Fight Hard, Talk Hard

Paramilitary Troops Patrol Bajaur in Pakistan's tribal belt - Photo Courtesy: Dawn

It is an axiom that Americans work hard and play hard.

What is less known, and at times baffling, are US moves that entail crushing the enemy on the battle field while engaging with its high profile leaders in private.

This fight hard, talk hard strategy – designed to do whatever it takes to succeed, is the hall-mark of a nation moving forward with super power strides. In this scenario, the US finger points to Pakistan’s spy agencies ties with the Haqqani network, even while enlisting its help to negotiate with the Taliban militants.

The Obama war strategy has come full circle as the battle for Kabul enters a decisive stage. With the withdrawal of US surge troops from Afghanistan set in near stone for 2012 – the region has gone into a wait for the Americans to leave type of mode.

With winter fast approaching the fighting season for conventional NATO warfare has shrunk, even while the Taliban keep up their suicide attacks. In examples of guerrilla warfare, they are able to put down a rifle and pick up a plow… to return to fight another day.

Amid this seemingly unending war, the US is zeroing in on Pakistan to dissuade it from supporting Taliban militants who allegedly use the neighboring federally administered tribal areas to attack NATO troops in Afghanistan and return to their safe havens.

The murder of Afghan peace council chief, Burhanuddin Rabbani in September – for which Afghanistan blamed Pakistan – has shifted the strategy all round from talk hard to fight hard.

In her recent visit to Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton let out the frustration that America has been feeling in its inability to rein in Pakistan:
“You can’t keep snakes in your back yard and expect it to only bite neighbors.”

The reference was to Pakistan’s policy of strategic depth, where the US claims that Pakistan backs Taliban militants like the Haqqani network in order to guarantee a friendly Afghanistan vis-à-vis its arch rival, India.

Clinton also played to the naiveté displayed by a member of the audience which met her on the occasion. The woman told the visiting Secretary of State that the US was like a “mother-in-law” that was never satisfied with what her “daughter in law” i.e. Pakistan did.

Laughter is of course the best remedy for tensions, even diplomatic ones – though it has little to do with the underlying causes.

Indeed, there have been major setbacks to US forces lately – topped last week by the deaths of 13 Americans hit by a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. These have occurred as NATO intensifies its assault on Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan that border Pakistan.

Bolstered by the US, the Karzai government has recently done a diplomatic dance with “brotherly Pakistan” – that involves signing a defense deal with India while assuring Pakistan of continuing neighborliness.

The Nov. 2 Istanbul conference on Afghanistan brought President Karzai to appeal to all nations to rein in militants, without singling any one of them.

Pakistan has still not recovered from the shock waves it suffered in May, when the US picked up Osama Bin Laden from under its nose in Abbotabad. Since then, the state has loosened the pressure valve on anti-Americanism. That has enabled politicians to hold rallies of the type held by Islamic parties under former president Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf.

At the same time, Pakistan sanctions US drone attacks in its tribal areas. In recent weeks, the US has intensified and diversified drone attacks here – from North Waziristan to chasing Haqqani fighters in the south of this belt.

For now, it is the interplay of military intelligence and diplomacy that swirls around the longest and most complex war of our times.

State run institutions in Dire Straits

The Nation, Oct. 27: Mahmood Khan, a retired railway employee had been standing in a long queue since Tuesday to get his pension for September outside the National Bank’s Mughalpura workshop branch.

On Wednesday morning while standing in the queue Muhammad Khan fell on the ground unconscious. People shifted him to nearby hospital where he was declared dead.

It is worth mentioning that hundreds of pensioners had to spend night outside the bank for the payment as PR failed to fulfill the promise made by its general manager Operations for payment of pension by October 25.

PR had assured all the employee unions that salaries and pensions would be paid by October 25 and the unions had called off the strike after the assurance.

General Manager (GM) PR Saeed Akhtar had also categorically stated that after receiving Rs 1 billion by the federal government, the railways had no problem with the provision of salaries and pensions and that every single one of the current and retired employee would be paid by the given date. The GM had also stated that the salaries and pensions of the next month would be paid before Eidul Azha.

All these claims proved wrong when hundreds of pensioners protested in front of the PR headquarters in Lahore and the regional offices all over the country, including Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta.

They chanted slogans against the pathetic and callous attitude of the PR authorities. Many of them said that they totally depended on pensions. The pensioners questioned that why the salaries of the PR bureaucracy were not delayed though they were higher than any worker or pensioner. They were of the view that PR admin had lied to the entire nation and the pensioners just to avoid the strike.

The PR spokesperson while explaining the reason for the delay in the disbursement of salary and pension said that the department had transferred Rs77.73 million to 78 bank branches all over the country to ensure payment.

He said the reason behind non-payment could be the unexpected bank holiday on Monday which might have delayed the transfer of funds through the banking system. He was hopeful that the matter would be resolved by Wednesday once the funds were transacted.

Source: Nation.com.pk

Photographer Zahid Hussein Gives Views on the Bhuttos

An accomplished photographer, Zahid Hussein, who has captured evocative images of Pakistan’s most famous political family – the Bhuttos – shared the last images of Iranian born Nusrat Bhutto when she passed away last week.

The founder of the Pakistan Association of Photo Journalists – and photographer of the cover image of my book and website – ‘Aboard the Democracy Train’, – Zahid shared his impressions of how Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his wife Nusrat and daughter Benazir Bhutto symbolized an entire era of resistance to autocratic rule.

The author of three solo exhibitions on the Bhuttos, Zahid brings a sympathetic eye that has captured the sentiments of the masses as they have thronged to the Bhutto rallies. When Gen. Zia ul Haq declared martial law on July 5, 1977 – and arrested Pakistan’s elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – Nusrat Bhutto appears addressing a historic gathering in Nishtar Park, Karachi.

In the two years that Nusrat Bhutto spearheaded the opposition to Gen. Zia, the veteran photographer witnessed Benazir to be a silent resister. Nowhere is this more apparent than his photo of Benazir at Kotri Railway station in Sindh in May 1979 – seen on this website as the background image – where crowds turned out in sympathy as she traveled to Larkana after her father’s execution.

In order to capture that epic image, Zahid climbed an iron railway ladder and flattened himself on the roof top. It was no less a challenge to cross the sea of people and make it back into the train before it left.

“All along the platform stops to Larkana, Benazir stood up and silently waved to the crowds,” he recalled.

Being a photographer for the PPP newspaper Musawat until it was banned by Gen. Zia in 1979, he adds:

“For them, she was an ‘orphan’ girl whom they loved and treated with respect.”

Over the years, Zahid’s photographs would capture Nusrat Bhutto’s grief as her son Shahnawaz died in France in mysterious circumstances and then his elder brother, Murtaza was gunned down in Karachi. Nusrat would drop out of the limelight as she contracted Alzheimer’s disease, and moved to Dubai in 1996.

He recalls that when Benazir returned to Pakistan in 2007, even the massive bomb blasts and certainty of being killed did not stop her. Instead her rallies in Sindh and refusal to keep a distance from the people “showed she was afraid of nothing.”

Having photographed the Bhutto family for so long, Zahid found the populist element missing at Nusrat Bhutto’s funeral. For one, the public was kept outside and prayers were offered inside the bungalow. He attributes this to the threat of bombings, which have affected the rallies of all political parties.

Indeed, as the last Bhutto to resist autocracy was lowered to the ground last week, there were signs that a great deal is changing.

What Ails Pakistan Railways

Striking railway workers (Courtesy Kamran Razi)

Oct 17, 2011 (9:49 PM) In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: With train operations coming to a halt across the country on Monday, a high level meeting was summoned to find a way out of the deepening crisis that has pushed Pakistan Railways (PR) to the brink.

But the outcome of the meeting, summoned by President Asif Ali Zardari, was far from definite – with the president directing that funds for the payment of salaries and pensions of protesting workers be arranged for in 7 days.

On the other hand, the government once again asked PR to approach banks for a Rs6 billion loan to cater to burgeoning infrastructural costs – funds that the president ordered be injected solely into a dilapidated and fast deteriorating system.

Finance ministry refuses to pay

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani approved Rs11.5 billion as a bailout package for Pakistan Railways. Of this amount, around Rs5 billion was to be paid by the federal government as cost for rehabilitation projects, while PR was asked to arrange the remaining amount through commercial banks.

However, the finance ministry refused to grant Rs5 billion saying it could not provide further subsidies to Pakistan Railways seeing as it is already suffering huge losses.

President Zardari has asked the government to release funds within seven days for the payment of salaries and pensions of protesting railway employees, a press statement issued after the meeting stated.

Role of the private sector

Presidential spokesperson President Farhatullah Babar said that private sector entrepreneurs were also invited to the meeting to discuss a public-private partnership model for revamping railways.

Chairman Arif Habib Group of Companies Arif Habib and Chairman ARD Group of Companies Aqeel Karim Dhedi were specially invited to give their input on the role the private sector could play in turning around the state-run rail sector, Babar added.

Revamping railways

“The president also advised the government to arrange a loan of Rs6 billion for locomotive repairs and purchases of new locomotives. The loan will be used exclusively for this purpose and will not be diverted for any other purpose,” he said.

The spokesperson further said that another decision was taken during the meeting which pertained to the over Rs40 billion outstanding overdraft obtained from the State Bank by Pakistan Railways, for which it has been paying an amount of Rs350 million per month.

(Read: Railways eye bailout funds by August)

The president advised that this matter be taken up with the Council of Common Interests as PR services were utilised by all provinces and the issue was inter-provincial in nature.

Railways Minister Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour informed the meeting that half of the total locomotives were out of order, 86 per cent of bridges are more than 100 years old, the signaling system is obsolete, the telecommunication system is outdated and the track is over-aged.

Protests in Sindh

Rail traffic between Sindh and Punjab remained suspended due to protests by staff at the railway track near Loco Shed Rohri on Monday.

Hundreds of railway employees, under the aegis of the Loco Running Staff Train Drivers Association led by General Secretary Ali Haider Chachar, staged a protest demonstration against the non-payment of salaries.

Protesting employees staged a sit-in on the railway track, making it impossible for trains to get out of the shed.

“Our protest and sit-in will continue till the disbursement of salaries,” Chachar told The Express Tribune.

Protests in Lahore

Locomotive shed workers of Lahore observed a strike in the diesel loco shed for almost 11 hours on Monday. Hundreds of workers of Rail Mazdoor Ittehad (RMI) started their protest early Monday morning against the non-payment of salaries.

The employees threatened to resume the protest early Tuesday morning and would continue till they were paid.

(ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SARFARAZ MEMON IN SUKKUR AND SHAHRAM HAQ IN LAHORE)

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2011.
Article taken from The Express Tribune – http://tribune.com.pk
URL to article: http://tribune.com.pk/story/276029/pakistan-railways-employees-end-protest-after-assurances-by-authorities/

 

Saving the Mohenjodaro Ruins from Ruination

The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro in the Sindh province of Pakistan. (Credit: memo.fr)

19th October 2011:

The preservation of Moenjodaro was discussed at a conference held in Karachi on Saturday in which archaeological experts, top Sindh government officials and Unesco representatives participated. While the provincial government allocated Rs100m to help conserve the 5,000-year-old Indus Valley Civilisation and World Heritage site, experts in their desperation suggested burial of the ruins until such time that technology became available to control the rising water table and salt levels in the

Mohenjo daro The Great Bath (brittanica.com)

soil that threaten the prehistoric site. International experts have reportedly been struggling for years to conserve Moenjodaro, in the process experimenting with various techniques that just do not seem to give the desired results. This is extremely worrisome.

It is clear that Pakistan alone cannot foot the bill for the conservation of the prehistoric city; funds coming from Unesco, too, have not enabled the experts to come up

Aerial View of Mohenjo Daro (Credit home.hiwaay.net)

with a formula to do the needful. The money and manpower, including experts working on the conservation project, are deemed to be inadequate by all accounts. There is thus an urgent need to create more awareness about the site that is no less important to human civilisation than the ancient relics of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures. The need is to create a global fund and a pool of competent conservation research experts to explore the challenge at hand and to devise a custom-made solution that will work. It would be a shame having to rebury the unearthed parts of Moenjodaro in the very same soil whose rising water table and salt levels are threatening it. A global appeal needs to be launched by Pakistan with the backing of Unesco to further the debate on preserving Moenjodaro.

Mohenjodaro Walled City (harappa.com)

Granted, the time to do this should have been years ago, but the urgency of the matter demands it had better be done today.

DAWN.COM DawnNews

Report on Religious Minorities in Pakistan

The National Commission for Peace and Justice has issued a report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan in August 2011 which describes how Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria are among the countries that have anti-blasphemy laws. In Pakistan, they note that under Zia ul Haq’s blasphemy laws, the penalty includes a mandatory death sentence for defaming the Prophet Mohammad and life sentence for desecrating the Holy Quran. Under the provisions of the present law, conviction is made possible without proof of deliberate attempt on the part of the accused. This the NCPJ states is a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution of Pakistan.

For the full NCPJ report, please click on the link to download the it: Human Rights Monitor 2011.

Why are Pakistan’s ‘moderate’ clerics defending Salman Taseer’s murderer

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

He was only 18 years old at the time he was hanged for blasphemy. The accusations against him included allegations that he had made statements that mocked the “holy scriptures” and all “revealed religion”. He was also said to have described theology as “a rhapsody of feigned and ill-invented nonsense”.

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

The man in question wasn’t another Pakistani being victimised by the country’s infamous blasphemy laws. Thomas Aikenhead was a Scottish medical student living in Edinburgh who left his mark on history as the last person to be hanged in Britain for blasphemy, in 1697. In his indictment he was, in fact, accused of having “preferred Mahomet to the blessed Jesus”. However, when he was taken to the gallows Aikenhead was said to have held a Bible in his hands and denied the claims made against him.

What is of interest about the incident is its timing: it took place at the dawn of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

In that respect, Aikenhead’s punishment was telling of the urgent need for change in a society that had been mired in superstition and intolerance. Fast-forward to the modern age and parts of Pakistan find themselves living, some would say being dragged back, into the dark ages. Protests by religious fundamentalists have been taking place all over the country against the recent court decision to hang Mumtaz Qadri, the murderer of the liberal Punjab governor Salman Taseer. Now there comes news a Pakistani court has suspended the death sentence, pending an appeal made by Qadri against his conviction.

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

While Pakistan may not be at the cusp of some kind of enlightenment, it is a society being overwhelmed by the changes brought by modernity. At the same time the country finds itself being pulled in the opposite direction by strong regressive forces.

The furore over the blasphemy laws is indicative of a larger failing to understand the underlying causes behind the fundamentalist problem. Some of the most vocal street protests by admirers of Qadri have been by a group called the Sunni Tehreek. This is an organisation with roots in the Barelvi school of Islam, which has widespread adherents in the country. The Barelvis have for years been touted in certain western and liberal Pakistani circles as the more moderate answer to Saudi-exported Wahhabi or Salafi versions of Islam. But what one finds is the various Barelvi, Wahhabi, Deobandi and Shia schools of thought actually united in critiquing Taseer over his stance on the blasphemy laws. In fact, the Barelvis perhaps came out more fiercely than others in condemning the death sentence to Qadri. This is due to their supposedly stronger attachment to the Prophet Muhammad.

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

Unfortunately, post-September 11 there has been a taboo in understanding the rise in influence of Wahhabi Islam among Muslims. To imagine Barelvis or “Sufis” as all being peace-loving mystics and “moderates” simply doesn’t hold. Many people have been sucked into the more puritanical Wahhabi Islam as a reaction to superstitions they are led to believe have crept into Islam – such as offering prayers at tombs, celebrating the prophet’s birthday, visits to pirs (faith healers) who exploit people’s blind faith and other practices considered to be “shirk” or idolatry. Tragically, such literalist interpretation has also created an intolerant mentality, which has led to the shocking destruction of graves of many of the prophet’s close companions and family members in Mecca by the Saudis – wiping out irretrievably sites of great historic significance to Islamic culture.

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

The various Barelvi clerics who are protesting against the death sentence for Taseer’s killer are, paradoxically, also the ones to have issued condemnations of Islamist terrorists and Taliban. Their shrines have been attacked by suicide bombers and Pakistan has witnessed prominent Barelvi figures killed in recent times. But the problem is we now have a situation where clerics loosely allied with the west in the “war on terror” are defending a man who has committed open murder.

In June 2009, in an article in Foreign Policy magazine, the writer Ali Eteraz warned of the folly of Washington’s policy of actively supporting one brand of Islam over another. “After years of bemoaning official Saudi sponsorship of Wahhabism, and condemning official Iranian sponsorship of milleniarian Islam, we are now being asked to celebrate a state-sponsored brand of Islam in Pakistan,” he wrote. “We are asked to believe this is ‘different’ from those other cases solely because it’s a version of the religion that looks benign. But not only is this unprincipled – it is going to backfire, leaving Sufism discredited and more religious resentment among the numerous peaceful Salafis in the world.” His prediction appears to be coming true.

Using one religious faction to confront another can be a dangerous strategy. For one, it only gives an excuse for more sectarian conflict in a country already rife with enough violence. More significantly, there lies the danger of turning a blind eye to religious groups appearing to be “moderate” who, when the time is ripe, may start to assert their own agenda using street power.

Photo Credit: Arif Ali

Instead, the starting point to confront this menace should be to highlight the selective outrage of the fundamentalists, as the Pakistani actress Veena Malik did earlier this year. Appearing on a TV show, Malik had an all-out confrontation with a mullah who had critiqued her over her appearance in the Indian version of Big Brother. “If you want to do something for the glory of Islam,” she retorted, “you have plenty of opportunities. What are the politicians doing? Bribery, robbery, theft and killing in the name of Islam. There are many things to talk about … There are Islamic clerics who rape the children they teach in their mosques and so much more.”

Sadly there are yet to be massive street rallies over these issues.

Traders Respond to Government’s Energy Saving Measures

The Gillani Cabinet had to designate three Ministers to explain why two off days every week would bring about monumental savings in power consumption. Like always, no industrialist or businessmen will do what the government so desperately desires. Factories would run as usual, markets would be humming with the hustle and bustle, and the economic activity would continue on weekends just like before.

We industrialists are determined to earn foreign exchange for the nation, we are all geared to provide quality employment, and we are dedicated towards our goal of making Pakistan an economic powerhouse.

Meantime, the Cabinet and the Parliamentarians can enjoy their weekend holidays and let us industrialists do what we do best. Keep the wheels of industry running.

Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) Update on Sindh Flood

The recent torrential rains have created havoc in Sindh. More than 350 people have lost their lives, 8,8million people have been affected among them 1.36 million are children and 240000 pregnant women facing hardships under open sky.

Now the rains have stopped, the flood water is standing in almost all cities and villages of Sindh. Due to breaches in the left bank outfall Drainage, in the kacha area of Dadu , Nain Gaj ,more than 25ft of water flowed into the area and caused human loss. Live stock and house hold items poverty stricken people also washed away. This is not the first time that the LBOD has severely affected and displaced the population of Badin.

The recent spell of heavy rains and flood has reinforced the losses caused by last year’s devastating floods. People are still struggling with severe problems like shortage food and clean drinking water, unhygienic living conditions, pregnant women have their own health problems and children are facing vector borne diseases. On the other hand, Government’s relief operation is too slow to address their needs. People also complain of political influence while distribution of relief goods.

Following table will help in understanding the level damage in different districts;

Sr # District Affected Taluqa UCs Villages Population Agri Land Houses
01 Badin 5 46 6300 1021000 343000 382000
02 MP Khas 6 41 5700 705000 134000 118000
03 Jamshoroo 4 25 614 8400 5820 75000
04 Benazirabad 4 51 4100 900000 125000 300000
05 Tando AY 3 19 1254 270890 66500 28000
06 Tando MK 3 16 1555 267000 68000 51000
07 Umarkot 4 27 1651 180000 160745 Acers 84474 Fully Damage & 77076 Partially Damage

 

Sr # District Deaths Livestock Relief Camps Population of Camps
01 Badin 50 60% 500 670,000
02 MP Khas 43 230 147 57269
03 Jamshoroo 15 14 9000 – 1000 local IDPs6000 IDPs from other district.
04 Benazirabad 32 80 Thousand to 1 Lac 625 28630
05 Tando AY
06 Tando MK 15 75 119 11873
07 Umarkot 42 Loses17368Vaccinated 340960

Drenched 9385

Treated 13360

Total Affected

381073

132 238976 IDPs in schools,Tents City, Open Sky & Other Govt Building

For more on the Sindh flood, watch the interview by SPO chief Naseer Memon to Netherlands Web based television ‘The Water Channel

Tenth Anniversary of US Invasion of Afghanistan

As the US marks the tenth anniversary of its invasion of Afghanistan, pro Taliban terror networks – driven out of Kabul in October 2001 – have reinvented themselves inside Pakistan.

They are enabled by an inept foreign policy and absence of governance that allows the most brutal ideologues to consolidate themselves within failing states.

The militants have found the most fertile ground in Balochistan, where the PPP government – operating on a single principle of obeying the most powerful – teeters between toeing a foreign policy that breeds international isolationism, even as it has become a punching bag for political parties vying to return to power.

For the Hazara Shias in Balochistan – protesting against the failure of the provincial government for failing to protect them – the bigger news is the PPP government in Balochistan is unable to protect itself from terrorism.

This week, Pakistan’s chief opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League (N) spearheaded a rally of political groups outside the parliament in Islamabad to protest issues like the absence of governance that has led to the massacres of Shia Hazaras, and “load-shedding” – a euphemism for massive power outages – that people suffer on account of mismanagement and corruption.

It was an event that brought “strange bed-fellows,” like Nawaz Sharif to ally with the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman – the ideologue cum politician who allied with Sharif’s nemesis, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf.

But these are shifting alliances that have the March Senate elections in mind, and will be likely disbanded thereafter.

Similarly, the politics that have brought the ethnic MQM back into accepting ministerial positions with the PPP is an alliance built in sand. Indeed, the calm in Karachi can quickly turn into a storm, once criminal elements patronized by every political party returns to action.

Ten years on, the politicking goes on at the expense of real developmental progress …a situation that has grown worse as target assassinations grow from the fall out in Afghanistan.