Brute Force

Despite claims made by the government officials regarding the introduction of radical changes in the police investigation system as well as the thana culture, the reality is otherwise.

On Feb 2, 2009, the officials of Kotwali police station, Gujranwala, arrested one Baber Bhatti on the count of gambling as he was on his way to the hospital for a routine medical check-up. He was publicly beaten up by the policemen and then made to ride a donkey around the city. A day after the incident, on Feb 3, the Wazirabad city police (it also falls under the jurisdiction of the Gujranwala district) beat four people in public, using a piece of reinforced leather called 'chhittar'.
The next day, the Mozang police in Lahore resorted to similar kind of violence in two separate incidents. The policemen took five accused of gambling to Bhoondpura Chowk in the form of a procession, during the peak hours, created a commotion to attract a maximum number of people, and forced them down on the road. One of the cops placed his foot on the neck of the accused while the other two held him by his hands and feet and, finally, the fourth (cop) used the good old 'chhittar'. One by one, the cops thrashed all the five accused, after removing their lower garments, and forced them to say aloud, "Mein jua naeen khedaan gaa" (I won't gamble again).
In the second incident, the same policemen tortured another accused, using the same methods, as scores of people stood witness. Some of them couldn't tolerate the sight of so much torture and passed out on the spot.
The high-handedness of police is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. Although police officials and different governments have occasionally claimed introducing radical changes in the police investigation system as well as the thana culture, the reality is otherwise. A recent police torture data released by the Karachi-based Madadgaar Helpline shows that from January 2008 to June '08, a total of 743 cases of police torture were reported. The provincial break-up of the figure shows that four cases were reported from Balochistan, 29 from NWFP, 406 from Punjab and 304 cases from Sindh. The nature of abuse ranges from 79 cases of murder, 20 of rape, 333 of illegal detention, 256 of physical torture and 55 harassment cases. The graph of police torture/violence on people is on the rise.
"A further analysis reveals that 416 cases occurred at police stations, 252 at workplace, 66 at victims' residences, and 52 at public places, 57 in private jails, 60 in jail and 92 cases were reported at abandoned places," reads the report.
Muhammad Maqbool, DIG, Loralai police, Balochistan, says that the answer to minimal or no police torture cases in Balochistan and NWFP lies in their social structure that is based on a strong tribal system. "The tradition of revenge in tribal culture keeps the police in control,".
Punjab Police officials claim using torture as a tool not only to investigate the accused or the criminals but also to curb crimes. "Such public punishments can inspire awe and fear (of the police) among the public. Believe me, 80 percent of crime is controlled this way," said a deputy superintendent of Punjab police requesting anonymity.
He said that if the Station House Officer (SHO) of a certain area gets tough, the people in his area would think twice before they commit a crime. The low ranking police officials who are 'famous' for using the third degree are a favourite with the high officials, he added.
According to him, common torture methods employed by police officials include standing for hours with arms stretched to a side, hanging by the ankles, twisting the genitals, clubbing, not allowing them to use toilets for hours, burning with cigarettes, whacking the soles of the feet, sexual assault, prolonged isolation, electric shock, denial of food or sleep, hanging upside down, forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters and public humiliation. The police official also admitted having private investigation cells where the accused were kept without formal arrest. "If we keep the record of arrests, we will have to produce them before a judicial magistrate within 24 hours of their arrest and seek physical remand. Since there is usually no record of who is taken in and released, nobody from outside the police station can prove any wrongdoing."
Ironically, torture is prohibited in Pakistan's constitution as well as criminal justice system and Sharia laws. According to Article 14 of the Pakistan Constitution, sub article (a), "No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidences." Article 38 and 39 of the Law of Evidence exhorts that "no confession made to a police officer shall be permissible against a person accused of any offence. No confession made by any person whilst he is in custody of a police officer unless it be made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate shall be proved as against such person."
Under the Qisas and Diyat Ordinances, causing of hurt by any person to extort "any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of any offence or misconduct" is defined as a distinct, punishable offence.
Furthermore, Pakistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights whose Article 5 states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
On the one hand, Pakistani laws bar use of torture against any body, on the other, the human rights organizations rate Pakistan among the most vulnerable countries regarding police torture. The Amnesty International says that every year more than 100 people are killed in Pakistan due to police torture. The HRCP annual report 2007 says that as many as 147 cases of torture in police custody and at least 65 cases of death in police custody were reported.
According to the report, the Lahore High Court has observed that it seemed difficult to save the public from police excesses, irrespective of the new legislation. The most revealing data about police torture was released by Madadgaar Helpline at the end of the year 2008. According to the report, over the past nine years, there have been 9,364 reported cases of police torture. Of the total, 231 cases were reported in 2000, 555 in 2001, 996 in 2002, 838 in 2003, 1,260 in 2004, 1,356 in 2005, 1,662 in 2006, 1723 in 2007 and 743 in the first six months of 2008.
A senior police official of a federal institution formed in order to steer the police reform efforts in the country told that in civilized societies torture could not be used as a policy tool to curb or investigate crimes. "Unfortunately, investigation skills of police in Pakistan are pathetic. They are not capable of extracting information by other means."
He declared that the police high officials who resorted to torturous methods were punished duly. However, the data available regarding 'Punishment awarded to police personnel during 01.01.2008 to 31.12.2008' of Punjab police presents a different picture. According to the data, a total 65 Punjab police officials (two inspectors, three sub-inspectors, 28 assistant sub-inspectors, 10 head constables and 22 constables) were given 'major and minor' disciplinary punishment on the basis of the torture category. The data further reveals that 33 out of these punishments were just of 'censure'. The data clearly shows the seriousness of the police high officials regarding controlling the practice of torture among its ranks.
Tariq Abbas Qureshi, district police officer, Sahiwal district, informs that torture is the only resort since the police have no scientific means of investigation at their disposal. "Most of the investigation officers are not capable of comprehending the medical legal certificate. They are incapable, in most of cases, of taking assistance from the MLS or post-mortem reports. They do not even have the capacity to use fingerprint matching, leave aside DNA test or other forensic methods. So the only resort left is torture."
In our police investigation system, an accused is arrested and then evidence is 'extracted' out of him/her. In the developed countries, on the contrary, there is no concept of formally arresting the accused unless there is sufficient material available against him/her.
Here the police are obliged to recover the stolen property from the criminals. The court refuses to convict the accused unless the stolen property is recovered. This puts immense pressure on the police to recover stolen property within fourteen days (usual period of judicial remand). This is the reason why the police tortures and keeps the accused in custody without formally arresting them to complete the recoveries.
He says that the police are also used by influential people of an area to humiliate their opponents publicly, although the practice has been reduced by the present government.
Zia Ahmed Awan, President, Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), the body that runs Madagaar Helpline, tells that the police department has always been a symbol of terror. "Gradual increase in violence by the police shows serious negligence of concerned government departments, particularly the law enforcement agencies. Because of the stigma attached, discrimination against victims and the police's non-cooperative attitude, the corrupt officials and culprits continue to remain at large. This is a source of encouragement to criminal minded officials."
He also says that the data provided by Madagaar Helpline consists of just the cases that were reported in the media. "I personally think that 90 percent of such cases are not reported in the media due to different reasons."
The current police system, he says, is obsolete and, as a result, the condition of innocent people and victims has increasingly become pathetic. "The government is not taking any positive steps to improve the system and enforce laws while the civil society and political parties are also not standing up for positive changes or a proper implementation of the Police Ordinance in order to pressurize the incumbent government to bring about the much-awaited change.
"Pakistan is a country where even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the apex court, is not spared physical and mental torture (at the hands of the law enforcement agencies), let alone the common people," he laments.

Role of law

Certain laws 'empower' the police to unleash terror on citizens with impunity.

While the police can act against civilians whenever they want, in violation of the law of the land, there are certain laws that grant them immense powers to use them arbitrarily. To put it simply, certain powers and laws encourage the police to unleash terror on citizens with impunity.
For example, Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) empowers the police to arrest a person without an order or warrant, on mere suspicion. As per law, such powers can be exercised only in cases where a police officer is in possession of some evidence indicating the involvement of a person in situations mentioned in Section 54(1) of Cr. PC. But in most of the cases, it is noticed that the police officer arrested a person without collecting any material connecting with commission of the offences.
A police officer tells that the laws are violated mainly for the reason that the seniors who are supposed to take disciplinary actions themselves encourage such acts.
He says that the inclusion of a couple of words or changing of a situation slightly can make a non-cognisable offence into a cognisable one. The root of the problem is the excessive use of police by those in power to target their opponents.
He says there is a big difference between a peaceful assembly and one that is not. A police officer has the power to declare the assemblers as trouble makers and book them under anti-terrorism laws. All he has to do is to mention in the FIR that the assemblers were chanting anti-state slogans and inciting each other to destroy public property.
Hafiz Zahid, an agriculturist from Mardan, tells that many a time the police officials collude with criminals to commit a crime. He says it has happened many a time that they arrest people for involvement in some minor crimes like cattle theft and send them to the lockup. In fact, these people are most of the time planners of bigger crimes like murders, abductions and gang rapess. When the aggrieved nominates them in criminal cases they get relief from courts on the grounds that they were in the lock-up at the time of the committal of the said crimes, Zahid adds. This excuse is called 'plea of alibi' in legal terms.
The registration of FIR is where the police can play the most and use different clauses of the relevant laws to facilitate themselves, says Intezar Mehdi Advocate, a Lahore-based lawyer. For example, if a person has abducted somebody, the FIR can be filed under both Section 365 and Section 365 A of the Pakistan Penal Code. The punishment under the former is 7 years maximum, whereas under the latter one can even get a death sentence.
Mehdi says it is up to the police officer to decide under which clause he is going to register the case.
He says Section 365 of the PPC pertains to kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine the person: "Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person with intent to cause that person to be secretly and wrongfully confined, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine."
Whereas he says Section 365-A of PPC is about kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc. It says, "Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person for the purpose of extorting from the person kidnapped or abducted, or from any person interested in the person kidnapped or abducted any property, whether movable or immovable, or valuable security, or to compel any person to comply with any other demand, whether in cash or otherwise, for obtaining release of the person kidnapped or abducted, shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to forfeiture of property.
This means that by simply mentioning extortion as the purpose of kidnapping a police officer can increase the penalty from a maximum of seven years and fine to death.
The list of laws abused by the police is exhaustive and includes blasphemy, hudood, public obsenity and several other laws. Though these problems exist on a large scare, mere realisation among the police that they are no more subservient to colonial rule but citizens of a sovereign state can improve the situation to a great extent, says Additional IG Punjab Police Fayyaz Ahmed Mir.
Section 54 is a remnant of the British era and must be done away with immediately, he adds.

Encounters of a kind

Generally, the outlaws are not captured alive in police encounters and are allegedly killed on the spot or in police custody.

When it comes to police encounters, Punjab tops the list, compared to other provinces where the ratio of such 'quick fixes' is rather small, as per the data available with the AGHS Legal Aid Cell and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
A closer look at the data shows that the killing of alleged criminals in 'staged encounters' continued in the year 2008. Moreover, a significant rise in these incidents can be traced in Punjab after September last.
According to the data, at least 300 people have been killed in such encounters, in the time period between January 2008 and February 2009, including 220 in 2008 alone, with the majority in Punjab.
It is also noted that, generally, the alleged outlaws were not captured alive in encounters and their relatives allege that in dozens of such incidents those killed happened to be in police custody.
According to media reports, a family in Lahore protested against an alleged fake encounter that had killed two 'robbers' in the first week of February 2008. Another five dacoits were reported as killed in the first week of May, in Lahore. Again, on May 21, the Lahore police allegedly killed a youth in an encounter. On August 19, the police shot dead three (robbers) in an encounter, while September 11 saw four policemen being killed in encounter in Kohat with criminals managing to escape. In mid September, five criminals were killed in three police encounters in Multan and Sahiwal. On Oct 21, four wanted gangsters were gunned down by the police in Faisalabad and on Oct 26 four were killed in Lahore.
On Oct 27, a family of Faisalabad protested against an alleged fake encounter that killed their son. On Nov 5, the police killed two robbers in Faisalabad, while the CIA (Crime Investigation Agency) Lahore shot dead two 'criminals' on Nov 11. One docait was killed in Narowal on Dec 18.
In 2009, the Gujranwala police killed two dacoits including one 'most wanted' Nanho Goraya on Jan 18. Two each were killed in Lahore and Faisalabad on Jan 27 and Feb 3 respectively. On Feb 15, Lahore and Okara police killed three 'robbers' each.
The rise in the quick-fix system of police, mainly in Punjab, under the chief ministership of Shahbaz Sharif, has once again started giving the impression to human rights activists that "extra judicial killings" are going on frequently.
According to the provincial police's own figures, 66 alleged criminals were killed in 2008 in 42 police encounters in Lahore alone. Almost 75 percent of these killings took place while the province was under the current administration's rule. Reportedly, during the previous term of PML-N, between 1997 and 1999, more than 850 suspected criminals were killed in what human rights activists termed "extra-judicial killings."
According to the HRCP annual report 2007, as many as 234 people were killed in police encounters in Punjab alone. In the latest move, Punjab Inspector General (IG) Police Shaukat Javed has directed all Regional Police Officers (RPOs) to hold judicial inquiries into all police encounters in Punjab.
I. A. Rehman, Secretary General, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), terms these encounters as extra judicial killings, and says they serve to brutalise the society in the name of quick justice.
"Only state has the right or authority to take the life of any body through a legal procedure. Unauthorised detentions, police encounters etc also lead to corruption."
He recalls how on his visit to Karachi in 1995, a family demanded the HRCP team to force the police to lodge a case against its son who was illegally detained in a police station for several months.
He says that such excesses tarnish the image of police among the common people. "The situation cannot be redressed until a transparent judicial system is provided."
Pervez Rasheed, the newly elected senator and special advisor to the Punjab government, said the government had already ordered judicial inquiry into all police encounters. However, he ruled out the possibility of such encounters being held on the directions of the government or the chief minister.
"We've seen governments, like the previous one, that devised no particular strategy to nab the criminals, including the most wanted ones," he said, adding that the present government has given special attention to curb the criminals.

State of police rule

The colonial roots and the neo-colonial influences on Pakistani police coupled with an undemocratic political system and traditional sources of social authority create an enormous human-munching machine which is totally devoid of any idea of welfare of the citizens.

Before the emergence of the modern state, private collectives of soldiers patronised by feudal lords and tribal chiefs performed police work. Their duties were similar to contemporary police but limited territorially to the village or tribal level. The distinction between the military and the police was also not as clear as it is in the contemporary state. All able-bodied men who were capable of administering violence were patronised by the chief for warding off marauding hordes. This system of violence was an informal way of wealth redistribution. All wealthy persons or tribes were at risk of being attacked and had to maintain private guards, soldiers, police, spies, and informants to prepare against impending attacks.
With the arrival of the modern state on the horizon of human societies, violence became formal and procedural. At least that was the promise of the state. The state was supposed to have an absolute monopoly over violence. There shall be no informal torture, looting, kidnapping, murder, or even parental beating. Everybody was a citizen and the person of the citizen was sacrosanct. This promise underpinned the contract that enabled the state to extract taxes. The taxpayers' money was used to pay the expenses of maintaining the armed forces, the police, the executive, the legislative, and public utilities such as health, education, and support for the indigent. It means the contract was and still is, if the state taxes, mutually binding. In theory, the state cannot break the promise of personal safety and keep collecting revenue.
This promise of the personal safety of every citizen is the raison d'être of the police in all modern states, including Pakistan. However, in Pakistan, the police force was not an indigenously evolved institution and is a direct descendent of the police force created by the British in 1843, following the model of The Royal Irish Constabulary, whose function was to maintain law and order and also repress independence movements and revolutionary uprisings. This colonial model of policing was not dependent on a mutually binding social contract. The British Empire could extract revenue and raw material by any means. Moreover, the Empire could finance the police and the army by revenue collected from other parts. It meant that the police did not have to be friendly to the indigenous people of South Asia.
After Independence, the nature of the police has not changed much, though the neo-colonial aid programmes of the United States of America, have introduced some changes to the colonial model. Anyone who has watched the reality shows of American cops grinding the faces of "black and Hispanic offenders" to the footpath can decipher how benign the neo-colonial influence can be for the indigenous population.
The colonial origins and the neo-colonial influences on Pakistani police coupled with an undemocratic political system and traditional sources of social authority create an enormous human-munching machine which is totally devoid of any idea of welfare of the citizens. To substantiate my point, I want to narrate an incident. Once, after an immediate family member was robbed at gunpoint, I approached the 'concerned' police station. The person who was supposed to write the First Investigation Report asked for a bribe. By chance, I had my payslip in my pocket that day which also listed the tax deducted at the source. I showed the sub-inspector the payslip and pointed the listed tax deduction. He asked why I was showing him that piece of paper. I said I was showing him my contribution to the regular payment of his wages. He remarked, "Ik tay eh parhay likhay logan day maslay baray nain!" (These educated people are a real pain in the neck). I still had to use personal contacts to get the case registered. This and many other encounters with the police have produced a distrust of the state's claim as a moral arbiter in Pakistan and many ordinary citizens will tell harrowing tales to support my point.
My argument is simple. If taxation is based on a promise and proactively deducted at the source, why do the police and other state institutions not proactively fulfil the promise of safety? Why are the police not informed that the taxes collected from ordinary citizens provide their uniforms, vehicles, offices, and everything else? Why some of our rulers encourage informal violence and extrajudicial procedures for furthering their own political agendas?
Moreover, other societies have shown awareness of the risks of unbridled power and built institutions to empower ordinary citizens against police excesses. In England, as well as in Australia, France, New Zealand, Mexico, Malaysia, and Portugal, etc, there are legal provisions for empowering the ordinary citizens to make an arrest for any crime which carries a jail punishment. It is called "Citzen's Arrest" and many activists have used it worldwide to apprehend corrupt state officials or to draw media attention to corrupt law-enforcement officers. In Common Law, it is possible, as far as legal theory is concerned, for an ordinary citizen to go and arrest a police officer if the latter is committing a felony. Now if we compare the empowerment of citizenry in our country with those societies where citizens can arrest their torturer or detainer, the picture is quite bleak here.

Swat students seek migration after threats

Over an application of 42 girl students of Saidu Medical College in the restive Swat valley, seeking migration to colleges in other areas, the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday summoned the vice chancellor of Khyber Medical University, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council secretary, principals of public sector medical colleges in the province and other high-ups.
The applicants, Ms Kulsoom Khattak, and 41 others had sent an application to the Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan who converted it into a human rights petition.
The petition was fixed before a two-member bench comprising Justice Dost Moammad Khan and Justice Said Maroof Khan. The bench observed that the issue was of immense importance and all the officials concerned should appear in person on Feb 18, the next date of hearing.
The bench put on notice PMDC secretary, KMU vice-chancellor, provincial secretary of health department, principals of Saidu, Khyber, Ayub and Gomal medical colleges, secretary of Higher Education Commission and others.
The court ordered that service should be made to those high-ups through ordinary mode as well as through fax and courier service. It was added that the entire expenses of the case would be met by the high court.
When the bench took up for hearing the petition it asked senior lawyer Waseemuddin Khattak to assist the court on the issue. Later on, the court also summoned the section officer (litigation) of health department and counsel of KMC and asked them about a way out in the instant case.
Finally the bench decided to hear high-ups of different departments and colleges in person so as to resolve the issue and provide relief to the applicants.
The applicants have stated that due to precarious law and order situation in swat district they could not go there to attend their college. They added that the college, which was closed for winter vacation, would reopen in March.
The applicants claimed that militants had placed a ban on female education and announced through their FM radio station that they would not be allowed to attend educational institutions.
They stated that in present circumstances it had become next to impossible for them to attend the college.
They requested the chief justice to order their migration to other public sector medical colleges in other areas so as to save their precious year.

An archaeological site in ruins

The new site may be as rich as Mohenjodaro, but suffers from extreme neglect.

Significant clues and material found along the right bank of Indus on Sukkur-Shikarpur highway do provide evidence of the continuity of ancient civilisation in the region dating back to more than five millennia. Though an important advancement in terms of archeological and anthropological studies, Lakhian Jo Daro is nothing but a sorry tale of official neglect spanning the last two decades. Contrary to general perception, the LJD is not a new discovery.

Located some 40 kilometers north of Kot Diji and about 120 kilometers southwest of Moenjodaro, LJD has been known to archeologists of Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU), Khairpur, since the early 1980s, and to local, provincial and federal officials as well as to international experts since 1988. As pointed out by on-site officials, the fact that the remains were unearthed in an area that had been allotted by the Sindh administration for industrial activity seems to be the prime reason for the refusal of official machinery to declare it a heritage site for as long a period as 20 years, during which time factories were built over the ruins.

Some Italian experts, who had visited the area during the mid-90s, took away some organic material from Lakhian Jo Daro and had the relevant C-14 Carbon Dating done at the Centrum voor IsotopenOnderzook (Center for Isotope Research) at the Dutch University of Groningen. The official report dated the samples to be about 3,960 (+/-140) years old.

The report – located only in the personal files of Prof. Mukhtar Qazi, who was the project director in the mid-90s, relates to only the uppermost crust that was scratched at the time. Now that the dunes have been reduced to the level of natural soil in parts of the site – spread over six kilometers east-west and two kilometers north-south – many more findings have been made and parallels can be easily drawn with the period of Moenjodaro.

Dr Nilofar Shaikh, one of the senior archaeologists of the country who is also the SALU vice-chancellor, says relative studies hold much more worth than actual laboratory procedures and the areas excavated thus far has thrown up innumerable parallels with earlier and established findings all along the Rohri Hills – from Kot Diji to Bhando Qubo.

Despite the Absolute Chronology confirmation, all the Relative Chronology studies done by trained, professional and experienced archeologists, and the recovery of artifacts in their hundreds, it was not until March 27, 2007 that the government finally granted the site protection under the Antiquity Act.

At least a part of the area that has been given protection under the notification, however, stands buried under the concrete foundations of industrial concerns. Nobody is quite sure how the excavation work would proceed under the circumstances. Industrialists like Haji Wazeer Ali Memon, Sibghatullah and Sami Memon, who have their flour mills in the vicinity have so far faced no moves from the officials concerned and hope that things would be smooth in the days to come as well.

They can probably relax because they had their infrastructure up and running well before the 2007 notification, but their colleague Shakil Mukhtar has not been as fortunate. Work on his plot of land, D-7, has been stopped and he has a lot to say about the whole activity.

His words reflect sheer frustration. ‘After I had the work started, certain people came to me asking for money. On refusal, they threatened me with consequences, and just days later there was this big scandal about archeological findings. My investment has been blocked … Only God knows from where they have brought all this rubble and called it heritage.’ What he forgets to state is the simple fact that he started construction work on August 1; some four months after the official notification which rendered his activity illegal.

The anomaly, though not of a technical nature, in this particular episode relates to a Joint Survey Map of Lakhian Jo Daro drawn on March 5, 2007, which actually cleared the said D-7 plot as not being a potential area to be excavated or explored. Signed by Dr Nilofar Shaikh, who has been the site’s project director as well, the clearance is, indeed, somewhat surprising, but the notification does supersede the survey and the illegality of D-7, as such, is not under debate anymore.

Secretary of Antiquities Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, who has a post-doctoral fellowship in Historical Research, says the government had already offered the industrialist concerned a replacement plot of land, but ‘we can’t help it if he is asking for the moon.’

As things stand today, industrialization is not the only threat to the site. There is a brick kiln functioning in the middle of this five-tier archaeological wonder. Besides, heavy-duty machinery can also be seen digging up the area for sand and clay that is used for earth-filling purposes in other areas of Sukkur city. Children use it as a playground and it is a thoroughfare for the passersby. This is hardly a description of scientific work being done at an archaeological site.

Project Director Dr Ghulam Mustafa Shar, a somewhat excited professional who keeps moving from one trench to the other, says he cannot rule out the possibility of artifacts getting lost or stolen because the site has no fence around it and there is no police presence to deter adventurists.

Neglected for so long, Lakhian Jo Daro is still looking for its John Marshall or Mortimer Wheeler, who unearthed Moenjodaro back in the 1930s and 1950s. But what it needs even more and rather urgently is the political will, which, though difficult in these recessionary times, is vital for such projects.

The worst of times

WITHOUT any doubt, Pakistan is passing through the worst of times in its turbulent history. Could these be turned into the best of times? It could happen but would require a great deal of work.
To begin with, such a goal would need a dedicated leadership that understands what is wrong with the Pakistani state and how it has reached the current stage. It will also need the more affluent segments of Pakistani citizenry to make sacrifices in order to obtain a better future for the coming generations and to help the less fortunate segments of the population.
There is a need for Pakistani leaders and citizens to appreciate that they live in a geographic space that is about the most troubled in the world. Pakistan has been designated as the world’s most dangerous place on earth, one that requires the immediate attention of the West under the leadership of the newly installed US president. One of the first acts of the new American president was to appoint Richard Holbrooke, a seasoned diplomat who honed his negotiating skills by getting the leaders of the disintegrating state of Yugoslavia to agree to what is known as the Dayton Accord. Holbrooke would do well to delve into the histories of the two countries for which he has been commissioned to develop a new American policy.
Why is Pakistan in such a precarious state at this time? There are many reasons for this. Of these three are particularly important. The first is the inability to develop a durable system of governance by laying the institutional foundation on which the structure of the state could be built. Second is the inability to come to terms with the structural problems that keep the economy excessively dependent on foreign largesse. Third is the absence of a foreign policy that could factor in the opportunities available to the country because of its location and not on the basis of fear of some immediate neighbours.
Leaders belonging to various Pakistani generations were so consumed with their quarrels that they did not turn their attention to the building of institutions. India, on the other hand, had the luxury of being led without interruptions of the kind for 17 years. Jawaharlal Nehru’s long rule resulted in the adoption of the constitution that provided a reasonable amount of security to most segments of the population and ensured respect for the constitution once he was no longer there.
That did not happen in Pakistan. Mohammad Ali Jinnah died a little more than a year after the birth of the Pakistani nation. Liaquat Ali Khan, his successor, belonged to a social group (migrants from India) that was a small minority in the population. He was assassinated, perhaps the target of a conspiracy that involved those wishing to wrest power from him. There was open political season after Liaquat’s murder during which the East Pakistanis fought the West Pakistanis and the West Pakistanis quarrelled among themselves. When the country did get its constitution – the first of three – it was politically too distracted to make it work. That gave space to the military to intervene.
During Gen Ayub Khan’s 11-year rule, the country saw not only political stability but also impressive economic growth. The general gave the country its second constitution, established a system of local government that brought people closer to those who governed, and established a system of economic decision-making that eschewed personal whims in favour of conformity with well-articulated strategies. For several years, in economic circles as well as among political scientists, Pakistan was considered a model of success. But the success proved to be short-lived.
Ayub Khan’s model collapsed for one important reason that also explained the failure of subsequent attempts to bring political and economic development to the country. Ayub Khan’s model was based on the faulty assumption that since the leader is all-knowing he can afford to keep the people at bay. His system of basic democracies enfranchised people at the local level, gave them some say in using public money for meeting their needs. But that is as far as their participation in the affairs of the state went. That was not far enough. People rebelled with two consequences: the separation of East Pakistan and the emergence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the first elected ruler of the country.
But Pakistan’s leaders have never missed the opportunity to miss an opportunity. Bhutto had the popular support to give the country a durable political structure and to place the economy on the trajectory of long-term growth. After some initial success, he failed on both counts. His success was in giving the country a constitution that had the support of the people. The political failure was once again the consequence of the belief in an all-knowing patriarch guiding the affairs of the state without much participation from other representatives of the people.
The economic failure was the result of a strong belief in a discredited theory of management: that the best way of delivering benefits of growth to less privileged segments of society was to put the state on the commanding heights of the economy. There was much dissatisfaction among the people with Bhutto’s economic and political management which once again provided space for the military to occupy.
Another 11 years of military rule followed, by far the most destructive period in Pakistan’s history. Ziaul Haq went on to destroy the few political and economic institutions the country was left with. He disfigured the constitution to establish an all-powerful presidency within a parliamentary framework. The inherent tension in this approach could not be reconciled. The most ill-advised move by the religiously inclined military leader was to impose on the country a version of Islam that was foreign to it. His move in that direction, unfortunately, had the support of the United States which wanted jihadis for its mission to expel the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.
The jihadis succeeded and Zia was briefly hailed in the West as the great liberator. But he left an ugly legacy for which the entire world, not only Pakistan, is paying a very heavy price. To understand how this legacy is manifesting itself, we need not go beyond what is happening in Swat today. That is the legacy that current civilian rulers of Pakistan – and now President Barack Obama and his special emissary – must contend with.