This is the simple story of an ordinary man who leads an ordinary life in Karachi. What separates him from others is that not a single day passes without some unpleasant incident taking place between him and members of the traffic police, who are beholden to implement the highway code of Pakistan. It is no staggering epic. Just a simple tale of an ordinary man who buys sells and repairs computers for a living. Well, perhaps he’s not really all that ordinary. He is, in fact, an expert and there is literally nothing that anybody can teach him about computers, laptops and printers. He is more expensive than most practitioners. But he works fast and quietly.
As I am a dinosaur when it comes to technology, I invariably call him when something goes wrong with my desktop. As he happens to belong to the Bohra community, which requires him to wear specific headgear, he becomes a target for the vultures in the police force. He owns a motorcycle. Or rather, he owned a motorcycle. But that bit in this sordid tale will come later.
For various reasons, he had to cross PIDC House on his daily assignments and that is where the first of the official hold-ups began. Whether the flatfoot was a burly cop with a fierce handlebar moustache who communicated in the tart tones of repressed rage, or a lean and wiry hombre flushed with polemic, the computer expert was invariably detained for not wearing a helmet. As the policeman on duty had rather strong views about not encouraging law-breakers to pay fines to the exchequer, but to subsidise the salaries of underpaid officers of the law, a number of bank notes rapidly changed hands. And while negotiations were taking place over the amount of the bribe, at least a dozen motorcyclists who were not wearing helmets sailed by like ballerinas in a Tchaikovsky ballet. At times this ritual was repeated in another location. Eventually, the expert got a press card from one of the local newspapers which stated he had been appointed their official correspondent for culture.
That did the trick for a while. And then, two days ago, while stopping at a traffic light in Punjab Colony, wondering what the missus was preparing for lunch, he was held up by a couple of mean looking robbers wielding weapons. They took away his motorcycle, bag, wallet and cell phone. The bag contained among other things an Apple laptop worth over Rs100,000. It belonged to a client who will soon ask for a replacement or reimbursement. But instead of throwing himself off the roof of the Finance Trade Centre, he kept a stiff upper lip, rented a motorcycle for Rs500 a day and carried on as usual.
Now when he sees the amber light turn to red at a traffic signal, he slows down. And when the light turns to green, he shoots through the maze of cars like Barry Steven Frank Sheene of the United Kingdom. Life has to go on in one of the world’s worst managed and most corrupt administrations. Just think about it. Despite the presence of the Rangers in Karachi, the crime rate has not decreased. In Karachi’s Orange County where the Clifton Cantonment has put up notices about keeping Clifton clean and green, the area has achieved a high degree of notoriety for having the worst rubbish dumps in the city. And to make matters worse, lots of house-owners are charged a water tax without getting a drop of water. So the citizens have to grin and bear it. For there really is no escape.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2015.
Karachi’s streets (Credit: nbc.com)KARACHI, Aug 17: For Sana Sheikh, the scene is all too familiar; a furtive figure approaches the car at a traffic light, the advance timed perfectly between the switch from red to green. He leans in and taps a menacing weapon on the window, giving her husband no choice but to comply. With a gun fixed to his temple, the young couple quickly hands over mobile phones, cash and jewellery.
Ms Sheikh has been robbed at gunpoint on three occasions –– twice at the same spot in Clifton Block 7 and the most recent time at the traffic light on the Khayaban-i-Shaheen and Khayaban-i-Bahria intersection. “We have given everything each time,” she says, grateful that they have remained unhurt.
Unfortunately, Mehreen Ali Shah was brutally gunned down. The 48-year-old mother of two was shot fatally on DHA’s 26th street on the night of Aug 4, as she headed home after a meal at a Phase VIII restaurant. Ms Shah is among scores of people shot dead by robbers in the metropolis in the past eight months.
According to data collected by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around 29 people have been killed by robbers in different areas from January to June 2015. The number of phones stolen from January to July is estimated at over 21,000.
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As muggings show no signs of letting up, police mull new strategy to tackle street crime
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“On average, 50 people are killed during street crimes in the provincial capital each year,” a senior police officer tells Dawn.
Police admit an alarming rise in street crime and mention several reasons for their apparent failure to curb it, with lack of manpower cited as a major reason.
“There is only one police mobile with two policemen for patrolling in Phase VIII, Defence, where the murder of the woman took place,” says Darakhshan police station SHO Ghulam Hussain Pirzado.
Mr Pirzado, who was removed after the killing of Ms Shah, said the police mobile on that day was deployed for the security of business tycoon Malik Riaz.
“There are a total of 100 policemen for Darakhshan police. Of them only 70 perform their jobs and the rest are deployed on guard duty etc,” the former SHO discloses. Among them, 40 policemen perform their duty in the morning shift while 30 are assigned to night duty.
“This number of policemen can hardly be declared sufficient for 400,000 to 500,000 residents living in Phase V to Phase VIII [jurisdiction of Darakhshan police].”
Should Rangers confront street crime?
While the Rangers report weekly gains made in the Karachi operation launched in September 2013, there has been no respite for citizens when it comes to street crime.
There is a growing realisation among law enforcement agencies to shift the focus of the operation towards street crime, as the operation has yet to prove effective against the bane of muggings.
“This is partly because law enforcement agencies’ main focus has been to control major crimes such as targeted killings, kidnapping for ransom and extortion,” says the DIG (administration) Karachi, Sultan Ali Khowaja.
Mr Khowaja, who recently also served as DIG CIA, says the focus on alleviating political crime has paid off. “For six months, there has been no case of kidnapping for ransom. Extortion has become nil,” he boasts.
But he acknowledges that the attention must shift to street crime. “Initiatives are being taken and impact will be visible soon,” the senior police officer says.
New chief of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) Zubair Habib agrees that other crimes have ‘drastically’ decreased but feels there has been no decline in street crime. Citing ‘reported crime data’, the CPLC head says 17,000 mobile phones were either snatched or stolen in 2014 from January to July. In the current year, 22,000 mobile phones have been snatched for the same period.
“Street crimes, especially muggings, have not dropped partly because it is easy,” says Mr Habib. He says there are at least 100 points where traffic is congested, allowing criminals to swoop on and loot their victims in a jam. He also feels there are deserted areas –– such as in Defence where Ms Shah was shot dead – where it is easy to commit crime due to absence of police.
Two-pronged strategy
“Karachi police are going to sign a MoU (memorandum of standing) with NGO Voice of Karachi very soon to establish kiosks at these 60 places. Each will be supported by CCTVs and strong deployment of police,” says Mr Khowaja.
As a first step, a kiosk will be set up at the old ‘Submarine Chowrangi’ on Ch Khaliq-uz-Zaman Road near Gizri. At least 16 CCTV cameras will be installed, with two motorcycle squads of police that will perform their duty round the clock, especially during ‘peak hours’.
Each such kiosk is expected to cost up to Rs5 million.
For the second initiative, police are negotiating with cellular companies and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to register the IMEI number of each subscriber which will enable them to block a snatched mobile phone immediately after an incident is reported. A few meetings have taken place to discuss this, he says.
“This initiative should be supported by a legal framework and be made part of cyber crime,” suggests Sultan Khowaja. He says past police action against Karachi’s electronic market to curb the sale of stolen and snatched mobile phones was not effective as it was not supported by a legal framework to punish such elements.
The CPLC chief, too, refers to a recent meeting with AIG police Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar, where the two discussed a strategy to tackle street crime and proposed a solution to improve traffic flow with a ‘surveillance system’ which makes snatching. A proposal to set up a dedicated cell to deal with street crime is also under consideration.
But as law enforcement agencies scratch their heads and vow reform, citizens are left at the mercy of armed thugs operating brazenly throughout the city.
“I have been mugged but luckily they only took away my phone and some cash, and couldn’t snatch my wallet with ID documents and credit cards,” says Jamila Ali, wondering how she should securely carry these documents. “I have started keeping a cheaper phone to give to the muggers but I worry they will catch on.”
On Facebook group Haalat Updates –– an online forum where subscribers share security related concerns –– two muggings were reported in PECHS Block 2 in a span of two days. The CCTV footage of a similar mugging outside an apartment building on Islamia College road near Jail Chowrangi elicited sarcastic responses, betraying the frustration of hapless citizens from all walks of life.
Commenting on the ease with which an armed youth secures an unsuspecting biker’s phone by showing a pistol, one member writes: “It’s very casual, just like someone is holding up a cigarette to ask for a lighter…”
Pakistan Army has launched a ground offensive in North Waziristan Agency’s (NWA) mountainous Shawal Valley, regarded as the last haven of fleeing homegrown militants and their foreign cohorts. Meanwhile, the army’s fighter jets on Thursday continued to target militants’ hideouts in the agency for the fifth consecutive day, killing at least 43 suspected terrorists.
“Ground operation in Shawal, North Waziristan begins,” announced Major General Asim Salim Bajwa, the chief of army’s media-wing – Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) – on micro-blogging website Twitter.
Maj Gen Bajwa said the army chief General Raheel Sharif has directed the security forces to achieve the objectives as soon as possible. General Raheel lauded the ideal air and ground forces coordination, he said.
Meanwhile, an official of the security forces said fighter jets on Thursday targeted militants’ hideouts in Lwara Madai, Gharlamai, Ocha Bibi, Zvi Naray and several other areas of tehsil Shawal and Datta Khel in the NWA.
“These aerial attacks killed 43 militants, including 15 in Shawal and 28 in Datta Khel,” he said.
The local sources said residents of all these areas had started migrating to safer places in nearby provinces of Afghanistan, including Khost, Paktia and Paktika.
After Thursday’s strikes, the number of insurgents killed in the region this week climbed up to more than 150. The army earlier claimed its airstrikes killed 10 suspected militants on Wednesday, 18 on Tuesday, 50 on Monday and 40 on Sunday.
Since May, the military has stepped up operations in the deeply forested ravines of the Shawal Valley – which straddles North and South Waziristan agencies along the border with Afghanistan – and softened militant targets in the valley through continued airstrikes.
The deeply forested ravines of Shawal Valley and Datta Khel are popular smuggling routes between Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, and are dotted with militant bases used as launch pads for attacks on Pakistani forces.
The area is a stronghold of Khan Sajna Said, the leader of a Taliban faction whose name the United States put on a sanctions list of ‘specially designated global terrorists” last year.
Banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan used to control all of mountainous NWA, which includes the Shawal Valley and Datta Khel, and runs along the Afghan border. But Pakistan Army recaptured most of the region in a major armed operation, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb, which was launched in June 2014.
North Waziristan used to be the Pakistani Taliban’s last key stronghold until the start of the operation. Officials claim that nearly 3,000 militants have been killed since the launch of the offensive. Authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in the border regions and across the country.
Forces kill 12 militants in South Waziristan clash
Meanwhile, security forces also had a clash with militants in the neighbouring South Waziristan’s Asman Panga area of Lahda subdivision, where they killed 12 militants.
A security official told The Express Tribune, that a soldier was killed while two security forces’ personnel also got injured in the encounter. He said the area where the clash took place is regarded as a stronghold of militants.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2015
Punjab’s Home Minister Shuja Khanzada has been killed in a suicide attack in the Pakistani province, police say.
Twelve other people died in the attack at Mr Khanzada’s office in District Attock, about 80km (50 miles) north-west of the capital, Islamabad.
Mr Khanzada was seen as the man in charge of the anti-terror campaign in Pakistan’s biggest province.
A Sunni militant group with ties to al-Qaeda has said it ordered the attack.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi said it was in response to last month’s killing of its leader, Malik Ishaq.
Shuja Khanzada is the most senior Pakistani politician to have been killed by militants this year.
The minister’s death is being seen as a significant blow to Pakistan’s recent gains in the fight against militancy and extremism, says the BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani in Islamabad.
Our correspondent says questions are being asked about his security as the home minister had reported threats made against him.
Mr Khanzada was meeting supporters in his hometown of Attock when a large bomb exploded, causing the roof to cave in, trapping dozens under the rubble.
Leading tributes to the home minister, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: “The courage and valour of Shuja Khanzada is message to the masterminds of terrorists that they are bound to be defeated.”
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been behind some of the most violent attacks in recent years.
It was banned in Pakistan in 2001 and designated a terrorist group by the US in 2003. It has claimed the killings of hundreds of mainly Shia civilians in Pakistan.
QUETTA, Aug 5: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved on Thursday a plan to make Balochistan completely peaceful and take measures to ensure flawless security for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Presiding over a meeting of the Apex Committee, the prime minister reviewed progress of implementation of the National Action Plan and said the law and order situation in Balochistan had improved satisfactorily because of joint civil and military efforts.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, Balochistan Governor Mohammad Khan Achakzai, Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, Minister for Saffron retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, Commander Southern Command Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua, provincial Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, Chief Secretary Saifullah Chattha, Home Secretary retired Capt Akbar Hussain Durrani, Inspector General of Frontier Corps, Balochistan, Maj Gen Sher Afgan and IG Police Mohammad Amlish attended the meeting.
Mr Sharif was briefed on the security situation and measures taken by the federal and provincial governments, armed forces and law-enforcement agencies for maintaining peace in Balochistan.
According to official sources, the meeting was informed that there was a remarkable decline in incidents of terrorism and heinous crimes.
Civil and military officials submitted a security plan which focused on providing complete security to the CPEC and projects related to it and restoring lasting peace in the province.
The prime minister said that Balochistan had a bright future and it would be the main beneficiary of CPEC projects. The infrastructure and communication network would be developed for effective use of resources of Balochistan. Gwadar Port would be connected with Central Asian states through rail and roads, he said.
He directed the authorities concerned to prepare a plan for developing the port and the city as an economic hub. He ordered them to reach out to the people to make them partners in the development process.
The prime minister approved a ‘Pur-amn Balochistan’ plan for bringing the angry Balochs back into the national mainstream.
He expressed satisfaction over the unanimous approach of all stakeholders on national issues and said that it would take the country forward.
He said the economic turnaround in the country was being acknowledged by international financial institutions which were now ready to work with Pakistan.
Earlier, the prime minister laid the foundation stone of Mangi Dam, the Balochistan Agriculture University and Samungli Road Flyover and inaugurated the Sariab Phatak Flyover in Quetta.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan lambasted Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain on Sunday for his last night’s speech, saying the purpose of such a speech was to bring a bad name to Pakistan and its institutions.
“Speeches made from London have crossed limits of all the principles, laws and regulations,” said Chaudhry Nisar while addressing a press conference here.
He said Altaf’s invitation for NATO forces to come to Pakistan and launch an operation is completely preposterous and that his speech is tantamount to waging a war against the country.
The minister also said that the government is reviewing all aspects of Hussain’s speeches and the issue will be raised with the British government legally.
The interior minister said the MQM’s reaction to the ongoing operation in Karachi has grown intense over the past few weeks. “MQM is actually angry at the cases being faced by Altaf Hussain in London,” he added.
He clarified that Pakistan has nothing to do with Altaf Hussain’s cases in Britain.
He also dispelled the perception that the ongoing operation in Karachi is targeting only MQM. “No political party including MQM is being targeted in the Karachi crackdown; the operation is being pursued indiscriminately against all the criminal elements,” he explained.
Nisar said people belonging to various parties were apprehended during the operation and those who were arrested wrongly were released later.
He said there has been a marked improvement in criminal activities in Karachi including targeted killing, extortion and kidnapping for ransom. He added that targeted killing saw an 87 percent decline in the month of July 2015 alone while not a single case of kidnapping for ransom was reported in the same month.
Altaf Hussain’ speech from last night:
MQM Chief Altaf Hussain asked his party workers to stage protests in front of United Nations, White House and NATO to raise the demand for sending their troops to Karachi.
Addressing MQM’s Annual Convention in the US city of Dallas via telephone, Altaf said India itself is a coward country, if it had some honour it would not have allowed ‘bloodshed of Mohajirs’ on Pakistani soil.
He also reiterated the demand for a separate province for Mohajirs.
Families of disappeared protest (Credit: nytimes.com)
KOHAT, July 25 — Niaz Bibi’s son disappeared into the night, whisked away by Pakistani soldiers who accused him of being a Taliban fighter. For 18 anguishing months, she could find no word of his fate. Then she got a phone call.
“Come to Kohat prison,” said the man on the other end. “Tell nobody.”
At the prison, in northwestern Pakistan, she was directed to a separate, military-run internment center where her son, Asghar Muhammad, was brought to her. They touched hands through a metal grill, and she wept as he reassured her that he would be home soon.
But when the phone rang again, one month later, an official delivered crushing news. “Your son is dead,” he said. “Come collect his body.”
Mr. Muhammad was one of dozens of detainees who have died in military detention in Pakistan in the past year and a half, amid accounts of torture, starvation and extrajudicial execution from former detainees, relatives and human rights monitors. The accusations come at a time when the country’s generals, armed with extensive new legal and judicial powers, have escalated their war against the Pakistani Taliban by sweeping into their strongholds and detaining hundreds of people.
Critics warn that those gains may be coming at the cost of human rights, potentially weakening Pakistan’s fragile democracy and, ultimately, undermining its counterterrorism effort.
“People live in abject fear of speaking out about what the military is doing,” said Mustafa Qadri of Amnesty International, which received reports of more than 100 deaths in military custody in 2014.
At issue is a network of 43 secretive internment centers dotting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and the tribal belt. Little is known about the centers, formally established in 2011 and given greater powers by a tough antiterrorism law passed last year. Most are based in existing jails and military bases and operate far from public view. The total number of detainees has not been made public.
Relatives of missing people have filed 2,100 cases with the Peshawar High Court, seeking news of their fates.
In many instances, the first news comes when a body is sent home.
Last year, for instance, a man from the Kurram tribal district told the court that three of his six sons who were detained in Kohat had died in custody. The man’s lawyer said he had not brought a criminal complaint against the military out of fear that his remaining sons would meet a similar fate.
The chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, did not respond to a detailed list of questions about conditions at the internment centers.
Classified documents leaked last year by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden made clear that American officials were aware of widespread human rights violations by the Pakistani military, even as billions of dollars in American military aid kept flowing to Pakistan.
Pakistani military officials tortured and killed people suspected of being militants “with the knowledge, if not consent, of senior officers,” said one American assessment in 2011.
“The military took care to make the deaths seem to occur in the course of counterinsurgency operations, from natural causes, or as the result of personal vendettas,” said the document, first cited by The Washington Post.
The Obama administration, which has gradually improved its relationship with Pakistan this year, has been muted in its public criticism of the violations and has not invoked a provision of American law that limits assistance to foreign militaries guilty of human rights abuses.
Instead, the administration approved more weapons for the Pakistani military: In April, it approved almost $1 billion worth of helicopters and laser-guided Hellfire missiles for use in counterterrorism operations.
State Department officials say they have warned the Pakistani military that the accounts of rights violations could lead to future restrictions on military assistance.
Until recently, accusations of such abuses by Pakistani soldiers and intelligence officers have been sharpest in western Baluchistan Province, where the army has faced accusations of abducting, torturing and killing people suspected of being Baluch nationalists as part of a decade-old effort to quell a separatist rebellion there.
The deaths at internment centers have come in conjunction with the military’s battlefield gains — in the past year, it has seized control of much of North Waziristan — and a general hardening of public opinion against the Pakistani Taliban.
Tough new antiterrorism laws have given the army greater legal powers, and the number of deaths in military custody has declined in recent months since a military court system, authorized by Parliament in January, became active. Fayaz Zafar, a journalist in the Swat Valley, counted 48 bodies being returned to that area in 2014 and five so far this year, the latest on June 2.
Experts say the military-run courts fall far short of international standards, and their authority is being challenged in Pakistan’s Supreme Court. But public opposition to the courts has been muted, particularly since a Taliban massacre that killed 150 people, most of them children, in December. The authorities have taken harder action against militants on other fronts, too, lifting a moratorium on executions that has led to 178 convicts being hanged.
The executions have drawn repeated protest from the United Nations and the European Union but barely a whimper of public complaint.
By several accounts, conditions at the internment camps can be brutal. One former detainee from Swat said he had been thrashed with barbed wire, reduced to eating soap because he was fed so little and forced to give false testimony against other detainees in court.
“I felt guilty, but I knew I would be beaten if I refused,” said the man who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid further trouble.
Relatives of detainees who die in custody say they have been pressured into conducting hurried funerals, often at night, and sometimes coerced into declining an autopsy, even if the corpse bears signs of ill treatment. In other instances, they say, local mullahs are forbidden from offering prayers for the dead.
Asma Jahangir, a leading human rights lawyer, has brought a Supreme Court case challenging the detention of 33 men. When brought to court two years ago, two of the men said they had been tortured. They have since died in custody. “They supposedly had heart attacks,” Ms. Jahangir said.
In Swat, several women have formed a protest group to seek news of their missing relatives through street demonstrations and court actions. Their leader, Jan Saba, said in an interview that she had “knocked on every door” in search of news of her missing husband, but that she still had heard nothing.
Few dispute that many of the military detainees are linked to the Taliban. Mr. Muhammad, the detainee who died in Kohat last year, admitted to his family that he had spent eight months in the company of Taliban fighters before being arrested, relatives said.
One of his brothers, Abid, said that when the family asked Mr. Muhammad what he was doing during that time, he replied, “The less you know, the better.”
Such tales have led civilian officials to turn a blind eye to conditions at the internment centers. Jamaluddin Shah, the top civilian official in Kohat, said in an interview that he did not believe the military practiced torture or conducted executions at the center. But, he added, “even if such cases were true, why would that be an issue?”
“Have you seen them slaughtering people and distributing those videos?” Mr. Shah asked, referring to Taliban execution videos. “Do you think they deserve any human rights?”
But although the army has clearly weakened the Taliban in recent months, experts warn that reports of abuse could ultimately hurt its counterterrorism effort, in much the same way that harsh American tactics after 2001 led to global condemnation and bolstered militant recruitment.
Ms. Jahangir, the lawyer, calls the network of internment centers “Pakistan’s little Guantánamo Bay.”
“These laws risk turning Pakistan into a security state,” Ms. Jahangir said. “We cannot afford torture and killings on a mass scale, even in a time of war.”
Taha Siddiqui reported from Kohat, and Declan Walsh from London. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, and an employee of The New York Times contributed from Pakistan.
The Balochistan government has offered general amnesty to the warring youth in the province. Cash rewards were offered to entice those who are ready to renounce violence. This generous offer reminds us of an even rosier package of Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan a few years ago. Hardly anybody knows any tangible outcome of the much trumpeted package.
Amnesty and appeasement packages will not yield results until a multidimensional course correction approach is adopted. Violence in Balochistan has refused to subside. The provincial government led by a nationalist party has taken pains to fetch militants from the mountains to the negotiating table but without any significant fruition.
Sporadic news of capitulation by a few beleaguered commanders could not drastically alter the overall security landscape of the province.
The current spell of insurgency is now almost a decade old. No one has accurate figures of fatalities and disappearances. Inflated figures are a norm in such situations. However, the severity can easily be gauged even without digits. In fact, numbers only partly narrate the convulsion and gravity of the situation on ground.
Balochistan is no more a local or national issue. It has become a chessboard of regional game players.
Involvement of foreign hands is not a mere canard that can be debunked as rhetoric. In a country that has remained a surrogate battlefield for decades to serve interests of global powers, any conflict of this ferocity cannot be a purely localised phenomenon. However, it would be equally inept to dismiss the deplorable local realities. Use of force can be a double-edged sword. If triggers of conflict are not addressed, suppression by gun power will prove ephemeral. This is not the first insurgency in the province. Each time triggers of the insurgency were ignored amid the euphoria of triumph, the conflict resurrected after a brief hiatus of few years.
Foreign hand is not the only factor shaping the current state of affairs. It is rather an accumulated indignation of several decades that has ostracised the local population from the mainstream business of the state. Bringing them back to the national fold needs remedial and not repressive measures.
The province had been an energy basket of the country since early 1950s that spurred industrialisation in the country, but regrettably people in the province continued to live in primitive ages.
In May 2014, a startling disclosure was made in the upper house of the parliament. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources revealed that out of the 32 district headquarters of Balochistan, only 13 towns had the natural gas facility and 59 per cent of the urban population in the province was without the basic energy commodity. Successive governments have failed to divert a fraction of accruing benefits to the province from where these precious resources were being extracted.
For decades, the province has been deprived of basic necessities like education, health and drinking water. The state abdicated its responsibility and the people were left to toil in an anachronistic tribal society.
The vacuum created by state institutes was occupied by tribal chiefs. Eventually musketeer sardars became janitors of the society and people of the provinces were virtually made subservient to them. A protracted colonial treatment with the province resulted in complete alienation in the ensuing years.
Rather than understanding and addressing the root causes of disgruntlement among the Baloch, almost every government resorted to contemptuous measures that enraged the aggrieved people. Had the province been treated with a modicum of sagacity and had the local population been given judicious treatment of compatriots, no foreign hand would ever have found foothold in Balochistan.
One important role of a responsible state is to act as an equalizer and provide level playing field to all citizens. Balochistan is trailing behind on all development indicators and people find little reason to own the system that has failed to fulfill their genuine constitutional rights as a citizen. It would be outrageous to blithely shrug it off by just accusing a handful of sardars. A state that claims to squash insurgency with its insurmountable might should have veered a minuscule of its muscle for the benefit of dejected masses.
According to the national report on Millennium Development Goals-2013, the country has performed poorly on vital targets of human development — Balochistan’s indicators are even grimmer. Net enrollment ratio in the province is 53 per cent against the national average of 57 per cent.
The mother mortality rate in the country is 276 (per 100,000 live births), whereas Balochistan’s mother mortality rate is 758 which is alarmingly high. 78 per cent children are fully immunised in Pakistan compared to only 43 per cent in Balochistan.
Pakistan Demographic Health Survey reveals that an estimated 111 children of every 1,000 births are dying before their fifth birthday in the province. Ninety-seven of these children do not make it to the age of one year. Additionally, Unicef found that there is no vaccination centre in 39 per cent of union councils in the province. Developing Balochistan would have cost much lesser than a series of military operations.
Balochistan deserves a legitimate share in provincial as well as federal array of power web. Sindh and Balochistan have been continuously underrepresented in the federal government departments and institutions. Many instances can be cited to substantiate this argument.
According to a newspaper report in December 2012, Balochistan was grossly underrepresented in postings at foreign missions. 209 officials were assigned for diplomatic missions since the government came into power and Haji Mira Jan was the only official from Balochistan who was serving as a driver at the Pakistan High Commission in London. Quoting an official document, the scribe claimed that that out of 209 in foreign mission postings by the current government, 130 people were appointed only from Punjab.
According to another newspaper report in January 2014, over 4,000 posts reserved for Balochistan in 52 departments were lying vacant. A special committee tasked to deal with issues pertaining to Balochistan also identified that around 272 of these vacancies were BPS-17 to BPS-21 positions.
In March 2014, the provincial government approached the federal government to fill the vacancies as per the share allocated to the province. In response to the request, joint secretary (Admin) informed the principal secretary to the chief minister that as of September 12, 2013 a total of 3,692 positions were vacant in the federal ministries/divisions/autonomous bodies/corporation against the provincial quota, however the government has imposed a ban on all recruitments.
Simple measures like ensuring due recruitment from Balochistan would enhance the province’s representation in the federal government and create a reasonable amount of goodwill among the people.
More importantly, the provincial government has little say in the strategic matters of the province. In February 2013, the Balochistan government in a statement said that ports and shipping the subjects handled by the federal government and the provincial government has no role in the award of Gwadar Port contract to China. Gwadar Port is purportedly a game-changer project in the region. Apprehensions of the local population are not mere refrains.
The Baloch expect visible and measureable measures and not mere statements. They expect that history of Sui gas will not be repeated in Gwadar. People in power ought to adopt saner means to address this anxiety which has roots in bitter experiences. An enhanced role of provincial government to safeguard local interests would be a right beginning.
Law and disorder is a major challenge that has imperiled stability in the province. Inexorable violence is impeding strategic development initiatives including trans-boundary gas pipelines, economic corridor and the Gwadar Port. Only an inclusive political solution can guarantee sustainable peace and prosperity.
Missing people, extra-judicial killings and targeted ethnic murders of non-local communities are major stumbling blocks in resolving the conflict. Since the provincial government is not at the steering, credibility of the ongoing operation is murky. Law enforcement agencies are operating without any oversight of the provincial government.
On January 30, 2014, the Balochistan government conceded before the Supreme Court about its handicap in recovering Baloch missing people saying it has no effective control over the Frontier Corps which is accused of detaining people. The provincial government should be given an enhanced role in handling security challenges and taking responsibility of local affairs.
The establishment needs to revisit its strategy of solving the Balochistan conundrum. Kill and dump tactics may trounce militants but cannot win back people. Empathy would be better than apathy to salvage the bleeding Balochistan.
The parliament should play a meaningful role to resolve this protracted conflict. An all-party parliamentary committee should be constituted to develop and execute a comprehensive healing plan of political, administrative and developmental measures to bring back Balochistan into the national fold. Credible representation and swift implementation of the healing plan can create space for a political dialogue — to end insurgency and restore peace in the province. A peaceful and harmonious Balochistan will open up new vistas of economic development and stability for the country.
BB’s last rally (Credit: dunyanews.com)ON the recent occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s 62nd birth anniversary, her husband and PPP’s co-chairman spoke about her murder and said: “We cannot withdraw the FIR, no matter how much pressure you exert on us and how much you fight for that.”
Heraldo Munoz of Chile, the head of the UN commission that probed Benazir Bhutto’s murder concluded as follows: “Probably no government will be able or willing to fully disentangle the truth from the complex web of implication in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.”
I read the former Chilean diplomat’s personal account in his book Getting Away With Murder with great sadness because the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under my command on Aug 6, 2009 was entrusted with the responsibility of taking over the investigation from Punjab police. The Special Investigation Group was given the task of putting together a joint team of various law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to carry out further investigation and interrogate possible suspects.
The investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s murder has hinted at a complex web of implication.
I distinctly recall that night of Oct 18, 2007 when as inspector general police, Balochistan, I was glued to the TV watching the huge procession Ms Bhutto was leading in Karachi after finally returning home from a nine-year exile. The bombings that targeted her cavalcade that night resulted in 149 deaths and injuries to 402.
Ms Bhutto survived that deadly attack and lodged an FIR by becoming a complainant herself. Police did not register the case that she filed on Oct 21, 2007 in which she wrote: “I was informed by the government that certain militant groups wanted to attack me. After receiving this information I wrote a letter dated Oct 16, 2007 to the president of Pakistan informing him of my grave concern regarding my security and specified the forces and persons behind them whom I suspected were likely to harm me physically.”
The investigations remained stalled until she was assassinated on Dec 27, 2007. The Karsaz case was finally re-registered on Oct 17, 2008, after Gen Musharraf was forced to quit as president in August that year and Mr Zardari had become president.
Meanwhile, the UN mission started the formal probe in July 2009 and the federal government entrusted further investigation to the FIA on Aug 6, 2009. Codenamed ‘Operation Trojan Horse’, the case investigation team was tasked with collecting ocular testimony as well as documentary, forensic and circumstantial evidence prior to the Oct 18 Karsaz attack, events between Oct 19 and Dec 27, and post Dec 27, 2007 developments.
It was decided to record testimony of all those travelling in the vehicle along with BB: driver Javed; SSP Security Imtiaz Hussain; Makhdoom Amin Fahim; Naheed Khan; Safdar Abbasi; and valet Razzaq. Senator Safdar Abbasi and his wife Naheed Khan had publicly claimed that “sharp sniper fire and a typical intelligence operation” was carried out to eliminate their leader. PPP spokeswoman Sherry Rehman declared she had died from a bullet injury. These statements and the suspicious conduct of Khalid Shahenshah, a security guard who had been caught on TV footage making suspicious signals from near the stage close to BB prior to the exit from the rally where she was murdered, required a thorough probe.
We decided to start our investigations by seeking assistance from interior minister Rehman Malik, who was Ms Bhutto’s chief security officer. Accordingly, I sent across to him in writing on Aug 12, 2009 a note through his trusted staff assistant director of FIA, seeking the following: 1) copy of the letter sent by BB to Gen Musharraf on Oct 16, 2007 naming three suspects; 2) copies of emails sent by BB to Mark Siegel and others identifying threats from Gen Musharraf; 3) a copy of BB’s original will; 4) a copy of the final agreement exchanged between BB and Gen Musharraf; and 5) copies of correspondence between CSO [Rehman Malik] and the governments of Pakistan and Sindh on security-related matters. There was no response.
Meanwhile, interrogation of five arrested accused, namely Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Hussnain Gul, Muhammad Rafaqat and Rasheed Ahmed, as well as some other crucial leads led us to aim for arrest of one Ibadur Rahman resident of Malakand who, we believed, played a key role in BB’s murder. (However, this key plotter was reportedly killed in the first-ever drone strike in Khyber Agency in May 2010 or in an attack carried out by a Pakistani fighter plane.)
Another suspect was al Qaeda’s No 3 leader and financial and operational chief Mustafa Abu Yazid alias Sheikh Saeed Al-Masri who was said to have claimed responsibility for “terminating the most precious American asset who vowed to defeat Mujahideen”. He was reportedly killed in a CIA drone attack on May 22, 2010 in North Waziristan.
Similarly, the crucial suspect or witness Khalid Shahenshah, the security guard hired allegedly by a trusted confidant of the party leadership, was killed in Karachi a few months after Ms Bhutto’s murder.
An important meeting of the FIA investigation team was held on Oct 28, 2009 in the interior minister’s presence. My directions were clear: place all the evidence and leads before the UN team. While the UN commission was generally critical of the conduct of relevant stakeholders, including the earlier Punjab police JIT, it did note in its report that the second JIT by the FIA “has been more vigorous in carrying out its investigations”.
In yet another important meeting held at the interior minister’s residence on Nov 25, 2009, the FIA investigators reviewed the progress and asked the agencies concerned for apprehension of key suspect Ibadur Rehman from Khyber Agency. They were also given the go-ahead to visit Madressah Haqqania in Akora Khattak for adducing further evidence. Officers were also assigned to visit the UAE, Saudi Arabia and United States for obtaining evidence from key sources that could shed further light on the conspiracy.
Within days of setting a clear direction for the investigators to move forward on the case, I was transferred from the FIA.
The case is under trial and I will avoid drawing conclusions. The UN commission submitted its report in May 2010 and their conclusions and recommendations were commented upon by me as a professional in a confidential letter addressed to the then prime minister. The political and security establishment consigned those recommendations to the dustbin of history. Truth hopefully shall prevail eventually.
Ch Nisar meets UK High Commissioner (Credit: breakingnewspak.com)
Officials in Pakistan’s MQM party have told the UK authorities they received Indian government funds, the BBC learnt from an authoritative Pakistani source.
UK authorities investigating the MQM for alleged money laundering also found a list of weapons in an MQM property.
A Pakistani official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM militants over the past 10 years.
The Indian authorities described the claims as “completely baseless”. The MQM also strongly denied the claims.
Party spokesman Saif Muhammad Ali told BBC Urdu that the MQM had never received any funding or training from India. He said authorities in Pakistan were running a campaign against the party.
With 24 members in the National Assembly, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has long been a dominant force in the politics of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. denied the allegation telling the BBC the
British authorities held formal recorded interviews with senior MQM officials who told them the party was receiving Indian funding, the BBC was told.
Meanwhile a Pakistani official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM militants in explosives, weapons and sabotage over the past 10 years in camps in north and north-east India.
Before 2005-2006 the training was given to a small number of mid-ranking members of the MQM, the official said.
More recently, greater numbers of more junior party members have been trained.
The arrest of Altaf Hussain prompted unrest in Karachi
The claims follow the statement of a senior Karachi police officer that two arrested MQM militants said they had been trained in India. In April, Rao Anwar gave details of how the two men went to India via Thailand to be trained by the Indian intelligence agency RAW.
In response, MQM leader Altaf Hussain issued a tirade of abuse at Rao Anwar.
Asked about the claims of Indian funding and training of the MQM, the Indian High Commission in London said: “Shortcomings of governance cannot be rationalised by blaming neighbours.”
The UK authorities started investigating the MQM in 2010 when a senior party leader, Imran Farooq, was stabbed to death outside his home in north London.
In the course of those inquiries the police found around £500,000 ($787,350) in the MQM’s London offices and in the home of MQM leader Altaf Hussain. That prompted a second investigation into possible money laundering.
Who is Altaf Hussain?
§ Born in Karachi in 1953 to a middle-class family; studied pharmacy at university.
§ Formed MQM party in 1984 to represent Mohajirs – descendants of Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India to Pakistan.
§ Requested political asylum in UK in 1992, later gained British citizenship; continues to run MQM from north London.
In the course of the inquiries the UK authorities found a list itemising weapons, including mortars, grenades and bomb-making equipment in an MQM property, according to Pakistani media reports that the BBC believes to be credible. The list included prices for the weapons. Asked about the list, the MQM made no response.
As the UK police investigations have progressed, the British judiciary has been taking an increasingly tough line on the MQM. Back in 2011 a British judge adjudicating an asylum appeal case found that “the MQM has killed over 200 police officers who have stood up against them in Karachi”.
Last year another British judge hearing another such case found: “There is overwhelming objective evidence that the MQM for decades had been using violence.”
The MQM is also under pressure in Pakistan. In March the country’s security forces raided the party’s Karachi headquarters. They claimed to have found a significant number of weapons there. The MQM said they were planted. The MQM has the ability to put thousands of protesters on the streets of Karachi
The party has a solid support base made up of the Mohajirs, or refugees who left India at the time of partition so that they could settle in Pakistan.
The Mohajirs complain that they have been the subject of sustained discrimination in Pakistan. The MQM insists it is a peaceful, secular party representing the interests of the middle classes in Pakistan.
As well as its electoral base, the MQM has formidable street power. When it orders a strike the streets empty and the whole of Karachi grinds to a halt.
Altaf Husain has lived in self-imposed exile in the UK for more than 20 years. He was given a British passport in 2002. For many years the party has been accused of using violence to impose its will in Karachi.
A number of MQM officials, including Altaf Hussain, have been arrested in relation to the money-laundering case but no-one has been charged. The party insists that all its funds are legitimate and that most of them come from donors in the business community in Karachi.
India has long accused Pakistani officials of involvement in sponsoring militant attacks in India. Delhi, for example, has demanded that Pakistan take firmer action against those suspected of plotting and managing the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
The latest developments in the MQM case suggest that Pakistan will now counter such complaints with demands that India stop sponsoring violent forces in Karachi.
