Daily Times Editorial May 28, 2014

A good beginning Despite reservations in some circles, most Pakistanis welcomed Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s decision to attend Mr Narendra Modi’s swearing-in as the new PM of India at the latter’s invitation. Although similar invitations were extended to the heads of state and government of all the SAARC countries, all eyes were focused on the interaction between the PMs of traditional rivals Pakistan and India. And the warm welcome PM Modi extended to Nawaz Sharif raised the hopes of the hopeful, comprising most Pakistanis, while the sceptics, including the Kashmiris, seemed unconvinced. The body language and atmospherics at the first meeting between the two PMs seemed excellent. It could be claimed with confidence therefore, that a good beginning had been made. At the glittering swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House) in New Delhi, the SAARC leaders in attendance were joined by a large invited crowd, including political and business leaders and celebrities from all segments of Indian society, including Bollywood’s well known figures. Mr Modi’s vigorous welcoming handshake with Nawaz Sharif underlined the mutual desire of the two leaders to nudge their bilateral relationship towards normalisation. Apprehensions accompanying Modi’s rise to the apex office include the fears of the minorities in India, particularly Muslims, about the dark past of Mr Modi, especially in the Gujarat massacre of Muslims in 2002 when he was the chief minister. Perhaps aware of his polarising and divisive past, Mr Modi’s message after taking oath of office was to build an ‘inclusive’ India with a relatively lean cabinet, the latter reflecting his slogan: “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”. This is intended to reinforce the election platform on which Mr Modi ran, emphasising good governance and economic development rather than the Hindutva agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the even more extreme stance of the BJP’s ‘mother’ movement, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which on the eve of the swearing-in ceremony and meeting with Nawaz Sharif, belligerently threatened that if Pakistan did not correct course vis-à-vis India, Mr Modi would be forced to press the nuclear button against it. On his part, PM Nawaz Sharif opened his innings in New Delhi with the statement that there existed a great chance to open a new chapter, starting from where he and former BJP PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee left off in 1999. He offered attractive investment opportunities to Indian businessmen, which no doubt went down well with the proven business-friendly Modi. It goes without saying that enhanced trade and business opportunities between Pakistan and India are to the mutual benefit of both despite the naysayers and sceptics in Pakistan. Trade between the two countries is officially at around $ 2.5 billion, with the balance heavily tilted towards India, whose exports account for $ 1.75 billion of the total. Around $ 3 billion trade is believed to be routed through Dubai, again tilted heavily in India’s favour and which deprives both countries of tax revenues. The issue of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, which India has long ago extended to Pakistan but has not been reciprocated, may now be revived under the new title of Non-Discriminatory Market Access (NDMA). While the positives of the warm welcome to PM Nawaz Sharif and the overwhelming run of opinion in Pakistan that it was the right decision to accept the invitation from Mr Modi are welcome, there are still many issues that remain to trouble relations between the two South Asian neighbours. Memories of 1999, when General Musharraf’s adventure in Kargil effectively sealed the fate of the Sharif-Vajpayee rapprochement, haunt the renewed process of normalisation. However, 2014 is a very changed scenario from 1999. Pakistan is beset with trouble on its western border, including a homegrown Taliban insurgency that has been described as an existential threat to Pakistan’s security rather than any external enemy. The military therefore appears, contrary to conspiracy theorists, to be on board regarding the critical need to normalise relations with India on the eastern border. That of course does not mean that long standing issues such as Kashmir and the Pakistan-India rivalry for influence in Afghanistan are about to disappear. They can cause tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi again as in the past. However, internally the fears of the minorities in India, particularly Muslims, at the rise to power of Modi have been underlined by a communal clash in his home province Gujarat on the very day he took oath. The underlying communal tensions lingering from 2002 burst forth into clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities after an innocuous traffic accident. Reportedly, the first one-to-one meeting between PMs Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi yielded the expected positions of both sides. India raised the issue of terrorism and closure of the Mumbai attacks case. Pakistan seemed to agree on cooperation to overcome terrorism while emphasising the economic side of bilateral relations. Naturally, such summits are always followed up by experts and officials’ working out of the details of the vision of their leaders. Let us hope that that process will now proceed with dispatch, in contrast with the virtual halt during the Congress government’s later tenure.

Daily Times Editorial May 19, 2014

Chaos, anarchy and madness If the above title is not self-explanatory, all readers have to do is follow developments in recent days to check its veracity when describing the state of affairs emerging in the country. It all began with the attack on Hamid Mir, a most unfortunate incident, irrespective of one’s view of the man or his journalism. The TV channel he works for went overboard in broadcasting the allegation brought forward by his brother against the ISI and its chief. That lapse in editorial judgement could have perhaps been forgiven and forgotten as a knee jerk reaction in the heat of the moment. However, doubts about the quality of the TV channel’s editorial oversight were compounded beyond comprehension by the broadcast of a morning show that allegedly insulted revered persons in Islam, setting off a storm of protest, calls for and the actual registration of a blasphemy case in Islamabad against the channel, its owner, the anchor and chief guests, while courts were being approached all over the country for similar action. This latest outburst of seething anger added to the already ‘spontaneous’ rallies and protests against the channel in various parts of the country and in support of the ISI, its chief, and the military in general. As if all this were not enough, the Cable Operators Association and Imran Khan too have joined the fray against the media group. A crescendo of voices is rising to ban the media house in question. Is all this reasonable, is it rational? Who does not know by now that the first casualty in any blasphemy accusation is rationality and civilised behaviour? A blasphemy accused can be considered a dead duck, literally. Even if justified criticism lies against the media group for its ‘adventurism’ against powerful institutions of state and its failure to take account of the circumstances surrounding the reaction to it by venturing into controversial religious terrain, does the punishment being advocated fit the ‘crime’? Another unfortunate fallout of this whole growing controversy is the role played by certain media groups in their shortsighted view of this as an opportunity to do down a rival. What they fail to comprehend is that their campaign against one media group could in future end up rolling back hard won freedom of the media all across the line. The media’s inability to stand together in solidarity against attacks on its freedom, albeit requiring a re-examination of how this freedom needs to be exercised with responsibility, may end up exacting a heavy toll from the media as a whole. Blasphemy and the laws that govern it in Pakistan have become an increasingly dangerous and controversial terrain. The ease with which anyone holding a different view or reservations about the effect of the laws in nurturing intolerance, false accusation, mob attitudes and vigilante justice (a description it hardly merits), is at risk of losing life and limb. One does not have to travel far down memory lane to recall that Governor Salmaan Taseer, Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti and many others have either been killed or suffered irreparable harm to their lives if not very existence by the lack of safeguards against what can by now only be described as a tool of terrorising society at large by vested interests. The deplorable aspect of the increasingly alarming direction the country is taking is the conspicuous absence (silence) of the government. Our elected representatives, whether in government or in opposition, have signally failed to provide leadership requiring courage and conviction in this rapid descent into chaos, anarchy and madness. Since the powers that be are paralysed by fear in this regard, it is up to the actual and potential victims of the madness overtaking us to band together and resist this rising dark tide of intolerance, giving someone a bad name and hanging them, and the threatened demise of anything resembling a civilised society. Barbarism in any form or in any guise must be resisted by the enlightened, liberal, democratic and progressive forces in society. Unfortunately these forces seem so scattered, weak and cowed down as to cast a dark shadow on the shape of things to come.

Daily Times Editorial May 14, 2014

Taliban’s spring offensive The fighting season is once again upon Afghanistan now that the winter snows are melting. As announced by them the other day, the Afghan Taliban launched their spring offensive with attacks throughout the country, including ambushes, bombings, firefights and sieges in a number of provinces, including Nimroz, Kapisa, Zabul, Patika and Paktika. The attacks included a three-man suicide squad’s assault on government offices in Jalalabad and rocket attacks on Kabul and Bagram airports, the latter failing to inflict any casualties. Elsewhere, Afghans were not so lucky and the death count throughout the country panned out at 21 dead on Monday. Although an annual feature of the struggle in Afghanistan, this year’s spring offensive comes against the backdrop of a successful first round of presidential elections that the Taliban seemed unable to disrupt. Since the leading two contenders, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani are due to face off in a run-off second round of voting soon, the offensive acquires a different importance and hue. An International Crisis Group report has characterised the overall trend currently as escalating violence throughout the country because of insurgent attacks. In classic guerrilla style, the Taliban are making a push in the remote countryside to wrest control and encircle the cities from the rural areas and mountains. The ability of the 190,000 strong Afghan National Army (ANA) to stave off the Taliban in the context of the withdrawal of the remaining 51,000 US/NATO troops by December this year remains the critical conundrum. The ANA has been raised from scratch since 2002 and billions of dollars are required every year to keep it going. Despite the US and west’s best efforts, however, the ANA remains troubled by a number of problems, amongst them living conditions in the remoter parts of the battlefield, equipment, food supply, vehicle maintenance, a high desertion rate, ethnic imbalances, poor logistics and ‘insider’ attacks. With fewer and fewer western troops available between now and December, the ANA’s challenges are enormous. It has incrementally been taking over security duties from its western allies over the past year or so. Last year’s spring/summer offensive yielded a casualty count of the ANA of about 100 per week at its peak. Although western, particularly American, handlers/trainers speak highly of the ANA’s capabilities, the real test lies ahead. Countries throughout the region are facing the prospect of the post-withdrawal scenario with varying degrees of trepidation. They are increasingly apprehensive of the activities of proselytising groups spreading out throughout the region who, as has been found in Pakistan too, represent the ‘soft’ face of what eventually transmogrifies into extremism and terrorism. Second, the threat from terrorists belonging to various movements targeting the region’s countries who are training in Pakistan’s tribal areas and getting battle experience in Afghanistan is considered to loom increasingly over the heads of China (the Uighur terrorists), Iran (the anti-Shia Sunni Taliban), the Central Asian states and even India (in the context of Kashmir and with lingering memories of the Mumbai attack). But in case complacency creeps in, most informed observers are convinced that Pakistan too faces the threat of a spillover of conflict across the porous Afghan border if and when the fighting in Afghanistan intensifies. Not to be forgotten is the alarming fact that Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is ensconced on Afghan soil across the border. These developments and threats are the unintended consequences and blowback of using extremist proxies in Afghanistan and Kashmir over the last four decades. Unfortunately there is a lack of consistency in policy despite the fact that Pakistan’s Taliban problem has yielded 50,000 deaths, including 5,000 personnel of the military and paramilitary forces. Ordinarily, the logic of the situation would seem to determine the approach of the government and the military to this existential threat from terrorism. However, the government is still wedded to an increasingly unlikely peaceful solution through dialogue, while the military is not helping its cause by desiring to fight the Pakistani Taliban and at the same time support the Afghan Taliban. This duality of policy has taken, and is increasingly taking, its toll of the clarity of vision and strategy without which this battle cannot be won. Our past reliance on jihadi proxies must now be brought to an end as soon as possible and Pakistan must look to its own house, overcome the terrorist threat, and usher in peace and development so that our people can heave a sigh of relief.

Daily Times Editorial May 12, 2014

A peaceful neighbourhood Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif left for Tehran on Sunday on a two-day visit being seen as an important step in building trust with our neighbour Iran. The visit follows visits to Tehran by the Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry and to Islamabad by Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli. These exchanges have laid out the agenda for the prime minister’s visit and issues between Islamabad and Tehran at a bilateral, regional and international level. This will be the first interaction of the new leaderships of both countries, including the prime minister’s meetings with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It cannot be denied that whereas there are many positive aspects of the agenda for discussion between the two sides such as enhanced economic ties, increased bilateral trade through improved physical connectivity such as roads, rail and communications, etc, there are also issues that have in recent years cast a shadow over the relationship. Three issues in particular are well known to be the source of potential friction, whereas one is unstated. The known irritants are the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, border security and Tehran’s perceived unhappiness with Islamabad’s close embrace of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The Saudi issue in particular is very sensitive since there is by now an open rivalry between Tehran and Riyadh for influence in the region. The IP project has been completed until the Iranian side of the border, and was inaugurated by former President Asif Zardari in the dying days of the PPP-led government. The successor PML-N government has been dragging its feet on starting, let alone completing, its leg of the IP pipeline, quoting various obstacles for its hesitation. Finances and possible US/western sanctions figure prominently in the PML-N government’s reluctance to complete what is obviously an important project for energy-starved Pakistan. Its foot dragging faces the looming prospect of fines amounting to $ three million a day if it fails to complete its side of the pipeline before the contractual deadline of December 2014, which looks increasingly undoable. The prime minister will likely ask his Iranian interlocutors to waive this punitive provision. Border security issues revolve around the activities of Iranian groups such as Jundullah, an Iranian Baloch opposition movement considered responsible for attacks on, and the kidnapping of, Iranian border guards. Tehran accuses Pakistan of turning a blind eye (if not harbouring on its soil) to the activities of such hostile groups. Pakistan denies responsibility or collusion, pleading the case for the border area being poorly policed. The summit is expected to yield agreements for enhancing mutual cooperation on this issue between the two countries. The Gulf, broader Middle East and further abroad has been the proxy battleground for the Shia-Sunni rivalry being played out with Saudi Arabia and countries like Bahrain tilting against Iran. Pakistan declares it is neutral in this conflict, even offering to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh during Sartaj Aziz’s Tehran visit, but the offer seems to have been politely declined by Iran. It is hardly a secret that Islamabad’s desired balance in ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran faces an uphill struggle, given Islamabad’s closeness with the kingdom and its relative distance from Iran. Last but not least, Iran’s unexpressed (at least publicly) resentment at the slow but steady and unremitting genocide of Shias in Pakistan over some decades could prove a major stumbling block in overcoming the trust deficit between the two countries and casting relations along a more positive path. Pakistan needs peace within and peace with its neighbours to extricate itself from the crisis that has the country in its grip. Currently, at various levels of intensity, it cannot be pretended that Pakistan enjoys close and friction-free relations with any of its three neighbours, Iran, Afghanistan and India. The latter two may be tougher nuts to crack, given interventionist postures and history respectively, but there does not appear to be any insurmountable obstacle to putting Tehran’s reservations about Islamabad’s policies at rest and putting bilateral ties on at least an even keel. This could yield bilateral, regional and international dividends that so far seem unexplored.

Daily Times Editorial May 12, 2014

A peaceful neighbourhood Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif left for Tehran on Sunday on a two-day visit being seen as an important step in building trust with our neighbour Iran. The visit follows visits to Tehran by the Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry and to Islamabad by Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli. These exchanges have laid out the agenda for the prime minister’s visit and issues between Islamabad and Tehran at a bilateral, regional and international level. This will be the first interaction of the new leaderships of both countries, including the prime minister’s meetings with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It cannot be denied that whereas there are many positive aspects of the agenda for discussion between the two sides such as enhanced economic ties, increased bilateral trade through improved physical connectivity such as roads, rail and communications, etc, there are also issues that have in recent years cast a shadow over the relationship. Three issues in particular are well known to be the source of potential friction, whereas one is unstated. The known irritants are the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, border security and Tehran’s perceived unhappiness with Islamabad’s close embrace of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The Saudi issue in particular is very sensitive since there is by now an open rivalry between Tehran and Riyadh for influence in the region. The IP project has been completed until the Iranian side of the border, and was inaugurated by former President Asif Zardari in the dying days of the PPP-led government. The successor PML-N government has been dragging its feet on starting, let alone completing, its leg of the IP pipeline, quoting various obstacles for its hesitation. Finances and possible US/western sanctions figure prominently in the PML-N government’s reluctance to complete what is obviously an important project for energy-starved Pakistan. Its foot dragging faces the looming prospect of fines amounting to $ three million a day if it fails to complete its side of the pipeline before the contractual deadline of December 2014, which looks increasingly undoable. The prime minister will likely ask his Iranian interlocutors to waive this punitive provision. Border security issues revolve around the activities of Iranian groups such as Jundullah, an Iranian Baloch opposition movement considered responsible for attacks on, and the kidnapping of, Iranian border guards. Tehran accuses Pakistan of turning a blind eye (if not harbouring on its soil) to the activities of such hostile groups. Pakistan denies responsibility or collusion, pleading the case for the border area being poorly policed. The summit is expected to yield agreements for enhancing mutual cooperation on this issue between the two countries. The Gulf, broader Middle East and further abroad has been the proxy battleground for the Shia-Sunni rivalry being played out with Saudi Arabia and countries like Bahrain tilting against Iran. Pakistan declares it is neutral in this conflict, even offering to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh during Sartaj Aziz’s Tehran visit, but the offer seems to have been politely declined by Iran. It is hardly a secret that Islamabad’s desired balance in ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran faces an uphill struggle, given Islamabad’s closeness with the kingdom and its relative distance from Iran. Last but not least, Iran’s unexpressed (at least publicly) resentment at the slow but steady and unremitting genocide of Shias in Pakistan over some decades could prove a major stumbling block in overcoming the trust deficit between the two countries and casting relations along a more positive path. Pakistan needs peace within and peace with its neighbours to extricate itself from the crisis that has the country in its grip. Currently, at various levels of intensity, it cannot be pretended that Pakistan enjoys close and friction-free relations with any of its three neighbours, Iran, Afghanistan and India. The latter two may be tougher nuts to crack, given interventionist postures and history respectively, but there does not appear to be any insurmountable obstacle to putting Tehran’s reservations about Islamabad’s policies at rest and putting bilateral ties on at least an even keel. This could yield bilateral, regional and international dividends that so far seem unexplored.

Daily Times Editorial May 3, 2014

May Day reflections In a hopeful sign, the weakened workers’ trade union movement put on a better show than has been the case for some years in its rallies this May Day. Naturally, the pivot for most of the rallies was the large cities hosting the bulk of industry, commerce and the professions. The slogans, demands and pledges were not anything new though. Repetition of more or less the same demands every May Day reflects the stubborn continuing sameness of the problems that afflict the working class but also inevitably lend a ritualistic air to the proceedings. May Day commemorates the sacrifices of the 1886 Chicago martyrs killed by police firing for taking part in a working class rally demanding an eight-hour working day. The day is marked as a holiday in about 80 countries, and informally celebrated in many others. Two significant exceptions to the traditional labour rallies currently are Turkey and Iran, in both of which May Day rallies are banned. For the first time since the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, Russia held a May Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square. Throughout Europe, the day found the greatest traction in rallies protesting unemployment. In Pakistan, a Labour Policy was enunciated by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government in 1972 amidst the first flurry of reforms introduced by him. The Policy provided for social security, old age benefits, and set up a Workers Welfare Fund. The 1973 constitution too upholds labour rights in various Articles. In addition, there is no dearth of labour laws. However, the present struggle of the much weaker working class movement is for legislation in areas where there are gaps, but even more for the implementation of the existing laws, which are practiced more in the breach. Various ILO conventions have been signed by Pakistan, some are still to be signed, but here too the implementation part is far from satisfactory. The incremental rollback of workers’ rights since General Ziaul Haq’s reactionary regime have been exacerbated in recent years by the ‘attack’ of the employers. To overcome the effects of socialisation of the workers through concentration in large factories and learning class solidarity in struggle, employers have managed over the years (with help from successive governments) to circumscribe the right of collective bargaining by placing limits on trade union formation (any workplace employing less than 50 workers is disallowed a union), a contract labour regime through labour contractors, depriving the workers of all protections, outsourcing production to home-based workers, etc. Domestic labour goes unrecognized, unprotected, abused, even murdered. Child labour remains widespread despite its abolition in the early 1990s. If anything, its incidence has steadily risen in the middle of the recession. How can the well-meaning universal school enrolment drives succeed in the face of this rising phenomenon owed to increasing poverty? The minimum wage of Rs 10,000 remains a fiction confined to paper, especially in the private sector. Safety and working conditions issues have become an increasing concern in recent years, with the Baldia Town fire that consumed 250 workers’ lives bringing us as a society to a new low. All this and the lived experience of the working class from day to day inevitably compels the May Day rallies to once again raise voice against unemployment, inflation, utilities’ load shedding, terrorism, lawlessness, privatisation, gender discrimination and the exploitation of the working class generally, but especially in the agricultural and informal sector. The long standing demand for working class representation in parliament seems like pie in the sky given the wealth-based game elections are. This demand can perhaps only be fulfilled by reservation of seats exclusively for the working class in parliament. The ‘triumph’ of capitalism in the Cold War has left the world without a coherent alternative to unbridled capitalism. The result is owners of wealth are able to drive down wages (even more so in the current recession because of lack of jobs) and deprive, through various manipulations, the workers of their legally given and inherent rights as human beings. Capitalism triumphant has bared its ugly fangs and swallowed up generation after generation of the poor, marginalised and oppressed working masses all over the world. Unless the workers of the world overcome their weaknesses, including disunity based purely on rivalries and ambition, they will prove no match for the vastly superior resources and cunning of the capitalist class. In Pakistan in particular, a return to the heyday of working class resistance to exploitation is only possible if principled unity and the bigger cause inform the thinking and practice of the working class.