Sunday 27 April 2014

Abdullah-Ghani run-off to decide next Afghan president

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AFP

Abdullah secured 44.9 per cent of the April 5 vote, with his main rival Ghani on 31.5 per cent, according to the preliminary results. – AFP Photos/File
Abdullah secured 44.9 per cent of the April 5 vote, with his main rival Ghani on 31.5 per cent, according to the preliminary results. – AFP Photos/File
KABUL: Afghanistan's presidential election is set for a second-round vote, preliminary results showed Saturday, as former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani both failed to secure a decisive victory.
The vote will choose a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power.
The eventual winner will have to oversee the fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency as 51,000 US-led troops depart this year, as well as strengthen an economy that relies on declining aid money.
“Based on our results, it appears that the election goes to the second round,” Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, told a press conference in Kabul.
Abdullah secured 44.9 per cent of the April 5 vote, with his main rival Ghani on 31.5 per cent, according to the preliminary results.
The 2009 election, when Karzai retained power, was marred by fraud in a chaotic process that shook confidence in the multinational effort to develop the country and also marked a sharp decline in relations with the United States.
The final official result is set to be announced on May 14 after a period for adjudication of hundreds of complaints over alleged fraud.
As no candidate gained more than 50 per cent, a run-off between the two leading names is required under the Afghan constitution.
Eight men ran in the election, with polling day hailed a success by Afghan officials and foreign allies as the Taliban failed to launch a major attack despite threats to disrupt the vote.
“The election went pretty good, we are satisfied with it and I think we are prepared if it goes to the second round,” Nuristani said.
Another expensive, and potentially violent, election could be avoided by negotiations between the candidates in the coming weeks, but Abdullah has dismissed talks of a possible power-sharing deal.
Ghani has also vowed to fight on in a run-off.

Disputes over fraud?

Serious fraud allegations are being investigated in the vote and Saturday's announcement is expected to be followed by fierce debate over disputed voting papers, ballot-box stuffing and other cheating allegations.
Preliminary results were delayed by two days due to fraud investigations, with officials vowing to sift out all suspect votes before they were counted.
Karzai, who has ruled since the Islamist Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, is constitutionally barred from serving a third term.
He pledged to stay neutral in the election, but was widely thought to have lent support to his loyal former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, who took just 11 per cent of the vote.
Rassoul could still play a key role in power-brokering before the next president is chosen, as could former Islamist warlord Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, who collected a seven per cent.
Abdullah, an ophthalmologist by training who came second in 2009, was a close adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a revered Tajik ethnic leader who fought the Taliban during their 1996-2001 rule.
Ghani is a renowned intellectual who energised the campaign with his fiery speeches and is more favoured by the larger Pashtun ethnic group.
The leading candidates have pledged to explore peace talks with the Taliban and sign a deal with the US that could allow 10,000 US troops to stay on after this year on a training and counter-terrorism mission.
Karzai's surprise decision to refuse to sign the bilateral security agreement last year after agreeing to the draft text plunged relations between Afghanistan and its biggest donor to a new low.
The outgoing president has had several public disagreements with Washington in recent years, underlining efforts to establish a reputation as an independent leader despite relying on US aid and military power during his reign.
IEC chief Nuristani, who announced that the second round would be held on June 7, said nearly seven million people voted in the election out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million – well above the 2009 turnout.
Of those who voted, 36 per cent were female – a figure likely to be seen as a sign of women's improving status in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country.
Posted By: csspcspakistan On 12:06 In  
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Gwadar: on the cusp of greatness?

Gwadar: on the cusp of greatness?

Naziha Syed Ali
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Gwadar now finds itself as a launching pad for big regional, if not global, ambitions based on the proposed Pak-China economic corridor.
Gwadar now finds itself as a launching pad for big regional, if not global, ambitions based on the proposed Pak-China economic corridor.
GWADAR: The Pearl Continental Gwadar, located on the hammerhead that defines this coastal town in southern Balochistan, is deserted on most days. Only a few of the hotel’s 114 rooms are being kept operational; instead of central air-conditioning, split ACs are in place; the shrubbery outside needs some attention. Cost-cutting measures are clearly in place.
And yet, the building is well lit and inviting, the smell of freshly polished furniture lingers in the corridors, at least some of the rooms that are still open are luxurious and well maintained, and the staff is eager to show you around.
After a cycle of boom and bust that has lasted nearly a decade, there’s an air of expectation in Gwadar, a feeling that good times are just around the corner, although that depends on whom you speak to.
This small town of 85,000 people in Gwadar district was a sleepy little fishing village until not so long ago. Now it finds itself as a launching pad for big regional, if not global, ambitions based on the proposed Pak-China economic corridor, a role reinforced by the prime minister’s high-powered visit here on Thursday accompanied by the chief minister and army chief.
The port is the centrepiece of the optimistic narrative. Its logo is a stylistic depiction of a lighthouse and a windsurfer with the words “Symbol of prosperity” underneath. In 2013, China Overseas Port Holding Company took over operations at the facility from the Port of Singapore Authority after the latter quit over a dispute regarding land to develop the port.
“Things are moving very fast,” claimed Dostain Khan Jamaldini, chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority. “Unlike Pakistanis, the Chinese spend a lot of time in planning, then they do the execution quickly.”
Reinforcing the impression of the feverish pace of activity, Director General Gwadar Development Authority, Dr Sajjad H. Baloch said, “Several delegations of Chinese have visited within the last six months; that last one was here just a few days ago.”
Among the projects in the ‘Gwadar package’ are port expansion, construction of a new airport, an industrial estate, an export processing zone, desalination plant, water and sewage system for the city and transportation infrastructure such as a 19km expressway to link the port with the coastal highway, and other road and rail links connecting Gwadar to upcountry via Ratodero in Sindh.
It was recently announced that China would invest $1.8 billion in nine projects to develop the port and the city. In a way, China is picking up where it left off, for it had paid 75pc of the $248 million initial construction cost of the port.
The facility became operational in 2008, but on a very limited scale. For now, ships carrying subsidised wheat and urea from Canada and South Korea occasionally dock at the port for transfer via the coastal highway to Karachi and then elsewhere in the country. It’s an expensive exercise; direct transportation links from Gwadar to upcountry are crucial to make the port commercially viable.
And there’s the rub. Baloch insurgents are violently opposed to the port project, which they consider a means to further exploit Balochistan’s natural resources and render the local population a minority by bringing in labour from elsewhere.
Gwadar city itself is considered free of insurgent activity – mainly because only one road leads into this seaside locale, although it too has experienced its share of insurgent activity and enforced disappearances in the past.
However, step a little distance out on the M-8 that is to ultimately constitute one of the two vital road links to Ratodero (and beyond to Kashgar in China – the so-called ‘new Silk Road’) and the challenges begin to reveal themselves.
Every so often along the highway, also built by the Chinese several years ago, there are small lookout posts, which were manned by the Frontier Corps (FC) to provide security to the construction teams from attacks by insurgents. Bridges across en route river creeks, which flood in the rains, are unfinished. Work was abandoned when the security situation in Balochistan deteriorated rapidly after the killing of Nawab Bugti. Some Chinese contractors as well as labourers and FC personnel suffered casualties in attacks by Baloch militants.
The changing dynamics were reflected in Gwadar’s property market. A 1000 sq yard plot in the coveted Singhar housing scheme atop the hammerhead went from Rs50,000 in the ’90s to Rs5,500,000 in 2005 before plummeting to Rs300,000 where it languishes today. “Many made a fortune from real estate here,” said a local. “But those who didn’t sell at the right time were ruined when the market collapsed.”
Now that the hype around the port is being built up again, it remains to be seen whether investors will return, especially in view of the worsening insurgency in much of the province.
There have also been some unsettling incidents around Gwadar city recently. In March, insurgents launched a well-planned attack on a radar post in Pasni, and in Jiwani, some non-Baloch settlers have been targeted by the militants.
Nevertheless, government officials and technocrats working on government projects insist the challenge is not insurmountable. The Awaran section of the M-8 highway, for example, has been dropped so as to skirt the volatile district. They also point to instances even now of portions of the M-8 in insurgency-hit Khuzdar being constructed under military supervision.
Speak to locals in the rundown alleys of the town though and they shrug their shoulders, pointing out that so far, the port has made no difference to their lives. Abdul Hakeem, a fisherman, says, “All the change I’ve seen is that we’ve been moved from where we were living for generations to make way for the port.”
A 50-bed hospital constructed four years ago has still not opened due to shortage of medical personnel. Gwadar city uplift plans envisage its expansion to a 300-bed facility. “The functional district hospital is in a shambles. It lacks basic medicines, and doesn’t have even a single dialysis machine,” says a social activist. “Are we to believe that things are suddenly going to improve for us?”
All considered, there’s much work to be done if the ‘prosperity’ narrative is to be one that takes everyone along.
Posted By: csspcspakistan On 12:04 In  
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World with more women leaders will be a better place: Malala


The Newspaper's Correspondent
Malala Yousafzai.
Malala Yousafzai.
NEW YORK: “A world with more women leaders will be a better world, and Hillary Clinton is helping make that possible,” Malala Yousafzai said in an appreciation piece in the latest issue of Time magazine.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “life and leadership show women what we can achieve if we believe in our own strength and if we channel our inner creativity, compassion and determination,” wrote the activist, who was in the Time’s list of 100 most influential people.
She observed that “Hillary Clinton is a symbol of strength for women across the world. It was she who famously said, “Women’s rights are human rights.”
“She not only spoke those words, but also dedicated her life to empowering women around the world through politics and philanthropy.
“She has been a source of strength for many women leaders, including myself, my family and those who stood by me after I was attacked,” said Malala.
“Continue your mission, be strong, we believe in you is what she said to me, my father and the rest of the Malala Fund team when we met her last year at the Clinton Global Initiative awards.”
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Saturday 26 April 2014

Grief and anger as relatives identify victims at JPMC

Grief and anger as relatives identify victims at JPMC

Shazia Hasan
The father of one of the blast victims, Shahzad, being brought out of the mortuary of the JPMC by his colleagues on Friday. — Fahim Siddiqi/ White Star
The father of one of the blast victims, Shahzad, being brought out of the mortuary of the JPMC by his colleagues on Friday. — Fahim Siddiqi/ White Star
KARACHI: There were four bodies in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) mortuary two of which were identified soon after being brought there on Friday afternoon.
Two young men sat weeping quietly on the bench outside the mortuary. “They are in no condition to speak to anyone. Their brother, Sajid Elahi, has been identified as one of the dead. Another elder brother is inside with the body,” said a friend trying to console the young men.
“We are residents of Delhi Colony. My brother had gone to say his Friday prayers at Jama Masjid Faizan-i-Ilahi. We were at home. I was dozing when the blast jolted everyone in the house. Our mother tried Sajid’s number but got no response. His phone was off. That’s when we hurried to the site of the blast,” said the victim’s elder brother, Sohail Ahmed.
“But this is where we found him,” he broke down looking around inside the morgue.
Shiraz Ali, a Chhipa ambulance driver there, said that he had brought in the body of Shahzad Hussain, a young man. “One side of the body is ridden with ball bearings,” he said.
Shahzad was identified by his colleagues who then informed his father. “He is ... he was ... our assistant manager at the Bareeze shop in Clifton,” said one of his colleagues, Mohammad Fareed Khan. “He usually ate with us at the shop but today he had a craving for something from outside. He was out on a lunch break at the time of blast. Our entire building shook from it,” he added.
A few other colleagues of Shahzad were coming towards the mortuary with an elderly man. Two supported him by putting their arms around his shoulders. “I run a vegetable business at Guru Mandir,” said Ali Hussain, the father. “I got a call from my son’s colleagues and rushed here. I haven’t told anyone at home. They know nothing. Shahzad is the third of my six sons,” he said, his eyes brimming with tears.
Another distressed individual outside the morgue was screaming in frustration. “How do you expect us to identify the body when you are not even letting us see it?” he cried.
He was referring to the only woman’s body in the mortuary. The man was there with another who claimed his wife was missing. “We live in the same house. I live on the upper portion and he and his wife are on the ground floor. We have just retrieved a purse and a mobile phone from the hospital’s emergency department that belongs to Bhabi but there is only one woman among the injured there and her husband is with her right now. That leaves the dead woman. We are here to identify her but aren’t being allowed to see the body until we prove that we know her. How do we do that?” The neighbour, Uzair Tehseen, questioned.
The husband looking for his missing wife was finding it very difficult to form words into sentences. A while later he managed to mumble something about her wearing a printed yellow shirt with white shalwar when going out of the house that morning. But the dead body was clad in pink and grey shalwar kameez. A piece from a rickshaw jutted out from her remains. “No that can’t be her,” the helpful neighbour concluded when informed about the details of her clothing. “It’s not her,” he said to the worried man with him looking for his missing wife.
Meanwhile, strict security outside the JPMC emergency department prevented almost everyone save VIPs and politicians from going inside. A man holding his injured nephew in his arms cursed the hospital authorities. “I need to take him inside but just because he is not one of the bomb blast injured, we can’t go in,” the man complained.
A man with a bandaged leg was being carried away on a stretcher by his relatives. “God has been kind. He saved my life today,” said the man, Waqar Feroz, who added that he was just passing through the place on his motorbike at the time of the blast.
Another injured and semi-conscious man was being shifted to the ward. “His name is Mahmood Kazmi. We work at the CM House,” said his colleague who declined to disclose his own name.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed while addressing the media with Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the JPMC emergency department, said that they had been hearing all kinds of things that perhaps a car in some passing convoy was the target or the mosque was the target. “But only experts can tell us more regarding the matter. Still, the casualties and most of the injured happened to be common pedestrians coming out of the nearby mosques after saying their Friday prayers,” he said.
Dr Jamali said they had received some 30 wounded of which five were critical and four dead of whom one was female.
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Pakistan to be the last place where polio will exist, WHO meeting told

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Haemophilia: some tips


THIS is apropos the piece written by your staff reporter on April 18 on the occasion of World Haemophilia Day.
I have a haemophilic son who is 34. As such, I have been researching the subject since his birth and would like to share the following information with readers. Haemophilia is referred to as a royal or blue-blooded disease because it occurred mostly in families of monarchs and nobles due to in-breeding. The most famous patient was the son of Russian Czar Nicholas.
Haemophilia is a genetic disorder which reduces blood’s ability of clotting due to deficiency of clotting factor VIII or IX. Internal bleeding causes swelling of joints and severe pain. There is no cure but it can be controlled by transfusing bags of blood products such as cryoprecipitate (CP), fresh frozen plasma (FFP) or vials of the deficient clotting factor (VIII or IX, as required) for relief from pain and swelling or to stop external bleeding after injury, surgery or tooth extraction.
Haemophilia is caused by a defective X chromosome in the DNA or genetic code which is passed on from father to daughter and from daughter to son. The symptoms of the disease show up only in males because they have only one X chromosome (the other being a Y) while females are carriers having one healthy and one defective X chromosome. The healthy X chromosome ensures adequate production of clotting factor in females.
Haemophilia is usually diagnosed after circumcision because the bleeding does not stop easily. The boys can lead a healthy and productive life if immediate medication is provided by keeping a vial or two of the clotting factor at hand.
As a precaution against hepatitis from infected blood products and syringes, they should be vaccinated against hepatitis B as soon as haemophilia is diagnosed.
To prevent descendents from inheriting the disease, girls must be tested for factor VIII or IX deficiency before marriage. If the level is below the minimum limit of 50pc, they are carriers and will produce one affected offspring out of every two.
Haemophilic boys should either not marry, or marry infertile women. In any case, they should not father children as their daughters are bound to be carriers, who are instrumental in propagation of the disease.
A.J.
Karachi
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Import regime


THIS is apropos Qamar Iqbal’s letter (April 20).
There is a dire need for revisiting our entire import regime. All those articles which are imported, specially for edible usage, need to be reassessed if they are safe, halal and, above all, if we really need those to import.
If the need is there, we should ensure that the exporting company should give a certificate from a competent authority of the exporting country that the cargo is safe, halal and, above all, fit for the purpose for which it has to be imported.
Secondly, importers must ensure that consignments are sold to only bona fide consumers.
Also, an authority similar to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be established in Pakistan. This body should monitor the quality of all edibles, like the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan.
This includes minute details like monitoring of cleanliness of pharmacies, temperature maintenance there and proper record keeping of those drugs as well which are to be sold on prescriptions alone.
This has been made possible with the joint efforts of the trade and the government and is very much evident now, specially in big cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, where there has been a mushroom growth of chain pharmacies.
I believe it could be replicated in the case of the food sector in the shape of chain stores, selling all sorts of edibles and grocery items, in standard packing and some chain sort of restaurants where consumers are satisfied with the quality of stuff they buy because of the goodwill of the seller.
For this, provincial and other regional bodies should work on the guidelines issued by the federal government.
Mumtaz Ahmed
Lahore
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Sectarian violence

Sectarian violence

Editorial
Updated a day ago
HOW many have died in sectarian violence in Pakistan since 2008? More than 2,000 was the answer Minister of State for Interior Balighur Rehman gave in the Senate on Wednesday. The bald number may be grim enough, but so are the details that Mr Rehman shared: from Fata to Islamabad and Balochistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no part of the country has been spared sectarian violence. What the raw numbers do not tell though is the evolving pattern of the violence. What began as targeted killings of members of the Shia community (and, on a much lesser scale, reprisal attacks against virulently sectarian Sunni elements) has now escalated to indiscriminate attacks on markets, buses, religious sites and really any place where a gathering of a particular sect can be identified and targeted. It is a war on entire communities, even if it has not reached anywhere near the term ‘genocide’ that is unhappily bandied about without much regard for reality. What is real is the pervasive fear that has gripped certain communities and many parts of the country.
What happens next depends on how seriously the state takes the threat and how the communities themselves react. So far, other than in small pockets, there has been no communal violence, but tensions are rising because of the continuing proliferation of hate speech and paraphernalia. The question is really that of a tipping point and how far society is from it at the moment. Historically, despite all the allegations of a proxy Saudi-Iran war playing out inside Pakistan, sectarian violence has been sporadic and, usually, quickly contained. Part of that may have to do with demographics, as the sectarian equation is not overwhelmingly lopsided and sects are not confined to a few geographical zones, so there is much side-by-side existence. In fact, the communities do mingle and mix a great deal. Yet, this much is also clear: the historical pattern can be changed and tolerance can be eroded if elements bent on doing so are allowed to operate freely and the narrative of hate is not pushed back against.
So, what is the state doing about any of that? The interior ministry provided the province-wise breakdown of sectarian violence over the last six years, but how many of the murders have been investigated, how many of the killers identified and how many prosecutions secured? Surely, it is only a fraction, if that, of the violence that has been enumerated by the interior ministry. Meanwhile, the tentacles of fear continue to spread. In Karachi, the Majlis-i-Wahadat-i-Muslimeen have claimed several Shias have been killed in recent days, while the Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat has alleged their members have also been killed. And Karachi is just one part of the national sectarian cauldron that is bubbling ominously. Does the state have any answers?
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One shoe fits all

One shoe fits all

Editorial
Updated about 7 hours ago
THE list on the internet says it was Pakistan which began the trend, reviving a way of showing disapproval that dates almost to the time when man first learnt to take aim. Six Aprils ago, Arbab Rahim, a former Sindh chief minister, was attacked with a shoe as he came to take oath as a member of the provincial assembly.
For the attacker, democracy which had brought his party to power was not revenge enough. Since then, shoes have been lobbed at various venues around the globe, and this manner of ugly protest was, on Thursday, once more visible when the chief minister of Punjab found himself at the receiving end. In between, a Chinese leader has been subject to a limp shoe attack — in Cambridge of all places.
The then US president George Bush, too, has been targeted in Iraq, and only recently former secretary of state Hillary Clinton managed to duck one in the US. In India, politicians such as Manmohan Singh and L.K. Advani have been aimed at and our very own Gen Pervez Musharraf has been a recipient both in his country and abroad. The Iraqi who threw the shoe at Mr Bush was paid in the same coin in Paris later.
The reaction, generally, has been sober. In a majority of cases, the targeted leaders chose to take these attacks in their stride, avoiding additional embarrassment. Some damage was, of course, done, but the incidents did provide the leaders with an opportunity to be magnanimous and forgiving.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif reacted similarly on Thursday when he ordered the release of the shoe-throwing journalist, who, it was learnt to the general satisfaction of the surprised gallery, had his origins away from Punjab.
This was the right response. It allowed for the freak incident’s quick removal from the media radar, after the efficient security and agitated party workers had done their best to make a prolonged unpleasant spectacle out of it by thrashing the offender.
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Power sector reforms

Power sector reforms

Editorial
PRIME MINISTER Nawaz Sharif has promised to bridge the electricity supply gaps in the country in the next two and a half years and add 21,000MW of new power to the national grid over eight years. Both are difficult targets Mr Sharif has set for himself. He, however, seems to have been encouraged by an earlier-than-scheduled commissioning of the two gas turbines at the Guddu thermal power project and the inauguration of the Uch project-II this week.
The expansion of the Guddu project has already added 486MW to the national grid, and the completion of the third turbine next month will take new generation from the project to 747MW. The Uch project will add another 404MW to the system. At the same time, work on several hydel and thermal power projects has already been initiated with financial assistance from multilateral and bilateral donors as well as Chinese and domestic investors.
The completion of these projects will certainly mitigate the pain of industrial and domestic consumers who are suffering from long power cuts despite paying a price said to be the highest in the region. Indeed, the Nawaz Sharif government is more focused on removing the electricity supply gaps than its predecessor. Even a partial success in implementing the proposed projects will significantly bring down the duration of the power cuts by the end of its term in 2018.
But the focus on new generation is not enough. The government should also be implementing the required power sector reforms that it had promised in its energy policy last year. For example, the government has so far done little to check power theft, reduce transmission and distribution losses and recover unpaid bills from public and private defaulters.
Nothing has been done to improve the management of or stop rampant corruption in public-sector power companies. Consequently, we are seeing a fresh build-up of the inter-corporate power sector debt of slightly less than Rs300bn in nine months after having retired the previous one of Rs480bn last June.
The economy and consumers may continue to suffer power cuts and pay a high price for a much longer period than the one stated by Mr Sharif unless governance reforms are implemented in the energy sector.
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Dollar: Dar’s statement

Dollar: Dar’s statement

From the Newspaper
Updated about 7 hours ago
NO finance minister in the history of Pakistan has given so many statements about the exchange rate as Ishaq Dar has during his last nine months in office.
Why must the finance minister, who is supposed to be the custodian of all confidential information about national economy, predict publicly the movement of exchange rate?
No government official must be allowed to comment on the expected movement of exchange rate because it can be very destabilising for markets.
Dar’s recent statement that dollar will stay around Rs98 created panic in the exchange market. As a result of this unnecessary statement by the finance minister, the importers unleashed their demand and rushed to buy dollars whereas exporters and overseas Pakistani workers withheld their remittances.
Consequently, the dollar went up by one per cent in one day in the inter-bank market. I have noticed that hardly any finance minister in the world predicts openly the movement in the exchange rate of currency.
I have never heard any treasury secretary of the United States or any chancellor of the exchequer of the United Kingdom predicting the exchange rate of his currency because if they do so, they will be badly criticised by the opposition, as well as by the media.
But, strangely here in Pakistan the opposition is dumb about the finance minister’s predictions of exchange rate movement and the media is praising him.
I believe the finance minister must stop predicting publicly the exchange rate movement and, if at all he has to say something on the exchange rate, he should say as finance ministers of advanced countries say that the ‘exchange rate will reflect the economic fundamental of the country which looks bright’.
Ejaz Ahmad Magoon
Lahore
Posted By: csspcspakistan On 00:34 In  
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Presence of foreign militants

Presence of foreign militants

Editorial
A LITTLE discussed but crucial aspect of the government’s dialogue with the banned TTP is the issue of militants of foreign origin who live or have found sanctuary in militant strongholds in Fata. As reported in this newspaper yesterday, the foreign militants, with an eye on the government-TTP dialogue, are keen to secure safe passage out of Pakistan and move on to other arenas of jihad, especially Syria.
But the principal concern here should hardly be what foreign militants living on Pakistani soil want. It should, instead, be how to devise a coherent strategy to nudge out foreign militants from Pakistani soil while simultaneously reducing their influence on the Pakistani militancy spectrum.
To begin with, what the government ought to demand is a full accounting of foreigners associated with militancy in Pakistan and living in the tribal areas. Given the long history of militancy in the region, there are a number of people from the time of the first Afghan jihad in the 1980s who, in their post-jihad career, settled down in Pakistan, married Pakistanis and are living here having long abandoned militancy and violence. Those particular individuals are of little consequence today and pose no obvious threat to the state.
However, there are other foreigners — in the scores, hundreds, perhaps even a couple of thousand — who live in Pakistan, are active in militancy and pose a very serious danger to this country and possibly other states too. Here the government will have to be more firm and insistent in its negotiations with the TTP. To begin with, the TTP must provide a comprehensive and verifiable list of active foreign militants living in Fata, both those living under the TTP’s umbrella of protection and otherwise.
Next, the TTP must guarantee the disarming and decommissioning of the foreign militants. That has been one of the basic conditions of any peace deal that governments have struck with militants over the past decade and it would be disastrous to move away from that at this point.
After that, the question of safe passage can be taken up on a case-by-case basis, but only to allow foreigners to return to their home countries. For obvious reasons, most foreign militants may prefer to move to yet another country to continue their so-called jihad, but the government here must be careful to take into account the potential ramifications: does Pakistan want to be blamed for exporting its militancy problem to other parts of the globe? The worrying bit is that the government has been quiet on the issue of foreign militants.
The TTP is unlikely to easily cut ties with or abandon its allies among foreign militants, so the lack of clarity and purposefulness on the government’s part may encourage the TTP to demand concessions even on this front. What exactly does the government have in mind here?
Posted By: csspcspakistan On 00:33 In  
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Learning curve

Learning curve

Khurram Husain
Updated 2 days ago
THERE is a feeling known to many who do any research work on Pakistan. It is a feeling that one is wasting one’s time researching the history of this country, or attempting to methodically arrive at an understanding of how things work in it. Instead of writing the history of this land, one often feels that it would be more appropriate to be writing its obituary.
The feeling is usually stirred by events, and there is no shortage of them in our country. The ongoing spat between Geo and the military has raised the spectre of a clash of institutions just like the old days, and once again reminded us of the wafer-thin basis of stability on which everything rides.
It’s hard to be absorbed in researching events from 25 years ago in times such as these, but for better or for worse, that is my position. What does it really matter? Who cares why this or that particular decision was made back then, when the current moment presents such a spectacle?
Whenever the feeling hits, it’s useful to recall that we’ve been dealing with the politics of spectacle and institutional clashes for longer than anyone cares to remember. Somehow, something has ensured that we are all still here, so perhaps through it all — the noise and chaos of the moment — it’s worth our while after all to keep a focus on the larger picture.
Perhaps some might remember the press conference given by the army in 1989. Then COAS Mirza Aslam Beg had stood before the assembled press corps, with his commanders seated behind him, and proudly informed everyone that the army was now a professional outfit, no longer interested in politics, and focused on building up its war-fighting capability. Remember ‘glasnost’ and Zarb-i-Momin? A new image for an old army, and what a clean, bold-faced untruth the man told everyone with a straight face.
Of course, while those words were being uttered, unbeknownst to the press, Brig Imtiaz was plying his craft in the shadows, buying votes in an attempt to build a bloc in parliament that could unseat the PPP government. The run-up to the vote of no-confidence that left the civilian government wounded was under way by the time that press conference was given.
The overlap is striking to view in hindsight, and in the turbo-charged spectacle of the time, it appears a lot of people missed it too. I find little to no comment at the time about the irony behind Beg’s presser superimposed upon the good brigadier’s actions.
There are so many examples of this sort of thing happening in our political system that it begins to feel almost routine. So many examples of deeds belying words in real time that it gets a little surreal, and not a little difficult to figure out what really is going on.
When dismissing a democratic government, military rulers have spoken of the corruption and misdeeds of civilian politicians. When handing power back to elected governments, they have always spoken of the need to preserve the professionalism of the army. Emphasise the other’s demerits when snatching power away from them, and emphasise your own righteousness when handing power back. That’s been the formula right down to our time.
But through all the continuity, something is changing. The constant fighting amongst the institutions of state has brought on a policy paralysis that inhibits any strategic decision-making.
We’ve been engrossed in fighting amongst ourselves all the while the revenue base of the state has shrunk; as our power sector reached critically high levels of dependence on oil to generate electricity; as our gas supplies dwindled and new discoveries were not made in over a decade; as the scale of untaxed wealth grew to such massive proportions that it now dictates terms to the state and not vice versa.
Today we can only attract investment by offering rentier terms. People I’m meeting here in D.C. who deal with those who invest in Pakistan say they are very impressed at the kinds of returns their money makes over there.
The very foundations of the state’s stability are eroding, sending us in search of geopolitical rents constantly, but the size of each successive bailout is growing.
Somebody needs to explain this to the hostile triangle that appears to be preparing for a showdown today. This senseless stand-off that is about to be created used to take a couple of years to come about in the old days, but this time Mian Sahib has brought us there faster than ever before. For the sake of the mandate that he has now, and that he lost in 1999, something that he seems to be reliving every moment of his new term at the top, he needs to learn how to do politics. Repeated stand-offs are a sign of political failure, and there’s a sharp learning curve ahead if wiser counsel does not prevail.
The writer is a business journalist and 2013-2014 Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington D.C.
khurram.husain@gmail.com
Twitter: @khurramhusain
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