming from competition over resources to differences regarding strategy create a situation of having to prove one’s credentials.

It could be argued that the Baloch insurgency, spawned by the state’s own repressive and short-sighted policies, turned that corner when separatists began to target non-Baloch living and working in Balochistan.

This trend has especially manifested itself in its latest iteration, triggered by Akbar Bugti’s murder in 2006. In treading upon this path, the separatists betray a hardening of stance and a narrowness of vision that compromises the future of their own people. For, among those non-Baloch who have been attacked or driven out of the province by the insurgents, are educationists, doctors and health workers.

The province thus continues to haemorrhage well-qualified individuals who are much needed to improve developmental indicators already among the lowest in the country, even when non-Baloch such as the Hazaras are slaughtered in attacks by religious extremists who, militant Baloch groups allege, are being used by the state to counter the insurgency, the separatists utter not a word in condemnation. In their hatred and obduracy, they compromise any effort to address the legitimate grievances of the Baloch.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

The drop in FDI

Editorial

THE steep fall in foreign investment is a vote of little confidence in the turnaround story the government enjoys telling everybody.

THE steep fall in foreign investment is a vote of little confidence in the turnaround story the government enjoys telling everybody.

Latest figures show that foreign investment in the first quarter of the current fiscal year dropped by 26pc from the same period last year. This is putting pressure on the massive debt service obligations due this year, as well as challenging the resumption of job-creating growth.

Outflows in the form of dividends and repatriation of profits has risen, ie foreign investors prefer to take out whatever money they are making in Pakistan rather than risk new investments.

The trade deficit is widening, which indicates that difficulties are accumulating on the external front where the government likes to claim its biggest success. Thus far, reserves have not seen any adverse impact, but if the situation is not rectified, that could change.

Much of the government’s turnaround story hinges on external-sector developments. They claim they stabilised reserves and strengthened the currency, and obtained a vote of confidence from Moody’s. But a deeper look reveals darkening clouds.

The fall in foreign investment is only partially the result of the political turmoil in the country. The turmoil certainly hasn’t helped, but the decline in foreign investment began long before the protests, and is more closely related to the difficulty of credibly selling the government’s growth story.

Inflows of foreign investment did see an uptick from 2013 on, when the new government took the reins, but that trend tapered out by January of this year and appears to be worsening.

reasons have more to do with the underlying fundamentals that fail to inspire confidence, such as law and order, the state of governance, the perception of favouritism in the way the government operates, the precarious nature of external-sector developments, etc.

This vote of little confidence that investors are casting by abstaining from acquiring stakes in an economy the government claims is on the mend cannot be addressed through mere statements. Yes, political stability is badly needed, but clearly the authorities need to do more to establish their credentials as a business-friendly government. Their insistence that they are one does not seem to find any takers.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

A national shame

Editorial

OUTRAGE, disbelief and despondency are some of the emotions triggered by news of the armed robbery targeting the Edhi Foundation’s headquarters on Sunday morning.

OUTRAGE, disbelief and despondency are some of the emotions triggered by news of the armed robbery targeting the Edhi Foundation’s headquarters on Sunday morning.

While hold-ups and robberies in the chaotic environs of Karachi are very common, as armed thugs loot citizens on a daily basis in this unfortunate city, it is the audacity of the criminals to target the country’s most outstanding social workers that is particularly unnerving.

As per reports, a number of armed men barged into the Edhi Foundation’s premises in the old city area and fled with gold and cash worth around Rs30m. The marauders held the staff at gunpoint and also threatened Mr Edhi, who was asleep when the criminals struck.

Clearly not in a hurry, the armed robbers spent around 30 minutes in the office. There are indications that they may have had inside information as they knew the location of the cash and valuables. Speaking after the incident, Mr Edhi told a foreign media organisation that he felt “heartbroken” and “violated”.

Most people in Pakistan have a good idea of the role Abdul Sattar Edhi and his foundation play in this country.

The iconic social worker cares for those whom state and society have forgotten or choose not to remember. For decades, his organisation has been a shelter for the dispossessed, the abandoned and the weak.

His fleet of ambulances and other social services are literally life-saving endeavours filling in the vast space the state — due to its negligence and disinterest — has left vacant. That is why the shock over this crime is so great.

It seems that in Pakistan, crime and militancy have devolved to such unenviable depths that even a saviour like Mr Edhi is not safe from the depredations of marauders. The incident shows that everything is fair game in this country, that all targets are kosher. Indeed, the question swirling in many minds is that if a personality such as Abdul Sattar Edhi can be robbed, what else is left?

But then, we as a nation have been falling through a bottomless pit for some time now. Criminals and terrorists have no qualms about attacking funerals and hospitals, even killing women and children if they happen to get in the way.

In this country, flawed ideologies have led to the murder of doctors, teachers and polio vaccinators, all doing the work of messiahs. But where is society’s condemnation? Or have we become numb?

The robbery has been condemned by the high and mighty of this land, including the prime minister. However, while we are hopeful that Mr Edhi will recover and continue his mission to serve humanity, we are not so sure if the authorities will be moved by this latest outrage to act decisively and crack down on urban crime so that citizens’ lives and properties are made safe.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Space for culture

Editorial

WHILE Karachi is more known for frequent bloodshed and chaos, the fact that the megacity has just witnessed the seventh edition of the International Urdu Conference shows it can also play host to events that promote learning.

The four-day conference, which concluded on Sunday, featured eminent men of letters and literati from across Pakistan as well as the diaspora. That writers and scholars from India, Egypt and Turkey were present was an added bonus. It is heartening that despite Karachi’s near-constant instability and the fact that political activity in the metropolis was at fever pitch due to Saturday’s PPP rally, the public’s attendance at the conference was encouraging, though perhaps a stronger presence from the youth was needed.

Participants of the “cultural congregation” discussed a range of topics relevant to the condition and future prospects of Urdu. Of course, the rampant extremism in society did not escape the attention of the discussants, as speakers said fiction writers specifically feared an obscurantist backlash.

Equally interesting were concerns about the effects globalisation was having on Urdu. In the new ‘global culture’ — largely shaped by multinational corporations — English was dominant and to ensure its survival Urdu had to “turn itself into the language of creativity and knowledge”.

Languages the world over face a Darwinian struggle; only the strongest survive in a globalised age, and efforts such as the Urdu conference are essential to ensuring languages are patronised and nurtured.

Some speakers also raised the point that in the current societal milieu, literature and language did not matter much.

Indeed, literature conferences, book fairs and other events that promote learning are essential to fostering tolerance and civilised behaviour in society.

Encouragingly, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad have all over the past few years witnessed regular events that promote literature and the arts. However, challenges persist; only last year, Karachi’s book fair was targeted by protesting extremists.

The state can help by supporting such literary endeavours and protecting them from the threats posed by hardliners.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Bilawal’s rally

Editorial

THE PPP rally in Karachi on Saturday demonstrated the party’s enduring appeal in Sindh and established that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at least appears to understand the basic fault lines and the existential challenges the country faces today.

To the party’s detractors, however, the memory of the disastrous governance between 2008 and 2013 is still far too fresh, and the Sindh provincial government’s ongoing problems of administration render the party a part of the problem rather than the solution a change-seeking electorate wants.

Yet, whatever the pundits on both sides of the PPP divide may believe, there are certain realities that transcend wishful thinking.

For one, the PPP will command a winning vote bank in Sindh for the foreseeable future — unless a new political alternative appears which can appeal to the needs of the Sindh voter. But there is no sign of that political alternative appearing, and one or two PTI rallies will not change the situation.

For another, the country needs a political option that espouses the politics of inclusivity and is clear on the only way forward for the country — a secular, liberal, constitutional and democratic polity.

Yet, for all that the PPP says right, it does twice as many things wrong. In speaking for the downtrodden, poor and oppressed, the party is a champion of a worthy cause. But should not the point of such politics be to afford opportunities to the disadvantaged so that the latter are able to socially, economically and politically move ahead in life?

The PPP speaks for the deprived segments, but it does not seem to be too concerned with ensuring that they do not remain poor.

Surely, even 10 consecutive years of rule in Sindh — which is what will happen if elections are held on time in 2018 — will not fundamentally transform a society with such deep-rooted and varied structural problems. But can anyone really say that the PPP is even on the right policy trajectory? Surely not.

Therein lies the problem for Mr Bhutto Zardari: he will not be in charge of his party for many years it seems, but the intervening period could fatally damage the Bhutto and PPP brand he will inherit.

Surely, there will always be some kind of a vote bank in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — but can it remotely be a winning vote bank if everything the party stands for is undone by its performance in office? The PPP needs to reinvent itself before it can aspire to save Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

The army’s view

Editorial

WHEN the army chief speaks, listening can be instructive, especially if the chief is dilating on issues of national security and foreign policy.

WHEN the army chief speaks, listening can be instructive, especially if the chief is dilating on issues of national security and foreign policy.

In more normal times, Gen Raheel Sharif’s speech to fresh graduates of the military academy in Kakul would have been a routine affair, but context can be everything.

With violence along the LoC and Working Boundary having flared up recently, tensions with India still high, a military operation in North Waziristan looking set to continue into the winter, a new dispensation in Afghanistan and civil-military relations having taken more than a few knocks in recent months, Gen Sharif’s words were all the more important. And it is more than likely they indicated state policy direction on key issues in the near future.

On India, the message was not quite a dismal one – given the aggressive tone emanating from New Delhi under the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. But it certainly suggests that Pakistan and India are back to square one, with Pakistan insisting that normalisation and peace can only take place in an environment where the Kashmir dispute is placed front and centre.

Yet, nothing Gen Sharif said suggests that the army-led security establishment is quite looking for a solution on an urgent or innovative basis. By reiterating that the Kashmir dispute must be resolved “in accordance with the will of Kashmiri people as enshrined in the UN resolutions” the army here has signalled that it is not in fact really seeking any forward movement on Kashmir.

In reality, principled and legal as Pakistan’s long-standing formulation on Kashmir has been, the original fair and just solution is a virtual non-starter now.

Anything that does nudge the Kashmir dispute closer to resolution – as opposed to a return to the non-violent impasse of the past decade – would have to be the so-called out-of-the-box solution that Pervez Musharraf semi-championed. Clearly though, the army leadership does not believe – and it may well be right – that the Modi government is remotely interested in pursuing peace right now, let alone a resolution of the Kashmir issue.

On Afghanistan, meanwhile, Gen Sharif sounded a more conciliatory tone, essentially welcoming the Ashraf Ghani-Abdullah Abdullah governance experiment and even suggesting that the Pakistan Army will support the Afghan security forces, despite long-held reservations about the size, purpose and viability of the foreign-funded Afghan National Army.

While the army’s Afghan policy may not fundamentally have changed as yet, there are signs that if the Afghans find a way to establish relative peace and stability in their country, Pakistan will not intervene against or scuttle an internal Afghan settlement.

Finally, on internal security and Operation Zarb-i-Azb, Gen Sharif suggested that “cohesive, dedicated and timely involvement of all stake holders and state institutions is essential” for peace. But then, what has the army really done to encourage civilian input?

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Woes of journalists

Editorial

IT is a sad reflection on a country when those who are at the vanguard of all popular causes are found struggling to secure a few basics for themselves. Journalists in Pakistan have been demanding protection and investigation of cases of violence against them. Worse, they have been forced to call for payment of compensation to the families of journalists killed in pursuance of their work. There has been little official response to these demands. One of the most dangerous places for journalists anywhere, Pakistan is regretfully also characterised by apathy on the part of those in power. Estimates show more than 40 journalists have been killed in conflict-ridden Balochistan alone over the last five years. And there have been instances elsewhere in which media persons have been targeted. But nothing has emerged to suggest that the authorities are alarmed. Instead, journalists continue to be exposed to ever greater danger in the presence of a state that is unable to offer much in terms of protection and because of cut-throat competition among their employers.

Journalists in Pakistan have to thus fight on many fronts. They are up against the perpetrators of violence, they are striving to make the state wake up to its responsibility of providing security and they have to evolve a professional scheme that allows them to carry out their duties with minimum risk. There has been some effort towards these ends but no real results. Lately, journalists have managed to get the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly to write to the prime minister, urging the government to give compensation to the families of Balochistan-based journalists who have died in targeted killings. Also, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists on Friday launched a weeklong black ribbon campaign against some recent killings. This is strong enough protest for anyone inclined to listen but it can be made more potent by the inclusion of a greater number of journalists. The groupings in the ranks are harming the cause which is common to all journalists.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Ebola danger

Editorial

THE level of panic that has ensued in several developed countries regarding the threat of Ebola there is perhaps unnecessary given that they are well equipped to contain the virus. But what the dreaded disease has wrought in the poor countries of western Africa is horrifying, with nearly 4,500 people dead and already stressed healthcare infrastructures brought to the point of collapse. Unfortunately, several developing countries are too sanguine about the risk. Consider the case of Pakistan: we have a far from adequate healthcare infrastructure — one that is plagued by inefficiencies, mismanagement and resource and manpower shortages. It has not kept pace with the needs of a burgeoning and increasingly poor population, and even basics such as maternal and child health are not covered. The medical needs of millions of people go unmet, and hundreds of thousands of people die of preventable illnesses. Were something like the Ebola virus to strike here, the outcome would be nothing short of catastrophic, especially in view of the high population and urban density rates.

It is not that the government is not alive to the danger, but that the protective measures being talked about are far from sufficient and certainly far from showing the sort of urgency that is warranted. On Friday, it was announced that a counter had been set up at the Islamabad airport to screen travellers from western Africa, and bureaucratic moves such as appointing focal persons, etc, had been taken. But what about the country’s other international airports? What about travellers entering through the ports and land borders? What about the fact that although international passengers already fill out a health card, these cards are rarely — if ever — scanned and can usually be found littering the premises? The state’s utter inability to enforce even its own decisions in terms of healthcare can be gauged from the promises made about polio. Officialdom claimed to have set up mechanisms at airports to screen out passengers without vaccination certificates, but in reality thousands of people are travelling unchecked. As with polio, the introduction of Ebola is a risk Pakistan can simply not afford to take. It seems to be failing in the former case; will it be the same with the latter?

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Power reshuffle

Editorial

RECENT changes in the power sector, arguably one of the most crucial areas in need of major reform, have led to much debate. A new face has been nominated for the post of secretary, water and power. Outgoing secretary Nargis Sethi had taken up the challenge after efficiently managing some very senior federal government posts. Her tough talk led many to believe she would ensure that the power bureaucracy delivered results, particularly where improving recoveries and raising efficiencies were concerned. The sheer force of confidence that Ms Sethi brought with her were assets — up to a point. But ultimately, the intrigues of the inept in the power bureaucracy proved stronger than her willpower, and the results of the pressure exerted by her to accelerate recoveries led to an overbilling scandal, which apparently played a major role in her premature removal. The episode goes to show that tough talk is not enough to deal with the power bureaucracy. What is needed is a calmer, more methodical approach to reform the incentive structure that makes the bureaucracy tick.

Her replacement is Younus Dagha, a relatively newer face at the top. Mr Dagha belongs to the DMG group from 1985 and has spent most of his career in service to the provincial government of Sindh. His work in the federal government is only a few years old, and most it is far removed from the type of posts around which powerful politics revolve. But Mr Dagha has a reputation as a man who gets things done without getting his hands dirty. The road ahead for him is treacherous, and his relative inexperience in dealing with high-pressure posts in close proximity to political power could be as much of an asset as a liability. Tackling political pressure, the intrigues of the power bureaucracy and pressure from the IPPs may well take its usual toll.

As an example, consider how Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif recently embarrassed himself and a number of others by announcing that Nepra, the supposedly independent regulator, had rejected a petition filed by the PTI even before Nepra had said anything about the matter. The Nepra chief, who happens to be related to the minister, was put in the position of having to deny that a decision had been made on that petition. Khawaja Asif’s announcement served to reinforce the impression held by many that family ties between the minister and the regulator’s chief had led the latter to subordinate his professional obligations to the political priorities of the minister. It remains to be seen how Mr Dagha will respond to this sort of pressure, especially considering he has a track record of not obliging political interference. To be successful, he will need to keep politics at bay, not become overconfident, and chart out a methodical and deliberate path of reform. No doubt this is a daunting job, but perhaps the best bet is to entrust it to a new face.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Columns and Articles

Heights of Shimla

F.S. Aijazuddin

IT is a small desk, ornate but unexpectedly small. Forty-two years ago, it bore the weight of two hands that signed the 1972 Shimla Agreement. Today, that desk bears the lighter burden of two framed photographs — one of the Indian and Pakistani delegations in congress, and the other of their leaders Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signing a common document in the pre-dawn of July 3.

The desk in Shimla’s Raj Bhavan has been made the focal point of a mini-shrine to commemorate the event, just as the Shimla Agreement itself has become the source, the Ganga-dhara of India’s attitude to Pakistan vis-à-vis Jammu & Kashmir.

From the heights of that Shimla accord flowed downstream the Lahore Declaration, signed on July 2, 1999 by prime ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif. It reiterated “the determination of both countries to implement the Shimla Agreement in letter and spirit”. The letter of the agreement was public knowledge; its spirit remained amorphous, changing meanings into nuance.

Signing it, both Mrs Gandhi and Mr Bhutto understood that Pakistan had conceded that the Line of Ceasefire had hardened into the Line of Control and that the undertaking to “settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations” precluded any reference to third parties, particularly the United Nations.

According to P.N. Dhar (secretary to Mrs Gandhi), “When Mrs Gandhi, after recounting their points of agreement, finally asked Bhutto, ‘Is this the understanding on which we will proceed?’, he replied: ‘Absolutely, ‘aap mujh par bharosa keejiye [you can trust me.]’

Each subsequent Indian and Pakistani government has chosen to treat that clause as a malleable Rubik’s cube, rotating it to yield different patterns of meaning. The Lahore Declaration has fared no better. Its clause — that both countries “shall intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir” — has given licence to numerous interpretations. Some political cynics assert that cross-border sniping is hoping to do just that.

The sanctity of all international protocols is underwritten by an enduring commitment to execute them, regardless of change in national governments. It is precisely because Nawaz Sharif was a signatory to the Lahore Declaration (and by association the seminal Shimla Agreement) and because he was involved directly in letter, in body and in spirit, that the Indian government finds his recent speech at the UN General Assembly so discordant.

Advisor Sartaj Aziz went a step further. He contacted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and asked him to retrieve the dust-laden UN Resolution 47/1948, which called for a plebiscite in Jammu & Kashmir. Realists would give this appeal as much a chance of success as the South Korean Ban Ki-moon being able to reunify the two Koreas.

Mr Sharif’s volte-face at the UN took place after his avuncular trip to New Delhi to attend Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. It has been perceived in India as an almost Kargil-style betrayal of the bonhomie generated by his earlier heart-warming gesture.

Five months have passed. Much has happened since. Mr Sharif has been beleaguered by demands from his opponents at home to resign, while Mr Modi has received an invigorating mandate in the state elections in Maharashtra and in Haryana.

In Maharashtra, his BJP won 122 seats out of a total of 288. This was almost three times more than the seats the BJP garnered in 2009. In Haryana, he gained 47 seats out of 90, more than 10 times the BJP’s paltry four in 2009. Mr Modi is not one to gloat — at least not publicly. He has good reason to, though. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s Congress has been trounced in both states, dropping in Maharashtra from 82 seats (2009) to 42 now. If worse could be worse, BJP commands a majority in the bulging wallet of India — Mumbai.

Fortified by these results, the BJP can expect to be supported ideologically by Shiv Sena which captured 63 seats, 21 more than Congress. But he that sups with Shiv Sena….

Mr Modi’s next steps at diplomacy are of vital significance to Pakistan. Extremists have been heard on Indian television channels demanding that Mr Modi should rescue the ‘oppressed people of Balochistan and Sindh’ from their brutal ‘masters’. Gen Musharraf was dismissed by one rabid anchorman as being a ‘coward’ for not answering yet another question about Kargil. And most frighteningly, voices that were once regarded as pro-Pakistan moderates are being denounced now as anti-Indian.

There is a sinister echo of a 1971 jingoism in the air. Saner ears prefer to recall the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. They spoke of hope, of a “durable peace and development”, to enable both peoples “to devote their energies for a better future”.

The writer is an author and art historian.

www.fsaijazuddin.pk

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Punjab politicised

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

IN the end, one half of the dharna double-header ended in timid retreat, with a predictable final round of grandiose claims by Allama Sahib. For his part Imran Khan on the same day announced he would stick it out till the bitter end.

It was always going to be a case of when the Constitution Avenue campers would give up rather than if. The real-time manipulations of live television could not ultimately secure the epic victory the self-proclaimed revolutionaries had predicted.

Yet an argument can be made that a quick wind-up of the Nawaz Sharif regime is by no means out of the question. Most pundits are now suggesting that a consensus on the holding of mid-term elections is in the making. The plot thickens.

Regardless of what will eventually be decided in the corridors of power, different factions of the so-called middle classes have adopted definitive political positions over the past few months. And since Punjab is home to a big chunk of the middle class, one can safely say that Punjab is as politicised right now as it has been in a long while.

The last time a wide cross-section of Punjabi society was as invested in the political field was in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The rural and urban poor were united by leftist ideology and posed a decisive threat to state and class power.

This challenge was met not just by repression but counter-mobilisation of the commercial middle classes, based largely in north and central Punjab. The Pakistan National Alliance uprising marked this class’s coming of age. During the Zia years and ever since, the ‘bazaar bourgeoisie’ has gone from strength to strength.

The commercial middle classes maintain substantial linkages with political power, and are one of the main faces of the conservatism that has grown more pronounced in Pakistani society over the past few decades.

There is, however, a more affluent segment of the middle classes that, by jumping on Imran Khan’s bandwagon, has ignited an intra-Punjab political tug of war. Based mostly in big cities, often with one foot abroad and one at home, and inclined to think of itself as civilised and forward-looking, this upper middle class — or what in a recent column I called the alienated elite — is, for the time being at least, a new factor in Pakistani, and most crucially, Punjabi, politics.

On the one hand then are the rural and small-town middle classes who have historically put their lot in with the PML, PPP and religious parties. On the other are the metropolitan gentiles that are putting their all into the PTI boat. It has the making of quite an epic fight.

Lest one get carried away, the PTI has also been keen to effect the defections of as many established politicos from the old parties as possible. Since the Zia years, ideology-less politicians have seamlessly switched political allegiances, always placing their bets on the most likely winners of electoral contests. Those like Shah Mehmood Qureshi who joined the PTI fold are just the latest in a long list.

That the PTI is a viable option for such established politicos, however, is at least partially due to the politicisation of a culturally and economically influential segment of society that has been politically dormant for some time.

When the dharnas were only a few days old, I wrote that politics was ultimately the casualty of the televised brand of populism of which Qadri and Khan were the face. Despite the politicisation of Punjab’s upper middle classes under the PTI umbrella, and the attendant effect this is having on the historical constituencies of the older parties, I cannot feel optimistic about how this particular political story will end.

Since the late 1970s, the working masses of this country — including Punjab — have ceased to be central players in political realignments, let alone major ones. They are but marginal actors that inertly make up the numbers at rallies, cast votes and animate populist rhetoric.

Certainly the ongoing wrangle between the PTI and PML — and the various segments of the middle classes that form these parties’ most important support bases — will have a major effect on the lives of working people. But they will simply experience whatever changes much as they have done all other major political realignments of the past few decades — as passive recipients rather than active makers of their destinies.

Whether in the form of the bazaar bourgeoisie or their liberal lifestyle-toting bosses in offices and homes in big cities, Punjab’s poor remain subject to an intense, patronage-based social order that harkens back to the landlord-dominated one of the colonial and early post-colonial period. The hegemonic order within Punjab is cracking at the seams, but counter-hegemonic forces remain conspicuous by their absence.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Raising children

Nikhat Sattar

AS society loses its ethical and moral foundations, the younger generations seem to be growing up in a vacuum. Yet, almost every Muslim house spends so much time and effort to teach the Quran, by rote, and the salat, to its children. If only these rituals could be accompanied with the core teachings of Islam we might stand a chance of raising better human beings.

Raising children properly is a sacred obligation for Muslims, but one that is sadly neglected by most. Islam considers children given to parents in trust, to be cared for physically, intellectually and spiritually. Parents must cater to their development needs in each of these three ways, regardless of whether the child is a girl or a boy. The Prophet (PBUH) has said; “Fear Allah and treat your children fairly” (Bukhari, 2447; Muslim, 1623).

Both sons and daughters must have the opportunity to be nourished well, given a good education, and exposed to an environment in which they can find and develop their creative niche. This also means that Muslim children should be taught Arabic so that they understand the Quran and the salat, and both worldly and religious education should proceed in parallel. They should be encouraged to ask questions, be curious and exposed to reasoning and logical ways of thinking so that they can understand their faith better.

Islamic morals and ethics should be ingrained in a child’s personality. The root of this lies in love, forbearance, politeness and caring for others. A child who is a true Muslim is the greatest blessing God can bestow upon one, both in this and the world hereafter. The Quran tells us of the spontaneous gratitude of Abraham, when he and his wife were granted children in old age; “Praise to Allah, who has granted to me in old age Ishmael and Isaac. Indeed, my Lord is the Hearer of supplication” (14:39).

The Quran entails Muslims to take great care of their children, wisely and with caution. It says; “Your wealth and your children are but a trial, and Allah has with Him a great reward” (64:15).

Children should grow up to understand their obligations, and the rights they must fulfil towards God, and towards their fellow human beings. The first is accomplished by a proper understanding and implementation of ibada’at, or worship of the one God, and the second through being respectful, caring, kind and supportive to parents, relatives, the elderly, the poor, travellers, orphans, the disadvantaged and all those who may be in need of help.

The first comes under huquq Allah, and the second is the huququl ibad. On the Day of Judgment, we will all be questioned on our performance against meeting our obligations in these areas, and how well we were able to train our children in the same.

Muslim children should be taught to differentiate between Islam, and the wrong concepts and practices of some Muslims. They are too easily led to believe in people such as ‘caliph’ Baghdadi and organisations such as the so-called Islamic State and Taliban. A society that sees no contradiction in praying five times a day, and supporting killing of Muslims and non-Muslims in the name of Islam raises generations as fodder for militant armies.

Children must be taught the necessary skills to earn their livelihoods through halal means. They must know what is forbidden, why and what is acceptable. It is not enough to ask them to accept. It is important to explain the reasons and let them arrive at their own conclusions.

Muslim children should be exposed to Muslim role models. They should read authentic biographies of the Prophet, as well as those of the Companions and other Muslim personalities, scholars and scientists. They should read about other prophets — Jesus, Moses, Noah, Solomon, David, Joseph, Lut, amongst others — mentioned in the Quran.

Children react to their environment very quickly. If they live with noise, anger and intolerance, they will develop these traits more quickly than adults. Parents must ensure that children are provided an anger- and violence-free environment, a loving atmosphere, where mistakes can be talked about but not punished. However, controlled discipline is also necessary.

When we die, no one can come to our rescue, except the prayers of a child who is pious and God-fearing.

The writer is a freelance contributor with an interest in religion.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Message versus speech

Asha’ar Rehman

DURING Gen Pervez Musharraf’s time a television host asked Benazir Bhutto about the low attendance at the PPP jalsas that had just taken place. BB’s answer was that the time when curious souls were attracted to a public meeting in search of news had long gone, which implied that the rally organisers now had to innovate to woo the crowds.

It would seem that in the period to follow, speakers at public rallies have been faced with a real challenge to keep the audience’s attention, and as their addresses have been televised they have been in great danger of sounding repetitive. In more recent times, with drives against the government heating up and entailing an unending flurry of pro-democratic statements from the PML-N and those siding with it, the repetitions have been all the more obvious. Yet, some refrains uttered from the stage appear to not bore the people while others wear them down.

BB all those years ago might have had a point — primarily about the need for her party to find the new idiom to engage with the people. Whereas the challenge now falls to the young, still unaware Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to locate the realities and sentiment to build his own speech upon, others with little claim on oratorical finesse have been able to strike a chord with a large number of Pakistanis.

The two dharnas in Islamabad have been a study in contrast between the speaking prowess of the two leaders, Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri. The allama’s emphasis was on spewing out one address after another, skillfully wading his way through one issue after another, shifting gears with the facility of someone trained in the art since a young age.

For reasons of providing substance to his attack on the system, Dr Qadri was mindful of the need to create the impression that he was always expanding the scope of his observations. He started simply by stating the purpose of his drive — change of system — and then expanded on his thesis to say what he actually meant by this change. Reform of the taxation machinery, legal reforms, for example, came to be included in his agenda with the passage of time.

Imran Khan’s stage appeal to the contrary is often explained by his sheer inability to talk like a traditional politician. He is regarded by his supporters to be a man who is unaffected by all that is conventional or stale in Pakistani politics, the implication being that the outdated frills that are vainly justified in the name of eloquence must be done away with to allow the new leader to have a heart to heart with the people.

So what if Dr Qadri has now ordered the dismantling of his dharna, having earlier famously warned Imran with a dire end in case Imran decided to return from Islamabad empty-handed? Dr Qadri always speaks like a conventional politician, some Imran supporters would point out.

To those who went to a particular government school in Islamabad, the sporty talk that Imran religiously indulges in before prime-time audience each evening may be strikingly reminiscent of the PTI that they encountered quite early in life.

For those who weren’t there to enjoy it first-hand, that PTI, or physical training instructor, always wore a stern, determined look and he was so very fond of peppering his brief motivational lectures with examples of success from his youth. By the third or fourth session, everyone was so sure of what the PTI was going to say next that hardly anybody would be listening.

Imran Khan’s speeches, on the other hand, have not had the expected impact on the people. He speaks and speaks and repeats and repeats it all over again. He leaves lines half said, he fumbles with poetry and his arrogance is reinforced by the way he is seen dismissively interacting with those around him on stage. Yet his campaign shows no signs of being in any way affected by his reputation as a ‘below-average’ speaker.

It is his ‘truth’ that a large, growing, number of people are interested in and the impression one gets is that they are so receptive to his message and his politics that they are even ready to disregard the conventional elements he is surrounded by.

It is then — it has always been — not so much the way it is spoken but about what exactly is the message, what realities it is informed by. Shah Mehmood Qureshi delivered the same old-school speech to herald the new Pakistan at the Multan public meeting that he has perfected through his long years in politics here.

Later on, it was alleged that he kept on talking to the crowd at Qasim Bagh even when a few of those in attendance fell before him because of heat and exhaustion.

According to the current ratings, Shah Mehmood Qureshi is a clever politician who has delivered Multan to his leader when winning Multan was of great significance.

Arguably, the PTI could have done better with someone other than Amir Dogar, a PPP defector, as its candidate. But Qureshi could sense the occasion and was confident that the choice of Dogar as PTI candidate would expose the depleted PPP without endangering the PTI’s chances of victory against the main opponent, the PML-N. He is hailed, despite his habit of chewing on words and his leader’s perceived weakness of delivering them unprocessed.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

‘I am better than thou…’

Faisal Bari

IF a person is wearing a police uniform or even a ‘no fear’ T-shirt that many police guards now wear, they will not obey any traffic law. If they are on a motorcycle, even a private one, they will surely violate all traffic signals.

Almost every police vehicle is seen to be doing this. It does not matter whether there is an emergency or not, whether they are chasing someone or just taking a senior police official’s children home from school, or delivering his lunch, the driver of the car feels impelled to use flashing lights and break every queue on the way. Almost all drivers of government vehicles (with green registration plates) feel obligated to act as if no laws apply to them.

Why do people feel it is important to tell the world that a particular car belongs to a particular type of person? Plates that read ‘senator’, ‘MNA/MPA’, ‘press’, or ‘advocate’ are quite common. Are they announcing to the world that the laws do not apply to them because they belong to some privileged group?

There seems to be a very strong desire in our society to not only distinguish ourselves from others, but to actually try hard to show that we are better than them. There is a need to show that where the laws apply to others, they do not apply to us or that we can get away with violating them while others cannot. To emphasise once more, the desire is not only to distinguish ourselves from others, but to show that others are somehow not equal to us, that they are smaller than us and of less worth than us.

This attitude seems to go deep and permeates almost all forms of interaction we have with each other. On talk shows on television, participants do not just present their arguments about issues and the strength of their arguments, they, more often than not, try to show that they are better than others: better politicians, better journalists, better experts and, sometimes, even better persons. That is the battle. This is also the reason a lot of the times that talk shows degenerate into shouting matches where the ability to outshout someone becomes, in the end, the only means of winning the battle.

Conspicuous consumption has, for long, been an issue for Pakistan. There is a link between conspicuous consumption and the desire to show one’s ‘superiority’ over others. Why do Pakistanis have such a strong taste for bigger cars? Why is the demand for smaller, more efficient and economical cars not very apparent? It is interesting that Indian middle class seems to have a preference for smaller, more efficient cars while in Pakistan, the middle class preference seems to be for bigger vehicles. And as we move up on the income scale the preference for larger cars becomes stronger. Mercedes seems to have a special status in Pakistan, although with the increasing number of such vehicles on the streets, its value as a status symbol just might change.

The excessive expenditure around marriage is underscored by a similar sentiment. It is seldom for the comfort of the guests or to give the bride or groom a better start in life. It is more to signal one’s superiority, uniqueness and exclusivity.

A lot of us mix up ‘self-esteem’ with ‘pride’. Self-esteem does not require showing that others are any less than us. Pride can take us in that direction. Having self-esteem and confidence in oneself are virtues. If pride comes with a feeling of superiority and the desire to show that, it becomes a very negative and destructive force — for oneself and for society as a whole.

Unfortunately, there is a desire to show others as lesser individuals than us in almost all aspects of our interaction with them. Basing our interaction with others on such a desire cannot be conducive to the development of positive relations among individuals.

Sylvester Stallone’s attitude in the movie Judge Dredd portrays him as someone who, because he is the law, cannot break the law. Most of the time, we have a similar attitude towards ourselves. Laws are good for other people but we are above them and are not subject to them. Land rights are inalienable and we cannot even redistribute land to the poor (there is a Federal Shariat Court judgment about land reforms being un-Islamic), but the army can take land to make housing schemes.

The Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan makes rules for all companies to follow, but the SECP cannot even think of imposing these rules on many companies owned or run by privileged interest groups, including the army. The Lahore Development Authority has allowed, in many parts of the city, owners to have their premises declared as commercial and to conduct commercial activities even in residential areas. I live next to a boutique/spa. But in a neighbourhood, where a judge has his home, the court deemed it fit to give a stay order against commercialisation. Is that neighbourhood different from where I live? Or is it that some people are special?

Freedom exists within the laws and not outside of them. These laws are meant to apply to all and equally. Self-esteem and pride in oneself do not have to depend on showing that the other person is somehow beneath us. Our society, by and large, seems to have fallen into a trap where people feel that they can only establish their worth by showing that others are not equal to them. This attitude and its prevalence can only undermine societal values and outcomes for all of us. Apparently, the devil was not punished with eternal damnation, despite his earlier piety, for refusing to bow before Adam, but for believing that he was superior to Adam.

The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations, associate professor of economics, LUMS, and a visiting fellow at IDEAS, Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014

Training politicians

Syed Saadat

THESE are the highlights of the last 50 days of Pakistani politics: use of far from decent language by a politician while challenging his opponents from atop his container, apparent fabrication by another politician while responding in parliament to the objections of opposition leaders, the mockery that federal ministers made of their stature by ridiculing their opponents and the verbal spat in which one parliamentarian called another a “dirty rat”. Such behaviour has resulted not only in discrediting the politicians but further undermining our faith in this country’s fledgling democracy.

When senior leadership resorts to such tactics, the lower ranks are bound to up the ante. Absence of constructive criticism and consensus building is one aspect of the behaviour that was exposed in the recent political tumult. This lack of astuteness on the part of politicians is not limited to the choice of words alone. Politicians are found at sea in administrative and procedural spheres as well.

For example, when PTI parliamentarians recently decided to tender their resignations in the National Assembly, some of them addressed their resignation to the party chairman instead of the speaker. Conspiracy theorists might say it was intentional but the fact of the matter is that it was not. They simply were not aware of the rules of business. Ignorance of this sort is not limited to one political party; it is across the board.

The cluelessness of politicians about the workings of the government machinery and policymaking is often a topic of banter among civil servants serving with them. This lack of understanding of rules and regulations almost always leaves the majority of politicians at the mercy of the bureaucrats’ advice.

Now consider the politicians’ ascent to pivotal positions. A candidate winning an assembly seat in the general elections moves straight to parliament in a matter of weeks, and from there can be elevated to a position in cabinet without any substantial preparation for the portfolio he is going to look after. How can we expect them to perform any better when training and capacity building is considered an exercise in futility by most and ranks, if at all, really low on the priority list of the movers and shakers in government?

The National School of Public Policy is responsible for training civil servants in Pakistan. Since politicians are also public servants their training should also be brought under its ambit. However, unlike the case for civil servants, the cost for training the politicians should not be borne by taxpayers.

The objective of this training should be to familiarise the candidates with the workings of government and to emphasise the importance of concepts like state secrets, diplomatic ties, protocol, religious tolerance and media handling. It should help bring home the realisation that being good at constituency politics and electioneering is not what democracy is all about. Actually, it is just the springboard from where we take a leap of faith.

Efforts have been made for capacity building of politicians in the past as well but the scope of all such efforts has been very limited. The National Defence University, formerly known as National Defence College, had introduced training programmes for parliamentarians with little success: once in office it becomes hard for parliamentarians to maintain the seriousness of purpose and requisite focus for such trainings. Civil society organisations such as the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, Liberal Forum Pakistan and Aurat Foundation have also come up with training manuals and workshops for legislators. Their efforts, though commendable, cannot match the impact of institutionalised training under government patronage.

Therefore, it is imperative to legislate on the issue to make the completion of a self-financed six months’ training course part of the eligibility criteria for running for parliament. Needless to say, training all candidates rather than only the successful ones would inculcate a civilised political culture in the longer run.

The introduction of such trainings would not turn things around instantly. Change is not an overnight process, but no matter how long the journey, it begins with a single step.

The writer is a former civil servant.

syedsaadatwrites

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Falling exports

Khurram Husain

PAKISTAN’S exports are falling, and the drop is setting off alarm bells at the highest levels. In the past few days, the finance minister has held a full court meeting with a large delegation from the textile industry, led by representatives from the spinning sector. A photograph from the meeting was also released to the media which shows the government is concerned about not only consulting with industry leaders on the matter, but also to be seen as consulting.

So what is the problem that has everybody so concerned? First quarter exports have dropped by about 10pc from the corresponding period last year. Exports in September, when compared with the same month last year, show an even steeper drop of 17pc. These may not sound like big numbers, but if the trend keeps up it could spell some amount of trouble for the government, especially considering that the trade deficit is continuing to widen.

The government just held a round of meetings with textile industry leaders, who are giving reasons like an overvalued currency, energy availability and high interest rates. Additionally, they also mention stuck-up sales tax refunds which they argue deprive them of the liquidity they need to smoothly operate their companies.

Since I’ve spent a fair amount of time speaking with industry leaders about all sorts of issues over the past decade as part of my job, here is some free advice to the government regarding these consultations: take everything you’re told with a pinch of salt.

This doesn’t mean that the voice of the primary stakeholder in our exports ought to be ignored. When your exports are down, it’s the right thing to do for a government to reach out to exporters and ask them what’s going on. But what they will tell you in return needs to be weighed against a host of other, more objective factors.

For instance, if energy is a primary issue for them, how is it that other large-scale manufacturing has registered a growth rate of 5.72pc in the same period? Why are energy shortages hurting textiles more than they are hurting paper and board for instance?

Also, be very wary of the interest rate argument. How come other large manufacturing concerns don’t complain as much about interest rates as the textile industry does? Perhaps because the concerns with interest rates grow out of stakes acquired by many of these players in speculative trades, like real estate and stocks?

Delay in issuing sales tax refunds is certainly a broad-based problem. Many industries complain regularly about this, and rightfully so. But it’s hard to see how this would result in any decline in output. At best, it would necessitate resort to borrowing, but I have a hard time believing that any company in the formal sector will reduce its output because it has money stuck up in refunds.

Some of these reps argue that they are losing market share in key destinations like Europe to regional rivals in India and Bangladesh. But take a look at Bangladeshi newspapers, and you’ll find their textile exports are also down in the same period, and industry leaders there are quoted in the press as saying that this is because they are losing market share to their rivals in Pakistan on account of the GSP Plus scheme.

Here’s what the president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association told one of their financial dailies, when discussing these numbers: “Pakistan is a cotton-growing country while now enjoying the Generalised System of Preferences on the EU market”, causing Bangladesh to lose market share in the EU to Pakistan.

In other places too, one finds regular mention of Pakistan’s relative advantage due to being a cotton producer and enjoying GSP Plus with the EU as the main reason why Bangladeshi exports are suffering.

Here in Pakistan, the largest monthly declines between last year and this year have come in cotton yarn, cotton cloth and bedwear, with knitwear (the main competitor to Bangladesh) seeing a significant increase. This is puzzling because one would think knitwear would suffer from the same ailments that the industry reps have pointed out as the main cause behind their difficulties.

What’s more likely is that the declines owe themselves to factors like slackening demand and falling cotton prices, which would depress the dollar value of the exports. In sheer quantity of exports, cotton yarn does not show a decrease in quantity corresponding to the decline in dollar value between September this year and last, while cotton cloth does show a steep decline in quantity that outstrips the declines in dollar value. Bedwear shows a decline in quantity that is smaller than the decline in dollar value.

The mismatch between dollar value and the quantity of exports in the main declining categories suggests that the declines might be driven at least partially by factors other than those that directly inhibit production.

There are steep declines in some categories other than textiles too. For instance, petroleum products as well as “other manufactures”. But some manufactures, like surgical goods and leather, show an increase. How do we explain this uneven nature of the declines? Why would the energy crisis and high interest rates impact output in some industries more than others?

I’m sure there are good answers to these questions, but I’m also fairly sure that the declines in exports are the result of factors that go far beyond what the industry reps are willing to share. This merits a more detailed look before laying blame in any particular area.

The writer is a member of staff.

khurram.husain

Twitter: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

A matter of life and death

I.A. Rehman

REGARDLESS of the government’s state of mind and its priorities, it will do itself and the people a great wrong by overlooking civil society’s concerns about the Lahore High Court’s decision to confirm the sentence of death awarded to Asiya Bibi.

The case has attracted national and international attention for several reasons. The accused has been in prison for five years already and governor Salmaan Taseer’s words of sympathy for her cost him his life in an incident of unprecedented brutality. The Supreme Court is now likely to rule on a matter that means much more than life and death for an underprivileged woman.

Many people have signed a petition for the apex court to acquit Asiya Bibi. Irrespective of the unorthodox nature of the appeal, due weight should be given to the signatories’ feeling of outrage and their desire to uphold justice.

Hitherto, in most cases the high courts have struck down the sentence of death in Section 295-C cases awarded by trial courts. Thus, every confirmation of death sentence by a high court arouses unusual interest.

While nothing should be done to influence the court either way the lawmakers must ensure that the courts are not obliged to interpret laws that are liable to be abused by complainants and prosecutors or which create an emotionally charged environment in which delivery of justice becomes more than normally hazardous.

The government and the lawmakers have wasted 14 years without addressing the crucial issues that were raised before the Federal Shariat Court in 1989-1990. The first issue was that the ulema appearing in the court were not unanimous in holding death penalty mandatory in every case. It was vigorously argued that death penalty could be awarded only to a Muslim offender for being guilty of apostasy. A non-Muslim could not be accused of apostasy, though one could be punished under tazir.

The second issue was the need to respect the hadith: actions are judged by intent, and for making a distinction between an intentionally committed act or an unintended lapse, that Section 295-C ignores.

Unless these two issues are resolved, cases such as those of Ayub Masih and Asiya Bibi will continue to put a cross on Pakistan’s ability to comprehend the meaning of justice.

The issue is not that insult to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) should be punished, the issue is that the law on the subject should not be liable to abuse. To this many ulema readily agree.

Unfortunately, the authorities dealing with legislation about offences relating to religion have invited censure by their reluctance to discuss matters on the merits.

The debate on the bill aimed at inserting Section 295-C in the Penal Code in 1986 was guillotined on the plea that the bill dealt with a matter that needed no discussion. The resultant amendment to the Pakistan Penal Code provided for blasphemy death penalty or life imprisonment and fine.

In 1990, the Federal Shariat Code ruled that an offence under Section 295-C could be punished only with death and the alternative punishment had to be deleted. After the decision of the Shariat Court had taken effect, the parliamentary procedure for amending the law began in the Senate. The Senate Standing Committee recommended the deletion of “or imprisonment for life” but called for a more specific definition of the offence under Section 295 PPC as the members found it “very generalised”.

The Council of Islamic Ideology was asked to suggest a more specific definition of the offence and was also asked to collect precedents from the days of the caliphate and from various Muslim countries.

The council had already given its opinion in 1984 in which it had said that anyone deliberately saying or doing anything derogatory of the Prophet’s status would be liable to the death penalty. “However, the burden of proving that the action or speech attributed to him was not intentional would be on the accused,” the Council of Islamic Ideology had said.

The debate in the Senate was cut short as the house was to be adjourned sine die. The relevant bill was to go to the National Assembly to complete the process of change in the law. It is not clear whether the National Assembly has debated the measure. If it has not, the legal requirement for deleting the words struck down by the Federal Shariat Court should offer parliament a good opportunity to debate the whole law.

The directive in the Senate Standing Committee’s report remains unfulfilled. Also unimplemented is the second part of the Federal Shariat Court verdict which proposed insult to other prophets to be liable to the same punishment that was prescribed in Section 295-C.

This discussion proves that anyone who calls for removal of vagueness in Section 295-C or for judging an offence in terms of intent is doing no more than what was done by senators in 1991 and the Council of Islamic Ideology in 1984.

The first step towards a way out could be the holding of a broad-based consultation between parliamentarians and jurisconsults from Muslim countries to devise a blasphemy law that meets the definition of a just measure and offers due safeguards to innocent victims of human malice.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014

Turkish conundrum

Mahir Ali

TURKEY’S decision, announced on Monday, to permit Kurdish fighters to percolate across its border with Syria to aid the defence of Kobane against the Islamic State (IS) came as something of a surprise, particularly in the wake of renewed conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

After all, Ankara had hitherto resisted pressure to allow such a development, with official spokesmen describing the conflict in Kobane as a tussle between two terrorist groups, IS and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish outfit seen as a sister organisation of the PKK.

The most recent bout of hostilities with the PKK — designated a terrorist group not just by Ankara but by Washington and Brussels too — was predicated on Turkey’s refusal to allow Kurdish fighters to cross into Syria. Spokespeople for the PKK have, partly as a consequence, accused the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan of colluding, if not collaborating, with IS.

While not articulated in comparable terms, that concern has also been raised in Western capitals. Turkey has, after all, been the commonest conduit for would-be jihadists from Europe and elsewhere seeking an entry point into Syria, all too many of whom end up as human fodder for IS.

This generosity has been put down to Ankara’s insistence that the most pernicious force operating in Syria is the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has far more blood on its hands than IS. Turkey has consequently been ambivalent about the US-led campaign against IS, suggesting that the authorities in Damascus be targeted as well.

It was initially presumed that this ambivalence had quite a lot to do with the fact that 49 personnel from the Turkish consulate in Mosul had been captured by IS when it took control of Iraq’s second largest city. All of the hostages, thankfully, returned safe and sound to Turkey last month. The circumstances in which their freedom was negotiated remain murky, however, with little clarity on what Ankara may have conceded in return. And there has been no dramatic change in Turkey’s position after that shadow was lifted.

Mosul remains under the IS thumb, of course, and reports suggested that US-led air strikes had failed to decisively thwart the militia’s advance towards Baghdad, with bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital over recent days providing plenty of cause for concern.

One of the mainstays of the resistance to IS in Iraq have been the peshmerga, whom the West has agreed to arm and train — implicitly as a more reliable force than the official Iraqi army, allied with Shia militias that are occasionally capable of perpetrating atrocities against innocents. In the circumstances, it is open to question whether diverting a certain proportion of the peshmerga to Syria will work — if indeed the authorities under Masoud Barzani agree to a deployment.

Despite initial indications that the air strikes against IS in the vicinity of Kobane were not making much of a difference, the available evidence suggests that the militia may indeed have retreated in the face of the combined assault from the air and the ground. Turkey’s partial volte-face on border crossings followed US military airdrops to the PYD, which Ankara had warned against.

Earlier, while Kobane faced the imminent prospect of being overrun, Turkish forces watched from the border but refused to pitch in, insisting on the preconditions of a no-fly zone and a territorial buffer in northern Syria — actions that would obviously antagonise Damascus and possibly confront the Western interventionists with a fight on two fronts.

The nature of the Assad regime and the atrocities it has committed on a monumental scale no doubt provide plenty of cause for apprehension and disgust. The West, though, clearly sees IS as a more immediate threat. And those who argue that the US should have intervened militarily in Syria in the early months of the anti-Assad uprising have to contend with the possibility that such action may well have exposed Damascus to being overrun by forces such as IS and Al Nusra Front, echoing the disarray in Libya.

The unpredictable consequences of all military activities in the region remain a signpost in this convoluted mess.

Tailpiece: As I was wrapping up this column, news arrived of the demise of an Australian political colossus, former prime minister Gough Whitlam, whose brief tenure in 1972-75 transformed the nation, mainly for the better. More about him soon.

mahir.dawn

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

People’s power

Zubeida Mustafa

THE buzzword these days is ‘empowerment’ and there is a lot of talk about empowering the people. The most vocal are political leaders who use the term randomly as a strategy to empower themselves politically.

The essential principle at the core of this mission, which amounts to empowerment in the true sense of the word, is to develop the confidence and understanding in people of what is good for them and how they can strategise to protect their interests. They also learn to make a distinction between a sensible approach and a destructive strategy. Armed with this knowledge they refuse to be exploited by self-seekers.

The people of Khairo Dero have in the last six years since the trust was founded come a long way. They can now distinguish between what is in their interest and what can hurt them. More importantly, they can resist what they do not like. This was convincingly demonstrated recently.

An untoward incident in the village a few weeks ago led to what the trust’s newsletter described euphemistically as a “show of strength”. Naween Mangi, who visits her village frequently to oversee the work of the trust, is not very clear about what happened, why and who were the perpetrators. What is certain, as reported by her, was that she heard shots outside her two-room dwelling in the village, followed by loud banging on her door.

The village chowkidar who patrols the area every night claimed to have seen some intruders. But nothing could be definitively established about the hard facts of this out-of-the-ordinary happening. It is said to be the first act of violence of its kind in a place where cattle thefts are the most commonly reported crime.

Hence speculation abounded with people saying that some influential people had staged the incident to scare away AHMMT and its sponsor from the village because they did not want people to be empowered. Not unlikely, considering that the trust’s focus is on education, having already facilitated five schools in this little hamlet. I have been told that even today in the age of populism there are waderas in Sindh who openly resist the establishment of schools in the area they consider their jurisdiction.

What was remarkable was the public response. The people decided collectively that they could not allow this incident to go unchallenged. They had to protest to demonstrate their political will not to tolerate any violence. After years of feudal suppression, an awakening is taking place and the people now want to protect the gains they have made. They have learnt how to stand up for their rights.

But the idea was simply to send this message across and not to disrupt people’s lives. About 350 men, women and children wearing black armbands staged a peaceful rally to mobilise the people. It gave them a sense of ownership over the commons which people now recognise as their own. It was a warning to vested interests.

There was consensus that the rally was a demonstration of the people’s resolution to pre-empt any encroachment of their rights. It also became an exercise in public mobilisation for the first time in Khairo Dero. Above all, as Mumtaz Mirbahar, a mason who participated in the rally, observed, “This was essential to teach people to unite against the anti-social forces who are out to destroy our interests. If we unite with one voice, we can even break through a mountain.”

This should also alert the media. They are forever ready to rush to give coverage to events like dharnas and public rallies which amounts to giving publicity to power-hungry leaders who bring about no real change in people’s lives. In the process the actual winds of change go undetected.

www.zubeidamustafa.com

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Drones and domination

Rafia Zakaria

DRONES have divided Pakistan for nearly a decade now. In the days when drone attacks first began many were beguiled by the promises they represented: the militant tumours that were eating up a corner of the country would be eliminated via these aerial weapons.

Words like ‘precision’, ‘necessity’, ‘cure’ and ‘excision’ dominated the semantics of the drone project. The drones were operated from several oceans away, everyone knew, but some trust could be put in the American superpower’s ability to know of threats and to eliminate them from the hapless and diseased soil of its ally.

Simple recipes are always appealing and this one was truly elemental: elimination by remote control of the scourge that was damning Pakistan, bombing schools, blowing up mosques, targeting policemen, assassinating professors.

Recipes, however, do not always produce the delectable dish promised by their ingredients. Such has been the case of the effort of eliminating extremism via drone attacks. Last week, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which for several years now has undertaken the task of monitoring the numbers and casualties from drone attacks in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, issued a press release with some grim if not unsurprising news. According to the bureau, “as the number of drone strikes in Pakistan gets close to 400, fewer than 4pc of the people killed have been identified by available records as members of Al Qaeda”.

The bureau’s project, Naming the Dead, collects available data on the people killed by drone attacks (to the extent it is made available). As per these statistics, they say that of 2,379 people killed, only 704 have been named, and only 295 of the total named have been reported to be members of some armed group. Only 84 (4pc) have actually been identified as members of Al Qaeda. Furthermore, nearly 30pc of those killed by drone attacks were not linked to any militant group at all.

The bureau’s findings are important since they fly in the face of claims made by US Secretary of State John Kerry just last year, in which he asserted that only “confirmed terror targets at the highest level were fired at”.

They also fly in the face of the basis for which the US drone operation in Pakistan (and elsewhere) has been justified in the first place: Al Qaeda has committed aggressive acts against the US, which in turn is legally justified in pursuing the latter everywhere and anywhere in the world where it may be housed or hidden. If only 4pc of those killed are actually members of the verified enemy, then it follows that the other 96pc of casualties are not the targets that were legally justified, in whose name intrusions into the territories of sovereign others have been taking place.

None of this, of course, much bothers the US. After the 4pc statistic was released by the bureau, the US government responded with the same sort of rote reply that has been pinned to drones, their legality and their efficacy, for the past several years, when such damning evidence was not available: “The death of innocent civilians is something that the US government seeks to avoid if at all possible. In those rare instances in which it appears non-combatants may have been killed or injured, after-action reviews have been conducted to determine why, and to ensure that we are taking the most effective steps to minimise such risk to non-combatants in the future.”

None of the details of these reviews, such that they would identify the people killed, were of course made publicly available.

The low success rate of actually eliminating militants, of Al Qaeda or any other ilk, is unlikely to come as much of a surprise to most Pakistanis, 66pc of whom, it is reported by a survey conducted this summer, oppose drone strikes in their country. While drone strikes have boasted of the elimination of this or that Al Qaeda or Taliban leader, bomb blasts, targeted assassinations, jailbreaks and school bombings have all continued in Pakistan.

Militancy has expanded its realm of activity and its capacity. An attack such as the one conducted on Karachi airport a few months ago would not have been possible if the easy recipe of militant elimination via remote control had borne fruit.

A more apt summary of the drone debacle is not possible. Before the data of their inefficacy, whether it is based on the low number of actual militant targets or the increased ability of militant groups to orchestrate attacks, it is obvious that it is domination that motivates the drones’ continued usage.

Drones, therefore, were used, are being used and will continue to be used not because they eliminate militancy, or because they can surgically excise tumours that have been eating away at the tissue of an ailing country, but because they present a low-cost and highly visible embodiment of world domination. In the drone, its remote ability to bomb, its impenetrability, its ability to be all-seeing, all-reporting and ever-present, is a perfect symbol of the constant presence of a superpower that can kill but not be killed.

The objective of actually eliminating the militant enemy is but an accidental, unimportant and incidental detail, one that concerns only those actually threatened by bombs and blasts.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Beyond the politics of rallies

Zahid Hussain

IT is the season of political rallies. There is no shortage of adjectives for the organisers, and enthusiastic media persons are ready to exaggerate the success of each rally in gushing words — ‘mammoth’, ‘massive’, ‘sea of humanity’, ‘unprecedented’. It goes on and on.

Each successive rally is declared as ‘the people’s verdict’ in favour of the respective parties. ‘Change is in the air’ is the buzzword, and revolution appears to be around the corner. Dreams come cheap for a populace desperate to see their wretched life changed.

Unlike in the past, the rallies have become much more entertaining with background music and enthusiastic supporters dancing to the tunes amid fiery speeches. The large participation of women has changed the complexion of such political events. The live telecasts of the proceedings may have also contributed to the changing political culture. It all seems good. But the question that matters most is what lies beyond these rallies.

As the sit-in in Islamabad enters its third month, the focus has increasingly shifted to other cities. Both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have taken the battle into the Punjab heartland and the citadel of the Sharifs’ power. The huge response does reflect the growing public discontent and changing political dynamics in the country’s most powerful province.

For the first time, the Sharifs’ power base has been seriously challenged. The slogan for change, however shallow, has caught the imagination of two groups — the youth and the educated urban middle classes. They are now also drawing support from the urban poor. It has really turned into a mass protest movement against a corrupt and family-dominated political culture. This momentum has also been the cause of serious concern to the PPP that is struggling to recover from its historic defeat in Punjab.

What started as a demand for the auditing of votes, has taken a completely different turn even beyond the call for the resignation of the prime minister. Without any such possibility on the horizon, it has now taken on the flavour of a full-fledged election campaign.

While Imran Khan’s populist rhetoric largely revolves around the government’s ineptness and the promise of a ‘new Pakistan’ free from corruption and with justice for everyone, Qadri has presented a blueprint for a ‘revolution’. From his earlier stance of complete destruction of the old order, the cleric now sees an opportunity to join the system by taking part in the elections whenever they take place.

Surely, all those lofty promises are extremely appealing to people frustrated with the current state of affairs. But the danger is that these unrealistic pledges raise high expectations that cannot be met. While most of the criticism of the government’s policies and the Sharif family’s stranglehold on power is valid, the solution offered by the challengers to deal with some of the most complex problems confronted by the country are far too simplistic.

Populist slogans are an easy method to mobilise public support, but they do not provide long-term solutions to challenges. While it is easy to burn inflated electricity bills and exhort people not to pay their taxes, it will be much more difficult to put the system right when in power

Qadri promises free housing and healthcare to every citizen and 50pc subsidy on electricity and gas bills. He also vows to make Pakistan a part of the emerging economic powers, the group known as BRICS including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. All this sounds great. But how is it going to happen? With the Chaudhries of Gujrat, Mustafa Khar and several others of their ilk joining the bandwagon, one wonders about Qadri’s promised revolution.

Threatened with finding itself completely out of the game, the PPP has also come out of hibernation and held its first big rally in Karachi in years. The party is trying to show that it has not lost its mass appeal, and can compete with other opposition political parties such as Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. But the show was more of a government-sponsored event. Most of the people were bussed in from the party’s rural strongholds with little participation by the local population.

While dwelling mostly on the sacrifices rendered by leaders of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto had little to say on the way forward. He attacked political opponents across the political spectrum, but said nothing about the pathetic performance of his own party’s government in Sindh which has earned the dubious distinction of being the country’s worst governed province.

It has become convenient for both Imran Khan and the PPP leaders to divert the focus on the issue of governance in the provinces where their party rules. The claim to have turned around Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is far from true.

The KP Assembly session was convened after four months as everyone from the chief minister to the members of the provincial assembly have been busy with the Islamabad sit-in. Would it not be better for parties to set an example of good governance in their provinces first?

Indeed, rallies and protests are an important part of democratic politics, but they cannot be seen as an end in themselves. Qadri may not have much stake in democratic politics anyway, but it is the PTI that may be in danger of burning itself out by peaking too early. How long can the PTI sustain the momentum? There is no way the rallies can bring down the government and force fresh elections.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100

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Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014

Foreign policy: a political orphan

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi

FOREIGN policy covers interactions and relations between nation states and with international and regional institutions. The globalisation of information, projection of power, business and finance, media and communications, etc. envisages a future global order in which countries will need to formulate their foreign policies within a global perspective.

Will this order be underpinned by a global consensus or by global hegemony? The US assumes it will be the lynchpin and enforcer of ‘stability’ for any global order. Its leadership must be a given.

Others see US global policy as the seed-bed of global chaos, instability and environmental catastrophes entailing a range of threats to human survival. The current US-led world order allegedly breeds inequality and violence emanating from injustice and exclusion. It apparently serves the interests of a small minority of corporate, political and military bosses whom the Financial Times describes as the “Masters of the Universe”.

This order is largely based on manufactured and passive acceptance rather than warranted by facts, reason and equity. Its violence is embedded in the assumptions and content of its discourse, and in the functioning of its institutions including academia, media, laws, parliaments, etc. Its notions of terrorism, stability, freedom, democracy, progress and civilisation serve a similar purpose.

This corporate-generated discourse sanctions arbitrary privilege, undemocratic authority, gross exploitation and the use of state violence. Challenges to it in the name of freedom, justice, law, human dignity and peace are considered baseless as the discourse is alleged to champion these goals.

Radical resistance groups, however, see themselves as representing a necessary struggle for a divinely ordained or humanitarian Good against a prevalent political Evil represented by the establishment discourse. They see their struggle to be in response to a perverse ‘civil and political religion’, for example, blind Western support to Israel despite its criminal record, and to a similarly perverse ‘state confiscation of the nation’ ie local elites and externally dependent dictators plundering their own peoples.

Other groups, like the Islamic State, etc., appear to go beyond reason and understanding, and claim a right of nihilistic violence against state/corporate violence. This un-Islamic pathology is in part a product of wanton devastation and trauma visited upon whole regions and their peoples.

Why are none of these realities acknowledged in the discourse of the global establishment? Why are these extremist responses so difficult to alleviate, overcome and root out? One reason is the lack of objective and introspective analyses that might lead to more just rather than more ‘efficient’ policies. The range of acceptable discourse is very limited. Accordingly, a state-of-the-art think tank industry of propagandistic and self-exculpatory ‘expert assessments’ develops resonance in a revolving-door relationship with the policymaking establishment.

A corporate controlled capitalist and technological world is hurtling towards self-destruction. Climate change, the proliferation of killer viruses and pollutants, the ever-present possibilities of nuclear conflict, rampant population growth, infrastructural and resource scarcities, food and water insecurity, technology-displaced family-supporting jobs, unavailable and unaffordable education of acceptable standards, the lack of inclusive institutions for the provision of essential services, the privatisation of profits and socialisation of costs, etc. collectively define the global prospect.

The mega trends for Pakistan over the next three to four decades do not bear examination. Yet, even at this grim hour, it is stuck with leaders who simply refuse to know or do anything. Their attitude towards the people is known and condemned. The despair of the people is evident. But other than concern with regime survival, losing any sleep over the fate of the people is considered a waste of blood-sucking time.

Pakistan also remains a security state. Its national policies flow from its National Security Policy which is largely the preserve of the security establishment. This is considered a ‘non-negotiable’ reality which cannot be altered whatever the consequences for the country. ‘Leaders’ need to learn this to survive. Is there any movement to break this mould? The people’s interests are relegated by misguided security doctrines and a venal political leadership. Not surprisingly, national security itself is undermined.

How does Pakistan’s foreign policy function in a dysfunctional environment? The Foreign Office and the Foreign Service are among Pakistan’s finest institutions. But they have relatively little say in the development and direction of Pakistan’s foreign policy, other than to package and communicate it with exemplary professionalism, and to advocate policies in the formulation of which they have at best marginal ownership. Can this situation change? It has to.

This is not essentially a problem of the Foreign Office and the Foreign Service even though they need to constantly improve. Whenever illusory strategies and hare-brained misadventures are formulated and implemented without proper consultations, (1965, 1971, 1989, Kargil, etc.) their “last stage” often turns out to be an ‘external manoeuvre’ ie ‘when all else fails ask the Foreign Office to bail us out!’ Much of this continues.

The Foreign Office and the foreign minister are supposed to be the primary — not exclusive — advisors and policy input providers to the prime minister on all matters pertaining to external relations, including those relating to national security. Depending on specific external developments, technical ministries and defence must provide their specialist input, which may be more immediately relevant and urgent than that of the foreign ministry.

But to reduce the foreign ministry to a secondary advisory body with regard to strategic priorities and choices, which determine the content and direction of our most important external policies and relations, is to hijack foreign policy and undermine national policy.

This is where the concept of civil-military relations as understood by the security establishment has been particularly dubious. It assumes a ‘partnership’ between the elected and unelected segments of government in national policy formulation. Despite the general incompetence of our elected politicians, this is ultimately incompatible with a viable security and a coherent foreign policy. National policy failure, accordingly, is fed into the system. The military have political power. The people have political rights. Their representatives have no political conscience. Foreign policy remains a political orphan.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, India and China and head of UN missions in Iraq and Sudan.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Fascism and other deadly viruses

Jawed Naqvi

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will get into trouble, potentially a 35-year sentence in the United States, if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which he says he would to mend his health and catch some healing sunlight. Regardless of what he might have done to offend powerful countries with his treasure trove of revelations, South Asians should be grateful to him for shining the light on key issues that are as relevant today as they will be in the future.

He exposed, for example, senior Indian leaders for their fawning connections with American diplomats contrary to public postures of aloofness. Everyone from journalists to BJP leaders to Rahul Gandhi bared their hearts to US interlocutors. Assange also traversed issues that threaten the security and prosperity of India.

Let’s consider two. Prime Minister Modi last week alerted his military commanders about future threats his country faces. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has never been in any agreeable position to brief the military on vital issues, found an audience in former US ambassador Timothy Roemer during the latter’s tenure in Delhi. It took WikiLeaks to tell us how the worried Congress leader shared his perceptions of what threatens India.

The Congress scion, according to WikiLeaks, told Roemer that his fear for India came from right-wing Hindu groups. They posed an emerging challenge to India’s survival as a secular democracy. This is a view shared by other mainstream parties, for better or worse, chiefly the left.

Mr Modi’s unexplained reference to an “invisible” challenge, on the other hand, has been interpreted to mean various things — from Pakistan to China, from cross-border terror groups to home-grown challenges he might have had in mind. Be that as it may, it should be strongly hoped that the ‘invisible’ threat the prime minister spoke of took into account an ‘invisible’ threat that has sent the US and President Barack Obama into a tailspin. We have already written about the incalculable threat South Asia faces from the intractable Ebola outbreak in western Africa, not by accident alone, which is the usual route of transmission, but by design.

Julian Assange’s findings give a direr context to the threat. US diplomats were concerned, as their cables revealed in December 2010, that India could be the target of a biological terror attack.

In an unanticipated variation of the WikiLeaks revelations the Ebola virus, focus of military research for several decades in many countries, seems to have wormed its way into the United States, in fact, more worryingly than has been reported in our patch. Last week, the Chinese military reportedly sent vials of its purported antidote, which no one claims to know much about, to its citizens potentially exposed in western Africa.

According to WikiLeaks, a senior Indian diplomat told the US as early as in 2006 that concerns about biological weapons were “no longer academic”, adding that intelligence suggested terror groups were increasingly discussing bio-warfare. WikiLeaks cables confirmed this.

A recent link between Muslim terror groups eyeing the Ebola virus as a weapon unfolded cannily along the lines that WikiLeaks cables etched out. The Islamic State terrorists in Iraq have demanded that the US release a suspected Al Qaeda conduit who was arrested in Afghanistan with alleged plans to weaponise Ebola. IS links up with Al Qaeda which links up with Ebola in one stroke.

The Indian intelligence picked up chatter “indicating jihadi groups are interested in bioterrorism, for example seeking out likeminded PhDs in biology and biotechnology”, a cable presciently sent to Washington was quoted as saying in the 2010 trawl.

The WikiLeaks report quoted first by The Guardian said terrorists could easily find the material they need for bioterrorism in India and use the country as a base for launching an international campaign involving the spread of fatal diseases.

“Release in an Indian city could facilitate international spread … Delhi airport alone sees planes depart daily to numerous European, Asian, Middle Eastern and African destinations, as well as non-stop flights to Chicago and Newark.”

The dispatch was quoted by The Guardian. It was one of many dealing with the threat of terrorism in India sent by diplomats in New Delhi both before and after the attacks on Mumbai, which were carried out by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Taiba group in November 2008. Earlier cables focused more on the radicalisation of Muslims within India.

As the Indian prime minister nudges the country towards cleanliness and hygiene, here is an agenda he might add to his efforts, a word of caution from the person who first identified the Ebola virus. Even bereft of the terror link, India faces potentially the biggest risk from the African outbreak, Peter Piot, the Belgian virologist the first to identify Ebola in 1976 told The Guardian last week.

“There will certainly be Ebola patients from Africa who come to us in the hopes of receiving treatment. And they might even infect a few people here who may then die,” Piot said.

“But an outbreak in Europe or North America would quickly be brought under control. I am more worried about the many people from India who work in trade or industry in West Africa. It would only take one of them to become infected, travel to India to visit relatives during the virus’s incubation period, and then, once he becomes sick, go to a public hospital there. Doctors and nurses in India, too, often don’t wear protective gloves. They would immediately become infected and spread the virus.”

Barring a few editorials written on the subject, the threat hasn’t yet enthused the intelligentsia.

Rahul Gandhi’s threat perceptions to his country, though compelling, will have to wait for an opportune moment. To add to the confusion though, was he not the one who used to say that the BJP is a joke, and that its main agenda was to torment his family members?

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Sour ties with US

Moeed Yusuf

FOR 13 years, the US and Pakistan have stuck together as partners against terrorism even though they have been anything but satisfied with each other. Both have felt the other was insincere and overly demanding. Many continued to question throughout this period whether all the angst that marked their interactions was worth it.

Thankfully, the answer from those who mattered most: yes it was. Principal reason: Afghanistan.

Naturally then, the question is being asked afresh. With the international troops drawing down from Afghanistan and the West’s attention being diverted to other challenges, will the US see the need to keep Pakistan engaged? Many in Pakistan believe not — they say, ‘the US dumped us in 1989 and it is getting ready to do it again’.

In Washington too, those who have dealt with Pakistan professionally over the past decade are fed up. The feeling is that despite trying hard to nudge Pakistan to alter its strategic paradigm, they managed little more than hollow promises. Billions of US taxpayer dollars have been wasted on Islamabad they feel.

Indeed, a noisy, influential grouping of experts in Washington believes it is time to ‘contain’ Pakistan. Even the more balanced perspective argues that the US should (and will) tighten the screws and raise the stakes for Pakistan’s lack of cooperation in Afghanistan and against terrorism in general once the importance of US supply routes to Afghanistan through Pakistan dwindles.

So are we headed for another divorce? Or at least for more antagonism? Most likely not. Principally, because Pakistani leaders have succeeded in scaring the world sufficiently about the consequences of the country’s failure.

Not to take away from the fact that Pakistan’s negativities have often been exaggerated by the international media, Pakistan’s own sales pitch contributed immensely to this.

Sum up the Pakistani message to Washington over the past 13 years and you’ll find an emphasis on lack of capacity to deal with the terrorist threat in a wholesome manner, on how monumental the task was and on how necessary it was for Washington to keep supporting the government of the time, more specifically, the military. The latter, it was stressed, was the only institution that can keep terrorism from overwhelming the state and keeping nuclear assets safe.

Interlocutors were constantly reminded that the already acutely negative perception of the US in Pakistan would suffer irreversibly if Washington was seen as ditching Islamabad again.

Washington buys aspects of this narrative that are necessary to keep the relationship going. It believes that its support is consequential for Pakistan; that state collapse in Pakistan is not unrealistic and that its chances will increase if Pakistan is cut off; and that as bad a partner as it believes Pakistan has been from the US perspective, all alternatives are worse.

No one believes that Pakistan acted sincerely in its partnership with the US, no one will be willing to champion its cause, but when you cut through all the noise in Washington, you realise that no one really wants to risk the consequences of pulling the plug on Pakistan either.

As things stand today then, one can be fairly confident that US civilian assistance will continue — likely at lower levels given the overall trend of budget cuts in Washington — as will support to the military. The latter will remain stronger than one would expect in light of all the tensions between GHQ and Pentagon over the years.

Ditto perhaps for the intelligence agencies. Indeed, for all their problems, the military-intelligence combine seem convinced that breaking ties with their counterparts in the 1990s was a massive error. I see no indication that they are about to repeat it.

Time to breathe a sigh of relief? Perhaps, since a divorce can’t be good for either side. Pakistan is indeed too important a country to alienate. And Pakistan itself can’t survive in the current economic and security context while being on the wrong side of the world’s only superpower. Pakistan’s officialdom gets this.

But let me also say this: if I were a decision-maker in Islamabad or Pindi, my sense of relief ought to be overtaken by shame and concern. For all I have done is succeeded in cashing in on my country’s problems by convincing the world that I am too weak and dangerous.

Meanwhile, the world’s success stories are busy attracting partners through markets, investment opportunities and business potential.

Our civilian and military leaders will do well to ask themselves: do they really want to continue feeling good about being in the market for loose change? How about working to earn some genuine respect and admiration from the world by interesting partners in what we have to offer rather than worrying them with what we may leave behind.

The writer is a foreign policy expert based in Washington, DC.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Of columnists

Muhammad Ali Siddiqi

A FRIEND of mine has a fixation on two Dawn columnists and has difficulty in getting a good sleep. An orthopaedic surgeon by profession, he says he loves Dawn but can’t understand why it publishes columns by Nadeem Farooq Paracha and Jawed Naqvi.

He finds their columns ‘anti-Islam’ — an omnibus term, which may cover ideas and things ranging from parliamentary democracy, polio drops and cricket to eating at a restaurant with an American franchise. He pleads that their columns be banned because what they write poses a mortal threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and integrity.

That a piece of writing could pose a threat to the state or to a philosophy of life is antithetical to the very idea of a civilised society. A free play of ideas — different, too many, ‘normal’, abnormal, grotesque — makes a society healthy and equips it with the tools to develop a national synthesis.

In Pakistan’s case, it was not the promulgation of opinions but their suppression that more than posed a threat to Pakistan; it cost the state its majority province and led to a military defeat, from whose psychological consequences we have still not recovered. To still plead for banning a column because you don’t like its contents is to make a case for censorship and eventually dictatorship — and possibly for Talibanism.

Paracha and Naqvi are two of Dawn’s many regular columnists (almost 30 write for the opinion pages alone), in addition to ‘casual’ writers for Images, Dawn Business and Finance and Books and Authors (besides articles on national day supplements).

By a rough calculation, Dawn publishes (excluding features on foreign pages) over 300 articles per month, the total for a year coming to a staggering 3,600.

Add to this the letters to the editor (‘people’s editorials’), and then you note the cornucopia of opinions, observations and criticism Dawn offers to its reader on issues of the day — politics, economy, foreign affairs, society, literature, religion, science and technology, sports and showbiz.

Dawn may or may not agree with what they write, but by disseminating these ideas this paper helps focus civil society’s attention on issues that matter and need remedial action. This also means having a trust in the Pakistani people’s intrinsic ability to discern what is good for them and ultimately show their preference at the ballot box.

What my doctor friend forgets is that what he may or may not like is not necessarily true of hundreds of thousands of other readers. Take the Leisure page. Its contents range from chess and crossword to Big Nate and Sudoku Alpha.

I have played chess, but I don’t see what the chess feature is doing on the page. But let Dawn miss one of the features, and we get phone calls and protest emails. Syed Munawwar Hassan feels his breakfast is spoiled if Gambols is not there.

As for the Paracha and Naqvi columns, I asked the doctor to read Dawn’s internet edition. While every article does evoke comments, it is Paracha and Naqvi who get the highest number of kudos and barbs. For Paracha there are as many as 150 comments, some ecstatic, some wanting his blood. That — readability — is the criterion that sustains a columnist and ensures space for him.

Finally, let us accept, all newspapers are commercial concerns. While this doesn’t mean that a paper like Dawn would allow advertisers to influence its policy, it stipulates saleability, and it cannot sell by catering to one lobby and blocking the other.

Here, is a reader’s comment on Rafia Zakaria’s article on polygamy (Oct 1). He asked why Dawn should publish “such” articles. His complaint was that Ms Zakaria’s article lacked “critical information”.

The reader said he did search for some statistics but nobody could answer his one question: how prevalent was polygamy in Pakistan? “Is it really prevalent?” he asked, and said it was exactly because its incidence is negligible that Ms Zakaria had not come up with statistics.

He said Dawn should perhaps reconsider its policy about publishing such articles and allow space for “a genuine debate on some very pertinent social issues”.

Rafia Zakaria’s reply: “The intention of my article was not to argue whether polygamy is or is not a common occurrence. Instead, it was to point out the emotional costs on polygamy on women and especially children who have no say in the matter. The information I relied on and cited is widely available on the internet. The article generated hundreds of responses from readers particularly children who said they had been harmed by polygamous arrangements. Sadly, there are no studies being conducted in Pakistan concerning numbers of polygamous marriages or their consequences on children.”

The writer is Dawn’s Readers’ Editor

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Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014

Infil-traitors

Zarrar Khuhro

“I come from a land,/ From a faraway place,/ Where the caravan camels roam./ Where they cut off your ear/ If they don’t like your face./ It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.”

“I come from a land,/ From a faraway place,/ Where the caravan camels roam./ Where they cut off your ear/ If they don’t like your face./ It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.”

Such portrayals of Arabs in Hollywood and American TV are by no means new, and anyone interested in the topic would do well to watch Jack Shaheen’s 2002 documentary, Reel Bad Arabs which examines how Hollywood ‘vilifies’ an entire people. Only now, it’s not just Arabs, but all Muslims who are bad. Reel bad.

If we are to believe Homeland, the caliphate already exists. In this show, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Saudis and Yemenis (just about all Muslims everywhere) happen to share a uniform worldview without any regard for cultural, political or ethnic differences.

In this alternate universe, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda work hand in hand, plotting eternally to bring down the US. The poster for this season really says it best, showing a white-skinned Carrie turning around and showing her face (gasp!) in a crowd of burqa-clad Muslim women; an American Red Riding Hood in a forest of homogenous, anonymous Muslim women.

That Homeland is one of the most Islamophobic shows on TV is beyond doubt. Based on an Israeli TV series, it features all the tropes and clichés we have sadly become all too used to: the “these are the people who would shoot your daughter” rants, the Hezbollah leader who is a wife-beater, the utter misrepresentation of ritual.

Brody’s scene in which he is performing wudu is set to ominous music, befitting the revelation that the cornbread-fed Marine sniper is in fact a ‘secret Muslim’. He’s not the only one; there’s Roya Hammad, a successful TV reporter of Palestinian descent who is in fact working with the terrorist leader because, well, they both happen to be Muslims.

The question of how the West survives; what with 1.7 billion people actively plotting its downfall isn’t addressed. Perhaps they’re saving that revelation for another season. Perhaps it’s the magical properties of Apple Pie. We simply don’t know.

The message is that if such people can be terrorists, then anyone could be. That man running the grocery counter, the lady driving an SUV to the mall, the high school kid looking for a date to the prom … all of them could be infiltrators looking to destroy life, liberty and Little League softball in a most insidious way, by becoming part of it. This depiction of the terrorist-next-door, the terrorist-as-neighbour is a feature of the post-9/11 world.

In Keifer Sutherland’s 24, for example, we were introduced to an entire family that fitted this description. In a particularly memorable scene, the terrorist child of the sleeper cell family, Aladdin with a suicide vest if you like, menaces his erstwhile white American ‘friend’ while screaming hysterically “You can’t even pronounce my name!” Because as we all know, mispronunciations are a leading cause of terrorism.

Then there are what are touted as more ‘understanding’ depictions, as in Don Cheadle’s Traitor. Here Cheadle played a pious Muslim who secretly worked for the US government as a double agent trying to prevent a terrorist outrage. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, and the very fact that a Muslim could actually be shown as a good guy does go some way towards ignoring less savoury parts. But those parts are very unsavoury indeed.

Oh sure, the terrorist mastermind masquerades as a European style playboy — all class and chardonnay — in what is a fairly typical depiction of a man living two lives, and perhaps a nod to Mohammad Ata. But the foot soldiers in this plot are all American jihadi Joes and Janes. They are mostly white and culturally indistinguishable from ‘real’ Americans, except for the fact that they will abandon their families and sacrifice their lives when activated, as if under some irresistible post-hypnotic suggestion.

Television and film play a huge role in formulating public opinion and this is perhaps truer in America than in less screen-addicted nations, and what is being learned here is that to be Muslim is in itself dangerous. What Homeland has done to reinforce the ‘otherisation’ of Muslims, even those familiar Muslims next door, the ones you may even host a BBQ dinner with, may not be unprecedented, but it is sickening all the same. And it sells.

The writer is a member of staff.

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Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

A worthwhile state?

Dr Niaz Murtaza

HAS Pakistan been worth it? In other words, has it yielded the benefits that Pakistan movement leaders expected from their long struggle? This inquiry could be interpreted as questioning the validity of Pakistani ideology, which incidentally is discouraged in Pakistan.

I have no such intentions, especially since questioning it is a theoretical exercise today. Further, many Pakistanis still lack the confidence to deliberate that question dispassionately, even theoretically. So, I take the pursuit of independence as a given and analyse whether its success has satisfied initial expectations and if not, how future prospects are.

Globally, one sees two conflicting trends. Some countries pursue politico-economic union to enhance their development status while some sub-national regions pursue separation to enhance it. Where developmentally similar countries unite, they could benefit from the larger market and economies of scale created. Conversely, backward and neglected but potentially viable economically sub-regions could develop faster given the proximate government control over policy and resources that independence provides.

Contemporary Pakistan was arguably among India’s most backward regions in terms of education and industry. But it possessed potential industrial viability given its sea access, large population, fertile agriculture and a small but well-educated class.

So, rather than basing my inquiry on the claim that Indian Hindus and Muslims constituted distinct civilisations, I base it on the ‘backward sub-region’ thesis to analyse whether separation has helped Pakistan develop faster economically and politically.

Economically, Pakistan’s higher (than India’s) economic growth rates and per capita income for around 50 years and its lower poverty rates even today suggest that it did derive an ‘independence dividend’ initially.

One can question however, whether economic progress was equitable. Clearly, elite landlords, generals, businesspersons, bureaucrats and mullahs have prospered from independence. What about the masses? While the lower poverty rates show the masses have also benefited to some extent income-wise, Pakistan’s poorer health and education indicators mean that such benefits have not been broad-based.

The second caveat has to do with the quality of economic progress, for Pakistan has been less successful in establishing high-tech industries than India. Pakistan’s higher growth has often been fuelled by undependable US aid and Gulf remittances. While independence enhanced such external flows, they were not utilised to foster sustainable development. Essentially, while independence provided some economic dividends, poor governance reduced their extent and spread.

Now to the question of whether Pakistan has done better politically. Unlike India’s consistent commitment to democracy, Pakistan has vacillated between democracy and dictatorship. Leaders, elected or non-elected, have been far less responsive to people. Ethnic tensions have been higher. In recent decades, the scourge of extremism has furthered political instability. This poorer political performance has undermined economic progress too, and Pakistan’s growth rates and per capita incomes have now fallen behind India’s.

Other breakaway countries (eg Bangladesh, Eritrea, South Sudan) too have failed to obtain the immediate, large or consistent economic dividends expected from independence due to similar political constraints. These experiences suggest the need for modifying the “backward sub-region thesis”. Both economic and political viability must be analysed to better predict the post-independence prospects of breakaway sub-regions.

Such analysis may not deter determined secessionists. Their goals derive less from cold economic calculations and more from ideological or identity factors (Pakistan) or extended maltreatment which makes cohabitation unimaginable (Bangladesh).

However, such analysis may help in providing more realistic post-independence expectations. Thus, where economic viability but also political constraints are high, the expected economic dividends may only materialise once the political constraints are overcome. In Pakistan’s case, these political constraints are reducing gradually and there is some likelihood that more equitable and durable economic progress may result as governance improves.

The writer is a political and development economist.

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Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Pakistan’s polio eradication farce

Samia Altaf

FOLLOWING the World Health Organisation’s Internal Monitoring Board (IMB) meeting some time ago, the government of Pakistan is understandably embarrassed about the review of its polio eradication efforts.

Condemnation has been quick. An editorial in this paper called polio eradication the country’s “badge of shame”, blaming the government for its “stubborn, almost criminal refusal to undertake the task at hand”.

The abject failure of the government’s efforts is undeniable, but this criticism, at least, is unfair. The task at hand was undertaken, certainly — the problem lies in how, precisely, it was undertaken. Essentially, the government and the other participants in this exercise have been performing a play, in which things look more or less right but have little actual meaning. One could call it the farce of polio eradication.

Every government for the past three decades, military or civilian of whichever party, has voiced the political will to eradicate communicable diseases including polio. Donors have consistently supported Pakistan’s efforts, providing close to $9.5 billion over the past 25 years to the vaccination programme.

In the beginning, there were some gains in controlling polio. There were over 2,000 polio cases in 1988, when the programme began — but for the past two decades vaccination coverage rates have been less than 60pc nationally, which is nowhere near enough to create the needed herd immunity for protection.

When the WHO announced its Endgame Strategy, the government made a corresponding series of correct-seeming moves. This includes following specific recommendations from the IMB itself.

A National Emergency Action Plan 2014 for Polio Eradication was prepared and, fully funded until 2018, approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council. Special task forces were put in place at the national and provincial levels, led by the prime minister in the centre and the chief ministers or chief secretaries in the provinces.

The prime minister appointed a dedicated point person — in addition to the minister of health services — to lead the overall effort. Monitoring committees of senior managers exist at the federal, provincial, district, tehsil and union council levels. Every province has a special polio control room. In addition, the emergency operation cells started in two provinces will now be expanded to cover all four. Anti-polio drives are being conducted according to schedule.

All the pieces, therefore, are in place, following precise recommendations from the highest authorities and the IMB. But none of them work. None of them are functional. No single government department has the overall responsibility of coordinating the actions of all these task forces and committees.

The many management committees themselves are unclear about their tasks — the National Task Force, for example, has not met since September 2013 — and no one is present to hold them accountable.

The IMB has also fallen short in the review process it has been tasked with. In the recent meeting, the board should have asked the obvious questions raised by the government’s presentation, which described the overall objectives, general management plan and the challenges facing Pakistan. But it gave no immediate details or indications of how it would address the challenges and improve or amend its strategy though it plans to release a report by the end of this month.

Since this is a farce, part of the process is finger-pointing, a long-running blame game that can distract us from the failures. The provinces point at the centre. The centre points at the provinces. Everyone blames Dr Bosan, who, it seems, was heading the government’s technical unit for polio eradication while not actually being a government employee. Some pieces get shuttled around the board — Dr Bosan out, Dr Baloch in — and, why not, a new inter-ministerial committee is proposed.

This looks like much more activity than improving the administrative processes that would bring together the work of different government departments, or coordinating the efforts of the many different committees already on the ground.

It is much more dramatic than addressing the nitty-gritty issue of dealing with procedures that, for example, delay payments to polio staff. Unfortunately, it accomplishes almost nothing.

And so it should be no surprise that the number of polio cases continues to climb, reaching over 200, from 54 when the IMB last met, in May. Environmental surveillance shows that the frequency of detection has increased to 33pc from 20pc in 2013, and wild polio virus type 1 has been isolated from all four provinces.

As polio spreads, it becomes a humanitarian issue, so the donors feel compelled to increase their funds — in a very real sense rewarding the government for its failures. Giving more money is immediately reassuring, it looks better — and is less controversial than asking the government for specific actions to make programme structures functional and sustainable.

After all — you cannot give visibility to a procedural request. Neither the donors nor the IMB make it a point to insist on a country-specific, contextual programme design and implementation strategy. The IMB will meet again; it will offer some more suggestions; the government will likely follow them; and the cycle continues.

The best we can call this process is a farce, one that would be mildly entertaining if you could ignore the fact that it is costing not just money and time but lives and futures. Once you acknowledge that — perhaps then all we can call it is total madness.

The writer, a public health physician, is the author of So Much Aid, So Little Development: Stories from Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Changing political landscape

Babar Sattar

AT the risk of gross generalisation, here is the takeaway from Multan’s by-election. One, ideological politics is dead. The left-right divide in terms of which we have analysed election prospects for the last four decades is no longer a useful analytical tool. Those whose political consciousness was shaped in the late ’60s and early ’70s by politics of left and right, liberalism and conservatism are now a minority. With an average national age of 23.5, the politicised youth of Pakistan that will decide the fortunes of political parties is non-ideological.

Two, the two-party system that emerged during the ’90s is undergoing a metamorphosis. PTI has emerged as the new mainstream party that is giving the traditional mainstream parties — PML-N and PPP — a run for their money. But the three-way contest in a non-ideological environment is more bad news for PPP than PML-N. The myth of the ’90s that the PPP voter stayed at home when unhappy as opposed to voting for another party stands busted. The PPP voter seems to be opting for PTI.

Three, in Punjab, PPP’s decline (or demise) has enhanced the number of floating votes. Not bound to the manifesto or ideology of a political party, this vote is portable. (This may also be because with no real difference between the socio-economic agendas of parties, the rhetoric in their manifestos is hardly distinguishable.) The floating voter makes snap choices. Absent ideology or competing reform agendas, such choice is influenced by tailwind built upon the credibility, rhetoric and charm of top leaders.

Four, the average urban Punjabi voter seems to believe that the crisis of Pakistan has been caused by the absence of honest and capable leadership. The choice is thus not between PML-N and PTI, but between Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan (which also partly explains the decline/demise of the Zardari-led PPP in Punjab). It might seem ironical that those who decry Sharif’s monarchical style believe that in replacing one man with another lies our panacea. For now the form of change that has captured public imagination is the reign of an untested ‘saviour’.

Five, because none of our mainstream parties have set out an agenda that carries mass appeal (such as Bhutto’s roti, kapra aur makan), the hope for change rests on the ability of a saviour to miraculously fix all things broken. The contemporary political conflict has come to be defined as one between incumbency and change. Imran Khan has built his brand as a system-outsider and change agent with Sharif as the status quo symbol. For Khan’s mesmerised supporters anyone backed by him becomes an agent of change by association.

Javed Hashmi was a change agent while on Khan’s right side and became part of the wicked old order as soon as he fell out with Khan. Are critics wrong to claim that PTI is selling old wine in a new bottle (with Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Amir Dogar representing change in Multan and Sheikh Rasheed in Rawalpindi)? In a political setting driven by individuals sans ideology, PTI is using Imran Khan’s oversight as the cleansing agent for ‘electables’ capable of managing elections locally, notwithstanding their past, and it seems to be working.

Bhutto could nominate a pole in the 1970 elections and it would win, so went the belief. It was Bhutto’s charisma combined with the promise of change backed by a reform agenda that led to the victory of nobodies nominated by PPP back then. The vote garnered by PTI in the 2013 elections established that Khan is now a vote puller. But his pull produced victories largely where it was complemented by the local candidate’s ability to manage the election. The message was reinforced when bad candidates cost PTI the seats its chief vacated in Peshawar and Mianwali.

The Multan by-election’s real message is only indirectly for PML-N and essentially for PPP in Punjab. That it is getting wiped out. What does this mean for political families and clans still associated with PPP (ie the likes of Amir Dogar, PPP’s ex-secretary general for southern Punjab)? And what happens if PTI manages to pull significant numbers in PPP’s heartland in Larkana to back its claim that its message is resonating across Pakistan?

If despite Yousuf Raza Gilani’s best efforts, PPP could only bag 6,000 votes in Multan (southern Punjab being PPP territory prior to 2013 and all) and is seen struggling to keep its support intact even in Sindh, the message heard in Punjab will be simple: the next electoral conflict will be between PML-N and PTI, with PPP being a sideshow. Post-Larkana, those PPP-ites interested in pursuing careers in Punjabi politics might be tempted to jump ship and join PTI while it is still in the business of whitewashing electable politicos from other parties.

What does this mean for the timing of change? Unfortunately for PTI, the mechanics of change haven’t changed. The Multan by-election reminds us that while rallies are important markers of public opinion, public mandate only flows out of elections. The two non-representative institutions with some ability to instigate mid-term polls are the army and the judiciary. When the khakis could have intervened during the recent stand-off on Constitution Avenue, the army chief said no thank you. He won’t retire till the end of 2016.

The post-Iftikhar Chaudhry judiciary also seems disinterested in playing a role in shaping the country’s political landscape and rightly so. No number of jalsas will cause Sharif to call an early election. Resignation from the 30-odd seats PTI has in parliament won’t trigger mid-term polls. PPP and MQM have no incentive to invite early elections through mass resignations; both parties might lose seats if an election is held today, and in a status quo vs change election they will both be pitted against PTI.

In a nutshell, PTI’s politics of street agitation might keep a dazed PML-N government rickety, but there presently exists no conceivable mechanism to bring it down. Whether PTI with its ongoing romance with expediency will be able to induce reformative change in Pakistan if voted into power is an entirely different question.

The writer is a lawyer.

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Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014

Ways of the VIPs

Anwar Abbas

“Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.” — T.S. Eliot

“Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.” — T.S. Eliot

INDIA’S Narendra Modi was not granted a visa for the US for his alleged involvement in the pogrom of Gujrat. However, when Modi became prime minister, the US government not only granted him a visa but also arranged a state visit and hosted a lavish banquet in his honour at the White House.

But there was still a problem to be resolved. VVIP Modi Sahib was on a nine-day fast. For nine days he would take only some lemonade and a cup of tea. The White House chefs who could whip up food from every nation were nonplussed by the ‘fast’. How would it look with the guests around the main table, including host President Barack Obama, enjoying the fine delicacies laid out and chief guest Mr Modi sipping lemonade with honey?

A similar perplexing situation arose during a banquet in honour of India’s president V.V. Giri in Moscow. The president’s wife was horrified to see liquor and meat being served at the dinner in honour of her husband.

She made a big hue and cry, muttering innuendos in Tamil and then walked out of the dining hall much to the embarrassment of president Giri and his retinue. She summoned Air India’s catering manager in charge of vegetarian meals, S.N. Bakshi, and drove to the Air India aircraft parked many miles outside Moscow. There she had a vegetarian meal prepared by Bakshi under her watchful eyes to ensure the purity of its preparation.

I have first-hand knowledge about the fuss made over VIPS. As equipment planning officer of Air India I was not only a witness but an active participant in arranging a large amount of perfumes, cigarettes, and other gifts for presidents, prime ministers and their retinue, including media persons, on board VIP flights.

But personal whims, fancies and doling out expensive gifts to favourites is not typical of India alone.

Recently Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked that the advocate general of Pakistan be provided a 2400cc Mercedes which is beyond his entitlement as he is allowed no more than an 1800cc car allowed to the judges of the Supreme Court. Reason: the incumbent advocate general had won for Sharif and his family many law cases. This action will burden an already strained national economy and create problems at the highest administrative level, and may well set a precedent that may be difficult to manage in the future.

Some years ago while a Pakistani minister was at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport and being seen off by a protocol staff of the Swedish foreign office, the VIP stamped his foot arrogantly and all but shouted, “But where is the VIP lounge?” The protocol officer stepped forward and pointed to an aged man seated in a corner reading a magazine with his overcoat and briefcase lying alongside with no one by his side to attend to him.

“Do you know who that is?” asked the Swedish officer. “No,” replied the Pakistani minister. “Must I?”

“Yes. He is the king of Sweden. He has no one in attendance, but you have me to assist you because you are a guest of the royal Swedish government.”

In late ’70s in Tripoli I saw the Libyan power minister carry his suitcases from counter to counter begging customs officers to clear him.

He had arrived from India after signing a multi-million dollar protocol for the Tripoli West power station but no one in his home country seemed to care. Likewise Col Qadhafi was often seen driving his car to drop his son to school as did a former president of Iran quite recently.

In comparison we make such a to-do about VIP status that once a PPP lawmaker tabled a resolution that all members of the provincial assembly should be given VIP status.

At another time in the National Assembly lawmakers demanded official passports for themselves and their families so that they could enjoy VIP status even during their sojourns abroad, whether on work or on vacation.

Wrote the French philosopher Montaigne perhaps a bit sarcastically, “Glory consists of two parts: the one of setting too great a value upon ourselves, and the other in setting too little value upon others.”

So what is the way out of this quagmire? Perhaps the fun made of those who attempt to maintain their simplicity and self-esteem and make the civilised look like cranks in society must be blunted if not ended altogether.

Every society must know the power behind a simple sartorial image, the shunning of pomp, show and consumerism and the assertion of limited wants. Only then can VIP culture truly end.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Managing disasters

Arif Azad

IN spite of a small core of dedicated and interest-driven naysayers, climate change has now proven to be incontrovertibly behind the sustained surge in the incidence of natural disasters. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan too has become increasingly prone to natural calamities, but we have never seemed ready for such emergencies.

This was the case with the 2010 floods when Pakistan was found woefully ill-prepared to cope with the disaster despite advance warnings from experts and international disaster response actors. Mercifully, the crisis was overcome with a huge dollop of foreign help in cash and expertise coupled with local resources — both human and financial.

Many studies resulted from the crisis; lessons were drawn and apparently woven into disaster management plans. Many projects were put in place with a view to better tackling such crises in future. Yet, as the response to the 2014 floods has again demonstrated, the lessons from our previous brushes with the floods have not been fully absorbed institutionally and integrated into existing plans.

Despite the limited scale of the 2014 floods, the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest figures as reported in the media put the number of deaths at 367, with 673 injured, 107,102 houses destroyed and 2.53 million people affected in 4,065 villages. These figures are worrying, because even one death is a death too many. The devastation is put down largely to a disjointed and tardy response as evident from the personal testimonies that have appeared in the media. This shows glaring gaps in our prevention, preparedness and disaster response mechanisms.

One of the missing links is the insufficient importance accorded to local governments and local communities in our slowly maturing disaster management toolbox. Although the NDMA has elaborately factored district-level disaster management authorities into its grand scheme of things, these bodies remain dormant and non-functional in most districts, despite some commendable efforts by the UN and other international humanitarian agencies to institutionalise this local structure. These district disaster management authorities (DMAs), functioning under a different nomenclature in KP, are currently led by the district coordination officers.

DMAs perform well where the DCOs have displayed personal leadership and commitment, but they are generally treated as mothballed bureaucratic set-ups, dusted off when disaster strikes. On the whole, DMAs suffer from a lack of ownership and resources largely because of lack of input from local communities. Local government remains at the heart of any effective disaster preparedness and response plan.

During the 2010 floods, the absence of local government was keenly felt by those affected. In fact, local governments are the first interface between natural calamities and communities. Local councillors and local governments have a stake in prevention and response strategies because their electoral reputation is on the line if they respond poorly.

In contrast, the DCO-led DMAs suffer not just from lack of community participation but also from lack of accountability and ownership. This leads to a situation where the district disaster plans remain unrepresentative, devoid of community input and community leadership. The DCOs’ promotion does not depend upon their record as good disaster managers, while the district or tehsil or union council nazims have huge reputational stake in their response to disasters. Elected official-led DMAs have the added advantage of drawing in local communities.

Pakistan is also a signatory to the Hyogo Framework of Action which, apart from other commendable measures, places a great deal of stress on the importance of according higher salience to local-level involvement in disaster preparedness and response. That is another reason why the local response should be the top priority of the government in the improved future disaster management plans.

In the past few weeks, the election of local governments has again surfaced on the policy agenda. As well as forming an important link in the democratic chain, local government is also a crucial cog in the disaster response wheel. Hence the holding of local bodies’ elections is urgent for more than political and democratic reasons. Natural disasters, when not handled institutionally and consistently well, can pan out with disastrous consequences for the bond of trust that unites people.

One case in point is pre-Bangladesh Pakistan. The inability of successive West Pakistan governments to deal effectively with the perennial problem of flooding in East Pakistan formed the core of the anti-Pakistan grievances that drove a wedge between the country’s two wings. Local government and their enhanced role in disaster management can play an important part in bridging the gap between the rulers and the ruled.

The writer is an Islamabad-based development consultant and policy analyst.

drarifazad

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

The M word

Cyril Almeida

YOU already know what’s going to happen next. Silly season will be upon us and the M word will be hawked around again.

YOU already know what’s going to happen next. Silly season will be upon us and the M word will be hawked around again.

Once Imran took his show on the road, others were always going to follow. Politics had been reduced to Punjab and a two-man show — Imran and Nawaz — so a little noise from the sidelines was going to happen.

Now that the noise is here courtesy a still wet-behind-the-ears Bilawal and a decrepit PPP, politics can be spun as in ferment again. Rallies everywhere, a vague sense of expectation in the air, a desultory government — the chattering will begin anew: could there be mid-term elections after all?

Ah, but you’re thinking, rallies do not an election make. And you’re right. But silly season has rules of its own. So we may as well get a jump on it.

There wasn’t — and still isn’t — any reason mid-elections should be held simply because Imran has been demanding it. But neither is there any legal or constitutional bar to mid-term elections. It comes down to politics.

And as with everything politics, there is a good way of going about things and a bad way. The good, system-enhancing route to mid-term elections would be if someone, say, a super tribunal or that Supreme Court-led inquiry commission which has gone nowhere so far, were to document and reveal systematic flaws in the May 2013 polls.

The bad, system-diminishing route to mid-term elections would be if the PML-N pulled another PML-N. Essentially, if the PML-N shoots itself in the foot and democracy in the face by seeing the diminishing threat of the Imran and Qadri protests as an opportunity to land a punch or two.

Like the N-League did with Qadri a couple of days after Zarb-i-Azb was launched. Also known as the Model Town incident. You’d think the PML-N would have learned by now, but the only thing that seems certain with the PML-N is that old habits die hard.

There is a third option, the one that would neither destroy the system nor particularly enhance it: a National Assembly-only election.

Leave the provincial assemblies in place — PPP in Sindh, PTI in KP, PML-N in Punjab, nationalists in Balochistan — and fight it out at the centre. A quirky, ad hoc solution to a quirky, ad hoc problem imposed by Imran and Qadri.

National Assembly-only elections would still leave everyone a winner at the provincial level while settling the problem at the centre for the next three years, at which point the assemblies could sync again in a general election.

Not that the PML-N would ever admit it — and it would certainly resist the idea fiercely were it ever to come to that — but a mid-term election is the only obvious way for the party to recover its mandate.

The political capital reaped in May 2013 by the PML-N is over — whether it was the party’s own doing, the anti-democrats’ viciousness or Imran and Qadri’s fierceness matters little now.

What does matter is that the PML-N’s policy space has shrunk violently and the only obvious way to recover some of that space is fresh endorsement by the voting public. Else, it’s limping on and muddling through all the way to 2018.

But if the PML-N won’t bite at even a National Assembly-only election, how can Imran force Nawaz into an election?

The obvious route is via the PPP. Assured of success in Sindh, the PPP is in terminal decline in Punjab. The party has no message, the party has no appeal and the party will haemorrhage candidates in Punjab if elections happen in far-away 2018.

Wait and face near-certain extinction in Punjab — and as goes Punjab, so goes Islamabad — or scramble now and fight a rearguard action to hang on to as many battered candidates and beleaguered voters as the PPP can.

Of course, even in this fantastical realm of a joint putsch by PTI and PPP against PML-N, everything would turn on what Zardari decides. So far Asif still looks like he prefers the devil he knows — Nawaz — to the devil he doesn’t — Imran.

Still, chatter knows no logic, so further in we can wade.

A mid-term, National Assembly-only election happens. Maybe it happens because N-League did something staggeringly stupid or because a super commission paved the way for it or because PTI found a partner in the PPP to force an election.

Now what? The tables turn. Twenty-thirteen was Nawaz’s election to lose; mid-terms will be an election Imran has to win.

The unexpected can happen — no one, not even Nawaz, thought PML-N would win an outright majority in May 2013 — but so fiercely contested is Punjab now that it’s hard to imagine either PTI or PML-N sweeping a mid-term election.

Which would take us back to the pre-May 2013 spectre of a hung parliament. Three big players — PTI, PML-N and PPP — with two needed to form a government.

Zardari could do a switcheroo, forcing an election against the PML-N’s wishes and then going for a new government together. But what would that do for the country?

Or the PTI and PPP could rope in all the other bits and pieces in parliament and form a national government minus the PML-N. But what would that do for the country?

In either case, the answer would be, nothing.

Little will change without an election; little may change with an election. But silly season looks imminent. The M word will get a lot of airing. So we may as well have got a jump on it.

The writer is a member of staff.

cyril.a

Twitter: @cyalm

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

Realignment of militants

Muhammad Amir Rana

FIVE Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders including the militant group’s spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid have announced their oath of allegiance to Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed caliph of the militant group Islamic State. The development may encourage other militant groups and commanders to do the same — particularly those who are now critically reviewing their oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar and association with Al Qaeda after the emergence of the Islamic State in the Middle East.

It appears as if the militant landscape of Pakistan is going to become more complex and threatening. As militant groups prepare to enter into another phase of ideologically and operationally transformed jihadi discourse, the implications for Pakistan’s internal security are severe.

The TTP commanders’ allegiance to the IS reflects internal rifts in the group mainly concerning leadership issues, and increasing differences among commanders in their political, ideological, tactical and operational perspectives. These internal differences have pushed these commanders towards what they perceive as an ideologically clearer and purified Islamist movement.

Surprisingly, the announcement of allegiance to the IS came from the Taliban commanders who constituted the operational core of the TTP. Many were expecting the newly established Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the TTP and strongly influenced by the IS, to be the first to declare an oath of allegiance to the latter. But it seems that the group is wavering between the Afghan Taliban-Al Qaeda alliance and the IS for future association.

By declaring allegiance to the IS, the Taliban commanders not only took the lead but also captured the title of Khorasan. Previously, leaders of Jamaatul Ahrar tried to tag themselves as Khorasani claiming they were the first troops of the prophesied Islamic state of Khorasan. They believe the time has come for the establishment of an Islamic state in this region comprising some parts of Central Asia, and Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

However it would be very difficult for Jamaatul Ahrar to maintain relations with Al Qaeda and IS at the same time, while remaining loyal to Mullah Omar. The defecting five commanders have strong sectarian credentials and seem inspired by the IS’s sectarian designs. Their future behaviour is unclear as the IS has asked its followers to channelise their resources to Syria and Iraq, where the group first wants to consolidate its position.

On the other hand, the influence of the IS on militant groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a huge challenge for Al Qaeda. Analysts believe that the groups which were not happy with Al Qaeda’s operational strategies are more attracted to the IS. It was perhaps the main reason behind the establishment of Al Qaeda in South Asia. Growing realisation that operating through affiliates may not work in the future forced Al Qaeda to set up a separate branch in South Asia, which may help the terrorist group recruit people directly instead of relying on local associates.

Also, the IS factor will have an impact on the Afghan Taliban. The IS militants reject nationalism and consider the Afghan Taliban as part of the religious-nationalist movement. Those among the Afghan Taliban who have weak nationalist tendencies and are more inclined towards a ‘purified’ ideological goal can initiate such debate among their ranks. While defections cannot be ruled out, it is unclear how the IS will impact the Afghan Taliban movement, particularly when Mullah Omar wants to establish an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan while al-Baghdadi wants to extend his Islamic state to the whole world.

So far, pro-IS commanders, Al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and even the TTP leadership are trying to avoid confrontation and are just watching the situation. They realise that internal confrontations can trigger direct inter-militant clashes, such as those in Syria, and that these in turn can widen the existing ideological and political rift. For how long can they maintain this restraint, is an important question.

As far as the security implications of the IS are concerned, it has created a major survival challenge for the main militant actors who could now act to prove their operational credentials. Specifically Al Qaeda and TTP led by Fazlullah are facing immense pressure. They can launch attacks to prove that they are still strong and relevant, and have the ability to lead entire militant movements in the region.

At the same time, IS-inspired groups can launch movements in the IS style and try to capture towns and cities in the border regions of Afghanistan. But such attempts within Pakistan have fewer chances of success as the Pakistan military has gained control of most ungoverned territories in the tribal region.

In the short term, IS-inspired small groups and commanders can launch sectarian attacks. The TTP commanders who have declared allegiance to the IS have strong sectarian credentials and some of them come from the sectarian flashpoints of Hangu and Orakzai and Kurram agencies. Perpetrating sectarian violence will be an easier way for them to prove their loyalties to the IS. In this context, the coming weeks, especially the month of Muharram, will be sensitive. The security institutions have to be extra vigilant to prevent the threat of sectarian unrest in the country.

The most important question relates to the future of the TTP. No doubt IS inspiration has worsened the TTP’s internal crisis. While the group was already passing through an internal crisis over the issue of leadership, the military operation Zarb-i-Azb in North Waziristan has further weakened its organisational structure.

But we cannot predict the collapse of the TTP. The IS factor has provided new life to the group. The movement is undergoing an extensive transformation, but it has the potential to re-emerge as a stronger ideological militant movement, maybe under a different name.

However, at critical stages, names, tags and affiliations do not matter in militant movements. It is the four-pronged strength that matters,including ideological and political vision, operational capacity, effective propaganda and support base in society. It seems the TTP has not yet lost much.

The writer is a security analyst.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014

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DINA for the issue of October 17, 2014

October 17, 2014 Leave a comment

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INTERNET NEWS ALERT

October 17, 2014 | Zilhaj 21, 1435

The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.

PTI-backed Dogar humbles Javed Hashmi

Shakeel Ahmad

MULTAN: Amir Dogar, an independent candidate who had the support of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, won the NA-149 by-election on Thursday after defeating Javed Hashmi, who was supported by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N.

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KARACHI, October 16: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at 102.85 the US Dollar in the open market.

21 militants killed in Khyber air strikes

Ibrahim Shinwari

LANDI KOTAL: Twenty-one suspected militants were killed on Thursday when military planes pounded positions of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam group in the Akkakhel area of Khyber Agency.

Five hideouts of the Bara-based militant group were destroyed in the air strikes.

Pakistan committed to peace with India, says foreign secretary

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry has said that Pakistan is committed to peace with India despite the escalation along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary.

“Pakistan will continue to pursue a policy of peaceful relations with its neighbours. Peace with India is a priority item on Pakistan’s foreign policy agenda,” the foreign secretary said on Thursday at a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, which was convened to discuss the crisis on the de-facto border with India.

Decision to exercise ‘utmost restraint’

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The civil and military leadership met again on Thursday to review the situation on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary and the counter-terrorism operation in North Waziristan.

The meeting on national security took place less than a week after the National Security Council’s meeting last Friday and was described as a follow-up session.

SHC stops PAEC from starting work on N-plants

Tahir Siddiqui

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court restrained the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) on Thursday from carrying out work on two nuclear power plants in Karachi without adhering to environmental laws.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar issued the directive on a petition challenging the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) which approved the two plants.

Footprints: Digging up a story

Mina Sohail

WAZIR Khan, a physician, built the Shahi Hammam for Emperor Jehangir’s wife. But why? “She had a blister on her foot and wanted someone to cure it without any physical contact. Wazir Khan asked her to walk on sand where her feet left imprints. He identified the area of the blister, placed a piece of mirror there on the sand and told her to walk again on her own footprints. When she did this, the mirror burst the blister and the injury was healed. She rewarded him for this and he reciprocated by building her the Royal Bath.”

Farhan Shah narrated this story to me avidly, clearly reflecting his affiliation with old Lahore. His family moved to the walled city in the mid-1700s. Shah’s company, Old Lahore Walkabouts, takes people on tours to the walled city, which for him is a monument in itself. I was fascinated but also curious whether the story he had told me was a myth or actual history. But for Shah, the stories behind the structure are just as important as the tangible restoration. “I don’t see a story as true or false and don’t concoct any on my own,” he tells me. “Restoring myths is important for us. I want people to experience the ethos of that time when they come here. These stories have existed for hundreds of years. They are reflective of the thought process of the people of the subcontinent.”

No one can warn India, China told

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

“Today, no one can give warning to India. We are a very powerful country,” Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh was quoted as telling reporters at a function in Manesar, near Delhi.

Also read: China expresses concern over India’s plan to build road on border

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DINA for the issue of October 16, 2014

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INTERNET NEWS ALERT

October 16, 2014 | Zilhaj 20, 1435

The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.

Validity of ISPR tweet as proof questioned

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Hearing petitions asking for the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his ‘misstatement’ in the National Assembly, the Supreme Court asked on Wednesday whether a tweet from a military spokesperson — who was not present during the meeting between the army chief and the prime minister — could be considered an admissible evidence against the PM.

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It’s virtually PML-N vs PTI in Multan today

Shakeel Ahmad

MULTAN: With the focus of national politics suddenly shifting to a by-election in Multan being seen as the first electoral test between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N and Imran Khan’s PTI after the Islamabad sit-in and a large public gatherings hosted by the cricketer-turned politician, a controversy over airdropping of pamphlets seeking votes for government-backed Javed Hashmi on Wednesday after the end of campaigning added to the interest in the close contest.

According to sources, Regional Election Commissioner Ghulam Israr Khan took notice of the matter and brought it to the notice of the Provincial Election Commission. However, arrangements made by the PEC for today’s polling for NA-149 seat remained unaffected.

Bara suicide blast leaves seven dead

Ibrahim Shinwari

LANDI KOTAL: Seven members of a pro-government group were killed and 13 others injured in a suicide attack in a remote area of Bara in Khyber Agency on Wednesday, sources said.

They said that a young boy detonated his explosive vest in Pir Mela area where some activists of the Tauheedul Islam group had gathered. The attack was carried out at around 8am and it is pertinent to mention that a large number of shoppers visit the Pir Mela market in the morning.

Govt, opposition to seek time for CEC’s appointment

Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: The government and the main opposition PPP agreed on Wednesday to seek more time from the Supreme Court for nominating a permanent chief election commissioner (CEC).

The understanding was reached during a telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Khurshid Ahmed Shah, a day after the apex court hearing a case about delay in the local government elections directed the government to fill the post by Oct 28.

Cabinet reshuffle on the cards?

Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Office is busy conducting a ministerial performance audit ahead of an expected reshuffle and possible expansion of the federal cabinet.

The buzz at the PM’s Office these days, according to a senior government functionary privy to the exercise, is the implementation of a specially-prepared template to evaluate ministers’ performance.

US informed about concerns over border tensions

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has informed the US administration about its concerns over current tensions along the Line of Control in Kashmir and on the working boundary with India, says the country’s ambassador.

“We have been unable to comprehend the Indian provocative strategy to generate tension on the LoC and the working boundary,” said Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, while talking to Dawn.

US, allies step up air strikes to halt IS advance

Reuters

MURSITPINAR: The United States and its allies have dramatically stepped up air strikes in recent days near the Syrian town of Kobane, where Kurdish defenders say they have given Americans the target coordinates to try to halt an assault by Islamic State (IS) group.

The US-led military coalition said it had bombed IS targets in and around Kobane nearly 40 times in the space of 48 hours, around triple the pace of last week.

Ebola ‘most serious’ health emergency in years: world leaders

AFP

LONDON: The Ebola epidemic is “the most serious international public health emergency in recent years,” British, US, French, German and Italian leaders agreed in a conference call on Wednesday.

A 75-minute video conference call between British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and US President Barack Obama focused on cooperation to fight the outbreak, a spokesman for Mr Cameron said.

Australia’s Flanagan wins Man Booker prize

Reuters

LONDON: Australian novelist Richard Flanagan has said that before winning the prestigious Man Booker prize for literature on Tuesday he had considered becoming a miner because he found it difficult to make a living at his craft.

Mr Flanagan, 53, won the prestigious $79,530 prize for his novel ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’, set during the building of the Thailand-Burma ‘Death Railway’ in World War Two.

Exit polls indicate BJP victory in Haryana, Maharashtra elections

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Two more Indian states — Haryana and Maharashtra, this time — went to polls on Wednesday and both, according to the standard analysis by the local media on such occasions, are a key test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity.

It is another matter that the country has had several state polls and by-elections since Mr Modi’s resounding victory in May and, as such, continued to replenish his jingoistic zeal. In both state polls where he campaigned hard, unlike the in-between ones in which he fared poorly, it was Pakistan, and not so much his domestic political opponents that was in Mr Modi’s crosshairs.

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DINA for the issue of October 14, 2014

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INTERNET NEWS ALERT

October 14, 2014 | Zilhaj 18, 1435

The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.

Press India to end hostilities, FO asks UN

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: As India continued ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC), the Foreign Office asked five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday to use their good offices to secure an end to hostilities and for resumption of stalled peace dialogue with New Delhi.

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KARACHI, October 13 : At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was 30394
Forex Update :
KARACHI, October 13 : The Pakistani Rupee was traded at 102.25 the US Dollar in the open market.

Karachi jailbreak attempt foiled

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

KARACHI: An attempt to free around 100 militants from the Karachi Central Prison was foiled when Pakistan Rangers raided a house which was used by suspects to tunnel their way to their targeted barrack, said an officer of the paramilitary force on Monday.

The suspects were arrested when they had already dug up a 45-metre-long and 10-metre-deep tunnel leading from an underground water tank inside the house situated in Ghausia Colony, near the city’s largest jail.

ECP rejects Punjab govt’s request to put off Multan by-poll

Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected Punjab government’s request to postpone the Oct 16 by-election in Multan.

An official of the commission told Dawn that the postponement request had been made because of the security situation in the city following the loss of seven lives in a stampede at a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf rally on Friday.

PTI leadership decides to continue sit-in, rallies

Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD: The core committee of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) decided on Monday to continue its sit-in Islamabad and hold rallies in cities across the country.

The party’s top decision-making body laid down strict guidelines for its rallies to avert a recurrence of the Multan tragedy which claimed seven lives.

US senators meet PM, army chief

Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: A delegation of US Senators met Pakistani leaders on Monday and discussed with them bilateral relations and the situation in the region.

Angus King, member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, and Tim Kaine, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz and Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif.

Footprints: A By-Poll Without Substance

Shakil Ahmad

NAUSHAD Shah’s take on the by-poll in the Multan city constituency of NA-149 contrasts with the noise the contest has generated in national politics and the media. Only days after his city held one of the largest public meetings in its history and amid all the colours flying in the area as it prepares to vote on Thursday, Shah, a 60-year-old Baghbanpura resident, is not happy. The way the ‘main contesting’ parties are conducting themselves has depressed him.

“What kind of politics is this?” he asks. “Neither the PML-N nor the PTI has its men in the contest: the PML-N is backing Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, who ditched it not too long ago to become PTI president. The PTI is supporting PPP turncoat Malik Amir Dogar. Where are the parties?”

Cyclone batters India’s eastern coast; 24 killed

Reuters

VISAKHAPATNAM (India): The death toll from a powerful cyclone which battered India’s eastern coastline rose to 24 on Monday, as the storm weakened and moved inland, leaving a swathe of destruction and triggering fears heavy rains would bring flash floods.

Packing wind speeds of up to 195kph (over 120mph), cyclone Hudhud hammered the coasts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states on Sunday, forcing tens of thousands of coastal inhabitants to seek safety in storm shelters.

Taliban ambush leaves 22 Afghan police officials dead

AFP

MAZAR SHARIF: Taliban militants killed 22 police officers and wounded eight after ambushing a police convoy in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said.

The early morning attack in Sari Pul province highlights Afghanistan’s fragile security situation, with local forces facing a persistent Taliban insurgency as Nato winds down its military presence.

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DINA for the issue of October 13, 2014

October 13, 2014 Leave a comment

DAWN

INTERNET NEWS ALERT

October 13, 2014 | Zilhaj 17, 1435

The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.

UN urged to boost role of observers

Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: Drawing attention of the United Nations to the deteriorating security situation along the Kashmir Line of Control and Working Boundary due to “deliberate and unprovoked” cross-border firing by Indian forces over the past weeks, Pakistan has asked the world body to strengthen the role of its observers in the region.

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Qadri seeks financial and political support for revolution

Mohammad Saleem

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has sought people’s financial and political support and votes to bring about a revolution in the country.

He said he would soon give a call for countrywide sit-ins while the dharna in Islamabad would continue.

PM likely to visit China next month

Zaheer Mahmood Siddiqui

LAHORE: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique has said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to visit China next month to urge Chinese businessmen to make investment in infrastructure development projects in the country.

“Ministries concerned are busy in homework for the visit,” Mr Rafique said at a news conference here on Sunday. The prime minister will ask Chinese businessmen to help Pakistan develop infrastructure in sectors of ports and shipping, energy, railways and highways.

Imran calls for judicial probe into Multan incident

Shakeel Ahmad

MULTAN: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan says he wants to come to power with the support of people and not of the establishment.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday after offering condolences to families of five people who had lost their lives during a stampede at the end of the PTI public meeting on Friday, he said: “There are two ways to come to power – either with the support of the establishment or with the support of the public. I prefer people’s support.”

Indian shelling continues

Abid Hussain Mehdi

SIALKOT: Eleven head of cattle were killed and a number of houses were damaged in heavy shelling by Indian forces on Pakistan’s villages along Sialkot border on Sunday.

According to senior officials of the Chenab Rangers, India’s Border Security Forces started shelling on villages Dhamaala-Charwah, Tulsipur, Rangor, Gandiyal, Sapwaal, Baghiyaari, Joiyaan, Bajra Garhi, Harpal, Anula, Khokhar, Nandpur, Jangura, Sakhiyaal, Kothey Raja, Salaankey, Beeni Sulehriyaan, Nandpur, Sakhiyaal , Kothey Raja, Tongar, Raja Harpal, Sukmaal, Daallowali, Thathi, Thathi Khurd, Meendarwal and adjoining areas on Saturday night.

21 killed in Fata air strikes

Dawn Report

PESHAWAR: Twenty-one suspected militants were killed and several others injured on Sunday when military planes pounded hideouts in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations, two hideouts were destroyed in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan. The ISPR statement said 11 suspects were killed in the attack.

Govt may go for deal rather than wait for verdict on Reko Diq

Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD: Arbitration proceedings between Pakistan and the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) over Balochistan’s multi-billion dollar Reko Diq Copper and Gold reserves before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) — now in their final stages — are expected to conclude this weekend.

Sources told Dawn that the TCC has indicated its willingness to reach a negotiated settlement before the ICSID issues its verdict. Normally, the ICSID panel takes four to six weeks after the conclusion of the proceedings to issue a decision, which is then binding on both sides. In the interim, however, both sides have the option of reaching a mutually-negotiated settlement.

Modi ups the ante in border fighting

Reuters

NEW DELHI: To judge from the shrill outrage of India’s television news channels, the bloody clashes along the Line of Control and Working Boundary are all Pakistan’s fault.

However, military officers in both countries and officials in New Delhi say the violence that has killed nearly 20 civilians escalated because of a more assertive Indian posture under the government of nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Donors pledge aid for Gaza, call for peace talks

AFP

CAIRO: International donors pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to rebuild the battered Gaza Strip on Sunday and urged Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace efforts.

Gas-rich Qatar led the way at a donors’ conference in Cairo with a promise of $1 billion in aid to the coastal enclave, devastated by its 50-day summer conflict with Israel.

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PM visits hideouts cleared of militants

From the Newspaper

MIRAMSHAH: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited on Thursday a bazaar in North Waziristan’s Miramshah town where he saw the militant hideouts destroyed during the Zarb-i-Azb military operation.

MIRAMSHAH: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited on Thursday a bazaar in North Waziristan’s Miramshah town where he saw the militant hideouts destroyed during the Zarb-i-Azb military operation.

Accompanied by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, he was taken to various areas of the headquarters of North Waziristan and shown operational and residential quarters which had been occupied by terrorists.

The prime minister visited the destroyed underground command and control centre used by militants to carry out operations in various parts of the country.

Mr Sharif was also shown the media cell used by the militants to spread messages through social, electronic and print media and the place where suicide bombers recorded their farewell messages before going out on their killing missions.

He saw the weapons, ammunition, communication equipment, survival kits, suicide vests and medical equipment used by the terrorists.

BRIEFING: The prime minister was briefed on the Zarb-i-Azb operation by army officers. He was informed that over 1,000 terrorists had been killed and 90 per cent area of the volatile agency cleared of militants.

The Air Force, artillery units and Special Services Group have played a key role in the success of the operation and added a new chapter of chivalry to the country’s military history.

Mirali, Dekan, Boya and Dattakhel have been cleared, the militants’ command and control centre destroyed and a large quantity of weapons and ammunition recovered from hideouts, including multi-barrel rocket launchers, automatic rifles, mines and bomb-making and communication equipment.

The prime minister was also informed about the facilities being provided to the internally displaced persons at the Bakakhel camp in Bannu. Around 2,517 families are living at the camp and they have access to clean drinking water, food, electricity and other essential items.

The government has paid Rs15,000 to each family.—APP

Abdus Salam adds from Bannu: Gen Raheel Sharif, Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch attended the briefing.

Addressing the troops after the briefing, the prime minister said the ongoing fight against militants was the most difficult and complex stage of the war.

“The enemy in this war is invisible and strikes from hideouts,” he said, adding that morale of security forces was very high and they would win this war.

He said the country would be safe, peaceful and prosperous after this conflict. He congratulated Gen Raheel Sharif on the successes achieved in the operation and paid tribute to soldiers who had laid down their lives in the line of duty.

Addressing the displaced people at the Bakakhel camp, Prime Minister Sharif said his government would utilise all available resources to ensure early rehabilitation of the IDPs of North Waziristan.

He said the tribal people had rendered great sacrifices for the security of the country and their sacrifices would never be forgotten. “We want the rehabilitation and reconstruction process to start soon in North Waziristan.”

He assured the IDPs that the current scenario in North Waziristan would be changed and massive reconstruction activities would be launched. Miramshah would be developed into a model town. He said the government would provide all resources to the army for the rehabilitation programme in the area.

He said the youths of North Waziristan would be trained in vocational and technical institutes.

Later, the prime minister exchanged Eid greetings with the IDPs and prayed for their early return to their homes and comfortable lives.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Two women among three killed in Indian firing

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

SIALKOT: Three more civilians, two women among them, were killed by unprovoked Indian shelling on the border villages of Rorki-Harpal and Zafarwal along the Sialkot Working Boundary on Thursday.

SIALKOT: Three more civilians, two women among them, were killed by unprovoked Indian shelling on the border villages of Rorki-Harpal and Zafarwal along the Sialkot Working Boundary on Thursday.

The death toll rose to 13 in four days of intensified shelling by the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF).

According to Chenab Rangers officials, Rukhsana Bibi, 36, Mohammad Azam, 41, and Naseem Bibi, 35, were killed on the spot when heavy mortar shells fired by the BSF hit their houses in Rorki-Harpal and Zafarwal.

Imran Sadiq, Iqbal Hussain, Bashir Ahmed and Saleema Bibi were injured by the Indian shelling in Chaprar, Bajwat and Harpal sectors. Rescue 1122 personnel took them to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Sialkot.

A total of 42 people were injured by the shelling. The condition of two of them was stated to be critical.

As many as 38 animals were also killed.

They said Chenab Rangers were retaliating effectively and responding in a befitting manner.

Tariq Naqash adds from Muzaffarabad: The Line of Control remained relatively calm on Thursday, but officials said the situation was still “unpredictable”.

“We are gearing ourselves up for heavy shelling… They (Indians) may resume it any time,” said Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, Deputy Commissioner of Kotli district, which has been witnessing skirmishes and artillery duels since Monday.

Local people said they had been spending sleepless nights since the hostilities mounted at the unmarked dividing line in Kashmir.

“We could not even celebrate Eidul Azha because of the cross-border shelling,” said Haji Azad, a resident of Nakyal sector in Kotli.

Shaukat Butt, a resident of Battal sector in the neighbouring Poonch district, said he feared the skirmishes and artillery duels might intensify in coming days. “When shells fall on houses panic is bound to grip the residents because it restricts their movements and cripples their daily lives.”

Deputy Commissioner Ali said the authorities had not ordered evacuation of people from vulnerable areas, but a number of families moved on their own to their relatives in comparatively safe areas. “We are discouraging the evacuation because it can lead to chaos,” he added.

He said the ongoing spate of shelling was aimed at diverting international attention from India’s failure to provide relief to the Kashmiris hit by the worst-ever floods in a century. “India has not only failed to help the marooned Kashmiris, but is also subjecting them to torture for protesting against its failure.”

Mr Akbar said India’s “ill intentions” had been exposed after it asked the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan to close down its office in New Delhi.

“We call upon the UN observers to visit the LoC to see for themselves the hostilities being committed by the trigger-happy Indian soldiers,” he said.

He warned that a further delay in ceasefire could spell disaster. “God forbid, if the escalation leads to a full blown war it will not be conventional because both sides are nuclear-armed.”

He urged India to realise the sensitivity of the situation.

Meanwhile, the All Party Kashmir Coordination Council, a loose alliance of political and religious parties and representatives of the APHC, has announced that it would hold rallies across Azad Kashmir on Friday to condemn the unprovoked and indiscriminate Indian shelling on the unarmed civilian population along the LoC and Working Boundary.

APP adds: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif distributed on Thursday compensation cheques of Rs75,000 each among 23 people injured by the Indian shelling on Sialkot border villages.

He distributed the cheques during a visit to the Sialkot CMH.

He also announced Rs500,000 each for the families of those killed by the Indian shelling.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Times have changed, warns Modi

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned Pakistan on Thursday that times had changed and ceasefire violations that New Delhi accuses Islamabad of carrying out across the Line of Control and adjoining international border in Jammu and Kashmir, would not be tolerated, reports said.

“Today, when bullets are being fired on the border, it is the enemy that is screaming,” Mr Modi told an election rally in Maharashtra where state polls are scheduled to be held on Oct 15.

“The enemy has realised that times have changed and their old habits will not be tolerated,” Mr Modi was quoted as saying.

The Indian Express said the remarks were in response to political opponents who have charged the prime minister with not speaking directly about this week’s clashes — the worst in a decade.

Mr Modi took a different view. “When there is a challenge at the border, it is soldiers who answer with fingers on the trigger; it is not for politicians to respond.”

The comments also came a day after Mr Modi raised hopes for an early end to the flare-up when he said: “Everything will be fine soon.”

Also read: Footprints: Back from the brink

Indian analysts, including a former envoy to Islamabad, blamed Pakistan for starting the heavy ordnance exchange across the border but added that the flare-up was tame compared to the relentless firing, which went on almost daily prior to their 2003 ceasefire agreement.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah differed with the government’s decision not to hold any flag meetings between the two militaries during the current upsurge. “The government says there won’t be any talks until Pakistan stops firing completely. It is precisely when the firing is on that we need to talk not when the guns go silent.”

Indian media is by and large aligned with the government narrative as usually happens in similar situations elsewhere.

Local reports said that overnight Indian forces retaliated to Pakistan’s gunfire and mortar bombs on about 50 border security posts. There was intermittent fire on Thursday.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley reinforced the narrative. “If Pakistan persists with this adventurism, our forces will make cost of this adventurism unaffordable for it,” he was quoted as saying.

Indian theorists are many, and one such posited that Pakistan’s aggression based on the need to shift attention from its politically volatile landscape — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has confronted huge opposition protests. Others believed Mr Sharif was too powerless to have any say.

Some Indians also believes that Pakistan wants to use the attacks to help militants infiltrate Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Mr Jaitley was quoted as ruling out talks with Pakistan and he praised Indian forces for a “commendable” job in the “face of these unprovoked acts of aggression”.

Mr Modi apparently joined Mr Jaitley in congratulating Indian forces for “responding to aggression with courage”.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Exchange of allegations continues: Desire for peace should not be misunderstood: Asif

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on Thursday that Pakistan’s desire for peace and goodwill should not be misunderstood.

WASHINGTON: Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on Thursday that Pakistan’s desire for peace and goodwill should not be misunderstood.

After several days of clashes in the disputed Kashmir region and along the Working Boundary, the defence minister’s office issued a statement in Islamabad, warning the Indians that Pakistan was capable of responding “befittingly” to their actions on the border.

The minister, who is visiting the United States, later spoke to Dawn and urged Indians not to further escalate the situation, noting that the Indians have also been violating the Working Boundary between the two countries.

“Our demonstration of goodwill and desire for peace should not be misunderstood,” he said. “We are still desirous to have lasting peace in the subcontinent and find a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue.”

Mr Asif recalled that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also expressed this desire in his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York two weeks ago.

“We are desirous of pursuing peace, but what India is doing is harming our efforts,” the minister said. “It is discouraging peace.”

Mr Asif refused to guess what was causing the Indians to demonstrate such a belligerent behaviour.

“I don’t know what are their compulsions,” he said while noting that India had also postponed talks between foreign secretaries of the two countries scheduled in May.

“These violations, the loss of life and property, it is a bad omen for peace in the subcontinent,” he said.

Mr Asif said that Prime Minister Sharif made “a great gesture of peace and goodwill” by visiting New Delhi to attend the inauguration of his Indian counterpart earlier this year.

The prime minister did so because “he believes there are benefits in peace for the common people of the subcontinent and that it creates an environment for meeting their basic needs.”

The defence minister pointed out that both India and Pakistan were nuclear states and must behave responsibly.

“What Indians are doing is not befitting to a nuclear state. It is against the spirit of democracy and it does not suit a big economic power,” he said. “They must behave like the way they are required to.”

Asked if the PM’s UNGA speech, in which he raised the Kashmir issue, had upset the Indians, the defence minister said Mr Sharif had only reiterated Pakistan’s stated position for the last 67 years. The speech also highlighted the prime minister’s commitment to the Kashmir cause, he added.

“We have not said anything beyond our stated position and whatever the PM said was in accordance with UN resolutions on Kashmir.”

Asked if this war-mongering would soon end and good sense would prevail, Mr Asif said: “We hope that this is a temporary phase. It will fizzle out and we will return to more constructive measure for building peace.”

Talking about the dangers of an India-Pakistan dispute flaring into a nuclear conflict, Mr Asif said: “There must be a realisation, on the part of the Indian government, that it becomes incumbent upon states possessing nuclear weapons to demonstrate responsibility and caution.”

In the earlier statement issued by his office, the minister said that Pakistan did not want the situation on the borders of two nuclear neighbours to escalate into a confrontation.

“India must demonstrate caution and behave with responsibility,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

KP challenged OGDCL sale with ‘unclean hands’: centre

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Accusing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of approaching the Peshawar High Court (PHC) “with unclean hands” for the resolution of a dispute, the federal government on Thursday rushed an appeal, challenging the high court’s Oct 3 interim order staying privatisation of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL).

Realising the urgency of the matter, the appeal will be taken up on Friday by a two-judge Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

Know more: High court stays imminent sale of OGDCL shares

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) as well as the Privatisation Commission (PC) had decided to put 10 per cent or 322 million ordinary shares of the government in OGDCL on sale for international and domestic investors on Oct 3, 2013 and Jan 8-9, 2014 respectively. Before the decision, the PC’s board, on April 22, 2014, had even approved the appointment of a consortium consisting of Messers Merrill Lynch International, Citigroup and KASB Bank to act as financial advisers for the sale.

But the decision was challenged by the KP government before the PHC, and a division bench of the court stayed the federal government’s decision on Oct 3.

Also read: OGDCL earns record Rs124bn in FY14

Now, the federal government through a petition jointly submitted by the petroleum secretary, OGDCL and the PC, has asked the apex court to suspend the high court’s interim order.

The appeal deplored that the KP government, while challenging the privatisation process, concealed important facts with mala fide intent and thus invoked the discretionary jurisdiction of the high court “with unclean hands”, especially when it was not an aggrieved party.

Therefore, the KP government was not entitled to any discretionary relief, the appeal urged while highlighting that the provincial government was legally obliged to implead the federal government as a party, which it did not, in the first litigation before the high court. This was necessary since the original decision was made by the federal cabinet.

The appeal reminded the apex court that the constitutional change brought about by the 18th Amendment in Article 172 of the Constitution was prospective having no bearing upon the existing commitments and obligations. The constitutional provision suggests that any property without any rightful ownership of a property will vest in the government of the province where it is located as well as the federal government.

The federal government’s interest in exploration and production through OGDCL was created much earlier to the 18th Amendment and it is protected under the existing commitments and obligations as provided in Article 172(3) of the Constitution, the appeal explained.

It contended that Article 172 uses the expression “jointly vested” and explained that vesting of natural resources in the respective provinces and the federal government was in fact a public trust. Those resources belong to the people of entire Pakistan.

The KP government’s challenge before the high court, the appeal argued, was totally misconceived and based on an incorrect interpretation of Article 172 of the Constitution, and the high court should not have ventured to enter into this political thicket by passing the stay order.

Know more: Workers threaten to disrupt oil, gas supplies if OGDC privatised

Likewise, the KP government, in its challenge before the high court, levelled false allegations of corruption and malpractices against a large number of institutions, including the federal government, the appeal argued.

Denying vehemently the allegations of corruption levelled by KP government, the appeal pleaded that those allegations were pure questions of fact and could not be decided by the high court in the exercise of its constitutional jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

10 civilians killed in 3 days of Indian firing

Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: Tensions between Pakistan and India simmered over Eid holidays as clashes along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary (WB) left 10 people dead on the Pakistani side.

ISLAMABAD: Tensions between Pakistan and India simmered over Eid holidays as clashes along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary (WB) left 10 people dead on the Pakistani side.

The clashes that started on Sunday in the Jandrot sector spread to most of the sectors along the LoC and WB by Wednesday evening and sporadic exchanges of fire were taking place.

The intensity of skirmishes, which were taking place all along the LoC and WB, was unprecedented, according to a military official.

The worst-affected sectors were Harpal, Dhamala and Charwah along the WB and Jandrot (Kotli), Hot Spring (Bagh) and Beduri (Rawalakot).

“During the past three days Indian troops repeatedly resorted to unprovoked firing all along the WB and LoC, which has resulted in the death of 10 Pakistani citizens and injuries to another 40,” a military spokesman said.

Nine of the 10 were killed in areas along the WB and three of the injured were said to be in critical condition.

The spokesman said Pakistani troops responded “befittingly” to the Indian violations. “Fire coming from across LoC or WB is being met with an effective response.”

The casualty figure on the Indian side was said to be eight.

“The prime minister has convened a meeting of the National Security Committee on Friday, Oct 10, to discuss the recent ceasefire violations by India at the Line of Control and Working Boundary,” a Foreign Office statement said.

“The government of Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the government of India through diplomatic channels and called for restraining its forces from constant violation of the ceasefire. This was the sixth violation, occurring on a daily basis since Oct 1. Indian forces violated from Akhnur, Dawar, Gulmerg, Jammu, Dawar and lastly, from Charwah sectors,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said.

The issue was raised with the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan and a visit of the observers to the affected areas was being arranged.

Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said in a statement: “Pakistan government has been exercising utmost restraint and responsibility… Unfortunately, all our efforts to secure peace and tranquillity on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary have elicited no cooperation from the Indian side.”

Meanwhile, in India where Pakistan is blamed for starting the clashes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reported to have given a free hand to his National Security team and military to aggressively respond to the violations.

Pakistan and India had on Nov 25, 2003, agreed to observe ceasefire along all areas of WB, LoC and the Actual Ground Position Line in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ceasefire accord was by and large observed by both sides for several years. However, Pakistan military says, Indian hostility has gradually increased since 2010 making lives of civil population living in closer vicinity of the LoC and WB difficult.

Military officials say the escalation along the LoC is according to a well thought out and deliberate plan. Indian troops committed 86 ceasefire violations in 2011, 230 next year and 414 last year. According to military figures, Indians have resorted to unprovoked firing for about 224 times on both LoC and WB and killed 13 people on the Pakistani side this year.

Some find the violations along the WB perplexing because the boundary in the region is non-controversial. Incidents of violations by the Indian side along the WB this year have been 42.

Munawar Bhatti, a former additional secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs, said Indians treated WB, which separates disputed (Indian administered) Kashmir from Pakistan territory as the international boundary since 1971.

DGMOs of both countries met in December last year, which witnessed the highest number of violations since the 2003 accord, to resolve the issue of increasing ceasefire violations. A decline in ceasefire violations by Indian side was observed after the meeting.

But, military officials say, the calm on LoC and WB did not last for more than six months. Indians restarted unprovoked firing and shelling in June this year except for a brief lull last month due to floods in both parts of Kashmir.

Mr Bhatti said recent upsurge in skirmishes along the LoC and WB was linked to upcoming elections in Indian occupied Kashmir.

“The violations and the accompanying hostile statements by Indian leadership is aimed at motivating the support base before the elections,” he said, adding that the expected delay in polls in Kashmir would provide more time to the Indian side to hype up sentiments.

The BJP government is looking at winning a majority in the Kashmir assembly so that it could fulfil its manifesto pledge of revoking the special status given to Kashmir under Indian constitution’s Article 370, Mr Bhatti said.

An Indian journalist, asking not to be named, said elections in Haryana and Maharashtra were equally important for BJP for which Mr Modi is trying to sound tough.

Chairman of the Senate Defence Committee Mushahid Hussain too believes that the hard line adopted by the BJP government towards Pakistan, including the ceasefire violations, are meant to “shape the elections in Kashmir” by appealing to Hindu extremists through Pakistan bashing.

BJP government’s hard-line on Pakistan is evident from cancellation of foreign secretaries talks in August; tough statements by Prime Minister Modi and Indian Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag; tough stance on terrorism during US visit; and increased ceasefire violations.

Senator Mushahid fears that India-Pakistan ties normalisation would be on hold for some time now.

Defence analysts believe that violations by India are meant to blame Pakistan for infiltration and threat emanating for India from non-state actors from within Pakistan. At the same time, they say, Indians through this move can widen the wedge between Pakistan civilian and military leadership by promoting Pakistan Army as a violator of LoC sanctity and a hurdle in India-Pakistan trade ventures. This aspect is particularly important in the context of strained civil-military ties.

Our Correspondents add from Sialkot and Muzaffarabad: Nine civilians, including three of a family and two women, were killed and more than 33 others, including children and women, were injured in unprovoked shelling by the Indian Border Security Forces on villages of Bajra Garhi, Charwah, Meraajkey, Harpal, Sucheetgarh, Chaprar and Bajwat during Eid days.

The residents of these villages, along with their livestock and other belongings, have moved to safe places.

A woman was killed and at least five civilians were injured in Azad Kashmir by Indian shelling, officials said.

Razia Bibi, 19, was injured on Tuesday night in Darra Sher Khan village of Poonch district, police official Navid Kabir said. Later she died on way to a health facility in the neighbouring Kotli district.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Toxic liquor claims 23 lives in Karachi

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

KARACHI: Twenty-three people, mostly young men, died and 22 others were admitted to hospital in a critical condition after they consumed home-made toxic liquor in different parts of Karachi during Eid holidays, officials said on Wednesday.

Sindh Excise and Taxation Minister Gayan Chand Asrani suspended Karachi’s excise director for having failed to keep check on the illegal business and city police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo appointed DIG east to investigate the matter within three days.

The DIG suspended SHO Sharafi Goth where most of the liquor production facilities were spotted.

“We have identified a few spots and people as well who are responsible for that toxic liquor supply,” said DIG east Munir Sheikh.

“Initial findings have convinced us that there are more than one production facility and distributor involved in this particular product. We have identified a few people behind the tragedy and hope to get them very soon.”

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Diamer-Bhasha ‘smartest choice’ for Pakistan: US

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: US officials and investors pledged support for the 4,500MW Diamer-Bhasha dam on Wednesday, calling it Pakistan’s “smartest choice” for economic development.

WASHINGTON: US officials and investors pledged support for the 4,500MW Diamer-Bhasha dam on Wednesday, calling it Pakistan’s “smartest choice” for economic development.

The remarks, made at a one-day conference on the dam, encouraged Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to say that Pakistan would soon overcome its energy problem.

“We have demonstrated our commitment, have acquired land and done the preliminary work,” he said. “The investors should come forward with the confidence that it’s a win-win situation for them.”

Know more: Marketing Diamer-Bhasha dam

Later, briefing the Pakistani media, Pakistan’s Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani said the project would recover its cost in eight years and “start giving dividends”.

“More than 30 years in the making, the Diamer-Bhasha dam has the potential to accelerate broad-based economic growth across Pakistan,” said USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah.

“By convening this meeting, we hope to unlock opportunities for US businesses and investors, which will help make the dam a reality.”

“Investment in Diamer-Bhasha dam is the smartest choice for Pakistan,” said Daniel Feldman, US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mr Feldman assured more than 120 investors and business representatives that the White House and the State Department were committed to backing Pakistan’s efforts for meeting its economic and energy needs.

The finance minister told the investors: “We will offer whatever facilities you need because we need both the dams, Bhasha and Dasu.”

Ambassador Jilani gave a brief outline of the two projects.

Diamer-Bhasha will produce 4500 MW of electricity. It can also bring about “a revolution in agriculture,” by storing 8.1 MAF of water. It can water almost 30 million acres of land and can mitigate the adverse affects of floods.

It will also support other existing projects and enhance the life of Tarbela dam by 35 years.

The government has not only acquired land for the project but also has compensated those who would be displaced.

The total number of people affected by this project will be less than those affected by the Tarbela and Mangla dams.

The government has already done a study on possible environmental and social impact of the dam while the United States will do another study.

Minister for water and power Khawja Mohammed Asif, Secretary Finance, Secretary EAD and chairman WAPDA also attended the conference.

Ambassador Jilani said that although Pakistan was still trying to overcome the security problem, “security is no more a major concern for investors.”

He clarified that nobody in the international community had taken India’s objection to the project that it was being built on a disputed land – seriously.

“It’s not an issue, here in the US or anywhere else. No country can veto this project,” the ambassador said.

“This is being built within the parameters of the Indus Water treaty.”

The ambassador pointed out that a large chunk of the $12 billion the World Bank gave for economic development in Pakistan was for the energy sector.

The government had already spent $400 million on the project, had established an authority, built a residential colony for the workers and was now working on three model villages for those who would be displaced.

“We are serious about this project and trying to complete it within the stipulated period,” he said.

At another briefing to the media, US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Olson, said that while “everyone acknowledges challenges in the security environment in Pakistan,” it would not affect this project.

“The country has had democracy for six years, there was successful transition of power and the current political debate was also within the Pakistani constitution,” said the Ambassador when asked if Imran Khan’s sit-in could also have an impact on the project.

“We are supporters of the constitution, democracy and the rule of law.”

David Larry Sampler, who heads the Pakistan and Afghanistan section of USAID, said the investors were aware of “ups and downs of Pakistani politics” and had done business in other similar places.

Mr Sampler also disagreed with the suggestion that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan could also affect the Bhasha dam project.

“The US is not exiting from Afghanistan. We will continue to be robust and engaged in Afghanistan,” he said. “Our interest in this region remains strong.

Greg Gottlieb, head of the USAID mission in Pakistan, said US investors were interested in a wide variety of energy projects as the United States continued to work with the country to help it overcome its energy deficiency.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

14,000 Fata youths to be inducted into army: COAS

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR: Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif has announced a “Fata youth package” under which 14,000 youths from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas will be inducted into the army over five years.

The army chief made the announcement during a visit to a camp for internally displaced persons in Frontier Region Bakakhel.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that before visiting the camp, Gen Raheel offered Eid prayers with troops in Wana, South Waziristan, and then went to Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, to meet troops.

He expressed satisfaction over the progress made in the Zarb-i-Azb military operation.

Commander 11th Corps Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman received the army chief in Wana.

An area of over 80 kilometres of the volatile tribal agency, including Miramshah and Mirali, has been cleared of militants. Over half a million people have left their homes and moved to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Unveiling the package, Gen Raheel said Fata youths would be brought to the mainstream to utilise their potential. Of the 14,000 youths, he said, 1,000 would be inducted into the army in six months.

He said 1,500 children from Fata would get free education in army public schools and colleges. Seats have been reserved in cadet colleges for Fata students.

To enhance their technical skills and make them vibrant citizens, Fata youths, especially IDPs, would be trained in technical institutes being run by the army in all major cantonments. Gen Raheel said that arrangements were also being made for overseas employment of the youth from Fata.

He expressed the hope that development and prosperity in Fata would open avenues for the local people to make contribution to a peaceful and progressive Pakistan.

Commenting on the package, retired Brig Mohammad Saad said it was a symbolic step taken by the army which was working hard to restore and rehabilitate tribal areas. He was of the opinion that it was actually the job of the political government to take such steps to bring about a positive change in the lives of tribal people.

During the Ziaul Haq regime, the procedure for induction into the army was changed and people were inducted on provincial basis.

“The people of Fata started going to the Middle East for jobs, instead of applying to the army because of the change in rules,” he said. He stressed the need for initiating economic activities in the poverty-stricken tribal region.

During his interaction with troops, the army chief praised their spirit and commitment to sustaining the operation with a remarkable degree of success and said that with the level of determination demonstrated by the army and citizens, terrorism would be eradicated from the country.

He paid tribute to the martyrs and the wounded who rendered sacrifices for the defence of the country.

Meanwhile, the ISPR said the army had dispatched four tons of meat for the IDPs on Wednesday. The meat donated by the people of Islamabad and Rawalpindi was sent to Bannu after proper processing.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

22 die in drone attacks

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR: In a surprise escalation, US drones carried out four missile attacks in different areas of North Waziristan Agency since Monday, killing at least 22 suspected militants and wounding several others, official sources said.

Drones hit targets in Shawal and Dattakhel areas of the conflict-stricken tribal agency where Pakistani forces have been carrying out air and ground strikes against local and foreign militants.

A day before drone strikes, Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif visited North and South Waziristan Agencies where he expressed satisfaction over the gains Operation Zarb-i-Azb has made since it started in June.

US drones have carried out 10 attacks in North Waziristan since the beginning of the military operation in the area.

Sources said that remote-controlled planes targeted compounds and vehicles in Shawal and Dattakhel areas adjoining the Afghan border.

Attacks were carried out in Koonr Ghar in Shawal on Tuesday.

The sources said that a compound owned by a tribesman, Mustaqeem, was attacked in which six people were killed and four injured. Four missiles were fired at the compound.

An hour later, two missiles were fired at a target on a hilltop in Dattakhel area, killing three people and injuring five.

On Monday, the house of a tribesman, Habibullah, in Shawal was attacked. The strike left five people dead and six others wounded.

Unmanned planes fired two missiles at a house in Mangrati area of Shawal subdivision on Monday night. Eight people died and several others suffered wounds in the strike which also destroyed a car parked in the courtyard.

The reports could not be verified through independent sources as media has no access to the area.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Bilawal — PPP’s last hope in Punjab?

Atika Rehman

KARACHI: As Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari prepares to take political flight, party officials say the young leader will be repositioned to Lahore to try his hand at redressing the bruised Punjab chapter of the party.

“He will be spending considerable time in Lahore,” a party source close to Bilawal told Dawn.

“As a leader, he wants to revive and reorganise the party.” He added that Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari might accompany his son on some days, but Bilawal would be mostly reaching out to local office-bearers on his own.

Know more: Bilawal apologises to party workers for unexplained mistakes

“He wants to know his people,” the PPP official added. “Zardari did not have time to go to Punjab. Bilawal now has the time to do that.”

For security reasons, he did not disclose where Bilawal would be residing, although it is expected that the chairman will be working out of the Lahore Bilawal House.

With the PPP bearing the brunt of what is dubbed the ‘PML-N friendship alliance’ in the ongoing political crisis, the Punjab leadership of the party feels the chairman needs to focus attention on ignored and disgruntled workers in the country’s most important province.

PPP leader and former Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan says Bilawal’s move to Lahore is the party’s last-ditch endeavour to breathe life into the ailing Punjab chapter.

“The elders of PPP as well as the youth feel Bilawal is the only hope for them. If he does not break the status quo and challenge policies of the PML-N, there will be a disaster in Punjab,” she told Dawn.

She added that no party could grow or be sustained without a strong presence in Punjab which she said was the “backbone province” for remaining politically relevant.

“PML-N has always focused on this specific area, never on Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan… always on this specific political platform because this is the trendsetter province.”

Punjab was neglected by the PPP in the recent past, she admitted. “I met Zardari yesterday and pleaded the case of the people of Punjab. Only those political parties will occupy space in Punjab who will pursue aggressive politics. Punjab is not the place to teach morals or democracy — if you notice only movies based on themes of aggression and revenge are a hit. Characters like Maula Jatt and Nurie Natt have mass appeal.”

She also said that the PML-N had succeeded as an influence in the province because it had successfully cultivated its bureaucratic structure for political power.

When asked how 26-year-old Bilawal will fare in unchartered political territory like Punjab, having been exposed partially only to Karachi politics, she said, “Even Benazir Bhutto was from Karachi. It is not that he[Bilawal] is not aware of the political structure of Punjab. His mother, his genes and his blood have sensitised him about the geo-political situation of Punjab. Even though it is a big challenge to divert that political clout in his favour, I am sure he is capable of tackling this.”

“If Bilawal is mentally prepared that he has to really create his own space and identity in the future of the coming political landscape, he has to separate himself from the PML-N friendship alliance. It is not a sellable alliance,” Ms Awan said.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Zardari in surprise meeting with Chaudhrys

Amjad Mahmood

LAHORE: PPP Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari continued his political meetings for the third day here on Sunday. The most surprising engagement of Mr Zardari was a luncheon meeting at Bilawal House with leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

Matters relating to the Islamabad sit-in and possibility of mid-term elections came under discussion.

“We discussed all current issues, including mid-term polls, and considered various aspects of the national political scenario,” PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told reporters after the meeting.

Know more: Zardari refuses to take on PML-N

“Mr Zardari wants continuation of the democratic process and that there should be no unconstitutional or undemocratic change in the system. We told him that we are also in favour of continuation of the political process,” Chaudhry Shujaat said.

The PPP leader, he said, wanted political forces to work together to save the system.

The PML-Q has been actively supporting and participating in the sit-ins and some allege that the Chaudhry brothers were behind the so-called London plan.

Chaudhry Shujaat said everyone, including the PPP leadership, was worried about the political situation because the economy was being adversely affected and the working class was the worst victim.

Answering a question about the possibility of mid-term elections in near future, he said he could not say anything at the moment, but added that he saw resolution of the current political crisis soon.

In the evening, Mr Zardari met at the Defence residence of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani a group of PPP leaders, particularly those who are opposed to the policy of ‘friendly opposition’ being pursued by the party leadership.

However, Mr Gilani said it was a meeting between two families and had nothing to do with politics.

Mr Zardari, who had arrived in Punjab on Friday, will celebrate Eidul Azha in Lahore.

A PPP leader who did not want to be named said the former president had come to Lahore with the main objective of ensuring maximum participation from Punjab in the Oct 18 Karachi public meeting to be addressed by Bilawal Bhutto.

The massive gathering attracted by the PTI at its recent meetings in Punjab and one in Karachi seems to have unnerved the PPP leadership, particularly Mr Zardari who, according to the PPP leader, does not want to see his son belittled in the number game.

Mr Zardari, he said, aspired to play the role of a statesman and hand over the party’s charge to his son.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Fearing crackdown, Hong Kong protesters pulling back

Reuters

HONG KONG: Pro-democracy protesters remained in a tense stalemate with the Hong Kong government late on Sunday after authorities warned they were determined to get the Asian financial hub back to work after more than a week of unrest.

Some protesters left the Mong Kok area of the city, pulling back from the scene of recent clashes with those who back the pro-Beijing government. But many hundreds more remained, disputing reports on social media that their leaders had called for them to leave.

Also read: Hong Kong protesters defy authorities, hold huge peace rally

“We’re afraid there may be a police crackdown, so we came here to support. The more people we have, the harder it is for the police to clear (the area),” said Lester Leung, 25, who said he was ready to stay on the streets all night.

Fearing a crackdown as city leaders have called for the streets to be cleared so that businesses, schools and civil servants could resume work on Monday, other protesters who have paralysed parts of the former British colony with mass sit-ins also pulled back from outside Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s office.

By late Sunday evening, reporters estimated around 4,000 protesters had gathered in Admiralty, the main area they have occupied over the past week at the heart of the government district — far fewer than those who rallied there the previous day.

Over the past week, tens of thousands of protesters have demanded that Leung step down and that China allow them the right to vote for a leader of their choice in 2017 elections.

Beijing is fearful that calls for democracy in Hong Kong could spread to the mainland. The Communist Party leadership has dismissed the protests as illegal, but appears to have left it to Leung and his government to find a solution.

In Mong Kok, a gritty, working class neighbourhood where scuffles broke out between protesters and supporters of the government over the weekend, prompting police to use pepper spray and batons, some in the pro-democracy camp mixed defiance with pragmatism.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Seven killed in Karachi ‘encounter’

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

KARACHI: Seven militants, suspected to be linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, were shot dead in a reported encounter with police in Sohrab Goth area on Sunday afternoon.

KARACHI: Seven militants, suspected to be linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, were shot dead in a reported encounter with police in Sohrab Goth area on Sunday afternoon.

According to Additional Inspector General Ghulam Qadir Thebo, three of the suspects killed in the exchange of fire were involved in a suicide attack in which SP Chaudhry Aslam of the Crime Investigation Department was killed on Jan 9.

One of them was the mastermind, the other did reconnaissance of the route of the police officer and the third prepared explosives-laden vehicle used in the attack.

Amin, a brother of the alleged suicide bomber Usman, was among those killed in the encounter, Malir SSP Rao Anwar said.

Police sources said that Amin was also suspected of having arranged an explosives-laden vehicle used in a recent attack on the Special Investigation Unit’s Farooq Awan in which the SSP was injured and two passersby were killed.

In the evening, four policemen and five other people were injured in a roadside bomb blast in the city’s Orangi Town area.

An improvised explosive device attached to a parked motorcycle was detonated near a police post in Frontier Colony, an official said.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Three bodies with bullet wounds found in Jhal Magsi

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

DERA MURAD JAMALI: Three bullet-riddled bodies were found on Sunday in Jhal Magsi district of Balochistan.

DERA MURAD JAMALI: Three bullet-riddled bodies were found on Sunday in Jhal Magsi district of Balochistan.

Levies force shifted the bodies to the district hospital.

“The bodies are in bad shape because they are at least one week old,” Arbab Magsi, Tehsildar of Jhal Magsi, told Dawn.

The bodies were found in an area close to the Qambar-Shahdadkot district of Sindh.

Also read: ‘Security agencies have failed to change ground realities in Balochistan’

Mr Magsi said the deceased could not be identified, but there were reports that they belonged to the Jamali tribe.

He said two families of the tribe lived in the mountainous area of Qambar-Shahdadkot district.

He said there were reports that members of the two families fought over some dispute in which three men belonging to one family were killed. One of the families had since left the area, he added.

“We are investigating and the situation will be clear soon,” Mr Magsi said.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Kidnapped Balochistan ANP leader returns

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR: Arbab Abdul Zahir Kasi, a senior leader of the Awami National Party kidnapped in Quetta about a year ago, was set free here on Sunday.

PESHAWAR: Arbab Abdul Zahir Kasi, a senior leader of the Awami National Party kidnapped in Quetta about a year ago, was set free here on Sunday.

He proceeded to Islamabad after his release.

ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said he came to know about the development when Mr Kasi had reached Islamabad. “We spoke with him briefly,” he added.

Mr Kasi had been kidnapped from Patel Road in Quetta on Oct 23 last year when he was going to his relatives’ home. Party sources said he would soon fly to Quetta.

According to them, tribal elders and other people had been trying for his release but it was unclear whether he had been recovered by security personnel or set free by the kidnappers. It is also not known if any ransom had been paid.

“Only Mr Kasi can tell us the whole story, the ordeal he underwent and how his release came about,” an ANP leader said.

He is the second prominent person to secure freedom after having been kidnapped reportedly by militants.

The Islamia College University’s Vice Chancellor Muhammad Ajmal Khan was released on Aug 28 after remaining in Taliban’s captivity for four years. Officials have not disclosed details about his release.

But the Taliban claimed that the vice chancellor had been released in exchange for the freedom of their three leaders.

The Taliban are also suspected of holding Ali Gillani, son of former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, and Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

Saleem Shahid adds from Quetta: The kidnappers had demanded a huge amount of money for the release of Mr Kasi but the ANP leader is reported to have directed his family and elders of his tribe not to pay any ransom.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

US drone kills five in SWA

AFP

PESHAWAR: A US drone strike on Sunday killed at least five suspected militants in South Waziristan Agency near the Afghan border, officials said.

PESHAWAR: A US drone strike on Sunday killed at least five suspected militants in South Waziristan Agency near the Afghan border, officials said.

The attack happened in the Kundghar area of Shawal district in the tribal region which is considered a stronghold of the Taliban militants.

“A US drone fired two missiles targeting a centre run by Uzbek rebels, killing five militants,” a senior Pakistani security official said.

Another security official confirmed the attack and casualties but said the identity of those killed in the strike was not immediately known.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Qadri invites people of twin cities to Eid prayers at sit-in

Irfan Haider

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri said that his party would distribute sacrificial meat among people affected by recent floods and persons displaced by the army operation in North Waziristan.

Addressing the participants of his party’s sit-in here on Sunday, Dr Qadri said it would be the first and perhaps the last Eid in the country’s history celebrated at the Constitution Avenue.

Dr Qadri invited the people of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to offer Eid prayers at the sit-in.

Also read: PTI, PAT urged to allow workers to celebrate Eid with families

“I invite the residents of the twin cities, including army personnel, lawyers, media representatives, members of civil society and police officials, to offer Eid prayers along with me at 8am,” he said.

A few animals would be sacrificed ‘symbolically’ at the Constitution Avenue and hundreds of others at Dhoke Kala Khan, near the expressway, because “we don’t want to create unhygienic conditions at the Constitution Avenue”, he said.

“We will bring cooked meat for the participants of the sit-in, while women supporters will prepare dishes at the venue,” he said.

Although the PAT chief has allowed thousands of his followers to celebrate Eid with families in their native towns, hundreds of people belonging to several districts stayed at the Constitution Avenue to celebrate the festival there.

Some PAT supporters said it was not easy for them to decide to celebrate Eid in such difficult circumstances but it would be a memorable Eid for them.

“We are struggling to create awareness among the masses about their rights and we are hopeful that our struggle will make a major difference in the next elections,” they said.

Addressing his supporters, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan reiterated that he would not leave the sit-in till the prime minister resigned.

“Mian Sahib, you can take some more time, a month or two, but eventually you have to resign because the nation is not ready to accept a ‘fake prime minister’ who got himself elected through massive rigging in last year’s elections,” he said.

He announced to offer Eid prayers behind Dr Qadri.

Earlier, PPP Senator Rehman Malik, who is a member of the parliamentary jirga mediating between the government and the protesting parties, told reporters after meeting the PAT chief that the jirga members would meet the prime minister to discuss “developments” in the dialogue process.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

AJK civilian injured in Indian shelling

The Newspaper’s Staff Correspondent

MUZAFFARABAD: A civilian was wounded in Azad Jammu and Kashmir by Indian shelling on Sunday.

MUZAFFARABAD: A civilian was wounded in Azad Jammu and Kashmir by Indian shelling on Sunday.

Indian and Pakistani troops traded ‘heavy’ fire along the Line of Control from 4am to 8am in the Battal sector in Poonch district, with the former targeting a newly-established military post in Darra Sher Khan village, a police official told this correspondent on phone from the area.

“Indian troops used heavy weapons… The shelling was intense, rather more than intense,” he said, adding that Pakistani troops had effectively responded.

The official said that a 14-year old boy was injured after a fragment of a shell hit him in the head. He was taken to a hospital in the neighbouring Kotli district.

An ISPR statement said that the Indian troops violated the LoC ceasefire on Sunday morning, by resorting to ‘unprovoked firing’ with mortars and heavy weapons in Poonch and Kotli.

Pakistani troops appropriately responded to the firing, it added.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Govt delays convening of NA, Senate sessions

Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: The government plans to convene sessions of the two houses of parliament in the third week of the current month.

ISLAMABAD: The government plans to convene sessions of the two houses of parliament in the third week of the current month.

Sources told Dawn that the government wanted to convene the sessions soon after Eidul Azha but had to delay it because of foreign visits of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari.

Mr Ayaz Sadiq went to Cameroon on Sunday morning to attend the 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) whereas Mr Bokhari will represent Pakistan at the 131st Assembly of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) to be held in Geneva from Oct 12 to 16.

The sources said that because of the prevailing political crisis and the issue relating to resignation of the protesting PTI legislators, the NA speaker could not join the parliamentary delegation which had left for Cameroon on Thursday.

An official of the National Assembly Secretariat said the speaker was due to return on Oct 11, but added that there was a possibility that the speaker might cut his visit short and return a day earlier.

The official said the visit was important because Pakistan would be hosting the next year’s CPC.

The Senate chairman will lead a 12-member delegation to the IPU assembly in Switzerland. It includes Leader of Opposition in the Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, PPP’s parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani, ANP’s Abdul Nabi Bangash, PML-N’s Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, former minister and MNA Ghaus Bakhsh Mahar and Raza Hayat Hiraj.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Rabbani, who was elected to the IPU’s Executive Committee last year, said that after the IPU assembly, the committee would meet on Oct 16 to review a draft proposal prepared by a sub-committee about IPU’s future relationship with the United Nations.

He said the executive committee would discuss the document keeping in mind that independence of the IPU should not be affected by its relations with the UN.

Mr Rabbani, who is also PPP’s deputy secretary general, said he would also represent his party at a conference of the Socialist International which also is scheduled to be held in Geneva.

The Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of social democratic, socialist and labour parties. Established in 1951 in Frankfurt, the organisation has 168 political parties as its members. The PPP is the only member of the organisation from Pakistan.

With its secretariat in London, the Socialist International convenes meetings and conferences and issues statements and press releases.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Suicide attack kills six in Quetta

Saleem Shahid

QUETTA: Six people, a woman and a child of Hazara Shia community among them, were killed and at least 24 others injured in a suicide attack here on Saturday night.

QUETTA: Six people, a woman and a child of Hazara Shia community among them, were killed and at least 24 others injured in a suicide attack here on Saturday night.

It was the second bomb attack to have hit the city in hours. Earlier in the morning, a pick-up bomb blast on Spiny Road, apparently aimed at a police vehicle, left seven people wounded.

“It was a suicide attack,” IGP Balochistan Muhammad Amlish said about Saturday night’s incident, adding the suicide attacker blew himself up in Aliabad area of Hazara Town.

Sources said there was tight security in and around Hazara Town. Yet the suicide attacker managed to enter the Aliabad area and detonated his explosive vest at a square of the main market.

The powerful blast killed three people on the spot and injured over two dozen others. The dead and the injured were taken to the Bolan Medical College (BMC) Hospital and Combined Military Hospital (CMH). Two of the injured died in the hospital.

“Six people have been killed and 27 others, including six children, were injured in the suicide attack,” Capital City Police Officer Abdul Razzaq Cheema said, adding that the dead included one woman who succumbed to her injuries at the CMH.

However, a leader of the Hazara Democratic Party, Bostan Ali, said that two women had been killed in the attack. A child also succumbed to his injuries at the CMH late in the night, he added.

Sources said a large number of people were busy in Eid shopping in Aliabad when the suicide attack took place.

Law-enforcement agencies personnel cordoned off the area after the explosion and started investigation. It was the fourth suicide blast to have hit Hazara Town over the past two years.

The head of the attacker was recovered from a nearby girls’ school and other body parts were found at the place of the attack. Police shifted them to the hospital.

The blast was so powerful that it was heard in the entire city, creating panic among citizens. Shops were closed.

Shia organisations and the Hazara Democratic Party condemned the attack and announced seven days of mourning.

The blast that occurred at Spiny Road in the morning left seven people injured.

“A Suzuki pick-up was used for the blast,” police said, adding that a police officer was passing through the area when the vehicle carrying the explosives was detonated.

DSP Mohammad Naeem and his guards escaped unhurt in the blast which badly damaged his vehicle.

Seven people, who were injured in the blast, were admitted to the BMC hospital.

A spokesman for the banned Baloch United Army, Mureed Baloch, calling from an unknown location, told mediapersons that his group was responsible for the bomb blast.

However, no one claimed responsibility for the suicide attack till late night.

Reuters adds: Last year, members of Quetta’s Hazara Shia community staged a sit-in in protest at their lack of protection, refusing to bury the bodies of people killed in a bomb blast in a Shia commercial area of the city.

The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group has carried out many gun-and-bomb attacks on Hazaras in the past.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Six die in blast at Kohat taxi stand

Abdul Sami Paracha

KOHAT: Six people were killed and 17 others injured in a remote-controlled blast at a taxi stand here on Saturday, officials said.

KOHAT: Six people were killed and 17 others injured in a remote-controlled blast at a taxi stand here on Saturday, officials said.

An improvised explosive device containing ball bearings and weighing about three kilograms was kept in a ghee tin, they said, adding that terrorists left the tin near a wall of the taxi stand at Peshawar Mor.

The Suzuki pick-up stand is mainly used by residents of Shia-dominated villages along the Hangu Road.

The blast occurred at around 11am, killing six people and injuring 17 others. The bodies and the injured were taken to the nearby Liaquat Memorial Hospital.

Three vehicles parked at the stand were damaged by the impact of the explosion and traffic on Hangu Road and Peshawar Road remained suspended for quite some time.

Police cordoned off the scene of the explosion and called in the bomb disposal squad personnel who inspected the devastation and confirmed the IED had been planted in the ghee tin.

The local administration declared emergency at all hospitals in Kohat after the blast.

Bodies were handed over to relatives and later buried in Ustarzai, Alizai, Kachai and Chakarkot villages.

No group claimed responsibility for the bomb explosion.

The deceased were identified as Shabbir Ali, Qambar Abbas, Mehtab Hussain, Taimoor, Syed Shahzain Hussain and Emman.

The injured were Mohammad Hussain, Sajid Fareed, Shahzia, Mudassir, Shahan Hussain, Nusrat Hussain, Hassan Jan, Amir Hamza, Tahir Ali, Said Mohammad, Roohullah, Mohammad Hussain, Qasim, Sajid Ali, Ali Ghulam Mustafa, Salma and Baz Mohammad.

The city police registered a case against unidentified terrorists under sections 302, 324 and 427 and Explosives Act and Anti-Terrorism Act.

Fourteen people were killed and 16 injured when a bomb went off at the same place on Feb 23, 2014.

AFP adds: Fazal Khaliq, head of the emergency department at Kohat’s main government hospital, confirmed the death toll.

It is the second attack on a passenger vehicle to hit northwest Pakistan in a week.

On Thursday, a bomb blast on a coach in Peshawar killed at least seven people and wounded another six.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Ramday sends legal notice to Imran

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

LAHORE: Justice (retired) Khalilur Rehman Ramday has sent a legal notice to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan for accusing him of influencing returning officers to rig last year’s general elections.

In his notice, the former judge of the Supreme Court has refuted the allegation and asked Mr Khan to tender an unconditional apology within two weeks or face both civil and criminal proceedings in Pakistani as well as British courts.

On Aug 11, Mr Khan had accused Justice Ramday of setting up an election cell at his home in collusion with former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to ensure victory of the PML-N in the polls.

He also alleged that the PML-N, after coming to power, rewarded Justice Ramday by appointing his son as advocate general of Punjab and getting his niece elected to the National Assembly on a reserved seat.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Zardari refuses to take on PML-N

Zulqernain Tahir

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has rejected some party leaders’ suggestion that the party should abandon its support to the PML-N as it was affecting its popularity in Punjab. Mr Zardari said he was at present more interested in protecting democracy than party politics because the nation was going through testing times.

“We are supporting the PML-N to protect democratic system. I don’t agree that our policy of reconciliation is damaging the PPP, particularly in Punjab,” he told the party’s office-bearers from southern Punjab and Lahore at a meeting in Bilawal House on Saturday.

Some of the participants had expressed concern over the PPP’s policy of “overtly” supporting the PML-N government. A participant told Dawn that some office-bearers spoke their mind freely before Mr Zardari, saying the party’s reconciliation policy was costing it dearly in Punjab.

“The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is filling the vacuum left by the PPP. We are conceding space to the PTI. We should start openly taking on the PML-N government and its leadership on issues of public importance and play the role of an active opposition,” an office-bearer was quoted as saying.

Mr Zardari listened to their concerns, but told the office-bearers: “This is no time for such politics. The PPP will not compromise on democracy and supremacy of the constitution and parliament.”

He said he would visit other parts of Punjab soon to strengthen the PPP in the province. It was no more a stronghold of the PML-N as people were ready to take to the streets in protest against its policies, he agreed with the workers..

Mr Zaradri deplored the defection of Malik Aamir Dogar, secretary general of the PPP’s south Punjab chapter. “The late father of Mr Dogar had told him that he should never quit the PPP, but he did not follow his advice,” he said.

He said it was not good to put one’s own or the party’s interest above the country’s .

“They criticise our children who are Pakistani citizens though theirs are foreign nationals,” he said in a veiled reference to Imran Khan.

He said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had decided to address a rally to be held in Karachi on Oct 18 to observe the seventh anniversary of the Karsaz tragedy. PPP workers from across the country will participate.

“Except the PPP which had a rich history of political struggle and sacrifices, all other political parties are a product of the establishment,” Mr Zardari asserted.

Prominent among the participants were former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and PPP leaders Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman, Sardar Latif Khosa, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Samina Ghurki, Shaukat Basra and Faisal Mir.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Gilani said the PML-N could not fulfil its promises. “Protests and sit-ins are part of democratic process and an objection cannot be raised to them.”

Had the PML-N government adopted the Zardari style of politics, it would not have faced the problems it was confronted with, he said.

Mr Gilani said the PPP had raised voice against rigging soon after last year’s general elections but nobody supported it.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

LG polls in three provinces not possible by Nov 15: ECP

Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD: An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan said on Saturday that local government elections in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not possible by Nov 15.

ISLAMABAD: An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan said on Saturday that local government elections in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not possible by Nov 15.

The LG polls had already been held in Balochistan in December last year.

Talking to Dawn, he said the Supreme Court, in its March 19 judgement, had given five months to the federal and provincial governments to enact laws and asked the ECP to carry out delimitation in Punjab and Sindh in 45 days.

He said the federal and three provincial governments were responsible for the delay and not the ECP.

The official said the commission had endorsed a draft law sent to it by the federal government with the observation that Article 222 of the constitution, which defined responsibilities of the ECP, should also be amended. “We are still awaiting a response.”

He said the provinces had yet to carry out the legislation.

He said the ECP could start the delimitation exercise only after an amendment to Article 222 and the process would require about 180 days.

He said 110 million ballot papers were to be printed for Punjab alone and the job would take about 45 days.

He said if the LG polls were to be held in November, their schedule should be announced by the middle of October.

The ECP official said the situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was different as its law provided for delimitation by a delimitation authority and the exercise had already been carried out and notified.

He said the KP government was yet to enact the legislation and send a requisition to the commission for holding the polls.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Smoke forces evacuation of passengers from plane

Bhagwandas

KARACHI: A Dubai-bound Emirates Airlines flight was cancelled and all the 82 passengers evacuated through chutes at the Jinnah International Airport on Saturday evening after the pilot detected smoke in the aeroplane.

As soon as the Emirates Airlines flight EK609 started to push back from the terminal’s satellite, the pilot smelled smoke and immediately stopped the Airbus 320, informed the Civil Aviation Authority about the situation and asked the crew to evacuate the passengers.

The crew members immediately operated the chutes and evacuated the passengers. None of them received any serious injury while sliding down the chutes and landing on the ground.

The passengers were shifted to the terminal building.

CAA spokesman Pervez George told Dawn that fire tenders were rushed to the aircraft and soon everything was under control. He said that the pilot had only suspected smoke in the cockpit and taken precautionary measures. There was no fire.

He said the airport was not closed but some flights might have been affected.

A PIA spokesman said the airline’s flights PK306 and PK370, to Lahore and Islamabad, were slightly delayed.

Later, an Emirates spokesperson said: “Emirates flight EK609 en route from Karachi to Dubai has been cancelled due to a technical issue. After the aircraft was pushed back, crew detected smoke in the cabin. All passengers and crew have since disembarked the aircraft and have been rebooked on flight EK603 due to depart at 2330 local time.”

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Kurds resist IS advance on key Syrian town

AFP

MURSITPINAR: Kurdish fighters supported by US-led air strikes held back militants attacking a Syrian border town on Saturday.

MURSITPINAR: Kurdish fighters supported by US-led air strikes held back militants attacking a Syrian border town on Saturday.

Dozens of militants of the Islamic State (IS) group, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, were reported killed in the latest coalition raids.

The dusty Syrian town of Kobane on the Turkish border has become a key battleground between IS militants and their opponents, who include Kurdish fighters as well as air force personnel from the United States and its allies.

The US military said four air strikes hit the Kobane area overnight.

Fighting raged on Saturday as IS militants attempted to seize a strategic hilltop that would give them access to the town, activists said.

Mortar rounds pounded the town as smoke rose above it, journalists on the Turkish side of the border said.

“The resistance is continuing. The danger has not yet been overcome,” Sebahat Tuncel, a Kurdish member of Turkey’s parliament, told reporters after visiting Kobane.

Five militants were killed in American air raids near the town, as well as 30 more around Shadadi in north-eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

IS militants fired at least 80 mortar rounds on Friday into Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab.

The fighting killed at least 10 Kurdish militia members, said the Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the conflict.

But activist Mustafa Ebdi said Kurdish fighters had been buoyed by their success at holding off the assault so far, noting that the jihadists had hoped to capture the town by Saturday for the Eidul Azha festival.

“So far they have failed to enter the town,” Ebdi said.

IS began its advance towards Kobane on September 16, seeking to cement its grip over a long stretch of the border.

It has prompted a mass exodus of residents from the town and the surrounding countryside, with some 186,000 fleeing into Turkey.

In neighbouring Iraq, unidentified gunmen killed 10 soldiers and Shia-allied militiamen in two separate attacks in Diyala province northeast of the capital Baghdad.

American bombers and fighter jets also carried out five air strikes against IS in Iraq, the US military said.

Washington is leading a coalition of nations against the jihadist organisation, which has declared a “caliphate” in parts of Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily rejected comments by US Vice President Joe Biden that Turkey and others in the region had financed and armed militant organisations in Syria.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Footprints: King of the road

Saher Baloch

AS soon as a long line of people step down from a footpath near a flyover at Lalukhet Number 10 and start walking towards the main roundabout, calls of ‘Habib, Habib’ or ‘Bank Road’ can be heard amidst the sounds of horns and traffic.

The calls are not made by bus conductors but by drivers of bike-rickshaws known as Qingqis parked in a row near the traffic intersection.

Positioning myself so that my head does not bang against an oversized stereo system near the roof, I sit at the back waiting for the Qingqi to set out for Habib Bank in Karachi’s SITE industrial area. With a motorcycle attached in front and double seats at the back, there’s enough space for six people. On the two corners of the vehicle’s roof, the driver has printed his contact numbers. Flowers hang from the other side. The driver asks for Rs10 from each passenger. On seeing me, he grumbles to his munshi that he’ll earn only half of what he aims to as men won’t sit at the back now.

As the rickshaw moves, it makes a few stops at various points to look for women passengers to fill the back. Instead, there is a man who asks for permission before sitting down. Shiny Qingqis can be seen at every stop the driver makes.

The number of buses has decreased on these routes over the years, says a passenger when I ask why he doesn’t take a bus from Lalukhet. “In a Qingqi, you can ask the driver to make a stop anywhere. Also it is airy and less cramped,” says shopkeeper Sulaiman Ansari. Turning around he gives the number of buses that used to take passengers along the same route. “Some of them still do but most take longer routes for the sake of more passengers and to earn a good sum. There is Seven Star, Bilal Coach, D-11 and D-1. A-25, X-3 and X-10 go from the overhead pul now and don’t stop near underpasses,” he says. This is where the Qingqi drivers are needed, most passengers say.

As we reach Habib Bank, munshi Mohammad Shoaib gets off near the Qingqi stand to count the number of Qingqis already on the go. “We have 150 rickshaws here,” he says, squinting in the afternoon sunlight. “We earn Rs300 from each rickshaw on a daily basis. But Rs100 goes to the traffic police officer and another Rs150 from each rickshaw goes to whichever political party is strong in the area,” he says, as another man asks him not to reveal too much. He, however, says they have “no issues with the bus drivers” — which is debatable.

After a recent scuffle between Qingqi and bus drivers near Jama Cloth Market on M.A. Jinnah Road, it was decided that Qingqis would now stand near the Numaish traffic intersection and not near the bus routes.

Though in most areas they stand in a criss-cross manner, at a roundabout near Safari Park, the Qingqis are parked in a line, with each vehicle given a number with a token. As soon as I ask a driver for some details regarding the system under which Qingqis operate, he squints at my notepad and pen, and questions, “TV wali ho? Mera rickshaw bund ho jayega ab?” Then he laughs and speaks about how last year under the supervision of Additional Inspector General of traffic police Ghulam Qadir Thebo there was a crackdown on unregistered and unlicensed Qingqis. “I sold my land in my village in Multan and bought this rickshaw for Rs110,000. I’d definitely get it registered and licensed,” he argues.

Bukhari says it was commonly thought the Qingqis would operate in and around the outskirts and not within the city “to control congestion”.

Apart from the bus routes taken over by the Qingqis, there’s the issue of “unpaid compensation”. “During a strike call, which is like a weekly event in Karachi, we are targeted by mobs. For every bus that’s torched, we are given Rs200,000, whereas we buy a bus for Rs2 million. I have written multiple times to the chief minister to look for a solution to this city’s transport issues. But there’s been no response,” he says.

Making a case for Qingqis the Karachi Qingqi Rickshaw Association president Safdar Shah says: “First, we don’t travel more than 14 kilometres. Women and students find this transport most comfortable. We have given repeated calls to get us regularised and to bring us under a proper system. We don’t want the Qingqis to be a nuisance. We already have a case pending in the high court; and we’ll pursue it to the end.”

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Literature Nobel goes to French author

Reuters

STOCKHOLM: French writer Patrick Modiano won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature for works that made him “a Marcel Proust of our time” with tales often set during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War Two, the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

Relatively unknown outside of France and a media recluse, Mr Modiano’s works have centred on memory, oblivion, identity and guilt. He has written novels, children’s books and film scripts.

The academy said the award of eight million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million) was “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation”.

Little of his work is available in English but his roughly 40 works include “A Trace of Malice”, “Missing Person”, and “Honeymoon”. His latest work is the novel “Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier”.

Mr Modiano, 69, was born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt in July 1945, several months after the official end of the Nazi occupation in late 1944.

His father was Italian Jewish and his mother Flemish and non-Jewish. They met during the Occupation and that mixed heritage combined with moral questions about France’s relations with Nazi forces have played an important role in his novels.

“Ambiguity, this is one of the characteristics of his work,” said Dr Alan Morris, senior lecturer in French at Strathclyde University.

“There is an attempt to try and reconstruct some kind of story from the past, but it inevitably proves impossible.”

Mr Modiano has already won France’s prestigious Goncourt prize in 1978 for his work.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Footprints: Back from the brink

Tariq Naqash

IT’S a bright sunny day in the picturesque village of Chakothi, hardly three kilometres from the Line of Control (LoC). At the fag end of September that heralds the advent of winter in high-altitude areas, such days perk up people. However, the mood in the cross-LoC Trade and Travel Terminal, some 800 metres ahead of Chakothi bazaar, is sombre.

The terminal is the last spot where relatives of passengers travelling between divided Kashmir through the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service are allowed to receive or see them off.

Know more: Held Kashmir: submerged and suppressed

The prefabricated structure, with the roof painted green and the walls pink, sits on the edge of a sloped mountain that goes hundreds of feet down to the Jhelum River, coming from Srinagar where it has lately wreaked havoc that words fail to describe. Dreadfully swollen until recently, the river is comparatively calm now.

Given the cumbersome and time-consuming process, travellers are naturally happy when they are granted travel permits. However, as more than 150 passengers who travelled to Srinagar on or before Sept 1 on a four-week (extendable) permit were stuck there, after the deluge suspended trans-LoC travel from the Chakothi-Uri crossing point, the atmosphere at the terminal is somewhat serious as I reach there last Friday.

Normally, the crossing takes place on Mondays. But after a meeting between the authorities from both sides on Sept 24, a special bus was run on Friday to bring back 57 of the stranded passengers in the first phase.

As the two buses stop at the terminal premises and passengers start alighting, their body language expresses the pain and fatigue they have experienced since Sept 7, when the ‘Paradise on Earth’ was swallowed by floodwaters.

The joy of returning alive, however, is also noticeable, as many of them had a close shave. “We have been blessed with new lives,” Saqib Butt, a banker from Muzaffarabad, tells me. The 57-year-old travelled across on Aug 18 along with his spouse and a teenage son. They were staying at the Karan Nagar residence of his in-laws and had plans to return on Sept 8. Amid the manual scanning of luggage, he recalls the “harrowing experience”.

“When it started raining on Sept 6, none of us had the slightest idea that the downpour will usher in devastating flash floods,” he muses. “At about 9pm, we heard announcements from the mosques that the Jhelum has breached the embankment and that people should move upstairs. But we took the warnings lightly. When we got up at 4am for Fajr prayers, there was commotion across the neighbourhood as the water level had grown to four feet. By 1pm, it was 18 feet, submerging the ground floor.”

Along with 12 members of the host family, the trapped guests spent the next three sleepless nights on the second floor, rationing out the available food and water. “Since many houses in our immediate neighbourhood crumbled before my eyes, and ours was a 60-year-old house, I had lost all hopes of survival,” he says.

During those days, trapped residents waved red flags at army helicopters, but to no avail. The choppers were only airlifting government and military officials from the nearby civil secretariat, he claims, showing me pictures in his mobile phone of choppers hovering over the civil secretariat.

Eventually, they were rescued by local Kashmiri youth in a canoe on the fifth day. The rescuers took them to a hotel where they stayed for three nights and then they moved to their ancestral Pattan village. Their luggage was retrieved on Sept 26, two days before their departure.

Prof Amjad Hussain, an academic from Muzaffarabad, has an even scarier story to tell. Also trapped in an inundated house in Karan Nagar for three nights, when they were finally rescued by the local Kashmiri youth, their small craft lost balance, plunging his wife and one of their two children in the water. “Thankfully, the rescuers were able to immediately rescue them,” he says.

Saqib Butt was on his second trip to India-held Kashmir but there were some who had gone across the divide on a maiden tour. Among them were Khawaja Mushtaq Ahmed and his family, including his spouse and university-going daughter.

In his mid-50s, Ahmed runs a garment shop at Quetta’s Jinnah Road. His parents migrated to Pakistan after Partition, and he had gone to the Valley to meet his relatives only a week before the floods.

The house where they were staying in the Jawahar Nagar area was inundated on the night of Sept 6, and later partially collapsed. The family, however, had fortunately moved to another relative’s house earlier that very afternoon. “All of our belongings were swept away, including our documents,” says Ahmed. “But Rajbagh police station officials issued us duplicate papers, enabling our return.”

Ahmed had planned to buy gifts for his friends in Quetta, but returned with just the clothes on his back. Their luggage was almost insignificant. “This is the same shalwar qameez I put on for the dinner on that critical night,” he tells me, pointing to his wrinkled clothes.

Back in Muzaffarabad, the returnees are being visited by family members and friends. “You can hardly imagine how concerned we were about their safety, particularly after we lost contact with him,” says Khawaja Ayaz Qadir, a friend of Saqib Butt’s.

The travellers say they did not see any tangible help from the Indian army and that the trapped people were mostly rescued by local Kashmiris. For years, Kashmiris have been facing brute force and discrimination. Now, they are fighting calamity together.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

IS fighters make gains despite US-led air strikes

Agencies

MURSITPINAR: Islamic State (IS) fighters pushed into two districts of the strategically important Syrian border town of Kobane in fierce fighting late on Wednesday, Kurdish officials among the town’s defenders said.

“Tonight (IS) has entered two districts with heavy weapons, including tanks. Civilians may have died because there are very intense clashes,” Asya Abdullah, co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the main Syrian Kurdish group defending the area, said by telephone from the town.

Another PYD official said that despite continuing US-led coalition air strikes on Wednesday evening IS fighters had seized some buildings on the eastern edges of the town.

The militants were being held in the suburbs by fierce resistance from Kurdish forces defending the town, which has been under assault for more than three weeks, the official added.

As pressure grew for international action to halt the IS advance, France threw its weight behind calls for a buffer zone on the Syrian-Turkish frontier.

The top US and British diplomats said they were willing to “examine” the idea of a safe haven, but the White House later denied it was considering such a move.

And the Pentagon said air strikes alone were not enough to prevent Kobane from falling.

Ultimately, “capable” ground forces — rebels in Syria and Iraqi government troops — would have to defeat IS, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

Kobane has become a symbol of resistance against IS, which proclaimed a “caliphate” across swathes of Iraq and Syria, carrying out beheadings and other atrocities.

Demonstrations in Turkey over Ankara’s lack of action to support Kobane’s predominantly Kurdish residents have triggered clashes in which at least 19 people were killed.

For the first time in more than two decades, a curfew was declared in six Turkish provinces after the unrest.

The three-week IS assault on Kobane has sent some 200,000 people flooding across the border into Turkey, and some residents said hundreds more remained two days after militants breached the town’s defences.

“There are 1,000 civilians who refuse to leave,” said activist Mustafa Ebdi.

“One of them, aged 65, said to me: ‘Where would we go? Dying here is better than dying on the road’.”

US and coalition aircraft targeted IS fighters near the town on Wednesday, launching six attacks to help the defenders, the US military said.

The strikes destroyed an armoured personnel carrier, artillery and several vehicles, Central Command said.

The sounds of heavy gunfire and mortar shells were heard from the Turkish side of the border, a reporter said, as fierce street battles raged.

An IS fighter carried out a suicide truck bombing in east Kobane, but there was no immediate news of casualties, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Observatory directory Rami Abdel Rahman said earlier that IS forces had advanced around 100 metres towards the town centre, but that fighting had subsided slightly.

But he added that IS group reinforcements were heading from Syria’s Raqa province.

The Observatory says about 400 people, more than half of them militants, have been killed in and around Kobane since the assault began in mid-September.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

‘Blood moon’ wows stargazers in Asia, Americas

AFP

WASHINGTON: Sky watchers in the Americas and Asia were treated to a lunar eclipse on Wednesday, a celestial show that bathed the moon in a reddish tint to create a ‘blood moon’. During the total lunar eclipse, light beams into Earth’s shadow, filling it with a coppery glow that gives it a red hue.

The early phase of the eclipse began at 0800 GMT.

Nasa provided live footage via telescope of the eclipse, showing a black shadow creeping across the moon in a crawl that took about an hour. Only when the moon was totally eclipsed did the redness appear.

The Nasa website was peppered with Tweets bubbling with questions and comments on the heavenly phenomenon.

“This is amazing. Thank you for this opportunity,” read a Tweet from the handle @The Gravity Dive.

“Is there any crime increase during this process? Any psychological problems?” wrote a person who identified herself as Alisa Young.

Just before the climax, Kathi Hennesey in California wrote, “Watching from San Francisco Bay Area. Just a sliver now.”

A Nasa commentator explained that during the total eclipse, if you were standing on the moon and looking at Earth, you would see it all black, with a ring of fire around it.

In Hong Kong, free viewing locations were set up on a promenade by the Hong Kong Space Museum for the public to observe the various phases on telescopes.

In Tokyo’s Roppongi fashion and entertainment district, enthusiasts performed yoga exercises under the ‘blood moon’. Many others had climbed atop the city’s skyscrapers to view the sky.

On Australia’s east coast, a live video feed set up by the Sydney Observatory was hit by cloud cover, thwarting some viewers.

In New Zealand, the moon was close to its highest point in the sky, according to Auckland’s Stardome Observatory and Planetarium, making for a view of the spectacle unobstructed by buildings.

In Hong Kong, hundreds of patient onlookers of all ages lined the promenade late on Wednesday hoping for a glimpse of the eclipse.

Many came armed with cameras and telescopes but on a cloudy evening in a city whose sky is rarely clear of pollution haze, it was visible only intermittently.

With tweets from across the viewing countries in Asia, one in New Zealand described the eclipse as “omg the sky is red right now… at 12:26 am in Auckland” with the hashtag “#sofreakingcoool”.

After clouds on Australia’s east coast, the Sydney Observatory welcomed a sighting with “We saw the blood Moon finally!”.

“Sydney skygazers didn’t completely miss out tonight, though the cloud did dampen everyone’s spirits early on,” said The Sydney Morning in a live report on the eclipse.

The event was not visible in Africa or Europe, Nasa said.

The eclipse is the second of four total lunar eclipses, which started with a first ‘blood moon’ on April 15, in a series astronomers call a tetrad.

The next two total lunar eclipses will be on April 4 and September 28 of next year.

The last time a tetrad took place was in 2003-2004, with the next predicted for 2032-2033. In total, the 21st century will see eight tetrads.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

First person diagnosed with Ebola in US dies

Reuters

DALLAS: A Liberian man who was the person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died in a Texas hospital on Wednesday, his case having put health authorities on alert for the deadly virus spreading outside of West Africa.

About 48 people who had direct or indirect contact with the man since he arrived in the United States from Liberia on Sept 20 are being monitored, but none have yet shown any symptoms, according to health officials.

Know more: Ebola fear grips United States

“It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am,” Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas spokesman Wendell Watson said in an emailed statement.

Mr Duncan’s case has led to expanded efforts by US authorities to combat the spread of Ebola at its source in West Africa and raised questions about the effectiveness of airport screening and hospital preparedness.

Mr Duncan became ill after arriving in Dallas to visit family. He went to the Dallas hospital on Sept 25, but was initially sent home with antibiotics.

His condition worsened, he returned on Sept 28 by ambulance and was diagnosed with Ebola, which has killed more than 3,400 people in the worst-hit impoverished countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

“I am in tears. All of us are in tears,” Wilfred Smallwood, Mr Duncan’s half brother, said from his home in Phoenix, Arizona.

The current Ebola outbreak began in March and has killed nearly half of those infected, according to the World Health Organisation. Ebola can take as long as three weeks before its victims show symptoms, at which point the disease becomes contagious. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.

While several American patients have been flown to the United States from West Africa for treatment, Mr Duncan was the first person to start showing symptoms on US soil.

A nurse in Spain who treated a priest who worked in West Africa is also infected.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday appealed to other governments to do more to help contain the spread of Ebola, urged countries not to shut their borders and told airlines to keep flying to West Africa.

“More countries can and must step up,” Mr Kerry said.

Shares of biotech companies linked to the development of treatments against Ebola reacted sharply on Wednesday to Mr Duncan’s death. Shares in Chimerix, whose experimental Ebola drug was being administered to Mr Duncan, tumbled 9.5 per cent to $30.08.

US-traded shares of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp, whose treatment has been used in other Ebola patients, sharply pared losses, briefly turning positive after having fallen as much as 8.8 per cent earlier.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Five Afghan men hanged for gang rape

AFP

KABUL: Five Afghan men were hanged on Wednesday for the gang rape of four women despite the United Nations and human rights groups criticising the trial and urging President Ashraf Ghani to stay the executions.

Amnesty International slammed the executions as “an affront to justice”, while the European Union ambassador to Afghanistan questioned President Ghani’s commitment to human rights.

However, the ministry of women’s affairs in Kabul welcomed the hangings “as a step towards ensuring social justice and defending women’s rights, and a lesson for those who think of committing such crimes”.

There was no immediate comment from Mr Ghani, who faced strong public pressure to not delay the executions after he came to power on August 29.

The men were hanged in Pul-i-Charkhi prison near Kabul along with Habib Istalifi, head of a kidnapping gang.

“Today’s executions cast a dark shadow over the new Afghan government’s will to uphold basic human rights,” EU ambassador Franz-Michael Mellbin said on Twitter soon after the news broke.

The armed gang members, wearing police uniforms, stopped a convoy of cars returning to Kabul at night from a wedding in Paghman, a scenic spot popular with day-trippers.

The attackers tied up men in the group before raping at least four of the women and stealing valuables from their victims.

But the court process raised major concerns. The trial lasted only a few hours, suspects were alleged to have tortured before confessing, and Mr Karzai called for the men to be hanged even before the case was heard.

“The outcry and anger this case has caused is of course understandable… But the death penalty is not justice — it only amounts to short-term revenge,” said David Griffiths, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director.

“The many fair trial concerns in this case only make these executions more unjust. It’s deeply disappointing that new President Ashraf Ghani has allowed the executions to go ahead.”

Before the executions, the UN High Commission for Human Rights had called on Mr Ghani to refer the cases back to the courts “given the very serious due process concerns”. The accused were found guilty and sentenced at a nationally-televised trial, which attracted noisy rallies outside the courtroom calling for the death penalties.

Applause erupted inside the courtroom when Kabul police chief Zahir Zahir also called for the men to be hanged.

“The horrendous due process violations in the Paghman trial have only worsened the injustices of this terrible crime,” said Phelim Kine of Human Rights Watch.

HRW said the case included a manipulated line-up for identification and a trial with little evidence.

Women’s rights have been central to the multi-billion-dollar international development effort in Afghanistan, but they still endure routine discrimination, abuse and violence.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Pakistan urges UN to play role in resolving Kashmir dispute

Masood Haider

UNITED NATIONS: Citing ceasefire violations by the Indian army over Eidul Azha holidays, Pakistan on Tuesday called upon United Nations to exercise its “responsibility” in resolving the festering Kashmir dispute.

Addressing the UN General Assembly Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Masood Khan called upon the Indian government to immediately cease fire and help preserve tranquility and that UNMOGIP must be enabled to play its role in monitoring the ceasefire.

Ambassador Masood Khan said Pakistan was pursuing a policy of constructive engagement in the neighbourhood to resolve differences and to enhance economic opportunities for the region.

He said that longstanding, festering issues could not be swept under the carpet.

“As Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said before this assembly: The core issue of Jammu and Kashmir has to be resolved through negotiations, in accordance with the wishes of its people. In this regard, he reminded the United Nations of its own responsibility,” he added.

The Pakistani envoy said that in the ongoing fight against terrorism Pakistan was determined to eliminate this threat from its soil. “Our heroic armed forces are taking out terrorists, dismantling their hideouts and networks, and choking the vicious sources that feed them. Our entire nation stands united to defeat this evil force and its ideology of hate.”

On UN reforms, Pakistan reiterated that it should be comprehensive and that the Security Council should reflect the interests of all member states — small, medium-sized and large — and not the ambitions of a few.

He recalled what the prime minister of Pakistan told this assembly last month: “There should be no new permanent seats in the council. This will be contrary to the democratic character of this world body”.

Pakistan expressed support to the efforts of the international community to oppose the reign of terror unleashed by the ISIS, a phenomenon that does not have sanction of any religion or denomination and stressed the need to steer warring forces in Syria towards dialogue and reconciliation.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Two Americans and German share chemistry Nobel for super microscopes

STOCKHOLM: Two Americans and a German won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for finding ways to make microscopes more powerful than previously thought possible, allowing scientists to see how diseases developed inside the tiniest cells.

Working independently of each other, US researchers Eric Betzig and William Moerner and Stefan Hell of Germany shattered previous limits on the resolution of optical microscopes by using glowing molecules to peer inside the components of life.

Their breakthroughs, starting in the 1990s, have enabled scientists to study diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s at a molecular level, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

“Due to their achievements, the optical microscope can now peer into the nanoworld,” the academy said, giving the eight-million-kronor ($1.1 million) award jointly to the three for “the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”.

Mr Betzig, 54, works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Virginia. Mr Hell, 51, is director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, and also works at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. Mr Moerner, 61, is a professor at Stanford University in California.

“I was totally surprised, I couldn’t believe it,” said Mr Hell, who was born in Romania. “Fortunately, I remembered the voice of Nordmark and I realised it was real,” he added, referring to Staffan Nordmark, the academy’s permanent secretary.

The Nobel judges didn’t immediately reach Mr Moerner, who was at a conference in Brazil. The American found out about the prize from his wife after she was told by The Associated Press.

“I’m incredibly excited and happy to be included with Eric Betzig and Stefan Hell,” Mr Moerner said.

Mr Betzig said he started to tremble when he saw an incoming call from Sweden, receiving the news with a mix of happiness and fear. “Because I don’t want my life to change; I really like my life, and I’m busy enough already,” he told journalists in Munich, where he was giving a lecture.

For a long time optical microscopes were limited by the wavelength of light and other factors, so scientists believed they could never yield a resolution better than 0.2 micrometers.

But the three scientists were able to break that limit by using molecules that glow on command. The advance took optical microscopy into a new dimension that made it possible to study the interplay between molecules inside cells, including the aggregation of disease-related proteins, the academy said.

The technology offers advantages over an electron microscope, which offers slightly better resolution but can’t be used to examine cells that are alive.

“You really need to be able to look at living cells because life is animate — it’s what defines life,” Mr Betzig said.

Mr Hell used these methods to study nerve cells to get a better understanding of brain synapses; Mr Moerner studied proteins related to Huntington’s disease; and Mr Betzig tracked cell division inside embryos, the academy said.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Suicide bomber kills five police officers in Chechnya

Reuters

MOSCOW: A suicide bomber killed at least five police officers and wounded 12 others on Sunday during festivities for a local holiday in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Russian news agencies reported.

Chechnya has seen a period of relative calm under the strong-arm rule of Moscow-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and suicide bombings have been a rare occurrence in recent years.

The suicide attack took place at the entrance to a concert hall where festivities were planned to celebrate Grozny’s city day holiday, which is also Kadyrov’s birthday.

“Police officers who were manning metal detectors at the entrance of the concert hall noticed a suspicious young man. When the police officers decided to check the individual, the man blew himself up,” a local police officer told RIA news agency.

There were no reports of civilian deaths or injuries, RIA said.

Following Chechen separatist wars in 1994-96 and 1999-2000, the insurgency spread across the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, fuelled by an explosive mixture of religion, and anger over corruption and alleged rights abuses.

The attack is the first major act of violence since the death of militant leader Doku Umarov who was killed in a clampdown during Russia’s hosting of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, on the western edge of the Caucasus Mountains.

Kadyrov, who became leader of Chechnya in 2007, has vowed to wipe out the militants but has faced criticism from human rights groups for the disappearances of those suspected of being linked to the insurgency and torture. He calls the accusations an attempt to defame him.

Kadyrov, who has been threatened personally by the insurgents who call themselves the Caucasus Emirate, said the suicide bomber had arrived at the concert hall dressed like a policeman.

The attacker was a 19-year-old from Grozny who disappeared from home two months ago, agencies reported police as saying.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Mass grave found in Mexico

AFP

IGUALA INDEPENDENCIA: More bodies were being pulled out of a mass grave in southern Mexico on Sunday as authorities worked to determine if 43 students who vanished after a police shooting were among the dead.

At least 15 bodies have so far been dug out of pits discovered on Saturday on a hill outside the town of Iguala, 200km south of Mexico City, according to two police officers at the scene.

The grim discovery came a week after the students disappeared when a protest turned deadly. Witnesses in Iguala said municipal police officers had whisked several of the students away.

Inaky Blanco, chief prosecutor for the violence-plagued state of Guerrero, declined to say how many bodies were buried in the pits.

“We still can’t talk about an exact number of bodies. We are still working at the site,” Blanco told a news conference late on Saturday in the state capital, Chilpancingo.

The site was cordoned off and guarded by scores of troops and police.

More bodies were being recovered on Sunday, another officer said.

Juan Lopez Villanueva, an official from the National Human Rights Commission, said that six pits were found up a steep hill probably inaccessible by car.

Four forensic services vans left for the morgue on Saturday night carrying nine bodies in silver bags. Authorities are conducting DNA analysis to identify the victims.

The graves were found after some of the 30 suspects detained in the case told authorities about their location, Blanco said. The detainees include 22 police officers and gang members.

If the bodies are confirmed to be those of the students, it would be one of the worst slaughters that Mexico has witnessed since the drug war intensified in 2006, leaving 80,000 people dead to date.

The students from a teacher training college disappeared last weekend after Iguala police officers shot at buses that the group had seized to return home after holding fundraising activities on September 26. Three students were killed.

Another three people died when police and suspected gang members shot at another bus carrying football players on the outskirts of town.

A survivor said in an interview that the officers took away 30 to 40 students in patrol cars.

Blanco said investigators had confirmed suspicions that a criminal organisation, the Guerreros Unidos, was involved in last week’s crimes and that local police officers belonged to the gang.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Iguala’s mayor, who has fled.

In Pueblo Viejo, a hamlet surrounded by forests and mountains, a resident said the region was dominated by a drug gang and that he had seen municipal police officers going up the hill in recent days.

“They were going up there back and forth,” said the resident, Jose Garcia, pointing to a location between two mountains where the graves were found.

Governor Angel Aguirre appealed for calm in his state, which is mired in poverty, gang violence and social unrest.

“I call on all (Guerrero state residents) to maintain harmony, non-confrontation, and avoid violence,” he said, offering his support to the families of those who were “savagely massacred”.

The missing students are from a teacher training college near Chilpancingo known as a hotbed of protests.

Thousands of students and teachers blocked the highway between Chilpancingo and Acapulco for hours on Thursday, demanding help from federal authorities to find the missing.

The police’s links to organised crime has raised fears about the fate of the students in a country where drug cartels regularly hide bodies in mass graves.

Around 30 bodies were found in mass graves in Iguala alone this year.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

India plans to block funds for ‘D-Company’ militants

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: After securing an agreement with the US administration to work jointly against Pakistan-based terrorist groups, Indian authorities are now focusing on one particular outfit, the D-Company.

WASHINGTON: After securing an agreement with the US administration to work jointly against Pakistan-based terrorist groups, Indian authorities are now focusing on one particular outfit, the D-Company.

Last week, the United States and India committed to taking “joint and concerted efforts” to dismantle terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Haqqani network and the D-company.

Know more: US, India vow to dismantle LeT, Al Qaeda

In a joint statement issued during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last week, the two countries also vowed to disrupt all financial and tactical support provided to these groups.

Reports in the US and Indian media, however, suggest that India is focusing on one particular group, the so-called D-Company.

India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who stayed back in the US after Mr Modi’s departure, was tasked to work out a joint strategy for implementing the agreement reached during the visit.

Media reports suggest that Mr Doval’s talks with US officials focused on the D-Company as India believes that it will be relatively easy to choke this group’s financial sources as it depends heavily on illegal means, like smuggling and money laundering.

The Indians acknowledge that it will be more difficult to take similar measures against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, which raises money within Pakistan from a network of mosques and madressahs spread across the country.

The Indians have reportedly informed US officials that the D-Company allegedly generates billions of dollars in revenue from legitimate business activities such as real estate and bank overhaul transactions, as well as illegal criminal enterprises around the world, especially in India.

The Indians also claim that the group maintains business interests in UAE and Pakistan as well.

Such transactions, the Indians argue, can be easily traced and blocked with support from US intelligence agencies.

The Indians are also pointing out several D-Company concerns that can be put on a US Treasury Department’s terror list for blocking their assets.

India regards D-Company as the largest underground business in South Asia.

Several members of the group are on the terrorist and/or wanted persons list produced by the Interpol.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Somali, African troops wrest back port town from militants

AFP

MOGADISHU: Somali troops backed by African peacekeepers on Sunday recaptured the last major port in Somalia held by the Shebab, removing a key source of revenue for the Islamist militia.

MOGADISHU: Somali troops backed by African peacekeepers on Sunday recaptured the last major port in Somalia held by the Shebab, removing a key source of revenue for the Islamist militia.

The move was another blow for Al Qaeda’s main affiliate in Africa and came just a month after the death of their leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in a US air and drone strike.

The African Union’s AMISOM force, which draws 22,000 soldiers from six nations, said Barawe, 200km southwest of Mogadishu, fell without “much resistance from the terrorist group”.

“The terrorists used the port there to import arms as well as receive foreign fighters into their ranks,” an AMISOM statement said.

“The group also used Barawe to export charcoal to the Middle East, a lucrative multi-million-dollar business that served as their main source of funding,” the statement said.

Provincial Governor Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur said the situation was “calm and the militiamen had fled before the forces reached the town”. “They could not put up resistance and have emptied their positions,” he said.

The Shebab exported charcoal through Barawe to Gulf countries, earning at least $25 million a year from the trade, according to UN estimates.

“What is very significant is that the ‘capital’ of the Shebab has fallen,” a specialist on Somalia said.

The specialist said the Shebab, who also lost control of the strategic port of Kismayo in October 2012, now had no major town in their hands.

The Shebab have vowed to avenge their leader’s death and continue their fight to topple the country’s internationally-backed government.

On Saturday, a Shebab commander, Mohamed Abu Abdallah, said the militia would maintain pressure on Somali and African Union forces even if the militia lost Barawe.

“Let me assure you that we will never leave around Barawe, the fighting will continue and we will turn the town into graveyards of the enemy,” he said, quoted by a pro-Shebab website.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Australia beat Pakistan by six wickets in T20

AFP

DUBAI: Australia beat Pakistan by six wickets to win the one-off Twenty20 international here on Sunday.

DUBAI: Australia beat Pakistan by six wickets to win the one-off Twenty20 international here on Sunday.

Off-spinner Glenn Maxwell took a career best 3-15 and debutant Cameron Boyce (2-10) condemned Pakistan to their fifth lowest Twenty20 international total of 96-9 in 20 overs.

Australia knocked off the target for the loss of four wickets in 14 overs with opener David Warner hitting a robust 39-ball 53 not out with four fours and three sixes.

Of the Pakistani batsmen only debutant Saad Nasim (25), tail-enders Wahab Riaz (16) and Raza Hasan (13 not out) came good in an innings which only had four boundaries and no sixes.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Muslims unite in fury at murder of Briton by IS

Mark Townsend

BRITISH Muslims have expressed fury and anguish in the wake of the brutal killing of Alan Henning by Islamic State (IS) militants, as the family of the Salford, north-west England, taxi driver said they were “numb with grief” at news of his murder.

Many in the UK Muslim community had been hoping the aid convoy volunteer might be freed on the eve of Eidul Azha. Vigils had been held in his hometown and more than 100 high-profile Muslim leaders had appealed for him to be released. But the posting of a gruesome video, appearing to show his beheading, ended hopes and unleashed a torrent of condemnation.

Know more: Video shows IS beheading British hostage Alan Henning

Harun Khan, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain — the largest Islamic organisation in the UK, representing more than 500 organisations — said: “Yesterday was a huge day of significance because it was the day when people were seeking forgiveness and salvation. If IS really wanted to win the propaganda war, they would have released Alan. They are not really Islamic: nobody recognises them, and they are hijacking the religion.”

Kasim Jameel, from Bolton, who was with Mr Henning on the convoys and first interested him in helping the people of Syria, said:

“I’m totally heartbroken. What can you say? When you lose someone so important to you, you can’t put it into words. Everyone who knew him from the convoys just can’t stop crying — grown men with beards. We keep expecting him to come round the corner, and say, ‘I was only joking’.”

Mr Henning’s widow Barbara said she and their two children were numb with grief and that his murder had been the “news we hoped we would never hear”. In her statement she thanked everyone who had supported the family.

“I want to thank everyone who campaigned for Alan’s release, who held vigils to pray for his return and condemned those who took him. Your efforts were a great support to us, and we take comfort in knowing how many people stood beside us in hoping for the best. We as a family are extremely proud of him and what he achieved.”

David Cameron pledged that the UK would use “all the assets we have” to eradicate the fighters responsible for the “senseless” murder.

Speaking after a hastily convened meeting with senior defence, Foreign Office and intelligence chiefs, including the head of MI5, at his official country residence Chequers, Mr Cameron described Mr Henning as a man of “great peace, kindness and gentleness”.

But Mr Henning’s brother-in-law, Colin Livesey, said the government could have done more “when they knew about [his captivity] months and months ago”.

Mr Henning was kidnapped on Boxing Day last year, just half an hour after entering Syria, driving a vehicle full of clothing and food aid for Muslim refugees.

Filmmaker Bilal Abdul Kareem, who helped in the negotiations when he was first captured, also accused Mr Cameron of not doing enough to help. He added that IS knew the strength of opposition to the murder, but chose to “spit in the Muslims’ eye to show them who is boss”.

He revealed that a representative of Al Qaeda had appealed to the fighters holding Mr Henning to let him go just four days after they picked him up. “Nobody outside of IS thought this was a good idea. Nobody thought that it was OK to do this,” he said.

“The Al Qaeda representative went to go down and try to talk to them, and [when] he returned his face was different. He said something to the effect that these guys are really being difficult, really tough, but they did say they were going to release him. Everybody was anticipating that.”

Suleman Nagdi, of the Federation of Muslim Organisations, heard the news after returning from a vigil for Mr Henning in Leicester. “We have to disassociate from Islamic State,” he said. “There is nothing Islamic about these individuals, nor is it a state. My question to young people [who might be sympathetic to IS] is simple: who is living closer to the message of the Qur’an? Is it IS, or is it somebody like Alan Henning?”

By arrangement with The Guardian

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Hong Kong protesters defy authorities, hold huge peace rally

AFP

HONG KONG: Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators gathered for a mass peace rally in central Hong Kong late on Saturday, defying recent attacks against their ranks as the city authorities denied using paid thugs to harass them.

Huge crowds streamed into the main protest site opposite the besieged government headquarters for a seventh night of their campaign for free elections in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, vowing to stand firm in the face of attacks on their ranks by aggressive counter-demonstrators.

Pro-democracy protesters have taken to Hong Kong’s streets to demand the right to nominate who can run as their next leader in 2017 elections. Beijing insists only candidates it has approved will be able to stand.

Two of Hong Kong’s busiest shopping districts descended into chaos on Friday as angry opponents clashed with protesters, tearing down their tents and barricades, with widespread allegations amongst the pro-democracy crowds that triad criminal gangs had been brought in to stir up trouble.

Tensions remained high on Saturday with fresh clashes in Mong Kok, a densely packed working-class district of shops and apartments that saw some of the worst scenes of violence the previous night, with complaints of sexual assaults and attacks on journalists in the crowds.

Police said several suspected triad members were among those arrested after Friday’s clashes, but the city’s security chief angrily denied allegations that the government had called on the services of paid thugs in a bid to break up the mass protests that have brought key parts of the city to a standstill for a week.

Friday’s violence prompted student protest leaders to scrap talks with the government, scuppering hopes of a resolution to the crisis.

As night fell upon the usually stable financial hub, thousands chanted “Peace, anti-violence!” as they gathered in the downtown Admiralty district near government headquarters.

“The feeling is really strong tonight. You can see people are so calm — unlike in other countries where they burn things and destroy cars,” said 36-year-old protester Chris Ng.

“The police used tear gas and pepper spray against peaceful students — but where are the tear gas and pepper spray for those who use violence against us?” protester Lau Tung-kok shouted through a loudspeaker, to cheers from the crowd.

City authorities furiously denied working with organised crime groups to disrupt the protests.

“These accusations are made up and are very excessive,” an angry Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok told reporters, raising his voice.

But pro-democrat lawmaker Albert Ho said the police “seemed to show a lot of indulgence to triad activities”.

Triad gangs have traditionally been involved in drug-running, prostitution and extortion but are increasingly involved in legitimate ventures such as property and the finance industry.

Some are believed to also have links with the political establishment and there have previously been allegations of triads sending paid thugs to stir up trouble during protests.

China has accused democracy campaigners of destabilising the city. The People’s Daily newspaper, a Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial on Saturday that the protesters were “daydreaming” over the prospect of change.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

First womb-transplant baby born

AFP

PARIS: A 36-year-old Swede has become the world’s first woman to give birth after receiving a womb transplant, doctors said on Saturday, describing the event as a breakthrough for infertile women.

PARIS: A 36-year-old Swede has become the world’s first woman to give birth after receiving a womb transplant, doctors said on Saturday, describing the event as a breakthrough for infertile women.

The healthy baby boy was born last month at the University of Gothenburg’s hospital. Both mother and infant are doing well.

Weighing 1.77kg, the baby was born by Caesarean section at 31 weeks after the mother developed pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy condition, according to the medical journal The Lancet.

Because of a genetic condition called Rokitansky syndrome, the new mother was born without a womb, although her ovaries were intact.

The surgeons said the case smashes through the last major barrier of female infertility — the absence of a uterus as a result of heredity or surgical removal for medical reasons.

“Absolute uterine factor infertility is the only major type of female infertility that is still viewed as untreatable,” they said in a paper published by the British journal.

The replacement organ came from a 61-year-old woman, a close family friend who had been through menopause seven years earlier. The organ was transplanted in a 10-hour operation last year.

The recipient underwent in-vitro fertilisation, in which eggs were harvested from her ovaries and fertilised using sperm from her partner, and then cryogenically preserved.

A year after the transplant, a single early-stage embryo was inserted into the transplanted womb. A pregnancy test three weeks later was positive.

The womb encountered a brief episode of rejection, but this was successfully tackled by increasing a dose of corticosteroid drugs to suppress the immune system.

“What is more, we have demonstrated the feasibility of live-donor uterus transplantation, even from a post-menopausal donor.” Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuester-Hauser syndrome — to give it its full name — affects approximately one in 4,500 newborn girls, previous research has found.

The options open to women with the disorder, or those who have had a hysterectomy, are adoption or having a baby through a surrogate mother.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

IS beheads second British hostage

Reuters

WASHINGTON: The Islamic State (IS) group beheaded British aid worker Alan Henning in a video posted on Friday, triggering swift condemnation by the British and US governments.

WASHINGTON: The Islamic State (IS) group beheaded British aid worker Alan Henning in a video posted on Friday, triggering swift condemnation by the British and US governments.

The footage on YouTube, and highlighted on pro-IS Twitter feeds, showed a middle-aged man in an orange jumpsuit kneeling next to a black-clad militant in arid scrubland, similar to past IS beheading videos of two American journalists and a British aid worker.

As in previous videos, Mr Henning appears to read from a script before he is killed. “Because of our parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State, I, as a member of the British public, will now pay the price for that decision,” he says.

A male voice with a British accent says, “The blood of David Haines was on your hands Cameron,” in references to the slain aid worker and to Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron. “Alan Henning will also be slaughtered, but his blood is on the hands of the British parliament.”

Mr Henning, a 47-year-old taxi driver from Salford in northern England, was part of an aid convoy taking medical supplies to a hospital in northwest Syria in December last year when it was stopped by gunmen and he was kidnapped.

In response to the video, Mr Cameron said: “The brutal murder of Alan Henning by ISIL (IS) shows just how barbaric and repulsive these terrorists are. My thoughts and prayers tonight are with Alan’s wife Barbara, their children and all those who loved him.

“Alan had gone to Syria to help get aid to people of all faiths in their hour of need. We will do all we can to hunt down these murderers and bring them to justice.”

US officials said they had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video, titled “Another Message to America and its Allies”.

“The US strongly condemns the brutal murder of United Kingdom citizen Alan Henning,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

“Standing together with our UK friends and allies, we will work to bring the perpetrators of Alan’s murder — as well as the murders of Jim Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines — to justice,” Mr Obama said, referring to other captives killed by IS militants.

Near the end of the one-minute, 11-second video, the man in black introduces another hostage identified as American Peter Edward Kassig.

His parents later issued a statement confirming their 26-year-old son had been taken captive while doing humanitarian work in Syria.

“We ask everyone around the world to pray for the Henning family, for our son, and for the release of all innocent people being held hostage in the Middle East and around the globe,” Ed and Paula Kassig of Indianapolis, Indiana, said in the statement.

He was detained on Oct 1, 2013, while travelling to the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor while working for Special Emergency Response and Assistance, a non-governmental organisation he founded in 2012.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Eidul Azha celebrated in Middle East

MINA: Muslims in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa celebrated the start of Eidul Azha on Saturday as about two million pilgrims took part in one of the last rites of Haj here in Saudi Arabia.

Eid will be celebrated in Iraq, Indonesia and many other countries on Sunday.

Most Pakistanis will celebrate Eid on Monday.

In Mina pilgrims cast pebbles in a symbolic stoning of Satan.

“I feel good and satisfied with who I am and for the chance to come to Haj this year,” said Palestinian pilgrim Mona Abu-Raya. “I am so happy that I am here.”

Not all were as fortunate, however, Muslims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea — the countries hardest hit in the Ebola epidemic — were not given visa by Saudi Arabia as a precaution against the virus, a measure that affected 7,400 would-be pilgrims from these nations.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Editorial News

Absent civilian input on Fata

Editorial

PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif may have made a historic visit to North Waziristan Agency yesterday, but optics and words of encouragement for the troops aside, what is the civilian government’s input on Fata?

A day earlier, army chief Gen Raheel Sharif perhaps unwittingly played up the contrast between the military’s eagerness to be seen to be doing something for the social and economic uplift of Fata and the civilian government’s near-total apathy.

Gen Sharif’s announcement that the army will, in token numbers, recruit soldiers from Fata and induct Fata schoolchildren and young adults into army-run schools and technical training institutes will not fundamentally alter the region’s socio-economic and security landscape. But that is not the point since the army cannot on its own transform the socio-economic and security realities of Fata nor does it have the resources to do so.

What Gen Sharif’s announcement did underline, however, was that at least the army leadership is thinking about matters in terms of the aftermath of the military operations, while all the prime minister’s visit did was to underscore that the civilians are not even attempting to think about Fata and what it will take to bring peace, stability and, eventually, prosperity and national inclusivity to the war-torn region.

Clearly, launching Operation Zarb-i-Azb in North Waziristan was not the preferred choice, possibly not even the decision, of the prime minister. Also, with nearly 200,000 troops estimated to be deployed in Fata and military operations ongoing in several areas as security remains elusive, the space for the civilians to help steer the Fata policy is not large. And all of that before even taking into consideration the troubled state of overall civil-military relations.

Yet, an honest appraisal of the situation in Fata will have to confront the reality that the country’s civilian leadership, be it the previous elected government or the present one, does not really understand the complexities of the tribal areas nor is it particularly keen on developing ideas about what to do with the region — even if it had the space in the civil-military domain to do so.

Surely though, Fata will never be stabilised and put on a firm, irreversible path to peace if military strategy — and the military itself — drives all policy. Set aside for a minute even the concerns about whether the security establishment has truly abandoned its good militant/bad militant policy and operational distinction.

No army — not even the best intentioned and resourced — is trained to revive and invigorate in socio-economic terms a region ravaged by war. That is a role for the civilian leadership. The army leadership may often shove aside civilians, but simply surrendering, washing their hands of policy issues and sulking isn’t the way to recover the rightful space the civilians should have. The prime minister and his party need to do better, much better.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Rents and rackets

Editorial

THE recent controversy surrounding ‘on money’, or premium charges for the immediate delivery of automobile purchases, opens an important window on the key dysfunctions that ail Pakistan’s economy.

The auto makers argue that new models of their vehicles see ‘overwhelming demand’ that they struggle to meet.

Consumers for their part wonder why the auto makers are so quickly overwhelmed given the extensive protections afforded to the domestic auto sector to shield their investment from foreign competition. Many end up theorising that the shortages of autos are artificially created by the companies to keep prices buoyant. The shortages, therefore, give rise to black markets, reflected in premium charges for immediate delivery.

What should be noted here is that both consumers and auto companies have a point. It is indeed puzzling why auto makers find it hard to ramp up production to keep pace with demand. But it is also a fact that our economy has massive hoards of ‘black money’, large cash-rich investors looking to place their funds in investments where supply and demand can be easily subverted, and with no questions about the source of funds.

Speculative buyers of this sort flock in huge numbers to real estate, commodities, stocks and sometimes even foreign exchange. The volumes involved in the latter categories are far larger than what we see in the speculative buying of autos.

The ultimate loser in this speculative frenzy is always the consumer, who has to reckon with high and volatile prices for essentials like housing and food on many occasions.

Periodically, we see the launch of whitener schemes, where these hoards of black money are offered amnesty to enter the formal economy with no questions asked, testifying to the powerlessness of the state before sums of dubious origin. Consumers are left trapped between rent-seeking investors on the one hand, and speculators on the other.

Ultimately, the menace of ‘on money’ for automobiles will only disappear once the auto sector is sufficiently incentivised to face up to the cold winds of competition. But draining the black money hoards into fixed investments is also a crucial priority.

Documentation measures and penalties can be effective in curbing the menace to a point. But eventually, larger reforms are necessary to prevent the accumulation of large sums of money outside the formal economy because these cash hoards can wreak terrible damage on the economy should they turn hostile.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Liquor deaths

Editorial

IT is a tragedy that is thrown into starker relief by the fact that the sale and consumption of alcohol is restricted in the country.

IT is a tragedy that is thrown into starker relief by the fact that the sale and consumption of alcohol is restricted in the country.

The fact is, where there is a demand, there will always be a supply, as well as unscrupulous elements willing to cheat the gullible public.

That lives can be destroyed in the process matters little to the profit-seekers. The first week of the month saw over 20 deaths in Hyderabad as a result of the consumption of toxic liquor, or moonshine.

This resulted in the PPP-led Sindh government firing its excise and taxation minister, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, over what the senior party leadership termed as “the minister’s negligence in issuing licences to substandard wine shops”.

Given the scale of this incident, it would have been natural to expect a wider investigation, the assumption being that if tainted liquor was being sold on such a large scale in one city, other places might be facing the same problem. That, unfortunately, was not the case, and now Karachi finds itself confronting more than 20 deaths that took place over the Eid holidays for the same reason.

The newly appointed excise and taxation minister, and the station house officer of the police station within whose remit some liquor-production facilities were discovered, have been suspended, and a probe is under way.

Will it succeed and put the makers and distributors of moonshine out of business for good? One aspect of the matter in particular gives reason for doubt: DIG-East, Munir Sheikh, who heads the inquiry committee, conceded on record that at the individual level, there is police connivance in the deadly business. And, indeed, it is difficult to imagine anyone being able to run such a production facility on any sort of appreciable scale without the knowledge, if not active involvement, of local police authorities in urban areas.

Once again, the ball is in the court of the law enforcers. As they tackle the problem of such facilities, can they also clean up their own act?

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Civilians in the crossfire

Editorial

THE escalating violence between Pakistan and India along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary in the disputed Kashmir region has, as ever, murky origins.

THE escalating violence between Pakistan and India along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary in the disputed Kashmir region has, as ever, murky origins.

India blames Pakistan, Pakistan blames India; meanwhile, the worst sufferer is the civilian population on either side of the divide.

More lives have been lost and with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reduced to urging India and Pakistan to resolve their disputes diplomatically and through dialogue, there is a very real fear that more violence could result in more lives lost in the days ahead. With the blame game continuing and with few independent sources to verify how violence broke out, there is though a sense that both sides are determined not to back down — though it is difficult to see why either side would want the conflict to spiral out of control.

For Pakistan, conflict in Kashmir cannot militarily be a goal at this juncture with the North Waziristan operation ongoing and strains on military resources because of overall troop commitments in Fata.

For India, with the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in Delhi eyeing gains in elections in India-held Jammu and Kashmir scheduled for November-December, prolonged conflict should not be part of a winning electoral strategy.

Yet, logic often does not work as it should in this most disputed of regions and, occasionally, events in Kashmir are tied to wider struggles that Pakistan and India may be engaging in. Consider that the Modi government has taken a decidedly tough line with Pakistan despite Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wanting to pursue dialogue while simultaneously struggling with civil-military issues at home.

The rapturous tone of the recent visit by Mr Modi to the US may have encouraged the Indian security establishment to pile further pressure on Pakistan. Meanwhile, on the Pakistan side, that very tone of Mr Modi’s visit and the successful inclusion of Pakistan-specific militancy concerns in the joint US-India statement may have rankled, and sections of the security establishment here may have decided that India, and the world at large, needs reminding that the Kashmir dispute is still very much alive and a flashpoint that should invite international attention.

The path to military de-escalation at least remains well-known. Purposeful and result-orientated contact between the directors general of military operations of Pakistan and India can help dampen the violence along the LoC and the Working Boundary — but will the two countries decide to activate that option themselves, or will the international community have to put pressure behind the scenes?

The approaching winter — while still distant in the present context — should also help dampen hostilities, though it remains to be seen if the elections will be held on time or postponed until the new year after an ongoing visit to Jammu and Kashmir by the Election Commission of India. As ever, little can be said with certainty on Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Support for IS

Editorial

The fact that the self-styled Islamic State is drawing fulsome praise from across the militant spectrum is hardly surprising.

The fact that the self-styled Islamic State is drawing fulsome praise from across the militant spectrum is hardly surprising.

After all, the terrorist group’s rapid rise and capture of territory in Iraq and Syria has granted it celebrity status within jihadi circles. So while there may be minor differences between various global militant groups — tactical, theological, level of ferocity — the general consensus seems to be that the IS model of waging ‘jihad’ is a successful one and worthy of replication.

A few days ago, the banned TTP — while still accepting Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Omar as its spiritual leader — praised all militants in Iraq and Syria, including IS, terming them “noble” and “our brothers”.

Some time ago, pro-IS literature was also reportedly distributed in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata. Also, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a fanatical militant outfit responsible for a number of terrorist atrocities inside Pakistan, proclaimed it was “in the same ranks” as the so-called Islamic State.

Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram has expressed warm wishes for IS ‘caliph’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as have some militant outfits in Southeast Asia and North Africa.

While there’s little hard evidence that the above-mentioned statements signify that IS and other militant groups are forging some sort of grand global jihadi alliance, they do appear to be policy statements making the intentions of the militants clear.

They should serve as warning shots, alerting governments the world over to the potential havoc such groups can unleash should they join forces operationally. In many ways, IS is the new Al Qaeda; but considering that it actually holds territory makes the Islamic State even more dangerous than the terrorist franchise.

After all, Al Qaeda was successful because it was provided a safe haven by the erstwhile Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. Should IS consolidate its hold over areas it controls it will serve as a magnet for extremists from across the globe, with the potential to destabilise states across the Middle East and Central Asia, including Pakistan.

While Al Qaeda is now being regarded by many as a spent force, especially after the elimination of Osama bin Laden, IS has many of the trappings of a state and its battlefield successes have made it the talk of the Islamist world. Hence it is essential that governments, especially those of Muslim states, coordinate their efforts to deny IS the chance to operationally link up with sympathetic groups elsewhere.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Eid shutdown

Editorial

The casual onlooker could be forgiven for thinking that Pakistanis have done everything that needed to be done, solved all equations and balanced all the ledgers, to turn to a day off without the slightest feeling of guilt. Yet what is worse is that this characteristic is also reflected in the approach of the state. True, the number of gazetted holidays — when institutions such as banks cannot open for business even if they wanted to — has been reduced from what it used to be.

Nevertheless, the state misses few chances to signal to the populace that there’s no need for the wheels of industry, banking, finance and so on to keep turning; that a cup of tea and rest can achieve the needful.

Take, for example, the shutdown over Eid earlier this week. The government had announced a national holiday for the day of sacrifice itself, followed by two more holidays. But the slowdown started from Friday and the employees of several government offices are sure to include the coming weekend as well.

Can the country afford lengthy shutdowns when it is not just losing revenue on account of work not done but is also delinked from the global banking and financial worlds? Consider just a couple of rough calculations: the daily turnover for the Karachi Stock Exchange varies from day to day, but the last figure recorded was Rs6bn.

The maths for a three-day shutdown is simple. Retail and wholesale contribute Rs13bn a day to GDP, while manufacturing is Rs14bn. Revenue has been forgone from many other sectors as well. But tell that not to the state of Pakistan and its citizens, both of which evidently feel that this country is so rich that a few days’ income lost is no problem at all.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Flood assistance farce

Editorial

THE government has made a sudden appeal for cash assistance from donor agencies to deal with the destruction caused by the latest floods.

THE government has made a sudden appeal for cash assistance from donor agencies to deal with the destruction caused by the latest floods.

The appeal comes a week after the donors had been assured that no assistance would be required. It has been delivered to them through a bureaucrat in the finance ministry, instead of by the minister himself, who, it seems, is too busy in a roadshow to raise funds for the Diamer Bhasha dam project.

The donors want a detailed damage assessment, as well as an action plan for rehabilitating the victims, before the request can be entertained. The authorities say that a variety of flood relief funds have been set up by the federal government as well as the Punjab government, and the donors should simply deposit cash assistance into these.

This is the fifth consecutive year of floods in Pakistan, and each episode has seen an appeal for international assistance.

Meanwhile, the donor agencies and their respective governments are entitled to wonder what steps Pakistan has taken to increase its preparedness for what is clearly becoming an annual trend.

Have forecasting capabilities been improved? Have SOPs been created for the myriad government departments involved in managing the consequences of flooding while the disaster unfolds? Are rapid assessments drawn up in the aftermath of each episode? If so, why is there a sudden about-turn in asking for assistance this year?

The World Bank has offered Pakistan the services of state-of-the-art flood forecasting technology that successfully predicted the previous two flooding episodes with a 10-day lead time. But the offer has been greeted with complete disinterest by the government.

Currently, forecasts are issued with 48-hour lead time at best, which is grossly insufficient. Technology exists which can increase this lead time to 10 days and this technology has been offered to Pakistan.

Not only that, there is no single government department that is tasked with coordinating the response once a flood alert has been issued. Instead, the same game is played out every year, with a muddled and uncoordinated response once the flood peak actually arrives, followed by the same finger-pointing and blame game in the aftermath of the deluge.

Once the waters subside, the same appeals emerge to build more hydrological infrastructure as a flood-control mechanism. Donors might want to think twice about entertaining the request for cash assistance without a detailed plan of action.

They should insist that a proper disaster preparedness plan be drawn up first, which must include measures to upgrade forecasting capabilities as well as an action plan for coordinating the response once the flood alert has been issued. Muddling through the same disaster year after year, and following this up with requests for cash assistance and hydrological infrastructure, is turning into a farce. And nobody is laughing.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

LG poll mess

Editorial

THE Supreme Court’s ire is understandable. On Friday, the chief justice asked why his predecessor’s directive for holding local government elections by Nov 15 had not been carried out.

THE Supreme Court’s ire is understandable. On Friday, the chief justice asked why his predecessor’s directive for holding local government elections by Nov 15 had not been carried out.

The response by those representing the provincial governments in question was a pathetic resort to legal and administrative nostrums to justify inaction on the issue. And when Sindh’s assistant advocate general apologised to the chief justice, the latter replied he ought to apologise to the Constitution which had been violated. The chief justice wondered why the provincial governments had to wait for the judiciary to act instead of acting on their own.

The court seemed displeased when the Sindh AAG said he had prepared a draft law that would authorise the ECP to carry out the delimitation of constituencies. The chief justice asked why the law had not been made earlier, and that even if an ordinance were promulgated within a week, it would still not be possible to hold the polls by Nov 15.

The court was also witness to the KP government’s quarrels with the ECP when its advocate general said the election body had not agreed to the provincial government’s request for electronic voting and to hold the polls in phases for security reasons. As for Punjab, its additional advocate general blamed the federal government for failing to respond to the suggestions it had made with regard to the ECP’s power to delimit the constituencies.

The provinces’ recourse to administrative and semi-legal excuses betrays their anxiety to evade local government elections because they are not sure how the people will vote and provincial lawmakers feel their authority will be challenged.

While Punjab and Sindh had a problem with delimitation, KP had no such issue and should have gone ahead with the polls. Instead, the KP government, too, has fallen in line with the other two provinces, as if in an unholy alliance, to deny grass-roots democracy to their people.

The ECP too cannot escape the blame for this mess; it gave Jan 8 last as the date for the polls and then requested the court for a postponement since the date was unrealistic. However, the ECP’s point that delimitation is not possible without a census is valid.

For that exercise, it is the federal government that has to stir itself. In other words, all those who matter — the federal government, the three provinces and the ECP — have combined to deny grass-roots democracy to the people.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

PPP’s role in Punjab

Editorial

THE shoe is on the other foot now and the PPP in Punjab is finding that it pinches somewhat.

THE shoe is on the other foot now and the PPP in Punjab is finding that it pinches somewhat.

When the PPP led the coalition that was in power in Islamabad, the PML-N often suffered taunts from opponents and criticism from within over its so-called friendly opposition stance.

While history suggests that the PML-N was not unequivocally supportive of the PPP-led government in order to see through an important transition – the N-League quit the government soon after joining it in 2008; it led the long march that resulted in the reinstatement of chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and played a starring role in the ‘Memogate’ saga – by and large the party leadership was neither a fierce critic of nor attacked the PPP as it had in the 1990s.

Now, with the PPP nearly wiped out electorally in Punjab, various voices from Punjab in the PPP camp are calling for giving the PML-N a tougher time, with concern surely rising that politics in the province has become a two-horse race between the PML-N and PTI.

Yet, former president and PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari has rejected the demands from certain quarters in the party and rightly so.

Firstly, Mr Zardari is right to emphasise the need for democratic stability and for the party to play its role in ensuring that anti-democratic forces do not encroach further on civilian turf. Secondly, many of the dissidents in the PPP camp can hardly claim to have the party’s interests ahead of their own: the names in the mix at the moment are known to have shopped around for tickets from other parties ahead of last year’s election and may have one foot out of the party already.

Thirdly, playing the role of a meaningful political opposition goes far beyond what the dissident camp is suggesting: essentially mimicking the PTI style of opposition politics. If the PPP is to revive its fortunes in Punjab, it will need a forward-looking and positive message as the days of surviving on rhetorical anti-PML-N politics are long over.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Polio: our badge of shame

Editorial

THE sorry tale of Pakistan’s abysmal performance in practically all global development and welfare indicators is equalled, perhaps, only by the state’s stubborn, almost criminal, refusal to undertake the task at hand.

Nothing, it seems can bestir the administrators of this country, regardless of whichever party is in power, into taking their responsibilities seriously.

Consider, for example, the fact that Pakistan made history on Friday: it broke its own record of polio cases, with eight additional cases being reported on this day, bringing this year’s tally — so far — to 202. The last time we saw such a high number of confirmations was in 2000, when 199 cases were recorded.

This regression is all the more distressing when it is considered that hardly 10 years ago, the indications were that the spread of the crippling virus was being brought under control in the country and there was hope that soon Pakistan too would join the majority of the globe’s nations that had proved themselves polio-free.

That this sorry state of affairs comes after international authorities concluded that Pakistan is in danger of reintroducing the virus to other countries, and the World Health Organisation recommended travel restrictions on unvaccinated travellers from Pakistan, is a damning indictment of the authorities’ lackadaisical attitude.

Almost all figures in political and bureaucratic circles have, at some point or the other, over the months past professed their recognition of the issue and their commitment to eradicating polio.

The fact that none of these people have subsequently put in any sustained action, or organised concerted and meaningful efforts, means that they were simply using it as a photo-op.

From Imran Khan to Maulana Samiul Haq, from Aseefa Bhutto Zardari to Maryam Nawaz, to say nothing of those directly involved such as the heads of the prime minister’s focal team for polio and the officials of the health department — all have professed their commitment to protecting future generations from this dreaded disease. And yet, there has been no sustained action at all; if anything, the issue only continues to worsen.

The travel advisory constitutes a reminder of the pariah status Pakistan faces if polio is not brought under control. While funds from international donors have been pouring in to bolster Pakistan’s own efforts and resources, all they have elicited are promises that have proved false and half-baked measures, such as the non-functional system of checking for vaccination certificates at airports.

The world could be forgiven for wondering what it will take to get Pakistan to put its own house in order in this regard. There is, perhaps, only one thing left to say now. The political classes are once again mulling over the shape of the country’s future; they need reminding that no future at all is possible with a crippled population.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Sounding the alarm

Editorial

THERE was an unmistakable sense of urgency in the tone and choice of words of the Saudi grand mufti as he delivered the Haj sermon on Friday. Speaking to around two million hajis gathered in the plain of Arafat for the climax of the pilgrimage, Shaikh Abdul Aziz al-Shaikh sounded the alarm bell against the self-styled Islamic State without specifically naming the group. But the context of the sermon left little doubt who the cleric was referring to. Shaikh Abdul Aziz implored Muslim leaders to strike hard “the enemies of Islam” who were responsible for “vile crimes … and terrorism” driven by a “deviant ideology”. The Saudi preacher’s unease is understandable; after all, the expansionist IS controls considerable swathes of territory across the border in Iraq and in Syria, not too far from the kingdom’s northern frontiers. There are also credible reports that thousands of Saudi nationals are fighting for extremist groups in both Iraq and Syria. So the symbolism of using Islam’s most important global gathering of the year to sound the battle cry against IS has not been lost.

While the Saudi mufti’s call for action against the violent extremists is indeed timely, there are a number of factors that Saudi ulema, as well as clerics in other Muslim states, along with the governments of Muslim nations, need to ponder over to get to the root of the problem. After all, IS and other jihadi outfits have not sprouted overnight. In this particular context, in Iraq and Syria such groups have been used by foreign powers to destabilise the incumbent governments. If the Saudi and other Gulf Arab states have not directly been involved in creating and funding Islamist militant groups, they are certainly guilty of looking the other way as private funds from their nations have flowed into jihadi coffers. And now that the militant groups have become too hot to handle, Arab governments have launched an armed campaign against them. Pakistan has experienced a similar situation and is learning the hard way that patronising extremists can be a double-edged sword; the militants can just as easily turn their guns on their masters should things go awry. The Saudis and all other Muslim states need to realise that using jihadi proxies against other states is extremely bad foreign policy and can boomerang in horrible ways. Once this realisation sinks in at the official level, the grand mufti’s call can have greater impact.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

PTI’s hydel vision

Editorial

One of the better things that the PTI government in KP has done is to give a new push to microhydel power generation schemes.

One of the better things that the PTI government in KP has done is to give a new push to microhydel power generation schemes.

Most recently, their attempts to pursue the Gorkin Matiltan hydropower project (84MW) in Swat has met with resistance in the Central Development Working Party, a government department tasked with approving projects whose cost is less than Rs3bn.

Members of the CDWP, which is run by the PML-N federal government, say the project cost is too high, and that the cost of the electricity it will generate is also too high for a hydel project. They compare this project with another one in KP which was completed at slightly below the cost of Gorkin Matiltan.

It is hard to avoid the impression that the resistance to this project is political. If the CDWP members, which is chaired by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Ahsan Iqbal, are serious about comparing the project costs of Gorkin Matiltan with that of Duber Khwar, they should also note that the latter was begun more than a decade ago.

The first electricity ever generated in the territories we now call Pakistan was from a microhydel scheme in Renala Khurd. The next larger power generation was also a microhydel scheme in Malakand valley, built by the British in the 1920s.

There was a vision to provide much of Pakistan’s power needs through myriad such schemes in the canals and mountains, but it fell by the wayside with the arrival of American aid in the form of mega dams. The PTI government has recently given new life to the vision, and is taking concrete steps on the ground to implement it.

In return, the PML-N government, which never raised concerns about the cost of generation from the Nandipur project, is obstructing the scheme, arguing its costs are too high. Again, it is hard not to see this as obstructionist politics standing in the way of reviving a promising vision, and innovative approaches, to solving Pakistan’s power crisis.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Columns and Articles

Trust and dependability

Faisal Bari

EVERY game has rules. Playing the game well is not measured only through winning and losing, it is also judged by how it is actually played. Breaking rules and getting away with it, even if that means a win, is not considered fair or desirable. Cleverness, within the rules, is acceptable, but pushing beyond the rules or the spirit of the game does not garner respectability for teams and players.

If players emphasise quality, put in hard work to prepare for the game, irrespective of winning or losing, they earn the respect of both spectators and their opponents. Winning or losing is not in the players’ control in any case; they can only control their intentions and attitudes and their level of preparedness, the means they will employ on the field and their effort during the game.

The outcome of a game is dependent on several factors and is not, usually, in the control of any one player — though, of course, there is a correlation between player preparedness, effort and outcome.

Our praise, thus, should not be dependent on outcomes alone. It should take into account how players have gone about playing the game. Player incentives should also not be based exclusively on outcomes, but on a broader set of objectives: preparedness, effort, talent and performance.

What holds for games, holds for most other areas too. How do we judge if a person has been and is worthy of public office? Does he/she play by the rules? Does he/she have the requisite training or qualification? Does he/she put in the effort? If so, they deserve to be in office. If not, they do not.

Those who do not have the right training, do not play by the rules and do not put in the effort, end up creating a trust deficit irrespective of the outcome. Trust has very interesting properties. It is built up slowly: a person has to be trustworthy in many actions and situations before trust is fully developed. But, even a single deviation, a single dishonest action can destroy trust that may have been built up over months or years. Once trust is lost, rebuilding it is even harder.

Currently, many of our institutions, organisations and individuals suffer from the problem. Does anyone in Pakistan believe figures that the government gives for inflation, GDP growth or unemployment in the country? Is it any surprise that people do not trust government figures and pronouncements?

Over the last 15-20 years how many times have government figures been challenged by international and national organisations? How many times has the government ended up with egg on its face when having to acknowledge its mistakes? And they have not emerged from these controversies unscathed — in terms of the loss of trust too.

Most recently there was a controversy on the GDP growth rate achieved last year as well as the one budgeted for next year. The government has not been able to resolve the issue. The IMF was given one figure and there was another one for the people in Pakistan. When this was pointed out, it was said that the figure given to the IMF was a ‘misprint’. Can anyone believe that a government would, while giving one of the most important figures to its main lender, allow a misprint to go through? And if it was a misprint why was nobody punished for the error?

Government efforts at calling it a ‘misprint’ have only increased the suspicion that the government has been trying to cover up things after being caught red-handed. Subsequent lies have only increased suspicions. The amount of energy that has gone into the controversy around the GDP growth figure recently, with the government giving different figures, holding information back from the people to suit the launch of bonds, trying to manage lenders and borrowers, and facing challenges from international as well as local observers, though significant, seems to have only lowered trust levels further.

Dependability is important for positions of leadership. But in conditions where trust levels are low, dependability suffers.

One reason why most of the current political leaders are not having a good time right now is that almost none of them enjoy any trust on the part of the population at large or even their followers. There seems to be sufficient circumstantial or real evidence over the real or presumed wrongdoing of all. The arguments, even from the supporters of one leader or another, are about their leader being the better of the lot or being the lesser evil or, at best, an untried entity. The issue of ‘let our turn come’ typifies these defences.

Lack of trust and dependability leads to fear as well. We fear giving power and authority to our leaders. All of our leaders’ actions, irrespective of intentions, lead to fears of corruption, nepotism and self-interest. This creates a vicious cycle of lack of trust and lack of empowerment.

We have tax officers to collect tax. But we do not trust them so we create space for officers who keep an eye on tax officers. Then we have the FIA keep an eye on the tax department as a whole. And then we have NAB to keep an eye on all. I am sure I have missed other agencies. Finally, there is the judiciary to ensure that the executive, as a whole, is kept in check. But has the entire system delivered more trust and dependability? Fear has only led to more fear and uncertainty.

How do we create systems where we elect and select people who have the right qualities for positions of power, authority and responsibility? How do we select or elect the right people? Clearly, trustworthiness is an important criterion to look for. But how is this quality to be selected? That will be ‘the’ question for the next election and beyond given the direction of the current political dialogue in the country.

The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations, associate professor of economics, LUMS, and a visiting fellow at IDEAS, Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Near yet so very far

Asha’ar Rehman

THE privileged Bahria Town on the outskirts of Lahore is the place from where Asif Ali Zardari has been conducting his politics for the last few days — betraying containment more than ability and a desire for adventure. He has met a few odd people outside the coterie and there’s some suspense about what he could accomplish, an expectation based on his reputation as master of patchwork. There is little in terms of a direction having been found or cadres discovered or rediscovered.

The most significant ramblings have been away from the close circle, by those who have shown the courage to question PPP politics over and above the manners and etiquette imposed on them by the rules of dynastic politics. Without too much of an effort these ‘dissenters’ can be viewed as the true well-wishers of the party.

They are obviously different from dissenters of the past. They are not like those who had sided with Gen Ziaul Haq all those years back to save their necks. They cannot be compared with the patriots who were overtaken by a desire to rule alongside Gen Pervez Musharraf as the PPP leadership wondered how much and when it could cooperate with him.

If these past crossovers were seen to have come in defiance of the party’s justified and justifiable stands, the talk of exodus from the PPP today is primarily, if not solely, sustained by the ‘strange’ politics practised by its leadership. If in the past the less persistent and more impatient cadres left the party, today it is the insistent and eerily patient leadership that is distancing itself from the party.

Ultimately, the PPP dissenters might be lured away to join another party, the PTI being a likely new home for them. For now, however, when a Firdaus Ashiq Awan urges the PPP leadership to review policy she is identified as the party’s friend.

The PPP has been thinking. Its current approach is based on deliberations, with the famed Zardari acumen apparently providing it with finality. Occasionally, there are remarks that betray the various strands of thinking within the party.

In Lahore with Asif Zardari, party stalwart Makhdoon Amin Fahim did last week discuss the possibility of snap polls to resolve the crisis created by the dharnas in Islamabad. Soon afterwards, another prominent PPP leader, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, also hinted at going to the voters mid-term as the most likely solution to the problem.

Another former prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, is a PPP politician who has managed a balanced path where he has openly criticised the PML-N for creating this PTI-PAT trouble for itself. Gilani, who is said to be quite close to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has reasons to complain about the strategy and tactics that Asif Zardari has employed to ensure for himself the illusion of a comfortable cruise, with questionable destination.

When Gilani was ousted as prime minster under a court decree, one theory quite popular among PPP ranks advised shedding the reconciliatory refrain and taking on the more traditional combative mode. That did not happen; Gilani has not only been protesting his sacrifice, he also had his sympathisers and those who thought he had adopted a sounder line in the given circumstances.

In recent times, the ex-prime minister from Multan has had to deal with other fallout linked with his party’s policy of not contesting political space with the PML-N. There is a by-election approaching in his city in which a man, until recently a Gilani lieutenant in southern Punjab, is vying for a National Assembly seat with PTI backing. He is going to take on Javed Hashmi and a PPP candidate.

Gilani’s own local preferences might have had a role in Amir Dogar — until recently an avowed PPP jiyala — choosing to slip over to the camp of the PTI. But this is not just a local case and unlikely to be an isolated one. The alienation that facilitates the PPP man’s defection has taken effect over time, the blame for which should lie with those who control the party nationally.

Bilawal Zardari has in recent times reacted to these undercurrents within the PPP. One of his much-talked about responses was an open letter to the party members, beseeching them to not ditch him. Unfortunately for the young man, his timing was off and his apology coincided with Imran Khan’s scaling of the Minar in Lahore.

The PTI, justifiably, thinks the PPP orchards are ripe for some seasonal plucking. Imran’s associates have leapt at the opportunity, wooing the jiyalas to their camp. The command of this PTI attack on the ‘Zardari party’ rests with Shah Mehmood Qureshi, ex-PPP. The PPP leadership which had chosen to not be overtly perturbed by the PML-N’s doings is now pitted formally against the PTI, which was unavoidable.

However, the unhappy and ignored PPP cadres might have been more willing to resist the PTI onslaught had their leadership been ready to grant them their wish of being vocal and combative against the PML-N. Bilawal is right in thinking that, alternately, they might decide to keep the old opponent and shift to a new party.

That will not be sufficient for the PPP. The task this time is not to awaken the supporters with an old mixture of cajoling and shouting. The supporters have to be found first.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Legacy of tolerance

Anwar Abbas

UNCONTROLLED violence manifests itself at different points and in vastly different ways. Violence today suggests that tolerance is at a breaking point. Scratch the apparently God-fearing, ritualised and placid life of the 180 million or so people of this Muslim country and you will find a tangle of envy, suspicion, hatred and many insatiable animosities.

All over the world there are manifestations of intolerance, xenophobia and religious and political extremism with deadly consequences for the lives and properties of people. What is even more deplorable is the incitement to religious and sectarian hatred when members of one religion or sect refuse to tolerate the beliefs and religious practices of others.

Is this consistent with the spirit of Islamic teachings and culture? Let us find out from history.

In an age dominated by narrow concepts of race and sect and class, the outstanding characteristic of early Islamic culture was its fine spirit of tolerance. This is true in spite of the centuries-old propaganda spread by ignorant and malicious quarters that Islam has a narrow and dogmatic ideology and that it was imposed on the world ‘through the sword’. This is perhaps the unhappy legacy of the Crusades when the two most important proselytising religions of the world, Islam and Christianity, confronted one another; propaganda was even then one of the great weapons of war.

Even in the 20th century a scholar like David Margoliouth, who wrote extensively on Islam, and a standard work like the Encyclopaedia Britannica have made statements about Islam and its Prophet (PBUH) which would be ludicrous if they were not tragic. Such statements deepen the misunderstandings and prejudices that make international concord difficult.

Those who wish to make a fair appraisal of the teachings of Islam are well advised to read Allama Iqbal’s The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Maulana Azad’s introduction of Tarjumanal Quran or Syed Ameer Ali’s The Spirit of Islam. Here is a paragraph from The Spirit of Islam characterising the supreme tolerance and justice of Islam:

“To the Christians of Nazareth and the surrounding territories the security of Allah and the pledge of His Prophet (PBUH) are extended for their lives, their religions, and their property — the present as well as the absent, and other besides; there shall be no interference with the practice of their faith or their observations; nor any change in their rights or privileges; no bishop shall be removed from his bishopric, nor any monk from his monastery, nor any priest from his priesthood, and they shall continue to enjoy everything, great and small, as heretofore; no image or cross shall be destroyed; they shall not oppress nor be oppressed; they shall not practise the rights of blood vengeance as in the Days of Ignorance; no tithes shall be levied from them, nor shall they be required to furnish provisions for the troops.”

Islamic culture derives its spirit of tolerance from the basic teachings of the faith. Islam does not teach or maintain that it is the only true religion, while all other religions are mere heresies. It is a part of a Muslim’s faith that every people and every age has had its prophets who showed the right path according to the needs of the times. The Prophet of Islam crystallised and completed the great work done by the earlier prophets and taught his followers to hold them in high esteem.

In the words of the Quran, every nation has been sent prophets. How refreshingly different is this view from one which consigns the followers of all other religions (and viewpoints) to the torment of hell. It ensures the fullest freedom of belief and worship to persons of all faiths.

By and large Muslims present a gratifying record of both practical and intellectual tolerance of other faiths, peoples and cultures. The intense religious fanaticism that characterised the Spanish Inquisition was conspicuously absent in Muslim countries where Jews carried out their religious pursuits unhindered. Intellectually Islamic culture borrowed large-heartedly from Greek culture. Indeed, the Hellenistic tradition, on which Western culture is based, did not come directly from the Greeks but through the Muslims who preserved it, added to it and passed it on to Europe when it emerged from the ‘dark ages.’

Those Muslims of Pakistan who wield the sword and the dagger, the bullet and the bomb would do well to recall Iqbal’s definition of a momin:

“He is sword against unrighteousness and a shield for truth…. Great is his forgiveness, his sense of justice, his generosity, his kindness. … Even in a fit of wrath, his temper retains its balance.”

The writer is a freelance contributor with an interest in religion.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Privatised welfare

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

AMONG the many casualties of the propaganda war that continues to play out on our TV screens in the name of ‘revolution’ and ‘azadi’ is a meaningful countrywide debate over one of the elected government’s few consistent policy initiatives, the privatisation of state-owned enterprises.

The planned floating of shares of the highly profitable OGDCL and PPL on the London and New York stock exchanges should, in particular, be garnering a great deal more attention than it currently is.

Privatisation has arguably been the flagship of the neo-liberal counter-revolution over the past three decades. Across the world, the state has slimmed down into a lean, mean capital-friendly machine, relinquishing responsibility for public services such as transport, education and unemployment insurance.

Since the end of the Cold War multinationals have made a beeline for oil, gas and minerals in the former Soviet republics, as well as regions previously untouched by foreign exploration. For example, during the Musharraf years unprecedented access was provided to Chinese and other companies to initiate intensive extraction of natural resources in Balochistan.

Indeed, the ongoing mini civil war in the Baloch heartland cannot be understood without reference to what is a ruthless international struggle for control over a wealth of untapped minerals and energy resources. The Pakistani state is but one player in this game; even military functions that states previously monopolised can be subcontracted to serve larger profit-making purposes.

Oil, gas and precious minerals may be the most high-profile targets of private capital, but it is the divestment of basic services — those that directly affect ordinary people — that give rise to the process’ most insidious effects.

Privatisation of the health sector has arguably been the most scandalous affair, both because of the stealth with which it has been accomplished and its widespread impact. Today private foundations are amongst the biggest sources of money for research and actual provision of health services. The Gates Foundation itself contributes almost as much as the US and UK governments to global health, which gives it tremendous power to mould health policy regimes.

Quite aside from the preposterous resistance that exists in this country to rudimentary preventive healthcare such as polio vaccination, the political economy of international donors and NGOs that these donors fund demands serious interrogation; for instance, the CIA’s tracking down of Osama bin Laden under the guise of a vaccination programme seriously compromised the presumed neutrality of NGO activities in the country.

Privatisation of welfare in this country is significant for a different reason altogether. Anyone with some exposure to the Pakistani street knows that the religious right has a significant presence in everything from emergency health services to the collection of hides (ostensibly for the poor) during qurbani season. This has not happened by chance.

Progressives, myself included, spend a lot of time elucidating the Pakistani state’s historic patronage of religious militancy. In doing so, we often neglect the just as important development of the right wing’s welfare capacities that have allowed it to capture social and political space to complement its militant presence.

While the relatively apolitical Edhi Foundation was for a long time the only credible provider of health services outside of the state, since the 1990s groups such as the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (read: Lashkar-e-Taibaa/Jamaatud Dawa) and Al-Khidmat Foundation (Jamaat-i-Islami) have emerged as significant players in the field.

Over the past few years these groups have greatly enhanced their visibility and reach in the immediate aftermath of earthquakes, floods etc. Eyewitness reports confirm that the religious right is given privileged access to otherwise restricted areas, which is to suggest deliberate manipulation by state functionaries.

A glaring example of this was in Awaran following the devastating earthquake there in 2013; the entry of foreign aid workers, journalists and even provincial government operatives was regulated by paramilitary and army officials, but the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation was allowed unrestricted access.

These fronts for the religious right do much more than provide the health services which they otherwise discharge.

Certainly the handing over of the state’s responsibilities for health to the religious right is a deliberate political act, above and beyond standard neo-liberal orthodoxy. It is thus that many Pakistanis have internalised not only that basic services are the right of those who can pay for them, but also the legitimate claims of the religious establishment to being a parallel government because it is religio-political groups that demonstrate at least some political will as far as addressing working people’s everyday needs is concerned. This is why the struggle against the right wing is about much more than just defeating obscurantism.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014

Populism’s second coming

I.A. Rehman

Populist rhetoric has been used to sustain the Islamabad dharnas long enough to justify an inquiry into its impact on the country’s politics.

Populist rhetoric has been used to sustain the Islamabad dharnas long enough to justify an inquiry into its impact on the country’s politics.

This is the second time in Pakistan’s history that populist politics is being offered as the panacea for all ills, the first one being the populism of the PPP 47 years ago. A comparison between the two populist waves should be quite rewarding.

The PPP’s populism had quite a few extraordinary features. It had its roots in great turmoil at home and abroad. The people had taken to the streets not only to seek Ayub Khan’s ouster from power but to replace the system of controlled democracy imposed by the dictator with a representative government. They had risen in revolt against exploitation by the 22 privileged families.

The movement had also received a boost from the Vietnamese people’s heroic resistance to a superpower that had broken all records of aerial bombardment. The anti-imperialist wave that was sweeping the globe had not bypassed Pakistan. No discussion on the people’s plight was possible without reference to the country’s dependence on the controllers of the world capital.

The people had acquired ideas of freedom from Cold War shackles, the right to self-rule and social justice before they were picked up by political parties. One has to take a look at the political parties’ election manifestos of 1970 to realise the extent to which all parties, including conservative religious groups, were trying to woo the electorate from left-of-centre planks.

The founders of the PPP tried to harness public yearning for an egalitarian order by spelling out, in their foundation papers, the nature and scale of the change they wanted, or they thought the people wanted. It was in this milieu that matchless slogans, such as roti, kapra aur makan — food, clothing, and shelter — and jera wahway ohi khaway, (the land belongs to the tiller) gained currency.

This populist upsurge produced significant changes in social behaviour, especially among the underprivileged. The common man found his voice. The worker had learnt to talk to the employer during the anti-Ayub movement, now the tenant began to challenge the landlord.

Since the PPP’s populist demands were derived from the people’s experiences they helped the party secure an electoral victory beyond its expectations, thanks to its success in winning over activists from older parties who had been struggling for socio-economic change for many years.

Even this robust populism fizzled out. How this came about is not the subject of this piece. It is, however, necessary to point out that populism fails because it assumes the possibility of change as a push-button operation, without the support of social forces that understand the dynamics of change and are also capable of throwing up qualified cadres. These change-makers must be strong enough to defeat the forces of the status quo.

The present wave of populism is manifestly different from the earlier phenomenon. It comprises two different tracks. While Dr Tahirul Qadri has from the very beginning called for a change of the system of governance, Imran Khan’s objective at the start of his march was only the removal of the prime minister, followed by an independent probe into his allegations of rigging during the 2013 election. This process could lead to a fresh election but that was not an explicit part of the agenda.

Both the challengers have been relying on populist rhetoric with a view to strengthening their claim to power. Piqued by the criticism that his assault on the Sharifs represented a split in the Punjab elite, Imran Khan began recognising other federating units. As hopes of a quick victory faded away both Qadri and Imran Khan began discovering the plight of the underprivileged. When they talk of corruption and favouritism in administration or denial of education and employment to the youth or the failing economy of the agricultural community they touch on matters the people wish to see resolved without delay.

This populism without limits amounts to preparing a huge wish list that neither of the two challengers has tried to present in the form of a credible programme of action — and one fails to notice among the dignitaries that assemble on the containers for the daily drill the human material needed to translate dreams of a social revolution into reality.

While the dharna wish list is quite impressive the omissions are not only significant they also betray the principals behind the agitation. There is sympathy for peasants but land reform cannot be mentioned; labour is offered friendship but little is said about its right to collective bargaining; police are warned against committing excesses but there is no indication of a new plan for reform; and militant religiosity and the imbalance in civil-military relations are matters still outside the agenda for national uplift. The weaknesses of the present flush of populism hardly need elaboration.

Populist movements have a poor record of success and the cost of their failure can be heavy. Indira Gandhi’s populism, that earned Tariq Ali a citation in the Oxford dictionary, degenerated into arbitrary rule and an assault on the people’s basic freedoms. Similar will often be the result of populist campaigns for the simple reason that the expectations they arouse cannot be realised by pushing a button here or waving a staff there.

This is not to deny the contribution populism can make to the movement of ideas. The Democratic Party of the United States needed a man of Franklin Roosevelt’s will and calibre to profit from the manifesto of the Populist Party of America many years after that organisation had expired. His New Deal proved, perhaps for all times, that there can be situations when the lords of rightist politics can find in an opening to the left the only route to national revival. After all, the best of populism is often a pale reflection of left ideals minus the scientific foundations.

One wonders whether Pakistan’s present–day populists have the capacity to learn from the fate of their predecessors at home and abroad.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Flooding priorities

Khurram Husain

IN the last five monsoon seasons, Pakistan has seen five floods. That means each year since 2010 has brought a massive flood that has affected the lives of millions of people in each case. Each flood has been caused by unusual rains. And the rainfall-producing storm systems in at least three of these years — from 2010 till 2012 — have been studied very carefully by a group of meteorologists who argue in their latest paper that these storms are not normal monsoon systems.

For the last couple of months, I have immersed myself in a careful reading of papers from the cutting edge of meteorological research being carried out on Pakistan’s flood-producing storms and the anomalous weather patterns behind them. The first results from my readings appear in the latest edition of Herald, this newspaper’s sister publication, as two long format reports. In this column, let me give a quick synopsis.

Scientific studies of the Indian monsoon, on whose western edge we sit, began in the late 19th century by the British colonial government following a deadly drought that led to mass starvation across the subcontinent. The Indian Met Department (IMD) was created in the aftermath of that event, and its first two directors general — Messrs Blanford and Walker — were the first people to begin detailed scientific observations of the annual cycle of rains that sustained life in such critical ways across British India.

From the earliest observations, two different directions emerged. Blanford searched for a land-based link between the monsoon system and the weather patterns that produced the winter snowfalls in the Himalayas. Walker on the other hand, was the first to discern a link between a peculiar seesaw-like variation in atmospheric pressure between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This seesaw mechanism came to be connected later with the phenomenon known as El Nino.

As the volume of meteorological measurements being undertaken increased over the decades of the 20th century, the two lines of inquiry initiated by these two men began to bear fruit. For most of the 20th century, meteorologists focused on the El Nino link and growing volumes of research output added more flesh to the proposition that the great Southern Oscillation, as the pressure reversal brought about by El Nino was called, holds the secret to forecasting the monsoon rains in India.

But forecasting the monsoon rains with any meaningful exactitude remained elusive, although it became possible to say with some measure of probabilistic certitude how wet the forthcoming wet season might be. Yet despite the increasingly technological sophistication of the data and the statistical models being used for meteorological observations, the IMD was wrong more often than it was right in its forecasts.

This year, for instance, the IMD forecasted a dry monsoon season, with below average rains and even the possibility of drought. A newly launched private weather forecasting service in India came to the same conclusion, citing the appearance of El Nino in the Pacific in April, saying that a drought is likely across North India with monsoons being far below average.

The CEO of the private service was even quoted, in July, saying if there are no rains in July then the monsoon will most likely fail. The drought was going to be particularly intense in the northwest, according to both of these services.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) also acknowledged the appearance of El Nino this year in April, but hedged its forecast, saying “irregular rains” are likely this season.

The rains were certainly irregular. When they came they were so heavy as to submerge the provincial capital of the very region that the IMD and the private forecaster were saying would be at the epicentre of a drought. In fact, a report by Deutsche Bank, widely cited in the Indian media, looked in detail at the IMD’s forecasts over the last 20 years and found that they have been correct in only four years. A coin toss is more likely to give you a more accurate result.

The story has been largely the same every year since 2010. Why are the Met Departments having such a hard time detecting these storms with any meaningful lead time? This year, all Met Departments gave their flood alert barely 48 hours ahead of the flood peak, grossly insufficient time in which to organise a response.

Part of the answer takes us back to the differences between the approaches taken by Blanford and Walker. New research is finding out that the El Nino connection might be overstated, that the Indian monsoon interacts with weather systems in the Eurasian landmass as well as more distant systems. It’s also telling us that the very structure of the monsoon system appears to be changing, producing rainfall patterns that are entirely anomalous.

While details are contained in the longer report, for now it’s enough to say the following. Flood forecasting in an era of climate change is a crucial priority for us now. Five floods in five years are enough of a hint that our climate is changing in crucial ways. We cannot reverse the process, nor did we create it. But we must adapt to it, and adaptation begins by upgrading our forecasting abilities so we can have some lead time in which to prepare our response.

The technology to do this exists, and was offered to Pakistan last year by the World Bank, but the authorities were too busy in other matters to pay any attention. Instead each year’s floods have amplified calls within Pakistan for building more dams and barrages and other hydrological infrastructure to be used for management of floodwaters. But more infrastructure for flood management is pointless in the absence of longer and more reliable forecasts.

The writer is a member of staff.

khurram.husain

Twitter: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Govern, or go

F.S. Aijazuddin

THERE are as many ways to skin a goat as there are to remove a political leader.

THERE are as many ways to skin a goat as there are to remove a political leader.

Fifty years ago, in October 1964, Premier Nikita Khrushchev, then on holiday in a seaside resort in Georgia, was summoned back to Moscow by his colleagues in the Soviet presidium. His once fawning subordinates charge-sheeted him, accusing him of “ignoring other’s opinions”, even of taking decisions “over lunch”. Khrushchev appealed to their friendship. “You have no friends here,” one of them retorted. When Khrushchev tried to salvage his sinking authority by admitting his mistakes, another shouted him down: “You listen to us for a change.”

Khrushchev had been in power for 11 years, the same span of time that another leader Mrs (later Lady) Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s prime minister. In November 1990, well into her third term, her leadership was challenged by a fellow Conservative Michael Heseltine. The leadership was put to a vote. Twice, Mrs Thatcher failed to get the required majority. Tearfully, she bowed out, yielding the post to John Major. A political observer commented laconically of Heseltine’s betrayal: “At least he stabbed her in the front.”

Imran Khan’s frontal assault on a third-term prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, owes little to British traditions of furtive balloting in committee rooms, or to bloodbaths within the Kremlin’s mute walls. It owes even less to the mob politics that brought down the Russian czar in 1917, and the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. It owes nothing to parliamentary conventions that because elected leaders are voted in, they need to be voted out.

Imran Khan’s PTI party has opted for the party game ‘Numbers’: Who can mobilise the largest crowd? His detractors dismiss the tumultuous gatherings at Islamabad first, then Karachi, Lahore and recently at Mianwali, as the power of a rent-a-crowd: earnest, vociferous but electorally flaccid.

His party stalwarts see the increasing surge of attendees at his rallies as a barometer of the disaffection of the public with the Sharif style of governance, as a reactionary gravitation.

Neither is wrong. An angry mob is the grimace of a disaffected public, just as a friendly crowd to a politician is as heart-warming as a muddle of Labradors is to a pet-lover.

It is probably some time since anyone in Pakistan’s political parties opened a history book. They are advised to read Elizabeth Longford’s biography of the Duke of Wellington (1972). She describes how in October 1831 a horde attacked Apsley House (his London home), given to him by a grateful nation for defeating Napoleon. The demonstrators broke its windows. She mentions: “The glass was mended in time for the Waterloo Banquet of 1833, but the Duke retained the shutters and to the end of his life was apt to raise his hat ironically and point towards them if a crowd began cheering him.”

It is also some time since anyone in our political parties re-read their manifestos, released with such fanfare in 2013.

The PML-N, then aspiring to become the government, made sky-scraper promises that defied the laws of architecture and soared above credibility. On energy, for example, it promised “to tackle circular debt and system losses[,] to end load shedding in the minimum time”, and ‘to invest US$ 20 billion to generate 10,000 MW of electricity in the next 5 years”.

On education, it vowed to declare a ‘National Education Emergency’ and promised to work with the provinces to achieve “100% enrolment up to the middle level and 80pc universal literacy”. Understandably, it avoided any mention of poll-rigging.

Interestingly, the 2013 election manifesto of the Zardari-Bhutto PPP-P began with a quotation by its founder Z.A. Bhutto: “We badly need to gather our thoughts and clear our minds. We need a political ceasefire without conceding ideological territory.” One wonders whether his grandson Bilawal had those sentences in mind when he drafted his public apologia to PPP sympathisers, released a fortnight ago.

In that unprecedented nostra culpa, he admitted that his party had “committed mistakes in the past” and almost pleaded with discontented acolytes “not to support any undemocratic party that backs extremism”. He urged: “There are other ways for registering a protest. You should not punish Pakistan and democracy for our mistakes.”

No one outside Bilawal House can know whether he consulted anyone older before issuing that statement. His parents — in adversity and in power — always followed Benjamin Disraeli’s sage dictum: ‘Never complain and never explain.’

It is becoming clear to a disaffected public that Nawaz Sharif’s ineptness will prevent him from completing his third term. It is also clear that a tireless Imran Khan and a dispirited Tahirul Qadri cannot uproot Nawaz Sharif simply through noisy sit-ins.

Political liquidations may have the same ends; what distinguishes them from each other are the means.

The writer is an author and art historian.

www.fsaijazuddin.pk

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

Not a priority

Asma Humayun

EACH year the world observes Mental Health Day on Oct 10; this year’s theme is ‘living with schizophrenia’, a major mental disorder, which causes significant impairment of function, and disability, immeasurable distress for the family and loss of productivity.

Mental disorders contribute to early mortality: suicide resulting from these disorders is a major cause of death for all ages. But, like most mental illnesses, early detection and treatment of schizophrenia is both possible and inexpensive. Mental disorders contribute 14pc of the global burden of disease. Over 70pc of this is borne by low- and middle-income countries such as Pakistan. This is because four out of five people with severe mental disorder do not receive any treatment.

WHO has declared mental health a ‘public health priority’ for developing countries. This means that the problem, while highly common, is preventable or treatable. Therefore, comprehensive efforts must be directed towards promoting positive mental health, preventing mental health problems, detecting disorders early and offering prompt treatment and regular follow-ups.

This far-sighted approach is holistic and directed at focusing on entire populations, not on individual patients or disorders. It is concerned with the entire system, not only the eradication (treatment) of a particular disorder. This approach stretches far beyond specialist-led psychiatric services based in tertiary-care hospitals or the private sector.

Pakistan’s mental health challenges are acute — as a nation facing internal and geopolitical conflict, socioeconomic convulsions and huge internal displacement triggered by war and natural disaster. These realities make it all the more necessary for the state to develop an effective emergency mental health response.

Existing mental health services in Pakistan need to be understood in the context of the official status of mental health in the country. The national mental health programme was first initiated in 1986. Mental health was very much part of the country’s 1997 national health policy, and since then it was supposedly an integral component of primary healthcare in subsequent five-year plans.

Unsurprisingly, this did not materialise meaningfully and was never revived at the provincial levels after the devolution of health to the provincial governments. As a result, there is currently no mention of a mental health policy and there’s non-existent priority for mental healthcare across Pakistan.

Currently, the mental health infrastructure exists mainly at the tertiary-care level in the form of academic psychiatric departments. These institutes focus on delivering hospital-based psychiatric care and train medical graduates in silos from primary healthcare or other community services.

Today in Pakistan, there are an estimated 400 psychiatrists to serve the general mental healthcare needs of 200 million people. As for special needs, for example of young people, who comprise almost half our population, there are only half-a-dozen trained child psychiatrists available. The role of psychiatrists has also been whittled down to undertaking clinical and teaching responsibilities in academic departments. These underdeveloped clinical services focus on a biological model of practice, and revolve around prescribing medications, often unscientifically.

The psychiatric service in Bannu is a classic example of the most peripheral Pakistani districts: a teaching hospital with a ‘professor’ who has no faculty or staff to support him; the professor himself carries an academic title but a non-academic job description; his time is largely taken up by administrative and medico-legal responsibilities; the quality of clinical care is far from satisfactory; there is little teaching/training conducted by the department. Meanwhile, the medical college was closed for the summer holidays despite the huge IDP challenge there.

The growing trend of expensive specialist services in the private sector further contributes to the inequitable mental healthcare at the cost of developing public services, since most academic psychiatrists invest their time and energy in after-work lucrative private practices.

In the larger context of a failing healthcare system, poorly developed mental healthcare is often rationalised, almost defended. But now that the international community has recognised mental health as a priority, Pakistan cannot justify it as a misplaced priority in the face of its ineffective health systems.

Urgent attention is needed to make mental health a priority at the provincial level. This includes articulating and advancing a mental health policy that emphasises the need for integrating mental health in primary care, prioritising all specialised resources towards developing a public health approach to addressing this burden, redefining and broadening the role of mental health professionals, and enacting a legislative framework to support scientific and ethical services.

In systems where mental health is not a priority, adversity can provide a window of opportunity to review and strengthen existing services. It is time for us to act.

The writer is a psychiatrist.

econtactasma

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014

A mindset frozen in time

Babar Sattar

PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif betrays a mindset frozen in time when he says he doesn’t understand why people protest against him or seek his removal at a time when he is just warming up in his third term of being in power. Whether PTI will be able to acquire power to rule Pakistan or deliver the change it talks about is one thing. Whether it will be able to bring Sharif down through its incessant fulmination is another. “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” Victor Hugo said. Unfortunately for Nawaz, “Go Nawaz Go” is sticking.

Triggers for mass uprisings can never be predicted with scientific precision. Did all of France rise up in arms when the French Revolution transpired? Didn’t the collective American conscience accept the notion of ‘separate and equal’ in Plessy vs Ferguson (1896) only to reject it six decades later after Brown v Board of Education declared it unconstitutional? Does the US remember minority rights activists who came before Martin Luther King as fondly? Was Musharraf ousted and were judges restored because all of Pakistan — urban and rural — rose up for rule of law?

Those who believe that PTI’s agitation doesn’t seriously threaten Sharif’s regime because it is an urban phenomenon don’t appreciate that all mass uprisings are largely urban phenomena. Agitation-based change is no referendum. The ‘yes’ vote lost the referendum in Scotland. But while 45pc pro-independence Scots might be unable to form government, they sure can destroy a government that is formed if they insist on doing so. In other words, the numbers needed to destroy governments are always less than the ones needed to construct it.

Second, in protests, the intensity of commitment matters almost as much as the numbers. PPP created and cultivated the hyper-dedicated jiyala (who was unconditionally bound to Bhutto and Bhuttoism) in the late ’60s and ’70s that the party could rely on even in hard times. Their number has decreased over the years and the intensity of their commitment has now waned. PML-N, the other mainstream party, has never had this category of fervent followers devoted unconditionally to party ideology (or charisma?) of the top leadership.

PTI is the new mainstream party that has created zealots just like PPP did back in the day. It is the fervour of its zealots combined with the resonance of Khan’s message with the average Pakistani craving change that accounts for people thronging to PTI assemblies. How Pakistanis vote in an election notwithstanding, to think that PML-N or PPP can beat Khan at pulling crowds in 2014 is folly. What PPP/PML-N lack and what the PTI chief has are three things: intensity of core support, a rotting system Imran claims to be an outsider to and benefit of doubt.

Sharif doesn’t seem to understand the sentiment that PTI is riding on. One, while PML-N might not be guilty of causing all the failings evident in Pakistan today that Imran Khan keeps highlighting, the narrative woven by him and being bought by ordinary folks holds Sharif and other entrenched political players responsible for being abettors and beneficiaries of a broken system they are loath to fix. Khan has largely succeeded (with the aid of unpleasant harangue) in turning Sharif into a symbol epitomising the collective failings of Pakistan over the last 68 years.

Two, PTI might not have a credible plan to deliver the change it is promising, but people would rather be fooled by someone new than by the same folks again and again.

Three, many cautious supporters of PTI understand that Pakistan’s problems are multifarious and won’t be resolved with the ouster of Sharif. But even when people know they can’t get justice or have their problems solved instantly, they want catharsis. ‘Go Nawaz Go’ is providing cathartic relief to ordinary folks in the face of the miseries they experience on an everyday basis due to state failure.

Four, so long as PTI-PAT calls for immediate removal of Sharif seemed backed by hidden hands, many saw the confrontation from a civil-military lens. That cultivated sympathy for Sharif. Once the opportunity for military intervention (during the violent stand-off on Constitutional Avenue) emerged and passed, a sense grew that even if scriptwriters had encouraged the march as a plan to oust Sharif through the threat of khaki intervention, the plan has been shelved for now. Devoid of the civil-military lens, Sharif and his style of governance inspire little sympathy.

In other words, many wanted to prop up Sharif so long as he appeared to be the victim of undemocratic forces threatening the continuity of the constitutional order. But take the khakis out of the equation and the playing field seems tilted in favour of the incumbent Sharif, with his control over state machinery, resources and means of patronage and against the challenger Khan. Gathering hordes outside parliament and Prime Minister House was certainly not Pakistan’s finest democratic moment. But hidden hands can’t manufacture the multitudes hankering for rights, coming out to PTI jalsas in Karachi, Lahore and Mianwali.

PML-N seems oblivious to the angst and anger shared by ordinary Pakistanis at how Pakistan functions. Its response, that this is how things have always been, now seems callous. What we are witnessing is the tipping point of public disdain for our power elites’ abrasive and arrogant sense of entitlement. Khan might be focused on the unjust enrichment and indiscretions of our political elite sans PTI. But it is only a matter of time that public attention turns to others as well: the power, pelf, protocol and profligacy of all elites — generals, judges, babus et al.

Imran Khan isn’t about to stop adding fuel to the fire of public resentment. The khakis aren’t about to intervene, the judges aren’t about to induce regime change and Nawaz Sharif isn’t about to resign. Thus we are gridlocked. But what is worst is that when PML-N isn’t acting like all this will blow over without consequence, it is sulking over being asked to behave like fiduciaries of public authority handed to them as a trust. Growing public disquiet and a government living in its cocoon is unsustainable. Something’s gotta give.

The writer is a lawyer.

sattar

Twitter: @babar_sattar

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Civil-military imbalance

Tariq Khosa

The security establishment is firmly in the driving seat. It is calling the shots with respect to the multiple internal security challenges facing the nation. Caught in a political quagmire, the civilian government has ceded the national security space to the military due to its weak leadership. Prolonged sit-ins by the PTI/PAT in Islamabad and massive public meetings elsewhere have caused governance paralysis.

What went wrong, and so soon after the euphoria of the transfer of power from the fragile PPP-led coalition to the PML-N’s numerically strong government? The answer essentially lies in the nature of the civil-military relationship and its impact on the national security policy including internal security challenges. Since the ’80s the military establishment has had primacy over nuclear doctrine, foreign policy — especially where it relates to the United States, India and Afghanistan — and the use of militant proxies to further regional policy objectives.

Nawaz Sharif was twice dismissed in the ’90s at the behest of the military establishment when he attempted to tread the forbidden path. The basic mistake he made each time was his failure to promote good governance: cronyism, nepotism and patronage took precedence over merit, integrity and professionalism.

Moreover, given the firmly entrenched military-led national security narrative, he should have shown the sagacity to engage in a national dialogue to nudge the military leaders towards a peace-driven, economically viable and democratic vision for the future. He failed to do so. This proved his undoing in the past and he finds himself in difficulty yet again for not having learnt his lesson.

Just barely into the second year of his third stint, his government appears like a rudderless ship facing violent waves of discontent. The scorecard of his mistakes tells a sordid tale.

One, his selection of cabinet of ministers was poor and incomplete: he gave himself the portfolios of defence and foreign affairs in order to directly deal with matters of concern to the security establishment. Carefully selected full-fledged ministers in these key policy fields would have provided a cushion in the decision-making process.

Two, he failed to appoint a professional national security adviser, giving the task to a political loyalist whose attention is divided between foreign affairs and national security matters. In order to avoid appearing before the Supreme Court, the additional charge of the defence ministry was given to another loyalist who is already responsible for dealing with the worst-possible energy crisis facing the nation.

Three, the National Security Committee, comprising relevant stakeholders from the security and intelligence agencies, has not been used as an effective institutional mechanism to formulate a comprehensive national security policy. Rather than holding regular meetings to develop policies at the institutional level, frequent one-on-one meetings between the prime minister and the army chief leave an impression that all is not well on the civ-mil front.

The newly established national security division under an able diplomat has remained redundant so far. There is no advisory council on national security issues to source ideas from a wide range of national experts. As a result, a cabal of serving security and intelligence officials lead this vital security arena. Moreover, parliamentary oversight on national security issues has been totally ignored and the resultant lack of transparency gives rise to conspiracy theories in the media.

Four, the first-ever National Internal Security Policy launched with great fanfare has not even been partially implemented. The National Counter Terrorism Authority has remained dormant since 2009 as the government has not been able to select a senior police officer as its chief. Moreover, the interior ministry wants to control Nacta, although legally it is supposed to work under the prime minister.

An intelligence directorate was also required to be established under Nacta for coordination between the federal and provincial security agencies for launching intelligence-based operations, but this has not happened for lack of ownership by the security establishment. A police-led CT task force at Islamabad has not been raised so far.

These failures of the civilian governments have led the military to fill the resultant gaps by not only leading intelligence-based operations across the country but establishing their own CT centre at Kharian for an institutional response to combating terrorism and militancy.

Five, the federal government and its agencies have failed to support the Balochistan chief minister in tackling the missing persons issue and other Baloch grievances. The kill-and-dump policy has not been abandoned by the private militias and their alleged patrons in the security agencies. In fact, a new round of tit-for-tat killings and attacks between the insurgents and security forces appears to have started with bodies of kidnapped Baloch activists being dumped near Panjgur and Turbat.

Six, the Karachi operation, initiated enthusiastically by the prime minister and the interior minister has practically been handed over to the provincial government. The prime minister could not post a provincial inspector-general police of his choice. With lukewarm support by the provincial government, the Rangers are clearly handicapped as a civil armed force representing the federal government and military establishment. Police too is paying a heavy price in terms of casualties due to lack of equipment and technology that the federal government could have provided.

In the absence of a law-enforcement approach, military means of eliminating criminals are reflective of a myopic approach to tackling organised crime. Even this strategy has failed to substantially reduce target killings and sectarian terrorism.

The abdication of civilian authority in national security matters can be fatal for democracy. Instead of empty words spoken in parliament, it is time to show leadership by strengthening institutions and promoting good governance. The constitutional commander-in-chief has to prove his mettle. It is time to lead the nation and not sulk under the khaki shadow.

The writer is a retired police officer.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

A timeless message

Prince El Hassan bin Talal

TODAY, the world appears full of divisions. Fault lines are emerging between people of different religions, sects and ethnicities. These divisions are being played out in a region where people of all faiths have coexisted in harmony since the earliest days of civilisation.

We cannot allow these divisions to harden. We must repay the debt we owe to our earliest civilisations, to the people of the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. It is for this reason that today, on the holy festival of Eid, we take a moment to reflect on an important message from the Quran; a message that, alongside the principles of justice, equality and human dignity, has been instrumental in guiding the destinies of our families and entire nations.

The principle I refer to is that of consultation, of the ancient tradition of shura, of the rapidly fading art of conversation that is predicated on the respect for human dignity that is common to all our faiths.

The Quran clearly elucidates the importance of shura as fundamental to the relationship between the ruler and the governed. As evidenced in the story of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, it emphasises the soundness in the approach of engaging the opinion of others in public affairs.

“The Queen of Sheba said, ‘Counsellors, a gracious letter has been delivered to me. It is from Solomon, and it says, ‘In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy, do not put yourselves above me, and come to me in submission to God’. Counsellors, give me your counsel in the matter I now face: I only ever decide on matters in your presence.’ (Surah Al-Naml, 29-32.)

Notwithstanding that the message was manifestly clear in calling to worship God and surrender to His Oneness, the queen sought the opinion of her notables.

So why do we shun our ancient tradition of shura today?

The principle of shura applies to all Muslims. Why then do we allow ourselves to be ruled by our disagreements, rather than seek the path of consultation and convergence? Did the Prophet (PBUH) not say: “Disagreements among my ummah represent a mercy” — an allusion to the respect for diversity and pluralism, which has characterised Islamic civilisations since the earliest days?

I remember a Shia scholar once told me that in terms of the Salafi, we all, Sunni and Shia alike have an innate respect for the early generation of Muslims, the Al-Salaf Al Salihs. Similarly, I recall an erudite Sunni telling me that irrespective of our differences, if the word ‘Shia’ carries the connotation of following the example of the house of the Prophet, then we are all in some way Shia.

Sadly, even a cursory reading of the news today provides ample proof that we have veered away from the path of consultation. Our divisions are driving us further apart every day — driving a wedge between neighbours and forcing people from their homes. Millions, 70pc of them Muslims, are compelled to seek refuge in other countries.

I see displaced people every day in Jordan. Recently in Greece, I saw a displaced person selling antique items with exquisite calligraphic renditions of the words of the Messenger. “Ali is the finest of men, and the finest of swords is Dhu’l Fiqar.” This family had been bequeathed these priceless items from their forefather — but these cruel times, these times of division had forced them to part ways with their prized possessions.

To get out of this mess we need to embrace once again our proud tradition of shura. At the level of the UN, we need to pay heed to the words of Kofi Annan, who always stressed the importance of including all members of the Security Council in discussions. We must stop ignoring the role of Russia. At a regional level, even as we meet to discuss the path to peace in Syria, we must stop ignoring the views of our brothers and sisters in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Today’s divisions belie our tradition of pluralism. During the papal visit to Albania, His Holiness prayed in a church built by Muslims. Our ancestors knew that participating in a religious act was to open a window to the world, and it is critical we learn from their ways.

As we decide our fate in the light of the wisdom of the Eid feast, we have a choice. Either we follow the path of our ancestors — of encouraging diversity, developing mutual respect and seeking common ground, or we let our lands be taken over by the forces of evil.

Today, on Eid, let us be sincere with our Creator. Let us once again turn back to shura, to a world in which consultation prevails and where no one person, religion or sect monopolises decision-making.

The writer is an author and founder of the West Asia and North Africa Forum.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

Mind games

Zarrar Khuhro

YEARS ago, while buying provisions, I came across a man engaged in a heated conversation with the shopkeeper. He was complaining about how his latest business venture had failed. “It’s the Hindus that always conspire against me! They know that if I succeed I will become the greatest leader of the Muslims the world has ever seen. This is why they always make sure I fail.” The shopkeeper nodded sympathetically.

On Sept 25, a prison guard Mohammad Yousaf shot Mohammad Asghar, a mental patient convicted for blasphemy. According to friends, Yousaf had previously claimed to have dreams and visions in which he received ‘religious guidance’. It was such a dream, said the local SHO, that compelled him to try and murder Asghar.

Just a few days ago, a person tweeted about how his colleague had pledged allegiance to the Daesh ‘Khalifa’ Omar al Baghdadi. He claimed to be part of a group in Lahore that had also pledged allegiance to Daesh and warned that his colleague was opposing Islam by refusing to join him. On investigation it emerged that this person was undergoing treatment for paranoid schizophrenia.

Delusions of being either chosen or persecuted are common in paranoid schizophrenia, which is what all three persons mentioned here seem to suffer from. In these cases, the delusions have taken on a distinctly religious character.

Religious delusions are not uncommon. An analysis of several surveys on mental health claimed that “a rate of 36pc of religious delusions was observed among inpatients with schizophrenia in the USA”. It also noted culture has a distinct impact of the prevalence of religious delusions, stating that there is a “higher incidence of religious delusions among schizophrenia patients in predominantly Christian countries than in other populations” and that the rate of religious delusions (among schizophrenic patients) in Germany was 21.3pc and 6.8pc in Japan.

The rate was 6pc in Pakistan. That figure may seem low, but that can also be explained by a lack of record-keeping on this issue. Certainly, conversations with mental health professionals do indicate there has been an explosion of mental illness in Pakistan over the last few years, though this may also be due to greater reporting of the issue itself.

Another interesting finding in the analysis that can relate to Pakistan is that in Egypt “fluctuations in the frequency of religious delusions over a period of 20 years have been linked to changing patterns of religious emphasis”. In short, times of greater national focus/debate on religion have seen higher incidences of delusions with religious content. Given that overt (and skin-deep) displays of religiosity are increasingly the norm in Pakistan we can expect the incidence to be fairly high.

When it comes to treatment of mental illness, it is interesting to note that religion can indeed play a part, though there are also cases where deeply held religious beliefs may in fact be a barrier to treatment. An article in the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services notes that some patients may indeed substitute faith for treatment, in effect worsening their conditions. Certainly, it has been noted that delusions with religious content seem more resistant to treatment than ‘conventional’ delusions.

The article concludes that while “Clinicians should not involve religion in treatment of patients who do not desire it … for patients who desire it and with whom the clinician has compatible beliefs, religion can be an invaluable adjunct to psychiatric care.”

While Freud considered belief in a single god to itself be a delusion, in Pakistan many psychiatrists point to the desirability of a strong spiritual centre in keeping a patient grounded and some point to the efficacy of joint prayers and rituals to help build a sense of community.

It is important to note that such practices must not and cannot replace conventional treatment but can be used to supplement such treatments. This is also not to be confused with the practice of confining persons suffering from mental illness to shrines or leaving them in the hands of sometimes fraudulent, abusive faith healers.

But in a country with a severe paucity of mental health professionals, what is the way forward? One answer may be found in the hybrid system developed in India’s Mira Datar Dargah. Here, under the auspices of a mental health professional called Milesh Hamlai, faith healers and conventional psychiatrists have joined hands to treat thousands of patients.

The chains that were previously used to bind patients have been dispensed with and the healers and doctors seem to have arrived at some kind of middle ground between prayer and treatment, simply by keeping an open mind and focusing on the welfare of their patients.

The writer is a member of staff.

zarrar.khuhro

Twitter: @ZarrarKhuhro

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014

The social contract debate

Muhammad Amir Rana

CAN the prevalent political unrest and discontent in Muslim societies be regarded as a desire for change? In other words, are Muslim societies in search of new social contracts?

CAN the prevalent political unrest and discontent in Muslim societies be regarded as a desire for change? In other words, are Muslim societies in search of new social contracts?

The militant struggle is all about a complete replacement of existing social contracts with an Islamic code of life. Both non-violent radicals and traditional religio-political forces are pursuing varying agendas ranging from Islamisation of their respective societies to reformation of and adjustments in constitutions in line with their perceived Islamic ideals.

Interestingly, these Islamist forces are not satisfied with the systems of democracy, controlled democracy or monarchies in their respective countries. Does the problem really lie with Muslim societies’ social contracts with their states, or is it the outcome of other pressures Muslim societies are subjected to?

While identifying the underlying unrest in underdeveloped or developing societies, academicians usually factor in pressures of rapid globalisation and a sense of increasing aspirations among people. It may be true in case of diaspora communities. Others underscore structural social, religious and political narratives and behaviours of these societies, which they believe are not compatible with the pace of changes taking place in the world. No doubt global changes affect our daily lives, positively or negatively.

The emergence of a new middle class is another aspect of the debate. Middle classes want political empowerment in their respective societies. Governance issues and increasing non-functionality of traditional delivery systems in Muslim countries is another factor. These and other factors of growing resentment among Muslim societies with their respective states and constitutions have combined with a dearth of scholarship.

Another important question is, should these factors — structural, internal or global — raise the need for subversion of existing social contracts or constitutions?

A social contract ensures harmonious socio-economic and political balance in a society and provides a framework for the formation of a government and laws and their enforcement. The Arab Spring has not been successful in many countries in terms of the formation of new social contracts.

Yemen is experiencing a different challenge in the formation of a new social contract, which is giving rise to questions of tribal and geographical representations in the constitution. Indonesia and Pakistan are among the Muslim nations where the constitutional reform process is intact and keeps ethnic communities together and tied to the state.

Even Muslim clergy in these countries is in favour of a continuity of the incumbent constitutional and democratic processes. A recent moot of leading religious scholars in Islamabad noted that Pakistan’s Constitution is a national-level social contract and in the light of Islamic teachings every Pakistani is bound to abide by it. Scholars also asserted that national-level disputes and conflicts, which are shared by all and not linked to particular religious sects or communities, should be settled on the basis of majority opinion. A minority cannot be granted the right to impose its opinion on the majority.

Although religious scholars do not regard democracy as a complete, ideal form of government, most of them believe it can be useful and effective for ensuring peaceful coexistence and pluralism in society. Interestingly, some religious scholars argue that even if rulers impose excessive taxes and force people to pay without legal justification for this, it is better for people to defend themselves by adopting peaceful ways than by revolting against the state.

The militants have different opinions and want to impose their version of the Islamic state through the use of force. The Constitution provides shields against militant, religious, anarchist, ultra-nationalist or ethnic ambitions that might seek to create imbalances in society.

The extra-constitutional power struggle within elites and powerful institutions creates confusion about the basic concept of a social contract. The extremists are the beneficiaries of such confusion and they use it for expanding their support bases across the country.

Muslim countries, especially Pakistan, cannot afford the subversion of their respective constitutions as the social imbalances and rise of violent and non-violent radicalism can completely transform the situation, which the radicals have shown they can achieve without paying a high price.

The writer is a security analyst.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

New converts to Imran

Cyril Almeida

THERE are worse things than drift, impasse and bland uncertainty — see, much of the rest of the world is seemingly going to hell — but it is awfully tedious.

THERE are worse things than drift, impasse and bland uncertainty — see, much of the rest of the world is seemingly going to hell — but it is awfully tedious.

Imran said this, Qadri threatened that, Nawaz did nothing, somewhere something semi-relevant happened. It’s difficult to get excited or agitated by any of it any more.

Pakistan usually does its crises high-octane and this slow burn struggles to hold the interest. Everyone knows it’s not going to end anytime soon and, at this stage, mid-term elections are the worst-case scenario.

If off-schedule elections are the worst thing on the table, that’s a buffet Pakistan will be able to digest without too much trouble. And even that seems like a distant prospect.

So we must make do with smaller matters. Like this business of why Imran’s agitation is resonating, perhaps not quite a groundswell as the PTI wants folk to believe, but definitely more than a trickle.

But what about the people who seem newly drawn to Imran, the ones who are willing him on and are ready to participate in his latest agitation, who neither hate Nawaz nor love Imran, but somehow have decided they care enough to pick sides in this fight?

Talk to them, listen to what they have to say and some themes emerge.

First, Model Town still rankles. Even though Qadri is there on Constitution Avenue, the protester newly drawn to Imran tends to start with Model Town.

Model Town was the original rupture, at least for the new protester. And Model Town is a powerful lightning rod because the crime was so manifest, the injustice so clear — no explanation is needed nor can responsibility be denied.

Second, it is the election. The new protester, the man or woman who last year was a last-minute voter or didn’t get around to voting at all, is angry about May 2013.

It’s not about specific rigging allegations or minutiae of ROs and stuffed ballot boxes; it’s a far more basic question that Imran has succeeded in making them wonder about: why should votes — any votes — cast legitimately not be counted?

What is this system which decides that since an overall result was expected anyway, why bother about some people being cheated out of their vote?

That grievance by the new protester is expressed in several ways and it has the power of simplicity, and principle, on its side.

Why do we have elections in the first place, where votes are counted and results tabulated, if it’s already known who’s going to win?

Or: if the PML-N wins a fresh election, so be it, but what’s this business about not being able to ensure that every vote is counted? What kind of democracy is this?

Why, in this day and age, are we to accept a process where some people’s vote gets counted and recorded accurately and others’ not?

And: what is the government afraid of? If they won, then why can’t they just satisfy Imran that they won fair and square?

What’s the harm in doing what Imran asks, the new protester is wondering, especially since everyone agrees that the process was flawed. What great principle is at stake which prevents votes from being recounted?

You can ask this new protester, the one drawn to Imran since the summer, all kinds of things. Was 2002 or 2008 fair? If 2013 was an improvement on 2008 and 2008 an improvement on 2002, then aren’t we at least moving in the right direction?

Is it not obvious that the army has, thanks to the endless protests, reoccupied much of the political space that ought to belong to the civilians? If elections are to be redone just because someone isn’t happy with the result, what kind of precedent would that set?

And the kicker, the weapon that the new protester can use to shoot down most questions: Imran is the only one saying this stuff — and that’s why he deserves our support.

Here’s why that’s so potent: it’s true.

Imran may be saying a lot of loopy things, he may come up with kooky ideas galore and he may not have much of a grasp on how to fix things, but in his basic, essential point he is right: the election was not free and fair nor was it completely transparent.

And Imran is the only one who is saying that is unacceptable.

You can explain why a credible and acceptable May 2013 was progress, why democratic disruption may help anti-democratic forces, why Imran didn’t come close to winning, but to those who have heard Imran and absorbed his basic point, how do you explain that tainted is OK, that they should get over it and move on, vote counted or not?

You can’t. Which is why Imran is resonating and there’s more than a trickle of new converts every week.

The writer is a member of staff.

cyril.a

Twitter:

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Some solutions

Mohammad Ali Babakhel

EVERY Pakistani wants to find a solution to terrorism. At such a challenging juncture, the mere realisation that peace must be cultivated is itself a ray of hope, and the leadership can use this to its advantage.

The widespread impression that counterterrorism (CT) is solely the responsibility of the security forces and police is erroneous. It is a collective responsibility. Everyone — from ordinary people, the clergy, our political leadership to the bureaucracy and media — must be part of the long-term CT strategy.

The country’s CT strategy should focus primarily on the human aspect, including de-radicalisation and reintegration of extremists. The registration of citizens requires a more rigid and transparent process and ought to be linked up with all law-enforcement agencies.

The Foreigners Act 1946 needs parliamentary review, and deportation procedures need simplification. To displace illegal nationals, multilateral arrangements have to be worked out and the monitoring of foreigners requires a more organised effort. The National Alien Registration Authority must play its due role — as Nadra did in 2010 when it foiled almost 11,400 attempts by foreigners to obtain CNICs.

In terrorism, vehicular mobility plays a decisive role. When a vehicle is armed with an IED, it is being used as a lethal weapon. The preference is for vehicles that have been stolen or those on which duties have not been paid, referred to as non-custom paid. Such vehicles are easily available in parts of Malakand division, Fata and Balochistan. Since they aren’t registered, when they are used in a bombing it is almost impossible for investigators to proceed in the probe.

To evade tax, many vehicle owners retain them on ‘open transfer letters’. The government needs to impound such vehicles after a grace period of three months. They should be returned only after the payment of taxes and transfer to the real owners. Such an initiative will not only help fill the exchequer, it would also reduce the likelihood of such vehicles being used in terrorism.

Undoubtedly, technology is costly but at sensitive places such as embassies, schools, airports, military installations and police buildings, automatic number plate recognition can be employed.

Without communication, a terrorism mission cannot be accomplished. The government recently directed the country’s telecommunication authority to curtail the operation of Afghan cellular phones in Fata and parts of KP. This is a positive step since some 40,000 illegal Afghan SIMs were operating in Pakistan. To minimise the use of illegal SIMs, their registration should be linked to identity card numbers, biometric impressions, and a postal address. The number of SIMs per person should be limited to two.

All the provinces have their own anti-terrorism wings, but without effective coordination with other provinces. Thus, counterterrorism needs an integrated model to be administered by a unitary command structure. A national-level CT body that is present in all provinces will have no jurisdictional barrier.

The training of the police, too, is not keeping pace with the challenges. Militants undergo intense, goal-oriented training, in accordance with their needs but the training of our law-enforcement officials is modelled on the colonial fabric. Training modules must include dealing with would-be suicide bombers, IEDs, hostage situations, etc. Then organised information-sharing between the law-enforcement agencies, Nadra and the motor registration authorities is necessary.

Gaps within the criminal justice system must be plugged. The conviction rate in cases of terrorism presents a dismal picture, which requires urgent improvement. Pakistan also needs to revisit how to dry up the financing of terror organisations. The mere increase in manpower and resources cannot quell militancy; the task also requires missionary zeal, agility, preparedness, innovation and public cooperation.

The writer is a police officer.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

Stark contrasts

Ahmed Jan

A YEAR has passed since almost 100 innocent lives were lost and many people injured at the All Saints Church. The Peshawar incident still haunts and the shame and guilt linger on.

A YEAR has passed since almost 100 innocent lives were lost and many people injured at the All Saints Church. The Peshawar incident still haunts and the shame and guilt linger on.

In Pakistan, the Christian community is associated with practically everyone’s lives. As teachers and nurses, its members willingly serve humanity for a good cause. The majority of them live in rundown dwellings and contribute to the community by cleaning our streets and homes — a task that the majority population would rather stay away from. It is a pity that even though the Christians of Pakistan cause no harm and stay away from incitement of any sort, they, like members of other minority communities, still become victims.

The incident at the All Saints Church in the name of religion was probably a tragedy waiting to happen. Hate is a product of the fire of intolerance, which has spread ever since the advent of born-again followers of the majority faith.

Some years ago, Eid and Christmas were taking place concurrently. I visited a bakery in Peshawar to buy the usual Eid edibles. Two young Christian boys had come to buy a cake. They requested that ‘Merry Christmas’ be written on it. The owners blatantly refused to do so, saying, “We only write Eid greetings”. The teenagers did not have the courage to question this, as they ‘knew’ their place. The bakery may have had a sweet, honeyed or sugar-coated name but for me it left a bitter taste.

In terms of figures, Christians in Pakistan are believed to number a couple of million or so. The number of Pakistanis in the smaller UK population is not too different. However, these minorities in both lands present a study in contrast.

Muslims in Britain enjoy facilities beyond the rights they ever imagined in their native countries; Pakistani Christians are still waiting for their rights, which Islam guarantees them. In Pakistan, minority places of worship are attacked whereas in numerous places in Britain where the Muslim population has increased, churches are known to have been converted into mosques for the convenience of the community.

In British schools, classrooms during break can become a prayer room led by a nominated imam. Moreover, children at state schools have the choice to ask for halal meals in accordance with their Islamic faith.

In Ramazan, a TV channel broadcast the call to prayer every day during the entire month. The aim was to bring the practice of fasting to mainstream TV as non-Muslims saw Ramazan in terms of only physical hardship rather than as a ‘time of reformation’. Similarly, special programmes are aired, portraying Muslim family life in the UK during the holy month.

The openness to ideas and exchange of religious thoughts is so acceptable in Britain that in the past 10 years, statistics have shown that a large number of British people have converted to Islam, the majority of whom are young women.

In addition, there are several professional institutions offering education in Islamic finance, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world.

In the UK, I have been working as a language interpreter helping clients and organisations. Every day is a unique experience. On one particular occasion, along with some social workers, I met a young Muslim teenager who had been under the foster care of a Christian lady of East African descent.

The boy did not appear to appreciate the care and kindness offered by the lady and in fact passed critical remarks about her creed. I was too ashamed to translate the words but his disdain was obvious and had been observed.

After the meeting, when everyone had left, I apologised to the lady on the boy’s behalf. She was calm, remained dignified, and reminded me that she belonged to that land, which was once called ‘Habsha’, and the Christian king, Nijjashi, extended asylum to the newly converted Muslims.

On the other hand, the lady narrated another story of an Afghan boy whom she had taken care of as well as a foster parent, who had recently returned to his country. She praised him and said with a sigh that the young man had given her true respect and she considered him a genuine Muslim.

At the end, she looked up and said, the same God will judge us all.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2014

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DINA for the issue of October 11, 2014

October 11, 2014 Leave a comment

DAWN

INTERNET NEWS ALERT

October 11, 2014 | Zilhaj 15, 1435

The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.

Malala youngest ever Nobel laureate

Reuters

OSLO: Education activist Malala Yousufzai and Indian campaigner against child trafficking and labour Kailash Satyarthi won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

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A message to militaries of both countries

Jawed Naqvi

NEW DELHI: By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Pakistan’s Malala Yousufzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi on Friday, at a time when their militaries were locked in a volatile spiral on the borders, the Nobel Committee has shone the torch on a more real enemy the countries jointly confront — jeopardised future for millions of their children, analysts said.

Ms Yousufzai did not lose time to broach the idea of India-Pakistan peace, saying the award had emboldened her to invite the two prime ministers to the prize ceremony in Stockholm in December. Mr Satyarthi and Ms Yousufzai spoke on the phone and decided to persuade their leaders to come to Stockholm where the two would hopefully end their self-imposed aloofness with each other.

Govt allowed to proceed with sale of 10pc OGDCL shares

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court allowed the federal government on Friday to proceed with the sale of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) shares after overturning a Peshawar High Court (PHC) stay against the decision to sell off the government’s shares in the company.

A two-judge Supreme Court bench, consisting of Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Gulzar Ahmed, granted an appeal filed by the federal government on Thursday, challenging the high court’s Oct 3 interim order to staying the sale of 10 per cent of the government’s shares in the oil and gas exploration company.

Peace to be given another chance by continuing dialogue process: Nisar

Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has requested that observers from the United Nations be sent to investigate the cause of the border skirmishes with India.

Following a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) — which consists of the country’s top civil and military leadership — on Friday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters: “We would request the UN to send its observers to the Line of Control (LoC) to ascertain from which side firing and shelling was first initiated.”

PTI’s public meeting turns into tragedy

Shakeel Ahmad

MULTAN: An impressive public meeting by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at Qasim Bagh stadium here on Friday evening turned into a tragedy the moment it ended as a stampede at one of the exits left seven people dead and 43 injured.

The stampede began when PTI Chairman Imran Khan left the venue after addressing the gathering.

Intelligence sharing sought with Iran

Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants an intelligence-sharing mechanism with Iran to combat terrorism in areas along the border and remove mistrust between the two countries.

“It is in the interest of both the countries to share intelligence,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at a press briefing here on Friday while answering a question about steps being taken by the government to secure the border in the wake of a reported allegation by the Iranian police chief that terrorists had safe havens in Pakistan.

Pause in shelling gives respite to civilians

Reuters

SRINAGAR: Fighting between India and Pakistan paused on Friday after days of heavy shelling across their disputed border, the worst skirmishes between the two countries in more than a decade.

Relative calm returned to the region after a heated exchange of rhetoric, with New Delhi warning Pakistan it would pay an “unaffordable price” if shelling continued. Islamabad had said it was capable of responding “fittingly”.

UN warns of massacre if Kurdish town falls

Agencies

MURSITPINAR: At least 500 civilians who remain trapped in the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani are likely to be “massacred” if it falls to the Islamic State group, the UN envoy to Syria warned on Friday, calling on the world to help avert a catastrophe as the extremists pushed deeper into the embattled town.

Staffan de Mistura raised the spectre of some of the worst genocides of the 20th century during a news conference in Geneva, where he held up a map of the town along the Syria-Turkey border and said a UN analysis shows only a small corridor remains open for people to enter or flee Kobani.

Ministry takes notice of fake polio certificates

Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has asked the four provinces, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Directorate of Central Health Establishment to take appropriate measures after the Indian High Commission complained that some Pakistanis had submitted fake polio certificates with their visa applications.

The NHS directive coincided with the confirmation of four new polio cases by the National Institute of Health’s Polio Virology Laboratory, raising the number reported this year to 206.

Australia seal one-day series

AFP

DUBAI: Australia continued their dominance over Pakistan with a five-wicket win in the second day-night international on Friday, taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Pakistan squandered an opening stand of 126 between openers Sarfraz Ahmed (65) and Ahmed Shahzad (61) and were bowled out for 215 in 49.3 overs.

Dar promises steady GDP growth

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has assured the international community that Pakistan will maintain a steady GDP growth rate despite the adverse affects of this year’s floods and the politics of sit-ins.

In his address to South Asian experts and students at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, the minister said that recent reforms had already led to “a remarkable turnaround” in almost all macro-economic indicators.

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DINA for the issue of October 10, 2014

October 10, 2014 Leave a comment

DAWN

INTERNET NEWS ALERT

October 10, 2014 | Zilhaj 14, 1435

The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.

PM visits hideouts cleared of militants

From the Newspaper

MIRAMSHAH: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited on Thursday a bazaar in North Waziristan’s Miramshah town where he saw the militant hideouts destroyed during the Zarb-i-Azb military operation.

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Two women among three killed in Indian firing

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

SIALKOT: Three more civilians, two women among them, were killed by unprovoked Indian shelling on the border villages of Rorki-Harpal and Zafarwal along the Sialkot Working Boundary on Thursday.

The death toll rose to 13 in four days of intensified shelling by the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF).

Times have changed, warns Modi

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

“Today, when bullets are being fired on the border, it is the enemy that is screaming,” Mr Modi told an election rally in Maharashtra where state polls are scheduled to be held on Oct 15.

Exchange of allegations continues: Desire for peace should not be misunderstood: Asif

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on Thursday that Pakistan’s desire for peace and goodwill should not be misunderstood.

KP challenged OGDCL sale with ‘unclean hands’: centre

Nasir Iqbal

Realising the urgency of the matter, the appeal will be taken up on Friday by a two-judge Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

Footprints: King of the road

Saher Baloch

The calls are not made by bus conductors but by drivers of bike-rickshaws known as Qingqis parked in a row near the traffic intersection.

Literature Nobel goes to French author

Reuters

Relatively unknown outside of France and a media recluse, Mr Modiano’s works have centred on memory, oblivion, identity and guilt. He has written novels, children’s books and film scripts.

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Modi asks Pak to show ‘seriousness’ for talks

Anwar Iqbal

UNITED NATIONS: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Pakistan on Saturday to engage with India in a ‘serious dialogue’ but asked his Pakistani counterpart not to use the UN General Assembly for raising the Kashmir issue.

He also seemed to attach a precondition for the resumption of bilateral talks — that it should be held in an atmosphere “without the shadow of terrorism”.

In his first speech at the UN General Assembly, Mr Modi focused on presenting India as an emerging power, ready to play its role on the international stage.

Without making a direct reference to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s speech on Friday in which he had insisted on a plebiscite in Kashmir, Mr Modi said: “Raising issues in this forum is not the way to make progress towards resolving issues.”

In his speech at the assembly, Mr Sharif had also described Kashmir as the “core issue”, which needed to be resolved to bring peace to South Asia. He had also blamed India for the cancellation of foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries last month.

The Indian leader told the international community that India placed the highest priority on advancing friendship and cooperation with its neighbours, including Pakistan.

“A nation’s destiny is linked to its neighbourhood. That’s why my government has placed the highest priority on advancing friendship and cooperation with her neighbours,” he said, speaking in chaste Hindi.

Mr Modi declared: “I am prepared to engage in a serious bilateral dialogue with Pakistan in a peaceful atmosphere, without the shadow of terrorism, to promote our friendship and cooperation.”

But to do so, he said, “Pakistan must also take its responsibility seriously to create an appropriate environment.”

Mr Modi said that instead of discussing issues like Kashmir inside the United Nations, “we should be thinking about the victims of floods in Jammu and Kashmir”.

He said India had organised “massive” flood relief operations in parts of Kashmir held by it and had also offered assistance to Pakistan to help the victims on the other side of Line of Control.

One reason why the Indian prime minister avoided making a direct reference to Mr Sharif’s speech was that India had already responded to it earlier on Saturday.

In a “right to reply” statement, India said the Pakistani prime minister’s remarks were “untenable”.

Speaking on the floor of the General Assembly, an Indian official, Abhishek Singh, said: “The people of Jammu and Kashmir have peacefully chosen their destiny in accordance with the universally accepted democratic principles and practices and they continue to do so.”

India, he said, “reject(s) in their entirety the untenable comments of the distinguished delegate of Pakistan”.

For its part, the Pakistani government brushed aside Mr Modi’s suggestion that Mr Sharif should not have raised the Kashmir issue at the UN and said a Security Council resolution had guaranteed the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir, which could not be taken away from them.

The resolution also authorised Pakistan to raise the issue at the UN, the statement said.

In his speech, Prime Minister Modi also addressed the issue of terrorism and said that South Asia continued to face the “destabilising threat of terrorism”.

“Are we really making concerted international efforts to fight these forces, or are we still hobbled by our politics, our territory or use terrorism as instruments of policy?” he asked.

Mr Modi said he was witnessing a surge of democracy in South Asia, including Afghanistan, which was “at a historic moment of democratic transition and affirmation of unity”.

Afghans, he said, were showing that their “desire for a peaceful and democratic future will prevail over violence.”

While Mr Modi was addressing the General Assembly, hundreds of Kashmiris, Sikhs and Indian Muslims were protesting outside the UN building against his alleged role in the Gujarat massacre.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Live-fire demo of torpedo, anti-ship missiles by PN

Dawn Report

ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: The Pakistan Navy on Saturday successfully performed a live-fire demonstration of torpedo and anti-ship guided missiles during testing operations in the northern Arabian Sea.

ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: The Pakistan Navy on Saturday successfully performed a live-fire demonstration of torpedo and anti-ship guided missiles during testing operations in the northern Arabian Sea.

The demonstration coincided with the start of joint exercises with the Chinese Navy near Karachi.

The two events take place weeks after the Sept 6 botched attempt to hijack the Navy’s ship, PNS Zulfiqar. The attack, allegedly with insider help, had hurt Navy’s reputation.

“The Live Weapons Firing by Pakistan Navy fleet units was a major activity undertaken to validate the lethality, precision and efficacy of Pakistan Navy’s weapon systems,” a spokesperson said.

The demonstration of live weapons firing was seen, among others, by Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Mohammad Asif Sandila. The entire testing area was cleared of merchant and fishing vessels and air traffic was also cautioned.

According to the spokesperson, the demonstration included firing of Torpedo from Agosta 90-B Class Submarine and an anti-ship guided missile from Fast Attack Missile Craft.

“All the weapons fired successfully hit the targets with pinpoint accuracy, thus reasserting the offensive punch of Pakistan Navy fleet,” he said.

“The successful live firing is reflective of fleet’s high state of readiness, professionalism and efficacy of the modern weapons system operated onboard PN platforms. It also reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures PN commitment to safeguard our maritime borders,” he added.

Pakistan Navy and Chinese 17th Navy Convoy fleet started joint exercises.

The Chinese fleet is being commanded by Rear Admiral Huang Xinjian, deputy chief of staff East Sea Fleet.

The exercise includes a harbour and a sea phase involving the surface, air and Special Forces elements.

“The exercise; being first of the series is a landmark reflection of the historic ties between the two navies as well as a true manifestation of convergence of strategic interests of the two countries which will go a long way in promoting maritime security and stability in the region,” Pakistan Navy said.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Administrative units: Altaf for talks with Sindhi scholars

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has called upon Sindhi intellectuals to resolve the issue of administrative units through dialogue.

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has called upon Sindhi intellectuals to resolve the issue of administrative units through dialogue.

“I believe in dialogue and peace. I request Sindhi intellectuals to come forward and resolve this issue peacefully as we don’t want war,” he said while speaking to a workers’ convention of his party from London via video link on Saturday.

“There are some miscreants and a few Sindhi nationalists who want to start a war,” he said, adding: “You have to keep in mind that after killing millions eventually people have to sit on the table to start a dialogue.”

The MQM chief made it clear that he did not want the division of Sindh, contending that the demand for new administrative units did not amount to calling for division of the province.

He suggested that four administrative units be set up in Sindh and named “north Sindh”, “south Sindh”, “east Sindh” and “central Sindh”. “Creation of administrative units never divide countries or regions.”

He criticised the octogenarian Sindh chief minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, and former president Asif Ali Zardari, alleging that the latter had selected the former because he “does not remember anything”.

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party had been ruling the province since long, but failed to develop roads and hospitals even in Ratodero and Naudero.

Mr Hussain said when everybody asked him not to support Mr Zardari, he decided to support him for five years. “But the PPP co-chairman did not fulfil his promise about betterment of Karachi despite my repeated requests.”

He also lashed out at the establishment for not accepting the ‘Muhajirs’ as Pakistanis and labelling the MQM as ‘anti-state, which grabbed votes at gunpoint”.

Mr Husain recalled the treatment meted out to his party by the Rangers and armed forces during the Karachi operation, posing a question to law enforcement agencies whether they would fire rubber bullets at MQM workers if they staged a sit-in in Islamabad.

Amid slogans of ‘Go Rangers Go’, he declared that those who were working on a ‘minus Altaf formula’ should realise that this would give his party’s workers the power to do whatever they wanted to do with them.

`INTRUDERS’: Turning to his party set-up, Altaf Husain said whenever he tried to purge his party of “intruders sent by the ‘agencies’, something goes wrong”.

He said that Gen Rizwan Akhtar, the former director general of Sindh Rangers, had told MQM leaders that certain Muttahida workers came to Karachi from South Africa and carried out targeted killing of Shias and Sunnis. “When I came to know about his allegations, I asked him to arrest at the airport whoever is involved and shoot them at sight.”

He recalled that once “someone told me” that some security personnel had alleged, while talking to officials of the US Consulate in Karachi, that the MQM was involved in the killing of the son-in-law of Mufti Naeem and the son of Allama Abbas Kumaili. “What else could I do except using foul language against them for their lies?”

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Two killed in Sibi bomb blast

The Newspaper’s Staff Correspondent

QUETTA: At least two people were killed and 23 others injured in a bomb explosion in Sibi on Saturday.

QUETTA: At least two people were killed and 23 others injured in a bomb explosion in Sibi on Saturday.

“A motorcycle bomb was detonated in front of a tea stall on Chakar Khan Road in the heart of town,” a police officer said. The blast was so powerful that it rocked the entire town.

A man was killed on the spot and 24 others were injured. Personnel of police and other law-enforcement agencies took the body and the injured to the Sibi District Hospital and Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

“An injured man died in a hospital,” the police officer said.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Omer Khosa and Khuda Bakhsh Khosa of Sibi.

“They were passing through the Chakar Khan Road when the motorbike blew up,” police said, adding that their bodies had been handed to heirs.

“The condition of at least four injured people is critical as they were hit by splinters and parts of the motorcycle,” police said, quoting hospital sources.

“The victims were mostly labourers who used to sit in the area to find daily wage work,” they said.

Police said it appeared that the target of the attack were common people going to the local cattle market.

The bomb disposal squad personnel collected evidence from the site and said at least 5kg of explosives had been used in the blast.

AFP quoted a police official, Nazar Mohammad, as saying that the bomb was detonated by remote control.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Imran, Qadri looking for a way out of Islamabad?

Irfan Haider

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri appear to be looking for a way out of the capital. At least that is the impression conveyed by their separate speeches on Saturday night.

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri appear to be looking for a way out of the capital. At least that is the impression conveyed by their separate speeches on Saturday night.

Mr Khan told the capacity crowd at D-Chowk that he wanted the sit-in in front of parliament to continue, but that he would go around the country to rally further support for his cause. “We’ll see on Sunday whether Lahore belongs to the Sharifs or the PTI,” he said.

Dr Qadri, who had already promised his followers that they would be home for Eid, also gave the Inqilab marchers a ‘green light’ to return home, saying they would also be taking their movement for revolution countrywide.

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Umar Riaz Abbasi, told Dawn that the party had no plan to perform animal sacrifices at the sit-in, adding that they would allow people to return to their homes for Eid, but did not specify whether they would return.

Both leaders, on Saturday, promised their supporters that they would be visiting other cities to rally support for their cause, indicating that dharna fatigue had finally started to set in on the marchers.

Imran Khan, the leader of the protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, seems to be enjoying the movement he has launched against the elected government. In his speech to a considerable Saturday night audience, he called on the prime minister – whose resignation is his basic demand – to keep his resignation in his pocket for a few more days.

“Wait a little more so that everyone knows who they are dealing with. There is no rush,” he said, in a mock childish tone, much to the joy of the audience, which responded with applause.

“We were looking forward to the day when they would confront these liars in court,” he said, referring to the PML-N government. He was happy that cases against the rulers had finally been opened and was hopeful that justice would be swift for the prime minister, the interior minister and the Islamabad police chief.

He said that the current government had already become “a thing of the past”. He also questioned the logic of Mr Sharif’s trip to New York. “He could’ve issued the same statements from Islamabad; he accomplished nothing. Look at Modi, the Indian prime minister; everyone from American businessmen to Obama are queuing to meet him,” Imran Khan said.

Tired followers

Following Dr Qadri’s announcement, PAT marchers were seen packing up their tents and preparing to return home after 45 days on Constitution Avenue. While most people were happy to finally be heading home, they were disillusioned by the futility of their presence in the capital.

Rafaqat Sheikh was removing his tattered tent with his children, while his wife was packing their luggage. A resident of Sukkur, Mr Sheikh came to the capital to take part in the PAT sit-in on August 14.

“I am a staunch believer in the cause, but it was beginning to look like life was at a standstill here,” he said.

He said that he had lost his job back home because he had been absent for too long.

“Although we are happy to be going home and celebrating Eid with our families, but where is the revolution which Dr Qadri promised us,” he asked.

Fifty-four-year-old Zameer Hussain from Muzaffargarh echoed the sentiment. He had come to Islamabad on August 15 and had heard during his stay in the capital that his home had been destroyed in the recent floods that swept the region a few weeks ago.

“I lost my home in the floods, because I wasn’t at my native village to secure our belongings,” he said.

“I know that we’ve been allowed to go back home, but where do I go? I don’t even have a home anymore,” he regretted.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Imran vows to hold rallies in all big cities

Mansoor Malik

LAHORE: Rejecting a perception that he is planning to wind up the Islamabad sit-in, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has vowed to continue his campaign to awaken the nation by holding public meetings in major cities across Pakistan.

“I knew that I will be able to defeat the status quo in Pakistani politics when the whole nation will stand by me,” he said as the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns in Lahore resonated with the “Go Nawaz Go” slogan.

Addressing a mammoth gathering on Sunday, Mr Khan challenged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to bring in his home-town only 10 per cent of the people attending his rally.

Lauding the masses’ passion for getting rid of what he called the corrupt and fake-mandated PML-N government, the PTI leader said he was on a mission to awaken the nation against slavery and injustices.

As he announced that he would hold his next public gatherings in Mianwali and Multan, Mr Khan said he feared that Nawaz Sharif might resign now. “Nawaz Sharif don’t resign so soon because I want to awaken the entire nation against the politics of status quo that has deprived the masses of their basic human rights,” he said sarcastically.

Stating that today’s Pakistan was only for those amassing wealth at the cost of the poor, Mr Khan said the ‘Naya Pakistan’ was in the making and it would ensure justice to all, offer a uniform education system and syllabus for everyone. “We need to support the 110 million Pakistanis who are being forced to live below the poverty line because the rulers were squandering public money for their personal comforts.”

The PTI chief sought pledges from the people at the rally and also from the masses at large not to allow injustice against anyone.

Reiterating his allegations about massive rigging in the 2013 general elections, Mr Khan said he had the experience of the system of justice in the country and found “there is no institution in Pakistan that can dispense impartial justice”.

He said all those who had stolen his party’s mandate would be punished under Article 6 of the Constitution.

He said all political parties had joined hands to protect the status quo in the name of saving democracy, adding that all of them wanted to save the wealth they had amassed by plundering public resources.

Accusing Nawaz Sharif of having stolen public mandate, the PTI chief warned him that he would not let him live peacefully until getting justice.

He called upon the Election Commission of Pakistan to upload Form 4 on its website that would reveal results declared by polling in each constituency.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014

Seven killed in Peshawar coach blast

Ali Hazrat Bacha

PESHAWAR: At least seven people were killed and six injured when a powerful blast hit a passenger coach here on Thursday.

PESHAWAR: At least seven people were killed and six injured when a powerful blast hit a passenger coach here on Thursday.

Police said explosives left in two bags went off in the Parachinar-bound coach on Kohat Road.

Capital City Police Officer Ejaz Khan told Dawn that a man had placed the bags in the rear of the vehicle. He asked the driver to wait for him that he was coming back with women accompanying him.

An officer of the bomb disposal squad said the bags contained over 5kg of explosives.

“There is a rush of people going to their native areas to celebrate Eidul Azha with their families,” a police official said. The blast caused suspension of traffic on the road for about an hour.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Najeebur Rehman Bhagvi said the blast could be a reaction to the army operation in North Waziristan. He said all terrorist outfits, including Al Qaeda, had joined hands and were carrying out such attacks.

Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Rescue Services 1122, said it was difficult to retrieve bodies from the remains of the van. Three of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, he said. The other bodies were identified as those of Jamil Hussain of the Frontier Constabulary, passerby Fazal Khan of Bazidkhel, security guard Sadaqat Ali, who was coming from Karachi to celebrate Eid with family, and Imtiaz Hussain.

Lady Reading Hospital’s spokesman Syed Jamil Shah confirmed that three bodies could not be identified. Syed Sarfaraz Ali Shah, Shahid Rehman (driver), Amjad Ali and Ishtiaq Hussain are among the six injured.

The van was completely burnt, but three CNG tanks were found intact.

The blast damaged nearby shops at the Bazidkhel bus stop.

According to police, seven bombs were defused on Thursday. “Today was the worst day in my professional career,” AIG Shafqat Malik, head of the bomb disposal unit said. It appeared that the bombs were intended to destroy an electric pylon and hit police and a convoy of law-enforcement personnel, he said.

“Imagine what would have happened if all the bombs had gone off.” These bombs were of advanced quality. A pipe-bomb had the expertise possessed only by Al Qaeda, he said. “Tough days are ahead,” he added.

A tower of Sakhi Chashma-Shahi Bagh transmission line was partially damaged when an attempt was made to blow it up early in the morning.

A news agency quoted police officers as saying that the motive of the attack was not clear, but it was suspected to be of a sectarian nature.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Three die in Gilgit as bomb destroys vehicle

Jamil Ahmed Nagri

GILGIT: A bomb hit a passenger van on Gilgit-Skardu road on Thursday, leaving at least three people dead and 10 others injured.

GILGIT: A bomb hit a passenger van on Gilgit-Skardu road on Thursday, leaving at least three people dead and 10 others injured.

Police sources said the van was heading for Haramosh valley, a predominantly Shia area some 40km from Gilgit city, when it was hit by the bomb near Alam bridge.

Van driver M. Aqil, Mushtaq and Syed Sabir were killed on the spot, the sources said. Those injured were two-year-old Safina, Zainab, Bintul Huda, Umrana, Sidrah Zahra, Shama, Essa Khan, Naveed Hussain, Mazhar and Sulaiman.

The powerful bomb triggered by remote control destroyed the van.

The sources said the injured and the bodies were moved to the district hospital in Gilgit. They said the condition of the injured persons was stable.

Experts of bomb disposal squad were dispatched to the area to investigate the incident.

The Shia Ulema Council has announced a three-day mourning period in protest against the bomb attack.

AFP adds: “The incident occurred near Haramosh village on Gilgit-Skardu road when a passenger van was hit by a roadside bomb blast,” Zain Muhammad, a police official in Gilgit, said.

He said that all the passengers belonged to Shia community. “It’s a sectarian attack, the passenger van was going to Haramosh which is a completely Shia-populated valley,” he said.

“It was a roadside bomb blast, but we are trying to confirm whether it was triggered by a timer device or remote control device,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Commission finds irregularities in NA-125 election

Wajih Ahmad Sheikh

LAHORE: A commission appointed to examine polling bags and other records in NA-125, Lahore, has found several irregularities in the election, which was won by Khwaja Saad Rafiq of the PML-N.

LAHORE: A commission appointed to examine polling bags and other records in NA-125, Lahore, has found several irregularities in the election, which was won by Khwaja Saad Rafiq of the PML-N.

Lawyer Hamid Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, who was the runner-up in the constituency, had challenged the result before an election tribunal and sought to inspect the polling record.

Know more: ECP says 40 presiding officers were replaced at PTI candidate’s request

The hearing of the petition was transferred to Faisalabad after the PTI candidate showed distrust in the presiding officer of the Lahore election tribunal. The Faisalabad tribunal appointed a retired district and sessions judge, Sheikh Mohammad Tareef, as head of the commission, which submitted its report to the tribunal on Sept 29.

The petitioner’s side will carry out cross-examination on Saturday (Oct 4).

The head of the commission said in his report: “After examining each and every polling bag and minutely viewing the state of affairs carried out in this constituency, there is gross mismanagement and the polling personnel carried out the election process clumsily for reasons best known to them.

“The polling bag of each polling station shows that the process of the election carried out is the result of gross mismanagement.

“There were 265 polling stations and for each station one polling bag was assigned, but assistant returning officer (ARO) produced 253 polling bags out of that a number of them were related to provincial assembly constituency. Thereafter 179 more polling bags were produced before the commission making a total 432 polling bags.

“The available polling bags contained waste and litter having a smeary dirt and mixture of disagreeable to the sight that reflected carelessness of polling personnel.

“In fact each polling bag of entire constituency is in the condition of such a mess that it can be said to be a trash and rubbish for reasons best known to the polling personnel.”

On close examination of bags, the report said, the commission found worthless things in a heap of litter and nothing was left for inspection.

It said that the polling staff failed to record what sort of articles were received from the returning officer (RO) and which articles had been consumed on the day of election. Polling bag of each polling station did not carry the essential record. The RO had not performed his duty regarding issuance of the inventory of articles to each polling station.

The report said that in the absence of inventory record, the evaluation of the ballot papers counted by the polling officer could not be held. Since everything had been done clumsily, no record was recovered from the dirt and litter of each polling bag as the polling personnel did not perform duty properly.

“Even voter list was not found from a large number of the polling bags. And where voter list was found the ballot papers were not tallied with the number of votes.

“The record of invalid votes was not found in any polling bag of the constituency, therefore, the question of recording any finding about rejection of votes did not arise.”

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Evidence needed for decision in PM case, says SC judge

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: A petitioner seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was puzzled when the Supreme Court asked him on Thursday if he would be willing to produce Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif as his witness to help the court reach a right conclusion.

“The crucial point in the controversy at hand is a closed door meeting between the prime minister and the army chief,” observed Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, a member of a three-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja.

Also read: PM’s disqualification: CJ rejects petition for formation of larger bench

The bench had taken up three identical petitions moved by PTI leader Ishaq Khakwani, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Advocate Gohar Nawaz Sindhu requesting the court to order disqualification of the prime minister for allegedly falsely stating in a joint session of parliament on Aug 29 that the government had not asked the army to mediate and become a guarantor between the government and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek to end the current political impasse.

On Thursday, the court only heard Gohar Sindhu, representing the vice president of PTI lawyers’ wing.

Justice Dost Mohammad said it would be very difficult for the court to decide the matter unless some tangible evidence was brought before it. And the primary evidence in the case, he added, was the witness or at least the affidavit of the army chief because he was the only person who could confirm or deny the version on which the petitioner was agitating, especially when the prime minister himself was the respondent in the case and whose disqualification was being sought.

He said the court had to do justice by applying the Constitution, adding that the crucial point in this case was the closed door meeting between the prime minister and the army chief.

Advocate Sindhu pointed out that a military spokesperson stated that it was the government which had asked the army chief to mediate between the government and the protesting parties.

But Justice Dost Khan said that prime facie the joint sitting of parliament reposed complete confidence in the prime minister. If the prime minister had to be disqualified for telling a lie because he was not sagacious and ameen then what would be the fate of other members of the National Assembly and Senate who reposed confidence in him, he asked.

Advocate Sindhu then referred to Article 227 of the Constitution which ensures that all laws should be brought in conformity with the Quran and Sunnah and requires that members should be honest and not tell lies.

“If we strictly follow Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution which deal with pre- and post-election qualification of the members then the entire parliament will stand disqualified because the Islamic injunctions require abolishment of ‘Riba’ (interest), but we draw salary as other government servants and parliamentarians do under the interest-based financial system,” Justice Dost Khan observed.

The counsel said the court should not be afraid of taking any extreme step even if heavens fall.

Justice Mushir Alam asked the petitioner to consider the fetters the Constitution had placed protecting the members under Article 63(p) and said a member could not be disenfranchised unless he was convicted by a competent court of law.

He also asked if there was any law which attracted disqualification of a member if the same had been rejected by the National Assembly speaker. “What remedy you have after the speaker’s refusal to disqualify a member,” Justice Alam asked.

The court adjourned the proceedings with an observation that it had to determine maintainability of the petition and the procedure to be adopted in case the court decided that it had the jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The court asked the petitioner to consider filing an amended petition because all his references derived from the provisions before the 18th Amendment.

The case will be taken up on Oct 16.

SPEAKER’S RULING: In a related development, Advocate Mohammad Azhar Siddique filed in the Supreme Court a petition challenging the Sept 25 ruling of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq rejecting a reference also seeking disqualification of the prime minister.

The petitioner contended that the ruling was against the law and the Constitution and, therefore, the prime minister should be declared disqualified under Article 62 (1 e) of the Constitution, read with Section 99 of Representation of People’s Act 1976.

He requested the court to interpret Article 66 (1) by laying down a principle that nobody was above the law and immunity, if so provided, was not absolute.

In his ruling, the speaker stated that the Aug 29 debate in the National Assembly revealed that the allegations made in the reference were factually incorrect and that Article 66 (1) required that any statement of a member called for an internal proceeding.

The provision also protected a member of parliament from any proceeding for anything said by him at the forum of parliament, the ruling said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Pakistan may break own record on polio cases

AFP

ISLAMABAD: Health officials said the country was set to break its record for the highest number of polio cases in a year as seven more cases were confirmed on Thursday, raising the tally to 194.

ISLAMABAD: Health officials said the country was set to break its record for the highest number of polio cases in a year as seven more cases were confirmed on Thursday, raising the tally to 194.

“If it [number of cases] reaches 200, we will cross our own record of 199 in year 2000,” said Rana Mohammad Safdar, a senior official at the Pakistan National Institute of Health.

A World Health Organisation official in Islamabad said the figure was likely to cross 200 by year-end.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic but efforts to stamp it out have been badly hit in recent years by attacks on immunisation teams.

Mr Safdar, who heads the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, said that at least 130 of the cases reported were from northwestern tribal areas that border Afghanistan and house sanctuaries for militants.

The militants allege polio vaccination is a cover for espionage or Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.

The WHO official said the Pakistani strain of the virus had allegedly spread to neighbouring Afghan provinces. Afghanistan has recorded a total of seven cases this year.

Polio cases reached a low of 28 in 2005 but rose to 198 in 2011. In 2012, Pakistan had 58 cases while 72 were recorded in 2013.

Officials said tens of thousands of children were missing a polio eradication campaign every year “because of the law and order situation” in tribal areas as well as family and parents unwilling or afraid to vaccinate.

As the country moves into its post-monsoon period, officials fear the final figure could rise as high as 250.

Ikram Junaidi adds from Islamabad: Seven more polio cases were confirmed by Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, raising the number of cases reported this year to 194.

An official of the ministry of national health services requesting anonymity said three cases each were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The seventh patient belongs to Sindh.

The children affected by the virus are: four-month-old Zubair, son of Zafar. The baby could not be vaccinated. He and another patient from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa belong to Peshawar. The third one lives in Mardan.

Two of the three children of Fata affected by polio virus belong to Khyber Agency and one to North Waziristan.

The seventh case was reported from Gadap Town in Karachi, the official said.

Another official of the ministry said that security environment in the country was not good, yet the government had been trying to eradicate the virus.

“Nowhere in the world 64 polio team members and police officials guarding them have been killed and as many as 47 have suffered serious injuries. These incidents have occurred in Fata, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Imran says farmers neglected by all govts

Khursheed Anwar Khan

MIANWALI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said on Thursday that his party had exposed what he called election rigging by the PML-N and he would ensure that its leadership did not go unpunished.

He said there was nothing wrong in raising slogans. “Even children are chanting slogans of ‘Go Nawaz go’ which is legally not punishable in a democratic society.”

Addressing a large public meeting in his hometown of Mianwali, Mr Khan said the number of people gathered there confirmed that the present system did not have popular support.

Analysts here described the meeting as the largest in Mianwali’s history. They particularly pointed out the presence of hundreds of women at the meeting in a conservative area dominated by tribal customs. There was a special enclosure for women wearing veil.

The PTI chief said farmers in the district and other parts of country had been neglected by successive governments. “Farmers are the backbone of the country and I will support them.”

He said the present regime supported industrialists and ruined farmers. He said Indian farmers were provided all kinds of facilities on nominal charges by the government, but in Pakistan farmers were facing hardships and struggling for survival.

He said farmers in Mianwali were receiving electricity bills of as much as Rs600,000 per month for their turbines. How can they survive in such a situation. A flat-rate tariff regime is the only solution to the problem.

Mr Khan said he was in favour of the local bodies system and transfer of funds and resources to the village level. Funds should not be given to MNAs and MPAs. He announced that the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would soon hold local bodies’ elections in the province.

He said his dream was to build Namal University Mianwali to meet the dire need of the area, but the project was delayed because of hindrances created by the rulers in allotment of land. He said it would be a model university and students from other parts of country would get admission here and Mianwali would become an educational hub in near future.

He called for early completion of the Cadet College Mianwali which had been shifted to some other place in the district and was still no-functional.

The PTI chief said his Islamabad sit-in would continue till the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. However, he said, he wanted the prime minister to delay his resignation because that would give him time to continue his tour and spread the message of change and ‘new Pakistan’ across the country.

Earlier, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi congratulated the people of Mianwali on the success of the meeting and thanked them for electing Imran Khan twice from the area. It proved that Mianwali was really the hometown of Imran Khan, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Pakistan hails US-Afghan agreement

Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday cautiously welcomed the signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) by Afghanistan and the United States after the latter clarified that counter-terrorism operations under the agreement would be restricted to within Afghan borders.

“As regards BSA, Afghanistan is a sovereign country. It is their right to conclude agreements with any country,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at the weekly media briefing.

Know more: Afghanistan, US sign long-awaited security pact

She further said that Pakistan government wished “Afghanistan the best and we will continue to facilitate all efforts, to the extent possible, for creating stability, peace and prosperity in Afghanistan”.

Pakistan has in the past expressed reservations about the BSA, but at the same time has remained opposed to precipitate withdrawal of foreign troops from the war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Islamabad’s fears about the agreement pertained to a provision about action against states that threatened the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and implications of long-term presence of US troops in the region.

However, Pakistan agreed to support the agreement after a clarification by the US, according to an American official, that: “The provisions (of BSA) related to counter-terrorism operations relate only to operations within Afghanistan.”

The spokesperson reiterated Pakistan’s demand for Afghanistan taking coordinated steps on the other side of the Durand Line in support of Operation Zarb-i-Azb.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan share a very long border. While we are in the midst of a decisive operation against militants, which is proceeding very successfully, it is essential that there is action from the other side as well,” she said.

She also reminded about the need for better border management.

“We have given a number of proposals to Afghanistan and we hope to proceed further on it,” she added.

INDIA: The spokesperson avoided clarifying the controversy kicked up by Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz’s comments that the timing of meeting of the high commissioner with Kashmiri leaders, which led to cancellation of foreign secretaries’ talks, was inappropriate.

Instead of commenting on the controversial remark, she said: “the thrust of what he said was that we will continue to meet the Kashmiri leadership whenever we consider it necessary.”

“By way of explanation, he (Mr Aziz) said that whenever Pakistan and India hold talks on substantive mattes related to Jammu and Kashmir, we always hold talks with the Kashmiri leaders to take their views on board,” she added.

MUSHAHID PROPOSAL: The spokesperson rejected as legally impracticable a proposal made by Senate Defence Committee chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain for converting the Siachen into a peace park.

Senator Mushahid, who this week led a Senate Defence Committee delegation to Siachen, also suggested demilitarisation of Siachen and joint Pak-India efforts for preserving the environment and dealing with climate change.

“The de-militarisation of Siachen and making it a peace park has been under discussion in the past as well. India was, however, not willing to withdraw troops without authentication of actual position that they held. This was legally not possible,” she said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Brawl over anti-PM slogans in Wazirabad

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

GUJRANWALA: Activists of the PML-N, led by an MPA, thrashed supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for raising the slogan of “Go Nawaz go’ after the prime minister had left the venue of a ceremony in Wazirabad on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif distributed compensation cheques among flood-affected people at the ceremony. After he left the place, a group of people started shouting the slogan. Taufeeq Butt, a member of the Punjab Assembly, got off his car and, joined by PML-N activists, beat them up.

Know more: PML-N threatens ‘go Imran go’ campaign

“We will hit them with shoes if they raise this slogan again,” Butt warned while talking to a private TV channel. He asked the PTI to rein in its supporters. “They can raise slogans in their meetings but they can’t spoil others’ show.”

In her tweet after the incident, Maryam Nawaz Sharif warned PTI supporters “not to mess with the lions”. She said PML-N workers had had enough of the PTI’s vandalism and added that supporters of the party would find no place to hide if the PML-N hit back.

She said her party’s policy of “restraint and civility” should not be misconstrued as its weakness.

PM’S ASSURANCE: Earlier speaking at the ceremony, the prime minister assured flood-affected people that the government would help them in rebuilding their houses and restoring their normal life.

He said Rs25,000 paid to each flood-affected person was the first instalment of compensation for the losses they had suffered. The second instalment would be given to them on Oct 20.

Mr Sharif appealed to the rich to come forward to help the helpless as it was their moral and religious duty. He said floods had affected 600,000 families and damaged crops over two million acres of land.

The premier was told in a briefing that 21 centres had been set up in flood-affected areas of Gujranwala division.

He was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, some ministers and parliamentarians.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Petitions against PM to be taken up today

Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: As the Supreme Court resumes hearing on Thursday disqualification cases against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly misleading parliament, one of the petitioners has expressed reservations against the presiding judge and pleaded that the judge should recuse himself from the bench.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja will commence hearing a set of three identical petitions moved by PTI leader Ishaq Khakwani, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and Advocate Gohar Nawaz Sindhu.

All three petitioners have asked the court to order the disqualification of the prime minister for his alleged misstatement on the floor of the house during the recently-concluded joint session of parliament.

On August 29, the petitions maintain, the PM claimed that the government had not asked the armed forces to ‘mediate’ and become a ‘guarantor’ between the government and the protesting parties.

Mr Sindhu and Chaudhry Shujaat have filed separate applications requesting Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk to consider constituting a seven-judge larger bench to hear the cases. Ishaq Khakwani – through his counsel Irfan Qadir – has filed a different plea, expressing reservations on behalf of the PTI against the presiding judge. But Mr Sindhu’s request for a larger bench has already been turned down by the chief justice.

Former attorney general Irfan Qadir told Dawn that the PTI maintained in its application, that it had always had concerns regarding the judge in question, but the apprehensions were lent credence at the last hearing of the case on Sept 29. On that day, the judge and the PTI counsel had a brief but uncordial exchange regarding the petitioner’s presence in court when their case was first called.

The application alleges that members of the bar have expressed serious reservations over some of the judge’s decisions. The petition states that while the applicant is aware that he cannot choose his own judge. But he has every right to object to a particular judge when there are serious apprehensions of an unfair trial.

The petitioner has also offered to furnish reasons and supporting documents to substantiate their fears, if the bench wishes to examine them.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Four killed in Quetta grenade attacks

Saleem Shahid

QUETTA: Four people, two teenage boys among them, were killed and nine others injured in two grenade attacks here on Wednesday.

QUETTA: Four people, two teenage boys among them, were killed and nine others injured in two grenade attacks here on Wednesday.

“A barber’s shop and a photo studio were targeted by the assailants,” police official Imran Qureshi said.

The United Baloch Front (UBF) claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Police said men on a motorcycle hurled a grenade at the barber’s shop in Killi Langovabad area on the busy Double Road.

The device exploded outside the shop, killing one man and injuring 10.

Soon after the blast, the area reverberated with gunshots.

Police and FC personnel took the victims to the civil hospital.

Also read: Three killed in deadly Quetta attack

“Two of the seriously injured who were in their teens died in hospital,” police said. The condition of the other injured was stable.

The barber’s and several other shops were damaged.

The dead were identified as Ghulam Shabbir, the shop-owner; Shahrukh Khan and Mohammad Sultan Zehri.

Shortly afterwards, a photographer’s shop on Sariab Road came under a similar attack. The owner, Mohammad Afzal, and his employee Mohammad Asif were injured.

Police took both to the hospital where Asif died.

Calling from an unspecified place, UBF spokesman Musa Surbaz told reporters that his organisation was behind the attacks.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

NWA operation progressing satisfactorily: army chief

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The army’s top brass gathered on Wednesday for the monthly corps commanders meeting.

ISLAMABAD: The army’s top brass gathered on Wednesday for the monthly corps commanders meeting.

“Matters of professional interest were discussed during the 175th corps commanders’ conference held at General Headquarters and presided over by the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif,” a military spokesman said.

The agenda of the meeting mostly related to the ongoing Zarb-i-Azb operation in North Waziristan.

“General Sharif expressed satisfaction on the progress of the operation and lauded the successes made so far,” the spokesman said.

It was the last meeting for four corps commanders, who are retiring this month. They include Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani and Lt Gen Tariq Khan (retiring on Oct 2), Lt Gen Saleem Nawaz (Oct 20) and Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Oct 25).

The meeting may also be the last for the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence, Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam, who will retire on Nov 7.

Gen Sharif paid tribute to the retiring officials and praised their services.

The duration of the conference was reduced because two of the participants had proceeded for Haj.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

ECP wants power to suspend legislators over assets

Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has proposed that lawmakers who fail to submit details of assets to the commission within the stipulated time period be suspended from membership of the house for 60 days.

The proposal is part of the unified draft election law prepared by the ECP, but experts believe it needs to be refined because, in its present form, it sets two ‘last dates’ for the purpose.

Also read: Over 500 lawmakers fail to file statements of assets, liabilities

The proposed law requires members of parliament and provincial assemblies to annually submit statements of their assets and liabilities, as well as those of their spouses and dependents. The law stipulates that the names of those who fail to do so by Oct 15 every year, be made public. Under the proposed law, the commission is also seeking powers to suspend the membership of such legislators for two months through an order to be issued on Oct 16.

Any member who fails to submit the statement of assets after his suspension will remain suspended till the filing of the document.

Under the draft law, the commission shall determine the veracity of each lawmaker’s statement of assets and liabilities in any manner it may deem necessary and may seek the assistance of any authority, agency or department in the federation or a province.

Missing statements

Meanwhile, a day after the last date prescribed by law for the submission of asset details, around 400 lawmakers, including at least four federal ministers and a minister of state as well as a number of provincial ministers, were yet to file their statements. They include Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Safron Minister retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Sadruddin Shah and Minister of State for Postal Services Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.

Other prominent defaulters include Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, senators Taj Haider and Israrullah Zehri, Faryal Talpur, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Shafqat Mehmood, Arif Alvi, Asad Umar, Sardar Owais Leghari, Daniyal Aziz and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.

Sources told Dawn that PTI chief Imran Khan submitted the statement after office hours on Tuesday, taking advantage of an ECP courtesy, as the commission continued to receive documents until midnight on the last date, i.e. Sept 30.

The MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattar and PPP’s Mian Raza Rabbani were among those who submitted their asset statements on Wednesday.

In all, 776 from a total of around 1,140 lawmakers had submitted their statements of assets and liabilities by Wednesday, October 1. They include 88 senators, 270 members of the National Assembly, 197 members of the Punjab Assembly, 114 members of the Sindh Assembly, 71 members of the KP Assembly and 36 members of the Balochistan Assembly.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Pact signed to keep US troops in Afghanistan

Reuters

KABUL: Officials from Afghanistan and the United States on Tuesday signed a long-delayed security agreement to allow American troops to stay in the country after the end of the year, fulfilling a campaign promise by new President Ashraf Ghani.

Afghan National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar and US Ambassador James Cunningham signed the bilateral security agreement in a televised ceremony at the presidential palace, one day after Mr Ghani was inaugurated as president.

“As an independent country… we signed this agreement for stability, goodwill, and prosperity of our people, stability of the region and the world,” Mr Ghani said in a speech after the signing.

Mr Cunningham said the pact showed that the US remained committed to Afghanistan, where foreign forces helped provide security since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban government.

“It is a choice by the United States to continue cooperating with our Afghan partners on two important security missions: training and equipping Afghan forces and supporting cooperation against terrorism,” Mr Cunningham said.

Minutes after the security pact was signed, a similar agreement with Nato was ratified to allow the alliance’s European members to contribute to a residual foreign force.

Mr Ghani said in his speech that the agreement did not compromise Afghanistan’s sovereignty and that either side had the right to withdraw from the pact within two years.

“The right to use force will be based on decisions by the Afghan government,” he said. “Our airspace will be under our own control. International forces will not be able to enter mosques or other holy sites.”

Mr Ghani was inaugurated on Monday and called on the Taliban to join peace talks. He formed a unity government with election rival Abdullah Abdullah after a prolonged standoff over vote results that ended in a deal to make Mr Ghani president and Mr Abdullah a chief executive in the government with broad powers.

The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces and the US-backed government, have taken advantage of the paralysis in Kabul to launch attacks in an attempt to regain strategic territory in provinces such as Helmand in the south and Kunduz in the north.

The Taliban denounced on Tuesday the agreement and described it as a “sinister” plot by the US to control Afghanistan and restore its “international credibility” as a military superpower.

“Under the name of the security agreement, today Americans want to prepare themselves for another non-obvious and very dangerous fight,” the Taliban said in a statement emailed to the media.

“With their bulk of artifices and deceptions they want to hoodwink the people. They think that the Afghan people do not know about their conspiracies and their sinister goals.”

Dawn Correspondent Anwar Iqbal adds from Washington: Welcoming the security pact, President Barack Obama said it “provides our military service members the necessary legal framework to carry out two critical missions after 2014: targeting the remnants of Al Qaeda and training, advising, and assisting Afghan National Security Forces”.

He said the agreement laid “the foundation for a partnership that will help advance our shared interests and the long-term security of Afghanistan”.

The outgoing Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had delayed the signing for two years, insisting that it was not in Afghanistan’s interest to do so.

According to documents released in Washington, the agreement calls for the deployment of around 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan for another 10 years. America’s Nato partners will also contribute to this force.

The US forces will have nine bases in the country, including in provinces that border Iran and Pakistan. They will have immunity from Afghan courts.

The agreement will restore “full sovereignty” to Afghanistan on Jan 1, 2015. Since the US invasion in October 2001, Afghanistan has had only “limited sovereignty”.

The pact retains an arrangement President Karzai made with the United States in October 2013, which forbids US from carrying out attacks on Afghan soil without first consulting the Afghan authorities.

It also retains an understanding the US reached with Afghanistan in October 2013: US forces would not protect Afghanistan from external attack because it could get mired in a war with Pakistan.

President Obama said the agreement was “an invitation from the Afghan government to strengthen the relationship we have built over the past 13 years”.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

India criticised for sabotaging efforts for Siachen peace

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, has criticised the Indian military establishment for sabotaging all efforts for peace in Siachen.

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, has criticised the Indian military establishment for sabotaging all efforts for peace in Siachen.

India, he said, had consistently rejected all proposals made by Pakistan for peace in Siachen, even in the aftermath of the Giyari tragedy.

He was addressing the troops during a visit to Siachen along with members of the committee.

About two and a half years ago, an avalanche had killed 140 soldiers and officers of the army in Giyari.

The delegation laid a wreath at the monument for the martyrs of Giyari.

According to a press release, Mr Hussain expressed concern over consequences of climate change and global warming which has adverse consequences in Siachen because of freak weather incidents like the Giyari avalanche.

He urged India to cooperate with Pakistan and other South Asian countries to jointly formulate a regional strategy to cope with the climate change threat.

Mr Hussain presented to army officials a media manual on climate change prepared by the committee.

The senators’ visit was for expressing solidarity, on behalf of parliament and political forces, with the valiant soldiers and officers defending the motherland on the world’s toughest terrain.

Mr Hussain lauded the valour, morale and determination of the troops in performing their duty under extremely difficult conditions when in the peak of winter temperature falls to minus 50 degrees centigrade.

He said the people of Pakistan were proud of their armed forces and could never forget their sacrifices in defending every inch of the country despite being outnumbered by an adversary superior in numbers and weaponry, but not in fighting spirit, morale and motivation.

He told the troops that members of the committee were their voice in parliament and would do their utmost to protect and promote the good name and image of the armed forces, especially their committed role in Siachen.

During their two-day visit, the senators first landed in Skardu where they were briefed army officials before flying to Giyari.

They flew to a strategic military post in Siachen, located at Bilafond-la, at a height of about 17,000 feet, not far from where the Indian army is based at the Line of Actual Contact.

After their return from Bilafond-la, they received another briefing at the brigade headquarters at Goma at a height of about 10,500 feet.

Sabir Ali Baloch, acting chairman of the Senate, and Haji Adeel also addressed the troops and expressed solidarity with and support for the armed forces.

Other members of the delegation were Mohsin Leghari, Abdur Rauf and Dr Saeeda Iqbal.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Petrol price reduced by Rs2.94

Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD: The government reduced on Tuesday prices of the petroleum products.

ISLAMABAD: The government reduced on Tuesday prices of the petroleum products.

According to an official statement, the prime minister approved the reduction on the recommendation of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority.

The ex-depot price of petrol was reduced by Rs2.94 to Rs103.62 from Rs106.56 per litre.

The ex-depot price of high speed diesel was set at Rs107.39, down by 95 paisa, from Rs108.34 per litre.

The price of HOBC was cut by Rs1.88 to Rs131.13 from Rs133.01 per litre.

The price of light diesel oil was decreased by 67 paisa to Rs91.41 from Rs92.08 per litre.

The kerosene price was reduced by Rs1.31 to Rs95.68 from Rs96.99 per litre.

Apart from the petroleum levy of Rs6 to Rs14 per litre, the government charges 16 per cent general sales tax on all oil products.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Threats can’t force mid-term polls: Shah

Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah has said that threats cannot force mid-term elections in the country and the PPP does not support any such action.

ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah has said that threats cannot force mid-term elections in the country and the PPP does not support any such action.

“It will not be appropriate, if someone talks about mid-term polls in a threatening manner. I personally don’t approve of this. However, it will be a different issue, if a situation arises that (the Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharif himself decides to go for mid-term polls,” Mr Shah said while talking to reporters here on Tuesday.

The opposition leader also told the reporters that he had sent a legal notice to PTI chief Imran Khan for allegedly defaming him through allegations of corruption.

Through the notice, a copy of which is available with Dawn, Mr Shah asked Mr Khan to publicly issue an apology for levelling false allegations and pay Rs10 billion as damages within 14 days of the receipt of the notice. The notice has been served through PPP Senator Raza Rabbani.

The PTI chief in his recent speeches had alleged that the leader of the opposition was supporting the PML-N government because two corruption cases were pending against him in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

During his chat with reporters, Mr Shah lashed out at Mr Khan for his speech in the public meeting in Karachi in which Mr Khan had said that he had come to Sindh to wake up the people of Sindh.

“Imran Khan lives in a fools’ paradise. Sindhis are 8,000- year-old nation. Sindhis are poor, but they are awakened,” the PPP leader said.

Mr Shah said the PPP was holding a public meeting in Karachi on Oct 18 to support continuation of democracy and the event would prove that the people of Sindh were happy with the PPP government. He said the people of Sindh had rejected calls for Sindhu Desh and they had always voted for the federation.

Mr Shah said that the PPP was playing the role of a true opposition, saying that at a time when the PTI leadership was hurling abuses at the government from the container, the PPP was highlighting shortcomings of the government in parliament.

He said the prime minister was facing a difficult time because he had failed to fulfil promises he had made to the people during the election campaign.

He advised Mr Khan not to raise expectations of the people because he could also face the same fate. He warned that there would be serious threats to the federation, if PTI and PAT sit-ins succeeded.

The PPP leader said PTI’s vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his speech on the floor of the parliament did not talk about resignations. Similarly, he said, 18 PTI MNAs attended the session, but they also stayed silent, indicating that perhaps the resignations had been obtained forcibly from them. He said it had become necessary for the NA speaker to verify resignations.

Mr Shah reiterated his proposal to reduce the term of the government to four years, adding that this amendment could be made in the Constitution even through the parliamentary committee which was busy in finalising recommendations for improving election system in the country. He said if the term of the present government was reduced to four years, it would reduce the pressure on the government.

Mr Shah claimed that the PPP was not in a “blind alley”, rather it was on a “four-lane highway”. He said the government could be in a blind alley, but the PPP would not let parliament go into a blind alley.

The PPP leader said that party’s co-chairman Asif Zardari would spend Eid days in Lahore.

He said they had asked the National Assembly speaker to allow live transmission of proceedings of the house so that the people could see the role of their elected representatives in parliament.

The PPP leader claimed that the country remained under democratic rule only for about nine and half years. He went on to say that there was “controlled democracy” even during the first two terms of both MS Benazir Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif as prime ministers. He alleged that politicians were being intentionally maligned through propaganda in the country.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

COAS inaugurates work on upgradation of counter-terror centre

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif performed on Tuesday the ground-breaking of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre being set up near Kharian.

ISLAMABAD: Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif performed on Tuesday the ground-breaking of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre being set up near Kharian.

“The centre will be a state-of-the-art facility with a large capacity to impart quality training to troops for combating terrorism, in all types of terrains,” a military spokesman said about the planned complex.

The army already has a counter-terrorism centre at the site, which is imparting training to personnel of armed forces and civilian law-enforcement agencies. It is now being upgraded as a national centre.

The army also plans to provide training to troops from other countries at the centre.

The army chief met the troops currently undergoing the training and “appreciated the standards” of training. He said “since we will have to fight the menace of terror together with other LEAs across the nook and corner of the country, the army will do its part to train paramilitary force, police, constabulary and levies at this facility”.

Gen Sharif said the “army is fully prepared to deter and defeat any form of aggression across the entire spectrum of threat”.

He said: “With its unique accomplishment of confronting both conventional and sub-conventional threat, Pakistan Army is respected for its achievements and sacrifices the world over.”

A military official said: “The new centre will focus on joint approach and progressive training. It will provide specialist training in urban, jungle and riverine operations in multiple scenarios.”

Different types of terrains would be replicated inside the complex to provide real-time training to the soldiers preparing for counter-insurgency operations.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Three-day holiday for Eidul Azha

APP

ISLAMABAD: The federal government announced on Tuesday a three-day public holiday for Eidul Azha.

ISLAMABAD: The federal government announced on Tuesday a three-day public holiday for Eidul Azha.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Interior, Oct 6, 7 and 8 (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) would be observed as public holiday.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Balochistan assembly seeks return of Khan of Kalat

Amanullah Kasi

QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly adopted on Tuesday a unanimous resolution urging the Khan of Kalat to return home from abroad and play a role in normalising the situation in the province.

QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly adopted on Tuesday a unanimous resolution urging the Khan of Kalat to return home from abroad and play a role in normalising the situation in the province.

Agha Suleman Dawood Khan went into self-exile in London after the murder of veteran Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in 2006.

The resolution, moved by opposition member Sardar Abdur Rehman Khetran of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), stated that Agha Suleman should be approached to end his exile and contribute to mainstream politics.

Mr Khetran regretted that despite the passage of 18 months the coalition government had neither contacted the Khan of Kalat nor other Baloch leaders abroad.

He said a committee of legislators should be formed to contact Agha Suleman and persuade him to return home. This will help improve the situation in Balochistan.

The house witnessed a pandemonium when the JUI-F leader described the law and order situation in the province as bad.

Five members of the treasury bench – Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai, Syed Liaquat Agha, Rehmat Baloch and Obaidullah Babat – reacted sharply to the remarks and claimed the law and order situation was quite satisfactory as compared to the past.

They said the mover should confine his speech to the contents of the resolution, adding that the previous government was responsible for the bad law and order situation in Balochistan.

The bedlam continued for several minutes as acting Speaker Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo was unable to restore order.

This led Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch to intervene and request both the treasury and opposition members to respect the decorum of the house.

Backing the resolution, he said it was his government’s desire that Agha Suleman and other Baloch leaders come back and play their role in the development of the province.

Dr Malik said the leaders who attended a recent multi-party conference had also given him the mandate to hold talks with the exiled leaders and “we are making efforts in this regard”.

He said the leadership of National Party and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the federal government’s response was very encouraging.

“The centre wants to resolve the matter amicably.”

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Rangers come under fire over Karachi operation

Kalbe Ali

ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee was informed on Monday that Rangers had conducted 3,696 raids during the ongoing operation in Karachi and arrested 6,835 suspects and seized 5,214 weapons.

ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee was informed on Monday that Rangers had conducted 3,696 raids during the ongoing operation in Karachi and arrested 6,835 suspects and seized 5,214 weapons.

Col Tahir Mehmood of Sindh Rangers briefed the Senate standing committee on interior on the law and order situation in Karachi and claimed that incidents of kidnapping for ransom, target and sectarian killings and other crimes had fallen significantly in the city over the past year.

He said Rangers had conducted 372 raids on Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s offices and arrested 560 of its workers, besides recovering 241 weapons. Eighteen raids on the Awami National Party’s offices led to the arrest of 40 workers and recovery of 21 weapons.

As many as 539 people were arrested and 591 weapons seized in 396 raids on the People’s Amn Committee’s offices. Rangers conducted 403 raids on various TTP set-ups, arresting 760 terrorists and recovering 619 weapons.

A total of 4,936 suspects were arrested and 3,742 weapons seized in 2,506 raids targeting other banned outfits and criminal groups.

The Rangers official’s briefing drew a barrage of accusations from two members of the committee from Karachi.

They alleged that some Rangers officials were working in connivance with criminals and terrorists.

The committee’s chairman Senator Talah Mehmood said lawbreakers should be treated as criminals and not political workers.

“If you name any party then it is also your responsibility to provide details about it and seek their help to at least determine if the accused are actually party workers,” he told the Rangers official.

TRUST DEFICIT: Senator Shahi Syed of the ANP said there was a serious trust deficit between the Rangers and the general public.

“I know people and their children who were targeted after they lodged complaints against terrorists. How did the killers come to know about such persons,” he wondered.

He said Rangers listed all Pakhtuns arrested on charges of criminal activities as ANP workers.

“Why is the identity of all these so-called members of political or terror outfits kept secret.

“At least after all legal formalities and charges, one has the right to know who the person is and what is his crime,” he added.

Shahi Syed alleged that some agencies were using criminals to serve their purpose. “And after the work is done they are even killed; later we are told that MQM killed the Pakhtun boy.”

Senator Tahir Mashhadi of the MQM alleged that certain elements in Rangers were defaming the army. He disputed a claim that the crime rate had come down, observing that the figures were low because very few people reported incidents of crime.

“It seems that you people are facilitating groups like Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. They kill one to two Shias daily and even claim responsibility for that,” he said, adding: “What is the net output of the operation in one year.”

The committee was also briefed on the Sept 24 raid by Rangers on MQM’s sector office in Karachi.

It was informed that firing on a Rangers patrol had led to the raid and arrest of 23 workers.

“They included three target killers and eight absconders. Twelve of them were later released,” Col Tahir Mehmood said.

The MQM senator asked the Rangers official where did the bullet fired by the so-called target killers hit. “Did the fire hit any personnel? No. Any mark on the vehicle? None. Anybody injured? No one. Tell me why the workers continued their meeting even after shots were fired from their office; they could have escaped before the raid,” he said.

Mr Mashhadi asked: “Why is it that when there are raids on PPP, MQM and ANP offices you ransack the place, destroy TV and computers; do you think that weapons are hidden inside LCDs.”

The committee decided to hold its next meeting in Karachi.

Meanwhile, one official belonging to the forces told media that the presentation was classified because it contained details of various factions in MQM involved in killing each other and even workers of other parties.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Parliament helped strengthen democracy, says PM

APP

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday his government was serving people relentlessly despite disturbances caused by the sit-ins.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday his government was serving people relentlessly despite disturbances caused by the sit-ins.

Talking to reporters in London before returning to Pakistan, the prime minister said he did not want to talk about those who were engaged in negative politics.

Mr Sharif, who made a stopover in London on his way back home after attending the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, said that parliament had played a significant role in strengthening democracy.

The premier said his government wanted to remove anomalies in the system.

In reply to a question, he said he did not consider that judiciary was conspiring against the government.

The prime minister said his speech at the UN Genral Assembly session and his stance on Kashmir represented the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Blast leaves 7 dead in militants’ compound

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

LANDI KOTAL: A bomb went off in a compound of suspected militants in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Monday, killing seven people.

LANDI KOTAL: A bomb went off in a compound of suspected militants in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Monday, killing seven people.

Officials in Jamrud said it was not clear what had actually caused the explosion, adding that there was an ammunition depot in the compound located in Rajgal area of the valley.

“Initially we were told that it was a drone attack, but later local sources informed us that it was a bomb blast inside a compound under militants’ control,” they added.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Pressure on PML-N to hold CWC meeting

Khawar Ghumman

ISLAMABAD: Following the successful show of power by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over the weekend in Lahore, the ruling PML-N has come under pressure from its own ranks to convene a meeting of its Central Working Committee (CWC) to construct its own response to the opponents.

The CWC last time met well before last year’s general elections to sanction allotment of tickets to the party candidates.

With the PTI’s incisive campaign against the PML-N leadership, a majority in the ruling party believe that it should work out its ‘political strategy’ to deal with the phenomenon, a senior office-bearer of the ruling party told Dawn.

Know more: PTI fans defy odds to reach Minar-i-Pakistan

“It’s encouraging to see that parliamentary parties are standing with us against the protesting leaders of the PTI and PAT, but the time has come to work on party’s own narrative to confront them before it’s too late,” he said.

He, however, said a few leaders in the party had been advising PML-N President Nawaz Sharif against convening the CWC meeting.

Talking to Dawn, Information Minister Pervez Rashid, who is also spokesman for the prime minister, said: “CWC is meant for party politics. After getting people’s mandate and forming the government, we are more focused on resolving issues facing the nation.”

He said “we deliberately avoid convening CWC meeting” so that the party’s influence on government affairs was kept to a minimum.

Mr Rashid said the prime minister had taken a clear stand that parliament was the only forum to resolve the stand-off with the PTI and PAT.

But others in the ruling party don’t buy the information minister’s argument and wanted the PML-N’s own response to the PTI’s increasingly belligerent campaign.

“I am unable to understand why the party leadership is reluctant to hold the CWC meeting and get its input over the political crisis,” a PML-N parliamentarian said, expressing frustration over the PM’s regular meetings with heads of other political parties and ignoring his own people.

The lawmaker, who is also a member of the CWC, said he had more than once urged the prime minister and other senior leaders of the party to call the CWC meeting to take its members on board.

The PML-N parliamentarian, who remained loyal to the Sharif brothers during the General Musharraf regime, agreed that it was because of the same indifferent attitude the party lost its support after the October 1999 martial law.

“They (Sharif brothers) are refusing to learn from their mistakes,” he said.

A political analyst said running the government and party affairs through hand-picked officials and party men had been a trade mark of the PML-N, but it was high time for the Sharifs to get the party united to face their opponents.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Analysis: Our enemy, their enemy

Ismail Khan

At least in tactical terms, the US and Pakistan appear to be on the same page — both are hunting their enemies in our north-western border region and that’s where there is convergence. There is divergence though when it comes to making a distinction between ‘our enemy’ and ‘their enemy’.

Pakistan’s F-16s pound targets in the remote corners of North Waziristan to take out local and foreign militants just when American drones sharing the same airspace target local and foreign militants around the same area.

But there is a difference. Pakistanis are bombing those they see a potential threat to their national security while the Americans are hunting for men of interest to them. The Pakistanis are targeting those waging war against Pakistan, the Americans are tracking those “interested in attacks across the border”.

Know more: US drone kills four suspected militants in Wana

This is how Pakistani officials describe drone victims — ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’. In the same way, the target of the Sept 28 drone strike in Karikot, six kilometres to the south of Wana in South Waziristan, was characterised as ‘theirs’.

Sunday’s drone strike killed two men of Middle Eastern origin including what local residents believe was Sheikh Abu Turab, who had taken over as Al Qaeda’s money bag’s man. The two men were killed because, officials say, they were of interest to the Americans and were involved in cross-border operations.

Much the same pattern can be seen as being repeated in North Waziristan. There have been a total of ten drone strikes since January in what was then rightly considered a hotbed of militancy in Pakistan, excluding Sunday’s drone attack in Wana.

There was a five-month hiatus in drone strikes till mid-May when Islamabad sought to negotiate peace with the same set of people it is seeking to eliminate now. The halt in drone strikes had come after a furious response from Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to the death of TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud in November 2013.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s exuberant leader who led a campaign against drone strikes by disrupting — and attacking — supplies to Nato in Afghanistan claimed the credit for the halt in equal measure, though drones continued to hover the skies in North Waziristan.

But no sooner had the peace talks collapsed than the drone strikes began in earnest with the first one on May 14. And since then there has been a steady drone campaign every month operating in the same region extending from North Waziristan into South Waziristan.

The total number, by all media accounts, of those killed in the drone strikes since May stands at 68.

While the Pakistanis and their American allies in the war on terror — a term that no longer seems to be in use — look for and eliminate their own targets in the volatile Waziristan area, their interests do converge every now and then.

Consider the case of Hakeemullah Mehsud whose death in a drone strike in November 2013 caused the interior minister to accuse Washington of sabotaging Islamabad’s peace overtures with the militant honcho.

Mehsud, under whose watch terrorism-related violence in Pakistan peaked, found his name added to the list of most wanted men in November 2009 when Islamabad posted a bounty of Rs500 million on his head.

Washington followed suit in September 2010 by adding Mehsud’s name to the Specially Designated Global Terrorists and by offering its bounty of $5 million. The US move came only when Mehsud appeared in a video along with Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi: the suicide bomber who blew himself up inside Camp Chapman in Khost, killing several CIA officers in January 2010.

Pakistanis and the Americans wanted him dead, though the timing of his ultimate elimination became a bone of contention owing to the circumstances surrounding the peace overtures.

There, however, appeared to have been no disagreement when the Americans took out Hakeemullah’s predecessor and TTP founder Baitullah Mehsud in August 2009 or Nek Muhammad Wazir in June 2004. Indeed, some say, the two militant leaders were taken out on Pakistan’s request.

Whether or not Islamabad has acquiesced in the ongoing drone campaign in Waziristan is not known. Beyond terming these strikes as violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, reaction from the foreign office always appears to be subdued and tepid.

Such considerations as internal displacement of nearly a million people from North Waziristan, collateral damage and strikes being counter-productive seem no longer to bother the foreign office much. The US drone strikes are continuing to hit targets of interest just when the military is in the midst of the Operation Zarb-i-Azb in Waziristan.

Officials say the strikes are likely to continue and perhaps expand, depending on how the situation in Waziristan pans out post Zarb-i-Azb and when the US ends its combat operation in Afghanistan in December 2014. Until then, the drones would continue to take out the few remaining key targets of interest to the Americans.

Not many foreign militants, particularly the Al Qaeda type, are left in the tribal region, according to security officials, their focus having shifted from Afghanistan to Syria. But while the military operation in Waziristan continues, so will the drone strikes that have come to be seen as complementing the effort — of cleansing the area of local and foreign militants — though neither Islamabad nor Washington admits to it.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Bomb blast in IDP camp leaves seven dead

Abdul Sami Paracha

KOHAT: A bomb blast in a camp for internally displaced persons in Hangu left seven people dead and 13 injured on Sunday.

KOHAT: A bomb blast in a camp for internally displaced persons in Hangu left seven people dead and 13 injured on Sunday.

The Mohammad Khawaja camp houses IDPs from Orakzai Agency. A girl was among those killed and three children among the injured.

Police quoted witnesses as saying that the bomb was rigged to a motorcycle parked outside a shop in the camp.

District Police Officer Anwar Saeed Kundi and DSP Hangu Falak Naz said that six kilograms of explosives had been used in the blast.

Officials said that soon after the blast a heavy contingent of police arrived at the camp and cordoned off the area. Kohat-Hangu road was closed by bomb disposal personnel for clearing the area.

Families displaced from Orakzai Agency have been living in the camp for six years. The army has claimed to have cleared 90 per cent of the agency, but the IDPs are reluctant to leave the camps for fear of militants returning to their areas.

The dead were identified as Mohammad Siddique Khan, Khalil, Sher Khan, Lal Wali, Khalil, Shamsa Bibi and Sohail Khan.

The injured were taken to the Hangu District Hospital. Nine of them were identified as Hamza Gul, Sajida Bibi, Amra Bibi, Naimatullah Shah, Khalil Khan, Ilyas Khan, Sajidullah, Umra Bibi and Siddique Khan.

The Upper Orakzai Agency remains to be cleared of militants who have fiercely resisted security forces, especially their movements in Mamozai area.

Meanwhile, two people were injured when a bomb hit a coach near Parachgan Banda area. According to police, the coach was going to Stori Khel area from Kohat.

Driver Mohammad Saleem and passenger Gharas Khan were injured and taken to a hospital in Kohat.

Bomb disposal personnel said the bomb weighing about five kilograms was concealed in a canister. It exploded a few seconds before the coach reached the area.

Our Khar Correspondent adds: Gunmen shot dead on Sunday evening a pro-government tribal elder and member of the Salarzai Qaumi Lashkar in Bajaur Agency.

According to administration officials, Malik Gul Akbar was going home in his car when he came under attack in Dara, 28km northeast of Khar, the main town of Bajaur.

He and his driver were injured and taken to the agency headquarters hospital where Malik Akbar died. The driver was sent to a hospital in Peshawar because of his critical condition.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. Talking to reporters on phone from an unspecified place, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said Malik Akbar was on their hit list because of his anti-Taliban activities. “We will continue to attack those tribal elders who are raising Lashkar against Taliban,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014

HC meeting with Hurriyat leaders was ill-timed: Aziz

Masood Haider

NEW YORK: Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said in an interview with an Indian TV network that the meeting of Pakistan’s High Commissioner with the Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi ahead of India-Pak secretary level talks last month was “ill-timed”.

But Mr Aziz lamented India’s decision to cancel the foreign secretaries’ level talks and said “now the ball is in India’s court to come up with a date”.

“The timing of the meeting between Pakistan High Commissioner to India and the Hurriyat leaders was not right and it could have been avoided.

“The newly-elected leaders of both the countries missed an opportunity of starting a dialogue,” Mr Aziz said.

However, he insisted that Pakistan could not ignore Hurriyat and said that talks between Indian and Pakistan foreign secretaries “should not have been cancelled as the issue was not that big”.

“Kashmiri leaders have been meeting us because the Kashmir is one of the issues which are to be discussed. Dialogue with Hurriyat leaders has been a regular practise since last 20-30 years.”

He further said: “We were upset after India cancelled the talks. Talks are the only way forward for us. Now, the ball is in India’s court to come up with a date.”

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014

US drone kills three in South Waziristan

Sailab Mehsud

LADHA: A US drone attack in Sheen Warsak area of South Waziristan on Sunday killed three people and left another person injured.

LADHA: A US drone attack in Sheen Warsak area of South Waziristan on Sunday killed three people and left another person injured.

According to administration officials in Wana, the tribal agency’s headquarters, two missiles were fired at a compound.

This was the first US drone attack in South Waziristan after about a year.

The names of the victims could not be ascertained but there were unconfirmed reports that they were affiliated with the militant group of Mullah Nazir.

AFP adds: Security officials said, “A US drone fired two missiles at a vehicle and at least two militants were killed and one was wounded.”

“The militants had just parked their vehicle outside the main gate of a compound and had asked for drinking water from inside. Just when they were drinking water standing on the road, drones fired two missiles.”

Peshawar Bureau adds: Pakistan military planes bombed five hideouts in Shawal area of North Waziristan, killing 15 militants, the ISPR said in a statement on Sunday.

It said foreign militants were among those killed.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014

Bilawal apologises to party workers for unexplained mistakes

Habib Khan Ghori

KARACHI: For unexplained reasons, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari apologised to his party’s estranged workers on Sunday and appealed to them to reconsider their decision to join other parties.

KARACHI: For unexplained reasons, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari apologised to his party’s estranged workers on Sunday and appealed to them to reconsider their decision to join other parties.

He said that being a democratic party the PPP welcomed differences of opinion, adding that the best way for workers was to attend party meetings and strive for bringing about changes they wanted and put the country on the road to progress and prosperity.

In an open letter to supporters, Bilawal Bhutto conceded that mistakes had been committed in the past and pledged to correct them to regain workers’ trust.

Know more: Bilawal to contest 2018 elections from Benazir’s home constituency

But he did not spell out what mistakes the party had made which called for an apology or the differences of opinion expressed by some workers.

“To those who have been with the PPP but now feel let down, first of all allow me to apologise personally for letting you down. We do not claim to be perfect; we acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the past and are committed to rectifying them and regaining your trust.

“In the interim period, if you are considering to switch over to another political party, please act discreetly. Do not punish Pakistan or its democracy for my shortcomings. Please do not support undemocratic party or a party appeasing extremists. Pakistan has rightwing parties which support dictatorship and appease the TTP. If you are frustrated with the party, I would suggest to you ways to legitimately practise opposition politics.

“The PPP is a democratic party and welcomes internal dissent. The best way to influence the PPP’s policy is to join us and bring about changes in the party and in the country from within. If party policy is unacceptable to you and you are considering to join another party, I would suggest you to join pro-democracy and pro-people political parties.

“The PPP welcomes and encourages other leftwing parties to join the political process. In fact, if a former sympathiser desires to attend a political event, I would suggest to him to attend the AWP Congress in Islamabad.

“No-one can claim to have once supported Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto but can now support dictatorship or extremism. I look forward to regaining your trust and also proving that the PPP is the only party that can build a peaceful, prosperous and progressive Pakistan. Jeay Bhutto, Pakistan Zindabad.”

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014

85 ‘militants’ surrender in Dera Bugti

Saleem Shahid

QUETTA: Fifteen people reported to be militants belonging to the Bugti tribe and their 70 accomplices surrendered themselves to law-enforcement personnel in Sui on Sunday.

QUETTA: Fifteen people reported to be militants belonging to the Bugti tribe and their 70 accomplices surrendered themselves to law-enforcement personnel in Sui on Sunday.

Khan Wasey, spokesman for the Frontier Corps, Balochistan, said in a statement that the men belonged to various Bugti clans living in Sui area of Dera Bugti.

They had been involved in attacks on security forces and national installations in Dera Bugti and other areas of the province.

They laid down their weapons in the presence of FC Inspector General Maj Gen Muhammad Ejaz Shahid at a ceremony attended by tribal elders and senior officials.

The weapons, ammunition and explosives surrendered by them included 89 rifles and landmines. The militants vowed to renounce violence. They also pledged not to get involved in anti-state activities. They welcomed the general amnesty announced by the provincial government, along with a special package for militants surrendering to the state and pledging not to take part in anti-state activities.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014

Footprints: Imprisoned in Afghanistan

Imran Ayub

THERE’S hardly any connection between Malala Yousufzai, Sirajul Haq and Saleem Safi.

THERE’S hardly any connection between Malala Yousufzai, Sirajul Haq and Saleem Safi.

The teenage activist is recognised for her global campaigning for education, the chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) is striving for an Islamic system in the country and the renowned broadcaster is known for a series of scoops.

But for Faizullah Khan, each of the three emerged as heroic characters who made possible his release from Nangarhar jail in Afghanistan.

Also read: Govt urged to get reporter freed

“I am thankful to everyone,” he says. “From the management of my organisation to journalist bodies and from the governments of the two countries to human rights activists: everyone played a role and that’s why I’m back home. But the way those three took up my case and followed it up constantly, it’s beyond anyone’s imagination.”

With others vying for attention in the print and electronic media, these three, however, preferred to keep away from the limelight as Faizullah believes that it might have damaged the case for his release.

Malala contacted top officials in the Karzai government to secure Faizullah’s release after reading about his ordeal in a story published in Swat’s local newspaper. Sirajul Haq used JI’s decades-old connections in the neighbouring country to obtain his freedom. And Saleem Safi utilised his journalistic contacts to ensure Faizullah’s safe return.

Faizullah, associated with ARY News as a reporter, was arrested in Lalpura, Nangarhar, Afghanistan, on April 25. The 35-year-old journalist was convicted of having illegally entered the country by a Jalalabad court which sentenced him to four years imprisonment.

While the prosecution in Afghanistan was getting ready to seek another 25-year prison term for Faizullah on charges of ‘spying’, ‘compromising national security’ and ‘attempting to deteriorate diplomatic relations of the two countries’, the president issued a pardon and ordered Faizullah’s release on his last day in office.

For his family, the long and frustrating wait has finally been brought to an end. On a warm Wednesday afternoon as I entered the building where he lives, I saw his four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter standing next to him, waving from their third-floor balcony. Inside, the children would sometimes slide on the couch and at other times climb onto their father’s lap as friends and relatives continuously called him up congratulating him on his release.

For Faizullah, it all happened in his quest for ‘big news’ after he landed in Peshawar in April. He was scheduled to cover peace talks between Pakistani and Afghan officials including the security situation in the western border areas. He claims that he never intended to enter Afghanistan and only realised that he was there when he was caught by the Afghan intelligence officials. But the ‘nightmare’ in Afghanistan, Faizullah says, finally ended for him as a ‘miracle’.

“I was jailed in April and in May I came to know that we were expecting our third child. I was missing my family terribly and this news made me even more miserable. I felt extremely helpless. But I have to commend my wife’s role during the entire ordeal. She came to the forefront as a real crusader.”

The crusader wife, Sania Faiz, launched an unwavering campaign to secure her husband’s release. She filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, met every official concerned and influential individuals with a single-point agenda. “I was unable to take care of my children during those five months,” she says with a smile, patting her daughter’s cheek affectionately. “To focus on Faiz’s release, I left them at my mother’s place. I hired a rickshaw from morning to evening to go from one place to another so that I could meet people, attend meetings and demonstrations, appear in court and mobilise journalist and human rights bodies.”

Having been a journalist herself before tying the knot with Faizullah in 2008, Sania knew which channels to use and who to pursue. She visited Islamabad thrice and Quetta once. She was even present at the Torkham border with journalists and Khyber Agency administration officials to receive Faizullah.

“I was able to persuade a source to regularly send Faiz some money from here while he was imprisoned in Nangarhar jail,” she says. “I did it alone and never lost hope. I don’t know how I found the strength, patience and stamina. Somehow I did. But you know these are memories that one never wants to live with,” she says in a voice choking with emotion and her eyes brimming with tears.

After a momentary silence, Faizullah asks me to drop him at the Karachi Press Club where a reception awaited him. During the 15-kilometre ride from his home in Gulistan-i-Jauhar to the press club on my motorbike, Faizullah’s analysis on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations made me realise how his journalistic quest for the truth did not wane even in prison.

“I am indebted to the Afghan government for all their cooperation in extending my release,” he mused. “But you know, Imran bhai, it’s very unfortunate that we are no longer good neighbours. During my five-month imprisonment I came across all types of Afghans including media persons, officials, security personnel and diplomats. And they all believe that the two countries are not friends and probably will never be. This is alarming. And sadly no one cares from either side of the border.”

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Pilgrims start congregating in Mina for Haj

AFP

MAKKAH: Hundreds of thousands of Muslims began a mass movement on Thursday out of the holy city of Makkah towards nearby Mina in western Saudi Arabia, at the beginning of the Haj pilgrimage.

MAKKAH: Hundreds of thousands of Muslims began a mass movement on Thursday out of the holy city of Makkah towards nearby Mina in western Saudi Arabia, at the beginning of the Haj pilgrimage.

This year’s Haj comes with Saudi authorities striving to protect pilgrims from two deadly viruses, Ebola and the MERS coronavirus.

Authorities say close to 1.4 million pilgrims have come from abroad to perform Haj alongside pilgrims from Saudi Arabia.

Pilgrims were moving from Makkah to Mina by bus or on foot on Thursday. The passage to Mina marks the official start of Haj.

Security has not been noticeably enhanced around the holy sites, but a reporter observed three checkpoints between Jeddah and Makkah, where security officers verified that visitors had Haj permits.

Officials say they have intensified efforts to stop people attending Haj without authorisation, as part of safety measures for such a large gathering with massive logistical challenges.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said more than 145,000 unauthorised pilgrims had been turned away.

Eighteen aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters would patrol and be on standby for emergencies including “terrorist attacks”, Arab News reported.

“The aircraft are equipped with thermal cameras and shooting platforms,” the newspaper quoted General Mohammed Eid al-Harbi as saying.

Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbariya broadcast footage of commandos rappelling from helicopters and performing other exercises to demonstrate their readiness.

Supplementing the 85,000 security and civil defence officers who are reportedly deployed for Haj are thousands of health workers.

While Ebola has hit Africa, most MERS cases worldwide have been in Saudi Arabia itself. Pilgrims from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three nations hardest-hit by Ebola, have not been allowed in for Haj. No Ebola cases have yet been found in the kingdom.

The health ministry on Wednesday announced the country’s latest MERS victim, a 43-year-old Saudi man who died in Taif, east of Makkah.

But “no infectious cases have been recorded among the pilgrims, including coronavirus (MERS)”, said Acting Health Minister Adel Fakieh in a statement carried by SPA.

He added that “the health situation of the pilgrims is reassuring”.—AFP

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Atrocities committed by IS could amount to war crimes, says UN

Masood Haider

UNITED NATIONS: A UN human rights report has said that Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, kidnapped women and girls and recruited child soldiers in what could amount to systematic war crimes.

The report based on 500 interviews with witnesses and released on Thursday also said that air strikes carried out by Iraqi government against IS militants had caused “significant civilian deaths” by hitting villages and hospitals in violation of international law.

At least 9,347 civilians have been killed and 17,386 wounded so far this year, well over half of them since the IS, also known as ISIS, began seizing large parts of northern Iraq in early June, according to the 29-page report by the UN Human Rights Office and UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.

“The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIS and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein.

In a statement, he again urged the Iraqi government to join the International Criminal Court, and said the Hague court was set up to prosecute such massive abuses and the direct targeting of civilians on the basis of their religious or ethnic groups.

Islamist forces have committed gross human rights violations and violence of an “increasing sectarian nature” against groups including Christians, Yazidis and Shias in a widening conflict that has forced 1.8 million Iraqis to flee their homes, according to the report.

“These include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms,” said the report.

In a single massacre on June 12, the report said, about 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and security officers from the former US Camp Speicher base in Salahuddin province were captured and killed by IS fighters.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Ebola fear grips United States

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: Fears of an Ebola epidemic gripped the United States on Thursday as health officials warned that more than 100 people were exposed to a confirmed patient in Dallas, Texas.

WASHINGTON: Fears of an Ebola epidemic gripped the United States on Thursday as health officials warned that more than 100 people were exposed to a confirmed patient in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas County Public Health Department said 12 to 18 people came into direct contact with the patient while others came into contact with this group.

Know more: Man catches Ebola in US after arriving from Liberia

The issue also echoed in Congress where a Republican senator, Rand Paul, accused the Obama administration of “underplaying” the threat of Ebola.

On Sept 30, a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, was diagnosed with Ebola in a Dallas hospital

On Oct 1, health officials in Texas announced that a second person was under observation for possible Ebola virus. This person had close contact with the confirmed case.

Within 24 hours, the number of patients being watched for Ebola increased to 100.

In Honolulu, the Hawaii Department of Health confirmed that a patient was placed in isolation after doctors believed he too was infected with Ebola virus.

Mr Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept 20 and on Sept 24 he developed symptoms and sought medical care. On Sept 30, doctors confirmed that he was infected with Ebola virus.

Earlier on Sept 15, he helped transport a neighbour in Monrovia, Liberia, to the hospital. The 19-year-old pregnant woman later died of Ebola.

On Sept 19, Mr Duncan left Monrovia for Brussels where he boarded United Airlines Flight 951 to Washington Dulles Airport. He arrived in Dallas on Sept 20.

His movements scared health officials because he came into contact with a large number of people.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Nine killed in bus crash

Dawn Report

LAHORE: Nine people were killed and 21 others injured when a bus going to Mansehra by the National Highway overturned near Uch Sharif in Bahawalpur district on Thursday night.

LAHORE: Nine people were killed and 21 others injured when a bus going to Mansehra by the National Highway overturned near Uch Sharif in Bahawalpur district on Thursday night.

According to TV reports, most passengers on the bus coming from Karachi were heading home for Eidul Azha.

The injured were admitted to the Taranda Rural Health Centre and Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur.

Police said the driver lost control over the wheel because of over-speeding. They feared the death toll might increase.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

US legislators press Kerry on talks with Iran

Reuters

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of US lawmakers pressed Secretary of State John Kerry to lean harder on Iran in talks over its nuclear programme in a letter released on Thursday after Israel warned Washington not to go easy on Tehran.

Three hundred and fifty-four members — four-fifths — of the US House of Representatives signed the letter sent to Kerry on Wednesday night, expressing concerns that an agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme might not require sufficiently strict inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Know more: US open to back-channel talks with Iran

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Sept 5 that Iran had failed to address concerns about suspected atomic bomb research by an agreed deadline.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Barack Obama on Wednesday that he must make sure any final nuclear deal with Iran does not leave it at the “threshold” of being able to develop nuclear weapons.—Reuters

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

US, India vow to dismantle LeT, Al Qaeda

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: In a joint statement issued on the conclusion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s four-day visit, the United States and India vowed to work together to dismantle Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba and their affiliates.

The statement also urged Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai to justice.

The two countries committed themselves to making “joint and concerted efforts to disrupt all financial and tactical support” to “Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, the Haqqanis” and Al Qaeda.

D-Company is a term coined by the Indian media for a criminal group controlled by an Indian crime boss, Dawood Ibrahim. Delhi claims Mr Ibrahim lives in Pakistan. Islamabad denies.

In their joint statement, US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Modi also expressed “deep concern over the continued threat posed by terrorism,” and underlined the need for “continued comprehensive global efforts to combat and defeat terrorism.”

On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on two Pakistan-based terrorist organisations — LeT and Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HuM) — and froze the assets of their leaders.

The announcement claimed that the assets were used for providing financial support to LeT, which is accused of carrying out the Mumbai terror attacks.

The Treasury notification described HuM as “a terrorist group that operates throughout India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and maintains terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan.”

According to the notification, in 2005, HuM attacks in Kashmir killed at least 15 people, and in 2007, an unspecified number of Indian troops were also killed in a firefight with HuM militants in the area.

To date, the Treasury Department has designated 27 individuals and three entities associated with LeT.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Indian version of Hamlet faces Kashmir heat in Pakistan

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

NEW DELHI: “I am opposed to the very idea of film censorship, be it in India, Pakistan or anywhere in the world,” said celebrated filmmaker Kumar Shahani on Wednesday as news reports came in of uncertainty over the release in Pakistan of an Indian interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The Larkana-born Mr Shahani has won several Indian and international awards for his avant garde cinema, and though he hasn’t seen Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider based on the tragedy of Hamlet, he said no film from India should be banned in Pakistan or vice versa.

“Film censorship should be enforced only for children, to protect them from visual violence, but adults shouldn’t be deprived of their right to watch the cinema of their choice,” Mr Shahani told Dawn in Delhi.

Haider, the third interpretation of a Shakespeare play by Vishal Bhardwaj after Maqbool and Omkara, will be released across the world on Thursday. It recasts the Shakespeare play into an Indian counter-insurgency against Kashmiri militants fighting for independence or to join Pakistan.

Mr Bhardwaj, who previously reworked Macbeth and Othello into Indian settings to critical acclaim, is said to be fielding queries about whether Haider will be seen as an anti-India film.

“I’m also an Indian, I’m also a patriot, I also love my nation. So I won’t do anything which is anti-national,” Mr Bhardwaj told the Times of India newspaper on Tuesday. “But what is anti-human, I will definitely comment on it.”

India’s Central Board of Film Certification cleared Haider for release after asking for seven cuts to the film. None of these, however, is reported to have altered the thrust of the movie or its criticism of the Indian state’s actions in Kashmir, reports said.

Based on Curfewed Night, a memoir by Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer about growing up in Kashmir in the 1990s, Haider depicts the Ikhwan-i-Muslimoon, a counter-insurgency militia armed and funded by Indian security forces.

Formed in 1994 and at its most active for three to four years, Ikhwan exemplified, for Mr Peer, the abuses perpetrated by the Indian state in Kashmir. In Curfewed Night, he recalled that Ikhwan “tortured and killed like modern-day Mongols. Ikhwan … went on a rampage, killing, maiming and harassing anyone they thought to be sympathetic to the Jamaat [the Jamaat-i-Islami, a religious body supportive of Pakistan] or the separatists.”

In Pakistan though, going by local reports, it seems that the film might not get the much-needed NOC (No Objection Certificate) by the Pakistan Film Censor Board.

The film which stars Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Kay Kay Menon and Shradha Kapoor in the lead has been shot in Kashmir, which led to reservations about its release in Pakistan, reports said.

Apparently the film was previewed and was sent to Pakistan’s Censor Board for approval. However, after watching Haider’s preview, the body, according to reports, decided not to go ahead with the release because of some controversial elements related to Kashmir.

Haider was slated for its release on October 2 alongside Hrithik and Katrina starrer Bang Bang, but while the shows for Bang Bang are scheduled in Pakistan, the much-awaited Haider is evidently nowhere to be seen.

It is expected that the distributors would not face a loss as they had already anticipated that the film might not be released in Pakistan.

Earlier, a film based on the Indian Army, Holiday, was screened in Pakistan but Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger could not make it to the screens because of the portrayal of anti-Pakistan elements.

Though the reasons were different, Rani Mukherjee’s Mardaani also saw a similar fate.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

IS beheads seven men, three women

Reuters

BEIRUT: The Islamic State (IS) militant group beheaded seven men and three women in a northern Kurdish area of Syria, a human rights monitoring group said on Wednesday.

BEIRUT: The Islamic State (IS) militant group beheaded seven men and three women in a northern Kurdish area of Syria, a human rights monitoring group said on Wednesday.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, said five anti-IS Kurdish fighters, including three women, and four Syrian Arab rebels were detained and beheaded on Tuesday 14km west of Kobani, a Kurdish town besieged by IS near the Turkish border.

He said a Kurdish male civilian was also beheaded. “I don’t know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the Islamic State knows why. They (probably) want to scare people,” he said.

IS fighters have carried out several beheadings of enemy fighters and civilians in Syria and Iraq. The beheadings are often carried out in public and with a message that any violent or non-violent dissent will not be tolerated.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Twin suicide attacks in Kabul kill seven

AFP

KABUL: Two Taliban suicide bombers hit army buses in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least seven people in a coordinated attack, officials said, a day after the new Afghan government signed a deal for US troops to stay in the country.

The Taliban, who strongly opposed the agreement, claimed responsibility for the early-morning blasts that targeted vehicles taking military employees to work in the capital.

“There have been two suicide attacks targeting buses carrying Afghan national army personnel,” Farid Afzali, chief of the city’s police investigation department, said.

“Six military personnel and one civilian were killed in one attack, and 15 were injured. Four military personnel were injured in the other attack.”

Ministry of Defence spokesman General Zahir Azimi confirmed the death toll.

There were conflicting reports, however, on whether the attackers were on foot or driving cars laden with explosives.

The Taliban said at least 20 soldiers were killed. “This is a clear message to the stooge government that signed the slave pact, and we will step up our attacks after this,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Afghanistan and the United States on Tuesday signed the long-delayed bilateral security agreement to allow about 10,000 US troops to stay in the country next year.

The signing took place on newly-inaugurated President Ashraf Ghani’s first day in office and represented a major step towards mending frayed ties between Kabul and Washington.

The US-led Nato combat operations in Afghanistan will finish at the end of this year, and the Taliban have launched a series of offensives that have severely tested Afghan soldiers and police.

Nato’s follow-up mission, which will take over on January 1, will be made up of 9,800 US troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italy and other member nations.

The new mission — named Resolute Support — will focus on supporting Afghan forces as they take on the militants, in parallel with US counter-terrorism operations.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

UK leader lauds Pakistanis’ contribution

APP

ISLAMABAD: Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has commended the contribution made by the Pakistani diaspora to the progress of the United Kingdom and acknowledged that the Pakistani community had enriched the country culturally, socially and politically.

Mr Clegg was speaking at the second integration dinner organised by the World Congress of Overseas Pakistanis at a London hotel on Tuesday, said a message received here on Wednesday.

He appreciated the Pakistani community’s ethos of hard work and their successful integration into the British society while also retaining their identity. He termed the UK-Pakistan relations strong and assured his government’s continued support to Pakistan in various sectors.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Obama, Modi vow to push relations to new levels

Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday coined a Hindi phrase — “chalein saath saath” — as the central premise of a defining 21st century partnership between their countries.

On Monday evening, when Mr Modi arrived at the White House for dinner and his first meeting with the US leader, President Obama greeted him in Gujarati, — “Kem Chho?” (how are you?) — in the prime minister’s mother tongue.

In a joint op-ed in The Washington Post on Tuesday, the two leaders wrote that the advent of a new government in India was “a natural opportunity to broaden and deepen our relationship” and to set a new agenda.

“That we both have satellites orbiting Mars tells its own story. The promise of a better tomorrow is not solely for Indians and Americans: It also beckons us to move forward together for a better world,” they wrote.

Some of the areas identified in the piece for increased cooperation included intelligence sharing on terrorism and regional concerns, including Afghanistan.

In their first summit at the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, the two leaders resolved to push the bilateral relationship to “new levels”, to fully implement the civil nuclear deal reached during the Bush administration and to cooperate in counter terrorism.

Also read: Obama plays host as Modi’s White House visit begins

US and Indian officials told journalists that the hour-long meeting between the two leaders covered a lot of ground, from trade and investment to the current situation in South Asia.

The two countries also concluded an agreement to extend defence cooperation for ten more years and Mr Modi urged American companies to investment in the defence-manufacturing sector in India.

Mr Modi drove straight from Blair House to the West Wing of the White House to hold talks with Mr Obama, first in restrictive format and then with their aides.

President Obama called for deeper economic collaboration between their nations and Mr Modi identified common economic priorities.

“We already have the foundation of a strong partnership,” Mr Modi said, speaking Hindi as he did at the UN General Assembly. “We now have to ensure that we get the best out of it for our people and the world.”

On Monday evening, President Obama hosted Modi for a private working dinner at the White House, although the Indian PM, a devout Hindu, was fasting.

The US media noted that usually, a guest is only invited once to the White House during a visit but Mr Obama arranged two visits for his Indian guest, the dinner and then for formal talks on Tuesday.

From the Oval Office, President Obama and PM Modi travelled together to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial on the National Mall, just a few blocks from the White House.

The warm welcomed Mr Modi received in Washington contrasts sharply with the US decision to deny him a visa when he was the chief minister of Gujarat 10 years ago. As chief minister, he was accused of instigating religious riots in his state in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

The US media noted that defence ties and trade in military equipment between the two countries had increased manifold during the last ten years but economic relations had not achieved their full potential because of India’s restrictive policies.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Man who protested against ‘VIP culture’ sacked

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

KARACHI: A man who shot video clip of passengers preventing a former minister from boarding a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft and forcing another legislator to disembark for being late has been sacked from his job, according to a private television channel.

Arjumand Hussain shot the video clip last month when he and other passengers protested against what they called ‘VIP culture’ and prevented former interior minister Rehman Malik from boarding the aircraft and forced MPA Ramesh Kumar to disembark, for allegedly delaying PIA’s flight PK-370 for more than an hour.

The news channel reported that Mr Hussain, who was working as general manager for a major courier and logistics group, had been sacked because of his involvement in the protest.

The group issued a statement on Tuesday which confirmed that Mr Hussain had been removed from his job but claimed that it had been done “on merit” and not due to his involvement in the PK-370 incident.

A message posted on the group’s website said the decision to dismiss Mr Hussain was “purely based on merit” and that the company had been considering the decision for some time.

Narrating his side of the story to the news channel, Mr Hussain said he didn’t know why he had been sacked but that he had no regrets.

“I went to work yesterday and was told that the company didn’t need my services any longer. I returned home quietly and I have no grievances,” he remarked.

“I only stood up for my rights as a Pakistani and as an airline passenger,” he said, sticking to his stance that protesting against wrongdoing was his democratic right.

Mr Hussain dismissed allegations that he had used abusive language during the protest and said: “The video speaks for itself.

“The other passengers were angrier than me but my language was not out of line at all. I was assertive, not arrogant.”

He said he and other passengers like him were “just protesting against our system”.

About the two lawmakers’ claims that they did not cause the delay, Mr Hussain said his video clip showed clearly that Mr Malik and Mr Kumar were the only passengers who were late.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

ECP ready to introduce electronic voting

The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: After facing criticism over the quality of magnetised ink used in last year’s general elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to introduce electronic voting machines in two years and use them in next polls, due in 2018.

Briefing reporters after a demonstration of the machines by about 10 vendors here on Tuesday, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said the commission would call for an immediate amendment to the Constitution to remove legal barrier in the way of introducing the technology, after which the pilot project would be launched.

He said the commission had plans to launch the pilot project in six months if parliament made the amendment during the next two months.

Know more: ECP rejects allegations about ballot paper, ink

He said the electronic voting system would help address complications arising from manual balloting. “It will resolve the issues of printing of ballot papers and counting and compilation of results.”

He said the vendors would give a similar demonstration to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms after which a panel of technical experts at the commission would select the company for deploying the system.

The ECP secretary said each machine was likely to cost about $300. Around 70,000 polling stations were set up in the last elections and most of them had two booths, thus the commission would have to procure at least 150,000 machines.

A similar exercise was carried out before the 2013 elections and some vendors were shortlisted, but the proposal was dropped because of lack of required legislation.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has also announced the government’s intention to invest in the biometric verification system to address loopholes in the electoral process.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Kurds fight IS men on three fronts

AFP

ERBIL: Kurdish troops backed by warplanes battled the Islamic State (IS) group on three fronts in northern Iraq on Tuesday, clawing back land they lost to the militants in recent months.

ERBIL: Kurdish troops backed by warplanes battled the Islamic State (IS) group on three fronts in northern Iraq on Tuesday, clawing back land they lost to the militants in recent months.

The Kurdish peshmerga struck before dawn against the town of Rabia on the Syrian border, north of the militant-controlled second city Mosul, and south of key oil hub Kirkuk, officers said.

A senior source in the peshmerga said troops had entered Rabia, after seizing the villages of As-Saudiyah and Mahmudiyah. “Ground troops are now fighting in the centre of Rabia,” which is about 100km northwest of Mosul.

He said peshmerga forces, backed by artillery and warplanes, were also attacking Zumar, about 60km northwest of the city, near the reservoir of Iraq’s largest dam, which has been a key battleground between the Kurds and the militants.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Online abuse of Pakistani women turns into real violence

Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Internet abuse of women in Pakistan is triggering real-world violence against them, but major social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, are moving too slowly to stop it, according to internet rights group Bytes for All.

Women face online threats globally, but they run a unique risk in Pakistan, where there is a tradition of men killing women seen as having injured a family’s honour.

With law-enforcement agencies too weak to fight the violence sparked by online campaigns, activists want giant internet firms to roll out greater protection for users, from streamlining how they tackle complaints to faster action against threats of violence.

“These technologies are helping to increase violence against women, not just mirroring it,” said Gul Bukhari of Bytes for All, and the author of a report released this week as the country experiences a surge in sectarian hatred, attacks on minorities and blasphemy disputes.

“A lot of the crime we are witnessing would not have been possible without the use of these technologies.”

There have been more than 170 complaints of cybercrime against women this year in Punjab, the Federal Investigation Agency says. No figures are available for the remaining three provinces.

None of the cases was successfully prosecuted because women usually reached a compromise with the suspect, said Syed Shahid Hassan, an official with the cybercrime office in Lahore, where 30 employees work full-time.

Since police rarely act when women are harassed online, few cases are reported, activists say.

About 32 million of the country’s 180m people use the internet, the group said in its report, mainly via mobile phones. About 12m are on Facebook and some 2m use Twitter, local media say.

In one case documented by Bytes for All, an online hate campaign last year urging the rape and murder of a prominent human rights defender culminated in shots being fired at the woman and her husband.

She received hundreds of threats and the addresses of her family were posted online, along with pictures of her and her daughter.

“She suffered nightmares of being raped, of family members being harmed because of her,” the group said.

Facebook took down the pages, but had to do so again when they were posted by a different user, the group said, and Twitter took a month to deal with her complaint.

Twitter declined to comment on specific cases but says it took tough steps last year to protect privacy and tackle abuse.

Facebook is “passionate” about protecting users, says its content policy director Monika Bickert, who formerly worked at the US Justice Department to target sex traffickers and crimes against children.

“My background has given me an appreciation of how serious this issue is,” Ms Bickert said. But the woman is unlikely to get justice, as police have lost all the evidence, and the sole witness has died.

In another case that spotlights the limitations of police, a 14-year-old girl was blackmailed into submitting to repeated incidents of gang rape after her boyfriend threatened to post online a video he had secretly shot of the couple together.

The slight, shy girl said she was too ashamed to tell her family and gave into her abuser’s demands.

Ms Bukhari’s investigation showed police got the girl’s age wrong and did not charge her abusers with statutory rape.

“She’s 18,” one police officer said, but admitted he had not looked at school records to ascertain her age or searched for evidence of the abuse online.

Though the case is nearly two years old, authorities have not asked Facebook for evidence, the girl’s lawyer said. The site said it would investigate if the rape video proved to have been posted on its pages.

Twitter and Facebook had made it easier to report abuse but more needed to be done, said Ms Bukhari.

“The companies are responding a bit better to women in the West,” she said. “But voices in other countries are not being heard with as much seriousness and that puts women in danger.”

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014

Footprints: Hindus in no man’s land

Hasan Mansoor

“I WILL never go back to India, but sooner or later I’ll also leave this place,” says Mahesh Kumar, who is in his mid-40s, as he spares me a moment while attending to customers at his bustling general store in the Hindu mohalla. This is in Thul, a small town in Jacobabad district that takes its name from the Sindhi word for ‘stupa’.

Present-day Thul bears the remnants of a decaying European township. Residents here tell me stirring stories of the resilience of Hindus and Muslims who came to each other’s rescue during the devastating floods of 2010 that inundated every village in the area.

Know more: How are the Hindus facing Hindutva?

Back then, they were able to save the town’s physical boundaries. But today, they are finding it difficult to maintain this town’s pluralistic religious ethos. The Hindu community that once constituted nearly half the population is now dwindling by the day. With increasing religious intolerance, kidnappings and forced conversions of teenage Hindu girls, abduction of Hindu traders for ransom and desecration of temples have forced many to migrate to India and elsewhere. Community leaders say that hundreds of families have left.

People leave to seek a better life. They want to build the lives they have envisioned for themselves and their families. Kumar and other Pakistani Hindus had hoped that this would be the case when they moved to India last year.

He and his family, including his wife and two sons, fabricated a reason to visit India, declaring to officialdom that they were going on a pilgrimage. Once they obtained the visa, they took a train journey to Lahore, entered Amritsar and reached Bhopal where some of their relatives were settled.

“But problems are not resolved through migration,” says Kumar. “In fact, as we discovered, the challenges began once we arrived in India. Our relatives were kind and helped us initially. But I met several Hindus from Sindh whose applications had been pending for many years. My mind was plagued with questions. What if we don’t get the nationality? What will become of us? Even though I was frustrated by the thought of this long-drawn-out process, I decided to be practical and returned to Thul within three months. I bought my shop back and have resumed my earlier life,” he says.

A similar account is narrated to me by a Hindu rice trader who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “My family and I moved to Indore in 2011 where my relatives have been living for a long time,” says he, a stocky man in his early 50s. “I invested in a shop and was managing to earn a living but we couldn’t reconcile with the anti-Pakistani sentiment of the locals. My children couldn’t get admission to schools because they lacked the necessary documents. If there was any trouble in the neighbourhood, we were questioned because we were Pakistani. Once I reprimanded a group of rowdy teenagers and the locals ganged up against me. This left me disheartened and so we decided to come back.” The rice trader returned to Thul early this year.

Ravi Dawani, the secretary general of the All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, calls Pakistani Hindus “stateless people” who are “Pakistanis in India and Hindus in Pakistan”. He says quite a few Hindus who had earlier migrated to India are now returning in increasing numbers.

“Most go to cities such as Ahmedabad, Raipur, Indore, Bhopal and Pune, but apart from a few resourceful families, others face immense hardship,” says Dawani. “They remain insecure as Pakistanis, are discriminated against in jobs and school admissions, and get nationality after decades of ordeal.”

Citing figures provided by the Indian home ministry, the All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat says that between January 2013 and June this year, 3,753 Pakistanis surrendered their passports and obtained long-term visas (LTV) for India that permit a once-a-year visit to Pakistan. Since January 2011, 1,854 Hindus belonging to Sindh have been given Indian nationality.

Shahnaz Sheedi, from the NGO South Asia Partnership Pakistan that works on minority issues, says non-Muslims formed a quarter of Pakistan’s population when the country came into being; now, they account for just four per cent. “Most non-Muslims have migrated to India. Those few who remain behind live in terror,” she says. “They are denied many basic rights, and treated even by the state as second-class citizens or even worse.”

I am not surprised when Kumar tells me that he continues to seek a place where his family can live a better life, preferably in his own country. “I will leave Thul and perhaps go to Karachi or Hyderabad,” he muses. “These cities are far more open to all kinds of communities. No one is bothered about your religion. And what is more satisfying than not having to leave the country of your birth?”

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

IS militants in Syria attacked

Reuters

BEIRUT: US warplanes attacked Islamic State targets in Syria overnight, in raids that a group monitoring the war said killed civilians as well as jihadist fighters.

BEIRUT: US warplanes attacked Islamic State targets in Syria overnight, in raids that a group monitoring the war said killed civilians as well as jihadist fighters.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit mills and grain storage areas in the northern Syrian town of Manbij, in an area controlled by Islamic State, killing at least two civilian workers.

Strikes on a building on a road leading out of the town also killed a number of Islamic State fighters, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory which gathers information from sources in Syria.

At the Mursitpinar border crossing with Turkey, scores of young men were returning to Syria saying they would join the fight.

More refugees were fleeing in the opposite direction.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

New Afghan president sworn in

Reuters

KABUL: Afghanistan inaugurated its first new president in a decade on Monday, swearing in technocrat Ashraf Ghani to head a power-sharing government just as the withdrawal of most foreign troops presents a crucial test.

The first democratic handover of power in Afghan history has been far from smooth: the deal for a unity government was cobbled together after months of deadlock over a vote in which both Mr Ghani and opponent Mr Abdullah Abdullah claimed victory.

Illustrating problems facing the new president, a suicide bomber killed seven people at a security checkpoint near Kabul airport just before Mr Ghani was sworn in, a government official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Later, ending months of uncertainty over the future US role in Afghanistan, the US embassy announced Ghani would on Tuesday sign a security agreement with the United States allowing a small contingent of troops to remain.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Ghani appealed to Taliban and other militants to join peace talks and put an end to more than a decade of violence. Thousands of Afghans are killed each year in the insurgency.

“Security is a main demand of our people, and we are tired of this war,” Mr Ghani said. “I am calling on the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami to prepare for political negotiations.”

Hezb-i-Islami is an Islamist faction loosely allied with the Taliban.

Mr Ghani also vowed to crack down on rampant corruption and called for cooperation within the coalition government.

“A national unity government is not about sharing power, but about working together,” Mr Ghani said in his speech that lasted nearly an hour.

But already there have been signs of tension in the fragile coalition. A dispute over office space and whether Abdullah would speak at the inauguration led to threats his camp would boycott Monday’s ceremony, an Abdullah aide said, adding it was resolved after late-night meetings with the US ambassador.

The inauguration marks the end of an era with the departure of President Hamid Karzai, the only leader Afghans have known since a US-led invasion in 2001 overthrew the Taliban who had given sanctuary to Al Qaeda.

Mr Ghani’s first act after being sworn in was to sign a decree creating the post of chief executive. Abdullah was sworn in to that job moments later, and he made a speech before Mr Ghani, a departure from the original programme.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Legality of ballot paper can’t be questioned: ECP

Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asserted that the validity of a ballot paper issued in accordance with procedures prescribed in the law and the votes polled cannot be questioned.

“The legality of all ballot papers issued and votes cast remains protected unless established otherwise at a competent forum,” said a fact-sheet prepared by the commission in response to controversies relating to the 2013 elections.

The fact-sheet was shared with the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms on Monday with the consent of majority of its members.

ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan told the committee at a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar that the decision to obtain thumb impression with magnetised ink on the electoral rolls which carried the photograph of each voter had been taken to preclude the possibility of impersonation and to ensure transparency.

“If some of the thumb impressions could not be verified, it would not affect the validity of the votes cast,” he said.

He said the reason for inability of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to read some thumbprints could be that they were not properly made. “If an impression cannot be read by the computer, it does not mean that the vote is bogus.”

Mr Khan said the thumb impression was taken on the counterfoil of the ballot paper and the voter’s CNIC number was also noted on it and it was a legal requirement. The requirement of magnetised ink was meant to be an additional administrative measure.

He said the ECP was now working on the use of biometric system in the next elections and had proposed necessary legislation for the purpose.

Director General (data warehouse) Nadra Muzaffar Hussain said thumbprints with normal ink could also be read if the impression had been properly taken. He said no thumbprint had been declared unverified by Nadra. “These were just unreadable impressions for technical reasons.”

The ECP secretary said that in India the entire polling staff had been placed under the administrative control of the election commission. The ECP had also proposed amendment to the law on the same lines before the 2013 general elections and sought powers to penalise district returning officers and returning officers and other polling staff who in any manner tried to influence the election results or violated the law, but it could not be realised.

Mr Khan rejected a perception that the number of rejected votes in the last elections was abnormally high. The number was higher than in previous polls because registered voters and turnout were higher this time, he said.

Farooq Naek of the PPP asked the ECP secretary who possessed the unused ballot papers and when told that they were lying in the district treasury, he remarked: “This is law of the rule and not the rule of law.”

Mr Naek said the storage of vital documents in district treasury meant that they were in the custody of the government. The unused ballot papers must be in possession of the ECP, he said.

Managing Director of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) Izhar Hussain Shamim said it was not for the first time that private experts had been hired for numbering ballot papers.

He said 48 people had been sent to the PCP, but 14 of them were found not fit for the job for being underage and the remaining 34 performed the task. He rejected the allegation about getting additional ballot papers printed from Urdu Bazar.

The ECP also rejected an allegation that extra ballot papers had been printed and distributed on May 9, 2013, in five divisions of Punjab. The fact-sheet says: “It is a matter of record that in all these five divisions, almost 100 per cent of the ballot papers had already been distributed to the returning officers by May 9, who had carried out bulk breaking of these ballot papers and prepared the sealed bags containing ballot papers for handing over to the presiding officers a day before the polls (May 10). It was therefore practically impossible to print and distribute extra ballot papers to the returning officers for putting them into already sealed bags…”

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Modi meets Netanyahu

Masood Haider

NEW YORK: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a New York hotel and pledged to “boost cooperation in the most substantive interaction between the two countries’ leaders in 11 years”.

Mr Netanyahu said that he was ‘delighted’ to meet Mr Modi and invited him to visit Israel, in what would be a first for an Indian prime minister.

“I believe that if we work together, we can do so with benefits for both our peoples and well beyond,” he said.

“We are very excited by the prospects of greater and greater ties with India. We think the sky’s the limit,” Netanyahu said, describing the countries as “ancient civilisations” that are also democracies.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Hong Kong police use tear gas, batons to disperse protesters

Reuters

HONG KONG: Police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protests here on Sunday and baton-charged a crowd blocking a key road in the government district in defiance of official warnings against illegal demonstrations.

Chaos had engulfed the city’s Admiralty district as chanting protesters converged on police barricades surrounding more demonstrators who had earlier launched a “new era” of civil disobedience to pressure Beijing into granting full democracy.

Police, in lines five deep in places and wearing helmets and gas masks, used pepper spray against activists and shot tear gas into the air. The crowds fled several hundred yards, scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police “cowards”.

The demonstrators regrouped and returned however, and by early evening tens of thousands of protesters were thronging streets, including outside the prominent Pacific Place shopping mall that leads towards the Central financial district.

“If today I don’t stand out, I will hate myself in future,” said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police on the frontline. “Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one.”

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a formula known as “one country, two systems” that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. Universal suffrage was set as an eventual goal.

But last month Beijing rejected demands for people to freely choose the city’s next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down Central in what is being seen as the most tenacious civil disobedience action since Britain handed over its former colony.

China wants to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.

Police in full riot equipment later fired repeated rounds of tear gas to clear some of the roads in Admiralty and pushed the crowds towards Central. Health authorities later said some 30 people needed treatment.

Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up protests by South Korean farmers against the World Trade Organisation in 2005.

“We will fight until the end… we will never give up,” said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they might have to make a temporary retreat through the night.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying had earlier pledged “resolute” action against the protest movement, known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.

“The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law,” Leung said, less than two hours before the police charge began.

A spokesperson for China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office added that the central government fully supported Hong Kong’s handling of the situation “in accordance with the law”.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Russia calls for in-depth study to examine conflict between Arabs and Israel

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

UNITED NATIONS: The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Sergei Lavrov, said on Saturday the United States and its Western allies were unable to change their cold war “genetic code” and said US should abandon its claims of “eternal uniqueness”.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr Lavrov said the grave threat posed by Islamic State (IS) “requires a comprehensive approach if we want to eradicate its root causes”.

The IS, formerly known as ISIS, is just a part of the problem.

“We propose to launch under the auspices of the UN Security Council an in-depth study on the extremist and terrorist threats in all their aspects across the MENA area. The integrated approach implies also that the longstanding conflicts should be examined, primarily between Arab nations and Israel.

“The absence of settlement of the Palestinian issue over several decades remains, as it is widely recognised as one of the main factors of instability in the region that helps the extremists to recruit more and more new Jihadists.”

He decried Western support for the foes of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. “The struggle against terrorists in the territory of Syria should be structured in cooperation with the Syrian government which clearly stated its readiness to join it,” he added.

“We warned against a temptation to make allies with almost anybody who proclaimed himself an enemy of [Syrian President] Assad: be it Al Qaeda, Jabhat an Nusra and other ‘fellow travellers’ seeking the change of regime, including ISIS, which today is in the focus of our attention.”

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

S. Arabia calls for sustained campaign against terrorists

The Newspaper’s Correspondent

UNITED NATIONS: Without appearing before the world audience, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said in a written statement that the war against extremists in the Middle East might take years and must not stop before all terrorist organisations were eliminated.

Saud Al Faisal’s speech was distributed to member states and considered as read in which he called for more decisive policies and decisions to fight terrorism.

“We face a very dangerous situation today. Terrorism has evolved from cells to armies and from threatening specific spots to nations,” he said.

“The war on terror requires serious and continuous work that may go on for years, and must not stop at partial victories against limited organisations,” he said.

“We must continue until all terrorist organisations are destroyed, wherever they may be.”

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Police officers shot at in troubled US city

AFP

WASHINGTON: Two police officers were shot at, leaving one wounded, in the city of Ferguson, where the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen triggered race riots and national outrage.

WASHINGTON: Two police officers were shot at, leaving one wounded, in the city of Ferguson, where the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen triggered race riots and national outrage.

Saint Louis County Police Department spokesman Brian Schellman said a bullet struck one officer on foot patrol in his left arm around 9.10pm on Saturday.

The officer had been conducting a business check at the Ferguson Community Centre when he noticed the suspect and tried to ask him why he was there. The suspect then ran away.

“The officer initiated a foot pursuit of the subject. During the foot pursuit, the subject spun towards the officer armed with a handgun, and fired shots at the officer,” Mr Schellman said in a statement.

“The officer returned fire at the suspect, however there is no indication at this time that the suspect was struck by return gunfire from the officer.”

A police search failed to turn up the suspect who was still on the loose.

In neighbouring St Louis, an off-duty police officer was shot at by an unknown number of assailants while driving his own car on a highway shortly after midnight.

The officer, who sustained minor injuries from broken glass but did not appear to have suffered gunshot wounds, did not return fire.

“It is unclear at this time if the officer was targeted or if this was a random act of violence,” Mr Schellman said.

Ferguson has seen large protests take place since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead on August 9 by a white police officer.

The college-bound teen was shot at least six times by police officer Darren Wilson and his body was left in the street for several hours before it was removed.

Violence rocked Ferguson — a St Louis suburb of 21,000 with an African-American majority and an overwhelmingly white police department and town council — prompting Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to briefly call in the National Guard to quell protests.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Footprints: Season’s end

Aurangzaib Khan

THEY are setting out, the shepherds. To the cities they go, trudging the winding road along the Kunhar River, its frothy torrent contained between sombre peaks. The flocks shift shape like amoeba as errant sheep and goats break with the herd, curiously nosing the grassy edges of the road.

It is only days before Eidul Azha and the road is long. As they make slow progress to the lowlands, shepherds plod past men packing potatoes in dusty sacks. Others are making green piles of corncobs, freshly culled from the terraced fields.

Like most dwellers of mountains, the locals in Naran — a popular mountain resort in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — follow a seasonal cycle shuttling between here and the highlands. Busy beavers, they work hard during the summer to sustain themselves in the winter, when the land freezes over.

When the snows thaw in the summer, they return to the valley in anticipation of tourists and farming. Shutters go up on hotels and shops that stay closed through the freezing winter. The town teems with tourists that look to the mountains to escape the heat of the plains. Trekkers pitch camps, on their way to explore peaks and passes in the Himalayan, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountain ranges. The town market comes alive as folks flow in from cities in the “tourist season” that begins around June 1, peaks in August and ends in September. Something unusual happened this season though.

“The tourist traffic in Naran peaks around Aug 14 because of the holiday,” says Sadaqat Ali Khan, assistant manager at the hotel run by the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC). “We usually have 90 to 100 per cent occupancy around the time. It is like a fairground here. This year, the place was sunsaan (abandoned).”

The season started sluggishly, what with Ramazan keeping people away between June and July. Tourists trickled in after Eidul Fitr but then the Pakistan Awami Tehreek and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf announced sit-ins in Islamabad, causing panic among people who left in a hurry, afraid the roads would close down.

“Within days, the occupancy fell from 100pc to nothing,” says Khan. “There were no new reservations. The existing ones were cancelled when people changed their plans due to political unrest. Those who were already here left and others didn’t come. We lost between four and five million rupees to the dharnas in Islamabad.”

Came August and even Ayubia and Nathia Gali — hill resorts that are more accessible compared to the remote Kaghan and Naran valleys — lost tourists. The Galliat draws day trippers throughout the week but far fewer people turned up this summer, according to Khan. “In Ayubia, the hotels start filling up around Aug 8,” he says. “This year, the occupancy registered a sharp decline around those dates.”

The walled PTDC compound, with 58 red-roofed log cabins and cottages among groves of walnut and pine trees, is one of the many hotels that crowd Naran. But it is not just hotels that stand to lose if tourists don’t turn up. All over the northern areas, where the literacy rate is low and jobs non-existent, the seasonal spurt in the tourism and hospitality industry throws up employment opportunities for the local youth and households.

“For most people here, the only source of income is tourism,” says Haji Umer Din who manages the Batakundi Hotel in a valley that goes by the same name, 14km further up the road. “We have to pay salaries to staff and workers. This year we couldn’t cover our costs, leave alone make a profit. We only did business for five days after Eid and nothing since.”

Standing atop a green hill, with a view of the emerald waters of the Kunhar snaking through the valley, the Batakundi Hotel is surrounded by grassy land where campers and trekkers pitch tents. Around August, when the tourist rush peaks, the hotel falls short of space. Visitors have to sleep in vehicles. It is a bit like an adventure festival, with hundreds of people arriving and leaving for mountain safaris.

“The landscape turned desolate this year, the roads empty,” says Umer Din, a lone figure haunting the verdant spaces around the hotel. With not a single guest in sight, there is nothing much for him or his staff to do.

With September ends the tourist season in Naran. In the town market, jeeps stand in a long line, waiting for tourists to go up to Saiful Maluk Lake. Shopkeepers sit waiting in shops stocked with fruit and vegetables. But along the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan and China more people are leaving than arriving as winter approaches.

Already, in places where clouds coagulate over empty valleys, the world turns medieval. The mountains, dark sentinels, loom over the Kunhar River, a gushing streak of silver tearing through the shadows. Their pine-laden heads, quiet and mysterious, echo with the forlorn caws of ravens.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

US, allies widen air strikes against IS in Syria

AFP

DAMASCUS: The US-led coalition widened its air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria on Saturday as British warplanes took off on anti-militant missions over neighbouring Iraq.

DAMASCUS: The US-led coalition widened its air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria on Saturday as British warplanes took off on anti-militant missions over neighbouring Iraq.

Seven targets were hit in Syria, the Pentagon said, including an IS building and two armed vehicles at the border crossing in the besieged Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobane.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said IS rockets also hit the town for the first time since the militant assault began on September 16, wounding 12 people.

Other targets in Syria included IS vehicles and buildings near Al-Hasakeh, as well as an IS command and control facility near Minbej, US Central Command said.

Meanwhile, Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 combat jets armed with laser-guided bombs took off from Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base on Cyprus for missions over Iraq but returned after seven hours without having used their weapons.

“On this occasion no targets were identified as requiring immediate air attack by our aircraft,” a defence ministry spokesman in London said.

Belgium and Denmark have also approved plans to join France and the Netherlands in launching air raids against the militants in Iraq, allowing Washington to focus on the more complex operation in Syria, where IS group is based.

Washington warned that the militants could not be defeated in Syria by air power alone, saying that up to 15,000 “moderate” rebels would need to be trained.

Saturday was the second time US-led air strikes had been reported around Ain al-Arab since the IS advance began.

Senior Syrian Kurdish official Newaf Khalil said the latest strikes hit the IS-held town of Ali Shar, east of Ain al-Arab, and destroyed several IS tanks.

Saturday’s strikes came a day after hundreds of Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey to reinforce Ain al-Arab’s Kurdish militia defenders.

Coalition aircraft also pounded the Euphrates valley city of Raqa, which the militants have made the headquarters of the “caliphate” they declared in June straddling swathes of Iraq and Syria.

“At least 31 explosions were heard in Raqa city and its surroundings,” said the Britain-based Observatory.

The US and Arab allies began air strikes against IS in northern and eastern Syria on Tuesday, more than a month after Washington launched its air campaign against the militants in Iraq.

Washington had been reluctant to intervene in Syria, but acted after the militants captured more territory and committed widespread atrocities, including beheading three Western hostages.

A US defence official said on Friday that the Syrian mission is now similar to US-led air raids against IS in Iraq, with “near continuous” combat sorties.

Washington is also planning to train and arm 5,000 Syrian rebels as part of the effort, although the top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said between 12,000 and 15,000 men would be required to recapture “lost territory” in Syria.

Gen Dempsey said defeating IS would take more than air strikes and that “a ground component” was an important aspect of the US-led campaign.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Afghan villagers hang four Taliban

AFP

KABUL: Afghan villagers hanged four Taliban fighters from a tree after hundreds of militants launched a major offensive, officials said on Saturday, as security forces fought to recapture ground in the eastern province of Ghazni.

About 100 policemen, soldiers and civilians have been killed in clashes over the past week, with the Taliban beheading 12 of the victims, according to provincial officials.

This summer’s fighting season has seen worsening violence, with the Taliban pushing forward in several provinces as the government was deadlocked for months over disputed election results.

“In one village, local people hanged four fighters from a tree after capturing them as the army and soldiers made advances,” Ghazni deputy governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi said.

“The Taliban have holed up in homes and are using locals as human shields. About 100 fighters are still in the main bazaar, but we hope to break their frontline soon.”

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it believed provincial officials were exaggerating the scale of the offensive, probably to encourage extra reinforcements to be sent to the remote region.

“It is the officials in western Ghazni who normally hugely overstate what is happening,” Isaf deputy commander General Carsten Jacobson told reporters. “The picture that we have is by far not as grim (as local officials say).”

Gen Carsten said Isaf was assisting Afghan forces with reconnaissance, and he rejected reports that some militants in Ghazni were aligned to the Islamic State (IS) group active in Syria and Iraq.

“We haven’t seen so far any credible proof — and we are watching that, of course, very carefully — of real manifestation of IS here in Afghanistan,” he said.

The attacks in the last week have focused on Ajristan district in Ghazni province, after recent Taliban offensives in Kandahar, Helmand and Logar.

Sediq Sediqqi, an interior ministry spokesman, said: “We have sent special forces, police and army as part of reinforcements to the district, and launched operations against the Taliban. “The villages will be cleared of the insurgents very soon.”

The Taliban issued a statement denying the beheadings in Ajristan, adding that “checkpoints around the district centre are falling one after the other”.

“Enemy claims that they have pushed back the mujahideen from their positions in Ghazni are complete lies,” the English-language statement said.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Editorial News

Price of inaction

Editorial

PAKISTAN’S drift towards international isolation is only matched by the state’s denial of this truth.

PAKISTAN’S drift towards international isolation is only matched by the state’s denial of this truth.

On Wednesday, the joint US-India statement issued at the end of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington D.C. contained direct language seemingly focused on Pakistan.

It is worth reproducing the relevant part of the text: “The [US and Indian] leaders stressed the need for joint and concerted efforts, including the dismantling of safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks, to disrupt all financial and tactical support for networks such as Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company and the Haqqanis. They reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai to justice.”

On the same day, the US Treasury department announced sanctions against three Pakistanis, including Fazlur Rehman Khalil, and two Pakistan-based entities for links to the LeT and Harkatul Mujahideen, the foremost of the Kashmir-orientated militant groups in the country. Certainly India has its own reasons for trying to build an anti-Pakistan alliance, but our refusal to address militancy concerns has created more space for Delhi’s anti-Pakistan rhetoric.

Take the official reaction by the Foreign Office yesterday in which the FO spokesperson focused on a UN terrorist watchlist and denied that the US move is “binding” on Pakistan.

Therein lies the problem: while Pakistan continues to baulk at acting against certain militant groups, the countries under threat from those organisations are moving closer to each other in order to counter the threat.

Consider that the joint US-India statement also refers to “dismantling” terrorist safe havens: is that an ominous sign that however remote the possibility at the moment, the US and India have begun contemplating the possibility of targeted counterterrorist operations on Pakistani soil at some point in the future?

Surely, that would be nothing short of a catastrophe for Pakistan with unknowable consequences for peace and security in the region. Yet, the country’s national security and foreign policy apparatus remains indifferent to or unaware of the storm that appears to be brewing.

In truth, many of Pakistan’s problems are self-inflicted. The best that has ever been managed when it comes to pro-Kashmir militant groups is to put the state’s sponsorship of jihad in cold storage, as was done by Musharraf in the early part of the last decade. But, a decade on, the security establishment seems bent on continuing the policy of politically mainstreaming the leadership of groups such as the LeT, HuM and now even the Punjabi Taliban.

That is what allows Hafiz Saeed and Fazlur Rehman Khalil to address rallies, appear routinely on TV and to go on organising their ranks and developing their organisations with a brazenness and confidence that has the rest of the world looking on with alarm. Truly, the outside world can legitimately ask why the Mumbai-related Rawalpindi trials are stuck in limbo. The signals from D.C. are clear: if Pakistan doesn’t act, others will.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Unfair protections

Editorial

THE Competition Commission of Pakistan is back in the news with an important order against three state-owned construction companies.

THE Competition Commission of Pakistan is back in the news with an important order against three state-owned construction companies.

When they were formed, the National Logistics Cell, the Frontier Works Organisation and the National Construction Limited, were allowed an exemption from furnishing various types of sureties for work they undertook for the federal and provincial governments.

Their competitors in the private sector, by contrast, have been required to furnish these sureties, ranging from bank guarantees to secure performance bonds and mobilisation advances, and retention money adjustment for example. Since such sureties tie up large amounts of the contractor’s funds, private parties say these exemptions give the three state-owned companies a huge unfair advantage, and place “burdensome terms” on their private-sector competitors.

The CCP finds that the exemptions were originally granted to “allow growth under protection to achieve economies of scale”. Since their establishment decades ago, the economy has opened up to encourage greater private-sector competition but the exemptions have remained in place. The CCP finds that the three state-owned companies “no longer need protections in the form of exemptions”, keeping in mind “their ability to compete abroad”.

It is heartening to see the CCP asserting itself in an important matter. Providing a level playing field for all players is a key function for the government. Since the exemptions distort the market in the key construction sector of the economy, they create barriers for entry for other players, the CCP says. And since hundreds of billions of rupees flow through government contracts for construction in any given fiscal year, the size of the market that private parties are being discouraged from entering is enormous.

Of particular concern is the fact that two of these companies enjoying exemptions come under the Ministry of Defence. The defence production sector has long enjoyed exemption from the structural adjustment measures undertaken by the government over the past three decades.

If companies in this sector are enjoying profitable years while the rest of the public sector sags under the weight of accumulating losses, it is because exemptions of this sort have been granted in many other forms as well. Perhaps the CCP should look into similar uncompetitive practices in other state-owned enterprises in the defence production sector, which has escaped the brunt of budget cuts and subsidy rollbacks that other SOEs have had to suffer over the decades.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Wazirabad scuffle

Editorial

THE anti-government ‘go Nawaz go’ slogan seems to have gone viral, thanks largely to the campaign being run by the PTI and PAT in Islamabad.

THE anti-government ‘go Nawaz go’ slogan seems to have gone viral, thanks largely to the campaign being run by the PTI and PAT in Islamabad.

Over the past few days, we have come across numerous reports of the slogan being raised in different forums, usually where members of the PML-N are present.

Understandably, the N-League is extremely displeased with the frequent repetition of the stinging phrase. Patience in the party’s ranks is wearing thin and matters came to a head at an event in Wazirabad in Punjab’s Gujranwala district, where the prime minister had come to distribute cheques to flood victims.

The situation turned ugly when PML-N workers, reportedly led by a provincial lawmaker, thrashed PTI supporters for raising the slogan after Nawaz Sharif had left the venue.

As per remarks on television, Taufeeq Butt, the MPA in question, said similar treatment would be meted out to protesters who raised the dreaded slogan again.

Deplorable as the violence is, what is totally unacceptable is the PML-N leadership’s apparent defence of the brutal tactics its activists applied to silence their opponents. Tweeting after the incident, Maryam Nawaz appeared to gloat over the ‘performance’ in Wazirabad, warning PTI supporters “not to mess with lions”.

Political dissent is an essential ingredient of democracy. Yet what has been observed about both sides — the government as well as those in Islamabad calling for its departure — is that there is a visible lack of tolerance.

We can question the timing and occasion where slogans are raised, but stamping out dissent through brute force smacks of authoritarianism. A few days ago, another protester raising the ‘go Nawaz go’ slogan was beaten up at a function in Lahore.

Instead of using such methods, protesters can firmly but in a non-violent manner be asked to take their demonstration elsewhere. Meanwhile, party leaders would do well not to encourage any hooliganism in the lower cadres, which could worsen matters. All sides need to use democratic methods to express dissent, as well as to counter it.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Counterterrorism challenges

Editorial

THE National Counter-Terrorism Centre near Kharian, Gujrat, inaugurated by army chief Gen Raheel Sharif on Tuesday is a good time to raise an old question: what is the civilian-led law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus across the country doing to play its part in the fight against militancy?

Expectedly, the military has talked up its purpose-built facility meant primarily to train army troops, but also foreign troops and local paramilitary and police personnel. While the military does have a legitimate and necessary role in specialised counterterrorism operations, the consensus in the world of anti-terrorism expertise is that dense, urban and built-up environments require civilian-led law-enforcement and intelligence operations.

Consider though the state of that civilian-led apparatus across the provinces. In Punjab, an abortive and ill-advised attempt to create a parallel counterterrorism police force has been followed up with no real reforms of the existing police force.

In Sindh, the operation in Karachi has seen the Rangers play a much bigger role than the police themselves.

In Balochistan, the old problem of so-called A and B areas has left the police irrelevant and operationally confined to a tiny percentage of the province’s land mass.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a strong police leadership freed from the most intense aspects of political interference has restored some morale, but the police force as a whole has been battered and bruised by years of attacks by the Taliban.

In Islamabad, the increased terror threat earlier this year required police from Punjab to be drafted in and, unhappily, Muhammad Sikander, the lone gunman on Jinnah Avenue in August 2013, has come to define the capital territory’s true policing potential.

If a picture of weaknesses — and severe ones — on the civilian front were not dismal enough, the sense of near failure is reinforced by the drift in the policy arena.

Nacta, the much-touted but mostly neglected National Counter-Terrorism Authority, remains in limbo, despite repeated promises by successive governments to re-energise it. The National Internal Security Policy launched with much fanfare by the PML-N government appears to have been forgotten altogether.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, who propelled the creation of the NISP and is principally responsible for its execution, disappears for stretches of time over matters of politics. The revamped and renamed Cabinet Committee on National Security (formerly the Defence Committee of the Cabinet) was launched with much fanfare but has become a victim of civil-military discord and civilian apathy.

Where then is counterterrorism policy to be debated and articulated on the civilian side, much less led operationally by the civilians? Is it any surprise then that the military is seeking to take the lead in yet another area where international experience and logic suggests the civilians ought to be leading? Winning the fight against militancy is as much about the right leadership as it is about the right strategy.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

A new approach?

Editorial

IT could be out-of-the-box thinking, but to what end is unclear at the moment. What one can posit about the Balochistan Assembly’s resolution to approach the Khan of Kalat, Agha Suleman Dawood Khan, to return from self-exile in London and assume a role in restoring peace to Balochistan is that the initiative could mean different things to different people in the province’s fractured political landscape.

When the 2013 elections brought moderate nationalists to power in Balochistan, observers deemed it a positive development because the National Party was seen as better placed to address the many problems bedevilling the province, including the insurgency as well as the feelings of extreme alienation that decades of ill-conceived policies had engendered among its people.

Fundamental to any chance of reaching out to disaffected Baloch was that the establishment abandon its unconscionable kill-and-dump policy to crush the separatist movement. However, the powers that be have continued to follow the same playbook, in the process undermining the Balochistan government.

From his weak position, Dr Malik’s oft-stated intention to reach out to the leadership of militant groups was scarcely viable.

His support for the resolution could be another attempt in this direction, taking into account the Khan of Kalat’s standing in Balochistan, both in terms of tribal hierarchy as well as for historical reasons. The latter go back to the pre-Partition days when the princely state of Kalat, then ruled by the present Khan’s grandfather, held a pre-eminent position in the tribal confederacy that included much of central and southern Balochistan.

However, Dr Malik may be clutching at straws, for many insurgents in the province consider the Kalat rulers as ‘traitors’ to the Baloch cause for having signed the Instrument of Accession to join Pakistan in 1948.

As such, the militants may see overtures to Dawood Khan as further evidence of the state’s strategy of using proxies to further its ends. Indeed, the establishment has much to gain if the Khan can be persuaded to return; it is not in Pakistan’s interest for other regional players to be able to approach him or for him to go to the ICJ with Baloch grievances as he vowed to at a grand jirga convened after Akbar Bugti’s murder in 2006.

Whatever the motives behind this recent resolution, the Khan’s return could be a catalyst for starting a crucial dialogue on important issues; that in itself would be a welcome change from the present suffocating impasse.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Pak-Afghan ties: the road ahead

Editorial

THE history is so long and fraught and the problems so complex that the start of the Ashraf Ghani presidency in Afghanistan cannot immediately be seen as a new beginning in ties between Islamabad and Kabul.

There are though fresh possibilities now that the Hamid Karzai era is over. Mr Karzai in his final speech in office exemplified quite how impossible it had become to hope for major breakthroughs in ties while he was still around: the rancour and vitriol Mr Karzai directed at Pakistan was neither new nor surprising and had thoroughly poisoned all facets of the relationship.

President Ghani, meanwhile, is seen as a pragmatist who is aware that peace and stability in the region will depend on Pak-Afghan relations. Of course, with a power-sharing agreement in place in Afghanistan, it remains to be seen to what extent the Abdullah Abdullah camp — especially the hawks in the erstwhile Northern Alliance — impacts foreign policy and the national security choices of Afghanistan.

Despite Pakistan’s reaching out several years ago, the remnants of the Northern Alliance, so influential in Kabul during the Karzai era, never really warmed to the idea. Much then could depend on how domestic politics between the Ghani and Abdullah camps shape Afghan policy towards Pakistan.

The immediate priority for both the Pakistani and Afghan sides should be to reduce the acute tensions along the border between eastern Afghanistan and Fata. Where security forces on both sides have targeted sites across the border, there needs to be an immediate cessation. But the problem is really one of sanctuaries and cross-border attacks — so long as militants on both sides of the border are present and active, the risk of an escalation between Pakistani and Afghan security forces remains very real.

Eventually, the two countries, if they are ever to deal with the problem on a long-term basis, will need to move towards better border management in a way that makes it less porous but still accessible for legitimate people traffic. Yet, that surely does not mean putting everything else on hold, especially intelligence cooperation and re-energising military-to-military contacts across the border to make clashes less likely.

From there, there are the truly big issues. Pakistan facilitating an internal Afghan reconciliation between the government and the Afghan Taliban would be at the top of that list and the one measure against which much of Islamabad’s intentions will be judged in Kabul and internationally.

The protracted Afghan election process has added to lost time so a big gesture may be needed to revive the reconciliation process — one that could be provided by Pakistan. If the goals are kept reasonable but clear and both Pakistani and Afghan sides show they understand the past cannot be repeated, there is a possibility for a shared, better future.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

Militant monks

Editorial

RELIGIOUS zealotry mixed with xenophobic nationalism can create a toxic ideology that has the ability to tear societies and nations apart. And when the state fails to check the growth of groups espousing such ideology at the initial stage, soon enough these outfits become too complex to handle. In both Sri Lanka and Myanmar, over the past few years ultranationalist Buddhist extremist groups — led by monks — have seen their profiles rise as they have campaigned, often violently, against the Muslim minorities in their respective countries. On Tuesday, two extremist groups, Sri Lanka’s Bodu Bala Sena and Myanmar’s 969 movement, signed an accord on the island nation to “protect Buddhism”. Yet the track record of both these groups indicates that the agreement may be about more than just exchanging notes on spiritual matters. Monks from both groups have led anti-Muslim mobs which have looted and plundered at will. For Sri Lanka, this is an especially worrying development as relations between the island nation’s Muslim and Sinhalese Buddhist communities have remained largely peaceful, while the country also faces no known threat from Islamist extremists. Yet if anti-Islam demagogues are allowed to preach hatred, it could lead to reactive radicalisation within the Muslim community. In Myanmar, the sufferings of the Muslim Rohingya are quite well-documented. Though Myanmar’s foreign minister has said the state has started the “verification process” that could lead to granting the Rohingya citizenship, the authorities will have to do far more to rein in Buddhist extremists that often target the Muslim minority.

In both Myanmar and Sri Lanka, the state has been accused of turning a blind eye to the Buddhist extremists’ activities. We in Pakistan know that if demagogues and rabble-rousers are allowed to plant the seeds of hatred, the results can be highly destructive for communal and sectarian harmony. Narrow nationalism cloaked in the guise of religion can spell the death knell for pluralism. That is why both states need to confront the extremist threat before it grows out of control.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Karachi operation

Editorial

ON the face of it, the numbers appear impressive. A briefing on the Karachi operation, given by a Sindh Rangers official to the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, stated that the Rangers had conducted 3,696 raids, arrested 6,835 suspects and seized 5,214 weapons during the first year of the initiative.

Although the briefing, which claimed that the operation had wiped out the TTP network in Karachi, was coy on details of the crackdown’s impact on various categories of criminal offences, police officials have often been quoted as saying the operation has brought down crime by 50pc, with the steepest drop in murders committed along political or ethnic lines. But Karachi is complex and Machiavellian, and has multiple stakeholders with often conflicting agendas.

Hence, these claims need to be placed in context to understand the larger picture and gauge whether the gains are sustainable.

While the decline in political/ethnic murders has indeed been marked, developments at home and abroad may have also played a role in reducing friction between political activists inclined to ‘robust’ means of conflict resolution.

For one thing, in the months following the 2013 elections, the main parties in Karachi, perhaps feeling vulnerable with a heavily mandated PML-N asserting its writ at the centre, made attempts to bridge their differences and these efforts culminated in their joining forces to run the province. This has been a fraught year for the MQM anyway with legal problems dogging its leader in London.

Meanwhile, nearly 400 raids on the People’s Amn Committee during the course of the operation have brought down large-scale, gang-related violence in Lyari, but it is relevant to point out that almost as soon as the operation began, the gangs’ top tier leadership fled the area — some, intriguingly, even made it abroad.

As for breaking the back of the TTP in Karachi, the briefing stated that the Rangers had arrested 760 terrorists in 403 raids on militant hideouts, but a cursory glance at newspapers on most days shows that sectarian killers — one faction of whom is said to be closely associated with the TTP — are going about their business without let or hindrance.

Of late, relatives of prominent ulema have also been targeted, indicating a degree of planning which points to the existence of determined, well-organised gangs. Given these realities, it will take nothing less than a holistic approach — involving systemic, far-reaching reforms — to grapple with the criminal landscape of Karachi.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

PTCL suspension

Editorial

SINCE technology dictates and defines everyday life so comprehensively a suspension of the routine is all the more paralysing.

SINCE technology dictates and defines everyday life so comprehensively a suspension of the routine is all the more paralysing.

Following a blaze at a PTCL installation on Sunday, Lahore and some other parts of Punjab found themselves cut off from the world without the technology they had come to take for granted. Thousands of telephones, landlines and some operations by mobile phone companies linked to PTCL went dead and internet services were disrupted.

Consequently, work was severely curtailed in many areas, prominent among them banks, educational institutions, the media industry and IT-related businesses.

The fire incident took place just as the week leading up to Eidul Azha was about to get under way. This is the season when everyone is in a hurry to complete assignments before settling down to enjoy the holiday.

The disruption caused by PTCL added an element of panic to the pre-Eid rush and the flurry of explanations and promises of early resumption of normal operations put forward by the affected organisations did little to ease concerns.

For many who found themselves constrained by the unexpected suspension of communications, the situation was not without irony. How come something that was there to speed up their work was not capable of quickly fixing a fault in its own system?

Questions were raised about the precautions taken at the sensitive premises hit by the fire, and on Monday, there were reports that the city district government of Lahore was looking at forensic evidence to ascertain the cause.

However, even if it was an accident that had taken place despite the best possible measures to prevent one, consumers were justifiably shocked and puzzled at the amount of time it took to restore the system to even a minimum level of functionality. Though some urgent effort was put in to resolve the issues and a few connections were restored faster than the others, the calls are for greater security of the system and a brisker response in case of an emergency.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

Apology and after

Editorial

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s message to party workers and followers is reminiscent of the sentiments of a general who is striving to keep his troops together for the next battle.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s message to party workers and followers is reminiscent of the sentiments of a general who is striving to keep his troops together for the next battle.

In an open letter, he has apologised to those who may have reason to part ways with the PPP and has asked the disillusioned to stay put a while longer, making it incumbent upon himself and Asif Ali Zardari to take some drastic steps towards the party’s revival.

The PPP has not only been reduced to a regional party, more or less confined to Sindh, its support is considered emotionally inspired. It has drawn widespread criticism for not keeping pace with the people who have far more at stake today than backing a political party purely out of their love for the ‘martyrs’ the party has produced.

Declaring one’s intention to take up where Ms Benazir Bhutto left off can only be meaningful if the PPP is willing to back its words with reorganisation along practical, result-oriented lines all over the country.

The old stories about how the PPP once swayed Pakistanis across various divides are now mere opium that can only make those at the party’s helm oblivious to the current realities.

It was easier for the PPP in the 1960s during the years leading to its founding. The repair now is a much more sensitive job, not least because others have been more inventive and mobile than the PPP, and the debate about whether or not they have moved in the right direction is a luxury which Bilawal Bhutto Zardari cannot afford at the moment.

The simple reality is that the people have found themselves choices and a new force to challenge the long-time PPP opponent — the PML-N — that had over all these decades provided an automatic justification for the existence of the PPP. The PTI is a challenge to grapple with. Imran Khan appears to have eaten deep into the PPP support base particularly in Punjab comprising anti-PML-N pockets — and the PPP’s policy of playing the appendage of PML-N is further harming its cause.

To say that apologies are solutions would be as futile as dismissing this message by the PPP chairman as an instrument of surrender.

For whatever it is worth, his letter does provide broad lines of policy and identifies the PPP with the ‘left-wing’ forces. It falls short of stating the obvious about who controls the politics in the country, but at the same time does promise resistance to “right-wing parties” that “appease” the extremists.

For practical reasons, the edgy PPP jiyala would be hoping that these appeasers in the new party rule book would include both the PTI and PML-N. Though this is a dangerous course, this ideological focus is as crucial to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his party’s rise as to the effort to organise at the grass roots.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

A broken system

Editorial

IN Pakistan, one of the major factors contributing to rampant lawlessness is quite simply that criminals don’t get caught. And if they do, weak investigation and prosecution means that soon enough, dangerous individuals are back on the streets.

In fact, the data collected by the Faisalabad police serves as an eye-opener to indicate just how rotten the system is. Information collected by the district police reportedly shows that over the last five years, around 8,000 suspected criminals have been released for a number of reasons. Some of the suspects were apprehended for alleged involvement in crimes ranging from murder to robbery.

The reasons for their release will be familiar to anyone with an idea of the workings of Pakistan’s law-enforcement and criminal justice systems.

The suspects were let off because witnesses were too afraid to testify, while even investigation officers and judges faced threats. Alarming as the figure seems, considering the moribund state of the law-enforcement and prosecution systems countrywide, the numbers for the district should not be too surprising.

Due to massive holes in the system, the Faisalabad police have resorted to ad hoc measures to detain suspects, such as applying Maintenance of Public Order laws. This comes across as a relatively more tolerable way of keeping suspects behind bars, given that our law enforcers are known to use other, extra-legal methods, to ‘get rid’ of troublesome suspects.

To assess the situation perhaps a similar district-level exercise could be carried out countrywide. In each district, the police should make public the number of suspects released, along with the reasons why. This would give reform efforts benchmark figures to work with.

The next — and more difficult step — involves improving the capability and capacity of police forces to investigate crime. Today, mostly archaic methods — that largely rely on confessions, statements and informers — are used to build a case.

Officials have often cited the need for using forensics to aid investigation efforts, hence it is time noble intentions were transformed into action and scientific investigation techniques introduced at the grass roots. And as the investigation system is modernised, the prosecution system also needs to be overhauled.

The need for effective witness protection programmes has long been highlighted in the country, yet progress is painfully slow. Unless the state ushers in long-lasting changes in the investigation and prosecution systems, it will be unable to provide justice to the people and law and order will continue to plummet.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Confident consumers

Editorial

ALL is not as gloomy as it might appear. Investor confidence might be plummeting and the country’s savings rate may be the lowest in the region.

ALL is not as gloomy as it might appear. Investor confidence might be plummeting and the country’s savings rate may be the lowest in the region.

We might be slipping further in competitive rankings, and the outlook of our credit rating may be hanging by a thread tethered to the IMF. But our consumers are amongst the most confident in the world.

“Pakistani consumers are generally optimistic” finds a report by the research company Nielson. The State Bank’s own consumer confidence index reports a rising score between July last year and this year. Given that wage levels have been stagnant over this time period, while inflation has hovered around 8pc, these results can be a little puzzling.

How are people spending more when they are earning less? The erudite find answers in the parallel economy, the so-called informal sector, which perhaps surged while the rest of the economy barely moved at a rate of 4.1pc. The key word here is ‘perhaps’, because there is no reliable way of knowing for sure what is going on in the informal sector.

But to those less encumbered by the methodological baggage of the erudite, no evidence is required beyond what a pair of eyes and ears can provide.

Perhaps Pakistanis are spending more today because they don’t know what tomorrow will bring. And the less they know about the shape of tomorrow, the more likely they are to use it all up today.

Saving and investment are for fools and squirrels when you live in a present, where tomorrow always falls in a faraway land. Here it’s all about the quick score and flaunting what you have.

Let others worry about sending a mission to Mars; we can simply announce a housing colony up there and start trading plot files right away. So through all the turbulence, let us rejoice over the wind in our sails that has kept us in such fickle stead through the fiercest of storms — and let a million malls blossom.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

No end in sight

Editorial

IT’S a strange kind of impasse the country is trapped in. The PML-N government is trying to limp on from the ongoing crisis, but in a peculiar way: the government appears to think that if it ignores the PTI and PAT protesters, they will disappear in time.

Meanwhile, the PTI and PAT have been busy adjusting their anti-government protest strategy, with Imran Khan switching his attention from the sit-in on Constitution Avenue to a travelling protest each week in various parts of the country.

Clearly, the big loser in all of this is the country and any prospect of governance taking centre stage anytime soon. Consider that a summer of turmoil has morphed into an autumn of discord – and still there is no end in sight. Surely, this is not a sustainable scenario for a state and society contending with deep and complicated problems that only keep growing with time.

Part of the problem was and remains the PML-N itself. Even when it attempts to create a veneer of semi-normality, the government seems to be undone by itself.

The UN trip of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week could have been an opportunity to put forward a confident face, to show that the government is thinking long-term about economic, political and social issues back home. Instead, the trip was lacklustre with little real planning or foresight seeming to have gone into it. Perhaps that was because the trip was not a certainty until the last moment and most work at the UN General Assembly’s annual session is planned weeks and months in advance. But it does betray a larger point about the government’s performance so far: the promise and expectation has been so much higher than actual delivery.

In area after area, be it the power sector or administrative reforms or parliamentary performance, the PML-N simply seems mired in old ways, unable or perhaps unwilling to forcefully move the democratic project ahead. Unhappily, the PML-N still does not appear to understand that as the chief custodian of the democratic project, the onus falls on the party to strengthen democracy and improve governance in a manner that can address the wellspring of discontent among the population.

Yet, for all its shortcomings and placidity, the PML-N is in truth confronted by an opponent who is difficult to contend with.

For all his claims about wanting to rewrite the social contract and to improve governance, Imran Khan’s quest comes down to a single issue: ousting the PML-N from power so that the PTI has another shot at capturing power.

Raging against injustices – of which there are many, pillorying an under-delivering state – which it does, excoriating a government for not truly being democratic in spirit – which it isn’t, is all well and good, but it leaves a fundamental question unanswered: what is Mr Khan’s concrete and measurable plan for change? It’s not even that the PTI-led

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s performance has been less than stellar, but that Mr Khan does not even attempt to flesh out how, on what time scale and in which areas reforms would be prioritised and delivered.

Without any of that, how is the PTI any different from the status quo it lambastes?

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Assessing losses

Editorial

A STORY is being propagated that the economy has suffered massive damage due to the protests in Islamabad, and the floods in Punjab.

A STORY is being propagated that the economy has suffered massive damage due to the protests in Islamabad, and the floods in Punjab.

Most recently, the finance secretary appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, and complained that the economy, the image of the country, investor sentiment and inflation all had been adversely impacted by both events.

Investors have shelved their plans; the rupee had slid from Rs98 to Rs103 to a dollar; the IMF had delayed its tranche; and inflation would probably be fuelled “on account of supply disruption of commodities due to dharnas and rallies” as well as the recent floods. He also touched on the external trade deficit, although it is far from clear how this might be linked to the floods or the protests.

In short, everything was going fine until the floods and the protests came along and upset the apple cart, we are being told. All of these claims strain credulity.

The story should be received with a large dose of scepticism because there is sufficient evidence that the economy was sputtering long before the floods and the protests descended on us. How have the dharnas contributed to inflation, or to supply bottlenecks, except in the opening days when the government tried to choke all movement in an effort to stop the marches?

Moreover, the Fund as well as the State Bank had flagged the fragile nature of the recovery that the government was boasting of, and as late as July, the central bank was voicing scepticism about the growth story.

The trade deficit was flagged as an issue much earlier in the year, and the value of the currency at Rs98 to a dollar was considered untenable from the very beginning. The build-up in the reserves was a positive sign all of last year, but it had also been underlined as driven by “one-off inflows” early in the year.

The circular debt had returned to its previous levels by July, and the power tariff subsidy had to be revised upward by almost 50pc midyear. There is little doubt that the floods and the protests have dented the economy, but it is also important to keep in mind that the government’s growth story was in significant trouble long before these events materialised. The Senate standing committee should bear this in mind when taking stock of the secretary’s testimony.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Infant’s kidnapping

Editorial

IT’S a long-standing issue that hasn’t been able to attract the attention it merits: that of the kidnapping of newborns, usually from the hospital they were born in.

IT’S a long-standing issue that hasn’t been able to attract the attention it merits: that of the kidnapping of newborns, usually from the hospital they were born in.

There are no aggregate numbers other than what can be gleaned from media reports, and barely anyone to keep track of whether the infants were recovered or not. On Thursday, the despicable crime was apparently committed yet again, this time in Lahore.

The baby’s family says that the boy, born a few hours earlier at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, was in the facility’s gynaecology ICU and his maternal aunt was attending to him. According to the father, staff on duty sent the aunt away to buy medicine, and was upon return informed that another woman proclaiming herself to be a relative had taken the baby away.

The family alleges corruption on part of the hospital staff, further complaining that neither the ICU duty staff nor the hospital gatekeeper bothered to check the identity of the purported ‘relative’. The hospital administration, for its part, claims that the mother herself handed the baby over to another woman.

An investigation has been promised and for the sake of the family, and the unfortunate boy himself; it is to be hoped that the matter doesn’t end up being dusted under the carpet.

The fact is that this crime has been reported sporadically from cities and towns across the country, from Peshawar to Karachi. In some cases, the kidnapped infant has been recovered; but in others, he or she has been lost forever. And while the eventual fate of such children cannot be guessed at, it is bound to be tragic — certainly, police have on occasion busted gangs involved in trafficking kidnapped babies.

It behoves hospital staff, therefore, to urgently step up vigilance and accept their responsibility. Families, too, need to be made aware of the unscrupulous elements that often haunt hospital corridors. This crime needs to be dragged out of the darkness and be made the focus of a concerted investigation.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Kashmir at the core

Editorial

SPEAKING at the UN General Assembly session on Friday was a Nawaz Sharif different to the one who had earned much flak from the hawks in Pakistan for his India vision of a few years ago.

SPEAKING at the UN General Assembly session on Friday was a Nawaz Sharif different to the one who had earned much flak from the hawks in Pakistan for his India vision of a few years ago.

He was then an opposition leader who wanted to present himself as a moderate Pakistani politician. Now he is a prime minister who must represent his state’s interests which are made up of much more than a politician’s wishes.

Pakistan and India are back at a place from where they have to build from scratch. And if internal Pakistani dynamics, such as Mr Sharif’s tenuous ties with the security establishment, have contributed to the responses today, India’s desire, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to act as an ‘emerging superpower’ has also deterred dialogue between the two countries.

Last month’s cancellation of the foreign secretary-level talks by New Delhi, which deplored Pakistan’s contacts with leaders from India-held Kashmir, had heralded the suspension.

In fact, the ground was being prepared for that eventuality and recent engagement between the two countries, when not cold, has been too heated. There were far too many incidents of firing on the Pakistan-India frontier if we are to cite just one significant reason for the deterioration in ties — and the gifts the two prime ministers exchanged were too bereft of substance to be of any long-term value.

Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir is based on a solid principle. The emphasis has varied, but Kashmir has been very much there influencing attitudes at the talks even when it was being kept out for the sake of confidence-building.

On its part, New Delhi has also stuck to its guns over the disputed territory. Consequently, dialogue, which is always the best way forward and which in this case was kept going not least by the efforts of international powers, has been under constant threat. The basic reason for this engagement in recent times was that in a changed world, Pakistan and India could not continue their hostile ways if they hoped to keep pace with economic development.

For many on this side of the border, the increasing insistence by Mr Modi’s India to dictate is rooted in the belief that India today is economically powerful enough for international players to side with it — tacitly and openly.

That would mean greater pressure on Pakistan which has an image problem and a host of economic problems to deal with. But this formula disregards the fact that Islamabad cannot ignore or compromise on Kashmir. There is no denying that Kashmir is a central issue, but the only way it can be dealt with is by including the Kashmiris in the discussion — rather than using them to sustain nationalistic refrains. That fact must not be lost sight of.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

A novel plan for PIA

Editorial

A NEW plan is in the offing to bifurcate PIA into two companies and sell one of them to an international party. The plan would split PIA’s sprawling operations into two — creating an airline on one hand, and putting ground operations such as hotels, catering and ground handling in a separate compartment. The airline can then be sold off, while the other operations could be consolidated for sale later.

This is, indeed, a novel idea and it should be given the space to succeed. Earlier efforts to privatise the state-owned airline have come to grief because of strident opposition from the labour unions who fear mass layoffs, and, reportedly, even from the Ministry of Defence which has large interests in the airline. The concerns of the labour unions are well understood, and layoffs at a time of high unemployment should be avoided to the extent possible.

But all other considerations for retaining the airline as a national asset have now been overshadowed by the sorry state of the carrier’s affairs for a number of years now. The fact that the airline has a workforce of 17,000 for a fleet of 36 aircraft, 10 of which are grounded, is evidence enough of its inefficiency. The accumulated losses, that had crossed Rs186bn when the plan was originally formulated in January, have left the airline with a debt burden of Rs276bn. This has made debt service one of its largest expenditure heads after operating costs.

Having come this far, and stoked the embers of expectation, the government must now see through the successful implementation of the plan. Retaining PIA as a national carrier no longer appears workable, and if a viable path exists to divest the airline without sparking mass layoffs, then the plan deserves a chance.

It is also worth noting that PIA would be amongst the first regional national airlines to be successfully privatised. However, it is equally important that mistakes of the past with regard to privatisation be avoided. Principal amongst these is wasting the proceeds. Since the government is intending to raise almost $4bn via its privatisation plan this year, it is crucial that we have thorough transparency on how those funds are utilised. The law requires them to be used for drawing down debt, not for financing the current account deficit. This must be ensured. Frittering away hard-fought gains has been a national failing for far too long now.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

‘Objectionable material’

Editorial

IT is fair to say that the mix of ideology, religion and selective history taught in our public schools often leaves students unable to cope with the realities of the modern world. Some critics have even said that the curriculum is the main reason for the Pakistani population’s steady drift towards intolerance.

Yet whenever efforts are made to reform the curriculum, powerful forces that insist on keeping intact the narrative in textbooks — one that was largely constructed in the Zia era — become active in order to mould the minds of the next generation. As reported in this paper on Saturday, the PTI-led government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has buckled under pressure exerted by Jamaat-i-Islami, its provincial coalition partner, and has decided to remove ‘objectionable material’ from primary school textbooks. We would assume any matter that promotes hatred and intolerance would fall under the category of ‘objectionable material’, but the Jamaat, it seems, has other ideas.

Reportedly, the party has issues with the presence of pictures of Christmas cakes and little girls without dupattas in schoolbooks, as well as the mention of ‘good morning’, instead of ‘As salaam-o-alaikum’. Moulding the curriculum so it is culturally appropriate is understandable, but these objections seem ridiculous. If anything, we need greater mention of other faiths and cultures in our textbooks so that our children are taught to appreciate diversity.

Perhaps the JI and PTI should make an effort to educate youngsters about the values of harmony, tolerance and brotherhood so that their impressionable minds are exposed to an alternative narrative to counter the hate and poison that surrounds them. Also, there is much that needs to be fixed in KP’s education system before the administration starts worrying about Christmas cakes in textbooks. While some improvements have been made under the PTI’s watch where the management of the education system is concerned, matters largely remain the same. Additionally, much of the infrastructure, including girls’ schools, damaged by militants needs urgent attention. Instead of non-issues, it is these areas that the provincial government should be concentrating on.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Columns and Articles

Economic management

Sakib Sherani

LAST week I was in Muzaffarabad, presenting a medium-term outlook for the economy at the strategic offsite meeting of one of Pakistan’s largest banks. The views from the conference room, atop Domail where the rivers Neelum and Jhelum meet, were stunning. But having been to Muzaffarabad after the tragic earthquake of 2005 and seeing the devastation first-hand, I knew that underneath the beautiful sight lies a natural fragility — the city is astride a fault-line.

In much the same way, the seemingly pretty picture of the economy painted (and viewed) by the government over the past one year, is fraught with vulnerabilities that are being exacerbated by some poor economic decisions and management.

Three areas that stand out where the government’s management is detrimental to the interests of economic stability and growth are: exchange rate management, reforms in the power sector, and slow restructuring of public-sector enterprises. (I have excluded the pace and direction of tax reform and public debt management for a more detailed treatment in a subsequent column). If a course correction is not brought about quickly, or the desultory pace of reform picked up in these areas, the good work done in stabilising the economy over the past year will be lost and amount to nothing.

Exchange rate: By virtue of pursuing a stated goal of bringing the exchange rate below a hundred rupees to the greenback, the government has insensibly triggered a substantial real appreciation of the rupee. Between December 2013 and July this year, the real effective exchange rate has appreciated nearly 12pc, according to the State Bank. At the same time, growth in exports has not only stalled but declined, with export receipts falling in comparison to year-ago levels for five consecutive months since April this year. Were it not for the substantial prop to overall exports from the operation of GSP Plus to the EU since January this year, the fall in exports would have been much sharper.

To be sure, an important factor that has affected Pakistan’s exports during this period has been the reversal of fortune of our yarn exporters in the Chinese market. Nonetheless, evidence of the negative impact of exchange rate management on the external account comes also in the form of a rise in imports, especially non-oil, non-food imports which have risen sharply in the past few months.

The fall in exports and a steady trend of rising imports could not have come at a more inopportune moment — at a time of continuing vulnerability of the external account.

Power sector: A combination of a spike in oil prices and extremely incompetent handling of the power sector between 2008 and 2013, has cost Pakistan dearly. Most estimates of the ‘lost’ GDP converge around 2pc a year, though my estimate of aggregate losses is higher.

The received wisdom from the World Bank and the IMF on the source of the problem has focused on a singular dimension: the mismatch between the cost of supplying electricity and recovery from final consumers. This line of reasoning has proven to be both simplistic as well as self-defeating in many ways for reforming the power sector.

There are at least three elements to the power sector’s problems. The first is fiscal, and the inter-connected issues of cost-recovery, circular debt and the budgetary burden of subsidies. The second element is of affordability, and the impact of rising tariffs on the price level as well as business costs and competitiveness. The third dimension of the issue relates to balance of payments sustainability, and the question of our ability to pay for the fuel imports to meet the requirements of the power sector.

The PML-N government’s response has focused mainly on adding new generation capacity to ‘solve’ the problem of load-shedding by 2018. While a part of the new capital investment in the power sector is intended to focus on fuel substitution, thus addressing affordability as well as balance of payments pressures to an extent, the bulk of the new projects are net additions to the grid capacity — and hence will represent an incremental requirement of imported fuel, be it coal or LNG.

Putting together all of the government’s intended projects, even at today’s depressed prices for LNG and coal, the total import bill for fuel will shoot up to $23 billion to $25bn in the next five to seven years. What will be the incremental sources of foreign exchange to pay for this, especially when government policy combines an anti-export bias in the exchange rate with its dangerous corollary, a sympathetic import regime? And, if we won’t be able to pay for the fuel, why build the capacity and incur a capital cost and a deadweight loss?

Restructuring PSEs: While some progress has been made with Railways, almost all the other PSE’s that are a drain on the budget, such as PIA and Pakistan Steel, continue to operate with marginal improvements at best, waiting for the next ‘bailout’ package from public money. So far, the government has conducted a few successful capital market transactions where it has offloaded shares in UBL and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. It is also likely to meet with success in selling shares of OGDCL and HBL, which the government expects to bring in close to $2bn combined.

However, the divestment of shares by the government is not privatisation — only a transparent strategic sale to an experienced and competent private sector management that is not funded by taxpayers via the absorption of liabilities, will bring success. In addition, the definition of success that should be adopted is not the raising of money through the process — but on the long-term financial sustainability and profitable operation of the privatised entity.

While the ongoing political protests are a distraction, the air pocket hit by the economy is less a result of politics and more a function of economic management that needs improvement.

The writer is a former economic adviser to government, and currently heads a macroeconomic consultancy based in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Who would have thought…

Asha’ar Rehman

‘DUSHMAN maray tay khushi naa karyay sajna vee mar jana.” For a man of Shahbaz Sharif’s purpose and energy, the replacement of Habib Jalib with Mian Muhammad Bakhsh would be too obvious a shift. But in sync with the times, on a tour to flood-hit Sargodha areas, the line that abhors those rejoicing at an enemy’s death in disregard of their own fate was accompanied by what has come to form one basic part of the celebrated chief minister’s argument.

If previously Shahbaz’s emphasis was on his glorious development schemes, he has of late been topping it up with a mention of his opponents’ evil designs. In Sargodha on Wednesday once again, he accused the protesters of scuttling the country’s progress.

‘Who would have thought’ is a phrase that has lost its meaning given the routine occurrence of the unexpected around us. But wait a minute … there may be something afoot here. Not too long ago, the province of Punjab, Lahore especially, would be made fun of for its lack of imagination in finding its leaders or finding any faults with its leaders. Alternatively, a jealous Pakistani would emerge from a distant place and enviously congratulate the Lahoris on having found such a permanent answer in Shahbaz Sharif to all their ills. Whereas it would be too harsh to say that the one-man machine has lost its saviour appeal, this must be one of the toughest hours Shahbaz has ever been faced with.

The city the Sharif family has invested so much in over the years has just provided their current opponents a perfect stimulus in their campaign to oust the PML-N government. The PTI rally at Minar-i-Pakistan on Sunday would take some denying and the early signs are that the PML-N is finding it impossible to contain the after-effects of the massive Imran Khan show.

It wasn’t a stagnant dharna comprising ‘few thousand’ obstinate souls. It was a gush threatening to inundate long-held Sharif territory. This was the third time since October 2011 that Imran was able to pull a large crowd to the Minar. That is credible enough, for even those who have held jalsas here have avoided attempting a repeat for fear of failure.

There is no shortage of good reasons why someone would want to dissociate from the PTI crowd, or for that matter, with any party one doesn’t feel compelled from inside to support.

Imran and his party can be pulled up for maintaining double standards. They could be confronted for promoting falsehood as facts, and of course, they could be opposed ideologically by labelling them as puppets. The PTI could be told to go find a replacement for Shahbaz Sharif even if it was to be conceded that Imran was now a worthy pretender to the throne in Islamabad. But the time when the PTI could be dismissed with a wave of the hand has long passed.

There are those who have been feigning that the party did not exist, who would now be best advised to recognise the PTI and oppose it if they must as a political force with considerable, and growing, clout in public.

The PTI support in the city is widespread which was reflected so strongly at the Sunday jalsa. It was bigger than the run-up — replete with spirited calls to the people to attend — had suggested. So many ‘appeared’ to be committed to attend the jalsa, but there was some uncertainty as to how big a crowd would actually turn up. After all, only a few weeks ago, Imran’s promised million-man march was thought to have not received a grand enough start in Lahore. The few-hours-long jalsa was, however, more exciting and doable than the never-ending sit-in in Islamabad.

The subsequent days reconfirmed the PTI’s spread in the city and beyond. At the school which was hosting a PML-N lawmaker, at the ceremony where the new chamber of commerce officials took oath, at an event that brought together doctors or the award-giving function presided over by a federal minister, in the office room you were sitting in and the street you were passing through, there was no escape from the ‘Go Nawaz Go’ chant.

No drive has been so incessant in recent years, not even during elections. It is intensifying. This is no joke. It sets the pulse racing, it excites and angers and creates expectancy as if something is about to give.

The game is heating up whereas the predictions were that Imran Khan was fighting a lost battle. Those who only a week ago were asking Imran to call off his ‘futile’ protest are now discussing mid-term polls and not only that but also the slogans which will define the poll campaign. The PPP’s Khurshid Shah, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, has come up with a statement that does not oppose and only questions the method adopted to force a mid-term poll.

It cannot go on like this. There has to be a solution and mid-term polls may be a compromise that could be reached without too much harm to anyone’s avowed democratic credentials. The PML-N would be hoping to do what the PPP did in the last term: seeking to complete its term by cajoling the establishment. It would be tough given Imran’s insistent tone and given the success he has already achieved.

The pressure is going to mount and in the coming days the debate may shift from the need to stick together to save the current parliament. The next possible challenge for the PPP and PML-N et al could be to try and ensure smooth transition from one elected set-up to another. They must be wary of a huge, long bulge of ‘technocrats’ coming in the way.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

New scenarios

Khadim Hussain

THE political transition in Afghanistan, the transfer of security responsibilities to local forces and the need to develop an indigenous formal economy have tested the patience and determination of Afghans in 2014.

During the course of this year, Afghan state and society have passed through three distinct phases. The first phase, in which elections were held, was a fraught one. A situation complicated by insurgency as well as regional proxy wars meant that conducting fair and free elections was a major challenge. The Afghans, both men and women, went to polling stations in reasonably large numbers amidst fears of violence.

The second phase began post-election, when none of the presidential candidates won the required number of votes. This necessitated a run-off vote between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah that became bitterly disputed after the latter refused to accept the results. Regional and international observers voiced fears of widespread instability in the country when Mr Abdullah’s supporters threatened to establish a parallel government. A tense impasse ensued with the two contenders refusing to budge from their positions. How this phase played out was considered crucial to Afghanistan’s future and political stability in the region.

The third phase brought good tidings not only for the Afghan people but also for other countries in the region. Under immense pressure from the ever-expanding and increasingly assertive Afghan civil society and independent media, both sides wisely decided to agree on a power-sharing formula. Although US and Nato officials played a major role in bringing them to the negotiating table, the two candidates’ own sagacity was key to reaching an agreement.

The newly elected Afghan government has several major challenges to deal with in the next couple of years. The first pertains to internal security. Both aspects of the internal security challenge, the strengthening of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and reintegration of the insurgents in the political process, need to be tackled simultaneously.

Although the ANA has proved to be a viable institution both in terms of numbers and capacity, desertions by soldiers still pose a challenge. So attention must be paid to personnel retention, and the force should be better equipped and further modernised. The Afghan government would do well to sign deals with regional states for these ends.

Perhaps most important to Afghanistan’s internal security is to carry forward the process of reconciliation with the insurgent groups. The task is complicated by the fact that many members of the insurgent groups are thought to be based in the region, and countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan can play an important role to address this issue.

It is to their advantage to find common economic and political interests inside Afghanistan: instability here, as a result of both internal and external factors, has already led to turmoil in the region. Moreover, realignments of violent religious extremist groups in the neighbourhood may pose serious threats to Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and India if they remain oblivious to the emerging security scenarios.

The second challenge for the new Afghan government is to build its own economy. So far, the Afghan economy is either run on foreign capital or falls in the ‘undocumented’ category. The US and Nato are reported to have spent approximately $650 billion in Afghanistan since 9/11. Meanwhile, the thriving undocumented economy continues to oil the terrorist and insurgent war machines in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is situated in a part of the world accessible to South Asia, Central Asia, Turkey, China and the Middle East. Regional states, especially Pakistan, can initiate joint economic ventures that will benefit both countries. If Pakistan wishes to cut the supply lines of terrorist networks engaged on its soil, it has to exponentially expand the volume of trade with Afghanistan.

The third challenge for the newly elected Afghan government is to strengthen political institutions and initiate a robust political process, which would impact state-building as a whole. Tribal kinship networks and alignments are not substitutes for political institutions in a modern state. It is high time for the Afghans to switch to formation of political parties to address the issues of participation and representation.

Against this backdrop, the power-sharing formula between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah may run into hurdles at times. A loya jirga (grand assembly) has been proposed to address the thorny issues that may crop up. This body could suggest constitutional amendments which would be made through the ulasi jirga (people’s assembly) and the meshrano jirga (elders’ assembly).

If achieved, political stability in Afghanistan could herald a much-needed era of regional cooperation in the coming years.

The writer is a political analyst based in Peshawar.

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Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

More equal

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

IN George Orwell’s celebrated classic Animal Farm, the founding slogan of the animal collective ‘all animals are equal’ metamorphoses by the end of the novel into ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. In short, the promise of egalitarianism is suffocated by a power-hungry clique that propagates hollow slogan-mongering to sustain its dominant position.

Another Orwellian dystopia is outlined in the novel 1984, in which a huge authoritarian bureaucracy dumbs down the critical capacities of ordinary people via an all-powerful media, and a thought-controlling language called ‘Newspeak’.

In the seven decades since both stories saw the light of day, the make-up of modern societies has been irrevocably altered by surveillance technologies and the corporate media. Whether or not Orwell intended to provide a blueprint for the evolution of the dark side of capitalist modernity, it can be argued in retrospect that he did exactly that.

This past Sunday, Imran Khan mobilised more people in Lahore than he has managed at any other point since his first Minto Park demonstration in October 2012. The corporate media has of course been instrumental in the PTI’s emergence as a major contender for power over the past two years, and its love affair with Khan has peaked over the past few weeks as evidenced by almost uninterrupted live coverage of the dharna in Islamabad.

It is thus in keeping with the script that Sunday’s gathering in Lahore was gratuitously covered and generated plenty of excited comment about Khan’s regenerated challenge to the Sharifs.

However, the PTI’s jalsa was not the only political event of note on Sunday. Pakistan’s long-maligned left also staged an impressive — albeit much smaller — show in the capital Islamabad. Remarkably, only the state-run PTV covered the leftists, while the private media networks that regularly proclaim themselves to be the vanguards of democracy chose to completely ignore them. Presumably the lure of Imran Khan — even from far away in Lahore — was simply too much for even a few TV cameras to grace the leftist gathering.

Given that the populist right wing regularly employs the language that was once the exclusive preserve of the left, one would think that at least a handful of journalists might have piercing questions to pose about the extent to which the right wing is really committed to a revolution benefiting popular forces, and also why the left should be taken seriously in an era where what it has to say does not appear — on the surface, at least — to be too different than just about everyone else.

But alas, journalism is not what it once was; the critical, thoughtful professional of yesteryear has been replaced by the savvy networker who conforms to all the rules and regulations of the well-oiled machine that is the modern media corporation.

Since 2007 ‘experts’ have been talking up the democratising impacts of the private media. In practice, however, media corporations repeatedly demonstrate their allegiance to the mantra that ‘some animals are more equal than others’. Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri guarantee high TV ratings and therefore advertisements. Conversely, the left simply does not sell.

It is hardly surprising that Pakistan’s media moguls harbour no interest whatsoever in arguably the most significant gathering of the country’s battered left in a couple of decades. But it is staggering that working journalists chose not to show up in spite of their bosses’ disinterest.

In the past, particularly during the Ayub and Zia dictatorships, a critical mass of journalists themselves influenced by progressive ideas made great sacrifices to publish dissenting views, and get the word out about the left’s activities. It would appear that such journalists are now a dying breed, if not totally extinct.

Accordingly, there is very little opposition from within media circles to the corporate juggernaut that Noam Chomsky famously suggested ‘manufacture consent’. The nexus of political establishment and media corporations that is the bedrock of American political economy is fast becoming so in this country as well.

Certainly, the media now has the capacity to turn day into night. Hence people can believe that corruption will be done away with in 90 days and revolutions can be made on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue by a cleric in a container. This is ‘Newspeak’ par excellence, and our job is simply to make up the numbers.

Those on the left who are not fazed by the absurdity of it all offer the best hope of averting an Orwellian ending to the story. That the mainstream press has clearly thrown in its lot with the forces of reaction is by the by. What matters is whether or not a critical mass of opinion develops within society at large to challenge ‘Newspeak’, or if indeed we will continue to accept that some animals are more equal than others.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014

Umerkot marchers’ tale of woe

I.A. Rehman

THE story of the Umerkot Hindu community’s long march to Karachi some days ago merits retelling before a wider audience. A large number of Hindu citizens from Umerkot district, as many as 15,000 by their spokesperson’s count, travelled to the Sindh capital to demand respect for their rights — to justice, to protection of life and liberty, and to equality of status as citizens of Pakistan. They succeeded in persuading the representatives of the provincial government to sign a memorandum of agreement for addressing their grievances.

The event offers another example of the state functionaries’ lack of problem management skills and their penchant for allowing routine administrative matters to fester and develop into deadly sores. The immediate provocation to the protesters was the way the police had dealt with the murder of two Hindu brothers from Umerkot, both traders. But their woes had been piling up for quite some time. They referred to a string of attacks on non-Muslim communities, such as murders, kidnappings, forced conversions and attacks on their places of worship in Umerkot and elsewhere in the province.

Their most recent complaint related to the killing of two men in a ‘police encounter’ and branding them as murderers on the run. They argued that no attempts had been made to capture the ‘suspects’ alive and no probe was carried out afterwards.

The marchers made the following demands: a judicial inquiry into the two traders’ murder should be held by a tribunal headed by a superior court judge and the local community consulted on its terms of reference; a thorough probe into instances of kidnapping for ransom and other grievances; and non-Muslim citizens, who constitute a majority in Umerkot, should have a say in the selection and posting of local officials (especially in police).

The demands also focused on the urgent need to investigate Thar’s humanitarian crisis, especially lack of access to food, drinking water and healthcare and the causes and effect of a prolonged drought; the government must implement the Supreme Court directives in the June 2014 judgement; and on the fact that since Sindh departments responsible for minority affairs have ignored the non-Muslims, especially the scheduled castes, a body should be set up to probe the matter.

No sane Pakistani will find anything wrong with these demands. Why must a community be forced to undertake a long march for the redress of grievances that should be addressed as per routine? Three representatives of the marchers and two civil society facilitators held negotiations with the authorities who included three Sindh ministers, the commissioner of Karachi, the deputy commissioner, South, and the DIG police and SSP for Karachi South, and signed the following agreement.

The authorities will redouble their efforts to identify and arrest the killers of the two traders within the shortest possible time.

The report by DIG Sanaullah Abbasi will be shared with the negotiation committee and the victims’ families within four days. If the report is not found satisfactory a fresh inquiry will be ordered.

The victim families will be adequately compensated within two weeks.

The process of setting up a branch of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee at Umerkot will be initiated forthwith.

A joint committee will be set up for action on the marchers’ demands.

The government will ensure that the protesters will not be harassed/intimidated or subjected to penal action.

Just as there was nothing extraordinary about the Umerkot marchers’ demands, what they have been offered amounts to the minimum a responsible government must guarantee its law-abiding citizens. The Umerkot group deserves to be commended for their initiative, though it came only after their cup of patience was about to overflow. The authorities also earned credit by displaying a spirit of accommodation that is quite rare these days.

The Umerkot Hindu community’s plight should be seen in the context of declining standards of protection for the minorities. The killing of Ahmadis and Shia professionals continues unabated and blasphemy cases are acquiring more and more weird forms. The police as a rule are unfriendly and reluctant to extend the victims due protection of law. Those responsible for crimes against the minorities are seldom apprehended and if they are caught the victims are pressurised to make up with them.

The recent killing of a widely respected teacher in Karachi revealed a new stage in organised efforts to punish people for their belief. A fatwa was used to set the stage for Prof Auj’s extermination. The seminary that was alleged to have issued the fatwa declared the document forged. That may be true but forged fatwas are only meant to secure results genuine edicts guarantee. Those determined to go for their rivals under cover of the blasphemy law do not need edicts to justify their grisly deeds. Thus the incident should be seen as a new tactic to legitimise foul murder.

What makes the situation utterly unbearable is the absence of any sign that the state is prepared to protect the victims of religious extremism. The authorities watch the excesses against non-Muslim citizens with indifference that borders on complicity. Like the Umerkot marchers all minority communities hailed the Supreme Court judgement of June last as it stressed the creation of a framework for improving the minorities’ protection. Lack of any sign of implementation of the verdict is adding to the minorities’ sense of despair. Unless the government displays its will to take firm action to ensure respect for the minorities’ rights it will be impossible to hope for a change for the better.

Tailpiece: Dr Tahirul Qadri has reason to thank the libraries department of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for advising 19 universities and institutions in the province to put in their libraries all the books written by him. No reasons for the decision have been given. Obviously, questions regarding the usefulness of these books to students do not arise.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Discretionary overbilling

Khurram Husain

THE power sector is in turmoil it seems, from the overbilling scandal. The past week has seen new protests and new pronouncements. Once the cabinet decided to lift a decade-old ban on new recruitments in the power bureaucracy, thereby opening the door to inducting tens of thousands of ‘meter readers’, it appeared the government was running out of ideas.

Now Nepra, the power sector regulator, appears to have awoken from its slumber and resorted to some action. According to reports appearing in parts of the press, including this paper, the regulator’s chief has prohibited the induction of new meter readers by the distribution companies, saying they should rely on technology to produce more accurate billing instead of dubiously trained and expensively maintained manpower. If more people were the answer to the power crisis, we wouldn’t be in a power crisis at all.

Since the Nepra chief has weighed in with sensible words, here’s some completely unsolicited advice for him. To make the power bureaucracy more responsive to the needs of its consumers, force them to release their operational and financial data on a regular basis as per a predetermined template.

This isn’t rocket science. Everyday a stream of operational data flows from the myriad power plants and distribution company offices into Pepco headquarters on the Mall in Lahore. They include data like amount of electricity generated, operational stats of the various turbines, flue gas emissions, fuel stock position and much more. The distribution companies report the quantity of electricity purchased, the amount sent out to consumers, and every so often, the units billed in each respective circle. Of course, there is a lot more, this is just a sample, and some of it comes in daily, some weekly, some monthly, and others on demand or according to an irregular cycle.

Financial data might be a trickier proposition, primarily because Pepco’s own financial wizardry leaves a lot to be desired. But big ticket data can still be released. If the Federal Board of Revenue can release the amount of tax collected as per a regular reporting cycle, for instance, why can’t Pepco be required to release the amount of cash generated from billing recoveries? Notice we’re not talking about units billed, that’s where the hanky-panky takes place. Let’s ask them to show us the money, period.

What will this do? First, it’ll introduce a little discipline into Pepco management. Second, it will make it difficult to play around with the numbers too much, because as the data piles up anomalous trends become easy to detect. It will introduce a level of accountability into the power bureaucracy that they are currently completely unused to, and direly in need of.

This won’t be difficult to create, in fact it’s very easy. Since this data is already part of a reporting template, all that needs to be done is to open a new reporting line that carries the data from Pepco headquarters to Nepra headquarters in Islamabad. As the data begins landing in Nepra, it can be automatically uploaded to their website, giving us an option to download it in Excel format if we wish.

It’ll be instructive to see the picture that begins to appear once the data piles up. It’ll be interesting to see where the electricity is coming from, where it’s going. And likewise with the funds, if they can be made to release their recoveries by circle. Since much of the grid has now been equipped with smart feeders, it’s easily possible to create an interactive map that tells you the daily position of each feeder when you click on it. Historical data can be downloaded with a click on a link.

We could model the fuel going into each powerhouse, the electricity coming out in return, and the track the journey of that electricity through much of the grid. With this data in the public domain, it’ll become much easier to build a reliable picture of what ails the system, and pinpoint locations where inefficiencies are visible.

I’m not sure if there are examples of other countries where similar templates are operating, but I know it’s quite common in many other areas of government operations to mandate release of regular information. Consider the State Bank for instance, which maintains the most rigorous data reporting system out of everybody, giving us daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and annual snapshots and analytical reports about every aspect of the economy. You can find out how much money is being printed, how much is landing up in the banks and how much is staying in cash circulation.

Government debt is highly visible too. You can find out how much money went into which tenors, which instruments, against what returns. You can see where the stocks are accumulating, what the shape of the flows has been over a long period of time. And for our convenience, the data is offered in a form that is easily rendered in Excel format, sometimes Excel archives being available for direct download.

Ogra and the water bureaucracy also release regular data, as does the Federal Flood Commission and the Met Department.

The power sector is unique in this regard. It’s used to operating in the dark. There is no requirement worthy of mention to release any data, and even information on the gap between supply and demand for electricity is given in a highly casual way over the phone. It’s time to end this reign of discretionary power. Perhaps the overbilling scandal provides a window of opportunity here, to cast a light into the dark corners of the power bureaucracy and ask some basic questions.

The writer is a member of staff.

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Twitter: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Labour wakes up

Zeenat Hisam

THE concept of safety at the workplace as a fundamental human right is slowly making its way into the ethos of a South Asian society burdened with the notion of destiny. ‘If the roof falls on your head, too bad. You were fated to die this way while at work.’ Workers and other stakeholders are now rising up against this farcical justification for the inhuman treatment of labour. If not in Pakistan, at least in Bangladesh workers are demanding safety and stakeholders have begun to listen.

Bangladesh is taking the lead in giving higher priority to workers’ safety and the prevention of industrial accidents though it learnt its lesson the hard way: from 2005 to 2013, industrial accidents in the readymade garments sector killed over 2,000 workers and injured a higher number. These accidents occurred due to gross violations of building safety codes and labour standards. The case is not different here.

It took Bangladesh almost a decade to evolve and implement a workable mechanism. Today the ‘Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh’ a legally binding five-year agreement between Bangladeshi and global trade unions and MNCs is being hailed as a game changer in South Asia, the supplier of cheap labour for products to be consumed by the rich North.

The idea of the accord as a safety proposal was initiated in early 2010. After rounds of consultations among various stakeholders in Bangladesh and abroad it was signed in May 2013, just a month after the Rana Plaza collapse that killed 1,138 people.

The accord, signed by 170 MNCs, seven Bangladeshi trade union federations and three global trade unions, is governed by a steering committee with equal representation from trade union and company signatories. It specifies inspections, remediation and training under complete transparency.

Due to its three elements — legal enforceability, government support and worker empowerment — the accord is seen as a breakthrough. Under it, 800 out of 1,500 factories used by MNCs were inspected until August 2014. In another initiative, 26 US and Canadian companies have formed the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety to implement a five-year plan. By early 2014 the alliance had inspected 601 of the 700 factories used by its members.

The readymade garments industry contributes 17pc to the country’s GDP and amounts to 78pc of Bangladesh’s total export earnings. About 4,000 factories employ 4.2 million workers, of whom 75pc are women.

The major partners in both initiatives are MNCs who provide funds to implement the activities. Local manufacturers are required to bear the cost of structural factory repairs or renovations. So, what is the role of the Bangladesh government?

The state’s role in establishing a credible system of safety and health has remained weak in Bangladesh. The government did try, but in Bangladesh (like Pakistan), the factory owners sit in parliament and resist changes that would increase ‘labour cost’.

After a factory collapse in 2005 killing 70, the Bangladesh government set up a task force under the pressure of local trade unions, international trade bodies and labour organisations. As the task force plan (strict audits, unannounced inspections) covered large factories owned by members of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacture and Export Association, the initiative failed. The government formed a compliance monitoring cell in 2005 to ensure safety standards but in vain. Another initiative, the 2006 Multi Fibre Arrangement Forum Bangladesh, with representation from the government, industry, buyers and trade unions also failed. The failure was due to lack of political will and the political clout of big manufacturers.

After the factory fire in November 2012 that killed 112 people, the labour ministry, manufacturers, trade unions and ILO adopted a ‘joint statement of commitment’ in January 2013 and worked out a ‘national tripartite plan of action on building and fire safety’ endorsed in March last year. The plan covered legislation and policy, human resource development and administration. Amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 were adopted in July 2013 and the national occupational safety and health policy approved in October 2013. The MNCs-funded accord on safety is built upon the national plan.

The stories from the ground indicate significant progress in this sector in Bangladesh in working conditions and workers’ empowerment after the accord. But what about factories producing for domestic consumption? Also, will there be a sustainable occupational safety and health system in place in Bangladesh after the international brands stop funding?

Meanwhile, in Pakistan it is time for stakeholders to reflect on safety issues, motivate the employers and state to stand up to the task and critically evaluate why it is the ILO that must push for a joint action plan for workers’ safety.

The writer is associated with PILER.

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Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Wrong approach

Sikander Ahmed Shah

THE US has commenced air strikes deep inside Syrian territory against the militant group the Islamic State (IS). While the Syrian government was informed about the attacks before the operation began, it has not formally consented to these strikes. In fact, the Syrian foreign minister earlier stated that action against IS on its territory would be “considered aggression” unless coordinated with Syria.

Under international law, Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits member states from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of other states. Without consent, and a few other exceptions listed in this article, any such infringements of state sovereignty violate international law.

Generally, international law bars the use of force on foreign soil even if a civil war prevails in the targeted state and those attacked are non-state actors (NSAs) hostile to that state. Under international law it is irrelevant that the targeted NSAs are classified as terrorists, rebels or freedom fighters by the community of states. The normative classification of these groups has no bearing on the legitimacy of the use of force.

This conservative view of sovereignty has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice. Some states justify violations of state sovereignty on the basis of what they claim are emerging norms, which derive their legitimacy from human rights principles.

These norms include the right to challenge state sovereignty on the basis of humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect populations of other states from mass atrocities including genocide and crimes against humanity, and democratic intervention.

These aspirational norms, while appealing at first glance, are often employed by states as pretexts for attacking other states unilaterally or in groups. Such purported norms have not attained the status of customary international law — a source of international law that binds all states.

Absent consent, such air strikes can still be legal if they qualify as acts of self-defence. Article 51 of the UN Charter provides that a state can use force both for individual or collective self-defence in response to an armed attack: the exercise of this right, however, requires immediate reporting to the UN Security Council.

Alternatively, military action can be taken against a state if the UNSC decides to act by passing a binding Chapter VII resolution under Article 42 of the UN Charter, which sanctions the use of force.

It is hard to argue that the US is acting against IS in individual self-defence. There is an argument that the US is acting in collective self-defence for its ally Iraq. However, this requires a security pact which sanctions such assistance in the event of an armed attack. Whether such an agreement is present between the US and Iraq is yet to be determined.

A further hurdle for the US is that IS, while it is operating from Syria, is not itself a state and hence incapable of carrying out an armed attack under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Thus an attack on IS in Syria is an attack on Syria itself and can only be lawful if armed attacks conducted by IS in other states can be attributed to Syria. This would require both effective control and command of IS by Syria. To the contrary, the latter is itself engaged in battle with IS.

The unwillingness of the US to approach the UNSC is evident as it fears a Russian veto of any military action through a UNSC resolution on Syrian territory. Further, US inflexibility in getting Syria on board for neutralising IS is also problematic: what unequivocally could have been a lawful and warranted use of force against IS has become highly contentious because of the procedure employed.

US indifference towards state sovereignty and international law was evident when President Obama recently stated: “I have made clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country wherever they are… [t]hat means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL [IS] in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”

Such unilateral use of force, without UN sanction and Syrian consent, cements the wrong precedent and undermines both international law and the UN’s security framework. International law evolves and develops as a result of state practice and the obligation to follow that practice.

If such challenges to state sovereignty continue then the rule will become the exception. Any state will then be seen as well within its rights to unilaterally attack another on the premise that terrorists are operating from there. Pakistan should be particularly wary of such developments as most of its neighbours constantly make such claims.

The writer is the former legal advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014

Trial and tribulation

Zahid Hussain

IT is hard to decipher the contradictory statements made by Altaf Hussain in recent weeks. One day he calls for a military takeover and setting up a long-term caretaker administration; and almost the next he lashes out at the military establishment for pinning his party to the wall. How do these views square with each other? We have to leave it to the imagination.

It is not unusual for our political leaders to be inconsistent. Yet it is hard to beat the MQM supremo. Whether his theatrics during his marathon telephonic addresses or live TV interviews are a source of embarrassment or entertainment for even some extremely dedicated followers must be left to the latter to decide.

It has become almost a routine affair for Altaf Hussain to sack his party’s coordination committees or threaten to quit the party leadership, only to renege at the pleading of his sobbing followers. It all sounds bizarre and yet the MQM remains the most organised, disciplined and feared political party in the country. Its unwavering mass base has survived despite ups and down experienced by the party since its inception some three decades ago.

But is the MQM finally losing its unchallenged political supremacy over the country’s biggest city and financial hub? The increasingly incoherent statements of Altaf Hussain and policy flip-flop are a manifestation of a growing sense of insecurity. It is the pressure both inside and outside the country that appears to have shaken the party leadership. The investigation by the London Metropolitan police into Imran Farooq’s murder and the money-laundering case has surely become a major cause of worry for the party.

But a much bigger concern is the alleged leverage position of the Pakistani security agencies over the party, by holding the two main suspects in the London murder case. The crackdown on party members allegedly involved in criminal activities has brought the MQM under further pressure. That to some extent explains the blow hot, blow cold approach of the party leadership. While desperately trying to appease the security establishment, it also finds itself cornered by the alleged extra-judicial killing and arrests of its workers.

It has been a love-hate relationship between the MQM and the security establishment since the party’s formation in 1984. For sure, the emergence of the group as a major political force in Karachi, and in Sindh’s other urban centres, was rooted in the growing ethnic divide in the province. And many believe that the formation of an urban-based Mohajir party received the tacit approval of Gen Zia’s military regime seeking to contain the political hold of the PPP in Sindh.

Some kind of liaison between the MQM and the military establishment continued after the return of democratic rule in 1988. But that relationship came under severe strain in the beginning of the 1990s when the MQM’s stranglehold over the country’s economic jugular worried the security agencies. That led to the disastrous military operation against the group in 1992. The party was then divided by the intelligence agencies and most of the leadership including Altaf Hussain fled the country. The factional fighting resulted in the killing of many senior leaders. Though badly fractured, the party survived the crackdown.

Another police operation in 1995 dealt a more severe blow to the party wiping out its much-feared militant wing. But ironically, it was yet another military ruler, Gen Musharraf, under whom the MQM was resurrected. For the next seven years, it remained a critical part of the military-led administration. During this period, almost all the police officers involved in the 1995 operation were eliminated one by one by, many allege, the party’s armed supporters.

The MQM remained a part of the ruling coalition formed after the restoration of the civilian democratic rule in 2008. But the situation now seems to be changing yet again. Marginalised in the new power structure and facing another crackdown, the sense of insecurity in the leadership is evident.

Altaf Hussain’s 14 questions addressed to the army chief manifests a fear of being under siege. Unsurprisingly, he has raised the issue of the 1992 and 1995 operations that keeps haunting the party leadership. The allegation of excesses against the security agencies may not be credible, but the MQM’s anxiety is not without reason given its experience of the past operations.

A truly middle class and secular party, albeit with its own paradoxes and contradictions, the MQM now faces, perhaps, its toughest challenge. Though it has broken into dynastical power structures, it is a party driven on personality cult. The future of the party without Altaf Hussain is hard to imagine, and yet his continued grip of the leadership may be the biggest threat to it.

The writer is an author and journalist.

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Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

The problems of polygamy

Rafia Zakaria

IT is often offered as a solution to the problem of destitute women. If every man married four of them, some have stated, then all women would have a male guardian, a protector, someone to support them.

The reality of polygamy, however, is often neither this neat nor this simple. Last week, The National, a leading newspaper out of the United Arab Emirates, published news of emerging research that reveals how polygamy is injurious to the mental health of women in such relationships, fostering negative emotions and ultimately creating harmful patterns that detract from having a healthy emotional life.

Conducted by Dr Rana Raddawi, an English professor at the American University of Sharjah, the study surveyed 100 Arab women who were in polygamous marriages and found that many of them were consumed by feelings of neglect and jealousy that severely impacted their lives and mental health. For Dr Raddawi, the inspiration for the study came from close to home. Having known several family members in such marriages, she wanted to focus on the emotional costs of polygamy, a facet she believed was largely ignored in other studies.

Despite religious injunctions to enact perfect justice among multiple wives, Dr Raddawi found that many husbands lapse in this regard. Many of the wives she surveyed complained not only that they did not see their husbands regularly but that they were negligent in meeting their financial and support obligations.

In several cases, men did not have the ability to support several households, in which case the amount of support received by a particular wife began to depend on whether or not she was able to cultivate favour with the husband. The consequent emotional issues caused by this state of affairs ranged from depression to anger, hysteria and even illnesses.

While Dr Raddawi’s study focused primarily on the emotional consequences of polygamy on women, others studies such as one begun by the Malaysian group Sisters in Islam in 2010 have attempted to look at the wider range of problems resulting from polygamous relationships.

The Sisters in Islam study was generated because when women’s rights advocates questioned polygamy as a practice, they were often challenged and asked for evidence; their retorts were met with assertions that such issues only took place in isolated cases or when the dictates of polygamous marriage were not being actually followed.

Based on nearly 1,500 quantitative and qualitative questionnaires that were distributed in 12 Malaysian states, the Sisters in Islam study is one of the largest ever conducted on the issue.

Its findings were alarming. Results showed that not only did polygamy negatively affect the wives, it also had extremely harmful effects on children who were the product of such unions. Many reported being neglected by their father when he had obtained a new wife.

The condition also imperilled the children’s relationship with their mothers, whom they saw as weak and unable to get proper attention from their fathers. In simple terms, because the mother was the only parent that they knew and frequently interacted with, they often held her responsible for the fact that their father was not paying enough attention to them.

Children were also negatively impacted by the fact that without legal injunctions, many fathers failed to pay nafaqa, or support, to mothers, in turn forcing the mothers to take to sewing, teaching, etc., in order to support the children.

In response to these developments, it is crucial that Pakistani women (like Malaysian women or women in the UAE) be aware of the fact that a simple clause forbidding polygamy within their Muslim marriage contracts can save them from ending up in a polygamous situation. While it may not be pleasant to think about it during the festivities of a marriage, a few moments of circumspection at that crucial time can avert marital catastrophe in later years.

When offered as a solution, the picture of polygamy presented is that of an ideal, where a pious and supremely conscientious man provides for a large family of many wives and their children, making exact and precise calculations concerning his attentions and his resources.

The wives, in turn, are imagined as having only economic needs, which once met signal a fulfilment of all obligations toward them. The contribution of the two studies, conducted in cultural contexts as disparate as the UAE and Malaysia, reflect, instead, the empirical reality of polygamy — the situation as it actually exists and the neglect, abuse, depression and jealousy that is bred as a result.

For those who may not particularly be interested in the welfare of women, the quarrels, jealousy, manipulation and competition that become a part of the lives of children born of polygamous marriages may serve as a compelling argument against its practice. Perfect justice, the studies on polygamy show, is not possible for fallible humans, and anything predicated on it is, unsurprisingly, both problematic and perilous for all.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

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Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

Elusive goals

Zubeida Mustafa

WITH Pakistan more concerned about the existential threat it faces, one is hardly surprised that not much is heard of the MDGs — those elusive eight points called the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2000 to be met in 15 years. The deadline is approaching and it is time for scrutiny of the report card.

How has the world fared on this count? The UN MDG report of 2014 observes that these goals have made a “profound difference in people’s lives and the first goal of halving poverty was achieved five years ahead of the 2015 time frame. Ninety per cent of children in developing regions now enjoy primary education, and disparities between boys and girls in enrolment have narrowed”.

It speaks of remarkable gains having also been made in all health indicators. According to the UN, the target of halving the proportion of people who lack access to improved sources of water has also been met. The UN, however, concludes that a lot more still needs to be done to accelerate progress. As it is, the goals did not seek universal coverage in all sectors. Every goal had varying targets. If the global results pleased the UN it is understandable. Some countries performed infinitely better than others.

Pakistan’s performance in the specified eight areas with the exception of the last one was disappointing. It could have done better in the eradication of poverty, universal primary education, gender equality in school enrolment, reduction in infant mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating AIDS/malaria, etc, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

Its only success (of dubious nature) was in developing partnerships — if the massive inflow of foreign assistance can be described as such. Thus of the 41 indicators the government defined to measure progress, it is said to be on track on only nine. Therefore the authorities candidly admit that six goals will not be met at all. The data given for the seventh — sustainable development — appear exaggerated. It is difficult to believe that 89pc of the population has access to potable water and the sanitation needs of 72pc are adequately met as claimed.

The problem is that the MDGs are not our priority. If anything the media also reflects that. The country is at present engaged in two wars, we are told. One is against terrorism. The other is for democracy. In the absence of information from independent sources, we cannot say how we are faring in the first. The status of the second is hazy as media reporting is often biased. So the wars go on providing the rulers and opinion makers the pretext to put the MDGs on the back burner.

This is worrying. Since all the goals pertain directly to children, any apathy towards them amounts to being indifferent to Pakistan’s future. Is it worth fighting to save the country from the militants and to inject democracy into our political system, when the life of our future citizens may be nasty, brutish and short?

The fact is that no nation can survive if it doesn’t have a holistic approach to life. One should not plan in a linear fashion while drawing up one’s priorities. Every issue that is important for the governance of a country must be prioritised and addressed equally. Had this approach been adopted right from the start, we would not have landed up in the mess we find ourselves in today.

Respect for human rights, social justice and democratic freedoms do not come as a bolt from the blue. They have to be inculcated in a child early in life and reinforced with living examples.

www.zubeidamustafa.com

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

Politics of fear

Mahir Ali

PEOPLE anywhere in the world who claim not be profoundly disturbed by the self-publicised actions of the group of combatants that calls itself Islamic State (IS) provide considerable cause for concern. It seems inhumane not to be horrified. But is it necessary, at the same time, to be petrified?

I guess it depends on where you live. In areas contiguous to IS’s substantial domain, immunity to fear would be unnatural. But does it make a lot of sense to be cowering thousands of miles away?

Well, it probably does if you take at face value the purported likelihood of IS recruits or sympathisers indulging in terrorist acts over there. In countries such as the UK, Belgium and Australia, which appear to proportionately have provided more recruits for IS than comparable Western nations, the received wisdom appears to be that some of the volunteers will be inclined to wreak havoc locally when they return.

That possibility certainly cannot be ruled out. Its likelihood, though, is tempered by several factors. Media reports suggest, for instance, that plenty of idiots who end up knocking on IS’s door are obliged to destroy their Western passports as a gesture of commitment to the ‘caliphate’. That obviously makes it rather difficult to return.

Hundreds of volunteers, at the same time, are believed to indeed have returned to countries such as Britain and Belgium. None of them is claimed to have attempted any terrorist act; in fact some organisations believe that most of those who return disillusioned are disinclined to disturb the peace.

Now that Western air strikes have been launched against IS in Iraq and Syria, there is yet another angle: will those who were previously inclined to travel from the West to the ‘caliphate’ zone now decide to stay home and do their worst over there? Again, it’s possible. Judging the probability, though, involves venturing into the realm of pure conjecture.

But fear is an invaluable political device. It has been deployed by rulers since time immemorial to manipulate public opinion. A fairly egregious recent example was the final few weeks of the Scottish referendum campaign, when a broad range of politicians, bankers, captains of industry and the media strove in tandem to create the impression that a vote for independence would presage an unmitigated economic disaster.

The tactic appeared to work. It’s by no means a one-way street, though. The eleventh-hour flurry of activity on the Scottish referendum front was itself driven by apprehension, once it belatedly became clear that a rejection of the independence option could no longer be taken for granted. In patently undemocratic societies, meanwhile, what repressive regimes fear above all is the evaporation of fear among segments of the populace. Experience tells them it’s an infectious disorder, with unpredictable consequences.

A striking manifestation of this was observed during the ‘Arab Spring’, when unrest in Tunisia, rapidly followed by regime change, was being echoed within weeks in uprisings across the region. There’s inevitably a degree of irony in the fact that since then a new palette of fears has emerged.

The ongoing protests in Hong Kong, meanwhile, also reflect a casting off of fear, albeit by no means to the same extent as the gatherings that culminated so tragically in the Tiananmen Square massacre a quarter of a century ago. Back then, Beijing’s reaction succeeded in restoring order as well as fear; no comparable expression of popular dissent has occurred in the interim. There is little risk that repression in Hong Kong will follow a similar trajectory. It’s instructive to note, though, that one of Beijing’s primary motives in thwarting the democratic aspirations of Hong Kong’s residents is the fear of possible repercussions on the mainland.

Tiananmen Square was sandwiched between a pair of intriguing occurrences. The 1988 protests in Myanmar prompted a ruthless reaction from that country’s military rulers and eventually led to the restoration of fear. In the case of the thankfully short-lived Soviet coup attempt of 1991, though, it was the would-be purveyors of fear who panicked as Muscovites, emboldened by the transformative political processes of the previous five years, emerged en masse on the streets, and, crucially, military units refused to open fire.

It didn’t take all that long, however, for fear to be reintroduced as an instrument of rule in the post-Soviet era. Today, Vladimir Putin has no qualms about deploying it at will, while his adversaries in the neighbourhood feel free to use it for their own ends.

History shows that fear is a particularly potent part of the political arsenal when it comes to whipping up war hysteria. That’s unlikely to change. But its routine use for manipulative purposes in societies that lay claim to democracy and transparency is disturbing and deserves to be far more widely questioned than has thus far generally been the case.

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Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014

Need for Civil Service reforms

Shahid Kardar

THE attention to civil service reform stems from the pressure of the wage bill on the fiscal health of the government. The public sector is overstaffed and overextended. It is performing too many functions, beyond what should be the core role of the government, manned by a bureaucracy that is afflicted by lack of competence, eroding salary scales, corruption, politicisation and little accountability.

This can be illustrated by the fact that whereas the government spends almost two percentage points lower than what is normal for a country at Pakistan’s income level there are 24 percentage points more illiterate Pakistanis. This suggests that the problem is less because of expenditure on inputs and more because of poor accountability of government functionaries.

Here, the government plays the role of an employment bureau. Governments should be creating employment, not providing it. A veritable army of peons, chowkidars and clerks stalk the corridors of the secretariat and public-sector agencies. The scale of overstaffing is such that under the service rules three categories of employees are required to get a bathroom cleaned — one to wipe the floor, one to clean the sink and one to wipe the dust off the windowsill.

There are multiple agencies with overlapping functions and mandates, engaged in similar activities. Simply drive past the Blue Area to see countless buildings with offices of government agencies with exotic names, with only a handful in Islamabad knowing their operational responsibilities.

Overstaffing has been compounded not by the increase in transactions or the growing complexity of functional responsibilities, but as a result of the upgrading of existing posts, the creation of new posts just to accommodate the burgeoning workforce or the routine regularisation of contract staff.

Moreover, the mechanisms for the public accountability of civil servants, like the Public Accounts Committee and grievance redressal systems, are ineffective. In Punjab, for instance, only 102 government functionaries were charged for any irregularity during the period 1985-2000 and even then the conviction rate was below 20pc, while the proceedings lasted a number of years. The system protects government servants. It is difficult to proceed against those not turning up for duty let alone those who attend office but do not provide any service.

The legal and institutional set-up has given rights to these employees, to the detriment of the citizenry for whom they have been purportedly employed to provide services. They have pre-empted financial resources, sometimes at the cost of the original purpose of employing them, the priority being accorded to their entitlements over the purpose (schools, healthcare facilities) or over the entitlements of service recipients. It has become a service of the employees, for the employees and by the employees.

Over time, the system has also become deeply embedded in the wider political structure, compromising independence, neutrality and competence. The system of transfers has also provided politicians leverage over the bureaucrats and an opportunity to build alliances that may extend over the entire span of the bureaucrat’s career that could be used to exercise patronage without the politicians accepting responsibility themselves.

Whereas in any system, the responsibility of those in top positions is policy analysis, the system in Pakistan has developed in such a way that it has made little contribution to the development of policy skills. This is essentially because a generalist cadre monopolises the top jobs with little expertise. In this age of specialisation a generalist with an academic qualification in English literature can be secretary education in the morning, secretary health in the afternoon and secretary finance in the evening.

They are the chosen race, treated as superior human beings to professionals (doctors, scientists, etc. in the public sector) or to employees of lower formations of government, being entitled to guaranteed promotions over time. The country pays a heavy price for preserving a system in which no one else is mobile and able to reach the highest levels in the civil service.

The disadvantages of a decision-making generalist cadre have been worsened by a system of frequent transfers, which apart from introducing other weaknesses also means that civil servants can never be held accountable or judged on the basis of performance.

Unified pay grades have also damaged incentive structures. Under this system anyone in Grade 20 gets the same compensation as, say, the finance secretary, with much greater responsibility. This irrational structure needs changing. A shift to a contractual basis of appointments can enable this.

Therefore, recruitments of the bulk of the public sector workforce should be on contract and (to counter the curse of transfers), to the extent practical, on a department-specific basis. For example, doctors should be appointed to a particular health unit on a non-transferable basis. Only a small core, recruited on the basis of specialisation (to ensure knowledge, continuity and security of tenure) should form part of the permanent cadre and paid market-based salaries, but without perks like cars, accommodation, etc.

Some of the major reasons for poor implementation of even good and well-directed government policies include archaic regulations and administrative systems and practices that are inconsistent with the declared policy. Information on procedures is not readily available and enforcement of rules and regulations is carried out in a non-transparent manner. More importantly, the power of veto is liberally distributed in the system; almost anyone can scuttle the process.

The theological principle to regulate economic activity is based on a complete distrust of the market and a belief in the state’s omnipotence. Even civil society in Pakistan is suspicious of markets providing the bureaucracy an excuse to regulate which opts for direct controls rather than market-friendly fiscal rewards and punishments. This argument will be continued in my next column.

The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

How are the Hindus facing Hindutva?

Jawed Naqvi

INDIAN intellectuals claiming to be concerned for Pakistan’s Hindus accosted a Karachi journalist in Delhi recently. How was the minority community coping with the onslaught from Muslim extremists, she was collared frequently by India’s think tanks, which some see as a misnomer for a bevy of self-regarding nationalists. Excuse me, but it is Pakistan’s Muslims who are under attack, the journalist told them.

Pakistan’s Hindus, like its Christians, were a terrified lot and the extremists often targeted them no doubt, the journalist reasoned. Those incidents, however, came mostly as efforts by the zealots to hit soft targets when they were under attack from the security forces.

The terrorists’ main quarry is our mainstream Muslims, including a majority of liberal men and women be they Shia or Sunni — all tenaciously fighting the right-wing upsurge. That’s why they are getting killed. Yes, you could say that the Saudi-style right-wing Islam was originally spawned by the state itself, and there could still be extremist sympathisers lodged deep within our institutions, she confessed.

Since according to her it was Muslims and not Hindus who were the main targets of the extremists, could the journalist explain the periodically reported exodus of asylum-seeking Hindus from Pakistan into India? That’s because you will not allow Muslim asylum seekers from Pakistan into India. The rejoinder had her interlocutors on the mat though they may not have noticed.

The exchange prompted me to ponder the much-dodged but obvious question for India. How do India’s mainstream liberal Hindus perceive their own reality vis-à-vis the Hindu right? Are they up for the fight? They write comforting editorials about the plight of Muslims in Narendra Modi’s India. They never shirk from sharing useful insights about the Sachar Commission findings, for example, which showed up Muslims as being at the bottom of the social heap. This was their lot also under Congress rule.

In economic and social scales, Muslims did not fare better under communist rule either, for example, in West Bengal, according to Justice Rajindar Sachar. I am sorry to have to describe him as one of the liberal Hindus I wish to discuss. It is this or that liberal Hindu after all who will give you a verifiable account of how Indian Christians are under attack in Orissa, or in Gujarat, and now also in Uttar Pradesh where neo-fascist Hindutva gangs have attacked churches as they deepen their hold over the nation’s polity.

Does the middle-of-the road Hindu perceive his own plight too, or does he only feel moved by whatever is happening or may be about to happen with India’s minorities? Let me frame the question frontally. I met Siddharth Varadarajan the other day. He was smoking his cigar ponderously as we discussed the rise of the Hindu right in India. It is common knowledge that Siddharth, an opened-minded secular Brahmin, lost his job as editor of The Hindu because of a reported managerial assessment that he was not giving due space to Narendra Modi as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate.

In other words, Siddharth had to vacate his job directly or indirectly owing to the worldview he had nurtured for himself as an Indian, or, for present purposes, as an Indian Hindu. I use the word Hindu in the sense you would use Muslim to describe I.A. Rehman, Asma Jehangir, Salima Hashmi or Pervez Hoodbhoy who are all facing the extremist heat in Pakistan. It is of course an unfortunate fact of our times that I must see, purely for the purpose of this analysis, widely admired academic icons like Harbans Mukhia, Badri Raina, Prabhat Patnaik, to name just a few among hundreds, as liberal Hindus.

There was a time not too long in the past when these thorough professionals would be seen as leftist or Marxist or simply secular or liberal intellectuals. I watched with horror when a pro-Modi mob in New York tore into Rajdeep Sardesai, another (liberal Hindu) journalist who lost his job for standing up against the Hindutva wave.

Why should Prakash Karat or Sitaram Yechury be left out from the purview of such a characterisation even though the thought of their being seen as Hindu would be revolting to their staunchly atheistic communist party of which they are the main leaders? Do the comrades feel, for instance, that an entire Indian cultural tradition, which comprises 85pc Hindus, is at risk with the rise of Hindutva, not just Muslims or Christians?

Or does their definition of the threat only relate to the overused sentiment about secularism? What might happen to the Muslims or Christians in India is no doubt of serious concern, but doesn’t such a limiting filter bring us close to the German reality of the 1930s when in its pervasive fear for the Jews — who were no doubt faced with a grim threat to their existence — the world almost completely failed to notice how the open-minded and genial German had turned into a helpless spectator before Nazi successes? Some later became reluctant or even conniving admirers of the Nazi regime.

Let me illustrate my worry with reference to a discussion I recently watched on an American TV channel. Journalist Brigitte Gabriel, not known to be the best friend of Muslims, said the fact that a majority of Muslims were peaceful and not radical was irrelevant. There were 1.2 billion Muslims in the world of whom, according to Western intelligence, 15pc to 25pc had become radicals. In other words, 180 million to 300 million dedicated radicals posed a threat to the world order, including Pakistan.

I asked Prakash Karat before the parliamentary election if he saw Hindutva fascism as a threat to Indian democracy. He said the Indian bourgeoisie had alternative avenues to press its agenda without recourse to fascism. For the sake of the majority of Indians to be worried for, let’s hope the comrade is not wide of the mark yet again.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

LNG imports

Moazzam Husain

THE petroleum minister has described as a game changer an initiative to import Liquefied Natural Gas to fuel cars with CNG. Under the proposal the CNG pump operators can set up one or more special purpose vehicles (SPV) to import LNG, which would be re-gasified on arrival at the Port Qasim terminal facility presently under construction. It will then be piped to CNG stations countrywide through the leaky pipelines’ infrastructure of the two gas utility companies.

The minister has claimed this would shave $2.5 billion off the oil import bill, make available a 35pc cheaper fuel for consumers and also save the sagging CNG industry.

That the initiative also proposes to exempt LNG imports from GST and the gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC) suggests that the rate differential between the landed costs of crude oil and LNG may not be very much. That in fact if these are applied, it may squeeze the profit margins of the CNG pump operators down to the bone. This also potentially belies the $2.5bn saving claim.

This is akin to providing a subsidy to a scheme that may not otherwise be viable. The petroleum ministry’s argument that the imported LNG would free up gas that the CNG sector presently receives and this would then be diverted to the textile sector and independent power producers (IPP) where it would continue to yield taxes and the cess is fallacious and a distortion of competition.

While the measure may simultaneously placate PML-N’s traditional constituencies — the textile lobby, IPP owners, CNG station owners and millions of vehicle owners — it violates the principle of neutrality of broad-based taxation. The principle states that GST is a tax on consumption, irrespective of the product being consumed, and is to be paid by the final consumer.

Similarly the cess is meant to be used on developing future gas infrastructure and it makes little sense to exempt LNG because at some stage, if demand picks up, more pipeline capacity would need to be built.

At least transparency and national accounting practices would be better served if the government were to levy the tax and cess with one hand and with the other give a direct cash subsidy to vehicle drivers buying CNG at the stations.

So why have the CNG pump operators, with their SPV and the best of intentions, been unable to make this scheme commercially viable? To comprehend this we need to understand that the international LNG trade is carried on between a closed club, where the buyers and sellers are blue chip entities with A or AA credit ratings. As such, entities with lower ratings should expect to receive less favourable terms.

There are 19 exporting countries, Qatar accounting for a third of global production; and 25 importing countries led by Japan, South Korea and Europe. A limited 400 special LNG tankers ply cargo, spanning the globe from Alaska to Australia, the typical cargo value being $200 million. Among these, smaller size vessels of cargo worth $30m to $80m are also available but buying in smaller lots pushes up the landed cost per unit.

Vessel charter rates are also highly volatile. A good part of the cost in this business is in the supply chain and the handling. Importantly, Qatar with its predisposition for larger cargoes, would mean the SPV will have to pick up cargo from more distant destinations which would further drive up its per unit landed cost.

Even once it arrives, a further 10pc of the gas will be lost (and become part of the unaccounted for gas losses) during distribution. The final price at the CNG pumps, including profit, may well be only a fraction lower than petrol — hence the proposal to exempt it from GST and cess.

A better option may be to capacitate PSO, the country’s largest fuel importer, to handle LNG imports. PSO has a more robust financial position than any SPV the CNG pump operators will be able to come up with. It also has better experience of negotiating contracts, procurement procedures and can source much better deals. PSO will be able to achieve an economies effect and land the product at lower per unit prices.

It makes more sense for PSO to spin off a division to handle LNG requirements of all industrial sectors than for individual sectors to go it alone. The petroleum ministry must ask PSO to conduct a feasibility study on the opportunity.

Utmost, of course, systemic gas losses need to be plugged before piping expensive gas into it. This issue should be addressed head on rather than glossing over it by extending tax subsidies and distorting markets.

The writer is a business strategist and entrepreneur.

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Twitter: @moazzamhusain

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Wrong strategy

Samia Altaf

IN May, when 54 polio cases had been diagnosed in Pakistan, the agency charged with monitoring eradication efforts, the World Health Organisation’s Independent Monitoring Board, described the situation as “dire”. The IMB accused the government of “shadow-boxing” against the virus and urged the establishment of emergency monitoring cells and the direct involvement of the prime minister.

Pakistan followed those recommendations. However, as the IMB prepares to meet today, the number of polio cases has more than trebled, to 174, with cases detected in Punjab and Balochistan, earlier assumed to be polio-free. The government is, understandably, nervous about the meeting.

The current eradication programme, even following IMB recommendations, has not been effective. It will remain this way, despite increasing anti-polio campaigns, monitoring committees, and the intimidation of recalcitrant patients. The design and strategy mean the programme has no hope of success; at best, it is ineffective. At worst, it is exacerbating the problem.

One of the most serious problems begins with the very nature of these efforts. The Polio Eradication Initiative is a vertical programme —structurally and operationally outside the routine service-delivery system. It has its own funding, implementation plans, and personnel, supported mostly by donor funding with little provincial involvement. Vertical programmes have a history of success, when they provide brief, intense, focused activities in well-defined geographic locations for well-defined populations. Vertical programmes exist to support or add to routine health services; they are never meant to replace or substitute for them.

A communicable disease like polio is controlled by creating “herd immunity” — effective vaccination of around 90pc of the vulnerable population. The “vulnerable population” for polio is large; a new cohort is added each year, meaning that creating herd immunity is not a small, focused task that can be handled by a vertical programme conducting campaigns. They have had limited usefulness in certain cases, but the current situation requires far more than a desperate campaign with an ever-increasing target.

The only real solution is a stable, consistent delivery system responsive to the needs of recipients and providers and that can earn people’s trust. This system is missing here, and no one seems interested in building it.

The problems in the service delivery system have been clear for decades. Problems exist on the supply side — in the timely transport, cold-chain maintenance, and supply of vaccines.

On the demand side, information about the nature of the vaccine is unavailable or incorrect; the programmes do not have enough staff, and those they have are poorly trained and paid; and people do not trust the authorities who rush to provide unidentifiable drops while most other forms of healthcare are unavailable.

The 2013-2017 Emergency Plan for Polio Eradication, at a cost of $328.8 million, remains silent on how these issues will be addressed. But the donors increase the funding, the government increases the target population, and everyone, including the technical consultants, the experts, and policymakers who continue to push this strategy, is content that something is being done. Eventually, something has to work, after all.

The government is reacting blindly, in a panic — it wants to be seen as doing something. Unfortunately, squeezing drops into children’s mouths from the back of a truck is not a workable long-term strategy. One dose of OPV does not confer immunity.

Dropping pamphlets from aeroplanes, in a country with low literacy rates, does not provide useful information. The country is paying a heavy price for these photo ops — including the campaign workers, many of whom have been killed while working in anti-polio drives. That is leaving aside the opportunity cost — in time, in lives, in dollars.

The polio eradication programme cannot be simply a super-sized version of what has come before. It has to be completely rethought. Eliminating polio in Pakistan requires an indigenous, contextually appropriate programme based on the routine service delivery system — supplemented, not replaced, by vertical programmes.

Given the diversity of the target population, provinces and districts will need specific activities appropriate to their environments. Donors must tie their funding to concrete, sensible efforts — including the unglamorous and un-photogenic matter of staff salaries and administrative mechanisms.

Among its specific suggestions, the IMB included in May an abstract request for “transformative action”. That, perhaps because it was more difficult than establishing a monitoring cell, has not yet happened. But without such transformative action, Pakistan will just keep on shadow-boxing. There may be some good photo-ops along the way. There will not, however, be victory.

The writer, a public health physician, is the author of So Much Aid, So Little Development: Stories from Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014

Our civil-military muddle

Babar Sattar

Senator Raza Rabbani had a point when he said during the joint parliamentary session that there is an urgent need for an earnest dialogue between our political and military leaders. Notwithstanding who emerges as winner in the current political crisis, one thing has been laid bare: the roots of democracy and constitutionalism in Pakistan are skin-deep and a significant section of our political class and society still deems direct or indirect military intervention a viable and desirable means to effect regime change.

This is not a conversation about how things ought to be but how they are. Our military has a history of interfering in politics and no manifest appetite to endure civilian control. Our elected leaders seem utterly incapable of putting their own house in order, let alone rising to the multifarious challenges confronting our polity. And many in our society have been socialised into thinking that an adventurous military saving us from ourselves is a blessing.

The manner in which we approach and resolve our civil-military conflict is no academic matter. Presently, our foreign, trade and internal security policies are subsets of our defence policy (which masquerades as a national security policy).

Our military believes that defining and implementing such a policy falls within its exclusive domain. The resulting civil-military conflict is a natural outcome of the military’s articulation of its role and responsibilities.

Those who think that our civil-military imbalance will be fixed either by trying a general or appeasing other generals must think again. Our history of military predominance has perpetuated certain institutional and societal norms that are more relevant to shaping the behaviour of both the military and political actors amidst a crisis than anything written in the Constitution. Reality is that our polity continues to function on the premise that the military sits atop the food chain.

Why should a prime minister backed by parliament ask his army chief to become the arbiter-in-chief in a political crisis? Why did he feel the need to demonstrate to the public that the army chief stood by and not against him? Why did Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri run helter-skelter to meet the army chief when summoned? Why did they wish to be on his right side? Was it perceived ‘national aspirations’ that prodded this wartime army chief to ‘sort out’ squabbling politicos?

We have had Gen Ziaul Haq declare that, “when political leaders fail to rescue the country out of a crisis, it is an inexcusable sin for the armed forces to sit as silent spectators…” We have had Gen Musharraf proclaim that with a government intriguing to destroy “the last institution of stability” (ie the army), the choice is “between saving the body — that is the nation, at the cost of losing a limb — which is the Constitution”.

We have recently seen Gen Sisi of Egypt successfully argue that political protests can lead to civil war and translate into a national security threat requiring military intervention. And further that while an elected government acquires legitimacy through polls, people can withdraw support through street protest and vest it in someone else. In other words, a street protest-based regime change model involving political protesters and a saviour military is no crazy idea.

So cynics imagine scriptwriters (to GHQ’s chagrin) because (i) there is no legal means to oust the government at present, (ii) Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri claim that the government has lost its legitimacy due to their protests and if left ‘unattended’ the situation could lead to civil war, (iii) military interventions aren’t a thing of the past (eg Egypt and Thailand), and (iv) our military has neither lost its ability to intervene nor its perceived overarching role as guardian of the state.

The Army and Democracy, an incisive analysis of military politics in Pakistan by old friend and accomplished scholar Dr Aqil Shah is a must read for thinking civil and military leaders. His main thesis is that the “military’s tutelary beliefs and norms, a legacy of its formative experience under conditions of geopolitical insecurity and nation-building problems, have profoundly shaped its political interventions and influence by justifying the authoritarian expansion of its role in state and society”.

Shah convincingly argues that the brand of military professionalism that has evolved in Pakistan drags the military into politics as opposed to keeping it away. And that the “Pakistani army … unaccustomed to the norms of civilian supremacy … has yet to unconditionally consider democracy the only game in town”.

Our political class that has failed to aggregate citizen interests, respond to our needs and shepherd us out of the woods is indefensible. But if a majority of this class is the outcome of military interventions of the past, what makes sane minds think that similar interventions will bear different results? Let’s throw out a rotten system. But what shall we replace it with? Isn’t our system rotting due to failed khaki experiments that have blown up in our faces and not despite them?

Even a functional government will find it hard to achieve smoother civil-military ties because the perceived roles of civil and military institutions at present are not complementary but overlapping and conflicting. So long as the military is the sheriff in town, it will remain politically expeditious for newer political players to seek khaki sponsorship. In short, Pakistan’s problems are such that eliminating opportunities for military intervention is no cakewalk.

Our civil-military divide is consuming us. To address it we need an honest dialogue between our political and military elites leading to a consensus over three foundational issues: what is our vision regarding the future of our state (ie welfare or security state internally; revisionist or conformist state internationally)? Who will do what (ie will defence policy trump foreign policy and who will have the final say)? What will be the accepted means of regime change (ie as laid down in law or street power)?

Once we have agreement on the overall vision and rules of the game, rethinking institutional norms and re-socialising emerging civilian and military leaders will be the easy part.

The writer is a lawyer.

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Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

South Punjab as a solution

Umair Javed

TWO recent events — the Punjab-centric nature of current politics in Islamabad, and the PPP chairperson’s recent visit to south Punjab — have redirected attention towards the subject of new provinces. The rationale for the issue is fairly clear: Pakistan as a country of 180 million plus people cannot be governed (in any productive way, at least) through only four federating units.

Out of all existing proposals, the case for south Punjab is perhaps the most immediate in terms of its political footprint, as well as its developmental justification. Punjab is currently one of the largest federating units in the world, bigger than most countries by both population and area.

While a favourable history has precipitated rapid capital accumulation, outward migration, and urbanisation in the north, the burden of indifference and a less favourable past has induced high poverty, greater inequality, and sluggish upward mobility and growth in the south. Little surprise then that, according to a recent Alif Ailaan fact sheet, 10 out of the bottom 13 districts in terms of proportion of out-of-school children are from that particular region.

Developmental reasons aside, another reason given for the bifurcation of the province pertains to its political imprint on federalism. The province provides over half of all National Assembly seats (148 out of 272), of which 100 exist in the densely populated, well-connected region of north and central Punjab.

Consequently, party incentives are geared towards sweet-talking the relatively well-off electorate in those 100 seats, while the use of political elites as party proxies is utilised in the impoverished south. This has been the strategy of choice for not just the ruling PML-N, but also Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the main opposition party in the province.

What do we see happening as a result? For starters, the government is accused of consistently padding its northern home turf through development spending, with the occasional gimmick being thrown towards the south. To date, it has made no effort to ground itself in other parts of the country through local level initiatives.

The important question then is does a bifurcation of the province into two resolve the following two issues: the issue of development spending and service delivery; and the impact on federalism and political party priorities.

The first is straightforward. The current NFC and 18th Amendment arrangement would devolve fiscal transfers and administration to the new province, whereby spending could potentially happen based on the requirements of its constituent districts.

The second issue, that of political party incentives and health of federalism is trickier. A new province, for all its merits, is not being drawn on a blank slate. There is a pre-existing pattern of politics in the region, one that would not be easy to displace. At the immediate outset, the two provinces would only — and this is worth stressing — have the desired political impact if their electorates vote differently, and on different issues.

If a new province were created today, the PML-N would still be dominating the entire Punjab region, and would actually increase its control over the Senate through the extra seats allotted to the new federating unit.

The moral of the story is that as long as one Punjab-based party keeps winning a majority in the two regions — through active party work in the north, and through inducting political elites in the south — the basic skew in party incentives, and at the federal level will remain unchanged.

The second, more sustainable, way is if the PPP, and current provincial autonomy movements in the south, step up their efforts to engage, organise, and socialise the electorate on region-specific issues. This would most likely ensure different voting outcomes, and hence induce a clearer distinction from the north. More importantly, it will finally force the current ruling party in the province to engage with the electorate beyond its current comfort zone.

The writer is a freelance columnist.

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Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

The one constant

Talat Farooq

“ABROAD, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world.” Thus spoke President Obama while outlining his IS (Islamic State) strategy.

“ABROAD, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world.” Thus spoke President Obama while outlining his IS (Islamic State) strategy.

Basking in its self-image of a ‘benevolent hegemon’ the US assumed the mantle of unchallenged global leader following the Soviet Union’s demise and the ‘unipolar moment’. Global leadership, however, is not only about enjoying the perks of a formidable position: it is primarily about upholding international law while not setting short-sighted precedents to the detriment of global stability. Post-9/11, the US has failed to live up to the standard.

Despite his criticism of the Bush approach during the election campaign, Obama is set to perpetuate militarist solutions to complex problems after trying his hand at retrenchment. US intelligence reports show that IS has neither the means nor the intent to threaten the US; its goals are inter-regional. Thus, the US aerial bombardment in Syria falls within the ambit of an unprovoked attack on a sovereign state.

The Obama administration is justifying the president’s unilateral war-making authority against IS on the basis of the Bush-era congressional authorisations of force against those who could be tied to groups responsible for 9/11 and against Iraq.

Interestingly, in June this year Obama called for the repeal of the Iraq authorisation to obviate any re-engagement of its ground troops in Iraq. Similarly, legal experts argue that the 2001 authorisation does not cover IS that was created long after 2001 and has been publicly disowned by Al Qaeda. The point is that a ‘benevolent hegemon’ should be seen to err on the side of lawful caution, not legal ambiguity.

Post-9/11 US open-ended strategies have failed to prudently take unintended consequences into account. Drone attacks in Pakistan without a formal deal, for instance, compromise the status of the Durand Line besides aggravating state-society mistrust. Such trans-border attacks — now expanded to Syria — add a new dimension to international relations by diluting the concept of the nation state. How does this approach make the ‘global leader’ different from non-state militants who do not honour legitimate state boundaries?

In the absence of international laws of unconventional warfare, the US calls the shots. Issues of distinction and proportionality have been supplanted with re-definitions of ‘self-defence’ and ‘co-belligerence’ with civilian deaths dehumanised as ‘collateral damage”.

The US has traditionally predicated its Middle East strategy on the principle of balance of power. What the US applied to nation-states to further its interests in the region is now being applied to non-state combatants. This is a flawed approach because unlike sovereign states empowered trans-national militants cannot be pressured into following international norms. A regional approach to the IS problem cannot work without taking Iran and Syria on board. Failure to do so will only widen the Shia-Sunni gulf and benefit IS.

A major component of US strategy is its dependence on arming and training rebel groups or ‘rebuilding’ pro-US national armies. So far both the Afghan and Iraqi armies have proved inadequate when facing militants. Similarly, the Free Syrian Army — that Obama plans to support overtly — has not been a match for the Assad regime or the jihadists. Small wonder that Gen Dempsey wants to keep his options open despite Obama’s pledge not to deploy US ground forces in Iraq or Syria.

National armies are part of a society’s socio-cultural milieu and cannot be imposed from above. It is not surprising that improvised armies tend to melt away or join rival militant groups following curtailment or termination of foreign aid. Trained and armed men then have the capacity to become a national and international headache as witnessed after the Soviet-Afghan war.

Bush-Obama strategies have failed to destroy Al Qaeda networks or the Taliban: the outcome has been the emergence of a more brutal, organised IS. At the end of the day superior weapons cannot change mindsets; sustained diplomacy and positive engagement can.

To be worthy of ‘constant’ global leadership in ‘an uncertain world’ the US must look inwards and accept its own militarist contribution to the world’s uncertainty.

The writer is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security, Birmingham University.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

Dog eat dog

Hajrah Mumtaz

I asked the gentleman behind the counter how often this one was selected. He said as much as any other, and that it was usually picked by pre-pubescent boys.

I asked the gentleman behind the counter how often this one was selected. He said as much as any other, and that it was usually picked by pre-pubescent boys.

Meanwhile, reports in the press last week quoted attendees at a peace convention in Islamabad saying that in Swat, there had been a discernible increase in the number of children fond of and using weapon-shaped pens. Writing tools in the shape of rocket launchers, pistols, knives and so on were being sold freely, they said. One participant, a Saidu Sharif college student, said she had visited several government and private schools where such pens were in vogue. “I saw children acting like the Taliban and talking about kidnapping and killing each other,” she added.

Now consider this: the house where I live overlooks a yard where a group of eight to 10 children play together every evening, both boys and girls, ages in the six to eight years bracket. They are from well-off families, go to good schools and play the usual games.

I hear them discussing what they’re going to play. On some days, it’s baraf pani, or cricket, or kho kho, or a replication of a classroom. On other days, they play ‘suicide bombing’. This entails one child shouting out, “Bang!” after which they all fall about saying things like, “Oh, my arm is broken” or “My head is bleeding”. Yes, I really have heard them calling out, “Let’s play suicide bombing”.

They also play bandits. Curiously enough — or perhaps not — this is the only one in which they divide themselves up gender-wise. The game involves the boys hiding in a corner, the girls walking round it chattering, and the boys jumping out at them yelling and generally being aggressive. The girls scream and run away.

On Friday, the day the MQM called a strike across the city to protest the arrest of some of its workers, a seven-year-old solemnly informed me, “sheher kay halaat bohat kharaab ho rahay hain [the situation in the city is worsening]”.

Given the violence that rules Pakistani streets, whether it is bombings or armed hold-ups, it would perhaps be surprising if children from Swat to Karachi did not play these sorts of games, and show such predilections. Across the world, through the ages, children have mimicked in their games a watered-down version of the adult world which they are grappling to understand. Along with the good, the horror that they are too young to comprehend gets turned into stories and songs, administered, so to speak, to little minds in small doses.

Consider, for example, the nursery rhyme ‘Ring, a ring of roses, a pocket full of posies,’ which is believed to have its origins in the Great Plague of London (though some dispute this) — that the ‘all fall down’ refers to falling down dead. The Brothers Grimm’s stories are far from cheery, and the cowboys and Indians game reflects a regrettable history. The world is, after all, not a pleasant place.

Nevertheless, it can be argued that regardless of the origins of the games and stories I’ve recounted, the realities of children playing them in the modern world are far removed from the risk of plague or being abandoned in the forest by poverty-stricken parents (Hansel and Gretel).

The situation Pakistan’s children face is different, though. Fear and death are the constant wcompanions of many millions of the hapless, with terrorism and poverty only the beginning.

What will be the outcome of this? What will the generations that are growing up in modern-day Pakistan, with all its problems and fault lines and divisions, look like? Some scenarios can be guessed at.

Amongst those that are relatively insulated from violence and active threats, such as children born to wealth and privilege (though even they aren’t immune), it might instil a glaring lack of empathy and human compassion.

What makes me despair, though, is the cake with the gun. That means that even in the educated, wealthy and world-aware sections of Karachi, there are parents actively encouraging the gun culture. And somehow, that’s not really surprising.

The writer is a member of staff.

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Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2014

India’s Great Power game

Munir Akram

THE election of Narendra Modi as prime minister and geopolitical developments — particularly the US pivot to Asia and the Russia’s new Cold War with the West — have revived India’s prospects of achieving Great Power status. In quick succession, Modi has visited Japan’s ‘nationalistic’ prime minister; hosted China’s president; and will be received this week by the US president in Washington.

The US obviously wishes to embrace India as a partner in containing a rising China, responding to a resurgent Russia and fighting ‘Islamic terrorism’.

It is prepared to bend over backwards to secure India’s partnership. During his Washington visit, Modi is likely to be offered the most advanced American defence equipment; military training and intelligence cooperation; endorsement of India’s position on ‘terrorism’; investment, including in India’s defence industries; nuclear reactor sales; support for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and a prominent role in Afghanistan after US-Nato withdrawal. There will be no mention of the Kashmir dispute, nor of past or current human rights violations in India.

The reticence, if any, in this love fest is likely to emanate from India rather than the US. While seeking all the advantages of a strategic partnership with the US, India is unwilling to relinquish the benefits of its relationships with Russia, China, Iran and other power players.

India’s evolving relationship with China is complex. Both Asian giants see the benefits of trade and investment cooperation and want to ‘democratise’ the post-Second World War economic order dominated by America. During President Xi Jinping’s recent visit China offered to invest $20 billion in industrial parks including in Modi’s home state of Gujarat and to support India’s infrastructure development.

Yet, there are obvious limitations in the Sino-Indian relationship. Memories of its defeat in the 1962 border war with China still rankle in India. The border dispute has been managed but not resolved. There is expectation of future strategic rivalry, felt more strongly in India than China. New Delhi wishes to become China’s military and economic equal in Asia and the world. In particular, India desires an end to China’s strategic relationship with and support to Pakistan — a price Beijing is unwilling to pay.

Without compromising its strategic options, China is prepared to adopt a benign posture towards India, in part to prevent its incorporation in the US-led Asian alliances around China’s periphery. As some Chinese officials put it: “When you have the wolf [US] at the front door, you do not worry about the fox [India] at the back door.” If India does eventually emerge as a US strategic partner, Beijing will exercise its options to neutralise it including through greater support to Pakistan. For the present, China’s advice to Pakistan is to avoid a confrontation with India.

The complexity of the Sino-Indian relationship was on display during President Xi’s visit when news surfaced of a face-off between Chinese and Indian troops on China’s border with India-held Kashmir. It is unlikely that the Chinese would have instigated the incident while their president was in India. According to Indian sources, the “robust” Indian troop deployment to confront Chinese border forces could only have been authorised by the Indian prime minister. Was this then a demonstration of Modi’s muscular credentials meant for his hardline domestic constituency or perhaps a message of common cause to the US on the eve of Modi’s Washington visit?

The new Russia-West Cold War over Ukraine will enhance the ability of India (and other non-aligned countries) to play the two sides against each other. But it will also lower the tolerance of both protagonists for third-party positions that are seen as inimical to their vital interests.

So far, the Russians have been quite accommodative of India’s developing relationship with the US and the growing diversification of India’s huge arms purchases away from Russia.

Until now, Moscow has maintained its undeclared embargo on defence supplies to Pakistan in deference to its long-standing relationship with India. However, given India’s closer relationship with the US, Russia’s reinforced strategic cooperation with China, and the slow divorce between Pakistan and the US, the Russian reticence towards Pakistan, and its emotional bond with India, are receding. Moscow is now more likely to adopt a more ‘balanced’ posture towards India and Pakistan on defence and other issues, including Afghanistan.

The most proximate impediment to India’s quest for Great Power status remains Pakistan. So long as Pakistan does not accept India’s regional pre-eminence, other South Asian states will also resist Indian diktat. India cannot feel free to play a great global power role so long as it is strategically tied down in South Asia by Pakistan.

India under Modi has maintained the multifaceted Indian strategy to break down Pakistan’s will and capacity to resist Indian domination.

This strategy includes: building overwhelming military superiority, conventional and nuclear, against Pakistan; isolating Pakistan by portraying it as the ‘epicentre’ of terrorism; encouraging

Baloch separatism and TTP terrorism (through Afghanistan) to destabilise Pakistan; convincing Pakistan’s elite of the economic and cultural benefits of ‘cooperation’ on India’s terms.

In this endeavour, India is being actively assisted by certain quarters in the West.

Insufficient thought has been given in New Delhi and Western capitals to the unintended consequences of this strategy. It has strengthened the political position of the nationalists and the Islamic extremists in Pakistan. Islamabad’s vacillation in confronting the TTP was evidence of this. Further, the growing asymmetry in India-Pakistan conventional defence capabilities has obliged Pakistan to rely increasingly on the nuclear option to maintain credible deterrence.

The combination of unresolved disputes, specially Kashmir, the likelihood of terrorist incidents and a nuclear hair-trigger military environment, has made the India-Pakistan impasse the single greatest threat to international peace and security.

New Delhi’s bid for Great Power status could be quickly compromised if another war broke out, by design or accident, with Pakistan.

The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Ticking clock

Cyril Almeida

WE’VE been here before and we haven’t. It matters and it doesn’t. What goes around comes around. The winners will be the losers, eventually. The losers will return, eventually.

WE’VE been here before and we haven’t. It matters and it doesn’t. What goes around comes around. The winners will be the losers, eventually. The losers will return, eventually.

What’s new about what’s going on in Pakistan? The boys are greedy, the pols are grubby, and everyone else gets to watch the boys and the pols fight over dividing what ought to belong to the people.

We’ve seen it all before, we’ll see it all again. If we could leave it at that, no big deal. Everyone could get on with their lives.

Birth pangs of a new scheme of things, death convulsions of the old order, something in between, time would tell. Eventually, we may cross over from the Hobbesian to the Lockean.

But time — that’s the problem. Deep down there’s a fear many may feel but few want to articulate: this project, this country, this endeavour, it may be running out of time.

First though the issue of what’s visibly going on. Essentially, the debate is about systems vs results: which would you prefer?

Democrats, the few that there are here, are arguing for the system. The people are demanding results. To be fair, if the system has failed the people — and it has — then why root for a broken system?

Here’s the problem: simultaneously, the locus of power is also being contested. And without a fixed locus of power, there’s little any centre of power can do to deliver to the people in a meaningful, sustainable way.

Essentially, who’s supposed to call the shots and, critically, remain calling the shots: the elected folk or the unelected boys? Until we figure that out, there’ll be no results, none of that stuff the people need and are agitating for.

Nonsense, you’re thinking, the boys don’t want to take over. But that doesn’t matter. The damage is already done.

Imagine you’re a politician. After this, post inquilab and azadi, what’s your incentive to think long term, to fix the system?

Zardari was pushed into survival mode right off the bat; Nawaz’s mandate has been killed off in little over a year — so why bother thinking five years and to the even more remote possibility of reward in the form of re-election?

Aha, but even if they could, you’re thinking, they wouldn’t have anyway — politicians are scummy and never had the people’s interests at heart.

Probably. It is still though a lasting damage that will come of all of this: the politician’s incentive to think long term — the little incentive he had — has been killed off.

And here’s why the damage will be lasting: if the politicians won’t, the boys can’t. And can’t is worse.

Go back to the first three years of Musharraf. The seven-point governance plan and its execution were about as good as it has ever got on the governance side in seven decades of this country’s existence.

Great, so all we need is a decade and a half of that and, boom, the country is solidly middle-income, educated, vibrant, and ready for more.

Except, no. Forget ideological considerations, democratic preferences, suspicions about the boys’ real motives, etc.

The single most compelling reason against military rule is, the time it would take for much-needed reforms to become irreversible is longer than the time a dictator can hold on to power.

For reasons of history, for reasons of politics, for reasons of society, for reasons of jurisprudence, a dictator-for-life isn’t happening here. We can thank the gods for such small mercies or pray fervently that they be withdrawn, but that’s the reality here.

After three years, Musharraf’s court-sanctioned grip on power loosened. His need for fresh political legitimacy from there on drew him into the very compromises that slowly choked his original reforms agenda.

Dictators can’t hang on here — it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to Pakistan, but, if you don’t care about the democratic system, it’s also the worst.

Because dictatorships are condemned to having a shorter life than the time it would take to make reforms (assuming they’re of the right kind) irreversible and self-sustaining, to drag us from a vicious cycle to a virtuous one.

As long as the locus of power remains contested, the problem of results will remain: the boys can’t, the pols won’t.

If that was all there was to this story, most of us could tune out and let the chips fall where they will. Nawaz, Imran, Raheel — who cares when we already know they have no real incentive to nor will the system let them.

Except — the clock. Time.

As Pakistan declines, as the state crumbles, as systems fail, as results diminish and possibilities shrink, there is one system that is going in the opposite direction: the infrastructure of jihad — the mosque-madressah-social welfare network that creates an enabling environment for religiously tainted radical ideologies and violent agendas — is booming.

The only growth industry in Pakistan is the militant complex. It’s everywhere, so ubiquitous now that few even recognise it as an aberration. And soon, we may find out what happens when a booming industry, the infrastructure of jihad, catches up to and overtakes a declining state.

Miserable and predictable as civ-mil and Pyrrhic wars among the civilians are, it would almost — almost — be acceptable if it were the only game in town. Eventually, someone would win.

But there’s a dark horse, the infrastructure of jihad, in this race now. And the longer the race goes on, the more miserable and predictable iterations of the old equation are, the more it looks like the dark horse may win.

Time — that’s really what Pakistan doesn’t have much of anymore.

The writer is a member of staff.

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Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Tightrope walk

S. Mudassir Ali Shah

THE unity government deal between the combative Afghan presidential runners has evoked an over-optimistic response from influential world capitals. But the accord, however you phrase it, is a curt reminder of political wheeling and dealing in a nascent democracy that remains mired in primitive tribalism and warlordism.

Deal vs democracy: The accord and the ensuing poll results may have mitigated political uncertainty in the immediate term, but disquieting questions about the incoming government’s credibility remain. As part of the hazy pact, the election commission pointedly avoided releasing the final tallies to tamp down ethnic tensions.

Under the deal, which has literally rendered the two election rounds meaningless, Abdullah has become chief executive officer, a position created to address his allegation of industrial-scale rigging. His legitimacy will stem from constitutional amendments, making him as powerful as the president.

Mismatch of perceptions: Ghani and Abdullah have a conspicuous mismatch of perceptions on key questions. At the hustings, the former came across as a statesman with a vision for rebuilding Afghanistan’s war-

ravaged economy, introducing a culture of merit and national reconciliation. Conversely, Abdullah sounded like a pugnacious political maverick caught in a time warp. He harped on his close association with Ahmad Shah Massoud, a hero to Tajiks but the proverbial villain of the piece to Pakhtuns. He also touted plans for bringing together all jihadi leaders on a single platform and giving them a say in the new administration.

His acolytes have repeatedly warned of storming the Presidential Palace, forming a parallel government and launching ‘Orange’ and ‘Green’ movements before going in for civil disobedience in a country that needs to be at peace with itself. How well the political foes could work together remains in doubt. Their mistrust is too deep-seated to go away in the near future, posing an impediment to good governance.

Abdullah called off his boycott of the election panel and embraced the UN-monitored vote audit in return for cushy government posts. Albeit reluctantly, he accepted the poll result which, according to European observers, suggested large-scale fraud.

Talks with Taliban: In addition to dealing with inordinate demands from an intransigent coalition partner, Ghani will have to contend with several intractable challenges, including reconciliation with the insurgents, who have slammed the new government as a US puppet. The militants have vowed to continue fighting against those whom they’ve branded as Western lackeys foisted upon the Afghan nation.

Important regional powers like China and Russia want the Afghans to combat the Taliban insurgency on their own, but Kabul apparently lacks the will either to negotiate with the rebels from a position of strength or launch a decisive crackdown on them. This position is bound to make the peace parleys an exercise in futility.

Islamabad can indubitably play a crucial role in pushing the reconciliation campaign, but Kabul’s incessant Pakistan-bashing is enough to dampen this prospect. Additionally, the Taliban assert their independence as a movement determined to drive “foreign invaders” from Afghanistan. While seeking to enforce Sharia, they do not want to be perceived as a tool in the hands of a particular nation.

Drug commerce: Combating the illicit drug commerce is another area where the Ghani administration will remain reliant on international assistance. Just like the ruthless insurgency, the Taliban also seem to be winning the war on drugs in Afghanistan, which accounts for 75pc of the world’s heroin. It produced a record poppy crop despite America’s $7 billion counternarcotics effort. As their penetration of the drug market is expanding, the Taliban’s control of the illegal trade is likely to increase with the pullout of Nato forces. The fighters’ annual windfall from the illicit trade is estimated at $125 million.

Security pacts: Evolving a national consensus on the stay of foreign troops beyond 2014 is compulsory, but appears elusive, at least at this point in time. Ghani, aware of Kabul’s financial constraints, is expected to sign a bilateral security agreement with the US and a status of forces agreement with Nato. This has to be done to ensure salaries of civil servants, teachers, soldiers and policemen are bankrolled regularly. To his discomfort, many Afghan leaders have voiced their aversion to the continued presence of foreign soldiers, blamed for civilian killings and nighttime raids.

Warlordism: The inclusion of people like Rashid Dostum in the new government also speaks volumes for the sway warlords still hold in Afghanistan. Accused of war crimes and trampling on women’s rights, his role in governance cannot be justified in any democratic dispensation.

Getting to grips with all these challenges is going to be a tightrope walk for Ghani.

The writer is a senior Pakistani journalist currently based in Kabul.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

Social safeguards

Arif Azad

THE roots of the British welfare state can be traced to the Beveridge report of 1942. This document identified five major evils — want, ignorance, idleness, squalor and disease — and exhorted the government to work to alleviate them. Thus evolved the British welfare state as we know it today.

Though these commitments are being gradually jettisoned in the rush to turn the welfare state into a neo-liberal one, the ideals of minimum social protection have become the gold standard across the world. In South Asia, Sri Lanka meets this basic threshold to a large extent. However, Pakistan’s record on minimum social protection provision leaves much to be desired.

Also, the country has struggled to cope with the desired goal of minimum protection provision within an increasingly limited budgetary space. Various social security schemes have been incrementally put in place. These have ranged from government servants’ pension fund, employees’ social security institutions, the Workers’ Welfare Fund, public benevolent funds and the Employees’ Old Age Benefits Scheme.

Together these schemes cover those employed in the formal sector, who constitute only 10pc of the workforce according to one estimate. This leaves the large segment of the workforce employed in the informal economy outside the social protection umbrella. Women are also disproportionately under-represented in these schemes, though the introduction of the Benazir Income Support Programme has remedied this lacuna to some extent by making women the prime beneficiary in this cash transfer programme.

Among those covered by various schemes the personnel of the armed forces enjoy the best social protection coverage, with bureaucrats coming in a close second. The rest of the population is either without adequate cover, or enjoys a semblance of social protection cover patched together from the dribs and drabs of their shoestring saving budgets.

In addition, schemes such as zakat and ushr have contributed another segment of social protection provision. Under Ziaul Haq, these religiously mandated cash transfer mechanisms were housed under the state social protection umbrella. This development not only diluted the voluntary and generous spirit that zakat and ushr embodied but also reduced the state’s commitment to fund social protection schemes from general taxation.

Apart from zakat and ushr, the Baitul Mal has also provided a bulk of the social protection cover. The latter are all cash transfer programmes.

Here a few words about the Employees’ Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) are in order, particularly as the recent scandal surrounding the organisation reflects upon governmental commitment to providing minimum protection to low-paid workers.

Over the years, EOBI has enrolled millions of workers employed in the private sector. This is a federal scheme that covers institutions with 10 or more employees. The scheme is funded through 5pc employee contribution with the government chipping in with a matching contribution to provide for sickness and old-age pension.

Being the only scheme available to low-paid workers at the moment, it has attracted subscribers in the millions and, as a result, accumulated a cash stockpile of billions.

The size of this kitty has attracted unscrupulous and illegal raids, as revealed in the allegedly ill-advised land investment made by the organisation’s top bureaucracy. The episode has laid bare the government’s ineptitude in protecting low-paid workers’ hard-earned savings.

If not addressed expeditiously, and if confidence is not restored in the scheme, the unsavoury episode may prove a turn-off for a large segment of low-paid workers, leaving them exposed to unexpected shocks.

Broadly speaking, the social protection schemes have all worked in isolation, with chances of needy individuals’ duplication a constant concern. The focus right now should be on unifying all these schemes into an overarching social protection framework that covers all vulnerable workers irrespective of their station in life.

One good beginning in this direction was made with the unveiling of the national social protection strategy in 2007. However, this was conceived without reference to provincial social protection schemes and was largely oriented towards workers in the formal sector, as pointed out by Haris Gazdar, an expert on social protection.

Moreover, since the formulation of this strategy, progress on the issue has stalled. The much-praised recommendation of setting up a ministry for social protection also remains unimplemented. This has slowed progress towards the goal of integrating and unifying various disparate social protection schemes. More importantly, the goal of finding a way of bringing the informal sector workforce into the social protection regime remains as elusive as it was 50 years ago.

The writer is an Islamabad-based development consultant and policy analyst.

drarifazad

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014

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