Decade of terror

IT is not as if the world was not at war in 1999. Ten years ago, as the world welcomed the new millennium, the ravages of armed conflict resonated amid the imagined fears of a global computer shutdown.
Indeed, in 1999, our world had barely reached the end of the chapter on the grisly conflict in Kosovo which killed over 3,000 civilians. Pakistanis, too, had come perilously close to a nuclear cataclysm, barely avoiding a serious war with India over Kargil.
Both Kosovo and Kargil represented a conflict that has been transformed in the first decade of the new millennium. By the end of 1999, Nato operations in Kosovo had driven Serb forces out of Yugoslavia and allowed refugees to return. Peacekeeping forces (including Pakistan’s) were sent to the embattled region and reconstruction began. Before the year was out, the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia had levelled indictments against Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes.
At home, the Kargil conflict, while markedly different from the Nato effort in former Yugoslavia, was in its structural dynamics also a case of conventional warfare where two states sparred over physical territory and ended up in a conflict situation.Ten years ago, Kargil and Kosovo represented the structural dynamics of both world and regional conflict, where countries or groups of countries attacked other countries and international law, at least theoretically, marking the beginning and ending of wars.
I recall these two conflicts here, one proximate and the other relatively remote, to emphasise the dramatic transformation that the structure of conflict has undergone in the first 10 years of the new millennium.
It is relevant to mark how terror and terrorism have changed the dynamics of war and concomitantly our identities, our fears and even our hopes for the next decade. The first decade of the new millennium, notably the years following 2001, saw the emergence of conflict motivated, defined and fought solely on the basis of chasing and eliminating groups not officially affiliated with a nation state. The non-state warrior, the terrorist, would in the next 10 years become the single most important denominator in world conflict.
The attack on the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, 2001, thus was the biggest act of non-state warfare the world had ever seen. The decade saw the world clamouring to reconfigure and recalibrate identities and understandings of nation states that had heretofore seen only economic challenges. If the Peace of Westphalia signed in 1648 had marked the beginning of the nation state as a unit of governance, the attacks of Sept 11, 2001 marked the beginning of its demise. Since then, nation states, both powerful and weak, have seen their efficacy questioned and the meaning of their physical and virtual borders thrown in abeyance as they scrambled to fight an enemy not ordered along the same parameters.
The consequences of this blind scramble to understand the challenges of conflict have been tragic. Clinging to old rules, the US began two conventional unilateral conflicts aimed at shoring up strategic interests in regions where it believed the non-state groups were most deeply entrenched. Unleashed under the pretext of avenging 9/11, the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan fought with conventional armies led the world’s sole superpower on a wild goose chase that expended massive resources and saw hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties.
Fighting an enemy unbound by the law, unhampered by political processes and morally unaccountable to any except itself, the US found itself abandoning core principles of due process and the rule of law, unmoored as it was in the murky moral waters of extra-state conflict. Ten years later, the two wars continue and there is little in terms of progress on fighting non-state groups.
Pakistan, a smaller, weaker state, has not been spared the transformation of warfare. In the wake of Kargil, few Pakistani analysts could have predicted in 1999 that Pakistan would be entrapped in a conflict of the kind it is today. The bloody last half of the decade saw an increase of nearly 500 per cent in suicide bombings. Since 2006, a total of over 8,000 people were killed in Pakistan as a result of suicide bombings. This figure does not include the casualties from military operations in the tribal areas and Swat which would likely cause the number to swell even more.
Suicide bombing, previously unheard of in civil conflict in Pakistan, has become ubiquitous in terms of the frequency with which it is carried out. The last few months of 2009 have been the bloodiest with a suicide attack occurring nearly every day.
The first decade of the new millennium then has been a decade of terror. It has redefined human conflict for the powerful and weak. As old institutions designed to fight conventional wars creak into action with the help of mechanisms withered by corruption and an inept bureaucracy the errors of the system are likely to trap innocent civilians.
With 2009 drawing to a close the world has failed to arrive at answers in response to terror; states have tried conventional wars, abandoning the rule of law, paying warlords, hiring mercenaries and even remote-controlled planes. Despite all these efforts countries large and small, weak and strong have failed to corner the non-state warrior who has remained impenetrable and largely unassailable. As warfare has moved away from the army barracks into the cave, the rented room and the abandoned warehouse the world is set to end the first decade of the millennium horrified by the terror unleashed but helpless against it.

Terror incidents claimed 3,300 lives this year

Over 3,300 people, including personnel of law-enforcement agencies and armed forces, were killed this year in terrorism-related incidents across the country. Suicide bombers struck every fifth day. Data compiled through newspaper reports of major incidents show that 1,037 people lost their lives in 76 suicide attacks in 2009.

December saw the highest number of suicide attacks — 15 — which claimed 211 lives. On average nine lives were lost daily. Although personnel of the armed forces and law-enforcement agencies, including police, Rangers and FC, were the main target of militants, civilians were also killed in suicide attacks on shopping centres, educational institutions, mosques and imambargahs.

The data show that 443 personnel of army and police lost their lives during military operations and terrorist attacks. Militants attacked a number of police stations, checkposts and offices of the FIA and ISI. The most brazen attack was carried out by Taliban militants on the heavily-guarded GHQ in Rawalpindi on Oct 10. Six soldiers and four attackers were killed in the siege, which lasted almost 24 hours. At least 42 people, a number of serving and retired army officers among them, were killed in two suicide blasts and gun attack on an army mosque near the GHQ on Dec 4.

The NWFP was the worst-hit province where more than 64 per cent of the terrorism-related incidents took place in 2009. About 2,133 people lost their lives in the province and 699 in Fata. Punjab also remained in the grip of terrorism and 369 people were killed in different incidents. Two incidents of terrorism took place in Sindh, where 44 people died. The data show that 35 people were killed in Balochistan, 29 in Islamabad and eight in Azad Kashmir. The month-wise breakdown shows that May remained the bloodiest month of the year in which 1,120 people — 945 in the NWFP alone — were killed.
It was in this month that the government launched a full-scale military operation in Swat, Buner and adjoining areas. The month also saw the highest number of military casualties — 135.
The Taliban targeted a number of prominent personalities, including elected representatives. Seven people, including Allama Sarfaraz Naeemi who was an outspoken opponent of the Taliban, were killed in suicide attacks. Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi survived an attempt on his life in Islamabad on Sept 2. The Awami National Party was the main target of the Taliban because of its open support for the military operation in Swat and Malakand. Two of its MPAs — Dr Shamsher Khan and Alamzeb Khan — lost their lives in terrorist attacks.
Senior NWFP Minister Bashir Bilour survived an assassination attempt in Peshawar on March 11. Six people, including two suspected suicide attackers, were killed. The Taliban blew up a shrine of the 17th century Sufi poet Rehman Baba in Peshawar. The military claimed to have killed a number of important leaders of the Taliban and Al Qaeda during the operation in the NWFP and Fata. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a drone attack in August in South Waziristan. A convoy of two buses carrying Sri Lankan cricketers and officials was attacked by 12 gunmen near the Qadhafi Stadium in Lahore on March 3. Six policemen and two civilians were killed. Sindh, which remained in the grip of violence in 2007 and 2008, largely remained peaceful throughout 2009. But on Dec 28, it witnessed a major act of terror when 43 people were killed in a suspected suicide attack on an Ashura procession in Karachi.

Karachi burns on Ashura

A suicide bomber on Monday struck a Muharram procession in Karachi on Ashura, killing at least 26 people and wounding dozens more, defying a major security clampdown, Some snapshots are following;

The terror of true love

TRUE love has always terrorised conservative societies. The legends of Heer and Juliet and their ill-fated suitors have spawned a gamut of narratives in diverse cultures. As another year draws to an end, a lasting image it leaves behind for me is that of a young Pakistani Muslim man dancing away at an upper caste Aiyer Brahmin wedding in Bangalore. A bevy of beautiful Hindu women surrounded him, one of them his wife. I don’t believe any India-Pakistan peace conference can ever be meaningful where a throng of these cross-border lovers, deemed cultural terrorists by their powerful and influential detractors, are not given centre-stage. The cross-border couples represent the truest grit, an absolute must to overcome the many insurmountable challenges of mistrust and fear as also of physical violence that unconventional and trans-geographical love faces. The detractors are not always worked up about the wrong nationalities involved in the fray. They are in fact often more busy being a menace at home. And they usually belong, both in India and Pakistan, to the cultural milieu that supports “honour killings” of women in their respective medieval confines. They target in particular those women, and also men, who question the family tradition of taking a spouse they did not know or want. I have watched the terror-stricken faces of low-caste Jatav men and women in Barsana, the village of Lord Krishna’s fabled consort, Radha, where two of their boys were lynched with a Jat girl who had eloped with one of them. All three were hanged from a tree. Then they were slowly disfigured with torches before their bodies, still warm in spite of the ebbing of blood within, were thrown into a common pyre. A Jat kangaroo court had taken the decision, which usually is of a higher currency than the state’s supposedly secular writ. The ropes dangled from the banyan tree for months after the collective crime that terrorised the far corners of the Jat-dominated region. Pakistan’s problems with honour killings are probably as incorrigibly entrenched as its non-Semitic variant flourishing across much of India. There is a difference though. In India those who instigate violence between sects of men and women who love or marry outside their prescribed format have a powerful political voice in the street and in parliament, via rightwing religious revivalism. Much of the modus operandi involves rumour-mongering, instilling fear and mistrust followed by outright violence. In a recent article in the Economic and Political Weekly, Charu Gupta closely analysed the issue of ‘Love Jihad’ or ‘Romeo Jihad’, coined recently by activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh to target Muslim boys who mingle with Hindu girls. The implicit allegation in both the terms is that Muslim men are wooing Hindu women as part of a religious campaign to convert them to Islam. What the propagandists of this poisonous canard deliberately ignore is the fact there are about as many Muslim women attracted to Hindu men. Last week I enjoyed the wedding of a young man whose mother bears a Muslim name, the father a Hindu. There is of course no certainty at all that these cross-cultural marriages will last more than others, if at all others last. (On the other hand Shia and Sunni couples were having a great time in Iraq, as they do elsewhere in the Middle East, before American troops arrived and wrecked their lives, injecting an untenable sectarian identity which most Iraqis would otherwise shun.) The issue of fomenting fear and mistrust by using women as a tool in a poisonous propaganda blitz to polarise communities is not new. Charu Gupta, in her analysis, cites a tract published in 1924 from Kanpur which “dwelt on the catastrophic decline of Hindus due to increasing conversions of Hindu women to Islam”. It claimed that a number of Aryan women were entering the homes of yavanas and mlecchas (terms used for Muslims in such writings), reading nikah with them, producing gaubhakshak (cow-killers) children and increasing Muslim numbers. A poem written in 1928 and later banned, called Chand Musalmanon ki Harkaten, stated: ‘Tadad badhane ke liye chal chalai, Muslim banane ke liye scheme banayi.... Ekkon ko gali gaon mein lekar ghumate hain, parde ko dal Muslim aurat bethate hain’ (Muslims are making new schemes to increase their population and to make people Muslims. They roam with carts in cities and villages and take away women, who are put under the veil and made Muslim — Charu Gupta’s translation.) Pro-Hindu organisations in 2009, too, have claimed that forced conversions of Hindu women in the name of love are part of an international conspiracy to increase the Muslim population. “The issues at stake here are not only to construct a picture of numerical increase in Muslims but also to lament the supposed decline in Hindu numbers and to mourn the potential loss of child-bearing Hindu wombs, and thus exercise greater control over women’s reproductive capacities to enhance Hindu numbers. Both the campaigns construct an image of the Muslim male as aggressive, and broadcast a series of stereotypes and repetitive motifs, creating a common ‘enemy’….” The luring of Hindu women by Muslim men is stated to demonstrate the “lack of character” of the lustful men, violating the pure body of Hindu women. In the 1920s, many Hindus came to perceive abductions and conversions of Hindu women as a characteristic Muslim activity. Such constructs had even older historical roots. Gupta quotes noted Hindi writers like Bharatendu Harishchandra (1850-85), Pratap Narain Misra (1856-94) and Radha Charan Goswami (1859-1923) as often portraying medieval Muslim rule as a chronicle of rape and abduction of Hindu women. “The first generation of popular novelists in Hindi — Devakinandan Khatri, Kishorilal Goswami and Gangaprasad Gupta — who started writing in the 1890s, depicted similar prejudices. Lecherous behaviour, high sexual appetites, a life of luxury and religious fanaticism were seen as the dominant traits of Muslim characters. These stereotypes of licentious Muslims were strengthened, with new contours added in the 1920s. It was claimed that now ordinary and all Muslims were indulging in such practices.” We shall not let it pass without comment that all the insidious poetry cited by Ms Gupta had mushroomed only after the last Mughal emperor and his primarily Hindu supporters were vanquished by a virulent colonial response to their jointly conducted revolt against foreign rule. The “terror of true love” has mutated in our region according to the political exigencies it faces. It took the form in Germany of Nazi drive to exterminate homosexual lovers. The reactionary response to unbridled love is always virulent.

Media Under stress

THE South Asia Media Commission’s seventh report released on Tuesday highlights issues that should be addressed seriously by the fourth estate as well as by the governments of all the eight member-states of Saarc. Of primary concern is the growing incidence of violence in the region and its impact on media practitioners who have become vulnerable to it. According to the report 12 journalists were killed in 2009 in South Asia, more than half the number — i.e. seven — in Pakistan alone. It goes to the credit of the Pakistani media that in spite of the hazards it faces its members continue to perform their duties in a steadfast manner. Ironically as long as the press was in chains, journalists were more or less secure. They could not pose a danger to anyone. Now that it is in a position to expose the wrongdoings of governments and mobilise support for the rights of ordinary citizens, especially the downtrodden sections of society, it has come under attack from vested interests. To survive this difficult phase, the media must be protected by the government as well as by media proprietors.
Why have journalists not received protection from the law-enforcement agencies and their own employers in the form of protective gear and training as they go about their often dangerous duties? This is absolutely essential if the media is to survive as an institution that reaches out to people to report their concerns. Security measures must be extended by the government to foreign journalists as well to enable them to enter risky zones with adequate protection so that Pakistan receives fair coverage in the world media. The SAMC report points to another key feature of the media that should prompt us to take serious notice. It observes that some “zealots” in the profession have used their freedom to “scandalise and destabilise a fragile democracy.” It is not becoming of any organ of the media to become the mover and shaker of governments. The media’s job is to expose and work for a holistic development of a democratic order. This is possible if various sectors of the state act in coordination and are developed in an integrated manner.

2009 in broad strokes

If pressed, Pakistanis would probably give 2009 mixed reviews. Throughout the year, political problems – clashes between the government and opposition; a failure of the civilian and military establishments to see eye to eye; wrangling between the centre and the provinces – and the slow march of extremism, in the form of militant posturing and suicide attacks, have vied for headlines.
But there has also been much progress in the past 12 months as military operations against militants have proved successful, the Supreme Court has delivered historic judgements, and breakthroughs with regards to Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the NFC have been finalised. Indeed, 2009 has been a year of both tumult and triumph in this country.
Politics: The scuffles and successes
Confrontations continued between the country’s two major political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) over the judges’ reinstatement and an overall implementation of the Charter of Democracy (CoD). On February 25, a Supreme Court verdict declared the Sharif brothers ‘ineligible to contest elections or hold public offices,’ within minutes of which PML-N workers took to the streets of Punjab’s various cities voicing their agitation against the decision. The same day, governor rule was imposed in the Punjab in order to fill the ‘unprecedented and unique constitutional void’ created with the disqualification of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif from holding public office.
While unrest continued in the Punjab, the PML-N announced all-out support for the lawyers’ movement for the judges’ reinstatement and marched toward Islamabad in order to stage a sit-in outside the parliament. On March 16, Prime Minister Gilani announced the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. The proclamation was hailed by the opposition and the lawyers and the Long March was subsequently called-off.
After this unrest, Governor rule in the Punjab was lifted at the end of March and the Supreme Court reinstated Shahbaz Sharif as the Chief Minister on March 31. In a good streak for the Sharifs, on May 26, the Supreme Court overturned its own verdict that barred the Sharif brothers from contesting elections. More good news followed on July 17, when the apex court acquitted Nawaz in the plane hijacking case.
Other regions of the country were also not spared political troubles. Political turmoil first grappled Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on January 6, when the region’s Legislative Assembly approved a no-confidence vote against the then-Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan following which Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan was sworn in as the AJK Prime Minister. On October 14, Sardar Yaqoob Khan resigned from his post ‘in order to avoid a political controversy in the Legislative Assembly’. Later that month, the Legislative Assembly elected Farooq Haider as leader of the house and a 23-member AJK cabinet was sworn in on October 29.
Meanwhile, a self-governance reform package for the Northern Areas was approved on August 29. The package aimed at giving the region complete administrative autonomy and changed its name to Gilgit-Baltistan. The first elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly were held on November 12. And despite allegations of rigging, the PPP secured the mandate to govern the region, leading to Syed Mehdi Shah’s election as the region’s first Chief Minister.
Political reforms were also planned for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and were announced by President Zardari on August 14. Reforms included: ‘allowing political activities in Fata, setting up an appellate tribunal, curtailing arbitrary powers of political agents, giving people right to appeal and bail.’ The reforms’ systematic implementation did not take place and to some extent the measures were overtaken by the unrest and the military operations in the tribal belt.
In Balochistan, the political situation deteriorated with the killing of three Baloch activists a day before kidnapped UNHCR official John Solecki was released by the Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) militants in April. Baloch distrust of Islamabad festered and allegations thrived regarding the missing persons’ issue. Sporadic violence continued across the province and, on October 25, Balochistan’s then-education minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan was assassinated in Quetta.
To control the situation, the government initiated a package to address the political, administrative and economic concerns of the province. Some significant areas the package addressed were limiting military activity inside the province, release of missing persons ‘against whom there is no charge and trial of others before a competent court.’ The package was instantly rejected by most nationalist and separatist groups who called it a cover-up.
The year also saw deliberations on the seventh National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, which concluded with the provinces’ agreement over a formula for resource division among the federating units. Poverty, revenue generation and collection, and inverse population density were, for the first time, introduced as the criteria on which the provinces’ respective shares would be decided. The consensus reached by the provinces was generally seen as a step in the right direction, which would help contribute towards stabilising Pakistan’s democratic institutions.
Also on the matter of resources, 2009 saw a controversy over the Kerry-Lugar bill that tripled non-military aid to Pakistan to US$ 7.5 billion over a period of five years. Rifts between Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership came out as debate ensued over the stated and the possibly intended objectives of the assistance package. While conflict brewed over the bill in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Qureshi rushed to Washington to communicate Pakistan’s concerns over the proposed bill’s conditionalities. The unchanged bill was then signed into law on October 15.
This was not the end to the year’s political scuffles. Ironically, it was the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that turned out to be the most critical political challenge Pakistan faced in 2009. Chaos augmented and mudslinging continued as the ordinance expired on November 28 and the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional on December 16.
Security: More bombings despite military operations
Overlapping the political crisis was the security situation in Swat, a region in north-west Pakistan that had been under the control of extremists since July 2007. As violence spiralled in the region, the government moved toward a formal truce with the militants which included promulgation of the Nizam-i-Adl regulation, which imposed Sharia law in the Malakand division.
The measure emboldened the Swat Taliban who then vied for control of Buner and Lower Dir districts. Eventually, the truce agreement mediated by Maulana Sufi Mohammad of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) collapsed. On April 26, a military operation was launched in Swat. The operation aimed at taking back Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and Shangla. Operation Rah-i-Rast, also known as Operation Black Thunderstorm, led to a full-scale humanitarian crisis as civilians started to flee from these areas for safety. More than two million people were displaced from the region, most of who returned after the operation was declared successful and completed on June 14.
As the army consolidated control over Swat and neighbouring districts, a suspected US missile attack on August 5 in South Waziristan’s Zanghara area killed the then-Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud. Baitullah’s death, regarded as a significant blow to the Taliban in South Waziristan, was accompanied by the continual and massive troop build-up along the southern and eastern borders of South Waziristan.
In the wake of retaliatory terrorist attacks in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Shangla, the army on October 17 launched an operation in South Waziristan. The operation is currently ongoing and the army claims to have captured Kotkai, Kaniguram, and Sararogha among other important militant bastions in the battle to eliminate the local and foreign militants in the region. The operation is being viewed as Pakistan’s most ambitious move against the Taliban. As the year draws to a close, the army is also initiating action against militant hideouts in the neighbouring tribal agency of Orakzai.
The year of military successes and political disturbances was punctuated by frequent terrorist attacks across the country, most of which were associated with the TTP. The cities of Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi were repeatedly attacked and although government and military installations seemed to be the standard targets, many attacks also singled out civilians, for example, the bombing of Peshawar’s Meena Bazaar on October 28 that killed 117 people, mostly women. Indeed, October remained the bloodiest month and saw 10 terrorist attacks claiming at least 283 lives.
Cross-border tensions
India has also stayed in the Pakistani headlines this year. On January 5, India handed over the first dossier regarding the Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008, detailing ‘evidence of links with elements in Pakistan.’ While Pakistan haggled with resulting international pressure, India demanded extradition of suspects involved in the attacks. Rumours also circulated that a five-member team of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had visited Faridkot, the alleged ancestral town of Ajmal Kasab, the lone captured attacker whose name remained a matter of debate for quite some time.
Relations between India and Pakistan continued to deteriorate throughout the year and rare encounters between Indian and Pakistani high-ups only revealed the widening rift. While diplomatic sabre-rattling continued, elections in India brought the Congress back to power. Pakistan’s own investigations into the Mumbai attacks suspects’ links continued and dossiers upon dossiers were exchanged between the two states.
At year’s close, the trial of Ajmal Kasab continues in India and an Anti-Terrorist Court in Pakistan has indicted seven suspects for ‘planning and helping the execution’ of the attacks. Relations, however, remain strained between India and Pakistan: India decries Pakistan ‘inaction’ against terrorist outfits (particularly the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed) and denies involvement in Balochistan and Fata. Pakistan, on the other hand, appears aggravated by India’s ‘stalling of the dialogue process’ and continues alleging Indian involvement in domestic insurgencies and acts of terrorism inside Pakistan.
Looking forward to 2010
It is tricky to judge whether this tumultuous year was a step toward redemption – as manifest in decisive military operations and the superior judiciary’s NRO verdict – or a shift toward further turmoil. With an additional 30,000 troops inside Afghanistan and the ongoing South Waziristan military operation whose success is still a matter of conjecture, the least that can be hoped for is that Pakistan manages to develop a considerable degree of political stability, avoids conflicts between the state’s four pillars and thereby strengthens the government’s institutions.

Experts set to excavate ancient site in Taxila

Taxila is home to over 150 sites/mounds/monuments of archaeological significance that remain unexplored.

With each site in the ancient land of Taxila as rich as the other, if not richer, archaeologists are surveying to begin excavation work on their next project.
Taxila is home to over 150 sites/mounds/monuments of archaeological significance that remain unexplored. Before the partition of the subcontinent, Sir John Marshal had unearthed 25 sites between 1912 and 1934.

Glimpses from Pakistan!

A health worker supervises polio drops to a childChildren playing with the goat they bought at a market as the preparations for Eidul Azha have started in the country.

Cattle dealers show animals to people for upcoming ‘Eidul Azha’ at make-shift animals market at Superhighway

A vendor waiting for the customers to buy different sweaters and jackets at his roadside setup at a street.

TMA workers busy in cleaning the drain during maintenance work on a street.

Workers busy in stitching quilts at their workplace for winter preparations

A vendor arranging the eggs outside his shop as the demand for eggs by consumers increases during winters.

Children attend class under the open sky!

Pakistani fishing boats rally in the Arabian Sea ahead of the World Fisheries Day in Karachi. Fishing communities worldwide celebrate with rallies, workshops, public meetings, cultural programs, dramas, exhibition, music shows, and demonstrations to highlight the importance of maintaining the world's fisheries.

Peshawar Bomb Blast

Volunteers rush an injured child to a hospital after an explosion in Peshawar

At least 101 people, mostly women and children, were killed and over 150 injured when a huge car bomb ripped through a crowded market here on Wednesday.

The blast triggered a huge fire which engulfed a number of buildings near the Meena Bazaar. A plume of dust and smoke billowed from narrow lanes of the market situated in the old part of the city.

The blast took place in two narrow lanes between Meena Bazaar and Kochi Bazaar frequented by women. A cotton warehouse in the market caught fire which spread to several buildings on the Cheri Koban road. A number of shops along the narrow road, vehicles and carts were gutted.

Most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition and till late night only 25 of them had been identified. About 70 of the dead are women and children. Scores of the injured are in a critical condition.

Fire-engines, ambulances and other rescue vehicles faced difficulty in reaching the scene because of congestion and narrow lanes. People were seen taking the bodies and the injured to hospitals in cars, rickshaws and even on motorcycles.

Many children and women trapped in the debris of several buildings were crying for help, but rescue workers could not reach them because of huge flames. A group of men trapped under the roof of a nearby mosque were rescued.

Rescue work was in progress till late night and workers were finding it difficult to remove the debris. It was feared that some people were still trapped in the rubble because rescue personnel had heard them wailing and crying.

All shops in the area were closed after the blast and people started searching for their relatives.
A crowd of people inside the trauma room and emergency hall of the Lady Reading Hospital made it difficult for medical staff to perform their duty.

Distressed people, including women, were seen searching for relatives in the hospital, but recognising them was difficult because most of the bodies were mutilated. Stench of blood and human flesh hung in the air in the hospital.

Ideas can win war

Now that the military has begun its Rah-i-Nijat operation in South Waziristan, the question has begun to be asked whether it will succeed. We will not know the answer for several weeks, perhaps not even then.

The real victory will come only when the people not just in the tribal areas but in all parts of the country decide that they have been misled by a small of group of extremists.

The people must make clear that they don’t see their country and religion being under assault by the West, in particular the United States, and that it is their own people who are attacking them. In addition to the use of military power, what is required is the use of people’s power. The war being fought in the hills of South Waziristan is not simply a military war; it is more a war of ideas.

There has been much reflection in the American press in recent days about the meaning and ends of war. This was prompted by the on-going review of the options Washington has in the war in Afghanistan. There appears to be consensus among the commentators that no matter what the American president decides regarding the course of the conflict, it will, from now on, be ‘Obama’s war.’

One analyst, Gordon M. Goldstein, writing for The New York Times, drew a number of lessons for the current president based on the experiences of Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in conducting the American war in Vietnam. Kennedy chose the middle course, preferring to concentrate on building the capacity of the state to help the people who had turned to insurgency since they saw no other way to better their rapidly deteriorating economic and social situation. Johnson, on the other hand, was overawed by the military and opted for the military option.

What is the relevance of this debate in the United States for Pakistan’s policymakers as they conduct their operations in South Waziristan? There are several. Of these I would like to focus on the following three. First the civilians must provide credible leadership to this effort by the military. We know from our own history that the military cannot galvanise popular support when it goes into battle to protect the interests of the state.

There was great popular support for troops in the brief war with India in September 1965 but it could not be sustained when the politicians, led by the leadership that had come from the military, were not be able to credibly explain the purpose of the war and its aftermath.

Similarly, while the civil war in East Pakistan was provoked by the military, its aftermath had to be handled by the civilians. In the present context, we should recognise that a good start was made by convening a well-attended meeting of political leaders that authorised the use of force against the entrenched Taliban in South Waziristan.

Second, there has to be only one system of governance in one country. Pakistan allowed the Taliban to run a parallel government in the areas they control. The jihadists in the populous province of Punjab would like to do the same in the areas where they have influence. They will succeed only if the state abdicates its responsibility of providing basic services to the people. This should not happen if the institutions of the state are strong and the government has the resources to provide for the people. The cash-strapped government in Pakistan has to collect more resources to finance its operations and to use the money it spends effectively and efficiently. It is doing neither at this time.

Third, people have also to act. Let me quote at length from a recent article by the journalist Thomas L. Friedman who has written extensively on the developing world, especially on Muslim countries. ‘In places like Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Pakistan you have violent religious extremist movements fighting with state security services. … And while the regimes in these countries are committed to crushing their extremists, they rarely take on their extremist ideas by offering progressive alternatives. And when these extremists aim elsewhere … these regimes are indifferent. That is why there is no true war of ideas inside these countries — just a war.’

This is a correct and insightful observation. ‘These states are not promoting an inclusive and tolerant interpretation of Islam that could be the foundation of people power,’ Friedman continues.

Pakistan, unlike the countries on Friedman’s list has had a ‘people power’ movement when the lawyers demonstrated that by acting with courage and resolution, they could bring about more than regime change. They could also force a strong executive to begin to show respect to the judiciary and its opinions. The same people power needs to be mobilised to rescue religion from the clutches of the extremists.

Those on the margins of Pakistani society have found leadership from the ranks of the people who, although basically illiterate and poorly informed, are able to compensate for their shortcomings by the extremely strong courage of their convictions. The lawyers managed to find leaders from their own ranks. The progressive elements within the Pakistani society must search for those who can lead them in a much-needed people’s movement in the war against extremism.

What is needed at this critical moment in the country’s history is a group of civilian leaders who can galvanise broad support for the difficult journey on which the armed forces have embarked. Also needed is an economic plan for building state institutions to deliver the appropriate services to the people in stress and also improve their access to basic needs. Finally the moderates in Pakistani society need to let it be known that they are not in agreement with the extremists in the way they interpret Islam, the way they see the functioning of the state and the way they would place Pakistan in the international community.

Scourge of child labour

With poverty on the rise, many families are forced to use the services of their children to survive.

Speaking at a workshop in Lahore, a Unicef expert placed the number of child workers in Pakistan at three million. Other sources have been quoting higher figures. Whatever the accurate statistics, there is no denying the reality that a shocking number of under-age children are working to earn a living for their families. Larger numbers are out of school. This is a pity when the country is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Moreover, there has been a law in place since 1991 prescribing stringent conditions for child labour.

The fact is that laws and legal strictures are difficult to implement when the socio-economic and political conditions do not contribute to improving the status of children. With poverty on the rise, many families are forced to use the services of their children to survive. Socially and culturally child labour has not been shunned — the number of young girls working as domestics is phenomenal and this fact finds general acceptance. Successive governments and political leaders have hardly regarded child labour as a major problem since they derive support from those who exploit children: landlords and business entrepreneurs who look out for cheap labour.Hence the problem continues to grow. Stop-gap measures have been adopted to discourage child labour but these haven’t made much impact.

It is important that a national strategy with the twin objectives of putting child workers in school and lending their families monetary support is drawn up. One approach would be to make it obligatory for employers to recognise their corporate social responsibility and provide schooling facilities to the children of their workers with every student being given a stipend. Other incentives can be found to make it worthwhile for families to send their offspring to school and pull them out of the workplace.

Peshawar takes yet another hit; 15 dead

A suicide car bombing devastated the Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA) centre in Swati Gate area, near Peshawar Cantonment, on Friday, leaving 15 people dead.

Three policemen and two girls were among the dead. The blast, which took place at about 12.45pm, destroyed the front of the CIA centre and damaged a two-storey mosque on its premises.

Three of the people killed were identified as Manzoor Hussain and his daughters Aasia and Mashal. One of the daughters was a schoolteacher. Hussain was a retired administrative officer of a government college in the Cantonment area. A grade-II student, identified as Shakeem Khan, was also killed in the blast.

The Bomb Disposal Unit’s in charge, AIG Malik Shafqat Mehmud, told reporters that it was a suicide car bomb blast and police had found a severed leg of the bomber. He said that 60-70kg of explosives, mixed with artillery ammunition, had been used in the blast. Engine and chassis numbers of the car were found from the scene.

Confusion surrounded the nature of the blast after city police chief Liaquat Ali Khan told journalists that there were two suicide bombers — one of them a woman accompanied by a man on a bike. The woman detonated explosives strapped to her body when police fired on the man, he added.

Police found an upper part of a female body and assumed that it was that of the suicide bomber, but later it was identified by relatives as one of the daughters of Manzoor Hussain, the man who died along with two daughters.

‘There was no female suicide bomber. It was a misunderstanding,’ SP (Cant Circle) Nisar Marwat said. An investigation was being carried out, but police suspected that it was a suicide car bombing, he added.

The dead policemen were identifies as Amir Nawaz, Ahmed Khan and Zeeshan. DSP Pervez Khattak suffered injuries.

The in-charge of Lady Reading Hospital’s trauma centre, Dr Sahib Gul, told Dawn that 10 of the victims had been identified. Four of the injured, including a police constable, were in serious condition.

Gulbarg police said that 24 people had been injured. An army post and a residential colony for army personnel are located 100 yards away from the CIA centre, which also has offices of the anti-car lifting cell.

Residents said that thick smoke had covered the entire area and they heard gunfire before the blast. It was the fourth suicide blast in the limits of the provincial capital over the past 20 days.
Twelve people were killed when a bomb went off on Fakhr Alam Road on Sept 26. Fifty-four were killed in the Khyber Bazaar blast on Oct 9.

A boy was killed in a car bomb blast at an officers’ block in Gulshan-i-Rehman Colony on Thursday. More than 80 people were killed and 250 injured in the four blasts.

Agenda behind terrorism

THE series of terrorist acts across NWFP and Punjab should be a wake up call for the state that its policies, such as they are, to fight this lethal menace in Pakistan are deeply flawed. The post-9/11 premature jumping on to the US bandwagon in a misdirected "war on terror" altered qualitatively the nature of the terrorist threat in Pakistan. Following the erroneous US lead, Pakistan's focus on a military-centric approach to fighting terrorism has only succeeded in generating more violent terrorism in the country, with new groups claiming centre stage like the TTP. The US drone attacks have hardly helped; nor has the growing chaos being caused by the US covert and overt intrusions in to Pakistan's internal affairs. Meanwhile, the government has failed to formulate a cohesive anti-terror policy in which the core should be a holistic socio-political-economic strategy supported by the state's coercive power. The immediate goal in any such asymmetric war has to be isolation of the enemy from the people who provide the shelter for the terrorists. Pakistan continues to fall in to the US-laid trap of using the military option alone. The push now is for commencing a full scale military operation in North Waziristan - at a time when the blowback from the Swat operation is being felt across the country.Meanwhile, the recent terrorist attacks reveal a new breed of terrorists who are well-trained and well-armed with highly sophisticated weaponry. Further, as the Interior Minister himself admitted, these terrorists are mercenaries, being paid for their dastardly acts. So there is no religious thread here at all. If one connects the dots, the pattern that is emerging is one where a deliberate trail of destruction is being created across Pakistan, which will create a situation desired in the US design outlined in a US Army Journal article entitled "Blood Borders" published in the wake of 9/11. Is it a mere coincidence that Quetta and Muridke have been targeted in the KLB Act and all religious groups identified by name but for the TTP? Is it also a mere coincidence that the new spate of terrorism has begun at a time when there is attention focused on the covert US operatives spreading across Pakistan; when the US is seeking to target Quetta with drones; when there is growing evidence of an Indian hand in Pakistan's terrorism? Perhaps the most obvious pointer to a larger hidden anti-Pakistan agenda behind the terrorism is the US pressure for military action also in southern Punjab. This is a recipe for civil war. Already the centre of gravity of the "war on terror" has been shifted, first from Afghanistan to FATA and now to the centre of Pakistan, Punjab itself. Unless the Pakistani state sees the larger picture, our detractors' plans will succeed.

Democracy under threat?

Is Project Democracy in trouble? Is the latest kerfuffle in civil-military relations, this time over the Kerry-Lugar bill, just another manifestation of the broken, chaotic decision-making process at the institutional level from which the system will soon move on?

Or is it another marker in deteriorating relations between the presidency and the army high command that are slowly edging towards the point of no return? When — if — the obituary of the Zardari presidency or government is written, it’s safe to say that the Kerry-Lugar fiasco will surely merit more than a footnote.

So which is it? Are we headed for bust and the derailment of the present phase in the transition to democracy, or even the transition itself, or is this what democracy in Pakistan is set to look like for the foreseeable future, a process characterised by brinkmanship without quite slipping too close to the edge of the cliff?

First things first: while the army high command is currently unlikely to bring a halt to the democratic process or unseat the present political dispensation, it would be foolish to think that it cannot or will not under any circumstances. Zardari and co clearly have some space to govern, but that space isn’t unlimited and its boundaries may be closer than imagined by the pro-democracy camp.

What’s particularly troubling about the Kerry-Lugar fiasco is how the army high command essentially came out and fired a warning shot across the government’s bow and then promptly retreated behind a wall of silence, leaving it to the government to clean up the mess with the Americans, the opposition and the public.

Since it’s difficult to imagine that the army was not aware of what was unfolding in the US Congress, the army’s tactics amount to a classic political ambush at home. The main cause for worry is not that the army would attempt a hatchet job at all — that our politics is often bare-knuckled is well known to our politicians — but that it would do so on an issue in which the government has invested so much and has little to no room to wriggle away or save face.

The bill was already passed by Congress by the time the army chose to pipe up and the government had already tried to drum up the aid package as its greatest foreign-policy success to date. Political opposition to the bill was always expected, but that’s the nature of our politics — automatically reject in opposition what you would likely do in government.

The army intervention, though, amounted to a kneecapping for the government; and without a doubt it will lead the most hawkish and paranoid in the government to wonder if a decapitation is next. The more reckless may even push for a strike-before-the-army-strikes counter-strategy.

Which brings me to the second point: Zardari must chart a new course from here. And that course must eschew confrontation with the army while at the same time reaching out to the political opposition more urgently.

When a grenade of the kind lobbed by the army lands in the court of someone as constitutionally powerful as Zardari, there is a mighty temptation to return the favour. Turning the other cheek does not come easily to anyone with the hubris to imagine they can run a country like Pakistan. Nor is turning the other cheek really advisable when your tormentor may in fact want to slap you into submission or worse.

But Zardari is not just another president in the country’s tawdry political history; he is the custodian of the transition to democracy and on his shoulders therefore rests a very heavy burden.

Like him or hate him — and it is apparent that there are many, many in the latter camp — focusing on Zardari the politician, president or person misses the larger point, that he is uniquely placed to give the country what it so desperately needs: democratic continuity.

Zardari’s democracy will necessarily be ugly, scandal-plagued, tawdry even. Part of the blame for that must lie with him, but there is also the fact that he is a creature of his environment, and the politicians in the Class of 2008 aren’t the most savoury of characters.

Yet, whatever the sins of this government, present and future, nothing will come close to the damage caused to the prospects for democracy if Zardari fails to ensure democratic continuity in the short term and a democratic transfer of power in the medium term.

The country will never, ever come close to addressing its fundamental problems if it does not settle on one framework of governance, one set of rules for how the state is to be organised and run.

To believe the army has the solutions is to believe in a fairytale. And to believe the army at least has the ability to ensure the security of the state and its people and therefore must influence the state’s policies or at least set its parameters is to ignore the fact that some of the greatest threats to national security in our history have been created and exacerbated by the army itself.

So what Zardari must do is stop the fresh incursions into political terrain by the army. Whether it is the army’s intention or not, the fact is that a year and change into the transition to democracy, army intervention in controversies such as the Kerry-Lugar bill and the restoration of the deposed judges is chipping away at the fragile wall that is keeping the army out at the moment. That wall needs to be strengthened, but in a shrewd way. Directly confronting the army while Zardari’s flanks are exposed by his personal unpopularity risks bringing the wall down altogether.

So what can Zardari do? Win back the PML-N. A unified political front would work to Zardari and his government’s advantage in two ways. One, it would reduce the intra-political pressure his government is under. Two, a stronger political front would mean the army would need to be more careful about its political forays.

Ah, but how can he trust the PML-N? Isn’t it not-so-secretly hoping for mid-term elections? Wasn’t Shahbaz Sharif caught powwowing with Kayani recently? All true, and Zardari probably can’t trust the Sharifs.

But Zardari also needs to quietly assess who poses the bigger threat to his party and its future. Between the PML-N and the army, the PML-N is from a structural point of view weaker while the army is only temporarily weakened by its tarnished political credentials. And in the democracy stakes, the PML-N cannot shut out the PPP, only the army can.

Again, it’s not clear if the army is interested in forcing change at the moment. But it is clear that the fragile wall against possible army intervention is being eroded. And in a place like Pakistan, a civilian leader ignores such a development at his peril.

Pakistan successfully tests Tsunami warning system

Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), under a UN-backed initiative, successfully tested the effectiveness of theIndian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS) at the southern coastal line of Thatta in Sindh.

The testing was followed by a rescue drill for evacuating coastal area residents from the most vulnerable to safer places, establishment of relief camps and damage assessment practices.

The exercise to test the warning systems and overall preparedness of nations in the region, was supposed to simulate the magnitude 9.15 quake that struck off Aceh on Dec. 26, 2004, setting off a devastating tsunami.

Hundreds of people living in coastal areas including main city of Ketibandar participated in the rescue drill while it was followed by a capacity building and awareness activity for local disaster management authorities, volunteers and media persons.

Briefing the media here on Friday, NDMA Director Preparedness and Mitigation Amir Muhiuddin said the exercise, conducted in collaboration with UNESCO, helped increase preparedness and improve coordination throughout the coastal region. He added that it provided an opportunity for the Indian Ocean countries to test their operational lines of communications, review their tsunami warning and emergency response standard operating procedures, and promote emergency preparedness.

He said the simulated tsunami will be extended in real time across the entire Indian Ocean, taking approximately 12 hours to travel from Indonesia to the coast of South Africa.

He said the exercise also provided an opportunity to test national standard operating procedures and the operational lines of communication between the NTWCs and JMA and PTWC.

Several member states have indicated that they intend to conduct the exercise through community level, including limited evacuation of selected coastal communities.

TB ravages HIV/Aids patients: WHO

The World Health Organisation warned that progress in tackling tuberculosis was far too slow, as it doubled its estimate of the ravages the disease is causing among HIV/Aids patients.

Some 9.27 million people contracted TB in 2007, an increase of about 30,000 over the previous year mainly in line with population growth, according to the WHO’s annual report on tuberculosis control.

They included some 1.4 million people with HIV/Aids, compared to an estimated 600,000 in 2006 reported last year.

More than one death in four — 456,000 of the 1.75 million tuberculosis deaths recorded in 2007 — is now thought to involve an HIV/Aids patient.

‘These findings point to an urgent need to find, prevent and treat tuberculosis in people living with HIV and to test for HIV in all patients with TB in order to provide prevention, treatment and care,’ said WHO Director General Margaret Chan in a statement.

However, the report reiterated that there were severe shortcomings in tackling tuberculosis and coordinated care for both diseases largely due to feeble heath care in the developing countries that are the hardest hit.

Just one in seven HIV patients get vital preventive treatment for TB, said WHO HIV/Aids director Kevin De Cock.

Overall, more than one third of tuberculosis cases are not diagnosed, leaving many out of reach of treatment and, crucially, increasing the risk of spreading the contagious disease, according to the UN health agency.

While the overall rate of TB infection fell in three years to 139 cases per 100,000 people, the improvement was too slow, said Mario Raviglione, the agency’s anti-tuberculosis chief.

’We are talking about less than one per cent per year, which will get us to potentially eliminate TB in a very distant future: we are talking centuries if not millenia in a way,’ he told journalists. The growth in the estimated impact on HIV/Aids patients was largely down to better data and understanding.

’The revision is illustrative of the fact that people living with HIV have a risk of developing tuberculosis that’s 20 times greater than HIV negative people,’ said De Cock.

Despite progress in testing TB patients for HIV in Africa, the combination of poor diagnosis, rising drug resistance and the evidence of the impact on highly vulnerable HIV/Aids patients have heightened alarm among health experts.

Detection of the highly contagious disease has stagnated after a sharp improvement nine years ago, while the impact drug resistant strains of the TB bacteria has grown to infect an estimated 500,000 people.

Just one per cent of them receive treatment and 150,000 of them die, according to the WHO, which regards resistance as the ‘achilles heel’ of the anti-TB drive.

‘The scale-up of interventions to deal with multidrug TB is not at the pace we would like to see and is far from the targets that have been established,’ Raviglione said.

Furthermore, 10 per cent of them were almost incurable extra-resistant strains (XDR-TB) that are now found in 55 countries.

The WHO is gathering the 27 countries that account for 85 per cent of multidrug resistant cases of tuberculosis — including India, China, Russia, South Africa and Bangladesh - for a meeting in Beijing on April 1.

‘You could be in middle of a drug resistant TB epidemic and not even know about it,’ De Cock pointed out.

Fighting Hunger

THE fight against hunger is being lost. Today, there are over 1 billion hungry people around the globe. The alarming thing is that this number continues to increase. Given this backdrop, the scourge's extreme form that prevails in a number of African countries where food shortage has been a source of bloody riots and has provoked armed conflicts could rear its head in other parts of the world as well. The recent global food crisis that affected a heavy toll all around should be a wake-up call, to say the least. Already there are estimates that the crisis would worsen in the days to come. So there should be no dithering on this count. Though Pakistan, which lies in one of the world's most populous regions, has been hit hard, the leadership at the helm remains indifferent. The skyrocketing price of the food items has pushed millions into hunger and poverty. Admittedly the government has faltered on a number of fronts. For instance, it gave a carte blanche to the wheat and sugar mafia to manipulate prices. Likewise, there is also no mistaking the reality that the hoarders are not reined in. Such a shoddy performance could hardly be expected to guarantee food security. There is also a perception that agricultural potential of the country in terms of food security has not been fully developed. Despite having an irrigation system that is one of the best in the world, we still have to import a number of foodstuffs. Among other things, one cannot help but hold the food ministry and the departments working under it responsible for the dismal picture. They are simply blind to the situation faced by small landowners, which form a big chunk of the farming community. Even basic issues, like high price of the inputs, shortage of seeds and fertilisers during the crop season, remain un-addressed. How in such circumstances could the sector be expected to produce sufficient food? Undoubtedly, the country is in need of a Green Revolution. Food security would remain a dream otherwise.

Hunger pangs of a nation

During Ramazan the prime minister — in all seriousness — indicated his desire for the Pakistani nation to consume less sugar to help tide over the sugar crisis. It made one wonder which section of society he was addressing.

Was it the elite, the very inventors of the culture of extravagant iftars, for whom even during the worst national crisis it is business, rather pleasure, as usual? If the mid-income group was his audience then he should know that inflation has already shrunk their budget as they battle with job retrenchment and chronic price hikes.

Then there were the masses, often standing in long lines at the risk of being beaten and humiliated to buy a few kilos of sugar, so their large families were not deprived of one of the few remaining pleasures of life, a cup of sweetened tea. Many of these people live close to or below the poverty line and can only afford one meagre meal a day. The World Health Organisation has identified hunger as the gravest single threat to public health in the world and research data from Pakistan indicates widespread malnourishment among the rural and urban poor. Children are at maximum risk because when food does not meet the caloric requirements of the growing body it can cause long-term nutrient deficiencies, which at first manifest themselves as low energy and later can lead to multiple health complications if left unattended.

Malnourishment in the adult workforce results in poor health that keeps workers from playing an effective role in the country’s development. Undernourished women pass on the effects of malnutrition to the next generation when they give birth to infants that start a new life with multiple deficiencies.

Roti, kapra aur makan (food, clothing and shelter), promised so often to the people of Pakistan, is not just an election slogan but a right. According to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, every person has a “right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food”, as well as the “fundamental right to be free from hunger”. Just as it is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens from external threats, the same is true of internal perils like food insecurity.

Governments that prioritise the welfare of their people employ maximum resources to ensure that food is available for purchase. During times of crisis they intervene to ensure food security for their citizens. States commit themselves to long- and short-term policies and allocate funds to increase agricultural yield through scientific research and technological intervention.
The availability of safe and healthy seeds is closely monitored. States also study the fine balance between cash and food crops to make sure that food needs are adequately met. Law-enforcement agencies and legislative mechanisms ensure that profiteers and food cartels do not monopolise the food supply.

In Pakistan, citizens faced with food insecurity have so far heard only empty promises and seen ad hoc arrangements while a comprehensive blueprint to eradicate food vulnerability from the state has yet to be shared with an increasingly anxious population. On the contrary, fears that the government is leasing millions of acres of cultivable land to Gulf-based multinationals for corporate farming has raised many questions for Pakistan’s food sovereignty and ecology.

The head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that the controversial rise in land deals of millions of acres by rich governments and corporations in developing and underdeveloped countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies could create a form of neo-colonialism, with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people.

The track record of corporate farming is not as good as some government officials would have us believe. Financial clout and lack of local guidelines for land acquisition usually make it possible for big corporations to take over prime land. This leaves the poor farmers with less productive land to meet the food needs of the country and can endanger the long-term food sovereignty of impoverished host nations.

Corporate farming, driven as it is by profit motives, has in the past shown little regard for environmental concerns and in fact caused irreversible environmental damage to leased land and its environs. With huge funds at their disposal, corporations find it easier to monopolise the water supply and other resources, thus depriving neighbouring farms of their rightful share. These are some of the many factors that can cause social and economic disempowerment of poor farmers who form the backbone of Pakistan’s agrarian system.

The food crisis Pakistan is facing can only be reversed with a fundamental shift in the way the state perceives food and its link with the nation. Food needs to be looked upon not as a profitable commodity but the right of the people. A well-fed and healthy nation will be better equipped to participate in the country’s sustainable development.

Today food prices have taken staples beyond the reach of the average wage earner and the people’s desperation to obtain discounted and free food is often seen in endless lines where they brave heat and hardship. The incident in Karachi where several women lost their lives in their attempt to receive food should be a wakeup call for the political leadership of Pakistan that the hunger pangs of the nation cannot be left unheard and unattended.

Return of the natives

Despite experts and locals talking about the traumatic experiences the people of Malakand Division in general and Swat in particular have gone through, one finds very little government attention being paid to this aspect of the IDPs.

Reportedly, over 2.3 million people in the region had to bear hardships of different kinds when they were forced to flee. They had to live in miserable conditions in makeshift camps or congested buildings with their hosts. And, sadly, their misery didn't end even as they returned to their homes. The women and children were coming back, having assimilated the horrors of displacement on the one hand and the devastating battle between the military and the militants on the other. For months, the young had been fed on images of blood and gore, throats being slit, bodies being hanged, and so on. They had witnessed the Green Square, in Mingora, now rechristened 'Bloody Square'.

The educated and professional lot -- lawyers, journalists, teachers, people related to industry, police officials, political party activists etc -- also took a beating.

According to reports, around 200 girl schools in the region have already been destroyed by the militants which means thousands of female students will be without education now. A teacher at a high school that was blown up by Taliban, remembers the horrors of the night: "The Taliban attackers broke into our school, shouting slogans of 'Allah O' Akbar'. They blindfolded us, tied our hands behind us and picked up all sorts of expensive goods while detonating a bomb in the building.

"Luckily, they spared us on the condition that we'd never come back to the place."

The teacher laments the fact that the careers of thousands of youngsters had been destroyed.

Doctor Mohammad Farooq Khan, a well known psychiatrist from Swat, says the people in the affected areas have returned but not without some mental conditions -- "chiefly depression and psychosis."

He tells, "The conditions are likely to aggravate because these people have been under continued stress and without proper medication."

Dr Farooq also speaks of having met cases of acute anxiety disorders. "People have been passing out on the street. The women, especially, complain of getting panic attacks. Insomnia (sleeplessness), nightmares, hopelessness and a strong sense of helplessness are the order of the day."

Dr Farooq says he identified 10 to 20 percent of people in relief camps as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "The patients of PTSD are haunted by unpleasant and painful memories that badly influence their sleep, mood and behaviour."

Common psychological aberrations such as anger, peevishness, fighting over petty issues, urge for vengeance and conspiracies and highly suspecting nature are some of the other ailments that have been increasingly found among these people.

Dr Farooq suggests comprehensive treatment and psychological counselling for the purpose of which "the number of psychologists should be increased five times in Swat. The schools should have in-house psychiatrists."

Ex federal minister and ANP leader Afzal Khan Lala says that the people of the region have been transported back by half a century in the march for progress. "Our children have received big psychological shocks. Their future is at stake. We need preferential support from the government and the world outside. We are entitled to special quota in jobs and development funds on long-term basis. Unless the area and its people get the required funding and support, they can't compete with the rest of the country."

It may be mentioned here that Lala himself sustained injuries in an incident when the insurgents pursued and killed the brothers of Ayub Ashari and Wajid Ali Khan, provincial ministers of ANP.
NWFP Minister for Forest and Environment, Wajid Ali Khan says ANP was on the hit-list of the insurgents. "Over 150 (ANP) activists and office-bearers were murdered in Swat. These are indeed testing times for us and the people of Swat."

Wajid says a comprehensive plan worth $2 billions has been prepared for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the area. "Education will be given priority, vocational institutions will be opened, jobs will be provided; losses to businesses, agriculture and properties will be compensated. The world should support us in our reconstruction efforts."

Mumtazuddin, former administrator of an IDP camp in Mardan, says, "In our camp, there were cases of acute anxiety, depression, loss of sleep and other psychoses. Though they were treated, the nature of these ailments is such that they could recur any time in the future. Therefore, these patients need to be on medication for a longer time.

Sirajul Haq, former finance minister NWFP, says the province was pushed to war-like situation but was not sufficiently funded for the losses. "NWFP has incurred an estimated loss of Rs 25 trillions while agriculture in Malakand lost Rs 72 billions. The situation warrants that the province should be declared a war-affected zone."

"Unfortunately, the trauma continues as no compensation has been provided to the people as yet. Despite emergency relief, work on recovery and rehabilitation has been slow," says Aftab Alam, advocate and President, District Bar Association Swat.

He adds that the resilient legal fraternity -- both judges and lawyers -- decided to revamp the legal system in Malakand in the wake of the hazards for the future of the country. "But our problems have not been addressed. There are cracks in our office buildings. The judges face housing problems. We asked the government for help and, in February this year, a sum of Rs 3.5million was sanctioned for repair work in district courts. That, however, is yet to be released."
The journalist community has also suffered. A Swat-based journalist tells TNS that the breaking news phenomenon had aggravated their woes. Several journalists have been killed while covering rallies and programmes in the region. "The media organisations want the latest news at any cost. The security forces have their own demands while the militants are also unhappy with us. We are virtually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea."

A government official says that around 83 percent of the total 1,800 Swat police officials quit when Taliban unleashed a reign of terror against them. "The situation now looks encouraging as the old guard has rejoined while new inductions are being made."

People related to the entertainment industry had to wind up their projects after 2007. CD shops and music centres were shut down and female dancers in Mingora were forced to leave the place.
According to the journalist, 25 percent of the entertainment industry people have returned to Swat. "Most of the poor people have returned. But unless the MPAs, MNAs and the influential people from the area return to the area, the public morale is likely to remain low."

Writing on the wall

The Khori Garden tragedy of Sept 14 in Karachi brought to the forefront many core weaknesses in the existing distribution mechanisms. Common people are in dire straits in the country. Why else would hundreds of poor women have flocked to the deadly disaster site to collect ration supplies the very next day?

Thus anarchy and disorder erupts whenever acts of spot subsidies and benevolence are launched by the government as well as philanthropists, suggesting that institutionalised options to acquire the basics of life have totally collapsed.

It is disappointing to note that no lessons have been learned from the retrospect to effectively deal with the gravity of the situation. In a scenario where tenets of market economy are ruthlessly imposed in all the sectors, the concurrently rising number of poor is viewed as a potential threat.

Ever since the mid 1980s, Pakistan has been shackled under the infamous economic policy frameworks imposed by the international donor agencies -- mainly IMF and World Bank. This benchmark sadly coincided with the much-needed political change which led to the creation of a democratic government after 11 years of an autocratic regime of the 1980s. The era of Structural Adjustment Programmes was ushered into the nation's history with a whole range of clandestine stakeholders, men in khaki being most prominent. Times that followed displayed the lost struggles of at least four democratic governments to implement their manifestoes across the tightening nooses of donor prescriptions. Much to the pleasure of the donor community, an unmeditated coup in 1999 removed the democratic government to install a complying brand of regime which continued to faithfully bow to market pressures, even sacrificing peoples' wellbeing.

Relying on the robustness of high liquidity, a selfish consumer class was made to evolve that extended commoditisation of social goods to new heights. Domestic economy was dominated by nascent trading and laissez faire transactions without any regulatory checks and institutional compliance. As a result, powerful cartels, interest groups and lower chains of middlemen evolved that consolidated these arrangements. A stage is now reached where the country's finance minister has shown his inability to tame the wild sugar barons.

Consequently, poor masses are finding it most difficult to make both ends meet. The cost of arranging water, fuel, transportation/commuting and healthcare is more than half of the total household income for majority of inhabitants in the country. This compulsory expenditure deprives poor from developing any productive assets for incremental improvement in living standards. A rising multitude of households comprising destitutes and dependents is another cause of concern. At least half of the victims in the Khori Garden tragedy belonged to this category.

Investment to develop a viable infrastructure to uplift the condition of poor is essential. Conservative estimates show that about 48 percent of the population is without access to safe drinking water while 63 percent is not connected to any sewerage system. A sizable produce in agricultural areas perish on the way due to absence or dilapidated conditions of farm to market roads. In cities, more than three-fourth of the employment is generated in the domain of informal sector. Attempts are normally made to allocate finances for various development schemes prepared in the infrastructure sector. However, the lion's share normally goes to mega projects. Despite the fact that such projects hardly benefit poor, these incur high capital costs and have burgeoning operation and maintenance overlays. They are also assigned higher priorities. Preference given by donors/federal government, risk of losing overheads in kick backs and lobbying efforts by large-scale contractors are few reasons for choosing mega projects.

Poor people need small scale initiatives. Development of water stand posts, secondary sewers to connect household/lane level sewers, secondary roads to inter-connect localities and basic power supply are some small scale projects that can improve living conditions and help eradicate poverty by increasing peoples' productive capacity.

The government claims to support poor by opening up some avenues to muster relief. Funds from Zakat, Baitul Maal, marriage assistance and health support programmes are claimed to be accessible to poor. Several new programmes have been launched to facilitate income support, loans and even land supply to common people. The expected outcome of these initiatives shall not be able to scale up to the actual demand of the sector. As the macro scale policies do not support the pro-poor strategies, specialised programmes only become confined to political drumbeats. Poor targeting, insignificant coverage and lack of proper monitoring gives rise to a limited coverage and impact of such programmes. It is erroneously assumed that by doling out money, poverty can be stemmed.

If the present regime is willing to prove its representative status, few fundamental steps need to be taken without delay. One, an open debate about the overall causes and effects of poverty must be launched. All cross sections of the society should be allowed to contribute to it. Two, findings and recommendations of various research studies must be scientifically reviewed and assessed by a relevant institution, such as the Planning Commission. Three, based on these inputs, a working paper on the issues related to poverty and means to holistically address them may be floated at the elected fora, including local councils, provincial assemblies and parliament. On the basis of the national consensus evolved for addressing poverty, negotiations and dialogue must be made with all interest groups, including donors. Four, policy instruments that affect the livelihoods of people must be immediately checked and revisited. This also accounts for providing protectionist cover for few sectors of enterprises that are in the state of infancy. Five, direct assistance must be only targeted to those who are economically incapable in all respects. All others must be provided with catalytical assistance to help acquire a compatible earning opportunity. Once economically capable, the society can address almost all other issues. And six, infrastructure development must be based on the up-scaling of various pilot projects that now have a successful existence in this country and are being replicated on self help.

It must be remembered that nations have experienced revolutions that ignored the writing on the walls on such grave counts.

The real story

Given the scale of the power shortage in Pakistan and the unending fiasco of loadshedding, it is quite astonishing that so few people have a real sense of what the problem truly is. Admittedly there is no singular explanation but by the same token the narrative is quite familiar, tired even.
It starts with the emergence of what is now called 'neo-liberalism' in the western capitalist countries following the coming to power of Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States. Thatcher in particular was an astute conservative ideologue fully committed to an overhaul of the welfare state that was the pillar of liberal capitalism for almost half a century following the Great Depression. Thus began a comprehensive rollback of working-class power within Britain and the rest of Europe. Trade unions were systematically undermined and privatisation of state utilities, most notably commanding heights such as railways and telecommunications, began in earnest.

A similar process was unfolding in the United States, but the implications were less profound because neither was labour ever as powerful in the US as it was in Europe, nor did the American state own as substantial a proportion of assets as its European counterparts. Reagan's more important role was to deploy the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in the third world to ensure that a rollback of the state was carried out in a manner similar, nay, more ruthless, to what was taking place within the western countries.

It is important to bear in mind that the global consensus until the late 1970s was not that public utilities should be privatised and that supply and demand of these utilities should be dictated by the principles of so-called 'free market competition', but instead that the state shoulder responsible for universal provision of utilities at affordable prices. The 'golden age' of 20th century capitalism was indeed between 1945 and 1975 when the interventionist state was anything but an aberration in orthodox policy circles.

Third world countries such as ours were all of a sudden given lectures about the unsustainability of deficit spending (even while western country governments' deficits soared), the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises, and the fact that the 'free market' was a panacea to all ills. In fact the third world was suffocated by external debt and the exponential rise in oil prices in the period immediately preceding the imposition of neo-liberal policies and this was the context in which the 'structural adjustment' nightmare unfolded. Rather than reflecting an objective analysis of the economic structure of third world societies, the 'rollback' of the state was an explicitly ideological project which benefited from the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s.

So, for example, while it is true that the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) suffered from various allocative and distributive inefficiencies, their performance in the late 1980s was not so much worse than in previous decades to warrant privatisation per se. Externally determined neo-liberal policies (supported by a healthy dose of Pakistani hangers-on who were earning cash as 'expert' consultants) were therefore transformed into a neo-liberal 'consensus'.

From here on the story is relatively uncomplicated. The World Bank proclaimed that the public sector had neither the capacity nor the operational know-how to be able to meet growing demand for power and that therefore corporatisation and eventual privatisation of WAPDA and KESC was required. Meanwhile new power generation would be the responsibility of private power producers to whom unbelievable incentives would be offered including exemption from taxation and tariff rates which may as well have been called government subsidies. Pakistan was clearly a world-leader in this regard as a 2001 World Bank report noted: 'Although the international development community had come to realize that the role of the public sector needed to be redefined and reduced, no other low-income country had made private investments a cornerstone of its energy policy'.

The plan proceeded apace in the early 1990s culminating in independent power producers (IPPs) becoming operational by the middle of the decade. Needless to say the attempts to dismantle the massive bureaucratic structures that were WAPDA and KESC were resisted at numerous levels (and not necessarily for the right reasons, of which there were plenty), but corporatisation was not halted. KESC was eventually privatised in 2005. Four years after its sale, and two decades since neo-liberal sensibilities came to guide policy in the power sector, we have an unmitigated disaster on our hands.

The current trials and tribulations have numerous immediate causes. Demand exceeds supply of electricity (although the shortfall would be much less acute if the existing public power generation plants that are sitting idle were made operational), some IPPs are not producing as much as they could (ostensibly because they are still owed buckets of money by the government), and oil prices on the international market have been extremely variable in recent times.

However, these short-run problems do not explain the larger mess we find ourselves in. So, for example, if the power policies throughout the 1990s had not granted such incredible concessions to the IPPs, including the guarantee of inflated prices, the government would not necessarily be struggling to pay them off at this particular juncture. Then there was the mindless extension of consumer credit throughout the Musharraf tenure without requisite public investment in power infrastructure, something that a corporatised WAPDA on a leash was simply incapable of conceiving, let alone doing.

More generally, the neo-liberal recipe of subsidizing the private sector regardless of the social cost has proven to be catastrophic in Pakistan, and indeed around the world.

The global financial crisis has created a parallel legitimacy crisis for neo-liberal capitalism. Yet the third world remains a laboratory in which failed experiments are being rehashed without any accountability of the IFIs that champion these experiments.

Neo-liberalisation in practice is in fact much more destructive than neo-liberalism in theory. The 'free market' rhetoric betrays a ground reality in which bending of rules, distortions of various kinds, and plain banditry are commonplace. It is about time that a powerful intellectual movement emerges within countries such as ours to challenge the neo-liberal 'consensus'. There is no need for us to premise this challenge with the proclamation that the public sector should remain as is. In fact our argument is that the public sector should be genuinely made public rather than the preserve of an obsolete bureaucracy. Privatisation is not the answer because it subjugates the public to the whims of private profiteers. If we do not resuscitate the paradigm of the public monopoly the present power crisis will simply give way to another one of greater intensity. And that will be our lot, forever and after.