A
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
The women who walked and walked
Thursday, June 04, 2009
We write here some of the stories the women of Swat told us. They come from Kabbal, Mingawera (Mingora), Qambar, Kanju and other parts of Swat. Some are from Buner and Maidan in Lower Dir. Their lives were affected in many more ways than the lives of their men.
When we entered the large tent a few women looked up and smiled. Some got up and put out their hands to greet us. They seemed surprised that we could converse in the same language. "Sit down. We can't even offer you tea" said one laughing, "look at us and what we have been reduced to." Their children were lying on the floor, red because of the heat, tired and listless in the hot air of the fans. The women had been sitting in silence before we went in. We could hear no noise from the tent which was full of about forty women and children. What could they share with each other? Each story was the same as the other. It was a pall of misery and silences that hung over their heads. These women were lucky; they had a common place to come to, out of their tents. In most camps, the women sit in the heat of the tents, not being allowed to go out. They wait for their men to come before they can use the toilets. Their children defecate outside the tents as they cannot take them to the toilets. In some schools, they feed their children first and, at times, do not eat.
One by one they spoke their ordeal, their flight from the bombing, the endless days of walking with children and the elderly and the dead they had left behind. Soon each one wanted to tell her story. They sat closer and closer to us, listening to the others and telling us about themselves. Most of them had fled from Mingawera and other places in Swat--walking for days, avoiding the curfew by moving off the roads and taking to the mountains to walk, walking day and night; hiding their sons in trucks for fear that the Talibs would take them away to fight. One woman had walked for nine days with three children under ten. We cannot recall the number of women who told us about how their homes were shelled and how they had buried their dead without bathing them, in hurriedly dug graves. One had lost her baby on the way down, had dug a ditch beside the road, torn off part of her chadar, wrapped her child in it and buried her in the ditch. She walked on, to save what was left, her own life. Another spoke of how in the madness of the bombing, she had asked her husband to pick up her baby from the bed. When they were out of the village, the husband realized he had picked up the pillow and left the six month old child behind. They still kept walking.
Another woman spoke of how they were eating peacefully when a mortar had hit her house. The word 'mortar' was a regular part of their conversation. 'Matr' and 'karpee' which we finally realised was 'curfew.' Another told us how her neighbours' home was shelled. Four men had died on the spot. People had run helter-skelter. The helicopter passed and the men ran and started digging graves to bury the dead before fleeing the village. They told the women to collect what they could and the women started to round up their children. As the men dug, the helicopter returned to shell. The men left the bodies and ran for cover. The helicopter fired again and flew past. The men returned and dug what they could and dumped the bodies into the graves.
Another woman in a school camp spoke of how her family had left food in their plates and hot tea in their cups when the shelling began. She was brave and then her brown eyes filled with tears and she said 'my young son, he was in class ten, was hit on the back of his head and he died. I lost my young son' and then her tears flowed. The others sat looking at her, thinking of their own miseries. We sat in silence, nobody consoling, and nobody talking. 'At least they should have told us, why did they not tell us they were going to bomb?' She wiped her eyes hurriedly and continued to talk. 'They are beasts these Taliban. They are not human. May God finish them all like they have finished us.' We were surprised, surprised that her anger turned to the Taliban when her son was killed by military shelling. She was a strong woman and continued to talk with a vengeance. 'May God punish these animals for what they have done to us. I hope the army finishes every last one of them.'
From one place to another, from one tent and school to another, we heard them tell us how they were unable to leave their homes for fear of being beaten or killed or flogged, how their men had been dragged out of their homes and slaughtered. One of the men said he lived on the chowk where the Taliban slaughtered people. He told us how they walked into homes and led out their victims in silence. He told us of the sounds he heard when these men were slaughtered, like cattle, on the chowk.
Each woman talked of the slaughter of men, whether they had been through it or whether they had heard it it had terrorised them into silence and acquiescence. They also spoke of how 'disgraced' they felt as they fled with only a dupatta on. One of them laughed and said: "Burqa, burqa, which is all we heard in Swat but when we ran we were hardly covered [with burqas] and the whole world was looking at us." The men did not think this was funny. The humiliation they felt at this had outraged them the humiliation at their women being in these camps, being seen by other men, the humiliation of standing in line for food. Perhaps that is why there were so many children standing in line for food at the camps.
In one of the schools, a group of women led us to meet their friend. She could not speak because she could not stop crying. They kept saying 'Show them; show them what they did to you.' She was a widow and the Taliban had taken her 12 year old son away to join them. The women said that they used to come to all their homes and ask for their sons. They were too scared to resist. Some boys were taken by force, others went themselves, and others simply disappeared from madressahs. The widow had gone and taken her son back from the madressah. They had come into her house, taken all her jewellry and cut of all her hair. She cried for her own humiliation and did not speak a word. Women from Buner spoke of how the Taliban had no respect for the Pakhtun way of life, for Islam or for women. How they would enter any house they wanted, whether to take away their sons or to take refuge. They spoke of incidents of the younger women being raped, after which their breasts were cut off. They told us how their men were beheaded and hung from electricity poles with their chopped off heads placed between their legs. They would leave notes on these bodies for no one to touch.
So why did they let this happen? Why could they not get together to stop it? We repeatedly asked them this. Who ARE these people? This is when the admittance came. They were honest, honest about the power of Mullah Radio and his constituency of women listeners. "There was peace in Swat. Shut in their homes many women listened to 'Raidu Mullah.' He addressed them directly. "He used to talk about Islam, about praying five times a day, about going to the madressah and learning the Quran. We all thought he was a good man." As his popularity grew, women would line up outside his madrassah and donate. They donated whatever little jewelry they had. Even the poorest women would donate her nose-pins.
This captive, gullible audience, shut in their homes became the main source of Mullah Radio's power and support. They encouraged their sons to join his madrassah. They provided the Taliban with a ready following. They provided them their sons which they soon realised were fodder, fodder for suicide bombings and 'jihad.' It was only when they realised and resisted this that the Taliban turned on their own people. "They would knock at our doors, and would say, 'give us your sons in the name of Islam'. Those who resisted were slaughtered."
Many said their families approached the army and the government for help. But nobody listened. A few said that anyone who informed the army did not live long. They kept quiet. Even today parts of their areas where the Taliban have fled to are not known to the army. They will not speak. Suddenly in a fit of rage one of them started shouting: "Where were this army and this government when our people have been relating these incidents to them for almost two years?" This is only a question to be answered by those responsible for what is happening to our people today.
"We have been fooled. We have been fooled by the Taliban, the Army and the government. We knew two years ago that this was not Islam but nobody would help us. Why did the army not do something two years when the Taliban were fewer in number and that when they could be controlled? When they knew exactly where they were. What is the reason for their friendship with these animals? Where were this army and this government when we were screaming for help and going to them?"
What answer can one give to these poor, helpless women? Who is going to be held accountable for the violence they have suffered. Their questions can only be answered by those who know what they have done. And if they do not answer them in this world, they will for sure answer them in the next.
This is an abridged version of a recent report by AIRRA (Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy) based in Peshawar, whose members travelled to the IDP camps for these interviews.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
We write here some of the stories the women of Swat told us. They come from Kabbal, Mingawera (Mingora), Qambar, Kanju and other parts of Swat. Some are from Buner and Maidan in Lower Dir. Their lives were affected in many more ways than the lives of their men.
When we entered the large tent a few women looked up and smiled. Some got up and put out their hands to greet us. They seemed surprised that we could converse in the same language. "Sit down. We can't even offer you tea" said one laughing, "look at us and what we have been reduced to." Their children were lying on the floor, red because of the heat, tired and listless in the hot air of the fans. The women had been sitting in silence before we went in. We could hear no noise from the tent which was full of about forty women and children. What could they share with each other? Each story was the same as the other. It was a pall of misery and silences that hung over their heads. These women were lucky; they had a common place to come to, out of their tents. In most camps, the women sit in the heat of the tents, not being allowed to go out. They wait for their men to come before they can use the toilets. Their children defecate outside the tents as they cannot take them to the toilets. In some schools, they feed their children first and, at times, do not eat.
One by one they spoke their ordeal, their flight from the bombing, the endless days of walking with children and the elderly and the dead they had left behind. Soon each one wanted to tell her story. They sat closer and closer to us, listening to the others and telling us about themselves. Most of them had fled from Mingawera and other places in Swat--walking for days, avoiding the curfew by moving off the roads and taking to the mountains to walk, walking day and night; hiding their sons in trucks for fear that the Talibs would take them away to fight. One woman had walked for nine days with three children under ten. We cannot recall the number of women who told us about how their homes were shelled and how they had buried their dead without bathing them, in hurriedly dug graves. One had lost her baby on the way down, had dug a ditch beside the road, torn off part of her chadar, wrapped her child in it and buried her in the ditch. She walked on, to save what was left, her own life. Another spoke of how in the madness of the bombing, she had asked her husband to pick up her baby from the bed. When they were out of the village, the husband realized he had picked up the pillow and left the six month old child behind. They still kept walking.
Another woman spoke of how they were eating peacefully when a mortar had hit her house. The word 'mortar' was a regular part of their conversation. 'Matr' and 'karpee' which we finally realised was 'curfew.' Another told us how her neighbours' home was shelled. Four men had died on the spot. People had run helter-skelter. The helicopter passed and the men ran and started digging graves to bury the dead before fleeing the village. They told the women to collect what they could and the women started to round up their children. As the men dug, the helicopter returned to shell. The men left the bodies and ran for cover. The helicopter fired again and flew past. The men returned and dug what they could and dumped the bodies into the graves.
Another woman in a school camp spoke of how her family had left food in their plates and hot tea in their cups when the shelling began. She was brave and then her brown eyes filled with tears and she said 'my young son, he was in class ten, was hit on the back of his head and he died. I lost my young son' and then her tears flowed. The others sat looking at her, thinking of their own miseries. We sat in silence, nobody consoling, and nobody talking. 'At least they should have told us, why did they not tell us they were going to bomb?' She wiped her eyes hurriedly and continued to talk. 'They are beasts these Taliban. They are not human. May God finish them all like they have finished us.' We were surprised, surprised that her anger turned to the Taliban when her son was killed by military shelling. She was a strong woman and continued to talk with a vengeance. 'May God punish these animals for what they have done to us. I hope the army finishes every last one of them.'
From one place to another, from one tent and school to another, we heard them tell us how they were unable to leave their homes for fear of being beaten or killed or flogged, how their men had been dragged out of their homes and slaughtered. One of the men said he lived on the chowk where the Taliban slaughtered people. He told us how they walked into homes and led out their victims in silence. He told us of the sounds he heard when these men were slaughtered, like cattle, on the chowk.
Each woman talked of the slaughter of men, whether they had been through it or whether they had heard it it had terrorised them into silence and acquiescence. They also spoke of how 'disgraced' they felt as they fled with only a dupatta on. One of them laughed and said: "Burqa, burqa, which is all we heard in Swat but when we ran we were hardly covered [with burqas] and the whole world was looking at us." The men did not think this was funny. The humiliation they felt at this had outraged them the humiliation at their women being in these camps, being seen by other men, the humiliation of standing in line for food. Perhaps that is why there were so many children standing in line for food at the camps.
In one of the schools, a group of women led us to meet their friend. She could not speak because she could not stop crying. They kept saying 'Show them; show them what they did to you.' She was a widow and the Taliban had taken her 12 year old son away to join them. The women said that they used to come to all their homes and ask for their sons. They were too scared to resist. Some boys were taken by force, others went themselves, and others simply disappeared from madressahs. The widow had gone and taken her son back from the madressah. They had come into her house, taken all her jewellry and cut of all her hair. She cried for her own humiliation and did not speak a word. Women from Buner spoke of how the Taliban had no respect for the Pakhtun way of life, for Islam or for women. How they would enter any house they wanted, whether to take away their sons or to take refuge. They spoke of incidents of the younger women being raped, after which their breasts were cut off. They told us how their men were beheaded and hung from electricity poles with their chopped off heads placed between their legs. They would leave notes on these bodies for no one to touch.
So why did they let this happen? Why could they not get together to stop it? We repeatedly asked them this. Who ARE these people? This is when the admittance came. They were honest, honest about the power of Mullah Radio and his constituency of women listeners. "There was peace in Swat. Shut in their homes many women listened to 'Raidu Mullah.' He addressed them directly. "He used to talk about Islam, about praying five times a day, about going to the madressah and learning the Quran. We all thought he was a good man." As his popularity grew, women would line up outside his madrassah and donate. They donated whatever little jewelry they had. Even the poorest women would donate her nose-pins.
This captive, gullible audience, shut in their homes became the main source of Mullah Radio's power and support. They encouraged their sons to join his madrassah. They provided the Taliban with a ready following. They provided them their sons which they soon realised were fodder, fodder for suicide bombings and 'jihad.' It was only when they realised and resisted this that the Taliban turned on their own people. "They would knock at our doors, and would say, 'give us your sons in the name of Islam'. Those who resisted were slaughtered."
Many said their families approached the army and the government for help. But nobody listened. A few said that anyone who informed the army did not live long. They kept quiet. Even today parts of their areas where the Taliban have fled to are not known to the army. They will not speak. Suddenly in a fit of rage one of them started shouting: "Where were this army and this government when our people have been relating these incidents to them for almost two years?" This is only a question to be answered by those responsible for what is happening to our people today.
"We have been fooled. We have been fooled by the Taliban, the Army and the government. We knew two years ago that this was not Islam but nobody would help us. Why did the army not do something two years when the Taliban were fewer in number and that when they could be controlled? When they knew exactly where they were. What is the reason for their friendship with these animals? Where were this army and this government when we were screaming for help and going to them?"
What answer can one give to these poor, helpless women? Who is going to be held accountable for the violence they have suffered. Their questions can only be answered by those who know what they have done. And if they do not answer them in this world, they will for sure answer them in the next.
This is an abridged version of a recent report by AIRRA (Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy) based in Peshawar, whose members travelled to the IDP camps for these interviews.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Credibility and substance
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Ikram Sehgal
Building a long-term partnership with Pakistan, the US is now transitioning from formulating a new strategy to the more difficult task of policy implementation and execution. The input of several think tanks going through this exercise should be extremely helpful for Richard Holbrooke's team in articulating a comprehensive new strategy. A team from the "Centre for American Progress" (CAP), consisting of Lawrence Korb, Brian Katulis and Colin Cookman, did a field trip to Pakistan in April. Based on more than 100 interviews on location, the conclusions of "Meeting the Challenges in Pakistan" are credible. CAP has avoided the "cocktail circuit" which usually tends to tell you what you want to hear.
CAP's recommendations are based on: (1) the bilateral relationship remaining plagued by a mutual trust-deficit, significant steps are required enhancing trust and cooperation in building a lasting bilateral partnership and overcoming the "transactional" legacy of the relationship; (2) weak governance remains an endemic challenge throughout Pakistan, the state failing to provide law and order, and the basic needs of the people in some places in the country, extremist groups work to exploit the situation by filling the gap; (3) Pakistan's willingness and capacity to conduct comprehensive counterinsurgency and counterterrorist operations seemingly remains limited. Despite increasing domestic anxiety about the actions of militants in the country's northwest, the perception remains that Pakistan's military establishment remains focused on conventional conflict with neighbour India. (This premise could have changed after the Swat operations.)
CAP's key recommendations are: (1) build on recent regional and international diplomatic initiatives by re-engaging in regional diplomacy that seeks to revive dialogue between Pakistan and India, including a discussion of Kashmir; (2) US policy must not rely only on an exclusive partnership with army chiefs or particular leaders to advance US interests, the Obama administration should initiate an expansive plan to establish broad contacts and cooperation between Pakistani and American civilian institutions, including think tanks, lawyers groups, civil society organizations, and the general public; (3) formulate a bilateral strategic framework agreement with Pakistan to break the cycle of transactional and reactive policymaking that has plagued the bilateral relationship for decades.
CAP asks for: (4) strengthening the police and judicial component of counterterrorism assistance by providing professional training, equipment, and manpower to the courts, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Intelligence Bureau, and provincial police forces; (5) hugely increased assistance will be needed, given the size of refugee displacements due to the Swat operations. The Chinook-led quick US response to the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan improved its standing with the Pakistani people and marginalise militant groups, the IDP crisis is an opportunity to emphasise US commitment; (2) increased cooperation on the nuclear front will help prevent the illegal transfer of nuclear technology and expertise and safeguard the arsenal from unauthorised access; (3) launch a comprehensive effort to advance Pakistani civilian government capacity and expertise in coordination with proposed bilateral development assistance increases. Long-term economic and social development planning is required, identifying key projects for new assistance money and building habits of transparency with their Pakistani partners.
CAP emphasised importance of: (8) including careful oversight and accounting mechanisms in assistance legislation by a bilateral framework to gain input from the Pakistani government to the greatest extent possible on which projects new assistance money should fund; (9) reform the leading institutions of US diplomacy and foreign development assistance. The US has under-invested in its own civilian institutions of diplomacy and economic development, Pakistan will be a test case of whether the Obama administration can reform these institutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century; and (10) engaging members of Congress and the American public. With a stronger rationale for its policy and specific plans for implementation thereof to frame a policy for building a long-term partnership with Pakistan.
The problems encompassing the Durand Line notwithstanding, confining dialogue only to Af-Pak will not do. Moreover, equating Afghanistan to Pakistan is really stretching it. CAP skirts the fact that this region will remain subject to violent extremism unless the root cause of Kashmir is addressed, inherently involving Pakistan and India. There has been no progress on CBMs such as Siachen, Sir Creek and Baglihar Dam. Zardari surprisingly agreed to an amazing MOU in Washington DC for "transit trade" giving India land access to Afghanistan and beyond. Without progress over Kashmir this is a non-starter, seen in Pakistan as an Indian-dictated sell-out. There must be an arrangement if not an agreement over the core issue of Kashmir.
With ongoing FATA combat experience since 2004, the successful FC operations in Dir and a tremendous counter-insurgency campaign in Swat, the Army has become a battle-hardened entity. The general officers commanding the formations down to the young officers and soldiers have all faced fire. Contrast Musharraf and his associates who did the good talk but had never heard a shot being fired in anger (at least till the assassination attempts). The Army needs more heavy-lift helicopters, night vision equipment and special communications equipment, above all encouragement instead of constant criticism.
Suspicions about Pakistan's nuclear aspirations and security of Pakistan's nuclear assets will remain until the US enters into constructive engagement with Pakistan on the nuclear issue. Like India, Pakistan needs cheap nuclear energy desperately to secure its economic future. The same core guarantees that India gave to satisfy the US should suffice. Bringing Pakistan out of the cold on the nuclear question will restore the confidence of the Pakistani intelligentsia and masses about US long-term intentions.
CAP is strangely silent whether the US should place priority on the accountability of Pakistan's leaders. The report failed to highlight how the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) has disfigured the entire structure of Pakistani politics, that it continues to undermine the concept of good governance. The chief justice recently observed that the NRO is under adjudication. Why has the NRO not been thrown out, lock, stock and barrel by the Supreme Court could be because of a self-imposed "doctrine of necessity."
How can Pakistan have good governance when people have no idea who really rules Pakistan? The number of amendments to the Constitution done by Gen Musharraf created a "grey area" of shared governance between the president and the prime minister. That is a myth, it is the president who rules. After the March 15 restoration of the superior judiciary President Zardari promised that powers would be reverted to the prime minister as envisaged by the 1973 Constitution. Once the political heat raised by March 15 subsided we are back to a presidential form of government, the US tacitly giving sanction to this by the recent Holbrooke-organised Zardari visit to Washington DC. No country's future is safe as long as Washington lobbyists can disfigure US policy, and in the process the US image in the world. There is a huge disconnect here that must be addressed, Holbrooke is too smart not to have worked out that his credibility with the Pakistani people is on the line trying to shore up Zardari. Let's be done with this ambiguity of governance, the only thing that matters is that credibility requires substance.
The writer is a defence and political analyst.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Ikram Sehgal
Building a long-term partnership with Pakistan, the US is now transitioning from formulating a new strategy to the more difficult task of policy implementation and execution. The input of several think tanks going through this exercise should be extremely helpful for Richard Holbrooke's team in articulating a comprehensive new strategy. A team from the "Centre for American Progress" (CAP), consisting of Lawrence Korb, Brian Katulis and Colin Cookman, did a field trip to Pakistan in April. Based on more than 100 interviews on location, the conclusions of "Meeting the Challenges in Pakistan" are credible. CAP has avoided the "cocktail circuit" which usually tends to tell you what you want to hear.
CAP's recommendations are based on: (1) the bilateral relationship remaining plagued by a mutual trust-deficit, significant steps are required enhancing trust and cooperation in building a lasting bilateral partnership and overcoming the "transactional" legacy of the relationship; (2) weak governance remains an endemic challenge throughout Pakistan, the state failing to provide law and order, and the basic needs of the people in some places in the country, extremist groups work to exploit the situation by filling the gap; (3) Pakistan's willingness and capacity to conduct comprehensive counterinsurgency and counterterrorist operations seemingly remains limited. Despite increasing domestic anxiety about the actions of militants in the country's northwest, the perception remains that Pakistan's military establishment remains focused on conventional conflict with neighbour India. (This premise could have changed after the Swat operations.)
CAP's key recommendations are: (1) build on recent regional and international diplomatic initiatives by re-engaging in regional diplomacy that seeks to revive dialogue between Pakistan and India, including a discussion of Kashmir; (2) US policy must not rely only on an exclusive partnership with army chiefs or particular leaders to advance US interests, the Obama administration should initiate an expansive plan to establish broad contacts and cooperation between Pakistani and American civilian institutions, including think tanks, lawyers groups, civil society organizations, and the general public; (3) formulate a bilateral strategic framework agreement with Pakistan to break the cycle of transactional and reactive policymaking that has plagued the bilateral relationship for decades.
CAP asks for: (4) strengthening the police and judicial component of counterterrorism assistance by providing professional training, equipment, and manpower to the courts, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Intelligence Bureau, and provincial police forces; (5) hugely increased assistance will be needed, given the size of refugee displacements due to the Swat operations. The Chinook-led quick US response to the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan improved its standing with the Pakistani people and marginalise militant groups, the IDP crisis is an opportunity to emphasise US commitment; (2) increased cooperation on the nuclear front will help prevent the illegal transfer of nuclear technology and expertise and safeguard the arsenal from unauthorised access; (3) launch a comprehensive effort to advance Pakistani civilian government capacity and expertise in coordination with proposed bilateral development assistance increases. Long-term economic and social development planning is required, identifying key projects for new assistance money and building habits of transparency with their Pakistani partners.
CAP emphasised importance of: (8) including careful oversight and accounting mechanisms in assistance legislation by a bilateral framework to gain input from the Pakistani government to the greatest extent possible on which projects new assistance money should fund; (9) reform the leading institutions of US diplomacy and foreign development assistance. The US has under-invested in its own civilian institutions of diplomacy and economic development, Pakistan will be a test case of whether the Obama administration can reform these institutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century; and (10) engaging members of Congress and the American public. With a stronger rationale for its policy and specific plans for implementation thereof to frame a policy for building a long-term partnership with Pakistan.
The problems encompassing the Durand Line notwithstanding, confining dialogue only to Af-Pak will not do. Moreover, equating Afghanistan to Pakistan is really stretching it. CAP skirts the fact that this region will remain subject to violent extremism unless the root cause of Kashmir is addressed, inherently involving Pakistan and India. There has been no progress on CBMs such as Siachen, Sir Creek and Baglihar Dam. Zardari surprisingly agreed to an amazing MOU in Washington DC for "transit trade" giving India land access to Afghanistan and beyond. Without progress over Kashmir this is a non-starter, seen in Pakistan as an Indian-dictated sell-out. There must be an arrangement if not an agreement over the core issue of Kashmir.
With ongoing FATA combat experience since 2004, the successful FC operations in Dir and a tremendous counter-insurgency campaign in Swat, the Army has become a battle-hardened entity. The general officers commanding the formations down to the young officers and soldiers have all faced fire. Contrast Musharraf and his associates who did the good talk but had never heard a shot being fired in anger (at least till the assassination attempts). The Army needs more heavy-lift helicopters, night vision equipment and special communications equipment, above all encouragement instead of constant criticism.
Suspicions about Pakistan's nuclear aspirations and security of Pakistan's nuclear assets will remain until the US enters into constructive engagement with Pakistan on the nuclear issue. Like India, Pakistan needs cheap nuclear energy desperately to secure its economic future. The same core guarantees that India gave to satisfy the US should suffice. Bringing Pakistan out of the cold on the nuclear question will restore the confidence of the Pakistani intelligentsia and masses about US long-term intentions.
CAP is strangely silent whether the US should place priority on the accountability of Pakistan's leaders. The report failed to highlight how the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) has disfigured the entire structure of Pakistani politics, that it continues to undermine the concept of good governance. The chief justice recently observed that the NRO is under adjudication. Why has the NRO not been thrown out, lock, stock and barrel by the Supreme Court could be because of a self-imposed "doctrine of necessity."
How can Pakistan have good governance when people have no idea who really rules Pakistan? The number of amendments to the Constitution done by Gen Musharraf created a "grey area" of shared governance between the president and the prime minister. That is a myth, it is the president who rules. After the March 15 restoration of the superior judiciary President Zardari promised that powers would be reverted to the prime minister as envisaged by the 1973 Constitution. Once the political heat raised by March 15 subsided we are back to a presidential form of government, the US tacitly giving sanction to this by the recent Holbrooke-organised Zardari visit to Washington DC. No country's future is safe as long as Washington lobbyists can disfigure US policy, and in the process the US image in the world. There is a huge disconnect here that must be addressed, Holbrooke is too smart not to have worked out that his credibility with the Pakistani people is on the line trying to shore up Zardari. Let's be done with this ambiguity of governance, the only thing that matters is that credibility requires substance.
The writer is a defence and political analyst.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
End of the beginning?
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
The battle for Swat seems to be reaching its final stages, at least in terms of the immediate fighting. Mingora is out of militant hands; people in the town hope this will mean a resumption in supplies of food and medicines reaching the city, where there have been acute shortages for weeks.
There is a sense that the battle for Swat may be reaching some kind of conclusion. But is this really the end of the battle? Is it even the beginning of the end or will the Taliban monster we have created rise up once more in the times ahead to confront us, like a kind of indestructible Frankenstein.
There is every reason to believe this will happen. The factors that gave rise to militancy remain in place. The sense of social deprivation, of injustice of resentment against the state could rise once more. There is also continued suspicion in areas of conflict of a nexus between powerful forces and the militants. Even now there is a lack of trust on this count.
People believe that the military, at least as long as India continues to be seen as the enemy, may not be willing to loosen its handshake with militants or may at least aim to keep up some level of association with them.
It is the government that needs now to move in behind the determined military effort, and ensure this does not happen. To do so it must move sensibly and work to a plan.
There are several areas that need immediate attention. One is that of creating jobs in Swat. The collapse of the tourist industry in that region has affected many. People everywhere complain of being barely able to survive. The events of the past month, during which homes, land, livestock and many lives have been lost further affect their capacity to do so.
An immediate development and employment plan is needed. People, shattered by conflict, must be assisted in the task of picking up the pieces of their lives. It is no coincidence that in the Valley, people still look back with nostalgia to the time when Swat as a princely state was ruled by its 'Walis'. In the 30 years since its status as such was abolished in 1969, the state of Pakistan has not made a similar impression on lives.
Indeed the 'Islamic' aspect of law under the Walis has been one factor in the support for 'Shariah' associated by people with easier, swifter access to justice. Many have of course since realized that under the Taliban it took a quite different and much uglier manifestation.
The conflict has brought immense hardship to Swat; power has remained suspended for weeks; families have stared starvation in the face. Some have watched bombs kill relatives. There must now be a swift effort to rescue people and enable them to resurrect lives that they have, for too long, had very little control over.
The government must also look beyond Swat though. Tens of thousands of madressahs currently operate across the country. In Lahore alone one can be found along virtually every street in some localities. Giant set-ups flourish at mosques in many places. Even where they are not involved in militancy, the madressahs create closed minds and churn out 'graduates' with a distinct way of thinking.
Instances of the abuse of children within them remain commonplace. They act too to rob children of an ordinary life and the right to a mainstream education. But then, on the other hand, they provide something that is much more important to those who have nothing at all: food, clothing, shelter and a better life than that they enjoyed at home. Many of the women at Jamia Hafsa at Lal Masjid testified to this; former maid servants spoke of a life of relative comfort and the guarantee of regular food.
The government should consider what can be done. At a time when dollars are being directed this way, a nationalization of madressahs may be possible. This would be a means to ensure that the 'welfare' services the institutions offer are kept intact while regulating education within them.
In times of crisis, radical moves are required. The past policy of supporting madressahs backed by the US has been a disaster. We need to bring the pupils of these seminaries into the mainstream, so the vast chasm between their way of thinking and that of those who attend regular schools can be narrowed and then closed. The few studies conducted suggest this is a very wide gap indeed.
Scholars from Egypt, studying the phenomena of extremism in Pakistan and elsewhere, have repeatedly commented on the role of the Al-Azhar University in promoting relaxed, progressive notions of Islam in their society. This too is something that requires thought. We have failed even to take up proposals, some of them based on extremely positive open thinking, put forward by the Islamic Ideology Council.
We need far more pro-active effort to push back obscurantism. There is no reason why papers produced at Al-Azhar and indeed at other institutions in the Middle East cannot be disseminated more widely. The official media can be used to hold discussions on them. And perhaps, in response to the harsh, orthodox institutions that cropped up over the 1980s, promoted by a specific line of official thinking, there can be some thought to setting up others based along more open lines of thinking.
Our own Sufi heritage can in some way be used. We, as a society, are in many ways obsessed with religion. This is the outcome of very deliberate polices pursued with terrifying effectiveness in the past. We need now to find ways of challenging them so we can move into a better future.
But, at the same time, we must remember that using religion as a political gambit can be dangerous. Eventually it places us in the hands of clerics. The longer-term strategy must be to create a state free of dogma and able to rise above it. Respect for everyone's freedom of belief is central to this. So too is the need to give people the means for a decent life. It is the denial of this, the acute socio-economic deprivation of millions, the indifference of governments to their plight and the lack of access to justice that created militancy.
We must now make certain these weaknesses are corrected or we may find one day that the struggle that is now being waged, the deaths, the destruction and the suffering, were after all futile. This is not something to look forward to.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
The battle for Swat seems to be reaching its final stages, at least in terms of the immediate fighting. Mingora is out of militant hands; people in the town hope this will mean a resumption in supplies of food and medicines reaching the city, where there have been acute shortages for weeks.
There is a sense that the battle for Swat may be reaching some kind of conclusion. But is this really the end of the battle? Is it even the beginning of the end or will the Taliban monster we have created rise up once more in the times ahead to confront us, like a kind of indestructible Frankenstein.
There is every reason to believe this will happen. The factors that gave rise to militancy remain in place. The sense of social deprivation, of injustice of resentment against the state could rise once more. There is also continued suspicion in areas of conflict of a nexus between powerful forces and the militants. Even now there is a lack of trust on this count.
People believe that the military, at least as long as India continues to be seen as the enemy, may not be willing to loosen its handshake with militants or may at least aim to keep up some level of association with them.
It is the government that needs now to move in behind the determined military effort, and ensure this does not happen. To do so it must move sensibly and work to a plan.
There are several areas that need immediate attention. One is that of creating jobs in Swat. The collapse of the tourist industry in that region has affected many. People everywhere complain of being barely able to survive. The events of the past month, during which homes, land, livestock and many lives have been lost further affect their capacity to do so.
An immediate development and employment plan is needed. People, shattered by conflict, must be assisted in the task of picking up the pieces of their lives. It is no coincidence that in the Valley, people still look back with nostalgia to the time when Swat as a princely state was ruled by its 'Walis'. In the 30 years since its status as such was abolished in 1969, the state of Pakistan has not made a similar impression on lives.
Indeed the 'Islamic' aspect of law under the Walis has been one factor in the support for 'Shariah' associated by people with easier, swifter access to justice. Many have of course since realized that under the Taliban it took a quite different and much uglier manifestation.
The conflict has brought immense hardship to Swat; power has remained suspended for weeks; families have stared starvation in the face. Some have watched bombs kill relatives. There must now be a swift effort to rescue people and enable them to resurrect lives that they have, for too long, had very little control over.
The government must also look beyond Swat though. Tens of thousands of madressahs currently operate across the country. In Lahore alone one can be found along virtually every street in some localities. Giant set-ups flourish at mosques in many places. Even where they are not involved in militancy, the madressahs create closed minds and churn out 'graduates' with a distinct way of thinking.
Instances of the abuse of children within them remain commonplace. They act too to rob children of an ordinary life and the right to a mainstream education. But then, on the other hand, they provide something that is much more important to those who have nothing at all: food, clothing, shelter and a better life than that they enjoyed at home. Many of the women at Jamia Hafsa at Lal Masjid testified to this; former maid servants spoke of a life of relative comfort and the guarantee of regular food.
The government should consider what can be done. At a time when dollars are being directed this way, a nationalization of madressahs may be possible. This would be a means to ensure that the 'welfare' services the institutions offer are kept intact while regulating education within them.
In times of crisis, radical moves are required. The past policy of supporting madressahs backed by the US has been a disaster. We need to bring the pupils of these seminaries into the mainstream, so the vast chasm between their way of thinking and that of those who attend regular schools can be narrowed and then closed. The few studies conducted suggest this is a very wide gap indeed.
Scholars from Egypt, studying the phenomena of extremism in Pakistan and elsewhere, have repeatedly commented on the role of the Al-Azhar University in promoting relaxed, progressive notions of Islam in their society. This too is something that requires thought. We have failed even to take up proposals, some of them based on extremely positive open thinking, put forward by the Islamic Ideology Council.
We need far more pro-active effort to push back obscurantism. There is no reason why papers produced at Al-Azhar and indeed at other institutions in the Middle East cannot be disseminated more widely. The official media can be used to hold discussions on them. And perhaps, in response to the harsh, orthodox institutions that cropped up over the 1980s, promoted by a specific line of official thinking, there can be some thought to setting up others based along more open lines of thinking.
Our own Sufi heritage can in some way be used. We, as a society, are in many ways obsessed with religion. This is the outcome of very deliberate polices pursued with terrifying effectiveness in the past. We need now to find ways of challenging them so we can move into a better future.
But, at the same time, we must remember that using religion as a political gambit can be dangerous. Eventually it places us in the hands of clerics. The longer-term strategy must be to create a state free of dogma and able to rise above it. Respect for everyone's freedom of belief is central to this. So too is the need to give people the means for a decent life. It is the denial of this, the acute socio-economic deprivation of millions, the indifference of governments to their plight and the lack of access to justice that created militancy.
We must now make certain these weaknesses are corrected or we may find one day that the struggle that is now being waged, the deaths, the destruction and the suffering, were after all futile. This is not something to look forward to.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Window of opportunity
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Farhat Taj
About 2.7 million people have been internally displaced from Malakand Division due to the ongoing operation against the Taliban terrorists. According to the estimate of AIRRA about 80 percent of the IDP's have been accommodated by relatives, friends and complete strangers in Swabi, Mardan, Nowshehra, Charsada and Peshawar, in their houses and hujras (guest houses) according to the Pakhtoon tradition of hospitality. Some have gone to relatives and friends in other parts of Pakistan. Only about 20 percent of the IDPs are in the camps made by the government. This is a humanitarian crisis of biblical scale, but it contains an opportunity for moderate and secularism-oriented political parties, like the PPP and the ANP, to establish and strengthen their bonds with people. They can certainly avail this opportunity if they reach out to them with their full district organisational strength and with the spirit to snatch the political space occupied by the pro-Taliban terrorists religious groups through humanitarian work.
The performance of both the PPP and ANP as political parties in terms of extending a helping hand to the IDPs is not up to the mark up until now. The information secretary of the PPP even issued an extremely irresponsible statement in this context. She said: ''We do not want the IDPs to spread all over the country as we are still facing trouble caused by the permission given to Afghan refugees of yesteryears to stay anywhere. Can we afford to repeat the same experience?" How could she equate the Afghan refugee with the IDP's who are citizens of Pakistan! Fauzia Wahab must know that Pakhtoon workers of the PPP have scarified lives in the party's struggle for democracy. The PPP is rooted among the Pakhtoons and the party has committed workers among them, and there are jiyalas among the IDPs as well. Similarly, the ANP tainted its secular credentials by imposing the so called Nizam-e-Adal Regulation on the people of Malakand.
On the other hand, religious groups, including the banned ones, are much more active in helping the IDPs than the PPP and ANP. The workers of the religious groups give a food pack and also a lecture on how 'the brutal army and the PPP government have rendered the people homeless to please the US. The banners of the religious groups in the camps openly ask for the operation to be stopped. The PPP and ANP must immediately reach out to the IDPs to out manoeuvre the pro-Taliban religious groups and parties. The pro-violent jihad right wingers have mobilised their entire machinery to convert at least some among the devastated IDPs into suicide bombers. Both the PPP and ANP have the potential to foil the design of the religious groups.
The PPP and ANP must immediately mobilise their district-level party organisations in Mardan, Swabi, Peshaswar, Nowshera and all other districts where the IDPs have come. Both parties have thousands of committed workers in those districts. They all must be mobilised to reach out to the IDPs in camps as well as those staying in schools, and with people in hujras and homes with appropriate help and support. This is something that the two parties have not been able to do up until now.
The two parties must immediately mobilise their overseas branches to collect donations to finance the work of the district-level organisations of the parties. There is an active PPP branch in Norway. I have talked to them. They told me they would be ready to collect the donations to facilitate the relief work of PPP districts organisations in Pakistan, if they are directed by the PPP authorities in Pakistan. I understand most overseas branches of the PPP and ANP would be ready for the task, if directed by the parties' authorities in Pakistan.
In this context too the two parties must move to challenge the monopoly of the Pakistani religious groups and parties on the donations of the expat Pakistanis. The religious parties have close contacts with Pakistani mosques abroad. There is an institutional structure in place through which the mosques collect donations from Pakistanis abroad and send to the parties in Pakistan to finance their work. The Jamaat-e-Islami is linked with Islamic cultural centres all over the world and Minhajul Quran has its Idara-e-Minhajul Quran around the globe. As far as I understand, most of the expat Pakistani never know where the money donated by them to the two mosques is used. Both Idara-e-Minhajul Quran and Islamic Cultural Centres claim that the donations are used to facilitate the humanitarian work of the parties in Pakistan. But this is certainly not so simple. The Jamaat's tenuous but live links with Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups are well-documented and it is in that context where the misuse of the money sent by the overseas Pakistanis lies.
This is the space that both the PPP and ANP must retake from the religious parties. The two must fully involve their district-level organisation, in collaboration with the parties overseas branches, in bringing some normalcy in the lives of the IDPs. This will strengthen the ties of the parties with the people and reduce the influence of the religious groups through humanitarian work. This may be important for making Pakistan peaceful, democratic and free of religious extremism.
The people of Pakistan have two enemies--the Taliban and Talibanisation. To deal with the former is the job of our soldiers and policemen and to control the latter is the duty of the political parties, like the PPP, the ANP and even the PML-N. The soldiers and policemen are magnificently performing their job. They are giving up their lives every day to eliminate the Taliban evil. If the political parties did not perform their job, in the near future we will have the Taliban eliminated by our brave security forces, but the Talibanization will loom large. I would request the leaderships of the PPP, ANP and PML-N to mobilise their grassroots-level workers to help the IDPs and do not leave the field open to the pro-Taliban religious parties and groups, who have by now mastered the "art" of exploiting human sufferings for the realisation of their militant version of Islam.
The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Farhat Taj
About 2.7 million people have been internally displaced from Malakand Division due to the ongoing operation against the Taliban terrorists. According to the estimate of AIRRA about 80 percent of the IDP's have been accommodated by relatives, friends and complete strangers in Swabi, Mardan, Nowshehra, Charsada and Peshawar, in their houses and hujras (guest houses) according to the Pakhtoon tradition of hospitality. Some have gone to relatives and friends in other parts of Pakistan. Only about 20 percent of the IDPs are in the camps made by the government. This is a humanitarian crisis of biblical scale, but it contains an opportunity for moderate and secularism-oriented political parties, like the PPP and the ANP, to establish and strengthen their bonds with people. They can certainly avail this opportunity if they reach out to them with their full district organisational strength and with the spirit to snatch the political space occupied by the pro-Taliban terrorists religious groups through humanitarian work.
The performance of both the PPP and ANP as political parties in terms of extending a helping hand to the IDPs is not up to the mark up until now. The information secretary of the PPP even issued an extremely irresponsible statement in this context. She said: ''We do not want the IDPs to spread all over the country as we are still facing trouble caused by the permission given to Afghan refugees of yesteryears to stay anywhere. Can we afford to repeat the same experience?" How could she equate the Afghan refugee with the IDP's who are citizens of Pakistan! Fauzia Wahab must know that Pakhtoon workers of the PPP have scarified lives in the party's struggle for democracy. The PPP is rooted among the Pakhtoons and the party has committed workers among them, and there are jiyalas among the IDPs as well. Similarly, the ANP tainted its secular credentials by imposing the so called Nizam-e-Adal Regulation on the people of Malakand.
On the other hand, religious groups, including the banned ones, are much more active in helping the IDPs than the PPP and ANP. The workers of the religious groups give a food pack and also a lecture on how 'the brutal army and the PPP government have rendered the people homeless to please the US. The banners of the religious groups in the camps openly ask for the operation to be stopped. The PPP and ANP must immediately reach out to the IDPs to out manoeuvre the pro-Taliban religious groups and parties. The pro-violent jihad right wingers have mobilised their entire machinery to convert at least some among the devastated IDPs into suicide bombers. Both the PPP and ANP have the potential to foil the design of the religious groups.
The PPP and ANP must immediately mobilise their district-level party organisations in Mardan, Swabi, Peshaswar, Nowshera and all other districts where the IDPs have come. Both parties have thousands of committed workers in those districts. They all must be mobilised to reach out to the IDPs in camps as well as those staying in schools, and with people in hujras and homes with appropriate help and support. This is something that the two parties have not been able to do up until now.
The two parties must immediately mobilise their overseas branches to collect donations to finance the work of the district-level organisations of the parties. There is an active PPP branch in Norway. I have talked to them. They told me they would be ready to collect the donations to facilitate the relief work of PPP districts organisations in Pakistan, if they are directed by the PPP authorities in Pakistan. I understand most overseas branches of the PPP and ANP would be ready for the task, if directed by the parties' authorities in Pakistan.
In this context too the two parties must move to challenge the monopoly of the Pakistani religious groups and parties on the donations of the expat Pakistanis. The religious parties have close contacts with Pakistani mosques abroad. There is an institutional structure in place through which the mosques collect donations from Pakistanis abroad and send to the parties in Pakistan to finance their work. The Jamaat-e-Islami is linked with Islamic cultural centres all over the world and Minhajul Quran has its Idara-e-Minhajul Quran around the globe. As far as I understand, most of the expat Pakistani never know where the money donated by them to the two mosques is used. Both Idara-e-Minhajul Quran and Islamic Cultural Centres claim that the donations are used to facilitate the humanitarian work of the parties in Pakistan. But this is certainly not so simple. The Jamaat's tenuous but live links with Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups are well-documented and it is in that context where the misuse of the money sent by the overseas Pakistanis lies.
This is the space that both the PPP and ANP must retake from the religious parties. The two must fully involve their district-level organisation, in collaboration with the parties overseas branches, in bringing some normalcy in the lives of the IDPs. This will strengthen the ties of the parties with the people and reduce the influence of the religious groups through humanitarian work. This may be important for making Pakistan peaceful, democratic and free of religious extremism.
The people of Pakistan have two enemies--the Taliban and Talibanisation. To deal with the former is the job of our soldiers and policemen and to control the latter is the duty of the political parties, like the PPP, the ANP and even the PML-N. The soldiers and policemen are magnificently performing their job. They are giving up their lives every day to eliminate the Taliban evil. If the political parties did not perform their job, in the near future we will have the Taliban eliminated by our brave security forces, but the Talibanization will loom large. I would request the leaderships of the PPP, ANP and PML-N to mobilise their grassroots-level workers to help the IDPs and do not leave the field open to the pro-Taliban religious parties and groups, who have by now mastered the "art" of exploiting human sufferings for the realisation of their militant version of Islam.
The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Ostrich Nation
The Pakistan report card
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Fasi Zaka
The ostrich is an awkward bird. It has a massive body, powerful legs to run away when it feels danger and a small brain for its size. When it feels fear, it sticks its head in the sand hoping threats will magically go away. Maybe the ostrich is related to the Pakistani government somehow?
We have ostriches in mosques and chowks. When Lal Masjid was emerging as a problem the government did nothing, it let it escalate to the point that a violent showdown was inevitable. The same is true of Swat and its khooni chowk. Pakistan may not be a failed country, but it definitely is always in a belated state. The real threat to this country is the inability of the government to establish law and order beyond the remit of individual isolated cases. If the challenge to the writ of the government is organized, it cocoons itself until there is no choice but to act.
Be it Musharraf or Zardari, Swat is as much a victim of the Taliban as it is of apathy. The problem was clear years ago but the stomach to fight was wanting. Fear of action was so prevalent that the assembly happily passed resolutions into the hands of the Taliban, and that too under threat. No voices calling for sanity were there to be heard, on that day the shame was on the parliamentarians who let it be known whose interest they truly had in their hearts.
The soldiers and civilians dying today could have lived their natural lives if only we had chosen to act, and avoided romanticizing the Taliban. They became the vultures who created carrion to feed on it, they poisoned the waters of our religion and culture to breed.
The Imran Khans and Ansar Abbasis of this world say they wanted to make peace with the Taliban. They say this while their children have the benefit of the best of what Pakistan has to offer for their children here and abroad. When they say they want to make peace, what they are really saying is that they want the people of Swat to make peace with their lot in life of beheadings, fear, a lack of education and being robbed of their dignity. For a while it seemed that the only party in the country who had gotten it right was the MQM in raising the alarm over the creeping Talibanization from the fixed trouble spots in the country. Unfortunately when the time came to put their money where their mouth was, they too demonstrated a sharp lack of vision by demanding an unconstitutional ban on movement of the refugees, inflaming ethnic tensions. Since we are speaking of avian species anyway, the MQM ought to know that birds nurture and protect their young, and in some cases even raise them even if the eggs are of a different species of bird.
At least now, when it is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that the Taliban cannot be negotiated with, the media commentators need to be responsible and no longer push their erroneous Islamic revivalism on the backs of terrorists. The unfortunate young army men are in an unenviable position where they are fighting a war they didn't sign up for.
Despite the major issue of the refugees that we seem woefully unprepared for, there is one part of the dialogue that has not been aggressively pursued. Like the US with Afghanistan and Iraq, we cannot cut and run. Whenever this army operation is over, life will not normalize. In fact if anything, it shall remain traumatized. The army may have to prepare to stay for a while in these areas in a civil-military dictatorship to ensure the complete flushing out of the Taliban and to resume all essential services. Otherwise this will be just a longer-run short-term solution if the operation is cut completely.
I mentioned the famous characteristic of the ostrich in the beginning of this article about putting its head in the sand when it feels threatened. Actually that's just a myth. The ostrich does put its head in the sand, but only to check on the eggs buried in it, before it runs to drive predators behind it to protect its young. This selflessness is where the government and the ostrich differ.
The writer is a Rhodes scholar and former academic.
The Pakistan report card
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Fasi Zaka
The ostrich is an awkward bird. It has a massive body, powerful legs to run away when it feels danger and a small brain for its size. When it feels fear, it sticks its head in the sand hoping threats will magically go away. Maybe the ostrich is related to the Pakistani government somehow?
We have ostriches in mosques and chowks. When Lal Masjid was emerging as a problem the government did nothing, it let it escalate to the point that a violent showdown was inevitable. The same is true of Swat and its khooni chowk. Pakistan may not be a failed country, but it definitely is always in a belated state. The real threat to this country is the inability of the government to establish law and order beyond the remit of individual isolated cases. If the challenge to the writ of the government is organized, it cocoons itself until there is no choice but to act.
Be it Musharraf or Zardari, Swat is as much a victim of the Taliban as it is of apathy. The problem was clear years ago but the stomach to fight was wanting. Fear of action was so prevalent that the assembly happily passed resolutions into the hands of the Taliban, and that too under threat. No voices calling for sanity were there to be heard, on that day the shame was on the parliamentarians who let it be known whose interest they truly had in their hearts.
The soldiers and civilians dying today could have lived their natural lives if only we had chosen to act, and avoided romanticizing the Taliban. They became the vultures who created carrion to feed on it, they poisoned the waters of our religion and culture to breed.
The Imran Khans and Ansar Abbasis of this world say they wanted to make peace with the Taliban. They say this while their children have the benefit of the best of what Pakistan has to offer for their children here and abroad. When they say they want to make peace, what they are really saying is that they want the people of Swat to make peace with their lot in life of beheadings, fear, a lack of education and being robbed of their dignity. For a while it seemed that the only party in the country who had gotten it right was the MQM in raising the alarm over the creeping Talibanization from the fixed trouble spots in the country. Unfortunately when the time came to put their money where their mouth was, they too demonstrated a sharp lack of vision by demanding an unconstitutional ban on movement of the refugees, inflaming ethnic tensions. Since we are speaking of avian species anyway, the MQM ought to know that birds nurture and protect their young, and in some cases even raise them even if the eggs are of a different species of bird.
At least now, when it is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that the Taliban cannot be negotiated with, the media commentators need to be responsible and no longer push their erroneous Islamic revivalism on the backs of terrorists. The unfortunate young army men are in an unenviable position where they are fighting a war they didn't sign up for.
Despite the major issue of the refugees that we seem woefully unprepared for, there is one part of the dialogue that has not been aggressively pursued. Like the US with Afghanistan and Iraq, we cannot cut and run. Whenever this army operation is over, life will not normalize. In fact if anything, it shall remain traumatized. The army may have to prepare to stay for a while in these areas in a civil-military dictatorship to ensure the complete flushing out of the Taliban and to resume all essential services. Otherwise this will be just a longer-run short-term solution if the operation is cut completely.
I mentioned the famous characteristic of the ostrich in the beginning of this article about putting its head in the sand when it feels threatened. Actually that's just a myth. The ostrich does put its head in the sand, but only to check on the eggs buried in it, before it runs to drive predators behind it to protect its young. This selflessness is where the government and the ostrich differ.
The writer is a Rhodes scholar and former academic.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Bajaur -- return of the militant
Thursday, June 04, 2009
A Pakistani
Bajaur Agency is home to TTP-allied militant commanders like Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, Said Muhammad alias Maulvi Umar, Jan Wali alias Sheena, Inayatur Rehman and Wali Rehman. Bajaur also happens to be the linking ground between the Baitullah-led tribal militants and Fazlullah-led Swat militants. Militants started their activities in Bajaur in 2005 and by the summer of 2008 they were in control of almost the entire agency.
The army launched a full-fledged military operation in the agency in August 2008. In support of the army, the tribesmen formed armed lashkars in Salarzai, Barang and Utmankhel tehsils. By March 2009 Utmankhel and Barang tehsils were completely cleared of militants.
Most parts of Salarzai tehsil (except Mandal), Khar tehsil (except the Tangi/Gang area) and Nawagai tehsil (except Charmang) were also cleared. The army was planning a final assault on Mamund tehsil, Charmang and Tangi/Gang areas and the tribesmen were expecting the army to crush the militants once and for all. However, seeing imminent defeat, the militants used their most successful battle tactic so far -- calling a unilateral ceasefire. To the disappointment of the tribesmen, the army fell into the militant's trap and a so-called peace accord was signed and the operation was halted.
This came as a blessing for the militants who regrouped and inducted fresh recruits into their ranks. Three months on and the militants are back in full swing. Proof of this comes from the following recent developments: militants have established checkpoints in Umaray, Damadola, Seway, Badan and Kamar areas of Mamund tehsil and almost all areas of Charmang. They are also conducting snap checking of vehicles in the Tangi/Gang and Mandal areas. Armed militants patrol all these areas and even the areas of Sheikh Baba, Babar Shah, Shago and Lashora in the agency headquarters of Khar. FM radio stations run by militants are still airing propaganda against Pakistan and the army. They are also issuing threatening decrees against the people who sided with the army in the operation. The militants have declared CNICs as un-Islamic and have threatened to kill women who apply for CNICs. Kidnappings and beheadings have again started in the agency and the Salarzai lashkar's headquarters in Pashat has been attacked several times by the militants.
Malik Munir of Mamund lashkar, Malik Kamal Khan of Salarzai lashkar and many elders of Mandal lashkar have been target-killed in Khar. Ears of four members of the peace committee in Khar village were chopped off by the militants. During the most recent polio campaign -- which took place just a week ago -- the militants severely beat up polio teams in Tangi, Maminzo, Babar Shah and Faja areas of Khar, all within one kilometre of the local FC headquarters. Armed militants beat up people at the Post Office in Khar Bazaar because they applied for the government assistance under the BISP scheme. The Post Office is a stone's throw from the heavily guarded office of the Commander Bajaur Levies. Seeing this situation, ordinary tribesmen are losing confidence in the government and security forces. They want a final, decisive action against the militants in Mamund, Charmang, Mandal and Tangi/Gang areas before it is too late. They wonder if the situation can be controlled with a bullet today why go for a magazine a few months later.
The writer is a native of Bajaur who works in Islamabad.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
A Pakistani
Bajaur Agency is home to TTP-allied militant commanders like Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, Said Muhammad alias Maulvi Umar, Jan Wali alias Sheena, Inayatur Rehman and Wali Rehman. Bajaur also happens to be the linking ground between the Baitullah-led tribal militants and Fazlullah-led Swat militants. Militants started their activities in Bajaur in 2005 and by the summer of 2008 they were in control of almost the entire agency.
The army launched a full-fledged military operation in the agency in August 2008. In support of the army, the tribesmen formed armed lashkars in Salarzai, Barang and Utmankhel tehsils. By March 2009 Utmankhel and Barang tehsils were completely cleared of militants.
Most parts of Salarzai tehsil (except Mandal), Khar tehsil (except the Tangi/Gang area) and Nawagai tehsil (except Charmang) were also cleared. The army was planning a final assault on Mamund tehsil, Charmang and Tangi/Gang areas and the tribesmen were expecting the army to crush the militants once and for all. However, seeing imminent defeat, the militants used their most successful battle tactic so far -- calling a unilateral ceasefire. To the disappointment of the tribesmen, the army fell into the militant's trap and a so-called peace accord was signed and the operation was halted.
This came as a blessing for the militants who regrouped and inducted fresh recruits into their ranks. Three months on and the militants are back in full swing. Proof of this comes from the following recent developments: militants have established checkpoints in Umaray, Damadola, Seway, Badan and Kamar areas of Mamund tehsil and almost all areas of Charmang. They are also conducting snap checking of vehicles in the Tangi/Gang and Mandal areas. Armed militants patrol all these areas and even the areas of Sheikh Baba, Babar Shah, Shago and Lashora in the agency headquarters of Khar. FM radio stations run by militants are still airing propaganda against Pakistan and the army. They are also issuing threatening decrees against the people who sided with the army in the operation. The militants have declared CNICs as un-Islamic and have threatened to kill women who apply for CNICs. Kidnappings and beheadings have again started in the agency and the Salarzai lashkar's headquarters in Pashat has been attacked several times by the militants.
Malik Munir of Mamund lashkar, Malik Kamal Khan of Salarzai lashkar and many elders of Mandal lashkar have been target-killed in Khar. Ears of four members of the peace committee in Khar village were chopped off by the militants. During the most recent polio campaign -- which took place just a week ago -- the militants severely beat up polio teams in Tangi, Maminzo, Babar Shah and Faja areas of Khar, all within one kilometre of the local FC headquarters. Armed militants beat up people at the Post Office in Khar Bazaar because they applied for the government assistance under the BISP scheme. The Post Office is a stone's throw from the heavily guarded office of the Commander Bajaur Levies. Seeing this situation, ordinary tribesmen are losing confidence in the government and security forces. They want a final, decisive action against the militants in Mamund, Charmang, Mandal and Tangi/Gang areas before it is too late. They wonder if the situation can be controlled with a bullet today why go for a magazine a few months later.
The writer is a native of Bajaur who works in Islamabad.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Perilous policing pitfalls
By I. M. Mohsin | Published: June 4, 2009
As the armed forces made progress in Mingora and beyond, Lahore, Peshawar and D. I. Khan were rocked by terrorist attacks. May God bless all those who got martyred. Hats off to all those who fought back even after taking casualties amid destruction. The police all over the country have done well despite suffering from serious handicaps in terms of, generally, numbers, arms and infrastructure. Despite the sacrifices rendered by the brave policemen, their 'detection and arrests' claims are taken with a pinch of salt by the people as the political milieu also tends to inspire the same. However, the police as such have given, so far, a laudable account of performance, generally, in the line of duty. As sense of honour dictates such complimentary conduct, the image of police has improved despite the negative rumblings in the society against the institution. In a, generally, corrupt society, the police function becomes even more challenging. Given their latest credit, the police could easily claim to be 'more sinned against than sinning' like Shakespeare' King Lear.
Policing has always remained a trying job. It has become even more so in societies living, generally, under the Rule of Law. Pakistanis have spent more than 30 years under the Law of Necessity duly upheld by the Judiciary following the original sin of J Munir. Unfortunately the rest of our brief history also, generally, remains controversial which appears to have led us to the current cliffhanger. As all institutions have suffered, the loss of credibility/integrity of police, generally, tends to trump most callings. This is due to systemic failures at the government level as well as organizational levels within the agency. Both these factors undermine the working/image of the force which aims at providing security of person/property etc. Having to fight against the terror whose prototype is rare to find in rich societies of the West, Bader Mien Hoff Gang/Germany, IRA and Japanese cults and WACO/US notwithstanding, raises the stakes drastically. Prudence demands that we invest in Police now so that it can fully take on the threat to Pakistan.
Our Police, generally, is badly hit by the runaway population increase. For the last 30 years we have had to play host to the refugees from Afghanistan whose numbers have been high. Given our shoddy handling, some of them have even managed to get our NICs. However, the government's attitude towards opening new police stations etc has remained tactical. Moreover lack of security of tenure, tendency to try micro-management, dominance of political/personal considerations etc have also tended to thwart the process of expansion of key units in the department. At times, the financial crunch also has hampered holistic approach. Likewise, setting up of police training schools/police lines etc tend to become macro-economic projects at the hands of the bureaucrats in routine.
The police recruit training centres are, generally, sub-human habitats which house these poor guys. I can't forget that way back, as DIG in NWFP, I visited one such fixture. The make-believe building was fractured in many places; even the roof appeared to be caving in at some points. As there was no water supply, the recruits were obliged to drink water from a small canal which flowed on the fringe. Feeling greatly embarrassed, I asked the Principal if he had reported to the CPO. He affirmed that it was duly reported to the higher ups in writing.
I was so upset that I started all possible efforts to ameliorate the lot of the trainees. The DMLA, a Major General was an honest gentleman, who got chucked out by Zia for refusing to kill civilians in the MRD demonstrations in a subsequent posting, so I persuaded him to pay a visit to the shocking premises. He was also dumb-founded to see the misery writ large all over but told me frankly that he could do little to help us out. One of my classmates was an influential secretary so I asked him to provide material to set up a small tubewell from his department. He obliged me on the condition that my department would pay a nominal cost for labour charges. I ordered that the same may be paid from our regimental fund which was lawful and within my powers. Within a week of my first visit, there was running water for the trainees available all the time. Thereafter I got transferred to FIA/Islamabad. One day I got a call from the principal informing me that the audit had objected to the cost of labour defrayed by him, under my orders, and he was being threatened with departmental action by the Provincial government. I asked him to write back that the then-DIG now DIR/FIA had authorized the payment as per the enclosed record. On being informed of the issue, the Director had asked the concerned authority to initiate action against the sanctioning officer. Only then the matter got resolved.
It appears that during the last ten years things have changed. Moreover the much-vaunted police reforms of 2002 gave brave concepts borrowed from Japan etc. The real change rested on the performance of the National Public Safety Commission. It was to ensure that police enjoyed functional autonomy and no political interference in its working. Unfortunately so far its contribution remains dismal despite the fact that it has some honest/experienced members. The Q-league/MMA governments wanted to, as usual, control the police for their political ends and the 'President' looked the other way at amendments added to the basic order. Old order appears to be prevailing, more or less, despite a new democracy.
The burgeoning threat of terrorism pushes the police further in to a corner. Being conscious of the stakes, the President yesterday in a high level meeting decided to raise a new force whose focus would be fighting terrorism. This is a step in the right direction but this will have to be supplemented by considerable planning, execution with integrity and deployment under an autonomous command. If this force is subjected to political pressures in recruitment, routine training by retired military officers and casual approach to discipline, then it could be another lost cause with consequences which only time can define. In recent combat in Swat, the terrorists were far better equipped, particularly in terms of arms/ communication hardware. The latest US arms were seized by the army which ISAF claimed to have been stolen from the forces in Afghanistan. Some Indian arms have also recovered from the terrorist-hideouts.
To train such a force we must seek the active help of UK, Germany, Japan, Turkey if possible as their forces have handled harsh situations of sort. Moreover we should give the police incentives in terms of comfortable living conditions, like the army, since they have to function, from now on, under the shadow of surprise attack. They do not have Police hospitals which obliges them to count on the public-hospitals. Facing the on-going threat they amply deserve departmental hospitals.
The intelligence agencies have to work on a war-footing to empower the police fighting in Tennyson' "valley of Death" for quite a while. US etc must provide the latest equipment etc for our success. Our government will have to ensure transparency, integrity and accountability in all operations. Many complaints about 'misappropriation' of wheat etc meant for IDP by a 'powerful cabal' are around. If we can't fix the same, victory may become a mirage.
The writer is a former Interior Secretary
By I. M. Mohsin | Published: June 4, 2009
As the armed forces made progress in Mingora and beyond, Lahore, Peshawar and D. I. Khan were rocked by terrorist attacks. May God bless all those who got martyred. Hats off to all those who fought back even after taking casualties amid destruction. The police all over the country have done well despite suffering from serious handicaps in terms of, generally, numbers, arms and infrastructure. Despite the sacrifices rendered by the brave policemen, their 'detection and arrests' claims are taken with a pinch of salt by the people as the political milieu also tends to inspire the same. However, the police as such have given, so far, a laudable account of performance, generally, in the line of duty. As sense of honour dictates such complimentary conduct, the image of police has improved despite the negative rumblings in the society against the institution. In a, generally, corrupt society, the police function becomes even more challenging. Given their latest credit, the police could easily claim to be 'more sinned against than sinning' like Shakespeare' King Lear.
Policing has always remained a trying job. It has become even more so in societies living, generally, under the Rule of Law. Pakistanis have spent more than 30 years under the Law of Necessity duly upheld by the Judiciary following the original sin of J Munir. Unfortunately the rest of our brief history also, generally, remains controversial which appears to have led us to the current cliffhanger. As all institutions have suffered, the loss of credibility/integrity of police, generally, tends to trump most callings. This is due to systemic failures at the government level as well as organizational levels within the agency. Both these factors undermine the working/image of the force which aims at providing security of person/property etc. Having to fight against the terror whose prototype is rare to find in rich societies of the West, Bader Mien Hoff Gang/Germany, IRA and Japanese cults and WACO/US notwithstanding, raises the stakes drastically. Prudence demands that we invest in Police now so that it can fully take on the threat to Pakistan.
Our Police, generally, is badly hit by the runaway population increase. For the last 30 years we have had to play host to the refugees from Afghanistan whose numbers have been high. Given our shoddy handling, some of them have even managed to get our NICs. However, the government's attitude towards opening new police stations etc has remained tactical. Moreover lack of security of tenure, tendency to try micro-management, dominance of political/personal considerations etc have also tended to thwart the process of expansion of key units in the department. At times, the financial crunch also has hampered holistic approach. Likewise, setting up of police training schools/police lines etc tend to become macro-economic projects at the hands of the bureaucrats in routine.
The police recruit training centres are, generally, sub-human habitats which house these poor guys. I can't forget that way back, as DIG in NWFP, I visited one such fixture. The make-believe building was fractured in many places; even the roof appeared to be caving in at some points. As there was no water supply, the recruits were obliged to drink water from a small canal which flowed on the fringe. Feeling greatly embarrassed, I asked the Principal if he had reported to the CPO. He affirmed that it was duly reported to the higher ups in writing.
I was so upset that I started all possible efforts to ameliorate the lot of the trainees. The DMLA, a Major General was an honest gentleman, who got chucked out by Zia for refusing to kill civilians in the MRD demonstrations in a subsequent posting, so I persuaded him to pay a visit to the shocking premises. He was also dumb-founded to see the misery writ large all over but told me frankly that he could do little to help us out. One of my classmates was an influential secretary so I asked him to provide material to set up a small tubewell from his department. He obliged me on the condition that my department would pay a nominal cost for labour charges. I ordered that the same may be paid from our regimental fund which was lawful and within my powers. Within a week of my first visit, there was running water for the trainees available all the time. Thereafter I got transferred to FIA/Islamabad. One day I got a call from the principal informing me that the audit had objected to the cost of labour defrayed by him, under my orders, and he was being threatened with departmental action by the Provincial government. I asked him to write back that the then-DIG now DIR/FIA had authorized the payment as per the enclosed record. On being informed of the issue, the Director had asked the concerned authority to initiate action against the sanctioning officer. Only then the matter got resolved.
It appears that during the last ten years things have changed. Moreover the much-vaunted police reforms of 2002 gave brave concepts borrowed from Japan etc. The real change rested on the performance of the National Public Safety Commission. It was to ensure that police enjoyed functional autonomy and no political interference in its working. Unfortunately so far its contribution remains dismal despite the fact that it has some honest/experienced members. The Q-league/MMA governments wanted to, as usual, control the police for their political ends and the 'President' looked the other way at amendments added to the basic order. Old order appears to be prevailing, more or less, despite a new democracy.
The burgeoning threat of terrorism pushes the police further in to a corner. Being conscious of the stakes, the President yesterday in a high level meeting decided to raise a new force whose focus would be fighting terrorism. This is a step in the right direction but this will have to be supplemented by considerable planning, execution with integrity and deployment under an autonomous command. If this force is subjected to political pressures in recruitment, routine training by retired military officers and casual approach to discipline, then it could be another lost cause with consequences which only time can define. In recent combat in Swat, the terrorists were far better equipped, particularly in terms of arms/ communication hardware. The latest US arms were seized by the army which ISAF claimed to have been stolen from the forces in Afghanistan. Some Indian arms have also recovered from the terrorist-hideouts.
To train such a force we must seek the active help of UK, Germany, Japan, Turkey if possible as their forces have handled harsh situations of sort. Moreover we should give the police incentives in terms of comfortable living conditions, like the army, since they have to function, from now on, under the shadow of surprise attack. They do not have Police hospitals which obliges them to count on the public-hospitals. Facing the on-going threat they amply deserve departmental hospitals.
The intelligence agencies have to work on a war-footing to empower the police fighting in Tennyson' "valley of Death" for quite a while. US etc must provide the latest equipment etc for our success. Our government will have to ensure transparency, integrity and accountability in all operations. Many complaints about 'misappropriation' of wheat etc meant for IDP by a 'powerful cabal' are around. If we can't fix the same, victory may become a mirage.
The writer is a former Interior Secretary
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Human costs of malnutrition
By Aziz-ud-din Ahmad | Published: June 4, 2009
UN World Food Programme Country Rep Wolfgang Harbinger has said the number of malnourished has reached 45 million in Pakistan. Under UN millennium development goals Pakistan had to reduce the number from 26 million in early 90's to 13 million in 2015. But the country, he maintained, is moving in reverse direction.
What do these statistics mean in real life?
They indicate in the first instance that there are millions of Pakistanis who go to sleep with an empty stomach. A man make cuts on the basic food needs of his family only after he has forgone expenses on other vital requirements that include children's education, personal hygiene, and medication. To the worst hit people in this category this could lead to utter desperation forcing them to commit crimes or take recourse to suicide, the rate of both is in fact continuing to rise over the years.
Malnutrition is in the main an outcome of poverty. Family incomes in Pakistan have not increased in line with the rising inflation.
Sahib Haq, an official with the WFP's Vulnerability Analyis and Mapping Unit in Pak says food prices rose at least 35 pc in 2007 compared with 18 pc rise in minimum wages. "There is a big gap between the increase in prices and increase in wages... the purchasing power of the poor has gone down by almost 50 pc."
Our policy makers have consigned nearly one third of the population to penury, premature deaths, unacceptably high mortality rate among expecting mothers and infants, and debilitating ailments and physical and mental retardation.
The children are the worst sufferers on account of malnutrition. A report by the Pakistan Paedriatic Association should serve as an eye opener:
"Almost 11.7 million children in the country are suffering from stunting (less 'height for age) and wasting (low weight for height). The situation is indicative of the dismal state of malnutrition and high prevalence of infectious diseases among the children. The stunting has been found in 40 per cent of the children (8.3 million) because of unhealthy environmental conditions, inadequate protein and calorie intake. This phenomena exists more in girls, particularly those living in rural areas, compared to boys. The 14 percent children (three million), who are suffering from wasting, reflect the seriousness of the problem.
"The children suffering from wasting are at a greater risk of dying of infections. Both stunting and wasting have their roots in malnourishment", says the report.
In Punjab, the most prosperous province of the country, five million malnourished children are born annually that constitutes 25 percent of all births in the province per year. The rural areas are the biggest sufferers. According to the official data, differences in nutritional status also exist along the urban-rural divide. Around 36 percent of the urban children are moderately underweight, whereas in rural areas this percentages is as high as 40 percent. In the urban areas, 11 percent children are severely underweight, while in rural areas this figure reaches 15 percent.
Malnourishment in most cases starts from the mother's womb and it is during this time that it leaves permanent marks on the child's physical and mental make-up. Pregnant mothers require healthy food which they cannot get in malnourished and male dominated families where the best of whatever is available goes to the male family head who is also the bread earner.
Mothers, we are told, who generally do not have access to health services, and do not get medical attention during pregnancy, are more prone to bearing malnourished children. A major factor behind inadequate medical facilities is the relatively small amount allocated for health in the budget.
The maternal mortality rate in Pakistan is 500 deaths per 100,000 births, while it is highest within the country in Balochistan at 673. Around 48 percent of lactating mothers have a calorie intake of 70 percent less than the recommended level. Malnutrition causes iron deficiency of which 45 percent of Pakistani women suffer. This results in stillbirths, birth defects, mental retardation and infant deaths. Malnutrition stunts growth, intellectually and physically, and ultimately damages children's productivity as adults. There should be little surprise therefore that the areas in Pakistan where malnutrition is high are more prone to violent extremism. Further that the rise in the tendency has coincide with the expansion of poverty, increase in the number of people living below poverty line and overall vulnerability.
By Aziz-ud-din Ahmad | Published: June 4, 2009
UN World Food Programme Country Rep Wolfgang Harbinger has said the number of malnourished has reached 45 million in Pakistan. Under UN millennium development goals Pakistan had to reduce the number from 26 million in early 90's to 13 million in 2015. But the country, he maintained, is moving in reverse direction.
What do these statistics mean in real life?
They indicate in the first instance that there are millions of Pakistanis who go to sleep with an empty stomach. A man make cuts on the basic food needs of his family only after he has forgone expenses on other vital requirements that include children's education, personal hygiene, and medication. To the worst hit people in this category this could lead to utter desperation forcing them to commit crimes or take recourse to suicide, the rate of both is in fact continuing to rise over the years.
Malnutrition is in the main an outcome of poverty. Family incomes in Pakistan have not increased in line with the rising inflation.
Sahib Haq, an official with the WFP's Vulnerability Analyis and Mapping Unit in Pak says food prices rose at least 35 pc in 2007 compared with 18 pc rise in minimum wages. "There is a big gap between the increase in prices and increase in wages... the purchasing power of the poor has gone down by almost 50 pc."
Our policy makers have consigned nearly one third of the population to penury, premature deaths, unacceptably high mortality rate among expecting mothers and infants, and debilitating ailments and physical and mental retardation.
The children are the worst sufferers on account of malnutrition. A report by the Pakistan Paedriatic Association should serve as an eye opener:
"Almost 11.7 million children in the country are suffering from stunting (less 'height for age) and wasting (low weight for height). The situation is indicative of the dismal state of malnutrition and high prevalence of infectious diseases among the children. The stunting has been found in 40 per cent of the children (8.3 million) because of unhealthy environmental conditions, inadequate protein and calorie intake. This phenomena exists more in girls, particularly those living in rural areas, compared to boys. The 14 percent children (three million), who are suffering from wasting, reflect the seriousness of the problem.
"The children suffering from wasting are at a greater risk of dying of infections. Both stunting and wasting have their roots in malnourishment", says the report.
In Punjab, the most prosperous province of the country, five million malnourished children are born annually that constitutes 25 percent of all births in the province per year. The rural areas are the biggest sufferers. According to the official data, differences in nutritional status also exist along the urban-rural divide. Around 36 percent of the urban children are moderately underweight, whereas in rural areas this percentages is as high as 40 percent. In the urban areas, 11 percent children are severely underweight, while in rural areas this figure reaches 15 percent.
Malnourishment in most cases starts from the mother's womb and it is during this time that it leaves permanent marks on the child's physical and mental make-up. Pregnant mothers require healthy food which they cannot get in malnourished and male dominated families where the best of whatever is available goes to the male family head who is also the bread earner.
Mothers, we are told, who generally do not have access to health services, and do not get medical attention during pregnancy, are more prone to bearing malnourished children. A major factor behind inadequate medical facilities is the relatively small amount allocated for health in the budget.
The maternal mortality rate in Pakistan is 500 deaths per 100,000 births, while it is highest within the country in Balochistan at 673. Around 48 percent of lactating mothers have a calorie intake of 70 percent less than the recommended level. Malnutrition causes iron deficiency of which 45 percent of Pakistani women suffer. This results in stillbirths, birth defects, mental retardation and infant deaths. Malnutrition stunts growth, intellectually and physically, and ultimately damages children's productivity as adults. There should be little surprise therefore that the areas in Pakistan where malnutrition is high are more prone to violent extremism. Further that the rise in the tendency has coincide with the expansion of poverty, increase in the number of people living below poverty line and overall vulnerability.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Damage control
By Burhanuddin Hasan | Published: June 4, 2009
As a measure of damage control following some tension in the Pak-US relations on the Taliban issue and the deal with Sufi Mohammed for the introduction of Taliban brand of Shariah Justice System in Swat and Malakand Division, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington has published a half- page advertisement recently in the Wall Street Journal of New York with a picture of Asif Ali Zardari. It says, "Pakistan and the United States - victims of terror, partners in peace."
The advertisement says "The USA and Pakistan can defeat terrorism together and bring prosperity to the Pakistani People. Pakistanis in the trenches; Pakistan is on the front line. Pakistan is defending the entire civilized world, 1700 soldiers killed, 3500 civilians dead, and tens of thousands maimed. This is Pakistan's war, this is Pakistan's blood. But Pakistanis should not stand alone. President Zardari has pledged to "Wipe out the cancer of terrorism before it infects the entire planet". The USA and the world must stand by Pakistan's side in this decisive battle against the terrorists.
"The USA and Pakistan, together in victory, defeat is not an option." This is Mr Zardari's first positive and forceful statement to crush Taliban movement along with USA which is spreading terrorism and religious extremism. The majority of the people of Pakistan are also in favor of this policy for their peace of mind and the country's progress and prosperity. There are some radical religious elements, however, who believe that if Taliban come to power, they will introduce Nizam-i-Islam in the country. This is not going to happen. Taliban's entire religious mindset spread out all over the country. The government has no control over madaris. They have become absolutely irrelevant to modern times and progressive concepts about Islam developed by modern scholars like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Many world scholars of Islam have also written volumes on the teachings of Islam in the modern perspective, but they are not taught in our madaris It cannot be over emphasized that unless the syllabus of our madaris is changed we cannot get rid of the Taliban mindset of rigidity and cruelty mixed with a mere ritualistic approach.
The government of Gen. Musharraf, which propagated enlightened moderation throughout its tenure miserably failed to implement the madaris reforms when the opportunity offered itself. Now it is very difficult when our army is fighting a war with Taliban, but when their movement is crushed madaris reform should be the top priority of the government to flush the breeding grounds of these religious fundamentalists.
In the United States, President Obama is busy in cleaning the debris of Guantanamo Bay left behind by Mr. Bush. President Obama has announced restarting the military commissions to try suspected terrorists. After the detainees are given legal protection, the trials of thirteen defendants will be started in September. Five of the thirteen are charged with helping orchestrate the September 11 attacks. The rest of the 241 detainees will be released, or transferred to other countries or tried in civilian US courts. Some will be held indefinitely as POWs with full Geneva Conventions rights.
Meanwhile in a rare dramatic move in bipartisan unity both Republican and Democratic members of the Congress voted 9 to 6 to keep Guantanamo prison open foe foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of any detainees to facilities in the US.. They have expressed fear that if the terrorists are brought to the US soil from the Guantanamo prison which is on Cuban territory it will be a great threat to the American homeland. In a forceful rebuttal President Obama has called the Guantanamo Bay a torture cell where hundreds of detainees were kept without trial in violation of their human rights and Geneva Conventions. This was a misguided experiment by President Bush which resulted in a mess. Consequently, he said prolonged detention of terrorism suspects who cannot be tried is the toughest problem we are facing. Mr. Obama strongly defended his anti -terrorism policies and his commitment to close the Guantanamo prison. He said roughly 240 prisoners held at Guantanamo will be shifted to maximum security prisons of the United States.
Immediately after President Obama's speech, former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on TV to deliver a rejoinder as part of his media campaign in defense of Mr. Bush, s national security policies. A prominent American historian has observed that it is unprecedented that a vice president of an outgoing administration should lambast the new administration so early.
There is no doubt Mr. Bush's national security policies which included the creation of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Presence where detainees whose crimes had not been proved in the courts of law, were subjected to inhuman torture, made USA the target of worldwide hatred and a burning desire for revenge in the Islamic world. This has also given rise to a fear in the USA of reprisal attacks by the terrorists.
President Obama wants to clear the mess created by the Bush administration in order to reduce the possibility of the reprisal attacks by Muslim terrorists on the US homeland.
By Burhanuddin Hasan | Published: June 4, 2009
As a measure of damage control following some tension in the Pak-US relations on the Taliban issue and the deal with Sufi Mohammed for the introduction of Taliban brand of Shariah Justice System in Swat and Malakand Division, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington has published a half- page advertisement recently in the Wall Street Journal of New York with a picture of Asif Ali Zardari. It says, "Pakistan and the United States - victims of terror, partners in peace."
The advertisement says "The USA and Pakistan can defeat terrorism together and bring prosperity to the Pakistani People. Pakistanis in the trenches; Pakistan is on the front line. Pakistan is defending the entire civilized world, 1700 soldiers killed, 3500 civilians dead, and tens of thousands maimed. This is Pakistan's war, this is Pakistan's blood. But Pakistanis should not stand alone. President Zardari has pledged to "Wipe out the cancer of terrorism before it infects the entire planet". The USA and the world must stand by Pakistan's side in this decisive battle against the terrorists.
"The USA and Pakistan, together in victory, defeat is not an option." This is Mr Zardari's first positive and forceful statement to crush Taliban movement along with USA which is spreading terrorism and religious extremism. The majority of the people of Pakistan are also in favor of this policy for their peace of mind and the country's progress and prosperity. There are some radical religious elements, however, who believe that if Taliban come to power, they will introduce Nizam-i-Islam in the country. This is not going to happen. Taliban's entire religious mindset spread out all over the country. The government has no control over madaris. They have become absolutely irrelevant to modern times and progressive concepts about Islam developed by modern scholars like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Many world scholars of Islam have also written volumes on the teachings of Islam in the modern perspective, but they are not taught in our madaris It cannot be over emphasized that unless the syllabus of our madaris is changed we cannot get rid of the Taliban mindset of rigidity and cruelty mixed with a mere ritualistic approach.
The government of Gen. Musharraf, which propagated enlightened moderation throughout its tenure miserably failed to implement the madaris reforms when the opportunity offered itself. Now it is very difficult when our army is fighting a war with Taliban, but when their movement is crushed madaris reform should be the top priority of the government to flush the breeding grounds of these religious fundamentalists.
In the United States, President Obama is busy in cleaning the debris of Guantanamo Bay left behind by Mr. Bush. President Obama has announced restarting the military commissions to try suspected terrorists. After the detainees are given legal protection, the trials of thirteen defendants will be started in September. Five of the thirteen are charged with helping orchestrate the September 11 attacks. The rest of the 241 detainees will be released, or transferred to other countries or tried in civilian US courts. Some will be held indefinitely as POWs with full Geneva Conventions rights.
Meanwhile in a rare dramatic move in bipartisan unity both Republican and Democratic members of the Congress voted 9 to 6 to keep Guantanamo prison open foe foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of any detainees to facilities in the US.. They have expressed fear that if the terrorists are brought to the US soil from the Guantanamo prison which is on Cuban territory it will be a great threat to the American homeland. In a forceful rebuttal President Obama has called the Guantanamo Bay a torture cell where hundreds of detainees were kept without trial in violation of their human rights and Geneva Conventions. This was a misguided experiment by President Bush which resulted in a mess. Consequently, he said prolonged detention of terrorism suspects who cannot be tried is the toughest problem we are facing. Mr. Obama strongly defended his anti -terrorism policies and his commitment to close the Guantanamo prison. He said roughly 240 prisoners held at Guantanamo will be shifted to maximum security prisons of the United States.
Immediately after President Obama's speech, former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on TV to deliver a rejoinder as part of his media campaign in defense of Mr. Bush, s national security policies. A prominent American historian has observed that it is unprecedented that a vice president of an outgoing administration should lambast the new administration so early.
There is no doubt Mr. Bush's national security policies which included the creation of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Presence where detainees whose crimes had not been proved in the courts of law, were subjected to inhuman torture, made USA the target of worldwide hatred and a burning desire for revenge in the Islamic world. This has also given rise to a fear in the USA of reprisal attacks by the terrorists.
President Obama wants to clear the mess created by the Bush administration in order to reduce the possibility of the reprisal attacks by Muslim terrorists on the US homeland.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
North Korea nuclear test
By Salman Haidar | Published: June 4, 2009
The North Korean nuclear test of a few days ago has created international consternation and revived anxiety about that country. This was the second nuclear test of the last three years, considerably bigger and technically more sophisticated than the first, and only last month there was the launch of a long range rocket. It thus appears that while key members of the international community have been doing what they can to control and reverse that country's nuclear activity, the Pyongyang regime - the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, to give it its full name - has been steadily expanding its nuclear weapons capacity and its missile capacity. The recent test has been condemned with varied severity by all major countries. Even China, North Korea's closest partner - indeed, virtually its only partner - has expressed firm disapproval. But North Korea seems inured to the isolation it suffers and shapes its own path irrespective of the reaction it evokes.
It is still far from clear to most observers why DPRK took this step at this stage and where it might be heading. Even the most closely engaged experts and commentators are reduced to talking about the mystification cast by DPRK actions, and the secretiveness and unpredictability of its ways. Being without a fuller sense of what may be at stake only makes it more difficult for the international community to find ways of engaging in meaningful discussions with Pyongyang. For some years now, DPRK has participated in talks about its nuclear plans with five other countries - USA, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. This format owes much to US reluctance to engage in face-to-face talks with a country it has treated as one that lies completely beyond the pale. It has been widely assumed that DPRK was treating its nuclear programme as a means of obtaining an end to the isolation from which it had suffered for so long. Thus slowing down and holding out the promise of bringing nuclear activity to an end looked like a way of forcing diplomatic contact to be established, for aid to flow, for the studied ostracism it suffers to be brought to an end, and the threat to the regime to be lifted. Rather than be made part of an 'axis of evil', it sought a legitimate place in the world community. But if these are indeed Pyongyang's aims, then conducting a nuclear test is possibly the worst way of trying to attain them: hence the renewed speculation about its true motives and expectations.
Although the North Korean test has caused much concern, it has not revived alarm that it could become the precursor to further proliferation in the region. A decade or more ago when North Korea's nuclear ambitions were first being put on display, there was great unease: if North Korea took the plunge, it was feared, others were bound to follow. And there were many in the region that had held back until then but might have found it impossible to resist if circumstances changed. However, that particular genie was never permitted out of its bottle. North Korea blew hot and cold for many years, neither fulfilling nor abandoning its nuclear plans, and when it did take the final step three years ago, no one else followed suit. Thus although that first test led to great regional tension, affecting especially South Korea, it did not result in uncontrollable proliferation. Nor have fears to that effect been revived by the latest development. The display of scientific prowess shown by the test has done nothing to enhance North Korea's international standing. It continues to be seen as an island of privation and underdevelopment in a region of growth and increasing prosperity.
Some commentators have speculated that the nuclear test, which has been so difficult for many to comprehend, was conducted as a result of internal manoeuvres in the DPRK relating to the leadership. There is little evidence to support any such conclusion, nothing much more than tales told by defectors from North Korea. Yet in the absence of anything more authoritative, these tales have gained some currency. According to one version, President Kim Jong-il is ailing and hence keen to ensure that his successor should now be identified, and that it should be his youngest son Kim Jong-un. The leadership's preoccupation with such political plans has permitted hard line military leaders to come forward and press for more decisive action in establishing DPRK as a nuclear power. If this is indeed the case, it would compel a revised view of where the DPRK nuclear programme is leading. The prevailing view has long been that DPRK was prepared to give up its nuclear and rocket capacity if there were adequate compensation. The six-power talks have been regarded as a forum for determining what DPRK felt needed to be done to meet its requirements, and to see also how far the others could go in response. But the picture would change significantly if it now begins to transpire that DPRK does not intend to give up its deterrent capacity at all but wishes to maintain and develop it, and that it aspires to join the group of nuclear weapons countries. Nobody is at all comfortable with such a prospect.
However, there has been no global outburst that could impel DPRK to re-think. True, the UN Security Council met and made a statement condemning the event, but no decisive action was called for, which might suggest that the big powers were unable to agree on a joint course of action. It is also not clear what more can be done at that level, for the DPRK is already severely isolated by multiple sanctions. Yet its lifeline to China remains unimpaired, and so long as that exists, the DPRK can continue along its chosen path. The strongest reaction to the test came, as may have been anticipated, from the USA. Unlike others that have been antagonists of the USA, the DPRK feels that President Obama's accession has made no difference and he has merely continued the hostile policies of his predecessor. Mr. Obama was very critical of the test and his Defence Secretary has warned that the USA will not stand idly by while DPRK acquires the capacity to wreak destruction. Thus the earlier tensions between the two seem set to continue and worsen.
India is not directly involved but it has been careful not to appear to be a proliferator or in any way to encourage nuclear proliferation. Thus it cannot fail to regard the latest developments with concern. It can be expected to play its proper part in international efforts to persuade DPRK to reverse its nuclear course and end its weapons programme.
The writer is India's former Foreign Secretary. The Statesman of India also published this article today.
By Salman Haidar | Published: June 4, 2009
The North Korean nuclear test of a few days ago has created international consternation and revived anxiety about that country. This was the second nuclear test of the last three years, considerably bigger and technically more sophisticated than the first, and only last month there was the launch of a long range rocket. It thus appears that while key members of the international community have been doing what they can to control and reverse that country's nuclear activity, the Pyongyang regime - the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, to give it its full name - has been steadily expanding its nuclear weapons capacity and its missile capacity. The recent test has been condemned with varied severity by all major countries. Even China, North Korea's closest partner - indeed, virtually its only partner - has expressed firm disapproval. But North Korea seems inured to the isolation it suffers and shapes its own path irrespective of the reaction it evokes.
It is still far from clear to most observers why DPRK took this step at this stage and where it might be heading. Even the most closely engaged experts and commentators are reduced to talking about the mystification cast by DPRK actions, and the secretiveness and unpredictability of its ways. Being without a fuller sense of what may be at stake only makes it more difficult for the international community to find ways of engaging in meaningful discussions with Pyongyang. For some years now, DPRK has participated in talks about its nuclear plans with five other countries - USA, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. This format owes much to US reluctance to engage in face-to-face talks with a country it has treated as one that lies completely beyond the pale. It has been widely assumed that DPRK was treating its nuclear programme as a means of obtaining an end to the isolation from which it had suffered for so long. Thus slowing down and holding out the promise of bringing nuclear activity to an end looked like a way of forcing diplomatic contact to be established, for aid to flow, for the studied ostracism it suffers to be brought to an end, and the threat to the regime to be lifted. Rather than be made part of an 'axis of evil', it sought a legitimate place in the world community. But if these are indeed Pyongyang's aims, then conducting a nuclear test is possibly the worst way of trying to attain them: hence the renewed speculation about its true motives and expectations.
Although the North Korean test has caused much concern, it has not revived alarm that it could become the precursor to further proliferation in the region. A decade or more ago when North Korea's nuclear ambitions were first being put on display, there was great unease: if North Korea took the plunge, it was feared, others were bound to follow. And there were many in the region that had held back until then but might have found it impossible to resist if circumstances changed. However, that particular genie was never permitted out of its bottle. North Korea blew hot and cold for many years, neither fulfilling nor abandoning its nuclear plans, and when it did take the final step three years ago, no one else followed suit. Thus although that first test led to great regional tension, affecting especially South Korea, it did not result in uncontrollable proliferation. Nor have fears to that effect been revived by the latest development. The display of scientific prowess shown by the test has done nothing to enhance North Korea's international standing. It continues to be seen as an island of privation and underdevelopment in a region of growth and increasing prosperity.
Some commentators have speculated that the nuclear test, which has been so difficult for many to comprehend, was conducted as a result of internal manoeuvres in the DPRK relating to the leadership. There is little evidence to support any such conclusion, nothing much more than tales told by defectors from North Korea. Yet in the absence of anything more authoritative, these tales have gained some currency. According to one version, President Kim Jong-il is ailing and hence keen to ensure that his successor should now be identified, and that it should be his youngest son Kim Jong-un. The leadership's preoccupation with such political plans has permitted hard line military leaders to come forward and press for more decisive action in establishing DPRK as a nuclear power. If this is indeed the case, it would compel a revised view of where the DPRK nuclear programme is leading. The prevailing view has long been that DPRK was prepared to give up its nuclear and rocket capacity if there were adequate compensation. The six-power talks have been regarded as a forum for determining what DPRK felt needed to be done to meet its requirements, and to see also how far the others could go in response. But the picture would change significantly if it now begins to transpire that DPRK does not intend to give up its deterrent capacity at all but wishes to maintain and develop it, and that it aspires to join the group of nuclear weapons countries. Nobody is at all comfortable with such a prospect.
However, there has been no global outburst that could impel DPRK to re-think. True, the UN Security Council met and made a statement condemning the event, but no decisive action was called for, which might suggest that the big powers were unable to agree on a joint course of action. It is also not clear what more can be done at that level, for the DPRK is already severely isolated by multiple sanctions. Yet its lifeline to China remains unimpaired, and so long as that exists, the DPRK can continue along its chosen path. The strongest reaction to the test came, as may have been anticipated, from the USA. Unlike others that have been antagonists of the USA, the DPRK feels that President Obama's accession has made no difference and he has merely continued the hostile policies of his predecessor. Mr. Obama was very critical of the test and his Defence Secretary has warned that the USA will not stand idly by while DPRK acquires the capacity to wreak destruction. Thus the earlier tensions between the two seem set to continue and worsen.
India is not directly involved but it has been careful not to appear to be a proliferator or in any way to encourage nuclear proliferation. Thus it cannot fail to regard the latest developments with concern. It can be expected to play its proper part in international efforts to persuade DPRK to reverse its nuclear course and end its weapons programme.
The writer is India's former Foreign Secretary. The Statesman of India also published this article today.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
The war on terror
By Ghulam Asghar Khan | Published: June 4, 2009
Peace is more than just killing and silencing the guns, it is elimination of the injustice that has compelled the men to reach for guns to defend their honour, respect, culture and above all their liberty. The concurrent global war on terror is based on lies and deceptions so cleverly fabricated by the CIA to identify and eliminate all the people who believe in self-defence.
Bush launched his Armageddon after 9/11 and declared an all out war on Afghanistan in October 2001 for its failure to apprehend and surrender Bin-Laden to Washington. It became a mantra for Bush to use Bin-Laden's name whenever he was in a crisis situation; and in every self-created-crisis, he always was the beneficiary.
The question, is Osama bin-Laden still alive? In his New book, "Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive" David Ray Griffin examines the whole range of evidence bearing on this question. Griffin strikes at the root of this pretext for war by closely probing all the evidence that has come out since 9/11, either indicating that Bin-Laden was still alive or that he was in fact dead. His conclusion is that Bin-Laden is certainly dead, and that in all likelihood he died in very late 2001. Griffin shows that many US experts in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency came to this very conclusion long ago, but their views, which do not support the continuation of what President Obama, borrowing the term from Dick Cheney, calls "the long war," have received very little media attention. Were they to do so, one of the main props for the war regime would have been undermined.
Griffin has surveyed in detail the many different indications published in the media in early 2002 that Bin-Laden had been very ill and had died. These included a December, 2001 video in which he appeared to be at death's door (as admitted by a Bush administration spokesman), analyses by medical experts of the grave state of his health, the sudden and total cessation in December 2001 of any surveillance intercepts of communication from him, and even some reports of his funeral.
The two fake bin-Laden videos in 2001, purportedly showed him taking credit for the 9/11 attacks, were not only very conveniently timed for Bush/Blair administrations' legislative and military agendas, but were also highly suspected for other reasons. One of them was never actually released, but simply claimed by Blair government. The second showed a bin-Laden, who did not physically resemble the genuine Bin-laden of earlier videos, in which he had denied any role in the 9/11 carnage. Writer Griffin presents strong arguments that both the videos were fake and cites likely motivations behind such a risky undertaking and quotes the opinions of experts (including the FBI), who came to this conclusion long ago.
Yet, in subsequent years, a long series of such dubious bin-Laden messages were released. Griffin gives an exhaustive survey of 19 of these from an e-mail message of March, 2002 to the bin-Laden audiotape of January 14, 2009. For each and every one, he identifies key indications of fakery or strong reasons to be suspicious of its authenticity. For there to be peace in the midst of a war engineered by Bush junta, the cold penetrating light of reality must emasculate the acceptable lies agreed to in secret back-room meetings that allowed sheer gangsterism and extortion from weaker adversaries to masquerade as "diplomacy and negotiations." The incessant lies emanating from the White House, the Pentagon and especially from the CIA have to be silenced, if the global war on terror, based on lies is to be turned into world peace.
The question; "Who could have been motivated to fabricate such "big lies?" The US forces in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq employed a psychological operations unit to produce bogus evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda as a pretext for the invasion. The "Psyop Unit" produced a letter from a Jordanian in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan that was supposedly intercepted en-route. The psyop was advanced after the invasion by the New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, who wrote front-page stories that the evidence was genuine. Journalists at other organisations, including Newsweek magazine and the Daily Telegraph of London, however, thought the letter was bogus.
Almost, a similar situation prevails on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line. History stands a witness that it is not possible to subjugate these warrior tribes with the force of arms. The danger to Pakistan is not of a Taliban revolution, but rather of creeping destabilisation and terrorism, which the Zardari government with all the US help and military support has miserably failed to control. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn says, "You can only have power over people so long as you do not take everything away from them. But, when you have robbed a man of everything, he is no longer in your power." The only lasting solution is that we ourselves should gradually find way to an internal equilibrium without depending upon American help or interference. The object of the government is not the glory of the rulers, but the happiness of common man.
By Ghulam Asghar Khan | Published: June 4, 2009
Peace is more than just killing and silencing the guns, it is elimination of the injustice that has compelled the men to reach for guns to defend their honour, respect, culture and above all their liberty. The concurrent global war on terror is based on lies and deceptions so cleverly fabricated by the CIA to identify and eliminate all the people who believe in self-defence.
Bush launched his Armageddon after 9/11 and declared an all out war on Afghanistan in October 2001 for its failure to apprehend and surrender Bin-Laden to Washington. It became a mantra for Bush to use Bin-Laden's name whenever he was in a crisis situation; and in every self-created-crisis, he always was the beneficiary.
The question, is Osama bin-Laden still alive? In his New book, "Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive" David Ray Griffin examines the whole range of evidence bearing on this question. Griffin strikes at the root of this pretext for war by closely probing all the evidence that has come out since 9/11, either indicating that Bin-Laden was still alive or that he was in fact dead. His conclusion is that Bin-Laden is certainly dead, and that in all likelihood he died in very late 2001. Griffin shows that many US experts in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency came to this very conclusion long ago, but their views, which do not support the continuation of what President Obama, borrowing the term from Dick Cheney, calls "the long war," have received very little media attention. Were they to do so, one of the main props for the war regime would have been undermined.
Griffin has surveyed in detail the many different indications published in the media in early 2002 that Bin-Laden had been very ill and had died. These included a December, 2001 video in which he appeared to be at death's door (as admitted by a Bush administration spokesman), analyses by medical experts of the grave state of his health, the sudden and total cessation in December 2001 of any surveillance intercepts of communication from him, and even some reports of his funeral.
The two fake bin-Laden videos in 2001, purportedly showed him taking credit for the 9/11 attacks, were not only very conveniently timed for Bush/Blair administrations' legislative and military agendas, but were also highly suspected for other reasons. One of them was never actually released, but simply claimed by Blair government. The second showed a bin-Laden, who did not physically resemble the genuine Bin-laden of earlier videos, in which he had denied any role in the 9/11 carnage. Writer Griffin presents strong arguments that both the videos were fake and cites likely motivations behind such a risky undertaking and quotes the opinions of experts (including the FBI), who came to this conclusion long ago.
Yet, in subsequent years, a long series of such dubious bin-Laden messages were released. Griffin gives an exhaustive survey of 19 of these from an e-mail message of March, 2002 to the bin-Laden audiotape of January 14, 2009. For each and every one, he identifies key indications of fakery or strong reasons to be suspicious of its authenticity. For there to be peace in the midst of a war engineered by Bush junta, the cold penetrating light of reality must emasculate the acceptable lies agreed to in secret back-room meetings that allowed sheer gangsterism and extortion from weaker adversaries to masquerade as "diplomacy and negotiations." The incessant lies emanating from the White House, the Pentagon and especially from the CIA have to be silenced, if the global war on terror, based on lies is to be turned into world peace.
The question; "Who could have been motivated to fabricate such "big lies?" The US forces in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq employed a psychological operations unit to produce bogus evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda as a pretext for the invasion. The "Psyop Unit" produced a letter from a Jordanian in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan that was supposedly intercepted en-route. The psyop was advanced after the invasion by the New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, who wrote front-page stories that the evidence was genuine. Journalists at other organisations, including Newsweek magazine and the Daily Telegraph of London, however, thought the letter was bogus.
Almost, a similar situation prevails on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line. History stands a witness that it is not possible to subjugate these warrior tribes with the force of arms. The danger to Pakistan is not of a Taliban revolution, but rather of creeping destabilisation and terrorism, which the Zardari government with all the US help and military support has miserably failed to control. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn says, "You can only have power over people so long as you do not take everything away from them. But, when you have robbed a man of everything, he is no longer in your power." The only lasting solution is that we ourselves should gradually find way to an internal equilibrium without depending upon American help or interference. The object of the government is not the glory of the rulers, but the happiness of common man.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
A curry by another name
By Jawed Naqvi
Thursday, 04 Jun, 2009
RACISM is not about targeting a diversity of Asians or blacks or Jews by white beer louts, whether as state policy or as part of deep-rooted social prejudice, which can be prompted by a variety of factors.
There is a verifiable tendency among those at the receiving end of entrenched racism in one part of the world to emulate their tormentors elsewhere.
Israel, for example, came about as a European solution to centuries-old anti-Semitic practices that got honed into a pseudo science in Nazi Germany. However, the unspeakable bigotry of Europe seemed to only embolden rightwing Jews, or Zionists, to inflict the bias they suffered at the hands of William Shakespeare, in a subtle way, or Martin Luther and Adolf Hitler, more brutally, on a new quarry in another context. Israels atrocities against Palestinian Arabs, who comprise both Muslims and Christians, testify to the prevalence of an unacceptably gory racial relay race.
Mahatma Gandhi campaigned against racism in colonial South Africa, and he won a few significant battles there for the Indian diaspora. In the process he brought together Hindus and Muslims settled there in a collective cause. He then returned to India where he instantly became a key leader of the national movement against British rule.
And yet Gandhi failed to cleanse far too many of his own people of their own subcutaneous penchant for racism, which lingers on in a time warp in South Africa and at home. An Indian student of history who was returning last week from New York to New Delhi told me about the racism of an Indian woman traveller who shifted to a seat next to her from the assigned one where a black woman would be her companion.
You would have thought that since the blacks and the coloured people of South Africa were both at the receiving end of the Apartheid regime, they would share a degree of fellowship as comrades. In practice this was not entirely the case. There were some Indians who did join the black peoples struggle against white racism, but there were others who preferred to serve the Apartheid regime to suppress the black majority.
In fact, a special category was created for complicit Indians in South Africas notorious tricameral parliament, where they had no voting rights but were still considered a notch above the black majority, who continued to be denied the false cover of even that third-rate parliamentary system.
Offended by the inclination of so many Indians to join Pik Bothas tricameral parliament a black South African composer wrote a song, which portrayed the countrys Indian population as abusing black people and being more racist than the whites.
A barrage of criticism led to Mbongeni Ngemas song AmaNdiya Zulu for Indians being banned by South Africas radio stations and record shops. But it took a while before Nelson Mandela got Ngema to apologise for the lyrics. This anti-black syndrome is not peculiar to Indians. It affects other South Asian countries too, notably Pakistan.
At home Indians are just as divided between high principles and moral subversion. Mahashweta Devi single-handedly brought down the Left Front in West Bengal, once the conscience-keepers of public morality, to its knees by opposing the land-grab in Nandigram against the states poor peasants. In her words Articles 1 to 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights find no resonance in Indian society.
Whatever I say here, is born of decades of day-to-day experience of Indias poor, the octogenarian writer said in a lecture on Indias tribal society, a variant of Australias Aborigines as far as their treatment goes.
Theirs is a faceless existence. They are in India from ancient times, for thousands of years, yet mainstream India has continually refused to recognise them. In the tribal society there is no caste division, no dowry system, divorce and widow remarriage is socially sanctioned. They are, after centuries of oppression and neglect, still so civilised! Yet we have simply refused to recognise their worth, have made them bonded slaves in the unorganised sectors, have evicted them from land wherever we have founded industries, or built dams. Is this racism, if not then why did we slam the Australians for mistreating the Aborigines?
There can be no denying the fact that Australia has its share of practising racists and beer louts. There was a time when England and Canada were notorious for Paki-bashing, which frequently, and contrary to the implicit suggestion, meant any South Asian target, including, of course, Indians.
A recent upsurge in attacks by white youths in which Indian students were beaten, robbed and abused in Australian suburbs (and on one occasion by some Lebanese expatriates too) is akin to the Paki-bashing of yore except that it is now called Curry-bashing and seems to apply exclusively to the targeting of Indians.
This would call for an objective sociological analysis. Are there specific categories of Indians that are attacked by the alleged louts? Does it have to do with the economic meltdown in that country whereby Indians are perceived to be better off than their Australian counterparts in terms of jobs, among other coveted resources? Why are Pakistanis and Bangladeshis spared the ordeal, when they were foremost among the targets in the Paki-bashing days? How are they treated?
We know that Pakistanis are picked out for separate treatment, as was on display recently in the mysteriously unexplained terror plot scare in London whereby the students are now awaiting possible deportation orders. Does it mean that Indians and Pakistanis will fight their battles separately against the collective might of mutating racism? I do not agree with the Indian editor who bragged churlishly that he did not see anything in common between Indians and Pakistanis.
In any case, for all practical purposes churlishness is not the answer to the problem at hand. Innocent Sikhs were targeted in New York because the average American would not know the difference between them and the turbaned followers of Al Qaeda. It is how the world (including the white beer louts) perceives us that counts.
I can bet my last penny that the lumpen youth who targeted Indians in Melbourne would not know the difference between a Pakistani or a Bangladeshi, an Indian or a Sri Lankan. And what kind of curry are they bashing anyway a north Indian roghan josh, a Sri Lankan seeni sambol, a Bengali machher jhol or a Kashmiri rista? There is something wrong about the entire narrative so far.
The writer is Dawns correspondent in Delhi.
By Jawed Naqvi
Thursday, 04 Jun, 2009
RACISM is not about targeting a diversity of Asians or blacks or Jews by white beer louts, whether as state policy or as part of deep-rooted social prejudice, which can be prompted by a variety of factors.
There is a verifiable tendency among those at the receiving end of entrenched racism in one part of the world to emulate their tormentors elsewhere.
Israel, for example, came about as a European solution to centuries-old anti-Semitic practices that got honed into a pseudo science in Nazi Germany. However, the unspeakable bigotry of Europe seemed to only embolden rightwing Jews, or Zionists, to inflict the bias they suffered at the hands of William Shakespeare, in a subtle way, or Martin Luther and Adolf Hitler, more brutally, on a new quarry in another context. Israels atrocities against Palestinian Arabs, who comprise both Muslims and Christians, testify to the prevalence of an unacceptably gory racial relay race.
Mahatma Gandhi campaigned against racism in colonial South Africa, and he won a few significant battles there for the Indian diaspora. In the process he brought together Hindus and Muslims settled there in a collective cause. He then returned to India where he instantly became a key leader of the national movement against British rule.
And yet Gandhi failed to cleanse far too many of his own people of their own subcutaneous penchant for racism, which lingers on in a time warp in South Africa and at home. An Indian student of history who was returning last week from New York to New Delhi told me about the racism of an Indian woman traveller who shifted to a seat next to her from the assigned one where a black woman would be her companion.
You would have thought that since the blacks and the coloured people of South Africa were both at the receiving end of the Apartheid regime, they would share a degree of fellowship as comrades. In practice this was not entirely the case. There were some Indians who did join the black peoples struggle against white racism, but there were others who preferred to serve the Apartheid regime to suppress the black majority.
In fact, a special category was created for complicit Indians in South Africas notorious tricameral parliament, where they had no voting rights but were still considered a notch above the black majority, who continued to be denied the false cover of even that third-rate parliamentary system.
Offended by the inclination of so many Indians to join Pik Bothas tricameral parliament a black South African composer wrote a song, which portrayed the countrys Indian population as abusing black people and being more racist than the whites.
A barrage of criticism led to Mbongeni Ngemas song AmaNdiya Zulu for Indians being banned by South Africas radio stations and record shops. But it took a while before Nelson Mandela got Ngema to apologise for the lyrics. This anti-black syndrome is not peculiar to Indians. It affects other South Asian countries too, notably Pakistan.
At home Indians are just as divided between high principles and moral subversion. Mahashweta Devi single-handedly brought down the Left Front in West Bengal, once the conscience-keepers of public morality, to its knees by opposing the land-grab in Nandigram against the states poor peasants. In her words Articles 1 to 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights find no resonance in Indian society.
Whatever I say here, is born of decades of day-to-day experience of Indias poor, the octogenarian writer said in a lecture on Indias tribal society, a variant of Australias Aborigines as far as their treatment goes.
Theirs is a faceless existence. They are in India from ancient times, for thousands of years, yet mainstream India has continually refused to recognise them. In the tribal society there is no caste division, no dowry system, divorce and widow remarriage is socially sanctioned. They are, after centuries of oppression and neglect, still so civilised! Yet we have simply refused to recognise their worth, have made them bonded slaves in the unorganised sectors, have evicted them from land wherever we have founded industries, or built dams. Is this racism, if not then why did we slam the Australians for mistreating the Aborigines?
There can be no denying the fact that Australia has its share of practising racists and beer louts. There was a time when England and Canada were notorious for Paki-bashing, which frequently, and contrary to the implicit suggestion, meant any South Asian target, including, of course, Indians.
A recent upsurge in attacks by white youths in which Indian students were beaten, robbed and abused in Australian suburbs (and on one occasion by some Lebanese expatriates too) is akin to the Paki-bashing of yore except that it is now called Curry-bashing and seems to apply exclusively to the targeting of Indians.
This would call for an objective sociological analysis. Are there specific categories of Indians that are attacked by the alleged louts? Does it have to do with the economic meltdown in that country whereby Indians are perceived to be better off than their Australian counterparts in terms of jobs, among other coveted resources? Why are Pakistanis and Bangladeshis spared the ordeal, when they were foremost among the targets in the Paki-bashing days? How are they treated?
We know that Pakistanis are picked out for separate treatment, as was on display recently in the mysteriously unexplained terror plot scare in London whereby the students are now awaiting possible deportation orders. Does it mean that Indians and Pakistanis will fight their battles separately against the collective might of mutating racism? I do not agree with the Indian editor who bragged churlishly that he did not see anything in common between Indians and Pakistanis.
In any case, for all practical purposes churlishness is not the answer to the problem at hand. Innocent Sikhs were targeted in New York because the average American would not know the difference between them and the turbaned followers of Al Qaeda. It is how the world (including the white beer louts) perceives us that counts.
I can bet my last penny that the lumpen youth who targeted Indians in Melbourne would not know the difference between a Pakistani or a Bangladeshi, an Indian or a Sri Lankan. And what kind of curry are they bashing anyway a north Indian roghan josh, a Sri Lankan seeni sambol, a Bengali machher jhol or a Kashmiri rista? There is something wrong about the entire narrative so far.
The writer is Dawns correspondent in Delhi.
A
arshad_lahore
Guest
Of popular justice
By I. A. Rehman
Thursday, 04 Jun, 2009
ALTHOUGH the targets are quite challenging, the new judicial policy enforced this week should have brought relief to many a bruised soul, and one hopes it is now possible to address some basic weaknesses of the justice system. The measures proposed to discipline the judicial services are unexceptional.
One of these invokes the principle that judges should not accept assignments under the executive, a principle that has been vindicated in both theory and practice across the world. Considerable progress in this direction has already been made. About 150 judges have been repatriated from executive posts as a result of the National Judicial Policymaking Committees (NJPMC) decisions. This should strengthen the judiciarys independence.
However, the provision that no retired judge of a superior court should accept an appointment which is lower to his status or dignity will be seen as a design to guard the status of retired judges more than the principle of the judiciarys independence. The door to the appointment of retired judges to posts higher than their (previous) status has been kept open, and clever politicians or retired judges may well be tempted to use it.
A relevant issue is the reservation of the office of the chief election commissioner for the judiciary. Democratic opinion has been critical of this provision in the light of some unhappy experience. It may be prudent to consider placing a bar on the appointment of retired superior court judges to any office while their experience may be utilised in areas related to judicial education and reform.
Quite popular with the people will be the scheme to weed out corruption from the judicial services. The public has much more to say on the subject than might have reached the ears of the high judicial authorities. The currency gained by the saying hiring a judge is better than engaging a lawyer has been one of the main causes of the decline of the justice system, in terms of both efficiency and credibility. Obviously it is necessary to ensure that the anti-corruption cells in high courts succeed in developing judicially sustainable procedures while punishing officials on the basis of a bad reputation.
The second set of policy measures relates to reducing delays in the law. All cases pending in the superior courts will be disposed of by May 31, 2010, and all fresh cases will be decided within a year of their institution (in case of the Balochistan High Court within six months). Short time-frames have been laid down for the disposal of bail petitions and the condition of submission of challans within 14 days after cognisance has been reasserted. Family matters are to be decided within three to six months, rent cases within four months and writ petitions as quickly as possible.
Millions of people will be relieved if the schedule for the disposal of cases can be observed in practice. But if lack of financial and human resources has been the cause of justice being delayed, the success of the new policy obviously depends on the allocation of the requisite funds by the government. One hopes the government will not be found wanting in will or capacity to meet the judiciarys (and the peoples) expectations.
For students of law all this rhetoric about speedy justice is familiar territory. For decades Pakistans rulers have been harping on the theme of speedy and inexpensive justice, the authoritarian satraps more vociferously than their elected followers. The attempts to set up quasi-military tribunals, anti-terrorist laws and laws to set up courts for speedy trial have been some of the bitter pickings during this search. Two important issues raised over the years are worth recalling.
Firstly, the search for speedier justice has more often than not ended in curtailment of the due process. Strict provisions have been laid down for timely submission of challans, denial of adjournments, admissibility in evidence of statements to the police, and sometimes the principle of presumption of innocence has been turned upside down. Such measures may speed up the disposal of cases, but the cost to justice can be prohibitive. Ways will thus have to be found to ensure that while expediting the proceedings and cutting through procedural delays the inviolable features of the due process are not compromised. Quick justice must above all be justice.
Secondly, the decades-long preoccupation with delays in the settlement of issues has created an impression, which is as dangerous as it is wrong, that nothing else is wrong with Pakistans justice system whereas the fact is that this system cannot meet the demands of the countrys diverse population.
We are paying a heavy price for believing that the assumptions underlying the colonial period laws required no change after independence or that the conflict between indigenous cultures and the British court culture did not matter. Much is being said about the Pakhtun tribesmens antipathy towards the national judicial system. To assume that this is due only to delays and corruption would be a gross over-simplification. A better way to comprehend the matter may be an inquiry into the factors that make Pakistans legal system appear alien to a large population. In areas where the English language is not widely understood and the number of English-knowing intermediaries is limited, the fact that our laws, proceedings and judgments are in English may be a factor contributing to the peoples estrangement from the justice system.
Thus, there is a need not only to review the laws so that they can promote and sustain a modern, dynamic community but also for closing the gap between the law and societys perception of its legitimacy and efficacy. Attempts should also be made to probe the factors responsible for delays in the reform processes. Why does it take ages to implement reforms suggested by the Law Commission? What has happened to the proposed courts for petty causes or suggestions for alternative dispute resolution? And how can a system of periodic evaluation of new laws or amendments to older ones be put in place?
Of course, much of this is beyond the jurisdiction of the judicial policymaking committee. That only means that a broad platform for judicial reform is needed. The problem with the existing institutions is that they are wholly dominated by judges of the superior courts. Their capacity to reform laws and the legal system is not doubted but the risks in entrusting the task of reform in laws solely to their interpreters are pretty obvious.
The work of the NJPMC too will achieve greater acceptability if its recommendations are based on sufficiently broad consultations among the jurists, legal practitioners and the public. The possibility of debating reform propositions in open courts, to which lawyers and public representatives also can contribute, is worth exploring.
By I. A. Rehman
Thursday, 04 Jun, 2009
ALTHOUGH the targets are quite challenging, the new judicial policy enforced this week should have brought relief to many a bruised soul, and one hopes it is now possible to address some basic weaknesses of the justice system. The measures proposed to discipline the judicial services are unexceptional.
One of these invokes the principle that judges should not accept assignments under the executive, a principle that has been vindicated in both theory and practice across the world. Considerable progress in this direction has already been made. About 150 judges have been repatriated from executive posts as a result of the National Judicial Policymaking Committees (NJPMC) decisions. This should strengthen the judiciarys independence.
However, the provision that no retired judge of a superior court should accept an appointment which is lower to his status or dignity will be seen as a design to guard the status of retired judges more than the principle of the judiciarys independence. The door to the appointment of retired judges to posts higher than their (previous) status has been kept open, and clever politicians or retired judges may well be tempted to use it.
A relevant issue is the reservation of the office of the chief election commissioner for the judiciary. Democratic opinion has been critical of this provision in the light of some unhappy experience. It may be prudent to consider placing a bar on the appointment of retired superior court judges to any office while their experience may be utilised in areas related to judicial education and reform.
Quite popular with the people will be the scheme to weed out corruption from the judicial services. The public has much more to say on the subject than might have reached the ears of the high judicial authorities. The currency gained by the saying hiring a judge is better than engaging a lawyer has been one of the main causes of the decline of the justice system, in terms of both efficiency and credibility. Obviously it is necessary to ensure that the anti-corruption cells in high courts succeed in developing judicially sustainable procedures while punishing officials on the basis of a bad reputation.
The second set of policy measures relates to reducing delays in the law. All cases pending in the superior courts will be disposed of by May 31, 2010, and all fresh cases will be decided within a year of their institution (in case of the Balochistan High Court within six months). Short time-frames have been laid down for the disposal of bail petitions and the condition of submission of challans within 14 days after cognisance has been reasserted. Family matters are to be decided within three to six months, rent cases within four months and writ petitions as quickly as possible.
Millions of people will be relieved if the schedule for the disposal of cases can be observed in practice. But if lack of financial and human resources has been the cause of justice being delayed, the success of the new policy obviously depends on the allocation of the requisite funds by the government. One hopes the government will not be found wanting in will or capacity to meet the judiciarys (and the peoples) expectations.
For students of law all this rhetoric about speedy justice is familiar territory. For decades Pakistans rulers have been harping on the theme of speedy and inexpensive justice, the authoritarian satraps more vociferously than their elected followers. The attempts to set up quasi-military tribunals, anti-terrorist laws and laws to set up courts for speedy trial have been some of the bitter pickings during this search. Two important issues raised over the years are worth recalling.
Firstly, the search for speedier justice has more often than not ended in curtailment of the due process. Strict provisions have been laid down for timely submission of challans, denial of adjournments, admissibility in evidence of statements to the police, and sometimes the principle of presumption of innocence has been turned upside down. Such measures may speed up the disposal of cases, but the cost to justice can be prohibitive. Ways will thus have to be found to ensure that while expediting the proceedings and cutting through procedural delays the inviolable features of the due process are not compromised. Quick justice must above all be justice.
Secondly, the decades-long preoccupation with delays in the settlement of issues has created an impression, which is as dangerous as it is wrong, that nothing else is wrong with Pakistans justice system whereas the fact is that this system cannot meet the demands of the countrys diverse population.
We are paying a heavy price for believing that the assumptions underlying the colonial period laws required no change after independence or that the conflict between indigenous cultures and the British court culture did not matter. Much is being said about the Pakhtun tribesmens antipathy towards the national judicial system. To assume that this is due only to delays and corruption would be a gross over-simplification. A better way to comprehend the matter may be an inquiry into the factors that make Pakistans legal system appear alien to a large population. In areas where the English language is not widely understood and the number of English-knowing intermediaries is limited, the fact that our laws, proceedings and judgments are in English may be a factor contributing to the peoples estrangement from the justice system.
Thus, there is a need not only to review the laws so that they can promote and sustain a modern, dynamic community but also for closing the gap between the law and societys perception of its legitimacy and efficacy. Attempts should also be made to probe the factors responsible for delays in the reform processes. Why does it take ages to implement reforms suggested by the Law Commission? What has happened to the proposed courts for petty causes or suggestions for alternative dispute resolution? And how can a system of periodic evaluation of new laws or amendments to older ones be put in place?
Of course, much of this is beyond the jurisdiction of the judicial policymaking committee. That only means that a broad platform for judicial reform is needed. The problem with the existing institutions is that they are wholly dominated by judges of the superior courts. Their capacity to reform laws and the legal system is not doubted but the risks in entrusting the task of reform in laws solely to their interpreters are pretty obvious.
The work of the NJPMC too will achieve greater acceptability if its recommendations are based on sufficiently broad consultations among the jurists, legal practitioners and the public. The possibility of debating reform propositions in open courts, to which lawyers and public representatives also can contribute, is worth exploring.
