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.