Business Recorder Column March 30, 2021

PDM, Aurat March, Myanmar and all that

 

Rashed Rahman

 

The long title of today’s column does not reflect the lack of an important subject that can stand alone, but the commonality of many themes that afflict Pakistan and the world. Reflect.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has all but interred the good of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) with the bad. This followed Asif Ali Zardari’s rude and objectionable statements in the recent PDM meeting, where he linked acceptance of the PDM’s demand for en masse resignations with the return of Nawaz Sharif to ‘face the music’ along with all the other PDM leadership, including of course the PPP. From there onwards it has been a steady slide downhill for the PDM. The Senate elections and their aftermath, in which the PPP is treading furiously in the water to defend its indefensible going back on the commitment to give the Senate Leader of the Opposition slot to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in return for their and the PDM entire’s support to Yousaf Raza Gilani, first to be elected Senator from Islamabad, later as candidate for Senate Chairman. But this defence is just not cutting it. To cut a long story short, it seems the PPP-PML-N all-too-brief romance has ended (once again). This spells disaster if not doom for the PDM, in limbo for all intents and purposes after indefinitely postponing its planned long march to Islamabad.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government and Prime Minister Imran Khan must be rejoicing this turn of events since it could mean the government will survive till the end of its tenure. Of course this continuation in office still requires the support of the military establishment. So before the PTI pulls out the champagne to celebrate, they should take serious stock of how far this support can be taken for granted by a government imposed through rigging with the establishment’s help and continuing to flounder without a plan, vision or strategy.

Strange happenings are in evidence since the Aurat March on March 8, 2021 gave rise to false accusations of blasphemy against the organisers and participants, which fortunately were soon exposed before any harm could ensue. It seems, however, that the matter has not ended there but acquired new and unexpected twists. Two recent orders by Sessions Courts in Peshawar and Karachi have directed the police in these two cities to file FIRs against (hold your breath) the Islamabad organisers of the Aurat March. The alleged ‘offending’ slogans and placards that gave rise to blasphemy accusations through doctoring the messages, were ‘discovered’ by our guardians of religion in Lahore and Karachi. But the charges have been ordered to be filed by the Sessions Courts in Peshawar and Karachi against the Islamabad Aurat March organisers!

The apparent mystery is cleared up by a perusal of the facts. The Islamabad Aurat March organisers have at their heart progressive women on the platform of the Women’s Democratic Front, who are aligned with the left-wing Awami Workers Party (AWP). AWP has come out with a strong condemnation of this misplaced concreteness and pledged all-out support to the Islamabad organisers under the cosh. So far so good. But what is troubling is reports that the Lahore and Karachi Aurat March organisers have not only failed to stand up and take responsibility for fighting the false accusations against them, they have refused to stand in solidarity with their Islamabad colleagues in trouble. Insiders say this failure to come to the aid and succour of the Islamabad organisers reflects the gap between the progressive and liberal wings of the Aurat March. If this is correct, it will harm women’s solidarity generally, and in future Aurat Marches specifically. After all, it is only in time of trouble that one discovers the difference between real friends and pretenders.

Myanmar’s military coup rolls along killing peaceful protestors freely. How sad that it is left to the defence chiefs of a dozen countries to remind the Myanmar army of the professional duties and behaviour expected of them vis-à-vis peaceful demonstrators. Where are all the political spokesmen of western countries that never tire of lecturing the world about democracy and human rights? What has the so-called international community (which is neither international nor a community except where their vested interests coincide) done in this regard? A few mealy-mouthed statements and economic sanctions against a Myanmar military-owned company just doesn’t cut it.

The people of Myanmar, whose struggle against a ‘permanent’ military regime since 1962 yielded partial democracy in 2015 after Aung Saan Su Kyi had spent 15 years in detention, returned her party with a bigger majority in this year’s general election. This did not sit well with the Myanmar Generals, who detected a steady draining of the cesspool of military domination if ‘normal’ politics continued. Hence they arrested Aung Saan Su Kyi again on trumped charges of a rigged election, corruption, and what have you. Her whereabouts are so far unknown, but every placard in every demonstration throughout the country carries her visage. Popular leaders loved by the people cannot so easily be wiped out.

Reports say the military is increasingly carrying out a shoot-to-kill policy on the streets against peaceful protestors. Almost 500 have been killed to date, with the UN calculating 107 people, including seven children, among the dead on one day, March 28, 2021, alone. Reports speak of the Karen National Union, one of the country’s largest guerrilla groups, taking up the armed struggle again after the 2015 ceasefire was overtaken by events surrounding the aborted election. Urban protestors are reportedly fleeing to the jungle to acquire training in guerrilla warfare in the face of the unremitting brutality of the military. Myanmar therefore is embarking on the difficult path of armed struggle after all but exhausting peaceful means.

People do not take up arms against the state, risking life and limb, easily. This conjuncture depends entirely on the repressive behaviour of states and their institutions, particularly the military. Myanmar’s departure on this path has profound lessons for all of us.

Four boys’ bodies, aged 13-17 years, were discovered in unmarked graves in Jani Khel, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about a week ago. They had gone ‘missing’ three weeks ago. The grieving tribesmen of the area, instead of receiving a sympathetic hearing from the authorities, were pressurised to rebury the bodies (and thereby the issue) post haste by officials and clerics. But in the absence of deserved justice, the tribesmen refused to do so. Instead they have overcome barriers on their path and last reports speak of them being camped outside Bannu, where the authorities are not allowing them to carry the dead bodies in a peaceful protest to Islamabad. Enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings have become the norm in our country, from north to south and east to west. This has only added to the well known extra-judicial killing machine euphemistically called ‘police encounters’. Those practicing such atrocities should beware the Ides of Myanmar.

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Business Recorder Editorial March 30, 2021

Restoration of LGs

 

The Supreme Court (SC) has delivered a rebuke to the Punjab government (and thereby the federal government) by holding Section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2019, whereby the local governments (LGs) were dissolved before completing their tenure as ultra vires of the Constitution, especially Article 140-A. The SC has in its short order (detailed judgement to follow) restored the dissolved LGs until their term expires in December 2021. The reason underlying the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government’s convolutions in first passing the PLGA 2019 to dissolve the existing LGs with fresh elections to follow in six months, then extending it to 21 months through the PLGA 2020, and inviting the ire of the SC by issuing an Ordinance on the issue two days after the prorogation of the Punjab Assembly, is the fact that these LGs were heavily loaded in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). When questioned by the SC regarding all these twists and turns and whether LGs elections were to be held soon, the court was told the delay was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the court flummoxed the Punjab Additional Advocate General who had made this argument by asking the rhetorical question whether the elections in Gilgit-Baltistan had been held during the pendency of the pandemic. The embarrassed official then pleaded that the matter was now in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and the government be given time to hold fresh elections. When asked whether LGs elections were being held in the remaining provinces, Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan said some provinces had objections to the census results. These convolutions too failed to impress the court however. Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed reiterated the legal position that governments had the right to make new laws, confer powers, restructure the LGs, but not to dissolve them. He remarked that on the one hand the government wanted to devolve powers to the local level, and on the other had indulged in their unconstitutional dissolution. Interestingly, the Attorney General deposed before the court that Section 3 of PLGA 2019 brought back unpleasant memories of Article 58(2)(b), used to dismiss elected governments again and again. His colleague, the Additional Advocate General Punjab seemed less than pleased at the Attorney General’s remarks, but the court seemed to find them reinforcement of its view that the whole construct and practice of the government on the issue was unconstitutional.

It may be too early to speculate what effect the decision could have on the Punjab government of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, especially since even after restoration, the Punjab LGs only have about nine months tenure remaining. Nevertheless, the SC has sent a clear and unequivocal message, not only to the PTI government, but to all governments, present and future, regarding the political and constitutional necessity of ensuring LGs are duly elected and not dismissed or dissolved according to the whims and wishes of governments. This has been the unfortunate pattern of behaviour of many of our civilian elected governments, reluctant as they have been to share power with the LGs and retain undue advantage for the provincial governments. This case has highlighted this expedient tendency, hopefully leading to the closing of the door to arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional tampering with the existence and tenure of the LGs as the bottom rung of the democratic structure. Military dictators, ironically, have favoured LGs, but for malign reasons too: bypassing the political parties and trying to create a ‘direct’ base of support at the mass level. But even this does not justify the ‘stepmotherly’ treatment meted out to LGs in democratic episodes. It goes without saying that the principle of devolution of power, in which the LGs hold an important place, is intended to bring government and service delivery closer to the ordinary citizen and free him of the bureaucracy that has far too often filled the vacuum whenever LGs are dissolved, to the detriment of the citizens’ rights. Let us hope the SC’s verdict will help us put this sorry history behind us and construct the LGs anew as the repositories of devolved, local power to better serve the otherwise hapless citizen.

Business Recorder Editorial March 24, 2021

Peace offensive

 

COAS General Qamar Bajwa made a strong case for peace with India at the Islamabad Security Dialogue on March 18, 2021. He sought the world’s help for the purpose of ending the conflict between the two South Asian nuclear armed neighbours. He emphasised that it was time to bury the past and move forward. General Bajwa’s words echoed Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s at the same moot at the inaugural session just one day before. The PM had promised Pakistan would take two steps towards this goal for every one that India took. Similar sentiments were expressed by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who spoke after the COAS. This ‘same page’ message by both the civilian and military leadership (particularly the latter) represents a shift towards boosting the economic potential of the country and the region and in the process reshaping the international image of Pakistan that has suffered negative fallout from the conflicts and violence that have bedevilled the region in past years. General Bajwa was at pains to underline that this shift was not due to any pressure but a deliberate decision based on rationality to reframe Pakistan’s image as a peace-loving, useful member of the international community. He pointed to the huge expenditure on security and defence by both Pakistan and India at the expense of development favouring the peoples of both countries. Peace in South Asia, he continued, would help remove the impediments to regional connectivity and the unlocking of the area’s true potential. The disputes between Pakistan and India had to be resolved through a dialogue in a dignified and peaceful manner. General Bajwa hoped India would reciprocate in the same spirit to push forward the march to a new future. He also hoped the new Biden administration in the US would play its role in transforming the traditional South Asian contestation into a gainful all-round economic victory for the world in general and the region in particular. On the broader contours of Pakistan’s external policy, especially with regard to China, the US, and Afghanistan, General Bajwa reminded his audience of Pakistan’s contribution to the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan, reiterated our role in enhancing trade and economic ties with Kabul and inviting Afghanistan to be part of the energy and trade corridors linking Central, South, and West Asia, including CPEC. At the same time, General Bajwa messaged the US between the lines not to see Pakistan through just the CPEC lens.

The road to peace and normalisation with India has proved a long, winding, circuitous one with many ups and downs. In fact it would not be incorrect to say both countries continue to be prisoners of history as far as their mutual relations are concerned. General Bajwa therefore could not but consider Kashmir as the core issue that had kept relations between the two neighbours hostage. It may surprise some that the COAS chose to ‘ignore’ the illegal annexation of the part of Kashmir under India’s control. This relegation of the core issue to secondary importance to be dealt with over time had been the cause of trouble for civilian governments in our past time and again. But it goes without saying that when the COAS speaks, one can feel confident that no adverse fallout can occur. Certain developments in Pakistan-India relations of late seem encouraging, The contact between the DGMOs of both sides that resulted in the restoration of the ceasefire on the Line of Control being one, while the resumption of the dialogue on water issues in New Delhi could be considered the other. General Bajwa spoke wisely when he argued that without setting one’s own house in order, not much could be expected from outside. He recalled that after overpowering terrorism and extremism (at least to a considerable extent), Pakistan had begun the work towards sustainable development and improving the economic conditions of the underdeveloped areas. For the last objective, it is also necessary to revisit and resolve through dialogue in the best manner possible the grievances of these areas by giving them their rights and instituting political and economic inclusivity. In the same vein on the external front, Pakistan must follow up its peace efforts in Afghanistan by using its influence on the Taliban to reduce violence and open the door to peace in that war-torn land, whose benefits would be enjoyed by the region and the world as a whole.

Business Recorder Editorial March 19, 2021

PDM’s internal rift

 

The opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has suffered an internal rift of huge proportions. After an hours-long meeting of the alliance in Islamabad on March 16, 2021, PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman appeared ashen-faced in a press conference to briefly announce that nine parties of the 10-party PDM had agreed to submit their en masse resignations from the Assemblies but the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), in the shape of co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, firmly rejected the proposal, arguing that the fight must be fought within parliament, not on the mountains. The scheduled long march to Islamabad on March 26, 2021, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said, stood postponed while the PPP took the resignations issue back to its Central Executive Committee (CEC), which had previously rejected the idea of mass resignations. Not that anyone in the PDM was advocating abandoning parliament to take to the mountains, so Zardari’s statement may be deciphered as just a rhetorical flourish for emphasis. But Zardari did not stop there. He linked the resignations proposal with the return of Nawaz Sharif (and Ishaq Dar) to the country to face the likely music of the incarceration of the opposition leadership. To which Maryam Nawaz replied that his health and possible threat to his life at the hands of the government meant no one had the right to ask for Nawaz Sharif’s return. She rhetorically asked Zardari if he could guarantee Nawaz Sharif’s safety and life were he to return. She said she was here to represent Nawaz Sharif if someone wished to speak to him. In the press conference after the PDM meeting, Maryam Nawaz avoided answering a question regarding the response of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) if the PPP remained adamant in its stance. Apparently Zardari warned the PDM meeting against making decisions that could lead to a parting of the ways. A visibly disturbed Maulana Fazlur Rehman insisted the long march without en masse resignations would be futile. But no one from among the PDM’s ranks has spelt out what the intended plan for the long march, accompanied by mass resignations, was. Would it be an indefinite dharna(sit-in)? To what end? If the hope was that the long march and dharnawould sway the establishment to abandon its support for the PTI, where are the indications for such a change of mood or, to put it in the reigning rhetoric, ‘flipping of the page’?

While government ministers as expected pounced on the development to intone the last rites of the PDM, this may be premature. Attempts to bridge the emerging gulf have begun, one being the option offered to the PPP that the opposition could resign en masse from the National Assembly and three provincial Assemblies while not doing so from the Sindh Assembly, a compromise that would ‘save’ the PPP’s government in that province. However, everything now hinges on the PPP’s CEC meeting, expected to take place within a week or two. The PDM’s internal rift could have been predicted. The fact is that those keenest for mass resignations include Maulana Fazlur Rehman (from the very beginning), since he stands ‘ousted’ from parliament, and the PML-N, whose resignations from the National and Punjab Assemblies are unlikely to dent its political support in its home province. The PPP, however, remains half-in, half-out of the present dispensation, and seems reluctant to go down the path of what it considers with hindsight its mistake in boycotting the 1985 parliament ‘selected’ by General Ziaul Haq. Their respective strategy and tactics can therefore be traced to these ground realities. The PPP marshals the argument for its position that the PDM has gained ground by struggling within the system, particularly if the by-election and Senate Islamabad seat election are taken into account. Unfortunately, the argument could get bogged down with the refreshing of old wounds inflicted upon each other by old rivals the PPP and PML-N. One report speaks of the PPP going back on the understanding within the PDM that all its Senators would vote for Yousaf Raza Gilani as Chairman in return for the PML-N retaining the position of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, which the PPP now seems inclined to offer Gilani as a ‘consolation prize’. Even if PDM survives these jolts, a big question mark now looms over its future effectiveness.

Business Recorder Editorial March 18, 2021

SC on Punjab LG Ordinance

 

In a rare case of extreme censure, the Supreme Court (SC) has come down heavily on Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar for promulgating the Punjab Local Government Ordinance (Amendment) 2021 on February 3, 2021, just one day after the prorogation of the provincial Assembly. Justice Qazi Faez Isa, heading a two-member bench hearing a set of petitions on the local government (LG) system, asked whether the Punjab legislature was incompetent or the Governor wiser than 374 Punjab MPAs. The court was visibly perturbed over a number of changes in the earlier LG law by the Ordinance. Further, that the Ordinance had interrupted the plan of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold LG elections in Punjab in three phases – June 20, July 17, and August 8, 2021 – and that of cantonment boards from April 8-May 29, 2021. The ECP counsel told the court that the Ordinance was issued without taking the ECP into confidence, a claim contested by Punjab Additional Advocate General Qasim Chohan. Noteworthy about the timing of the Ordinance, apart from being promulgated just one day after the Punjab Assembly was prorogued, is the fact the SC was scheduled to take up the matter on February 4, 2021, i.e. just one day after the Ordinance saw the light of day! Justice Isa wanted to know what extraordinary circumstances necessitated the issuance of the Ordinance by bypassing the Punjab Assembly. The SC also wanted to know if the Ordinance had been approved by the Punjab cabinet. In its order, the SC regretted the issuance of the Ordinance in clear violation of the Constitution just one day after the prorogation of the Punjab Assembly, implying it was ready in the pocket of the provincial government. The SC saw this as a clear case of mala fide intentions. As a result of the premature dissolution of Punjab’s LGs before they had completed their constitutional tenure ending on December 31, 2021, the bureaucracy was running the affairs of the LGs, thereby disenfranchising the 120 million people of Punjab. The SC was also unhappy at the adjournment of the February 17, 2021 meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to approve or disapprove the 2017 census results, without which the delimitation of LG constituencies could not be carried out. The 2017 census has become controversial because certain parties, particularly the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Sindh, have objected to alleged under-counting of people in certain areas. The court was then informed that the next CCI meeting was scheduled for March 24, 2021. In passing, it may be noted that the SC Registrar too came in for some stick for failing to fix important cases such as this one as early as possible.

This whole sorry saga is rooted in political rivalry and the marked reluctance of our elected governments to devolve power down to the third tier of the democratic structure. Whereas military dictators in our history have been prone to favouring LGs as an alternative political support base that bypasses the traditional constituencies of the political parties, elected governments have kept LG affairs close to their chest to avoid what they perceive as a possible dilution of their support base amongst the people. What these attitudes belie is the constitutional requirement to have a complete, three-tier structure for the democratic set-up, with LGs representing the first rung of this ladder. The importance of LGs is undeniable, since they are closer to communities at the local level and therefore better placed to deliver services to the people. In their absence, and with the LGs in the hands of the bureaucracy, the hapless citizen has to run from pillar to post even to get the simplest tasks carried out. In the instant case of the Punjab LGs, the mala fide intent is floating on the surface. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) coalition government did not want the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-dominated LGs to live out their term as this would prevent the ruling coalition’s plans to dominate the political landscape in Punjab. The premature dissolution was carried out under the Punjab Local Government Act 2019. Arguably, this too was ultra vires of the Constitution. But then constitutional niceties and adherence have been the exception rather than the rule in our hurly burly politics of ‘anything goes’.

Business Recorder Column March 16, 2021

Aurat March and its ‘critics’

 

Rashed Rahman

 

As every year, this year too Pakistan’s women joined their sisters round the globe in rallying for their rights on March 8, International Women’s Day. For the last few years, the Day is commemorated through the Aurat March that, thanks to networking on social media and other means of mobilisation, has gone from strength to strength. This growing trend of women coming out for their rights has never sat well with the right-wing bigots in our society. To do down and silence the voice of our women, they are not above deliberate misstatement, distortion, disinformation, downright lies and what have you. But this year some of these worthies have outdone themselves.

Fake news, doctored videos and blatant lies are the weapons our right-wing zealots have employed to paint the Aurat March in colours such as being un-Islamic, trying to impose ‘western debauchery’, playing to western (Islamophobic) sentiments, etc. This list would be bad enough in any circumstances, but this year the ‘big gun’ of blasphemy accusation has also been trundled out on the basis of malicious lies, doctored videos, misstatements about an organisation’s flag, etc.

What is even more appalling is that some commentators, analysts and anchors in our mainstream media have joined the voices baying for the blood of the women allegedly responsible for these transgressions without bothering to ascertain the facts. Blasphemy charges are not to be trifled with. The charge carries the death penalty, the accused face threats to life and limb from vigilante mobs, and those targeted usually rot in jail for years. It is salutary to recall the unfortunate interview of late Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer by a relatively new and inexperienced anchor on TV regarding his defence of and support to Aasia Bibi, a poor Christian woman falsely (as it turned out after years) accused of blasphemy. The interview and the anchor’s slant arguably fed into the religious frenzy that led to Salmaan Taseer’s assassination by his guard who was then revealed to be a follower of an extremist group. So much for media responsibility, then and now.

Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noorul Haq Qadri announced in Islamabad on March 14, 2021 that an inquiry was being conducted into the alleged blasphemous slogans raised at the Aurat March. The government, he said, was trying to ascertain the truth regarding some content/video clips circulating on social media, adding (even before the inquiry!) that those involved in this practice would be unmasked and cases filed against them. In the same breath, he also announced that those elements who ‘photo-shopped’ the banners of Aurat March and posted them on social media would alsobe taken to task. The minister would have been better and more credibly served had he confined himself to the inquiry announcement without venturing an opinion that smacks of a double-edged sword to be employed against both the Aurat March organisers and those who put out fake and doctored content to malign them.

As it is, nine leading activists of the Women’s Democratic Front Islamabad that has had an important organisational role in the Aurat March, have had applications moved to the capital’s administration and police to file FIRs against them based on the false and distorted content/videos put out maliciously by hostile elements. Fortunately, so far both the administration and police (unlike our Religious Minister) have thought it best to investigate the matter in the light of the by now widespread clarifications/refutations of the alleged misdemeanour.

Even if the false and cooked up charges against the organisers of the Aurat March do not come to much in the end, they have already succeeded in putting these women’s lives at risk. And judging by past experience, including the infamous case of Aasia Bibi, those guilty of motivated false accusations of blasphemy are likely to get away with their crime (sin, according to religious edicts) scot-free. This injustice needs redress by bringing such mischievous elements to book and allowing the full majesty of the law to punish them as they richly deserve. Unfortunately, our judiciary too (apart from the police and administration) has been found wanting in this respect. In Aasia Bibi’s case, then Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Khosa afforded rare ‘leniency’ to the false accusers, arguing under normal circumstances their punishment should have been life imprisonment but he was letting them go due to the ‘sensitivity’ of the case. Given such precedents, why should one be surprised at the scant respect enjoyed by the law or the courts’ judgements?

This year’s Aurat March’s Charter of Demands speaks to the health, education, freedom from violence (sexual and physical), and Covid-specific new demands on women’s home and care services. It reiterates the demand for ensuring under-age marriages are done away with. It argues for the human, health and other basic rights of the transgender community. This is the core focus of the Aurat March – defending and demanding the implementation of the rights enshrined in our statute books and Constitution. And yet the right-wing defenders of male domination and patriarchy are not above employing every dirty trick in the book, including lies, fraud and falsehood to put women struggling for their legitimate rights in the dock.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a report that repeats the finding of its 2013 report that one in every three women in the world is subjected to violence. This extends to all ages, including tender age. The worst cases are in the home, putting our sacred mantra of ‘chaadar aur chaar diwari’(body covering and four walls of the house) in true context. This domestic violence can be both sexual and physical. Our laws do not give much protection to women abused in the home. Covid has exacerbated these effects.

Women victims have a hard time at the hands of unsympathetic police, administration, and even the courts. This should not come as a surprise as patriarchal mindsets are to be found universally in our society, feeding into systemic bias against women victims who dare to defy the traditional norms of ‘not going too far’ (i.e. public with their complaints). Violence is merely the extreme manifestation of attitudes rooted in male domination and patriarchy.

Progressive and enlightened men, particularly the youth, have been turning out in support of the Aurat March and women generally. The growing success of the annual march however should not render women activists quiet the rest of the year. They need to continue and intensify their organisational efforts throughout the year. The future is always difficult to predict, but if the present trajectory of the women’s movement and Aurat March continues and attracts the support of wider circles (including enlightened men), it could be the harbinger of the greatest social revolution to hit Pakistan if not the Subcontinent in its long history.

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Business Recorder Editorial March 16, 2021

Crude Senate satire

 

The immediate dust may have settled following the victory of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf’s (PTI’s) candidates for Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman, but this saga is far from over. Sadiq Sanjrani, the outgoing Chairman and PTI candidate, won by 48 votes to his Pakistan Democratic Party (PDM) rival Yousaf Raza Gilani’s 42 in a house of 98 voters, the Jamaat-i-Islami’s sole Senator having abstained and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N’s) elected senator Ishaq Dar not having taken oath. However, the result immediately produced an outcry by the opposition since presiding officer Senator Muzaffar Hussain Shah rejected seven votes for Gilani on the grounds that the stamp on their ballots was affixed on Gilani’s name rather than the space in front of it. An eighth ballot was rejected because the stamp was affixed on both candidates’ names. Had the seven Gilani votes not been rejected, he would have won by a narrow margin of 49-48. Interestingly, after Sanjrani took his oath of office despite the opposition’s loud protests and presided over the election of Deputy Chairman, the PTI’s candidate, Mirza Mohammad Afridi won by 54 votes to the PDM’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri’s 44. While the victory of Sanjrani can easily be traced to the seven rejected votes, Afridi’s clear margin of 10 is not as easy to explain. The common factor in both cases is seven votes, rejected in the case of the Chairman’s election, and possibly cast for the government’s candidate in the Deputy Chairman’s election. The opposition is discussing a legal challenge to Shah’s ruling in the courts, citing a body of case law laid down by the higher courts holding that the intent of the voter, if it can be clearly determined, cannot be shot down on a mere technicality. On the other hand, the argument by legal experts goes that parliament’s proceedings cannot be challenged in any court of law. The question to be adjudicated by the courts therefore will be whether the Senate elections fall within the purview of parliamentary proceedings or, since the Senate becomes an electoral college for the purposes of electing a Chairman and Deputy Chairman, any irregularities in this process are open to legal review. It may be mentioned in passing that the discovery of hidden cameras in the polling booth just before votes were cast has created yet another controversy as to who was responsible for this surreptitious act. Shah announced an inquiry committee with three members from each side to conduct an investigation into this skullduggery.

While the victory has elevated the government badly rattled by Yousaf Raza Gilani winning the Islamabad Senate seat against Hafeez Shaikh, which they countered by Prime Minister Imran Khan taking a vote of confidence from the National Assembly, the victory may prove pyrrhic. It is, however, important to note that the number of Hafeez’s rejected votes had exceeded Gilani’s victory margin! Apart from the legal challenge, the PDM may be forced to more seriously consider the streets rather than parliament as the political battleground. The PDM has already announced a “long march” on Islamabad on March 26, and we may witness in the days ahead a greater concentration on organising that event. Further, given the parlous state of relations between the treasury and opposition benches, it remains to be seen if the government will be able, as is its stated desire, to pass meaningful legislation through the Senate with a narrow and possibly uncertain majority. Joint sessions of both houses could offer a way out of this conundrum, but frequent resort to these could create further difficulties. To say that the shenanigans in recent days surrounding the Senate elections have saddened thinking people about the state of our democracy would be a huge understatement. Although allegations of dirty tricks are routine regarding the upper house’s elections, some new records may have been set in this round. For one, the PTI may have won the elections, but has lost the moral high ground on which it perched with its anti-corruption narrative. The opposition too stands tainted with charges of using money to swing electoral verdicts its way. The role of the establishment, cloaked as it is in a thick veil of secrecy, continues to trouble those desirous of the country finally seeing a credible, transparent, democratic system functioning as it should.

Business Recorder Editorial March 13, 2021

Afghan peace plan threatened

 

US Special Envoy for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, as expected, swung by Islamabad after visits to Kabul and Doha, where he met the Afghan government leaders and the Taliban, respectively. In Islamabad, Khalilzad met COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa, ISI chief Lt-General Faiz Hameed and other government officials. What little has emerged into public view after this round of shuttle diplomacy is the new proposed plan by the Biden administration to push the peace process forward. This plan entails a 90-day period of reduction in the violence that has continued to rage, if not incrementally increased, since the US-Taliban accord signed in Doha in February 2020, and national elections under a transitional Afghan government. In addition, Washington is launching an international and regional diplomatic effort to forge a consensus on the way forward to a negotiated peace. The reduction in violence, particularly by the Taliban, is expected to boost this diplomatic effort and pre-empt the traditional Taliban spring offensive. However, ever since the Doha accord, the Taliban have avoided attacking the US and NATO forces while pressing home their offensive against the Afghan government and its security forces irrespective of the season. It must be said that the response of the parties to the conflict and important stakeholders says it all about the chances of success of the new initiative. The Taliban are said to be considering the plan, but reports of their rejecting outright fresh elections as western interference says all there is to say about the chances of the plan’s success. The Afghan government, on the other hand, seems adamant that there will be no compromise on Afghanistan’s Constitution and the people’s right to vote. Pakistan, perhaps because it has yet to digest the intricacies of the proposed plan, is meaningfully silent despite the US’s desire for Islamabad to use its influence with the Taliban to get them to agree. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has written a letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urging him to develop a consensus in Afghanistan on negotiations with the Taliban on governance, power sharing, and related essential supporting principles, warning that the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains in the event of a US withdrawal. That withdrawal, fixed at May 1, 2021 by the previous Trump administration, now seems destined to become a casualty of the review initiated by the Biden administration because Washington feels the Taliban have violated the spirit if not the letter of the Doha accord by their persisting violence against the Afghan government.

The US’s difficulties in Afghanistan eerily echo similar dilemmas for every foreign invader and occupier of Afghanistan. It is not for nothing that Afghanistan has earned the sobriquet of ‘the graveyard of empires’. In the rush of blood following the 9/11 attacks, the US felt compelled to act once the Taliban government refused to play ball against al Qaeda, the author of the attacks. Twenty years and many lives and lucre lost later, the classic dilemma Washington faces is it is likely to be damned if it does not withdraw, and damned if it does. The Taliban, sensing the exhaustion amongst the Americans regarding a seemingly never ending and unwinnable war, have pressed home their advantage by committing only to make it impossible in future for Afghan soil to be used to attack the US and its allies in return for the withdrawal of foreign troops. Arguably, the Ashraf Ghani government can be described as a bystander insofar as this deal is concerned. However, Pakistan, as a major stakeholder and supporter of the Taliban, feels compelled to play its role to facilitate the peace process since there may well have crept in a realisation that pushing the Pashtun Taliban card beyond a point could end up in a catastrophe in Afghanistan, with concomitant negative fallout for Pakistan itself. This catastrophe could, if it appears the Taliban are poised for victory and a total takeover, resurrect ethnic and sectarian fault lines that could conceivably tear Afghanistan apart. Islamabad therefore, in its own long term interests, must follow up the positive role it has played in facilitating the Doha accord by bending its back to persuade the Taliban to find a modus vivendi with the Afghan government for a peaceful transition, lest the whole powder keg blow up in everyone’s face.

Business Recorder Editorial March 11, 2021

Offers and counter-offers

 

The furore over the Islamabad Senate seat won by former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had yet to die down when intense lobbying and jockeying across the board was witnessed for the Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman elections tomorrow. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) has fielded incumbent Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani as its candidate for the top slot, and is still in discussions when these lines are being written about its nominee for Deputy Chairman. But what surprised and shook up the intense political scene on the eve of the polls was the ‘offer’ on March 9, 2021 by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak to Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) secretary general Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri to be its candidate for Deputy Chairman. Khattak revealed this to reporters after a meeting with Maulana Haideri in the presence of Sadiq Sanjrani. Although Maulana Haideri did not comment on the ‘offer’ then, later he rejected it out of hand as emanating from a government his party did not recognise as legitimate. Interestingly, following this development, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) special committee nominated Maulana Haideri as its candidate for Deputy Chairman, thereby elevating him to running mate for the PDM candidate for Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani. The special committee also announced its decision to retain the seat of Leader of the Opposition for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after former incumbent Raja Zafarul Haq bowed out of the Senate. This would, if he wins, be Maulana Haideri’s second stint as Deputy Chairman, the first being under former Chairman Raza Rabbani’s tenure. The belated refutation and condemnation of the so-called offer by the PTI to Maulana Haideri was further embellished by casting the move as an attempt to sow discord in the PDM, albeit unsuccessfully. During these to-and-fro goings on, some troubling noises emanated from the government’s side. Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan expressed total confidence that the government would win the coveted Chairman’s post despite the government being a hair’s breadth short of a majority in the upper house after the recent Senate polls. Information Minister Shibli Faraz on a TV show went a step further by asserting the government would do whatever was necessary to win the chairmanship. While refuting the ‘offer’ to Maulana Haideri, he argued the government could not be expected to play ‘nice’ when the opposition had allegedly resorted to corrupt practices during the Senate polls. It may be recalled that a controversy broke out after those polls regarding the ‘treachery’ of 15-16 PTI MNAs who either allegedly voted against Hafeez Shaikh or deliberately spoiled their ballots in exchange for huge bribes. Reading between the lines of Shibli Faraz’s statement, the government is implying that it will be a no holds barred contest. Perhaps both PM Imran Khan and his redoubtable Information Minister do not realise what such statements and attitudes could do to the credibility of the PTI’s anti-corruption narrative, if not the credibility of the government itself. As it is, even the vote of confidence obtained by PM Khan from the National Assembly following the Hafeez sheikh debacle has been rendered controversial over the actual number of PTI MNAs present and voting.

The intense lobbying on the eve of the contest tomorrow would be considered legitimate and according to parliamentary practice so long as no corruption was involved. However, given the murky goings on over recent days, the ‘everything is kosher’ attitude of the government would leave it with a lot of explaining to do if it is able to somehow convert its minority into a majority in the Senate tomorrow. Not only would this dent the high moral stand of the government that is its leit motif, it may also end up besmirching the fair face of our still fragile democratic system.

Business Recorder Editorial March 9, 2021

PM-ECP row

 

An unseemly row has broken out between Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government on the one hand and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the other following the shock defeat of Hafeez Shaikh by former PM Yousaf Raza Gilani for an Islamabad Senate seat. Gilani won by five votes, while seven ballots were rejected. Following this defeat in the high stakes contest, PM Imran Khan in his television address to the country the next day roundly castigated the ECP for ‘damaging democracy’ through adhering to a secret ballot for the Senate elections, which, according to this logic, resulted in 15-16 PTI MNAs being able to vote against the government’s candidate or deliberately defacing their ballot in return, it is alleged, for money. The ECP’s response to this angry diatribe was to iterate that it would not succumb to pressure just to appease somebody, could not ignore the Constitution and law, and advised the PTI not to be so very upset, have a big heart to accept defeat, and stop its mudslinging on the ECP after losing one (albeit politically important) Senate seat while being happy at the rest of the seats it had won. This prompted a press conference by three PTI heavyweights arguing the ECP should be ashamed not saddened for not being able to conduct a clean, corruption-free election as mandated by the Supreme Court (SC) in its verdict on the presidential reference. Naturally the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) did not feel it could stay out of this exchange, with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other PDM leaders arguing Imran Khan was trying to pressurise the ECP in the context of the PTI foreign funding case before the ECP. As to the meeting between the PM, COAS and ISI chief one day after the Hafeez Shaikh debacle, the hitherto unremarked upon confab took on new meaning in terms of its timing. The PDM view was that this was an attempt to drag the military into the current political crisis, but would not benefit the government in any way.

During his address to the country, PM Imran Khan revealed he would take a vote of confidence from the National Assembly (NA) on March 6, 2021, which he did and secured 178 votes, five more than required. However, it proved a one-sided and lacklustre affair simply because the opposition boycotted it. In the buildup to the confidence vote, the PM and other ministers hosted the party’s MNAs in Islamabad, implying the 15-16 ‘traitors’ had been extended a ‘forgive and forget’ clean chit or an ‘NRO’ to use the PTI lexicon, despite Imran Khan’s rant the previous day. The logic for this turnaround was impeccable and undeniable. The wavering members’ votes were needed to prevent the fall of the government if it did not achieve the magic figure of 172 votes. This contradiction at the heart of the government’s approach was of course pounced upon by the opposition to argue that this had demolished the PTI’s anti-corruption narrative, on which it had come to power. No amount of reiteration of commitment to this objective by PM Imran Khan on the floor of the house after the confidence vote could erase the discomfort around the compromise.

Actually, the PTI government has repeatedly shot itself in the foot in its misplaced efforts to change the Senate elections mode to some form of open balloting or, at the very least, technologically making votes traceable and identifiable. Although the campaign meandered through multiple levels and directions of push, including an attempted (but doomed) constitutional amendment and a presidential reference to the SC, it all proved too little, too late, and arguably fundamentally flawed and misconceived. The real area to introspect on for the government after this debacle is not seek scapegoats such as the ECP, but reflect on the manner in which Imran Khan has injured his chances of meaningful legislation through at least a minimum of healthy relations with the opposition, ignored (by and large) parliament, and remained aloof (and thereby created an impression of arrogance) from his party’s and coalition’s parliamentarians. In recent days, as a result of the government’s worries regarding the solidity of their parliamentarians’ loyalties, some of this was reversed. A summing up of these events would indicate that PM Imran Khan has to draw the (sometimes bitter) lessons of the flaws in his approach to politics. However, his speech in the NA after the confidence vote was on such familiar lines that scepticism must attend any hopes for such a change.

Business Recorder Editorial March 5, 2021

Afghanistan quagmire

 

A general spike in violence in Afghanistan since the Doha agreement between the US and the Taliban carries within its fold an increase in targeted killings. The latest such incident took place on March 2, 2021 in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, when three women employees of a media group, Enikass Radio and TV, were gunned down in two separate attacks while they were walking home from work. Media workers generally are considered at risk in the war-torn country. Their death toll in the last six months alone is 15, if these latest three fatalities are included. Not only journalists, but clerics, activists and judges have been targeted in the recent wave of attacks, generating panic and forcing some to go into hiding or even flee the country. There has so far been no claim of responsibility for the Jalalabad atrocity, although in December 2020 the Islamic State (IS) claimed killing another Enikass employee. The Taliban have denied they are involved in the latest killings, but Nangarhar police chief Juma Gul Hemat announced that an armed suspect had been arrested while trying to flee, and had confessed to mounting the attack and being a member of the Taliban. Since the Doha agreement, both the Taliban and the Afghan government blame each other for attacks to discredit the peace deal or wring greater concessions. The Doha agreement lays down a withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 US troops by May 2021, but the new Biden administration is reviewing the deal in the light of what appears to be the Taliban declaring open season on the Afghan government and its forces while avoiding attacking the remaining US and NATO forces. It needs to be recalled that the Afghan government was not taken on board in the Doha agreement, and subsequent planned talks between Kabul and the Taliban barely appear to be sputtering along.

Meanwhile US Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, seems to be undertaking another round of shuttle diplomacy. After visiting Kabul for talks with President Ashraf Ghani and Chairman High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah on March 1, 2021, Khalilzad was expected to travel to Doha for discussions with the Taliban. The obvious purpose of this round of visits is to expedite the barely alive talks between all parties, especially the Afghanistan government and the Taliban. Once Doha is done, Khalilzad may visit other regional capitals, and it would be surprising if he did not stop over in Islamabad, Pakistan being a major stakeholder in the Afghan endgame. The US State Department meanwhile has hinted at follow up visits by their diplomats to nudge the stalled process forward. Although Pakistan has earned kudos from the former Trump administration and the new Biden set up for facilitating the Doha talks, if the peace process makes shipwreck on the intransigence of the Taliban regarding their increased violence instead of a negotiated ceasefire, Pakistan may suffer some adverse consequences of the fallout of such a failure to move from war to peace. Pakistan managed to reverse Trump’s initial hostility towards it by lubricating the Doha process. Similar words of praise do lace the new Biden administration’s statements too, but Pakistan should no longer sanguinely continue patting itself on the back while the peace deal unravels before our eyes. Logically, if the desire for US and NATO withdrawal is traced from Obama to Trump, it would be in the interests of the Taliban, if they think history is on their side, to exercise restraint and thereby ensure western withdrawal instead of extending dire warnings as Taliban deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani has done, to adhere to the May 2021 withdrawal deadline. It would be in the interests of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the region and the western alliance to persuade the Taliban to go slow if not cease violent attacks. If Pakistan can exercise its influence on the Taliban in this regard, it seems the wise course. Otherwise the long running war in Afghanistan may see an indefinite prolongation, with all the consequences that entails for all stakeholders, but particularly Pakistan.

The March 2021 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review is out

 The March 2021 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review is out. Link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com

Contents:

1. Asad Pervaz: The historical development of Saraiki identity and impediments in the establishment of South Punjab province.

2. Book Review: Aisha Ahmed reviews Dr Mubashir Rizvi: The Ethics of Staying: Social Movements and Land Rights Politics in Pakistan.

3. Marxism and National Liberation (Tricontinental).

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review

Director, Research and Publication Centre

Business Recorder Editorial March 3, 2021

SC on Senate polls

 

The much-anticipated Supreme Court (SC) ruling on the upcoming Senate polls was delivered on March 1, 2021, just two days before the scheduled polling. In sum, the apex court has delivered its opinion through a short order (detailed judgement to follow) whereby by a majority of 4-1 (Justice Yahya Afridi dissenting in rejecting the presidential reference as it did not pertain to a point of law), it has declared that the Senate elections are indeed held “under the Constitution” and therefore by a secret ballot. However, given the concerns expressed of late (particularly by the ruling party) regarding the malign influence of corruption in the Senate elections, the SC has reminded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of its responsibility to ensure these elections are held honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with the law, with corrupt practices being guarded against, on which the SC had issued successive judgements, the most exhaustive being Workers Party Pakistan through Akhtar Hussain, 2012. In this regard, the SC’s short order makes reference to its judgement in Niaz Ahmed vs Azizuddin, 1967, whereby secrecy of the ballot had not to be implemented in an ideal or absolute sense but tempered by practical considerations necessitated by the processes of election. This reference has engendered a new controversy, with the government pouncing on it as a ‘directive’ to the ECP to use whatever technology or other means can ensure the traceability and identification of votes cast, and the opposition and bar councils seeing the short order entire as having placed the ball in the ECP’s court through a general declaration regarding the issue of secrecy without any directive to the ECP to make ballots traceable or identifiable. Despite the government side approaching the ECP to press it in this regard, there remains a healthy dose of scepticism whether the change in the method of balloting can satisfactorily be carried out literally in the few hours remaining for the election. Second, as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has stated, considerable doubts continue to linger regarding technology in the light of the Result Transmission System (RTS) debacle during the 2018 controversial general elections. Last but by no means least, in the zeal to eliminate corruption in the Senate elections through traceability and identification of votes, could we end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater regarding parliamentarians’ right to vote according to their conscience? These are indeed weighty considerations, and deserving perhaps of a calmer and more considered examination rather than rushing pell-mell into new and perhaps unanticipated problems.

Even if the ECP pulls the rabbit of a traceable and identifiable vote through technology out of its hat, will that in and by itself rid us of the curse of corruption in the Senate elections? If we go by the shenanigans in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan on the eve of these elections, the jury is out. Punjab has, thanks to the manipulative skills of the Chaudhries, arrived at a traditional ‘muk muka’(compromise) with the opposition that gives every party in the Punjab Assembly the exact number of seats in the Senate according to their party strength. Can this by any stretch be described as an ‘honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with the law’ election as the SC enjoins in its short order? Can the definition of ‘corruption’ then be stretched by this example to non-monetary mutual ‘benefits’? In Sindh, where the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) is in the opposition, dissenting voices are being heard from its MPAs regarding the buying and selling of votes and the central leadership’s turning a deaf ear to their MPAs’ pleas. In Balochistan, the Deputy Speaker National Assembly, Qasim Suri, has taken on the role of negotiator with the opposition, offering them four Senate seats in return for allowing the ruling alliance’s candidates unchallenged election. It is another matter that the opposition is holding out for six seats. But the really important question is whether it is appropriate for the National Assembly Deputy Speaker to be openly lobbying for the ruling coalition? And what of the role of the Governors, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, who are at the heart of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sudden interest in meeting his party’s parliamentarians on the eve of the vote? If the definition of ‘corruption’ is to be limited to monetary benefits in exchange for parliamentarians’ votes, what chance does the aim of a clean politics have? In this controversy initiated and fuelled by the government, even the office of President has been ‘sullied’ (with some help, it must be admitted, of the incumbent himself) because of ill thought through moves such as presidential ordinances and references, all of which have fallen through after the SC decision. A corruption-free and credible electoral system is the need of the hour across the board, not just for the Senate, but the government’s misplaced and failed efforts as well as ‘ignoring’ our corrupt political culture hardly provide any efficacious answers.