Anti - Corruption Day in Pakistan

As the Anti-Corruption Day is being globally observed today (Thursday), the PPP government has decided not to do so, ignoring it for the third year since it came to power.
The government has turned down the Transparency International’s (TI) request for observing the occasion, which was observed during the Musharraf era in collaboration with the government, TI and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC). A report of global anti-corruption watchdog on Global Corruption Barometers is due to be launched today, examining the most corrupt departments among the Army, media, judiciary, public office-holders, parliamentarians, Customs and others.
The last time this day was observed was in December 2007, a fact confirmed from the NAB officials privy to details. The FIA that has launched the anti-corruption drive is not observing this day either. All those whose task is to eradicate this menace are facing corruption charges, starting from President Asif Ali Zardari, down to Law Minister Babar Awan, who controls the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who has launched a crusade against this menace through the FIA, itself a corrupt department training its guns at the TI chairman of Pakistan Chapter, Adil Gillani.
This day is being globally observed at a time when Pakistan has further gone down in the corruption ranking, from 42nd in 2009 to 34th in 2010, according to the TI report. Adil Gillani, who is facing death threats and prosecution from the government quarters, had recently contacted Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah, Chairman NAB, yet another controversial figure with his eligibility challenged before the Supreme Court.
Contrary to the present practices of non-observance, Pakistan has been celebrating this day since the passage of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2003 in Merida, Mexico. The UNCAC is the first legally binding global anti-corruption instrument.
The International Anti-Corruption Day is being celebrated at a time when the entire ruling machinery is plagued with corruption charges and the latest addition in this respect is the Minister for Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, who together with former DG Haj Rao Shakeel and Secretary Religious Affairs Agha Sarwar Qazalbash is facing serious charges of irregularities in hiring buildings for Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
Intriguingly, all three of them are close friends of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, whose wife Fuazia Gilani had her loans worth millions of rupees written off through a bargain with the NAB. Likewise, President Asif Ali Zardari stands at the top with regard to charges of corruption for whom the NRO was promulgated by former President Musharraf for a political deal, only to be revoked later on by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Law Minister Babar Awan, under whose administrative control is the NAB, faces charges of receiving fee as lawyer to the Haris Steel Mills’ owner in the Bank of Punjab scandal to buy’ judges’ favour. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, with several accountability references against him pending in courts, ordered the FIA to cleanse the society of corruption.
A recent US diplomatic cable revealed Malik admitting before the US ambassador that he had his past white-washed by instructing the prosecutors to declare before the courts that charges furnished against him were baseless. His three-year sentence restored by the Lahore High Court in corruption-related cases was pardoned by Zardari, who previously had remitted three-month sentences of all prisoners, just to bring out of the bar his crony, Ahmad Riaz Sheikh, a convicted man appointed additional DG FIA (Economic Crimes Wing). Malik had also told the ambassador the government would resort to the same strategy in case the Supreme Court revokes presidential immunity for Zardari.
The FIA, which is on an anti-corruption drive these days, has many corrupt officials appointed at key positions. Instead of cleansing its own department of corrupt elements, the FIA is on the lookout for such elements in other departments.

Village Situation - Case study of NooPur Shah Islamabad

Less than a kilometer from the sprawling residential complex of Pakistan’s prime minister, villagers have to scrabble for firewood in the dirt if they want a cooked meal.

Noor Pur Shahan is typical of many villages in the country, where supplies of cooking gas, clean water, electricity, classrooms, and also hope for the future, are hard to come by.

Improving government services for millions of increasingly frustrated Pakistanis is critical for bringing economic and political stability to a country the United States sees as an indispensable ally in its global war on militancy.

Many say the current system of governance only benefits Pakistan’s political elite and the wealthy. And it’s one that drives disaffected young men to join Muslim militant groups violently opposed to the government, analysts say.

The administration of President Asif Ali Zardari, like many before it, is accused of being too corrupt and inept to ease widespread hardship. It denies the allegations.

But in Noor Pur Shahan, where goats roam on winding roads beneath lush mountains about 8 km northeast of the capital, these denials ring hollow.

“The government only looks after the rich people,” said Mohammad Aleem, an elderly man with a long white beard, as he clutched his cane.

Conditions are unlikely to improve anytime soon. The cash-strapped government slashed development spending after summer floods caused nearly $10 billion in damages.

Securing reconstruction funds may not be possible unless Pakistan persuades Western donors spending will be transparent and accounted for.

The International Monetary Fund, which has kept the economy afloat since 2008, wants Pakistan to implement politically sensitive economic reforms such as imposing new taxes and eliminating electricity subsidies.

WHERE IS THE AID?

Washington has pumped billions of dollars into Pakistan since the country joined the U.S. war on militancy after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Little seems to have trickled down to the poor.

In the center of Noor Pur Shahan is a water purification plant inaugurated in 1963 by former Pakistani military leader Ayub Khan. The water largely flows to government offices in Islamabad. That means most residents are deprived of clean supplies.

Mukhtiar Hussain, a worker at the plant for 32 years, says villagers break pipes to steal water for their homes. “Things have gone from bad to worse,” he said.

Critics accuse the government of neglecting education as well, and warn that social ills will deepen.

At Noor Pur Shahan’s state-funded boys secondary school, over 1,000 students are taught in 12 classrooms.

“There are only 20 computers and one teacher for computer studies,” said principal Iqbal Khan Niazi. The facility has not had clean water for three years. There are no playgrounds.

Umair Akhtar, 18, a villager, believes the army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, would do a better job running nuclear-armed Pakistan than civilian governments, even though that would hurt the country’s democratic credentials.

He applied for a job in the CDA but says he has “no money to bribe people.”

Pakistan’s government may be too preoccupied with a host of problems to notice the plight of people like him.

It faces stubborn Taliban insurgents who continue to carry out bombings despite army offensives, a possible showdown with the powerful Supreme Court, and relentless US pressure to help stabilise war-ravaged Afghanistan.

For some Pakistanis, God alone is the answer.

“We want to instil the fear of God in the students and want then to follow the life of the holy Prophet Mohammad. That is the answer to all problems,” said Niazi, the village’s school principal.

Children Protection

In a society where children are perhaps the most vulnerable of all sections of the population, any effort for their protection is welcome. In this context, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has taken a progressive step by passing the Child Protection Bill 2010 in September.
The bill is designed to provide care and protection to children “at risk” through the establishment of a child protection court as well as a provincial commission along with other associated mechanisms. A proposed amendment sponsored by the MMA calling for the age limit of children to be lowered from 18 to 15 was rejected and perhaps rightfully so, as according to international norms adulthood is deemed to begin at age 18.
The KP government has taken a bold initiative considering the fact that both the centre and the provinces have been extremely tardy when it comes to legislation designed to protect children’s rights. Laws have been written up but have been gathering dust for years, either waiting to be taken up in the federal and provincial legislatures or their passage has been blocked on procedural grounds. Hopefully Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s move will prompt the provinces and Islamabad to enact similar laws.
Yet, to truly end exploitation and give the children of Pakistan access to education, health, nutrition and a safe and secure environment, laws must be implemented. There are lots of good laws on the books. It is their implementation which is lacking and which is key to achieving the aims for which they were framed.
Also, some experts are of the opinion that the Child Protection Bill 2010 is a little vague when it comes to describing children “at risk” as well as the assessment procedure that would allow the authorities to determine which children are at risk. These concerns can possibly be addressed in future amendments.

Children at risk

In the event of a disaster, groups that are already disadvantaged, such as women and children, become even more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. In the post-flood situation, apart from the victims’ immediate needs such as shelter, food and medical attention, the protection of children is also a major concern.
According to Unicef, out of the 20 million or so people affected by the floods, over half are children. A report by the agency on the floods’ effect on children says that “children have been or are at risk of being separated from their families, they are at risk of abuse … and have witnessed death and destruction”. There are also reports that boys from flood-affected families are being lured into prostitution in some parts.
In the aftermath of natural calamities worldwide we have witnessed elements taking advantage of children. After the January earthquake in Haiti some American missionaries were convicted of illegally transporting a busload of Haitian children into the Dominican Republic without any paperwork. In Pakistan, after the 2005 earthquake the adoption of children was banned to prevent the risk of child abductions. Though people may be well-intentioned in wanting to take children away from the scene of tragedy, it doesn’t justify ignoring due process. In the current scenario the trafficking and abuse of children cannot be ignored as the state grapples with the post-flood situation. In present conditions, protecting the welfare and rights of minors is more important than ever as the chances of their exploitation are far greater considering that the whole social structure in many parts of the country has collapsed. Vigilance is key in this regard.
The state and society — especially rights organisations — must play a proactive role in ensuring the safety of children so that they are kept from harm. It is also important that a child protection law is passed and implemented at the federal level. Presently, such a law only exists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is essential that the federal government passes a law that can protect children from all forms of abuse both in times of crises and otherwise.

22 Drone Attacks in September

The U.S. government increased the number of missile attacks this month against militant guerrilla groups in northwest Pakistan to the most this year, according to researchers who monitor the campaign.
The U.S. so far has launched 22 missile strikes in September, almost a third of this year’s total of 76, according to a count maintained by the Washington-based New America Foundation. The policy research group counted four such attacks in August and five in July.
All of this month’s reported strikes -- which typically are fired from remotely piloted Predator or Reaper aircraft -- have hit Pakistan’s Waziristan region, a Taliban stronghold that borders Afghanistan, the foundation said.
Nineteen of the missile raids have hit North Waziristan, a district dominated by the Taliban factions of Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and Pakistani guerrilla leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur. Al-Qaeda’s operational chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Sheik Fateh, was killed this month by a drone strike, Agence France-Press said yesterday, citing unidentified Pakistani security officials.
“The last time there was a flurry of strikes comparable to this was in January, following the suicide attack on a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, in late December 2009,” said Katherine Tiedemann, a research fellow at the New America Foundation. “There were 12 strikes reported that month.”
There may be several reasons for increased attacks, said Alan Kronstadt, a Pakistan analyst with the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
“There’s been a need seen to keep pressure on the Haqqani group,” Kronstadt said in an interview.
After floods that ravaged much of Pakistan, the U.S. also “wanted to send a message there would be no relaxing for them in whatever interim there is” before counterterrorism operations on the ground resume, Kronstadt said.
This month’s spike in missile attacks is part of a yearlong escalation. The U.S. has fired more than 75 missiles into Pakistan so far this year, up from 53 in 2009, according to the New America Foundation’s count.

Rs50 bn loans written off

Pakistani banks have yet again quietly written off Rs50 billion fresh loans outstanding against their borrowers during the last two years and at the same time, Pakistan’s total borrowing from World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached to $31billion.It has been revealed that Islamabad was now paying $3.6 billion interest alone each year on these foreign loans. Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh shared the mind-boggling figure of loan written off by the Pakistani banks in the National Assembly during the question hour. In the same session, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Division Hina Rabbani Khar, however, made revelations about the total foreign loans of three lending agencies followed by annual payment of interest by the Government of Pakistan.
These two figures about the loans — one written off and other obtained from the international lending agencies — were presented in the National Assembly during the question hour by Hina Rabbani Khar.These facts tell a sorry state of affairs as how on the one hand the country was massively borrowing from the international institutions to meet its own financial gaps and on the other how their own banks were busy in writing off the massive amounts running into billions.
The Supreme Court is also seized with loan write off case of 2007 when it was reported in the media on the basis of Auditor General’s report that Pakistani banks had written off Rs60 billion. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken a suo moto notice of this story. The Supreme Court is yet to take any decision on this case since 2007 and banks continued to write off loans. One official said, “we had to differentiate between the genuine written off loans and those who were using their clouts to get those principal and marks up written off every year.”Meanwhile, in a reply to a question by Sheikh Salahuddin, the finance minister said a sum of Rs50.854 billion was written off by the banks during the last two years. Replying to another question of MNA Raja Asad, Hina Rabbani revealed that the country had borrowed $31billion till June 30, 2010 from WB, ADB and IMF and was paying $3.6 billion as interest each year. Giving the break up of loans, she said world had given $11.4 billion loan and was being paid $1.6 billion every year as interest on these loans. Pakistan took $11.58 billion from ADB and was paying $1.4 billion as interest on annual basis. $8billion have been borrowed from IMF and $445 million per year are being paid to them as interest.

225 suicides in a month

At least 225 people including 73 women committed suicide during the run of last one month.
According to Pakistan Commission for Human Rights, the most of people put an end to their lives under juggernaut of poverty and hostile circumstances. The report said at least 351 incidents of suicides and suicide attempts were reported during last one month; however, only 39 FIRs were registered against these incidents.
According to the report, at least 18 people were killed in the name of honour in Sindh, of them, Ghtoki’s eight year old Dadan is also included. The report said at least 27 people including 21 women were sexually maltreated across the country; of them, Matli’s four-year-old and Tando Muhammed Khan’s five-year girl are also included.
According to experts, the hike in suicidal incidents in the country is an alarming phenomenon thanks to the rampant non-tolerance in the society.

Discrimination in Aid Distribution

It is no secret that ethnic, sectarian and religious minorities in Pakistan face discrimination, but recent reports that this deplorable mindset is affecting flood relief efforts are deeply disturbing. On Monday, a large number of people in Hyderabad were driven to taking out a protest rally against the maltreatment of minority community flood victims. They cited two occasions when they were attacked and driven out of a relief camp.

A day before that, flood-affected families at an emergency relief camp in Thatta district complained that they were being refused aid, even by government officials, because they were Dalits. There have been numerous other reports: people being refused shelter because of their ethnicity, caste or religion, being discriminated against in the distribution of aid goods and being driven away from or forced to live on the very margins of the few camps that exist.

Discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds is deeply entrenched in Pakistan and will not change overnight. Yet that it is being used as an excuse to strip people of their rights as equal citizens even during a time of calamity is abhorrent. Whether Muslim, Hindu or Christian, high caste or low caste, the flood victims are all equally deserving of the attention of official and non-official aid channels. Resources are scarce and the desperate number in millions. Providing help across the board to the best of its abilities, irrespective of any ideology, is the first task of the state and society. Apart from the victims’ equal right to survival essentials such as shelter, potable water and food, the fact that the country was even before the floods rent along ethnic, sectarian and religious grounds must be kept in mind. Discrimination at this time will only deepen the divide and cause resentment that could unravel any possibility of future cohesiveness.

"Innocent Faces" from the flood

Images of children at flood relief camps from across Pakistan, as water ravages the country and renders millions homeless.

Serious Problems - Who cares

Coverage of the provincial budget announced by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Humayun Khan on Saturday has been dominated by the theme of ‘balanced budget’: Rs294bn of expenditure matched by Rs294bn of revenue. At first blush, this may seem to be a good thing. But scratch below the surface and serious problems become apparent. First, the province’s revenue projection relies heavily on money flowing from the centre as promised — a pledge that is already looking shaky. For example, if the Rs25bn in hydel power profit arrears is not forthcoming, a serious hole will appear in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s finances. The sum is part of Rs110bn that was awarded to it in an arbitration with the centre and is to be released to the province over four years. Yet, privately provincial officials are pessimistic that the arrears will be released, pointing to the fact that the province has only been allocated Rs6bn as hydel generation profits for the next fiscal year — several times lower than what they believe is owed.
Next, on the expenditure side of things, while the NFC award last year has increased transfers to the province and therefore improved the fiscal space, a majority of the money is to be spent on salaries, and a great many of those salaries are paid to employees who are not needed. It seems that in a war-torn, recession-hit economy, provincial administrators have struck upon a favourite ploy to appease voters: giving them jobs in government agencies. At least three new government departments have been created rather than trying to encourage job creation in the private sector.
The main challenge, then, for the government going forward will be to mobilise its own resources. Relying on uncertain federal receipts and making unnecessary provincial expenditures will only destabilise its finances. For example, the Rs21bn allocated to the police has more than doubled the present year’s outlay — arguably a necessary step — but the centre cannot be relied on to keep footing the bill. To be sure, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has suffered disproportionately over the last years from militancy; however, that should not be used as an excuse to further delay reform.

Missing Persons Case

The reassurance given by the chief justice at a meeting of the National Judicial Policymaking Committee in Quetta on Friday with regard to efforts to find the ‘missing’ persons should give some hope to the affected families. The apex court has been seized of the matter for five years now but the current government, like the previous one, has done little to recover the missing, a large number of whom belong to Balochistan where Gen Musharraf launched an operation to rein in Baloch nationalists.
The families of those gone missing have alleged that their dear ones were picked up by intelligence agencies on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities, and that some may have been extradited to interrogation camps on foreign shores. That is why, unfortunately, the term ‘missing’ is often used as a euphemism for those presumably picked up by intelligence agencies and kept in illegal confinement without being arraigned in a court of law with charges brought against them for trial under due process. The number of such people is said to be in the hundreds. Few have been located or recovered so far.
The recently formed judicial commission to probe the phenomenon and help locate the whereabouts, or indeed fate, of those gone missing is a step in the right direction. Yet, the commission alone cannot ensure their recovery as there is hardly anything by way of official record concerning those held in illegal custody or prosecuted without due process. It is a particularly sensitive issue in Balochistan given the province’s many genuine grievances against the modus operandi of a highhanded federal and military intelligence and security apparatus. For democracy to take root it is crucial for the missing persons to be located and administered justice and for their tormentors to be held to account for violating the law.

NWA Operation

Pakistan is buying time in North Waziristan - gathering intelligence, building alliances and insisting any assault into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fortress take place at its own time and choosing.
Part of the tribal belt on the Afghan border, North Waziristan is home to 350,000 people but considered a stronghold for the most dangerous militants in the world and largely impenetrable.
It is also a rumoured hiding place of Osama bin Laden.
Commanders are walking a tightrope, balancing US pressure for action against fears that a major push into the hornet's nest would make enemies they cannot beat and drag Pakistan into a new wave of violence.
As well as the bin Laden connection, North Waziristan's mountains are also a refuge for Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban who escaped an offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan and networks fighting US forces in Afghanistan.
Among those using bases in North Waziristan are the Haqqani network, created by Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and run by his son Sirajuddin; Afghan Taliban; Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur and his ally Maulvi Sadiq Noor.
They are blamed by the United States for fuelling the nearly nine-year insurgency in Afghanistan, for attacking the 142,000 US-led Nato troops there and for working to destabilise the Western-backed government in Kabul.
But they are also men whom the Pakistani security establishment believes pose no direct risk to the homeland because their activities are targeted across the border, while homegrown Taliban pose a more immediate threat.
Opening a new front against the likes of Haqqani and Gul Bahadur would, Pakistani officials believe, make enemies out of well-trained, well-financed groups that are potentially valuable allies when US troops leave Afghanistan.
Given the risks involved and strain on Pakistani troops, with forces actively engaged in six of the seven tribal districts, analysts say fears of a backlash, including attacks on civilians, are holding the army back.
Last year saw a huge surge in attacks in retaliation for military offensives in Swat and South Waziristan, followed this year by a relative decline.
Around 140,000 troops are deployed along the western border, leaving 100,000 in the east, where Pakistan meets India, and commanders are wary of leaving that frontier more exposed.

After Phet Disaster

Cyclone Phet came and went. Luckily, it had lost much of its intensity as it continued on its trajectory along the coast of Balochistan and Sindh and did not cause the large-scale devastation feared earlier. By Monday, the Met office had downgraded Phet to a “well-marked low-pressure area” hovering over the Indian state of Rajasthan. It added that there was little chance of heavy rain in Sindh anymore. But it was not completely smooth sailing for the coastal belt.
Several deaths were reported in Karachi while power had still not been restored to parts of the metropolis by Monday evening. Many areas of Thatta and Badin — where the storm made landfall — also remained inundated. Yet it seems Balochistan has borne the brunt of the stormy weather. Although there were no reports of fatalities as people were evacuated from the vulnerable areas, the material damage has been considerable.
The torrential rains and gusty winds accompanying Phet tore along the Makran coast, particularly affecting Gwadar and Lasbela districts. Power supply, which had been disrupted in many coastal towns as the storm struck, has not been restored, while countless houses have collapsed. Certain areas are reportedly under four feet of water. Dozens of boats in Gwadar have also been damaged. Contact with the affected areas of Balochistan is also difficult as key roads and bridges are either damaged or have been washed away.
Though all the affected areas in Sindh and Balochistan need attention, the latter province requires a little extra effort on the government’s part. Claims of neglect following the far more destructive cyclone of 2007 are still fresh in the people’s mind. The inattention of the past must not be repeated or it will give disgruntled elements the chance to exploit the situation. The prime minister’s promise of aid should be fulfilled through immediate action and aid. Speedy reconstruction and relief efforts should be ensured. There is also a need for officials to come up with a long-term plan that can minimise the risk to settlements from the havoc that natural disasters wreak.

Peace Returns to Swat

On Thursday, a statement released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan welcomed the restoration of peace in Swat, citing the reports of a fact-finding team. This is encouraging and testifies to the Pakistan Army’s efforts since the military operation was launched last year. However, lasting stability hinges on several factors and requires more than the efforts of the army alone.
First, the security forces must refrain from adopting a ham-fisted approach. No illegal practices should be associated with the army. Yet the HRCP fact-finding team says that the security forces were in some areas committing human rights violations. These include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and the forced displacement of families of suspected militants. This is counterproductive and must cease since it tarnishes the image of the army while alienating the local people.
Secondly, the role played by the army in maintaining peace must slowly but surely be handed over to non- military agencies such as the police. The task of infrastructure development and rehabilitation must also be entrusted to civi- lian bodies. That the army repaired and rebuilt over 200 schools is praiseworthy, for instance, but sends the signal that civilian organisations are not in charge. The confidence of the people will not be restored unless the region appears safe enough for the army to be seen to be taking a back seat.
Third, the region needs a more efficient justice system. This will not only restore confidence in the state but also reduce the need for illegalities such as arbi-trary detention and extrajudicial killings. Only 57 of the nearly 3,000 cases registered against suspected militants since May 2009 have so far been decided, and there have been three convictions. This is unsurprising since there is only one anti-terrorism judge for the seven districts of Malakand division. Such deficiencies must be addressed if peace in Swat is to be sustainable.

40 Million under Taliban Rule

Human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday that nearly four million people are effectively living under Taliban rule in northwest Pakistan and have been abandoned by the government.
The 130-page report entitled “As if Hell Fell on Me: The Human Rights Crisis in Northwest Pakistan” is likely to ruffle Pakistani officials who believe they made great strides last year in regaining ground from the Taliban.
The London-based organisation said there were credible reports that at least 1,300 civilians were killed during fighting in the northwest in 2009.
There has been little official word on civilians hurt in anti-Taliban campaigns.
“Nearly four million people are effectively living under the Taliban in northwest Pakistan without rule of law and effectively abandoned by the Pakistani government,” said Amnesty's acting head, Claudio Cordone.
The group called the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) a “human rights free zone” and said more than one million displaced people were “in desperate need of aid”.
It urged Pakistan and the Taliban to prevent loss of civilian life and allow unfettered aid workers' access to provide food, shelter and medical supplies to the injured and displaced.
“We have an historic opportunity regarding Fata right now,” Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi .
The international community has put up donor funds and Pakistani troops are operating in an “unprecedented” six of the seven tribal agencies, he said.
“The old tribal order has been hugely disrupted by the Taliban and we have a civilian government in Pakistan that has talked about short and medium-term reform. There is an opportunity to do something about the people of Fata.”The British colonial-era law governing Fata denies residents basic rights and protections, including their rights to political representation, judicial appeal and freedom from collective punishment.
“The Pakistani government has to follow through on its promises to bring the region out of this human rights black hole and place the people of Fata under the protection of the law and constitution of Pakistan,” said Cordone.
Amnesty, which based its report on nearly 300 interviews with residents in the northwest, accused Pakistan of launching “heavy handed” operations, including “indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks”.
It said the Taliban were guilty of systematic abuses, killing those who challenge their authority and imposing their rule through torture and other ill-treatment, targeting women, teachers, aid workers and political activists.
Insurgents increased the likelihood of civilian casualties by dispersing themselves in communities and blocking roads to prevent villagers from escaping “heavy bombardment by government forces”.
But a Pakistani security official contacted challenged Amnesty to visit Swat, where commanders say a decisive battle last year returned much of the northwest valley to relative normality after a two-year uprising.
Significant territory that fell to the Taliban had been regained and urgent efforts were being made to stabilise the areas allowing the displaced to return as soon as it was safe, the official said.

Public Voice!

A majority of Pakistanis don’t approve of Islamabad’s decision to join the US-led war on terror but, at the same time, they don’t believe that the Taliban are fighting for Islam, according to a survey carried out by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (Pips).
Findings of the “Radicalisation in Pakistan” survey released on Tuesday show that 63.6 per cent of the respondents were against joining the war on terror, and 46.3pc were of the opinion that the Taliban were not fighting for Islam.
Even among those who sounded sympathetic to the militant organisation, 39.7pc condemned its acts of violence, such as attacks on girls’ schools, cinemas and CD shops. But about 22pc of them did not know how to respond to such acts.
According to the survey report, Taliban has sympathisers mostly in Balochistan (49.4pc) and Punjab (30.1pc) who believe that they are fighting for Islam.
Surprisingly, there are not many Taliban sympathisers in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Only 22pc respondents in Fata and 25.3pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa believe the Taliban are fighting for Islam.
However, 45.7pc of the respondents in Fata did not respond to the question.
The report reveals that Taliban do not enjoy much support in Sindh, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The respondents appeared concerned about the condition of Muslims and 77.7pc thought that they lagged behind other nations. Most of them (31.2pc) were of the opinion that this is because they had deviated from Islam. Only 18.1pc maintained that it was due to their backwardness in the fields of science and technology.
Another significant finding is that a large number of people (46.8pc) want religio-political parties given a chance to rule the country, despite the fact that the electoral performance of these parties were not “impressive’ in October 2002 when analysts attributed whatever success they achieved to the strong anti-American sentiments in the country.
The respondents also expressed interesting views on Jihad.
Very few (2.7pc) were of the view that Muslims had failed to progress in the world because they had lost their passion to fight against their enemies. About 28pc people believed that Jihad should be waged against cruelty and not to spread Islam to every corner of the world as five per cent of the respondents believed.
A large number of the respondents (20.4pc) were concerned about religious differences in the country. They blamed these disagreements for sectarianism and religious extremism.
However, a large number of people (21.6pc) did not take the disagreements seriously and said that these had been preordained and prophesied. The survey clearly captures growing religiosity among the masses.
Not surprisingly, 65pc of the respondents said a person who did not pray five times a day could not become a better Muslim. Nearly 59pc of them said the struggle for implementation of Sharia was also Jihad.
However, about 81pc of the respondents considered female education as “extremely necessary” and only a small percentage (12.5) thought it was “not very important”.
Nearly 23pc of the people surveyed said they did not listen to music, and (15.8pc) of them said it was because of religious reasons.
Interestingly, 51pc of the total sample endorsed Junaid Jamshaid’s decision to quit singing.
The respondents were from all urban and rural areas in the four provinces, Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir (excluding military restricted areas).
The survey population was selected through probability/random sampling. Most of the people (53.4 and 14.8pc, respectively) belonged to urban areas and small towns. But a significant proportion (29.9pc) came from the rural community. A large majority of the respondents were either in intermediate (29.3pc) or pursuing a graduation or master’s degree (37.5pc).
Only 8.3pc of the people were not literate and 2.2pc had received only madressah education.
Interestingly, the general perception about the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir is at variance with the recent militant discourse.

VAT imposition Vs Education sector

With the beginning of the new academic year from April, parents of children studying at private schools are already paying from Rs10 to Rs50 more on a textbook, depending on the syllabus. But they fear that with the imposition of value-added tax (VAT) in the new budget on the education sector, prices of education-related items will go skyrocketing.
Already uncomfortable with the surging inflation rate, parents now feel really perturbed over reports of VAT imposition on the education sector. Even the stakeholders in the education sector oppose the government’s move to levy VAT. In case of levy of a new tax, the stakeholders may not feel the pinch and ultimately parents will have to swallow the bitter pill of paying extra.
Publishers say the prices of books published by the Sindh Textbook Board have also risen by Rs1.5 per book for class ninth and tenth and 25 to 45 paisas per book from class one to eight in the last one year.
Like every year, paper makers enhance the rate of paper in the peak season in January for the new session and later they reduce the price in April after the book buying spree fades.
However, there was some stability in the prices of stationery items as claimed by manufacturers. Parents also bear an increase in the monthly fees and annual charges by private schools, uniform and shoe prices, school van charges, etc.

Teachers’ protest in Karachi

A protest drive by government school teachers in Sindh has left educational activities in a number of the province’s districts paralysed for the past several days. The teachers are demanding benefits and allowances granted to educators in the other three provinces which, they say, the Sindh government is not willing to extend to them. Teachers say a summary prepared by a government committee for the grant of benefits has been rejected by the chief minister. The government says the summary is under consideration.
Protests have been staged in various towns and cities across the province, including at the Bhutto mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh. However, matters took a nasty turn when the protesting teachers clashed with police in Karachi on Thursday. The police resorted to tear-gas shelling and a baton charge to keep the teachers away from Governor’s House, where they wanted to deliver a memorandum to the governor. On Wednesday, the provincial education minister had criticised the teachers’ associations, for their protest drive, in the Sindh Assembly, saying they had “destroyed education”. He claimed that half the teachers do not show up to take classes, adding that the devolution of the education department to the city and district governments was responsible for the sorry state of education in the province.
In this tug-of-war between the government and teachers, the children of Sindh are suffering the most. Teachers’ representatives have said the protests will continue till the summer vacations and may carry on after the holidays. This is a grim prospect. Educators have every right to peacefully protest and pursue their demands, but this should not be at the cost of children’s education.
A compromise between both sides must be reached. Both the teachers and the government equally share the responsibility of improving the quality of education in Sindh. On the teachers’ part, securing benefits without improving their performance and standards is a questionable goal. On the government’s end, putting the blame for the rot in the education system on past governments will not solve the issue. Concrete measures need to be taken by all stakeholders to improve the falling standards of education in Sindh’s public schools.

Poor Nation Money Wasted

The country is facing severe economic issues, some of which are spiralling out of control. Due to factors as varied as mismanagement, terrorism and the power crisis, the output of the country’s industries has plummeted to an unprecedented low, foreign investment levels are dismal and workers are being laid off in large numbers.
The agricultural sector is in no better shape. It is suffering from the effects of long-term governmental mismanagement, outdated technology and global climate change. The ranks of the newly poor are swelling while inflation is rampant. Even the prices of daily essentials are on the increase while shortages are endemic. The country’s health, education and poverty alleviation systems are in a shambles. These are the grim realities of life in Pakistan today.
It is shocking, therefore, that the Punjab government has sanctioned the purchase of a Rs25m bulletproof Mercedes Benz for the use of the provincial governor, Salman Taseer. This is money, incidentally, that the government apparently does not have. Reportedly, the sum is to be drawn in advance through a supplementary grant before the close of the financial year as a special case by relaxing the rules. What is the pressing need for such a purchase when the federal and provincial governments have announced austerity measures that apply to all kinds of official expenditure from the presidency downwards?
Even if a case were to be made for the governor’s need for security, bulletproof vehicles — albeit older models — are already available. This extravagance amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of the country’s population, wounds that the policies of the ruling elites have inflicted over the decades. Such an obscene display of wealth underscores the disparity between the rich and the poor and tips the balance towards anarchy and rebellion. Pakistan, which is fighting an insurgency in its north-western parts, simply cannot afford this crass profligacy.

Give Them!

Even though we have become increasingly immune to the terror that regularly unfolds in our midst, there is no getting away from the fact that we have failed to control the militant threat. Each month, indeed almost each week, it brings a new litany of deaths. The names of the victims figure briefly in print and then vanish into oblivion. Thousands have now died in such attacks. In most cases we hear little news of the fate of their families. The 'compensation' promised after such attacks, for what it means, is not always paid.
The suicide blast at the Pir Bala check post in the suburbs of Peshawar on Wednesday fits a pattern that has persisted for years. Four policemen manning the post died as an explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into it and six others were injured. As representatives of the state's security apparatus the police have indeed borne the brunt of recent attacks. Under-equipped and under-trained, they are virtually unable to defend themselves. This of course is one reason why the force is so often targeted by killers eager to notch up as many deaths as they can muster. We must find ways to alter the situation. Crucial to this is a re-training of the police. The methods they follow now are antiquated. They offer no protection at all in an environment that has changed beyond recognition and in which they are constantly stalked by well-armed and highly motivated killers. If necessary, experts from overseas should be called in. So too should army trainers. It is cruel to expose young men to such danger without offering them some means to save themselves. They must be given better equipment and know-how that would allow them to take on the militants on a more even footing.

War Cost

The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report 2010 has acknowledged the economic and financial costs Islamabad has incurred due to the security situation in the country. The report places Pakistan among the conflict-affected countries where political uncertainty and fighting continue to disrupt economic activity.
Two other countries in the region — Afghanistan and Nepal — have found a place in this category. Compared to other nations in South Asia, the report says, these three are expected to face more moderate growth outturns. The report also places Pakistan among those countries whose economic growth has been the weakest because they entered the global crisis with large internal and external imbalances. Countries that entered the crisis with stronger economic fundamentals, such as Bangladesh, Bhutan and India, faced up to the problems better.
Pakistan’s internal security problems have worsened in the aftermath of 9/11. It has experienced more violence, particularly acts of terrorism, in recent years than elsewhere in the region. A recent research paper published by the Lahore University of Management Sciences points out that the per capita incidents (of violence) in Pakistan have increased far more rapidly in the last five years than anywhere in the region, mainly because of the insurgency in the northwest of the country. Even Sri Lanka, once considered to be the most violence-prone nation in South Asia, has recently seen its internal security situation improve after the successful quelling of the Tamil separatist movement.
Islamabad has paid a huge economic price for its role in the war on terror. The direct costs of economic disruptions include rapid increases in internal and external security spending at the expense of education and health. Thousands have lost their lives or suffered permanent or temporary destruction of property. Indirect costs include a slowdown in economic growth and manufactured exports. The country’s image has suffered enormously. Foreign buyers are reluctant to travel here and investors have lost confidence in the country. A government estimate puts the direct and indirect costs incurred by the national economy from 2002-2008, because of the war on terror, at just below $5bn. Concessionary funding from multilateral lenders or grants from friendly countries are no solution to Pakistan’s problem. This kind of assistance only encourages consumption, adding to internal and external imbalances. What we need is investment in our energy sector and manufacturing. We need market access in developed countries for our exports. Our economic woes will not go away unless fresh investments are made in the power and manufacturing sectors for job generation and sustainable growth. But before all that we need to formulate sound policies to restore the investors’ confidence.

Basic Facilities for School Children

Millions of children in Pakistan are compelled to study without basic facilities of school building, proper furniture, teaching staff and clean drinking water due to lack of political commitment and dismal status and standard of education, said a statement issued by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc).
As part of activities arranged by Sparc to commemorate Global Campaign for Education (GCE) Week (April 19-25) titled ‘Financing Quality Public Education,’ the organisation carried out a quick assessment of the education data available on the situation of education in all provinces of Pakistan. The assessment revealed that the public expenditure on education as a percentage of the GDP is lowest in Pakistan and not surprisingly investment on education has been decreasing as 2.50 per cent and 2.47 per cent in the year 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively whereas it is estimated to be 2.10 per cent during the 2008-09. The review depicts a grim over all picture.
Pakistan Economic Survey (PES) 2007-08 states that 7,500 schools in Sindh are non-functional while only 1,400 have been reopened till date. The Ministry of Education said that due to poor implementation of the Compulsory Education Ordinance Sindh nearly 50 per cent of the total child population aged 5-15 years is out of schools and in rural areas whereas almost 70 per cent girls have never attended school.
In Balochistan, there are 3,500 ghost schools with half of them without roofs and boundary walls. The National Economic Survey (NES) says that 8.6 per cent out of the 10,381 schools are in a ‘dangerous’ condition. About six per cent do not have buildings, nine per cent lack electricity, 12 per cent are devoid of clean drinking water and 11 per cent are without proper latrine. Despite tall claims, the Punjab government has slashed education sector’s development and non-development budget by 17.8 per cent, decreasing the allocation for 2009-10 to Rs45.509 billion from Rs55.401 billion for 2008-09.
In Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, the government has turned a blind eye towards female education. In primary education only 34.4 per cent girls have been enrolled as compared to 65.6 per cent boys. Similarly, in secondary school girls’ enrolment is 32.1 per cent as compared to 67.9 per cent boys.

Food Crisis

Pakistan may face serious food deficits and high food inflation with a 2.8 per cent population growth and a decline of 5 per cent in per acre yield because of global warming, says a new report submitted to the Planning Commission.
Pakistan needs to develop heat-resistant varieties of foodgrains since the average growth rate of major crops has declined from 3.34 per cent during the 1980s to 2.38 in the 1990s. At the same time, the frequency of negative growth years in some major crops has increased, according to the report of a panel of economists formed by the commission to suggest measures under medium-term development imperatives and strategy.
The instability of crop sector growth and the increased frequency of negative growth year becomes a structural factor in poverty creation. Since almost all possible arable land is now under cultivation, enhancement in agricultural production will have to come from an increase in yield, which is at present low by international standards.
The panel listed five major institutional constraints, reduced water availability, efficiency of irrigation, high-yield seeds, research capability and degradation of soils.
While the availability of irrigation water has been reduced, the report says the requirement of water at the farm level has increased due to increased deposits of salts on the top soil and the consequent need for leaching. About 33 million tons of salts are annually brought into the Indus Basin Irrigation System, of which 24 million tons are retained.
As a result of increasing water deficit farmers even in irrigated areas are dependent on rainfall. The future agricultural growth will have to rely on improving the efficiency of the use of water and other inputs. The rehabilitation of irrigation system for improving irrigation efficiency has become a crucial policy challenge for sustainable growth of agriculture.
The sharp rise in international prices of foodgrains and the opportunities arising for Pakistani farmers to trade in other cash crops and enhance their earnings could contribute significantly to a rapid enlargement of middle class even in rural areas.
In order to augment farmer prosperity the report stressed the need for narrowing the gap between the yields achieved by progressive farmers and the large number of small farmers, and shifting cropping patterns in favour of value-added horticulture at present suffers because of marketing system.
The panel also stressed the need for producing more vigorous seed varieties adapted to local environmental conditions, and their diffusion among farmers through an effective research and extension programme. There is no organised seed industry in the country to meet the needs of farmers.
A new dimension to the imperative of improving research capability in the crop sector is indicated by the possibility of declining yields per acre because of global warming. Given the sensitivity of wheat seed to temperature increase, even a two-degree centigrade increase in average summer temperatures would mean an absolute yield decline of between 10 and 16 per cent this century.
The current ineffectiveness of agriculture research and poor diffusion among farmers is a cause of concern, particularly so in a situation where future growth and labour absorption will have to depend more on input efficiency than on enlargement of irrigated acreage and input intensification, which were major sources of agriculture growth in the past.
One of the most important constraints to sustainable growth in the crop sector is the degradation of soil, resulting from improper practices such as lack of crop rotation and the resultant loss of humus in the top soil, stripping of top soil and resultant loss of fertility associated with over-grazing, erosion along hill sides and river banks due to cutting down of trees and depletion of natural vegetation.

Peshawar on Target!

At least 23 people, including a deputy superintendent of police and leaders and activists of Jamaat-i-Islami, were killed and 42 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a protest demonstration of the party in the city’s historical Qissa Khwani Bazaar on Monday evening.

Jamaat’s district naib amir Haji Dost Mohammad Khan, DSP Gulfat Hussain and two constables were among the dead. The party’s provincial general-secretary Shabir Ahmad Khan and district amir Sabir Hussain Awan were injured in the suicide attack.
“The explosion took place soon after Haji Dost Mohammad had offered the concluding prayers at the end of the demonstration against loadshedding and leaders were shaking hands to see off each other,” said Mohammad Shahid, a Jamaat worker.
Rehmatullah Khan, another JI worker who lost his brother Haji Samiuddin in the attack, said that protesters were about to disperse when the blast took place.
Eyewitnesses said the place was littered with human flesh and blood and broken glasses and items of damaged shops strewn all over the place. There were groaning and cries of the injured and wailing of hospital ambulances.
The blast damaged several vehicles and nearby shops. Security forces cordoned off the Qissa Khwani Bazaar and closed link roads.
A security official said that a suspected suicide bomber who had been arrested three days ago informed investigators that seven of his associates from the Orakzai Agency had been assigned the task of launching attacks in different areas.
The bodies and the injured were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital. Some of the injured JI leaders were later shifted to the party’s Al-Khidmat Hospital.
The LRH chief executive said that 23 bodies and 42 injured had been brought to the hospital. Six of them were in serious condition.
An official of the Khan Raziq police station said that three constables, Imdad Ali, Mohtamim Khan and Zahid, had suffered injuries. Zahid later succumbed to his wounds.

School Blast

Earlier in the day, a time-device exploded outside the main gate of Police Public School on Jamrud Road in the busy Board Bazaar, killing a five-year-old student and injuring seven others.
Town police DSP Haroon-ur-Rasheed Babar told reporters that the bomb had been planted inside an empty shop on the Jamrud Road. It was detonated at a time when students of junior classes had left the Police Public School and the rest were coming out at about 1.15pm.
He said the device might have been detonated by a cellular phone.
However, an official of the bomb disposal unit said it was a time bomb and was probably put in a school bag or shopping bag because parts of bags had been found at the scene. The explosives, he said, weighed about two to three kilograms.
The blast left a crater, destroyed two motorcars and two shops.
The injured were taken to the Khyber Teaching Hospital. According to a hospital source, five-year-old student Taimur was killed on the spot. The injured students were identified as Aftab, Akhtar Hassan, Muddasir, Fahad, Shakirullah, Junaid, Hassan Raza and Lala Gul.

Conserving national heritage

It is with both elation and concern that we welcome the federal culture ministry’s recommendations on the ‘compilation of inventory of cultural assets’ in the country, as reported on Friday. Our sense of elation stems from the fact that at long last the ministry has taken up the important task of documenting the cultural heritage of Pakistani people — including ethnic minorities — and the country’s archaeological sites, which are in dire need of conservation.
However, of particular concern is the fact, as voiced by the relevant subcommittee, that budgetary allocations for the task remain woefully low. The ministry has a paltry Rs3.3m per annum to conserve some 400 listed monuments, which it says boils down to Rs8,000 per heritage site. That is a pathetic state of affairs.
In so diverse a country, the culture ministry needs far greater funding to do justice to all religious and ethnic groups and their individual or shared secular heritage. As it is, the existing condition of even the Mughal monuments, which are wholeheartedly owned by the state and the people alike, presents a picture of utter neglect.
Invaluable prehistoric sites like Moenjodaro, Harappa as well as the vast tracts of the Gandhara civilisation are even worse off. Given the existing funds available with the ministry, the monumental task it wants to undertake seems impossible. The subcommittee on culture fell short of identifying alternative sources of funding, such as foreign donors, Unesco or local philanthropist organisations that may be tapped for the purpose. A lot of what Pakistan has in cultural heritage is after all global in its historical appeal. Efforts should be made to reach out to the world and solicit funds for conserving our cultural treasures across the country.

Embracing identity

Identity is what distinguishes heritage from history. We can ignore, if not redo and delete, portions of our history that we choose not to like but we cannot avoid our heritage. It is, after all, what makes us what we are.
Even when we are not consciously aware of the origin of our architecture, customs and traditions, at a subconscious level we follow them as a silent tribute to our forefathers who first came up with them. This justifies our urge to save our heritage from disappearing. Motivated by this urge, a citizen has moved the Lahore High Court for the protection and preservation of two major heritage sites in the Salt Range. He told the court that the Malot and Katras forts have not just suffered due to the ravages of time and the elements, they are further threatened by unceasing mining and industrial operations in the area. His petition also highlighted the apathy of the federal and the Punjab governments in taking no note of the precarious condition of the two forts built more than a thousand years ago.
That the court has taken up the petition is a welcome development. It may divert official attention to the plight of the forts that may one day collapse because of mining beneath them and corrosive industrial activities around them. It may also help the government, local residents, mining companies and factory owners realise that monuments such as the Malot and Katras forts are the roots of our culture.
Letting these roots wither at the altar of commercialisation is as dangerous as the idea of ignoring them due to their pre-Islamic origin. Taking immediate steps for their preservation will not just be a compliment to the great civilisation we have inherited from those distant times. It will also be an acknowledgement of the soul-stirring synthesis that emerged with the confluence of Islamic and sub-continental culture. Conserving Malot and Katras could become one big step towards retrieving that synthesis from under the heap of some recent and not so helpful influences.

Drones are making trouble to civilian, says study

One out of every three killed by US drone in Pakistan is a civilian, says a report by the New America Foundation.
The Washington-based think-tank had issued a similar report in October last year, which showed these strikes were decimating the militants, killing their leaders as well as low-level activists.
But the latest report warns that civilian deaths in these strikes were alarming as 32 per cent of drone victims in Fata over the past six years have been civilians.
The report ‘The Year of the Drone’ compiles and analyses the results of 114 drone strikes that killed over 1,000 people.
“Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, including 18 in 2010, from 2004 to the present, have killed approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals,” says the report.
“Of these, around 549 to 849 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 per cent.”
The report, however, insists that the drone strikes are an unpopular but necessary evil.
The US media, while reporting the New America Foundation’s findings, conceded that the percentage of civilian casualties in drone strikes was ‘mind-numbing’ and described the drones as ‘unmanned flying death squads’.
The Year of the Drone
Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, who compiled the report, note that 2009 was the year of the drone, as there were 51 reported strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, compared to a total of 45 during two terms under President George W. Bush. So far in 2010, between 80 and 140 reported militants have been killed in drone strikes.
Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud seems to have been a frequent target of the strikes, and was reportedly killed by one in mid-January.
None of the reported strikes has appeared to target America’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. Nor has his top deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, been targeted since he narrowly escaped being killed in a drone strike four years ago.
Nor has the expanded drone programme stopped Al Qaeda and its allies from continuing to train western recruits. Between 100 and 150 westerners are believed to have travelled to Fata in 2009.
Key militant figures reportedly sleep outside under trees to avoid being targeted. Taliban regularly execute suspected ‘spies’ in Waziristan accused of providing information to the United States.
The report asserts that drone strikes might be on shaky legal ground, according to Columbia Law School professor Matthew Waxman:
“The principle of proportionality says that a military target may not be attacked if doing so is likely to cause incidental civilian casualties or damage that would be excessive in relation to the expected military advantage of the attack....But there is no consensus on how to calculate these values.… Nor is there consensus on what imbalance is ‘excessive.’”
The study relates that the drone strategy isn’t a strategy at all- but a tactic – and one that backfires.
The report, however, notes that the Americans insist on carrying out the strikes because they do not have too many alternatives for eliminating the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists hiding in Fata.
Pakistan has forbidden the US from employing ground forces within Fata and the Americans do not have other resources in the area to deploy against the militants.
The report speculates that the US is quite unlikely to use drone strikes in Balochistan to target Taliban reportedly hiding in and around Quetta. Balochistan is part and parcel of the Pakistani state, unlike the northwestern tribal areas, which have their own legal and social codes.
“Despite the controversy drone strikes are likely to remain a critical tool for the United States to disrupt Al Qaeda and Taliban operations and leadership structures,” the study concludes.

Benazir Bhutto assassination report set for release

Benazir Commission Committee Members

An independent panel is to release on Thursday, 15th April 2010, its sensitive report on the 2007 assassination of Pakistani ex-premier Benazir Bhutto after complying with Islamabad's request for a two-week delay.
Pakistan said last week it had asked that the release, initially scheduled for March 30, be delayed so that input from Afghanistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia could be included.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said he had asked the UN-appointed, three-member panel to include input from former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Saudi Arabia in its report.
He did not elaborate further on what information he wanted to be included.
Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27, 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.
On Wednesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told a press briefing that the panel headed by Chile's ambassador to the UN Heraldo Munoz would formally present its report to UN chief Ban Ki-moon Thursday afternoon.
“The Secretary General then intends to transmit it to the government of Pakistan, and he will also share it, for information purposes, with the members of the Security Council,” the spokesman added.
Munoz and one of the other panel members, Indonesian ex-attorney general Marzuki Darusman, were to give a press conference late Thursday to provide details of the report.
The delay in releasing the report was announced late last month only hours after a UN spokeswoman in Islamabad said all UN offices in Pakistan would close for three days as a security precaution.
The measure affected more than 2,000 staff in dozens of offices around the nuclear-armed country with a population of 167 million.
On October 5, a suicide bomber clad in military uniform attacked the heavily fortified UN World Food Program office in Islamabad, killing five staff members.
Security is precarious in parts of Pakistan, where more than 3,150 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks over the last three years. The violence has been blamed on militants opposed to the government's relations with the United States.
Bhutto's supporters have cast doubt on an initial Pakistani probe into her death, questioning whether she was killed by a gunshot or the blast and criticizing authorities for hosing down the scene of the attack within minutes.
Bhutto wrote in her autobiography of warnings that four suicide squads — including one sent by a son of Osama bin Laden — were after her.
She also repeatedly accused a cabal of senior Pakistani intelligence and government officials of plotting to kill her, notably in an attack that killed 139 people in Karachi on October 18, 2007 when she returned from exile.

Air strikes in Khyber

Saturday’s, 10th April 2010, bombings in Khyber Agency have shocked the nation and an official apology is in order, not just from the civilian administration but also the armed forces. It is clear from eyewitness accounts that the 60 or so people killed in aerial bombardments in Sra Vela were innocent tribesmen with no links to the militancy wracking the tribal belt.
Even as the military establishment denied that civilians had been killed, it was reported that the victims would receive significant monetary compensation in addition to food supplies. In effect, it has been acknowledged that a huge blunder was made, one that has scarred the lives of dozens of families. The incident reflects poorly on the security apparatus’s intelligence-gathering capacity and has the potential to erode the support the government currently enjoys in its battle against Taliban-inspired militancy. A bomb dropped on the house of a serving army soldier was followed by another even more devastating attack when area residents rushed to the scene. Such actions defy description and an explanation is in order from those who ordered the assault.
It was realised quite some time ago that avoiding ‘collateral damage’ is a key factor when it comes to winning hearts and minds. This cannot be achieved when people who are most directly affected by the savagery of the Taliban also come under unintentional attack from the state. True, US drone strikes have become more precise in recent months, leading to fewer civilian casualties. Also, the military’s decision to confront the militants head-on by putting more boots on the ground has to some extent reduced the collateral damage caused by long-distance artillery assaults. But Saturday’s incident in Khyber Agency shows that dangerous intelligence gaps persist and that these need to be rectified forthwith. Damage control alone cannot suffice.
As we said at the outset, any repeat of the Sra Vela tragedy can undermine the fight against militancy. The heartbreak caused by such attacks strengthens the hands of the Taliban who want public opinion to turn against the state. Considerable gains have been made in recent months with the military going on the offensive and tribesmen raising their own anti-Taliban fighting units. A reversal of fortunes is simply unaffordable. Then there are several ‘conservative’ and outright extremist players in the political arena who have much in common with the Taliban and want to see an end to the military operation. Civilian casualties in the battle arena give them more vitriol with which to embellish claims that this is America’s war, not Pakistan’s. They must be denied the chance to add fuel to the fire.

Violence at Abbottabad

Protesters burn furniture in a riot in Abbottabad. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets to express anger over the change of the name of their province to Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. Police fired tear gas and bullets into the crowd after they attacked police stations and burn vehicles, killing seven people, police said

Political violence in Pakistan is difficult to decipher from afar. But what happened in Abbottabad appears to be tied to a struggle between the PML-Q and PML-N in the first instance and the lack of a prompt public-awareness campaign in the Hazara region generally by the ANP-led provincial government.
The renaming of the NWFP as Khyber Pakthunkhwa has gone down badly in the Hazara region and there appears to be genuine grassroots dissent against a name that the non-Pakhtun, Hindko-speaking population of the region does not identify with. Sensing an opportunity, the PML-Q has tried to capitalise on the emergence of the malcontents at the expense of the PML-N.
In the February 2008 elections, the PML-N trounced the PML-Q in the areas which have traditionally been Muslim League strongholds. Now with the PML-N voting in favour of ‘Khyber Pakthunkhwa’, the PML-Q is trying to portray itself as the real defenders of the rights of the people of the Hazara region and perhaps make a comeback in the region. The alacrity with which the PML-Q has grabbed the opportunity can be gauged by the fact that erstwhile rivals, some might say bitter enemies, in the party have come together to stand up for the ‘rights’ of Hazara’s people.
But the main reason the PML-Q has been able exploit the unhappiness in the Hazara region is the negligence of the ANP-led provincial government. Yes, the demand for the ‘Pakhtunkhwa’ name is legitimate and has the support of the majority of the province. But the ANP should have taken more care to reassure the people of the Hazara region, and even the Seraiki-speaking population in southern NWFP, that the name change would not impact the rights of the ‘minority’ ethnicities. The ANP has appeared more obsessed with the renaming issue than the everyday concerns of the people of the province. Identity matters, clearly, but so do things like jobs, reducing inflation and improving public services. So elated has the ANP been at the fulfilment of a century-old demand, that it appears to have forgotten there are more pressing issues that the people of the province care about.

NWFP = Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan's North West Frontier Province was officially renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday.
After getting the National Assembly's nod of approval earlier this week, the bill has now been passed by the Senate. Eighty senators voted in favour of the new name, while just 12 opposed it. An amendment which had been moved by the PML-Q against the province's renaming was rejected by the upper house.

NWFP schools’ closure

The shortage of teachers has forced the closure of 367 government-run primary schools for girls and boys across the NWFP, more than 30 of them in Peshawar alone. As a result, over 36,700 students are now out of school, most of them in remote areas where there is no option of taking admission in another school.
The problem lies not in the shortage of teachers per se, but in the fact that the teachers in most of the now-closed schools, which were located in far-flung areas, managed to obtain transfers to other schools of their choice — mainly located in urban areas. Security concerns and transport problems discourage teachers from working in remote areas. Furthermore, teachers in urban areas receive more attractive allowances.
This is an unacceptable state of affairs. The number of educational institutions, primary schools in particular, in the NWFP has always been far from adequate. The situation plummeted in recent years when the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militant outfits put schools, particularly those for girls, in their crosshairs. With this threat having been reduced to some extent, it is now essential that schools stay open and, indeed, try to increase the numbers of admissions.
That people want their children to have access to education is evident from the fact that the schools now closed remained functional for many years after their establishment, and were staffed by teachers appointed by the Elementary and Secondary Education department — teachers who have now abandoned their positions and left thousands of students in the lurch. The matter merits urgent attention by the authorities: education is not just a constitutional right but also plays a critical role in lifting people out of poverty and darkness. Proper education is also crucial to ensuring that anarchic elements never, in future, find the province conducive to their activities.

Dismal realities

If anyone remains to be convinced about the truly dismal state of affairs prevailing in the country, they would find ample evidence in a report released on Monday by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. A roundup of the statistics of 2009, the report reads as an indictment of the state’s inability to protect its citizens. Unsurprisingly, terrorist attacks are identified as constituting the greatest threat to fundamental rights. The report estimates that over 3,000 people were killed during the year under review in 2,586 incidents of terrorism across the country, including 108 suicide bombings. Yet the civilian population has not been left unscathed by even the various state-sponsored and state-supported efforts to combat the militants. Meanwhile, the HRCP report refers to complaints about extra-judicial and revenge killings in the aftermath of the Swat operation where in a disturbing trend echoing the Taliban’s tactics, bodies were found strung upside down, bearing warnings that anyone supporting the militants would meet the same fate. Furthermore, the HRCP claims, the principle that military operations against terrorists should be carried out in a manner that does not violate the human rights of combatants and non-combatants was not always followed.
The news is bad in other areas too. As compared to the previous year, 2009 saw a sharp increase in violence against women and religious minorities, while new incidents of ‘enforced disappearances’ continued to be reported from across the country. Crimes such as target killings, kidnapping for ransom, ‘honour’ killings and domestic violence continued to be committed with impunity, with little evidence of success in the state’s efforts to contain them. No one in government appears to recognise that quite apart from terrorism and militancy; there is an urgent need to improve the lot of the people. After years of suffering, the people crave security for their lives, properties, livelihoods and future. The HRCP report estimates that of the 70 million children in the country almost 20.3 million do not go to school. What we will see in future years is an increasingly uneducated and brutalised population that harbours great resentment against the state.

Eradicating polio

Battling the spread of the polio virus and its eventual eradication from the country are among the major public health challenges confronting Pakistan. Though there have been several official polio awareness campaigns and immunisation drives, some lacunae remain which need to be plugged if the virus is to be eliminated.
While discussing anti-polio efforts at the start of the latest eradication campaign in Karachi, the country representative of the World Health Organisation pointed to some of the problems hampering polio eradication efforts, specifically with reference to cases detected in the city. He said that as per available data, most of the cases detected in Karachi were found in people who had come to the metropolis from other parts of the country. He reiterated the need to incorporate the migrant population in the overall anti-polio campaign instead of excluding it from official plans. The WHO official also stressed upon the government to ensure that migrants’ health, education and sanitation needs are met, particularly the provision of drinking water.
Karachi has always been a magnet for migrants from within Pakistan and abroad, primarily due to its status as the country’s economic capital. But ever since the armed forces initiated their operations against militants in the tribal belt and Malakand, a steady trickle of internally displaced persons has also been arriving in the city. It is imperative that those taking refuge in Karachi because of conflict or economic reasons are included in the anti-polio drive. And as Waziristan and Malakand have been relatively pacified, the federal and provincial governments should take the anti-polio drive to these areas, making it a priority to send immunisation teams to far-flung regions. The efficacy of the anti-polio vaccines and drops must also be guaranteed while the authorities should counter the negative propaganda generated by extremist elements regarding the vaccine.
With regard to the tribal areas and Malakand, if the government can prove it holds the welfare of the people dear by immunising their children and looking after their health needs, it may go a long way towards winning hearts and minds.

Load shedding > Nation’s patience

Electricity shortfall rose to a staggering 4,500MW on Wednesday, forcing the Pakistan Electric Power Company to resort to a massive 10-hour unscheduled load shedding across the country.
Karachi suffered eight to 10 hours of power shutdown.
Although figures released by Pepco put the deficit at 3,021MW, the prolonged country-wide load shedding belied those figures.
The company said the total demand was 12,441MW on Wednesday and it generated 9,420MW. Pepco said its thermal units produced 2,550MW, independent power producers contributed 5,535MW and 1,332MW came from the hydel component.
Wapda, however, disputed the figures on hydel generation, saying its peak hour contribution was about 2,500MW, and not 1,332MW as claimed by Pepco.
According to reports reaching , the duration of load shedding was between 12 and 15 hours on Wednesday. This is despite the fact that use of tubewells is at minimum these days as wheat crop has matured in Sindh and the last watering has been completed in Punjab. Had these 200,000 tubewells been operational, rural areas would have been virtually without electricity.
The textile industry called for a strike on Thursday on other accounts, but the situation was not any better than a shutdown on Wednesday either.
“No one now knows when will electricity go and come, and for how long. All this is taxing the industry of its financial promise,” he said.
The Karachi Electric Supply Company suffered a serious blow to its generation capacity as the Pakistan State Oil refused to continue fuel supply to the power utility on loan.
KESC’s shortfall reached 500MW on Wednesday.
While industrial areas faced about six hours of loadshedding, power outages stretched up to 10 hours in residential areas of the city.
The situation drew the attention of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad who called both the KESC CEO and PSO MD to the Governor’s House and told them that people must not suffer because of an unsettled technical dispute between the two companies.

Growing Suicide Attacks

An additional number of 216 Pakistanis have so far been killed in 15 incidents of suicide bombings across Pakistan in the first 70 days of this year, compared with the first 70 days of 2009 during which 11 such assaults were carried out.
According to available facts and figures, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of suicide attacks and subsequent killings during the first six weeks of 2010, which killed 321 people and injured over 500 in 15 suicide bombings that took place across Pakistan in the first 70 days of 2010 (between January 1 and March 12), showing 216 more deaths compared with the first 70 days of 2009 (between January 1 and March 12) during which 105 people were killed. Therefore, the daily average killing rate for the first 70 days of 2010 comes to four and a half people while the weekly killing rate stands at 10 people. According to the data compiled by the Punjab home department, 145 people were killed in five incidents of suicide bombings in January this year; another 101 people lost their lives in seven such attacks in February while 75 people have so far been killed in the first 12 days of 2010.
At least 45 people lost their lives in the latest suicide attacks in the Cantonment area of Lahore on January 12, killing 45 people, including at least half a dozen Army Jawans. Hardly three days earlier (on March 12),at least 18 people were killed, including nine policemen when a suicide bomber riding a car ripped through rented offices of the Special Intelligence Agency (SIA) in the Model Town Society. However, the deadliest suicide attack of 2010 was carried out on January 1 when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden double cab pickup in the middle of the volleyball ground in Lakki Marwat, killing 105 people. The dead included policemen, Frontier Constabulary personnel as well as volley ball players. Another significant incident of suicide bombing took place on February 4, 2010, when three US military personnel were killed in a suicide car bombing attack on a forces convoy in Koto area of Dir Lower. The dead included three schoolgirls and a Frontier Corps soldier. The blast took place near a girls’ high school that pulled the building down, injuring 130 others.
Before the dawn of 2010, the year 2009 had proved to be the bloodiest one for the people of Pakistan since Islamabad joined hands with Washington in the war on terror. At least 1,217 innocent people were killed and 2,305 injured in 80 bloody attacks carried out by human bombs in 12 months of 2009 (between January and December 2009). The last year had proved to be the bloodiest in terms of the number of suicide attacks and the subsequent death toll since the 9/11 episode, especially after the Lal Masjid operation carried out by the Army in July 2007. Of the 1,217 innocent Pakistanis who lost their lives in suicide bombings in 2009, the number of civilian casualties stood at 863 while the remaining 354 martyred belonged to the security and law-enforcement agencies. Of them, 137 belonged to the police, 102 were Army officers and Jawans, 51 were the FC personnel, 28 were staff members of the Inter-Services Intelligence, 22 belonged to the Khasadar Force, 12 belonged to the Pakistan Rangers and two others were employees of the Pakistan Navy. On average, around 72 civilians and 30 security and law-enforcement agencies’ personnel lost their lives every month in 2009 due to suicide bombings.
Authorities investigating the unending spate of suicide bombings are of the view most of these attacks have been carried out by the Punjabi Taliban belonging to four sectarian-cum-Jihadi groups which are working in tandem with the Pashtun-dominated Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They believe several South Punjab-based members of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, who had taken part in the Afghan war, have now tied up with the TTP to carry out suicide attacks across Pakistan, especially targeting key military installations. South Punjab has grabbed the attention of Pakistani authorities over the past few months because of involvement of the Taliban in a spate of Fidayeen-style suicide bombings, including the one targeting the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi on October 10, 2009