Daily Times Editorial Aug 31, 2015

ECP in hot soup On Saturday, August 29, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), flush with its three ‘victories’ before the Election Tribunals (ETs), held a consultation of its top leadership at its secretariat in Lahore. Following the confab, the PTI’s chief Imran Khan addressed the party workers and announced that if the four provincial members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not resign, and if the Chief Election Commissioner did not take a decision in this regard within one month, the PTI would hold a sit-in in Islamabad before the ECP’s office. Imran Khan asserted these provincial ECP members had no moral grounds to continue in office after the findings of the Judicial Commission and the ETs, which converged on the irregularities and lapses in the conduct of the elections, for which the provincial members are being held responsible. Further, he said they had even less grounds to continue after 21 parties accused them of ‘rigging’ in the 2013 elections. Now this may be Imran Khan’s usual penchant for exaggeration, since the count of parties actually accusing the ECP members of ‘rigging’ are few, certainly not 21. One of those that have belatedly come out in opportunist fashion to join the ‘rigging’ bandwagon is the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). It now says fair polls are not possible under the present four provincial incumbents of the ECP. The party says it had only accepted the results of the 2013 elections in the interests of the continuity of the democratic system despite reservations about the outcome of the polls. Not only has it now added its voice to the PTI’s demand for the resignation of the four provincial members of the ECP, it has announced that it is abandoning the ‘reconciliation’ policy it had been following since 2008. The argument of the PPP is that while the reconciliation policy had strengthened the democratic system, it had grievously damaged the party. The PPP now seeks a political alliance of all other parties except the PML-N. Whether this has anything to do with the current spate of arrests or the threat of more arrests of top leaders of the PPP in Karachi or not cannot be ascertained. It is of course the right of any party to reconsider and even reverse its policies. But with due respect, if the PPP deludes itself that its woes are owed only to the erstwhile reconciliation policy, this will not serve its purpose of finding its way back to its former glory. There are deeper reasons than the conciliatory policies of the past that explain the party’s decline in its fortunes. First and foremost, the abandonment (even in Benazir’s time) of the party’s founding pro-poor ideology in favour of the fashionable neo-liberal paradigm and its subsequent marginalisation under Asif Zardari of its committed workers are the two sides of the same coin that explain the party’s decline. Competing on the terrain of the neo-liberal paradigm has rendered the PPP toothless and directionless. Although Imran Khan has declared, despite his demand for the resignation of the four provincial members of the ECP, to take part in the upcoming by-polls on the three seats upended by the ETs (perhaps four?) as well as the impending local body polls in Punjab and Sindh, he has asserted in his usual abrasive style that the PTI will install cameras in every polling station and train its cadres to ensure fair and free polls. A word of caution: monitoring the polls is the right of every party, but interference in the workings of the ECP is not. If the import of this statement is to ensure elections according to the PTI’s whims and wishes, this would defeat the perfectly credible purpose of ensuring fair polls. As it is, there are rumours of three of the four provincial members of the ECP considering resigning amidst the furore over their handling of the 2013 elections. The ECP is meeting today (Monday) to consider the situation. If the three or even four provincial members do resign, the whole programme of the by-polls and local bodies elections will once again be thrown up into the air. To avoid a long hiatus, new members must then be appointed to replace any outgoing ones as soon as possible so that the country can embark once more on the road to completing the electoral tasks.

Daily Times Editorial Aug 30, 2015

Cross-border firing In the bloodiest escalation since cross-border firing across the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary started months ago, eight Pakistani civilians were killed and 40 wounded in Sialkot and other villages in the area. India on the other hand claimed three civilians were killed in Indian-held Kashmir by Pakistani fire. Both sides claimed the other opened fire first. The context of this latest bloody exchange is the high state of tensions after the cancellation of the National Security Advisors’ talks. Within this context, some reports are inclined to ascribe the timing of the incident to the 50th anniversary of Operation Gibraltar in 1965 that led to the war between Pakistan and India that year. The actual incident was triggered by what Pakistan claims was the use of an excavator on the Working Boundary by India without following the standard operating procedures. Whichever of these explanations comes closer to the truth, the fact remains that the cross-border firing from both sides has targeted civilians, which is tragic. As has become routine of late, the Indian High Commissioner was summoned to the Foreign Office and a strong protest against the incident lodged. The details available of what may have triggered the exchange of fire points to a yawning gap in the arrangements for the commanders of either side on the ground to be in communication precisely to prevent such outbreaks of violence. While the Pakistan Rangers and Indian Border Security Force commanders are expected to meet in New Delhi on September 9, and the increasingly frequent exchange of firing will top the agenda, the meeting would be well advised to address any gaps or lacunae in the ‘hot line’ the local border security forces are supposed to maintain between themselves. Concerns have been expressed at this development by many actors and concerned friends. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has instructed the Foreign Office and Defence authorities to talk to their Indian counterparts on the issue with a view to defusing the tensions. Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, in a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in London expressed regret over what he saw as India’s unwillingness to reciprocate Pakistan’s desire for peace and good neighbourly relations. The British Foreign Secretary expressed his concern over the suspension of the Pakistan-India dialogue process, hoping it would restart soon. The US too has expressed its disappointment and disapproval of the collapse of the process and urged the re-engagement of the two sides. UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon has also added his voice to the demand for a resumption of the dialogue. Analysts and commentators are pointing to the familiar pattern into which Pakistan-India interactions have fallen over many years. They are broadly critical of the lack of spadework before or after the Ufa, Russia, agreement between Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi for the NSAs’ meeting. The result of this lapse was the falling out and eventual cancellation of the talks over the issue of Pakistan’s Sartaj Aziz meeting the Kashmiri Hurriyet Conference leaders in New Delhi and India’s refusal to include Kashmir in the agenda. As a result of this debacle, neither side has come out smelling of roses. Critics point to the domestic political compulsions of both sides not to appear weak or compromising at a time when neither government can be accused of good governance and appears to lurch from one controversy to the next at home. This produces negative pressures to go for grandstanding in the media rather than serious preparation and discreet diplomacy between interlocutors locked in conflict and tension over the decades. Ironically, and despite all the hostile rhetoric that follows such incidents as the cross-border firing, both sides seem compelled by the logic of geography, history and the international environment to gravitate again and again back to the negotiating table. Perhaps the post-Ufa debacle can teach both sides to explore better more discreet interaction that avoids media hype before and falling out after such interaction is planned.

Daily Times Editorial Aug 29, 2015

Back to the electorate Amidst the triumphalism of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) after the three election tribunal verdicts unseated the federal Minister for Railways, the Speaker of the National Assembly and another MNA, the ruling PML-N was in somewhat of a quandary. Although it hit back at the PTI claim that ‘rigging’ had been proved in these three constituencies by pointing out that the tribunals only identified irregularities and lapses in the election process as grounds for ordering re-polling and did not uphold the PTI’s accusations, the PML-N was left scratching its head on the way forward. The option that the Minister of Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique had chosen, i.e. getting a stay order from the Supreme Court (SC) against the election tribunal’s verdict and continuing in office under its umbrella, could obviously help neither the unseated Speaker Ayaz Sadiq (for political/constitutional/moral reasons) nor MNA Siddique Baloch whose degree was found to be fake. After consultations amongst the top leadership of the PML-N, they have chosen what is perhaps the best path. That path is a return to the electorate in the by-elections in at least NA-122 and NA-154, while the case of NA-125 would be discussed after Khwaja Saad Rafique returns from abroad. The party would perhaps like a uniform approach towards contesting the by-elections in all three constituencies. There are rumours however that Khwaja Saad Rafique may not be very happy with having to fight a by-election despite the SC’s stay order. In NA-122, the PML-N’s strong candidate Ayaz Sadiq will run again, and given the conundrum that his rival in 2013, PTI chief Imran Khan may not want to give up his Rawalpindi NA seat for the risky contest in NA-122, this may further improve Ayaz Sadiq’s chances. Depending on how quickly the by-poll in NA-122 is conducted, the vacant Speaker’s slot can be kept open till the NA’s next session. Even if a Speaker is elected in his place to fulfil the constitutional requirements of the house, it cannot be ruled out that Ayaz Sadiq may return to the seat kept warm for him by a ‘temporary’ Speaker. As to NA-154, Siddique Baloch being beset with disqualification problems because of his fake degree, the PML-N will have to plan to field a strong candidate against Jahangir Tareen. If the PML-N is able to mobilise the party machine and the advantages of incumbency to win all three seats, that would constitute a big blow to the already deflated, temporarily restored prospects of the PTI. The latter is meeting today (Saturday) to chalk out its strategy in the light of the latest developments. In any democracy worth the name, the people are sovereign, who elect their representatives to parliament to serve them. Theoretically that is the way it is supposed to be. Of course, nothing in life is perfect, and democracies exhibit a wide array of standards that either approach or stray away from the ideal. First and foremost though, and given Pakistan’s chequered history of elections, the irreducible minimum requirement is that the electoral process, like Caesar’s wife, be above suspicion. Only than can a credible parliamentary democracy be erected on firm foundations. Pakistan’s elections have almost always (the 1970 elections being an exception that led to other tragedies) been dogged by controversy and charges of rigging. In most cases there was weight to the accusations of the losing side. Because of the ups and downs and discontinuity attending the history of democracy in Pakistan, serious reform of the anomalies, shortcomings and lapses of the electoral process has gone abegging. Whether one agrees with Imran Khan and the PTI’s approach to politics generally and democracy in particular or not, the party can take some credit for focusing attention on the shortcomings of the election system, even if its allegations of rigging did not pass muster on the touchstone of evidence and proof. For the moment, the balance of convenience lies with continuing with the present Election Commission of Pakistan and venturing onto the fraught terrain of the electoral process with heightened focus on the irregularities and lapses pointed out by the election tribunals and the Judicial Commission. However, we cannot remain forever sanguine about these flaws. The electoral reform process must sooner rather than later be prioritised to put to rest the coloured history of elections and their almost inevitable denouement of charges of hanky panky and the crises these engender.

Daily Times Editorial Aug 21, 2015

Our neighbourhood If one were to glance at the state of Pakistan’s relations with its neighbours and the effect these are having on its diplomatic friendships further abroad, one could be forgiven for some alarm. On August 19, a flurry of diplomatic activity dictated the state of play. First the Afghan Ambassador was summoned to deliver a protest against the “hate campaign” emanating lately from Kabul and the firing by Afghan forces on August 16 and 17 that killed three FC personnel. In turn, our Ambassador in Kabul was summoned to lodge a protest against Pakistani artillery fire across the border into Kunar province that killed eight policemen. This state of blame and counter-blame represents a negative turn in relations after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reached out to Pakistan to facilitate a political settlement of the Afghan conflict. But recent attacks in Afghanistan, including a truck bombing in Kabul that killed 50, soured this initiative and persuaded President Ghani to blame Pakistan’s hand behind these attacks despite it hosting the first round of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Murree. President Ghani has since focused on the continuing safe havens enjoyed by the Taliban on Pakistani soil from where, Kabul alleges, they orchestrate their attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan has condemned the attacks, ascribing their authorship to “spoilers and detractors”, but this has not proved sufficient to allay Kabul’s concerns and complaints. On the same day, a busy Foreign Office (FO) also summoned the Indian High Commissioner (HC) to complain about the continuing violations of the ceasefire along the Line of Control and Working Boundary. The FO said at least two civilians were killed and four injured in the unprovoked firing. On the same day, the Pakistani HC in India was summoned to lodge complaints of a similar nature against Pakistani unprovoked firing. Meantime the Hurriyet Conference Kashmiri leaders have been invited to a reception by the Pakistani HC to meet National Security Adviser (NSA) Sartaj Aziz on August 23, the very day he will be having a meeting with his Indian counterpart. It may be recalled that last year India cancelled foreign secretaries’ talks after a similar invitation to the Kashmiri leaders riled New Delhi. Although this time it seems the NSAs meeting will proceed, the agenda for the meeting is still undecided. The meeting was supposed to discuss terrorism, but now it seems it will be an open agenda, which means either side can raise its concerns. Whether that will mean the two sides talking to or at each other remains to be seen. Lest anyone think this toing and froing of ambassadors being summoned is the only development of note, it should be registered that the US administration has refused to certify to Congress that Operation Zarb-e-Azb has damaged the Haqqani network, thereby blocking the next tranche of the Coalition Support Funds to Pakistan. This development will cast a shadow over Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Washington in October. Pakistan’s relations wit the UAE have soured somewhat after we refused to lend ourselves to the Yemen conflict at the request of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. India’s PM Modi has been quick to exploit this cleavage by visiting the UAE (the first Indian prime minister to do so in 34 years) and swing lucrative deals with the Gulf state. India also enjoys an opening with Iran through the Chabahar port that will give access and an alternative route out to landlocked Afghanistan, freeing it of its dependence on Pakistan to some extent. This brief survey would not be complete without mentioning that our all-weather friend China, despite its continued commitment to Pakistan’s welfare and development, harbours concerns about the Uighur movement that has found support amongst the terrorist movements in Pakistan’s tribal border regions. Islamic State (IS) is another worry for the region and the world, and continuing conflict in Afghanistan, combined with IS’s ingress into the region, could spell spillover troubles ahead for Pakistan too. All this points to Islamabad’s parlous relations with most if not all its immediate neighbours and even its distant friends. If one factor were to be identified to explain what is common to all these travails, it is the hangover of Pakistan using proxies to project power and conduct foreign policy in the region. A decisive break with this past, the induction of a full time foreign minister, and efforts to settle matters with neighbours and friends, near and far, is the only way Pakistan can avoid falling into the pit of isolation, a state no country can afford in today’s interconnected world.

Daily Times Editorial Aug 20, 2015

Godil attacked Four attackers on two motorcycles ambushed and critically wounded Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Abdul Rashid Godil in Karachi on the morning of August 18. His driver was killed in the attack whereas his wife remained mercifully unharmed. Godil received five bullets from a nine mm pistol that apparently was never before used in any previous similar attack to make forensic tracing difficult. The attackers seemed to have excellent intelligence on Godil’s schedule and movements. The attack came while Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was at the MQM’s nine zero headquarters for talks with the party’s leadership to try and woo them back to the Assemblies from which they had resigned en masse recently. The timing set off speculations whether the attack on Godil may have been meant to sabotage the talks, which seemed to be making progress. It may be recalled that the MQM had resigned from the Assemblies quoting a host of demands and concerns, the main one being their assertion that the Karachi operation by the Rangers was targeting the party alone. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, talking to the media after the incident, praised the MQM’s restrained response to the provocation, revealing that the MQM leadership would continue the talks in Islamabad in the next few days. What was notable indeed was the MQM’s restrained reaction to the attack on Godil, a senior leader and parliamentarian of the MQM, who had until Farooq Sattar took over, been the parliamentary leader of the party in the National Assembly. No claim of responsibility was available, nor were the police and investigating authorities clear on who might be behind the attack. Meanwhile Godil is still critical in hospital after emergency surgery, although the hopeful sign is that he is now off the ventilator the doctors had put him on because of breathing difficulties due to the bullet wounds in his chest. However, the doctors still say the next 24 hours are critical for the injured MQM parliamentarian. While the attack on Godil is a serious blow to the claims of the authorities that peace has been by and large restored in Karachi due to the Rangers’ operation, the mystery of who and why they carried out the dastardly attack remains unsolved so far. There have been of course the usual outpourings of condemnations and sympathy across the board, but given the climate of tragedy after tragedy on Pakistan’s soil, including the assassination by a suicide bomber of Punjab Home Minister Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada the other day, these fail to satisfy or even apply any soothing balm to the country’s festering wounds. Although there is no claim of responsibility so far or even any clue about the suspects, it may bear keeping in mind that the al Qaeda chief in Karachi was killed earlier the same morning along with an accomplice in a shootout with the security forces that also took its toll of the life of a security agency officer. The operation was an intelligence-led effort. Whether there is any link between the taking out of the al Qaeda Karachi chief and the attack on Godil is not known. However, it is not beyond the realm of possibility. After all, who would be interested in sabotaging the talks to bring the MQM back to the Assemblies or attempting to destabilise Karachi? Normally, whoever carried out the attack on Godil would have expected, at the very least, a complete shutdown of Karachi, as has been the pattern of the MQM reaction to similar incidents in the past. Perhaps it is a mercy that the MQM is under pressure and has its hands full trying to cope with the Rangers’ operation in Karachi. Its restrained reaction and willingness to continue the dialogue with Maulana Fazlur Rehman may owe something at least to this factor. The nature of asymmetrical warfare is such that it relies on surprise, unexpected attacks in unexpected places and on unexpected targets. If under pressure by the army’s counter-insurgency operations in FATA, it is almost inevitable that the terrorists will seek to ease the pressure and put the authorities on the back foot by striking soft targets elsewhere throughout the country. The two attacks in recent days, the one that killed Khanzada and the one that critically wounded Godil, may well belong in this sphere. That only underlines the protracted and complex nature of the war against the terrorists, an enterprise that requires the forging of a united will of all the people and forces of Pakistan for this crucial task.

Daily Times Editorial Aug 19, 2015

After Attock While Shadi Khan village, along with the rest of the country, mourns Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada, the suicide strike that killed him in what many may have considered a peaceful and secure area of Punjab has focused minds finally on the fact that the terrorists are no respecters of our pre-conceived notions about them. Southern Punjab may have been considered in the popular imagination to be the place where a combination of madrassas and the headquarters of terrorist and sectarian organisations were confined. However, that was always a myth with a big hole in it. Devastating as the attack that killed Khanzada was, it was by no means the first in the other parts of Punjab. Not only that, one line of speculation now has it that the level of information the attackers had on Khanzada’s movements could not be possible without insider involvement. How near or distant from the slain minister such elements may have been is not known at this juncture. However, reports now filtering out of the area point to the proliferation of madrassas in the vicinity of Shadi Khan, some of whom thought poorly of Khanzada’s strong statements against them and their ilk. That is not to suggest we jump to conclusions about such madrassas’ culpability, only that no line of possible inquiry can be ignored at this stage. The prime minister presided over a high level meeting on security in the aftermath of Khanzada and others’ assassination by a suicide bomber, after which he directed the authorities to expedite operations against terrorists in Punjab. Along similar lines, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif not only held a special condolence reference of the Punjab cabinet for Khanzada, he stated his determination to eliminate terrorism, going so far as to assert that he would lead the war against terrorism. This newfound determination to uproot all semblance of terrorism from Punjab is a welcome change from the complacency and even neglect of the past. Condolences and messages of support continue pouring in from all over the world, with the latest missives coming from the UN Secretary General, the EU and the US. The latter has even offered help if asked in the investigation of the attack. Lahore’s citizens paid their tribute to the fallen leader, while even the Punjab Opposition expressed its solidarity and support to the anti-terrorist struggle. This coming together of all shades of opinion bodes well for the future. The military meanwhile has pounded the terrorists in the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan and parts of Khyber Agency, reaping a toll of some 65 terrorists killed, including some foreigners. Official spokesmen were reluctant to comment on whether these air attacks were in retaliation for the Attock attack. Nevertheless, clearly it is a response of one sort to the atrocity. Once the passion for revenge and giving it back to the terrorists subsides, it will be time to go back to the drawing board to reappraise and reprise the anti-terrorist strategy. Although some progress has been made in constructing an anti-terrorist architecture, in which Shuja Khanzada’s contribution to creating the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department must be counted as very important, the present state of partial ability to pre-empt and hurt the terrorists may be sufficient to win battles, but not necessarily the war, which by its very nature promises to be a protracted one. Questions are being asked about the lax security around Shuja Khanzada in his native village, despite his receiving threats. Deference to higher ups may have interfered with a professional standard operating procedure to safeguard the minister. The discernible pattern of reacting to such events by beefing up security (albeit temporarily) soon tends to give way to inertia and back to business as usual. This is precisely what the terrorists rely on. They wait for the authorities to let their guard down sooner or later and then choose an appropriate moment to strike. While only intelligence information can aid pre-emption of such attacks, the standard protocols need to be revisited with an eye to overcome the laxity that eventual inertia brings naturally and which provides the terrorists the opening they need for their dastardly work. Pakistan is at war. Laxity cannot be allowed even for a minute. Constant vigilance is the price to be paid for victory.

Daily Times Editorial Aug 17, 2015

Predictable fall The furore over Mushahidullah Khan's interview to BBC Urdu Service regarding an alleged plot to overthrow the government has ended as expected by the former Climate Change minister being asked by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to return to the country from The Maldives where he had gone to attend a conference and submit his resignation. The minister has duly obliged by submitting his resignation by email and returning without attending the conference. Mushahidullah has said he has not been summoned by the prime minister and would submit an explanation if asked to. He did add, albeit too late to make any difference, that he had not personally heard the tape. That makes his reliance on the story even more unacceptable when he was holding a cabinet post. Federal Information Minister Pervez Rashid has poured cold water over any expectation of clarification, saying there was no need for the prime minister to summon the errant minister or ask for any explanation since the interview in question clearly showed that Mushahidullah had spoken irresponsibly. As though to reinforce the government's refutation of the whole story, including denying that any purported tape existed indicting former ISI chief Lt General Zaheerul Islam for supporting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek's agitation against the government last year, ISPR has called it totally baseless, unfounded, farthest from the truth, irresponsible and unprofessional. There is little doubt that the interview embarrassed the government and fed fevered speculation regarding the civil-military relationship, constantly under scrutiny for any hint of tension. It once again exposed the fragile balance between the civilian elected government and the powerful military. That relationship has been steadily tilting against the government since last year, in what some have described as a 'creeping coup'. Perhaps to bring to a grinding halt the rumour mills, Pervez Rashid has attempted to reassure everyone that the civil government and military were totally one in fulfilling the critical task of combating terrorism. All institutions, he reiterated, were performing their role in accordance with the constitution. In answer to a question from reporters, he underlined that there would be no compromise on the Karachi operation. This question and the minister's answer can be located in the context of one set of speculations that the whole Mushahidullah fracas was an attempt by the government to bring pressure to bear for an easing of the Karachi operation in order to facilitate bringing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) members of parliament who had resigned back to the Assemblies. It is good the information minister has categorically refuted any such kite-flying that could potentially have fed into perceptions of the civil and military sides diverging on the ways, means and objectives of the Karachi operation against terrorism and crime. With the resignation of Mushahidullah Khan, it would not have been unreasonable to expect that the matter would be laid to rest. However, given that the story, even if untrue, casts the PTI in a poor light as collaborators in subversion of and a coup against an elected government, their spokespeople are now demanding a commission be set up to investigate the allegations. This is pie-in-the-sky since the government would dearly like to close this chapter to avoid any further friction with the military, which too has been besmirched by the allegations. It was no surprise therefore, that Pervez Rashid rejected the suggestion out of hand. The veracity of the story retold by Mushahidullah Khan had never been established. He stands accused therefore of an error of judgement so serious as to have cost him his cabinet seat. Irrespective of the story not holding water, however, the whole affair has once again cast the spotlight on the perceived shift in the balance of power towards the military in foreign policy as well as some domestic areas. The government is under pressure because of this. All the more reason that its ministers adopt the policy of discretion being the better part of valour rather risking upsetting the whole apple cart by adventurous statements.